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American trust in government near ‘historic lows,’ Pew finds
A view of the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 18. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg News)
Uncle Sam isn’t a trustworthy dude.
He was in 1964, when Americans gave the government he symbolizes a positive rating of 77 percent.
Since then, public trust has fallen to a disturbing 20 percent, “near historic lows,” according to a Pew Research Center report released this week. Unfortunately, that low approval rating reflects “decades of distrust,” the report said, and “a sentiment that has changed very little since former President George W. Bush’s second term in office.”
Yet the troubling picture painted by the broad bush obscures points of appreciation and hope.
“Americans’ unhappiness with government has long coexisted with their continued support for government having a substantial role in many realms,” Pew found.
Significant majorities say the government does “too little” on issues affecting certain groups, including the low-income, middle-income and retirees.
Trust in government is higher not only when government works better, but also when people have a better understanding of what government is doing, according to Teresa W. Gerton, president and CEO of the National Academy of Public Administration, a congressionally chartered nonpartisan think tank.
She praised President Biden’s Management Agenda for its “focus on improving customer experience for critical life events and improving the performance and delivery of government services.”
Of course, this wouldn’t be America without a partisan divide.
“Republicans are less likely than Democrats to favor a major role for government in most areas,” the Pew report says, adding that “this is especially — and increasingly — the case for alleviating poverty.”
The survey asked if government should play a “major role” in 12 areas. Helping people out of poverty was last, with a slim 52 percent majority agreeing. Preventing terrorism ranked highest at 90 percent.
There also are racial and ethnic differences.
Overwhelming majorities of Black, Asian and Hispanic respondents said that “government should do more to solve problems.” But just over half of White people said that “the government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals.”
Unfortunately, the public has little confidence in elected officials to fix what’s wrong.
About two-thirds of adults, “including nearly identical shares in both parties,” said most people seeking elected office at all levels “do so to serve their own personal interests,” Pew reported.
The public has much more confidence in career federal employees than political appointees, but that is declining. The 52 percent confidence rating in career feds dropped nine points since 2018. That’s still significantly higher than the 39 percent rating for appointees.
Rhetoric from Donald Trump, who was president in 2018, did nothing to improve that confidence. His attitude and tone were established during his campaign with his calls to “drain the swamp” in Washington, a line feds took personally. His policies, particularly regarding federal labor unions, put that rhetoric into practice. Republican accusations about a conspiratorial “deep state,” lurking within the government to thwart Trump, encouraged distrust in the government and its workers.
Uncle Sam did get some love from the Pew respondents. Strong majorities, from 64 percent to 70 percent, say the government is somewhat or very good at responding to natural disasters, preventing terrorism, ensuring safe food and medicine, and setting fair and safe workplace standards.
Notably, “the only area in which a significantly larger share of Republicans [47 percent] rate the job the federal government is doing more positively than Democrats [36 percent] is on protecting the environment,” Pew found. And despite the continuing and highly partisan battles over health care, “nearly equal shares in both parties say the government does a good job of ensuring access to health care.”
Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, which studies the federal government and employees, attributed the big drop in trust from the 1960s in part to attitudes following the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War.
But he believes that negative slide can be turned around if Washington communicates better and promotes the government’s good works.
He cited the military, which suffered “a substantial decline in trust, then bounced back.” Stier credited that to better communication by the Pentagon, noting how it works with Hollywood on the military’s image. In real life, especially during an age of international terrorism, the public wants the military’s protection.
The Partnership for Public Service sponsors the best-known recognition of federal employees with its Service to America Medals, but Stier wants the government to do much more to honor its own.
Promotion by agencies of “the great work” of career civil servants, he complained, “doesn’t happen, hardly at all.”
For Stier, the issue of trust is an issue of leadership.
“Leaders in government have a responsibility to demonstrate,” he said, “that they’re there on behalf of and serving the public.” | 2022-06-09T11:26:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | American trust in government near 'historic lows,' Pew finds - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/american-trust-government-pew-survey/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/american-trust-government-pew-survey/ |
What will keep ships — and people — safer in the Gulf of Guinea?
Here’s an update on piracy incidents
Analysis by Brandon Prins
Aaron Gold
Anup Phayal
Simon Rotzer
Curie Maharani
Sayed Riyadi
Kayla Marie Reno
Nigerian navy special forces during a five-day military exercise with the French navy in 2019. (Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images)
A U.N. resolution last week condemned piracy in the Gulf of Guinea — the most dangerous piracy hot spot in the world. In 2020, over 40 percent of piracy incidents occurred in West African waters. And 95 percent of all kidnapped crew members were taken from ships transiting the Gulf of Guinea.
Can maritime security efforts help reverse these trends? While global maritime piracy generally decreased from 2015 to 2020, piracy incidents increased substantially in the Gulf of Guinea. Our research finds that piracy incidents in West African waters also tended to be more violent than elsewhere, as fighting on land, especially in and around the Niger Delta, appeared to spill out onto the water, as shown in the figure below.
A January 2021 incident involving the Liberian-flagged ship MV Mozart near São Tomé and Príncipe left one seaman dead. Pirates kidnapped 15 other sailors in that attack and ransomed them for an undisclosed amount. The incident occurred approximately 180 kilometers off São Tomé Island and 375 kilometers from Nigeria, making it one of the farthest offshore attacks to date in the Gulf of Guinea (see map).
Yet the MV Mozart attack was followed by a dramatic decline in piracy off Nigeria, with incidents in 2021 dropping nearly 50 percent from 2020 levels. In fact, piracy incidents now appear to be at a six-year low. The 57 sailors kidnapped from vessels in the Gulf of Guinea in 2021 was significantly lower than the 130 crew members seized in 2020.
This drop is welcome news for governments in West Africa that feared unrelenting high costs from persistent maritime insecurity. In 2021, there were six piracy incidents per month, a 33 percent decrease from 2019 and 2020 monthly averages. There have been five incidents per month in the first quarter of 2022. What, if anything, has changed?
Improving maritime security
The Gulf of Guinea contains valuable oil and gas reserves, as well as rich fishing grounds, that are exploited by organized criminal groups and violent armed groups. London insurers continue to find the waters between Togo and Gabon at a heightened risk for war, piracy, terrorism and related perils — especially crew abductions. But international aid, regional cooperation and local investments in building maritime security capacity may be finally paying off.
The United States and Europe contribute to maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea. Funding for port security enhancements, information sharing, law enforcement training and capacity building are all intended to help ensure peace and promote economic prosperity.
E.U. countries and the United States have increasingly deployed naval vessels to the region to combat organized criminal groups targeting commercial transport ships. The Danish navy sent a frigate to the area in November 2021. France, Spain and Portugal regularly patrol West African waters. The United States hosts multinational naval exercises in the Gulf of Guinea that are meant to improve counter-piracy operations and impede illegal fishing.
Regionally, West African governments have collaborated on efforts to secure the gulf against transnational organized crime. In 2013, 25 governments in the region met in Cameroon to sign the Yaoundé Code of Conduct. This agreement produced a new maritime security architecture, built around information and intelligence sharing as well as coordinated naval operations. The compact’s goal is to identify and apprehend criminal groups, protect seafarers and deter would-be pirates.
Fights over marine boundaries are creating safe zones for pirates
Five West African countries have established multinational maritime coordination centers, with additional operational bureaus set up in each of the 19 countries bordering the gulf. If maritime boundaries once protected illegal fishers and pirates from capture, improved information sharing and subsequent coordinated actions by West African navies now render cross-border escapes more dubious.
Will Deep Blue help?
The Nigerian government has separately pursued a strategy designed to secure Nigeria’s own waterways — but the effort may also help to safeguard the wider maritime environment. The Integrated National Security and Waterways Protection Infrastructure project, popularly known as Deep Blue, commits substantial resources to combat piracy, oil theft, smuggling and illegal fishing.
Deep Blue funding has supplied coastal patrol vehicles, interceptor boats and reconnaissance aircraft that all contribute to a vessel-protection mission. In July 2021, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari also commissioned a surveillance system to provide a comprehensive picture of Nigeria’s maritime environment to inhibit criminal activity. Additional troops deployed on land in Nigeria may help pursue criminal groups and their assets.
Will Deep Blue work? Bashir Jamoh, director general of Nigeria’s Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, credited the deployment of Deep Blue assets for the decline in Gulf of Guinea piracy in 2021. He also acknowledged assistance from regional governments, the shipping industry and foreign navies. Nigeria’s 2019 piracy-suppression law, despite its limitations, further ensures that captured pirates and other criminals will be prosecuted. In August 2020, a Nigerian court sentenced the first three pirates under this law for the hijacking of an Equatorial Guinean cargo ship.
Still, recent counter-piracy operations by European warships don’t appear to have involved the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency — which is somewhat troubling if Nigeria’s new assets and closer communication are key to maritime security in the region. Ship attacks and crew abductions may be down in West African waters, but the decline can only partly be attributed to Deep Blue. European and U.S. naval deployments, as well as improved regional collaboration, probably matter more when it comes to curbing maritime crime.
Of course, better policing at sea doesn’t address socio-economic challenges on land that help drive piracy. Tackling corruption, poverty and environmental degradation throughout West Africa, but particularly in the Niger Delta, remains essential for reducing the demand for maritime piracy and other types of sea crimes. But addressing these broader challenges, experts point out, will also require assistance from the international community.
Brandon Prins (@bcprins) is a professor of political science and a global security fellow with the Howard Baker Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He is the co-author of “Pirate Lands” (Oxford University Press, 2021). Funding for this project was provided by the U.S. Department of Defense, Office of Naval Research, through the Minerva Initiative, award #N00014-21-1-2030.
Aaron Gold is a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Politics at Sewanee: The University of the South.
Anup Phayal is an assistant professor in the Department of Public and International Affairs at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
Simon Rotzer is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
Curie Maharani is a faculty member in the Department of International Relations at Bina Nusantara University in Indonesia and a research fellow at CSIS-DMRU.
Sayed Riyadi is executive director at the Center for Southeast Asia and Border Management Studies at Raja Ali Haji Maritime University in Indonesia.
Kayla Marie Reno is an undergraduate student in the Department of Political Science at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. | 2022-06-09T11:26:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Where are maritime pirates most active? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/gulf-of-guinea-piracy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/gulf-of-guinea-piracy/ |
Thursday briefing: House backs gun-control measures; a prime-time Jan. 6 hearing; extreme heat; remarkable cancer trial; and more
The House passed gun-control measures after a day of emotional testimony.
What happened? Lawmakers backed aggressive action, including raising the minimum age to buy most semiautomatic rifles from 18 to 21, by a 223-to-204 vote.
What’s next? The legislation will not pass the Senate because of Republican opposition, but there is hope for a more modest bipartisan deal on gun control.
The Jan. 6 committee will hold its first public hearing tonight.
Why this matters: The work will be the most complete record yet of the 2021 attack on the Capitol and what the House panel believes was a larger plot.
What to expect: An overview of the Jan. 6 attack and the weeks that led up to it. The next hearing will be Monday.
How to watch: It starts at 8 p.m. Eastern time. We’ll have live coverage on washingtonpost.com, and it will air on most major TV news stations.
The war in Ukraine is creating a global food crisis.
The details: Millions of people in developing nations rely on grain coming from Ukraine and Russia, which Russia is blocking. The U.N. is trying to negotiate a solution.
On the battlefield: Ukrainian forces remain locked in a brutal battle for Severodonetsk, a key eastern city.
A man with a gun was arrested near Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home.
What we know: The 26-year-old called police and said he wanted to murder a Supreme Court justice and kill himself, prosecutors said yesterday. He faces attempted murder charges.
Why? The California man was “upset” that the court may soon end the national right to abortion, as well as about the Texas school shooting, court documents showed.
A wave of extreme heat is hitting the Southwest this week.
The forecast: Temperatures are expected to peak tomorrow, with the potential for dozens of record highs over 100 degrees in places like Las Vegas, Phoenix and California’s Central Valley.
The bigger picture: Climate change is intensifying this heat. In Phoenix, the average June temperature has jumped from 83.7 degrees around World War II to 93.9 degrees now.
The U.S. plans to turn a huge underwater canyon into a marine sanctuary.
Why? The Hudson Canyon, about 100 miles off the coast of New York City, rivals the Grand Canyon in size and is home to hundreds of species including sperm whales and deep-sea turtles.
What it means: Marine sanctuaries get protections similar to those of national parks. Yesterday’s announcement was part of World Oceans Day.
A small cancer drug trial saw groundbreaking results.
What happened? Fourteen patients with early-stage rectal cancer were treated with a new drug designed to block a cancer cell protein. After six months, all traces of cancer were gone.
What experts are saying: The findings are a “very big deal” and could lead to new treatments. However, the trial was small, and the patients all shared a specific abnormality to their cancer.
And now … voice mails can be important or even downright precious: Here’s how to keep them safe in case something happens to your phone. | 2022-06-09T11:27:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The 7 things you need to know for Thursday, June 9 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/the-seven/2022/06/09/what-to-know-for-june-9/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/the-seven/2022/06/09/what-to-know-for-june-9/ |
Ahead of key Communist Party Congress, political tea-leaf reading has kicked into overdrive to determine the future shape of Xi Jinping’s power
Eva Dou
Chinese President Xi Jinping is seen leading other top officials pledging their vows to the party on screen during a gala show ahead of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing on June 28, 2021. (Ng Han Guan/AP)
Was Chinese Premier Li Keqiang challenging President Xi Jinping’s “zero covid” policy when he toured a university in southwestern China without a mask in May? Did Xi briefly disappear from the front page of the Chinese Communist Party’s official newspaper to quash a rebellion? Is Li making a last-ditch effort to usurp Xi?
Speculation about political infighting and schisms at the top of Chinese Communist Party are a common feature of its secretive system of appointing new leaders. But this year, political silly season has started early, and the swirl of rumor has been especially intense.
That’s unsurprising in the buildup to the immensely important, twice-per-decade Party Congress in the fall, which is shaping up to be the most significant transition of power in China since the pro-democracy Tiananmen Square movement in 1989 sparked a messy inter-factional battle for control.
Most close observers of Chinese politics have brushed aside the idea of a fierce battle for power at the top of the party, arguing that Xi’s hold is so strong that he is near guaranteed to take on a third term at this year’s meeting.
China passes history resolution to enshrine open-ended rule of Xi Jinping
“What is unusual this time is that China as a whole is doing poorly ahead of a historic Party Congress,” said Minxin Pei, a political scientist studying Chinese politics at Claremont McKenna College. “Its economy is in terrible shape; the zero-covid policy looks increasingly untenable; and China’s relations with nearly all Western countries are at historic lows. This of course does not reflect well on Xi.”
Gao did note that this year was particularly important because the transition will include significant turnover in the 25-member Politburo and the 200-odd Central Committee, where he expects new faces for about half of the former and at least a third in the latter. “You’re talking about changes, lots of changes. People retiring, lots of aspiring people trying to get up, being promoted,” he said.
To glean a sense of whether Xi’s rule is under serious pressure, international scholars carefully track promotions and demotions as well as signals in party propaganda. At the center of this informed guesswork — often called “tea leaf reading” — is the question of just how much Xi’s centralization of control has upended past competition and the delicate balancing of interests within the party.
After Xi’s decade-long campaigns to clear corruption and ensure loyalty, it’s unclear whether any cliques remain unified and influential enough to challenge his rule. But that doesn’t necessarily mean Xi is unopposed.
“It's a huge political party, and at the end of the day, Xi Jinping cannot populate all the mid-level positions with trusted followers,” said Victor Shih, a scholar of Chinese politics at UC San Diego.
In a recent book, Shih argues that autocratic political systems like China’s create an incentive for strongmen leaders to adopt a strategy of building “coalitions of the weak,” where politically compromised or inexperienced officials are favored for positions of power as a way of guarding the top leader from challengers.
This, Shih suggests, was the approach Mao took and Xi may be beginning to adopt. But doing so could mean promoting inexperienced officials incapable of tackling acute economic and foreign policy challenges. Xi faces a trade-off between choosing competent leaders who might later challenge him or taking a “safe route, which is what Mao did, to ultimately have a coalition of officials who are highly dependent on him.”
The exact processes of power brokering that China calls “intraparty democracy” remain shrouded in secrecy, but it is clear that Xi’s campaign to end infighting within the party has changed dynamics of internal contestation. Previous features of Chinese political maneuvering, such as an annual visit to the seaside town of Beidaihe, are less prominent, if they now exist at all.
Xi’s control of the formidable party discipline and ideology apparatuses mean any challenger faces a steep coordination problem to challenge his power. “Getting rid of him would be a very significant political earthquake for the party,” said Olivia Cheung, a research fellow at SOAS University of London. “No matter how many of the elite do not like Xi Jinping, there is a consensus that the party wants to stay on in power.”
Restricted information has made it harder for experts to predict major turning points in Xi’s tenure. Few predicted the monumental decision to end presidential term limits, announced by Xinhua in a terse statement only a month before it was voted on at the annual meeting of China’s legislature in early 2018.
Policymaking, too, has become less transparent under Xi, who has made greater use of “central leading groups,” many of which he personally chairs, to centralize control of decision-making. On issues from covid to cybersecurity to curbing debt in the property market, Xi’s policies have in the last year repeatedly caused market panic, but there have been few signs any of them will be reversed.
Such upsets are rarely blamed on Xi but rather on local officials. Shanghai’s botched lockdown, for example, has not led to a shift in China’s zero-covid policy but some analysts believe it may hurt the promotion prospects of Li Qiang, the city’s party boss and a Xi ally.
Similarly, Premier Li Keqiang’s recent prominence, read by some as an indication of a challenge to Xi, can equally well be explained as the premier being intentionally used as a figurehead in charge of resolving deepening economic woes.
A small uptick in Li’s mentions in state media doesn’t mean he is “surging back into power,” said Neil Thomas, an analyst the Eurasia Group, a think tank. “This is a way for Xi to make Li the face of economic policy in a year when economic policy is probably going to bring nothing but bad news.”
Mary Gallagher, a political scientist at the University of Michigan, said that Xi’s tenure has caused her to revise previous emphasis on China being unusual among authoritarian regimes, because before Xi, the party appeared to be moving toward institutionalization succession with top leaders bowed out after two terms.
“Having this expectation that every decade China’s leadership would change was really important in making China seem like a stable authoritarian regime,” she said. “Without those institutions in place it not only makes investors nervous, it makes the next generation of leaders nervous.” | 2022-06-09T11:33:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Swirling doubts herald major shifts at upcoming Chinese political meeting - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/09/china-rumors-xi-covid-politics/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/09/china-rumors-xi-covid-politics/ |
Post Politics Now Jan. 6 panel to hear from Capitol Police officer, filmmaker as high-drama hearings begin
On our radar: Who’s testifying at the first Jan. 6 committee hearing
Analysis: Questions the Jan. 6 committee will seek to answer
Noted: Biden tells Kimmel that gun control needs to be ‘a voting issue’
The latest: House passes tough new gun measures that are unlikely to clear Senate
Noted: Jan. 6 hearing will preempt ‘Young Sheldon’ — but not Tucker Carlson
Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) and Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) appear at a March 28 meeting of the House select committee in Washington investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Today, as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection begins to tell its story to the American people in prime time, viewers will hear from a Capitol Police officer seriously injured in the attack by a pro-Trump mob and a British filmmaker who embedded with the Proud Boys, one of the right-wing extremist groups involved. Committee aides have promised “a whole lot of new material,” with several more hearings planned this month that will focus on what led to the deadly day and how it unfolded.
Meanwhile, President Biden is in Los Angeles as the U.S.-hosted Summit of the Americas continues. In addition to delivering remarks at the opening plenary session, Biden has meetings scheduled with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, among others.
10:45 a.m. Eastern: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) holds her weekly news conference. Watch live here.
11:30 a.m. Eastern: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and other GOP lawmakers hold a news conference focused on “Speaker Pelosi’s illegitimate and partisan committee” investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. Watch live here.
2 p.m. Pacific (5 p.m. Eastern): Biden delivers remarks at the opening plenary session of the ninth Summit of the Americas. Watch live here.
8 p.m. Eastern: The House select committee holds a hearing on the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Inflation has been dogging President Biden and the Democrats as the November midterms approach, and a new poll provides some ominous findings on that front.
Most Americans expect inflation to get worse in the next year and are adjusting their spending habits in response to rising prices, according to the poll conducted by The Washington Post and George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government.
The Post’s Abha Bhattarai and Jacob Bogage report that inflation, which is near 40-year highs, has lifted the cost of just about everything, including essentials such as gas, groceries and housing. Overall prices are up 8.3 percent in the past year.
Per our colleagues:
The House committee that has spent nearly a year investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol is scheduled to hear live testimony on Thursday night from two witnesses:
Caroline Edwards, a U.S. Capitol Police officer who was seriously injured as pro-Trump rioters and members of far-right extremist groups forced their way into the building;
Nick Quested, a British filmmaker who embedded with and documented the activities of one of those extremist groups, the Proud Boys.
Previewing the hearing, The Post’s Jacqueline Alemany writes that the first hearing, beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern time, will focus in part on the coordination between extremist groups who conspired to obstruct Congress by fomenting and spearheading a riot, according to committee aides. Per Jackie:
You can read Jackie’s full story here.
After nearly a year and 1,000 interviews — including of former president Donald Trump’s family members and some of his closest advisers — the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol is ready to share its findings.
The Post’s Amber Phillips lays out six questions the committee will try to answer in hearings scheduled to begin Thursday that will last throughout the month. Here are those six questions:
How much responsibility for the violence falls on Trump?
How did Trump and his allies use the levers of government to try to keep him in power?
How did so many people come to believe — and act on — Trump’s lies about the election?
What is the connection between officials’ actions and ordinary people’s violence on Jan. 6?
How was the Capitol so vulnerable to attack?
What should be done to prevent similar attacks on democracy?
You can read Amber’s full analysis here.
President Biden made his first in-studio appearance on a late-night talk show Wednesday as he discussed gun guntrol and a range of other issues with host Jimmy Kimmel in Los Angeles.
“You’ve got to make sure that this becomes a voting issue,” Biden said of gun control. “It’s got to be one of those issues where you decide your position on the issue of senator or candidate for House or Senate, on what we’re going to do with assault weapons … what you say on those things is going to determine how I vote for you. It should be one of those issues.”
Writing in The Early 202, The Post’s Theodoric Meyer reports that Biden also defended his record in the taped appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” during which Kimmel — a Democratic donor who contributed to Biden’s 2020 campaign — pressed him on why the administration hadn’t accomplished more.
Per Theodoric:
“I think a lot of Democrats are frustrated because, you know, we got out and voted,” Kimmel said. “We won the House, the Senate, the White House, obviously, and still we have made very little progress as far as I’m concerned when it comes to guns, obviously, reproductive rights, voting rights, climate change — all these things.”
If Roe falls, “it’s going to cause a mini-revolution and they’re gonna vote a lot of these folks out of office,” he said.
You can read the rest of The Early 202 here.
The House endorsed some of the most aggressive gun-control measures taken up on Capitol Hill in years on Wednesday — including raising the minimum age for the purchase of most semiautomatic rifles to 21 and banning high-capacity ammunition magazines.
The Post’s Mike DeBonis reports that the 223-to-204 vote took place just hours after a House committee heard searing testimony from a young survivor of the May 24 shooting in Uvalde, Tex., as well as the parents of a victim and a pediatrician who responded to the tragedy that left 19 elementary-schoolers and two teachers dead.
Per MIke:
Five Republicans joined most Democrats in backing the legislation. Two Democrats voted no. …
The House vote, however, will amount to little more than a political messaging exercise because of firm Republican opposition to substantial new gun restrictions. That has left hopes for a bipartisan deal that could be signed into law in the hands of a small group of senators who are exploring much more modest changes to federal gun laws. Those talks continued Wednesday in hopes of sealing a deal in the coming days.
All three major American broadcast television networks will preempt their popular prime-time entertainment programs 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 Post’s Jeremy Barr reports that announcements this week 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.
Here’s more from Jeremy, including information on where not to watch:
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 that 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.
You can read Jeremy’s full piece here. | 2022-06-09T11:55:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Jan. 6 panel to hear from Capitol Police officer, filmmaker as high-drama hearings begin - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/jan6-hearings-capitol-insurrection-biden-americas/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/jan6-hearings-capitol-insurrection-biden-americas/ |
Teen beaten to death in ‘senseless act’ outside LeBron James school
The lobby of the I Promise School, an Akron public school funded by the LeBron James Family Foundation, shown on July 30, 2018. (Phil Long/AP)
Last Thursday night, four teens rolled up to the parking lot of an Ohio school started by NBA star LeBron James’s foundation and shot a toy water gun at a group playing basketball there. A fight ensued.
By the time police arrived, everyone had scattered, except for 17-year-old Ethan Liming, who was lying dead in the I Promise School parking lot.
Now, police in Akron, Ohio, are investigating what they describe as a deadly beating.
“Ethan Liming lost his life in a senseless act of violence,” Akron Police Chief Stephen Mylett said at a news conference Wednesday, adding that Liming “did not deserve to die.”
Mylett declined to name suspects but noted that investigators have “viable leads into the individuals that may have been involved" in the crime.
Liming had just finished his junior year at Firestone Community Learning Center, a public school in Akron, where he played baseball and football and was a member of the school’s academy of design, the Akron Beacon Journal reported.
“Ethan was everything. He was a good boy. He was a smart boy. He loved life. He loved living life. He wanted to be friends with everybody,” Liming’s mother, Jennifer, told WEWS, adding: “I just miss him so much. And I just wish he was here.”
At the time of the incident, I Promise School was closed for the summer, with its last class held on May 25, the Beacon reported. The school was founded in 2018 as a partnership between the LeBron James Family Foundation and Akron Public Schools, providing a “STEM-focused and trauma-informed curriculum.” It started off serving third- and fourth-graders, with plans to expand to the eighth grade in 2022.
The school did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post early Thursday.
The day after the incident, the LeBron James Family Foundation tweeted that its campus remains “safe and secure,” although it was “devastated to learn of the overnight incident that saw a life lost near our school.”
“We are grieving with our community over another senseless act of violence,” the foundation added.
James, who grew up in Akron, also addressed the incident on Twitter.
“Our condolences goes out to the family who lost a loved one!!” the basketball star tweeted after the incident. "[May] the heavens above watch over you during this tragedy! Pray for our community!”
On the night of June 2, Liming and three friends, all 17-year-old boys, were driving around Akron, shooting a toy SplatRBall Water Bead Blaster gun at “objects and possibly unsuspecting people,” the Akron Police Department said in a statement.
Holding one version of the blaster at the news conference Wednesday, Mylett explained that small beads of water are loaded into the gun and explode “like a water balloon” when shot at someone, getting the person wet. He described it as a toy marketed to people age 14 and older.
Around 10:40 p.m., Mylett explained, Liming and his friends pulled into the I Promise School parking lot near the basketball courts. When two people in Liming’s group of friends started shooting the bead blaster at four people playing basketball on the courts, the basketball players ran away, and two people from Liming’s group ran “in their direction,” Mylett said, not specifying if Liming was one of them.
Moments later, Mylett said, the two boys from Liming’s group trotted back to the car with the group of basketball players running behind them. In the parking lot, a “confrontation” occurred, in which Liming “is assaulted and a fight ensues,” Mylett said, adding that two of Ethan’s friends were also assaulted.
Liming’s father, Bill, told WEWS that he spoke to a detective on the case who said Liming was in the car when the confrontation began and originally mistook the tense situation as a joke.
“Ethan still thought it was horseplay when he got out of the car and was trying to tell people, ‘It’s relaxed. It’s just a joke. It’s a joke.’ And the individuals didn’t like that,” Bill Liming told the station. “One individual attacked him. Ethan still tried to tell them it’s just a joke. And then another individual came up behind them, struck him in the head.”
When Ethan started fighting back, Bill Liming said, “a third individual came up behind him and they overwhelmed them and they knocked him out on the ground.”
Police arrived at the parking lot around 10:50 p.m. and found Liming unresponsive on the ground, Mylett said. Paramedics declared him dead at the scene. The bead blaster was also recovered at the scene, according to the police department. Mylett noted that it was “of concern” that the basketball players may have mistook the toy for a real gun.
Bill Liming told WEWS his son and his friends were “just goofing around being teenagers.”
“My son should not be murdered … brutally murdered and beaten to death because of a toy,” Liming added. “It makes me sick. It makes me sick. To know that my son’s life was lost because of that.” | 2022-06-09T12:30:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Akron teen Ethan Liming beaten to death outside LeBron James's school - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/09/beating-death-akron-lebron-school/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/09/beating-death-akron-lebron-school/ |
By Olga Mecking
People who experience emotional perfectionism are reluctant to admit to negative emotions. (iStock)
The term toxic positivity has gained popularity in recent years, referring to moments when people responded to others’ struggles with surface-deep assurances and cliched phrases such as “Everything happens for a reason” or “Have you tried yoga?”
“It’s really when you have an emotion about emotion and you’re suppressing what you have labeled the bad emotion,” said Annie Hickox, a psychologist who also holds a PhD in clinical neuroscience. “Emotional perfectionism often follows a script of: ‘We shouldn’t do this,’ ‘I shouldn’t be mad about that,’ ‘I shouldn’t be angry,’” added Hickox, who coined the term in 2016.
Hickox believes emotional perfectionism could be an unrecognized source of anxiety, based on experience with her patients. “They’ll say, oh no, I’m not a perfectionist. But you can find thoughts where they’re holding themselves up to a very high standard,” she said.
Toxic positivity and emotional perfectionism have the same underlying root cause: a discomfort with other people’s negative emotions. Vrinda Kalia, a psychology professor at Miami University who studies perfectionism and emotional expression, said that expecting life — yours or others’ — to be “awesome all the time” is extremely debilitating because it ignores reality. “This is not what life is like.”
Nevertheless, perfectionism, including emotional perfectionism, can prevent us from building and maintaining satisfying relationships. For example, “In a married couple, where one person is more dark and pessimistic and the other person is constantly buoying them up, that could spill into toxic positivity,” Hickox said. “Because one person doesn’t feel heard or listened to because they just get this positive persona, and the underlying message to the other person is, ‘You shouldn’t feel that way.’”
Hickox says emotional perfectionism can also arise from positive reflexes such as protectiveness, where people want to make sure their friends and loved ones don’t have to suffer the discomfort of unpleasant emotions, such as anger or sadness. This, too, tends to backfire. “It doesn’t protect other people, because that’s not real life to always be positive. In the short term, it can make us feel better, because we’re putting on this persona, but in the long term, it can be quite damaging and self-destructive,” she said.
“Emotional perfectionism is more likely to happen for women, because they have been socialized not to express their complete selves,” said Catherine McKinley, an associate professor at the Tulane University School of Social Work who studied gender differences in emotional expression. She said that although women were allowed to manifest a wider range of emotions than men, they also felt more pressure to self-regulate them.
Remember there are no good and bad emotions. “There’s no such thing as good and bad emotions, just like there’s no good and bad food. We can have problems with them, but it’s not the food itself that’s the problem, it’s how we handle it,” said Hickox. One approach is to learn how to develop what she called “emotional tolerance,” or the strength to deal with all sorts of emotions, including unpleasant ones.
We all have an “ugly” side, but that’s what makes us human, Kalia said. “Expressing all parts of yourself allows you to be your whole person. The best situation would be to accept it to say, ‘Okay, I got angry. That’s the angry part of me. And that’s okay, I also have a soft and tender side to me, and I can show that to you next,’” she said.
Be mindful. According to Hickox, mindfulness is a great way to developing emotional tolerance because it allows us to stay in the present moment. “Feel the emotion,” she said. “What is it telling you and what’s the story behind it?” For example, you can ask yourself, “What do I feel like when I’m shutting myself down? What was I feeling before I shut myself down?” Hickox said.
Be open about your needs and emotions. McKinley said it is important to be clear about what sort of support you expect from others, but also to give people room to grow. “We’re all learning together,” she said. “Everyone gets to be a full human being.”
This openness can be crucial for women whose needs have been brushed aside. But it’s also important for men who feel they are not allowed to express any emotions except for anger. “If you feel like you can’t express emotions, then that feels like suffocating over time,” she said.
Exercise emotional flexibility. Just as we need to exercise our bodies to maintain physical flexibility, we need to exercise our feelings to maintain our emotional flexibility. We need to get beyond a “rigid construction of emotional expression” that labels some emotions as good and some as bad,” Kalia said. “Inflexibility is the problem.”
Let go of control. Understanding that nothing is guaranteed can help reduce perfectionistic tendencies, because “one of one of the things a perfectionist wants is control. They want to be able to control the situation. And the truth is we have so little control,” said Kalia.
Learn from negative emotions: While emotional perfectionists don’t want to experience negative emotions, Kalia said, they have a very important function. For example, “If you have a negative interaction with someone, don’t ignore that feeling,” she said. “It’s a very important signal from your body and your brain that something is wrong.”
Reach out for support. Deciding you need to change can be extremely isolating, especially for emotional perfectionists, who tend to push people away in order to protect themselves from experiencing vulnerability. But in the long run, this can hurt them. “We can’t live alone. It’s not good for us. We all need support and other people around us,” Kalia said.
It’s unrealistic, however, to expect just one person — be it a spouse or a friend — to fulfill all of our needs. “It’d probably be most healthy if everyone has their own support networks that they can rely upon beyond their immediate partners and families,” McKinley said.
Olga Mecking is a writer living in the Netherlands and the author of “Niksen: Embracing the Dutch Art of Doing Nothing.” | 2022-06-09T12:47:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What is emotional perfectionism? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/06/09/what-is-emotional-perfectionism-toxic-positivity/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/06/09/what-is-emotional-perfectionism-toxic-positivity/ |
(The Washington Post illustration; Sourcebooks Fire, Pantheon, OniPress, Balzer + Bray, Penguin Books, Harper Perennial Modern Classics, Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers, Penguin Classics, Algonquin)
Book challenges in America aren’t new — but over the past year, they’ve reached a fever pitch. A majority of the books that have been targeted nationwide focus on sexual orientation, gender identity, race and racism. Consider “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas, which has been challenged for an alleged anti-police agenda, and “This Book Is Gay” by Juno Dawson, a nonfiction book about sexuality and gender.
The situation is “unprecedented in its scale, and in the proliferation of organized groups who are trying to remove whole lists of books at once in multiple school districts, across a growing number of states,” says Jonathan Friedman, director of free expression and education at PEN America, an advocacy group.
These are books school systems don’t want you to read, and why
According to an April report from PEN America, there were 1,586 instances of individual books being banned during the nine-month period from July 1, 2021, to March 31, affecting 1,145 book titles. Texas had the most bans (713), followed by Pennsylvania (456), Florida (204) and Oklahoma (43). That’s an “alarming” spike, compared with previous years, the group notes.
“From my place in the world, I’ve never seen anything like it,” says Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, who started working for the organization in 2000. She noted that social media is amplifying the situation. “A parent will stand up, do this impassioned speech about obscenity in school libraries in Virginia, and it goes viral on Facebook.”
The next book ban: States aim to limit titles students can search for
Amid the heated discussions about the issue, sometimes terminology can become muddled. To help clarify, we spoke to experts about the difference between a challenge and a ban, why books are challenged and when the current wave began. Here are answers to some of the most frequently asked questions:
What’s the difference between a challenge and a ban?
Why are books challenged?
Who challenges books?
What’s the process for challenging books?
When did this current wave of book banning begin?
What’s the difference between book banning and cancellation? | 2022-06-09T12:56:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The rise in book bans, explained - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/06/09/rise-book-bans-explained/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/06/09/rise-book-bans-explained/ |
The all-electric, modular property in Chantilly, Va., produces more energy than it uses and is a prototype for its regional home builder
The end-unit townhouse was primarily built in a factory, cutting construction time down by two months. (Van Metre Homes)
Plenty of individual architects and custom builders have contributed to innovations in sustainable home building by designing modular homes and residences that generate their own power, but few of what are known as “production” builders have taken that step.
Production builders include local, regional and national home builders that design and build multiple homes at one time rather than a personalized home for one buyer. But to move the needle on sustainability for the future, all types of builders will eventually need to design and build homes with environmental considerations among their top priorities.
“It’s more common for single-family home builders, especially custom builders, on the West Coast to build modular homes than on the East Coast because there are more factories in the West,” says Cindy Wasser, senior manager of green building programs for Home Innovation Research Labs, formerly the National Association of Home Builders Research Lab, in Upper Marlboro, Md.
“On the other hand, production home builders have more consistent teams of contractors who work on their homes, and they could benefit from modular construction.”
Modular-home construction addresses environmental concerns, speeds up construction and may begin to make a dent in the severe shortage of homes in the United States. Freddie Mac estimated that nearly 4 million housing units were needed to meet demand as of the fourth quarter of 2020.
“Modular construction helps reduce the variables in the components of a house, which in turn helps construction teams meet their goals faster,” Wasser says. “Building parts of homes in a factory controls for waste, allows for more recycling and reduces on-site time for laborers.”
Climate change is spurring a movement to build stormproof homes
Van Metre Homes, a regional home builder based in Northern Virginia, recently completed its second “POWERhaus” model, a modular constructed townhouse in Chantilly, Va., which the company is using as a prototype for future townhouse development. Its first prototype was a single-family home.
“We’ve had a factory in Winchester, Virginia, since 2008 where we build roof trusses and wall trusses, so we wanted to do more in a factory setting for greater efficiency,” says Mike Sandkuhler, vice president of building operations for Van Metre Homes, based in Ashburn, Va. “Also, most people in the building industry understand that the skilled labor shortage we’re all experiencing isn’t disappearing. Modular construction can help us manage that shortage.”
Sandkuhler says Van Metre intends to incorporate more townhouses in its product mix in the future, which is why the company chose to design a modular townhouse for its second project.
Van Metre Homes brought in Joseph Wheeler, a professor of architecture and co-director of the Center for Design Research at Virginia Tech’s School of Architecture + Design in Blacksburg, Va., as a consultant while he was on a research sabbatical to help redesign a townhouse model as a prefabricated concept.
“The focus was to develop cartridges that could be built in their factory for greater efficiency,” Wheeler says. “Townhouses require a firewall in between each unit, so we needed to do research and development to be able to make that work within the modular factory setting.”
Two-month construction time
A big benefit of this modular construction is that the townhouse was built in two months when most new construction takes much longer.
“The beauty of modular construction is that the site prep and the foundation can be worked on simultaneously with the cartridges being built in the factory,” Sandkuhler says. “It cuts construction time down from four or five months to two months.”
Van Metre and Wheeler are taking the lessons they learned while building this townhouse for their next project, a row of four townhouses in Ashburn. Sandkuhler anticipates those townhouses to be on-site sometime this summer.
What climate change will mean for your home
“The factory is less than 45 miles away from where we’re building, so we reduce the amount of fossil fuel and the time needed to transport the cartridges to the building site,” Sandkuhler says.
Transportation and housing account for more than half of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to a PBS News report in 2019, with 33.6 percent of those emissions coming from housing. Utility usage accounts for 25 percent of the housing emissions.
Reducing the distance from factory to homesite also addresses the issue of truck driver shortages, Wheeler says.
“We also learned that it’s better to do smaller-scale modular pieces instead of huge panels because this way you don’t need massive cranes and huge trucks that can be difficult to maneuver in residential neighborhoods,” Wheeler says. “Smaller components are also more flexible in terms of design, so you’re not stuck in that big-box mentality of earlier modular homes.”
Future-forward Chantilly townhouse
The first POWERhaus townhouse model, listed for sale at $899,990, includes 2,706 square feet of living space with three bedrooms, three bathrooms and a two-car garage. The model includes a variety of special features since it serves as a research project for Van Metre.
In addition to solar panels, Tesla home batteries to store power and an electric vehicle charging station, the home has high-tech features such as a self-cleaning bathroom, a whole home safety monitoring system, smart mirrors, smart lights and touchless faucets.
The “power” part of the name represents the goals for the townhouse, including:
Progressive, for innovative building techniques.
Optimized, to deliver peak performance for all the systems in the home.
Waste conscious, to build processes that minimize waste.
Efficient, to maximize energy efficiency and comfort.
Renewable, to increase sustainability by using clean energy sources.
“For this house we choose one of our most popular existing floor plans to convert to a modular design,” Sandkuhler says. “If you walk into this house it doesn’t feel like a modular home.”
Van Metre used optimization software in the factory that tracked every piece of material used and where and when it would be needed, says Wheeler, which can reduce costs for future modular-built houses.
“For the next set of townhouses, we can create a cart with all the pieces in it like a Lego set of nesting products,” Wheeler says. “There’s less waste and lower costs when we can build more efficiently and with more precision.”
Wheeler says they learned quickly that it’s best to leave off the ceiling of the upper two floors when shipping the cartridges to make everything easier to install on-site.
“In the future, small-scale modular homes will offer homeowners and builders the ability to scale over time,” Wheeler says. “If you design a community to be modular from the beginning, you can develop the lots and spaces between homes to accommodate the addition of future modules. So, you could start with a two-bedroom, one-bathroom house for affordability and scale up to a four-bedroom, four-bathroom house.”
Ultra energy-efficient homes
While the next set of modular townhouses from Van Metre will be energy efficient, the Chantilly POWERhaus achieves net positive standards, meaning the house produces more energy than it uses. The combination of solar panels, airtight construction and extra insulation, along with the Tesla Powerwall for storing solar energy, means that there should be enough extra energy to charge an electric car as well as power the house.
“The commitment to designing and building net positive houses is the direction the market is headed, but cutting-edge innovations are usually found in the custom-designed luxury home market,” Wasser says. “Builders and consumers are really waking up to the need for more sustainable energy, lower energy bills and homes that are resilient to energy outages.”
The Home Energy Rating System (HERS), developed by the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET), a nonprofit established in 1995, measures energy efficiency in homes. The lower the HERS number, the more energy efficient the home is. A HERS score of 100 means a house was built to 2006 energy efficiency standards. A typical resale home has a HERS score of 130. A HERS score of zero means the home generates as much energy as it uses. A net positive home has a negative HERS score.
“This is an all-electric house and achieves higher levels of energy efficiency not only because of the way it’s constructed but also because of the systems we installed,” Sandkuhler says. “It has induction cooking and a ductless multi-zone mini-split heating and air-conditioning system that is extremely efficient.”
The Mitsubishi Multi-Zone Mini-Split system is compact and allows you to heat or cool one level of the house at a time instead of the whole house, Wheeler says. The townhouse also has motion sensors for controlling lights and a whole-house energy monitoring system with leak detectors that automatically shut off the water if there’s a leak, all of which add to the home’s sustainability.
“You get a slight energy-efficiency benefit in a townhouse compared to a single-family home, particularly the interior units, because of the insulation benefits of the houses being joined together,” Wasser says.
Not the ‘cheapest of cheap housing’
Building cartridges of a home in a factory provides a controlled environment that eliminates weather delays, but the process doesn’t save money yet, Sandkuhler says.
“We’re saving time in the field, but so far the costs have not come down,” Sandkuhler says. “Our first goal with this project was for research and development, and our second was to increase efficiencies to get this as comparable as we can to homes built on-site.”
Building four kitchens at once is efficient, but Sandkuhler says that the level of attention to each detail is the same as with on-site building.
“There’s a different level of precision required when you stack cartridges on top of each other,” he says. “You need to coordinate every detail. For example, we want all our houses to be solar ready in the future, but that means we needed to make changes to the roof trusses so they can handle the added weight.”
Increasing the affordability of homes built with modular construction is another challenge.
“The goal isn’t to build the cheapest of cheap housing,” Wheeler says. “The goal is to deliver an excellent quality product more efficiently. Eliminating waste and exposure to the weather can bring down costs and so can adapting the use of labor in the factory.”
Eventually, Wheeler believes more skilled contractors will do some of their work in the factory.
“If all the components of each house are uniform and precise, then the on-site portion of construction can be done more easily, and you won’t need a supervisor to oversee everything,” Wheeler says.
Future renovations
One misconception many consumers have is that a modular-built home will be more difficult to renovate or remodel in the future, Wasser says.
“Actually, there are big benefits for the consumer of components being built in a factory,” Wasser says. “It’s a more controlled environment for the construction that allows for higher quality components and more consistency. It won’t impact renovations at all. Homeowners will be able to do anything they want with the house just as if it were built on-site.”
Builders can also “future-proof” a modular house if they choose to, such as installing wiring for a battery panel to store solar power.
“Consumers can come into a showroom and make choices just as they do with other types of new construction,” Wheeler says. “The big difference is that they can move into the house within two months instead of two or three times longer than that.”
For Wheeler and Sandkuhler, the investment of time and money into research to build the POWERhaus is all about using technology to build a better house that will provide the same experience for homeowners as any solidly built house constructed with traditional methods. | 2022-06-09T12:56:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Maxed-out townhouse sets the stage for minimal impact on environment - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/09/maxed-out-townhouse-sets-stage-minimal-impact-environment/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/09/maxed-out-townhouse-sets-stage-minimal-impact-environment/ |
A previously lost species of coffee, Coffea stenophylla, that could be the climate change resilient strain the coffee industry has been looking for, at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London. (Stuart McDill/Reuters)
“When I was starting out, I really felt like I was going up against the entire industry because the entire industry was very, very explicit and open about upholding this narrative of ‘arabica is superior, robusta is inferior,’” Nguyen said.
“Probably 95 percent of the people who came up to us said, ‘I’ve actually never tried a single origin robusta,’” Nguyen said. Even self-proclaimed “coffee snobs” confessed to Nguyen that they never knew robusta could taste this way. | 2022-06-09T12:56:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | To survive climate change, coffee must embrace resilient beans - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2022/06/09/climate-change-coffee-stenophylla-arabica-robusta/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2022/06/09/climate-change-coffee-stenophylla-arabica-robusta/ |
Capital Pride returns in person for the first time since 2019, with plenty of events for all ages. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)
For the first time since 2019, in-person Pride celebrations are back in force throughout the area. The 47-year-old Capital Pride is the biggest event on the calendar, expected to draw hundreds of thousands of people for Saturday’s parade from Shaw to Dupont Circle and the Sunday festival and concert that fill Pennsylvania Avenue. There’s late-night clubbing, drag brunches, pool parties and tea dances.
But look carefully at events across the area, and you’ll notice that a different audience is becoming increasingly visible. You can find Pride events targeted at families from Glen Echo Park to Reston and Annapolis to Alexandria. They include all the amenities you’d expect at a family festival: There are carousel rides, crafts, story time and music. But a drag queen is reading to the kids, and the hands-on activities include making rainbow flag patches.
When Darren Vance and his husband adopted their son 17 years ago, “we just did not have a lot of resources and connections with other LGBT parents,” he says. They turned to Rainbow Families, a support group for LGBTQ families, “primarily as a way to connect with other parents and find out opportunities for our son to be around other families like ours.” Four years ago, Vance became the executive director of the program.
Rainbow Families has long had a presence at Pride, Vance says, both marching in the parade — “it’s always been a really emotional, powerful experience to walk that parade route and have so many people cheer,” he says — and hosting a booth with board games and snacks at the festival the next day. But this year, with families having been isolated for so long, “we decided to really double down” by hosting an in-person Family Fun Festival after the parade for the first time. Rainbow Families expects about 300 people to show up at Stead Park for activities including a bubble zone, face painting and a cooking demonstration from D.C. Central Kitchen. “The beauty of it is that no one needs to stay for the entire time,” Vance says. “They can come and relax, get some lemonade, play a couple of board games … and move on to other things as part of the festivities.”
Vance says Rainbow Families is involved at events across the region, and in recent years, he’s noticed an increasingly welcoming attitude toward parents and families. Vance points to the Reston Pride, held last weekend, as an example: “It is a dry Pride, and their sole intention in that has been specifically to make it super family-friendly.” Glen Echo Park debuted its Family Pride celebration in 2019; this year it is being billed as the “second annual” event. This growing inclusiveness is an acknowledgment that families are as much a part of Pride as nightclubs and parties. Vance sees it as an opportunity to celebrate “all of the wonderful intersectionality of the queer community, and familyhood is being recognized as a very integral and equal part of that intersectionality.”
That is very much on display at As You Are, an LGBTQ space that opened on Barracks Row in March and serves as a cafe during the day and a bar in the evenings. “We really wanted to offer the entire community a safe space and learn from each other and hang out, and we’re really seeing a lot of that happening,” says Rach “Coach” Pike, who opened As You Are with partner Jo McDaniel. One of their first Saturday-afternoon regulars was a 3-year-old named Elliot who visits As You Are after soccer practice. “We have a changing table in the bathroom,” says Pike. “Underneath graffiti from Sharpies, which we give people,” McDaniel adds. The exterior is decorated with a Pride flag large enough to be seen from blocks away.
During the day, the downstairs space is a bright, all-ages coffee shop, with customers chatting and tapping away on their laptops, while Fridays and Saturdays bring DJs to the upstairs space. (Fridays are 18 and over on the dance floor, and Saturdays are 21 and over.) During Pride, events include a book reading, spoken word, DJs, and a combination drag show and tea dance.
As the number of events for families and younger members of the community grows during Pride, As You Are’s owners recognize the need for welcoming spaces for queer youth year round. “I had one mom come in on a Saturday afternoon with a couple of 14-year-olds and was like, ‘Can they come in on their own?’” Pike recalls. “And I said, ‘Absolutely.’”
Pride Family Day at Glen Echo: The historic Dentzel Carousel is at the center of Glen Echo Park’s family celebration, with free rides on the hares, ostriches and horses until tickets run out, as well as carousel-themed craft activity bags. Snack on free food and root beer, venture through an interactive chalk maze or just play on the playground. Discounted tickets are available for the Puppet Co.’s 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. performances of “Little Red Riding Hood and the 3 Little Pigs.” 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. glenechopark.org. Free; registration requested.
Pride on the Pier at the Wharf: A fireworks display caps the Wharf’s third annual Pride festival, sponsored by the Washington Blade and LURe. The waterfront event features an afternoon of DJs, dancing and other activities, including outdoor roller skating for all ages at the designated Family Zone on the Transit Pier. Fireworks begin at 9 p.m. 2 to 9 p.m. prideonthepierdc.com/family. Free. Skate rentals are $10 for children; adults must bring their own skates.
Capital Pride Post-Parade Family Fun Area: Taking the kids to watch or march in the Pride Parade? There’s a special after-party just for them. Rainbow Families D.C., an organization supporting LGBTQ parents and children, has teamed up with Homeless Children’s Playtime Project and Friends of Stead Park for a post-parade event at the Dupont Circle playground. Activities include drag queen story time with Venus Valhalla, arts and crafts, face painting, bubbles and a cooking demonstration with D.C. Central Kitchen. 3 to 7 p.m. rainbowfamiliesdc.org. Free; registration required.
June 11, 12 and 14
Pride Nights at the Washington Spirit, Washington Mystics and Washington Nationals: It’s a busy week for local sports fans, with three professional teams joining in the Pride celebrations. First of the trio is the Washington Spirit, holding the first of this season’s two Pride events at Segra Field in Leesburg on June 11 as the team takes on the North Carolina Courage at 7 p.m. Fans receive a free Pride sticker at the gate. The Spirit’s second Pride match, scheduled for Sept. 10, takes place at Audi Field. The Mystics hold their Pride Night against the Phoenix Mercury on June 12 at 6 p.m. The team’s Pride page is full of resources, such as Pride Month Reads, a selection of biographies and autobiographies (including Elena Delle Donne’s) that can be checked out of the public library and self-guided walking tours of D.C. LGBTQ sites. The Nationals celebrate the team’s Night Out against the Braves on June 14 at 7:05 p.m. Special tickets include a Pride T-shirt and a donation to LGBTQ sports organization Team D.C. Show a ticket to the game at Dacha across Potomac Avenue SE for a free beer. washingtonspirit.com, washingtonmystics.com and nationals.com.
Takoma Pride: This year’s Takoma Pride theme is “Just Say Gay,” which Old Takoma Business Association Executive Director Laura Barclay says resonates with community members because of the recent legislation in Florida restricting LGBTQ discussion, commonly called the “Don’t Say Gay” law. “We chose activities that will celebrate the LGBTQ members of our community, share a message and also provide an outlet for kids and families to do the same,” Barclay wrote in an email. Takoma Park’s “simple, yet colorful, celebration on Laurel Avenue” includes drag queen story time at 11 a.m. with Ms. Citrine, face painting from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., a rainbow crosswalk and plenty of chalk to add your own bit of Pride to the sidewalk. Historic Takoma will have a table highlighting local LGBTQ history, and Montgomery County Council member Evan Glass’s office will share LGBTQ+ resources with residents. Participating businesses are giving discounts or goodies to Pride-goers, too. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. mainstreettakoma.org. Free.
Capital Candy Jar fundraiser: While Capital Candy Jar owner Dave Burton doesn’t think of Pride as a candy-giving holiday, his customers have made him reconsider. “Last year was the first year we really tried making Pride candy, and they did so well we added a second Pride candy this year,” he says. The top-selling chocolate-covered Oreos come in Pride-themed versions, adorned with rainbow sprinkles or a rainbow flag. This year’s addition to the growing Pride collection is a candied popcorn, which comes in various fruit flavors and is rainbow-colored. The fundraising shopping event at the Hill East shop benefits Safe Space NOVA, which provides queer-focused support and social groups for LGBTQ youth. Patrons who mention the organization will get 5 percent off their transaction, and 25 percent of the proceeds will go to the Northern Virginia group. 2 to 7 p.m. capitalcandyjar.com. Prices vary.
Drag Queen Storytime at Unity Park: Drag queens are known for their showmanship and character, two things crucial for good storytelling. Drag queen story times are used to excite children about reading and introduce themes of self-love, inclusion and acceptance. “Each book has a positive message,” according to Kristen Barden, executive director of the Adams Morgan Partnership Business Improvement District, which co-hosts this monthly event with the D.C. Public Library and the Line Hotel. Different queens read each month, and June’s star is Shear Queer: “Seeing these younger parents advocate for a loving and judgment-free space to imagine and hear stories is both radically punk and so incredibly wholesome,” the local hairstylist says. “Drag is rooted in imagination and creativity, so it’s truly a wonderful pairing.” Listeners and their families should bring blankets or chairs to sit on and dress for the weather. As this is an outdoor event, it can be postponed or moved due to poor weather. For day-of updates, check out the social media pages of the Adams Morgan BID and the D.C. Public Library’s social media pages. 11 a.m. admodc.org/storytime. Free.
Montgomery County Pride in the Plaza Festival: The day-long celebration on Veterans Plaza in Silver Spring features a bilingual drag queen story hour; the finale of the local Drag Duels lip-syncing competition, which has seen area drag queens going head to head since early April; and the epic Pride in the Plaza Mini-Ball, which allows anyone to get up on the catwalk to vogue and strut their stuff. A full week of activities leads up to the festival, including an outdoor screening of “Saturday Church”; the Pride on the Field game day; a youth picnic; outdoor yoga; and a Pride on the Page talk with Eric Nguyen, author of “Things We Lost to the Water,” sponsored by Loyalty Bookstore. Noon to 8 p.m. prideintheplaza.com. Free.
Growing Pride at the Garden: Eighteen makers will show off their jewelry, candles, needlepoint and other wares at this Alexandria event space’s day-long Pride event. There’s also crafting for children with UpCycle, an arts center focusing on recycled materials; live music; food trucks; and free climbing at the neighboring Sportrock gym. Noon to 5 p.m. thegarden.net. Free; registration requested.
Loudoun Pride at Claude Moore Park: Loudoun Pride bills itself as the “biggest, boldest and most colorful Pride festival in Northern Virginia.” Younger kids can enjoy such activities as bounce houses, face painting, balloon animals and a scavenger hunt, while older kids can pick up a book and step into the shade in an LGBTQ reading tent, relax with guided group yoga or make some Pride buttons. There are also plenty of photo opportunities, such as posing in front of the Loudoun Pride sign, which is almost 50 feet long and 4 feet tall. Those who need to heal their inner child, or just need a hug, can enjoy “mom hugs.” (As the Loudoun Pride website says, “Sometimes we just need a hug and nothing beats a mom hug! These moms know that you are loved.”) Proceeds go to the Equality in Education Program & Loudoun LGBTQ+ Defense Fund, which provides LGBTQ programming and students with funding to support diversity and equality in Loudoun County. 1 to 8 p.m. eqloco.com. $5-$7.50; free for children 3 or younger. | 2022-06-09T12:57:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Capital Pride 2022: Guide to all ages events - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/09/capital-pride-events-all-ages/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/09/capital-pride-events-all-ages/ |
Kimberly Salter, whose husband was killed in the Buffalo shooting, reacts while listening to testimony during a June 7 hearing. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Among the most infuriating talking points from gun fetishizers is that weapons of war have a legitimate use, such as hunting feral pigs or “varmints,” as Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said on Tuesday. Machine guns would kill them, too, but we do not allow such firepower for the purpose of hunting prairie dogs.
Such an argument is a revealing admission of utter selfishness: I want to use this particular gun to kill some animal, even though a less deadly weapon would be just as effective, so the heck with the little children being slaughtered in schools. It is also a lie and an attempt to play down the destructive force of certain weapons.
The notion that every American must have access to every possible weapon has never been the rule and defies common sense (should people be able to buy howitzers?). It also turns the Second Amendment into a recipe for mayhem never envisioned by its authors.
As retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul D. Eaton explained in a tweet thread, weapons such as an AR-15 are deadly weapons with "the same basic functionality that our troops use to kill the enemy. Don’t take the bait when anti-gun-safety folks argue about it. They know it’s true. Now you do too.” Perhaps he and other military leaders should testify before Congress.
Also ignore the argument that banning assault weapons won’t work. That is propaganda from gun manufacturers that contradicts evidence from the 1994 assault weapons ban. New York University’s Michael J. Klein writes that in “the years after the assault weapons ban went into effect, the number of deaths from mass shootings fell, and the increase in the annual number of incidents slowed down. ... The data shows an almost immediate — and steep — rise in mass shooting deaths in the years after the assault weapons ban expired in 2004.”
But reason and data only goes so far in today’s politics. Sometimes visceral horror is required of the type delivered in testimony on Wednesday from parents of gun victims and from Roy Guerrero, a pediatrician who saw the mangled, unrecognizable bodies of children in the Uvalde, Tex., school shooting. Guerrero told lawmakers he saw “two children whose bodies had been pulverized by bullets fired at them, decapitated, whose flesh had been [so] ripped apart, that the only clue as to their identities was the blood-spattered cartoon clothes still clinging to them.”
Those who survived are also a testament to the unnecessary, frightful power of these weapons. The mother of a man shot in the Buffalo massacre explained to Congress, “Let me paint a picture for you: My son Zaire has a hole in the right side of his neck, two on his back, and another on his left leg, caused by an exploding bullet from an AR-15.” She added, “As I clean his wounds, I can feel pieces of that bullet in his back. Shrapnel will be left inside of his body for the rest of his life. Now I want you to picture that exact scenario for one of your children.”
Republicans who attempt to normalize these weapons should have to confront the reality of their deadly force. If they do not listen to parents and doctors, they should see graphic pictures of the carnage they cause. Maybe that will make them stop prevaricating that these are ordinary weapons with ordinary uses.
I used to believe that showing pictures of murdered children would be exploitive, creating a backlash against gun-safety proponents. But we know that photos can be essential to prevent people from rationalizing, denying and minimizing atrocities. We know they turned public opinion in the past, including those of Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine; of Phan Thi Kim Phuc running naked after a napalm attack in Vietnam; of Emmett Till’s mutilated body (“Let the people see what they did to my boy," his mother declared in demanding an open casket). Perhaps images of massacred children will make Republicans think twice before they defend weapons of war as no more terrifying than a shotgun. | 2022-06-09T12:57:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Republicans should see what an AR-15 does to a child’s body - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/congressional-testimony-see-what-ar15-does-child-body/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/congressional-testimony-see-what-ar15-does-child-body/ |
At Summit of the Americas, Biden seeks unity on climate change
Good morning and welcome to The Climate 202! Today we're wondering what kind of pizza senators eat. 🍕 But first:
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday will announce two initiatives at the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles aimed at tackling climate change and boosting clean energy in a region often overlooked in U.S. foreign policy.
The initiatives showcase the White House's push to promote cooperation on climate change across the Western Hemisphere, even as Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador skips the summit in a blow to Biden's pleas for regional unity.
Harris will unveil the first initiative, dubbed the U.S.-Caribbean Partnership to Address the Climate Crisis 2030, before meeting with Caribbean leaders on Thursday. The goal of the partnership is to “elevate U.S. cooperation with Caribbean countries to support climate adaptation and strengthen energy security, while building the resilience of critical infrastructure and local economies to the climate crisis,” according to a White House fact sheet.
The second major program, dubbed the Renewable Energy in Latin America and the Caribbean initiative, calls for reaching 70 percent installed capacity for renewable energy generation in the region's electricity sector by 2030. Five new countries — Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana, Argentina and Brazil — will announce their intent to participate on Thursday, joining 15 existing members.
In addition, the administration will work with regional development banks to unlock financing for clean energy projects in these countries. And as part of the Amazonia Connect program, the United States will provide $12 million to support Brazil, Colombia and Peru in reducing commodity-driven deforestation.
“President Biden will affirm the U.S. commitment to building an enduring hemispheric partnership to address climate change, create jobs and advance energy security,” a senior administration official said on a call with reporters Wednesday previewing the announcements.
The deforestation initiative comes as Biden is set to have an awkward first meeting Thursday with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right populist who made campaign promises to open the Amazon to business development.
It also coincides with the disappearance of Dom Phillips, a British journalist who went missing in a remote region of the Amazon under threat from illegal loggers and miners.
When asked about Phillips, the senior administration official did not comment directly on the journalist but said the administration believes combating illegal deforestation is “a key part of our climate action agenda.”
Kerry touts progress on methane
Meanwhile, at the summit on Wednesday, U.S. presidential envoy for climate John F. Kerry sought to highlight America's role in cajoling other countries to curb emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
In a short speech, Kerry heralded progress as part of the Global Methane Pledge led by the United States and the European Union, which calls for cutting emissions of the potent greenhouse gas by 30 percent by 2030.
A total of 118 nations have joined the pledge, up from 113 at last count, a Kerry spokeswoman confirmed to The Climate 202. The new additions are Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Lucia, Kosovo, Namibia and Uzbekistan.
However, some of the world's biggest methane emitters — including Russia, China, India and Brazil — have still not joined in the seven months since the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, last fall.
Kerry came to Los Angeles with a message for these large emitters: It's not too late to step up.
“Tiny islands in the Caribbean … [are] not the main contributor to the problem,” he said. “The main contributors to the problem are 20 countries; 20 countries equal 80 percent of all the emissions.”
Kerry concluded by warning that the war in Ukraine should not spur the construction of more fossil fuel infrastructure, which would threaten the more ambitious goal of the Paris agreement: limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels.
“There are vested interests right now trying to exploit Ukraine and tell people we need a whole new generation of infrastructure built out that is going to kill 1.5, let alone 2 or 2.7,” he said. “We cannot allow that to happen.”
Biden administration proposes standards for electric vehicle charging network
The Transportation and Energy departments on Thursday proposed new standards to ensure that the nation's electric vehicle charging network is reliable and accessible for all drivers, seeking to jump-start President Biden's goal of installing 500,000 new electric vehicle charging stations by 2030.
The proposed rules, which would apply to new charging stations funded by the bipartisan infrastructure law, require each of the chargers to be fast chargers and no more than one mile off the highway, with 50 miles between them.
Each station must also be outfitted with adapters that have multiple heads, so that a variety of vehicles can charge at the same time, and must accept common payment methods, rather than ones that are specific to an individual automaker.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on a call with reporters Wednesday that while the proposed standards are an important step, the Biden administration is still pushing Congress to pass the electric vehicle tax credits that are stalled in the Senate.
“If we’re going to build out the infrastructure, like we haven’t done since the Eisenhower era, we have to build it right,” Granholm said. “And we have to get closer to a future where every American can save money by driving an EV, whether they live in a big city or in a rural area, and no matter what their income is.”
Energy announces $504 million loan guarantee for world’s largest hydrogen storage facility
The Energy Department on Wednesday announced that it closed on a $504.4 million loan guarantee for the Advanced Clean Energy Storage project in Utah, marking the first time the agency's Loan Programs Office has made a loan guarantee for a new clean energy project since 2014.
The facility in Delta, Utah, is expected to create up to 400 construction jobs and 25 operations jobs. It will store green hydrogen, which is made using renewable energy, unlike blue hydrogen, which is made using natural gas.
“I’m pleased to see DOE support Utah’s efforts to become a world leader in hydrogen,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said in a statement that highlighted hydrogen's bipartisan appeal on Capitol Hill. Romney added that the loan guarantee is an “important step toward developing new energy technologies as we utilize an ‘all of the above’ approach to meet our energy demands.”
During a call with reporters on Wednesday, Jigar Shah, head of the Loan Programs Office, said the agency is looking forward to several upcoming closings on additional projects. Without offering details, Shah said some of those projects might include nuclear, carbon sequestration, battery storage, graphite processing and hydrogen.
Biden wants to make an underwater canyon near New York City a marine sanctuary
The Biden administration on Wednesday announced that it plans to designate Hudson Canyon, one of the largest underwater canyons in the world, as a new national marine sanctuary, a move that would grant it many of the same protections afforded to national parks, The Washington Post’s Anna Phillips reports.
If finalized, the decision to add the canyon to the National Marine Sanctuary System would advance the administration’s efforts to safeguard critical ecosystems that are threatened by climate change by conserving 30 percent of the nation’s land and waters by 2030.
Hudson Canyon is about 100 miles off the coast of New York City. It is nearly 7.5 miles wide and more than two miles deep in some areas. It is home to hundreds of species, including endangered sperm whales, sea turtles and deep-sea corals.
Also on Wednesday, which marked World Oceans Day, the Interior Department said it will sign an order to phase out the sale of single-use plastic products in national parks, wildlife refuges and other public lands by 2032. It's an effort to limit the federal government’s contribution to the 14 million tons of plastic that wind up in the ocean each year.
E.U. parliament votes to ban sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035
Members of the European Parliament on Wednesday voted to ban the sale of new combustion engine cars by 2035, a measure that if approved by the European Council would represent one of the world’s most ambitious laws to move away from gas-guzzling vehicles, Angela Dewan reports for CNN.
The vote marks a key step for the world’s third-largest emitter as it tries to slash planet-warming pollution, but the measure must still be debated by the council and passed into law. Some lawmakers opposed the rule, calling instead for a 90 percent ban that would allow one-tenth of new car sales to remain conventional instead of electric.
Meanwhile, the parliament rejected three other climate proposals to establish a more ambitious emissions trading scheme, a carbon border tax and a social climate fund.
To survive climate change, coffee must embrace new and resilient beans — Marissa Garcia for The Post
Excessive heat: Temperatures over 100 swelling from Texas to California — Matthew Cappucci and Jason Samenow for The Post
Climate-driven flooding poses well water contamination risks — Michael Phillis and John Flesher for the Associated Press
When big polluters pledge to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 … 😂 | 2022-06-09T12:57:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | At Summit of the Americas, Biden seeks unity on climate change - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/summit-americas-biden-seeks-unity-climate-change/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/summit-americas-biden-seeks-unity-climate-change/ |
Microplastics found in fresh Antarctic snow, as tiny pollutants blanket globe
An iceberg floating in Antarctica's Wilhemina Bay. (elmvilla/Getty Images)
Researchers at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand collected snow samples from 19 sites in Antarctica, and they all contained the tiny plastics, according to the peer-reviewed paper published this week in the Cryosphere journal.
Their work revealed an average of 29 microplastic particles per liter of melted snow. Of the 13 types of plastics, the most common was polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is used to manufacture clothes and soda bottles.
When PhD student Alex Aves went to Antarctica to collect the samples in 2019, “we were optimistic that she wouldn’t find any microplastics in such a pristine and remote location,” associate professor Laura Revell said Wednesday in a statement. Still, she added, “from the studies published in the last few years, we’ve learned that everywhere we look for airborne microplastics, we find them.”
The minuscule plastic particles, which can come from artificial clothing fibers, broken-down consumer products and other sources, are mostly undetectable to the naked eye — “much smaller than a grain of rice,” as this study describes them.
But from deep oceans to Mount Everest, they have become nearly ubiquitous in a world that produces billions of pounds of plastic waste every year. People can also ingest them in water and food, although their effect on human health is not yet clear.
U.S. is top contributor to plastic waste, report shows
While prior research has identified the tiny particles in Antarctic sea sediments and surface water, the New Zealand study marks the first time they have been reported in fresh snow, according to the scientists.
The most likely origins of the airborne microplastics are local research stations, from clothing or equipment, although the results also suggest the particles may have traveled through the air from sources more than 3,700 miles away, they said.
Noting a “growing threat to the Antarctic ecosystem,” the study said microplastics can lead to impaired biological and reproductive functions for exposed organisms, from krill to penguins. It also makes reference to previous findings that the particles deposited on snow or ice caps can speed up melting, in part by absorbing light.
“It’s incredibly sad,” said Aves, the researcher, “but finding microplastics in fresh Antarctic snow highlights the extent of plastic pollution into even the most remote regions of the world.” | 2022-06-09T13:13:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Microplastics found in fresh Antarctic snow for first time - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/06/09/microplastics-antarctic-snow-study-first/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/06/09/microplastics-antarctic-snow-study-first/ |
Second Glance: Picture of life, June 12, 2022
A mural at a market in Rockville, Md., in April. Original photo by Randy Mays.
Opinion It’s true our Hawaiian Islands are overrun — and not just by chickens
Perspective ‘I’m a fraud and I don’t know how to change.’ Carolyn Hax readers give advice. | 2022-06-09T13:48:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Second Glance: Picture of life, June 12, 2022 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/06/09/second-glance-picture-life-june-12-2022/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/06/09/second-glance-picture-life-june-12-2022/ |
Early drafts of the screenplay struggled with how to depict Woodward and Bernstein
Rebecca Hendin for The Washington Post. Original photo references from top: Jane Alexander by Warner Bros./Album/Alamy Stock; Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford, and Jason Robards © Warner Bros./Courtesy of Everett Collection
By Ann Hornaday
Bob Woodward peruses a well-thumbed manuscript, its blue paper cover threatening to tear away from the metal clasps precariously holding it together. Dated Sept. 25, 1974, the document is the second draft of William Goldman’s Oscar-winning screenplay for “All the President’s Men,” an adaptation of Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s book about their Washington Post investigation of Watergate. The burglary story that Woodward and Bernstein began to report during the summer of 1972 would, over the next two years, uncover widespread malfeasance and criminality within the Republican Party, send high-level White House aides to prison, prompt congressional investigations and impeachment proceedings and lead to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon.
Sitting at a table in the sunroom of his Georgetown home, Woodward glances through Goldman’s 161-page script, recalling when “All the President’s Men’s” producer and star Robert Redford sent it to him for his input. With ballpoint pen in hand, Woodward had pored over the screenplay, scrawling “No!” or “Wrong” in the margins every few pages, usually where Goldman had inserted a made-up scenario or “His Girl Friday”-type banter for his and Bernstein’s characters to deliver.
“Goldman’s a jokester,” Woodward explains in his measured Midwestern cadence, referring to the motion pictures Goldman had already written for Redford, “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “The Great Waldo Pepper.” Alan J. Pakula, who directed “All the President’s Men,” would derisively dub Goldman’s original conception of the movie “Butch Woodward and the Sundance Bernstein” — a rakish picaresque featuring two intrepid reporters “loving and laughing their way through the East as they bring down the president of the United States.” The fact that the heroes would be played by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, two of the era’s biggest movie stars, threatened to reduce the entire enterprise to little more than a slick, self-impressed buddy flick.
No movie springs perfectly formed from page to screen. But to read Woodward’s marked-up draft of Goldman’s screenplay is to realize that the “All the President’s Men” we know — the lean, flawlessly calibrated thriller that made millions at the box office when it came out in 1976, earned four Oscars and turned Woodward and Bernstein into legends; the movie that’s worshiped by reporters, political junkies and filmmakers alike; the movie that from the moment it opened seemed to fuse seamlessly with private memory and collective myth — that movie came perilously close to being forgettable, along, quite possibly, with Watergate itself.
The journey of “All the President’s Men” from mediocrity to triumph tells an alternately sobering and inspiring truth about movies: The great ones are a function of the countless mistakes that didn’t get made — the myriad bad calls, lapses in taste and bouts of bad luck that encase every production like a block of heavy, unyielding stone.
This is the story of how Redford and Pakula, and the cast and crew they assembled, bullied Goldman’s flawed but structurally brilliant script into art. It’s the story of a perfect movie and imperfect history, a cautionary tale whose lessons — about impunity, abuse of power and intimidation of the press — have taken on new urgency nearly 50 years after its release. It’s the story of how what was intended as a small-bore black-and-white character study featuring unknown actors became one of the finest films of the 20th century, one that marked the end of a cinematic era, changed journalism forever and — for better or worse — became the fractal through which we’ve come to understand the dizzyingly complicated saga known as Watergate.
Robert Redford wanted to make “All the President’s Men,” he writes in an email, because “I believed that there was a story to tell that sat underneath the bigger story of the Watergate break-in.” He has spoken often about the origin of the idea, which struck him while he was on a publicity tour for the film “The Candidate” in July 1972. The studio had arranged a faux whistle-stop tour on a train from Jacksonville, Fla., to Miami, near where George McGovern would soon be nominated at the Democratic National Convention.
“I was going to the back of the train and standing there, seeing if I could draw a bigger crowd than [Edmund] Muskie or [John] Lindsay or McGovern, which I did, by about 2,000 or 3,000,” Redford told me in 2005. “I’d say, ‘Gosh, it’s great you’re all here, apparently there are 3,000 or 4,000 here today, and there were about 1,500 [people] for Muskie and 500 for Scoop Jackson.’ And then they’d all cheer and scream and yell. And I’d say, ‘So I’ll tell you one thing. I just want to remind you of something. I have absolutely nothing to say,’ and the train would pull out. It was pretty funny. Up to a point.”
Between stops, Redford chatted with the entertainment and political reporters who were following him. Everyone was gossiping about a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, which had occurred two weeks earlier. “I said, ‘What happened with that? Was it the Cuban guys?’ ” Redford recalled, referring to four of the alleged criminals, who were Cuban American. The sidelong glances and cryptic smiles suggested to Redford that the reporters knew more than they were telling. “There was some vibe going between them.”
As they continued to talk, Redford grew more frustrated by the journalists’ cynicism about what looked like a potentially explosive story, the prevailing sentiment being “We’ll never know.”
“I said, ‘Wait a minute, hold on,” Redford recalled. “You guys are here watching me make a fool out of myself [over] something trivial, [but] is there more to this?’ And they really let me have it. They said, ‘There are three things you don’t understand: You don’t understand about publishing a newspaper. In order to publish something like that you have to have the support of the publisher [and] the editor. And you have to have time. And [with] newspapers, you don’t have that time. Secondly, it’s not going to come out. Because McGovern’s going to self-destruct, Nixon’s going to win in a landslide, and nobody wants to be on the wrong side of this guy, because he’s vindictive and mean and he’ll go after newspapers.’ And I said, ‘Well, how chickens--- is that?’ ”
After the junket, Redford went home to Utah, where he was preparing to film “The Way We Were,” reading everything he could about the break-in. “And then, when [Woodward and Bernstein’s] articles started to appear, I was right on them.”
On Saturday, June 17, 1972, Woodward had been summoned to the newsroom by city editor Barry Sussman, who assigned him to cover the arraignment of the five burglars who had been arrested at the Watergate office building hours earlier. In the courtroom, Woodward heard one of the accused men give his name as James McCord and his profession as a retired CIA agent. That day, from his position on the Virginia desk, Bernstein began delving into the identities of McCord’s cohorts, who were from Miami and described their professions as “anti-Communists.”
The Watergate story would be picked up by other outlets, among them Time magazine, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. In coming months, reporters such as Walter Rugaber, Seymour Hersh and Jack Nelson would advance the story in critical ways, sometimes scooping The Post in the process. But Redford was intrigued by Woodward and Bernstein and their reporting in the story’s earliest stages. His interest only grew when they made a major error in October 1972, writing that Hugh Sloan, treasurer of the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP), had testified before a grand jury that Nixon chief of staff Bob Haldeman had controlled the fund that paid for the Watergate break-in and other dirty tricks. (Sloan had confirmed Haldeman’s involvement to the reporters but had not told the grand jury.)
Hoffman, Robert Redford and director Alan J. Pakula on set. (© Warner Bros./Courtesy of Everett Collection)
It was around that time that Redford read a profile of Woodward and Bernstein, and the idea of a movie took root. “I thought that was a real great character study,” Redford recalled, referring to the WASP, Republican, Yale graduate Woodward and the Jewish, liberal, long-haired Bernstein. “Two guys that couldn’t be more different. Different religions, different politics, different everything. And yet they had to work together, and they didn’t like each other very much. I said, ‘Boy, that feels like a good, interesting little black-and-white film to me.’”
Redford began to reach out. “They didn’t return my calls.”
Bernstein vividly remembers the day that Woodward let him know Redford had been trying to get in touch. He even recalls wadding up a piece of paper and throwing it in the trash in dismay. “I said, ‘Jesus, don’t talk to him!’ ” Bernstein says. “I can remember Woodward coming over to my desk, and I looked at him like he was crazy. I said, ‘No, we cannot talk to him! Suppose the [Republican National Committee] found out we were talking to Hollywood?’ ”
Redford kept trying, reaching out to Woodward every few months. In the spring of 1973, when McCord wrote a letter to Judge John J. Sirica admitting that he had lied under oath about Nixon’s involvement in Watergate, the actor’s passion for the project was reignited. He was in Chicago filming “The Sting” when he called Woodward. “I said, ‘Look, just give me a half an hour, would you, please?’ And he said okay.”
Redford flew to Washington, where Woodward admitted that he had suspected the entire game of phone tag had been a hoax; he also informed the actor that he and Bernstein couldn’t possibly consider a movie because they were under contract to write a book. “I was squirrelly about this,” Woodward admits today. “The questions I had [were]: Is this going to be a good thing for journalism, for The Washington Post, for reporters like Carl and myself?”
Redford later recalled inviting Woodward and Bernstein to meet with him at his New York apartment on Fifth Avenue; Goldman, who had become a friend, was there as well. When the journalists left, Redford said, “There’s the movie. These guys. Their personalities. The aspects of each that propel the other.”
In April 1974, a few months before “All the President’s Men” was published, Redford agreed to buy the film rights for $450,000 — an exorbitant sum at the time. (He had already influenced the book by mentioning to the authors that they should make themselves the protagonists of their investigation, rather than centering on the criminals.) By now, Bernstein had softened on the idea of a movie. “We worried about going Hollywood,” he says with a laugh. “But deep down we knew we were ultimately going to say yes.”
Convincing The Post’s leadership, he says, was “another hill to climb.” Although executive editor Ben Bradlee was open to the idea of a film, publisher Katharine Graham was apprehensive. “In many ways, the idea of a movie scared me witless,” Graham wrote in her 1997 memoir, “Personal History.” Despite Redford’s promise to treat the story seriously, she recalled in her book, “I was naturally nervous about having the image and reputation of The Post in the hands of a movie company, whose interests did not necessarily coincide with ours.”
By late July that year, Goldman had written the first of several drafts of the screenplay. During a meeting with Woodward, Goldman had asked him to list “the crucial events — not the most dramatic but the essentials — that enabled the story eventually to be told,” Goldman recalls in his memoir “Adventures in the Screen Trade.” When Woodward named them — the break-in, the arraignment, his combative collaboration with Bernstein, his late-night meetings with confidential source Deep Throat in an Arlington parking garage, his and Bernstein’s interviews with such key figures as Sloan, and their work together on an article about a $25,000 check written to CREEP Midwest finance chairman Kenneth Dahlberg — Goldman writes, “I looked at what I’d written and saw that I’d included every one.”
Indeed, Goldman’s earliest drafts of “All the President’s Men” included most of the key beats that defined the early stages of the Watergate investigation. (The iconic line “Follow the money” wouldn’t appear until a few drafts in; signature sequences involving White House deputy communications director Ken Clawson and attorney Donald Segretti were added later.) But it also included rafts of extraneous material, including several scenes between Woodward and his girlfriend and Bernstein and his ex-wife, as well as women inevitably described as “leggy,” “delicious looking” and having had “the best boobs in Virginia.” In one version, Woodward engages in a long, lingering kiss with his “sweet, pretty” ex-wife in the Post newsroom; another features a scene during which Bernstein’s bike is stolen, ending with him shouting, “Nazi bastards!” at the thieves on a Washington sidewalk. When it came to the Watergate investigation, Goldman’s procedural hewed closely to Woodward and Bernstein’s original prose. But the corniest newsroom patter and personal scenes owed more to Hollywood fantasy than the repetitive routine and gnawing anxieties of daily news reporting.
Warner Bros. agreed to make “All the President’s Men,” on the condition that Redford would star in it. But Bernstein was “absolutely horrified” when he read what Goldman had written. “How could this have happened?” he recalls thinking. “The first thing we said to Redford was this has to be accurate. ... [And] this is shtick.” He took Woodward aside in the Post newsroom and said, “You know, if Bradlee or Katharine gets a look at this, this project is done,” Bernstein recalls. “They can never see this.”
Knowing that Bernstein was dating Nora Ephron, whose parents were screenwriters, Woodward suggested that the couple take a stab at writing a screenplay themselves. Although he no longer possesses a copy of that effort, Bernstein recalls that “we made it consistent with the facts of our coverage, and we took out the shtick.” And, he freely admits, they punched up his character. “We might have cleaned me up a little more than we cleaned up Woodward,” he says with a grin. (“Carl, Errol Flynn is dead,” Redford reportedly told him after he read the Bernstein-Ephron draft.) Years later, Woodward strikes a more diplomatic — and romantic — tone. “My reaction was, ‘Nora really does love Carl,’ ” he says with a smile. “This is a love note!”
The Bernstein-Ephron effort was never intended to be an official script; they and Woodward wanted to provide suggestions for Goldman’s rewrites. When Redford, Goldman, Woodward and Bernstein met at Redford’s apartment and Redford asked Goldman to read Bernstein and Ephron’s draft for possible ideas, the screenwriter “turned around and walked out the door,” Bernstein recalls. “He never sat down.” Several years later, Goldman was still bitter, calling the episode “a gutless betrayal,” adding that he wouldn’t change anything in his career except this: “I wouldn’t have come near ‘All the President’s Men.’ ”
No one was happy with Goldman’s script. But for all the mannered dialogue and crude characterizations in his earliest drafts, the screenwriter did several things right with “All the President’s Men” from the very beginning. For one thing, he understood the tempo and tone of a film that, in an introductory note, he described as “written to go like a streak.” Noting the black-and-white look and feel that Redford had in mind, Goldman wrote that “none of that matters if the movie is done without an enormous and constantly accelerating sense of pace.”
Perhaps most consequentially, he figured out where to begin and end a narrative that was still unfolding in real time: Nixon resigned on Aug. 8, 1974, just as Goldman was working on one of at least three “first” drafts. By the time the movie came out, the audience would already know the ending to a story that was far from finished when Woodward and Bernstein had written their book. Although Goldman first wanted to begin the movie with one of the burglars’ failed break-in attempts, he always concluded with Woodward and Bernstein going back to work after making the Haldeman mistake. (The literal ending — a shot of the reporters typing while Nixon’s second inauguration plays on a newsroom television, which then dissolves into a series of teletyped datelines announcing the Watergate convictions and Nixon’s resignation — was one alternative among many that were debated during the editing process.)
“What Bill Goldman deserved the Oscar for was figuring out where the damn movie should end,” says Jon Boorstin, who worked on “All the President’s Men” as Pakula’s assistant and became an associate producer. “Because the story didn’t end till years later, and it had nothing to do with [Woodward and Bernstein]. How do you create an arc with a sense of victory but also remain true to things as they happened?”
Woodward and Bernstein did not have script approval on “All the President’s Men,” but Redford sent them drafts to make sure they were accurate. “Redford was at heart a reporter,” Woodward says. “His motive was really just to stick to the facts. And tell the story ‘unpolluted,’ [which was] his term.” Although Woodward took issue with some of Goldman’s aesthetic choices (“bad line,” he scrawled next to a scene in which his character says, “There’s good and bad in everything.”), most of his objections centered on liberties the screenwriter took with the truth, especially as it pertained to journalistic practice.
One of the most famous scenes in “All the President’s Men” occurs half an hour into the film, when Woodward and Bernstein go to the Library of Congress to follow up on a lead involving White House consultant E. Howard Hunt. In a masterful shot, the camera starts on Redford and Hoffman as they begin to go through stacks of book request slips one by one, pulling farther up in the library’s massive rotunda while David Shire’s ominous musical score begins to play. After hours of fruitless searching, they leave the library, wondering if someone pulled the cards or if they missed a name.
It’s a superbly choreographed scene, conveying both the minute details and sprawling magnitude of the investigation that has already begun to engulf the two reporters. But in Goldman’s 1974 draft, it ended differently. After examining the last few slips, they look at each other. Woodward: “Anything?” Bernstein: “Nothing worth a damn.” Woodward: “To hell with this, let’s write it anyway.”
“Wrong,” Woodward wrote next to the passage, with a slashing black mark under the last line. “Not only wrong, actually disturbing,” Woodward says now.
Redford had considered other directors for “All the President’s Men,” including Michael Ritchie, who had directed him in “The Candidate,” and William Friedkin, who had directed the gritty crime drama “The French Connection.” Thoughtful, analytical and deeply interested in people and their psychological motivations, Pakula had a vision for “All the President’s Men” that aligned perfectly with Redford’s: Both agreed that the adaptation would succeed only in proportion to how closely it tacked to the truth. But Pakula also realized that the little indie Redford initially had in mind was all wrong for the material. “I believed this colossal story needed attention to size,” Pakula told Redford’s biographer in 1996, just two years before Pakula was killed in a car accident. “We were dealing with something that could alter our view of investigative journalism and political office, so it had to feel big.” He hired cinematographer Gordon Willis — known as “the Prince of Darkness” for his expressive work on “The Godfather” and other films — who shot using a huge Panavision camera, and whose lighting scheme dramatically juxtaposed the dark, shadowy world of secrets Woodward and Bernstein were navigating and the transparent, brightly lit newsroom where those secrets would be exposed.
While Pakula and Redford continued to work on the script, Pakula later recalled, they spent “endless time” examining and discussing Woodward and Bernstein’s pasts and lives outside the newsroom, only gradually realizing that the scenes weren’t needed. “[W]e’re telling this story because of what they did,” Pakula explained later, “not because of their fascinating personal lives.”
Hoffman remembers an early, more intimate version of “All the President’s Men” to this day. After seeing it at a screening, he says, “I went to the bathroom, and I threw up. It was the first experience I had where I felt we were doing good work on a day-to-day basis, [but] it was a disaster.” Then, he says, Redford made a brilliant decision, completely countervailing the usual rules. “He said, ‘We should cut out the third dimension of our characters,’ ” Hoffman recalls. “The audience should only know us by what we’re doing in pursuit of the narrative.’ Which was The Washington Post.” Ex-wives, girlfriends and confessional speeches “went right out,” Hoffman says. “And it made all the difference.”
Woodward remembers spending hours with Pakula, who was continually plumbing his habits and psyche, and asking about Woodward’s childhood in Wheaton, Ill. The results of those sessions can be found in Goldman’s papers, which are full of single-spaced, typewritten notes, outlines and character diagrams, presumably written by Pakula. They can also be detected in a fleeting but revelatory moment in the film: When the two reporters are knocking on doors trying to find CREEP staffers to talk to them, Bernstein says, “All these neat little houses on all these nice little streets. It’s hard to believe that something’s wrong in some of those little houses.” “No, it isn’t,” Woodward replies tersely.
Both Redford and Hoffman spent considerable time with the real-life men they were playing (Hoffman even wore Bernstein’s watch during production). Jason Robards, who was cast as Ben Bradlee, took the opposite tack: After meeting Bradlee and spending a day observing him in the newsroom, Robards left “and never came back,” according to Bradlee’s widow, former Washington Post Style reporter Sally Quinn. The result was a performance that earned Robards an Oscar. “He absolutely got Ben,” Quinn says. Bradlee was thrilled with the portrayal, even though Robards hadn’t been his first choice: According to Hoffman, when Pakula shared the news that Robards would be playing him, Bradlee admitted that he would have preferred Fred Astaire.
Jane Alexander was doing a Noel Coward play at the Kennedy Center when she was cast as the Bookkeeper, a CREEP employee Bernstein visits and tensely cajoles into giving him information that will break in the story wide open. Her role remained virtually unchanged from Goldman’s first draft, which itself hewed almost verbatim to what Woodward and Bernstein wrote in their book. In a film of diamantine intensity, the Bookkeeper scene is the crown jewel — a taut, emotionally gripping two-hander with Alexander and Hoffman that is all the more explosive for being played at a whisper.
Alexander calls the Bookkeeper interview “my favorite scene that I’ve ever shot,” adding that it exemplifies Pakula’s gift for finding the proper tonal register throughout the film, as well as his astute sense of scale. “Take the scene in the Library of Congress and the scenes in the Washington Post newsroom and how huge they are,” she observes. “And then you come in on the pivotal scene in the movie that changes everything, and it’s tiny. Is that brilliant?”
All the President’s Men” was a hit when it was released on April 9, 1976; the $8.5 million movie earned more than $70 million at the box office, eventually earning eight Oscar nominations. It won four, for art direction and set decoration, sound, Robard’s performance and Goldman’s screenplay. Despite the screenwriter’s miserable experience on “All the President’s Men,” which had completely ruptured his friendship with Redford, he delivered a simple and gracious acceptance speech. “This movie has been from the very beginning the obsession of Robert Redford,” Goldman said after recognizing Willis and Pakula. “Thank you.”
Her initial apprehensions about the movie notwithstanding, Katharine Graham was disappointed when she discovered she was not in the finished film — but Goldman had written a four-page scene between her and Woodward that was included in every draft of the movie (after considering Lauren Bacall, Pakula reportedly wanted Geraldine Page for the role). The scene is based on a conversation recounted both in the book “All the President’s Men” and Graham’s memoir “Personal History,” when she delicately dances around the identity of Deep Throat and the solidity of Woodward and Bernstein’s reporting. “Well now,” her character says at one point. “What are you boys doing with my newspaper?”
Former Post publisher Donald Graham doubts that his mother ever read the scene. Having recently read it himself for the first time, he calls the sequence “perfect,” even though he’s philosophical about it being cut. “It would have made the movie more truthful,” he notes, referring to his mother’s central role in supporting the reporters and their editors, and withstanding enormous pressure from the Nixon administration, which at one point threatened to challenge the Federal Communications Commission licenses of The Washington Post Co.’s television stations. “You can tell a lot in a movie, but you can’t tell everything,” Graham says, “but hers was a very important part of the story, and it’s too bad that it was left out.”
Jane Alexander as the Bookkeeper, a pivotal role in the film. (© QE Deux/Courtesy of Everett Collection) (Everett Collection/Courtesy Everett Collection)
Redford, a producer of the film, was intrigued by the differences between Woodward and Bernstein. “I said, ‘Boy, that feels like a good, interesting little black-and-white film to me,’” he recalled. (Courtesy of Everett Collection)
LEFT: Jane Alexander as the Bookkeeper, a pivotal role in the film. (© QE Deux/Courtesy of Everett Collection) (Everett Collection/Courtesy Everett Collection) RIGHT: Redford, a producer of the film, was intrigued by the differences between Woodward and Bernstein. “I said, ‘Boy, that feels like a good, interesting little black-and-white film to me,’” he recalled. (Courtesy of Everett Collection)
Over the years, Redford and Pakula would minimize Goldman’s involvement with “All the President’s Men,” claiming they used only 10 percent of what he wrote. But the memos, research notes, character breakdowns and more than a dozen screenplay drafts in Goldman’s papers suggest he was doing rewrites — admittedly based on Redford and Pakula’s suggestions and revisions — at least until the movie began production in May 1975. Contrary to Goldman’s memoir, neither Woodward nor Bernstein remembers the screenwriter visiting the Post’s newsroom; contrary to a story Redford has often repeated, the reporters don’t recall the actor accompanying them on reporting trips.
“The mystery of Watergate itself is mirrored in the mystery of the making of the movie,” Woodward says. “What are [the] motives? Who did what? My thought always was, ‘But of course!’ ” How could any story about “All the President’s Men” be otherwise?
Memory is a fugitive, a trickster and a seducer — all the more so when movies are involved. Of all artistic mediums, cinema occupies the trickiest space between fabrication and reality, exploiting the porous nature of both to become a third thing entirely: the distortion of the literal truth that becomes internalized as consensus history.
When Woodward and Bernstein were fact-checking Goldman’s scripts, neither objected to two of his most famous contrivances: Deep Throat’s signature line, “Follow the money,” and Ben Bradlee’s final speech, delivered by Robards after Woodward and Bernstein wake him up to tell him their lives might be in danger. “You guys are probably pretty tired, right?” Robards says with gruff gravitas. “Well, you should be. Go on home. Get a nice hot bath, rest up, 15 minutes. Then get your asses back in gear. We’re under a lot of pressure, you know, and you put us there. Nothing’s riding on this except the First Amendment of the Constitution, freedom of the press and maybe the future of the country.” (The speech in the movie largely hews to Goldman’s slightly wordier draft, in which the monologue ends with Bradlee’s signature quip, “What have you done for me tomorrow?”)
In real life, Bradlee’s response to Woodward and Bernstein’s late-night visit wasn’t quite as stirring. “He said, ‘What the hell do we do now?’ ” Woodward recalls. But both “Follow the money,” and Bradlee’s soliloquy are rooted in the truth, he insists, noting that during a meeting with Sam Ervin, who chaired the Senate Watergate Committee, he had told the senator that “the key was the secret campaign cash, and it should all be traced.” Goldman’s three-word distillation turned out to be perhaps the greatest paraphrase in Hollywood history.
Of all artistic mediums, cinema occupies the trickiest space between fabrication and reality.
Half a century after the events it depicts, “All the President’s Men” has taken on the contours of life itself. Journalism professors still use the film in classrooms to demonstrate the daily grind of reporting, from working the phones to knocking on doors. “If you can’t get ’em on the phone, go to their house,” says Leonard Downie, who worked on the Watergate stories as deputy metro editor and would later become executive editor of The Post. “Even if you can get ’em on the phone, go to their house.” Downie adds that “All the President’s Men” changed the very nature of journalism. “Investigative reporting just exploded” after the film came out, he says. “Investigative teams were created where they didn’t exist before, there were separate staffs that didn’t exist before. … It’s continued to this day.” The term “Follow the money” has become such newsroom shorthand that most young reporters have no idea that it came from a movie rather than the other way around.
Although enrollment at journalism schools didn’t skyrocket as a result of the movie, as has often been reported, the reason young people went into journalism changed. Redford had intended to lend his celebrity to elevate the serious and undervalued work of investigative reporting; instead, he fueled a trend of journalists becoming stars themselves, a phenomenon that only grew throughout the 1980s and 1990s. “I was naive,” he said in 2005. “My whole focus was on being totally accurate. … I wasn’t prepared for the glamorization of just Dustin and [me] being in it.”
“The movie did an incredibly good job of portraying what the world of being an investigative journalist was,” former Post reporter Tom Zito said in a 2016 oral history of the film published in the Washingtonian. “But I don’t think that’s why people wanted to be investigative journalists. I think it was because they wanted to be Carl Bernstein or Bob Woodward played by Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford.”
Redford’s choice to focus on the first few months of Woodward and Bernstein’s reporting had other unintended consequences: The time frame of the story elided some decisions that even they wrestled with at the time of their investigation, which included revealing an FBI source to his boss and approaching grand jury witnesses for interviews (albeit after getting an okay from Post lawyers). “All the President’s Men” includes one scene that obliquely addresses the question of ethics, when Bernstein asks a friend at the phone company to turn over call records. Early drafts of the script feature Bernstein saying, “My God, if John Mitchell was after my phone records, I’d be screaming about my civil rights,” a fair reflection of the ambivalence he felt at the time and wrote about in the book. However, in the finished film it’s Bernstein’s contact who says that line.
“The point of the movie is that these guys are unstoppable,” explains Boorstin, the associate producer. “They’re a force of nature and they’re going to save the world.”
Woodward and Bernstein were famous before “All the President’s Men” came out, but the movie would cement their status as journalistic giants whose iconic place in the culture has, remarkably, not diminished over 50 years. It would also perpetuate the myth that they and The Washington Post brought down a president. The leadership of the paper had to fight that assumption throughout the coverage, with the White House continually accusing them of partisan bias, a claim that dogged the paper for years. “Nixon got Nixon,” Bradlee said in 1997. “The Post didn’t get Nixon.”
Garrett M. Graff, who wrote “Watergate: A New History,” considers “All the President’s Men” “the greatest celebration of American journalism we’ve ever had. … From a cinematic standpoint, from an inspirational standpoint, from a learning device of American history standpoint, it’s one of the greatest movies of all time.” Still, he says, the movie has become the sum total of what most Americans know or remember about Watergate, and as such has simultaneously telescoped and flattened our understanding of a complex collection of people and events.
From left: Hoffman, Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward and Redford at the premiere in Washington in 1976. (AP)
“In drawing a straight line from Woodward and Bernstein to Nixon’s resignation,” Graff says, “[the movie] underplays and undervalues the incredible work and majesty of American democracy that unfolded from January 1973 to August 1974, as Washington confronted a corrupt and criminal president.”
Because the main plot of the film ends in October 1972, he explains, it necessarily leaves out the work of congressional and Senate investigators, special prosecutors, the FBI, the Justice Department and the Supreme Court — not to mention the release of incriminating tapes during the spring of 1974 — that gave Nixon no choice but to resign.
“Part of what’s so fascinating about Watergate is that there were so many heroes in the story,” Graff continues. “And ‘All the President’s Men’ shows us two, but two of whom without all of the rest of them, Richard Nixon would have happily retired as a hugely successful second-term president in January 1977, and Watergate would be a political trivia question.”
For his part, Redford has no misgivings about his movie’s portrayal of history. “I’m proud of the story,” he writes in an email, “because it showcased the high point of journalism and the low point of politics.”
“All the President’s Men” has endured as a canonical piece of 20th-century American cinema, but it also marked the end of an era for the great paranoid thrillers of the 1970s. It might have been smart, sophisticated and perfectly crafted, but it lost the best picture Oscar to “Rocky”; significantly, it was released one year after “Jaws” and one year before “Star Wars,” defining a brief interregnum before the movie industry would embark on a chase for action, adventure and infantilizing escapism that has only accelerated.
Released in an election year when Gerald Ford was running against Jimmy Carter, “All the President’s Men” could claim at least a measure of credit for reminding voters of what Ford pardoned Nixon for; at a time when the country was eager to move on and consign Watergate to the consoling mists of memory, at the very least Redford’s passion project planted a marker to say: Watergate happened, and it mattered.
Does it still matter? Redford writes that during Watergate, “both sides of the aisle worked together to get to the truth. Today, I am bewildered because the truth is missing.”
Woodward agrees completely, noting that he sees “the shadow of Richard Nixon” in the corruption, impunity, destruction of institutional norms and attacks on the media that have only metastasized in recent years. Fifty years ago, Woodward and Bernstein were writing about conspiracies; today they have turned their attention to an attempted coup, the efforts of the spouse of a Supreme Court justice to overturn an election and a seven-hour gap in White House call logs during a deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol — an eerie echo of the infamous 18.5-minute gap in Nixon’s taped calls. In a way, the final scene of “All the President’s Men,” with Woodward and Bernstein working intently at their typewriters, never ended. “We thought Watergate was a one-time problem in the presidency,” Woodward says, “and then along came Donald Trump.”
An “All the President’s Men” movie about the Trump era isn’t impossible, Woodward says, but it would take “hard work and a sound idea.” A thornier question is whether it would make a difference. Reporters will continue to investigate and make sense of what happened during the Trump presidency, but does it still take a cinematic masterpiece — or even just a movie — to make people care? Woodward pauses before answering in his slow, flatland drawl. “That’s a good and painful question.”
Ann Hornaday is The Post’s chief film critic. Listen to her discuss the lasting impact of “All the President’s Men” on Post Reports on Thursday, June 16.
Videos by Joshua Carroll, with editing by Nicki DeMarco, graphics by Daron Taylor and additional production by Justin Scuiletti and Allie Caren. Design by Garland Potts and Marissa Vonesh. Photo editing by Dudley M. Brooks and Daniele Seiss.
Ann Hornaday is The Washington Post's chief film critic. She is the author of "Talking Pictures: How to Watch Movies." She joined The Post in 2002. Twitter Twitter | 2022-06-09T13:48:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | ‘All the President’s Men’: Bob Woodward explains key scenes - Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/interactive/2022/all-the-presidents-men-robert-redford-woodward-bernstein/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/interactive/2022/all-the-presidents-men-robert-redford-woodward-bernstein/ |
How an Olympic sprinter turned an HBCU into a track powerhouse
Coach Duane Ross has led North Carolina A&T to prominence in track and field. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Most of the stadium has emptied by the time Duane Ross collapses in a black chair in the team lounge, tilts his head back and briefly shuts his eyes.
It’s a steamy Saturday afternoon in late April, and Ross, the 49-year-old track coach at North Carolina A&T, is running on fumes and chocolate-chip cookies. Ross spent the day patrolling the oval from his perch in the infield, offering feedback and encouragement as his athletes won races and set milestones. This — eyes closed as sprinters trudge to the parking lot — is a well-deserved rest.
And a short-lived one. Before long, Ross’s eyes open, and he’s up, moving into his office, a windowless space that offers a great view of his athletes’ dominance, if only because the school can’t fit his team’s bounty in its main trophy display.
A forest of wooden tablets spans tabletops and spills onto the floor. Fifty-two all-American certificates blanket the wall. Coach of the year trophies occupy two bookshelves, standing tall amid conference championship caps and commemorative batons.
But the collection is missing something. Over the past decade, Ross has transformed A&T into one of the premier track and field programs in the country, defying skeptics who said his dreams of turning a historically Black university into a modern athletic powerhouse were too lofty. Now, Ross’s team is one of the best in the country, on the verge of fulfilling his ultimate goal: a national championship.
After coming tantalizingly close over the past year, his men’s team is expected to compete for the national title at this week’s NCAA outdoor championships in Eugene, Ore. A win would make A&T the first HBCU to win a national title in any sport other than bowling since 1974, when the Howard men’s soccer team prevailed. And it would affirm Ross’s belief that small schools — that Black schools — can compete with big, predominantly White ones.
Their pursuit comes as HBCU athletic programs, in the wake of a national reckoning over racism and racial inequality, have attracted top recruits and risen to challenge the status quo. But it also comes against an undeniable backdrop: Ross is in demand, with wealthy power conference schools hoping to lure him away, and the structures that reinforce that status quo remain an ever-present threat, no matter how much his Aggies outpace expectations.
“Every year the program has gotten better and better, and that’s why I’m confident when I say we’re going to win a national championship,” Ross says. “I’ve been saying it for years. It’s going to come. We’re going to do it.”
Building a powerhouse
That April morning, Ross’s track machine is humming before he enters the stadium around 10 a.m. His sprinters have been on the track since 9, and Ross arrives ready to prescribe their finisher: 500-meter sprints for the 400-meter runners.
Ross’s son, Randolph Ross Jr., and teammate Delecia McDuffie begin charging through lane No. 1 as athletes from other schools stretch and laugh near the track. Ross Jr.’s and McDuffie’s calves tighten as they round the curve, their pace so blistering that it evokes the occasional “Oh s---!” from onlookers.
This generation of Aggies is not the first from an HBCU to excel on the track while lacking budgets, facilities and state funding comparable with their rival “Predominantly White Institutions.” Tuskegee high jumper Alice Coachman became the first Black woman to win an Olympic gold medal in 1948. Tennessee State ruled women’s track and field under Coach Ed Temple, who produced dozens of Olympians, including Wilma Rudolph and the entire 1960 U.S. 4x100-meter relay team. Morehouse alum Edwin Moses held dominion over the 400-meter hurdles, winning 122 consecutive races between 1977 and 1987. Even as integration redirected talent away from HBCUs, some schools continued to thrive, although that prosperity gave way to sporadic success in the 2000s.
At North Carolina A&T, Roy “Spaceman” Thompson led the Aggies’ track team to five conference titles from the 1980s through the early 2000s. But his teams never finished better than 46th at nationals.
A 2004 Olympic hurdler, Ross arrived in 2012, selling the university’s new athletic director on his goal to transform the school into a national champion. But success came slowly. In his first season, the men’s and women’s teams finished worse than they had the previous year. They grew more competitive over the next three seasons, but their inability to close the gap against other HBCUs grated Ross. He admits he might have left Greensboro had one of his more recent power conference suitors approached during those choppy first seasons.
The breakthrough came in 2017, fueled by a new wave of talent that included one of Ross’s first standout recruits, transfer Christopher Belcher, who chose A&T over LSU. A&T swept the men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference titles for the first time, Belcher was an all-American, and the men tied for 14th at the NCAA outdoor championships.
The Aggies men won every MEAC indoor and outdoor title from 2017 to 2021. The women boast a similar record, save for a half-point finish behind Florida A&M at the 2018 outdoor meet.
“The dynamic changed,” Ross says. In his earlier years, “We weren’t expected to compete. Whenever we did something, it was kind of like a pat on the back. Seeing my team out here, these Black men and women, it became more about empowering them and teaching them to believe that they’re just as good as anyone else. ... I wouldn’t call it a revolution, but it became a quest to be the absolute best.”
The quest begins as soon as athletes step on campus. Shortly after A&T sprinters arrive, they must learn how to run: the phases of a race, how various body parts should move during each phase, how long the body can maintain top speed and how you should employ that acceleration given their physical traits and the specific race.
“Every sprint and hurdle athlete here has a PhD in track,” assistant coach Ron Garner says. “They’re expected to learn their craft. You don’t take a day here to hang out — everything is purposeful.”
Ask Ross’s runners about their growth, and they flail their elbows and stomp their feet, demonstrating tendencies Ross helped erase. One former sprinter, Taliyah Townsend, would slog out of the blocks, so Ross retooled her start, helping her develop a more fluid launch and teaching her to time her acceleration better.
“My feet took a while to turn over compared to a true sprinter, who goes zero to 100 as soon as they get out of the blocks,” Townsend says. “My whole thing was reacting to the gun and really driving that first 20 meters before I got tall and started to run. When I got that down pat, I feel like I was 10 times better and I had more energy to give toward the end of my race.”
If 2017 was the Aggies’ evolution on the track, the following years represented a turning point on the recruiting trail.
The 2018 class featured all-American sprinter Kamaya Debose-Epps, who picked A&T over Alabama and Florida State, and Cambrea Sturgis, an unheralded recruit more interested in school than sprints. Ross Jr., who would become a gold medalist at the Tokyo Olympics, signed the following year. The 2020 class was headlined by a handful of sprinters who ranked among the nation’s best in several events, including Javonte Harding, this year’s 200-meter indoor national champion.
Their development was on full display during the April meet, where A&T sprinters looked more explosive and more polished than their peers. While many hurdlers stumble, Aggies women move like aircraft in formation, snapping over each obstacle before flying to the next.
“You can’t [overstate] what Duane Ross has been able to do with the team,” says Cory Mull, national editor at MileSplit, which covers high school track and field. “He largely takes athletes who have proven themselves within their states, and he makes them that much better at the college level — and in some cases exceptional.”
An early start
Ross grew up in Dallas, N.C., a small town outside of Charlotte. His father died when he was 7, leading to a temporary stint in the foster-care system. His mother regained custody of him and his younger sister, Latasha, but remarried into an abusive relationship.
At 8, Ross grudgingly left the house before 6 a.m. to start his day, trailing his stepfather to banks around Dallas. He assisted his stepfather’s janitorial service by vacuuming floors and emptying trash cans before and after school until his mother divorced during his junior year at North Gaston High, enabling Ross to pursue his athletic dreams.
“I hated it,” Ross says of his childhood hours spent cleaning. “I was a child, but the one good thing it did teach me is the value of hard work and earning my place in the world.”
Ross wanted to be a football star, but he joined the track team at the suggestion of its coach, who said it would help him stay in shape during the offseason. A powerful running back, Ross was routed to the shot put. But after seeing sprinters attract the most attention from girls at meets, he asked for a change.
At that point a hurdler, Ross chose Clemson to stay within a few hours of his sister. There, he evolved into a seven-time all-American, the 1995 NCAA 110-meter hurdles champion and a team leader.
"We all just love this place so much" — Duane Ross on #Clemson HOF induction. READ: http://t.co/GCzMxyzmJm pic.twitter.com/nabamAiyqa
— Clemson Track & Field 🐾 (@ClemsonTrackXC) September 29, 2014
Ross was the U.S. indoor 60-meter hurdles champion in 1998 and a 110-meter hurdles bronze medalist at the 1999 outdoor world championships. He took a hiatus in 2001 to build a financial planning business. When he returned to the track, he found even greater success, becoming the No. 5 hurdler in the world in 2003 and narrowly missing the finals of the 110-meter hurdles at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Ross retired after the 2005 outdoor season, but the itch for track and field remained. He coached a Raleigh, N.C.-area youth club, and when the head coaching position at Division III Methodist University opened up in 2008, he got the job.
His coaching career started just as his legacy was swept up in doping drama. Ross’s former coach, Trevor Graham, was accused of lying to federal agents about distributing steroids in connection with the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO), infamous for providing performance-enhancers to baseball star Barry Bonds. An investigation unearthed receipts that showed Ross and other athletes transferred hundreds of dollars to Graham’s drug supplier. Ross testified to a federal grand jury in 2008 that he purchased legal substances including creatine and vitamin B12. But two years later, his results after Nov. 2, 2001, were disqualified by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
Ross broached the subject during job interviews at Methodist and later at A&T, where the athletic director, Earl Hilton, told the Greensboro News & Record that after researching the allegations, “I didn’t have any questions about [Ross’s] integrity.”
Ross transformed the Methodist women’s program into a three-time conference champion and one of the best in Division III. At A&T, he created a team atmosphere that helped him attract top athletes. Recruits came for the man they would come to call a second father, who regularly calls their parents just to talk about life and who shies away from games of spades, lest losses diminish his authority on the track.
That work finally paid dividends last year. The men finished fifth at the NCAA indoors. Then Ross Jr. helped secure A&T’s third-place finish at the outdoor meet, matching Morgan State in 1951 for the highest finish for an HBCU men’s squad.
At the same meet, Sturgis bested Sha’Carri Richardson’s 100-meter collegiate record with a blazing, wind-aided 10.74 seconds. Her 200-meter victory helped the Aggies finish in a tie for fourth, making A&T just the second HBCU women’s program to finish in the top five at the NCAA outdoor meet, following Texas Southern in 1986 and 1989.
🏆 Women's 100m 🏆
Cambrea Sturgis... WOWOWOW!! 🔥🔥🔥🔥#NCAATF x @NCATAGGIES
📺 ESPNU pic.twitter.com/3VxJy2Xqmq
“From 2016 to now, without those steppingstones and building blocks, none of this would have happened,” says Kayla White, the 2019 NCAA women’s indoor athlete of the year, considering how it would feel to see her alma mater win the outdoor title this week. “It’d be an emotional moment for me because I’m so tied to the program. Whenever the girls run fast, the guys run fast, I’m the loudest one screaming. I was dang near in tears watching [Sturgis] at nationals last year.”
Ross remembers the people who said A&T could never become what it has. He still hears the qualifiers that accompany compliments about his team’s success. And his athletes overhear unfounded accusations of cheating.
For those stresses, A&T’s strides have helped programs beyond Greensboro, where mid-major track coaches speak of shattered ceilings and newfound objectives. At HBCUs, former foes take pride in A&T’s achievements. And some HBCU coaches describe a more tangible side effect, suggesting the Aggies’ success has led to more generous administrations, more receptive recruits and more access to top track meets.
“It’s helping us out because we’re able to tell these student-athletes that you can come to an HBCU and you can reap this success just as you would in the SEC or ACC,” Norfolk State Coach Kenneth Giles says. “Speaking to other coaches at the HBCU level, they’re getting more funding, so it’s really helped all over.”
After the Aggies men finished second in this year’s NCAA indoor meet, the outdoor title is expected to come down to Florida, Texas and North Carolina A&T. That seemed impossible 10 years ago — before Ross arrived in Greensboro to preach the gospel of HBCU excellence.
But Ross’s best chance to fulfill his word also will be his last. Weeks after the April meet, he was named the next coach at Tennessee. After declining high-profile opportunities over the previous five seasons, Ross says, his decision was less about money and resources and more about the right fit and the right time for his next challenge.
But the money’s good, too: His $450,000 salary at Tennessee will exceed the $325,000 he earned as the highest-paid employee in A&T’s athletic department and is nearly twice that of his predecessor in Knoxville.
“It was time for me to move on to new challenges and new things,” Ross says. “A lot of people think it was about money. It was really just a situation where I felt it was time to move on after 10 years of rolling up my sleeves.
“My immediate feeling when I made that decision was that I’m letting a lot of our alumni down because I promised them a national championship during my time here. I do my best to not let the team get caught up in the emotion of all this. We know it’s our last one together, but the mission remains the same.”
Others will continue the pursuit.
As Ross pulled up to A&T’s stadium that April morning, he stopped to greet alumni laying out silver trays and hot dog buns under white canopies at the far end of the parking lot. The group, composed of former track and field stars, was preparing for the future as much as they were a cookout.
They gathered for the first time since the pandemic began to formally announce a fund in honor of Thompson, the former coach, meant to provide supplemental financial support to the program. A&T has come close to matching LSU and Georgia on the track, and the budding booster club hopes to close the financial gap off the track so A&T’s success will last.
“It’s cool to see how the program has elevated,” says Damon Vaughan, an A&T long jumper in the 1990s. “It’s beautiful, but we want to build a community that spans different eras.”
Neither Ross nor the alumni knew his era would end so soon after he stopped to greet them that morning. Ross’s focus was on the meet and preparing for nationals. After addressing each person under the canopy, he smiled, waved and headed for the track.
Jennifer Jenkins contributed to this report. | 2022-06-09T13:52:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How Duane Ross turned North Carolina A&T into a track powerhouse - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/09/north-carolina-track-duane-ross/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/09/north-carolina-track-duane-ross/ |
The 30-year fixed average increased for the first time in a month, rising to 5.23 percent
Rising rates have driven down demand for mortgages to the lowest level in 22 years. Refinance applications have fallen 75 percent compared to a year ago. (Theodore Taylor III)
According to the latest data released Thursday by Freddie Mac, the 30-year fixed-rate average increased for the first time in a month, climbing to 5.23 percent with an average 0.9 point. (A point is a fee paid to a lender equal to 1 percent of the loan amount. It is in addition to the interest rate.) It was 5.09 percent a week ago and 2.96 percent a year ago.
The 15-year fixed-rate average rose to 4.38 percent with an average 0.8 point. It was 4.32 percent a week ago and 2.23 percent a year ago. The five-year adjustable rate average jumped to 4.12 percent with an average 0.3 point. It was 4.04 percent a week ago and 2.55 percent a year ago.
Mortgage rates mirrored “the rebound in the 10-year Treasury, which crested [at] 3 percent mid-week,” George Ratiu, senior economist and manager of economic research at Realtor.com, wrote in an email. “Investors have their eyes on the Consumer Price Index, expecting to see continued gains but at a moderating pace. The data will be an important measure for the Federal Reserve at its meeting next week. While it is not the central bank’s preferred measure of inflation, it is another metric detailing the health of the economy.”
It is not just the Federal Reserve that is raising interest rates. The European Central Bank announced this week that it will raise its key rate for the first time in 11 years next month in an effort to combat inflation. It also said it would cease its bond-buying program in July as well.
“Rates have continued to fluctuate over the past few weeks as volatility persists,” Robert Heck, vice president of mortgage at Morty, an online mortgage marketplace, wrote in an email. “Overall, the current rate environment continues to reflect uncertainty across markets, which in large part is being driven by mixed expectations around inflation, balance sheet reduction and housing supply.”
“Inflation continues to headline all topics of conversation from gas, energy, food, etc.,” said James Sahnger, mortgage planner at C2 Financial. “Until this is reeled in, higher rates are to be expected. Volatility is also to be expected so while some days’ rates may be better than others, still expect a higher direction over the summer.”
Meanwhile, mortgage applications continued to dwindle last week, driving down demand to its lowest level in 22 years. The market composite index — a measure of total loan application volume — decreased 6.5 percent from a week earlier, according to Mortgage Bankers Association data.
The refinance index fell 6 percent from the previous week and was 75 percent lower than a year ago. The purchase index dropped 7 percent. The refinance share of mortgage activity accounted for 32.2 percent of applications.
“Higher mortgage rates continue to cool borrower demand for refinances and home purchases, with activity for both falling on a weekly and annual basis,” Bob Broeksmit, MBA’s president and chief executive, wrote in an email. “Prospective homebuyers in most markets are still faced with too few homes for sale in addition to higher home prices and mortgage rates. According to MBA's Purchase Applications Payment Index, the national median mortgage payment has increased more than $360 since the start of 2022.”
The MBA also released its mortgage credit availability index (MCAI) that showed credit availability decreased in May. The MCAI slid 0.9 percent to 120 last month. A decrease in the MCAI indicates lending standards are tightening, while an increase signals they are loosening.
“Mortgage credit supply declined for the third month in a row to the lowest level since July 2021,” Joel Kan, an MBA economist, said in a statement. “The index remains more than 30 percent below pre-pandemic levels, as credit tightening has occurred in recent months around refinance loan programs. Last month’s tightening was most notable in the government and jumbo segments of the mortgage market. The decrease in government credit was driven mainly by a reduction in streamline refinance programs, as mortgage rates increased sharply through May, slowing refinance activity. Jumbo credit availability, which was starting to see a more meaningful recovery from 2020’s pullback, declined after three months of expansion.” | 2022-06-09T14:27:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Mortgage rates for June 9 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/10/mortgage-rates-move-higher-ahead-federal-reserve-meeting/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/10/mortgage-rates-move-higher-ahead-federal-reserve-meeting/ |
A damaged door inside the U.S. Capital in Washington D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. The House and Senate resumed a politically charged debate over the legitimacy of the presidential election hours after a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol and drove lawmakers from their chambers. (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)
Beginning with a prime-time session tonight, the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol plans to hold a series of televised hearings in advance of releasing a final report later this year. The goal should be to detail what the panel has learned about the plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election and to explain what changes are needed to prevent it from happening again. That requires its members to focus on presenting the facts, not scoring political points.
By most indications, the committee has thus far done its work responsibly. Since forming a year ago, it has conducted more than 1,000 interviews and collected more than 100,000 documents. It has secured testimony from several senior aides to former President Donald Trump as well as members of his cabinet. It has reportedly uncovered evidence that Trump and his allies discussed seizing voting machines, that Republican members of Congress pleaded unsuccessfully with Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows to convince the president to stop the assault, and that Trump reacted approvingly when told that the rioters had called for hanging Vice President Mike Pence.
Added up, the facts should speak for themselves. Some 2,000 rioters stormed the Capitol that day, seeking to derail the certification of Joe Biden’s victory. They assaulted police, ransacked offices, looted property, and engaged in wanton vandalism. They injured more than 140 officers, many seriously, and caused damages exceeding $30 million. Federal prosecutors have so far charged more than 800 defendants with crimes related to the attack, including counts of seditious conspiracy.
With all this on record, the committee’s objectives should be straightforward. First, tell the public what additional details its probe has turned up, in particular about the president’s conduct. Second, place these facts in the larger context of Trump’s expansive efforts to overturn the election. The aim should be a forthright description of wrongdoing, without partisan embellishment or histrionics.
Unfortunately, some Democrats seem intent on turning the prime-time hearings into a made-for-TV spectacle. The committee has brought in a former ABC News executive to “produce” the sessions, as if they were episodes in a Netflix serial. Progressives are planning watch parties in cities across the US. Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin has promised the hearings will “blow the roof off the House.”
That’s exactly the wrong approach. Polls show voters are more concerned with issues such as inflation and gun violence than in revisiting the events of Jan. 6. A resort to political theater is likely to cause even more of them to tune out. Worse, allowing the probe to stretch deeper into the summer — as Democrats seem eager to do — would push the release of a final report to the eve of the midterms, and thus tend to confirm Republican suspicions that the whole thing is a political stunt.
The best way for the committee to refute those charges would be to lay out the hard evidence it’s gathered in sober and methodical terms. It may not sway many votes or change many minds. But it can still establish a vital factual record, expose the causes of an assault on American democracy, and — perhaps — serve as a warning for other officials still toying with insurrectionist ideas. Its members should remember their responsibilities as nonpartisan investigators — and stick to the facts. | 2022-06-09T14:27:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Jan. 6 Committee Should Stick to the Facts - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-jan-6-committee-should-stick-to-the-facts/2022/06/09/e3e4beb2-e7f4-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-jan-6-committee-should-stick-to-the-facts/2022/06/09/e3e4beb2-e7f4-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Waiting for Mortgage Rates to Fall? Don’t Hold Your Breath.
More than just Federal Reserve rates have changed. (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)
I bought an apartment last year and if I were buying today, I wouldn’t be able to afford it. The increase in mortgage rates would mean $1,000 more a month than I am paying now. It may be the only time in my life I (inadvertently) timed the market right.
Now, my friends who want to buy are waiting and hoping for those heady 2.7% 30-year fixed mortgage rate days to return. Some are betting they will and taking out an adjustable rate mortgage. But rates may never go back down, at least not that low. Rates might even go higher; we may come to pine for the days of a 5% mortgage rate. For most of the 1980s mortgage rates were more than 10%.
The low rates of the last few years were an anomaly, a combination of freakishly low interest rates and Federal Reserve intervention in the bond and mortgage-backed security market. Now the Fed has ended quantitative easing and is raising rates. But what really matters is what happens to the 10-year bond yield, because that determines mortgage rates. And like mortgage rates, the 10-year bond yield has been rising recently, hovering just under 3% at last count. But this yield is also still low, by historical standards.
Until very recently, many financial macro economists would put their money (if they made active market bets—which they don’t) on the 10-year rising. The finance literature assumed bond prices mean-revert, or they may bounce around for a few (or several) years, but over the long term they’ll revert to a historic average that reflects how much people want to save versus spend — with the idea that the desire to save should be fairly stable over time. Also, unlike stocks, bond prices can’t keep going up, otherwise we would end up with very negative yields; few investors would accept a -10% yield. So ever since the 1990s, the mean-reverting faithful have been waiting for the 10-year bond yield to return to its historic average of about 6% to 7%.
We are still waiting. After nearly 40 years of declining yields, our faith has been tested. If the 10-year does mean revert, it is reverting to much lower yields. There are good reasons to think the 10-year will never return to 1980s levels, so mortgage rates aren’t likely to rise that high, either.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, Fed policy doesn’t have much impact on the long-term bond market (though quantitative easing may be an exception). Most of the time, long-term bond yields are a function of three factors. The primary one is simply the supply and demand for bonds. The mean-reversion believers assumed demand for bonds was fairly stable, but then it increased — a lot. Foreign governments and investors, looking to stabilize their currency and transact in dollars, developed an insatiable appetite for dollar assets.
Meanwhile regulation required financial institutions to hold more bonds. The Fed also became a big buyer; its new policy playbook involves buying long-duration assets when there’s a hiccup in the economy that threatens market liquidity. The Fed may have put an implicit price floor under the stock market, but the last two recessions made it plain there is an explicit floor under bond prices, and this makes them more valuable and drives down yields.
The other two factors have to do with inflation. If you hold a 10-year bond to maturity you’ll want to be compensated for the inflation that will occur over that time. We don’t know what inflation will be over the next 10 years, but bond holders bear that risk, so the more unpredictable inflation is, the higher yields go. When inflation became both much lower and more predictable — as we saw in the decades before the pandemic — bond yields trended down.
Whether yields (and mortgages) go up or down or stay the same depends on whether these three factors change again. And there are reasons to think the 40-year bull treasury market is over. Foreign governments and investors are losing interest in US treasuries. Inflation may be permanently higher and more uncertain.
However, not all hope is lost. Fed policy and financial regulation probably won’t change, and that will support demand. So on balance, mortgage rates may go up further, but they probably won’t reach 1980s levels — unless inflation spikes again and sticks around. Then, anything can happen.
All of this suggests that you can’t time the market or the future of interest rates. If you are waiting for rates to fall, you may be waiting for a long time.
Ready to Buy a House? Just Wait a Few Weeks: Conor Sen
Adjustable Mortgage Rush Isn’t the Same as 2008: Alexis Leondis | 2022-06-09T14:28:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Waiting for Mortgage Rates to Fall? Don’t Hold Your Breath. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/waiting-for-mortgage-rates-to-fall-dont-hold-your-breath/2022/06/09/147971b8-e7f9-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/waiting-for-mortgage-rates-to-fall-dont-hold-your-breath/2022/06/09/147971b8-e7f9-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Representative Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, right, speaks during a business meeting of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, March 28, 2022. A House committee voted unanimously Monday night to recommend contempt citations against two of former President Donald Trump’s White House advisers for defying subpoenas seeking testimony and documents in the investigation into last year’s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. (Bloomberg)
One way to look at the primary elections of June 7, 2022, is as a referendum on the events of Jan. 6, 2021. Are enough voters still offended by the violent right-wing attack on the Capitol a year and a half ago that Democrats can use it as a campaign issue to fend off a likely Republican takeover of Congress this fall?
It remains unlikely. But there are signs that Republican voters are not punishing candidates who spoke out against the attack and supported the congressional investigation of it. Five of the 35 Republicans who bucked former President Donald Trump and voted to form a Jan. 6 commission were on ballots Tuesday — and for the most part, they beat back their more conservative challengers.
Democrats were especially interested in how incumbent Representative David Valadeo would fare in California’s newly redrawn 22nd District, located in the Central Valley. Valadeo, the only California Republican who voted to impeach Trump for his role on Jan. 6, was running against Republican businessman and military veteran Chris Mathys. In a sign of how badly Democrats wanted to run against Mathys, a Super PAC tied to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ran an advertisement that tried to boost him, noting no fewer than three times that that Valadao “voted to impeach President Trump.”
Unfortunately for Democrats, they’re unlikely to face the ultra-MAGA Mathys in November. Ballots are still being counted, but Valadeo appears to be the first House Republican who voted to impeach Trump to survive a primary.
His race will be one of the most competitive this fall, when Democrats are hoping to blunt a Republican takeover by making such contests a choice between two candidates, rather than a referendum on the Democrats’ handling of the economy or President Joe Biden’s dismal approval ratings.
Some Democrats, including in the White House, want to use Jan. 6 to frame this election as a choice. Yes, it’s disconnected from the daily reminders of inflation that voters see when they fill up at the gas station or check out at the grocery store. But Democrats are hoping that swing voters aren’t one-dimensional. They want them to see the insurrection as part of a larger narrative about the Republican Party.
The Center for American Progress Action Fund has spent several months researching how voters perceive the Republican brand. It has two main takeaways: Voters see the party as pushing an extreme agenda; and they see it as willing to do anything, including violence and overturning an election, to get and keep power.
“This story of a party that has changed, that’s radicalized, that’s been willing to do anything for power, helps center January 6 in a context that does matter to voters,” said Navin Nayak, the organization’s president.
Interestingly, their polling shows that Republicans in battleground districts are more vulnerable when associated with the MAGA movement than they are when associated with the party “for the rich.”
Nayak told me that the Jan. 6 hearings, which will be televised in primetime this week and will continue over the coming weeks, will be important “to remind people that this was not an isolated incident, that it was at the core of who the Republican Party has become.” Just this week, five members of the far-right group the Proud Boys were indicted on sedition charges for their role in the insurrection.
Also, keep an eye on California’s newly drawn 41st District: If national Democrats begin to focus more attention there, it will be a sign they think they are making progress.
Because of the state’s jungle primary system, Republican incumbent Ken Calvert has ostensibly been running against his general election opponent, former assistant U.S. attorney Will Rollins. The 37-year old Democrat made Calvert’s vote to overturn Biden’s victory central to his campaign and appears to have performed well even though he hasn’t attracted much attention or money from national Democrats — yet.
Another factor to consider: One top Democratic campaign strategist told me Americans are desensitized. In focus groups, swing voters say Jan. 6 was a terrible event and the perpetrators should be held responsible. But as soon as Trump or Republicans are mentioned, they say the attempted coup shouldn’t be turned into a political football.
So the overall takeaway from these primary contests remains grim for Democrats. This week’s hearings will remind voters of the terrible events of Jan. 6, which do not reflect well on Republicans. But as the general election approaches, and voters begin to focus more on tangible day-to-day issues such as inflation, Republicans will have the advantage.
• What Did We Learn From Tuesday’s Primaries?: Jonathan Bernstein | 2022-06-09T14:28:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Will Jan. 6 Be a Factor on Nov. 8? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/will-jan-6-be-a-factor-on-nov-8/2022/06/09/4753cf30-e7fd-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/will-jan-6-be-a-factor-on-nov-8/2022/06/09/4753cf30-e7fd-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia said in a news release on Wednesday that Sovah Health also agreed to four years of increased compliance and oversight during which any failure to comply may lead to contempt of court findings that could result in additional monetary penalties and injunctive relief.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the settlement was the third largest civil penalty ever secured from a hospital system under the act and the largest ever in the Fourth Circuit. | 2022-06-09T14:28:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Health system pays to settle US claim of violations of act - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/health-system-pays-to-settle-us-claim-of-violations-of-act/2022/06/09/075bf76a-e7f6-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/health-system-pays-to-settle-us-claim-of-violations-of-act/2022/06/09/075bf76a-e7f6-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
New movies to stream this week: ‘Peace by Chocolate’ and more
By Vanessa H. Larson
Ayham Abou Ammar, left, and Hatem Ali in "Peace by Chocolate." (Level 33 Entertainment)
From the title alone, it’s no surprise that “Peace by Chocolate” has a rather predictable happy ending, but that doesn’t make Jonathan Keijser’s feature directorial debut — based on the true story of a family that fled Syria’s civil war to Canada — any less enjoyable.
In 2016, the Hadhad family are welcomed in tiny Antigonish, Nova Scotia, where adapting to the winter weather is just one of many challenges they face. Fifty-something Issam had been a master chocolatier before his Damascus factory was bombed. Although his wife tells him to put that behind them, Issam begins making chocolate out of their new kitchen. After word of his superb confections gets around town, he soon has more orders than he can keep up with.
“Peace by Chocolate,” which is named after the company the Hadhads eventually opened in Antigonish, is endearing without being saccharine. The main dramatic tension is between Issam (Hatem Ali) and his son Tareq (Ayham Abou Ammar), who had been a medical student in Syria and is torn between pursuing his dream of becoming a doctor in Canada and helping his family reestablish their business.
The charismatic Ali, a prolific Syrian actor and director who died at age 58 the year filming was completed, shines as the headstrong patriarch struggling to adjust to an unfamiliar country where he is hamstrung by not speaking the language. Some of the most poignant scenes portray the unlikely friendship that develops between Issam and Frank (Mark Camacho), the family’s initially gruff sponsor.
At points, the film — which includes a real clip of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau citing the Hadhads as a success story in a U.N. speech — could practically be a promo for that country’s liberal refugee policy. Now, as millions have fled another country, Ukraine, that is riven by a war, its hopeful message feels especially well-timed. TV-14. Available on demand. Contains brief, blurry images of wartime chaos. In English and Arabic with subtitles. 96 minutes.
In the indie dramedy “Dinner in America,” a pyromaniac punk singer (Kyle Gallner) goes on the lam after setting something on fire, and winds up being sheltered by his biggest fan (Emily Skeggs), with whom he is soon getting into criminal escapades. According to the Guardian, the film — which also stars Mary Lynn Rajskub and Lea Thompson — has “truculent charm,” thanks to “two very good lead performers whose unexpected chemistry gradually makes this film likable.” Unrated. Available on demand. 106 minutes.
Adam Sandler stars in “Hustle” as a down-on-his-luck talent scout for the Philadelphia 76ers who stumbles upon a promising unknown player (Utah Jazz forward Juancho Hernangómez) while abroad in Spain, hoping to jump-start both of their careers by bringing the athlete to the U.S. without his team’s approval. R. Available on Netflix. Contains strong language. 117 minutes.
Based on a true story, “I’m Charlie Walker” stars Mike Colter (“Luke Cage”) as the titular trucking and construction entrepreneur who, despite institutional racism, secured the contract to clean up a massive 1971 oil spill off the San Francisco coast. Unrated. Available on demand. 90 minutes.
Featuring Choi Woo-shik and Park Myeong-hoon of “Parasite,” the Korean crime thriller “The Policeman’s Lineage” tells the story of a principled rookie cop (Choi) who teams up with a corrupt veteran (Cho Jin-woong of “The Handmaiden”) to investigate a major case. Unrated. Available on iTunes, Google Play, Sling TV, Vimeo on Demand, Vudu and other on-demand and cable platforms. In Korean with subtitles. 119 minutes. | 2022-06-09T14:28:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | New movies to stream from home this week. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/movies/2022/06/09/june-10-new-streaming-movie-roundup/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/movies/2022/06/09/june-10-new-streaming-movie-roundup/ |
Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) and Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) leave a House select committee hearing on the Jan. 6 attack on July 27, 2021. (Andrew Harnik/AP)
Republicans have played this game before. They insist that exposing an indefensible deed committed by one of their own “won’t matter” because those who have made up their mind (i.e., themselves) won’t be swayed. (Tautology alert!) The media repeats this talking report to sound “balanced” or sophisticated. Polls after the proceedings show that opinion has not shifted much. Republicans then exult: See, we were right! (Funny how they never voiced this argument regarding the Benghazi hearings.)
Such inane and irrelevant commentary is now coursing through mainstream media today regarding the House select committee’s hearings on the Jan. 6 insurrection, even though the hearings involve the fate of our democracy and the worst betrayal by an American president in history. Giving the party responsible for the attack on the Capitol veto power over whether the investigation “matters” is, sadly, what much of the news coverage has come to. The only thing worse is pronouncing investigations into hugely important topics “boring.” Ignore it.
How is it that so many in the media don’t recognize that serious public investigations do not set moving poll numbers as their primary purpose? Congress conducted its 9/11 investigation not to change how the public felt about President George W. Bush or national security, but because it was lawmakers’ solemn obligation to construct a definitive account of the first attack on the homeland since Pearl Harbor, apportion responsibility and make recommendations to protect the country.
Republicans and many in the mainstream media apparently cannot conceive that the substance of governing is important. Have they entirely forgotten that investigations are undertaken to inform, educate, set the historic record and avoid repetition of the disaster?
How should we evaluate the hearings? Maybe — just spitballing here — on the merits? In this case, the “thesis” is that former president Donald Trump orchestrated a scheme — even before voting commenced — to retain power by whatever means necessary, including illegal machinations and eventually violence.
If the committee demonstrates that and fits the facts into the criminal code, it will “matter” for those who want to know what happened on Jan. 6. It will matter in that it will assign responsibility to Trump officials and any other Republicans involved (whether their conduct was illegal or “just” a violation of their oaths). And it will matter for voters making choices in November, lawmakers trying to prevent this from happening again, civil litigants, victims of the violence, bar associations and prosecutors considering how to construct a compelling case for a judge or jury.
Aside from all that, it will matter because the operation of the committee — with Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) — will prove that it is possible for lawmakers to do their jobs and put country over party.
Just as Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) provided a modicum of faith in the system by voting to convict Trump in his first impeachment trial, the committee’s Republican members have displayed honor and conscience. That should provide some hope for the viability of self-government. It is good to be reminded now and then that everyone has a choice — to defend the country honorably, or not.
Note to readers: I will write an analysis of the hearing Thursday evening. | 2022-06-09T14:29:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Tune out the ‘it won’t matter’ coverage of the Jan. 6 hearings - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/january6-committee-hearings-media-why-they-matter/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/january6-committee-hearings-media-why-they-matter/ |
On ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live,’ Biden urges people to make guns ‘a voting issue’
President Biden made his first in-studio appearance on a late-night talk show Wednesday, discussing gun control and other issues with host Jimmy Kimmel in Los Angeles.
The episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” opened with Kimmel asking why gun violence still plagued the United States, noting there had already been two dozen school shootings this year. Biden recalled his recent visit to Uvalde, Tex., where two weeks ago a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School — and where the president had been urged to “do something!”
“A lot of it’s intimidation by the NRA,” Biden said, referring to the National Rifle Association, on why there had not been movement on federal gun legislation. The House on Wednesday night passed several gun-control measures as a response to recent shootings in Uvalde, Buffalo and elsewhere, but they are not likely to pass the Senate because of GOP opposition.
“This is not your father’s Republican Party,” Biden added, saying he believed a lot of Republican lawmakers feared that supporting “rational gun policy” would result in losing to a hard-right challenger in a GOP primary election.
At one point, Biden turned to the studio audience and urged them to make gun control a voting issue.
“You’ve got to make sure that this becomes a voting issue. It’s got to be one of those issues where you decide your position on the issue of senator or candidate for House or Senate, on what we’re going to do with assault weapons. … What you say on those things is going to determine how I vote for you,” Biden said. “It should be one of those issues.”
Biden also defended his record when Kimmel — a Democratic Party donor who contributed to Biden’s 2020 campaign — pressed him on why the administration hadn’t accomplished more. Biden said he had not issued more executive orders, including on guns, because he didn’t want “to emulate Trump’s abuse of the Constitution and constitutional authority.”
Kimmel pushed back slightly, saying a lot of Democrats were frustrated because “we got out and voted.”
“We won the House, the Senate, the White House, obviously, and still we have made very little progress as far as I’m concerned when it comes to guns, obviously, reproductive rights, voting rights, climate change — all these things,” Kimmel said.
If Roe falls, “it’s going to cause a mini-revolution and they’re going to vote a lot of these folks out of office,” he said.
John Wagner contributed to this report. | 2022-06-09T14:29:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | In "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" appearance, Biden urges people to make guns ‘a voting issue’ - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/biden-jimmy-kimmel/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/biden-jimmy-kimmel/ |
Joan Adon heads to pitch for the Class AAA Rochester Red Wings. Photo by Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
Back in March, as Joan Adon faced teammates at the Washington Nationals’ spring training facility, a top team official listed his ideal rotation by the end of 2022: Stephen Strasburg, Patrick Corbin, Josiah Gray, Cade Cavalli and Adon, the clear outlier of the group.
That thought — of wanting to soon test the 23-year-old Adon against major league hitters — led the Nationals to push him faster than expected this spring. And those feelings also contributed to them sending Adon down Wednesday, paving Evan Lee’s path to a shot in the rotation. The Nationals can still be excited for Adon and feel he’s not yet ready to pitch at this level. In a lot of ways, his 12-start arc is what’s supposed to happen in the first season of a rebuild.
Adon posted a 6.95 ERA in those outings, the number spiked after the Miami Marlins scored eight in three innings against him Tuesday. He walked 35 batters in 55⅔ innings, the most among pitches who have thrown at least 50. He mostly throws two pitches, a four-seamer and curve, and could use to develop his change-up and maybe a secondary fastball with the Class AAA Rochester Red Wings. Before April, he had pitched only 23 innings above high-Class A. Needing more time in the minors doesn’t mean he can’t excel in the future.
“Honestly, this was kind of like by design. This is something that we talked about in spring training that might happen,” Manager Dave Martinez said before Wednesday’s 2-1 loss to the Marlins in Miami. “But I think it’s important that he understands that he’s really done nothing wrong. Take away the results. He’s a young kid that’s learned.
“Unfortunately, this is a result-driven business and he understands that, too. So it’s his job to go down and just get better and come back up and be ready to go again.”
The Nationals’ current rotation is Strasburg, who returns Thursday, Corbin, Gray, Erick Fedde and an opening. Martinez told reporters the club might stretch out both Lee and Paolo Espino because of a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Phillies on June 17. Yet if Lee keeps starting, that means Washington (21-37) will continue tapping at least one rotation spot for development purposes.
And why not? Joe Ross will undergo Tommy John surgery Friday and is out for the rest of the season. Aníbal Sánchez, 38, remains sidelined with a cervical impingement in his neck. Plus, injured veterans aside, General Manager Mike Rizzo said during a Wednesday radio appearance on 106.7 The Fan that the club will likely trade most players who are desired and on expiring contracts this summer.
Lee, a 25-year-old lefty, debuted against the New York Mets on June 1 and logged five outs of the bullpen Tuesday. Adon’s next appearance will come in Rochester, where Cavalli and fellow top prospect Cole Henry are also in the mix. If Adon can’t add a third pitch to his arsenal, his ceiling lowers considerably, potentially making him a reliever down the line. And if he can’t eventually add a fourth pitch while starting — even one he doesn’t throw often — he hurts his chances of becoming more than a back-of-the-rotation/depth arm.
Adon flashed the ability to beat hitters with a mid-to-high 90s fastball, Too often, though, he was either tipping pitches or behind in counts, leaving him all too predictable. So for now, Lee gets his chance and Adon goes to where he arguably should have in April. Martinez sees no harm done.
“My message to Joan [Tuesday] was: ‘You didn’t fail. This is a learning process and you were up here at a fairly young age,’ ” the manager recalled. “So you got to understand where he’s been. He hasn’t pitched very much and the fact that he [was] up here and pitching for us from Opening Day, making the team was huge.
“And I said … ‘Take the positives out of it. You were here. You learned a lot. You’re going to go down there with a lot more experience than you’ve ever had.’ ” | 2022-06-09T14:29:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Joan Adon’s demotion is part of Nats’ rebuilding process - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/09/joan-adon-demotion-nationals-rebuild/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/09/joan-adon-demotion-nationals-rebuild/ |
PGA Tour suspends golfers who are playing in LIV Golf event
Adam Kilgore
The first LIV Golf event teed off on Thursday, and the PGA Tour had an immediate answer. (Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)
The PGA Tour on Thursday suspended or made ineligible its players who defected to the breakaway LIV Golf Invitational Series, drawing a line in the sand on the morning the new Saud-backed series began its first tournament outside London.
The new series, backed by extraordinary wealth if not yet an impressive stable of golfers, has sent shockwaves through the sport, threatening to upend its traditional order.
“These players have made their choice for their own financial-based reasons,” PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan wrote in a memo sent to players that was obtained by The Washington Post. “But they can’t demand the same PGA Tour membership benefits, considerations, opportunities and platform as you. That expectation disrespects you, our fans and our partners.”
Backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fun and shepherded into existence by former pro golfer Greg Norman, LIV Golf attracted a number of PGA Tour stalwarts by offering massive signing bonuses and purses, guaranteed prize money, shorter, no-cut events and a lighter schedule, with only eight tournaments in its first year. For its first tournament this week outside London, however, it has only four of the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking — Dustin Johnson (No. 15), Louis Oosthuizen (No. 21), Kevin Na (No. 34) and Talor Gooch (No. 35) — and 14 others who rank in the top 50, including Phil Mickelson, a six-time major winner and one of golf’s most familiar faces.
Others, like recent major winners Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed, reportedly will join the new league for its second event later this month outside Portland, Ore.
A number of the players who defected to LIV Golf resigned their PGA Tour memberships: Johnson, Na, Oosthuizen, Sergio Garcia, Branden Grace, Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell, Turk Pettit, Charl Schwartzel and Lee Westwood. Those players will not be allowed to play in PGA Tour events and in international events such as the Presidents Cup and will have their names removed from the FedEx Cup points standings, which determine the tour’s season champion. Other LIV Golf players — Mickelson, Gooch, Matt Jones, Andy Ogletree, Ian Poulter, Hudson Swafford and Peter Uihlein — did not forfeit their PGA Tour memberships, and their future status remains unclear.
“You probably have more questions,” Monahan’s memo to players stated. “What’s next? Can these players come back? Can they eventually play PGA Tour Champions [the tour’s senior circuit]? Trust that we’ve prepared to deal with those questions, and we’ll approach them in the same way we have this entire process: by being transparent and respecting the PGA Tour regulations that you helped establish.”
During the buildup to the new league — whose LIV name refers to the Roman numeral of its 54-hole events and rhymes with “give” — the PGA Tour repeatedly threatened to permanently ban any golfer who plays in it. The tour did not give its members permission to play in the first LIV Golf event, which is required for golfers who wish to play in events sponsored by other tours. (Generally, PGA Tour golfers are allowed to play up to three non-PGA Tour events per season).
The memo said the defecting players “did not receive the necessary conflicting event and media rights releases — or did not apply for releases at all — and their participation in the Saudi Golf League/LIV Golf event is in violation of our tournament regulations.”
The memo went on to say that the “same fate holds true for any other players who participate in future Saudi Golf League events in violation of our regulations,” a warning to players like DeChambeau and Reed who reportedly are thinking of jumping ship.
Meanwhile, the first LIV golf event kicked off utilizing a shotgun start, which means all the golfers start on each of the holes simultaneously. Without a traditional television deal, the event is being streamed on YouTube, Facebook and the LIV website.
“I feel so happy for the players, I feel so happy that we’ve brought free agency to golf,” Norman said as the first LIV broadcast kicked off Thursday morning.
Said Johnson: “I’m just excited to get it started. It’s a new chapter for golf. The fans are going to love it, all the players who are here are going to love it.” | 2022-06-09T14:29:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | PGA suspends players in LIV Golf event - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/09/pga-suspension-liv-golfers/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/09/pga-suspension-liv-golfers/ |
Iran will remove 27 cameras from nuclear sites, U.N. watchdog says
Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), shows a surveillance camera during a news conference about developments involving Iran. (Christian Bruna/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
The head of the United Nations atomic energy watchdog said Thursday that Iran is removing 27 cameras used by the agency to monitor Tehran’s nuclear sites, a move he warned could be a “fatal blow” to the stalled international negotiations to restore a 2015 nuclear deal.
The removal of the cameras followed the passage of a resolution Wednesday by the nuclear watchdog’s board, censuring Iran for failing to cooperate with an investigation into uranium traces found at three undeclared nuclear sites.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said during a news conference in Vienna on Thursday that Iran’s decision to remove the cameras “poses a serious challenge to our ability to continue working there and to confirm the correctness of Iran’s declaration” under the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA.
Experts urge return to Iran nuclear deal as prospects dim
The 2015 deal, between Iran and world powers, sharply limited Iran’s ability to produce and retain the enriched uranium needed for a nuclear weapon, in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. The Trump administration unilaterally withdrew from the deal in 2018 and subsequently embarked on a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, reimposing sanctions and adding hundreds more.
Iran, in turn, increased the quality and quantity of its enriched uranium production, beyond the nuclear deal’s limits.
The Biden administration has been indirectly negotiating with Iran to revive the pact, but talks were suspended in March, and since then, U.S. officials have voiced increasing pessimism that the deal can be restored. The impasse has led to sharply escalating tensions in the Middle East, including between Iran and Israel, which opposes the nuclear deal and has carried out attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Biden envoy makes the case for Iran nuclear deal as prospects fade
Iran has insisted its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
“We are in a very tense situation,” Grossi said Thursday, calling efforts to revive the JCPOA at a “low ebb.” “Now we are adding this to the picture,” he said, referring to Iran’s removal of the cameras. “It’s not one of those good days. It’s not,” he said.
Forty or so cameras monitoring Iran’s atomic program remained, Grossi said. But in about three to four weeks, the removal of the other cameras would leave the watchdog unable to maintain what he called “continuity of knowledge” about Iran’s nuclear activities, he said. | 2022-06-09T14:30:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Iran will remove 27 cameras from nuclear sites, U.N. nuclear watchdog says - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/09/iran-cameras-jcpoa-nuclear/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/09/iran-cameras-jcpoa-nuclear/ |
WHO covid origins report says lab leak theory needs further investigation
In this Jan. 31, 2021, file photo, a security guard waves for journalists to clear the road after a convoy carrying the World Health Organization team entered the Huanan Seafood Market on the third day of a field visit in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)
A team of scientists convened by the World Health Organization to better understand the origins of the covid-19 pandemic and other future outbreaks has said that a theory that the coronavirus could have escaped from a laboratory was one avenue that needed “further investigations.”
However, in a report released on Thursday, the WHO-backed team said they had not received any new data that would allow them to better evaluate that theory. Members of the group from Brazil, China and Russia objected to the calls for further investigation into the “lab leak” theory.
The report also stated that available data suggest that SARS-CoV-2 had a zoonotic origin, which means it spread between animals in a natural setting, but that neither the animal that infected humans nor the place where this infection occurred could currently be identified.
The report was written by the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO), a body made up of experts from the United States, China and 25 other nations that first convened last year after widespread criticism of a previous joint WHO-China investigation into covid origins.
WHO officials emphasized that the report contained only the preliminary findings of the group. SAGO did not undertake its own studies but instead reviewed existing research.
The body is designed not only to help investigate the origins of covid-19, but also set up a framework for understanding the origins of future outbreaks. The group’s work is expected to last for years, WHO officials said.
“It is just the start,” Maria Van Kerkhove, a World Health Organization epidemiologist and secretariat of SAGO, told reporters before the release of the report. “They’ve made some good progress. They’ve clearly outlined that there’s more work to be done.”
Even so, the report may breathe life into a debate that has never come to a firm conclusion: Where did the covid-19 pandemic come from? While many scientists have favored a theory of zoonotic spread, the “lab leak” theory has gained prominent support from some experts, including some U.S. officials.
Beijing has fiercely rejected the idea that the coronavirus could have inadvertently escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) or another research institute studying coronaviruses in the Chinese city where covid-19 was first recorded in early 2020.
The preliminary SAGO report was released over a year after a joint WHO-China team traveled to Wuhan and released its own report that ruled out the lab leak theory as “extremely unlikely,” while suggesting that the idea that the virus was carried by frozen food needed further investigation.
That report was widely criticized after being released in March 2021, with WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus suggesting that the report did not conduct an “extensive enough” assessment of the lab leak theory and voicing frustration with the low level of access given to the mission by Chinese officials.
One of the researchers on the joint team, Danish food scientist Peter Ben Embarek, later told interviewers that Chinese researchers on the team had pushed back against including the lab leak theory in the report at all.
While SAGO was convened to address some of the criticism of the WHO-China report, it suffers from some of the same limitations — including that Chinese officials cannot be compelled to cooperate with any investigation.
According to the SAGO report, WHO’s Tedros sent letters to Chinese Premier Keqiang and health minister Ma Xiaowei on Feb. 14, 2022 and Feb. 21, 2022, respectively, requesting information on a variety of factors, including the “laboratory hypotheses.”
It is not clear if Tedros received a reply. Tarik Jašarević, a spokesperson for WHO, said that the body doesn’t share correspondence with member states. | 2022-06-09T14:30:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | WHO covid origins report says lab leak theory needs further investigation - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/09/who-sago-covid-origins/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/09/who-sago-covid-origins/ |
Saturday will mark the 154th running of the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park. (Al Bello/Getty Images)
Saturday’s Belmont Stakes, the 1½-mile final leg of the Triple Crown, will feature the return of Rich Strike, the colt who stunned the horse racing world at 80-1 odds in his Kentucky Derby victory but sat out the Preakness Stakes to remain fresh for this outing. Preakness winner Early Voting, meantime, will skip this weekend’s festivities and instead focus on either the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park or the Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga this summer. Epicenter, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness runner-up, will also be absent, with the goal of running in the Travers Stakes.
Before we examine the merits of Nest and the rest of the field, it is important to highlight the type of horse that usually wins the Belmont. Typically, winners have inherited between two and three times more speed than stamina from their ancestors, a numerical expression of a horse’s pedigree known as the dosage index and first described in the Daily Racing Form in 1981. Since 2012, when the Kentucky Derby qualification points system debuted, half the horses entered in the Belmont Stakes had a dosage index between 2.00 and 3.00, yet that group has accounted for eight of the past nine winners, discounting 2020, when the race was run at a less grueling 1⅛ miles. It has also helped if the mare side of the horse’s pedigree has added an influx of stamina. Without it, horses sometimes struggle to carry their speed over 12 furlongs.
The horses in this year’s field with the dosage index we’re looking for include Nest, Skippylongstocking, and Mo Donegal, all of which have a dosage index of 3.00. There are no sons of Tapit in the field, but there are two grandsons of the famous sire: Barber Road and morning-line favorite We the People. It’s not clear if Tapit’s boost of stamina gets diluted a generation removed, so it’s probably best to set those two horses to the side and focus on the pedigrees we know are successful. The horse that stands out is Nest, whose combination of speed, running style and pedigree appears to be a perfect fit for this race.
Nest earned a 101 Brisnet speed figure while finishing second in the Kentucky Oaks. That ties her with Creative Minister for the third-fastest speed figure in the field last time out, behind We the People (108) and Rich Strike (102). Her stalking running style should put her close to the front, where most of the past Belmont Stakes winners have found success. In fact, 13 of the past 15 Belmont winners were positioned within 4½ lengths of the leader after the opening half-mile. Nest has been 4½ lengths behind the leader just once in her career, and no more than 2½ lengths from the lead horse in her other five career races. Plus, Nest is a daughter of Curlin, the Hall of Fame horse and grandson of Mr. Prospector, whose male-line descendants have won 15 Belmont Stakes races since 1990. Nest’s maternal grandsire is A.P. Indy, winner of the Belmont Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Classic as a 3-year-old in 1992. A.P. Indy is also the grandsire of the aforementioned Tapit.
No wonder trainer Todd Pletcher feels Nest can navigate the Belmont’s 1½ miles with ease. | 2022-06-09T14:36:19Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Nest could beat We the People and Mo Donegal at Belmont Stakes - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/09/belmont-pick-nest-we-people/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/09/belmont-pick-nest-we-people/ |
Protect guns or combat violence? 7 in 10 Republicans say the former.
Republicans prioritize protecting guns more than actual gun owners
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) speaks during a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on gun violence on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 8. (Andrew Harni/AP)
The debate over gun ownership in the United States is complicated and intricate. Every argument has some nuance; every proposal includes some asterisks. Both sides often see their position in absolute terms, a view that the other side is always quick to note ignores actual boundaries.
It is, in other words, a debate that can defy simple categorization. In a new poll conducted by Marist for NPR and PBS NewsHour, though, the pollsters drew an interesting and useful line for considering the debate over guns and gun violence.
Respondents were asked which they felt was more important: protecting gun rights or controlling gun violence. It’s a simple dichotomy — admittedly more simple than the debate itself but one that allows for gradation. Is it more important to protect the right of people to own guns, or is it more important to address the spate of firearm-related deaths in the United States?
Overall, Americans were more likely to say that controlling gun violence is more important, 59 to 35 percent. Among gun owners, as you might expect, protecting gun rights was the majority position, although only barely.
The biggest divide, in fact, wasn’t on gun ownership. It was by party. Democrats said that controlling gun violence was more important by a nearly 90-point margin. Independents said the same, more narrowly. Among Republicans, though, more than two-thirds said protecting gun ownership was more important — a higher level of support than even among gun owners themselves.
Other divides in the poll similarly align with partisanship. White Americans without a college degree — a heavily Republican group — are more likely to say that it’s more important to protect gun rights. So are Americans who live in rural areas, in part, it’s safe to assume, because they’re also more likely to own a firearm.
Given that the debate over gun violence is at this moment centered on the mass shooting at a school in Uvalde, Tex., it’s interesting to point out that people without children in the house more heavily prioritized controlling gun violence than did parents with young children at home. Less surprising is the gender divide, with men being more likely to say that protection of gun rights is more important than were women.
Marist asked the same question in 2013. At that time, the nation was about evenly divided in identifying which focus was more important. What has changed since then? Democrats have become far more likely to say that combating gun violence is more important.
Independents have flipped from being more likely to prioritize gun rights to focusing on controlling gun violence.
What has changed since 2013? Polarization has increased, certainly. But so have the number of gun deaths in the United States. Gun violence has increased and mass shooting events, which tend to crystallize sentiment on gun ownership, have continued unabated.
The result is a broader sense that reducing gun violence should be considered more important than protecting the rights of gun owners — except among members of the party that controls half of the Senate and nearly half of the House. | 2022-06-09T14:45:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Protect guns or combat gun violence? 7 in 10 Republicans say the former is more important. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/protect-guns-or-combat-violence-7-10-republicans-say-former/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/protect-guns-or-combat-violence-7-10-republicans-say-former/ |
(Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/SIPA via AP) (Rafael Henrique / SOPA Images/Sipa USA via AP)
The Geico gecko has long touted the company’s claims of “great service and savings on car insurance.” But in the case of a Missouri woman who said she caught a sexually transmitted disease after having sex in the car of a Geico member, the state’s appeals court ruled this week that the insurance company needed to do more — and now potentially owes her millions of dollars.
The Missouri Court of Appeals upheld a $5.2 million judgment on Tuesday involving a Jackson County, Mo., woman who said she unknowingly caught HPV, the human papillomavirus, during unprotected sex in the luxury sedan of a former male romantic partner in 2017. After the woman notified Geico that she was seeking monetary damages, an arbitrator with Jackson County Circuit Court ruled last year that the man was liable for not disclosing his infection, saying the sex in the car “directly caused, or directly contributed to cause” of the woman’s contraction of HPV.
Geico had argued the judgment did not fall in line with Missouri law, claiming to the court that the man’s policy covered injuries that only came “out of the ownership, maintenance or use of the … auto.” The company also claimed the injuries to the woman, identified in court documents as M.O., “arose from an intervening cause — namely, her failure to prevent transmission of STDs by having unprotected sex.”
In an opinion published this week, a three-judge panel sided with the lower court, saying Geico did not have a strong case for appeal once a judgment was entered and the $5.2 million damages were determined.
“At the time of Geico’s intervention, liability and damages had been determined by an arbitrator and confirmed by the trial court,” Court of Appeals Judge Edward R. Ardini Jr. wrote in the opinion. “Geico had no right to re-litigate those issues.”
A Geico spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Thursday. An attorney for the woman is not listed in court documents.
The story was first reported by the Kansas City Star.
M.O. and the man, identified in court documents as M.B., began a romantic relationship in late 2017, records show. Sometime during that relationship, the couple had sex inside M.B.'s 2014 Hyundai Genesis — a luxury sedan that Kelley Blue Book raved “leaves very little to criticize.”
The woman alleged the Kansas man had been previously diagnosed with HPV — the most prevalent STD in the United States and a precursor to a variety of cancers — but “did not tell M.O. about it or take measures to prevent transmitting the virus to M.O.” At a gynecology exam about a year after the relationship began, the woman was diagnosed with HPV, according to court records.
“She later learned that she contracted the virus from M.B.,” the complaint says.
Knowing that M.B. was insured by Geico, the woman sent a letter to the insurance company in February 2021 demanding $1 million in damages for “negligence and negligent infliction of emotional distress.”
“Let me know,” M.O. wrote.
After Geico investigated the claim, the insurance company argued that the man told the woman he had been diagnosed with HPV-positive throat cancer and that the man was not diagnosed with the STD before 2017, according to court documents. Geico also suggested the woman might have been infected from another sexual partner, and argued the couple had sex in locations other than the insured vehicle, records show.
When the insurance company denied the settlement and said the woman failed to prevent her STD infection, the case was sent to arbitration. In May 2021, an arbitrator sided with M.O. and awarded her $5.2 million in damages to be paid by Geico. The insurance company called for a new hearing and the award to be tossed out, arguing that the judgment had violated Geico’s rights to due process. Geico ended up filing a formal appeal to the state when those requests were denied by the lower court.
In a separate opinion on Tuesday, Court of Appeals Judge Thomas N. Chapman agreed with his colleagues in their decision to side with the lower court’s settlement, but wrote that he believed Geico was given “no meaningful opportunity to participate” in the woman’s lawsuit and existing state law “relegat(es) the insurer to the status of a bystander.”
Whether Geico will end up paying the settlement stemming from the HPV infection remains unclear. The insurance company is contesting the decision in federal court, arguing that the claim is not covered under the policy, the Star reported. The outcome of that case could determine whether Geico is forced to pay M.O. more than $5 million in damages.
The case could have a lasting influence on how insurance companies pay out incidents that happen inside an insured vehicle, U.S. Magistrate Judge Angel D. Mitchell wrote last year.
“This case presents novel and potentially important issues about whether an insurance carrier can be held liable under such policies for the consequences of two adults voluntarily having unprotected sex in the insured’s automobile,” Mitchell wrote last year. “Interpretation of these policies could have far-reaching implications for other policies with similar terms.” | 2022-06-09T15:19:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Geico must pay Missouri woman who got an STD during car sex $5.2 million in damages, court says - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/09/geico-std-car-sex-missouri-insurance/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/09/geico-std-car-sex-missouri-insurance/ |
Jewelry giant settles gender-discrimination lawsuit for $175 million
The case, in which 68,000 women alleged unfair pay and promotion practices, had become a hallmark of #MeToo activism
A Kay Jewelers retail store. (iStock)
Sterling Jewelers, the American diamond empire that owns Jared and Kay Jewelers, has agreed to pay $175 million to settle a long-fought class-action lawsuit alleging that the company had for years discriminated against tens of thousands of women in their pay and promotion practices.
The case, filed in 2008, became a hallmark of #MeToo activism after some of the women revealed to The Washington Post in 2017 that they had been pressured to cater to their bosses’ sexual demands to get promoted or stay employed.
The class was composed of about 68,000 women who had worked, mostly as sales associates, in the jewelry stores between 2004 and 2018. Their lawyers argued that the company’s rules on pay rates adversely affected women and that women got promotions far less often they deserved.
A trial in private arbitration was scheduled for this September, said the women’s lawyers, who announced the settlement Thursday. The lawsuit has faced so many years of delays that one of the case’s 15 named claimants passed away before it was resolved.
Sterling runs some of the country’s biggest retail jewelry chains and has for years been famous for its shopping-mall boutiques and TV ads, including “Every kiss begins with Kay.”
The suit’s claims were limited to sexual discrimination in pay and promotion, not sexual harassment or assault. But as part of the case, women filed sworn statements saying they had been regularly groped, harassed and coaxed into providing sexual favors, including at boozy corporate retreats.
“If you didn’t do what he wanted with him,” one former associate said in a 2012 statement, “you wouldn’t get your (preferred) store or raise.”
Hundreds allege sex harassment, discrimination at Kay and Jared jewelry company
Gina Drosos, who replaced Mark Light as chief executive of Sterling’s parent company Signet Jewelers shortly after The Post’s 2017 report, said in a statement that the company has for the past four years worked to transform the company’s “business model and culture” to create a “welcoming and inclusive environment where everyone is invited to be their authentic self.”
“This settlement is an important step in bringing closure to a nearly 15-year-old case,” she said. “We look forward to continuing our focus on diversity as an important business strategy for Signet, and propelling the innovation, growth, and opportunity that allows our team and company to shine.”
The plaintiffs’ lead attorney, Joseph Sellers of the law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, said the legal team had seen no evidence that the misconduct women had spoken of in their previous statements had happened in recent years since the company had announced a series of reforms.
Signet, which did not admit liability as part of the settlement, said it has discontinued the pay and promotion practices at the heart of the suit. The company said it now also offers mentorship and leadership training programs for women and has strengthened a system for reporting and investigating complaints of workplace abuse.
Sellers said in an interview that the settlement would “ensure the practices that gave rise to the case are never going to happen again” at the company.
Sterling discrimination case highlights differences between arbitration, litigation
The settlement, which is subject to approval by an arbitrator, would pay about $125 million to members of the class. The remainder will go to attorneys’ fees and costs.
The case also threw a spotlight on the then-widespread corporate rules that forced victims of sexual harassment or assault to file claims against their employers only in private arbitration, where the proceedings were largely confidential.
President Biden in March signed into law a bill ending forced arbitration in such cases, allowing survivors to file lawsuits in public courts.
Signet in 2020 agreed to a separate $240 million settlement resolving claims from shareholders accusing the company of concealing allegations of sexual harassment related to top executives. | 2022-06-09T15:54:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Sterling, parent company of Kay, Jared settle sex discrimination lawsuit for $175 million - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/09/sterling-kay-jared-sex-dscrimination/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/09/sterling-kay-jared-sex-dscrimination/ |
Analysis by Tiffany Kary | Bloomberg
Turn an illicit product into a highly taxed and regulated one and you have a classic business experiment. Do it with a little-studied psychoactive substance that has both medical promise and addictive potential and you have a public health trial, too. That’s what the US has done with cannabis, otherwise known as marijuana, pot or weed. Changes in state laws since 1996 have given 74% of the US population access to some form of legal cannabis. The impact of that shift has been difficult to measure, as each state tracks data differently, if at all. What evidence there is shows that while legitimizing cannabis has generated jobs and tax revenue, the larger effects on society are a mixed bag. The effects on crime rates and social justice have been positive, but not entirely so. Some people seem to benefit from access to marijuana, but there are signs its easy availability puts more people at risk of addiction to it and increases cases of impaired driving.
1. What are the benefits of marijuana?
Apart from getting people high, there’s solid evidence that it reduces chronic pain, multiple-sclerosis-related muscle spasms, and chemotherapy-related nausea, according to one of the largest studies, a 2017 report that reviewed more than 10,000 scientific abstracts since 1999.
2. What’s the legal landscape of cannabis?
While US regulators haven’t approved the marketing of cannabis to treat any disease or condition, 37 US states have authorized it for people who have a doctor’s recommendation and qualifying ailments, which vary by jurisdiction. Of those states, 18 also allow people 21 and older to possess it for recreational purposes, with restrictions on quantities and public consumption. These liberalizations have given rise to thousands of licensed dispensaries selling weed products. They include flower, the smokable, dried bud of a cannabis plant; edibles, marijuana-infused snacks and drinks; and cartridges filled with cannabis oil for vaping. The federal government continues to classify marijuana as illegal, but its officials in recent years have taken a relatively relaxed approach toward enforcement of that law.
3. How have crime rates been affected?
A decade ago half of all drug-crime arrests in the US were related to cannabis, so not surprisingly such detentions have plunged. Still, the expectation that a licensed weed market would stamp out the illicit marijuana trade is being reassessed as licensed dispensaries struggle to compete with cheaper sellers on the underground market. In Colorado, organized crime linked to the trade actually increased from 31 cases in 2012, the year the state permitted recreational use, to 119 in 2017 before abating to 34 in 2019. Because African Americans as recently as 2018 were arrested for cannabis crimes at nearly four times the rate of White people despite similar levels of use, legalization has been put forward as a fix for the disparities that have flowed from that: disproportionate incarceration, broken homes and arrest records that hamper careers. But it hasn’t been that simple.
4. What’s happened on the race front?
While marijuana arrest rates have plummeted overall, racial disparities have persisted in arrests for violating regulations of legal marijuana. Before and after legalization in Washington state, Black adults went from being 2.5 times to 5 times as likely as White adults to be arrested for unlawful cannabis possession, a 2019 study found. After legalization in Colorado, the greatest decrease in arrests was among White people, down 72% as of 2019, versus a 63% decline for Black people and a 55% decline for Hispanics. Fifteen states have programs that aim to ensure members of minorities gain a fair share of the new industry’s profits. But in a country in which Black people make up 13% of the population, they own fewer than 2% of cannabis companies, according to a 2022 report from the Minority Cannabis Business Association. One barrier to entry is the difficulty gaining access to the services of banks, many of which eschew these businesses given that weed remains illegal on the federal level.
5. How big is the US cannabis industry?
Sales generated more than $11 billion in tax revenue for states and localities from 2014 through 2021, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Much of the other available data on the industry comes from organizations spawned by it, so should be taken with a grain of salt. The research firm New Frontier Data projects the lawful weed business in the US will bring in sales of $32 billion this year. A joint report by the online marijuana marketplace Leafly and industry consulting firm Whitney Economics estimated that legal cannabis had created the equivalent of 428,000 full-time jobs as of January 2022.
6. How has cannabis use changed?
Before the legal changes, it had been thought that more readily available marijuana might increase casual use by appealing to the so-called cannacurious. Surprising data show it’s also encouraged a rise in hardcore stoners. The US in 2019 saw a significant increase in the percentage of people over 26 who used marijuana in the previous month as well as in the share who used it daily or almost daily, according to an annual government survey. In Colorado, the first state to sanction recreational use, 15% of those age 18 to 25 consumed weed daily, a figure twice as high as the national average. According to a different report, 48% of people in Colorado who used cannabis in 2019 did so on a daily or near-daily basis, up from 44% in 2014. Canada, which authorized recreational use nationwide in 2018, has seen similar results. By the end of 2020, 20% of people reported using marijuana in the previous three months, versus 14% at the outset of 2018. Daily or near-daily use rose, too.
7. What are the worries about increased marijuana use?
• Cannabis, in particular when smoked, is associated with an increase in chronic bronchitis episodes, according to the 2017 research review. Its impact on asthma, lung function, immunity, heart attack, strokes and diabetes requires more research, the report concluded. It said marijuana use is likely to increase the risk of schizophrenia, other psychoses, social anxiety disorders and depression. Other research, by contrast, has found that recreational access leads to a significant reduction in demand for prescription drugs not only for pain and seizures but also for depression, anxiety, sleep and psychosis.
• Research has shown lower birth weights for babies exposed to marijuana in the womb, and pregnant women more than doubled their intake of cannabis from 2002 to 2017.
• Frequent use, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, adds to the probability that people will develop cannabis use disorder, a term for addiction. The CDC cites studies estimating that likelihood for all users ranging from 10% to 30%. Among the signs of addiction are cravings, a need to use more of the drug to get the same high, and continued use despite relationship or work problems. The condition can put people at higher risk for other negative consequences, such as problems with attention, memory and learning. Young people appear to be particularly vulnerable: Cannabis is almost as addictive as opioids in teens, a 2021 study concluded. The US surgeon general has said that chronic marijuana use in teens is linked to impaired learning, declines in IQ and school performance, and suicide attempts.
• A rise in daily consumption has secondary effects: As regular users develop a tolerance for THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, the industry has increased the potency of its product to keep up. The average percentage of THC in cannabis seized by US officials increased to 14% in 2019 from 5% in 1996.
8. Are legalization’s effects showing up in public health data?
It’s a challenge to draw definitive connections, but there are some signs of this.
• On the plus side, regulated cannabis can offer a health benefit to those who previously bought the drug on the illicit market, given that laws require legitimate sellers to monitor their wares for contaminants. States with lawful recreational weed had fewer cases of vaping-related lung injuries that were linked to illegally sold cannabis oil, a 2020 study found.
• On the downside, rates of cannabis use disorder in people age 12 to 17 grew 25% more in states that legalized recreational marijuana than in those that didn’t, according to a 2020 study.
• Cyclical vomiting, episodes of severe vomiting that have no apparent cause and are associated with daily marijuana use, is on the rise, up 60% nationwide from 2005 to 2014.
• Since legalization, Colorado has seen an increase in hospitalizations, emergency-department visits and poison-center calls linked with marijuana exposure. Children who stumble upon a parent’s edibles are a particular cause of concern. In 2019 and the two years prior, there were a total of 4,172 exposure cases nationwide in kids 0 to 9 years old, according to a study of calls to poison-control centers, which found that the rate was higher in states with sanctioned recreational use.
9. What about road safety?
Proponents of legalization have posited that lawful weed would make roads safer because people would substitute it for alcohol, which they argue impairs driving more. It’s difficult to get a clear picture of what’s actually happened as there’s no uniform law nationwide on driving while stoned, nor any widely accepted testing method for it. However, the evidence so far suggests the advocates were optimistic. It shows that legalization has led to more people in the US using cannabis in combination with alcohol and other substances. And in Canada in 2019, the year after legalization, cases of drug-impaired driving rose 43% over the previous year, and the overall incidence of impaired driving increased 19%. That ended a downward trend that had begun in 2011. | 2022-06-09T15:59:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How Legal Weed Has Changed the US for Better and Worse - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-legal-weed-has-changed-the-us-for-better-and-worse/2022/06/09/6bc6299a-e801-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-legal-weed-has-changed-the-us-for-better-and-worse/2022/06/09/6bc6299a-e801-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Workers will have a say, too. (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)
Everyone can agree that overturning Roe v. Wade will have major consequences for individual women in the US. Less obvious is the impact on American corporations that will emerge from the Supreme Court’s expected simultaneous reversal of Planned Parenthood v. Casey — the 1992 decision that emphasized the value of upholding precedent and avoiding social upheaval to justify keeping Roe in place.
By overturning Casey, the court will send a clear message to state legislators that it is open season for them to pass blatantly unconstitutional laws in the hopes that the justices might reverse more precedents. Legislatures can be expected to pass laws barring companies from paying for out-of-state abortions, for example, and reversing well-established rights like gay marriage and even access to some forms of contraception.
These laws will be challenged in court, and in all likelihood they will ultimately be overturned. But with the anticipated weakening of precedent, lower courts have already started allowing unconstitutional laws to stay in place pending eventual Supreme Court decisions.
American business will be caught in the middle. Companies of any size can be expected to be affected by the coming conservative legislation and to be pressured by progressive activists to take stands against the states that pass such laws. Corporations will have no choice but to engage the hot-button social issues of our polarized time.
As much as most business leaders want to avoid the losing battle of navigating between threats from the right and the left, the new legal-political-cultural environment will repeatedly cast them into situations where state laws, their company’s stakeholders and the public force them into the fray.
In a typical situation, Republican state legislatures will be pushing corporate management from the right. Employees, especially at tech companies, will generally be a constituency pushing from the left, alongside progressive NGOs. For public-facing companies, there will also be pressure from consumers — which could come from left or right depending on geography and industry.
This new sort of environment in turn calls for a new corporate approach: one that begins with defining a company’s values and then determining how to apply those values in the face of inevitable criticism from stakeholders. Companies will find they must use ethical thinking to reason their way to decisions they believe in, employing principles they can apply consistently. Then they will use those principles to explain their decisions to stakeholders.
The Lesson of HB-20
To see how this new world is evolving, consider an example that doesn’t even have to do with abortion: Texas’s so-called HB-20 law, which bars large social-media platforms from moderating content “based on viewpoint.” Effectively, that means the platforms wouldn’t be able to operate in Texas. If they were to stop trying to block nasty, offensive content, their services would become unattractive to many or most users — that’s a big reason why the platforms developed content moderation in the first place. Technically, they can’t just turn off their services in one state.(2)
In the past, when obviously unconstitutional laws were enacted, federal district courts immediately blocked them from going into effect. Whatever political gains legislators got from passing the laws were minor, brief and at most symbolic, because the legal system had rapidly and definitively rebuffed them.
The trajectory of HB-20 illustrates how the reality is changing. The law plainly violates existing First Amendment law. Corporations enjoy free-speech rights under the Citizens United precedent. It is also well-established free-speech doctrine that this includes the right not to be compelled to speak as well as the right not to be forced to associate yourself with speech that expresses a viewpoint you reject. Requiring a platform to allow user speech that it chooses not to display certainly violates the First Amendment as it has been understood for decades.
No court has ever held that the First Amendment does not protect social-media platforms. Justice Clarence Thomas, in a short concurring opinion in the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear a 2021 case, did suggest that the courts should consider treating social-media platforms as common carriers or public accommodations, thereby limiting their rights to exclude users or their speech. But one hint from one justice hasn’t usually been enough to make the lower courts ignore precedent — until now.
A federal district court in Texas initially issued a stay blocking HB-20 from going into effect. The court was following the traditional playbook for how the judiciary is supposed to respond to obviously unconstitutional new statutes: by prohibiting state officials from enforcing them.
But a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit broke the paradigm. Not only did the panel overturn the stay by a 2-1 vote, it did so without issuing an accompanying opinion. We know that one of the three judges disagreed with the others. That makes the decision all the more astonishing, as it is commonplace for a divided court to explain its reasoning.
The parties affected by HB-20 had to go to the Supreme Court on an emergency basis to ask it to reinstate the stay. By a 5-4 vote, the justices put the district court’s stay back in place. Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Thomas and Justice Neil Gorsuch, wrote an opinion playing out more of Thomas’s ideas and suggesting the law should change.(1)
The upshot is that this case is far from over. An unconstitutional law like HB-20 now gains much more public attention for the legislators who passed it — and over an extended period of time.
Each round of litigation is its own news cycle. The legal process can last for years. All of this is happening because the Supreme Court is telling legislators, lower courts and the country as a whole that its traditional respect for precedent is being radically altered.
Thirty years ago, Planned Parenthood v. Casey held, effectively, that although the swing justices were skeptical about the Roe decision, they would nevertheless uphold the law as a matter of precedent. The opinion signed by Justices Anthony Kennedy, Sandra Day O’Connor and David Souter framed the importance of stable precedent in an adage: “Liberty finds no refuge in a jurisprudence of doubt.”
The resulting message was that the Supreme Court would take precedent seriously, upholding even decisions they didn’t much like in favor of stability. That in turn sent a direct message to lower courts: If we, the justices, are not going to overturn precedent, then you certainly must not.
The Power of Justice Thomas
Reflecting the changed situation now, Thomas is emerging as one of the most powerful voices on the newly configured Supreme Court. He has always taken the view that precedent should count for little or nothing when he considers a decision to be legally wrong. His job, as he sees it, is to interpret the Constitution in accordance with original meaning — regardless of what the court has said in the past or the consequences for the future.
A large number of his former law clerks were appointed as federal judges when Donald Trump was president. They can be expected to ignore precedent, as Thomas has always done. (One of them recently issued an opinion striking down the Centers for Disease Control’s airplane mask mandate — a ruling that flouted judicial norms to such a degree that it shocked even many conservatives and libertarians who were otherwise opposed to the mandates.)
The new normal in the legal context is closely tied to the extreme polarization of the political environment. Conservative state legislators increasingly benefit from the symbolic effects of passing high-profile laws that attack well-known corporations. A recent example is the Florida legislature’s anti-Disney measure that was in response to the company’s opposition to Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education” law, known to its opponents as the “Don’t Say Gay” law.
Like HB-20, the Florida law is a blatant violation of the First Amendment — in this case, because it was overtly intended to punish a private actor for expressive speech. Yet Florida legislators knew that Disney would have to litigate to have the law overturned.
Each stage of the process will create fresh news. And each round of media attention will remind Florida voters that the legislators who supported the bill took a strong, culturally conservative stance against a major corporation — one whose name alone is enough to make headlines. The result is, again, that state lawmakers have a strong incentive to pass unconstitutional legislation for political gain, regardless of whether any of it ever goes into effect.
Overturning Casey will encourage legislators to enact other laws that challenge established constitutional rights. Lawmakers in Texas are already threatening to pass legislation targeting companies that pay for employees to go out of state for abortions. Corporate executives, they warn, could face criminal charges. The businesses could be forced to choose between paying for the abortions or being driven from the state.
Legislators Grab the Spotlight
State legislators will have parallel incentives to pass laws that vitiate the right to gay marriage and that ban forms of contraception used to induce abortions. I don’t expect the Supreme Court to reverse the Obergefell v. Hodges decision legalizing gay marriage or revisit Griswold v. Connecticut, the 1965 precursor to Roe that established the right to contraception. So it’s likely the court would eventually strike down any state measures that flout those two rulings.
But that will not matter to the legislators, who will be focused on the political points they can earn. Merely passing the legislation will make headlines. Some lower courts may well leave the laws in place pending Supreme Court review, as happened with HB-20.
A lot of time could pass while the validity of gay marriages and the availability of contraception are placed in legal jeopardy in a number of states. The result will be extended litigation, endless protests and more publicity for the politicians responsible for violating people’s basic rights.
Like it or not, and they won’t, corporations will be in the thick of it. They will have to struggle to protect employees’ rights while avoiding targeted sanctions. All parties involved have an interest in getting the private sector to take their side.
We are entering a substantially different era in which the courts, legislators, individuals and corporations will bump into one another in conflicts that are cultural, legal and political. And it’s just getting started with no end in sight.
(1) Disclosure: I was architect of Facebook’s Oversight Board and continue to advise Meta on governance issues.
(2) Justice Elena Kagan dissented from the stay without giving a reason. The best bet is that she doesn’t like emergency stays without a clear emergency. But because she didn’t say so in this instance, no one can be sure how she will vote if the case comes back to the justices as a full-dress challenge to the platforms’ free-speech rights. | 2022-06-09T15:59:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Supreme Court Has a Nasty Surprise in Store for Business - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-supreme-court-has-a-nasty-surprise-in-store-for-business/2022/06/09/a8695ed6-e805-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-supreme-court-has-a-nasty-surprise-in-store-for-business/2022/06/09/a8695ed6-e805-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Americans deserve to know if ATF will continue ‘stash house stings’
By Radley Balko
Steve Dettelbach has been nominated to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. (Michael Reynolds/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
In 2014, a 21-year-old Cleveland man named Kenneth Flowers heard from his cousin about a house where some drug dealers had stashed cocaine — and a plan his cousin and others had hatched to rob it. Flowers had a job at the time and no criminal record. But the promise of a payoff that could have set him up for life was too good to pass up.
It turns out there was no stash house. There was no cocaine. The entire conspiracy was fabricated by an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Nevertheless, Flowers was convicted on federal drug charges and is serving a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence. He has become something of a poster child for the manipulative tactics in such sting operations, which have targeted hundreds of young men, the vast majority of them Black.
Flowers’s 2015 conviction deserves a fresh look today because it happened under the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio, then headed by DOJ veteran Steve Dettelbach — who is now awaiting Senate confirmation as President Biden’s pick to head up ATF. After the conviction of Flowers and his co-conspirators, Dettelbach’s office put out a news release celebrating the win, though it failed to mention that “what they believed to be a drug stash house” was entirely fictional. Dettelbach’s office also prosecuted at least two other stash house stings.
In the wake of mass shootings in Tulsa, Buffalo and Uvalde, Tex., the Biden administration is making gun control a priority. As the head of ATF, Dettelbach would play a critical role in how new policies are enforced.
But an ATF crackdown on guns would inevitably rub up against another of the administration’s stated priorities: fighting discrimination and systemic racism in policing. On a political level, the gun-control debate typically pits advocates for more restrictions against the National Rifle Association, gun companies or rural gun-rights activists who openly carry intimidating weapons in public. But on the ground, gun laws are rarely enforced against those groups. They’re typically enforced against non-White people in urban areas. In fact, the racial disparity for gun-related sentencing enhancements is greater than the discrepancy for federal drug laws. And while part of that may be due to disproportionate crime rates in those communities, the stash house stings show that it’s also driven by whom federal officials chose to target.
“The Justice Department likes to say they prioritize big cases, but their bread and butter is the low-hanging fruit,” says Erica Zunkel, a University of Chicago law professor who has represented defendants in stash house stings. “It’s routine stuff against people already disproportionately targeted by law enforcement.”
One study found that between 2006 and 2013, nearly 80 percent of people charged in stash house stings in northern Illinois were Black. A USA Today review of 635 sting prosecutions found that more than 90 percent of those targeted were people of color. Yet another review of 179 stings in New York found none had targeted a single White person. Media investigations in 2013 also found that some of those targeted had mental illness or were developmentally disabled.
In a typical stash house sting, federal agents send one or more informants into low-income neighborhoods to lure potential conspirators, typically by promising a lucrative payoff. One report found informants had been sent to a Black barbershop and a soul food spot. In another, a future defendant was recorded saying, “I’ll never be broke again. My kid’s gonna be straight.”
Because they can invent the crime from whole cloth, ATF agents have the power to stack these cases in their favor. For example, while crimes exclusively related to drugs typically fall under the purview of other agencies, ATF agents can grant themselves jurisdiction by fabricating armed guards at the fictitious stash houses. And because the illegal drugs are also imaginary, they can make the stash large enough to trigger a mandatory minimum sentence.
This power to dictate the details of the crime also helps the government get around an entrapment defense. That defense fails if prosecutors can show a defendant was already predisposed to commit the crime in question. So after dangling a lucrative payoff, federal agents might introduce minor obstacles as the payday draws near. If the target gets impatient or takes steps to overcome those obstacles, the government can argue this shows determination, which shows predisposition.
It also seems notable that these informants don't propose robbing a gas station, home, or convenience store. Most of us wouldn't consider robbing an innocent neighbor or business, even if we were desperate. But we might be more amenable to robbing someone already engaged in criminal activity.
In Flowers’s case, a judge with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit called the government’s behavior “unseemly,” adding that because “no known dangerous individuals ... were targeted” and “no pre-existing drug rings” were broken up, the sting had little relationship to public safety. Federal judges in California and Chicago have written similar opinions. During oral arguments in a Los Angeles case, a federal appeals court judge accused ATF of “dragging half a million dollars through a poor neighborhood.” But with a few exceptions, these judges have also generally ruled that the law hamstrings them from overturning any convictions.
Dettelbach’s hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee came just after the Uvalde, Tex., massacre, so most of the discussion focused on mass shootings and gun-control policy. The ATF stings never came up.
Because his nomination is still pending, Dettelbach declined to answer any questions on the record. But in response to a series of emailed questions, a White House spokesman noted that Dettelbach helped implement a federal consent decree with the Cleveland Police Department, has served on civil rights commissions, and has been endorsed for the ATF position by former attorneys general Eric Holder and Loretta E. Lynch as well as by prominent civil rights organizations such as the National Urban League.
It’s difficult to say how frequently ATF conducts these stings — or even whether they’re still happening. A flurry of media reports about the operations were published in the mid-2010s, but the New Yorker reported last year that there are case records from as late as 2019. The agency itself told the magazine that because the tactics are “tradecraft or investigative techniques,” it won’t say whether they’re still being used. A White House spokesman told me that because the administration doesn’t interfere with law enforcement agencies, he too couldn’t say whether the stings have continued or whether they’d continue should Dettelbach be confirmed.
Dettelbach himself didn’t plan or oversee the ATF traps. But he did oversee an office that prosecuted the people ensnared by them. Given that he has now been nominated to lead the agency that did plan and execute them, he should tell the country what he thinks of the tactics and whether they’ll continue under his watch. | 2022-06-09T16:00:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Americans deserve to know whether ATF would continue “stash house stings” under Biden's chief pick - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/atf-stash-house-stings-steven-dettelbach/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/atf-stash-house-stings-steven-dettelbach/ |
How bad things are for Biden
It’s not just his approval rating; it’s his lack of a base
President Biden walks to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on June 8. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
President Biden is an unpopular president. And the thing is: That’s not unusual in the modern era. Presidents are generally unpopular these days. Biden’s numbers are somewhat below average, but the average is a minority of Americans approving of a president.
But even Biden’s overall numbers undersell his political troubles. And some new polls drive that home.
An NPR/PBS/Marist College poll released Thursday shows Biden with his lowest approval rating to date, at 38 percent. Similarly, a Quinnipiac University poll released this week showed Biden tying his previous low of 33 percent. (Quinnipiac is often one of Biden’s worst polls.)
But dig a little deeper and you’ll see something even more troublesome for Democrats: Biden looks to be a leader largely without a base of devoted supporters. Those who dislike him overwhelmingly feel strongly, but those who like him overwhelmingly … don’t.
In the Marist poll, 40 percent “strongly” disapproved of him, while 14 percent “strongly” approved.
In the Quinnipiac poll, 45 percent “strongly” disapproved, while just 15 percent “strongly” approved.
In the most recent NBC News poll, the margin was 45-16.
In the most recent AP-NORC poll, the margin was 39-12.
In three of these cases, it’s Biden’s worst margin to date. In the fourth — the Marist poll — it’s only one point off his worst, from last month.
It is very rare for three times as many people to strongly dislike a president as strongly like him.
Polling conducted for The Washington Post and ABC News has tested this question for every president dating back to Ronald Reagan. And only once has a president seen three times as many people strongly disliking them as strongly liking them. It was George W. Bush in the waning days of his presidency — October 2008 — when at his low point, a stunning 58 percent strongly disapproved of him, while 7 percent approved.
Barack Obama bottomed out early in his presidency at 37 percent strongly disliking him, with 18 percent strongly liking him — a 2-to-1 ratio. Bill Clinton’s worst split was 31-13, also early in his presidency. And George H.W. Bush’s worst split was 24-12. (The latter two presided in a far less polarized time, in which you couldn’t could count on one-third or more of the country to strongly dislike the other side’s president at all times.)
Which brings us to Donald Trump. Trump’s numbers were comparable to Biden’s, at certain points. But he faced stronger feelings both for and against. In a mid-2018 poll, 53 percent strongly disapproved of Trump, while 24 percent strongly approved.
It shouldn’t be surprising that Trump engendered more passion on both sides than Biden does. But that cuts both ways. Biden now has a predictably large portion of the country — 40-plus percent — that strongly dislikes him, which is pretty normal these days. But he doesn’t have the countervailing support from his base.
In recent polls, including the most recent Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted in April, the percentage of Democrats who strongly approve of Biden has been between the mid-30s (34 percent in the Marist poll) and the mid-40s (44 percent in both the Quinnipiac and Post-ABC poll). In other words, a majority of Democrats don’t strongly approve of a Democratic president.
And that is also highly unusual. Trump never saw his “strong” support from his party drop below a majority. Obama saw something similar on a couple occasions, dipping into the low 40s for a couple months. And Bush wouldn’t get there until the final year-plus of his presidency.
All of which poses a problem for Democrats in the midterms. Trump was at his worst on this question shortly before the 2018 midterms, in which his party lost the House. Ditto with Obama and the 2014 midterms, when he lost the Senate. And Bush was at his worst right before Republicans were drubbed in the 2008 presidential election.
Democrats need to be asking themselves just what’s going to bring their voters out, given that most of them don’t see Biden’s presidency as something they strongly support. Perhaps they can be convinced that it’s just that important to prevent Republicans (and Trump) from retaking power. But it’s a much more difficult proposition.
Making things worse, Biden has been sliding into this position for a while now, with no signs that this is as temporary as it has been for his predecessors who have found themselves in comparable positions. Perhaps the slide will be arrested if inflation is alleviated. But that’s not something that happens overnight. And for now, there are no easy answers. | 2022-06-09T16:00:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Biden's polls show not just a low approval rating, but that he lacks a political base - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/biden-polling-lack-base/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/biden-polling-lack-base/ |
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Basil Rajapaksa, the younger brother of Sri Lanka’s president and the country’s former finance minister, said he resigned from Parliament on Thursday amid mounting criticism of his role in the island nation’s economic crisis, as the United Nations launched an appeal for $47.2 million in emergency aid. | 2022-06-09T16:01:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Sri Lankan president's brother quits; UN launches aid appeal - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sri-lankan-presidents-brother-quits-un-launches-aid-appeal/2022/06/09/2ce2fabc-e803-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sri-lankan-presidents-brother-quits-un-launches-aid-appeal/2022/06/09/2ce2fabc-e803-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
The scientific study follows separate efforts by the Pentagon and intelligence agencies to examine “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.”
The silhouette of U.S. engineer and NASA astronaut Megan McArthur is seen past the NASA logo in the Webb Auditorium at NASA headquarters in Washington. (Stefani Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images)
NASA is joining the hunt for UFOs, a top space agency official said Thursday, forming a team that would examine “observations of events that cannot be identified as aircraft or known natural phenomena.”
The space agency would bring a scientific perspective to efforts already underway by the Pentagon and intelligence agencies to make sense of dozens of such sightings, Thomas Zurbuchen, the head of NASA’s science mission directorate, said during a speech before the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. He said it was “high-risk, high-impact” research that the space agency should not shy away from, even if it is a controversial field of study.
Still, NASA said it wants to apply scientific rigor to a vexing issue that has been a fixation for generations. Studying UAP fits into the agency’s mission of looking for signs of life beyond Earth, from studying water on Mars to exploring the moons of Saturn and Jupiter, the agency said.
NASA’s effort will be led by David Spergel, the president of the Simons Foundation in New York City, and previously the chair of the astrophysics department at Princeton University, and Daniel Evans, the assistant deputy associate administrator for research at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. The study will last about nine months, NASA said, and be independent from efforts by the Pentagon.
“There are potential national security and counterintelligence [impacts], that that’s not what we do for a living. And we’re not going to get into that at NASA,” Zurbuchen said. But the agency does study the atmosphere and aeronautics, he said, and there is a concern that “the air space is increasingly crowded with many different types of air vehicles.”
“We know that our service members have encountered unidentified aerial phenomena,” Ronald S. Moultrie, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security, told the bipartisan panel of lawmakers. “We are committed to an effort to determine their origins.”
In an interview with The Post last year, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said he had seen the classified UAP report when he was serving in the Senate. “The hair stood up on the back of my neck,” he said. | 2022-06-09T16:02:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | NASA joins hunt for UFOs - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/09/nasa-ufo-uap-extraterrestrial-space/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/09/nasa-ufo-uap-extraterrestrial-space/ |
Belgium's King Philippe, flanked by the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Félix Tshisekedi, and Belgium's Queen Mathilde, greet dignitaries in Kinshasa on June 7. (Arsene Mpiana/AFP/Getty Images)
Amid anti-racism protests, Belgian king expresses regrets to Congo for colonial brutality
At a news conference alongside Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, who traveled with the king and queen, Tshisekedi said he hoped stronger ties with Belgium would bring investment to Congo and improve health care. An estimated 73 percent of the Congolese population lives below the international poverty line, according to the World Bank.
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Belgium also plans to return a tooth — the last remains of Congo’s first post-independence prime minister, Patrice Lumumba — who was killed in 1961 after a Brussels-backed coup.
For some in Congo, the gestures are not enough. Responding to a statement from De Croo on Twitter on Wednesday that the countries would pivot their focus to the future, Congolese opposition senator Francine Muyumba Nkanga wrote, “We will never turn toward the future without apology and reparations from Belgium.” | 2022-06-09T16:02:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Belgium’s King Philippe offers ‘regrets’ but no apology for colonialism in Congo - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/09/belgium-king-philippe-democratic-republic-congo-colonialism/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/09/belgium-king-philippe-democratic-republic-congo-colonialism/ |
The Browns’ Deshaun Watson mess is a moral failure and a football mistake
Deshaun Watson kneels on the field during the Browns' practice Wednesday. (AP Photo/David Richard)
No rational plan leads an organization to trade six draft picks and guarantee $230 million to a player accused of serial predatory sexual behavior. The Cleveland Browns were fools in March when they won a callous bidding war for Deshaun Watson. Less than three months later, the quarterback’s unresolved legal situation has gotten worse, his reputation has continued to erode and his path back to football has grown more complicated.
Watson faces 24 accusers now, two more than the Browns knew about when they made the deal. During a recent episode of HBO’s “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel,” two of the women suing him told their chilling stories. This week, the New York Times published an investigation with new, disturbing information about how often Watson targeted female massage therapists over a 17-month period and the manner in which the Houston Texans, his former team, may have enabled his behavior. And Rusty Hardin, Watson’s lawyer, caused a stir during a radio interview last week when he made dismissive comments about sexual activity during massage sessions.
The Browns were prepared for initial turbulence, but they assumed they were getting Watson at the end of his troubles. Now his disgrace is their disaster.
In March, teams began competing in a distasteful sweepstakes after the first of two Texas grand juries declined to indict Watson on criminal charges. Despite the remaining civil cases, quarterback-desperate teams were ready to gamble under the same, cold assumption: No jail time, no hesitation. Game on. But finality in the Watson scandal may not be that close.
NFL teams don’t make moral decisions. No multibillion dollar sports franchise does. Every move comes down to value and risk assessment, and in Watson’s case, teams lined up to make a trade because they thought they could outlast the backlash and reap substantial rewards over time by having one of the game’s elite players.
So the Browns made a morally indefensible decision because they trusted it would be a competitively shrewd move for which their most disappointed fans would forgive them. And the helmet-headed among us conceded it made sound football sense given Watson’s youth, tremendous on-field track record and the clear upgrade over Baker Mayfield.
But what if this isn’t an example of talent trumping values? What if, because of Watson’s undetermined availability, this turns out to be an atrocious football mistake as well?
Every troubling revelation increases the possibility that this saga will last much longer than Watson and the Browns anticipated. The task to settle or try two dozen (and counting) cases in court is onerous, but there’s also the arbitrary process of NFL justice. And Watson can’t be certain that he is beyond all criminal charges. Stack all the unknowns, and the Browns have to be concerned that Watson will make his Cleveland debut later than they envisioned.
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The more time he misses, the dumber a football decision it becomes. The Browns structured his contract knowing that Watson could be suspended for a significant portion of the 2022 season. His base salary is just $1.035 million this season, which means he would lose a little less than $61,000 per game if the NFL punished him. But in each of the final four seasons of that deal, his base balloons to $46 million, which is about $2.7 million per game.
For the tidiest bookkeeping, Cleveland gave Watson a signing bonus of nearly $45 million, for which the salary cap hit is spread evenly over all five years of the deal. It means Watson carries a cap burden of about $10 million this season (base salary plus prorated bonus), but the number grows to $54.993 million over the last four seasons. For their accounting to make sense, the Browns need Watson to be out of trouble by the start of the 2023 season. That’s 15 months away. It sounds like a long time, but the first lawsuit against Watson was filed 15 months ago, and fresh accusations continue to emerge.
The lewd details and constant negative publicity make it all the more unlikely that an image-obsessed NFL allows Watson to play before there is resolution.
For the entire 2021 season, the Texans chose not to play Watson, who had requested a trade before his legal troubles started. If it’s up to the Browns, they won’t make that decision, and in late March, Roger Goodell said he wouldn’t place Watson on the commissioner’s exempt list before the conclusion of his civil cases. But recent developments could make him reconsider.
Back then, the league also claimed it was nearing the end of its own investigation into Watson. The question now is whether the latest lawsuits and Times investigation covered ground the NFL has yet to explore. If so, that might put the commissioner’s list in play or prompt the league to do an initial suspension based on its findings to this point, while reserving the right to do more later. Neither option presents Cleveland with the kind of resolution it desperately needs.
NFL justice isn’t really about justice. It is a ploy to pacify the court of public opinion. When Goodell started emphasizing discipline 16 years ago, his motivation was to assuage concern about the players being too unruly to cheer for. The NFL doesn’t want to police player conduct as much as it wants to police the optics of player conduct, and that mentality has led to all kinds of inconsistency, hypocrisy and embarrassment.
The league already messed up by sitting back and allowing teams to engage in an absurd auction for Watson’s services while the accusations were still trickling in. It resulted in Cleveland giving the quarterback that record $230 million guaranteed to waive his no-trade clause, a move that has been portrayed as merely the latest egregious example of the sport’s disinterest in respecting and protecting women. Trying to redeem itself, the NFL will be careful about how it proceeds with punishment.
At some point, the Browns expect the elite quarterback they are paying $230 million to play. For now, the return on their investment includes only infamy, criticism and anxiety. They made a plan to wait out the shame. It’s already inadequate. With Watson, the shame keeps multiplying. | 2022-06-09T16:42:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Browns’ Deshaun Watson mess is a moral failure and a football mistake - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/09/deshaun-watson-allegations-cleveland-browns-contract/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/09/deshaun-watson-allegations-cleveland-browns-contract/ |
D.C. chiropractor being sued in officer’s assault is charged in Jan. 6 riot
Authorities say this screenshot of police body-camera footage marked up by investigators shows David Walls-Kaufman inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (U.S. Attorney's Office for D.C.)
A D.C. chiropractor with an office on Capitol Hill has been arrested and accused of participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot — but not of assault on law enforcement, as the widow of a D.C. police officer has claimed in a lawsuit.
David Walls-Kaufman, 65, was arrested Wednesday evening in Crofton, Md., and accused of trespassing and disorderly conduct. In court documents, an FBI agent said Walls-Kaufman was identified through a lawsuit filed by Erin Smith, the wife of D.C. Police Officer Jeffrey Smith, whose suicide nine days after the riot was ruled a line-of-duty death.
The criminal complaint says Walls-Kaufman “engaged in a scuffle with Law Enforcement Officers” inside the Capitol but says nothing about an assault outside the building, where Smith was hit with a heavy metal object.
The civil suit, which is pending, says online sleuths identified Walls-Kaufman and another man as Smith’s attackers last year. The criminal complaint filed Thursday references those sleuths, though it does not mention Smith’s name.
According to the lawsuit, Walls-Kaufman hit Smith with the officer’s baton while Smith’s face was exposed and vulnerable. The initial lawsuit described the object used to assault Smith as a heavy cane or crowbar; it has recently been amended to include photos from Smith’s body camera, which the suit says shows the officer being hit with his own baton.
Through an attorney, Walls-Kaufman responded to the suit by saying he “specifically denies assaulting Officer Smith.” The attorney did not return requests for comment on Walls-Kaufman’s arrest. The other man identified in the lawsuit has not been charged with a crime.
Smith’s family said he suffered an undiagnosed traumatic brain injury, leading him to take his own life. According to the court record for the lawsuit, he lost consciousness during the riot and suffered severe pain in its wake. A man with no past mental health issues now couldn’t focus or sleep, according to his attorney and wife; he killed himself the day he was due to return to work.
In March, the D.C. Police and Firefighters Retirement and Relief Board granted Smith’s wife a full pension, ruling his injury on Jan. 6 the “sole and direct cause of his death.” The ruling came after months of advocacy by Erin Smith and members of Congress.
David P. Weber, who represents Erin Smith, said the widow “thanks the Department of Justice for this initial first step.” Weber said Smith “awaits word” on whether charges will be filed against a second man identified in the civil suit who Weber alleges also assaulted the officer, as well as a third man who has not been identified and is seen in pictures swinging a metal pipe.
The attorney said Erin Smith “understands and respects the complexity in charging decisions, and is hopeful that further charges will be announced.”
Weber said Smith intends to attend Thursday night’s House committee meeting on the Jan. 6 attack and is in discussion with congressional staff about testifying at a future hearing.
Devlin Barrett and Clarence Williams contributed to this report. | 2022-06-09T17:08:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Capitol Hill chiropractor David Walls-Kaufman charged in Jan. 6 riot - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/09/kaufman-chiropractor-riot-jan6/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/09/kaufman-chiropractor-riot-jan6/ |
Tip for political candidates: You should not praise Adolf Hitler
Carl Paladino speaks to members of the media at Trump Tower in New York in 2016. (Andrew Harnik/AP)
There is a well-known-in-Internet-circles joke from a Twitter user known as “wint.”
“[I]ssuing correction on a previous post of mine, regarding the terror group ISIL,” it reads. “you do not, under any circumstances, ‘gotta hand it to them’ ”
That combination of flippant praise for a bunch of murderers with the belated acknowledgment of the mistake — and the underrated formality of issuing a “correction” — fits any number of exchanges on speak-first-think-later social media platforms.
But it can also apply to other formats. Like radio talk-show interviews.
In February 2021, businessman Carl Paladino appeared on such a program. Paladino has long been an ally of Donald Trump’s and is a well-known name in New York business and politics. He recently announced his candidacy for New York’s 23rd Congressional District, quickly earning the endorsement of House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.).
But 16 months ago, he was just Carl Paladino, a guy who called in to local Buffalo radio shows. And who, without prompting, offered praise for Adolf Hitler.
At the time, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo was under fire, facing allegations of inappropriate conduct that would lead to his resignation. Paladino was asked how to get the public engaged in advocating for change.
“I was thinking the other day about somebody had mentioned on the radio Adolf Hitler and how he aroused the crowds,” Paladino said, according to audio unearthed by Media Matters. “And he would get up there screaming these epithets, and these people were just — they were hypnotized by him. That’s, I guess, I guess that’s the kind of leader we need today. We need somebody inspirational.”
He added that the state needed a “doer,” although it’s not clear whether he was suggesting that Hitler was a “doer.” But, of course, noting Hitler’s oratorical skills — and his use of epithets! — as positive is sufficiently cringeworthy on its own.
A request for a response from the Paladino campaign was not received by the time of publication. Paladino did tweet this, however, soon after the Media Matters report was published.
Proud to be ENDORSED by the Jewish Vote GOP for my run for Congress in New York's 23rd Congressional District! #NY23
Together we will SAVE AMERICA. 🇺🇸🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/gTU89YT7ST
This is not Paladino’s first demonstrated example of saying things that might prompt a sheepish response. In 2016, shortly after Trump won the presidency, Paladino accidentally sent a Buffalo publication a comment about then-first lady Michelle Obama that he claimed he had meant to send only to friends.
“I’d like her to return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe,” he wrote, “where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla.”
“I filled out the survey to send to a couple friends and forwarded it to them not realizing that I didn’t hit ‘forward,’ I hit ‘reply,' ” Paladino said at the time. “All men make mistakes.”
Again, Paladino was not a candidate at the time of his interview in February 2021. But he had been a candidate for governor in 2010 (losing handily to Democrat Cuomo) and was still involved in Republican politics. He was a member of the Buffalo school board … until soon after the Michelle Obama incident. The standard for Americans generally is to be cautious about how and when one might praise Hitler, should you for some reason feel an urge to do so. For a well-known businessman and politician, the standard is far higher.
It’s hard to disentangle Paladino’s comment about Hitler’s appeal from his support for Trump and the drift of his party. Trump rose to prominence within the GOP specifically because of his ability to rile up audiences — often using epithets that reflected the anger of the far right. In 2017, more than 4 in 10 Republicans expressed support for a system of government predicated on a strong leader unencumbered by legislative constraints, which is to say favoring an autocrat or dictator who held power in the same manner as Hitler. Paladino didn’t express support for Hitler’s policies or for Nazi Germany’s political system, but he did note with approval Hitler’s willingness to inflame his audiences. To what end?
I would not have thought this needed to be said, but apparently it does. There are not many people in human history for whom there’s no benefit in pointing out positive qualities, but the man who orchestrated the mass murder of millions of predominantly Jewish Europeans is one of them. The guy who triggered a global conflict between freedom and fascism at a cost of hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers is not someone that it’s valuable to treat as having some useful skills. There are other people who did a better job of energizing populations than a man who also tried to murder a lot of that same population.
In other words, politicians, I would say this: You do not, under any circumstances, have to praise Adolf Hitler’s ability to rile up a crowd. | 2022-06-09T17:08:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Tip for political candidates like Carl Paladino: You should not praise Adolf Hitler - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/tip-political-candidates-you-should-not-praise-adolf-hitler/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/tip-political-candidates-you-should-not-praise-adolf-hitler/ |
Republican contender Ryan D. Kelley allegedly waved on mob headed into Capitol, tore inauguration stage scaffolding
Aaron C. Davis
Ryan Kelley, Michigan Gubernatorial candidate speaks to supporters of former president Donald Trump demanding for a forensic audit of the 2020 presidential election in front of the Michigan Capitol in Lansing, Michigan, U.S., Feb. 8, 2022. REUTERS/Emily Elconin (Emily Elconin/Reuters)
Michigan Republican gubernatorial candidate Ryan D. Kelly was arrested Thursday on misdemeanor charges of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, siege of the Capitol, including a count of damaging federal property, the Justice Department announced.
A contender in the state’s crowded Aug. 8 primary, Kelley, 40, of Allendale, Mich., faces four counts punishable by up to a year in prison, including trespassing, disorderly conduct, committing an act of violence against a person or property on restricted grounds, and depredation of federal property, according to charging papers.
An attorney for Kelley could not immediately be reached for comment. Kelley was set to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sally J. Berens of Grand Rapids, Mich., on Thursday afternoon, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for Washington, which is prosecuting Capitol breach cases. His home in Allendale, Mich., was searched by the FBI on Thursday morning.
Kelley is the latest of more than half dozen Republican officeholders, candidate, or local party leaders to be charged in the Capitol breach, with several pleading guilty or being convicted at trial. He was arrested as the House Select Committee investigating the events of Jan. 6 was preparing to hold its first prime-time televised hearings Thursday night.
Kelly, an Allendale Township planning commissioner, launched his run for governor after calling the Jan. 6 Capitol riot an “energizing event.” Scores of police officers were injured in the riot, which was carried out by supporters of then-President Donald Trump who embraced false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Five people died in the attack or its immediate aftermath.
Kelley has been identified in videos charging up a key stairway leading to the first Capitol building entrance that was breached after bypassing police barricades setting off restricted areas, allegations cited in charging papers. Kelley has denied entering the Capitol building itself.
Charging papers allege that Kelley waved a crowd up the stairway, and supported another rioter who pulled a metal barricade onto scaffolding that was holding up the stage for President Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration. Kelley “at approximately 2:05 p.m., used his hands to pull a covering off” the inauguration scaffolding, and “continued to gesture to the crowd, consistently indicating that they should move toward the stairs that led to the entrance of the U.S. Capitol interior spaces,” the charging papers state.
In a March 2021 interview with MLive, Kelley said: “I think that event was definitely an energizing event, right? ... It will live on in history, absolutely. For a lot of different things.”
“As far as going through any barricades, or doing anything like that, I never took part in any forceful anything,” the Michigan news outlet quoted Kelley as saying. “Once things started getting crazy, I left.”
Kelley’s arrest further upends the Michigan GOP’s August 2 gubernatorial primary, which was already in turmoil after five of 10 candidates were disqualified last month because of invalid signatures on their nominating petitions.
Two of those candidates had been considered leading candidates for the nomination, including former Detroit police chief James Craig and businessman Perry Johnson. Michigan courts have so far rejected all of the candidates’ legal challenges to appear on the ballot, but the candidates have vowed to take their cases to the Michigan Supreme Court.
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In addition to Kelley, the remaining GOP gubernatorial candidates are business executive Tudor Dixon, pastor Ralph Rebandt, former automobile dealer Kevin Rinke and chiropractor Garrett Soldano.
The family of former education secretary Betsy DeVos endorsed Dixon last week. The Republican nominee will face Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), who is seeking another term.
Kelley has tied himself closely to Trump, joining the former president on stage at a fundraiser at Mar a Lago in March. The following month, Kelley filed as a candidate for governor, framing his campaign as focused on election integrity following what he said was distrust of the 2020 Michigan election result.
Kelley was considered a fringe candidate, but he has emerged atop polls of the remaining candidates in the race. He continues to focus on alleged election fraud.
“So many people around the state from all areas of the state are not happy with how the 2020 election turned out,” Kelley has said, vowig to nullify the state’s voting machine contracts on his first day in office. “There are so many questions here that we need to get rid of these machines,” Kelley said.
President Biden won Michigan by about 155,000 votes out of nearly 5.5 million cast. The Detroit News has cataloged that more than 200 audits, court rulings and an investigation by a Republican-controlled state senate committee have upheld the state’s election result.
At a meeting with prospective 2022 poll watchers in January, before he announced his gubernatorial candidacy. Kelley encouraged a crowd to unplug voting machines on election day if they suspect fraud.
“If you see something you don’t like happening with the machines, and you see something going on, unplug it from the wall,” Kelley said. At the same event, another Republican candidate urged the crowd to bring guns to polling places. “Lock and load” when you come to vote, said Mike Detmer, a state Senate candidate. The remarks were captured on video that was circulated widely on social media.
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A real estate agent, Kelley made a name for himself in politics in 2020 as an outspoken critic of Whitmer’s decision to lock down the state to prevent the spread of covid-19. He was a lead organizer and public face at protests outside the Capitol. Several people later arrested in a plot to kidnap Whitmer attended those protests, including two that had been hired to provide security as Kelley and others spoke. Two of the men charged in the plot were acquitted at trial; the jury deadlocked on charges against the other two.
After the speeches ended at one anti-lockdown protest, Kelley was among members of the crowd that filed into the Capitol and banged on the door of the legislative chamber. Many chanted “Let us in!” and “Lock her up!”
Kelley has circulated a campaign flyer touting his endorsement by one of the state’s biggest militias, the Michigan Three Percent.
“When asked how he will compromise with the opposition, what was Ryan D. Kelley’s response? ‘I won’t,’” the endorsement read, calling Kelley a man of integrity, including for demanding forensic audits of the 2020 election.
At least seven people who attended the pro-Trump rally at the White House Ellipse that preceded the Capitol attack were elected to public office in November 2021. Dozens more who came to Washington for related events are reportedly seeking state or federal office this year, many with Trump’s endorsement.
What the Jan. 6 committee wants to know from members of Congress | 2022-06-09T17:13:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ryan Kelley, Michigan candidate for governor, arrested on Jan. 6 charges - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/09/ryan-kelley-arrested-michigan-jan-6/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/09/ryan-kelley-arrested-michigan-jan-6/ |
Pills laced with fentanyl. (U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration/AP) (AP)
“Make sure he’s got fentanyl test strips,” not one, but two friends told me. “Just in case.”
If we can get over the fear of another mass shooter unleashing his untreated fury onto a classroom of kids, there’s a far more efficient and common killer picking off America’s youths — fentanyl.
And we’re not only talking about the kind found in heroin and cocaine. Today’s lethal fentanyl doses are tucked into the staples of the college drug scene, the stuff that even the square kids may dabble in — weed and pills (even pain pills and study pills).
“Fentanyl is killing Americans at an unprecedented rate,” the Drug Enforcement Administration’s top enforcer, Anne Milgram, said in an April letter from the agency. “Drug traffickers are driving addiction, and increasing their profits, by mixing fentanyl with other illicit drugs. Tragically, many overdose victims have no idea they are ingesting deadly fentanyl, until it’s too late.”
This was sent after mass overdoses occurred in at least seven American cities this spring. There were at least 58 overdoses and 29 deaths — 10 of them in D.C. — when bad batches were also dropped in Florida, Texas, Colorado, Missouri and Nebraska neighborhoods.
Ten opioid overdoses in a matter of hours
Too many dealers think adding a dash of fentanyl to their schwag weed might make their product more addictive, and therefore more popular. The problem with that, of course, is that your average slinger isn’t a scientist. And the DEA says a dose of fentanyl that weighs just two milligrams — as much as a mosquito — is enough to kill.
Try trusting the corner plug known as Mad Hatter to get those measurements right.
The numbers in the adolescent population are horrifying. There were 518 overdoses among kids ages 14 to 18 in 2010, a level that held fairly steady for a decade. It jumped to 945 in 2020 and 1,146 last year — an increase of more than 120 percent from 2010, according to a research letter in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.
This is happening while drug use among teens has actually decreased slightly. It’s just a deadlier game now.
And so we have fentanyl test strips, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said are the best way to stay safe — short of abstinence.
It’s the world of free condoms and needle exchange programs. If you’re going to engage in risky behavior, at least be as safe as possible about it. A leap of faith that makes everyone queasy, even as the world around us embraces harm reduction and policymakers increasingly view drug use as a public health issue.
Slowly, jurisdictions are declassifying the test strips as “drug paraphernalia” so that more folks will be comfortable giving and having them.
Because letting go of the naive assumption that “MY kids wouldn’t do that” (trust me, they’ve been in my house and my car and I read their texts with my kids — they’re doing it) is especially important when it comes to the demon spawn that is fentanyl.
It’s showing up in pot and in fake pills being sold on Snapchat. It’s in cities and suburbs, on campuses and in clubs.
That’s how Abdallah Amer Ali, 21, sold a lethal pill to a 16-year-old in Harrisonburg, Va., according to the Department of Justice.
“With overdose deaths on a rampant rise across the country, we often focus on numbers, but today’s announcement is an important reminder that these numbers are much more than that — these are our children, loved ones, and our friends,” Special Agent in Charge Jarod Forget said, in the announcement of Ali’s guilty plea on Monday.
“Counterfeit pills containing fentanyl are a huge problem, affecting every culture, race, and age in our local communities,” Forget said. “It only takes one pill to kill.”
In April, two teens in Prince William County — 14 and 15 years old — died after taking fake Percocets marketed as Perc30s and tainted with fentanyl, according to police.
And in January, 16-year-old Makayla Cherie Cox, a popular cheerleader and gymnast at Ocean Lakes High School in Virginia Beach, died after taking a blue pill that had a trace of fentanyl.
We’ll talk about drugs and we’ll encourage abstinence. But my husband and I both went to college; we’re not clueless. Our children are a generation grossly failed by adults who grew up without the worry that their classrooms, grocery stores, concerts or movie theaters would become slaughterhouses and that the joint being passed around the college party isn’t laced with a synthetic substance that could kill them.
So I’m going to buy the test strips and tuck them in with a fresh pack of his favorite socks, in the hope that his generation will do better for the future than ours did for theirs. | 2022-06-09T17:17:23Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Teen drug use has dipped, but fentanyl overdoses are rising - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/09/fentanyl-strips-teens-college-overdose/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/09/fentanyl-strips-teens-college-overdose/ |
Thailand legalizes marijuana — with gray areas and caveats
A man weighs cannabis flowers for a customer at a cannabis cafe in Bangkok. (Diego Azubel/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
Thailand on Thursday made legal the growth and trade of marijuana within set parameters — becoming the first country in Southeast Asia to do so.
Thai Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told CNN that he hopes that the move will help boost the country’s ailing economy, particularly its agricultural sector, which has been hit hard by rising fertilizer costs amid disruptions in the global supply chain.
The country’s tropical climate makes for an ideal place to cultivate the plant — and the government has taken steps to establish it as a cash crop. The health minister said last month that the government would distribute a million free cannabis plants, to jump-start the sector.
Mexico’s top court rolls back marijuana prohibition, opening door to legalization
Although Thailand legalized the use of medical marijuana in 2018, Anutin warns that those who are caught using the drug in “nonproductive ways,” such as smoking joints outside, will still be met with harsh penalties, and could face up to three months behind bars and a fine of some $780. Officials said they were not looking to cultivate marijuana-fueled tourism.
“We [have always] emphasized using cannabis extractions and raw materials for medical purposes and for health,” Anutin told CNN. “There has never once been a moment that we would think about advocating people to use cannabis in terms of recreation — or use it in a way that it could irritate others.”
While that might be the official line, the changes in practice are likely to create substantial gray areas. A Health Ministry official told Reuters that nearly 100,000 people had already registered, on a government app called PlookGanja, to grow marijuana legally. Inclination appears limited to actively monitor what people are growing and smoking for their own use, the Associate Press reported.
The Thai Food and Drug Administration has removed marijuana and hemp from its Category 5 narcotics list, allowing cafes and restaurants across the country to serve cannabis-infused products, with no more than 0.2 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the plant’s main psychoactive compound.
According to the Thai Industrial Hemp Trade Association, the market value of marijuana-related businesses is estimated at more than $1 billion, and is expected to nearly double by 2024. The Global Cannabis Report, a trade publication, says the legal marijuana market is currently worth $100 billion worldwide.
Uruguay and Canada are the only two countries that have fully legalized the recreational use of marijuana. As of 2018, possession and consumption of cannabis were legalized in Georgia. Most recently, in late 2021, Malta became the first European Union country to legalize recreational cannabis for personal use. A Supreme Court ruling in Mexico last year could open the door to legalization there.
But some places have moved in the opposite direction. This week, Hong Kong’s government announced plans to criminalize the manufacture, import, export, sale and possession of products contains CBD,, a chemical extracted from cannabis that does not induce a high, marketed to address anxiety and sleeplessness. | 2022-06-09T17:32:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Thailand legalizes marijuana — with gray areas and caveats - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/09/thailand-legal-marijuana-cannabis-decriminalized/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/09/thailand-legal-marijuana-cannabis-decriminalized/ |
The riot is not the point
Tear gas is released into a crowd of protesters during clashes with Capitol police at a rally to contest the certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election results at the U.S. Capitol Building, Jan. 6, 2021. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)
The shorthand for the House select committee that will hold its first prime-time hearing on Thursday is that it was established to investigate the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. That’s true; it was.
But that was not its sole mandate. Instead, the committee was formed (according to the verbiage of the resolution that created it) to “investigate and report upon the facts, circumstances, and causes relating to the January 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol Complex ... and relating to the interference with the peaceful transfer of power." That included consideration of “the influencing factors that fomented such an attack on American representative democracy while engaged in a constitutional process.”
The committee’s task, then, is both to understand what happened at the Capitol that day and how it happened, writ broadly. It is to probe the riot as a health inspector might a murder: figuring out what happened at the scene but also the motives and methods that led to the crime.
And while understanding the failures that allowed the Capitol to be breached and the riot to occur is important, it is as or more important to understand the struggle that led to it. The riot was simply the culmination of a lengthy process aimed at subverting the election results, the most stark manifestation of the push to keep President Donald Trump in power.
We need to learn why Capitol police were overwhelmed. But we need more urgently to understand how Trump and his allies sought to steal the election and how to counteract a national misinformation effort that even today has millions of people seeing Trump as the rightful winner of the 2020 election. We need to know not only where the weak points in the Capitol were but where the weak points are in our democracy.
This is not only within the committee’s scope but it follows a prominent precedent. The 9/11 Commission explained how the 2001 terror attacks in New York and Washington unfolded — but also, at length, the rise of al-Qaeda and how Osama bin Laden came to power and developed his plan for the attack. It was an exploration of the acute moment that arrived on Sept. 11 of that year but also of the underlying systems that failed to interrupt what bin Laden hoped to accomplish. It recognized the attack not only for what it was but as a point where extremism, global politics and our national defenses intersected.
It’s obvious why the response to the committee’s work has included criticisms about the specifics of what’s being examined. Calls for an examination of how House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) purportedly failed to ensure that the Capitol was safe are in part an effort to shift blame for the attack from Trump to Pelosi and in part to more explicitly focus any examination on the very tight bounds of Capitol Hill from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. on that day. If those six hours in that place are the near-exclusive mandate of the committee, it definitionally leaves Trump out of consideration.
We know that the committee’s work is broader than that. We know it’s been probing the effort to appoint duplicate slates of electors in swing states. We know that it has subpoenaed people involved in Trump’s aborted effort to overhaul the Justice Department to bolster his false claims of rampant fraud. We know that others who faced pressure to accede to Trump’s effort to steal the election, like Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger (R), might offer public testimony. None of these things led to the riot; instead, each sits alongside it, paths that Trump hoped would lead to a second term in office but which truncated before he reached that destination.
This is important. It is important for there to be a review of everything that happened after polls closed on Nov. 3, 2020 (and, really, in the months prior where Trump was already planting seeds of skepticism). It’s why people like Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) treat the committee’s work seriously. Cheney was not hostile to Trump, voting for him in 2020 even as he obviously prepared to challenge the results. Now she helps lead the commission’s efforts specifically because she thinks it is important. Her isolation from the rest of the Republican Party followed her willingness to treat the investigation of Trump’s efforts seriously. She did not join the committee because Republicans were undermining her; they’re undermining her because she joined the committee.
One of the most insightful comments to emerge on Jan. 6, 2021 came from The Atlantic’s David Graham.
“Remember what today was like,” he wrote. “Someone might try to convince you it was different very soon.”
The committee hopes to revive that sense of despair, fear and anger, the one that others have been happy to see ebb. It will probably present new facets of the Capitol riot that spur some of the same visceral reaction Americans felt then across party lines. It clearly hopes to then transition that anger and frustration to the broader effort of which the riot was simply one endpoint.
The riot was the deadliest, largest, most visible, most alarming, most unnerving part of Trump’s effort to steal the election. But it was only part of it. | 2022-06-09T17:34:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The House committee's focus on the Capitol riot is the hook, not the point - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/riot-is-not-point/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/riot-is-not-point/ |
Charging decision for officer who killed Patrick Lyoya is imminent
By Sam Easter
A television display shows video evidence of a Grand Rapids, Mich., police officer struggling with and shooting Patrick Lyoya on April 4, after what police said was a traffic stop. (Grand Rapids Police Department) (AP)
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A prosecutor is expected to announce Thursday whether a Michigan police officer will face charges for killing Patrick Lyoya, an unarmed Black man who was on the ground when he was shot in the back of the head after a traffic stop in April.
Kent County prosecutor Christopher Becker said he would disclose his “charging decision” at a Thursday news conference at 3 p.m. Eastern time in Grand Rapids. Becker did not hint whether charges would be brought against Grand Rapids Officer Christopher Schurr, who was placed on administrative leave after he killed Lyoya, a 26-year-old refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, on April 4.
Attorney Ven Johnson, who is representing the Lyoya family, told WXMI that Michigan State Police called Lyoya’s father to inform him of the announcement.
Lyoya’s parents have demanded justice for a death they say amounted to an execution, calling for Schurr to be fired and charged after their son was “killed like an animal.” The family’s attorneys said the man’s killing represented “another senseless killing of a Black person in America by the very people who were supposed to protect them.” The city’s police chief described the incident as a “tragedy,” but stopped short of condemning Schurr, who has been with the force since 2015, until the investigation concluded.
Family of man shot by Michigan police say son was ‘killed like an animal’
Days after Lyoya’s death, the Grand Rapids Police Department released four videos that showed the incident from various vantage points — including from the passenger riding with Lyoya and the officer’s body camera, which turned off as the men struggled and did not capture the shooting.
The footage shows Schurr, who is White, pulling Lyoya’s sedan over just after 8 a.m. on a leafy neighborhood street and telling him his license plate did not match the car.
After Schurr, 31, asked him for his license, Lyoya stepped out of the vehicle, looking confused.
“What did I do wrong?” Lyoya asked, according to video.
After a brief exchange over whether Lyoya had a license, Schurr grabbed the man, which caused the 26-year-old to run, according to video. Schurr yelled, “Stop!” as the chase unfolded. Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom said the two engaged in a struggle across a front lawn in the neighborhood, and Lyoya appeared to grab the officer’s Taser. While Lyoya was facedown on the grass, the officer told him to drop the Taser.
“Let go of the Taser,” Schurr yelled at Lyoya.
Within seconds, Schurr fired his service revolver. Police officials confirmed Lyoya was shot in the head.
The Grand Rapids Police Department released video from April 4 that showed a police officer shooting Patrick Lyoya, a 26-year-old Black man. (Video: The Washington Post)
An autopsy by the Kent County Chief Medical Examiner confirmed that Lyoya died of the gunshot wound, and that the man’s blood alcohol level was .29, more than three times the state legal limit to operate a car.
Family members said the video showed Lyoya was not posing a threat when he was killed. They described it as difficult to watch, with Lyoya’s brother Thomas calling it “the most horrifying thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Schurr had been repeatedly commended by the Grand Rapids Police Department for his ability to chase suspects down on foot, according to records released by city officials after the shooting. Schurr was also cited twice for minor issues, such as damaging a police car, but did not face discipline, according to the Detroit Free Press.
A 2014 article about Schurr as a record-setting college pole vaulter noted that he planned to marry his high school sweetheart in Africa. A photo in a New York Times profile shows the pair surrounded by Kenyans during their wedding, which took place during a mission trip to the village of Kawiti.
Police identify officer who killed Congolese refugee in Michigan
The shooting and the release of the videos inflamed tensions between the police department and Black residents of Grand Rapids, a city of about 200,000 that was once a hub for furniture manufacturers and is now home to a burgeoning medical sector. The police department has been accused of racial bias, and several recent incidents have sparked widespread anger, including two 2017 cases in which officers drew guns on Black youths between the ages of 12 and 14 and handcuffed an 11-year-old girl.
The Lyoya family had come a long way in search of stability. After fleeing violence in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, they spent more than a decade in a refugee camp in Malawi. In 2014, they won entry to the United States and landed in western Michigan, where Peter and Dorcas Lyoya worked odd jobs and shared a modest apartment with their six children.
For Patrick Lyoya, the American Dream became the American nightmare
Patrick, the couple’s oldest son, had a full-time job as a factory worker at a vehicle manufacturing plant in Grand Rapids. While he had sometimes struggled to find his way after arriving in the United States, he had big goals for himself — like buying a house for his mother.
“His biggest dream was to be able to purchase a home for his mom or build a home for his mom so she could be able to say, ‘My son, I brought you to America and now — ’ ” Patient Baraka, a fellow Congolese refugee and family friend, told The Washington Post last month. “And that’s why they are so broken. Because he represented hope for them.”
Lyoya’s parents have spoken of their shock at losing their son to an American police officer.
“When we came here to the U.S., we knew that we [ran] away from war and violence, and we came here to America, to a safe haven,” Peter Lyoya said through an interpreter at his home. “What is so surprising and astonishing is that I lost my son here, in America.”
There were calls for change at Lyoya’s funeral, along with pleas that his death not be in vain. He was eulogized by the Rev. Al Sharpton, called an American of great distinction by Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.) and mourned by a crowd of more than 1,500 whose members were often on their feet, some with fists raised.
“This is not just an issue that affects Grand Rapids,” civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents the family, said at the time. “This is not just an issue that affects the state of Michigan. This is an issue that affects all humanity. Because Patrick was a human being, and Patrick’s life mattered.” | 2022-06-09T17:43:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | After Patrick Lyoya's killing, charging decision for Michigan officer Christopher Schurr is coming - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/09/patrick-lyoya-killing-michigan-schurr-police/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/09/patrick-lyoya-killing-michigan-schurr-police/ |
How Canada’s government is moving ahead on gun reform — while the U.S. stalls
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a news conference in Ottawa last week. (David Kawai/Bloomberg)
Gun violence in the United States is beyond catastrophic. According to the Pew Research Center, “45,222 people died from gun-related injuries in the U.S.” in 2020 — and the violence is not abating. Recent high-profile massacres in Buffalo and Uvalde, Tex., have focused national and international attention on the issue once more, but Congress is unwilling to root out the problem.
In Canada, it’s a different story.
After the Uvalde and Buffalo shootings — but not because of them — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government announced firearm-control legislation. Bill C-21 includes a suite of measures to regulate and limit guns in the country. Central to that plan is a freeze on buying, selling or transferring handguns. But that’s not all. On top of the current assault rifle ban and prohibition on owning “assault-style weapons,” the proposed changes would limit magazine capacity, remove gun licenses from domestic abusers, ban the sale of certain toy guys that look like the real thing, and create red- and yellow-flag laws to remove firearms from those who might be a risk to themselves or others. The legislation also would boost penalties for gun crimes and increase police officers’ ability to deal with weapons-trafficking and gun violence.
Gun crime in Canada is up, and so is gun ownership. As Statistics Canada reports, “After a gradual decrease between 2009 and 2013, the rate of firearm-related homicides has increased since 2013, with a single decline in 2018.” The group also notes that firearm-related violent crime accounts “for just 2.8% of all victims of violent crime reported by police in 2020”; 277 victims of homicide were killed with firearms or firearm-like weapons that year. Far more gun deaths in the country come from suicide.
Yet Bill C-21 is not a knee-jerk reaction to U.S. shootings, nor did it emerge from the ether. In 2020, Trudeau banned “assault-style” weapons after the deadliest mass shooting in the country’s history took place in Nova Scotia. The government tried to pass stricter gun-control legislation in the last Parliament, but the bill “died on the order paper” when the country went into an election at Trudeau’s request. The Liberals campaigned on the issue. They have been slow to get the job done but they haven’t hidden their intentions.
Critics of the legislation say parts of the law, such as the handgun freeze, will do nothing to keep Canadians safer while targeting law-abiding gun owners — what they see as politics in the typical Liberal style. The government’s rationale is that limiting the supply of guns will limit the number of potential vectors of violence. Over time, combined measures will reduce guns in the country and thus reduce gun crime and self-harm, assuming the measures work.
The logic seems sound, but is it specious? A 2020 study of gun-control legislation in the country from 1981 to 2016 suggests measures were ineffective. Perhaps new measures will be more successful. But that depends in part on whether Canada can deal with the illegal firearms trafficked into the country from the United States. That’s a big if.
Columnist Sandy Garossino makes a good case that better is indeed possible. And sometimes you need to take the evidence and try something, then adjust as you go. The government should be honest about what it’s trying to do, and what the limitations and trade-offs to its approach might be. Yes, the new law also targets legal gun owners and limits their privileges. (Gun ownership isn’t a constitutional right in Canada as it is in the United States.) Yes, the rollout is full of the typical politics of bravado, certainty and superiority that mark contemporary democratic discourse. Yes, we ought to be critical of over-policing and assuming problems can be dealt with by harsher sentences. Yes, the measures might fail. But some might succeed.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told me Tuesday, “We are at a critical juncture; we cannot afford to be complacent.” Complacency leads to inaction, he noted, and inaction generates its own violence, indifference and inequity. He’s right, but the bill will be well served by heavy scrutiny and a government open to amendments from the opposition.
The bill will likely pass. The Conservatives might stall the bill — they’ve already tried by way of filibuster — but it should get done. The government has time and stability thanks to support in the House of Commons from the New Democratic Party, whose members will likely support much in C-21. Mendocino says the government has support from survivors of gun violence, police, municipalities and, he expects, Canadians more broadly. On top of it all, the government has the benefit of a country that isn’t obsessed with gun culture and has a far weaker gun lobby than the United States does.
However, if the Liberals truly want to tackle long-term gun violence and deaths, they ought to be open to amendments. In the face of new evidence and a changing national and international landscape, they must keep a close eye on how they can do better. | 2022-06-09T18:31:23Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | How Canada’s government is moving ahead on gun reform — while the U.S. stalls - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/canada-gun-control-firearm-legislation-trudeau-liberals/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/canada-gun-control-firearm-legislation-trudeau-liberals/ |
My attacker has been jailed. But who was pulling the strings?
By Pavin Chachavalpongpun
Self-exiled Thai academic Pavin Chachavalpongpun addresses protesters during a pro-democracy rally in Pathum Thani, north of Bangkok, on Aug. 10, 2020. (Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP via Getty Images)
Pavin Chachavalpongpun is associate professor at Kyoto University’s Center for Southeast Asian Studies.
In July 2019, an assailant broke into my apartment in Kyoto, Japan, and attacked me with a chemical spray. The Japanese police launched an investigation into the crime, and this week my attacker was finally sentenced to a 20-month prison term by a Japanese court.
I’ve spent the past three years in a state of nagging uncertainty, marked by moments of gnawing fear and many sleepless nights. So it’s good to see a measure of justice achieved. But the trial of my attacker has left some crucial questions unanswered. The most important one is this: Was someone else pulling the strings?
The culprit, a 43-year-old Japanese man named Tatsuhiko Sato, admitted his guilt — but he was vague on the rest, claiming only that he was persuaded to commit the crime by an unnamed senpai (“senior colleague”). Beyond that, he has declined to reveal that person’s name. Despite his silence, I remain suspicious that the attack was orchestrated in Thailand, perhaps by the Thai palace itself.
This belief is not groundless. I am a well-known critic of the monarchy, and both I and my family have paid for that status with a variety of threats and harassment over the years. (Not long after the Kyoto attack, to name but one example, I was stalked by someone who published pictures of me online — a clear attempt to intimidate me.)
The attack in Kyoto also fits a wider pattern of transnational repression against critics of the monarchy in recent years. Since 2016, a number of Thai dissidents have been abducted and killed in Cambodia and Laos. In the aftermath of the 2014 military coup in our homeland, they fled Thailand and settled in neighboring countries, where they began to criticize the monarchy for its intervention in politics.
The most recent case, in June 2020, involved the disappearance of a young Thai activist, Wanchalearm Satsaksit, who was living in exile in Cambodia. He was abducted in broad daylight in front of his Phnom Penh apartment and was never seen again. In fact, his abduction helped to fuel nationwide protests against the monarchy in 2020; many of those demonstrating accused the royal family of involvement in Wanchalearm’s kidnapping. Last week, Thai activists commemorated the second anniversary of the abduction in Bangkok, using the occasion to demand truth from the government.
Six months after the attack on me in Kyoto, a similar incident took place in Paris. A transgender refugee from Thailand, known by the name Aum Neko, was assaulted as she was walked out of a restaurant. The French police arrested two Czech nationals, who also had been hired by someone to attack her. Aum Neko, like me, is a harsh critic of the Thai monarchy. She also ran away from Thailand after the coup, settling briefly in Cambodia before ending up in France, where she has now received full refugee status.
Transnational repression is not a new phenomenon. Authoritarian regimes around the world have long resorted to this tactic to eliminate and intimidate their enemies overseas even if it means blatantly violating the sovereignty of the host countries. Perhaps the best-known case is the 2018 murder of the Saudi journalist (and Post contributing columnist) Jamal Khashoggi in his country’s consulate in Istanbul. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been accused of masterminding the assassination. Khashoggi had long criticized the Saudi royal family in his writings.
Freedom House reports that since 2014, 36 states have employed physical transnational repression in 84 host countries. Thailand’s role stands out. As a host country, Bangkok has cooperated with China, Cambodia and Vietnam in deporting foreign dissidents to their home country to face prosecution.
In December 2021, I had a chance to discuss this issue with representatives of the State Department. They acknowledged the imminent threat to critics of the Thai monarchy around the world. But while the officials expressed sympathy with me and other Thai refugees, they signaled little interest in intervening on our behalf, citing the relationship between the United States and Thailand, which have long been close allies.
As a powerless refugee vulnerable to harassment from the Thai royal regime, I call upon global stakeholders to address the problem of transnational repression seriously. I call upon host countries to put in place necessary measures to combat transnational repression by improving security, migration and foreign policy, especially in the form of targeted sanctions to raise the cost of the crimes. I call upon international civil society organizations to develop programs for individuals affected by transnational repression, including social, psychological, legal and immigration support.
And I call upon the United Nations to play a more active role by working closely with like-minded governments to establish norms and develop multilateral responses, reviewing protections offered to refugees and dissidents as well as establishing a special rapporteur for transnational repression.
The ordeal resulting from the attack in Kyoto has not ended. The Japanese police continue to investigate the case. But this story isn’t only about me. It’s also about the safety of all refugees and exiles calling for change back in their homelands. | 2022-06-09T18:31:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | My attacker has been jailed. But who was pulling the strings? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/pavin-chachavalpongpun-japan-attacker-trial-thailand-monarchy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/pavin-chachavalpongpun-japan-attacker-trial-thailand-monarchy/ |
Conservatives, your radical legal revolution will not go unchallenged
Judge Amy Coney Barrett is sworn in as the 115th justice to the Supreme Court by Justice Clarence Thomas. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
Things are tense at the Supreme Court, and no one is more unhappy about it than the court’s conservatives. As NPR reports: “The atmosphere behind the scenes is so ugly that, as one source put it, ‘the place sounds like it’s imploding.’”
Inside, an investigation into the leak of a draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade is treating the justices’ clerks like criminal suspects. Outside, the justices are terribly disappointed with the way their institution has been dragged against its will into the muddy world of politics.
Can’t we all just let them be so they can have their cake and eat it too?
That’s what they’re asking for, and it’s what Republicans desperately want as well.
In the coming weeks, the court will hand down a series of potentially transformative, intensely political decisions, driven not by some incontrovertible and objective reading of the Constitution but by their own equally intense ideology and policy preferences. The political effects will be — and should be — enormous.
When that happens, the court’s conservatives and their Republican defenders will act aggrieved and outraged. How dare we cast aspersions on these noble jurists, who want nothing more than to channel the infinite wisdom of the Framers!
Not only do they merely want to enact their right-wing legal revolution, which is almost unstoppable at this point; they also want us to thank them for it, refrain from ever questioning their motives and excuse them from criticism for the consequences of their actions.
The court’s current term is winding down; a couple dozen decisions are coming, most on rather arcane legal issues the general public will take no notice of. But there are at least three potential blockbusters:
Dobbs v. Jackson, the case the court is expected to use to overturn Roe v. Wade.
New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, a case challenging New York state gun laws, which the court could use to severely limit a state’s ability to regulate where people take their guns.
West Virginia v. EPA, a challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate greenhouse gasses.
The outcome of the first two are in little doubt. In the third case, oral arguments were less clear about whether Republicans will get what they want, which is for the court to cripple the government’s ability to combat climate change.
That third case is part of a much larger project that goes beyond environmental regulations. The agenda of many on the right and at least some of the court’s conservatives is nothing less than “dismantling the administrative state,” rendering it difficult to impossible for government to protect the environment, workers, consumers or public health via regulation.
There will be more hugely consequential cases in the next term, and the term after that. With a 6-to-3 advantage, the conservatives can do everything they’ve dreamed of. It took decades to build that supermajority, and you can bet they’re going to use it.
Democrats are at last waking up to what they failed to realize for decades: The Supreme Court is the linchpin of power in America. At any one moment, the party that controls the executive branch has more far-reaching ability to enact change, but over the long term, the Supreme Court stands alone. Once you control it, as the right does now, there’s almost nothing that can’t be accomplished.
You were taught in school that the brilliantly designed system of “checks and balances” keeps the branches of government in perfect equilibrium, none able to impose itself too strongly on the others. But that isn’t really true. The Supreme Court has a unique and easily exercised ability to nullify the actions of the other two branches, an ability the current court is using with gusto.
It strikes down business regulations, campaign finance statutes and anti-discrimination laws. It reaches deep into the details of the actions the other two branches take, saying “You may do this, but not that.”
And what can the other branches do about it? Not a thing. Pretty much the only power they have over the court is to impeach a justice, something that has happened only once, 218 years ago.
Republicans understood this all along; they knew the court could be the vehicle to achieve their policy goals. Only now that Democrats understand it too are Republicans affronted that the court is being “politicized.”
No one is more affronted than Clarence Thomas, the court’s most ideologically radical justice. Like many on the right, even in triumph he is consumed with his own victimhood, complaining about the court being “bullied” and warning that we should refrain from “destroying our institutions” when we don’t get “what we want,” even as his wife was wrapped up in the conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election.
That, Thomas and his allies believe, shouldn’t be discussed. The right-wing takeover of the court isn’t enough for them; they want all the court can deliver, and also for the rest of us to leave them out of our messy political debates so they can carry out their revolution in peace.
Sorry, but no. | 2022-06-09T18:31:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Conservatives' revolution via the Supreme Court will not go unchallenged - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/supreme-court-face-political-consequences/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/supreme-court-face-political-consequences/ |
Paris police chief admits security failure at Champions League final
Didier Lallement spoke during a hearing at the French Senate, describing the chaotic scene that preceded the May 28 Champions League final in Paris. (Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP via Getty Images)
The Paris police chief admitted a “failure” of security operations during the chaotic scene at last month’s Champions League final, adding that he was sorry about tear-gassing “people of good faith” but insisting that officials had no choice but to use the chemical agent on Liverpool supporters outside the gates before the match.
In addition, Didier Lallement told a French Senate commission seeking explanations on Thursday that the number of counterfeit paper tickets for the May 28 game was lower than earlier cited. Previously, French officials had blamed massive ticket fraud for the crush of fans that contributed to the scene.
What happened was “obviously a failure,” Lallement said (via the Associated Press), “because people were being pushed around or assaulted while we owed them safety.” He added that it was “also a failure because our country’s image … was shattered.”
Liverpool fans struggled as they sought to enter the gates at the Stade de France for the May 28 game against Real Madrid and were tear-gassed by police. Kickoff for the game, a 1-0 victory for Real Madrid, was delayed for more than 30 minutes in a scene that raised questions about how the city will cope with fans for the 2023 Rugby World Cup and 2024 Olympics.
Lallement said officials were left with no other option than to use tear gas on fans. “[It] is the only way to make a crowd back down except to charge them, and I think it would have been a serious mistake to charge people,” Lallement said. “I am well aware that people of good faith were gassed, and I am totally sorry for that, but I repeat, there was no other way.”
He added that “we made sure that the game was held and, most importantly, that there were no serious injuries and no deaths.”
UEFA commissions independent report on chaos at Champions League final
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin had been criticized for blaming the crush of people on “massive, industrial-scale” ticket fraud among Liverpool fans, and Lallement earlier estimated the number of those fake paper tickets at 30,000-40,000 for a stadium that holds 75,000. The French Football Federation said 110,000 traveled to the game.
“Perhaps I was wrong,” Lallement said. “Whether there were 40,000, 30,000 or 20,000, it didn’t change the fact that there were tens of thousands of people who could not fit in.”
Florence Hardouin, the FFF director general, said most of the tickets, which were paper rather than digital, were found in the Liverpool sector. The FFF recommended switching solely to the use of digital tickets.
Liverpool Mayor Steve Rotheram disagreed with French authorities, telling the Senate that valid tickets were rejected by scanners that did not work properly and adding that claims of so many counterfeit tickets were “used to scapegoat Liverpool fans.”
He also told the Senate that congestion began at the train station in the Saint-Denis suburb and grew worse as fans approached the stadium.
In addition to fake tickets, French authorities had blamed late-arriving fans for a scene that grew more chaotic when local youths attacked fans as they were pushed back. Later, Liverpool fans said local gangs descended on them after the match, stealing phones and watches and threatening them with knives.
Lallement encouraged fans of both teams to file complaints if they were victims of counterfeit tickets or street crime “so that we can find the guilty parties and prosecute them.”
The Union of European Football Associations, the governing body of the sport in Europe, promised a review and apologized within days of the incident to fans of both teams, saying “no football fan should be put in that situation and it must not happen again.” | 2022-06-09T18:40:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Didier Lallement admits Champions League final security failures - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/09/champions-league-final-paris-police-chief/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/09/champions-league-final-paris-police-chief/ |
Justice Dept. to probe La. police over alleged abuse of Black suspects
Ronald Greene, 49, was beaten, dragged and shocked with a stun gun at the hands of state police in 2019
In this image from the body camera of Louisiana State Police Lt. John Clary, Trooper Kory York stands over Ronald Greene, lying on his stomach, outside of Monroe, La., on May 10, 2019. (Louisiana State Police/AP)
The Justice Department on Thursday opened a sweeping investigation into the Louisiana State Police over allegations that officers used excessive force and engaged in racially discriminatory conduct, including the fatal beating of Ronald Greene, a Black motorist, in 2019.
Officials said the probe will include a comprehensive review of the police agency’s policies, training, supervision and systems of accountability.
The announcement comes amid mounting demands from Black state lawmakers and civil rights activists that the federal government intervene. The FBI has been conducting a criminal civil rights investigation into the circumstances of Greene’s death since 2020.
The Louisiana case marks the Biden administration’s fifth “pattern or practice” probe into local police agencies, following ongoing reviews in Minneapolis, Louisville, Phoenix and Mount Vernon, N.Y., that began last year. In April, Justice officials announced a consent decree settlement with the Springfield, Mass., police after an investigation that began during the Trump administration found a pattern of unconstitutional conduct from the narcotics bureau.
Greene’s case, in particular, has been the focus of mounting public scrutiny. State police reportedly told Greene’s family he died on impact after driving into a tree, and only later acknowledging publicly that he had struggled with officers during the arrest. The state police refused for two years to release officers’ body-camera footage of the incident.
Justice officials said they have informed Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) and other state officials of the investigation, which will be managed by the civil rights division in coordination with U.S. attorneys offices in the state.
Police reform in America
Repeated police misconduct: More than $1.5 billion has been spent to settle claims of police misconduct involving thousands of officers repeatedly accused of wrongdoing. Taxpayers are often in the dark.
Listen: “Broken Doors” is a six-part investigative podcast about how no-knock warrants are deployed in the American justice system — and what happens when accountability is flawed at every level.
Fatal Force: Since 2015, The Washington Post has logged every fatal shooting by an on-duty police officer in the United States. View our police shooting database.
Fired/Rehired: Police departments have had to take back hundreds of officers who were fired for misconduct and then rehired after arbitration.
Read more coverage on policing in America. | 2022-06-09T19:02:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | After Ronald Greene death, Justice Dept. to investigate Louisiana state police - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/09/louisiana-state-police-ronald-greene/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/09/louisiana-state-police-ronald-greene/ |
Television crews and technicians prepare for the Jan. 6 congressional hearings. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
In its ongoing investigation of the attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob, the Jan. 6 congressional committee has interviewed more than 1,000 people and reviewed tens of thousands of pages of documents so far.
Committee members will spend the next month trying to tell the story of what they’ve found so far, in a series of congressional hearings, some in prime-time. To do that, they’ll rely on prerecorded interviews and live, in-person hearings.
Here’s what we know about the testimony on Thursday for the first prime-time hearing, starting at 8 p.m. Eastern:
Each hearing will have a theme. We know that in this first hearing, lawmakers are planning to introduce the public to their investigation. The witness list suggests that lawmakers will focus heavily on the violence and terror of that day.
Nick Quested, a filmmaker who embedded with the Proud Boys: The New York Times reports that Quested, a documentary director, will be one of the committee’s first live witnesses. Quested was filming the Proud Boys when the attack occurred, and saw up close the role the far-right extremist group may have played in breaking into the Capitol. Federal prosecutors have zeroed in on the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers as two militia-style groups leading the violence that day. Both groups’ leaders have been indicted on a charge of seditious conspiracy, alleging that they “conspire[d] to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States.”
Caroline Edwards, a Capitol Police officer: She was one of the first officers to respond to the attack and be injured, as attackers pushed against bike racks the police had set up to block people from coming any further. “A sergeant standing closer to the Capitol looked over just in time to see a bike rack heaved up and onto Edwards,” reports the New York Times magazine, “whom he recognized by her tied-back blond hair. She crumpled to the ground, head hitting concrete, the first officer down …”
Who else might testify this month
Other hearings could focus on what former president Donald Trump did (or didn’t do) on Jan. 6; how he and his allies tried to dismantle the electoral process in the weeks after Election Day, to keep him in power; how disinformation spreads; and policy recommendations to prevent such an attack from happening again.
Investigators have not gotten many close Trump allies or top Republican members of Congress to testify. So they plan to call in staffers to some of these top players. Here are some witnesses we know will probably testify at some point this month.
Cassidy Hutchinson, aide to then White House chief of staff Mark Meadows: This under-the-radar White House aide has become one of the committee’s most useful witnesses. She’s spoken to investigators on the committee several times, for more than 20 hours total, report The Post’s Jacqueline Alemany, Josh Dawsey and Amy Gardner. In the absence of testimony from Meadows himself — he refused, and the committee held him in contempt — Hutchinson appears to be key to understanding the scope of his actions. She was by Meadows’s side leading up to and during the attack and has told the committee of strategy sessions held between the White House and Trump’s allies in Congress about whether they should encourage “Stop the Steal” participants to march to the Capitol, and how to set up alternative slates of electors. The Washington Post reports that she confirmed to the committee that at one point Meadows said Trump had indicated support for protesters shouting “Hang Mike Pence!”
Marc Short, chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence: Short’s testimony could open a window into Trump’s efforts to convince Pence to block the certification of the 2020 election results. Short was with Pence the day of the attack, and was present for a call that morning in which the committee believes Trump put last-minute pressure on his vice president, who was the ceremonial leader of Congress’s electoral certification process. But Pence ultimately determined he had no authority to reject any state’s electoral results, and announced as much that morning — a decision consistent with almost all mainstream legal analysis of his powers under the 1880s Electoral Count Act. Short warned Pence’s lead Secret Service agent that the president might speak out against the vice president and pose a security risk, the New York Times reported.
Greg Jacob, Pence’s attorney: The Post reports that he was in the room when, in the days leading up to the attack, Trump and his allies pressured the vice president to reject states’ electoral college votes. He was also in conversations with one of Trump’s lawyers, John Eastman, who appears to be the architect of the legal strategy in which Pence would throw results back to the states on Jan. 6 or overturn them outright.
When the attack happened, Jacob was on the receiving end of a fiery email from Eastman, accusing Pence of causing the attack by not rejecting electoral results. Jacob said that Pence’s team faced “a barrage of bankrupt legal theories” from Trump allies. He will testify in a hearing planned for Thursday, June 16.
J. Michael Luttig, lawyer and former judge: Luttig was active in getting Pence to accept that the Constitution did not give the vice president the power to unilaterally overturn states’ electoral results on Jan. 6. Luttig has also been critical of Trump’s election fraud claims. He wrote an op-ed on CNN this spring warning that he thinks they’re actually designed with the intention to steal a future election — that 2020 was a “dry run”: “Trump, or his anointed successor, and the Republicans are poised, in their word, to ‘steal’ from Democrats the presidential election in 2024.”
Jeffrey Rosen, then acting attorney general: Rosen was the nation’s top law enforcement official during Trump’s final days in office. He was pressured by Trump allies to send a letter from the Justice Department to state officials about false election fraud claims — thus lending them legitimacy — and he was a key figure in pushing back. Rosen and other officials threatened mass resignations if Trump put one of his allies, Jeffrey Clark, in charge of the Justice Department just days before Jan. 6.
As the attack unfolded, Rosen was in contact with White House officials, and could lend insight into how they tried to get Trump to respond to the violence and tell protesters to go home. (For nearly three hours, Trump did not say that, despite pleas from more than 20 Republicans to do so.)
Take a look: What you need to know about John Eastman | 2022-06-09T19:02:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Here are the witnesses we expect to testify in the January 6 hearings - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/jan6-witness-list/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/jan6-witness-list/ |
Confessions of a reluctant birder
By Liz Langley
Cars are whizzing past me as I walk down a major artery in Orlando. Suddenly, they begin to slow and even stop; an ostentation of peacocks is crossing the street, strolling like browsers at a farmers market.
It’s not surprising to see peacocks on a busy street. Central Florida is chockablock with birds — exotic, common, wading, diving, hunting, humming, singing, running. I thought I knew them pretty well until the day I came across the crested caracara on audubon.org. The stately brown raptor has a white head and neck, a severe black crest, an orange face and a lethal-looking blue-gray beak. They are elegant hunters but also efficient scavengers. How had I missed an eagle-size bird that looks downright debonair while chasing vultures off roadkill?
In a short time, I romanticized the birds so much that I didn’t want to see them at a zoo or in an aviary. That’s like going to see someone at work. I’ve never gone into the wild looking for a bird before; it’s not my place. I’m more an air conditioning and TV type, supportive of the great outdoors without having to darken its leafy doorway. If I was going to find a caracara, though, I was going to need some recommendations on where and how to look for these birds.
I’m not the only one whose imagination has been captured by caracaras.
“I had no idea they existed. I wasn’t looking for them. I wasn’t ready for them,” said writer and musician Jonathan Meiburg, author of “A Most Remarkable Creature: The Hidden Life of the World’s Smartest Birds of Prey,” a love letter to the nine species of caracara. Ready or not, he was doing research on remote societies in the Falkland Islands when three striated caracaras landed nearby and regarded him with a curiosity and forwardness he didn’t expect from wild animals.
Meiburg ended up volunteering to work on a caracara survey on the outermost Falkland Islands, which are teeming with wild birds, “like it was thousands of years ago,” he said. “I didn’t know the world could be like that.”
I needed some quick, practical advice on how to look for birds, and I found it on the National Park Service’s Birding for Beginners webpage, which notes that birding is an accessible hobby that you can do anywhere; all you need is a bird guide, binoculars and a positive attitude. I knew where to get two of those.
A concise guide to birding in your own backyard
Bob Mulvihill, ornithologist for the National Aviary in Pittsburgh, recommended the BirdsEye Bird Finding Guide. It “updates very frequently, so you can often see what has been seen at a spot earlier the same day,” he said. He also recommended eBird Mobile from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which allows birders to log their sightings in a global database. The app has “turned the observations of birders everywhere into data that can be used for a great many important purposes,” he said.
It also showed me that the caracaras of Florida weren’t that far away — a small mercy with gas prices soaring like, well, raptors.
Before going anywhere, I practiced using my borrowed binoculars — a birding tool, Mulvihill says, that changes everything. Taking the time to learn how they work, with an in-person or online tutorial, can transform the experience. “I know when I hear the gasps that people have finally seen a bird with their binoculars very well, and possibly for the first time ever,” Mulvihill said.
It happened to me. At a local park, my partner, Doug, and I used the binoculars to spy on an adorable black-and-white warbler and green heron catching minnows. Doug is a wildlife person and is used to this kind of visual access, but I was taken aback by having such intimacy with an animal whose presence is typically so fleeting. Normally, I wouldn’t have noticed these birds unless they were perched on my glasses, as I am so used to moving through the world without really looking at a lot of it.
Before setting out in search of crested caracaras, I decided to do a trial run at a local park with a lot of flora, fauna and, best of all, shade — although Mulvihill points out that following the sun, especially in the early morning, will net you more sightings. A patch of sun warms the birds, “but more importantly, it warms their food, the insects,” he said.
Still feeling lucky, we went to the local dump, because it seemed like the logical place to find scavengers. Reader, we did. There were lots of vultures and non-scavengers, too, such as a red-tailed hawk, probably hunting rats, and an intensely cute killdeer, which was as out of place as a Squishmallow among the rusted refrigerators and mildewed mattresses.
So far, no caracara.
A more experienced birder told us we stood a chance of reaching our goal about an hour south, so we headed to Joe Overstreet Landing, a boat launch in Kenansville on Lake Kissimmee. The most abundant animals on this long road into Florida’s interior were cattle, which were even grazing near the boat ramps. We saw fast-flying American kestrels, white ibis looking like the Egyptian god Thoth, towering sandhill cranes, black vultures, turkey vultures and one bull that seemed to be following us. This put me more “in the moment” than I care to be. As we hopped into the car and took off, I saw above us a huge bird with a dark body, black-and-white wing tips and a white neck. It could easily have been a caracara.
“This is your white whale,” Doug said. He wasn’t wrong.
The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and its Black Point Wildlife Drive, a stone’s throw from the Kennedy Space Center, were godsends. There are seven miles of dirt road that visitors are allowed to drive, bike or walk, with designated areas where you can park and look more closely at a bird or gator or walk a trail, which we did. We saw a green heron and great blue herons, lots of egrets, numerous sandpipers doing their always-cheering little dashes from morsel to morsel in the salt marsh, and many others we couldn’t identify.
Scotland’s Bass Rock belongs to the birds
On a tip that caracaras had gone south, we drove to the Ritch Grissom Memorial Wetlands in Viera, which promised the birds on a sign that told you what wildlife to expect. That sign was alongside one about it being alligator nesting season and not to go near, or even think about, alligators while in the park. Usually that kind of thing would make me decide I’d rather go to Target, but I was determined to go in. I kept walking even when I saw a little gator in the water, my stomach stiff with nerves and hope.
Here we mostly saw lots of anhingas, also called snakebirds for the serpentine look of their long necks and heads sticking out of the water. Then we saw something huge with pink wings rising up into the sky: a roseate spoonbill. I’d seen them before, but never in flight, and it looked like something from “Fantasia” with the sun shining through its bubble-gum-colored feathers. Then I saw a four-foot alligator on the bank in front of us and skedaddled like a shoplifter.
Before we left Viera, we asked a local police officer about caracaras. He said there was one that used to hang around his house trying to tear his screens down. He showed us a picture of it sitting on his windowsill.
So close, yet so far.
I did finally get to see a caracara, but it was at the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey in Maitland. Not finding the birds you’re looking for, it turns out, is a big part of looking for birds. On the other hand, the birds we did see, the fun we had discovering new places together and the proverbial voyage of self-discovery — me walking past an alligator like it was someone I didn’t want to talk to at a party — made for a worthy quest, and one I intend to continue. Who knows, I may even buy my own binoculars.
Like Ishmael said: “I try all things; I achieve what I can.”
Langley is a writer based in Orlando. Find her on Twitter: @LizLangley. | 2022-06-09T19:03:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How to get started in birding - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/06/09/birding-beginner-tips-caracara-florida/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/06/09/birding-beginner-tips-caracara-florida/ |
Van Ness talks about Pride Month, his new book and storytelling
As an author, a television personality and a hair stylist, Jonathan Van Ness has sprinkled his personal story of success with humor alongside a reckoning for LGBTQ rights. On Thursday, June 16 at 4:00 p.m. ET, Van Ness joins The Washington Post’s Dave Jorgenson for a conversation about his recent book, “Love That Story,” and the role of storytelling in paving the way for change. This conversation will be followed by a roundtable discussion with Post journalists.
NEXT is a new series on Washington Post Live that brings together rising changemakers, innovators and influencers to talk about issues at the center of the business, social and cultural zeitgeist - from Hollywood to the Hill.
Television Personality & Author | 2022-06-09T19:03:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Van Ness talks about Pride Month, his new book and storytelling - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/06/16/van-ness-talks-about-pride-month-his-new-book-storytelling/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/06/16/van-ness-talks-about-pride-month-his-new-book-storytelling/ |
Russian-backed separatist court hands death sentences to two Britons and a Moroccan who fought for Ukraine
A still image, taken from footage of the Supreme Court of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, shows Britons Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner and Moroccan Brahim Saadoune captured by Russian forces during a military conflict in Ukraine, in a courtroom cage in Donetsk, Ukraine. (Supreme Court of Donetsk People via Reuters) (Supreme Court Of Donetsk People'/Via Reuters)
LONDON — The British government on Thursday said it was “deeply concerned” following Russian news reports that death sentences had been handed out to two British fighters and a Moroccan man — the first foreign fighters to be sentenced since the start of the war.
Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner of Britain and Brahim Saadoune of Morocco were charged as working as foreign mercenaries in the self-declared breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), which Moscow recognized as independent on the eve of the invasion in late February.
A Russian-backed tribunal in the separatist Donetsk region sentenced the three men to death, Russian state media reported Thursday. The court in which they were tried is not internationally recognized.
The three fighters have 30 days to appeal. If a pardon is granted, the death penalty can be commuted to life or 25 years in prison, according to the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti. Executions in the DPR are carried out by firing squad.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss called the conviction a “sham judgment” that had “no legitimacy.”
The sentence could set a worrying precedent for other foreign fighters captured by pro-Russian troops. Moscow’s Defense Ministry has warned that they would not be treated as soldiers entitled to the protections of the Geneva Conventions. At the start of the conflict, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky encouraged foreign volunteers to join his nation’s outgunned troops in fighting Russia.
The families of Aslin, 28, and Pinner, 48, insisted that they had lived in Ukraine for years and officially fought alongside the Ukrainian military, spending weeks defending the besieged city of Mariupol, a site of a major Russian advance. Saadoune reportedly came to Ukraine as a student.
Aslin’s family issued a statement through Britain’s Foreign Office on Tuesday expressing their hopes that he would soon be freed.
“This is a very sensitive and emotional time for our family, and we would like to say thank you to all that have supported us,” the family said in a statement. “We are currently working with the Ukrainian government and the Foreign Office to try and bring Aiden home. Aiden is a much-loved man and very much missed, and we hope that he will be released very soon.”
The three fighters were captured in April. Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported the fighters plan to appeal the court ruling.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman said: “We are obviously deeply concerned by this. We have said continually that prisoners of war shouldn’t be exploited for political purposes. Under the Geneva Conventions, prisoners of war are entitled to combatant immunity, and they should not be prosecuted for participation in hostilities.
Robert Jenrick, a Conservative lawmaker who represents the constituency where Aslin’s family lives, tweeted that “contrary to the Kremlin’s propaganda, Aiden Aslin is not a mercenary.” He called the conviction a “disgusting Soviet-era style show trial is the latest reminder of the depravity of Putin’s regime.
Earlier this week Jenrick told the BBC that Aslin was a British-Ukrainian national who “joined the Ukrainian armed forces in the normal way before Putin’s illegal invasion, and has been serving in the armed forces.” He said that the men were on trial for “trumped-up charges” and suggested they be returned to Ukraine as soon as possible, possibly through a prisoner exchange.
“What I hope happens is that a prisoner exchange occurs in the near future. The Russian authorities have chosen to make an example out of these two British nationals, and it is, I think, completely shameful,” he said.
Ukraine and Russia have negotiated prisoner swaps before: In one of the largest to date, 86 prisoners from each side were released.
A close friend of Brahim Saadoune, the Moroccan fighter, said he is hoping that the DPR might negotiate a prisoner swap instead of executing his friend.
Muiz Avghonzoda told The Washington Post that Saadoune had moved to Ukraine in 2019 to study at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. He was looking for a job in November when he decided to join the military, his friend said. Saadoune’s father had served as a high-ranking military officer in Morocco. His friend didn’t imagine he’d be fighting in a war so soon after joining, Avghonzoda said.
In the months leading up to Russia’s invasion, Saadoune’s division was posted in the Donetsk region. In February, they moved to the Azovstal steel plant in the port city of Mariupol, which saw some of the war’s fiercest battles before falling under Russian control.
Avghonzoda learned that his friend had been imprisoned on April 7. He launched a “Save Brahim” campaign on social media to pressure authorities to release him.
Avghonzoda said he has been in contact with Saadoune’s sister and that she believes that Russian-backed authorities in DPR will ultimately use the foreigners to try to negotiate a high-profile prisoner swap, possibly for pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, who was captured by Ukrainian authorities in February.
“We have one month to get them out of there,” Avghonzoda said.
Annabelle Timsit in London contributed to this report. | 2022-06-09T19:03:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Russian-backed separatist court hands death sentences to two Britons and a Moroccan who fought for Ukraine - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/09/ukraine-foreign-fighters-death-sentence/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/09/ukraine-foreign-fighters-death-sentence/ |
Amy Coney Barrett received $425,000 book payment, records show
New financial-disclosure reports released by the Supreme Court show the justices were paid thousands to teach at law schools and give speeches.
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett speaks during her Senate confirmation hearing. (Susan Walsh/AP)
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett received $425,000 last year as part of a book deal, according to financial-disclosure reports released Thursday showing the justices were paid thousands of dollars to teach at law schools and for travel expenses for lectures as far away as Iceland.
Barrett’s book payment — more than double the salary the University of Notre Dame paid her as a law professor before she became a judge in 2017 — came from Javelin Group, a literary agency that represents writers in dealings with publishers. Barrett’s disclosure form does not name her publisher, but the Associated Press reported last year that she had signed a deal with a conservative imprint of Penguin Random House.
Politico, citing unidentified industry sources, reported last year that she would be paid a total of $2 million for the book. Such advance payments for a book typically are paid in installments across multiple years.
Sotomayor, Barrett discuss their lives in Supreme Court’s spotlight
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Neil M. Gorsuch also earned additional income for book-writing. Sotomayor reported about $115,000 in royalty payments from Penguin Random House in 2021, on top of more than $3.3 million she previously reported in book payments since 2010.
Gorsuch reported a $250,000 payment from HarperCollins, which comes in addition to payments totaling more than $650,000 that he previously reported from Penguin Random House, the publisher of his 2019 book “A Republic, If You Can Keep It.”
As of January 2022, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. earned an annual salary of $286,700, while associate justices each earned $274,200.
Federal ethics rules limit justices to “outside earned income” of no more than about $30,000 per year, which many collect through teaching positions. But book-writing payments do not count as “outside earned income,” allowing justices to strike lucrative contracts with publishers.
The disclosures come at a tense moment for the court after the leak of a draft majority opinion, written by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., that would overturn the long-standing constitutional right to obtain an abortion. The justices are preparing to release their final ruling, which could reverse the landmark Roe v. Wade, decision by the end of the month or early July. Alito did not provide a disclosure report Thursday and requested an extension, court officials said.
Ethics experts see Ginni Thomas’s texts as a problem for Supreme Court
In the last year, several justices have publicly defended the court’s independence in the face of criticism that the nine justices are merely politicians in robes. There was renewed attention this spring to the court’s legal ethics and potential conflicts of interest after revelations about the political activism of Virginia Thomas, the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas. Text messages obtained jointly by The Washington Post and CBS News showed how she pressed the chief of staff to President Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 election at a time when Trump’s allies were trying to challenge the results at the Supreme Court. She also sent emails urging lawmakers in Arizona to set aside Joe Biden’s popular-vote victory and “choose” their own presidential electors.
Supreme Court justices are required to disclose only the source of their spouse’s income, not how much they are paid. Clarence Thomas’s 2021 disclosure form shows only that his wife drew salary and benefits from her firm Liberty Consulting Inc. The firm was valued at less than $15,000, according to the new disclosure report, down from between $15,001 and $50,000 in 2020.
On Barrett’s disclosure form, the name of her husband’s employer is redacted. Jesse M. Barrett, an attorney, is listed as a partner on the website of the Indiana law firm where he has worked in recent years.
The justices traveled less frequently than in years before the coronavirus pandemic, but still took trips to give speeches and lecture at law schools. Justices Elena Kagan and Gorsuch taught in Iceland last July at the George Mason University National Security Institute, which covered their flights, lodging and meals. Kagan was in residence for six days and Gorsuch for two weeks, the records show.
In addition to income, justices also must report gifts they or their spouses receive. Gorsuch reported receiving a pair of cowboy boots — valued at $699.99 — in connection with an event organized by the Texas Supreme Court Historical Society.
High-level government officials are required to complete annual financial disclosure forms under a 1978 ethics law. Justices, like other federal judges, report income from investments and other sources, financial liabilities, and reimbursement from outside groups for travel-related expenses and entertainment.
But the Supreme Court reports are not posted online and include limited information. Legislation passed by a House committee in May would require justices to provide more detailed descriptions of reimbursements, such as the cost of flights, hotel rooms and meals. The measure also would require recusal from cases in which a party has given gifts, travel or other income to a justice or family member in the last six years.
Sens. Lindsay O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) pressed court leaders about their plans to bring the justices in line with executive branch and congressional officials who are required to promptly publish disclosure reports online.
“The Justices of our highest court are subject to the lowest standards of transparency of any senior officials across the federal government,” they wrote in a letter last year to the chief justice.
Roberts has publicly questioned whether the justices must report the information at all, noting in a 2011 report that the court has “never addressed whether Congress may impose those requirements on the Supreme Court.” | 2022-06-09T19:27:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Amy Coney Barrett received $425,000 book payment, records show - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/amy-coney-barrett-book-deal/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/amy-coney-barrett-book-deal/ |
Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (center) suffered a left foot injury during a Game 3 loss to the Boston Celtics on Wednesday. (Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco Chronicle via/AP)
BOSTON — Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry said Thursday that he will play in Game 4 of the NBA Finals after suffering a left foot injury in the closing minutes of Wednesday’s Game 3 loss to the Boston Celtics.
“I’m going to play,” Curry said Thursday. “That’s all I know right now. … I know I’m going to play, but we’ll see how it responds to that type of impact.”
Curry, 34, sustained the injury in a scramble for a loose ball with Boston Celtics center Al Horford. With roughly four minutes remaining in Boston’s 116-100 victory, Horford landed on top of Curry’s left leg. Curry stayed on the court and appeared to be in some pain, but told reporters during his postgame comments Wednesday that he would be “all right.” He later departed TD Garden with a slight limp.
Warriors Coach Steve Kerr said Thursday that he “didn’t have any details” on Curry’s foot injury, though he said that he “expected” the two-time MVP to play in Game 4. Golden State didn’t go through a typical practice on Thursday, with Kerr noting that his “high-minute” players would solely be undergoing “treatment and recovery.”
Kerr lamented that the injury because the Warriors were unable to secure a defensive rebound, as Celtics guard Marcus Smart and forward Robert Williams kept the play alive with deflections. Boston outrebounded Golden State 47-31 in Game 3, claiming 15 offensive rebounds, and tallied 22 second-chance points.
“[Curry] was involved in the pile up,” Kerr said. “We missed like three box outs on the play. That’s sometimes what happens. You give up an offensive board that leads to an offensive advantage. In this case, it led to a scrum. The rebounding was a big issue last night for us. We’ve got to clean that up.”
Boston holds a 2-1 series lead, and Curry’s injury comes at an inopportune time of the series, as there is only one off day in between Game 3 and Game 4. Earlier in the series, the schedule included two off days between games.
Curry, who is seeking the fourth title of his career, has led the Warriors in scoring in all three Finals games against the Celtics. The eight-time all-star is averaging a team-high 26.8 points, 4.9 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game during the postseason.
“We just need to help Steph in general,” Warriors guard Klay Thompson said. “He’s been incredible this series. We’ll all do our best. I think we’ll respond. I think we’ll come correct tomorrow. We still have an opportunity to even out the series.”
The sight of Curry on the ground in pain brought back bad memories for the Warriors, as their franchise player suffered a foot sprain during a March game against the Celtics. On that play, Smart landed awkwardly on top of Curry, who was sidelined for a month due to the injury.
“It’s the same foot and all that,” Curry said. “There’s a comfort knowing I’ve been through all that before, but you’d rather not deal with something like that at this point in the season. … This was almost an identical type play. This one just wasn’t as bad as that one.” | 2022-06-09T19:32:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Stephen Curry injury update: 'I’m going to play' in Game 4 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/09/stephen-curry-injury-update-game-4/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/09/stephen-curry-injury-update-game-4/ |
64-year-old woman shot in April in Northwest D.C. has died, police say
(Peter Hermann/TWP)
A 64-year-old woman who was among three people shot on a street in Northwest Washington in April has died of her injuries, according to D.C. police.
Police identified the victim as Phyllis Williams, who lived in Northwest.
The shooting occurred shortly before 6:40 p.m. in the 600 block of Kennedy Street NW, in the Brightwood Park neighborhood. Police said Williams and two men were shot.
Authorities said at the time that the two men suffered injuries that did not appear to be critical. They described the injuries to Williams as life-threatening.
Thousands of bullets have been fired in this D.C. neighborhood. Fear is part of everyday life.
Police said Williams died May 8, and the D.C. medical examiner’s office ruled her death a homicide because of complications from a gunshot wound.
No arrest has been made. Police said someone in the group that was shot at appeared to have been targeted, though they did not specify whom. Efforts to reach Williams’ family on Thursday were not successful.
There have now been 87 homicides in the District this year, a 10 percent increase over this time in 2021. | 2022-06-09T19:54:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Woman shot in April in Northwest D.C. has died - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/09/woman-shot-has-died/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/09/woman-shot-has-died/ |
A worker in protective overalls and carrying disinfecting equipment walks outside the Wuhan Central Hospital in China on Feb. 6, 2021. (Ng Han Guan/AP)
The initial attempt by the World Health Organization to discover the origins of the pandemic virus in 2020 and 2021 — a joint mission with China — ran aground on uncertainty. This prompted the WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, to create a new scientific advisory group to keep looking, along with setting up a framework for catching novel pathogens when they emerge. The new group has issued its first report, which points to a continuing roadblock: China. If the origin of a pandemic that has killed more than 6 million people is ever to be discovered, China must be more open to investigation.
The new panel, the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens, or SAGO, says that “at the present time” the epidemiological and genetic sequencing data indicate the ancestral strains to the pandemic virus had a zoonotic origin, noting similarity to bat coronavirus samples from elsewhere in China and Laos. However, the panel cautioned, “so far neither the virus progenitors nor the natural/intermediate hosts or spillover event to humans have been identified.” While earlier studies pointed to the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan as playing an important role in the spread of the virus, the panel believes further studies are needed. The panel further says that while “there has not been any new data made available to evaluate the laboratory as a pathway” for the outbreak, “further investigations” are needed “into this and all other possible pathways.” The panel calls out the need to study the trade of wild and domestic animals in Wuhan and Hubei province, some of which were sold in Wuhan markets.
The report suggests a large number of avenues for further inquiry. For example, the records of some 76,000 patients who went to 233 health institutions in Wuhan in the months before the outbreak were previously examined by China. The first WHO-China investigation was told none of these cases were the pandemic virus. However, the criteria were extremely narrow — so many asymptomatic cases might have been missed.
It is now known that China’s leaders covered up the outbreak in the first weeks of 2020, when the pandemic exploded. They have also rejected calls for more investigation, and also rejected the lab leak hypothesis, while insisting the virus might have come from abroad. The SAGO report does not provide conclusive answers. But much of the research it calls for must be carried out in China, and will require China to be more open than it has been so far. | 2022-06-09T19:58:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | How did the pandemic begin? China must help find the answer. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/how-did-pandemic-begin-china-must-help-find-answer/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/how-did-pandemic-begin-china-must-help-find-answer/ |
The Theodore Roosevelt Bridge in D.C. on Feb. 15. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)
I was pleased to learn that the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge is to be structurally repaired and upgraded for bikers and pedestrians, but nowhere in the June 3 Metro article “First full overhaul of major crossing” was there any mention of improving the appearance of what is without doubt the ugliest of all the bridges connecting D.C. to Arlington.
Even if the rusted steel spans were sanded down and repainted, the bridge would stand out as purely utilitarian, simply a way to get from A to B, with no appreciation for how it pales in comparison with its neighbors to the south and north: Memorial Bridge and Key Bridge. Did the National Capital Planning Commission even consider aesthetics? And if not, why not?
Thomas Calhoun, Washington | 2022-06-09T19:58:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Not a bridge to nowhere, but not a sight to behold - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/not-bridge-nowhere-not-sight-behold/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/not-bridge-nowhere-not-sight-behold/ |
From left, Hunter Nguyen, 21, of Hagerstown, Md., and Daisy Hernandez, 22, of Stafford, Va., display “Don't shoot” on their hands at the March for Our Lives protest in Washington on March 24, 2018. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Leaders of March for Our Lives, the organization founded by student survivors of the 2018 mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., are expecting thousands of people to rally once again in the nation’s capital Saturday in support of ending gun violence.
The call for action on gun restrictions comes after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers May 24 at an elementary school in Uvalde, Tex. In Buffalo, a gunman killed 10 shoppers and employees — all of whom were Black — May 14 in a grocery store.
“We’re putting our foot down, and we’re saying we had enough of it. The ‘solutions’ of arming teachers, bulletproof doors, all that stuff: It’s nonsense,” Serena Rodrigues, 23, the organization’s national coordinator, said of this year’s D.C. rally. “It’s time for lawmakers to step up or get out of the way.”
Large crowds are also expected this weekend in D.C. to celebrate Pride, including the Capital Pride Parade scheduled to start near 14th and T streets NW at 3 p.m. Saturday.
Capital Pride 2022: Parade and festival return, along with lots of parties
Leaders of March for Our Lives have spent the days leading up to Saturday’s rally in more than 60 meetings on Capitol Hill, talking with lawmakers and their staff about the need for aggressive actions, such as universal background checks, said Elena Perez, 21, who is studying at Rutgers University at Newark.
“A lot of us would have loved to [have] enjoyed summer and gone out with our friends, but right now we’re at a point where we realize us being together and us being united is so powerful and can really make change,” Perez said. “This is time we are seeing real negotiations. The work is being done. At the same time, I am a little scared we won’t see any change.”
Speakers at Saturday’s protest will include March for Our Lives co-founders David Hogg and X González, who survived the Parkland massacre; the son of a victim in the recent Buffalo supermarket shooting; Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.); Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers; and Yolanda King, the granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr., according to a news release.
Four years after Parkland school massacre, parents of victims protest and mourn
Explore The Washington Post's database of school shootings
In March, survivors of the Parkland shooting and others who had lost family and friends to shootings returned to D.C. with a grim message. They placed more than 1,100 body bags on the National Mall to spell out “THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS,” a condolence invoked after mass shootings that activists decry as hollow, as more people continue to die.
“We’re still here, we still care about this issue and we’re not going to back down,” said Matthew Hogenmiller, 20, who is digital manager for March for Our Lives and a student at Arizona State University. “I want to be the generation that ends this … because I want no one else to have to go through it.” | 2022-06-09T20:20:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | March for Our Lives returns to DC in wake of Uvalde shooting - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/09/march-for-our-lives-protest-returns/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/09/march-for-our-lives-protest-returns/ |
Commanders defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio, left, talks to defensive line coach Sam Mills III during an offseason practice session Wednesday. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
Jack Del Rio’s recent tweets and ensuing comments elicited strong reaction from those affiliated with the NFL and now a prominent civil rights organization.
Derrick Johnson, the president of the NAACP, called for the Washington Commanders’ defensive coordinator to resign or be fired for his comments comparing the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol to the racial protests that followed the murder of George Floyd.
“It is time for Jack Del Rio to resign or be terminated,” Johnson said in a statement Thursday. “His comments could not have been more offensive and ignorant. The January 6th insurrection — an attempted coup — was far from a ‘dust-up.’ Each day we learn more and more on just how close our democracy came to autocracy. Downplaying the insurrection by comparing it to nationwide protests, which were in response to a public lynching, is twisted. You can’t coach a majority Black team while turning your back on the Black community. It’s time for you to pack up and step off the field.”
The Commanders did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Johnson’s statement.
On Monday, Del Rio responded to a tweet by Norm Eisen of the Brookings Institution research group, in which Eisen promoted a report ahead of the Jan. 6 Committee’s hearings, scheduled to begin Thursday evening.
Del Rio tweeted: “Would love to understand ‘the whole story’ about why the summer of riots, looting, burning and destruction of personal property is never discussed but this is ??? #CommonSense.”
When asked about his tweet on Wednesday following an offseason practice session, Del Rio referred to the Capitol attack as “a dust-up,” raising the ire of current and former players, fans and even elected officials.
“Really, let’s get right down to it. What did I ask? A simple question,” Del Rio told reporters Wednesday. “Why are we not looking into those things if we’re going to talk about it? Why are we not looking into those things? Because it’s kind of hard for me to say — I can realistically look at it, I see the images on TV, people’s livelihoods are being destroyed, businesses are being burned down. No problem. And then we have a dust-up at the Capitol. Nothing burned down, and we’re not going to talk about — we’re going to make that a major deal.”
The team did not address the matter on Wednesday, and Commanders Coach Ron Rivera declined to discuss Del Rio’s tweets with reporters earlier in the day. Rivera said he does “not necessarily” worry Del Rio’s tweets would affect the locker room and if there was something to address, he said it would be treated as a “private matter.”
Del Rio issued a statement on Twitter Wednesday evening and apologized for his comments, stating that his reference of the Jan. 6 attack as a dust-up was “irresponsible and negligent.” He added: “I stand by my comments condemning violence in communities across the country,” he said. “I say that while also expressing my support as an American citizen for peaceful protest in our country.”
But by then, two Virginia state senators — Scott A. Surovell (D-Fairfax) and Jeremy S. McPike (D-Prince William) — said they could no longer support a bill authorizing a stadium authority and helping lure the team to Virginia. Surovell tweeted that the NFL’s “indifference & intolerence” to Del Rio’s comments reflects its “hypocrisy” and “makes clear to me that we won’t be seeing any more votes on stadium bills this year.”
A group of D.C. legislators said on Thursday they would not support bringing the team to the District at the RFK Stadium site, and Virginia Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax) pulled the plug on the Commonwealth’s efforts, saying there’d be no vote on a stadium bill this year.
Senate leader is giving up on bill to bring Commanders to Virginia
“This obviously was not very helpful, to put it mildly,” Saslaw told The Post, referring to Del Rio’s comments, “but there’s so many other things out there. There were just so many things out there that a lot of people are saying, ‘Saslaw, this thing needs to wait.’”
Over the last two years, the Commanders have been embroiled in a slew of controversies, stemming from allegations of sexual harassment and assault by former male employees, claims of financial improprieties, an investigation into the possible illegal disbursement of prescription painkillers by its former athletic trainer, an ongoing probe by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on the team’s workplace culture and the NFL’s handling of it, as well as another pending investigation on recent claims of sexual harassment against Snyder.
The team has also struggled to fill the stands at FedEx Field, last year ranking among the league’s worst in home attendance. | 2022-06-09T20:33:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | NAACP calls for Jack Del Rio’s job after Jan. 6 ‘dust-up’ comment - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/09/del-rio-naacp-resign/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/09/del-rio-naacp-resign/ |
Deputies from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office said they are investigating a shooting with multiple victims after they were called to Smithsburg, Md., at around 2:30 p.m.
Some victims were killed but it was not immediately clear how many.
Deputies responded to the 12900 block of Bikle Road and authorities said in a statement, “the suspect is no longer a threat to the community.” | 2022-06-09T20:33:17Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Smithsburg shooting: Police in Washington County are responding to a fatal shooting - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/09/smithburg-shooting-maryland/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/09/smithburg-shooting-maryland/ |
NASA inspector general issues a scathing report on moon effort
The cost of the SLS rocket’s mobile launch tower is expected to be at least $1 billion and be delivered years late
A view of Space Launch System rocket at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 6. The mobile launcher is at the right. A new mobile launcher will be needed to accommodate a taller version of the rocket. (Gregg Newton/AFP/Getty Images)
For years NASA has struggled with ballooning costs of the rocket and spacecraft it wants to use to send astronauts to the moon. Now it has significant problems with an obscure, but vital, piece of hardware used to transport and launch the rocket: a tower of scaffolding known as a mobile launcher.
In a scathing report issued Thursday, NASA’s inspector general said that a second version of the mobile launcher, needed to accommodate a taller version of the rocket, is expected to cost at least $1 billion — more than two times the original contract value that NASA awarded in 2019. The IG said it would take an additional 2½ years to build.
NASA already has built a mobile launcher for its Space Launch System rocket, at a cost of $668.7 million. That program also suffered enormous cost increases after NASA’s Constellation program was canceled, meaning the agency had to redesign the tower to fit a different rocket, the SLS.
But that mobile launch tower will have to be replaced after just three missions because NASA plans to use a different version of the SLS, one with a more powerful upper stage that would extend the rocket’s height by some 40 feet, for later trips to the moon in its Artemis lunar campaign. The later version of the SLS will be capable of delivering 40 percent more payload to the lunar surface.
The added launch tower expense and expected delay was just one of a host of problems the inspector general identified with the program. It laid most of the blame on the contractor, Bechtel, for its “poor performance” and “underestimation of the ML-2 project’s scope and complexity.” ML-2 is short for mobile launcher 2.
Bechtel officials told the IG that a portion of the cost increase was due to the coronavirus pandemic. The company went through multiple leadership teams and had significant turnover. At one point, according to the IG report, company officials told NASA that they are “not designers and do not normally perform these kinds of designs.”
In a statement, Bechtel spokesman Fred deSousa said the company is “committed to successfully delivering” the launcher.
“The project has experienced significant cost and schedule growth beyond the original good faith estimates, which did not appreciate the project complexity and necessary change resulting from parallel design evolution of all launch systems,” he said. “Unfortunately, the Inspector General’s report does not provide a complete picture of what led to the current situation, and we strongly disagree with the report’s overarching conclusions on the primary causes of the cost increases.”
The IG also found that “NASA’s management practices contributed to the project’s cost increases and schedule delays.” For example, the space agency awarded the contract to Bechtel before the final design for the rocket’s enhanced upper stage had been finalized.
The report also said that despite Bechtel’s lackluster work, NASA awarded the company $8.2 million in awards meant for good performance.
The cost overruns could continue, the IG warned, because NASA has already spent $435.6 million on the project and construction has yet to begin. It said that an analysis found only a 3.9 percent confidence level in the $1 billion price tag, and that it could grow to $1.5 billion.
The SLS rocket to be used in the first Artemis mission is back on the launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center, where it is scheduled to go through a series of fueling and countdown tests for a second time.
An earlier test was cut short after NASA discovered a malfunctioning valve in the rocket’s second stage and a leak in one of the fuel lines. NASA hopes to launch the Orion spacecraft in orbit around the moon, without any people on board, sometime later this year. | 2022-06-09T20:35:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | NASA's SLS rocket needs a second mobile launcher, at a $1 billion cost - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/09/nasa-moon-rocket-ig-report/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/09/nasa-moon-rocket-ig-report/ |
How a sleeping 2-year-old and his dad won the Buffalo Marathon
Lucas McAneney, pushing his 2-year-old son Sutton in a stroller the entire length of the course, wins the Buffalo Marathon on May 29, 2022. (Courtesy of James McCoy)
Not many 2-year-olds can claim to have won a marathon, but Sutton McAneney did it — in his sleep.
His father, Lucas McAneney, 35, from Waterdown, Ontario, ran the length of the Buffalo Marathon in May while pushing his toddler in a stroller, in an attempt to break a world record. Yes, there’s a Guinness World Record for the fastest marathon pushing a pram. McAneney and his toddler were about 2 minutes shy — but they still won the race, crossing the finish line in 2 hours, 33 minutes, 32 seconds, according to marathon officials.
McAneney said it was more about sharing the experience with his son.
“That’s something that we can remember for the rest of our lives and is definitely the proudest running moment in my career,” McAneney told The Washington Post on Thursday.
Marathon official says allowing 6-year-old was ‘not the best’ choice
McAneney, a longtime runner, said he competed in 20 marathons before Sutton was born in 2019, then took some time to soak up fatherhood. But at the start of the pandemic in 2020, he said, he started thinking about getting back into it, perhaps buying a stroller so he could take his son with him.
He hoped it would help with son with napping and give his wife some time to rest.
McAneney said his wife got him a running stroller for an early Father’s Day present “and I found myself running with him every day.”
“For two years, he was my main training partner,” he added. “I’d say he was on 90 percent of the rides with me.”
Lucas McAneney is the 2022 Winner of the Buffalo Marathon! Lucas pushed a stroller with his two year old son Sutton for a final time of 2:33:32. Lucas nearly broke the world record of 2:31.21 set in 2016 by Calum Neff in the Toronto Waterfront Marathon.https://t.co/ChOFKiaJSb pic.twitter.com/QIGpLzlKNH
— Buffalo Marathon (@BuffaloMarathon) June 6, 2022
Earlier this year, McAneney contacted the Buffalo Marathon race director to ask whether he and Sutton could enter and attempt the break the world record for the fastest stroller to roll through a marathon — a record held by Calum Neff, who ran the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon with his 4-year-old daughter in tow in 2016.
“While it was an exception to our no-stroller rule, we were thrilled to help him in his attempt and were excited to see him turn the corner for the finish line in first place just 16 seconds in front of second place,” the marathon’s executive director Greg Weber said in a statement.
More than 400 miles away in Cincinnati, a 6-year-old boy was allowed to compete in the Flying Pig Marathon with his family on May 1 — a move that drew public outcry with number of people, including athletes, expressing concern that a marathon is too physically demanding for a child. But that boy was running on foot, not riding in luxury.
Photos from the Buffalo Marathon show Sutton in plaid pants and a safety helmet, relaxing — and at some point, snoozing — while his dad pounded 26.2 miles of pavement around Buffalo. McAneney said that Sutton spent the majority of the race chatting and pointing out police cars, firetrucks and construction vehicles.
“If he saw an excavator, he would yell and say, ‘Hey, there’s an excavator!’ And then I would respond, saying, ‘Oh, yeah. Really cool, bud. I see it, too,’” McAneney recalled in the interview. “If I don’t respond, he gets frustrated. So I just respond to whatever it is he sees or I’ll point out things that he may not have seen," such as the buffalo statues.
With about 15 minutes left in the race, McAneney said his legs started to tire and he knew he wouldn’t be able to beat the record he had set out to break. “My legs were just kind of finished at that point, so I just wanted to try to hold off the next runner and make sure we could still win,” he said.
Then Sutton fell asleep.
“So we crossed the tape with him sleeping,” McAneney said, laughing. But he said Sutton woke up immediately after the pair had won and got caught up in “all the cheers and photos and excitement.”
“He was also super excited about us having matching medals,” he said. | 2022-06-09T20:59:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Lucas McAneney wins Buffalo Marathon while pushing his sleeping 2-year-old son in a stroller - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/09/buffalo-marathon-winner-baby-stroller/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/09/buffalo-marathon-winner-baby-stroller/ |
Jan. 6 hearing live updates House committee holds prime-time session on Capitol riot
In prebuttal to hearings, GOP tries to cast Jan. 6 committee as ‘illegitimate’
Biden says Americans will hear new details about Jan. 6 attacks
Who is Caroline Edwards?
These are 6 questions the committee hopes to answer about the attack
On Jan. 6, 2021, a pro-Trump mob violently broke into the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of the presidential election results. The events of that day and what led up to it will be in the spotlight as the House select committee investigating the insurrection kicks off the public phase of its work with a prime-time hearing. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)
The bipartisan House select committee examining former president Donald Trump’s drive to stay in power — and the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, that marked its climax — holds the first in a series of public hearings at 8 p.m.
For a year, the committee labored in secret, conducting 1,000 interviews and gathering 140,000 documents. Tonight’s hearing will begin to bring the panel’s findings to audiences in prime time. Committee members say the sessions will underscore for the American public how Trump led a multipronged effort to subvert the 2020 election.
The initial hearing will focus on the violence unleashed on Jan. 6, the day Congress met to certify the results of the electoral college. It will feature live testimony from documentary filmmaker Nick Quested — who was embedded with a right-wing extremist group, the Proud Boys, during the attack — and from Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards, who was injured when the pro-Trump rioters stormed past barricades and breached the Capitol building.
By Amy Wang5:10 p.m.
Hours before the launch of the first public hearing from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, House GOP leadership tried once again to discredit the committee as illegitimate and politically motivated.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) spent much of a Thursday news conference with GOP leadership attacking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and calling the select committee “the least legitimate committee in American history.” McCarthy last year first opposed a bipartisan commission to investigate Jan. 6, then pulled all GOP nominees for a bipartisan committee after Pelosi blocked two of McCarthy’s picks, Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.).
McCarthy repeatedly brought up Banks and Jordan on Thursday, arguing that their absence from the committee showed that Democrats were not interested in working across the aisle to unearth facts about the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. He did not mention that Republican Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) are part of the Jan. 6 committee. Cheney is the committee’s vice chair.
When a reporter asked the GOP House leaders for a show of hands on who planned to watch the prime-time hearing Thursday night, only Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.) raised his hand.
McCarthy also refused to acknowledge that the 2020 election was not stolen and that Biden was elected legitimately, only saying that Biden is the president. When asked whether he thought it was accurate to describe what happened on Jan. 6 as an “insurrection,” McCarthy simply said what happened that day was wrong.
There has been no evidence to support former president Donald Trump’s baseless claims that widespread voter fraud cost him the 2020 election.
By Cleve R. Wootson Jr. and Eugene Scott5:04 p.m.
LOS ANGELES — President Biden said the Jan. 6. committee hearings beginning Thursday evening will help viewers understand the ultimate goal of the pro-Trump mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol not long before his inauguration last year.
“I think it’s a clear and flagrant violation of the Constitution,” he said of the attack, which resulted in five deaths and left hundreds of law enforcement personnel injured.
The rioters were “trying to turn around the results of the election,” the president added during comments to the media as he met with Canada’s prime minister at the Summit of the Americas here in Los Angeles. “A lot of Americans are going to see for the first time some of the details.”
The first hearing will be shown on most major networks and cable news channels except for Fox News, which regularly features hosts and guests who play down the attempts of the insurrectionists to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Scott reported from Washington.
By Mariana Alfaro4:48 p.m.
U.S. Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards will be among the first to testify in the Jan. 6 hearings when she takes the stand Thursday night.
Edwards was the first law enforcement officer injured by the pro-Trump mob during the attack. She suffered a traumatic brain injury.
As the committee said in a statement, Edwards was patrolling the Capitol’s West Plaza when the riot began and successfully “prevented many rioters from entering the Capitol building.” Edwards, who graduated with honors from the University of Georgia, became a law enforcement officer in 2017 after leaving a career in public relations.
“Since January 6th, her injuries have prevented her from returning to her previous assignment as a member of the USCP First Responder Unit,” the committee said in their statement. “She looks forward to returning to that duty this year after being physically cleared.”
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection has spent nearly a year working on its case, holding nearly 1,000 interviews — including with former president Donald Trump’s family members and some of his closest advisers.
All that work brings us to the first of the committee’s public hearings Thursday, in which the panel will share its findings and lay out a better-defined picture of what happened Jan. 6, 2021.
Amber Phillips has outlined six questions the committee expects to answer about the attack:
How much responsibility does Trump bear for the violence? Some members of the committee have hinted that they aim to prove Trump’s culpability for the events of Jan. 6. To build the case that he committed a crime — namely, that he broke federal law by trying to stop lawmakers from certifying Biden’s win — the committee would need to demonstrate that Trump and his allies specifically planned to disrupt the congressional counting of electoral votes. It will be key to explain why he made no effort to tell the rioters to leave for 187 minutes as the attack unfolded. But the committee has debated internally whether to go so far as to accuse him of a crime.
How did Trump and Co. use the levers of government to try to keep him in power? The lawmakers on the committee have taken the extraordinarily aggressive step of subpoenaing their colleagues to learn about Trump’s actions that day, and whether he tried to sway lawmakers into complying. It’s unclear whether they will comply and testify. The committee also will delve into efforts to put forward alternate slates of electors who would vote for Trump.
How did so many people believe Trump’s false claims of fraud? The committee is interested in unraveling the origins of this mass radicalization.
What is the connection between lawmakers’ actions and civilians’ violence? The committee wants to know if there’s evidence that the violence was inspired by — or even coordinated by — government officials (or Trump himself).
How was the Capitol so vulnerable? The Capitol is supposed to be one of the safest complexes in the United States, but that illusion collapsed the day of the attack.
What should be done to prevent a similar attack? The committee, in the end, wants to come up with policy prescriptions to prevent a crisis of this magnitude from happening again.
Read more about these questions from Amber here.
Nick Quested, a British filmmaker, will be among the first witnesses to testify during the Jan. 6 hearings later Thursday.
Quested recorded members of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group on the day of the attack, filming them storming the Capitol. He was, at the time, working on a documentary on the group. He was with members of the group as they marched to the Capitol after President Donald Trump delivered a speech at a rally in the Ellipse, and Quested was also with them as they broke through Capitol barriers and into the building.
According to the committee, Quested, along with his crew, “documented the movements around the Capitol that morning, the first moments of violence against U.S. Capitol Police, and the chaos that ensued.”
Quested, Politico reported, also captured a key meeting between leaders of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, another right-wing militia group, on Jan. 5. He turned in footage from this meeting to the Jan. 6 committee and the Justice Department in support of their investigations into the riot, providing insight into how the groups helped drive the Capitol breach. | 2022-06-09T21:25:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | January 6 committee hearing: Live coverage and updates - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/09/january-6-comittee-hearing-live-coverage/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/09/january-6-comittee-hearing-live-coverage/ |
Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming is the lead Republican negotiator in the latest round of gun talks. (Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg News)
Conservative Republicans on Capitol Hill are voicing increasingly sharp objections to any federal effort to promote red-flag laws meant to keep guns away from individuals found to be at risk of committing murder or attempting suicide, a provision that has been a centerpiece of bipartisan Senate talks on gun control.
The reservations are being aired at a crucial moment in the Senate negotiations, with Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and John Cornyn (R-Tex.) aiming to strike a handshake deal in the coming days that would allow a bill to pass Congress by the end of the month. Among those who have objected are the No. 3 Senate Republican leader, John Barrasso (Wyo.), and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a prominent conservative leader in the House.
Barrasso said Thursday that “there is no role of the federal government for red-flag laws,” ruling out even a federal program that would merely encourage rather than mandate them. “Wyoming is never going to pass one, and it is a state’s decision,” he said.
Speaking on the House floor Thursday, moments before lawmakers there passed a red-flag bill, Jordan questioned “why Republican senators are pushing this” and “trying to bribe states to implement this.” He said, “We know what this thing is going to look like and how it’s going to violate due process. I hope they will come to their senses and stand up for the law-abiding American citizens and their fundamental liberties and vote this thing down.”
A sustained conservative backlash threatens to upend a cornerstone of the Senate negotiations, which have been underway for roughly two weeks but have yet to produce a deal. Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) have led talks over the red-flag measure, which would likely involve establishing federal grants and standards to encourage states to set up their own laws.
There are 19 states along with the District of Columbia that have laws in place allowing authorities, and sometimes private individuals, to seek red-flag orders, which are also known as extreme risk protection orders. While the laws differ in their details, they generally allow petitioners to ask a judge to issue a temporary order allowing authorities to seize the firearms of individuals or prevent them from purchasing new ones if they are found to constitute a threat to themselves or others.
Gun rights groups have consistently opposed the laws at the federal and state levels, calling them a backdoor effort at gun confiscation that does not afford due process and could be easily abused. The National Rifle Association, for instance, said this month that laws already proposed in Congress “trample on individual rights.”
The laws enjoy broad public support, according to recent surveys. A Marist Poll taken after the May 24 shooting inside a Uvalde, Tex., elementary school found that 73 percent of Americans back red-flag laws, including 60 percent of Republicans and 61 percent of gun owners.
The House on Thursday voted 224-202 to pass a red-flag bill, with five Republicans voting in favor and one Democrat opposed. Ahead of the vote, Republican leaders urged their members to oppose the bill, calling it “poorly crafted legislation focused on firearm confiscation and undermining the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens.”
Hopes for gun deal fade as Senate negotiators plead for patience
The bill combined a measure incentivizing states to create their own laws with a more divisive bill that would allow family members or law enforcement officials to seek red-flag orders in federal court. Under that bill, a judge could immediately issue a 14-day restriction if he or she finds the person in question “poses a risk of imminent personal injury to self or another individual.” A longer-term order would necessitate a hearing with the subject of the order.
State laws have differing due process standards, and the Senate negotiators have been seeking to work out those details to the satisfaction of a critical mass of Republicans. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.), who mur the House measure incentivizing states to act, said similar legislation would “provide the foundation” for a Senate deal. “They are considering a few other things that are a little bit more challenging to get consensus on, but the red-flag bill is one that they seem to have more consensus,” he said.
But conservatives appear intent on undermining that consensus. Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) said Thursday that states were free to pursue red-flag laws if they wish, but “this should not be something Congress needs to meddle in.”
Daines, who is seeking to chair the Senate Republican campaign committee for the 2024 election cycle, added, “Many of our states are swimming in money right now after we shoveled $7 trillion of covid money out the door, so money is not the issue. The states can do this if they think it’s the best thing they should be doing.”
Other conservatives who voiced opposition included Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), who noted a red-flag law in New York did not prevent the May 14 mass shooting in a Buffalo supermarket that left 10 dead, as well as Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), who called any red-flag provision a “poison pill” for any Senate deal. “I don’t see how a red-flag law passes up here,” he said. “I think it’s an infringement on the Second Amendment, and just like I’m standing up and fighting to protect our freedoms of speech and our freedoms of religion, I’m going to stand up and protect our Second Amendment.”
The top negotiators, Murphy and Cornyn, meanwhile, signaled that they considered the red-flag component of their negotiations very much alive. “I think we’ve got a diversity of opinions in the Republican caucus, but my sense is there is still a lot of support for state red-flag bills and federal support for the proper and constitutional implementation of those of those laws,” Murphy said Thursday. Cornyn separately added, “There’ll be something on that, but not a national red-flag law.”
Murphy declined to say whether a bipartisan deal without a red-flag element would be substantial enough to be worth passing. Negotiators are also discussing expanding federal background checks for gun buyers to incorporate juvenile records, providing billions of dollars in new mental health funding and additional measures to beef up school security.
Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va), another member of the negotiating group, said it was “a no-brainer to me” to include a red-flag provision. “I feel very strongly that it would be great if we could to address that, and it has to be addressed somewhere,” he said.
Other Republicans involved in the negotiations gave an upbeat assessment as well, including Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who said he supported federal support to states “if that preserves due process and if we made sure the rights of individuals are respected,” and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who cited the Florida red-flag law backed by Republicans there as a model. “It’s not mandatory. It’s optional,” he said. “Anybody who says that there’s a significant opposition to what we’re talking about right now, I just don’t see it in my discussions.”
With negotiators hoping to pick up support from not just the minimum of 10 Republican senators, but potentially 20 or 30, the fate of the provision may lie with those such as Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), another member of Republican leadership who said she was awaiting more detail and that it was “going to come down to definitions” because “everybody has a different thing in mind.” She said, “Right now, the discussions are so broad, we haven’t really narrowed down onto anything. But I think the positive thing, the takeaway from all of this, is that people have a pretty open mind.”
Noted: Jan. 6 committee will release transcripts of interviews with 1,000 witnesses
8:27 PMNoted: Supreme Court justices’ financial disclosures are out | 2022-06-09T21:25:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Senators raise concerns over red flag gun laws - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/senate-red-flag-laws/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/senate-red-flag-laws/ |
Supreme Court allows ‘undated’ Pennsylvania ballots to be counted
The sense of urgency surrounding the court’s action fell off last week, when Republican Senate candidate David McCormick conceded to rival Mehmet Oz
Election workers count ballots for the Pennsylvania primary election on May 18 in Mercer. (Keith Srakocic/AP)
The Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for Pennsylvania to count mail-in primary ballots received by the Election Day deadline but lacked a state-required handwritten date on the return envelope.
There are relatively few “undated” ballots, though they could make a difference in tight races. But the sense of urgency surrounding the Supreme Court’s action diminished last week, when Republican Senate candidate David McCormick conceded to rival Mehmet Oz. McCormick, who trailed Oz by less than 1,000 votes, sued to have the votes counted, and Pennsylvania’s commonwealth court agreed.
But there were not enough of the ballots to make a difference, McCormick decided. Oz will face Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) in the general election, a crucial race for both parties hoping to win control of the Senate in November.
The Supreme Court case also involves a judicial candidate in Lehigh County, who says counting the ballots threatens his lead in a close election. Three justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch — noted their dissents from the court’s order.
Pennsylvania law requires those voting by mail to “fill out, date and sign” a form on the outer envelope used to return their ballots. But election officials concede they will count otherwise valid ballots where the date is obviously wrong, such as reflecting the voter’s birth date or even some date in the future. They just discard the ones where the date is left blank, even if the postmark shows it met the state’s deadline.
A unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit said that kind of discrepancy violates a provision of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964. The provision prohibits government officials from denying the right to vote “because of an error or omission” that “is not material in determining whether such individual is qualified under state law to vote.”
“It must be remembered that all agree that the disputed ballots were received before the 8:00 p.m. deadline on Election Day,” Judge Theodore McKee wrote. “It must also be remembered that ballots that were received with an erroneous date were counted.”
That was a “nail in the coffin,” McKee wrote. “If the substance of the string of numbers does not matter, then it is hard to understand how one could claim that this requirement has any use in determining a voter’s qualifications.”
The Supreme Court’s majority did not explain its reasoning for allowing the 3rd Circuit’s decision to go into effect, as is common in emergency orders.
Alito wrote for the dissenters that the 3rd Circuit’s decision “is very likely wrong.”
“If left undisturbed, it could well affect the outcome of the fall elections, and it would be far better for us to address that interpretation before, rather than after, it has that effect,” Alito wrote.
Judicial candidate David Ritter, who leads his rival by 71 votes, said that was a decision for the state to make, and state courts in this case had decided the ballots should not be counted if they don’t meet all the requirements.
The 3rd Circuit’s “sweeping” opinion, his lawyers told the Supreme Court, would question the validity of every voting requirement that does not go to “determining age, citizenship, residency, or current imprisonment for a felony.”
It could threaten “virtually every regulation of mail-in voting, including laws requiring voters to use certain writing instruments, use certain envelopes, mail their ballot to the right precinct, declare that their ballot is being delivered by a qualified third party, contain a signature that matches the one on file, and more.”
The ACLU, representing five voters who left the date blank even though they met other requirements, said it was more important that votes be counted than “inconsequential” requirements be met. “The county clerk affirmed he would have accepted envelope dates from the future,” the brief said. “Yet voters who mistakenly omitted the envelope date were disenfranchised.”
Alito agreed with the argument of Ritter, which was also endorsed by the Republican Party.
“One may argue that the inclusion of a date does not serve any strong purpose and that a voter’s failure to date a ballot should not cause the ballot to be disqualified,” Alito wrote. But he contended the federal law “does not address that issue. It applies only to errors or omissions that are not material to the question whether a person is qualified to vote. It leaves it to the States to decide which voting rules should be mandatory.”
Oz filed a brief supporting Ritter. He said the 3rd Circuit’s “thinly reasoned and erroneous decision” was being “weaponized to undermine the apparent result of a statewide primary election for the Republican nomination to represent Pennsylvania in the United States Senate.” It amounts to changing the rules after the election, Oz’s brief said, even though the number of such ballots was likely too small to affect the outcome.
But in the state court case that McCormick filed, a judge said the federal statute and Pennsylvania law protecting voters meant the votes should be counted.
Commonwealth Court President Judge Renée Cohn Jubelirer directed the counties to count the disputed ballots. But she said they would report one tally that includes those ballots and another that does not, until a final decision is made.
The Supreme Court’s case is Ritter v. Migliori. | 2022-06-09T21:26:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Supreme Court allows ‘undated’ Pennsylvania ballots to be counted - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/supreme-court-pennsylvania-ballots/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/supreme-court-pennsylvania-ballots/ |
In trying to prebut Jan. 6 committee, McCarthy reinforces its utility
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) spoke at a news conference Thursday to offer a prebuttal of the Jan. 6 committee’s public hearings, which were set to begin Thursday night. He cast the committee as illegitimate and overly political, suggesting the House’s time would be better used on issues such as inflation, gas prices and crime.
What he also did, though, was reinforce just how much the chief questions about Jan. 6, 2021, and what preceded it remain largely unanswered — or at least unsettled, because of people like McCarthy, who once expressed great interest in them.
He was also asked whether the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was an “insurrection,” and he again punted, saying merely that it was “wrong.”
Finally, he was asked about an increasingly significant discrepancy between accounts of his phone call with then-President Donald Trump during the Capitol riot.
New audio released by two New York Times reporters features McCarthy saying on Jan. 11, 2021, that he had told Trump to tell the rioters to stop and that “I was very intense and very loud about it.” But Trump told the same reporters that McCarthy wasn’t nearly so animated, because he has an “inferiority complex.” From an excerpt of the reporters’ book:
No, Trump says, McCarthy had not clashed with him over the phone with the riot still in progress. “He wouldn’t say that,” Trump said. So why, then, did McCarthy go around claiming to other people that he’s tougher with Trump in private than he really is? The former president packed his two-word diagnosis with contempt.
“Inferiority complex,” Trump said.
Confronted with that discrepancy by The Washington Post’s Paul Kane on Thursday, though, McCarthy quickly sought to move past it. He joked about whether he has an inferiority complex and added: “There’s two people on the call. Two people know what happened on the call. I spoke to the American public. They can judge whatever I said.” He called for another question.
That McCarthy wasn’t terribly interested in litigating all of this on the eve of Thursday’s hearing wasn’t terribly surprising. But each of the exchanges highlighted the fact that perhaps having at least some kind of committee to look into such matters might be a worthwhile pursuit. (And indeed, McCarthy once seemed to support such a thing.)
McCarthy, after all, once labeled the attack an insurrection, but now he avoids that label. In that posture, he has been joined by others in the party. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) once repeatedly labeled it a “terrorist” attack, but backed off that in the face of pressure from Fox News’s Tucker Carlson. Republicans initially condemned the Capitol riot in no uncertain terms but soon rallied to the causes of those arrested for taking part, likening them to political prisoners. They also muddied the waters by citing “legitimate political discourse.”
I’m on record saying it clearly met the definition for “insurrection.” But, certainly, building out just how much this was actually part of an attempt to violently overthrow the government would seem a valid and important pursuit if people aren’t sold on that.
The dynamic is similar with whether Biden is a legitimate president. The idea that he’s not is precisely the false and baseless allegation that so fueled the insurrectionists in the first place. And you needn’t take our word for it; that’s what several big-name Republicans said, back when it was more acceptable to say so. Since then and despite the violence, we’ve seen a gradual retreat from that position in the face of pressure from the base. If the potential future speaker of the House still won’t definitively rebut the “big lie,” that says something about the lack of a true reckoning over it.
And the discrepancy between McCarthy’s version and Trump’s is merely the latest exchange to highlight just how little we know about what Trump was up to. That’s in large part because Trump allies including McCarthy haven’t been forthcoming, but also because of gaps in White House records. And even when people are on the record, this most basic of key facts — how soon Republicans truly pleaded with Trump to call off the dogs — remains in dispute.
Trump’s actions that day would seem to be of interest to McCarthy, given that he took to the House floor after Jan. 6 and said Trump was responsible for not intervening sooner, and that perhaps Trump should have been censured.
One can take issue with how the Jan. 6 committee conducts its business. And we’ll see, starting Thursday night, how faithful it is to the facts and how compelling its work is. But Republicans have also sought to undermine the inquiry from the start, beginning with killing off a bipartisan 9/11-style commission despite McCarthy having tasked an ally with negotiating it. The angle was clear: These Republicans knew this would be politically bad for them, and they didn’t want to relive all of it.
McCarthy was among those extolling the virtues and necessity of some kind of significant probe into Jan. 6, according to the newly released Jan. 11, 2021, audio.
“We cannot just sweep this under the rug,” he said in a private GOP meeting. “We need to know why it happened, who did it, and people need to be held accountable for it. And I’m committed to make sure that happens.”
Seventeen months later, he’s obviously less committed. Much remains unresolved — as evidenced by McCarthy’s own preview of the hearings Thursday — but the emphasis is entirely different. | 2022-06-09T21:26:06Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Kevin McCarthy reinforces utility of Jan. 6 probe - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/trying-prebut-jan-6-committee-mccarthy-reinforces-its-utility/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/trying-prebut-jan-6-committee-mccarthy-reinforces-its-utility/ |
Deputies from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in Western Maryland said they are investigating a shooting Thursday afternoon with multiple victims at a concrete molding company.
Some people were killed, but it was not immediately clear how many.
McCauley identified the company as Columbia Machine Inc., which according to its website designs and manufactures concrete products including mixers and molds. It serves customers in more than 100 countries and started in 1937.
The shooting occurred around 2:30 p.m., authorities said. Deputies responded to the 12900 block of Bikle Road, near Hagerstown, and authorities said in a statement, “the suspect is no longer a threat to the community.”
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said at a news conference that a state trooper who responded was shot in the shoulder and returned fire. He said he didn’t know the status of the shooter or the circumstances of the shooting. He believed there were three dead.
The FBI’s Baltimore field office’s evidence response team is also on scene, according to a spacewoman. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also is assisting.
Erin Cox, Justin Jouvenal and Peter Hermann contributed to this report. | 2022-06-09T22:00:17Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Smithsburg shooting: Police in Washington County are responding to a fatal shooting - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/09/smithsburg-shooting-maryland/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/09/smithsburg-shooting-maryland/ |
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A Michigan police officer has been charged with second-degree murder for fatally shooting Patrick Lyoya in the back of the head as the Black man was on the ground. The charges against Grand Rapids Officer Christopher Schurr come roughly two months after Lyoya was killed on April 4 during an intense physical struggle, which was captured on bystander video. Schurr fired the fatal shot while demanding that Lyoya, a refugee from Congo “let go” of the officer’s Taser. Kent County prosecutor Chris Becker said Lyoya’s death was not justified and could not be excused as self-defense. Schurr, who is white, told Lyoya that he stopped his car because the license plate didn’t match the vehicle. Roughly a minute into the stop, Lyoya began to run after he was asked to produce a driver’s license. | 2022-06-09T22:05:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | A look at high-profile killings by US police - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/a-look-at-high-profile-killings-by-us-police/2022/06/09/298b3858-e839-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/a-look-at-high-profile-killings-by-us-police/2022/06/09/298b3858-e839-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
No, Republicans, prairie dogs don’t matter more than murdered children.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) at the U.S. Capitol on June 7 in D.C. (Oliver Contreras for The Washington Post)
When he was governor of Florida, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) responded to the Parkland school massacre with action: He proudly signed legislation raising the state’s age to buy any firearm to 21, recognizing that the rules for buying weapons such as the AR-15-style assault rifle used by the then-19-year-old Parkland shooter and for purchasing handguns should be the same. Surely, then, Scott would support federal legislation to do the same thing. Right?
Wrong. Scott told CNN this week that he would prefer the states act, ignoring the obvious problem with that solution. Those who want to skirt such rules can simply buy their weapons in some other state with more lenient rules, just as buyers eager to avoid background checks can shop gun shows or private sales. And keeping guns out of the wrong hands will always be secondary to keeping guns out of the marketplace in the first place.
Congress should approve whatever incremental legislation a bipartisan working group of senators is able to come up with. But no one should have any illusions about why the nation is incapable of doing more: the Republican Party’s politics-before-people mind-set, and the moral amnesia that causes Republican politicians to prioritize their careers over their principles and common sense.
Giving in to the fear of MAGA-addled voters is reprehensible, at a time when the fourth-graders slain in Uvalde, Tex., are still being buried. But sadly, it is not irrational.
Last week, Rep. Chris Jacobs (R-N.Y.), who represents a district that includes the Buffalo suburbs, announced he was ending his bid for reelection. In the November general election, Jacobs would have been favored to win handily — the redrawn district that he would have competed in leans heavily Republican. The problem is the August GOP primary and the fact that Jacobs, in the wake of last month’s supermarket massacre in Buffalo, voiced strong support for a federal ban on assault weapons.
“The last thing we need is an incredibly negative, half-truth filled media attack, funded by millions of dollars in special interest money coming into our community around this issue of guns and gun violence and gun control,” Jacobs said in a statement announcing his retirement. In other words, he took a reasonable position on gun violence and knew that the gun lobby would try its best to crush him.
That is what the Republican Party has come to. A congressman sees 10 of his neighbors slain in a racist killing spree, takes a stand in favor of reinstating a ban on weapons of war — and has to quit, because common decency and common sense are unacceptable to his party.
Gun violence should not be a partisan issue. Early Wednesday, an armed man from California was arrested near the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, and police say he told them he wanted to kill a specific justice. Bullets and rage have no respect for party affiliation.
The Democratic-controlled House passed a strong package of measures that includes raising the age for gun purchases to 21. Action came after the House Oversight and Reform Committee heard heartbreaking recorded testimony Wednesday from 11-year-old Miah Cerrillo, who described how she survived the Uvalde massacre by smearing a slain classmate’s blood on herself and pretending to be dead.
Cerrillo’s father told The Post that “she tells us, ‘I don’t have friends anymore. All my friends are dead.’”
Roy Guerrero, Uvalde’s only pediatrician, told the House committee of going to the hospital and seeing the remains of youngsters who had been slain. “Two children, whose bodies had been pulverized by the bullets fired at them, decapitated, whose flesh had ripped apart, that the only clue as to their identities were the blood-spattered cartoon clothes still clinging to them,” Guerrero said.
Republicans on the committee focused their questions and remarks on what they said was a need for more law enforcement officers to protect schools and respond quickly to threats. The GOP tactic, in the fraught days after a mass shooting, is always the same: Talk about anything under the sun except the instrument with which the atrocity was perpetrated. Talk about anything but the gun.
When cornered and pressed on the subject, they sound ridiculous. Asked Tuesday why anyone needed an AR-15, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) mentioned target shooting — not exactly what I would consider a “need” — and then added that “in my state, they use them to shoot prairie dogs and, you know, other types of varmints.”
Good lord. Are we truly supposed to weigh pesky varmints against the shattered remains of murdered children?
Republicans, search your souls. If you can find them. | 2022-06-09T22:05:38Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Rick Scott raised the age requirement to buy a gun in Florida. Senators should follow his example. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/prairie-dogs-dont-matter-more-than-murdered-children/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/prairie-dogs-dont-matter-more-than-murdered-children/ |
Pro-Russian troops stand in front of the destroyed administration building of Azovstal Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 21. (Chingis Kondarov/Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine represents his version of what a U.S. official calls “Russian exceptionalism” — the idea that Russia is a unique Eurasian imperial system, historically sprawled across two continents, that can play by its own rules.
The official, who specializes in Russia, says Putin is riding the tiger — unleashing an extreme brand of Russian nationalism in taking his nation to war while simultaneously trying to unite the scores of non-Russian ethnic groups that make up the Russian Federation. Some analysts describe his approach as “Russian fascism.” The U.S. official noted that Putin has embraced the militarism of European fascist states of the 1930s, but not the ethnic hatred.
Putin’s dilemma is that he’s using non-Russian troops to suppress a Ukraine that he claims is part of Mother Russia. According to a study of the names of dead or captured Russians early in the war, about 30 percent were from non-Russian groups. Chechens and Dagestanis are dying, but it’s not their fight — unless Putin can wave a Eurasian imperial banner.
Putin tried to do just that on March 3, when he awarded a “Hero of Russia” title to an officer from Dagestan who had died in Ukraine. “I am a Russian person,” Putin said. “But when I see such examples of heroism … I am Dagestani, I am Chechen, Ingush, Russian, Tatar, Jew. … I am proud of being part of this world, part of the strong, powerful multi-ethnic people of Russia.”
One irony of this war is that Putin is mired in the same sort of destabilizing, no-win conflict for which he has often derided the United States. What’s more, he is justifying his “special military operation” with the same passion for regime change that he has mocked in U.S. foreign policy.
The echoes are striking when you look back to Putin’s 2013 op-ed in the New York Times, in which he blasted American military interventions in Syria, Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan. The problem, Putin said, was that America thought it could play by its own rules. “It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional,” he wrote.
Putin revisited this theme in his May 9 “Victory Day” speech in Moscow. “The United States of America, especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union, started talking about its exceptionalism, thereby humiliating not only the whole world, but also its satellites, who have to pretend that they do not notice anything and meekly swallow everything.”
This is what psychiatrists call “projection.” Putin was attacking the United States for the very behavior that has led to his ruinous war in Ukraine.
In that speech, Putin expressed his version of Russian-Eurasian exceptionalism. “We remember how Russia’s enemies … tried to seed inter-ethnic and religious strife so as to weaken us from within and divide us. They failed completely. Today, our warriors of different ethnicities are fighting together, shielding each other from bullets and shrapnel like brothers. This is where the power of Russia lies, a great invincible power of our united multi-ethnic nation.”
Russian nationalism has always been a double-edged sword for Putin: He likes the raw passion of its patriotism, but he appears wary of its sometimes uncontrollable ethnic extremism, which might threaten his authoritarian rule over a disparate nation.
Recent Russian history illustrates this tension. Anti-immigrant riots erupted in Moscow in December 2010 after a migrant from the North Caucasus shot a Russian soccer fan. Thirty people were injured in the mayhem, as crowds chanted “Russia for Russians.” Police suppressed the protest.
Similar riots exploded in October 2013 in the Moscow district of Biriulevo, after an Azerbaijani immigrant killed a Russian; police arrested nearly 400 rioters. An assessment by intelligence analysts at Poland’s Center for Eastern Studies explained: “The authorities’ reaction to the Biriulevo incident indicates that they are aware of the scale of social tensions regarding immigration in the city, and want to prevent social unrest from spreading.”
Putin’s regime similarly cracked down on an extreme Russian nationalist named Alexander Potkin, who was known to his followers as “Belov.” He led an ultranationalist group called the Movement Against Illegal Immigration, which was banned in 2011. Potkin was convicted for extremism by a Moscow court in 2016.
One inspiration for Putin’s dream of an exceptional Eurasian empire is the late Russian historian Lev Gumilev, according to the U.S. official. In Putin’s 2016 annual speech to the Russian Federal Assembly, he lauded what Gumilev had called passionarnost, which could be translated as “passionism.” Rather than trying to become Western and bourgeois, Gumilev argued, Russia should recognize that it “owed its heritage more to the fierce nomads and steppe tribes of Eurasia,” as the Financial Times explained in 2016 essay about the Russian historian.
It would be comforting to think that the Ukraine war and its assault on the European order are simply products of Putin’s fevered imagination. But they have deep roots in the history and culture of the sprawling Russian federation. This truly is a battle of East vs. West — and of two versions of exceptionalism. | 2022-06-09T22:05:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Putin's Ukraine war fueled by paradox of nationalism - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/putins-ukraine-war-draws-his-vision-nationalism-exceptionalism/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/putins-ukraine-war-draws-his-vision-nationalism-exceptionalism/ |
Antitrust suit on American, JetBlue alliance can proceed, judge rules
JetBlue and American aircraft are parked at Tampa International Airport. (Chris O'Meara/AP)
A judge ruled Thursday that an antitrust suit challenging an arrangement between American Airlines and JetBlue Airways that allows the carriers to sell the other’s seats on selected Northeast U.S. routes can move to trial.
In a two-page decision, U.S. District Judge Leo T. Sorokin in Massachusetts said the question of whether the alliance between the two carriers is likely to harm competition is a question for “trial, not the pending motion to dismiss.” Sorokin added that the argument was a matter “upon which the Court takes no position.”
A trial has been set for Sept. 26.
Department of Justice seeks to unwind alliance between American, JetBlue
In seeking to have the case dismissed, American and JetBlue argued that the complaint filed in September by the Justice Department and attorneys general in six states and D.C. was “defective” because it “did not allege that the airlines’ alliance has harmed competition, rather that it “likely will harm competition” or is “likely to have” various harmful effects.
However, Sorokin wrote that the complaint “alleges — plausibly and in a manner that is neither conclusory nor threadbare — that the alliance at issue between American and JetBlue is likely to harm competition in the relevant markets, and that American and JetBlue control a significant share in an already concentrated market.”
The Justice Department had no comment on the ruling.
In a statement, American Airlines said: “We look forward to the opportunity to demonstrate the significant consumer benefits and increased competition enabled by the Northeast Alliance.”
JetBlue said the alliance continues to benefit consumers because it has created a third viable competitor in the Northeast, adding, “We are confident the court will rule in our favor after we present the facts this September.”
American and JetBlue announced the partnership in July 2020. In January 2021, shortly before the end of the Trump administration, officials at the Transportation Department allowed the deal to move forward as long as certain conditions were met. The alliance began operating the next month.
American, JetBlue ask judge to dismiss suit that seeks to unwind partnership
In September, the Justice Department, joined by attorneys general in Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District, sought to undo the agreement, alleging the partnership could harm customers by “significantly diminishing JetBlue’s incentive to compete with American elsewhere, further consolidating an already highly concentrated industry.” | 2022-06-09T22:06:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | American Airlines, JetBlue lose bid to have DOJ lawsuit dismissed - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/06/09/american-jetblue-antitrust-suit/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/06/09/american-jetblue-antitrust-suit/ |
Sports and travel are a match made in hot dog heaven
Writer Natalie Compton blends in with Yomiuri Giants fans at a baseball game in Japan. (Natalie Compton/The Washington Post)
The most memorable part of my recent trip to Britain wasn’t seeing the London Bridge or eating a full English — it was taking the train into the suburbs to watch a soccer match in England’s third-tier League One. Americans might call a minor league game.
My solo seat was next to a dad and his teenage son, who gave me the CliffsNotes on key players and traditions — like why everyone disappeared before halftime. (They were rushing to the concessions level for midgame pints; with that tip, I got up and followed suit.)
Because this wasn’t the major leagues, I could afford to sit right behind the goal — so close you could banter with the players. I watched the red-clad fans around me and did my best to keep up with the many chants, stand when everyone stood. After the game, I joined the sea of people pouring out of the stadium and ended up spending hours inside a raucous, fans-only pub (you needed to show your game tickets to get in).
“People want to travel like a local — they want that authentic experience, and it doesn’t get more authentic than going to a sporting event,” says Luisa Mendoza, the founder and CEO of Global Tourism Sports and Entertainment, a business-to-business platform that connects tour companies with tickets to professional sports events in the United States, among other services.
Don’t write off the idea because you don’t follow sports. I couldn’t tell you offhand who won the World Series. But blending in with fans in an unfamiliar place is still one of my favorite travel pastimes.
The minors are more personal
You could shell out a fortune to see the superstars play, but there’s a different kind of magic to packing into the cheap seats with the everyman.
Fulvio De Bonis, president and co-founder of Imago Artis Travel, says seeing one of Italy’s lesser-followed soccer teams instead of the super-famous AC Milan or Roma is comparable to eating a meal from an Italian grandmother instead of a Michelin-starred restaurant.
“Both are authentic, but it’s a different kind of authenticity,” he says.
Shop around and find something to fit your budget, whether that’s the minor leagues, a collegiate league or cheap seats in the upper deck or standing section.
“It doesn’t matter if your seats are thousands of dollars or $20 in the nosebleeds,” Mendoza says. “It just brings us all together, and for those two hours, you forget what’s happening because you’re just screaming like crazy, rooting for your team.”
It’s not (all) about the game
If you enjoy watching the sport itself, that’s a bonus. But for travelers the real joy comes from being with the fans. It’s the walk to the stadium, the chants, the outfits and the camaraderie. Finding a game — any game — opens up doors to adventure and new friendships for travelers.
If it weren’t for sports, I wouldn’t have seen Hsinchu, Taiwan, if it wasn’t for wanting to see a Uni-Lions baseball game. I wouldn’t have ended up at a Glasgow house party if I hadn’t stopped into a pub to watch a soccer final.
“It’s a great way indeed to learn about local culture, to immerse yourself into a team, its spirit, the supporters,” says former German sports journalist Sandra Weinacht, whose company Inside Europe arranges travel experiences for clients from soccer to tennis to the Tour de France.
Among the many selling points for going to a game during your trip, “at the very least, it could just lead to a really fun experience meeting new people in a new city,” says Tori Petry, a Fora travel adviser and former Detroit Lions broadcaster. “Sporting events are social events.”
Weinacht says even if you don’t speak the local language, cheering for the same team can create opportunities for bonding with the people around you. And if you can’t find a ticket or make it to the game in person, “public viewings are another wonderful bonding opportunity with locals,” Weinacht says.
Show up hungry
Then there’s the food. I left a Yomiuri Giants baseball game in Tokyo full of takoyaki — fried octopus balls that are a popular Japanese street food — and Kirin beer. In between Muay Thai matches at a Bangkok stadium, I feasted on Khao Man Gai, a chicken and rice dish.
If there’s a culture of tailgating, go to the tailgate.
For example, before a Louisiana State University football game in Baton Rouge, “you just kind of wander around the tents and the setups and people will invite you in and offer you gumbo,” Petry says. “It’s truly an experience. So you have to go for the game, but you also go for the tailgating.”
Don’t rely on a scalper
You could try your luck and find a game when you’re already on your trip, but you may discover they’re sold out. Petry recommends finding tickets in advance while you’re doing the rest of your planning.
If you’re not working with a travel planner, Petry says the best way to find tickets is to go directly to the home stadium’s website.
“Look for tickets directly through the team,” she says. “Those are going to be your lowest-priced tickets.”
While you’re on their site, Petry recommends seeing if the team has an app to download. “A lot of these teams have apps that will give you maps to their stadium, tell you what food is in the stadium, tell you traditions what happen during game day,” she says.
If you’re not having luck finding tickets on the team or stadium website, be wary shopping from third parties. You may want to go through a trusted travel company or recognizable ticketing websites versus a random online listing.
“I always tell my client that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” Mendoza says. “If tickets are going for $100 and you see one for $30, good luck with that.” | 2022-06-09T22:06:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Traveling to a new city? Get tickets to a game. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/tips/sports-travel-tickets-new-city/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/tips/sports-travel-tickets-new-city/ |
Ukrainian and American flags fly as Ukrainian soldiers guard a military checkpoint in Donbas in June. (Heidi Levine for The Washington Post)
SLOVYANSK, Ukraine — Russian forces advanced toward the city of Slovyansk in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, pummeling Ukrainian troops with artillery as Russian President Vladimir Putin compared his quest to that of Russia’s first emperor, Peter the Great.
Pro-Kremlin media reported that Russian forces were beginning a new stage of their assault on the east, with plans to soon take over Slovyansk and the nearby town of Kramatorsk. The Ukrainian military said in a statement that Russian forces are focusing the fight on Slovyansk, targeting villages on its outskirts even as Ukrainian forces fight to hold onto their territory.
The boom of artillery could be heard in both towns, and fierce street fighting continued in the nearby strategic city of Severodonetsk. Some 10,000 civilians remain stuck in that city, Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk said in a televised interview.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has described the fight for Severodonetsk as “probably one of the most difficult throughout this war,” adding that the battle for control of the eastern Donbas region, which Putin has declared a key objective, was “being decided” there.
Meanwhile, a Russian-backed tribunal in the separatist Donetsk region has sentenced two Britons and a Moroccan man to death, Russian state media reported Thursday. The trio represents the first foreign fighters to be sentenced since the start of the war in late February.
The men — Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner of Britain and Brahim Saadoune of Morocco — were charged with working as foreign mercenaries in the self-declared breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic, which Moscow recognized as independent on the eve of the invasion. The court in which they were tried is not internationally recognized.
The three fighters will have 30 days to appeal; if a pardon is granted, the death penalty can be replaced with a 25-year prison sentence. Executions in the DPR are carried out by firing squad, and the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported that the men would be shot.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry claimed Thursday that it had launched a successful counterattack against Russian forces around the key city of Kherson and reclaimed some of the territory it had lost in the southern region.
The ministry did not provide more specifics on which areas it was referring to, and The Washington Post could not independently verify the claims. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said in its latest intelligence assessment that “Russian forces are intensifying their operations in northwestern Kherson Oblast in response to recent Ukrainian counterattacks.”
The mayor of the embattled eastern city of Severodonetsk said the humanitarian situation in the city was worsening, with fierce fighting and no electricity or water services and little food.
“For now, evacuation is impossible,” Stryuk said in a television interview, describing how the main bridge out of the city to nearby Lysychansk was being shelled and infrastructure destroyed.
Tensions continue to rise over a looming global food crisis, with top U.N. officials working on a deal to export Ukrainian and Russian food products. The foreign ministers of Russia and Turkey said they held “substantial” talks on opening a shipping corridor for wheat from Ukraine but did not announce any agreement.
The European Union said Thursday it would donate the equivalent of about $220 million in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, as an official from the 27-country bloc visited a suburb of Kyiv. The E.U. said in a news release that the aid was necessary “in light of the soaring humanitarian needs in Ukraine.”
As the war rages in the country’s east and an assault on Slovyansk appears to loom ever closer, an increasingly eerie atmosphere has descended upon this small city, where water remains shut off due to a military strike on nearby infrastructure.
On Thursday, an air raid siren wailed nonstop in the background as a young woman who identified herself only as Katya played her violin in front of a boarded up grocery store — her case open on the ground in hopes passersby might spare her some change.
Former factory workers lined up on the sidewalk to sell vegetables they picked from their own gardens, their only chance to make money after their work dried up early on in the war. Soldiers roamed the streets — some wounded, others stocking up on snacks before heading back to the front lines.
Downtown, civilians rushed to remove books, documents and equipment from the city’s library — “in case we get bombed,” a 62-year-old librarian named Tatyana explained as she loaded materials into a van. A sign hung from a door on the side of the building announcing that the humanitarian volunteers who once worked there are no longer handing out any aid.
Slovyansk Mayor Vadym Lyakh said in a TV interview that Russians have been threatening an attack on his city for a month and that “the danger has persisted ever since.”
Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said this week that plans are in place to train Ukrainian soldiers on how to use multiple-launch rocket artillery. Ukrainian military officials and ground troops have bemoaned delays in Western military aid to the country. They said foreign powers were sitting on crucial military equipment as Russian forces battered Ukrainian forces, causing massive casualties and forcing Ukrainians to retreat from certain positions across Donbas.
Milley’s comments raised the likelihood that more of the weapons could be sent to Ukraine. The pending arrival of further military aid is expected to significantly bolster the outgunned Ukrainians’ ability to push back against Russian forces.
Civilians and soldiers here say the assistance cannot come soon enough. At a checkpoint not far from the front line, an American flag waves beneath a Ukrainian one — a nod to the Ukrainian troops’ reliance on U.S. support in their fight against Russia.
On Wednesday, artillery struck a school in the city of Bakhmut, where Russian forces are also increasingly focusing their military might. The remnants of books from its destroyed library lay scattered across the ground.
Nelya Puzina, 66, walked through the aftermath as she assessed the damage, a look of horror and fear on her face.
“We are suffering here, living in a nightmare, waking up from convulsions,” Puzina said. “We are praying for weapons.”
“Please give us a weapon,” she added, or Putin “will wipe us off the face of the earth.”
Ilyushina reported from Riga. Heidi Levine in Bakhmut; Isabelle Khurshudyan in Kyiv; Dan Lamothe, Cate Cadell and Reis Thebault in Washington; Adela Suliman in London; and Annabelle Chapman in Paris contributed to this report. | 2022-06-09T22:06:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Russia makes key military gains in eastern Ukraine - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/09/ukraine-russia-military-gains/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/09/ukraine-russia-military-gains/ |
How to start sailing cheaply and easily
By Erin E. Williams
Veterans sail on Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana during skills training with Community Sailing New Orleans. (Max Becherer/NOLA.com/Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate/AP)
You can see them from Southeast Washington’s booming waterfront: small dinghies, their sails white and crisp above the Anacostia River. Even in this landlocked city, sailing holds a powerful allure — yet despite its often expensive and exclusive reputation, it’s surprisingly accessible.
The dinghies belong to DC Sail, the National Maritime Heritage Foundation’s community sailing program. Like other community sailing centers, DC Sail is a nonprofit organization that supports access for everyone.
“The beauty of community sailing centers is that we provide a pathway to sailing,” said Traci Mead, executive director of DC Sail. “It’s very affordable, and you don’t have to have your own boat.”
These organizations get people out on the water while educating students of all ages on watercraft, safety, science and environmental stewardship. Their programs are open to the public, and by emphasizing equity, they bring sailing’s benefits to people who have historically faced exclusion from water-based recreation.
The nonprofit US Sailing provides leadership, national standards and education for the sport, including accreditation and support for community sailing centers. Although the exact number is difficult to estimate, more than 130 of US Sailing’s member organizations have self-identified as community sailing centers, and 42 of those are accredited. In total, there are probably a few hundred across the country.
Setting a new course
One community sailing center has offered affordable, accessible sailing since 1946. Community Boating Inc. (CBI) in Boston is the nation’s oldest public sailing organization, with a fleet of more than 120 sailboats. Its programs teach people of all abilities to sail, paddle and windsurf on the Charles River — and encourage volunteerism. As nonprofits, centers rely on community involvement, revenue from programs and donations to support operations.
A bucket-list sailing trip in Panama’s San Blas Islands
Many centers similar to CBI opened in the 1980s and 1990s as community members created alternatives to costly boat ownership and yacht clubs. Today, many offer lessons and activities even along the country’s most spectacular urban settings; if you’ve ever daydreamed about admiring the New York skyline from a sailboat, Hudson River Community Sailing offers access from Chelsea and Inwood. Centers allow participants to learn and explore on all kinds of waterways, including lakes great and small, rivers, bays and coastlines. And they’re an increasingly popular way to gain public access to the water, according to US Sailing.
“Community sailing is a big part of the future of sailing,” said Jen Guimaraes, youth education manager for US Sailing. “It’s giving so many more people the opportunity to try it out.”
Community Sailing New Orleans (CSNO) is one such newcomer. The center kicked off its programming in 2021 and anticipates serving about 1,200 adults and children this year. To help create a more accessible West End waterfront post-Katrina, everything was built with an eye to eliminating economic, physical and social barriers to sailing.
CSNO’s cornerstone programs, many of which are free, include sailing and maritime career courses for younger children and high-schoolers, adaptive sailing for people with disabilities and veteran and service member instruction. The center also offers adult learn-to-sail classes, women’s clinics, boat rentals and social sails.
“You’d be surprised how many people have lived here their whole life but never enjoyed Lake Pontchartrain,” said Khari Parrish, operations director for CSNO. “I’m excited to help people in New Orleans get out on the water and experience a different perspective of their city.”
Diving deep
In Washington, DC Sail operates from two marinas and runs youth and adult programs. At the Diamond Teague Park piers, Kids Set Sail summer day camps take 7-to-15-year-olds from safety training on the dock to rigging and hands-on instruction aboard the center’s forgiving 18-foot dinghies.
The organization also provides more than $20,000 each year in scholarships and participates in US Sailing’s donor-funded Siebel Sailors Program, a no-cost opportunity that has taught about 1,500 children across the country to begin and continue sailing.
“Our goal is to get as many kids as possible on the water, learning about safety and the importance of our waterways and the human impact on them,” Mead said.
Like other centers, DC Sail dives deep, helping students grow their skills and confidence. Its vibrant high school racing program has advanced young sailors to national competitions.
Adult offerings include refresher, learn-to-sail and racing classes. Participants come to the organization for a variety of reasons: Some sailed during childhood summer camps and want to take formal classes, and others have bucket-list sailing goals. Some Washingtonians take weekend lessons, but they sail in the Chesapeake Bay. Still others are planning charters in farther-flung locations, learning the basics so they can better relate to their captain.
Docked at the Gangplank Marina at the Wharf, the 65-foot American Spirit schooner is a fundraising resource and an opportunity for the public to partake in sails, private charters and events.
Gateway to the water
Community sailing centers can be both waypoints and final destinations on anyone’s maritime voyage. For example, some participants might attain their small-boat certification, then proceed to cruising courses somewhere else that allow them to travel and charter their own boat. And attaining your small-boat certification equips you with knowledge to seek out boat rentals at other facilities while you travel, enabling you to explore new waterways.
In the Greek islands, a ‘slow travel’ sailing odyssey to the far Ionians
“You can jump in a kayak or rent a boat, so now when you travel, you might choose to go somewhere that you can get onto the water,” Guimaraes said. “It can inspire you to seek new destinations after having the life-changing experience of learning to sail.”
More than sailing
Thanks to the growth in community sailing centers, it’s possible to try sailing at a reasonable price — and join a community that meets everyone where they are, from landlubbers to old salts. Children can learn science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) concepts that are foundational to sailing curriculums. And everyone can cultivate the teamwork skills, leadership, confidence and appreciation for maritime activities and the environment that can arise from sailing.
“They’re a wonderful way to access the water with a supportive group of people, whether you’re there for a day and want a private lesson, want to rent a boat or want your child to experience an exciting summer camp,” Guimaraes said.
Operating in San Diego for 51 years, Mission Bay Aquatic Center (MBAC) is one of the world’s largest instructional watersport facilities, with a fleet that includes more than 50 sailboats, 15 windsurfers, 90 kayaks, 100 surfboards, 70 paddleboards and more. In 2021, the center served more than 30,000 members of the public with a variety of lessons, programs and rentals.
Its sailing programs allow participants — most of whom have never previously sailed — to progress from dry land to advanced sailing. That said, most people don’t pursue certification as an end goal, opting instead to simply enjoy the water.
“What we do here is about much more than sailing,” said Paul Lang, instructional and maintenance manager for MBAC. “Sailing is a tool to getting people outdoors doing something active. We’re the first step in providing access to people who see sailboats from shore and think, ‘How could I ever do that?’ ”
Williams is a writer based in Oregon. Her website is erinewilliams.com.
DC Sail
Small-boat programs are located at Diamond Teague Park piers, 99 Potomac Ave. SE. The American Spirit schooner is docked at the Wharf, 650 Wharf St. SW.
dcsail.org
Sunset Sails on the American Spirit are $50 for nonmembers. A $225 annual membership allows members to purchase up to four Sunset Sail tickets at $25 each, as well as other benefits. Refresher sailing courses are $75 for members. An adult learn-to-sail course at the basic membership level is $515. Kids Set Sail summer camps are $350 per week, and the high school racing program is $550 per spring or fall season. Youth program scholarships are available. Open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Community Sailing New Orleans
101 N. Roadway St., New Orleans
nolacommunitysailing.org
Many of CSNO’s youth, adaptive and veteran sailing programs are free to participants. A beginner adult keelboat course is $375, and a customized Women in the Wind clinic is $32 per person. Youth sailing camps are $325. CSNO operates seven days a week; hours depend on the season.
Mission Bay Aquatic Center
1001 Santa Clara Pl., San Diego
mbaquaticcenter.com
MBAC has a variety of classes, youth programs and rentals. An adult basic sailing course is $180, An adult basic sailing course is $180. Private lessons are $150 for two hours, $75 each additional hour. Sailboat rental for qualified sailors is $40 for 2½ hours. Youth basic sailing and multisport camps are $465. Financial aid is available. Open Monday through Sunday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Community Boating Inc.
21 David G. Mugar Way, Boston
community-boating.org
The country’s oldest public sailing organization, CBI offers programs for adults and children, and it also offers accessible programming. Adult and youth classes include introductory through advanced sailing, racing, windsurfing and paddling. There are also youth STEM classes, a two-week beginner sailing class and sliding-scale costs from $1 to $395. CBI’s Universal Access Program provides adaptive instruction and equipment, also on a sliding scale. One-day keelboat rentals for experienced sailors from $85. Two-hour kayak rentals from $34 per person. CBI operates daily; hours depend on season. | 2022-06-09T22:39:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Tips for getting started in sailing - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/06/09/sailing-beginners-community-centers/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/06/09/sailing-beginners-community-centers/ |
An Israeli flag is painted on a wall surrounding the West Bank Jewish settlement of Migdalim, near the Palestinian town of Nablus, on June 7. (Ariel Schalit/AP)
“But I live in Israel!” insisted the settler.
The occasion was a panel discussion on the future of the West Bank. I’d just pointed out that settlements lie outside Israel. My co-panelist was incredulous. She offered proof that she resided in sovereign Israeli territory: Letters from abroad addressed to her settlement, followed by the country name Israel, were delivered to her home.
Regardless of the post office’s ability to find her, the West Bank is indeed outside Israel’s borders. But I’ve met many settlers who are sure they live inside Israel, and many more for whom the distinction is immaterial. One reason is that the boundary between sovereign Israel and occupied territory doesn’t appear on official maps.
More than that, though, the distinction has very little effect on settlers’ lives. Unlike other Israelis who move out of the country, settlers are covered by Israel’s national health program. They collect the equivalent of their salaries from the National Insurance Institute during 15 weeks of paid maternity (or paternity) leave. They’re subject to the military draft.
For Palestinian residents of the West Bank, living in occupied territory is the overwhelming fact of life. Settlers live in “As-If Land:” The government treats them as if they were residents of Israel.
Now, due to a strange political twist, the legal basis for the as if status is due to expire. The house-of-cards coalition led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett may yet manage to renew it. In the meantime, the crisis exposes the fictions on which the settlement enterprise is built.
The founding document of As-If Land was an emergency order issued by then-Defense Minister Moshe Dayan on July 4, 1967. Three weeks earlier, Israeli had conquered the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan and Sinai. No settlements yet existed, or even a decision to establish them. But Israelis were eagerly taking day trips to the lands beyond the old boundaries. Dayan’s order said that if one of them allegedly committed a crime, Israeli police could arrest him, and an Israeli court try him, as if the crime had taken place in Israel.
This was intended as a quick fix. In Israeli law, emergency orders are intended for situations too pressing to wait for legislation. They expire within months, unless parliament votes to extend them.
In January 1968, the Knesset extended the order for one year. By then, a few settlements had been established. But the government was deadlocked on the future of the occupied territories. So the quick fix stayed in place.
Then parliament went right on quietly extending the order, for longer periods — and adding to it. When Israel enacted national health insurance, a new line in the emergency order insured settlers. Another amendment lists laws that would otherwise apply only to Israeli residents — and says that they also apply to Israelis in the West Bank, as if they lived inside Israel. The list of laws has grown over the years.
This underlies the colonial reality in the West Bank: As I’ve written before, settlers enjoy the rights of those living in metropolitan Israel. Other residents do not.
The emergency order, last extended in 2017, is set to expire on June 30. This week, Bennett’s government asked the Knesset to renew it for five more years. But the ruling coalition stretches across the political spectrum and includes a party representing Arab citizens of Israel. It is held together only by shared determination to keep opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu from returning to power. Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc recently declared it will vote against every government bill, as a means of bringing down Bennett.
So the extension was defeated. Two Arab members of the coalition cast nay votes, refusing to legitimize the occupation. Others absented themselves. Netanyahu’s loyalists — avid supporters of settlement — all voted against the measure.
This could foreshadow the fall of Bennett’s government. It could also be a skirmish before the extension comes up for a new vote and passes.
For now, though, the crisis has put the dual legal system in the West Bank in headlines. It shines a light on two half-truths, each a form of political fraud. On one hand, the emergency order is formally a temporary improvisation. It has allowed successive governments to avoid de jure annexation of the West Bank, with the diplomatic firestorm that would ensue and the vastly increased pressure to give full citizenship to Palestinian residents. But it has lasted 55 years.
Yet it turns out that the legal structure, as vital to settlement as the physical houses, is a fortress built of matchsticks. It can be knocked down with ease by a chance realignment in parliament. Advocates of a one-state solution who cite the supposed permanence of settlements in their argument should pay attention: The settlement enterprise is not as immovable as it looks.
And settlers themselves, looking at the headlines, should realize that they have fallen for a real estate scam. They are not, in fact, living in Israel.
I know Saudi repression. Biden should save ties with the kingdom — with conditions. | 2022-06-09T22:48:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | A political crisis exposes the fictions of the West Bank settlement enterprise - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/israel-law-west-bank-settlement-due-to-expire/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/israel-law-west-bank-settlement-due-to-expire/ |
The ‘next’ Jan. 6 is happening, and the Supreme Court is the target
Protesters march past Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh's home on June 8 in Chevy Chase, Md. (Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
Of course, political shocks never recur with exactitude. But there are clear parallels between last year’s Trumpist movement to obstruct Congress and the current progressive movement to obstruct the Supreme Court. Consider four points of comparison — the premise, the intent, the methods and the response.
The Jan. 6 premise. The Capitol assault was based on the premise that one of the United States’ three branches of government was rendered illegitimate through theft or fraud. After the 2020 election, President Donald Trump and his supporters leveled this accusation at the executive branch — specifically, the incoming president.
Now, such claims are repeated nearly verbatim by Democrats attacking conservative Supreme Court justices, who sit atop the coequal judicial branch. This language is justified by reference to a variety of complaints about the court, most commonly the Republican-run Senate’s refusal to consider President Barack Obama’s nominee in 2016. Some of the court’s progressive antagonists consider subsequent Trump-appointed justices — Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh or Amy Coney Barrett — to unjustly occupy their seats.
Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who last month on Twitter described the Supreme Court majority as “stolen, illegitimate and far-right,” is emerging as one of the most dogged demagogues in the Jan. 6 sequel. Two weeks ago, he repeated his claim that the court was “illegitimate” in an address before a crowd of protesters in Washington. He called for court-packing to “get back the two stolen seats” (apparently Gorsuch’s and Barrett’s).
What’s the difference between pronouncing a duly elected president illegitimate and declaring the same about duly confirmed justices of the high court? For some liberals, it’s simply that they agree with the latter claim. The merits of such grievances are beside the point. The significant parallel is that partisan extremists, fearing the loss of ideological control over a branch of government, seek to fundamentally attack and nullify its authority.
The Jan. 6 intent. The Trumpist intent in the aftermath of the 2020 election won by Joe Biden was to obstruct the certification of that victory. Similarly, now that the Supreme Court has a conservative-leaning majority, progressives want to hamper the ability of the court to decide the law.
That’s why one federal judge suggested that, depending on the circumstances, the leaker of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s draft opinion last month overturning Roe v. Wade could have violated a federal statute prohibiting efforts to corruptly influence an official proceeding. The same charge has been used against many Jan. 6 defendants — and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) has speculated about its use against Trump.
The Jan. 6 methods. Progressives are deploying a mix of incendiary rhetoric, procedural extremism and mob assemblies to try to intimidate their targets — echoing the Trumpist tactics of last year.
The leak of Alito’s draft opinion resulted in an escalating left-wing pressure campaign against the conservative justices. Mobs have assembled outside some of their homes in recent weeks, in violation of a federal statute protecting judges and juries from such targeted interference. The presence of those mobs was blessed by the White House.
The toleration of unlawful assemblies attracts criminality. We saw that on Jan. 6, as violent groups operated within the pro-Trump protest to force their way into the Capitol. And we saw it on Wednesday, when, according to the Justice Department, an armed and apparently disturbed man appeared outside Kavanaugh’s house. He has been charged with attempting to murder the justice. While some members of the mob on Jan. 6 screamed about murdering Vice President Mike Pence, no one has been charged with having that intent.
The Jan. 6 response. The Justice Department has taken extraordinary measures to apprehend those who assembled illegally on Jan. 6, including protesters whom it has not charged with violence. By contrast, no prosecutions of those protesting illegally at the justices’ homes have been reported.
The Jan. 6 assault on the election failed, and officials are establishing deterrence against a replay. Yet the parallel political campaign to undermine the Supreme Court is building with much of elite Washington’s approval. If Republicans take control of Congress in 2023, the Senate and House judiciary committees should take immediate aim at efforts to interfere with the court. The Jan. 6 committee can be a partial model. | 2022-06-09T22:48:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The ‘next’ Jan. 6 is happening, and the Supreme Court is the target - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/next-january-sixth-target-supreme-court/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/next-january-sixth-target-supreme-court/ |
Authorities say Nicholas Roske was set to sneak into justice’s home with pad-soled boots for quiet walking
Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
Fresh off a flight from California, Nicholas Roske grabbed a cab to the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, according to court records. It was 1 a.m.
“The boots with padding really raised red flags,” said Capt. Sean Gagen, commander of the Montgomery County Police Department’s Bethesda district.
As detailed as Roske’s plans may have been, court records and newly released 911 calls also document how quickly he abandoned them. Once arriving to the home early Wednesday, Roske spotted two deputy U.S. marshals, part of Kavanaugh’s security detail, standing outside a car, according to an FBI affidavit filed in federal court. He walked away, turned a corner and called 911 to turn himself in.
“I’m standing now, but I can sit, whatever. I want to be fully compliant,” Roske said, according to a copy of the 911 call released Thursday by the Montgomery County Police Department. “So whatever you want me to do, I’ll do it.”
Man with gun is arrested near Brett Kavanaugh’s home
Federal officials have charged Roske with attempted murder of a federal judge. According to the FBI affidavit, Roske was upset by the leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion, supported by Kavanaugh, signaling that the court is positioned to overturn Roe v. Wade. He was also worried that in the wake of the mass shooting in Ulvade, Tex., the justice “would side with 2nd Amendment decisions that would loosen gun control laws,” according to the affidavit.
On the 911 recordings, Roske calmly answered questions, telling the operator how he had just flown in from California and had planned to hurt Kavanaugh and then himself. He said that his gun was locked in a box in his suitcase and that he needed psychiatric help. Eventually, sirens could be heard.
“They’re here. I’m going to hang up,” he said.
At a court appearance Wednesday afternoon, neither Roske nor his attorney addressed the specific allegations. When U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy J. Sullivan asked him if he understood the proceedings, Roske said: “I think I have a reasonable enough understanding, but I wouldn’t say I’m thinking clearly.”
As Sullivan inquired further, Roske said only that he was on medication and that he had taken that medication on Wednesday. He later clarified that he had “a clear enough understanding” to proceed. He remains detained pending further court proceedings.
The attorney, federal public defender Andrew Szekely, as well as Roske’s family members in California, could not be reached for comment Thursday.
As a legal matter, the fact that Roske didn’t follow through on what authorities said were his plans might not necessarily help him, analysts said.
All of the actions Roske took, at least according to the FBI affidavit, probably put him over the threshold of “substantial steps beyond mere preparation” that is generally required to be convicted of attempted murder in federal court, according to Robert Bonsib, a prominent defense attorney in Maryland.
“His steps, as stated in the affidavit, were so substantial and well down the road towards completing the crime that an abandonment defense may be difficult,” Bonsib said.
The 911 recordings offered a possible window into Roske’s mind-set. Parts are redacted, such as his name and his descriptions of medical issues. He called 911 twice.
The first call lasted only a minute. The 911 operator asked where he was. By then, Roske had walked around a corner and was about two blocks from the justice’s home.
“Let me try to find the street sign,” he said, adding, “Give me one moment and I’ll call back, okay?”
“I’ve been having them for a long time,” he said. “I’m from California. I came over here to act on them.”
“Yes. I brought a firearm with me, but it’s unloaded and locked in the case,” the caller said.
Roske said he hadn’t been drinking or using drugs. When asked if he needed medical attention, Roske said, “I need psychiatric help.”
Roske indicated his target was Kavanaugh, “the Supreme Court justice.”
He said he had learned his address, in part, after seeing photographs online of protests outside Kavanaugh’s home. As police officers were on their way, the operator tried to keep Roske calm by, among other topics, asking him if he had any pets at home. Roske said he did — a Cockapoo named Molly.
Katie Mettler and Razzan Nakhlawi contributed to this report. | 2022-06-09T23:31:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | New 911 tapes show how man accused in Kavanaugh murder plot abandoned plan - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/09/roske-kavanaugh-911-tapes/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/09/roske-kavanaugh-911-tapes/ |
That Chevy Feels A Lot Better Than a Tesla Right Now
Vehicles travel along the Interstate 405 (I-405) freeway in Gardena, California, U.S., on Friday, May 28, 2021. The days of bargain basement airfares are ending as the U.S. vaccine supply unleashes a wave of pent-up travel demand. (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)
Drive along American roads and all you see are gasoline-powered sport utility vehicles and pick-up trucks. Sedans are a rarity and electrics even more so. That’s even as pump prices are surging.
Trouble is, internal combustion-engine vehicles are getting more consumer-friendly and cleaner than they were in the past. Electrics aren’t getting anywhere close to it, and there just aren’t enough of them.
The benefits of being an EV owner are plenty, no doubt. If you are lucky enough to have one already, you could save $1,800 to $2,600 in operating and maintenance costs this year, assuming an average 15,000 miles of driving. You can feel good about just charging up, instead of watching mounting gas bills. And, of course, you can celebrate that you’ve joined the ranks of more climate-change aware consumers.
I recently traveled around the northeastern US states in a Chevrolet Traverse and a Honda Pilot, so I am not surprised that many would rather drive these cars than vie for an EV. The tech features — often taken for granted by owners of superbly engineered German cars with the strong steering feel — make cruising along suburban highways extremely easy. Thoughtful functions and innovations include a blindspot sensor on sideview mirrors to help change lanes, easy gear-switching, an extra row of seats that don’t make the car feel too large and a well-integrated interface like Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. They are now basic in new cars and, I’d say, cooler and more useful than Tesla Inc’s dance and celebration mode.
Walk into a showroom today and you can walk out with a gas-engine car right away, too. An electric will likely take a lot longer. Add to that, annual flat fees being considered, or already in place, in US states and the value proposition of owning an EV starts to fade away. Of the 12 states that have proposed new or increased EV fees, 10 will make drivers pay more than a gas-powered vehicle by 2025. All told, the cost of ownership is high and goes beyond the price of the car.
Ultimately, people want a comfortable and easy driving experience. Of all the EV owners out there, few get into battery logistics or emissions on a daily basis. The sad reality is, with inflation eating into wallets, consumers aren’t so focused on how green they are or how much they can reduce their carbon footprint. And they may already feel they’re doing their part to help save the planet by using less plastic or composting. Such is the human psyche.
It’s also important to remember that traditional cars have also gotten better and more fuel efficient. Carbon dioxide emissions have dropped by 24% over the last two decades, while fuel economy has increased by over 30%, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Meanwhile, all vehicle types are producing record low emissions. There is no doubt, though, that once you start driving EVs or even hybrids, emissions drop further. But those are bonuses at this point.
The reality is, the barriers for EVs are rising and the biggest one is the growing list of consumers’ anxieties.
Lowering those obstacles isn’t all that challenging. It requires policy focus and the introduction of clear steps to address the worries. Range anxiety? Get fast-chargers up and running and upgrade grids. Plenty of companies are on it, including the likes of FreeWire Technologies Inc., which recently signed a letter of intent with a pit stop operator, Phillips 66. Costs? Expand government incentives and credits for owners while discouraging internal combustion engine cars.
The US is working to get companies on board to expand things like EV charging networks and has just started breaking ground on facilities for battery and green car production. But it’s slow and doesn’t directly address consumers’ anxieties or the cost of ownership. China, on the other hand, has incentivized EV buyers and manufacturers as well as building out the necessary infrastructure.
Making EVs more accessible isn’t the challenge for the US; policy conviction is.
• Want a Family Sedan? You’re Not in the Driver’s Seat: Conor Sen
• U.S. Needs Elon Musk — To Sell Electric Cars: Matthew Yglesias | 2022-06-09T23:36:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | That Chevy Feels A Lot Better Than a Tesla Right Now - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/that-chevy-feels-a-lot-better-than-a-tesla-right-now/2022/06/09/03d66c18-e848-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/that-chevy-feels-a-lot-better-than-a-tesla-right-now/2022/06/09/03d66c18-e848-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Jan. 6 defendants ask to move August trial out of Washington, claiming prejudicial publicity as House probe prepares to release 1,000 witness transcripts
Proud Boys and supporters of President Donald Trump assemble near the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Amy Harris/Shutterstock)
Attorneys for former longtime Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio and some of his co-defendants condemned their indictment on the historically rare charge of seditious conspiracy this week as politically orchestrated to coincide with the start of televised hearings Thursday by the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
Hours before committee officials expected lawmakers to gavel in the prime-time proceedings focusing on the actions of the Proud Boys and a documentary filmmaker who accompanied them that day, attorneys for Tarrio and some of his four deputies accused the Justice Department of playing politics with the case, a contention U.S. prosecutors and a judge appointed by President Donald Trump rejected during a hearing at a federal courthouse blocks away in Washington.
“Mixing politics and criminal justice is dangerous, and we have to run from it like fire,” said David Smith, an attorney for Proud Boys defendant Ethan Nordean of Seattle. “But when you look at the timing of the government’s indictment … when the charges could have been brought, and what is coming from the Capitol this week, there is no doubt what is happening, and it’s un-American, Judge,” Smith said.
Tarrio attorney Nayib Hassan agreed, writing in a court filing Wednesday that the new 10-count indictment against the group alleged almost no new facts, and “suspiciously seems orchestrated at the highest levels of government” to coincide with House hearings.
U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly of Washington, a 2017 Trump appointee, rejected such claims as unjustified.
“To make the sweeping conclusion that there is no other explanation for the timing of this is unwarranted,” Kelly said. Prosecutors predicted in March that they could bring additional charges by the end of last month, and the defense attorneys probably would have raised similar complaints if they had met that deadline, the judge said.
“I fully agree that politics and law enforcement are — you don’t want the peanut butter of one to be in the chocolate of the other,” Kelly said. “There’s no question it’s important to the rule of law. It’s important to our country. … But the government has said it anticipated something happening in May, and the timing is such that it slipped briefly. To me, I can’t connect the dots you want to, Mr. Smith.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason B.A. McCullough added: “The government strenuously objects to the premise there is any coordination going on between this office and the select committee in the timing of charges or the decision to bring the superseding indictment in this case, full stop.”
Proud Boys leader and lieutenants charged with seditious conspiracy
The escalating defense criticism of prosecutors came as attorneys urged the judge to move the scheduled Aug. 8 trial of the key Proud Boys figures out of the nation’s capital and to allow them to speak publicly out of court to counter what they called a flood of unfair prejudicial pretrial publicity.
Tarrio, 38, was not in the District the day of the riot, but prosecutors allege that he guided activities from Baltimore as Proud Boys members engaged in the earliest and most aggressive attacks to confront and overwhelm police at several critical points on restricted Capitol grounds.
Prosecutors accused Tarrio and his co-defendants in a 32-page page charging document of “opposing the lawful transfer of presidential power by force” by mustering and coordinating the movements of as many as 300 people around the Capitol that day, including several who the government says spurred and led a mob that stormed the building and forced the evacuation of lawmakers meeting to certify Joe Biden’s presidential victory. Scores of police officers were injured and five people died during or in the immediate aftermath of the riot, which was fueled by supporters of Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen.
Attorneys for Miami resident Tarrio; Joe Biggs of Ormond Beach, Fla.; and Dominic Pezzola of Rochester, N.Y.; pleaded not guilty to the new charges in court Thursday. Co-defendants Nordean and Zachary Rehl, of Philadelphia, were not present for the hearing and will enter pleas later, after pleading not guilty to charges initially filed against them in the case.
Several federal judges hearing cases in Washington of more than 820 defendants in the Jan. 6 riot have rejected motions to move trials, saying prospective jurors influenced by publicity can be vetted and weeded out in jury selection, but more requests are pending. Juries have been selected in five trials held to date with little trouble, U.S. prosecutors note.
Still, at least two judges have raised concerns about holding trials while House hearings are underway, with a third judge, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell, likely to next face the question for a trial set for June 27.
Against this backdrop, attorneys for the Proud Boys defendants describe their clients as being “in a class by themselves when it comes to prejudicial pretrial publicity,” as Rehl attorney Carmen Hernandez put it Thursday.
Hernandez argued that the combination of televised hearings and fresh charges meant that the “only solution” to preserve a defendant’s right to due process and a fair trial is to move the case out of Washington. That is, unless the trial is postponed and the defendants are released from jail, where they have been held since early 2021, attorneys for all five agreed.
Hernandez called the addition of a count of opposing the U.S. government by force when defendants already face another felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison — corruptly obstructing a congressional proceeding — exceedingly heavy-handed, saying Rehl committed no violence and at worst is alleged to have associated with the Proud Boys, as is his right under the First Amendment.
Kelly said he would consider a motion to postpone or move the trial. McCullough, the prosecutor, raised a potential further complication, disclosing that the House Jan. 6 panel has told the Justice Department that it expects to publicly release transcripts of interviews it has conducted with about 1,000 witnesses at the same time it publishes a report of its findings in early September, potentially while the Tarrio trial is ongoing.
McCullough said the department has asked to review the transcripts as part of its criminal investigation into the Capitol riot, but that “we have not been able to negotiate an agreement” with the House to share those transcripts with defendants as required if material from them were to be used as evidence in criminal cases.
The Proud Boys became known for brandishing batons at rallies and gatherings in 2020 in which members were eager to engage in street fights with their perceived enemies in the leftist antifa movement. During a presidential election debate in September 2020, Trump famously refused to denounce the Proud Boys, urging them to “stand back and stand by.” The group took those words as a rallying cry, organizing attendance at two post-election pro-Trump rallies in Washington and converging on the city for Jan. 6. | 2022-06-09T23:36:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Proud Boys' Tarrio calls sedition charge politically orchestrated - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/09/proud-boys-tarrio-seditious-conspiracy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/09/proud-boys-tarrio-seditious-conspiracy/ |
Felicia Sonmez terminated by The Washington Post after Twitter dispute
Jeremy Barr
The Washington Post building in downtown Washington, D.C. (John McDonnell / The Washington Post) (John McDonnell)
Felicia Sonmez, a reporter on the national staff at The Washington Post whose criticism of colleagues and the newspaper on social media in recent days drew widespread attention, was dismissed by the newspaper Thursday, according to a termination letter viewed by The Post.
Kris Coratti Kelly, a Post spokesperson, declined to comment, saying, “We do not discuss personnel matters.” Executive Editor Sally Buzbee also declined to comment on the termination, which was first reported by the Daily Beast.
Reached by phone, Sonmez said, “I have no comment at this time.”
Sonmez, who worked for The Post from 2010 to 2013 before rejoining the newspaper in 2018, was scheduled to play a key role Thursday night in reporting on the House select committee’s televised hearing on the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a Post editor involved with the coverage.
But in a Thursday afternoon termination letter first reported by the New York Times, The Post told Sonmez that she was fired “for misconduct that includes insubordination, maligning your co-workers online and violating The Post’s standards on workplace collegiality and inclusivity.”
Sonmez last Friday used her Twitter account to call attention to a colleague, David Weigel, for retweeting a sexist joke.
She also complained about Weigel’s retweet on an internal message board.
Weigel apologized for the retweet and deleted it from his account. The Post subsequently suspended him without pay for a month for violating its social media policies. (The Post did not confirm Weigel’s suspension, citing the privacy applied to personnel decisions.) In the ensuing days, Sonmez continued to use her Twitter account to focus on the incident, retweeting criticism of Weigel and contending that Post management enforces social media policies inequitably.
Over the weekend, Jose A. Del Real, another Post reporter, asked Sonmez to cease her criticisms, tweeting, “Felicia, we all mess up from time to time. Engaging in repeated and targeted public harassment of a colleague is neither a good look nor is it particularly effective. It turns the language of inclusivity into clout chasing and bullying.”
Del Real later tweeted that his back-and-forth with Sonmez prompted a “barrage of online abuse directed by one person but carried out by an eager mob.”
Sonmez then posted screenshots of Del Real’s tweets and wrote: “It’s hard for me to understand why The Washington Post hasn’t done anything about these tweets.”
As a result of the feuding, Buzbee on Tuesday took the extraordinary step of warning the staff in an email against “attacking colleagues either face to face or online.”
“Respect for others is critical to any civil society, including our newsroom,” Buzbee wrote, referring to The Post’s social media policy, which requires employees to be “constructive and collegial.” Buzbee also directed staffers to communicate directly with co-workers to raise concerns.
On Thursday morning, in a Twitter thread criticizing The Post’s newsroom culture, Sonmez commented about a group of politics reporters who had tweeted complimentary things about the company. “They are among the ‘stars’ who ‘get away with murder’ on social media,” she wrote.
Sonmez also tweeted: “I care deeply about my colleagues, and I want this institution to provide support for all employees. Right now, The Post is a place where many of us fear our trauma will be used against us, based on the company’s past actions.”
In July 2021, Sonmez filed a lawsuit against the newspaper and several current and former top editors, alleging that she had been discriminated and retaliated against when editors twice barred her from covering stories related to sexual misconduct after she spoke publicly about being a victim of sexual assault.
Her complaint partly centered on her claim that editors had unfairly chastised her for tweets about sexual misconduct. D.C. Superior Court Judge Anthony C. Epstein dismissed her lawsuit in March.
In 2020, Sonmez was briefly placed on administrative leave over her tweets. The Washington Post Guild, the union that represents Post staffers, issued a statement at the time expressing “alarm and dismay” over the decision.
On Thursday evening, the Guild declined to comment on Sonmez’s termination or any other personnel issues, beyond saying that it represents and provides support “to all members facing discipline.”
“The Washington Post Guild’s mission is to ensure equal treatment and protection for all employees and uplift members as they fight to create a just and inclusive workplace in which workers can thrive,” the statement said. | 2022-06-09T23:36:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Felicia Sonmez terminated by The Washington Post after Twitter dispute - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/06/09/felicia-sonmez-washington-post/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/06/09/felicia-sonmez-washington-post/ |
U.S. missing opportunities with Latin America, Chile’s leader says
Chile's president, Gabriel Boric, speaks during the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles on June 8. (Mike Blake/Reuters)
LOS ANGELES — The United States is missing opportunities to advance its democratic goals for Latin America by refusing to engage with adversaries in the region, according to Chile’s new president.
Gabriel Boric, a 36-year-old who became president in March after being catapulted into power by a wave of social unrest, objected to the Biden administration’s decision not to invite the leaders of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela to this week’s Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles over those countries’ authoritarian ways.
The controversy over their exclusion, which prompted the presidents of Mexico, Uruguay and other nations to skip the summit, highlights growing disagreement over the role that democracy should play in the Western Hemisphere.
The Chilean leader took issue with what he said was a “double standard” of Washington’s support for undemocratic nations like Saudi Arabia and for Israel, which Boric has denounced for its treatment of Palestinians, even as it intensifies condemnation of authoritarians in Latin America.
“I have a lot of criticism of the countries that were excluded, but I prefer to say that to their faces,” Boric said during an interview at the summit, the first that the United States has hosted since the gatherings began in 1994 in Miami.
Rather than being able to press leaders of the uninvited countries on issues such as political prisoners or advance international solutions to Venezuela’s political crisis, he said, “the United States is now giving them a perfect excuse for victimization.”
Boric, who faces low approval ratings and instability in the South American country’s indigenous heartland, said he hoped to define his presidency not by allegiance or differences with Washington but by an alternative liberal vision in a continent long defined by the struggle between the political left and right.
Brian Winter, vice president for policy of the Americas Society/Council of the Americas, said Boric is a new brand of Latin American leftist.
Winter cited the Chilean leader’s elevation of human rights more than two decades after Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s 1973-1990 dictatorship and his effort to address a host of challenges by hewing to the country’s democratic institutions.
Boric stands out among Latin America’s leftist leaders for his willingness to criticize authoritarians like Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega. And unlike leaders who espouse leftist economic ideas but oppose abortion and LGBT rights, like Peru’s Pedro Castillo, he is a social liberal. His Cabinet is majority-female and includes two openly gay officials.
“That’s unique and laudable, but there are no guarantees of success,” Winter said. “There is a chance that Boric and his government don’t land the plane safely.”
Boric’s remarks elevate the stakes of the week-long summit, which President Biden has framed around his administration’s attempt to prove that democracy, challenged globally by a rise of autocratic governments, can deliver a better quality of life than other systems in Latin America and around the world.
In a speech Wednesday officially opening the summit, Biden cited the 2001 hemispheric charter that committed to making the Americas a wholly democratic region.
Speaking alongside Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday, Biden said the region was already the most democratic in the world. “There’s no reason why it can’t become more democratic and prosperous,” he said.
But analysts say the region’s commitment to democracy has waned, in part because such systems have not resolved enduring problems of corruption, insecurity and severe economic inequality. Many in the region no longer feel elections and democratic institutions should be the ticket for entry to trade and other forms of global cooperation, a trend reflected in the region’s growing commercial relationship with China.
“That’s the real tension of that debate,” Winter said. “You have a U.S. government that has tried to place democracy front and center in its foreign policy, and a region that is saying, ‘We really need to engage with everyone, and also don’t make decisions for us.’ ”
Boric also warned of a democratic retreat, but in facing that challenge, he prescribed a different role for the United States in the region than that of the past.
A native of Punta Arenas, a remote windswept city on Chile’s southernmost tip, Boric rose to prominence as a student organizer. In December, two years after a transit fare hike ignited massive protests and violent riots that reflected Chileans’ deep-seated frustrations, he secured a landslide election victory against a right-wing opponent. Informal and tattooed, Boric represents a generational shift in conservative Chile.
Speaking about Washington’s role in the region, he cited a U.S. political adage, “America for Americans,” a phrase often associated with the 1823 Monroe Doctrine. When he first read about it, Boric said, he thought it meant the hemisphere should belong to all its inhabitants, including those in far-flung places like Chile.
“I understood later — when I lost my naivete — that the U.S. understood this as the American continent being its region,” he said. “I believe we can have a much better relationship if the U.S. understands it in terms of political equality with the region’s countries, particularly those with shared values” like respect for human rights and basic science and freedom of the press.
“Those values would be much better supported without paternalism” in the U.S. approach to the region, he said. “This is what we, from the south, humbly come to propose.”
In Chile, Boric must deal with mounting inflation and the lingering toll of the coronavirus pandemic as he seeks to address inequality and build a more generous welfare state. While Boric vowed to make Chile the grave of the Pinochet era’s free-market economic model, he has so far shunned radical moves, appointing the current Central Bank head as his finance minister.
He described an attempt to balance competing pressures in his steps to manage violence in the country’s south. He said his government aimed to accelerate the process of purchasing land for indigenous communities from powerful forestry companies, foster investment and support indigenous languages and identity. At the same time, Boric sent the military back to the region, reversing a campaign pledge in what he said was a “difficult decision” aimed at ensuring basic security.
A signature element of Boric’s vision for Chile is the process now underway to rewrite the country’s constitution, which dates back to the Pinochet years. But polls indicate weakening public support for the effort, which will be put to a plebiscite in September, a dangerous sign for Boric’s broader agenda.
At the summit, questions include how much the United States can contribute to solving regional problems as it refocuses its foreign policy on Asia and scrambles to respond to an unpredictable Russia. While the White House announced steps to shore up the region’s economies, it was not immediately clear how much private investment Biden can marshal and how much U.S. government money will be involved.
The stakes of Latin America’s political choices are heightened as the region becomes an increasingly important theater for U.S.-Chinese competition. China, a major customer for the region’s natural resources, has now overtaken the United States as South America’s top trade partner. But U.S. officials warn that Chinese investments could lower labor and environmental standards and, as it buys stakes in critical infrastructure, ultimately jeopardize the region’s security.
Boric said China had not imposed any onerous conditions in its commercial dealings with Chile. “We don’t feel that we need to put ourselves on one side or the other,” he said.
He also said Latin American nations needed to come together to advance solutions to global problems — for example, a regional position in global negotiations on climate change — just as much as the rest of the world needed to see more than the long-running political conflicts.
“For a long time, the only thing we talk about when we talk about Latin America is Venezuela and Cuba. Enough!” he said. “We have much more in common to work on.”
Cleve Wootson contributed to this report. | 2022-06-09T23:36:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Chile's president says U.S. is missing opportunities with Latin America - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/09/united-states-chile-president-boric/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/09/united-states-chile-president-boric/ |
Helicopters join search for 2 missing in Amazon
Brazilian authorities began using helicopters to search a remote area of the Amazon rainforest for a British journalist and an Indigenous official missing for more than three days.
Civil police in Amazonas state said they had identified a suspect, who was arrested for allegedly carrying a firearm without a permit. But the state’s public security secretary said later that officials did not have any concrete evidence to tie the man to the disappearances.
Police have questioned five others in the investigation, but no arrest related to the disappearances has been made.
Journalist Dom Phillips, who has been a regular contributor to the Guardian and previously wrote for The Washington Post, and Bruno Araújo Pereira, an employee of the Brazilian Indigenous affairs agency with extensive experience in the region, were last seen Sunday in the São Rafael community in the Javari Valley Indigenous territory.
The two had been threatened Saturday when a small group of men traveled by river to the Indigenous territory’s boundary and brandished firearms at a patrol run by Univaja, a local association of Indigenous people.
Indigenous leaders on the ground, family members and peers of Phillips and Pereira have voiced concern that authorities’ search efforts were slow to start and remain insufficient.
There have been repeated shootouts between hunters, fishermen and security agents in the area, which has the world’s largest concentration of uncontacted Indigenous people. It is also a major route for cocaine produced on the Peruvian side of the border, then smuggled into Brazil to supply local cities or to be shipped to Europe.
32 killed in Nigeria attacks: Bandits on motorcycles killed 32 people and set fire to houses in villages in Nigeria's northern Kaduna state on Sunday, authorities said Thursday. Such attacks have become frequent in Nigeria's troubled northwest. Thousands have been killed in the violence, according to data compiled by the U.S.-based Council on Foreign Relations. Residents are often abducted and kept captive for weeks until ransoms are paid.
Colombian candidate cancels appearances, cites threats: Colombian presidential candidate Rodolfo Hernández said he was canceling any remaining in-person appearances at campaign events because he is certain his life is in danger. The anti-establishment Hernández, 77, is running neck-and-neck against leftist Gustavo Petro, who has also previously cited threats to his life. A national police spokesman said the agency had no information about threats against Hernández but was investigating. "I am certain that my life is at risk," he said on Twitter. The candidates must cease all public events starting Sunday, ahead of the June 19 vote.
Flooding, landslides kill 17 in China: At least 17 people were killed and four are missing after flooding hit the central Chinese province of Hunan and a landslide buried parts of several villages in the southern Guangxi region, state media reported. Storms have pummeled Hunan this month, with some monitoring stations reporting historic levels of rainfall, the Xinhua News Agency said.
Palestinian man reported killed by Israeli forces: Israeli forces fatally shot a Palestinian man during clashes in the West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, as Israeli troops continued arrest raids in the occupied territory. The ministry identified the man as a 27-year-old from the southern West Bank. The Israeli military said its troops operated in areas around the West Bank overnight and faced protests in many locations, with Palestinians throwing rocks and firebombs. Troops dispersed the protesters using live fire and other means, and nine people were arrested. | 2022-06-09T23:36:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | World Digest: June 9, 2022 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/world-digest-june-9-2022/2022/06/09/b82e376c-e821-11ec-a079-71f26b28893d_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/world-digest-june-9-2022/2022/06/09/b82e376c-e821-11ec-a079-71f26b28893d_story.html |
A boy rides a scooter past a destroyed residential building in the town of Irpin, northwest of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on June 3. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images) (Afp Contributor#afp/AFP/Getty Images)
“We are now living in a totally new era,” said the 99-year old Henry Kissinger, commenting on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In an op-ed last week, President Biden vividly outlined the stakes. “If Russia does not pay a heavy price for its actions,” he wrote, “it will send a message to other would-be aggressors that they too can seize territory and subjugate other countries. It will put the survival of other peaceful democracies at risk. And it could mark the end of the rules-based international order and open the door to aggression elsewhere, with catastrophic consequences the world over.”
In times like these, it seemed appropriate that Secretary of State Antony Blinken would deliver a major policy address, which he did late last month. Except that he chose to give the speech … on China. The talk itself contained nothing new; it was slightly more nuanced than the usual chest-thumping that passes for a China strategy these days. The real surprise was that, in the middle of the first major land war in Europe since 1945, with monumental consequences, Blinken chose not to lay out the strategy for victory but instead changed the subject. Washington’s foreign policy establishment is so wrapped up in its pre-crisis thinking that it cannot really digest the fact that the ground has shifted seismically under its feet.
Ironically, one of the people who attended Blinken’s speech was Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who during his presidential campaign in 2012 warned that Russia posed the single largest threat to the United States. Those, including myself, who dismissed his prognosis were wrong, because we looked only at Russia’s strength, which was not impressive. But Romney clearly understood that power in the international realm is measured by a mixture of capabilities and intentions. And though Russia is not a rising giant, it is determined to challenge and divide America and Europe and tear up the rules-based international system. Putin’s Russia is the world’s great spoiler. | 2022-06-09T23:36:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The best China strategy? Defeat Russia. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/biden-administration-defeat-russia-contain-china-ukraine-war/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/biden-administration-defeat-russia-contain-china-ukraine-war/ |
If the Supreme Court police require more authority or funding to adequately protect the justices, they should have it; the same holds for the U.S. Marshals Service, which provides security for lower court judges. If more steps are needed to shield personal information about judges or justices, such as their home addresses, that should be done as well.
I don’t think the two are comparable, but it is true that some have gone too far with their rhetoric. One is Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who stood on the Supreme Court steps in 2020 in advance of a Supreme Court ruling on a Louisiana abortion law and thundered, about Kavanaugh and Trump appointee Neil M. Gorsuch, “I want to tell you, Gorsuch; I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”
We should be thankful that the man arrested outside Kavanaugh’s home did not get further with his scheme. But at the same time we must be equally attentive to the systemic vulnerabilities his plot exposed — and careful not to read too much into one deranged individual’s actions. | 2022-06-09T23:37:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | A close call exposes the shortcomings in security and civil discourse - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/breatt-kavanaugh-threat-security-discourse/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/breatt-kavanaugh-threat-security-discourse/ |
If the Supreme Court police require more authority or funding to adequately protect the justices, they should have it; the same holds for the U.S. Marshals Service, which provides security for lower-court judges. If more steps are needed to shield personal information about judges or justices, such as their home addresses, that should be done as well.
I don’t think the two are comparable, but it is true that some have gone too far with their rhetoric. One is Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who stood on the Supreme Court steps in 2020 in advance of a Supreme Court ruling on a Louisiana abortion law and thundered, about Kavanaugh and Trump appointee Neil M. Gorsuch, “I want to tell you, Gorsuch. I want to tell you, Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”
We should be thankful that the man arrested outside Kavanaugh’s home did not get further with his scheme. But at the same time, we must be equally attentive to the systemic vulnerabilities his plot exposed — and careful not to read too much into one deranged individual’s actions. | 2022-06-10T01:07:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | A close call exposes the shortcomings in security and civil discourse - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/brett-kavanaugh-threat-security-discourse/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/09/brett-kavanaugh-threat-security-discourse/ |
China’s Big Problem That Xi Jinping Can’t Solve
Analysis by Shuli Ren | Bloomberg
The most significant event in China this week was the gaokao — the annual two-day national exam to qualify for college. Anxious parents wait while their children go through the nine-hour ordeal. Those with younger kids sift through the test questions — published once the exams are over — preparing their offspring for the inevitable. As for couples considering starting a family, just imagining the gaokao for theirs can be a pretty effective contraceptive.
The exam questions are almost designed to fail you. For instance, the closed-book essays in the Chinese language test demand a near-encyclopedic knowledge of history, classic literature and even current events. This year, one question was on the naming of a pavilion in the classic 18th century novel “Dream of the Red Chamber”; another queried strategies for the game of Go; a third requested an 800-word critique of a mini-documentary produced by the state-owned CCTV for the 100th birthday of the Communist Youth League.
Once through the gaokao — which translates as “high-level exam” — the 18-year-olds are almost guaranteed a university spot. In recent years, the acceptance rate has edged above 80%, doubling that in the mid-1990s when I took the test. A college education has almost become a right, not a privilege.
As such, most teenagers will give gaokao a shot. This year, a record 11.9 million are expected to take — or retake — the exam. China has roughly 15.9 million 18-year-olds.
This is creating a big social problem. A record 10.8 million college seniors are expected to graduate this summer, but China does not have enough good jobs for them. As of April, youth unemployment for those aged 16 to 24 was already 18.2%, due in part to Covid lockdowns. By July, the rate could easily exceed 20% once college graduates enter the workforce. As of April, fewer than half received job offers, according to online recruitment platform Zhaopin Ltd.
It’s no longer clear a college degree brings financial benefits. According to the same Zhaopin survey, the average starting salary for those who got job offers will be 6,507 yuan per month ($974). By comparison, a delivery worker for the likes of Meituan could earn as much as 10,000 yuan.
To make matters worse, with more than 10 million jobseekers on the street, employers are getting choosier. Many openings now require a postgraduate degree. Last year, at one high school, three of the four biology teachers it hired held PhDs.
As a result, this labor oversupply has prompted college seniors to delay their entry into the workforce. At the end of 2021, 4.6 million took the postgraduate entrance exam, an increase of about 21%. Graduate school still carries some weight. Last year, Chinese universities handed out about 8.3 million bachelor’s degrees; they graduated only about 773,000 with a masters and above.
None of this makes gaokao any easier, however. The acceptance rate for the so-called Project 985 schools — China’s most prestigious universities — was 1.7% last year. For Harvard University’s class of 2025, it was 4%. Rather, it’s the bottom of the pyramid that has expanded. The number of institutions that grant university degrees soared from just around 1,000 in the mid-1990s to above 2,700 in 2021.
To President Xi Jinping’s credit, he recognized the detriment of the gaokao frenzy early, denouncing profit-seeking educators in 2018. Last year, the government cracked down on the lucrative after-school tutoring industry, wiping billions of market capitalization off investor darlings such as New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc and TAL Education Group.
Beijing felt that it found a solution. In October, the State Council pushed for a second education track that resembles Germany’s successful “dual training” model, in which students split their time between classrooms at a vocational school and on-the-job training at companies to develop practical skills. Some vocational schools may even grant a bachelor’s degree.
But most Chinese are unwilling to take the bait. The traditional Confucian culture of scholarship is deeply rooted — one needs to look no further than the character for the word “study,” which contains the strokes for vision, money and power. In ancient times, only children from wealthy families could afford to take the exam to become the emperor’s civil servants. During the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s, universities were closed. So now that China’s middle class is getting richer, wouldn’t every parent want to send their children to college, even if it makes no commercial sense? In China, college education is not an investment; it’s a luxury good.
Of course, Beijing could call a stop and drastically reduce college enrollment. But that would result in nothing short of a widespread unhappiness in all levels of society. So year after year, the gaokao kabuki will carry on, creating a labor force increasingly incompatible with what the economy needs.
• Gen-Z Is the Unluckiest Generation in Modern China: Shuli Ren
• Do We Owe Gen Z for Their Covid Misery?: Chris Bryant
• Feeling Pinched on a $250,000 Salary? Just Wait: Alexis Leondis
Shuli Ren is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asian markets. A former investment banker, she was a markets reporter for Barron’s. She is a CFA charterholder. | 2022-06-10T01:07:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | China’s Big Problem That Xi Jinping Can’t Solve - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/chinas-big-problem-that-xi-jinping-cant-solve/2022/06/09/e3b27a6c-e84c-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/chinas-big-problem-that-xi-jinping-cant-solve/2022/06/09/e3b27a6c-e84c-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
It’s Time to Get Biofuels Out of Your Gas Tank
The global trade in the cheapest foods is grinding to a halt.
In April, Indonesia temporarily banned exports of palm oil, cutting off India from one of its biggest sources of imported nutrition. India, in its turn last month, set a ceiling on exports of sugar, helping to keep more calories in the domestic market. Sugar is now hovering around its highest price in five years, while palm oil and soybean oil are at record levels.
Surprisingly enough, a single factor connects all of these disparate events: biofuels.
Two decades ago, no one could have predicted an electric vehicle manufacturer might end up as the world’s richest man. Without battery-powered cars, replacing gasoline and diesel with plant-derived alternatives seemed like the best way of tackling emissions from road transport. Since then, a technological revolution has overturned what we thought we knew about energy-efficient vehicles — but the blending mandates that guarantee a rising share of bioenergy in the world’s fuel pumps have stayed in place, and even been enhanced.
As a result, an industry that always had questionable advantages is now starting to be an impediment to cleaner modes of transport. Worse, the pressure it’s putting on the planet’s limited farmland is hampering our ability to feed the world’s poorest. It’s time to start dismantling the pipeline connecting farms to gas tanks before it does any more harm.
Look across the largest vehicle markets, and biofuel blending mandates are everywhere. In the US, with the second-largest national fleet, ethanol derived mostly from corn comprises more than 10% of all gasoline sold. India, the next-largest market, blends in 7.5%, largely from sugarcane. Indonesia and Brazil, which come next, now require mixes of 30% and 27%, respectively. Only China, the largest national market of all, has a lower rate of around 2.1%. The European Union, bigger even than China, requires a 10% blending mandate across the bloc.
There’s a problem with such mandates. If supply-demand imbalances push up the cost of corn, sugar or vegetable oils too much, most industrial and household consumers will work hard to find alternatives that better suit their budgets. That demand destruction helps rebalance the market and bring costs back to affordable levels. Fuel blenders rarely have so much discretion: If they’re below the mandated target, they must buy additional bioenergy at any price to make up the shortfall.
That’s leading to a situation where the world’s farmland is increasingly being given over to producing road fuel. Roughly two-fifths of America’s corn and soybean crops now end up burned in engines. Even Brazil, whose sugarcane-based ethanol is reckoned to be some of the world’s most beneficial in climate terms, is increasingly dependent on imports of dirtier corn-based ethanol from the US, as demand exceeds the productive capacity of its own farms. Meanwhile, the 10 billion liters of biodiesel that Indonesia expects to consume this year will use up nearly a quarter of its palm oil crop, and roughly one-seventh of the global total.
The trade-offs involved in biofuels are complex, and often less beneficial than they first appear. Once land-use changes are taken into account, corn-based ethanol has about two-thirds of the climate impact of gasoline, falling to about half for sugarcane ethanol. When blended down at a rate of 10% or less, those numbers look even less significant, resulting in lowered emissions of a few percent or so. Palm biodiesel, meanwhile, can result in emissions twice as high as from fossil fuels, thanks to the destruction of tropical forests that’s necessary for each new plantation.
When electric cars were a pipe dream, even incremental improvements in the emissions of entire national vehicle fleets were worthwhile. But by the end of this year there will be around 25 million plug-in cars among a billion-strong global fleet. From now on, it’s the rising share of battery-powered cars on the roads that will do the heavy lifting of emissions reduction. The biofuels lobby, which has at times teamed up with Big Oil to oppose government incentives for electrified transport, looks increasingly more like a hindrance than a help.
The world will continue to need biofuels for the foreseeable future. In heavy trucking and aviation, where there’s still little prospect for electrification, it may be the only alternative we have to traditional fossil fuels. But making the most use of limited farmland, while minimizing the pressure it puts on the cost of food for the world’s poorest, will require us to dismantle the mandates that have made bioenergy central to fueling passenger cars across the world.
That change is going to attract howls of opposition from those who’ve done well from the biofuel boom. Taking them on can’t happen soon enough. | 2022-06-10T01:07:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | It’s Time to Get Biofuels Out of Your Gas Tank - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/its-time-to-get-biofuels-out-of-your-gas-tank/2022/06/09/186a50e6-e851-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/its-time-to-get-biofuels-out-of-your-gas-tank/2022/06/09/186a50e6-e851-11ec-a422-11bbb91db30b_story.html |
Got burping livestock? In New Zealand, you might be taxed.
A cow stands in a paddock on a farm near Invercargill, New Zealand, in May 2017. (Mark Baker/AP)
New Zealand has more sheep than people, by a factor of about five. Now those sheep and other livestock could be taxed for incessant belching — a major source of greenhouse gases for the Pacific island nation.
The government Wednesday announced a draft plan to charge farmers for their livestock emissions, in what would be the first effort of its kind. The plan is part of a larger emissions reduction initiative proposed by the Ministry of Environment, which includes plans for its energy, transportation, waste and job sectors beginning in 2025.
New Zealand, with about 10 million cattle and 26 million sheep, is a major agricultural exporter. Agriculture makes up half of New Zealand’s gross emissions, and putting a price on those emissions is one of the ways the country seeks to reach its 2050 net-zero target.
An unusual snack for cows, a powerful fix for climate
Revenue from the plan will be invested in research, development and advisory services for farmers, who will also receive incentives for reducing emissions through feed additives, Reuters reported.
Cows and sheep are ruminants, meaning they have special, complex digestive systems with multichambered stomachs to digest their food. But as their feed ferments within their bodies, they produce methane as a byproduct — that needs to be belched out.
The process has them releasing up to 500 liters of methane daily. The greenhouse gas is extremely effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere, more than 25 times more potent as carbon dioxide.
High-resolution satellites even detected methane emissions from a cattle lot in California — meaning cow burps were observed from space, according to the environmental data company GHGSat. | 2022-06-10T01:07:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | New Zealand proposes tax on cow and sheep belches to reduce methane emissions - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2022/06/09/new-zealand-cow-sheep-burp-belch-climate-change-methane/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2022/06/09/new-zealand-cow-sheep-burp-belch-climate-change-methane/ |
President urges Summit of the Americas to promote democracy and fight climate change, but divisions are apparent amid fallout from the exclusion of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua
President Biden speaks June 9 during the ninth Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles. (Lauren Justice/Reuters)
LOS ANGELES — President Biden offered his vision for a flourishing democratic Western Hemisphere before dozens of delegations Thursday, but he quickly faced pushback from leaders upset that Biden had excluded a trio of authoritarian regimes from the summit.
“There is no reason why the Western Hemisphere can’t be the most forward-looking, most democratic, most prosperous, most peaceful, secure region in the world,” Biden said ahead of a formal gathering of heads of state from North, Central and South America. “We have unlimited potential. We have enormous resources, and a democratic spirit that stands for freedom and opportunity for everybody.”
But Biden’s exclusion of the authoritarian regimes of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua from the summit faced vocal criticism, as a handful of foreign leaders spoke out against the decision to not invite all nations. John Briceño, the prime minister of Belize, said the summit belongs to “all of the Americas” and that it was “inexcusable” that some countries were barred from attending. The influence of the gathering, he said, was “diminished by their absence.”
“It is incomprehensible that we would isolate countries of the Americas which have provided strong leadership and contributed to the hemisphere on the critical issues of our times,” Briceño said. He later added: “Geography, not politics, defines the Americas.”
Argentine President Alberto Fernández also noted the controversy, saying through an interpreter that he was sorry not all countries that should have attended were present. Fernández, like Briceno, was critical of the decades-old U.S. embargo of Cuba, and he noted that Venezuela has been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
“We definitely would have wished for a different Summit of the Americas. The silence of those who are absent is calling to us,” Fernández said, proposing that the host country not exclude nations from future summits. “President Biden, I am sure that this is the time to open up in a fraternal fashion in order to pursue common interest.”
Once he concluded, Fernández shook Biden’s hand and the two men spoke briefly.
The comments created an uneasy tension with Biden’s efforts to start a new day in intra-American relations after the presidency of Donald Trump, who openly disdained international alliances. This is the first time the United States has hosted the Summit of the Americas since 1994.
The question of democracy’s future in many ways hung over the conference. While Biden shut out Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, some of the leaders he did invite, such as Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, have themselves been accused of anti-democratic actions. Biden even held a one-on-one meeting with Bolsonaro on Thursday.
And while Biden painted a future for the Western Hemisphere as a beacon of democracy, many human rights advocates say it has in fact been moving in the opposite direction, with an erosion of democracy in a number of countries.
Vice President Harris, who also attended the summit, has been personally taking on the corruption in the countries of the Northern Triangle — Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — that has spurred many of their residents to try to flee to the United States.
As he closed Thursday’s session with other leaders from the Americas, Biden downplayed the disputes.
“Notwithstanding some of the disagreements relating to participation, on the substantive matters what I heard was almost unity and uniformity,” he said.
Still, Biden’s affirmation of the virtues of democracy has been sorely tested this week. Ahead of the summit, the White House rolled out new initiatives intended to promote its objectives of the summit, such as a new investment in hundreds of thousands of health-care workers throughout the region and increased cooperation on climate change.
Biden unveils climate push at summit
The final day of the summit, Friday, is expected to focus on migration challenges, an effort that has been led in the Biden administration by Harris. The president has tasked her with focusing on the root causes of migration, such as poverty and corruption, that prompt thousands of Latin Americans to leave their countries in hopes of a better life in the United States.
But many of the administration’s objectives were overshadowed by a high-profile snub from Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has objected to the United States’ decision to exclude the trio of regimes that the administration concluded were in direct conflict with the democratic principles Biden wanted to promote this week.
The White House has described Biden’s decision as one rooted in conscience that reflects a central theme of his presidency — that the world is seeing a broad clash between democracies and autocracies, and that it is important to take the side of democracies. After López Obrador declared his boycott of the summit, the White House announced that he had been invited to visit Biden in Washington next month.
“The president’s principled position is that we do not believe that dictators should be invited,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said earlier this week.
But some human rights advocates argue that the administration’s embrace of democratic principles is not entirely consistent. A “Summit for Democracy” that Biden convened in December included some countries with spotty records, such as Pakistan.
And the current furor has erupted at a time when the White House is preparing for a potential Biden visit next month to oil-rich Saudi Arabia as the United States faces soaring gas prices, despite the Saudi crown prince being accused of orchestrating the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi four years ago. Biden had long vowed to make Saudi Arabia a pariah nation, but he faces enormous pressure to increase the world fuel supply and contain rising gas prices.
And despite his exclusion of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, the president has faced criticism domestically from Republicans over summit invitations, including from Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who said Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó, whom the United States recognizes as the country’s legitimate leader, should have been directly invited to attend. Instead, Biden and Guaidó spoke on the phone Wednesday.
Biden’s formal remarks Thursday were sandwiched between meetings with two foreign leaders that were a veritable split screen of Biden’s foreign policy ethos: first, a sit-down with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, a model of democracy that Biden seeks to promote around the world, then later with Bolsonaro, an authoritarian leader who just this week questioned the validity of the 2020 U.S. presidential election that Biden won.
Bolsonaro was an avid supporter of Trump during the 2020 campaign, and he did not congratulate Biden on his victory until more than a month after his decisive win.
With Trudeau, Biden admiringly said that the United States has “no better friend in the whole world.” The Canadian prime minister said the two countries are working in tandem to promote democratic ideals and that doing so is “better for citizens, for putting food on the table and putting futures in front of them.”
A few hours later, Biden sat down with Bolsonaro, marking the first time the two men have met or even spoken. In brief remarks to reporters, the Brazilian leader, who is up for reelection in October, said in Portuguese that he “came to office through democracy and I’m quite certain when I leave office it will also be through democratic means.”
Underlining the broader threat to democracy, the summit unfolded as a select House committee Thursday held its first public hearing on the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, by supporters of former president Trump trying to overturn the 2020 election.
White House officials have said Biden would try to watch some portions of the hearing, although his schedule is complicated by the summit obligations in California.
“As I said when it was occurring and subsequently, I think it was a clear, flagrant violation of the Constitution,” Biden said ahead of his sit-down with Trudeau. “I think these guys and women broke the law, tried to turn around the result of an election. And there are a lot of questions about who is responsible and who is involved. I’m not going to make a judgment on that.”
Regarding the hearing itself, he added, “a lot of Americans are going to see for the first time some of the details.”
Analysis: What pressure points will the committee highlight tonight?
12:01 AMAnalysis: Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) to play leading role in hearing
11:38 PMA reminder of which lawmakers objected to certifying the election results
11:34 PMHoyer says Trump incited rioters, calls it ‘treason’
11:20 PMGa. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to testify before committee | 2022-06-10T01:08:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Biden, at Americas summit, works to hold together a divided region - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/biden-americas-summit-speech/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/biden-americas-summit-speech/ |
The Interior Department secretary during the Trump presidency prevailed
U.S. House candidate and former Interior Department secretary Ryan Zinke waves to motorists in Kalispell, Mont., on June 7. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake/AP)
Ryan Zinke, a former Trump administration official, is projected to win the GOP nomination for Montana’s new U.S. House district, according to the Associated Press.
Zinke, the Interior Department secretary during the Trump presidency, won the Republican nomination with Donald Trump’s endorsement despite charges that he wasn’t as conservative as some of the other candidates and that his wife’s primary residence is in California. He will be heavily favored to win in November in a state Trump won by 16 points in 2020.
Zinke prevailed over four Republican primary opponents and seeks to represent the new 1st District in western Montana created during redistricting. Montana now has two seats in the House of Representatives.
A former Navy SEAL officer and state senator, Zinke previously represented Montana in the House from 2015 to 2017, when he joined the Trump administration. He resigned as secretary of the Interior Department in December 2018 under pressure from the White House during probes into alleged misconduct in office.
The Interior Department’s inspector general had recently referred an inquiry to the Justice Department, which ultimately declined to bring charges. In a report released this year, the inspector general found that Zinke broke ethics rules while participating in real estate negotiations and lied to an ethics official.
With almost all votes counted Thursday evening, the AP said, Zinke had close to 42 percent of the vote from Tuesday’s primary. Al Olszewski, a former state legislator, trailed closely at nearly 40 percent, with the other three GOP candidates far behind.
In a statement posted to Twitter, Zinke thanked Montanans for “ignoring the political BS” and also paid tribute to Trump, whose endorsement featured prominently in Zinke’s campaign. The former president’s approval remains coveted in GOP primary races even as Trump’s picks have fallen short in states such as Georgia, Idaho and Nebraska.
Penny Ronning won the Democratic nomination, according to AP. | 2022-06-10T01:08:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Zinke projected to win Republican nomination for U.S. House in Montana - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/zinke-montana-house/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/zinke-montana-house/ |
Paula Rego, whose art captured ‘the beautiful grotesque,’ dies at 87
Born in Portugal, she became one of Britain’s most renowned artists, with a major retrospective last year at Tate Britain
Portuguese-British artist Paula Rego in 2021, in an image by her son, filmmaker Nick Willing. (Nick Willing)
Drawing on myths, folk tales and her own upbringing under a dictatorship in Portugal, artist Paula Rego made paintings and drawings that were mischievous, menacing and psychologically complex. They had, she said, a sense of “the beautiful grotesque,” and explored issues of female agency and identity through their unsettling depictions of Disney-like animals and monumental women.
For her “Dog Women” series in the 1990s, she showed solitary women posed like animals — crouching, reclining, howling on all fours. The pictures were tinged with violence and eroticism, as in other works in which she showed a wife cutting off a monkey’s tail with oversized scissors, an “Angel” wielding a sponge in one hand and a sword in the other, and a young woman polishing her father’s knee-high police boot.
As Ms. Rego told it, art was a way to work through fear and trauma, to soothe and comfort as well as to erase, attack, scratch out and destroy. “In my pictures I could do anything,” she said in the 2017 documentary “Paula Rego: Secrets & Stories,” directed by her son, Nick Willing. “Work is the most important thing in life — it is for me.”
Ms. Rego was 87 when she died June 8 at her home in northern London, not far from the converted stretcher factory that she used as a studio. The Victoria Miro Gallery, which represents her, announced her death but did not cite a specific cause.
Although she was raised on the Portuguese coast, Ms. Rego spent much of her career in Britain, where she became known as one of the country’s most renowned and inventive artists. Queen Elizabeth II named her a Dame Commander, one of the country’s highest honors, in 2010, and the Tate Britain organized a sprawling retrospective of her work last year.
“An uncompromising artist of extraordinary imaginative power, she has revolutionized the way in which women are represented,” the museum said at the time. Some of her works are on display at the Venice Biennale, one of the art world’s signature events.
A great Venice Biennale unfolds, against all the odds
For years, however, Ms. Rego was largely overlooked, launching her career in the 1950s as a figurative artist at a time when abstraction was in vogue. She was a rare woman in the London scene — she didn’t worry about the men, she said, “because you could seduce them if you wanted to” — and felt disconnected from existing art movements. Her first solo show, in Lisbon in 1965, shocked some critics with its colorful paintings and collages, which combined newspaper and magazine cutouts with her own semiabstract drawings.
“My inspiration,” she told an interviewer at the time, “comes from things that have little to do with painting: caricatures, daily news, things that happen in the streets, proverbs, children’s stories, children’s play, children’s songs and dances, nightmares, desires, fears.”
Many of her works were inspired by literature or nursery rhymes, repurposing literary or folk characters like the Three Blind Mice, Jane Eyre and Snow White. Animals were often substituted for people, as in her painting “Pregnant Rabbit Telling Her Parents,” in which a bunny is shown delivering unexpected news to her mother, a cat, and father, a cigar-smoking dog.
Other works were more explicitly political, informed by her childhood under Portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar, whom she portrayed in paintings like “Salazar Vomiting the Homeland” (1960) and “The Imposter” (1964), which imagined him as an octopus.
Ms. Rego tackled feminist issues including female genital mutilation and abortion rights, which inspired some of her best known works, a series of pastel drawings that showed pained but defiant young women just before or after the procedure. One woman was depicted with her feet on folding chairs, which served as makeshift stirrups; others were shown curled up on a bed or lying on the floor.
The abortion series began as a form of protest, following the defeat of a 1998 referendum that would have decriminalized the procedure in Portugal. It was also informed by personal experience: As a teenager, Ms. Rego had a “back street” abortion so that she could continue her art studies in London, rather than be forced to return to her parents in Portugal.
She said she wanted her work to reveal “the fear and pain and danger of an illegal abortion, which is what desperate women have always resorted to.”
When another abortion vote was held in Portugal in 2007, many of her pictures were published in national newspapers, helping to shape debate surrounding access to the procedure. The referendum passed, legalizing abortion in the country, and former Portuguese president Jorge Sampaio went on to cite “the very harsh brutality of her pictures” as “an influence” on the outcome.
Maria Paula Figueiroa Rego was born in Lisbon on Jan. 26, 1935. The next year, her parents moved to England for her father’s job as an electrical engineer. Ms. Rego was sent to her grandmother, who lived in the fishing town of Ericeira and introduced the young girl to Portuguese folklore.
The stories became a balm of sorts, a source of solace in a childhood shaped by fear and isolation. “My mother tells me I was afraid of the flies, but I remember being afraid of everything,” Ms. Rego told biographer John McEwen. “I was even afraid of other children. I just couldn’t bear to be put outside. Oh God, it was awful. It was just terror, terror.”
Art — “the pencil scratching on the paper and making something” — also offered an escape. Ms. Rego received encouragement from a teacher at the British international school she attended near Lisbon, and went on to study at a finishing school in England before enrolling in 1952 at the Slade School of Fine Art, part of University College London.
It was there that she met painter Victor Willing, a glamorous fellow student who went on to become famous for his nude studies. He was married at the time, but they started an affair and, after his divorce, married in 1959, deepening a tumultuous relationship that included infidelities on both sides.
At the time, “women were there to be partners and supporters for their artist husbands. I wasn’t one of those,” she told the BBC last year. “I wanted to be in the big boys’ club, with the great painters I admired. Just as I’d wanted to be Robin Hood and not Maid Marian.”
Ms. Rego and her husband split their time between Britain and Portugal before settling permanently in London in the mid-1970s. Over the next decade, she and her work started to gain a wide audience in Britain, where AIR Gallery mounted her first major solo show in London and she was named an associate artist at the National Gallery, which added some of her pieces to its permanent collection.
Much of that period was spent caring for her husband, who had multiple sclerosis and died in 1988, the same year Ms. Rego painted “The Family,” a tender if somewhat disquieting picture of a woman and her daughters caring for her infirm husband, helping him with his clothes as he sits rigid on a bed.
In addition to her son, Nick, survivors include two daughters, Cas and Victoria Willing, and a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Ms. Rego remained productive in recent years, and often described art as a form of therapy, a way “to give fear a face,” as she put it in a 2016 interview with the Telegraph. She had mixed success (“it’s ridiculous to be so old and so fearful”), but said she was still calmed by turning to stories, whether in the form of childhood memories or folk tales and legends.
“I choose a story,” she added, “so that I can use it to paint my own life.” | 2022-06-10T02:04:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Paula Rego, whose art captured ‘the beautiful grotesque,’ dies at 87 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/06/09/artist-paula-rego-dead/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/06/09/artist-paula-rego-dead/ |
3 early takeaways from the Jan. 6 committee’s first prime-time hearing
A video of former president Donald Trump on Jan. 6 plays at the first prime-time Jan. 6 committee hearing, with committee members below. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
The congressional Jan. 6 committee has launched its prime-time hearing about the attack on the Capitol and the events leading up to it. Here are three early takeaways from the first of a series of hearings, after nearly a year of investigation. We’ll update this as the hearing continues.
“President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack.” That is the top Republican on the committee (and one of only two who agreed to participate with Democrats), Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) directly laying the blame for the violence on Trump.
“[W]hen a president fails to take the steps necessary to preserve our union or worse causes a constitutional crisis,” she said, “we’re at a moment of maximum danger for our republic.”
Cheney said that over the next month, the committee will present evidence that Trump made not a single call to the Department of Defense or other national security agencies during the attack. The committee played testimony from Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, saying that it was Vice President Mike Pence who made those calls.
The committee said it will present evidence that the president “refused for hours to do what his staff, his family and many of his other advisers begged him to do, immediately instruct his supporters to stand down and evacuate the Capitol.” He also yelled at advisers who told him to act, the panel said.
And, perhaps most damning, the committee said that he cheered on the protesters’ most violent tendencies. Cheney said, “Aware of the rioters chanting to ‘hang Mike Pence,’ the president responded with this sentiment ‘Maybe our supporters have the right idea. [Mike Pence] deserves it.’”
At the Jan. 6 hearing on June 9, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) stated President Donald Trump said Vice President Mike Pence “deserved” to be hung. (Video: The Washington Post)
Much of this has been corroborated by earlier reporting.
It was always going to be a challenge for the committee to focus the public’s attention on an event from more than a year ago — and to do it over a series of hearings for a month. On Thursday, it laid out exactly how it will try to tell the story of the Jan. 6 attack and who was responsible for it.
The committee opened by seeking to jolt the American public back to that violent day with never-before-seen footage of the attackers marching up to the Capitol and smashing windows to get in, overwhelming Capitol Police officers. “We can’t hold this there are too many f------g people. Look at it from this vantage point. We’re f----d,” one officer says.
On Monday, the committee will share how they think Trump tried to steal the election, though he knew he had lost. “President Trump ignored the rulings of our nation’s courts,” Cheney said. “He ignored his own campaign leadership.” They played video of Trump’s attorney general, William P. Barr, who told the committee he resigned in the final month of the administration in part because Trump was trying to wrestle his way to stay in power: “I made it clear I did not agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen and putting out this stuff, which I told the president was bullshit,” Barr said.
In footage shared during the Jan. 6 committee hearing on June 9, former attorney general William Barr said that he did not believe the election was stolen. (Video: The Washington Post, Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
On Wednesday, it will detail how Trump “corruptly planned” to replace top Justice Department officials with his own allies, who wanted to endorse investigations of baseless election fraud claims in states like Georgia. (After they threatened mass resignations, he did not end up replacing them.)
Later, the committee will spend a significant amount of time on the pressure Trump and his allies put on Pence to overturn election results on that day, something Pence himself said was “wrong.” They’ll also talk about how Trump “corruptly pressured” state legislators and election officials to change election results, and will shed new light on the Trump campaign’s efforts to set up slates of false electors in states he’d lost.
Finally, the committee will revisit the day of the attack, accusing Trump of having “summoned” right-wing groups to attack the Capitol, then resisting calls by his allies and family to tell the attackers to go home. And in Cheney’s words, after the attack, White House staff feared that Trump “was too dangerous to be left alone.”
It’s a lot for the committee to tackle — all while keeping Americans’ attention span over a long period of time. But the first hearing was objectively riveting, weaving together startling footage of that day — including congressional staffers running for their lives as attackers breached the Capitol — with live testimony from a Capitol Police officer badly injured in the attack and a documentarian who embedded with the Proud Boys.
Top Republican lawmakers — even Pence, whose life was threatened by the attackers — have spent the year and a half since the attack downplaying what happened. It’s now a badge of honor in some circles to have been in D.C. protesting election results or to be labeled an insurrectionist.
Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) compared those who have justified what happened to those who defended slavery and the civil war.
“I’m from a part of the country where people justify the actions of slavery, the Ku Klux Klan and lynching,” Thompson said in his opening remarks, his Southern drawl evident. “I’m reminded of that dark history as I hear voices today try to justify the actions of the insurrectionists.”
And Cheney, whose party has isolated her for her strong criticism of Trump and willingness to serve on this committee, said, “Tonight, I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible. There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.”
The committee also shared new information: A number of Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), asked the White House for pardons in the weeks after the attack, for their alleged involvement in trying to overthrow the election. The committee subpoenaed Perry, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and several other House Republicans, who refused to cooperate with their investigation.
We will update this story with the latest news as the hearing continues.
Jan. 6 hearing live updates: Opening statements clearly point to Trump
Analysis: Much of the scheming and plotting happened in plain sight
1:46 AMAnalysis: Cheney teases ‘additional details’ on Trump’s Georgia outreach | 2022-06-10T02:39:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 3 early takeaways from the Jan. 6 committee’s first prime-time hearing - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/first-january-6-hearing-takeaways/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/09/first-january-6-hearing-takeaways/ |
Stephen Strasburg allowed seven runs in his first outing of 2022. (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
MIAMI — Stephen Strasburg stared down at the pitcher’s mound at LoanDepot Park after throwing his final warmup pitch. He took a deep breath, made a quick glance at the Miami Marlins’ Jazz Chisholm Jr., and toed the rubber. He was ready.
Strasburg, the Washington Nationals’ 2019 World Series MVP in the third year of a seven-year, $245 million contract, was back on the mound in a meaningful game for the first time in just over 12 months. The results weren’t particularly impressive — his velocity topped out at 92 mph, and the Marlins regularly made hard contact in a 7-4 win Thursday night that completed a three-game sweep — but those were minor details. The big right-hander was back.
So it didn’t matter that Chisholm’s bunt single on the first pitch of the game led to three runs off Strasburg in the first inning. Or that he allowed a two-run homer to Jesús Sánchez, ending his night after allowing five straight hits, in a four-run fifth.
“It’s good to just go out there and compete and go as long as you can and as hard as you can,” Strasburg said. “Today wasn’t very long, but you got to start somewhere, so [I’ll] try and be more efficient next time.”
Strasburg, 33, pitched in a major league ballpark for the first time in 373 days. And after 83 pitches, he handed the ball to his manager and walked off healthy. For the Nationals (21-38), that represented a major victory.
A lot has changed since Strasburg last pitched in the majors June 1, 2021. At that point, Washington was a veteran group looking to compete despite a slow start. Since then, the Nationals purged their roster of a number of key players at the trade deadline, most notably dealing Trea Turner and Max Scherzer to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The team Strasburg returned to was largely younger and mostly unproven — and it trailed the New York Mets by 16½ games in the National League East when play began. The only starters in Thursday’s lineup who were the same from his previous outing were Juan Soto and Victor Robles.
Staying healthy after the Nationals signed him to the big contract following the World Series win has been a challenge for Strasburg, who has been dogged by injuries throughout his career (including Tommy John surgery in 2010). He entered Thursday having thrown just 26⅔ innings since winning World Series MVP honors. He pitched five innings and then needed carpal tunnel surgery in 2020. Then surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome ended his 2021 season after 21⅔ innings.
Nats fan comletes 'mission,' one autographed World Series ball at a time
But since 2012, the Nationals have made the playoffs in four of the five seasons when Strasburg made at least 28 starts. He won’t reach that figure this season, but his presence could be crucial to the pitching staff. If he stays healthy and performs at a high level, Washington would have one less arm to worry about in its rotation. If he can’t, the Nationals might have to invest resources in adding additional arms via free agency.
So Washington preached patience throughout his recovery as Strasburg inched toward his return. But on Thursday, Manager Dave Martinez made it clear that Strasburg had no limitations. And in the first inning, the Marlins immediately made Strasburg work.
Chisholm reached on a bunt and stole second base before Strasburg could record an out. He retired the next two batters but walked Avisaíl García, then Sánchez doubled to give Miami a 1-0 lead. Jon Berti singled in two more runs the following at-bat, putting Strasburg in a three-run hole.
Pitcher Evan Lee's MLB debut was 'a testament to the Nationals' development'
He settled in by striking out the side in the second — two on a change-up and another with a fastball. After hitting Garrett Cooper with a change-up to begin the third, he worked quickly through the fourth.
“I thought he threw the ball well,” catcher Riley Adams said. “That change-up was really working well to keep those guys off balance.”
Soto drove in a pair of runs in the fifth to bring the Nationals within one, but the bottom of the inning got away from the 6-foot-5 right-hander.
Strasburg allowed five straight hits after recording the first out, including Chisholm’s second bunt single. Cooper doubled in Chisholm. After a wild pitch, Jesús Aguilar singled to score Cooper. García doubled into the left-center field gap, but Aguilar was thrown out at home before Sánchez’s 417-foot blast to right. Strasburg finished the night allowing eight hits — all in the first and fifth innings — and striking out five.
Strasburg said he felt he could’ve thrown his change-up more often and had better command of his fastball, but overall he said he felt good.
“I’m excited to learn from it and get back out there for the next one,” he added.
The Nationals pushed across two runs in the seventh when Lane Thomas doubled down the right field line, continuing a hot June that has seen him hit .375. But the Nationals couldn’t close the gap any further. Designated hitter Nelson Cruz was a late scratch with back tightness.
The loss capped a sweep for the Marlins, who have won eight of nine meetings. But this setback came with a silver lining: As of now, Strasburg is lined up for his next start in five days, wearing a Nationals uniform.
“I really believe that having him on the mound was good for the Washington Nationals, good for the fans,” Martinez said. “The results will be there.” | 2022-06-10T03:22:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Stephen Strasburg returns for Nats in loss to Marlins - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/09/nationals-stephen-strasburg-return/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/09/nationals-stephen-strasburg-return/ |
Carolyn Hax: Girlfriend thinks hugging other women is ‘inappropriate’
Dear Carolyn: I’ve been in a committed and monogamous relationship with a woman for about a year. She has been in three significant relationships (one marriage and two long-term boyfriends), and each one ended because of the man’s sexual infidelity.
She gets really upset when I hug other women. She believes that the hugs are inappropriate because I am in a relationship with her, and that I should stop the hugs if I care about her feelings. Of course I care about her feelings, but this feels like control to me, so I am resistant. I am totally confident in my ability to be monogamous and sexually faithful. Please help unravel this issue for us.
— C.
C.: I wish I could.
But the work that needs doing is within her.
I say this with great sympathy; she has been through enough pain to make anyone flinch.
But that doesn’t give her license to control you or make her pain someone else’s problem. She can ask you to do X or Y because she feels Z — we’re all entitled to ask — and, sure, you can agree to that willingly if that feels right to you and you want to. But you are likewise entitled to say no to her request. It’s your body, your behavior, your call.
And if you say no, she is not entitled to manipulate or guilt you or otherwise chip away at your peace of mind until you change your answer.
When you decided you would not change your behavior for her, her only valid, appropriate, healthy choices were to accept you on those terms or end the relationship. Just as you can do now with her.
The choices she made are not valid: to keep getting “really upset” and blackmailing you emotionally (“You don’t care about my feelings!”), as well as threatening you but not making changes herself. You are exactly right to identify that as control.
This has nothing to do with whether hugging other women is “inappropriate.” That’s an eye-of-the-beholder standard for each of you to have and, as needed, reconcile. It is strictly a matter of who has a say in whose behavior.
Every relationship is a matter of trust. We tend to think of it as trusting another person, but really, it’s about trusting ourselves. Trusting our ability to judge someone’s character. Trusting that what we think is good for us really is, and will last. Trusting we will be able to tell how it’s going and to read things accurately. Trusting we will be able to handle it and eventually be okay if something goes (even terribly) wrong.
By your description, your girlfriend is O-fer. And that is the fundamental problem. Someone unable to trust herself is unable to sustain her part of an equal partnership, because the very foundation of intimacy is for both of you to let each other be yourselves.
Instead, she is doing the opposite, reaching into your business to try to change who you are and what you do in a joyless — and, always, self-defeating — act of protection.
It is on her to establish for herself some sense of control over her feelings, judgment and circumstances through her own choices, not yours.
For this entire column’s worth of reasons, you can’t make her do that. But you can ask and suggest warmly, for her own peace of mind, that she talk to a therapist about it. And if she holds firm to her belief that she is right to shame, cajole and cry you into doing her bidding, then you can say a gentle goodbye and go. | 2022-06-10T04:10:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Carolyn Hax: Girlfriend thinks hugging other women is ‘inappropriate’ - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/06/10/carolyn-hax-girlfriend-hugging-inappropriate/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/06/10/carolyn-hax-girlfriend-hugging-inappropriate/ |
Biden’s hemispheric summit may end up a dud
President Biden came to office last year vowing to reassert U.S. leadership on the world stage. But that’s proven to be a far trickier proposition than it seemed in the first weeks of his presidency. Though the Biden administration has been celebrated by European partners for revitalizing transatlantic ties and leading a strong united front during the Ukraine war, it has stumbled elsewhere.
It was humbled by the debacle of its withdrawal from Afghanistan. It has fallen over backward to return itself to the good graces of Saudi Arabia’s autarchic monarchy. It has struggled to match its lofty, trumpeted goals on climate action with necessary domestic legislation, and has been criticized for still not doing enough to deliver coronavirus vaccines to the developing world.
Then there’s Latin America, Washington’s proverbial backyard. The Summit of the Americas, hosted in Los Angeles this week, was seen as a moment for Biden to forge his own opening with a region largely neglected by his predecessor. Not since 1994 has the United States convened the hemispheric gathering on its soil.
“We have an opportunity for us to come together around some bold ideas, ambitious actions and to demonstrate to our people the incredible power of democracies to deliver concrete benefits and make life better for everyone,” Biden said Wednesday.
Yet the political atmosphere surrounding proceedings has been nothing short of gloomy. Things immediately got off on the wrong foot with the conspicuous no-show of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who declined his invitation after the United States refused to invite the autocratic leaders of Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela.
For similar reasons, the presidents of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador — three nations at the heart of U.S. efforts to tackle migration flows from the region — decided not to attend. “This should be a summit without exclusions,” Eduardo Enrique Reina, Honduran foreign relations secretary, told reporters.
The absence of López Obrador, leader of a major hemispheric economy and the United States’ biggest Latin American trade partner, was hardly salved by the abrasive presence of the president of Latin America’s largest economy. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right nationalist with a fondness for former president Donald Trump, preceded his arrival in Los Angeles with remarks on Brazilian television questioning the legitimacy of Biden’s election win. The two presidents sat down Thursday for a testy bilateral meeting, where they likely did not see eye to eye on many issues.
Biden also drew flak for not inviting Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó to the summit (and, instead, welcoming lower-profile members of the country’s civil society). While the United States recognizes Guaidó as Venezuela’s rightful leader, many other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean do not.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador says he will not attend this week’s Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles because President Biden is not inviting Cuba, Venezuela or Nicaragua. https://t.co/n2HSS1iiWM
Beyond heralding a flurry of new private sector U.S. investment deals in Latin America, the Biden administration is pushing two major regional proposals at the summit. On Friday, the United States and its Latin American counterparts are expected to sign a joint declaration on migration aimed at getting more countries to host migrants moving across the region.
“Summit participants are expected to agree to a framework in which more countries would host migrants and create more visa pathways to move throughout the region legally for either work or humanitarian protection,” noted the Wall Street Journal. “In exchange, Biden would boost the U.S.’s economic commitment to countries with large migrant populations.”
More ambitious — and, arguably, amorphous — is a proposal released by the administration dubbed the “Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity,” a vision for the hemisphere’s economic future that would mobilize much-needed investment for the region’s infrastructure, strengthen supply chains and make trade more “sustainable and inclusive,” per a White House fact sheet.
The concept is similar in spirit to what the Biden administration has floated recently in Asia, a patchwork set of principles and mechanisms for the Indo-Pacific that’s meant to serve as a template for strengthening America’s hand at a time of rising geopolitical competition with China. And like that plan, critics fear its Latin American equivalent lacks substance and teeth.
“It all looks very thin,” Jorge Heine, a former Chilean ambassador to China, told me.
The Biden administration is not promising new free trade deals or greater market access to countries in the region that don’t have these arrangements already in place, nor has it proved yet capable of raising significant new resources for investment. While Biden managed to swiftly push $40 billion in additional funding to Ukraine through Congress, its long-sought $4 billion to reckon with the social crises in Central America is mired on Capitol Hill.
This lack of capacity stands in marked contrast to China. Total Chinese trade to Latin America and the Caribbean went from a paltry $18 billion in 2002 to nearly $449 billion in 2021. China is now South America’s largest trade partner. It has used financial incentives to flip a number of Caribbean countries away from their recognition of Taiwan. It has become a major provider of armaments to South American militaries and has partnered with the space programs of a half dozen countries on the continent. Chinese state companies and businesses are hoovering up natural resources, as well as engaging in major infrastructure and construction projects across the region, from stadiums and railways to ports and dams.
“When U.S. authorities visit Latin America, they often talk about China and why Latin American countries should not deal with China,” Heine said. “When Chinese authorities visit, all the talk is about bridges and tunnels and highways and railways and trade.” One vision, he added, is clearly more “attractive” than the other.
Heine argued that there were high expectations for Biden’s tenure. As vice president in the Obama administration, Biden made numerous trips to Latin America. His experience, it was hoped, would move the needle beyond the Trump years, when Latin America was largely reduced to a target of anti-immigrant bashing and ideological axe-grinding against left-leaning regimes.
But the Biden administration has pursued what Heine dubbed as a “Trump-lite” approach, where the “rhetoric has been toned down, but the policies have continued very much along the same lines.” The result, Heine concluded, is a “generalized disappointment” in a region whose economies have been badly hit by the pandemic.
En China tuvimos una productiva reunión con el presidente Xi Jinping. Pronto les compartiré las importantes noticias para el Ecuador. Logramos grandes resultados en apertura comercial, cooperación en salud y renegociación de deuda. 🇪🇨🇨🇳 pic.twitter.com/j0t6NSKcdn
— Guillermo Lasso (@LassoGuillermo) February 5, 2022
Meanwhile, China’s approach to Latin America is far less ideological than the one on show in the United States. Beijing can coordinate on coronavirus vaccines with Cuba while also courting Ecuador’s newish right-wing government with the prospect of a major trade deal.
“Most governments obviously prefer the U.S. model,” Heine told me, pointing to democratic values that many in the region also cherish. “But the real challenge is development. … When China comes and offers trade and financing, that is welcome. That is the main priority. Latin Americans are not in the business of international great power competition.” | 2022-06-10T04:11:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Biden’s hemispheric Summit of the Americas may end up a dud - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/10/biden-summit-of-americas-south-dud/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/10/biden-summit-of-americas-south-dud/ |
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