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FILE - Elon Musk attends The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute benefit gala on May 2, 2022, in New York. Musk threatened to walk away from his $44 billion bid to buy Twitter on Monday, June 6, 2022, the latest sign that his plan to overhaul the social media platform may be really starting to fray. (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File) | 2022-06-06T22:29:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | EXPLAINER: Is Elon Musk's deal to buy Twitter falling apart? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/explainer-is-elon-musks-deal-to-buy-twitter-falling-apart/2022/06/06/991e3266-e5db-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/explainer-is-elon-musks-deal-to-buy-twitter-falling-apart/2022/06/06/991e3266-e5db-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
This undated photo provided by U.S. Naval Air Forces Naval Air Station North Island shows U.S. Navy pilot Lt. Richard Bullock who was killed when his F/A-18E Super Hornet crashed in the vicinity of Trona, Calif. on Friday, June 3, 2022. A Naval Air Forces statement released Sunday says Bullock went down in the vicinity of the small Mojave Desert community of Trona. (U.S.Naval Air Forces via AP) (Uncredited/AP) | 2022-06-06T22:30:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Navy pilot killed in California desert crash is identified - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/navy-pilot-killed-in-california-desert-crash-is-identified/2022/06/06/97c78a58-e5ad-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/navy-pilot-killed-in-california-desert-crash-is-identified/2022/06/06/97c78a58-e5ad-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Briton gets 15 years in artifact-smuggling case
A British citizen was sentenced Monday by a court in Iraq to 15 years in prison after being convicted of attempting to smuggle artifacts out of the country, in a case that has attracted international attention.
Geologist Jim Fitton and his family argued that the 66-year-old had no criminal intent. His attorney said his client would appeal the verdict. A German national tried with Fitton was found not to have had criminal intent and will be released.
The judge found that, according to the government’s investigation, Fitton had criminal intent to smuggle the artifacts he had picked up.
The trial has grabbed international attention at a time when Iraq seeks to open up its nascent tourism sector. The two men first appeared in court on May 15 and said they had not acted with criminal intent and had no idea they might have broken local laws.
Fitton said that he “suspected” the items he collected were ancient fragments but that “at the time I didn’t know about Iraqi laws” or that taking the shards was not permitted. Fitton said that, as a geologist, he was in the habit of collecting such fragments as a hobby and had no intention to sell them.
Fitton and the German man, Volker Waldman, were arrested at Baghdad’s airport on March 20 after airport security discovered the items in their luggage. They had been part of a tourism expedition to ancient Iraqi sites.
Their tour guide, a British citizen who was in his 80s and in poor health, died in police custody for reasons unrelated to his detention. He was found with more than 20 archaeological fragments in this possession.
Dominican cabinet minister killed in office: The Dominican Republic’s minister of the environment and natural resources was fatally shot in his office by a close friend, the office of the president said. Authorities said the man who shot Orlando Jorge Mera has been detained. Mera’s office is on the fourth floor of a building in the capital, Santo Domingo, that also houses the Tourism Ministry. Mera was a founding member of the Modern Revolutionary Party. He was appointed the environment minister in August 2020.
South Africa’s president faces inquiry over unreported theft: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is facing a criminal investigation after a revelation that he failed to report the theft of about $4 million in cash from his farm in 2020. An account of the theft is contained in an affidavit by the country’s former head of intelligence, who has opened a case against Ramaphosa. Ramaphosa has not denied the theft but claims he reported it to the head of his VIP-protection unit, who did not report it to police. In South Africa it is illegal not to report a crime, and according to Fraser’s affidavit, Ramaphosa tried to conceal the theft.
British journalist, Brazilian expert missing in Amazon: A British journalist and an Indigenous affairs expert are missing in a remote part of Brazil’s Amazon region, a local Indigenous association said. The area has been marked by conflicts among fishers, poachers and government agents. Dom Phillips, a contributor to the Guardian, and Bruno Araújo Pereira were last seen at 7 a.m. Sunday in the São Rafael community, according to the Unijava association, for which Pereira has been an adviser. Pereira, who has received threats from loggers and miners, is on leave from Brazil’s Indigenous affairs agency. Phillips also has contributed to The Washington Post and New York Times.
77 monkeypox cases reported in Britain: Health officials in Britain reported 77 more monkeypox cases on Monday, raising the country’s total to more than 300. Britain has the biggest identified outbreak of the disease beyond Africa, with the vast majority of infections in gay and bisexual men. On Sunday, the World Health Organization said more than two dozen countries that haven’t previously identified monkeypox cases reported 780, a more than 200 percent jump in cases since late May.
Ugandan opposition figure released after paying bail: A veteran opposition figure in Uganda was released after a court slashed his cash bail, which had forced him to spend nearly two weeks in custody, his attorney and an aide said. Kizza Besigye was charged with inciting violence as he rallied supporters to protest soaring commodity prices. He was granted bail on the condition he pay 30 million shillings ($8,000) of it in cash. Besigye refused and chose to go to jail. His attorneys appealed to have the amount reduced, and a judge slashed the bail money to 3 million shillings, which Besigye paid. | 2022-06-06T22:30:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | World Digest: June 6, 2022 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/world-digest-june-6-2022/2022/06/06/6f9f9300-e5a2-11ec-a079-71f26b28893d_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/world-digest-june-6-2022/2022/06/06/6f9f9300-e5a2-11ec-a079-71f26b28893d_story.html |
Outside the Capitol after Trump supporters breached the building in D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)
Starting Thursday, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection will hold televised hearings. The Republican plan is to attack the investigation itself, by claiming it’s illegitimate and even by countering the proceedings with an alternate version of the insurrection.
Donald Trump is watching this coming GOP propaganda blitz closely. CNN reports that Trump’s allies have put out word to top House Republicans and conservatives that they will be expected to defend him “vigorously.”
And so House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is coordinating the effort among House Republicans. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the No. 3 in the GOP leadership, is expected to play a central role as well.
This effort, ludicrously enough, is also expected to include an attempt by Republicans to roll out the results of their own “investigation” into the events of Jan. 6, 2021, Politico reports, as if there were anything remotely real about the “investigation” they’re running.
Democrats need a strategy to push back. Whatever they do should foreground a simple truth: Many Republicans were either complicit in Trump’s effort to destroy our constitutional order to remain in power illegitimately, have since worked hard to cover it up or both.
So Republicans have zero credibility on these matters, and they should be granted zero standing to address them. Democrats need to say this clearly and forcefully.
The news media will be possessed by a powerful urge to present all of this in the familiar “he said, she said” style that gives equal weight to both sides of an argument, regardless of what each side is saying.
We already know the media’s both-sidesing instincts are vulnerable to this kind of Republican manipulation, because we’ve seen it.
Recall that, early on, there was talk of creating a bipartisan commission to examine Jan. 6. Republicans balked at the very idea that the commission should primarily examine the violent insurrection attempt, demanding that it also look at leftist violence, an absurdly transparent effort to muddy the waters.
Then, after that commission died and Democrats set up the current select committee, McCarthy tried to appoint Trumpist arsonists such as Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.). That was nothing more than a transparent effort to sabotage the committee’s work from within.
A good deal of media coverage treated both these cases as conventional political disputes in which each side was equivalently maneuvering for partisan advantage. But they were nothing like this: One party was acting in good faith to seek a real reckoning for an effort to destroy our constitutional order. The other was acting in bottomless bad faith to scuttle any such reckoning.
The only way House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) could cut through the both-sides coverage of McCarthy’s bad-faith sabotage effort was to shut it down, by saying no. Which she did.
The fundamental truth about this moment, as has been the case all along, is that the defense of democracy will never truly be bipartisan. It must of necessity be a largely partisan exercise, pursued by Democrats. The Republican response should not be granted credibility on these matters that it simply doesn’t merit, let alone placed on a plane of equivalence with the committee’s investigation.
One of the key facts about the GOP pushback is that the Republicans who will be most visible in trying to discredit the committee’s findings are some of the very people who were allegedly among the most involved in the coup attempt. That includes Jordan, who had multiple phone conversations with Trump on the day of the insurrection.
What’s more, as many as a dozen House Republicans were reportedly involved in Trump’s effort to overturn the election in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6. And GOP leaders such as McCarthy are refusing to honor a lawful congressional subpoena in order to keep direct knowledge of Trump’s state of mind during the violent insurrection attempt shielded from the public.
These Republicans, of course, have the right to make their case. But they don’t have a right to have their inevitably fantastical, bad-faith-saturated claims passed on to readers and viewers uncritically.
Nor do they have the right to equal time. The committee will present the results of months of evidence-gathering, which will include extensive document examination and thousands of hours of interviews. Republicans rolling out bogus “investigations” that are expressly designed to muddy the waters around legitimate congressional fact-finding into an effort to destroy our democracy don’t deserve the same volume of attention.
As of now, it looks as if Democrats and their allies do intend to make clear the extent of Republican culpability in the insurrection itself.
“This is an investigation into their conspiracy to overturn the election they lost,” said Nicole Haley, the communications director for the Defend Democracy Project. Haley says a large coalition of liberal groups will amplify the committee’s findings in the face of Republican disinformation.
It isn’t just that Republicans labored relentlessly to justify and cover up the insurrection, though they have. It isn’t just that they’ve tried to excuse Trump’s repugnant and possibly criminal actions, though they’ve done that, too.
It’s that many of them are either complicit in the attack on democracy the committee is charged with investigating, complicit in Trump’s effort to cover it up or both. Democrats should make this truth absolutely central — and make Republicans own it. | 2022-06-06T22:30:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Memo to Democrats: Hammer the GOP as complicit in Trump's coup - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/06/gop-complicit-trump-coup/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/06/gop-complicit-trump-coup/ |
The silhouette of an AR-15-style rifle is displayed on signage for a gun store in Yuma, Ariz., on June 2. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images)
After a new round of well-armed hate crimes and child murder, the congressional process to pass gun regulations remains the harvesting of low-hanging fruit. The minimalist outcome (if there is an outcome) will be advocated under the stirring slogan “better than nothing.”
A significant group of Americans believe it is. In a recent CBS-YouGov poll, 44 percent of Republicans agreed that mass shootings are “unfortunately something we have to accept” in a free country. It is the “unfortunately” that gets to me.
Opinion: After Uvalde, I pray with the grieving — and for bold action on guns
The Virginia Constitution made this connection explicit, saying “that a well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural and safe defense of a free State; … that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.”
Heller overturned D.C.’s prohibition of nearly all handguns, affirming these as the weapons of choice for Americans engaged in self-defense. But the ruling made clear that the Second Amendment does not create an absolute right to gun ownership.
Like some Jeffersonians, they fear concentrated federal power as a threat to liberty. But what does it mean when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) refers to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol as a “1776 moment” or embraces the Second Amendment as permission for insurrectionary violence? Does this indicate that the future targets in a MAGA war against tyranny might be police officers and tax collectors, soldiers and FBI agents? Merely playing with such ideas is an invitation to the unstable.
We’ll get less than half a loaf on gun control. We should take it. | 2022-06-06T22:30:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The GOP spin on gun rights is morally — and legally — wrong - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/06/pro-gun-argument-morally-legally-wrong/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/06/pro-gun-argument-morally-legally-wrong/ |
Cisneros asks for recount in Democratic primary runoff against incumbent Cuellar
Though her opponent declared victory, Jessica Cisneros is requesting a recount. (Veronica Cardenas/Reuters)
Attorney Jessica Cisneros will request a recount of the runoff election between her and Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar.
As of Monday night, Cuellar was leading Cisneros by 187 votes or 0.4 percentage points, according to the Associated Press. Because the contest was so close, however, the AP did not project a winner. Under Texas rules, there are no automatic recounts. But the second-place finisher can request — and pay for — a second tally if the margin of victory is less than 10 percent of the winner’s total.
The March primary between the two Democrats headed to a runoff last month after neither secured 50 percent of the vote needed to advance to the general election in November.
Cisneros, Cuellar are locked in a tight battle
The primary battle is only the latest tight race for Cuellar. In his first bid for Congress in 2004, the conservative Democrat eked out a 58-vote primary victory over incumbent Rep. Ciro D. Rodriguez.
More recently, Cisneros nearly toppled Cuellar in the 2020 Democratic primary, trailing the incumbent by 2,690 votes, or about three percentage points. She forced him into last month’s runoff by holding his vote total to less than 50 percent in the March primary.
Cisneros, a first-generation Mexican American lawyer like Cuellar, once interned for the congressman. She said repeatedly during the campaign that Cuellar, who opposes abortion rights and is a critic of some of President Biden’s immigration policies, was out of touch with the 28th District.
Cuellar is the only antiabortion Democrat in the House. After the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion on abortion rights last month, Cuellar said in a statement that although he is personally antiabortion, there “must be exceptions in the case of rape, incest and danger to the life of the mother.”
The race has underscored the divisions within the Democratic Party and is being viewed as a test of whether left-leaning candidates, who have struggled in recent elections, can prevail over more-moderate Democrats.
The race also comes on the heels of an FBI raid on Cuellar’s home and campaign headquarters in January. The congressman has declared his innocence and vowed to remain in the race. The FBI has declined to discuss the probe.
Cuellar, for his part, has declared himself winner of the election, saying in a tweet the day after the runoff race that he would be the Democratic nominee for the district in November.
“The results are in, all the votes have been tallied — I am honored to have once again been reelected as the Democratic Nominee for Congress,” he said.
Cuellar is one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress and the last Democrat to oppose abortion in the House. He was been boosted by support from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.). Cisneros, meanwhile, supports more liberal policies and has the backing of a new generation of progressive Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), as well as Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
And while Cuellar’s positions are in line with the rightward leanings of his district, especially his hometown of Laredo, where many Hispanic voters espouse conservative views about religion, family and social values, throughout her campaign, Cisneros rallied against Cuellar’s stance on issues like abortion, immigration and health care by arguing that they no longer represent what the district wants.
In her statement Monday, Cisneros said her campaign and movement were “never just about one politician.”
“It was about taking on an unjust system that rewards corruption and corporate profits at the expense of the needs of working people,” Cisneros has said. | 2022-06-06T22:33:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Cisneros asks for recount in Democratic primary runoff against incumbent Cuellar - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/06/cisneros-asks-recount-democratic-primary-runoff-against-incumbent-cuellar/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/06/cisneros-asks-recount-democratic-primary-runoff-against-incumbent-cuellar/ |
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures as he delivers his keynote speech on the final day of the annual Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, England, on Oct. 6, 2021. (Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images)
Politicians would normally be delighted with a 59 to 41 percent victory. But Boris Johnson’s survival of a no-confidence vote by that margin on Monday is devastating. The question is no longer whether he goes, but when.
There is no mistaking that this is a dismal result for the British prime minister. Theresa May won the challenge against her in late 2018 by a 63 to 37 percent vote, but was forced to resign within months as it became clear she was dragging the Conservative Party toward defeat. Margaret Thatcher won her last leadership challenge with only 54 percent of the party. The great lady was not for turning, but she stepped down within a day of that rebuke.
Johnson is not expected to resign so quickly, but others can now force his hand. Losing 148 of his own party’s members in a secret ballot, as Johnson just did, shows the anger among his peers is deep and unlikely to fade. Conservative Home’s snap poll of Tory Party members on Monday morning found 55 percent wanted the prime minister booted from office. Public polls find that large majorities of Britons, including a large number of Conservative voters, agree.
The end could come relatively quickly if cabinet members act. Just as every senator is said to see a president in the mirror each morning, one doesn’t climb the greasy pole to the cabinet without dreaming of gaining the top job. The fast mover who decides it is worth the risk of being the straw that broke Johnson’s back could make a show of resigning within the fortnight. That person could reasonably claim that they would have it otherwise, but that the only way to avoid a “blue-on-blue civil war” is to replace the leader who caused it. That Tory might shed some crocodile tears, but such is politics.
Two upcoming by-elections could also push Johnson out even if he survives the next few days. In 2019, the Conservatives took Wakefield, a longtime working-class Labour seat. Polls now show them losing it in the June 23 election by as many as 23 points. Tories are also worried they might lose a traditionally Conservative seat in southern England, Tiverton and Honiton, on the same day. Losing both would give credence to a recent YouGov analysis that found the Conservatives would lose 85 out of 88 battleground seats, including Johnson’s own, if a general election were held today. Even unambitious politicians do not want to be turfed out of office.
Johnson really has no one to blame but himself for his predicament. He tried to weasel his way out of the so-called Partygate scandal by obfuscation and misdirection rather than simply admitting fault and asking for forgiveness. He recklessly knifed loyal longtime backers such as the respected historian and MP Jesse Norman, whose letter to Johnson explaining why he was voting against him after decades of support reverberated throughout Westminster. Johnson, neither loyal nor steady, has thrown away what he had built. | 2022-06-06T22:38:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The question is no longer whether Boris Johnson goes, but when - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/06/question-is-no-longer-whether-boris-johnson-goes-but-when/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/06/question-is-no-longer-whether-boris-johnson-goes-but-when/ |
The world’s largest four-day workweek pilot just launched in the U.K.
Commuters arrive at Liverpool Street Station in London on June 6. (Jason Alden/Bloomberg News)
Thousands of workers in Britain had another reason to celebrate after returning from a long weekend to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee. They’re participating in the world’s biggest trial of the four-day workweek, as the global movement toward fewer workdays gathers momentum in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
From fish-and-chip shops to big corporations, more than 3,300 workers from 70 companies will work 80 percent of their hours for 100 percent of their pay — provided they commit to maintaining 100 percent productivity.
The four-day workweek is gaining ground in Europe. It’s time Americans give it a serious look.
The six-month trial, coordinated by nonprofit groups 4 Day Week Global and 4 Day Week U.K. Campaign, with researchers from Cambridge and Oxford universities and Boston College, and labor think tank Autonomy, comes as workplaces are grappling with pandemic burnout and the phenomenon dubbed the “Great Resignation.”
“As we emerge from the pandemic, more and more companies are recognizing that the new frontier for competition is quality of life, and that reduced-hour, output-focused working is the vehicle to give them a competitive edge,” Joe O’Connor, chief executive of 4 Day Week Global, said in a statement. “The impact of the ‘great resignation’ is now proving that workers from a diverse range of industries can produce better outcomes while working shorter and smarter.”
Similar trials are set to begin in Scotland, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada this year. Belgium in February announced plans to offer employees the option to request a four-day workweek, as the government seeks to boost flexibility in the workplace amid the coronavirus crisis.
Belgium to offer employees four-day working week
Caleb Hulme-Moir, who owns a New Zealand-based P.R. firm, Mana Communications, instituted a nine-day fortnight in early 2020, initially as a way to hold on to workers as his business slowed during pandemic shutdowns.
At first, they all agreed to a 20 percent pay cut. Business rebounded swiftly, however, and within a month they were back at full pay. The short week was so popular, though, that they kept it. His staff in Sydney and the New Zealand capital, Wellington, alternate between four- and five-day weeks — a move he sees as a stepping-stone for a small business with not enough workers yet to be able to move to a four-day week and still be available for clients every weekday.
“I’ve always toyed with the idea of a short working week. It’s good for staff retention in a hot employee market,” he said. “People love it.”
Several large-scale trials of a four-day workweek in Iceland between 2015 and 2019 found workers were productive and happier, recording fewer instances of stress and burnout.
In the United States, Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) has proposed a bill that would reduce all standard workweeks to 32 hours, requiring overtime pay for anyone working beyond that. A number of companies in the United States have trialed the four-day workweek model.
Iceland tested a 4-day workweek. Employees were productive — and happier, researchers say.
The 40-hour workweek became the norm in the United States following the Great Depression; the government saw it as a way to address an unemployment crisis by spreading work among more people. During the Industrial Revolution, it wasn’t uncommon for workers to work six days, for 70 hours or more.
Automaker Henry Ford was among the first to switch to a five-day workweek in 1926. Ford argued that his employees were more productive in fewer hours. In 1933, the Senate passed, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt supported, a bill to reduce the standard workweek to only 30 hours. He later changed his mind, amid an outcry from businesses. The 40-hour week was legislated by Congress in 1940.
A history of the invention of the 40-hour workweek, the current burnout crisis, and the alternatives that employers are using today to attract their workforce. (Video: Jackie Lay/The Washington Post)
That time America almost had a 30-hour workweek
In the latest trial, involving 70 companies, researchers will measure the impact on productivity in the business and the well-being of its workers, as well as the impact on the environment and gender equality.
“We’ll be analyzing how employees respond to having an extra day off, in terms of stress and burnout, job and life satisfaction, health, sleep, energy use, travel and many other aspects of life,” said Juliet Schor, a professor of sociology at Boston College and a lead researcher on the trial.
The first day of the trial, Monday, wasn’t entirely auspicious: It coincided with a strike by thousands of London transport workers that brought Britain’s capital to a standstill, perhaps underscoring the pitfalls of commuting.
Gillian Brockell contributed to this report.
Four-day weeks and the freedom to move anywhere: Companies are rewriting the future of work (again)
Japan proposes four-day workweek as idea gains purchase amid pandemic | 2022-06-07T06:07:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Four-day workweek trial starts in U.K. with 70 companies - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/07/four-day-workweek-trial-uk-companies/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/07/four-day-workweek-trial-uk-companies/ |
Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour Party, departs after delivering a keynote speech on “Security, Prosperity and Respect” in Birmingham, U.K., on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022. The U.K.’s ruling Conservatives are 16 percentage points behind the opposition Labour Party in the “red wall” of traditionally Labour-voting constituencies in northern England the Tories flipped at the last election. (Bloomberg)
The Tories have always underestimated Starmer — dubbing him the “nasal knight” and dismissing him as a hopeless dullard. It is not difficult to see why. The former director of public prosecutions (hence his knighthood in 2014) is far from being a natural politician. He didn’t get into parliament until he was 52 and doesn’t seem capable of either lighting up the place with a brilliant phrase or winning sympathy with a well-timed joke. He also lacks the killer instinct that both Tony Blair and Johnson possess in abundance. The general impression of worthy dullness is reinforced by his shadow cabinet. Most are eminently forgettable and the two potential stars — David Lammy and Angela Rainer — might just as easily turn out to be public relations landmines.
The Tories take comfort from the narrowness of Labour’s lead in the polls. The people’s party is only eight points ahead of the Conservative Party (39% to 31%) in the latest YouGov poll despite the combination of midterm blues and Partygate. In the early 1980s, before the Falklands War, the Tories were much further behind Labour. Starmer is also only eight points ahead of Johnson (33% to 25%) on the question of who would make the best prime minister, despite the collapse of Johnson’s popularity.
But their complacency about Starmer could prove to be as misplaced as their earlier confidence in Johnson. There are three big reasons for thinking that the Labour leader is a much better politician than the Tories (and many people in the Labour Party) give him credit for.
The first is that he has got the big calls right, starting with his decision to focus on winning back the “red wall” (the working-class seats in the north that turned blue over Brexit) rather than on playing to the party’s loudest supporters, such as urban dwellers, ethnic minorities and university graduates.
This cost him a good deal of humiliation such as giving speeches in front of union flags and, more pointedly, reversing his position on Brexit (Starmer was the leader of the “remain” forces in a Labour Party then headed by the Eurosceptic Jeremy Corbyn.) It deprived him of a great deal of easy support that would have come with pandering to left-wing causes.
But we are already getting a glimpse of the rightness of this strategy: Labour is leading the Tories by 20 points in the forthcoming by-election in Wakefield, a red wall constituency that voted Tory in 2019 for the first time since the 1930s. Labour’s problem in the next election will not be motivating the base — hatred of the Tories will be enough to do that — but the danger that it will pile up votes in its new heartlands but fail to reach the swathe of working-class constituencies in the north that voted for Johnson in 2019.
The second threat the Tories overlook is that Starmer is capable of being ruthless when he needs to be. He ran for office as a conciliator who would continue to make room for the Corbyn left within the Labour Party. But since then he has sidelined the left far more ruthlessly than Neil Kinnock managed in the 1980s.
Corbyn hasn’t just been put out to pasture. He’s been expelled from the party in much the same way that Milton’s Satan was thrown out of Heaven — though he still haunts parliament as an unaffiliated MP. Starmer has retaken the party’s nooks and crannies from the Corbynistas and rewritten Labour’s constitution to make it harder for mavericks to win the leadership nomination. “We’ve nailed the hard left into their coffin,” one shadow cabinet member said at the last Labour Party conference in Brighton. “There’s a lot of kicking and screaming because they know they’re not coming back to life.” As future-proofing goes, this is pretty impressive.
The third is that the times are changing. There is a long tradition of such oscillations: John Major followed Margaret Thatcher, and Gordon Brown followed Blair just as, across the Atlantic, George H. W. Bush followed Ronald Reagan, and Harry Truman followed Franklin Delano Roosevelt. But the oscillation could be particularly marked this time around.
The price of Johnson’s particular type of charisma has proved to be unusually high: It goes along with both a cavalier indifference to truth (anybody who wants to read a chronicle of his lies could do no better than read Peter Oborne’s “The Assault on Truth”) and a spine-chilling willingness to treat other people as objects. So the temptation to turn to an opposition leader who embodies the opposite will be particularly high.
Starmer arguably has the right CV for the tougher times that lie ahead. He was brought up in difficult circumstances — his father was a factory worker; his mother contracted a rare disease that paralyzed and ultimately killed her; he was the only one of four siblings to pass the “11-plus” selective exams to attend university. He is a family man who likes playing five aside football and going to his local pub.
He has also fashioned a philosophy that may well prove to be just right for the times — to the left of New Labour with its focus on middle-class affluence but to the right of Corbyn’s Marxist fantasyland. Starmer’s tenets, which he is currently trying to flesh out in a book based on his 12,000 word Fabian Society pamphlet, is based on a combination of state activism and communitarianism. His main focus is on the just-about-managing class of Britons who are finding it difficult to make ends meet despite working hard and playing by the rules. He argues that the state shouldn’t only focus on the big macro issues but should also try to repair the fabric of communities. This actually sounds rather like the vision of post-Brexit Toryism that Johnson laid out in 2019 but, partly because of the prime minister’s personality and partly, to be fair, because of Covid, the Tories have singularly failed to deliver on their promise.
With Johnson mortally wounded the Tories might be well advised to preempt an election defeat by introducing a dullness revolution of their own. The Party elected Johnson over Jeremy Hunt in 2019 because they thought Hunt — who holds the record for longest-serving secretary of health, a brutally difficult job, at six years — was worthy without being exciting. But, now, we’ve had too much excitement and not enough worthiness.
The chances of the Tories pulling this off are nevertheless low given the delicacy of the operation that is required. The MPs don’t choose the party leader directly. They merely recommend a short-list of two to the party members who, as activists, are much further to the right than regular Tory voters. The members may well vote for Liz Truss, who is even more of a wild card than Johnson. Dominic Cummings, Johnson’s former right-hand man and now sworn enemy, said that Truss is “as close to properly crackers” as anybody he has met in Parliament; David Gauke, a former Tory MP, countered that this only shows how few MPs Cummings bothered to meet.
The 148 who voted “no confidence” on Monday evening not only guaranteed yet another period of confidence-destroying Conservative turmoil. They also brought Keir Starmer a lot closer to forming the next British government.
Rishi Sunak Is Just the Tip of the Tories’ Leadership Crisis: Adrian Wooldridge | 2022-06-07T07:37:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Tories Would Be Foolish to Discount the Threat from Labour - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-tories-would-be-foolish-to-discountthe-threat-from-labour/2022/06/07/45ee3fca-e629-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-tories-would-be-foolish-to-discountthe-threat-from-labour/2022/06/07/45ee3fca-e629-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Biden’s startling statistic on school-age gun deaths
(Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
— President Biden, in a speech on gun violence, June 2
The president’s speech advocating for new laws to stem gun violence included several statements we have fact-checked before. But he offered a startling new statistic that cried out for an explanation.
The figure on school-age children comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has an interactive online database that provides information on fatal and nonfatal injuries and violent deaths. The White House told us that it defined “school-aged children” as between ages 5 and 18 and “two decades” as 2001-2020. Within those parameters, searching for death by firearm, you get 42,507 deaths.
Between the military and the police, that’s a total of 29,110.
First of all, the number of firearm deaths for school-age children drops quite a bit when you do not include 18-year-olds. There are, of course, many students who turn 18 while they are in their senior year. But they are also adults. So it’s a judgment call whether to include them. Removing 18-year-olds would drop the gun death number to 28,559 — just slightly fewer than the total for the military and police.
In fact, 17- and 18-year-olds make up almost 56 percent of the gun deaths of school-age children. The numbers also drop significantly — 60 percent — if suicides are removed. There continues to be debate among criminologists and public health specialists about whether suicides should be counted as part of gun violence. So that’s another judgment call.
The military death figures show about 22 percent of the deaths are from suicide.
Moreover, in the military, not all deaths are from firearms. Deaths by accident exceeded deaths by hostile action in all but five of the 20 years. In fact, over the last two decades, 8,740 service members, or 34 percent, were killed in accidents compared with 5,445 (21 percent) in hostile action. It’s unclear how many hostile-action deaths involved firearms.
As for law enforcement, many of those deaths were not by firearms. In 2020, for instance, 145 were from covid, 48 were from firearms, 44 were from traffic-related incidents — and 172 were from other causes, NLEOMF said. So only 12 percent died from firearms.
Finally, raw death numbers generally do not tell you that much. What may be more informative is the mortality rate — the number of people who died per 100,000 people in that category. That provides you with the risk of dying.
For the 58 million school-age children, that number is 3.67 (or 2.66 if you exclude age 18). But for the 1.5 million in the military, it’s about 69; for the 670,000 in law enforcement, it’s 56. So the average mortality rate for the military and police is about 15 times higher than the mortality rate from firearms for school-age children.
We checked with some leading experts and asked whether Biden’s comparison was kosher. The consensus was that Biden’s math was acceptable for the rhetorical point he was making.
“Both are kosher — but certainly President Biden used the raw numbers to make a point,” said Anne Case, a health economics expert and professor emeritus at Princeton University. “The risk of dying from guns (which is the mortality rate) is obviously much higher for people serving in the military and police — but if someone wanted to make a point about the number of grieving families, the raw count does that.”
“It is (of course) less risky to be a kid than a cop, but it is still the case that more kids have died from firearms than military and police,” Gary King, a Harvard University professor who is director of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science, said in an email. “You’d certainly prefer your children to grow up in a country where it is less risky for them than police and military, but it is also a perfectly reasonable (alternative) argument to say that you don’t want that many children to die from guns, and ‘that many’ is, by the comparison with the police and military, ‘a lot.’ ”
“Epidemiologists usually have a strong preference for comparing rates rather than counts when the populations being compared are very different in size,” said Kathryn H. Jacobsen, a professor of health studies at the University of Richmond. “That does not mean that a comparison of counts is invalid. The counts are real and true. They are just not ideal for scientific comparisons.”
She noted that a calculation of the “burden of disease,” derived from what is known as a “proportionate mortality rate,” might show that firearm-related deaths among children and adolescents are even worse than among the military, given that only about a fifth of the military deaths were from hostile action.
“It is not invalid to use counts in this way — this is not a lie — but there are better ways to explain the comparison when writers or orators have sentences and paragraphs to work with rather than short sound bites,” Jacobsen said.
We are often wary when two very different categories are compared — in this case, the large number of children in school vs. much smaller sets of active-duty military and law enforcement. We are also wary when a single change in the data set — from age 18 to 17 — reduces the number enough that the statistic is no longer correct. We also do not know for sure how many military deaths were by firearms, allowing a more direct comparison. Clearly, most law enforcement deaths were not by firearms.
Biden’s raw numbers add up, but they are not necessarily comparable — and the risk of dying in the military and law enforcement remains far higher than in a child’s classroom.
Biden offered a striking statistic that we no doubt will hear many times in the coming months. We can’t award his statistic a Geppetto Checkmark, and it’s on the edge of deserving Pinocchios. We will leave this unrated.
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The Fact Checker is a verified signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network code of principles. | 2022-06-07T07:37:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Biden’s startling statistic on school-age gun deaths - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/07/bidens-startling-statistic-school-age-gun-deaths/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/07/bidens-startling-statistic-school-age-gun-deaths/ |
Milo Yiannopoulos, far-right provocateur, is a Marjorie Taylor Greene intern
Milo Yiannopoulos speaks at an event in November in Baltimore. (Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post)
The former Breitbart editor, far-right commentator and conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos has a new title: summer intern for Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).
He attached a photo of a congressional intern identification badge, on top of a Louis Vuitton bag, showing he is an intern in Greene’s office. (The congresswoman’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
In a statement provided to the Daily Beast, Greene said: “So I have an intern that was raped by a priest as a young teen, was gay, has offended everyone at some point, turned his life back to Jesus and Church, and changed his life. Great story!”
Greene, an outspoken right-wing promoter of conspiracy theories, has in the past praised conversion therapy, a disproved practice that attempts to repress or reverse the sexuality of gay and lesbian individuals. Yiannopoulos told the right-wing religious publication LifeSite News last year that he was now “ex-gay.”
Yiannopoulos is “opening a clinic in Florida for men plagued by same-sex attraction,” according to his Telegram profile. Conversion therapy, which has been shown to cause severe psychological distress in transgender people, was banned in Britain — Yiannopoulos’s home country — for gay and lesbian people but not for transgender people.
Yiannopoulos resigned from his job at the far-right Breitbart News in 2017 after a video surfaced that appeared to show him condoning pedophilia. He dismissed attraction to minors as young as 13 years old, saying that it was not perverted to be sexually attracted to a child as long as they had hit puberty.
Breitbart’s Milo Yiannopoulos resigns following outrage over past comments about pedophilia
Greene has amplified numerous conspiracy theories, including allegations that Democrats are a “party of pedophiles.” Yiannopoulos has been spotted with Greene and members of her staff in recent months at various events.
Last month, a judge in Georgia ruled that Greene could run for reelection after a group of voters challenged her eligibility because of allegations that she participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, claiming she was unfit to be on the ballot.
Yiannopoulos’s new job isn’t the first out-of-the-box internship opportunity on Capitol Hill.
Last year, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), another controversial lawmaker, floated the possibility of an internship for Kyle Rittenhouse, who was acquitted on homicide charges after he fatally shot two people and injured a third during unrest in Kenosha, Wis., sparked by a police shooting.
Victims of sexual assault can call 800-656-HOPE (4673) to reach the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline. | 2022-06-07T07:37:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Milo Yiannopoulos says he is interning for Marjorie Taylor Greene - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/07/milo-yiannopoulos-intern-marjorie-taylor-greene/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/07/milo-yiannopoulos-intern-marjorie-taylor-greene/ |
Afghans shop for fruit and rush home at days end under a portrait of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in central Kabul, Aug. 14, 2021. (Victor J. Blue/For The Washington Post )
KABUL — Tens of millions of dollars disappeared from Afghan government bank accounts during the Taliban takeover in August, according to a U.S. government watchdog report released Monday, the latest in a series detailing the collapse of the Afghan government and its military.
The assessment by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, examined allegations that Afghan government officials took tens of millions of dollars with them as they fled the country. Former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani was specifically accused of loading millions of dollars onto the helicopters that he and his close aides used to flee Kabul as Taliban fighters entered the city.
U.S. watchdog details collapse of Afghan security forces
SIGAR found the theft of millions by Ghani “unlikely,” but said the former president did leave with some cash, however, “evidence indicates that this number did not exceed $1 million and may have been closer in value to $500,000.”
The report quotes one former senior official who fled with Ghani on the helicopters stating, “everyone had $5,000 to $10,000 in their pockets … No one had millions.” The official was not named in the public version of the assessment. Ghani has also repeatedly denied the allegations of theft.
But tens of millions remain unaccounted for. SIGAR found evidence of “$5 million taken from the presidential palace and tens of millions taken from the vault at the National Directorate of Security,” the former Afghan government’s main intelligence agency. Although the investigation has not determined if the money was removed from the country by government officials.
The former Afghan president and many of his close aides now live in the United Arab Emirates, whose government welcomed him and his family on humanitarian grounds.
The report stated its investigation into stolen Afghan assets are ongoing. | 2022-06-07T07:38:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | SIGAR report details Afghan money looted during Taliban takeover - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/07/afghan-sigar-money-looted/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/07/afghan-sigar-money-looted/ |
India scrambles to contain fallout over insulting comments about Islam
Supporters of Islamic political party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam shout anti-India slogans during a protest in Karachi, Pakistan, on June 6, after a spokesman for India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party triggered an international diplomatic condemnation for derogatory comments on Islam's prophet Muhammad. (Rehan Khan/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
NEW DELHI — After a spokeswoman for India’s ruling party made disparaging remarks about the prophet Muhammad during a recent televised debate, rioters took to the streets in the northern city of Kanpur, throwing rocks and clashing with police.
It was only the beginning of a controversy that would have global repercussions.
Indian products were soon taken off shelves in the Persian Gulf after a high-ranking Muslim cleric called for boycotts. Hashtags expressing anger at Prime Minister Narendra Modi began trending on Arabic-language Twitter. Three Muslim-majority countries — Qatar, Kuwait and Iran — summoned their Indian ambassadors to convey their displeasure. The governments of Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Afghanistan on Monday condemned the spokeswoman, Nupur Sharma, as did the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Inflammatory comments by right-wing activists and political leaders in India often make headlines and spark outrage on social media. But rarely do they elicit the kind of attention that Sharma drew in the past week, which sent her political party — and India’s diplomats — scrambling to contain an international public relations crisis.
In a rare move, the Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, on Sunday suspended Sharma and expelled another party spokesman, Naveen Jindal, who had echoed Sharma’s views and suggested on Twitter that the prophet Muhammad married his wives when they were underage girls. In separate statements, party chiefs said they “strongly denounced” insults against any religion or religious figure.
The controversy highlights one of the challenges to Indian foreign policy at a time when Modi is seeking a greater role on the world stage: Although his government has cultivated strong diplomatic ties with many Muslim nations, including both Saudi Arabia and Iran, his party has come under growing criticism for its treatment of India’s Muslim minority. It is accused by rights groups of stoking Hindu nationalist sentiment and turning a blind eye to religious violence.
“India under Modi has been quite deft in dealing with the Muslim world, but this was almost inevitable,” said Sumit Ganguly, a professor of political science at Indiana University. “At home, a lynching takes place and Modi remains deafeningly silent. Now, he feels compelled to act because he realizes the damage abroad could be extensive. When it comes to foreign policy, the stakes are high.”
The Indian government has sought to downplay a string of local religious controversies in recent months, including a ban on headscarves for female students, the razing of Muslim neighborhoods after communal clashes, and efforts by Hindu nationalists to reclaim high-profile mosques.
Senior party officials last month launched a “Know BJP” campaign aimed at foreign diplomats in New Delhi. In a succession of meetings, diplomats were told that the party’s agenda hinged on the economy, not religious issues. The party embraced an inclusive slogan of “unity of all, development of all,” party officials said.
Leaders from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Hindu nationalist organization that is closely affiliated with the BJP, have also spoken about the need to lower temperatures. Several senior officials in the organization have urged members and affiliates to crack down on hate speech — including calls for killing Muslims — and stop excavations at mosques, which are seen as paving the way for demolitions.
But those efforts have been overshadowed by the controversy over Sharma’s remarks, which erupted just as India’s vice president landed in Qatar on Saturday for a three-day trip. M. Venkaiah Naidu met senior Qatari officials but called off a previously scheduled news conference. Meanwhile, the Indian ambassador in Doha, Deepak Mittal, distanced the government from the BJP spokeswoman.
“These are the views of fringe elements,” his embassy said in a statement. “In line with our civilizational heritage and strong cultural traditions of unity in diversity, [the] Government of India accords the highest respect to all religions.”
India was founded on secular principles in 1947 and has about 200 million Muslim citizens, more than any other country, except Indonesia and Pakistan. But in recent years, many in the country’s ascendant political right wing, including BJP leaders, have argued that India should be first and foremost a homeland for Hindus.
That rising tide of Hindu nationalism, which has helped buoy the BJP’s fortunes in several recent elections, seemed to turn against the party on Monday following its profuse apologies over Sharma and its decision to punish her.
Influential voices on the Indian right argued that the BJP was caving to the illiberal demands of Muslim countries. On social media, many rank-and-file supporters called for a counter-boycott of Qatar Airways.
“Nupur had been fed to the wolves, alone, cast aside, humiliated and disgraced,” read a column in OpIndia, a website that is seen as close to the BJP. “For the Islamists who were baying for her blood, the message was simple — BJP does not endorse the criticism of Islam … because it may offend the intolerant minority.”
Others said they felt betrayed by a party that was supposed to represent Hindu interests.
“The Islamists only asked the BJP to bend but it chose to crawl,” raged Anand Ranganathan, a columnist and television commentator, as he compared Sharma to Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical magazine that was attacked by terrorists in 2015 after lampooning the prophet Muhammad.
On Monday, a half-dozen national spokespersons for the BJP — Sharma’s former peers — declined to comment to The Post about the issue or were not reachable on their mobile phones.
But in the northern Hindu heartland, Monu Bishnoi, a BJP party activist in the city of Moradabad, fumed over what he perceived to be hypocrisy. Bishnoi said Islamic countries have never stood up for Hindus when Muslims disparage Hindu gods. And he said the BJP should remember where it derives its power from.
“The BJP is what it is today because of Hindutva,” or Hinduness, said Bishnoi, a 33-year-old confectionary owner. “If party workers feel the BJP is not representing them, they will find an alternative.”
Anant Gupta and Niha Masih contributed to this report | 2022-06-07T07:38:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | India scrambles to contain fallout over insulting comments about Islam - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/07/india-prophet-muhammad-bjp-islam/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/07/india-prophet-muhammad-bjp-islam/ |
FILE - Atul Gupta, of the Gupta family, is seen outside magistrates courts in Johannesburg, Sept. 2010. Dubai police said Tuesday, June 7, 2022, that they have arrested two brothers, Atul and Rajesh from the Gupta family wanted in connection with a corruption case involving former South African President Jacob Zuma, the latest high-profile extradition case involving the United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo) (Uncredited/AP)
However, there’s a renewed focus on Russian money flowing in as Moscow faces Western sanctions over the Ukraine war. In the northern emirate of Ras al-Khaimah, a sanctioned Russian oligarch's megayacht now hides from possible Western seizure. That vessel, the Motor Yacht A, is owned by Andrey Melnichenko, a European Union-sanctioned oligarch worth some $23.5 billion, according to Forbes. Melnichenko has rejected the sanctions and denied being close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. | 2022-06-07T09:09:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Dubai arrests 2 Gupta brothers over South African fraud case - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/dubai-police-arrest-2-in-south-african-corruption-case/2022/06/07/a083cc92-e634-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/dubai-police-arrest-2-in-south-african-corruption-case/2022/06/07/a083cc92-e634-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
By Peter Dejong | AP
AMSTERDAM — A Dutch court is examining evidence Tuesday and prosecutors are expected to make sentencing demands in the trial of two suspects in the fatal shooting of crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, who was brazenly gunned down almost a year ago, triggering a national outpouring of grief and government pledges to crack down on Amsterdam’s increasingly violent drugs underworld. | 2022-06-07T09:09:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Trial resumes of suspects in slaying of Dutch crime reporter - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/trial-resumes-of-suspects-in-slaying-of-dutch-crime-reporter/2022/06/07/c7ac23c0-e63c-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/trial-resumes-of-suspects-in-slaying-of-dutch-crime-reporter/2022/06/07/c7ac23c0-e63c-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Colombian presidential candidate Rodolfo Hernández appears at the National Congress of Oil Palm Growers in Bucaramanga on June 3. (Fernanda Pineda for The Washington Post)
BUCARAMANGA, Colombia — The foul-mouthed former mayor was known for insulting his employees, calling them fat, lazy and stupid. He was once suspended for slapping a city councilman in the face, was charged with giving out improper contracts and was recorded saying he was a follower of “a great German thinker — Adolf Hitler.”
Now Rodolfo Hernández is poised to be Colombia’s next president.
As the slight 77-year-old walked through a convention center he built here as mayor, the crowd swarmed. Men elbowed their way up to take selfies; women pulled him in for kisses on the cheek.
Less than a week earlier, Hernández, a political outsider with little national name recognition, stunned Colombia with a second-place finish in the first round of the country’s presidential election. Running a self-funded campaign from this midsize city nine hours from the capital, he packed no plazas and participated in few public debates. And yet last week he beat out the conservative candidate backed by the political establishment that has governed the country for generations.
Now he’s running neck-and-neck in the second round with Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla who is trying to become the country’s first leftist president.
The two anti-establishment candidates have captured a discontent that’s roaring across a region crushed by the pandemic as voters punish incumbent presidents and demand someone — anyone — different. Hernández has campaigned on a single message: Kick out the corrupt politicians.
“Almost all of them are robbers, thieves, scoundrels, delinquents,” he told the audience.
Campaigning behind bulletproof shields, Colombian candidates fear for their lives
As a wealthy builder with an ever-present comb-over, a penchant for populist diatribes and no filter, Hernández has drawn comparisons to former president Donald Trump. But Hernández is a distinct phenomenon. With the help of a team of social media wizards in their 20s, he has made himself the self-proclaimed “King of TikTok.” He’s charmed young people with his quirky videos, posing in sunglasses, doing sit-ups or dancing to reggaeton remixes. He comes off as your straight-talking grandpa with a sailor’s mouth who can say just about anything — and get away with it. (He insists that when he praised Adolf Hitler he really meant to say Albert Einstein.)
“We’re at a point where it doesn’t matter what Rodolfo does or says, the people applaud him,” said Danovis Lozano, a member of Bucaramanga’s city council. “Each scandal catapults him even more.”
He rarely talks policies or plans. He admits he doesn’t know the country well, but he doesn’t think it matters. Neither, it seems, do his supporters. Asked during the campaign to send a message to Vichada, an eastern department, he replied that he didn’t know where or what it was. Yet in the first round last week, he won the most votes in Vichada.
Lozano, 28, once admired the mayor for rooting out corruption in Bucaramanga and making it easier for young people like him, with no political machinery behind him, to serve on the city council. But last week he became the first council member to publicly support Petro. “My biggest fear with Rodolfo,” he said, “is we don’t know what he’s going to do.”
His voters seem willing to take the gamble.
An internet technician working in Hernández’s luxury apartment in Bogotá asked to take a photo with the candidate. Hernández asked the man why he was voting for him. “I’m tired of all the crap,” he said. “I don’t like politics, but I see that with this man, things can really change.”
Lula’s campaign missteps stir the question: Has he lost his touch?
In an interview with The Washington Post, Hernández described his effect on supporters as “messianic.” He then went on to compare them to the “brainwashed” hijackers of Sept. 11, 2001.
Was comparing his supporters to terrorists a bit problematic?
“No no, I’m not comparing them,” he told The Post. “What I’m comparing is that after you get into that state, you don’t change your position. You don’t change it.”
A powerful matriarch
Drive into Piedecuesta, Hernández’s hometown in northeastern Colombia, and you’re greeted immediately by a roadside billboard of the smiling candidate, pointing at you.
“Piedecuestans vote Piedecuestan,” the advertisement advises. The town, tucked in a valley between lush green mountains, saw some of the bloodiest battles of the Thousand Days War in the early 1900s. Its people still boast a tough, combative way of speaking. “We always sound like we’re fighting,” one Hernández family friend said.
Hernández’s grandmother, who became a widow at a young age, built her wealth from a cigar factory and a sideline in contraband, smuggling radios and other electronics across the border from Venezuela and bribing officials to stay quiet. Her daughter, Cecilia, inherited the factory and helped run a sugar cane mill on her property. She could be seen driving a large tractor around town.
Javier Milei raffles off his salary. He could be Argentina’s next president.
Cecilia’s husband called her the “iron lady.” Once, after a fight, she says, she grabbed her revolver and fired two shots at him. The housekeeper screamed, asking if she had killed him. “Well, if he’s dead, we’ll bury him,” she said. (She had missed.)
She was a fiercely strict mother, encouraging her four sons to go to college, work hard and save money. When Hernández was around 12 and causing trouble at a school ceremony, she says, she slapped his mouth so hard it bled all over his uniform.
As a developer, Hernández would amass a fortune reported at $100 million, constructing at least a third of the houses in Piedecuesta. Many were small homes for lower-income families in densely packed neighborhoods with only pedestrian paths, a design that some say led to a lack of privacy and safety.
“He got rich off of the poor,” said Edson Velandia, a well-known musician from Piedecuesta who grew up in a small home built by Hernández’s firm.
As his wealth grew, his family became a target of armed rebels in Colombia’s long conflict. His father was kidnapped and held for months until Hernández paid a ransom. When his daughter was abducted, Hernández decided not to pay the kidnappers, fearing it would put the rest of the family at greater risk. She was never found.
A mayor with a temper
In 2013, an idea was born: While drinking coffee with his brother and a group of friends, Hernández railed against the political elites running the city. The brother, Gabriel, asked: Why don’t you run for mayor?
Gabriel became the architect behind Hernández’s surprise win in 2016. His platform focused on a core message: logic, ethics and aesthetic. “When you don’t steal, there’s more money to go around,” said Rodrigo Fernández, an adviser to Hernández when he was mayor.
Wartime ID card suggests father of Chilean presidential candidate was Nazi
Hernández managed to trim a budget deficit in Bucaramanga, at times through extreme cost-cutting. He limited toilet paper in city offices and once removed the chairs from the cafeteria so his staff would take fewer breaks, former employees said.
Hernández was charged by Colombia’s attorney general’s office with improperly giving out contracts for waste management to benefit his son. (He denies the accusations; a trial is scheduled for July.)
As mayor, he became known for his temper, vulgar language and insults to staff. He used a derogatory word to describe an employee who used a wheelchair, and he referred to city councilwomen as “whores,” according to people who were in those conversations. One former contractor with the mayor’s office, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution, said she worked for three months without pay. One day, she and a group of other female employees met with him to ask for a contract. “I’ll give you pay for only three months to see if you can go a little hungry and shrink those cheeks a bit,” Hernández allegedly said to one of them.
Hernández was so popular that his handpicked successor won in a landslide. But some supporters felt betrayed by his leadership.
During Hernández’s time as mayor, Gabriel stopped talking to his brother, infuriated by some of his appointments, relatives and family friends said.
One of Hernández’s key mayoral campaign promises was to provide “20,000 Happy Homes” to lower-income residents of the city. He gave out individual letters to his supporters pledging to give them each one. But he never followed through.
“He took advantage of us, the poor,” said Luz Dary Rivera, a campaign volunteer who now sells cookies on city buses to make money. She eventually ripped Hernández’s letter into pieces. “He tricked us.” | 2022-06-07T10:18:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Rodolfo Hernández, the Trump-like TikTok star who could be Colombia's next president - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/07/colombia-rodolfo-hernandez/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/07/colombia-rodolfo-hernandez/ |
Used needles are disposed of at an exchange site in Miami in 2019. (Lynne Sladky/AP)
LONDON — She had eagerly looked forward to going home for the holidays and reuniting with friends over dinner and drinks. Instead, Eva Keeling, 19, says, she wound up injected by a stranger with a needle, leaving her unable to speak or function while at a bar in her hometown of Stafford, in northern England.
“We went outside [the bar] for some fresh air … then I ended up losing all control of my body, the ability to walk, hold my head up, I couldn’t talk — I was projectile vomiting everywhere,” Keeling told The Washington Post.
Keeling is one of hundreds of people across Britain and Europe who have been victims of suspected “needle spiking” — an injection administered without consent or knowledge, often in a bar or nightclub setting, in an attack similar to the more common crime of contaminating alcoholic drinks.
Rise in ‘needle spiking’ puts women in Britain on high alert
French police have received more than 300 complaints of injections in various regions since the end of March but have not made arrests, according to local media reports. The victims — many of them women — often report suffering memory loss or noticing injuries only later. Neighboring Belgium has seen reports of similar incidents at a nightclub, a soccer game and a Pride festival.
It’s unclear whether drugs are being administered in the attacks. Doctors have previously told The Post that extremely thin needles, as “fine as hairs,” are easily accessible online, as are prescription drugs, including pain killers and opium-based medicines.
“When the doctors say it’s a needle mark … it’s difficult to accept,” he added. “It’s difficult to … return to public places.”
Dawn Dines, founder of the nonprofit Stamp Out Spiking, which works to combat drink spiking in Britain, told The Post that needle-spiking remains “minuscule” compared to drink contamination, but the effects can be similar. Victims often feel “embarrassed and ashamed,” she said, and can have a sense of guilt for not being able to remember events — contributing to a lack of reporting even though they are not at fault.
Reports of ‘needle spiking’ in Britain drive young women, students to boycott bars
Merlijn Poolman, the night mayor of the Dutch city of Groningen, whose council’s work includes preventing sexual harassment, told The Post that his team has set up an online helpline for residents to report such incidents. While Dutch media outlets have reported a handful of possible cases in the country, he said it was hard for medics to confirm reports in his city, including whether needles were involved.
One theory was that “there might have been attempts or copycats” with other objects or “maybe even with a needle without something in it,” to spread fear without actually injecting drugs, Poolman said. “We can’t conclude anything yet,” he added. “We do take it seriously, but we also surely don’t want to raise panic that there are needle stingers all around.”
Police must treat ‘epidemic of violence’ against women as seriously as terrorism, U.K. watchdog says
Keeling said she has a scar on her right arm. “I don’t like looking at it and being reminded of it. … I’m still dealing with it, mentally.”
She remains wary of going to big events — she couldn’t ride the subway in the immediate aftermath, she said, because of suspicion about strangers. She laments the lack of victim support after the incident but said spreading the word about the crime helps: | 2022-06-07T10:18:38Z | www.washingtonpost.com | ‘Needle spiking’ reports grow in France, Belgium and Britain - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/07/needle-spiking-europe-britain-france/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/07/needle-spiking-europe-britain-france/ |
Contemporary, 300-unit apartment complex opens in Alexandria
The Blake, a 300-unit apartment complex, is part of an office park owned by Monday Properties. (Monday Properties)
Residents are moving in and apartments are leasing at the Blake, a new 300-unit apartment complex at 2000 N. Beauregard St. in Alexandria, Va., developed by Monday Properties.
The Blake, which is part of an office park owned by Monday Properties, is located within walking distance of the Shops at Mark Center, which has a CVS Pharmacy, fast-casual dining, a food store and some other shops. Shops, restaurants and the Signature at Shirlington are about two miles from the Blake. Multiple parks are also nearby.
Report: Majority of renters can’t afford to buy in their city
The Blake, which is close to Interstate 395, is a 10-minute drive from the Pentagon, Reagan National Airport, and Virginia Tech’s future Innovation Campus and Amazon’s second headquarters at National Landing. The community is also within a 15-minute drive of Capitol Hill. Northern Virginia Community College in Alexandria is about a half-mile from the Blake.
Building amenities include a swimming pool, a courtyard with grills and fire pits, fitness center with a yoga studio, pet spa, clubroom with games, co-working spaces, a fiber line for high-speed Internet service and a parking garage. The building also has a transit screen for commuters.
The studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments have contemporary-style interiors with an open floor plan, luxury vinyl plank flooring, stainless-steel appliances and an in-unit washer and dryer. Some units have views of the Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol. Most units have a balcony.
Rents start at $1,837 for a 519-square-foot studio. One-bedroom units with 581 square feet rent for $1,991 and up, and larger one-bedroom units with a den and 910 square feet rent for $2,436 and up. Two-bedroom units with two bathrooms and 813 square feet rent for $2,553 and up.
For more information, visit theblakealexandria.com. | 2022-06-07T10:40:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Contemporary, 300-unit apartment complex opens in Alexandria - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/07/contemporary-300-unit-apartment-complex-opens-alexandria/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/07/contemporary-300-unit-apartment-complex-opens-alexandria/ |
Israel Makes the Right Choice on Natural Gas Exploration
Six months ago, at the climate summit in Glasgow, Israel’s newly elected prime minister Naftali Bennett pledged to cut carbon emissions to zero by 2050. Israel’s small but vociferous community of environmental activists were jubilant over the reversal of the aggressive natural gas drilling of the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
In a show of seriousness, Israel’s Energy Ministry announced a one-year freeze on gas exploration and on further export permits. From now on, thought the green lobby, renewables would be the future of Israeli energy. It was an exciting time to be on the right side of the international environmental consensus.
That excitement came to a screeching halt last week, when the Bennett government announced a 180-degree shift in its natural gas policy. The reason was obvious. As the director-general of the ministry, Lior Schillat, unapologetically put it, “The energy crisis in Europe has shuffled the deck. We are not sticking to dogma.”
The climate community was outraged. Greenpeace Israel called the decision “scandalous” and accused the government of bad faith. It demanded a return to the Glasgow pledge. But even many activists understand the irresistible logic of the government’s decision. Israel has spent two decades creating an offshore natural gas industry. Europe has now awoken to the realization that it can’t rely on imported Russian gas. Supply, meet demand.
The war in Ukraine has made it clear that it’s dangerous for a country to count on the goodwill of foreign suppliers for its energy needs. This is especially true for a country like Israel, a small nation in a hostile region. In the past 20 years, Israel has gone from being a net importer of fossil fuels to being self-sufficient, thanks to offshore gas drilling. The government is wise to preserve that independence and to take advantage of the demand from European nations looking for a substitute for Russian imports.
Resuming gas extraction doesn’t mean that Israel is reneging on its climate obligations. Israel already is a global leader when it comes to sustainability, notably through technical innovations around fragile water supplies including desalination and sustainable agricultural irrigation. It is developing solar energy sources in the Negev desert. In Tel Aviv, Israel’s tech hub, myriad companies work on sustainable technologies. For a lot of Israelis, these efforts resonate more than what they view as empty and unrealistic pledges to reach carbon zero.
Israel isn’t yet a major international gas exporter. Most of the gas it produces is for domestic use, and its only foreign customers are Jordan and Egypt. But talks with European Union officials are under way to begin shipping gas by the end of summer.
Initial amounts will be small, but there are already plans for more. Increased supply will require extensive new infrastructure, possibly including a new undersea pipeline stretching across the Mediterranean. This proposal, known as EastMed, won the blessing of the Trump administration. A feasibility study is nearing completion. According to Gina Cohen, an independent energy consultant based in Israel, the pipeline could be in operation within five or six years.
But it might never happen. In January, the Biden administration withdrew support for the EastMed pipeline project for reasons that aren’t entirely clear. An alternative under consideration is a pipeline from Israel to southeastern Europe via Turkey. That route would be shorter than EastMed. The problem is, Israel doesn’t trust Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose attitude toward the Jewish state blows hot and cold.
Cohen cites two other possibilities. Israel could pipe gas to Egypt for liquefaction and then, in a joint venture, send it onward. The infrastructure exists, although it would need to be expanded to allow for consistent and larger volumes dedicated to export. On the plus side, this could happen relatively quickly. But the deal would be complicated for legal reasons, and there are unknowns regarding Egypt’s own domestic needs.
Perhaps the best solution would be for Israel to build, operate and defend its own liquefaction platform and export directly. This week, Israel moved a gas rig into Karish, a still-untapped offshore field whose ownership is disputed by Lebanon. The Israeli navy is now protecting the field in the face of threats by Hezbollah.
One way or another, Israel is going to be selling gas to Europe and other customers. Last week, the Finance Ministry announced that Israel is launching its first sovereign wealth fund. By next June, the fund will begin distributing up to 3.5% of its annual natural-resources revenue, estimated at 1.9 billion shekels, about $585 million. That money will be used for social, educational and economic projects.
The fund isn’t on par with the trillion-dollar vehicles operated by some energy powers, but it is big enough to make a difference in a country of 10 million people. Once the gas and the profits start to flow, even the most ardent enemies of offshore drilling will be hard-pressed to turn off the tap.
Europe’s New Era Might Not Last Long: Clive Crook
In Sri Lanka, Even the Rajapaksa Heartland Is Broken: Ruth Pollard | 2022-06-07T10:40:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Israel Makes the Right Choice on Natural Gas Exploration - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/israel-makes-the-right-choice-onnatural-gas-exploration/2022/06/07/67c63f4c-e649-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/israel-makes-the-right-choice-onnatural-gas-exploration/2022/06/07/67c63f4c-e649-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
A voter deposits a ballot in an official ballot drop box in Washington on Oct. 30, 2020. (Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg News)
The glossy fliers have been arriving in D.C. residents’ mailboxes in recent weeks: Ward 3 council candidate Eric Goulet (D) would bring “safer streets” and “stronger schools.” Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) knows how to “fight and win for us,” another flier celebrating the mayor’s reelection bid read. And Council Chairman Phil Mendelson would “deliver” on education promises if reelected.
The group behind the thousands of election fliers? Democrats for Education Reform, a national education group — with a local D.C. chapter known as DFER D.C. — that has poured serious money into local elections across the country. The group, often at odds with teachers’ unions, has historically backed candidates who support mayoral control of schools and those who would advocate for robust charter sectors.
They’ve put big money into D.C. elections in recent cycles — and this election cycle appears to be no different. It reflects a national trend of deep-pocketed education groups shifting some of their focus from national politics and instead targeting local school board and council elections, believing they can better influence education policy and outcomes on the local level.
Why is so much money flowing into D.C.'s school board races?
DFER D.C. Independent Expenditure Committee spent more than $500,000 in 2018′s election cycle and more than $700,000 in 2020, more than any other outside group, according to D.C. campaign finance records. In 2022, the D.C. Board of Election deadline for outside groups to submit their next expenditure reports is not due until June 10, so it is unclear how much the group plans to spend in D.C. this election cycle.
The local chapter gets significant cash from big donors across the country, including in 2016 nearly $300,000 from Alice Walton, a daughter of the founder of Walmart and a backer of charter schools. That money flowing from outside D.C. has made DFER a target among some candidates and residents, particularly in a year when most candidates are participating in D.C.'s public financing election program, which caps the size of donations and uses public funds to match the donations.
Outside groups can spend as much as they want, but are prohibited from coordinating with campaigns.
“We definitely support candidates who believe in choice,” Jessica Giles, state director of DFER DC said in an interview. “We do a lot throughout the year to advance a student-centered agenda, though we mostly get attention during elections.”
It was hailed as the national model for school reform. Then the scandals hit.
Giles did not disclose how much the group will spend in D.C. this year, but noted it plans to spend “a lot,” putting forward “ample money to support all students.”
Putting money in local education races
A decade ago, political groups interested in education weren’t focused on local elections, according to Rebecca Jacobsen, a professor of education policy and politics at Michigan State University who co-wrote a book on outside money flowing into school board elections. Instead they tried to influence national politics through policies like No Child Left Behind or Race to the Top.
But between 2010 and 2014, Jacobsen said, groups like DFER emerged in local elections across the country, promoting school choice, charter schools and teacher evaluation systems that unions were against. During that time, it was overwhelmingly Democratic groups involved in local education politics, but in more recent times, conservative groups have become involved, pushing policies that would shape how race and racism is taught in schools and how teachers can talk about LGBT issues.
While D.C. doesn’t have a school board, the D.C. Council is charged with providing oversight of the city’s agencies and takes on some roles that typically fall to a school board.
“School board elections used to be low-cost affairs; $1,000 could make you a viable candidate,” Jacobsen said. “Both sides are now looking for allies in the local arena.”
In a city with an overwhelmingly Democratic voter base, the differences between the candidates’ education policies can be hard to spot for people who don’t follow the nuances of D.C.'s politicized education sphere. There are no polarizing debates here over how schools teach racism and the nation’s history, or controversies over the treatment of transgender students. Nearly all candidates seem to agree that students need more mental health supports and the city needs to devote more resources to equitably educate the city’s most vulnerable students — issues that DFER supports.
But there are some key differences in how the candidates think the city’s public schools should be governed, and how to balance the support of neighborhood schools and charter schools in a city where more than 40 percent of students attend a charter.
In 2007, Mayor Adrian Fenty (D), a close ally of Bowser, dissolved the local school board, giving complete control over the city’s education agencies to the mayor. He appointed Michelle Rhee to serve as the school system’s chancellor, and she enacted controversial measures, such as a teacher evaluation system that ties teacher pay to student performance. The evaluation system led to hundreds of teachers being pushed out, and heightened tensions between city leaders and the teachers union.
In 2010, the American Federation of Teachers, the national union that D.C. teachers are part of, spent more than $1 million to successfully unseat Fenty. Still, many of the changes that Rhee and Fenty enacted remain, including the governance structure and the evaluation system. DFER DC wants to make sure that many of them remain.
Fighting for control of D.C. schools
There is a lot at stake this election cycle. Both of Bowser’s main mayoral opponents — council member Robert C. White Jr. (D-At large) and Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8), who are running to the left of Bowser — say they want to loosen the grips of mayoral control, a governance change that Bowser says would set back academic progress in the city. DFER supports the current structure of mayoral control and is backing candidates who do as well.
The city’s public schools have made progress since 2007, but many of the touted successes have been undermined and questioned after a series of scandals and investigations — including an investigation that found that 1 in 3 graduates in 2017 did not meet city requirements to receive their diplomas. This has led some council members and residents to attack the city for weak public oversight of schools.
D.C. Council explores measures that would provide more education oversight, curtail mayor’s power over schools
While any meaningful change that would curtail the mayor’s control of the city’s education agencies is probably still a long way off, there does appear to be a growing consensus among the 13-member legislative body that the District needs to make structural changes to provide better oversight.
Democrats for Education Reform unsuccessfully mobilized to reelect Ward 4 council member Brandon T. Todd (D), a strong Bowser ally, in 2020. Todd answered in the group’s candidate questionnaire that he would not undermine the current system of mayoral control and said the teacher evaluation system should remain intact. Janeese Lewis George — a council member who had earned the support of the Washington teachers union — took the seat. The freshman council member has introduced legislation that would strip the Office of the State Superintendent of Education out of the mayor’s control.
DFER asked candidatesin this year’s candidate questionnaire if they would support this legislation.
The group has also promoted candidates, including Bowser and Goulet, who want to increase the size of the city’s police force.
In the Ward 3 race, where Goulet is a candidate, longtime council member Mary M. Cheh (D) unexpectedly announced she would not run for reelection in February, leaving an open seat and a crowded field of potential candidates to replace her. Cheh has said she supports mayoral control, though has introduced legislation that would give the mayor less control over the District’s state education agency, and give the agency more oversight authority of schools.
“I think the accountability of mayoral control gets a lot done,” Goulet said. “Being able to have mayoral control in schools is important.”
Under election laws, outside groups cannot coordinate with individual campaigns, though they can mobilize voters and promote candidates. The group has conducted at least two professional polls for the mayor and Ward 3 races.
Matt Frumin, a Democratic Ward 3 council candidate, has criticized DFER DC for taking money that comes from outside the city, saying that elections should be shaped by local residents and money. Frumin, a longtime bolster of the city’s neighborhood schools who says there should be more independent oversight of schools, did not receive the DFER endorsement.
“It’s outrageous. Ward 3 race was not for sale,” Frumin said. “The idea of the fair election process is that the election should be financed by the will of individual voters in the District.”
Giles countered that the group works with parents year-round and reflects the stances of many families in the city. She said the local chapter’s five employees live in D.C.
“We believe our direction,” she said, “is very much in line with what D.C. voters want.” | 2022-06-07T10:41:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The education group putting big money into this D.C. election cycle - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/06/07/dc-school-board-election-contributions/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/06/07/dc-school-board-election-contributions/ |
A woman checks her blood sugar level with a glucose meter. (iStock)
In older people with Type 2 diabetes, the brain appears to age at an accelerated rate — about 26 percent faster than normal, according to research published in the journal eLife.
Over a quarter of 12-to-19-year-olds have prediabetes, research shows
The declines, however, were greater and occurred faster in people with diabetes. Executive functions declined 13 percent more among those with diabetes, and brain processing speed decreased 7 percent more than for those who did not have diabetes, causing earlier cognitive decline than seen with normal aging.
Type 1 diabetes is less common, and misconceptions abound. Here are five. | 2022-06-07T10:41:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Type 2 diabetes may accelerate brain function decline as people age - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/06/07/diabetes-type-2-brain-decline/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/06/07/diabetes-type-2-brain-decline/ |
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss are finally back on the road together
The legends of rock and bluegrass talk about reuniting for “Raise the Roof,” their second album in 14 years
The story of why Robert Plant and Alison Krauss needed so long to follow-up their acclaimed, Grammy-winning debut album, 2007′s “Raising Sand,” remains murky. Press them in separate calls and you’ll be told about the need to “take stock” or busy schedules or “waiting until the time is right.” Okay, we surrender. But don’t blame us for wondering why these two, who sing so beautifully together and clearly get along, took so long to do it again.
In November, they released the T-Bone Burnett-produced “Raise the Roof,” their long-awaited second album, featuring covers of songs by, among others, Merle Haggard, the Everly Brothers, Bobby Moore, Bert Jansch and Geeshie Wiley. The pair are touring with a stop at the Merriweather Post Pavilion on June 11.
We spoke to Plant on Zoom and Krauss by phone. These interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
Q: I always see people say this is such an oddball combination. I’m not sure I agree. Robert’s always embraced bluegrass and roots music. You were a kid of MTV. You watched his solo stuff in the ’80s.
Krauss: Well, when we first talked about singing together, it was odd. What in the world are we going to do? Well, just try it. Let’s just give it three days in the studio and let’s see what we come up with? And it was just very, very lighthearted and I knew, from our first meeting, that he was a big Ralph Stanley fan. And in the ’70s, he’d just drive through the Appalachian Mountains listening to one of my favorite records. Any time any bluegrass person asks me what he’s like and I tell them that story, they just love him. If you know that record, “Clinch Mountain Gospel,” you know what he’s like.
Q: Robert, the Geeshie Wiley song “Last Kind Words Blues” is as haunting as they come. I remember hearing it for the first time in that “Crumb” documentary. Did you bring this to Alison?
Plant: Well, you know, this conversation could be like, who said what about when and who was playing bass? Who fetched the tea for Bobby Moore while he was tuning his saxophone? I was obviously aware of the song and I think it came in a conversation with T-Bone, to be honest, because, as you say, it is such a unique song.
Q: The first time you and Alison made a record, you seemed to be listening to a lot of Gene Clark. This time, we get two songs we know from Bert Jansch. They are sung in a very specific way. Very traditional, English folkish.
Plant: If you listen to Jansch’s voice and you listen to Robin Williamson or somebody like that from the [Incredible] String Band, there is a Gaelic lean in the way that they enunciate. And the British folk scene is particularly specific and it doesn’t have any of the glissando and the kind of flattened thirds, kind of blue notes which I have spent my life bathing in. So I have to think … how do I sing it? It’s a rendition. It’s not a tribute. It’s just a song on my part. It’s a beautiful song ( “Go Your Way”) which I brought to the table. As with “It Don’t Bother Me.”
Q: Alison, Robert talks about how he’s a terrible harmony singer and yet you two sing beautifully together. I’d like to understand what he’s talking about.
Krauss: He never sings the same thing twice, so he’s very free, off the cuff, in the moment. Like a jazz musician who’s constantly kind of channeling something. Coming from where I come from, in bluegrass everybody sings it very, very consistently so that you don’t get beat up by your other singing partners.
Plant: She’s a master of her art and I’m a master of not doing the same thing twice. So it’s a collision. And we find it very funny. And even now, in rehearsals, I decide to go a different direction. She looks at me, raises her eyebrows, and starts giggling. We had a day off yesterday and she texted me and said, “You want to go through those harmonies?” I said, “Not a chance.”
Q: Is it stressful trying to adjust as he changes the way he sings?
Krauss: There’s no automatic pilot. Kind of where I grew up in bluegrass, you were very straight where you put the parts. You don’t cross paths, you don’t jump down to the parts below. So it’s just a different thing. It’s like learning something new. It’s not stressful. Funny at times, but not stressful.
Q: Is there a particular song you’d point to that you’d say, hey, if you hear us over four nights, it’ll sound different every time.
Krauss: I think any of them.
Q: What if “Raising Sand” had not won all those Grammys and sold so well? What if it had just been a little album a few folks knew about? Would you have done it again right away? Because I get that, Robert, you’re somebody who doesn’t like to do the same things twice. Especially when somebody is saying it could be successful.
Plant: Well, you know, I was training to be an accountant when I was 17, and that lasted six months. Then I fell in love with a woman from India. I mean, you just … There’s so much. If you can sing a note and keep it, you don’t go too far out of it and just see what you can do. Just keep moving. So I went off with Patty Griffin and Buddy Miller and Alison went off her way. We saw each other from time to time. Always kept in touch.
Q: The rate you’re going with Alison, the third album from you two will come out around 2036.
Plant: At which time I will be 88. Ha ha ha.
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss perform June 11 at 8 p.m. at Merriweather Post Pavilion, 10475 Little Patuxent Pky., Columbia, Md. $55-$175. merriweathermusic.com. | 2022-06-07T10:41:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Robert Plant and Alison Krauss are finally back on the road together, performing their new "Raise the Roof" album - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/06/07/robert-plant-alison-krauss-album-tour/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/06/07/robert-plant-alison-krauss-album-tour/ |
Vladimir Kara-Murza from jail: Don’t forget Russia’s political prisoners
By Vladimir Kara-Murza
Global Opinions contributor
Russian activist Vladimir Kara-Murza arrives with his wife Evgenia for a hearing on Capitol Hill on March 29, 2017 in Washington, DC. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
On April 11, Russian opposition leader and Post contributing columnist Vladimir Kara-Murza was arrested outside his home in Moscow. He has since been charged with “spreading deliberately false information,” a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison under laws passed by the government of President Vladimir Putin after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24. He passed along the text below to his lawyer during one of their recent meetings.
“The prisoner’s worst nightmare is the thought of being forgotten.”
I would often quote this line passed on by Irwin Cotler — a towering figure in the human rights community, former justice minister of Canada, and international lawyer for prisoners of conscience, including Andrei Sakharov, Natan Sharansky and Nelson Mandela — at events and hearings we held around the world to draw attention to the plight of political prisoners in Russia.
The last time I recalled these words was in early April, as I spoke in Paris at a hearing on Russian political prisoners held by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The assembly is preparing a report on this subject, to be considered at its upcoming session in June. Little did I know that, just a week after the hearing, I would myself join the ranks of political prisoners who are the subject of the report.
I always knew how true those words were — and how important were international campaigns of solidarity with prisoners of conscience. I now feel it with my own skin.
I want to thank everyone who, over these past few weeks, spoke out on my behalf and demanded my release. Lawmakers, ministers, diplomats, NGO leaders and human rights activists. Top parliamentarians from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Council of Europe. The chairs of foreign affairs committees from 19 legislatures who made a joint statement, and more than 50 members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe who proposed a resolution on my case. And Amnesty International, which has designated me as a prisoner of conscience. Thank you to each and every one of you. I might not hear all of your messages inside these prison walls, but I can feel your solidarity — and I am deeply grateful.
My biggest gratitude goes to my wife, my partner and my soul mate, Evgenia. Having already helped bring me back to life twice after Kremlin-organized poisonings, she now continues my work and leads this campaign — all while taking care of her own duties, our home and our three children.
The biggest happiness in life is to have by your side someone who breathes and sees the world the same way you do. And even though, for now, we are not side by side physically, I feel your love and your support every moment.
According to the (almost certainly incomplete) count by the Memorial Human Rights Center, there are hundreds of prisoners of conscience in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. People such as Alexei Navalny, Andrei Pivovarov, Lilia Chanysheva, Alexei Pichugin, Yuri Dmitriev, Pavel Zelensky and many, many others — whose only “crime” is to hold political or religious beliefs unwelcome in the Kremlin.
Please remember them. Please speak out on their behalf. Please advocate their release — which will come, I have no doubt.
Because the worst nightmare for a political prisoner is to be forgotten.
Why I spend my Saturday mornings at the Russian Embassy | 2022-06-07T10:41:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Vladimir Kara-Murza from jail: Don’t forget Russia’s political prisoners - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/vladimir-karamurza-dont-forget-russia-political-prisoners-putin-ukraine-war/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/vladimir-karamurza-dont-forget-russia-political-prisoners-putin-ukraine-war/ |
Failing to confront the past enables further state violence
A lack of accountability for violence stymied Indonesia’s democratic progress. What does that signal for the U.S.?
Perspective by Matt Easton
Matt Easton is a human rights researcher and author of "We Have Tired of Violence: A True Story of Murder, Memory, and the Fight for Justice in Indonesia," out June 7, 2022 from The New Press.
Hundreds took to the streets April 21 in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, to voice concern over rumors that the 2024 presidential vote could be delayed. (Dita Alangkara/AP)
In the summer of 2020, after the killing of George Floyd, a wave of protests directed a harsh new spotlight on systemic, racist police violence. The Black Lives Matter movement sought to disrupt the status quo and to break a long chain of brutality. Other efforts forced a reckoning with the American past, such as the New York Times’ “1619 Project” and events marking the 100th anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre.
The counterreaction to even incremental progress in the search for truth and justice has been swift and predictable. Many cities have stood their ground on police funding and procedure, even as killings by officers continue, while many school boards and states have rushed to restrict how children learn about race and racism in American history, under the pretext of banning “critical race theory.”
The consequences of not confronting the past and creating more-just institutions loom all around us. The case of Indonesia serves as a cautionary tale. There, the failure to address past violence and autocratic rule made it easier for new violence to unfold — including the 2004 fatal poisoning of a human rights advocate named Munir, who devoted his life to uncovering past violence and seeking justice for its victims.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago in Southeast Asia, gained independence from the Netherlands in 1949. The new nation experienced fractious democracy and then rising autocracy under its first president, Sukarno. (Like Munir and many other Indonesians, Sukarno used only one name).
In 1965, Sukarno’s fall from power began amid one of the worst bloodbaths of the century. Under the leadership of Gen. Suharto, the military armed and directed vigilante groups to round up and kill at least half a million people. The army and its civilian death squads targeted victims for real or concocted links to the Communist Party of Indonesia, then a legal political party. Viewing the country as a Cold War domino on the game board of Southeast Asia, the United States and Britain provided the killers with communications equipment, target lists and propaganda.
Once in power, Suharto’s New Order government produced textbooks and films about heroic soldiers saving the nation from a cruel communist coup. No one dared to mention the mass graves under Java’s rice fields and Bali’s resorts.
Munir was born the year Suharto seized power and was educated amid this propaganda and revisionism. At first, Munir was a staunch supporter of the president, but Munir’s politics were transformed as a university student by his exposure to Islam’s social justice imperatives. He wrote his thesis on the lives of factory workers, as Indonesia dangled promises of a cheap, docile workforce to attract foreign investment. Munir went to work for the local branch of the Legal Aid Foundation, Indonesia’s first human rights group.
Munir’s first major case, in 1993, concerned a watch factory worker named Marsinah. Marsinah helped her co-workers secure the legal minimum wage, about $1 per day, despite the usual participation of soldiers in the negotiations. Soon after, she disappeared. Children discovered her body miles away in a rice field. Munir raised the profile of her case, ensuring that Marsinah’s name arose at trade negotiations with Americans and at U.N. conferences. Some factory managers were tortured into confessions related to the crime, but no soldiers were tried for her death. It was a hard lesson for Munir.
By the 1990s, Suharto maintained tight control mostly through a vast bureaucracy, occasionally prosecuting critics under vague laws on subversion. If those measures failed, violence remained an option. Marsinah’s death was one of many killings, disappearances and other serious human rights violations of the Suharto era.
But cracks emerged in the edifice of Suharto’s power. His family’s corruption, schisms within the civilian and military elite, and the end of the Cold War (and unquestioning U.S. support) converged to undermine his authority. Simultaneously, a new wave of activism emerged from campuses and factories. Then, in 1998, the Asian financial crisis reversed years of growth that had contributed to Suharto’s hold on power.
Munir moved to the capital, Jakarta, as Suharto clamped down on perceived threats. When activists began disappearing off the streets, Munir mounted a campaign of billboards and news conferences. Under pressure, captors released nine victims, though 13 others were never seen again. Munir encouraged the survivors to speak publicly, and he gathered clues that implicated a unit of the army’s special forces branch in their disappearances.
On May 21, 1998, Suharto’s three-decade rule ended amid mass protests. Munir helped the families of victims of state violence demand justice in a new Indonesia governed by many of the same faces. Munir helped launch human rights organizations, a think tank and a radio station, all working to transform a political culture of violence. He called on Indonesians to shake off the mantle of fear that had helped Suharto and the military keep 250 million people under authoritarian control.
People could now speak and vote freely, and the military gave up automatic seats in parliament. Munir helped draft laws to protect human rights and reform the military. But police, prosecutors and courts were unable to effectively prosecute any major human rights violations of the Suharto years, or even those occurring after his fall, such as crimes against humanity in Indonesian-occupied East Timor in 1999.
By 2004, Munir was ready for a break. That September, he left Jakarta to study international law in the Netherlands. After an emotional farewell to his wife, Suciwati, and their friends, he boarded a flight to Amsterdam by way of Singapore. Munir died suddenly and painfully aboard the plane at age 38, just weeks after a physical exam showed him in good health.
After months without news, a leaked autopsy report revealed a dose of arsenic in Munir’s system large enough to kill him several times over. But who had poisoned him, and why?
Munir’s stunned family and friends sought answers, working in parallel to police investigators. Their efforts led to a mysterious off-duty co-pilot who had switched seats with Munir. They unearthed evidence that the airline’s leadership was involved. Links emerged to the secretive State Intelligence Agency, which had undergone even less reform than the military. Investigators found documents, phone logs and, eventually, witnesses to the plot, all indicating official complicity in Munir’s death. Unusually, a former general was brought to trial, a man who once commanded the unit Munir had accused of kidnapping activists in Suharto’s last days.
In the end, however, fear won. Once in a courtroom, witnesses retracted their sworn testimony to police. The failure to convict anyone of planning or ordering the public killing of the nation’s foremost advocate for accountability revealed a depressing continuity between Suharto’s rule and the procedural democracy that followed.
The lack of accountability for violence, including Munir’s death, has stymied Indonesia’s democratic progress. Even the current reform-minded president, Joko Widodo, a civilian of a new generation, has done nothing to address the past. Former generals credibly accused of massacres and other serious crimes have served as cabinet members and advisers.
The statute of limitations for Munir’s killing will run out in September, while the survivors of the mass killings of 1965 are reaching their final years with no truth or justice. The failure to confront the past leaves wounds unhealed and creates the conditions for more violence. The same is true in the United States.
Eighteen years after Munir’s death, his portrait still adorns walls and overpasses across Indonesia in the form of graffiti memorials. Sometimes his image appears alongside that of the factory worker Marsinah, with the Indonesian words: “melawan lupa,” or “resist forgetting.” If we adhere to those words and end impunity for acts of violence by agents of the state, the visions of Indonesian human rights defenders and American civil rights activists can finally be realized. | 2022-06-07T10:41:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Failing to confront the past enables further state violence - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/07/failing-confront-past-enables-further-state-violence/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/07/failing-confront-past-enables-further-state-violence/ |
Sanctions on Russia came quickly — revealing an American double standard
The U.S. has frequently allowed White allies to commit atrocities against minority populations
Perspective by Elizabeth Schmidt
Elizabeth Schmidt is professor emeritus of history at Loyola University Maryland and the author of two books about Guinea: "Mobilizing the Masses: Gender, Ethnicity, and Class in the Nationalist Movement in Guinea, 1939-1958" (2005) and "Cold War and Decolonization in Guinea, 1946-1958" (2007).
President Ronald Reagan meets with U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar at the White House in Washington in 1983. (Frank Johnston/The Washington Post)
Recently, journalists and scholars have remarked on the double standards and racism embedded in U.S. foreign policy. They point to the United States’ swift denunciation of Russian atrocities in Ukraine, which have been described as shocking because they have occurred in “civilized” Europe. Meanwhile, similar atrocities in the global south are often all but ignored.
In the same vein, the United States and Western Europe have been quick to deploy strong sanctions against Russia. Yet historically, they have rejected or delayed enacting economic penalties against regimes whose atrocities were committed against Black populations.
For example, even as a chorus of voices — including the international community, significant movements within the United States and local activists — called for sanctions against the White minority-ruled states of South Africa and Rhodesia, which exploited and killed Africans, the United States declined to act or responded only slowly. This gave the White regimes time to redirect their economies before sanctions were imposed. The reasons for this disparity are rooted in White supremacy, geopolitics and greed.
During the Cold War, the United States valued the White-ruled colonies of Southern Africa as dependable anti-communist allies and good business opportunities. Whereas most African colonies won their independence in the 1960s, the White-ruled territories of South Africa, Rhodesia and South African-occupied Namibia clung tenaciously to power.
The United States collaborated with the White-ruled governments to guarantee their security and to protect U.S. investments, trade and access to strategic minerals. By 1981, the United States accounted for 20 percent of South Africa’s total foreign investments. U.S. corporations controlled the most strategic sectors of South Africa’s economy: 33 percent of the motor vehicles market, 44 percent of the petroleum products market and 70 percent of the computer market. Even more significant was the transfer of U.S. technology and expertise, which helped develop South Africa’s nuclear and military programs. U.S. bank loans allowed South Africa to build its military, stockpile oil and finance major infrastructure projects, further entrenching White power.
Turning the tide against U.S. support for South Africa took enormous effort. The African National Congress — South Africa’s most significant liberation movement — first called for worldwide economic sanctions against the apartheid regime in 1959. With the exception of a voluntary arms embargo imposed in 1963 and mandatory arms embargo imposed in 1977, the United States vetoed all U.N. Security Council sanctions resolutions for more than three decades.
In cases where sanctions were applied, significant loopholes remained. During the John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson administrations, the United States continued to supply South Africa with armaments “for defense against external threats” — including anti-apartheid insurgents with outside support — as well as spare parts for military craft and highly-enriched uranium for Pretoria’s U.S.-built nuclear reactor. The Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford administrations relaxed compliance with the voluntary arms embargo, encouraging trade and investment, and intensifying nuclear collaboration. The Jimmy Carter administration made exceptions for some equipment that had both civilian and military applications, while the Ronald Reagan administration revoked most of Carter’s tougher enforcement standards and stepped up previously forbidden exports.
The Reagan administration also rescinded a no-contact policy with the South African military and police officials and brokered the delivery of nuclear fuel through European proxies. Most significant, perhaps, was Reagan’s successful 1982 lobbying campaign in support of a $1.1 billion IMF loan to Pretoria — an amount that approximated the costs of South Africa’s wars in Namibia and Angola between 1980 and 1982.
Weakened by internal resistance and a declining economy, the White minority regime was in dire straits by the mid-1980s. Only then, when South Africa’s cheap labor economy was no longer profitable, did the United States act.
In 1985, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution calling on member states to impose their own sanctions, including a cessation of new investment, a ban on the sale of Krugerrands, suspension of export loan guarantees, a ban on new nuclear contracts and an end to the sale of computer equipment that could be used by South African security forces. The United States and the U.K. abstained, which allowed the resolution to pass. However, both vetoed a subsequent resolution making the sanctions mandatory.
The following year, the U.S. Congress passed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act. The 1986 legislation banned new investments in South Africa, bank loans and computer sales to the government, the transfer of petroleum, nuclear and military products and cooperation with the South African military and police. It also prohibited the importation of South African iron, steel, coal, uranium, textiles, gold coins and agricultural products. Finally, it ended direct flights to and from South Africa and prohibited South African aircraft from landing in the United States.
A longtime defender of the apartheid regime, President Reagan vetoed the Anti-Apartheid Act. However, with significant public support, the Republican-dominated Senate and the Democratic-majority House overrode the veto in October 1986. Even so, the United States continued to oppose forceful, mandatory U.N. sanctions.
As in South Africa, U.S. actions against the White minority-ruled state of Rhodesia were also gradual and long-delayed. Enacted between 1965 and 1979, they moved from partial to comprehensive and from voluntary to mandatory. The lag time of two-plus years between the initiation of sanctions and the imposition of comprehensive mandatory sanctions by the U.N. Security Council gave Rhodesia time to restructure its economy, to develop new markets and to devise sophisticated means of disposing of its products clandestinely.
What conditions prompted the call for sanctions? Previously a British settler colony, Rhodesia declared independence in 1965, while refusing any move toward majority rule which would have empowered the country’s Black population. The U.K. refused to recognize the renegade state. However, it quickly showed its hand.
Describing the Rhodesian outlaws as British “kith and kin,” Whitehall declared that it would not use force to bring Rhodesia back to legality and opposed all-out economic warfare. Instead, the U.K. proposed a limited set of economic sanctions, the purpose of which was not to bring the rogue prime minister to his knees, but to make him “reasonable.” It urged the international community to do likewise. The U.N. Security Council followed suit, enacting selective voluntary sanctions that prohibited the sale of military equipment and petroleum products to the Rhodesian regime. One year later it added selective mandatory sanctions.
It was not until May 1968 that the Security Council imposed comprehensive mandatory economic sanctions, prohibiting any economic or diplomatic relationship with the rebel regime. Meanwhile, Rhodesian political and economic leaders had engaged in a concerted effort to circumvent the international embargo. They found willing partners on several continents.
In flagrant violation of international law, a number of U.N. member states openly flouted the sanctions on Rhodesia. South Africa and the Portuguese colonial regime in Mozambique served as conduits for Rhodesian imports and exports, supplying the country with petroleum, military equipment and foreign exchange.
France, Britain and the United States looked the other way as their oil companies exported petroleum to Rhodesia. Between 1971 and 1977, the United States, through the Byrd Amendment to the Military Procurement Authorization Act, overtly contravened international law by allowing the importation of “strategic and critical” materials from Rhodesia — including chrome, ferrochrome, nickel, copper and asbestos — so long as there was no similar ban on the importation of such materials from communist countries.
A Rhodesia lobby, supported by pro-segregation southerners in the U.S. Congress, and U.S.-owned Allegheny Ludlum Steel, Foote Mineral and Union Carbide — which ran Rhodesia’s largest chrome mines — had lobbied hard for the amendment. The U.S. loophole was a major boon to the Rhodesian economy, providing it with the foreign currency needed to buy weapons and oil. It added years to the life of the White minority regime.
Imperfect as they were, economic sanctions ultimately pushed the White regimes to the bargaining table. In both South Africa and Rhodesia, declining economies and internal unrest or war, together with sanctions, forced the White governments to negotiate settlements that resulted in majority rule.
While the United States rightfully condemns Russian atrocities in Ukraine, its past failure to act quickly and effectively in Southern Africa betrays its deeper concern with protecting its own geopolitical and economic interests. In the Ukraine war, the United States sees the opportunity to weaken Russia politically and reduce its capacities in the region. President Biden has even suggested his support for regime change in Russia. The message many Africans hear is that Black states just don’t rate. | 2022-06-07T10:41:38Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Sanctions on Russia came quickly — revealing an American double standard - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/07/sanctions-russia-came-quickly-revealing-an-american-double-standard/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/07/sanctions-russia-came-quickly-revealing-an-american-double-standard/ |
How to encourage kids to report threats about school shootings
Flowers are placed around a welcome sign outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Tex. (Jae C. Hong/AP)
The 18-year-old gunman who murdered 19 elementary school students and two teachers in Uvalde, Tex., telegraphed his obsession with violence in social media messages and postings in the days and weeks before the May 24 shooting, by threatening girls with rape, for example, or posting photographs of the semiautomatic rifles he had purchased.
But almost none of the fellow teens who saw those communications disclosed them, articles in The Washington Post and New York Times reported. “Kids joke around like that,” a girl who saw the gunman make threats on a platform called Yubo told The Washington Post.
Neither of these situations is unusual, according to the U.S. Secret Service, which, through its National Threat Assessment Center, has studied how to avert school violence for more than 20 years. A 2019 Secret Service examination of 41 incidents of school violence found that 83 percent of the attackers had made verbal, written, visual or video communications about their plans — a behavior known as “leakage.” In many of those cases, the report said, the people who observed the threatening communications did not act.
The reasons students can fail to share such information is varied, experts said. Rationales include being reluctant to “snitch,” dismissing a threat because it isn’t specific or because the teen isn’t sure the other person is serious, being afraid for their own safety or being inured to violence they see online.
Early intervention, however, is the cornerstone of the behavioral threat assessment strategy for schools that the Secret Service developed in 2018, and the agency says students are best positioned to identify and report concerning behaviors by their peers. NTAC Chief Lina Alathari said the Secret Service encourages schools “to make sure that they are empowering students to come forward with information not just about specific threats, but also about some of the behaviors that we see in the backgrounds of student attackers." These can include bullying, self-harm, depression, suicidality, and increased interest in previous attacks and mass shooters.
Alathari said parents can play a role by discussing troubling communications and behaviors with their kids. We talked to her and other experts about how parents can approach these conversations.
One way parents can try to get past the teenage code of silence is by emphasizing that safety issues, such as violence or suicide, “absolutely need to be reported,” said Courtenay McCarthy, a school psychologist on the Safety and Support Response Team for Oregon’s Salem-Keizer Public School District. The district has established a threat assessment system adopted by school districts across the country.
“We know that kids are not going to report everything,” McCarthy said. “They are probably not going to report about their friends using drugs. But we can help them understand that when these are life and death issues, they do need to report.”
It’s also important that parents make it clear that their child does not need to report the information to them. “Some children are very comfortable talking to their parents about all of these issues, and some aren’t. So I really think that parents just need to get the message to their kids that an adult needs to know," McCarthy said.
Carrie James, a senior research associate at Harvard’s Project Zero, which studies issues related to education, suggested that parents help children identify two to three trusted adults they might turn to — such as a teacher, a coach, a counselor — even if the parent is not on that list.
Concerns about safety
Many states, such as Oregon, have anonymous tip lines. It can be more helpful, however, if kids are willing to come forward, McCarthy said: “We tend to get better information when we can ask questions about the situation and refer back if we have more questions.” She added that her team engages in “creative problem-solving” to maintain the anonymity of teens who make reports.
Alathari said the Secret Service recommends that school districts establish “a centralized reporting mechanism” so that students can provide information anonymously. The gold standard, she said, is Safe2tell, a 24-hour reporting system created by Colorado authorities after the Columbine shootings. In the last full pre-pandemic school year, 2018 to 2019, it received 19,861 actionable reports. Suicide threats were the most frequently reported tip category, with drugs, bullying and self-harm among the other top categories.
As far as flagging problematic posts to a social media platform, as some teens tried to do in the case of the Uvalde shooter, “I think it’s an additional step to take, but it shouldn’t be the only step that people take,” McCarthy said. “Ultimately, that information needs to get to the authorities that can do something about it.”
Nonspecific threats
That information doesn’t have to be a specific threat to be shared, McCarthy said. “If you’re seeing a picture of a gun that says, ‘I’m ready for school,’ it’s not an overt threat, but it’s veiled and it’s concerning." Other things that are concerning are fixations on weapons, violent events, criminals or school shootings, or access to lethal weapons.
“The holistic nature of a behavioral threat assessment model is to identify students in distress or exhibiting some concerning behavior,” Alathari said. After such students are identified, a multidisciplinary team that includes teachers, administrators, counselors and resource officers will gather more information, assess the risk and put interventions in place to help the student.
According to the National Association of State Boards of Education, 18 states require school districts to have a threat-assessment system, 16 have non-codified policies, and five encourage districts to institute systems. McCarthy encourages parents whose districts don’t have such a system to advocate for one.
Possible jokes
Parents should keep in mind that threats and behaviors that are obviously worrisome to adults might not be as clear to adolescents, experts said. “Our research shows that it really would be a mistake to think that teens can always, in turn interpret online messages or posts in an accurate way,” said James, co-author with Emily Weinstein, of the upcoming book “Behind Their Screens: What Teens Are Facing (and Adults Are Missing). “Sometimes, even often, they don’t really know what is a joke versus a cry for help versus a real credible threat of violence.”
Tweens pull away from their parents. ‘Turning Red’ reminds us it’s normal.
Clinical psychologist Lisa Coyne said that by expecting teens to know what to report, “we’re asking them to do something really hard, which is to understand that a statement like this, or a fixation, or a discussion about guns or other things that have been so frighteningly normalized in a lot of our culture means something bad will happen.” With all of the messages adolescents are flooded with, she asked, “How do you tell the signal from the noise?"
She suggests that a parent say to a child who might see concerning things online, “ ‘I want you to feel like it’s safe for you to come to me as your parent and just even ask me questions about it, and we’ll figure it out together,’ " she said. Then, she said, it’s important to engage in “really, really good reflective listening, collaborative communication and empathizing, rather than immediately jumping into problem-solving.”
Parents can help teens evaluate disturbing messages by asking questions such as whether the communications are part of a pattern from the person posting, or whether the peer has friends or a community like a sports team. Concerned teens also can turn to their own friends, who might have different information, “to really get a deeper understanding of what’s going on,” James said.
Just ‘how online is’
In an interview with The Washington Post, one of the girls who was harassed by the Uvalde gunman but didn’t report him said she thought that was “just how online is,” as if threats and harassment are the price of being on social media.
“To some degree, I understand what they’re saying,” McCarthy said. “I think kids are exposed to a lot of just concerning content." She recommended that parents look into monitoring apps for younger children and that older kids take “digital citizenship lessons,” such as the curriculum put together by Common Sense Media.
Parents can help their kids set boundaries online by talking about these concerns starting at a young age, the way they do about safe touching, McCarthy said. For example, “ ‘This is what a safe relationship looks like. These are relationships that might not be safe: If somebody is talking about hurting other people, hurting you, hurting themselves. That’s something that an adult needs to know about.’ ”
Adding to their anxiety?
One thing parents shouldn’t do, the experts said, is hesitate to talk to their kids about these issues for fear of adding to their anxiety about school shootings or internet dangers. Parents can teach their kids through example, by modeling “that things can be scary and you can face them,” Coyne said.
Parents can also help ease their kids’ anxieties about school shootings by focusing on the data, McCarthy said. “I think kids need to understand that though these things happen, they’re incredibly rare. So just because something is possible doesn’t mean it’s probable.”
Also important, she added, is helping kids understand all the systems in place to keep them safe, and that they can have a role in that. “When, you know, there are some personal actions you can take to keep yourself safe," McCarthy said, “it helps you to have a better sense of psychological safety, to feel more confident in your ability to deal with situations.” | 2022-06-07T10:41:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | School shootings: How parents can encourage kids to report threats - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/parenting/2022/06/07/reporting-threats-about-school-shootings/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/parenting/2022/06/07/reporting-threats-about-school-shootings/ |
Primary elections live updates Voters in California, six other states to decide primaries
What to watch in Montana: An embattled former Trump official runs for Congress
Noted in Texas: Cisneros will seek recount in runoff against Cuellar
Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) smiles at a point made by businessman Rick Caruso during a debate for mayoral candidates in Los Angeles on March 22. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/AP)
Welcome to special coverage of primaries in California, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota from Post Politics Now.
Today, we’ll learn more about what voters in both parties are looking for in nominees for November in what could be a defining midterm elections year.
The marquee races in California are at the local level, and crime is a big issue. In Los Angeles, Rick Caruso, a billionaire ex-Republican in the mayoral race is betting that his tough talk on crime will propel him to the top of a crowded field that also includes Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.). In San Francisco, voters will decide whether to recall a liberal prosecutor, Chesa Boudin, whom critics have accused of being too lenient.
In Iowa, there’s a competitive Democratic primary in which the winner will probably face off against Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R), the oldest GOP senator at 88. Leading Democrats include former congresswoman Abby Finkenauer and retired Navy vice admiral Mike Franken.
In Montana, Ryan Zinke, who served as President Donald Trump’s interior secretary and endured scandals, is seeking a return to politics in a Republican congressional primary.
In South Dakota, Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R) is facing a primary challenge from the right from state Rep. Steve Haugaard (R), a former Assembly speaker, even though Noem has Trump’s endorsement.
In New Jersey, Republican Tom Kean Jr., son of a former governor, is looking for a rematch with Rep. Tom Malinowski (D) in a congressional race, but he has to beat six GOP challengers who have portrayed him as too liberal.
Polls close at 8 p.m. in New Jersey; 9 p.m. in Iowa, Mississippi, New Mexico and South Dakota; 10 p.m. in Montana; and 11 p.m. in California (all times Eastern).
By Amy Wang6:39 a.m.
Tom Kean Jr., is a longtime New Jersey state lawmaker and former New Jersey state Senate minority leader who is seeking the Republican nomination for New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District.
Kean won the Republican nomination in 2020 but lost by fewer than 6,000 votes to Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.) in the general election that year. The two could face off again this year, if they win their primary races Tuesday.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee is bullish about flipping Malinowski’s seat.
Marianna Sotomayor and Dan Balz contributed to this report.
By Amy Wang and Eugene Scott6:30 a.m.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), the oldest Republican senator at age 88, is seeking the GOP nomination for Senate in Iowa. He is facing a primary challenge from Iowa state Sen. Jim Carlin, who criticized Grassley for voting for parts of President Biden’s agenda and to confirm some of his nominees.
But Grassley, who is running for reelection to his eighth term in Congress, is nearly synonymous with Iowa politics. He is the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee and has served in the U.S. Congress since Jimmy Carter’s presidency.
If Grassley wins the primary race, it is likely to boost Republican prospects for holding the seat in November. Polling from September showed Grassley with a sizable lead over Abby Finkenauer, the leading Democratic challenger.
In 2018, President Donald Trump pressured Ryan Zinke to resign as interior secretary just two years into the job, after a series of high-profile ethics violations.
Now that Montana gets a new congressional seat because of population growth — for a total of two overall — Zinke is back.
He is the top Republican candidate, and he is running with Trump’s endorsement. Zinke will likely face Democrat and first-time candidate Cora Neumann in November. Even with Zinke’s controversial political background, western Montana is Trump country, and he is favored to win.
By Mariana Alfaro and Felicia Sonmez6:25 a.m.
Attorney Jessica Cisneros will request a recount in the Democratic primary runoff election between her and Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar that took place May 24.
As of Monday night, Cuellar was leading Cisneros by 187 votes, or 0.4 percentage points, according to the Associated Press. Because the contest was so close, however, the AP did not project a winner. Under Texas rules, there are no automatic recounts. But the second-place finisher can request — and pay for — a second tally if the margin of victory is less than 10 percent of the winner’s total.
Cuellar declared victory Monday night and called on Democrats to “come together,” even while acknowledging that Cisneros “has every legal right to call for a recount.” | 2022-06-07T10:42:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Primary elections live updates: What to watch for in California, Montana - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/07/primary-elections-california-montana-live-updates/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/07/primary-elections-california-montana-live-updates/ |
How politically divided is the U.S.? It’s complicated but quantifiable.
Our new measure of national unity examines shifts over decades
Analysis by John Geer
Mary Catherine Sullivan
Is the United States at war with itself? (iStock)
According to the prevailing national narrative, American unity is at or near an all-time low.
There is certainly reason to believe so. You can see anecdotal evidence of extreme, possibly growing polarization every day, simply by opening your Twitter feed. Even so, we do not have good, systematic evidence about national unity — or, more important, about how it may have changed over time. Relying on social media to form an opinion is ill-advised, given its algorithmic tendency to mislead; social media feeds on itself and often makes users feel angrier and more disenchanted.
To overcome this, we sought to develop something more objective. The Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy has launched the Vanderbilt Unity Index (VUI) to estimate the state of U.S. unity. The goal is to measure unity in a systematic, replicable and reliable way. We find that while some political disunity is endemic to the contemporary United States, the country may not be as fragmented and polarized as the prevailing narrative suggests.
The Vanderbilt Unity Index
The VUI tracks quarterly shifts in national unity since 1981 by aggregating publicly available data across five categories: presidential disapproval, ideological extremism, social trust, congressional polarization and civil unrest.
Our work aims to capture the extremes. For instance, we record the percentage of Americans who strongly disapprove of the president, as collected by the Gallup Poll, rather than overall disapproval of the president. We also incorporate the share of Americans who identify as strong liberals or conservatives, from various pollsters, as well as those who report to NORC’s General Social Survey that they do not trust most people. The VUI takes account of the ideological distance between congressional parties as calculated by political scientists at VoteView. Finally, we capture the extent of notable political unrest by recording the number of questions asked regarding political protest or unrest by several major pollsters, including Gallup, Pew and NBC. This composite thus allows us to assess U.S. unity by looking for patterns and trends over the past 40 years, without relying on pundits’ hyperbole and hand-wringing.
We then scaled each of these five factors to range from 0 to 100, where higher values indicate greater political unity, and then combined the factors with equal weight and normalized the measure to a maximum score of 100. After analyzing and plotting 165 calendar quarters on a 100-point scale, we can report that the country, even after the terrorist attacks on 9/11, has not been close to “unified” — at least, if we define unity as unanimity. In theory, a score of 100 might indicate perfect unity, while a score of 0 might indicate complete division. But the scores are best understood as revealing general shifts and trends rather than as absolute measurements of national unity at any precise moment.
During the period we studied, we found the highest level of unity — 71.3 — was during the second quarter of 1991, as Americans were rallying behind George H.W. Bush in the wake of the Persian Gulf War. We also discovered that the modern United States has had only rare moments of politically unity. Since 1981, the index surpassed 70 only 12 times, or just 7 percent of the quarters we measured. Similarly, our most divided moments have not been as bleak as conventional political wisdom might suggest: Of the 165 quarters we tracked, only in three did the unity score fall below 50.
Do many Americans subscribe to the 'great replacement' theory?
Trump administration brought the lowest levels of political unity
However, the VUI does clearly find that unity has been declining over the past three decades. As you can see in the figure above, the VUI began moving downward in 1995; from 1995 to 2022, the index has averaged around 59, less than the average VUI of 68 from 1981 to 1994.
The shift squares with conventional wisdom. Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America, launched during the campaign before the 1994 midterm elections, ushered in an era in which the parties “nationalized” congressional races, a term political scientists use to indicate the centrality of national and presidential politics in shaping congressional election outcomes. Meanwhile, the culture wars were heating up, fanned by the 1996 launch of partisan news outlets Fox News and MSNBC. A decade later came the vice-presidential candidacy of Sarah Palin, the presidential election of Barack Obama and the rise of the tea party.
Finally, we see populist figures like Bernie Sanders on the left and Donald Trump on the right — and, with Trump’s presidency, nine of the 10 lowest VUI scores that we measured over this period, setting a record low of 35 in 2017. The 10th came in the quarter before Trump was elected in 2016. From this, we conclude that efforts to undermine democratic institutions through oft-repeated false and misleading rhetoric endanger the idea of “e pluribus unum” — out of many, one.
The VUI’s most recent quarterly snapshots suggest that some of the country’s disharmony may be dissipating. The first five quarters of the Biden administration show an average of 58, a notable increase from the average VUI of 51 during the Trump era.
Democrats are losing White women. Will overturning Roe bring them back?
Unity is not unanimity
Overall, the VUI measure confirms the thesis of biographer, historian and Project on Unity and American Democracy co-chair Jon Meacham in his 2019 book “The Soul of America”: “Disagreement and debate — including ferocious disagreement and exhausting debate — are hallmarks of American politics. …. The art of politics lies in the manufacturing of a workable consensus for a given time — not unanimity.”
U.S. democracy, in other words, is about managing disagreement. Americans have never been fully unified. The Founders crafted the Constitution knowing that citizens naturally disagree.
By subjecting our recent past to statistical analysis, the VUI demonstrates that the country has rarely been as unified as citizens like to imagine. It also offers a basis for comparison going forward. The VUI confirms that Americans are less unified today than 40 years ago, a worrisome pattern. Since 1981, the VUI has averaged about 62. As of March 31, 2022, the index stands at a little over 57 — and has been rising. Perhaps the path to a more unified country is not out of reach.
John Geer (@JGGeer) is a professor of political science, the Ginny and Conner Searcy Dean of the College of Arts and Science at Vanderbilt University, which houses the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy, and co-director of the Vanderbilt Poll.
Mary Catherine Sullivan (@mcsullivann) is a PhD candidate in political science at Vanderbilt University. | 2022-06-07T10:42:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Is the U.S. more divided than ever? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/07/public-opinion-polarization-partisan-republicans-democrats/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/07/public-opinion-polarization-partisan-republicans-democrats/ |
Man arrested in carjacking of D.C. ambulance
(Craig Hudson for The Washington Post)
D.C. police on Monday arrested a man who authorities said carjacked an ambulance after threatening emergency responders with a gun on Saturday while the crew was on a call in the Anacostia neighborhood in Southeast Washington.
Isaac Edwards, 34, of Southeast was charged with armed carjacking.
The incident occurred about 8:50 a.m., when the ambulance crew with the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department responded to a call for a person down at Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Chicago Street in Southeast.
Police said a man entered the back of the parked ambulance and put his hand on a gun in his waistband. Police said the man threatened the crew, who got out of the vehicle. Police said the man drove the ambulance away.
The vehicle was later found in the 200 block of K Street SW. | 2022-06-07T12:07:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | D.C. police arrest man in ambulance carjacking - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/07/carjacking-ambulance-dc/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/07/carjacking-ambulance-dc/ |
BUYING NEW | The plan calls for 135 townhouses, with 59 already built and some already sold
By Harriet Edleson
The living room in a staged model townhouse at Sea Oaks Village in Berlin, Md. (Benjamin C. Tankersley for The Washington Post)
When Colleen Brazil first saw the townhouse she bought at Sea Oaks Village in Berlin, Md., she knew it was for her.
“It’s really nice, and it’s really set up very well … for people to come and visit,” said Brazil, who moved there from a condo in nearby Ocean City, Md. “It just had everything I wanted.”
Brazil, 42, said that she spent more than she intended but that the townhouse is her “forever home.”
Her townhouse is one of 59 that Lennar has built about two miles from the beach at Ocean City. An additional 76 units are planned, for a total of 135 when Sea Oaks Village is finished. Prices start in the low $500,000s.
Brazil, who is a project manager for a dredging company, said her townhouse has plenty of space to accommodate visits by her parents and by her sister and two nieces. “I was looking for a place with two master suites,” she said. And that’s what she got.
Sea Oaks Village has three- and four-level townhouses. Brazil’s has four levels, with four bedrooms, three full bathrooms and two powder rooms (or half-baths). The top level has loft living space, a powder room and a rooftop deck. The second bedroom suite is on the ground (or lower) level. “I turned it into a master bedroom with a full bathroom,” she said.
Sea Oaks Village is about a three-hour drive from the D.C. metro area, by way of Interstate 495, Route 50 and Route 611. It’s on the mainland but not far from the bridge that carries Route 50 across Assawoman Bay to a barrier island and Ocean City, with its popular beach and boardwalk.
“It’s tucked away but close enough to everything,” said Joanie McCann, vice president of operations at Lennar’s Maryland division. Sea Oaks Village is about 36 acres, and building sites back up to woods or to a pond within the community. “It feels very private,” she said. “But it’s still close” to the beach and outlet shopping.
The standard Sea Oaks Village townhouse has three levels, beginning with the ground level, which has a two-vehicle garage (attached to a two-vehicle driveway) and a recreation room. The recreation room can be turned into a bedroom, and buyers have the option of adding a powder room or a full bathroom.
The second level has a family room, dining room, kitchen, walk-in pantry and a powder room. The kitchen has a large island, where six people can “comfortably sit,” Brazil said. The kitchen also has a double sink, maple cabinets and granite countertops; stainless-steel appliances, including dishwasher, refrigerator and freezer; and an over-the-range microwave and five-burner gas range.
The third level has three bedrooms, two full bathrooms and washer/dryer. The owner’s suite bathroom has two sinks.
Lennar determines whether to add a fourth level to a townhouse. A bedroom and a full bathroom are options on this level, which comes with outdoor space.
Sea Oaks Village interiors have neutral tones throughout. The lower level and the third-level bedrooms and hallway are carpeted as are the stairs. The Shaw carpeting is soil- and stain-resistant. The main living area has wide-plank flooring.
The townhouse exteriors create interest with stone siding and other types of horizontal, vertical and shake siding. The sod-covered yards have professional landscaping.
Communal amenities will include a pool, a pool house, a sport court and an observation pier that extends over the pond on the property.
Schools: Buckingham Elementary (pre-K to grade 4); Berlin Intermediate (grades 5 and 6); Stephen Decatur Middle (7 and 8); Stephen Decatur high (9 to 12).
Transit: This is a motor-vehicle-oriented area. The townhouses are about two miles from the Ocean City Boardwalk. They are located off Stephen Decatur Highway (Maryland Route 611), which connects to U.S. Route 50.
Nearby: The Ocean City Boardwalk, about three miles long, has hotels, restaurants, bars, shops and amusements. Two outlet malls, White Marlin Mall and Outlets Ocean City, are within a mile. The 48,000-acre Assateague Island National Seashore is part of a 37-mile-long barrier island along the Atlantic coast of Maryland and Virginia, south of Ocean City. The seashore offers camping, hiking, fishing, swimming and horseback riding. The annual White Marlin Open, a deep-sea fishing tournament, is scheduled to take place this year from Aug. 8 to 12.
Sea Oaks Village
12455-1 Sea Oaks Lane, Berlin, Md. The plan calls for 135 townhouses, with 59 already built. Some units have been sold, and buyers have been moving in. Prices start in the low-$500,000s.
Builder: Lennar
Features: The standard model townhouse has three levels, a two-vehicle garage, a two-vehicle driveway, three bedrooms, two full bathrooms and a powder room. The kitchen has an island that can seat six, a double sink, maple cabinetry, granite countertops stainless-steel appliances, an over-the-range microwave and a five-burner gas range.
Bedrooms/bathrooms: 3/2.5 (standard unit)
Square-footage: 2,580 (standard unit)
Homeowners association fee: $134 a month, includes snow removal, trash pickup, and individual and communal lawn care.
View model: https://www.lennar.com/new-homes/maryland/eastern-shore/berlin/sea-oaks-village/schedule-tour
Sales: Justin Connolly, area sales manager at justin.connolly@lennar.com, 443-285-3328 | 2022-06-07T12:11:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Townhouse community is close to beach but still ‘feels very private’ - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/07/townhouse-community-is-close-beach-still-feels-very-private/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/07/townhouse-community-is-close-beach-still-feels-very-private/ |
New York City Is a Lot Safer Than Small Town America
The historical context, which a fair number of people are aware of, is that New York’s pandemic murder wave followed a long decline, with the city’s homicide rate in 2021 still less than a fifth what it was in 1990. The geographical context, which seems to be less widely understand, is that while homicide rates fell sharply all over the the US in the 1990s, that decline slowed in the 2000s and reversed starting in 2015. In Philadelphia the homicide rate is now worse than it was in the early 1990s, and in Chicago it’s close. Which means there’s a growing gap between New York City and most of the rest of urban America.
The FBI’s accounting of homicide rates excludes the September 2001 terrorist attacks, and I extracted them from the CDC homicide data in the second chart for consistency and readability. But I’ve left them in this chart and subsequent ones in part to show that, even in a year when New York City was the chief target of the deadliest terrorist attack ever, it was still safer than most of the rest of the country.
Also striking in the above chart is just how dangerous it is to live in rural and small town America — that is, in counties not part of the metropolitan areas that as of 2021 contained 86% of the US population.(1) Driving long distances on two-lane roads, often far from emergency services, is a high-risk activity.
The overall lesson seems to be that the more urban your surroundings, the less danger you face. High homicide rates in some cities mean that the central counties in large metropolitan areas are on the whole slightly more dangerous than the suburban counties, but that’s the only exception. The risk of death from truly external causes, as defined here, is three times higher in rural and small town America than in the country’s largest city. | 2022-06-07T12:12:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | New York City Is a Lot Safer Than Small Town America - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/new-york-city-is-a-lot-safer-than-small-town-america/2022/06/07/d5a87e3c-e651-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/new-york-city-is-a-lot-safer-than-small-town-america/2022/06/07/d5a87e3c-e651-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
How to find soft, absorbent towels that will last for years
When buying towels, think about where they will be stored, suggests Dawn Cook of BLDC Design. (iStock)
Buying new bath towels seems as if it should be simple enough: Determine the size and quantity you need, choose your color(s), then go to your favorite store and pick out the ones you like best, right? Well, maybe. If you’re lucky, the towels will be soft, absorbent and long-lasting. But they could also pucker, shred and start to degrade within a few months.
The problem most consumers face when buying towels is the limited information on labels and packaging, making it hard to know exactly what you’re getting. “Industry brands have done a good job of obfuscating the facts, offering few details,” says Jimmy MacDonald, co-founder of Authenticity50, which offers cotton home goods.
“If you were buying a car, you could do online research for its features, such as a backup camera,” says home economics expert Joseph Marini of the lifestyle website At Home with Joseph. “That’s difficult to find for bath towels. Just because a towel is beautiful or carries a celebrity’s name doesn’t always equal quality.”
MacDonald compares towels to cooking: You can’t make a good towel with poor ingredients.
The key component is cotton. It dictates softness, durability and absorbency. But not all cotton is created equal. Ideally, you want a towel woven from what is known as long-staple or extra-long-staple cotton, which you should be able to find in the towel’s description or specifications. That’s because as the staple length — or the length of the individual fibers used — increases, so does the soft, silky feel of the cotton. Through the spinning and weaving process, a longer length yields a smoother surface with fewer exposed fiber ends. Items made with long-staple cotton are also more durable.
How to keep towels soft and fluffy
Marini says you also need to consider where the cotton is grown and harvested. American-grown cotton with extra-long fibers (called “Supima”) is comparable to Egyptian or Turkish cotton. Experts agree that all three are fine options if the towel contains 100 percent of the product. You want to avoid any type of cotton-polyester mix, which is prone to shredding or shrinkage and feels rough against the skin. Here are some other things to consider when shopping.
Weight. Towels are rated on a grams per square meter (GSM) scale. Towels that are heavier, more expensive or higher quality have a greater GSM than cheaper towels that tend to fall apart more easily. Typically, the more loops that are woven into a towel, the higher the GSM. The lightest towels are 300 to 400 GSM. A decent-quality, medium-weight towel runs 400 to 600 GSM. One that is 700 to 900 GSM will be soft, plush and heavy. The higher the GSM, the thicker the towel, and thicker towels are more absorbent, says Mark Feldman, general manager and chief home merchandising officer for Riverbend Home, an online retailer.
Use. Interior designer Dawn Cook, co-owner of BLDC Design in Ohio, says to think about where the towels will be stored and who will be using them. Are you storing them in a cabinet or on a towel rack for display? Will they be used by the family, on pets or by guests only? Do you want to keep them for years to come, or are you buying them for your college-bound kids? “You may want to splurge on a set that looks nice and you keep out of the family rotation,” she says.
Dimensions. Although towels come in standard sizes, there is little to no regulation regarding their measurements. And even within a single company, each towel line may have different dimensions. Typically, a washcloth is 12 by 12 inches, a hand towel is 16 by 30 inches and a bath towel is about 27 by 52 inches, Feldman says. “The largest manufacturers adhere to the standard and maybe give you a bit more, while other retailers may cheat in sizing to get the price down.” So it pays to check the size before you buy, especially if you want to ensure that the towel will cover your head or body. Those with a larger frame may want to upsize from a bath towel to a bath sheet (35 by 60 inches to 40 by 70) for ample coverage.
Specifications. Marini says the hardest part of buying towels is doing your homework. Find a brand and go to the company’s website. “Look up the towel to see where they source the cotton,” he says. “If the company isn’t as reputable, you may have to dig to find the information. If someone is proud of their towel, they will put the information on the front page.” You also want to note GSM, construction and size.
In a perfect world, you would find something like this: Bath towels are generously sized at 27 by 54 inches. Each towel is spun from handpicked, 700 GSM, long-staple, 100 percent Supima cotton.
Whatever the circumstances, don’t choose a towel based on how it feels in the store. Many manufacturers use a chemical finish, so the towel feels soft at first touch. However, that feel may disappear after five or so washes.
Marini says it’s best to have a plan when you shop. Write down what you need, whether that’s washcloths, hand towels, bath towels or bath sheets. Most salespeople should be knowledgeable. Ask: “ ‘What’s the best-quality, not the most expensive, towel for my face?’ ” he says. Cook suggests shopping at reputable retailers and buying from a known source, so you can get the same towel again in the future.
Like with many other items, cotton prices have skyrocketed, MacDonald says. Although a 100 percent cotton towel is still the best buy, expect to pay a premium for those on the high end. Marini says a 100 percent cotton bath towel with a high GSM starts around $70; a medium-grade one runs about $29 to $50. But good towels should last you up to 10 years. Invest in quality for pieces you will use often, and select medium-quality options for others. “It may be worth it to compare towels in store, then go home, do some research and wait for a sale, so when it hits, you are ready to buy,” Marini says. And if someone says they will sell you a 900 GSM towel for $9.99 — buyer beware, Feldman says.
Finally, realize that towels are an investment, so take care of them. Wash towels at least once a week. Don’t use fabric softener or bleach, which will damage the fibers, and tumble-dry on low.
Denver-based writer Laura Daily specializes in consumer advocacy and travel strategies. Find her at dailywriter.net. | 2022-06-07T12:12:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How to buy a decent towel - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/home/2022/06/07/tips-finding-great-towels/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/home/2022/06/07/tips-finding-great-towels/ |
Florida sheriff says gun owners could ‘100 percent’ prevent unintentional shootings by locking up their guns.
A Florida toddler found a Glock 9mm handgun, like the one pictured, and fatally shot his father with it on May 26, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Office. The child's mother is now facing charges. (Luke Sharrett for The Washington Post)
Marie Ayala was spending time with her family in their Orlando home late last month when she heard “a loud pop” — a gunshot, investigators said. The 28-year-old mother of three soon found herself doing chest compressions to try to save her dying husband.
Their 5-year-old son later identified the shooter, according to court records: his 2-year-old brother.
Now, Ayala has been charged with manslaughter by culpable negligence and possession of a firearm by a felon, authorities announced Monday. Investigators with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office allege that Ayala negligently created a situation in which her toddler could get his hands on a gun and accidentally kill his father, 26-year-old Reggie Mabry. Ayala faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of manslaughter in the May 26 incident.
“Now these young children have effectively lost both of their parents. Their father is dead. Their mother is in jail, and a young child has to live their life knowing that he shot his father,” Orange County Sheriff John Mina said Monday at a news conference.
The public defender’s office representing Ayala did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post late Monday. Ayala was locked up in an Orange County correctional facility as of Tuesday morning, records show.
The charges against Ayala come as the country reconsiders ways to reduce gun violence in the wake of multiple mass shootings, including one in which a gunman massacred 19 schoolchildren at a Texas elementary school on May 24. Gun violence has become the leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 19, The Washington Post reported last month. Last year, 163 people were killed by children in 392 unintentional shootings across the country, according to the gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety.
“Every year, hundreds of children in the United States gain access to unsecured, loaded guns in closets and nightstand drawers, in backpacks and purses, or just left out. With tragic regularity, children find these unsecured guns and unintentionally shoot themself or someone else,” according to Everytown’s 2021 report “Preventable Tragedies.”
A mother smoked marijuana in the front seat, sheriff says. In the back, her 4-year-old found a gun and shot himself.
Mina used similar language at Monday’s news conference to describe Mabry’s death: “These tragedies are 100 percent preventable,” the sheriff said, with his office adding that Florida law requires gun owners to secure their firearms in locked containers or with trigger locks if children under 16 can access them.
“I can’t emphasize strongly enough that our guns need to be secured and kept out of the hands and away from children at all times,” Mina said. “Gun owners that do not properly secure their firearms are just one split second away from one of these tragedies happening in their homes.”
Orange County Sheriff John Mina said June 6 that Marie Ayala was arrested after her 2-year-old boy found a gun and fatally shot his father. (Video: Orange County Sheriff's Office)
President Biden last week called for stronger background checks to prevent felons from getting firearms. He also pressed for safe-storage laws that would hold people responsible if they fail to lock up their guns.
“If you own a weapon, you have a responsibility to secure it … to lock it up, to have trigger locks,” the president said. “And if you don’t, and something bad happens, you should be held responsible.”
The affidavit provides a narrative of what investigators believe led to Mabry’s death on May 26. Around noon that day, deputies responded to a 911 call about a shooting at a house in east Orlando, the affidavit states. When they arrived at the cul-de-sac where Mabry and his family rented a room, deputies found Ayala performing CPR on her husband.
Ayala told investigators the family of five had been hanging out that morning, the affidavit said. Mabry was playing video games on a computer, while Ayala and their 6-month-old baby were on one mattress and their 5-year-old boy was on another bed. Her 2-year-old son “was moving around the room.”
Ayala saw the toddler come “from the area of the gunfire,” according to the affidavit. She said she “disarmed the gun” before tending to her husband, who had been hit in the back. The 5-year-old told her that his younger brother had “shot Papi” but couldn’t explain how he got the gun, the affidavit states.
When Ayala spoke with investigators about where and how the gun was stored, her “answers changed frequently,” investigators wrote. At various times during her interview with detectives, she said Mabry stored it in a bag on the floor, a box in the closet, a safe and “under a pillow or something,” according to the affidavit. Mabry had been trying to sell the gun in the two weeks before the shooting to get money needed for a traffic ticket he’d gotten in Georgia, she told them.
The gun belonged to Mabry, Ayala told investigators, according to the affidavit, although she said she knew about it. She also acknowledged that, since she was on probation after being convicted in 2016 on a felony theft, she was prohibited from having a firearm.
Mabry shouldn’t have had one either, the sheriff’s office said. Both parents were on probation for child neglect and drug possession, something Ayala told investigators after the shooting, the affidavit said. When a detective pressed Ayala on her probation status, she allegedly told them that she had urged her husband to get rid of the gun.
But he didn’t, the affidavit states. As paramedics tried to save Mabry, law enforcement found the Glock semiautomatic pistol on a mattress. They also found three Glock 9mm magazines: two on the floor and a third in the closet — in a child’s car seat next to a box of cookies and a diaper. | 2022-06-07T12:12:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Florida mother arrested after 2-year-old son shoots his dad - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/07/florida-mother-charged-toddler-shooting/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/07/florida-mother-charged-toddler-shooting/ |
Minn. man impersonating federal agent on TikTok sentenced to six years
The man’s lawyer says his client was ‘merely playing dress-up’ to ‘woo women’
Fake badges and documents carried by Reyel Simmons, who was sentenced for impersonating a federal officer and illegally possessing firearms as a felon. (U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota)
Over the course of eight months, a woman dating Reyel Simmons had been charmed by his tales of taking down bad guys as a Department of Homeland Security agent and retired Navy SEAL. She had seen Simmons’s “go bag,” badges and guns; heard stories about his undercover assignments; and believed DHS was paying for their hotel stays — a perk of said covert missions.
But her relationship with Simmons came crashing down in August, when she spotted a comment on his TikTok account, where he posted videos about being a federal agent for nearly 10,000 followers. The comment read: “stolen valor — impersonating a police officer again, oh and can proof be provided!”
Her discovery started a chain of events that eventually led to Simmons’s arrest and conviction on charges of impersonating a federal officer and illegally possessing firearms as a felon. On Friday, the 53-year-old Minnesota man was sentenced to six years in prison that will be followed by three years of supervised release, according to the Department of Justice.
The woman dating Simmons became suspicious about his work as a federal agent after reading the comment about stolen valor, so she contacted the TikTok user who posted it, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case. The commenter, identified as “J.S.” in the complaint, revealed they were Simmons’s former co-worker.
Men posing as DHS employees created potential national security risk, prosecutors say
That’s how the woman discovered that Simmons — who at the time was using the fake name “Rey Reeves” — had a prior arrest for impersonating an officer when he lived in Colorado. She then called the FBI to report Simmons.
The FBI found no evidence that Simmons had served in the military or with any law enforcement agencies, court records state.
Nevertheless, when applying to his current job in Minnesota, Simmons had falsely stated that he was employed by DHS between 1997 and 2000, although he claimed “Assignments cannot be discussed under: Classified #CFR 6AUS06 and #USCS 987USf1310,” according to court documents.
Those codes of regulations and federal statutes don’t exist, FBI special agent Tricia Whitehill wrote in the complaint. DHS was created in 2002, years after Simmons claimed he had worked there.
In her investigation, Whitehill discovered that Simmons had been charged in 2004 with two counts of misdemeanor impersonation of an officer in Colorado. His record also showed he had been convicted of felony menacing in 2007 — a crime that prohibits him from owning a gun. Nevertheless, a neighbor reported that Simmons had built a firearms range in his backyard and that gunshots had rung out from the property.
The agents then executed three search warrants: one for Simmons’s truck; one for his house; and another for his workplace at a photography company’s office, where he was eventually arrested.
Inside the vehicle — which was outfitted with a siren and a loudspeaker — they found a rifle case, stun gun and “law enforcement-type baton,” according to the complaint. At his house, officials said, they seized eight weapons — many of which were found inside a secret bunker with a hidden doorway.
Agents also recovered a Navy uniform and clothing branded with the names of law enforcement agencies, court records state. When they arrested Simmons at the office where he was a safety coordinator on Sept. 20, the agents found his supposed “go bag” — complete with a handgun and fake badges and a Navy certificate recognizing his participation in “operations against hostile enemy forces.”
Simmons was indicted on Oct. 12 and entered a guilty plea on Jan. 21, according to court records.
When reached by The Washington Post early Tuesday, James Becker, Simmons’s public defender, forwarded a sentencing memorandum submitted May 20 in which he had requested a two-year prison term. In it, Becker wrote that, while deceitful, Simmons’s actions weren’t “prompted by a larger criminal purpose, such as financial enrichment, to gain access to law enforcement systems/investigations, or to advance any other kind of criminal enterprise.”
“In truth, Mr. Simmons was merely playing dress-up to impress people around him and to woo women,” Becker wrote. | 2022-06-07T12:12:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Reyel Simmons of Minnesota sentenced for posing as a federal agent - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/07/minnesota-federal-agent-impersonator-tiktok/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/07/minnesota-federal-agent-impersonator-tiktok/ |
We already achieved ‘energy independence.’ What good did it do us?
A pump jack operates in the Permian Basin oil and natural gas production area near Odessa, Tex., in February 2019. (Nick Oxford/Reuters)
Astonishingly, McCarthy and his fellow Republicans have delivered on their promise early. Because, as it turns out, the United States is already energy independent — and has been for six months, according to data available through March.
Even so, U.S. crude oil production has been rising again since about late 2020. Perhaps not as quickly as consumers would like, given other disruptions to global markets, but it’s still rising. In fact, we’re producing about as much crude today as we did in 2019, and are not that far below the record levels of production from early 2020. In other words, in the documented history of U.S. oil production, there has been only about a year when U.S. oil producers pumped more per day than is the case right now.
If we actually want to get energy costs down, if we want to completely insulate ourselves from global price shocks, what we ultimately need is the technological investments that keep energy cheap, reliable and, coincidentally, clean.
That means investing in renewables, including: installing grid-scale solar wherever possible. Encouraging consumers and businesses to transition to electric vehicles, stoves and heat. And especially, developing better battery technology.
Despite the perception that renewable energy is some expensive, indulgent cause of liberal tree huggers, it’s already quite cheap. It’s cheaper, for instance, to build and operate an entirely new wind or solar plant than it is to continue operating an existing coal facility. But without better storage technology, we’re stuck with using easily storable fossil fuels, which are dirtier and subject to geopolitical turmoil.
We can’t control what the Russians do. We can’t control what the Saudis do. What we can do is electrify everything and make sure the electricity we use is cheap. That’s the solution if you want to stick it to oil companies, as many on the left do; it’s also the solution if you want abundant, inexpensive and truly independent energy sources, as the right has been coveting for decades. | 2022-06-07T12:12:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | "Energy independence" is nothing but a hollow talking point - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/energy-independence-oil-gas-renewables/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/energy-independence-oil-gas-renewables/ |
The Jan. 6 committee’s audience won’t match Watergate’s. But it should.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), center, flanked by Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), left, and Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) in D.C. on March 28. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
Fifty years ago this month, the American public was riveted by the Watergate hearings. This week, the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 sacking of the Capitol promises an equally riveting show as it releases “previously unseen material” and lays out facts that, in the words of Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), “will blow the roof off the House.”
Yet the chances that the Jan. 6 hearings will exert the same kind of pull on the public as their Watergate precursors are slim, for all the wrong reasons.
The committee will necessarily focus on the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, and the many-faceted conspiracy led by Donald Trump and his allies, from White House aides to Proud Boys street gangs, to discredit and overturn the results of the 2020 election. The evidence already in the public record is compelling. The problem is that the issue has already been litigated in the court of public opinion, and Trump and his “big lie” about the election have won the argument among Republican politicians and voters alike. The initial outrage expressed by corporate and deep-pocketed donors has also been shelved for business as usual.
The contrast with Watergate is stark. In those hearings, it was Republican senators such as Howard H. Baker Jr. who helped drive the inquiry. And when the evidence of Richard M. Nixon’s malfeasance came out, it was Republicans from Baker to right-wing hero Barry Goldwater who told Nixon it was time to go.
Today’s Republican leadership has sought to sabotage any effort at accountability. Led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), it blocked the effort to set up an independent special commission like the one that investigated the 9/11 attacks. It blocked efforts to set up a bipartisan special committee with both House and Senate members. When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) created the committee, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) first tried to appoint members who were implicated in the conspiracy and then refused to cooperate at all. Republican legislators and White House aides fought the committee’s subpoenas and refused to testify. Senate Republicans thus far have united to block efforts to strengthen our flawed system for certifying election results. In the end, the Republican National Committee even passed a resolution defining the attack on the Capitol as citizens engaged in “legitimate political discourse.”
As Trump and the right-wing media spread the “big lie,” Republicans nationwide not only embraced it; they used it as an excuse to pass voter suppression laws wherever they held power — in 19 states as of December. Pushed by Trump, Republicans have sought to elect zealots to manage future elections and passed laws empowering Republican majorities in state legislatures to overturn results if they so choose. Add to that the surge of physical threats against state and local election officials — Reuters has documented nearly 800 in 12 states. Nearly two-thirds of Republican voters believe that Joe Biden is not the legitimate winner of the 2020 presidential election and that the election was stolen from Trump.
The Jan. 6 committee will necessarily focus on Trump and the conspiracies that led to that terrible day — but the threat to democracy comes from a Republican Party grounded in White Christian voters that appears to believe it cannot win elections when everyone votes. Republicans appear to believe that votes are generally counted fairly in areas where they tend to win — suburban and rural areas — while fraud is rampant in cities such as Atlanta, Detroit and Philadelphia, where Black people and Hispanics are more numerous and Democrats tend to win.
The second major obstacle the committee faces is that its televised hearings will not have the reach that the Watergate hearings had. Then, the United States had three major networks and respected national and regional newspapers featuring the story. Now, not only has social media fragmented the audience, but the right-wing Wurlitzer — from Fox News to Newsmax and One America News plus the ubiquitous national, regional and local right-wing talk radio — is dedicated to debunking the investigation and spreading the “big lie.”
Still, it is vital that the hearings take place — and that they gain as much attention as possible. A detailed public record of the conspiracy’s extent — of the number of Republican politicians, operatives and donors who were part of the plot — is imperative. Clear public condemnation is needed to provide at least a caution to those continuing to attack democracy.
Even the best hearings might not be able to galvanize their concern, but the committee must make the effort. When asked in 1787 what the founders had created, Benjamin Franklin is said to have replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.” Once more, every American faces the question: Can we keep it? | 2022-06-07T12:13:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The Jan. 6 hearings won't be like Watergate, though they should be - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/jan-6-committees-audience-wont-match-watergate-hearings-it-should/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/jan-6-committees-audience-wont-match-watergate-hearings-it-should/ |
By Jonathan Capehart
Vice President Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff visit a memorial on May 28 near the site of the Buffalo supermarket shooting. (Patrick Semansky/AP)
I’m going to let you in on a little secret: Black people are not afraid of White people. We’re afraid of “crazy” White people.
According to the SPLC poll, “Nearly 7 in 10 Republicans surveyed agree to at least some extent that demographic changes in the United States are deliberately driven by liberal and progressive politicians attempting to gain political power by ‘replacing more conservative white voters.’”
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What’s terrifying is that this twisted belief is more widely held than we want to admit. The SPLC reports that more than a third of all respondents felt that demographic change in the United States is “a threat to white Americans and their culture and values.” Nearly half agreed that demographic changes were part of “a purposeful plan to replace white voters.” Crazy, right?
This explains some of the eye-opening results in a Washington Post-Ipsos poll of Black adults released last month after the Buffalo shooting. As the kids say, I feel seen.
75 percent of African Americans worry they or a loved one will be physically attacked because they are Black.
70 percent of African Americans think at least half of White Americans hold white-supremacist beliefs.
75 percent of African Americans say white supremacists are a “major threat” to Black Americans.
This present-day Black fear of White violence was perfectly expressed by Rob Redding, one of the everyday people interviewed for a Post report on how 1 in 3 Americans believe that violence against the government can be justified. Redding told The Post that the Jan. 6 insurrectionists stormed the Capitol seeking to “subvert American democracy because now it’s becoming equal for all people.” He spoke approvingly of arming himself and added, “I’m a Black man in America. … I believe in protecting myself.” Notice he’s not protecting himself against the government. He’s protecting himself against “crazy” White people.
When it comes to Black folks acquiring weapons, Redding is in the minority. According to that Post-Ipsos poll, 51 percent of African Americans said they have not considered buying a gun since the Buffalo massacre. Why is no mystery. The right to self-protection, let alone the right to bear arms, doesn’t exactly apply to Black people.
Think about it. Imagine I get a gun for self-protection (not that I ever would, but stay with me). A situation arises in which I use it to protect myself. But then the cops arrive, see a gun, “fear for their lives,” and, well, the rest writes itself. Remember Philando Castile? We can’t win.
So, no, I won’t be getting a gun. Ever. But would I actually leave the country for my own protection? It’s a question many people of color have been pondering the past several years. Writing about the subject in his latest column for the Daily Beast, Wajahat Ali bluntly asks, “Is it time to leave?”
It’s not just race, either. The SPLC report notes a correlation between the obsession with ethnic “replacement” and a fixation on gender identity. And look: More than 300 anti-LGBTQ bills have been filed this year alone, many of them targeting trans children and their families. This is not to mention the threat to abortion access or to other rights (such as my marriage) that could fall like dominoes.
I’m not sure they will succeed in getting me to leave my country. But “Operation von Trapp” is ready. “Crazy” White people are not to be trifled with.
Follow Jonathan Capehart on Twitter: @Capehartj. Subscribe to “Capehart,” his weekly podcast. | 2022-06-07T12:13:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | New SPLC poll shows why Black people are afraid of ‘crazy’ White people - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/splc-poll-black-people-afraid-great-replacement/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/splc-poll-black-people-afraid-great-replacement/ |
Jerome H. Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, with President Biden in November. (Samuel Corum/Bloomberg)
The inflation spike of recent months has triggered an equivalent surge in historical analogies. Commentators have mined three periods — the postwar era, the stagflationary 1970s and the tech bust of the early 2000s — for lessons. Next, expect the 1990s to be added to the mix. Spoiler: The message will be dispiriting.
The post-World War II period shows how spending and inflation can revive with a vengeance. After the 1929 crash, the United States suffered through the Depression. A decade of falling output and prices led Harvard economist Alvin Hansen to proclaim that demand and hence inflation might be permanently subdued, causing “secular stagnation.” Then, during the war, rationing kept prices down. But peace and the end of rationing uncorked a whoosh of consumption. Inflation surged over 14 percent in 1947, the highest rate since 1920.
The parallels with recent history are uncanny. After the 2008 crash, demand and inflation remained subdued, leading Harvard economist Lawrence H. Summers to revive Hansen’s idea of secular stagnation. By 2017, inflation had struggled back up to the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target, only to be forced down again by the war against the pandemic. This time, the whoosh of consumption was uncorked by vaccines and the end of lockdowns. Now, consumer prices are rising at an annual rate of over 8 percent, the highest in four decades.
The second lesson, from the 1970s, involves one parallel and one important difference. Then, as now, geopolitical conflict caused an energy-price spike. But the 1970s were scarred by persistent inflation because the Federal Reserve, bullied and cowed by President Richard M. Nixon, was late in raising interest rates, not by a few months but by several years. Today, in contrast, the central bank is only somewhat late. President Biden has gone out of his way to affirm the Fed’s independence and support its newfound hawkishness.
The third lesson features the dot-com rout of the early 2000s, which rhymes with this year’s crash in tech stocks. Both bubbles were inflated by loose monetary policy. Then, the Fed delayed tightening partly out of fear of the “Y2K bug,” a software problem that would supposedly cause computers to malfunction on New Year’s Day in 2000. This time, the Fed misread the fallout from a more serious (and biological) bug. In each case, the Fed’s belated move to tighten policy reminded investors that the tech sector, necessarily built on futuristic narratives, can quickly flip from boom to bust.
If the mechanics of the two tech corrections are similar, what of the impact? The bursting of the bubble in 2000 caused a vicious shakeout in Silicon Valley because, to simplify a little, it featured two kinds of firms: “vaporware” outfits that had been propped up by free capital and those that were selling software and other products to the vaporware gang. Because of these interlinkages, the correction was excruciating. Capital commitments to venture-capital partnerships crashed by more than 90 percent, and start-ups became less common than shutdowns.
This time might be different. To be sure, Silicon Valley is abuzz with anecdata about start-ups laying off workers. But software has become a mature part of the economy. Services such as cloud computing are sold to every kind of corporation, and the switch from one-off sales to subscription-based “software as a service” should protect the revenue of at least some Silicon Valley firms. Meanwhile, the venture capital business sits on a stronger foundation than it did in 2000. The endowment and pension funds that plow money into it have experienced almost 20 years of profits. They are not going to turn and run.
Which brings us to the lessons from the 1990s, which seem ripe for consideration. The first is that, when the independence of the Fed is doubted, its leaders act especially firmly against inflation, often at the expense of incumbent politicians. In 1991, Alan Greenspan was a relatively new and untested Fed chairman. After his appointment to a second four-year term, he proved his mettle by erring on the aggressive side in his fight against inflation, probably costing George H.W. Bush the 1992 election. The parallel with the recently reappointed Jerome H. Powell bodes ill for Democrats.
The second lesson from the 1990s involves a contrast. The steady growth and shared prosperity of Bill Clinton’s presidency owed much to China’s economic opening and deepening globalization, which kept the lid on inflation even as interest rates fell. A quarter-century later, China is seen as a threat more than a commercial partner, and globalization has stalled. To manage inflation amid trade sanctions and fracturing supply chains, the Fed will have to remain vigilant. If the immediate fight for price stability is going to be painful, the aftermath looks set to be grueling as well.
The have/have not economy is back in the U.S.
One cheer for inflation — but only one
Biden just admitted he doesn’t have a clue how to fight inflation | 2022-06-07T12:13:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | What inflation struggles of the past can tell the Fed right now - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/what-inflation-struggles-past-can-tell-us-right-now/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/what-inflation-struggles-past-can-tell-us-right-now/ |
Sen. Bennet warns of 'five-alarm crisis for the American West'
Good morning and welcome to The Climate 202! Today we're reading about the debate over whether to have kids despite the climate crisis. But first:
Something will happen on Capitol Hill today for the first time since 2013.
No, the 117th Congress is not on track to be one of the least productive in the nation's history, although its detractors can debate that point. Rather, the Senate Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Climate, Forestry and Natural Resources is holding its first hearing in nine years — and it's zeroing in on a worsening crisis fueled by climate change.
The hearing, convened by Sen. Michael F. Bennet (D-Colo.), will examine the drought parching the American West, which scientists say has been turbocharged by rising global temperatures.
“This is a five-alarm crisis for the American West,” Bennet plans to say in his opening statement, which was exclusively provided to The Climate 202 ahead of the hearing.
“When hurricanes and other natural disasters strike the East Coast, or the Gulf states, Washington springs into action to protect those communities,” his statement says. “But we haven’t seen anything like that kind of response to the Western water crisis, even though its consequences are far more wide-reaching and sustained than any one natural disaster.”
The Climate 202 spoke with Bennet by phone yesterday about his hopes for the hearing, the possibility of bipartisan legislation to address the drought crisis, and the prospects for passing President Biden's climate and social spending plan before the August recess.
The following interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity:
Climate 202: Why is it important to hold this hearing?
Bennet: Well, I want to use the hearing to sound the alarm about the water crisis in the American West. The West hasn't been this dry in 1,200 years, and more than 75 percent of the West is experiencing severe drought, which is threatening to put farmers and ranchers out of business. It's threatening communities that rely on this water for their families and their livelihoods. And I don't think that's well understood in Washington.
This is our first hearing since 2013 and our first hearing since climate was explicitly added to the subcommittee's purview. And I think doing it on Western water is a really appropriate way to kick things off.
Climate 202: Do you plan to highlight the link between the drought and climate change?
Bennet: The main reason why this drought is so severe is because of climate change. So I'm going to talk about the way that's affecting the snowpack and the runoff and the water levels in our rivers. This is all related to climate. And I really worry that if we don't act soon, the American West is going to be unrecognizable to our kids and our grandkids.
Colorado is literally being incinerated as a result of climate change. The day before New Year's Eve, more than 1,000 families in Boulder lost their homes in a wildfire. And on another day last year, Utah and Colorado had the worst air quality in the world — not Beijing, not anywhere else, but in my state, which is heartbreaking.
Climate 202: Last September, you floated the Colorado River with Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) to explore bipartisan solutions to the drought crisis. What are the prospects for bipartisan legislation to address the issue in this Congress?
Bennet: I definitely think there's going to have to be a bipartisan solution here at some point. Whether it's this Congress or not, I wouldn't want to predict. [Laughs]
Climate 202: Congress is currently starting the process of crafting another farm bill. Do you hope the next farm bill prioritizes climate change and water security?
Bennet: Yes. It's really important for us to ensure that the farm bill makes investments in water resource conservation and addresses climate change. So I'm going to be looking at both of those things.
Climate 202: Are you optimistic that Senate Democrats can pass a budget-reconciliation package with robust climate investments before the August recess?
Bennet: I hope we can. We have a historic opportunity to act. There are important pieces of that legislation that are vital to conservation and forestry. But I don't know whether we're going to be able to get it over the finish line or not.
Exclusive: Clean energy investments could create more than 2 million jobs by 2050, report says
Large-scale decarbonization of the U.S. economy could create more than 2.2 million jobs by 2050, particularly if bold federal investments are made in clean energy, according to a report shared exclusively with The Climate 202 ahead of its formal release on Tuesday.
The report, which was conducted by the Bipartisan Policy Center, Third Way and the Clean Air Task Force as part of the Decarb America research initiative, analyzed different policy and technical pathways toward achieving President Biden's goal of net-zero economywide emissions by mid-century.
While the authors projected job growth across all clean energy sectors analyzed, they found that the United States will probably see the most significant growth in the energy efficiency sector, which could account for 73 percent of total net job growth in 2023.
The report also concluded that as the country slashes emissions from transportation and adds more electric vehicles to the roads, it will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, particularly if the U.S. bolsters domestic supply chains and auto manufacturing.
Lindsey Walter, a co-author of the report and deputy director of Third Way's climate and energy program, told The Climate 202 that the findings illustrate the need for Congress to pass the clean energy tax credits in Democrats' stalled budget reconciliation bill.
“If we were to implement a robust tax package through reconciliation to start getting the U.S. on the path to net-zero emissions by 2050, then we would create at least half a million jobs by 2030,” Walter said. This, she added, “is a very compelling argument for why we should be investing in more clean energy.”
White House takes steps to calm turmoil in solar industry
The Biden administration on Monday moved to exempt the U.S. solar industry for the next two years from crushing tariffs on certain panels manufactured abroad, as the Commerce Department continues an investigation that has paralyzed much of the industry, The Washington Post’s Evan Halper reports.
Along with the pause on tariffs, the White House also announced Monday that it will invoke the Defense Production Act to boost domestic clean energy companies, particularly the U.S. solar panel and cell manufacturers struggling to compete with Asian imports.
On a call with reporters, administration officials said Commerce's investigation, which carries the threat of retroactive tariffs, will continue without interference. Officials added that trade law allows the president to invoke emergency actions such as the temporary reprieve from tariffs.
However, some experts question whether Biden has that authority, and the move could be met with legal challenges and overturned in court.
Climate groups to spend $100 million on midterms
Six climate advocacy groups on Monday announced a first-of-its-kind coordinated push to spend $100 million on mobilizing voters around the climate crisis ahead of November's midterm elections, CNN’s Ella Nilsen reports.
The Climate Votes Project will rely on advertising campaigns and in-person field organizing to reach voters in battleground states such as Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Georgia. The groups involved include the Climate Power Action PAC, Climate Reality Action Fund, EDF Action Votes, League of Conservation Voters Victory Fund, NRDC Action Votes and NextGen Pac.
Group of 22 governors urges Congress to make climate investments
The U.S. Climate Alliance, a coalition of governors committed to the goals of the Paris agreement, is sending a letter to congressional leadership today calling for the swift passage of the climate and clean energy investments in President Biden's stalled budget reconciliation bill.
The group of 22 governors, which is composed of 21 Democrats and Republican Gov. Phil Scott of Vermont, writes in the letter that state action alone is not enough to head off the effects of global warming or to reach the nation's net-zero goals. Instead, the leaders argue that Congress must pass a robust climate package to back up their efforts.
“We need major investment from Congress commensurate with the crisis we all face and the rapid transition we must all make,” the officials write in the letter, led by Democratic Govs. Jay Inslee of Washington, Gavin Newsom of California and Kathy Hochul of New York. “The U.S. House of Representatives previously approved a transformative $550 billion climate package for this purpose, and it is critical that any climate package include a similar level of funding.”
Cisneros asks for recount in Democratic primary runoff against Cuellar
Jessica Cisneros, a 29-year-old immigration attorney, will request a recount of votes in the runoff election between her and Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Tex.), Mariana Alfaro and Felicia Sonmez report for The Post.
The race has major climate implications, as The Climate 202 previously reported.
Extended weather forecasts could aid power grid stability, renewables — Jeremy Deaton for The Post
Canadian hiker dies at Grand Canyon under extreme heat — Nathan Diller for The Post
‘We need something real’: the Russian climate activist taking on Putin’s war — Andrew Roth for the Guardian
Actual footage of us getting out of bed this morning. pic.twitter.com/jKTwHM6LK1
— explore.org (@exploreorg) June 6, 2022 | 2022-06-07T12:13:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Sen. Bennet warns of 'five-alarm crisis for the American West' - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/07/sen-bennet-warns-five-alarm-crisis-american-west/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/07/sen-bennet-warns-five-alarm-crisis-american-west/ |
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s prime minister said Tuesday that the United Nations has arranged a worldwide public appeal to help the island nation’s food, agriculture and heath sectors face serious shortages amid its worst economic crises in recent memory, but the projected funds barely scratch the surface of the $6 billion the country needs to stay afloat over the next six months.
The economic crisis has led to political turmoil in the country. Protesters have been camped outside the president's office for more than 50 days calling for the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, whom they accuse of being responsible for the crisis. | 2022-06-07T12:13:50Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Sri Lankan PM requests patience as UN calls for relief funds - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sri-lankan-pm-requests-patience-as-un-calls-for-relief-funds/2022/06/07/8d945d72-e64d-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sri-lankan-pm-requests-patience-as-un-calls-for-relief-funds/2022/06/07/8d945d72-e64d-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
A robot butler returns from a delivery run at Dream Hotel in Los Angeles. (Linnea Bullion/FTWP)
Hotels have gone to the robots
The hospitality industry has turned to A.I. to deal with labor shortages
On a typical workday at the Dream Hollywood hotel in California, Alfred waits by the front desk for marching orders. Wearing a white collar and black bow tie, Alfred springs into action when a guest requests shampoo or a phone charger, moving through the lobby to the elevator, riding up to a given floor and notifying the recipient of the delivery by phone.
That kind of service is standard for many hotel employees, but Alfred, named for Batman’s loyal butler, is not just any staff member: It is one of two robots the hotel uses to serve guests and assist employees with day-to-day duties.
Vaughn Davis, the hotel’s general manager, started building an operating model based around a heavier reliance on technology in 2017, but the lingering labor shortage across the travel industry provided “an opportune time” to deploy robots in the hotel.
“There was not much human capital available during the pandemic,” he said. “So, the robots were a way to supplement that lack of talent available in the labor market.”
The Dream is one of a growing number of hospitality businesses that have invested in robots in recent years. And while travel demand soars as covid rules ease in many parts of the world, robots may provide at least a partial solution to ongoing staffing issues.
“We consider them team members, and they really do help,” said Davis, who noted that the hotel has about half the staff it did before the pandemic. Alfred has been working at the hotel for nearly a year and a half. Geoffrey — named for the butler in “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” — has worked at the hotel for about six months. Both were made by Relay Robotics.
According to Relay Robotics CEO Michael O’Donnell, a field technician maps the hotel so the robot can operate autonomously. “It’s sort of like those Google cars you see driving around, where they’re kind of mapping the neighborhoods,” he said.
Hawks Cay Resort in the Florida Keys has also brought in a crew of six robots. Two of them run food and assist staff at the hotel’s restaurant, Angler and Ale. Two others vacuum common spaces such as hallways and ballrooms, while another pair clean flooring.
Sheldon Suga, the resort’s vice president and managing director, said he became curious when a colleague in Miami who owns restaurants told him about robots that were helping his servers. Hawks Cay introduced the machines this past June. “Number one, it’s helping to fill some of the labor shortage that we have, but on the other hand, it helps the existing staff,” he said.
Suga said the resort is around 25 percent below “where we need to be” staffing-wise, compared to 2019.
Hospitality expert Anthony Melchiorri said the pandemic has exacerbated an existing labor shortage in the industry, turning it into a “crisis,” and attitudes about robots have shifted.
“Before it was like, ‘We’ll have a wait and see about robots,’ and then it was like, ‘It’s nice to have, I’m the cool kid on the block with a robot,’” he said. “And now it’s like, ‘Can I have 100 robots, please?’”
Leisure and hospitality accounted for 78,000 of 428,000 jobs added in April, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the largest increase of any industry last month. However, employment in the sector is still down by 8.5 percent, or 1.4 million jobs, from February 2020.
“Now it’s like, ‘Can I have 100 robots, please?’”
— Anthony Melchiorri
Hotels have been making use of robots as early as 2015, primarily at three-star properties to carry goods, said Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst and co-founder of Atmosphere Research Group. But the pandemic accelerated their interest, particularly as they provided a way to deliver items to guests without human contact.
Now, amid the added staffing challenges, he said, “hotels at more levels, including four-star hotels, now recognize that the robots can be very useful.” The pandemic also saw an investment in robots for disinfecting spaces, which travelers might have seen in airports, train stations and cruise ships, as well.
Those who have employed the use of the robots see numerous benefits to their presence, particularly in the form of added face time with guests. At Hawks Cay, Suga said the robots in the restaurant help minimize the amount staff have to walk back and forth to tables, and they allow other employees who might have previously spent four-and-half to five hours vacuuming hallways “to do other, more guest-facing things.”
Grady Colin, managing director of the Garden City Hotel on Long Island, said that after a Saturday-night wedding, staff can break down tables and chairs, start up a SoftBank Robotics robot and go home. “The next morning, the ballroom’s vacuumed,” which could take one person two hours, he said.
At Philadelphia International Airport, a robot developed by Piaggio Fast Forward can follow personnel to deliver food and some other items via a cargo bin. While it’s not autonomous and was implemented last year as a means to provide safe, contactless delivery, the machine eases some burden on workers, helping carry heavy or large orders.
Travelers also get a kick out of it, said Megan O’Connell, a spokesperson for MarketPlace PHL. “To this day, when our delivery specialists have it, people freak out, they take pictures with it,” she said. “It’s just a very positive thing to have in the airport.”
Melchiorri said he thinks it has to make sense for travelers. “I think people want value,” he said, noting that if guests are paying to stay in a hotel and a robot is costing them time or is less efficient than service they expect, that would be a problem. “If it’s … more efficient, people aren’t going to care,” he said.
Harteveldt said that if robots are used properly, they can “take on the more mundane tasks that have little to no added value of having a human involved,” like bringing towels to a room per a guest’s request.
He added that some clientele might be more receptive to those kinds of technological advancements. For example, older guests may not respond as well, and he does not expect to see the robots embraced for front-of-house use at luxury brands, where “service is a core part of the value proposition.”
However, Relay Robotics counts luxury brands among its customers, including Mandarin Oriental, O’Donnell said.
Melchiorri noted that “labor is the most expensive cost a hotel has.” Robots can have high upfront costs, with some disinfecting bots priced around $125,000. Other robots and companies are more affordable. Bear Robotics, which makes the bots Hawks Cay uses in its restaurant, typically charges $999 a month for a robot-as-a-service subscription, co-founder and chief operating officer Juan Higueros said in an email.
“This breaks down to $2.75 per hour and the robots work on a full battery charge for 12 hours (plenty for most normal operating shifts in a restaurant),” he said. That subscription includes installation, training, maintenance and other services.
While hospitality business operators stress that the robots are simply a supplement and not replacing employees, Harteveldt said that is a reasonable concern. If a robot can do 20 to 30 percent of the tasks a housekeeping employee does, he said, the existing staff will be more efficient, to be sure.
“But what that also means is the hotel will have to hire fewer housekeepers over time,” he said. Hotels might “optimize staffing,” shrinking that part of the staff from 10 employees to between six and eight.
But while robots don’t call in sick, there have been other vulnerabilities: Japan’s Henn Na Hotel previously got rid of low-performing robots. Droids at the hotel also could have also exposed customers to hackers.
Davis said the Dream staff love the robots and were involved from the beginning. They provided early feedback on the idea, and they helped name the droids.
He said a number of hotels in their portfolio are set to add robots. “We are heavily invested in the integration of robotics and artificial intelligence in the service culture in hospitality for the foreseeable and expanded future,” Davis said. | 2022-06-07T12:14:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Robots in hotel jobs fill in for hospitality workers who quit - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/06/07/robots-hotel-jobs-labor-shortage/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/06/07/robots-hotel-jobs-labor-shortage/ |
What science tells us about the mood-boosting effects of indoor plants
By Lala Tanmoy Das
(Anne Bentley/Illustration for The Washington Post)
When Hannan Braun felt stressed at work, he would treat himself to a houseplant. “At one point, I think I had well over a hundred plants,” said Braun, who lived in a studio apartment and was working on the front lines of the pandemic in Boston, “but it never looked cluttered or felt like I had too many.” For Braun, indoor plants have been a lifeline for dealing with the stress of medical training during the pandemic. Surrounding himself with lush greenery always calmed him down, he said, and helped him feel rejuvenated.
“Different properties of plants, such as how they look, smell and feel, impact us in so many ways,” said Mengmeng Gu, an associate professor of horticultural sciences at Texas A&M University. “They can feel good to the touch, make a space more fragrant and please our eyes.”
But how and why do plants have such positive effects on us? Here’s a look at research over the past few decades that has shown how houseplants affect our psychological and physical health.
People and plants are naturally connected. Humans have an inherent connection to plants and other living things, according to what’s known as the biophilia hypothesis, an idea popularized in 1984 by naturalist and writer E.O. Wilson. Since then, more than three decades of research spanning the globe have confirmed the hypothesis and shown that natural environments have a sizable effect on increasing positive emotions and decreasing negative ones.
“When people state the common belief that being in nature relaxes them, that it helps them recover from stress and tragedy, that it’s a healing process to be in nature, we now know there’s a solid basis for that,” Wilson said in a 2015 interview with The Washington Post.
And when people started spending more time indoors, we brought in pieces of the natural world to continue feeling connected.
Plants can quickly improve mood. Our connection to plants is so strong that sometimes it takes only a few minutes of being in their presence to start feeling better. Studies have found that less than 20 minutes is enough to make us feel more at peace. In one experiment, participants who spent even five to 10 minutes in a room with a few houseplants felt happier and more satisfied than those in a room without plants. In another study, participants felt more peaceful and positive after spending 15 minutes in a room close to a tall plant (about five feet) compared with other objects.
However, Gu reminds us that “it is not only seeing a plant that improves our mood so quickly, but the smells can also make a huge difference,” although studies on plants’ effects on nonvisual senses are limited.
Plants bring relief in enclosed spaces. If you are stuck in an office or other small space for hours at a time, plants can bring about feelings of escape. In a study conducted during pandemic stay-at-home orders, participants who had indoor plants experienced significantly fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety than those who did not. Being surrounded by houseplants led to feelings of “being away” from social or physical demands.
Houseplants awaken in spring. Here’s how to care for them.
Plants can reduce stress. Other studies have shown that interacting with plants suppresses the system in our bodies that gets activated when we sense distress signals. Young adults in one study who spent a few minutes repotting and transplanting an indoor plant reported feeling a lot less stressed at the end of the task compared with peers engaged in a computer-based activity. In addition, blood pressure measurements were much lower among people who handled plants, suggesting that plants have the potential to mellow the body’s fight-or-flight response.
Plants can recharge us. “Plants also have a huge restorative capacity,” said Melinda Knuth, an assistant professor of horticultural science at North Carolina State University. “Whether it’s outdoors like in a yard or indoors with houseplants, nature can help us feel recharged and grounded.”
When we focus on demanding activities for a long time, such as our jobs, it can lead to mental fatigue and negative emotions that can affect how well we can pay attention. Seeing a plant in this situation can provide a spark of interest, redirect our attention, and restore our depleted mental and physical resources, an idea known as attention restoration theory. Studies have found that the plant-induced “restoration” effect has a wide reach: renewing positive emotions and increasing productivity, creativity and attention capacity.
A data-driven guide to investing in houseplants
How do you choose what houseplants to buy? Research can provide some practical guidance:
Number of plants: Although there is no magic number, having five or more foliage plants can increase positive emotions. For example, in one study, participants in a room with bamboo palms, Chinese evergreens and heart-leaf philodendrons (five in total) felt more carefree and friendly compared with those in rooms without plants. Alternatively, one tall potted plant (about five feet) or three or more small floral displays (such as sweet pea, larkspurs or woodland sage) can elicit similarly positive responses.
Color: The greener, the better? In a study using English ivy, green-yellow and bright-green leaves increased feelings of cheerfulness and relaxation, whereas whitish-green leaves stimulated mostly negative emotions. As for flowering plants, a study found that purple, green, red, pink and white ones could lower people’s blood pressure and heart rate. However, purple and green flowers were more effective in relaxing the body, reducing anxiety and improving mood. Another study found that red and yellow roses elicited a more calming response than white ones.
11 houseplants that work well in small spaces
Real vs. artificial: In an indoor space, having any type of greens — including photographs of plants — is better than having none at all. However, real plants have a greater mood, attention and relaxation effect than faux plants. The same applies for real vs. faux flowers. In a study of high school students, participants looking at real pansies for three minutes felt more relaxed and comfortable than those looking at artificial ones. Gu’s point about mood effects beyond visual cues may help explain these findings.
Placement: Although research on this is sparse, some studies suggest that having plants closer than 10 feet to a person has a positive mood effect. A study by Knuth of North Carolina State shows that most people put houseplants in living rooms, bedrooms and sometimes kitchens. With the expansion of working from home, placing plants in home offices or other work areas can be helpful.
It’s important to remember the caveats of many of these studies: Some were carried out in highly controlled settings and primarily among college students. They reflect snapshots of time rather than long-term effects. And their real-world implications for a more varied group of people — for example, among older adults or those in low-resource environments — may be different. But it’s hard to ignore the volume of research showing that houseplants have a significantly positive effect on mood and physical health. So, as we find ourselves spending more time indoors — whether because of the pandemic, work or weather — perhaps it’s time to pick up some houseplants.
Lala Tanmoy Das is an MD-PhD student in New York City doing research in molecular cardiology. Find him on Twitter: @TanmoyDasLala. | 2022-06-07T12:14:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why indoor plants make you feel better, according to science - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/06/06/how-houseplants-can-boost-your-mood/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/06/06/how-houseplants-can-boost-your-mood/ |
The last surviving grandchild of Sigmund Freud described her grandfather as one of the “false prophets of the 20th century”
Sophie Freud, a professor of social work and a memoirist, discounted psychoanalysis as a “narcissistic indulgence.” (Sophie Bassouls/Corbis/Getty Images)
Dr. Freud explored her own life in two books, “My Three Mothers and Other Passions” (1988) and “Living in the Shadow of the Freud Family” (2007). That shadow was long, and in her darker moments, she said that she saw her grandfather, with his legions of unquestioning adherents, as one of the “false prophets of the 20th century” along with Adolf Hitler, both set on forcing on “other men … the one and only truth that they had come upon.” | 2022-06-07T12:29:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Sophie Freud, granddaughter of Sigmund Freud, dies at 97 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/06/07/sophie-freud-granddaughter-psychoanalysis-dead/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/06/07/sophie-freud-granddaughter-psychoanalysis-dead/ |
During Watergate, John Mitchell Left His Wife. She Called Bob Woodward.
‘Please nail him’: The untold story of how Martha Mitchell took revenge against her husband
Martha and John Mitchell in 1971. (Bettmann Archive)
Bob Woodward had heard this voice before. So when he answered his desk phone in the Washington Post newsroom that Sunday in the spring of 1974 he didn’t have to strain to realize he was talking to Martha Mitchell, the mercurial wife of President Richard Nixon’s former attorney general, the corrupt, pipe-smoking John Mitchell.
Portrayed by Julia Roberts in a Starz miniseries that started airing this spring, Martha Mitchell was something of a star in those days in Washington. She had style. She laughed loudest. She piled that marvelous thick blond hair higher and higher. In an era when the men ran most everything, she said what she wanted — and did what she wanted. She may have been married to one of the most famous men in Washington, but she refused to be defined as a “wife of” someone.
She considered herself to be someone. She was, as the papers sometimes put it, “Washington’s other Martha.” The capital crowd called her “The Mouth of the South.” She was almost impossible to control — though her husband and his thuggish crew tried.
On this particular Sunday, Martha was calling Woodward with an invitation. Her husband, recently indicted for a second time in the cascading Watergate scandal, had left her, moving out of their Fifth Avenue apartment in Manhattan. Would Woodward and his reporting partner, Carl Bernstein — she always pronounced it, incorrectly, as “bern-STINE” ― like to come up and look through her husband’s home office?
Woodward — this methodical former Navy man who speaks in the measured, flat affect of his Midwestern roots — is at his core a grinder, a journalistic machine who thinks through all the angles. First, he had to consider his source. Martha Mitchell had a well-earned reputation as a Washingtonian who liked to talk to reporters. He’d first encountered her three years earlier when, as a young reporter, he published an article about her complaints regarding black smoke polluting the air near the home where they lived at the time, in a building that had yet to become synonymous with political scandal: the Watergate.
She was undeterred when she was informed that the grime emanated from a heating plant that serviced the White House and the Department of Justice, where her husband reigned as attorney general. When the Watergate break-in drama was in full flower, she initially was an ardent supporter of her husband’s, fretting to the New York Times that sinister forces were trying to make him “the goat” of the scandal. But her mood darkened as time went along. She complained to the media about “dirty things” happening in Washington and threatened to leave her husband if he did not get out of politics.
She’d spend hours on the phone with reporters, including describing a bizarre scene where she says she was drugged and held against her will for three days by a staffer who worked for her husband, who was chairman of Nixon’s reelection campaign at the time. She certainly didn’t mind seeing her name in print. And what she said tended to check out.
“She’s the angry wife,” Woodward thought before heading to New York at Mitchell’s invitation. “But she’s a reliable angry wife.” Mitchell didn’t have a grasp of the specifics of her husband’s involvement in Watergate, Bernstein told me, “but what she was so right about from the beginning was the coverup.”
Woodward also was confronted with the not-so-small matter of entering a man’s private office and going through his things without his permission — even though he’d been invited by the man’s estranged wife. This, Woodward decided, merited a phone call to Edward Bennett Williams, The Post’s famed attorney.
Williams settled on a legal concept called “constructive abandonment,” Woodward told me. Since the former attorney general had moved out of the apartment, the papers he’d left in his office were no different than papers he might have thrown in the garbage. In other words, they were fair game. (After more than half a century as a journalist and having written 21 books, Woodward tells me he’s never rooted around in a garbage can for reporting material.)
Satisfied that they were working with a solid source and were on firm legal ground, Woodward and Bernstein headed for the airport and caught the Eastern Air Lines shuttle to New York. When they arrived midafternoon, Martha Mitchell greeted them at the door of her Fifth Avenue apartment. She held a martini in her hand. She was “gracious” and “a little drunk,” Bernstein recalled. Mitchell gave the reporters a tour of the well-appointed space with its floral print sofas. Then, she pointed down a long hallway. John Mitchell’s office.
“Have at it, boys,” she told them. “Please nail him. I hope you get the bastard.”
They were there for hours. Mitchell ordered Chinese food. Finally, they’d accumulated a stack of potentially useful papers. For all these years, Woodward, who is an Olympic-level hoarder of his reporting finds, has kept a file of the documents he gathered that afternoon and evening. He shared them with me one recent afternoon.
The most intriguing are 14 pages of John Mitchell’s handwritten notes, some of which include references to a grand jury appearance. (It’s not clear which one. He appeared at least twice, once in September 1972 as a fact witness and again in April 1973 when he’d been told by prosecutors that he was a target of their probe.)
The notes offer a peek into Mitchell’s perception of the case against him. Mitchell wrote that a prosecutor, whom he did not name, said, “I’m very, very sorry” after Mitchell testified. Mitchell speculated that the prosecutor could have been apologizing for the way he questioned the former attorney general.
Prosecutors pressed “very hard,” Mitchell wrote, “on moral issues,” including his failure to tell the grand jury about his meetings with G. Gordon Liddy, the Nixon campaign operative who was later convicted of conspiracy, burglary and illegal wiretapping in the Watergate break-in. Mitchell wrote that he also faced questions about why he hadn’t warned his “good friend” Fred LaRue — a bagman who delivered hush money to Watergate conspirators — not to accept money from the “W.H.,” presumably a reference to the Nixon White House.
The documents provided material that informed The Post’s coverage of Watergate, but Woodward can only remember the trip producing one big scoop. The story landed on The Post’s front page in June 1974, revealing that Elmer Bobst, whom Nixon sometimes described as his “honorary father,” wrote a letter in 1971 to Mitchell promising that a friend would donate $100,000 to Nixon’s campaign in return for help on a case pending before the Federal Trade Commission. (Mitchell was Nixon’s attorney general when the Bobst letter was sent. He later headed the Committee to Re-elect the President, or CREEP, for several months in 1972.)
By then, John Mitchell’s smash-mouth attorney, Bill Hundley, had figured out that Martha Mitchell had provided documents to Woodward and Bernstein. “I know the b---- gave them to you,” Hundley told Woodward.
Woodward refused to confirm the lawyer’s suspicions, citing the newspaper’s policy of protecting its sources. Still, Hundley threatened to ask the judge in John Mitchell’s case to hold Woodward and Bernstein in contempt of court if they did not return the material, which included documents related to his client’s preparation for an upcoming criminal trial.
Now Woodward had a choice to make. And he knew he had to move fast. Hundley was not a man with whom to trifle — he did not make empty threats.
Hundley was making a stern demand to return the documents, yet he had not specifically said Woodward could not copy the material. It might have been an oversight. It might have been intentional. It didn’t matter.
In The Post’s cluttered newsroom, Woodward put out a call for some of the paper’s least known but generally beloved staffers: the small army of copy aides. It was “emergency Xeroxing,” Woodward recalled with a chuckle.
Woodward also reasoned that Hundley could be useful in the future. Why make an enemy? As the years went along, Woodward was right. Hundley, who also had a good source relationship with Bernstein, remained a helpful contact who quietly provided “guidance” on legal cases and did not put up “the kind of steel shield that lots of attorneys erect,” Woodward told me.
Woodward made these decisions on his own. He initially didn’t tell Ben Bradlee, the legendary editor who had been so intimately involved in Watergate coverage decisions. He didn’t tell Bernstein. He was worried Bradlee and Bernstein would try to fend off Hundley’s request and put The Post into a “defensive crouch.” Even though he thought Bradlee would see the wisdom of the decision, there was no time for persuasion. Hundley was insisting the documents be returned the next day. (Shortly thereafter Woodward filled in Bradlee and Bernstein, both of whom supported his decision.)
While talking with Woodward, who is now 79, I wondered why he would tell this story after all these years of keeping it to himself. His answer was that we are in a new era of even greater “transparency.” He was keeping up with the times. | 2022-06-07T13:38:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How Martha Mitchell helped Woodward and Bernstein investigate John Mitchell - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/06/07/martha-mitchell-revenge-watergate/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/06/07/martha-mitchell-revenge-watergate/ |
By Danny Freedman
Tim Meeks of Glen Arm, Md., plays his invention, the harpejji, a cross between a piano and a guitar. (Matt Roth for The Washington Post)
On a Sunday night in Los Angeles in 2011, composer and instrumentalist A.R. Rahman took the stage before the assembled glitterati and millions of others watching the Academy Awards on TV. Then he and singer Florence Welch performed “If I Rise,” his Oscar-nominated song from the film “127 Hours.” On the other end of the telecast, at a TV in rural Maryland, Tim Meeks was girding for overnight success.
When he’d heard about Rahman’s upcoming performance — giving a prime-time spotlight to the musical instrument Meeks invented and started selling in 2007, a hybrid piano-guitar called the harpejji — he’d enlisted a few friends to help handle the phones the next day. “But that’s not how it works,” Meeks told me. The anticipated run on harpejjis — perhaps by curious musicians — didn’t happen. It didn’t materialize even when Stevie Wonder played “Superstition” on a harpejji (pronounced har-PEH-gee) in 2012 at the Billboard Music Awards. Or in 2015, when he played “Ain’t No Sunshine” at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction of Bill Withers. It was going to take more time, more patience.
But now the new instrument, made by the family business, Marcodi Musical Products, headquartered in the basement of Meeks’s home in Glen Arm, Md., has seen a spike in sales. The company has sold about 500 harpejjis since 2019, the same number sold in the previous 12 years combined — no doubt helped by ongoing exposure and public adoration from Wonder, as well as musicians like Harry Connick Jr., who played a harpejji at last year’s lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, and British wunderkind Jacob Collier, who has used his to serenade 1.5 million Instagram followers.
The harpejji, which sells for $3,000 to $6,000, is long and flat and electrified, with strings stretched over frets along a wooden body. Beneath them are black and white markers that correspond to the notes on a piano. Horizontally the notes run in whole tones; vertically they’re in half-tones. A note sounds only when a string touches a fret, and that’s done with any number of fingers at once. Those active strings also can be bent, shaken or strummed.
Meeks, a keyboard player, had been looking for a more expressive way to play without abandoning his piano prowess. In the late 1990s and early 2000s he came across the work of inventors exploring stringed tapping instruments, such as Emmett Chapman’s Chapman Stick and John Starrett’s StarrBoard. The latter was close to Meeks’s vision, and he bought one of Starrett’s prototypes and began to tinker. When the only original part left was the wood, a new iteration had emerged, Meeks says, and he has five patents related to its design and technical components.
“The harpejji is an incremental sort of thing,” he told me. He isn’t the first to conjure this combination, but this particular body design and bundle of modifications “just work for musicians.”
Musical innovations often stem from hybridization, says Krystal Klingenberg, a music curator at the National Museum of American History. Since they’re created to solve a problem, “instruments don’t just follow these linear progressions of development,” she told me. “There’s all these little offshoots of potential for this, and potential for that.”
Even instruments that may seem static over the past century or two are constantly evolving to chase ambitions for sound or utility or sustainable materials, says Arian Sheets, the curator of stringed instruments at the National Music Museum in Vermillion, S.D. She points to the museum’s trumpet collection, which is a fun-house-mirror array of horns, including a jazzophone, a trumpet that’s shaped like a saxophone and has two bells.
Adaptations are mostly for a happy relative few, but occasionally become mainstream. Klingenberg and Sheets mention technological breakthroughs like the electric guitar, the Moog synthesizer and hip-hop’s reimagining of the turntable.
The harpejji began to intrigue Meeks’s friends, and he decided to go into business. He had some know-how: At that point, he was developing consumer products for Polk Audio. What he had less of was time and money. He and his wife, Joy, a vocalist, were building a family of what’s now six children who range in age from 23 to 8, and Joy took on the brunt of the duties at home so Meeks, 49, could see this through.
Early on, the harpejji gained exposure in YouTube videos with Jordan Rudess, of progressive metal band Dream Theater. Then Stevie Wonder found Meeks at a trade show in January 2012, and soon after Meeks and Joy were headed to Los Angeles to deliver Wonder’s harpejji. They spent three days with him as he learned to play. “We were eating chicken and waffles — just sitting at a table eating chicken and waffles with Stevie Wonder,” Meeks recalls with lingering astonishment.
It was at Wonder’s fingertips that Jacob Collier first saw the instrument in a video. “I was a little perplexed and bemused, because I’d never seen something quite like it before,” the 27-year-old, five-time Grammy winner told me. Learning the harpejji in late 2019 was a “rare treat” for its novelty — it was an instrument Collier hadn’t already heard countless others play — but also for the uniqueness of its layout, the fingering of the chords and the patterns of moving through them. “Another thing that really blew my mind,” he says, “is after introducing it into [my musical] diet, I just found myself playing new stuff on the piano and the guitar because … the logic of it had unlocked this new sort of system.”
By 2016, Meeks left his job to run Marcodi full time. Joy now handles customer service and sales, working alongside four of their children and two other shop employees. Since 2020, Meeks has been both chief executive of Marcodi and president of Wingard, a metal parts manufacturer in Baltimore.
Later this year they’re moving to a house nearby that will triple the size of the workshop. Meeks has ideas for other products, including effects pedals. And the harpejji is no more static than any other instrument. Like music itself, it continues to evolve.
Danny Freedman is a journalist in Memphis. | 2022-06-07T13:38:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What it takes to invent a new musical instrument - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/06/07/what-it-takes-invent-new-musical-instrument/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/06/07/what-it-takes-invent-new-musical-instrument/ |
Risks of further deterioration are mounting
The bank slashed its annual global growth forecast to 2.9 percent from January’s 4.1 percent and said that “subdued growth will likely persist throughout the decade because of weak investment in most of the world.”
Fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has aggravated the global slowdown by driving up prices for a range of commodities, fueling inflation. Global growth this year will be roughly half of last year’s annualized rate and is expected to show little improvement in 2023 and 2024.
“The risk from stagflation is considerable with potentially destabilizing consequences for low- and middle-income economies,” said David Malpass, president of the multilateral development institution, based in Washington. “...There’s a severe risk of malnutrition and of deepening hunger and even of famine in some areas.”
If the worst outcomes materialize, global growth over the next two years could fall “close to zero," he added.
The global stagflation threat could have particularly dire effects in the developing world, where per-person income this year remains nearly 5 percent below pre-pandemic levels, the bank said.
Developing countries as a group owe a record amount to foreign banks and other financial institutions. One-quarter of the typical poor country’s debt burden now carries variable interest rates, up from 11 percent in 2010. So as inflation-fighting central banks tighten credit, repayment costs will rise for cash-strapped borrowing nations, the bank said.
But the world’s top economies will not escape damage. Bank economists now expect the United States to grow this year by just 2.5 percent, down from the 3.7 percent rate they projected in January.
China, the world’s second-largest economy, will fall short of the government’s annual growth target, expanding by 4.3 percent. That would be Beijing’s worst full-year figure since 1990, excluding 2020 when the pandemic depressed activity.
The global economy was expected to struggle this year as it adjusted to the loss of pandemic-era government spending and ultralow interest rates. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — and continued coronavirus flare-ups — have made the situation tougher.
The price of a barrel of Brent crude oil has jumped to nearly $120, up almost 50 percent this year. And wheat has staged a similar rally, leading the bank to call for urgent action to ease “worldwide food shortages.”
The bank’s downbeat forecast adds to concerns about global weakness. Most major stock markets, including those in the United States, are in the red so far this year. And the bank’s sister institution, the International Monetary Fund, lowered its global forecast in April.
Still, today’s global economy differs from the 1970s in important ways, the bank said. The run-up in commodity prices, though painful, pales alongside what happened almost five decades ago. Oil prices quadrupled in 1973-74 before doubling again in 1979-80 amid the overthrow of the shah of Iran.
Adjusted for inflation, today’s oil prices are one-third below their 1980 level, the bank said. | 2022-06-07T13:43:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | World Bank lowers forecast for global growth - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/07/world-bank-global-growth-forecast-stagflation/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/07/world-bank-global-growth-forecast-stagflation/ |
Congressional Republicans have partly unveiled their plan to save the planet. Beginning with roughly 190,000 square miles of it.
That’s the total area of the 31 most vulnerable Democratic districts heading into November’s midterms, as judged by the Cook Political Report.(1)They skew, like most blue districts, toward cities and suburbs, with 21 rated “rural-suburban” or higher in the Bloomberg CityLabs Congressional Density Index. Only two are designated as “pure rural.” This, in turn, correlates with popular support for climate policy in most of these districts. On average, 61.2% of Americans living in them think Congress should do more to address climate change, according to polling by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. That’s a hair higher than the national average, which also shows a clear majority in favor.
This math suggests it’s a no-brainer for Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to add a tint of green to his platform. Except, of course, the Republican base tends to skew more rural and, especially, skeptical about climate change. That’s in part because former President Donald Trump called it a Chinese hoax, and few things matter more to today’s Republican Party — very much including McCarthy — than being seen to agree vociferously with Trump. It’s a quandary all right.
Still, even if he haunts the midterms, Trump isn’t on the ballot, and you don’t get to be speaker of the House by winning districts you already hold. So it makes sense to offer a greenish olive branch to persuadable types in those shaky blue suburbs.
You may forgive my cynicism when I tell you that the opening installment of the Republicans’ Energy, Climate, and Conservation Task Force’s proposal kicks off with a call to “Restore Energy Dominance.” Not only does that not address climate change, it presupposes that “energy dominance” is a thing that existed in the first place. The former president who coined the phrase ended up donning more of a supplicant’s mantle at times, cajoling foreign autocrats into variously supporting or suppressing oil prices. Today, the US is already a net exporter of oil and petroleum products, and yet here we are, paying the high pump prices that feature prominently in the task force’s opening salvo, in part because one of those autocrats launched a war 5,000 miles away. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden looks to have all but scheduled his flight for the traditional pilgrimage to Riyadh.
In any case, this throwback to a mythical age of dominance in the title doesn’t bode well for the body of the text. We are told high up that emissions jumped 6% in Biden’s first year. Like the oft-tweeted bad faith comparisons between today’s gasoline prices and those in 2020 — when the pandemic emptied the roads — that 6% figure ignores the fact that emissions collapsed by 11% in Trump’s last year in office due to the ravages of the disease he repeatedly claimed would just disappear.
A slightly more involved sleight of hand is needed to claim that imports of Russian oil soared by 160% in 2021. For this one, we also have to deal with the talking point referencing only crude oil, rather than the semi-refined oil that makes up the bulk of US “oil” imports from Russia. Factor that in and the picture is far less dramatic. (Plus, imports plunged in the first quarter of this year.)
Click through to the task force’s talking points on how to “unlock American resources,” and you might be forgiven for thinking you had unearthed a manifesto from the 1970s. The dominant themes are high energy prices and dependence on foreign adversaries. The word “climate” doesn’t appear at all. This part bemoans US reliance on imports of critical minerals for batteries and such, but the only nod to rethinking our energy system involves a call for updating the nation’s dams to produce more hydropower. Dams! While one admires the moxie of appropriating the FDR playbook — a green old new deal, as it were — dams really aren’t going to cut it.(2)
This isn’t a climate plan. It’s energy independence/dominance repackaged with some greenish tints and aimed mostly at making Biden look like Carter 2.0. There’s the usual trope about how the US did very well on cutting emissions since 2005. It did this mainly through gas displacing coal-fired power generation on the back of a shale boom built on unsustainable economics. The realization of this now constrains fracking, suggesting the past 15 years’ experience offers no template for the next 15. The message is that Democrats make your energy expensive and insecure and drill, baby, drill is the only solution (apart from the dams, of course).
The thing is, though, it’s a powerful message. While energy costs as a share of income are nowhere near the levels of prior crises such as in 2008 or the late 1970s, the rebound since the pandemic has been swift. Amid broader inflation, paying $60 to fill the tank of even a modest sedan is the sort of thing that sticks in the American voter’s mind — more than the gathering impacts (and costs) of rising average temperatures anyway.
The current context of high prices and confrontation with Russia lends weight to Republican attacks on Biden’s ambivalence toward US oil and gas production. Discouraging supply before you’ve reconfigured demand is a recipe for being voted out of office rather than saving the planet. While the GOP, along with many in the oil industry, vastly overstates Biden’s role in the sudden drilling discipline of US oil producers, the administration could offer some inducements to encourage extra domestic molecules to offset the impact of sanctioning Russian ones. In return, the industry could offer greater commitment to decarbonization rather than resisting it, as I argued here.
Encouraging American oil and gas production now but discouraging it longer term — drill, baby, don’t drill — is necessarily a complex undertaking. Yet there can be no serious climate policy without addressing how to do that. If Biden’s failure involves too little attention to the first half of that equation, the Republicans’ failure involves, as ever, barely acknowledging the second. Their immediate electoral prospects will hardly convince them of the need to appreciably shift tack — as this climate-free climate plan confirms.
• ESG Is Alive and Well. Just Call It Protectionism: John Authers
• Governments Should Stop Trying to Make Gasoline Cheaper: Julian Lee
(1) I include all Democratic House districts designated as “likely/lean Republican” or “Democratic toss-up.”
(2) This particular talking point appears to be based on an Oak Ridge National Laboratory study from a decade ago that found there are 50,000 non-powered dams in the US with the technical potential to add about 12 gigawatts of generating capacity, or 31 terawatt-hours a year. Apart from the fact that this would represent less than 1% of current US electricity generation, the study itself caveats the findings by saying it “is not intended to provide economic feasibility level studies at each individual site.” In other words, the water’s there but the cost of tapping it is unknown — and you have to wonder why we didn’t when the dam was built. As an aside, climate change messes with hydropower potential, as we are seeing already in western states such as California. In any case, the study is: “An Assessment of Energy Potential at Non-powered Dams in the United States” (Hadjerioua, B., Y. Wei, S.C. Kao; April 2012). | 2022-06-07T13:43:17Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Republican Climate Plan Forgets About the Climate - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/the-republicanclimateplan-forgets-about-the-climate/2022/06/07/2be7a838-e65a-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/the-republicanclimateplan-forgets-about-the-climate/2022/06/07/2be7a838-e65a-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Kevin Ross has a place in R&B, and he knows it
The D.C. native will perform at Penn Social on June 11
Kevin Ross will return to D.C. for a show at Penn Social. (MOJA)
Kevin Ross is no newcomer to R&B — that much is apparent on his 2021 album, “Drive 2.” The project — a follow-up to the first “Drive,” an EP released in 2017 — is a tight seven songs, only one of which features other artists. Ross doesn’t sound like he’s trying to find a musical identity. He knows who he is, and his album reflects that.
His confidence allows his music to do a lot. “It’s an all-purpose project. … You can wake up to it, you can go to sleep to it,” he says. “It’s definitely a better body of work than the original one. It shows growth.”
Standout songs include “Looking for Love,” which finds Ross trying to reconcile with loving someone who is pushing him away. “You say you needed space, so I bought a rocket / Then end back in the same place,” he muses. On the chorus, his vocals are shimmering and glossy, and the song’s subtle production choices let him shine.
Ross has been making sleek songs coming at love from all angles for years now. “Long Song Away” hit No. 1 on Billboard’s adult R&B song chart in 2017. It’s a sweet, slower song, in which Ross sings the moving line, “’Cause forever is a long, it’s a long song away.”
Ross, who went to D.C.’s Duke Ellington School of the Arts and graduated from Boston’s Berklee College of Music, takes his place in R&B as seriously as he takes the genre he loves so much. “I’m a bridge because I’m a student first,” he says. “I acknowledge my predecessors while being aware of my present and planning for the future.”
He has already rubbed shoulders with some of his standout predecessors, having begun his career writing for the likes of Toni Braxton, Jamie Foxx and the trio SWV. Ross was signed to Motown Records and released just one studio album and a couple of EPs while there. Then he realized he needed to leave the label. Ross was allowed to exit his contract, and he started his own label. “The older you become, you start to understand that, you know what? Certain things aren’t worth sacrificing,” he says.
His creativity thrived in new ways after he was set free, he says. On the bouncy opening song for “Drive 2,” Ross smoothly cuts the corners of his compact and vibrant verses before letting his vocals sparkle as he croons the song’s title: “Sweet Release.”
June 11 at 8 p.m. at Penn Social, 801 E St. NW. pennsocialdc.com. $40-$85. | 2022-06-07T13:43:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Kevin Ross has a place in R&B, and he knows it - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/06/07/kevin-ross-interview/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/06/07/kevin-ross-interview/ |
A composite photo, left, and a photo of Susan Poole, who was 15 when she disappeared in 1972. (Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office/Palm Beach Post/AP)
ROSES ARE RED. BLOOD RED.
Schaefer was subsequently convicted in late 1973 of killing 16- and 17-year-old Broward County girls, whose mutilated remains were found on Hutchinson Island. He was serving two life terms but was killed in December 1995 when a fellow inmate brutally stabbed him, the Sun Sentinel reported.
Investigators didn’t start looking into Schaefer as a suspect in Poole’s case until this past spring, when the bones found decades ago were identified.
“Gerard Schaefer is the best suspect” in Poole’s death, Springer told reporters, saying that Schaefer was in the area and “active” when Poole went missing. Springer added that Poole’s being “tied up in the mangroves” also fit Schaefer’s style, saying his “M.O. was to pick up young girls hitchhiking.” | 2022-06-07T13:43:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Susan Poole identified as 15-year-old suspected victim of Florida serial killer - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/07/susan-poole-dna-serial-killer/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/07/susan-poole-dna-serial-killer/ |
E3 video game convention will return in 2023, says parent company
ESA president Stan Pierre-Louis also decried accusations of links between mass shootings and video games
(Washington Post illustration; John Jack Gallagher/ESA)
It’s June, which in nearly any pre-2020 year would mean a cavalcade of new video game announcements with a loud red-and-yellow “E3” logo slapped on them. But in 2022, for the second time in three years, E3 has been called off entirely, with Summer Games Fest by former E3 host Geoff Keighley and a smattering of publisher-specific digital events taking its place. Despite a dire stretch, the organizing body behind E3, the Entertainment Software Association, says it hasn’t thrown in the towel just yet.
Since 1995, the Los Angeles-based convention has served as the video game industry’s annual epicenter for major product announcements. But a string of controversies dogged the event in 2021, including restrictions on who could live stream E3′s digital-only 2021 event and a “friend-finding” social feature that revealed users’ personal details. And with game publishers increasingly relying on digital showcases instead of costly trips to La., reports suggest that trouble was brewing for this year’s E3 even before the ESA pulled the plug on in-person and digital events, cited concerns around the omicron variant.
When asked about these reports, Pierre-Louis declined to answer directly, saying: “What I can tell you is that covid has been a driving factor for anyone who conducts physical events for the past three years.”
For years, E3 has been gaming’s biggest event. Is that still true?
Keighley’s competing Summer Game Fest event includes a press-focused in-person component in Los Angeles, though at a much smaller scale than E3′s typical gathering of over 50,000 people. Meanwhile, a rotating series of digital-only presentations like Nintendo Direct, Sony’s State of Play and regular showcases by Microsoft have largely occupied the hole left by E3, giving individual games more room to breathe and alleviating costs publishers were forced to spend on travel and game demos.
Still, Pierre-Louis said he believes there’s something to be said for doing things the old-fashioned way.
“I think what’s great about all this experimentation is that companies of all sizes are trying to figure out what works best to promote the product and the content that they are looking to share with consumers,” he said. “And I think there is a space for a physical show; I think there’s an importance of having digital reach. Combining those two, I think there is a critical element of what we think E3 can provide.”
Typically, the ESA announces the dates for the following year’s E3 at the conclusion of the current year’s event — which would normally be taking place around this time. Last year, it did not do so, leading to a cancellation announcement at the beginning of 2022. So far, the ESA has yet to announce dates for next year.
Academics want to preserve video games. Copyright laws and the ESA make it complicated.
Instead, this week the ESA is publishing its 2022 “Essential Facts About the Video Game Industry” report, which draws on a survey of over 4,000 U.S. residents ages 18 and older. Among its findings: More than 65 percent of Americans play video games, 89 percent of players say video games provide stress relief, 88 percent say video games help improve cognitive skills and 61 percent of players say video games have helped them stay connected with family. Pierre-Louis characterized this as clear evidence that video games continue to receive a boost from the pandemic, and that games have conferred numerous benefits to Americans over the course of the past few years.
That in mind, Pierre-Louis said he was surprised to see politicians like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) try to foist blame for recent mass shootings on video games.
“We discourage baseless accusations linking these tragedies to video gameplay because the science is clear and has been for a long time: Independent research points to the fact that video games don’t serve as a source for real world violence — so much so that the Supreme Court in 2011 ruled that video games are protected,” Pierre-Louis said. “I think the most telling fact and statistic is that the same video games sold in the United States are sold all around the world. And yet, we’re the only country that has this level of violence and gun violence in particular.” | 2022-06-07T13:44:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | ESA says E3 will be back in 2023 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/06/07/esa-e3-2023-summer-game-fest-nintendo-direct/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/06/07/esa-e3-2023-summer-game-fest-nintendo-direct/ |
Jim Fitton, left, and Volker Waldmann, center, are escorted by Iraqi security forces outside a courtroom in Baghdad on May 22. (Hadi Mizban/AP)
Jim Fitton, a 66-year-old retired geologist, was convicted of trying to smuggle artifacts out of the country after his arrest at Baghdad airport with several fragments and stones in his luggage. The British citizen and his family have maintained he did not know this was illegal and that the shards were in an open, unguarded location when he picked them up.
The ruling on Monday shook Fitton’s family, and his lawyer told reporters he would appeal.
“We could not be more heartbroken and shellshocked,” his daughter, Leila, wrote in an online petition for his release, describing the sentence as a “horrific injustice.” “We are suspending our emotional reactions in favor of positive action to get Jim home,” the statement from his family added.
U.S. returns thousands of looted ancient artifacts to Iraq
The British Foreign Office said Tuesday in an email that it was “in contact with the local authorities” but did not respond to questions about the verdict or about whether Fitton could serve the sentence in his home country instead of Iraq. “We are providing consular assistance to a British national in Iraq, and continue to support his family,” it said.
The country, home to the proverbial cradle of civilization, has seen a push to recover thousands of ancient artifacts that were plundered in the two decades since the U.S. invasion — many of which ended up in museums and personal collections in the United States and around the world.
Climate change is turning the cradle of civilization into a grave
There was no immediate comment from the Iraqi government on Fitton’s prison sentence on Monday, which appeared to shock his lawyer. “I thought the worst case scenario would be one year, with suspension,” the lawyer told the Associated Press.
The founder of Iraqi tour operator Bil Weekend said the case highlighted the need to inform tourists about efforts to protect the country’s heritage. “The first thing we mention is not to pick up objects, & talk about the importance of heritage protection in Iraq,” Ali Al Makhzomy tweeted. | 2022-06-07T13:44:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | British geologist gets Iraq prison term for taking artifacts - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/07/british-tourist-iraqi-jail-sentence-artifacts/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/07/british-tourist-iraqi-jail-sentence-artifacts/ |
Perspective by Shanta Thake
(Kevin Yatarola/Washington Post illustration)
Welcome to The Work Day, a series that charts a single day in various women’s working lives — from gallery owners to stay-at-home parents to chief executives. In this installment, we hear from Shanta Thake, the chief artistic officer of the Lincoln Center of the Performing Arts. She recorded a workday in May.
Name: Shanta Thake
Job title/current role: Ehrenkranz chief artistic officer, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Previous jobs: Associate artistic director, senior director of artistic programs at the Public Theater (2018-2021); director of Joe’s Pub (2007-2018); co-director GlobalFEST (2007-present)
What led me to my current role: Live performing arts have always been a huge part of my life; I have multiple dancers, singers and musicians in my family. I fell in love with theater and went to college to obtain a degree in theater and a certificate in management through business school. I moved to NYC to pursue a life as an actor but found my way to an internship at the Public Theater and fell in love with life behind the scenes as quickly as I fell out of love with auditioning. I found the ability to work with multiple artists to create new beautiful work for the world endlessly fascinating and have been fortunate enough to build my career in a way that has been very fulfilling and never boring.
How I spend the majority of my day: I spend the majority of my day progressing shows for Lincoln Center’s campus — everything from meetings with artists at the beginning of an idea to meeting with other curators about their ideas and shows to cementing all of the details for a show in next year’s season.
As a spokesperson for Lincoln Center’s artistic vision, I am also in conversation with multiple stakeholders in and around our 16-acre campus to make sure that we are good partners and have a sense of what is most urgent in the performing arts field to address locally, nationally and internationally.
In the evenings, I’m seeing shows about five nights a week to support the artists and organizations I love and to see what new work may be a good fit for our programming in the future.
5:45 a.m.: Alarm goes off and I drag myself out of bed. There has never been a day when this didn’t feel early. I do a quick email check to make sure nothing insane happened while I was asleep, and check the weather. I have not done a lot of outdoor programming before this job, and I know that I will have to develop a new Zen outlook when it comes to the weather. I’m not there yet. But, regardless, it looks like there is only a slight chance of rain for an event tonight.
I put my workout clothes on. I grab my backpack and head to the park.
6:15 a.m.: I go to an all-women HIIT class in Prospect Park three times a week, which I absolutely love. I’ve been going for the last four years or so, and it truly got me through the pandemic to have a regular activity in the park and have a place to commiserate with other neighborhood moms.
7:15 a.m.: Workout complete. Back at home, I make my 7-year-old pancakes with strawberries. I usually make him a big breakfast, probably to make up for the fact that I am rarely home to make dinner. I also make myself breakfast and lunch in a hilariously large amount of Tupperware that I have to then bring to work.
8:30 a.m.: School drop-off and then I take the subway to work. I have an almost absurd love for the subway and my commute, although I wish it was about 20 minutes shorter. I play Wordle and Quordle and text the results to my family and then listen to a podcast. I’m currently listening to “Suave.” Today the train lets me down. Someone has pulled the emergency brake at Columbus Circle, so I have to divert and I’m late to work.
9:50 a.m.: Arrive at work, do a quick hair and makeup check and then head out to Josie Robertson Plaza at Lincoln Center, where we are meeting press for a tour of campus.
10 a.m.: Today is the big kickoff of our dance floor, the Oasis, which has been beautifully designed by Clint Ramos with lighting design by Andrew Grant. We are taking folks around to see all of the beautiful stages and installations we have in place this summer, including Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya’s beautiful sculptures and installations, our new speakeasy in an unused driveway, and the bandshell at Damrosch Park. It’s all so stunning and I’m so proud to show it all off. This has been months in the making, and I can see the effort and joy that is infused into every detail. This is also my first time seeing Clint in person in years, so it’s so wonderful to catch up as we go on the tour.
11 a.m.: Coffee. This is far too late for my first coffee of the day, but, alas, my subway travails have made this the case. I eat my breakfast and drink my coffee while catching up on all my emails that have come in this morning. I have some budget and planning meetings around the opening of David Geffen Hall, set for October; a meeting with an artist about a show they would like to bring to Lincoln Center next year; and a planning meeting around our all-city wedding. In July, we are throwing a wedding for 500 couples whose weddings were canceled or diminished because of covid, and I’m meeting with the director, Ellie Heyman, a couple times a week to plan an incredibly special event for everyone. Today’s meeting is with Grady Barker, who runs Paper Mâché Monkey and who is going to help us with a big visual moment that will be created by everyone in attendance.
3 p.m.: A tour of campus again with social media influencers. The weather is starting to change, so I’m a bit distracted by the gray skies overhead.
5 p.m.: It’s raining. We do a check-in backstage at the Oasis to discuss options for our event tonight — starting the show earlier or cutting the dance class, etc. We decide it’s too early to make this call, and we will check back in at 5:45. I go backstage and meet with the legend himself, pianist Eddie Palmieri. He’s so gracious and charming. He gives a few of us some life lessons and talks about his late wife, Iraida, with such humor and tenderness. He is one of the all-time greats, and I feel so fortunate to spend time with him.
5:45 p.m.: It looks like we will have a clear window from 6 to 8, so we decide Eddie should start 30 minutes earlier than planned. There is an excited line that has formed all the way around the block.
6:15 p.m.: The rain has stopped and our incredible teams have squeegeed the entire dance floor in record time. Doors officially open and people come flooding in. DJ Broadway is playing and a shorter salsa dance lesson begins at 6:40.
6:40 p.m.: I pop down to a reception we are having in our new speakeasy and say hello to some city officials, including Ariel Palitz, senior executive director of NYC Office of Nightlife in the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment. Then we head back up to get ready for the show.
7 p.m.: Eddie hits the stage to rapturous applause. It feels like NYC is back. I love seeing all the Puerto Rican and Pride flags in the audience.
7:30 p.m.: Ariel, Carlos Chirinos, one of our curators, and I hit the stage for a mid-set official welcome to mark this occasion and then we watch from the side stage. I had the honor of leading our audience in a new ritual we created with the great artists Mahogany L. Browne and Alexandria Wailes; it is a sort of call and response to recognize how grateful we are to be together again.
7:40 p.m.: We get the notification that there is imminent severe weather approaching and we have to end the set. I make the announcement and although people are disappointed, I’m so grateful we all had a 40-minute set by this legendary musician and his band.
8 p.m.: We do a toast backstage with the artists, who are also so grateful and happy to have played.
8:30 p.m.: We head to the Empire Hotel for an opening-night celebration with the team. By now it’s a complete deluge and lightning is EVERYWHERE. Everyone more or less is gathered by 9:30, and we spend the rest of the evening talking through all that is happening and what we will do differently tomorrow.
10:45 p.m.: I head home in a car with my assistant, Jiwon, and we talk through all of what happened tonight and what the rest of the week looks like.
11:30 p.m.: I am home. I get a debrief on home life and get ready for bed. I check my emails and the weather for tomorrow. It looks like rain.
12 a.m.: In bed. Exhausted and grateful.
More from The Work Day
This series charts a single day in various women’s working lives. Are you interested in being featured in The Work Day? Fill out this form.
What a character designer at Pixar does in a workday
What a postpartum doula does in a workday
What a janitor in L.A. does in a workday
What an audience development manager at Netflix does in a workday | 2022-06-07T14:00:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What the artistic officer of NYC’s Lincoln Center does in a workday - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/06/07/workday-lincoln-center-artistic-officer/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/06/07/workday-lincoln-center-artistic-officer/ |
At the Sackler Gallery, a statue of Krishna has a complex tale to tell
‘Revealing Krishna: Journey to Cambodia’s Sacred Mountain’ is a single-artifact show, but it speaks volumes
The northeast peak of Phnom Da in Cambodia, photographed in 2019. (Konstanty Kulik/The Cleveland Museum of Art)
“Revealing Krishna: Journey to Cambodia’s Sacred Mountain” centers on a single ancient artifact: a damaged but still commanding statue of the Hindu god, who’s holding up a bit of the ceiling — still attached — of the Cambodian cave he once occupied. Yet other sculptures from the same site can be said to be present, if only in spirit.
The 6th-century sandstone Krishna on exhibit at the National Museum of Asian Art’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery is one of eight statues taken from Phnom Da, a twin-peaked granite outcropping that towers above the Mekong River flood plain. The sculpture commemorates how the god protected people from a torrential storm by lifting India’s Mount Govardhan.
This informative and imaginative show includes photographs of the other statues and recounts the intertwined stories of two of them. Pieces from this Krishna and a different one, now at the National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, were long confused and awkwardly cobbled together. The two museums ultimately swapped the misattributed fragments and reassembled the statues, concluding in 2021.
That’s one of the twists in the history of “Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan” recounted by the exhibition, which was organized by the statue’s owner, the Cleveland Museum of Art. That institution acquired the sculpture in 1973, two years before Cambodia was plunged into the horrors of Khmer Rouge rule. But the Krishna had left the country long before that, going up for auction in Belgium in 1920. The museum bought the “Cleveland Krishna” from the estate of the granddaughter of the 1920 purchasers; among the challenges of then restoring the statue was excavating abandoned parts of it from a garden in Brussels.
“Revealing Krishna” is structured as a journey, with abundant wall text as well as multiple video displays. The first gallery offers a wide-ranging history of the statue and its context, narrated in part by Angelina Jolie. The Phnom Da sculptures, most of them carved in human-made cave sanctuaries, are among the earliest known examples of Cambodian art; they were chiseled some 600 years before the establishment of the famed temple complex at Angkor Wat. Eventually, the Phnom Da pieces were looted, and some were remade to memorialize a more newly arrived religion: Buddhism.
From the show’s introductory space, a left turn leads to a viewing room for “Satook,” a 30-minute video about sustaining religious tradition in Cambodian American communities. (The “Krishna” exhibition is part of “The Arts of Devotion,” the museum’s five-year initiative to increase understanding of religion.) To the right is a chamber dominated by three wall-filling video screens that document a meandering passage along slow-moving rivers. Chirping nature sounds help evoke the approach to Phnom Da.
The cavernlike final gallery holds two Krishnas: the stone one, framed by photos of rock cave walls, and a video simulation. The virtual Krishna comes to life, and is restored to its likely original appearance, when someone stands on the word “explore,” projected on the floor.
This room also recounts how pieces of the figure were mingled with, and then extricated from, that other Krishna statue. The Cleveland Krishna, a god celebrated in the act of saving his people, was himself rescued by a team of scholars and restorers.
Five facts about the Cleveland Krishna
Though chunks of the Krishna statue are missing, the surviving parts tell a compelling story:
Just as Hinduism was imported from India to Cambodia, so too does the Krishna statue — though crafted in Cambodia — speak of India. His pose recalls a tale set at Mount Govardhan, today a pilgrimage site near New Delhi. Symbolically, the two mountains, India’s Mount Govardhan and Cambodia’s Phnom Da, became the same.
The god is a youthful figure, and he wears his hair in a topknot that can be interpreted as sign of royalty (or just boyishness).
Now gray and battered, the statue most likely was once dark and gleaming, and decorated with gold jewelry. The god’s long earlobes are pierced, suggesting they once held earrings.
Krishna doesn’t strain like Atlas, the Titan who supports the world on his shoulders in Greek myth. He holds up the mountain effortlessly and even casually, with just one flexed hand. His other hand, which is missing, probably rested nonchalantly on his hip.
There’s also no struggle reflected on the god’s face, which bears a gentle smile. The statue was dispossessed, fractured and exiled and is now only partly restored. Throughout it all, Krishna has retained his benign serenity.
Revealing Krishna: Journey to Cambodia’s Sacred Mountain
National Museum of Asian Art, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 1050 Independence Ave. SW. asia.si.edu.
Dates: Through Sept. 18. | 2022-06-07T14:17:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Art review: 'Revealing Krishna: Journey to Cambodia's Sacred Mountain' at the National Museum of Asian Art - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/06/07/revealing-krishna-art-review/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/06/07/revealing-krishna-art-review/ |
Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department on May 5. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg News)
Critics have pilloried Merrick Garland for what they perceive as slowness or even disinclination in prosecuting defeated former president Donald Trump and his cronies for the attempted coup culminating in the Jan. 6 insurrection. The attorney general has been so methodical about prosecuting low-level figures involved in the attack and so tight-lipped about the broader attempt to overturn the election that many despair Trump will never be held accountable.
But recent — if small — revelations indicate that Garland does intend to take this all the way to the highest levels of the Trump administration. The Justice Department’s request for documents from the Jan. 6 House select committee was one positive sign. And the department’s decision not to prosecute former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino for contempt of Congress could mean the two are targets of a broader investigation.
Then, on Monday, the Justice Department announced: “A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned a superseding indictment today charging five members of the Proud Boys, including the group’s former national chairman, with seditious conspiracy and other charges for their actions before and during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Their actions disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the presidential election.”
Seditious conspiracy is, of course, a serious charge indicating the plan to attack the Capitol amounted to an attempt to overthrow the government. The department explained in a news release that Proud Boys chief Henry “Enrique” Tarrio and his fellow defendants “conspired to prevent, hinder and delay the certification of the electoral college vote, and to oppose by force the authority of the government of the United States.” (Lawyers for the men claim there is no evidence that they planned in advance to storm the Capitol.) Interestingly, this case and others are being prosecuted by the book out of the U.S. attorney’s office, not main Justice.
This follows a plea deal reached in April with Charles Donohoe, head of the Proud Boys’s North Carolina chapter. In exchange for a guilty plea to two counts, he agreed to assist prosecutors. The superseding indictment appears to be the product of that plea deal.
Former federal prosecutor Barbara McQuade tells me the new seditious conspiracy charge suggests “the men named in the second superseding indictment did not agree to cooperate.” Put differently, with a stiffer charge, they might agree to lend a hand to the Justice Department.
Noah Bookbinder, head of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (which has brought numerous suits and claims against Trump), tells me that Monday’s charges “are very significant and definitely a step in the right direction. They show a growing recognition by prosecutors that this was not a case of isolated or spontaneous violence, but rather an organized and deliberate effort to use violence to try to overturn the results of a free and fair election.”
That’s bad news for Trump. In a recently released Brookings Institution guide to the Jan. 6 hearings, the writers assert that public evidence suggests “Trump was personally involved in entertaining, exploring, and even attempting to enact an astonishing array of legally unjustifiable schemes to retain power. His pursuit of power by any means necessary — including endorsing and acceding to violence — is probative of criminal intent.”
One of the guide’s authors, Norman Eisen, who served as co-counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during Trump’s first impeachment, tells me that “the application of the law to Trump would be complex, as we note in a new report outlining all the principal possible federal and state charges against the former president. But with this development, the possibility must be born in mind.”
Other legal scholars such as Harvard University’s Laurence H. Tribe are likewise encouraged. He sees Monday’s developments as “a sign of this attorney general’s aggressiveness and dedication” that advances the theory that Trump was “at the center of the far-flung multifaceted conspiracy to overturn the very heart of American government, its peaceful transition of power pursuant to our quadrennial national election.”
Garland, if taken at his word, will follow the facts. He will also need to determine whether provable facts can be successfully prosecuted beyond a reasonable doubt along these and other legal theories.
“It is good news,” former federal prosecutor Joyce White Vance tells me regarding the latest indictment. “It shows that [the] DOJ is eliciting useful information from witnesses and especially cooperating defendants that they are using to make additional cases.” She adds, “The question is whether they will be able to move above this level to people in and around the White House and show a conspiracy or at least communication between them. The Jan. 6 Committee certainly seems to think it’s there.”
Thankfully, Garland seems to believe there is a possibility he can gather facts necessary to prosecute. | 2022-06-07T15:10:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Don’t give up on Merrick Garland quite yet - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/dont-give-up-merrick-garland-quite-yet/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/dont-give-up-merrick-garland-quite-yet/ |
Coyote tests positive for rabies in Fairfax
The coyote bit three people before it was killed by a police officer over the weekend
Changing leaves frame a bicyclist near a bench overlooking Lake Accotink on Nov. 1, 2021, in Springfield, Va. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
A coyote that bit three people before it was fatally shot by a police officer in Fairfax County has tested positive for rabies, and residents who were bitten are urged to get medical treatment.
Officials with the county’s health department said a lab test performed Monday confirmed that the coyote had rabies.
Rabies is a “serious disease caused by a virus that can infect wildlife, particularly foxes, raccoons, skunks, and bats, and domestic animals, such as dogs and cats,” the health department said in a statement. Humans who have been exposed to rabies can be treated with a series of shots.
Coyote that bit people in Fairfax killed after attacking cop
Authorities from the county health department also said in the statement that rabies can be “passed along when an infected animal’s saliva or central nervous tissue enters an open wound, mouth, nose or eyes of another mammal.”
The coyote bit three adults and two dogs over the weekend at Lake Accotink Park in the Springfield area. The park was closed over the weekend because of the incidents. A police officer was also bitten Sunday while looking for the coyote. The officer shot the animal, and it was later found dead nearby.
Anyone who may have come in contact with the coyote should seek medical treatment and can call health officials at 703-246-2411. | 2022-06-07T15:10:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Coyote tests positive for rabies in Fairfax - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/07/coyote-tests-positive-for-rabies/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/07/coyote-tests-positive-for-rabies/ |
The Minnesota Timberwolves' Patrick Beverley showed off his analyst chops with “SportsCenter” anchor Scott Van Pelt after Game 1 of the NBA Finals last week. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post)
On Friday night, in the hours after Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors, Patrick Beverley was camped out in Scott Van Pelt’s “SportsCenter” studio in the basement of a building near Dupont Circle. He wore a colorful striped sweater, black pants and his hair in braids.
He already had been live with Van Pelt for four segments, sitting at a desk in the middle of the room, surrounded by three walls of big-screen TVs. He had called out Draymond Green’s poor performance in the Warriors’ fourth-quarter collapse. And he had joked that if he had won an NBA Finals game, he would be so excited that he would be on top of the rim. “Get down from there, Pat!” he had said on TV.
“If you ever need anything or want to do this again, let me know how I can help,” Van Pelt said.
“Not for me, brother,” Beverley said with a smile as the production crew removed his microphone.
Beverley, a 33-year-old guard for the Minnesota Timberwolves, has been the breakout media star of the NBA playoffs, appearing on several ESPN platforms after his team was eliminated. Nothing was splashier than when Beverley, after the Dallas Mavericks dispatched the Phoenix Suns in Game 7, lit into Suns star Chris Paul. He called him a “cone” on defense. He licked his lips like a hungry lion in another segment, explaining players’ excitement to play against him.
“You know what this means?” he asked. “Licking my chops.”
“Hell no,” Beverley said when asked whether he had reached out to ESPN about contributing to its playoff coverage. “I’ve got s--- to do in the summertime. If they ask me, I might do it, but I’m not in line waiting like a lot of these guys.”
Beverley, sitting in a hotel bar in downtown D.C. a few hours before Game 1, was proclaiming himself the anti-media star at a time when active athletes, especially NBA players, are increasingly joining the media ranks while still playing, either by establishing their own brands or auditioning for someone else’s. LeBron James has a TV show produced by his own production company. The New Orleans Pelicans’ CJ McCollum, also working for ESPN during these playoffs, has a podcast. Green has a podcast and makes appearances on TNT. When JJ Redick was still playing, he had a podcast, and now he works for ESPN.
“I don’t think he’s saying stuff to get a reaction,” Van Pelt said in an interview. “I think he’s answering the questions he’s asked, and I think he truly doesn’t give a s--- if it bothers or offends you.”
Van Pelt recalled Beverley appearing on his show a few years ago. When the anchor finished his questions, he said, Beverley asked why there weren’t more. (Beverley wasn’t a paid contributor then.)
“I don’t remember another interview subject who protested at the end of it because they didn’t feel it had been sufficient,” Van Pelt said. “Pat is interesting, and he’s interested. Not a lot of athletes ask you questions about yourself, much less care about the answers.”
For these playoffs, Beverley signed what is called a “broadleaf contract” with ESPN, good for 15 days of work at the network. Two industry agents pegged the range for such a deal as usually between $3,000 and $10,000 per day. For his Game 1 appearance, the network flew him from Minnesota to D.C., where Van Pelt tapes, and put him up for the night. He is likely to be back on ESPN later in the Finals.
His curiosity was evident. He asked the crew what time they might get home after such a late night. He wandered over to the set of another ESPN show, “Pardon the Interruption,” and looked at a desk full of bobbleheads and other tchotchkes. “What’s the oldest thing here, you think?” he asked as he examined a leaf from the Wrigley Field ivy that was enclosed in a glass case.
After the game, Beverley watched Green’s news conference, where the Warriors star attempted some quick mental arithmetic to explain Boston’s hot shooting. Beverley whispered to himself: “Eight times three is 24, minus 1 is 23. Come on, Draymond.”
Beverley’s analysis was informative, too, a nod to the basketball IQ of a player who spent several years grinding in Europe before he got his NBA shot. At one point during a break, Van Pelt asked Beverley about adjustments for Game 2 and whether the media might oversell tweaks from one game to another. Beverley said he had a few ideas, and Van Pelt asked him to save them for live TV.
“For Golden State, more split offense,” Beverley said a few minutes later. “I mean, Draymond Green underneath the free throw line. He has the ball in the post. ... They went away from that, and you see Draymond get most of his threes at the top of the key. If I’m the Boston Celtics, I’m inviting that.”
Beverley said his basketball plan for the future is focused on coaching. But that hasn’t stopped the incoming calls. His broadcast agent, Gina Paradiso, said Barstool Sports, Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions and Colin Cowherd’s podcast network have reached out to gauge his interest in working together. Beverley likes the idea of something unfiltered, without any bosses telling him what he can and can’t say. “My s--- has to be all organic,” he said.
And as long as ESPN is paying him, he intends to deliver his best, learning — and teaching — as he goes. When he finished one segment with Van Pelt, a production staffer tried to politely ask Beverley to move his chair off the set. Beverley quickly corrected him.
“Just tell me to get the f--- out,” he said. “Like, ‘Get your a-- out.’ I perform better that way.” | 2022-06-07T15:14:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | On set with breakout ESPN star Patrick Beverley - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/07/patrick-beverley-espn/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/07/patrick-beverley-espn/ |
Raytheon will move headquarters to Arlington
It’s the latest aerospace giant to relocate to Northern Virginia, highlighting the importance of the company’s military business
Raytheon's Integrated Defense Systems facility in Woburn, Mass., on June 10, 2019. (Elise Amendola/AP)
Raytheon Technologies is moving its headquarters from Massachusetts to Arlington, Va., making it the latest aerospace giant to double down on military business at a time of tremendous uncertainty for commercial aviation.
In a release announcing the move, the company said its new headquarters would help deepen its partnerships with the defense and intelligence agencies headquartered in Northern Virginia. It also highlighted the region’s status as a commercial airline hub.
“The location increases agility in supporting U.S. government and commercial aerospace customers and serves to reinforce partnerships that will progress innovative technologies to advance the industry,” the company said in an unsigned statement.
Boeing to move headquarters from Chicago to Arlington, Va.
Raytheon Technologies was created in 2019 when Raytheon, then focused almost entirely on military business, acquired the industrial technology conglomerate United Technologies in an all-stock deal worth roughly $74 billion.
The merger transformed Raytheon and brought it deeply into the commercial aircraft business; its subsidiaries make jet engines used in Boeing and Airbus commercial airplanes, along with a grab-bag of airplane parts, including rudders, landing gear, wing flaps and doors.
With Raytheon’s move, all of the “big five” U.S. defense contractors will be headquartered in the D.C. area. Lockheed Martin, the world’s biggest defense contractor, is based in Bethesda, Md., while Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics are based out of Falls Church and Reston in Virginia, respectively. Boeing moved to Arlington on May 5.
All of them have long had significant operations in the D.C. area. Raytheon’s intelligence and space business is in Arlington’s Rosslyn neighborhood, which will also be the site of the new headquarters. | 2022-06-07T15:14:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Raytheon will move headquarters to Arlington - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/07/raytheon-headquarters-arlington/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/07/raytheon-headquarters-arlington/ |
As chairman and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co., Jamie Dimon is perhaps the most powerful person in the banking industry anywhere in the world. So when he says — like he did on June 1 — that investors should brace for an economic “hurricane,” it’s worth taking the warning both literally and seriously. Such advice, however, doesn’t seem to extend to the bank’s top-ranked analysts, whose jobs are to advise companies and investors on where the economy and financial markets are headed.
On the same day Dimon said the economic storm is “right out there down the road coming our way,” star strategist Marko Kolanovic, who was ranked the No. 1 equity-linked strategist in last year’s Institutional Investor survey, said the US stock market is poised for a gradual recovery in 2022 and the S&P 500 Index will likely end the year unchanged, in part, given “our view that there will be no recession given supports from US consumers.” Less than a week later, Chief Economist Bruce Kasman told Bloomberg Television that the strength of household and corporate finances would keep the economy buoyant. “We don’t see a financial storm coming right now,” Kasman said. “We think the economy is going to avoid recession as we go through the rest of this year.”
Differences of opinion on things like the economy and markets within firms are nothing new. But this high profile episode at JPMorgan is a reflection of these unprecedented times, with little consensus about what lay ahead. As a result, market volatility will probably remain elevated as forecasts will likely change often in reaction to incoming data that has been hard to accurately forecast.
No doubt, there are debates are raging inside every Wall Street firm over the path forward for one of the most complex economies and markets in modern history. And it’s not hard to see where Dimon is coming from. The inflation rate has risen to the highest in 40 years and the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates at an accelerated clip, something it has rarely succeeded in doing without tipping the economy into a recession. Not only that, but it is also withdrawing some of the cash it pumped directly into the financial system by allowing its $8.9 trillion portfolio of bonds to shrink, all as the war in Ukraine rages and the Covid-19 pandemic continues to snarl supply chains. Meanwhile, this is happening against the backdrop of asset prices — including homes, stocks and cryptocurrencies — that are starting to deflate following epic gains.
The counterpoint is that the economy is actually on pretty solid footing. Fed data show household net worth soared $33.5 trillion, or 29%, to $150.3 trillion in the last two years, thanks mainly to government and central bank stimulus, consumer spending remains healthy, the unemployment rate at 3.6% is near an all-time record low and corporate America on average continues to report near-record profits. So even if some of the risks materialize and send the economy careening off course, it should have plenty of cushioning to shield against any accident.
Given JPMorgan’s size and sprawling business, few people have as much insight into what is going on in the real economy and where it may be headed than Jamie Dimon. On the other hand, Kolanovic and Kasman are known for making the right calls about markets and the economy. But rather than who will be proven right or wrong, the takeaway should be that consensus is likely to remain elusive for some time. More From Other Writers at Bloomberg Opinion:
Even a Soft Landing Can Be Ugly for Investors: John Authers Feeling Pinched on a $250,000 Salary? Just Wait: Alexis LeondisFed Risks More Pain If It Dawdles on Inflation: Ramesh Ponnuru | 2022-06-07T15:14:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | JPMorgan Stars Take Other Side of Dimon’s ‘Hurricane’ Trade - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/jpmorgan-starstake-other-side-of-dimons-hurricane-trade/2022/06/07/f2ac6e62-e66a-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/jpmorgan-starstake-other-side-of-dimons-hurricane-trade/2022/06/07/f2ac6e62-e66a-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Ken Graham, head of Hurricane Center, to lead National Weather Service
Graham navigated the Hurricane Center through record-setting hurricane seasons and Sharpiegate
Ken Graham. (National Hurricane Center) (NHC)
Ken Graham, who guided the National Hurricane Center through two record-breaking Atlantic hurricane seasons and the political storm known as SharpieGate, will become the next director of the National Weather Service.
Graham, whose selection was announced Tuesday, takes the helm of the agency charged with forecasting the nation’s weather and how these conditions can threaten Americans’ lives and property at a critical point. Climate change is intensifying heat waves, fires, droughts and storms, escalating the costs stemming from these extreme weather disasters. Last year, 20 separate billion-dollar weather disasters struck the Lower 48 states, second most on record.
Rick Spinrad, who oversees the Weather Service as head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, introduced Graham as director at a news briefing in Washington.
Spinrad described Graham as a man with “extraordinary experience,” “deep knowledge of atmospheric science,” “impressive communication skills,” “calm demeanor” and “someone who excels at collaborations and partnerships.”
“I have full confidence that he will help create a more weather- and climate-ready nation amid more extreme weather fueled by our changing climate,” Spinrad said.
Graham, a career official who has worked at the Weather Service for 28 years, said he was “humbled” and excited” to take on the role. He said his top priority is supporting the employees of the Weather Service who have worked long hours and rotating shifts through an exceptionally active period of extreme weather amid a global pandemic.
“I’m driven by public service — people first,” Graham said. “We’ve got to ensure the well-being of our workforce.”
Graham takes over the agency at a particularly challenging time. The agency must predict increasingly extreme weather when its flagship weather prediction systems lag behind counterparts in Europe in computing power and accuracy, and some of its information technology infrastructure for disseminating forecasts to the public are crumbling.
“We’ve got to look at the infrastructure and getting our systems healthy,” Graham said. “I’m going to own that. We’ve received some funds to go down that road and we’re going to do that.”
NOAA has also faced questions about its workforce’s lack of gender and racial diversity. Graham, who is White, succeeds Louis Uccellini, who retired in December after heading the agency for eight years.
Spinrad said that the agency is “not where we want it to be” on the diversity issue but that “one of reasons Ken is an attractive individual [for the post] is because of the job he’s done in addressing diversity.”
Graham said that over half of his hires have been from underrepresented groups and that he wants to build on that by actively seeking out more diverse candidates through college recruitment.
Graham also said he would place an emphasis on serving the needs of vulnerable communities with historically limited access to weather and preparedness information. “I really do commit to making our services more equitable,” he said. “Life saving messages have to get out there.”
Many in the weather community praised his selection.
“It is great to see a new director that has a wealth of experience in working with users first hand to deliver life saving weather services,” said Mary Glackin, who served as deputy undersecretary at NOAA from 2007 to 2012, in an email. “And, Ken understands the impacts of our changing climate and how it manifests in more extreme weather events.”
Leslie Chapman-Henderson, president of the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, said Graham had worked to innovate at “the National Hurricane Center even through some of our country’s most challenging times.”
A stabilizing force: Outgoing Weather Service director reflects on tenure
Under Graham, the Hurricane Center improved its metrics for the accuracy of hurricane track and intensity forecasts, setting records even as every hurricane season since 2018 was busier than normal. The 2020 and 2021 seasons produced the most and third-most number of named storms on record, respectively.
Despite the onslaught, improved forecasts, warnings and communications tools developed at the Hurricane Center contributed to a large decrease in fatalities from storm surge, which had previously posed one of the most lethal hurricane hazards.
When storms such as Category 5 Hurricane Michael in 2018 and Category 4 hurricanes Laura and Ida were bearing down on the coast, Graham played a key role briefing White House, state and local government officials, emergency managers, broadcast media and the public.
“Ken’s lifetime of experience forecasting the weather and, more importantly, translating weather forecasts into actionable decisions points for emergency managers across the country has and will continue to save lives,” said FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell, who has worked with Graham in her current job as well as when she headed the New York City Emergency Management Department, in an email.
In one of the biggest weather controversies during Donald Trump’s time in the White House, when Trump altered a Hurricane Center tracking map with a black marker in 2019 to support his erroneous charge that Hurricane Dorian threatened Alabama, Graham sought to defend his agency’s scientific integrity behind the scenes.
Even though Trump’s tweet and the altered map were wrong, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — facing political pressure from White House and Commerce Department political appointees — released an unsigned statement backing the president contradicting the Weather Service office in Birmingham’s forecast that the storm posed no danger.
NOAA’s actions infuriated members of public, many of whom emailed the Hurricane Center saying that it could no longer be trusted.
In response, Graham pleaded with the Weather Service’s leaders to craft a response signaling that federal officials’ scientific warnings would not be compromised.
“The biggest request we are getting are emails just asking for assurance we are science based as always,” Graham wrote to Mary Erickson, the Weather Service’s deputy director, in an email released under the Freedom of Information Act. “Not looking for anything other than [to provide] assurance ‘we have not changed.’ ”
Hurricane Dorian emails show how tenuous scientific credibility was in the Trump era
Otherwise, Graham managed to keep a low profile during Sharpiegate. His name did not appear in the 107-page Department of Commerce’s Inspector General review of the scandal which rebuked Commerce department political appointees for siding with President Trump over Weather Service forecasters.
Before coming to the Hurricane Center, Graham was the meteorologist-in-charge at the Weather Service office serving New Orleans where he led the agency’s response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster. He began his career at the Weather Service as an intern in New Orleans in 1994 and worked in broadcast meteorology before that.
Graham’s a “fantastic choice” to lead the agency, said Neil Jacobs, who served as NOAA’s acting administrator under Trump. “From working as a forecaster in the field to advancing [the Hurricane Center’s] mission over multiple challenging seasons, Ken has the perfect balance of leadership skills, operational experience, and support of the Emergency Management community.”
Uccellini described Graham’s selection in an email as “great news for the National Weather Service, NOAA and the Nation.”
Jamie Rhome, deputy director of the Hurricane Center, will fill Graham’s former post in an acting capacity until a new permanent director is named. | 2022-06-07T15:15:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ken Graham, head of Hurricane Center, to lead National Weather Service - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/06/07/national-weather-service-ken-graham/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/06/07/national-weather-service-ken-graham/ |
Scientists use regolith brought from the moon during Apollo missions to figure out how to grow food when astronauts return there.
Scientists grew this mouse-ear cress plant using lunar soil brought back from missions to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s. With NASA planning to send astronauts to the moon for longer stays, it's important to figure out whether they can grow food there. (Tyler Jones/UF/IFAS)
The moon’s surface is made of regolith. This is rocky dust that settled on some parts of the moon from lava flowing out of now-extinct volcanoes. It does not contain microbes such as fungi and bacteria and nematodes that make nutritious soil on Earth. But new research shows that something can grow in regolith: a weed called mouse-ear cress (Arabidopsis thaliana). For the first time, researchers at the University of Florida grew 12 tiny cress plants in lunar regolith brought back on three Apollo missions in the 1960s and ’70s.
The difficulties in farming on the moon can seem so huge it’s hard to imagine when it might be possible. But little by little, researchers chip away at the many problems. One day, Nagaraja imagines astronauts “putting together a nice salad. That’s got to be so refreshing — to have a nice fresh tomato” in space, she says. | 2022-06-07T15:15:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Decades-old moon samples used to grow plants - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/06/07/growing-plants-from-moon-soil/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/06/07/growing-plants-from-moon-soil/ |
Jose Mata, a brother of Xavier Lopez, carries a wooden cross decorated with a baseball bat to place it at a memorial honoring his brother outside his home in Uvalde, Texas, Tuesday, May 31, 2022. Lopez was one of the students killed in last week’s elementary school shooting. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) | 2022-06-07T15:15:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Uvalde's Xavier Lopez: His smile would 'cheer anyone up' - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/uvaldes-xavier-lopez-his-smile-would-cheer-anyone-up/2022/06/07/c9d0a6d6-e672-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/uvaldes-xavier-lopez-his-smile-would-cheer-anyone-up/2022/06/07/c9d0a6d6-e672-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Rep. Tony Gonzales discusses gun control and how Uvalde is coping with its tragic loss.
America continues to mourn the staggering loss of innocent lives in Uvalde, Texas. Join Washington Post Live on Monday, June 13 at 1:30 p.m. ET to hear from the man who represents that city in Congress, Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Tex.), about how the residents are coping, the reaction to the police response and what gun legislation may come out of this national tragedy.
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Tex.) | 2022-06-07T15:17:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Rep. Tony Gonzales discusses gun control and how Uvalde is coping with its tragic loss. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/06/13/rep-tony-gonzales-discusses-gun-control-how-uvalde-is-coping-with-its-tragic-loss/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/06/13/rep-tony-gonzales-discusses-gun-control-how-uvalde-is-coping-with-its-tragic-loss/ |
Throughout June, you can see Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn in a row with your naked eye
In June, Mercury (not shown in diagram), Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will align in a diagonal. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Throughout June, sky watchers can see Earth’s five closest planetary neighbors in a row with their naked eyes. About half an hour before sunrise, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are aligned in their natural order from the sun stretching in a diagonal starting low in the east. On June 3 and 4, the distance between Mercury and Saturn was only 91 degrees.
While a telescope or binoculars can aid skygazing, the planets will shine brighter than surrounding stars and should be easy to spot with the naked eye. Just head out about 30 minutes before sunrise and hope for a clear horizon. Darker skies are better, but the planets will stand out even over city lights.
Six stellar stargazing spots around the D.C. area
“People noticed that these were different … most of the stars stayed in their positions relative to other stars, but these planets seem to wander around the sky,” Thaller said. “Sometimes they all happened to be lined up in one part of the sky.” | 2022-06-07T15:17:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Five planets are aligned in night sky for first time in 18 years in June - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/06/07/planet-sky-conjunction-june-five/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/06/07/planet-sky-conjunction-june-five/ |
Of course Fox News isn’t airing the Jan. 6 committee hearings
People pass the News Corporation headquarters building and Fox News studios in New York on Aug. 1, 2017. (Richard Drew/AP)
The Republican Party made a decision early last year that it would rather use the attack at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as a cudgel against Democrats than engage in the sort of self-reflection that an honest assessment of the causes of that riot might demand. It was easier — easy, even — to simply cast any probe of the attack as partisan and let slide Donald Trump’s insistences that the real problem was the 2020 election than to take on the former president and his enthusiastic base of support.
In part, that was easier because of Fox News. From the first hours after the riot, Fox News’s opinion hosts were spinning the riot as something other than it was — though they’d just sent text messages to Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows asking him to get Trump to take a firmer hand against the violence. Over the past 17 months, Fox News’s hosts (particularly Tucker Carlson) have been at the forefront of casting doubt on the riot and depicting efforts to investigate what happened as partisan. There is a news side at Fox, but it sits under the shadow of the late-night hosts. The effect is that Fox News has unique power to influence Republican politics and the Republican electorate.
So of course it’s not going to air hearings run by the House select committee probing the Jan. 6 attack.
On Monday, I looked at the way in which two diverging narratives have emerged around the aftermath of the 2020 election. In reality, Trump’s self-serving insistence that he could only have lost due to fraud, combined with his desire to retain power, led to his demanding that fervent supporters show up in Washington on Jan. 6, all of which created a demand economy that Trump’s allies and Fox News sought to leverage. But many on the right see Trump as unfairly targeted as he simply sought to question a flawed electoral system — a narrative that itself got sympathetic treatment on Trump’s favorite cable-news network.
The result is that Fox News has been distinctly less likely to cover Jan. 6-related stories than its two competitors, CNN and MSNBC. It is of course not the case that Fox News should have to cover what its competitors do — which we’ll come back to — but it is nonetheless revealing about how Fox considers the subject.
For example, here’s how often each network mentioned “January 6” during any week since the attack at the Capitol. Each network’s weekly mentions of the date are shown in overlap; notice that Fox News’s columns are regularly lower than its competitors. At right is the average over the entire period. It shows that Fox News mentioned the date less often.
More dramatic is the comparison of mentions of the House select committee itself. CNN has mentioned the committee more than four times as often as has Fox News on average; MSNBC has mentioned it five times as much on average.
A similar pattern emerges for mentions of the attack at the Capitol itself. Fox News simply doesn’t talk about it that much.
Earlier this year, a team of researchers published a study showing the way in which Fox News influences its viewers’ perceptions through what it chooses to cover. Participants were paid to watch CNN instead of Fox News and, at the end of a month, were less likely to agree with political framing that was amplified by Fox’s coverage. In other words, there was a demonstrable effect from Fox News’s coverage.
So consider what it means that Fox News has spent almost no time covering either the Proud Boys or the Oath Keepers, two of the extremist groups that took leading roles in storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 and members of both of which have faced charges of seditious conspiracy. CNN mentioned the Proud Boys seven times as often as Fox News on average over this period; they mentioned the Oath Keepers 34 times as often.
There have been subjects on which other networks have been outliers, as with MSNBC’s focus on the alternate slates of electors submitted by Trump allies before Jan. 6 in hopes that they might disrupt the electoral-vote-counting process that day.
But on subjects like those text messages sent to Mark Meadows — messages that depict not only who had access to the White House on Jan. 6 but which have also broadened our understanding of the effort to subvert President Biden’s election — Fox News has again been an outlier. (No average for the period is shown since the messages only emerged late last year.)
Where Fox News did stand out was in its mentions of “antifa” in the weeks after the attack. You’ll recall that network hosts raised the idea that antifa was involved in the riot hours after the attack occurred.
This all speaks to a pattern: Fox News has not been interested in covering new developments in the investigation into the Capitol riot. For that reason alone it’s not surprising that the network won’t carrying the hearings.
There’s another pattern at play, too. Fox News aired hearings during the first impeachment of Donald Trump, but often simply showed the hearings silently while its hosts engaged in discussions. During the second impeachment, the one focused on the Jan. 6 attack, the network cut away at key points.
This has not always been its approach to investigations. Media Matters determined that the network had run 1,100 segments on the terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012 by the time a select committee was formed to probe those events — and to question presumptive 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. When Clinton herself testified, though, Fox News did cut away from the hearing, something that The Post’s media columnist speculated might have been because the network was “hesitant to expose its viewers to the live-on-the-spot unraveling of many Benghazi themes that it has pushed on air.” | 2022-06-07T15:58:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Of course Fox News isn’t airing the Jan. 6 committee hearings - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/07/course-fox-news-isnt-airing-jan-6-committee-hearings/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/07/course-fox-news-isnt-airing-jan-6-committee-hearings/ |
Jan. 6 hearing will preempt ‘Young Sheldon’ — but not Tucker Carlson
Broadcast networks are clearing their prime-time schedules for the first public hearing into the Capitol attack. But it remains unclear if the House select committee will connect with a larger audience.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) listens during a meeting of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The committee's first televised hearing will air on all the major broadcast networks on Thursday. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
All three major American broadcast television networks will preempt their popular prime-time entertainment programs on Thursday night to air the first public hearing of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — among the biggest live spotlights granted to a congressional hearing in decades.
The announcements by CBS, ABC and NBC that they would relinquish time blocks usually dominated by “Young Sheldon,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and spinoffs of “Law & Order” were a significant early victory for members of the Democratic-led panel who want to draw public attention to what they have determined was a deadly plot, with connections to the Trump White House, to overturn the results of the 2020 election and undermine American democracy.
In one sign of the stakes involved, the committee has tapped former ABC News president James Goldston to help hone its presentation, a source with knowledge of the situation told The Post. Axios first reported Goldston’s role on Monday.
All three networks will turn to their marquee evening news anchors — Norah O’Donnell for CBS, David Muir for ABC and Lester Holt for NBC — to lead coverage.
Yet it remains unclear whether the hearings can capture the nation in the same way that the Watergate hearings did in 1973 or the Iran-contra hearings in 1987. Viewers today have many other options than the networks, and plans to televise the rest of the committee’s hearings — many of which will take place during low-viewership daytime hours — have not yet been announced.
And the committee may have a hard time getting through to many of the Republican viewers it yearns to reach: While CNN and MSNBC will air the hearings, Fox said Monday it will relegate its live broadcast to lesser-watched sister channel Fox Business Network, leaving the usual Fox News prime- time opinion block — including the 8 p.m. hour hosted by Tucker Carlson, who has been highly critical and dismissive of the committee’s work — unaffected that evening. Fox’s much-smaller conservative competitor, Newsmax, has said it will air at least one hour of the hearing.
Broadcast network executives say it was never a c conclusion that they would air the hearing live. Mark Lima, Washington bureau chief for CBS News, said the network wanted to make sure the presentation would be newsworthy before committing to a live broadcast, an arrangement reserved only for the biggest moments on television.
Ultimately, though, they were convinced. “It was fairly obvious that this was something we needed to do,” Lima said in an interview. “I think it’s our responsibility to show it. It’s the committee’s responsibility to prove their case and remind the American public why this is so important.”
Jonathan Greenberger, the Washington bureau chief for ABC News, said the network’s reporting on the Jan. 6 insurrection has thus far focused on “trying to help out the audience obtain all the facts and the context” about what happened. Showing the hearing is “the natural next step in that reporting,” he said. “Like any story, we work hard to cover it from every angle and follow the story to completion.”
Mark Lukasiewicz, the former senior vice president of specials for NBC News, said the hearings are “certainly the sort of thing that I would have advocated that we air live” — even though the networks will likely lose lucrative prime-time advertising revenue: “I can’t imagine the Congress of the United States pausing for commercial breaks.”
As a television program, Lukasiewicz said the relative unity of the special committee members should give the broadcast a better flow, with fewer interruptions than at a typical hearing, where partisans lob combative questions at witnesses invited by the other party. “It’s much more likely that the audience for this hearing is going to get a cohesive, well-structured, understandable narrative,” he said.
Ari Melber, a legal analyst and MSNBC host, said that a hearing like this has “the potential to break through in a way that most of congressional activity does not” — especially “if many channels cover it, so it feels wall-to-wall, and it’s picked up in the wider culture.”
But that will only happen if the committee manages to create “moments” that go viral. “I don’t believe it would be a success if it just relives and retells the story of that day with a few extra details,” he added.
And there’s still the broader question of whether it will get through to conservative audiences, which mostly brushed off the daytime-TV spectacles of President Trump’s impeachment hearings. Fairly quickly after Jan. 6, many conservative media voices — including hosts on Fox News, Newsmax and One America News — sought to reframe the insurrection as either not a big deal or to groundlessly allege that it was the work of undercover liberal operatives. Michael Fanone, the former D.C. police officer who was dragged into a mob and beaten on Jan. 6, said in an interview on CNN on Sunday that he doubts the hearings will “move the needle” with skeptical partisans.
Fox News said Monday that it will deploy its news anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum to helm the real-time coverage of the hearings on Fox Business Network. But the highly rated prime-time block of Fox opinion shows hosted by Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham will remain intact on Thursday night, even as the network said it will “will cover the hearings as news warrants.” Fox will instead address the hearings during a two-hour “reaction special” at 11 p.m., preempting its popular “Gutfeld!” late-night humor show.
Christopher Hahn, a former congressional staffer and podcast host who appears occasionally on Fox News to offer a left-leaning perspective, predicted that many conservative outlets will also focus attention on some of the “counterprogramming” planned by Trump allies — a wave of Republican politicians who will make themselves available to comment on cable or social media.
Even conservative hosts who see merit in some of the allegations likely to be aired Thursday night will be reluctant to devote much time to them, he predicted. “Their audience doesn’t want to hear that,” he said, “and they’re going to give their audience what they want to hear.”
Six hours of paralysis: Inside Trump’s failure to act after a mob stormed the Capitol
Profiles of three involved in the attack: A horn-wearing ‘shaman.’ A cowboy evangelist. For some, the Capitol attack was a kind of Christian revolt.
Video timeline: 41 minutes of fear from inside the Capitol siege | 2022-06-07T16:41:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Jan. 6 hearing will preempt ‘Young Sheldon’ — but not Tucker Carlson - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/06/07/jan6-hearings-networks-live-fox-james-goldston/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/06/07/jan6-hearings-networks-live-fox-james-goldston/ |
Singer Kate Bush, pictured in April 1980, is experiencing a new wave of success after the Netflix series “Stranger Things” featured her song “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” in its latest season. (John Glanville/AP Photo)
Kate Bush, the English singer-songwriter known for her ethereal voice, has found her way into the hearts of yet another generation thanks to a music cue from the latest season of “Stranger Things.”
“Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God),” which peaked at No. 3 on the U.K. Singles Chart upon its release in 1985, returned to the top tier of music after playing in the Netflix series’ fourth season, which premiered late last month. The song jumped from No. 8 up to No. 2 on the U.K. chart as of Monday, according to Billboard, and reached No. 8 on the U.S.-based Hot 100 — marking Bush’s first time in its top 10.
As of Monday, “Running Up That Hill” was also the No. 1 streamed song on Spotify’s daily global chart with 8.42 million streams.
Bush, who tends to keep to herself, issued a rare statement in response to the boost in popularity.
The song “is being given a whole new lease of life by the young fans who love the show — I love it too!” she recently wrote on her website, adding that “it’s all really exciting! Thanks very much to everyone who has supported the song. I wait with bated breath for the rest of the series in July.”
“Stranger Things,” a sci-fi series about teenagers in 1980s Indiana, draws from music of that era. In written statements shared with members of the media, music supervisor Nora Felder said she chose “Running Up That Hill” because it resonated with the pain and loss afflicting one of the show’s young characters, Max (Sadie Sink), and “could be very special for its powerful melodic flow and very poignant themes.”
After getting approval from series creators Matt and Ross Duffer, referred to collectively as the Duffer brothers, Felder and her clearance coordinator reached out to Bush for permission to use the track. The singer is known to be picky with how her music is used, but turned out to be a fan of the show.
“I’ve always felt that this song was so timeless and deserves to be heard for years to come,” Felder said. “I think it’s struck a chord for so many people because it really touches on the alienation and emotional struggle that so many of us go through at one point or another in life, especially as teenagers. Music gives us validation and strength, especially when we aren’t feeling supported or understood by others.”
This isn’t the first time Bush, who achieved massive success in the late 1970s with her debut, Emily Brontë-inspired single “Wuthering Heights,” has been embraced by a younger generation. As NME noted early last year, her 1980 single “Babooshka” went viral on TikTok and contributed to thousands of videos featuring the song in some way. The NME article pointed out that Bush appealed to a subset of the app known as WitchTok, given her general aura and cloaked appearances in the original “Babooshka” music video. | 2022-06-07T16:45:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | ‘Stranger Things’ ushers in a Kate Bush renaissance - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/06/07/kate-bush-stranger-things-running-up-that-hill/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/06/07/kate-bush-stranger-things-running-up-that-hill/ |
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM - MARCH 24: Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, U.S. President Joe Biden, Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi pose for a G7 leaders’ family photo during a NATO summit on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, on March 24, 2022 in Brussels, Belgium. Heads of State and Government take part in the North Atlantic Council (NAC) Summit. They will discuss the consequences of President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the role of China in the crisis. Then decide on the next steps to strengthen NATO’s deterrence and defence. (Photo Henry Nicholls - Pool/Getty Images) (Photographer: Pool/Getty Images Europe)
Inflation, and especially the price of gasoline, appears to be what’s driving President Joe Biden’s unpopularity right now. That’s how it goes for presidents: Policy outcomes, especially on the economy, are what matter to voters — whether or not the administration has much short-run influence over them. If we want to examine how well the president is actually doing, sometimes a better approach is to step back and look at areas more clearly within his control.Here are five overlooked policy areas: two in which Biden’s administration is doing well, without much of anyone noticing; two in which it’s doing badly; and one mixed. Even on these issues, outcomes depend on more than just the administration’s actions. But perhaps they’ll give us a more accurate view of how good Biden is at presidenting.Booster failure. Eric Topol reports: “Following one of the worst 1st booster shot uptakes in the world among developed countries, of more than 112 million Americans age 50+, only ~5 million have had a 2nd booster shot.” After the tremendous success of developing the original vaccines (during Donald Trump’s presidency), further progress appears to be stalled in finding updates that will stop the current variants. And if there’s any serious campaign to get folks boosted, I haven’t noticed it. I’ve heard or seen more PSAs for preventing forest fires and ensuring boat safety (good causes, to be sure) than for getting vaxxed and boosted in the last few months; there’s been hardly anything in the news media pushing the importance of getting additional shots. Even Biden, who used to mention the topic all the time, has moved on. The truth is, the messaging has been a flop from late last spring on. Not good.Alliance success. We’re more than 100 days into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and it’s rather remarkable how well the anti-Putin alliance has held together. No, US allies aren’t always doing exactly what Biden wants, but whatever winds up happening on the ground, it’s hard to find fault with the diplomatic effort. This is hardly automatic: Many previous crises, from Suez in 1956 to Libya in 2011, exposed all sorts of rifts. Credit is shared among all the nations involved, and perhaps also by both Vladimir Putin (for making the need for collaboration so obvious) and Volodymyr Zelenskiy (for being such a good rallying point). Still, the US is the leader of the alliance and has the greatest responsibility, and so far at least Biden and the State Department deserve plenty of credit for keeping things together.Refugee failure. The US mostly stopped taking in refugees during Trump’s presidency. That was policy. Biden’s policy is basically to return to how things were, but so far the results haven’t matched the policy. It may be true that it’s easier to destroy a policy than to build one, but there’s not much sign of significant effort on this one. It’s a good reminder that policies aren’t self-enacting. If presidents really want to make things happen, they have to work at it.Casualty success. It’s fairly well known that 13 US troops lost their lives during the withdrawal from Afghanistan last August. What’s perhaps less well known is that those were the only such deaths in Afghanistan during Biden’s presidency — and that there still haven’t been any troop deaths in Iraq since January 2021. During Trump’s presidency, the combined number of deaths (in Afghanistan and Iraq/Syria) came to 37 in 2017, 31 in 2018, 36 in 2019 and 22 in 2020. Biden took plenty of criticism over how the withdrawal was conducted, and some objected to leaving Afghanistan at all. But it’s more than a footnote that, after 20 years, the steady flow of US troop deaths has, at least for now, finally come to a stop.
Nominations update. Biden is still getting judges confirmed at a record rate, at least among recent presidents. But his lead is declining. Overall, the White House is still doing a good job on judges. Executive-branch nominations are more of a mixed bag. Of the 800 or so most important Senate-confirmable positions, Biden still hasn’t chosen anyone for 101. Nor has he made any effort to repair what is clearly a broken process, one that simply overwhelms presidency after presidency, even when (as with Biden) the administration takes the task seriously. On the plus side? Record demographic diversity continues, and while there are always going to be a handful of duds, overall both judicial and executive-branch choices have received good reviews, and hardly any nominations have blown up into noticeable scandal. So a mixed grade, still, on this one. | 2022-06-07T16:46:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How Well Is Joe Biden Actually Doing? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/how-well-is-joe-biden-actually-doing/2022/06/07/526fba54-e673-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/how-well-is-joe-biden-actually-doing/2022/06/07/526fba54-e673-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Meet the Guptas, Symbols of South African Corruption
Analysis by Renee Bonorchis | Bloomberg
The three Gupta brothers have come to embody the corruption that blighted South African President Jacob Zuma’s almost nine-year rule. They allegedly used their friendship with the president and business ties to his son, Duduzane, to influence cabinet appointments and secure illicit state contracts worth billions of dollars. They fled South Africa for Dubai in early 2018 after the ruling party forced Zuma to quit and were charged with graft later that year. In June 2022, two of the Gupta brothers were arrested in Dubai to face possible extradition and trial in South Africa.
1. Who are the Guptas?
The three brothers -- Atul, Rajesh and Ajay -- became so enmeshed in national politics under Zuma that their families and associates were collectively known as the Zuptas. The brothers arrived in South Africa from India in the early 1990s as apartheid rule was drawing to a close. Starting with a small technology company, they built a business empire spanning newspapers, cable television, uranium and coal mines. They set up a sprawling compound in Johannesburg’s upmarket Saxonwold suburb, bought a fleet of luxury cars and threw lavish parties. Their public notoriety dates back to 2013, when they landed an aircraft at a high-security air-force base to ferry private guests to an opulent, four-day family wedding. In February 2018, police raided their compound, while immigration officials descended on the offices of one of the TV stations they used to own. The Guptas, Zuma and his son have denied wrongdoing.
2. How did the arrests happen?
Dubai police said they detained Rajesh and Atul Gupta “in connection with money laundering and other criminal charges in South Africa.” The arrests came months after Interpol placed the brothers on its most-wanted list and issued a so-called red notice requesting the help of international law enforcement agencies to hunt them down. The charges include involvement in a questionable tender to undertake a feasibility survey on a dairy project in the central Free State province, in which a company controlled by the Guptas was paid $1.4 million.
3. What else are they alleged to have done?
The Guptas have been implicated in a litany of other crimes. An initial public investigation was carried out in 2016 by then-Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, who produced a 355-page report called State of Capture. It detailed allegations that the Guptas may have influenced the appointment of cabinet members and that a coal business linked to the family and Duduzane Zuma received special treatment at the request of top politicians. Madonsela ordered the establishment of a judicial commission to probe Zuma’s relationship with the Guptas. Seven months after the release of her report, a vast trove of documents and emails between the Guptas and their associates was leaked to the media, and story after story about their questionable dealings were published.
4. What happened at the judicial commission?
Madonsela’s directive led to the establishment of a panel chaired by Raymond Zondo, now the country’s chief justice. After hearings that lasted more than three years, he released a series of damning reports that laid out how the Guptas were part of a wide-ranging scheme to defraud the state with Zuma’s tacit consent. The looting spree hobbled state power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. and freight rail and ports operator Transnet SOC Ltd., and the economy continues to suffer the fallout.
5. How much was stolen?
President Cyril Ramaphosa said in 2019 that at least $32 billion may have been stolen during his predecessor’s tenure and the actual figure could be more than double that amount. State-owned companies including Eskom, South African Airways and arms manufacturer Denel SOC Ltd. were left bankrupt, while the national tax agency’s ability to collect revenue was badly undermined. The plunder also coincided with a sell-off in the rand and contributed to the country’s debt being downgraded to “junk” status.
6. Is Zuma facing charges?
Yes, but they aren’t currently related to his dealings with the Guptas. Zuma was convicted of contempt of court in 2021 for refusing to testify before Zondo and sentenced to 15 months in prison. The prisons department released him on medical parole after he had served less than two months -- a decision that was still being contested in court. He’s also facing trial on charges linked to an arms deal that dates back to the 1990s. Prosecutors were still working their way through Zondo’s findings and more charges could follow. | 2022-06-07T16:46:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Meet the Guptas, Symbols of South African Corruption - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/meet-the-guptas-symbols-of-south-african-corruption/2022/06/07/124cb1e0-e676-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/meet-the-guptas-symbols-of-south-african-corruption/2022/06/07/124cb1e0-e676-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
The struggle to re-open the Alcoa Intalco aluminum smelter shows the difficulties of creating green manufacturing jobs at home
Steven Mufson
FERNDALE, Wash. — Ryan Chapman was on pace to make $148,000 as a roving maintenance worker when he learned two years ago that Alcoa was shutting down the aluminum plant. Soon he was collecting unemployment and pursuing a bachelor’s degree in his late 30s, with two young sons and a stay-at-home wife. It was, he said, “a drastic change in quality of life.”
But unlike so many places gutted by American industrial decline, Chapman and hundreds of other laid-off employees of the Alcoa Intalco Works aluminum smelter are tantalizingly close to recapturing that past.
A plan to revamp this factory as a key piece in the future of renewable energy in the United States has been embraced by seemingly everyone: the machinists union, a private equity firm, the new electric vehicle industry, environmental groups and the state’s political establishment — from Washington’s pro-environment governor, Jay Inslee (D), to pro-jobs local Republicans. And it would make the smelter the only one functioning west of the Mississippi.
But a final obstacle — how to power the factory, and who will pay for that — may yet scuttle the deal.
The dominant Bonneville Power Administration, a federal agency which manages the Pacific Northwest’s huge dams and sprawling transmission lines, is balking, saying it simply doesn’t have enough dependable, low-cost hydropower to promise the Intalco plant, set amid forests and pastureland on the shores of the Puget Sound. And its position is backed by local electrical utilities who cherish their dependable power supplies from Bonneville — and their low rates.
The deadlock over electricity is yet one more indication of how difficult it is to expand the U.S. supply chain and bring American industries back home. From aluminum to lithium to hydrogen, U.S. industry is trying to mine and manufacture materials currently made and imported from places such as China and Canada.
American companies are shunning fossil fuels — coal and natural gas — and are instead aiming to gain a competitive advantage with climate-conscious consumers by using low-carbon materials and low-carbon manufacturing. Yet, only 20 percent of U.S. electricity is generated by renewable sources of energy. And while that number is growing rapidly, so are the demands of American manufacturers, sparking a race for wind, solar and hydropower.
In the Pacific Northwest, for example, while the decline of aluminum manufacturers has reduced industrial demand for electricity, the extra power has been swallowed up by a 15 percent increase in Washington state’s population; computer servers used by big tech firms to store information; and an influx of computers run continuously in a search for digital keys used to unlock cryptocurrencies. Bonneville Power Authority has also sold power to California to help meet urgent needs.
“The grid needs to add more renewable sources to help companies meet their decarbonization targets,” William A. Reinsch and Emily Benson wrote in a February report for the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “However, the location of renewable energy production, such as offshore wind farms or major solar fields, is often distant from production facilities.”
Like similar initiatives, reopening the Alcoa-owned Intalco smelter could help advance President Biden’s domestic manufacturing agenda, reduce U.S. reliance on Russian aluminum, cut worldwide greenhouse gas emissions and create hundreds of well paying jobs.
Yet doing business in the United States means that companies can stumble over everything from permits to politics — even when things seem lined up.
“If we can’t successfully reopen Intalco, it is really bad for our broader efforts to transform and grow the U.S. manufacturing base,” said Jason Walsh, executive director of the BlueGreen Alliance, a collection of unions and environmental groups. “This project embodies everything that President Biden and his cabinet talk about with respect to rebuilding a green energy economy and building a green factory base that reduces greenhouse gases.”
Aluminum is expected to be an increasingly important part of American manufacturing’s transition to a low-carbon future. The metal is used for lightweight auto parts to offset heavy batteries in electric cars; for solar panel frames; for beverage cans and for durable construction materials. Global aluminum demand is expected to grow by up to 40 percent by 2050, according to the International Aluminum Institute. The Energy Information Administration forecasts that the value of shipments of aluminum will grow 45 percent over the same period.
“Our metal has been essential for modern life and will play an even larger role in the low-carbon future,” said Jim Beck, an Alcoa spokesman. “It is lightweight, strong, and — most importantly — infinitely recyclable.”
Automakers are seeking better fuel efficiency by making their vehicles lighter. By using more aluminum, Ford Motor achieved weight reductions of up to 700 pounds in its 2015 model year F-150 trucks. And as the auto industry veers in the direction of creating more electric vehicles, the demand for aluminum will increase.
“These are materials everyone in the world is going to need,” said Sasha Stashwick, director of industry policy, climate and clean energy at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Countries that can figure out how to use it with low emissions are going to have competitive advantages.”
Biden wants to rebuild the EPA. He doesn’t have the money to do it.
Those advantages are what interested Blue Wolf Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in New York, to offer to buy the defunct Intalco smelter, which began production more than half a century ago. The firm, which manages over $1.8 billion largely from big pension funds, describes itself as pro-labor and pro-environment; one of its founders dropped out of college for a while to become a community organizer.
Blue Wolf expects to spend $50 million up front and a total of about $175 million for modernizing the plant, said people familiar with the cost structure currently under negotiation and who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect business relationships. The plant is expected to produce 240,000 metric tons of aluminum — 10 to 20 percent more than imports from Russia in 2021. The niche market for green aluminum could help make the plant profitable, the company’s representatives have told local officials.
Michael Tanchuk, a veteran of the aluminum industry and leader of Blue Wolf’s effort to restart Intalco, has spent his working life in aluminum plants. “I have been in the metals industry for over 30 years, and I have watched as aluminum production has moved overseas to follow lower price electricity, most often from coal, to the detriment of American workers and our global climate,” he said in an email.
Now, Tanchuk said, Blue Wolf and its allies can restart the plant and move to solar and wind quickly. “With Intalco, the U.S. will again have a reliable supply of a critical material, America will produce green aluminum, and we will bring green jobs to America.”
American companies dominated the aluminum industry for much of the 20th century, and the Pacific Northwest was a hub for its manufacturing. Smelters need vast amounts of energy and the region’s bountiful hydropower provided a steady and affordable supply of electricity. At its peak, the industry employed 11,000 people while consuming enough electricity annually to light three cities the size of present-day Seattle..
But domestic aluminum has been in a long slump, hit by volatile pricing and the rise of foreign competitors. In 1985, there were 31 aluminum smelters in the United States. Today, there are six. Almost all have been dismantled and sold for scrap or to clear the way to erect commercial parks and buildings, with the bulk of production shifting to China.
By April 2020, as the pandemic deepened and aluminum prices plunged to historic lows, Alcoa said they were closing down the Intalco plant.
To the workers, it felt like losing a family business. Several former employees said they worked alongside parents, siblings or in-laws. Chapman was laid off along with his wife’s uncle.
“It has ripped through families,” he said.
The tightknit workforce scattered after the smelter was “curtailed” by Alcoa, now maintained only by a skeleton crew. While many of these skilled employees found other work, labor union representatives say that few have maintained the lifestyle Alcoa afforded them. Addictions flared up and three former employees took their own lives, said Brian Urban, a bricklayer and union official who was laid off.
“We had a major issue with mental health for the guys,” said Urban, who hosts regular dinners and gatherings for former employees. “I can’t tell you how many people I went and picked up and brought them in for health and welfare checks to the hospital because they were feeling like harming themselves.”
The Intalco plant has long played an important role in the Ferndale community, churning out aluminum for cars, airplanes, and beverage cans since it opened in 1966. The plant was one of Whatcom County’s largest employers with more than 700 workers, and each job there produced 1.29 other jobs in the community, according to a 2019 study.
The economic impact of the closure was somewhat obscured because it coincided with the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, but local officials say it has been a painful blow.
“It was quite devastating,” said Satpal Singh Sidhu, the county executive in Whatcom County. “Not only for the families, for our economy.”
The smelter has also faced criticism as a big polluter. To make aluminum, the ore is melted down in rows of pots and then fashioned into aluminum rods and ingots. These pots of molten material regularly crust over and each day need to be broken open — a process which releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Before it was closed, the Intalco plant frequented lists of top emitters in the state.
When Sidhu, the county executive, first met with representatives of Blue Wolf last year, this was one of his top concerns.
“'Hey, the first thing is, this is very old technology, what are you going to do about it?'” he recalled asking. “We want 700 jobs in our community and we want somebody to do better on the environmental emissions.”
Alcoa had already started the transition to a newer technology, known as a “point feed” system, that breaks the crust in a way that releases fewer emissions. Blue Wolf plans to complete that process across more than 600 pots. Washington state has pledged $10 million to help pay for this upgrade as well as other pollution-reduction measures that would make the plant one of two in the country capable of producing “green” aluminum.
Blue Wolf estimates they can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by over 800,000 tons a year, or 45 percent. The plant will still emit 1 million tons a year. (A coal-fired smelter, by comparison, emits about 4.5 million tons of CO2 per year).
“We see restarting the Washington Intalco smelter as a rare opportunity to secure a big win for the climate, and workers and national security,” said Annie Sartor, who leads the aluminum campaign at the Climate Strategies Lab.
Blue Wolf has reached a five-year collective bargaining agreement with the local machinists union, which says more than 90 percent of the plant’s former employees want to come back. Blue Wolf has told local officials that is has also signed a letter of intent with Alcoa to buy the smelter, pending a deal on the power supply.
Jim Beck, an Alcoa spokesman, said the company is still considering its options for the plant, “including a potential sale of the asset.”
“We recognize, however, that securing a competitive power agreement for the smelter will be a critical condition,” he said in a statement.
The entire Washington state congressional delegation — including two Senate Democrats, seven House Democrats and three House Republicans — last week sent a letter to the Bonneville authority urging it to negotiate in good faith with Blue Wolf to reach such an agreement. Inslee has made the same push.
“There’s never been a more critical time to assure our access to green aluminum, to build America’s clean energy future and to support our manufacturing supply chains in the face of global disruption,” Inslee said in a statement. “I urge the Bonneville Power Administration to reach a positive solution that delivers this tremendous set of benefits to the people of the Northwest and the nation.”
But time is running out. Blue Wolf told officials in Whatcom County that their expenses have already exceeded $3 million and they may cut their losses soon if they cannot reach an agreement on electricity.
“This is a very unusual situation,” said Don Goldberg, director of economic development for the Port of Bellingham. “There are no sides that I’m aware of that are fighting it. There’s no community against it, no local government, no elected officials.”
“It literally is BPA holding the whole thing up,” he said.
The Bonneville Power Administration was created in the 1930s to sell hydroelectric power generated on the Columbia River. The federal agency, part of the Energy Department, now markets power from 31 federal dams in the Pacific Northwest — a major source of clean power in the region — including to 140 consumer-owned utilities in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and parts of other states.
Bonneville for years had provided Alcoa, as well as other industrial customers, with low-cost electricity. But Alcoa ended its contract and Doug Johnson, a senior spokesman for Bonneville, said that the agency simply doesn’t have the 400 megawatts of the lowest-priced, or “firm,” power, that the Intalco smelter had used in the past. He added that Blue Wolf could purchase power from one or more big investor-owned utilities in the Northwest.
“We are not the only potential source of power to serve the plant’s needs,” he said.
Scott Simms, executive director of the Public Power Council, which represents public utilities in the Northwest, said that even if Bonneville had enough low-priced power to supply Intalco, it would be required to offer that supply first to existing utilities. He added that “anything that amounts to a subsidy from these existing Northwest interests to float Blue Wolf’s concept is a non-starter.”
Blue Wolf’s allies say the firm has tried to compromise, offering to pay a higher rate than Alcoa received.
“It’s all coming down to electricity,” said Luke Ackerson, business representative with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers who was chief shop steward at the Intalco smelter. “I’m worried that it won’t happen.”
Ackerson has been in constant contact with hundreds of former employees, trying to keep momentum alive for a restart at the plant. It’s the same place his father worked after returning from the Vietnam War. So did his sister and her husband.
“Everything that I’ve had came from that place,” he said. “It’s just really, really important to the community.”
Aaron Gregg contributed to this report. | 2022-06-07T16:46:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 'Green' aluminum plant in Pacific Northwest struggles to reopen - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/06/07/aluminum-smelter-alcoa-intalco/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/06/07/aluminum-smelter-alcoa-intalco/ |
At the Summit of the Americas, listen to the region’s youngest leader
By León Krauze
Chilean President Gabriel Boric waves as he arrives June 6 in Los Angeles for the Summit of the Americas. (Etienne Laurent/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
This week’s Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles will be remembered for its absences rather than its potential agreements. Though the meeting promises to tackle pressing issues for the region, the presidents of several countries — Mexico, Bolivia, Honduras, El Salvador, Uruguay and Guatemala — will either send representatives or skip the summit altogether. Some have specific grievances. Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, for example, appears unhappy with the Biden administration’s criticism of the appointment of María Consuelo Porras, the country’s controversial attorney general.
But for the leftist governments in Mexico, Bolivia and Honduras, the impetus behind the snubs is a concerted effort to defend the authoritarian regimes in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela as worthy of a place at the table. For that, the Biden administration can thank Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. For weeks, López Obrador warned he would boycott the summit if the United States excluded the region’s three leftist dictatorships. On Monday, he carried out his threat.
This could be read as a deep rift between Latin America’s leftist populists and the Biden administration. There is, however, a different kind of progressivism in the region. Its leading figure is Latin America’s youngest president: Chile’s Gabriel Boric.
Elected on a landslide of hope and high expectations not unlike Barack Obama’s victory in 2008, Boric promised to tackle Chile’s history of economic and social inequality. It has proved difficult. In the first few months of his administration, Boric has seen a dramatic erosion of support. But rather than blame the past or skirt responsibility, the 36-year-old president has acknowledged his mistakes.
He has his work cut out for him. Chile is facing a deep-rooted conflict in the south, drug-related violence and tension over the massive influx of Venezuelans seeking refuge in the country. Through it all, Boric has pledged to stay the course and avoid “shortcuts” such as “populism.”
In a conversation on Monday, I asked Boric — who identifies as an “egalitarian socialist” and quotes John Rawls — if he had considered skipping this week’s meeting in Los Angeles. “We discussed it,” he told me. In the end, he chose to take part in the summit. “I could not be absent from a space built for cooperation,” he said. “We need to meet and raise the voice of Latin America in international forums once again.”
Unlike most other leftist leaders in the region — and some in the United States, as well — Boric has managed to wiggle out of the pernicious appeal of the Cuban and Venezuelan sphere of influence. I asked him, for example, how he thought history would remember Hugo Chávez. Boric took a beat and began reminiscing about a trip he had taken in 2010 to Venezuela, still ruled by Chávez. He explained how he had believed in Chávez’s promise of social inclusion. Then, he told me, Chávez disappointed him. “I believe Venezuela’s drift, that concentration of powers, is the wrong path,” he told.
Boric is more cautious when it comes to Cuba. He vehemently explained how the “politics of exclusion,” including specifically the U.S. embargo, have failed to engage Cuba. In our interview, he declined to identify the Cuban regime as a flat-out dictatorship. Yet remarkably, given Cuba’s hold on Latin America’s left, he nonetheless addressed the authoritarian trends in Cuba today. “What I want is for there to be freedom in Cuba,” he told me. “Today in Cuba there are citizens imprisoned for protesting and for expressing their different opinion regarding the current regime. And that seems unacceptable to me.” This is all a far cry from voices such as the grandstanding López Obrador and his impassioned defense of the Castro regime, which he has called “an example of resistance.”
In a region veering away from democracy, Boric is an advocate for reason. “There are certain principles that one has to uphold no matter where you are,” he told me. “Unrestricted respect for human rights. Belief in science, acting on evidence-based policy, and fiscal responsibility.”
In Los Angeles, Boric intends to speak uncomfortable truths, including some aimed at the United States, which damaged Chile when it supported the 1973 coup against Salvador Allende — a wound that, he told me, is still open in Chilean society.
As the continent meets in Los Angeles, it should listen to the voice of its youngest leader. | 2022-06-07T16:47:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | At the Summit of the Americas, Gabriel Boric is the face of a new progressivism - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/gabriel-boric-chile-summit-of-the-americas/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/gabriel-boric-chile-summit-of-the-americas/ |
By Rana Ayyub
Qatar's Minister of Commerce and Industry Mohammed Bin Hamad Bin Qassim al-Abdullah al-Thani and India's Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu take part in a business forum in Doha, Qatar, on June 5. (Mustafa Abumunes/AFP/Getty Images)
In the last week of May, Nupur Sharma, then the national spokeswoman of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, denigrated the prophet Muhammad on one of the country’s most-watched television networks, Times Now. The channel and its anchors, known for their pro-government stance, allowed Sharma to make insulting remarks about the prophet and his marriage. The party’s Delhi media head, Naveen Kumar Jindal, subsequently tweeted another offensive comment about Muhammad, the most revered figure in Islam.
Within hours, Muslims and allies took to social media to express anger at the insults and called for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP to take disciplinary action against the party members.
But this time, it was not just Indian Muslims speaking out. Over the past few days, the governments of Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Libya, Turkey, Maldives, Iraq, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Pakistan and Malaysia issued stinging statements condemning the comments. Similar statements were made by the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Gulf Cooperation Council. India’s turn toward intolerance and communalism is finally eliciting a response from the world.
The backlash came as Indian Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu was on a three-day trip to Qatar. Hours after Naidu met the Qatari prime minister, the Qatari government summoned India’s envoy over the incendiary comments. Qatari Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Soltan Bin Saad Al Muraikhi warned in a statement that “insulting remarks would lead to incitement of religious hatred and offend more than 2 billion Muslims around the world.” A “Boycott India” campaign even trended on social media in Qatar.
Other governments of Muslim countries soon followed suit. Iran’s ministry of foreign affairs also summoned the Indian ambassador to Tehran; incidentally, Iran’s foreign minister will soon embark on his first official visit to the Indian capital to discuss crucial geopolitical issues. Kuwait and Qatar both demanded a public apology for the statements.
This weekend, Sharma said on Twitter that she withdrew her words, and the BJP suspended Sharma and expelled Jindal. Indian diplomats tried to placate the Arab world by calling the figures who made the remarks “fringe” and characterized criticism as driven by “vested” interests who were trying to destabilize India’s relationship with Qatar. But Sharma and Jindal are both key BJP figures who have been elevated to a public platform by the party.
The rebuke from at least 15 majority-Muslim countries, many of whom have been traditional allies or supporters of India, comes on the heels of Secretary of State Antony Blinken naming India while releasing the State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report. Reading from the report, Blinken said: “For example, in India, the world’s largest democracy and home to a great diversity of faiths, we have seen rising attacks on people and places of worship.”
Rashad Hussain, U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, went a step further and said that some Indian officials were “ignoring or even supporting attacks on people or places of worship.”
To me — a journalist who has been reporting on the Indian government’s relentless attacks on the country’s more than 200 million Muslims since Modi assumed power in 2014 — this global reaction was long in the offing. In recent years under the BJP, India has seen the passage of a law that made religion a criterion for citizenship for the first time; restrictions on the slaughter of cows in many states; the construction of a Hindu temple at the site of a demolished mosque in Ayodhya; the abrogation of the special status that granted the majority-Muslim region of Kashmir a measure of autonomy; a ban on the wearing of hijabs in schools and colleges in the southern state of Karnataka; and ominous discussions for a Uniform Civil Code applicable to all religious communities (currently, the personal laws of different religious communities are governed by their respective scriptures).
Throughout all of this, the social-media-savvy Modi — known to invoke values of pluralism abroad — has remained silent as Indian democracy has descended into hate and is humiliated with international backlash.
The kinds of views the BJP wants to characterize as “fringe” are, in fact, the language of the ruling party and state, spoken each night on the country’s leading news channels. Members of the prime minister’s party crossed the red line of outrageously insulting Muhammad. Even more concerning is that the BJP’s actions against the two spokespersons occurred days after their comments, and only after public rebukes by multiple nations that are critical to India’s strategic and economic interests.
The world has long viewed India as a nation that has been the melting pot of cultures, religions and customs; a leading light in fighting tyranny and oppression; and a leader on discourse around secular and plural values. India under Modi, however, is coming across as a petty, vindictive nation that seeks pleasure in humiliating the oppressed and the less privileged. | 2022-06-07T16:47:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Rana Ayyub: The world is finally reacting to India’s descent into hate - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/india-bjp-nupur-sharma-naveen-kumar-jindal-global-reaction/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/india-bjp-nupur-sharma-naveen-kumar-jindal-global-reaction/ |
Supporters of Donald Trump clash with police at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP/Getty Images)
“1776 motherf---ers.”
That’s what an associate texted to Enrique Tarrio, then the leader of the Proud Boys, just after members of the group stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. In a new indictment that prosecutors filed against them, variations on that idea abound: Members refer to the insurrection as a glorious revival of 1776 again and again, with almost comic predictability.
It’s tempting to dismiss all the 1776 talk as something akin to adolescent revolutionary cosplay. But the way 1776 comes up in the indictment — combined with some surprising new details it reveals — should prompt a serious look at how far-right extremist groups genuinely think about the long struggle that they envision themselves waging.
In short, groups such as these generally are driven by a dangerous vision of popular sovereignty. It essentially holds that the will of the truly authentic “people,” a flexible category they get to define, is being suppressed, requiring periodic “resets” of the system, including via violent, extralegal means.
Such groups aren’t going away anytime soon. We should understand what drives them.
The new indictment that a grand jury returned on Monday against Tarrio and four other Proud Boys is for “seditious conspiracy.” This requires prosecutors to prove that at least two people conspired to use force to overthrow the U.S. government or to subvert the execution of U.S. law.
To build this case, prosecutors have sought to present extensive evidence that the Proud Boys fully intended to use force to subvert governmental authority and relevant laws concerning the transfer of presidential power. This included arming themselves with paramilitary gear and discussing violent disruptions online in advance.
The Proud Boys, who have pleaded not guilty to earlier charges, have claimed they merely armed themselves as protection against leftists. But the indictment alleges that they attacked police officers, breached police lines with violence, and helped coordinate the storming of the Capitol in real time.
What’s more, in the indictment prosecutors disclose highly revealing text exchanges between Tarrio — who was not present that day — and another member later on Jan. 6. The exchanges appear to refer back to a document Tarrio possessed called “1776 returns,” which reportedly contains a detailed scheme to attack government buildings.
Those text exchanges compare Jan. 6 to both 1776 and the attack on “the Winter Palace,” which helped lead to the Russian Revolution. This seeming reference back to that document perhaps suggests they viewed Jan. 6 as the successful execution of a premeditated plan.
That’s pretty striking stuff. Whether prosecutors will successfully prove seditious conspiracy remains to be seen, but right now the evidence appears strong that Proud Boys members did scheme to thwart a legitimately elected government from taking power with coordinated violence.
In this context, while all the 1776-oriented talk might seem like posturing, it points to something real and enduring on the far right.
It isn’t easy to pin down the Proud Boys, who tend to define themselves as defenders of Western civilization. But Kathleen Belew, an expert in right-wing extremism, has discerned hints of white power ideology in some of the group’s symbolism and messaging.
As Belew notes, the white power movement includes opponents of non-white immigration, militia groups, and white supremacists, loosely bound by an ideology centered on the violent defense of whiteness. On Jan. 6, numerous such groups and adherents attacked the Capitol.
Tarrio’s views appear pretty convoluted. In a 2021 interview, he admitted that the 2020 election had not been stolen from former president Donald Trump, and went through the motions of disavowing the Jan. 6 violence. Yet he openly celebrated the “fear” that members of Congress felt of “the people,” and helped mobilize members to mass around the Capitol that day.
So how to make sense of that, as well as the broader tangle of ideologies on the far right?
A helpful framework comes from Joseph Lowndes, a scholar of the right wing at the University of Oregon. As Lowndes notes, a longtime strain in American political culture treats procedural democracy as itself deeply suspect, as subverting a more authentic subterranean popular will.
For such ideologues, what constitutes “the people” is itself redefined by spasmodic revolutionary acts, including violence. The people’s sovereignty, and with it the defining lines of the republic, are also effectively redrawn, or even rebirthed, by such outbursts of energy and militant action.
In this vision, Lowndes told me, the “people” and the “essence of the republic” are “made new again through acts of violent cleansing.” He noted that in this imagining, the “people” are something of a “fiction,” one that is essentially created out of the violent “act.”
“This regeneration through violence is going to be with us for a long time," Lowndes said, "because it is fundamental to the right-wing political imagination.”
Lurking behind all the 1776 cosplay, then, is a tangle of very real radical and extreme ideologies. Importantly, they’re sincerely believed in, and they aren’t going away. | 2022-06-07T16:47:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | A shocker in the Proud Boys indictment exposes the right’s long game - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/proud-boys-indictment-jan-6-enrique-tarrio/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/proud-boys-indictment-jan-6-enrique-tarrio/ |
Trump call on Jan. 6 to 'walk down to the Capitol’ prompted Secret Service scramble
Agency’s actions are part of Jan. 6 committee probe into Trump’s role in inciting the violent attack on the Capitol
By Carol D. Leonnig
President Donald Trump speaks as his supporters gather for the Save America March event that stretched from the White House to the Washington Monument on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Shortly before pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Secret Service agents scrambled to try to secure a motorcade route so then-President Donald Trump could accompany his supporters as they marched on Congress to demand he stay in power, according to two people briefed on witnesses’ accounts to congressional investigators.
The hectic events that day followed nearly two weeks of persistent pressure from Trump on the Secret Service to devise a plan for him to join his supporters on a march to the Capitol from the park near the White House where he was leading a massive rally that he predicted would be “wild.”
The agency had rebuffed Trump’s early entreaties, but the rushed effort on Jan. 6 to accommodate the president came as Secret Service personnel heard Trump urge his rally audience of nearly 30,000 people to march to the Capitol while suggesting he would join them. Their mission was clear, he said: pressure “weak” Republicans to refuse to accept the election results that made Joe Biden the next president.
“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol,” he told the crowd.
Witnesses have told the House Jan. 6 committee that, immediately after Trump made that remark, Secret Service agents contacted D.C. police about blocking intersections, according to the people briefed on the testimony. Police officials declined, as they were stretched thin due to their role monitoring numerous protests and later assisting with a growing mob at the Capitol, the people said. A senior law enforcement official told The Washington Post that the president’s detail leader scuttled the idea as untenable and unsafe.
The testimony, which could be featured as part of a series of high-profile hearings set to begin this week by the House Jan. 6 committee, indicates that several days before his speech Trump had been eager to join supporters on a march to the Capitol. No permit had been issued for such a march, though some Trump allies were touting a march on far-right social media platforms as a way to pressure Congress not to certify Biden’s election victory.
Trump previously told The Post that his wishes to go to the Capitol on Jan. 6 were blocked by the Secret Service. But Trump’s early insistence on joining a march has not been previously reported, nor was it known publicly that Secret Service officials considered taking steps to transport him there just as the chaotic events were about to unfold.
The new details also reflect a growing focus by the House committee on whether Trump’s White House may have tried to drag this civil service agency into the president’s quest to block the peaceful transfer of power. Five people died and more than 100 police officers were injured as rioters streamed into the Capitol.
A Secret Service spokesman said agents in charge of Trump’s security never formalized a plan to bring Trump from the White House to the Capitol.
“On January 6, the Secret Service did not secure a motorcade route for President Trump to travel to the Capitol after the Ellipse rally,” spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. "Secret Service personnel assigned to the President’s detail told Administration officials that proposed travel plans to visit the Capitol on January 6th would not be feasible.”
Guglielmi said the agency is cooperating fully with congressional investigators’ request for information and documents about Secret Service planning for Trump’s movements that day. He said the agency conducted an extensive search of its internal records which found it had no operational plans to move Trump to the Capitol.
In addition to probing Trump’s repeated press to have the Secret Service let him join the march, the committee has been investigating whether Trump and his political aides played any role in encouraging the Secret Service to remove Vice President Mike Pence from the Capitol after the building was stormed by Trump supporters — and before he had overseen the certification of Joe Biden’s victory, according to people briefed on the probe.
“Secret Service wouldn’t let me," Trump said. “I wanted to go. I wanted to go so badly. Secret Service says you can’t go. I would have gone there in a minute.“
In the interview, Trump defended his incendiary comments urging his supporters to come to Washington and then to march on the Capitol and “fight like hell.”
“I said patriotically and peacefully,” he said. He added that he offered up to 10,000 soldiers and National Guard members to the Capitol and city through his Defense Department, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) turned down the offer.
“If I wanted to do something, I wouldn’t be recommending soldiers,” Trump said.
Trump’s first public communique about Jan. 6 to his faithful supporters came in a Dec. 19 tweet. He encouraged his followers to gather in Washington to protest what he called a rigged election with these words: “Be there. Will be wild!”.
Days later, according to witnesses’ accounts to the committee, Trump was pressing his aides to help him cheer on a protest directly outside the Capitol.
Around New Year’s Eve, Trump aides raised with Tony Ornato, a Secret Service official then temporarily serving as a deputy chief of staff in the White House, the president’s desire to ride in a motorcade on Jan. 6 alongside marchers heading to the Capitol, according to the witnesses’ accounts and a senior law enforcement official.
Ornato recommended Trump aides reach out to the leader of Trump’s Secret Service detail around Jan. 4, the law enforcement official said. Secret Service officials were highly skeptical they could safely spirit Trump to the Capitol based on a similar experience they had at a “Stop the Steal” rally in downtown Washington on Nov. 14, according to witness accounts. Trump had thrilled his faithful supporters at the November rally when his motorcade appeared on Pennsylvania Avenue shortly after 10 a.m. Fans scurried to Freedom Plaza in downtown D.C. to catch a glimpse. Trump had pressed his security detail to make the detour to ride alongside the crowd, just before he was scheduled to head to his Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va.
Ornato and Trump’s detail leader considered the Nov. 14 motorcade ride a potential catastrophe in the making, because of how close Trump’s limo came alongside unscreened members of the public, according to two people briefed on the discussions.
“And they really, really did not want him to go,” said one of the people. Trump’s detail leader told senior White House staff such a motorcade plan during an even larger rally in January was unsafe and should not happen.
On the morning of Jan. 6, many Secret Service detail members believed they were doing an “in and out” — taking Trump to the Ellipse stage and then back to the White House, according to witness accounts. They were caught off guard when Trump made what they considered a surprise announcement, according to a senior law enforcement official.
“We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore,” he said, later adding. “So we are going to — we are going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, I love Pennsylvania Avenue, and we are going to the Capitol.”
The head of the president’s security detail intervened to cancel the effort and told senior White House staff that moving the president to the Capitol would be far too risky, a senior law enforcement official said. | 2022-06-07T16:47:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Secret Service scrambled to explore taking Trump to Capitol on Jan. 6, witnesses told Jan. 6 committee - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/07/trump-pressed-secret-service-for-plan-to-join-march-to-capitol/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/07/trump-pressed-secret-service-for-plan-to-join-march-to-capitol/ |
FILE - North Carolina Chief Justice Mark Martin delivers the State of the Judiciary address to a joint session of the General Assembly in Raleigh, N.C. on March 4, 2015. Martin will be the founding dean of the developing High Point University law school, the university announced Tuesday, June 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome, File)
Martin called the High Point dean’s job that he’ll begin officially next week a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” The law school, which was announced in March as part of a $400 million academic expansion plan, is expected to open as soon as 2024. | 2022-06-07T16:47:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ex-Chief Justice Martin returning to NC work at High Point - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ex-chief-justice-martin-returning-to-nc-work-at-high-point/2022/06/07/24e881b8-e67a-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ex-chief-justice-martin-returning-to-nc-work-at-high-point/2022/06/07/24e881b8-e67a-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Veteran foreign correspondent Dom Phillips takes notes in Aldeia Waikay, a hamlet of the Yekuana tribe in Roraima State, Brazil, on Nov. 13, 2019. Phillips and traveling companion Bruno Pereira went missing Sunday while Phillips was researching a book in the Amazon's Javari Valley. (Joao Laet/AFP/Getty Images)
RIO DE JANEIRO — As another day went by without any sign of a British journalist who went missing in the Amazon, diplomats, rights groups and news organizations pressured the Brazilian government to marshal an expansive search and rescue mission to scour one of the most remote regions of the rainforest.
The Brazilian Military Amazon Command said it was aware that Dom Phillips, a frequent contributor to the Guardian and onetime contract writer for The Washington Post, had gone missing with his traveling companion, Bruno Pereira, a longtime official of Brazil’s Indigenous rights organization. It said the armed forces were capable of carrying out a “humanitarian mission” to find and rescue the men, “as it has done throughout its history.”
But it couldn’t yet act. The ministry was still waiting for approval from higher command. The Brazilian navy said it wouldn’t provide access to a helicopter, a vital search tool in an area as undeveloped and vast as western Amazonas state, until Tuesday morning — 48 hours after Phillips and Pereira failed to show up as expected Sunday morning in Atalaia do Norte.
“I am here in anguish, hoping for help,” Alessandra Sampaio, Phillips’ wife, told The Post on Tuesday. “And the sluggishness of these agencies, and their bureaucracy. Instead of moving with urgency to save lives, they are waiting for someone’s signature, a game of pushing authority from one agency to another, while there are two lives out there.”
The federal police and Brazilian navy didn’t respond to requests to comment. The Military Amazon Command defended its work.
“The search efforts began on Monday in the region of the Javari Valley in Atalaia do Norte and have gone on uninterrupted by both river and on land, employing jungle soldiers,” the command said in a statement.
As the third day without news stretches by, fear is building. Western Amazonas state is a lawless region pervaded by violent criminals intent on destroying the forest and extracting resources from it. Indigenous rights groups say the men had been threatened during their forest expedition. There was growing concern that they were attacked and disappeared. If there had been a problem with their transportation or equipment, residents say, the men would have been found by now.
“They certainly suffered an attack,” said Eliesio Marubo, attorney for the Javari Valley Indigenous Peoples Union, which first sent out the alert that Phillips and Pereira were missing. “Bruno was extremely responsible and experienced. He’s like a brother to me. He wouldn’t just get lost like that out there.”
Phillips, a longtime freelance correspondent in Brazil who specialized in the Amazon, was researching a book project on conservations efforts in the forest. His work took him to Atalaia do Norte, the gateway to the Javari Valley, a massive forest considered the world’s largest repository of uncontacted peoples. He was accompanied by Pereira, who once oversaw the regional government Indigenous agency, Funai, but was not with Phillips in an official capacity.
The men were in contact with Orlando Possuelo, an Indigenous rights worker, launched an initiative last year to train Indigenous groups to defend themselves against attacks by land invaders seizing resources from their land.
An Indigenous TikTok user in the Amazon posted a video of herself eating beetle larva. Now she has 6 million followers.
The work had made him enemies, Possuelo said. They were pressuring illegal fishermen in the Indigenous reserve, who had begun to respond aggressively.
This was the region into which Phillips ventured with Pereira over the weekend, traveling down the Itaquaí River to interview Indigenous teams working to protect their territory. At some point, Possuelo said, they came into contact with an illegal fisherman who had previously made threats against Indigenous people. Possuelo said he was told the fisherman had brandished a gun.
“Bruno witnessed it all and took a picture,” Possuelo said. “The Indigenous were filming it, too. And Bruno was coming back with all of that evidence so that we could provide it to the authorities.”
Possuelo said he received a message from Pereira at 6 a.m. Sunday. He said they were going to pass by the riverside community of São Rafael on their way to Atalaia do Norte, perhaps an hour or two away by boat. Possuelo arranged to meet Pereira at 8 a.m., but he never arrived. Possuelo said he waited until 10 before heading out with another member of his team to search for them.
How Americans’ love of beef is helping destroy the Amazon rainforest
Possuelo said he retraced their steps to the location where they were last seen. He said he was told by an Indigenous surveillance team that a boat belonging to the illegal fisherman had been seen going down the river after Pereira’s boat passed.
“And from there, I haven’t had any hope,” Possuelo said. He said he has searched for two days with little government support but has found no sign of the men. He said he has given a report to police.
Possuelo did not provide the fisherman’s name. Federal police in Amazonas state didn’t respond to a request for comment. The Post was unable to independently confirm Possuelo’s account.
Indigenous leaders are asking for a more expansive effort to bring clarity to what happened to the two men. Marubo, the attorney, said the Indigenous union has prepared a report for authorities including the names of people they suspect were involved in the disappearances. They say the fisherman has fled into the forest.
Beto Marubo, a leader of the Marubo people, said the government needs to respond to the issue more forcefully. He called on Brazilian authorities to begin treating the disappearance not only as a search-and-rescue mission, but also a criminal investigation.
“My frustration goes beyond just a slow search mission,” he said. “We need to know the motives and circumstances behind the disappearance of Dom and Bruno. These are armed gangs that are causing violence not only against Indigenous, but also our partners. There needs to be investigation by police.” | 2022-06-07T17:46:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Dom Phillips Amazon disappearance: British journalist missing in Brazil - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/07/dom-phillips-disappearance-brazil/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/07/dom-phillips-disappearance-brazil/ |
Stefano Pitrelli
Pope Francis waves after presiding over a service for peace in Ukraine and around the world on May 31. (Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images)
VATICAN CITY — The pain became obvious five months ago, when Pope Francis first started avoiding standing up. “An inflamed ligament in the knee,” the pope said, noting the condition is common among the elderly. He described it as a problem that would soon pass. But by late April, he said his right knee was “still not healing.” Soon after, he was using a wheelchair.
“I would like to apologize,” he said, telling pilgrims one morning that he couldn’t greet them on foot as usual.
Francis is still hoping that rest can restore his mobility. But in the meantime, his day-to-day life has changed along with the very image of his pontificate: At 85, his frailty is impossible to miss.
That has brought to the foreground questions about Francis’s future — whether his pontificate is nearing its endpoint, and whether he might consider stepping down.
Those inside and familiar with the Catholic Church talk about the topic with more seriousness than they did even a year ago, after Francis underwent colon surgery aimed at addressing a painful bowel condition.
And while the pope’s dependence on a wheelchair is a fundamental factor in the speculation, it has been amplified by his decision to call a consistory for Aug. 27 and install 21 new cardinals, including 16 younger than 80 who would be eligible to vote in a conclave. That huge influx means that Francis will have selected more than 60 percent of the figures who will pick his replacement, increasing the odds of — though hardly guaranteeing — a like-minded successor.
To some Vatican watchers, it’s a sign that Francis feels urgency about preparing the church for his departure.
“What is clear is that his pontificate has entered the declining final phase” where resignation becomes more feasible, said Massimo Faggioli, a Villanova University professor of theology. “He is aware that he is approaching the end of his pontificate.”
Provided Francis is still on the job by late October, he’ll become the oldest sitting pope since Clement XII, who died at age 87 in 1740.
Francis, for his part, has said that whenever a pope is ailing, talk of a conclave always follows like a “breeze or hurricane.”
But whether the endpoint comes in a matter of months or a couple of years is anybody’s guess, and this pontificate has been typified by its surprises.
In recent days, some Italian and international news reports have suggested that the pope’s abdication could be at hand — a theory based less on hard evidence than on eyebrow-raising over a series of unusual events slated for late August, starting with the consistory. Popes don’t normally call for consistories at the end of summer, when Rome is still in vacation shutdown mode. And the pope has scheduled a trip to the central Italian city of L’Aquila, where he’ll visit a basilica that hosts the tomb of Celestine V, one of the few popes to resign.
But for many in the Vatican, that tea-leaf reading goes too far: They don’t see signs that Francis is ready to step down.
“His [health] situation isn’t brilliant,” said one senior Vatican official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue. “But it’s not enough to impose a resignation.”
Unlike when John Paul II began using a wheelchair because of Parkinson’s disease, Francis still has his faculties. And Francis’s stamina remains considerable. Knee pain has caused him to skip only a few events, and he is going ahead with major trips in July to central Africa — the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan — and Canada. Francis is also planning a trip to Kazakhstan in September.
The biggest obstacle to the pope’s abdication, though, has nothing to do with his schedule. The conventional thinking in the Vatican is that Francis would be reluctant to step down while Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is still alive. Benedict, 95, has now been an ex-pope for a longer period than he served as pope, and his presence — and occasional interjections about happenings in the church — have complicated Francis’s pontificate. Having two ex-popes at once would figure to be even trickier.
Pope Benedict, in retired seclusion, looms in the opposition to Pope Francis
Before Benedict’s historic resignation in 2013, stepping down hadn’t even figured as an option for modern popes, who served until death. Francis has made it clear that Benedict’s decision “should not be considered an exception.” But Benedict’s move, which came without any forewarnings, also created an environment in which future popes will face more scrutiny about whether and how they’ll leave the job.
“I think this sort of chatter is inevitable,” said Austen Ivereigh, a Francis biographer. “Benedict opened the door to every future pope discerning whether, when the time comes, it’s right to stand down.”
Ivereigh met with Francis recently and did not come away with the sense that a resignation is imminent. Ivereigh said Francis had a difficult experience with anesthesia related to his colon operation and so is adamant about avoiding surgery on his knee. He is receiving physiotherapy.
“He was suffering from pain, and he was tired,” Ivereigh said of the pope during their meeting. “I just asked him how he was. He said things have improved, actually. He’s using a cane at least some of the time.”
Among the Catholic public, Francis’s reputation has been shaped foremost by his messaging on global issues such as migration and climate change, and on hot-button church topics such as sexuality. But within Vatican bureaucracy, just as crucial is the way Francis has changed the body of cardinals that will one day select his replacement.
He has bypassed bishops from archdioceses that normally have cardinals — Milan, for example — and reached into countries traditionally represented less, such as East Timor, Guatemala, Mongolia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. After the next consistory, the number of voting-age cardinals from Asia and Africa will have nearly doubled, compared with the conclave that elected Francis.
That shift has only added to the unpredictability that figures to come with the next conclave. Even with nine years of Francis appointments, cardinals selected by conservatives Benedict and John Paul II will still represent 37 percent of the group. Their voices will be crucial for any future pope to reach the two-thirds threshold. And relative to periods under previous pontiffs, the so-called College of Cardinals has been gathering less frequently during Francis’s tenure — a trend that was in place even before the pandemic.
They will soon have the chance to get to know one another.
Francis said that two days after the consistory — and one day after the trip to L’Aquila — the church’s cardinals will gather for two days to “reflect” on the new constitution that has reshaped the Roman Curia, the Vatican’s bureaucracy.
For that gathering, Francis has not indicated that anything else will be on the agenda. | 2022-06-07T17:46:50Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Pope Francis resignation questions swirl as he uses a wheelchair - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/07/pope-francis-resignation-wheelchair/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/07/pope-francis-resignation-wheelchair/ |
Marina Ovsyannikova, a Russian Channel One employee, holding a poster that reads as "No War" and condemns Moscow's military action in Ukraine, in Moscow on March 14. (AFP)
When Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova flashed a sign protesting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine on Russia’s main evening newscast in March, she had no plan for what would come next. Three months later, she is living in limbo between Russia, where she faces gave danger, and the West, where she has yet to be fully accepted. Many like her, who once worked for the Kremlin but decided to switch sides, are asking for more support.
I interviewed Ovsyannikova late last month in Oslo, where she received the Vaclav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent at the Oslo Freedom Forum — prompting reactions that ranged from praise to disgust. Ukrainian American journalist Irena Chalupa wrote a letter to the Human Rights Foundation, which granted the award, stating that Havel “would have been absolutely appalled” that Ovsyannikova received an honor bearing his name.
Dealing with accusations and hate has become routine for Ovsyannikova, who spent more than a decade producing pro-Kremlin propaganda at Russia’s premier state-controlled television channel. But her story raises a larger issue: Can we find a way to embrace people from inside Putin’s regime and its organs who now want to help us work against him?
Ovsyannikova understands why many in the West are skeptical of her. She says she harbors deep guilt about misinforming the Russian people for a living. She had been disillusioned about her job for years, as are many Russian journalists working for pro-Kremlin outlets, she told me. For a long time, she says, she didn’t have the courage to give up her comfortable life. But now that life is in disarray.
Since leaving Russia in March, Ovsyannikova has been living out of a suitcase, traveling around Europe doing temporary work for the German media company that owns the newspaper Die Welt. She hasn’t seen her two children, who don’t understand why she upended their lives and left them in Moscow. She wants to return to Russia but doesn’t know whether she’ll be safe there, given that she has continued to speak out against Putin and his war.
“I don’t want to emigrate, because I am a patriot. I hope I can live in Russia because now it will be a difficult time for my country,” she told me. “If they put me in jail, that will be my punishment for working for so long for Kremlin propaganda.”
Ovsyannikova has been attacked from all sides ever since she charged onto the set of Channel One’s news program “Vremya” on March 14 holding a sign that said, in part, “Stop the war. Don’t believe propaganda. They are lying to you.”
The Kremlin initially called her a British spy, but after interrogating her for 14 hours straight, the police released her with a fine. She believes the Russian authorities were spooked by the publicity when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly thanked her and French President Emmanuel Macron offered her political asylum.
That didn’t stop Ukraine’s information security bureau from reporting that she was still an active Russian asset, sent to the West to do Putin’s bidding by arguing against sanctions on Russia. Members of Russia’s internal political opposition have also attacked her online, she said. The Kremlin is now supporting the story that she’s a Federal Security Service (FSB) spy, she claimed, to undermine her credibility in the West.
“The Kremlin is lying all the time and always changing their lies,” she told me. “It’s an information war, and I am suddenly inside this information war.”
As time goes by, it seems more and more clear Ovsyannikova is who she claims to be — a Russian who decided to stop telling Putin’s lies and started to call them out. That doesn’t excuse her past actions, she told me, but it does mean that she and others like her should be supported when they risk everything to break with the Russian system.
“You must support people like me, because if you are fighting people like me, nobody else from state media will want to do the same thing that I did,” she said. “My ex-colleagues are watching my fate.”
As many have pointed out, the U.S. and European governments should be doing much more to help all kinds of Russian opposition figures, dissidents and other professionals currently fleeing Russia who have found themselves without proper support when they decide to reject living under Putin’s cruel rule. When Russians are treated poorly in Western countries, this feeds Russian propaganda and actually helps Putin, Ovsyannikova said.
“Some Russian people are against the war, some people are for the war, and then there are a lot of people in the middle. They don’t understand what is happening and they are just watching the situation and they are afraid,” she said. It’s those people in the middle, she says, whom opponents of the war have to win over.
Western governments need to have a plan for people like Ovsyannikova. There must be space for Russians with imperfect records to oppose Putin and help further erode his internal support. It doesn’t matter how they got here. Now, everyone who is opposed to Putin and his war must set aside their grievances and join together to stop him.
Vladimir Kara-Murza from jail: The worst nightmare for political prisoners | 2022-06-07T18:00:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Marina Ovsyannikova blew up her life to protest Putin’s war. Now she’s in limbo. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/marina-ovsyannikovarussia-journalist-opposed-war-on-state-tv-putin-ukraine/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/marina-ovsyannikovarussia-journalist-opposed-war-on-state-tv-putin-ukraine/ |
The man behind Library of Congress’s recorded sound collection
Matt Barton is the curator of recorded sound at the Library of Congress. (Jennifer Chase for The Washington Post)
Matthew Barton, 61, is the curator of recorded sound at the Library of Congress, where he has worked since 2003. He lives in Fairfax, Va.
Your job sounds amazing to me.
Yeah, well, it is a great job. Parts of it can be a little tedious or redundant at times, but I am working with this amazing collection of recordings of all types. And not just music; there’s speeches, poetry, sound effects, radio broadcasts, all kinds of things. It’s a great array of types of recordings, but also formats. So it takes in the whole history of recorded sound, how it’s been done over the years from cylinders to the digital recordings of the present.
Is there something you consider the most essential recording in the collection?
Oh, gosh. I mean, the collection is 3.8 million recordings. So I guess I can’t zero in on one thing. I have my favorite bands, my favorite artists. But it’s really the totality of it. We do have things that take you far beyond just the sound bites of history that you usually get. Like the raw, unedited interviews that we have from journalists and radio producers and sportscasters. We’ve got some great sports collections of recordings of not just games, but in-depth interviews with players. And that includes the legends, but it also includes people or athletes who are a lot less legendary, but nonetheless very interesting.
Today there are billions of ways that people can create and collect sounds. How do you decide what gets in the collection or not?
Yeah, it just seems to increase exponentially all the time. We are just now getting our arms around the whole podcasting phenomenon. That’s a situation where we’re trying to do two things: Get the early podcasts that do survive somewhere and trying to collect a representative sample of the podcasts being created. I mean, we could probably hire several full-time curators just to work on that if you wanted it to be comprehensive.
If you just had a free morning to listen to whatever you wanted to in the collection, what would you seek out?
It would probably be something in the broadcast collection. Very early in the pandemic, when we were figuring out what to do as we were teleworking, I listened to about 12 hours of coverage that we have from CBS News covering May 6th and May 7th, 1945, the end of the war in Europe. And that I found absolutely fascinating. I learned a great deal of history that was not in the books anymore. There were reports, true, of the German surrender [that] were not confirmed for more than 24 hours. So meanwhile, the war goes on. People started to celebrate because there had been an official announcement on German radio, but it was not confirmed by any of the allies.
There’s probably no chance that there’s 18.5 minutes of Nixon tapes buried in the collections?
[Laughs.] Well, those tapes are with National Archives, so you can ask them.
What percentage of the collection is available to the public online?
Very little. We do have a number of things online. There’s the national jukebox, first of all, which are pre-1925 recordings, most of them in the public domain, so we can do that. And there are some of the interview collections.
What do you listen to on your commute to work?
All kinds of things. Most days I carpool, and yeah, I am the one who usually brings in stuff to listen to. Yesterday I was listening to something with some local significance, which was a box set called “R&B in D.C.” It’s a multi-disc set tracing the history of rhythm and blues and gospel and other styles recorded in Washington, D.C., from the ’40s to the ’60s. And there’s some well-known people in there, but then there’s people who never had anything except maybe some local renown. But it’s a fantastic collection of of music.
Okay, my big question: Why is the collection important?
Well, one of the nicest and most perceptive things that anybody has ever said to me about our work came from a gentleman who said, “You know, I think this place, the work you do here, I think it’s like the national parks.” And I thought: Ah, well, that’s it. This is the national parks of culture, of history, of memory. | 2022-06-07T18:17:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The man behind Library of Congress’s recorded sound collection - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/06/07/library-of-congress-curated-sound-recordings/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/06/07/library-of-congress-curated-sound-recordings/ |
Record heat is forecast to visit Las Vegas and Phoenix on Friday and Saturday. Death Valley could see highs top 120.
The National Weather Service's forecast for high temperatures on June 11. (WeatherBell)
Temperatures are set to soar in Texas and the Desert Southwest this week, with readings topping 110 degrees and an escalating danger of heat-related illnesses. The National Weather Service is calling the heat “dangerous,” “extreme” and “excessive,” warning vulnerable populations to take steps to ensure access to cooling resources.
By early next week, the heat will abate some in parts of the Southwest, but any relief will come at the cost of increasingly gusty winds, which could bolster the risk of rapid fire spread.
The sizzling temperatures mark the start of the hottest time of year in the Desert Southwest, which usually persists through at least June before the summer monsoon kicks in and sometimes brings cooling clouds and storm chances
Extended weather forecasts could aid power grid stability, renewables
In Texas, some of the most extreme heat is predicted Tuesday, focusing west of Interstate 35, especially southwest of Midland across the Davis Mountains, Marfa Plateau and Big Bend areas. This zone is under an excessive heat warning, and a few locations could see highs between 110 and 117 degrees.
Record highs between 105 and 107 degrees are forecast around Midland, Abilene and San Angelo.
It’s been a scorching start to 2022 in Midland, which has already hit at least 100 on 12 days, twice as many times as in 2021.
The heat will then expand west Wednesday into the weekend.
The National Weather Service has plastered much of southeast California, southern Nevada and southern Arizona with excessive heat watches. That’s where the hottest weather will occur between Thursday and Sunday.
Death Valley — home to the highest temperature measured on the planet — is forecast to see highs over 120 degrees Friday and Saturday — near records for the time of year.
Las Vegas could also challenge records Friday and Saturday, with highs around 108 or 109 degrees.
An excessive heat watch covers the Phoenix area Wednesday through Monday. The city is forecast to hit 110 degrees on Wednesday and Thursday before lurching to 112 on Thursday and 113 on Friday. Friday’s high should set a record, beating out the 111 degree reading in 1978. Records in Phoenix date from 1895.
Daily record highs AND warm lows are forecast to tie or be broken at a few locations later this week and weekend, including in Phoenix. This heat should be taken seriously by all, regardless of whether a record is broken. Please head watches and warnings. #azwx #cawx pic.twitter.com/zglqJXhCp7
In Yuma, Ariz., along the Colorado River on the California-Arizona border, both weekend days should peak around 113 degrees. Yuma is such a hot place that records will not be in jeopardy. That said, an excessive heat watch is in effect.
Potentially most hazardous are overnight lows, which will be hard-pressed to dip below 80 degrees. Most residences in this part of the country are equipped with air conditioning, but in places where that’s not the case or for those experiencing homelessness, warm overnight lows can make it tough for the human body to cool down. Older adults and other vulnerable populations can suffer disproportionately because of the added stress on their bodies.
Strong high pressure systems, commonly referred to as “heat domes,” tend to bring a summer’s hottest weather. That’s because they deflect the jet stream to the north, which means any inclement weather, storm system and cloud bank gets shunted over the northern Intermountain West. Instead, sinking air brings sunny skies and dry conditions, which allow the region to heat up quickly.
Across the Southern Plains and Texas, little change in this weather pattern is expected for days. Most of central, south and west Texas will sit near or just above the century mark through at least early next week. | 2022-06-07T18:17:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 'Extreme' heat to bake Texas, Southwest with highs topping 110 degrees - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/06/07/heat-wave-texas-southwest-phoenix/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/06/07/heat-wave-texas-southwest-phoenix/ |
Kansas woman who joined ISIS pleads guilty to terrorism charge
Allison Fluke-Ekren, 42, admitted that she was the leader of a female battalion that prepared to defend Islamic State-controlled territory.
A Kansas-born woman who led an all-female Islamic State battalion and trained others to use assault rifles, grenades and suicide explosives pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to provide material support for terrorism.
Allison Fluke-Ekren, 42, admitted in federal district court in Alexandria that she was the leader of the Khatiba Nusaybah, a female battalion that prepared to defend Islamic State-controlled Raqqa, Syria, in 2017. She faces up to 20 years in prison.
Researchers who study extremism say that hundreds of Western women have joined or given support to the Islamic State but that Fluke-Ekren is the first U.S. woman to be prosecuted for a leadership role in the Islamist militant group.
Some friends and family from Fluke-Ekren’s days in Kansas City and Topeka, where she grew up as Allison Elizabeth Brooks, have said they are shocked she turned to extremism. After studying biology at the University of Kansas and pursuing a master’s degree in teaching at an Indiana college, Fluke-Ekren moved with her children and second husband to Egypt in 2008 and aided terrorist groups for more than six years while in Iraq, Libya and Syria, according to documents filed with her plea.
“Over 100 women and young girls received military training from Fluke-Ekren in Syria on behalf of ISIS,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Raj Parekh of the Eastern District of Virginia wrote in a court filing in January, describing Fluke-Ekren as “a fervent believer in the radical terrorist ideology of ISIS for many years.”
Federal prosecutors disclosed Tuesday that Fluke-Ekren assisted leaders of Ansar al-Sharia, the terrorist group behind the 2012 attack that killed four Americans in Libya, by providing summaries of documents she said her husband had stolen from a U.S. compound in Benghazi in the aftermath of the strike. Fluke-Ekren was not accused of involvement in the attack itself.
By 2016, Fluke-Ekren’s husband oversaw Islamic State snipers in Syria, and she was a rare female leader in Islamic State-controlled Raqqa, organizing child care, medical services and education, according to documents filed with her plea. She also trained women and young girls to use AK-47 rifles, grenades and explosive suicide belts to help men defend from enemy attacks, the documents say.
In 2017, the Islamic State mayor of Raqqa named Fluke-Ekren the leader of the Khatiba Nusaybah, an all-female brigade that gave medical training and religious classes, as well as martial arts instruction, courses on vehicle bombings and how to pack a “go bag” with rifles and military supplies, she admitted in the plea documents. Fluke-Ekren provided only some of this training herself, the documents say.
U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema scheduled Fluke-Ekren’s sentencing for Oct. 25 and said the government had gathered “more than enough evidence” to prove her guilt.
Fluke-Ekren initially said she didn’t purposefully train children, though when pressed by the judge, she agreed with prosecutors that she had given military training to over 100 women and young girls.
“We didn’t intentionally train any young girls,” Fluke-Ekren said at the hearing Tuesday. “They may have been in attendance.”
Fluke-Ekren was captured in Syria and transferred to U.S. custody in January. She appeared in court Tuesday wearing a black hijab and white face mask, and began to sob near the end of the hearing when Brinkema mentioned her children. Her attorney, Joseph King, said she was not charged with violent offenses. Fluke-Ekren admitted she had ideas for a mass-casualty strike in the United States that were never put in action.
Amy Amer, an American writer based in Turkey, said she was close friends with Fluke-Ekren after they met in Kansas City in the 2000s, and kept in touch with her until 2016.
“Was she religious? Yes. She was from Middle America. Before she was Muslim, she was like a Bible-beating Christian,” Amer said. “However, she was a teen mom, highly intelligent, highly intelligent. We used to talk about parenting, reading novels. She liked reading. She was normal.”
The U.S. government had lined up witnesses to testify in court who would describe how Fluke-Ekren’s involvement with the Islamic State continued after her second, third and fourth husbands were killed while working for the Islamic State, according to documents filed with the plea. A woman with Islamic State ties told investigators that Fluke-Ekren had the idea in 2014 to bomb a U.S. college in the Midwest. One witness who received military training as a girl in Syria said Fluke-Ekren later told her “it was important to kill the kuffar,” an Arabic word for disbelievers, according to a nine-page statement of facts signed by Fluke-Ekren and Parekh.
Some experts say that the Islamic State uses images of women in combat primarily as a propaganda tool and deploys female fighters only as a last resort. They said Fluke-Ekren stood out among other Western women who joined the Islamic State because she was not coerced into the group and eventually attained a leadership role overseeing other women in Raqqa.
“Ideologically, what the Islamic State believes is the idea of personal duty. When the motherland is under attack, it becomes a personal duty of men, women or children to take part in the defense,” said Devorah Margolin, who studies the role of women in violent Islamic movements at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University. “Women are never used in offensive positions, but what is ‘defense’ can, of course, be subjective by the group.”
Elena Pokalova, a professor who studies extremism at the Defense Department’s College of International Security Affairs in the National Defense University, noted that Islamic State leaders in the fall of 2017 called on women to support male fighters by preparing to fight and “readying to sacrifice themselves to defend the religion of Allah.” The call appeared in a former Islamic State publication, al-Naba, she said.
“Jihadist groups usually avoid using women (in combat) because that is perceived to be against the religion they use to pursue their ideology,” Pokalova said. “You can see how their roles were getting more and more active as the group itself started losing territory, the territory of the caliphate.”
Margolin called Fluke-Ekren’s turn to extremism the “worst-case scenario we’ve been talking about since 2011.”
“It is a woman from a Western country, the United States, becoming part of this. She wasn’t brainwashed, she wasn’t trafficked. … She is someone who absolutely decided to go, and once there, absolutely leaned in,” Margolin said.
While seeking to evade capture in 2018 by U.S. authorities, Fluke-Ekren said she wanted to die a martyr in Syria and claimed she was dead in a message she arranged to be sent to her family, the plea documents say.
Fluke-Ekren said in the plea that “after separating from her fifth husband, she went to the local police station near Qabasin, Syria in the summer of 2021 and attempted to turn herself in.” She said she was held for approximately seven months in a Syrian prison, according to the plea documents.
Relatives and friends from the United States watched Fluke-Ekren’s life in the Islamic State unfold with astonishment.
One family member who was with Fluke-Ekren in Iraq and Syria told U.S. investigators how the former Kansas mom “explained that she could go to a shopping mall in the United States, park a vehicle full of explosives in the basement or parking garage level of the structure, and detonate the explosives in the vehicle with a cell phone triggering device,” according to court documents.
Fluke-Ekren’s parents and adult children want no contact with her, Parekh said during a court hearing in January. One family member, Parekh said at the hearing Tuesday, “told me that the defendant has left a ‘trail of betrayal.’”
Amer, the former friend, said she and Fluke-Ekren moved together from the Midwest to Cairo and applied to become teachers. Years later, when Fluke-Ekren visited Amer in Turkey, something had changed.
“She started talking about the Islamic caliphate and how we should help them,” Amer said. “And I was like, what? I was confused.” | 2022-06-07T18:18:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Kansas mom Allison Fluke-Ekren who joined ISIS pleads guilty to terrorism charge - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/07/kansas-mom-pleads-guilty-to-terrorism/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/07/kansas-mom-pleads-guilty-to-terrorism/ |
John Fetterman shows the challenge Democrats face in Middle America
(Jeff Swensen for The Washington Post)
Democrats are tearing their hair out trying to figure out how to win back ground they’ve lost in recent years, particularly in small towns and rural areas. Even as they have become more competitive in states like Georgia and Arizona, they’ve watched formerly purple states such as Iowa and Ohio slip further away, as white voters there find voting Democratic less and less appealing. Among some Democrats, reversing those losses has become an obsession.
The deeper you explore this question, the clearer two things become: First, the challenge is not insurmountable. Second, the ease with which a bunch of dishonest, phony Republicans won over those voters, and how difficult it is for Democrats to win them back, is utterly maddening.
A comprehensive new report from the progressive group American Family Voices shows the complexity of this challenge. And new ads from Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for Senate, show both the opportunity and the difficulty of winning back that ground.
As the AFV report documents, over the last decade Democrats have increased their vote totals in cities and suburbs, but lost votes in both rural areas and small and midsize counties where manufacturing is critical. Their decline in those places has shifted the political landscape of the Midwest in particular, making states Democrats (sometimes) win closer than they used to be and putting states like Ohio seemingly out of reach.
Here’s how the report summarizes what voters in these industrial — or formerly industrial — places have faced in recent years:
Unions, often under aggressive attack by Republican governors and legislatures, have lost strength. Trade deals not written with workers in mind hit this region harder than anywhere. The financialization of the economy that created giant global conglomerates and benefited Wall Street and Silicon Valley sucked money out of these counties. The financial crisis and the opioid epidemic hit these counties like a ton of bricks. Covid was another big blow, followed by the gut punch of inflation.
Although the report stresses that many voters in these places blame both parties for some of the hardships that have played out over decades, only Democrats seem to wind up paying the electoral price for it.
There’s some common advice to Democrats to begin reversing their declines: Show up. Listen to people. Demonstrate respect. Be authentic.
Which is all fine, but it raises the question: Why don’t Republicans have to do any of those things?
That brings us to Fetterman. He’s running this ad to kick off his general election campaign:
In this campaign ad, Marianne, Pa. resident 'Braxton W.' says Washington, D.C. has hurt his town, so he is supporting John Fetterman for U.S. Senate. (Video: John Fetterman)
The identified enemy to blame for Pennsylvania’s problems is “Washington, D.C.,” with the evils being “bad deals that sent away our jobs” and opioids. Fetterman is the contrast, tattooed and goateed, clad in Carhartt, coming from the hardscrabble town of Braddock (where he served as mayor for 13 years). Except for some policy positions printed on the screen that you’d miss if you weren’t watching closely, there’s almost nothing identifiably Democratic about the ad.
This second ad makes Fetterman’s unique persona even more explicit:
John Fetterman, Pennsylvania's lieutenant governor since 2019, is the state's Democratic nominee in the 2022 U.S. Senate election. (Video: John Fetterman)
This is not a model anyone else could follow, since Fetterman is such a singular personality. It also doesn’t hurt that Fetterman’s opponent is Mehmet Oz, a celebrity doctor who grew up in Ohio and lives in New Jersey; he registered to vote at his in-laws’ house in Pennsylvania because the state happened to have an open Senate seat. Oz has reinvented himself as a Trump-loving gun enthusiast; even people who will vote for him probably think he’s a gigantic phony.
That’s what’s so striking: In order to pass the test, a Democrat has to be utterly brimming with “authenticity.” But ask yourself: who are the “authentic” Republicans who speak to middle America? Is it the con man from New York who wears makeup and took a $70,000 tax deduction for hairstyling? How about Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, the son of a banker, graduate of prep school then Stanford then Yale Law, who rails against “the elite”? Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, perhaps the least “authentic” human being currently alive on Planet Earth?
The point is not that Fetterman is running only on personality; he has plenty of things to say about policy, most of it quite progressive. But as much as Democrats might like his chances, the fact that his kind of profile is required to have a chance of winning over some meaningful proportion of white voters in small towns and rural areas, when any blow-dried Republican in a suit can be guaranteed most of their votes, is enough to make a Democrat despair.
The AFV report argues that Democrats need to “deliver more tangible and noticeable economic benefits to these counties and voters, and then talk about what they have done.” Which is all well and good, but experience has taught us that won’t be enough.
Republicans can get away with doing absolutely nothing to help people in these places; all it takes is poking at their resentments and anger to win them over to the GOP. Democrats, on the other hand, have to do everything: offer tangible results, bulletproof authenticity, and a convincing story about the past and the future that overcomes their reluctance to vote Democratic.
It can be done. But it sure won’t be easy. | 2022-06-07T18:19:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | John Fetterman shows the challenge Democrats face in Middle America - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/fetterman-challenge-democrats-middle-america/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/fetterman-challenge-democrats-middle-america/ |
Such laws, also known as ‘extreme-risk protection orders,’ are popular and are embraced by some Republican politicians. But some gun-rights activists say they violate the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.
Perspective by Joseph Blocher
Joseph Blocher is the Lanty L. Smith ’67 professor of law and co-director of the Center for Firearms Law at Duke Law School.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul holds 11-month-old Terrence Trafton, the son of New York Assembly Member Chantel Jackson (bottom L), after a bill signing ceremony for new gun safety legislation at a community center in the Bronx, June 6. The legislation included a broadening of the state's 'red flag' law that allows courts to seize the weapons of anyone determined to be a danger to themselves or to others, (EPA-EFE-REX/Shutterstock) (Justin Lane/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
“Red flag” laws, which allow guns to be temporarily taken from people who pose a risk of harm to themselves or others, are one of the few gun-safety regulations that currently have bipartisan support. “I’m generally inclined to think some kind of red-flag law is a good idea,” Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said last week, after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Key senators have told reporters it’s possible an agreement could be reached this week on legislation that would include a provision incentivizing more states to pass such laws.
There is strong popular support for red-flag laws — also known as extreme-risk laws — in both parties, and more than a dozen states have adopted them in the past few years alone (bringing the total to 19 plus the District of Columbia). Social science research suggests that they work, most strikingly in preventing gun suicides.
So what prevents their wider adoption, including at the federal level? Some gun-rights advocates and their allies in Congress say they violate the due process clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. “Depriving citizens of Life, Liberty, or Property, without Due Process, is a clear violation of our Constitution,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) tweeted last week. “Every member of Congress swears an oath to ‘support and defend’ the Constitution. Voting for, or introducing, Red Flag Laws is a blatant violation of that oath.”
But such criticisms are off base. Politicians considering red-flag laws, whether in Congress or state legislatures, should do so based on an accurate understanding of what the Constitution requires. It indeed guarantees “due process of law” whenever the government seeks to deprive a person of “life, liberty, or property.” But the basic design of existing extreme-risk laws is fully consistent with constitutional commands, as we showed in a recent law review article.
What the research says about gun laws
In the states where they exist, here’s how red-flag laws work: A limited set of people — law enforcement officers, family or household members, and sometimes others — can petition a judge to issue an “extreme-risk protection order” (ERPO) requiring a person to temporarily surrender his or her firearms and refrain from acquiring new ones. Depending on the state, the burden of proof the petitioner must meet (to establish that the gun owner indeed presents a risk) varies from “probable cause” to “clear and convincing” evidence. If the petition is successful, the court can enter a short-term emergency ERPO, usually lasting two weeks or less. In many cases, that’s all that is needed — the crisis can be averted. A longer-term ERPO can only be entered after a full hearing at which the petitioner again bears the burden of proof, usually at a higher threshold, and at which the gun owner can contest the order.
If there is a constitutional flaw in this basic structure, it has apparently escaped notice of the entire United States judiciary: Courts have unanimously rejected Second Amendment and due process challenges to ERPO laws, and for good reason.
Perhaps surprisingly, the Second Amendment has not been the focus of the constitutional complaints. That’s because even ardent Second Amendment defenders like Justice Amy Coney Barrett recognize that “legislatures have the power to prohibit dangerous people from possessing guns” — as Barrett wrote in 2019 case, when she was a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Courts reviewing extreme-risk laws have upheld them on that very basis. In 2016, for example, a Connecticut appellate court relied on U.S. Supreme Court precedent in holding that Connecticut’s statute “does not implicate the second amendment, as it does not restrict the right of law-abiding, responsible citizens to use arms in defense of their homes.”
The crux of the political debate has therefore focused on due process — although due-process challenges to red-flag laws have fared no better. Nor should they have. A prime complaint about red-flag laws is that they allow an order to issue before the gun owner has an opportunity to contest the evidence, but the Supreme Court has long recognized that there are “extraordinary situations where some valid governmental interest is at stake that justifies postponing the hearing until after the event,” as Justice John Marshall Harlan II wrote in a 1971 case. Examples include restraining orders filed by one domestic partner against another, civil commitments for mental illness and the temporary removal of children from parental custody in emergency situations (for instance, when there are credible allegations of abuse). In situations like these, delaying urgent action until after a full hearing can lead to catastrophic outcomes.
Given that the Constitution allows emergency action to temporarily remove a person’s child before a full hearing, it’s hard to argue that it prohibits emergency action to temporarily remove a person’s guns. Quite simply, the Constitution does not require society to wait until the trigger is pulled.
Though they vary in their particulars, existing extreme-risk laws contain several important procedural safeguards that the Supreme Court has recognized help to forestall abuse and ensure due process. They impose the burden on the petitioner to convince an independent third party; they guarantee active judicial oversight and provide a prompt hearing focusing on the degree of risk; and many states provide specific criminal penalties for filing false or harassing extreme-risk petitions ( in addition to existing punishments for perjury).
Understanding constitutional requirements is important not only for lawyers and judges, but for those debating gun regulation in public discourse. Time and again, arguments based on misunderstandings of the Constitution have been used to derail reasonable gun regulation. After Sandy Hook, for example, an overwhelming majority of Americans wanted to expand the existing system of background checks for gun sales. Of the minority opposed — some strongly so — the most common reason was that doing so would violate the Second Amendment, yet that position has no support in legal doctrine.
We should not once again make the mistake of blaming the Constitution for inaction on gun laws. The structure of extreme-risk laws is entirely consistent with not only the Second Amendment but also the constitutional guarantee of due process. | 2022-06-07T18:19:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | No, red-flag gun laws don’t violate due process rights - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/07/red-flag-gun-laws-constitution-due-process/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/07/red-flag-gun-laws-constitution-due-process/ |
Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Schafer talks with reporters at the Georgia Capitol Building in Atlanta on Dec. 14, 2020. Georgia Republicans cast their own electoral votes for Trump, despite Joe Biden having won the state. (Kevin D. Liles for The Washington Post)
On Dec. 14, 2020, at least 59 Republicans signed legal documents falsely claiming to be “duly” chosen electors for Donald Trump in the electoral college, despite Trump having lost their states in the 2020 election. And one key question the Jan. 6 committee will dive into when its public hearings begin Thursday is whether this was part of a criminal effort.
The story is at once central to what the committee has been investigating but has also developed somewhat belatedly around the periphery of its probe into the pro-Trump riots at the U.S. Capitol. That seems to be in part because of the complexity and lack of precedent for such a situation.
Timing aside, the issue of “fake electors” is still important — if not necessarily for the legal liability of the “fake electors,” then for the much-broader alleged conspiracy.
Let’s recap what we know about fake electors, along with what it means.
The basics: Republicans in seven states Trump had lost to Joe Biden submitted alternate slates of electors. The seven states were Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The idea was to have the alternate slates in place to compete with the official slates certified by those states, so that Congress could accept them instead of the official slates. Without those alternate slates, any effort to overturn the election on Jan. 6 was even more doomed to failure.
The effort was billed by its participants as a contingency. Electors must sign certificates on Dec. 14 to be deemed valid, and Republicans behind the effort said they simply wanted them in place in case the election results were overturned by the courts. In a couple of states — New Mexico and Pennsylvania — this contingency was expressly written into the document. In the others, it wasn’t — a key fact that we’ll come back to.
From the standpoint of democracy, this is highly objectionable. There was absolutely no evidence on Dec. 14 to truly call the election results into question. And despite no evidence emerging come Jan. 6, these alternate slates of electors figured prominently in an extraordinary and increasingly desperate plot to overturn an American election. Those close to Trump tried to get Vice President Mike Pence to leverage the nonexistent uncertainty about the election to suggest the official slates were invalid or suspect, at which point the alternate Trump slates could be selected.
Which brings us to the legal questions. The first is whether those who signed up to be fake electors broke the law. The second is whether their efforts, regardless of the electors’ legal liability, reinforced a broader conspiracy.
Let’s start with the first one.
The latest news: The Washington Post on Monday reported that a Trump campaign official instructed the fake electors that were gathering in Georgia to operate in “complete secrecy.” Robert Sinners told them to tell security guards at the Georgia Capitol — where they were legally required to meet — that they were there to meet with state senators.
“Please, at no point should you mention anything to do with Presidential Electors or speak to the media,” Sinners wrote in an email the day before, Dec. 13. He now says in a statement that he was operating at the direction of senior campaign officials and the chairman of the Georgia GOP, David Shafer.
Plenty of critics wagered after the report Monday that this reinforced that those involved were conscious that what they were doing was problematic or even illegal.
It’s too early to say that. It’s not the first time someone involved has emphasized secrecy. But there are alternate explanations, including security concerns — as one fake elector from Wisconsin cited to CNN — and that Georgia Capitol had restricted access at the time. Fake electors were denied access to New Mexico’s Roundhouse and to the state capitol in Michigan, for instance. There’s also the fact that many involved in the process, in multiple states, including Georgia, actually promoted their efforts. Shafer himself invited cameras to document it and spoke publicly shortly afterward. (Shafer has denied saying he told others to emphasize secrecy.)
Even if they were proud of it, of course, the effort or some aspect of it could still be criminal. There’s a potentially compelling case to be made that at least some of these documents were fraudulent and could be charged as forgery or even election fraud. That stems from the fact that the electors in five of the states — accounting for the 59 electors mentioned at the top — falsely claimed that they were the “duly elected” electors on a legal document. (Michigan’s fake Trump electors also falsely claimed they had cast their votes in the state capitol.) Philip Rotner has argued in the Bulwark that those were clearly crimes.
Another 25 electors in New Mexico and Pennsylvania, by contrast, merely stated that they would be duly elected if it were determined legally that Trump won the popular vote in their state. One could certainly read those contingencies to suggest they worried about the legal ramifications of claiming “duly elected” status if they didn’t invoke them. There’s also the fact that several people who were invited to be fake electors declined to take part. (Perhaps they simply didn’t agree with the effort or think it had a chance of success, but it reinforces how far-fetched all of this was, at the least.)
Democrats have leaned into charging the fake electors criminally. Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak’s (D) office has said “that is a crime, or ought to be a crime.” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) has also said there were crimes, referring the matter to the Justice Department while reserving her own right to charge them. New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas (D) has also referred it to the feds, and local prosecutors in both Georgia and Wisconsin have scrutinized the matter.
A big hurdle, according to legal experts, would be in proving that those involved actually intended to claim they were the “duly elected” electors. That’s distinct from, say, filing a document that would turn out to be necessary if the courts were somehow to have ultimately overturned a given state’s election results.
Which brings us to the potentially larger significance of this.
It might be difficult to prove the intent of the fake electors themselves, and to prosecute them. But what about those who guided the process and pushed for the alternate slates? Secrecy aside, The Post’s report late Monday adds to the record of Trump allies and aides such as Rudy Giuliani being involved in this process. And we know that some of the people around Trump regarded these slates of fake electors as having utility not just if the courts overturned the results, but even absent that — if Pence and Republicans in Congress were to attempt to do it themselves Jan. 6.
That’s a process that, in the estimation of Trump lawyer John Eastman, involved disregarding a federal law, the Electoral Count Act (which he viewed as unconstitutional). A federal judge ruled earlier this year that Eastman’s and Trump’s actions on this front were likely illegal. Eastman himself urged Georgia lawmakers, as early as Dec. 3, 2020, to “adopt a slate of electors yourself.” His first memo laying out the extraordinary plot would come in late December.
Getting to the bottom of how much these alternate slates of electors were coordinated by the Trump campaign, and what direction they were given and why, would seem to be the committee’s real goal here. Proving the fake electors themselves committed crimes could certainly further that effort — and several electors and others involved have cooperated with authorities looking into these matters — but it seems worthwhile to focus on the bigger picture when the Jan. 6 committee chews this over in the coming days and weeks.
On our radar in South Dakota: Who is Kristi Noem? | 2022-06-07T18:19:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The significance of Trump’s fake electors, explained - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/07/significance-trumps-fake-electors-explained/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/07/significance-trumps-fake-electors-explained/ |
What we know about the Proud Boys’ involvement in Jan. 6
Proud Boys members Zachary Rehl, left, and Ethan Nordean walk toward the U.S. Capitol in Washington, in support of President Donald Trump, on Jan. 6, 2021. (Carolyn Kaster/AP)
One of the interesting developments in our fragmented media age is the rise of the documentary filmmaker as a point of access. Where once coverage from a network news reporter or newspaper journalist was seen as desirable, the advent of social media has allowed those interested to reach the public directly without moderation. But a movie? That’s different and has a different appeal. There’s an importance to it.
So it is that some of the most intriguing developments related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol may derive from documentarians who were accompanying figures central to the day’s events. There was the crew accompanying Donald Trump’s longtime adviser Roger Stone who offered insights into both how Stone scrambled to get out of Washington that day and his interactions with members of the right-wing extremist group the Oath Keepers. And there was a documentarian filming members of another extremist group, the Proud Boys, whose experiences with the group will reportedly be a central part of the first public hearing of House select committee investigating the attack.
The Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers sit at a weird spot in the galaxy of events that surround the Capitol riot. According to federal indictments, each group arrived at a similar approach — be in Washington on that day, ready to fight — through different rationales and with different preparation. Neither was the sole or necessarily even the central reason that the riot occurred, but that each organization had multiple members that are understood to have participated in the riot prompted federal law enforcement to obtain sedition-related indictments. Members of the Oath Keepers were indicted on such charges in January; a superseding indictment adding seditious conspiracy charges against Proud Boys members was published Monday.
With the first public hearing scheduled for this week and the Proud Boys expected to feature prominently in the committee’s initial presentation to the public, it’s useful to walk through what we know about the group’s actions in the months before the riot.
It’s worth noting at the outset that the Proud Boys are an independent organization that nonetheless overlaps with Trump’s political world. Stone was friends with Enrique Tarrio, the Proud Boys’s leader in the period between the 2020 election and the Capitol riot. As the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) has written, “Proud Boys activity has been strongly correlated with the fortunes of former President Trump.” The group had earned a reputation for engaging in street violence with perceived political leftists, but by 2020 its focus was clear: ACLED notes that 97 of the 152 demonstrations in which Proud Boys participated that year “were explicitly in support of then-President Trump.”
Importantly, nearly all of those events came after Trump infamously called on the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” when asked to denounce the group during a presidential debate. It is likely that Trump simply fumbled the demand that he ask the Proud Boys to “stand down,” but the group took Trump’s spoken words at face value. From that September debate until the end of the year, the group was involved in 79 pro-Trump demonstrations.
This of course includes a number of events after Election Day. As was the case for many Trump supporters, the results of the 2020 contest infuriated many Proud Boys. The superseding indictment released Monday captures some sense of that.
“On November 16, 2020, TARRIO posted a message that read, ‘If Biden steals this election, [the Proud Boys] will be political prisoners. We won’t go quietly. ..I promise,’ ” it reads. Then: “On November 25, 2020, TARRIO reposted a social media post by Joe Biden that stated, ‘We need to remember: We’re at war with a virus — not with each other.’ TARRIO then posted, ‘No, YOU need to remember the American people are at war with YOU. No Trump...No peace. No quarter.’ ”
The Nov. 16 message came shortly after the “Million MAGA March” that was held in Washington in support of Trump. Members of the Proud Boys participated in that event, characteristically later engaging in street brawls with opponents. Some members of the group acted as bodyguards for conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
The Proud Boys returned to Washington on Dec. 12, two days before electors in each state formally cast the ballots that would cement Trump’s loss. While the protest at that point was smaller, the Proud Boys were singled out as a contributing factor for the violence that followed. Several churches were vandalized, with a Black Lives Matter banner removed from one and burned.
While the Oath Keepers had been planning for an armed response to Trump’s loss for some time, the Proud Boys appear to have been mobilized around Jan. 6 only after Trump tweeted that there would be a “wild” protest in D.C. on that day. According to the government’s indictment, Tarrio and other Proud Boys formed a new chapter of the organization on Dec. 20 called the Ministry of Self Defense (MOSD). The focus, Tarrio said, is “national rally planning.” Trump’s tweet encouraging people to come to Washington was posted Dec. 19.
The group began to prepare. As I detailed in a timeline in March, Tarrio on Dec. 27 created an encrypted chat focused on recruiting members for MOSD. Another Proud Boy started a crowdfunding campaign to buy protective gear for Jan. 6. (The details here and below come from federal indictments and are stipulated as having to be proven in court.)
On Dec. 29, Tarrio boasted about the group’s expected footprint on Jan. 6 — and how it would approach security. Proud Boys, he wrote in a public message, would “turn out in record numbers on Jan 6th but this time with a twist. … We will not be wearing our traditional Black and Yellow, We will be incognito and we will be spread across downtown DC in smaller teams, And who knows. .. we might dress in all BLACK for the occasion” — in an apparent effort to be perceived as antifa, a loose-knit left-wing group.
Shortly thereafter, someone sent Tarrio a nine-page plan titled “1776 Returns.” It included plans for occupying a number of buildings in Washington. In a video chat Dec. 30, Tarrio told members of MOSD that what would happen on Jan. 6 would be “completely different” than the group’s past demonstrations, and wouldn’t simply be a “night march and flexing.”
On Jan. 3, members of the MOSD secure chat posted messages about overwhelming the Capitol. ”[W]hat would they do [if] 1 million patriots stormed and took the capital building,” one wrote. “Shoot into the crowd? I think not.”
The next day, one member posted a voice message in the MOSD chat arguing that the front of the Capitol should be the “main operating theater” for Jan. 6. Tarrio later responded, “I didn’t hear this voice note until now, you want to storm the Capitol.” It’s not clear from the indictment if that was meant as an imperative (“You want to storm the Capitol.”) or as a question (“You want to storm the Capitol?”). The “1776 Returns” document reportedly included a section called “Storm the Winter Palace,” however, suggesting the former was likely.
Several thousand dollars had been raised from a crowdfunding campaign to bring Proud Boys to Washington, and they started to come. Tarrio arrived Jan. 4 — and was quickly arrested for having been the person who burned the Black Lives Matter banner at the December protest. (He was sentenced to five months in prison last August.) Tarrio was ordered to remain outside of Washington but, after being released from jail and before leaving, he met briefly with Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes in a Washington parking garage on Jan. 5. All of what was discussed is not clear, but the Justice Department obtained audio from the documentary filmmakers who were accompanying Tarrio and wrote in a court filing that “a participant referenced the Capitol.”
That evening, members of the Proud Boys discussed plans for the next day, including meeting at the Washington Monument at 10 a.m. According to the superseding indictment, Proud Boys (200 to 300 of them, according to a message posted to a private chat group at the time) were at the northwest entrance to the Capitol complex — ironically near the Peace Circle. Just before 12:53 p.m., a man named Ryan Samsel spoke with one of the Proud Boy leaders at the site, shortly before Samsel upended a bicycle barricade and became the first person to enter the Capitol grounds. (Samsel is the person who also spoke at the scene with Ray Epps, a former member of the Oath Keepers who became a focus of a right-wing conspiracy theory.)
The Proud Boys pushed forward, pushing past barriers and scuffling with police. In the group chat, others were encouraging them to enter the building. One seized a riot shield from a police officer that he used to break a window of the Capitol at about 2:13 p.m. “The first members of the mob entered the Capitol through this broken window,” the indictment notes. Proud Boys were among that first group.
That evening, shortly before the Capitol was fully cleared, someone sent two text messages to Tarrio.
“Brother, You know we made this happen,” one read, according to the indictment. The other read, “I’m so proud of my country today.”
“I know,” Tarrio replied, later adding “the Winter Palace” — an apparent reference to the plan from “1776 Returns.”
Had no member of the Proud Boys been in Washington on Jan. 6, it’s very likely that there would still have been a violent attack on the Capitol. The group’s presence, though, is emblematic of both cause and effect. Strident Trump supporters who embraced violence as a political tactic, they believed that Trump had seen the election unfairly stolen and came to Washington to redress that injustice.
They were ready, as always, to fight. And they fought. | 2022-06-07T18:19:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What we know about the Proud Boys’ involvement in Jan. 6 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/07/what-we-know-about-proud-boys-involvement-jan-6/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/07/what-we-know-about-proud-boys-involvement-jan-6/ |
Why is trust in government so low? There’s blame to go around.
The U.S. Capitol dome is reflected in a puddle on Sept. 18, 2021. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Pew Research Center’s latest poll confirms what has been known for a long time: Trust in government is low. Really low.
“Just 20% say they trust the government in Washington to do the right thing just about always or most of the time,” the pollsters found, although when asked about specific government functions (e.g., responding to natural disasters, preventing terrorist attacks), approval soars to nearly 70 percent. Democrats’ trust level is low (29 percent), but not as low as Republicans’ (9 percent).
This is not a new phenomenon. To the contrary, the numbers have held steady for over a decade. Major complaints include not handling taxpayer money well, not handling new developments well, favoring one group over another and withholding information from the public. Pew reports: “A majority of Americans say they feel frustrated with the federal government: 60% say this today, while 22% say they are basically content and 18% say they are angry.”
At the same time, the public still says government has a significant role to play: “There is a widespread belief that [the federal government] does too little on issues affecting many of the groups asked about, including middle-income people (69%), those with lower incomes (66%) and retired people (65%).” Moreover, more than 60 percent say government should have a major role in a long list of policy arenas. And despite it all, voters “have a lot (17%) or some (51%) confidence in the future of the United States.”
So the public doesn’t trust the government to do the right thing most of the time, but it still wants the government to do lots of things? This wouldn’t be the first time Americans express contradictory sentiments. How can one make sense of all this?
First, one has no wonder whether “trust” in government has become akin to “liking the direction the country is heading” — a sentiment few people ascribe to. These are cynical times, when complaining about government (not to mention a great deal else) is in vogue. Reasonable expectations are unfashionable. And social media only reinforces negative attitudes, conspiracy theories and disinformation.
Second, the media plays a large role in shaping negative opinions about government and denigrating good-faith efforts at governance. Consider this recent secondary headline from the New York Times: “With their majority at stake, Democrats plan to use the six high-profile hearings to refocus voters’ attention on Republicans’ role in the attack.” That’s yet another piece of evidence showcasing reporters’ habit of casting serious, conscientious efforts as nothing more than partisan food fights.
You can find more proof by listening to the White House press corps on virtually every issue. A common question you might hear: Hasn’t the president failed to [fill in the blank of one of many complex dilemmas with no solution under his control]? The disinclination to cover substance rather than horserace politics can mislead the public as to the complexity of certain problems — and voters’ own responsibility for policy outcomes.
Third, Republicans have zero interest in improving government. They have made this clear not only through their negative views toward government, but also through their insistence on big tax cuts, efforts to interfere with important objectives (e.g., mass vaccination), conspiracy theory-mongering and pervasive sense of victimhood. The constant hysteria that MAGA pols inject into the political environment (immigrants are invading! the government is taking away your guns!) only works when they can characterize government as hostile to their base.
Finally, one must acknowledge that government has gotten plenty wrong in recent decades. A misguided war over nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, the 2008 recession, the recent inflation surge, nonstop gun violence and the failure to arrest climate change are all legitimate reasons to despair about the effectiveness and competence of government.
Nevertheless, treating cynicism as a sign of sophistication, inciting the mob to think government is out to “replace” them or commit other wrongs, and failing to acknowledge good-faith efforts are corrosive to our system of self-governance. Perhaps energy would be better spent figuring out how to make government work better. | 2022-06-07T18:43:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Why is trust in government so low? There’s blame to go around. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/pew-poll-why-is-trust-government-so-low/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/pew-poll-why-is-trust-government-so-low/ |
The government is finally tackling ransomware. More work remains.
National Cyber Director Chris Inglis in Sydney on May 11. (Steven Saphore/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock (Steven Saphore/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
This is the age of ransomware — not only in terms of attacks, which have been increasing steadily for some time now, but also in terms of awareness. One year after a major report on how best to fight this threat, the government has taken some necessary steps. Yet the work done so far, as the problem’s persistence shows, still isn’t sufficient.
The Institute for Security and Technology’s Ransomware Task Force last spring issued the most comprehensive recommendations the United States has seen for protecting against the attacks on computer systems that are crippling companies, cities, schools, hospitals and more. Mere weeks later, cybercriminals took Colonial Pipeline’s digital infrastructure hostage; weeks after that, the same thing happened to major meat processor JBS. These incursions caused harm enough, but even more grievous was the death of a baby, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, during the time a maternity ward’s equipment was disabled by hackers.
The good news is that the White House has decided not to sit idly by. The new office of the national cyber director is working to develop a long-needed doctrine on the nation’s digital security, as well as clarify the roles and responsibilities across government. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is helping beef up defense across industries, but just as essential is deterring attackers. That won’t happen until ransomware salvos cease to be profitable for their perpetrators. There, the Biden administration and Congress have also moved forward.
The Justice Department has launched a program to stop digital extortion that in its early days seized $2.3 million of the ransom Colonial Pipeline paid to hacking collective DarkSide; this fall, the department seized another $6 million from collective REvil. Congress has passed a law requiring critical infrastructure entities to report ransomware payments. Increased reporting is essential; law enforcement can’t go after cybercriminals without being aware of their crimes. But preventing payments from reaching the perpetrators is important, too, and stricter rules on the circumstances under which handing over a ransom is permissible are well worth considering. Cryptocurrency regulations that make it more difficult to mask transactions would also aid in tracking down the bad guys.
Perhaps most vexing but most essential is the challenge of reaching criminals who operate from ransomware havens. President Biden’s attempts to persuade Vladimir Putin to crack down on gangs operating with impunity on the Russian president’s turf seemed to be yielding results, but the invasion of Ukraine has likely preempted any further collaboration. Diplomatic overtures could still help elsewhere — especially in countries that would take a firmer hand with malicious actors if they could but lack the resources and know-how. Providing them with both should be a U.S. national security priority. | 2022-06-07T19:13:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The government is finally tackling ransomware. More work remains. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/government-is-finally-tackling-ransomware-more-work-remains/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/government-is-finally-tackling-ransomware-more-work-remains/ |
Myanmar’s military must not hang those fighting for democracy
Kyaw Min Yu, also known as Ko Jimmy, and Phyo Zeya Thaw. (Myanmar Military Information Team/AFP) (Handout/Myanmar’s Military Information T)
The unfolding horror in Myanmar has gotten even worse. First, the military staged a coup in February 2021 and overthrew the elected government of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, with whom it shared power for several years, during which it carried out a shocking ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslim minority. After the coup, the military responded to protests with a bloody crackdown, followed by relentless violence, burning down villages and imprisoning thousands while forcing Aung San Suu Kyi, 76, to face a series of secret, sham trials. Outside attempts to brake the conflict have largely failed to restrain the military leaders, who receive weapons from China and Russia, while a resistance movement attempts to fight back with popular support but limited means.
Myanmar’s troubled democratic experiment is in shambles and swallowed by civil war.
Now the ruling junta threatens a new low. Since last year’s coup, the regime’s courts have delivered death sentences to 115 people for their roles in the armed resistance, but none have been carried out. On June 3, four men, including a prominent member of Aung San Suu Kyi’s party and a democracy activist, lost their appeals against death sentences, and the military said they would be executed by hanging. “The death penalty will be carried out,” announced the junta’s deputy minister of information, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, according to Radio Free Asia. He did not say when, but a veteran lawyer suggested it could be within 45 days.
This barbarism would mark the first use of the death penalty in Myanmar, also known as Burma, since 1988 and represents yet another step by the military to frighten the resistance and the civilian population into submission. Two of the accused are well known. Phyo Zeya Thaw, a hip-hop pioneer who was jailed in 2008 for founding an anti-junta youth activist organization, was a member of parliament as part of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, which ushered in a transition to civilian rule. He was accused of orchestrating several attacks on regime forces, including a gun attack on a commuter train in Yangon last August that killed five police officers. The other is activist Kyaw Min Yu, better known as Ko Jimmy, who rose to prominence during Myanmar’s 1988 student uprising against a previous military regime and was arrested last October, based on a warrant alleging he had incited unrest with his social media posts. Both were charged under an anti-terrorism law and sentenced to death by a military tribunal on Jan. 21. The other two, according to Radio Free Asia, are Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw, sentenced to death in Yangon region’s Hlaing Tharyar township on charges of murder.
The Thai-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners noted correctly that the military is using the death penalty to “threaten a population resisting the military coup.” If it sends these men to the gallows, Myanmar’s military throws the remaining possibility of restoring a democratic transition into the abyss. | 2022-06-07T19:14:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Myanmar’s military must not hang those fighting for democracy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/myanmars-military-must-not-hang-those-fighting-democracy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/myanmars-military-must-not-hang-those-fighting-democracy/ |
Three found dead in Fairfax County apartment, police say
Three adults were found dead inside a Fairfax City-area apartment Tuesday morning, authorities said.
Officers were called to a residence in the 4200 block of Mazarin Place around 11 a.m. for a welfare check by a parent of one of those found dead, Fairfax County police said. A roommate let the officers inside the apartment and said the person lived in a bedroom at the end of a hallway, police said.
The officers weren’t able to enter the bedroom, but looked in a window and saw the bodies of two women and one man. All three were pronounced dead at the scene and at least two of the victims showed signs of trauma, police said.
Police did not immediately release other details about the incident. The investigation is ongoing. | 2022-06-07T19:14:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Three found dead in Fairfax County apartment - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/07/three-dead-fairfax-apartment/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/07/three-dead-fairfax-apartment/ |
Jeff Goldblum poses for a portrait to promote the film “Jurassic World Dominion” at the Universal Studios Lot in Los Angeles on on Tuesday, May 10, 2022. (Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP)
Production on “Jurassic World: Dominion” was halted in 2020 due to the pandemic. When shooting restarted, the studio rented out a hotel in England near Pinewood Studios for cast and crew. Goldblum would sometimes play the piano there with his castmates and Trevorrow — “musicales and hootenanny’s of one kind or another,” Goldblum says. Dern posted one video of her, Neill and Goldblum singing the Beatles' “Blackbird.” | 2022-06-07T19:49:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Jeff Goldblum takes one more bite out of 'Jurassic World' - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/jeff-goldblum-takes-one-more-bite-out-of-jurassic-world/2022/06/07/5166f224-e68e-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/jeff-goldblum-takes-one-more-bite-out-of-jurassic-world/2022/06/07/5166f224-e68e-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
The U.S. may soon be on track to cut carbon emissions in half
Here’s the latest on Biden’s executive actions — and Manchin’s signals about legislation
Analysis by Leah C. Stokes
Electricians with IBEW Local 3 install solar panels on top of the Terminal B garage at LaGuardia Airport, Nov. 9, 2021, in the Queens borough of New York. (Mary Altaffer/AP)
When President Biden was on the campaign trail, he named climate change as one of the top crises facing the country. Once in office, he has taken action on climate through executive orders, including setting a target of cutting U.S. carbon emissions in half by 2030 — the most ambitious in the world. The White House also has tried to pass a $555 billion clean-energy and climate investment package through Congress, although it is stalled in the Senate.
Now, Axios reports that Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) — whose earlier objections ended the last attempt at passing climate investments — is again discussing the stalled package with Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). And while Congress negotiates over legislation, the Biden administration is taking further executive action on climate change. On Monday, it used the Defense Production Act (DPA) to support domestic manufacturing of clean-energy technologies, and it invoked emergency powers to end a Commerce Department investigation that was creating uncertainty in the solar industry. Here is what these different actions mean.
Biden invoked the Defense Production Act
The DPA, passed in 1950, allows the president to direct economic activity to support U.S. national defense. Biden previously invoked its authority twice this year to support domestic manufacturing of critical minerals for batteries and for infant formula.
Monday’s announcement supports investment in domestic manufacturing for five clean-energy technologies: solar energy, heat pumps, building insulation, clean hydrogen, and critical grid components. Traditionally, DPA funds have gone through the Department of Defense. Given the technical focus on energy security, for the first time, these funds will flow through the Department of Energy.
These investments may help increase domestic uptake of heat pump technology in particular. Compared to other countries, the United States has lagged in the production of heat pumps, which can both heat and cool a home without using fossil fuels. But demand for heat pumps is growing rapidly, even in colder parts of the United States including Maine and Alaska. Besides cutting carbon pollution and supporting energy independence, heat pumps save American households money on energy bills. One estimate suggests that installing heat pumps in 104 million households would save them a combined $37 billion annually.
Given European fuel shortages after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, heat pump and insulation manufacturing in the United States also could be used to support Europe’s energy needs. Insulation, in particular, is lightweight and easy to ship.
Biden also froze new solar tariffs
The president also announced a two-year freeze on new solar tariffs, resolving significant uncertainty plaguing the American solar industry. Using emergency powers under the Tariff Act, for the first time, the president has declared national emergencies related to climate change.
In April, the Commerce Department began a trade investigation after one small solar manufacturer filed a petition. The petition sought new penalties on solar panel imports from several Southeast Asian countries, claiming that these countries were providing a workaround that allowed Chinese manufacturers to avoid tariffs. This created wide uncertainty in the U.S. solar industry, because Commerce Department tariffs can be retroactive and the costs of the fines could have been very high. This uncertainty led to a shortage of solar panels, delaying numerous projects. Some utility companies even announced that they would delay their closing of coal plants.
The freeze on new solar tariffs allows the investigation to continue but removes the potential for new tariffs for the next two years, creating financial certainty for the industry. This will make it easier for solar power to grow, supporting the administration’s goal of cleaning the electricity system of carbon emissions by 2035.
Less intuitively, it also will help workers in the existing U.S. solar industry. Around 200,000 of the 230,000 existing jobs in solar are in installation, sales, and maintenance — all of which typically rely on imported solar panels. In addition, 90 percent of U.S. solar manufacturers usually rely on imported solar panels, focusing on building other components such as racks or inverters. This explains why many American solar manufacturers vocally supported the president’s actions.
Supply chains endanger American security. Here’s what Biden is doing.
The Senate still may act on climate change
The administration’s broader climate agenda involves $555 billion of clean-energy and climate investments, which probably are necessary to meet Biden’s commitment to reduce U.S. carbon pollution by 50 to 52 percent by 2030. Although the climate investments passed the House in November 2021, the legislation can pass the Senate only if 50 senators agree to pass it via budget reconciliation, a procedural approach that forestalls filibustering. Of course, the Senate is split 50-50 between Republicans and the Democratic caucus, which includes two independents. Manchin, the main Democratic holdout from the previous package, recently expressed support for a more limited reconciliation bill that would be focused on counter-inflationary measures and would include clean-energy and climate investments.
Over the past several months, Manchin convened a bipartisan group of senators to discuss an energy policy package. Senators reported that finding common ground was difficult. At the same time, negotiations over a counter-inflationary reconciliation bill have picked up again, and Manchin indicated publicly that climate and energy investments could be part of this effort. Republican senators also have told the media that Manchin has voiced an openness to pursuing reconciliation-based energy policy.
If a reconciliation deal that includes climate investments emerges in the coming weeks, the United States may start moving toward Biden’s climate goals. That, in turn, could help spur international efforts to address the climate crisis.
Leah C. Stokes (@leahstokes) is an associate professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara and the author of “Short Circuiting Policy: Interest Groups and the Battle Over Clean Energy and Climate Policy in the American States” (Oxford University Press, 2020). She also is an adviser at Rewiring America and Evergreen Action.
Disclosure: In her nonacademic advisory roles, Stokes has written in favor of using the Defense Production Act for climate action. This article draws on her academic research to explain the policy and its potential consequences. | 2022-06-07T19:49:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Biden will use the Defense Production Act to build clean energy technologies - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/07/climate-biden-manchin-clean-energy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/07/climate-biden-manchin-clean-energy/ |
DUBLIN, Ohio — Bryson DeChambeau launched his first tee shot that mattered seven weeks after he had surgery on his left hand for a broken hamate bone. The swelling was going down, he felt no pain even hitting a hybrid out of the rough and he was impressed with all but one thing. | 2022-06-07T19:49:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | DeChambeau feeling good about his hand, not so much his game - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/golf/dechambeau-feeling-good-about-his-hand-not-so-much-his-game/2022/06/07/f7f6f604-e691-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/golf/dechambeau-feeling-good-about-his-hand-not-so-much-his-game/2022/06/07/f7f6f604-e691-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Transcript: Race in America: Giving Voice with Joanne Lee Molinaro
MS. LEE: Hello, and welcome to Washington Post live. I’m Michelle Ye Hee Lee, the Washington Post Tokyo bureau chief covering Japan and the Korean Peninsula.
Today we continue our "Race in America" series with lawyer‑turned‑social media star and author, Joanne Lee Molinaro.
Thank you so much for joining us, Joanne.
MS. MOLINARO: Hi, Michelle. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.
MS. LEE: We're really excited to talk to you.
A reminder to our audience, we want you to join in on our conversation. So please tweet your questions and comments to the Twitter handle @Postlive.
So, Joanne, let's started. Thank you so much for being here with us today. Let's start with your personal story. So how did you go from being a high‑powered lawyer to fully shifting your focus to food?
MS. MOLINARO: Yeah. So that's a‑‑it can be a short story, or it can be a long story, depending on the perspective, of course, but honestly, I, you know, was a practicing attorney for 17 years. I was a litigator, a trial lawyer at a large law firm based out of Milwaukee. My office was in Chicago. And I started posting food on Instagram when I went vegan in 2016, mostly because a colleague of mine, a very good mentor, had suggested, "You know what, Joanne? I think you're a little too stressed out. Maybe you should have a hobby." [Laughs]
So that's what I started to do as a hobby, and about two years in, I was offered a book deal. They really liked my photographs, and they also liked my writing, which I included in the very short Instagram captions about my family.
So I worked on this book for about three years. It was just published last fall, and at that time, I decided, "You know what? If I'm ever going to make the jump into becoming a full‑time writer, now is the time to do it." And it was a really difficult but incredibly rewarding decision.
MS. LEE: That's a huge career jump, but it turns like‑‑it seems like your hobby turned into your full‑time passion, which is always really great to hear, you know?
Tell us how you came to being the Korean Vegan and your journey with veganism.
MS. MOLINARO: So, in 2016, my then boyfriend, now husband, he decided to adopt a plant‑based diet largely due to health concerns. His father had just passed away from a host of autoimmune diseases, and he'd read that a plant‑based diet could help prevent those types of illnesses occurring in his own body. And so he, you know, encouraged me to join him, but at the time, Michelle, I was like, "No. I'm Korean, can't be vegan. Sorry. It doesn't work that way," at least that's what I thought, but after a little bit of cajoling on his part and also just me becoming far more aware of the health benefits of going vegan, I decided to try it, just try it out.
And, ultimately, my father, he became sick with prostate cancer, and I had learned during that research process that cancer, particularly prostate cancer of East Asian men, is correlated to the consumption of red meat, and after that, I decided, all right, this is a sign something, you know, God is telling me, and so I decided to stop eating meat after that. And going vegan was pretty natural right after that.
MS. LEE: So I have been following you for a while on social media, and something that you do really well is just really taking the emotions of the moment, especially in the past two years in the pandemic and the rise of anti‑Asian violence and harassment. You take that moment of whether it's about bullying or racism, and you turn it into something empowering through your video that also includes your personal story, your personal view on the moment, and also about food and cooking.
So how did you‑‑how do you do that? Like, what's your process for searching, you know, what your voice is going to be, why it will matter in that moment, and how to tell that story through your perspective?
MS. MOLINARO: Well, Michelle, that's a really great question, and thank you so much for the kind words about my content. As I'm sure you know, trying to find that perfect arc of storytelling to leave a memorable impact on your readers or your listeners or your watchers can be a little bit complicated, particularly when you're tackling subjects that tend to be divisive like politics or race, and so there are a lot of things that I try to use as tools to help make sure that my message is reaching as many people as possible, one of them being food, as you know, because everybody needs to eat. I don't care what your political background is, what your race is, what your gender is, how old you are. You're a human being. You need to eat food, and so that's like the first gate that I'm trying to unlock for people is, "Look. Look at my food. It's so delicious," right?
And then when we start talking about some of these harder topics, you're right. I share personal stories because I want people to feel like I'm not judging them. I'm not telling you what to do. I'm simply sharing my own experience, which, of course, I am the number one authority on my own experience. You can't tell me what I feel or what I experience.
Then in terms of the topics that I'm tackling, whether it's race or bullying or body dysmorphia, we have all been so bereft of power over the past two and a half years. We're stuck in quarantine, or, you know, because of the global pandemic, we feel powerless. We watch all of these things that are happening on the news, and again, we feel powerless. So what I wanted to do in each of these videos is to give a little bit of that power back to everyone, to say, "Hey, despair cannot be the answer. Hope is the answer," and we can find hope in each other. We can find hope in breaking bread with one another. We can find hope in our stories, and that's what I hope to convey.
MS. LEE: That's great. I think that hope really does come through in your work because it's rarely like a negative video that you have. It's always something that really comes out at the end of it, some sort of an empowering message, and I think that really shines through.
And your cookbook and really your storytelling in general, they're really a compelling combination of your personal story, the Korean culture and history, and also like celebration of the Korean diaspora. I love so many tidbits in your cookbook like finding SPAM in kimchi chigae and like rinsing rice, and, you know, I loved your reference to even "My Lovely Sam Soon," which is a really throwback.
But how do you, you know, bring your culture and your heritage but also make it into universally relatable themes for your audience, whether it's family or food or exploring your past?
MS. MOLINARO: Well, I think that that's a tricky subject too, right? Because, on the one hand, I think it's important for people to feel like they can celebrate their differences, that they can highlight the uniqueness of their stories, particularly if they are a story of diaspora. I think that one of the most empowering things is to take something that is used to other us, right, as Korean Americans, Asian Americans, AANHPI members, and turn that around and celebrate that, right, and say, "You know what? I am different, but I'm going to use that to empower myself," right?
But, on the other hand, I also want people to feel like even if we're different, even if my food looks different, even if my food smells different, you still need to eat, and you still like delicious food, right? You still want to use food to nourish your body. There are all these points of connection that show and demonstrate that as human beings, there's so much that connects us, that makes us relatable to one another, and it's on those points, along whatever story arc you are sharing that we can build some type of consortium with people who are totally different from us in order to create something that's more beautiful, that's more hopeful. And I think that's very necessary.
So that is really what I'm trying to do is while highlighting the unique body of the diaspora, of the immigrant story, also showing nonimmigrants, "Hey, there's so much we have in common."
MS. LEE: I mean, food is really the universal thing of our society.
So I want to ask you about your family. Let's talk about your parents, who were born in North Korea, but that's not something that you learned at the dining table. Tell us about their story and how you came to learn their lives as you grew up.
MS. MOLINARO: Yeah. It's very typical, right, Michelle, with parents, maybe particularly to immigrant parents like out of nowhere, they're like, "Oh, by the way, I was a refugee." You're like, "What? What are you talking about? Refugee from what?" and I think part of that is just because growing up, you know, as kids, understandably, we're so focused on our own lives, and it's hard for us to start viewing mom and dad as something other than mom and dad. You know, their lives didn't exist before they were parents, right, to children? And so, when we start seeing or hearing bits and pieces of what their lives were like before they were a parent, it can cause anxiety. It can be, you know, intriguing. It can be a lot of different emotions.
For me, it was, you know, we were‑‑I think I was at my mother's house one day, and she was peeling some sweet potato for her dog, Charlie, and, you know, eating some as well, and she starts saying, "These are my favorite foods. These are my favorite foods, because when I was a refugee, we would dig these up out of the ground, and I would get whatever rotten sweet potato I could, and I would eat it raw right there." And I was like whoa; there's a lot to unpack in just that sentence. What do you mean? And that's how the story of how she was born in Ongjin, which is in North Korea, right at the onset of the Korean War, just kind of unfurled right at that kitchen counter while she was feeding my dog, Charlie‑‑or her dog, Charlie.
MS. LEE: Yeah. That sweet potato story was really great, and I had a similar experience with my family because my mom's side of the family is also from North Korea. And I remember I was sitting with my grandma when I was a kid, and we were watching the sunset, and she was like, "You know, when I watch the sunset, it reminds me of when I was a refugee coming down from the north, and I would watch the sunset every night and see if‑‑and wonder if my mom will make it home," and I was like whoa, a lot to unpack.
MS. LEE: We grew up‑‑we grew up with these experiences where they are full of stories, and we just have to unspool it out of them, right?
MS. MOLINARO: Exactly.
MS. LEE: So I‑‑speaking of your mom, I want to show our viewers one of your TikToks about your mom. So let's take a look at that video.
MS. LEE: So, as you have explored your relationship with your family through your social media and through your book, has that process changed your appreciation of your relationship with your parents and their experience, and if so, how has your appreciation changed?
MS. MOLINARO: That's a great question, Michelle, and absolutely, my relationship with my parents has definitely changed for a lot of different reasons. Number one, as you mentioned, when I was writing the book, I had to do a lot of research on not just their story, but what was happening in the peninsulas around the time of their growing up. I wanted to know a lot more about the Korean War.
And, again, talking about this idea of viewing your parents as human beings before they were mom and dad, unpeeling those layers was both painful and incredibly joyous. I was so happy to be able to see them in that way, but their stories are, as you can imagine, as I'm sure are the stories of your parents and grandparents, they're painful. They're full of a lot of suffering, and it was hard for me to think of my dad as a little boy being, you know, abused by his father. It was hard for me to think of my mother starving to death when she was just a baby. Those are difficult memories, but then it makes me love and appreciate them so much more.
The other thing that was sort of surprising and unexpected was the feedback that I received from the community, from‑‑you know, I call it "the TKV community"‑‑hundreds of thousands of people commenting about their own relationships with their parents, and in many cases, they're not great.
And so I feel so blessed. I feel so very lucky to have the kind of parents that I do, notwithstanding the trauma that they carry in their hearts. For them to be still so open and vulnerable and loving to their children is a testament to their resilience.
MS. LEE: As you were, as you said, peeling back those layers of your parents' stories before you knew them as your parents, what was that research process like? Like, how do you even begin researching their story? Like, were there any particular books or resources that really helped, help guide you?
MS. MOLINARO: So there are a couple of things that I did, and I recommend that you try and do this with your parents and even your grandparents too, if you can, while, you know, they're still alive and they still have all of these memories, like that beautiful one you shared about the sun. You know, I just asked my mom and my dad to write their stories down. I'm very lucky. Both my parents are very good writers, and, you know, my father majored in English. My mother is a published poet. So they write a lot, and so they literally wrote down their life stories for me.
So, like, you know, obviously, I talked to them, and I interviewed them, but I also have something in writing from them that I can now keep until I die.
The other thing that we did was‑‑and I did read a lot of books. I honestly can't remember off the top of my head who the authors are, but I had a lot of books just about the Korean War, about the politics and the geopolitics leading up to the Korean war, and then, of course, just a lot of internet research, reading a lot of scholarly articles on that topic. And, of course, none of that actually made it into my book per se, right? Like, there aren't quotes about this is what was happening, but it helped to inform me in terms of understanding my parents' story and also, broadly speaking, understanding the politics of today. You know, how does what happened 40, 50, 60, 70 years ago impact my parents' views on the relationship between South and North Korea today, and how does that play out on the broader scale?
MS. LEE: That's really great. I do like especially about having them write down their stories. I think all of us kind of reached this point in life at a certain point when you do wonder about your parents because you view them as individuals and as adults. Whether it's like when you become a parent yourself or when you come across some other new life challenge, I think we all kind of reach that point and wonder, you know, how can I know my parents better and do that research. So I hope that our audience would also benefit from that.
I want to ask you about your dad. So you write about how you played the role of translator, especially for your dad, and later typing hundreds of letters for him. I think that's a very relatable experience for many immigrant children. What was that‑‑playing that translator role like for you, and how do you look back at it now?
MS. MOLINARO: I hated that role. Like, I hated it. I was very deeply resentful to everyone, not just my father. I was deeply resentful to my father for‑‑"Why can't you just figure it out? You know how to do this. You can just type it up yourself. Why are you relying on me, a little girl, to do this? This is so unfair," but then I was also resentful to the cause of him having to write these letters. You know, he was writing letters most of the time to his boss, and I was angry at his boss. I was like, "Why can't you be nicer to my dad? Why are you making me have to write these letters for him?" And these are a lot of things to have to bear, I think, as nine‑year‑olds.
Obviously, you know, what we ask of our children these days is rather enormous, given what's going on in the world today. You know, back then in Skokie, Illinois, it seemed like a really heavy burden for me. In retrospect, Michelle, I think that it's such an honor and a privilege to be there for my parents in that way. That experience taught me to be a protector for my mom and my dad because language makes a huge difference, whether it's the inability to access government benefits, whether it's the inability to truly appreciate communication, whether it's the inability to understand what racism even looks like. These are the things that we have to translate for our parents, especially now that they're seniors and we're seeing this spike in anti‑Asian hate, particularly to the seniors. Wow. What a privilege it is for me now to be in a position to protect them after all that they've done for me.
MS. LEE: Did you have a conversation with your parents about the rise in anti‑Asian hate and the crimes, especially the violence toward the elderly? What was that conversation like for you guys?
MS. MOLINARO: You know, for me and my dad, it was a political conversation. My dad is very political. My mom is becoming more political, but my dad has always been that. And so, you know, obviously, my concern personally for their welfare, that was discussed, but they live in a very‑‑a very safe neighborhood in a suburb of Chicago, and I felt pretty comfortable that they were going to be okay.
You know, obviously we did that thing is like make sure to pay attention. You know, don't talk on the cell phone at night, like not that they're ever out at night. But I think we had this conversation at the dinner table, and I remember asking my parents. I said, "Do you ever wish that you were back in South Korea? Do you ever regret coming to the United States with everything that's happening with our politics, with, you know, AAPI hate issues, and even, you know, with the COVID response?" You know, obviously, South Korea was kind of doing amazing at responding to COVID in the early days. "So do you ever wish that maybe you had just stayed, or do you ever even think about just going back to Korea and just giving up on this project of the American dream?"
And my dad paused for a moment, and then he said, "No. No. I still want to be here in America," and that was like such a powerful affirmation for someone like me who often takes for granted all the things that we have.
My mom and my dad will never take democracy for granted because they have seen what it's like when it truly is just an experiment and really nobody knows what they're doing, and I think that also informs my own Americanness.
MS. LEE: Yeah. That's very powerful. I think for many of us during that time, it was knowing that they chose to come to America for a better life that really broke our hearts even more that this sort of violence was targeting the elderly because they're the generation that left everything behind for a reason. But I can relate to that sort of conversation.
Let's‑‑I want to move over to the foods that you have featured in your beautiful cookbook. So let's talk about the cucumber kimchi that your grandmother had in her fridge at all times. You talk about how it's the first kimchi you learned to make. Me too. It's like the one that made the most sense for me. But tell us what makes great kimchi, and why is cucumber kimchi so, you know, versatile?
MS. MOLINARO: Well, cucumber kimchi, I mean, there are a lot of different kinds of cucumber kimchi. You know, "cucumber kimchi," I kind of use that term very generally. There's, you know, the kind where it's like a stuffed cucumber, and then there's oiji, which is, you know, truly pickled cucumbers. And I kind of wanted to share this as sort of the first kimchi recipe because it is so easy and it is so refreshing, and it truly highlights kind of what is so great about the pickle, which that's what kimchi is. It's a pickled vegetable.
And, you know, just to be a little bit technical, the difference between kimchi and, say, muchim, which is sort of a seasoned vegetable, is that this recipe is oil‑free. There's no sesame oil. There's no toasted sesame seeds. It's really a refreshing, bright sort of bite of food that's meant to enhance kind of whatever else you're eating with it, whether it's rice or a stew or some kind of protein. It's so easy to make. I mean, you literally can prepare this in like 40 minutes. You can eat it immediately, or you can eat it in two, three, four, five days when it's had a chance to pickle a little bit, but the actual pickling process occurs during that first 20 to 30 minutes when it's sitting in the salt and all that liquid is leached out of it. I like mine a little bit sweet, which is why I add a little bit of sugar or agave or maple syrup or whatever sweetener that you want. My mom, as I've mentioned in the past, she loves her kimchi salty. So it's a very versatile recipe. You can sort of customize it to whatever is your taste.
MS. LEE: And you mentioned that it's a banchan. So tell us what banchan is, which is a side dish, and how it's a hallmark of Korean dining table. Like the kkenip buchimgae that you featured in your cookbook, what is banchan, and why is that‑‑you know, why did you feature that?
MS. MOLINARO: Banchan is the soul of Korean food, I think. I mean, when you think about Korean food, I can't think of anything that's more endemic to our cuisine, our way of eating, and I always try and describe Korean food as trying to compose the perfect bite, and that bite almost always begins with a spoonful of rice. And then the idea is how do you take all the different textures and the flavors and the acid and the salt and create that perfect spoonful of food? That's what you're always trying to do. So these banchan‑‑sometimes they're called "side dishes." Sometimes they're called "garnishes." You know, whatever you want to call them, it's basically anything that's not rice. I mean, that's what I learned is anything that's not that bowl of rice is considered a banchan. It can be as extravagant as Korean barbecue, or it could be as humble as cucumber kimchi, but the idea again is to compose that perfect bite of food.
And a lot of times when you go to a Korean restaurant or when you come to my mom's house, you see the entire table is full of all of these different banchan, whether it's that buchimgae, kimchi, Korean barbecue, tofu, and even doenjang chigae.
MS. LEE: Yeah. I think every Korean family's fridge is filled with banchan, and every time my mom would visit me in college, she would leave with my fridge packed with banchan. So I always had something to eat with my rice.
So, in our final minutes, I want to end just kind of going back to your storytelling perspective and what you have found to be your voice and how you came to find it because there are many aspiring storytellers out there, people who are going through their identity journey themselves, figuring out what it is that they can bring to the greater dialogue, and how to make sense of their own journey and share it with people who might relate to it. What is your advice for aspiring storytellers, people going through the journey now on how they could find their voice and also own it?
MS. MOLINARO: I think that there are two pieces of advice that I would have, and I'm sure you're very familiar with both of these things. First of all, read. Read other stories so that you become very good at understanding what are the blocks of good storytelling. As a consumer of stories, you will build an expertise in storytelling because, obviously, you can't be a good storyteller if you don't know how to listen to a good story.
And then the other piece of advice is to write. I know not everyone is going to be, you know, the best writer in the world. We're not all, you know, Tolstoy, okay? But even just writing a journal, even a Dear Diary, even a letter to yourself, even if it's three sentences, five sentences of just these are my thoughts‑‑sometimes I'll just write a bulleted list of things that are in my mind. That will help to organize your thinking and ultimately help you to see, oh, this is the story that I'm trying to tell. This is the voice that I need to lean into, or maybe these are the things that might be a little bit distracting.
But I think that reading other people's stories and just writing a few words down can really help to illuminate not just the message that you want to convey but the vehicle that you want to use to convey that message.
MS. LEE: Thanks for that.
Final thought in the final minute or so, minute and a half, what's your plan on how you plan to, you know, how to keep your voice out there beyond the cookbook and also on your social media? But how do you plan to continue the dialogue in a sustained way?
MS. MOLINARO: Yeah. Well, I'm glad that you asked. I just started a podcast called "The Korean Vegan Podcast." [Laughs] But I just started a podcast. We're like on episode 8. I'm very proud of it because it's like fully self‑everything. You know, I've written it and produced it. All of the, you know, components are mine, and it's something that I really like. They're very, very short episodes, but I wanted to, like you say, sustain this dialogue that, you know, gets started in these 60‑second videos.
Obviously, you cannot do a deep dive of some of these incredibly important topics in 60 seconds. So this podcast is really that. It's a vehicle for us to have a more sustained conversation about things like bullying, self‑esteem, race, body dysmorphia, all of the topics that I cover in my TikToks and shorts.
MS. LEE: Well, I'm going to subscribe and listen to your podcast, so I look forward to that.
Well, unfortunately, that's all the time we have. I really could have just gone on for another half hour or longer with you. Thank you, Joanne, so much for joining us and speaking with me.
MS. MOLINARO: Thank you so much, Michelle. It was an absolute pleasure.
MS. LEE: And thank you all for joining us. Head to WashingtonPostLive.com to register for our upcoming programs.
I'm Michelle Ye Hee Lee. Thank you for watching Washington Post Live. | 2022-06-07T19:50:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Transcript: Race in America: Giving Voice with Joanne Lee Molinaro - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/06/07/transcript-race-america-giving-voice-with-joanne-lee-molinaro/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/06/07/transcript-race-america-giving-voice-with-joanne-lee-molinaro/ |
9-year-old boy dies months after collision outside of school
A 9-year-old boy struck by a driver in a car outside of his school in Southeast Washington in December died Thursday.
Kaidyn Green had been permanently paralyzed from the neck down and recently returned home to his family after months in the hospital and rehabilitation, family attorney Keith Watters said in a news release. His family and friends had hosted a “welcome home party” for him.
“He was an exceptionally good-hearted child who always smiled despite his critical medical condition,” Watters said in the release.
Driver strikes child leaving school in Congress Heights
On Dec. 10, Kaidyn was struck and critically injured in the 3300 block of Wheeler Road SE while leaving KIPP DC Honor Academy in the Congress Heights area to be picked up by a parent or guardian, according to police and a school spokesman. Kaidyn died at home, Watters said.
After the crash, the city deployed more crossing guards to that area and added two traffic cameras.
Brianna Burch, a spokeswoman for D.C. police, said that the case remains under investigation and that police are working with prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office “to determine if charges are applicable” against the driver. The driver has not been identified. At the time of the crash, police said the driver stopped and is cooperating with the investigation. They said the boy was not in a crosswalk.
The crash outside of KIPP came as a number of other children were hit by drivers, raising alarm among parents and neighborhood leaders who have pushed for more improved road safety. The area where Kaidyn was struck was also two blocks from where two children and a parent were hit weeks earlier. The District ended 2021 with a 14-year high in traffic fatalities.
Peter Hermann and Luz Lazo contributed to this report. | 2022-06-07T20:58:19Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Kaidyn Green, 9, dies months after crash outside of school - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/07/kaidyn-green-death/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/07/kaidyn-green-death/ |
By David Betancourt
Iman Vellani stars as a teenage superhero in “Ms. Marvel.” (Courtesy of Marvel Studios)
Vellani fangirled over superheroes as a high-schooler in Markham, Ontario, where her family had moved after leaving Pakistan when she was one year old. Many school days ended with a quick sprint to the local comic book shop across the street, where she would spend almost all of her $20 monthly allowance (and the rest was on McDonald’s). It was there she developed a love of Iron Man, the Silver Surfer and all things Marvel.
Ms. Marvel is obsessed with the other superheroes in the world around her — and Amanat said those traits came naturally to Vellani, who loved superheroes even when the cameras were off.
The duo of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah grew up as Muslim Moroccans in Belgium, and directed the first and final episodes of “Ms. Marvel,” on the heels of their first big American hit in theaters, 2020′s “Bad Boys For Life.” In Kamala Khan’s origin story of a Muslim Pakistani American girl in New Jersey just trying to fit in and be a teenager, they saw parallels to their youth.
Fallah, who became a Marvel fan through the “X-Men” animated series of the ’90s, says he hopes both Muslims and non-Muslims see themselves through Vellani’s performance.
Vellani is bringing the character back in 2023′s “The Marvels,” a sequel to 2019’s “Captain Marvel.” In the comics and in her streaming series, Kamala Khan is a huge fan of Captain Marvel, so Vellani starring in the sequel is a logical progression. Just don’t ask if she’s going to be an Avenger. She honestly doesn’t know yet.
More on superheroes
Our definitive ranking of the Jokers, from Jack Nicholson to Joaquin Phoenix
The 10 best Christmas-themed superhero movies and shows you can stream
How ‘Superman’ gave rise to superhero movies 40 years ago | 2022-06-07T21:11:23Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Iman Vellani was a Ms. Marvel fan as a teen. Now she’s playing her on TV. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/comics/2022/06/07/iman-vellani-ms-marvel/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/comics/2022/06/07/iman-vellani-ms-marvel/ |
A scientist works at Novavax, the Maryland biotechnology company that has developed a coronavirus vaccine using a more traditional approach than previously authorized shots. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
A panel of independent vaccine experts recommended Tuesday that the Food and Drug Administration authorize a coronavirus vaccine developed by the Maryland biotechnology company Novavax, paving the way for the fourth shot in the United States.
The experts’ vote was 21 in favor of authorizing the Novavax vaccine, with one abstention. But it remained unclear when doses will become available. A decision by the FDA is unlikely to happen immediately because a review of data regarding manufacturing remains ongoing. Novavax on Friday submitted updated manufacturing information to support its vaccine authorization.
The Novavax shot is a protein-based vaccine from traditional technology used against influenza and shingles. Many experts are eager to add another vaccine to the toolbox, particularly because the Johnson & Johnson shot is now recommended only for people who cannot or will not take messenger RNA vaccines.
“It’s important to have choices in vaccine platforms in a pandemic that is constantly evolving,” said Gregory Poland, director of the Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group and a paid consultant to Novavax.
But Novavax’s two-shot regimen is likely to have a limited impact as it arrives more than a year after other highly effective vaccines became available. Most of the population eligible for the shot — people 18 and older — are already vaccinated. About 27 million adults in the United States have not received any shot, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Experts on the committee noted that data supporting the vaccine’s authorization was old, showing its performance against an earlier iteration of the virus, before the current variants arose.
Bruce Gellin, chief of global public health strategy at the Rockefeller Foundation, abstained from voting but said he was giving the vaccine a “conditional yes.” He said the vaccine was shown to be generally safe and effective when clinical trials were conducted but that “we don’t know whether that is true today.” He said it was important to monitor the vaccine’s performance as it comes into use.
Given that other safe, effective vaccines are available, the panel debated whether it was necessary to authorize another option. Some committee members expressed skepticism about whether vaccine hesitant people would embrace the new shot.
But an FDA official stressed the importance of having options.
“Having a protein-based alternative may be more comfortable for some in terms of their acceptance of vaccine,” said Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. “I will use this as a moment on the bully pulpit to say: We do have a problem with vaccine uptake that is very serious in the U.S., and anything we can do to make people more comfortable to accept these potentially lifesaving products is something we are compelled to do.”
The first vaccines to be authorized in the United States — from Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, and from Moderna — were based on messenger RNA technology, which instructs the body’s cells to build proteins that teach the immune system to halt the coronavirus. The technology had been under development for years, but the pandemic was the first time it was authorized — and the shots have now been widely used.
People who can’t or won’t take the mRNA vaccines may embrace the Novavax shots, but the ultimate use of the vaccine is probably as a booster. Going forward, the company plans to seek authorization for the shot as a booster and for use in adolescents and children.
The Novavax vaccine was shown to be 90 percent effective in a clinical trial run before the emergence of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. The results were announced a year ago, but the vaccine has repeatedly been delayed by manufacturing challenges.
“It is disappointing … that we don’t have more updated information, because we’re looking at the efficacy against strains that don’t exist anymore,” said advisory committee member Eric J. Rubin, an infectious-disease specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Even so, he said the case for the vaccine was “pretty compelling” considering some people who have avoided mRNA vaccines have shown interest in Novavax.
The regulatory issues regarding manufacturing are among the reasons for the delay in authorizing the shot from Novavax, which submitted its request for emergency authorization in January. Questions had arisen about why it has taken so much longer for the shot to reach the U.S. market. The Novavax vaccine is already authorized in dozens of countries, including Japan and Britain.
Marks, of the FDA, said the agency doesn’t follow the lead of other countries, including on manufacturing.
“We take manufacturing very seriously,” Marks said, adding that the FDA has “a very high standard,” which is why it sometimes is referred to as a gold standard.
The FDA’s analysis identified five cases of heart inflammation happening shortly after vaccination among 40,000 people in the company’s trials, raising concern that the shot could carry the same rare risk as mRNA vaccines. Novavax executives pushed back on the FDA’s concern, noting that a company analysis showed that rates of the cardiac conditions myocarditis and pericarditis were exceedingly low and about the same in the group that received the vaccine and in study participants receiving a placebo.
“I think the story is incompletely written here, and we need to more fully understand what is going on,” said Filip Dubovsky, Novavax’s chief medical officer.
“The messenger RNA vaccines are truly remarkable. They are a great gift to humanity, and they were the first to cross the finish line. But whether or not they will turn out to be the optimal vaccine for these viruses is not clear,” said H. Cody Meissner, a pediatric infectious-diseases specialist at Tufts University School of Medicine. “I don’t think we want to rest on what we have at this point because there’s always an opportunity to improve a vaccine.” | 2022-06-07T21:16:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | FDA advisers recommend authorizing Novavax coronavirus vaccine - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/06/07/novavax-coronavirus-vaccine-fda/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/06/07/novavax-coronavirus-vaccine-fda/ |
BATON ROUGE, La. — A 66-year-old Louisiana man faces charges for allegedly threatening a Florida congresswoman during a rage-filled telephone call to her Washington office, federal prosecutors said.
Charles T. Germany, of Walker, was arrested on a charge of interstate transmission of a threat to injure another and given a conditional release Friday, said attorney J. Rodney Baum, who was appointed by the court to represent him. Some of the conditions of his release requires him to not possess a firearm or other weapon and avoid alcohol or other drugs.
Baum declined comment, saying it was still to early in the process. “I haven’t even received discovery in the case yet,” he said. | 2022-06-07T21:16:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | La. man accused of threat against Fla. congresswoman - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/la-man-accused-of-threat-against-fla-congresswoman/2022/06/07/262fa360-e6a4-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/la-man-accused-of-threat-against-fla-congresswoman/2022/06/07/262fa360-e6a4-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
The production of solar energy, as seen on farmland in Thurmont, Md., is one of the technologies prioritized in President Biden's invoking of the Defense Production Act. (Julio Cortez/AP)
The left will be quick to blame extreme weather precipitated by climate change. But according to former Energy Department undersecretary for science and American Enterprise Institute scholar Steven E. Koonin, writing in his book “Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why it Matters,” U.S. government data shows that “heat waves in the U.S. are now no more common than they were in 1900, and that the warmest temperatures in the U.S. have not risen in the past fifty years." No matter, Biden will almost certainly blame summer blackouts on climate change — citing them as evidence that we need to double down on his efforts to speed the transition to renewable energy.
Letter to the Editor: To save lives, we must turn to nuclear energy
Catherine Rampell: We already achieved ‘energy independence.’ What good did it do us? | 2022-06-07T21:17:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Summer blackouts are the cost of Biden's war on coal - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/blackouts-energy-shortages-biden-coal/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/blackouts-energy-shortages-biden-coal/ |
The Washington Post design team is hiring
Learn more about our award-winning visual journalists
We are a team of more than 50 visual journalists who have a passion for storytelling and help elevate The Washington Post’s most ambitious projects. What makes us unique: We’re news designers and art directors who are equally infatuated with kerning and coding — while many organizations went in the direction of print hubs, splitting off production of the newspaper from digital operations, we handle story design and development across print, digital and social platforms.
In 2019, The Post was recognized as the world’s best-designed digital news experience by the Society for News Design, with judges noting: “The newsroom’s approach to visual storytelling . . . stretches design boundaries and uses new technologies to tell compelling, important stories.” In the past six years, The Post has been a finalist four times in the world’s best-designed newspaper competition.
The Design Department also aligns with our projects editor team, which is responsible for the planning and execution of some of The Post’s most ambitious journalism.
The Post wins more than 200 awards for Society for News Design digital and print competitions
Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, where we regularly post work from the design team.
Designer: News & Development
The Washington Post is hiring two news designers.
We are seeking candidates with a strong design aesthetic and a diverse set of skills. Consider applying if your skill set includes several of the following elements: illustration and art direction experience; a passion for storytelling; print design experience; fluency in HTML, CSS or React; a talent for translating complex stories across multiple platforms; or an interest in developing the future of storytelling by creating individual components or tools.
The Post’s Design Department blends all facets of design, development and art direction. The team is responsible for enhancing article experiences, presenting stories across multiple platforms — digitally and in print — and building our storytelling templates.
The Post is recognized for its innovation and reader-focused approach to storytelling. Designers are involved in every phase of projects — idea generation, presentation and promotion. Team members are based in one of four areas within the Design team — news, features, curation/platforms or news development — but work across a broad range of coverage areas using multiple presentation approaches.
These positions are based in our Washington newsroom and require night and weekend work.
The Post strives to provide its readers with high-quality, trustworthy news and information while constantly innovating. That mission is best served by a diverse, multigenerational workforce with varied life experiences and perspectives. All cultures and backgrounds are welcomed.
Those interested should upload a cover letter, résumé and portfolio highlighting three projects. Please explain your contributions to those presentations (please package your portfolio in a PDF with a screenshot, explanation and a link so we can ensure that the work is viewable by all who need to see it) to our jobs portal. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled, but those received by June 17, 2022, will be prioritized. All your application materials can be uploaded to the same field. The cover letter should be addressed to Creative Director Greg Manifold and Managing Editors Kat Downs Mulder and Krissah Thompson. | 2022-06-07T21:18:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Washington Post design team is hiring - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/pr/2022/design-team-job-openings/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/pr/2022/design-team-job-openings/ |
Garnell Whitfield, whose mother Ruth Whitfield was killed during a mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket last month, testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill on June 7. (Shawn Thew/Pool/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
Garnell Whitfield was testifying about his 86-year-old mother, Ruth, shot dead last month along with nine other Black people in a Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket, allegedly by a white supremacist motivated by the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory.
“What are you doing?” Whitfield demanded of the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee at their hearing on Tuesday. “Is there nothing that you personally are willing to do to stop the cancer of white supremacy and the domestic terrorism it inspires?” With breaking voice and sniffles, he added: “My mother’s life mattered. Your actions here today will tell us how much it matters to you.”
Then, Republicans on the panel answered — with accounts of violence committed by Black people and antifa.
“The Brooklyn subway shooter was a known Black supremacist who called for racial violence,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.). “The Waukesha attacker … was a viciously left-wing Black nationalist bigot. Another Black nationalist gunned down five police officers in Dallas.” Cruz went on, about “the violence of the antifa riots and the Black Lives Matter riots.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), the top Republican on the panel, spoke of 2016, when “two Black racists killed eight police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge,” and of 2018, when “members of antifa in Philadelphia assaulted two Marines.” Extremism, Grassley said, “includes Black racism and antifa ideology.” And Sen. Mike Lee (Utah) focused on a (Black) man and (Asian American) woman who “had thrown a Molotov cocktail into a police vehicle during the antifa riots.”
Their illustrations served to build a case that the focus on white supremacy is “diminishing” violence against others, as Cruz put it, including “violence directed at White people” — and that, as Grassley asserted, “even though many in the press only focus on far-right attacks, the most deadly ideology often changes year to year.”
But that’s just not true. Since 2015, when the recent upsurge in political violence began, the brutality has been overwhelmingly perpetrated by the far right. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, right-wing extremists (generally either white supremacist or anti-government) were involved in 267 plots or attacks and 91 fatalities from 2015 through 2020. Far-left extremists (anarchists, anti-fascists) were involved in 66 incidents and 19 deaths. The proportion of left-wing attacks and plots increased in 2021 (40 percent of the total, compared to 49 percent by right-wing extremists), but right-wing attacks remained far deadlier, accounting for 28 of 30 political-violence fatalities in 2021.
Senate Republicans used similar arguments a couple of weeks ago to block consideration of the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, which would have created dedicated government offices to track domestic terrorism, including white-supremacist violence. That modest bill, with no added surveillance powers or criminal offenses, had passed the House and originally had Republican support. But at a time when Fox News’s Tucker Carlson and Republican officials including House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (N.Y.) have given voice to the “great replacement” conspiracy, Republicans have apparently lost interest in challenging white supremacy.
Instead, they brought in their favorite all-purpose witness on Tuesday, law professor Jonathan Turley, who argued against the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act and claimed that the Jan. 6 insurrection was not an act of domestic terrorism. But mostly, Turley testified about himself: “I have received hundreds of threats against myself, my family, and even my dog. … I am generally viewed as something of a free-speech purist. … I come to this subject as someone who has written, litigated and testified in the areas of terrorism, extremist advocacy, and free speech for decades. I have also represented the United States House of Representatives in litigation. … I should confess to a bias as a Madisonian scholar.”
Committee chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), noting that Fox News’s Carlson alone has amplified the “great replacement” theory (in which White people are supposedly targeted for marginalization) on more than 400 episodes of his show, urged his colleagues to “speak in one voice and repudiate this incendiary rhetoric, along with any individual or extremist group that resorts to violence.”
But Republican senators declined that invitation, instead turning repeatedly to Turley and to their other witness, former U.S. attorney Justin Herdman, to support their desire not to focus on white supremacists; they wanted to evaluate the threat of terrorism without “any sort of analysis of the ideology,” as Herdman put it.
In his poignant opening statement, Whitfield spoke of the man who allegedly killed his mother: “He did not act alone. He was radicalized by white supremacists. His anger and hatred were metastasized like a cancer by people with big microphones screaming that Black people were going to take away their jobs and opportunities.”
Repeatedly, Whitfield asked the lawmakers what they would do about his mother’s death. Republicans, in their refusal to acknowledge the unique harm being done by Carlson, party leaders and white supremacists, gave their answer: not a thing. | 2022-06-07T21:50:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | A hearing on white supremacist attacks stir GOP fears — for White people's safety - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/white-supremacist-attacks-hearing-republicans/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/white-supremacist-attacks-hearing-republicans/ |
Gen. Paul Nakasone, the head of U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, speaks during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on April 5. (Andrew Harnik/Associated Press)
As the war in Ukraine rages, a long-standing battle between Russia and the United States over cyberspace is also heating up, with a top Russian diplomat warning of “catastrophic” consequences if the United States or its allies “provoke” Russia with a cyberattack.
The “information space,” as the Kremlin likes to call it, has been a growing domain of U.S.-Russian conflict, not only in the Ukraine war, but in Russia’s hacking attacks against the presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2020 as well as the congressional elections in 2018. The two countries briefly seemed to be working together for common rules for cyberspace last year, but that cooperation has now exploded.
Andrei Krutskikh, the top cyber expert at the Russian foreign ministry, charged in an interview on Monday with the Russian newspaper Kommersant that the United States had allegedly “unleashed cyber aggression against Russia and its allies.” He claimed that Washington was using Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and “the IT Army created by him to carry out computer attacks against our country as a battering ram.”
Krutskikh continued ominously: “We do not recommend that the United States provoke Russia into retaliatory measures. A rebuff will certainly follow, it will be firm and resolute. However, the outcome of this ‘mess’ could be catastrophic, because there will be no winners in a direct cyber clash of states.”
To back up Krutskikh’s claim that the United States has attacked Russian cyber targets, Kommersant cited a June 1 comment by Army Gen. Paul Nakasone, head of U.S. Cyber Command. Speaking about Ukraine during a visit to Estonia, Nakasone told Sky News: “We’ve conducted a series of operations across the full spectrum: offensive, defensive, [and] information operations.”
A Cyber Command spokesman had no comment. A senior State Department official said Krutskikh’s allegations were “nothing new” and a “rehash” of past statements.
The Biden administration, for its part, accused Russia last month of conducting “malicious cyber activity” against Ukraine, including an attack on a commercial satellite communications network that damaged systems in other European countries. The State Department condemned Russia’s cyber-meddling, but the senior official said the United States hasn’t seen the “huge attacks” some were expecting, perhaps because the Russians “don’t want a war on two fronts.”
Krutskikh contended that a “freeze” by the Biden administration in developing a common approach to cybersecurity had reversed progress made last year at the United Nations. U.S. and Russian officials had endorsed a joint U.N. resolution in October outlining a framework for discussing cybersecurity issues. Krutskikh called it a “historic moment.” But at that time, the Russians were already preparing their invasion of Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24. Even so, contact between the two countries on cyber issues has continued, with two meetings since December and another scheduled in July, the senior official said.
The Kremlin’s cyber chief said Monday that Russia was still ready to negotiate “appropriate legal agreements with all states that soberly assess the threat of cyberwarfare.” But that same day, Russia included Michele Markoff, the State Department’s cyber security coordinator and the main channel of contact with Krutskikh, on a new list of sanctions permanently banning travel to Russia.
Russia’s view of the internet is fundamentally different from that of the United States, the senior State Department official said during an interview on Tuesday. Whereas the United States seeks an open, free and interoperable system, Russia wants “an internet with sovereign borders,” where it can suppress speech it doesn’t like.
Russia’s obsession with cyberspace partly reflects Moscow’s view that the United States controls the internet and its governance. A favorite Russian target is a group of experts known as ICANN, which oversees the internet’s system of domain names. ICANN used to operate under a Commerce Department contract but has been fully independent since 2016. On Monday, the group published a compendium of Russia’s attempts to rewrite internet rules, through the United Nations or other international regulatory bodies it seeks to control. From President Vladimir Putin on down, the Russians quoted in the ICANN report resent the United States’ digital dominance.
The U.S.-Russian contest over cyberspace will play out in this September’s election for a new secretary general of the International Telecommunications Union, a U.N. agency that could, in theory, take over internet governance. Two leading candidates are Doreen Bogdan-Martin, an American who currently runs one of the ITU’s bureaus, and Rashid Ismailov, a Russian who has worked in his country’s communications ministry and for Huawei, Nokia and other companies. Watch that space, folks.
The internet confrontation is a microcosm of Russia’s larger standoff with the West. Russia yearns for recognition as a great power and global standard setter. But as the war in Ukraine grinds on, Putin has become ever more prickly, isolated and angry at his foes. He is severing Russia’s connections to the world, even as he seeks to dominate cyberspace. His computer is crashing, and he doesn’t seem to know how to reboot. | 2022-06-07T22:29:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The U.S.-Russia conflict is heating up — in cyberspace - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/us-russia-conflict-is-heating-up-cyberspace/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/07/us-russia-conflict-is-heating-up-cyberspace/ |
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