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Lea Michele appears at the 75th annual Tony Awards in New York on June 12, 2022, left, and Beanie Feldstein appears at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles on Sept. 19, 2021. Lea Michele has been tapped to step in and lead the Broadway revival of the beleaguered “Funny Girl” this fall, an announcement made just hours after current star Beanie Feldstein revealed she was leaving the show sooner than anticipated due to the show taking a “different direction. (AP Photo) (Uncredited/AP)
Feldstein, the “Booksmart” and “Lady Bird” actor, considered it one of theater’s highest honors to play Brice, telling The Associated Press in April that she tried not to think about it too much or she'd “explode.” | 2022-07-11T17:22:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | At 'Funny Girl,' Lea Michele is in, Beanie Feldstein is out - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/at-funny-girl-lea-michele-is-in-beanie-feldstein-is-out/2022/07/11/210307b8-013b-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/at-funny-girl-lea-michele-is-in-beanie-feldstein-is-out/2022/07/11/210307b8-013b-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html |
Welcome to The Daily 202! Tell your friends to sign up here. On this day in 1798, President John Adams signed legislation creating the U.S. Marine Corps as its own branch of the military — and establishing the U.S. Marine Band. (cc: Col. Fettig)
The Roe reversal is exacerbating tensions between Biden and progressive activists
First, the White House dismissed “out-of-touch” activists demanding a stronger response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. A day later, President Biden suggested one major option still on the table is one some activists champion — declaring a national health emergency.
The topsy-turvy weekend came after weeks of complaints from liberals who see Biden’s policy response to the Dobbs decision as sluggish and scattershot, falling well short of what’s needed after a foreseeable ruling with life-changing consequences for millions.
Biden’s candidacy and presidency have always involved a balancing act when it comes to his relationship with the left flank of the Democratic Party. Activists helped power him to the White House even as he dismissed some of their policy priorities and made his centrism and bipartisan aspirations a selling point.
That didn’t come with much of a cost in 2020, when the party was united behind beating President Trump. But it’s a problem in a midterm elections year, when Democrats need the energy from the party’s base to have any chance of salvaging their thin majority in Congress.
Abortion tensions
On abortion, White House aides have defended the president’s words and deeds since the decision landed June 24 — nearly two months after its contours became known in a May 2 leak — and expressed mounting irritation with criticisms from their left flank.
On Saturday, in a piece by my colleagues Ashley Parker, Yasmeen Abutaleb and Tyler Pager, outgoing White House communications director Kate Bedingfield vented that frustration, saying the president’s team had put “months of hard work” into crafting its response.
“Joe Biden’s goal in responding to Dobbs is not to satisfy some activists who have been consistently out of step with the mainstream of the Democratic Party,” Bedingfield said. “It’s to deliver help to women who are in danger and assemble a broad-based coalition to defend a woman’s right to choose now, just as he assembled such a coalition to win during the 2020 campaign.”
(To judge just how annoyed the West Wing is with the pressure from liberals, imagine that same Bedingfield statement shorn of everything from “is not to satisfy” through “Democratic Party.” Yes, yes, and change the “it’s” to “is.” Confrontation averted.)
Self-identified activists rebelled.
Here’s Shaunaa Thomas, co-founder of the women’s-rights group Ultra Violet, arguing Biden’s the one who’s out of step.
“I took offense to it,” Ashley Allison, an alum of President Obama’s White House who went on to be the Biden campaign’s 2020 national coalitions director, said on CNN’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper.
“These people going into the street saying that we need bodily autonomy, that is the excitement that Democrats need right now ahead of the midterms,” she said. “And to demonize them and say they're not mainstream, well, abortion is a very popular issue in the country, and it goes across Democratic and Republican lines.”
In a telling turn of phrase, Allison said this: “It was an unforced error. And I hope they address it. I'm not sure they will.”
Maybe not address it directly, but Biden’s own remarks on Sunday seemed to suggest he does, in fact, hope to satisfy some of the activists his communications director disparaged.
“Keep protesting. Keep making your point. It’s critically important,” he said to those who have taken to the streets since the ruling.
Public health emergency?
As for declaring a national emergency, Biden said he had asked his team “to look at whether I have the authority to do that and what impact that would have.”
(Bedingfield and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre did not acknowledge an email from The Daily 202 asking how the White House could still, weeks after the ruling, be in the process of trying to determine this, and when that process began.)
Not only would such a step surely draw legal challenges but, if left standing, it would also raise the prospects of a future Republican president using the same tool to try restrict access to abortion nationally.
On Friday, Jen Klein, director of the White House Gender Policy Council, had told reporters declaring a national emergency was “definitely not off the table” but also that an internal assessment found it “didn’t seem like a great option.”
“When we looked at the public health emergency, we learned a couple things. One is that it doesn't free very many resources. It's what's in the public health emergency fund, and there's very little money — tens of thousands of dollars in it,” Klein said. “So that didn't seem like a great option. And it also doesn't release a significant amount of legal authority. And so that's why we haven't taken that action yet.”
Self-described ‘propagandist’ for the Oath Keepers expected to testify Tuesday
“Jason Van Tatenhove, a former spokesman for the Oath Keepers, a far-right ‘militia’ organization that participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, is expected to testify Tuesday at the latest hearing of the panel investigating the insurrection,” John Wagner and Mariana Alfaro report.
Trump lawyer Justin Clark was interviewed by the FBI about Bannon's contempt case
“Former President Donald Trump’s attorney Justin Clark interviewed with federal investigators two weeks ago, the Justice Department revealed in a court filing early Monday morning, a significant development that could reverberate in multiple investigations facing Trump’s inner circle,” Politico's Kyle Cheney reports.
“Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Vaughn said that Clark had confirmed in his June 29 interview what DOJ long suspected: that Trump had never invoked executive privilege to block Bannon from testifying.”
Drugmaker seeks approval for first over-the-counter birth control pill
“Paris-based HRA Pharma said in a news release that it submitted its application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a progestin-only daily oral contraceptive. Progestin is a synthetic form of the hormone progesterone,” Laurie McGinley reports.
Officials: Three dead, 28 wounded in Kharkiv airstrikes
“Three people were killed and at least 28 injured — including a 16-year-old — in airstrikes that hit the northern region of Kharkiv early Monday, the regional governor said, citing Ukraine’s Regional Center of Emergency Medical Assistance,” Annabelle Timsit, Bryan Pietsch and Annabelle C. Chapman report.
The Uber Files is an international investigation based on more than 124,000 records obtained by the Guardian and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which helped lead the project, and dozens of other news organizations, including The Washington Post.
“Uber viewed Russia as among the company’s most important foreign markets, according to a memo that is part of the Uber Files,” Ian Duncan reports. “That memo shows that Uber believed Russia’s dozen ‘millionniki’ — cities home to at least a million people — presented a ripe opportunity. But like the golf club’s, Uber’s foundations in Russia were questionable. A little over a year later, Uber would essentially pull out of the country.”
The context: “The files do not contain evidence that Uber violated sanctions or broke the law as it tried to grow in Russia. But today, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, almost everyone with whom Uber allied then is under sanction for their alleged ties to Putin by U.S. or European authorities.”
Key takeaways from the Uber Files investigation
Uber risked driver well-being as it rushed to expand in South Africa
Uber allied with Russian oligarchs in bid to get close to Putin
Binance served crypto traders in Iran despite U.S. sanctions, clients say
“The world's largest crypto exchange, Binance, continued to process trades by clients in Iran despite U.S. sanctions and a company ban on doing business there, a Reuters investigation has found,” Tom Wilson and Angus Berwick report.
The timeline: “In interviews with Reuters, seven traders said they skirted the ban. The traders said they continued to use their Binance accounts until as recently as September last year, only losing access after the exchange tightened its anti-money laundering checks a month earlier.”
“Legal experts are split on whether or not Congress would even have the authority to codify rights left vulnerable by the Dobbs decision. That’s because such issues have traditionally been under the power of states," the 19th's Kate Sosin and Candice Norwood report.
“The speed, people close to the committee said, was for two crucial reasons: Ms. Hutchinson was under intense pressure from Trump World, and panel members believed that getting her story out in public would make her less vulnerable, attract powerful allies and be its own kind of protection. The committee also had to move fast, the people said, to avoid leaks of some of the most explosive testimony ever heard on Capitol Hill,” the New York Times's Robert Draper reports.
"The latest omicron offshoot, BA.5, has quickly become dominant in the United States, and thanks to its elusiveness when encountering the human immune system, is driving a wave of cases across the country.
The size of that wave is unclear because most people are testing at home or not testing at all," Joel Achenbach reports.
New poll: Most Democrats don’t want Biden in 2024
“President Biden is facing an alarming level of doubt from inside his own party, with 64 percent of Democratic voters saying they would prefer a new standard-bearer in the 2024 presidential campaign, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll, as voters nationwide have soured on his leadership, giving him a meager 33 percent job-approval rating,” the NYT's Shane Goldmacher reports.
The Trump view: “One glimmer of good news for Mr. Biden is that the survey showed him with a narrow edge in a hypothetical rematch in 2024 with former President Donald J. Trump: 44 percent to 41 percent.”
“President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is to visit Washington on Tuesday to meet with President Joe Biden, a month after López Obrador snubbed Biden’s invitation to the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles. Mexico’s leader had demanded that Biden invite to the summit the leaders of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela — all countries with anti-democratic regimes — and he has also called U.S. support for Ukraine 'a crass error,' ” the Associated Press's Mark Stevenson and Zeke Miller report.
“When President Biden arrives in the Middle East this week, on his first visit as American head of state, he will find a region where alliances, priorities and relations with the United States have shifted significantly since his last official trip, six years ago,” the NYT's Patrick Kingsley reports.
In his own words – Joe Biden: Why I’m going to Saudi Arabia
D.C.'s food deserts, visualized
“Full-service grocery stores proliferate across the city, but in majority-Black wards 7 and 8, that number can be counted on one hand. A D.C. Hunger Solutions report from November found that just three out of 75 such stores were located in those wards. A fourth, Good Food Markets, opened in Ward 8 in November,” Vanessa G. Sánchez reports.
“The inexorable march of tradition and timidity on the part of the government’s other branches has given this pack of conservative apparatchiks what amounts to monarchical powers over the American people. It’s no wonder that their decisions are so terrible — and so ominous for the country’s future,” Ryan Cooper writes for the American Prospect.
RNC's neutrality called into question over promotion of Trump and his business
“The party and its leaders have committed to staying neutral in the upcoming presidential election. And as the RNC continues to tout Trump and even push his private business ventures through its official channels, the fear grows that it is dispensing with even the veneer of neutrality,” Politico's Meredith McGraw reports.
At 5 p.m., Biden and Vice President Harris will get a briefing from NASA officials to see the images from the Webb Space Telescope.
A nifty fact for your Monday:
I was today years old when I found out that the word nifty is short for magnificent.
— Yvette Clark (@yvettewrites) July 10, 2022
3:41 PMBiden, Harris praise advocates, lawmakers for measure to curb gun violence | 2022-07-11T17:22:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | It’s White House v. Activists v. Biden v. White House - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/11/its-white-house-v-activists-v-biden-v-white-house/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/11/its-white-house-v-activists-v-biden-v-white-house/ |
Condoleezza Rice is joining the Broncos' incoming ownership group. (Darron Cummings/AP)
Condoleezza Rice, the former U.S. secretary of state who has been linked in the past to a variety of potential NFL roles, is joining the incoming ownership group of the Denver Broncos led by Walmart heir Rob Walton, the team’s new owners announced Monday.
“We’re pleased to welcome former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to our ownership group,” Walton said in a statement released by the Broncos. “A highly respected public servant, accomplished academic and corporate leader, Secretary Rice is well known as a passionate and knowledgeable football fan who has worked to make the sport stronger and better.”
Rice, 67, is the director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. She previously had been mentioned as an NFL commissioner candidate and once was linked to the Cleveland Browns’ head coaching job, speculation that she and the team quickly dismissed. She was also an inaugural member of the College Football Playoff selection committee.
“Her unique experience and extraordinary judgment will be a great benefit to our group and the Broncos organization,” Walton said.
Rice was not available to comment. The amount of her investment in the franchise was not disclosed.
She became the first Black woman to serve as secretary of state when she succeeded Colin Powell in January 2005. She served until January 2009.
Group led by Walmart heir Rob Walton agrees to buy Broncos for $4.65 billion
Walton’s group agreed in June to purchase the Broncos from the Pat Bowlen Trust for $4.65 billion, according to a person familiar with the sale agreement. The deal remains subject to final approval by fellow NFL team owners.
Walton announced when the deal was struck that Mellody Hobson, the co-CEO of Ariel Investments, had agreed to join his ownership group. Hobson, who is Black, also is the chair of the board of the Starbucks Corporation and a director of JPMorgan Chase.
NFL owners approved a resolution in March endorsing diversity in franchise ownership. | 2022-07-11T17:23:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Condoleezza Rice joins Broncos’ new ownership group - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/11/condoleezza-rice-broncos-nfl/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/11/condoleezza-rice-broncos-nfl/ |
Lea Michele, pictured arriving to the 75th annual Tony Awards in June, will replace Beanie Feldstein in “Funny Girl.” (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Life’s candy today for Lea Michele.
Starting in September, the actress will replace Beanie Feldstein in the Broadway revival of “Funny Girl.” Michele — a known superfan of Barbra Streisand, who originated the role of Fanny Brice onstage in 1964 — covered the show’s anthemic “Don’t Rain on My Parade” in the first season of television’s “Glee” and later performed the song at the 2010 Tony Awards. She publicly expressed interest in playing the part during a talk show appearance years ago and has been rumored as the replacement lead since Feldstein’s exit was announced.
The long-awaited revival of “Funny Girl” opened in late April. After Feldstein took a break from the show because she tested positive for the coronavirus, she announced in June that her last performance would be Sept. 25. The production confirmed the news on Twitter and added that actress Jane Lynch, who played Mrs. Brice, would also be exiting then.
Feldstein then shared in a statement posted to Instagram Sunday night that she would be leaving “Funny Girl” at the end of July — two months earlier than the initially announced date. She attributed her early departure — a highly unusual Broadway occurrence — to the production deciding to “take the show in a different direction.”
“I will never forget this experience and from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank every single person who came to the August Wilson [Theatre] for the love and support you have shown me and our amazing cast and crew,” the statement reads. “The people I have had the great joy of bringing Funny Girl to life with every night, both on and off stage, are all remarkably talented and exceptional humans.”
Lynch is now also exiting earlier than planned, taking her final bow on Sept. 4. Mrs. Brice will be played by four-time Tony nominee Tovah Feldshuh. (Standby Julie Benko will play Fanny Brice in August, and on Thursdays beginning in September.)
“Funny Girl” received largely negative reviews. Variety’s Frank Rizzo referred to it as “underpowered.” The New York Times’s Jesse Green argued that the revival “shows why it took so long.” While making note of her zealous nature, critics panned Feldstein’s vocal abilities, particularly in contrast with Streisand’s.
The Washington Post’s Peter Marks stated that “while, for instance, you believed outright that Streisand was a star, with Feldstein, your foremost belief is that she believes she’s a star.” | 2022-07-11T17:23:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Lea Michele to replace Beanie Feldstein in Broadway’s ‘Funny Girl’ - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/theater-dance/2022/07/11/lea-michele-beanie-feldstein-funny-girl/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/theater-dance/2022/07/11/lea-michele-beanie-feldstein-funny-girl/ |
India is projected to surpass China as the most populous country in the world by 2023, according to a report from the United Nations. (Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)
New projections from the United Nations’ Department of Social and Economic Affairs show that the global population is expected to reach 8 billion on Nov. 15 — though population growth is at its slowest in decades, with rates dipping under 1 percent in 2020.
In India, a debate over population control turns explosive
The population of 61 countries is projected to decrease by 1 percent or more between 2022 and 2050, with the exception of eight countries: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzania.
How Africa will become the center of the world’s urban future
“Rapid population growth makes eradicating poverty, combating hunger and malnutrition, and increasing the coverage of health and education systems more difficult,” said Liu Zhenmin, U.N. undersecretary general for Economic and Social Affairs. “Conversely, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, especially those related to health, education and gender equality, will contribute to reducing fertility levels and slowing global population growth.” | 2022-07-11T17:34:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | World population to reach 8 billion by November - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/11/world-population-eight-billion/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/11/world-population-eight-billion/ |
Lawsuit over covid outbreak at Farmville immigrant detention center settled
The Immigration Centers of America detention center in 2010. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)
An immigrant detention center in Virginia’s Farmville community that saw more than 300 inmates infected by the coronavirus in 2020, one of whom died, will be limited to a quarter of its capacity under a federal court settlement.
Under the terms of the settlement last week between detainees who sued the site’s operator, Immigration Centers of America, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, no more than 180 detainees will be allowed inside the facility at a time, with empty dormitory halls spaced between those that are occupied with no more than 30 people.
Additionally, detainees destined for the Farmville facility must first be housed at a separate ICE detention center in Caroline County, where the living arrangements make isolation more possible if someone tests positive for the coronavirus and where the detainees will first be tested for infection and vaccinated if needed.
Each arriving detainee must test negative for the virus within 48 hours before being allowed inside the Farmville facility, according to the settlement.
“ICE showed a reckless disregard for human lives when they transferred covid-positive detainees into ICA-Farmville without adequate testing or isolation, even by the standards of what was commonly known in summer 2020,” said Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, legal director of the Immigrant Advocacy Program at the Legal Aid Justice Center, which represented some of the plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria.
“Then they made matters worse by failing to ensure protection within the detention center, and failing to provide adequate medical care for those who got infected,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said. “Our clients are suffering the effects of long covid to this day. This settlement will make sure that never happens again.”
An official at ICA referred questions about the settlement to ICE on Monday, which didn’t immediately provide comment.
The agreement ends a years-long battle at the troubled Farmville facility, which was also at the center of a controversy over the Trump administration’s misuse of “ICE Air” flights as a means to quell the social justice protests in Washington in the summer of 2020.
That incident involved the transfer of dozens of detainees on those flights as a way to skirt rules that bar ICE employees from traveling on the charter flights unless detainees are also aboard, according to a Department of Homeland Security official with direct knowledge of the operation and a former ICE official who learned about it from other personnel. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal decisions.
Once at the Farmville facility, many of the new arrivals tested positive for the coronavirus, fueling what was then the nation’s largest coronavirus outbreak inside a detention center, court records showed.
The Trump administration denied the operation existed, saying the detainees were transferred to Farmville as a pandemic-related precaution to ease overcrowding at other detention centers.
As part of the settlement, the Biden administration and ICA also agreed to alter protocols for disciplining inmates — another source of complaints after several plaintiffs claimed that they were pepper-sprayed by facility guards when protesting their crowded living conditions.
Now, guards must consult with the facility’s medical staff before using pepper spray, “unless escalating tension makes such action unavoidable,” the settlement said.
The medical staff must also check for any preexisting ailments that could be exacerbated by the use of force.
Finally, the plaintiffs and their attorneys were awarded $186,500 in fees and court costs — a portion of which is to be split among the plaintiffs. | 2022-07-11T18:48:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Lawsuit over covid outbreak at Farmville immigrant detention center settled - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/11/covid-outbreak-farmville-lawsuit-settlement/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/11/covid-outbreak-farmville-lawsuit-settlement/ |
By John Paul Brammer
(John Paul Brammer/The Washington Post)
I wasn’t too young, at age 6, to hear that “queers deserve a bullet between the eyes,” nor too young, at 7, to be called a “faggot” by my classmates, despite not knowing what the word meant. I wasn’t too young to start skipping the classes where I knew I’d be bullied right under the nose of an apathetic teacher, or too young to reach the conclusion I’d be better off dead. Before I was allowed to be a kid, before I had the chance to figure myself out, I was given an all-consuming directive, spoken and unspoken: Hide.
Years later, coming down from the highs of political victories into the throes of a moral panic where kids are being used as an excuse to target the LGBTQ community, I could swear I hear it again.
Last month — Pride Month — dozens of far-right extremists in Idaho were detained before they were able to incite a riot at a family-friendly event celebrating LGBTQ people. The same day, the Proud Boys descended on a California library’s children’s book reading to harass a drag queen, just one of many recently targeted. “Christian fascists” crowded Pride festivities in Dallas, strangers assaulted Pridegoers in Utah and online provocateurs described queer people as depraved or perverted or sick, all month long.
Now, Pride Month is receding, and with it much of the visible support we queer people get from outside our community. What will linger is the fearmongering, especially as legislation enshrines it: Eighteen states are targeting the relatively few transgender athletes who play youth sports. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) instructed state agencies to investigate the parents of trans youth for child abuse. (The same day Abbott made the order, a 16-year-old trans boy attempted suicide. Weeks later, his family was investigated as alleged abusers.)
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Florida’s “don’t say gay” legislation is still the clearest way to explain this moment. Undergirding that law — and the rest of this panic, too — is a fresh attempt to cast all queer people as predators. The trope, now varnished in “groomer” Q-speak, asserts that LGBTQ people are collecting children to make more LGBTQ people. We’re sexualizing vulnerable youth, indoctrinating them into a degenerate lifestyle with the goal of bringing down the moral pillars of society, the nuclear family, God. It’s pure 1970s Anita Bryant, proselytizing that “homosexuals cannot reproduce, so they must recruit.”
On an intellectual level, I’ve long understood that what we call “progress” isn’t guaranteed, that it’s not just as easy as saying “love won.” Bryant managed to win a rollback of queer people’s modest gains in the '70s; maybe Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), Libs of TikTok and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas can do it now.
But no amount of intellectualizing prepared me for the emotional toll of watching such a cultural regression. A knot in my stomach takes me back to my childhood, because I know kids will be the people most hurt by this cynical fear campaign that purports to protect them. Conservatives have even gone so far as to attack the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth-focused nonprofit that offers lifelines to prevent suicide.
To be so callous, you have to convince yourself that there is no way a young person could possibly know they are different somehow — that they would never come to identify as anything but cisgender and straight were it not for the nefarious interference of adults with ulterior motives. As a kid who was tormented nearly to death in rural Oklahoma, who didn’t know any gay adults and only found out what “gay” was thanks to the straight people who tarred him with the word, I know this is untrue. Like I was, today’s kids are not “too young.” They are not the political props reactionaries pretend them to be, with no inner worlds.
Of course kids are vulnerable, and of course the LGBTQ community has isolated bad actors. Every community does. Kids are hurt every day by their parents and their churches, by their teachers and their classmates, by the frightening, dangerous world they have inherited. What won’t hurt kids is encountering an adult saying it’s okay to be different, or, God forbid, a glammed-up queen reading “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.”
I can’t say I have much faith in the utility of pointing out the contradictions within homophobia and transphobia. Moral panics feed on illogic. What I do hope is that no one who considers themselves an ally stays silent, but instead speaks up against this creeping hate. So many of us feel the old instinct to make ourselves invisible; tell us we don’t have to.
Silence, I know from personal experience, is where kids go to hide, and sometimes never come out again. | 2022-07-11T18:54:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | With LGBTQ people under attack again, I feel the old instinct to hide - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/11/lgbtq-rights-danger-backlash-supreme-court/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/11/lgbtq-rights-danger-backlash-supreme-court/ |
Mass shootings raise the question: What is a dead victim worth?
Visitors observe a makeshift memorial on July 10 at the scene of the mass shooting in Highland Park, Ill. (Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)
What is a dead parent worth?
That horrible question has nagged at me as I’ve watched donations roll in to crowdfunding campaigns for the children orphaned by mass shootings in Highland Park, Ill., and Uvalde, Tex.
Unlike the careful actuarial award calculations for victims of the Oklahoma City bombing and the 9/11 attacks, efforts such as GoFundMe campaigns are a raw display of public opinion.
Donations function as votes: This person is worthy. This cause is important. In the aftermath of mass violence, individual altruism becomes a grim barometer of our collective conscience. And crowdfunding provides a revealing, often dispiriting catalogue of which qualities and causes tend to activate public sympathy — and of how much sympathy there is to activate at all.
Manicured narratives play better than messy realities. Donors are more likely to kick in for one-time efforts than for chronic problems. One analysis suggested that campaigns for Black and Hispanic recipients perform less well than those for White and Asian people.
It’s no surprise — and reflective of basic decency — that children who lose parents to violence are an easy cause to take up. As I type this sentence, more than 57,000 people have donated nearly $3.2 million to support Aiden McCarthy, whose parents, Irina and Kevin, were shot dead at the July 4 parade in Highland Park. More than 51,000 people have given more than $2.8 million to a fundraiser for the children of Irma Garcia, who was killed trying to protect her students at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, and her husband, Joe, who died of a heart attack after his wife’s murder.
Those figures wildly exceed the goals the organizers set — and still feel totally insufficient. After all, what figure could possibly make up for the experience of being lost in a panicked crowd after your parents have been murdered, or for knowing your father died of a broken heart? And how in the world can we assign a value to a parent’s tender presence after a nightmare, a lesson in how to ride a bike, a walk down the aisle?
As the father of a firefighter who died on 9/11 told the New Yorker’s Elizabeth Kolbert in 2002, “I would like them to say we all get a trillion dollars, just so I know my son was worth a trillion dollars, not that I would ever want it.”
At least there was collective agreement that the 9/11 victims deserved something. Crowdfunding in response to other large-scale tragedies reveals the ways disaster can fracture public attention and energy rather than concentrate it.
Take the response to the 2017 mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest festival, the most lethal such event in modern American history. Some of the campaigns for individual victims raised hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece. But it’s wrenching to realize how unsuccessful many of the efforts were: $87,650 for the family of a Las Vegas police officer; $79,547 for the survivors of a mother of three; $29,882 Canadian for the four children of a single mother; $6,255 earmarked for the college education of a woman’s surviving children and grandchildren.
Those figures might have been lower because Steve Sisolak, then the Clark County commissioner, arranged a GoFundMe campaign called the Las Vegas Victims’ Fund that raised nearly $12 million on the platform and an additional $20 million as a stand-alone nonprofit. Even so, the fact that many of the individual fundraisers for victims’ families failed to take off suggests how easy it is to be overwhelmed by mass horror. Absorbing each loss in its full devastation can be a formula for hopelessness rather than action.
Crowdfunding also reveals a gap between the energy available for charity versus change. After the 2016 shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Equality Florida collected nearly $7.9 million from almost 120,000 GoFundMe donors to help the victims. The organization’s follow-up effort to raise $375,000 for an “Honor Them With Action Fund” — intended to combat homophobia and transphobia in Florida — had a rather different result: 1,200 people donated $277,825, far short of the campaign’s goal.
Subsequent reporting indicated that anti-LGBTQ bias might not have been the gunman’s core motivation. But the contrast between the two fundraisers suggests 28 times as much interest in helping people after they were brutally attacked as in doing something — anything — to stop such attacks in the first place.
Morally and logistically, there’s no real way to make up, in dollars, for the loss of a human life. Even if we could set an ethically acceptable figure, there’s no source of revenue, no economy of any scale, that could provide that kind of money.
But if human life is as cheap as $30,000? As $6,000? No wonder we don’t do much to stop gun violence. We can afford widows and orphans, these numbers say — but not to change the conditions that created them. | 2022-07-11T18:54:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Mass shootings raise the question: What is a dead victim worth? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/11/mass-shooting-crowdfunding-dead-victims-worth/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/11/mass-shooting-crowdfunding-dead-victims-worth/ |
Donald Trump isn’t worried about Paul Ryan’s crocodile tears
President Donald Trump, with Sen. Mitch McConnell and then-House Speaker Paul Ryan, speaks about the passage of the tax bill on the South Lawn at the White House on Dec. 20, 2017. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Across the long arc of Donald Trump’s rule over the Republican Party, there were many moments when people said, “This will be the last straw.” Again and again, the Republicans who found him repugnant but supported him out of a combination of cowardice and ambition told us this was finally it: They would no longer be able to stand by him and live with themselves.
It happened when he was heard on tape bragging about his ability to sexually assault women with impunity and when he was revealed to have manipulated U.S. foreign policy to serve his reelection campaign. And it happened again on Jan. 6, 2021.
Now we hear it from former House speaker Paul Ryan, courtesy of “Thank You for Your Servitude,” a dishy new book by Mark Leibovich. CNN has a preview, in which we learn that Ryan “found himself sobbing” watching the insurrection at the Capitol.
“I spent my whole adult life in that building,” Ryan said to Leibovich, who reports that Ryan told him “something snapped in him" that day.
What a stirring account of Ryan’s powerful love for American democracy and the institutions that maintain it! Surely Trump must be terrified that the party will cast him out before he can run for president again and win its nomination in 2024!
Consider Ryan, who represents a still-important faction of the party. Though he never made much secret of his distaste for Trump, Ryan worked with him through the first two years of his presidency, then left Congress after the 2018 elections. Ryan’s criticisms of Trump were relatively mild and, like this one, often delivered in private but passed on to reporters who would circulate them among Washington elite.
The function of such criticisms is decidedly not to attempt in any serious way to dislodge Trump from his position leading the party. It’s to signal to insiders that Ryan is one of the good guys, not some fawning lickspittle who will lie down at Trump’s feet, but a man of principle and integrity.
In fairness to Ryan, he did say a few days before Jan. 6 that Republicans should cease trying to steal the election for Trump. And from time to time he has gently suggested that the GOP should move past its cult of personality.
But Ryan sits today on the board of directors of the Fox Corporation, parent of Fox News, the central hub of the pro-Trump conservative media universe and the key delivery system for Jan. 6 misinformation ever since that day. Has Ryan used that position to seek some kind of change, to better inform the GOP masses about the threat to democracy that brought him to tears?
If he has, we haven’t heard about it. And if he had, I’m pretty sure he would have strategically leaked the information so people in Washington would know he’s still on the side of the angels.
Few would argue that if Ryan decided tomorrow to make it his mission to take down Trump, he could do it single-handedly. But prominent figures like him play an important role in keeping Trump atop the party. They shore up the party’s legitimacy by maintaining the idea that there are still people of principle within it who are devoted to conservative policy ideas (in Ryan’s case, cutting taxes for the wealthy and eviscerating the social safety net), without presenting anything but the weakest opposition to Trump.
Many of these people excuse Trump and the triumph of Trumpism by focusing attention only on the most vulgar manifestations of each, as though they could be separated from the larger enterprise. For four years, Republicans like Ryan would say they were happy with Trump, they just wished he would stop tweeting — as though that were the beginning and end of the problem.
Now they claim that Jan. 6 made them sad, but they say little or nothing about the party’s complete embrace of the belief that elections are legitimate only if Republicans win them (a belief to which Ryan himself has contributed).
Nor has Ryan said anything about the authoritarian turn in the GOP, which Trump brought to the fore but other Republicans have enthusiastically championed.
There’s a strong case to be made that the politicians poised to move into the vacuum if Trump doesn’t run in 2024, such as Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and most especially Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, are as much a threat to the survival of democracy as Trump, if not more. Authoritarianism is now all the rage in the GOP, and anyone who won’t demonstrate their contempt for democracy stands little chance of becoming the party’s leader, whether it’s Trump or someone else.
It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that what the Paul Ryans of the world want is simply a more presentable version of Trump. They want insiders to know they find Trump and his enthusiastic supporters distasteful. But will they object if Trumpist secretaries of state and governors engineer a theft of the 2024 election that actually works? Will they demand a wholesale reinvention of their party to purge it of the things that make it so attractive to white nationalists and conspiracy theorists?
I’m betting the answer is no. Don’t let the crocodile tears fool you. | 2022-07-11T18:54:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Donald Trump isn’t worried about Paul Ryan’s crocodile tears - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/11/paul-ryan-trump-jan-6-crocodile-tears/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/11/paul-ryan-trump-jan-6-crocodile-tears/ |
Saint Victor AR-15 Rifle is displayed during the National Rifle Association annual convention in Houston, Tex., on May 27. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)
DALLAS — Standing next to a display of military-grade weapons, I wondered aloud to the dealers at the gun-show booth if more women should get guns in Texas to protect themselves now that they will be forced to carry a pregnancy to term even in cases of rape.
“You can’t rape a .38,” one of the gun dealers said, smiling.
The line was equal parts laughably cheesy and tragically grim. As we spoke, a little boy walked by waving around a toy machine gun, pretending to spray everyone in the vicinity with imaginary bullets. A few booths over, a female attendant wore a black-and-red “All Lives Splatter” T-shirt.
The Fort Worth Gun Show, at the Amon Carter Exhibit Hall, is one of the oldest gun shows in gun-loving North Texas. I attended the two-day event this month to see what it would be like on the heels of both the Uvalde school massacre and the overturning of Roe v. Wade. I wanted to see how the Texas gun community would make sense of the two events.
A dealer asked me whether I wanted to hold an MP-5, a military-grade rifle. “I’m sorry to say this,” he said. “But for women who deal with break-ins, many times the woman gets raped.” For my first gun, the dealers agreed I should start out with a .22 rifle.
Does the end of one constitutional right mean women should rush to embrace another that our Supreme Court is rushing to expand? Even before the fall of Roe it was a common pitch of gun enthusiasts: Women are safer when they own a gun. But the reality is, women who have guns are more likely to have them used against them. And the biggest danger is not a stranger slipping through a window or lurking in a parking garage, but a man already in their life.
Sadly, the threat of gun violence is even more true for pregnant women. According to a study published last year in the journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, homicide is a leading cause of death for pregnant women and those who have recently given birth.
The study, conducted by Tulane University researchers, revealed that the “pregnancy-associated homicide” rate in 2018 and 2019 was 3.62 per 100,000 women — 16 percent higher than homicides of women who are not pregnant or haven’t recently given birth. Homicide beat hemorrhage and pregnancy-related hypertension as the top single cause of death. A majority of the slain women were killed with guns, and two-thirds were killed in their homes, suggesting partners were involved, according to the authors. The rates were highest among Black women and younger women.
In Texas, the news here is a sad reflection of this. In October, 25-year-old Cavanna Smith had told her boyfriend that she was pregnant, and sent him a card with a picture of the ultrasound; she was later found dead, shot in the head. The boyfriend has been charged with her murder. In April, 20-year-old Dontia Clark was found shot to death in her Houston apartment a day after learning she was eight weeks pregnant. According to reports, there were no signs of forced entry.
Much has been said and written about women who seek abortions for medical threats such as ectopic pregnancies. But what of women who seek to end their pregnancies to protect themselves from violence at the hands of the men in their lives? Or who don’t want to bring a child into the world with a potential abuser? In Texas, women can no longer choose a safe abortion as a means of self-defense. What are we going to do, tell them to get a .22?
Much has also been made of the Senate’s recent agreement to close the “boyfriend loophole” on gun restrictions. Previously, under federal law, domestic abusers could be prohibited, via the national instant criminal background check system, from having guns only in cases where they have been married to, lived with or had a child with the victim; that’s now been widened to include those who have been in a serious relationship with the target. But in Texas, which allows private gun owners to sell to others without background checks, another enormous loophole remains open.
It’s no stretch to expect that even more pregnant women will be assaulted and killed by partners now that abortion is all but banned here. Texas lags other states in mental health resources and has faced funding shortages for domestic violence prevention. If women are to be forced to carry pregnancies — if Texas truly wants to “protect life” — so much more must be done about the issues of maternal homicide and interpersonal violence.
I left the gun show without a .22 rifle. Sad to say, but as a woman who values access to safe reproductive choices, my best form of defense is probably leaving my home state altogether. | 2022-07-11T18:54:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | I asked about abortion at a Texas gun show. The answer I got was grim. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/11/texas-gun-show-aborttion-right-arming-women/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/11/texas-gun-show-aborttion-right-arming-women/ |
Sarah Palin offers a perilous framing for the election: good vs. evil
Former Alaska governor and House candidate Sarah Palin speaks as former president Donald Trump looks on during a “Save America” rally at Alaska Airlines Center on July 9 in Anchorage. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
American politics is predicated on the idea that power is transitory. Citizens are asked to go to the polls every two years and decide on national leadership, with all involved theoretically recognizing that this might mean a change of direction. If you’re a Democrat wanting to see a Democrat represent you, you vote for the Democrat and hope she wins. If she doesn’t — well, there’s always two years from now.
You already recognize a way in which this idea has been polluted. Partisan redistricting and the pattern of Americans moving into politically homogeneous communities has meant that there are fewer places in which there are actual transitions between parties. If you are a Republican in California or a Democrat in Mississippi, you hold out little hope for being represented in the Senate by a member of your party.
This is a problem we don’t often acknowledge. I interviewed Princeton University’s Corrine McConnaughy last year, and she expressed concern about the lack of institutions that would let “people feel represented enough, feel their voice heard enough.” Essential to democracy is that people “understand that losing today is not losing tomorrow.” That there is recourse for changing direction. If people feel as though electoral politics can’t effect change, they look for other mechanisms to do so.
Now we layer onto this another danger, one exemplified by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin at a rally last week. Palin is running for Alaska’s safely Republican House seat and appeared at a rally with former president Donald Trump. She cast the upcoming election in stark terms, which in broad strokes isn’t atypical for a candidate. But the phrasing Palin uses was a moral, existential one.
“This is life-changing what’s coming up here in the midterms, the changes that are needed,” Palin told the cheering audience. “And it’s no longer Democrat versus Republican. This is all about control versus freedom.”
Then, a starker contrast: “It’s good versus evil. It is a spiritual battle.”
This is on-brand for Palin. Her arrival on the national political scene in 2008 was as John McCain’s vice presidential running mate, a selection made because McCain’s team believed she could provide an invigorating jolt of energy — and lure further-right, often evangelical voters to cast a ballot. In the Trump era, evangelical voters became a driving part of the party’s success. Palin, of course, already spoke the language.
Trump’s campaign and presidency were centered on widening fissures within the country, hewing closely to the demands of his base and working energetically to score political points against the hated left. Many evangelicals saw this in religious terms. In early 2019, a poll found that half of White evangelical Christians believed that God wanted Trump to be president. He was their overt, unflinching defender — not because he shared their beliefs necessarily (though many convinced themselves he did) but because he understood that rising to the religious right’s defense would bolster his own political position. He promised to defend them, and he did. In 2016, he won evangelicals by 61 points. In 2020, by 69.
That the country has become more polarized is well-documented. Members of each major political party have viewed the opposition in increasingly hostile terms over the past 20 years, as measured by the American National Election Study conducted during each presidential year. As recently as 2000, the median “temperature” score granted the other party by Republicans and Democrats was above 40 out of 100, with lower numbers indicating “colder” views of the party. In 2020, both parties had medians under 20.
Again, some of this probably derives from our political isolation. We often live near those from the opposing party, but we don’t necessarily incorporate them into our lives. Pew Research Center found in the summer of 2020 that only about 1 in 5 supporters of Trump or Joe Biden had more than a few friends supporting the other candidate. Four in 10 knew no one who did.
Such a divide and such skepticism about the opposition makes it easier to cast those other partisans as dangerous or evil, a framing that is facilitated by the country’s increased reliance on partisan media universes. Shortly after Biden took office, CBS News published a poll conducted by YouGov finding that about 4 in 10 Democrats viewed Republicans not as political opponents but as enemies. More than half of Republicans said they viewed Democrats as enemies.
Consider how intertwining religion with politics makes a sense of political impotence worse. If you think that you have little recourse for being heard through the electoral process and you see your side as fighting on behalf of a divinely motivated cause? Perilous.
This isn’t newly perilous, certainly. In his seminal essay “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” Richard Hofstadter described right-wing frustration at a perceived political elite more than a half-century before the current moment.
“The situation becomes worse when the representatives of a particular social interest — perhaps because of the very unrealistic and unrealizable nature of its demands — are shut out of the political process. Having no access to political bargaining or the making of decisions, they find their original conception that the world of power is sinister and malicious fully confirmed.”
Palin was speaking to an audience about the dangers of leaders who advocated measures such as mask mandates, something for which many Americans did, in fact, have no real recourse — besides, of course, simply not complying. The mandates were, in fact, often described as sinister and malicious. In her speech, shortly after the “good versus evil” bit, Palin called the emergence of the coronavirus the “plandemic” and suggested that elites wanted to tank the economy.
The particular problem here is that there will always be a level of governance over which someone has no control. Even if you live in Oklahoma, with conservative House members, senators and state-level officials, Biden is still president. The House and Senate are still majority Democratic. Even if Republicans regain a federal trifecta, you have little recourse over, say, the Department of Motor Vehicles. This is the utility of casting government as an enemy; the opportunities to cast some part of it as despotic are eternal. To cast it as evil.
Last summer, Pew asked Americans how they felt about leaders from their own party describing the other party’s officials as evil. Most thought this should not be considered acceptable. Just under half of Republicans thought the party should be “very” or “somewhat” accepting of such rhetoric.
If you convince people that elections are fights between two ends of the moral plane, the consequences of losing are heightened dramatically. If you then claim that the election itself was dishonest, that your side had been “shut out of the political process” (as Hofstadter put it) illicitly, you risk crisis.
At 4:17 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021, Donald Trump released a video addressing the violence that was still underway at the Capitol.
“We had an election that was stolen from us,” Trump said. “It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side. But you have to go home now. We have to have peace.”
“Go home, we love you. You’re very special,” he added later. And then, cryptically: “You’ve seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil.”
The rioters that day were good; their opponents were evil. Social media sites soon scrubbed the video from their platforms, worried that it might incite more violence. | 2022-07-11T18:54:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Sarah Palin offers a perilous framing for the election: good vs. evil - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/11/sarah-palin-offers-perilous-framing-election-good-vs-evil/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/11/sarah-palin-offers-perilous-framing-election-good-vs-evil/ |
By Dusan Stojanovic | AP
BELGRADE, Serbia — A senior Serbian minister on Monday advocated the creation of a “Serbian world” that would unite all Serbs in the Balkans into a single state, rejecting a U.S. warning that such calls could fuel tensions in the still-volatile region rocked by bloody wars in the 1990s. | 2022-07-11T18:54:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | US rejects 'Serbian world' advocated by Serbian minister - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/us-rejects-serbian-world-advocated-by-serbian-minister/2022/07/11/4139804a-013e-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/us-rejects-serbian-world-advocated-by-serbian-minister/2022/07/11/4139804a-013e-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html |
Trent Williams was a seven-time Pro Bowl selection with Washington. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
We want 𝘆𝗼𝘂 to help us select the next 10 players to join our 90 Greatest list
Brian Mitchell, a member of the franchise’s 80th anniversary team, said on his radio show Monday that he was surprised to see Williams’s name missing from the initial ballot.
Williams’s departure was messier. In 2019, he skipped the team’s mandatory minicamp and training camp, and then held out the first half of the season after requesting a trade. Williams returned after the Oct. 29 trade deadline and was placed on the non-football injury list, ending his season. He told reporters at the time that his frustration stemmed from a botched cancer diagnosis by the team’s medical staff. The saga ended in April 2020, when Washington traded Williams to the San Francisco 49ers for two draft picks.
Williams made the Pro Bowl in each of his first two seasons with the 49ers and earned first-team All-Pro honors last year. EA Sports recognized his greatness last week, when the developer of the Madden video game franchise made him the first offensive lineman to earn a 99 overall rating.‘ | 2022-07-11T18:54:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Commanders add Trent Williams, Robert Griffin III to ’90 Greatest’ ballot - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/11/commanders-trent-williams-robert-griffin/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/11/commanders-trent-williams-robert-griffin/ |
Hideo Kojima studio threatens legal action over false link to Shinzo Abe killing
(Washington Post illustration; Chloe Aftel for The Washington Post))
Kojima Productions released a statement on Twitter condemning misinformation falsely linking game designer Hideo Kojima to the assassination of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe.
On July 8, Abe was shot while speaking at a political rally in Nara and pronounced dead later that day. Authorities detained the apparent gunman, Tetsuya Yamagami, at the scene. Yamagami, a 41-year-old man and former member of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force, confessed to the assassination but claimed it was not politically motivated.
Shortly after the assassination, trolls on 4chan posted a series of racist jokes “identifying” the shooter using photos of Kojima, the legendary 58-year-old game designer of “Metal Gear Solid” and “Death Stranding” fame, as reported by Kotaku. French comedian Georges Jordito reposted the falsehood on Twitter. He eventually deleted his posts, but not before they were retweeted by far-right French politician Damien Rieu. Rieu then made another tweet using pictures of Kojima accompanied by a phrase translating to “the far-left kills.” Rieu eventually deleted the tweet and issued an apology.
The misinformation eventually led to Greek news station ANT1 and Iranian outlet Mashregh News posting stories about Abe’s assassination with photos of Kojima, as reported by Vice.
We are living in Hideo Kojima’s dystopian nightmare. Can he save us?
On July 9, Kojima Productions, the designer’s studio, shared a statement on Twitter referring to the “fake news and rumors that convey false information” as libelous, and said the company “will consider taking legal action in some cases.”
Kojima, who tweets frequently, has not made a personal statement about the matter, opting just to reshare the official Kojima Productions tweet.
This isn’t the first time that Kojima has been embroiled in a conspiracy theory. In April 2021, Dutch game studio Blue Box released a reveal trailer for its upcoming horror game “Abandoned,” which some viewers interpreted as a clandestine Silent Hill or Kojima Productions project. Blue Box released a statement clarifying that it had no links to Hideo Kojima shortly after the buzz. In October 2021, Blue Box tweeted that its employees had received death threats as a result of the ambiguity.
Kojima’s work often explores the potential dangers of mass communication. “Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty,” originally released in 2001 and now considered one of the greatest video games of all time, was an especially prescient title that prophesied a world filled with fake news, digital echo chambers and even memes before we even had a language for such things.
Kojima’s latest title, 2019′s “Death Stranding,” is about a courier traveling across a fractured, post-apocalyptic United States and linking disparate cities into a single network. It’s a game about the dangers of isolationism and the importance of building bridges — both figurative and literal. “Death Stranding” has been hailed as a visionary game that resonated deeply with players because of its release within a month of the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. | 2022-07-11T18:55:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Hideo Kojima studio threatens legal action over false link to Shinzo Abe killing - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/07/11/hideo-kojima-shinzo-abe-misinformation/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/07/11/hideo-kojima-shinzo-abe-misinformation/ |
Patreon CEO discusses the future of the creator economy
With the rapid growth of the creator economy, some estimates put the value of the sector at $20 billion. Patreon is a membership platform that helps artists and content creators run a monthly subscription business. On Monday, July 18 at 4:00 p.m. ET, Jack Conte, CEO and co-founder of Patreon, joins Washington Post Live to discuss the growth and future of the creator economy.
Jack Conte
CEO & Co-Founder, Patreon | 2022-07-11T18:55:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Patreon CEO discusses the future of the creator economy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/07/18/patreon-ceo-discusses-future-creator-economy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/07/18/patreon-ceo-discusses-future-creator-economy/ |
Alarmed by the threat, U.S. officials launched a 2015 operation to kill a key weapons expert with the terrorist group
Islamic State forces parade in an Iraqi security forces armored vehicle in Mosul in 2014. (Associated Press)
Thus began what U.S. and Iraqi Kurdish officials describe as a crash effort aimed at building the biggest arsenal of chemical and, potentially, biological weapons ever assembled by a terrorist group. Within six months, under Sabawi’s direction, the Islamic State would manufacture mustard gas, a chemical weapon from the World War I era, as well as bombs and rockets filled with chlorine.
But Sabawi’s ambitions, and by extension Baghdadi’s, were much broader, according to newly disclosed details on the Islamic State weapons program. Iraqi Kurdish intelligence reports, seen by The Washington Post, shed new light on the role played by Sabawi, a mysterious figure known within the terrorist group as Abu Malik, and the ambitious plan by Islamic State leaders to develop and use weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and abroad.
New insights also are emerging from a U.N. investigation that is combing through millions of pages of Islamic State records as it seeks evidence of the group’s war crimes. In addition, several current and former U.S. officials in interviews with The Post spoke for the first time in detail about an urgently planned military operation, conducted in 2015 by U.S. Special Operations forces with assistance from Kurdish Peshmerga operatives, to kill Sabawi and crush the weapons program before it reached maturity.
U.S. officials learned through electronic surveillance in 2014 that Sabawi was working to produce powerful new weapons using highly lethal botulinum toxin and ricin, while also pursuing plans to make weaponized anthrax. Botulinum toxin, a neurotoxin derived from same bacteria that causes botulism, was explored as potential weapon by both the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Ricin, a toxin extracted from castor beans, was weaponized by the Soviets and used in political assassinations.
Sabawi’s intention, current and former U.S. officials said, was to create a large stockpile consisting of multiple types of chemical and biological agents to be used in military campaigns as well as in terrorist attacks against the major cities of Europe.
“They were specifically looking at Western Europe,” a senior U.S. official knowledgeable about Islamic State operations said. Like several other U.S. and Iraqi officials, he spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details obtained from sensitive surveillance operations. “We know they were also interested in U.S. military bases, on the continent, or really anywhere,” the official said. “They were ultimately going to go with the easiest target.”
That the Islamic State had manufactured small quantities of chemical weapons has been previously reported. The terrorist group used chlorine and mustard gas against Kurdish and Iraqi forces nearly two dozen times, from early 2015 until the liberation of the Iraqi city of Mosul two years later.
Other terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda, have explored the feasibility of making chemical and biological weapons. But by recruiting Sabawi, the Islamic State had acquired the services of a rare expert with years of practical experience in making chemical weapons in industrial-sized quantities.
Islamic State used prisoners as test subjects for deadly poisons
The U.S. government’s only public reference to Sabawi came in a brief 2015 Pentagon statement announcing the recent death of a “chemical weapons engineer” named Abu Malik in an airstrike. Few knew at the time about the extent of Sabawi’s experience or his vision for providing Islamic State leaders with frightening weapons to augment the group’s terror campaign in Europe.
“If Abu Malik had survived, his experience working for Saddam’s program would have made the threat of the Islamic State’s chemical weapons much higher,” said Gregory Koblentz, an expert on chemical and biological weapons and director of the Biodefense Graduate Program at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. “It is pretty horrifying to think of what could have happened if the Islamic State had used a chemical weapon, instead of guns and bombs, to conduct one of their attacks in a major European city.”
Toxic factories in Iraq
During the 1980s, at the height of Saddam’s reign as the strongman leader of Iraq, the manufacturing center for Iraqi chemical weapons was a massive industrial complex called the Muthanna State Establishment, some 85 miles northwest of Baghdad. Iraqi scientists oversaw the production of at least four kinds of chemical weapons, which the army put to immediate use in the brutal trench warfare of the Iran-Iraq War. Iraqi chemical bombs and shells were used to kill or wound more than 50,000 Iranians, from front-line soldiers to civilians living in villages and towns along the border.
Among the scores of scientists employed at Muthanna was Sabawi, who, according to his intelligence file, took a job in the facility in 1989, at age 28. An Army chemical engineer who had trained in Iraq and in the Soviet Union, he worked at the weapons plant until operations halted with the defeat of the Iraqi army in the first Gulf War in 1991.
Death pf Abu Bakr Baghdadi was turning point for Islamic State
At the end of the war, Muthanna was at its peak, its three main factories capable of churning out 500 tons of sulfur mustard, commonly called mustard gas, each year, along with smaller quantities of deadlier nerve agents, such as tabun, sarin and VX. Sabawi was specifically involved in mustard-gas production during the plant’s final three years, according to a dossier maintained by the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government’s Counter Terrorism Department.
After the war, Sabawi found that his skills as a weaponeer were no longer needed. The chemical weapons factories at Muthanna were systematically dismantled in the 1990s under U.N. supervision, and hundreds of tons of the weapons he helped make were destroyed in incinerators or chemically neutralized.
Sabawi kept his army job and was eventually promoted to brigadier general, but his resentment over the destruction of the Iraqi chemical weapons program appears to have lingered. According to the dossier, he joined an insurgent group after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, allying himself with Islamist extremists who called themselves al-Qaeda in Iraq. He was captured in 2005 and spent the next seven years behind bars, first in a U.S. military detention center and then a civilian-run Iraqi prison.
As a former high-ranking military officer, Sabawi maintained important political ties, and intelligence officials said he eventually was able to use those connections to regain his freedom. He walked out of prison in 2012, precisely the moment when his old insurgent group was beginning to regain strength under a new name, the Islamic State of Iraq. Later it would become known simply as the Islamic State, or ISIS.
Iraqi Kurdish officials said Sabawi may have known Baghdadi from his years as an insurgent. In any case, the self-proclaimed caliph of the Islamic State became intensely interested in the former weaponeer after his fighters completed their stunning conquest of Mosul in 2014.
That was Baghdadi’s moment of triumph, and he was looking to capitalize on it. Having seized huge swaths of Iraq and Syria, he now controlled resources that no terrorist leader had ever possessed: military bases, factories, universities, television stations, internet servers and banks filled with millions of dollars in hard currency.
With tens of thousands of fighters at his command, and more arriving each day, Baghdadi proclaimed to his followers that the Islamic State would eventually conquer all the Middle East, while using the threat of mass-casualty terrorist attacks to keep Western countries from intervening. To accomplish his vision, U.S. officials said, Baghdadi needed special weapons. And Sabawi knew how to make them.
‘Emir’ of chemical weaponry
Sabawi’s Kurdish dossier is a thick sheaf of documents and reports that span 10 years, including the brief but intensely busy period when he held the title of emir of Manufacturing of Chemical and Biological Weaponry for the Islamic State. A mug shot accompanying the file depicts a middle-aged man with close-cropped hair, a gray-flecked beard and brown eyes.
Some of the Iraqi experts who went to work for the Islamic State would later claim that they were forced to take jobs or accepted positions because they had no other way to make a living. By contrast, a summary document profiling Sabawi’s role in the terrorist group suggests he was an enthusiastic participant who was personally loyal to Baghdadi, and well-rewarded for his service.
Iraqi prisoner says he helped Islamic State make chemical weapons
“He was a high-ranking official in ISIS, close to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and responsible for advancing chemical and biological weaponry,” the document states.
Shortly after his meeting with Baghdadi, the records show, Sabawi was given his own laboratory, in a technical school on the grounds of Mosul University, and allowed to recruit and hire a professional staff that included foreign-trained engineers. For production of the weapons themselves, the Islamic State commandeered a factory in Wadi Ikab, a bleak industrial neighborhood in the far western outskirts of Mosul.
In the summer of 2014, to help Sabawi acquire the needed materials, the caliphate organized an extensive canvass of the region’s hundreds of laboratories and warehouses for equipment and supplies that could be used to make weapons of all kinds, from conventional explosives to toxic compounds, said Jeff Brodeur, a retired U.S. Army chemical and biological weapons expert who investigated Islamic State activities after the group was driven from Mosul. Terrorist operatives went into schools, factories and medical clinics and stripped them of every item deemed useful.
“They just went in and harvested whatever they needed,” Brodeur said.
As U.N. investigators would later confirm, the Islamic State offered up the use of Iraqi prisoners as possible human test subjects for the new weapons Sabawi would make. Records and interviews suggest the group did use inmates in human trials on several occasions, according to a report last year by the U.N. Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh. Daesh is one of several common names for the Islamic State.
Because of Sabawi’s background in making mustard gas, his first attempts at weapons production started with that relatively simple compound. A blister agent, it penetrates clothing and causes excruciating burns to the skin and eyes or, if inhaled, potentially fatal damage to lung tissues. Yet, despite his expertise, Sabawi appears to have struggled at first to replicate the formula used for making mustard gas at Muthanna.
Experts familiar with Sabawi’s program say he switched to a simpler formula that yields a less potent product. Investigators from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, a chemical-weapons watchdog group based in The Hague that would later collect samples, concluded that his brand of mustard gas was relatively crude, and tended to degrade quickly. Still, it was good enough to be used in battle.
Investigators have documented 20 chemical attacks by the Islamic State between January 2015 and April 2017. All involved mustard gas or chlorine, a common industrial compound widely available in Iraq and Syria, loaded into mortar shells or rockets or placed in barrels and detonated in suicide attacks.
The worst episode, near Taza Khurmatu, a Kurdish town south of Kirkuk, wounded between 600 and 1,000 people in March 2016. At least three victims later died, said retired Brig. Gen. Hajar Ismail, an adviser to the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government who participated in the investigations, in an email.
In addition to the physical harm, Ismail said, the attacks struck fear across a band of Kurdish towns and villages that, years earlier, had been targets of Hussein’s chemical weapons. Bombs and rockets filled with lethal gases killed at least 3,200 people around the city of Halabja in March 1988, the deadliest chemical attack ever conducted against civilians. “Few people in the world,” Ismail said, “have experienced more chemical attacks than the Kurds.”
A secret intercept
The Islamic State’s interest in mustard gas as a battlefield weapons triggered alarms in Washington. But those concerns deepened with the discovery of plans by the group’s leaders to make additional weapons and export them for use in terrorist attacks.
Over the fall and winter of 2014, Sabawi came under continuous surveillance by U.S. intelligence agencies and Special Operations units, with assistance from Iraqi Kurdish operatives, according to two U.S. officials with knowledge of the operation. From intercepted communications came the discovery of Sabawi’s efforts to obtain ingredients for botulinum toxin and ricin.
Islamic State records obtained by the U.N. investigators also describe the group’s pursuit of botulinum toxin and ricin weapons, and reveal an “interest in developing anthrax,” according to an interim report prepared for U.N. Security Council members in May.
U.S. analysts and experts note that Sabawi appears to have had no specific training in anthrax or biological toxins such as ricin, so he likely would have needed many months of trial and error to produce usable weapons. But in 2014, with the Islamic State in firm control of Mosul and all its resources, he may have believed he had plenty of time.
The fruits of Sabawi’s research were to be delegated to a special unit created by Baghdadi to carry out terrorist attacks overseas, U.S. officials said. That unit, led mainly by French and Belgian volunteers, would gain infamy in 2015 after spectacular attacks on cities in Western Europe. The deadliest was the coordinated terrorist assault on cafes and entertainment venues in Paris in November of that year. Using small arms and suicide bombs, the assault killed more than 130 people and wounded 400.
His final commute
At the time of the intercepts, a U.S.-led coalition was beginning its fight to retake territory seized by the Islamic State, including Mosul, which was fully liberated in mid-2017. But the chemical threat could not wait. Pentagon officials decided to strike quickly, in an attempt to eliminate Sabawi’s operation before he had a chance to build bigger and better weapons.
U.S. officials were able to monitor Sabawi’s daily commute from his laboratory at Mosul University to his home in a residential district called al-Mithaq, about six miles away.
On the afternoon of Jan. 24, 2015, Sabawi was driving home from work, accompanied by one of his sons, apparently unaware that was vehicle was being tracked. A U.S. aircraft — most likely a drone — fired a missile that struck the car and killed both passengers.
Other strikes followed, targeting Sabawi’s small network of labs and production centers. The two U.S. officials knowledgeable about the operation said Sabawi’s Mosul University lab proved to be the most challenging target, because of its location on a heavily populated urban campus.
Islamic State ghost leader plotted comeback before he was found
Military planners deliberately scheduled the airstrike for late at night, on an evening when weather and winds conditions were favorable for minimizing the chances that any chemical releases might drift into from residential districts, the officials said. As the missile was being launched, Kurdish operatives waited in nearby neighborhoods with special sensors that could detect a toxic plume. The devices picked up faint traces of chlorine and other telltale chemicals, but there were no reports of deaths of injuries resulting either from the explosion or the attack’s aftermath, the officials said.
By late 2016, all of the Islamic State’s known chemical weapons facilities had been destroyed, and most of its senior operators killed or captured.
The liberation of Mosul a few months later effectively ended the program’s active phase. Yet, it may it may not have eliminated the group’s ambitions for chemical and biological weapons, the U.S. officials said. Some of Sabawi’s former accomplices escaped the initial bombing campaign, and a few are believed to be still alive, the officials said. | 2022-07-11T20:24:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | ISIS planned chemical and attacks in Europe, new details on weapons program reveal - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/07/11/isis-chemical-biological-weapons/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/07/11/isis-chemical-biological-weapons/ |
By Sam Metz, Jennifer McDermott and Steve Karnowski | AP
SALT LAKE CITY — A judge in Utah was deciding Monday whether to allow a trigger-law ban on abortion to take effect while a Minnesota judge declared most of that state’s restrictions on abortion unconstitutional, as the implications of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade are being sorted out nationwide. | 2022-07-11T20:24:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Judges rule on state abortion restrictions, shape Roe impact - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/judges-rule-on-state-abortion-restrictions-shape-roe-impact/2022/07/11/5b0bd490-0153-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/judges-rule-on-state-abortion-restrictions-shape-roe-impact/2022/07/11/5b0bd490-0153-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html |
An employee of a foreign exchange trading company works behind U.S. and Japanese flags in Tokyo on June 22. (Issei Kato/Reuters)
It is difficult to describe the shock that went through Japan after the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe on Friday by a gunman in a society where shootings of any kind are all but unknown, let alone a fatal one involving a major political figure. Also difficult to express, in a different way, is how admirably resilient Japanese democracy has just shown itself to be. Voters still reeling from the tragedy turned out in large numbers Sunday to elect new members for the upper house of Japan’s parliament. “It was extremely meaningful that we carried out the election,” said Fumio Kishida, Mr. Abe’s most recent successor as prime minister after Mr. Abe’s retirement in late 2020 because of a chronic illness. “Our endeavor to protect democracy continues.”
Protecting Japan and its democracy was the mission that defined Mr. Abe’s own career, which included two stints as prime minister, from 2006 to 2007 and 2012 to 2020, the latter being the longest in the country’s modern history. Even after he stepped down, Mr. Abe remained a politically influential leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, for whose candidates he was campaigning when attacked. Mr. Abe saw, however, that in order to protect his country’s post-World War II development, he would have to update it: by shaking up its torpid economy through the aggressive stimulus plan known as Abenomics; by articulating a new strategic vision for the “Indo-Pacific” (his coinage) in conjunction with the United States, India and Australia; and by modernizing Japan’s military. All of the above, Mr. Abe correctly saw, was necessary to counter China’s rise — and the possible threat to Taiwan — as well as North Korea’s nuclear potential.
At the time of his death, neither Mr. Abe nor his successors had been able to complete his program. The Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement would have connected the U.S. and Japanese economies more thoroughly, along with those of nine other nations. But Donald Trump scuttled TPP as president despite Mr. Abe’s aggressive efforts to court him, and President Biden has not revived it. On another crucial point, though, Sunday’s election advances Mr. Abe’s agenda of amending Japan’s now-75-year old constitution to clarify the legality of its military forces. Supporters now control the necessary two-thirds of both houses to enact it, subject to a national referendum. The idea is to end an outmoded legal ambiguity: The document, drafted under U.S. tutelage after World War II, “forever renounce[s] war,” and promises “never” to maintain “land, sea, and air forces” — and yet Japan spends about $50 billion per year on a 250,000-member “self-defense force.”
The United States and other democracies should support the legitimation of a democratic Japan’s military capability. To be sure, many in Japan, mindful of militarism’s awful legacy, still recoil from the idea. South Koreans and Chinese have their own bitter memories of Japanese occupation. And no doubt support for an amendment is strongest in Japanese conservative nationalist circles, which Mr. Abe long represented.
Nevertheless, the proposed amendment would only legalize what is already reality — Japan has land, sea and air forces. It would not repeal the renunciation of war, but would ease Japanese help with collective security, possibly including defense of Taiwan. Twenty-first-century Japan is a trustworthy member of the international community; its contribution to global security is even more necessary now than it was before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Mr. Abe is gone too soon. The impact he made, on Japan and the world, should not be forgotten. | 2022-07-11T20:25:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The U.S. should support Japan’s move to legitimize its military - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/11/us-should-support-japans-move-legitimize-its-military/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/11/us-should-support-japans-move-legitimize-its-military/ |
As Biden marked the passage of a gun control bill, Manuel Oliver, who lost his son to a mass shooting in Florida, interrupted to demand more
A White House staff member escorts Manuel Oliver from the audience during an event to celebrate the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Oliver’s son died in the 2018 shooting in Parkland, Fla. (Tom Brenner for The Washington Post)
Nearly 4½ years after he lost his 17-year-old son to a gunman’s rampage at a high school in Parkland, Fla., Manuel Oliver did not think it was time to celebrate.
Oliver was among hundreds who joined President Biden and lawmakers of both parties on the White House’s South Lawn on Monday at an event billed as “commemorating the historic achievement of the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.” Invitees included family members and survivors of mass shootings from Columbine, Colo., to Virginia Tech to Buffalo to Highland Park, Ill.
Oliver, angry that children are still dying — including 19 at an elementary school in Uvalde, Tex., less than two months ago — decided to make his feelings known and stood up while Biden was speaking, wearing a shirt with his son’s photo and message demanding change.
Then he heckled the president.
“Despite the naysayers, we can make meaningful progress on dealing with gun violence,” Biden was saying as Oliver cut in to demand the creation of an office in the executive branch focused solely on gun violence.
“Sit down — you will hear what I have to say,” Biden said to Oliver, before pausing. “We have one — let me finish my comment.” But as Secret Service agents approached Oliver, Biden said, “Let him talk. Let him talk.”
Then he continued, “Make no mistake about it — this legislation is real progress. But more has to be done.”
Report says Uvalde officer had gunman in his sights
The episode highlighted a tension that has run through Biden’s presidency and has intensified in recent weeks. Many Democrats have urged the president to do more to take credit for his accomplishments, from a strengthening economy to progress against the pandemic to getting bills through a polarized Congress. At the same time, Biden’s advisers are wary of seeming insensitive to voters’ concerns and suffering.
In the wake of the Uvalde shooting, Congress passed a bipartisan bill that was the biggest gun control measure in decades — but also fell far short of what advocates wanted. It expanded background checks, funded programs to seize guns from troubled individuals and bolstered mental health services.
Biden touted it Monday, saying, “The provision of this legislation is going to save lives. And it’s proof that in today’s politics, we can come together on a bipartisan basis to get important things done, even on an issue as tough as guns.”
Vice President Harris echoed the sentiment. “For 30 years, our nation has failed to pass meaningful gun violence legislation,” she said, adding, “Because of our president’s leadership and because of so many of you, we have passed a law that will make communities around our nation safer.”
Oliver said in an interview that he did not appreciate the congratulatory tone, “as kids are still dying.” He did not regret speaking out, he said after the ceremony. He just wished he had been able to continue talking before being escorted out.
“I’ve been trying to send a message to President Biden,” Oliver said. “Today I had the opportunity to be there. But I’m not going to be part of the celebration.”
In February 2018, a gunman opened fire on students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, slaughtering 17 people, including Oliver’s son, Joaquin. The mass killing launched a renewed surge of activism as students at the school pushed for tougher gun control measures, though that arguably did not yield significant results until last month.
Other family members had a different reaction at Monday’s event. Fred Guttenberg, who lost his daughter Jamie in the Parkland shooting, reported on Twitter that he had embraced Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a longtime opponent of firearms restrictions who teamed up with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) to come up with the compromise that ultimately passed.
“I always promised that I would publicly embrace anyone on the right side of this legislation,” Guttenberg tweeted. “I am proud to say that I just gave @JohnCornyn a big bear hug.”
Other survivors and activists praised Oliver for sharing their thoughts. He wasn’t the only upset attendee, said Brandon Wolf, who was in the bathroom at Pulse Nightclub when a shooter entered the gay bar in Orlando, killing 49 people, including two of Wolf’s friends.
“I’m also angry,” he said. “I’m sad, I’m frustrated, because as we’re standing here talking people are still dying.” Referring to Oliver, he added, “If you are not that angry, then you are not doing enough yet.”
Igor Volsky, executive director of Guns Down America, which has also called for a gun violence prevention office, said that Oliver said “what every person in that event believed privately.” He cited polling that has shown how most Americans say they would like to see Congress pass another round of legislation to address gun violence.
The White House did immediately respond to a request for comment about Oliver’s comments.
Oliver’s demand for a gun violence office is not a new one. Eighty-five groups advocating for gun reform and violence prevention called for such an office to be created before Biden took office.
Still, many gun control advocates and lawmakers say the administration made significant strides with the bipartisan bill signed by Biden last month. The legislation, designed to prevent dangerous people from accessing weapons and to invest $15 billion in the mental health system and school security, is the first major federal gun revision in three decades.
Two people from Buffalo and Uvalde spoke at Monday’s event, praising the administration for what they said was progress in combating the gun violence that had torn apart their communities.
Garnell Whitfield Jr., the son of 86-year-old Ruth Whitfield, who died in a shooting at a Buffalo grocery store in May, recited the names of the 10 victims of that massacre, “all of whom went to the only supermarket in their community on May 14th to pick up groceries, believing that they were safe — but they were not.”
The store was in a Black neighborhood, and the alleged killer had declared himself a white supremacist.
“My family, our families and our community are devastated, but their intent to divide us and to promulgate further violence within our community has failed miserably,” Whitfield said. “For we have instead chosen to love over hate, to speak out rather than stay silent, and to stand with those courageous enough to lead us to the signing of the most impactful gun legislation in over 30 years.”
Harris, other mourners in Buffalo call for action on gun violence
Biden has emphasized that he said he intends to keep pushing for more sweeping gun control measures, and he renewed his call Monday for a federal ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.
“We’re living in a country awash in weapons of war,” Biden said. “Assault weapons need to be banned.”
Roy Guerrero, a pediatrician in Uvalde who treated several of the young shooting victims in that city, echoed the call for an assault weapons ban. Forty days after a gunman massacred two fourth-grade classes at Robb Elementary School, Guerrero said the makeshift memorials have been cleared and all that remains is “a hollow feeling in our gut.”
“I’m using this pain to speak to you today as a Uvaldian and to speak for the parents and victims who seek the truth, transparency and ultimately accountability,” Guerrero said. “Let this be the start of the movement towards the banning of assault weapons.” | 2022-07-11T20:25:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Parkland dad disrupts Biden event marking new gun law - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/11/biden-heckled-gun-law-event/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/11/biden-heckled-gun-law-event/ |
Transcript: Health Equity: Clinical Trials
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Hello and welcome to Washington Post Live. I’m Frances Stead Sellers, a senior writer here at The Post.
Today we're going to have two very important conversations about the importance of recruiting diverse participants in clinical trials and the impact on health outcomes. I'm joined first by Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice. She is the president and CEO of Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, and a great expert on this subject.
Dr. Montgomery Rice, a very warm welcome to Washington Post Live.
DR. MONTGOMERY RICE: Thank you for having me.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: We're delighted to have you. And a word to our audience before we begin, please send any questions you may have for Dr. Montgomery Rice to @PostLive. That's @PostLive. You can tweet them to @PostLive. Thanks so much.
Dr. Montgomery Rice, I'd like to start by plunging straight into the pandemic, which gives such a striking illustration of how Black, Latinx, and Indigenous populations were overwhelmingly and disproportionately affected by the pandemic. How has that made your thinking evolve about the importance of recruiting diverse participants for clinical trials?
DR. MONTGOMERY RICE: Thank you, Frances, for that question. You know, COVID-19 made it abundantly clear that diseases affect different parts of the population differently, and we saw that. We saw the disproportionate increase in the number of African Americans and Hispanics that were being disproportionately impacted by this disease. And it wasn't because they were necessarily Black. It was because they were our frontline workers. It was because they lived in households where they could not separate if they became exposed. We also saw some challenges, of course, with testing and people having access to the vaccines when they became available.
So all of those things really did show us how, first of all, you had a disease that disproportionately impacted people of color, people were first questioning whether it was due because of their race or their gender, and then secondly, we know that this disease, if it was killing people, it may have been because they had an increased burden of other chronic diseases. So again, another reason why one would want to participate in a clinical trial.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: You are painting a very complex picture there of all these different factors, from socioeconomic to preexisting conditions to current inequities. How do you start to untangle those various threads of threat, if you like?
DR. MONTGOMERY RICE: First of all, you know, as a scientist, first of all I look to the data, and one of the first things we had to do during the pandemic was to make sure that we had accurate data. So we really pushed, at Morehouse School of Medicine and others, with the CDC and HHS, to make sure that we could get accurate information to understand where we were seeing the highest level of cases and then what were the social determinants that would be impacting that.
So you may have heard that Morehouse School of Medicine received a $40 million grant from HHS, and one of the things that we did was immediately go out to the community and form partnerships with grassroots organizations that would build trust between us and the community so that people would go get tested. We then, after we started to see the disproportionate number of cases we said, okay, well what are the resources that are needed in order for people to be treated if they test positive or for them to be able to work from home? So we then partnered with many agencies to make sure that we could address some of the social determinants of health, including making sure that people would have access to testing, transportation to testing, that when they got to the emergency room that they would be treated adequately.
And now what we've done with the $40 million grant is that we not only just connected them to testing, we then connected them to treatment. We then connected them to participation in a vaccine trial and then, of course, access to the vaccines.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: So I want to ask a little bit more about vaccine trials. I think early in the pandemic the National Institutes of Health gave Moderna a C for its recruitment of minority populations. Are you seeing an impact from that, directly or indirectly, in terms of take-up of the vaccine or how people talk about the vaccine?
DR. MONTGOMERY RICE: You know, one of the things that we were very, very sure and clear that we needed to do was to be a participant in a vaccine trial site, because we are a trusted entity. So myself, along with the other three presidents of the other three historically Black colleges and universities, partnered with the NIH to ensure that our institutions would be clinical trial sites. And that made a big difference, we believe, in ensuring that we would see stronger participation from African Americans and Hispanics.
We also participated at a national level. So Dr. James Hildreth, the president of Meharry, has been on one of the CDC and FDA panels. I participated in multiple NIH review panels where we were looking at the community engagement. So we were present to make sure that the messaging would be well received and that it was inclusive.
We then, BlackDoctors.org and Black Doctors Against Covid also did multiple webinars over the 6-, 8-month period of time, where we talked to 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 people online. One time we had 18,000 people online. And we were just answering questions, Frances. We dealt with the concerns that people had about trust with the health system, and we dealt with the Tuskegee issues and the Henrietta Lacks, and we were sensitive to people's concerns. But then we said to people, this virus is disproportionately impacting people of color. We must participate in the vaccine trials to determine if there is some unexpected impact, negative or positive, that we would see because of who we are, as Black people, who we are as non-White persons.
And so we got a lot of participation I think because we were transparent with people about what we didn't know, and we made sure that we were inclusive in our messaging and inclusive in our understanding of their concerns.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: I am really learning a lot from the success stories you are pointing to, and I'm wondering how that message has gone beyond institutions that are not predominantly Black. Are you seeing an uptick of this understanding more broadly?
DR. MONTGOMERY RICE: For sure we have. You know, one of the things that we have all tried to do is to make sure that we learn from this pandemic, and that is not just at the HBCU medical schools. Many of my majority colleagues have been very, very interested in partnerships, and we have done just that. We have partnered with them to extend the opportunities for more inclusion in clinical trials and more participation of non-White individuals at their institutions because they too take care of persons who are of African American descent.
And so we have partnered with other entities to develop cobranding and messaging that would make people feel more comfortable at their institutions who are participating in clinical trials. Many of them have served on panels with us around the country to make sure that we say to them, this is not just something that has to be owned and led by the HBCUs. All of us have an interest in all of us being healthy.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: You mentioned Tuskegee and Henrietta Lacks, which loom so large in all these discussions. But take a step back, if you can, for me, and tell me how those lingering wrongs continue to affect people and how you overcome that long, longstanding distrust, which is there for very good reasons.
DR. MONTGOMERY RICE: You know, I think that it lingers because the stories can push people into action but it can also push people into inaction. And so the way that we have dealt with this at Morehouse School of Medicine and with the BlackDoctors.org, what we have done is acknowledge that there were wrongdoings during those times, acknowledge the harm that it caused, and say, okay, now how do we learn from that? And because that happened, that should not preclude us from participating in our future. And I think that that has resonated with people because at Morehouse School of Medicine we did not have any challenges with enrolling persons in the clinical trials.
I think what is key, though, and I learned this back in the '90s, early 2000s, when I first got into clinical trial work, the messenger matters. So I was at the University of Kansas and I was doing third-generation progesterone, birth control pill trials, and I always had the highest enrollment of African Americans and Hispanics. But that was because, Frances, I had a research coordinator that was African American, one that was Hispanic, and one that was Caucasian, and they went to the respective communities, sometimes together, sometimes individually, to make sure that people saw someone who looked like them or that they could identify a relationship with. And that is how you build that trust.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: So you've talked so convincingly about how this works in academic, but of course, clinical trials are also run by drug companies. How do manage to convince them or get the message across more broadly about the importance of diversity, and not just racial diversity, also women, which, of course, has been a huge issue, women of childbearing age and the lack of data for pregnant women about these recent vaccines.
DR. MONTGOMERY RICE: You know, Frances, early on, 30 years ago, with the Office of Research in Women's Health--and I've been on several panels for them and been a member of that advisory group for many, many years -- we have known that sex differences matter. Early on we knew the differences in just how a heart attack appears in a woman versus a man because of the size of our vasculature, et cetera, et cetera. So we know that these things exist. And we have pushed it downstream to make sure that we have gender diversity when we are even doing animal studies, so that we can make sure that we are accounting for this along the continuum of research.
I think the important thing is that we have to make sure that pharmaceutical companies understand that if we really want people to reach their optimal level of health, and we are going to have interventions like drugs or technology, we need to account for those differences that may occur when people are taking the drugs or utilizing the technology. And the only way you will know that is if you have the persons, those different people, participating in the clinical trials.
And I am reminded as you speak about that of the recent diversity investigations by equitable research studies for everyone or the DIVERSE Trials Act. So it is not just us who are recognizing this and asking pharmaceutical companies to pay attention but Congress is. And you know that this act will enable the Department of HHS to provide grants to bolster education and the recruitment for clinical trials for diseases that disproportionately impact underrepresented groups.
So we are very excited that others are listening and understanding how important it is to diversity those individuals who are participating in clinical trials, because we want everyone to reach their optimal level of health. And we won't know that if we don't have persons participate in clinical trials.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: So you're painting this great picture of progress. If you could take a magic wand now and swipe it to wipe away the greatest challenge you've faced in terms of enrolling people who really reflect the country, what would that be? What do you want to have happen? What's the biggest thing that keeps you up at night as you look ahead?
DR. MONTGOMERY RICE: You know, as I think about this, and I've been doing this a long time, early back when I started the Center for Women's Health Research at Meharry, which was the first center that looked at diseases that disproportionately impacted women of color, there were two things that impacted our ability to enroll people in clinical trials--education, and education is tied to trust. So it does matter how we convey information and help people to understand that this is a choice, that they are not a patient, that they are a participant or a subject, and they are given choice.
And then the second thing is the removal of the barriers for people participating. So many times, when you look at women in underserved communities, a person in underserved communities, those social determinants of health continue to creep into the picture. Am I going to be able to take off work for the amount of time that I have to come in for the clinical trial? Will I be reimbursed for my time off work? Do I have transportation? Do I have childcare? All of those things are real factors in people participating in a clinical trial. So pharmaceutical companies and other entities that are running these trials need to account for that.
Sometimes, and many times we know, Frances, that we are paying it forward. We are not going to get a direct benefit, but generations to come will. And we have to convey that. This is a part of our social contract through one another, that we are paying it forward.
So you look at many of the breast cancer trials. When we were doing the early work looking at breast density and trying to determine what was the best imaging type, particularly because we were seeing missed lesions in women of color, and we recognized that Black women had more dense breasts, well yes, there was an immediate benefit to you when we went from digital to analog, but we also were able to compile a lot of data to support, now that all mammograms should be done with digital, because there is a high level of precision in identifying a mass.
And so that was a story we had to tell. We had to build trust. Many women had to come in and have two mammograms, and anyone who has had a mammogram knows that it's not fun, even the first time, so to ask me to do it twice? And so they were paying it forward. They were paying if forward for the new science and discovery that was going to come about.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: I have a question that's come in from our audience, over Twitter, that I would like to read to you. It comes from Cheeze, and she says, "Any thought to developing a special online resource to enable improved and proactive clinical trial access to people of color?"
DR. MONTGOMERY RICE: Oh, for sure. I think that would be a great idea. There are many of us who have been looking at what we call contract research organizations and how we enable those organizations to provide better access using technology. As you know, many of us believe that we should be able to enroll anyone in a clinical trial online and with digital access. Yes, there are parts of the physical exam, there are parts of the blood collection, et cetera, or if you are looking at a new technology that can't be done online. But the initial engagement can definitely be done online. And we would believe that if we looked at partnerships between primary care providers, and particularly let's say I'm looking at a new drug intervention with diabetes. The one thing, if I need to enroll people for a diabetic trial, what's the one thing, Frances, that has to be true? They have to have a diagnosis of diabetes.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Right. Right.
DR. MONTGOMERY RICE: That was usually done with the provider. So if you did a partnership with the primary care provider, and then you can have them as your partner to help enroll a diverse population of persons in a clinical trial, such that we can segment it by ZIP code, we can segment it by race, ethnicity, gender, and we could have that diversity that we so much talk about. And we can do it through technology, online, so that we can address people's concerns early on, before they have that first engagement or first physical engagement with the clinical trials unit.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: I think over the last couple of years we've seen so much greater awareness of the need to bring diversity to all aspects of our life, and I'd love you to talk a little bit about the generations of students now coming in. Do they bring a greater awareness than previous students of the kinds of key issues you're raising about clinical trials?
DR. MONTGOMERY RICE: They do and they are demanding that we think differently. So I can tell you, here at Morehouse School of Medicine and at other academic health centers where I have the opportunity to go and speak to students, they are very much aware of the importance of diversity in clinical trials, the diversity in the populations that they serve. They understand how the social determinants of health influence people's outcomes. They all know about the Tuskegee and Henrietta Lacks and anything else that maybe Dr. Washington, who published a book, "Medical Apartheid," any of that information, they know about. And they will challenge you, and they are fully expecting for us to have more robust participation of others in care delivery, of how we extend care to others.
They are also aware of how diversity influences their thinking. So when you look at data, particularly when you look at the ability, alignment of race and gender with the provider and the patient, you know we see better outcomes, particularly with Black patients, when their provider is Black. We see more compliance with some of the recommendations. And many of our majority students are saying, "Okay, what is happening in that connection that is enabling this provider to get better outcomes with this patient population?"
And many of them are asking for us to look at this objectively and use that as a part of our teaching. And we do that in small group settings or in our standardized patient settings, et cetera, so that they can learn, when we talk about cultural competence, cultural humility, all of those things that contribute to improved patient outcomes because that provider is able to look at that person across from them and say, "Based on who is sitting in front of me, what's possible?" And in order for you to ask that question you have to put yourself second. And so yes, this generation is expecting it.
Now Frances, what we have to do, though, we have to increase the diversity of the population of people that we are educating and training to be clinicians in this country. And as you know, we are at a flat line when it looks at African American physicians. We see a little bit of an increase but nothing significant that compares with the representation of us in the United States. And so Morehouse School of Medicine, along with other institutions, are definitely looking at how we can increase that population of providers that would be African American because we think it matters. We know that it matters in patient outcome.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Dr. Montgomery Rice, I don't want to let you go without talking to you about the recent Supreme Court decision, the Dobbs decision. Before this decision I think Black women were two times as likely to have delayed or no prenatal care at all. What is your feeling about the impact on minorities of this decision?
DR. MONTGOMERY RICE: You know, Roe v. Wade is something that has been hanging in the background for so many years. And full disclosure, you know I'm an obstetrician, gynecologist, reproductive endocrinologist, and fertility specialist, and I am pretty convinced that this decision is going to have an adverse impact on the health of Black and Hispanic women who suffer already from a high maternal mortality rate.
When you look at the average maternal mortality rate it's about 17 per 100,000, but for Black women it is 43 per 100,000, and when we think about the achievement of maternal health equity, we know that we have to change that. The concern is that 50 percent of pregnancies are unintended, and we know that many unintended pregnancies occur because of the lack of access to care, to reproductive health care, that is also to contraception or to other components of your reproductive health care that may lead to you having a different decision or engaging differently that could prevent that unintended pregnancy.
So I am gravely concerned that we also see Black women, when they are pregnant, they will have, I believe, three to four times more likely to suffer from a pregnancy-related death versus a White woman. So when you see this component of a comprehensive women's health care options being taken away and you already see women of color being disproportionately impacted by being pregnant, I know that they are going to suffer more.
And so I hope that we will continue to see a lot of conversation around this, that we will empower physicians, clinicians to be able to adequately provide preconceptual counseling to people, contraception to persons so that we can prevent unintended pregnancies. But then when an unintended pregnancy occurs, and a woman makes a choice, I hope that that decision will continue to be between she and her provider, and the privacy that should be vested on that woman, in the confines with her health care provider, will be honored.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, that was a very sobering note to finish on, but thank you also for sharing so much optimism about some of the other areas in which progress is made. Thank you for joining us.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: I'll be back in a few moments with our next guest, Dr. Michael Makanga. Don't leave us.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Hello and welcome back. I'm Frances Stead Sellers. I'm delighted to continue this conversation with Dr. Michael Makanga, who is the executive director of the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership. So we're going to be talking about this issue on an international scale now.
Dr. Makanga, a very warm welcome to Washington Post Live.
DR. MAKANGA: Thank you very much, Frances, for having me.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: I think we maybe have a little trouble with sound there, so we'll keep going. And while we do so let me talk to the audience. Please send in your questions to @PostLive. That's @PostLive for audience questions.
Dr. Makanga, if you can hear me, I'd love to learn a little bit more about the partnership you are executive director of. Maybe you can talk about the European and African arms and the importance of them.
DR. MAKANGA: Thank you very much. The European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnerships is a partnership between European and African member states and co-funded by the European Union that aims to accelerate the development of new medical interventions against poverty-related diseases, in particular HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria, lower respiratory tract infection, venereal diseases, and emerging and re-emerging diseases that are of particular relevance to sub-Saharan Africa. And this is done through clinical trials, all phases of clinical trials, and also developing the related capacity in terms of infrastructure and skilled workforce to implement this work.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: You know, I was stunned to learn that fewer than 3 percent of clinical trials take place on the African continent. Maybe you can help me understand why that is so and what can be done about it and what impact it has.
DR. MAKANGA: Yes. Thank you very much for raising this. As you realize, the African continent represents 17 percent of the world population and also has 25 percent of the disease burden, but despite this, only 3 percent of clinical trials are taking place in sub-Saharan Africa. And the problem behind this is multifaceted. One, of course, is that most of the diseases that affect Africa are diseases that may have limited market value in terms of the pharmaceutical companies, or companies that are involved in product development. Secondly, product development requires money, investment from the public and from the private, but it also requires the right infrastructure and human workforce to be able to take this forward, and the willingness and political support from the countries where this is done.
So this is part of the problem, why we have limited clinical trials in sub-Saharan Africa. And I have to say that over the last 10 to 20 years there have been a growing number of clinical trials through the involvement of partnerships and initiatives like ours, the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership, and others that are investing in research and development. But this requires more investment, and the incidence of COVID-19 has really brought this to our understanding, that we need to invest in this area more.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: I'm going to ask you more about COVID in particular, but I'd love you to step back and just talk about how other vaccines that are routinely administered in a country like the U.S. have taken a long time to penetrate various African countries, and how that has happened.
DR. MAKANGA: Well, in this case I want to look at this from three perspectives on the side of supply. Supply requires availability of the vaccines that are rolled out in the high-income countries. Often the high-income countries prioritize their populations to make these vaccines available to them, and on the side of the lower-income countries for this to be available the financing has to come through special mechanisms that are put in place to help these vaccines to be available. And this requires a lot of fundraising. So that is one thing, availability and price.
The second is on the demand side. The people have to want to be vaccinated, and in this case, there has to be mobilization for people to understand the value of vaccination and also to know enough about the diseases and the need for this vaccination to happen. The sad aspect is really linking the supply and demand, making sure that these vaccines can be easily produced in the countries where they need it. In many cases, these vaccines are imported into the countries and there are limited facilities to produce or manufacture these vaccines in countries often.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: So specifically to ask you about COVID, we have had two vaccines, mRNA vaccines, one in particular has required cold, subzero storage and has been quite difficult to deliver. What do you hope to see in the future with a Novavax or another vaccine that could come along, be single shot? Would this be a game-changer for countries in Africa, for example?
DR. MAKANGA: Well, one has to look into the delivery mechanisms for the vaccines. Normally when interventions are evaluated it's not enough to just look at the product. It's important to look at the delivery mechanisms because these can result in efficacy decay.
But that said, even in the situation of the messenger RNA vaccines, where the demand is high and there is willingness on the side of the countries to put mechanisms in place in vaccines that have a very short shelf life and also require very stringent cold chain mechanism, this is something that has been worked on, because when we look at veterinary medicine, we are able to carry out procedures that are related to efficient examination and they are able to deliver these even to remote areas. So where there is willingness mechanisms can be put in place.
But that aside, it is important to look at vaccines that can very easily be delivered, especially in the settings where the temperatures are high and also the delivery mechanisms may be compromised, creating delays in these vaccines reaching the people that need them most.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: So we've talked about countries a little bit and private companies, but key in here are these non-governmental organizations, philanthropic organizations. What is their role? What impact have they had over the last two years, or year and a half, I guess, of vaccine delivery?
DR. MAKANGA: Yes. On the side of vaccine delivery, I have to say that this also stems back. Before we come to delivery it is the involvement of these partnerships of both the private and the public sector in the development of these vaccines. You will find that many of the partnerships that are involved in the product development tend to have more interest in the delivery of these products once they are developed.
So in this case the private partners that are mainly involved in the delivery of these vaccines are partners that have also played a role, in way or another, in the development of these products. And I have to say that also the philanthropic organizations are playing a big role in helping, watching especially in partnership with Africa Centres for Disease Control, and also working in partnership with the regional office for the WHO to make sure that the countries have access mechanisms for these vaccines.
So the philanthropic organizations are playing a role in mobilizing the other partners that have all been involved in the development of these products.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Early in the pandemic, as the vaccines were coming along, I remember in my reporting hearing from a number of public health experts who said that in the developing world it is quite frequently that one sees a massive vaccine campaign. What kinds of lessons are there that developed countries could learn from developing world about how to implement public health programs like that?
DR. MAKANGA: Well, I'm glad that you are raising this. There was a lot of saying before that the burden of COVID-19 was going to really hit the African continent very hard. But one of the areas that have been helpful is drawing from the lessons of the other diseases that the African continent has had to deal with, one of them being, of course, diseases like HIV, where there has been a lot of community engagement, diseases like Ebola that have been very severe on the populations and have involved a lot of community mobilization and also training of health workers to work under very tough conditions, with limited resources, to be able to deliver.
And the other part is, of course, really the trust that is in the people. You will find that many times when these interventions are brought on board, where there is mutual trust between the service providers and the community where these interventions are being rolled out, there is better uptake. And I think this is one area where the African continent has done pretty well, and also relating, being able to diversify these limited resources for other diseases to be able to combat or respond to COVID-19.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: We talked to Dr. Montgomery Rice just now so much about this issue of trust in the United States, of trusted messages, of vaccine ambassadors penetrating communities that might be distrustful. But again, I'd love to ask you specifically about African countries and whether there is distrust of vaccines brought in by the developed world, you know, rich countries bringing in vaccines.
DR. MAKANGA: Well, we need to take a step backwards. Before you have the product, it is important to involve the people and institutions in Africa in the development of these interventions. When this is done and there is buy-in in the whole process, then the uptake of these products is better.
You realize that many of the African countries, one of the things they've done best is to involve their local scientists, to involve the people that are involved in research and development in these countries. Although these people are few, they try to engage them to be part of the advisory committees for the presidents, for the governments. And when this is done, and interventions are part and parcel of their link to these policymakers or are linked to these opinion leaders, you will find that the uptake is better.
Now where we have had situations where products have been developed from out and brought in as donations, there has been a trust issue, where people are not trusting, is this developed to impact us negatively or is it really to our benefit? And this is where now the opinion leaders inside of the people in leadership are playing a very, very big role to talk to the people and also using other mechanisms, especially that are engaging with the community. That is really key in the uptake of these products.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: I can't resist asking you about the beginning of the Omicron outbreak, of course linked with South Africa, and very good data coming out of South Africa earlier on. Talk to me a little bit about the global perspective there, when I think some South Africans felt there was a negative response, including closing down air traffic out of South Africa. Is the fallout from that continuing?
DR. MAKANGA: Well, I have to say that this was a very bad thing to do, especially on the side of the high-income countries, and it really shows clearly that there is need for regional studies and need for developing capacity against these interventions. And in this case the genomics capacity that has been developed in South Africa clearly shows that when there is capacity that is available in countries you are able to develop and identify new scientific findings that can be of global utility. And in this case, the findings of Omicron as a variant in this case has been very, very helpful and very eye-opening to the rest of the world. The South African scientists have to be commended, greatly commended, for this, and, of course, the surrounding countries that are cooperating in part of this research work and the recent work in genomics.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: COVID has been such a lesson in the fact that viruses don't respect borders, that pandemics quickly become global. Now we have monkeypox spreading in many parts of the world. Do you have any optimism that there is a greater understanding that we need to take a global approach to viral and other pathogens?
DR. MAKANGA: Well, at first, I thought that there is a better understanding of this following from the current pandemic of COVID-19. But there is still distancing of certain diseases to certain regions, where, when it is perceived that a certain disease belongs to a certain region, less attention, investment into it and investment into what is done, this is the situation we are seeing on the side of monkeypox. I know there are some efforts that have been made to do some work, especially to look at the existing smallpox vaccines and also the development of new vaccines against monkeypox. But more can be done in this case.
I have to say that we need to realize better that these diseases know no boundaries, and we need to work cooperatively between governments but also the public and private sectors taking on from the lessons we have learned from COVID-19.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Before we finish, I do want to ask you about the current trajectory of the coronavirus pandemic, the vaccine availability in Africa. Where do you see things standing at the moment in Africa?
DR. MAKANGA: Well I have to say that on the African side the vaccination rate is still very low. We are looking at 18.7 percent of population are fully vaccinated on the African continent, in comparison to other regions like North American where you are talking at 63.9 percent, Europe 65.8 percent, Asia around 80 percent. So most of the other regions it is more than 60 percent, and yet on the African continent it is still very limited. And even then, you are talking about 18.7 percent but you have a very heterogenous picture. There are some countries that have done better, like South Africa, where you have about 46 percent that are fully vaccinated, and about 52 percent of health workers that are vaccinated as well.
But in this case more has to be done on the side of vaccination, because this is the only way that we can be able to prevent and minimize new infections coming up and also coupling this with other intervention measures like continued mask wearing, limited mass gatherings, and also in situations of indoor gatherings where there is compromised ventilation, that at least attention paid to the vaccinations and combining them with these public health interventions.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: I'm going to try and squeeze in one last question before we finish, and we have to do it quickly, and we will have to have a quick response. But, you know, we have learned from the pandemic that viruses don't respect borders. We've also learned that a huge disease outbreak like this is not just a disease outbreak. It is also a national security risk and various other factors. Do we need a new global body beyond the WHO to tackle these huge threats to mankind?
DR. MAKANGA: Well, in situations like this there is no need to reinvent the wheel. It may not be necessary to create a new global body, but you may within WHO have a specialized body that is strengthened to address global security and issues that are related to epidemic preparedness, to be able to combat future epidemic threats.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: Dr. Michael Makanga, thank you so much for bringing this important discussion onto a global plane. Thank you for joining Washington Post Live.
DR. MAKANGA: Thank you very much indeed.
MS. STEAD SELLERS: And thank you to our audience. You know how to find future programming. It’s on WashingtonPostLive.com, so look there for what’s coming up. And thank you for joining us today. I’m Frances Stead Sellers. | 2022-07-11T20:26:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Transcript: Health Equity: Clinical Trials - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/07/11/transcript-health-equity-clinical-trials/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/07/11/transcript-health-equity-clinical-trials/ |
Navalny launches new anti-corruption fund
Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Monday launched an international anti-corruption organization, a year after his Russian Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF) was outlawed as extremist.
Navalny’s Telegram channel, which carries messages passed to his supporters via lawyers who are allowed contact with him, said the fund’s advisory board would include former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt, political scientist Francis Fukuyama, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and historian Anne Applebaum, and Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya.
Navalny came to prominence by using his foundation to catalogue the wealth of senior Russian officials in widely watched videos. He has become President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critic.
A court ruling last year outlawing the foundation in effect barred Navalny’s allies from running in elections and gave authorities the power to jail ACF activists and freeze their bank accounts.
Navalny’s social media feeds said the first funds for the new Anti-Corruption Foundation International would be the 50,000 euro ($50,000) he received as part of the Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought last year.
Navalny was jailed in 2020 for violating bail conditions on his return from Germany, where he had been recovering from a near-fatal poisoning in Russia with a Soviet-era nerve toxin. This year he was sentenced to a further nine years in prison for fraud and contempt of court, charges that he says were fabricated.
Premier survives no-confidence vote
An official vote count showed 146 lawmakers supported the motion. The motion required an absolute majority of 289 votes to precipitate the government’s fall.
While the outcome had been expected, the vote was meant as a show of intent by the Nupes alliance — the largest bloc in opposition to President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist grouping — to make the his life difficult in Parliament.
After enjoying a comfortable majority in the lower house during his first mandate, newly reelected Macron lost his absolute majority in Parliament in legislative elections last month and can no longer count on the lower chamber to rubber-stamp his agenda. Instead Macron and his government are faced with negotiating legislation on a bill-by-bill basis, taking a degree of control of the process out of his hands.
The no-confidence motion had been expected to fail after the conservative Republican party and Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally said they would abstain.
Monsoon rains kill 150 since June 14 in Pakistan: Monsoon rains over the past month have killed at least 150 people as downpours continue to lash Pakistan, triggering flash floods in some parts of the country, officials said. The National Disaster Management Authority said 91 women and children are among the dead. At least 163 people have been injured in rain-related incidents since June 14, it said. Heavy rains and flash floods fully or partially damaged more than 1,000 houses nationwide.
Sri Lanka to get new president next week, speaker says: Sri Lanka's Parliament will elect a new president on July 20, its speaker said, after protesters stormed the residences of the current president and prime minister, who have offered to quit amid an economic meltdown. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is set to resign Wednesday. His brothers and nephew earlier quit as ministers as Sri Lanka began running out of fuel, food and other essentials in its worst crisis since independence from Britain in 1948. Parliament will reconvene Friday and vote to elect a new president five days later, Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said.
3 gored at Spanish bull festival: A tense fifth bull run at the San Fermín Festival in Pamplona, Spain, left three people gored, including one American, and three others with bruises, the Navarra regional government said. It was the first run with gorings in the festival this year. The festival ends Thursday. The regional government said a 25-year-old runner from Sunrise, Fla., was gored in the calf in the bullring. The other two gored were Spaniards, one in the ring and one on the street. None was in serious condition. | 2022-07-11T20:59:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | World Digest: July 12, 2022 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/world-digest-july-12-2022/2022/07/11/cf3e1aa2-0122-11ed-bdea-f300220ae4dc_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/world-digest-july-12-2022/2022/07/11/cf3e1aa2-0122-11ed-bdea-f300220ae4dc_story.html |
NPS weighs making Beach Drive car-free every summer
National Park Service proposes to keep the road car-free in summer and open to vehicles the rest of the year as a compromise amid pushback to give cars access to the scenic route.
WASHINGTON, DC — JUNE 2: Cyclists enjoy a stretch of Beach Drive that is closed to vehicular traffic on Thursday, June 2, 2021. While the street is normally closed on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, it has been closed for over a year during the pandemic. Many cities that closed streets during the pandemic, are looking to keep them closed to promote more outdoor spaces, including Beach Drive in DC. (Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post)
The National Park Service is proposing summer-long closures of the northern stretch of Beach Drive running through Rock Creek Park, a section that has stayed car-free since near the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
The four-mile section of Beach Drive in Northwest Washington closed to vehicles in April 2020, creating a popular recreation area for people on foot and bikes during the pandemic. Before the pandemic, commuters used the route to head downtown. It was closed to cars only on weekends and holidays.
A push to make the restriction permanent has divided the community. Park users and some city leaders have lobbied to keep cars off the route, citing benefits to the environment and the community’s health. But some park neighbors and commuters say the extended closures have resulted in more cars cutting through neighborhood roads and has exacerbated traffic congestion in parallel routes.
Now the Park Service said it has come up with a compromise that addresses both sides: Keep Beach Drive car-free every summer and open to cars the rest of the year, except on weekends and holidays.
“It allows for the continuation of commuting during the fall, winter, spring; and then in the summer when traffic is lighter, it allows for full recreational use,” Rock Creek Park Superintendent Julia Washburn said Monday. “I think it’s a very good compromise.”
An environmental assessment unveiled Monday identified the seasonal closure as the preferred solution, citing “greater park access” for people on foot and on cars. And it notes this option would decrease the “effects to the local transportation network during the period when traffic volumes are highest.”
Cities are making covid-era street changes permanent. Some are facing pushback.
The proposal would keep cars off Beach Drive from Memorial Day through Labor Day every year, in addition to the continuing closures on weekends and holidays.
The road is expected to remain closed through Sept. 5, or until a decision is finalized, Washburn said. But it could be open to cars this fall. A 30-day public comment period opened Monday on the proposal and the Park Service will hold a virtual public meeting about it on July 18 at 6:30 p.m.
The closures extend from the Maryland state line to Broad Branch Road NW. The car-free stretches are separated by areas for drivers to cross through the park or reach picnic areas.
The Park Service has reviewed more than 4,100 public comments since last year as it weighs whether to make the closure to cars permanent, revert to the weekend-only setup or find some other plan. The agency also considered whether to keep the park car-free some days of the week or at certain times of the day. But those configurations were dismissed because they would have presented “considerable operational and communication challenges” and potentially create more confusion for drivers that would lead to safety concerns, the Park Service said.
Washburn said the seasonal closure is the safer alternative. It will establish a clear time frame for when the route will be closed to cars, reducing chances of drivers being confused about when to enter the road. She said the option also addresses growing concerns during the past two years about people creating trails where there aren’t any, which affects wildlife.
“Reduced traffic in the closed section during the warmer months when forest vegetation is densest provides protection and preservation of wildlife and habitat for several park species because dense vegetation prohibits visitors’ desire and ability to create and use unofficial trails that impact forest habitat,” the environmental assessment says.
The vehicle-less section has become a popular destination for bike riders, joggers and families with children and dogs. The D.C. Council and Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) have called for making the closure permanent.
The Park Service said 5,000 to 8,000 cars a day would drive the closed stretch before the pandemic. The Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway, the main commuter thoroughfare through the park, remains open and averaged about 50,000 vehicles daily before the pandemic, according to the Park Service. | 2022-07-11T21:12:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | NPS proposes to make Beach Drive car free every summer - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/07/11/beach-drive-dc-car-free/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/07/11/beach-drive-dc-car-free/ |
When Wayne Rooney first came to play for D.C. United, he was instantly the most internationally recognizable Washington athlete. (Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post, 2019)
Pick a positive moment from D.C. United’s past five seasons, and there’s a better than fair chance it involves Wayne Rooney’s legs, Wayne Rooney’s feet, Wayne Rooney’s work ethic, Wayne Rooney’s flair — or some combination of them all. A confession: There is one United YouTube highlight and only one United YouTube highlight I have sought out repeatedly — ever. It is from August 2018. It is mesmerizing. We’ll get to it.
More than any figure in, say, the last decade, Rooney — the Manchester United legend, the English scoring icon — made D.C. United appointment television for the casual fan. Audi Field can’t be filled solely with soccer — eh, futbol — cognoscenti, right, Barra Brava? There has to be a draw, and Rooney the player was nothing but.
But as a … coach? There was magic in his football feet. Is there magic in his football mind?
United is banking (see the clever verb choice?) that the answer is, “Yes.” According to my peerless colleague Steven Goff, United will introduce Rooney as the ninth full-time coach in the franchise’s history at a Tuesday afternoon news conference at Audi Field. A measure of this move’s import: Goff staked out Rooney as he arrived at Dulles International Airport on Sunday night. That’s a beat writer’s dedication, for sure. But it’s a star’s pull, too.
I’m not going to pretend to know — be it in tactics or in talent — what United needs and whether Rooney can help bring it out. That will be addressed at Tuesday’s reintroduction, and it will be shown in United’s remaining 17 regular season games. The most recent of those: a 7-0 lambasting at the hands of Philadelphia on Friday under interim Chad Ashton, the longtime assistant under whom the club had won just one of its last eight matches.
Clearly, United needs a jolt. It sits 13th in the 14-team Eastern Conference with the second-worst goal differential in all of MLS. It ranks 17th in the 28-team league in attendance, selling out once in nine home matches. It fired Hernán Losada as coach in April, just six games into the MLS regular season. It has scored more than one goal once in its last five matches.
Throw in the fact that the region’s soccer community as a whole is pretty beaten up — a season after winning the NWSL championship, the Spirit hasn’t won since opening night, Washington and Baltimore were overlooked as a site for 2026 World Cup matches — a jolt is both timely and needed.
So here comes Rooney — on the sidelines. If this seems like a Ted Williams-manages-the-Senators kind of move for relevancy, well, maybe it’s because it’s a Ted Williams-manages-the-Senators kind of move for relevancy. It should be noted that denizens of that larger stadium across South Capitol Street from Audi Field — Nationals Park — are in the midst of a going-nowhere, rebuilding summer. Why not make whatever sort of splash you can? Maybe a fan with some money in her or his pocket will walk west across South Capitol to Audi Field because Rooney is back.
Seem silly? At some level, sure. But think of it this way: When Rooney first came to play for United in 2018, he was instantly the most internationally recognizable Washington athlete — and it wasn’t particularly close. This is hardly scientific, but add up the Twitter followers of the most prominent pros in town — Alex Ovechkin of the Capitals, Bradley Beal of the Wizards, Chase Young and Terry McLaurin of the Commanders, Elena Delle Donne of the Mystics and Juan Soto of the Nationals. You get just more than 3.8 million. That’s 13.4 million fewer than Rooney has by himself. Shoot, if Rooney’s wife Coleen were thrown into the mix, she’d rank second only to Ovechkin on the D.C. athlete Twitter list, because she has 1.2 million followers on her own.
Of course, social media popularity means nothing when it comes to MLS victories, and there is some peril in a franchise having its biggest draw be its coach when it’s clear United also needs an injection of talent. That means, at some point, more spending on players is necessary. Maybe it’s immediate. Maybe it’s in the offseason. This is a franchise that was once one of the league’s pillars, winning four MLS Cups in its first nine seasons. Rooney will now lead a side that hasn’t won a playoff match since 2015.
While it’s impossible to know what kind of manager Rooney will be — his time with second-tier English club Derby offers limited evidence because the club was overridden by financial problems that cost it points in the standings and eventually led to its relegation — his two seasons as a player here provide something of a clue as to the energy he’ll bring. Those summers of 2018 and ’19, when Audi Field opened and Rooney was running down balls because he simply worked harder than his opponent, were enthralling.
Take the play mentioned earlier, a hallmark moment in United’s history. D.C. was locked in a 2-2 tie with Orlando City in stoppage time at Audi Field. Orlando was playing with only 10 men, trying to defend a United corner kick with even D.C. goalkeeper David Ousted surging forward. Orlando managed a clear, and midfielder Will Johnson reached midfield with nothing but grass in front of him. An empty net — and a United loss — loomed.
And here came Rooney. From nowhere. The tackle and strip that followed would have been enough, because it showed everything he was brought in for — effort and commitment, not to mention brute force and will. That he got up, leaving Johnson in his wake, and pushed the ball forward was characteristic of his time here.
He didn’t come to the District as a vacation. He came here to change what United saw as possible. He committed to the club. He committed to the community. His time was fleeting, because a young family pulled him back home to England. But he was a beacon while he was around, 23 goals and 13 assists in 48 matches in the red and black, a 10-match unbeaten streak to close the 2018 regular season, real hope for a return to glory.
Maybe that’s what Rooney will articulate Tuesday: a different path forward to new possibilities. That night four years ago, he took three touches forward, then served a ball across the entirety of the field to little Luciano Acosta, who already had two goals on the night. The ball first found Acosta’s head. It then found the back of the net. Bedlam.
Haven’t seen it? Look it up. You won’t watch it just once.
Wayne Rooney can’t make that kind of play from the sideline. But he automatically brings buzz to a team that badly needs it. What comes next for D.C. United is impossible to say. But what comes next is something it wasn’t when the weekend began: Absolutely worth watching. | 2022-07-11T21:25:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Can Wayne Rooney make D.C. United worth watching again? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/11/wayne-rooney-coach-dc-united-excitement/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/11/wayne-rooney-coach-dc-united-excitement/ |
More potential names for military bases
A welcome sign at Fort Hood, Tex. (Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press)
In addition to the names listed in David Von Drehle’s July 7 op-ed, “The proposed new names for military bases are inspiring,” I would suggest two more.
First, Ira Hayes, the Marine and Pima Indian who was one of the flag raisers at Iwo Jima. I would also include one Confederate general, James Longstreet, for what he did after the war. He supported the Republican Party and fought against white supremacists. To understand why there are no monuments to Longstreet in the South (there is one at Gettysburg) is to understand the purpose of the existing monuments.
Alan Bromborsky, Silver Spring | 2022-07-11T21:42:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | More potential names for military bases - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/11/more-potential-names-military-bases/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/11/more-potential-names-military-bases/ |
Reduce the stigma to help people with substance abuse disorder
A billboard on Aug. 7 in Arkansas. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)
As the Biden administration’s former acting director of the National Drug Control Office, I appreciated the article pointing to ways health-care providers can better care for patients they label “difficult” (“When doctors dislike patients, quality of care might go down,” Health, July 5). With record rates of overdose death in the United States, more than 100,000 deaths in 2021 alone, hospitals and emergency departments provide a critically important intervention point for people at risk of overdosing. However, stigma and a lack of addiction training for physicians can stand in the way of proper care for people with substance use disorder.
Surveys of physicians and other health-care professionals provide evidence of their reluctance to treat individuals with addiction. This reluctance too often results in stigmatizing attitudes, which can prevent people from seeking treatment. Studies have shown that people with substance use disorder who experience stigma are less likely to seek treatment.
The article failed to mention one answer to improving patient care: educating all health-care professionals on the principles of harm-reduction and evidence-based treatment. Legislation pending on Capitol Hill, if enacted, would mandate addiction education for holders of a controlled-substances license.
To reduce the grim death toll of overdose deaths in this country, we must do all we can to get people with substance use disorder the care they need.
Regina M. LaBelle, Takoma Park
The writer is director of the Addiction and Public Policy Initiative at the Georgetown University Law Center’s O’Neill Institute. | 2022-07-11T21:42:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Reduce the stigma to help people with substance abuse disorder - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/11/reduce-stigma-help-people-with-substance-abuse-disorder/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/11/reduce-stigma-help-people-with-substance-abuse-disorder/ |
Novak Djokovic celebrates with the Wimbledon trophy during a welcoming ceremony in front of City Hall on Monday in Belgrade, Serbia. (Srdjan Stevanovic/Getty Images)
WIMBLEDON, England — After one golden Sunday at Wimbledon came one quirky Monday in tennis, with the forecast calling for one weird balance of the summer.
Novak Djokovic became that unprecedented player to win Wimbledon and then fall four slots in the rankings — from No. 3 to No. 7 in his case — because the ATP Tour did not award rankings points for this Wimbledon because of Wimbledon’s ban on Russian and Belarusian players, which Wimbledon enacted because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Then Djokovic looked ahead to late August and the U.S. Open and reckoned he probably won’t get to play even though he isn’t injured.
“Yeah, I mean, I’m not vaccinated and I’m not planning to get vaccinated so the only good news I can have is them removing the mandated green vaccine card or whatever you call it to enter United States, or exemption,” he said Sunday. “I don’t know. I don’t think exemption is realistically possible. If that is possibility, I don’t know what exemption would be about. I don’t know. I don’t have much answer there. I think it’s just whether or not they remove this in time for me to get to U.S.A.”
How irregular, all of it.
As of a proclamation from President Biden and the Centers for Disease Control last Oct. 25, six weeks after Djokovic finished second at the 2021 U.S. Open, the United States requires proof of vaccination for nonimmigrant, noncitizens to enter the country. Djokovic restated just before Wimbledon his decision to remain unvaccinated, even while he has not extended that decision into any crusade about other people. The U.S. Open, which celebrated Djokovic’s feat on Sunday in a series of tweets, will strive to avoid the confusion of the Australian Open of last January, when Djokovic entered that country thinking he could play, remained in quarantine and in court hearings for 11 days, then departed as deported.
He spent various moments at Wimbledon, including on Sunday, describing how that kerfuffle addled him through ensuing months, derailing temporarily his sense of self on the court. His coach, Goran Ivanisevic, the 2001 Wimbledon champion, said Sunday, “Was shock for me, and I was there. I was free. Imagine for him.”
From there, Ivanisevic said, the schedule went clouded with uncertainty enough that, in the case of the United States, the apparent certainty does help. “I mean, if you say three, four weeks before French Open, he was not allowed to play French Open [which ultimately changed], and you cannot make a schedule because one country changes the rules,” Ivanisevic said. “Now you can enter, now you cannot enter. We cannot make any schedule. We practice but we don’t know for what we are practicing. It was not easy. Now it’s better now. You know where you can go, where you cannot go. It’s more easier.”
In a normal year, 2019 and before, Djokovic would have landed in North America a few weeks from now, intending to start the hard-court binge in the U.S. Open run-up tournaments in Canada and in Cincinnati. He played Cincinnati every year from 2005-2019 except two, 2016 (the Rio de Janeiro Olympics) and 2017 (injury). He played Canada, which alternates between Toronto and Montreal, every year between 2007 and 2018 except 2017 (injury). He has played every U.S. Open except 2017 (injury) since debuting in 2005, with three titles and six other appearances in finals.
Now, just as the history of women’s tennis went misshapen in 1993 for an unforeseeable outside cause — a deranged fan of Steffi Graf stabbing the rival, Monica Seles, who had surpassed Graf to No. 1 — the history of men’s tennis may go twisted with a pandemic and with a vaccination decision by a man with a Monte Carlo restaurant full of wildly healthy food and a famous fanaticism about what he allows into his body. Rafael Nadal leads Djokovic, 22-21, in Grand Slam titles even as those numbers might stand transposed had the nine-time Australian Open champion Djokovic gotten to play the 2022 event, which Nadal won.
Now: “I am on vacation,” Djokovic said Sunday night. “Whether or not I’m playing any tournament soon, I’ll definitely be resting for the next couple weeks because it has been quite an exhausting and demanding period for me the last few months. A lot of tennis, which I was very happy about. I got what I wanted here. Then I’ll wait hopefully for some good news from U.S.A. because I would really love to go there. That would be probably the next big tournament, the next big swing, playing a tournament or two before U.S. Open, and U.S. Open. If that doesn’t happen, then I have to see what the schedule will look like.”
He does know he doesn’t figure to chase rankings points anywhere, largely because of his satisfaction with already having reached the record for weeks at No. 1, at 373 weeks to 310 for second-place Roger Federer.
And his coach: “Today my holiday started,” Ivanisevic said. “My vacation, deserve it. I go back home [Croatia]. It’s a nice summer. Beautiful. If he goes to States, it’s going to be beautiful. If he don’t go to States, what can we do? It’s [other] tournaments. We’ll see. A lot of crazy things happening in the world. It’s come every day something is changing, something new. We see what’s going to happen. Still we have, what, one and a half months. Anything [can] happen or not happen.”
He said, “There is one movie back home, is a ‘Long, Hot Summer.’ This is going to be for me a long, hot summer vacation. I going to have vacation from today. I don’t know till when. I don’t know. Maybe Biden will change his mind.”
All the while, Djokovic reached age 35 in May even if it’s an unusually robust 35, and if he can’t play the U.S. Open or the 2023 Australian Open because of vaccination status, he might not see another Grand Slam event until right around his 36th birthday, at the 2023 French Open.
The clock ticks, if maybe not as rapidly for him.
“I don’t feel I’m in rush really anywhere to end my career in a year time or two years time or whatever it is,” he said. “Just not thinking about it. I want to keep my body healthy ’cause that’s obviously necessary in order to keep going at this level. Of course, keep myself mentally sane and motivated to compete with the young guns.” | 2022-07-11T21:51:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | When will Novak Djokovic play in another Grand Slam? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/11/novak-djokovic-next-grand-slam/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/11/novak-djokovic-next-grand-slam/ |
Nasty weather blew a Navy jet off an aircraft carrier. How’s that possible?
A Super Hornet jet was swept from the deck of the USS Harry S. Truman into the Mediterranean Sea.
Capital weather gang editor
A U.S. Navy F/A Super Hornet breaks the sound barrier over the Ionian Sea. (Department of Defense)
Last Thursday, “heavy weather” swept a state-of-the-art fighter jet off the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman into the Mediterranean Sea, the Navy reported Sunday in a news release. No one was aboard the F/A-18 Super Hornet jet, which can fly faster than the speed of sound, or up to 1,190 mph.
But the incident raises questions about what kind of weather could have possibly dislodged a jet that weighs more than 32,000 pounds.
A sailor was also injured at the time “while conducting operations,” the Navy wrote. The turbulent weather occurred when the Truman was conducting a “replenishment-at-sea” or resupply mission, the Navy said, which “was safely terminated.”
A Navy spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions about the conditions that might have led to the fighter being swept overboard. But although the Navy described the heavy weather as “unexpected,” an analysis of available computer model forecasts from the middle of last week reveals that there were many signs of storminess ahead of the incident.
The Navy did not release the exact location of the incident, but two days before, the Department of Defense tweeted that a Super Hornet had broken the sound barrier over the Ionian Sea, which is adjacent to Italy’s southeast coast.
But Thursday marked the end of heat wave as a strong cold front swept across the country and the Ionian Sea from the north. Computer models simulated ocean waves building to 8 feet.
Microbursts infamously led to multiple aviation accidents in the 1980s and 1990s, but the development of early warning systems have all but halted such crashes since.
Defeating the downburst: 20 years since last U.S. commercial jet accident from wind shear
It’s possible that a microburst thrust the parked Super Hornet overboard.
The Navy wrote that the “details and cause of the incident are under investigation,” but that the aircraft carrier and its air wing “remain fully mission capable.”
The Aviationist, a military aviation website, called the incident “at least bizarre.”
“[W]hile aircraft can go overboard during routing flight operations at sea, they shouldn’t be blown off the deck by weather,” the site said. “In fact, when rough seas or heavy weather is anticipated, aircraft and anything else that could potentially move, like tractors, carts, etc., are chained down when they are not used, so that they don’t fall from the flight deck.”
Although a 32,000-pound aircraft might seem heavy, the aircraft’s wings make it easier for winds to loft it if it is unsecured or not secured properly. For smaller planes, winds as light as 60 mph or so can launch them into the air.
“Most small airplanes are ready to fly at about 50 to 60 knots, speeds well exceeded by many severe storms,” said an article at FlyingMag. “And since an airplane’s wings don’t know the difference between wind created by the force of its engine or the winds from a storm, it will literally take off unless it’s somehow secured.”
The Truman was stationed in the Mediterranean in December when Russian troops congregated near the Ukraine border. It has remained there since the Russian invasion. The Super Hornet aircraft are part of the Strike Fighter Squadron, which is “defending U.S., allied and partner interests” aboard the carrier, the Department of Defense tweeted.
Boeing calls the Super Hornet the “newest highly capable, affordable and available tactical aircraft in U.S. Navy inventory.” The Super Hornet is the primary fighter jet depicted in the box office blockbuster “Top Gun: Maverick.”
The U.S. Naval Institute reported that the Navy is still reviewing how to recover the overboard aircraft. Super Hornets cost about $50 million per aircraft to build. Boeing was awarded a $4 billion contract in 2019 to build 78 Super Hornets. | 2022-07-11T21:51:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How a Navy Super Hornet jet was blown off the USS Harry S Truman - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/07/11/super-hornet-aircraft-carrier-weather/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/07/11/super-hornet-aircraft-carrier-weather/ |
Attorney Ben Crump joins parents’ fight against Baltimore schools, city
BALTIMORE — Trial attorney Ben Crump, who has represented families in the Trayvon Martin, George Floyd and Flint, Mich., civil rights cases, is adding parents Jovani and Shawnda Patterson to his list of clients as he joins their fight against Baltimore City and its public school system.
The Pattersons sued in January, claiming both parties have defrauded taxpayers by failing to provide acceptable education to public school students. Scott Marder, another lawyer representing the Pattersons in the case, said this is a unique approach, noting that past school lawsuits have tried to argue over civil and constitutional rights.
“This lawsuit is about the system and its performance and how it continues to fail our children,” Crump said at a news conference Wednesday. “It goes to the crux of the matter that educational injustice leads ultimately to racial injustice because it puts our children, our Black and Brown children especially, on a fast track to the school-to-prison pipeline.”
The Pattersons, who have a child in the city school system, started off with representation from Marder, who is with the Baltimore-based Thomas & Libowitz law firm. Jovani Patterson has Republican Party ties and lost a bid for Baltimore City Council president in 2020. Shawnda Patterson used to be a city teacher.
The lawsuit alleges that the school system offers “no benefit” to city residents and that it “completely fails to perform its most important function.” The parents claim that the city school system has poor student performance, a “pattern” of enrollment and grading scandals, and prior instances of false entries in public records, racketeering, mail fraud, theft and embezzlement. The suit aims to have the court impose oversight on the school system.
Last month, Richard Henry, Maryland’s inspector general for education, reported that his office’s examination of grading policies revealed inconsistencies. Specifically, the report found more than 12,500 situations where high-schoolers’ grades were changed from failing to passing between 2016 and the end of the 2019-2020 school year. Though there are many reasons for grade changes, such as miscalculations or students completing missed assignments, investigators discovered that some school administrators told educators to pass all 58 percent and 59 percent grades, which are close to making the mark.
Following the report, the school system promised it will conduct an independent review of grading procedures.
Meanwhile, Mayor Brandon M. Scott (D) celebrated city schools CEO Sonja Santelises on July 5 to honor her for holding the position the longest since former CEO Alice Pinderhughes, the first woman to lead the system. At the event, Scott applauded Santelises for her work.
Crump said he was asked a year ago to join the case, and as he learned more, he decided he wanted to take part. Marder said it helps to have a nationally recognized lawyer such as Crump on the case because he is able to see the bigger picture of how this case will affect society at large. | 2022-07-11T21:51:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Attorney Ben Crump joins parents’ fight against Baltimore schools, city - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/attorney-ben-crump-joins-parents-fight-against-baltimore-schools-city/2022/07/11/fa394646-00cd-11ed-bdea-f300220ae4dc_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/attorney-ben-crump-joins-parents-fight-against-baltimore-schools-city/2022/07/11/fa394646-00cd-11ed-bdea-f300220ae4dc_story.html |
Lucy Naland/Washington Post illustration; Samantha Reinders for The Washington Post; Uber screenshots; iStock
The project is based on more than 124,000 emails, text messages, memos and other records that a former top lobbyist for Uber, Mark MacGann, provided to the Guardian. It shared the material with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which helped lead the project, and dozens of other news organizations, including The Washington Post. Journalists from 29 countries joined the effort to analyze the records over four months.
Today, reporter Doug MacMillan tells the behind-the-scenes story of the tactics Uber used as the company expanded rapidly, and the human cost for drivers. | 2022-07-11T21:56:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Uber Files - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/post-reports/the-uber-files/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/post-reports/the-uber-files/ |
Technicians lift the mirror of the James Webb Space Telescope at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in 2017. (Laura Betz/NASA/AP)
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has been peering deep into the universe, and the world gets to find out what it sees when the space agency unveils the first full-color image from the $10 billion telescope Monday afternoon at the White House.
If all goes as anticipated, the image will be a doozy: ancient light emitted by galaxies as they were forming billion of years ago in the infancy of the cosmos.
The image shows a cluster of galaxies, called SMACS 0723, that functions as a massive lens, magnifying the extremely faint and cosmically distant objects behind it.
The White House describes the image — to be released by President Biden at a 5:30 p.m. ceremony — as the “highest-resolution images of the infrared universe ever captured.” The Webb is designed to observe in the infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, gathering light at wavelengths inaccessible to the Hubble telescope.
The White House event is a preview of a more comprehensive reveal of new images in a news conference scheduled for Tuesday morning at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
The astronomical community is buzzing with excitement, awaiting what it believes will be revolutionary views of the universe across cosmic distances and with unrivaled resolution.
The telescope — conceived as the successor to the still-operational Hubble — “has capabilities that far surpass my most optimistic dreams,” Garth Illingworth, an astronomer at the University of California at Santa Cruz who in the late 1980s was instrumental in developing plans for an infrared space telescope, wrote in an email to fellow astronomers Monday morning. “The capabilities of Webb are truly out of this world.”
The initial deep look into the universe by the Webb is just a taste of what is to come, said planetary astronomer Heidi Hammel, who is among the scientists scheduled to use the Webb in coming months. The Webb can obtain an “ultra deep field” image by focusing on one dark patch of space for a protracted period and gathering the faint light that hits the mirrors.
Hammel described the initial deep look being unveiled Monday as “proof of concept....whetting our appetite for the record-breaking results we now know will come from this exceptional facility.”
The ambitious scientific goals set out by NASA and its partners required a revolutionary design. The scientists who in the 1980s began advocating for what was originally called the Next Generation Space Telescope argued that an infrared space observatory would be able to peer deeper into the universe — and further back in time — to an era roughly a few hundred million years after the big bang. That’s when the first stars ignited and starlight flooded the young universe.
Seeing the universe
through a broader spectrum
Peering into space with just our eyes shows us the optical portion of the electromagnetic spectrum – a fraction of the energy in the universe, often obscured by interstellar dust and gases. The James Webb telescope’s ability to see far into the infrared spectrum will afford scientists a clearer view into the deep cosmos than has been possible before.
(retired)
Spitzer Space
Seeing the universe through a broader spectrum
Spitzer Space Telescope (retired)
NASA on Friday identified the five “targets” of the Webb:
Wasp-96 b: This is a giant planet, maybe half the size of Jupiter, that circles a star 1,150 light-years from Earth. The planet is too close to the brilliant star to be resolved as an individual object, but an instrument on the telescope has obtained the spectra of the planet, a scientifically important feat because it can reveal the composition of the planet’s atmosphere.
Southern Ring Nebula: Located about 2,000 light-years away, the nebula is a gas cloud surrounding a dying star.
Carina Nebula: The nebula is packed with stars, including the ultraluminous star system Eta Carinae. Situated roughly 7,500 light-years from Earth, within our own Milky Way galaxy, the nebula is visible from the Southern Hemisphere.
Stephan’s Quintet: Five beguiling galaxies, four of them in a cluster about 290 million light-years away, in the constellation Pegasus. The quintet has been previously observed by the Hubble, and the new image will allow a side-by-side comparison of what the two space telescopes see as they gather light in different wavelengths.
SMACS 0723: The deepest look. The galaxies in the cluster operate as a gravitational lens and, according to NASA, “magnify and distort the light of objects behind them, permitting a deep field view into both the extremely distant and intrinsically faint galaxy populations.” | 2022-07-11T21:57:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | First images from James Webb Space Telescope released by NASA - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/07/11/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-images/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/07/11/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-images/ |
WP Subscribe Exclusive: Lis Smith reflects on her career as a political strategist in new memoir
Veteran Democratic political strategist Lis Smith has worked with some of the biggest names from the statehouse to the White House. Smith talks with Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart on Wednesday, July 20 at 2:00 p.m. ET about her new memoir, “Any Given Tuesday: A Political Love Story,” and offers an insider’s guide to modern-day campaigning.
Democratic Political Strategist & Author, “Any Given Tuesday: A Political Love Story” | 2022-07-11T21:58:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | WP Subscribe Exclusive: Lis Smith reflects on her career as a political strategist in new memoir - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/subscriber/2022/07/20/wp-subscribe-exclusive-lis-smith-reflects-her-career-political-strategist-new-memoir/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/subscriber/2022/07/20/wp-subscribe-exclusive-lis-smith-reflects-her-career-political-strategist-new-memoir/ |
Former pro volleyball player Kim Glass, pictured at the Olympics in 2008, was the victim of an unprovoked attack in Los Angeles on Friday. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)
A former U.S. Olympic volleyball player was left injured after being attacked in downtown Los Angeles Friday, according to videos posted to her social media.
Displaying gruesome facial injuries, Kim Glass recounted the details of the sudden assault in an Instagram story on Saturday. She said she was leaving lunch with a friend when a man ran toward her with something in his hand and then threw it at her.
“Before I knew it, a big metal bolt pipe hit me in my face,” Glass said. “It happened so fast. He literally flung it from the street.”
The 37-year-old former athlete and model won a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics as part of the U.S. indoor volleyball team. Glass suffered multiple facial fractures and a severe black eye. She said that her vision is likely to make a full recovery.
After describing her experience, Glass cautioned that other pedestrians should “keep their head on a swivel.”
“You shouldn’t have to be fearful when you walk,” she said. “So you guys just be safe.”
Los Angeles police said they arrested a suspect, who had been restrained by bystanders until officers arrived. According to the Associated Press, the LAPD booked 51-year-old Semeon Tesfamariam on suspicion of felony assault with a deadly weapon. He is currently being held without bail.
“I just wanted to let you guys know what happened because I knew it was going to get out and I’m getting a lot of messages,” Glass said toward the end of the two-minute video. “I love you guys so much. And just know that I’m okay.” | 2022-07-11T22:09:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Former volleyball Olympian Kim Glass injured in Los Angeles street attack - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/11/kim-glass-volleyball-olympian-los-angeles-attack/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/11/kim-glass-volleyball-olympian-los-angeles-attack/ |
Judge lets grand jury keep investigating sexual assaults in Loudoun schools
A Loudoun County judge ruled Monday that a grand jury investigation of the Loudoun County Public Schools’ handling of two sexual assaults can move forward, despite a legal challenge from the county school board.
“We cannot know where this will lead,” Judge Jim Plowman said in Loudoun County Circuit Court, explaining his ruling. He concluded that while the grand jury’s work is ongoing, it would be “premature” to say the school system has been damaged: “I do not believe that there is a cognizable, irreparable harm here.”
The special grand jury was convened as part of an investigation by Virginia Attorney General Jason S. Miyares into the handling of two sexual assaults committed last year by the same Loudoun student. The school system has come under intense criticism for transferring the student after his first sexual assault to a different campus, where he committed a second.
The teen, who was 14 when he committed the first assault, was found guilty in both cases and sentenced to live in a residential treatment facility until he is 18. Loudoun school officials apologized for the handling of the incidents and promised major changes to disciplinary procedures.
Loudoun schools chief apologizes for district’s handling of alleged assaults, promises changes to disciplinary procedures
The ruling can be appealed to a higher court. Attorneys for the school board declined to comment; Deputy Attorney General Steven Popps said his office is “very pleased with the result.” In a statement, a spokesman said the school system does not agree with all of Plowman’s rulings Monday, but “appreciates the Court’s thoughtfulness” in addressing the issues. The system is considering all available legal options, but has not made any final decisions.
While campaigning last year, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin “made the incidents part of his criticism of school policies. On his first day in office in January, he issued an executive order authorizing Miyares “to conduct a full investigation into Loudoun County Public Schools.” A special grand jury has since subpoenaed the superintendent and individual members of the school board, according to court records. Youngkin tried unsuccessfully this spring to force all nine members of the school board to face elections this year.
The school board sued in May to stop the work of the grand jury, saying both Youngkin and Miyares overstepped their authority and are engaged in a “fishing expedition” rather than a legitimate criminal probe.
The attorney general’s office is “investigating non-criminal activities, which they are clearly not allowed to do,” attorney Steven Webster, representing the school board, said in court.
Grand jury investigations are generally conducted in secret. But Webster said in court that the issued subpoenas include requests for “every Facebook post” made by some school employees about the “Title IX policy,” which prohibits sex discrimination, and “the policy on transgender students.” He said the grand jury is also pursuing information from closed school board sessions. “It’s going to chill board members from doing things and saying things,” he said.
The parents of the first victim said the charged youth was “gender fluid,” prompting renewed attacks on a policy in Loudoun County schools that allows transgender students to use bathrooms that match their gender identity. That policy was adopted after the May assault; the perpetrator was described in criminal court as male.
Webster said that because the full school board itself has not been subpoenaed, a civil suit was the only way to challenge the scope of the investigation.
Webster also accused the attorney general’s office of interfering in the attorney-client relationship, including by reaching out to witnesses to access privileged material. Webster alleged that special counsel Theo Stamos told two school board members to “get your own lawyers” because “the school board is not looking out for their best interests.”
Popps called those allegations “absolutely incorrect” and “untrue.” More broadly, he said “the school board does not know what the special grand jury is doing; very few people know.” It’s “entirely inappropriate” for the school board to argue “that they can somehow divine the intent” of the probe from some subpoenas and witness interviews.
Plowman agreed, saying “it’s impossible to say whether an investigation is being made that involves solely civil or policy matters” as opposed to criminal wrongdoing. If there are criminal charges, he said, they can be fought through that process. And if the grand jury instead makes a report that includes policy recommendations, he said, it wouldn’t be “binding” on Loudoun. “That has no impact on the school,” he said. “They can thumb their nose at it.”
In a court filing last week, Assistant Attorney General Thomas J. Sanford asked that Monday’s hearing be closed because “public access … would play a negative role.” Privacy, he wrote, would “protect the proper functioning and secrecy of the Special Grand Jury.” The school board opposed that request, calling it “violative of the constitutional rights of the press and public.”
Plowman kept the hearing open, saying, “It’s not a grand jury proceeding.”
The mother of the first victim said after the court hearing that she was glad to see the investigation move forward. The Washington Post does not generally identify victims of sexual assault and is not naming the parents to avoid indirectly identifying their daughter.
“We are healing through this,” she said. “I want everybody, every person that did not protect the victim to be held responsible.”
The courthouse was ringed with signs posted by Kate Smith, a retired architect, describing Loudoun as a diverse and welcoming community, as she has at previous hearings.
“We’ve got a lot of people shouting a lot of negative messages,” said Smith, 65. “I hope the system will protect everyone that’s involved, and not make a stump presentation out of it. We’ve seen enough of that.” | 2022-07-11T22:43:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Judge lets grand jury keep investigating sexual assaults in Loudoun schools - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/07/11/loudoun-county-schools-sexual-assaults/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/07/11/loudoun-county-schools-sexual-assaults/ |
Gun violence has nearly doubled in Montgomery County, police chief says
Chief Marcus Jones made remarks -- citing year-to-date jump -- as county leaders introduced gun-control measure
Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones speaks at a de-escalation seminar in 2020. (Robb Hill for The Washington Post)
Gun violence has nearly doubled in Montgomery County this year compared with the same period 12 months ago, the jurisdiction’s top cop said Monday.
Police Chief Marcus Jones made the remarks to reporters as county leaders discussed a proposed legislative action that would scale back the places someone could carry a handgun. He also spoke the day after 60 gunshots were fired in a shopping center parking lot in Montgomery’s Briggs Chaney area, sending a victim to the hospital with serious injuries and driving bullets into several businesses.
“We’re at a different place,” Jones said, referring to incidents where someone fired 30 rounds or more over the past year.
Leaders in Montgomery County following the rise in violence this year have cited several explanations.
One is the availability of firearms — in particular guns that can be assembled at home from parts ordered online. Residents build “ghost guns” — so named because they have no serial numbers — or buy them on the streets already assembled, police say.
Another big factor behind the violence, leaders say, is the disruption of so many young lives because of covid-19. Teenagers didn’t have the structure of in-person classes or after-school programs.
“Kids on the cusp of being at risk fell toward criminality,” Jessica Zarrella, a Montgomery County defense attorney and former prosecutor, said in an interview earlier this year.
Gabe Albornoz, president of the Montgomery County Council, added that the police department is stretched thin because officers are retiring at a higher rate than new police academy prospects are coming in — a trend Albornoz noted is taking place nationwide.
“It’s a perfect negative storm,” he said.
Under legislative action to be introduced Tuesday, Albornoz said, the county would make a “zone text amendment” to forbid a person — even if they have a “wear-and-carry permit” from the state — from taking a gun into a “place of public assembly.”
The council president said such locations “are purposely wide-ranging,” and could include places of worship, shopping centers and businesses.
“Montgomery County is absolutely seeing a rise in gun violence,” said Lee Holland, president of Montgomery’s police union. “It’s alarming the number of shootings our members are responding to on a weekly and in some cases daily basis.”
As of the end of June, homicides involving guns, victims and suspects under the age of 21 have more than doubled from 2021 to 2022, according to data from the Montgomery County Police Department.
“There are several contributors to the community violence, including drug robberies and interpersonal disputes or beefs, many of which begin or escalate on social media,” according to a recent report to the County Council on youth safety.
Between June 2021 and June 2022, according to the report, “there have been 20 firearm homicide victims in the County, of which eight were 21 and younger.”
The report also said county police have recovered more than 730 guns. About 110 of those were ghost guns. “These numbers are on track to overtake last year’s total of 1,192 recovered firearms,” the report said.
Tom Didone, who retired as a Montgomery assistant chief a year ago, agreed that the availability of firearms — ghost guns in particular — and the destabilizing effect of covid-19 have contributed to increased shooting violence.
“I think it’s all related,” he said.
Didone remains active on traffic safety matters with the International Association of Chiefs of Police. The No. 1 concern he hears from chiefs around the country is how do they get their officers to reengage in traffic stops.
“We’re still getting guns off the streets. It’s just not the same percentage,” he said.
Such stops have received scrutiny over the years because they can escalate into a fatal shooting by police and there have been concerns nationwide about disparities in such stops.
Didone acknowledged that, around the country, too many officers took the practice too far — coming up with any excuse to pull over a car, for example. But he said that as long as officers are making true traffic stops — running a red light, talking on a cellphone — he would welcome a return to officers more often using that as a chance to try to find guns.
“Officers have to get back to doing our job. Montgomery is moving back in this direction faster than a lot of places,” Didone said. | 2022-07-11T23:22:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Montgomery County gun violence as nearly doubled since last year, chief says - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/11/montgomery-county-gun-violence-double/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/11/montgomery-county-gun-violence-double/ |
At the same time, foreign governments are no longer clamoring to have an iPhone factory in their backyard. There’s nary a politician who wouldn’t love to churn out the iconic gadget, and provide the thousands of employment opportunities that come with it. But EVs and chips have the potential to bring far more than simple factory jobs. Terms like “ecosystem” and “R&D” are more than buzzwords. By focusing on both manufacturing and development, these economies can hope to create both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. | 2022-07-11T23:27:19Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why the iPhone Is Missing From Foxconn’s Asia Tour - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/why-the-iphone-is-missing-from-foxconns-asia-tour/2022/07/11/4e4a5226-016d-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/why-the-iphone-is-missing-from-foxconns-asia-tour/2022/07/11/4e4a5226-016d-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html |
Firefighters are racing to protect more than 500 giant sequoias in Yosemite National Park’s Mariposa Grove
Over 500 sequoias are at risk of burning as the Washburn fire doubled in size over the weekend in California's Yosemite National Park. (Video: Hope Davison/The Washington Post)
A raging wildfire in Yosemite National Park is burning in an iconic grove that contains some of the biggest and oldest trees on Earth. It’s the latest bout of extreme summer weather exacerbated by climate change.
The blaze in the Mariposa Grove threatens to torch more than 500 mature giant sequoias — the largest species of tree in the world — as the fire continues to creep north. The Washburn Fire at the southern edge of the park in California has ballooned to 2,340 acres late Monday after doubling in size over the weekend.
“There’s been a lot of activity and a lot of work by firefighters to protect the trees,” said Nancy Phillipe, a Yosemite park ranger and fire information officer.
Firefighters working both from aircraft and on the ground in tough terrain are racing to hem in the fire before it destroys the gigantic trees that have inspired generations of trekkers and have attracted tourists from around the world.
Workers have even gone as far as to place orange sprinklers around the base of the Grizzly Giant, one of the Mariposa Grove’s most iconic sequoias. The humidity from the mist provides a measure of “preventive first aid” if the fire gets too close, according to ecologist Garrett Dickman.
“We really don’t want to leave this one to chance,” Dickman said while standing at the foot of the tree in a recent video on Facebook.
So far, none of the grove’s named trees — including the 209-foot Grizzly Giant as well as the Bachelor and Three Graces — are damaged, according to Phillipe.
The fire is 25 percent contained as of Monday evening. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, Phillipe said.
Normally, the giant sequoia not only can thrive amid low- to medium-intensity forest fires — it needs them to survive. Its fibrous, bronze-colored bark resists burns and insulates the interior against the heat of periodic fires. Its tiny, oatmeal-sized seeds can only successfully take root in soil left bare by a blaze.
But recent fires, fueled with vegetation killed by blistering drought and built up over years of fire suppression, are testing the mettle of nature’s most massive trees.
A wildfire sparked by lightning came dangerously close last year to General Sherman — a tree that is the world’s largest by volume and older than the Colosseum in Rome — before firefighters wrapped fireproof blankets around it and other giants in California’s Sequoia National Park, to the southeast of Yosemite.
Other giant sequoias have not been as fortunate. In total, three fires over the past three years have killed up to 19 percent of the entire population. An early melting of the Sierra Nevada’s snowpack in May is only turbocharging dry conditions this year. | 2022-07-11T23:27:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | In Yosemite wildfire, Mariposa Grove’s giant sequoias are at risk - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/07/11/yosemite-wildfire-sequoias-maripolsa-grove/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/07/11/yosemite-wildfire-sequoias-maripolsa-grove/ |
2 dead and 3 wounded in shootings at California 7-Eleven stores
2 dead and 3 wounded at 7-Eleven stores
The shootings appear to have happened after robberies or attempted robberies at the four convenience stores on July 11, or 7/11 — a day when the national 7-Eleven brand was celebrating its 95th birthday by giving out free Slurpee drinks.
“Our hearts are with the victims and their loved ones,”
7-Eleven, Inc. said in a statement. “We are gathering information on this terrible tragedy and working with local law enforcement.”
It wasn’t immediately clear to investigators what prompted the shootings in the cities of Riverside, Santa Ana, Brea and La Habra, or why the violence happened on July 11.
The second shooting happened around 3:20 a.m., about 24 miles away, in Santa Ana, authorities said.
Less than an hour later, officers in neighboring La Habra were sent to a reported robbery at a
7-Eleven. They discovered two gunshot victims around 4:55 a.m., according to Sgt. Sumner Bohee.
Appeals court upholds right to record police
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit ruled Monday in the case of a YouTube journalist and blogger who claimed that a suburban Denver officer blocked him from recording a 2019 traffic stop. Citing decisions from the other courts, the 10th Circuit said the right to record police was clearly established at the time and reinstated the lawsuit of the blogger, Abade Irizarry.
A lower court had said the right wasn’t clearly established at the time, preventing the officer from being sued. U.S. government lawyers intervened in the appeal to support the public’s right to record police.
The court oversees four western and two midwestern states — Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Utah — as well as parts of Yellowstone National Park in Idaho and Montana.
The ruling comes after Arizona’s Republican governor last week signed a law that went the opposite direction, making it illegal in Arizona to knowingly video police officers eight feet or closer without an officer’s permission. | 2022-07-11T23:27:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 2 dead and 3 wounded in shootings at California 7-Eleven stores - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/2-dead-and-3-wounded-in-shootings-at-california-7-eleven-stores/2022/07/11/ef56a3fe-ff33-11ec-87e4-55be07124164_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/2-dead-and-3-wounded-in-shootings-at-california-7-eleven-stores/2022/07/11/ef56a3fe-ff33-11ec-87e4-55be07124164_story.html |
SAN DIEGO — A TikTok video showing dozens of San Diego beachgoers running and jumping out of the way of two fast-moving sea lions has generated nearly 10 million views and sparked conversations about whether the mammals were going after people and reclaiming picturesque La Jolla Cove’s narrow strip of sand. | 2022-07-11T23:28:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Expert: Sea lions in video sparring, not chasing beachgoers - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/expert-sea-lions-in-video-sparring-not-chasing-beachgoers/2022/07/11/49b02e1c-0167-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/expert-sea-lions-in-video-sparring-not-chasing-beachgoers/2022/07/11/49b02e1c-0167-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html |
Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., speaks during a discussion at the Satellite 2020 Conference in Washington, D.C., on March 9, 2020. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)
Elon Musk is not just your garden-variety weird billionaire; he extends a weapons-grade weirdness field around him that makes everything he touches turn weird, too. Case in point, the Twitter acquisition — which Musk announced this weekend he’s walking away from.
Musk’s main explanation is he believes there are too many bots using the service. As reasons go, this is kind of weird, because there’s not much evidence that Twitter is sufficiently bot-infested to materially complicate the deal. Musk is surely aware that there are plenty of real people on Twitter, since as Bloomberg’s Matt Levine pointed out, that’s where he met the mother of some of his children.
The sudden obsession with bots strikes most knowledgeable observers as an obviously pretextual excuse to cancel the merger, or at least to renegotiate its price now that the stock market has tanked. But this is really not that much less weird. Chancery judges are not very fond of BS excuses, nor of people who whimsically offer to buy a company, then try to get out of it with the legal equivalent of a text reading LOL JK hahahahah. They can, and probably will, at least make him pay the deal’s $1 billion breakup fee. They might force him to pony up $44 billion to buy the company as promised.
But then we get to the truly weird thing: If Musk can get out of this for $1 billion (plus hefty lawyer’s fees), he’ll probably end up making money on the debacle.
Musk may be the richest guy in the world, but most of his net worth consists of Tesla stock and stock options. If you’re a Tesla shareholder, that’s exactly how you want it, because your interests and his are tightly aligned. But if you’re Musk’s financial adviser — or, you know, Musk himself — you would probably like a little insurance, in the form of other investments, in case this whole electric car thing doesn’t work out.
Unfortunately, it’s somewhat difficult for a CEO in that situation to do the obvious thing: selling some of his company’s stock to buy other stocks. When you’re the richest guy in the world, you need to sell quite a lot of stock just to diversify a fraction of your net worth. Selling that big a chunk of one stock will saturate the market and make the price fall, so all your other shares will be worth less — particularly after people start asking themselves why Tesla’s CEO doesn’t want his shares.
It has recently become urgent that Musk solve this problem, because in 2012, he was awarded nearly 23 million Tesla stock options that will expire this August. He has presumably been sitting on them to put off paying taxes on them, but he has reached the “use it or lose it” point. Might that explain why Musk has started manufacturing what seem like excuses to sell stock?
In November, Musk offered his followers a Twitter poll. “Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance,” read the question, “so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock. Do you support this?” The ayes had it, 58 to 42 percent, and Musk sold $5 billion worth of shares a few days later.
On the one hand this was a very Muskian troll of Democratic legislators who have lately taken to proposing impractical and destructive plans to tax unrealized capital gains. On the other, it was a great excuse to sell shares. Now when people asked why Musk was divesting, instead of saying “because I want to have something to fall back on if Tesla underperforms,” he could say “because I am a wild and crazy guy who likes to troll libs on Twitter.”
Now, in a rational world, “I love trolling more than my company” should probably make you less bullish on the future of Tesla, but here on Earth Prime, the lib-trolling is one reason his most avid fans love him, and the company he runs. This barely caused a hiccup in the stock.
In April, Musk sold another $8.4 billion as he raised funds for the Ultimate Troll: buying Twitter itself. Between then and now, the stock market has swooned, and the value of Tesla has declined by more than a quarter. In other words, if Musk had held onto those shares, he’d have about $6 billion worth of stock. Instead, he got $8.4 billion worth of cash. Even if he gives $1 billion of that to Twitter, he’s still more than a billion dollars to the good.
Musk couldn’t have known he was selling close to the peak, of course; the timing was fortuitous. But it’s nonetheless excellent reason for a judge to force Musk to go through with it. Otherwise, his good fortune will become legend and encourage more frivolous deals.
Things are weird enough already in the market. We don’t need to give anyone encouragement to make them worse. | 2022-07-11T23:28:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Is there a method behind Musk’s Twitter-deal weirdness? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/11/elon-musk-twitter-deal-falls-through/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/11/elon-musk-twitter-deal-falls-through/ |
Facebook tells managers low performers don’t belong in leaked memo
The message comes as the company seeks to rein in costs amid an economic downturn in the long-booming tech industry
Facebook head of engineering Maher Saba sent a memo on Friday to managers urging them to identify anyone on their team who “needs support” and report them in an internal human resources system by 5 p.m. Pacific time on Monday.
“If a direct report is coasting or is a low performer, they are not who we need; they are failing this company,” Saba wrote. “As a manager, you cannot allow someone to be net neutral or negative for Meta.”
“The reaction from folks that have seen this is that this will be used to create a bunch [of] ‘performance improvement plans’ that will result in mass layoffs,” said a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive conversations.
Amid global chaos, the tech industry takes a rare tumble
Facebook, which last year renamed itself Meta, spent years raking in digital advertising dollars as it became the go-to platform for businesses of all sizes to tailor their marketing campaigns to niche audiences. Early on, Facebook and other social media companies benefited from pandemic as more advertisers shifted their marketing dollars online to reach customers spending more time at home.
The company’s stock price has fallen nearly 52 percent since the beginning of the year as it faces a series of threats to its social media business. Apple imposed new privacy rules on app makers on its iPhone devices, which aimed to reduce data collection on its users. Apps such as Facebook were forced to ask users if they wanted their activity tracked across the internet for the purposes of targeted advertising — a request many users rebuffed.
During the final three months of last year, Facebook reported that it lost daily users for the first time in its 18-year history, sending its stock price plummeting. While the social media outlet’s user growth numbers held stable in early 2022, company executives have warned that it is facing intense competition for users’ attention from social upstarts such as TikTok.
To compete in the crowded market, Facebook is aggressively promoting its short-form video service known as Reels. Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has argued that the company will be able to monetize the product in the same way it once did for its newsfeed. Facebook is also trying to stake its future on creating the so-called Metaverse — a term used to describe immersive virtual environments that are accessed by virtual and augmented reality.
Facebook loses users for the first time in its history
Earlier this month, Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg told staffers during a company wide call that not everyone was meeting the company’s standards and that some might want to leave voluntarily as the company faces an impending economic downturn, according to media reports. Zuckerberg told staffers they would reduce their plans to hire engineers by at least 30% this year, according to Reuters.
“If I had to bet, I’d say that this might be one of the worst downturns that we’ve seen in recent history,” Zuckerberg told workers. “Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn’t be here.”
Facebook’s belt tightening mirrors the cost cutting happening elsewhere in Silicon Valley. After a decade of exuberance, venture capitalists and established tech companies alike are cutting back on their investments and firing workers. More than 300 start ups have laid off more than 50,023 workers since the start of the year, according to Layoffs.fyi, which tracks cuts in the tech industry. | 2022-07-11T23:29:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Facebook tells managers to identify low performers in memo - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/07/11/facebook-tells-low-performers-to-go/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/07/11/facebook-tells-low-performers-to-go/ |
Transcript: American Hostage with Debra & Marc Tice, Parents of Austin Tice
MR. REZAIAN: Good afternoon. Welcome to Washington Post Live. My name is Jason Rezaian. I am a global opinions writer here at The Washington Post. My guests today are Debra and Marc Tice, the parents of freelance journalist Austin Tice. Austin was abducted in Syria, just south of Damascus. One month from now it will be 10 years since that happened.
I want to welcome them today, Debra and Marc. Thanks for being with us.
MS. DEBRA TICE: Thank you so much for having us.
MR. MARC TICE: Thank you, Jason.
MS. DEBRA TICE: We're really glad to be here.
MR. REZAIAN: I'm glad to have you. I want to start with a little bit about Austin. Debra, as his mom, could you tell us about him, what people should know about Austin and who he is?
MS. DEBRA TICE: Austin is a high achiever, an Eagle Scout, National Merit finalist. He is still a student at Georgetown Law. He has one more year to go. Captain in the Marine Corps, and a really loving big brother. He loves being the oldest of our seven children. He loved the babies a lot. When he was detained in Syria, he had one niece that he was so very proud of. She turned 3 right before he was detained, and she'll be 13 next month.
So he's someone that everyone wants to know. He fills the room with life, definitely, when he comes in. Great [unclear]. He's just a wonderful person to be around. Yeah.
MR. REZAIAN: You said that he was in the Marines. I know that he was an infantry officer who did tours of duty both in Afghanistan and Iraq. Marc, can you talk about how his military experience shaped his world view?
MR. MARC TICE: Well, I think it's a little bit the opposite. His world view, I think, shaped his military experience. He was very determined to ensure that there was no question about his willingness to serve his country. This came after he witnessed 9/11 in Washington, D.C., on the streets there when that happened. And, you know, what I think he took into Syria with him, from his military experience, was an appreciation for the culture there and for the people there, very much like the people or civilians he encountered in Iraq and Afghanistan. And he was very intent on highlighting and showing the impact of the conflict on those ordinary people, people like he'd gotten to know and be friends with.
MS. DEBRA TICE: He was really hoping that his reporting from Syria could raise enough awareness to say "Not another war. Please, not another war."
MR. REZAIAN: Was there a moment, because at the time he was doing his law studies at Georgetown, that really crystallized that for him, that spurred his decision to go to Syria?
MS. DEBRA TICE: The thing that spurred him to go was a frustration and hearing the lack of reporting in Syria, because you would hear over and over again, "We can't verify," "There's no one reporting there." And he felt like it was so important to get that reporting out and to help people realize what was actually happening in that area. Yeah.
MR. REZAIAN: And I want to take you to a difficult moment, that terrible day that you learned that Austin had been abducted. We're coming up on 10 years in just a few weeks. What was your first indication of his being taken captive, and what were the initial responses and interactions you had with the U.S. government?
MR. MARC TICE: Well, it was a terrible week, really, because I had had a conversation, just an email exchange with Austin on August 13th, and we knew that he was going to be leaving Syria. He was planning on leaving the next day. And, you know, he had expressed that he might be out of contact for a little bit of time, depending on the situation of his travel. So after one day I became a little nervous. After two days I became very nervous. I contacted his editor, who had not heard from him, and immediately an all-out, all-hands-on-board search began among all the journalists and reporters and their fixers in the region, looking for him.
The first contact I had with the U.S. government--and during all of this I have to say Debra was away, out of communications, up in northern Minnesota, so I wasn't able to talk to her. But on the Friday of that week, I got a call from the State Department, and they informed me that they understood Austin was missing.
MS. DEBRA TICE: And then, you know, this is when the frustration begins, day one, because somebody came into the American Embassy, the Czech Embassy in Syria, and told Eva Filipi that Austin Tice had been arrested. And so Eva Filipi is the Czech ambassador who acts as the protecting power for Americans in Syria, and so she told the State Department, and the State Department started sending diplomatic notes. And the ambassador was very frustrated that there wasn't more of a response to the fact that Austin had been arrested.
And she went to Prague. She was on the news, and she had the newscaster ask her, "Tell us what's happened with Austin Tice." And so she was trying to raise more interest and more action for Austin in those most critical early days. She was on the news August 27th, so just 13 days after he was detained.
MR. REZAIAN: And then several weeks later a video appeared showing Austin being taken captive by unidentified armed men. What did you learn from that video, and what were you able to piece together in the weeks and months that followed?
MR. MARC TICE: Well, the most important thing we learned from that video was actually the title of the video when he was posted to YouTube, which is "Austin Tice is Alive." And that was the message that was being sent. Unfortunately, you know, we didn't, out of ignorance, and no one in the position of power in our government responded to it as a proof-of-life video. So instead, what we learned from way too many hours of people investigating the video was a lot about the clothes they were wearing and where they might be, none of which was really relevant to Austin. What was relevant to him was that he was alive and we needed to literally settle down and get to the business of finding him and getting him back home.
MS. DEBRA TICE: Yes. Nine years, almost 10 years later, we realize there was only one appropriate response--thank you for letting us know he's alive. What do we need to do to get him out? And that question, as far as I know, has yet not been asked.
MR. REZAIAN: And I want to make it very clear that there is every indication that Austin is still alive. I work on press freedom cases all the time, and everybody within this community is crystal clear on the fact that we are working to bring Austin home as safely and quickly as possible. You know, it's deeply unfortunate that we haven't succeeded yet, but we are working on it.
It's been nearly 10 years since Austin was taken. As a family, you guys have been through so many twists and turns that are unfathomable to most Americans. When Austin was first abducted, I had been working for The Post for a couple of months. I was in Tehran as a correspondent. I did that job for two years before I myself was taken hostage and held for nearly a year and a half. I was released. I had two years of a leave from work. I returned to work. I wrote a book. I had a child.
Can you talk about the many milestones Austin's missed and how you think he would have used this last decade of his life in freedom?
MS. DEBRA TICE: You know, he had great plans for himself. I mean, that was part of why he was in law school. You know, sometimes it's hard to remember that Austin was 31 three days before he was detained. So all of the things that he had accomplished, he had accomplished in his 20s. So when you think about usually the 20s are sort of going to school, getting started, partying a lot, that wasn't Austin. He served in the Marines. He went to school. He worked for a major law firm. He went to law school. You know, just a whole different trajectory for him.
So when I think about the plans he had and the dreams he had for himself that would have been solidified in his 30s, you know, to miss that transition from youth to middle age, just to miss it, you know, what is that going to mean for him?
MR. MARC TICE: Yeah, and for us, every day is a milestone really, but there are so many, so many, many things, so many family events. You know, at the beginning we were confident that Austin would be coming back in a matter of days or weeks, and we thought, okay, when he gets back, we can catch him up with the things he's missed. Ten years is an entirely different animal. That's a struggle for me, certainly, to comprehend, and I think for all of us.
MS. DEBRA TICE: Yeah. All of his siblings have come through their 20s, and, you know, the youngest one is going to be 29 next month. They've graduated from college. They've gone and gotten advanced degrees. They've gotten married. They've had families. And, you know, Austin loved--loved--to be a big brother of this family, and he would have been all up in all of that, celebrating every moment, carrying those babies around, carrying those babies around, carrying those babies around. He's just very much of a guy who anchors in his family.
MR. MARC TICE: Yeah, and, you know, we believe it's not just our loss but, you know, who's to say what kind of amazing contributions he would have made during his 30s, and he will make once he gets home. But, you know, it's a huge hole in his life and our family life and for all of us.
MS. DEBRA TICE: Yeah.
MR. REZAIAN: I want to bring it back to right now and ongoing efforts. Just over two months ago you had the opportunity to meet with President Biden at the White House. You walked away from that meeting with a great sense of hope. What can you share with us about that meeting and what the president said to you that inspired hope and what you expected to happen next?
MS. DEBRA TICE: Well, I think the most important thing that happened in that meeting is that the president tasked the national security advisor and the National Security Council to meet with the Syrian government, to listen, and to work with them to figure out what they want and to work with them. And you're right, we left that meeting filled with hope because that was such a straight directive. And, you know, because I am a very forward-speaking person I made it clear to the president that placating us and giving us hope was not the most important thing to Austin. The most important thing for Austin is to take action on the president's directive. That was May 2nd. So we are now two and a half months from that meeting and I do not believe--we have not been briefed on any meeting occurring with the Syrian government.
MR. REZAIAN: Do you have a sense of if anything has happened within the U.S. government or outreach around freeing Austin?
MS. DEBRA TICE: Nothing is going to matter besides meeting with the Syrian government. Every other effort is an effort that is supportive of that. But, you know, you can keep building the boat but eventually you have to put it in the water. And so the most important thing, and it's the thing that the Syrians told me they had to have, when I was living in Damascus in 2014, they wanted to meet with the United States government. We had a meeting in September of 2020, one meeting. No follow-up. There needs to be follow-up on that meeting from September of 2020.
MR. MARC TICE: Yeah. It's crazy to think that you can sit in a meeting and then expect to have all your issues and problems resolved, and when that doesn't happen, you leave and you don't go back. I mean, that's not diplomacy. That's not negotiating. You know, it's absurd. And yes, there have been lots of meetings internally. We've been in meetings since May 2nd. There have been meetings with other countries, that we are aware of, but not the meetings, not the discussions, not the sitting down with that is necessary.
MR. REZAIAN: And just to be clear, diplomatic relations between the United States and Syria were suspended in 2012, at the outset of the war there, but that doesn't mean that conversations and interactions are not taking place, clandestinely and through other intermediaries.
Austin was abducted during President Obama's administration and has continued to be imprisoned during the Trump administration and so far during President Biden's. Marc, have you seen any change in how the U.S. has approached your son's freedom during these different administrations?
MR. MARC TICE: You know, below the level of the president we have not really seen a lot of change. There's been change in the organization. There's been change that President Obama put in place with creating some entities to work on these hostage issues. But in terms of Austin's situation, Austin's case specifically, no. The government is still playing with the same playbook they were playing with in 2012, and as you and everyone watching in the region knows, the situation has changed dramatically since then. The old playbook isn't the playbook that's going to get things done.
So, you know, the one thing I appreciate in the video that was played just before we started talking was the video of President Trump, the only president to date, so far, to have publicly mentioned Austin and publicly stated that he wanted to work with the Syrian government to bring Austin home. We are hoping that something like that can come from the current administration, but, you know, as far as the nuts and bolts and the machine beneath the White House, everything seems to be pretty much the same approach.
MR. REZAIAN: And look, I want to take it back to the Trump presidency just for a moment. You were understandably very disappointed when you read, in former national security advisor John Bolton's book that he advised President Trump against direct dialogue with the Syrians over Austin's freedom and over other humanitarian issues. Can Austin's release be one without direct negotiations with the Syrian government?
MS. DEBRA TICE: As far as we know, no, that can't happen, and it's disgusting to think that that was a bragging point in John Bolton's book. That's just gut-wrenching.
MR. MARC TICE: Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, Jason, we just have to look at what has been accomplished so far in the absence of sustained, continued, direct discussions with the Syrians, not counting the one-off discussion that was held. Nothing has happened. Austin is still held where he's held. He is--I hate to say this--he is counting the days like we're counting the days, and we don't want to think about him counting 10 years' worth of days. That's overwhelming. But clearly not engaging has not produced the results that we're looking for.
MR. REZAIAN: We have a question from a viewer that I want to pose to you both. I've spoken with you both in the past about this world of press freedom and issues facing journalists. This issue comes from Peta Colebatch from Australia, who asks, "What recommendations do you have for other journalists in dangerous places?"
MS. DEBRA TICE: Well, I think there is a lot of advice now available to journalists that are going to dangerous places. There's a lot more protections for freelancers. There's a lot of information out there about how to keep yourself. I think one of the things that Austin could have done differently, I think he stayed in Syria too long. I think he should have left earlier.
But there are organizations now that will train freelancers to go into dangerous places, and if you're going to be a freelancer in a dangerous place you get that training.
MR. MARC TICE: Yeah. Austin prepared himself as best he could with the resources that were available to him them. Now the resource base has greatly expanded. Groups like Reporters Without Borders provide not only training but also protective equipment. So yeah, any journalist going to a dangerous place, and lord knows there's too many of them right now, should take advantage of those resources and make sure that they've done everything they can to stay safe before they start their journey.
MR. REZAIAN: Thank you for that. Look, those of us in the press freedom community have been following developments in Austin's captivity and looking for breakthroughs for years. I want to know why this is so critical right now and what you would like people who are watching today to do to support the ongoing efforts to raise awareness, keep Austin's name in the news, but also get the government to act.
MS. DEBRA TICE: Well, right now for people that are interested in Middle East news and Middle East politics and especially things that are happening on the ground in Syria, the Middle East is reforming itself and there needs to be a keen awareness of that. You know, Bashar al-Assad had a visit in the UAE. Things are changing in the Middle East. So for us to stick with a 2013 protocol is unwise. We need to be updated. We need to be in the present with what is really happening. So now things are happening. Now things are changing, and the United States needs to participate in that, with a forward-thinking protocol.
The other thing is, you know, my heart is breaking into tiny pieces. You know, it was broken and then pieces and pieces and pieces to think of Austin marking the day of 10 years of detention, you know, this person that is recognized for his leadership and his service. And sometimes people are more motivated by a deadline. Austin's birthday is August 11th. He should be blowing out the candles at home--at home--and, you know, look at that deadline and get him home.
MR. REZAIAN: I'd like to take this moment to mention that The Washington Post Press Freedom Partnership has just begun a campaign to raise more awareness of Austin's captivity, and hopefully that leads to his release. I want to share a quote from Washington Post CEO and publisher, Fred Ryan. "Multiple U.S. administrations have attempted to negotiate for Austin's return without success, a result that is totally unacceptable and has strengthened our resolve to keep his case top of mind until he is free."
Go ahead, Marc.
MR. MARC TICE: I'm sorry. We are incredibly grateful for the work of the Washington press and its partners, so that's a beautiful quote.
MS. DEBRA TICE: That's been a huge support. And we didn't answer your second question, what can people do. I think the most important thing that people can do--journalists can ask. Journalists can ask the president. Journalists can ask the State Department. Journalists can ask the national security advisor, what are you doing for Austin today? What did you do for Austin yesterday? What are you doing for Austin? And the thing that people who are not journalists can do is to contact their Senators, especially Senator Menendez, who is chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, contacting Secretary Blinken, contacting the president, and saying, "Are you serious about getting Austin Tice home? Don't tell me--show me."
MR. MARC TICE: Yeah. I happened to catch a radio clip of President Biden speaking to a group yesterday who was protesting another issue. But his words were that they needed to keep up the pressure because it makes a difference, that it really does move things in Washington. And so we would ask that of everyone that's listening to this and everyone that they know to do that, because it does make things move.
MR. REZAIAN: And along those lines I want to share that The Washington Post has started a multimedia #bringAustinhome that people can share across social media to keep the awareness up, to keep that pressure up.
Look, unfortunately we're out of time so we're going to have leave it there for today. But I want to thank you both, Marc and Debra, so much for joining us, for sharing with us, and for taking the time to talk to us about Austin and your efforts to bring him home.
MS. DEBRA TICE: Thank you so much, Jason, and thank you very much to The Washington Post and the Press Freedom Institute. We really appreciate all the support and the determination that we are going to get Austin home.
MR. MARC TICE: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Jason, so much.
MR. REZAIAN: It’s always a pleasure to talk to you guys. And I want to thank all of you who are watching today. To check out what interviews we have coming up please go to WashingtonPostLive.com and register for updates for more information about our upcoming programs.
Again, I'm Jason Rezaian. Thank you so much, and have a wonderful afternoon. | 2022-07-11T23:29:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Transcript: American Hostage with Debra & Marc Tice, Parents of Austin Tice - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/07/11/transcript-american-hostage-with-debra-marc-tice-parents-austin-tice/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/07/11/transcript-american-hostage-with-debra-marc-tice-parents-austin-tice/ |
The committee’s seventh public hearing is due to feature testimony from a former Oath Keeper and delve into origins of a Trump tweet.
Hannah Allam
A mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed and breached the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump has asked his supporters including members of the extremist male chauvinist group Proud Boys to protest the election results. (Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post)
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection plans to hold its seventh public hearing on Tuesday, with an expected focus on the ways in which former president Donald Trump and his allies summoned far-right militant groups to Washington as he grew increasingly desperate to hold on to power.
During a hearing late last month featuring Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, committee vice chairwoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) asked Hutchinson about her former boss’s communications with Stone and Flynn.
Tuesday’s hearing, led by Reps. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) and Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), will also address the conspiracy theories, like QAnon, that ultimately radicalized some of the Americans who stormed the Capitol. One of the live witnesses scheduled to appear on Tuesday is Jason Van Tatenhove, who served as national spokesman for the Oath Keepers and as a close aide to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes from around 2014 to 2018 — an era he said Rhodes considered “the golden years” for his group.
The hearing after Tuesday’s, which is expected to be led by Reps. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), had been tentatively planned for Thursday, but is now slated for next week in light of new evidence and testimony obtained by committee investigators.
A federal judge on Monday rejected Stephen K. Bannon’s bid to delay his trial next week after the Justice Department called his offer to testify before the committee a “last-ditch attempt to avoid accountability” on charges of criminal contempt of Congress. Bannon had for months resisted testifying before the committee, but reversed himself over the weekend. | 2022-07-11T23:53:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Jan. 6 hearing expected to focus on link between militants, White House - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/07/11/jan-6-hearing-expected-focus-link-between-militants-white-house/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/07/11/jan-6-hearing-expected-focus-link-between-militants-white-house/ |
The son of a Philadelphia street cleaner, he led the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees for three decades
Gerald W. McEntee greets attendees at an AFCSME convention in San Francisco in 2008. (Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP)
Gerald W. McEntee, the son of a Philadelphia street cleaner, became one of the most influential labor leaders in the United States as president for three decades of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, died July 10 at his home in Naples, Fla. He was 87.
Mr. McEntee led AFSCME, the largest union of state and local government employees in the United States, from his election in 1981 until he stepped down in 2012. Richard Hurd, a professor emeritus of labor relations at Cornell University, described Mr. McEntee in an interview as one of several union leaders who helped “modernize the labor movement and move into a new strategic approach to labor union growth and organizing.”
AFSCME — which represents sanitation workers, school bus drivers, correctional officers and civil engineers, among many other groups of public employees — saw its membership grow under Mr. McEntee to 1.4 million from 900,000, the New York Times reported shortly before he left office.
AFSCME achieved this growth in part, Hurd said, through a “savvy political strategy ” to change public-sector bargaining laws so that it was easier to recruit and maintain membership at the state and local level. That approach, he said, “allowed AFSCME to maintain stable membership at a time when private-sector unions were declining.”
“He supported me in ’92 when nobody thought I could win except my mother and [Jerry] McEntee,” Clinton said in a 1996 speech. “My own home was divided on whether we could win, but Gerry McEntee thought we could win.”
Julie Kosterlitz, a reporter for National Journal, wrote that Mr. McEntee “personally dogged Kirkland as the irascible potentate made a series of scheduled speeches around the country,” publicly debating him until “Kirkland canned his stump speech, gave a weary, Hamlet-like soliloquy, left without taking questions — and thus set the stage for his retirement within weeks.”
“He was the main mover and shaker in rebuilding labor’s political clout,” Steve Rosenthal, a former AFL-CIO. political director, told the Times of Mr. McEntee in 2011. “He’s a big personality and he rolls the dice in a very big way.”
“I saw people benefit,” he told National Journal of the organizing effort. “I saw them get dignity, better wages.” In the era of political cronyism, he added, “if a new governor got elected, he’d fire 50,000 people because they belonged to the wrong party. … We stopped all that.'”
“I’ve always believed that public workers deserve a voice,” he told \National Journal in 2011. “There’s a price to pay when you turn your back on the middle class: Working families will rise up and organize and make our voices heard.” | 2022-07-11T23:53:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Gerald McEntee, AFSCME labor union president, dies at 87 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/07/11/gerald-mcentee-afscme-president-dead/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/07/11/gerald-mcentee-afscme-president-dead/ |
Michigan activists push for ballot initiative to expand voting access
A voter casts a ballot at a polling location inside Pinery Park Lodge in Wyoming, Mich., on Nov. 3, 2020. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)
Voting rights proponents in Michigan submitted petitions Monday to guarantee at least nine days of early voting, expand the use of ballot drop boxes and ensure people who forget to bring their ID to the polls can vote.
The move comes four years after Michigan voters approved a measure by a 2-1 margin that allows people to register to vote anytime and makes no-excuse absentee voting available.
Backers of the plan turned in nearly 670,000 signatures Monday to the secretary of state’s office to get their proposal on the Nov. 8 ballot. If approved by voters, the measure will become part of the battleground state’s constitution. Efforts are underway in Arizona with a similar initiative.
They submitted their petitions the same day other groups turned in petitions meant to guarantee access to abortion.
Some of the provisions in Michigan’s election proposal are aimed at ensuring Republicans don’t enact voting restrictions. In recent years, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) has been able to block proposals from Republicans who control the legislature, but that could change if she loses her reelection bid this fall or if Republicans use a mechanism to thwart vetoes.
The measure would require every community in the state to have at least one ballot drop box. Those with larger populations would have to have one drop box for every 15,000 registered voters.
The provision on early voting would change how voting is conducted in Michigan. Now, voters can go to election clerks’ offices before Election Day to ask for and submit absentee ballots, but the times for voting vary by jurisdiction, and the ballots are not opened and fed into voting machines until Election Day. Under the proposal, all communities would offer nine days of early voting and voters would feed their ballots directly into voting machines.
In addition, the proposal would prevent laws or other policies that interfere with the right to vote, making it more difficult for lawmakers to put in place voting limits. Citizens could sue to block any laws or policies they viewed as hampering their ability to vote.
The initiative would also bar voter intimidation; allow voters to request absentee ballots to be sent to them for all future elections; allow voters to track their ballots electronically; require absentee ballots to include prepaid postage; and require the disclosure of donations used to help administer elections.
Under the proposal, only election officials could audit the vote. That would prevent election reviews like the one in Arizona, where dozens of workers for a company hired by Republicans examined ballots with microscope cameras.
The Michigan proposal would also require election officials to certify results based only on election returns. That provision is aimed at preventing election officials from refusing to confirm results, as some Republicans urged after former president Donald Trump lost the state in 2020.
The proposal would also ensure people can vote even if they don’t have a photo ID with them by signing an affidavit. That policy is already in place but putting it in the state constitution would ensure it doesn’t change.
Khalilah Spencer, president of Promote the Vote, said her group is trying to build on momentum they developed when the 2018 initiative passed.
“Given where our politics are with a split legislature and governor, it’s hard to get anything moving, frankly, so sometimes voters need to take it in their own hands,” Spencer said in an interview.
To get on the ballot, organizers had to submit at least 425,000 signatures — 10 percent of the total number of ballots cast in the 2018 election for governor. They said they had submitted far more than that and the state board of canvassers must now determine whether they received enough proper signatures to place the proposal on the ballot.
Republicans are working on a counterproposal that would make the state’s voter ID law more restrictive — a plan Whitmer vetoed last year. Republicans are now gathering signatures so they can put the issue before voters, which would give lawmakers the ability to pass the proposal in a way that could not be blocked by the governor.
“What we want to do is put it in front of the legislature and not have the governor veto it,” said Gustavo Portela, a spokesman for the Michigan Republican Party. “We believe our proposal, which is centered around providing voter ID at the ballot box, is important.” | 2022-07-11T23:53:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Michigan activists push for ballot initiative to expand voting access - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/11/michigan-voting-ballot-initiative/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/11/michigan-voting-ballot-initiative/ |
A draft framework for Arlington County's “missing middle” housing plan would eliminate single-family zoning, paving the way for townhouse-style condominiums like these in the Shirlington neighborhood. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)
The topic of housing wasn’t even on the agenda for lawmakers in Arlington County, but residents streamed into one recent meeting with a sea of posters to express their dueling views on the issue.
“Save Our Neighborhood. No Upzoning!” one sign read. “In Our Neighborhood, Density Means Diversity,” another declared. One side said that “Arlington Is for Everyone.” A few rows back: “The Arlington Way Has Gone Astray.”
At one point, a few people leaving the room repeatedly shouted: “No upzoning!”
That raucous meeting offered a taste of what promises to be one of the most contentious political battles in recent memory in Arlington: a proposal to legalize “missing middle” housing — ranging from townhouses to eight-unit buildings — that many are treating as an existential debate over the future of this affluent, deep-blue Northern Virginia suburb on the doorstep of the nation’s capital.
The draft framework, which county lawmakers will begin taking up Tuesday, would do away with single-family zoning across the county. It is a product of a years-long study that considered the role these medium-density types of housing can play in expanding the housing supply in an increasingly expensive metropolitan area.
“At the end of the day, the question is: Should we legalize forms of housing other than ‘one house on one lot’ in about 80 percent of the county?” Katie Cristol (D), the county board chair, said in an interview.
But in a county where different neighborhoods can sometimes feel like different worlds — quiet, tree-lined streets in some areas and bustling high-rises near Metro stations in others — it’s a question that has residents preparing for battle. As in other jurisdictions around the region and across the country, potential changes to single-family zoning have sharply divided residents who predict wildly different consequences for their neighborhoods.
Single-family zoning preserves century-old segregation, planners say. A proposal to add density is dividing neighborhoods.
Longtime Arlington homeowners who moved here decades ago fear that greater density would take away the tree canopy that attracted them to the area while crowding roads and schools and potentially leading to higher taxes. Other community advocates, many of them renters, argue that the plan would expand housing options and lower skyrocketing housing prices to accommodate a growing number of residents.
Civic groups have already traded barbs on the role of developers (How much do they stand to benefit?), parking minimums (Are they necessary?) and the lowest-income renters (Will they be helped or displaced?). Ahead of the county work session Tuesday, some groups are sounding an alarm, saying major changes have been rushed through without sufficient input.
“The vast majority of homeowners have absolutely no idea that there is such a proposal, and they have absolutely no idea what it might mean for them,” said Peter Rousselot, a leader of the group Arlingtonians for Our Sustainable Future and a condo owner in Virginia Square. The survey and feedback process “is not an objective approach to something that is so profoundly different to the way Arlington has developed until now.”
His group has taken to labeling Tuesday as “D-Day,” urging the county board to delay any formal discussion without a more robust effort to measure public opinion and forecast the effect of more housing and more residents on Arlington’s budget.
Jane Green, president of the YIMBYs of Northern Virginia, which supports greater density, said there’s no reason to further delay the process. While the draft framework was released at the end of April, it is the latest phase of a broader, years-long effort by county planners to study different housing types and draw feedback from thousands of Arlington residents on the topic.
“We’re in a housing crisis. We need more homes,” said Green, who rents a two-bedroom apartment in the Radnor/Fort Myer Heights neighborhood. “So let’s do everything we can to allow more homes that builders want to build.”
Arlington has a proud history of careful suburban planning, and it has for decades operated under one guiding principle: Development and growth belong around a few high-density corridors, tapering off into shorter buildings and finally the single-family homes and green lawns that occupy the vast majority of the county.
But as major companies have brought their headquarters to Arlington, more people have moved to the D.C. area and housing prices have shot up, county planners have sought to reconsider whether existing land-use policies are the most effective for a former bedroom community that has become an economic powerhouse in its own right.
Other jurisdictions across the country have already taken steps toward a similar goal: Portland, Ore., and Minneapolis have relaxed their zoning laws in recent years to allow for the construction of more townhouses and duplexes. Across the Potomac River in Montgomery County, Md., county planners are considering similar changes as an explicit way to promote racial equity. At the federal level, President Biden is pushing a $10 billion plan that would incentivize states and localities to relax single-family zoning laws.
The extraordinarily high cost of housing in Northern Virginia — the average price of a detached, single-family home in Arlington was more than $1.2 million in December — means that the county’s framework could be one of the most transformative zoning changes nationwide.
To achieve lower home prices and add more stock to a hot real estate market, county planners are pushing for an unusual level of density: “Eight-plexes” — small buildings divided into eight apartments — could be built by right on some of the largest existing lots, avoiding red tape, lengthy and costly approval processes, and potential pushback from neighbors.
What that may look like is likely to be amended in greater detail over the coming months. The current draft framework dictates that any structure must not be bigger than whatever is allowed by right as a single-family house. The lot size would determine the maximum number of units on a given property, so “six-plexes” and “eight-plexes” would generally be allowed only on larger lots of at least 12,000 square feet.
Cristol said the county will create additional engagement opportunities — in particular for residents to speak with one another about their diverse experiences as renters and homeowners — as planners revise the draft framework and shape it into draft ordinances.
But as she vows to see through some sort of zoning overhaul by the end of her one-year term as chair in December, some clashes are likely to lie ahead.
When some critics at the meeting in June interrupted her and began booing, she attempted in vain to shush the crowd. Instead, it was county board member Libby Garvey (D) who managed to grab the audience’s attention, offering a booming rebuke.
“Excuse me! Excuse me! Can everyone please behave?” Garvey said. “You may be seeing how people behave elsewhere in this country and across the region. … Yelling and screaming has never been a way to solve problems.”
The crowd let Garvey finish, then started booing again. | 2022-07-12T00:28:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Arlington could end single-family zoning with 'missing middle' housing plan - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/11/arlington-missing-middle-housing-zoning/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/11/arlington-missing-middle-housing-zoning/ |
Montgomery digital ballots disadvantage some candidates, groups say
Californians vote using new digital voting machines during the primary in Los Angeles in 2020. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
Several Maryland organizations alleged that Montgomery County’s touch-screen ballots disadvantage candidates in certain primary election races in a letter sent to the county and state boards of election Monday.
The full list of candidates running in certain races in the county primaries is displayed across multiple digital pages, the letter says, with inadequate notice that voters must press a small button labeled “more” to view additional candidates on the next page.
The letter highlighted the Montgomery County Council at-large race in the Democratic primary, where it says seven of the eight candidates running for office are displayed on the first page and only one, Laurie-Anne Sayles, is on the second page. (State law requires candidates to be listed alphabetically by surname on ballots.)
Early voting began Thursday.
“Even a small number of voters becoming confused by the ballot construction could affect the outcome of the election, to the specific detriment of the candidate who is by herself on the second screen of the At-Large Council listing,” said the letter, which was signed by groups including the Montgomery County Education Association, Progressive Maryland and Jews United for Justice Campaign Fund, which endorsed Sayles.
Jeffrey Groce, the Sayles campaign manager, criticized the county and state boards of election for a lack of communication about the issue. “They did not notify the candidates that this is the way the electronic ballots would look,” he said. “How we found out about it is, people who were voting for Laurie-Anne Sayles said, ‘We were having trouble finding the candidate’s name.’”
Sayles and members of the organizations testified to the Montgomery County Board of Elections about the issue Monday afternoon. According to Bruce Turnbull, a board member of Jews United for Justice, the elections board pledged to inform voters of the issue in signage when voters decide whether to vote by paper ballot or digitally.
Alysoun McLaughlin, acting director for the Montgomery County Board of Elections, said she was working with an attorney and the state elections board on the phrasing of additional signage in voting centers to inform voters of the issue. “This will be the third sign that makes reference to the ‘more’ button in the polling place,” she said.
Groce and McLaughlin said the issue was known to the state elections board as early as 2015, but no action was taken. Officials raised similar complaints about the touch-screen machines Maryland in 2016.
Nikki Charlson, the Maryland deputy elections administrator, said the touch-screen machines are “set up in such a way that a voter must look at each screen in a contest” and will alert voters if they move on from a contest without viewing all listed candidates. Charlson said the state is committed to using the machines until the 2024 elections but could consider software upgrades that would change the way candidates are displayed.
Maryland county election boards have fielded various complaints in the lead-up to a primary election dogged by redistricting lawsuits, which pushed back the date of the election to July 19, and miscues in the distribution of sample and mail-in ballots.
In Montgomery County, the state ballot vendor mistakenly sent more than 790 voters second mail-in ballots in June, prompting the state board of elections to issue a clarification that voters should vote with one and destroy the other. | 2022-07-12T00:28:38Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Montgomery County ballots disadvantage some candidates, groups say - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/11/montgomery-county-touchscreen-ballots-candidates/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/11/montgomery-county-touchscreen-ballots-candidates/ |
FILE - In this provided by NOAA Fisheries a North Pacific right whale swims in the Bering Sea west of Bristol Bay on Aug. 6, 2017. The U.S. government on Monday, July 11, 2022, agreed to a request from environmental groups to study increasing critical habitat designations in Alaska waters for North Pacific right whales, one of the rarest whale species in the world. (NOAA Fisheries via AP,File) (Uncredited/NOAA Fisheries) | 2022-07-12T00:59:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | US agency studies rare whale habitat expansion request - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/us-agency-studies-rare-whale-habitat-expansion-request/2022/07/11/03848132-017a-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/us-agency-studies-rare-whale-habitat-expansion-request/2022/07/11/03848132-017a-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html |
Olympian Mo Farah reveals he was trafficked to U.K., given false name
Mo Farah, a four-time Olympic gold medalist for Britain, revealed in an upcoming BBC documentary that he was illegally brought to the country as a child. (Action Images via Reuters/Molly Darlington)
Mo Farah, the most successful British track athlete in modern Olympic history, revealed that he was trafficked to the United Kingdom as a child under a false name.
In an interview with the BBC for an upcoming documentary, the four-time gold medalist said he was born in the breakaway region of Somaliland with the name Hussein Abdi Kahin and illegally brought to the United Kingdom.
“Most people know me as Mo Farah, but that’s not my name or the reality,” he said in clips released Monday.
In previous interviews, Farah had said he came to the United Kingdom from Somalia with his parents as a refugee. But in the documentary set to debut this week, the 39-year-old opened up about the true experiences of his childhood.
Farah said his family was “torn apart” when he was 4 years old after his father was killed in a civil war in Somalia. Years later, he was separated from his mother and went to stay with family in Djibouti. From there, Farah says he was brought to the United Kingdom at the age of 9 by a woman he did not know. On the travel visa, he was named Mohamed Farah.
From 2016: Great Britain’s Mo Farah repeats as men’s 10,000-meter gold medalist
Once in the United Kingdom, Farah said he lived under duress, doing chores for the woman who threatened he would never see his family again if he said anything. A few years later, after revealing his real identity to a teacher at his secondary school, Farah was put in foster care and taken in by another Somali family.
He was granted British citizenship under the name Mohamed Farah in 2000. The documentary acknowledges that the British government could strip any citizenship obtained through fraud, but a lawyer told Farah the chances of that happening are low because of the nature of his situation.
“I had no idea there was so many people who are going through exactly the same thing that I did,” Farah said. “It just shows how lucky I was.”
In the two decades since he was granted citizenship, Farah has represented Britain on the biggest stages as an elite distance runner, winning Olympic gold medals in 2012 and 2016 and six golds at the world championships. In 2017, he received his knighthood from Queen Elizabeth.
Farah has run mostly distance events since then, setting records at the Chicago Marathon in 2018 and in the one-hour run in 2020. Last week, he announced his plans to return to the London Marathon in October. | 2022-07-12T00:59:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Mo Farah reveals he was trafficked to U.K., given false name as child - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/11/mo-farah-united-kingdom-trafficking-bbc-documentary/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/11/mo-farah-united-kingdom-trafficking-bbc-documentary/ |
Pa. town broke law in recent hiring of Tamir Rice’s killer, A.G. says
The small Pennsylvania town that hired the former police officer who killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014 did not conduct a background check required by law before making last week’s hire, according to the state attorney general’s office.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D) wrote to Tioga, Pa., Borough President Steve Hazlett on Friday to inform him that the town had violated the state’s Act 57 in hiring Timothy Loehmann without running his name through a database that flags past disciplinary action, according to the letter, which Shapiro’s office provided to The Washington Post.
Loehmann — who as a Cleveland police officer shot Rice and was later fired for having omitted pertinent information on his job application — resigned on Thursday, two days after Hazlett and the borough council had unanimously voted to hire him as the lone police officer in Tioga.
State laws have been enacted since the police killing of George Floyd, including Pennsylvania’s Act 57, to address the issue of officers fired for misconduct being rehired in a different jurisdiction, or in some cases, the same city. Shapiro wrote in his letter that state records show Tioga, a northern Pennsylvania borough of about 700 people, never ran Loehmann’s name through the database.
“Act 57 was passed to ensure that departments are fully aware of a candidate’s past history of misconduct and any resulting discipline — to prevent the type of circumstances that occurred in your borough with the hiring of Timothy Loehmann and his subsequent withdrawal of his application,” Shapiro wrote. “To be clear, failure to thoroughly check a potential hire’s background, including searching the database for any past disciplinary activities, is a violation of state law.”
Shapiro added that Hazlett’s “failure to run this required check erodes the public’s faith in your leadership and the public’s trust in the officer you ultimately select.”
A spokesperson declined to comment on whether the attorney general would pursue further action against the town.
What happens when a police officer gets fired? Very often another police agency hires them.
Hazlett and his wife, MaryBess Hazlett, who also served on the borough council, submitted their resignation letters Friday, according to the Williamsport Sun-Gazette. Neither they nor Mayor David Wilcox responded to requests for comment from The Post. The borough solicitor, Jeffrey Loomis, declined to comment.
The hire has roiled the small town and split the government. Wilcox wrote on Facebook that Hazlett and other council members had misled him into thinking the town was hiring an officer by the name of “Timothy Lochmann.” The incorrect name was also provided to the Sun-Gazette and other local media outlets before Loehmann’s swearing-in on Tuesday.
Wilcox told a group of residents gathered to protest the hiring Wednesday that he had “zero knowledge” of Loehmann’s background and had been told an “extensive background check” had been conducted, according to video posted by the Wellsboro Gazette. Wilcox told the residents that the borough council has the sole authority to hire and fire officers.
After the attorney general sent his letter, Wilcox wrote on Facebook that Hazlett had texted him before Tuesday’s swearing-in ceremony that he got the okay to swear Loehmann in from the Municipal Police Officers’ Education and Training Commission, which certifies Pennsylvania police officers and runs the disciplinary database.
Hazlett acknowledged to the Sun-Gazette on Thursday that he was aware of Loehmann’s background when the council voted to hire him, but he said Wilcox also knew about the officer’s past. Hazlett told NBC affiliate 18 News that Wilcox had access to all the information on Loehmann’s history and “never opened any of it up.”
Amid protests against the hiring, residents have also pointed out that Hazlett appears to have made a post on Facebook in 2015 mocking Rice’s death. In December 2015, Hazlett posted an article from a right-wing news website about Rice’s death with the caption, “Dumb enough to pull a fake gun, dumb enough to get shot......”
Loehmann shot Rice from the window of a patrol car on Nov. 22, 2014, seconds after arriving at the Cleveland park where the 12-year-old was playing with a pellet gun. Police have said the toy looked identical to a real weapon. The killing sparked national outrage and protests amid high-profile police shootings of Black people in late 2014 and early 2015.
A grand jury declined to indict Loehmann in Rice’s death, and the city fired him in 2017 for not disclosing on his job application that he had left his previous police job in Independence, Ohio, because of “an inability to emotionally function” as an officer. Loehmann was hired in 2018 as a part-time officer in Bellaire, Ohio, but he withdrew his application several days later amid backlash over the hiring.
Raff Donelson, a professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law, said Pennsylvania’s Act 57 was one of the first in a wave of similar bills across the country in the wake of Floyd’s killing.
Fired/Rehired: Police chiefs are often forced to put officers fired for misconduct back on the streets
Donelson said Act 57 was generally created to address situations like Tioga’s hiring of Loehmann, though he noted that because Loehmann’s firing took place in Ohio and involved omitting information on a job application, it would not necessarily have been included in the Pennsylvania database. The state’s database only includes files from other states on a voluntary basis, Donelson said, and the law lays out specific types of misconduct that trigger inclusion in the database, such as excessive force or filing a false report.
He added that Act 57 has faced criticism because it lacks an enforcement mechanism, which may be why Shapiro settled on sending a letter to Tioga officials.
Donelson said a federal database of police misconduct is necessary to ensure that officers who are fired for misconduct do not “slip through the cracks” by traveling to another state. In May, President Biden signed an executive order that created a national database and encouraged all departments to use it, but because states and municipalities are free to set their own rules for hiring officers, local agencies are not required to use the database.
Rice’s mother, Samaria Rice, said the finding that Tioga officials did not conduct the required background check “goes to show how the system is repeatedly broken.”
“They need to do a better job across this country to find out where these law enforcement officers are coming from, their background,” she said.
Rice said Tioga’s decision to hire Loehmann put “people’s lives in danger.”
“No one across the country should be hiring him if there’s not a background check,” she said. “Even if you go to McDonald’s, they are going to ask for your references. I mean, come on — this is ridiculous.”
Subodh Chandra, the attorney for Rice’s family and his estate, said he will continue to monitor the circumstances behind Loehmann’s hiring.
“What we want to know is what Loehmann told borough officials and when he told it to them, and, likewise, what they knew or didn’t want to know,” Chandra said. “There still needs to be an accounting and a reckoning.” | 2022-07-12T01:46:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Tioga, Pa., didn't do background check before hiring Tamir Rice's killer - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/11/tioga-background-check/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/11/tioga-background-check/ |
Juan Soto is on a hot streak as the all-star break nears. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
After setting a Home Run Derby record with a 520-foot shot last summer, Juan Soto will participate in the event again, two people confirmed Monday night. The Washington Nationals star, 23, hit one of the most memorable homers of his career at Dodger Stadium, a game-tying blast against Clayton Kershaw in the eighth inning of Game 5 of the National League Division Series in 2019. He’ll need a lot more to compete with a field that will include two-time defending champion Pete Alonso of the New York Mets.
As he did a year ago, Soto will represent the Nationals in the All-Star Game on July 19 in Los Angeles. The derby is the night before. The right fielder has had an odd first half, often struggling with runners in scoring position. But he earned all-star and derby nods with 17 homers and an .870 on-base-plus slugging percentage. That OPS is less a product of his power (.473 slugging percentage) than a majors-leading 73 walks (.398 on-base percentage). And if history repeats, the derby could help Soto’s numbers moving forward. | 2022-07-12T02:25:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Juan Soto will take part in Home Run Derby again - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/11/juan-soto-home-run-derby/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/11/juan-soto-home-run-derby/ |
British composer Monty Norman in 2001. He wrote the theme song for the James Bond films, and fought for credit in court. (Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP)
Yet the song had a mysterious quality that Mr. Norman realized he could work with. He tweaked the melody, splitting it into separate notes, and moved the riff from the sitar to the guitar. Immediately, he knew he had his theme for 007. “His sexiness, his mystery, his ruthlessness — it’s all there in a few notes,” he said.
“Sound-wise, it represented everything about the character you would want,” said composer David Arnold, who scored five Bond films, in a 2008 interview with Variety. “It was cocky, swaggering, confident, dark, dangerous, suggestive, sexy, unstoppable.”
Mr. Norman was 94 when he died July 11 at a hospital in Slough, England, just west of London. His wife, Rina Norman, said he died “after a short illness” but did not give a specific cause.
“That was the clincher for me,” he recalled in an interview on his website. “I thought even if ‘Dr. No’ turns out to be a stinker, at least we’d have sun, sea and sand to show for it.”
After a 20-hour chartered flight to the Caribbean, he began writing some of the movie’s calypso-influenced music, including “Underneath the Mango Tree,” which Bond’s love interest — the improbably named Honey Ryder, played by Ursula Andress — sings on the beach, after emerging from the water with a pair of large seashells. (Her vocals were dubbed by Mr. Norman’s wife at the time, singer and actress Diana Coupland.)
“There’s an old saying in showbiz,” he later told the Scotsman newspaper: “Nobody argues over a flop.”
An only child, he was born Monty Noserovitch in London on April 4, 1928, and grew up in the city’s East End. His father was a cabinetmaker, and his mother sewed children’s dresses. The family had a musical streak — some of his uncles performed in amateur opera — and when Mr. Norman was 16, his mother bought him his first guitar, a 1930s Gibson that he held on to for decades.
After the family moved north of London to the city of St Albans, Mr. Norman began taking guitar lessons from Bert Weedon, a versatile musician who later wrote a best-selling “Play in a Day” instruction manual. With encouragement from Weedon, he started singing with jazz groups, eventually joining big bands led by Cyril Stapleton, Stanley Black and Ted Heath.
He also composed music for movies including “The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll” (1960) and Broccoli’s “Call Me Bwana” (1963). Returning to the stage, he won Olivier Awards in 1979 and 1982 for composing the musicals “Songbook” (he also received a Tony nomination for the show, which opened on Broadway as “The Moony Shapiro Songbook”) and “Poppy,” a pantomime-style comedy set during the First Opium War between Britain and China.
His marriage to Coupland ended in divorce. In 2000, he married Rina Caesari. In addition to his wife, survivors include a daughter from his first marriage, Shoshana Kitchen; two stepdaughters, Clea Griffin and Livia Griffiths; and seven grandchildren.
“That sounded like a lot,” Mr. Norman told the Scotsman in 2012. “It’s impossible. It’s amazing the franchise has gone on for 50 years. And it’s amazing that I’m still here.” | 2022-07-12T02:29:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Monty Norman, who composed the James Bond theme song, dies at 94 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/07/11/james-bond-composer-monty-norman-dead/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/07/11/james-bond-composer-monty-norman-dead/ |
BAMAKO, Mali — Malian authorities arrested nearly 50 soldiers from Ivory Coast who came to Mali to work for a contracting company of the United Nations mission in Mali. The government made the announcement Monday calling the Ivorian soldiers “mercenaries,” in a move that could raise tensions between the two West African countries. | 2022-07-12T02:31:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Mali arrests nearly 50 soldiers from Ivory Coast - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/mali-arrests-nearly-50-soldiers-from-ivory-coast/2022/07/11/047568b0-0182-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/mali-arrests-nearly-50-soldiers-from-ivory-coast/2022/07/11/047568b0-0182-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html |
People gathered to offer flowers at Tokyo's Zojo-ji Temple, where the funeral of former Japanese leader Shinzo Abe was due to take place on July 12. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)
TOKYO — A private funeral for family and friends of slain former Japanese leader Shinzo Abe will be held Tuesday at the Zojo-ji Temple in Tokyo, where dignitaries paid their respects a day earlier in a traditional tsuya ceremony to send off the dead.
The funeral will be held at 1 p.m., followed by a procession to carry Abe’s body to the political establishments where his legacy looms large: the Kantei, or the Prime Minister’s Office; the Diet, or the national legislature; and the headquarters of his ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and top LDP executives are expected to attend Tuesday’s service.
The Japanese government has honored Abe with its highest decoration, the Collar of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum, making him the fourth prime minister of postwar Japan to receive the honor. The national flag was flown half-mast until Tuesday at the Prime Minister’s Office in Tokyo.
The loss of Japan’s most prominent politician, who at age 67 was gunned down in Nara while campaigning for a fellow LDP politician ahead of upper house elections, horrified a nation unaccustomed to gun violence.
Plans for a state funeral have not yet been made public. But dignitaries from around the world are already making plans to attend and pay homage to the leader who sought to raise Japan’s global influence during his nearly nine-year second term as prime minister.
Tributes have been flowing in from around the world, and U.S. leaders have emphasized Abe’s contribution to the U.S.-Japan alliance. On Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador Rahm Emanuel attended the tsuya along with Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen, who was in town to discuss economic sanctions on Russia. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a refueling stop between travels to meet with Kishida and pay respects.
Trump told Breitbart News in an interview over the weekend that he was eager to attend to attend Abe’s funeral, presumably a reference to a potential state funeral. Trump said he was contacting Abe’s family to try to make arrangements.
The man accused of assassinating Abe, 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami of Nara, told investigators he believed that the former prime minister was linked to a religious group he blamed for his mother’s financial difficulties. Yamagami is suspected to have used a homemade gun to target Abe.
The Unification Church, formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, has come under focus in the shooting’s aftermath. On Monday, the head of the Unification Church in Japan said Yamagami’s mother was a member, but police have not yet identified the religious organization. | 2022-07-12T03:39:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Shinzo Abe funeral to be held Tuesday for family, close friends - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/11/shinzo-abe-funeral-assassination-japan/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/11/shinzo-abe-funeral-assassination-japan/ |
In 2017, newly-elected French President Emmanuel Macron trumpeted a new vision for his country’s economic future. “I want France to be a start-up nation,” he said, voicing his desire then to make France a competitive tech player on the world stage and to usher in a flourishing of Silicon Valley-style enterprises.
Half a decade later, Macron can point to a record of success. In January, he hailed the emergence of 25 French tech “unicorns” — now each valued over $1 billion — comfortably ahead of his own earlier target of having 25 such companies by 2025. By 2019, once-notoriously statist France had already become the leading destination for foreign investment in all of Europe.
This was in part thanks to liberalizing measures the French president pushed through, including cuts to the corporate tax rate, a flat tax on capital gains and the streamlining of France’s labor code that made it easier to hire and fire employees. Macron’s government helped encourage billions of dollars worth of foreign investment into the tech sector and offered generous tax credits to certain types of tech businesses.
“American funds were afraid of France for mythical reasons: the taxes, the strikes, a lot of fantasies,” Romain Lavault, general partner at Partech Ventures in Paris, told Bloomberg News last year. “They have been courted, and it’s worked.”
25 licornes françaises : nous y sommes !
Ces 25 startups valorisées à plus d'un milliard de dollars, et avec elles toute la French Tech, changent la vie des Français, créent des centaines de milliers d'emplois partout en France, font notre souveraineté !
Ce n'est qu'un début. pic.twitter.com/1BRrLMcM3o
His political opponents, who battled Macron in a bruising presidential and parliamentary election cycle this year, long resented Macron’s approach. They argued that it sundered France’s social solidarity and drove deeper economic inequality. Far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon decried what he dubbed the “Uberization” of French society — invoking the U.S. ride-share leviathan as part of a catchall descriptor for Macron’s perceived assault on French worker rights in the service of the interests of wealthy elites.
Until this week, we didn’t quite know how on the nose that term was. Amid a slew of revelations contained within a mammoth leak of documents is considerable evidence of Macron’s cozy dealings with Uber while serving as France’s economy minister from 2014 to 2016. As my colleague Rick Noack noted: “Macron’s backing went far beyond what has been known publicly and on occasion conflicted with the policies of the leftist government he served.”
The more than 124,000 company documents were leaked by Mark MacGann, a former high-ranking Uber executive and European lobbyist, to the Guardian. The outlet shared the vast trove with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which helped lead the project, and dozens of other news organizations, including The Washington Post. The Uber Files, which date to between 2013 and 2017, reveal the ride-hailing company’s aggressive entrance into cities around the world — while frequently challenging the reach of existing laws and regulations.
“I was the one talking to governments, I was the one pushing this with the media, I was the one telling people that they should change the rules because drivers were going to benefit and people were going to get so much economic opportunity,” MacGann said in an interview published Monday. “When that turned out not to be the case — we had actually sold people a lie — how can you have a clear conscience if you don’t stand up and own your contribution to how people are being treated today?”
MacGann had a direct line to Macron while the latter was economy minister. In one instance, after local officials in Marseille had banned UberX service in the fall of 2015, MacGann texted Macron for help. “I will look into this personally,” Macron wrote back. “Let’s stay calm at this stage.” The local authority in Marseille soon backtracked.
French President Emmanuel Macron faced the possibility of a parliamentary inquiry and criticism from across the left and far-right on Monday, after a trove of documents detailed close links between him and Uber during his time as France’s economy minister. https://t.co/WVl6ZDyDRq
As the documents revealed, Macron was considered internally by Uber as a “true ally.” At a time when Uber’s notoriously aggressive tactics of expansion landed it in legal hot water, Macron and his staff held several undeclared meetings with company executives.
Uber executives “believed that Macron was willing to support them by pushing for more lenient treatment of the company from regulators,” Noack wrote. Even as legal scrutiny of Uber began to increase — including from Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention — authorities attached to Marcon’s own ministry, MacGann wrote in a 2014 email to colleagues that the French President had “told his cabinet to talk to the DGCCRF to ask them to be ‘less conservative’ ” in interpreting the law.
Asked for comment ahead of publication of the documents, the French presidency said in a statement to The Post and other outlets that the “economic and employment policies at the time, in which [Macron] was an active participant, are well known” and that his “functions naturally led him to meet and interact with many companies.”
Macron’s championing of Uber and similar gig work is no secret. In a 2016 interview, he defended the company, telling his interlocutor to go to a poor suburb and “tell young people there who are willingly working for Uber that it would be better to do nothing or deal drugs.”
But the Uber Files have triggered a new firestorm of criticism. They show Macron to be “a lobbyist at the service of foreign private economic interests,” far-right politician Sebastien Chenu told France Info radio on Monday morning, attacking the president as an “an ideologue for deregulation, for globalization.”
Aurélien Taché, a former member of Macron’s centrist party who is now part of the left-wing opposition in parliament, described the findings as a “state scandal” that raised questions about Macron’s “conception of loyalty in politics.” Fabien Roussel, leader of the French Communist Party, said Macron’s behavior was “against all our rules, all our social laws and against workers’ rights.” Mathilde Panot, the parliamentary leader of Mélenchon’s party, said Macron had presided over the “pillage of the country” and had been an agent for a “U.S. multinational aiming to permanently deregulate labor law.”
Though they have few constitutional mechanisms to call Macron in for questioning, opposition parliamentarians hope to launch some form of special inquiry into his actions. A separate no-confidence vote against Macron’s prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, failed Monday.
Macron, as he has for much of his tenure, remained aloof. On Monday, he hosted a major summit of some 180 foreign business executives in the palace at Versailles. Billions of dollars of new deals were on the table, including a close to $6 billion proposal to build a new semiconductor factory near the Italian and Swiss borders. The event is dubbed “Choose France.” | 2022-07-12T04:14:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Uber Files put Emmanuel Macron’s neoliberalism in the spotlight - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/12/neoliberalism-uber-files-france-macron/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/12/neoliberalism-uber-files-france-macron/ |
Midfielder Kristie Mewis scores in the 89th minute. (Pilar Olivares/Reuters)
The World Cup berth was secure, a semifinal slot sealed and first place in the group all but clinched, but for the U.S. women’s national team Monday, there was still the matter of facing the host team, Mexico, in the Concacaf W Championship.
Billed before the tournament as a showdown between the two-time defending world champions and a regional upstart, the match lost its bite after Mexico dropped its first two games last week.
The Americans, though, struggled all night, even after Mexico received a red card in the second half. Finally, in the 89th minute, substitute Kristie Mewis scored from close range for a 1-0 victory at Estadio Universitario in Monterrey.
Mewis knocked in the ball after Itzel González made a spectacular reflex save on Emily Sonnett’s header.
The Americans (3-0-0) will face Costa Rica (2-1-0) in the first semifinal Thursday, followed by Canada (3-0-0) vs. Jamaica (2-1-0). All four have qualified for the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
Next Monday’s final will determine the region’s first berth in the 2024 Paris Olympics. The second slot will be decided next year in a two-leg playoff between the second- and third-place finishers in the W Championship.
The Americans posted their third consecutive shutout, and Mexico (0-3-0) finished a disappointing tournament without a goal.
The all-time series remains terribly lopsided (40-1-1), and since losing to host Mexico at the 2011 World Cup qualifying tournament, the Americans have won 16 in a row by a 65-4 margin. This one, though, was arduous.
Mexico was determined to salvage some pride in front of its supporters, while the United States, despite abundant possession, was sluggish in the run of play and ineffective on set pieces.
In the first half, Margaret Purce (Silver Spring) hit the post with an angled, five-yard attempt and, late in the half, she made a 60-yard run to set up Lindsey Horan for a weak bid from 12 yards.
Despite few forays into the U.S. end, Mexico played hard and defended well, gaining belief as the match transpired.
With no breakthroughs after intermission, U.S. Coach Vlatko Andonovski turned to four subs in the 64th minute, including Megan Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle. Rapinoe had missed Thursday’s 5-0 victory over Jamaica to travel to Washington to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House.
The Americans gained an advantage in the 73rd minute when Lizbeth Ovalle was red-carded for a dangerous tackle on Lavelle.
On her last activity before being replaced, Alex Morgan almost broke the deadlock by flicking Rapinoe’s corner kick narrowly wide of the far post.
Then came the breakthrough. Ashley Sanchez slipped the ball back to Morgan’s replacement, Taylor Kornieck, who lifted the ball to Sonnett for the header. González made the stop, but Mewis cleaned up the rebound for her seventh international goal.
Notes: Washington Spirit striker Ashley Hatch was dropped from the U.S. roster because of a muscle strain in her left leg. She was scheduled to return to the D.C. area for treatment. Portland Thorns midfielder Sam Coffey, who trained with the U.S. team before the tournament, was recalled. Teams are allowed to make roster changes because of injury after the group stage. ...
Left back Emily Fox (coronavirus protocol) wasn’t available. The Ashburn native had started the first two matches. ...
Panama (1-2-0) and Haiti (1-2-0) finished third in their groups and qualified for a World Cup playoff tournament in New Zealand early next year. Ten teams will vie for the last three slots. | 2022-07-12T04:31:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | USWNT narrowly defeats Mexico at Concacaf W Championship - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/12/uswnt-mexico-concacaf-w-championship/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/12/uswnt-mexico-concacaf-w-championship/ |
Dear Amy: I have tenants I have bent over backward for. I cut their late fees in half, and allow them to pay the rent by the 15th of each month.
My thought was to increase the rent by 10 percent, but I know they won't appreciate or thank me, even though I could raise it by much more.
Nice Guy: You should NOT expect your tenants to express appreciation or thanks when greeted with the news that you are raising their rent by 10 percent.
You should not place tenants in charge of repairs made to the home. That's your job. The requirement to “communicate well” is probably not included in your lease agreement.
I feel like we’re going through the motions of being married. What can I do? I’m concerned about her well-being. She says she loves me and doesn’t want anyone else.
Mystified: Your wife’s weight loss might be the result of a medical issue. I hope she has received a thorough checkup.
Upset: Thank you. I didn’t read the letter quite that way; assuming that the grandchild had already posted news of this fire on social media. | 2022-07-12T04:40:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ask Amy: My tenants don't appreciate me so I want to raise their rent - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/07/12/ask-amy-landlord-tenant-rent/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/07/12/ask-amy-landlord-tenant-rent/ |
Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s president, holds his first news conference following his victory in the presidential election in Tehran, Iran, on Monday, June 21, 2021. World powers and Iran failed after a sixth round of negotiations in Vienna to revive a nuclear deal that would lift U.S. sanctions on the oil-rich Islamic Republic in exchange for it scaling back its atomic activities. (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)
It might have been a scene from a perverse Persian-language Keystone Cops remake. Last Wednesday, Iran’s state-run Press TV aired footage that, it claimed, showed Britain’s deputy ambassador taking soil samples in a desert location close to where the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps conducts missile exercises.
The report said the IRGC had caught Giles Whitaker spying on military sites, along with the spouse of the Austrian Embassy’s cultural attaché and a Polish university professor. The British diplomat, Press TV added, was “expelled from the city after apologizing.”
The event seemed certain to ignite a major international diplomatic flare-up, until the British ambassador, Simon Shercliff, tweeted that Whitaker had left the country in December when his posting ended. The Austrian Embassy said none of its staff or their relatives had been detained. Poland’s foreign ministry confirmed that a scientist had indeed been “deprived of his freedom” in Iran —not last week, but last September.
By week’s end, the regime’s spycatchers had returned to their traditional trade of locking up Iranians — in this instance, two filmmakers who had dared challenge the security establishment on social media. In London, perplexed officials were just glad to be spared a reprise of the 2020 diplomatic dust-up over the brief detention of the then-British ambassador during a spasm of anti-government protests in the Iranian capital.
But the Brits shouldn’t exhale just yet. Indeed, the events of last week should put all Western governments on high alert for diplomatic theatrics and threats from Tehran as Iran is backed into a corner by crises at home and abroad. Arresting high-profile foreigners, or even claiming to, and parading them on TV allows the regime to shift blame for what ails the country onto perfidious outsiders and gives it bargaining chips for negotiations with the West.
The latest round of negotiations, in Qatar, were a failure. The US and European signatories of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the nuclear pact is known, are signaling that their patience is wearing thin. The Biden administration has announced new sanctions, targeting the smuggling networks through which Iran exports oil. (Those exports are already being squeezed by cheaper Russian supplies.)
If the Western signatories conclude that negotiations are futile, they may exercise the JCPOA’s “snapback” clause, which would add United Nations sanctions to those already imposed by the US.
This is not the first time the Iranians have found themselves in this bind, and their tried and tested response has been what can only be described as “hostage diplomacy” — seizing foreigners or Iranians with dual nationality and expecting cash or concessions for their release. This is a practice going back to the fall of 1979, when 66 Americans were taken hostage in the storming of the US Embassy in Tehran; 52 of them were held for 444 days.
The regime’s demands then — mainly, the return of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi to Iran — were unfulfilled. But it has had more success recently, swapping several American hostages for $400 billion in 2016, and receiving $530 million for the British national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe earlier this year. (Washington and London denied these payments amounted to ransom, but their timing leaves little doubt that they were relayed quid pro quo.)
Just last month, Tehran threatened to hang a Swedish-Iranian and arrested a Swedish tourist as a Stockholm district court deliberated in a case implicating a high-ranking member of the Iranian regime in war crimes. That same week, Iran arrested a French couple ahead of a European Union envoy’s visit to Tehran pressing the regime on nuclear negotiations. Sweden and France have warned their citizens against traveling to Iran.
There is neither the pretense of subtlety in these arrests nor the plausible deniability invoked in previous years, when the detentions were attributed to hard-line elements in the judiciary and security services to embarrass a supposedly moderate president. Since the elevation of Ebrahim Raisi to the presidency last year, all branches of the government are controlled by hard-liners.
In his previous role as head of the judiciary, it was part of Raisi’s job to provide legal cover for the taking of hostages. Now, he’s hoping to collect the ransom. Western governments should expect more Walczaks than Whitakers in the months ahead.
Netanyahu Doesn’t Need Trump Anymore. He Should Say So. Zev Chafets | 2022-07-12T05:32:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Expect More Hostage Diplomacy From a Desperate Iran - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/expect-more-hostage-diplomacy-from-a-desperate-iran/2022/07/12/529550fa-01a0-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/expect-more-hostage-diplomacy-from-a-desperate-iran/2022/07/12/529550fa-01a0-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html |
The Uber Files Show Just How Far Macron Has Come
If there’s something the leaked Uber Technologies Inc. documents show — aside from the questionable ways in which the company sought to break into new markets in Europe — it’s just how much the European political establishment has soured on doing business with US tech firms.
Although previous years were marked by friendly encounters between American executives and European officials hoping to benefit from new jobs, the relationship these days is far from cozy. The European Union argues US tech has become too dominant, in part due to little oversight, and it’s aiming to fix that. It wants to tax companies more, regulate more heavily and build its own technology champions.
Take, for example, French President Emmanuel Macron, whose personal messages to former Uber Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick and other senior Uber executives feature extensively in the leaks.
Back in 2014, he was a fresh-faced minister in the Socialist government of François Hollande. At the same time, Uber was intensifying lobbying efforts to break into the highly regulated French market. Macron, per the texts shown in the leaks, sought to facilitate business for the company. He is said to have worked on amending legislation to ease licensing requirements for Uber drivers, according to revelations published by the newspaper Le Monde based on the leaks. That may sound brash to the French, but it’s exactly what most finance ministers do in exchange for jobs and foreign investment.
For a relatively unknown Macron at the time, hanging out with high-flying CEOs and playing palace intrigue to bolster his own profile and influence must have been enticing. After all, he based his early image on breaking conventions and turning France into a nation of risk-takers and innovators. The rookie mistake, however, was in failing to grasp how much social backlash the model he wanted to bring about would face down the road.
Fast forward to Macron as president today. His pitch for a nation of startups still plays well — so long as it involves “La French Tech” and works for French unicorns, something of a personal obsession. But rather than turn the country into a subsidiary of an American tech firm, his clear goal now is getting a piece of the pie for France. Macron, who sees homegrown technology as a vehicle to modernize his economy, is aiming for at least 100 French billion-dollar startups — there are currently 28, depending on who’s counting — by 2030. He says Europe should aim to develop 10 tech giants of its own able to compete with American and Chinese technology in the next five years.
And he has managed to wage his vision across Brussels. His government led EU efforts to make American firms operating in European jurisdictions pay more tax, while Germany, the bloc’s largest economy, was more timid in its approach. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has made minimum corporate taxation his battle horse in every international summit I can remember.
In Brussels, which acts and thinks more French under Macron’s influence, a string of new legislation would make amends for years of allowing the US to dominate a market the Europeans did not bother building for themselves. Consider the forthcoming Digital Markets Act, which aims to curb anticompetitive behavior and could see repeat offenders be broken up in the most extreme cases, or the Digital Services Act, which would force tech companies to better patrol their content moderation or face penalties of up to 6% of annual revenue.
There’s also the Chips Act, which aims to mobilize billons of euros to bolster Europe’s chip production. The EU has described it as a fundamental step in securing value chains for semiconductors and technologies. A key figure in getting it passed is Thierry Breton, a former French executive appointed to the role of EU Commissioner for the European single market by none other than Macron. Breton likes to take on American CEOs: He told Meta Platforms Inc. boss Mark Zuckerberg that he carries personal responsibility for the content published on his platforms. And he’s suggested that while Tesla Inc. chief Elon Musk’s radical free speech may work in America, there are different standards to uphold in Europe. Here, you have to respect the rules, he likes to say.
To be sure, the so-called Uber Files do not make the French president look good, and the lack of transparency around the types of meetings between government officials and corporate executives that the leaks exposed should be scrutinized and fixed. But I wouldn’t assume that getting on a first-name basis with Macron guarantees an easy ride for Uber, or any tech giant, in the future, especially if they don’t play by his rules.
• The Price of Not Buying Twitter: Matt Levine | 2022-07-12T05:33:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Uber Files Show Just How Far Macron Has Come - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-uber-files-show-just-how-far-macron-has-come/2022/07/12/5133a22a-01a0-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-uber-files-show-just-how-far-macron-has-come/2022/07/12/5133a22a-01a0-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html |
In this image from video from a 7-Eleven store in Upland, Calif. released by the Upland Police Department is a person that police are attempting to identify in connection with two people who were killed and three who were wounded in shootings at four 7-Eleven locations in Southern California, Monday, July 11, 2022. (Upland Police Department via AP) (Uncredited/Upland Police Department) | 2022-07-12T05:33:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Hunt on for gunman who killed 2 in wave of 7-Eleven holdups - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/hunt-on-for-gunman-who-killed-2-in-wave-of-7-eleven-holdups/2022/07/12/149a0d0a-019a-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/hunt-on-for-gunman-who-killed-2-in-wave-of-7-eleven-holdups/2022/07/12/149a0d0a-019a-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html |
FILE - A view of the stage at the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, is shown Sept. 22, 2019. Nominations for the 74th annual Emmy Awards will be announced early Tuesday, July 12, 2022, during a virtual ceremony. (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
LOS ANGELES — “Succession” and “Ted Lasso” are in the hunt for Emmy nominations that could add to their previous trophy hauls, but they’re up against hungry newcomers.
Potential competition for “Ted Lasso,” which claimed seven trophies including best comedy last year, includes the inaugural seasons of “Abbott Elementary" and “Only Murders in the Building” — both popular and critical successes. | 2022-07-12T05:33:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 'Squid Game,' 'Abbott Elementary' vying for Emmy nominations - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/squid-game-abbott-elementary-vying-for-emmy-nominations/2022/07/12/8974446c-019d-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/squid-game-abbott-elementary-vying-for-emmy-nominations/2022/07/12/8974446c-019d-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html |
Russia-Ukraine war live updates Iran plans to send Russia drones to replenish weapons lost in invasion
Bill Richardson will try to negotiate Griner’s release
Three dead, 31 wounded in Kharkiv airstrikes, officials say
Ukrainian rescue workers clear debris after a Russian strike on a residential building in Chasiv Yar, a city in the eastern Donetsk region. (Gleb Garanich/Reuters)
Iran plans to provide Russia with “up to several hundred” drones to be used in the war in Ukraine, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday. The move indicates Moscow is running out of precision weapons, according to U.S.-based military analysts, who added that closer cooperation between two U.S. adversaries is likely to encourage the West to step up military assistance to Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized Canada for carving out an exemption to Russian sanctions, saying it could be perceived by Moscow as a sign of “weakness” that the Kremlin could exploit. Under pressure from Europe, Ottawa agreed to allow a gas turbine used in the Nord Stream 1 pipeline that had been undergoing repairs in Canada to be returned to Germany. European leaders worry that the pipeline, which pumps gas from Russia to Germany, could be used by the Kremlin as leverage in the war.
The death toll continues to rise after Russian strikes in eastern and northern Ukraine. At least 31 people were killed in Chasiv Yar, a city in the eastern Donetsk region, after a Russian missile hit a residential complex over the weekend. Three others were also killed Monday in Kharkiv after Russian airstrikes damaged a shopping center and residences.
The U.S. Treasury estimates that oil prices could spike above $140 per barrel if the European Union cuts off Russian imports without a collective purchasing agreement that would set a maximum price on Russian oil.
More than 7,200 Ukrainian service members have been reported missing, a Ukrainian official told local media, with the majority of them believed to be in Russian captivity.
Russian and Belarusian athletes risk missing qualifying events for the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, with a ban on their participation to continue, an influential former International Olympic Committee member told the Guardian.
By Washington Post Staff2:41 a.m.
Former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson (D) is expected to travel to Russia to help negotiate the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan, who are imprisoned there.
ABC News was the first to report news that Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations with a history of trying to negotiate the release of U.S. prisoners from other countries, was planning to travel to Russia on behalf of Griner’s and Whelan’s families.
Richardson’s negotiations helped lead to the release of college student Otto Warmbier, who died in Ohio after being held in North Korea.
Speaking during the White House briefing Monday, national security adviser Jake Sullivan refused to confirm details of Richardson’s travel, but he said the Biden administration has “had communications from the National Security Council to former governor Richardson.”
“I won’t comment on his travel or what he intends to do,” Sullivan said. “What I will say is that President Biden is laser focused on a government to government solution to this issue, as he indicated to Brittney Griner in the letter that he wrote to her.”
Sullivan said the administration is “working directly with the Russian government through appropriate channels to try to bring a speedy resolution” to Griner’s and Whelan’s cases.
Richardson is the founder of the Richardson Center, which specializes in negotiating the release of political prisoners across the world.
By Joby Warrick and Amy Wang2:16 a.m.
The planned delivery of unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, disclosed by national security adviser Jake Sullivan at a White House briefing, could provide a significant boost to Moscow’s efforts to find and destroy Western-supplied artillery and other weapons systems that have slowed the advance of Russian troops in recent weeks.
By Annabelle Timsit, Bryan Pietsch and Annabelle C. Chapman2:15 a.m.
Three people were killed and at least 31 injured — including a 4-year-old and a 16-year-old — in airstrikes that hit the northern region of Kharkiv early Monday, the regional governor said, citing Ukraine’s Regional Center of Emergency Medical Assistance.
The city of Kharkiv was hit by three airstrikes overnight that damaged a high-rise residential building, a school and a warehouse, regional governor Oleh Synyehubov said Monday on Telegram.
An 86-year-old woman was rescued from the rubble of the apartment building, he said. Synyehubov noted that all three sites were civilian targets, calling the strikes “absolute terrorism!”
The village of Zolochiv, north of Kharkiv, was also shelled Monday morning, the Suspilne public broadcaster reported. Thirteen buildings were damaged, Zolochiv mayor Victor Kovalenko told Suspilne. Two people were feared dead as a result of the shelling, but the number could not be verified because of the situation on the ground, Kovalenko said.
The attacks came amid an “operational pause” in the fighting in eastern Ukraine announced by Russia’s military last week. The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based think tank, said that while Russian forces regroup, rest and prepare for renewed attacks, they “continue to conduct more-limited offensive operations” in the east and elsewhere, to prevent Ukrainian forces from staging their own counteroffensive. | 2022-07-12T06:42:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Latest Russia-Ukraine war news: Live updates - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/12/russia-ukraine-war-putin-news-live-updates/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/12/russia-ukraine-war-putin-news-live-updates/ |
Bandera, 41, a Chechen who is fighting for Ukraine against Russia, on June 25. (Serhiy Morgunov for The Washington Post)
KHERSON REGION, Ukraine — The long table was set with sliced vegetables, bottles of Coca-Cola and juice, boiled lamb hearts, and kebabs cooked over a fire. Sitting at the head was the man of the hour — the birthday boy. His arms were crossed in front of his broad chest as he leaned back in his chair and observed the rare party.
He was presented a cake covered in chocolate frosting and decorated with the images of two flags — one for the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, the home to which he and his comrades hope to return one day, and one for Ukraine, the country they are fighting for now. What the two have in common is their enemy: Russia.
“There are very few of us — my people have been evicted and exterminated,” said the commander, who asked to be identified only by his call sign, Makhno. He leads a reconnaissance platoon that is part of Ukraine’s military intelligence service.
Within Russia’s forces is a Chechen contingent known as the “Kadyrovites” — named after former Chechen leader Akhmad Kadyrov, who switched sides to join Russia in its second military campaign in Chechnya, in 1999-2000. And within Ukraine’s military are an undisclosed number of Chechens who believe this fight — stopping the Kremlin’s imperial aims — started with their homeland.
Maga, a 29-year-old volunteer fighter in Ukraine, was just a boy during the second of Russia’s wars in Chechnya. One of his earliest memories is hiding in a basement with his family. His grandfather had gone upstairs to observe the Russian jets and helicopters flying overhead, so Maga followed him — afraid to leave his grandfather alone.
Maga’s hatred of Russia runs in the family, he said. His father fought Russia in the two brutal wars for Chechnya’s independence that devastated the republic. The second, begun by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 1999, led to the eventual installation of Ramzan Kadyrov in 2007 — Putin’s personal appointment after his father, Akhmad Kadyrov, was assassinated in 2004.
Two Chechen battalions are reported to be fighting on Ukraine’s side: the Sheikh Mansur Battalion and the Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion — named after legendary Chechen leaders who resisted Russian rule.
Also joining Makhno’s birthday party last month was Bandera. He was living in Belgium when the war started, trying to open a steakhouse. He said he dropped everything — including leaving his wife and seven children — to join Makhno on the front line. The two men had fought Russian forces together in Chechnya starting when they were teenagers.
“The whole world did not understand this before,” Bandera said. “But now it’s starting to get it — that Putin will come knocking on their door next. After Ukraine, it will be other countries in Europe. We came here with the hope that the international community will not play double standards and sit back like it did before with Chechnya.”
Dixon reported from Riga, Latvia. David L. Stern in Kyiv contributed to this report. | 2022-07-12T06:42:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Chechen soldiers fighting for Ukraine - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/12/ukraine-chechen-fighters-russia/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/12/ukraine-chechen-fighters-russia/ |
FRISCO, Texas — Former Dallas Cowboys running back Marion Barber III died of heat stroke, police said.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Gary Moeller, who succeeded Bo Schembechler as Michigan’s coach and later led the Detroit Lions, died Monday. He was 81.
MONTERREY, Mexico — Kristie Mewis scored in the 89th minute to break a stalemate and the United States beat Mexico 1-0 at the CONCACAF W Championship. | 2022-07-12T07:04:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Monday Sports in Brief - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/monday-sports-in-brief/2022/07/12/470f9e5e-01ad-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/monday-sports-in-brief/2022/07/12/470f9e5e-01ad-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html |
The kitchen of Seventy-year-old pensioner Valerii Ilchenko, who lives alone and is refusing to evacuate, in his apartment, in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, Wednesday, July 6, 2022. Now a widower, Ilchenko says he still has no intention of leaving. “I don’t have anywhere to go and don’t want to either. What would I do there? Here at least I can sit on the bench, I can watch TV,” he says in an interview in his single-room apartment. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty) | 2022-07-12T07:04:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Some Ukrainians won't flee areas caught in crosshairs of war - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/some-ukrainians-wont-flee-areas-caught-in-crosshairs-of-war/2022/07/12/fbca28e8-01ab-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/some-ukrainians-wont-flee-areas-caught-in-crosshairs-of-war/2022/07/12/fbca28e8-01ab-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html |
Signage atop a China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec, gas station in Hong Kong. (Anthony Kwan/Bloomberg News)
“Pres Biden reportedly sold oil fr[om] American reserves to China’s Sinopec which Hunter Biden may still b[e] tied to via his financial ventures in China. If report correct that’s OUTRAGEOUS.”
— Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), in a tweet, July 8
Search on Twitter for “Sinopec Hunter Biden” and this is just one of many tweets from GOP lawmakers and supporters that turn up.
What’s going on here? A basic misunderstanding of global oil markets.
This is all started with a straightforward Reuters article that appeared this month, headlined: “Oil from U.S. reserves sent overseas as gasoline prices stay high.” The article noted that government data showed that more than 5 million barrels released from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) has been exported to Europe and Asia in June.
The Biden administration is releasing oil from an emergency supply of crude oil, stored in underground salt caverns along the Gulf Coast, that was first set up in the 1970s. Presidents have occasionally tapped the reserve to mitigate the disruption from an international event — such as spike in oil prices caused by sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
Buried in the Reuters article was this paragraph: “Cargoes of SPR crude were also headed to the Netherlands and to a Reliance refinery in India, an industry source said. A third cargo headed to China, another source said.”
The next day, the right-leaning Washington Free Beacon published an article headlined: “Biden Sold a Million Barrels From U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to China-Owned Gas Giant.” The reporter had dug up an Energy Department news release issued weeks earlier, on April 21, which listed 12 companies that had been awarded contracts to buy the oil after submitting bids.
Buried in the Free Beacon story was the fact that Hunter Biden, the president’s son, had once had business dealings with Sinopec. Rosemont Seneca Bohai, a private equity firm where Biden was principal, invested in a fund generally known as BHR Partners. In 2015, that fund bought a stake in Sinopec Marketing, a Sinopec subsidiary that sells oil products. A Hunter Biden lawyer in 2021 said he “no longer holds any interest, directly or indirectly,” in BHR, though the Washington Examiner reported in March that Chinese records do not yet show that.
Then on Friday, the Federalist, an influential right-wing publication, posted an article headlined with a snappy talking point: “Biden Sold Oil From Emergency Reserves To Chinese Gas Giant Tied To His Scandal-Plagued Son.”
That spurred the congressional tweets. “Hunter is still business partners w/ the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] & they are buying our oil,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) tweeted, linking to the Federalist article. “Can we impeach Joe Biden now???”
You can see how a months-old news release was used to churn up the outrage machine. But here’s why that outrage is misplaced.
What matters for the price of oil is how much oil there is — not who has it.
“Where it goes is essentially irrelevant,” oil industry consultant Philip K. Verleger said.
“This is not some new development from an SPR perspective or from a U.S. crude perspective,” he said in an interview. “It does not matter if it stays in the United States or not to influence the global price.”
“There has been a lot of buzz lately, but I think it’s a complete nothingburger,” said Robert McNally, the founder and president of the Rapidan Energy Group who was responsible for international energy policy while on the National Security Council staff of President George W. Bush. He noted that the law allows SPR drawdowns to be exported.
That’s because in 2015, Congress repealed a 40-year-old law that had prevented the export of U.S. crude oil.
“This means that the SPR cannot dictate whether or not companies export crude oil received from the reserve,” the Energy Department’s press secretary, Charisma Troiano, said. “U.S. companies are permitted to place bids on SPR crude oil; DOE cannot dictate what selected bidders will do with the SPR crude oil after delivery.”
Indeed, as a practical matter, once a company acquires crude oil, it can ship it wherever it wants as a private enterprise, with the destination determined by supply and demand. McNally said oil may be loaded on a ship headed for China — but then the price changes and the ship is redirected to, say, India. U.S. officials only learn know retroactively where oil is sent after delivery — not when oil is delivered to the selected bidder.
In 2011, when President Barack Obama ordered the release of 60 million barrels to ease oil supply disruption caused by the Libyan civil war, oil was purchased by U.S. subsidiaries of companies headquartered in Singapore, the Netherlands and Britain in addition to the United States. “Before the lifting of the crude export ban in 2015, it was unlikely any product delivered to the winning bidder was exported outside the U.S.,” Troiano said. So while U.S. subsidiaries have always been qualified bidders, it’s unlikely that any product delivered to the winning bidder was exported outside the United States at the time. Now, there are no such restrictions.
“Sen. Grassley’s point here is not about where oil goes; it’s about where money goes,” Grassley spokesman Taylor Foy said. “It’s egregious anytime politicians or their families profit from their positions. When that profit comes from the sale of oil at a time when American families are struggling with record or near-record fuel prices, it’s outrageous. As Grassley noted, if reports are correct that President Biden’s son is still financially connected to China’s Sinopec and potentially profited off the sale of oil from our strategic reserve, that’s outrageous. As you likely know, Unipec is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sinopec and one of 12 companies, out of 16 applicants, to win contracts to purchase oil from the American strategic petroleum reserve. Some of Hunter’s financial interests in China were, and reportedly may still be, invested in Sinopec.”
This is an example of how simple facts — SPR oil was sold to a subsidiary of a Chinese company and Hunter Biden once has a business relationship with that company — are turned into something nefarious. The contract was awarded to the highest bidders in a competitively bid process and Hunter Biden was many steps removed from the U.S. trading arm of the Chinese firm. | 2022-07-12T07:52:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Hunter Biden and the sale of U.S. emergency oil reserves to China - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/12/misplaced-outrage-over-hunter-biden-us-oil-reserves-bought-by-china/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/12/misplaced-outrage-over-hunter-biden-us-oil-reserves-bought-by-china/ |
French Parliament to debate Macron’s Uber dealings, as inquiry looms
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron’s allies braced Tuesday for a clash with the opposition in Parliament, amid public outrage over a trove of documents detailing close links between Uber and Macron during his time as economy minister.
The revelations have prompted mounting calls for a parliamentary inquiry, with some members of the opposition describing the content of the documents as a looming “state scandal” and potential evidence of a “collusion of interests.”
The accusations were expected to at least partly dominate the first parliamentary question session since elections last month, set to begin midafternoon local time. Macron lost his absolute majority in last month’s parliamentary vote, leaving him exposed to substantially more scrutiny than in his first term, and under political pressure from his emboldened far left and far-right opponents.
“A president — or someone who wants to become one — cannot be a lobbyist in the service of interests of private companies,” Alexis Corbière, the vice president of the main far-left party’s parliamentary group, said Monday. He and others have suggested a special inquiry that would go beyond the debates expected in the French National Assembly on Tuesday and in the Senate on Wednesday.
The opposition criticism is based on Uber executives’ internal messages from 2013 to 2017, revealed by Le Monde, The Washington Post and other outlets on Sunday, which suggest that Macron’s backing for the company went far beyond what had been known publicly — and on occasion conflicted with the policies of the left-leaning government he served at the time.
The documents are part of the Uber Files, a trove of more than 124,000 internal records obtained by the Guardian and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a D.C.-based nonprofit newsroom, and dozens of other news organizations worldwide.
On Monday, former Uber lobbyist Mark MacGann publicly identified himself as the source of the files. The Post and other project partners previously had agreed to keep his identity confidential.
According to the files, Uber managers and lobbyists believed that Macron was willing to support them by pushing regulators to be “less conservative” in their interpretation of rules limiting the company’s operations, and by attempting to ease rules that hampered the company’s expansion in France. At times, even Uber was surprised by the extent of his backing, internal communications show.
Macron’s allies this week appeared ready to defend his interactions with the company. Budget Minister Gabriel Attal on Tuesday portrayed the outrage as overblown. “As usual, we make a ton of foam with a gram of soap,” he said on BFM television. “I don’t even see an issue.”
But the files could prompt uncomfortable questions for Macron and his supporters in Parliament.
Although the documents end in 2017, the year Macron was elected president, they directly relate to how Macron has tried to implement his agenda since.
Far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon has regularly complained of the “uberization” of French society, an umbrella term used to describe ride-hailing and home delivery services, and he lashed out against Macron’s support for a sector that he views as having undermined worker rights. Mélenchon is now the public face of the biggest opposition bloc in the lower house of Parliament, where the possible inquiry would be expected to take place.
Members and allies of Mélenchon’s party, France Unbowed, were among the most vocal critics this week.
Mathilde Panot, the alliance’s leader in Parliament, suggested that Macron had helped Uber in “looting the country” and criticized the president for having acted as a “lobbyist for a U.S. multinational aiming to permanently deregulate labor law.” | 2022-07-12T08:13:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Uber leak: French Parliament to debate Macron’s dealings - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/12/france-uber-leak-macron-parliament-inquiry/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/12/france-uber-leak-macron-parliament-inquiry/ |
The Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad, India. (Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
Police say the plot took place in a rural part of the western Indian state of Gujarat. The games were streamed on YouTube, but the narrow camera angle did not show the wider backdrop to viewers. Instead, digital crowd noise was piped into the footage, accompanying commentary by a voice that resembled that of Harsha Bhogle, a household name among cricket fans worldwide.
The sham league began a few weeks after the latest season of the Indian Premier League — an actual competition that is widely followed in India and elsewhere — concluded in May. Police say organizers set up a Telegram channel to facilitate wagers from gamblers in Russia, who bet on results that were fixed: Players followed instructions by umpires who were under the control of bookies.
Sports betting is generally prohibited in India. Gujarat police said they received a tip about the fake league last week and conducted a raid as a bogus match was being played. Law enforcement did not identify the suspects, but they arrested two umpires and two organizers, according to Bhavesh Rathod, a state police officer.
“It is a very complicated and technology-based crime. I will have to take help from the cybercrime cell to find the mastermind,” he said.
The fake league’s batters and bowlers — similar to baseball’s batters and pitchers — wore uniforms of major IPL teams Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians and Gurajat Titans. They were paid about $5 per game and are being treated as witnesses instead of suspects, Rathod said.
Cricket was spread globally by British colonizers and today has an international fan base that spans from Britain and Ireland to South Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the Caribbean. Broadcasting rights to the increasingly lucrative IPL were auctioned off in June for some $6 billion spread over five years. That same month, Major League Soccer sold 10 years of global broadcasting rights to Apple for a reported $2.5 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Bats and balls — but not baseball — win over Texas kids
By contrast, the masterminds of the fake cricket league received a fairly modest payoff of about $4,000 from the gamblers, police said. But they had also spent around twice that just on the fake cricket ground, Rathod said, suggesting that the “scam is much bigger.”
Jeong reported from Seoul. Gupta reported from Kolkata, India. David Crawshaw in Sydney contributed to this report. | 2022-07-12T08:35:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Organizers of fake Indian cricket league in Gujarat arrested by police - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/12/india-fake-ipl-cricket-league-gujarat/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/12/india-fake-ipl-cricket-league-gujarat/ |
The Tarawa atoll, in the central Pacific nation of Kiribati, in 2004. The United States has pledged to open an embassy in Kiribati as part of an increased diplomatic presence in the region. (Richard Vogel/AP)
SYDNEY — The United States said Tuesday it would expand its diplomatic presence in the Pacific, as it seeks to counter the growing influence of China in a region of intensifying great-power rivalry.
The new efforts, which will be announced by Vice President Harris during a virtual address to leaders at the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in Fiji, will include two additional U.S. embassies and a tripling of some aid, among other measures.
The diplomatic push comes amid concerns that China has supplanted the United States as the friend of choice for some Pacific island nations. China struck a security agreement with the Solomon Islands in April despite American objections. And the Chinese foreign minister recently signed several other bilateral agreements during an eight-country tour of the region.
China signs security deal with Solomon Islands, alarming neighbors
The Biden administration has sought to shift American focus from the Middle East to Asia. It has withdrawn U.S. troops from Afghanistan, ramped up the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue with Japan, Australia and India, and launched the AUKUS pact with Britain and Australia, which, like the Quad, is seen as a countermeasure to China’s growing military assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific.
Yet China’s security agreement with the Solomon Islands — the site of a key American military victory at Guadalcanal during World War II — appeared to catch the United States and its close regional allies, Australia and New Zealand, by surprise.
The new diplomatic initiatives come as the United States tries to restore some of its influence in the region.
“We are significantly stepping up our game in the Pacific islands,” said a senior administration official who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity ahead of the vice president’s PIF appearance. The official said the United States was not asking Pacific island nations to choose between it and China.
“We are focusing on our own engagement and our own interests and our own support,” the official said. “Of course contrasts [with China] will be made, and we would like to think that contrast looks favorably on us, where we’ve been a responsible security actor in the region, in fact, in the entire Indo-Pacific, for many decades and have helped to preserve a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
Among the measures Harris will announce to Pacific leaders will be new U.S. embassies in Kiribati and Tonga. In 2019, Kiribati and the Solomon Islands both switched their diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China, underscoring the inroads Beijing has made in the region.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited both countries during his Pacific tour in late May and signed bilateral agreements with each.
Kiribati announced this week that it was withdrawing from the PIF, purportedly over a leadership dispute, although an opposition leader told the Guardian the withdrawal was due to Chinese pressure. China has denied that.
The U.S. official said that the Biden administration was “concerned” by Kiribati’s withdrawal but that discussions over the issue are ongoing.
Harris will also announce that the administration aims to triple funding for economic development and ocean resilience in the region to $60 million a year for the next decade, though Congress will have to approve the increase. Some of the funds would go toward combating the impact of climate change on the Pacific island nations, which are among the world’s most vulnerable.
The United States will also appoint its first envoy to the Pacific Islands Forum, which, despite infighting, has emerged as a key regional bloc. In a sign of the region’s growing geopolitical importance, the Biden administration will also design and release its first national strategy specifically devoted to the Pacific islands.
Harris will announce the return of the Peace Corps to Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and Vanuatu after volunteers were withdrawn during the pandemic. The Biden administration is also exploring expanding the program to additional Pacific island countries.
“We are expanding our footprint and making sure we have the people and apparatus in place to deepen our cooperation on a day-to-day basis and to deliver concrete results,” the senior administration official said.
China fails on Pacific pact, but still seeks to boost regional influence
But the Solomon Islands show the limitations of such outreach. In February, the Biden administration announced it would reopen its long-shuttered embassy in the nation’s capital, Honiara, only for China to announce its security agreement two months later.
That agreement stirred fears of a Chinese military base roughly 1,000 miles from Australian shores, though China and the Solomon Islands denied that would happen. China recently failed in an attempt to strike a similar but far broader security agreement with 10 Pacific island countries, but Beijing has suggested it will try again.
Australia’s recently elected center-left Labor government has also promised to boost diplomacy, aid and military ties to Pacific island nations to counter Beijing’s growing influence.
Despite a slight easing of tensions between the two countries, highlighted by the first ministerial meetings in three years, China has yet to lift punishing tariffs on Australia.
During a visit to Washington this week, Richard Marles, the Australian defense minister and deputy prime minister, said the United States and Australia will need to increase their presence in the Indo-Pacific, warning that a failure to maintain a balance of power could be “catastrophic.” | 2022-07-12T09:44:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Kamala Harris to announce U.S. Pacific push amid China worries - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/12/kamala-harris-pacific-islands-us-china/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/12/kamala-harris-pacific-islands-us-china/ |
Basil Rajapaksa after he was appointed as country's finance minister last year. He stepped down in April amid anti-government protests and a nationwide economic crisis. (Eranga Jayawardena/AP)
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Basil Rajapaksa, the former Sri Lankan finance minister and brother of embattled president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was blocked at the international airport outside the country’s capital on Tuesday as he tried to flee, two people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post.
Basil Rajapaksa arrived at the airport outside Colombo in a black van, without his family, before trying to board Emirates flight No. 649 to Dubai departing shortly after 3 a.m. local time, according to an airport official, who confirmed an eyewitness account and spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the situation.
The former finance minister had attempted to enter through a VIP entrance, where security workers blocked him, saying he was not a VIP, the people familiar with the incident said. He then went to a commercial fast-track entrance called the “Silk Route,” where immigration officials declined to authorize his departure. Bloomberg News first reported that Basil Rajapaksa was stopped from leaving.
The incident reflected the national mood against the former minister and his disgraced family. He had the option to attempt to go through the general customs area, the people said, but there was a commotion there, with passengers shouting, so he left the airport.
Rajapaksa was forced to step down as finance minister in April as anti-government protests over economic despair gathered momentum. Those tensions have now boiled over to a total collapse of the country’s economy amid extreme fuel and food shortages.
On Saturday, protesters stormed the president’s residence, cooking in his kitchens, leaping into the swimming pool and jumping on his bed. The president had moved out the day before.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa reiterated on Monday that he would resign from the presidency effective Wednesday. The Post was not able to immediately reach Basil Rajapaksa for comment.
Since protesters stormed the president’s home, there has been intense speculation about his whereabouts, which remain unknown. Rumors that he left the country spread after the Parliament speaker, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, said in an interview with the BBC that he had departed and intended to return for his resignation. He later retracted his claim to another news outlet.
Masih reported from New Delhi and Pietsch from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. | 2022-07-12T09:45:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ex-finance minister Basil Rajapaksa blocked from fleeing Sri Lanka - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/12/sri-lanka-rajapaksa-flee-airport/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/12/sri-lanka-rajapaksa-flee-airport/ |
The living room of a unit at the Branches, one of four new apartment buildings on the grounds where Fannie Mae once had its headquarters. (Jennifer Hughes/Roadside Development)
The transformation of the former Fannie Mae headquarters on Wisconsin Avenue NW, anticipated to be complete by the end of the year, will include 1.1 million square feet of residential, retail and office space along with green space such as the one-acre front lawn where community events will be held. A Wegmans grocery is scheduled to open in July. And residents have moved into the Branches, the first of four apartment buildings in the community, known as City Ridge.
Its joint venture partners, Roadside Development and North America Sekisui House, chose architect Shalom Baranes for the Branches building, which has interiors by Akseizer Design Group. Bozzuto will manage the 157-unit building. The environmentally conscious design of City Ridge earned it the LEED v4 Neighborhood Development Gold certification, making it the first community in D.C. and the second nationally to achieve that designation. The landscape design is by Michael Vergason Landscape Architects, which also created the current landscapes at Washington National Cathedral. The community connects with Glover Archbold Park.
Three more apartment buildings — the Coterie, Crescendo and Botanica — are expected to open for residents this summer and fall for a total of 690 units. Residents of all buildings will be able to take advantage of the community’s amenity system, which will include six rooftop areas with a greenhouse, gardens and space to relax and entertain; an aerial yoga studio; a multisport simulator; private event spaces; 24-hour fitness studios; a co-working space with private alcoves and a terrace; libraries; a makerspace studio with workshops for residents; a residents-only playground; and a restaurant-style pizza oven and smoker.
The Branches has two connected towers and units with one to three bedrooms, nearly half including private outdoor space. The apartments range in size from a 591-square-foot one-bedroom, one-bathroom unit that rents for $2,579 a month to a 1,627-square-foot penthouse unit with two bedrooms and two bathrooms that rents for $8,959 a month.
The apartments have floors that resemble wood, a washer and dryer, stainless-steel appliances, quartz countertops, porcelain tile backsplashes and a pantry.
Residents and office tenants at City Ridge can join the Ridge Club, a swimming pool and social club with indoor-outdoor dining, a theater screen for community events, swimming pools, cabanas that can be reserved, a locker room and lounge space.
Other retail coming to City Ridge includes King Street Oyster Bar, Tatte Bakery & Cafe, Taco Bamba, KinderCare, Bank of America and an Equinox fitness center.
More information on the apartments is available here. | 2022-07-12T10:06:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | First residents move into former Fannie Mae headquarters - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/07/12/first-residents-move-into-former-fannie-mae-headquarters/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/07/12/first-residents-move-into-former-fannie-mae-headquarters/ |
When he resigned as British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson sought to reassure the country that its “brilliant and Darwinian system” could be trusted to select his successor. Filling the post falls to his Conservative Party, since traditionally the head of the biggest party in Parliament also holds the top job in government. Starting with a crowded field of candidates, the process is expected to play out over a series of weeks as contenders compete to shore up support and survive successive rounds of selection from fellow-Tory lawmakers and finally rank-and-file party members.
1. How does the leader get selected?
The process is governed by a group of Conservative members of Parliament, or MPs, known as the 1922 committee. The name is a reference to a general election a century ago, which was won by the Conservatives after the collapse of a coalition government. Tory MPs put themselves forward as candidates and form campaign teams to seek the backing of the party’s lawmakers. The field is whittled down in a series of ballots until only two remain, at which point their names are sent to grassroots Tory members across the country for a vote on the final choice.
It will take about eight weeks. At the last such vote in 2019, there were 10 candidates and six rounds of balloting were needed before the final two candidates emerged. Conservatives want the contest to be as speedy as possible, and are keen to reduce the number of candidates to a final two before Parliament goes on its summer recess on July 21. The first ballot of Conservative MPs was due to be held on July 13 and the party’s new leader, and therefore the UK’s next prime minister, will be announced on Sept. 5, Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee, told the BBC. The leadership finalists will make a six-week campaigning tour of the UK over the summer. Johnson, who is known for his rhetorical flourishes, compared the political process to the evolutionary system for species outlined by British naturalist Charles Darwin.
Johnson said in his resignation speech on July 7 that he intended to stay on as caretaker premier until a new leader is in place, as his predecessor Theresa May did. It’s not clear if his party will allow him to remain for that long. Opposition leader Keir Starmer said that if Johnson were to stay on, his Labour Party would bring a vote of no confidence in Parliament. Such a vote, held among all MPs in the House of Commons, was expected to fail because it would require significant support among Conservatives, who are expected to vote against it because it could trigger an early election.
4. What are the chances of an early election?
It’s unlikely. It’s an outcome Conservative MPs want to avoid -- at least right now -- as their party has been trailing Labour in the polls. The next election isn’t due until January 2025, though it could be held earlier. The Tories currently hold 358 seats out of the total 650, giving them a 66-seat simple majority and a slightly larger working margin because there are some non-voting MPs. Generally the ruling party is the one with the most seats in Parliament, although minority governments and coalitions are possible.
5. Who’s in the running to be the next PM?
Leading potential contenders include Rishi Sunak, whose decision to quit as Chancellor prompted the dramatic mass revolt from his ministers to resign, and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, a free-market Conservative who has been popular with the party’s grassroots. Health Secretary Sajid Javid and Nadhim Zahawi, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, may both attract support, as could former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt. Other leadership contenders include Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt, viewed in the party as having strong pro-Brexit credentials, charisma and good leadership qualities, as well as Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, Attorney General Suella Braverman and Tom Tugendhat, centrist chair of the Commons foreign affairs select committee. | 2022-07-12T10:06:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How UK’s Tories Will Elect Leader to Replace Johnson - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/howuks-tories-will-electleader-to-replace-johnson/2022/07/12/4cb41ebc-01c5-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/howuks-tories-will-electleader-to-replace-johnson/2022/07/12/4cb41ebc-01c5-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html |
Even after a string of controversies, Schefter’s star is only rising at ESPN. No pictures, please.
Adam Schefter poses at Bryant and Cooper Steakhouse in Roslyn, N.Y. (Joe Carrotta/For the Washington Post)
Adam Schefter did not want to be photographed.
He was in the parking lot of an upscale steakhouse, in a leafy Long Island suburb near where he lives, to talk to a reporter about his job as ESPN’s preeminent NFL “insider.” A photographer had tagged along, but Schefter was skeptical.
“I was at a charity event, and they took my picture,” he said. “It’s like I was trying to do a good thing. Now the picture shows up everywhere when I screw up.”
Schefter is shorter than he appears on TV, but his brawny frame filled out his tailored blue suit. He works out daily, he says, a Peloton-and-push-up regimen that helps give him the stamina to be up before dawn and to stay on top of the news all day, all season, all year.
He is the biggest reporter covering America’s biggest sport on America’s biggest sports network. Earlier this year, he signed a new contract worth around $9 million per year, according to one report, cementing his status in the NFL ecosystem and at ESPN. His Twitter feed has nearly 10 million followers and is a clearinghouse for NFL news big and small. Tom Brady’s short-lived retirement, Russell Wilson getting traded to Denver, Tyreek Hill sent to Miami, Andrew Luck’s shocking exit — you heard it all first from Schefter.
Those sorts of scoops have made Schefter, 55, an invaluable resource not just for fantasy football players and bettors but for coaches, players, executives and owners. “He’s so plugged in,” Los Angeles Rams Coach Sean McVay said in an interview. It’s not just that Schefter’s first but that he’s a conduit of information, incoming and outgoing, about all of the league’s happenings. “I mean, trades, people you’re interested in drafting, free agency hirings,” McVay said. “I will ask. He’s steered me in the right direction.”
If big-city columnists or Sports Illustrated feature writers used to be the most prominent jobs in sports media, now it is the insider. Like Adrian Wojnarowski, whose NBA news breaks for ESPN have their own hashtag, or Shams Charania of Stadium and the Athletic, Schefter has ascended to the heights of the job.
“I have learned I don’t always have to be first,” Schefter would say at lunch that day. “I can lean on my editors more. When there is sensitive information, I need to take a pause, to take a beat. I’ve learned that over the past year.”
First, though, the photograph.
“What do you think?” Schefter asked his agent, David Koonin, who had accompanied him to lunch. Photos were usually standard for a profile, Koonin answered. Schefter, begrudgingly, stood for a handful of shots.
“I want you to get what you need,” he told the photographer. “I hope I never f---ing see them. I don’t need any more attention.”
‘Super sleuth’
Schefter grew up on the south shore of Long Island. A high school basketball benchwarmer, he didn’t have much talent, but the idea that he could score a basket and find his name in the agate section of the newspaper the next day fascinated him. And as a die-hard fan of New York’s teams, he loved combing the sports page of his hometown paper, Newsday, for the snippets of information that now populate Twitter, hints at where a Jets or Giants player might go or who might be nursing an injury.
His parents ran a string of modest five-and-dime stores, and his childhood had few frills. “We didn’t take vacations,” he said. “I knew that I wanted more. The only way I knew how to get there was to work.”
He traces his knack for the compulsive nature of his job to childhood, when he says he never missed a day of school. When he arrived at Michigan for college, Schefter was rejected by the fraternity he tried to pledge. The basketball team didn’t need a water boy, and the football team didn’t need an equipment manager, so he went to the newspaper.
At a few events he covered, he introduced himself to Mitch Albom, the famed Detroit columnist. “That’s who I wanted to be,” Schefter said. “I even tried to write those one-sentence paragraphs like he did.”
Eventually, Albom asked Schefter to be a research assistant on two of his books, including one about Michigan’s Fab Five. One day, Albom called up with an assignment: He needed to find Jalen Rose’s dad, a former NBA star named Jimmy Walker whom Rose had never met. Schefter, who by then had earned a graduate journalism degree from Northwestern, tracked down a phone number for Walker and passed it to Albom. Albom found him and later introduced him to Rose.
Schefter still remembers what Albom said to him then: “You must be some kind of a super sleuth or something.”
The first NFL reporter to specialize in providing sports news “nuggets” was the Boston Globe’s Will McDonough, who decades ago wrote a weekly column collecting news and rumors from around the league. In a sign of how different that era was, he used to call around to other reporters to collect notes on their teams.
Not long after Schefter got his first full-time job, covering the Denver Broncos for the Rocky Mountain News, he met McDonough at the airport. McDonough, who had parlayed his column into a network TV gig, was picked up by a limousine. A young and impressed Schefter hopped a ride. He recalled McDonough’s advice: Always have four solid league sources, and you’ll be in good shape to break news. Schefter laughs now, thinking of his dozens, if not hundreds, of tipsters.
He came to dominate the Broncos beat. Longtime Broncos coach Mike Shanahan said he liked to talk to Schefter because Schefter already knew everything. “People said, ‘Oh, Mike tells him everything,’ but he did his homework,” Shanahan said. “He talked to so many people. He would tell me about the sleepers in the NFL draft.”
Schefter once reported a signing so quickly that it prompted a puzzled Shanahan to ask him how he knew. Schefter answered, “Everybody has an agent.”
“That’s all he was doing,” Shanahan said. “All he does is communicate with people.”
“The more information you have, the more people talk to you,” Schefter said, describing his reporting mantra. “And the more people talk to you, the more information you have.”
There were competitors in Denver who wondered whether Schefter’s relationship with Shanahan was too cozy; Schefter has proudly told a story that Shanahan sought, and received, his advice when the team was considering a trade of running back Clinton Portis. But to Schefter, that was the job. “I liked being privy to things going on,” he said. “My job was to break that story, and I did.”
In 2004, Schefter was tapped as the lead reporter for the league’s newly launched NFL Network. There were advantages built into the perch: Jerry Jones once stood up at a league meeting and told teams they should give their news to NFL Network, which usually meant Schefter, to build its credibility and popularity. But Schefter was also preternaturally good at the job. On the network’s first NFL draft telecast, Schefter broke the news that Mario Williams, not Reggie Bush, would be the first pick.
“It put us on the map as a network,” said Rich Eisen, a former colleague of Schefter’s. And Schefter parlayed his good relationship with Shanahan into more relationships, including with New England Coach Bill Belichick. Shanahan said he called Belichick to tell him that Schefter was a reporter he could trust; a few years later, Belichick called back and confirmed Shanahan was right.
Schefter was also early to understand an information ecosystem that was being upended by technology. He created email lists on his Blackberry that he would separate into general managers, coaches, executives and owners. When he filed a story or had news, he would fire it off to his lists as he was also sending it to the news desk. One former NFL executive described this as “Twitter before Twitter.”
When Schefter’s NFL Network contract came up, the sides played hardball. Schefter signed a new deal with ESPN, but NFL Network wouldn’t let him out of his contract. Instead, it kept him off the air for six months, locked him out of his office and, worst of all, wiped all of his contacts from his phone. Before he could break any news in his new job, he had to rebuild his contacts.
Always be texting
Schefter sat at a table in a corner of the restaurant and laid two phones on top of the white tablecloth. For the next two hours, they never stopped buzzing.
One text offered a heads-up that the Rams’ Aaron Donald and Cooper Kupp would be signing contract extensions. That afternoon, Schefter would break the Donald news, feeding a news cycle across ESPN’s many platforms.
Inside and outside the network, there is a fascination with the job of the insider because so much of it is ephemeral. There are news breakers at other networks, too, and often one reporter beats another by minutes, or even seconds. Several reporters described group text messages that agents have so that no one feels slighted. Usually, the news is broken on Twitter, not on TV or ESPN.com.
Seth Markman, who oversees ESPN’s NFL studio coverage and recruited Schefter, deemed his time so valuable that he hired him a car service so he could report during his commutes. There is internal research, Markman said, that shows the impact of Schefter’s reporting. When Schefter broke the news that Odell Beckham Jr. was signing with the Rams last fall, ESPN saw an immediate ratings bump. Further, Markman said, data shows viewers stick around and watch Schefter when he appears on TV. But nothing is more important than being the place sports fans turn, and perhaps no one reinforces that kind of branding better than Schefter.
With so much at stake, the competition for scoops is fierce. One agent told of hearing NFL reporters call begging for scoops, even saying their own upcoming contract negotiations were dependent on their ability to break news. When Sports Illustrated followed Schefter around during the opening day of NFL free agency a few years ago, the story described Markman awarding “points” to reporters based on how many signings they broke. The tally, according to the story, found Schefter far ahead. But Ian Rapoport, NFL Network’s insider, went through Markman’s math and believed the tally hadn’t given him proper credit; he sought a correction from Sports Illustrated.
Markman has since discontinued the points system, but the battle for every morsel of news has only intensified because the demand is real. So are the rewards, even if it baffles some of the reporters themselves. “None of us are worth what we’re paid,” one NFL insider said.
Schefter, meanwhile, maintains there is a personal touch to the work. He remembers the wives and children of his sources. And Schefter has grown famous among some in the NFL orbit for his holiday gifts. He has a list of 150 recipients who receive, depending on the year, Vineyard Vines ties or Scotch or chocolate or ice cream. They go mostly to sources but also to some ESPN co-workers and others. One year he spent $16,000 on chocolate.
Out of his lane
On Nov. 21, Schefter tweeted: “Minnesota Vikings’ RB Dalvin Cook is the victim of domestic abuse and extortion — there’s pending litigation, according to his agent Zac Hiller.” Schefter tweeted again, citing Hiller, and he reported a member of the military had stolen a garage door opener “and Maced Cook directly in his eyes immediately upon illegally entering.”
The tweets were a bombshell. But a couple of hours later, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune published a story that described the woman, Gracelyn Trimble, as Cook’s ex-girlfriend and reported she was suing Cook for alleged domestic violence. Disturbing images of Trimble’s alleged injuries also surfaced.
The Star-Tribune had received a tip about the pending lawsuit and spent days reporting the story, according to multiple people who worked on it. Schefter’s tweet had come an hour after reporters had reached out to Cook’s agent seeking comment. He had reported half of a complicated story. ESPN eventually ran a news story that covered both accounts, and Schefter tweeted it. Cook has sued Trimble, alleging fraud and defamation.
Dan Cragg, Trimble’s lawyer, said that the next day, another ESPN reporter, Dan Murphy, called him to do follow-up reporting on the case. According to Cragg, Murphy criticized the ethics of Schefter’s reporting. (Murphy, in an interview, said he recalled only sympathizing with Cragg’s frustrations about Schefter’s reporting.)
“I wish in hindsight that I had done it differently,” Schefter said over lunch. But he also insisted he hadn’t dashed off the tweet. He reached out to the Vikings and the NFL, he said (though he didn’t talk to ESPN’s news desk).
But the result was sloppy. Compounding the mistake, a few months later, Schefter tweeted quarterback Watson’s belief that the truth was out after he wasn’t indicted by a grand jury. It had a similar feeling: that Schefter was willing to push the narrative of a player accused of violence against women.
To Schefter’s friends and defenders, the incidents were the product of the speed and pressure of his job. Markman noted Schefter’s body of work and said that while ESPN has made no specific policy adjustments, he and Schefter have talked and he is more careful now about seeking input from editors. When Schefter reported over Memorial Day weekend the death of a player, he ran all of the language by the news desk. Bob Ley, the former host of ESPN’s heralded news magazine, “Outside the Lines,” also defended Schefter’s news judgment and ethics. “I know Adam’s values,” Ley said.
But the mistakes were part of a growing body of incidents that left Schefter facing criticism from readers and other journalists. There was the “Mr. Editor” email, which Schefter dismissed as a joke, and a report that Schefter and New England owner Bob Kraft were investors in the same gambling company, which Schefter also dismissed as inconsequential. “If an NFL owner owns Apple stock, do we share an investment there, too?” he asked. (ESPN declined to comment on whether it has a policy prohibiting reporters from sharing full stories with sources.)
Schefter also pointed out that both of the tweets cited sources, not his opinion, and multiple national NFL reporters acknowledged that some of their reporting is parroting what agents say. When a contract is first reported, for instance, the value is often inflated initially because of hard-to-reach bonuses and because NFL contracts aren’t guaranteed. Within the transaction ecosystem, it’s a victimless crime, they said, because teams don’t care about the exact numbers and fans only care about where a player signs. But those same standards don’t work outside of transaction reporting.
Charania, the NBA reporter, wrote a story last year that explained, citing anonymous sources, that Kyrie Irving’s decision not to receive a coronavirus vaccination was an effort to be a “voice for the voiceless.” Multiple reporters at the Athletic raised concerns internally about the piece, including how the publication should handle Charania’s reporting beyond transactions. (Charania did not reply to a request for comment.)
“I should stay in my lane,” Schefter said. Though in his next breath he remained adamant that he could do more difficult and adversarial work. “I’m a reporter,” he said. “I get information. I found Jimmy Walker, right?”
‘You feel it’
Before Schefter re-signed with ESPN, there were rumblings around the industry that a gambling company such as DraftKings or FanDuel might poach him, hoping to draw his massive following to place bets on its platforms. Schefter said he never explored free agency extensively. He had breakfast earlier this year with ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro, who told him how much ESPN valued and appreciated his work, and he re-signed soon after.
Asked if his sources would still want to break news with him if he were working for a gambling company, he answered, “Would my Twitter feed be coming with me?” He reached for one of his phones and pulled up a recent tweet of the image of the new Madden video game cover, showing that it garnered 8 million impressions. (His tweet announcing that Colin Kaepernick would have a workout with the Las Vegas Raiders received 9 million impressions.)
Schefter knows this is his most valuable commodity. When pitching sources to break their news, he cites that reach. Several ESPN colleagues said Schefter can be generous with his Twitter feed, such as when he helped publicize a fund that raised more than $1 million to support the son of a colleague who died after a cancer battle.
While Schefter mostly gushes about ESPN, the biggest perk to leaving the network would have been an off-ramp from the hours and demands of the role. It bothers him that people don’t appreciate how hard he works the beat. “People used to say I got everything from Shanahan, then I got everything from the league, now I get everything from agents,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for 30 years, and information comes from everywhere.”
Chris Mortensen, another ESPN insider, called Schefter “the best to ever do what we do.” Mortensen set boundaries on his time, such as when Markman once called him on Christmas to do a live hit on ESPN. Mortensen said no; Schefter never does. “I’ve never set boundaries,” Schefter said. “That’s one of the reasons ESPN and I get along so well.”
Schefter said he doesn’t consider himself a talented writer or TV presenter; he is armed only with his work ethic and his ability to always be on. He tries to respond to every text message within seconds.
Asked if he still had fun doing the job, Schefter said it has changed, and maybe he has, too. “Everything is heavier,” he said. “And so much faster. My wife tells me it’s stressful to eat with me because I eat so fast. Did I use to eat this fast? I don’t know.”
Then he brightened, thinking of a moment from this year’s NFL draft. He was at his son’s graduation and supposed to be off, but the details of a huge trade between the Philadelphia Eagles and New Orleans Saints came trickling in.
“You’re ... getting the information in real time,” he said, his voice rising. “It’s eight picks; it’s going to reshape the whole draft, even the league. There’s a rush to that, and you feel it.”
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The minor league broadcaster you have to hear to believe | 2022-07-12T10:07:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | ESPN’s Adam Schefter, amid scoops and missteps, isn’t slowing down - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/12/adam-schefter-espn-nfl-/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/12/adam-schefter-espn-nfl-/ |
Mexican president meets Biden amid tensions over migration and fentanyl
President Biden welcomes Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at the White House on Nov. 18, 2021. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
MEXICO CITY — A month after boycotting President Biden’s Western Hemisphere summit, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador goes to the White House on Tuesday for a make-up meeting amid rising concerns over migration, trade and the flow of fentanyl across the southwest U.S. border.
Mexico is the No. 2 U.S. trading partner, and the countries are inextricably bound by geography and culture — with Mexico being the top source of unauthorized migrants and illegal drugs reaching the United States. Flowing the other way are guns used in Mexico’s spectacular organized-crime violence. Despite the neighbors’ common interests, relations have remained rocky, even as Biden has sought to chart a more diplomatic course than former president Donald Trump.
López Obrador, the first modern Mexican leader to emerge from the leftist opposition, delights in tweaking the United States. On July 4, he proposed a campaign to dismantle the Statue of Liberty if a U.S. judge handed a life sentence to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
More serious was his snub of the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles. The Mexican president announced he would skip the June event unless the leftist autocratic leaders of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela were invited. Several Central American leaders followed his lead, casting a shadow over Biden’s premier gathering with Latin American leaders.
López Obrador’s boycott “has only further contributed to fears surrounding the shaky health of Mexico’s democracy and its partnership with the United States,” Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote in the Mexican newspaper Reforma. (López Obrador, widely known as AMLO, said his critics in the U.S. Senate had “a lot of hate for the Cuban people.”)
AMLO is Mexico's strongest president in decades. Some say he's too strong.
Tuesday’s meeting marks the second face-to-face talks between the U.S. and Mexican presidents. They are expected to address several long-running concerns — migration, narcotics trafficking and the economy — as well as their sharp divisions over López Obrador’s nationalistic energy policies.
Biden, like Trump, has relied on Mexico to serve as a buffer as migration has surged through the hemisphere. The Democrat is under heavy pressure as midterm elections approach and detentions at the border hit record levels. López Obrador’s government has obliged, detaining nearly twice as many migrants in the first third of 2022 compared with the same period last year.
Yet at the same time, a growing number of Mexicans are headed to the United States, reversing a decade-long decline in such migration ending in 2019. Mexicans now make up the largest group of people apprehended at the U.S. southwest border, with more than 560,000 detentions in the first eight months of fiscal 2022 — a 35 percent jump over the same period in 2021.
López Obrador is keen to obtain more temporary U.S. work visas for Mexicans and Central Americans, and the two countries are working on streamlining procedures for applicants.
The U.S. government is also worried about skyrocketing drug-overdose deaths from fentanyl, most of which comes from Mexico. López Obrador has had an icy relationship with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, alleging it became too involved in Mexico’s domestic affairs during prior governments. For years, his government played down Mexico’s role in the fentanyl trade.
Yet it has dramatically stepped up raids on synthetic drug labs and seizures of fentanyl in recent months, in what has been perceived as a reaction to American pressure.
Roberto Velasco, chief of the North America bureau at the Mexican Foreign Ministry, said the move reflected Mexico’s concerns about the impact of synthetic drugs at home. “We are seeing growing use of fentanyl in our country,” although it’s still much less than in the United States, he said in an interview.
López Obrador arrives at the meeting deeply concerned about inflation, which has rocketed to 7.99 percent, a 21-year high. The two presidents are expected to discuss how to ensure adequate supplies of grains, fertilizer and other agricultural goods as prices jump and shortages emerge around the globe.
While often described as a populist, the Mexican leader has pursued cautious fiscal policies and a stable peso, and supported the renovation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Yet U.S. manufacturers, lawmakers and energy companies accuse López Obrador of contradicting the spirit of the new trade deal by seeking to limit competition, particularly in the electric power sector.
López Obrador tried last spring to reverse a 2013 reform that opened the state-run electricity sector to foreign investment, complaining it gave unfair advantages to the private firms, many of them providers of green energy. While that didn’t pass, international companies have complained that he’s delayed permits for renewable energy installations and taken other actions to stymie their growth.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai’s office said in a statement in March that it had “serious concerns with the deteriorating trajectory of Mexico’s energy policies.” Asked recently whether she would seek formal consultations with Mexico on its alleged violations of the trade agreement, she said: “I have made very clear that all options are on the table.” | 2022-07-12T10:19:38Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Mexico’s AMLO meets Biden amid tensions over migration and fentanyl - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/12/lopez-obrador-biden-meeting-white-house/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/12/lopez-obrador-biden-meeting-white-house/ |
A Trump-shaped monster returns to the Jan. 6 hearings
At the Jan. 6 hearings, a familiar character comes back to haunt us: the off-screen villain
Perspective by Ann Hornaday
Former president Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a rally in Des Moines in October 2021. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
As the Jan. 6 hearings resume this week, they will advance what has become the must-see TV series of the summer: Compulsively watchable and DVR-ready, the proceedings of the House committee investigating the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol have been expertly produced with a keen eye toward building suspense, audience engagement and relentless forward momentum.
Not surprisingly, the hearings have also exhibited some of the most time-honored tropes of classic cinema: Taking a page from Star Wars, they’ve maximized the benefits of serial storytelling, with callbacks to previous episodes and tantalizing previews of scenes to come. Committee Chairman Bennie G. Thompson’s opening remarks play like one of George Lucas’s opening crawls, bringing viewers up to speed on how much ammunition the Rebel Alliance has gathered in its fight against the Galactic Empire.
And they’ve obeyed a cardinal rule of moviemaking: Keep the villain off-screen as long as you can.
Lurking unseen during the hearings, former president Donald Trump might as well be the shark in “Jaws” or Keyser Söze in “The Usual Suspects,” his threat looming larger the longer we can’t see him. As witnesses to his lies, manipulations and shameless efforts to overthrow the 2020 election have come forward, what has emerged is less an evil mastermind than a petty, tyrannical bully, desperate to hold on to power at any cost. At varying points, Trump has resembled the Great and Powerful Oz, terrifying until he’s revealed to be a frightened little man. Or he’s shape-shifted into Orson Welles’s Harry Lime — the oily, amoral black marketeer at the center of the 1949 film noir “The Third Man.” Or a James Bond baddie throwing world-ending tantrums in some faraway lair.
Or maybe Logan Roy secreted away in a Manhattan penthouse or absconding on his private jet.
That’s the image purveyed by “Unprecedented,” Alex Holder’s three-hour documentary that premiered on Discovery Plus on Sunday. Holder, who testified before the House committee on June 23, goes out of his way to compare Trump and his children to the wealthy, entitled Roys, whose dysfunctional squabbling and dizzying ambition anchor HBO’s runaway hit “Succession.” Each episode of “Unprecedented” begins with swooping music reminiscent of Nicholas Britell’s magnificent “Succession” score, accompanying scratchy montages similar to the TV show’s enigmatic opening credits.
Its dramatic production values notwithstanding, “Unprecedented” doesn’t add much to the Trump canon. Rather, it repackages what we already know into a psycho-biographical Shiv-vs.-Kendall narrative of dynastic competition and generational trauma, following Ivanka, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. on the 2020 campaign trail as they “audition” for their father’s approval, as one of the film’s talking heads puts it.
Trump himself is interviewed — Holder snagged his last sit-down at the White House — but, like his children, he avoids the subject of Jan. 6, calling it “a sad day” before seeking to justify the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol. His followers were “angry from the standpoint of what happened in the election,” he explains, “because they’re smart, and they see.”
Compared with the explosive June 28 testimony of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, “Unprecedented” lands with a fizzle and, finally, a shrug. And even with the former president right there on screen, he’s still a Trump-shaped hole — a hustler and showman devoid of moral character despite his children’s best efforts to sell him as “the people’s president” and staunch defender of law and order.
Those descriptions ring offensively hollow compared with the images conjured by U.S. Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards during her stunning testimony at the committee’s first hearing on June 9, when she recalled slipping in people’s blood during the seditious attack on the Capitol, which she described as “a war scene.” Or Georgia election worker Shaye Moss recounting in chilling detail the death threats she received after being slimed by Trump through his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
The most lurid word-pictures so far have been brought to life by Hutchinson at the Jan. 6 committee’s two-hour cliffhanger in June: Few will forget her story of Trump literally fighting a member of his Secret Service detail in a black Suburban, or ketchup running down the Oval Office dining room wall like so much fake blood in a B-movie.
After Hutchinson wrapped up her testimony, Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney indicated that Trump’s literal power grab and his penchant for throwing White House china might have been McGuffins: The real aim of the surprise hearing became clear when she read threatening texts that could leave Trump and his associates vulnerable to charges of intimidating and tampering with witnesses. In a third-act twist, the action thriller “White House Down: Gimme the Steering Wheel” segued into the mob drama “Goodfellas,” as rebooted by Aaron Sorkin.
This week’s hearings promise to “connect the dots” between Trump and his legions of followers on the extremist right, who demanded and got from their idol the virulent form of fan service that Jan. 6 epitomized so bloodily. Once again, the Jan. 6 committee — using Trump’s template of politics-as-entertainment — can be counted on to dole out information carefully enough to keep the audience oriented and on edge. No doubt they will also serve up some memorable plot points, bombshells and — if Stephen K. Bannon’s potential agreement to testify is any indication — a few red herrings.
Meanwhile, the Trump-shaped hole at the story’s center will come more fully into focus as a monster willing to shred the Constitution and every other democratic norm in the name of narcissistic ego. It will be up to the audience (and perhaps the Justice Department) to decide whether this country can afford to greenlight a sequel. | 2022-07-12T10:32:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | A Trump-shaped monster returns to the Jan. 6 hearings - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/movies/2022/07/12/jan-6-hearings-trump-monster/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/movies/2022/07/12/jan-6-hearings-trump-monster/ |
“I heard several kids whisper, ‘I love you — be good and have fun,’ ” library technician Linda Hori says
Children's librarian Elizabeth Saucedo reads “Goodnight Moon” at the Goleta Valley Library's stuffed-animal sleepover in Goleta, Calif., in June. Kids left their stuffed toys overnight. (Linda Hori)
With book bans, heated political debates and a pandemic to deal with, it isn’t an easy time to be a librarian.
“There’s a lot more involved than just helping people check out books,” said Linda “Lynn” Hori, a library technician at the Goleta Valley Library near Santa Barbara, Calif. “Libraries are the heart of every community.”
Part of Hori’s job is to help organize children’s events for the library in Goleta, which has a population of about 32,000.
“When it was canceled for two years because of the pandemic, everyone really missed it,” she said. “It was something solely about having fun and making kids smile. We all wanted to experience that magic again.”
“Only this time, we decided we would go all out,” said Hori, 40. “The last couple of years have been hard on kids who had to do their learning at home through Zoom. We wanted to do something extra-special.”
“It’s become a thing for a lot of libraries because it’s a great community-building event,” Hori said.
“Everyone can remember a favorite comfort toy that they read stories to and snuggled with as a child,” she added. “For me, it was a pink Care Bear.”
Hori usually coordinates about a dozen special children’s events a year, but she was determined that the 2022 stuffed-animal slumber party would be the biggest ever.
“Some of the younger ones were a little reluctant to hand them over, but we assured them they were going to have an exciting night and meet new friends,” Hori said. “I heard several kids whisper, ‘I love you — be good and have fun.’ ”
She and her volunteers spent hours staging the animals (and one well-rounded, smiling avocado) in dozens of party scenarios: roasting marshmallows for s’mores, sharing milkshakes, goofing around on the library’s photocopy machine, playing computer games and making phone calls to faraway places.
“We gathered all of the stuffies around and our children’s librarian, Elizabeth Saucedo, read them ‘Good Night Moon,’ ” Hori said.
“Just seeing all those faces light up — that was the best part for me,” Hori said. “My hope is that events like our sleepover will shape the adults these kids will eventually become. I’d love to see them become lifelong library patrons.”
“The library is a fun place — I’ve always loved going,” she said. “Rabbit sang songs, played with Legos and danced. It was kind of hard to leave her there, but I’m glad I did. She made a lot of new friends.”
Brooke Kelley, 9, said she especially loved seeing all of the photos of her stuffed lamb, Lamby, even though she “probably broke some of the library rules.”
“I was sad that he wasn’t going to be my stuffed animal for the night, but I also was happy for him so he could have a great time,” he said.
Erin Kelley, 45, said this is the first time her children have participated in the sleepover, and she thinks it won’t be the last.
“It was a great event that put smiles on the kids’ faces, which is nice after recovering from two years of a pandemic that shut kids out of so many activities,” she said. “We hope the library does it again next year.”
Hori said she’s up to the challenge.
“I’m not sure if we can top it, but we’ll try,” she said. “I’m really happy that it brought so much joy. Anytime we can get kids excited about reading and coming to the library, I’m in.” | 2022-07-12T10:50:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | California library has stuffed animal sleepover - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/07/12/stuffed-animal-sleepover-goleta-library/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/07/12/stuffed-animal-sleepover-goleta-library/ |
Campaign signs outside the Silver Spring Civic Building on July 7, during the first day of early voting. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Election results in tight races are likely to come days after Maryland’s July 19 primary as a pandemic-era shift to mail-in voting runs up against the state’s prohibition against counting ballots early, officials warn.
Maryland regulations prevent election workers from even starting to count these mail-in votes — which could amount to a significant portion of the total — until the Thursday after Election Day.
“Be patient,” advised William G. Voelp, chairman of the Maryland State Board of Elections, for which members are appointed by the governor. “Every legal vote will be counted, and then the State Board of Elections will certify based on not more than and not less than every legal vote being counted.”
The popularity of voting by mail shot up during the coronavirus pandemic as Maryland and other states sought to make voting safer. Maryland, however, is the only state that prohibits processing these ballots before the polls close, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The regulation, created in an era when mail-in, or absentee, voters were a tiny portion of the electorate, addressed concerns that mail-in results could be leaked before Election Day and sway the overall outcome.
In April, the Maryland General Assembly approved a bill to permit processing mail-in votes before Election Day, giving election workers a head start. Gov. Larry Hogan (R) supported the measure but vetoed the larger bill, saying it did not contain election security measures he favors.
The May 27 veto surprised many election officials and caught them flat-footed. The State Board of Elections considered asking a court to waive the rules, but as time ran short, it decided against it. By late last month, when the board made the decision, there was little time for election officials to act ahead of early voting, when processing mail-in votes is feasible, Voelp said. It’s difficult for local election officials to simultaneously process mail-in ballots and manage early voting.
Voelp, who cautioned he couldn’t speak for the board, said he “would hope that we would seek relief from the courts for the general [election in November] in a timely enough fashion that the local boards could set up for that and handle that.”
While the 2020 primary and general election saw huge volumes of mail-in voting, a now-expired emergency order by Hogan during the health crisis allowed for processing mail-in votes before Election Day.
While it’s difficult to predict what portion of voters will vote by mail in the primary, there are signs it will be significant. As of Sunday, local election offices had received just over 115,000 mail-in ballots. Nearly 500,000 people had requested mail-in ballots. Of these, 35 percent came from voters who requested them specifically for the primary or for both the primary and general elections, election officials say. The rest were from voters who asked at some point to be “permanent absentee voters.”
In Maryland’s 2018 primary, which like this year had no presidential race, 872,207 people — 24 percent of eligible voters — voted. Of those, 30,122 cast mail-in ballots.
Delayed results in tight races have long been the norm. In 2018, it took two weeks to declare the winner of Montgomery County’s Democratic primary for county executive, which came down to absentee and provisional ballots. Marc Elrich saw his Election Day lead drop with each new round of ballots counted. In the end, he won by just 80 votes.
This year, with a high volume of mail-in ballots awaiting tabulation, candidates will need more decisive margins among in-person voters to declare victory on Election Day.
“I don’t know really what to expect, except that I think it’ll take a while, and I think that people will be impatient because they want to know the results,” said David A. Naimon, a secretary of the Board of Elections in Montgomery County, which has the largest number of eligible voters of any jurisdiction. “We’re going to do it as efficiently as we can, but obviously the most important thing is that we do it accurately.”
Many officials and observers are concerned about the possibility that a candidate could take advantage of delayed results to claim fraud. Former president Donald Trump (R) did this in the 2020 election; in several states, he led in-person voting tallies, only to have his lead later wiped away by mail-in ballots. Trump falsely claimed the mail-in votes were invalid.
Though Trump’s claims of election fraud were backed by no credible evidence and comprehensively rejected by judges across the political spectrum, they continue to undermine confidence, particularly among Republicans, in the integrity of elections.
One of the candidates in the Republican primary for governor, Del. Daniel L. Cox (Frederick), is endorsed by Trump and has perpetuated his election-fraud claims. Cox, following like-minded election-result deniers in states such as Arizona and Pennsylvania, is calling for a “forensic audit” of the 2020 results in Maryland, where Joe Biden (D) won with 1,985,023 votes against Trump’s 976,414.
Cox did not return an email or phone message on Monday. A recent Goucher College poll, conducted in partnership with the Baltimore Banner and WYPR-88.1, found him in a statistical dead heat against his opponent, Kelly M. Schulz, among decided Republican voters.
“Any time you have delays, it sows these folks who want to come out and talk about conspiracy theories, and they want to inject some doubt in our system,” said Kevin Kinnally, legislative director of the Maryland Association of Counties. Such claims breed threats and intimidation of election workers, among other problems, he said.
“Mostly what we’re trying to do is make sure that people have the correct expectations here,” Kinnally said. “That they shouldn’t expect all the results on election night, that they may have to wait some time.” | 2022-07-12T10:59:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Maryland primary results may be delayed as mail-in votes are counted - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/12/maryland-primary-results-may-be-delayed-mail-in-votes-are-counted/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/12/maryland-primary-results-may-be-delayed-mail-in-votes-are-counted/ |
Drought for Rainmakers Threatens Job Cuts for Bankers
Like formerly high-flying stock markets, the value of investment bankers might be in the middle of a heavy crash. Their work has certainly dried up of late: Fees in the industry have been decimated in the second quarter.
Global bank executives were bemoaning the costly war for talent in the early months of this year, but Wall Street job cuts might now be around the corner. Investment banking will be the dark cloud over earnings when US banks start reporting on Thursday. The war in Ukraine, rampant inflation and the prospect of sharply rising interest rates have thrown financial markets into a tailspin. Trading desks for equities, rates, currencies and some bonds have been making hay, but dealmakers have been left watching the tumbleweeds.
“If investment banking revenue trends do not improve in the second half, cost initiatives will move into focus,” according to Anke Reingen, a banking analyst at RBC Capital Markets in London. Meanwhile, Rich Handler, the chief executive officer of Jefferies Financial Group, is on alert for good bankers who might be let go by rivals that “made poor choices in good times,” he told staff members in a memo after the investment bank’s recent results. He also warned them, however, that any underperformers or those not fully committed to Jefferies were always at risk of dismissal.
If the fate of some bankers turns bleak, the industry has itself to blame for some of the pain to come. Equity capital markets will be vulnerable to cuts after generating their own brief bubble in so-called blank-check companies, or SPACs, last year. There was a boom in new listings generally in 2021, with global fees from initial public offerings nearly four times higher than the year before, which was an improvement from 2019, according to Dealogic data. The misguided SPAC boom brought in 26% of those fees in 2021 — and 50% of all IPO fees in the first quarter of 2021 — having accounted for only 5% to 6% in the years before the craze started to build.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of America Corp. and others have already begun walking away from advising SPACs they brought to market after regulators announced a US crackdown. Issuance has collapsed to almost nothing this quarter. Fees from all equity deals are likely to be down more than 70% in the second quarter compared with those in the period a year earlier, according to Dealogic data. Total investment banking fees are likely down 50% year-over-year.
The other area to truly suffer has been high-risk junk-rated credit, particularly financing for private equity takeovers. Large banks are likely to report heavy losses on buyout loans that they have been unable to sell or have had to offload at hefty discounts. Only Bank of America has put any numbers on this, saying in June that it expected losses of $100 million to $150 million on so-called hung loan deals in the second quarter. The market deteriorated further before the end of the quarter, and the loss could be higher, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts. Barclays and Credit Suisse are also likely to suffer because they are more dependent on leveraged-finance revenue than many of their rivals and have been named on several hung deals. But most Wall Street banks are exposed, and total industry losses could exceed a billion dollars.
In spite of the drought for rainmakers, bank earnings overall should still be robust. Trading desks focused on macro products (interest rates, currencies and commodities) have been hopping. JPMorgan and Citigroup have forecast their revenue will be up 15% to 25% in the second quarter compared with the period a year earlier. In Europe, Deutsche Bank and Barclays should also benefit. In the US, traditional lending has also recovered strongly, consumers are spending and higher interest rates should boost income. The collapse in value of government bonds held by banks is likely to hurt, and many will want to put aside cash to cover bad loans if they expect economies to fall into recession. There have been minimal signs of consumer credit problems yet, however.
There is little reason to expect that markets will settle down quickly because there are few signs that any of the world’s geopolitical and economic battles are about to be resolved. For executives of big banks, trying to discern the number of people they need and what they should be doing looks harder than at any time since the 2008 financial crisis. After that, many banks took years to realize that the whole industry was in a secular decline, with revenue shrinking steadily from 2010 to 2019. The financial markets boom of 2020 and 2021, fueled by central banks, appeared to have drastically overturned that. Even now, Citigroup analysts still project total industry fees for the top 16 global banks will be higher this year and next than most of the decade before 2020.
That optimism could prove hard to maintain as the rest of this year unfolds. If many people increasingly struggle with the rising cost of living, and if unemployment starts to rise as well, then Wall Street leaders will soon be forced into making many more tough decisions of their own.
• For Goldman in Texas, Politics Are Unavoidable: Paul J. Davies
• Buy Now Pay Later Joins Subprime Losers Club: Marc Rubinstein | 2022-07-12T11:38:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Drought for Rainmakers Threatens Job Cuts for Bankers - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/drought-for-rainmakers-threatens-job-cuts-for-bankers/2022/07/12/e980911a-01d1-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/drought-for-rainmakers-threatens-job-cuts-for-bankers/2022/07/12/e980911a-01d1-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html |
Japan’s Lack of Inflation Is Tied to Loose Monetary Policy
The Bank of Japan’s balance sheet is more than twice the size of the European Central Bank’s as a proportion of gross domestic product. A rapidly weakening yen (partly the result of this monetary laxity) has driven up import prices dramatically. In May, import prices rose 43% compared from a year earlier. Japan imports most all its energy and oil has risen some 93% in yen terms.
Yet you’d be hard-pressed to describe domestic inflation as anything other than quiescent. Consumer prices rose just 2.5% in May from a year earlier. Although rising, the numbers are nothing like the US, the euro zone and the UK — nor Japan’s own experience in the early 1970s, when inflation was almost 25%. Most people ignore what’s going on in Japan. But how can you be certain about what is happening elsewhere unless you can explain why it is not happening in an awkward counterexample? Japan is not alone. Inflation in Taiwan and China, to take but two examples, is also relatively low.
I’d be lying if I said that I have a complete explanation for the lack of inflationary oomph in Japan but the following are my best attempts. The first, paradoxically, is monetary policy. Policy rates have been minus 0.1% for the past six years and haven’t been above 0.5% since 1995. In 2013, the BOJ started buying long-term government debt and followed that up in 2016 with yield-curve control, buying as many bonds as necessary to keep yields from rising above its target rate, which is currently about 0.25%.
Very low interest rates are meant to tempt households and companies to spend rather than save. But when a population is ageing rapidly, as is Japan’s, the evidence suggests they save more to make up for derisory returns. That is why the household savings rate has gone up, not down. Moreover, Japanese companies have been persistent savers for many years, meaning they have invested far less than they earned. So not only have very low rates not encouraged the private sector to spend more and save less, they seem to have had precisely the opposite effect. By the equal and opposite token, higher rates might well be more stimulatory — and inflationary.
What super-loose monetary policy has done, though, is keep many companies in business, particularly domestic ones, that should have gone under. And, for 10 years or so, Japan’s population has not just been ageing but shrinking, meaning less demand for a given level of supply. That was almost bound to be disinflationary.
Elsewhere in the world, even in countries with ageing populations, government responses to the Covid-19 pandemic shifted the balance of demand and supply. By shutting down their economies, governments in effect built up demand and reduced supply. This had the effect of jolting prices higher when economies reopened. Japan’s government did not shut down the economy, so there was much less of a jolt higher in prices as it reopened (though there was clearly a knock-on effect from other countries). Higher energy prices have been reflected far more in shrinking corporate margins than in higher prices.
This lack of a jolt in prices, I suspect, has been crucial. Monetarists find Japan hard to explain. On a simple explanation, increases in the stock of money should ultimately lead to inflation. In recent years, the growth of money, broadly defined, hasn’t been anything like as dramatic in Japan as in, say, the euro zone or the US. But growth has been going on for far longer, so the stock is much higher relative to its GDP than other developed countries.
Inflation hasn’t gone up because, as was the case elsewhere in the world before the past couple of years, the velocity of that money — how fast it changes hands, in effect — slowed. In many big economies, this velocity appears to have accelerated recently in large part because sharply higher prices encourage consumers to spend now on goods and services before prices rise even further. At a certain threshold, I suspect, greater velocity is a result of higher inflation, not its cause. And so, suggests Stephen King, senior economic advisor to HSBC Holdings Plc, is the industrial strife that plagued many countries in the 1970s — Japan included. Of course, labor strife in Japan looks as likely now as the current harmony would have done in the 1970s. But as has been spectacularly evident in the UK in recent months, labor in general has become a lot more bolshy as a result of rising prices. They were not, notes King, the cause of their going up in the first place.
Clearly, a shrinking population and, paradoxically, monetary policy that has been in place for far longer than most traders have been alive — even though it has manifestly failed — have made it harder for an inflationary spark to take hold in Japan. But that doesn’t mean it can’t. Crucially, it doesn’t mean inflation in other countries can’t continue to be a problem.
• Japan’s Fertility Crisis Is Your Problem, Too: Gearoid Reidy
• It Took Forever to Get to 2%. Now That’s Too High: Moss & Reidy | 2022-07-12T11:38:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Japan’s Lack of Inflation Is Tied to Loose Monetary Policy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/japans-lack-of-inflation-is-tied-to-loose-monetary-policy/2022/07/12/35a8cbaa-01ca-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/japans-lack-of-inflation-is-tied-to-loose-monetary-policy/2022/07/12/35a8cbaa-01ca-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html |
By Erick Trickey
Watergate figure G. Gordon Liddy is seen in Washington on Jan. 16, 1973, during a break in his trial. (William A. Smith/AP)
White House aide G. Gordon Liddy sat in a parked car behind an office building with his hunting knife unfolded. “Use it I would, if I’d had to,” Liddy later wrote. “I have given my men word that I would protect them.”
Inside the building, three men — two wearing CIA-provided disguises — had broken into a psychiatrist’s office in Beverly Hills, Calif., and were rifling through file cabinets. They were looking for dirt on Daniel Ellsberg, leaker of the top-secret Pentagon Papers, which had exposed government lies about the Vietnam War. But the burglars couldn’t find Ellsberg’s file. So they trashed the office, throwing files and pills around to make the break-in look like a drug crime.
It was the night of Sept. 3, 1971. Nine months later, in June 1972, Liddy and some of the same men conspired to commit a more famous burglary, at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex.
In 1973, Liddy was convicted of his role in the Watergate burglary but refused to testify about it to a grand jury, protecting the high-ranking Nixon aides who had approved it. A judge found him in contempt of court.
Liddy also refused to testify before a House intelligence subcommittee investigating the CIA’s links to the psychiatrist’s office break-in. As a result, Liddy was convicted in March 1974 of a rarely charged crime: contempt of Congress.
That conviction has striking echoes today. Stephen K. Bannon, former strategist for President Donald Trump, is scheduled to go on trial next Monday, charged with two counts of the same crime, for his refusal to testify before the House Jan. 6 committee about his possible involvement in plans for that day. Bannon, who has cited executive privilege — even though he hadn’t worked at the White House since 2017 — faces up to two years in jail if convicted.
As with the Jan. 6 insurrectionists, Liddy’s contempt for Congress reflected a contempt for democratic institutions. His 1980 autobiography, “Will,” justified breaking the law as a rough-justice response to the radical left and the “thought, spirit, life-style, and ideas of the ’60s movement.” Liddy wrote, “I knew exactly what had to be done and why, and I was under no illusion about its legality.”
Nixon biographer John A. Farrell described the mustachioed Liddy as “a right-wing zealot, with a fixation for Nazi regalia and a kinky kind of Nietzschean philosophy, [who] peppered his conversation with German idioms and organized a White House screening of the Nazi propaganda film ‘Triumph of the Will.’ ” Liddy told fellow Nixon administration trickster Egil “Bud” Krogh, “Bud, if you want anyone killed, just let me know.” Another Nixon aide, Gordon Strachan, summed him up this way: “Liddy’s a Hitler, but at least he’s our Hitler.”
An Army veteran and former FBI agent, Liddy had worked on Nixon’s 1968 presidential campaign and in the Treasury Department. He joined the White House staff in June 1971, the day after the New York Times began publishing the Pentagon Papers. He soon became part of the Nixon White House’s Special Investigative Unit, nicknamed the “plumbers” for their task of combating leaks.
The plumbers’ first task was to discredit Ellsberg, a defense analyst who was charged with violating the Espionage Act. Though the Pentagon Papers’ authenticity wasn’t in question, Nixon, enraged by the leak, grew determined to ruin Ellsberg. “Don’t worry about his trial,” Nixon told his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman. “Just get everything out. Try him in the press.”
Reading Ellsberg’s FBI file, the plumbers saw that Lewis Fielding, Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, had refused agents’ requests for an interview. So Liddy and fellow plumber E. Howard Hunt decided to break into Fielding’s office to get Fielding’s file on Ellsberg.
John Ehrlichman, Nixon’s chief domestic adviser, approved the break-in and asked the CIA’s deputy director to help Hunt. A CIA technician gave Liddy and Hunt a spy camera built into a tobacco pouch and two disguises, which they wore while casing Fielding’s office. Liddy’s disguise included glasses, a dark brown wig, a Kansas driver’s license (name: George F. Leonard) and a device to stick in his shoe to change his gait.
For the break-in itself, Liddy and Hunt handed the disguises to two of the three men Hunt hired for the job: Cuban exiles Bernard Barker, Felipe De Diego and Eugenio Martinez. The three men smashed a window to get into Fielding’s office and ransacked it — but came out empty-handed. They celebrated with Liddy and Hunt over champagne anyway.
Ehrlichman gave Nixon a vague account of the failed burglary the next day. “We had one little operation,” he said. “It’s been aborted, out in Los Angeles, which, I think, it is better that you don’t know about.” He added, “But we’ve got some [other] dirty tricks underway.”
Those tricks later included the Watergate break-in of June 1972, in which Barker and Martinez were among the five men arrested. Liddy and Hunt, working for Nixon’s reelection committee, oversaw the break-in via radio from a hotel room. They were all indicted and found guilty of burglary, conspiracy and illegal wiretapping in January 1973. Sentenced to 80 months to 20 years in prison, Liddy refused to testify to implicate higher-ups.
In spring 1973, Watergate prosecutors learned about the Ellsberg burglary. They disclosed it to the judge in Ellsberg’s Espionage Act case, who made it public and later dismissed the charges against Ellsberg, citing government misconduct. The CIA’s aid to the burglars came out in the press, and a House intelligence subcommittee launched an investigation.
Liddy, called before the subcommittee in July 1973, rose and raised his right hand, but then told the judge, “I respectfully decline to take the oath as a witness.” The subcommittee immediately voted to cite him for contempt, and the full House voted to do the same in September. In March 1974, the Justice Department charged Liddy with two counts of contempt of Congress — the same day he, Ehrlichman and the three Cuban burglars were charged with conspiracy to violate Fielding’s civil rights.
In a two-hour trial on May 10, 1974, Liddy cited dubious national security grounds for refusing to answer the subcommittee’s questions. The judge found Liddy guilty and gave him a suspended jail sentence and a year’s probation — “indicating that the penalty was light because of Mr. Liddy’s other sentences,” the New York Times reported. (In a weird twist, Liddy protested that his probation ordered him not to associate with felons, a command he couldn’t follow because he was in jail. The judge later reduced his probation to one hour.)
Watergate 50th anniversary: Complete coverage
Much as the Jan. 6 committee has unearthed major revelations despite top Trump associates’ refusal to testify, the House intelligence subcommittee completed its work despite Liddy’s stonewalling. Its report, issued Oct. 30, 1973, found that CIA officials “had no support in reason or law” when they aided Liddy and Hunt and were “the unwitting dupes for purely domestic White House staff endeavors.”
Liddy served four years in prison for the Watergate burglary and was released in 1977 after President Jimmy Carter commuted his sentence. He pursued a career as an author, radio talk-show host and occasional character actor, playing villains. He died in 2021. “Liddy never seemed to doubt,” writes Garrett M. Graff in “Watergate: A New History,” “that fighting the nation’s enemies meant fighting Nixon’s enemies.” That is, Liddy — like many Jan. 6 participants — chose loyalty to a president over loyalty to democracy. | 2022-07-12T11:38:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Steve Bannon contempt of Congress trial echoes G. Gordon Liddy case - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/07/12/gordon-liddy-contempt-congress-bannon/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/07/12/gordon-liddy-contempt-congress-bannon/ |
The Supreme Court is unraveling the separation of church and state
Not only will it harm religious minorities — but it could weaken religion itself
Perspective by Shelby M. Balik
Shelby M. Balik is an associate professor of history at Metropolitan State University of Denver and author of "Rally the Scattered Believers: Northern New England’s Religious Geography"(Indiana University Press, 2014). She is working on a book about household religion in the 18th century.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) at a “Save America” rally in Mendon, Ill., on June 25. (Kate Munsch/Reuters)
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who regularly draws headlines with her inflammatory remarks, made national news again in late June. Speaking at a Christian center, she declared that she was “tired of this separating church and state junk.” In case anyone misunderstood, she asserted that “the church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church. That is not how our Founding Fathers intended it.”
Boebert was wrong on both counts. The Founders imagined a government in which neither church nor state controlled the other.
But her comments came at the same moment when the Supreme Court handed down several decisions that will shift the church-state relationship in favor of churches. The history of that relationship, however, indicates that while this separation was never as absolute as some claim, its demise could be bad for government, religious minorities — and even religion itself.
Americans in the revolutionary period had come of age during an era of imperfect religious toleration. The English Toleration Act (1689), which enforced liberty of conscience for Protestants and established the Anglican Church, applied throughout the colonies. But freedom to practice varied. Toleration ranged from complete religious freedom in Rhode Island, to freedom to practice for all — with political exclusions for some — in Pennsylvania, to heavy restrictions in Maryland. There, Catholics who had originally seen the Maryland colony as a religious haven found themselves pushed underground, denied access to churches and left to pray secretly in their homes.
Protestants, in most places, had relative freedom of conscience. But they often had to pay taxes to support other churches — churches that enjoyed the privileges of establishment, including access to publicly held land and town coffers. Catholics, Jews and Muslims prayed at the whim of colonial governments, sometimes enjoying relative freedom, sometimes paying religious taxes to support other faiths and usually prohibited from voting or holding public office. Meanwhile, practitioners of African and Indigenous faiths were even more vulnerable; they were sometimes left alone to sustain their traditions but were often subject to intrusion by missionaries, enslavers and — especially in the case of Native Americans — to violent attacks by Whites who sought to dismantle not just their sovereignty but also their spiritual systems.
With independence came a chance to reinvent government, including the politics of religious freedom.
Americans grappled with the risks of completely severing the ties between church and state. Most of the new states still had forms of establishment. These arrangements benefited selected churches by conferring financial perks and legal privileges, but they also were supposed to benefit the state by promoting piety and social order. Some believed that if the state abandoned churches, then people would abandon churches, leaving society with no moral foundation.
Not everyone agreed. Among the fiercest defenders of religious liberty were some of the most fervent Christians, especially the Baptists. They believed religious establishment was a false prop: scaffolding that any church worth its creed should not require. Baptist minister Isaac Backus proclaimed, “When Church and State are separate, the effects are happy.” On the other hand, Backus argued, “where they have been confounded together, no tongue nor pen can fully describe the mischiefs that have ensued.”
The men who headed to Philadelphia for the Constitutional Convention ended up siding largely with the Baptists. Most were members of their states’ mainline, moderate faiths, inclined toward Enlightenment rationalism. They sought solutions to political problems, not religious ones. Accordingly, the convention adopted a secular approach. There were neither prayers nor regular invocation of religion. The subject of religion rarely came up; one of the few prominent cases came when the convention decided to ban religious tests for federal office.
The Constitution created a federal government that was entirely secular in form and function. When the Bill of Rights was added, the First Amendment banned an 18th-century understanding of establishment churches, which most people took to mean an exclusive state preference for one religion in the form of financial or political support. And the federal government largely stuck to the letter of that law. By the time Thomas Jefferson — the architect of disestablishment in Virginia — wrote to the Danbury Baptists in 1802 to assure them of the “wall of separation between Church and State” (the very letter Boebert dismissed), the principle was already entrenched in national politics.
Disestablishment in the states was a halting and contentious process. Laws to keep non-Protestants, non-Christians or atheists out of office continued for decades. Religious taxation also continued until 1833, when Massachusetts became the last state to ban the practice.
This was possible because the First Amendment applied only to the federal government until the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, with its provisions for equal protection and due process.
Even so, some forms of state preference for religion — or state repudiation of some religions — have persisted at all levels of government for most of U.S. history. In the 19th century, public schools legitimized anti-Catholicism by promoting use of the King James Bible, partly to expose Catholic schoolchildren to the standard Protestant text. The federal government (with help from state authorities in Illinois, Missouri and elsewhere) waged violence against Mormons as they fled west. Anti-Mormon aggression peaked with the Utah War (1857-58), when President James Buchanan sent the Army to attack the Mormon-controlled territory.
Congress and the courts marginalized Jews, labeling them radicals and communists, inherently anti-American. The federal government sponsored war on Native American religions by seizing sacred lands and objects, banning religious rituals and imposing Christian education on Indigenous children.
Despite these infringements, beginning in the mid-20th century, the Supreme Court tended the wall between church and state envisioned by Jefferson. The justices limited the power of public officials to lead prayers in public schools, notably in Engel v. Vitale (1962) and Abington School District v. Schempp (1963). They also placed limits on state support for religious schools. And in decisions beginning with Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), they started striking down laws governing sexual behavior that, while not rooted in establishment religion, did embrace conservative Christian moral values.
Yet even as the court strengthened protection from this sort of moral imposition in the late-20th and early-21st centuries, the justices also began breaking down the wall of separation between church and state by, for example, allowing public funds to flow to religious schools through vouchers.
And over the past few weeks, the Supreme Court took a sledgehammer to what remained of the wall.
The recent decisions in Carson v. Makin and Kennedy v. Bremerton School District required states to allow religious schools to receive tax-funded grants if secular private schools are entitled to them and enabled public school employees to lead students in prayer on school grounds.
Further, the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion. The decision allows states to impose a conservative Christian standard about when life begins on non-Christians, even though other religions and Christian denominations contest the assumption that life begins at conception. As if the trend were not already clear, we have been warned that the Supreme Court may once again leave our private relationships vulnerable to legal restrictions driven by a religiously inspired narrow moral standard.
These decisions matter precisely for that reason: They risk public officials or public institutions imposing conservative Christian religion on non-Christians or Christians who have different beliefs — exactly what proponents of the separation of church and state worried about at the founding. In the 18th century, some of the most religious Christians like Backus sounded warnings against fusing government and religion, to the detriment of both. Today, the most religious Christians — aligned with politicians like Boebert and equally conservative jurists — are pushing this commingling.
Unless counterforces take care to rebuild the wall, the Establishment Clause may soon be all but a dead letter. But as the warnings from the 18th century indicate, this constitutional shift threatens not just the legitimacy and fairness of government and the rights of religious minorities or the nonreligious. It also threatens to distort and damage religion itself. | 2022-07-12T11:38:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Supreme Court is unraveling the separation of church and state - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/07/12/supreme-court-is-unraveling-separation-church-state/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/07/12/supreme-court-is-unraveling-separation-church-state/ |
A patient turns in 50 used needles at a mobile needle exchange run by Family and Medical Counseling Services in the District. (Andre Chung/The Washington Post)
“Harm reduction” is a phrase previous administrations have used sparingly, if at all, when discussing drug policy. But the Biden administration not only uses it often regarding the escalating epidemic of overdose deaths, which claimed more than 100,000 lives last year; it has made it the centerpiece of its national drug control strategy.
That bold move deserves recognition. By explicitly emphasizing the term and providing funding for programs once regarded as too controversial, the administration is normalizing harm reduction and paving the way for its widespread adoption across the United States.
Harm reduction recognizes that people engaging in harmful behavior may not be ready to quit, but need help in the meantime. For example, individuals with the disease of addiction may not be ready to enter treatment, or may not have treatment easily available. Instead of penalizing or shaming them, harm reduction focuses on reducing overdose deaths and preventing the spread of infectious diseases such as HIV and hepatitis.
Some local and state health departments have piloted these programs. In 2015, when I was Baltimore’s health commissioner, I issued a blanket prescription for everyone in our city to obtain naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal drug. Our team provided naloxone to outreach workers, police officers and family members of drug users; in three years, bystanders reversed over 2,000 overdoses. We also operated a needle exchange van that prevented nearly 2,000 HIV infections in a 10-year period.
Despite proven successes, harm reduction programs drew unfounded criticism that they condone drug use. This is why it’s so important to see them being embraced by federal leaders.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra recently referenced them during an appearance at the Aspen Ideas: Health, naming harm reduction as part of the administration’s efforts that “broke glass.” He explained that rather than waiting for people with addiction to overdose, public health officials can help reduce their risk. “If we can stop them from doing the harm,” he said, “when they finally get on track, they’ll be ready to get back into life.”
Dr. Rahul Gupta, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), told me in an interview that the administration is “prioritizing harm-reduction practices because these are proven, cost-effective and evidence-based methods that work to save lives.” He added, “They meet people where they are instead of expecting them to come to us in health-care settings, because otherwise it might be too late.”
Gupta specifically cited expansion of naloxone access and syringe service programs, as well as distribution of test strips to detect whether drugs are contaminated with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid up to 50 times stronger than heroin and can lead to overdose death within minutes. Many users inadvertently take fentanyl and die.
Six years ago, I tried to incorporate fentanyl testing as part of Baltimore’s outreach programs, but it was deemed too contentious. Now, incredibly, it’s a signature part of the Biden administration’s plan.
“We have to prioritize preventing people from overdosing and dying,” Gupta said. “That’s why, for the first time, the federal government removed restrictions to allow grantees the flexibility to use grant dollars to purchase fentanyl test strips. This way, people can be aware of what they’re taking and have naloxone available and accessible if they overdose."
Michael Botticelli, the former ONDCP director under President Barack Obama, commends his successor. He was a strong proponent of naloxone access and also successfully advocated for Congress to remove its prohibition on using federal funds to operate syringe service programs.
“We can’t underestimate the importance of naming harm reduction and elevating it as a top-line strategy,” he told me. “It sends a strong signal to states that this is an important priority, especially since the administration is putting funding behind it.” (Botticelli and I both advise the Behavioral Health Group, which provides treatment for patients with opioid use disorder.)
If anything, Botticelli wishes the administration would go even further. “The federal government needs to create legal space for states and cities to pilot overdose prevention sites,” he says, referring to safe injection facilities operated across Europe and Canada that have been shown to reduce overdose deaths. Gupta didn’t take a position on SIFs, citing ongoing litigation at the Justice Department. But he said he remains “interested in understanding and evaluating the clinical effectiveness of all emerging harm reduction practices.”
The urgency cannot be overstated. “Our projections show that if we do nothing, we could have 165,000 deaths a year due to overdose by 2025,” Gupta said. “On the other hand, if we implement our strategy, we can cut that number in half. Literally, tens of thousands of lives could be saved.”
He is right. We need to do everything possible to prevent overdoses while also encouraging treatment. After all, if someone dies today, that person has no chance of a better tomorrow. | 2022-07-12T11:38:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The Biden administration’s bold embrace of harm reduction will save lives - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/12/biden-administrations-harm-reduction-will-save-lives-drug-opioid-overdoses/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/12/biden-administrations-harm-reduction-will-save-lives-drug-opioid-overdoses/ |
Republicans won’t say what they’re for. But it’s not hard to figure out.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) at the Capitol in D.C. on May 17. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)
But asked this year what Senate Republicans would do with the majority, he replied that “I’ll let you know when we take it back.”
Even on inflation, which Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, chairman of the Republican Senate campaign committee, considers a “gold mine” for Republicans, there’s no GOP agenda. Scott suggested that the most effective thing would be for Biden to resign.
The lack of an agenda isn’t surprising, considering that in 2020 the GOP famously passed a platform resolution declaring that “the Republican National Convention will adjourn without adopting a new platform.”
Nevertheless, some Republican platforms do exist. Earlier this year, Scott put out his “11 Point Plan to Rescue America” (now a 12-point plan), warning that it is not for the “faint of heart.” In addition to recycled right-wing culture-war forays — guns, abortion, the Pledge of Allegiance — he called for requiring our dysfunctional Congress to reenact all laws, such as those creating Medicare and Social Security, every five years. Not surprisingly, McConnell quickly disavowed the effort.
Despite their reticence, Republicans do have a core agenda, even if they don’t care to own up to it. The main points:
On democracy: Embrace former president Donald Trump’s “big lie” of a stolen election. Act to impede any independent investigation of the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. At a state level, pass legislation to make voting harder, primarily in urban — read minority — areas, elect partisan election officials and empower legislatures to overturn elections when they don’t like the results. Block efforts to limit the role of big money in elections.
On inflation: Lowering deficits and spending is no longer part of the GOP playbook when in power, so Republicans blame Biden and urge the Federal Reserve to continue raising interest rates — fighting inflation by putting people out of work. Add other parts of the traditional conservative arsenal: more deregulation, ignoring the growing concentration of various industries, more drilling for oil, more efforts to weaken workers’ demands (undermining unions, opposing a higher minimum wage) and railing against any pandemic restrictions.
On national security: Climate change isn’t a national security threat, or if it is, nothing can or should be done about it. The Pentagon needs more money, no matter that the bloated military budget is the largest source of waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government. Allies are a luxury, except when we need them. The economic challenge posed by China’s rise is best met by bolstering our military forces in the Pacific (admittedly a bipartisan folly).
On crime: More money and fewer restrictions for the police, ending efforts for reform. More guns for Americans. The party of a chicken in every pot is now the party of a gun in every pocket.
On social issues: Full-court press. McConnell pledges to put a national ban on abortion to a vote. End affirmative action. Allow businesses to discriminate against gay customers. Punish “woke” corporations.
In many ways, the gang of six right-wing zealots who now make up the majority on the Supreme Court provide the clearest guide to the Republican agenda. In recent months, the court eliminated the right to abortion, overturned a century-old New York state law regulating the carrying of guns, blocked Biden’s coronavirus vaccine mandate for large businesses and gutted the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to address climate change.
In its next term, the court will rule on ending affirmative action, stopping curbs on racial discrimination in redistricting and empowering businesses to discriminate against gay couples seeking to celebrate their weddings. Most ominously, it will take up the pernicious claim that state courts and state constitutions cannot limit the license of state legislatures to gerrymander congressional districts.
That the Supreme Court, the most undemocratic branch of government, defines the Republican course shouldn’t be a surprise. The actual Republican agenda is unpopular. It requires that a minority party find ways to rig the rules to enforce its preferences. The Supreme Court’s gang of six — ignoring precedent and restraint while acting to undermine fair elections, overturn established rights and cripple government action — is a perfect expression of what Republicans are for. | 2022-07-12T11:39:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The Republican agenda is obvious, if you look - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/12/republicans-agenda-electoins-majority-congress/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/12/republicans-agenda-electoins-majority-congress/ |
Conservatives hope to turn back the cultural clock. Can they succeed?
By Paul Starr
From left to right, Supreme Court justices Samuel A. Alito Jr., Brett M. Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas, Neil M. Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett. (Fred Schilling/Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States and iStock/Washington Post illustration)
Paul Starr is a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University, founding co-editor of the American Prospect, and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction.
Retrofuturism is a term for imaginative works that envision a future out of the past. It seems an apt way to think about the future of American law and its relation to American culture. After long seeing their cultural influence decline, can conservatives use their control of the Supreme Court to impose their will and turn back the clock on decades of social and cultural change?
We have precedents for groups in decline using law to try to reverse social change. Consider two examples from a century ago: prohibition and immigration restriction, both driven by native-born Protestants who identified liquor and immigrants with disorder and immorality. Prohibition was a notorious failure, widely flouted and then repealed after only 14 years. But the immigration limits adopted in 1924 had a deep impact, cutting off new streams of immigrants until Congress changed the law in 1965.
Today’s conservatives feel similarly threatened by changes they identify with disorder and immorality, including new waves of immigration and shifts in gender relations and gender identity. But to succeed in turning back the cultural clock, they will need to escalate their crusade in several respects.
The first is enforcement. Enforcing antiabortion laws will require prosecuting, convicting and sentencing not just abortion providers but likely many women themselves, as well as anyone who assists them in obtaining abortion services or abortifacients. Success in enforcement will determine whether the prohibition of abortion is widely flouted, stirs opposition, and soon becomes another example of a failed effort to legislate morality — or instead lasts for decades.
The second line of escalation involves the scope of issues conservatives take on. In his concurring opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Justice Clarence Thomas invited challenges to precedents guaranteeing constitutional rights to contraception, same-sex sexual intimacy and same-sex marriage.
A third line has to do with the level at which conservatives pursue change. The lowest level authorizes private secession from public norms. This is what the court has done by ruling, on grounds of religious liberty, that conservative businesses or other institutions cannot be required to serve LGBTQ people or to cover contraceptives in their health-insurance plans.
One step up from these private opt-outs is devolution to the states, the current outcome on abortion, which is similar to the era of Jim Crow in that it allows states to maintain a distinctive way of life to the detriment of the socially subordinate. Sending an issue back to the states is often hailed as limiting the power of the federal government.
But many conservatives are not treating devolution as a matter of principle. As their support for a national ban on abortion indicates, they would like nothing more than to use federal power to set national rules, not just through legislation but, if possible, through an amendment to constitutionalize fetal personhood. The court’s recent decision on guns extended federal power, barring states from setting their preferred gun regulations.
Whether conservatives can use their dominance of the court and red states to redirect American culture ultimately comes down to this: At what point along these paths of escalation will their counterrevolution come to rest or unravel? Each step up raises the political risks.
In its decisions on abortion and guns, the court showed no hesitation in defying public opinion, but carrying out the full counterrevolution will test the power of a conservative legal regime. The share of Americans self-identifying as Christian, according to Pew Research Center, has fallen to a new low of 63 percent, while 29 percent identify with no religion. The long-term trends indicate rising acceptance of LGBTQ people; approval of same-sex marriage, according to Gallup, has risen from 27 percent in 1996 to 71 percent today. And, also according to Gallup, an increasing proportion of Americans self-identify as LGBTQ, rising to 7.1 percent overall and 20.8 percent among Generation Z.
If it were true, as some like to say, that “politics is downstream of culture,” the case of Court v. Culture would be settled. But politics is also “upstream” of culture. To say that a right is the law of the land, and especially that it is rooted in the Constitution, has been a powerful argument.
When liberals won legal decisions upholding the separation of church and state and secured civil rights for racial minorities, women and LGBTQ people, they were using the law for cultural and social purposes. Indeed, marginalized groups supported by liberals won rights in court that they could not win in Congress. That situation was intrinsically unstable, as has long been apparent. But legal validation reinforced trends already in progress and gave newly won rights an aura of permanence.
In the unfolding battle, both sides face arduous tasks. Liberals have to win rights in the political arena that they were unable to win that way in the first place. Conservatives have to escalate their crusade in ways that will stir opposition and likely create division in their own ranks.
The court could have been a moderate, stabilizing force in a dangerously polarized society, but its conservative majority has chosen a different course. As the justices and red-state leaders go up the ladder of escalation, they will raise the stakes and risk feeding a backlash, undermining the authority of the court itself. To control the future, conservatives would have to moderate their ambitions. I’m not betting that they will. | 2022-07-12T11:39:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Will the Supreme Court help conservatives turn back the cultural clock? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/12/supreme-court-abortion-conservatives-laws/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/12/supreme-court-abortion-conservatives-laws/ |
Biden’s low poll numbers are exactly what we should expect
We’re back to a world in which a weak economy hurts presidential approval
Analysis by John Sides
A shopper inside a grocery store in San Francisco on May 2. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News)
When Joe Biden was elected president, a common refrain was that he would usher in a new era of “normalcy” after four chaotic years of President Donald Trump. But in certain ways, normalcy hasn’t returned. This is visible first and foremost in the inflation rate, which in May was higher than at any point since 1981.
But this growing inflation, and the resulting pessimism about the economy, has restored one thing to normal: the historical relationship between how Americans view the economy and how they view the president.
For a long time, “it’s the economy, stupid” was solid advice for understanding presidential approval. Approval increased when the economy grew. See, for example, Bill Clinton’s rising popularity during the robust economy of the late 1990s. And approval dropped during recessions — as it did for George H.W. Bush in 1991.
How politically divided is the U.S.? It’s complicated but quantifiable.
But during the administrations of Barack Obama and Trump, this link between the economy and presidential approval appeared weaker, even nonexistent. This was evident in the relationship between presidential approval and the University of Michigan Survey Research Center’s Index of Consumer Sentiment, a long-standing measure of economic evaluations that combines different questions about how people perceive their personal financial circumstances and business conditions in the country. This index has a historical low of 50 and a historical high of 112.
For all the presidents from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush, higher levels of consumer sentiment were associated with higher levels of presidential approval, as the figure below shows. To measure average monthly presidential approval ratings, we relied on compendiums from various scholars, HuffPost Pollster and, more recently, FiveThirtyEight.
But then, under Obama and Trump, that changed. During their presidencies, there was very little relationship between consumer sentiment and presidential approval.
Obama’s approval rating barely budged even as consumer sentiment rebounded from its low point during the Great Recession of 2008 to 2009. Trump’s approval rating was chronically low despite high levels of consumer sentiment, and it did not drop any lower even when consumer sentiment decreased during the recession induced by the covid-19 pandemic.
This curious feature of the Obama and Trump presidencies has been documented in political science research. One explanation is that in an era of strong partisanship, it’s harder for presidents to win over many opposite-party voters in periods of economic growth, or lose the support of their own party’s voters in a recession.
But Biden’s presidency looks different, at least so far. As consumer sentiment has dropped, Biden’s approval rating has dropped with it. Here is that same graph, including data from Biden’s presidency through June.
The relationship is clear: Biden’s approval rating is lower now that consumer sentiment has dropped. The size of that relationship — depicted in the blue line — is almost identical to the relationship that existed from 1961 to 2008.
Of course, the decline in Biden’s approval may have had other sources. Presidents usually lose support as the post-inauguration “honeymoon” period wears off. Biden also faced new surges of covid-19 and the messy withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan in August 2021. Nevertheless, Americans’ views of the economy help explain Biden’s lower approval.
This raises a more optimistic possibility for Biden: His approval rating may increase if the inflation rate declines and consumer sentiment improves. Already, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates and consumer spending has dropped — both of which could help bring prices down. At the same time, there remains the risk of an outright recession, which could affect Biden’s approval in a way that it didn’t for Obama and Trump.
Regardless, the implication for Biden is clear: Unlike his two recent predecessors in the White House, his political fortunes may depend on the direction the economy takes. | 2022-07-12T11:39:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Biden’s low poll numbers are exactly what we should expect - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/12/biden-approval-economy-inflation-presidential-ratings/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/12/biden-approval-economy-inflation-presidential-ratings/ |
Who chooses Boris Johnson’s replacement? Check the party rules.
When party activists have too much say, they can hurt the party’s chances of winning a general election
Analysis by Georgia Kernell
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announces his resignation as Conservative Party leader in London last week. (Henry Nicholls/Reuters)
Last week, following another scandal and a staggering number of cabinet resignations, Boris Johnson surrendered leadership of Britain’s Conservative Party and announced he would step down as prime minister. Competition for the country’s highest post was immediate, with 11 candidates throwing their hats in the ring in under four days.
Candidate statements and campaign videos are already circulating in the media. Here’s how Conservatives’ internal party rules affect the selection of the U.K.’s next prime minister.
Different British parties have different rules for selecting their leaders
On Monday, the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers set the timeline for the upcoming leadership election. Although party members have the final vote, Tory members of Parliament ultimately control the election process by deciding who will make it on the ballot.
Any candidate supported by at least 20 MPs (a higher threshold than in previous contests) can run for election. Starting Wednesday, Conservative MPs will vote in successive rounds. Any candidate who does not receive at least 30 votes in the first round will not advance. In each subsequent round, the last-place candidate will be dropped, until two contenders remain.
That’s when ordinary Conservative Party members get to have a say. After a seven-week campaign involving televised debates and hustings (events with voters) around the country, approximately 190,000 dues-paying Conservative members will be eligible to vote to decide who will be the next occupant of 10 Downing Street.
The Conservatives’ selection rules are unique among British parties. By contrast, the Labour Party places its members in the dominant position. A candidate must initially secure the support of 20 percent of the party’s members of Parliament, as well as 5 percent of constituency associations or unions. After that, MPs have no say; members select their new party leader through a ranked-choice ballot. Removing leaders is also up to Labour members. While Conservative MPs can sack their leader with a simple majority vote, Labour MPs have no such power of dismissal. The only way to remove a Labour leader is for an opposing candidate to beat them in an election among members.
The distant third-party Liberal Democrats select candidates using an approach similar to that of Labour.
Boris Johnson didn't want to quit. So how did they get rid of him?
That’s also true outside the U.K.
In other parliamentary democracies, parties select leaders in various ways. In some parties, MPs alone select the leader. Others use primary elections open to all eligible voters. Many more employ some hybrid system. For example, New Zealand’s Labour Party selects its leader through an electoral college in which MPs control 40 percent of the vote, members another 40 percent, and unions have institutional votes for the remaining 20 percent. In a few extreme circumstances, parties have no rules for recalling a leader. For instance, in Italy’s conservative Forza Italia, its long-standing leader Silvio Berlusconi never faced a leadership contest once he assumed office.
If these various rules sound odd to students of American politics, that’s because the U.S. Constitution and state laws govern presidential candidate selection, affording parties little discretion. But the U.S. is the exception among long-standing democracies. In most countries, the rules are up to the parties themselves.
Boris Johnson said the 'herd' pushed him out. What did he mean?
Party rules matter
To appreciate the effect of party rules, consider the aftermath of the Brexit vote in 2016. Both major parties’ leaders supported a “Remain” position. When the U.K. voted instead to leave the European Union, the House of Commons and the British public called on both Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron and opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to step down.
Cameron promptly obliged. Had he stayed on, Conservative MPs could, and surely would, have forced him out. The Tories acted quickly to replace him. A series of backroom deals made it clear that the outspoken “Leave” supporter Boris Johnson didn’t have his colleagues’ votes (at least in 2016). Conservative lawmakers whittled down the playing field to two candidates just 11 days after Cameron’s departure. Shortly thereafter, one of the two contenders dropped out of the race, and Theresa May was sworn in.
In comparison, Corbyn, who angered many in his party for waging a tepid opposition to Brexit, rejected calls to stand down. Within a week of the referendum, over half his shadow cabinet had resigned, and Corbyn lost a vote of confidence among Labour MPs by the remarkable margin of 172 to 40. Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, admitted, “My party is in peril, we are facing an existential crisis,” as Corbyn had trouble filling a new, downsized shadow cabinet.
However, left-wing progressives idolized Corbyn and joined the party in unprecedented numbers, driving membership above 500,000 — the highest in modern history, giving Labour more members than all other U.K. parties combined. Labour’s rules saved Corbyn by sacrificing his party. Within three months, the Tories’ lead in opinion polls had grown by over 10 percentage points.
I’ve interviewed senior party officials in over 60 parties and examined internal party elections in parliamentary systems around the world. The lesson Corbyn’s experience teaches us is not unique: Internal democracy can undermine a party’s ability to select candidates who can win general elections. Party activists rarely represent the population. Nor do they often represent the party’s own voters — at least in parties where members have a say.
The Conservatives may appear to be in turmoil right now, rudderless and grasping for some new leader to rescue them. This is certainly how they are often portrayed in the U.K. press. And given the party’s recent leadership turnover — it will soon have had four prime ministers in under eight years — one may reasonably ask whether its rules are taking the party out of contention for future governance.
But the Conservatives are well-positioned to act quickly and rebrand their image — saving the party at the expense of their leader. That’s exactly what they did when they hired Johnson and what they will probably do now that he’s gone.
Georgia Kernell (@Georgia_Kernell) is an assistant professor of communication and political science at the University of California at Los Angeles. | 2022-07-12T11:39:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How will the Conservative Party pick the next U.K. prime minister? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/12/tories-uk-pm-boris-johnson-voting/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/12/tories-uk-pm-boris-johnson-voting/ |
Red-hot Xander Schauffele is one of the favorites at the British Open. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Back in March, we told you Cameron Smith could be worth a bet at the Players Championship, and the mulleted Australian ended up winning.
At the Masters, we saw Scottie Scheffler continuing his torrid play, and he left Augusta National wearing a new green jacket.
Justin Thomas was one of our picks at the PGA Championship, and he came through.
Matthew Fitzpatrick emerged victorious at the U.S. Open, and we were on him, too.
So it has been a good couple of months, and we’ll try to put a bow on the season by picking another winner at this year’s British Open. Here’s a look at some golfers who might claim the year’s final major title — and some who won’t.
All odds taken from the DraftKings Sportsbook on Monday evening.
Finding a winner
For the British Open, we’re targeting players who enter in good form — in regular tournament play and at majors — and who have played well at Augusta National, which has shown to be a good comparison track to the Old Course, this year’s British Open host.
First off, 15 of the past 21 British Open winners had a victory in the same season entering that year’s tournament. And each of the past 11 winners had a top-three finish or better in one of their previous seven starts. Look at just the past five British Open winners, and each had a win or a runner-up finish in his previous three tournaments. (The British Open was not held in 2020.)
British Open winner
Form entering tournament
T14-2-T4
T8-T2-T28
T13-T35-1
WD-1-T13
Narrowing things down to form in recent majors, eight of the past 10 British Open winners had a top-20 finish in their previous two major appearances, and each of the past 10 winners had a top-two major finish on his résumé.
Suffice to say, we’re looking for players who are playing well right now and have played well in the past at majors, and tossing out anyone who enters in bad form.
As for comparisons with Augusta National, the Old Course also features wide fairways and minimal rough, with a need for proper shot placement.
“Just because it’s wide off the tee doesn’t mean you can blow it all over the place,” Tiger Woods, who won two claret jugs at St. Andrews, said before the 2010 tournament. “You have to hit the ball in the correct spots.”
Here’s a look at the final leader board at the 2015 British Open, the previous one played at the Old Course, and how those players have fared at the Masters.
Masters history
Won in 2007
Three top-10s
Second in 2012, three other top-20s
Four top-10s
Won in 2015, finished second or third four other times
Won in 2017, three other top-10s
Jordan Niebrugge
Only one appearance
Six top-10s
Two top-10s
Won in 2013, four other top-10s
(Johnson won the 2015 British Open in a playoff over Leishman and Oosthuizen.)
Seven of the past nine winners at the Old Course also have won the Masters, with Oosthuizen in 2010 and John Daly in 1995 the exceptions. Both of those players have a top-three Masters finish on their résumés, however.
Who can win the British Open?
If Scheffler was the talk of the early portion of the golf season, capping his quick ascension to world No. 1 with a Masters win, Schauffele has owned the middle portion. In the six tournaments leading up to the British Open, he has two wins (one of them at the Scottish Open last weekend), a tie for fifth at the Byron Nelson and no finish worse than a tie for 18th. And while Schauffele missed the cut at the Masters this year, he tied for second in 2019 and tied for third in 2021. He also won the 2019 Tournament of Champions at Kapalua, another coastal course with wide fairways and large, slow greens that’s also a good comparison to St. Andrews.
Spieth won the 2017 British Open at Royal Birkdale, was one stroke out of the playoff at St. Andrews in 2015, won the Masters in 2015 and won at Kapalua in 2016. He has a victory this year, at the Heritage in April, and three top-10s since then — one of them at the Scottish Open, which syncs with another recent trend for British Open winners: Eight of the past 10 champions played the week before.
Smith never really has contended at the British Open, but if there’s a course in the rotation that should suit his game, it’s the Old Course, where inaccuracy off the tee (Smith’s Achilles’ heel) isn’t as punitive. Smith has played in the Masters six times and finished in the top 10 in four of them, and he won this year’s Tournament of Champions at Kapalua (along with the aforementioned Players Championship).
The 25-year-old has played in only one British Open, and he was forced to withdraw last year after injuring his leg while punching out from some thick rough at Royal St. George’s. The rough won’t be an issue at the Old Course, and Zalatoris has been on the verge of a major breakthrough since joining the PGA Tour: He has finished no worse than a tie for eighth in six of his nine major appearances and was second in the two majors that preceded the British Open this year. In his past nine tournaments, he has six top-10s.
Finau has played in five British Opens without a missed cut and no finish worse than a tie for 27th, with two top-10s. Plus, he has two top-10s at St. Andrews in the annual Dunhill Links tournament, where two rounds are played on the Old Course. He also has three top-10s at the Masters and comes in with some good form (two seconds and a tie for fourth over his past seven tournaments).
This is all about current form and less about major experience for the 25-year-old, whose best finish at a major is a tie for 20th at this year’s PGA Championship. (He missed the cut in his lone Masters appearance this year and tied for 76th in his British Open debut last year.) Burns has two PGA Tour wins this season, however, plus three other top-10s since March. The Old Course also tends to reward length off the tee, and Burns ranks 38th on the PGA Tour in that department.
Joohyung Kim (+15000 to win, +1100 to finish top 10, +450 to finish top 20)
If you’re looking for a long shot, why not the 20-year-old South Korean who goes by “Tom” and finished just two shots behind Schauffele at the Scottish Open? Playing on the Asian, European and PGA tours this season, Kim has racked up a number of strong finishes: 23rd at the U.S. Open, seven top-fives and a win in Singapore in January. Golfers making their British Open debuts rarely win, but Collin Morikawa did it last year.
Who won’t win the British Open?
Thomas won this year’s PGA Championship at Southern Hills, but the back injury that caused him to withdraw from the Travelers Championship a few weeks ago is worrisome, as is his missed cut at the Scottish Open after two dismal rounds. He has admitted to struggling on links courses, and he has never finished better than a tie for 11th in five British Open appearances, with two missed cuts. Thomas has had a great season, but this is not the tournament for him, particularly with odds like that.
Cantlay has played in 20 majors as a professional and earned a top-10 finish in only two of them — both in 2019. He comes in with some excellent form (a win, a second, a third and a fourth in his past seven tournaments), but his disappearing act at majors makes him a cross-off until he shows up for one.
Johnson has the best odds of any golfer from the breakaway LIV Golf circuit in this field, and he led the tournament after two rounds the previous time the Old Course hosted the British Open in 2015. (Consecutive 75s on Saturday and Sunday sent him tumbling to a tie for 49th.) But Johnson has missed the cut in three of his past seven majors, and his putting continues to trend downward: Based on stats he compiled before he left for LIV, Johnson is tied for 177th in three-putt avoidance among PGA Tour players, a bad sign with the Old Course’s massive greens looming.
If there’s any major course where Woods could succeed given the state of his body, it’s the Old Course, which is nice and flat. He has won two claret jugs there, by a combined 13 strokes. But I just can’t put any money on Woods until he shows he can do more than just make the cut, which he has done twice at majors this season, only to finish 47th at the Masters and withdraw after his third round at the PGA Championship | 2022-07-12T11:40:17Z | www.washingtonpost.com | British Open picks: Who can win and who won't - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/12/british-open-picks-favorites-sleepers/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/12/british-open-picks-favorites-sleepers/ |
Police: Former Cowboys running back Marion Barber III died of heatstroke
Marion Barber III, who amassed 4,780 rushing yards across a seven-year career, died in June. (Donna McWilliam/AP)
Former NFL running back Marion Barber III died of heatstroke, police in Frisco, Tex., said Monday.
The 38-year-old was found dead in his Dallas-area apartment June 1, but the cause of death was not disclosed. Barber was unresponsive when police arrived to make a welfare check.
According to local reports, the thermostat in Barber’s apartment was set to 91 degrees when police arrived. The coroner wrote in the autopsy report that Barber was “known to exercise in sauna-like conditions.”
The Collin County medical examiner ruled Barber’s death an accident, Frisco police said.
“There had been so much talk and so many rumors about the cause of death,” Russell Flannigan, a close friend of Barber’s, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “This could have happened to anyone.”
A fourth-round pick out of Minnesota in 2005, Barber amassed 4,780 rushing yards and 53 touchdowns across a seven-year career. He played for the Dallas Cowboys from 2005 to 2010 and ended his career with the Chicago Bears in 2011. He was selected to the Pro Bowl in 2007.
Barber had several legal issues after his NFL career ended. In 2014, he was reportedly taken to a hospital by police for a mental health evaluation after an incident in Mansfield, Tex. Last year, former teammate Dez Bryant tweeted a message of despair over the way Barber’s life was “going right now” and added that the ex-back was “down and out bad.”
“We are heartbroken by the tragic death of Marion Barber III,” the Cowboys said in a statement in June. “Marion was an old-school, hard-nosed football player who ran with the will to win every down. He had a passion for the game and love for his coaches and teammates. Our hearts go out to Marion’s family and friends during this difficult time.” | 2022-07-12T11:40:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Marion Barber III, former Cowboys running back, died of heatstroke - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/12/marion-barber-cowboys-cause-of-death/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/12/marion-barber-cowboys-cause-of-death/ |
How the stars of ‘Six’ get into character as Henry VIII’s wives
The touring production of the pop-pastiche musical with a history theme comes to the National Theatre
The North American touring company of “Six”: front from left, Jasmine Forsberg, Gabriela Carrillo and Didi Romero. Middle from left, Olivia Donalson and Khaila Wilcoxon. Top, Storm Lever. (Joan Marcus)
Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’s “Six,” the pop-pastiche musical about the ill-treated wives of Henry VIII, offers the actresses playing those queens a wealth of resources and influences to draw upon.
First off, there’s the trove of books, documentaries and online articles about the real-life figures they’re inhabiting. But the show also pays homage to many a pop star, using its eclectic songbook to evoke artists ranging from Beyoncé to Celine Dion. Merging its historical trappings with its gleefully anachronistic score, the show follows Henry’s wives during a pop concert as they trade tales of the 16th-century English king’s cruelty.
“It’s not your typical musical,” says Didi Romero, who plays Katherine Howard, Henry’s fifth wife, in the touring production. “It’s a very much updated, Gen Z-type show — but at the same time, it isn’t because it’s literally history. It’s a very weird but refreshing mix.”
After the Broadway incarnation of “Six” won best original score at June’s Tony Awards, the tour has arrived in D.C. for a two-month stint at the National Theatre. Here’s a look at how the show’s six stars get into their onstage head space.
Catherine of Aragon (played by Khaila Wilcoxon)
Once the “Six” tour crowned its cast members, associate director Megan E. Farley asked the actresses to complete projects about their respective queens. So Wilcoxon — who plays Henry’s cast-aside first wife — penned a rap to the tune of the “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” theme song about her character’s steadfast refusal to accept the king’s annulment of their marriage.
She says that endeavor helped shape the ferocity she brings to Catherine’s solo, the rebellious tone setter “No Way.” On that song, her guiding light is an obvious one: “Lemonade”-era Beyoncé. But Wilcoxon also channels several Latina recording artists as a nod to Catherine’s Spanish roots.
“I try to give a little Rosalía in there, and I give a little Cardi B and I give a little Shakira,” says Wilcoxon, who also watched the Starz limited series “The Spanish Princess” to prepare for the role. “So I’m trying to also pay homage to the Spanish heritage in telling the story of Catherine of Aragon, because it’s super important to me and to every little girl that’s going to watch the show and see themselves on that stage.”
Anne Boleyn (Storm Lever)
Describing herself as both a “theater nerd” and a “history buff,” Lever keeps a handwritten log of her deep dive into the assertive Boleyn’s polarizing life and legacy. Among the titles already checked off her lists: the books “The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn” and “Anne Boleyn: 500 Years of Lies” and the movies “The Other Boleyn Girl” and “The Last Days of Anne Boleyn.”
Before delivering her “Six” performance — including her rendition of the punky romp “Don’t Lose Ur Head” — Lever likes to cycle through a Boleyn-inspired playlist that includes Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend,” Demi Lovato’s “Confident” and Christina Aguilera’s “Fighter.” The two performers she most emulates onstage, however, are Miley Cyrus and Rihanna — represented in that pre-show playlist by “Wrecking Ball” and “Good Girl Gone Bad,” respectively.
“Those are two artists that, when they first broke onto the scene, they were perceived as innocent,” Lever says. “Then, as societal pressures got put on them, you see that they had this revolution. They also are cutting-edge artists that push the boundaries, which absolutely was Anne Boleyn as a ruler.”
Jane Seymour (Jasmine Forsberg)
Forsberg had just graduated from Penn State’s musical theater program in spring 2021 when she was called in to audition for Catherine of Aragon, Katherine Howard, Catherine Parr and Seymour. Of those four queens, she felt the role she was cast in — as Seymour, Henry’s third wife — was the biggest stretch.
“When I usually walk into an audition, I lead with a sassy energy,” Forsberg says. “But Jane Seymour is totally not like that. If anything, she is the lovable goofball of the group. What I love about Jane is she’s very, very kindhearted. And I think that idea of leading with love is what [the creative team] saw, and they did see the lovable dweeb that I have a tendency to be as well.”
When performing “Heart of Stone,” an aching, stand-by-your-man power ballad delivered in the style of Adele, Emeli Sandé and Dion, Forsberg takes a particularly personal route to channeling Seymour’s matronly affection: She thinks of her love for her own mother. “My mom,” she says, “is my best, best, best friend.”
Anna of Cleves (Olivia Donalson)
As the only star of the show who says she saw “Six” before auditioning, Donalson has the unique advantage — or burden, depending on one’s point of view — of absorbing another actress’s take on her character. On that front, Donalson decided to largely reinterpret Henry’s fourth wife and not echo Broadway star Brittney Mack’s performance.
One way Donalson put her own spin on Anna: by evoking Lizzo, a singer Marlow and Moss haven’t cited as an influence for “Get Down,” Anna’s anthem of self-love and royal opulence. Since historians say Henry rejected Anna after finding her looks not up to his standards — a notion the show shrewdly riffs on via a dating app parody — Lizzo and her mantra of body positivity proved a natural touchstone.
“I think it was written to be Nicki Minaj and Cardi B and Rihanna, but I’m giving Lizzo vibes 100 percent,” Donalson says. “There’s a lot of joy in my performance, and just a lot of celebration in who I am as a person through Lizzo.”
Katherine Howard (Didi Romero)
To learn all she could about Henry’s tragically naive fifth wife, Romero says she went down a Wikipedia rabbit hole, devoured books and watched “every single documentary” she could get her hands on. That research included two sources that Farley, the associate director, provided to the cast: Antonia Fraser’s book “The Wives of Henry VIII” and Lucy Worsley’s docuseries “Secrets of the Six Wives.” (The latter’s episode titles provide a summation of the wives’ fates cited in the show: “Divorced.” “Beheaded, Died.” “Divorced, Beheaded, Survived.”)
As for Howard’s number, the sultry but ominous earworm “All You Wanna Do,” Romero is channeling Britney Spears — specifically, her performance of “I’m a Slave 4 U” with a snake at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards — with a dash of Ariana Grande.
“It’s a very strawberry pop song, but you really need to listen to everything that she’s saying in order to understand the ending of the song,” Romero says. “It’s not so strawberry pop at the end.”
Catherine Parr (Gabriela Carrillo)
As a fan of “The Tudors,” the historical fiction series about Henry’s reign that aired on Showtime from 2007 to 2010, Carrillo theoretically should have felt well prepared when she was asked to audition for Catherine of Aragon, Katherine Howard and Catherine Parr. The only issue: She still hasn’t made it to the end of the show and, therefore, hasn’t gotten to Parr — Henry’s devoted final wife who stayed with him until his death in 1547.
So she did her own research into Parr. Asked to sum up her queen in three words for that pre-rehearsals project assigned by Farley, Carrillo recalls describing her as “religious,” “educated” and “passionate.” (Also asked to pick Parr’s favorite ice cream flavor, she landed on Earl Grey tea.) When it comes to belting “I Don’t Need Your Love,” Parr’s cathartic eleven o’clock number, Carrillo mentions Whitney Houston as one influence but says she’s mostly bringing out her inner Dion.
“She’s elegant and quirky at the same time,” Carrillo says of Parr. “She’s polished but not that polished. I think she doesn’t take herself too seriously. And in that sense, she reminds me a lot of Celine Dion.”
National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Ave NW. 202-628-6161. thenationaldc.com.
Dates: Through Sept. 4.
Prices: $65-$150 | 2022-07-12T11:40:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 'Six,' a pop-pastiche musical with a historical theme, comes to the National Theatre - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/theater-dance/2022/07/12/national-theatre-six/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/theater-dance/2022/07/12/national-theatre-six/ |
People walk past a sign advertising job opportunities outside a restaurant in Arlington on June 3. (Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images)
Headlines are unlikely to announce, “Hey, the economy is not all terrible!” But amid inflation worries and fears of recession, there is plenty of good economic news.
June’s job numbers were stronger than expected, with 372,000 jobs added and the inflation rate steady at 3.6 percent. That means the country has recovered virtually all the jobs lost during the pandemic. As President Biden said last Friday, “We have more Americans working today in the private sector than any day under my predecessor, more today than any time in American history — today. In the second quarter of this year, we created more jobs than any quarter under any of my predecessors in nearly 40 years before the pandemic.”
While that might produce angst that the economy is still too “hot,” the flip side is that the United States so far does not seem to be on the verge of a recession. And on the inflation front, gas prices have been steadily declining for almost a month, even without gimmicks such as the proposed gas tax holiday.
Things could be even better if Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) stopped holding hostage the popular bipartisan bill that would make the United States more competitive against China in semiconductor manufacturing. The Republican leader has refused to support the bill unless Democrats drop their reconciliation bill that would cut the deficit, contain drug prices and extend Medicare solvency.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, in an interview with ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, made clear that the semiconductor bill “has to pass now. Not in six months from now, now.” She added, “Mitch McConnell just threw a wrench in that about a week ago, saying that he wasn’t going to allow Republicans to move on that unless we move down reconciliation. That’s a perfect example, George, of increasing supply. We have inflation now because of lack of supply.”
She ridiculed the idea that the administration would have to choose between that bill and the reconciliation package. “Why can’t we do both? What’s in that reconciliation bill? Allowing Medicare to negotiate for drug prices. What will that do? Bring down the prices of medicine for the average American consumer.” She added, “It’s a false choice. He’s playing politics with our national security, and it’s time for Congress to do its job on both of those dimensions.” It’s a good argument — and one the GOP should consider as some of its Senate nominees flounder in advance of the midterms.
The administration readily agrees that inflation remains its top concern. The Fed will need to continue raising interest rates, thereby increasing the chance of recession. But there seems to be more optimism about a “soft landing,” which UBS Global Wealth Management now puts as the most likely scenario (40 percent), rather than recession or stagflation. Citi pegs the chances of a soft landing at 55 percent.
Certainly, not all economists agree, but the relative strength of the U.S. economy compared with Europe, for example, should not be discounted. The potential that Democrats might actually manage to pass a pro-growth bill while also slicing drug prices and the deficit suggests that the worst-case scenarios might not pan out, despite an obstructionist GOP, a war raging in Ukraine and the cloud of inflation. While news coverage remains doggedly pessimistic, if you look carefully, you might spot the outlines of steady growth without an economic crash. | 2022-07-12T12:17:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The economic outlook might not be that gloomy after all - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/12/economic-outlook-might-not-be-that-gloomy-after-all/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/12/economic-outlook-might-not-be-that-gloomy-after-all/ |
Limón hopes that poetry will help deepen our connections to the natural world
U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón. (Shawn Miller)
The natural world has always spoken to Ada Limón. As a young student, she took frequent nature walks around Northern California where she memorized bird and plant species and counted newts in the creek. In her own family, she witnessed her mom care for a 40-acre horse ranch near her home and nurture emotional connections between the four-legged trotters. Snippets of nature — everything from a bundle of rattlesnake grass to Emily Dickinson’s dog — have woven themselves into her critically acclaimed poetry.
Now, Limón, 46, hopes to share her devotion to nature with the whole country. She was named the 24th poet laureate of the United States on Tuesday. Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden called Limón with the news, much to the poet’s pleasant surprise. “For someone who is a poet and believes in the power of language, I can tell you that language definitely went out the window at that moment in my life,” she says.
Five poets reflect on the seasons
Born in Sonoma, Calif., Limón was first enchanted by the world of poetry while working at her local bookstore. At the University of Washington, she majored in theater and planned to continue theater studies in graduate school. That is, until her poetry teacher Colleen McElroy pulled her aside during office hours.
“She said, ‘You should think about going to graduate school in poetry,’ ” Limón remembers. “And she was incredibly tough. Those teachers do not hand out a compliment lightly.”
I didn’t think I understood modern poetry. The less I tried to get it, the more I came to love it.
Taking McElroy’s advice to heart, she earned an MFA in poetry at New York University. After a stint working in marketing, she became a full-time writer in 2010. Critics have called her a “careful witness” to nature’s rare gifts and a versatile composer bringing together big ideas and little details, sometimes with a dash of humor. Her latest poetry collection, “The Hurting Kind,” published in May to rave reviews, and her 2018 collection, “The Carrying,” won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. She received a fellowship from the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and hosts the poetry podcast called “The Slowdown,” which reflects on a new poem every weekday.
Limón assumes the role of poet laureate with two primary intentions: to use poetry to help people reclaim their humanity and to repair their relationship with the natural world. “So many people right now are living in their own personal realities, living sort of amidst the chaos and trauma,” she says. “And we’re not even given a moment to breathe, let alone grieve because we’re on to the next hard thing, whether it’s dealing with the pandemic or the climate crisis.”
Poems for troubled times
But poetry, as her podcast reminds listeners, is an invitation to slow down and consider what’s happening.
For Limón, poetry is about digging into thorny issues, though she coaches her MFA students at Queens University of Charlotte to never lose sight of their mental health.
“Remember that when we’re exploring the heavier material of our lives — whether it’s generational trauma, whether it’s our own wounds, whether it’s a political rage — you can’t go down to the bottom of the well unless you have a ladder back out,” she says.
These days, Limón recalls from her home in Lexington, Ky., early and pivotal lessons from nature. Instead of seeing nature as separate from humanity, she implores us to remember that “we are nature too.” An excerpt from her poem “Ancestors” bridges these gaps by weaving together keen observations about leaves with childhood nostalgia:
Later, I remember leaves, through car windows,
through bedroom windows, through the classroom window,
the way they shaded and patterned the ground, all that
power from roots. Imagine you must survive
without running? I’ve come from the lacing patterns of leaves,
I do not know where else I belong.
The poet laureate runs an annual lecture and spotlights emerging and established poets in the Library of Congress’s poetry series, the oldest in the Washington area. Limón will serve a one-year term and succeeds Joy Harjo, the first Native American U.S. poet laureate, who served three terms. Limón officially begins her term in the fall with her first reading at the Library of Congress on Sept. 29. | 2022-07-12T13:04:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | New poet laureate Ada Limón was appointed by the Library of Congress - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/07/12/ada-limon-poet-laureate/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/07/12/ada-limon-poet-laureate/ |
Pedestrian struck by car last week in Prince George’s County dies
The man was hit crossing Barlowe Road in Palmer Park
A pedestrian who was struck by a vehicle last week in Palmer Park in Prince George’s County has died, police said.
At about 10:40 p.m. on July 5, police were called to the 8000 block of Barlowe Road for a collision involving a pedestrian. They later identified the victim as 53-year-old Jackie Monroe of Hyattsville.
At the scene, police found Monroe in the road. They said he was taken to a hospital for treatment, where he succumbed to his injuries on Saturday.
According to a preliminary investigation, police said Monroe was trying to cross the street and was not in the crosswalk when he was struck by a vehicle heading west on Barlowe Road. Police said the driver remained at the scene after the collision. | 2022-07-12T13:05:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Pedestrian struck by car last week in Prince George's County dies - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/12/pedestrian-vehicle-fatal-pg-county/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/12/pedestrian-vehicle-fatal-pg-county/ |
D.C. museum showcases cool gadgets and fake poop among its 10,000 artifacts.
By Marylou Tousignant
Pigeons with cameras strapped on were used to spy on the enemy during World War I. The International Spy Museum in Washington. D.C., has been showcasing devices like this since it opened 20 years ago. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
What: The International Spy Museum is holding a free outdoor birthday party from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. July 19. There will be music, glitter tattoos, decoding and other activities, and free ice cream (while supplies last).
Where: 700 L’Enfant Plaza in Southwest Washington.
When: Open Monday-Thursday and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Friday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. During the busy summer months, it’s best to purchase timed-entry tickets online.
For more information: Call 202-393-7798 or visit spymuseum.org.
Read, see and do more
The museum has lists of at-home activities and kids’ books and movies about spies and spying. Find them at:
spymuseum.org/education-programs/kids-families/activities
spy-museum.s3.amazonaws.com/files/resources/best-kids-spy-books.pdf
spy-museum.s3.amazonaws.com/files/resources/kidspy-movie-list.gif | 2022-07-12T13:09:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | International Spy Museum marks 20 years of revealing tricks of the trade - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/07/12/international-spy-museum-marks-20-years-revealing-tricks-trade/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/07/12/international-spy-museum-marks-20-years-revealing-tricks-trade/ |
Imani Perry is the author of “South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation." (Raymond W. Holman Jr. for The Washington Post)
Imani Perry, 49, is the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and the author of “South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation.” Perry is a native of Birmingham, Ala., and lives with her two sons outside Philadelphia.
What was the impetus for the book? What made you think this was a book that needed to be written?
It was more emotional than intellectual. I felt like the book called to me, and it was born of my own experience of feeling as though the place of my birth was not only misunderstood but mischaracterized. As a child, being born in Alabama and then moving up to Massachusetts, I was aware of an external view of the place that was home for me. And then as I became an adult and a scholar, it was interesting to feel this disjuncture between the way people talk about the South as this backward, different place and the reality of its centrality in the history and the culture of the country.
What do you think we gain as a nation by reframing the South?
I think we gain a more honest rendering of the country. We want to tell this story of an ever more perfect union — a kind of liberty-and-justice-for-all narrative, a noble narrative. And the reality is we are a country that was built on settler colonialism. Genocidal behavior toward Indigenous people. Enslaving people of African descent. And that foundation really shaped so much of how we do things. And to sort of marginalize where it happened, and to tell the story of the beginning of the country with Plymouth Rock as opposed to Jamestown — we forget how we came to be. I think that story has to not only include, but centralize, the South. All of the industries that made the country a global power — cotton, coal, tobacco, sugar — all of these industries were essential to building the wealth of the nation, and they wound up being centered in the South because of the climate and because that’s where the bulk of enslavement took place.
You talk about the art and the culture that comes out of the South.
Yeah, it’s the home of American music. It’s the intersection between multiple African origins, Scots-Irish and incredible music coming out of the South from people who lived on the land, who had encounters across experiences, who gave voice to their freedom dreams, to their yearnings, to their longings and made art of it in an everyday way. I also talk a lot about yard art in Alabama, which I think is a direct consequence of industry in Alabama. So you get incredible artists who build from the scraps of the industries — coal and steel — and live with art. It’s also even in more mundane ways, in cross-stitch, in crotchet and quilting, creating beauty literally from the scraps on the margins. [It’s] such a deeply Southern way of living. And it has inspired art across the country, but also across the globe.
Your book talks about how Black folks appreciate the difference between honest racism and liberal subterfuge. However, there is something about not having to suppress [racism] that makes people more fearful. Do you understand the fear that some have about the Deep South?
I think that it’s really miscast. The same prospect of racial violence and terror exists in pockets all over the country. I think one of the things that fuels some of the fear is the red-state, blue-state maps, when in reality, it’s really red and blue counties. I’ll give you an example: We live in Philly and my son played a team out west in Pennsylvania and on one occasion, all the kids had on Trump socks. What do they call the area between Philly and Pittsburgh? Pennsyl-tucky — for a reason. I do understand the power of historical imagery, but I think that it’s important that we sort of name what exists everywhere. Growing up, Massachusetts was a place where I experienced more racial hostility than in Alabama. There have been Southern White people who have said to me, “Do you think you are letting us off the hook?” And I said, “No, I just think you have a lot of companions in other parts of the country.”
This is also a travelogue.
I’m always sort of traveling somewhere in the South. It’s just a habit in my life. But I wanted to avoid the major historic sites, and instead I wanted to touch the land and people. And the benefit of doing that in the South is that people will talk to you. I was sort of trying to dig underneath, trying to find out: What’s behind this person? Where are we physically? What roads are we traveling? You’re encountering these people with me, but you are also encountering a space. And everywhere you travel, everywhere you go, there is a story underneath the street where you are. I was hoping it would encourage people to think that way overall. I had so many great conversations that took me on these wonderful, side journeys which is also facilitated by my love of Toni Morrison because one of the gifts of her writing is she is always taking in these sort of arterial journeys. I thought, okay, I’ll try that too.
You discuss the idea of intimacy across the color lines, implying that there is a different kind of understanding that exists between Blacks and Whites in the South, and there may be implications there for integration for the rest of the country.
Thank you for raising that because I think particularly in the Northeast often people say some version of “Oh, if we just knew each other better.” We have this history of this incredible intimacy across the color line in the South, but that intimacy doesn’t mean decency or fairness. And the history of sexism should teach us this. You can be close and still not fully respect those who are in a disfavored position. And so, integration, closeness is not nearly sufficient to getting to racial justice.
There is also something to learn about what happens to human beings when you can laugh together and play together and have deeply intimate associations and also participate in horrific racial violence. That says something about human beings that’s very unsettling, and it should teach us something about being attentive to how we are socializing young people. How do we raise people to think about their responsibility to other human beings? It is not enough to feel warmly. Respect and dignity and integrity are really important. For me that has to be part of the story, a better story, that we tell.
Robin Rose Parker is a writer in Maryland. This interview has been edited and condensed. For a longer version, visit wapo.st/magazine. | 2022-07-12T13:09:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Imani Perry: Don’t marginalize the South in America’s history - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/07/12/race-south-racism-black-lives-matter/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/07/12/race-south-racism-black-lives-matter/ |
Lost your physical confidence after a fall? Here’s how to get it back.
By Elizabeth Heath
(Lucy Jones/Illustration for The Washington Post)
My timing was cinematic. I had no sooner admonished my family for repeatedly cautioning me to watch my step on the thawing, muddy mountain trail (“I’m not decrepit, people!”) than I slipped spectacularly on a patch of frozen terrain. My feet flew out from under me, and I landed hard — with my tailbone, cervical spine and the back of my head taking the brunt of the impact. I lay there, momentarily stunned, thinking, “I’m really going to feel this tomorrow.”
After I could move again, we gingerly made our way two more miles down the trail to the car, me with my morale crushed and my clothes covered in mud. When we passed a group who had witnessed my fall, they asked how I was doing. “Ask me tomorrow,” I grumbled. My husband added: “Her pride’s a little hurt, too.”
It’s true that my ego (“I’m a failure at being outdoorsy!” I wailed in a text to a friend the next day) and my tailbone both took a hit. But although the latter felt better after 10 days or so, the injury to my self-confidence has lingered.
Since I took that tumble, I find myself constantly thinking about falling again — while hiking on uneven terrain, walking on a loose gravel path or just going down the stairs in my home — and questioning whether I need to scale back my soft adventure activities. Yet, at 55 and in reasonable, if not excellent, shape, I feel as if it’s a little too early to give up on outdoor activities I enjoy, especially those we do as a family.
This got me wondering about that blurry space between overreactive worry and justified concerns about falling or injuring oneself anew. How do we know when it’s time to hit the trail again, or when it’s time to hang up the hiking shoes and find a new, less perilous activity?
Low falls self-efficacy
“People fall all the time,” says Helen Lach, a professor at Saint Louis University’s nursing school whose research specialty is falls and fears of falling. “Hiking is a high-risk thing. A rough patch of ground, or terrain that’s rocky or slippery, … you’re challenging yourself to some degree, and everyone falls doing those things.”
But when taking a hard fall is a new experience, as it was for me, Lach says it can feel “more dramatic.” There’s even a name for what I’m feeling: low falls self-efficacy, which Lach describes as “the loss of confidence that you can do everyday activities without falling.”
In older populations especially, individuals may get to the point where they’re not comfortable leaving the house or doing activities they normally enjoy — and, as a result, they may not get enough exercise, or they may even become isolated and depressed.
After taking a painful tumble, this doctor and runner is learning the best way to fall
Although my falls self-efficacy isn’t so low that I’ve become a recluse, it is typical, even if I’m in a slightly younger demographic. “Decreased confidence and fear of reinjury are two common side effects of any injury,” says Amber Shipherd, a certified mental performance consultant based at Texas A&M University who works with professional athletes, coaches, musicians and members of the military — “anyone who performs as part of their daily job.”
Kyle Martino, a former Major League Soccer player and the founder of the Over Under Initiative, says that, for athletes, fear of reinjury happens “every time” after an injury on the field, although Shipherd says the same concepts apply to casually active people like myself.
“The hardest part of overcoming injury is trusting your body again,” Martino says. “It’s almost like you have a physical you and a mental clone of you.” They both get hurt, he says, except that the body often heals faster than the mind does.
Shipherd, who has a background in counseling, kinesiology and performance psychology, says she looks for the root of the problem. If physical limitations can be ruled out, she says, then a counselor can set out to help rebuild client confidence.
Practical steps for bouncing back
The techniques Shipherd uses to help star athletes reclaim their A game are essentially the same as those that might apply to a middle-aged woman who fell on her derriere: positive self-talk and baby steps. “We fall back on mental skills and goal-setting.”
In the case of hiking, she says, “let’s get you back on short, flat trails. Once you get to the point where you’re feeling good, we up the difficulty.” As someone experiences success on trails of escalating difficulty, hopefully their self-confidence will return.
Lach, who had to bounce back after a broken ankle resulting from a backyard fall, agrees with slowly building back to prior performance levels and being realistic about one’s fitness level. “An older person who’s really out of shape might need to start with physical therapy,” she says, including working on mobility and balance. But mostly, she adds, “it’s about improving physical strength. If you feel stronger, you feel more confident.”
At 67, she sees a personal trainer once a week. And although her downhill skiing days may be behind her, she feels confident while playing golf and hiking — both activities that might have seemed unattainable during the three months she was non-weight-bearing.
The Big Number: About 36 million people 65 and older suffer a fall each year
It’s also about reframing, not ignoring, your fear, Shipherd says. “The fear of injury is still there. It’s not realistic to deny it. But we frame it differently. ‘This trail is rough; I’m nervous about it,’ becomes, ‘This trail is going to help me get better.’ ”
The confidence-building process happens off the trail or playing field, too, Shipherd says. You don’t have to get right back into the activity. “A break is a great opportunity to make sure you’re fulfilling yourself in other ways and get other things, like family, school or work, aligned in your life.”
When to say, ‘Whoa!’
Martino, whose soccer career was cut short because of injuries, says this slow rebuilding of confidence and form is a shift from the performance coaching of old, when people would “battle through pain” to return to top condition as soon as possible. “My way of overcoming injury was not the healthiest,” he says, recalling that his career was shortened and his quality of life affected because of rushed recoveries. “If I could go back, I would listen to my body more and taken time to heal properly.”
“For an athlete or exerciser of any type,” Shipherd says, “one of the most challenging things is not being able to do the same things you used to do.” Some may wind up accepting that they can’t run as fast or as far but that they still get enjoyment from running. Others may acknowledge that they just can’t run at all anymore, or that the risk isn’t worth the reward. And “when you just don’t love what you’re doing anymore, it’s time to find a new sport,” Shipherd says.
For Martino, the epiphany came during a treatment session. At a certain point, he recalls, “what I had to do to get on the field wasn’t worth what it felt like to be out there. My doctor looked at me during a treatment one day, and he could see what playing was doing to my body. ‘Think about the next 40 years instead of the next four,’ he said. I decided to walk away that day.”
My situation lacks the drama of a professional athlete having to walk away from the game because of injuries. But Lach suggests some of the same realism, and risk-vs.-reward analysis is advised, especially at my age. “It’s all about right-sizing your activity for your own self, being realistic, but still doing the things you enjoy doing as much as you can,” she says.
And maybe waiting until the ice has thawed on those mountain trails.
Elizabeth Heath is a writer based in Allerona, Italy. Her website is elizabethfheath.com. Find her on Instagram: @myvillageinumbria. | 2022-07-12T13:09:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How to regain confidence after a fall - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/07/12/fall-regaining-confidence-elderly/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/07/12/fall-regaining-confidence-elderly/ |
Elevator condo buildings at transit-oriented community in Ashburn, Va.
Condos at the Flats at Metro Walk in Ashburn, VA, have an open-concept floor plan. (Benjamin C Tankersley for The Washington Post)
Metrorail’s expansion into Loudoun County, VA, was a major factor in Alonso and Jennifer Cisneros’s decision to move to Ashburn. The Silver Line’s second phase and its Ashburn station are years behind schedule. But the Cisneroses have arrived — at the Flats at Metro Walk.
“We wanted to be closer to Metro,” Jennifer said. “Both of us commute into D.C. for work, so being closer to Metro, or public transportation, was always a factor for us. Also, it was an affordable option for us to buy a home.”
The Cisneroses, both 49, shopped for a new home for a few months before deciding on the Flats at Metro Walk, a Toll Brothers condominium community where 102 units are planned. Twelve condos are available to buy now, with more to come. Move-ins have been underway since January 2021.
The couple arrived a year later, in January 2022. “Prior to buying a home and moving to Ashburn, we rented a home in Falls Church,” Jennifer said. “While waiting for the Flats to be built, we lived in a short-term rental and stayed with family in Florida during the summer last year.”
The charms of the rapidly changing area also played a role in the couple’s buying decision. “We really like how family-oriented Ashburn is and the number of places you can visit … wineries as well as the various activities such as biking or hiking,” Jennifer said. “We are also big soccer fans and like being able to watch Loudoun United FC [a D.C. United feeder club] at Segra Field” in Leesburg.
The development has several upgrades lined up. “Future amenities will include an expansive clubhouse with on-site management, resort-style pool, fitness center, walking and jogging trails,” said Eric Anderson, a group president with Toll Brothers.
Three condo models are available, Ballston, Eisenhower and Tysons. Sizes range from 2,232 to more than 2,775 square feet; prices range from $828,995 to $912,995.
The Ballston condos, the largest, have two stories, with entry and the owner’s bedroom on the ground floor. The units can be configured with three or four bedrooms, two or three bathrooms and two powder rooms (half-baths). Eisenhower models, on the second floor, are one-level units with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a powder room. The Tysons models, on the third floor, are also one level, with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a powder room.
All the units come standard with two-car garages, and semiprivate elevator access is provided to each floor. “These are the only elevator flats with a two-car garage in Ashburn,” Anderson said.
Anderson also said penthouse-style, luxury flats offer “360 degrees of window views and covered balconies.”
Buyers whose condos remain to be built can pick interior finishes at the Toll Brothers’ design studio. A few quick-move-in units are available to buy.
The Cisneros family went with the Ballston to get the extra room. “Like many families these days, we needed a home that could accommodate a multigenerational family,” Jennifer said. “With the Flats, in essence, we have two homes in one.”
Anderson and Jennifer said they are happy about how quickly the development is becoming a neighborhood. “Since moving in, one of the things that surprised me the most is how quickly we’ve developed our own little community,” Jennifer said. “In the short time we’ve lived in the Flats, we’ve gotten to know our other building neighbors, and they are just great.”
Schools: Moorefield Station Elementary, Stone Hill Middle and Rock Ridge High
Transit: The community is close to Dulles International Airport and within walking distance of the as-yet-unopened Ashburn Metro station, on the Silver Line. Residents have easy access to the Dulles Toll Road (Route 267) and Loudoun County Parkway. The Loudoun County Connector’s 62 bus route runs through and around Ashburn.
Nearby: Tysons Corner Center, Fair Oaks Mall, Dulles Technology Corridor, Dulles 28 Centre, Claude Moore Park, 1757 Golf Club, Loudoun Station retail center, Dulles International Airport.
The Flats at Metro Walk
43447 Croson Lane in Ashburn, Va.
Toll Brothers has plans for 102 condos. Twelve are available to buy now, with additional site releases to come. Prices range from $828,995 to $912,995.
Builder: Toll Brothers
Features: The units have covered balconies, open-concept floor plans, 10-foot-high ceilings, eight-foot doors, kitchen islands, gas appliances, walk-in closets and dual-sink vanities.
Bedrooms/bathrooms: 3 or 4 / 2 or 3
Square-footage: 2,232 to 2,775
Condominium fee: $329 a month
View model: The on-site sales center, at 43447 Croson Lane in Ashburn, is open seven days a week for appointments and walk-ins.
Sales: Toll Brothers DC Metro Online Sales Team, DCMetroOnlineSales@TollBrothers.com, 866-298-0316. | 2022-07-12T13:09:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Elevator condo buildings at transit-oriented community in Ashburn, Va. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/07/12/elevator-condo-buildings-transit-oriented-community-ashburn-va/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/07/12/elevator-condo-buildings-transit-oriented-community-ashburn-va/ |
Bill Ackman, chief executive officer of Pershing Square Capital Management LP, speaks during a Bloomberg Television interview in New York, U.S., on Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017. Ackman discussed his proxy fight at Automatic Data Processing. (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)
More than half a dozen blank-check firms have been liquidated so far this year, according to SPAC Research data, and I anticipate plenty more will fold in the coming months. The Securities and Exchange Commission has made banks leery of facilitating mergers, and shareholders are increasingly asking for their money back rather than funding transactions. Many of these cash-shells are also running up against the two-year deadline they have to complete a deal.
It’s ironic that Ackman’s vehicle met this fate, as he was early in identifying many of the problems that have proven SPACs’ undoing, in particular the skewed sponsor incentives and the tendency of investors to pull their money out (aka redeem).
Listed in July 2020, PSTH tried to correct for these faults – Ackman declined the traditional free shares SPAC founders award themselves, and he offered additional warrants to shareholders who agreed not to redeem. And yet PSTH ended up being tarnished by the same negative connotations as other SPACs.
The deal he tried to do with Universal Music Group NV last year was shot down by the SEC. This was much to the chagrin of retail investors who felt they were being deprived of a good opportunity (Universal Music ended up dealing with Ackman’s hedge fund instead). The flop also contrived to make PSTH the target of (in my view, spurious) shareholder litigation that contended it was acting as an illegal investment company, which PSTH has denied.
The upshot of all this drama is PSTH shareholders who bought at the IPO price will later this month get their money back, plus interest. That isn’t such a bad outcome, when you consider how much some SPACs have lost for their shareholders in ill-conceived deals. An index of former SPACs has declined more than 75% in the past year. Unfortunately, many retail investors unwisely bought at a premium to the $20 per share value: those who dabbled in PSTH options or warrants will have lost even more.
They won’t be left empty-handed. Ackman is offering them rights, known as SPARs, to participate in an unspecified future deal. In theory, Pershing Square SPARC Holdings, Ltd. is an improvement on a regular blank-check firm. Investors won’t have to park money at a low rate of return until the SPARC finds a target, which might take years. Instead they’ll be invited to opt in once Ackman finds something to buy. Hence the SPARC saves on underwriting fees (about 7% for a tradition IPO and 5.5% for a SPAC).
IPOs are moribund and SPACs’ reputation is in the gutter, so a company wanting to go public might find the deal price certainty offered by the SPARC quite attractive.(2) PSTH’s public warrants are due to expire worthless so the fact they’re trading a little above $0 implies investors have some faith in Ackman’s dealmaking prowess. (1)
But SPARs have to be blessed by the SEC and at least initially, they’ll trade over-the-counter rather than on the New York Stock Exchange. That could limit their price and liquidity.
Convincing a unicorn to take a punt on a novel listing structure won’t be easy and investors once bitten by Ackman’s financial innovations will also tend to be twice shy. Only by serving them up a juicy deal will he earn their forgiveness.
• Bill Ackman Doesn’t Want Your $4 Billion Anymore: Chris Bryant
• Bill Ackman Has a SPARC: Matt Levine
• Let’s Hope Bill Ackman Doesn’t Mellow Too Much: Chris Hughes
(1) The SPARC is also backed by a chunk of committed capital from Pershing Square.
(2) PSTH warrant holders will receive a full SPAR, while shareholders will get half | 2022-07-12T13:09:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Bill Ackman’s SPAC is Dead. Long Live the SPARC? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/bill-ackmans-spac-is-dead-long-live-the-sparc/2022/07/12/dd22d1e0-01df-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/bill-ackmans-spac-is-dead-long-live-the-sparc/2022/07/12/dd22d1e0-01df-11ed-8beb-2b4e481b1500_story.html |
A death row inmate wants to donate a kidney. Texas won’t let him.
Letters and drawings sent to Michael Zoosman by Ramiro Gonzales. (Courtesy of Michael Zoosman)
Thousands of miles and circumstances separate a Jewish clergyman based in Maryland and a death row inmate in Texas. But the two men’s lives have become enmeshed through dozens of handwritten letters over the past year. One sticks out to cantor and chaplain Michael Zoosman: a February 2021 response from the Polunsky Unit prison in which Ramiro Gonzales offered to donate a kidney to one of Zoosman’s congregants.
Gonzales has been on death row since 2006, when he was sentenced for the 2001 murder of an 18-year-old woman. He was 18 at the time of the shooting and a drug addict after an abusive childhood, his attorneys have said. Now, in an attempt to atone for his crime, he has petitioned for a temporary release to undergo the organ donation surgery.
The state of Texas, however, won’t allow it. Officials have objected to the procedure because of Gonzales’s approaching execution date. On Monday, the Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Gonzales’s request for a 180-day reprieve so he can undergo the operation before he is put to death. His attorneys had also asked Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s office for a 30-day respite for Gonzales but said they received no response.
The clock had been ticking, with Gonzales’s execution scheduled for Wednesday. But just after his request to donate a kidney was denied, the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals issued a stay of execution because of a concern about an expert witness decades ago at Gonzales’s trial.
It’s unclear whether the legal delay will enable Gonzales to donate the kidney.
Zoosman, the co-founder of an advocacy group called L’chaim: Jews Against the Death Penalty, first became involved in the case after writing a letter to Gonzales last year — something his organization does regularly for inmates with scheduled execution dates. A month into their correspondence, Zoosman mentioned that a congregant needed a kidney. Gonzales was not a match but still offered his organ to any stranger in need — a move Zoosman said “demonstrates the inherent humanity of the people that we are seeking to kill.”
Since then, activists, lawyers and patients awaiting donations have advocated for Gonzales’s request, citing the chronic shortage of lifesaving organs; in the United States, an average of 17 people per day die while awaiting transplants. Yet cases where death row inmates have been allowed to become altruistic organ donors are few. Practical and ethical concerns have prevented it from becoming a widespread practice, said David Orentlicher, the director of the health law program at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.
Some experts have made the case that inmates’ organs could be medically unsuitable, given the health conditions at prisons. Others have noted that the process could be used as a way for prisoners to delay their executions or argue for reduced sentences. And Orentlicher, who formerly directed the American Medical Association’s medical ethics program, sees other potential pitfalls.
“If we have a policy that people on death row can donate organs, will that influence juries when they’re trying to decide or judges deciding about what kind of sentence to impose?” he said. “Well, that could make them more inclined to impose a death sentence, knowing that these people will be able to donate organs. You’d hope that they wouldn’t think that way, but it’s an important concern.”
Still, Orentlicher said, there’s a strong argument for allowing Gonzales to give up his kidney. The procedure won’t kill him, and “we let living people donate kidneys all the time.” There’s also the fact that Gonzales made the offer knowing that he would still be executed.
“He can’t bring back the life he took,” Orentlicher said. “But if he can save another life, that’s an important way to make amends, and that’s pretty valuable.”
Some patients who have waited years for organs agree with that assessment — especially since Gonzales has a rare blood type that makes him an “excellent candidate” for donation. The surgery could be done within the month, his attorneys wrote in a June 29 letter to Abbott.
“Imagine a potential recipient who may have been waiting 6 years or more for an elusive Type B kidney, feeling sicker and more hopeless with each passing day,” Judy Frith, a potential recipient and cancer survivor in Washington, wrote Sunday in a separate letter to Abbott. “You have the ability to save that person’s life by allowing Mr. Gonzales to donate.”
Nearly 106,000 U.S. residents are waiting for a lifesaving transplant
In a clemency video shared with The Washington Post, Gonzales said he is no longer the person he was at the time of the murder. Over 20 years ago, “drugs were the only way to drown out the hurt” of neglect, physical and sexual abuse, and the death of an aunt, Gonzales said. To “steal cocaine,” he kidnapped, sexually assaulted and then killed his dealer’s girlfriend, Bridget Townsend, according to court documents. When he was arrested for an unrelated crime, he confessed to the murder and led police to the woman’s remains.
At trial, an expert witness for the prosecution said Gonzales “would be a threat wherever he goes” — a claim the expert has retracted and that has been discredited, the Marshall Project reported. But Texas law requires jurors in death penalty cases to consider the likelihood of a repeated offense, and Gonzales was sentenced to death in 2006.
In prison, Gonzales has said it is his mission “to be instrumental in the lives of people” to make up for his crime. Fellow inmates have noted Gonzales’s transformation “into a caring and purpose driven individual,” according to the Death Row Soul Collective.
When Zoosman wrote his letter of support to Gonzales last year, Gonzales replied immediately. Since then, the two have traveled the “roller coaster” of despair and hope, frustration and elation, Zoosman said.
On Monday, after learning that Gonzales’s request to donate a kidney had been denied, Zoosman wrote an email to Gonzales, asking what song he would like sung at his online vigil during the execution.
With a whoosh, the message was sent, and Zoosman mentally prepared to record himself praying Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. … Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” But seconds later, he received notice about the stay of Gonzales’s execution.
The update, he said, could give Gonzales an opportunity to continue fighting for his kidney donation. But, for now, there’s relief, a feeling as if “the Angel of Death was at least stopped this once.”
“L’chaim!” Zoosman said — “to life” in Hebrew. | 2022-07-12T13:10:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Execution delayed for Texas death row inmate Ramiro Gonzales - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/12/texas-death-row-kidney-donation/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/12/texas-death-row-kidney-donation/ |
A new pilot was forced to make a risky landing. Video captured his feat.
Vincent Fraser made an emergency landing on an active highway in North Carolina after his plane engine failed mid-flight on July 3. (Video: Vincent Fraser)
Vincent Fraser was taking his father-in-law on a ride in his propeller plane last week when the engine suddenly started to lose power. Fraser, who was piloting the aircraft above Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina, could no longer climb.
“That’s when I noticed there was something seriously wrong,” Fraser, 31, told The Washington Post of the July 3 flight.
Then the engine stopped entirely. They were 5,500 feet in the air, gliding above mountains and woodland.
Fraser, who has only 100 hours of flight experience, didn’t panic. Instead, he went through his emergency checklist and managed to momentarily restart the engine. But it was not at full power, so he turned to his father-in-law and told him they needed to find a place to land.
As a kid, Fraser said, he dreamed of being up in the sky. He wanted to be a fighter pilot but ended up joining the Marine Corps and maintaining fighter jet weapons before being honorably discharged in 2015 following an injury, he said. For the past four years, Fraser has worked as a flight attendant for Allegiant Air. In October, he earned his private pilot’s license and then purchased the plane that he landed on the highway — a 1967 Aero Commander 100 — to practice. He hopes to eventually become a commercial pilot.
His flight skills were put to the test minutes after he took off on July 3. Although Fraser was able to restart the engine at first, it died a second time not long after. As he scanned the area, he saw no place to land. Any possible stretch of road was covered by a dense canopy of trees.
The plane was losing altitude. Now at 4,000 feet, the mountainous terrain below was growing closer. Fraser managed to restart the engine once more before it shut off for good.
Then he saw a bridge in the distance. At first, it seemed like the best and only option, but as Fraser glided closer, the hazards became clear. There was traffic on the bridge, and it would be a short landing strip. He knew he would come in fast and put drivers in danger.
Passenger with ‘no idea how to fly’ lands plane after pilot emergency
So he thought of another option: He could land on the river that ran under the bridge. Fraser estimated their chances of surviving that landing were about 50/50, but he was committed to it. He told his father-in-law that he loved him and that they were headed for the river.
But as Fraser guided the plane toward the water, he noticed a highway. It wasn’t perfect — it was curvy with trees and power lines on each side — but it was better than trying to land on the water. Fraser guided the plane down toward Highway 74, barely clearing the power lines, maneuvering the plane so it didn’t collide with cars driving in both directions.
Video footage shows it passing over cars and touching down before having to avoid oncoming traffic. Fraser told The Post that as he landed the plane, he went into “robot mode.”
“I was hypersensitive to the power lines, to the cars and the people around me, to my father-in-law,” Fraser said, thanking his training in the Marines. “My objective was to get [my father-in-law] on the ground alive, not kill anybody. … And I did it.”
The plane came to a halt right in front of a stop sign. Fraser and his father-in-law were safe. They had landed on the highway about eight miles southwest of Bryson City, N.C. Fraser said he later learned that the fuel from one of the wings stopped flowing into the engine, which caused the failure.
Standing next to the plane that he had just landed on the highway, Fraser wanted to give up flying, he recalled. “I told myself, ‘You’re done, man.’ ”
But in the days since the stressful landing, “everybody that loved and supported me this far has just motivated me to keep going and regain that passion, that fire,” Fraser said.
Once his plane is repaired, Fraser said, he’s ready for his next flight. | 2022-07-12T13:10:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Video shows pilot land plane on North Carolina highway - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/12/vincent-fraser-plane-landing/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/12/vincent-fraser-plane-landing/ |
From ‘Green Jesus’ to ‘radical pragmatist’: Canada's climate minister evolves
Good morning and welcome to The Climate 202! Thanks to everyone who sent us feedback yesterday on the new “In the atmosphere” section of the newsletter. It sounds like many readers appreciate the new section. 😊 But first:
From ‘Green Jesus’ to ‘radical pragmatist’: Inside the evolution of Canada's environment minister
When top environmental ministers from the Group of Seven industrial countries met in Berlin in May, Steven Guilbeault was among them.
But for the first time in his long career, he was meeting with the ministers inside the summit, rather than protesting in the streets outside.
“Someone asked me, ‘Is it your first G-7 meeting?’” Guilbeault recalled in an interview with The Climate 202. “I said: 'Well, it depends how you look at it. I've protested a number of them, but it's my first one inside. So it's an adjustment for sure.'”
Guilbeault, 52, has served as Canada's minister of environment and climate change since October. Before entering the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, he spent more than two decades as an environmental activist with eyebrow-raising tactics.
In 2001, while working for Greenpeace, Guilbeault scaled Toronto's CN Tower and unfurled a banner that called Canada and President George W. Bush “climate killers.” The act of civil disobedience was meant to put pressure on Canada and America to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. It earned him the nickname “Green Jesus” among both fans and critics in the country's oil-rich west.
In April, however, Guilbeault made a decision that might have horrified his younger self: He approved the controversial Bay du Nord offshore oil project, which involves drilling up to 1 billion barrels off Canada's east coast. The decision came two days after the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report that warned the world must rapidly phase out fossil fuels to stave off a climate catastrophe.
“I obviously didn't come into politics to approve oil projects,” Guilbeault told The Climate 202. “If I was alone, making the decision for myself, it's not the decision I would have made. … But I'm now the environment and climate change minister for 38 million people.”
The Climate 202 sat down with Guilbeault on Monday at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, where he is meeting with U.S. officials including White House national climate adviser Gina McCarthy and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. Here are highlights from the conversation:
The case for climate pragmatism
Guilbeault calls himself a “radical pragmatist.” To him, the phrase reflects his pursuit of “radical” policies to green Canada's economy — but also his recognition of harsh realities that complicate his lofty climate ambitions.
“The ideas I promote are fairly radical,” he said. “I am proposing that we overhaul our energy systems, the way we move around, the way we build things, and the way we operate our plants and industries. But there is a part of me that understands it can't happen overnight.”
When giving the green light to the Bay du Nord project, Guilbeault set forth 137 legally binding conditions that the energy giant Equinor must comply with for the lifetime of the project. For the first time, the conditions include a requirement to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
“I never said that Bay du Nord was ‘green oil’ or ‘sustainable oil,'” Guilbeault said. “But factually speaking, to our knowledge, it will be the lowest-emitting project of its kind in the world.”
Guilbeault, who is an avid reader of scientific reports from the IPCC and the International Energy Agency, said both organizations recognize that continued oil production is consistent with the more ambitious goal of the Paris agreement: limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels.
“In a 1.5-scenario world in 2050, we're producing about 25 to 35 million barrels a day — down from 100 million, where we are now,” he said. “So it's a significant decrease in production. But there will still be oil consumed in 2050. And therefore it should be the lowest-emitting oil possible.”
Meanwhile, Guilbeault said he will probably press U.S. lawmakers this week on Democrats' plans to provide a $12,500 tax credit for people who buy electric vehicles made in America.
Ottawa has argued that the proposal, which was included in Democrats' stalled budget reconciliation bill, could force General Motors and Ford to relocate major manufacturing facilities from Canada to the United States. Guilbeault warned that it could also undermine cross-border collaboration on securing the critical minerals used in EV batteries, including nickel and cobalt.
“U.S. decision-makers will have to decide,” he said, “whether they would rather have their nascent EV sector be dependent on critical minerals from Canada or from China.”
Guilbeault said the topic will probably come up when he meets with Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) this week. However, he is not meeting with Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), the most important player in the talks over the spending bill — and a man who might especially appreciate his “radical pragmatist” approach.
Manchin eyes Sept. 30 deadline for reconciliation
After a virtual meeting with Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday, Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) said he views Sept. 30 — not the August recess — as the true deadline for reaching a deal on President Biden's long-stalled budget reconciliation package, Erik Wasson reports for Bloomberg News.
Schumer has been pushing to clinch a deal before senators leave for their August break. However, Sept. 30 is when the fiscal 2022 budget resolution underpinning the bill expires.
Manchin added that his top priorities are making sure the bill doesn't worsen inflation, closes certain tax loopholes and lowers energy costs. He also reiterated his support for increasing domestic fossil fuel production.
"From the energy thing, you can't do it unless you produce more. If there's people that don't want to produce more fossil, then you got a problem," Manchin said following the discussion, Manu Raju reports for CNN.
Nord Stream 1, the main natural gas pipeline connecting Russia and Germany, temporarily shut down Monday for scheduled maintenance, raising concerns over whether supplies will flow again as Moscow continues to use energy as leverage in the Ukraine war, The Washington Post's Loveday Morris, Reis Thebault and Amanda Coletta report.
The key pipeline provides about 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually to countries across Europe, despite much of the European Union agreeing to wean itself off Russian gas as quickly as possible. But some members of the bloc, including Germany, are still heavily reliant on Moscow for energy — a growing concern for the country as it tries to build gas reserves before the winter, when demand is at its highest.
Germany’s economy minister, Robert Habeck, said that if the Kremlin does not turn the taps back on after the 10 days of scheduled work, the country would face a “nightmare scenario” this winter.
“Everything is possible, everything can happen,” Habeck told Deutschlandfunk radio Sunday. “We have to prepare for the worst.”
Extreme heat poses test for Texas power grid
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) on Monday asked customers to conserve energy during the hottest times of the day amid a statewide heat wave, raising concern over whether Texas's beleaguered power grid could handle the record high demand, Matthew Cappucci reports for The Post.
ERCOT projected that on Monday between 2 and 3 p.m., the statewide grid would be able to generate 80,168 megawatts. During the same window, demand was expected to reach 79,671 MW, leaving very little wiggle room. The Lone Star state avoided rolling blackouts due to voluntary cutbacks from residents, but the calls to conserve energy could become a common practice this summer if the ongoing heat wave continues.
When local demand exceeds capacity, most states and municipalities can borrow energy from a neighbor. But Texas has been energy-independent since the early 20th century, leaving the state reliant on its own grid even in high-demand scenarios.
The threat of blackouts during severe weather is not new to Texas’s grid. In February 2021, 3.5 million residents were left without power when temperatures dipped to dangerously low levels.
Some of the world's oldest trees are at risk in Yosemite wildfire
A wildfire raging within Yosemite National Park is threatening Mariposa Grove, which is home to some of the biggest and oldest trees on Earth, The Post's Dino Grandoni reports.
The blaze, fueled in part by a climate-change-induced drought, covered roughly 2,720 acres late Monday after doubling in size over the weekend. It poses a risk to the more than 500 mature giant sequoia trees that have inspired generations of trekkers and have attracted tourists from across the globe.
So far, none of the grove’s named trees — including the 209-foot Grizzly Giant, along with the Bachelor and Three Graces — have been damaged by the flames, according to Yosemite fire officials. The iconic trees can live for thousands of years and grow in only six dozen groves along the Sierra Nevada.
Although they typically survive low-to-medium-intensity blazes, recent fire seasons have grown to be longer and more intense, testing the trees’ tenacity. Already, three fires over the past three years have killed up to 19 percent of the entire sequoia species.
Rate of Arctic warming faster than previously thought — Chelsea Harvey for E&E News
Kids want to put Montana on trial for unhealthy climate policies — Nick Ehli for CBS News
Top U.S. LNG producer Cheniere asks Biden admin to drop pollution rule — Valerie Volcovici for Reuters
Fourteen firms to get oil from U.S. strategic reserve in latest sale — Costas Pitas and Timothy Gardner for Reuters
We write about efforts to save the Earth, but we also think the universe is pretty cool!
Part of Cipollone’s taped testimony from Friday to be aired | 2022-07-12T13:11:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | From ‘Green Jesus’ to ‘radical pragmatist’: Canada's climate minister evolves - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/12/green-jesus-radical-pragmatist-canada-climate-minister-evolves/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/12/green-jesus-radical-pragmatist-canada-climate-minister-evolves/ |
At DeMatha, an outsider aims to fill impossibly large basketball shoes
Mike G. Jones, hired in April, is already putting his imprint on the Stags
Mike G. Jones takes over at DeMatha, where basketball history is rich. (Craig Hudson/For the Washington Post)
Hours after he was officially announced as the basketball coach at DeMatha Catholic High, Mike G. Jones walked into the Copper Canyon Grill just off the Beltway in Prince George’s County. He was there to meet the one man who could relate: Mike K. Jones.
The pair was there that April day to discuss one of the most sought-after jobs in high school basketball. Mike K. Jones held it for 19 seasons, taking over from Hall of Famer Morgan Wootten after serving as his star guard and later his assistant.
A year after Jones left to become the top assistant coach at Virginia Tech, the school hired Mike G. Jones, from St. Stephen’s/St. Agnes School in Northern Virginia.
And so, the men met to discuss work.
“It was a long dinner,” Mike G. Jones, 47, said. “I just wanted to know all about DeMatha and its culture. Everything outside of the game. Because I know I’m stepping into some big shoes here.”
Just how big: In 46 years at DeMatha, Wootten won 1,274 games and 33 championships in the rugged Washington Catholic Athletic Conference. For 31 straight years, every senior on his teams received a scholarship offer. Mike K. Jones took up that mantle, winning 511 games and eight conference championships while churning out Division I and NBA prospects.
There is a legacy to protect. Now, after an uncomfortable season of transition and a much-discussed coaching search, the Stags are turning to an outsider.
“You have to embrace the high expectations here because, if you don’t, they’ll drive you crazy,” Mike K. Jones said of his old job. “You have to want that.”
The public’s first look at the new Stags came in mid-June at DMV Live, a six-day college recruiting showcase held at DeMatha.
With college coaches gathering in the Hyattsville gym — including Mike K. Jones, front row, midcourt — the Stags split their first two games. They are young, a bit tentative and could use more size. Their defense was passionate if not always perfect.
The next day, DeMatha faced a true test — Baltimore powerhouse St. Frances Academy.
The Stags trailed, took their first lead early in the second half and held on for a 58-51 win. “It’s defense, bro,” Stags guard Isaiah Arnold tells his teammates during a timeout. “They can’t win if they can’t score.”
In Jones, players and coaches say, DeMatha is getting a God-fearing, easygoing basketball junkie.
The Stags also are getting someone who knows how to play the game. By the time he graduated from Casady School, he was the leading scorer in Oklahoma City high school basketball history. He spent two years at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M before making the jump to TCU. In two years with the Horned Frogs, he averaged 19.5 points, six rebounds and five assists.
As a coach, Jones has been known to join in shooting drills or accept the occasional challenge of one-on-one.
“I know all about that,” former St. Stephen’s star Devin Ceaser said with a laugh. “I played him one day in the summer — he had a knee brace on and I thought I was sweet. He got me.”
After college, Jones played 11 seasons overseas, including stops in Turkey, France and China. He then spent two years working for the Brooklyn Nets before settling into the D.C. area, where his wife had gotten a job. They have two sons, ages 8 and 12.
“I’m just with my family or doing something basketball-related,” Jones said simply. “When I’m not in the gym with my team, I’m in the gym with [my sons] or out on the soccer field or driving them around to practice.”
Jones knew since college that he wanted to coach, so he spent much of his playing days observing. He made notes of the things he liked enough to take with him. Perhaps the biggest influence on his basketball mind was the free-flowing, up-tempo pace of TCU coach Billy Tubbs. From the moment Jones took over at St. Stephen’s in 2017, he employed a breakneck system that emphasized relentless defensive pressure.
Winners of three straight Interstate Athletic Conference championships, the Saints were one of the few teams outside of the WCAC that consistently challenged the league’s top members.
The Saints’ fast-paced system took time to implement, and the first step in that process was conditioning. The same will hold true at DeMatha.
In Jones’s first practice with the Stags in early May, the staff asked players to run 10 laps around the court in three minutes. None of them made it. More running followed, and by the end of the session coaches had to help a few cramping Stags to their cars.
Under Jones — who will teach physical education and health at DeMatha — guards are expected to run a mile in less than 5 minutes 30 seconds, and big men are expected to finish under 6:30.
“You have to bring energy and effort every time out there in this system,” said Stags senior Mason So, who followed Jones over from St. Stephen’s. “You have to get it going defensively, and once you do, everything on offense will come together.”
DeMatha’s search for a coach started with a January Zoom call in which Father James Day, the school president, gave a 10-person committee a broad edict: Find someone who will “embrace the mission of DeMatha.”
It came at a precarious time in the history of this proud basketball program. Mike K. Jones had been a stabilizing force, an ever-calm and often brilliant coach who continued Wootten’s tradition.
When Jones left in May 2021, DeMatha moved swiftly to fill the vacancy with an interim coach. Pete Strickland, a former college coach and a Stags alum, was named to the role three days after Jones’s departure and coached the entire 2021-22 season.
At hoops power DeMatha, a coaching change stirs a painful debate about race
Some parents and alumni believed the school acted too fast and without enough consideration to the racial makeup of the school and program. They aired their frustrations in the summer before the season, and the public debate cast a dark cloud over the Stags’ campaign.
When DeMatha dropped to 6-4 just after the New Year, whispers about the trouble in Hyattsville grew louder.
“Got a little frustrating sometimes,” rising senior guard Jaden Winston said. “Everybody talking, everybody wanting to get their two cents in about DeMatha.”
The Stags got their season back on track and finished 21-7, but as a search committee sifted through candidates in late winter, DeMatha was looking short on talent and unsure of its future.
In March, people close to the search say, three finalists were submitted to the DeMatha administration: O’Connell Coach Joe Wootten, DeMatha assistant Daryl Greene and Mike G. Jones.
Joe, son of Morgan Wootten, had served as an assistant under his father around the same time Mike K. Jones did. In 1999, Morgan Wootten made public his intentions for Joe to take over the program, but those plans were not agreed to. Joe left to take over WCAC foe Bishop O’Connell shortly after.
Despite that history, several people close to the program said they believed the job would go to Wootten this time. If not, they said, Greene was surely the choice. Common knowledge held that DeMatha, with such a strong alumni network, was unlikely to choose an outsider.
Jones tried to treat the interview process as he would a basketball game, focusing on the key points to get across and hoping his strategy would pay off.
“I always get up for a challenge,” Jones said.
On April 14, DeMatha hired Jones, and he quickly made his vision clear.
“We want to be known as a team that’s disciplined, that plays super hard and that brings an exciting brand of basketball,” Jones said.
The victory over St. Frances at DMV Live may have provided the team, and the rest of the D.C. area, a preview of what’s to come. It was a gritty win featuring stretches of both ugly and beautiful basketball. It was a Mike G. Jones-style win, and it began a run of success for the Stags: In the second weekend of the event, DeMatha went 4-0, including an attention-grabbing 22-point win over reigning conference champ Paul VI.
“Maybe shocked them, but it didn’t shock us,” Arnold said.
There is confidence within the program now, five months before the season, and it is the internal life of a team that matters most. With DMV Live completed, the Stags can return to an insular existence. They will continue to learn, to grow, to run — and run and run and run. In the quiet of the practice gym, they will build the foundation for a new era of DeMatha basketball. | 2022-07-12T13:11:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | DeMatha basketball replaces one Mike Jones with another - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/06/dematha-an-outsider-aims-fill-impossibly-large-basketball-shoes/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/06/dematha-an-outsider-aims-fill-impossibly-large-basketball-shoes/ |
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