text stringlengths 237 126k | date_download stringdate 2022-01-01 00:32:20 2023-01-01 00:02:37 ⌀ | source_domain stringclasses 60
values | title stringlengths 4 31.5k ⌀ | url stringlengths 24 617 ⌀ | id stringlengths 24 617 ⌀ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
An electoral college ballot box is carried through Statuary Hall on Jan. 6, 2021. (Amanda Voisard/for The Washington Post)
The Electoral Count Reform Act is a bipartisan compromise that comes in response to hyperpartisan division. It’s no surprise that the legislation isn’t perfect. What it is, however, is essential.
Critics from academics to activists have had plenty to say so far about the bill that Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) presented last month. They’ll likely have plenty to say in Wednesday’s hearing on the subject as well. These concerns deserve consideration, but the ECRA, at its core, ensures that presidential elections proceed according to clear rules set ahead of time, rather than political exploitation after the fact. Lawmakers should seize on so significant an improvement over the dangerously muddled status quo.
Some issues are mostly a matter of clarifying the text. Does the vice president have the power to delay the election? Does a governor’s position as “conclusive” certifying authority mean that no court may overrule his submission of electors? The answer in both cases is no; this is fairly clear already, but lawmakers could make it clearer. A few more substantive alterations, such as extending the six-day period provided for judicial review of clashes over certification, are also worthwhile if they can garner enough support. Raising the threshold for objectors necessary to pause the counting process from one fifth of each chamber to some greater proportion would do no harm, but there’s no magic number, and no reason to risk sinking a crucial reform by trying to find one.
There are thornier problems. Some say that, because a state’s laws before election day are considered decisive, a state legislature could empower itself ahead of time to ignore the popular vote. This worry is overblown; the 14th Amendment precludes any law that results in people’s votes not being counted equally. Admittedly, vulnerabilities will remain as long as states are allowed to choose their own methods for appointing electors — but for better or for worse, that’s what the Constitution demands. Some also claim that letting states define for themselves the “extraordinary and catastrophic” events that can result in a failed election leaves too much room for mischief. Again, there’s less to fret over than it appears: States’ own definitions are written ahead of time, and the only permissible response to a failed election is an extension of the voting period.
Congress should give all these gripes their due, and improve the proposal where politically possible. In the end, however, the legislation has to pass in whatever imperfect form it takes. Donald Trump may well pounce again on the Electoral Count Act’s gaps and ambiguities if he runs in 2024. Otherwise, eventually someone else will. As lawmakers consider modifications to the bill before them, they should take care to distinguish between constructive tweaks and poison pills — so as not to kill the country’s best chance at avoiding disaster. | 2022-08-02T20:46:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The Electoral Count Reform Act is not perfect but must pass - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/02/electoral-count-reform-act-must-pass/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/02/electoral-count-reform-act-must-pass/ |
President Ronald Reagan, left, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl in Toronto on June 21, 1988. (Itsuo Inouye/AP Photo)
It feels quaint to recall that there was a time when the three largest center-right parties of the English-speaking world, the British Tories, American Republicans and Canadian Conservatives, were considered a cozy ideological trio. As legend goes, for much of the 1980s, Britain, Canada and the United States were ruled by a trifecta of visionary conservatives — Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and Brian Mulroney — who understood politics very similarly, and inspired and validated each other. For a generation, their leadership brought transatlantic coherence to what “being conservative” meant.
Their 21st-century successors still run parties of the nominal right, united in opposition to some broadly understood “left.” But differences among the three — of structure, priorities, electoral success and leadership — now feel more defining than their similarities.
The next head of the Canadian Conservatives will almost certainly be Pierre Poilievre, a broadly liked figure uniting most of Canada’s conservative movement. He’ll likely be elected on Sept. 10 by some large percentage of the more than 675,000 card-carrying members of the party— a possible record electorate for a Canadian leadership contest, heavily attributed to the draw of Poilievre himself.
Poilievre is a fast-talking populist whose elevator pitch is that the rising costs and frustrations of middle class Canadian life should be blamed on unaccountable public sector bureaucracies and incompetent corporate oligopolies. His cry to “remove gatekeepers” seems well-timed for what is proving to be Canada’s summer of discontent, with clogged airports, round-the-block lineups at the passport office, nationwide cellphone outages and the highest inflation in 39 years.
A fierce war against institutions is a novel approach for the party, but the stakes are high: If Poilievre loses, he’ll be the fourth Conservative to fail to unseat Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Britain’s Tories are a mirror image, having been in power a half-decade longer than Trudeau, with their 2019 landslide victory their largest in decades. Dominance at the ballot box has come despite a revolving door of leaders; outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson will have governed for just over three years; his successor will be the fourth Tory prime minister since the party’s first term in 2010.
Each prime minister’s unique interpretation of their job makes Thatcher’s right-wing stridency look less like the party’s core philosophy than just another leader’s idiosyncrasy. Since 2010, the Tories have championed a potpourri of ideologies and agendas, including small-government austerity, “Big Society” paternalism (which among other things, involved legalizing same-sex marriage), open trade, closed borders, punishing covid-19 restrictions, and “building back better” (a slogan Johnson championed more or less simultaneously with the Biden administration).
The next Tory prime minister will be selected in a tight election between two candidates picked by the Conservatives’ parliamentary caucus, with the winner chosen by around 140,000 to 200,000 party members — a somewhat stage-managed contest reflecting the ongoing power of the party’s more elitist wing (who are likely to view the failed tenure of Johnson, who was picked with this system, as an indictment of excessive democracy). Though the caucus’s nominees are bitter rivals, neither Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss have risen on the strength of their ideas, just skill at the game of ambition and alliances that defines backroom British politics. It’s telling that much of the debate among the candidates consists of how to resuscitate the British economy in the aftermath of Brexit — an idea the post-2010 Tory prime ministers have at various times supported, opposed or both.
If Britain’s Conservatives are hampered by too many leaders, U.S. Republicans are hampered by the overbearing dominance of just one — Donald Trump. While it was once popular to opine that Trumpism stood for nothing, it now seems clear that the former president’s leadership has mostly pushed the party rightward on social issues, chiefly abortion, guns, LGBTQ rights, immigration and a war on “wokeness.”
Even as the United States gets more culturally progressive and secular overall, combative social conservatism has proven a pretty stable basis for a competitive right-wing coalition, with the party expected to be buoyed by big midterm gains in November. If Trump seeks the White House again in 2024 it will be because his unapologetically polarizing rhetoric (now increasingly dominated by conspiracy theories about his 2020 defeat) continues to impress the vast number of Americans eligible to pick Republican presidential candidates — nearly 30 million people in 2016.
In the 1980s, the nations of the so-called Anglosphere suffered from broadly similar crises of economic malaise and national disunity. In response, they elected broadly similar leaders whose stubborn faith in market-driven solutions reflected the literal “conservatism” of their generation.
As the three 21st-century conservative parties now adopt sharply different attitudes toward concepts such as state power, migration, markets and religion as solutions to national problems that have become more narrowly particular, the central dilemma of the politics of 20th-century sentimentality arises: Do the old labels still mean anything? | 2022-08-02T20:46:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | U.K., U.S. and Canadian conservatives are going their separate ways - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/02/with-poilievre-canada-us-british-conservatives-go-their-separate-ways/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/02/with-poilievre-canada-us-british-conservatives-go-their-separate-ways/ |
Md. Republicans call for unity as Cox, Peroutka bids inflame rift
GOP announces endorsement from former governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., says state party must come together
Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a former governor of Maryland, attends a breakfast meeting in Annapolis. (Mary F. Calvert/For The Washington Post)
Former Republican governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. is supporting Del. Dan Cox — a candidate endorsed by former president Donald Trump and labeled a “QAnon whack job” by outgoing Gov. Larry Hogan (R) — in Cox’s bid to become Maryland’s next governor.
Ehrlich will serve as an emissary for Cox (R-Frederick) and other GOP candidates, including Michael Peroutka, who has past ties with an extremist group and has argued in support of conspiracy theories about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Maryland Republican Party announced.
The pledge, which comes as the party tries to keep the governor’s mansion and to flip the attorney general’s office and down-ballot seats in November, was supposed to be a call for GOP unity. Instead, it highlighted a rift that widened last month when Cox toppled Kelly Schulz, Hogan’s protege, in a primary contest widely viewed as a proxy war between Trump and Hogan, who is weighing a presidential bid.
“The Party looks forward to supporting all of our nominees up and down the ballot, just as the Party supported all of our nominees in all previous cycles,” party chairman Dirk Haire, whose wife, Jessica, is running for Anne Arundel County executive, said in a statement. “This is no time for division — the stakes are too high, and we urge all of our nominees, unsuccessful primary candidates, and their supporters to unify and support all of our Republican candidates on to victory in November.”
Schulz did not name Cox last week in her first statement since the defeat, instead congratulating all GOP nominees while predicting that the party would be unable to keep the governorship.
“We ran a campaign based on the truth … we never lied to Marylanders,” she said on social media. “We respected them enough to know the difference between what is real and what isn’t.”
pic.twitter.com/CIwPIUpdQO
— Kelly Schulz (@KellyMSchulz) July 29, 2022
The continued infighting among Republicans comes as Democrats spent Monday evening rallying behind their gubernatorial nominee, Wes Moore, with spirited words from former U.S. labor secretary Tom Perez calling on voters to make history in November by electing Moore, Anthony G. Brown as attorney general and Brooke Lierman as comptroller.
“Trumpism is on the ballot and that’s why we need Wes Moore,” Perez, the former chair of the Democratic National Committee who placed second behind Moore last month, told a cheering crowd in Silver Spring.
Typically, a governor is the symbolic head of the state party. But Hogan’s relationship with party leaders during his tenure has been strained, largely because of his opposition to Trump.
Hogan, who did not vote for Trump in 2016 or 2020, recently told ABC “This Week” that he would not support Cox, who called Vice President Mike Pence a “traitor” on Jan. 6, 2021 (he later apologized for his word choice), and fought against the 2020 election results.
“I wouldn’t let him in the governor’s office, let alone work for the governor’s office,” Hogan said.
Wes Moore vs. Dan Cox: A fight for Md. governor that will echo downballot
Lt. Gov. Boyd K. Rutherford (R) has taken a similar position.
“He was involved in this whole stolen-election fiasco,” Rutherford said in a radio interview, noting that Cox went to the Capitol on the day of the riot. “To believe that this whole thing was stolen from Trump … and then to continue to support that lie is just too far for me.”
Ehrlich, who served in Congress from 1995 to 2003 and then was governor for four years, said he is simply doing what he has always done since he became a Republican: support the GOP ticket. Ehrlich, who would not comment on Hogan’s position, said he stayed out of the primary but was a “happy draftee” when Haire contacted him about taking this position. “We would be having the same conversation if Kelly was the nominee,” he said.
Todd Eberly, a political science professor at St. Mary’s College, said Ehrlich’s endorsement of Cox makes sense, given his support for Trump. (Ehrlich said Tuesday that in 2016, he leaned more toward former Ohio governor John Kasich. He backed Trump in 2020.)
But, Eberly said, the announcement “speaks to the thinness of the GOP bench” that party leaders had to “go back two or three decades to find someone with GOP experience to get behind this … and it’s just a reminder that the most popular and most successful Republican in Maryland is not on board with this ticket.” | 2022-08-02T21:08:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Former Gov. Ehrlich endorses Cox and Petrouka in Maryland races - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/02/ehrlich-cox-maryland-governor/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/02/ehrlich-cox-maryland-governor/ |
Atlanta’s canceled Music Midtown festival puts lax gun laws under scrutiny
A crowd of concertgoers attend the 2001 Music Midtown Festival in Atlanta. This year's iteration was canceled Monday. (Scott Gries/ImageDirect)
As gun-control legislation stalls at the federal level, developments in the music festival circuit have underscored the impact of state laws: Atlanta’s Music Midtown festival, originally set for next month, was canceled Monday because of a Georgia court ruling that prevented organizers from banning guns on festival grounds.
“Due to circumstances beyond our control, Music Midtown will no longer be taking place this year,” the festival announced in a statement on its website and social media accounts. “We were looking forward to reuniting in September and hope we can all get back to enjoying the festival together again soon.”
Music Midtown, which was founded in 1994 and most recently held last September, was scheduled this year for Sept. 17-18 with Fall Out Boy, Future, Jack White and My Chemical Romance as headliners. The past decade of festivals took place at Piedmont Park, roughly 200 acres of land managed in part by the city.
According to Billboard and Rolling Stone, both of which cited industry sources, legal liabilities stemming from Georgia’s expansive pro-gun laws were to blame for the cancellation. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution cited officials who also attributed the decision to “ongoing legal fallout.” In 2014, Gov. Nathan Deal (R) signed a sweeping package of bills that expanded where people could carry concealed firearms to include spaces such as bars, parks, parts of airports and some churches. The Safe Carry Protection Act, also referred to as the “Guns Everywhere” bill, gave the state more power to preempt local gun restrictions.
That same year, pro-gun activist Phillip Evans sued the Atlanta Botanical Gardens after he was escorted off the premises for possessing a weapon. The Georgia Supreme Court considered the case in 2019 and ruled that businesses with long-term leases could prohibit firearms on public land; a subsequent appeals court ruling from this year reinforced that short-term events had little power to restrict guns.
While Music Midtown took place last year, guns rights advocates challenged the weapons ban this time around. Evans argued in May that his legal loss against the garden, which holds a 50-year lease from the city, set up a clearer path to victory against short-term public land occupants such as the festival. He told the Journal-Constitution on Monday that he alerted organizers to his “legal concerns.”
Neither Music Midtown nor its owner, promoter Live Nation, responded to a request from The Washington Post for additional comment on the decision to cancel the festival. Reached Monday, a member of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens’s communications team wrote in an email, “We will look into this.”
Michael Julian Bond, a city council member, told The Post on Tuesday that although Live Nation hadn’t confirmed to him the reason behind the cancellation, he could see why organizers would hesitate to hold the event without gun restrictions: The lawn at Piedmont Park is “exposed on every side, practically,” he said.
Bond compared the openness of Piedmont Park to the Live Nation-produced Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas where, in 2017, a gunman opened fire and killed dozens of people. He said the proliferation of guns, eased by the state’s loosening restrictions on them, comes at economic and social costs.
“As a society, we’re trading one set of rights for another,” he continued. “You can carry whatever kind of crazy weapon you want, but you can’t peacefully assemble.”
As gun ownership rises, Georgia looks to loosen restrictions: It’s the ‘wild, wild West’
Festival safety measures have been under intense scrutiny since a crowd surge at rapper Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival in November killed 10 concertgoers and injured hundreds; a Post investigation found that most of the victims at the Houston event were in one tightly packed area. Morgan Milardo, managing director of the Berklee Popular Music Institute, said she has witnessed an increase in safety procedures implemented throughout the festival circuit this summer. Some instruct artists and their crew members on what to do in the event of an emergency, such as if they spot an incident unfolding from the stage.
Festival security tends to be “pretty black and white,” according to Milardo. She said including specific security measures in a rider — or a contractual set of requirements for an artist to perform at a venue, which local journalist George Chidi pointed to on Friday as a potential reason for the looming cancellation of Music Midtown — is standard practice. What changed here were the laws surrounding the venue.
“It’s an open conversation in the music industry right now: How do we keep everyone safe?” Milardo said. “This stuff unfortunately happens, and it’s something we need to be mindful of. The promoters making every effort they can to keep their events safe, and artists making every effort … it goes a long way.”
The cancellation of Music Midtown isn’t the first time figures in the entertainment industry have drawn attention to controversial Georgia laws. In 2019, after Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed a “heartbeat bill” into effect that effectively banned most abortions, Hollywood filmmakers announced their intention to boycott Georgia. Studios didn’t follow through on the threats, likely because of the state’s generous tax credit. Most studios again kept quiet last year after Kemp signed into law voting restrictions that, as CNBC noted at the time, drew criticism from major corporations such as Coca-Cola and Delta. As backlash continued to build, Major League Baseball moved its All-Star Game from Atlanta in protest.
Stacey Abrams, the Democratic candidate up against Kemp for the Georgia governor seat, tweeted a lengthy statement Monday evening condemning his “dangerous and extreme gun agenda.” The nixed festival “is proof that his reckless policies endanger Georgia’s economy as well,” the statement reads, later noting that the incident would “cost Georgia’s economy a proven $50 million.” Phoebe Bridgers, a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter who was scheduled to perform at Music Midtown, retweeted Abrams’s post.
Kemp’s office did not respond to The Post’s request for comment. | 2022-08-02T21:17:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Atlanta’s canceled Music Midtown festival puts lax gun laws under scrutiny - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/08/02/music-midtown-festival-georgia-gun-laws/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/08/02/music-midtown-festival-georgia-gun-laws/ |
Uber Technologies Inc. Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi said not long ago that the rideshare company’s mission was to become profitable, rather than the loss-making enterprise it had been since inception. For the first time, Uber is succeeding, posting the biggest positive free cash flow in its history in the second quarter. This may finally be the long-awaited turning point investors have been waiting for, with the shares soaring as much as 19%.
At the time of its initial public offering in May 2019, I wrote that Uber had an intractable business model: it couldn’t charge more for rides and it couldn’t pay drivers less. As a private company, Uber survived by attracting large amounts of investment through several rounds of funding. It used that investment to underprice rides and steal market share from the taxicab companies. I remember the days of taking $6 Uber rides around Miami and wondering if it was sustainable. It wasn’t. Sure it succeeded for a while, and there was a period when the market value of New York City taxi medallions crashed. But taxis never fully disappeared, and the post-pandemic economy is very different than the economy of 2019. It turns out that Uber can charge more for rides.
Something about the psychology of inflation that is making this work, and it’s called pricing power. Recall that most people thought rapidly rising commodity prices between 2002 and 2008 would feed into inflation, but businesses lacked pricing power. They would attempt to raise prices, but consumers would balk. Consumer psychology is different today, and they are more than willing to pay higher prices for goods and services like that offered by Uber. Spending $40 for a 10-minute Uber ride no longer seems like a big deal. The intractable pricing problem faced by Uber and other businesses has been solved by inflation.
Before the pandemic, people were saying that technology investment was deflationary. The bear market in tech stocks, though, may be inflationary. Before, tech companies were able to underprice their services because of a limitless supply of investment dollars, but now that the investment has dried up, these companies must succeed on their own merits. During the roadshow for Uber’s IPO, investors were being pitched on a futuristic company whose mission went far beyond ridesharing to something about increasing the capacity utilization of a car. You drive to work, where your car sits in the parking lot all day. Then you drive home, and the car sits in your driveway all night. The typical car only has a 4% capacity utilization. Ideally, there would be far fewer cars on the road that were full of passengers, resulting in a capacity utilization rate approaching 100%.
Uber is far from achieving this mission, and perhaps it is better that the pragmatic Khosrowshahi is in charge to figure out how to make the numbers work than the idealistic founder Travis Kalanick. Wall Street is occasionally capable of looking past the short-term occasionally (think about Amazon.com Inc.’s first decade or so as a public company), but with Uber, there is a lot of scrutiny on the quarterly numbers for signs of progress. This earnings report showed a lot of progress.
What about high gas prices and their effect on Ober’s profit margins? Across the economy, there aren’t many examples of high gas prices leading to decreased consumption, and that’s true for Uber rides. Uber had been relying on food delivery to support revenue and margins, but margins are now increasing in its mobility segment. And Uber is once again attracting drivers, as ridesharing becomes more economically appealing.
It’s impressive that Uber survived what was an extended bout of mismanagement and the pandemic, and is coming out stronger. Ridesharing can work, and it took a bout of inflation to prove it.More from other writers at Bloomberg Opinion:
• Big Tech’s Reckoning Won’t Stop With Uber: Parmy Olson
• Free Lunch Is Over. You’re Still Better Off: Allison Schrager
• Where Did All the Uber Drivers and DoorDashers Go?: Tae Kim | 2022-08-02T21:17:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Uber Embodies the Post-Covid Inflationary Economy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/uber-embodies-the-post-covid-inflationaryeconomy/2022/08/02/4e369a3e-12a1-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/uber-embodies-the-post-covid-inflationaryeconomy/2022/08/02/4e369a3e-12a1-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
FILE - Donald Glover arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, on March 27, 2022, in Beverly Hills, Calif. Glover had warned his fellow writers from the first day on the FX series “Atlanta” that it would get canceled for what they were going to attempt. Turns out he was wrong. The show heads into its fourth and final season beginning Sept. 15. (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File) | 2022-08-02T21:17:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Donald Glover gets grounded on final season of 'Atlanta' - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/donald-glover-gets-grounded-on-final-season-of-atlanta/2022/08/02/20766eec-12a3-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/donald-glover-gets-grounded-on-final-season-of-atlanta/2022/08/02/20766eec-12a3-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
Juan Soto walked in his final plate appearance with the Washington Nationals. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo always thought that Boras would cut him some slack at crucial moments because he let him have sway on Stephen Strasburg’s innings count in 2012. If you have any doubt about that, go back to former Washington Post columnist Mike Wise’s piece, in which he quoted Boras saying, “Rizzo and I put this team together. …”
A year ago, they traded Max Scherzer, who had just turned 37 but was still one of the best pitchers in the game, and Trea Turner, an all-star who had just turned 28, because they didn’t want to pay them big money — Scherzer at the end of last season, Turner at the end of this season.Trading Scherzer was a mistake; trading Turner was insane. The team also gave up Kyle Schwarber for a pitching prospect named Aldo Ramirez, who won’t pitch an inning in 2022 because of elbow issues. Schwarber is now in Philadelphia, leading the National League in home runs. | 2022-08-02T21:18:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Trading Juan Soto was a selfish mistake - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/02/juan-soto-lerners-mistake/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/02/juan-soto-lerners-mistake/ |
At No. 13, Taylor Fritz is the highest ranked American men's tennis player. (Maansi Srivastava/The Washington Post)
Taylor Fritz is coming to the Citi Open during the most eventful year of his burgeoning career.
The Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., native defeated Rafael Nadal in straight sets in the Indian Wells final in March to claim his first Masters 1000 title. He also reached the fourth round of the Australian Open and quarterfinals of Wimbledon, falling to Nadal in a fifth-set tiebreaker.
A win and a close Grand Slam loss to arguably the greatest tennis player ever are ostensibly huge results for a 24-year-old American with just two ATP titles under his belt. With Andy Roddick being the last American man to win a Grand Slam in 2003, it’s become a bit of a cliche question on the tour: Do you think having great young Americans on the tour will help grow tennis in the United States?
But when Fritz, the highest-ranked of those young Americans at No. 13 in the world, encountered a version of that question during his first practice day at Rock Creek Park, he veered away from the standard answer: He just wants to win.
“I mean, maybe,” said Fritz, who opens play Wednesday against Alexei Popyrin. “But it’s a big deal to me more for the personal goal, for sure. I’ve wanted to be a top 10 player my whole entire life, you know? So I think it’s definitely more personal goals.”
Fritz isn’t unaware of the increased attention his success brings to U.S. tennis. In his own words, American sports fans are used to being “the best at everything,” so his quests to break into the top 10 and win a Grand Slam will, by extension, help draw Americans into the sport, just as the Williams sisters and other great Americans have done on the women’s side for years. His quarterfinal loss to Nadal at Wimbledon was a prime example.
“So many people that aren’t tennis fans watched that, and they watched an American that they’d probably never heard of play Nadal, who they’ve heard of,” he said. “That’s the kind of match that’s going to gain a lot of fans in the U.S.”
But no matter how much that match affected the greater landscape of American tennis, it didn’t change the fact that Fritz was crushed after he lost. Walking off the court at the All England Club, his eyes weren’t twinkling with American patriotism, nor were they checking Twitter to see how much engagement live updates of the contest had received.
He had just lost a winnable match against an all-time great and missed a chance at his first career Grand Slam semifinal.
“If I stop now, I’d be pretty upset with my career,” he said. “I have a lot of improvements left to make, and I feel like I’m going to become still so much better as a player.”
It’s part of the reason Fritz wanted to play in the Citi Open despite nursing a lingering injury — a stress fracture in his left foot sustained during the French Open that also affected him during his Wimbledon run. He knows that the more winning tennis he plays, the higher his ranking will climb.
Fritz, like his American compatriots who are also among the top 50, knows that winning pulls eyeballs to the sport. But viewership and attention isn’t their motive — greatness is. Those young Americans — Fritz, Reilly Opelka, Tommy Paul, Frances Tiafoe and more — are friends with one another, but when playing against each other, are fiercely competitive.
Their mission isn’t to be the best American, it’s to be the best. To Fritz, “highest-ranked American” seems to be a participation trophy. It’s nice, and it was certainly hard-won, but breaking into the top 10 and winning a Grand Slam are bigger prizes, and you can’t just beat Americans on those paths — you have to beat everyone.
“I don’t feed off of how many [Americans] we have in the top 50, it’s an individual international sport,” Opelka said. “I mean, it’s nice having them around just to hang out with … [but] they don’t push me more than [Daniil Medvedev] or [Stefanos Tsitsipas] or one of those guys. It’s the same.”
While Fritz isn’t aiming to be the savior of U.S. tennis, he is making himself more accessible. He streams himself playing video games like “Apex Legends” and “Fall Guys” on Twitch to engage with his fan base. He tweeted at “SportsCenter” in 2019, calling them out on their lack of tennis expertise in a bid to give Americans better knowledge of the sport.
I’d say the mass majority of American sports fans watch @sportscenter for there sports knowledge/info so I just wish tennis was represented a little better and shown a bit more love.... would really help to grow the sport 🤷🏻♂️ https://t.co/kxXkkFoXdt
— Taylor Fritz (@Taylor_Fritz97) September 4, 2019
He also agreed to be featured in a new Netflix series that follows a year in the life of the ATP’s and WTA’s highest-profile players, similar to the smash hit “Formula 1: Drive to Survive,” which helped grow the motorsport’s fan base in the United States and endear drivers to a viewing audience.
“These cameras are on me all the time, I may come off even as cocky, but it’s in a very joking kind of way,” Fritz said of the experience. “And I’ve really held nothing back in front of the camera. I’m trying to just be myself as much as possible.”
But to Fritz, TV cameras, tweets and Twitch streams all take a back seat when it’s time to be a tennis player. All the American engagement in the world won’t push him into the top 10 or give him a Grand Slam title. Only his own hard work and drive can do that.
Fritz’s career up to now isn’t enough for him. He wants to be the best, and if American tennis comes along with him, so be it.
“As a kid, I would have thought it was crazy, so it’s really cool when you kind of take a step back and think about it,” Fritz mused. “But I still have so much more that I need to do.” | 2022-08-02T21:18:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Taylor Fritz enters Citi Open as best American men’s tennis player - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/02/taylor-fritz-best-american-mens-player/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/02/taylor-fritz-best-american-mens-player/ |
Transcript: The Path Forward: The U.S. Economy with Loretta J. Mester
MR. LYNCH: Hello, and welcome to Washington Post Live. I’m David J. Lynch, Global Economics Correspondent here at The Post. And today, I’m joined by Loretta Mester, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, for a discussion about inflation and the state of the U.S. economy.
President Mester, welcome.
MS. MESTER: Hey, thank you. Great to be with you.
MR. LYNCH: No, first things first: You mind if I call you Loretta?
MS. MESTER: I would love that, and I think that's very good. And I'll call you David?
MR. LYNCH: Fair enough. I've been called worse.
MS. MESTER: [Laughs.] So have I.
MR. LYNCH: So, I'd like to start with a question about an issue that's gotten a lot of public attention recently, and it boils to whether the U.S. is or is not in a recession. And on the one hand, we've learned recently that the economy has now been shrinking for two consecutive quarters, which meets one conventional test of recession. On the other hand, Fed Chair Jerome Powell says he doesn't think we're in a recession. And the quasi-official body that will ultimately make the call on this, the National Bureau of Economic Research, will look at several data points, not just output or GDP.
So, I'm curious: Where do you come down? Are we in a recession or are we not, and how much of a difference does it make to Fed policymaking?
MS. MESTER: So, I don't believe we're in a recession. I think the MBER looks at a number of different criteria, as you mentioned. Certainly, activity has slowed, and you're right, the GDP report showed negative growth for two quarters in a row, but you have to actually look at the composition of that growth to discern what parts of the economy are slowing.
We don't have a slowdown in labor markets, and that's two key factors that go into calling a recession. Usually, when a recession is in place, you will see the labor market deteriorate pretty rapidly. And certainly, right now, the labor market is very healthy. And you know, we haven't seen that kind of broad-based pullback in activity across sectors, and that's also something that's important when you think about a recession.
But you asked a good question, is how much does it matter for where Fed policy is right now, and in some sense, our policy has been to raise interest rates in order to cool down the demand side of the economy. And so, seeing some pullback in activity is actually what we wanted to see in terms of getting excess demand better into alignment with that supply side of the economy which, as you know, has been constrained. And so, part of the mechanism through which the Fed policy actually works is by bringing demand into better balance with supply, and I think that's what we're seeing in some of the data points right now, but certainly it hasn't slowed enough, (a), to call it a recession; and (b), to even see that moderation in demand showing through yet to a moderation and a cooling-off of price increases and inflation. And that's what we're engineering here in terms of our policy. That's the mechanism through which it's going to be affecting inflation.
MR. LYNCH: Right. We've had a related question from a member of the audience, which may be a critique of the media, as much as anything else. Let's take a look at that. This comes from Sam Gorovitz from New York, and he asks, "Why so much focus on the label 'recession,' as if it's useful to force a yes or no decision onto a situation that's far more complex and nuanced than that?"
MS. MESTER: Well, I agree. I mean, we're in a challenging environment. You know, I'm an economist, so a lot of times we don't talk about recession, per se; it's are we growing below or above trend. And you know, my forecast for this year is that we'll be growing below trend, but that's necessary in order to get price increases, inflation under control. We haven't seen inflation cool at all. In fact, the monthly reports show that inflation hasn't even stabilized, yet, at a very high rate. So, again, part of the mechanism that we're trying to do with our policy tools is to bring that inflation under control. We're committed to doing that and that's very important. That's a foundational piece of a healthy economy: We have to get inflation under control and that's what we're about, what we've been about, this year and we'll continue to be about until we get inflation under control.
MR. LYNCH: So, whether we are or aren’t in a recession, the current moment, the current economy is really quite distinctive. We've got a global pandemic, war in Europe, commodity price shocks, supply chain disruptions all at the same time. And a lot of very smart people, including at the Fed, have been wrong about the economy at various points over the past year or two.
And so, I wonder as an economist, as you try to look through all this, whether you still trust the same models, indicators, economic relationships that you would have looked to for guidance before the pandemic or has it just become much more difficult to fathom exactly what's happening and to predict where we're going?
MS. MESTER: Yeah, that's a great question. So, you know, as you know, our models are built on historical relationships in the data, and you're exactly right. This is in many ways unprecedented. But I still want to use the models because it does give us guidance about, you know, taking a whole lot of indicators and putting them through the models give you some insights.
But you have to take the models and even in the best of times our models are predictive, but we know there's error bands around the models. And that's part of the work of the Fed, is one of the reasons that we spend a lot of time talking to business contacts, labor market contacts, community development people in our districts is really to get that really deep, textured, anecdotal information that can help us evaluate where the economy is and where it's going. A lot of times the anecdotal information will be disparate, but it will point to things before it will show up in official statistics. So, in an economy like this, which is, in many ways, unprecedented, it is really important to augment our data and our models with other information. And we've been doing that throughout the pandemic at every reserve bank and at the Board of Governors, looking at a lot of new and different information.
At the Cleveland Fed, we have an inflation research center, and they've been doing surveys to actually touch base with consumers throughout this whole pandemic so we could get some information on what the behavioral, you know, actions are taking. Were they staying home and not spending, not going out because of fear of the virus? Were they starting to come back when the economy opened? Right now, of course, we're very interested in inflation and inflation expectations, on how that's affecting consumer behavior. So, again, we have to augment our usual tools and our usual models because of the unprecedented nature of this economy at this time. But I think that that kind of process will serve us well into the future, as well. It's always good to have more information and to have that inform your view.
MR. LYNCH: Well, and certainly the GDP data that we make a great deal of in the press comes out every quarter. It helps shape--I think plays a major role in shaping public perceptions of the economy's health.
But we have an audience question now about its usefulness as a tool, and this comes from Randall Olsen in Oregon, who asks, "What are your thoughts regarding using GDP to measure the economy?"
MS. MESTER: Well, it is a measure of activity, I mean, has a very specific purpose. You know, we like to look at it in terms of adjusted for inflation because you could have a high GDP level that's high because--in nominal terms, but not high in terms of real terms. And it gives you a benchmark against which you can sort of evaluate whether you're growing at your estimated trend growth or whether you're growing below trend. So, are you living up to your potential? So, as a measure of activity, I think it's a very useful summary measure. As you know, it's quarterly, so it's not as timely. There are other measures that come in more timely that go into the GDP measures.
You know, we'll get retail sales data that will tell us a lot about consumption spending, and we get other monthly indicators, and even weekly indicators, that go in. But as a measure of activity, I think it's a good measure. As a measure of other aspects that are important for people, I'm not--we wouldn't use it to necessarily measure wellbeing. But as a measure of activity and whether the economy is living up to the potential growth it could support, I think it's a useful measure, yes.
MR. LYNCH: There does seem to be a mismatch, though, between--or a potential mismatch, between the GDP data which shows an economy that's shrinking, and labor market data that shows we've added two-and-a-half million new jobs since the beginning of the year. How could all these additional workers end up producing less stuff? Is it unusual to have this sort of disconnect between GDP and labor market, and what do you make of it?
MS. MESTER: Yeah, it is unusual; it's not unprecedented. We've seen slower growth and maybe turn a little bit negative. I mean, if you look at the first quarter negative number in GDP, that was really driven by the external sector inventories and then, net exports, if you looked at consumption spending, that was still very healthy. So, again, that wasn't quite a puzzle.
The second quarter, we are starting to see a slowdown in domestic spending investment, and of course the housing sector, which is very much related to the interest rate changes we've been putting in place. And even personal consumption was weaker than what we think of as being the trend in personal consumption growth.
But that slowdown, usually you do see it part and parcel with a weakening in the labor market, but so far, we've not seen that. The labor market remains very strong. But as you know and as you pointed out, a lot of what's happening in this economy is being driven by the pandemic, and then the pandemic response. And so, we are in a very unusual time, in many ways challenging to sort of read through those data. But so far, the moderation in demand has not shown through into a real moderation on the labor markets. People--firms are still seeking more workers than there are unemployed, and we'll just have to wait and see if we're going to see some moderation, there.
I would say that we could very well see some moderation on the employment side in terms of demand for employment without seeing that much of an increase in unemployment. So, the labor markets can stay healthy as we go through this, but we need to wait and see how things will evolve.
MR. LYNCH: Let's move on to inflation, since rising prices are really topic number one for most members of our audience. Inflation is a global problem. The U.S. isn't alone in having historically high rates of price increases.
But I wonder what your view is of the argument that you hear from some domestic critics of the administration, that the president's last round of the fiscal stimulus, the American Rescue Plan, did make our inflation problem worse, if only at the margins. Do they have a point?
MS. MESTER: Well, I mean, as you point out, right, that there's an imbalance between the demand side of the economy, and the supply side, right? We know that supply is constrained. We hear from our firms still that there are very much disruptions still in the supply chain, in some cases getting a little better, but in other places, still very much in place, and firms have had to deal with that.
Demand was boosted during the pandemic by both monetary policy and by fiscal policy, and I think that was appropriate. I think people forget the depth of the pandemic, how uncertain everything was and how we didn't really know what was going to be happening going forward. And now, the job is, is to really get demand--the demand side of the economy, into better balance with the supply side. The Fed has tools to do that. We have our interest rate policy and that's what we've been embarking on. And we have more work to do, because we have not seen that turn in inflation.
What we want to do is see it on a sustainable downward path towards our longer-run goal of 2 percent, and we have not seen that; we have more work to do.
MR. LYNCH: As you say, the Fed has been engaged in raising interest rates since March, more to come. We have an audience question, though, that looks ahead to when we might start to see a turn. And this comes from Lee Haberman in Canada. He asks, "What are the data points or indicators upon which the Fed will rely to determine when the tightening cycle has accomplished its goal of returning inflation to acceptable levels?" What do you look for?
MS. MESTER: Right. So, I want to see very compelling evidence, first, that the monthly changes--month-to-month changes--are moving down, right? And then, I want to see--make sure that I'm seeing that on a sustainable downward path. You know, the risk management approach to this is you wouldn't want to conclude too quickly that inflation is on a downward path because of how high it is, and how much risk there is that if it remains high, it could become embedded in the economy. And that's what we're trying to make sure will not happen with our policy. So, you know, I'm going to be looking at--and I want to see it broadly across many inflation measures, not just one, not just two, even though our goal is in terms of PCE or personal consumption expenditure inflation, which is our preferred measure at the Fed. There are a number of other indicators that I'll want to see. So, that's on the inflation side.
Gauging whether we're seeing the moderation on the demand side, right, of course we're going to be wanting to look at labor markets. We have a dual mandate. We're very focused on making sure that we bring inflation down because that is the bedrock of making sure we'll have sustainable healthy labor markets over the medium and longer run. If we don't get back to price stability, we won't have a strong economy and the economy won't be able to maintain good and healthy labor markets. So, again, this is really about doing what we can with our tools. We look at a number of monthly statistics to gauge and weekly statistics and that anecdotal evidence to really gauge where we are on that journey and where the transition of the economy towards price stability is, and we're going to continue to do that as we go through this process.
MR. LYNCH: Forgive me, my next question may sound like it's come from the Department of Wishful Thinking, but I would like to ask you about a couple of intriguing hints that suggest that maybe, just maybe, inflation could be starting to ebb.
On Monday, we got the ISM manufacturing data released, which showed that the prices the factories were paying for their inputs had fallen quite significantly from the month before. And there was also an anecdotal sign of some progress in a tweet from Elon Musk, and he wrote, quote, "Inflation might be trending down. More Tesla commodity prices are trending down than up."
What do you make of both of those data points?
MS. MESTER: Yeah, I mean, I would characterize it, if you squint you can sort of maybe see some start of some of those prices coming down.
Commodity prices, we've seen that. In our district, we get reports from a lot of our firms also saying there are pockets of some of the commodity prices coming down, which is good. But again, there's other parts of the inflation report that aren't good. If you look at shelter prices, you know, rents are up. And typically, on the supply side of the economy, the supply prices, they will be more persistent, right? So, that's going to bleed through and that'll probably keep inflation up.
So, again, we might see goods inflation and commodities inflation come down but at the same time see the services side--I said "supply side"--I meant services side of the economy, right, stay up and that's what we got to keep watching for. So, and that's when I say compelling evidence. It can't be just a one-month oil prices went down in July, that will feed through to the July inflation report, but there's a lot of risk that oil prices will go up in the fall. It's got to be sort of a sustained, several months of evidence that inflation has first peaked--we haven't even seen that, yet--and then, is moving down.
So, I welcome sort of some moderation in some of these pockets, but again, I think it would be inappropriate to--and actually not a good idea to cry victory too early and then allow this inflation, which has been stubborn and unacceptably high continue on without taking the action we need to put it on that downward, sustainable path to 2 percent.
MR. LYNCH: And so, what do you make of the financial market's reaction to what the Fed has been doing? As you know, there are a couple of metrics, the ten-year breakeven, the five-year/five-year forward that show that the markets or investors, in aggregate, seem to think you're winning the battle. And their expectation of future inflation is down now to about two-and-a-half percent, not all that far from the Fed's goal, although still a bit elevated.
Do the markets just have it wrong? Are they misunderstanding what you're about, or do they see something that the Fed doesn't?
MS. MESTER: Well, they look at the same data that we look at, and I'm sure that they're coming out with their forecasts. I just haven't seen anything that would suggest that we've seen inflation even level off yet, let alone come down that downward path.
So, I mean, there's a mix going on in the market in terms of also whether they think growth will slow more, as well, and that's also going into those market expectations. But you know, in terms of what I look at and what I'm viewing, it's really important that inflation expectations stay well-contained.
So, I welcome the fact that at least the TIPS market and those inflation index protected securities are showing that inflation compensation has moved down. It was elevated. So, that's a good thing. That helps make the battle against inflation a bit easier. But again, right, we need to see really compelling evidence that inflation is moving down, and my view is that we haven't seen that, yet.
MR. LYNCH: I'd like to get your thoughts also on some new research out from authors including the former Treasury Secretary, Larry Summers, suggesting that the so-called natural rate of unemployment, the level of joblessness that's consistent with price stability has gone up since the pre-pandemic era, up to something like 4.9 percent, from 3.6 percent, before.
Does that suggest that we should expect unemployment to get up to 5 percent, maybe a bit more than 5 percent, before inflation is truly brought under control?
MS. MESTER: Well, that's a deep question in the sense of--right, that's suggesting the mechanism through which this is going to work is through a Phillips curve relationship between inflation and unemployment.
And as you probably--some of your listeners know, right, the Phillips curve has been really flat, so that mechanism may not be the mechanism through which this will work. You know, there are other estimates that suggest that the natural rate of unemployment hasn't moved up because--there was a good theory that why, during the pandemic, it could have gone up, and that was about matching efficiency. Was it harder for people to find jobs? Was it taking longer to find jobs? That doesn't seem to be characterizing this labor market. At this point, I think that's not what's characterizing this. I think it's just the economy was--had very, very strong demand and work--employers wanted more workers than were available. And that's what's still true in the data that we're seeing.
I do think that we'll see some increase in unemployment as we go through this cycle, because again, labor demand is outstripping the labor supply, and we might see some of those monthly numbers adjust. And that--but we need to have that moderation happen in order to make sure that we get back to a healthy economy in terms of price stability that's necessary for that healthy labor market sustained over time. And so, again, the transition, every month we could see some different data. I think we have a narrow path to actually engineer this so that we don't see a strong increase in unemployment, but we'll have to see. We have to see how this evolves, and that's why the watching of the data and watching what's happening in the economy is going to be very, very important as we go through this.
The economy is transitioning. Some of what we're seeing is part of that transition, but the moderation we've seen in some of the numbers in activity have not yet shown through to any kind of moderation on the inflation side. And the inflation is hurting a lot of people. So, again, this isn't really a choice now between labor versus prices. This really is a necessary--if we're going to have a strong labor market going forward and a healthy labor market going forward, we're going to need to get price stability, and this is the way we're going to do it. So, I don't really see a tradeoff here at all. I think this is just a necessary thing that we have to do in order to get back to price stability.
MR. LYNCH: And how about a risk that the World Bank, among others, have warned of, and that's stagflation, which you and I remember from the 1970s. All of our audience may not understand the term, which describes a period with very anemic, disappointing growth, and yet continuing high rates of inflation.
Does the recent data that you've seen coming in make you any more or less concerned about that risk?
MS. MESTER: Well, we're going to see some slower growth, because as I said, right, we're going to need to see that, and growth is going to need to be below trend before we get back to price stability.
So, in that sense, yeah, we're going to see some high inflation numbers coupled with some slow growth numbers. I don't consider that stagflation, because I think of stagflation as being something that lingers on. I think of this as being the transition path back to price stability. So, I think of it differently. But it's also true that it is going to take some time for inflation to come down. This is not going to come down quickly. It's because inflation has been affected by so many things going on, outside of monetary policy. As you know, the war in Ukraine affected commodity markets and food prices and energy markets. And you know, that's going to have an effect that may linger for longer. The Fed, right, we're raising our interest rates. That takes a while to work through the economy. So, it will take a while to get inflation back to 2 percent. But what we can do is use our tools to get it on that sustainable downward path. And so, that's what I'm looking for is I need to see that happening, and so far, we haven't seen that.
That might mean that growth will be slow. I mean, my forecast is for below trend growth this year and into probably next year, before it then picks back up. And I wouldn't consider that a bad outcome. I would consider that what's necessary to get this back to price stability with healthy labor markets.
MR. LYNCH: I want to ask you a final question about institutional credibility. This is an era, as you know, where many Americans have lost faith in the quote/unquote elites and societal institutions across the board, certainly the press, politicians, the Supreme Court, big business. Nobody trusts anything, anymore.
I wonder how you assess the Fed's credibility after the last year or so we've gone through where top officials were repeatedly reassuring Americans that the price increases we were experiencing last year would be transitory, that they'd be really a passing phenomenon. That turned out not to be the case. We've now got the worst inflation in 40 years, perhaps for understandable reasons. But I wonder what you think about the Fed's credibility in this moment and whether that's something you worry about.
MS. MESTER: Well, we certainly worry about our credibility because, as you know, it's very important for the economy that they believe and understand that the Fed will use its tools to get inflation under control. We are very much committed to that. I think you pointed out earlier that the financial markets seem to believe that. So, in terms of that, maybe we have some credibility. But the American people are also incredibly important, that they understand why we're doing what we do, why we're doing the policy actions that we're taking right now, and that they believe that we will get inflation under control.
I think in the interactions I've had in the district, the people do believe that we're on the right path, here. They understand what we're doing. But partly why I very much like being invited on shows like yours is so that we can explain what we're doing, why we're doing it, the rationale for our decisions. But it is a challenging environment, and we are reading the data as best we can, and when we do see that, we pivoted, I think, last year, and that's all we can hope to do, is that--continue to be very much reading the information, doing the best we can with it, and being willing to pivot when the evidence suggests it's time to move of what we said.
And you've seen that, I think, through this cycle, as we've started to raise interest rates, you know, we've tried to be as transparent as we can about our thinking, but we haven't hesitated to move in a different direction if the data and the evidence supports it, and that's what we're trying to use. We're trying to use our--best to our ability, to read where the economy is and where it's going and to set appropriate monetary policy. And that's my commitment, is that I'll continue to do that as we go through this.
MR. LYNCH: Great. Unfortunately, we are going to have to leave it there because we are just about out of time.
Loretta Mester, thanks very much for being with us, today.
MS. MESTER: Thank you. It's my pleasure.
MR. LYNCH: And thanks to all of you for joining the conversation. And to see what additional interviews we have coming up, please go to WashingtonPostLive.com where you’ll see the whole roster, and we appreciate you watching today. For The Washington Post, I’m David J. Lynch. Thanks again. | 2022-08-02T21:19:23Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Transcript: The Path Forward: The U.S. Economy with Loretta J. Mester - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/08/02/transcript-path-forward-us-economy-with-loretta-j-mester/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/08/02/transcript-path-forward-us-economy-with-loretta-j-mester/ |
Congress passes bill inspired by Jan. 6 recognizing officer PTSD, suicide
From left, Erin Smith, widow of D.C. Police officer Jeffrey Smith; Sgt. Aquilino Gonell of the Capitol Police; and Sandra Garza, the longtime partner of fallen Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick, hold hands during a July 21 hearing on the Jan. 6 attack. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
Inspired by the mental health toll that the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot took on first responders, the U.S. Senate passed a bill Monday night that creates a pathway for families of officers who die by suicide to access death benefits.
The unanimous passage of the Public Safety Officer Support Act means it now heads to President Biden’s desk, following prolonged advocacy by the partners of multiple officers who were on duty at the Capitol during the Jan. 6 assault and died by suicide in the aftermath. The bill also would amend the federal Public Safety Officers’ Benefits Program to make it easier for officers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder linked to their work to access disability benefits.
“Our law enforcement officers serve on the front lines of events that can inflict severe emotional trauma — from mass shootings to protecting the United States Capitol during a violent insurrection,” said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), whose district includes the family of D.C. officer Jeffrey Smith, who died by suicide in the aftermath of the riot. The officers suffering work-related PTSD should have the “same benefits as those suffering from a physical injury,” Beyer said.
‘Some are still suffering’: Months after Capitol riot, police who fought the mob contend with physical, psychological pain
Because officer suicides have long not been considered to be “in the line of duty,” the families of some of those officers — including Smith and Capitol Police officer Howard Liebengood — spent months pressing local and federal officials to honor the officers in the same way as any others who die in the line of duty. Their public advocacy sparked a broader national discussion about mental health within law enforcement, and the Capitol Police created a new mental wellness center in Liebengood’s name.
Erin Smith, Jeffrey Smith’s widow, had long said that injuries her husband sustained during the attack — he was hit over the head with a crowbar-like object — had a direct nexus to his suicide days later. In March of this year, the D.C. retirement board finally agreed to consider Jeffrey Smith’s death in the line of duty and extend her benefits.
Now, for Erin Smith, the passage of the Public Safety Support Act means fewer widows will have to go through what she did.
“This law will forever change the conversation on police silent injuries,” Smith said in a statement to The Washington Post.
She and her attorney, David Weber, called on Biden to both allow Jeffrey Smith to be interred at Arlington National Cemetery — next to Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick, who was injured on Jan.6 and died hours later — and hold a public bill-signing ceremony with the widows of the officers who died by suicide after Jan. 6. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Almost a year ago to the day, the widows were in the Rose Garden on August 9, 2021, when their husbands were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal,” Weber said in a statement. “But more was needed — recognition that silent injuries are real. In a year, they have accomplished that mission, and they and their loved ones deserve the thanks of a grateful nation.”
Rep. David Trone (D-Md.) and Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) introduced the House and Senate versions of the bill with Republican co-sponsors Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (Pa.) and Sen. John Cornyn (Tex.)
Patrick Yoes, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, cheered the bill’s passage in a statement Tuesday.
“The families of officers who are lost to suicide suffer the same pain and grief as the family of any other officer lost in the line of duty and this legislation recognizes that,” Yoes said.
If you or someone you know needs help, call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988. | 2022-08-02T21:47:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Congress passes bill inspired by Jan. 6 recognizing officer PTSD, suicide - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/02/congress-officer-suicide-ptsd-death-benefits/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/02/congress-officer-suicide-ptsd-death-benefits/ |
Brian Dwyer replaces former chief operating officer Joseph Leader, who resigned in May amid a safety lapse
The Gallery Place-Chinatown station in Washington. (Gaya Gupta/The Washington Post)
Brian Dwyer, who has three decades of public transit experience in the private and public sectors, will start Aug. 8 and report to General Manager Randy Clarke, who is in his second week on the job.
Dwyer replaces Joseph Leader, who resigned in May after six years as chief operating officer. Mike Haas, a Metro senior vice president, had been serving in the role in the interim.
Top Metro leaders step down one day after agency announces training lapses
Dwyer will be responsible for managing daily operations of Metrorail, Metrobus, MetroAccess paratransit services and Metro Transit Police. The agency said his first priorities will be opening the long-delayed Silver Line extension to Dulles International Airport and Loudoun County, and overseeing bus service that will replace the Yellow Line for eight months starting in September as Metro rehabilitates a bridge and tunnel.
Dwyer also will focus on returning to service Metro’s 7000-series rail cars, most of which remain suspended because of a defect in wheels and axles that has been found in several of the cars. The series is Metro’s most advanced and makes up nearly 60 percent of the transit agency’s fleet. Metrorail’s regulatory agency, the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission, has allowed Metro to return 64 of the cars to service on any day if they are inspected daily for signs of the defect.
The inspections are being done manually, but Metro is testing an automated system that would screen the wheels instantly and could — if approved by the safety commission — allow for the reinstatement of most of the missing cars.
Dwyer last worked for three years at WSP, a multinational engineering and professional services consulting firm, where he was a vice president in the Transit and Rail division, Metro said.
Before WSP, Dwyer served as vice president of the transportation and infrastructure division at STV Inc., a Pennsylvania-based engineering and consulting firm.
In his consulting jobs, Metro said, Dwyer has worked with the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority in Atlanta, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in Boston, the Maryland Transit Administration and the Toronto Transit Commission on various projects. He also performed peer reviews and contracted safety reviews on behalf of the American Public Transportation Association since 2000, Metro said.
Before consulting, Dwyer worked for the MBTA for nearly 25 years, starting as a Red Line train attendant in 1988. He retired in 2011 as director of light-rail operations, according to WSP. He also served as an adjunct faculty member at Rutgers University while working at the National Transit Institute, according to WSP.
Metro officials said Dwyer’s key areas of experience include improving policies and procedures for control center operations and implementing rules and compliance programs.
Metro didn’t respond to a request Tuesday seeking Dwyer’s salary. | 2022-08-02T21:47:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Metro hires new chief operating officer - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/08/02/metro-wmata-coo/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/08/02/metro-wmata-coo/ |
Pelosi to meet with Taiwan’s biggest semiconductor manufacturer
TSMC is building a chip factory in Arizona -- and considering constructing several on the site -- in a project seen as key to U.S. national security
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is greeted by Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu as she arrives in Taipei on Tuesday. Wednesday she'll meet with the head of the largest computer chip manufacturer in Taiwan. (AP)
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will meet with the chairman of Taiwan’s biggest semiconductor manufacturer during her visit to the island, in a sign of how vital computer chips are to the U.S. economy and national security.
Pelosi and the chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Mark Liu, will discuss implementation of the recently passed Chips and Science Act, which provides $52 billion of federal subsidies for domestic chip factories, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss Pelosi’s sensitive schedule.
The meeting, planned for Wednesday Taiwan time, comes as TSMC builds one chip factory in Arizona and considers expanding that project to include additional factories on the same site, one of the people said.
The tiny electronic components are the brains that power all modern electronics. They have been in short supply globally for nearly two years due to soaring demand and a scarcity of the expensive factories needed to make the components, prompting countries around the world to scramble to construct more manufacturing sites.
TSMC is the world’s biggest chip manufacturer and a vital supplier to the United States and other Western nations. It is by far the largest of Taiwan’s chipmakers, which together produce more than 90 percent of the world’s highest-tech chips, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.
Taiwan official calls for approval of U.S. computer chip subsidies
The United States uses TSMC-manufactured chips in military equipment, including F-35 fighter jets and Javelin missiles, and in the supercomputers at U.S. national labs, according to one of the people familiar with the meeting. Major consumer electronics companies including Apple also rely on a variety of TSMC-manufactured semiconductors.
U.S. officials have grown alarmed about that reliance in recent years given China’s bellicose rhetoric toward Taiwan, a self-governed democracy that Beijing claims as its territory despite never having ruled it. Those concerns have prompted officials and lawmakers to press TSMC to build manufacturing facilities in the United States.
In May 2020, TSMC agreed to build a $12 billion factory in Arizona to produce chips with transistors sized at five nanometers, a high-tech type of semiconductor used in consumer electronics. For comparison, the average human hair is about 60,000 nanometers thick.
That construction is underway and aimed for completion late next year, on a plot of land in north Phoenix that can accommodate several additional factories. TSMC is now considering expanding its plans to construct additional plants on the site, one of the people familiar with Pelosi’s planned meeting said.
In an interview in June, a Taiwanese minister and TSMC board member said the company’s pace of construction at the Phoenix site would depend on passage of the federal subsidy law, which Congress approved last week. President Biden is expected to sign it imminently.
One obstacle TSMC is encountering in Arizona: There aren’t enough trained semiconductor engineers in the area to staff the facility, the minister and board member, Ming-Hsin Kung, said. So the company has started sending new employees to Taiwan for training, including professionals skilled in other types of engineering, he said.
About 250 have already made the trip for training, including hands-on work at TSMC’s chip factories. | 2022-08-02T21:56:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Pelosi meeting with TSMC in Taiwan - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/08/02/pelosi-tsmc-meeting-taiwan/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/08/02/pelosi-tsmc-meeting-taiwan/ |
Candy stocked in a candy store in Doylestown, Pa. in June. (Hannah Yoon for The Washington Post)
Canada’s Candy Funhouse is hiring a “chief candy officer” to earn an annual salary of $100,000 Canadian dollars ($77,786) as its lead taste tester, tasked with trying more than 3,500 pieces of candy per month, or more than 100 a day on average.
The eye-catching role has attracted widespread attention — a moment for whimsy in the stressful yet humdrum realm of job listings.
In the role, you’d be approving candy for sale and making decisions about whether to award a “CCO Stamp of Approval.” This all happens in the company’s “Candy Intelligence Agency.”
You’d lead the company’s “candy strategy,” and run “candy board meetings.” Oh, and you’d be in charge of “all things fun.”
It’s open to anyone living in North America, aged 5 and up, the listing jests. No food allergies allowed.
Some proud parents have posted about their children applying — including one 8-year-old who has learned how to use LinkedIn and “the importance of a strong resume.”
You’d need “golden taste buds” and “an obvious sweet tooth,” according to the job posting.
The role comes with an “extensive dental plan.”
Hershey last month posted a “part time taste tester” job — for a “sensory panelist” able to “discern differences in samples for appearance, taste texture,” assessed via “taste acuity testing,” the listing said.
Anna Lingeris, brand publicity lead at the Hershey Company, told The Washington Post that dedicated taste testers undergo six months of training to identify specific tastes as part of Hershey’s research and development team. “Chocolate and the variety of our snacking products can be quite complex,” she said.
Mars Inc.— home of M&Ms, Twix and Snickers — has similar roles. One employee, Lisa Schroeder, who loves chocolate, began as a Mars taste tester — a role based on the applicant’s “ability to identify and describe flavor, basic tastes, and textures,” Schroeder told Insider in 2016.
Schroeder then became a “sensory technician,” helping gather panel data to maintain product quality and consistency. “This program makes sure that our most loved brands — such as M&M’s — taste the same as they did 75 years ago and that our new products taste like our consumers would expect,” she told the outlet.
One man sampled ice cream for decades as the “Official Taste Tester” for the ice cream company Dreyer’s.
John Harrison’s taste buds were insured for $1 million. He used a gold spoon to avoid any notes of wood or metal. He said he could immediately distinguish between 12 percent and 11.5 percent fat, by taste alone. He tested more than 60 flavors a day.
His methods were refined: “Sort of like a wine taster, I start with the white wines of ice cream-Vanilla, French Vanilla, Vanilla Bean, Double Vanilla-and then work my way up to the heavy Bordeaux-Mint Chocolate Chip, Black Walnut,” he told World Magazine in 2009. | 2022-08-02T22:05:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Canadian candy company seeks taste-tester willing to try 3,500 pieces of candy per month - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/02/candy-taste-tester-hiring-canada/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/02/candy-taste-tester-hiring-canada/ |
Sheila D. Brooks, founder and CEO of SRB Communications, poses for a portrait at her office in D.C. (Amanda Andrade-Rhoades for The Washington Post)
After leaving a job as a television news producer in 1990, Sheila D. Brooks started her own company producing news stories and documentaries. She converted a bedroom into an office at the house where she lived in New Carrollton, drummed up three small contracts, hired an assistant and persuaded a bank to give her a loan.
“I applied to four banks and three turned me down,” Brooks recalled. “The fourth bank wanted me to hand over everything except my firstborn child for collateral.” She agreed to the terms, took the five-year loan, and paid it off in two-and-a-half years.
“Eventually, I was able to get a line of credit,” she said.
Two years after starting the business, Brooks was doing well enough to lease office space on K Street in downtown D.C., just a few blocks from the White House. Clients included utility companies, government agencies and national nonprofits.
“I wanted to build an enterprise that created wealth and opportunity, and it helped to have the right address,” she said.
But K Street was no sanctuary from the economic maelstroms that soon came roaring in. There was a federal government shut down in 1995, followed by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack, then the Great Recession in 2007 and the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
Brooks’s business took some hard hits.
“I almost lost my shirt during the recession,” she said.
To survive, she changed her business model, pivoted from a production company with 14 full-time employees to a marketing and public relations firm with 10. She diversified her client base, brought in more universities and African American service organizations. After recouping her losses, she found herself well-positioned to contract with public health agencies to produce coronavirus safety campaigns.
Instead of going under like thousands of business have during the pandemic, Brooks was able to provide a public service — and prosper.
“It took a lot of determination and resilience,” Brooks said. “When the economy is in decline, I just tell myself, ‘withstand, adapt and recover.’ ”
Brooks’s business, SRB Communications, is now in its 30th year on K Street, one of the most valuable — and volatile — corridors of commercial real estate in the Washington area.
From February 2020 to March 2022, more than 2,300 businesses moved away from downtown D.C., an analysis by The Washington Post showed. Most have not returned.
Many D.C. area businesses closed during the pandemic, but even more opened
Brooks hangs tough.
Among the estimated 11.6 million women-owned businesses in the United States, only 4.2 percent have $1 million or more in annual revenue. For the roughly 2.7 million businesses owned by Black women, only about 1 percent have annual revenue of $1 million or more.
She is in that 1 percent.
Brooks credits her mother for showing her what real determination looks like. Back in 1930s, when Brooks’s mother was 13, she grew tired of picking cotton on a farm where she lived with her grandmother, in Holly Springs, Miss. So, as Brooks tells it, she packed her bags and set out on foot for Sedalia. Mo., some 420 miles away.
“She never told us how she made the journey, but we never doubted that she had,” Brooks said. “A woman she knew in Sedalia worked as a domestic and helped her get a job and a place to stay. She saved her money, and when she heard about a new hotel opening up in Kansas City, she went there, lied about her age and got a better paying job in housekeeping.”
Her mother married, had two daughters — Brooks and a sister two years younger. Her parents divorced soon after.
“My drive to succeed comes from watching my mother hold down two full-time jobs while renting out a room in our house to make ends meet,” Brooks said. “In the evening before bedtime, she’d read the newspaper with us, this divorced woman with a grade school education, instilling in her two girls a belief that with education and hard work, we could accomplish anything in life.”
Aside from her remarkable success, Brooks’s journey to business ownership was similar to many other women.
After 18 years as a television reporter and producer in four different national markets, Brooks concluded that she had hit a “glass ceiling” and would not rise above the job she held. In a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, a group of Black women told researchers they had started their own businesses “because of poor treatment and feeling undervalued in the workplace.”
They also shared Brooks’s desire to create jobs and opportunities for others. “They were motivated to serve their communities,” the report said.
Many people who had lost or quit their jobs during the pandemic are starting businesses, with Black female entrepreneurs leading the way. The potential rewards include accumulation of wealth that can be passed along to make life easier for the next generation. But serious obstacles remain.
“Even among firms with good credit, businesses owned by Black Americans were half as likely as businesses owned by White Americans to receive all the financing they required (24 percent versus 48 percent), said a study released in February by Goldman Sachs.
“Academic research suggests that persistent structural social and economic inequality have contributed to discouragement and disillusionment among minority business owners and that this has fundamentally impacted Black Americans entrepreneurial behavior,” the study said.
Brooks says she knows what that feels like. But she uses it to her advantage.
“For me, I found power in my pain,” she said. “It just elevated me, strengthened my resolve.”
Brooks arrives to work 7 a.m. from her home in Silver Spring and usually stays until after 5 p.m. Her company is located on the eighth floor of a recently renovated building at 14th and K streets NW. The street below looks different than it did before the pandemic — not as bustling as it used to be.
It is a sign of business challenges to come.
Vacant office space in downtown Washington is at a record high — 9.7 million square feet. In a report called “Downtown 2027: Vision for the Future,” city officials outline plans to convert empty office space worth $450 per square foot into residential units worth $600 per square foot.
“The reduction in office supply increases the value of remaining office space (Downtown) by $1 per square foot,” the report said.
Brooks has endured worse and takes the proposed changes in stride.
“As business owners, we try to position ourselves to see what’s coming and plan for it,” she said. “The thing about me is, I like to plan. I’m good at it.”
A war without end: The DAR and the 40-year fight to honor Lena Ferguson
Justice Clarence Thomas called himself a termite. It fits.
The shootings in D.C. are predictable, and that makes them preventable | 2022-08-02T22:09:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | An entrepreneur weathers economic storms, finds rainbow and the gold - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/02/sheila-brooks-black-entrepreneur-breaks-glass-ceiling-survives-pandemic-recession/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/02/sheila-brooks-black-entrepreneur-breaks-glass-ceiling-survives-pandemic-recession/ |
1st Ukraine grain ship anchors off the coast
The first grain-carrying ship to leave Ukrainian ports in wartime safely anchored off Turkey’s coast on Tuesday, while a senior official said Ankara expects roughly one grain ship to depart from Ukraine every day as long as the export agreement holds.
The first ship, the Razoni, carrying 26,527 tons of corn to Lebanon, anchored near the Bosporus entrance from the Black Sea about 36 hours after leaving Ukraine’s Odessa port.
The trip was made possible after Ankara and the United Nations brokered a grain-and-fertilizer export agreement between Moscow and Kyiv last month, a rare diplomatic breakthrough in a conflict that has become a war of attrition.
The exports from Ukraine, one of the world’s top grain producers, are intended to help ease a global food crisis.
As part of the agreement, Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish and U.N. personnel are monitoring shipments and conducting inspections from the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul, which straddles the Bosporus Strait. The strait connects the Black Sea to world markets.
Panel: Former premier Khan took illegal funds
Pakistan’s elections oversight body ruled Tuesday that former prime minister Imran Khan had accepted illegal donations to his political party from abroad. It is a key first step toward a possible ban on Khan and his party from politics.
The case against the cricket star turned politician dates to 2014, when Akbar Babar, a disgruntled member of Khan’s Movement for Justice party, filed a case against him with the election commission, accusing him of illegally receiving funds from foreign countries and companies.
In the Tuesday ruling, the commission concluded that Khan concealed bank accounts and received funds from companies based in the United States, Britain, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere. It also said additional action could be taken against Khan and his party, and it recommended the seizure of illegal money received by him from abroad.
Khan has criticized the oversight body since April, when his government was ousted through a no-confidence vote in Parliament. He had said the tribunal could announce a harsh decision against his party to appease Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Yemen's warring sides agree to renew truce, U.N. says: The United Nations said Yemen's warring parties have agreed to renew a truce for two months after concerted international efforts. U.N. envoy Hans Grundberg said Yemen's internationally recognized government and the Houthi rebels had also agreed to try to arrive at "an expanded truce agreement as soon as possible." The cease-fire initially took effect April 2 and was extended June 2, despite both sides trading accusations of violations and the failure to lift a years-long blockade of the city of Taiz by the Houthis. Yemen's civil war erupted in 2014.
Somalia names former al-Shabab deputy as minister: A former deputy leader of the al-Shabab extremist group has been named a government minister by Somalia's new administration in what some call a chance to persuade fighters to denounce violence. Mukhtar Robow was given the post of religious affairs minister, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud's government said. Robow, who once had a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head, defected from al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab in 2017, after a dispute with its hard-liners.
Iran arrests Bahai members: Iran has arrested several members of the Bahai faith on spying charges, authorities said. Bahais called the arrests part of a long pattern of persecution by Iran's Shiite theocracy. Iran's Intelligence Ministry said the suspects were linked to the Bahai center in Israel and had collected and transferred information there. The Bahai international governing body has long been based in Haifa, Israel. Iran bans Bahai, a religion founded in the 1860s by a Persian nobleman considered a prophet by his followers.
Greece charges 5 with smuggling migrants to Italy by sea: Five people were arrested on a Greek island and charged with trying to smuggle nearly a hundred migrants into Europe on an unsafe vessel last week, using what appears to be a new direct sea route from crisis-afflicted Lebanon to Italy. It was the second such incident in about a month involving a boat departing Lebanon. The more common sea route for asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa desiring a better life in Europe is from Turkey to Greece or Italy. | 2022-08-02T22:18:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | World Digest: Aug. 2, 2022 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/world-digest-aug-2-2022/2022/08/02/3521f946-126d-11ed-b403-f31960ffb1d0_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/world-digest-aug-2-2022/2022/08/02/3521f946-126d-11ed-b403-f31960ffb1d0_story.html |
Adoption should focus on the children
Adoption that occurs because of parental death or family separation through foster care is traumatic for children. Even when an adoption takes place at birth and is voluntary on the part of birth parents, it represents a lifelong trauma for many adoptees and for their first parents. This potential trauma increases further if children are separated from other relatives or from their home country. If this happens, children lose not only their parents but also, often, connections to their broader biological families and their cultures.
I was shocked to read in the July 30 Metro article “Families aim to save orphans from war” an explanation for why international adoptions are often halted during wars or other natural disasters: “because there’s such a high risk of parents or other relatives showing up once a situation calms down.” Yes, this poses the risk that an adoption will fall through, but that risk is to the prospective adoptive parents. In thinking about adoption, we should make decisions based on what is in children’s best interests.
Sharon Vandivere, Takoma Park | 2022-08-02T22:35:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Adoption should focus on the children - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/02/adoption-should-focus-children/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/02/adoption-should-focus-children/ |
In an image taken from video, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri is shown in October 2009. (SITE Intelligence GroupAFP/Getty Images)
Twenty-one years ago, nearly 3,000 Americans lost their lives by death from the air — passenger jets hijacked and turned into missiles on 9/11. On Sunday morning, a mastermind and architect of that terrible day stood on a third-floor balcony in an upscale district of Kabul and death visited from the air. The targeted assassination by the CIA of Ayman al-Zawahiri closes a chapter in the long pursuit of Osama bin Laden’s partner in terrorism. But it also offered a sobering and grim suggestion of what the present and future hold just one year after the Taliban returned to rule in Afghanistan.
Zawahiri was traced to a safehouse in the Afghan capital, where he lived with his family. According to a senior administration official who briefed reporters, once he entered the house, he didn’t leave again, but was spotted by the CIA on the balcony. The intelligence agencies built a model of the house and took it to the White House Situation Room for meetings with President Biden, emphasizing a plan to take out Zawahiri without harming civilians. The officials said that Hellfire missiles killed Zawahiri and no one else, an operation entirely without American boots on the ground, fulfilling a pledge Mr. Biden made a year ago amid the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan that counterterrorism efforts would remain vigilant, over-the-horizon and effective.
But what was Zawahiri doing on Afghan soil in the first place, sheltered in a building owned by a top aide to senior Taliban leader and interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani? This indicates the terrorist chief had Taliban protection. Zawahiri became the nominal leader of al-Qaeda after bin Laden was killed in Pakistan in 2011, but remained an elusive figure, probably not in operational control. How many more al-Qaeda operatives are nestled in Kabul’s residential districts? After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. goal was to deny al-Qaeda a haven in Afghanistan. Now, it is back — and seemingly safe. This was a blatant violation of the Doha agreement that led to last year’s withdrawal, under which the Taliban pledged to neither cooperate with international terrorist groups nor host them or their individual members.
Marc A. Thiessen: Zawahiri was in ‘downtown Kabul’ because of Biden’s disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal
Zawahiri’s presence is another sign — among many — that the new Taliban regime is no better and is perhaps worse than the one that ruled during the 1990s. The economy is in free fall. Upon the exit of the United States last year, the Taliban vowed that, within interpretation of sharia law, there would not be discrimination against women, which was brutal and rampant before. But in action, the Taliban has have removed women from key decision-making bodies, banned women from acting in films, stopped some 850,000 Afghan girls from attending secondary school, and imposed on women the requirement for a male family escort, among other measures, according to a recent United Nations report. Women are again being beaten for not having a male escort and ordered to wear all-encompassing clothes that reveal only their eyes.
This is what Mr. Biden’s disorderly withdrawal has wrought, the return of a Taliban that presents old risks and will certainly bring new dangers to the people of Afghanistan and beyond. At least in the case of Zawahiri, justice was done. | 2022-08-02T22:35:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Terrorist Ayman al-Zawahiri given Taliban safe haven - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/02/al-qaeda-leader-taliban-protection/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/02/al-qaeda-leader-taliban-protection/ |
Nothing humorous about Samuel Alito’s comments
Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. speaks at an event in Rome on July 21. (AP)
It’s unseemly enough that, according to the July 29 news article “Alito dismisses foreign criticism of Supreme Court’s ruling on abortion,” Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. made a public speech “joking” about the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision he wrote that wrenchingly ended a constitutional right that American women have had for 50 years, but to even flippantly ascribe Boris Johnson’s loss of his prime minister position in Britain to his criticism of that decision is especially ironic and disgraceful. Mr. Johnson’s fall from grace occurred because his Conservative Party forced him out of office, having had enough of his lies, including those about the prohibited parties at his residence during the time of pandemic restrictions.
Compare that with what has happened in the United States where our own conservative party, the one that reveres Justice Alito, has been strikingly unbothered by the many lies told by our former president during his term. The Post’s Fact Checker counted 30,573 false or misleading claims (see its Jan. 24, 2021, column). One of them is still being told and has been far more destructive than any told by Mr. Johnson.
Jeffrey Lubbers, Takoma Park
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s attempted humorous comparison of the headgear of a Green Bay Packer fan with that of a Jewish kippah or Muslim headscarf was misleading.
He also obscured the real issue at stake here: People of faith base their beliefs on the words of ancient men. Most of their beliefs are either not true or unprovable, so why do they deserve special protection under our laws?
A Packer fan’s cheese head might be more laughable than what some people of faith put on their heads. However, a safe bet would be that Green Bay wins another Super Bowl long before the future prophecies of the world’s many faith followers come to fruition — if they ever do.
J.A. Steiner, Rockville | 2022-08-02T22:36:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Nothing humorous about Samuel Alito’s comments - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/02/nothing-humorous-about-samuel-alitos-comments/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/02/nothing-humorous-about-samuel-alitos-comments/ |
The U.S. must act against extremism in Syrian camps
The al-Hol refugee camp on June 2, 2019, in Syria. (Alice Martins for The Washington Post)
In his July 22 Friday Opinion essay on the al-Hol refugee camp in northeastern Syria, “This refugee camp is incubating the next generation of ISIS,” Joseph L. Votel asserted that the camp “threatens U.S. national security interests by nurturing instability, promoting violent rhetoric and indoctrination, and allowing those who harbor ill will against the United States and its allies to continue recruiting and radicalizing.” The assertion that such camps (including ones with men as well as women and children) can breed terrorists is well documented. For example, Camp Bucca in Iraq (circa 2003 to 2009) held several inmates who eventually became senior leaders in the Islamic State, including Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who became the leader of the Islamic State in 2010 (until he was killed in 2019).
The United States must move forward to address these problems — e.g., through repatriation, rehabilitation and reintegration — working with our allies and partners, or, as Mr. Votel stated, we will likely be “drawn back to the region, to deal with a next-generation Islamic State that got its start at al-Hol.”
Dunbar Lockwood, Bethesda | 2022-08-02T22:36:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The U.S. must act against extremism in Syrian camps - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/02/us-must-act-against-extremism-syrian-camps/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/02/us-must-act-against-extremism-syrian-camps/ |
Live updates Nancy Pelosi in Taiwan as China says House speaker ‘playing with fire’
White House: China could ‘break historical norms’ in response to Pelosi visit
Taiwan held major military exercises ahead of Pelosi visit
People walk past a billboard in Taipei welcoming U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan on Aug 2. (Chiang Ying-Ying/AP)
TAIPEI, Taiwan — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is expected to meet Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and other lawmakers Wednesday, defying threats from Beijing to retaliate over the visit and raising fears of a military crisis in the Taiwan Strait.
The White House warned that the visit, which includes a delegation of lawmakers, could prompt China to take significant inflammatory actions. On Tuesday, soon after the speaker landed in Taipei, the Chinese Defense Ministry announced large-scale exercises in areas surrounding Taiwan.
“There’s no reason ... for Beijing to turn this visit, which is consistent with long-standing U.S. policy, into some sort of crisis,” White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters at a briefing Tuesday. “We are prepared to manage what Beijing chooses to do. At the same time, we will not engage in saber-rattling.”
China’s claims over Taiwan form a core part of the ideology of the ruling Communist Party. Beijing sees official visits by high-ranking foreigners as lending support to pro-independence camps and giving credence to the idea of Taiwan as a sovereign nation. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Tuesday at a meeting in Shanghai that U.S. politicians “playing with fire” on the issue of Taiwan would “come to no good end,” according to a transcript released by the Foreign Ministry.
Pelosi, a longtime critic of Beijing, is the first House speaker to travel to Taiwan since Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) in 1997 — who said he sees parallels with this week’s trip. The United States does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan but considers it “a key U.S. partner in the Indo-Pacific.”
The visit comes as the U.S.-China relationship has deteriorated to its worst state in years. Pelosi and the lawmakers traveling with her were briefed on the risks and threat possibilities, according to people familiar with the visit.
Pelosi’s visit is also a test for Taiwan’s global status under Chinese pressure. It is an opportunity to signal to senior politicians around the world that they can show support for Taiwan’s democracy in person — despite vocal opposition from Beijing.
Biden administration officials have said privately they have deep concerns about the timing of her trip, but that the visit did not signal an official change in the U.S. approach toward China or Taiwan.
By Yasmeen Abutaleb and Erin Cunningham
The White House has warned that China could use Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan as a pretext for provocation, laying out a number of potential responses by Beijing.
Just after Pelosi’s arrival in Taipei late Tuesday, China’s official Xinhua News Agency released an announcement from the People’s Liberation Army saying that “important military training operations” and live ammunition drills would take place in six areas surrounding Taiwan between Thursday and Sunday — after the House speaker’s visit.
“We’ve seen a number of announcements from the [People’s Republic of China] in just the last several hours that are unfortunately right in line with what we had anticipated,” White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters Tuesday.
Kirby had said earlier in the week that Beijing could launch “highly publicized” — or fire missiles into the Taiwan Strait or around Taiwan. He also said China could carry out operations that “break historical norms,” such as sending larger numbers of military jets across the midpoint separating Taiwan from China.
“There’s no reason … for Beijing to turn this visit, which is consistent with long-standing U.S. policy, into some sort of crisis, or use it as a pretext to increase aggressiveness and military activity in or around the Taiwan Strait,” Kirby said.
“We are prepared to manage what Beijing chooses to do,” he said. “At the same time, we will not engage in saber-rattling.”
By Adam Taylor and Sammy Westfall
Washington and Taipei behaved like close allies — yet neither maintains an official embassy in the other’s capital. U.S. presidents also avoided interacting with their Taiwanese counterparts, even over the phone, to avoid angering Beijing.
This all meant that while support for Taiwan became an important rallying cry in Washington, senior U.S. officials rarely — if ever — visited. Before Pelosi, the last high-ranking U.S. official to visit Taiwan was then-Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) in 1997.
Taiwan’s military said it was action-ready for a Ukraine-style response to an invasion during annual drills last week. The drills, part of a five-day program of civil and military preparedness exercises, came at a high point of tension in the Taiwan Strait after Beijing lashed out at the United States over the potential Pelosi visit.
Taiwanese troops practiced repelling a potential amphibious assault along the stretch of waterfront connecting Taipei Port and the Tamsui River mouth, crucial to defending the capital city of Taipei. The exercises began with explosions that sent up clouds of black sand. The imitation enemy assault was met with helicopters, tanks and fighter jets, while army reservists manned a network of sandbag-lined trenches.
The drills mimic wartime more closely than ever, and were designed after “closely monitoring the international situation as well as the war in Ukraine,” said Sun Li-fang, spokesman for Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense.
Sun added that the Taiwanese army was already trained for China’s possible response and was confident that Taiwan could deal with whatever the People’s Liberation Army decided to do. | 2022-08-02T22:39:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan despite warning from China: Live updates - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/02/nancy-pelosi-taiwan-visit/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/02/nancy-pelosi-taiwan-visit/ |
Shortstop C.J. Abrams is one of the key players coming back to the Washington Nationals in the Juan Soto trade. (Derrick Tuskan/AP)
C.J. Abrams, shortstop
MacKenzie Gore, left-handed pitcher
Robert Hassell III, outfielder
James Wood, outfielder
Jarlin Susana, right-handed pitcher
Luke Voit, first baseman and designated hitter
In a blockbuster trade Tuesday, the Washington Nationals sent Juan Soto and Josh Bell to the San Diego Padres for six players hours before the trade deadline. The Nationals received shortstop C.J. Abrams, outfielders Robert Hassell III and James Wood and two pitchers: left-hander MacKenzie Gore and right-hander Jarlin Susana. Washington also acquired first-baseman and designated hitter Luke Voit.
After Soto declined a 15-year, $440 million contract offer from the Nationals, Washington’s front office began fielding offers from a handful of teams. Soto, considered one of the greatest hitters in the game, demanded a large trade haul that few teams could match. Aside from the Padres, the Los Angeles Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals were reportedly in the mix.
“We had to get the right deal or we weren’t going to do the deal,” Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo said. “We set the bar very, very high and one team exceeded it. And that’s the deal we made.”
The return for Soto mostly includes a combination of highly-touted prospects and young, unproven major leaguers from the Padres. Washington acquired two of the Padres’ top three prospects in Hassell and Wood. Abrams and Gore are both young prospects who have already made their big league debut for San Diego.
Here’s what to know about the players heading to the Nationals.
Abrams, 21, was the No. 6 overall pick in the 2019 draft and quickly ascended to the majors, making the Padres’ Opening Day roster this year and debuting in the majors on April 8. Abrams, a left-handed bat, was ranked as the No. 9 prospect in baseball entering this season, according to both MLB.com and Baseball America.
Abrams was optioned to El Paso, the Padres’ Class AAA affiliate, in mid-May, but was recalled on June 20 and has made 19 starts since returning to the majors. He has a .232 batting average, .285 on-base percentage and .320 slugging percentage in 46 games this season.
Rizzo called Abrams “a five-tool type of talent,” who can hit as the top of the lineup and play shortstop down the line.
The southpaw was the third overall pick in the 2017 MLB draft, who like Abrams, made his MLB debut this season. Gore was ranked as high as the No. 3 prospect in baseball in 2020, according to MLB.com.
After making one start in Class AAA this year, Gore was called up and started off strong as a starter with a 4-1 record and a 1.50 ERA in his first nine games (eight starts) with the Padres. But in his next five starts, Gore allowed 23 runs.
San Diego moved him to the bullpen to help manage his workload; he made two appearances in relief before being pulled from his last outing on July 25. The next day, Gore was placed on the 15-day injured list with elbow inflammation in his throwing arm. Rizzo said the injury did make the trade more complicated, but the doctors they spoke with gave him the heads up to go through with the trade. Still, Rizzo said the Nationals plan to take his return to the mound slowly.
Hassell was the top prospect in the Padres system after being taken with the No. 8 overall pick in 2020 and is the No. 21 prospect in baseball, according to MLB.com. The 20-year old outfielder hasn’t played above High-A, but has thrived against lower levels with a .301 batting average and 21 home runs in his minor league career.
“Hassell is, again, is a five-tool talent that we believe stays in center field,” Rizzo said. “A guy that could hit with power, play defense, run and steal bases. His ceiling is high.”
Wood is the No. 3 player in the Padres system, another young outfielder drafted out of high school like Hassell. Wood, 19, was taken in the second round of the 2021 MLB draft. According to Rizzo, Wood is a balanced player who, at 6-foot-7 and 240 pounds, flashes a power bat — he has a 1.054 OPS in A-ball this year. Rizzo also called Wood an above average runner.
Wood, from Rockville, Md., played baseball and basketball at St. John’s in D.C. before heading to IMG Academy to finish his high school career.
Susana, an 18-year old hurler from the Dominican Republic, signed with the Padres for $1,700,000 in January 2022. According to MLB.com, he was the Padres’ No. 14 prospect but hasn’t played above rookie ball. In eight games (seven starts) this year, Susana has a 2.45 ERA.
“The youngest and least known of the group is possibly the highest upside of the group,” Rizzo said. “That was the piece that we really wanted and really coveted and really wanted after what we call the Elite Four.”
Susana has a big frame at 6-foot-6 and 235 pounds. He throws four pitches — a fastball, slider, curveball and a change-up. His fastball consistently touches the mid to upper 90s, with his pitch topping out at 102 mph.
Voit has played six years in the majors, spending most of his career with the New York Yankees. In the 2020 season shortened by the pandemic, he led the league with 22 home runs.
Rizzo said before Tuesday’s game that the Nationals identified three major league vets to add to their roster. When Eric Hosmer refused to waive his no-trade clause, Voit was the next player that the team identified. | 2022-08-02T22:44:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Who the Nationals got back from the Padres in Juan Soto trade - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/02/players-traded-for-juan-soto/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/02/players-traded-for-juan-soto/ |
WASHINGTON — Bestselling author Stephen King has testified in a federal antitrust trial in Washington. Tracing his own history beginning as an unknown author in the 1970s, King laid out a portrait of a publishing industry that has become increasingly concentrated over the years. He testified as a witness for the U.S. Justice Department. The government is trying to convince a federal judge that the proposed merger of Penguin Random House and rival Simon & Schuster, two of the world’s biggest publishers, would thwart competition. In his testimony Tuesday, King described himself as “a freelance writer.” He said publisher “consolidation is bad for competition.”
WASHINGTON — The gunmaker Smith & Wesson is facing new scrutiny from Congress. The House Oversight panel subpoenaed the company Tuesday for documents related to the manufacture and sale of AR-15-style guns. The move came after Smith & Wesson’s CEO refused to appear for a hearing on the firearms frequently used in mass shootings. The committee said the Massachusetts company’s CEO Mark P. Smith originally agreed to testify along with the heads of two other companies, but abruptly canceled. Democratic Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney of New York says the company also hasn’t provided all the information the committee needs for its investigation into gunmaker profits from AR-15-style weapons.
NEW YORK — U.S. stocks slipped Tuesday as Wall Street’s modest August retreat continued another day. Stocks wavered over the day as investors are unsure whether the market’s strong run in July is the start of a turnaround or a temporary blip. The S&P 500 finished down 0.7% and the Nasdaq and Dow Jones Industrial Average also fell. Analysts cited comments from Federal Reserve officials that suggested continued hikes to interest rates are coming in order to knock down inflation. Caterpillar took a hit after reporting weaker sales than expected. Uber shares took off following its own strong quarterly report. Treasury yields climbed.
WASHINGTON — American employers posted fewer job openings in June as the economy contends with raging inflation and rising interest rates. The Labor Department said Tuesday job openings fell to a still-high 10.7 million in June from 11.3 million in May. In its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, the Labor Department said that the number of Americans quitting their jobs fell slightly in June while layoffs fell. The job market has been resilient so far this year: Employers have added an average of 457,000 a jobs a month in 2022; and unemployment is near a 50-year low.
SAN FRANCISCO — Uber’s effort meld its pioneering ride-hailing service with food and freight delivery showed signs of progress during the past quarter, even though the company sustained a huge loss stemming from a sharp decline in its outside investments. Rather than dwell on Uber’s second-quarter loss of $2.6 billion announced Tuesday, investors celebrated the San Francisco-based company reaching a significant milestone. The good news came under a key metric known as free cash flow. Uber generated $382 million in cash during the April-June period, marking the first quarter the company’s 13-year history that it hasn’t hemorrhaged money. The breakthrough helped lift Uber’s slumping stock by nearly 17%. | 2022-08-02T22:48:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Business Highlights: King on books merger, job openings - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/business-highlights-king-on-books-merger-job-openings/2022/08/02/c7523708-12af-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/business-highlights-king-on-books-merger-job-openings/2022/08/02/c7523708-12af-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
A home charging system for the Chevrolet Bolt electric utility vehicle (EUV) and Bolt electric vehicle (EV) during the 2022 New York International Auto Show (NYIAS) in New York, U.S., on Thursday, April 14, 2022. The NYIAS returns after being cancelled for two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)
When it comes to electric vehicles, there is no great American supply chain. Storied automakers General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. have just proved as much.
General Motors last week signed three significant deals. They include a $10.8 billion dollar agreement with South Korea’s Posco Chemical Corp. for battery components, or high-nickel cathode materials as it looks to make 1 million electric vehicles by December 2025. The parts will come from the industrial firm’s Gwangyang plant.
Meanwhile, Ford said it would import low-cost lithium iron phosphate batteries from China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd, the world’s largest powerpack manufacturer, as it attempts to secure supplies amid global shortages. It also sealed agreements to explore buying lithium, nickel and cobalt from other non-American companies.
The latest moves to secure raw materials and components — in the middle of 2022 — means turning to the hardly ruffled and tightly-knit Asian supply chain. And it comes years after some big promises. GM’s chief executive officer Mary Barra has long waxed lyrical about the company’s huge electric ambitions, while at Ford, CEO Jim Farley has committed to spending $50 billion through 2026 to produce 2 million EVs a year.
Earlier this year, GM said it was expanding its North America-focused EV supply chain in a joint venture with Posco in Canada, setting up a plant to process materials in Quebec. At the time, executive vice president of g lobal product development, purchasing and supply chain, Doug Parks, said the firm was “creating a new, more secure and more sustainable ecosystem for EVs,” building on “a foundation of North American resources, technology and manufacturing expertise” while working to secure lithium and develop a rare earth value chain.
The trouble is, it’s quite late in the game to be doing that. These commitments won’t have immediate results: there won’t even be anything to show over the next few years. Setting up deep and functional supply chains and then making them efficient takes years, as China — and Tesla Inc. — have shown. Bringing on new battery suppliers also requires significant time because they have to go through a host of certification steps, safety checks and adjustments to make the batteries compatible with the cars. They don’t just slot in.
Looking at it through this lens, it’s worth wondering why these companies have made such little progress despite their big commitments and why those ambitions — announced over the past decade — have never materialized into an ecosystem for manufacturing electric vehicles or deeper supply networks across borders. Was it that they danced to policymakers’ America-only tune and hoped for better incentives? Perhaps they just veered too far from reality to realize they were never going to be building electric vehicles for wide-scale adoption anytime soon. To say they were victims of geopolitical tensions is one way out. The other is, they just weren’t incentivized to make and sell green cars, as fat margins from SUVs kept things comfortable.
It would be unfair to place the blame entirely on auto companies. Policy makers have all but shut out the US’ ability to take all the innovation that is happening to the next level. Incentives aren’t driving capital to the companies that actually stand a chance of manufacturing EVs to scale in the US.
In China, meanwhile, industrial policy created incentives from the demand and supply side. Over the years, it was finely tuned to wash out the weak and smaller players that weren’t producing quality or able to keep up with evolving technology standards.
But the US is an alternate reality: One where EVs still only account for about 0.6% of all registered vehicles. Even the latest action to push the transition — the Inflation Reduction Act — while fairly progressive and bold, is off-point when it comes to batteries (the most important part of building green cars). Conditions requiring that 40% of a vehicle’s battery critical minerals, or 50% of its components, must come from the US(1) effectively shut China out. At such a critical juncture in EV adoption, this will likely ensure the US remains where it is: always following Beijing.
Still, although China leads on batteries and materials’ security today, the US can regain its footing and lay claim to parts of the global supply chain. It can push the case for widely available materials like boron or fund startups that boost EVs and bolster the power grid. Firms are finding cheaper, better ways to make batteries but can’t get money and therefore, scale. Some are avoiding expensive materials like nickel and cobalt. But as China has shown, just having a hold on the materials isn’t all — having the ability to process them for powerpacks is what matters.
At this point, the US needs to leverage its existing advantages, not just play catch-up.
(1) Or countries with a free trade agreement with the US. | 2022-08-02T22:48:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Billions of Dollars in Deals Can’t Smooth the US EV Supply Chain - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/billions-of-dollars-in-deals-cant-smooththe-us-ev-supply-chain/2022/08/02/12afb0cc-12ab-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/billions-of-dollars-in-deals-cant-smooththe-us-ev-supply-chain/2022/08/02/12afb0cc-12ab-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
394375 15: Early morning light hits the smoke and wreckage of the World Trade Center September 13, 2001 in New York City, two days after the twin towers were destroyed when hit by two hijacked passenger jets. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images) (Photographer: Chris Hondros/Getty Images North America)
For President Joe Biden, the strike shows America can still target bad guys even after the controversial withdrawal from Afghanistan. For his critics, it shows that the US pullout allowed al-Qaeda’s leadership to take up residence in Kabul. There is some truth to both arguments.
This investment was undoubtedly justified, if only to show, as Biden remarked, that “no matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out.” The operation, like the one that killed Osama bin Laden 11 years ago, is also a window into the formidable capabilities the US developed to locate and neutralize enemies in some of the least accessible places on earth.
This capacity for targeted killing became all the more important as America’s objective shifted from transforming societies in the greater Middle East to simply pummeling extremist organizations so that they could not easily operate. Critiques that Washington was simply playing Whac-A-Mole notwithstanding, progress toward the tactical objective of degrading terror groups translated into progress toward the strategic objective of preventing attacks against the US homeland.
In 2018, Gina Haspel, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, announced that her organization was pivoting away from counterterrorism and toward competition with China and Russia. The Defense Department and US special operations forces are making similar shifts.
The Zawahiri strike isn’t the end of America’s struggle with terrorism, not least because threats persist, from Afghanistan to Africa. Yet it is perhaps more a tribute to a prior era than to the present one.
Elimination of Al-Qaeda Leader Is a Moment to Celebrate: The Editors
In the End, the Afghan Army Was Always Doomed: James Stavridis | 2022-08-02T22:48:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Zawahiri Killing Was a Great Success of a Bygone Era - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/zawahiri-killing-was-a-great-success-of-a-bygone-era/2022/08/02/a8675bd8-12b0-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/zawahiri-killing-was-a-great-success-of-a-bygone-era/2022/08/02/a8675bd8-12b0-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
Since testing positive for the coronavirus nearly two weeks ago, Biden has presided over a remarkably successful stretch of his presidency
Analysis by Ashley Parker
President Biden on screen delivering remarks on the successful counterterrorism operation of the killing of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri on the Blue Room Balcony of the White House on Aug. 1, 2022. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
Work from home, it turns out, has been good for President Biden.
Since first testing positive for covid nearly two weeks ago and remaining at the White House, Biden has presided over a remarkably successful, if short, stretch of his presidency.
Then, after a rebound infection that the president’s doctor announced Saturday, a covid-positive Biden announced Monday evening that he had ordered the successful killing via two Hellfire missiles of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaeda and one of the world’s most-wanted terrorists who, along with Osama bin Laden, helped mastermind the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
And throughout it all, Biden embodied the public health pitch that he and his team have been making for months — that for the majority of vaccinated and boosted individuals, covid likely means an inconvenient period of isolation rather than a terrifying hospital stay.
“Joe Biden has had the most productive quarantine in the history of the United States,” tweeted Kendra Barkoff, who served as Biden’s press secretary while he was vice president, shortly after the Zawahiri news broke Monday.
Asked Tuesday about the fact that a particularly successful stretch of Biden’s presidency seemed to coincide with his on-again-off-again-on-again covid diagnosis, which limited his ability to travel, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre laughed and responded, “My goodness. Jeez. Oh, my gosh.”
“What we're seeing right now is because of the hard work of this administration, is because work that we have been doing for some time now just happens to be coming down at this time,” Jean-Pierre said. “But I wouldn't put it all together in one week or two.”
She added, moments later: “I think we should just be really thrilled and really excited that we’re getting work done for the American people.”
Biden’s covid diagnoses — which have kept him confined to the White House for the past 12 days and counting — in some ways conjure up his 2020 presidential campaign, in which the deadly pandemic similarly kept him close to his home in Wilmington, Del.
At the time, Biden offered himself as a contrast to then-president Donald Trump, promising calm and competent leadership in the face of the virus, compared with Trump’s freewheeling chaos.
Yet in the eyes of his critics, covid also proved a political gift to Biden. They repeatedly accused Biden, who was 78-years-old when he assumed the presidency, of using the pandemic as an excuse to cloister himself away in his basement and avoid going head-to-head with Trump.
Asked about Biden’s recent work from home stint, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said the president is likely helped by having less opportunities to commit the sorts of gaffes for which he has long been known.
“Yes, out of sight, out of mind is not a bad strategy for Joe Biden, because when you’re out front carrying the message, you trip and fall a lot,” Graham said. “He’s a nice man, but he cannot deliver a coherent message.”
The White House, however, has publicly and privately pushed back on the notion that Biden has spent his quarantine receding from public view, or keeping a more relaxed schedule than usual. A White House aide provided a list of activities Biden has engaged in during his bout with covid, including working with Kentucky leaders to manage the flooding in the state, holding a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and participating virtually in meetings with his economic team and also with the House Bipartisan Disabilities Caucus.
“Because of the indispensable protections from the vaccines, boosters, and treatments that President Biden worked hard to make available to all Americans, he has been productive from the Residence, executing on the full range of his duties — rather than being helicoptered to Walter Reed, like his predecessor,” said White House spokesman Andrew Bates, referring to Trump’s battle with covid near the end of his term.
Graham said Biden “deserves credit for pulling the trigger” with Zawahiri, but in the same breath criticized Biden’s decision last August to withdraw from Afghanistan, saying it created the conditions for al-Qaeda to begin reconstituting itself in the Taliban stronghold.
“I never believed that within a year — before a year was up — that Zawahiri would be on the balcony of a Haqqani guesthouse in Kabul,” Graham said, referring to the Haqqani Taliban faction harboring Zawahiri when he was killed. “That’s beyond brazen.”
Biden’s decision to authorize the Hellfire missile strike on Zawahiri underscores the sort of strength his team is desperate for him to project as Democrats head into the November elections with the president’s approval ratings sagging historically low.
In 2011, after all, Biden was at then-president Barack Obama’s side during the Situation Room debate on whether to green light a dangerous Special Forces operation to take out bin Laden, who senior intelligence and national security officials believed was hiding in a compound in Pakistan. At the time, Biden advised Obama against the raid, arguing it was too risky.
But now, a little more than a decade later, the circumstances had shifted and it was Biden who gave the order to take out Zawahiri, who had served as bin Laden’s logistically-minded No. 2. Unlike the bin Laden raid — in which the elite Navy SEAL Team 6 helicoptered into Pakistan under the cover of night and killed the terrorist leader after a firefight — Biden was able to execute Zawahiri’s killing from a CIA drone in the skies above Afghanistan.
“We make it clear again tonight that no matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out,” Biden declared Monday, announcing Zawahiri’s killing from the Blue Room Balcony of the White House.
Nonetheless, many of Biden’s critics say he hardly deserves credit for his productive fortnight. They argue that some of the successes, like the deal between Manchin and Schumer, did not involve Biden all — though some also concede that Biden’s quarantine at the White House may have a political silver lining.
“The less they see him, the less they’re reminded of the fact that he’s kind of weak, feeble and past his prime,” said Andy Surabian, a Republican strategist who worked in the Trump White House. “That is true.”
Still, Surabian added, “Unless there’s a magic wand that exists that I’m unaware of, and he can wave it and fix this economy and stop inflation, I don’t think there’s any piece of legislation or any act overseas that will be enough to save the Democrats in November.” | 2022-08-02T22:49:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Working from home during covid seems to work out for Biden - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/02/biden-covid-zawahiri-climate/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/02/biden-covid-zawahiri-climate/ |
The DOD is the latest part of the federal government to have deleted official phone communications relevant to investigations into the events of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol
The Pentagon is seen from Air Force One on March 2, 2022. (Patrick Semansky/AP)
Secret Service cannot recover texts; no new details for Jan. 6 committee
Last week, Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) sent a similar request to Garland, asking him to investigate the missing text messages from the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security.
Jan. 6 texts missing for Trump Homeland Security's Wolf and Cuccinelli
The suit is not only seeking records from former senior figures such as Miller and McCarthy. It also has asked for the phone communications of Gen. James McConville, the Army chief of staff, and Lt. Gen. Walter E. Piatt, director of the Army staff, who still work at the Pentagon and whose texts and secure messages should not have been deleted. According to court records, the Army began a search for those records last September, and another court filing updating the status of that search is expected next month. | 2022-08-02T23:23:23Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Phones of top Pentagon officials wiped of Jan. 6 messages - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/02/pentagon-jan-6-phones-wiped/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/02/pentagon-jan-6-phones-wiped/ |
Washington right fielder Juan Soto homered in his final game with the Nationals. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
You’ve heard of virtuous circles. There are vicious vortexes, too. The Washington Nationals have been in one for the past year.
Now, with the trade of Juan Soto, they have reached the bottom of that spiral, a plummet that proceeded with a foreboding sense that one reasonable decision after another would lead to a worst-case outcome, which would then feed into the next almost-inescapable catastrophe.
Hard as it is to fathom now, amid the Nats’ second straight roster purge at the trade deadline, as recently as June 30 of last year, the future of this organization was still completely up in the air.
That night, the Nats won their 13th game out of 16, clubbing the Rays, 15-6, to reach 40-38 and second place in the NL East, just 2½ games out of first.
They were a contender, certainly in their own minds.
As unbelievable as it seems on this bleak farewell day, the Nats were, just 13 months ago, a veteran team built to try to reach the postseason. That night, which was also accidentally the day I retired, Trea Turner and Soto combined for seven hits and seven runs.
Kyle Schwarber, Josh Bell, Yan Gomes and Starlin Castro started. And the kind of vets that you keep for a pennant race — Ryan Zimmerman, Jordy Mercer and, yes, Gerardo (Baby Shark) Parra — all played.
The bullpen had free agent Brad Hand and solid Daniel Hudson. The rotation, if everybody somehow got healthy and effective, would be Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin — the Big Three from the Nats’ World Series triumph in 2019 — plus Joe Ross, Jon Lester and others.
Then, 27 days later, one event changed everything. All that has followed was the almost inexorable outgrowth of that baseball disaster. Strasburg, on the injured list (again), announced he would undergo the desperate measure of surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome. That operation is often a career killer. The list of pitchers who’ve truly come back from it is about five.
“Strasburg’s probably finished. He may not win 20 games the rest of his career,” I told my family. “Corbin has been disappearing for two years. They’re stuck with two of the worst contracts a team could carry at once. With Strasburg out, Max is going to leave as a free agent after this year — for sure. The Big Three is now the Big Zero. They have to blow up the team and start over. They have no choice. It’s sad, but everyone must go.”
“Why?” my family asked.
“Because everyone — as their turn arrives to become a free agent — is going to leave anyway. No great player in his right mind will sign a long-term contract to be part of a total down-to-the-rubble rebuild. I’d leave. They will.”
“Will you write that?” my wife asked a year ago.
“No,” I said. “Don’t kick the fans when they’re in pain. Besides, what if I’m wrong?”
Three days later, Scherzer and Turner were traded to the Dodgers. What a gruesome domino effect. By pairing Turner, a free agent after the 2022 season, with Scherzer, the Nats got maximum trade value. Good business, bad for the heart.
You’ve heard of virtuous circles. There are vicious vortexes, too. And the Nats were in one.
More (logical) deals removed Schwarber, Hand, Hudson, Gomes and others. The blow-it-up Nats were suddenly “in-for-a-hand-grenade, in-for-a-nuke.”
This year has just played out like a script that was already close to written. For appearance’s sake, and to be decent to a great player, the Nats recently offered Soto a 15-year, $440 million deal — enough to ensure he would not take it, unless Juan wanted to climb over agent Scott Boras’s dead body.
In his final Nats game Monday, Soto had three walks and a home run (off Scherzer), threw out a runner at the plate and scored from first base with hustle and a headfirst slide.
As someone who has followed D.C. baseball all his life and who will never forget Washington’s first title parade in 95 years, I did my digestion of this End of an Era last year as the Nats’ identity left town, one player after another.
This season, I’ve just felt wrung out. Soto seemed like a phantom every time he stepped to the plate, getting more ghostlike every passing day. Would the tangle of the Lerner family trying to sell the team create a situation where Soto could stay? Not likely. New owners want the old owners to do the dirty work.
Now, it’s done. Get the new players in. Hope for the best. And wait. Probably for years.
With GM Mike Rizzo doing the deals, you have as good of a talent evaluator as the game provides. Just a year ago, he acquired Schwarber and Bell, at the time 27 and 28, on the cheap. Schwarber now leads the National League in homers for the Phillies, and Bell is fifth in the NL in batting (.301).
Rebuilds are fascinating, they’re unpredictable, and they bring some of the game’s greatest highs and lows, even when World Series wins are not involved. I covered the Orioles when they went from 54-107 in 1988 to 87-75 with playoff hopes alive on the final weekend of the 1989 season. Plus-33 wins! Baseball doesn’t get more shockingly exciting. But I also covered the O’s when they went from back-to-back trips to the AL Championship Series directly to 14 straight losing seasons, thanks to Peter Angelos’s toxicity.
Few things are more distressing to fans than watching an excellent team, built piece by piece over years, as it ages, gets injured, leaves for money, disintegrates or is finally traded away in what feels like a brutal blink.
As a beat writer, and a national baseball writer for decades, there is no more familiar story than watching the end arrive for champions. It always hurts. Only the details of the final miseries change.
But two truths remain. The year you won it all never loses an iota of its shine. If anything, it grows in warmth with time. When retired players meet, they relive The Run while other years blend, almost evaporate.
Next best is the climb toward the top, especially when it starts at the absolute bottom. In a way, Washington fans, despite “only” having a new team for 18 years, have already had both experiences.
Remember when, in 2007, little lefty Matt Chico (7-9) was the staff ace! Yet those were the only wins of his career. Then, within a handful of seasons, the Nats led Major League Baseball in wins and started an eight-year saga, with teams filled with household names that rose to the top.
Such a thing will almost certainly happen again. We don’t know when. But deconstruction of the old usually begins the creation of the new. It doesn’t seem that way today, with Soto — who may end up as one of the game’s all-time greats — leaving after (only) five years.
This is the bottom. And it feels like it. You may not want to learn the new Nats’ names — and their stories — quite yet. But the evidence of the past 146 major league seasons says you probably will become curious again — about C.J. Abrams, MacKenzie Gore and a whole bunch more — far sooner than you think. | 2022-08-02T23:27:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Juan Soto trade ends one Nationals era, and starts another - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/02/nationals-trade-juan-soto-rebuild-thomas-boswell/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/02/nationals-trade-juan-soto-rebuild-thomas-boswell/ |
Zawahiri’s legacy: Querulous bands of militants and a chance for rebirth
The slain al-Qaeda leader failed to stave off the splintering of his terrorist movement. Some offshoot groups remain dangerous.
Souad Mekhennet
Osama bin Laden, left, sits with his adviser Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian linked to the al-Qaeda network, during an interview with Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir, not pictured, on Nov. 10, 2001. (Hamid Mir/Ausaf Newspaper for Daily Dawn/Reuters)
Two months before his death in a U.S. drone strike, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri sat before a video camera to deliver a remarkable diatribe against some of his estranged former disciples. Looking like a prophet in his white beard and robe, he attacked several prominent figures in the Islamist world with the air of a peevish grandfather scolding his wayward offspring.
“You are an idiot and an imbecile,” Zawahiri said at one point in his speech, referring to a Syrian Islamist leader who was once an al-Qaeda devotee. He blasts the leader of another faction as “corrupt” and accuses a third of “moral deviation.”
When it was released in June, the video stood out because of its strikingly bitter tone. Viewed in the wake of Zawahiri’s death, it is a window into the fractious network of extremist groups that are the modern-day legacy of the terrorist movement Zawahiri helped establish four decades ago.
The death of the 71-year-old Egyptian, who was killed by a missile as he stood on the balcony of a safe house in Kabul, effectively closes a chapter on the Afghan-based terrorist group that rose to global prominence under the leadership of Osama bin Laden and gained infamy with the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
In the view of many counterterrorism officials and experts, the end of the Zawahiri era finds the al-Qaeda movement in a state of disarray, with most of its original leaders dead or in hiding, and a scattered network of affiliate groups preoccupied with local concerns and causes. The Islamic State, itself a virulent al-Qaeda offshoot, briefly eclipsed Zawahiri’s organization as the world’s most-feared terrorist group, until it, too, was driven into hiding after suffering battlefield defeats and the loss of a succession of top leaders killed in Western military operations.
Al-Qaeda’s splintering was apparent in the hours after the U.S. strike, as different factions that once belonged to Zawahiri’s network posted starkly different reactions to his death. In social media chatrooms, some self-professed Islamists praised the slain leader as a “martyr” and accused the Taliban of betraying him. But others blamed Zawahiri for poor leadership, and for failing to prevent divisions within the Islamist movement. Still others — chiefly followers of the Islamic State — denounced him as a “puppet.”
“The uproar on jihadi social media accounts has highlighted how fragmented this community actually is,” said Steven Stalinsky, an expert on Middle Eastern terrorism and executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute, a Washington nonprofit.
Yet, Zawahiri’s death also presents al-Qaeda with an opportunity to reboot, and perhaps to evolve, experts said on Tuesday. The toppling of the pedantic figurehead notorious for his dull speeches, could provide an opening for a more charismatic new leader who could help al-Qaeda regain its stature atop the global Islamist movement.
“Will it destroy al-Qaeda? For sure not,” a European counterterrorism official who monitors al-Qaeda said in an interview, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to reporters. “Will it eliminate the threat of attacks against Western interests? Definitely not. It may even increase it.”
In the leadership vacuum created by Zawahiri’s death, far-flung al-Qaeda affiliate groups in Africa and the Middle East could become more prominent — and perhaps more dangerous, some experts said. And even al-Qaeda’s battered central branch could experience a resurgence, depending on who takes charge. In the social media age, a talented new leader could help unify fractious militants worldwide, and inspire future waves of terrorist attacks — even if al-Qaeda’s traditional core lacks the resources to carry out such attacks on its own, analysts and experts said.
How U.S. officials launched a 2015 operation to kill a key ISIS weapons expert planning attacks in Europe
“Al-Qaeda Central is a different entity than it was at the time of the 9/11 attacks,” said Rita Katz, founder of SITE Intelligence Group, which has tracked al-Qaeda’s online presence for two decades. “While it maintains an international network of affiliate groups and supporters, it doesn’t actually command them. Its role is more centered on providing spiritual leadership and lending its global brand.”
Al-Qaeda already was in decline before Zawahiri was appointed leader in the aftermath of the U.S. military operation that killed bin Laden. After being driven from Afghanistan in 2002, the group’s top commanders went into hiding, often struggling to communicate with their scattered followers or organize major terrorist attacks. Meanwhile, the United States stepped up its campaign of drone strikes that targeted key al-Qaeda and Taliban officials in their hideouts, mostly in Afghanistan and the tribal regions of northwestern Pakistan.
Bin Laden’s death in 2011 further demoralized al-Qaeda, whose members had viewed the iconic Saudi as the group’s symbolic leader. Zawahiri, his longtime chief deputy, promised a new unity after he was named as bin Laden’s replacement. Instead, his tenure was marked by multiple ruptures. Despite his personal efforts at intervention, Zawahiri in 2013 lost control of two major offshoot groups in Syria: the al-Qaeda-aligned al-Nusra Front, and the Islamic State. Al-Nusra, now called Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, renounced ties with al-Qaeda. Soon the Islamic State went on the attack against the parent group, killing and capturing al-Qaeda members in Iraq and Syria. Today, al-Qaeda has no allies of significance in either country.
Major al-Qaeda franchises do still exist in Africa and also in the Persian Gulf, most notably in Yemen. But all are involved in local insurgencies, and their allegiance to al-Qaeda’s core leadership is uncertain.
As Yemen's war intensifies, an opening for al-Qaeda to resurrect itself
Of potential importance for a future resurgence are al-Qaeda’s long-standing ties with various factions within the Afghanistan Taliban government — relations that have strengthened since the Biden administration’s withdrawal of U.S. ground troops last August. According to current and former counterterrorism officials, the Taliban would certainly have known about Zawahiri’s decision to move into the Kabul apartment building where he was staying at the time of his death. Other al-Qaeda leaders operatives may also be viewing Afghanistan as sanctuary in which they can regroup and rebuild.
“Zawahiri’s presence in post-withdrawal Afghanistan suggests that, as feared, the Taliban is once more granting safe haven to the leaders of al-Qaeda — a group with which it has never broken,” said Nathan Sales, a former ambassador-at-large and counterterrorism coordinator for the State Department during the Trump administration.
While the CIA was able to track and kill Zawahiri in Kabul using remote surveillance, it’s not clear that the U.S. success “can be replicated against other terrorist targets,” Sales added. | 2022-08-02T23:36:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Al-Qaeda's future uncertain after Ayman al-Zawahiri is killed - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/02/zawahiri-killed-al-qaeda-future/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/02/zawahiri-killed-al-qaeda-future/ |
Over several administrations, the congresswoman often held an opinion unpopular among Democratic colleagues, and her posture at times was viewed as unhelpful in U.S.-China relations
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D- Calif.), flanked by Reps. Ben Jones (D-Ga.) left, and John Miller (R- Wash.), appeared in Tiananmen Square in September 1991. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
In 1991, Rep. Nancy Pelosi stood on the site where two years earlier the Chinese government violently cracked down on students defending democracy in Tiananmen Square and unfurled a banner in silent protest.
The next morning, in a Beijing hotel lobby, she was confronted by an agitated J. Stapleton Roy, then the U.S. ambassador to China, in a conversation described as “dismissive” by Jeffrey Fiedler, the former secretary-treasurer at the AFL-CIO who witnessed it.
Pelosi “wasn’t particularly spooked by” Chinese officials’ anger moments after the protest, Fiedler said. She was equally unfazed by Roy’s anger.
“She was very tough. People have always, in my view, underestimated her, especially in those early years,” he added.
Pelosi’s adversarial relationship with China was thrust back into the spotlight Tuesday as she touched down in Taiwan as part of a congressional trip through Asia. Her visit to the self-governed island China claims as its own came in the face of threats from Beijing, as well as pushback within her own party, and her visit is a significant signal of American foreign policy from the politician second in line to the presidency. It’s the first trip a speaker of the House has made since Newt Gingrich in 1997.
Beijing had sent warnings of retaliation ahead of her visit as tensions escalate with the United States, while the Biden administration sent strong suggestions against her visit to the territory, a trip she postponed in April because of a coronavirus infection. Again, Pelosi was undeterred.
“In the face of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) accelerating aggression, our congressional delegation’s visit should be seen as an unequivocal statement that America stands with Taiwan, our democratic partner, as it defends itself and its freedom,” she wrote in a Washington Post op-ed.
This trip marks the culmination of a 35-year career spent as an outspoken critic of China, even when domestic issues overshadowed her foreign policy work during her decades leading the Democratic caucus. Over several administrations, she often held an unpopular opinion among her Democratic colleagues, several people who worked with her described in conversations with The Post. Her posture was at times viewed as unhelpful by those who saw her persistence as disruptive to U.S.-China relations.
“She’s always rejected this reaction that the many people in the United States have had of, ‘oh, don’t upset the Chinese,’ ” Fiedler said. “She’s not particularly concerned with upsetting the Chinese.”
But this week’s trip to Taiwan also marked a surprising bipartisan moment as Republicans joined congressional Democrats in encouraging Pelosi’s travel, a notable about-face for a party that staunchly categorizes Democrats as weak on the communist country. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and 25 GOP senators released a statement moments after Pelosi landed in Taiwan, lauding her defiance of China.
A defining moment early on
“It was the Tiananmen massacre that I think really was the impetus,” said Carolyn Bartholomew, the current U.S.-China economic and security review commissioner and former Pelosi chief of staff. “It was the beginning.”
Pelosi famously visited the square in 1991 where she held that banner, reading “To those who died for democracy in China,” alongside congressmen Ben Jones (D-Ga.) and John Miller (R-Wash.), and surprising Chinese authorities. The banner was given to Pelosi by the Rev. Chu Yiu-ming while he hosted her in Hong Kong, his son Samuel Chu recalled.
Chu, president of the Campaign for Hong Kong, remembers his father’s telling of Pelosi’s return to her Hong Kong hotel after the incident, where she was met by rounds of applause from locals, despite criticism in China for her actions.
“I felt like that that was such a courageous and also formative, I would say, experience from her,” Chu said. “I think that that, in a way, was a foundational piece to the way that she had not only dealt with China, and human rights, but I think across the board.”
Upon her return to Washington, Pelosi shepherded legislation that created a pathway to citizenship for Chinese students fleeing political persecution. In hindsight, it was a full-circle moment for Chu, whose father helped organize a system to move dissidents who participated in the Tiananmen protests to Hong Kong.
Chu noted that Pelosi, through her staff, regularly asks him about how people she met in Hong Kong decades ago are doing, as well as those who are incarcerated.
“I think that kind of leadership is so different and so unique to her. I don’t see why you travel to somewhere like Taiwan, let’s say, just to shake hands and take a photo. She has these deep relationships that she has cultivated and maintained over time.”
A bipartisan target
Pelosi didn’t reserve her criticism for China.
She at times defied both party’s leaders, including President George H.W. Bush after he vetoed a bipartisan bill to tie China’s “Most Favored Nation” status to producing evidence that it had improved on human rights. It was one of the first times Pelosi tied trade to labor practices, which continued throughout her career.
And as the Clinton administration tried to limit congressional influence on the MFN debate in 1993, those closest to Pelosi said it only emboldened her. Fiedler said her persistence is the reason President Bill Clinton could not just dismiss Congress as he had initially tried.
“Some people, I think, think she ended up with a bad relationship with Bill Clinton because of Monica [Lewinsky]. But it really was because of China and her view that he was wrong,” said Steve Elmandorf, a lobbyist and former senior adviser for Richard Gephardt of Missouri, who served as the Democratic majority leader.
Their next fight came in the late 1990s when China petitioned to join the World Trade Organization, causing a break on the issue among Democrats. Pelosi signed on to legislation that called for withdrawing the United States from the WTO if China were accepted without full U.S. support.
“This is going to be very damaging … to the unity of the Democratic Party,” Pelosi predicted in a 1999 interview with The Post when the Clinton administration agreed on terms to allow China into the WTO. Clinton, she added, was “trying to redeem his failed China policy” for “his own legacy.”
Upon the agreement, she played a role in pushing for the creation of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China to conduct appropriate oversight. Michael Wessel, the former general counsel for Gephardt, said Pelosi “really kept that debate alive” and ultimately was successful in “creating the moral underpinnings for U.S. policy responses to China.”
Political prisoners top of mind
Though the United States continued to try to work with the communist nation, Pelosi played an active role in reminding the world about China’s treatment of political prisoners.
In 1995, she spoke daily with Fiedler as he led negotiations to free Chinese dissident Harry Wu from detention. Fiedler remembers her being “deeply involved” in the mechanics of Wu’s release, showing extreme concern on an issue that members of Congress often gloss over.
During a visit by then-Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao to Washington in 2002, then-Democratic Whip Pelosi handed him four letters from members of Congress asking him to recognize the country’s role in human rights violations, including reports of China’s brutal treatment of political prisoners. He refused the letters.
She tried again seven years later when she traveled to China as the first female speaker of the House, asking the Chinese to release long-held political prisoners.
For the past 20 years, Pelosi has vocally opposed China’s pursuit of the Olympics. Most recently, she testified before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China last year ahead of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, where she became the most high-profile U.S. official to call for a diplomatic boycott of the Games. The Biden administration did not follow suit until nine months later, in a statement made in December.
“While we fully support and will root for our athletes, we cannot and will not be silent on human rights in China,” Pelosi said in her opening statement during this year’s CEC hearing. “If we don’t speak out about human rights violations in China because of commercial interests, we lose all moral authority to speak out against human rights violations anywhere.”
Pelosi has often made clear, including in this year’s hearing, that her objections are not directed at the Chinese people, but toward their “repressive” government.
Her second rise to the speakership coincided with President Xi Jinping’s tightening grip around democratic Hong Kong and the continued targeting of the Uyghur Muslim population in northern China under his watch. With the help of Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.), she helped pass a bipartisan bill in 2019 imposing sanctions on Chinese officials tied to human rights abuses.
The following two years she oversaw the passage of other bills that became law. The measures sanctioned those who persecuted the Uyghur population and banned imports from China’s Xinjiang region unless the importer could prove that the items were not made using forced labor.
Pelosi’s trip this week also comes just days after both chambers of Congress passed legislation that would subsidize domestic semiconductor manufacturing and invest billions in science and technology innovation, another way to limit trade with and reliance on China, which out-competes the United States in those sectors.
But while a bipartisan group applauded her travel to Taiwan, a group of critics echo those from decades ago who worry that her persistence may harm relations with China.
In a statement issued moments after Pelosi landed, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said her visit violates the one-China principle, which will have “a severe impact on the political foundation of China-U.S. relations, and seriously infringes upon China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) criticized the speaker’s travel to Taiwan as “ill advised,” noting that the U.S. should not provoke China at a time when it is allied with Russia in the war against Ukraine.
Critics say that Pelosi’s trip is merely for show, a capstone to a political career coming to an end. But many who have watched her dedication to the issue for decades think otherwise.
“I see this as logical, appropriate step for her in terms of her advocacy over now almost 30 years. The time is right for this,” Wessel said. “I don’t expect, whatever her next chapter is, that her advocacy on these issues is going to stop.” | 2022-08-02T23:36:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Pelosi’s Taiwan trip a culmination of decades of challenging China - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/02/pelosis-taiwan-trip-culmination-decades-challenging-china/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/02/pelosis-taiwan-trip-culmination-decades-challenging-china/ |
Comedian Jon Stewart speaks with veterans and activists calling on Senate Republicans to change their votes on a bill to help veterans exposed to toxic substances on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
The Senate overwhelmingly gave the final sign-off Tuesday on legislation designed to aid veterans fighting diseases they believe are linked to toxic exposure, particularly those who served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Republicans tried for several days to contend Wednesday’s blockage of the PACT Act, as it is officially known, had to do with a technical argument about which portion of the federal budget would fund $280 billion worth of new allocation for veteran health programs.
But 25 Republicans who had recently supported the exact same bill switched their votes Wednesday, less than an hour after Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) announced their deal on the ambitious legislation unrelated to the PACT Act.
Republicans absorbed a series of political blows, led by comedian Jon Stewart and several prominent veterans groups, that, by lunchtime Wednesday, left many ready to settle the matter and vote to send the legislation quickly to President Biden’s desk.
“He just beat the daylights out of them,” Schumer said Wednesday in a celebratory visit to a couple dozen veterans who have set up a vigil on the Capitol’s north lawn since last week’s failed vote.
On Tuesday, 37 Republicans joined 49 members of the Democratic caucus to vote for the legislation, which compels the Department of Veterans Affairs to presume that certain illnesses came from exposure to hazardous waste incineration, mostly focused on the issue of burn pits from recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Asked to explain the GOP reversal, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) offered no broad explanation and acknowledged the legislation would pass with broad support.
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, credited the veterans groups and Stewart with taking what was previously a relatively obscure health issue and turning it into a national cause.
“We’re following the science in every case, but we’re also not going to force veterans to suffer in limbo for decades,” Biden said during the March visit to Texas.
Veterans then have to prove there is a direct connection between their cancer and the burn pit chemicals, a threshold that can at times be difficult to meet, particularly if the condition doesn’t develop until years after a deployment. Studies have shown that Veterans Affairs rejects the vast majority of claims.
"All’s well that ends well.” | 2022-08-02T23:45:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Republicans reverse course as Senate passes burn pits legislation after days of pressure - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/02/republicans-reverse-course-senate-passes-burn-pits-legislation-after-days-pressure/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/02/republicans-reverse-course-senate-passes-burn-pits-legislation-after-days-pressure/ |
At least three dozen have been shot in D.C. since Wednesday
Six people were shot Monday in Northeast D.C., capping a particularly violent period in the city
D.C. Police Chief Robert J. Contee III speaks to reporters on Aug. 1 after six people were shot, one fatally, outside an apartment complex in the Kingman Park neighborhood of Northeast Washington. (Jasmine Hilton/The Washington Post)
The mass shooting that killed one man and wounded five others outside an apartment complex in Northeast Washington Monday capped an especially violent six-day period in D.C., raising fears among some residents and sparking renewed calls from city leaders for action.
In all, at least three dozen people have been struck by gunfire since July 27, and six have been killed, according to police. Twice in Southeast last week, police said assailants armed with assault-style rifles sprayed more than 90 bullets into parking lots, in one instance killing two men. Over the weekend, a police officer fatally shot a man — after a shooting moments earlier injured two people in Northwest.
In the mass shooting, police said someone opened fire into a large crowd gathered outside the Azeeze Bates apartments at 15th and F streets in Northeast, striking six men. Residents said they were unnerved by the violence, as officials decried those involved and promised to do more.
“Shootings, gunshots, people dead,” said 69-year-old Tyrone Washington, who has lived in the area all his life. “It’s crazy.”
Council Member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), who chairs the public safety committee and up until recently represented the Kingman Park area, said officials are adopting a “whole of government” approach to confronting crime, instead of relying totally on police.
But, the lawmaker said, “I don’t think you’ll find anybody who feels things are moving fast enough. … Every aspect of government should feel a sense of urgency around this.”
1 dead, 5 wounded in Northeast D.C. shooting
Police Chief Robert J. Contee III told reporters at the scene of the shooting that the city has invested in ways to “stem the tide of violence,” but some people “have just lost their sense of humanity.”
Homicides in D.C. now stand at 127, up 11 percent over this time last year, according to the city’s official count on Tuesday. But assaults with dangerous weapons, which includes shootings, are down 8 percent, even with the unusually high number this past week.
Police have released few details of Monday’s mass shooting and have made no arrests. They identified the man who died as Lance Melvin, 24. He lived in Southeast Washington, but public records show his family once lived in the area where he died. Efforts to reach relatives were not successful. Police said the others did not have life-threatening injuries.
City officials suggested some blame fell on the Azeeze Bates apartment complex, with Contee, Allen and an advisory neighborhood commissioner accusing the complex owners of failing to take proper security measures.
Contee said, “I’m told there is some type of private security, or firm, that is responsible for this property. I have not seen it yet.”
Allen said he met with residents and apartment representatives three weeks ago after shots were fired there to get them to install more security cameras and add private guards. Allen said the owners are “not doing their job in keeping their own residents safe, as well as their neighbors.”
Dustin Sternbeck, a D.C. police spokesman, said two apartment security cameras trained on the area where Monday’s shooting occurred did not work, leaving investigators without video that might help identify those involved. He said detectives are going door to door in hopes of finding residents with cameras that might help.
Peter Larson, the vice president of property management for Horning Brothers, which owns the apartment complex, said those two cameras have been vandalized twice in the past six months.
“The cost is very expensive and we are taking additional expensive precautions to help prevent further vandalism,” Larson said in an email, noting new cameras should be up and running by early next week.
Larson said company officials “are deeply saddened and distressed” by the shooting on Monday, adding that “safety and well-being of our residents is our prime focus, and we are working hard to address the security challenges.”
The property manager said the company has two armed guards in addition to off-duty police officers, who he said drive around different complexes. On Monday night, he said one off-duty D.C. officer had just finished patrolling a location in Ivy City, about two miles away, and another had just been at Azeeze Bates. He said two security guards were in another part of the complex when the shooting occurred.
Larson said he has asked police and lawmakers to put a city camera tower in a public alley where the six people were struck Monday. A police spokesman referred to comments Contee made at the shooting scene. “We are not private security for private property,” the chief said.
On Tuesday, a bullet hole was visible on a wall in an alley next to a church near the apartments.
A mother walking to a carryout for lunch who heard Monday’s gunshots said she kept her children inside Tuesday, and away from the playground in the area. She said they had been out playing a day earlier when the shooting took place.
“When we came outside to check on our kids, we saw the people outside on the ground shot,” the woman said, speaking on the condition of anonymity out of concern for her safety. “Everybody was calling for help.”
The woman said she has lived at Azeeze Bates for the past few years, and now wants to move, not just out of her apartment, but out of Northeast Washington. “Our kids can’t play, we can’t go to the store,” she said. “We fear every time we walk. They have just been randomly shooting in broad daylight, nighttime.”
Washington, who has lived in the area all his life, joked that despite the violence, he plans to stay “69 more” years.
At Lincoln Park in Northeast, a few blocks away, city law enforcement agencies handed out ice cream and cotton candy while chatting with community members Tuesday evening for National Night Out.
Rachel Cerlen, 37, fed her 1-year-old daughter a snow cone and handed a bag of popcorn to her son, 4, while they cooled off in the shade.
“We’re a community that continues to figure out solutions for a lot of these problems beyond just the typical narrative,” she said. “Crime is up here, crime is up everywhere. We all have to keep grappling with that as a country. Our community is doing the best from the top, from the bottom, from the sides to come together and try to figure out the best ways to reduce the crime and support all members of our community.”
Emily Davies contributed to this report. | 2022-08-03T00:11:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | At least three dozen have been shot in D.C. since Wednesday - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/02/mass-shooting-dc-azeeze-bates/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/02/mass-shooting-dc-azeeze-bates/ |
Veterans and activists call on Senate Republicans to change their votes on a bill that helps veterans exposed to toxic substances. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
On Tuesday, the veterans, military family members and their supporters were on their sixth day outside the Capitol. They were clustered under a few trees in the blessed shade just beyond the Capitol’s east plaza on a morning that was already sweltering. They were there to shame the Senate into passing the PACT Act, which extends health-care benefits to veterans who were exposed to toxins from the enormous pits in which the military regularly disposed of waste. Those burning garbage dumps have been linked to cancers, sleep apnea, and other respiratory and neurological ailments. Indeed, President Biden has noted that his son Beau served overseas near such a site and later died of a brain tumor. And so it was not surprising to see an activist holding a cardboard sign shaped like a tombstone that bore the words, “the troops.” Another sign warned: “vets are dying.”
A lot of Americans come to Capitol Hill to make a case for their interests or to raise awareness about looming emergencies. But these activists faced particularly galling circumstances. The Senate had passed the PACT Act back in June with an 84-14 vote, but it had been changed somewhat in the House; so last week the Senate had to vote again, and the second time around the dizzying carousel that is the legislature, the vote was 55-42. This might still seem like a win for veterans, but basic math isn’t so basic in the Senate because of the filibuster, which requires 60 votes before a bill turns into a law. The legislation stalled and these determined citizens from Virginia and North Carolina and New York were sweating it out on the grass trying to get senators to give veterans something more tangible than a mere “thanks” for their service.
Victory came after many deaths and much testimony about those deaths. It came after celebrity activist Jon Stewart bellowed profanities into media microphones about cruel and cowardly senators. All of the protesters had something to say but Stewart was like the sun — his fame an irresistible gravitational force, his vulgarity in the name of veterans steeped in righteousness. It came after the appalling insult to men and women who thought they’d come to their nation’s Capitol to celebrate long-awaited health care access for veterans only to have the party halted. It came after sleepless nights and a deluge.
“It was biblical.” That’s how Danielle Dombrowski, 35, described the downpour in which she sat vigil outside the Capitol on Monday night. She had come to Washington from her home near Luray, Va., because hers is a military family going back to World War I, and most recently her brother Michael served in Afghanistan. Dombrowski spent her Tuesday morning standing alongside Natalia Kempthorne-Curiel, 18, who was from New York City and was channeling her outrage into sarcasm with a sign aimed at the senators who had stalled the PACT Act: “Thank you for your service: just kidding.”
In our democracy, there’s every reason to be proud of the people’s ability to protest and have their demands met. But in the process of making their voices heard on this subject, there have been constant reminders of just how loathe those in power are to listening to voices other than their own. As the bill — and amendments — were considered on the Senate floor, Rand Paul (R-Ky.), explained how he wanted to pay for the veteran’s health care by calling a 10-year moratorium on foreign aid distributed by USAID. Then he rattled off a list of the aid group’s expenditures that, based on the snarling disgust in his tone, he deemed offensively wasteful: encouraging tourism in Tunisia, teaching Korean students about climate change and encouraging millions of Filipinos to go to school. His colleagues did not approve of Paul’s amendment.
Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) complained that he’d been the victim of a long-standing Washington “trick” in which his opponents took a “sympathetic group of people,” in this case veterans, crafted a bill to address their needs and then tacked on unrelated, terrible extras and then dared him to oppose it. He complained that he’d been maligned by a “pseudo celebrity.” Toomey, it seemed, had gotten his feelings hurt in the proceedings. He’d been insulted and this was terrible. The senator was pained.
Toomey, of course, was detailing these affronts in the cool comfort of the Senate. The activists had been outside for days in the heat and rain. They were relegated to patches of grass and reminded by the U.S. Capitol police to stay out of the broad driveway. As one veteran quipped, the country’s soldiers are called upon to defend all manner of ground at home and abroad, but here at the Capitol where they’d come to plead their case for health care, they weren’t allowed on the sidewalk.
They dutifully stayed on the grass. In the sun. And as they held their handmade signs, a shiny black sedan, its tinted windows sealed tight against the heat, zipped down Constitution Avenue flanked by the vroom-vroom-vroom of law enforcement on motorcycles. It was a baby motorcade, part of the city’s background hum, and a reminder that the men and women who work for The People so often don’t actually have to deal with them.
On Monday night, when President Biden announced that U.S. military forces had killed 9/11 co-conspirator Ayman al-Zawahiri, there were proclamations of support from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) in which they praised American intelligence and military, just after they’d voted to halt the passage of the PACT Act. There were procedural issues and budgeting issues and, well, it’s complicated. It’s politics. What does it mean to be proud and supportive of the military? What does it mean to thank these men and women for their service? | 2022-08-03T00:20:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | They stood on the grass, pleading. They found victory. But respect? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/02/they-stood-grass-pleading-they-found-victory-respect/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/02/they-stood-grass-pleading-they-found-victory-respect/ |
Taliban’s ties to al-Qaeda leader confound U.S. path on Afghanistan
Osama bin Laden sits with adviser Ayman al-Zawahiri in 2001. (Hamid Mir/Ausaf Newspaper for Daily Dawn/Reuters)
For President Biden, the killing of al-Qaeda’s top leader in a drone strike last weekend marked a welcome triumph as officials steel themselves for the first anniversary of the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
But the attack, which revealed to the public the presence of veteran militant Ayman al-Zawahiri in the heart of Taliban-controlled Kabul, injected a disturbing new element into the administration’s fraught dealings with Afghanistan in the post-American era.
Biden administration officials condemned Taliban leaders for providing a haven for the Egyptian extremist, who helped build al-Qaeda into a global terrorist network. Several of the officials said his installation in a villa a stone’s throw from Afghan government buildings flouted a 2020 U.S.-Taliban deal that provided the basis for the withdrawal of U.S. forces after two decades.
“By hosting and sheltering the leader of al Qa’ida in Kabul, the Taliban grossly violated the Doha agreement and repeated assurances to the world that they would not allow Afghan territory to be used by terrorists to threaten the security of other countries,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement shortly after Biden announced the operation from the White House.
Officials said they believed senior Taliban officials were aware of Zawahiri’s presence in the villa in Kabul’s Shirpur neighborhood and attempted to conceal the attack after the fact.
The Taliban responded to the incident with indignation, calling the drone strike “a violation of international norms” and saying it was the United States who had violated the Doha deal.
A day after Biden heralded Zawahiri’s death, officials said they were reviewing how the Taliban’s willingness to host him would affect issues including U.S. assistance to Afghanistan, the release of billions of dollars in Afghan government reserves held in the United States, and the potential for steps toward normalizing ties with the Taliban.
Laurel Miller, who served as a senior official for Afghanistan in the Obama and Trump administrations, said while Zawahiri’s presence in Kabul merely affirmed the U.S. government’s longtime assessment about the group’s ties with al-Qaeda, the perception of Taliban support for terrorism would make normalizing ties with Kabul more politically hazardous for the Biden administration. Many analysts believe such normalization is required to make Afghanistan a sustainable state in the long run.
“One of the tragedies in all this is that the Afghan people are going to be the ones who suffer most,” she said. A new U.S. watchdog report this week warned of “near-famine conditions” and further restrictions on women’s rights in the Taliban’s Afghanistan.
News of Zawahiri’s death caps a year in which the Biden administration has taken small steps to expand its dealings with the Taliban, a group it fought on the battlefield for 20 years. Those have included support for the resumption of some aid payments, which once represented up to 80 percent of Afghan government spending but were largely frozen after Taliban militants toppled the elected government in August 2021.
In recent months, officials have engaged in negotiations to potentially release $3.5 billion in Afghan government reserves held in the United States, potentially by reforming the country’s central bank or creating a parallel mechanism to oversee the money’s use.
Diplomats including Thomas West, special representative for Afghanistan, have held meetings with Taliban representatives in Qatar and other locations outside of Afghanistan on topics including rules governing women’s lives and the fate of Mark Frerichs, a 60-year old American who was kidnapped in Afghanistan in 2020. West and other senior officials met most recently last week in the Uzbek capital.
U.S. officials have shied away from taking steps toward the reopening of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, which was hastily abandoned last year as the Taliban marched on the Afghan capital. The United States, like other countries, has not officially recognized the Taliban as Afghanistan’s government.
Andrew Wilder, vice president of Asia programs at the U.S. Institute of Peace, said the future of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan will likely depend on whether the Taliban chooses to retaliate for Zawahiri’s death. So far, the Taliban has not taken steps to further restrict the activities of aid workers or foreigners.
“This is going to make it more difficult in the short term, and maybe in the medium to longer term, depending on what the Taliban reaction is,” Wilder said.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, White House communications adviser John Kirby said the strike represented a vindication of the United States’ ability to combat extremism without military presence in Afghanistan. The United States, from military bases in the Gulf, has sought to project an “over the horizon” counterterrorism capability there. The strike on Zawahiri marked the first strike in that campaign.
“The Taliban have a choice now,” he said, making reference to the group’s commitments under the Doha agreement. “If they go down a different path it’s going to lead to consequences, not just from the United States but from the international community.”
Zalmay Khalilzad, the Afghan-born U.S. diplomat who oversaw negotiation of the Doha agreement, called the harboring of Zawahiri as he continued to issue threatening video messages a “clear, unambiguous” violation of that deal, which contained classified annexes describing mechanisms for ensuring compliance with its terms.
“What the Taliban has done is damage their cause and their prospects for normalization,” Khalilzad said. Still, he added, “we have to talk to them to account for this. What happened? Why did it happen?”
Carter Malkasian, a former Pentagon adviser and author of “The American War in Afghanistan: A History,” said that while the Taliban’s next steps would be informed by its desire to restore ties with the outside world, they would also be guided by its rejection of foreign involvement in Afghanistan.
Despite their mutual contempt, even after the jarring events surrounding Zawahiri’s death, the two sides may have little choice but to continue their dealings, leaving them more or less stuck with one another: Washington because officials want to prevent a further humanitarian catastrophe, and the Taliban because the United States is required to unlock the outside aid they crave.
“Unless the U.S. decides that it is completely going to turn its back on the Afghan people, which it doesn’t seem to want to do, it doesn’t really have an option other than engage with the Taliban at some level because they’re in control of Afghanistan,” Miller said.
Karen DeYoung in Washington contributed to this report. | 2022-08-03T00:20:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Taliban’s ties to al-Qaeda leader confound U.S. path on Afghanistan - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/02/talibans-ties-al-qaeda-leader-confound-us-path-afghanistan/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/02/talibans-ties-al-qaeda-leader-confound-us-path-afghanistan/ |
Inside the mission to kill Zawahiri: Months of planning before the strike
After eluding U.S. intelligence agencies for two decades, the al-Qaeda leader showed up on the balcony of a house in downtown Kabul
Ayman al-Zawahiri in a still image taken from a video released Sept. 12, 2011, after he became the leader of al-Qaeda. (SITE Monitoring Service/Reuters TV)
Ayman al-Zawahiri, the 71-year-old leader of al-Qaeda, stepped onto the third-floor balcony of his house in an exclusive neighborhood of Kabul around 6:15 a.m. Sunday. He usually appeared in the morning, shortly after daybreak. Sometimes he read. He was always alone.
And the CIA was watching.
After hunting the co-planner of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks for more than two decades, U.S. intelligence personnel had tracked Zawahiri a few months earlier to a safe house in Kabul’s Shirpur neighborhood, where senior Afghan officials own mansions. Members of the Haqqani Taliban faction, who patrolled the area, knew exactly who their new neighbor was, U.S. officials said.
Intelligence analysts monitored the house, creating a “pattern of life” based on the comings and goings of the occupants. They paid especially close attention to the man who, as far as they could tell, never left. The others — now believed to be Zawahiri’s wife, his daughter and her children — took steps to avoid being followed home whenever they ventured out. “Long-standing terrorist tradecraft,” one senior administration official called it.
The house appeared to be located in the secure section of the neighborhood, behind a large bank and several guarded alleys lined with government compounds. It was just a short distance from the former top U.S. military headquarters and U.S. Embassy in downtown Kabul.
This summer, after President Biden was briefed on Zawahiri’s likely location, he ordered his advisers to take all possible measures to ensure that if they launched a strike, only Zawahiri would be killed, officials said. When the time came, the balcony afforded the best shot.
This account of the hunt for Zawahiri is drawn from interviews with multiple U.S. officials, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the operations and decision-making that preceded Biden’s order to strike.
The death of Zawahiri, which President Biden announced to the nation in a White House address on Monday evening, may yield only marginal operational value. After so long on the run, he was more a figurehead than a mastermind. He was nominally in command of a terrorist organization that operates as a network of affiliates in Africa and the Middle East.
But for Biden, the strike is a significant political and strategic victory. Not only did the United States eliminate a prominent terrorist and help to bring some historic closure to the 9/11 attacks, but the Zawahiri operation also offered a proof of concept for the “over the horizon” strikes Biden has long argued will let the United States stanch the threat of terrorism in Afghanistan without having to station troops there.
The drone strike was the first in Afghanistan since U.S. forces left the country a year ago.
A first sighting
Just finding Zawahiri was an extraordinary break in a decades-long manhunt. In late 2001, amid a fierce firefight with U.S. forces, he had slipped away in the mountainous border region of eastern Afghanistan along with al-Qaeda’s founder, Osama bin Laden. Zawahiri’s whereabouts became the stuff of rumor and speculation.
But for several years, the U.S. intelligence community had been tracking a network of people who supported Zawahiri, who took over al-Qaeda following bin Laden’s death in 2011 during a U.S. raid in Pakistan. Zawahiri spent his fugitive years avoiding detection and sending ideological, often pedantic video missives to his followers.
After U.S. forces left Kabul in August 2021, Zawahiri apparently saw a chance to reunite with his family.
Earlier this year, intelligence personnel identified Zawahiri’s family members living in the house in Kabul. It’s not clear whether Zawahiri joined them or was already there. But, using what the senior administration official described as “multiple streams of intelligence,” officials began to focus on an elderly man in the house in an effort to confirm his identity.
For the CIA, finding and killing Zawahiri was more than an operational imperative. It was payback. In 2009, seven CIA personnel, along with two other people, died when a man claiming to have information about Zawahiri connived his way onto a U.S. base in Khost, Afghanistan, and detonated a suicide bomb. It was the deadliest attack on the CIA in more than a quarter-century.
Early this April, Jon Finer, the deputy national security adviser, and Liz Sherwood-Randall, Biden’s homeland security adviser, were briefed on the latest intelligence about the al-Qaeda leader. As the picture developed, Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, also received a briefing. Shortly thereafter, he informed the president that the United States might have located Zawahiri.
During June and July, teams gathered to vet the intelligence, ruling out any reasonable alternative explanation for who was hiding in the house. Government lawyers confirmed the legal basis for the operation, which is standard procedure for drone strikes. Zawahiri had a “continuing leadership role in al-Qaeda” and had participated in and supported terrorist attacks, the senior official said. He was deemed a lawful target.
As the lawyers and analysts worked, top officials and their deputies met in the Situation Room several times. “We needed to make sure that our information was rock solid and that we developed clear options for the president,” the senior administration official said.
By early July, intelligence personnel were nearly certain that they had positively identified Zawahiri and had devised a way to kill only him.
A precise plan
On July 1, Biden convened a meeting in the Situation Room with key advisers and Cabinet members to go over the intelligence and the strike plan. CIA Director William J. Burns, wearing a protective mask, sat to Biden’s right. On the table between them was a small wooden box, with metal latches on the sides and a handle on top, containing a tiny scale model of Zawahiri’s safe house.
The president examined the model and asked questions about the strike plan. He also asked how officials were sure they’d positively identified Zawahiri. They walked the president through their analysis.
“He sought explanations of lighting, of weather, of construction materials, and of other factors that could influence the success of this operation and reduce the risk of civilian casualties,” the senior administration official said. Biden also asked for analysis on the ramifications, in the region and beyond, of launching a missile strike in the center of Kabul.
The president had a captive American on his mind as well — Mark Frerichs, a 60-year-old American civil engineer and Navy veteran who was kidnapped in Afghanistan in January 2020. The only known remaining American hostage in the country, he is believed to have been captured by the Haqqani network. Efforts to bring him home were underway, and Biden wanted to know how the strike might imperil his return as well as efforts to relocate Afghans who had helped U.S. forces when they were deployed in the country.
On July 25, Biden convened a final briefing.
Again, the president pressed for details on the damage the strike could cause to the safe house, the senior official said. He wanted to better understand the layout of the rooms behind the door and windows on the third floor, where the balcony was located.
Biden asked the opinion of each adviser participating in the briefing. Should he approve the strike? They all said yes.
Zawahiri’s end
On July 31 — this past Sunday — Zawahiri stepped onto the balcony, alone. At 6:18 a.m., a CIA drone in the sky above fired two Hellfire missiles.
It’s not known whether Zawahiri reacted. But former officials who have participated in drone strikes say it’s not uncommon, in the final seconds before impact, for the target to look up as he hears a projectile rocketing toward him.
The key to keeping Zawahiri’s family alive appears to have been the choice of weapon. In the past, the U.S. has used missiles for precision strikes that are loaded with only a small amount of explosives or even none at all, turning the Hellfire into a kind of huge speeding bullet that will destroy anything it hits.
A U.S. official said he believed that a small-munition Hellfire with the explosive force of a hand grenade was used. Photos of the safe house don’t show the kinds of burn marks normally associated with a large explosion.
Intelligence analysts examined various streams of intelligence, which probably included aerial surveillance, and determined that only Zawahiri was killed. His family remained safe inside the house, and no civilians were harmed outside, the senior administration official said.
A few blocks away from the site, residents and shopkeepers spoke Tuesday morning about hearing a powerful blast two days earlier. Some said they had been frightened by the roar and the ground shaking, while others said they had long been accustomed to such attacks during years of war.
“All the children ran away from the sound. We hadn’t heard anything like it since the old government was in charge,” said Haq Asghar, a retired army officer chatting outside a hardware shop. He said that the Shirpur neighborhood was tightly controlled by the Taliban, and that anyone occupying a house or shop had to provide detailed documents and information.
After the strike, Haqqani Taliban members swooped in and tried to conceal Zawahiri’s presence at the safe house, restricting access there and the surrounding area for several hours, the senior administration official said. They moved Zawahiri’s wife, his daughter and their children to another location.
The house that once held the al-Qaeda chief is now empty.
Pamela Constable in Kabul and Dan Lamothe in Washington contributed to this report. | 2022-08-03T00:20:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Inside the operation to kill Ayman al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/02/zawahiri-drone-operation-kabul/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/02/zawahiri-drone-operation-kabul/ |
Zawahiri’s death shows U.S. focus even two decades after 9/11
Ayman al-Zawahiri, right, who was killed this past weekend in a drone strike in Kabul, is shown with al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in an undated photo. (Visual News/Getty Images)
Perhaps Ayman al-Zawahiri imagined in his last hours that he had won his jihad. His allies in the Taliban had seized power in Afghanistan a year ago, and the U.S. military had retreated from the capital in disarray. The al-Qaeda leader must have hoped that, after decades on the run, he was finally safe.
Then, as he stepped onto the balcony of his apartment in Kabul early Sunday morning, the Hellfire missiles found him — with relentless and unforgiving precision. Zawahiri managed to outlive Osama bin Laden by 11 years but, in the end, he, too, was killed. And President Biden, on behalf of the American people, had the last word: “No matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out.”
The United States made some disastrous mistakes in the counterterrorism crusade that began on Sept. 11, 2001. We overreacted, as a country and a military, sending armies of occupation to Muslim lands in precisely the way Zawahiri and bin Laden must have dreamed we would. But in pursuing the core counterterrorism mission — seeking accountability and justice for 9/11 — this country remained focused.
Zawahiri lacked the terrifying theatricality of bin Laden, but he was perhaps a truer portrait of the contained rage that fueled al-Qaeda. Where bin Laden was the lean, elegant sheikh, Zawahiri was a stocky, bespectacled doctor. Born to an Egyptian family that commingled scientists and pious Muslim scholars, he illustrated the intersection of modern technology and seventh-century values that made al-Qaeda so combustible. Lawrence Wright, in his superb study “The Looming Tower,” counted 31 Zawahiri relatives who were doctors, chemists or pharmacists.
Marc Thiessen: Zawahiri was in 'downtown Kabul' because of Biden's greatest foreign policy failure
Bin Laden was an aristocrat of terror, but Zawahiri was the educated middle class. His roots were in Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, a secretive underground organization whose members were hardened by imprisonment and torture. His inspiration was the Brotherhood’s founder, Sayyid Qutb, who saw the West as an erotic seductress that must be spurned and destroyed by pious Muslims.
Zawahiri formed his first secret cell when he was 15, according to Wright, and after he was later arrested and tortured, his most bitter memory was the “humiliation” of being forced by his brutal interrogators to provide information about others in the underground.
Zawahiri was a hard man whose resistance was fueled by hatred and contempt for his enemies. After he escaped a U.S. airstrike on his hideout in Pakistan’s tribal areas in January 2006, he called President George W. Bush “the butcher of Washington” and taunted him: “You are a failure and a loser. You are the bane of your nation. … Who is withdrawing from Iraq and Afghanistan, we or you?”
Zawahiri saw the Arab Spring as a validation of his hopes for a Muslim uprising against the West and its supporters. He issued a manifesto in March 2011 that tried to piggyback on the Tahrir Square revolt in Cairo that, with tacit U.S. backing, had toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. He sneered at the “reversal” of U.S. support for the Egyptian ruler: “For 30 years, the U.S. was silent toward the corruption and embezzlement by Mubarak, his family, and his inner circle.”
The Post's View: The Taliban gave al-Qaeda a haven. Again.
Zawahiri spoke with the authentic voice of a man forged by imprisonment, torture and a life underground. But he lacked the charisma and authority of a natural leader. Even bin Laden, whose editing notes are included in a version of the 2011 manifesto released by U.S. Central Command, seemed unimpressed. At the end of Zawahiri’s flowery panegyric, bin Laden curtly advised that Zawahiri should add pictures of Egyptian police beating demonstrators.
Zawahiri remained a zealot, who despite bin Laden’s misgivings about risking new battlegrounds, wanted to continue attacking American forces wherever they were deployed. But like so many radicals, Zawahiri found himself outdistanced by even more extreme successors.
Al-Qaeda was eclipsed after bin Laden’s death by an ultraviolent group that called itself the Islamic State and wanted to shift from fighting the United States to creating a new Muslim caliphate immediately, in Syria, Iraq or anywhere else that could be liberated. Even in Afghanistan, where Zawahiri secretly took refuge, the Islamic State became a far more potent force than al-Qaeda.
Zawahiri must have worried that in his last decade, he was a forgotten man. But that wasn’t quite true. He remained a daily obsession for the counterterrorism specialists at the Pentagon and CIA. That’s a warning for the Russians, Chinese or anyone else who doubts U.S. staying power. Americans might look impatient and undependable. But they have long memories. | 2022-08-03T00:20:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Zawahiri’s death shows U.S. focus even two decades after 9/11 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/02/zawahiri-strike-shows-us-commitment-war-on-terror/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/02/zawahiri-strike-shows-us-commitment-war-on-terror/ |
Trump was right where he liked to be — at the center of the action with the attention of the entire political universe, though this time it was not at all clear if he held a winning position
Missouri Republican Senate candidate Eric Greitens speaks with reporters after voting on Aug. 2 in Innsbrook, Mo. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
With two words, Donald Trump launched a wild Monday scramble that Republican leaders had hoped to avoid: “sometime today!” the former president wrote on Truth Social at 10:31 a.m., declaring his plans endorse in Missouri’s U.S. Senate primary.
Trump began the day leaning toward an endorsement of former Missouri governor Eric Greitens, according to people familiar with his thinking, batting away the concerns of some senators, advisers and donors who had spent weeks warning him it could be a catastrophic mistake.
Soon Trump’s phone was ringing with Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, offering polling in an attempt to back him down. Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel showed up for a previously scheduled meeting in his office to make the same case, facing off against his future daughter-in-law, Kimberly Guilfoyle, who had been lobbying Trump on an endorsement all weekend for Greitens. Dozens more officials, donors and politicians, including Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), weighed in by phone against Greitens. Two prominent donors close to Trump, Bernie Marcus and Dick Uihlein, were major supporters of Greitens.
Ultimately, Trump found an off-ramp by offering his “endorsement” to no one in particular, following the suggestion of a close adviser and taking advantage of the fact that two of the leading candidates in the race — Greitens and Missouri attorney general Eric Schmitt — had the same first name. Trump immediately embraced the idea, after asking if their first names were spelled the same and taking “more than 50 calls and meetings” about it, in the telling of one adviser.
“I trust the Great People of Missouri, on this one, to make up their own minds,” he wrote at 6:13 p.m., ending the suspense. “I am therefore proud to announce that ERIC has my Complete and Total Endorsement!”
By the time the Missouri Senate primary race was called Tuesday night for Schmitt, Trump could perhaps make a claim of partial victory — but only after causing 36 hours of Republican chaos, along with widespread jeering from Democrats.
Eighteen months after leaving the White House, Trump was right where he liked to be — at the center of the action with the attention of the entire political universe, though this time it was not at all clear if he held a winning position.
The episode reveals a former president surrounded by advisers and hangers-on who often have dueling loyalties between him and other candidates they work for, while also illustrating Trump’s uncertainty when faced with a decision that risks showing him as backing a losing cause.
This account of Trump’s last-ditch attempt to intervene, however tentatively, in the Missouri Senate race is based on interviews with 14 advisers, lawmakers and other close allies, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe behind-the scenes maneuvering.
Greitens had resigned from his prior office after allegations that he blindfolded, bound and photographed his mistress. He was later accused by his ex-wife of knocking her down and physically abusing their children. Despite his denials of the claims against him, he was widely seen by party leaders as a liability for the party in a general election.
Schmitt, by contrast, had failed to fully embrace the baseless 2020 election denials and radical posturing of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement, while raising concerns from Trump that he would work to support Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a Trump foe, even though Schmitt had tried to distance himself.
Several Trump advisers ultimately praised the “ERIC” endorsements as a lighthearted troll of anyone who had expected a more serious result, especially those in the press. One Trump adviser explained Trump was “having fun, creating chaos.”
“It was undoubtedly the most Trump-ian move possible,” said Andy Surabian, a former White House official who works with Donald Trump Jr. “Not only was it a politically sly move that basically made everyone happy in the end, but it was a laugh-out-loud funny troll on the media, who had been waiting on pins and needles for him to make his endorsement there.”
But for many of the people involved in the infighting, the battle over Trump’s decision was anything but fun and showed weakness and uncertainty. “Bananas,” was the description of one operative involved. Once again, top Republican officials and Trump advisers had succeeded in partially stopping him from actions that they believed would harm both him and the party.
“It was,” said another Trump adviser, “a bit of an averted disaster.”
The immediate result was even more confusion in Missouri. Schmitt immediately declared he had won the nod. Greitens simultaneously argued the endorsement was for him, pointing out that another part of Trump’s missive that had said Missouri needed “a MAGA Champion and True Warrior.”
“I’m a Navy SEAL. Eric Schmitt, he’s a career politician,” Greitens reasoned in a video to supporters he recorded in an airplane hangar in St. Louis between events.
Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.), a third candidate in the race, who had faded in polling after Trump announced she would not be getting his endorsement, divined a different meaning.
“Congrats to Eric McElroy. He’s having a big night,” she said in a statement, referring to another little-know candidate with the coveted first name also on the ballot, identified by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as a comedian from Tunas, Mo.
Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.), the auctioneer politician running the same race, would not be outdone. He claimed falsely on Twitter that the endorsement was for him, because his name appeared between Schmitt and Greitens on the ballot.
“I just ran #Trump’s #MOSen statement through my Covfefe filter and what he meant to say was ‘Don’t Vote Wrong — Vote Long and Don’t Be Silly — Vote For Billy,’” Long joked, referring to a long-ago errant tweet from Trump during his presidency.
Republicans in Missouri read the non-endorsement as a likely wash, denying Greitens the boost he could have received had Trump settled on a last name as well.
“With it coming so late, after 5 p.m. on the night before, and voters being confused, it probably helps Eric Schmitt win,” said James Harris, an unaffiliated Republican in the race, who noted the damage that recent attacks on Greitens have inflicted. “You have had five weeks of statewide broadcast, texting, mail, talking about the monster that Eric Greitens is.”
Before the start of the week, Trump had endorsed in each of the major statewide races this election cycle. He was widely seen as wanting to weigh in on the Missouri race. At the same time, he knew the concerns about Greitens, a repeat visitor to Mar-a-Lago.
“They say he’s a wild one,” Trump had repeatedly told friends and advisers.
Of all the brutal Republican primaries this cycle, Missouri’s Senate contest had been one of the fiercest, with $35 million in spending in the Republican primary, including more than $8 million in attacks on Greitens by outside groups, most of it coming in the final months, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Trump’s Monday afternoon at Bedminster, according to people with knowledge of what inspired, was “insane even by the usual standards,” in the words of one longtime adviser.
Key figures included senators, donors, top operatives and the leader of the Republican Party.
During a meeting there on Monday, McDaniel discussed polling with Trump that suggested Greitens was likely to lose, as his numbers had come down over the summer, and argued he should stay out of the race. Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) had also previously made clear to Trump that he opposed Greitens, according to a person involved in the conversations. Others lobbying against the endorsement included Pam Bondi, a longtime Trump adviser. Some of the advisers argued that Greitens was likely to lose the seat if he became the nominee, and then Trump would be blamed for Republicans losing the Senate.
Trump had information on his desk that was positive about Schmitt, including a range of nice things Schmitt had said about him, and polling that showed Schmitt was going to win, three people with knowledge of the matter said.
By afternoon, Trump called Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), according to people familiar with the call, who described a poll that showed Greitens behind. Soon, Trump summoned Guilfoyle, Greitens biggest backer, into the room. She grew animated, aggressively arguing for Trump to back Greitens.
Guilfoyle said that by not endorsing Greitens, Trump was going against his own base, said people familiar with the conversation. Boris Epshteyn, an adviser to both Trump and the Greitens campaign, also weighed in on behalf of Greitens. He has recently taken on a larger role in Trump’s orbit, sometimes talking to the former president multiple times a day. During at least one point in the conversation, according to people briefed on it, Trump grew annoyed that Guilfoyle was pushing him so relentlessly about the endorsement.
The Greitens team had argued that Schmitt was close to the McConnell wing of the party, despite Schmitt having said that he did not “endorse” McConnell in his continued effort to stay in leadership in the Senate. They pointed out that Karl Rove, another sometime Trump adversary, was opposing Greitens and that Jeff Roe, who had run races against multiple Trump-endorsed Senate candidates, was working for Schmitt.
One person with direct knowledge of the deliberations said Trump had a desire to endorse Greitens partially to hurt Rove, who wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal this weekend criticizing his donations strategy that Trump did not like — and who has repeatedly angered Trump with criticism of him.
Many of his advisers just cautioned him to stay out of the race totally, saying there was no benefit from jumping in.
“There is no reason to get involved in this,” said one Trump adviser.
Over the previous week, according to a Trump ally, the former president had at times been very close to endorsing Schmitt, with former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and former acting U.S. Attorney General Matt Whitaker, who had previously worked with Roe, leading the charge. But Greitens’s supporters had pulled him back from the brink.
“Normally he’s inclined to do the crazy thing and endorse Greitens and people are trying to talk him out of that. This time it was the opposite; he was going to fall back and endorse Schmitt and there was a huge campaign to stop the endorsement of Schmitt,” said another Trump ally.
By Sunday night, it appeared Greitens was making headway again. Trump circulated a Breitbart news article suggesting that a poll paid for by Schmitt was unfairly undercounting Trump’s support in a hypothetical 2024 Republican presidential primary in the state. By the following morning, Schmitt’s team heard from a prominent donor warning that an endorsement of Greitens was on the table.
But they were not able to overcome Trump’s doubts.
Late in the afternoon, Trump was connected to Robert Cahaly, a pollster at the Trafalgar Group, who has a habit of releasing surveys right before elections. Trafalgar had been polling in Missouri through the weekend, only leaving the field Monday afternoon, just hours before talking to Trump.
His fresh results, which would be released publicly shortly after the Trump conversation, showed Schmitt with a clear lead in the race, suggesting that an endorsement of Greitens this late in the campaign would be unlikely to change the results. The arguments from McDaniel and Scott suddenly had new data.
“I get calls from donors and elected officials and candidates and former candidates all the time and I pretty much talk to anybody,” Trafalgar said. “I told him what the poll I had said.”
After Trump decided he did not have to decide between the two men, the former president called both Schmitt and Greitens to give them what he cast as good news.
His message to Greitens was supportive.
“I hope you do well. I know you are with me. I know you have been fighting for me,” according to a former Trump adviser, paraphrasing what had been said on the call. | 2022-08-03T02:39:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How a Trump endorsement scramble in Mo. ended in absurdity: Vote ERIC! - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/02/trump-missouri-senate-eric/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/02/trump-missouri-senate-eric/ |
Coach Mike Thibault, pictured in a game last month, saw his Mystics rally past the Aces on Tuesday night. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post)
The WNBA playoffs won’t begin for two more weeks, but it doesn’t feel that way in Washington. The Mystics played a back-to-back against the Seattle Storm over the weekend, hosted the Las Vegas Aces on Tuesday and visit the Chicago Sky on Friday.
Those are matchups with three of the top four teams in the league, all of them still jockeying for playoff position.
“The fact that every game has our attention, it’s good,” Mystics Coach Mike Thibault said. “For all of us at the top right now, it’s a way to find out a little bit more about yourself. You’re playing for something. There’s an edge to these games, and they’re teams you know you could face if you want to advance.”
The Mystics used that edge to their advantage Tuesday night, bouncing back from a subpar first quarter to beat the Aces, 83-73, and move into the No. 4 playoff slot with four games left. Maintaining that position would give the Mystics (20-12), winners of five of their past six and now a half-game ahead of Seattle (19-12), home-court advantage in the first round.
The second-place Aces (22-9) recently beat the Sky to win the Commissioner’s Cup and came into Tuesday on a four-game winning streak with the top spot in the league in their sights. Coach Becky Hammon chuckled when asked how important that No. 1 seed is.
“We’ve actually been better on the road,” she said before the game. “So I don’t even know if I want it. It’s just about playing well at the right time. Playing well down the stretch, being solid — that’s my bigger concern.”
Elena Delle Donne and the Mystics bounce back, take rematch from Storm
The playoff picture is tight all the way around. Washington is 1½ games behind the third-place Connecticut Sun (21-10), and the Storm holds the tiebreaker over the Mystics if they finish with the same record.
“I think it helps to play games like that,” Thibault said. “We’re still playing for something. Every time you beat a good team that you know can compete for a championship, that helps your confidence. Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve strung together some pretty good wins.”
Here’s what to know about the Mystics’ win:
Thibault called Tuesday’s second half one of the best defensive halves of the season for his team. The Aces managed just 32 points as Washington used an 11-0 run in the fourth quarter to take a 79-68 lead and put the game away.
The win was even more impressive considering Elena Delle Donne managed just five points while receiving heavy defensive attention; she did put up 11 rebounds and five assists. Thibault said she was dealing with tired legs but promised she would be good in the fourth quarter.
“I don’t know a lot of other franchise and star players that would take that role as a decoy on the offensive end and give herself up to get her teammates open shots,” said guard Natasha Cloud, who had 16 points and nine assists. “So when you have your franchise player being selfless like that, it trickles down. How can we be selfish in any sense if that’s our franchise player?”
Ariel Atkins was brilliant defensively while scoring 13 points as the Mystics completed a season sweep of the Aces.
“We’re starting to gel and we’re starting to click and we’re starting to get really [expletive] scary and we’re peaking at the right time,” Cloud said. “We knew that this was going to happen. We knew if we just … stuck to our plan and the process that this is where we’re going to be. So we’re just trying to finish out the season strong and prepare ourselves for playoffs.”
If defense wins championships, the Mystics are in great shape
Awesome Austin
Rookie Shakira Austin had 15 points and eight rebounds while battling 2020 MVP A’ja Wilson (a game-high 22 points). Austin had multiple and-ones while playing aggressive on both ends.
No. 1 pick Rhyne Howard of the Dream was named rookie of the month for July on Monday, but No. 3 selection Austin is firmly in the conversation for rookie of the year honors.
“I should be rookie of the year,” she declared with a smile. “And we’re going to win a chip!”
Lottery dreams
The Mystics have kept their eye on the Los Angeles Sparks all season: The more they struggle, the better it is for Washington. The Sparks’ 2023 first-round draft pick is owned by the Atlanta Dream, which offered that pick in the trade with the Mystics that brought them the No. 1 pick this year. The Mystics have the option to swap their first-round pick in 2023 for the Sparks’ selection.
Los Angeles (12-18) lost to the New York Liberty (12-18) on Tuesday and has dropped four in a row. The Sparks are tied with the Dream and the Liberty for the last playoff spot. If Los Angeles misses the postseason, that draft selection becomes a lottery pick — and the Mystics have a shot at securing the No. 1 choice for the second straight year.
The Mystics storm past the Aces as their late-season surge continues | 2022-08-03T02:52:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Mystics beat Aces, move into fourth in WNBA - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/02/mystics-aces-wnba-playoffs/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/02/mystics-aces-wnba-playoffs/ |
Cory Abbott held the Mets scoreless over five innings. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
Before just about every other Washington Nationals home game this season, Juan Soto dashed out to right field. He jumped over the first base line and said a quick prayer. Then he pointed to the fans above the out-of-town scoreboard to cheers before turning to the first base line and doing the same.
None of that happened at Nationals Park on Tuesday, the first day of the post-Soto era.
When the Nationals took the field for their 5-1 win over the New York Mets, Josh Palacios — called up earlier in the day — slowly jogged to right field. He started to toss a warmup throw to the bullpen catcher, but before he could, he had to make sure he shouldn’t throw to the center fielder instead.
Palacios, donning No. 68, looked out of place. Right field used to be reserved for No. 22.
But Soto and Josh Bell were traded to the San Diego Padres in a blockbuster deal Tuesday, so the Nationals proceeded with business as usual. Washington hit three home runs; back-to-back blasts by Luis García and Yadiel Hernandez in the sixth inning put the Nationals ahead 4-1. Joey Meneses, making his major league debut, added a solo shot in the seventh.
Soto played his final game as a National on Monday. A day later, he was the prized commodity in a trade that saw the Nationals acquire five high-upside players and a veteran bat in Luke Voit. Three years ago, Soto’s Nationals won the World Series. Three trade deadlines later, their roster is now almost unrecognizable.
Washington sat at 35-69 at the trade deadline, 31 games back of the first-place Mets, who Tuesday added to what they hope is a championship roster. The Nationals made different kinds of moves — they called up players from Class AAA Rochester to fill the gaps.
“You build relationships with those guys and they move on,” Manager Dave Martinez said before the game. “I got to get ready to build more relationships with the new guys. So that, in itself, is a challenge. But I’m looking forward to it.”
The Nationals added Meneses and Palacios from Rochester. Shortstop C.J. Abrams, one of the key pieces of the Soto trade, was optioned there. To make room on the 40-man roster, the Nationals transferred pitcher Evan Lee to the 60-day injured list and designated pitcher Josh Rogers for assignment.
Maybe Meneses and Palacios will boost the Nationals’ fortunes. Maybe they won’t. But Tuesday night, Meneses replaced Bell at first base and batted sixth in his major league debut. Palacios started in right and hit seventh in his 14th career game.
Their first matchup of the season? Jacob deGrom, who was making his first start of the season for the Mets. Who was facing him? Cory Abbott, making his second major league start.
Abbott threw the first pitch as “Let’s go Mets!” chants filled the stadium. When deGrom took the mound, he received cheers so loud that the Nationals seemed like the visitors. Meneses stepped to the plate in the second inning and fans in the 300 level chanted “Let’s go new guy!” He struck out in his first at-bat. So did Palacios, who went 0 for 3.
DeGrom faced the minimum in the first three innings, allowing a second-inning single to Keibert Ruiz before he was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. The Nationals took a 1-0 lead in the fourth when García doubled to bring home Victor Robles. Abbott went step for step with deGrom; each lasted five innings, but Abbott didn’t allow a run.
Victor Arano replaced Abbott and immediately allowed a solo homer to Francisco Lindor that leveled the score before the Nationals responded against the New York bullpen. By Meneses’s last at-bat, fans in the upper levels were chanting “Joey! Joey!”
The Nationals finished with eight hits, but a lineup without Bell and Soto felt abnormal. The hype video played before first pitch didn’t include Bell’s and Soto’s home run swings, which were highlighted in the past.
The back of the clubhouse had some of Soto’s uniforms and cleats stuffed in a box. Soto’s jersey was gone, but Bell’s still hung at his locker. When the clubhouse opened before the game, Robles jokingly yelled, “They’re already gone, guys!” to reporters looking for the former Nationals.
But despite the seismic change Tuesday afternoon brought, Tuesday night’s matchup was just another game in early August. Despite his pregame emotion, Martinez wanted his team to begin its new era strong.
“We got to go out there and compete and play hard,” he said. “That’s going to be the message to our team. … These things happen. There’s a bunch of guys in the clubhouse that understand that this is part of it.” | 2022-08-03T02:52:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | In first game without Juan Soto, Nationals beat Jacob deGrom's Mets - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/02/nationals-mets-first-game-juan-soto-trade/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/02/nationals-mets-first-game-juan-soto-trade/ |
Two of Kevin Hargraves-Shird's children, Symbul Logan, 12, and Khalil Shird, 15, were among the mourners at a vigil for their father, who was fatally shot by a D.C. police officer. (Clarence Williams/TWP)
Serena Hargraves held a candle above her head and watched as those gathered in the park released black and blue balloons into the sky. She tried to calm her breathing, but it was too much. She began to cry.
It finally hit her that she would never see her younger brother again.
A D.C. police officer fatally shot Kevin Hargraves-Shird on Saturday in Northwest Washington. His family believes he was unjustly killed and has called for accountability, and answers to many questions surrounding the shooting. But on this Tuesday night, they gathered for a vigil in Fort Slocum Park in Northwest Washington, near where he was killed, to remember his life.
“Kevin’s character was hilarious,” Serena Hargraves, 38, told the crowd of about 150 people gathered in the park. “He was known for cheering people up and being there for everyone in their time of need. He was very fun-loving and adventurous.”
Family members leaned on each other in the crowd, comforting those crying as loved ones shared stories of Hargraves-Shird, 31, also known as “Smoke.”
“I looked up to Kevin,” said his younger brother, Brandon Hargraves — one of eight siblings in the crowd. Hargraves-Shird was one of 14 siblings, two of whom died. “I thank my brother for having that role, that love and positivity in my life.”
There are still many details in dispute about the shooting that occurred about 4 p.m. in the 200 block of Madison Street NW. It’s not clear whether a gun was pointed at police at the time the officer fired — or what, if any, commands were issued by police.
Southeast D.C. man shot by officer has died, police said
Police said the officer saw Hargraves-Shird armed with a handgun before the officer fired one shot and struck him. Serena Hargraves, who watched a video Monday from the officer’s body camera that has not yet been released to the public, previously told The Washington Post that he appears to have been struck in the back of the head. Hargraves said the family has given the city permission to show the video publicly.
The video, she said, shows the officer pulling out his firearm while in his cruiser, jumping out and yelling “gun” before firing.
City officials have until Friday to post the video on their website and identify the officer who fired. That officer, who hasn’t been identified, is on administrative leave.
Representatives from local racial justice advocacy groups also attended the vigil and issued a statement demanding answers from D.C. police on the circumstances surrounding the shooting.
Serena Hargraves said Hargraves-Shird dreamed of employing youth and teaching them entrepreneurship. Another sibling said he was “always in motion” as a child — a trait he carried into adulthood, friendships and in raising his kids.
A friend shared how he hustled, telling a story of the time when her son and Hargraves-Shird were boys and bought pizzas, then sold each slice for $5. The three mothers of Hargraves-Shird’s children — Khalil Shird, 15, Dahmari Wise, 13 and Symbul Logan, 12 — all spoke about his devotion to his kids.
Termia Logan, 28, said he loved to pick up and drop off their daughter, Symbul, at school each day, often trying to drop off Chick-fil-A for her at lunchtime. His father, James Shird, 74, said his son would bring his children over and let them know “this is your grandfather.”
“All I can say is, ‘Kevin, I love you, but God loves you best,’ ” James Shird said. “And as hard as it is for me, I don’t understand. ... I thank him for the time that he gave me with Kevin.” | 2022-08-03T03:05:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Family, friends mourn man fatally shot by D.C. police - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/02/dc-police-shooting-hargraves-vigil/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/02/dc-police-shooting-hargraves-vigil/ |
When the United States killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, the act brought about a moment of national catharsis. Nearly a decade after carrying out the deadliest single attack on U.S. soil, al-Qaeda’s leader had been apprehended in his Pakistani hideaway and slain. It was an ignominious end for a militant commander whose shadow had loomed over the world and whose actions ushered in a new geopolitical era — the age of the U.S.-declared “war on terror.”
Once news broke of bin Laden’s death, Americans celebrated on the streets of major cities. In baseball stadiums and college campuses, large crowds chanted “U-S-A!” The photograph of President Barack Obama, surrounded by his closest advisers as they watched the Navy SEAL mission go into motion, quickly went viral. It was hailed a “photo for the ages,” an iconic image of American triumph.
President Biden, then Obama’s vice president, was present in that picture. So, too, was current Secretary of State Antony Blinken. And for all the exultation they may have felt 11 years ago, they were unlikely to feel the same this weekend, in the aftermath of the CIA drone strike that killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden’s former deputy.
Zawahiri was, after all, standing on the balcony of a safe house in an upscale neighborhood in Kabul, the Afghan capital which U.S. forces had chaotically vacated last year in a humiliation that will haunt Biden’s legacy for years to come. The victorious Taliban had provided assurances that their days of abetting al-Qaeda terrorists were over, but those commitments were never worth taking at face value and were made all the more suspect by the factionalism and divisions among the Islamist militants.
Photo from Biden’s July 1 briefing where he went through options for taking out Zawahiri. The scale model of the terrorist’s safe house is in the box on the table. pic.twitter.com/S17G1Jejar
In remarks announcing Zawahiri’s death, Biden cited the United States’ ongoing prosecution of its war against Islamist terror groups. “The United States continues to demonstrate its resolve and capacity to defend Americans from those who seek to do it harm,” Biden said, making it “clear again [that] no matter how long it takes, no matter how you hide … the United States will find you and seek you out.”
Analysts see in the strike that took out Zawahiri a clear demonstration of the “over the horizon” capability that Biden touted when justifying his decision to hasten the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan last year. Boots on the ground matter less when you can rain Hellfire missiles down on your enemies from drones. The strike was “a major counterterrorism achievement — and a much-needed triumph for the Biden administration, for whom anything to do with Afghanistan has become an issue of acute discomfort,” noted the Middle East Institute’s Charles Lister.
But it’s worth asking what it achieved. Zawahiri, 71, was a diminished figure — influential, no doubt, but far removed from the days when he plotted terrorist attacks that led to thousands of American and non-American deaths. Al-Qaeda itself is a shadow of its former self and now faces a potential succession crisis. Its militant threat remains, diffused and scattered across the world through a range of splinter groups.
“Lacking bin Laden’s loyal following, Zawahiri tried to command far-flung terrorist groups that often ignored his decrees and rejected his advice,” my colleagues wrote. “In particular, he was overshadowed by the rise of the Islamic State and its bloody dominion for several years over parts of Syria and Iraq.”
The U.S. operation to kill Zawahiri can’t only be seen as evidence of successful pinpoint counterterrorism tactics, but a reminder of the far broader and more complicated legacy of the war on terror. Al-Qaeda is “weaker than it was on Friday, but parsing what exactly that means is academic,” wrote Spencer Ackerman, author “Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump,” on Monday. “Far more substantial is the reality that the apparatus of the War on Terror, with the exception of the Afghanistan War, the original CIA torture program and Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act, remains in place.”
U.S. troops remain on the ground in a host of Middle Eastern and African countries. U.S. drone strikes continue across a wide swath of the planet, from West Africa to South Asia. Airwars, a watchdog group, estimates that U.S. drone and airstrikes have killed some 22,000 to 48,000 civilians since Sept. 11, 2001 — a figure exponentially larger than that of the U.S. citizens slain by bin Laden and Zawahiri’s violent plots.
New FOREVER WARS: Like Obama with bin Laden, Biden portrayed the killing of Zawahiri not as an end to the War on Terror but as a proof of concept. But what did it prove, and what is the concept?https://t.co/HuAg6YVTVk
— Spencer Ackerman (@attackerman) August 2, 2022
And the legacy of the U.S. role in Afghanistan — two decades worth of spilled blood and treasure, only for the Taliban to surge back to power — clouds all other assessments. “I don’t know how to weigh the balance and come up with a final reckoning, but I know that this revenge is sour,” wrote George Packer in the Atlantic, analyzing the killing of Zawahiri. “It’s particularly sour when you think about the circumstances of Zawahiri’s death.”
The United States could only locate and take out Zawahiri because he was ensconced in an Afghan capital that the United States and its allies had effectively ceded to the Taliban. The pathos and irony of it all are hard to ignore. “Losing the war made it easier to kill Ayman al-Zawahiri,” Ackerman wrote.
What it means going forward is equally bleak. The Taliban, knee-deep in a humanitarian emergency both of their own and the Biden administration’s making, denounced the strike as an infringement of Afghan sovereignty. They may be compelled to take a more antagonistic stance.
“The Taliban are in deep political trouble now, and they are going to face pressure to retaliate. The relationship they have with al-Qaeda and other jihadi groups remains very strong,” Asfandyar Mir, an expert on Islamic extremism at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, told my colleague Pamela Constable. “I think we should brace for impact.”
For ordinary Afghans, reeling amid the economic implosion of their country, it spells only more hardship.
“We have so many worries already. For a whole year, there have been no jobs, no business, no activity. But at least the fighting was over. The Taliban was in charge, and there was good security,” said a resident of the Sherpur neighborhood, where the drone struck, who gave his name to my colleagues as Hakimullah. “Now, suddenly, this attack happens, and everyone is frightened again.” | 2022-08-03T04:15:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Zawahiri’s killing and the bleak legacy of the ‘war on terror’ - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/03/zawahiri-war-on-terror-legacy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/03/zawahiri-war-on-terror-legacy/ |
We told her in therapy and in writing that we were no longer going to have a relationship, along with the SPECIFIC reasons why. Coincidentally, both of us were also moving to new homes and we told her that we would not give her our new addresses.
She ignored that, hired a lawyer and a private investigator, got our addresses, and had things delivered to our homes. She had a famous “specialist” in estranged families reach out to us.
She had her lawyer contact us. She sent emails and physical mail to both of our workplaces. We did not respond. Finally, she had a family friend, “Laura,” contact me.
Laura is very nice. About 15 years ago, she let me stay at her home in Europe. Her email basically stated that our mother is devastated by the estrangement, family will always be family, no one is perfect, etc., etc.
Estranged: When parents write to me about estrangement, they frequently state that they have no idea why an estrangement has occurred, and yet — your mother does know the reason, because you have told her.
“Laura” has stated a number of truisms: Family will always be family, no one is perfect, etc., etc. There is nothing in the message to indicate that your mother is making a move toward change.
Dear Amy: My fiance, “Benjamin,” and I have been together for four years. We planned and then replanned our wedding because of the pandemic. It has been rescheduled two times now.
We had a heart-to-heart and have decided to get married quickly and quietly, canceling the celebration. We are going to disappoint a lot of people. Frankly, we’re a little freaked out about that.
Nervous: I commend you for anchoring your plans now to your important intention, which is to get married.
Fan: I’ve had my share of barroom epiphanies. The point is not to waste these moments of insight, even after you sober up. | 2022-08-03T04:15:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ask Amy: A family friend emailed me about my estrangement with my mom - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/08/03/ask-amy-mom-estranged-friend/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/08/03/ask-amy-mom-estranged-friend/ |
Dear Carolyn: It has recently come to light that my uncle, who has made me uncomfortable for years, inappropriately touched two women in the family on two different occasions. I don’t want myself or my young daughters to be around him. But my aunt (his wife) and her sisters (including my mom) are distraught about my splitting up the family and want me to at least continue to have a relationship with my aunt. Am I cruel for not wanting to be around either of them? Any insight would be appreciated.
— Sad Southern Belle
Sad Southern Belle: Your uncle’s actions are the ones “splitting up the family.” Not yours.
Your aunt’s decision to stand by her husband has consequences, too. I’ll grant that can be a complicated one, very difficult for someone like me to judge without knowing the nuances. Her decision to blame you for those consequences, though, while letting herself off the hook is due for a hard rethink.
If other members are as invested as they profess to be in protecting the family’s interests, then they will eventually figure out they misidentified the real threat to its overall health.
Or they won’t. So for you, I can advise only that you keep doing what you believe necessary to honor your integrity and protect your kids.
Dear Carolyn: I love my boyfriend of two years, he has a great daughter and is a wonderful father to her. He works hard and owns his own business — which is just him. He says he is happy with his life right now.
The problem is I’m not happy with OUR life — he has no friends, he never leaves the house unless it’s to pick up his daughter from school or walk the dog. We go out with my friends only if I arrange it.
He isn’t currently bringing anything to our relationship, and I don’t know how to address this gently, that if we are to continue, he needs to bring more. I am struggling to connect to someone who doesn’t do anything outside of this little insular world.
Struggling: He, um, brings himself to the relationship?
If that is indeed “nothing,” then you have left the sphere of fixable things.
If you misspoke — if you meant to say, he brings nothing socially, then, okay! Please just say that. Even just like that: “I love you, but you bring nothing to our relationship socially right now, and being social is important to me.” The straight truth isn’t just for you. It lets him know his options, while he still has them.
It’ll go even better if the truth includes your awareness of the mental weight of his other commitments. A single parent and sole proprietor is on the spot for it all, every day, all the time. It makes sense (to me) that someone in his position who apparently also isn’t naturally outgoing would delegate the social stuff to his partner.
As that partner, you would have to agree to this, of course, so we’re back to the part where you tell him you don’t want to cruise-direct everything and want some help.
But that’s only if you embrace having a less-than-outgoing partner in general — because happiness with “this little insular world” is at least partly a matter of disposition. So even if he agrees to contribute more socially, he might be the same happy little insular guy, just with “make dinner plans” on his new biweekly to-do list.
If that’s good for you, great — but think all that through before you ask for a change. | 2022-08-03T04:15:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Carolyn Hax: Family 'distraught' that she's avoiding abusive uncle - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/08/03/carolyn-hax-abusive-uncle-family-split/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/08/03/carolyn-hax-abusive-uncle-family-split/ |
He does not give gifts, and may skip occasions such as wedding anniversaries (if they have them), birthdays, Christmas and all the rest. He says that there is far too much commercialization around holidays and that it forces people to purchase and receive gifts that no one really wants.
It seems unlikely that you need Miss Manners’ permission to worry if a potential son-in-law is good enough for your daughter, but you have it, along with a bit of advice: Remember that your concern is that he treat your daughter well, not that he buy her things.
“I don’t know you that well. Are the peas on sale?” | 2022-08-03T04:15:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Miss Manners: I’m not sure my daughter’s boyfriend is the one - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/08/03/miss-manners-daughter-boyfriend-gifts/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/08/03/miss-manners-daughter-boyfriend-gifts/ |
In this Sept. 24, 2016 file photo, Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully answers questions during a news conference at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Scully, who died Aug. 2, called Dodgers games for 67 seasons, spanning 13 National League pennants, six World Series championships, and a move across the country. He began in 1950 when the team was in Brooklyn. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
Vin Scully, whose soothing delivery, exhaustive knowledge of the game, masterful powers of description and Ripkenesque indefatigability made him the best-known and best-loved baseball broadcaster of the last 50 years, died Aug. 2. He was 94.
The death was announced by the Los Angeles Dodgers, without saying the cause.
Mr. Scully, the longtime radio and television play-by-play voice of the Dodgers (dating back to when they played in Brooklyn), was widely considered the greatest announcer in baseball history, if not in all of sports history. In 2010, members of the American Sportscasters Association voted him the top sportscaster of all time.
Mr. Scully’s career began in 1950 — which means he called baseball games for more than two-thirds of the sport’s entire broadcast history. He was behind the microphone for some of the most momentous events in baseball history, including Don Larsen’s 1956 World Series perfect game, Sandy Koufax’s 1965 perfect game, Hank Aaron’s record-setting 715th home run in 1974, Bill Buckner’s calamitous error in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series and Kirk Gibson’s dramatic walk-off home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.
Hear Vin Scullys greatest baseball calls
Mr. Scully continued to announce Dodger baseball through 2016, retiring on the season’s final day. The baseball world honored Mr. Scully throughout the year, and many celebrated players, including Willie Mays — considered by Mr. Scully the greatest he ever saw — visited him in the broadcast booth.
In 1950, when he just 22, he was hired to join Red Barber and Connie Desmond on the Brooklyn Dodgers’ broadcast team. (The Dodgers’ official yearbook that year referred to him as “Vince” Scully.) In 1953, when Barber left after a salary dispute with the Dodgers, Mr. Scully, then 25, found himself behind the microphone at the World Series. He remains the youngest broadcaster in history to call a World Series.
In 1955, Brookyn’s “Boys of Summer” won their only World Series title before the franchise moved to Los Angeles after the 1957 season. Mr. Scully, by then the team’s lead announcer, made a simple call after the team defeated the New York Yankees in seven games — “The Brooklyn Dodgers are the champions of the world!” — then stayed silent for nearly a minute, allowing the roar of the crowd to tell the story. That device, the silent treatment in the immediate aftermath of a momentous finish, would become a staple of his style.
Mr. Scully’s style was understated and conversational, though he could wield a metaphor with exquisite skill. Of fast-working St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson, he said, “He pitches as if he’s double-parked.” Of Dodger speedster Maury Wills, he said, “When he runs, it’s all downhill.”
In 1974, when announcing Aaron’s 715th home run, which broke Babe Ruth’s all-time record, Mr. Scully captured the historic grandeur of the event: “What a marvelous moment for baseball. What a marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia. What a marvelous moment for the country and the world. A Black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking the record of an all-time baseball idol, and it is a great moment for all of us.”
He opened the inning by setting the stage: “Three times in his sensational career has Sandy Koufax walked out to the mound to pitch a fateful ninth where he turned in a no-hitter. But tonight, September the ninth, nineteen hundred and sixty-five, he made the toughest walk of his career, I’m sure, because through eight innings he has pitched a perfect game.”
“On the scoreboard in right field it is 9:46 p.m. in the City of the Angels, Los Angeles, California. And a crowd of 29,139 just sitting in to see the only pitcher in baseball history to hurl four no-hit, no-run games. He has done it four straight years, and now he caps it: On his fourth no-hitter, he made it a perfect game.”
Although he was loved across the country, in Los Angeles Mr. Scully was nothing short of a civic treasure, where he was a part of the soundtrack of summer. No broadcaster spent longer with one franchise than his 67 seasons with the Dodgers, including 59 in Los Angeles.
Mr. Scully’s first wife, the former Joan Crawford (no relation to the actress of the same name), died in 1972. In 1973 he married Sandra Hunt, who died in 2021. He had two children from his first marriage, Kevin and Erin Scully, and a daughter from his second marriage, Catherine Scully-Luderer. A son from his first marriage, Michael Scully, died in a helicopter crash in 1994. Complete information on survivors was not immediately available.
Mr. Scully skillfully blended silence and words in creating his audio portraits of baseball games, but one word he never used to describe the Dodger faithful was “fans.” | 2022-08-03T04:32:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Vin Scully, beloved sportscaster, dies at 94 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/08/02/vin-sully-dies-sportscaster-dodgers/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/08/02/vin-sully-dies-sportscaster-dodgers/ |
A Bethesda mom got 500 tickets so her son, who has autism, and others like him could go to the Kennedy Center
About 500 people with Autism Ambassadors, a group started by Whitney Ellenby, watch a sensory-friendly version of the Blue Man Group show at the Kennedy Center. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post)
Julie Mishkin had planned for the worst in taking her 13-year-old son Jack, who has autism and is nonspeaking, to see a show at the Kennedy Center in Washington.
She had mapped out the logistics of getting Jack early from school, driving on the highway so he could see wheels of trucks and ride the escalators at the performing arts facility — two activities he loves to do. Her biggest fear: She’d have to bail if he had a tantrum.
But much to her relief — and happiness — Jack enjoyed a sensory-friendly version of the Blue Man Group performance art show last Thursday, along with 350 other children and adults who have autism and 150 of their family members.
“To see him sit there and look at more than half of the show, it was incredible,” said Mishkin, of Potomac, after the show. “I was crying. This is his first theater experience. I was very stressed, but seeing the joy in his face and just that moment was worth it.”
The outing was organized and privately funded by Whitney Ellenby, of Bethesda, a former lawyer turned disability advocate whose 21-year-old son Zack Reuben has autism and has minimal language. She worked for more than nine months to organize the event, talking to the show’s production team and officials at the Kennedy Center, and got them to agree to a performance with a few alterations. She then invited people she knows in the autism community and their families to see it free. Because the show has few words, Ellenby said, it was a good fit for those with autism who often have trouble with language.
“We wanted to create a space where anything goes,” Ellenby said. “This is a no-shushing zone. We get to be ourselves.”
“It’s about us making sure people feel welcome at the Kennedy Center and can be who they are and exist in our space however they feel comfortable,” said Jessica Swanson, the center’s manager of accessibility.
When she and her son got to the Kennedy Center, he tried to ride down the up escalator, but it “threw him backward” and he fell. That startled Jack and he felt overwhelmed and started biting his hand. It is not uncommon for some people with autism to engage in self-injurious behavior when they feel flooded with stress or overwhelmed, according to Mishkin.
Staff at the Kennedy Center rushed to ask how they could help, and Mishkin pulled from her bag snacks and his speech-generating device in hopes he could use it and tell her what he wanted. Eventually, Jack calmed himself and got up, and they headed inside the theater. He glanced up from his touch screen game of matching shapes at times to watch the show, hold his mom’s hand and smile.
During the show, which lasted roughly 1 hour and 20 minutes, a few people stood up and danced. A teenager jumped up and down, leaning on a rail in the back row. Nearby, a man in his 40s rocked back and forth in his seat — a behavior known as “stimming,” where someone with autism does a repetitive motion or makes unique movements or noises to help them cope with a situation that feels overwhelming. A few rows away, many children wore headphones to soften the noise. Throughout the show there were occasional moans and yelps, and lots of hand waving, smiles, laughs and cheers.
It was a far different vibe, said many parents and family members who came with their loved ones, than the reception they typically get when they’ve tried to take someone with autism to the movies, an amusement park, bowling alley or the store, and get finger-pointing or hushed whispers if the person with autism has a tantrum or becomes too loud. While there are some sensory- or autism-friendly events in the D.C. region, many in the community said there aren’t enough.
“My son can be who he truly is, and I don’t have to be on high alert here,” said Eva Scheer, who lives in Bethesda, as her 21-year-old son Cade, who has autism, paced in the lobby. “We can’t do this in any other setting because there would be stares and comments.”
More than a decade ago, Ellenby started a group she calls “Autism Ambassadors,” and once a month she hosts a low-fee event for those with autism and their families at a splash park, trampoline place, indoor gym or movie theater.
At a Virginia water park, a judgment-free event for families of children with autism
She and her husband hadn’t been able to host the events for the past two years because of the pandemic, but she said she wanted to do something “really big” and came up with the idea of inviting her group to a performance of the Blue Man Group at the Kennedy Center.
Ellenby became well known in the autism community and wrote a book called “Autism Uncensored: Pulling Back the Curtain” about her controversial methods of taking her then-5-year-old son to see a movie and an Elmo show. He screamed, thrashed and kicked while she physically restrained and comforted him until he calmed down. One passerby called her a bad mom. Someone spat on her, and a man threw a soda on her as she held her son on the ground and inched him to their seats.
Perspective: Bystanders were horrified. But my son has autism, and I was desperate.
Most experts would advise helping someone with autism overcome anxiety about going to new places or doing a new activity by introducing them to it first with pictures and then gradually or repeatedly taking them there, according to autism advocates. Ellenby’s son ended up making it through the performances, and after going to other outings in a more all-at-once approach, she said, he’s gotten over his powerful fear of enclosed spaces.
“I ripped the Band-Aid off, and now his self esteem is stronger than mine,” Ellenby said. “He’s become less self conscious, and there’s no place he can’t go.”
Sitting in the front row with his parents, 7-year-old Gavin Hacker, who has autism and lives in Germantown, rocked in his seat as the show unfolded. His mom, Jessica, said she was thrilled he sat for more than an hour and listened and watched the show.
“He can’t sit for four minutes at class,” she said. “That’s incredible. He never left his seat.”
Maria Ott, Hannah’s mom, said her daughter likes to hear and feel sensory things but at times the “lights, sounds and people all around” can become too much.
Ellenby asked if she could help ease — and physically touch — Hannah to get her into the theater. Hannah and her parents agreed.
In seconds, Ellenby had gently bear-hugged Hannah and slowly walked her into a back-row seat, where she sat on Ellenby’s lap and eventually rocked back and forth to the beat of the drummers onstage.
“Good girl,” Ellenby told Hannah, who wiggled on her lap. “This whole show is for you. I’m proud of you. You did it.”
After they got back to their home in Kensington, Ott said she asked her daughter what she thought about Ellenby. Hannah responded, using a special communication device.
“Super cool.” | 2022-08-03T04:45:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Blue Man Group performs for audience with autism at the Kennedy Center - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/03/blue-man-group-autism-kennedy-center/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/03/blue-man-group-autism-kennedy-center/ |
Monkeypox is a misnomer that results from the fact that it was discovered at the Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen in 1958, when outbreaks of a pox-like disease occurred in monkeys kept for research. While monkeys are susceptible to it, just like humans are, they aren’t the source. The virus belongs to the Orthopoxvirus genus, which includes the variola virus, the cause of smallpox; and cowpox virus, also called vaccinia, which is used in the smallpox vaccine. Monkeypox is less contagious than smallpox and the symptoms are generally milder. About 30% of smallpox patients died, while the fatality rate for monkeypox in recent years is about 3% to 6%, according to the World Health Organization.
Monkeypox doesn’t usually spread easily between people. Close contact with the virus from an infected animal, human or contaminated object is the main pathway. Most reported cases in the 2022 outbreaks have been linked to skin-to-skin contact with someone infected with this virus, such as during sex. Clubs, raves, saunas, sex parties and other activities where there is close contact with many people may increase the risk of exposure, especially if people are wearing less clothing. The pathogen enters the body through broken skin, the respiratory tract or the mucous membranes in the eyes, nose, mouth, rectum and anus. Tests on various patient specimens, including saliva, rectal swabs and semen, have found traces of the virus.
From just a handful of cases in Europe in early May, more than 24,000 cases, mostly in men, were reported across dozens of countries by early August, according to data collated by global.health. Five fatal cases have been reported in Africa and several outside the continent, in Spain, Brazil, India and Peru. The virus has probably been circulating undetected in Europe since at least April. In the US, caseloads tripled in July, with the virus reported in more than 40 states. Preliminary research estimates that among cases who identify as men who have sex with men, the virus has a reproduction number greater than 1, which means more than one new infection is estimated to stem from a single case. A UK study found anonymous sex has proved to be a barrier to effective contact tracing. Data from outbreaks in Canada, Spain, Portugal, and the UK suggest venues where men have sex with multiple partners are helping to drive spread.
The illness is usually mild and most patients will recover within a few weeks; treatment is mainly aimed at relieving symptoms. About 10% to 15% of cases have been hospitalized, mostly for pain and bacterial infections that can occur as a result of monkeypox lesions. The CDC says smallpox vaccine, antivirals, and vaccinia immune globulin can be used to treat monkeypox as well as control it. Tecovirimat, also known as Tpoxx, was approved by the European Medical Association for monkeypox in 2022, but isn’t yet widely available, according to the WHO. In the US, it’s available through the Strategic National Stockpile, though some physicians have said lengthy delays for test results and the “very daunting task” of completing the necessary paperwork have frustrated efforts to prescribe the medication for infected patients. The UK Health Security Agency (HSA) also lists cidofovir as an antiviral that can be used.
(Updates to add potential role of seminal fluid in transmission in section 3, and updates number of cases and deaths in section 6.) | 2022-08-03T04:54:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Understanding Monkeypox and How Outbreaks Spread - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/understanding-monkeypox-and-how-outbreaks-spread/2022/08/03/ecab3116-12e2-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/understanding-monkeypox-and-how-outbreaks-spread/2022/08/03/ecab3116-12e2-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
Why Chinese Firms Are Upgrading Their Hong Kong Listings
Analysis by Filipe Pacheco | Bloomberg
The Exchange Square Complex, which houses the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, in Hong Kong, China, on Wednesday, July 13, 2022. Hong Kong is likely to see more dual-traded companies shift toward primary listings in the financial hub as they seek inclusion in trading links with mainland China, according to the exchange’s Chief Executive Officer Nicolas Aguzin. Photographer: Paul Yeung/Bloomberg (Bloomberg)
When New York-listed Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. said in July it wanted to change its “secondary” listing status in Hong Kong to “primary,” it wasn’t the first and may not be the last Chinese company to do so. The process is costly and time-consuming but it could make it easier to access a vast pool of capital in the mainland. It also would keep the stock trading if a company is forced to delist in the US.
1. What is a primary listing?
It refers to the main stock exchange where a public company’s shares are traded. To list, a firm has to fulfill the requirements of that market, as Alibaba did when it pulled off a then-record $25 billion initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014. Secondary listings like the one Alibaba did in Hong Kong five years later are often subject to less-stringent regulation. They may increase liquidity in trading of the shares and provide access to a wider pool of investors.
2. Why switch to primary status in Hong Kong?
For one thing, it’s a necessary step to gain access to the Stock Connect program that links the Hong Kong bourse with the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges, providing access to investors in mainland China. For most dual-listed companies, liquidity in their Hong Kong stock is low relative to the US. In addition, many US-listed Chinese companies are under intense pressure from the US Securities and Exchange Commission to allow access to their audit papers or face eventual delisting. If that were to happen, another primary listing in Hong Kong would allow the stock to continue trading on a major exchange and according to the highest standards. The switch from secondary to primary, in general, doesn’t impact shareholders. Among the pioneers with dual-primary listings in Hong Kong and New York are electric-vehicle makers XPeng Inc. and Li Auto Inc.
3. What’s needed for the change?
A dual-primary listing requires stricter reporting rules than a secondary listing. Additional expenses and items include those related to administration, disclosure and compliance. When firms decide to make the switch from secondary to primary, they must provide the intended exchange with a schedule of when all requirements will be met, a detailed plan of execution and a plan for rules compliance, among other things. For companies that are ultimately based in China, they also need to meet criteria related to their weighted voting rights in order to be included in Stock Connect.
4. What’s the issue of weighted voting rights?
The Hong Kong exchange changed its rules in 2018 to allow companies with dual-class shares, also known as weighted voting rights, to have secondary listings in the city. (Such shares give company founders super-sized power over their businesses even if they only hold a small slice of the stock.) In January, simplified rules took effect that allow US-listed Chinese firms that have weighted voting rights and use the variable interest entity structure to convert to a primary listing or dual-primary status. VIEs provide some flexibility in asset reporting and ownership interest, and were popular among China’s internet companies that listed in the US.
5. Are more conversions coming?
Online-entertainment provider Bilibili Inc. said in May it would convert its Hong Kong listing to dual-primary status from secondary by October. Online marketplace JD.com and video-games firm NetEase Inc. are others with secondary listings in the Asian hub that could opt to make the change. | 2022-08-03T04:54:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why Chinese Firms Are Upgrading Their Hong Kong Listings - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-chinese-firms-are-upgrading-their-hong-konglistings/2022/08/03/6bc5f1d6-12e6-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-chinese-firms-are-upgrading-their-hong-konglistings/2022/08/03/6bc5f1d6-12e6-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
By Nomaan Merchant and Lolita C. Baldor | AP
In this image provided by the U.S. Army, contactors from General Atomics load Hellfire missiles onto an MQ-1C Gray Eagle at Camp Taji, Iraq, on Feb. 27, 2011. For a year, U.S. officials have been saying that taking out a terrorist threat in Afghanistan with no American troops on the ground would be difficult but not impossible. Last weekend, the U.S. did just that — killing al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri with a CIA drone strike. (Jason Sweeney/U.S. Army via AP) (1st Lt. Jason Sweeney/AP) | 2022-08-03T04:54:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | EXPLAINER: A look at the missile that killed al-Qaida leader - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/explainer-a-look-at-the-missile-that-killed-al-qaida-leader/2022/08/03/a1a0fe2c-12e1-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/explainer-a-look-at-the-missile-that-killed-al-qaida-leader/2022/08/03/a1a0fe2c-12e1-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
In this photo released by the Taiwan Presidential Office, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, center left, and Taiwanese President President Tsai Ing-wen arrive for a meeting in Taipei, Taiwan, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meeting top officials in Taiwan despite warnings from China, said Wednesday that she and other congressional leaders in a visiting delegation are showing they will not abandon their commitment to the self-governing island. (Taiwan Presidential Office via AP) (Uncredited/Taiwan Presidential Office) | 2022-08-03T04:54:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Pelosi says US will not abandon Taiwan as China protests - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pelosi-says-us-will-not-abandon-taiwan-as-china-protests/2022/08/03/9f187f5e-12e6-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pelosi-says-us-will-not-abandon-taiwan-as-china-protests/2022/08/03/9f187f5e-12e6-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
NEW YORK — Sabrina Ionescu scored 31 points on 11-of-16 shooting, Natasha Howard had 24 points and 11 rebounds and the Liberty beat the Sparks in the first of back-to-back games between the teams.
UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Alyssa Thomas posted her second triple-double in less than two weeks and the Sun beat the Mercury.
CHICAGO — Marina Mabrey scored a season-high 26 points, Teaira McCowan added 20 points and 12 rebounds and the Wings beat the Sky. | 2022-08-03T04:56:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Mystics top Aces to end Las Vegas' four-game winning sreak - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/wnba/mystics-top-aces-to-end-las-vegas-four-game-winning-sreak/2022/08/02/6b7b8f5e-12de-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/wnba/mystics-top-aces-to-end-las-vegas-four-game-winning-sreak/2022/08/02/6b7b8f5e-12de-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JULY 26: An advertisement for a Visa credit card is displayed at a Bank of America branch on July 26, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. Visa is set to release its third quarter earnings after the stock market closes today. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) (Photographer: Mario Tama/Getty Images North America)
The US credit-card market is the oldest and largest in the world. It’s also the least regulated and most expensive. In other countries, policy makers keep card companies in check by setting price caps or by funding public sector alternatives. The result is lower prices. In the US, credit-card fees stand at between 1.3% and 2.7% of transaction value; in Europe, they are as low as 0.3%.
Whatever its merits, Durbin is likely to find passage of his bill tough. Swiping a card may look simple enough at checkout, but in the background, the interests of multiple parties -- consumers, merchants, banks and network companies – must be reconciled. Over the years, bonds have formed among these parties, making the model hard to change.
Increasingly, the stronger ties have been forged between the card companies and consumers. Although they invest heavily in marketing, it’s not Visa or Mastercard advertising that cements the relationship. Rather it’s rewards, funded by card-issuing banks fromthe fees they capture from merchants.
Ever since Diners Club introduced an airline miles program in 1984, rewards have been a powerful mechanism to drive card usage — and Americans love them. For many, they represent a tax-free source of income. Card companies now direct about two-thirds of their gross fees back to customers via rewards. One of the largest card issuers, Capital One, paid out $6.4 billion — almost 20% of total revenue — in 2021. And the rate has been going up. Discover’s reward rate has increased from less than 1% of sales volume in 2013 to 1.38% in 2021.
Debit fees fell dramatically. In his 2021 shareholder letter, Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive officer of JP Morgan Chase & Co., estimated that the impact on his bank was about $17 billion over 10 years. But according to researchers who reviewed the impact in 2019, banks offset their losses by charging higher fees on other products, leaving consumers no better off.
The problem is that no credible alternative exists. And the investment required to build one is vast. In Europe, 31 banks signed up last year to an initiative to create an alternative to Visa and Mastercard but banks have since been loath to put up the 1.5 billion euros ($1.53 billion) of initial funding.
Given their 77% market share of US credit-card volume, it’s no surprise Visa and Mastercard aren’t keen on the tinkering. “It’s an attempt by the government to get involved in pricing in private markets,” Al Kelly, chairman and CEO of Visa told investors recently. “That’s not the job of the government. Markets should determine price, not governments. And I feel very strongly about that, and that’s something we will continue to make our case for.”
Kelly may not have to worry – he has the American consumer on side, and there are fewer allies as strong.
• Buy Now Pay Later Joins Subprime Losers Club: Marc Rubinstein
• Is $695 AmEx Platinum Card Really Worth It?: Alexis Leondis
• Visa’s Amazon Blues to Shape Digital Cash Debate: Andy Mukherjee | 2022-08-03T06:25:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Credit-Card Rewards Aren’t Free. Shoppers Don’t Care. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/credit-card-rewards-arent-free-shoppers-dont-care/2022/08/03/f494e2b2-12e9-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/credit-card-rewards-arent-free-shoppers-dont-care/2022/08/03/f494e2b2-12e9-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
If you want to know why Europe’s largest economy is a digital laggard — indeed, if you want to know why progress is difficult anywhere — regale yourself with a trip into the fine print of a new German law governing employment contracts.
Spoiler: The problem isn’t hardware, it’s software — the human kind.
The occasion for the anecdote is a directive from Brussels requiring all 27 members of the European Union to update their legislation on what employers must stipulate when hiring people. This concerns everything from pay to vacation and other conditions. The world of work has changed dramatically since the EU first opined on these matters in 1991 — just think of the gig economy, teleworking or home offices. So a good legislative tweaking makes eminent sense.
The EU’s instructions mention explicitly that “in light of the increasing use of digital communication tools, [this information] can be provided by electronic means.” Duh, you might say. But it’s good to make clear that employers and employees should have a choice for their contracts: paper, PDF or both.
Except Germany isn’t having any of it. It just passed a law that completely bans digital contracts and signatures. Whether you’re a coder who finds jobs online, an Amazon delivery guy or a Dilbert character, you’ll now get the fine print of your terms on paper — the dead-tree kind. And it’ll have your new boss’s signature in just-dried ink. If employers provide a digital contract instead, they’ll get fined up to 2,000 euros ($2,049) for each instant.
This sort of thing is, of course, exactly what you would have expected from the four administrations under former Chancellor Angela Merkel. During her 16 years in office, it became a standing joke that every mainstream party in every German election promises digital transformation — and forever will, because it never comes.
But the new government under Chancellor Olaf Scholz was supposed to break that pattern. The coalition consists of Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats, the environmentalist Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats. The latter, in particular, have made digital transformation their central message.
Then again, as Otto von Bismarck famously observed, laws are like sausages, and it’s best not to see them being made. If you’d looked closely at this legislation, you would have seen the German Trade Union Confederation in the background. The DGB, as this union lobby is known in German, holds particular sway with the Social Democrats, who run the labor ministry, which penned the legislation.
While the law was being drafted, the DGB categorically ruled out allowing any electronic medium for contracts. So I asked them: For heaven’s sake, why?
To protect “precarious” workers, a DGB spokesman explained to me. Many of them only have a smartphone but no printer or broadband connection at home, and don’t necessarily check email or log on to the corporate intranet. Also, if the employee and employer later end up in court, a physical paper contract is better, he thinks. Besides, he reminded me, people never look at their (digital) telecom contracts either.
What an odd line of reasoning — and how typical of the attitudes that gum up progress everywhere, all the time. The DGB, and thus German law, is banning all digital employment contracts — millions and millions — because some individuals would be better served with paper versions.
What about simply making employers ask recruits how they’d like to receive their contract? Make paper an option — not a mandate. By the DGB’s logic, the government should also ban Apple Pay and all other digital wallets, plus credit cards, and only allow bills and coins, because somebody somewhere is most comfortable using that payment method.
Now multiply this approach hundreds, thousands, millions of times — and you get Germany. The European Commission regularly ranks EU member countries by their digital development. Overall, Germany is currently in the middle, at 13. But that’s because Germany has recently improved the relevant physical infrastructure, from broadband lines to wireless networks, where it is now above average.
In the mental infrastructure, it is another story. In usage of e-invoices, for example, Germany is near the bottom. In the prevalence of e-government services, it ranks 24th, ahead of only Italy, Bulgaria and Romania. A different report, by the ESCP Business School in Berlin, is even more scathing. It finds that Germany is one of the countries that dropped farthest in digital competitiveness. Within the Group of 20, a forum of developed economies, it ranks third from last.
What Germans sometimes miss is that digital progress isn’t just about the cables, antennae and gizmos you have; it’s also about what you’re willing to do with them, and whether you’re open to change.
Analysts are now estimating the cost of the new law in terms of added bureaucracy, paper, energy consumption and carbon emissions. It’s big. Some are wondering what delivery method the DGB will mandate next time. Stagecoaches? Carrier pigeons? Both would require extensive infrastructures in animal husbandry. Maybe the Scholz government should start preparing. | 2022-08-03T06:26:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Germany’s Anti-Digital Law Is a Case Study in Stunting Progress - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/germanys-anti-digital-law-is-a-case-study-in-stunting-progress/2022/08/03/f4e5b174-12e9-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/germanys-anti-digital-law-is-a-case-study-in-stunting-progress/2022/08/03/f4e5b174-12e9-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
Marine General Michael E. Langley walks through the halls of the U.S. Capitol in Washington on July 21. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
Langley will formally attain his new rank at a ceremony in D.C. this weekend, the Marines said. He will then become the new head of U.S. Africa Command at its headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. There, he will oversee about 6,000 troops. President Biden nominated him in June.
In his confirmation hearing last month, Langley thanked his father — who had served in the Air Force for 25 years — as well as his stepmother and two sisters. “As many nominees have said in testimony before me, military families form the bedrock upon which our Joint Force readiness stands,” he said. “Without their support I would not be here today.”
The Marine Corps has had a handful of Black three-star generals, including Langley himself, who was promoted to that rank last year. Other African Americans have also earned four-star ranks in other branches, including Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, a former Army general.
A native of Shreveport, La., Langley has served for 37 years, with tours of duty in Japan, Afghanistan and Somalia. Commissioned as a Marine artillery officer in 1985, he has commanded at every level — from platoons, which can have a few dozen members, to regiments, which can have several thousand troops. His intellectual and physical prowess, combined with his mediation skills, has impressed his superiors over the years.
At his new duty station, Langley will come up against both conventional and unconventional military challenges.
In Africa, the U.S. military is in a supporting role, helping African countries build up their own forces and monitoring Russian and Chinese activities. Direct combat is uncommon. But resurgent terrorist groups such as al-Shabab are national security threats to the United States, while American troops have also suffered deadly attacks in recent years in Niger and Kenya.
Russia’s moves in Africa problematic for U.S. interests, general agrees | 2022-08-03T09:02:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Michael E. Langley confirmed as first Black four-star Marine general - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/03/michael-langley-first-black-four-star-marine-general/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/03/michael-langley-first-black-four-star-marine-general/ |
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s new president said Wednesday that his government is preparing a national policy roadmap for the next 25 years that aims to cut public debt and turn the country into a competitive export economy as it seeks a way out of its worst economic disaster. | 2022-08-03T09:28:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Sri Lanka leader proposes 25-year plan for crisis-hit nation - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/sri-lanka-leader-proposes-25-year-plan-for-crisis-hit-nation/2022/08/03/78733e00-1301-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/sri-lanka-leader-proposes-25-year-plan-for-crisis-hit-nation/2022/08/03/78733e00-1301-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
After a year of democratic backsliding, Tunisia went over the edge last week when President Kais Saied institutionalized his autocratic rule with a referendum on a new constitution that gives him near absolute power. The outcome of the vote was never in doubt: Having already suspended parliament and secured the support of the military, Saied had further tilted the playing field by appointing his own election commission and judicial council, jailing opponents, and muzzling the media.
Since approval of the constitution was preordained, most Tunisians demonstrated their disapproval by turning their backs on the process: More than two-thirds of those eligible opted not to vote.
This is almost exactly how democracy withered in Egypt, the only other country where the seeds planted in the Arab Spring — the popular protests that toppled several dictators in the Middle East and North Africa in the early 2010s — had taken root. Like his counterpart in Cairo, General Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, Saied represents the triumphant return of the old order.
There’s plenty of blame to go around for these failures.
Start with the revolutionaries. In Tunisia as in Egypt, the young, mostly liberal and secular-minded protesters who toppled the tyrants neglected the nitty-gritty of democracy — forming political parties, building policy platforms, contesting elections. This initially allowed conservative Islamist parties, which were better organized to win votes, to form governments.
The protesters also had unrealistic expectations of instant economic dividends from democracy: When the jobs and opportunities they wanted did not immediately materialize, they lost faith in the new political system.
In response, the overturned establishment regrouped around retrogressive figures like Sisi and Saied, who tapped into the popular discontent with the democratic new order to acquire power — and then to rewrite constitutions to complete the restoration of autocracy.
Some blame also goes to the leaders of the free world, who rejoiced in the flowering of Arab liberty, but then let the saplings shrivel in the elements. There was a pronounced Western squeamishness about working with Islamist-led governments in Cairo and Tunis, which undermined their ability to repair the damage left by decades of dictatorship.
Like his two immediate predecessors, President Joe Biden expended little effort to help the Tunisian government rescue the country’s stricken economy. His administration has offered only cursory criticism of Saied’s power grab. It may be too late to turn the clock back, but Biden and other democratic leaders must learn from their recent failures and resolve to do better next time.
And there will almost certainly be a next time. Young Arabs will soon discover that their new autocrats have no solutions to the economic problems at the root of their discontent. Saied has shown no greater grasp of his country’s economic challenges than the government he sacked. Under Sisi, Egypt’s economy has grown, but so too has the proportion of the population living in poverty.
As economic conditions worsen with the worldwide slowdown, Saied and Sisi can expect no more patience from young Tunisians and Egyptians than the governments they overthrew. The next political upheaval may not be long in coming.
When the wheel does turn, the democratic world must be prepared to act swiftly. The first priority will be to fully embrace elected governments, regardless of their orientation. Next, wealthy Western nations must ready a package of foreign aid and debt forgiveness as well as favorable trade terms, all designed to allow the elected governments to deliver economic dividends for an impatient populace.
Just as important, there must be careful vigilance for signs of democratic backsliding. Any leader showing an authoritarian streak must face real consequences. The military elites, in particular, should understand that their access to Western resources is contingent on a commitment to defending democratic institutions.
Arabs will try again for democracy. The next time, the world must not fail them. | 2022-08-03T09:28:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Arab Spring Is Over, But the Struggle for Democracy Isn’t - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-arab-springis-over-but-the-struggle-for-democracy-isnt/2022/08/03/78ded41c-130b-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-arab-springis-over-but-the-struggle-for-democracy-isnt/2022/08/03/78ded41c-130b-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
Nick Kyrgios won his first-round match at the Citi Open on Tuesday night. (Maansi Srivastava/The Washington Post)
Coaches at the John McEnroe Tennis Academy in New York City recently added a shot to the repertoire of fundamentals that top junior players learn: the tweener.
The between-the-legs shot is an admittedly low percentage play, but it’s wildly entertaining to watch and fun for youngsters to try. Teaching it, academy co-director Patrick McEnroe said, is partly a nod to the outsize influence of Nick Kyrgios, the supremely gifted Australian player who has made the tweener a staple of his bag of tricks during a 10-year professional career that has under-delivered on results and over-delivered on showmanship.
Much like the tweener, Kyrgios is not every tennis fan’s cup of tea.
There is little debate, however, about his status as one of the most talented athletes to ever wield a racket — a guy who could have excelled in basketball, soccer, track or almost any sport to which he applied himself. It is an open question, though, whether Kyrgios, at 27, has ever fully applied himself to tennis.
It is also an open question whether Kyrgios, who is coming off a career-best Grand Slam performance by reaching Wimbledon’s final last month, is good or bad for the game.
“From a television perspective and a commerce perspective, Nick Kyrgios has been ‘Box Office,’ as we call it, since Day 1 on television,” Solomon said in a recent interview. “Period. End of story. Full exclamation point.”
That’s Patrick McEnroe’s view, too, as an ESPN analyst who saw the impact on viewership throughout Kyrgios’s march to the Wimbledon final, in which the former teen phenom outplayed defending champion Novak Djokovic at the outset before succumbing in four sets.
“There is no doubt that Nick Kyrgios moves the needle when it comes to TV ratings and when it comes to fans,” McEnroe said. “There is even less doubt that young kids all like to watch him. They like his underhand serve, they like his banter with the crowd, they like his tweeners — not to mention, he is a hell of a player.”
At Washington’s Citi Open, Kyrgios is the player many fans have paid to see. This summer, he’s giving them double value, competing in doubles with American Jack Sock — the duo won their first-round match Monday — and in singles.
Kyrgios was greeted with cheers when he stepped onto Stadium Court at Rock Creek Park Tennis Center on Tuesday night. As the tournament’s 2019 champion, Kyrgios has his name displayed on the blue banner of past victors that rings around the court, putting him in the company of such greats as Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick.
“I think it’s just a cool experience for someone that’s paid money to come watch you play and potentially to go home with that memory, if it’s a young kid or an older lady like today,” said Kyrgios, who did the same thing during his run to the 2019 title in Washington. “I wish I had that experience when I was watching tennis matches.”
There are multiple facets to Kyrgios’s personality, on the court and off it.
His serve is his greatest asset as a player, powerful and unpredictable. It might speed past in a 140-mph blur, on first and second attempts alike. It could also be a puffball delivered underhanded that plops just beyond the net. Against Giron, it was masterful — Kyrgios finished with 13 aces.
Kyrgios’s ground game can be devilish in its variety: line-tagging blasts, slices, drop-shots and whatever improvisation comes to mind. While he’s a shrewd analyst of the game, he often balks at playing percentages, as if compelled to try the highest risk shot at the most critical juncture. If that aggravates opponents who thrive on consistency and rhythm, so much the better.
While Kyrgios’s penchant for pushing the sport’s boundaries delights some fans, others feel he crosses the line too often.
“What rankles people like me and my brother [seven-time Grand Slam champion John McEnroe], and even the Australian greats, is that this guy just doesn’t put forth a full-on effort every time he goes out there,” McEnroe said. “And he doesn’t seem to care; at least, that’s what he says. But he is a complicated guy. ... It’s a bad look for professional tennis or professional anything, to be honest.”
“All I can do is just continue to work and continue to keep my head down and do what I love to do every day, and that’s play tennis and inspire millions of people,” Kyrgios said.
But after reaching Wimbledon’s final — and reflecting since on the victory that might have been — Kyrgios said he has adopted a “totally different mind-set” about his potential and his preparation going forward.
“Obviously, that [Wimbledon] loss hurts,” he said. “I think ever since I picked up a tennis racket, I had coaches in my ear saying the Wimbledon trophy is the highest accolade you can achieve in the sport. To have that opportunity and come up short wasn’t easy for me to stomach. ...
“There are so many things I would have done differently, I think, now that I have digested that match. But I’m doing all the right things to put myself in that position again.”
Asked if that meant he was driven, Kyrgios said, “Yeah, it’s taken me 27 years.” | 2022-08-03T09:29:06Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Nick Kyrgios has always drawn a crowd. At 27, is he ready to deliver? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/03/nick-kyrgios-has-always-drawn-crowds-27-is-he-ready-deliver/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/03/nick-kyrgios-has-always-drawn-crowds-27-is-he-ready-deliver/ |
Why so many Tunisians voted away the democracy won in the Arab Spring
Mohamed Bliwa
Tunisians celebrate the exit polls indicating a vote in favor of the new constitution in Tunis on July 25. (Riadh Dridi/AP)
TUNIS — Three days before Tunisians voted on a new constitution their president pledged would propel them into prosperity, Nori Saif sat on a bench downtown, rattling off the prices smugglers charge to sneak young men into Europe.
The cheapest journey, he said, would run him around $1,200. A smuggler with a better guarantee could cost more than $3,000.
As for the vote?
“I only heard about it yesterday,” he said. “We have no hope. Nothing will change.”
Eleven years ago, masses of civilians gathered on this same avenue in Tunis, calling for autocrat Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali to step down. It worked. Ben Ali fled the country and later died in exile. Tunisia began the long process of remaking itself as a democracy — the only one to survive the turmoil of the Arab Spring.
Now, Saif, who is 27 and recently left his home in a small town south of the capital, was sleeping outside and looking for any work to help fund his migration to Europe. Like many other young Tunisians of his generation, the spark of hope that ignited the Arab Spring has been extinguished. Disenchanted by ineffective politicians and paralyzed by a worsening economic crisis, he sees only one path forward: leaving the country.
At the same time, many others in Tunisia have put their faith in a leader who tells them he can fix their lives if they just vote to expand his power.
The law professor who set out to dismantle Tunisia’s democracy
The sense of despair is a reversal of the shared optimism of 2011, when young Tunisians flooded back into the country to support the revolution. Their collective burst of hope for something better was so contagious that the spirit of change quickly spread across the Arab world.
“In places where there are dictators, people saw a little country that made its revolution and succeeded,” said Mohamed Abbou, a lawyer and politician who was imprisoned during the Ben Ali regime.
But over time, the country’s new and fragile democracy faltered. Political infighting left lawmakers divided and unable to overcome economic crises or deliver on the promises of the revolution.
Then in 2019, Tunisians voted Kais Saied in as president. A little-known candidate who taught law at Tunis University, his supporters saw him as the antithesis of the political elite — someone with a clean record who would root out corruption and move Tunisia closer to its democratic ideals. It soon became clear that he had little time for the checks and balances of the country’s fledgling democratic system.
Last summer, amid worsening economic conditions, constant quarrels with lawmakers and a massive coronavirus outbreak, Saied suspended parliament and fired his own prime minister. He described it as a chance to weed out the corruption that he said was causing the deadlock. Many of his supporters stood by him, even as his opponents decried it as a coup. Taking full control, he promised, was the only way to fix the nation.
But soon even his initial fan base began to view his growing hold on power as a threat to Tunisia’s democracy, especially after he curtailed the independence of the judiciary, dissolved parliament and introduced a controversial new constitution putting even more power in the hands of the president.
Tunisia “was a source of inspiration that was attacked by the corrupt and then by a crazy person,” said Abbou, who supported Saied’s decision to suspend parliament last summer but now vehemently opposes him.
He, like many other Tunisian political thinkers, says Saied took advantage of people’s economic discontent. What he’s advertising is a new and more prosperous Tunisia, Abbou said. But what he is actually selling is a dismantling of the country’s democracy by gradually designing a system of one-man rule.
‘There is no other way’: Tunisian judges on hunger strike for democracy
Anouar Ben Kaddour, a leader in the powerful Tunisian General Labor Union, said Saied was able to undo the existing system by presenting a deceptive set of solutions to young people.
“Young people waited 10 years; they didn’t see anything,” Ben Kaddour said. “Everyone wants to leave.”
“We can’t use populism to say to everyone that tomorrow we are going to resolve the problems,” he said.
It’s not that Saied’s supporters were opposed to democracy, explained Monica Marks, a professor of Middle East politics at NYU Abu Dhabi. They were just convinced that he would be able to tackle the country’s long running problems.
“They didn’t come onto the street [last summer] thinking they were burning down democracy. They came out on the street thinking this was the best shot to deliver revolutionary dreams,” she said.
Some firm believers still think Saied can deliver those dreams, she said. Others, angry at the political stagnation, now acknowledge they are prioritizing stability over democracy.
Many Tunisians have blamed the Islamist Ennahda party for the country’s political failures — claims that party officials say are efforts to scapegoat them for systemic problems.
The party’s leader, Rached Ghannouchi, a former political prisoner who went into exile in Britain before returning to Tunisia after the revolution, is now under investigation over allegations he participated in money laundering — a charge he vehemently denies. He acknowledged that resistance to Saied’s agenda has been weakened by a lack of unity among lawmakers and that not enough progress came out of the revolution.
“It is true the past 10 years were not a decade of economic prosperity,” he said, while still maintaining that “10 years of freedom were not erased by [Saied] and that it’s still in the minds and hearts of the people.”
His party immediately declared Saied’s move to suspend parliament last summer a “coup” and continues to decry his actions.
“We stood up and tried to deliver as much as we [could],” said Said Ferjani, an Ennahda lawmaker from the since dissolved parliament who was imprisoned and tortured in Tunisia in the 1980s.
The same people who have been disappointed by Ennahda and other politicians over the last decade, he said, cannot claim their dreams have since been realized under Saied either.
“At the end of the day now, the choice is between accepting dictatorship and bowing down to it, or to stand up against it and fight it … in a civil way,” he said.
The third option is to keep looking elsewhere.
For Saif, that means focusing on finding a way to Europe — and fast.
His mother is sick, and the rising pressure to support her has left him “scared to stay here.” | 2022-08-03T09:29:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why Tunisians voted for a new constitution that dismantled their democracy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/03/tunisia-constitution-referendum-saied-democracy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/03/tunisia-constitution-referendum-saied-democracy/ |
Australian Senator Lidia Thorpe called Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II a “colonizing” monarch as Thorpe was sworn into parliament Aug. 1. (Video: Storyful)
It was one short addition to her oath, but it was enough to cause an outcry among Australia’s conservatives.
A newly elected Australian senator clenched a fist held high as she slowly pledged: “I, sovereign Lidia Thorpe, do solemnly and sincerely affirm and declare that I will be faithful and I bear true allegiance to the colonizing Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.”
The word “colonizing” is, of course, not part of the oath — and the insert by Thorpe, an Aboriginal woman, was a sharp public rebuke of Australia’s colonial past.
Britain’s queen is the head of state of Australia, a British commonwealth. Australia’s governing Labor Party has said it may consider putting forth a referendum on becoming a republic with its own head of state, should the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, win a second term. However, the party has said that efforts to provide Indigenous Australians with representation in Parliament should come first.
Thorpe, who is of Djab Wurrung, Gunnai and Gunditjmara heritage and a member of the Green Party representing the state of Victoria, said in a phone interview that she had not exactly planned to make the change to the oath.
“I didn’t know what I was going to do,” she said of the ceremony, which took place on Monday. “I felt really uncomfortable. I felt really upset that I had to go and do something that I didn’t want to do — to swear allegiance to a colonizer from another country.”
Thorpe’s revised pledge was interrupted by the president of the Senate, Sue Lines, who informed her that she was “required to recite the oath as printed on the card.”
Chuckling, Thorpe said the oath as written, the second time omitting “colonizing” from her pledge to the Queen, “her heirs and successors, according to law.”
Yet Thorpe told The Washington Post that when she repeated the oath, “I absolutely did not mean what I was saying.”
“It wasn’t from my heart,” she said. “I said it like I had a gun to my head.”
Thorpe criticized the practice of requiring the oath to the queen in order to take a seat in the Senate.
She was elected this year after previously being appointed to her Senate seat in 2020, becoming the first Indigenous representative for the state of Victoria to the national Senate. At that swearing-in ceremony, she said the oath as written but did so with a raised fist and carrying a “message stick” with 441 markings, which she said “represent Aboriginal deaths in [police] custody.”
Some senators in the chamber during her swearing-in Monday criticized her protest. The Australian, a newspaper owned by conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp Australia, put a photo of Thorpe on the front page, declaring that the “Greens’ Queen gambit backfires.”
But a political columnist for the Guardian, Greg Jericho, surmised that “getting your photo on the front page looking strong and proud in your protest is the very opposite of a gambit backfiring.”
I suspect getting your photo on the front page looking strong and proud in your protest is the very opposite of a gambit backfiring pic.twitter.com/ZcAhKQ2m5P
Thorpe said that while her impromptu off-script moment was not exactly “celebrated,” some of her colleagues have also expressed displeasure with the required oath.
Thorpe said she will work on either abolishing the oath or providing alternatives for lawmakers “so that we can choose for ourselves what we want to do and who we want to swear allegiance to.” | 2022-08-03T10:03:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Australian Sen. Lidia Thorpe adds 'colonizing' in oath to queen - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/03/australia-lidia-thorpe-coloniser-queen-elizabeth/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/03/australia-lidia-thorpe-coloniser-queen-elizabeth/ |
Crypto’s meltdown refocuses regulator attention on the industry
A bipartisan proposal from the leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee would clarify the CFTC’s oversight of the two largest cryptocurrencies
Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) speaks to reporters in April. (Sarah Silbiger for The Washington Post)
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission would take the leading role in overseeing the two largest cryptocurrencies and the platforms where they are traded under a new bill from Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and John Boozman (R-Ark.).
In addition to Boozman, the top Republican on the agriculture committee, two other members of the panel, Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and John Thune (R-S.D.), are co-sponsoring the measure.
The bill joins an increasingly crowded field of legislative proposals for regulating the trillion-dollar digital asset marketplace, a priority that has taken on greater urgency after the recent implosions of several high-profile crypto projects devastated tens of thousands of retail investors. Leaders of the House Financial Services Committee are working with the Treasury Department on a bill to subject issuers of stablecoins to banklike oversight, though they scrapped plans for a speedy markup late last month over ongoing differences with the draft.
And Sens. Cynthia M. Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) in June unveiled what they billed as a comprehensive plan to regulate the industry. Their proposal handed primary responsibility for the industry to the CFTC, but unlike the bill from Stabenow and Boozman, it would make it optional for crypto exchanges to register with the agency. | 2022-08-03T10:33:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Senate proposal would give CFTC responsibility for bitcoin and ethereum - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/03/stabenow-boozman-bitcoin-cftc-bill/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/03/stabenow-boozman-bitcoin-cftc-bill/ |
Alex Jones testifies during a defamation trial in Austin on Aug. 2. (Briana Sanchez/Pool/Reuters)
Parents who lost their 6-year-old son in the Sandy Hook massacre confronted right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones in a courthouse Tuesday, saying his claims that the deadliest elementary school shooting in U.S. history was a “giant hoax” created a “living hell” for them.
Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin, parents of Jesse Lewis, who was killed in the 2012 shooting in Newtown, Conn., are seeking $150 million in damages from the Infowars radio show and webcast host and his media company in a defamation trial.
Heslin, who took the stand before Jones arrived at the Travis County Courthouse in Austin on Tuesday, spoke of his grief — compounded with death threats and abuse from strangers that led the parents to fear for their own lives. “I can’t even describe the last nine and a half years, the living hell that I and others have had to endure because of the recklessness and negligence of Alex Jones,” Heslin told the jury.
Twenty-six people were killed in the shooting, 20 of them young children. Jones had told his audiences that it was a “false flag” operation carried out by “crisis actors.”
“My son existed,” Jesse’s tearful mother said, directing her testimony toward Jones. “There’s records of Jesse’s birth.”
Jurors in Austin, where Infowars is headquartered, will not hear evidence about the defamation claims because Judge Maya Guerra Gamble entered a rare default judgment against Jones after he refused to turn over documents to the parents’ lawyers. Instead, the jury will determine how much in compensatory and punitive damages Jones must pay.
Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, filed for bankruptcy last week, according to Jones’s attorney, who said the firm would not interfere with the defamation lawsuit.
Lewis stressed that she was not part of any “deep state” conspiracy theory. “I know you know that. That’s the problem … and you keep saying it, why? For money?” she asked. Jones shook his head.
“It seems so incredible to me that we have to do this — that we have to implore you … to get you to stop lying,” Lewis said. “I am so glad this day is here. I’m actually relieved … that I got to say all this to you.”
Heslin testified that it was unclear whether the conspiracy theory had started with Jones but said it was Jones who “lit the match and started the fire,” reaching millions with his Infowars platform.
A forensic psychologist who testified said Heslin and Lewis suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Jones has previously acknowledged that the shooting took place and blamed his false claims on “a form of psychosis.” He testified Tuesday that he had been waiting to apologize and that his comments had been taken out of context.
“I never intentionally tried to hurt you. I never even said your name until this came to court — I didn’t know who you were until this came up,” Jones said. “The internet had questions. I had questions.”
Lewis asked Jones bluntly during her testimony: “Do you think I’m an actor?”
He replied: “No, I don’t think you’re an actor.”
Jones, 48, has been banned from major social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Spotify for violating their hate-speech policies. Judges in Connecticut and Texas have also found Jones liable for damages in lawsuits stemming from his false claims.
Jones described the legal proceedings as a “witch hunt” and a “show trial” in a tirade to reporters last month.
Timothy Bella contributed to this report. | 2022-08-03T10:33:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Sandy Hook parents confront Alex Jones in defamation trial - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/03/alex-jones-trial-hoax-sandy-hook/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/03/alex-jones-trial-hoax-sandy-hook/ |
Juan Soto wasn't at Nationals Park on Tuesday, but reminders of him certainly were. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
Walking past a vendor outside Nationals Park on Tuesday, season ticket holder Neal Denton paused when he saw a navy San Diego Padres cap.
It was mere hours since Washington Nationals superstar outfielder Juan Soto had been traded to the Padres along with first baseman Josh Bell. Denton, a 63-year-old whose seats overlook Soto’s usual spot in right field, couldn’t resist buying the hat and sporting it with his red Washington polo for Tuesday’s game.
Having seats in a row deep down the first base line made Soto a stalwart of Denton’s trips to Nationals Park. That makes his farewell to the 23-year-old slugger sting even more.
“They say there’s no crying in baseball,” Denton said. “But I’m feeling a little bit misty today. I think we all are.”
Denton enjoyed watching the surrounding sections “erupt” when Soto jogged out, and he expressed hope that the Nationals can replace him with someone who can incite a similar reaction.
But since he will find it impossible to root against Soto, Denton said he hopes Soto’s trade ends in another World Series ring, even if it can’t be with Denton’s team. Maybe he’ll give the Padres hat to a somber Soto fan, he said, or maybe he’ll wear it when San Diego comes to town later this month — when Soto runs out to right field as a member of the visiting team.
Denton had hoped that would be a sight he would never see, and he had wondered whether Soto might be able to spend a long career in Washington.
“I think in my heart, I had hoped that we could watch this young man grow up here, be a team leader here,” Denton said.
It was a sentiment shared by many fans at Nationals Park on Tuesday — as well as many outside of it. In the middle of the Nationals’ clubhouse is a line of cubbies, each marked with a player’s name on a white label, filled with envelopes containing fan mail and requests for autographs.
At the end of the line are two cubbies for Soto. Two mail slots weren’t enough to contain all that had been sent to the slugger, with two more unlabeled cubbies overflowing with envelopes for him.
Losing a star like that has left a fan base bemoaning his absence.
Jonathan DiSciullo, 34, was in the stands for the Nationals’ first game in Washington. Disgruntled by the organization’s decision, DiSciullo said Tuesday’s trade makes the road back to contention feel years longer.
“I’ll probably invest less time, less money in the team for the foreseeable future, but I’ll always be a fan,” he said. “And just hope that they maybe make more pragmatic decisions in the years to come.”
By first pitch at 7:06 p.m., New York Mets fans had packed the stands of Nationals Park, with chants of “Let’s go Mets!” overpowering the cheers of the home crowd. There was a wide range of feelings in that crowd, headlined by disappointment to see one of the organization’s brightest stars depart.
Some, such as DiSciullo, were dismayed by the trade. But others, while disappointed to lose Soto, were intrigued by the prospects arriving in the deal. Fred Middledorf, a 74-year-old who has been a fan of Washington baseball since the days of the Senators, said the trade didn’t surprise him.
“I think it's going to turn out okay,” he said. “I'm disappointed in seeing Soto and Bell go, but that's just the way it is.”
Balancing Middledorf’s sadness is an excitement to see the five prospects acquired in the trade. When General Manager Mike Rizzo was asked about his message to fans after the trade, he gestured to his World Series ring.
“I wore this ring purposely, okay?” he said. “It shows what we’ve done in the past and what we’re going to do in the future. And, in 2019, we had a slogan: Bumpy roads lead to beautiful places. We’re in a bumpy road right now and we believe that, coming out of this thing, it’ll be a beautiful place.”
In a ballpark filled with blue and orange Tuesday night, the end of that bumpy road was hard to see — even in a 5-1 win. An hour before first pitch, Soto’s jersey already had been pulled from the shelves of the ballpark’s team stores. And among the Washington fans who were in the stands, there was hope and curiosity — mostly overshadowed by negative feelings.
The crowd was bolstered by three home runs, lifting spirits as the night wore on. And even after another star left town, Denton said he’ll be back, year after year.
“I talked to one of my best friends today who was thundering around,” he said. “ ‘That’s it. I’m done. No more. I’m done.’ But you’re going to meet me here for a game tomorrow. He’ll be fine.” | 2022-08-03T10:46:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | As Juan Soto is traded away, Nationals fans can't help but feel pain - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/03/nationals-fan-juan-soto-trade/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/03/nationals-fan-juan-soto-trade/ |
Here’s why buying a co-op is so iffy
The problem with buying a co-op outside of New York is that most buyers and real estate agents don’t understand how co-ops work and why the monthly assessment is so much higher than for a similarly sized condominium with the same amenities. (Cole Burston/Bloomberg News)
Q: We’re wondering if you could provide us with some enlightenment about the ins and outs of buying a co-op in the Washington, D.C., area. We would also like to know about how we can get more information about the co-op — bylaws, financial health, co-op board minutes, etc. — without actually submitting a contract.
Our daughter is ready to move out on her own. She saw a co-op in a great development that seems to check every one of her boxes: great price, a neighborhood she loves, nice size, parking spaces, green areas and close to work. We were ready to encourage her to offer a contract that day, but then realized that it has been on the market for 255 days. Additionally, other apartments for sale in the complex, some of which had been beautifully renovated, have been on the market for at least that long and longer.
The agent showing us the apartments said that it’s because it is a co-op, and people in this area are used to condos and prefer that. They do have a relatively high HOA, but not unreasonable. We realize that one downside to a co-op is that you don’t have a chance to build as much equity as you do when you own a condo or house, but it makes the place so much more affordable in the short-term. Nevertheless, we could not believe that people are not flocking to this development, which offers so much, and would like to know why this is before we offer a contract.
We ran into two young men who live there (before we started having all these questions), and both said they really like the place. My savvy sister lived in a co-op in New York for many years and served on the board, so we called her for advice. She said that co-ops (and condos as well) often have problems with the corporation that may not be obvious. She thought we should try to get a copy of the bylaws and minutes from the board meetings, see if board members have term limits, and find out if there are special assessments or if a mortgage is coming due.
The agent was helpful and found that there was a special assessment; my daughter would probably have to pay about $7,000 based on what is remaining. However, he was not able to get us anything else. He did give us the name of the management company and asked a few people he knows, but everyone said, “No problems; things are fine.”
We know we could get a lot of this information if we did offer a contract, but we would probably not have a lot of time to review it. Do you have any insights into why these places have been sitting on the market so long? And any advice about how we can get more information?
A: The first place Sam and I bought when we were married was a co-op on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. It was a vintage building (known as “prewar” in New York), built in the late 1920s. It had generous room sizes, a wood-burning fireplace, thick walls and ceilings (so, very quiet), a nice view, tall ceilings, and only two units per tier, which made it private.
We really liked it and, like the co-op your daughter has her eye on, it was priced affordably for us.
The problem with buying a co-op outside of New York is that most buyers and real estate agents don’t understand how co-ops work and why the monthly assessment is so much higher than for a similarly sized condominium with the same amenities.
The difference has to do with how the property is owned. With a condo, the owner owns all of the space inside the walls, ceiling and floor of the unit, as well as a proportionate share of the common elements. Condos are owned individually by the owner and the condo receives its own real estate tax bill.
With a co-op building, the entire building is owned by a corporation. In many corporation-owned co-op buildings, the co-op owners own shares in the stock of the corporation. You could say that the ownership of that stock also gives them the right to lease a particular apartment in the co-op building. The co-op corporation is taxed on the entire building (and any property owned by the corporation), and the unit owner pays their share of the property taxes as part of the monthly lease on the apartment.
In a co-op building, the monthly lease payment on a unit covers the maintenance fees for the building along with the insurance, but it also covers the real estate taxes and any mortgage interest payments owed by the co-op corporation on the building.
There are other differences, including that co-op buildings typically have the right to refuse to allow someone to buy someone else’s shares in the corporation. They can turn down a prospective buyer for any reason, but they can’t violate the federal Fair Housing Act. Mostly, you hear about this in New York, where a co-op building turned down Madonna, Antonio Banderas and his then-wife, Melanie Griffith, among others. In a story a few years ago, the New York Times quoted agents who said the estimated co-op turn down rate was somewhere between 3 to 5 percent.
There may also be rules restricting other types of activities, such as subletting the co-op unit. In other words, if your daughter decides she wants to move on and rent out her unit, she may not be able to, or she might need board approval of her future tenant.
It isn’t that complicated, but perhaps because co-ops aren’t as common as condominiums, some agents seem to have trouble explaining how a co-op works and why the monthly assessments are higher.
More Matters: Buyers failed the good faith test, and sellers contemplate next steps
We think you’re smart to try to get more information ahead of time. A lot of this information is distributed to the owners during the year, and you might just have to ask the seller to go through their files to find this information or have them request this information for you to view before you agree to make an offer on the place.
Your story reminded us of a recent news story about a New York co-op building whose units would ordinarily sell in the millions of dollars but now are selling for around $100,000. The land on which that co-op building sits is owned by a third party that raised the rent on the land astronomically, and now the co-op owners are at a crossroads to decide whether to buy out the landowner for millions of dollars or sell out and move on. Co-ops can, and frequently do, have pitfalls that you might not see in condo developments. This is probably what your sister was referring to when she mentioned legal issues.
Still, if it is a great place and affordable for her in today’s market, she gets her financing, and has enough information to make an informed decision, she can decide whether to make an offer she’s comfortable with, even if it’s a low offer.
Just remember, down the line, that’s the sort of offer she might field when it comes time for her to sell. Good luck. | 2022-08-03T10:59:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Here’s why buying a co-op is so iffy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/03/heres-why-buying-co-op-is-so-iffy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/03/heres-why-buying-co-op-is-so-iffy/ |
A slanging match has broken out about whether the US economy is in recession. Everyone agrees that a recession is a contraction in real economic activity, but there’s no consensus on how deep, widespread and long-lasting the contraction has to be to deserve the “recession” label.While economists can debate theory, and politicians can explain why it’s the other party’s fault, investors should take a pragmatic view.
Recessions are the part of the business cycle that clears away economic deadwood and sets the stage for the next expansion. Debt is reduced because weaker consumer and business borrowers default and stronger borrowers cut spending. Failed projects and ideas are written off and no longer suck capital down black holes. Bubbles deflate. Frauds are exposed and punished. Workers move, retrain and otherwise position themselves for future economic growth. Businesses refocus on the most promising areas. Obsolete businesses fade away, clearing the ground for innovations.
Painful as they are for individuals and companies, long-term equity investors should welcome recessions. The stock market peaks an average of seven months before a recession begins. The last equity peak on an inflation-adjusted basis was November 2021 and prices are down more than 20% since. If a recession is declared today, it likely started around January 2022. Is it better for investors if the first six months of 2022 were a recession, or if the economy was still in its expansion phase?
Looking at the last 30 US recessions as defined by the National Bureau of Economic Research, equity declines of more than 20% that were followed by recessions within four months meant an average recession length of 10 months during which the real total return of stocks was negative 21%. These were followed by bull market runs averaging a total real return of 135%. That means an investor who bought at the peak before the recession was up 85% after inflation by the subsequent market peak.
Equity declines of more than 20% that were not followed by recessions within four months were much worse for investors. First there was an average of 13 months without stocks returning to the previous peak. That was followed by a 20-month recession on average. Stock losses were only a little deeper than for the first group of declines — down 26% on average versus down 21% — but the subsequent recovery was much smaller — plus 72% versus plus 135%. As a result, the peak-to-peak real total return for 20% equity declines followed quickly by recessions was plus 85%, whereas it was only plus 27% if the 20% decline was not quickly followed by recession.
One obvious explanation for the pattern, although not one I can prove with detailed analysis or data, is that efforts to delay and soften the pain of recessions make them last longer and do less clearing out. If we are not in recession today, it could be because the Federal Reserve kept interest rates so low for so long, and the government engaged in so much stimulus. While those can make life easier for individuals and businesses, and push out the date that recession hits, they might cause more pain and less gain in the longer term.
The other simple story is negative gross domestic product growth in 2022 is caused by supply chain issues, reopening pains and high energy and commodity prices due to war in Ukraine. Although we had two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth — one popular definition of recession — they could be due to exogenous issues that affect only certain economic sectors, rather than an endogenous cascade of excess debt and misallocated resources over the entire economy. In that case the 20% stock market decline might be a reaction to a supply-side shock rather than a harbinger of recession. The stock market might set a new peak before the next recession.
Unfortunately, I can’t find any historical parallels for that latter story. It might be true, but it doesn’t seem to have happened to the US economy any time in the last 150 years. The two stories we know happen frequently are stock market declines followed by quick, brief, shallow recessions and robust subsequent expansions, and stock market declines followed by delayed, long and deep recessions, with anemic subsequent expansions. If those are the two choices, investors should hope we are in recession.
• Are We in a Recession? Don’t Ask Wikipedia: Stephen L. Carter | 2022-08-03T11:00:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Stock Investors Better Hope a Recession Has Started - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/stock-investorsbetter-hope-a-recession-has-started/2022/08/03/d9de87be-1313-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/stock-investorsbetter-hope-a-recession-has-started/2022/08/03/d9de87be-1313-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
Eisenhower’s explosive Taiwan visit hints at what Pelosi’s could bring
By Michael Haack
President Dwight D. Eisenhower waves as he rides through the crowded streets of Taipei, Taiwan, in an open car with Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek on June 17, 1960. Eisenhower arrived shortly before for a one-day visit to Taiwan. (AP)
When Dwight D. Eisenhower landed in Taipei on June 18, 1960, to begin the only visit to Taiwan by a sitting U.S. president, he was met with an enormous show of support. An estimated 500,000 people came to the streets to welcome him, according to Taiwanese news sources. Some carried giant cutouts with likenesses of Eisenhower’s head; others had “I like Ike '' signs spelled out in Chinese and English or waved U.S. flags. During his visit, Eisenhower greeted the crowds from an open car, attended church with Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek and addressed a giant crowd in front of the presidential palace in downtown Taipei.
On the other side of the Taiwan Strait, the reaction was equally passionate. As Eisenhower’s helicopter touched down, the Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Liberation Army shelled the Kinmen Islands, a small archipelago governed by Taiwan that’s only a few miles off the Chinese coast.
Today, tensions are again running high across the Taiwan Strait with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) visit that commenced late Tuesday. In a show of force, the People’s Liberation Army announced that military exercises would take place in six spots close to Taiwan during her visit. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian warned that China would be “resolutely safeguarding China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” adding: “Those who play with fire will perish by it.” On Tuesday, Chinese fighter jets crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait, in a move Taipei deemed “provocative.”
For Taiwan’s 23 million residents, the threat of war has been normalized for more than seven decades, with the strife between the United States and China over the island extending all the way from Eisenhower’s visit to Pelosi’s.
The stage for the conflict was set in the late 1940s, when the U.S.-allied Chinese Nationalist forces were defeated in China and fled en masse to Taiwan. Neither the Nationalists, now headquartered in Taipei, nor the Chinese Communist Party, based in Beijing, relinquished their claims to be the rightful rulers of all of China.
“Taiwan was at the forefront of the Cold War proxy wars in Asia,” said Miles Yu, a professor of history at the U.S. Navy Academy in Annapolis, Md. For Eisenhower, Taiwan’s fate was key to American grand strategy. “Eisenhower firmly believed in the domino theory. He visited Taiwan to show America’s resolve to defend Taiwan.”
“Eisenhower’s world tour and his visit to Taiwan, whatever the rhetoric at the time, was, like most foreign travel, driven primarily by domestic political considerations,” said Michael Szonyi, a Harvard professor of Chinese history.
Though Eisenhower was a lame-duck president when he visited, Taiwan featured in the presidential election looming that November. Whether the United States should defend outlying Taiwanese-governed islands near the mainland became an important point of contention between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon in their 1960 televised debates, as they both vied to appear tough on communism.
China was a brutal communist menace. In 1972, Richard Nixon visited, anyway.
The Soviet leadership also feared that Taiwan would become a flash point for a third world war. In a heated 1959 exchange, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev confronted Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong over what he saw as Mao’s recklessness in shelling Taiwan’s outlying islands from 1954 to 1955 and again in 1958. In response to the shellings, Eisenhower had called in U.S. naval power to help with operations such as escorting convoys that were resupplying garrisons on the islands — a move that could have quickly escalated had an American ship been hit. During the crises, Eisenhower contemplated the use of nuclear weapons to deter China, while Mao complained about Khrushchev’s unwillingness to do the same, prompting Mao to pursue China’s own bomb.
“The Eisenhower presidency is important in Taiwan’s modern history,” said Dafydd Fell, director of the Center for Taiwan Studies at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies. “The U.S. security guarantee was formalized [by Eisenhower] in the 1954 Mutual Defense Treaty, something that allowed Taiwan to gradually shift from survival towards its economic growth model.” Eisenhower also established that the United States wouldn’t back Taiwan’s government in its aspirations to take control of the Chinese mainland.
A Chinese cigarette tin launched D.C.’s 50-year love affair with pandas
On the Kinmen Islands, the results were more immediate. To welcome Eisenhower, China fired 30,000 shells in advance of his arrival, paused for his day-long visit, then launched another bombardment the next day as a send-off. Seven soldiers and six civilians died as a result of the blasts. Additionally, 59 soldiers were injured, as were 15 civilians. The damaged buildings included five schools, a hospital and 200 homes.
“The history of [Kinmen] reveals the extraordinary extent to which the ordinary life of those living in political flash points is affected by decisions made without their consideration — their family life, how they made a living, what they thought about their community and so on, even their religious beliefs,” Szonyi said. “In the case of Eisenhower’s 1960 visit, people lost their lives because of Mao’s desire to send a message to the U.S.”
The repercussions of Eisenhower’s visit continue to loom large in Taiwan, in both psychological and much more concrete ways. Kinmen is now known for the production of meat cleavers carved out of left artillery shells. For the people of Taiwan, this week’s visit by Pelosi — along with Beijing’s response — is yet another chapter in a seven-decade drama at the center of a geopolitical dispute that will continue to make its mark.
Michael Haack is a freelance writer who lives in Washington. He previously studied Chinese at National Taiwan University and worked as a teacher in China. | 2022-08-03T11:00:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Dwight Eisenhower's Taiwan visit foreshadows Nancy Pelosi's China clash - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/08/03/eisenhower-taiwan-visit-china-pelosi/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/08/03/eisenhower-taiwan-visit-china-pelosi/ |
Perspective by Guy Ortolano
Guy Ortolano teaches modern British history at New York University.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street in London on July 20. (Matt Dunham/AP)
On July 7, amid a cascade of denunciations by his Conservative Party colleagues, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his intention to resign. Johnson is a shambolic yet charismatic figure, and it’s tempting to attribute his spectacular downfall to his idiosyncratic qualities. Three decades earlier, while covering the European Commission in Brussels for the conservative Daily Telegraph, he regularly penned fabulous dispatches warning of, among others, European plans to abolish British sausages, regulate banana curves and standardize condom sizes. These outrageous columns exhibited two qualities that later defined Johnson’s premiership: Europhobia and deceit.
Yet while Johnson’s fall can be explained in part by his personal qualities, it is also a product of the Conservative Party’s instinct for knowing when to cut and run. Since 1979, Britain has had five Conservative prime ministers: Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990), John Major (1990-1997), David Cameron (2010-2016), Theresa May (2016-2019) and Johnson (2019-2022). Only Major ever suffered national defeat, yet none of the other four left office on their own terms. Cameron resigned when the country voted for Brexit in 2016, while Thatcher, May and Johnson were each sent packing by their Conservative allies in Parliament — despite their undefeated record in general elections. This willingness to purge unpopular leaders helps explain how Britain’s Tories — despite a reputation as the country’s “Nasty Party” — remain by some measures the most successful political party in world history.
Thatcher’s downfall set the pattern. Her 1979 election inaugurated the contemporary political era, when the language of politics shifted from deploying the state to rolling it back. Under Thatcher, the Conservatives also won in 1983 and 1987, but with every passing year popular grievances accumulated. By 1990, after a botched effort to change local taxation, a number of her colleagues deemed Thatcher more liability than asset. Daring to do what the voters had not, they turned on the “Iron Lady.” Her coerced resignation forestalled a likely Conservative defeat when Major snatched a win in 1992. Major carried on until 1997, by which time the New Labour of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown had accommodated the terms of Thatcher’s Britain enough to finally capture power.
In 2010, after 13 years on the opposition benches, the Conservatives regained office in a coalition led by Cameron. Five years later they won victory outright, in part because Cameron guarded their right flank by promising Europhobic voters a referendum on membership in the European Union. In 2016, that promise came due. Despite Cameron’s personal opposition, the British public voted to leave the E.U., prompting another Conservative prime minister to resign despite not losing a general election.
The negotiation of Brexit fell to May, whose few victories as prime minister included an inglorious win — but a win all the same — over Labour in 2017. Yet colleagues to her right undermined May’s Brexit negotiations, mistrusting her deal’s retention of mutual obligations between the United Kingdom and E.U. They favored a “hard Brexit” instead, regardless of the consequences — a position that found its champion in Johnson. When May could not steer her deal through Parliament, she was forced to resign — a third recent instance of a Conservative victorious at the polls felled by her Tory colleagues.
Repeatedly since 1990, then, Conservative prime ministers have been vanquished not by the voters, but by their “honorable friends” behind them. And in the first three of those cases, these steely decapitations enabled rebounds and, eventually, victory at the polls.
Johnson’s demise, for all its backstabbing drama, fits this pattern. Soon after a thumping election victory in December 2019, his government did manage to see Brexit through. But the arrival of the pandemic soon brought a series of burdensome lockdowns, culminating in the painful “cancellation of Christmas” across South East England. Yet subsequent reporting revealed that Johnson continued to host social events — including, most outrageously, a boozy Christmas party. A stream of investigations, reports and fines into “Partygate” dominated the first half of 2022, producing a staggering 126 police citations against figures at the heart of Britain’s government. The political fallout saw the Conservatives drop a pair of special elections in June. Finally, after one last ugly scandal (standing by a chief deputy whip accused of sexual misconduct), ministers began resigning from the government at a rate unprecedented in modern times. Johnson desperately clung to power, but his options had run out.
What now? The Conservative Party’s leadership election will dominate the rest of August, culminating in the appointment of a new prime minister on Sept. 5. This process is notable less for its searching policy debates than for the machinations of what has been dubbed “the most duplicitous electorate in the world.” But while this summer’s contest has not showcased much policy diversity, it has been notable for diversity of another sort.
The Conservative Party’s membership — the “selectorate” now choosing the country’s prime minister — is older, Whiter and wealthier than Britain as a whole. Yet of the eight contenders in the first round of voting, half were women (Kemi Badenoch, Suella Braverman, Penny Mordaunt and Liz Truss) and half claimed non-European descent (Rishi Sunak and Nadhim Zahawi, in addition to Braverman and Badenoch), while just a quarter were White men (the swiftly dispatched Tom Tugendhat and Jeremy Hunt). With the field now whittled down to two, Truss and Sunak, Britain’s new prime minister will either be a woman (the country’s third) or a descendant of South Asian immigrants.
Yet despite the tried-and-true Tory tactic of sacrificing wounded leaders to reset their public standing, this time could be different. While the Conservatives have had three different leaders win elections in just the past seven years, Labour has only seen four leaders win general elections — ever. Their current leader, however, might be the man for the moment. Like Johnson, Keir Starmer faced investigation for violating lockdown when he had a beer and a curry with his staff. Unlike Johnson, however, Starmer promised to resign if he were fined. A day after Johnson quit, Starmer was fully cleared. Stilted, stiff and charisma-free, Starmer carries himself like a man who has swallowed a coat rack. But British politics has lately suffered from an excess of charisma, whereas Starmer’s obvious integrity may better suit the times.
So as Truss, Sunak and their respective allies devote August to bloodying one another, Starmer stands offstage offering a contrast with the circus. At the moment, judging by the polls, he has grounds for cautious optimism. The Tories, meanwhile, hope their strategy of sacrificing leaders today for victories tomorrow might pay off one more time. | 2022-08-03T11:00:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | British Conservatives have long won by dumping unpopular prime ministers - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/08/03/british-conservatives-have-long-won-by-dumping-unpopular-prime-ministers/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/08/03/british-conservatives-have-long-won-by-dumping-unpopular-prime-ministers/ |
For some clergy in the past, facilitating abortions was faith in action
The history of the Clergy Consultation Service points to how religious beliefs can uphold women’s dignity and humanity
Perspective by Lisa Lindquist Dorr
Lisa Lindquist Dorr, a professor of history at the University of Alabama, is working on a book on abortion in the South.
More than 1,000 Jews rally May 17 outside the U.S. Capitol in support of abortion rights. The Jewish Rally for Abortion Justice was organized by the National Council of Jewish Women. (Michelle Boorstein/The Washington Post)
Evangelical and Catholic opposition to abortion begins and ends with the idea that life starts at conception and thus abortion amounts to murder. That view has dominated religious discussions of the practice for decades, drowning out other religious views about abortion and women’s bodily autonomy. Like today, in the 1960s the most vocal religious voices weighed in loudly against legal abortion. At the same time, however, other religious leaders helped women obtain abortions behind the scenes.
Beginning in 1967, more than 2,500 clergy — Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Church of Christ, Catholic and Jewish — of the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion (CCS) provided counseling and information on abortion to women facing an unwanted pregnancy. This nonprofit, voluntary organization represented faith in action. Religious leaders sought to prevent the suffering and shame women with unwanted pregnancies faced as well as the potentially deadly effects of illegal abortions. Their work is a reminder that religious views on abortion are, and have always been, varied. Religious beliefs can uphold a woman’s dignity and humanity over that of a fetus.
The CCS started in 1967 when Texas-born Baptist minister Howard R. Moody, of Judson Memorial Church in New York City, organized a meeting among clergy to consider the idea of developing a counseling and referral service for women seeking abortions. Moody had experienced a pregnant woman’s crisis firsthand and arranged an opportunity for the group to meet with several women who had sought illegal abortions.
That meeting crystallized the urgent need for emotional support and practical assistance for women. At the time, the New York legislature was debating liberalizing its restrictive abortion law from the 19th century, but it would be another three years before it actually did so. The CCS therefore obtained information on competent, though initially illegal, abortion providers and announced their desire to field calls from women seeking help.
Those efforts led to the CCS, a loose organization that eventually spread to 31 states. Many clergy themselves had encountered unwillingly pregnant women in their ministries, which opened their eyes to the dire need for information and counseling services. As a news release in South Carolina made clear, clergy in the CCS saw abortion counseling as “our moral obligation, pastoral responsibility and therefore our religious duty to give aid and assistance to all women with problem pregnancies.”
Determining exact numbers is impossible as few records remain, but as many as 500,000 women used the service. Some 95 percent of them opted for abortions and received information about where to obtain one safely. Women in trouble, the CCS contended, needed compassion, encouragement and reliable information, not abstract theorizing about when life began.
At the time, abortion was taboo and spoken of only in whispers. Despite abortion being largely illegal, estimates suggested well over 1 million pregnant Americans sought illegal procedures every year. To find one, they navigated what Moody called a “dark, ugly labyrinthian underground,” alone and afraid. Illegal abortions, even with antibiotics, were dangerous surgical procedures, and patients risked hemorrhage, infection and perforated organs in their desperate effort to end an unwanted pregnancy. Hundreds of women died each year, while many more were hospitalized and experienced permanent physical injuries. The CCS sought to mitigate this anguish and suffering.
Make no mistake, the abortion debate was fierce by the late 1960s, especially in Moody’s home state of New York, where the powerful Catholic cardinal presided. States across the country considered loosening their restrictive laws while the Catholic Church insisted that abortion was murder.
But Moody argued, in articles in religious magazines and a 1973 book about the CCS, that such a stance had eclipsed all other moral considerations. He focused instead on “the moral question of whether it is justifiable to force the unwanted on the unwilling.” In his view, to use a woman’s body against her free will and choice as a receptacle for an unwanted pregnancy was as morally repugnant as abortion because it denied women the right to answer “the existential questions of what she should do with her life in the world.”
Moody’s views resonated with clergy from many denominations and faiths nationwide. CCS phone numbers frequently appeared in newspapers and magazines, as well as in college newspapers in states from Texas and Alabama to Pennsylvania and California. Florida State University’s chaplain was a member; Chapel Hill had a thriving chapter in North Carolina.
Their services were in high demand. In some areas, clergy on call received over 100 calls daily. After New York liberalized its abortion law in 1970, college students from Georgia, Florida and elsewhere filled planes to New York with the help of the CCS. South Carolina’s CCS began in September 1970 with 17 clergy members. By 1972, 68 clergy from 11 denominations counseled an average of two women per week, sending many of them to abortion providers in New York. They also offered follow-up counseling and access to small loans, and even found one woman furniture.
Without formal offices, the CCS operated over the phone. Women called an answering service, which provided a message with direct phone numbers to clergy willing to provide care. Once New York legalized abortion through the 24th week of pregnancy, other referral services sprang up. These agencies offered to connect women across the country to legal abortion providers in New York, where there was no residency requirement for obtaining the procedure. They often charged fees for the service, but the CCS offered its counseling without charge as a matter of principle.
The CCS sidestepped laws prohibiting abortion by providing information orally, calling it pastoral care, and usually sending women where abortion was legal. Clergy counselors only asked for the woman’s first name, and even that was not recorded. And so, few records of the service actually exist.
However, questionnaires from one chapter in South Carolina provide a glimpse of the women who sought help. They ranged in age from 14 to 48; were African American and White; single, married and divorced. They were housewives, mothers, mill workers, high school and college students. One became pregnant after her first experience of intercourse; another already had five children and missed a single dose of her oral contraceptive.
They were all desperate. One had tried to cause an abortion by taking 42 birth control pills and nine quinine pills. Another’s last pregnancy had ended in stillbirth. Her husband’s written consent could have earned her a legal abortion for health reasons. Unfortunately, he had deserted her. Whatever the specifics, these women determined that giving birth would be disastrous to them and their families.
The clergy involved in the CCS saw abortion as a complicated moral dilemma, but they believed they were doing God’s work by helping women in trouble. After Roe v. Wade, the need for the CCS declined. Still, the CCS persisted because clergy understood that Roe would not provide access to abortion for poor women. The CSS continued to advocate for women without resources.
Eventually, however, the CCS disappeared altogether, leaving scant evidence of its existence behind. As a result, religious voices against legal abortion are far easier to find in the historical record than voices of Moody and other CCS clergy. As Moody saw it, a one-dimensional moral focus on the fetus erased women’s humanity. He insisted a law compelling women to be “baby makers” denied women their own religious conscience when deciding whether to bear a child. In his view, prohibiting abortion was not only unconstitutional but downright unchristian as well. | 2022-08-03T11:00:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | For some clergy in the past, facilitating abortions was faith in action - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/08/03/some-clergy-past-facilitating-abortions-was-faith-action/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/08/03/some-clergy-past-facilitating-abortions-was-faith-action/ |
Ticketmaster’s ‘dynamic pricing’ led to sticker shock, with many of the Boss’s most devoted fans wondering how he could support such a policy
By Allison Stewart
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band perform at Nationals Park in 2016. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
Longtime Bruce Springsteen fan Susan Avery raised her daughter to believe the Boss was the one rock star who could do no wrong. “He doesn’t tear up hotel rooms,” points out Avery, a fan since the ’70s, who has seen every Springsteen tour for decades. “You don’t see him on drug binges. He’s just a really, really solid, wonderful guy.”
In late July, tickets went on sale for Springsteen’s first run of U.S. shows with the E Street band in six years. Like tens of thousands of others, Avery went online to try to purchase tickets. By the time she made it out of the virtual Ticketmaster queue, the only tickets priced at face value for the show she wanted at Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun casino were in the nosebleed sections. As Avery went to purchase a slightly better seat, she watched the price of the ticket in her cart rise vertiginously. She wound up paying $800, several hundred dollars over face value.
Avery wasn’t the only Springsteen fan experiencing sticker shock, thanks to Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing policy, which uses an algorithm to adjust prices in real time according to supply and demand. Instead of tickets selling for face value through Ticketmaster and then being resold by scalpers at significant — sometimes exorbitant — markups, dynamic pricing lets artists effectively scalp their own tickets before they even make it to the secondary market. Ticketmaster compares it to airline and hotel pricing, which can change without notice, though Ticketmaster, unlike those businesses, owns almost total market dominance in its field.
Artists such as Taylor Swift and Paul McCartney have been using dynamic pricing for years, but this was the first time music’s most controversial ticketing practice had run headlong into its most ferocious fan base. The ensuing dust-up has laid bare the growing divisions between many artists and their audiences, between the 1 percenters who can afford tickets and the die-hard, less fortunate fans, who increasingly can’t.
For Springsteen’s biggest devotees, it’s an unfortunate collision of circumstances: the pent-up demand after years of covid confinement, the six years since an E Street Band tour, the lack of understanding of a changing marketplace, the fear that the 72-year-old Springsteen will never do a full band tour again.
Because Springsteen has vowed to never do an official farewell tour, any tour could theoretically be the last one. And not just for Bruce. “I look at pictures from 2016 of myself and some friends at shows, and some people have died since then, you know,” says Stan Goldstein, a longtime fan who has been conducting Bruce-themed tours of his native Jersey Shore since 1999. “You look at the picture and you’re like, ‘Oh, he’s gone. She’s gone.’ You never know.”
Fans say they are upset not just at ticket prices but at the lack of transparency. Outrage has been plentiful on Twitter and other places people like to be upset all the time, but also, more surprisingly, on Springsteen’s own Instagram and fan Facebook groups. “So this is what a crisis of faith feels like,” beloved fan resource Backstreets magazine tweeted, almost unthinkably. Words like “betrayed” and “gut punch” were frequently used. “I would expect this stuff from the Eagles,” a fan tweeted, witheringly.
So this is what a crisis of faith feels like.
— Backstreets Magazine (@backstreetsmag) July 23, 2022
Many described an unspoken contract between the singer and his fans, which has now been broken. It’s been difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile Superstar Bruce, who sold his music catalogue last year to Sony for a reported $550 million, and has been a legend longer than many fans have been alive, with Man of the People Bruce, a Carhartt-clad grandfather from New Jersey. As long as Springsteen wasn’t openly soaking his fan base, it was easy for everyone to look the other way, to pretend those class divisions didn’t exist, to avoid headlines like this one on NJ.com: “Bruce Springsteen does not care about you.”
“I don’t feel like I’m let down,” says Flynn McLean, who co-hosts the fan-favorite Springsteen podcast “None But the Brave.” “You know, I haven’t bought into the working-class hero thing for a long time.” McLean is going to a show anyway.
That Springsteen has always treated his fan base like family and has historically kept ticket prices low only heightens the sense of indignation, says fan Amy Demma. She hasn’t missed a Bruce tour since 1980, but she turned down a pair of not-that-great Boston tickets that would have cost a staggering $18,000. Demma is going to three shows on the European leg of the tour; flying to Dublin, staying for three concerts and flying back is still cheaper than dynamic pricing stateside. Many fans are doing the same, though they fear that surrendering Springsteen concerts to the 1 percent Wall Street bros will change the show’s dynamic, and alter irreparably the fraying bonds between Bruce and his audience. “These are the folks who feel so very, very betrayed,” she says. “We were invited and embraced and told that we were an important part of what he was trying to do with his music. And now we feel shut out.”
The quirks of the dynamic pricing system also frustrated would-be buyers who said they could no longer see original ticket prices and didn’t know how much they were overpaying, or didn’t realize their $300 tickets had turned into $3,000 tickets until their finger hovered over the “place order” button.
Many bought those tickets anyway and offered similar reasons. I was afraid of missing out. I didn’t want to spend the next six months watching to see if the algorithm dropped the prices. Bruce is 72. You never know.
Fans blame promoters, Ticketmaster and Springsteen’s longtime manager Jon Landau. (According to a statement from Ticketmaster, “promoters and artist representatives” are responsible for setting pricing parameters.) Many will tell you that Bruce had nothing to do with setting prices, that he’s probably working behind the scenes right now to issue refunds, that he might not even know about the entire kerfuffle.
He knows, says Bob Lefsetz, author of the industry publication the Lefsetz Letter. He figures that at best, Springsteen and his team were vaguely familiar with the practice and thought ticket prices would go up a few hundred dollars at most, and didn’t think to put an upper limit on prices. “Bruce, his only goal was to make sure however much the tickets were sold for, he got the money as opposed to scalpers,” Lefsetz says. “That’s how simple it is. Did he [mess] up by not capping it? Yeah, okay.”
While the $5,000 tickets have sparked most of the outrage, it’s hard to find people who actually ponied up that cash. Those imposing numbers may be product of an overly punchy algorithm; ticket prices for many shows have settled down into the low four figures, and tickets for shows in smaller cities (like Tulsa, for example) can still be found near face value. According to a statement from Ticketmaster, whose computations might best be described as opaque, the average price of a ticket, at least in the early on-sales, is $262.
It’s been a long time since Springsteen faced this sort of widespread public condemnation, and he seems to have been caught flat-footed. He has yet to address the issue publicly, which is another sticking point with fans who are in an unusually unforgiving mood. “I think whatever mistake or oversight they made in terms of allowing those tickets to come out at $3,000, $4,000, $5,000 last week, they deserve this,” says podcaster McLean. “Not a lot of Bruce apologists at this point.”
With many West Coast dates, including Los Angeles, yet to be announced, and a likely stadium tour coming after that, the drama could drag on for a long time. Landau released a statement to the New York Times that seemed to make things only worse, pointing out that ticket prices were in line with Springsteen’s peers, of which there were not many, anyway. “I believe that in today’s environment, that is a fair price to see someone universally regarded as among the very greatest artists of his generation,” he said.
The backlash probably won’t survive the opening minutes of the tour’s first show in Tampa next February, but until then, there are indications that Springsteen is starting to understand his predicament. Goldstein ran into the singer in Asbury Park on Sunday, at his longtime haunt, Wonder Bar. Springsteen hung outside with the dogs (Wonder Bar holds a canine-friendly Yappy Hour), mostly unnoticed. A video of the singer with the owner commemorating the bar’s 20th anniversary, a timely reminder that the singer hasn’t forgotten his roots, has since gone viral.
Bruce Springsteen stops by the Wonder Bar in Asbury Park today to thank manager Debbie DeLisa on its 20th anniversary. pic.twitter.com/hJDHOk6tRL
— Stan Goldstein (@Stan_Goldstein) July 31, 2022
Goldstein, understandably, didn’t mention the ticketing situation during his encounter with Springsteen. But if Susan Avery were to run into Bruce, she says she would speak up. “I would say, you know, ‘I still love your music. I think you’re amazing. You’ve changed my life. And thanks for being in my life. But I have to tell you, I’m really disappointed in what happened with Ticketmaster.’ And I would love to hear what he has to say about that.” | 2022-08-03T11:00:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Bruce Springsteen ticket prices are giving fans a crisis of faith - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/08/03/bruce-springsteen-tickets-dynamic-pricing/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/08/03/bruce-springsteen-tickets-dynamic-pricing/ |
Georgia says ‘unborn child’ counts as dependent on taxes after 6 weeks
Pregnant residents will qualify for a $3,000 state tax deduction
People gather in front of the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta on June 24 to protest the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. (Ben Gray/AP)
Under Georgia law, fetuses now have “full legal recognition” as living people. That means their parents can claim them as dependents on their tax returns — even before delivery.
The state’s department of revenue said Monday that it would begin recognizing “any unborn child with a detectable human heartbeat … as eligible for the Georgia individual income tax dependent exemption” — amounting to $3,000. Taxpayers must be prepared to provide relevant medical records and documents if requested by the department.
The tax benefit is a byproduct of a law that went into effect July 20 banning abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. Georgia House Bill 481 was initially approved in 2019 but was deemed unconstitutional given the protections granted by Roe v. Wade. Once that long-standing precedent was erased in June, a federal appeals court cleared the way for Georgia’s abortion ban to become law. The court also agreed that “personhood” could be redefined to include fetuses.
The concept of enshrining personhood into antiabortion policy isn’t new. Among the states that consider embryos as distinct people are Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Kansas and Missouri, the Associated Press reported. Others states — including Colorado, Mississippi and North Dakota — have tried to follow suit, but the proposed pieces of legislation have so far failed, according to the AP.
Georgia’s personhood provision is, for now, the most expansive. Not only does it grant tax breaks for fetuses, but it also requires that they be included in some population counts. It also imposes child support “on the father of an unborn child” — amounting to the “direct medical and pregnancy related expenses of the mother.”
But considering the prevalence of miscarriages and stillbirths, some wondered what the implications of the new tax policy could mean for those who experience pregnancy loss. Georgia State University law professor Anthony Michael Kreis speculated on Twitter that the state’s treasury could end up “handing out a lot of cash for pregnancies that would never come to term.”
Lauren Groh-Wargo, campaign manager for Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, questioned whether pregnancy loss could trigger an investigation. “So what happens when you claim your fetus as a dependent and then miscarry later in the pregnancy, you get investigated both for tax fraud and an illegal abortion?” she tweeted.
Neither the bill nor the guidance issued by the Georgia Department of Revenue address what would happen in the event of a miscarriage.
The law also creates other gray areas. For instance, what are the implications for couples using a surrogate? And when it comes to sperm donors or instances of uncertain paternity, who would be responsible for providing child support?
The Washington Post has contacted the Georgia Department of Revenue seeking clarification. The department’s guidance delineates that additional information — “including return instructions to claim the personal exemption for an unborn child with a detectable heartbeat” — will be issued later this year.
Stacey Abrams, a Democrat running for governor, said July 20 that she was “enraged” by the law that bans abortion after detecting a fetal heartbeat. (Video: The Washington Post)
Georgia’s ban prohibits most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, typically around the time when doctors can begin to detect cardiac activity. Exceptions include pregnancies caused by rape and incest, if a police report is filed, and pregnancies that would result in a mother’s death or serious harm, though not harm based “on a diagnosis or claim of a mental or emotional condition.” Additionally, the law doesn’t ban terminations for nonviable pregnancies, ectopic pregnancies or spontaneous abortions, commonly known as miscarriages.
Georgia’s law underscores stark differences among states and a dizzying lack of consensus when it comes to personhood.
In Missouri, abortion is banned — except in cases of life endangerment — based on the “right to life of the unborn child.” At the same time, a divorce there can’t be finalized if one spouse is pregnant. The reason: the state’s divorce law doesn’t consider fetuses to be people, so there can’t be a “court order that dictates visitation and child support for a child that doesn’t exist,” the Riverfront Times reported.
Last month, a case in Texas made headlines after a pregnant woman was pulled over for driving alone in a high-occupancy lane. When the officers asked where the other passenger was, Brandy Bottone replied that her baby counted as a passenger, given the reversal of Roe and the state’s abortion policy.
She still got a ticket.
“The laws don’t speak the same language, and it’s all been kind of confusing, honestly,” she told The Post. | 2022-08-03T11:00:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Georgia says fetuses count as dependents, qualifying for tax deduction - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/03/georgia-fetus-tax-dependent-abortion/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/03/georgia-fetus-tax-dependent-abortion/ |
On Tuesday, Kansas voters had a chance to strike down the state’s constitutional right to an abortion. They resoundingly decided to keep abortion rights in their state, which is one of the last havens for abortion rights in the Midwest. Meanwhile, election deniers did well in Arizona.
Here are takeaways from a big primary night across the nation Tuesday, in Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Arizona.
1. Kansas voters want to keep abortion rights in their state
Tuesday was a bellwether for the abortion rights fight in the post-Roe world: Would voters in a red state move to keep abortion access?
Many of Kansas’s neighbors have banned abortion since Roe fell. Abortion opponents needed to change the state’s constitution before the conservative legislature could move to do the same. Hence, this ballot measure — which came under criticism for being on the ballot during a primary rather than a general election, and for misleading arguments and texts about it from the antiabortion side.
If the measure passed, it could have ended abortion access for thousands of women in the Midwest and Texas, who had been traveling to Kansas for abortion care.
In the end, it wasn’t even close: With almost all results in, about 60 percent of voters rejected this amendment, compared to 40 percent in favor of changing the state constitution to allow for abortion bans.
Polls had suggested that the measure could go either way, but Kansas is also a red state (albeit one with a Democratic governor). So what led to the somewhat surprising result? Motivated Democratic voters. Other than this ballot initiative, there weren’t many reasons for them to come out to vote in this primary. Yet Democratic turnout was up more than 60 percent compared to 2018, when Kansas Democrats were deciding whom should be their gubernatorial nominee.
Clearly, abortion can help motivate left-leaning voters to show up at the polls.
This is good news for Democrats across the nation who are hoping they can recreate that same dynamic in their races.
2. Election deniers have a good night
If nothing else, this primary season has shown that, for many Republicans, denying 2020′s election results is the price for entry. A Washington Post analysis in June found that more than 100 Republican primary winners have backed former president Donald Trump’s false election claims.
That number will likely grow quite a bit after all the results are in on Tuesday — particularly in Arizona, which has become a hotbed for election denial.
Results are still being counted in some races, but it’s possible that candidates who back Trump’s false election-fraud claims could win nominations to four of Arizona’s top positions: governor, U.S. Senate, secretary of state and attorney general.
Blake Masters won the GOP’s nomination for U.S. Senate in Arizona on Tuesday. Arizona Republicans also nominated Mark Finchem for secretary of state, who has been propped up by Trump and is a leading driver of a conspiracy theory that the election was stolen in Arizona’s second-largest county, Pima County.
The Arizona governor’s GOP primary is too close to call, but it’s possible that Republican voters will chose Kari Lake, another Trump-backed, unapologetic denier of the 2020 election results, who said if she were elected, she would try to get rid of voting machines and vote by mail — even though most Arizonans vote that way.
Results are still coming in Arizona’s attorney general’s Republican primary, but the winner is likely to be one of two candidates who have embraced election denial.
Whether those candidates win the general election in November, in a state that voted for Biden, is another question. Republicans are justifiably worried that Masters is too polarizing to overthrow the well-known (and well-funded) Sen. Mark Kelly (D). “Whatever their cheating capacity is, I’m pretty sure they pulled out all the stops,” Masters said of the 2020 election.
Kelly was expected to be one of Democrats’ most vulnerable senators in 2022. His path is potentially easier now that his opponent is Masters, who has Trump’s endorsement and a history of being accused of making antisemitic and racist remarks.
Republicans may have more problems in Kansas, where secretary of state Kris Kobach won his party’s nomination for attorney general, giving him a second political life. Kobach ran for governor in 2018, and he lost to Gov. Laura Kelly (D). Kansas voters who saw his focus on election fraud back then as unnecessary; it’s unclear if he can win statewide.
3. Another pro-impeachment Republican loses his job
Tuesday was also of this primary season’s biggest tests of how Republican voters feel about Republicans who supported Trump’s impeachment. Three out of the 10 House Republicans who voted for impeachment faced pro-Trump challengers this week.
Rep. Peter Meijer in Michigan lost to an extreme far-right candidate, John Gibbs. (Democrats were also rooting for Gibbs — so much so that they ran a controversial ad for him, getting lots of criticism from within their own party for boosting an election denier.)
In Washington state, two House Republicans who voted for impeachment — Jaime Herrera Beutler and Dan Newhouse — had a better night. They appear set to finish in the top two in their primaries, which will allow them to move on to the general election in November against Democratic opponents. For Newhouse, who represents a Republican district, that likely means he will be back in Congress next year.
4. GOP breathes a sigh of relief in Missouri’s Senate race
The last thing Senate Republicans in Washington wanted was for a disgraced former Missouri governor Eric Greitens, pushed out of office after allegations of sexual misconduct and now facing child abuse accusations, to win his party’s Senate nomination and potentially put this open seat in play. Republicans are already struggling with controversial Senate candidates in Georgia and Pennsylvania,, which could cost them a chance at the Senate majority.
Missouri, which has trended sharply conservative over the past decade, should be an easy win for them.
And it looks like it still will: Greitens lost the GOP primary, despite appearing to be the front-runner for much of the race. Instead, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt (R) will be the party’s nominee. Former president Donald Trump, who reportedly liked Greitens, dodged making a decision about who to support, endorsing “ERIC” (no last name) the day of the primary.
5. A key Jan. 6 witness loses his job
Arizona House Speaker Russell “Rusty” Bowers (R) is no slouch when it comes to conservatism. But he also refused multiple efforts from Trump and his allies to find a way to convene the state legislature in 2020 and flip that state’s election results from Biden to Trump, which likely would have been illegal. He testified about his experience to the Jan. 6 committee, including as a live witness. “I said, ‘Look, you are asking me to do something that is counter to my oath,’” Bowers testified.
In part because he became so well-known for this, Bowers lost his job on Tuesday to former state senator David Farnsworth — something he fully expected, reported The Post’s Yvonne Wingett Sanchez. | 2022-08-03T11:01:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Takeaways from primaries in Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Arizona - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/03/takeaways-primaries-kansas-arizona/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/03/takeaways-primaries-kansas-arizona/ |
Wednesday briefing: A decisive vote on abortion rights in Kansas; Arizona primary results; Nancy Pelosi; Vin Scully; and more
Kansas voted to keep abortion rights.
The latest: Just under 60% voted against removing abortion protections from the state’s constitution yesterday.
Why this matters: It’s the first vote like this since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and sends a decisive message about how many people feel about this issue.
What else to know: The Justice Department sued Idaho yesterday, arguing that its near-total abortion ban would violate federal law covering emergency medical treatment.
Republican election deniers had a good night at the primaries.
In Arizona: Candidates who supported former president Donald Trump’s false election fraud claims will be on November’s ballot for at least two top positions — Arizona secretary of state and U.S. Senate — with a close governor’s race not yet called.
Elsewhere: Three of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump faced primary challenges. One in Michigan lost; the races for the other two, in Washington, haven’t been called. Check the full results here.
Tension between China and the U.S. is rising over Taiwan.
Why? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s short visit to the self-governing island. Beijing claims Taiwan as part of its territory and opposes any official contact with the U.S.
The latest: China is planning military exercises around the island this week, in response to Pelosi’s trip, raising fears of a military crisis.
A bill to help millions of veterans exposed to burn pits passed the Senate.
What are burn pits? What the military used in Iraq and Afghanistan to get rid of things like chemicals, tires, plastics and more. They released dangerous chemicals into the air.
Why this matters: Many veterans who have tried to get care for cancer and other illnesses after burn pit exposure have been denied. This will change that.
Next step: The bill heads to President Biden to sign into law.
Credit card debt has gone way up in the U.S.
The numbers: Balances jumped 13% over the past year, a report said yesterday.
Why this matters: That’s the biggest increase in more than 20 years and helps explain how Americans have been able to keep spending, even with rising prices.
What else to know: Slightly fewer job openings were posted in June, according to new numbers, another sign the market may be slowing down.
Vin Scully, the greatest announcer in baseball history, died yesterday.
How we’ll remember him: As the voice who called Dodgers games on radio and TV for 67 seasons, starting in 1950 when the team played in Brooklyn.
His death was announced by the Dodgers without giving the cause. He was 94.
A candy company is looking for a full-time taste-tester.
The role: “Chief candy officer” at Canada’s Candy Funhouse. You’ll try more than 3,500 pieces of candy every month for an annual salary of $100,000 Canadian dollars ($77,786).
Ready to apply? It’s a remote position open to anyone living in North America. You’ll need “golden taste buds” and “an obvious sweet tooth.” The application deadline is Aug. 31.
And now … what to cook tonight: One of these fresh summer pastas. | 2022-08-03T11:01:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The 7 things you need to know for Wednesday, August 3 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/the-seven/2022/08/03/what-to-know-for-august-3/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/the-seven/2022/08/03/what-to-know-for-august-3/ |
By David Crawshaw
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi walks with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei, Aug. 3, 2022. (Taiwanese Presidential Office/Getty Images)
The visit lasted barely 19 hours. But Nancy Pelosi’s contentious trip to Taiwan was a defining moment in the increasingly bitter rivalry between China and the United States.
A fuller picture of the Chinese response will emerge over the coming weeks and months, and there are already signs it will encompass greater economic as well as military coercion. Whatever the final shape of Beijing’s retaliation, Pelosi’s visit heralds a new phase in China’s efforts to control Taiwan’s fate — and those measures are likely to increase the risk of conflict with U.S. forces in the western Pacific.
Meeting on Wednesday with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, Pelosi (D-Calif.) vowed that the United States would not abandon Taiwan. “Now more than ever, American solidarity with Taiwan is crucial,” she said, describing a world facing a choice between democracy and autocracy. She said the American commitment to preserving Taiwan’s democracy was “ironclad,” although, in keeping with Washington’s approach of strategic ambiguity, she stopped short of pledging that the United States would defend the island militarily.
Taiwan has never been part of the People’s Republic of China, yet the ruling Communist Party in Beijing asserts sovereignty over the democratically governed island of 23 million and has vowed to seize it by force if necessary. The United States has long espoused a one-China policy, which recognizes Beijing and acknowledges its claims over Taiwan without endorsing them, while maintaining informal ties with Taipei.
China has sought to isolate Taiwan diplomatically and bristles at exchanges between Taipei and foreign officials — especially ones as high-profile as Pelosi. It worries that the California Democrat’s presence will normalize such visits and embolden U.S. allies to solidify their own unofficial ties with Taipei. Indeed, when asked by a reporter in Taipei if her trip could pave the way for other visits by U.S. lawmakers, Pelosi said, “I certainly hope so.”
As more countries engage with Taiwan, raising its global profile, Beijing loses control over the long-standing question of how to treat Taiwan, a de facto nation that is recognized by only a handful of countries as a result of Beijing’s aggressive lobbying. For the Chinese leadership — under which “reunifying” Taiwan with the motherland is a core part of party ideology — that is infuriating.
Pelosi’s visit was the first to Taiwan by a House speaker since Newt Gingrich (R.-Ga.) in 1997. But back then, China was far less capable militarily and economically. Today, it is ruled with an iron fist by President Xi Jinping, who is determined to secure a third term at a party leadership conclave in the fall that would cement him as China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong.
Xi moved assertively in recent years to crush the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong and bring the financial hub more tightly under Beijing’s grip. But he has fewer options with Taiwan, and there is only so much he can do without starting a war that could backfire badly at a politically sensitive moment. And the Taiwanese, who struggled hard for their democracy after decades under martial law, have little desire to submit to Beijing’s authoritarian rule.
“China does not want direct conflict with the United States, and economically it is unlikely that China will cut ties. To be honest, China doesn’t have many cards in its hand,” said Chu Shulong, a professor of political science and international relations at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
So far, China has announced new trade sanctions against Taiwan covering fruit, sand and fish. And its plans to conduct large-scale military exercises encircling the island over the coming days have ratcheted up tensions, leading Taiwanese officials on Wednesday to complain that Beijing was violating its territorial space with measures that amounted to an air and sea blockade.
The White House has sought to de-escalate, emphasizing its support for the status quo and insisting that there has been no change to U.S. policy on Taiwan while warning Beijing against an overreaction.
Those entreaties are unlikely to satisfy Xi, who has cultivated a hypernationalistic mood at home and is likely to feel compelled to respond forcefully to demonstrate Chinese resolve. That is what worries U.S. officials and others who fear that China’s retaliation could raise the risk of a military miscalculation with grave consequences, potentially drawing in other regional powers and U.S. allies such as Japan and Australia. The jolt to the global economy from a conflict in the Taiwan Strait would be enormous, given the volume of trade that passes through the adjacent South China Sea and the central role of Taiwan in the global electronics industry.
“If China plans to use force against Taiwan in the future, the sanctions they would face may be even more serious than those faced by Russia now,” said Fan Shih-ping, professor at the Graduate Institute of Political Science of National Taiwan Normal University. “The fact that Xi Jinping puts so much effort to interfere with Pelosi’s visit this time indicates that the Taiwan issue is no longer a problem that can be solved just between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.”
China repeatedly condemned Pelosi’s visit and warned the United States against “playing with fire.” On Wednesday, as Pelosi prepared to depart Taipei, the Chinese Foreign Ministry vowed targeted countermeasures that would affect both the United States and Taiwan.
Tsai, whom Beijing characterizes as a dangerous separatist, has stressed Taiwan’s preparedness for any Chinese military action. Chinese jets regularly buzz the skies around Taiwan, forcing the island’s air force to scramble its planes. Taipei “will not back down” in the face of heightened military threats from China, the Taiwanese leader said Wednesday.
And while Taiwan largely appeared to relish the attention from Pelosi’s visit — boosting its profile, a key aim of Tsai — it now faces the prospect of increasing intimidation from a Chinese leadership determined to get its way.
Asked at a news conference Wednesday what tangible benefits her trip had brought to offset the costs to Taiwan, Pelosi noted that the United States last week passed the Chips and Science Act, which she touted as enabling better economic exchanges and investments in manufacturing.
Lyric Li in Seoul and Vic Chiang in Taipei contributed to this report. | 2022-08-03T11:34:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Pelosi Taiwan visit brings new phase of Chinese pressure campaign - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/03/pelosi-taiwan-visit-china-response-military/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/03/pelosi-taiwan-visit-china-response-military/ |
Chevy Chase, D.C., is a ‘small town within a city’
The residents of the Northwest Washington neighborhood are active within their community
By Claire Healy
Chevy Chase, a neighborhood in Northwest Washington, features several housing styles. Many of the homes boast colorful gardens. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post)
When local photographer Stacy Beck was deciding where to move with her growing family, the Northwest Washington neighborhood of Chevy Chase, with its mix of suburban and urban living, felt like the perfect fit.
“I distinctly remember when I was pregnant with my now rising junior in high school, taking a bike [ride] up here with my husband,” Beck said. “We were house-hunting and just totally fell in love with the neighborhood. It’s got really beautiful, diverse houses, a lot of mature trees. … It’s such a privilege to have this big green space so close to us. And I’ve made just amazing friends here. It’s a tightknit community — I really love it.”
Photographer Peggy Fleming, who wrote a book about the neighborhood, called Chevy Chase a “small town within a city,” using it as the basis for the title of her book. Over the past 17 years, Beck has found a close community through block parties and school activities.
Her three children went to Lafayette Elementary School, where they created their own bonds in neighborhood sports leagues. Beck was amazed by a survey that found 32 languages are spoken by children at the school. After realizing parents needed a place to coordinate and share neighborhood activities, she founded a Facebook group called “Chevy Chase Chatter.”
“Someone posted, ‘My wife has a big interview, but her apartment building is under construction. Can anyone offer her a quiet space to do this Zoom interview?’” Beck said. “And several people responded; I think all were strangers to this person.”
At the start of the pandemic, Cecilia Paradi-Guilford moved from Kenya to Chevy Chase with her family. She had been stationed abroad for work at the World Bank. Although the pandemic stalled neighborhood activities, Paradi-Guilford has been impressed with the support she has found.
“We needed a bike pump to blow something up urgently for the kids, and within a matter of minutes, 10 bike pumps had turned up on the front porch because people were just really keen to jump to help,” she said.
Paradi-Guilford said the support neighbors show is not just local but worldwide.
“It’s been impressive for me to see, for instance, with the Afghan refugee crisis, there’s an organized group in the neighborhood that continues to rally efforts together,” she said.
Families flock to the recently renovated Lafayette-Pointer Park and Recreation Center in the warmer weather to enjoy the baseball field, playgrounds, splash park and tennis courts. The park was renamed in 2018 when community members, including James Fisher, a seventh-generation descendant of George Pointer, came together to honor the Pointer family.
George Pointer purchased his freedom at age 19 for $300 after being enslaved since birth. His family settled on the land, which was subsequently owned by a small community of Black families for more than 80 years. In 1928, their homes were seized by eminent domain to build Lafayette Elementary School and Lafayette Park.
In 2015, more than 100 of Pointer’s descendants traveled to gather in the park for a celebration.
“Once the true story circulated in the neighborhood, we were embraced, and some very skilled, tireless people formed to assist in every way,” Fisher said. “Without them, little would have been accomplished.”
Colonials, Cape Cods, bungalows and Tudor-style houses are found in the neighborhood, several boasting colorful gardens. As one of D.C.’s first streetcar suburbs, many houses date to the early 20th century. Historic Chevy Chase DC has launched a project to document the area’s legacy in oral “house histories” by interviewing residents about their homes.
The house histories cover racial covenants in the area — which barred African Americans from buying into Chevy Chase — world wars, prominent former residents and the evolution of Chevy Chase.
Connecticut Avenue is the center of Chevy Chase with its small strip of shops and restaurants. Chevy Chase Arcade is a historic commercial mall built in 1925, housing Arcade Beauty Salon, Macon Bistro & Larder, and Bert’s Jewelers.
Jerry Malitz, a former ANC commissioner who maintains a newsletter called Chevy Chase News & Notes, says the area is “very family oriented.”
“On the immediate part of where most of the businesses are on Connecticut Avenue in Chevy Chase, the restaurants are all basically family friendly. You can go into some of them and see as many kids as you do adults,” he said.
The Parthenon is a popular restaurant serving Greek cooking; Capital Crab offers seafood; Mamma Lucia serves Italian cuisine; and Blue 44 serves family-style American food. Local bistro Little Beast provides an assortment of pizza and brunch food. Nearby amenities include Rock Creek Park, which is less than a mile away; the Friendship Heights shopping district; and the popular bookstore-restaurant Politics and Prose.
Malitz said one of the biggest events for families is a Halloween parade organized by Lafayette Elementary. Other events, such as recent pop-ups from a new art group called Chevy Chase Artists (Ch/Art), are attended by children, as well.
Avalon Theatre bills itself as the oldest operating movie house in the D.C. metro area. Coming up on its centennial anniversary, the Avalon has events catering to all ages, including an education program for students called “Cinema Classroom at the Avalon.”
Chas Cadwell, who serves as an ANC commissioner for Chevy Chase, says new residents looking to get involved can find plenty of organizations seeking volunteers.
“Everybody is looking for volunteers, whether it's the Citizens Association or us or the Northwest Neighbors Village,” he said. “I'm guessing that's what distinguishes us from most neighborhoods.”
Living there: Chevy Chase’s boundaries tend to be fluid, but the ANC puts them as Rock Creek Park to the north and east; Reno Road, Nebraska Avenue and Broad Branch Road to the south; and Western Avenue to the west.
Carlos Garcia, a real estate agent at Keller Williams, said 212 homes have sold in the past year. He said sales have ranged from a seven-bedroom, five-bathroom home for just under $3.3 million to a studio condo for $180,000. The average home sale price in Chevy Chase is $1,354,314. The average rent is $3,019 for an apartment and $5,191 for a single-family house. Garcia said 19 properties are for sale. Prices range from $150,000 for a one-bedroom condo to $3.1 million for a four-bedroom bungalow-style house.
Schools: Lafayette and Murch Elementary, Alice Deal Middle, Jackson-Reed High
Transit: The closest Metro station is Friendship Heights on the Red Line, which is a 16-minute walk from the neighborhood. Several Metrobus routes serve the neighborhood. | 2022-08-03T12:22:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Neighborhood profile Chevy Chase D.C. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/03/where-we-live-chevy-chase-dc/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/03/where-we-live-chevy-chase-dc/ |
Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully in 2016. (Jae C. Hong/AP)
Vin Scully, whose soothing delivery, exhaustive knowledge of the game, masterful powers of description and Ripkenesque indefatigability made him the best-known and best-loved baseball broadcaster of the past 50 years, died Aug. 2. He was 94.
Mr. Scully, the longtime radio and television play-by-play voice of the Dodgers (dating back to when they played in Brooklyn), is widely considered the greatest announcer in baseball history, if not in all of sports history. In 2010, members of the American Sportscasters Association voted him the top sportscaster of all time.
Mr. Scully’s career began in 1950 — which means he called baseball games for more than two-thirds of the sport’s entire broadcast history. He was behind the microphone for some of the most momentous events in baseball history, including Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series, Sandy Koufax’s 1965 perfect game, Hank Aaron’s record-setting 715th home run in 1974, Bill Buckner’s calamitous error in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series and Kirk Gibson’s dramatic walk-off home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.
Hear Vin Scully's greatest baseball calls
Mr. Scully continued to announce Dodgers baseball through 2016, retiring on the season’s final day. The baseball world honored Mr. Scully throughout the year, and many celebrated players, including Willie Mays — considered by Mr. Scully the greatest he ever saw — visited him in the broadcast booth.
In 1950, when he just 22, he was hired to join Red Barber and Connie Desmond on the Brooklyn Dodgers’ broadcast team. (The Dodgers’ official yearbook that year referred to him as “Vince” Scully.) In 1953, when Barber left after a salary dispute with the Dodgers, Mr. Scully, then 25, found himself behind the microphone during the World Series. He remains the youngest broadcaster in history to call a World Series.
In 1955, Brooklyn’s “Boys of Summer” won their only World Series title before the franchise moved to Los Angeles after the 1957 season. Mr. Scully, by then the team’s lead announcer, made a simple call after the team defeated the New York Yankees in seven games — “The Brooklyn Dodgers are the champions of the world!” — then stayed silent for nearly a minute, allowing the roar of the crowd to tell the story. That device, the silent treatment in the immediate aftermath of a momentous finish, would become a staple of his style.
Mr. Scully’s style was understated and conversational, though he could wield a metaphor with exquisite skill. Of fast-working St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson, he said, “He pitches as if he’s double-parked.” Of Dodgers speedster Maury Wills, he said, “When he runs, it’s all downhill.”
In 1974, when announcing Aaron’s 715th home run, which broke Babe Ruth’s record, Mr. Scully captured the historic grandeur of the event: “What a marvelous moment for baseball. What a marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia. What a marvelous moment for the country and the world. A Black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking the record of an all-time baseball idol, and it is a great moment for all of us.”
Although he was loved across the country, in Los Angeles, Mr. Scully was nothing short of a civic treasure, where he was a part of the soundtrack of summer. No broadcaster spent longer with one franchise than his 67 seasons with the Dodgers, including 59 in Los Angeles.
Mr. Scully’s first wife, the former Joan Crawford (no relation to the actress of the same name), died in 1972. In 1973, he married Sandra Hunt, who died in 2021. He had two children from his first marriage, Kevin and Erin Scully, and a daughter from his second marriage, Catherine Scully-Luderer. A son from his first marriage, Michael Scully, died in a helicopter crash in 1994. Complete information on survivors was not immediately available.
Mr. Scully skillfully blended silence and words in creating his audio portraits of baseball games, but one word he never used to describe the Dodgers faithful was “fans.” | 2022-08-03T12:22:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Vin Scully, beloved sportscaster, dies at 94 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/08/03/vin-scully-dies-sportscaster-dodgers/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/08/03/vin-scully-dies-sportscaster-dodgers/ |
‘This is wrong’: Driver refutes F1 team’s announcement of his promotion
The head of Alpine indicated his team thought it had Oscar Piastri under contract through 2023, but the up-and-coming driver appears to think differently. (Nacho Doce/Reuters)
Less than two hours after the Alpine Formula One team announced that Oscar Piastri would be one of its drivers next season, Piastri declared that was not the case.
The 21-year-old Piastri has spent several years in Alpine’s driver academy and has been a reserve driver for the Formula One team this year, but he sharply distanced himself from Alpine in a tweet Tuesday.
“I understand that, without my agreement, Alpine F1 have put out a press release late this afternoon that I am driving for them next year,” Piastri said on Twitter. “This is wrong and I have not signed a contract with Alpine for 2023. I will not be driving for Alpine next year.”
An Alpine spokesperson subsequently told the BBC, “We believe we are legally correct in our statement but don’t have anything further to say.”
Alpine, which rebranded itself from Renault last year and continues to use engines from the French car manufacturer, has been struck by tumult since Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel announced his retirement Thursday.
Speculation about who might replace Vettel quickly began to center on Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, and those rumors proved to be true when Aston Martin announced Monday that it signed the Spaniard for the 2023 season and beyond. Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer then acknowledged that he had been in talks with Alonso to retain the veteran driver and was not aware of his defection until Szafnauer saw Aston Martin’s news release.
Alpine quickly pivoted to its announced promotion of Piastri to one of its two 2023 race seats, with the other held by Esteban Ocon. Szafnauer said in a statement issued by the team, “Oscar is a bright and rare talent. We are proud to have nurtured and supported him through the difficult pathways of the junior formulae. Through our collaboration over the past four years, we have seen him develop and mature into a driver who is more than capable of taking the step up to Formula 1.”
Four-time Formula One champ Sebastian Vettel to retire at end of season
Now the dominoes might fall in a different direction. Before Alonso bolted to Aston Martin, Piastri and his manager, former Formula One driver Mark Webber, were thought by some observers to be interested in joining McLaren or Williams. With his apparent rejection of Alpine, and assuming the team does not manage to keep him in the fold, Piastri may yet sign with McLaren.
If so, it would likely mean that organization is moving on from longtime Formula One driver Daniel Ricciardo, who is having a disappointing season. Ricciardo reportedly has a contract that ties him to McLaren through 2023, but if he feels the team no longer wants him, the 33-year-old Australian could find himself and Alpine solving a shared problem. Ricciardo is familiar with the team, having raced for Renault in 2019 and 2020.
In other words, Formula One is truly in the midst of its so-called “silly season,” when the circuit’s extended midsummer break gives teams and drivers time to plot their next moves.
Earlier Tuesday, Szafnauer told Motorsport that Piastri had “contractual obligations to us” that he said were in place through at least 2023. Pointing to Alpine’s “significant amount of investment” in the young driver, Szafnauer added: “We’ve only done that with a view of having him race here in the future. We wouldn’t have done that, if the view was to get him prepared for one of our competitors.”
A legal battle could be in store for Piastri if he remains determined to land on another team next year.
A native of Australia, like Ricciardo and Webber, Piastri won the FIA Formula 3 Championship in 2020 and the Formula 2 title last year. He is widely regarded as one of the sport’s foremost up-and-coming talents.
Alpine and McLaren are in a tight battle for fourth place in the Formula One constructor standings. The next stop on the circuit is the Belgian Grand Prix on Aug. 28. Formula One ends its 2022 season with a mid-November race in Abu Dhabi. | 2022-08-03T12:22:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Oscar Piastri says Alpine is ‘wrong’ in saying he will race for it in Formula One - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/03/oscar-piastri-formula-one-alpine/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/03/oscar-piastri-formula-one-alpine/ |
With inflation and consumer prices up, credit card debt is increasing and it’s expensive. But don’t raid your retirement accounts to pay it off.
STOCK PHOTO: Paying bills (iStock)
With inflation and consumer prices up, Americans are turning to credit more. Credit card balances increased by $46 billion since the first quarter, according to the latest report on household debt and credit by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Year over year, there was a 13 percent increase in credit card balances since the second quarter of 2021, representing the largest jump in more than 20 years, the report said.
Credit card debt surges as inflation forces Americans to borrow more
The data mirrors questions I’ve been receiving on my 1-855-ASK-POST (1-855-275-7678) toll-free line. People are worried about paying off the debt they’ve been carrying for some time.
A Northern California caller wanted to get advice on how to get rid of $13,000 in credit card debt at 22 percent and another $7,000 in personal loans.
Here’s the background: She’s 63 and just had the remaining balance of about $175,000 in student loans paid off through the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Before calling the toll-free line, she had already taken out a $10,000 loan from her Thrift Savings Plan, the federal government’s version of a 401(k). Her goal was to use some of the money to help her adult daughter, who is going through some health challenges. She’s spending about $500 extra each month on medical expenses for her daughter.
Here’s when you should withdraw funds from your retirement account if you’re not already retired: when there is no other choice. You’ve gone through all your non-retirement savings and exhausted other non-debt sources of assistance.
Then, as a last resort, you may have no choice but to tap your retirement account. But keep in mind that if you’re younger than 591/2, you could be subject to a 10 percent early withdrawal penalty. And even if you are not dinged with the penalty, you have to pay income taxes on the money.
But generally, you should try to avoid borrowing from your retirement account. During better times, you could be missing out on compound earnings had the money stayed in your account.
And yes, I know her credit card debt is more expensive. But when getting out of debt, attacking smaller debts and wiping them out often motivates people to become more aggressive in paying down their balances.
Ready to pay off your credit cards? Try the ‘Debt Dash’ method. Image without a caption
We briefly discussed whether she should apply for Social Security because she’s over 62. But if she plans to work for another few years, she shouldn’t take Social Security until she at least hits her full retirement age of 66 years and eight months. If you’re under full retirement age for the entire year, Social Security will deduct $1 from your benefit payments for every $2 you earn above the annual limit. For 2022, that limit is $19,560.
I asked her to pull her checking account statements for the last 12 months and, with a highlighter, go through them to find anything she could trim from her monthly budget. Here’s what she found:
“So far, the biggest items are Costco and the natural foods store,” she emailed. “Last month, I spent $683 on Costco’s food and gas for just me. The month before, I spent $1,000. I had a house guest that month.”
She can reduce the cost of mobile phone service, which is $190 a month for her and her daughter. “She needs to get her own service when she starts working. I can possibly get what I need for $75 a month. That’s $115 saved there.”
I also encouraged her to call the credit card company and see what they could do to lower her interest rate or work with her on a payment plan that could speed up her debt reduction. She did that and is waiting for a response from the lender.
7 ways to lower your credit card debt after the Fed rate hike
With another set of eyes, the caller could see she had options. If you think you may need help, take advantage of free financial coaching and counseling through America Saves (americasaves.org). You can also get assistance from a nonprofit credit counseling agency by visiting the National Foundation for Credit Counseling or calling 800-388-2227. | 2022-08-03T12:31:17Z | www.washingtonpost.com | When is it okay to use retirement savings to pay off credit card debt? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/03/retirement-account-paying-off-debt/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/03/retirement-account-paying-off-debt/ |
This undated photo courtesy of the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy shows Dolly Parton. Parton will receive the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2022 for the work of her Dollywood Foundation, which famously invested in what would become the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, as well as programs reducing poverty and increasing childhood education. (Courtesy of the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy via AP) (Uncredited/Courtesy of the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy.) | 2022-08-03T12:31:23Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Dolly Parton among Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy winners - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/dolly-parton-among-carnegie-medal-of-philanthropy-winners/2022/08/03/c27cc6ba-1324-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/dolly-parton-among-carnegie-medal-of-philanthropy-winners/2022/08/03/c27cc6ba-1324-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
‘Jobful Vibecession’ Will Keep Workers on the Payroll
Laying off millions of workers is one way to rebalance the US labor market. But there’s another way — one that seems more likely in this inflationary economy and that’s far less traumatic for both workers and companies. We’re seeing it already: a labor market cool down happening through shrinking paychecks instead of job cuts.
We could be facing a downturn where most workers get a little bit poorer rather than several million losing their jobs.
Companies begin layoffs when their labor expenses are too high relative to their revenues. It’s generally more culturally acceptable to reduce the workforce rather than have everyone accept a pay cut. Sometimes labor agreements or minimum-wage laws make pay cuts impossible, leaving terminations as the only alternative.
But our current high inflation makes the situation more fluid. Even if a company is selling fewer widgets, revenue might be rising because of the pricing environment. For example, maybe unit sales are down 2% but revenue is up 8% because the company raised prices by 10%. In that scenario, the company could tell its workforce that nobody was getting a raise — essentially a pay cut in inflation-adjusted terms — and end up with labor expenses declining as a percentage of revenue without letting anyone go.
So rather than thinking about higher unemployment as an inevitable outcome of a recession, companies could achieve the same cost reductions through a broad decline in payrolls, adjusted for inflation. The chart below shows year-over-year growth in the total level of wage and salary disbursements, found in the monthly personal income report adjusted by headline Consumer Price Inflation. In every recession going back to the 1960’s, total inflation-adjusted wages have fallen by at least 1.5%.
And while this measure is still up 1.1% year-over-year, that’s incredibly subdued when the number of jobs has grown by 4.3% year-over-year — the fastest pace of job growth in more than three decades outside of the pandemic. Interestingly, in the months since February — during which we’ve gotten multiple hot Consumer Price Index readings — inflation-adjusted wage and salary disbursements are down by 1.6% even as the US added 1.5 million jobs.
I continue to think the economy is strong and resilient, and I’m still skeptical about the need or the likelihood of a recession in the short term, largely because of the level of job growth and labor demand throughout the economy. So admittedly, this finding gives me pause.
Four months isn’t enough to make a definitive conclusion. Much of the hot inflation data we’ve seen since February is from rising energy prices, which are now reversing, one-off rises in airfares as consumers returned to the skies after two years avoiding travel, and the 2021 surge in rents finally flowing into the CPI data. But if the trend persists, it does seem like we’ll end up describing the 2022 labor market in negative terms.
This dynamic is very different from other recent economic soft patches. During the eight months the US economy experienced recession in 2001, employment fell by 1.2%, or 1.6 million jobs. But because inflation was so much lower at the time — headline CPI rose by 1.6% in 2001 — the paychecks of most workers who kept their jobs were unaffected by the downturn when accounting for inflation.
Now the US economy is adding hundreds of thousands of jobs each month, while at the same time tens of millions of workers have seen their paychecks shrink every month on an inflation-adjusted basis. It’s the reason most Americans are unhappy with the economy even as we’re adding lots of jobs.
Both reflect the need to find a new way to evaluate today’s labor market adjustment, which appears to be disconnected from job growth and unemployment data. | 2022-08-03T12:31:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | ‘Jobful Vibecession’ Will Keep Workers on the Payroll - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/jobful-vibecessionwill-keep-workers-on-the-payroll/2022/08/03/6c4c4c74-1320-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/jobful-vibecessionwill-keep-workers-on-the-payroll/2022/08/03/6c4c4c74-1320-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
Pink Sweat$ is opening for Alicia Keys at the Theater at MGM National Harbor. (Josefine Cardoni)
David Bowden was born on Valentine’s Day, an astrological coincidence that seems to inform the music he makes under the moniker Pink Sweat$: old-school R&B that strips away the contemporary scene’s hip-hop infatuation and is perfect for dimmed lights and romantic nights. On his gentle debut album “Pink Planet,” Bowden focused on instant-classic melodies and heart-on-sleeve sentiments that were complemented by unassuming, in-the-room instrumentation. This year’s “Pink Moon” expanded the collaborator list, allowing him to juxtapose his style with 6lack and Blxst and duet with like-minded singers Kirby and Sabrina Claudio. Curiously, Bowden grew up in a religious household — his father is a minister, his mother a gospel singer — and he wasn’t allowed to listen to secular music until he was 17. But while he rejected the gospel music his parents favored, something must have seeped in: Listen to how he mixes the sacred and profane on “Spiritual,” about a lover with “holiness” in her eyes. Performing with Alicia Keys on Aug. 5 at 8 p.m. at the Theater at MGM National Harbor, 101 MGM National Ave., Oxon Hill, Md. mgmnationalharbor.com. $168-$778.
Before the release of “Blue Water Road,” Kehlani described the album as a destination in her mind. “I’m giving everyone access. It’s an emotional journey, a sexual journey, and a spiritual journey,” she wrote. “To me, the album is like a glass house. It’s light, transparent, and the sun is shining right through it.” For the 27-year-old singer-songwriter, sunlight is the best disinfectant on an album that might be both her lightest and deepest yet. Kehlani’s malleable, smoky voice — whether a croon or a half-rapped patter — is a warm complement to woozy, dreamy grooves with touches of molasses-thick low-end and hip-hop scintillation. Flipping Slick Rick and Soul II Soul samples keeps the album grounded, while dueting with the likes of Justin Bieber, Syd and Jessie Reyez lets Kehlani explore facets of the relationship dramas in her songs. Aug. 7 at 8 p.m. at the Anthem, 901 Wharf St. SW. theanthemdc.com. Sold out.
Across three albums, Leon Bridges has sounded like a perfectly coifed soul man gradually traveling through time, dabbling in retro stylings influenced by Sam Cooke and Otis Redding before embracing everything from Marvin Gaye to D’Angelo, with a fair share of disco diversions. On last year’s “Gold-Diggers Sound,” Bridges sounds as modern as ever but with the well-practiced precision of his previous music. Named after Gold-Diggers, the East Hollywood bar-hotel-recording studio where a residency grew into actual residence during the writing and recording of the album, “Gold-Diggers Sound” sees Bridges collaborate with the likes of Robert Glasper and Terrace Martin, multi-hyphenates at the equilibrium point of jazz and hip-hop. Particularly poignant is the 808s and heartbreak of “Sweeter,” a collaboration with Martin released in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by the police. “Hoping for a life more sweeter, instead I’m just a story repeating,” a weary Bridges sings. “I wish I had another day, but it’s just another day.” Aug. 10 at 8 p.m. at the Anthem, 901 Wharf St. SW. theanthemdc.com. $65. | 2022-08-03T12:32:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 3 concerts to catch in D.C.: Aug. 5-11 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/03/concerts-dc-pink-sweats-kehlani-leon-bridges/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/03/concerts-dc-pink-sweats-kehlani-leon-bridges/ |
Biden shouldn’t feel bad. Voters don’t like anyone these days.
A polling location in Lansing, Mich., on Aug. 2. (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
President Biden’s rotten polling numbers — only about 40 percent of Americans approve of his performance, according to FiveThirtyEight’s average — have inspired a bazillion headlines. But what has received far less attention is that Americans these days don’t like, well, anyone.
Look at polling for Republicans in Congress, Democrats in Congress, defeated former president Donald Trump, Vice President Harris and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and you’ll find that Americans give thumbs down on all of them. Indeed, less than 20 percent of Americans say the country is on the right track, according to the RealClearPolitics average.
Moreover, Gallup reported in early July, “Americans are less confident in major U.S. institutions than they were a year ago, with significant declines for 11 of the 16 institutions tested and no improvements for any.” Specifically, “This year’s poll marks new lows in confidence for all three branches of the federal government — the Supreme Court (25%), the presidency (23%) and Congress. Five other institutions are at their lowest points in at least three decades of measurement, including the church or organized religion (31%), newspapers (16%), the criminal justice system (14%), big business (14%) and the police.”
Most voters don’t want Biden to run for reelection. They don’t want Trump to run for president. Most believe the state of the economy is poor, even though only 17 percent say the same about their own economic standing. Despite this persistent bad economic outlook, consumer spending keeps rising.
Notice a pattern? American sure seem predisposed to dislike anything or anyone. (Or maybe they don’t like being asked what they like and don’t like?) Rather than using this polling data to conclude that “Biden is cooked” or “Democrats are doomed,” perhaps it’s time for pundits to question how much guidance they can glean from polling when Americans are endemically dissatisfied with politics and just about anyone associated with it. As anyone who has dealt with a spouse in a foul mood can attest, sometimes one must take statements from a grumpy individual with a grain of salt.
Ask voters whether we are doing enough to fight inflation, to help Ukraine or to do just about anything else, and you’ll likely get a resounding “no.” Perhaps a more constructive question would be: “Considering the difficult circumstances we find ourselves in, do you think X has at least done their best?”
You can hardly blame voters for their ungenerous spirit. After more than two years of dealing with the pandemic, school closures, supply-chain-created shortages, shutdowns, the 2020 recession, the current economic slowdown, the onset of the monkeypox emergency, horrible airline service, high gas prices and inflation more broadly, it would be odd if they weren’t in a sour mood.
So what should we take away from all this? For starters, straight up-or-down approval ratings likely don’t reveal much about voters’ choices, which are what elections are all about. When pollsters ask the “Do you approve of X?” question, keep in mind the rejoinder: “Compared with what?"
The same poll might show Biden with terrible approval ratings but still beating Trump in a head-to-head matchup. Likewise, Biden’s awful polling doesn’t reveal much about the choice between a Democratic or Republican candidate in the midterms.
Moreover, given the less-than-stellar performance of pollsters over the past couple of election cycles, analysts, pundits, politicians and media consumers would be wise to show more humility and less certainty in their prognostications. And certainly let’s dispense with the notion that “history” says much about what’s about to happen. This is uncharted territory. | 2022-08-03T12:32:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Biden shouldn’t feel bad. Voters don’t like anyone these days. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/03/biden-approval-rating-voters-dark-mood/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/03/biden-approval-rating-voters-dark-mood/ |
The House Jan. 6 committee shows a photo of Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, during a hearing. (Al Drago/Bloomberg)
Ever since the Jan. 6 committee showed that video of Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) running from the insurrectionist mob he’d earlier encouraged with a fist in the air, we’ve all had a good laugh at his expense. I mean, who doesn’t like a manhood-obsessed hypocrite getting a well-deserved public comeuppance?
But as clownish as Hawley comes across, we dismiss him at our own risk. He is selling a vision of masculinity to White America that has much more to do with prejudice than manliness. It’s an old story — but a successful one, and one that’s poised to catch on. Stopping that from happening will require offering an alternative, with better examples of what being a man really means.
During a recent interview, Jason Kander, an Afghanistan War veteran who in 2018 stepped away from rising success in the Democratic Party to tend to his mental health, broke down his fellow Missourian’s plan. Hawley, he said, “is positioning himself, and therefore his movement — his far-right, White-guy movement — as, ‘If you’re a man, then you believe in these things.’” These things, you could probably guess, are archconservative values such as the patriarchy, opposition to women’s bodily autonomy, support exclusively for heterosexual marriage, an aversion to labor organizing. In other words, as Kander told me via email later, Hawley is “making manhood synonymous with conservatism.”
The pitch holds natural appeal for older White men who already hew to traditional morals. But what about the younger White men who, as Kander says, watch Ultimate Fighting but still like their LGBTQ co-workers and have friends who have had abortions? Hawley figures he can woo them too, so long as they share one potent trait with the older group: racial resentment. This vision of masculinity is as much about being White as it is about being a man.
Jonathan Metzl, author of “Dying of Whiteness,” says Hawley’s harping on masculinity is a new version of an old game. “There has been a crisis of White masculinity since the ’50s, and every decade it gets rearticulated through similar themes. This crisis casts White men as victims against competition by women and non-White men in the labor market,” Metzl wrote in an email. “But Trump, the NRA, Tucker Carlson, Jordan Peterson and others have brought White male anxiety into the mainstream with the message that we are going to fight back as aggressively as possible. And, of course, casting yourself as a victim then obviates recognition of how you are in many cases the aggressor.”
This is the opposite of what Hawley hawks. He has bemoaned what he calls “the left’s assault on the masculine virtues” and how this “crisis for men … [is] a crisis for the republic.” These wrongheaded themes will no doubt be the foundation of his forthcoming book, “Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs.”
The jokes write themselves. “This is like me writing a cookbook. ... I don’t know how to cook,” Kander said.
But when you have a huge group of people desperate to learn how to cook — people who feel as though their self-worth depends on cooking exactly the right way — they’re going to latch on to whatever cookbook comes their way. Hawley may be a clown, but he’s clever, too. He knows White men feel they’re facing a crisis, and he plans to give them an answer. Coincidentally, that answer just so happens to serve Hawley’s own interests, ambitions and even 2024 presidential run. | 2022-08-03T12:32:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Josh Hawley’s problem with masculinity - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/03/josh-hawley-masculinity-problem/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/03/josh-hawley-masculinity-problem/ |
Joseph Kennedy, a high school football coach who was fired after praying on the field with players, takes a knee in April in front of the Supreme Court after his legal case was argued. (Win Mcnamee/Getty Images)
So it should not surprise us that when the Supreme Court rendered a precedent-shattering decision on religion in June, the case involved a football coach in Bremerton, Wash., who gathered with players in prayer at the 50-yard line after football games.
Opinion: Trying to protect students from a coach’s prayers did them no favors
Justice Neil M. Gorsuch’s opinion for the majority pretended that a coach’s prayer right after a game was an entirely private action — “he offered his prayers quietly while his students were otherwise occupied,” Gorsuch wrote — when, in fact, it was a highly public display.
Acknowledging “the tension” between the amendment’s establishment and free exercise clauses, Sotomayor wrote, is at the heart of protecting religious liberty.
The school district, she argued, “was happy to accommodate Kennedy’s desire to pray on the job in a way that did not interfere with his duties or risk perceptions of endorsement” of his particular faith. But the court majority pretended there was no tension at all, partly by distorting the facts of the case. | 2022-08-03T12:32:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The Supreme Court decision about the praying football coach was wrong - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/03/scotus-praying-football-coach-wrong/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/03/scotus-praying-football-coach-wrong/ |
How do we start to discipline our child?
Q: Our pediatrician told us that between ages 2 and 3 is the time to set our foundation for how we discipline. Are there any good resources (books, websites, etc.) that will give us some starting points as we figure out how we want to set the tone?
A: I am glad that your pediatrician is talking to you about setting a foundation, because, indeed, that is the very essence of what you are doing. And although I appreciate what your doctor is going for, I would like to give it a little spin as I recommend some starting points.
In the parenting world, the word “discipline” is a bit loaded. For many, it is a euphemism for “getting your kids in line,” “nipping that behavior in the bud,” “showing your child who’s boss” or “giving consequences.” And those phrases are saying what many parents are always trying (and failing to do): control their children. Discipline has become synonymous with control, and although the flavor has changed over the generations (beatings to spankings to sending them to their rooms to timeouts to positive parenting), the roots remain the same: How do you react to your children’s behavior, such that they behave the way you want them to?
I know you asked about books and websites, and I have launched into an etymological discussion of the word “discipline,” but it’s important to know that you are at a type of tipping point. On one side is the common culture, and mostly how we were raised, which seeks to control and manipulate children into certain behaviors, while the other side sees controlling children as counterintuitive and counterproductive to raising a human.
Alarm bells may be ringing for you: “My child should do whatever they want?” “My child should be able to hit without punishment?” “I shouldn’t be able to correct them at all?” Yes and no. To respond appropriately, read “Your Two-Year-Old,” by Louise Bates Ames. (Pick up the whole set.) Although some of the examples are outdated, Ames has an uncanny way of capturing the essence of children at different developmental stages, and when you understand that it is your child’s work to behave this way, that the behavior is serving growth and maturity, you are less likely to try to squash it.
For instance, when you’ve nicely asked your 2½-year-old to stop jumping on the couch and they look you in the eyes and keep jumping? It’s helpful to know that this obstinate behavior is normal and is not a reason to double-down or punish your child. Instead, speak less, redirect and provide other things for your child to jump on. Rinse and repeat. Yelling, punishing, using too much logic, counting to three and asking “nicely” may all work (or not) in the short term, but you will quickly find that those ways of disciplining don’t have much staying power. And worse? Yelling, nagging, punishing, rewarding, using logic and being “nice” can hurt your relationship with your child.
Remember: The goal of parenting is not to control, coerce or punish children into being “good.” The goal of parenting is to grow children who can feel all of their feelings and become empathic problem-solvers, and to help children reach their fullest potential. We know that a 2½-year-old wants what they want, when they want it, so we keep our boundaries (not allowing jumping) while maintaining a good relationship (not taking the behavior personally, and not punishing or giving in).
Other resources that will help you have fun while maintaining healthy boundaries with young children are: “How Toddlers Thrive,” by Tovah Klein; “The 5 Love Languages of Children,” by Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell; “Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids,” by Laura Markham; and anything by Tina Payne Bryson and Daniel Siegel. I also must recommend my book, “Parenting Outside the Lines,” as well as Mona Delahooke’s new book, “Brain-Body Parenting.” These books will give you the science, as well as the practical, funny and common-sense ways to raise children, which should always begin and end with connection.
And if you haven’t already, I strongly encourage you to sit with your partner (and/or yourself) and ask: “What did I like about childhood? What made me feel safe? Loved? How can I bring that into my family life? And what made me feel unsafe, unseen or insecure growing up? How do I prevent those behaviors?” These aren’t easy questions, but it’s a worthwhile conversation to begin now — and to continue throughout your parenting life. Good luck. | 2022-08-03T12:32:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How do we start to discipline our child? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/parenting/2022/08/03/toddler-discipline-advice/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/parenting/2022/08/03/toddler-discipline-advice/ |
A third party could be successful. But probably not this one.
To win voters, a party has to stand for something. But what would the Forward Party do in office?
Analysis by Seth Masket
Entrepreneur Andrew Yang. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)
Former New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman, former congressman David Jolly, and former Democratic presidential candidate and New York mayoral candidate Andrew Yang recently announced here at The Washington Post that they were launching a new political party: the Forward Party. In their words, it is “a new, unifying political party for the majority of Americans who want to move past divisiveness and reject extremism.”
Could it work? In theory, yes — but probably not this party. Here’s why.
Barriers to third party success
Like many other political scientists, I have tended to be pretty dismissive about potential third party success in the U.S. Part of that comes from Duverger’s Law, a theory that suggests that elections like those in the U.S., with winner-takes-all elections in districts that send a single member to the legislature, tend to end up with two major parties. Many other democracies have some form of proportional representation, in which a party’s vote share translates roughly into their share of seats in a legislature. It makes more sense to vote for a minor party in those systems.
This “law,” however, has been fraying a lot in recent decades. Quite a number of third parties have thrived in winner-takes-all systems such as Canada and the U.K.
Even so, modern third parties don’t have a great track record. In 2008, some moderate Democrats and Republicans tried to use new technology to put together a new presidential ticket, called Unity08, that would somehow draw people away from the traditional parties. It didn’t. AmericansElect did pretty much the same thing in 2012, promising to change the way we elect leaders and draw a bipartisan group of voters. It didn’t.
Nor did the Libertarians or Greens get a significant number of third-party votes in 2016, despite the fact that the two major parties ran the least popular presidential nominees in modern times. Instead, 90 percent of Democrats voted for Hillary Clinton and 90 percent of Republicans voted for Donald Trump; the handful of alternative candidates weren’t very successful in pulling partisans away. In general, given how polarized the country is, voters can dislike their own party’s nominee but still see the other choice as far, far worse, and they don’t want to “waste” their vote or, worse, make it easier for the other major party to win.
To be sure, a strong third party could persuade voters. Fewer Americans identify with the major parties than ever before and people are broadly unhappy with their electoral choices. Many regular party-line voters refuse to publicly identify with the party they always vote for, research finds. We don’t know precisely why, but it certainly suggests some underlying dissatisfaction.
Parties need to stand for something
But the Forward Party hasn’t made clear what it offers that would pull voters away from their regular choices. By design, the Forward Party doesn’t stand for much of anything. Yang has been talking this up as one of the party’s major selling points, promising, oddly enough, parties without interests. Even if it succeeded, it would put liberals and conservatives into office who would then need to figure out how to govern. They’d be no closer to agreement than our current leaders are.
The Forward Party’s agenda, if it can be called that, is to pass election laws that make it easier for the Forward Party — and, admittedly, other third parties — to win elections. Those include good-government ideas like ranked-choice voting, independent redistricting commissions, and top-two primaries. The political science evidence is varied but generally suggests that these things could improve the political climate here and there. But they’re not likely to transform the nation into a thriving multiparty democracy.
Political scientists such as Lee Drutman have advocated some reforms that could really change the game. Some include fusion parties, in which different parties could nominate the same candidate for office; proportional representation, in which the share of votes a party gets translates roughly to their share of legislative seats; and multi-member congressional districts, in which, for instance, all of Colorado would vote for eight at-large members of Congress. Even if a party only got 30 percent of the votes, it could still win 30 percent of seats in a legislature, giving it real influence. Changes like these would create some value in voting for, and running with, an alternative party.
But something else is necessary: a party that stands for, well, something. Do its members want guns to be easier or more difficult to obtain? Do they think the social safety net should be more generous or less? Should the United States commit more to fighting climate change at the global level or double down on using fossil fuels while it can?
Even when American parties have been a lot less polarized than they are today, they have generally been coalitions of interests that stood for some set of principles. Sometimes they have drawn on long-standing partisan identities, with voters aligning with a party the way they might to a religion or even a sports team. But it’s not easy to form such an identity overnight, especially when the identity is based on little more than not being one of the other major parties.
The Forward Party is trying to organize at a national level, and is not just aiming at the presidency. But third parties have tended to be more successful in local elections.
Dane County Progressives, Santa Monicans for Renters Rights, the New Hampshire Free State Project and others have had real success in state and local races, recruiting candidates for office, winning some elections, and substantially influencing government policy. Would it be easy to unite various local efforts and scale them up into a national party? No, but it would likely be more successful than top-down efforts. Influential third parties in American history — including the Populists and the Progressives — began as coalitions of regional interests seeking some common ground to influence national policy.
Winning isn’t everything
Finally, a third party doesn’t need to win to have influence. Ross Perot’s self-funded run for the presidency in 1992 probably changed the way both major parties addressed budget politics. Ralph Nader’s Green Party run in 2000 garnered less than 3 percent of the vote, but may have made all the difference in the world by taking votes from the Democratic nominee, Al Gore.
Given how close modern presidential elections have been, it’s certainly possible the Forward Party could be pivotal in 2024 without winning. But if it wants the other parties to move toward its issues — or to attract their voters — it will need to spend time figuring out just what those issues are.
Seth Masket is professor of political science and director of the Center on American Politics at the University of Denver. | 2022-08-03T12:32:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Can the new Forward Party win any votes? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/03/whitman-yang-forward-republicans-democrats/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/03/whitman-yang-forward-republicans-democrats/ |
The consumer tech industry is changing course on at-home repairs, but not everyone should attempt them
Samsung and repair resource website iFixit are now selling replacement phone and tablet parts for at-home repairs. (Samsung)
Shattered screen? Bloated battery? After years of rigidity around repairs when gadgets break down, more and more consumer electronics companies are offering the option for people to fix those problems themselves, right at home.
Samsung said this week that customers who want to try their hands at fixing gadgets can now buy genuine smartphone and tablets parts from repair resource website iFixit, as well as from Samsung’s Experience stores across the country.
The push to make at least some of its gadgets more easily repairable comes amid a broader national conversation about the right to fix the products we buy, spurred mostly by heightened scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission beginning last year. Since then, Apple launched a self-service repair program of its own, while Google partnered with iFixit to offer tools and genuine parts to would-be tinkerers.
But like some of those other self-service programs, Samsung’s approach comes with a few quirks.
Despite Samsung’s popularity in the United States — it accounted for nearly a third of all smartphone shipments in the first half of 2022, according to research firm Strategy Analytics — the company’s new self-service repair program is limited to a handful of higher-end models for now.
Owners of Galaxy S20 series and S21 series smartphones (released in 2020 and 2021, respectively) will be able to buy replacement screens, rear glass and charging ports for repairs they attempt at home. The same goes for people who own one of Samsung’s Galaxy S7 Plus tablets, though the same can’t be said for the rest of the company’s mobile products.
“We plan to expand to more models as the program matures,” said a Samsung spokesperson.
In offering the resources to make these repairs, however, Samsung highlighted its use of designs that make fixing gadgets more confusing than some would expect.
You can’t, for example, buy just a screen to replace a broken one in your Galaxy phone. Instead, Samsung says you must purchase an entire screen “assembly,” which includes the display itself, the metal frame that surrounds it and another battery. Essentially, that means replacing the entire front of the phone and then some.
That also means that, for the time being, Samsung doesn’t have a way for you to purchase a genuine battery on its own to replace the one that isn’t holding a long-charge or bloating — a common issue in devices that are used and charged regularly. The Samsung spokesperson told The Washington Post that “additional parts will be added as the program ramps up,” though co-founder and CEO Kyle Wiens says iFixit will continue to sell third-party replacement batteries.
These kinds of self-repair programs are pretty new, so it’s no surprise they don’t always feel fully fleshed-out. And even when they do offer a more comprehensive set of replacement parts and guides, some of the processes involved can seem a bit strange.
Let’s say you had an iPhone 12 with a broken screen, for instance. You can pretty easily find the replacement parts on the company’s self-service website. But if you want to follow along with every detail in Apple’s repair guide, that requires using a specific set of professional tools — tools that can be rented, but come in a set of heavy Pelican hard cases and require a $1,200 credit card hold.
(That said, you could just buy the part from Apple and crack the phone open with tools and guides you find elsewhere.)
So here’s our advice: Unless you’ve done this sort of thing before, or don’t mind following guides with dozens of steps, you may want to avoid tackling a phone repair job at home. These kinds of fixes really benefit from a level of finesse and attention to detail that, shall we say, isn’t everyone’s forte. And we’re not kidding about how fiddly these guides can be: according to iFixit, the process of replacing a Galaxy S20’s screen assembly requires 41 steps, and that doesn’t include putting the phone back together.
But now we’re left with a bigger question: If these companies are willing to let us repair the products they make, how about designing them so they’re easier to repair in the first place? For now, at least, that’s much easier said than done. | 2022-08-03T12:33:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Samsung, iFixit will now sell you tools and parts to fix your phone - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/08/03/samsung-galaxy-self-repair-ifixit/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/08/03/samsung-galaxy-self-repair-ifixit/ |
Airport restaurants don’t have the best reputations. The guarantee of a captive audience means they don’t have to try especially hard. The inescapable blandness of a busy concourse is difficult to escape. The number of corporate vendors like Auntie Anne’s and Chili’s Too bring mall concessions stands to mind.
Consuming mindless calories after clearing security is to be expected, but exceptions to the rule — like an outpost of a locally trusted brand — offer hope. Due to an increasing number of flight delays and cancellations, we’re all more likely to need an airport restaurant, even if we’d rather save our appetites for our destination.
Whether you’re the type to order a lumberjack’s breakfast at an airport diner or forage from Hudson News before sprinting to your gate, we all have to eat.
So we want to know: What was the best airport meal of your life? Answer in the form below or at this link. Your response may be used in a story.
What was the best airport meal of your life?
Airport food is hardly renowned, but some destinations will surprise you. From any airport around the world, what was the breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack that left a lasting impression? | 2022-08-03T12:33:17Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What was the best airport meal of your life? We want to know. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/08/03/best-airport-meal-question/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/08/03/best-airport-meal-question/ |
Vic Chiang
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, right, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) at the Presidential Palace in Taipei on Aug. 3. (Taiwan Presidential Palace/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
TAIPEI, Taiwan — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday met with prominent advocates for human rights in China while visiting the National Human Rights Museum in Taipei, after highlighting the stark contrast of Taiwan’s democratic reforms with the Chinese Communist Party’s intolerance for dissent.
The museum carries a collection of documents, oral histories and archives related to the White Terror — a nearly four-decade-long period of martial law that saw suppression, violence, imprisonment by the Nationalist Party government (Kuomintang or KMT) against those perceived to be against its rule.
February marked the 75th anniversary of the Feb. 28 or 228 incident — a 1947 massacre in which the KMT killed up to 28,000 Taiwanese civilians following an attempted uprising led by local people angered with exclusion from politics and business under Chinese Nationalist rule.
A 38-year-long period of martial law followed, which also brought silence over the massacre. As late as the 1980s, pro-democracy activism or calls for Taiwan’s formal independence led to arrests by KMT security agents, often under the guise of routing out Communists.
The tour involved a talk by Chen Chu, chairwoman of Taiwan’s Human Rights Council and president of the Control Yuan, the supervisory and auditory branch of government. She was a prominent political prisoner held and tried in the Jing-Mei detention center during a 1979 crackdown on democracy activists.
Made during the first trip to Taiwan by a U.S. House speaker in 25 years and amid loud opposition from Beijing, Pelosi’s tour of the facility was also an apparent dig at the Chinese Communist Party’s extensive efforts to suppress memory of dark periods in its history, as part of her long-running criticism of human rights abuses in China.
During the visit, she met with Wu’erkaixi, a former student leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, Lam Wing-Kee, a Hong Kong bookseller and publisher of text critical of the Chinese Communist Party, and Lee Ming-che, a Taiwanese activist who was released in April after five years in Chinese jail.
Global attention to Taiwan’s democracy and improving human rights record is a way to put the lie to China’s claims that multiparty liberal democracy isn’t suited to Chinese society, Lee said in an interview. “I hope the United States government, as a leader of global democracy, can take concrete action to support Taiwan to resist China’s military threat,” he said.
Lin Chuan-kai, a scholar at the Department of Sociology at the National Sun Yat-sen University who studies Taiwan’s White Terror era, said he was unhappy that the museum’s significance was reduced to a “simple demonstration of values” targeted at China, rather than a chance to further human rights in Taiwan.
“The focus of this visit was the CCP’s use of political violence to infringe on human rights,” he said, adding that the three people Pelosi met with were primarily involved in the struggle for human rights in China, not Taiwan.
In a tweet after the visit, Pelosi said she went to museum as a “tribute to heroes who suffered & fought for Taiwan’s Democracy.” At a news conference earlier in the day, she said that one purpose of the trip was to show the world Taiwan’s “courage to change their own country to become more democratic” in strong contrast to the situation in China, especially Hong Kong.
The Chinese Communist Party’s security clampdown in the former British colony, using strict national security legislation to circumscribe freedom of speech and assembly, has highlighted Taiwan’s position as the last place in the Chinese speaking world to host an annual commemoration of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.
But human rights activists in Taiwan are often more concerned with redressing the trauma of Kuomintang martial law than with preserving the memory of events in China, reflecting a growing sense of Taiwanese identity among younger generations.
“A successful road to human rights for the people of Taiwan will not come because we proudly show Pelosi our report card and have it recognized by her,” said Lin, the National Sun Yat-sen University scholar.
Opened in 2018, the museum’s collections serve as a “reminder of the paths taken to reach the free and democratic society of Taiwan today,” its website notes. The aim of establishing it in a former detention center and military court in Taipei’s Jing-Mei district was “to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past and deepen the concepts of democracy and human rights in every individual mind.”
On a normal day, visitors can walk through the former prison, visiting cells and soldier barracks, or listen to testimony from former inmates about being imprisoned and interrogated on telephone booths once used for visitors.
The Nationalist Kuomintang first took control of Taiwan in 1945 after Japan surrendered to the Allies, ending 50 years of colonial rule in Taiwan. But the decades of KMT rule to follow — the Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing the Chinese civil war to the Communists — were marred with periods of violence and political suppression.
A process of democratization launched in 1987 began a gradual reckoning with the past, led largely by Democratic Progressive Party, which was originally formed from a group of writers, intellectuals and lawyers who challenged Kuomintang’s rule.
In May this year the Transitional Justice Commission concluded a four-year effort to investigate the actions of Kuomintang from 1945 to 1992, which exonerated thousands of political prisoners from the time and recommended that symbols of authoritarianism were removed or relocated. (Many statues of strongman KMT ruler Chiang Kai-shek, for example, have been placed in a single park.)
The creation of public commemoration spaces like the museum and the 228 Memorial Park in 1997 stand in stark contrast to the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to strictly limit historical research or public discussion of past trauma from mass famine in the late 1950s caused by disastrous industrial policy and Mao Zedong’s tumultuous Cultural Revolution.
Today, China’s human rights movement has been driven underground by a regime of intolerance to dissent under Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Three decades after Tiananmen Square, Chinese activists struggle to publicly advocate for feminism or worker’s rights — let alone political reform.
Wu’erkaixi, the former Tiananmen leader now based in Taipei, said in an interview that Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan is itself the biggest message that the United States is committed to standing up to Chinese autocracy, moving away from what he said was a wrong policy of ignoring China’s threats democracy. “I urge the U.S. to right its wrong, come back and join Taiwan in defending human rights and democracy,” he said. | 2022-08-03T12:33:23Z | www.washingtonpost.com | In subtle dig at China, Pelosi visits Taiwan’s human rights museum - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/03/pelosi-taiwan-visit-human-rights-museum-china/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/03/pelosi-taiwan-visit-human-rights-museum-china/ |
Kansans react to news during a primary watch party on Aug. 2 that voters rejected a ballot measure that would have allowed the Republican-controlled legislature to tighten restrictions or ban abortion outright. (Tammy Ljungblad/AP)
A political earthquake shook Kansas on Tuesday. Voters in the deep-red state turned out in droves to reject a measure that would have taken abortion protection out of the state constitution. With more than 90 percent of the vote reported, the “no” vote (which would preserve abortion access) led by nearly 20 points as of Wednesday morning.
President Biden put out a rare statement on a state referendum, praising the turnout and result. “Voters in Kansas turned out in record numbers to reject extreme efforts to amend the state constitution to take away a woman’s right to choose and open the door for a state-wide ban,” he said. “This vote makes clear what we know: the majority of Americans agree that women should have access to abortion and should have the right to make their own health care decisions.” He urged Congress to “listen to the will of the American people and restore the protections of Roe as federal law.”
This is the first concrete evidence of a major backlash against the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision. Forced-birth advocates in Kansas thought that by putting the measure on a primary ballot, for which turnout is historically lower, conservative voters could dominate. Instead, they drove Democrats and a lot of pro-choice independents and Republicans who might not otherwise vote to the polls.
Republicans in other states should pay attention to Tuesday’s results. They have been zealously passing bans in states such as Kentucky and Louisiana, and severely restricting access in others such as Florida. There is still time for lawmakers in some states to heed the warning from Kansas.
Indiana, for example, is on the precipice of outlawing abortion from the moment of conception, except if needed to prevent “substantial impairment” to a woman’s life. Victims of rape or incest would have to get abortions within the first trimester (before many women know they are pregnant) or face the trauma of a forced pregnancy and labor. That will add to the tide of women desperately traveling to states such as Illinois (or Kansas) to get care.
I spoke recently with Jennifer Pepper, chief executive of CHOICES — Memphis Center for Reproductive Health, who has been planning to move her clinic since the Supreme Court took up the Dobbs case last year. While her facilities will still provide services for those within six weeks of pregnancy, when there is no fetal heartbeat, the vast majority of her patients will have to go elsewhere for care. That could be as far as Carbondale, Ill., where she is starting a clinic from scratch.
Carbondale might become a central location, the place furthest south that can provide abortion services according to medical standards, if the entire South moves to ban abortions (a likely scenario). “There were 11,000 abortions in Tennessee alone last year,” Pepper says. It will simply not be possible to accommodate all the patients stranded in states that force women to remain pregnant.
Nevertheless, Pepper says services there will be initially limited to medical abortions (generally available for up to 11 weeks). For procedural abortions, patients will have to be directed to travel to further locations. Her clinic is becoming increasingly involved with patients’ logistical needs. That might entail helping patients with transportation and accommodations. Abortion funds can help defray the cost, but the ordeal of arranging travel, accommodations and in some cases, child care for kids at home, means further delays and later abortions, perhaps beyond the 11-week cutoff for medical abortions. (The irony is these laws are shifting what would have been early abortion to later-term abortions.)
As Kansas voters seem to have recognized, the impact of these bans on women’s lives can be devastating. While abortion advocates often highlight the adverse physical, economic and social consequences from forced-birth laws, there might also be substantial damage to women’s mental health.
Katherine Wisner, a practicing psychiatrist specializing in abortion cases, tells me that there are many instances in which mental health disorders might warrant an abortion. Patients with anxiety disorders, depression and other serious conditions might not want to risk aggravating or relapsing during a pregnancy or postpartum period (which is common). Wisner tells me, “The rates of postpartum disorders I found in [a 2013] study will increase with the stress of lack of reproductive choice.” These bans, she expects, will “leave a slew of victims in their wake.” And worse, this comes at a time when we are already experiencing a massive shortage of mental health services.
In the wake of Kansas, states should also consider how abortion bans affect the medical profession. Wisner emphasizes that the mental health toll on doctors and other medical personnel, already stressed to the breaking point with covid, will increase as their caseloads rise dramatically in abortion-safe states. In red states, they’ll be forced to weigh the needs of patients against their own risk of prosecution. She expects “burnout” to escalate.
Kansas, however, provides an alternative outcome to the parade of disasters. Voters there have sounded a wake-up call for lawmakers to consider not only the unpopularity of bans but also the wave of suffering they will unleash. The Kansas vote should prompt states to pause before joining the forced-birth movement. | 2022-08-03T12:35:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Kansas abortion vote shows forced-birth zealots should be very afraid - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/03/kansas-abortion-vote-forced-birth-zealots-should-be-afraid/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/03/kansas-abortion-vote-forced-birth-zealots-should-be-afraid/ |
Auto companies would qualify for electric vehicle tax credits only if they move supply chains out of China. The industry warns that could be too ambitious.
Electric vehicles at a Tesla charging station in Bozeman, Mont., last month. (Louise Johns/Bloomberg News)
Automakers are chafing at the ambitious plan Democrats are advancing to bring down the cost of electric cars and accelerate the transition from gas-powered vehicles.
The Senate climate package poised for a vote as early as this week includes tax credits that slash the cost of electric cars by thousands of dollars — but only for buyers who purchase from companies that locate their supply chains out of China and other nations with which the United States does not have a free-trade agreement. It is a heavy lift for an industry that has limited access to minerals and components crucial to the production of EV batteries.
The timelines in the measure, some auto companies and trade groups say, may be impossible to meet. They are lobbying reluctant lawmakers to extend them. The push has split clean-vehicle proponents, with some advocating for looser guidelines to get more electric cars on the road quickly, as others argue the provisions are crucial to shoring up a dangerously unstable supply chain.
The dispute underscores the immense challenge the United States faces in its effort to retake control of production lines at a critical moment in the energy transition.
“Incentives that very few or no vehicles qualify for are not what car buyers expect and will not advance the Biden administration’s goals on vehicle electrification,” said Dan Ryan, vice president for government and public affairs at Mazda North America.
Also expressing concern is Autos Drive America, a trade group representing 11 international auto companies. “We encourage Congress to steer clear of any policy that would constrain electric vehicle production, hinder consumer adoption, and make it more difficult to achieve our shared climate goals,” Jennifer Safavian, the group’s chief executive, said in an email.
But there are also risks with not moving as aggressively as the bill proposes. China’s dominance over existing supply chains could mean the incentives paid for by American taxpayers wind up boosting profits of Chinese companies, further solidifying its control over the industry and creating an ever growing risk to American national security and energy independence.
“The United States is in a position to change behavior and build a domestic industry here,” said Ben Steinberg, who heads the Battery Materials and Technology Coalition. “We have resources here. We are partnered with allies on this. We need to work fast because we have a dependence on foreign adversaries for things that are critical to our way of life. They are tough targets, but they are achievable.”
The Senate measure, part of the Inflation Reduction Act, would push auto companies to immediately source their minerals and components from America or its 20 free-trade-agreement partners, which excludes key mining and manufacturing hubs like Japan, Argentina and the European Union. By 2025, carmakers seeking the credit would not be permitted to source any of their materials or components from China, including from the colossal mining operations around the world that Chinese companies control.
Some analysts predict the rules would disqualify buyers of most electric car models from claiming the $7,500-per-vehicle tax credit. The best-positioned companies are those like Tesla, which began moving long ago to bring supply chains to the United States. Facing much bigger hurdles are firms like Toyota, which is among the most heavily reliant in the industry on supply chains that do not meet the guidelines spelled out in the climate legislation. Neither company responded to a request for comment.
The lead champion of restrictions on the tax credit is Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), who played a key role in negotiating the act. Manchin has expressed skepticism of incentives for electric vehicles, which are already selling out of showrooms while remaining too expensive for middle- and lower-income drivers. He has also expressed concern that China controls so much of the production line.
Manchin seemed unmoved by automakers’ concerns in remarks to reporters Tuesday.
“Tell (automakers) to get aggressive and make sure that we’re extracting in North America, we’re processing in North America and we put a line on China,” Manchin said, according to Reuters. “I don’t believe that we should be building a transportation mode on the backs of foreign supply chains. I’m not going to do it.”
The proposal renews an existing $7,500 credit for electric cars that has few strings attached but is also no longer available for the most popular car models. It gets phased out for each carmaker after they sell 200,000 electric vehicles.
But the measure also includes billions of dollars in new government investment to help companies move their supply chains.
“It doesn’t just set tough metrics and say, ‘good luck,’ ” said Joe Britton, executive director of the Zero Emission Transportation Association. “I do think it gives us a pathway to pull these supply chains out of Asia. It is just a matter of how quickly we can do it.” The association is joining car companies in urging lawmakers to ease the deadlines for onshoring the mining, processing and assembly activities involved in battery production.
“Every six months we can push this back gives people time to pull these supply chains out of Asia,” Britton said. “We want the most vehicles and consumers to be eligible for these credits as possible.”
Those urging lawmakers to stand firm on the supply chain targets in the bill say automakers are overplaying their potential to slow down the transition into zero-emission cars and SUVs. Among them is Morgan Bazilian, director of the Payne Institute at the Colorado School of Mines, who says lawmakers and the industry for too long have neglected supply chain instabilities that are fast becoming an existential threat to the energy transition.
“Having these goals is a good thing,” Bazilian said. “If we put these ambitious — even heroic — targets into the bill and nobody is able to meet them, there is flexibility for agencies to adjust them later. We see this happen with all kinds of policies, and this is no different. There is always flexibility in the implementation phase.” | 2022-08-03T13:27:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Automakers say climate bill sets impossible targets - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/03/tax-credits-ev-manchin/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/03/tax-credits-ev-manchin/ |
Mae Amburgey, who’s either 97 or 98, depending on which family Bible you consult, sits on a bed in a Letcher County, Ky., home as floodwaters start to rise. (Gregory Amburgey)
Missy Crovetti panicked Thursday when she was forwarded a photo of her nearly 100-year-old grandma sitting on her bed, partially submerged in the floodwaters that were ravaging eastern Kentucky.
The picture showed Mae Amburgey — or “MomMae,” as Crovetti calls her — wearing capri pants and a turquoise sweater that was already halfway soaked. Amburgey had clasped her hands around her right knee; the lower part of her legs disappeared into the muck. Around her: an overturned dresser, artwork made by her grandson, a pillow topped with one of her shoes and a box of Little Debbie Nutty Buddy bars.
From her home in Green Oaks, Ill., Crovetti, 52, immediately tried calling her grandma but couldn’t get through. She also tried her brother, who’d taken the photo, and her uncle — both of whom were at her grandmother’s house. They didn’t answer, either. She didn’t know whether they were still in the house or whether they’d escaped.
More than 500 miles away, Crovetti did the only thing she could think of to help: She uploaded the photo to Facebook with a plea in the hope that her SOS might reach someone in Letcher County, Ky., who could help her grandmother, who’s either 97 or 98, depending on which family Bible you consult.
“My grandmother, Uncle and Brother are trapped in her house across from the high school if anyone has a boat around that area , the water is about 4 feet deep in the house,” she posted.
She published the post at 1:26 p.m. and hoped it would be enough.
“I was desperate,” she said.
Amburgey, her son and her grandson were but three of thousands of Kentuckians forced to grapple with the effects of torrential rains that pounded the eastern part of the state late last week. Between 14 and 16 inches of rain hit in a four-day period, transforming idyllic streams and creeks into raging rivers, according to the National Weather Service office in Jackson, Ky. On Tuesday, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) said the disaster had killed at least 37 people, displaced hundreds and inflicted “hundreds of millions of dollars” in damage, according to the Associated Press and a YouTube video of the governor. On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Beshear warned that as the floods recede, “we’re going to be finding bodies for weeks.”
Death toll for Kentucky floods climbs to 28, with more storms coming
Randy Polly, who was across the street from Amburgey’s house during Thursday’s flooding, told The Washington Post he watched floodwaters overtake and kill two people “right in front of me” early Thursday. When he called 911, a dispatcher told him that, even if they weren’t scrambling to field more than 300 calls, rescue workers wouldn’t be able to get to them until the waters receded.
Scads of homes have since been damaged in and around the area, and people are desperate for basic supplies. “This is a war zone,” Polly said.
Before she knew of any flooding, Crovetti woke up last Thursday and, knowing that forecasters had predicted extremes, checked the weather to see whether they’d been right. But not in her home state of Kentucky. Because her son attends school in Seattle, which was under the threat of a heat wave, she checked the weather for the Pacific Northwest. When Crovetti did, she happened to spot a flood warning for her home state of Kentucky. As she probed further, she realized her relatives in Ermine might be in danger.
Photos posted by her Facebook friends confirmed her hunch. The floodwaters seemed to rise with each photo she saw. Then she started to recognize landmarks in some of the photos and knew that if those places had flooded, her grandmother’s house would have, too. That’s when she knew “my family was in trouble.”
Shortly after, an acquaintance forwarded the photo that her brother, Gregory, had taken of their grandmother.
Although Crovetti couldn’t reach anyone by phone, Polly said a friendly stranger soon came to the family’s aid. Initially, the man couldn’t reach Amburgey’s house because of the floodwaters, which Polly estimated were 20 feet high at one point. But in a second effort, he went upstream and used the current to drift toward the home. After breaking a window, he was able to help Amburgey and the two male relatives out of the house.
Polly, 49, captured the rescue on video and then watched as the four-person party drifted away.
“I didn’t think I’d ever see them again,” Polly told The Post.
Dramatic video captures nearly 100-year-old Mae Amburgey being rescued out of her flooded home in Whitesburg, Ky., on July 28. (Video: Randy Polly)
About 45 minutes after Crovetti posted the SOS call on Facebook, a relative sent another photo of her grandmother, this time hooked up to oxygen in a hospital. She later learned that her Uncle Larry had been swept away from the other three in their party and had clung to a tree until the anonymous rescuer returned to save him, too. Crovetti said she doesn’t know who the man is and referred to him as “the good Samaritan” and her grandmother’s “guardian angel.”
But it’s not a happy ending yet, she said. Her grandmother got pneumonia and suffered a cut to her leg, part of which has gotten infected.
“We just hope she pulls through,” Crovetti said. “She’s got a long road in front of her.”
So does Kentucky, she added.
Crovetti and Polly both highlighted that thousands in eastern Kentucky are suffering through flooding of biblical proportions. Hundreds of homes have been damaged in the Ermine area alone, Polly said. People need basic supplies such as cleaning products and fresh water.
“We need help so bad,” Polly said. “People have no idea what’s going on here.” | 2022-08-03T13:28:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Kentucky grandmother in viral Facebook photo is rescued from flooding - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/03/grandma-photo-kentucky-floods/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/03/grandma-photo-kentucky-floods/ |
State Rep. Stephanie Clayton (D) reacts in Overland Park, Kansas, to election returns on an abortion referendum. (Evert Nelson/The Topeka Capital-Journal via AP)
The results were announced surprisingly early on Tuesday night: voters in Kansas had rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have endangered the availability of abortion in the state. Or, stripping out the double-negative, Kansans voted in support of protecting access to abortion.
At a glance, this is jarring. Kansas? A state that backed Donald Trump by 15 points in 2020 and hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon B. Johnson was on the ballot? That Kansas?
Yes, that Kansas. So, in short order, observers began extrapolating outward to November. The results in this red state, some argued, showed that abortion access was an unqualified political winner for the left. Kansas, it seemed, may have validated predictions that the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade could backfire on Republicans.
What happened in Kansas was remarkable and unexpected. What it means about what happens in November, though, is less clear.
Let’s consider those two things separately.
What happened in Kansas?
As of writing, more than 900,000 people cast ballots on the proposed constitutional amendment. That’s more than 25 percent more votes than were cast in the state’s Republican and Democratic Senate primaries. It is about two-thirds of the number of votes cast in the 2020 presidential election. It’s a staggering level of voting for a measure put on the ballot in August.
Of particular note is that in every single county, the results on the amendment question were to the left of the 2020 results. (That’s reflected on the graph below, where every county is to the left of the diagonal line. The line indicates an equivalent margin in the 2020 presidential contest and in the amendment vote.) There were 14 counties that backed Trump in 2020 and voted against the proposed amendment this week, home to nearly a third of the state’s population. Those counties backed Trump by 20 points and “no” by 13 points.
In counties that voted for the proposed amendment, “no” got about 15 percent more raw votes than did Joe Biden in 2020. “Yes” got fewer than half the votes that Trump did. Some quick back-of-the-envelope math by MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki figures that about a fifth of the “no” vote came from Republicans.
An overwhelming victory for the “no” side, certainly — but not one that should be seen entirely as a bolt of out the blue. As Natalie Jackson of PRRI noted, 2018 polling showed that support for keeping abortion legal in the state was about evenly split. The biennial General Social Survey shows broad agreement among Americans on both the left and the right that some access to abortion should be protected. The overturning of Roe turned political debates over abortion from one of figuring out the middle ground on how readily available it should be to one over whether it should be available at all, shifting the political response.
In fact, that the result in Kansas so uniformly shifted to the left is a reminder that the constitutional amendment vote may be the exception, not the rule.
What does this tell us about November?
In the immediate aftermath of the Supreme Court decision upending Roe, there was no obvious benefit to Democrats in averages of congressional polling. Yes, some polls showed Democrats moving into better position, but polling averages, a better measure, showed only modest shifts. Predictions that Roe would spark a pro-Democrat backlash weren’t clearly manifested.
One argument offered in response was that polls weren’t capturing a shift in enthusiasm. It’s a valid criticism; one factor that likely contributed to the polling miss in 2016 was that a flurry of Trump voters turned out to vote who hadn’t been included in pollsters’ turnout estimates. That’s a slightly apples-to-oranges example, but you get the point: if a ton of infrequent Democratic voters come out to vote in congressional races, that would be tricky to capture in polling. (We will, for now, set aside the trickiness of polling people on the likelihood that they will vote or on how news events effect that likelihood.)
But this brings us back to the cautionary vote above. Certainly a large part of the reason that the proposed amendment failed was that it was largely separate from partisan politics and political candidates. There is a big difference between asking people to weigh in on an issue and asking them to weigh in on a candidate who embodies a range of issue positions. When you are voting on an amendment that would erode the availability of abortion, that’s the only consideration. When you are voting on a governor or a senator, you’re voting on their support for or opposition to abortion — and a galaxy of other things. For senators and members of the House, there’s an added layer of calculus: how well your political team is positioned in Congress.
Voters in Kansas and elsewhere will not go to the polls in November to vote for representatives who will only vote on abortion. And that will complicate how they vote.
Even among Democrats, polling conducted by YouGov last month found that abortion wasn’t the issue determined to be most important in the upcoming election. Instead, it was among the top issues. Some voters will absolutely turn out to shift elected leadership toward protection of abortion — but many will be motivated to turn out for other reasons. Are voters going to be energized to turn out to vote for a random Democratic House candidate simply to backstop abortion rights? It’s hard to say and it’s hard to measure.
For many on the left, the results in Kansas were a reminder of precisely that point: turnout matters. But electoral politics are rarely downstream from views on one single issue.
There is a demonstrated exception. In 2018, Democrats saw huge success in large part because Trump was so unpopular. This, however, is not an exception that bolsters the idea that Democrats will also see huge success this year.
Noted: Draft FEC opinion would let Google exempt campaign emails from spam detection | 2022-08-03T13:52:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What does the abortion-referendum vote in Kansas tell us about November? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/03/abortion-kansas-midterm-elections/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/03/abortion-kansas-midterm-elections/ |
Nelson Cruz remains on the Nationals after Tuesday's trade deadline. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
Small details of the Washington Nationals’ trade deadline that could get lost in the, uh, shuffle: There were four minor leaguers on a flight from Columbus, Ohio, to Reagan National Airport on Tuesday morning. Two of them, first baseman Joey Meneses and outfielder Josh Palacios, were activated before the Nationals faced the New York Mets. But the other two, relievers Reed Garrett and Mason Thompson, only came in case the club dealt relievers before 6 p.m.
And turns out the Nationals didn’t. Garrett and Thompson were not in the bullpen for a 5-1 win. In sum, the Nationals made just a pair of trades after striking six deals a year ago, keeping a handful of controllable relievers (because the offers weren’t right) and veteran hitters (because they spent the past four months playing themselves out of the market). Washington shipped out Juan Soto and Josh Bell in a blockbuster with the San Diego Padres. They sent utility man Ehire Adrianza to the Atlanta Braves a day earlier. That netted seven players in shortstop C.J. Abrams, left-handed pitcher MacKenzie Gore, outfielders Robert Hassell III and James Wood, first baseman Luke Voit and right-handed pitcher Jarlin Susana from the Padres; and outfielder Trey Harris from the Braves.
Could that be a longer list? Certainly. As the deadline approached, the Nationals had discussions about relievers Kyle Finnegan and Carl Edwards Jr., among others, according to multiple people familiar with the process. On Tuesday night, Manager Dave Martinez told reporters there was interest in a few of their bullpen arms. But they decided the returns were not worth it for pitchers who could return in 2023 and beyond. Edwards, 30, is under control for next season. Finnegan, also 30, is for the next three and has been the club’s best reliever. But while they had at least some chance to be moved — as did righties Steve Cishek and Victor Arano — they’re not what held Washington from a bigger deadline.
Or at the least, they’re not the main reasons the last few hours were quieter than expected.
Those would be designated hitter Nelson Cruz and second baseman César Hernández. Notice there were no hitters in the contingency plans. Cruz and Hernández were traded in July 2021 for players who have pitched in the majors this year. Both were signed by the Nationals with the idea of flipping them for prospects. But entering Tuesday, both were underperforming compared to their 2021 seasons. The differences are drastic.
Cruz in 346 plate appearances before he was dealt from the Minnesota Twins to the Tampa Bay Rays in July 2021: .294 batting average, .370 on-base percentage, .537 slugging percentage (for a .908 on-base-plus-slugging percentage) with 19 homers.
Cruz, 42, in 389 plate appearances before going o for 3 with a walk against the Mets on Tuesday: .233 average, .315 on-base percentage, .346 slugging percentage (for a .661 OPS) and eight homers.
Hernández in 420 plate appearances before he was dealt from the Cleveland Guardians to Chicago White Sox in July 2021: .231 average, .307 on-base percentage, .431 slugging percentage (for a .738 OPS) and a career-high 18 homers.
Hernández in 447 plate appearances before he went 1 for 3 with a triple against the Mets on Tuesday: .240 average, .304 on-base percentage, .304 slugging percentage (for a .608 OPS) with zero homers.
With the first set of numbers, Cruz helped the Twins get Joe Ryan, their Opening Day starter in April. With the second, he remains on a roster that will have three or four designated hitters when Voit arrives, depending on whether the Nationals option Meneses to make room for a player who has big league experience with the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Yankees and Padres. Cruz will finish his one-year, $15 million contract in D.C.
With his first set of numbers, Hernández helped the Guardians get Konnor Pilkington, a right-hander who has logged 45⅓ innings for Cleveland in 2022. With the second, he could soon be bumped from a starting job if the Nationals promote Abrams in the near future and slide Luis García to second. Unless the Nationals designate him for assignment, he will finish his one-year, $4 million contract here.
Mike Rizzo, the Nationals’ general manager, spoke with reporters at around 4 p.m. Tuesday. When asked whether he had more trades in him, he joked that’s why he had to speed up the news conference and get back to the front office’s war room. Two hours later, though, the Nationals stood pat with the rest of the roster. There’s a chance Garrett or Thompson won’t have traveled for nothing; Washington could swap them onto the roster for an overworked reliever. The business is cold like that. Sometimes there is nothing more important than a fresh arm.
But in a cold business, two plane tickets should be a reminder of a deadline that brought in a lot of talent and could have landed more. That wasn’t because of decisions Washington made after parting with Soto and Bell. It was because of offseason signings that were a combination of unlucky and miscalculated — and maybe a conservative approach with a few of their better relievers. And it maybe kept them from marginal adds who might have contributed down the line. | 2022-08-03T13:52:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why the Nationals didn't trade Nelson Cruz and César Hernández - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/03/nationals-trade-deadline-nelson-cruz-cesar-hernandez/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/03/nationals-trade-deadline-nelson-cruz-cesar-hernandez/ |
Vin Scully entertained and educated generations of baseball fans with his commentary, even if they didn't root for the Dodgers. (Jae C. Hong/AP File)
It was easy to listen to Vin Scully, a home companion for Dodgers fans in Brooklyn and Los Angeles for 67 years.
In calling ordinary games over the breadth of a baseball season, he brought knowledge and flair, wit and an ability to entertain without losing sight of his reason for being in a broadcast booth. He was fortunate to be present as history and baseball often collided, as they did so memorably when Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record in 1974. His words were iconic, but, just as importantly, he knew when to let silence tell the story, as he did after Kirk Gibson hit his home run to win Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.
All these years later, the way he captured big moments can still make a fan’s soul tingle. “He was the best there ever was,” Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw said after Tuesday’s Dodgers’ game in San Francisco. “Just such a special man. I’m grateful and thankful I got to know him as well as I did.”
Here are some of Scully’s greatest calls:
Hank Aaron breaks Babe Ruth’s record
In 1974, when baseball still was America’s pastime, Scully was on the call when the Atlanta Braves’ Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run, moving past Babe Ruth on the all-time list. Scully pulled it all together, noting the significance in baseball and, more importantly, American history.
“What a marvelous moment for baseball, what a marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia, what a marvelous moment for the country and the world. A Black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol … It is over, at 10 minutes after 9 in Atlanta, Georgia, Henry Aaron has eclipsed the mark set by Babe Ruth.
“You could not, I guess, get two more opposite men. The Babe, big and garrulous and oh so sociable and oh so immense in all his appetites. And then the quiet lad out of Mobile, Alabama — slender and stayed slender throughout his career. Ruth, as he put on the poundage and the paunch, the Yankees put their ballplayers in pinstripe uniforms, because it made Ruth look slimmer. But they didn’t need pinstripe uniforms for Aaron in the twilight of his career.”
Don Larsen and Sandy Koufax were perfect
If there was a perfect game and Scully wasn’t on the call, did it really happen?
Don Larsen did the unthinkable by pitching a perfect Game 5 in the 1965 World Series and Sandy Koufax did the same on a smaller stage that same season in a regular season game.
For Larsen, the commentary was pure and simple: “Got him. The greatest game ever pitched in baseball history, by Don Larsen. A no-hitter, a perfect game, in a World Series.” In the moment, did you need to know more?
Scully was a little more effusive when it came to Koufax, who had pitched three previous no-hitters, when he threw a perfect game against the Chicago Cubs on Sept. 9, 1965.
“And Sandy Koufax, whose name will always remind you of strikeouts, did it with a flourish. He struck out the last six consecutive batters. So when he wrote his name in capital letters in the record books, that K stands out even more than the O-U-F-A-X.”
When Buckner met Mookie
In Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, a routine “little roller” took on epic proportions. Boston Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner was on the play and … the ball hit by Mookie Wilson of the New York Mets went through his legs.
It was an epic error, captured perfectly by Scully, who always preferred description to hyperbolic nonsense.
“Little roller up along first … behind the bag!” he exclaimed as what appeared to be a routine play was unfolding. And then, “It gets through Buckner! Here comes [Ray] Knight, and the Mets win it!”
As pandemonium erupted, Scully was silent for three minutes, then summed up what he’d seen perfectly. “If one picture is worth a thousand words, you have seen about a million words, but more than that, you have seen an absolutely bizarre finish to Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. The Mets are not only alive, they are well, and they will play the Red Sox in Game 7 tomorrow.”
Kirk Gibson all but ends the World Series with one swing
Technically, the Los Angeles Dodgers had to win four games to beat the Oakland Athletics in the 1988 World Series, but what happened in Game 1 all but sealed it, thanks to one man’s sole plate appearance.
Kirk Gibson was hobbled with injuries to both legs and was not expected to play in the Series. But, with the Dodgers trailing 4-3, Mike Davis on first and two outs in the ninth inning, manager Tommy Lasorda called on Gibson.
“High flyball into right field, she i-i-i-is … gone”!” Scully said. More importantly, he let the insanity of the moment tell the story, keeping quiet for 65 seconds. When he did speak, he added, “In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened.” Then he was quiet for another 29 seconds before taking it all in again as cameras replayed the reaction of A’s pitcher Dennis Eckersley, who had given up what he called “the mother of all walk-offs” years later.
Scully the storyteller
Scully would open his broadcasts with a folksy “Hi, everybody, and a very pleasant good evening to you wherever you may be.” When history wasn’t happening, his garden variety observations could be special, too.
In 2016, he offered his research on the history of beards. Of course, he never missed a pitch or a play even as he spoke of “Greek dramatists” and Alexander the Great.
We’ll let Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts have the last word.
“There’s not a better storyteller and I think everyone considers him family,” Roberts said Tuesday night. “He was in our living rooms for many generations. He lived a fantastic life, a legacy that will live on forever.” | 2022-08-03T13:52:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Vin Scully’s best calls, from Don Larsen to Hank Aaron to Kirk Gibson - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/03/vin-scully-best-calls/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/03/vin-scully-best-calls/ |
Michael Saylor, chairman and chief executive officer of MicroStrategy, speaks during the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami, Florida, U.S., on Thursday, April 7, 2022. The Bitcoin 2022 four-day conference is touted by organizers as “the biggest Bitcoin event in the world.” (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)
MicroStrategy Inc. is two things: a publicly listed enterprise-software company whose annual revenue has barely budged in five years, and a publicly listed Bitcoin trading vehicle that has borrowed money to buy volatile cryptocurrency and lost a cumulative $2 billion in the process.
The results of this dodgy experiment have been scary — all the more so because of leader Michael Saylor’s willful blindness to the consequences.
The company’s latest $1 billion quarterly loss, equivalent to about two years of revenue, was almost entirely due to a slump in the value of its Bitcoin stash. Given rising interest rates have proven crypto is anything but a hedge, one might have expected MicroStrategy to cut its losses and stick to software. After all, even Tesla Inc. has dumped the bulk of its Bitcoin pile, prioritizing cash in an environment of war and pricier goods.
O, ye of little faith. MicroStrategy’s response to all these pressures, including a surge in short-seller interest, has been to stick to its Bitcoin-buying bet and create two leadership roles. Saylor, the zealous supporter of crypto’s digital-gold ideology, was named executive chairman, while Phong Le was appointed chief executive officer to focus on the day-to-day operations in the more prosaic world of cloud computing.
After initially portraying Bitcoin purchases as defensive, Saylor claimed they had become a source of shareholder value and a new strategic direction. Choosing a start date of August 2020, when MicroStrategy spent $250 million on 21,454 of the tokens, Saylor said the firm’s stock price had outperformed Amazon.com Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc., Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc., Apple Inc. and Bitcoin itself.
To defend this as good for the firm’s balance sheet or its shareholders is truly Panglossian. Its cumulative writedowns of $1.989 billion now exceed the $1.988 billion carrying value of its 129,699 remaining Bitcoin.
Yet it’s Saylor’s follow-up that should really ring alarm bells. Acknowledging the stomach-churning swings in his company’s stock, he adopted an attitude similar to Oscar Wilde: Better to be talked about as a reckless debt-fueled bet on digital currencies than not be talked about at all.
Saylor said buying Bitcoin had made MicroStrategy a more “interesting” company, one that “attracts attention and attracts capital.” The more the C-suite, analysts, journalists and investors argued over his strategy, the less he needed to publicize it. “The thing you don’t want is to be irrelevant to the world, when nobody knows you and nobody cares whether you succeed or don’t and no one knows what you do,” said Saylor, who was already known as a symbol of hubris during the dotcom boom.
This is certainly a new twist on fiduciary duty. It suggests that it will take more profit pain and market pressure for MicroStrategy to start managing its Bitcoin stash sensibly, rather than according to Saylor’s devotion to what he calls “a swarm of cyber hornets serving the goddess of wisdom.” It also raises serious questions over how the stock market became home to the kind of business that even the hedge fund world might balk at.
Saylor’s hope is that in the kingdom of the Bitcoin-blind, the laser-eyed man is king. But right now, it’s MicroStrategy that doesn’t seem to see things clearly.
Credit-Card Rewards Aren’t Free. Shoppers Don’t Care: Marc Rubinstein
Uber Embodies the Post-Covid Inflationary Economy: Jared Dillian
Corporate Hope Cushions the Tech Sector, For Now: Tim Culpan | 2022-08-03T14:05:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Bitcoin’s Laser-Eyed King Is Blind to $1 Billion Loss - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/bitcoins-laser-eyed-king-is-blind-to-1-billion-loss/2022/08/03/1a92492e-132f-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/bitcoins-laser-eyed-king-is-blind-to-1-billion-loss/2022/08/03/1a92492e-132f-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
Olathe, KANSAS - AUGUST 01: A Vote No to a Constitutional Amendment on Abortion sign is on display outside a polling station on August 01, 2022 in Olathe, Kansas. On August 2, voters will vote on whether or not to remove protection for abortion from the state constitution. (Photo by Kyle Rivas/Getty Images) (Photographer: Kyle Rivas/Getty Images North America)
And what about the vote’s effects on political actors? It’s likely that Democrats, already energized by the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, will now be even more likely to make reproductive rights a high-profile campaign theme this fall. It’s less clear whether Republicans will back off some of their hard-line positions. Republicans who oppose abortion under all circumstances have had the upper hand within the party so far this year. It will be interesting to see whether those with more moderate anti-abortion positions go on the offensive.
Republicans had a mixed record with some potentially terrible candidates. Most notably, disgraced former Governor Eric Greitens lost his bid to become the nominee for US Senate in Missouri. State Attorney General Eric Schmitt defeated Greitens, who might have lost even in that solidly Republican state, which will now be considered safe for the party. The Trump-endorsed candidate for US Senate in Arizona, Blake Masters, did win, so incumbent Senator Mark Kelly will have an edge in that toss-up state, even in what looks like a good Republican year. The Republican contest for Arizona governor, featuring the Trump-backed former news anchor Kari Lake, remains too close to call. | 2022-08-03T14:05:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How the Kansas Abortion Vote Matters — and Doesn’t - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-the-kansas-abortion-vote-matters--and-doesnt/2022/08/03/d2514576-1328-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-the-kansas-abortion-vote-matters--and-doesnt/2022/08/03/d2514576-1328-11ed-8482-06c1c84ce8f2_story.html |
Meet the musician instrumental to ‘Hamilton’ and ‘Dear Evan Hansen’
Two musicals with Alex Lacamoire’s fingerprints all over them play at the Kennedy Center this month
Alex Lacamoire, the original music director for “Hamilton” and “Dear Evan Hansen,” both of which are playing at the Kennedy Center this month. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)
Seven years have passed, but it takes Alex Lacamoire only a moment to summon his itinerary from July 19, 2015, when the music supervisor for “Hamilton” and “Dear Evan Hansen” scrambled to make his contributions to both soon-to-be Broadway smashes work in harmony.
After conducting a pair of “Hamilton” preview performances at the Richard Rodgers Theatre the day before, as the show’s Broadway opening approached, Lacamoire rose early Sunday morning and boarded a 9:05 a.m. train to D.C. with his wife. He arrived at Union Station, bolted to Arena Stage — where “Dear Evan Hansen” was in the early stages of a pre-Broadway tryout — and watched the 2 p.m. matinee. A technical issue interrupted Act 1’s heartstring-tugging “For Forever,” he recalls, but hearing the song onstage for the first time brought him to tears all the same. Lacamoire then oversaw an orchestra rehearsal at 6 p.m., squeezed in a 7:30 meal at Jaleo, boarded a train back to New York and got home well after midnight.
“How you do one thing is how you do everything,” Lacamoire says during a recent call from his New York apartment. “The level of detail that I have to put into my work as an orchestrator and the amount of scheduling that has to happen in my life as a music supervisor, and the fact that my schedule was that packed and then I still had access to [my itinerary]? That’s how nerdy I am.”
That meticulousness and work ethic helped Lacamoire win back-to-back Tony Awards for his “Hamilton” and “Dear Evan Hansen” orchestrations, and consecutive Grammys for his work on those shows’ cast albums. In 2018, he shared the Kennedy Center Honors with his “Hamilton” co-creators: writer-composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler and director Thomas Kail.
One key scene helped cement ‘Hamilton’ as a Broadway legend. The team that crafted it explains how.
Over the next two months, Lacamoire’s rich arrangements will reverberate through the Kennedy Center once more, with “Hamilton” returning to the Opera House through Oct. 9 and “Dear Evan Hansen” occupying the Eisenhower Theater from Aug. 30 to Sept. 25.
“Working with him, you know you’re going to have somebody who’s going to approach the work in the most comprehensive way, and he’s also going to do so in the most human way,” says Kail, who also collaborated with Lacamoire on the stage musical “In the Heights” and the FX limited series “Fosse/Verdon.” “I think that’s what makes him such a gifted musician, such an incredible bandleader, and that’s what makes him such a wonderful collaborator and partner for every actor and performer that’s onstage.”
Lacamoire, 47, was born in Los Angeles to Cuban immigrant parents before moving to Miami in his youth. He chuckles while telling the story of how, when he was 5 or 6, the teenager tasked with teaching him piano called her own instructor in tears because of how swiftly he absorbed everything she knew. Although Lacamoire was diagnosed with mild hearing loss at a young age, that obstacle never gave him pause as he attended middle and high schools that specialized in fine arts and graduated from Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music.
In 2008, Lacamoire won his first Tony for co-orchestrating Miranda’s “In the Heights” score. A year later, when Miranda introduced “Hamilton” to the world with a performance at the White House Poetry Jam, Lacamoire was the pianist by his side. Such early involvement isn’t unusual for Lacamoire: The orchestrations are among the last elements finalized on a musical, but he’s instrumental to the development of any show he’s involved in, listening to composers’ demo tracks and providing feedback during what he calls that initial, “really sacred sphere of vulnerable music-making.”
“We feel that we owe so much of the sound of ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ to Alex,” said Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the show’s composers, in a joint email. “The way he was able to blend the sound of contemporary music and pop music alongside stunning and lush string arrangements became the signature sound of the show. No one captures that sound like Alex does.”
According to Kail, it’s as if Lacamoire “brings six tools to the production that he’s on when most of us are struggling to find one or two things to contribute.”
Welcome home, ‘Dear Evan Hansen.’ You’re back where you belong.
Referring to himself an “ambassador” of sorts, tasked with interpreting and transmitting the composer’s intent, Lacamoire says his orchestrations are defined by a rhythm section that he hopes is “detailed and organic at the same time.” He also considers not just the sonic aesthetic but the storytelling resonance of every choice he makes.
While “Hamilton” is a hip-hop musical peppered with R&B rhythms, soul music and traditional show tunes, the “Dear Evan Hansen” score is packed with power ballads and alt-rock earworms. Yet, in Lacamoire’s mind, “it’s all music to me.” As Pasek and Paul put it, “His love for consuming new music and all kinds of it is inspiring.”
“I love the variety, and I’ve always been that way,” Lacamoire says. “I’ve always considered myself an eclectic person. Even growing up, it was like, ‘Okay, I’m going to listen to this Keith Jarrett record, and immediately after that I want to listen to this Rush album.’ ”
Lacamoire, who won his fourth Grammy for working with Pasek and Paul on the 2017 movie musical “The Greatest Showman” and an Emmy for 2019’s “Fosse/Verdon,” is respected among his peers. But he is not a household name, and that suits him just fine.
When he was younger, Lacamoire recalls picking up on Marc Shaiman’s background involvement in myriad projects: producing Harry Connick Jr.’s “We Are in Love,” arranging the score for “When Harry Met Sally …,” playing piano in the Sweeney Sisters sketches on “Saturday Night Live.” So Lacamoire feels particularly attuned to fans who notice his work the same way he registered Shaiman’s.
“I see myself in them,” Lacamoire says, “because that means that they are paying attention to the music on a level that I paid attention to music when I was growing up.”
Taking a break from the stage, Lacamoire played a part in four movie musicals released last year: as a music producer on film adaptations of “In the Heights,” “Dear Evan Hansen” and “Tick, Tick … Boom!” and the composer of the Netflix animated feature “Vivo.”
Before Lacamoire peers ahead to the next stage of his career, with what he teases will be a busy 2023, the concurrent runs of “Hamilton” and “Dear Evan Hansen” at the Kennedy Center offer an opportunity to reflect on those life-changing shows. And it comes in the city where both musicals, Lacamoire acknowledges, were born: “Hamilton” in 2009 at the White House and “Hansen” in 2015 at Arena Stage.
“I look forward to being able to stand there at the Kennedy Center, which is a building that I love very much, to be able to see both of those marquees and those posters,” Lacamoire says. “That doesn’t seem like it comes along often in a lifetime.”
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Opera House. 2700 F St. NW. 202-467-4600. kennedy-center.org.
Dates: Through Oct. 9.
Prices: $59-$399.
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Eisenhower Theater. 2700 F St. NW. 202-467-4600. kennedy-center.org.
Dates: Aug. 30-Sept. 25. | 2022-08-03T14:06:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Meet Alex Lacamoire, the orchestrator behind 'Hamilton,' 'Dear Evan Hansen' - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/03/alex-lacamoire-hamilton-evan-hansen/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/03/alex-lacamoire-hamilton-evan-hansen/ |
Colin Farrell and Viggo Mortensen play real-life rescuers in Ron Howard’s effective thriller, based on actual events
From left, Viggo Mortensen (in the red helmet), Joel Edgerton, Tom Bateman, Colin Farrell and Thiraphat Sajakul in “Thirteen Lives.” (Vince Valitutti/Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures)
It’s not that “The Rescue” isn’t tough competition. Chin and Vasarhelyi laid out the story — told largely via interviews with Volanthen and Stanton, and mixing archival video footage from the Thai cave with reenactments shot in a pool in England — with a gripping intensity that is hard to beat. But Howard’s film does exactly what it needs (and sets out) to do: immerse you in the nail-biting events and the claustrophobic setting — dark, cold and muddy-water-filled caves and crevices, many of which are studded, top and bottom, by daggerlike stalactites and stalagmites. “Thirteen Lives” vividly re-creates both those physical dangers and what exactly was at stake, with a cast of young Thai actors.
PG-13. Available on Amazon. Contains some strong language and unsettling images. In Thai, English and French without subtitles. 147 minutes. | 2022-08-03T14:06:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 'Thirteen Lives' is an effective thriller based on real-life events - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/movies/2022/08/03/thirteen-lives-movie-review/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/movies/2022/08/03/thirteen-lives-movie-review/ |
Erykah Badu is once again headlining the Summer Spirit Festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion. (Tony Krash)
But first, know that Badu is scheduled to headline Sunday’s Summer Spirit Festival, a concert whose history runs even deeper than its 15 years. The annual funk-soul-rap-go-go revue — returning to Merriweather Post Pavilion after going quiet for two pandemic years — is the brainchild of Darryll Brooks and Carol Kirkendall, the storied D.C. concert promoters who are celebrating 50 years of collaboration. They presented Stevie Wonder on the National Mall in 1975, they brought Prince to Gallaudet University in 1984 and they launched Summer Spirit back in 2008 with Badu as their headliner. Badu has returned many times since, and for her last few appearances, she’s even designed the concert posters.
That hands-on-ness might fluster fans whose bedtime routine includes prayers that Badu funnel the entirety of her creativity into a new album — but anyone who’s stuck with the singer during the slow trickle of albums since her 1996 debut “Baduizm” knows that she isn’t one to rush. That said, her mind remains expansive and efficient. For Badu, a 10-minute phone call from her home in Texas is more than enough time to discuss loyalty, longevity, the comforts of recording at home, the joys of twerking abroad and more.
This interview has been edited but barely condensed.
Q: You’ve been so loyal to the Summer Spirit Festival over the years. What keeps you coming back?
A: Darryll Brooks and his partner [Carol Kirkendall] keep me coming back. They’ve always been super-loyal to R&B, funk, hip-hop. Over the last 10 years, I’ve been designing the artwork for the posters, the fliers. Darryll’ll call and say, “All right, let’s see what you gon’ do this year.” I usually design something really cool — and he pays me to do it. I’m not on his vision board, I’m on his payroll. I appreciate that.
Q: Do you feel a special relationship with your audiences here?
Q: Do you feel … wise? I guess that’s a convoluted question.
A: I never know. I never want to let it go. It’s difficult to. But then something comes along, like a lifeline or a deadline, or something like that. I ain’t going to get my money or something. And then it’s like, “Okay, kiss it goodbye!”
Headlining the Summer Spirit Festival on Aug. 7 at 3 p.m. at Merriweather Post Pavilion, 10475 Little Patuxent Pkwy., Columbia, Md. merriweathermusic.com. $74.75 - $199.75. | 2022-08-03T14:06:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Erykah Badu talks about loyalty, empathy, twerking abroad and more - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/08/03/erykah-badu-interview/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/08/03/erykah-badu-interview/ |
A 12-year-old girl escaped captivity and led authorities in Alabama to two decomposing bodies found in the home where she was held, police said Tuesday. (Screenshot via YouTube/WSFA)
Police responded to a 911 report on Monday before 8:30 a.m. from a driver who noticed a young girl walking along a road in Dadeville, Ala., Tallapoosa County Sheriff Jimmy Abbett said at a news conference. The girl escaping captivity sparked a kidnapping investigation over 24 hours that led to the residence of José Paulino Pascual-Reyes, Abbett said.
At a news conference Tuesday, Abbett declined to give additional details regarding whether the girl had any relationship to Pascual-Reyes or when she might have been kidnapped.
“It’s a fluid investigation,’’ the sheriff said, adding that authorities wouldn’t address whether the girl and man knew each other “until later.” “Things are changing, and I don’t want to jeopardize the identification of our juvenile.”
Authorities also declined to share information regarding the identification and cause of death for the two bodies found at Pascual-Reyes’s home in Dadeville, located about 60 miles outside of Montgomery. The remains were sent to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences for autopsies and identification.
Tallapoosa County District Attorney Jeremy Duerr told reporters that more capital murder charges could come against Pascual-Reyes.
“Once we continue and finish our investigation, I feel certain that several more charges will follow,” he said.
More than 365,000 reports of missing youths were filed into the FBI’s National Crime Information Center in 2020, according to the Justice Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the leading clearinghouse of information about missing children in the U.S., has noted that the figures show reports of missing children, not active cases, Reuters reported. As of Dec. 31, 2021, the FBI says that youths under age 18 account for about one-third of the more than 93,000 active missing-person cases.
Abbett said Pascual-Reyes had appeared to have lived in the mobile home since February. The sheriff said other people were at the home when authorities arrived, but declined to share details.
The sheriff praised the many agencies that helped in the arrest of Pascual-Reyes, including the FBI, the Tallapoosa County District Attorney’s Office, the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation and the Dadeville Police Department.
He also lauded the girl for her bravery in escaping captivity and pointing police toward Pascual-Reyes and the two decomposing bodies. The girl was “doing well” after receiving medical attention, the sheriff said.
“She’s safe and we want to keep her that way,” Abbett said. | 2022-08-03T14:06:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Kidnapped Alabama girl, 12, escapes captivity, leads police to 2 decomposing bodies, an arrest - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/03/alabama-girl-kidnapping-captive-bodies-arrest/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/03/alabama-girl-kidnapping-captive-bodies-arrest/ |
A hiker tried to burn a spider and sparked a wildfire in Utah, police say
An Erickson Aero Tanker drops fire retardant over a wildfire in Springville, Utah, on Monday, Aug. 1, 2022. (Kristin Murphy/AP)
A man who tried to burn a spider with his lighter while hiking this week is accused of setting something much bigger on fire instead: the hillside of Springville, Utah.
Cory Allan Martin, 26, was arrested Monday by police on suspicion of starting the mountain blaze, which destroyed 60 acres of land and sent thick plumes of smoke into the sky above Salt Lake City.
In a tweet, the Utah County Sheriff’s Office said Martin was booked for reckless burning, possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
Citing the probable cause statement filed by Utah County, local media reported that when Martin “attempted to burn the spider, the surrounding brush ignited and the fire began spreading very rapidly.”
Officials said Martin’s actions were reckless and “caused a danger to human life.”
Emergency services from Provo Fire and Rescue, Mapleton Fire and Utah County Fire rushed to the scene before aerial operations were launched, with aircraft dropping fire retardant in an effort to extinguish the flames.
Propelled by dry conditions, the fire quickly spread from the bottom of the mountain to the top, officials said.
Sgt. Spencer Cannon of the Utah County Sheriff’s Office said that although marijuana was found in Martin’s possession, he did not appear to be high, the Associated Press reported.
“What led him to stop and notice a spider and decide to try to burn it, we don’t know,” Cannon added. “There may not be a why. He might not even know a why.”
Officials noted that the incident appeared to be an accident and that Martin was likely more focused on destroying the spider than starting a wildfire. Martin has since been bailed out of jail, police said. The status of the spider remains unclear.
“Um, don’t do drugs kids (and don’t start spiders on fire during a drought),” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) tweeted Tuesday in response to the incident.
On social media, arachnophobes and those with a general hatred for spiders joked that Martin’s decision to burn the spider was nonetheless relatable. “I’m not saying I agree, but I understand,” read one tweet.
From Europe to the United States, wildfires have raged again this summer, fueled by punishing heat waves around the world. In Canada, one deadly blaze wiped out an entire village, while hundreds of people were evacuated from hotels and homes in Greece as fires spread.
In Britain, where wildfires are rare, several fires burned across London, causing the city’s fire service to declare a major incident last month as the country sweltered through its hottest temperature on record.
Record temperatures have been reported across the United States and Europe in recent months, with officials across the world warning of drought, food shortages and the threat of more deadly blazes. In recent days, 55,000 acres of land have been burned in California by an out-of-control fire.
A swath of recent wildfires has prompted experts and activists to call on world leaders to do more to combat human-caused climate change.
Your cat could burn your house down, Korean officials warn after 107 fires sparked by felines
The Utah blaze is a reminder that humans trying to use fire to deal with pests often end up getting burned.
In 2017, a homeowner in Georgia destroyed his house while attempting to “burn bees out of their nest” using a stick, the Associated Press reported.
Last year, a Maryland house went up in flames after a man tried to smoke out a snake infestation with coal, causing $1 million in damage, the Guardian reported at the time.
Other fires have been directly blamed on animals. In 2019, an unnamed 45-year-old tortoise in Essex, England, started a fire after knocking a heat lamp onto its bedding.
And earlier this year, South Korean officials warned pet owners in Seoul that their furry friends might be about to burn their houses down, after a spate of blazes traced to fire-starting felines.
Seoul’s Metropolitan Fire and Disaster Headquarters estimated that more than 100 fires in the last three years were started by cats that had turned on electric stoves with their paws. | 2022-08-03T14:06:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Utah wildfire blamed on man burning spider on Salt Lake City trail - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/03/utah-wildfire-spider-drugs/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/03/utah-wildfire-spider-drugs/ |
Transcript: “Hacks” A Conversation with Actor Hannah Einbinder
MS. ANDREWS‑DYER: Hello, and welcome to Washington Post Live. I’m Helena Andrews‑Dyer, a pop culture reporter for the Post, and today I’m joined by actor, writer, and comedienne Hannah Einbinder, who is here to talk to us about her work on the hit show “Hacks.”
In addition to Hannah's second Emmy nomination, the second season of "Hacks" received a whopping 17 Emmy nominations.
Hannah, welcome.
MS. EINBINDER: Thank you for having me, Helena. Appreciate it.
MS. ANDREWS‑DYER: Thank you so much for joining us, and I want to jump right in. Before we get really get into Season 2, let's talk about the audition process. You were admittedly new, right, to acting before you landed this incredible role. Can you tell us a little bit about that process?
MS. EINBINDER: Yeah. So I actually went in to audition for "Hacks" in person. It was one of the, like, two in‑person interviews I had ever really‑‑forgive me‑‑interview‑‑auditions I had ever really done at the time. A lot of them were just like self‑tapes that I sent in.
I went in March 9th of 2020. The 13th, the whole world shut down, and I didn't really know if I was going to get a callback. Things were in flux. The pandemic had just sort of hit. That was the initial date of the lockdown in Los Angeles, and so it took about two months to sort of hear if I was going to go back in. And, eventually, I did. The callback was over Zoom, and‑‑sorry. I know we're on Skype right now. I don't want to start a beef, but yeah, no, we did it on Zoom. And so it was really cool and also kind of low pressure, you know, because I was like in my own home. I think, like, auditions in these environments can definitely be certainly intimidating, but I think just because I was like sitting truly like literally right here when I did it, it was a little more comfortable for me. And because of, you know, sort of the flux state of the world, things were kind of up in the air for a little bit. But it was like kind of like a month between every stage, a month or two.
And then the final phase of the audition was an in‑person screen test with Jean at the Paramount lot. We did it on a dark, empty soundstage, which for those who don't know, a soundstage is essentially an empty warehouse where film and TV productions will build the interiors of their sets. So it was completely empty, so a full warehouse completely empty, aside from, like, two, like, interrogation‑style lights on Jean and I, and we were separated by, like, sort of a glass whiteboard, if you will, for of on wheels. And we just read two of the scenes, and it was very fun immediately. And I felt the spark that we would later go on to sort of share throughout the two seasons and took a couple weeks to hear.
And then I was just kind of walking down the street one day, and I got a call from like a 917 area code, and Paul, Jen, and Lucia called me, and they told me that I would be playing Miss Ava. And it was so fun. It was the coolest, most exciting, terrifying moment because I was very excited, and then I instantly was like spiraling into fear because, yes, as you said, I did not have any experience at the time. So it was crazy news, but yeah, that's kind of the whole process.
MS. ANDREWS‑DYER: Cool, exciting, terrifying, that could describe so many of life's biggest moments, right? I think that's perfect, and that soundstage does not sound completely intimidating whatsoever.
But tell us about Miss Ava. You know, for the few people who have yet to watch "Hacks" and will watch it after this, tell us about Ava. Who is she?
MS. EINBINDER: So Ava Daniels is a 25‑year‑old queer comedy writer from Massachusetts. She got her start in the industry very young and gained a lot of success pretty early on, and so I think she was kind of like isolated in that on her path to success kind of breaking away from a bit of a chaotic home life. And she sort of has an incident where she tweets something not so great, and it causes her to lose work and sort of fall out of the good graces of the industry.
And the only person who will give her a job is Deborah Vance, who she‑‑Ava and Deborah both share the same manager, Jimmy, played by Paul W. Downs beautifully, I might add. And Ava is just like a really sort of confrontational, strong‑willed, flawed, funny, smart, charismatic person, and she's someone who I don't think‑‑who I think has a lot of growing to do. But I think she finds her mirror in Deborah Vance. They have sort of similar cores, I would say, as people, and we sort of just get to see her grow and take two steps forward and one step back alongside Deborah. And I think she's a swell gal, love her a lot, so...
MS. ANDREWS‑DYER: And your connection to Ava, right? So Ava is a young stand‑up comic and writer. You, Hannah IRL are a young stand‑up comic and writer. What similarities did you find with the character, right, the commonalities between you and Ava, and what parts of the character were you like, "Oh, absolutely not. That is‑‑I'm reaching deep into the archives for this"?
MS. EINBINDER: Yeah. So Ava's‑‑Ava doesn't have‑‑she‑‑the difference is that Ava is just a writer. She doesn't do‑‑Deborah is the comedian in the relationship. She herself is not a stand‑up, so there's a difference there.
But I think Ava‑‑I mean, for me personally, like, I think she's maybe a version of me that didn't go to therapy. Like I could see like a lot of similar‑‑like, you know, she and I are both like queer comedy writers who have achieved a level of success at a very sort of young age, and so there are some surface‑level similarities there for sure. But Ava has a lot of internal work to do.
I have‑‑I think, like, I'm not someone who doesn't think before speaking. I think Ava just kind of comes out with everything, and fundamentally, I am like a chronic overthinker, so, like, truly have never, like, wanted to, like, put every word I've ever said back in my mouth more so than when I'm playing Ava sometimes because she will just let it fly, which is interesting. But, like, I kind of love that about her too.
But, yeah, I think, like, just that's like probably the core of our differences, but I‑‑I mean, she's written like a comedy writer. So she's very familiar to me. She reminds me a lot of the people that, you know, I came up with in the comedy scene, and, you know, Paul, Jen, and Lucia also have a background in performing. So a lot of Ava, I see sort of pulled from these various circles that Paul, Jen, and Lucia and I have existed in as performers and as comedians and writers in Los Angeles. So there's a lot about her that is incredibly familiar to me and incredibly authentic as someone who is sort of like a descendent of the same place, the same sort of creative circle that she may have come from.
MS. ANDREWS‑DYER: So Ava is someone you could know, basically?
MS. EINBINDER: Yeah.
MS. ANDREWS‑DYER: Like maybe sort of like on the periphery of a friend circle, perhaps, right? You might be in a group chat with someone like Ava.
Speaking of the chemistry between you and Jean Smart, who plays the Deborah Vance on the show, you talked about that, and you said it was immediate. Tell us more about that because you two on screen, it's just‑‑it's crackling. You two are so incredible together. Talk to us about that chemistry between you and Jean Smart. Was it‑‑you say it was immediate, but how did it grow over the past two seasons?
MS. EINBINDER: I would love to talk about our chemistry. I‑‑
MS. EINBINDER: It's the most immediate sort of‑‑and I think this is a credit to Jean in a big way because I have a feeling that, like, she creates such a warm welcoming environment for so many people and really everyone she meets that it's easy to slip in with her, but for me, it was one of the more immediate sort of warming up experiences, warming up to someone quickly sort of experiences that I had had.
I think, like, Jean has a really young spirit, and I am a very old soul, and that, you know, I think we kind of like meet in the middle there.
And I just‑‑I mean, let alone like‑‑or putting aside, like, the fact that our sense of humors are like very, very, very, very enmeshed and so similar. She's just like such an incredible friend, and, like, we've just been very vulnerable and open with each other about everything in our lives and within this show. And so the evolution of our chemistry into, like, the most beautiful friendship has just been like very seamless because we both are‑‑I don't know‑‑just really, like, open people, I think, and like vulnerable and don't really have a problem with, like, going there and love to go there.
So it's just been like‑‑it's always great when you meet someone like that where you don't have to, like, try to, like, get in there. It's like you're dealing with two dogs, not two cats. You know what I mean? Like it's sort of we're really eager to, like, find that love, and so, yeah, it's just been like one of the greatest, most rewarding and cherished relationships I've had in my life, so it's cool.
MS. ANDREWS‑DYER: That sounds amazing, like, especially in a scene partner and a creative partner to find that person is‑‑I don't know‑‑beyond ideal, I would say.
And I want to get more into Ava's evolution as we've been talking about, specifically as it relates to her relationship with Deborah, right, Jean's character, because the Ava that we meet, as we say, in the first episode is not the Ava‑‑not giving anything away‑‑on the second season finale. And I want you to talk about her relationship with Deborah and how‑‑and how she's grown, I think, through that.
But, first, I want to go to a clip that I think perfectly encapsulates this just incredibly unique dynamic between Ava and Deborah. So let's take a look.
MS. ANDREWS‑DYER: That's tough love right there, like the toughest of love. How would you describe your relationship of‑‑Ava's relationship with Deborah?
MS. EINBINDER: Oh, I'm just still laughing at "the big one," thick document. That's so funny.
MS. EINBINDER: I mean, it's a little bit of a boot camp, you know. Ava is this young person who has kind of professionally sort of glided through life. She's been talented and lucky and right place, right time, and certainly a hard worker, but she just kind of got off to the races very quickly at like a great big job, and then she was able to just build off of that. Whereas, Deborah had to, in her own words, you know, scratch and claw to create a career for herself completely on her own with rejection at every turn, and so Ava has a lot to learn from that. And I think a big part of the development of Ava is dependent upon sort of learning from Deborah's path.
And so, yeah, I think that, you know, that's sort of the foundation of Ava's growth, and, you know, they're‑‑it's not always, you know, Deborah learning‑‑or Ava learning from Deborah. Excuse me. There's definitely like a push and pull there. Like, I think Ava has a lot to teach Deborah about not only like‑‑I don't know‑‑the state of comedy today. Like, they definitely have things they can learn from each other, but, I mean, it goes beyond that. I mean, like, there are times where because they realize how similar they are and that they're coming from similar places, when one gives the other advice or when one asks the other to look in the mirror, they're more inclined to do it because they understand that they both are coming from similar places, just like in a central sort of way.
So, yeah, I think a lot of Ava's development is sort of tough love, as we saw in that last clip for sure.
MS. ANDREWS‑DYER: As you say, yeah, there seems to be like such a deep trust as we've grown over the two seasons between Deborah and Ava. I feel like at the beginning it was definitely like a, hmm, not sure about this, and they've grown to just trust each other in a way that is really beautiful on screen.
And going back to what you were saying about sort of what Deborah can learn from Ava, another major theme on the show is sort of the generational divide, if you will, and the gap between the two of them, specifically as it relates to sort of comedic sensibilities, right? You have Deborah has some jokes that might not have aged too well, and Ava is, you know, of this generation, of the now. How does this show deal with sort of that gap between the two of them, specifically when it comes to like their comedic sensibilities? And do you think that can be instructive for viewers in a way?
MS. EINBINDER: I absolutely do. I think that the show never attempts to legitimize one of their perspectives over the other fully. If anything, it sort of sheds light on the flaws of both of their perspectives. I think in any sort of meaningful conflict resolution or really any conversation, sort of casting aside the other person and labeling them as bad or ill‑informed or too sensitive or outdated is not necessarily a great way to attack any sort of problem if your goal is progress or some sort of a resolution.
So I think, like, the show does a great job of, you know, kind of letting them both have a little bit of egg on their face at times as it pertains to, like, their perspectives, and that, you know, Ava isn't always right. Neither is Deborah.
So I have heard from folks from, like, various people who have told me like, yeah, this is a great sort of way for me to not just give up on my mother or my daughter type situations because I think, like, now more than ever, people are really struggling to see each other's perspectives because I think the world is changing so rapidly. And so I hope that a show like "Hacks" is a good model of, you know, people with a, you know, 50‑year, 40‑year age gap, you know, just sort of like finding a way to coexist and beyond that create great, great work or have a close relationship, you know.
MS. ANDREWS‑DYER: Yeah. I think that's part of what's also so beautiful about the show. Again, it's the bridging of those gaps. It's not just played for laughs constantly. It's literally like, okay, this is how you relate to someone, you know, who‑‑
MS. EINBINDER: Right.
MS. ANDREWS‑DYER: ‑‑might not think exactly as you do.
Let's zoom out a bit and talk about pressure, specifically, you know, the show was a hit straight out the gate. Fans loved it. Critics loved it. All the Emmy nominations. There's something called the "sophomore slump," right? Was there any pressure after that incredible first season to go above and beyond for the second season? Did you feel that pressure, and was that helpful? Was it stressful? Like, what is it like? Again, you talk about Ava being the character, you know, being so successful so young. Did that‑‑did that cause any pressure, any tension on set, and how did you guys use that as fuel?
MS. EINBINDER: Yes.
MS. EINBINDER: I put an amazing, a record‑setting amount of pressure on myself as an artist to be‑‑to do well, so much so that I rarely enjoy‑‑I'm able to enjoy my work because‑‑as I'm doing it because I am just putting myself through such hell. I felt that pressure Season 1, and by the way, like, the environment on set was so loving and egoless and collaborative and supportive and incredibly affirming. But because of my brain, I just couldn't hear it. So that's just a little bit about me. So that's my shit, and I'm working through it.
But the whole, like‑‑you know, the whole time we were all just like‑‑we had so much faith in the material. So we were all just like kind of feeling good. I mean, I think as a group, I certainly looked around and saw the performances and the material being so much‑‑like so elevated, surpassing Season 1. Like, I was able to see it in my fellow performers, not so much myself.
But, yeah, I mean, I think, like, we all felt the pressure, but I think once we got the scripts, it was very clear that the gang had done it again, so yeah, luckily.
MS. ANDREWS‑DYER: And speaking of the scripts, talk about sort of‑‑obviously, there's so much talent in front of the camera. Everyone on the show is hilarious all the time, bringing their A game, but behind the scenes in the writers' room, there's so much talent as well. And you talked about getting the scripts. What is it like to work with such‑‑being a writer yourself, work with such talented writers? And as a writer yourself, were you involved in the writing process at all? Were you ever punching up scripts or thought you needed to punch up scripts like Ava? How did that work?
MS. EINBINDER: That‑‑so, I mean, the writers' room on "Hacks" is filled with some of the most talented performers, writers, individuals that I have ever known or known of. It was‑‑I mean, there's nothing‑‑like, for me, I just was like delivered gold. So, you know, it really was just such a master class for me, you know, on writing for sure, being able to read these scripts and see various character developments. I mean, it's one thing to watch a show, but being involved in making it is truly the best education I have ever gotten. I'm sorry to the film school I attended. But it really was sort of master class at all angles, whether that's, you know, watching Paul, Jen, and Lucia work through things in the moment or Lucia's direction or just reading the scripts on my own or the actors around me. Our writers have just broken off little pieces of their hearts and sprinkled it in, you know. That's the best part about this show. So many people have given themselves and parts of themselves to the work, which I think definitely improves the quality tenfold. So it's just been such an honor.
And I've gotten to, like, know these people because, you know, like, it's pretty‑‑in COVID, I don't know how sets were run before, but, like, I've been told that the writers will attend set and hang around and, you know, obviously give feedback, and, you know, if it's their episode that we're shooting and we weren't able to do that, there were no writers, aside from Paul, Jen, and Lucia on set the entire time we were filming. So I do feel a little robbed of that, because I think that would have been really fun, but I've been able to, like, hang with them and get to know them and DM with them and, you know, like, just chill with them outside of work, which has been so cool. They're all so talented and really sweet people.
MS. ANDREWS‑DYER: You make the set of "Hacks" sound incredible. I think we all want to go and hang out there and live there for a while.
Let's talk about the business. You mention master class, but I want to talk about the family business. You come from a comedy family. Your mom, Laraine Newman, was a founding member The Groundlings and an OG cast member of SNL, and your dad, Chad Einbinder, is an actor and comedy writer. Did you ever want to be a dentist?
MS. EINBINDER: [Laughs]
MS. ANDREWS‑DYER: Or did you always know you were going to be in comedy?
MS. EINBINDER: You know, I didn't want to follow in sort of the business that they experienced and were a part of. I wanted to be a broadcast journalist, if you can imagine, such as yourself.
MS. ANDREWS‑DYER: [Laughs]
MS. EINBINDER: That was my‑‑that was my whole thing. I was very into politics, very into news. I was obsessed with Rachel Maddow, which I think was a queer thing in retrospect, not necessarily a news thing, but‑‑
MS. ANDREWS‑DYER: It could be both.
MS. EINBINDER: It could be both. You know what? It's probably both, probably more the queer thing, though. But, I mean, I just was so into the sort of MSNBC gang, you know, like Chris Matthews and Lawrence O'Donnell and Chris Hayes when he was a young reporter. I remember I've seen that young man have quite the journey. It's very exciting for him. But, you know, I watched them all, and I realize in retrospect that those were performers. Like, there is an element of performance when you're delivering essentially a giant monologue by a teleprompter and sort of selling it as if it's kind of off the dome, which I think Rachel, in particular, shines at. So I kind of was headed down that path and then randomly got into comedy in college.
I tried out for the improv team. There was a young man named Alex Alsip. He was the president of the improv team at school, and he just like‑‑I met him on, like, a student film set, and he was like, "You should try out for the improv team," and so I did. And then I did improv for two years.
I didn't really love it, honestly, and then Nicole Byer, great comedian, came to my school and asked if anyone from the improv team wanted to open for her, so I did. And I kind of got hooked on standup that way, and then just naturally, like, after school, got, like, a job at a coffee shop and just hit open mics every night and just started doing a lot of open mics. And then, you know, sort of from there, there were agents and managers that would come around L.A. shows, and I started working with agents and managers from those live shows.
And then a couple years into that, they told me I should start, you know, sort of diversifying, auditioning, writing, things like that, doing things other than stand‑up. So I started doing that, and it was kind of like a really natural progression into this. So I never really planned it. I kind of, you know, had other plans just based on, like, sort of what my parents told me about the industry. It's very hard, you know. They're very hard, and so I was very dissuaded from engaging with it or entering it.
But this is probably the one skill I have. So that's what I'm sticking with.
MS. ANDREWS‑DYER: And, listen, it's a great skill. It's a great skill.
Now that you have two seasons of "Hacks" under your belt and two Emmy nominations under your belt, have you caught the acting bug, or is stand‑up your first love still?
MS. EINBINDER: Stand‑up is my first love. Stand‑up is definitely my first love, but I love acting as well. I mean, it's been so great to learn that this is in the realm of possibilities for me, and I've just been so blessed to find this perfect gig and be, like, right for it and, you know, be able‑‑get to be a part of it. So that was kind of the most shocking thing to me because I kind of had, like, sort of strict sort of boundaries or binary ideas about what I was. I was like I'm a stand‑up comedian, and acting has really sort of opened up the realm of possibilities. And so I don't try to label myself as one or the other. I just kind of say that I'm a performer, and that I guess there's a lot extra and more in store when you just kind of keep it open and keep it free, keep it rolling.
MS. ANDREWS‑DYER: Yes. Keep it fluid. I like that.
Last question, and this is‑‑I'm going to like zoom out for you. I'm going to give you a lot of options here, keeping it fluid. Who is the one writer, director, actor, or comedian you would most love to work with next?
MS. EINBINDER: [Whistles] Wow. I mean, I feel like maybe Richard Kind or Natasha Lyonne or the Safdie Brothers would be cool. Yeah. Those would be my three answers. I know you asked for one, but I'm sorry. [Laughs]
MS. ANDREWS‑DYER: That's okay. That's okay. That's all right.
And, you know, we're going to have to leave it there. We've run out of time. This was incredible. Hannah Einbinder, thank you so much for joining us today.
MS. EINBINDER: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
MS. ANDREWS‑DYER: And thank all of you for joining us today. To check out what we have coming next, please head to WashingtonPostLive.com for more information about all of our upcoming programs and interviews.
I'm Helena Andrews‑Dyer, and again, thank you for watching. | 2022-08-03T14:07:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Transcript: “Hacks” A Conversation with Actor Hannah Einbinder - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/08/03/transcript-hacks-conversation-with-actor-hannah-einbinder/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/08/03/transcript-hacks-conversation-with-actor-hannah-einbinder/ |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.