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A woman shows a security guard proof for entry at Peking University in Beijing, where pandemic restrictions continued to limit students' activities this spring. (Ng Han Guan/AP)
The groups of students gather in the dark of night on school lawns or sports fields. Then, in a bizarre scene, they crawl in a circle on the ground.
This “collective crawling” has been repeated at universities across China in recent weeks, a sudden fad among students that has flummoxed and alarmed school officials. Are these young people engaged in a sex cult? Are they protesting the government’s strict covid policies? Surely foreign hostile forces are behind it, one nationalist commentator posited online.
Students say it is merely a way to relieve stress after almost three years of a pandemic that has confined their lives to endless campus lockdowns, online classes and constant coronavirus tests. (At some schools, apparently for the same reason, students also have taken to making cardboard pets and taking them out for walks.)
The pressures they face are considerable. This year’s college graduates are confronting the toughest job market in decades as the Chinese economy struggles under indefinite coronavirus controls, rising unemployment and a property market crisis.
“Under the exhaustion of lockdowns and great uncertainty about the future, the loss of meaning is adding to young people’s sense of existential crisis,” Lin Shihou, a student from Chongqqing University, wrote in an essay. “Crawling is a collective ritual for young people to release that feeling of being repressed,” Lin noted, describing it as a way of using “meaninglessness to resist meaninglessness.”
Shanghai’s covid siege: Food shortages, talking robots, starving animals
The fad appears to have begun with an anonymous online post this month by a student at Communication University of China in Beijing. It asked: “Would you find it frightening if you saw someone crawling on the ground on school campus? If not, this is what I’m going to do tomorrow.”
Other students responded quickly. “Can I come too? It’s been a long time since I’ve done anything embarrassing,” one said. And another: “Can I join? Lately I haven’t been in a good mental place.”
Soon, groups of “creepers” were surfacing at universities from Beijing to Suzhou to Hangzhou. In Hong Kong, some students are organizing a group crawl every Wednesday night, according to a post on the platform Xiaohongshu, or Little Red Book, where users have been sharing videos of themselves in the act.
“This is definitely an expression of extreme frustration,” said Yicheng Wang, a PhD student in political science at Boston University who studies propaganda and popular discourse. “Students have had to accept that their [years at] university, which was supposed to be the best and most enjoyable time in their life, had to be spent under de facto house arrest.”
The crawling rules, so to speak, vary from school to school but are simple, according to the individuals posting about the events. Be on time. Keep some distance from those in front or behind you. Crawl any way you like — on hands and knees, hands and feet, or even rolling sideways along the ground. In one chat group, organizers reminded students not to eat the grass.
The fervor with which students are organizing crawl groups is worrying some officials. A student from Zhejiang University, in the eastern city of Hangzhou, posted online that their groups had been canceled because of “security issues.” A student at a university in Beijing said teachers had recently told them to stop — yet another example of young people’s loss of autonomy.
“It’s best for students not to have any views because they are not allowed to anyway,” she said, speaking on the condition of anonymity out of security concerns. “Lockdown really is very boring and people look for something to do.”
Chinese state media and nationalist commentators have criticized other recent trends among disaffected young people, including tangping, or “lying flat,” a kind of quiet quitting from society’s rat race, and a more extreme version known as bailan, or “let it rot.”
While collective crawling has not received the same level of censure, articles in state-run media warn people not to “blindly follow” the trend or to consult experts when engaging in this form of exercise.
Students also are sharing their experiences online. Some say crawling on the ground is liberating — a return to a more primal state where focus is drawn to the immediate surroundings and the feel of the grass or ground.
“It’s not about crawling, it’s about any kind of abnormal behavior that is bound to spark questions like ‘Why are you doing this? Who organized you and who is behind this?’ ” one internet user observed on the microblog Weibo. “It’s through this questioning and criticism that you see the nature of the society you live in. Sometimes the clearest truths are found in the silliest of actions.” | 2022-11-16T10:40:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Chinese university students are suddenly crawling on campuses - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/16/china-university-students-crawling-groups/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/16/china-university-students-crawling-groups/ |
Maya Lin’s Vietnam memorial blazed a path in 1982, but no one followed
Architects and designers have avoided grappling with Maya Lin’s genius.
Vietnam veteran Bernie Klemanek, then 73, of Mineral, Va., visits the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 2020. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which opened 40 years ago this month, changed everything and nothing about how we understand memorials.
It was the most consequential monument of the 20th century, and it reinvigorated the making of monuments and memorials in Washington. And yet, despite its groundbreaking power and enormous popularity, it has had a faltering influence on memorials ever since. New ones fail to equal its power, and most designers and architects avoid grappling with its basic premise. Lin’s flame burns too brightly to be confronted directly, and the history of monuments and memorials in Washington has been a history of avoiding her real genius.
When the memorial was dedicated on Nov. 13, 1982, the highest-ranking member of Ronald Reagan’s administration present was the deputy administrator of the Veterans Administration. Reagan declined to be keynote speaker at the ceremony, perhaps in deference to vitriolic right-wing opponents of the design, who likened it to a wall of shame or a gash in the landscape. The rancor of opposition to Lin’s design was marked by anti-Asian racism and misogyny, and Lin’s vision was decried as cynical and nihilistic because it refused to speak in the familiar language of classical columns, figurative sculpture and bathetic inscriptions.
Yet its construction brought to an end a period of relative inactivity in the core of Washington’s memorial landscape. The flaming-sword of the Second Division Memorial — like most war memorials at the time devoted to a military entity or the dead of some locality rather than the whole of a war — was dedicated near the White House in 1936. The Jefferson Memorial, a classical pavilion imitating Rome’s Pantheon, opened in 1938. For almost a half century after that, Washington was focused more on modern infrastructure: roads, highways, urban renewal schemes and a new subway system which began construction in 1969. Memorial architecture was not part of that modernity.
Indeed, some critics argued that modernity and monument making were fundamentally opposed. In Lewis Mumford’s 1937 essay “The Death of the Monument,” the critic wrote an epitaph that seemed to hold true for decades: “The very notion of a modern monument is a contradiction in terms: if it is a monument, it cannot be modern, and if it is modern, it cannot be a monument." The modern spirit resisted the old impulse to squander creative energies on things that were moribund and reflective; it was better to live in the world, to make things anew, to create and push forward with useful additions to the city. The 1971 Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, technically a memorial to the slain president, embodied that spirit, in contemporary architecture that provided a valuable service to living.
The ultimate success of the Vietnam memorial proved Mumford wrong. But after four decades as one of the city’s most popular tourist draws, it’s easy to forget exactly what was new about Lin’s design.
It wasn’t the list of names. Earlier memorials had included names of the fallen, usually listed by some combination of their military rank and alphabetical priority. And the original competition brief for the Vietnam memorial mandated that the names be included.
Nor did Lin invent the language of abstraction in memorial architecture. Eero Saarinen’s Gateway Arch in St. Louis, designed a decade after Mumford’s essay and opened in 1965, is as spare as Lin’s conjoined walls of dark stone. A 1950s competition to design a memorial to Franklin Delano Roosevelt elicited some strikingly modern and abstract designs, though the drive to create a large, public memorial to the 32nd president languished for decades. The Washington Monument, stripped of the columns and falderol proposed by its original architect Robert Mills (decades before the Civil War) is also as austere and abstract as Lin’s design.
A new book documents the culture war over the Vietnam Veterans memorial
Even the idea that the memorial should not take a stand on the war was dictated in the 1980 competition program published by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. The memorial should “make no political statement regarding the war or its conduct.” Rather, it was to be contemplative, reflective and healing.
Like so many great works of art and architecture before, Lin’s design succeeded not by inventing new things, but by balancing, emphasizing and underscoring preexisting or predetermined elements. She didn’t just list the names of the dead, she made them the fundamental visual element, ordering them chronologically by the date of their death, not by rank. Her abstraction was more radical than that of Saarinen or Mills because it refused reference to earlier architectural forms. It wasn’t a stripped-down arch or a distended obelisk. It was just two walls meeting in a sunken patch of earth.
As for making “no political statement” about the war, she achieved that all too well. In the fevered climate after the U.S. lost the war and South Vietnam collapsed in 1975, a memorial that refused comment on the war was seen as intrinsically pacifist, or critical of the war. After she won the competition, Lin would be forced to add inscriptions that trafficked in the usual banalities of memorial verbiage: “Our nation honors the courage, sacrifice and devotion to duty …”
The success of the memorial and its rapid embrace by the public helped inaugurate decades of new memorial building on or near the Mall. Every one these designs steps back from Lin’s severity of purpose and moral clarity. The 1995 Korean War Veterans Memorial is centered on figurative sculptures; the 2004 World War II Memorial regurgitates classical architectural banalities — arches, pylons and wreaths — on a scale worthy of Albert Speer. The 2011 Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial is a giant statue of the Civil Rights icon reminiscent of Soviet or Maoist visual hagiography.
None of these designs forces the visitor into the emotional space and isolated contemplation of the Vietnam Memorial. And many of the new monuments come with what often read like a user’s manual, instructing the visitor on what to feel, to think, even what to do. At the Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism During World War II, we are reminded at the edge of a pool of water, “Here we admit a wrong. Here we affirm our commitment as a nation to equal justice under the law.” The National Park Service website for the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial guides visitors through a litany of symbolic elements: “The quiet flow of the water is intended to remind us of how disabled veterans can, with patience, overcome personal obstacles and find new meaning and purpose in their lives” and “the ceremonial flame is an eternal tribute to the strength and sacrifice of veterans.”
Stop Building on the Mall
The blunt symbolism of these memorials prompts us to worthy sentiments. But Lin offered no such prompts, and she resisted making connections between design and meaning. “What I really question is allegory,” she said in a New York Times interview published in 1991. “This represents this because it says so in the guidebook. It’s the difference between telling people what to think and enabling them — allowing them — to think.”
She expected, or rather hoped, that people would experience the memorial as art — open ended, ambiguous, dependent on the viewer to create meaning — rather than the curated sentimental experience that remains the standard for memorials and audiences today. Architects and designers have copied, imitated or been inspired by aspects of Lin’s design for 40 years. But few if any have had the courage to push as far in the direction of minimalism.
And for good reason. The cost is simply too high. Lin’s memorial was one of the opening battles in the culture wars that would rage in the 1990s. One residue of those debates about sex, gender and religion — some of which have abated — is a lingering anxiety about the tendency of artists to refuse explicit meaning. The suspicion that artists, intellectuals and academics are mocking us, cloaking subversion in obscure language, remains a vital form of paranoia in American cultural life. In the decades since the Vietnam memorial opened, Americans have become increasingly sophisticated in their anti-intellectualism, tenacious skeptics of ambiguity, adept at finding dark meaning in public art. Any space left open to interpretation becomes merely a vacuum, and conspiracy thinking quickly floods in.
That mindset left its traces at the memorial early on. Even before it was inaugurated, opponents forced a fundamental design change that included the addition of a figurative statue of three soldiers by artist Frederick Hart. The conventional bronze sculpture was meant to redeem what Hart called a nihilistic memorial from being too elitist. “I don’t like art that is contemptuous of life,” he said.
When this desecration of Lin’s original idea was unveiled in 1984, Reagan attended the ceremony, along with senior members of his cabinet. Unlike in 1982 when the memorial was opened, the president gave a dedication speech. | 2022-11-16T11:10:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Vietnam War's memorial blazed a path in 1982, but no one followed - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/11/16/vietnam-memorial-legacy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/11/16/vietnam-memorial-legacy/ |
Estee Lauder and Mac displays at a Nykaa store in New Delhi, India on Saturday, July 30, 2021. Nykaa has grown into India’s top e-commerce site for beauty products, with the endorsement of Bollywood stars and a fervent following among twenty-somethings. The startup filed preliminary documents on Aug. 2 for an initial public offering, which Bloomberg News has reported could value the business at more than $4 billion. (Bloomberg)
Estee Lauder Cos Inc. has acquired the Tom Ford brand for $2.3 billion, seeing off competition from Gucci owner Kering SA.
Marcolin SpA, Tom Ford’s long-term eyewear licensee, will spend $250 million to extend this arrangement, giving Tom Ford a total enterprise value of $2.8 billion.
It has had a beauty deal with Tom Ford for almost two decades. This is set to achieve annual net sales of $1 billion over the next couple of years. Tom Ford Beauty generated almost 25% net sales growth in the year to June 30. Acquiring the company secures this license beyond 2030, when it was due to expire. Estee will also have the benefit of cashflow from the brand, additional synergies and will no longer have to pay royalties to Tom Ford. Plus, there are opportunities to expand the line into other areas such as skincare.
Estee Lauder also appears to have solved the problem of dealing with Tom Ford’s non-beauty businesses: It has extended and expanded the scope of the long-term fashion licensing deal with US-listed Italian fashion company Ermenegildo Zegna NV.
While it has buckets of beauty know-how, fashion isn’t its forte. Although long-term apparel and accessories licensee Zegna will operate this side of the business, and will acquire some of Tom Ford’s fashion assets to help it, the two companies will need to keep delivering Tom Ford’s trademark mini-dresses and killer heels to create a halo around the name. Keeping Tom Ford at the forefront of consumers’ minds is crucial to selling its $50 lipsticks and $100 fragrances.
Estee said it would work closely with Zegna “on the creative direction to continue building the luxury positioning of the brand.” It certainly needs to, given that the designer Tom Ford isn’t sticking around. Ford will remain “creative visionary” at his eponymous fashion house only until the end of 2023. Then Estee is on its own.
Unlike Kering, which is a master of recruiting and nurturing the right creative talent at its fashion houses, this is new territory for Estee, although it will be able to draw on Zegna’s skills in bringing in a new designer.
Tom Ford’s strength in high-end make-up and fragrances — which many consumers turn to in moments of economic uncertainty (see: the lipstick index) — made Estee the better owner. But the company has its work cut out to maintain the beauty of this deal.
• Food Prices Are Coming Down — Just Not in Time for Thanksgiving: Javier Blas | 2022-11-16T11:11:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Tom Ford Is Now Estee Lauder’s Big Fashion Challenge - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/tom-ford-is-now-estee-lauders-big-fashion-challenge/2022/11/16/ec5fb034-659d-11ed-b08c-3ce222607059_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/tom-ford-is-now-estee-lauders-big-fashion-challenge/2022/11/16/ec5fb034-659d-11ed-b08c-3ce222607059_story.html |
A tug of war over disrupting or conserving social arrangements has long buffeted schools
Perspective by Michelle A. Purdy
Michelle A. Purdy is associate professor of education and affiliated with the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Equity, and Urban Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. She is author of "Transforming the Elite: Black Students and the Desegregation of Private Schools" (University of North Carolina Press, 2018).
"African American Literature" is a textbook in an advanced placement social studies class at Huffman High School in Birmingham, Ala. (Julie Bennett for The Washington Post)
Even as conservatives push statewide bans on the teaching of critical race theory or lessons on racism and other topics that might cause general discomfort to White students, the College Board is launching a very different sort of initiative. This fall, the organization is piloting a new AP course in African American studies in 60 U.S. high schools. The course, which was designed with input from K-12 teachers and professors across the country, will address African American life, culture and history.
These seemingly contradictory impulses in our education landscape are the result of a nation divided about what students should learn and what teachers should teach. On one side, conservative activists seek to stifle academic freedom by quelling curriculums that expose U.S. fault lines. On the other hand, social justice educators embrace a much more robust and full understanding of the United States, one that is rooted in the African American quest to show the centrality of Black Americans to U.S. life and history.
And this is nothing new. The nation’s public schools have long been caught in a tug of war over whether they should be used to conserve or disrupt existing social arrangements. Alternate efforts to constrict and expand academic freedom in the nation’s schools have been central to how politicians, educators and activists have tried to encourage social change or resist it.
With the onset of Jim Crow following the Supreme Court’s 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson that allowed for “separate but equal” public accommodations, African Americans did all they could to educate themselves despite state-sanctioned racism. As they contributed their time, talent and treasures to developing schools, they also created new curriculums that countered the continued belief in the inferiority of Black people and any thoughts of them as passive individuals. From early on, African American educators, leaders and community members saw academic freedom and the broadening of the curriculum as a primary force in the fight for social justice.
By the early 20th century, White schools began using textbooks that attempted to create a unified, graded curriculum, while telling a story of American history and culture centered on the heroic supremacy of White men.
But African American educators immediately pushed back against this curriculum. In 1915, Carter G. Woodson — the son of former enslaved people who completed his PhD in 1912 at Harvard while teaching in Washington, D.C. — began the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. Later, Woodson created what would become Black History Month in an attempt to upend the white supremacist narratives infiltrating American schools. He also understood that academic freedom could be a powerful tool for confronting the central problem in U.S. schools, what historian Jarvis Givens has described as “the condemnation of Black life in school curriculum and ideology.” Such latitude would empower Black teachers to correct the biases and falsehoods in these new textbooks.
Across the Jim Crow South, Black teachers used multiple pedagogical methods to inspire Black students to their highest potential and to imagine a society in which they would be equal. They also created alternative texts to use in these lessons. Historically Black colleges and universities became hubs of activity for Black research, teaching and service — challenging narratives of inferiority produced by White scholars and pushing the bounds of academic freedom.
But as Black students desegregated White public schools in the South following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, they found themselves confronting institutional and interpersonal racism without the support of Black teachers who often lost their jobs because of desegregation. The bigotry, lack of support and racist curriculums they confronted propelled many of these students to action. By the late 1960s, Black students identified a broadened curriculum as a pathway to justice and protested for better schooling conditions, including the addition of Black history in the curriculum in places like Charlottesville and Philadelphia. In 1967, students in Philadelphia walked out of school to demand change — a moment historian Matthew Countryman has described as a catalyst for a movement to use curriculum to drive social change.
These fights to expand the curriculum not only occurred in K-12 schools, but also at predominantly White colleges and universities. Black student protests at the University of Chicago led to the formation of a committee charged with adding African American studies to the curriculum. The monumental 1968-69 strike at San Francisco State, “the longest student-led strike in the history of American higher education,” led to the establishment of the College of Ethnic Studies in 1969 and the school’s stated commitment to equity and social justice now reflected in its diverse student body.
In December 1968, Black students occupied the main administration building at Washington University in St. Louis. They also issued a Black Manifesto, which proclaimed: “The traditional education has not spoken and does not speak to the life of the Black man in America.” The student authors demanded “the chance to acquire knowledge relevant to our needs and the needs of our people. … We strongly recommend the same change for our white counterparts.” This activism, supported by academic freedom, led to the adoption of Black studies courses in 1969.
The press for academic freedom as social justice continued into the 1980s and 1990s as Black educational scholars and K-12 teachers called for multicultural education. James Banks, the father of multicultural education and an educational researcher, called for a curriculum that would expose students to new ideas and in the process reduce social inequality. Additional Black educational scholars such James Anderson, Jacqueline Jordan Irvine, Gloria Ladson-Billings and Vanessa Siddle Walker used their academic freedom to produce studies that pushed against the notions of Black people and children as deficient — which still permeated educational research, including teacher preparation and curriculum.
But the efforts to reshape curriculum provoked resistance by those who insisted on students needing to understand the standard White-oriented Westernized curriculum. Of those who sought to broaden the state of knowledge, historian Arthur M. Schlesinger wrote, “They have filled the air with recrimination and rancor and have remarkably advanced the fragmentation of American life.”
Today, perhaps more than ever, Black scholars and Black teachers continue to press for academic freedom and use those rights to fight for social justice and equity. Indeed, the study of African Americans, whether in K-12 schools or higher education, has raised levels of understanding and consciousness about African Americans’ experiences and contributions despite systemic racism in American history and current reality. Even amid the current attacks on the teaching of race and racism, we find ourselves in 2022 with increased numbers of Black studies programs in higher education, including a number that offer PhDs, and we continue to see students, teachers, scholars and activists demanding a more expansive, inclusive and nuanced curriculum in K-12 classrooms.
The introduction of the African American studies Advanced Placement course reflects a willingness to grapple with a complicated, nuanced understanding of American life, even as some critics try to push for a vision of American history and society that is narrow and limited. In the push to expand what educators can teach and students can learn, African Americans today and in the past lead the charge for academic freedom and reveal it to be one of academia’s most potent tools for social justice.
This essay is the 10th and final one in the Freedom to Learn series sponsored by PEN America, providing historical context for controversies surrounding free expression in education today. | 2022-11-16T11:11:06Z | www.washingtonpost.com | As the right fights the teaching of race, a new AP course expands it - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/11/16/ap-african-american-studies/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/11/16/ap-african-american-studies/ |
It’s a political movement willing to align with anyone to win.
Perspective by Matthew Avery Sutton
President Donald Trump and Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. watch commencement ceremonies at the school in Lynchburg, Va., on May 13, 2017. (Steve Helber/AP)
Reagan was a former actor and divorcée who did not regularly attend church. But he spoke the language of evangelicalism fluently and he supported many of the positions that White conservative Christians prioritized. He hated communism, denounced the “decline” of the family — by which he meant the nuclear family consisting of a breadwinner father, a stay-at-home mother and children — praised “old time religion” and criticized the permissiveness of the ’60s generation. He called evolution a theory and supported the teaching of creationism in the public schools. Despite signing a bill as governor of California that dramatically expanded abortion rights, in 1980 Reagan denounced the practice of abortion. | 2022-11-16T11:11:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | A new documentary exposes the truth about the religious right - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/11/16/falwell-religious-right-herschel-walker/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/11/16/falwell-religious-right-herschel-walker/ |
The push to observe Diwali in the U.S. — and why some remain skeptical
As more U.S. cities and schools mark Diwali by giving students a day off, some advocates believe there is still significant progress to be made nationwide
The Sa Dance Company performs at a reception celebrating the Hindu religious festival of Diwali at the White House on Oct. 24. The event was a first for the executive mansion. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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When Alvira Tyagi was in elementary school in Albany, N.Y., and late October rolled around, she would watch staff members put up Halloween decorations and autumnal ornaments in the classrooms, hallways and “even the school buses.”
But for her, those traditions seemed to overlook another important holiday: Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights that celebrates the spiritual triumph of good over evil.
“These Halloween decorations always seemed to clash timewise with the Indian festival season,” said Tyagi, 19. Based on the Hindu lunisolar calendar, Diwali typically falls in late October or early November. This year, it began on Oct. 24. In 2023, the five days of celebration will begin on Nov. 12.
“Celebrating Diwali meant, oftentimes, leaving it for the weekend or a brief ‘Happy Diwali’ in the morning,” she said. “Excluding Diwali from school cultural celebrations created an environment that was not inclusive of all identities.”
The Hindu festival of lights has grown beyond both Hinduism and India, and is now observed across South and Southeast Asia and celebrated by other religions, including Jains, Sikhs and Muslims. With the United States’ South Asian population growing — between 1980 and 2019, the Indian immigrant population grew 13-fold to more than 2.6 million — the holiday is also increasingly celebrated across America.
Now, there are growing efforts to celebrate Diwali as an official holiday.
Observing Diwali in public schools is “very, very significant for students to be able to then engage in the poojas and the various rituals and celebrations that take place for those afternoons and evenings,” said Khyati Joshi, an education professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University whose work focuses on the intersection of race and religion in American life.
She added that some schools may close entirely or make accommodations for individual students. “There’s all these other kinds of levels that should be and can be built in to accommodate even if it’s only 10 students in the school.”
In school districts with large South Asian American student populations, Diwali is already a holiday. In 2021, Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia began to close schools for the holiday, and this academic year, Fairfax County Public Schools followed suit. Other counties in the Washington area, including Virginia’s Prince William and Maryland’s Montgomery, gave students a day off during Diwali this year, although the latter did not specify Diwali as the reason and teachers still had to work. In Prince George’s County in Maryland, major events and activities cannot be scheduled on Diwali and other recognized religious holidays “to avoid excluding students, families and staff.”
In addition, about 23 school districts in New Jersey gave students a day off for Diwali this year, according to the Bergen Record, and other districts across the country, including in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, have done the same. Some districts, including Montgomery County in Maryland, are designating the days as “Professional Learning Days,” when teachers must work but students do not attend classes.
Last year, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) introduced legislation to make Diwali a federal holiday.
In part, the push to publicly observe Diwali is a reflection of the South Asian American community’s “coming of age,” and asking for greater recognition, Joshi said.
South Asian “communities [are] coalescing around issues to advocate for so that there is representation of who they are in this country,” she said. “And one of the ways to mark that is having your religious holidays recognized.”
Holidays for all: Asian students ask for a day off school on Lunar New Year
Those efforts are making some progress in New York, where the South Asian population — in particular, Indian Americans — is one of the largest Asian populations across the state. In late October, New York Mayor Eric Adams (D) declared support for the city’s Department of Education to institute the observance of Diwali in the country’s largest public school district, pending the passage of state legislation.
State Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar (D) has introduced a bill to make Diwali a holiday in New York City’s public schools in lieu of Anniversary Day, created in the 1800s to commemorate the opening of the first Sunday schools in the city. The legislation has not yet passed in the legislature, although Rajkumar told The Washington Post she is confident it will. Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) hasn’t said whether she would sign such legislation. Her office didn’t respond to a request for comment.
But some advocates say there’s still a lot of work to do before Diwali gains widespread recognition.
“There have been many, many promises made to our community over the years, particularly during campaign season, and yet, we have not seen this holiday come to fruition,” said Aminta Kilawan-Narine, a co-founder of Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus.
In the past, New York City organizers have called on high-ranking officials to make Diwali a public holiday, but failed to make much progress. “It felt like those conversations and that advocacy fell on deaf ears,” Kilawan-Narine said.
Sunita Viswanath, another co-founder of Sadhana and the co-founder and executive director of Hindus for Human Rights, said the celebration of Diwali by public officials in New York City and across the country comes at an “interesting moment.”
Viswanath attended Diwali celebrations at the State Department and White House this year, and has previously attended celebrations at Gracie Mansion, the official residence of the New York City mayor.
“We think it’s great, it’s fantastic,” Viswanath said of the movement to support the holiday’s public recognition. But she said she also worries that Hindu nationalists in the United States are capitalizing on the growing efforts to observe the holiday to support a right-wing agenda that discriminates against other religions, such as Islam.
Cal State banned caste discrimination. Two Hindu professors sued.
While recognizing Diwali as a holiday and teaching about its significance in classrooms is admirable, there should be some limits, critics say.
Some educators, lawmakers and advocates say that to make up for setbacks during the coronavirus pandemic, more instructional time should be added to school calendars, including more school days, or longer ones; weekend and summer classes; and after-school programs that focus on intensive tutoring. Los Angeles school officials plan to add four optional Acceleration Days to the L.A. Unified School District’s calendar, despite facing pushback from the local teachers union.
Others say school closure is not the best way to observe such holidays. Instead, individual students could be given excused absences for Diwali or other accommodations, said Nick Fish, the president of American Atheists.
“What starts to become an issue is if you have to close the entire school for every single holiday, that’s where you get into problems,” he said, particularly since young people increasingly identify as nonreligious.
Not every student is Christian. So why don’t all school districts recognize that?
In addition to teaching about Diwali and other religious holidays, public schools should encourage the celebration of holidays that spotlight America’s “shared civic values,” such as Election Day, said Fish, and make similar accommodations for students who want to miss class to vote or to accompany their parents to the polls.
Tyagi, now a college sophomore, said she is excited about the prospect of wider recognition of Diwali.
“I really do hope that … students everywhere across the United States really get the chance to engage with the Hindu faith and traditions,” she said, “and share that on to peers as well who aren’t necessarily Hindu but could really gain from being … in a more culturally immersive environment.” | 2022-11-16T11:11:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The push to observe Diwali in the U.S. — and why some remain skeptical - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/11/16/diwali-observance-schools/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/11/16/diwali-observance-schools/ |
Here’s what the NATO treaty actually does — and doesn’t — require
Analysis by Stacie E. Goddard
Jacek Siewiera, left, head of Poland’s Office of National Security, and Piotr Muller, a spokesman for the Polish government, give a statement after a meeting in Warsaw on Tuesday. (Janek Skarzynski/AFP/Getty Images)
On Tuesday, Russia’s war with Ukraine appeared to have spilled over into Poland. According to a U.S. official, missiles from an attack against Ukraine’s power grid hit Przewodow, a Polish village near the border with Ukraine. Two people reportedly died. Other missiles cut electricity to much of Moldova.
Poland is part of NATO, founded in 1949 to protect Western Europe against a Soviet attack. After the Cold War, the alliance expanded to include former Soviet allies, including Poland, which joined the alliance in 1999.
Poland’s NATO allies have been quick to condemn Russia’s attacks on Ukraine and to blame the country for the explosion. Latvia’s deputy prime minister castigated the “criminal Russian regime” for firing missiles “that landed on NATO territory in Poland.” The Estonian foreign minister promised to defend “every inch of NATO territory.” Pentagon press secretary Patrick Ryder agreed, saying that the United States has “been crystal clear that we will defend every inch of NATO territory.”
Despite the heated rhetoric, this incident is unlikely to lead to a collective military response from NATO. But it does highlight the continued danger of inadvertent escalation between Russia and NATO.
When Poland joined NATO, it gained the right to invoke Article 5 of the NATO charter. That article declares that any attack against a NATO ally “shall be considered an attack against them all.” In response, NATO members will defend their ally, with actions it “deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.”
Article 5 was meant to ensure the collective security of NATO members during the Cold War, deterring a Soviet attack with the threat of a swift and massive response. But the first and only time the article has been invoked was the day after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, when NATO’s governing body called upon all members to support the United States in its response to the terrorist attacks.
How does Article 5 work?
While Article 5 seems to promises collective defense, it does not guarantee an allied military response. The attacked country needs to ask NATO to respond, usually through formal channels. It does not need to initiate the conversation, however. After 9/11, Germany and Canada broached invoking Article 5 with the United States.
Once that request is made, NATO members must decide if collective response is warranted. After 9/11, NATO members met in an emergency session to vote on whether to support the United States.
Even if NATO members agree, they need not use force to defend their ally. Article 5’s language of “actions deemed necessary” is ambiguous, and allows each NATO member to decide how to respond. Instead of defending its ally with force, a member might send military equipment to an ally or impose economic sanctions.
And if a country does decide to use its military force, it can get even more complicated. Article 9 of the North Atlantic Treaty states that Article 5 will be carried out “by the Parties in accordance with their respective constitutional processes.” The invocation of Article 5 after 9/11 sent the decision to use force to members’ legislatures. And during a conflict, countries can add “caveats” that restrict how their forces can be deployed.
In the United States, the president’s powers to authorize force have expanded significantly over the past several decades. The Constitution does give the president the power to defend U.S. territory and citizens, even without express authorization. But the president cannot automatically use force in a case in which an attack does not directly threaten the United States.
Where does NATO stand?
All of this suggests that an invocation of Article 5 is unlikely. To begin with, it’s hard to imagine Poland calling for NATO’s collective defense if the missile explosion was accidental, as it almost certainly was. At the moment, the Polish media are reporting that the explosions might be caused by the remains of a Russian missile intercepted by Ukrainian forces. Even if a missile went astray, it is unlikely to be portrayed as an intentional attack.
Second, NATO members have no interest in escalating this war into a conflict between NATO and Russia. While they have continued to provide military equipment and impose economic sanctions, NATO members have so far avoided measures — such as no-fly zones — that could lead to direct military confrontation with Russia.
This doesn’t mean the alliance will remain silent. Some suggest that Russia’s actions may instead trigger Article 4. That article would bring all NATO members into consultation to discuss the Russian threat and whether the alliance should take measures to increase its defenses.
It’s unlikely that this most recent crisis will escalate into a NATO-Russian conflict. But it does highlight the continued dangers of inadvertent escalation in Europe so long as Russia’s war in Ukraine drags on.
Russia’s recent forced withdrawal from Kherson probably made Russian President Vladimir Putin all the more desperate. The explosions in Poland come on the heels of a huge barrage against civilian infrastructure. There is no evidence that Moscow intends to end this war.
The missile explosions in Poland may be an accident, but they may lead NATO to expand its support both of Ukraine and Poland. Both countries are poised to gain quite a bit in an Article IV consultation. Poland is looking to augment its air defenses, particularly its antiaircraft missiles and may use the Russian incident to press NATO to station more resources and invest more in missile defense in the country. Ukraine is likely to receive more advanced air defense systems, too.
All of this locks NATO and Russia into, if not direct conflict, at least fierce military competition. Under these circumstances, another explosion that’s less obviously a misfire could escalate quickly.
Stacie E. Goddard (@segoddard) is Betty Freyhof Johnson ’44 Professor of Political Science and Paula Phillips Bernstein ’58 Faculty Director of the Madeleine K. Albright Institute for Global Affairs at Wellesley College, and author most recently of “When Right Makes Might: Rising Powers and World Order” (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs, 2018.) | 2022-11-16T11:11:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Will NATO go to war with Russia after a missile exploded in Poland? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/russia-poland-missile-nato-article-v/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/russia-poland-missile-nato-article-v/ |
Texas investigating voting difficulties in Houston’s Harris County
Campaign signs are posted in Houston on Oct. 18. (Cecile Clocheret/AFP/Getty Images)
HOUSTON — By 3:30 p.m. on Election Day, Cody McCubbin was down to the last of 1,200 paper ballots at the polling place he was running in suburban Cypress, frantically contacting counterparts at other locations for more.
“We were texting each other and saying, ‘Who’s running out of ballots?’ And we all were,” said McCubbin, 52, a financial manager at a pipeline company.
McCubbin, a Republican, said he had to shut down the polling place that he has run for the past four years for more than an hour, sending about 100 voters away. Election officials provided him with 200 extra ballots at about 4 p.m., but they lasted only an hour, McCubbin said, before he had to turn voters away again.
“It disenfranchises everyone,” he said.
Similar problems across Harris County — a Democratic stronghold in a Republican-run state — have prompted outrage, especially among local and state Republicans.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has called for a criminal investigation by the state’s attorney general, secretary of state and Texas Rangers into “widespread problems” and “allegations of improprieties” in Harris County’s election. He noted that voting in the nation’s third-largest county — home to 4.8 million people — was plagued by understaffing, broken voting machines and paper ballot shortages, even though turnout was lower than county officials expected.
Abbott and other Republicans have claimed that the problem was especially acute in conservative areas, although complaints came from Democratic areas as well. Election results showed that some of the affected precincts were split on competitive races, including Abbott’s reelection.
“Voters in Harris County deserve to know what happened,” Abbott said.
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, a Democrat, has begun investigating possible criminal conduct during the election and on Monday requested assistance from the Texas Rangers, according to an email first reported by the New York Times and obtained by The Washington Post.
In the email, Ogg said her office had received a referral from the Texas secretary of state about “alleged irregularities” in the county that “potentially may include criminal conduct.” Sam Taylor, a spokesman for the secretary of state’s office, confirmed that it had referred complaints to Ogg’s office. Violations of Texas election code carry misdemeanor penalties for failing to provide election supplies.
Monitors from the secretary of state, attorney general and U.S. Justice Department were stationed at Harris County polling places on Election Day. Aryele Bradford, a Justice Department spokeswoman, declined to comment on their findings. The Texas attorney general’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Harris County Election Administrator Clifford Tatum, hired in July after his predecessor resigned following voting problems in the spring primaries, said his office is cooperating with an audit by the secretary of state and “is currently reviewing issues and claims made about Election Day and will include these findings in a postelections report.”
On Monday, the Harris County Republican Party sued Tatum and the county in state court, alleging election code violations. The suit accused Democratic county leaders of suppressing the vote with poll closings, broken machines, incorrect ballot tabulation and ballot shortages in what party officials described as more than two dozen conservative-leaning precincts.
“We’ve seen what’s turned out to be a systemic cancer in how Harris County runs its elections,” GOP Chair Cindy Siegel said at a briefing.
Odus Evbagharu, the county’s Democratic Party chair, said a law passed by Republican state lawmakers last year requiring new voting machines, paper ballots, additional oversight and criminal penalties worsened the burden on local election officials, especially poll workers who were more hesitant to work. Still, Evbagharu expressed concern to Tatum about how the election was run, citing delayed poll openings and the shortage of paper ballots, problems that he said didn’t solely impact Republican voters.
“It’s something we’re definitely going to be looking at,” Evbagharu said.
McCubbin said he has been contacted by the secretary of state’s office staff auditing the county and reported the problems he faced, including broken voting machines. A Trump supporter, he said he’s not an election denier, although he believes that Harris County officials intentionally withheld ballots because he was sent extra ballots only after a minority advocacy group successfully sued to extend voting by an hour because of delays — a decision that was later appealed by the state’s Republican attorney general.
“We have to believe we can turn this around at some point,” he said of voting problems.
Interviews with a half-dozen of those who directed polling places indicated widespread problems. The county has faced repeated voting issues over the past two years, including during the March 1 primaries, the first major vote under new state restrictions, when 10,000 mail ballots weren’t initially counted, voting machines failed and staff shortages occurred. Some critics have likened the failures on Tuesday to those cited in Arizona and Pennsylvania, although most voters nationwide experienced minimal problems and delays.
Harris County has 782 polling places spread across about 1,700 square miles, a space larger than Rhode Island. On Election Day, each polling place is run by a presiding judge — either the elected precinct chair, their designee or a county designee — from one party and a deputy from the other, assisted by clerks and other workers. Presiding judges earn $20 an hour, the rest $17 an hour. The county also had more than 160 technicians available to help with voting machines and other problems.
Lee Parsley, a Democrat, has worked the polls for more than 25 years, most recently at the county’s busiest location, in a community center near downtown Houston. There, a third of 60 voting machines didn’t initially work on Election Day. Parsley blamed “mistakes” rather than anything “nefarious,” particularly given the new paper ballot machines.
“Ours is one of the most complicated election processes in the country,” Parsley said. “It’s a lot of little pieces, and any piece can have a problem. … Everybody wanted more integrity in elections. But the reality is, paper ballots have consequences. They slow the process down.”
While about a third of Texas’s counties also had to use new voting machines, Parsley said, “Harris County has the most equipment, and we’re putting a lot of pressure on it.”
He said Tatum’s office should have pre-positioned paper ballots across the county, anticipating high turnout.
“They just miscalculated,” he said.
At 9 a.m. on Election Day, Terry Wheeler, a retired hospital administrator and Republican who has worked the polls for the past five years, was discouraged to find only 1,200 ballots left at his location at a suburban middle school west of Houston.
“It was clear to me that we were going to run out by afternoon,” he said, so he called the election office, and “they reassured me that we were going to have more sent out.”
But by 11:30 a.m., no one had arrived with more ballots, he said, and “we were getting to a crisis level.”
Wheeler again called the county election office, asked to speak with a supervisor and was repeatedly placed on hold. “They were blowing me off,” he said. By 2 p.m., Wheeler’s site ran out of ballots, and he had to turn 150 people away.
“I don’t know where those people went. I told them where the closest place to vote was, but I don’t know if they went there,” he said.
Back in Houston, a polling place in an elementary school near Memorial Park — a bipartisan area where election results showed that votes for governor were nearly evenly divided — was also running low on ballots by late afternoon, according to the Republican presiding judge, who asked to be identified by only her first name, Lauren.
She said she started the day with 1,000 ballots and long lines, and had emailed and called election officials to request more ballots three times starting at 9:15 a.m. but was told she’d have enough.
At about 5 p.m., she said, she ran out of ballots and had to turn about 50 voters away.
Half an hour later, election office staff arrived with 6,000 ballots. Lauren said she sprinted to the parking lot and was able to find a few of the voters who had left — but not all of them.
“It was so unfortunate. If only they had come and given us paper [ballots] before noon,” she said.
After 20-year U.S. Army veteran Lawren Johnson was turned away from a polling place in Houston’s Sunnyside neighborhood — overwhelmingly Democratic, like Johnson — because of malfunctioning voting machines, she posted a teary video on TikTok that went viral.
“There were old people standing in line, and this isn’t right. We got to do better. People should be able to vote,” said Johnson, who was ultimately able to vote after trying another location, then returning to the first one once machines were fixed.
At a polling place in Houston’s Heights neighborhood, where election results were almost evenly divided between the two parties, presiding judge Jennifer Kruse opened with just four of 20 voting machines working. When those four machines failed within 20 minutes, Kruse said, she had to turn a line of people away.
“We’re supposed to let everybody who is registered and legal to vote. And that didn’t happen. I was so defeated,” said Kruse, 58, a Republican lawyer.
County workers didn’t fix the machines until the afternoon, she said. By then, Kruse still had 10 boxes of 1,000 ballots each and watched as county workers delivered two more. She said that only about 750 people voted at her site and that she could have shared ballots with other polling places if she had known there were shortages.
Kruse said she supported former president Donald Trump but accepted the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and was hesitant to espouse baseless accusations about Harris County’s election. Some of the problems seemed “unintentional,” she said, but others needed to be investigated.
On Tuesday, she joined more than two dozen speakers — including fellow poll workers — condemning election mismanagement during a raucous county commissioners’ meeting. A Republican presiding judge in the suburb of Spring said she had to turn away 250 voters on Election Day, some of whom became so irate she feared for her safety.
“We had to call the cops because we were harassed by voters,” she told commissioners. “You put us in an unsafe position.”
Kruse grew so emotional as she spoke that her Apple Watch started sending her blood pressure alerts.
“Everything crashed,” she said, continuing her story even when the timekeeper cut her microphone off after the one minute of commentary each speaker was allowed.
Other speakers called for the election administrator’s resignation and a county audit, alleging fraud and a conspiracy to suppress Republican votes, without citing specific evidence. Some quoted scripture, including “Thou shalt not steal.” Others likened the county to Castro’s Cuba and Stalin’s Russia.
At one point, the gallery grew so rowdy that commissioners suspended the proceedings, threatening to have a bailiff escort people out or charge them with contempt.
“These claims and these issues are explosive,” said the county’s chief executive, Lina Hidalgo, a Democrat reelected with about 51 percent, or a margin of about 17,000 votes, after an expensive and competitive race. Hidalgo invoked the specter of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
“That’s enough for the hollering and the extremist behavior,” she said, insisting, “It doesn’t seem there were many widespread, systemic issues.”
Tatum told commissioners that his office did the best it could with limited staffing and other resources. He said election officials were still processing provisional ballots and were expected to finish their count Thursday at the latest. Tatum said he was contacting every presiding judge to gather feedback so that he can submit an assessment of the election and “correct the things that did not work.”
Kruse left the meeting disillusioned. She does not intend to work the next election.
“They can go find some other schmo,” she said. “They don’t really want people who know what they’re doing.” | 2022-11-16T11:11:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Texas targets Harris County for investigations after voting problems - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/texas-harris-county-voting-problems/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/texas-harris-county-voting-problems/ |
FILE - Miami coach Jimmy Johnson, center, is hugged by his sons, Chad, left, and Brent, rightk, while walking off the field following the team’s win over Nebraska in the Orange Bowl college football game in Miami, Jan. 2, 1989. Johnson won two Super Bowls as coach of the Dallas Cowboys and a national championship at Miami. In his view, Johnson’s biggest success has nothing to do with football. The 79-year-old Johnson describes in “Swagger,” his memoir that released on Tuesday, how his addiction to football and winning caused him to never have a family dinner. His two sons played football but Dad never saw them play a full game. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara, File) (Chris O’ Meara/AP) | 2022-11-16T11:11:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Hall of Fame coach Jimmy Johnson reflects on his career - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nfl/hall-of-fame-coach-jimmy-johnson-reflects-on-his-career/2022/11/16/f088bba6-659d-11ed-b08c-3ce222607059_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nfl/hall-of-fame-coach-jimmy-johnson-reflects-on-his-career/2022/11/16/f088bba6-659d-11ed-b08c-3ce222607059_story.html |
FILE - A man takes a selfie with a sign reading in English” Fifa World Cup, Qatar 2022” at the corniche in Doha, Qatar, Friday, Nov. 11, 2022. With no soccer tradition but billions in oil money, Qatar is the latest Persian Gulf nation using sports to try to burnish its image on the global stage. The host of the 2022 World Cup is smaller than Connecticut and has a population of fewer than 3 million. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File) | 2022-11-16T11:12:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Qatar's World Cup denounced for 'washing' country's image - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/soccer/qatars-world-cup-denounced-for-washing-countrys-image/2022/11/16/7b633e5e-6599-11ed-b08c-3ce222607059_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/soccer/qatars-world-cup-denounced-for-washing-countrys-image/2022/11/16/7b633e5e-6599-11ed-b08c-3ce222607059_story.html |
Live updates:Russia-Ukraine war live updates: West backs probe of blast in Poland; G-20 ...
NATO ambassadors convene over explosions in Poland
A man walks in the lobby of the NATO headquarters, Wednesday in Brussels. (Olivier Matthys/AP)
BRUSSELS — NATO ambassadors gathered Wednesday morning for an emergency meeting to discuss explosions in Poland, as senior Western officials tried to curtail speculation about the cause of the incident or the suggestion that it could lead to a direct hostilities between Russia and NATO.
A full picture of the incident, which occurred in the Polish village of Przewodow, about five miles from the Ukrainian border, is still emerging. Poland said that the Russian-manufactured missile hit the village at 3:40 p.m. Tuesday, killing two Polish citizens. But officials have said little else.
Emerging from an emergency meeting of top U.S. allies, President Biden said that there was “plenty of evidence,” including from its trajectory, to suggest that the missile was not fired from Russia, which for its part has denied responsibility. “But we’ll see.”
The mere possibility of a hit on a NATO member state reverberated quickly across a continent on edge after months of war, underscoring fears that the conflict could spread beyond Ukraine’s borders.
In the wake of the incident, officials and analysts speculated that Poland might invoke Article 4 of NATO’s founding treaty, which allows members to bring any issue of concern, especially related to security, for discussion at the North Atlantic Council, the alliance’s political decision-making body.
However, there is no indication that Poland invoked the article. A NATO diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, said Wednesday gathering is simply an “emergency meeting.”
The explosions in Poland come at a particularly tense moment, as Russia launched mass airstrikes across Ukraine in apparent retribution for its loss of the strategic city of Kherson, and world leaders gathered for a Group of 20 nations summit in Bali focused on the fallout from Russia’s war.
On Wednesday, as speculation about the attack in Poland swirled, the leaders of the world’s biggest economies issued a declaration acknowledging that the Russian invasion of Ukraine had harmed the global economy and called the use of nuclear weapons “inadmissible.”
Most members of the G-20 “strongly condemned” the war, the declaration said, adding that there were also “other views and different assessments of the situation.”
Russia and China had pushed hard against the use of the word “war” to refer to the invasion, delegates told The Washington Post. But in the final declaration that was released, leaders said the “war in Ukraine further adversely impact[ed] the global economy.”
Rebecca Tan contributed from Nusa Dua, Indonesia. | 2022-11-16T11:12:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | NATO meets over Ukraine war missiles landing in Poland - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/16/nato-poland-missile-russia/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/16/nato-poland-missile-russia/ |
Virginia is changing the way it teaches history, social studies. Here’s how
Students at Forestdale Elementary School in Springfield, Va., in August. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post)
Over the weekend, the Virginia Department of Education released new standards of learning that, if approved next year, will radically reshape what and how students in the state learn in history and social studies lessons.
The revision of the standards of learning, known as SOLs, is typically a little-noticed procedure which must take place every seven years by law. But this year’s iteration has become controversial, drawing an unusual political limelight, after the intervention this summer of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R) appointees on the Board of Education.
Youngkin’s five appointees assumed a majority on the nine-member board earlier this year. Under their guidance, one of the board’s first major actions was to reject a draft version of the SOLs that had been in the works for months: a more than 400-page document produced in consultation with museums, historians, professors, political scientists, economists, geographers, teachers, parents and students.
Read the old, 400-page version of the Virginia history, social studies standards
In August, the timeline for voting on the new standards was delayed, pushing back from late 2022 to early 2023. The five said they wanted more time to review the standards, while also raising concerns about typos and the content of the standards. In response, the Education Department agreed to send the board an updated version of the history and social sciences standards in mid-November.
That version, published online late Friday by Education Department officials, totals 52 pages. It offers a stark contrast in size to the original draft guidelines, which numbered 402 pages — and it differs seriously in some of its suggestions for topics and lesson plans.
The new version is shorter partly because it no longer offers “curriculum frameworks,” suggestions for instructional resources, student activities and lines of classroom inquiry which were included in the old version of the guidelines. An Education Department spokesman said the agency will release a separate “curriculum frameworks” document in late summer 2023, and it will undergo a separate board approval process. The framework document may include some of the content present in the old guidelines but deleted from the new version.
The release of the new standards drew blistering criticism from Democratic legislators and some educators, who called the revisions politically motivated and said the new standards minimize the contributions of minorities in American history. Supporters, though, argue the new version of the SOLs is clearer than the previous iteration and promotes critical thinking.
Read the new, 50-page version of the Virginia history, social studies standards
In a fact sheet circulated among legislators by the education department over the weekend, staffers wrote that the old guidelines were clunky, “inaccessible” and “difficult for educators to understand and implement” — while the new version will “restore excellence, curiosity and excitement around teaching and learning history.”
The Washington Post analyzed the old version of the guidelines against the new version issued in November, comparing lesson plans by grade level.
Similarities: Both sets of standards propose teaching children history, geography, civics and economics, as well as how to use charts, graphs, diagrams and maps. Both also say kindergartners should be introduced to historical artifacts, taught how to use primary and secondary sources and how to draw observations and ask questions.
Differences: The old guidelines call for lessons teaching that “Indigenous People were the first inhabitants of the land that we now call Virginia and the United States” and that “multiple tribes have always and continue to live in Virginia and the United States today.” The new guidelines do not mention Indigenous peoples, instead stating that students should learn to “describe life of Virginia’s earliest settlements” including “America’s first ‘immigrants’ from Asia at the end of the last Ice Age” and how early Americans transitioned to hunter-gatherer societies and began using tools.
The old guidelines suggest students learn about a wide variety of holidays and traditions including Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Thanksgiving, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, Juneteenth and the Fourth of July. The new guidelines only mention learning about Presidents’ Day.
Finally, the new guidelines delete a suggestion from the previous version that kindergartners be taught “respect for diversity” by learning how to work collaboratively with “people of diverse backgrounds, viewpoints and experiences.”
Similarities: Both sets of guidelines say students should become comfortable identifying cause-and-effect relationships in history and learn that economic thinking requires making choices. Both suggest lessons on the Native American village Werowocomoco, which served as headquarters for Chief Powhatan. Both also suggest lessons on a variety of historical state figures including Thomas Jefferson, Lawrence Douglas Wilder, the first Black governor of Virginia, and Richmond-born Maggie L. Walker, the first Black woman to charter a bank and serve as bank president.
Differences: The old guidelines say that students should learn about climate, weather and seasons and understand how those factors “affect the needs and wants” of people, as well as terrain. The new guidelines only suggest learning “how the landforms of Virginia affect its climate.”
Again, the documents differ on the number and type of holiday first-graders should be learning about, with the old guidelines listing the same array of celebrations proposed for kindergartners. The new guidelines, by contrast, list just two holidays: Thanksgiving and “Columbus Day” (which the old guidelines referred to as “Indigenous Peoples’ Day”).
Similarities: Both sets of guidelines say students should learn to locate the countries of North America, its bordering oceans, the equator, the Prime Meridian and the four hemispheres, as well as major rivers, mountain ranges and lakes in the United States. Both suggest students should learn about natural resources — including water, soil, wood and coal — and that scarcity of resources requires people to make choices about the distributions of goods and services.
Differences: The new guidelines say students should learn about people in Ancient Egypt and America who “contributed to their civilizations,” a list including Moses, Cleopatra and Tutankhamen (for Egypt) and seven Founding Fathers, such as James Madison, John Adams and Patrick Henry (for America). The old guidelines do not mention Ancient Egypt, but propose learning about a wider array of American historical figures and entities such as the Lakota and Pueblo nations, Helen Keller, Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Cesar Chavez.
Again, the guidelines differ on the appropriate list of holidays for student lessons, with the old guidelines listing an array of celebrations, while the new guidelines mention only Memorial Day, Independence Day, Veterans Day and “learning patriotic songs such as ‘America the Beautiful.’”
Similarities: Both sets of guidelines say students should learn about ancient Greece and Rome, and compare the current American system of government to democratic governance pursued in Greece. Both sets also say students should learn about the three branches of American government, as well as the organization of local, state and national governments in the United States.
Differences: The old guidelines say students should learn about ancient societies in China and Mali as well as those in Egypt, Greece and Rome; the new guidelines do not mention China or Mali.
The old guidelines say students should learn about the geography of all seven continents, while the new guidelines say only that students should become familiar with the continent of Europe, able to “[identify] Europe’s countries (especially Greece and Italy).” The new guidelines include a section on the U.S. Constitution, stating that students should learn “the reasons for writing it, ‘to form a more perfect union,’” as well as learn James Madison’s role in crafting the Constitution. The old guidelines do not mention the Constitution as a topic for third-graders.
Similarities: In a near-identical thesis statement, both sets of guidelines say students should spend fourth grade learning about the history of Virginia from the time it was inhabited by “Indigenous Peoples” to the present, with an emphasis on the effects of “English colonization, the arrival of Africans, and the development of a colonial society.” The new guidelines specifically add that students should learn about slavery; the old guidelines did not mention “slavery” in this sentence. Both sets also say students should learn about Virginia’s state government, the state’s role in the Civil War and how Virginia developed and grew, with a focus on the era of Reconstruction.
Differences: The old guidelines say students should learn about the history of “the Algonquin, the Siouan and the Iroquoian” as well as “the lives of Indigenous People ... living in Virginia today.” The new guidelines do not mention lessons about the present lives of Indigenous people.
The new guidelines suggest lessons on Bacon’s Rebellion, while the old guidelines do not. The old guidelines suggest teaching students how the culture of colonial Virginia “reflected the origins of Indigenous Peoples, European ... immigrants, and Africans.” The new guidelines do not mention this concept, suggesting students focus on the “main events leading up to the American Revolution,” the Declaration of Independence and “the important contributions of Virginians,” including “previously enslaved Black soldiers,” to the Revolutionary War.
Similarities: Both sets of guidelines say fifth-graders should study the history of the United States from precolonial times to 1865, with an emphasis on “the diverse perspectives” of various peoples. Both state that students should learn how to identify and avoid plagiarism. Both propose lessons on the geography of North America and on how archaeologists have recovered artifacts of early North American cultures. Both say students should learn about the reasons the Spanish, French, Portuguese and English explored and colonized North America. Both outline lessons on slavery, the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, the Articles of Confederation (and their weaknesses), the drive for westward expansion, abolitionism, the women’s suffrage movement and the Civil War.
Differences: The old guidelines suggest that teachers emphasize the differences between the “Indigenous People and European concept of land,” while the new guidelines do not mention this issue. The new guidelines mention learning about the reasons for Dutch exploration and colonization of North America, while the old guidelines do not mention the Dutch.
The old guidelines also state that an overarching theme of all fifth-grade lessons on this period of U.S. history should be “racism,” defined as “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.” The new guidelines do not mention teaching students about racism.
Similarities: Both sets of guidelines say sixth-graders should learn American history from the end of the Civil War through World Wars I and II and into contemporary society. Both sets say this should include lessons about westward expansion and its effect on Indigenous Peoples; as well as about Reconstruction-era policies, sharecropping, racial segregation, the rise of “Jim Crow” laws and the legacies of historical figures including Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington. Both sets further offer lesson plans on industrialization, the Spanish-American War, the Monroe Doctrine, the New Deal, America’s role in World War II, the Cold War, and more recent incidents such as 9/11, among other topics.
Differences: The old guidelines again list and define “racism” as an important theme, while the new guidelines do not mention racism. The old guidelines state students should ponder how discrimination and segregation continued in the United States after Reconstruction, for example with the 1882 passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, which forbid the immigration of Chinese laborers for a decade. The new guidelines do not mention the Chinese Exclusion Act, nor do they propose students ponder the lingering effects of racism.
The two guidelines also offer divergent framings of America’s entrance onto the international stage post-WWI: The old guidelines call the United States “an imperialist world power,” while the new guidelines say the U.S. “gained international power.”
The old guidelines call for examining America’s response to the Holocaust, while the new guidelines suggest exploring the “consequences of the Holocaust.” The old guidelines say lessons on “Contemporary America” should include discussion of “the civil rights movement, the Americans With Disabilities Act ... and the Women’s Rights Movement.” The new guidelines do not mention the latter two events.
Similarities: Both sets of guidelines say seventh-grade lessons should focus on civics and economics, including learning about the constitutions of Virginia and the U.S., judicial review and comparing America’s economic setup to that of other countries. Both also propose lessons on citizenship and civic life, including explaining how individuals can become citizens of the United States and outlining the duties of a good citizen — such as voting, respecting the law and paying taxes. Both suggest students should learn about the functions of political parties, the electoral college and the role of the press in American politics.
Differences: In a section detailing what students should know about the “political process,” the new guidelines suggest teaching seventh-graders about “poll watchers,” individuals who observe steps in the election process on behalf of candidates or parties involved in the race. The old guidelines do not mention poll watchers.
The new guidelines state students should learn about “the effect that biased reporting can have on public opinion and public policy.” The old guidelines do not directly mention biased news coverage, noting only that students should gain the skills to “determine the bias, accuracy and validity of sources” during research sessions.
The new guidelines say lessons on economics should “evaluate the unique qualities of free enterprise and how democracy cannot survive without it.” The old guidelines say students should understand “how traditional, free market, command and mixed economies decide how to allocate their limited resources.”
Similarities: Both sets of guidelines state eighth-graders should focus primarily on learning world geography, meaning “the world’s peoples, places and environments.” Both sets say students should learn to determine the accuracy and validity of primary and secondary sources when conducting research. Both call for lessons on the political, social, economic and environmental factors that influence human migration, as well as discussion of the effects of globalization.
Differences: The old guidelines include a section on “Resources and the Environment” which calls for lessons “examining the sustainable use and management of resources” as well as instruction on how human growth, development and technology has “driven changes in energy resource management.” The old guidelines also ask students to “analyze the consequences of prioritizing renewable energy sources over nonrenewable energy sources.” The new guidelines state only that students should understand “how humans influence the environment and are influenced by it.”
Similarities: Both sets of guidelines say ninth-graders should learn world history and geography from ancient times through 1500 CE. Both suggest studying ancient societies in the Fertile Crescent, the Israelites and the Phoenicians, as well as societies in ancient India, China, Persia, Greece and Rome. Both say students should learn about Judaism, Confucianism, Taoism, Christianity, Islam and Hinduism, among other religions. Both propose lessons on Africa during Medieval times, as well as Medieval Japan and the Mayan, Aztec and Incan civilizations — and the Italian Renaissance.
Differences: The old guidelines include a section suggesting ninth-graders learn about the history of Russia, the Ottoman Empire and how “Russian society was influenced by Byzantine, Scandinavian and Asian cultures.” The new guidelines do not mention the Ottoman Empire or Russia as a topic for ninth-graders.
Similarities: Both sets of guidelines propose that 10th-graders should focus on world history and geography from 15000 CE to the present day. Both say students should learn about the world’s major religions, about global trade patterns and about the location of significant states and empires. Both additionally call for instruction on how the Renaissance and Reformation affected Western civilization and how European exploration and colonization affected indigenous peoples around the globe. Both say students should learn about the French Revolution, the English Civil War, and the Latin American Revolutions, as well as World War I, World War II, the Cold War and independence movements in Ghana, Algeria, Kenya and South Africa.
Differences: The old guidelines call on teachers to dissect, compare and contrast the concepts of “colonialism,” “imperialism,” “nationalism” and “racism.” The new guidelines do not suggest this.
Similarities: Both sets of guidelines for 11th-graders zero in on Virginia and U.S. history, calling for students to learn about “concepts of civics, economics, and geography ... with an emphasis on multiple and diverse perspectives.” Both call for instruction on the first thirteen colonies and how social norms developed within and compared between the colonies, as well as lessons on “the development of African American culture ... and the impact of the institution of slavery.” Both outline lessons on the causes of the American Revolution and suggest tracing the development of the American political system by examining founding documents. Both suggest lessons on the “role of slavery in the conflicts that led to the Civil War.” Other topics slated for discussion include eugenics and the Great Depression, among other items.
Differences: The old guidelines begin by calling for lessons on “the culture of the Indigenous people of North America,” while the new guidelines open with a proposal that students learn about “the entrepreneurial characteristics of early explorers (e.g. Christopher Columbus)” and do not directly suggest examining Indigenous culture on its own. Rather, the new guidelines propose exploring “cooperation and conflict” between European and Indigenous peoples, including by reviewing “the role of broken treaties and the factors that led to the defeat of Indigenous Peoples.”
The old guidelines state that slavery was the root cause of the Civil War, asking teachers to give instruction on “cultural, economic, and constitutional differences between the North and the South — all based in slavery, eventually resulted in the Civil War.” The new guidelines are less direct, listing slavery as one of the “cultural, economic, and political issues that divided the nation.”
Similarities: Both sets of guidelines state 12th-graders should spend time learning about the government of the United States and Virginia. Topics slated for discussion include the origins and development of the concept of democracy, the Federalist Papers, lessons on American state and local government and how they interact and the role of the U.S. federal government in regulating the economy. Both sets also suggest lessons delineating the scope and limits of power allotted to the executive, judicial and legislative branches of the government.
Differences: The old guidelines state students should be taught that “the concepts of democracy are aspirational and evolving and remain elusive for some members in society.” The new guidelines do not mention this idea. The old guidelines assert that the writers of the Constitution “built a system designed to evolve overtime” [sic], while the new guidelines call the Constitution “the nation’s fundamental and enduring law.”
In a section focused on the Virginia and U.S. economies, the old guidelines say students should learn about “the provision of government goods and services that are not readily produced by the market” as well as how the government maintains rules and institutions “in which markets operate.” The new guidelines echo these points but make another point, too — students should understand “government’s limited but important role in free enterprise.” | 2022-11-16T12:20:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Virginia is changing the way it teaches history, social studies. Here’s how - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/11/16/virginia-school-history-standards-youngkin/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/11/16/virginia-school-history-standards-youngkin/ |
Manic Street Preachers will perform at the Fillmore Silver Spring with the London Suede. (Alex Lake)
Manic Street Preachers and the London Suede
When the Manic Street Preachers released their debut album in 1992, the Welsh neo-punk band vowed to burn hot and flame out quickly. Instead, the group turned to sweeping arena rock and became an institution; its most recent album, 2021’s “The Ultra Vivid Lament,” went to No. 1 on the U.K. charts. Yet the band is little known in the U.S., where it has rarely toured. (The Nov. 18 show is the Manics’ second ever in the D.C. area.) Perhaps the trio’s lyrics are too bookish and political for mainstream U.S. success, but its rousing and increasingly eclectic music should have wide appeal. There are even a few outright pop songs in the catalogue of the Manics, who insist that “Ultra Vivid Lament” shows a strong Abba influence. Also on the bill is the London Suede, whose debut album arrived a year after the Manics’. This British neo-glam band (known at home simply as Suede) has a slightly higher profile in the U.S. but never achieved the prominence on this side of the Atlantic of such contemporaries as Blur. The group’s new “Autofiction,” the ninth album in a career interrupted by a 2003-2010 hiatus, has been hailed in Britain as a return to form. Maybe it will be Suede’s long-delayed American breakthrough. Nov. 18 at 8 p.m. at the Fillmore Silver Spring, 8656 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring. fillmoresilverspring.com. $49.50.
Habib Koité and Bamada
When Mali’s Habib Koité made his European debut in 1991, most African musicians known outside their homelands fronted big bands that emphasized Western instruments and drew heavily from African American soul and funk. Koité changed the paradigm when he founded Bamada, a virtuosic four-man backing group with a gentle acoustic style that features such traditional instruments as the xylophone-like balafon. Koité himself plays guitar, but tuned so it sounds like a n’goni, a West African lute with a chiming tone. Koité’s songs, with lyrics in Bambara, French and occasionally English, are built on rippling African polyrhythms, but such lilting tunes as “Baro” also feature vocal harmonies akin to California folk rock. That’s a mode that comes as naturally to Koité and Bamada as the call-and-response chant of “Cigarette Abana,” the rollicking tune that was their first African hit and remains a crowd-pleaser three decades later. Nov. 20 at 7:30 p.m. at City Winery, 1350 Okie St. NE. citywinery.com. $35-$55.
She started as a solo troubadour, accompanied by just her acoustic guitar, yet Ani DiFranco was never really a folkie. The stalwartly indie feminist singer-songwriter adopted attitude from punk and phrasing from hip-hop, and gradually developed a jazzy, soulful style exemplified by her latest album, 2021’s “Revolutionary Love.” At 52, DiFranco is not the relentless road warrior she used to be, but her mellower style is not a sign of retreat. Her newest material may be unusually lush, but the pattering congas and swirling flutes don’t blunt the edge of such songs as “Do or Die,” which includes a vision of seeing “right there on Pennsylvania Avenue / the sheetless KKK.” The show will include three acts signed to the singer’s Righteous Babe label: Gracie and Rachel, Jocelyn Mackenzie and Holly Miranda. Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. (doors open) at 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. 930.com. $41.
Here’s one way to keep your take on indie rock from becoming formulaic: Start a band with multiple singer-songwriters. On its second album, the new “Desperately Imagining Someplace Quiet,” Disq performs tunes composed by four of its five members. If that weren’t enough to provide variety, the Wisconsin group flips styles within individual songs: Guitarist Logan Severson’s “Prize Contest Life” is an easygoing midtempo rocker with high-tenor vocals that detours suddenly into raw-throated grungy aggression. Such shifts are characteristic of the album, which floats blithe melodies over three-guitar roar and occasionally throws synth noise or bassist Raina Bock’s soprano into the mix. The stylistic restlessness suits the band’s lyrics, which depict uneasy minds and a capricious universe. Mostly, though, the musical permutations just ensure that Disq never settles into a rut. Nov. 23 at 8 p.m. at DC9, 1940 Ninth St. NW. dc9.club. $13-$15. | 2022-11-16T12:42:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 4 concerts to catch in D.C. Nov. 18-24: Habib Koite, Ani DiFranco and more - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/11/16/concerts-dc/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/11/16/concerts-dc/ |
Canada’s constitution is a masterpiece of ambiguity. That’s not a good thing.
Doug Ford, Ontario's premier, speaks during a ceremony at Queens Park in Toronto on June 24. (Cole Burston/Bloomberg News)
Is Canada governed by a strictly enforced constitution and a fixed set of protected rights? Or is all that paperwork just polite suggestion? Looking at recent events across their country, Canadians may be excused for concluding that they’re living under the constitutional equivalent of Calvinball — where the rules of the game are simply whatever the guy holding the ball feels like doing.
Constitutional ambiguities are a long-standing Canadian headache. In 2006, Prime Minister Paul Martin unsuccessfully ran for reelection vowing to scrap the constitution’s so-called notwithstanding clause, which allows the passage of laws that violate civil rights otherwise protected (subject to only a few conditions) by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The clause, which was added in 1982 as a sop to those who thought constitutional rights were too American, seems to have been regretted almost immediately, and never became a commonly used tool. As early as the 1990s, scholars were calling it a lapsed power.
But do constitutional powers fade away just because governments don’t use them? Recently, a pair of headstrong provincial premiers have decided to see.
On Nov. 4, thousands of Ontario education workers went on strike, shutting down many of the province’s schools. Premier Doug Ford responded by using the notwithstanding clause to pass so-called back-to-work legislation, unilaterally imposing a contract on the unionized workers that could not be challenged in court. He was swiftly denounced for trampling the constitutional right to strike — a right that is itself a somewhat shaky piece of Canada’s constitutional architecture.
There are no explicit worker rights in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and in 1987 the Supreme Court of Canada declared that the charter “does not include, in the case of a trade union, a guarantee of the right to bargain collectively and the right to strike.” Twenty-eight years later, however, the court said, on second thought, the right to strike is constitutionally protected by the charter’s “freedom of association.”
Ford’s government, in other words, used a power many considered dead to violate a constitutional right that until quite recently was not believed to exist. Got that?
Meanwhile, Quebec’s ardently chauvinist premier, Francois Legault, invoked the notwithstanding clause to grant similar protection to Bill 96, which (among other things) allowed members of Quebec’s infamous “language police” to stage warrantless raids on private businesses to ensure compliance with the province’s strict French-first language laws, and Bill 21, which prohibited religious headwear in the civil service. Legault’s use of the clause was more intuitive than Ford’s, as both bills involved a pretty brazen attack on the charter’s plain text: protection of religious freedoms and from “unreasonable search or seizure.”
In contrast to the rest of Canada, however, where the notwithstanding clause remains taboo, conventional wisdom says it’s okay when Quebec uses it. Before Legault’s 2018 election, the clause had been used 61 times in Quebec — and just three times in the other provinces.
More unusual was the fact that Legault’s Bill 96 also purported to change the Canadian constitution itself, adding new text declaring Quebec “a nation” — a power not previously understood to be within provincial jurisdiction.
Ottawa mostly shrugged. Parliament passed a supportive symbolic motion in June 2021, but the Canadian government’s official online version of the constitution hasn’t changed. In the end, the precise legalities of the situation probably don’t matter. The need to placate Quebec nationalists is clearly a principle that transcends law altogether.
Constitutional ambiguities are causing growing havoc for Canada’s democratic institutions, too.
Offense at Ford’s back-to-work bill provoked one of Canada’s leading unions to suggest that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau use his “disallowance” powers, whereby Ottawa can veto provincial legislation. Like the notwithstanding clause, disallowance has long been dismissed by experts as “lapsed” and not worth talking about, but now people insist on talking about it, so who’s to say?
In Alberta, meanwhile, the lieutenant governor — an obscure and unimportant figurehead ordinarily tasked with cutting ribbons and judging pies — has begun musing that she might use her own veto powers (also widely assumed to be lapsed) to overrule legislation passed by the province’s newly installed populist premier.
And so on. Trudeau’s declaration of emergency powers in response to pandemic-related protests earlier this year introduced many Canadians to the notion that their rights of expression, assembly and due process — even bank account access — can be swiftly revoked if the government deems them a nuisance. And there’s the growing possibility that Trudeau might attempt to cling to power even if he loses his parliamentary plurality in the next election, citing archaic precedents that the nation will be abruptly told to accept as uncontroversial.
While it’s worrying for a country to have so many unanswered questions regarding the rules of its basic operations, such concerns are usually waved away by evoking the generational trauma Canadians of a certain age feel about “reopening” the constitution to do some cleanup. About three decades ago, two ambitious initiatives to substantially reform the constitution ended in acrimonious failure, and this is now constantly cited to imply that any future such effort will initiate a similar era of pain.
There comes a point, however, when a whole different era of pain is the price of this cowardice.
Opinion|Canada’s main covid legacy? Right-wing populism. | 2022-11-16T12:43:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The Canadian constitution is confusingly ambiguous - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/16/canada-constitution-ambiguities-ontario-quebec/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/16/canada-constitution-ambiguities-ontario-quebec/ |
Post Politics Now McConnell faces Senate leadership challenge; GOP on cusp of House control
The latest: Republicans one win away from House majority
Analysis: Trump’s Margaritaville campaign
Noted: A decisive vote for democracy in Arizona
Noted: Broadcast networks take a pass on Trump campaign announcement
Noted: Mormon Church voices support for U.S. same-sex marriage bill
On our radar: Texas investigating voting difficulties in Houston’s Harris County
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) attends a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday. (Elizabeth Frantz/For The Washington Post)
Today, Senate Republicans are scheduled to convene to determine whether Senate Minority Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will continue to lead them next year. While the odds are heavily in McConnell’s favor, he is facing a challenge from Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and calls to delay the vote in order to give Republicans more time to assess why they failed to pick up seats in the chamber last week.
The machinations come a day after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) survived a leadership challenge but remained well short of securing the votes he will need to be speaker next year if Republicans control the chamber. Republicans now need just one uncalled House race to break their way to cement a narrow majority.
9:30 a.m. Eastern: Senate Republicans convene for leadership elections.
3:15 p.m. Eastern: A key procedural vote is set on a bill that would enshrine marriage equality into federal law. Watch live here.
Writing in The Early 202, The Post’s Leigh Ann Caldwell and Theodoric Meyer note that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) faced a challenge from the right Tuesday in his bid for speaker. Per our colleagues:
The Senate is set to take a key procedural vote Wednesday on a bill that would enshrine marriage equality into federal law.
As our colleagues Amy B Wang and Liz Goodwin noted earlier this week, Democrats have warned since June that same-sex marriage and other rights could be at risk after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the decision that had guaranteed the right to an abortion in the United States for nearly 50 years.
In July, the House passed the Respect for Marriage Act, but the Senate delayed its vote on the bill until after the midterm elections.
Republicans were on the cusp of winning back the House majority Tuesday night after victories in several competitive races pushed them to 217 seats — one shy of the total needed to clinch control.
The Washington Post reported projected Republican victories on Monday and Tuesday for Rep. David Schweikert in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District; Juan Ciscomani in Arizona’s 6th Congressional District; Brandon Williams in New York’s 22nd Congressional District; Lori Chavez-DeRemer in Oregon’s 5th Congressional District; and Reps. Ken Calvert and Michelle Steel in California’s 41st and 45th Congressional Districts, respectively.
Senate Republicans are scheduled to convene Wednesday morning to determine whether Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will continue to lead them next year.
While the odds are heavily in McConnell’s favor, he is facing a leadership challenge from Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and calls to delay the vote to give Republicans more time to assess why they failed to pick up seats in the chamber last week — and could lose ground, depending on what happens in the Dec. 6 runoff in Georgia.
“I want to repeat again, I have the votes. I will be elected,” a confident-sounding McConnell said on Tuesday. “The only issue is whether we do it sooner or later. And I think we’ll probably have another discussion about that tomorrow.”
The thing about a fading star playing the hits to his biggest fans is that the fans love it. It doesn’t matter how many times they’ve heard the songs; it doesn’t even matter how good the performance is. When Parrotheads hear Jimmy Buffett lean into “Margaritaville,” that’s when they start dancing. That’s why they’re there.
The Post’s Philip Bump writes that on Tuesday evening, that vibe — very familiar to South Florida — permeated Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s event space in Palm Beach. Per Philip:
The former president appeared in a ballroom at the facility to announce that he was pivoting back to seeking elected office after last seeking to claim political power by subverting the constitutional process that led to his ouster from the White House.
So, for the third time, we got a speech from Donald Trump about how he should be elected president, for all of the reasons that he offered in each of the previous two campaign announcements.
In the waning weeks of Arizona’s midterm election campaign, from the red rocks in the state’s north to the desert border in its south, one word reverberated: democracy.
The Post’s Reis Thebault and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez report that Democrats warned that the stakes for the nation were life-or-death and that the country’s system of governance itself was on the ballot, while they said Republicans were doubling down on their attacks on the rule of law and democratic norms. Per our colleagues:
The Post’s Jeremy Barr notes that ABC, NBC and CBS all decided to stick with previously scheduled entertainment programming — reality show “Bachelor in Paradise” on ABC, science fiction drama “La Brea” on NBC and a fictionalized show about the FBI on CBS. Jeremy writes:
The Post’s Bryan Pietsch reports that in a marked shift from decades of attacks on LGBTQ rights, though, the statement was perhaps the clearest declaration of support yet on same-sex marriage from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Per Bryan:
You can read Bryan’s full story here.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has called for a criminal investigation by the state’s attorney general, secretary of state and Texas Rangers into “widespread problems” and “allegations of improprieties” in the election in Harris County, a Democratic stronghold in a Republican-run state.
Reporting from Houston, The Post’s Molly Hennessy-Fiske says Abbott noted that voting in the nation’s third-largest county — home to 4.8 million people — was plagued by understaffing, broken voting machines and paper ballot shortages, even though turnout was lower than county officials expected. Per Molly: | 2022-11-16T12:43:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | McConnell faces Senate leadership challenge; GOP on cusp of House control - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/mcconnell-scott-senate-republican-house-control/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/mcconnell-scott-senate-republican-house-control/ |
This obscure runoff race could help shape state climate action
Good morning and welcome to The Climate 202! Congrats to Beyoncé for not only landing nine Grammy Award nominations on Tuesday, but also speaking out about climate change. 👑
Below we have an exclusive look at a new letter from House Democrats to U.S. climate envoy John F. Kerry. 👀 But first:
A runoff race for a seat on the Louisiana Public Service Commission has big climate implications. Here’s why.
Much of the nation’s attention is focused on the runoff election in Georgia between Democratic Sen. Raphael G. Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker, which will determine whether Democrats pad their Senate majority.
But in Louisiana, a lesser-noticed runoff election for a seat on an obscure regulatory body — the state Public Service Commission — could have even bigger implications for efforts to cut the nation’s planet-warming emissions.
One of the candidates has vowed to bring an influx of renewable energy to Louisiana, one of the nation’s top oil-and-gas-producing states, even as the prospects fade for ambitious climate legislation in a divided Congress, with Republicans nearing a House majority and Democrats keeping the Senate.
The details: Davante Lewis, a young activist from Baton Rouge, is trying to unseat Lambert Boissiere III, a member of a prominent New Orleans political family who chairs the commission. Both men are Democrats, although Lewis is more liberal.
Boissiere, who took office in 2005, is seeking a final term on the commission, which oversees electric utilities and natural gas facilities in the state. But in the primary last week, Boissiere fell short of the 50 percent threshold needed to win outright, garnering 43 percent of the vote, while Lewis received 18 percent.
Lewis has called for Louisiana to adopt a renewable portfolio standard that would require utilities to reach net-zero emissions by 2035. That’s in line with President Biden’s aggressive goal of 100 percent clean electricity nationwide by 2035, as well as a net-zero plan from Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D).
The commission has five members, each serving six-year terms. Lewis’s campaign contends that only two of the five current commissioners favor clean energy over fossil fuels. If Lewis prevails, his campaign says, three of the five commissioners would favor clean energy, cementing a pro-climate majority that would probably pass a renewable portfolio standard and other green policies.
In a phone interview with The Climate 202, Lewis said he was motivated to enter the race by recent hurricanes that have hammered Louisiana, exposing the vulnerability of the state’s electric grid to climate-change-fueled disasters.
“As hurricanes and storms get stronger, this is going to be a very big crisis that Louisiana must face,” he said. “And so this is why I strongly believe in 100 percent renewables by the year 2035.”
Lewis added that he hopes to partner with Public Service Commissioner Craig Greene, a Republican who has supported some climate investments, including efforts to make the grid more resilient during extreme weather.
Boissiere did not respond to a request for comment. But the Advocate, a Louisiana newspaper, reported that Boissiere has defended his environmental record, saying there is only so much he can do as one of two Democrats on the commission and highlighting his recent vote for new large-scale solar projects.
To be sure, Lewis is considered an underdog after receiving 18 percent of the vote compared to Boissiere’s 43 percent. But he has garnered support from some well-funded environmental advocates.
A super PAC called Keep the Lights On, which is funded by the political arm of the Environmental Defense Fund, spent half a million dollars to force Boissiere into the runoff, the Advocate reported.
In a 30-second ad that aired on TV and social media, the super PAC slammed Boissiere for accepting “piles of campaign contributions from the same industries he’s supposed to regulate,” including the utility Entergy and its executives. Lewis has pledged to create a rule barring campaign contributions from regulated entities.
In response, Boissiere has said the donations from Entergy and other industry interests do not sway his votes, adding that he is open to restricting such donations in the future.
Liz Russell, chair of the super PAC and Louisiana state director at EDF Action, told The Climate 202 that she has been encouraged to see the race get more national attention than usual, including from some celebrities. (The actor Mark Ruffalo last week encouraged his 8 million Twitter followers to donate to both Lewis and Warnock “to save our climate.”)
“Public utility commission races are generally overlooked,” Russell said. “These commissioners have done their work in relative anonymity for decades. But this race is a tremendous opportunity to set the direction of climate policy for our state and our country.”
The runoff is scheduled for Dec. 10.
Exclusive: House Democrats urge Biden administration to support ‘loss and damage’ fund
Liberal House Democrats are calling on the Biden administration to support the creation of a fund for “loss and damage,” which would help developing countries cover the cost of cascading climate disasters, at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Egypt, known as COP27, according to a letter shared first with The Climate 202.
“We have both a moral and a strategic responsibility to provide comprehensive support for countries facing climate disaster, including debt forgiveness and reparations,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter to U.S. climate envoy John F. Kerry.
Led by Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), the letter was also signed by 11 other Democrats, including House Natural Resources Committee Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (Ariz.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.).
The push comes as Kerry has resisted the establishment of a finance facility for loss and damage, fearing liability for America's outsized greenhouse gas emissions.
“It's a well-known fact that the United States and many other countries will not establish … some sort of legal structure that is tied to compensation or liability,” Kerry said at COP27 on Saturday. “That's just not happening.”
G-20 agrees to phase down coal as Ukraine war looms over COP27
World leaders at the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, on Wednesday agreed to a communique that calls for moving away from coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel.
The leaders vowed to "rapidly scale up the deployment of clean power generation, including renewable energy, as well as energy efficiency measures, including accelerating efforts towards the phasedown of unabated coal power."
This language could pave the way for countries to ramp up their climate ambition at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Egypt, known as COP27, according to experts in international climate diplomacy.
Here’s more key updates from the climate summit:
U.S. climate envoy John F. Kerry on Tuesday met with his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua for about 45 minutes, hinting at further progress after the world’s two biggest greenhouse gas emitters resumed talks on climate action, the Associated Press reports. “We had a very good meeting,” Kerry said, adding that while it is too early to talk about any remaining differences, “we’re going to go to work.”
Frans Timmermans, the European Union’s top climate official, announced a small increase of the bloc’s 2030 emissions reduction target, unveiling a 57 percent cut instead of a 55 percent cut compared with 1990 levels.
Russia has seen its role on the global stage diminished by the war in Ukraine, and the climate summit is no exception, The Washington Post’s Siobhán O'Grady and Rebecca Tan report. When asked if the Russian delegation felt sidelined at COP27, Viacheslav Fetisov, chairman of the All-Russian Society for Nature Conservation, scoffed and said, “What do you think?”
Trump says he is running again, vows 'energy dominance'
Former president Donald Trump, who inspired a failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election culminating in a deadly attack on the Capitol, officially declared on Tuesday night that he is running to retake the White House in 2024, The Washington Post's Isaac Arnsdorf reports.
In a speech at his Florida Mar-a-Lago Club, Trump asserted that President Biden “has intentionally surrendered our energy independence” and vowed to restore the nation’s ”energy dominance,” an apparent reference to boosting domestic fossil fuel production and exports.
Trump added that "the Green New Deal and the environment, which they say may affect us in 300 years, is all that is talked about" on the left. He appeared to be arguing that climate change will not affect humanity for another 300 years, even though leading scientists say rising global temperatures are already leading to more frequent and deadly extreme weather events around the globe.
Advocates blast Biden administration’s delay on soot pollution standards
Environmental and public health advocates on Tuesday criticized the Biden administration for blowing past a deadline to strengthen soot pollution standards, saying the delay will further harm the health of disadvantaged communities.
Monday marked the 90-day deadline for the White House Office of Management and Budget to complete its review of updated soot standards from the Environmental Protection Agency, but the regulations have still not been unveiled.
In response, 167 climate and public health advocates — coordinated by the Climate Action Campaign — sent a letter to President Biden saying the delay comes at “the expense of improved health and environmental justice outcomes for communities that have borne the brunt of this pollution” for decades.
“We’re out of time,” Raul Garcia, legislative director for healthy communities at Earthjustice, said on a call with reporters Tuesday. “We need the Biden administration to act promptly to address this and to ensure that EPA is living up to its mission.”
Spokespeople for the EPA and the White House did not respond to a request for comment on the letter.
Meanwhile, the Office of Management and Budget on Tuesday completed its review of regulations from the Bureau of Land Management that would limit the release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from oil and gas operations across the country, according to Reginfo.gov, a federal rule-tracking website.
One man’s lonely quest to save the world’s corals draws a following — Rebecca Tan for The Post
The world population just hit a milestone. Here’s where you fit in. — Daniel Wolfe, Ruby Mellen, Leslie Shapiro and Hailey Haymond for The Post
Facing questions about climate aid, Democrats blame the GOP — Jean Chemnick for E&E News
Biden administration eyes limiting diesel exports as Northeast stocks dry up — Jennifer A. Dlouhy for Bloomberg News
If you’re feeling stressed today, you otter take a look at this:
'Sea otter and pup' by Suzi Eszterhas, award-winning wildlife photographer known for documenting animal family groups #WomensArt #Tuesday pic.twitter.com/9gYCW8HP7w
— #WOMENSART (@womensart1) November 8, 2022 | 2022-11-16T12:43:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | This obscure runoff race could help shape state climate action - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/this-obscure-runoff-race-could-help-shape-state-climate-action/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/this-obscure-runoff-race-could-help-shape-state-climate-action/ |
The usual soccer powerhouses top the list of favorites to win this year’s World Cup in Qatar, with DraftKings selecting Brazil, Argentina, defending champion France, Spain and England as the top choices. My own betting recommendations are a bit more eclectic — see below — but here’s a brief look at the chances of the leading contenders:
Brazil (+400 to win; wager $100 to win $400)
The five-time World Cup winner has not hoisted the trophy in 20 years and has flamed out in the quarterfinals in three of the past four tournaments, but an impressive South American qualifying run (14 wins and three draws with no losses) has a return to glory on the table. The Seleção has perhaps the best goalkeeper in the world (Alisson) and a bevy of attacking options, including Neymar, who will be fully healthy for a World Cup for the first time.
It’s the final chance at World Cup glory for 35-year-old legend Lionel Messi, who has advanced past the World Cup quarterfinals only once in four attempts with Argentina. The two-time champion has not lost in 35 matches, a streak that includes a triumph over Brazil in the 2021 Copa América final. This time around, Messi is surrounded by talent and plays within a pass-heavy system that suits his game.
As noted below, the defending champion has had a messy four years since its 2018 triumph in Russia, and no team has successfully defended its World Cup title since Brazil in 1962. But any team featuring Karim Benzema (the most recent Ballon d’Or winner, given to the world’s best player on a European club), Kylian Mbappé (only 23 and one of the world’s most dangerous scorers) and Antoine Griezmann (the savvy veteran) is going to be difficult to stop. France’s biggest enemy is France itself.
Manager Luis Enrique demands total adherence to his attack-first-and-attack-always system: “We always want to be in our opponents’ half and take risks,” he has said. But that system doesn’t amount to much without effective finishers, and Spain might be lacking in that department. (A lot of expectations are being placed on the slight shoulders of Pedri, who’s 19.) Plus, Enrique’s methods can leave Spain’s defense vulnerable to counterattacks.
Expectations haven’t been so high for the Three Lions in quite some time, but that seems appropriate for a team that reached the World Cup semifinals four years ago and lost to Italy in the Euro 2020 final on penalties. Recent form hasn’t been great, however: England went winless in six UEFA Nations League matches this year, losing three and drawing three, though a 3-3 tie with Germany on Sept. 26 was heartening. Harry Kane is the linchpin, and if he can’t get going, England could struggle.
Golden Boot favorites
There are a host of compelling options to win the Golden Boot, given to the World Cup’s top goal scorer. Here are the leading contenders, again, according to DraftKings.
Kane is the defending Golden Boot winner, having scored six goals four years ago in Russia. He needs three goals to surpass Wayne Rooney as England’s all-time top goal scorer.
Mbappé scored four times in Russia as a 19-year-old, and he and Pelé are the only teenagers to score in the World Cup final. He has 190 goals in five-plus seasons for French powerhouse Paris Saint-Germain, including 19 in 20 matches across all competitions this season.
For all his accomplishments, Messi has scored only six times in the World Cup, with four of them coming in Argentina’s run to the final in 2014. He has never scored in the knockout round.
Neymar (Brazil) +1000
Neymar has six goals in two World Cup appearances and 15 goals across all competitions for Paris Saint-Germain this season.
Here are the top 12 options on DraftKings, as of Nov. 15.
Other futures bets
It might be fun to throw a few bucks down on the team you think will win or the top goal scorer, but there are countless other options to wager on. Here are a few bets that I think could be worth your while.
Costa Rica scores the fewest goals, +800 (FanDuel)
Of the four Concacaf teams to qualify for the World Cup, the defensive-minded Ticos scored the fewest goals in the final stage of qualifying (13 in 14 matches), and they’re the only such team to not have a player with at least three goals in qualifying. Instead, Costa Rica is content to let its opponents press the attack and hope the defense and goalkeeper Keylor Navas (Paris Saint-Germain) come up big.
You want to pick a team with little hope of advancing to the knockout round when considering this bet, and Costa Rica must contend with European titans Spain and Germany plus Japan in Group E. At FanDuel, the odds for a bet on Costa Rica to be eliminated in the group stage are a staggering -2000, which tops every other team’s odds for the same bet by a wide margin.
Spain under 8.5 goals, -110 (DraftKings)
Spain tallied just 15 goals in qualifying, tying Switzerland for the lowest-scoring UEFA qualifying group winner, and seven of those goals came in four matches against Georgia and Kosovo, the worst teams in Spain’s group. La Roja last exceeded two goals in a match March 29 against Iceland, and its past three World Cup teams — including the 2010 squad that won it all — did not finish with more than eight goals. Since David Villa retired in 2019 after scoring a Spain-record nine career World Cup goals, La Roja has lacked a finisher, and that — combined with its presence in perhaps the World Cup’s toughest group — could keep its scoring down.
France eliminated in the round of 16, +400 (DraftKings)
The past three defending World Cup champions crashed out of the tournament in the group stage. In middling Group D with Denmark, Australia and Tunisia, France should avoid that fate, but Les Bleus are a mess on the field and off it entering this year’s tournament, and a departure in the early knockout stage isn’t all that unlikely.
France enters the tournament with just one win in its past six matches. Nine players thought to be candidates for the World Cup roster have been battling injuries, and star Kylian Mbappé has been fighting with the national federation over image rights. There have been sex-tape blackmail cases and accusations of witchcraft-themed threats among the players, and the head of the national federation has been accused of sexual harassment. It’s ugly.
Denmark certainly won’t be intimidated by France, having beaten Les Bleus twice in the past five months. A runner-up group finish probably means a match with likely Group C winner and tournament second favorite Argentina in the round of 16, and that’ll be no easy task.
Canada qualifies for knockout round, +280 (FanDuel)
The Canadians are back in the World Cup for just the second time (and the first time in 36 years), but that doesn’t mean their players don’t have experience in the spotlight. Jonathan David (Lille), Cyle Larin (Brugge), Stephen Eustáquio (Porto) and Alphonso Davies (Bayern Munich) have played in the Champions League, and that experience against the world’s best will carry over to Group F matches against Belgium, Croatia and Morocco.
Finishing ahead of Belgium probably is too much to ask, but finishing in second isn’t. Croatia, the runner-up four years ago, is stuck between eras, a combination of age and inexperience that shouldn’t do it any favors, and Morocco is a long shot. Canada finished atop the table in Concacaf qualifying, ahead of continental big brothers the United States and Mexico, and won’t be intimidated here.
Odds to win the World Cup (per DraftKings as of Nov. 15) | 2022-11-16T12:44:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | World Cup favorites and betting odds - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/16/world-cup-betting-odds/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/16/world-cup-betting-odds/ |
Wednesday briefing: Explosion in Poland; Trump’s 2024 announcement; Title 42; Grammy nominations; Artemis launch; and more
The conflict in Ukraine spilled into NATO territory yesterday.
What happened? A Russian-made missile exploded in a Polish village near the Ukrainian border, killing two people.
Where it came from: The explosions were probably caused by a Ukrainian missile defending against Russian attack, NATO said this morning.
Why it matters: Poland is a NATO country, so other alliance members — including the U.S. — are bound by a treaty to defend it if it’s attacked and asks for help.
Donald Trump announced he’s running again in 2024.
The event: The twice-impeached former president, who inspired a failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election, kicked off his candidacy last night at his Florida club, Mar-a-Lago.
What it means: His entry increases the likelihood of a rematch against President Biden, but won’t protect him from ongoing criminal probes into his conduct.
What else to know: The top three broadcast TV networks opted not to show Trump’s speech live.
U.S. borders reopened for some migrants yesterday.
Why? A judge struck down a controversial Trump-era policy used by U.S. border officials to quickly expel asylum seekers because of the coronavirus pandemic.
What this does: It restores access to asylum for migrants entering the U.S. for the first time since the rule, known as Title 42, was issued in March 2020.
A judge overturned Georgia’s six-week abortion ban.
The background: The law, which bans abortions after fetal cardiac activity is detected, took effect this summer when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
The ruling: The ban is unconstitutional and cannot be enforced, the judge said yesterday. That means abortion access in Georgia reverted to the pre-ban level of up to 22 weeks of pregnancy.
The world’s population hit a record 8 billion people yesterday.
More numbers: It took 12 years for the population to grow from 7 billion to 8 billion, U.N. estimates show. See how and where you fit in to that here.
The trend: Growth is slowing down as people live longer and have fewer children. The population is expected to peak at 10.4 billion in 2086.
Beyoncé ruled yesterday’s Grammy Award nominations.
She made history by landing nine nominations, tying her with her husband, rapper Jay-Z, as the two most-nominated artists in Grammys history, with 88 nods each.
What else to know: Rapper Kendrick Lamar followed Beyoncé with eight nominations, while singers Adele and Brandi Carlile each snagged seven. (Find the full list here.) The Grammy Awards are Feb. 5.
NASA’s massive moon rocket finally took off this morning.
After two failed attempts, NASA’s Artemis 1 rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Nov. 16. (Video: NASA)
The latest: After years of delays, the agency’s Space Launch System rocket lifted off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center at 1:47 a.m. Eastern time.
The mission: The unmanned test flight is the first step in a plan to return humans to the moon — perhaps as soon as 2025.
And now … your iPhone 14 has a new emergency feature: Here’s how to send SOS via satellite. Plus, how to keep your secrets safe if your phone needs fixing. | 2022-11-16T12:44:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The 7 things you need to know for Wednesday, November 16 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/the-seven/2022/11/16/what-to-know-for-november-16/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/the-seven/2022/11/16/what-to-know-for-november-16/ |
6 LEGENDS & LATTES (Tor, $17.99). By Travis Baldree. A mercenary hangs up her sword and opens a coffee shop.
7 AND YET: POEMS (Harper Perennial, $17). By Kate Baer. The best-selling poet returns with a new collection centered on the lives of women and mothers.
10 THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB (Penguin, $17). By Richard Osman. Four septuagenarians join forces to catch a killer.
9 THE BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS 2022 (Mariner, $17.99). By Alexander Chee, Robert Atwan (Eds.). A collection of essays selected by the author of “How to Write an Autobiographical Novel.”
10 ALL ABOUT ME! (Ballantine, $20). By Mel Brooks. The renowned entertainer shares stories from his upbringing and his legendary career. | 2022-11-16T13:12:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Washington Post paperback bestsellers - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/washington-post-paperback-bestsellers/2022/11/15/25badc92-651b-11ed-b56f-9345acafd53f_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/washington-post-paperback-bestsellers/2022/11/15/25badc92-651b-11ed-b56f-9345acafd53f_story.html |
Don’t expect GOP alternatives to Trump to be an improvement
Former president Donald Trump arrives to speak at his Mar-a-lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., on Nov. 8. (Andrew Harnik/AP)
It was inevitable that former president Donald Trump would announce his candidacy for president. His narcissism, coupled with his (false) belief that running for office would stave off an indictment, all but guaranteed he would run.
What is not inevitable is that he will be the Republican nominee. The trouble is, few of his likely primary opponents will be any better than he is.
Aside from potential contenders Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, there is nary a “conservative” in the GOP pool of likely presidential candidates, if that term has any meaning at all. Modern conservatism — as it applied to Ronald Reagan or John McCain — entails support for democracy (not Russia or other thugocracies) and the rule of law; limits on the scope of government (especially on the executive branch); an appreciation that immigration is the lifeblood of America and critical to economic prosperity; and preference for free markets (not cronyism or corporatism). More than anything, conservatism entails humility in governance, a preference for gradualism over radical shifts, and a respect for civil society and other levels of government. Conservatism by its nature focuses on preserving public institutions and norms, not blowing them up.
Given that definition, virtually none of the likely contenders is any more “conservative” than Trump. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has abused immigrants, run roughshod over the First Amendment, regularly intervened in free markets for political reasons (e.g., bullying Disney for criticizing his policies), fanned white nationalism with his scaremongering about “critical race theory” and used the power of the state to persecute disfavored groups (e.g., LGBTQ students). It’s not even clear whether he rejects the “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen. (He has become adept at sidestepping questions.) In other words, DeSantis reflects many of authoritarian attributes the MAGA cult reveres; he’s just more disciplined than Trump.
The Republican primaries will likely underscore the degree to which the MAGA movement has become the Republican Party. The market for truly conservative ideas and, more so, for a conservative sensibility has shrunk as more voters in the center have defected to the Democratic Party or become independents. As the presidential primary cycle begins, the media should properly identify the GOP’s choices: Trump and Trump imitators. Other than Hogan and Cheney, there is not a conservative in the batch. | 2022-11-16T13:13:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Trump's GOP opponents are more of the same - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/16/trump-2024-republican-primary-opponents/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/16/trump-2024-republican-primary-opponents/ |
Warren Buffet, chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., plays bridge at an event on the sidelines of the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, U.S., on Sunday, May 6, 2019. The annual shareholders’ meeting doubles as a showcase for Berkshire’s dozens of businesses and a platform for its billionaire chairman and CEO to share his investing philosophy with thousands of fans. (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)
A couple of months ago, crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried was peering out from the cover of Fortune magazine above the words “The Next Warren Buffett?” Now he’s at the center of a spectacular financial collapse, with a net worth estimated by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index at zero when I checked last.
Less spectacularly — and much less disastrously for those who entrusted their money to him — venture capitalist and “SPAC king” Chamath Palihapitiya announced in September that he was closing his biggest special purpose acquisition company and one other and returning $1.6 billion to investors, 20 months after describing in a Bloomberg interview how he envisioned himself taking over the Berkshire Hathaway chairman’s “mantle” with a “Berkshire-like instrument that is all things, you know, not to sound egotistical, but all things Chamath, all things Social Capital.” Guo Guangchang, who said in 2014 that he aimed to build his Shanghai-based conglomerate Fosun International Ltd. into a “Buffett-style investment company,” is in the midst of an apparent fire sale as he seeks to raise money for debt payments. Finally — and this admittedly may be stretching it, given that my sources are some guy’s LinkedIn post and an article at Yahoo! Finance Canada — tech investor Cathie Wood earned some “next Warren Buffett” praise in 2021, and her ARK Innovation fund is down 65% over the past year.
Chalk up four more victims of what’s been called the “next Warren Buffett” curse — perhaps the most prominent since the fall from grace, if not from billionaire status, of Eddie Lampert Jr., who was featured on the cover of Businessweek in 2004 (before it was Bloomberg Businessweek) accompanied by the same “The Next Warren Buffett?” cover line as Bankman-Fried.
As someone with a bit of chastening experience with the genre (I referred to soon-to-flame-out CMGi as “the Berkshire Hathaway of Net investing” in the pages of Fortune in 1999), this got me wondering. Why would any journalist still use such language to describe an investor, knowing how quickly it could turn into an embarrassment? And why would any investor court such comparisons?
Part of the answer, of course, is that journalists can be shortsighted, and professional investors can be egomaniacs. But after digging through several decades of next-Warren-Buffett media references, I also learned that such comparisons don’t have to be a curse. Those who were compared to the Oracle of Omaha because their investing approaches resembled his often did just fine. None became the next Warren Buffett — he’s still running Berkshire Hathaway at age 92, after all — but they didn’t crash and burn, either.
By Buffett’s approach, I mainly just mean the patient value investing that he learned from money manager and Columbia Business School adjunct professor Benjamin Graham. Buffett frequently touted the success of other Graham disciples and even anointed one of them as a successor when he decided to wind down his investment partnership in 1969.
That sort of makes William Ruane the first “next Warren Buffett,” although I don’t think he was ever called that. Ruane, five years Buffett’s senior, started the Sequoia Fund in 1970 at Buffett’s urging, and $10,000 invested in the mutual fund at its inception was worth almost $1.9 million when he died in 2005, three-and-a-half times what an equivalent investment in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index would have generated. In the meantime, of course, Buffett had transformed one of his partnership’s holdings, textile manufacturer Berkshire Hathaway, into an investment vehicle that multiplied $10,000 in 1970 into about $20 million at the end of 2005. Also, Sequoia’s performance has slightly trailed the S&P 500 since 2005, in part of because of a misplaced wager in the 2010s on a company billed as an “early-stage Berkshire.” Ruane wasn’t the next Warren Buffett. But he wasn’t a bad bet.
The same goes for most of the dozen young investors profiled in an October 1989 Fortune article headlined “Are these the new Warren Buffetts?” — the earliest such piece I came across in a search of Google and several news databases. Value-oriented hedge fund manager Seth Klarman has probably had the most lasting success and earned the most comparisons to Buffett over the years, with Buffett himself reportedly saying that if he ever retired he would want Klarman to manage his money, but other familiar names in the article include short seller Jim Chanos, the late activist mutual fund manager Michael Price, television star Jim Cramer and none other than Lampert, who certainly lived up to expectations for the next decade and a half.
Leucadia National Corp. also held up perfectly well after being the subject of a July 1995 Forbes article headlined “Another Berkshire Hathaway?” At the time, the share price of the conglomerate run by Ian Cumming and Joseph Steinberg had risen more than 300-fold in 16 years. From 1995 through 2012, when Cumming and Steinberg handed over the reins to Richard Handler, whose Jefferies Group Leucadia had bought, the rise was nearly fivefold — which still beat the S&P 500 and was close to Berkshire’s performance. Along the way, in 2009, Leucadia entered into a commercial mortgage joint venture with Berkshire called Berkadia.
Several corporations or investors outside the US that have been compared to Berkshire and Buffett because they combine disparate cash-spewing businesses or make productive use of insurance float or both also don’t seem to have been destroyed by the curse, although they haven’t always been the greatest investments. In Canada, there’s Prem Watsa’s Fairfax Financial Holdings and Jim Pattison’s Pattison Group Inc.; in Europe, there’s the late Albert Frère’s Groupe Bruxelles Lambert and the Agnelli family’s Exor. “India’s Warren Buffett,” Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, died a multibillionaire this summer. The “Berkshire Hathaway of Australia,” Stonehouse Corp., recently landed an investment from Berkshire’s vice chairman, Charlie Munger. I’m surely missing a few.
Such investment vehicles can still run into trouble, of course. With Guo’s Fosun it seems to have come from ignoring Buffett’s warning to never borrow money to buy stocks. With Lampert, who drew the comparison to Buffett in 2004 because he seemed to be using retailer Kmart as the core of a new Berkshire-like investment entity, it was the decision to double down on struggling retailers and spend the next decade and half trying and failing to revive Sears. I think the jury is still out on hedge fund manager William Ackman, who was described as a “Baby Buffett” on the cover of Forbes in 2015 as he made the shift to a publicly traded entity, Pershing Square Holdings, that underperformed the market for its first few years but has actually done quite well lately.
The cases where you can be almost sure the “next Buffett” curse will hold are ones where the resemblance is obviously only superficial. I haven’t been able to find the 1995 Fortune article that reportedly labeled 30-year-old California money manager Christopher Bagdasarian the “next Warren Buffett,” but from the news reports that followed when he was charged with securities fraud in 1996 I gather that this was based only on the 29% average annual returns he reported, which turned out to be made up. CMGi (the CMG stood for College Marketing Group, and it had started out as a seller of mailing lists to educational and professional publishers) assembled a portfolio of money-losing internet companies that zoomed in market value during the dot-com boom of the late 1990s but was clearly very high risk. I was not the only one to compare it and its chief executive officer, David Wetherell, to Berkshire and Buffett, and I used the phrase “Berkshire Hathaway of Net investing” as easy-to-understand shorthand, not endorsement, but I remember cringing a little when I wrote the words and certainly wish I hadn’t. I’m sure Ackman wishes he hadn’t referred to pharmaceuticals maker Valeant as a “very early-stage Berkshire” in 2015 simply because it was so good at making acquisitions. Blowback over accounting practices and drug pricing soon sent the company’s stock price plummeting, dragging down the performance of both Ackman’s Pershing Square and the aforementioned Sequoia Fund.
Then there’s Bankman-Fried, for whom the Buffett parallel was that he’d been buying up failed competitors during crypto’s very difficult summer. From the Fortune cover-story Q&A:
A longtime crypto insider told me you’re going to come out of this looking like Warren Buffett — owning a lot, and everyone owing you a lot of favors. Do you think that’s overstating it?
I hope it’s not overstating it, though it might be.
It was overstating it! And it was thin evidence on which to compare SBF to WEB (Buffett’s middle name is Edward) to begin with. Which is why I don’t think Bankman-Fried’s fate is reason to fear that, say, Greg Abel — who according to the current Berkshire Hathaway succession plan truly is the next Warren Buffett — is cursed.
• Active Managers Are Having a Moment That Won’t Last: Nir Kaissar | 2022-11-16T14:14:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The ‘Next Warren Buffett’ Curse Isn’t Always Fatal - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-next-warren-buffett-curse-isnt-always-fatal/2022/11/16/b90a6dee-65ae-11ed-b08c-3ce222607059_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-next-warren-buffett-curse-isnt-always-fatal/2022/11/16/b90a6dee-65ae-11ed-b08c-3ce222607059_story.html |
FILE - The exterior of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. Any cinephile worth their salt should have the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on their list of places to visit and you could surprise them with tickets (starting at $25 for adults) or even an annual membership (which start at $100/year). (Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File) | 2022-11-16T14:15:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | For movie fans, a gift guide that goes beyond the cinema - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/for-movie-fans-a-gift-guide-that-goes-beyond-the-cinema/2022/11/16/ba9ca816-65ae-11ed-b08c-3ce222607059_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/for-movie-fans-a-gift-guide-that-goes-beyond-the-cinema/2022/11/16/ba9ca816-65ae-11ed-b08c-3ce222607059_story.html |
Catholic school in Takoma Park has each student in a business environment one day a week
Brian Gomez advances the ball during an October match against Archbishop Carroll. As part of his work-study program at Don Bosco Cristo Rey, Gomez drives to Bethesda to work in the marketing department at Georgetown Prep. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
“[Interstate] 495, 95, 97,” he says with a sigh. “The D.C. traffic can be insane.”
The high school senior often sounds like someone much older than a high school student, as do most of his classmates. They attend Don Bosco Cristo Rey in Takoma Park, a small Catholic school that places a special emphasis on work. Each student is part of a work-study program that has them in a business environment one day a week. The students at Don Bosco, slightly more than 300 in all, work all over the D.C. area at everything from investment firms to real estate companies to hospitals. The money earned at these jobs goes toward that student’s tuition.
In addition to the work-study program, many of the Don Bosco students have outside jobs to support their families or, as in Gomez’s case, to pay for the gas it takes him to drive from his home in Glen Burnie to school or to club soccer in Springfield. The students are thrust into the working world a few years early, balancing school with employment with life. For Gomez, that balance is especially important because he is, more than anything else, a soccer player.
Reyes, when he isn’t at Caldwell, is trying to fit soccer into a busy schedule. On Monday, Friday and Saturday he works from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. at the Dubliner, a pub in Northwest Washington. On the weekends, he also picks up work for a local catering company. The senior keeps a paper calendar with him, hoping to remember his schedule by writing it down. | 2022-11-16T14:16:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Soccer players balance work and play at Don Bosco Cristo Rey - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/16/don-bosco-cristo-rey/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/16/don-bosco-cristo-rey/ |
Possible explosion reported at apartment building in Gaithersburg
Officials are on the scene of a two-alarm fire and possible explosion at an apartment building in Gaithersburg.
The incident happened in the 800 block of Quince Orchard Boulevard near Quince Orchard Road. Few details were immediately available, and Pete Piringer, a spokesman for Montgomery County Fire, said it was not known if anyone was seriously hurt. | 2022-11-16T14:35:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Possible explosion at apartment building in Gaithersburg - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/16/explosion-fire-apartment-building-gaithersburg/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/16/explosion-fire-apartment-building-gaithersburg/ |
Ivanka Trump greets President Donald Trump at a rally for Republican Senate candidates in Georgia on Jan. 4, 2021. (Brynn Anderson/AP)
Ivanka Trump, daughter of former president Donald Trump, said she would be stepping away from politics and sitting out her father’s presidential campaign this time around, after he declared his intention to seek another stint in the White House in 2024.
Ivanka Trump, 41, was not present at the Tuesday night event at her father’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida where he threw his hat back into the ring.
“I love my father very much,” she wrote on Instagram. “This time around I am choosing to prioritize my young children and the private life we are creating as a family.
Ivanka added that she was “proud” of the “many” accomplishments from her father’s administration, where she served as a senior White House adviser.
According to a White House biography, she focused on “the education and economic empowerment of women and their families as well as job creation and economic growth through workforce development, skills training and entrepreneurship.”
The daughter of Trump’s first wife, Ivana, who died this year, Ivanka previously oversaw development and acquisitions at the Trump Organization before joining the White House and described herself as an entrepreneur. She graduated from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in 2004 and has three children with her husband, Jared Kushner.
Former president Donald Trump announced his 2024 presidential campaign during a speech at Mar-a-Lago on Nov. 15. (Video: The Washington Post)
The twice-impeached former president, who refused to concede defeat and inspired a failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election culminating in a deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, officially declared on Tuesday night that he is running in 2024.
The announcement came at a moment of political vulnerability for Trump as voters resoundingly rejected his endorsed candidates in last week’s midterm elections.
Since then, elected Republicans have been unusually forthright in blaming Trump for the party’s underperformance and potential rivals are already openly plotting to challenge Trump for the nomination. Trump in turn has begun attacking his likely GOP rivals, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
“This comeback starts right now,” Trump said at his Mar-a-Lago resort, the target three months ago of an FBI search warrant to recover records he took from the White House, including some that were highly classified.
President Biden tweeted from his personal account on Tuesday: “Donald Trump failed America.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s former running mate and vice president Mike Pence made clear he wasn’t keen for a political reunion. “I really do believe we’ll have better choices,” Pence told a TV interviewer Tuesday when asked if he’d support Trump in 2024.
This week he called Trump’s rhetoric during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol “reckless” and said the former president’s actions “endangered” members of the Pence family and those trapped inside the building that day. Speculation has grown about whether Pence will himself run for president.
All eras of Trump’s political life were represented, from advisers Roger Stone and Michael Glassner to lawyer Christina Bobb. Republican officials included outgoing Rep. Madison Cawthorn (N.C.), Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Michigan GOP chair Meshawn Maddock. Other invitees included MyPillow CEO and election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell and right-wing online prankster Alex Stein.
Kushner, Ivanka’s husband, who served as a senior presidential adviser, was present at the event along with her brother Eric Trump. The couple have separately spoken to the House of Representatives Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, siege on the U.S. Capitol in the past. Unlike his wife, Kushner has not publicly ruled out a return to politics and since leaving the White House has set up an investment company and written a memoir detailing his time there.
Insight: McConnell is losing some of his longtime Senate allies
1:49 PMTake a look: ‘Florida man makes announcement’ | 2022-11-16T14:44:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ivanka Trump steps back from politics as her father declares 2024 run - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/donald-trump-ivanka-2024-campaign/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/donald-trump-ivanka-2024-campaign/ |
Flowers have been placed around Scott Stadium in Charlottesville after three University of Virginia football players were killed Sunday. (Justin Ide for The Washington Post)
The Virginia football team’s game Saturday against Coastal Carolina at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville has been canceled, the school’s athletic department announced Wednesday morning. The decision comes less than three days after three Cavaliers players were fatally shot and two other students, including one other player, were wounded when a gunman opened fire on charter bus Sunday night at a campus garage.
It remains unclear whether Virginia, which last played Nov. 12 in a 37-7 loss to visiting Pittsburgh, will play its final game of the season against Virginia Tech scheduled for Nov. 26 at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Va., in the annual showdown for the Commonwealth Cup. | 2022-11-16T15:10:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | UVA football game against Coastal Carolina is canceled after shooting - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/16/uva-football-coastal-carolina-game/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/16/uva-football-coastal-carolina-game/ |
The Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney says a witness claimed the shooter did not seem to fire at random, and shot one football player as he slept.
Students grieve after a shooting on the U-Va. campus. (Justin Ide/For The Washington Post)
CHARLOTTESVILLE — A witness told police that the 22-year-old University of Virginia student accused of fatally shooting three football players and wounding two others on campus seemed to be aiming at particular people — rather than firing randomly — and shot one of the players as he slept, a prosecutor said in court Wednesday.
The hearing was the first time Jones had been seen in public since authorities say he opened fire on his schoolmates Sunday evening, as they arrived on campus after returning from a trip to see a play about Emmett Till in D.C. Police arrested him the next morning about 80 miles away from U-Va., ending a twelve-hour manhunt that shut down Charlottesville and had students barricading their doors with dorm furniture and making self-defense weapons out of Van Gogh paintings.
Jones — appearing via a video feed from jail in black and white jail garb — looked directly into the camera, occasionally scratching his beard and glancing down. He answered questions from the judge, mostly with “yes sir,” and at one point told the judge that he recently worked at the Boys & Girls Club in Charlottesville, earning about $360 biweekly for eight hours of service. A judge appointed public defender Elizabeth P. Murtagh to represent him until he hires an attorney.
“We are all grieving and saddened and devastated by these events in our community,” Hingeley said at a news conference afterward, declining to reveal other details of the investigation. “All of us in this community care for the victims families and wish for the speedy recovery of those being treated at the hospital, who were wounded, and wish that there can be comfort for the family members of the victims who died in this terrible tragedy.”
Jones is also facing malicious wounding charges for shooting and injuring two others. The witness told police that Chandler “sunk to the floor” after Jones shot him while he slept, Hingeley said in court.
There was still little known about what motivated the shooting and whether there was any particular reason that most of the victims were on the football team, which Jones played for briefly his freshman year. U-Va. Athletic Director Carla Williams said at a news conference Tuesday that she was not aware of any interactions between Jones and members on the current roster.
Ryan Lynch, a 19-year-old U-Va. neuroscience major who witnessed the shooting, said that Jones did not know many students on the trip. They were mostly from a class focused on African American playwrights, and Jones had been invited along by their professor because he was taking a social-justice class with her. Lynch said Jones sat in the back of the bus on the long trip back from Charlottesville, before some of her classmates heard him say something to the effect of “You guys are always messing with me.” Then, she said, he started to fire. She remembered the bus smelling like smoke and her friend, Davis, facedown in the middle of the bus.
A student had previously told university officials that Jones had claimed to possess a gun, U-Va. officials said, which caused an internal threat assessment team to launch an investigation into the 22-year-old. Investigators were unable to speak with Jones himself, according to U-Va. officials, despite making efforts to do so.
But officials learned that Jones had a concealed-weapon conviction in 2021 in Chesterfield County — a conviction they said he failed to disclose, which could subject him to discipline.
Brian Coy, a U-Va. spokesman, said the university had emailed Jones on Oct. 26 to warn him that he faced the imminent possibility of disciplinary action and to urge him to talk with U-Va. officials. But on Tuesday, Coy said the school had failed to report Jones to a student-run judiciary committee after learning he had not disclosed the conviction, revising the school’s earlier account that such a report had been made.
Jones’s court appearance coincided with the first day of university classes since his rampage, and it seemed like every corner of campus had spent the last few days preparing to help students make a slow return to collegiate life.
The University president had opened up his family home to students “to hang out with each other and a dog or cat, or two,” he said in a campuswide email. A student group had put on a movie night with one room designated to watch “Cars,” and another room for people to grieve. A business fraternity had canceled their formal and replaced it with a low-key pizza night. And though classes resumed Wednesday, the university told undergraduates they did not have to complete any graded assignments or take exams before Thanksgiving break.
The energy on campus was subdued. Students in coffee shops took breaks in their economics homework to discuss whether they should reach out to friends who witnessed the attack. Others talked about the Monday night vigil, when thousands of students had converged on the South Lawn to silently honor their slain classmates.
That night, members of the football team had huddled together at the front of the lawn, with the sounds of their embraces echoing across the throngs of students.
“Love you man,” one player had said, gripping another’s back.
At one point, a player had started to uncontrollably wail. People who appeared to be staff with the football team then huddled around him, wrapping the young man in their arms. Only his feet were visible. Only his screams could be heard: “He’s gone.” | 2022-11-16T15:23:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | U-Va. shooter fired at football player as he slept, prosecutor says - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/16/uva-shooting-suspect-court-appearance/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/16/uva-shooting-suspect-court-appearance/ |
Tim Weah has reached the World Cup stage with the United States. (Jeff Dean/AP Photo)
The name resonates across borders, generations and genres, having flowed through the grand cathedrals of European soccer for a dozen years before sweeping into African politics.
Anyone who followed the sport in the 1990s and into the new century — or is just keen on soccer’s rich history — knows of George Weah, the superstar striker who remains the only African to win world player of the year honors.
Nearly two decades since retirement, he remains a luminous figure. He is, after all, a president — not of a club, company or a soccer federation but of his native Liberia.
Not that that ever mattered to his son, Tim.
“I just looked at my dad as my dad,” Tim Weah said. “I didn’t start to realize [he was famous] until people would stop him to take photos at the mall.”
On the pitch these days, Tim Weah, 22, carries the family name. This month, barring any last-minute setbacks, he will accomplish something his decorated father never did: He’ll play in the World Cup.
Born in Brooklyn and with roots in Queens, Weah is a winger on the U.S. national team, which will open Group B on Nov. 21 against Wales in suburban Doha.
“He's living through me because he never got the opportunity,” Tim said of his 56-year-old father. “He's excited. He's happy.”
For all his athletic feats over an 18-year career, George Weah fell short of qualifying for the World Cup with the weak Liberian program. The closest the Lone Stars came was 2002, when they finished one point behind Nigeria for an automatic berth.
That absence relegated him into a group of all-time greats, including Northern Ireland’s George Best, Wales’s Ryan Giggs and multinational Alfredo Di Stefano, who enjoyed exceptional careers but missed soccer’s biggest global event.
Tim Weah (pronounced Way-UH) has made a name for himself, rising from the New York youth scene to Paris Saint-Germain, Glasgow Celtic and, for the past three seasons, Lille, which won the 2020-21 French Ligue 1 title.
Eligible to represent four countries — France through residency and Liberia and Jamaica through lineage — he’s been with the U.S. program since the U-15 national team.
“I knew nothing but the States,” he said. “The choice was very simple.”
Weah starred at the U-17 World Cup in 2017 and debuted with the senior team in 2018. In the buildup to the 2022 World Cup, he started eight of the 14 qualifiers, scored in Jamaica and contributed to a few other goals.
He is a different type of player than his father, who was a center forward blessed with a mix of strength, speed and a devastating shot. Tim does not have his father’s physique, leaner and more reliant on quickness and creativity to stretch defenses from a wide position, create space for teammates and facilitate scoring threats. George Weah averaged almost a goal over every two matches of his career; Tim has never scored more than three times in a club season.
Famous father notwithstanding, “what he’s accomplished speaks for itself,” said U.S. midfielder Tyler Adams, 23, who has known the Weah family since adolescence.
“We need to remember,” U.S. midfielder Yunus Musah said, “Tim is his own player and he is doing his own thing now.”
Defender Walker Zimmerman recalled learning years ago about his teammate’s revered parent.
“I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s crazy. This guy is royalty.’ ”
None of it would have been possible had George Weah not strolled into a Chase Manhattan Bank branch in Queens in the early 1990s and become smitten with a customer service representative named Clar Duncan.
George Weah was born in Monrovia, Liberia, and played most of his career in Africa and Europe. But he also visited family in New York regularly; Staten Island is home to the largest Liberian expat community outside Africa.
Duncan and Weah married in 1993 and, as Weah’s career overseas soared, started a family in New York. Tim was their third child. He grew up in Valley Stream on Long Island, just outside Queens, and, after the family relocated to South Florida for four years, they settled in Queens.
His mother was one of his first coaches. “If I were the coach,” George Weah told the U.S. Soccer Federation in 2018, “maybe Tim’s not going to play because I am a very tough coach.”
George Weah was also a very tough player to defend. With Monaco between 1988 and ’92, he won the first of his three African player of the year trophies. His next stops were PSG and AC Milan for a 6½-year ride that included three league titles. In 1995, he was the European, African and world player of the year and the top scorer in the UEFA Champions League.
Weah used the sport and the national team to help bring joy to a country shattered by civil war. “I decided to be strong and play to better the negative image of my country,” he told the Guardian in 2000.
Liberia has never qualified for the World Cup and advanced to the Africa Cup of Nations twice. The current squad is ranked No. 150 by FIFA and 46th out of 54 teams on the continent.
Tim Weah appreciates the hurdles his father cleared to become a success.
“You see a lot of struggle, but in that struggle, there’s a lot of happiness,” Tim Weah said of Liberia. “It humbles you, coming from a place [in America and Europe] where it’s a fast life and, with a lot of the people we meet, it’s just transactional. You go back and free your mind, and it’s such a loving environment.”
The elder Weah did not turn his back on his homeland. In 2004, ESPN presented him the Arthur Ashe Courage Award for humanitarian efforts, and he has used his wealth to help bankroll the national team.
George Weah attended the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and brought along 10-year-old Tim. They witnessed several matches, including the Spain-Netherlands final, and explored the country. The exposure to high-level soccer, Tim said, motivated him to take the game seriously.
“It was definitely at a time where I was like, ‘Okay, seeing this, I definitely want to be on the team the next time I am at a World Cup,’ ” he said.
At 14, Weah was invited to join PSG’s youth academy. Teammates included other future pros such as Yacine Adli (AC Milan), Odsonne Edouard (Crystal Palace) and Boubakary Soumaré (Leicester City).
Three years later, he signed his first pro contract. Most of two seasons were spent with PSG’s B team, but there were tastes of first-team soccer, and he shared the field with superstars Neymar and Kylian Mbappé.
Regular playing time was hard to come by, so PSG loaned him to Celtic for the last half of the 2018-19 season. He scored three goals during the Glasgow club’s championship run.
Without a firm pathway at talent-rich PSG, Weah moved to Lille, but hamstring injuries cost him almost the entire 2019-20 campaign. Back at full strength the next season, Weah helped the northern club win its first Ligue 1 title in 10 years and end PSG’s three-year reign.
On the international level, his senior debut came in March 2018 as part of the U.S. program’s rebuilding process with young players after its failure to qualify for the World Cup in Russia. Weah became the first player born in the 2000s to play for the national team. Two months later, he posted his first start and first goal.
His integration took some time, though.
“Timmy was pretty raw in terms of tactics and such, but he checked the boxes of pure speed,” said Dave Sarachan, the interim coach at the time. “It didn’t happen right away. I had several conversations with him, talking about being patient. You could tell he would be a guy for the future.”
While Tim’s career was taking shape, his father delved deeper into politics. A failed presidential candidate in 2005, he was elected to the Liberian Senate before launching a successful presidential campaign in 2017. He is in a six-year term to lead a nation of 5 million.
On diplomatic trips in Europe, George often visits his son. During the winter and summer breaks, Tim finds himself in Liberia, Jamaica and New York.
Soccer is not the only family influence that has shaped his life. So has music.
“In our house, my parents played Marvin Gaye, Luther Vandross, a lot of Jamaican old tunes,” he said.
At his own home, Tim has built a recording studio and works with his French producer, Fleetzy. He has recorded several tracks; his preference is trap soul, a subgenre of rhythm and blues that borrows from rap and soul.
“Football is first,” he said. “But we have so much free time, it doesn't take a lot of effort to sit down and write. At the same time I'm resting my body, I’m doing something I love.”
Weah was the obvious choice to become the U.S. team’s designated DJ. A wide variety of music juices the locker room: trap soul, hip-hop, reggaeton, country, as well as “old-school music for the coaches,” he said, smiling.
Weah noted the improvisational qualities in both soccer and music.
“You have to be creative on the field as well as in the studio,” he said. “You’ve got to think outside the box. You have to give the people what they love, whether it’s tricks [on the field] or catchy lyrics.”
In Qatar, the young U.S. squad will need to hit the right notes to advance out of a balanced group headlined by England, the Americans’ second opponent, Nov. 25.
“A team is like a band,” Weah said. “We all have to work together to get the right outcome. For us to make the sound right, we all have to play the same chords. Everyone has to play together.”
He will do his part in front of family, and in front of a father who never got the chance to play on soccer’s biggest stage.
“You know, it’s life: Some people make World Cups, some people don’t, so hopefully I can just get the opportunity and do right by him and have a good World Cup,” Tim Weah said. “That’ll make him super happy.” | 2022-11-16T15:32:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | USMNT's Tim Weah arrives on World Cup stage - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/16/usmnt-tim-weah-father-world-cup/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/16/usmnt-tim-weah-father-world-cup/ |
Tyler Charwat
Each dot represents a game
The 2022 World Cup is set to kick off in Qatar this November, moved from its usual spot on the sports calendar to avoid the summer heat.
The U.S. men’s national soccer team, led by Coach Gregg Berhalter and star forward Christian Pulisic, qualified for the 2022 World Cup, an improvement from its disastrous and unsuccessful 2018 campaign.
The U.S. landed in Group B along with England, Wales and Iran. England and the United States are set to meet in a high-profile clash in Qatar on Nov. 25, the day after Thanksgiving. The Americans open their World Cup campaign against Wales on Nov. 21.
The presence of host Qatar, a soccer minnow that has never qualified for the World Cup, as the seeded team threatened to produce an underwhelming Group A. But the draw managed to still serve up a pair of dark-horse contenders: the Netherlands and Senegal.
The Dutch, three-time World Cup runners-up, have re-emerged as a force in UEFA thanks to such world-class talents as Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk and Barcelona’s Frenkie de Jong. Senegal, meanwhile, won the Africa Cup of Nations earlier this year and boast a front line led by Bayern Munich star Sadio Mané up front. Although any nation that successfully navigates South American qualifying shouldn’t be underestimated, Ecuador looks like the group’s long shot.
Group A analysisArrowRight
Its recent UEFA Nations League relegation aside, England has all the makings of a World Cup contender after claiming third place four years ago in Russia and advancing to the Euro 2020 final. Tottenham striker Harry Kane sets the tone up top, Chelsea winger Raheem Sterling keeps opponents off balance and rising stars like Bukayo Saka, Phil Foden and Mason Mount look ready for the global stage.
On paper, the United States should be the marginal favorite to join England in advancing: The Americans won both the Concacaf Nations League and Gold Cup and boast an unprecedented wealth of young stars testing themselves in Europe’s top leagues, including Chelsea’s Christian Pulisic, Juventus’s Weston McKennie and AC Milan’s Sergiño Dest. But a rocky qualifying run and underwhelming September friendlies could open the door for veteran-heavy Wales — competing in its first World Cup since 1958 — and an Iran squad that dominated in Asia’s qualifying campaign.
Group B analysisArrowRight
Saudi A.
After Lionel Messi at last led Argentina to an international title last summer, when the Albiceleste topped rival Brazil for the Copa America crown, can the 35-year-old footballing icon cap his legacy with an elusive World Cup title? There are few — if any — more compelling narratives in Qatar.
The heavyweight Argentines are joined in the group by a Mexico team that has fallen on tough times — failing to win the Concacaf Nations League or Gold Cup or finish atop the region in World Cup qualifying — but is still looking to win its first knockout round game since 1986. A Poland squad led by Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski, winner of the past two FIFA men’s player of the year prizes, will also vie for a spot in the knockout round alongside underdog Saudi Arabia.
Group C analysisArrowRight
After crashing out in the second round of last year’s European Championship, France will look to get back on track and become the first nation to repeat as World Cup champion since Pelé and Brazil did so in 1962. The French have the talent to pull it off: Paris Saint-Germain forward Kylian Mbappé, a teenage prodigy four years ago, has blossomed into a full-blown superstar, while prolific Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema has returned from a five-year international exile.
The group’s sentimental favorite, however, is a Denmark team led by Manchester United playmaker Christian Eriksen — back on the field and thriving after suffering a traumatizing cardiac arrest in the opening game of the Danes’ Euro 2020 run. The group is rounded out by Tunisia and Australia, two teams that have combined to make it past the group stage just once and have never won a knockout round game.
Group D analysisArrowRight
Only one group in Qatar includes multiple past World Cup winners, and it’s Group E. It so happens that the two past winners also aren’t all that far removed from their most recent victories: Spain was the champion in South Africa in 2010, while Germany took the crown in Brazil in 2014. Both squads have changed since those World Cup-winning campaigns, but these two European rivals will surely be vying for the top spot in the group.
The other two teams here have experience playing the spoiler against the perennial contenders on the biggest stage. Costa Rica, which went on a memorable run to the quarterfinals in 2014, was the last of the 32 teams to reach this year’s tournament, sealing its spot after a fourth-place finish in Concacaf qualifying and a playoff win. Japan reached the knockouts in 2018 and impressed in a shutout win over the United States last month.
Group E analysisArrowRight
For most of the past four years, Belgium held the top spot in FIFA’s rankings. The Red Devils regularly feature some of the world’s best players — from star midfielders Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City) and Eden Hazard (Real Madrid) to Inter Milan’s Romelu Lukaku, who tied as the second-leading scorer at the 2018 World Cup. Despite all that talent, a major trophy has evaded the Belgians. In what will probably be the final run for their “Golden Generation,” they’ll try to change that in Qatar.
After finishing atop the Concacaf qualifying table, Canada is at its first World Cup in more than 30 years, led by a talented crop of young players. Morocco has seen some tumult following its quarterfinal exit at AFCON, but Chelsea winger Hakim Ziyech is back after a spell away from the national team. Then there’s Croatia: Only four years removed from a trip to the World Cup final in Russia, this may also be the last major tournament for its own “Golden Generation.”
Group F analysisArrowRight
Brazil isn’t just a favorite to win Group G. It’s a popular choice to win the whole tournament — and for good reason. The top-ranked Brazilians will contend for their country’s sixth World Cup (and first since 2002) with one of the deepest squads in Qatar. With stars like Paris Saint-Germain’s Neymar and Real Madrid’s Vinícius Júnior, A Seleção enters the World Cup with just one loss — to rival Argentina in July 2021 — in its past 29 matches.
It will be hard to stop a team as talent-laden as Brazil from finishing first here, but the other three countries will battle it out for the group’s second place in the knockout stage. Serbia is a good candidate to challenge for that spot, arriving in Qatar on an impressive run of form behind strikers Aleksandar Mitrovic (Fulham) and Dusan Vlahovic (Juventus). Switzerland made it to the quarterfinals of Euro 2020 in the summer of 2021 knocking out defending world champion France along the way, while underdog Cameroon will try to make its first trip past the group stage since 1990.
Group G analysisArrowRight
This group is one of the harder to predict among the eight in Qatar. The favorite here, Portugal, needed two wins in the playoffs to even secure its spot at the World Cup. This could be the final major international tournament for Portuguese captain Cristiano Ronaldo, the 37-year-old Manchester United star, and all eyes will be watching to see if he and Argentina’s Lionel Messi could renew their rivalry one final time somewhere in the knockout stage.
Uruguay has a talented cast of characters — fronted by entertaining yet controversial striker Luis Suárez — but it remains to be seen if it can put the pieces together to make a deep run past the group stage. South Korea will ride on the strength of Tottenham Hotspur’s Son Heung-min, one of the world’s best scorers and biggest stars. After a rocky exit from AFCON earlier this year, Ghana will hope it can turn the corner toward a stronger performance in Qatar.
Group H analysisArrowRight
The group stage will wrap on Dec. 2, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the knockout rounds beginning the next day. The round of 16 will pair teams that finished first in their group with teams that finished second in a corresponding group, so group A teams will face off with group B teams, C with D and so on. Once those matchups are confirmed and the bracket is set, each team’s potential path to the final becomes more clear. From here on out matches cannot end in a tie, so FIFA’s overtime and shootout rules will apply. To avoid too many rematches, teams from the same groups will be positioned on opposite sides of the bracket, so they won’t be able to meet again until the final, or the third place game should they lose in the semifinals.
Group A 1st
Group A 2nd
The U.S. men’s national team will play in the most balanced World Cup group, Group B. According to the FIFA’s rankings, there are only 15 positions between the highest-ranked team in the group, England, which is fifth, and the lowest, Iran, which is 20th. Conversely, there are 52 positions between the two extremes in Group H, which contains Portugal, ranked ninth, and Ghana, ranked at a tournament low 61st.
for a trophy
Eight groups of four teams will pull from the six FIFA confederations.
Nether.
Denm.
Port.
Urug.
North, Central America and Caribbean
And Costa Rica (31) or New Zealand (101) | 2022-11-16T15:32:38Z | www.washingtonpost.com | World Cup schedule, groups and brackets - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/16/world-cup-schedule/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/16/world-cup-schedule/ |
The strategy known as ESG investing has grown by leaps and bounds – and landed in hot water. Its focus on environmental factors, social issues and questions of corporate governance had always attracted people drawn to progressive causes. But in the US, that association with liberalism has triggered a backlash from Republican Party politicians, with efforts underway in about 20 states to rein in ESG. At the same time, states led by Democratic Party officials have been pushing the other way, joined by activists who are quick to call out anything they see as ESG backsliding. | 2022-11-16T15:45:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Everything You Need to Know About ESG Investing And the Backlash to It - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/everything-you-need-to-know-about-esg-investing-and-the-backlash-to-it/2022/11/16/36ec81c6-65c2-11ed-b08c-3ce222607059_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/everything-you-need-to-know-about-esg-investing-and-the-backlash-to-it/2022/11/16/36ec81c6-65c2-11ed-b08c-3ce222607059_story.html |
David Solomon, chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs Inc., during a Bloomberg Television interview on the sidelines of the Global Investment Summit (GIS) 2021 at the Science Museum in London, U.K., on Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2021. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is hosting the summit, where as many as 200 CEOs and investors are expected to gather. (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)
The alleged incidents occurred not that long after the 2017 #MeToo movement toppled several prominent men from positions of power and made many men more aware of how widespread such behavior is and how unacceptable it should be.
In the years since #MeToo, I’ve had many conversations with men worried about offending the women around them, perhaps through some inadvertent mansplaining. Men have told me they fear that they would be courting a lawsuit if they so much as complimented a female colleague on her blouse. I’ve heard a taxi driver insist that he could be fired for accidentally tripping and brushing against a random female bystander. None of this is how sexual harassment law works, but I find it remarkable that many men seem to think women’s legal protections are so robust.
For all the male anxiety in some quarters, it seems others have suffered no loss of confidence. In the years since #MeToo supposedly “overreached,” I’ve heard men in professional settings tell dirty jokes, make vulgar comments and generally fail to realize how little anyone around them is interested in either their sexual exploits or their opinions of women’s bodies.
Why don’t these guys just knock it off? Can’t they just go to work to, well, work? How many millions of dollars in payouts does it take to get them to just shut up?
The fact that women tend to find comments about their bodies unprofessional, distracting and obnoxious should be reason enough for their male colleagues to refrain. But the majority of men also find such comments distasteful and uncomfortable at work — and they have for decades. A survey conducted more than 40 years ago by Harvard Business Review and Redbook magazine showed plenty of disagreement between men and women over sexual harassment but shared disapproval of making remarks about female colleagues’ bodies.
For example, the survey presented a scenario in which a junior male employee witnessed a senior male manager make a “suggestive comment” to a female colleague about her body and then offer a jaunty wink. Even in the Dark Ages of 1980, only 7% of male survey respondents said the younger man would share his more-powerful colleague’s amusement; more than three-quarters of men said the younger guy would either disapprove or feel embarrassed.
Four decades on, the men who took that survey have probably retired. Why are some of their successors still making these lame “jokes?”
Perhaps as people gain power, they get a distorted sense of how interesting, funny or relevant their comments are. We know from research that power insulates the powerful from the judgments of others; for example, a study led by Dacher Keltner of the University of California, Berkeley, has found that feeling powerful is associated with lower inhibitions and generally being more oblivious to the less-powerful. Perhaps to a peon it’s obvious what sorts of remarks are best avoided. But as a person becomes more powerful, he gradually loses his radar for cringeworthy remarks.
Is there a way to finally keep “locker room talk” out of corporate offices? Companies have tried. Many corporate trainings aimed at preventing sexual harassment now incorporate “bystander training” aimed at getting witnesses to call out bad behavior. And yes, in an ideal world, anyone — male or female — who witnessed such remarks would tell the offender to cool it. But that’s easier said than done when the person making tasteless comments is the boss, much less the CEO. At a football game, we don’t ask the benchwarmers to throw flags on the field when a star player on their own team commits a flagrant foul.
Industries with more women overall and more women in power tend to see less of this sort of thing. But that’s a chicken-egg problem: It’s tough to fix an industry’s gender imbalance when the incumbent leaders are being so crass.
No, there’s a much simpler and more straightforward solution: Guys, zip it.
• Goldman Is Faltering on Revenue Balancing Act: Paul J. Davies
• The #MeToo Movement Isn’t Over. Not Down Under. Not Anywhere.: Ruth Pollard | 2022-11-16T15:45:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Goldman Payout Shows #MeToo Message Failed to Sink In - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/goldman-payout-shows-metoo-message-failed-to-sink-in/2022/11/16/2b092b6a-65b9-11ed-b08c-3ce222607059_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/goldman-payout-shows-metoo-message-failed-to-sink-in/2022/11/16/2b092b6a-65b9-11ed-b08c-3ce222607059_story.html |
Buy the merch, leave the plastic. (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)
And unlike regular credit cards, retail credit cards often do something sneaky called deferred interest, which means if a shopper doesn’t pay off the balance within the promotional window of say, six months, they’re assessed interest retroactively from the purchase date. A 2015 analysis by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau showed that a large portion of consumers paid off their balances shortly after getting hit with the retroactive interest — signaling that they didn’t understand the terms when they signed up.
Even shoppers with the means to pay off balances in full should remember that there’s an opportunity cost for signing up for a store-branded card rather than a general-purpose one. The latter is likely to provide you with a more generous sign-up bonus, cash back or travel rewards, according to Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at CreditCards.com. | 2022-11-16T15:45:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Holiday Shoppers, Skip the Store Credit Cards - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/holiday-shoppers-skip-the-store-credit-cards/2022/11/16/2b41d6a2-65c0-11ed-b08c-3ce222607059_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/holiday-shoppers-skip-the-store-credit-cards/2022/11/16/2b41d6a2-65c0-11ed-b08c-3ce222607059_story.html |
Fashion designer Emily Adams Bode Aujla in her studio. (Christopher Gregory-Rivera for The Washington Post)
How Emily Adams Bode Aujla Created a Menswear ‘Brand That Has No Gender’
Her clothes are ornate, androgynous — and a critical success
Taking up about 10,000 square feet, the offices of the fashion line Bode are spread over two floors of an industrial building in Brooklyn. The headquarters feel like a massive warehouse of antiques: mid-century women’s basketball posters, dolls, a box of cigar labels, several shelves of French linens dating from the 1890s to the 1930s. Emily Adams Bode Aujla, 33, started the brand six years ago making mostly one-of-a-kind menswear items: jackets constructed from patchwork quilts, shirts created from handwoven African textiles. She found materials while frequenting estate sales and auctions. When she thinks about designing, “it goes back to the idea of preservation, so you can tell the narrative of one specific garment,” she says.
In 2018, the brand expanded into full collections, which by the next year were shown on the menswear fashion calendar in Paris. They include everything from leather espadrilles to purple wool suits to crocheted cardigans to tuxedos; some are made of vintage fabrics while others are replications. There are Bode boutiques in New York and Los Angeles, and the brand is available in retailers such as Ssense and Bergdorf Goodman.
Bode’s clothing is boyish and usually oversized by design. “It’s something that would be very hard to place in a specific time period,” Bode Aujla says. A pair of black striped high-rise pants called Hollywood Ribbon Trousers ($850) are made from a reproduction of a rainbow ribbon fabric from the 1940s in a silk and acetate blend. Like a lot of the brand’s clothes, the Hollywood pants and their matching workwear-style jacket ($1,300) are at once androgynous and ornate. Many of Bode Aujla’s pieces are adorned with beads, prints or embroidery. The menswear line’s dedication to whimsy and color gives it a softness, a kind of femininity. “I did menswear initially instead of womenswear so I could design for someone outside of myself and think of this person and their habits and their understanding of the world around them that was not just my own,” she says.
This approach received fast critical success. In 2019, three years after her debut collection, Bode Aujla won the award for Emerging Designer of the Year from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA)/Vogue Fashion Fund. (The previous year she was a runner-up.) In 2021, Bode was included in the show “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Later that year she was awarded American Menswear Designer of the Year by CFDA. She won again in 2022. “What makes Emily very special is … she has a very laser-focused vision on what her brand is. Brands can be about marketing and hype often, but hers is about craft, talent and creativity, an old-school way of creating,” says Steven Kolb, CEO of the fashion council. “There is a quietness about her as a person and also about her brand that resonated with men and women. It really is a brand that has no gender.”
Bode’s signature boxy shirts, which are 50 percent of what it sells, are somehow fitting on all manner of people. Harry Styles, Jay-Z, Jonah Hill, Lorde, Ethan Hawke, David Sedaris — all celebrities who are fans of the brand — look like the clothing was made for them. “I have a shirt from them made from a German tablecloth,” Sedaris says. The humorist and author thinks he owns at least eight pieces. “I’m not sure I’ve gotten so many comments on an article of clothing. ... I always tell them more than they want to know: how much it costs and where I got it.” Half of Bode customers are women, but what is notable is they are not just purchasing the clothes for men. “We have women buying it for themselves and also for other women. So that’s … what sets us apart from another traditional menswear line,” says Bode Aujla, who has started adjusting some patterns to cater to female clients. “Because I approach the collections as menswear, that’s why it’s menswear to me.”
Jessica Glasscock, a former researcher at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute and a lecturer at the Parsons School of Design, sees Bode Aujla’s style of dressing men as reflective of the way vintage enthusiasts shop. “The assignment of gender is once removed and can be ignored in vintage dressing. Those rules don’t exist because you’re just seeing a great jacket rather than a great menswear jacket,” Glasscock says. “Vintage shopping is a huge influence on what Emily thinks is allowed in her vision.” The Bode brand isn’t marketed as gender fluid or unisex. It just is.
By 16, Bode Aujla knew she would design clothes. “I wanted to be able to affect culture” through the way people dress, she recalls. “I always had that in my head.” She grew up in Atlanta, but her father, a doctor, and her mother, an artist, were both from Massachusetts. Cape Cod, in particular, was an important place for her. “But I loved growing up in the South,” she says. “There’s a lot of characteristics, especially around hospitality and making people feel welcome, that I admire from people that I was raised around.”
After high school, she took a sort of gap year to study at the American School in Switzerland and then enrolled at Parsons School of Design and Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts at the New School in New York for a five-year dual degree in menswear design and philosophy. She interned at Marc Jacobs and Ralph Lauren.
Before graduating, she had been recruited by a handful of American brands and considered a position at a company she didn’t name. “It was a very good offer. ... I immediately was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I want to start my own brand,’ ” she says. She hoped to create a line that would make “people change their relationship to materials.”
She developed her business plan while working as a retail buyer, prop stylist and photographer. She also got financial assistance from family, who helped pay her rent for two years. Her recent 29 Clinton collection is a reference to the address of that apartment, a top-floor seven-story walk-up on the Lower East Side where she lived from the fall of 2011 until she moved in with now-husband Aaron Aujla a few blocks away in 2019. The two met at her 21st birthday party, when a mutual friend brought Aaron. “Her whole MO has not changed since then. When people that age say, ‘I’m going to have a brand and open a store,’ it’s kind of like, ‘Okay, cool?’ ” Aaron says with a laugh. “But we bonded over that love for dreaming up crazy things and doing it.”
“I remember the first buyers that I ever met with, no one believed this was a viable business,” Bode Aujla says. How could retailers put in orders for clothing that was one-of-a-kind? they asked. Initially the Bode brand had a few pop-up stores. Prospective buyers had to make an appointment to visit a small Chinatown atelier, where they tried on pieces while employees sewed around them. Some of Bode Aujla’s first trousers had seven-inch seam allowances in the back and the pockets were placed far apart, so the waist size could be adjusted. “I want everybody and anybody to be able to buy our clothing,” she says. (Trousers are now offered in sizes 25 to 40.)
She chose to prioritize wholesalers to grow the business, and stores like Totokaelo, the now closed multibrand boutique, put in small orders for simple black or cream lace shirts. It was the kind of store that didn’t have strict gender divides, so Bode easily fit into the retail space. Press followed — GQ magazine editor Will Welch was an early champion — and the brand’s status rose as more retailers signed on. Once Bode Aujla opened her first store on the Lower East Side in 2019, her business had become viable and critically adored.
Bode Aujla speaks with a lot of determination but has a soft voice and quiet demeanor. She often wears pants or coats or shirts she designed, paired with vintage pieces. Her effortless integration of Bode into her outfits makes a compelling case for women to wear it. Today she is dressed in an oversized antique men’s bib shirt — which her company offers a similar reproduction of — paired with a vintage Chanel basket-shaped bag. (She collects the brand.) She wears piles of high-karat gold jewelry, some from her friend, the jewelry designer Jean Prounis.
In headquarters, there are floor-to-ceiling stacks of antique quilts organized in a system akin to a library database and tended by in-house archivists. “We’ll photograph them and use them for historical significance and look at the patterns in the prints,” she tells me. “Sometimes we’ll get one that’s so rotted, it’s oxidized so much that the prints are not even visible, but we’ll use it … to know the patterns and where it came from.”
Bode Aujla shows me a shelf of fabric waiting for mending. “Some of these textiles are 100 and 120 years old. So they really need a lot of care and love to bring them to the place in which a client can wear them,” she says. But a certain amount of imperfection is acceptable. “If something is very purposefully splattered … that’s okay. We’re not going to cover every single mark.” She picks up a shirt made of a heavy, creamy cloth. “This had a fold mark from where this cloth had been probably folded in somebody’s linen closet for maybe 80 years.” The team covered the crease mark in a star stitch, which is used in quilts, and soon it would be for sale. “In a literal sense, they are showing the work that goes into fashion — every stitch,” Glasscock says. “It’s so thoughtful.” Sustainability, she notes, is a common focus these days, but Bode Aujla makes sustainability “the text, not the subtext.”
“I did menswear initially instead of womenswear so I could design for someone outside of myself and think of this person and ... the world around them that was not just my own.”
Bode Aujla’s inspirations are intimate, almost insular. She got the idea for the 29 Clinton collection while unpacking boxes of clothes, fabric and books from her time in her post-college apartment. She “can attach how she sources to personal memories,” explains Kolb of the CFDA, “and then a customer associates it with their own memories of shopping.” Her work is based on layers of narratives: the vintage fabrics’ built-in history, Bode Aujla transforming it into an item of clothing, and what the customer will bring to the piece.
Family is another influence on Bode, both the idea of it and literal family: Her husband, who is the co-founder of Green River Project, a studio that builds furniture and interiors, collaborates with her and works in the same building; his brother Dev Aujla is Bode’s CEO. In the fall of 2021, Bode Aujla wed Aaron, who is originally from British Columbia and is Punjabi, at their home in Connecticut in both Punjabi and western ceremonies. She and the Bode team designed all the clothes for the wedding party — and it became the basis for the recent E.A.B.A. Wedding collection (Bode Aujla’s initials for her married name). “It’s natural for me to make all the clothes for my wedding and to share that with people,” she says. The collection, which came out earlier this summer, included formal pieces such as black peak lapel tuxedo jackets with grosgrain ribbon ties and a white pajama set with white rickrack detail. “I wore that pajama for a morning prayer when a Sikh priest came in and blessed the house,” Aaron says. “They’re based off of the kind of pajamas she’s made for me before — it’s super meaningful.”
I ask if she’s ever concerned that it’s the sort of thing that could feel too personal for some customers or difficult to translate. “It works for us. I know that’s not for everybody,” she says, explaining she’s aware that some people want their professional lives to be detached from their personal lives. “It’s the way my brain works.”
The company’s ambitions seem grand but methodical. It is an enterprise that “I want to pass on to my children. And I want my children to pass it on to their children,” says Bode Aujla, whose executive team is all women except for members of her family. “Every decision that we make has this idea of legacy in mind versus scaling for the sake of scaling.” Her influences give an idea of her plans for Bode. Three of her favorite apparel companies are Ralph Lauren, Eileen Fisher and Chanel. All are very different, but each started as family companies, and both Chanel and Eileen Fisher are still privately held. “Is she cool with her beautiful shops in L.A. and New York that’s a community center in many ways for her customer?” says Kolb, referring to the brand’s tailor shop that also sells coffee and snacks next door to the Lower East Side store. “Maybe she doesn’t want to be a $100 million brand. Not everybody does.”
Even if a large heritage brand offered her a position as designer — say, Calvin Klein or a company owned by LVMH — she says right now she wants to concentrate on Bode. Retail will be the focus for the next two to five years, with a London store they’re scouting locations for. Then Paris, then perhaps Japan or Korea — two big markets for Bode — or places that she and her family have ties to, like Atlanta, Cape Cod or British Columbia. Bode Aujla loves spending time in her retail stores, where male and female employees seem evenly mixed, all of them wearing the brand. “People when they shop are often quite emotional and it’s very personal to buy clothing. ... That’s compounded ... when we’re dealing with antique materials,” she says. “You’re putting on something that had 100 years of life before. It’s a very delicate experience. ... It’s not really uncommon for people to cry in our store.”
Occasionally, someone will buy a piece and then reach out to ask if there’s anything more Bode Aujla can tell them about what they bought. “That’s why I make clothes,” she says, “because I can really share that with somebody. And then that story is not being lost to me.” She continued, “If I can share that little bit of knowledge ... it’s super inspiring.”
Marisa Meltzer is a writer in New York. Her most recent book is “This Is Big: How the Founder of Weight Watchers Changed the World (and Me).” | 2022-11-16T15:46:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How Emily Adams Bode Aujla created a menswear 'brand that has no gender’ - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/11/16/emily-adams-bode-aujla-menswear/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/11/16/emily-adams-bode-aujla-menswear/ |
Supporters of same-sex marriage hold up a giant flag in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on April 28, 2015. (Allison Shelley for The Washington Post)
The Senate is poised Wednesday to take a first procedural vote on the Respect for Marriage Act, which would enshrine marriage equality into federal law.
Democrats have warned since June that same-sex marriage and other rights could be at risk after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which for nearly 50 years had guaranteed the right to an abortion in the United States.
“I want to be clear this bill is not a theoretical exercise,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor Monday. “It’s as real as it gets.”
In July, the House passed the Respect for Marriage Act, but the Senate delayed its vote on the bill until after the midterm elections. The decision to postpone the vote was negotiated on a bipartisan basis and was made to ensure there were enough votes to pass the measure.
The Respect for Marriage Act would require that people be considered married in any state as long as the marriage was valid in the state where it was performed. The bill would also repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman and allowed states to decline to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. That law has remained on the books despite being declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.
Those senators had been part of a bipartisan group that was trying to find 10 Republican votes necessary for the bill to pass in September, and who ultimately negotiated a delay on the vote until after the midterm elections. They also worked on an amendment to the bill to allay some Republicans’ concerns about protecting religious liberty.
“Through bipartisan collaboration, we’ve crafted commonsense language to confirm that this legislation fully respects and protects Americans’ religious liberties and diverse beliefs, while leaving intact the core mission of the legislation to protect marriage equality,” the joint statement continued. “We look forward to this legislation coming to the floor and are confident that this amendment has helped earn the broad, bipartisan support needed to pass our commonsense legislation into law.”
Passage in the Senate would require 60 votes to avoid a filibuster. If the Senate passes the bill with the bipartisan amendment, the amended version would return to the House for another vote before it could go to President Biden to sign into law.
In his June concurrence with the decision to overturn Roe, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the high court should also examine previous rulings that legalized the right of married couples to buy and use contraception without government restriction (Griswold v. Connecticut), same-sex relationships (Lawrence v. Texas) and marriage equality (Obergefell v. Hodges).
Thomas’s opinion set off alarm bells among proponents of marriage equality, particularly with the prospect of a Republican-controlled Congress after the midterm elections. However, Republicans drastically underperformed expectations last Tuesday, and Democrats will retain their majority in the Senate. A Dec. 6 runoff in Georgia — between Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D) and Republican Herschel Walker — will determine whether Democrats gain a 51st Senate seat.
Republicans are expected to win a narrow majority in the House, though several races remain undecided.
Liz Goodwin contributed to this report. | 2022-11-16T15:46:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Senate poised to advance Respect for Marriage Act - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/senate-marriage-equality-bill/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/senate-marriage-equality-bill/ |
Two girls found dead in Syrian detention camp, charity says
Children are seen in May 2021 at al-Hol camp, a facility in northeastern Syria where families of members of the Islamic State group are interned. Doctors Without Borders warned in a report this month that violence, exploitation and lawlessness are pervasive in the camp. (Baderkhan Ahmad/AP)
Two Egyptian girls were found dead in northeastern Syria’s al-Hol camp, which holds relatives of suspected Islamic State fighters in northeastern Syria, according to a major children’s charity that works in the camp.
Save the Children did not identify the cause of death of the two girls, whose ages it gave as 12 and 15. But the Associated Press, citing the London-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and unnamed officials with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, reported that both girls had been beheaded and their bodies dumped in the sewage system. The Washington Post was unable independently to verify the reports and has contacted the SDF for comment.
“This news is utterly heartbreaking. These two girls were trapped in the Al Hol camp through no fault of their own,” Save the Children’s interim Syria response director, Beat Rohr, said in a statement Tuesday. “Their death is a stark reminder that no child should grow up in these camps. We continue to urge all countries to repatriate children stuck in North East Syria as soon as possible.”
After years in ISIS prison camp, they now face an uncertain welcome home
Doctors Without Borders, which runs medical facilities at al-Hol camp, reported this month that the facility houses more than 50,000 people, more than half of whom are children. Detainees from Syria and Iraq are housed together, and other foreign nationals, numbering about 11,000, are housed separately, the group said.
Almost 80 children died in al-Hol last year, many of them victims of accidents, Doctors Without Borders said. The camp also has been the scene of growing violence in recent months, with 34 suspected murders reported there between January and August this year, the group said. In February this year, one child was killed and three injured in a shooting by Syrian Kurdish police forces in the section holding foreign nationals, Amnesty International reported.
“People in the camp are exposed to high levels of violence, exploitation and abuse on a daily basis, while children and other vulnerable groups bear the brunt of the insecurity and deprivation,” Doctors Without Borders said. The organization urged foreign governments to repatriate their citizens from the camp.
The Biden administration, concerned by the security threat posed by the residents of al-Hol and other camps elsewhere in Syria’s northeast, has sought to persuade other governments to repatriate their nationals held at the camp.
Iraq has repatriated thousands of its citizens from neighboring Syria, but Western governments have been slower to act.
In July, France announced that it was repatriating 51 women and children from Syria, for the first time since the collapse of the Islamic State in its final stronghold in eastern Syria in 2019.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced this month that seven children, four women and a man who had been taken to Syria as a child had been repatriated, meaning that “almost all” known cases of German women and children in Syrian camps had been closed.
In some cases, countries have canceled the citizenship of their nationals held at al-Hol, as was the case with Shamima Begum, who was a 15-year-old British schoolgirl when she traveled to join the Islamic State group in 2015. | 2022-11-16T16:07:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Two Egyptian girls reported dead at Syria's al-Hol detention camp - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/16/syria-al-hol-camp-egyptian-girls/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/16/syria-al-hol-camp-egyptian-girls/ |
Donald Trump is singing from the same hymn book of falsehoods in his latest presidential campaign. (Andrew Harnik/AP)
Donald Trump is running for president again — and he’s singing from the same hymn book of falsehoods. With few exceptions, many of the factual claims made in his announcement speech could have been plucked from a campaign-rally speech in the waning days of the 2020 election campaign — or even from his announcement speech in 2015. Here’s a guide to 19 claims he made on Tuesday night, in the order in which he made them.
“When the virus hit our shores, I took decisive action and saved lives and the U.S. economy.”
Trump did not take decisive action. For weeks, he played down the threat of a pandemic, telling reporters in February 2020 that in April the virus would “miraculously” go away.
“Importantly, after decades of rising energy costs, the United States had finally attained the impossible dream of American energy independence, which soon would have turned into energy dominance.”
This is false. Under Trump, the United States continued to import millions of barrels of oil per day, with 48 percent coming from Canada and 11 percent from Persian Gulf countries. Trump appears to be basing this statement on the fact the United States exported more crude and refined products than it imported. That’s still the case. In 2021, according to the Energy Information Administration, the United States imported about 8.47 million barrels per day of petroleum, compared to exports of 8.63 million barrels per day. But the country still relies on other countries for its energy needs.
Refiners on the Gulf Coast, for instance, have been optimized for Venezuelan crude, which has a high sulfur content. When the Trump administration put sanctions on Venezuelan petroleum, refiners started importing Russian petroleum products because they are roughly similar to U.S. petroleum products.
“China was paying billions and billions of dollars in taxes … No president had ever saw or received one dollar for our country from China until I came along.”
China is not the one paying. Tariffs are generally paid by importers, such as U.S. companies, who in turn pass on most or all of the costs to consumers or producers who may use Chinese materials in their products. So, ultimately, Americans are footing the bill for these tariffs, not the Chinese. Through the end of Trump’s presidency, the tariffs garnered about $75 billion on products from China. Biden has not removed the tariffs, so the total has now grown to $161 billion, according to Customs and Border Protection.
Contrary to Trump’s claim that “no president” had ever done this, tariffs have been collected on Chinese goods since the early days of the Republic. President George Washington signed the Tariff Act of 1789, when trade between China and the United States was already established.
“Because the border was so tight, drugs were coming into our country at the lowest level in many, many years.”
The flow of drugs over the border was not at its lowest level under Trump. Under Biden, according to Customs and Border Protection statistics, overall drug seizures have dropped, especially for marijuana, but have increased substantially for fentanyl — the drug most responsible for overdose deaths. Both the decrease in marijuana seizures and the increase in fentanyl seizures reflect trends that started under Trump.
Most drugs come into the United States across the southern border with Mexico. But a wall does not limit this illegal trade, as much of it travels through legal borders or under tunnels unaffected by any possible physical barrier. Even if the wall could curb illicit drug trafficking, it would have a minimal impact on the death toll from drug abuse.
“Gas prices have reached the highest levels in history, and expect them to go much higher now that the strategic national reserves, which I filled up, have been virtually drained to keep gasoline prices lower.”
Trump exaggerates. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve hit a high of 726 million barrels under Barack Obama and never got higher than 695 million barrels under Trump. (He did propose to add more but couldn’t get funding approved by Congress.) As of August, the latest figure available, it stood at 445 million barrels.
“Our southern border has been erased, and our country is being invaded by millions and millions of unknown people, many of whom are entering for a very bad and sinister reason.”
Trump is exaggerating how many people illegally cross the border. Moreover, most independent research contradicts the idea that illegal immigrants bring more crime. A 2018 study published in the peer-reviewed journal Criminology, led by Michael Light, a criminologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, examined whether places with higher percentages of undocumented immigrants have higher rates of violent crime such as murder or rape. The answer: States with larger shares of undocumented immigrants tended to have lower crime rates than states with smaller shares in the years 1990 through 2014. Similar results were found in another peer-reviewed study by the same researchers that looked at nonviolent crime, such as drug arrests and driving under the influence (DUI) arrests.
“We lost lives, left Americans behind and surrendered $85 billion worth of the finest military equipment anywhere in the world.”
Trump falsely claims United States left behind $85 billion of weapons during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. We have previously given this claim Three Pinocchios, as it is ridiculously high. The $85 billion number reflects all spending appropriated for Afghanistan Security Forces since the U.S. invasion in 2001. But even that is high; a smaller figure, $75 billion, actually had been disbursed. Moreover, a 2017 government report estimated that about 29 percent of the funds spent on the Afghan security forces between 2005 and 2016 went to equipment and transportation. The exact figure of equipment left behind is unknown. Given the passage of time, however, some of this equipment may be obsolete or have been destroyed — or may not be usable, given the shortage of maintenance crews.
“They say the ocean will rise one eighth of an inch over the next two hundred to three hundred years.”
Trump greatly minimizes how climate change is expected to affect global mean sea levels. Global mean sea level already has risen about eight to nine inches since 1880; as of 2021, it is 3.8 inches above 1993 levels, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. At the current pace, the global sea level will be one foot higher by the end of this century.
“We had practically, just about, not that I can think of, no Islamic attacks, terrorist attacks during the Trump administration.”
Trump is wrong. On Dec. 6, 2019, a Saudi military student, Ahmed Mohammed al-Shamrani, went on a shooting rampage at a Navy flight school in Pensacola, Fla., killing three people and wounding 13. Attorney General William P. Barr said the attack was “an act of terrorism” motivated by “jihadist ideology.” Al-Shamrani had visited the 9/11 Memorial in New York City and posted a message on social media on the anniversary of Sept. 11 attacks stating that “the countdown has started.”
“We actually got it [inflation] to exactly one percent. The perfect number one thing every economist agrees don’t have it. You have it like at one percent. They would say one to two. But I said, let’s do one. And we had it at one percent and we had it there for a long period of time …. Inflation was nonexistent.”
This is not correct. During the Trump presidency, annual inflation generally was a little higher or lower than 2 percent a year. A president generally has little control over inflation, while the Federal Reserve only has crude tools, such as raising interest rates, to affect it. Whether the Fed acted fast enough to combat inflation — or whether Biden’s covid relief package exacerbated inflation — is still under debate. Trump appointed the current Fed chairman. After the pandemic, inflation soared in most countries around the world, and Trump likely would have faced a similar rise in prices.
“The socialist disaster known as the Green New Deal, which is destroying our country, and the many crippling regulations that it has spawned, will be immediately terminated.”
The Green New Deal, a sweeping environmental plan proposed by liberals, was never enacted. Biden opposed the Green New Deal though he has enacted some climate-change legislation.
“But one of the reasons we had so much success at the border was because of the fact that we got Mexico to give us free of charge 28,000 soldiers.”
No Mexican troops were given “free of charge” to the United States. Mexico deployed 26,000 soldiers, split between the U.S. border and Mexico’s southern border, to stem illegal immigration from central American countries.
“Under the Barack Hussein Obama administration, they were unable to take them out because their country is where they came from, wouldn’t take them. And I learned about that. And my first day I actually say what I learned about it. And I said, which countries? And it was Honduras and Guatemala. It was El Salvador, some others. And I said, How much do we pay them, sir? You pay them $750 million a year. It’s a lot of money. I said, all right, stop payment. We’re not paying them anymore because they wouldn’t accept them … And I get a call the next morning from the presidents of every country that are talking about. Sir, there seems to be a misunderstanding. What’s the problem? Is ... there anything we can do?”
Trump often fabricates conversations in which he stuns various heads of state with his knowledge or negotiating skills and they bend to his will. His claim that El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras “wouldn’t take” deportees before the Trump administration is flat-out false. The three countries accepted hundreds of thousands of returnees from the United States every year, before Trump’s term, official statistics show. From 2013 to 2018, such deportations totaled 550,186. In fact, the Obama administration prioritized the deportations of gang members and individuals with criminal records. Trump, upon taking office, scrapped that priority list and allowed officials to prioritize nonviolent immigration offenders over violent ones.
“Businesses were pouring back because of our historic tax and regulation cuts, the biggest in both categories. in history, bigger even than what Ronald Reagan was able to produce. And he produced a lot.”
Neither of these claims are correct.
Trump’s claim about tax cuts was his second favorite falsehood during his presidency; his remarks at his departure ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base marked the 296th time he said it. Even before Trump’s tax cut was crafted, he promised it would be the biggest in U.S. history — bigger than Ronald Reagan’s 1981 tax cut. Reagan’s tax cut amounted to 2.9 percent of the gross domestic product and none of the proposals under consideration came close to that level. Yet Trump persisted in this fiction even when the tax cut was eventually crafted to be the equivalent of 0.9 percent of GDP, making it the eighth largest tax cut in 100 years.
As for regulations, there is no reliable metric on which to judge this claim — or to compare Trump to previous presidents. Many experts say the most significant regulatory changes in U.S. history were the deregulation of airline, rail and trucking industries during the Carter administration, which are estimated to provide consumers with $70 billion in annual benefits. A detailed November 2020 report by the Penn Program on Regulation concluded that “without exception, each major claim we have uncovered by the President or other White House official about regulation turns out to be exaggerated, misleading, or downright untrue.” The report said that Trump Administration had not reduced the overall number of pages from the regulatory code book, and it completed far more regulatory actions than deregulatory ones once the full data are examined.
“I made big promises to the American people. And unlike other presidents, I kept my promises.”
Despite his bravado, Trump broke many of his campaign promises. According to The Washington Post Trump Promise Tracker, Trump kept less than one-third of 60 key promises he announced during the 2016 campaign — and he broke half of them.
“Every drug dealer during his or her life on average will kill 500 people with the drugs they sell, not to mention the destruction of families.”
As we have documented, this is a dubious figure that makes little sense. About 600,000 people died of drug overdoses from 2010 to 2020, according to the National Institutes of Health. Doing the math, Trump’s statistic would suggest that there are only 1,200 drug dealers in the United States. But the federal government prosecutes nearly 20,000 drug traffickers a year.
“I rebuilt our entire military, which nobody talks about. When I got there, we had jet fighters that were forty eight years old. We had bombers that was 60 years old. We had bombers where their grandfathers flew them when they were new. And now the grandchild is flying the bomber, but not anymore.”
Trump often falsely claims he's “totally rebuilt” the U.S. military. As for the bomber, Trump appears to be referring to the B-52 Stratofortress bomber, built during the Kennedy Administration, which are receiving upgrades could keep the remaining fleet of Cold War bombers going until 2050. But Trump errs in suggesting that he is replacing the B-52 or ordered new planes to replace it. The Obama administration pushed forward with a new bomber, the B21, which will function alongside the B-52.
“I said, why didn’t you raid Bush’s place? Why didn’t you raid Clinton? Thirty two thousand emails. Why didn’t you raid Clinton’s place? Why didn’t you do? Obama took a lot of things with him.”
Trump is under investigation for taking classified documents from the White House to his home in Florida, rather than turn than over the National Archives as required by law. When Trump began suggesting his actions were no different than previous president, the Archives issued a statement saying he was wrong. “All such temporary facilities [for previous president records] met strict archival and security standards, and have been managed and staffed exclusively by NARA employees,” the statement said. “Reports that indicate or imply that those Presidential records were in the possession of the former Presidents or their representatives, after they left office, or that the records were housed in substandard conditions, are false and misleading.”
“I will ask for a permanent ban on taxpayer funding of campaigns. A lifetime ban on lobbying by former members of Congress and Cabinet. No, I see what they make. They leave the White House or they leave Congress. They’re paid millions and millions and millions of dollars a year. Now you have to have a ban.”
Trump talks a good game on restricting lobbying by former officials. But with hours left in his term, Trump rescinded the executive order he had signed on Jan. 28, 2017 that had limited federal administration officials from lobbying the government or working for foreign countries after they leave their posts, undoing one of the few measures he had instituted to fulfill his 2016 campaign promise to “drain the swamp.” | 2022-11-16T16:08:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Fact-checking 19 claims from Trump's speech announcing his 2024 run - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/new-trump-campaign-same-old-falsehoods/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/new-trump-campaign-same-old-falsehoods/ |
A Broncos linebacker’s lawsuit focuses on sideline safety at NFL games
Aaron Patrick’s sideline injury occurred Oct. 17 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. (Jeff Lewis/AP)
Patrick was injured during Denver’s Oct. 17 overtime loss to the Chargers at SoFi Stadium, when according to the lawsuit filed in California Superior Court, he collided with an improperly positioned NFL replay liaison as he knocked punt returner DeAndre Carter out of bounds. The suit contends that Patrick, with his momentum carrying him off the field, stepped awkwardly on a mat covering wires that connect to the on-field replay system and collided with the liaison.
“Player safety should be the foremost of importance to the NFL and its owners,” attorney William Berman said in a news release (via the Denver Post). “The NFL is a multi-billion-dollar sports enterprise and business, and it needs to do everything possible to protect its players from noncontact game injuries. As for Patrick’s injuries, Sofi Stadium should have the state-of-the-art equipment to protect for player safety, and not use the type of $100 mats that you would expect to see in a restaurant kitchen.”
The suit, which claims all of the named defendants were negligent, is somewhat reminiscent of a lawsuit won by former NFL running back Reggie Bush. His 2015 season with the San Francisco 49ers was cut short when he tore his meniscus as he slipped on concrete next to the field at Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, where the Rams were then based. Bush was awarded nearly $12.5 million in damages in 2018.
Those comments come after the NFL said last week that the rate of noncontact injuries to the knee, ankle and foot are roughly equal on natural and artificial playing surfaces (via ESPN). NFL Players Association President J.C. Tretter disputed that claim Saturday, specifically calling for the replacement of a type of surface known as “slit-film turf.” According to the players union, the Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings, New Orleans Saints, Indianapolis Colts, Cincinnati Bengals and New York Giants and New York Jets (who share a stadium) have that turf, which consists of fake blades of grass that have openings that can cause cleats to catch.
“The injuries on slit film are completely avoidable — both the NFL and NFLPA experts agree on the data — and yet the NFL will not protect players from a subpar surface,” Tretter wrote on the union’s website, garnering support from several players on social media. | 2022-11-16T16:46:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Broncos linebacker Aaron Patrick sues NFL, Chargers over sideline injury - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/16/aaron-patrick-lawsuit/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/16/aaron-patrick-lawsuit/ |
Malta moves to loosen its abortion ban after crisis with American tourist
Malta on Wednesday moved to loosen its strictest-in-Europe abortion ban, with its government saying it would propose legal changes that would enable the procedure if a woman’s health is at serious risk.
Malta’s prime minister, Robert Abela, later said the case had put the country under the spotlight “for the wrong reasons.”
U.S. woman denied abortion in Malta to be airlifted amid fears for her life
Malta, the smallest member of the European Union, has until now maintained the lone total abortion ban in the bloc, including in cases of incest and rape, as well as when the woman’s health is at risk. In theory women can face jail time for having an abortion, though prosecutions have been exceedingly rare.
“The choice isn’t between the mother living or the baby living. The choice here is whether the mother and baby both die, or if the mother’s life is saved,” Fearne said, according to the Times of Malta.
Among E.U. countries, Poland is generally seen as having the second most rigid abortion laws, after tightening its rules in 2020. But other countries have been going in the other direction. Last year, the micronation of San Marino voted to make abortion legal in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. And Ireland in 2018 legalized abortion after a long-running campaign.
Ireland votes to overturn its abortion ban, ‘culmination of a quiet revolution,’ prime minister says
In an interview published earlier this month with the Times of Malta, Abela had suggested that changes in Malta would be coming. While stressing that changes would be narrow — not a pathway to broadly decriminalizing abortion — the prime minister expressed sympathy with women he had met who had been forced to seek abortion pills in the mail.
“If they suffered complications, they couldn’t go to a health clinic or hospital for fear of getting locked up,” Abela said.
He said that hundreds of people in Malta were using the pills every year.
“How can I close my eyes to this?” he said. | 2022-11-16T16:47:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Malta moves to loosen its abortion ban after crisis with American tourist - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/16/malta-abortion-ban-american-tourist/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/16/malta-abortion-ban-american-tourist/ |
NASA’s moon rocket launches 50 years after Apollo
Thousands watched from the launch site as Artemis program begins with unmanned mission around the moon.
A rocket lifts off at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Wednesday. This launch is the first flight test of the Artemis program. (John Raoux/AP)
NASA’s new moon rocket blasted off on its debut flight with three test dummies aboard early Wednesday, bringing the United States a big step closer to putting astronauts back on the lunar surface for the first time since the end of the Apollo program 50 years ago.
If all goes well during the three-week flight, the crew capsule will be sent into a wide orbit around the moon and then return to Earth with a Pacific splashdown in December.
After years of delays and a cost that was billions more than expected, the Space Launch System rocket thundered skyward, rising from Kennedy Space Center on 8.8 million pounds of thrust and hitting 100 miles per hour within seconds. The Orion capsule was perched on top and, less than two hours into the flight, busted out of Earth’s orbit toward the moon.
The launch follows nearly three months of delays from fuel leaks and hurricanes.
The liftoff marked the start of NASA’s Artemis lunar-exploration program, named after Apollo’s twin sister in Greek mythology. The space agency aims to send four astronauts around the moon on the next flight, in 2024, and land humans there as early as 2025.
The 322-foot Space Launch System is the most powerful rocket ever built by NASA, with more thrust than either the space shuttle or the mighty Saturn V that carried men to the moon.
Orion should reach the moon by Monday. After coming within 80 miles of it, the capsule will enter a far-flung orbit stretching about 40,000 miles beyond.
KidsPost looks at new era of American spaceflight
Most of NASA’s corps of 42 active astronauts and 10 trainees were not born when Apollo 17 moonwalkers Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt closed out the era, 50 years ago next month.
After a nearly year-long space station mission and all-female spacewalk, Koch, 43, is on NASA’s shortlist for a lunar flight. So is astronaut Kayla Barron, 35, who finally got to witness her first rocket launch, not counting her own a year ago. | 2022-11-16T16:55:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | NASA’s moon rocket launches 50 years after Apollo - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/11/16/nasa-launches-moon-rocket-artemis/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/11/16/nasa-launches-moon-rocket-artemis/ |
A shareholder lawsuit alleges Elon Musk secured excessive compensation despite dividing his time between multiple companies.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, as seen in 2021, took the stand Wednesday in Wilmington, Del., in a trial stemming from a Tesla shareholder lawsuit filed in 2018. (Al Drago/Bloomberg)
WILMINGTON, Del. — In a Delaware courtroom Wednesday, Elon Musk defended a 2018 compensation package as Tesla CEO that turned out to be worth more than $50 billion, helping to make him the world’s richest person.
Musk took the stand for the first time in a trial stemming from a Tesla shareholder lawsuit filed in 2018. Plaintiff Richard Tornetta alleges the company erred in approving a pay package for Musk that dwarfs even those of other top tech executives, despite Musk splitting his time between Tesla and the several other companies he runs — including, most recently, Twitter, which he acquired for $44 billion last month.
Under questioning from the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Musk defended bringing Tesla engineers to Twitter to evaluate Twitter’s engineering staff ahead of mass layoffs at the social media platform. He said their participation was “voluntary,” “after hours,” and “a minor thing." Pressed as to whether anyone on Tesla’s board had contacted Musk to suggest that it might be problematic to use a public company’s employees to help his other, private company, Musk said he did not recall any such conversation.
Musk also acknowledged a tweet claiming he planned to sleep on the floor at Twitter until the organization was fixed — a process which Musk said in court Wednesday that he expected to be complete by the end of this week.
The trial highlights Musk’s singular position as a top executive of five companies at once, and calls into question whether the terms of his leadership at Tesla are in the best interests of the carmaker’s shareholders, or of Musk himself. It’s the second time in two years Musk has testified in a trial stemming from a Tesla shareholder lawsuit, after a 2021 trial that questioned his role in Tesla’s 2016 acquisition of his cousin’s solar-panel company, SolarCity. Musk prevailed in that case.
Tesla’s lawyers maintain that his Tesla compensation, which came largely in the form of Tesla stock and whose value was tied to the company’s performance, was necessary to retain and incentivize a CEO who has been critical to its ascent as the world’s most valuable automaker. If Tesla hadn’t done so well, Musk wouldn’t have made so much.
Musk, known lately for his provocative tweets and volatile behavior as Twitter’s new owner, strode into the Delaware Court of Chancery in a black suit and black tie Wednesday morning, apologizing that he might be a bit “slow,” having arrived on an overnight flight. On the stand, he kept a calm demeanor amid some verbal jousting with the plaintiffs’ lawyer over apparent inconsistencies in his testimony and the propriety of various past tweets.
After Musk testified on direct questioning from Tesla lawyer Evan Chesler that he hadn’t been involved in any meetings discussing the substance of his pay plan, the opposing counsel presented documents that appeared to imply that Musk may have in fact played a role in devising it. Musk also seemed to acknowledge that some of his tweets may have violated the terms of a consent agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, but defended them on the grounds that the agreement “was made under duress” and thus, in Musk’s opinion, “not valid.”
On a couple of occasions, Musk objected to questions as “misleading” or too complex to answer with a yes or no. The lawyer told Musk, “When your lawyer wants to make an objection, he has the right to do it. Sadly, you don’t.”
Musk’s initial testimony, under direct questioning, focused on the daunting situation the company was facing in 2017, when the pay package was agreed, and what he described as the “extreme” unlikelihood that he would achieve the benchmarks required to earn as much as he did. At the time, the electric carmaker was behind schedule on production of the Model 3, its first mass-market vehicle.
Musk’s staggering compensation of more than $50 billion depended on Tesla hitting wildly ambitious targets for its market capitalization. He testified that when the plan was conceived, Tesla’s market value was about $40 billion. He would receive a large tranch of Tesla stock, on the order of half a percent of the company, if that rose to $100 billion, and more for each additional $50 billion beyond that. | 2022-11-16T17:17:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Elon Musk testifies in Delaware court, defending massive Tesla pay - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/16/elon-musk-tesla-trial-pay/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/16/elon-musk-tesla-trial-pay/ |
U.K. authorities authorize new criminal charges against Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey arrives at the courthouse for his civil sex abuse case in New York City on Oct. 13. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters)
Prosecutors in Britain have authorized additional charges against the actor Kevin Spacey, including three counts of sexual assault related to incidents alleged to have taken place between 2001 and 2004.
Spacey, an Oscar-winning actor, has seen a profound career downfall since he was first accused of sexual misconduct in 2017. Actor Anthony Rapp told BuzzFeed News that Spacey made a sexual advance toward him at a party when Rapp, now 51, was 14 and Spacey was 26. Following the article’s publication, Spacey said in a social media statement that he was “beyond horrified” by the allegation but did not recall the alleged incident. “If I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior,” Spacey wrote.
Following the explosive BuzzFeed report, more than a dozen others accused Spacey of sexual misconduct, with some of the alleged incidents prompting legal action. In 2019, he pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of indecent assault and battery after he was accused of groping an 18-year-old man at a Nantucket bar in 2016. The case was later dropped, with prosecutors citing the “unavailability of the complaining witness.” A California massage therapist accused Spacey of sexual assault and battery in 2018, but the case was dismissed after the accuser died ahead of the trial. Rapp sued Spacey in civil court in 2020, accusing the actor of assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Last month, a New York jury found Spacey not liable in the $40 million lawsuit.
Spacey’s entertainment projects have significantly dwindled since the barrage of allegations against him. He was fired in 2017 from Netflix’s “House of Cards,” for which he had received 10 Emmy nominations, ahead of the show’s sixth season. In August, a Los Angeles judge ordered the disgraced actor to pay $30 million in compensatory damages and other fees to the producers of the political drama. | 2022-11-16T17:17:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | U.K. authorities authorize new criminal charges against Kevin Spacey - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/11/16/kevin-spacey-more-charges-uk/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/11/16/kevin-spacey-more-charges-uk/ |
The proposed class action names Tom Brady, Gisele Bündchen, Stephen Curry, Larry David and others who have appeared in commercials for the cryptocurrency exchange
Samuel Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, and several of his company's celebrity endorsers have been named in a lawsuit seeking class-action status. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
The proposed class action alleges they promoted unregistered securities and accuses them of violating Florida’s Securities and Investor Protection Act and the Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
Tom Brady, Gisele Bündchen, Stephen Curry and Larry David, among others, are all named in the lawsuit filed late Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Miami. All have appeared in commercials for the cryptocurrency exchange.
House to probe FTX collapse, expects Sam Bankman-Fried to testify
David Boies, who represented Al Gore in Bush v. Gore, is among the proposed lawyers for the plaintiffs. Boies also previously represented Theranos in the fallen company’s legal challenges.
Adam Moskowitz, another proposed counsel for the plaintiffs, said in the filing that he could not remember a time when “so many powerful and influential celebrities promoting as strongly and as persuasively as these people who are role models and are so well-respected by everyone. | 2022-11-16T17:17:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Sam Bankman-Fried, Tom Brady and other FTX endorsers face class-action suit - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/11/16/ftx-class-action-lawsuit/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/11/16/ftx-class-action-lawsuit/ |
FILE - Argentina’s Diego Maradona, left, beats England goalkeeper Peter Shilton to a high ball and scores his first of two goals in a World Cup quarterfinal soccer match, in Mexico City on June 22, 1986. This goal has gone down as the “Hand of God” as Maradona used his left fist to knock a ball past England’s Shilton. (El Grafico, Buenos Aires via AP/File) (Uncredited/EL GRAFICO) | 2022-11-16T17:20:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Maradona 'Hand of God' World Cup ball sold for $2.4M - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/soccer/maradona-hand-of-god-world-cup-ball-sold-for-24m/2022/11/16/0e26187a-65c6-11ed-b08c-3ce222607059_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/soccer/maradona-hand-of-god-world-cup-ball-sold-for-24m/2022/11/16/0e26187a-65c6-11ed-b08c-3ce222607059_story.html |
After 26 years, a stained-glass window shines in a new setting
Beverly Niad of the Garden of Remembrance stands with the restored stained-glass window in the Jewish cemetery's newly dedicated memorial chapel. The window was originally installed at the Washington Hebrew Congregation's synagogue at Eighth and I streets NW. The Washington Art Glass Studio of Dunkirk, Md., restored it. (John Kelly/The Washington Post)
Every few years between 1996 and his death in 2019, Sheldon Grosberg would call Jed Boertlein and inquire about a precious jewel that had been placed in Boertlein’s care.
“I would tell him, ‘Yes, we still have the window. It’s still in the barn,’ ” Boertlein said.
The window. The stained-glass window, to be exact: a massive, circular stained-glass window featuring concentric stars of David that had once adorned the Washington Hebrew Congregation’s synagogue, dedicated in 1898 at Eighth and I streets NW.
In 1954, the Washington Hebrew Congregation sold that building to the Greater New Hope Baptist Church and moved to Macomb Street NW. When the Christian church decided in 1996 to replace the window — the wooden frame was crumbling and passersby had often wondered why the star of David was displayed so prominently — it offered it to the Jewish temple.
Boertlein’s company, Washington Art Glass Studio, in Dunkirk, Md., held onto the many pieces of blue, yellow and red glass — and waited.
Grosberg led the acquisition of 152 acres of land in upper Montgomery County for a Jewish cemetery called the Garden of Remembrance, which opened in 2000. Everyone agreed it was the perfect place for the window, but raising money for the proper setting proved difficult. Grosberg died in 2019. Boertlein’s father had passed away two years earlier.
“It was always the intention that somehow we would incorporate this beautiful window into a new memorial chapel,” said Glenn Easton, executive director of Garden of Remembrance.
Said Boertlein: “They told us they were going to be building this [chapel]. We had no idea it was going to take 25 years to actually happen.”
Happen it finally did. On Nov. 13 — 124 years after the original synagogue at Eighth and I was dedicated — the chapel was dedicated. The window is the centerpiece. It’s set in an interior wall between the lobby and the area where mourners sit.
Boertlein said one of the restorations’ biggest challenges was creating the rather complex frame the glass sits in. The two concentric six-pointed stars were originally made of wood and weighed, Boertlein estimated, close to 1,000 pounds. By the time he and his father removed it, the bottom portion was completely rotted out, endangering pedestrians below.
The new aluminum frame was fabricated in Pittsburgh by the CAFF Company. It weighs half as much as the old one.
Boertlein said about 25 percent of the window’s panes were broken and in need of replacement. He can tell which ones are new, but most people probably can’t. And anyway, they aren’t actually “new.” His late grandfather Leonard Boertlein — who founded Washington Art Glass Studio in 1924 — saw to that.
“My grandfather had the foresight of saving a lot of new old stock,” he said. “We were able to pull from that new old stock and match a lot of that glass.”
The panes inside the frame are held together in time-honored fashion, with solder and what’s called lead came.
“[The chapel] was really designed with the window in mind,” Easton said. “We wanted to link our past, present and future.”
I spoke with both men on the phone, then went to visit the cemetery, which was created by 29 Washington-area synagogues that banded together when burial space in the District started becoming practically nonexistent.
I turned off Comus Road and into the cemetery, past the upright stone grave markers, themselves adorned with smooth round rocks stacked by mourners. The chapel was empty. The window is large — 12 feet across! — and you can get a lot closer to it now than you could when it was 40 feet above the ground in the old synagogue.
I’d asked Easton what he hoped the window would represent for visitors to the cemetery.
“For some it will be a historic connection to their families in the past,” he said. “For others it will be a beautiful setting for remembering their loved ones and comforting the bereaved.”
It’s hard to look at the window and not think of the passing of time. That same collapsing of time — of generations coming together in one place, if only metaphorically — is imbued in the window itself. When Jed Boertlein looks at it, he sees his father, who stood with him on that scaffolding 26 years ago. He also sees his son and son-in-law, both of whom work at the 98-year-old family business.
He loves stained glass, of course.
“It just adds sparkle to any space,” he said. Even the space between this world and the next.
We’re a week into this year’s Washington Post Helping Hand fundraising drive. You can learn about the three Washington charities we’re raising money for — Bread for the City, Friendship Place and Miriam’s Kitchen — by visiting posthelpinghand.com. We’ve made it easy for you to give. Just click where it says “Donate.” | 2022-11-16T17:39:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | An 1898 stained-glass window has a new home at a Jewish cemetery - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/16/synagogue-stained-glass/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/16/synagogue-stained-glass/ |
Don’t want to drive to catch a flight? We tried the new D.C.-Dulles train.
Aboard Metro’s Silver Line, passengers get a much-awaited rail option to and from Washington’s international airport
Perspective by Luz Lazo
Signs at Dulles International Airport direct people toward the Metro station of the Silver Line extension. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)
Taking a 90-minute train ride instead of a 35-minute drive to catch a flight might not sound like an ideal transportation swap. But it’s a choice I made hours after the Silver Line extension opened and one that local officials hope you will make now that Metrorail goes to Dulles International Airport.
Metro’s new line began serving the airport Tuesday, providing a long-awaited rail-to-flight option for the 20 million passengers who travel through Washington’s international gateway annually.
“When you’re flying around the country, around the world, take the Silver Line and fly Dulles,” John E. “Jack” Potter, the president of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, said at an opening ceremony Tuesday.
I took the advice and made the journey Tuesday night from Northwest Washington to Dulles for a 1:30 a.m. flight to San Salvador. The $3.85 off-peak fare on the debut evening of the rail extension took me through 25 stations, a transfer from the Red Line at Metro Center, and 90 minutes of riding — at least two times what it would have taken to drive at this late hour.
With a carry-on bag and a heavy backpack, I took off at 8:40 p.m. as cold rain fell in the nation’s capital, making my eight-minute walk from home to the Metro station the most miserable part of the trip.
Using Metro’s next-arrival tool, I timed my arrival at the Friendship Heights platform to within five minutes of the next downtown-bound train. I also gave myself plenty of time for potential transit hiccups, although the trip went smoothly. Metro got me to the airport three hours before departure, as recommended for international flights.
Traveling outside of rush hour meant many open seats but less-frequent service. After the 16-minute ride to Metro Center, I had just missed a Silver Line train. At the platform, Metro bollards had signs depicting an airplane and the airport’s code of IAD, while directing passengers to the lower platform. Overhead signs showed the next train to Ashburn would arrive in 11 minutes.
The doors of a 6000-series train opened at 9:22 p.m., and then began the nearly hour-long ride to Dulles. By the time the six-car train reached Wiehle-Reston East — the Silver Line’s previous terminus — the train was mostly empty. Three air travelers on my rail car continued passing through three other new stations before reaching Dulles.
A woman visiting from Toronto said she was happy to make the trip via Metro, saving money on what would have been “a very expensive Uber ride,” although she sighed about a “looong ride.”
Another passenger, Pamela Leahigh, of Southwest D.C., took one of the first trains to Dulles on Tuesday to catch a flight to Scotland. The mood on her train car was festive, she said, with people jumping in and out of the train to take photos of the shiny new stations.
“It felt old-fashioned yet modern at the same time,” she said.
My train arrived about 10:20 p.m. at the Dulles station, where about a dozen people, a mix of workers and travelers, waited for a D.C.-bound train. Views of the airport terminal are seen when exiting. Signage directs passengers to spacious elevators and long escalators, then to the indoor walkway between the station and baggage claim. It’s an easy six-minute walk in a climate-controlled pedestrian tunnel with three movable walkways.
Metro and the airports authority see the Silver Line as a significant boost for regional rail and air travel, which have faced pandemic-related slowdowns. Dulles’s passenger traffic is still recovering, partly hurt by a decline in international travel. Transit officials say the airport is a main destination for riders along the extension. The Metro line was envisioned before the airport opened 60 years ago and has been touted as alleviating a transportation barrier to reaching Dulles.
“When the airport was first opened almost exactly 60 years ago today, President Kennedy said that the building symbolizes the aspirations of the United States,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Tuesday at Dulles. “I think the same can be said of the Silver Line today, allowing people to affordably get to where they need to go.”
He continued: “All of us in the DMV have the experience of a friend saying that they’re coming to Washington, they’re flying in and you’re so excited. … And then there’s that little pause. ‘Wait a minute, which airport did you say you’re going to be coming through?’ Awkward pause no more because it will be easier no matter what.”
Easier, at least, if you have an arrival or departure within the Metro system’s hours. Passengers with early-morning or late-night flights still have to stick with alternatives. For example, the last D.C.-bound train out of Dulles is at 10:53 p.m. on weekdays, and the first train from D.C. to the airport on weekends isn’t until after 8 a.m.
The train also saved me at least $100. Because Metro has a flat $2 weekend and late-night fare, my return trip will be even cheaper (in comparison with Metro’s $6 maximum fare during peak travel periods). Parking at Dulles’s economy lot is $12 a day. Someone who doesn’t book ahead can end up at the much-pricier garages, where rates range from $19 to $27 a day. Taxi or Uber fares would have been more than $120 round trip.
I have driven to Dulles at least half a dozen times this year to pick up relatives or for my own travels. Most times, I drove the 24 miles from D.C. within 35 minutes. The most challenging and unpredictable stretch is the six miles of the Beltway on my route and the American Legion Bridge chokepoint. The remaining 13 miles on the Dulles Access Road are generally a breeze. One time this summer, a relative arrived at 4:30 p.m. on a Wednesday and the drive turned into a two-hour nightmare. Metro would have been a good choice.
The ride was long but convenient and a good choice for me over driving, but especially during rush hour or on days like Tuesday, when rain made for a chaotic drive. | 2022-11-16T17:39:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Metro train ride from D.C. to catch a flight at Dulles - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/11/16/metro-silver-line-dulles-flight/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/11/16/metro-silver-line-dulles-flight/ |
President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping prepare to shake hands as they meet on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, on Monday. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
U.S.-China relations are so bad these days that any communication between Washington and Beijing is inevitably hailed as a potential turning point in the ever-worsening relationship. But Monday’s meeting between President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping actually serves as a sober reminder of the unfortunate reality that the two superpowers are headed for more confrontation, not less, in the months and years ahead.
Despite Biden’s oft-repeated belief that “all foreign policy is personal,” there was no substantive progress made in the 3½-hour confab. That’s because the problems in the U.S.-China relationship are structural, not personal. And although Xi says he wants to improve the atmosphere, his actions tell a different story.
The White House set expectations low before the first in-person meeting between the two men since Biden assumed office. The event was pitched as an effort to “build a floor” under the relationship by bolstering high-level communication. And it’s certainly true that Xi’s isolation from the world for the past three years has raised the risk of misunderstandings. The fact that he’s inhabiting an ever-shrinking bubble — having purged all his critics — means that any opportunity to speak directly to Xi is worth taking.
“I’m convinced that he understood exactly what I was saying. I understood what he was saying,” Biden said afterward, rolling out the meager results. Biden said he was convinced that there was no need for the United States and China to enter into a cold war and he was confident a Chinese invasion of Taiwan was not “imminent.”
The two sides agreed to restart some of the stalled dialogues cut off by Beijing after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) visited Taiwan in August. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to China at some point. Both sides agreed that a nuclear war would be bad, a warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In his comments before the meeting, Xi played into the idea he wanted a detente in the U.S.-China relationship. He and Biden should “bring China-U.S. relations back to the track of healthy and stable growth,” Xi said. Predictably, much of Washington praised this supposed thaw, and markets jumped at the prospect of an economic thaw to go with it.
The problem with this thinking is that it ignores Beijing’s worsening behavior and the fact that Xi wasn’t willing to negotiate on any of the contentious issues. After his appointment as dictator for life and his consolidation of power, Xi has little incentive to do anything substantial to address U.S. concerns about China’s military aggression toward Taiwan, its mass atrocities against the Uyghurs, its unfair trade practices or any other issue.
“When Xi Jinping says he wants a better U.S.-China relationship, what he really means is that he wants U.S. capitulation on China’s ‘core interests,’ ” said Joshua Eisenman, associate professor of politics at the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs. “So it’s not that Xi wouldn’t be happy with a better U.S. relationship; it’s just that the terms he is offering are more a list of demands than areas of actual bilateral cooperation.”
Even on issues of mutual interest, there was zero give on Beijing’s side. China has resumed talking about climate change but has not agreed to drop its demand for sanctions to be lifted upfront on its silicon companies for their use of forced labor. On Iran, North Korea and Russia, Beijing is still intent on undermining U.S. policy.
And because the United States has no intention of capitulating to Beijing’s demands that it abandon Taiwan and shut up about its human rights violations, U.S. policy will continue to bump up against Xi’s “red lines.” In fact, both parties in Washington are set to ramp up their efforts to confront China’s actions next year. A GOP-led House of Representatives is going to intensify its focus on the Chinese Communist Party. More lawmakers, including perhaps prospective House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), will visit Taiwan. The Biden administration will only be expanding its export restrictions on high-technology items to China.
Xi’s professed desire for a reset in U.S.-China relations rings hollow because of his long record of deception on this issue. This is the same Xi who promised President Barack Obama in 2015 that he would not militarize the South China Sea — and then did just that. This is the same Xi who signed an agreement promising that China would not use cyberespionage for economic aggression. Fool me once …
Rather than listen to Xi’s dubious claims, Washington should listen more to U.S. allies and partners in Asia, who want more U.S. economic engagement in the region, and to U.S. military commanders, who are warning that U.S. military deterrence in the Pacific is eroding as China’s military footprint quickly expands.
As for handling Xi, it makes complete sense to keep the lines of communication open, in the hope that Beijing will someday be ready to really negotiate in a way that responds to the international community’s concerns about its actions. Talking is great, but only if we are clear-eyed about the character and intentions of the dictator across the table. | 2022-11-16T18:49:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The Biden-Xi meeting shows that U.S.-China relations will get worse, not better - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/16/biden-xi-us-china-relations-worse/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/16/biden-xi-us-china-relations-worse/ |
MADISON, Wis. — The Republican chair of the Wisconsin Assembly elections committee who was backed by former President Donald Trump, embraced conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and wanted to decertify President Joe Biden’s victory, has been kicked out of the closed GOP caucus due to a lack of trust, according to a letter sent to the lawmaker.
The latest: Democrats use Trump’s 2024 bid to fundraise for Warnock
5:12 PMAnalysis: The 2024 jockeying for evangelical voters begins | 2022-11-16T18:49:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Trump-backed Republican kicked out of Wis. Assembly caucus - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-backed-republican-kicked-out-of-wis-assembly-caucus/2022/11/16/9f8447b0-65d5-11ed-b08c-3ce222607059_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-backed-republican-kicked-out-of-wis-assembly-caucus/2022/11/16/9f8447b0-65d5-11ed-b08c-3ce222607059_story.html |
“I’ve played in some big games. I’ve accomplished a lot,” Christian Pulisic said Wednesday. “I’ve done a lot of things I want to do, but the World Cup is something on top of all of that, and it’s something when I was a kid in Pennsylvania growing up, 5 to 10 years old, all I thought about was a World Cup, playing for the U.S. team in a World Cup.” (Ibraheem Al Omari/Reuters)
AL RAYYAN, Qatar — Childhood dreams, unbridled and exciting, transported Christian Pulisic from the youth fields of central Pennsylvania to the immaculate pitches of the World Cup. They offered him visions of wearing a U.S. jersey, hand over heart as the national anthem boomed and teammates lined up in a neat row.
The fantasy then took him to kickoff, to an opponent of high esteem and to the opportunity to elevate American soccer from mid-major to menace.
Fanciful aspirations mature. Years pass, marked by enormous achievement in our arenas. The moment arrives.
“I’ve played in some big games. I’ve accomplished a lot,” Pulisic said Wednesday, five days before his expected World Cup debut. “I’ve done a lot of things I want to do, but the World Cup is something on top of all of that, and it’s something when I was a kid in Pennsylvania growing up, 5 to 10 years old, all I thought about was a World Cup, playing for the U.S. team in a World Cup. That’s just been a dream my whole life. I’m sure getting into that moment is going to be special.”
U.S. hopes of making a mark in this competition do not fall entirely on Pulisic; he’s got a promising, if inexperienced, brigade around him. He is, though, the face of this team and the focus of both global attention and opponents’ cynical tactics.
“I don’t really want to add a comment that will put any more pressure on him because he knows what he can do,” said Gio Reyna, a 20-year-old forward. “I know what he can do. The whole team knows what he can do.”
It’s not as though Pulisic, a Chelsea FC attacker, has never played in a top event. He has won the UEFA Champions League, FIFA Club World Cup and German Cup; he also featured in three English FA Cup finals. In all, he has appeared in more than 250 matches with two esteemed European clubs.
The Premier League, considered the world’s best proving ground, has been his home since the summer of 2019. Before a U.S.-record $73 million transfer to Chelsea, he excelled with Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga.
The World Cup, though, is a different beast, a once-every-four-year exam that draws billions of viewers and captures the attention of casual fans in the United States.
Pulisic was a young charge on a veteran squad that failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, ending a span of seven consecutive appearances. Though Pulisic was not the culprit, he carried the pain, anger and ultimately the motivation to atone for the U.S. failure.
His current teammates appreciate his drive and sense of responsibility to push the program to the next level. Employed by London-based Premier League clubs, Pulisic and Matt Turner, the U.S. team’s probable starting goalkeeper, have sat next to one another a few times on trips to and from U.S. assignments, including this past weekend.
“We were just talking a little bit about [the expectations on Pulisic] because I like to get to know people and what makes them tick,” said Turner, who joined Arsenal last summer from MLS’s New England Revolution. “And he’s just excited. He’s excited to be here. He felt the pain and the heartbreak of the last [qualifying campaign] very personally, I know. So for him to be here now, he’s excited to go and express himself and be on the world stage.”
Though he’s the most well-known U.S. player — and the subject of marketing campaigns and TV ads — Pulisic said expectations carry no burden.
“I’m very excited for the moment,” he said during an interview session with reporters after training Wednesday. “This is the pinnacle of a lot of people’s careers, playing in a World Cup, representing their country. That’s what I’m here to do. I’m going to do the best I can and representing this country and hope I make everyone back home proud. That’s all I can really do. And as long as I do that, I can walk home proud.”
Pulisic enters the World Cup as a star on his national team but a part-time starter for Chelsea. That status has not changed, even after a September coaching change led to Graham Potter replacing Thomas Tuchel.
Pulisic has appeared in 13 of 14 Premier League matches overall but made just three starts. His lone goal came against Wolverhampton on Oct. 8. He started Chelsea’s League Cup match and appeared in four of six Champions League group-stage games, yet started just once.
Nonetheless, Pulisic likes what Potter has brought, saying: “The way he’s worked with the players and communicated has impressed me the most. And the guys have received him quite well. There’s going to be good things.”
Despite moderate playing time, Pulisic said he “feel great right now.”
“My form has actually been really good in recent weeks,” he said. “I’ve gotten some games in and continuing to work there and proving myself there. Honestly, I feel really strong and prepared going into this.”
U.S. Coach Gregg Berhalter would have preferred Pulisic logging major minutes before the World Cup. Still, “we know the qualities Christian brings,” he said.
Playing time cuts both ways for Qatar-bound players. With just a one-week gap between leagues pausing and the World Cup starting, players starting regularly for their clubs were more vulnerable to being sidelined by injury. Several standouts, including Chelsea teammate N’Golo Kante, will miss the tournament.
Pulisic dodged a scare in his final game before the break last Saturday, when a Newcastle player bore down on him. As the key U.S. player, he’ll undoubtedly face the same challenges in Group B play against Wales, England and Iran.
He said did not realize the danger involved until he watched video afterward.
“I saw a highlight of a guy coming and trying to two-foot me and I’m just thinking, ‘Wow, if he connects, that would have sucked,’ ” Pulisic said. “What can you do? I am playing the game. I’m passionate. I’m in the game. I want to win.”
World Cup USMNT’s Walker Zimmerman is a very good soccer player. He might be a better teammate.
With the Premier League now paused, a boyhood dream is now drawing closer.
“All those emotions, you’re not ready for, I guess,” Pulisic said. “It always hits you. It hits you and you feel it. You feel the big moments coming every day. Laying in bed at night when it gets a day closer, you feel a little bit more.”
Notes: Right back Sergiño Dest had limited involvement in Wednesday’s training session as team officials manage his workload. He was sidelined by adductor fatigue before entering as a sub Sunday for AC Milan. …
About 1,000 representatives from the U.S. Embassy and two U.S. military bases in Qatar were invited by Berhalter to watch practice. Berhalter and midfielder Weston McKennie, the son of a U.S. serviceman, addressed the crowd. | 2022-11-16T18:49:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | USMNT's Christian Pulisic awaits World Cup moment - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/16/christian-pulisic-usmnt-world-cup-expectations/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/16/christian-pulisic-usmnt-world-cup-expectations/ |
Jacksonville Jaguars place kicker Josh Lambo (4) watches from the sideline during the first half of an NFL football game against the Denver Broncos, Sept. 19, 2021, in Jacksonville, Fla. A judge has dismissed Lambo’s lawsuit against the Jacksonville Jaguars in which he sought back pay and damages for emotional distress caused by former head coach Urban Meyer. Judge Gilbert Feltel Jr., of the Florida 4th Circuit Court in Duval County, dismissed the suit without prejudice on Nov. 8. He gave Lambo 21 days to amend and refile the complaint. Lambo’s attorney, Betsy Brown, said Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022 she intends to do so. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack) | 2022-11-16T18:49:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Judge dismisses kicker Josh Lambo's lawsuit against Jaguars - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nfl/judge-dismisses-kicker-josh-lambos-lawsuit-against-jaguars/2022/11/16/856bb0ba-65d6-11ed-b08c-3ce222607059_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nfl/judge-dismisses-kicker-josh-lambos-lawsuit-against-jaguars/2022/11/16/856bb0ba-65d6-11ed-b08c-3ce222607059_story.html |
Celebrate a golden anniversary with national parks, Frank Lloyd Wright buildings and an underwater monument
(Photograph of Taos Pueblo in New Mexico by Nick Fox/Shutterstock; all others iStock)
Most likely, you have been to a UNESCO World Heritage site in the United States without knowing it. Remember that Griswoldian summer vacation to the Grand Canyon? The high school field trip to Independence Hall in Philadelphia? The college tour of the University of Virginia? Congratulations! That’s three in your pocket. But don’t stop now; you can collect all 24.
“This anniversary is important because it gives us the opportunity to take stock of all that has been achieved in the past 50 years. It lets us see what has been successful with the convention and what has not been successful,” Lazare Eloundou Assomo, director of the UNESCO World Heritage Center, said from the organization’s Paris office.
“What still remains challenging is that the World Heritage list remains imbalanced. It does not represent the diversity of all the regions in the world,” Assomo said. “Almost 50 percent of the sites are located in Europe and North America. This imbalance needs to be addressed in the future, like in Africa and the Arab states.”
The United States supported the World Heritage Convention in its development and adoption a half-century ago and was one of 194 countries that ratified the treaty. However, the relationship has frayed over the years. In 2011, President Barack Obama’s administration stopped contributing payments after the organization admitted the Palestinian territories. In 2017, President Donald Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from UNESCO. Two years later, the country severed ties, but not fully: As an original signer, the United States maintains its state party status. This means that it can still nominate new sites and that U.S. landmarks can keep their World Heritage status.
The current administration has taken small steps toward restoring the relationship. According to a State Department spokesman, the agency is working with Congress to rejoin UNESCO and once again play a prominent role in safeguarding the world’s irreplaceable treasures.
On this golden anniversary, the best gift you can give is to go. Here are 24 UNESCO sites surprisingly close to home.
‘These are our ancestors’: Descendants of enslaved people are shifting plantation tourism
Est. 1978 | Wyoming, Montana and Idaho
Why it’s UNESCO-worthy: Yellowstone corners the market on geothermal features, with more than 10,000 examples, plus the world’s largest concentration of geysers (more than 500). The park also excels in the fossilized plants department, with nearly 150 species, and accommodates robust populations of burly animals, including bison and bears.
How to reach it: The park has five entrance stations. The thru-park road from the North Entrance at Gardiner, Mont., to Cooke City, Mont., is open year-round.
Best time to visit: Spring, when visitation numbers are low, the bears are stirring awake and the wildflowers are starting to bloom. Babies also abound in April, May and June, when several species — including bison, elk, moose and pronghorn — calve.
Insider tip: Take a cool dip in the canyon-walled swimming area at Firehole River in Wyoming. (Note: The park’s other swimming hole at Boiling River is closed for the foreseeable future because of damage caused by the June floods.)
In maps, photos and videos, see the full force of Yellowstone’s floods
Est. 1982 | Illinois
Why it’s UNESCO-worthy: Considered America’s first city, the largest prehistoric Native American settlement north of Mexico once covered 3,500 acres and numbered 10,000 to 20,000 residents. Today, 80 out of 120 earthen mounds dating from A.D. 1050 to 1200 still exist, including the 100-foot-tall Monks Mound, the largest earthwork in North America and the only mound visitors can climb.
How to reach it: The site is in Collinsville, Ill., eight miles east of downtown St. Louis.
Best time to visit: Though the Interpretive Center is closed for renovations through next year, the grounds are open from dawn to dusk, so go whenever the mood for mounds strikes.
Insider tip: Download the Back to the City of the Sun app for a 90-minute augmented reality tour that time-travels back to the Mississippian civilization.
Est. 1995 | New Mexico
Why it’s UNESCO-worthy: More than 119 limestone caves beneath the Chihuahuan Desert, including Carlsbad Cavern and Lechuguilla Cave, dazzle and delight with speleothems (for example, stalagmites and stalactites), sculptural reef and rock formations, gypsum chandeliers and geologic features partly shaped by bacteria. The park also contains a section of the Capitan Reef from the Permian Age (299 to 251 million years ago), one of the world’s best-preserved and most accessible fossilized reefs. From April through mid-October, hundreds of thousands of Brazilian free-tailed bats hang out in Carlsbad Cavern.
How to reach it: El Paso, is about 2 1/2 hours away by car.
Best time to visit: September, when the bats are still hanging around but the crowds aren’t.
Insider tip: Between mid-April and late May, stake out a spot at the Bat Flight Amphitheater and watch the winged creatures stream out of the cave in search of dinner. On the third Saturday in July, join other crack-of-dawn risers to witness their flight in reverse, as they return home for a nap. From Memorial Day weekend through October, park rangers lead nightly bat programs at the outdoor venue.
A visitor’s guide to the country’s 63 spectacular national parks
Why it’s UNESCO-worthy: The potpourri of archaeological destinations here — Chaco Culture National Historical Park, Aztec Ruins National Monument and five Chaco Culture Archaeological Protection Sites — illustrates the architectural and engineering smarts of the Chacoan people, who inhabited the region from the middle 9th to the early 13th century. Many of the structures and artworks have endured, including ceremonial buildings, great houses, kivas and petroglyphs.
How to reach it: The closest major city to Chaco Culture National Historical Park is Farmington, N.M., about 90 minutes away by car. (Albuquerque lies 180 miles to the southeast.) Aztec Ruins is in Aztec, N.M., 20 minutes from Farmington.
Best time to visit: Spring or fall, when the weather is halfway between scorching and freezing.
Insider tip: The Chaco Culture park, which was certified as an International Dark Sky Park in 2013, holds telescope-peering events during the equinoxes and solstices. At Aztec Ruins, pick up centuries-old gardening tips at the Heritage Garden, which grows corn, bean and squash varieties similar to the veggies planted by the ancestral Pueblo people.
Best time to visit: Spring, fall and winter — when the weather is bearable and the birds are out and about.
Est. 1979 | Arizona
Why it’s UNESCO-worthy: At 18 miles wide and a mile deep, the Grand Canyon is a history book writ in rock. Its geologic layers tell a tale that goes back more than 1.8 billion years, including the period 6 million years ago when the Colorado River first raised its carving knives. The landscape is a study in maximalism, with a frozen lava flow, waterfalls and a white-water river rushing through its veins.
How to reach it: The South Rim, which is open year-round, is about 80 miles from Flagstaff, Ariz., and 212 miles from the North Rim. Buses run between Flagstaff or Las Vegas and Grand Canyon Village on the South Rim, and between the rims, depending on the season. The Grand Canyon Railway offers daily train service between Williams, Ariz., and the park.
Best time to visit: Spring or fall, when the wildlife is abundant, the crowds are thin and the facilities on both rims are open. (Specifically, May 15-Oct. 15 for the North Rim and year-round for the South Rim.)
Insider tip: Native American artists, such as Zuni stone carvers and a Hopi silversmith, demonstrate their crafts and share their traditions at the Desert View Watchtower or South Rim Visitor Center, depending on the season.
Est. 1987 | Hawaii
Why it’s UNESCO-worthy: The park, which climbs from sea level to 13,677 feet, contains two of the world’s most active volcanoes, Mauna Loa and Kilauea. The latter volcano has been continuously erupting since 1983 and is spurting from its 4,000-foot-high summit and the flanks of its East Rift Zone. The hot effusions are continually retouching the tropical landscape, a haven for native birds and endemic species such as a meat-eating caterpillar, a lava-loving cricket and the world’s rarest goose.
How to reach it: The park is about a 45-minute drive from Hilo, on the island of Hawaii.
Best time to visit: Whenever Kīlauea’s lava is flowing or glowing.
Insider tip: The park never closes, so you can spend every delirious moment watching the summit eruption. If you notice ash on your hiking boots, you’ve been kissed by Kilauea.
How to reach it: The Wrangell-St. Elias Visitor Center is near Copper Center, about 200 miles east of Anchorage. Only two roads, Nabesna and the McCarthy, access the park. To explore the Yakutat coastline and more remote sections of the park, hitch a ride on a bush plane or ferry. Glacier Bay sits west of Juneau — plane or boat required.
Est. 1983 | Puerto Rico
Why it’s UNESCO-worthy: Spanish engineers constructed the four forts and 20-foot-thick defensive wall to protect the city and San Juan Bay from invaders. Castillo San Felipe del Morro (El Morro), Castillo San Cristobal, Fort San Juan de la Cruz and La Fortaleza exemplify European military architecture, with a Caribbean twist. In addition, La Fortaleza (1533) was the first defensive structure erected in Old San Juan and is the oldest governor’s mansion still in use in the Western Hemisphere.
How to reach it: Three of the forts are in Old San Juan and are reachable by foot or free tram. Fort San Juan de la Cruz sits in Isla de Cabras Recreational Park, in the nearby town of Toa Baja.
Best time to visit: May through October, the calm before the storming of the cruise ships.
Insider tip: Wedged between the fort’s brawny walls and San Juan Bay, the 1 1/2-mile Paseo del Morro boardwalk transports visitors from the San Juan Gate to El Morro.
Est. 1978 | Colorado
Why it’s UNESCO-worthy: The ancestral Pueblo people left their mark on the Mesa Verde plateau with more than 5,000 archaeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings dating from A.D. 450 to 1300. The park is also a canvas for petroglyphs, which are visible along the Petroglyph Point Trail.
How to reach it: The park entrance is about 15 minutes by car from Cortez, Colo., and 45 minutes from Durango, Colo.
Best time to visit: May through mid-October, when five cliff dwellings welcome guests inside their rock penthouses. Tour months vary by site, so plan strategically.
Insider tip: If you are more of a hermit than a pack animal, hike up to Step House, the rare dwelling that does not require a guide.
Est. 1981 | Washington state
Why it’s UNESCO-worthy: The park spreads its wings from ocean coast to temperate rainforest, Alpine meadows to glaciated mountain peaks. It boasts one of the world’s largest stands of virgin temperate rainforest, some of the biggest coniferous tree species on the planet and nearly 75 miles of Pacific coastline — for the beachgoer who can go and go and go.
How to reach it: Olympia, Wash., is 60 to 190 miles to the east, depending on the entrance.
Best time to visit: April and May, when the gray whales are cruising by on their way to Alaska.
Insider tip: Ski, snowboard or tube down the Hurricane Ridge Ski and Snowboard Area, the most western ski resort in the Lower 48 and one of only three chair-lift operations inside a national park. (Badger Pass Ski Area is in Yosemite, also a UNESCO site.)
Papahanaumokuakea
Why it’s UNESCO-worthy: The Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument makes some noise for its natural and cultural attractions, which are spread out — and under — 582,578 square miles in the Pacific Ocean. The largest fully-protected conservation area in the world throws a protective blanket over an underwater volcanic range (part of the Hawaii-Emperor seamount chain), 3.5 million acres of coral reefs, habitats for flora and fauna unique to the Hawaiian islands, and rookeries that provide a landing and breeding pad for 14 million seabirds. On land, the islands of Nihoa and Mokumanamana archive Polynesian and Hawaiian artifacts and traditions, such as heiau shrines and stone carvings.
How to reach it: You can’t without a permit for conservation, management, education, research and cultural pursuits.
Best time to visit: 24/7, if you are a spotted knifejaw or spinner dolphin.
Insider tip: You can sample Papahanaumokuakea elsewhere in the Hawaiian islands. At the Mokupapapa Discovery Center on the Big Island, fish from the national monument call the 3,500-gallon aquarium home. The Waikiki Aquarium’s Northwestern Hawaiian Islands exhibition has an interactive kiosk dedicated to the protected area, and the Maui Ocean Center has a Papahanaumokuakea exhibit with a topographic map, photos of the inhabitants and an explanation of its name. On Nov. 19, the Bishop Museum in Honolulu will unveil the exhibit, “LALO: Science and Conservation in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands,” which delves into the natural and cultural significance of Papahanaumokuakea. Kaena Point, on Oahu’s North Shore, bears a close resemblance to the site’s coastal shorelines, including lounging monk seals and nesting albatross.
Est. 1980 | California
Why it’s UNESCO-worthy: The 131,983-acre sanctuary for coast redwoods protects nearly half of the tallest trees in the world. The Pacific coastline and coastal mountains round out the surf-and-turf landscape, which attracts Roosevelt elk, sea lions, gray whales and salmon when the fish are running.
How to reach it: Thomas H. Kuchel Visitor Center, on the southern boundary, is 312 miles from San Francisco and 40 miles from Eureka, Calif. On the opposite end, the Crescent City Information Center is 112 miles south of Medford, Ore.
Best time to visit: Unless you are waterproof, avoid November through April 15, the rainy season.
Insider tip: If the water level is high enough, the Hiouchi Visitor Center offers free ranger-led inflatable kayak tours on the Smith River in the spring and summer.
Est. 2015 | Texas
Why it’s UNESCO-worthy: In the early 1700s, Franciscan priests built Mission San Antonio de Valero (the Alamo), their first, to help Spain and the Catholic Church colonize, convert and defend New Spain. Over the next 13 years, four more missions (Concepcion, San Juan, San Jose and Espada) sprouted up along a 10-mile stretch of the San Antonio River. The missions stir up the melting pot of influences from the colonial settlers, nomadic Coahuiltecans and other indigenous hunter-and-gatherer groups who were integral to the early Texas settlement. The site also encompasses two acequia systems (irrigation ditches), laborers (farm fields) and Rancho de las Cabras, the estate in Floresville that supplied goats to Mission Espada.
How to reach it: The Alamo squats in the center of San Antonio; the other four missions are spaced about 2 1/2 miles apart along Mission Road. Visitors can also access the sites by bike or foot on the Mission Hike and Bike Trail, or partially by kayak on the San Antonio River.
Best time to visit: In the Texas spring (January to March), noted for its pleasant temperatures and shag carpets of bluebonnets.
Insider tip: Praise the music at mariachi Mass, celebrated Sundays at San Jose.
Why it’s UNESCO-worthy: The Native American settlement at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains demonstrates the vibrant culture and traditions of the Pueblo people, starting from its establishment 1,000 years ago to today. The adobe-walled village is the largest pueblo still in existence (full-time population: about 150) and contains seven kivas; a footrace track; ruins of the San Geronim Chapel, which was built in 1619; and its replacement, which dates to 1850. The Blue Lake is one of the community’s most sacred sites, owing to its natural resources and spiritual significance.
How to reach it: Taos Pueblo is about 70 miles north of Santa Fe and less than three miles from downtown Taos.
Best time to visit: On Feast Days, when tribal members honor Catholic patron saints and Pueblo tradition. The pueblo closes for special religious events and for 10 weeks from late winter to early spring.
Insider tip: Shop local. Purchase bread baked in a pueblo oven called a “horno” as well as handmade crafts, including silver jewelry, mica-flecked pottery, and moccasins and drums made of animal hides.
Est. 1995 | Montana and Alberta, Canada
Why it’s UNESCO-worthy: The marriage of Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta and Glacier National Park in Montana created the world’s first international peace park and a very biodiverse baby. The monumental terrain sweeps across prairie grasslands and forests, over steep canyons and up towering mountains. Unlike human visitors, the binational elk don’t need a passport to cross the border.
How to reach it: Kalispell, Mont., is 33 miles from West Glacier, at the West Entrance, and Missoula is 125 miles to the south. Browning is adjacent to the three entrances east of the Continental Divide: St. Mary, Two Medicine and Many Glacier. Amtrak serves East and West Glacier, depending on the season. Several shuttle companies transport visitors from nearby towns to the park.
Best time to visit: July and August, when all of the park’s lodging and food establishments are open as well as the roads, including the Alpine section of Going-to-the-Sun Road.
Insider tip: If you’re as hungry as a grizzly bear, pick some wild huckleberries. Glacier National Park allows a quart per person per day.
Why it’s UNESCO-worthy: The park is best-known for its double Gs: glaciated granite. The eons-old erosion resulted in a wonderland of waterfalls, including five of the world’s tallest; polished domes; toothy peaks; and precipitous cliffs. Giant sequoia groves and Alpine meadows soften all the hard stuff.
How to reach it: San Francisco is four to five hours away by car. Even closer: Mariposa, Calif., which is less than 45 miles from the Yosemite Valley Visitor Center. Amtrak offers rail-and-bus service to Yosemite Valley.
Best time to visit: April and May, when the snow melts and the waterfalls roar to life.
Insider tip: View Yosemite through the lens of Ansel Adams with a Yosemite Valley photography class led by the Ansel Adams Gallery, which holds the course three times a week.
Est. 2019 |New York City, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Wisconsin, Arizona and California
Editing by Nicole Arthur and Amanda Finnegan;Graphics by Tim Meko; Design by Katty Huertas and Eddie Alvarez; Design editing by Christine Ashack; Photo editing by Lauren Bulbin and Mark Gail; Copy editing by Wayne Lockwood and Emily Morman. | 2022-11-16T18:50:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 24 UNESCO World Heritage sites to visit in the U.S. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/11/16/unesco-world-heritage-sites-united-states-anniversary/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/11/16/unesco-world-heritage-sites-united-states-anniversary/ |
TSM suspends $210 million naming rights deal after FTX woes, rocky year
The relationship between TSM and FTX hit multiple speed bumps before the exchange collapsed
(Washington Post illustration; TSM; iStock)
The esports organization TSM, which signed a ten-year, $210 million naming rights deal with the cryptocurrency marketplace FTX in 2021, announced it would be suspending the partnership with the now-bankrupt exchange Wednesday.
“FTX branding will no longer appear on any of our org, team and player social media profiles, and will also be removed from our player jerseys,” wrote TSM spokesperson Gillian Sheldon in a statement. “This process may take some time to complete as some social platforms have made changes to their product features.”
However, the relationship between the two organizations under the megadeal hit several speed bumps before its dissolution, according to multiple current and former TSM employees.
On June 4, 2021, the naming rights deal between TSM and FTX debuted with a fancy video describing how the relationship started (TSM’s CEO, Andy Dinh, and FTX’s chief executive, Sam Bankman-Fried, have a shared passion for “League of Legends”) and an article in the New York Times. But the exchange unraveled rapidly this month following a liquidity crisis stemming from FTX’s alleged misuse of customer deposits.
On Nov. 11, Bankman-Fried resigned and the company filed for bankruptcy. FTX is now under investigation by the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
FTX did not respond to The Washington Post’s request for comment.
FAQ: Why the FTX collapse has plunged the crypto world into upheaval
There’s no evidence that FTX’s collapse or the dissolution of the naming rights deal between the two companies will have an immediate material impact on TSM’s books. Still, many prominent organizations in the esports industry have faced layoffs in 2022; TSM alone has seen three rounds of layoffs this year. The end of a record-setting deal in an industry awash in crypto money may have consequences down the line for the entire esports economy.
The terms of the naming rights deal involved several cryptocurrency-related expenditures on the part of TSM. In June of 2021, for example, the esports organization announced it would be buying $1 million worth of FTT, a crypto token belonging to FTX. At the time of the announcement, the price of the token hovered just under $35; today, it is priced at under $2.
“TSM has not held FTT since Q2 2022,” Sheldon, the TSM spokesperson, told The Post. “We do not hold any cryptocurrency on our balance sheet currently.”
As part of the naming rights deal, TSM also told employees they could buy a certain amount of the cryptocurrency Solana on FTX’s U.S. exchange and be reimbursed for it. Employees who spoke to The Post said TSM allotted how much an employee could spend and be reimbursed for based on seniority; current and former employees described seeing reimbursements ranging from $500 to $1,000. FTX and Bankman-Fried have long been proponents of Solana; the cryptocurrency community sometimes refers to SOL, the Solana token, as a “Sam coin,” referring to the FTX executive.
TSM declined to answer The Post’s questions about Solana, writing instead that the company did not distribute FTT to employees.
Report: At TSM and Blitz, staff describes toxic workplace and volatile CEO
Problems with the naming rights deal arose immediately: On the day of the deal’s announcement, Riot Games, the publisher behind the most prominent esport in which TSM participates — the one in which it started: “League of Legends” — said it would not allow the organization to display FTX’s name in-game. TSM continued to compete in “League” without the FTX brand in-game, but made moves to enter esports in which the developer and tournament organizers would allow them to use the name.
To that end, TSM picked up a “Defense of the Ancients” (Dota) team, Undying, in a bid to please FTX, according to multiple current and former employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss their work at TSM with press.
“Prior to FTX, Andy and TSM leadership had no interest in ‘Dota,’ ” said one former employee. “[But] the FTX people love ‘Dota’ so much, and that’s why TSM got a ‘Dota’ team.”
“This is completely untrue,” wrote Sheldon in response to The Post’s questions. “TSM did not pick up a ‘Dota’ team for the benefit of the FTX partnership.”
The former employee noted that it was not uncommon for TSM to invest in games and esports that are important to large sponsors.
“It was pretty clear [FTX] were unhappy and they started clamping down, trying to make sure they were getting the value that they were looking for out of this insane investment,” said one former TSM employee. “And so TSM started having to figure out like, ‘Okay, what can we do more?’ ”
TSM disputed this characterization. “Stakeholders at FTX stated on multiple occasions that TSM was delivering everything it promised,” wrote Sheldon, the TSM spokesperson.
One industry expert noted that TSM’s entry into “Dota” was likely not a risky or particularly costly proposition for the organization.
“The Undying team was unsponsored, so there were no up front buyout costs,” wrote a former esports executive at a competing organization with knowledge of the market for “Dota” players in an email to The Post. The executive spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing a nondisclosure agreement. Also, “ ‘Dota’ salaries for a team in their bracket would be no more than $7-12k per month per person with the ability to get out of those contracts on two weeks notice most likely.”
Bankman-Fried, the former FTX chief executive, is a fan of multiplayer online battle arena games, or mobas, a genre that includes “League of Legends” and “Dota.” In a glowing profile of the crypto founder on the website of the venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, Ramnik Arora, FTX’s head of product, describes sitting through an important Zoom call between Bankman-Fried and investors at Sequoia. After a successful pitch by Bankman-Fried, Arora walked over to the executive’s desk to find that he had been playing “League” throughout the meeting.
“I sit ten feet from him, and I walked over, thinking, Oh, s---, that was really good,” said Arora, according to the profile. “And it turns out that that f----- was playing ‘League of Legends’ through the entire meeting.”
The profile now redirects to a mostly blank page on Sequoia’s website with a bolded notice, written in large font. It reads, in part: “A liquidity crunch has created solvency risk for FTX and its future is uncertain. Many have been affected by this unexpected turn of events.”
In spring of this year, FTX brought in the marketing agency Wasserman, with which the exchange had announced a partnership in February, to audit TSM’s adherence to the naming rights deal, which formally changed TSM’s name to TSM FTX.
“[FTX] had this agency go through and super painstakingly look at every single instance of TSM that didn’t say TSM FTX, including people’s email signatures,” said the former employee. “[Wasserman] did a really thorough sweep of all TSM players, accounts, everything to find any place that wasn’t listed as TSM FTX.”
In a statement, TSM said it welcomed Wasserman’s assistance managing the partnership between the two companies.
“In our conversations, Wasserman consistently agreed that TSM was delivering everything that it promised,” wrote Sheldon, the TSM spokesperson.
Wasserman representatives also joined a high level brainstorming meeting about new content deliverables TSM could create for FTX. Few of the ideas discussed in that meeting were taken up, according to one employee. Wasserman did not reply to The Post’s request for comment.
On Nov. 11, the Miami Heat said it was taking action to end its business relationships with FTX, and would rename its home venue, which was branded FTX Arena in 2021. The next day, the Brazilian esports organization Furia discontinued a $3.2 million sponsorship deal with FTX, citing fears that the organization’s endorsement of the exchange might bring harm to Furia’s fans.
Riot Games fines TSM, places CEO Andy Dinh on 2-year probation for bullying
FTX’s collapse is the latest blow for a company that has taken several hits over the past year. Earlier this year, more than a dozen current and former employees at TSM and its sister software firm, Blitz, told The Post that Dinh fostered a “culture of fear” at both companies. On July 13, Riot Games, the developer and publisher of “League” and “Valorant,” games in which TSM has a presence, fined Dinh $75,000 and placed him on a two-year probation following an investigation that concluded that “there was a pattern and practice of disparaging and bullying behavior exhibited by Andy Dinh toward TSM players and staff members.”
Former workers also told The Post that TSM and Blitz had misclassified them as contractors rather than employees, a practice that is illegal in California, where TSM is based. The state’s employment laws are among the strictest in the United States, according to legal experts. | 2022-11-16T18:50:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | TSM ends $210 million FTX naming rights deal after rocky year - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/esports/2022/11/16/tsm-ftx-naming-deal-suspended/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/esports/2022/11/16/tsm-ftx-naming-deal-suspended/ |
“A rough rule of thumb is, if you’re using ear buds, take them out and hold them away at arm’s length,” Sam Couth, an ear-health researcher at the University of Manchester, told The Washington Post. “And if you can still hear the music clearly at arm’s length, it’s too loud.”
You may have hearing loss and not know it. Here’s what it sounds like
It also backs up research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which in a 2011-2012 study found hearing loss from exposure to loud noise was widespread in the United States, affecting between 10 million and 40 million adults under 70, and described it as a “significant, often unrecognized health problem.”
To lower your risk, at a loud concert or music venue, experts advise standing farther from the source of the noise, taking regular breaks, and — as a last line of defense — using high-fidelity earplugs designed for professional musicians. These devices have a flat, attenuated filter allowing all frequencies along the sound spectrum to reach the inner ear, unlike common earplugs, which can have a muffling effect on noise by reducing higher-frequency sounds but not lower-frequency ones. | 2022-11-16T18:50:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Loud music may put 1 billion young people at risk of hearing loss, study says - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/11/16/loud-music-ear-damage-hearing-loss-deaf/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/11/16/loud-music-ear-damage-hearing-loss-deaf/ |
How the cable networks covered Trump
Former president Donald Trump, seen on the viewfinder of a video camera, announces his run for president on Tuesday. (Thomas Simonetti for The Washington Post)
Tuesday night posed an unusual test for American media: How to cover the long-expected (and therefore less newsworthy) announcement of a presidential bid by a former president renowned for his dishonesty? Oh, and who, instead of accepting the defeat that led to his removal from office, fought it to the point of stoking a violent uprising against Congress?
For the print and online press, the question was easier to answer. The nature of the medium was such that the claims made by Donald Trump in his hour-plus-long speech could be challenged and contextualized — as could the unique nature of Trump’s candidacy.
But for television and radio, the calculus was slightly different. Do you air this unquestionably important moment as you might an announcement from any other candidate leading in the polls during any other year? Or do you instead treat it as the exception that it unquestionably is?
The Internet Archive captures feeds from major cable networks 24 hours a day, including the three most watched news channels on American cable. Kalev Leetaru of the GDELT Project took those feeds and extracted stills from each channel’s coverage, one per minute. The result is a visual depiction of how the networks — CNN, Fox News and MSNBC — chose to present Trump’s announcement speech.
Trump was scheduled to begin speaking at 9 p.m. but started a few minutes late. Fox News was already carrying the feed live as Trump entered the ballroom at Mar-a-Lago where the announcement was made. This came during Sean Hannity’s show; given that Hannity is a longtime friend and supporter of Trump, that he ran with the speech is not a surprise.
You can see each of the first 15 minutes of the 9 p.m. hour on each channel below. Minutes shaded as purple are ones in which the channel was discussing Trump or his announcement. Sometimes that was with an inset of the room at Mar-a-Lago.
In the early part of the hour, both CNN and Fox News aired the speech live. MSNBC didn’t.
After the first 15 minutes, MSNBC cut to commercial. A few minutes later, CNN broke out of the live feed and began a panel discussion, airing Trump still speaking on the side of the screen.
Fox News pressed on with the full speech.
By the second half of the hour, MSNBC had switched to an interview with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D). CNN continued with its panel for a few minutes, before shifting over to reporter Daniel Dale, who has spent years fact-checking Trump’s claims. Surprise: He found that Trump had said many things that weren’t true.
Finally, after nearly 40 minutes, Fox News also cut away from the speech to get reactions — heavily from Trump allies.
One interesting aspect of the timing of Fox News’s breaking away from the speech is that Trump had already gone over the expected duration of his comments. As is the norm for one of his speeches, his recitation of the speech offered on the teleprompter was interrupted repeatedly with asides and tangents somewhat at odds with the structure of the scripted speech. Those asides made up more of the content of the speech as the speech ground on.
By cutting away, then, Fox’s commentators were able to describe Trump’s comments as tailored and constrained in a way that airing more of the speech live would severely undercut. Hannity did go back to the speech for the tail end of his hour.
Both CNN and MSNBC, meanwhile, interspersed ads with coverage of Trump’s announcement and other breaking news.
Finally, a few minutes after 10 p.m., Trump was done. Fox News host Laura Ingraham — not as close with Trump as Hannity — showed a brief segment of the speech before bringing in her own panel. CNN continued with analysis, largely centered on Trump’s speech. MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell covered the speech, too — through the lens of criminal probes targeting the former president.
What viewers learned about the announcement, then, depended on what network they watched. On Fox News, they mostly got to hear directly from Trump himself, save some extended interludes in which Trump’s commentary was broadly praised. On CNN, there was a bit of Trump making his own case before third-party observers weighed in on the speech and its contents. Over at MSNBC, there was very little Trump at all.
Editorial decisions reflecting each network’s approach to the news. | 2022-11-16T18:53:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How the cable networks covered Donald Trump - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/trump-speech-television/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/trump-speech-television/ |
It’s not just 2022. Trump has underperformed in every election.
Former president Donald Trump waves after announcing he is running for president for the third time at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Tuesday. (Andrew Harnik/AP)
In his presidential announcement speech Tuesday, Donald Trump made a pitch to GOP voters who might be understandably skeptical of his ability to lead the party to victory in 2024. It basically amounted to: People didn’t understand how bad things really are, but they will by 2024, and thus I’ll have a good shot.
But even by Trump’s own accounting, voters have now apparently misunderstood the state of affairs in two straight elections: That same speech pitched in a rather Pollyannaish way the tail end of Trump’s presidency as the early days of some kind of new golden age, yet voters dispatched him in the 2020 election, too.
And that gets at a point that should not be missed in all of this: While there’s plenty of focus on how Trump’s candidates cost the GOP in the 2022 election, it’s hardly the only election in which Trump has proven to be a liability. That’s been true of 2020, 2018 and arguably 2016 — the year in which he nonetheless won the presidency.
The data on 2022 is well-known by now. But the morning of Trump’s announcement, American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Philip Wallach, writing in The Washington Post, perhaps summarized it best. While Trump-endorsed candidates performed similarly to other Republicans in safe districts, that was decidedly not the case in competitive ones. In the roughly a quarter of House districts in which the margin of victory was 15 points or less, Trump-backed candidates underperformed the baseline for their party by an average of five points, while GOP candidates who weren’t backed by Trump overperformed the baseline by 2.2 points.
Here’s how that looks. Everything below that dotted red line is an underperformance:
Throw that on top of the slate of flawed candidates who Trump ushered through the primaries, thus costing Republicans very winnable governor races and the Senate majority — and the picture of the GOP’s Trump problem is clear.
But the 2022 election merely fills out a picture that already had been emerging. Let’s take each election in the Trump era, one by one:
In 2020, 10 Senate races were decided by single digits. And in 8 of those 10 races, Trump’s margins were worse than the GOP Senate candidate running on the same ballot. His average underperformance in those races: more than three points.
Trump also unperformed GOP House candidates. While Republicans lost the House popular vote by 3.1 points, Trump lost his own popular vote to now-President Biden by nearly 4.5 points.
InsideElections’ Nathan Gonzales spotlighted a different measure that drives this home: Vote Above Replacement. It works similarly to baseball’s Wins Above Replacement (WAR), and it’s basically a measure of how Trump performed compared to the average statewide Republican in the last four elections. Trump had a negative Vote Above Replacement in 8 of 12 battleground states, while Biden had a positive one in 10 of 12 states.
The story was actually similar in 2016. Trump won the election, but he did so while losing the popular vote and in large part because he was running against another historically unpopular opponent. And if you drill down, you can see the underperformance.
In that election, Trump had a negative Vote Above Replacement in 7 of the 10 closest states. Perhaps more strikingly, he also underperformed the GOP Senate nominee in 7 of 10 states that were decided by single digits at the presidential level and also featured a Senate contest. (In an eighth, he almost exactly matched the Senate candidate’s margin.) His average underperformance in those states: More than four points.
And again, the House popular vote was more favorable to the GOP than Trump’s. Republicans actually won the House popular vote by more than a point, but Trump lost it by more than two points.
It’s a little more difficult to tell the story of the 2018 election. Trump wasn’t on the ballot, and, unlike in 2022, there wasn’t such a robust effort to impose his will on the party’s slate in the primaries. So we can’t really compare Trump candidates to non-Trump GOP candidates like we do today.
But it was a bad election for the GOP, even relative to how the president’s party usually struggles in midterms. The GOP lost the House popular vote by 8.6 points — the largest margin in a midterm since 1986. It was also the biggest margin of defeat ever for a party that had been in the House majority on Election Day, as the Brookings Institution’s William A. Galston noted.
Republicans actually gained a net of two Senate seats, but that was largely due to a historical fluke in which the map was hugely favorable to them. Democrats had to defend 10 Senate seats in states Trump had carried two years prior, including five Trump had won by double digits. Republicans picked up three seats in those clearly red states, plus one in Florida — which is also now a red state.
The total picture
Statistics can be deceiving. The House popular vote, for instance, can be skewed a bit by which party fields a candidate in more uncontested races. And Trump not only won in 2016, but in 2020 was closer than a lot of people understand to pulling off another upset courtesy of the electoral college.
But the totality of the data points in a very clear direction: That Trump costs the GOP voters that might otherwise go for his party. In a closely divided electorate, a candidate like him can still win elections when the environment and dynamics (such as having an unusually unpopular opponent) are favorable enough. To compensate for his electoral shortcomings, Trump has now set about arguing that 2024 will have that kind of environment and dynamics.
Yet it’s no coincidence that Trump was the first president since the Great Depression to lose the House, the Senate and the presidency in a single term. And it’s no coincidence that candidates Trump pushed through primaries appear to have made the difference in the battle for the Senate majority in 2022. They ran well behind the top of the ticket in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and New Hampshire, with the GOP winning the governor’s race in three of those states. Winning just two of those four races would’ve been good enough to deliver the GOP a Senate majority. At best the GOP will win one, in the Georgia runoff, but even that appears an uphill climb.
Trump not only set his party up for failure, but also himself. And it’s hardly the first time. | 2022-11-16T18:53:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | It’s not just 2022. Trump has underperformed in every election. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/trump-underperform-elections-2024/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/trump-underperform-elections-2024/ |
By Dan Goldhaber
Thomas J. Kane
Emily Morton
Dan Goldhaber is the director of the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research. Thomas J. Kane is the director of the Center for Education Policy Research. Andrew McEachin is the director of NWEA’s Collaborative for Student Growth. Emily Morton is a research scientist at NWEA.
American students have experienced a historic decline in academic achievement. The only possible response — the only rational response — is a historic collective investment in children and young adults.
The results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress reveal plummeting test scores nationwide, setting students back to where they were two decades ago. At the same time, we witnessed a sharp increase in educational inequity, with much larger losses in high poverty districts. Yet there’s a troubling disconnect between the scale of catch-up efforts in the last school year and the magnitude of the declines.
These losses won’t be fixed by few hours of tutoring or a helpful computer program. Schools and families need to take a hard look at where every student stands. And their communities need to step up to help in any way they can.
When President John F. Kennedy issued his moon challenge, NASA’s rocket designers calculated the thrust they would need to send a spacecraft to the moon and soon realized that they would need something far larger than anything they’d built before. The result was the Saturn V rocket.
To a certain extent, it’s hard to blame them for not aiming higher in the last school year. Continued covid-19 surges and significant challenges with staffing, scheduling and competing priorities in schools made it hard enough to implement the plans that do exist. But, even if the interventions had gone as planned, they wouldn’t have been enough to catch students up in many districts.
States need to help everyone see the loss in terms of what it’s going to take to get students back on track. Telling educators that proficiency rates have declined isn’t enough. Explaining that students lost several months or a year of math instruction provides a more solid basis for planning an ambitious recovery agenda.
Research suggests that districts might be able to get a year’s worth of additional growth by providing students with three hours of tutoring, with three or fewer students per teacher — each week. A summer school session provides an academic quarter’s-worth of learning. An additional period of algebra instruction can teach students the material they would learn in one semester.
Schools and education leaders should also be frank about what this effort requires from families. Expanding learning opportunities, such as after-school programs or Saturday academies, will require students and families to sacrifice time they might ordinarily spend on extracurriculars, family responsibilities, or even vacations. Year-round school will require broader adjustments to family routines — though it might be a benefit for parents scrambling for summer child care.
A June survey found that more than 90 percent of parents believed their children to be at or above grade level. In another survey, nearly 50 percent of parents of teens were worried that their own child had fallen behind because of the pandemic. These figures simply do not line up with what we know about where students are academically today. Being transparent about students’ academic standing with families might be painful, but it’s vital.
Districts cannot do this alone, nor should they. Our children deserve more than getting back to where they were two years ago. They deserve a Saturn V to shoot for the moon — and beyond. | 2022-11-16T18:57:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | To fix post-pandemic learning loss, we need an education moonshot - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/16/pandemic-learning-loss-education-moonshot/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/16/pandemic-learning-loss-education-moonshot/ |
‘How long must we sing this song?’
The campus of the University of Virginia on Nov. 14 after three students were killed and two others injured in a shooting. (Justin Ide for The Washington Post)
In 1983, U2 opened its chart-topping album “War” with the lyrics: “I can’t believe the news today. Oh, I can’t close my eyes and make it go away. How long, how long must we sing this song?” Of course, in the 1980s, U2 sang about the violence tearing apart Northern Ireland. In the 2020s, a generation of young people in the United States is asking the same question: “How long? How long must we sing this song?”
On Monday, I woke up to news that my beloved Charlottesville suffered another tragedy — this time, from gun violence [“Three students killed at U-Va.; suspect in custody,” front page, Nov. 15]. “I can’t believe the news today.” But this country can open its eyes and “make it go away.” Once again, my generation needs to ask the stubborn leadership of this country: “How long? How long must we sing this song?”
There is an answer to gun violence. Amend the Constitution and take the guns away.
Gates Young, Washington | 2022-11-16T19:23:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | ‘How long must we sing this song?’ - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/16/how-long-must-we-sing-this-song/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/16/how-long-must-we-sing-this-song/ |
The political machinations that motivated voters
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Sept. 7 on Capitol Hill. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
Regarding the Nov. 13 front-page article “Democrats keep control of the Senate”:
The phrase “hoisted by his own petard” comes to mind when one looks at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his role in the Republicans not gaining Senate seats, meaning he will not become majority leader again. His machinations in getting three conservative judges appointed to the Supreme Court — including blocking a hearing for President Barack Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland — led to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. Most exit polls indicate that this was a big factor in the Democratic turnout that cost Republicans many of the midterm elections, including control of the Senate.
Michael Kraft, Silver Spring
Maybe the pollsters were correct. Maybe in October, Republicans were on their way to lopsided gains. But two things happened that altered that course.
The first was the revolting comments and suggestions made about Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), after a home-invasion assault.
The second was the equally revolting comments made about Pennsylvania Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman after his debate with Republican nominee Mehmet Oz, especially those made by Donald Trump Jr. Depicting someone recovering from a stroke as “brain dead” exposed a ghastly level of cruelty. Who among us hasn’t had a family member or friend suffer a stroke? Seeing someone you love in that condition is hard to forget.
There’s a possibility that those inhumane and assuredly un-Christian responses jolted voters who were on the fence — and maybe supercharged some previously under-motivated Democrats and independents. The vomit-inducing reactions to the two events might been a breaking point. I can’t prove it, but I can’t disprove it, either.
Michael Davis, Davidson, N.C.
Pundits and pollsters got the midterm outcome wrong. Why? They underestimated the good sense of the American voter.
Republicans were willing to give former president Donald Trump his way, believing that election denial would be a viable strategy to taking over Congress. Now that the voting public has proved them wrong, they’re left with only head-scratching and finger-pointing.
Rather than ruminating over what went wrong, let’s focus on what went right in the midterms. Americans rejected the politics of grievance, retribution and hate. We want elected officials who take their jobs seriously, who will pass legislation that benefits Americans and the country. We’re not interested in politicians who compile “payback” lists and use elections to keep score.
Phoebe Huang, Stonington, Conn.
In his Nov. 10 op-ed, “Both parties should be moved to introspection,” George F. Will called President Biden’s pre-election warnings that our democracy is at risk “rubbish” and suggested that they motivated few voters. Yet those candidates who would subvert our democracy, i.e., the election deniers, were overwhelmingly defeated.
Clearly, the voters shared the president's concerns. Perhaps it is Mr. Will who needs to do some introspection.
Philip G. Burgiel, Derwood | 2022-11-16T19:24:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The political machinations that motivated voters - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/16/political-machinations-that-motivated-voters/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/16/political-machinations-that-motivated-voters/ |
The Silver Line’s overruns could have dampening effects
A passenger walks past the entrance to the new Metro station at Washington Dulles International Airport on Nov. 2. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)
The Nov. 13 Metro article “Defects, rising costs, legal action snarled the imminent Silver Line extension” exposed and detailed the lack of project finance expertise, private-sector discipline and risk transfer inherent in the public/private-partnership model that was totally ignored by the regional public authorities in the Silver Line process.
The article pointed out that many public-sector projects, particularly transit ones, have significant cost overruns that sap the enthusiasm for major infrastructure projects. I am particularly concerned about today’s political rhetoric about infrastructure czars, grants and how many billions of dollars are going out the door. I want to read about successful infrastructure projects.
Over the past 20 years, numerous large infrastructure funds have received millions of dollars in commitments from U.S. pension funds for investment in projects. The Silver Line extension could have been investment-grade, but unfortunately, officials chose the so-called least-cost bid.
As Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan said 30 years ago: “Government cannot do it all.” The 1993 Infrastructure Investment Commission, of which I was chairman, recommended project finance, federal credit enhancement/lending and investment-grade projects to encourage private-sector partnership infrastructure investing. As a result, today we have the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act and the Carbon Dioxide Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act.
Daniel Flanagan, Annapolis | 2022-11-16T19:24:06Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The Silver Line’s overruns could have dampening effects - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/16/silver-lines-overruns-could-have-dampening-effects/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/16/silver-lines-overruns-could-have-dampening-effects/ |
McCarthy’s biggest headaches will come from his right
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) hugs Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) after speaking at a press conference under the Eagle Pass International Bridge. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) (The Washington Post)
Let’s say that the Republican Party takes control of the House and does so with a majority of 222 members. That’s a majority of nine votes (222 vs. 213 Democrats), meaning that, on any given vote, the party would not be able to lose more than four representatives to the other side.
In the week since the midterm elections, it has become clear that, if that’s the situation, there are likely to be a lot of votes on which at least four Republicans threaten to defect. And if the past two years are any guide, it’s also likely that those threats will come from the party’s right, not from its more moderate members.
It’s not new that the GOP would be at the whim of its more conservative members, certainly. For years, the House Freedom Caucus pressured party leaders from the right. That continued into the presidency of Donald Trump, though, in recent years, the pressure has come from an informal cadre of legislators closer to the party’s fringe. We’ll come back to them.
We should note that, even as the Democrats held a narrow majority in the 117th Congress that ends in January, the pressure the party faced also came from its more-moderate right. There was speculation coming into the Congress that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) would need to corral members of the more-liberal edge of her caucus to pass legislation, as she sometimes did. The bigger threats, though, came from the moderates — in part because left-right delineations are often predicated on government action. If you oppose government action, you are more ideologically to the right, so when the Democrats sought to pass legislation, it was those ideologically opposed to taking action that were more likely to dig in their heels.
In the GOP, the opposition is more energetic still — particularly from the party’s far right. Should House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) supplant Pelosi as speaker, it would likely be those members of his caucus that give him the biggest headaches.
As is often the case now. Since the beginning of the 117th Congress, there have been more than 900 recorded votes in the House. Walking through each of them, we determined how often members of the Republican caucus voted the opposite of McCarthy; that is, voted “nay” when he voted “aye” and vice versa. If we plot those results by ideology, we see that both sides of the caucus — the more moderate side at left below and the more conservative side at right — are more likely to vote in opposition to McCarthy. (The dots representing those legislators are higher relative to the baseline.) But it’s on the right that the opposition is more common.
The most moderate fifth of the caucus voted in opposition to McCarthy about 10 percent of the time. That includes Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), who, along with Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), formed a two-person caucus within the party centered on holding Trump to account after the Capitol riot. The middle fifth of the caucus voted in opposition to McCarthy 8 percent of the time on average.
Then there’s the right-most fifth of members, including people like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Matthew M. Rosendale (R-Mont.). They voted in opposition to McCarthy an average of 20 percent of the time — contradicting him on 1 in 5 votes on average.
Rosendale and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) have already made their opposition to McCarthy clear moving forward. First Gaetz (who opposed McCarthy on 28 percent of the leader’s votes) announced that he wouldn’t support McCarthy’s speaker bid; on Wednesday, Rosendale joined him.
Of course, that’s just McCarthy, who approaches voting differently than his caucus overall. But the same pattern holds when considering where there are outliers to the party’s preferred positions in general. If we look only at votes in which at least three-quarters of the GOP caucus was in agreement, we see that the party’s right wing was again more likely to oppose the caucus overall. (We also again see Kinzinger standing out.)
On average, the most moderate fifth of the caucus opposed the party majority 8 percent of the time. Take Kinzinger out and that falls to 7 percent. The right-most fifth, though, voted against the party an average of 13 percent of the time. About 1 in every 8 votes, on average.
In the 117th Congress, there were 26 members of the Republican caucus who voted against McCarthy at least a fifth of the time. Fourteen voted against the party majority that frequently. Not all of them are returning for the 118th Congress, but remember: McCarthy will almost certainly not have a lot of votes to spare.
And when he’s trying to cobble together the votes he needs, there’s one portion of his caucus where it’s likely that struggle will be most common: on his right-most flank. | 2022-11-16T19:58:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | McCarthy’s biggest headaches will come from his right - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/mccarthy-republicans-house/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/mccarthy-republicans-house/ |
California’s climate plan calls for no new gas-burning power plants
Regulators are proposing deep cuts to the use of fossil fuels to meet the state’s ambitious climate change goals
A man walks past the gas-fired Scattergood Generating Station, in El Segundo, Calif., in February 2019. A proposal this week from California regulators would prevent construction of any new natural gas plants in the state. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
California regulators announced plans Wednesday to speed up the state’s clean-energy transition by cutting demand for fossil fuels by the end of the decade, including ending the construction of new gas-burning power plants — moves that would help combat climate change but could put the state at higher risk of power blackouts.
The proposal, which goes before the California Air Resources Board for a vote next month, lays out how the state could reach its goal of carbon neutrality by 2045, one of the most ambitious timelines in the nation. While it does not have the force of a legal ban on new gas power plants, its approval would make clear to other state agencies, including the California Public Utilities Commission, the state’s current policy.
If California follows through on the proposed plan, planet-warming emissions are expected to fall by 85 percent below 1990 levels by 2045. California would also blow past its interim target, which requires that emissions fall by 40 percent by 2030. The new plan anticipates a cut of 48 percent by the end of the decade.
“The climate is changing before our eyes. We need to take action to reduce the worst impacts of a changing climate and there is only one way to do that, break forever our dependence on fossil fuels,” said Liane Randolph, chair of the air board. Yet she cautioned that reaching the state’s targets would be a challenge. The plan “calls for a build-out of renewable energy resources at a rate we have never seen before in this state,” she said.
Though an earlier proposal would have allowed the state to expand its use of gas, regulators said they ultimately struck this part at the urging of climate advocates speaking on behalf of disadvantaged neighborhoods near oil refineries and gas plants.
California’s aspirations of transitioning rapidly to clean energy have been frustrated by the continuing threat of rolling blackouts, especially on hot summer nights when air conditioners are buzzing and the state can’t tap power from solar farms.
In June, California lawmakers approved a contentious plan, backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, that would extend the life of old natural gas power plants and the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant to help shore up the electricity grid. This week’s action by the air resources board would not affect that legislation, but it would prevent construction of any new natural gas plants, even those built with technology to limit emissions.
In addition, clean-air regulators in September announced a ban on new sales of natural gas heaters, water heaters and furnaces by 2030. That prohibition is part of a new, comprehensive blueprint to meet federal ozone standards over the next 15 years, but also will benefit the climate by reducing carbon emissions.
Under the plan put together by air board staff and announced Wednesday, many of the biggest cuts would come from the transportation sector. California has banned the sale of gas-burning cars by 2035, and the board is working on a proposal to end sales of diesel big rigs, delivery vans and other large vehicles within the next two decades.
But the proposal also calls for rapid electrification of buildings: 3 million all-electric homes by 2030 and 7 million by 2035. If the state is to meet its targets, officials estimate it will need 6 million heat pumps by 2030 and 20 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2045.
“The backbone of this transition is going to be having a clean grid,” said Rajinder Sahota, the board’s deputy executive director for climate change and research. Powering millions of cars, trucks and home appliances with electricity will require the state to nearly double its existing electricity generation and quadruple wind and solar power, she said.
Still, California does not expect to quit oil and gas. Older gas-burning cars and trucks will be on the road for years to come, and some of the hardest-to-transition industries, such as cement plants, are not expected to break free of fossil fuels anytime soon. “Existing fossil gas generation will continue to play a critical role in grid reliability” until other alternatives can be deployed, the plan notes.
To address these remaining sources of greenhouse gas, the proposal recommends use of technology to capture and store carbon. Environmental advocates have criticized this part of the state’s plan, saying it relies on unproven technology and would allow polluting industries to continue operating in parts of the state burdened with some of the worst air pollution in the country. | 2022-11-16T20:21:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | California’s climate plan calls for no new gas power plants - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/11/16/california-natural-gas-plants/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/11/16/california-natural-gas-plants/ |
As climate talks wind down, nations feud over how to pay for damages
Negotiators from nearly 200 countries struggled Wednesday to draft a pact that would accelerate global action on climate change
The entrance to the Sharm el-Sheikh International Convention Center grounds, during the COP27 climate summit in Egypt. (Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters/Reuters)
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — Negotiators from nearly 200 countries struggled Wednesday to draft a pact that would accelerate global climate action, as nations remained divided over financing to help developing countries harmed by sea-level rise and other consequences of a warming planet.
Earlier at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Egypt, known as COP27, some delegates feared that some of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters would renege on previous commitments to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels — a threshold past which scientists say devastating impacts become far more likely.
But that point of tension was “defused” by a communique issued Wednesday at a separate summit, the Group of 20 in Bali, Indonesia, said Alden Meyer, senior analyst at the energy think tank E3G. In Bali, leaders of the world’s largest economies reiterated their commitment “to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.”
Now, the most contentious issues for COP27 negotiators come down to money: specifically, compensation for nations hit hardest by flooding and other irreversible climate impacts — known as “loss and damage” funding, as well as whether wealthy, developed nations will finally deliver long-promised financing to help vulnerable countries adapt to climate change and move away from fossil fuels as they grow.
And it remains unclear whether COP negotiators ultimately will adopt language proposed by India over the weekend calling for a phaseout of all fossil fuels.
On financing, European Commission Executive Vice President Frans Timmermans said reluctance from China, the United States and other developed countries stands in the way of a deal. He also criticized developing countries for aggressive demands, saying rich countries want only to provide more targeted financing for the most vulnerable countries.
Also Wednesday evening, the European Union and the African Union announced a new initiative to boost funding for adaptation and resilience across the African continent, which is growing rapidly but historically has contributed little to the emissions that fuel climate change.
In an announcement, officials said the initiative would “bring together existing and new climate change adaptation programs” amounting to more than $1 billion. Of that, more than $60 million would be earmarked for loss and damage funding.
The concept of loss and damage has been controversial throughout the history of U.N. climate summits, but has gained momentum in recent years as the toll of fires, floods and other climate-fueled disasters has mounted, especially in nations ill-equipped to deal with the such catastrophes.
At this year’s summit in Egypt, African nations have pushed for more recognition of the damages that have often hit hardest in the developing world. Timmermans, speaking briefly to reporters Wednesday afternoon, said that one of the biggest obstacles to a deal at COP27 is that developing countries are demanding funding for their block across the board.
Timmermans also singled out China, saying the world’s second-largest economy is still using decades-old international agreements that classify it as a developing country to avoid making contributions that account for its role as the world’s largest emitter.
He said the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada should all pay for loss and damage, but that China’s opposition is a bigger obstacle to a deal. “China is one of the biggest economies on the planet with a lot of economic strength,” he said. “Why should they not be held responsible?”
U.S. officials have been “extremely reluctant” to join its European allies in funding loss and damage, he said. But he added that he had not spoken directly to U.S. climate envoy John F. Kerry and did not know whether the U.S. government would share in Europe’s plan to make such funding a priority.
In contrast to last year’s summit in Glasgow, Scotland, where world governments pushed for more aggressive commitments to reduce planet-warming emissions worldwide, negotiators in Egypt have coalesced around a less ambitious set of expectations.
Some delegates have concluded the best possible outcome for COP27 would be simply to prevent any weakening of last year’s agreements and take only incremental steps toward providing financial help for poorer countries most affected by climate change.
Indian negotiators pushed over the weekend for a phaseout of all fossil fuels — not just coal, but also oil and gas — to be part of the agreement. With over half of its energy still coming from coal, and many of its citizens still living without reliable electricity, India has rankled at climate discussions that condemn coal without naming other polluting fuels.
The idea won support from Timmermans and even the African Group of Negotiators — despite many African leaders seeking new gas export deals amid the energy crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
But European officials also want to ensure that any agreement isn’t phrased in such a way that India or other countries could use it to actually justify a slower phase down of coal, which produces significantly more carbon dioxide emissions than burning gas or oil.
“Most of the rich world has been very rapidly transitioning away from coal, so an exclusive focus on coal that doesn’t have an appropriate attention on oil and gas is fundamentally unfair,” said Manish Bapna, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
He said sending a signal that the world is rapidly moving away from all fossil fuels is particularly critical amid the current rush to build new liquefied natural gas projects. That infrastructure could lock in massive amounts of emissions for decades.
The language behind any agreement will almost certainly evolve in the final days of the summit, as delegates from nearly 200 nations haggle around-the-clock over key provisions.
What to watch in the COP27 draft text
The Paris agreement of 2015, in which nations agreed to collectively combat climate change, was designed with the notion that nations would be increasing their emissions-cutting pledges over time.
But much has changed since the last gathering in Glasgow, when a significant number of countries did put forward ambitious new goals.
The war in Ukraine has elevated world concerns about energy security, and the nations hosting this and next year’s summits have defended oil and gas as important to the world’s energy mix. Egypt is Africa’s third-largest producer of natural gas, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and the Suez Canal is a crucial transit route for oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG).
At COP27, Egypt also has used its presidency to emphasize the needs of people in Africa, adding momentum to the push for industrialized nations to provide more climate financing for the developing world.
“The challenge is to find something between open-ended liability and paltry [humanitarian] funds,” said Meyer. The loss and damage outcome at COP27 needs to be “something at scale that gives hope to these countries.”
Civil society groups and developing nation leaders said that the decision around loss and damage would be a litmus test of success for COP27.
“We deserve international solidarity,” said Pakistan’s U.N. envoy, Munir Akram, who is also leading a negotiating bloc of developing countries known as the G77.
Akram described how a shortage of funds hindered Pakistan’s ability to respond quickly to the catastrophic monsoon that flooded one-third of his country this summer, wreaking some $30 billion in damage. While Pakistan waited for slow and insufficient humanitarian aid to trickle in from other countries, he said, infectious diseases surged through a population deprived of food, shelter, clean water and medicine.
Developing country negotiators acknowledged that industrialized nations could face backlash from their own citizens if they send billions of dollars in public money to counter crises elsewhere in the world. Some have suggested more politically palatable alternatives, such as a windfall tax on fossil fuel companies.
“We’re not asking for reparations,” Akram said. “But if there is any sense of morality and equity in international affairs and international relations ... then there should be financial support.”
Beyond the ongoing financing fights, questions remain over whether the world can still muster the willpower to hold the planet’s warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius — the most ambitious goal of the Paris agreement.
Despite more aggressive pledges from the United States, the E.U. and other countries in recent years that would move the world away from the more catastrophic trajectory it once was on, the current targets remain woefully insufficient. And many nations have yet to back up their promises with concrete policies.
A report published Friday found that, at the current pace of emissions the world will burn through its “carbon budget” within a decade, dooming any chance of meeting the 1.5 Celsius goal.
Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, emphasized that the push to “keep 1.5 alive” is not merely a political target — it marks a limit past which catastrophic climate impacts become much more likely.
Passing that level of warming could trigger “tipping points” in the Earth’s system — permanently destroying coral reefs, thawing permafrost and melting critical ice sheets that cover the poles.
“1.5 is the only safe landing zone,” Rockström said. | 2022-11-16T20:21:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | COP27 talks go down to the wire on 'loss and damage' financing - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/11/16/climate-change-cop27-egypt/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/11/16/climate-change-cop27-egypt/ |
Can’t go to the moon? This crater in Canada is the next best thing.
The Mistastin crater on Earth holds large quantities of the bright white rock on the majority of the moon’s surface
Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk and NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick hike up Discovery Hill on the Mistastin Crater. (Washington Post illustration; Gordon Osinski; iStock)
Most of us will never go to the moon, but we have the next best thing in our backyard: Canada. Among the ice hockey, maple syrup and uncommon politeness, the country also boasts one of the best craters to study the moon without hopping in a spaceship.
Those qualities make it a suitable training ground for potential astronauts of NASA’s Artemis mission, which plans to land astronauts to the moon as early as 2025. On Wednesday, NASA took a significant step toward returning to the moon and launched an un-crewed test flight called Artemis I, which will not land on the surface but stay in lunar orbit for up to 25 ½ days to demonstrate the rocket and spacecraft can fly safely.
“This crater in Labrador wasn’t even known to be a crater during the Apollo missions,” said Gordon Osinski, a planetary geologist at Canada’s Western University who has guided astronauts around the crater. “I’d love to see every astronaut who eventually walks on the moon come to Mistastin.”
To Canada and back
The crater is essentially in the “middle of nowhere” said planetary geologist Cassandra Marion, who has been to the site six times. There’s no formal runway strip, and visitors usually land in a small unpressurized cargo plane on a shrubby gravel area — if there’s not a large boulder in the way. It’s often rainy and windy. When it’s not windy, it’s buggy with loads of biting black flies.
Located in the Canadian Arctic, the rugged terrain is a mix of taiga and tundra. Black spruce and Alder trees live at lower elevations, while moss appears near riverbeds and at higher elevations. And then there’s small delicious blueberries everywhere in the tundra. If you don’t watch where you sit, Marion said you may get up with “purple butt.”
“She’s a cruel mistress, in a sense, but I would go back” Marion said. “It’s one of the most beautiful places that I’ve been to. You feel like you’re the only ones there for kilometers at a time.”
The Mistastin crater formed when an asteroid crashed around 36 million years ago and left a sizable 28-kilometer dent in the ground seen today. Osinski said such large craters, like this one, are called “complex craters” and are common on the surface of the moon.
Complex craters are shallower and flatter, instead of a bowl-shaped depression like Arizona’s Meteor Crater where astronauts also train. Like many lunar complex craters, Mistastin also has a mountain in the middle called a central peak.
“This crater in Labrador is not only a complex impact crater, it’s relatively well-preserved,” Osinski said. “I’ve been to it many times and it’s still really neat when you walk uphill to the rim and then just literally peer into this massive hole in the ground.”
We know being at Mistastin crater isn’t exactly like the moon. Unlike the moon, we have wind, water and WiFi. In fact, the modern-day Mistastin may seem like it bears no resemblance to the moon because it contains a lake (spanning about half the size of the initial crater impact), likely a result of drained glaciers from the last Ice Age. But don’t let the lake fool you.
A large similarity to our lunar friend lies in its rocks. It is one of two craters on Earth to contain large amounts of a rock called anorthosite. The other is the significantly eroded Manicouagan impact structure in Quebec, making the much younger, better preserved Mistastin crater the preferred choice for research and astronaut training.
While anorthosite is rare on Earth, it’s common on the lunar surface. You may have never pronounced its name, but you’ve seen it every time you look up at the moon: The rock is the light-colored, highly reflective parts seen widely across the moon’s surface called the lunar highlands.
Compared to our home planet, the moon’s surface was mainly sculpted through impact cratering and volcanism.
According to a popular formation theory, the moon came together when a Mars-sized body crashed into a young Earth near the beginning of our solar system formation about 4.6 billion years ago. Stopar said hot debris around the Earth coalesced into the moon, covering the young moon in a magma ocean — “basically just lava, lava everywhere.”
In a simplified explanation, Stopar said that as the surface magma ocean cooled over time, different minerals and rocks began to crystallize out. Denser materials sank, and lighter materials floated to the top to essentially become the surface of the moon. A prevalent mineral to float to the surface was anorthite, which is the predominant component in anorthosite rock.
The origin story of anorthosite on Earth is more complicated and not as well understood, said Marion, who serves as a science adviser at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum. Research suggests the anorthosite is also likely formed due to separation of lighter crystals in magma, but deep within our mantle. As the magma slowly cools and crystallizes, the less dense mineral crystals separated from denser materials and solidified to form anorthosite. The rock emerged to the surface through erosion and plate tectonic activity.
The collusion brought high temperatures and pressure, which essentially fractured the rocks, broke them up and melted them. Marion said the effects of the high velocity impact are similar to a large impact on the moon.
“They can’t bring back every rock they see. We want them to do that mental sorting of, ‘Okay, I’ve got 100 rocks in front of me and I can bring back two’ [and] how do you go about choosing that in real time, essentially,” Osinski said.
Stopar said if the astronauts can bring back more moon rocks, then researchers can date craters on the moon and create a better geologic history of our neighbor and floating debris at the beginning of our solar system. She said we can also learn how much water was delivered to the Earth and moon from comets and asteroids and any challenges to life at that time.
“I’m really excited about seeing this kind of exploration happening,” said Stopar, who is a team member of NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission. “Scientifically, I know it’ll be great because anytime we get samples of the moon, we just learn so much more about it. Even today, we’re still learning tons about the moon from the samples that were brought 50, 60 years ago now.” | 2022-11-16T20:21:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Can’t go to the moon with NASA? Mistastin crater in Canada is the next best thing. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/11/16/mistastin-crater-moon-astronaut-training-artemis/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/11/16/mistastin-crater-moon-astronaut-training-artemis/ |
Air Force combat veteran convicted of felony role in Jan. 6 riot
Larry Brock, in helmet, inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Win Mcnamee/Getty Images)
Twenty-one minutes after Mike Pence was evacuated from the Senate chamber on Jan. 6, an Air Force combat veteran named Larry Brock used a set of keys to try to open the door he had left through.
He did not succeed, and there is no evidence he knew how close he had come to the vice president. But Judge John D. Bates cited that moment in finding Brock guilty of six crimes related to his participation in the 2021 riot, including felony obstruction of Congress.
“Mr. Brock did more than just be present in the Capitol,” Bates said at the end of a three-day bench trial, calling it “unfathomable that Mr. Brock believed he was authorized” to be there. He “could look around and realize that he was part of a mob,” Bates said
Brock, a retired lieutenant colonel from Texas, identified himself after the riot to New Yorker magazine, which had captured footage of him wearing tactical gear and carrying plastic zip-tie handcuffs on the Senate floor. He told the New Yorker he found the cuffs on the floor; it is not clear where he got the keys he used to try to open the door off the Senate chamber.
Before Jan. 6, prosecutors noted, Brock made comments on Facebook, starting in November 2020, saying that “the battle isn’t winnable democratically” and that “fire and blood will be needed soon.” He said he bought a helmet and body armor “for the civil war that is coming.” He wrote five days before the riot that “the castle will be stormed.”
He also posted a proposed plan for taking over the government, including to “eliminate” the media.
“He was preparing for that assault as if it was a military operation,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Meisel said in his opening statement, “and viewing it through the lens of a highly trained, tactically proficient military officer.”
Defense attorney Charles Burnham argued that Brock was not trying to break the law and was unaware he was not allowed inside the Capitol building.
Burnham said in his opening argument that Brock watched President Donald Trump speak, along with “hundreds of thousands of other people,” and then entered the Capitol with “an almost orderly procession” of demonstrators. (Estimates generally put the size of the Capitol crowd in the tens of thousands.)
At that point, Burnham said, barricades surrounding the Capitol grounds had been torn down and the police “were off to the side, making no effort whatsoever to interfere with the movement of the crowd.” Capitol Police leaders have said that once they realized they could not stop the breach, they prioritized safety over the building’s security.
Burnham said Brock was the victim of “tragic circumstance” that left him unaware of the violence of the crowd. Brock arrived at the west side of the Capitol just after windows and doors had been broken and just before police confronted the crowd on the steps. If he had been aware of the violence, Burnham said, Brock would have left.
Prosecutors played numerous videos from inside the Capitol showing Brock in the vicinity of violence and property damage. He was in the building for over half an hour. On the Senate floor, Brock told another rioter not to sit in the vice president’s chair. Burnham argued that was a sign of Brock’s “moderating influence”; prosecutors said it showed he understood “better than anyone else” the process the mob had disrupted.
In the clip, Brock said they are in an “IO war,” an apparent reference to information operations.
Bates acknowledged that Brock at another point tried to stop other protesters from attacking police inside the building.
“But he didn’t leave,” Bates said. | 2022-11-16T20:21:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Larry Brock convicted at bench trial in Jan. 6 felony case - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/16/larry-brock-trial-guilty/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/16/larry-brock-trial-guilty/ |
On foreign trip, Biden meets with dictators he’s criticized
Biden has stressed democracy abroad, but diplomacy has meant engaging with autocrats.
President Biden and Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi walk together during a climate summit in Egypt last week. (Egyptian Presidency Handout/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
DUA NUSA, Indonesia — When President Biden met here with Xi Jinping, whom he called a “thug” not long ago, he warmly greeted the Chinese president, smiling and clasping his hand. A few days earlier he was escorted by Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi, and when asked by reporters about an activist jailed by Egypt, Biden brushed it aside and draped both hands over Sisi’s shoulders.
At another point in this whirlwind trip, Biden stopped in Phnom Penh for a meeting of Southeast Asian leaders and sat down with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has been in power for nearly 40 years and whose associates have been targeted by U.S. sanctions.
Even as he has rallied allies against the brutal war launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin against Ukraine — culminating in a joint statement of Group of Seven and NATO leaders as his trip was wrapping up — Biden also has engaged with leaders he has criticized and that his administration views as antidemocratic.
Biden has repeatedly pledged to put human rights at the forefront of his foreign policy, but that vow has sometimes run up against geopolitical reality, and rarely more so than on this trip. Biden prides himself on personal connections with foreign leaders, and it can be hard to avoid meeting with leaders who are hosting a summit.
The engagement has created discordant images. In meeting Hun Sen, Biden “expressed appreciation for Cambodia’s leadership” of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations — while also urging the release of “activists detained on politically motivated charges,” the White House said.
As a candidate, Biden called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan an “autocrat” and suggested the United States should support his political opponents. After meeting with Erdogan on Tuesday, the White House said Biden “made clear we stand with our NATO ally” after recent attacks in Istanbul.
As the trip wrapped up, two events highlighted the contrast. Biden convened an emergency meeting of U.S. allies Wednesday to respond to a missile that landed in Poland as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war, his latest action leading a global coalition against the authoritarian Putin regime.
And with former president Donald Trump announcing his third run for the presidency in a bombastic speech Tuesday night, it was,, a reminder that a central reason Biden ran for president was to challenge Trump’s habit of embracing autocrats and their anti-democratic policies.
As Trump was declaring his candidacy Tuesday night, Biden trekked to a lush Indonesian forest to plant a mangrove tree with other world leaders. He took time with the hoe, carefully moving the soil to ensure the tree had a firm foundation, a symbolic commitment to global harmony and countering a warming climate.
In all, this has been one of the more consequential and head-spinning foreign trips of Biden’s presidency — at a time when back in the United States, control of Congress remained undetermined and Republicans were in open revolt against their leaders.
Biden arrived overseas triumphant, after his party’s stronger-than-expected midterm results in which Americans rejected election deniers in every swing state. He cited that outcome to tout the power of American democracy, saying the election results strengthened his hand diplomatically.
Biden’s aides hoped his performance on the world stage would provide a favorable contrast with Republican squabbling, and he had an opportunity to showcase American leadership here on Wednesday morning, when leaders awoke — or, in some cases, were awoken — to learn that missile attacks had taken place in Ukraine, and that a missile had landed in NATO-member Poland.
Biden convened the leaders in a conference room at his hotel, and — while saying later that the missile that killed two in Poland likely did not originate in Russia — stressed that Russian aggression had to stop its attacks. “They’ve been totally unconscionable, what they’re doing — totally unconscionable,” he told reporters.
“It’s merciless,” he added later, while meeting with newly appointed British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. “It’s almost — in my words, not yours — barbaric, what he’s doing.”
He shrugged off Trump’s campaign announcement as he walked through the Balinese mangrove forest. After a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, a reporter asked Biden if either one of them had a response to Trump’s declaration, and he responded, “Not really,” as he and Macron exchanged faint smirks.
Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, when asked why the president was spending time with authoritarian leaders, said the president was simply meeting with the heads of the host countries. When Biden arrived in Bali for the summit of the leaders of the Group of 20 industrialized nations, for example, he met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, whose government has failed to act on accusations of serious human rights violations.
“He will have plenty of opportunity to engage deeply with core democratic allies, but he’s going to engage across the board in service of America’s interests and to advance America’s strategic position and our values,” Sullivan said. “And that’s what guides his decision on every leader he chooses to engage with.”
The reporters traveling with Biden also ran up against officials from regimes with little respect for press freedom.
Egyptian officials guarding the doors of the room where Biden met with Sisi attempted to physically block several American journalists. During the meeting with Xi, a member of the Chinese delegation yanked the backpack of a television producer who asked Biden about human rights, nearly knocking her to the ground.
Still, Biden drew lines. He had no plans to meet with Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman. Biden was criticized earlier this year after he traveled to Jiddah and gave a fist bump to the crown prince, who has been accused of being a brutal dictator and who U.S. intelligence officials have concluded was behind the 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
He also did not appear to interact with Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister who attended the G-20 summit after Putin opted not to come.
A senior administration official said that there was unlikely to be a traditional group photo of the leaders, but did not address whether that had to do with any U.S. opposition to having Biden appear with Lavrov or other Russian leaders.
“I don’t think you’re going to see any shortage of venues where there are very candid, very frank discussions across leaders from the G-20 in a variety of settings,” the official said.
Some of Biden’s meetings during the trip appeared to produce, if not breakthroughs, at least some movement. Dialogue between the United States and China had been at a low point, but Biden and Xi appeared to embrace the possibility that they could align on some issues, such as climate change.
“I didn’t find him more confrontational or more conciliatory,” Biden said during a news conference following his meeting with Xi. “I found him the way he’s always been, direct and straightforward.”
Even while he seemed publicly warm with Sisi — “I could listen to you much longer,” Biden said when Sisi finished his introductory remarks — White House officials reported afterward that Biden had confronted Sisi directly on the case of Alaa Abdel Fattah, the British Egyptian political prisoner on a hunger and water strike in an Egyptian prison.
Biden’s meeting with Erdogan on Tuesday was not on his schedule, and reporters traveling with Biden learned of it through Turkish media reports. Biden expressed condolences for the deadly terrorist attack in Istanbul, according to a White House account of the meeting, and the two leaders also discussed close coordination on NATO issues and the war in Ukraine.
“President Biden expressed his appreciation to President Erdogan for his efforts to renew the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which they both agreed has been critical to improving global food security amid Russia’s war and that the Initiative must continue,” according to the White House.
Biden ended his global tour by showcasing perhaps the most important aspect of his foreign policy: his ability to keep Western countries aligned against Russia, even as the Ukraine war has created economic turmoil, food shortages and rising energy prices.
“We reaffirm our steadfast support for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people in the face of ongoing Russian aggression,” said the joint statement of NATO and the G-7, “as well as our continued readiness to hold Russia accountable for its brazen attacks on Ukrainian communities.” | 2022-11-16T20:22:19Z | www.washingtonpost.com | On foreign trip, Biden meets with dictators he’s criticized - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/biden-meets-with-dictators/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/biden-meets-with-dictators/ |
Content from Boston Consulting Group: Investing in the Care Economy
Caregiving is one of the most consequential drivers supporting the United States workforce. Yet, in 2022, it is being defined more by its faults than its strengths: a looming crisis requiring urgent attention. According to new Boston Consulting Group research, the current care crisis is projected to shave $290 billion off of the United States’ GDP by 2030. In a segment presented by BCG, we will explore the current challenges facing millions of working caregivers, its implications on the labor pool, and how the private and public sectors can come together to solve the crisis plaguing the care economy. | 2022-11-16T20:24:23Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Content from Boston Consulting Group: Investing in the Care Economy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/11/15/content-boston-consulting-group-investing-care-economy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/11/15/content-boston-consulting-group-investing-care-economy/ |
She ran a 100-mile world record. A course error means it won’t count.
Distance runner Camille Herron said she questions the finding. This is not the first time a racecourse measurement error has voided records.
Camille Herron after winning the 55-mile Comrades Marathon in South Africa in 2017. (Rajesh Jantilal/AFP/Getty Images)
Herron and her husband and coach, Conor Holt, have questioned the findings and expressed frustration at what they say has been a lack of transparency and communication from USATF. In a letter obtained by The Washington Post, the race director, Ken Rubeli, argued to a USATF official that the findings were “open to subjectivity” and questioned the accuracy of measurements made eight months after a race.
Herron said the situation has been “very stressful” for her. “I set a world record in that race, and now they’re telling us that we don’t know whether the course was 100 miles or not,” she said. “So it’s been very upsetting to me the past several months. I’ve had races since then, and this has weighed heavy on me and impacted my performances.”
David Katz, chair of the USATF Road Running Technical Council chair, wrote in a statement to The Post that the measurements taken on the day of the Jackpot 100-mile race and after the event “produced a course less than the 100 miles.”
A USATF council “decided not to ratify the record because the course was changed from what was certified,” Katz wrote. In a phone interview, Katz said that the organization has been careful to gather all the facts and that the “ratification process takes a long time.”
The Post obtained a measuring report that indicates the course was measured on Oct. 25 by Brandon Wilson, a World Athletics measurer with an A rating, the highest distinction for racecourse measurers. Wilson’s report concluded that the 100-mile course’s actual length was 99.864336 miles, or 716 feet short.
Rubeli, who has since sold the Jackpot event, did not respond to a Post request for comment. In a three-page letter sent to Nancy Hobbs, the chair of the USATF Mountain, Ultra and Trail Sport Council, he takes issue with the measurements and being excluded from the process.
Rubeli states in the letter that three years ago, he changed one turn on the course for safety reasons, “due to a near collision between a runner and a baby stroller,” adding, “I compensated for this turn change with precise cone placements on the course.”
“Trying to measure a course’s shortest possible route 8 months after a race, is challenging at best and open to subjectivity, especially if the measurement individuals don’t know the relevance of the green course paint marks relative to cone placement,” Rubeli wrote. “Inches matter in a short loop course with over nearly 90 laps.”
Herron said she believes that she ran 100 miles that day in February.
Course errors have happened before
This is not the first time a racecourse error has voided records. Whenever a runner sets a record, whether it is a world record, American record or age group record, the course must be verified by an official measurer before the record can be ratified.
Although it’s not common, runners have lost out on records in the past because of a course error, some occurring in high-profile events. And when a racecourse error occurs, it’s not just the elites who are affected. Amateur runners who thought they had run a personal best in a race distance can no longer officially claim the time.
In 2019, the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run in D.C. was short by 240 feet — 0.04 of a mile — because of misplaced cones at a turnaround point, meaning that Stanley Kebenei’s time of 46 minutes did not count as an American men’s 10-mile road record and Rosemary Wanjiru’s time of 50:42 also did not count as the official women’s event record. All runners who finished the race have a note next to their results indicating that the course was short.
In early October, Scottish Olympic runner Eilish McColgan’s European and British 10,000-meter road race record of 30:18 was wiped out because the course at the Great Scottish Run 10K in Glasgow was discovered to be 150 meters short. The Great Scottish Run half marathon was also roughly 150 meters short in 2016, meaning that Callum Hawkins’s time of 1 hour 24 seconds did not count as a Scottish national record.
Discovering a flaw in the course
Herron’s 100-mile record at the Jackpot race, which featured a 1.17-mile loop held on “95 percent asphalt and/or concrete surfaces” and 5 percent crushed gravel paths, was called into question after Wilson, the measurer, happened to attend the event because his wife was running in the 100-mile race.
Wilson downloaded the certified course map from the USATF website and noticed that the course being run was not the same as the one certified by USATF or World Athletics. Wilson then performed a measurement on the second day of the race, Feb. 19, and another measurement of the course a few days later.
When the course was then remeasured in October by Wilson and another top-level measurer, the results all came up short, Katz said.
In September, Beyond Limits Running, which Rubeli co-founded, announced it had sold the Jackpot Running Festival to privately owned Aravaipa Running. On the current Jackpot race website, organizers tout the 100-mile course for its fast times. “The course is specifically designed to give runners a chance to set records, achieve optimal results, etc.,” the website reads. | 2022-11-16T20:24:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Camille Herron's 100-mile world record won't count, because of short course - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/11/16/camille-herron-100-mile-record-error/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/11/16/camille-herron-100-mile-record-error/ |
But those who remember the Virginia Tech shooting know it’s also a moment for us to do more than offer flowers and sympathy
Flowers line the front gates of Scott Stadium at the University of Virginia. (Jason Lappa for The Washington Post)
Those who found themselves on the Virginia Tech campus during those difficult days, or watched what was happening from afar, might remember seeing a phrase arise that played on the two schools’ mascots. It became a rallying cry of support — Hoos for Hokies.
The three students who were killed — Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry — would have been too young to have remembered with much clarity the Virginia Tech massacre. But many Virginians recall it vividly, and that context matters. Trauma spills outward. It seeps. It stains. And now, two groups of college students in Virginia have had to experience the trauma of a campus shooting during what should have been one of the most freeing times of their lives.
“It’s truly horrific,” he said when approached by reporters and asked if he wanted to say anything. “You got three young men whose lives were cut so short. It’s a moment for all of us to recognize that families are going to need to be supported, the community here needs to be supported … This is a moment for us to come together and recognize that there are so many things that are insignificant relative to what this community and these families are facing today.”
Youngkin is right — this is a “moment for us to come together.”
Youngkin is right — for the grieving families “there is nothing that can be said, there’s nothing that can be done to bring them any kind of comfort today.”
Youngkin is right — what happened is “truly horrific.”
But it is not, as he said, “beyond anything that any parent can possibly imagine.” Parents in Virginia have imagined it. I’m a parent in Virginia and I’ve imagined it. Virginia Tech made sure of that. Few could have closely followed the aftermath of what happened there and not put themselves in the places of those parents who drove their children to the campus, decorated their dorm rooms and left filled with hope — only to later find out their children had been gunned down.
Va. Tech massacre: Two families push for answers, apology from university
After the Virginia Tech shooting, investigations were launched, panels were formed and changes were put in place. One major improvement that grew from that moment is that colleges now send out alerts sooner. But the state has fallen short of putting in place gun control measures that would help keep our schools and communities safer — and the cost of that has been seen again and again. Guns have been found to regularly flow from Virginia into the District, where they fuel rising homicide and crime rates. And while more information is likely to come out about the gun used by the 22-year-old U-Va. shooter, what is known so far is that he had a concealed weapon conviction and a student made their concerns about him having a gun known to university officials.
What was saved: Ten years after the Virginia Tech shooting, objects of grief
“The senseless gun violence at UVA last night is horrific and begs the question; how long is it going to take and how many lives will be lost before we pass bipartisan common sense gun control laws?” Virginia Sen. L. Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth) tweeted after the UVA shooting.
There were several posters sent from the University of Virginia to Virginia Tech after the 2007 shooting. On the one I saw, a person wrote: “Let us not forget the gift of community we feel now that was given to us by those who died. May we take this sense of compassion and love for one another … and channel it toward assuring a time when violence will not be a legitimate form of power.” | 2022-11-16T21:26:06Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Youngkin is right - UVA shooting is ‘moment for us to come together’ - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/16/uva-virginia-tech-shootings-shared-grief/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/16/uva-virginia-tech-shootings-shared-grief/ |
Dulles Toll Road users will pay more next year to fund Silver Line
The rate increase was planned and is not tied to recently announced cost overruns on the second phase of the rail project
A Silver Line Metro train leaves the Wiehle-Reston East Metro station Tuesday, flanked by the Dulles Toll Road. (Eric Lee/for The Washington Post)
Tolls will rise to $6 a trip for most Dulles Toll Road drivers starting in January, money that will be used to pay for the second phase of the Silver Line rail project that opened Tuesday.
Under a plan approved Wednesday by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority’s board of directors, drivers will pay $4 at the main toll plaza and $2 at a ramp, an increase of $1.25 over current rates. The increase was planned and is not tied to recently announced cost overruns on the second phase of the rail project, authority officials said.
Drivers previously paid $4.75 — which breaks down to $3.25 at the main toll plaza and $1.50 at a ramp. Katherine K. Hanley, an MWAA board member, said it’s the first toll increase since 2019.
Other changes also are coming to the toll road next year.
The airports authority will shift to all-electronic toll collection in 2023. The shift means exact-change payment machines will be removed and drivers will have to use an E-ZPass or mobile app. There also will be a “pay-by-plate” option, in which a license plate will be scanned, with an invoice for the toll and an administrative fee sent by mail. Users will have 30 days to pay.
While the airports authority, Fairfax and Loudoun counties are contributing to the cost of building the rail line, the bulk of the project’s $6 billion price tag over its two phases is being funded by Dulles Toll Road users.
The MWAA increased tolls five times between 2010 and 2014 as the cost of building the Silver Line grew. The increases slowed, however, after Virginia officials contributed $150 million to the rail project.
Dulles Toll Road users could see a rate increase to help pay for the Silver Line
The second phase of the line, which extends service to Dulles International Airport and Loudoun County, opened four years behind schedule and roughly $250 million over budget. Even though the bulk of that overage, $188 million, will be paid by toll road users, airports authority officials say the additional costs are unlikely to affect scheduled rate hikes.
Over the past three years, the authority has refinanced bonds and restructured debt used to finance the cost of the extension, savings that will provide enough cushion to avoid toll increases beyond those already planned, authority officials said.
Dulles Toll Road users may see fewer increases
Under the current schedule, airports authority officials say that beginning next year, toll road users can expect tolls to rise at the same rate — 75 cents at the main toll plaza and 50 cents at off-ramps — every five years, except in 2033, when they would increase by $1.50.
Though the schedule calls for tolls to increase through 2048, when rates for a single trip would rise to $12.50, it’s also possible that increases could end in 2033, when most one-way trips would cost $8.75, depending on the MWAA’s ability to pay back debt.
Virginia has become a leader in using toll revenue to pay for transit improvements, although at least two lawsuits have been filed over the years challenging the MWAA’s authority to use toll road revenue to pay for the Silver Line. None were successful. | 2022-11-16T21:26:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Dulles Toll Road users will pay more to fund Metro's Silver Line - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/11/16/dulles-toll-road-silver-line/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/11/16/dulles-toll-road-silver-line/ |
Unlike the banks and brokers they resemble, these massive firms receive scant oversight, critics say
Dalton Bennett
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried speaks in October at the Institute of International Finance annual membership meeting in Washington. The theme of the conference was “The Search for Stability in an Era of Uncertainty, Realignment and Transformation.” (Ting Shen/Bloomberg News)
The revelation this week that up to a million investors may be harmed by the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange exposes what critics say is a fundamental flaw in the foundations of the $850 billion market for digital currencies.
As the implosion of the Bahamas-based company continued Wednesday to stir turmoil across crypto markets, experts said the concern lies less in crypto itself than in the lightly regulated companies that serve crypto investors.
For investors, FTX was a gateway to the crypto world, an exciting marketplace where celebrity ambassadors like quarterback Tom Brady invited them to open accounts and trade digital currencies such as bitcoin and ether. FTX in turn functioned in many ways like the banks and brokers of traditional finance, maintaining customer accounts, exchanging currencies and making loans and investments with customer assets.
Is crypto a house of cards? A look behind the scenes.
But like other crypto exchanges, FTX operated outside the traditional banking system, and this created enormous risks. Though they act like banks and brokers, crypto exchanges typically are not subject to the same type of regulation, insurance and disclosure rules that protect customers of traditional banks.
“At some level, the fall of FTX is not a crypto story at all,” said Adam Levitin, a Georgetown University law professor and a principal at Gordian Crypto Advisors, a firm that provides advice regarding crypto bankruptcies. “People invested billions in an unregulated financial institution based in a Caribbean island. How could this end well?”
What the FTX case shows on a vast scale is that companies holding crypto for customers can make investment decisions that end in disaster, and when they do, there’s no clear guarantee that customers will get their assets back.
According to Reuters, at least $1 billion worth of customer funds have vanished from FTX, one of the industry’s largest exchanges, under circumstances that are under investigation by the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission. In bankruptcy filings, FTX revealed that it could owe money to more than a million people and organizations.
The collapse has drawn attention because FTX is one of the largest crypto exchanges, and its founder, 30-year-old Sam Bankman-Fried, had been widely hailed as a crypto wunderkind and top Democratic donor. But over the past year, as the overall value of the crypto market has plummeted from a peak of more than $3 trillion, other crypto firms also have run into financial trouble.
Crypto lenders Celsius Network and Voyager Digital filed for bankruptcy earlier this year after they were unable to meet customer demands for withdrawals. Last week, another lender, BlockFi, announced that it was “not able to operate business as usual” and was “pausing client withdrawals” in the wake of the FTX collapse. This week, crypto exchange AAX announced that it had called a halt to withdrawals, citing technical problems with a third-party partner. And on Wednesday, cryptocurrency lender Genesis said it is temporarily suspending redemptions and new loan originations.
The House Financial Services Committee has scheduled a hearing next month to examine the collapse of FTX, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the panel’s leader, announced on Wednesday.
The company’s troubles have spooked investors, prompting executives at other large crypto exchanges — including Coinbase, Crypto.com and Binance — to assure customers that their balance sheets are strong. Some have portrayed the FTX collapse as an anomaly in an otherwise safe industry.
“This is the direct result of a rogue actor breaking every single basic rule of fiscal responsibility,” Patrick Hillmann, chief strategy officer at Binance, the largest of the crypto exchanges, said in a statement to The Washington Post, referring to Bankman-Fried. “While the rest of the industry operates under an extreme measure of scrutiny, the cult of personality shrouding FTX allowed them a dangerous level of privilege that wasn’t earned.”
But the lack of regulation creates risks for crypto investors, experts said. In the United States, the financial condition of a traditional bank is subject to regulations and official examination. Had FTX been subject to the same scrutiny, the weaknesses in its financial condition might have been revealed earlier. In addition, customer deposits at traditional banks are insured up to $250,000 by the FDIC. No such protections will aid those who have lost money at FTX.
FTX is one of several large crypto exchanges that have played a critical role in popularizing cryptocurrencies, including by paying for Super Bowl ads to reach large audiences. According to a survey by Pew Research Center, 16 percent of U.S. adults say they have at some point invested or traded in cryptocurrency.
Cryptocurrency is suddenly everywhere — except in the cash register
Some “companies have been allowed to become very large despite their obvious disregard for the rules imposed on traditional financial institutions,” said Tyler Gellasch, president of the Healthy Markets Association, a group focused on increasing transparency and reducing conflicts of interest in the capital markets.
“The banking and securities rules were set up to ensure that if the bank or broker fails, you can still get your assets back,” Gellasch said. “The crypto exchanges don’t appear to be complying with any of them.”
Since FTX filed for bankruptcy last week, several large exchanges have sought to become more transparent. Last week, Binance published a brief account of its cryptocurrency holdings, though not its liabilities.
Binance chief Changpeng Zhao said the company would publish a fuller account of its finances within weeks, once a third-party auditor can complete its work. Zhao did not identify the auditor but said the same firm had also worked for FTX.
“Nothing is risk free, right? Crypto exchanges are inherently quite risky businesses,” Zhao said Monday in a Twitter Spaces chat. “You have to run them well. You have to do security well. You have to do a number of things well.”
Unlike FTX, Zhao said Binance does not carry debt. “We’re a very clean, very simple business,” he said. “We’re not trying to be a pawnshop or hedge fund shop.”
At Crypto.com, CEO Kris Marszalek held a video live stream Monday amid online rumors that the company had stopped processing withdrawals. Marszalek acknowledged that the number of withdrawals had temporarily surged after the company mishandled a transaction worth approximately $400 million that he says was inadvertently sent to the company’s account on a competitors’s exchange.
But he called rumors of a pause “absolutely not true,” adding: “We are operating as usual again.”
In what Marszalek touted as an effort to restore the trust of depositors, Crypto.com published a partial breakdown of its cryptocurrency holdings, revealing that as of Nov. 14, the company held at least $2.3 billion in cryptocurrency reserves. But the company’s outstanding liabilities are not publicly known and were not included in the initial report the company released after the collapse of FTX.
Marszalek downplayed Crypto.com’s exposure to FTX on Monday and assured investors that the company’s balance sheet is “tremendously robust.” He said a “third-party audit” of the exchange’s customer reserves would be released in the coming weeks.
Based in Singapore, Crypto.com has plowed a fortune into flashy marketing campaigns, hiring actor Matt Damon as a brand ambassador and acquiring the naming rights for the Los Angeles Staples Center in a deal valued at an estimated $700 million. This year, however, the price of its native token, cronos, has plunged. In the past week, cronos lost more than 50 percent of its value, fueling questions about the exchange’s solvency.
Marszalek said the forthcoming audit will prove that his position remains strong.
“We do not run a hedge fund. We do not trade customers’ assets,” he said during the live stream. “In a couple of months, all these guys are going to look really, really bad for throwing allegations that have absolutely no substance.”
Coinbase, the largest of the publicly traded crypto exchanges, is based in the United States and subject to more disclosure rules than most other large exchanges, a point its executives are emphasizing. The company said it has sought and obtained licenses in every jurisdiction in which the company needs them to operate in the United States.
“We follow the laws and regulations in these jurisdictions, which include a variety of obligations like capital requirements,” the company said in a statement.
Alesia Haas, the company’s chief financial officer, wrote in a blog post last week that the company’s “public, audited financials confirm that we do not have a liquidity problem.”
Still, regulators urge caution. In a speech last month, Michael J. Hsu, acting head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, warned crypto exchanges about what he sees as their dangerous attempts to “disguise” themselves as banks.
“The crypto industry arose out of a desire to disrupt … the traditional financial system,” Hsu said. “Yet, crypto has mimicked [traditional finance] concepts to market itself and grow … Using the familiar to introduce something novel can downplay or mask the risks involved and establish false expectations. In time, people get hurt.”
The visionaries who laid the groundwork for bitcoin and other digital currencies also have raised questions about exchanges. Crypto was supposed to eliminate the need for banks, brokers and other so-called “financial intermediaries,” and many early advocates were critics of a financial system they considered predatory and opaque. The seminal white paper that launched bitcoin envisioned cutting out the banks because it “would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.”
When centralized crypto exchanges arose to take on the role of banks and brokers, critics say, they twisted the original ideals of crypto.
“It’s really hard to square centralized crypto exchanges with the core premises of crypto currencies,” said Finn Brunton, a professor of science and technology studies at University of California at Davis and the author of “Digital Cash: The Unknown History of the Anarchists, Technologists, and Utopians Who Created Cryptocurrency.” Centralized crypto exchanges “essentially recreate the same risks and lack of transparency that have existed in other financial institutions, but with even less regulation and oversight.”
In their bankruptcy filings, Celsius and Voyager described their failures in a way that makes clear their similarity to traditional banks. Both explained how a surge of customers had demanded to withdraw their assets. Neither firm had the resources to return their customers’ money, forcing them to file for bankruptcy protection.
In court documents, both firms used the same phrase to describe their troubles. They had been hit, the filings say, by “a run on the bank.” | 2022-11-16T21:34:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | As FTX implodes, the crypto exchange model draws scrutiny - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/11/16/ftx-collapse-crypto-exchanges-regulation/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/11/16/ftx-collapse-crypto-exchanges-regulation/ |
FTX collapse dooms founder’s pandemic-prevention agenda
FTX collapse dooms founder’s effort to prevent another pandemic
Flush with crypto cash, Sam Bankman-Fried spent tens of millions of dollars on campaign donations and projects intended to bolster public health and track emerging viruses.
Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of FTX Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange, center, after a congressional hearing this year. He and his brother Gabe, and their network, spent at least $70 million since October 2021, on initiatives intended to prevent the next pandemic, according to a Washington Post analysis. (Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg)
When the coronavirus pandemic hit and the world shut down in the spring of 2020, many mourned the loss of life, jobs and normalcy.
Sam Bankman-Fried, then a 28-year-old cryptocurrency entrepreneur, and his brother Gabe, a 25-year-old congressional staffer, said the pandemic provided them with something else: an opportunity to make a difference.
Virtually overnight, the Bankman-Frieds began making contributions on a staggering scale: A Washington Post review of lobbying disclosures, federal records and other sources found that the brothers and their network have spent at least $70 million since October 2021 on research projects, campaign donations and other initiatives intended to improve biosecurity and prevent the next pandemic.
But the sudden collapse of FTX, which filed for bankruptcy last Friday after reports that customer funds were being used to prop up a sister trading firm, has sparked a financial contagion expected to doom the brothers’ pandemic-prevention agenda, according to interviews with more than two dozen people who have worked with the Bankman-Frieds’ teams, received their donations or were being wooed to join them.
While Sam Bankman-Fried’s spending had evoked comparisons to public health champions like Bill Gates and political kingmakers like George Soros, some commentators and former allies now suggest other parallels — such as to disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, who vowed to revolutionize health care, but became enmeshed in scandal. Washington lawmakers who embraced Bankman-Fried’s donations scarcely a week ago are now distancing themselves, as regulators circle his financial operations.
Sam Bankman-Fried, who resigned as CEO last Friday and has seen a personal fortune valued at $16 billion evaporate within a week, did not respond to requests for comment sent to FTX and his former colleagues. In a Twitter thread on Tuesday night, he apologized for FTX’s insolvency and vowed to prioritize repaying his customers.
Reached by phone on Saturday, Gabe Bankman-Fried said he would try to return the call, but did not respond to subsequent messages. He stepped down on Monday as director of Guarding Against Pandemics, an advocacy organization that he founded in July 2020, which was fueled by his brother’s cash.
Keenan Lantz, the new interim executive director, said Guarding Against Pandemics was “proud” of its work and hoped the “momentum” on pandemic prevention would continue.
“Despite uncertainty about GAP’s future, the effort to prevent pandemics worse than COVID-19 is vitally important and we hope it will continue in some way,” Lantz said in a statement.
In the months leading up to FTX’s crash, the Bankman-Frieds and their network had rapidly increased their spending on pandemic-prevention initiatives, according to a review of funding announcements, political donations and lobbying disclosures — record-breaking sums and unconventional choices that sometimes astounded political and public health experts. FTX-backed projects ranged from $12 million to champion a California ballot initiative to strengthen public health programs and detect emerging virus threats (amid lackluster support, the measure was punted to 2024), to investing more than $11 million on the unsuccessful congressional primary campaign of an Oregon biosecurity expert, and even a $150,000 grant to help Moncef Slaoui, scientific adviser for the Trump administration’s “Operation Warp Speed” vaccine accelerator, write his memoir.
“We are devastated to say that it looks likely that there are many committed grants that the Future Fund will be unable to honor,” the fund’s former leaders wrote. “We are so sorry that it has come to this.”
The Future Fund’s commitments included $10 million to HelixNano, a biotech start-up seeking to develop a next-generation coronavirus vaccine; $250,000 to a University of Ottawa scientist researching how to eradicate viruses from plastic surfaces; and $175,000 to support a recent law school graduate’s job at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
“Overall, the Future Fund was a force for good,” said Tom Inglesby, who leads the Johns Hopkins center, lamenting the fund’s collapse. “The work they were doing was really trying to get people to think long-term … to build pandemic preparedness, to diminish the risks of biological threats.”
Inglesby said his team had anticipated other collaborations with the fund. “We were hopeful that we would be able to work with them in the future,” he said.
Beyond public health, the flurry of spending on lobbyists, campaign contributions and political communications experts allowed the brothers to gain access to corridors of power, securing meetings with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and multiple Biden administration officials to advocate for their pandemic prevention agenda, according to people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private meetings.
“The brothers tried hard to keep congressional attention on biodefense,” said Luciana Borio, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations and an infectious-disease expert, who spoke on a pandemic-preparedness panel with the Bankman-Frieds that was hosted by Democratic congressmen in April.
The initiatives and Sam Bankman Fried’s campaign donations, which went well beyond candidates who focused on pandemic preparedness and made him among the top donors in the Democratic Party, quickly elevated the brothers’ profile in Washington. Gabe — who as recently as February 2021 had worked for Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.), handling the junior congressman’s constituent mail — soon found himself in meetings with senior Democrats like Pelosi, urging them to redouble their efforts on pandemic legislation and boost funding to agencies like the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, devoted to procuring medical countermeasures for crises.
Some officials and experts courted by the brothers said they appreciated their interest, but found them politically naive.
“I didn’t get the sense they were that sophisticated or had a clear vision of what they wanted to do,” said one well-known pandemic expert, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private meetings with the Bankman-Frieds. “They seemed earnest and well-intentioned but didn’t have a defined set of goals.”
Even before FTX’s crash, Sam Bankman-Fried also faced persistent questions about whether his pandemic-prevention agenda was a vehicle to win favor on Capitol Hill — which he could then exploit for other goals, such as influencing cryptocurrency regulations.
“It’s completely reasonable skepticism,” said one of the Bankman-Frieds’ pandemic advisers. “I’m 100 percent sure Gabe cared about pandemics … I don’t know what to think about [Sam].”
Most of the brothers’ public health efforts have now come to a screeching halt. A sprawling array of political groups, health researchers and even media organizations that received money from them or their network are reviewing next steps or cutting ties. Many staff declined to speak on the record, concerned that customers whose finances were destroyed by FTX might seek to claw back the brothers’ donations.
For instance, Guarding Against Pandemics had retained PLUS Communications, an arm of conservative messaging organization FP1 Strategies, to help build its brand in Washington — work that abruptly halted in the past week, said people familiar with the arrangement.
The FTX Future Fund awarded $1.5 million to Stanford University’s Center for Innovation in Global Health in July for seed grants intended “to catalyze research and innovations that prepare for and help prevent the next pandemic.”
We are excited to announce a new pandemic preparedness and response seed grant program, launching in Fall '22, to catalyze @Stanford -based research to prepare for and prevent the next #pandemic: https://t.co/m63X4Pa0r2@ftxfuturefund pic.twitter.com/b5XXSRwPjm
— Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health (@StanfordCIGH) July 11, 2022
But Stanford has taken down the announcement in the wake of FTX’s troubles. Michele Barry, a global health expert who directs the Stanford center, said Sam Bankman-Fried had reached out to her for advice on how to have an impact on pandemic prevention.
“He was smart, thoughtful and publicly spirited,” Barry wrote in a text message. “He was personally engaged and passionate about using his money to make a difference.”
The Bankman-Frieds’ family foundation in February also committed $5 million to ProPublica, a nonprofit news organization, to support reporting focused on pandemic preparedness and biosecurity, including one-third of the grant delivered upfront. The funding has subsidized several staff and articles — including a high-profile story with Vanity Fair about the possibility that covid leaked from a Chinese laboratory, which frustrated some of the Bankman-Frieds’ pandemic advisers who pointed to criticism of its translations of Mandarin Chinese. ProPublica was told last week that the remaining two-thirds of the grant is being paused, a spokesperson confirmed.
“ProPublica is committed to continuing this investigative work,” spokesperson Alexis Stephens wrote in an email, adding the publication has continued to review questions raised about its article with Vanity Fair and plans “to report back to our readers in the near future.”
Taking on Washington
Raised in an elite academic family, as the sons of Stanford Law professors, and the nephews of Linda Fried, dean of Columbia University’s public health school, the Bankman-Fried brothers witnessed debates about how to shape policy — such as watching how their father went to war with tax lobbyists in a bid to simplify tax filings — and became committed to philanthropy at a young age.
Both brothers did stints at Jane Street Capital, a quantitative trading firm, but while Sam continued in the financial world, Gabe pivoted to work in Washington, D.C., as a data expert for a progressive organization before taking a job in 2019 as legislative correspondent for Casten, an Illinois scientist who had just been elected to Congress. Two former colleagues in Casten’s office recalled Gabe Bankman-Fried’s quixotic efforts to automate office tasks, such as trying to set up a program that would help automate the congressman’s replies to constituents’ letters — a difficult goal, given the idiosyncratic nature of such letters. A spokesperson for Casten declined to comment on Gabe Bankman-Fried’s tenure, citing staff turnover.
While the brothers have largely retreated from public view this week, they have expounded on their philosophy in interviews over the past two years. Sam Bankman-Fried said that while he worried about threats from advanced artificial intelligence and nuclear war, he was particularly concerned about what he regarded as the inevitable arrival of a virus that would be deadlier than covid.
He lamented that Congress had insufficient incentives to focus on long-term problems like preventing pandemics. “The default is nothing happens … the momentum to push for something to change has to be big enough to overcome inertia,” he said on the 80,000 Hours podcast in April, explaining why he had spent millions of dollars backing a candidate in a Democratic primary in Oregon. “The amount spent in primaries are small. If you have an opinion there, you can have impact.”
But after his handpicked candidate in Oregon — Carrick Flynn, a political newcomer who had conducted biosecurity research — received less than 19 percent of the vote in his primary race in May, Sam Bankman-Fried suggested he would reconsider future political strategies. “There’s really diminishing marginal returns here,” he told NBC’s Chuck Todd in September.
Despite such failures, the Bankman-Frieds’ pandemic-prevention lobby efforts in Washington continued expanding, as they commissioned polls, sought to hire nationally known pandemic experts as advisers, and retained an array of lobbyists across at least six organizations, according to federal disclosures and internal documents reviewed by The Post.
Guarding Against Pandemics hired a lobbyist last year, for instance, who had been a top aide to Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W. Va.) — even as the West Virginia Democrat emerged as a key vote holding up President Biden’s Build Back Better legislation, which included billions of dollars for pandemic preparedness. This year, the group also hired Ridge Policy Group, the lobby firm run by former Bush administration Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, and recently brought on Monument Advocacy, also led by a former Bush administration homeland security official.
But even as the Bankman-Frieds’ profile rose in public health circles, there were signs the brothers were out of their depth.
Gabe Bankman-Fried appeared on a June global health panel hosted by Foreign Policy magazine, alongside Matthew Hepburn, an infectious-disease physician who helped lead Operation Warp Speed. Hillary Carter, a biosecurity expert on the White House National Security Council, beamed in by video. As the two experts delved into pandemic preparedness and traded jargon, the moderator offered up a “really simple” question for the third panelist: What kept Gabe Bankman-Fried up at night?
“The thing that worries me most, quite frankly, is a much more deadly pandemic than covid. Possibly an engineered one,” Bankman-Fried responded, before repeatedly deferring to the other panelists. “There’s far more esteemed national security experts on this panel than myself.” | 2022-11-16T21:34:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | FTX collapse dooms founder’s effort to prevent another pandemic - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/11/16/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-pandemic-prevention/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/11/16/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-pandemic-prevention/ |
Keep an eye on Chiquita Brooks-LaSure. She will be key to Biden’s success.
Chiquita Brooks-LaSure is the administrator for the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services. (Evan Vucci/AP)
Chiquita Brooks-LaSure might not yet be a household name. But expect to hear about her often in the coming months.
That’s because the agency she leads, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), is poised to take a prominent role in many of the Biden administration’s top priorities on reforming the health-care system. And she has an extraordinary opportunity to make significant headway.
Earlier this week, I sat down with Brooks-LaSure, the first Black woman to lead CMS, to discuss the work ahead. Her scope is massive: Not only does she administer the federal Medicare program, but she also oversees state Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and individual insurance marketplaces that run through the Affordable Care Act. She will also be implementing much of the Biden administration’s agenda in health care, such as reining in the high cost of prescription drugs and improving health-care access and affordability.
This will be key for President Biden. During the midterm elections, he and his fellow Democrats touted their work to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, which contains multiple provisions to reduce the cost of prescription drugs. Nearly 1 in 4 Americans cite difficulties in paying for their medications. A recent study finds that 1.3 million patients with diabetes are rationing insulin because of its cost. But starting in January, insulin will become more affordable; seniors enrolled in Medicare’s drug coverage will receive it for $35 a month, a big improvement from the hundreds of dollars some patients currently pay.
The Inflation Reduction Act contains another noteworthy provision: By 2025, prescription drug costs will be capped so that seniors will pay no more than $2,000 annually for their medications.
Since the Senate confirmed Brooks-LaSure a year and a half ago, she has encountered many people for whom the cost of medications is an overriding concern. “I met a woman whose husband’s drug costs are over $17,000 a year,” she told me. “The cap of $2,000 will be a big game-changer for families like theirs.”
She will also be instrumental in delivering another hard-fought win for the Biden administration: lowering the price of prescription drugs in Medicare through direct negotiations with pharmaceutical companies. This is a seismic shift, as Congress has long forbidden Medicare from leveraging its purchasing power to obtain better deals. This is a major reason older adults in the United States pay much more for prescription drugs than their counterparts in other countries.
Then there is the looming end of the public health emergency for the covid-19 pandemic, for which CMS will also be at the forefront in managing the fallout. The emergency declaration helped Americans access free coronavirus vaccines and coverage for covid-19 treatments. An important provision in the 2020 covid-19 relief bill also required states to keep low-income families continuously enrolled in Medicaid throughout the emergency. At the moment, the emergency is slated to end on Jan. 11, 2023, though the administration has signaled that it could be extended further.
Brooks-LaSure is very worried about people suddenly losing health-care coverage. During covid, the number of Americans enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP increased by more than 25 percent. When the emergency ends, states will begin redeterminations for eligibility. As many as 15 million people could lose their health insurance, including 6.8 million who are likely still eligible but may face administrative barriers to re-enrollment.
“Sometimes people move, or they miss a letter, or they don’t fill out a form correctly,” Brooks-LaSure said. “Keeping access needs to be an all-hands-on-deck effort.”
In the meantime, hospitals and providers are still recovering from the devastation of covid. “I’ve been moved by how fragile our health-care system is,” she told me. “There are huge shortages of health-care workers and tight margins. We need to build back the system in a much stronger way.”
This involves changing the way we pay for health care. For example, CMS is working with states to take a more holistic view by funding mental health support, housing and nutrition. The agency also supports accountable care organizations that bring together doctors, hospitals, home health aides and other health-care providers to better care for vulnerable patients.
Throughout this work, Brooks-LaSure says she will focus on embedding equity as a core concept. “Covid-19 has shown us that when there are innovations, the people who are better off are those who benefit the most,” she said. “Great health-care coverage is not enough if the least among us can’t access it.”
As the United States emerges from the crisis of a once-in-a-generation pandemic, it’s clear that the task of addressing the core issues of cost and access to health care is herculean. Americans should be rooting for CMS, and the woman at its helm, to succeed in its push to achieve much-needed reform. | 2022-11-16T21:39:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Chiquita Brooks-LaSure will be key to Biden’s success. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/16/biden-health-care-brooks-lasure-cms/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/16/biden-health-care-brooks-lasure-cms/ |
Announcements from Donald Trump that would actually be a surprise
Former president Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president in 2024 on Tuesday night in Palm Beach, Fla. (Thomas Simonetti for The Washington Post)
Disgraced, twice-impeached ex-president Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he is running for president again. Is this newsworthy? Perhaps. But here are some announcements that certainly would be.
Donald Trump steps to the podium. Donald Trump says, “I have a stunning announcement to make: I spent part of my day imagining the internal world of another person.”
Donald Trump steps to the podium. “I read a book,” he announces. “For pleasure.”
Donald Trump steps to the podium. He smiles. “Today, I met an associate,” he said. “Someone savory with a lot of aboveboard business dealings. A top-feeder. Someone whom other people want to work with, because he is competent and not crooked. We had a nice lunch."
Donald Trump steps to the podium and gives everyone a big thumbs-up. “Today,” he announces, “I changed a baby’s diaper!” He waits for the cheers to die down. “It was a mess, but I was a good sport about it!”
Donald Trump steps to the podium. “Today, I compensated the copyright owner of a song that I played at my rally.”
Donald Trump steps to the podium. He waits for the applause to die down. “Today, I loved and was loved in return,” he announces.
Donald Trump steps up to the podium. “I just read up about the office of the presidency,” he announces, “and, wow, I was laboring under some big misapprehensions about exactly what its powers were and how it worked! King is different, it turns out! Whoops! I owe many people a huge apology!”
Donald Trump steps up to the podium. He heaves a heavy sigh. “I have had enough attention,” he says. “I am done now.”
Donald Trump steps up to the podium. He blows into the microphone to make sure it is working. “I saw all the billionaires who were taking the pledge to give their fortunes away,” he says, “and I wanted to take the pledge, too, but when we looked into my finances more closely it turned out that my only value was myself. So I am giving that away. I am going to spend the rest of my years in service to the community.”
Donald Trump steps to the podium and begins to deflate. He deflates and deflates and his head vanishes and his skin begins to seep out of the legs of his suit like a big tarpaulin. From within the suit, a small, high-pitched squeaking emerges, totally unintelligible to human ears. Everyone freezes on the spot, struck silent.
“I denounce racism and antisemitism,” Donald Trump says. “And not in a winking way. I would like to begin by apologizing to President Barack Obama and continue by apologizing to hundreds, thousands of others. But words are hollow. To undo the damage I have done will require work."
Donald Trump steps up to the podium and smiles. “Did you see those James Webb Space Telescope pictures, folks?” he asks. “Just exquisite. All those billions and billions of stars. I said to myself, ‘Sir, look at those stars. Do you see the stars, sir?’ It wasn’t like the solar eclipse, just some little teeny tiny thing. These things are huge! Billions and billions of stars! And my heart was seized with wonder. Seized with wonder, folks! And I thought, we are all made up of star stuff. Isn’t that a nice thought? But then I thought: Some of the stuff of the stars gets to be part of that big nebula that looks like a crab, and some of it gets to be part of me. Just part of me, folks. Not part of the big sky-crab. And I thought, what am I doing with myself to compare to the sky-crab, and I had no reply. I am going to go rethink my life to be more like the crab.”
Donald Trump steps up to the podium. “I keep making remarks about Joe Biden’s age,” he says, “but then I started counting back from the year that it is now to the year that it was when I was born, and I decided that if I took my age-related concerns seriously, I had better not run for office either.”
“I have discovered something I can do that will benefit mankind,” Donald Trump says, “and I’m going to do that. I understand that atonement is a path. For me to expect people to give me credit for having changed would be too much to ask. I don’t want credit. I just want in some small way to undo what I have done. I realize that this is impossible but it will be the one work of my life. To make a beginning. That’s all I can do, make a beginning.”
Opinion|Tutoring won’t solve our students’ learning loss. We need a moonshot. | 2022-11-16T21:39:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Announcements from Donald Trump that would actually be a surprise - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/16/donald-trump-announcement-satire/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/16/donald-trump-announcement-satire/ |
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) joins Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) to discuss Democrats' efforts to pass the Respect for Marriage Act at the Capitol on Tuesday. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
And therein lies the problem for the GOP. Republicans face a number of quandaries these days that force them to choose between loyalty to the MAGA cult and general-election viability. Do they reject former president Donald Trump in the primaries and risk him dragging down the party if he runs as an independent in 2024? Do they recruit more non-election deniers for House, Senate and state offices, understanding that those who question the legitimacy of elections are proven losers?
This is what happens when a national political party becomes almost entirely dependent on a group whose views are far out of the American mainstream. One of the great revelations of the 2022 midterms was that Democrats can run on cultural issues and win outside of deep-blue districts and states. They’d be foolish not to try to re-create that success. | 2022-11-16T21:39:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The Senate’s victory on same-sex marriage should terrify the GOP - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/17/same-sex-marriage-senate-vote-republicans/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/17/same-sex-marriage-senate-vote-republicans/ |
Jury deliberations begin for woman charged in theft of Pelosi’s laptop
Riley J. Williams. (Dauphin County Prison/AP)
A federal jury in Washington began deliberating Wednesday in the trial of an accused rioter who authorities say urged an unidentified man to steal a laptop computer from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Riley J. Williams, who was 22 when she traveled to D.C. from her central Pennsylvania home on the day of the Capitol siege, was among a mob of supporters of President Donald Trump who stormed the building while Congress was meeting to confirm Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election, according to prosecutors. She is charged with eight crimes, including aiding and abetting the theft of a laptop that Pelosi (D-Calif.) used to conduct video conferences with U.S. and foreign officials.
In a trial that began Nov. 8 in U.S. District Court, jurors were shown video of Williams exhorting rioters to push past security lines of police and climb stairs to the House speaker’s suite of offices. In his closing argument Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Samuel Dalke described Williams as a zealous instigator who helped “weaponize” a seemingly rudderless crowd.
“The danger of the mob is in the numbers, in the crush of people in that chaos,” Dalke said. “And the danger is so much worse when someone … is focusing the power of that mob. Everywhere the defendant went on January 6th, she dialed up the chaos.”
Read The Post's investigation of the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol
A video shows that when Williams entered a conference room in Pelosi’s suite, a man had his hands on an open laptop on a table. Prosecutors said Williams can be heard yelling, “Dude, take the f---ing laptop,” and, “Dude, put on gloves.” Other evidence, including video, indicates that the man then used a black cloth, possibly a glove, in picking up the laptop and putting it in a backpack, Dalke said.
Defense attorney Lori J. Ulrich said her client should be acquitted of the charge related to the laptop because her words had no influence on the thief. “It didn’t matter what she told them to do or not to do,” Ulrich told jurors in her closing statement. “That laptop was gone either way.” But Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael M. Gordon argued that Williams committed a crime just by urging the theft.
Under the law, Gordon said in court, “we don’t have to prove that her instructions mattered.”
Besides aiding and abetting the theft, Williams, of Mechanicsburg, Pa., is charged with three felonies: civil disorder, obstructing an official proceeding and interfering with police officers. She also is accused of four crimes related to disorderly conduct, and entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds.
Throughout the week-long trial, prosecutors depicted her as an obsessive election denier intent on disrupting the peaceful transfer of power, while Ulrich described her as an unsophisticated young woman who, after Jan. 6, boasted on social media about crimes that she did not commit because she “wanted to be somebody” and was caught up “in a little fantasy world.”
In urging jurors to acquit Williams of obstructing an official proceeding, Ulrich noted that the law requires prosecutors to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Williams had an “intent” to commit that offense. Ulrich argued that her client was ignorant of U.S. electoral processes and did not understand what Congress was doing that day.
Ulrich, who called no witnesses during the trial, also argued that prosecutors failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Williams committed the other crimes she is accused of.
“I won’t insult your intelligence,” she told the jury. “It was wrong for Riley Williams to be in the Capitol on January 6th. But eight different charges is an overreach.”
Dalke and Gordon showed the jury many of Williams’s post-riot digital messages to friends that amounted to a narration of her offenses that day, the two prosecutors said.
According to an FBI affidavit filed in court, Williams, in the days immediately after Jan. 6, boasted of committing crimes in typo-ridden texts and social media posts, writing: “STOLE S-T FROM NANCY POLESI,” and, “I TOOK HER GRAVEL HAMMWR TBING,” and, “I DOMT CARE I TOOK NANCY POLESIS HARD DRIVES I DON’T CARE KILL ME.”
Then, in the days after the riot, when she learned that the Justice Department was mounting one of the most sprawling investigations in its history, the prosecutors said, Williams used sophisticated software to “wipe” the digital history in her computer. She also deleted social media accounts and got a new cellphone, all of which showed “consciousness of guilt,” Dalke told the jury.
By “gravel,” she meant “gavel,” according to prosecutors. But Ulrich said her client stole nothing that day and was bragging out of excitement. “She wanted people to notice her,” the defense lawyer said. “And she got noticed.”
Jurors saw video of Williams after she left Pelosi’s office suite, clashing with police officers elsewhere in the Capitol. She was clad in black tights and a brown jacket and carried an oversize zebra-striped handbag. Ulrich repeatedly pointed out Williams’s attire to the jury, contrasting her client’s appearance with that of other rioters, who were dressed in military fatigues, tactical vests, helmets and gas masks.
“She wasn’t telling people what to do,” Ulrich said. “She wasn’t at any helm.”
But Gordon and Dalke showed the jury video of what they said was Williams loudly rallying those combat-ready rioters to attack police lines. “Lock arms! Lock arms!” she can be heard shouting, according to the prosecutors. “Push! Push!” | 2022-11-16T21:47:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Jury deliberations begin for woman charged in theft of Pelosi's laptop - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/11/16/capitol-riot-trial-pelosi-laptop/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/11/16/capitol-riot-trial-pelosi-laptop/ |
President-elect meets with U.S. envoy and China’s top negotiator, a sign of the urgency to engage with Brazilian leader on climate issues
Brazilian president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva looks on during the COP27 UN Climate Summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, 16 November 2022. (Khaled Elfiqi/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Wednesday declared at a U.N. climate conference that “Brazil is back” on the international stage, pledging to a rapturous crowd his intention to build his nation back into a global climate leader after four years of rapid deforestation of the Amazon.
Lula’s appearance at the COP27 climate talks in Egypt was closely followed both by Brazilians and globally by advocates who hope his leadership could prove crucial to international efforts to avoid the worst-case effects of climate change. Because the Amazon rainforest is so vast, its fate is critical to global emissions. And because Brazil is a major developing nation, it has the credibility and heft to pull wavering countries into increasing their climate ambitions, giving it a power that transcends its borders.
The talks were entering their final days on Wednesday, as nations argued over how much money vulnerable countries were owed for the damage of a warming world. Negotiators were having difficulty agreeing who should pay, and for what, with especially sharp disagreements about the role of China, the world’s biggest emitter, which has fewer climate obligations because it is still classified as a developing country.
It is unusual for a politician who does not yet formally hold office to dive into international negotiations in a format such as the climate talks — Lula takes the reins Jan. 1, and the current president, Jair Bolsonaro, has sent his own emissaries to represent Brazil in an official capacity at the talks. But Lula met with top officials including U.S. climate envoy John F. Kerry and China’s top climate negotiator, Xie Zhenhua, a sign of the global urgency to engage with a Brazilian leader who, unlike Bolsonaro, does not question basic climate science.
“This is an acknowledgment that the world is in a rush to discuss with Brazil again about the future of the planet and the future of the inhabitants of this planet,” Lula told a packed room of people, some of whom punctuated his speech with cheers, applause and soccer chants that included his name.
“There is no climate security for the world without a protected Amazon. We will spare no effort to bring deforestation and degradation of our biomes to zero by 2030,” he said. “The fight against climate change will have the highest profile in the structure of my government.”
Lula also offered to host a future U.N. climate conference, suggesting it could be held in the Amazon region.
Under Bolsonaro, rates of deforestation in the Amazon reached record highs. Satellite images show the ecosystem has shrunk by about 17 percent, and parts of the forest now emit more carbon dioxide than they absorb. Preliminary data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research shows that between January and October 2022, the deforestation rates were the highest since the current monitoring system began in 2015.
That means many advocates depict the election results as a crisis barely averted, even as they acknowledge the scale of the challenges Lula will face as he addresses competing interest groups and a deeply divided society that only narrowly delivered him to office.
“We Brazilians were deciding between having an Amazon or having Bolsonaro,” said Marcio Astrini, the executive secretary of the Brazilian Climate Observatory, a research group. Lula “really understands the weight of these agendas.”
In one first measure of Brazil’s newly open attitude toward international climate cooperation, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia on Monday announced an initiative to try to channel international funding toward forest protection efforts. The plan left many details unresolved, but advocates still said that the fact that Brazil was engaging in international projects was a promising sign for the future, especially as an international leader in fighting deforestation.
“The 60 million Brazilians who voted for Lula may well have voted to save the planet,” said Steve Schwartzman, who oversees tropical forest policy at the Environmental Defense Fund.
Lula was Brazil’s president from 2003 until 2010, a stretch during which Amazon deforestation also decreased even though climate issues were not the dominant focus of his presidency.
But he made global warming and deforestation major issues in this year’s campaign and vowed in his victory speech last month to elevate climate issues during his presidency — which was why he decided to attend the summit even though he is not yet in office.
The decision to go to COP27 created a logistical challenge, and he has received some criticism in Brazil for traveling to Egypt in a private jet owned by a businessman who has been investigated for corruption. Lula’s party acknowledged the political cost but said he could not afford to pay for his own private transportation and that taking a commercial flight was a safety risk.
“Lula is as convinced today about the environmental issue as he has always been about the social issue,” Marina Silva, who was environmental minister under Lula and is his spokeswoman for environmental issues, said in an interview last month.
Global climate policymakers gathered in Egypt welcomed the interest. They said that given the shared sacrifice and compromises that are often needed to advance negotiations, having the productive engagement of a major country like Brazil can make a big difference in pulling others along.
Ghanaian climate envoy Henry Kokofu called it “quite gratifying” to see Lula at the Egypt talks, especially after the country’s relative lack of climate ambition under Bolsonaro.
“Brazil is a big brother when it comes to rainforest goals,” he said.
The importance of the Amazon and the size of the Brazilian economy give the South American country much more clout in negotiations, he said. Rainforest nations including Ghana have been concerned about how previously existing programs that pay for forest preservation will fit into a new carbon market being established under the Paris agreement.
“Brazil is the forest superpower. So they exercise a lot of gravitational pull when it comes to other forest nations,” said Glenn Hurowitz, the chief executive of Mighty Earth, a Washington-based environmental activism group that has fought deforestation in Brazil.
“It’s remarkable to have a head of state of a country as big and important as Brazil making climate as big a priority as he is,” Hurowitz said. “When you combine the United States’ dramatic increase in climate action with the deforestation action Lula has planned, it could make broader international climate action significantly easier.”
Apart from eliminating the use of fossil fuels, scientists say, preserving the Amazon and other tropical forests is one of the most meaningful measures humanity can take against climate change — allowing the world to avoid about 1 degree Celsius of warming. The landscape also plays a critical role in regulating weather patterns; its trees saturate the air with a massive amount of water that ultimately rains down on countries thousands of miles away.
A study published in the journal Nature Climate Change in March showed the Amazon could soon approach a “tipping point,” at which areas of rainforest are replaced by drier, more open spaces. This would release millions of tons of carbon stored in the rainforest’s soils and trees, making it impossible for the world to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.
“President Lula’s return lived up to the immense hope of Brazilian and global society that Brazil is back as a protagonist in the fight against climate change,” said Ana Toni, executive director at the Brazil-based Institute of Climate and Society. “Only together, North and South countries, can we face this challenge, and Lula clearly understood this responsibility.”
Kaplan reported from Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Gabriela Sá Pessoa in São Paulo, Brazil; Tim Puko in Sharm el-Sheikh; and Maxine Joselow in Washington contributed to this report. | 2022-11-16T21:52:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | At COP27, Brazil's Lula vows to be a global climate leader - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/11/16/brazil-lula-climate-amazon-cop27/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/11/16/brazil-lula-climate-amazon-cop27/ |
PM Update: Turning even colder into Thursday
Sunset in the woods of Rockville, Md. (John Brighenti/Flickr)
Temperatures had a small spike on west winds this morning, briefly pushing readings into the low 50s area-wide. That’s still on the cold side for this time of year — something we can expect for many days to come. In fact, tonight is colder than last night, and tomorrow is colder than today.
Through Tonight: Any clouds of the day tend to dissipate with the loss of limited heating from the sun. Lows are largely in the upper 20s and lower 30s, with some mid-30s possible in warmer spots such as downtown. Winds are calmer than today, still blowing around five to 10 mph with higher gusts.
Tomorrow (Thursday): It’s another sun-filled day that doesn’t feel too sun-filled. That’s thanks to low temperatures and continued gusty winds. Highs are in the mid-40s in most spots. Winds blow from the northwest around 15 mph, with gusts near 30 mph.
Brrr: It’s feeling like midwinter for about another week. High temperatures from Thursday through Monday will be in the 40s with lows mainly in the 20s. This weekend, we could even see a day or two with highs failing to reach 40. Consider Washington’s coldest averages of the year: 44.4 degrees from Jan. 14-19 for a high and 29.5 from Jan. 21-26 for a low. | 2022-11-16T22:09:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | PM Update: Turning even colder into Thursday - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/11/16/dc-area-forecast-chilly-thursday/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/11/16/dc-area-forecast-chilly-thursday/ |
Commanders safety Darrick Forrest intercepts a pass intended for Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown during the second quarter Monday night. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
In the second quarter Monday night, Washington Commanders safety Darrick Forrest felt a deep shot coming. In the Commanders’ Week 3 game against the Philadelphia Eagles, quarterback Jalen Hurts had jump-started his offense by throwing downfield. Now, hoping to expand the Eagles’ lead in the rematch, he loaded up again. This put the pressure on Forrest, who was the center fielder.
In previous weeks, the Eagles had stressed deep-middle safeties with a two-route combo. One receiver would run vertical to pull the safety back, which would open up a hole in the middle of the field for an in-breaking, intermediate route. But Hurts, who has a strong arm and excellent receivers, tended to try the deep route anyway. Two weeks earlier, deep receiver A.J. Brown had slowed down, seeming to think he’d done his job as the clear-out — then saw the ball headed his way. He accelerated, elevated and caught it in double coverage for a touchdown.
On Monday night, Forrest played low in the center of the field, respecting the intermediate route, but as soon as Hurts reared to throw a deep post to Brown, Forrest turned and sprinted. Earlier in the week, a coach had told him: “When he gives you your shot, make that play.”
As the ball arced, Forrest closed the gap. He stretched out his hands, and though the ball went through them, Brown couldn’t corral it, either. Somehow, Forrest ended up with the interception.
“I don’t know how, exactly,” Forrest said later, grinning.
Washington’s four takeaways Monday — the team recovered three fumbles in addition to Forrest’s pick — are part of a shift. In the first five weeks of the season, the Commanders generated one turnover (a Forrest interception in Week 1), and since then, they’ve had 10. After solidifying its lineup in Week 5, Washington has found effective rotations, clamped down on explosive plays and been one of the better defenses in the NFL. And when the unit does make mistakes, it lessens the sting by generating turnovers.
On Sunday, Washington (5-5) will play on the road against the Houston Texans (1-7-1), one of the worst offensive teams in the league. The Texans rely on a run-heavy scheme with sure-handed rookie running back Dameon Pierce, but when quarterback Davis Mills throws, the Commanders defense will have chances to make plays. Mills has thrown nine interceptions, tied for second-most in the NFL.
In a conference call with reporters Wednesday, Texans Coach Lovie Smith credited the Commanders defensive line for the defense’s resurgence. Its dominance has allowed coordinator Jack Del Rio to trust four-man rushes and devote more players to coverage.
“They’ve built it the right way,” Smith said, adding: “To me, as you look at great defense, [it’s] like, ‘All right, do you have to rely on the blitz to be able to get pressure?’ When you don’t have to rely on that, you have a pretty special group — and [the Commanders] don’t really have to.”
Earlier this year, the lack of turnovers frustrated some younger Commanders players. They practiced “Turnover Thursdays” every week and wore shirts reminding them of the importance of takeaways, but they still dropped interceptions, failed to fall on fumbles or had turnovers negated by penalties. In late September, Del Rio admitted, “I’m surprised we haven’t got them going yet.” But he said turnovers, like sacks, come in bunches, and he expected them to come.
Special teams sparked the unit. In Week 6 and again in Week 7, the Commanders recovered a muffed punt for good field position. The next week in Indianapolis, they forced two critical fumbles and recovered both. But still, they weren’t converting as often as they’d have liked.
In Week 9, while battling Minnesota star wideout Justin Jefferson, Washington cornerback Benjamin St-Juste intercepted a pass and returned it 38 yards for a touchdown. But an official waved it off. He flagged St-Juste for defensive pass interference. In Week 10, against Philadelphia star wideout DeVonta Smith, St-Juste was flagged again.
Late in the fourth quarter Monday night, Hurts finally tried throwing deep again. He hadn’t attempted a throw over 15 air yards since Forrest’s interception. But now, he unleashed a bomb 43 yards in the air to receiver Quez Watkins, who ran a post away from St-Juste and caught the ball just beyond Forrest’s outstretched fingertips.
“I missed that play,” Forrest said.
It had the chance to change the game. Washington was only up 26-21 with about five minutes to go, and the Eagles were about to have the ball inside Washington’s 30. But as Watkins got up to run, St-Juste hit him from behind, and the ball squirted out. Forrest recovered and ran into a moshing sideline.
Later, Coach Ron Rivera credited Del Rio and the defensive staff for emphasizing the importance of turnovers during the week of practice. But in the locker room after the game, St-Juste seemed to feel it was a sense of karma that he, like his team, was starting to generate the game-changing plays he’d so often lacked earlier in the year.
“They keep calling flag on me when I’m not holding receivers,” he said. “I’m going to get the ball back. Ball never lie.” | 2022-11-16T22:09:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Commanders defense feasting on turnovers after a slow start to season - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/16/commanders-defense-turnovers/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/16/commanders-defense-turnovers/ |
The Senate Republican leader faces some emboldened critics within his caucus as some of his closest allies retire
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) walks out of a leadership meeting at the Capitol on Nov. 16. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was reelected Senate minority leader on Wednesday, overcoming the first-ever challenge to his leadership following a disappointing midterms performance for Republicans.
While McConnell’s fate as leader was never really in doubt, the challenge from Sen. Rick Scott (Fla.) ended a remarkable week of public infighting among Republicans that highlighted a delicate moment in McConnell’s tenure. He still has overwhelming support in his conference, but is losing some key allies to retirement as new members — at least one backed aggressively by former president Donald Trump — arrive.
McConnell, who was reelected to the job in a 37-10 vote, has spent more than a decade keeping his conference largely in lockstep, but it’s not clear yet how the changing makeup of the chamber will affect his ability to lead.
“I don’t own this job,” McConnell said after winning the secret-ballot election following a nearly three-and-a-half-hour discussion during which some senators raised objections to his leadership style. “I’m not in any way offended by having an opponent or having a few votes in the opposition.
“And I’m pretty proud of 37 to 10,” he added.
McConnell has faced and survived tumult within his caucus in the past. He clashed with Jim DeMint, a former senator from South Carolina associated with the tea party movement, whose political allies later funded an unsuccessful primary challenge against McConnell in Kentucky. And on Wednesday, McConnell said he’s faced bleaker political outcomes than the 2022 midterms election before.
“I was here in ’08 — talk about getting clobbered,” he said. “There were 40 of us. Forty. It took us six years to crawl out of the hole. I’m disappointed in the outcome this year, but 50 is a hell of a lot better than 40.”
Still, many Republicans are eager to have more say in McConnell’s decision-making, which could mean headaches for the leader as he steers the minority during a presidential election cycle.
“I think what you’ll see is more activism on the part of the entire conference,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.). Several members expressed their frustration about being cut out of “backroom deals” on legislation and wanted to see a more inclusive process within the conference, he added.
“Mitch took it to heart,” Cramer said of the criticism.
The Scott-McConnell feud
Allies of Scott’s and McConnell’s have been trading insults since Senate Republicans failed to gain a single seat in the midterms. McConnell warned last summer that Senate Republicans had a “candidate quality” problem, after Trump backed some first-time candidates in key battlegrounds who struggled in their races. Scott, the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, criticized McConnell for not releasing a Republican agenda ahead of the midterms, and Trump has also sought to blame the longtime leader.
Others have raised questions about Scott’s handling of the NRSC, and have called for an audit or post-mortem of how he handled funds this cycle.
Those tensions led to the first challenge against a Senate leader of either party since 1996. But McConnell’s eventual victory was never in doubt, even if a few of his members are being more vocal in their criticism of him compared to the past.
At a news conference after the vote, McConnell said he informed members of “tools” they could use to force discussions among the caucus, and pointed out that the group gets together three times a week, when any member can raise concerns.
But the leader made clear he was not considering changing his way of doing things.
“There’s nothing to negotiate,” he said.
McConnell also is losing some longtime allies next year due to retirements. Republican Sens. Rob Portman (Ohio), Roy Blunt (Mo.), Patrick J. Toomey (Pa.), Richard Burr (N.C.) and Richard C. Shelby (Ala.) are all retiring, and in some cases are being replaced by Republicans who have raised questions about McConnell’s leadership.
Eric Schmitt, who is replacing Blunt, distanced himself from McConnell over the summer, saying he did not endorse him for leadership.
The retiring senators were not just loyal soldiers but many also could be relied upon to take tough votes necessary to keep the government running. Raising the debt ceiling, for example, is necessary to avoid defaulting on the federal government’s obligations, but can be weaponized in a Republican primary.
Scott, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), all conservative firebrands, have been the most vocal in their criticism of the leader. But some more surprising voices, including Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.) have also criticized McConnell or earlier called for a delay to the leadership election, which suggests McConnell faces a broader note of defiance.
“We’ve got to do something different,” Hawley said after Wednesday’s vote.
Scott said he would keep fighting after his loss and argued Republicans still needed to put forward a clear policy agenda. He announced his challenge to McConnell on Tuesday during an hours-long airing of grievances among party members frustrated over their failure to win back the chamber.
“My resolve to stand up for what Republicans across this nation stand for has never been stronger than it is today,” Scott said in a statement, and vowed to keep fighting to reform Social Security and Medicare and other priorities. Democrats used a previous agenda Scott put out that included reauthorization votes for those programs and tax hikes on low-income people to attack Republican candidates in the midterms.
McConnell’s victory came just a day after Trump announced his reelection bid. The leader appeared to criticize the former president without naming him, saying moderate voters were turned off from the party because they associated it with “chaos” and “negativity.” He said he wanted to accomplish some unspecified but bipartisan goals in the next Congress if President Biden was willing to work with Republicans.
‘A windy place to be’
McConnell has been the Republican leader in the Senate for nearly 16 years, and will become the longest-serving leader in the Senate for either party in the next Congress.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), an ally of McConnell’s, said criticism comes with the territory. “A lot of that has to do with being a leader. Someone has to make a decision and you’re not going to have all 50 senators agree on any given decision.”
Cornyn also noted that adopting one detailed agenda, as Scott has advocated for, would be difficult for the conference, given senators emphasize different issues based on their states.
Trent Lott, a former Senator and majority leader who later served as minority whip under McConnell, said dealing with criticism from fellow Republicans was just part of the job.
“Leadership in the House and the Senate in Washington is a windy place to be,” Lott said. “Just look at the record of what’s happened to former speakers and former majority leaders. It’s pretty hard to ride that bucking bronco longer than about six or seven years.” | 2022-11-16T22:14:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | McConnell reelected GOP leader, overcoming challenge from Scott - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/mitch-mcconnell-gop-senate-leader/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/mitch-mcconnell-gop-senate-leader/ |
A brief history of people running for president again and again and again
In this July 20, 2016, photo, a delegate shows off support for Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Carolyn Kaster/AP)
Norman Thomas never served as president, though it wasn’t for lack of trying.
He was the Socialist Party’s candidate for the presidency in 1928, getting less than 1 percent of the national vote. Four years later, he ran again, faring better: More than 2 percent of U.S. voters backed his bid. But in 1936 he was back down under 1 percent, and in 1940, he fell under one-quarter of 1 percent. He didn’t do much better in 1944 or 1948.
That’s six bids earning fewer votes in total than Franklin D. Roosevelt earned in a single state in 1932. But Thomas kept running, failure to earn even a plurality of the vote notwithstanding.
Which brings us to Donald J. Trump.
On Tuesday, the former president announced his third presidential bid in the past seven years. The first one, you will recall, was successful. The second, less so. The third one might be less successful still, with there being no guarantee that Trump will earn the Republican Party’s nomination, much less somehow improve on his high-water mark of 47 percent of the vote in a general election. But that he’s trying is unusual in itself.
Since the dawn of the two-party era, there have been only two other former presidents who’ve sought reelection to the office some four years after leaving it: Teddy Roosevelt in 1912 and Grover Cleveland in 1892.
Roosevelt became president after the assassination of William McKinley in 1901 and was elected on his own in 1904. He’d made a commitment not to seek election again in 1908, but in 1912 he again sought the Republican nomination. Failing to get the GOP nod, he ran as a third-party candidate — and lost.
Perhaps that’s the path Trump, too, will follow: If he doesn’t get the GOP nomination in 2024, it’s easy to see him pushing for some sort of MAGA Party ticket. But the more likely precedent comes from the 1892 race.
Cleveland, you’ll recall, is the only president to serve two nonconsecutive terms. He was beaten by Benjamin Harrison in 1888; then beat Harrison four years later. But, as Cleveland biographer Troy Senik was quick to point out as the comparison to Trump started to gain traction, the two situations are not all that comparable.
First and foremost, Cleveland won the plurality of the vote in all three of the elections in which he ran. In other words, he got more votes than John Blaine, his opponent in 1884, and more than Harrison in both 1888 and 1892. It was just a quirk of the electoral college that gave Harrison his win the first time the two faced off.
In fact, it’s Harrison to whom Trump is most comparable. Both men won the presidency thanks to where their votes came in, not the quantity of them. Both then lost their bids for reelection. It’s just that Harrison, when asked to run again in 1896, declined to do so.
Harrison is one of more than 76 people since the Civil War to be on the general election ballot more than once. Should Trump get the GOP nomination in 2024, he’ll become one of 20 to have been on the ballot at least three times.
Most of those people, of course, are gadflies or perennial candidates who never had a shot. Do you remember seeing Earl Dodge’s name on the ballot? No? He also ran six times, beginning in the 1980s, as the candidate of the Prohibition Party. (He would have run seven times, had he not died in 2007.) But they aren’t all unknowns: Franklin D. Roosevelt, of course, ran four times. Eugene V. Debs ran five. And Richard M. Nixon was a three-timer.
But only Cleveland has a loss sandwiched between two wins. Nixon lost in 1960 before rebounding in ’68. Cleveland didn’t rebound so much as he overcame the boundaries of the electoral college.
If Trump gets the nomination in 2024, he could possibly, finally win the popular vote as he becomes the second president to serve two nonconsecutive terms. Or he could be the first former chief executive to lose two subsequent bids to serve as president.
Whatever happens, he does retain one distinction that he will hopefully keep as his own for the rest of history: He is the only former president whose tenure ended with an attempt to seize power undemocratically. If nothing else, he’ll always be able to point to that as his and his alone. | 2022-11-16T22:14:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | A brief history of people running for president again and again and again - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/trump-presidential-bids-roosevelt-cleveland/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/trump-presidential-bids-roosevelt-cleveland/ |
Companies are already preparing to market steaks, poultry and seafood grown in a lab rather than raised to be slaughtered
Memphis Meats CEO Uma Valeti shows chicken his company, now called Upside Foods, produced in a laboratory from chicken cells in Emeryville, Calif., in 2019. (Terry Chea/AP)
Wednesday’s announcement takes cultivated meat, also called cell-cultured meat, a step closer to Americans’ dinner plates, but there are still hurdles to widespread availability. Upside’s chicken-production technology is transferrable to multiple animal species, Yiannoulis said, but each product will have to be approved by federal regulators before it can go to market. Upside estimates that upon approval from the Agriculture Department, it would still be months before its chicken could be on the market.
From lab to table: Will cell-cultured meat win over Americans?
“It will have to be case by case, certainly for the first few. It won’t be boilerplate approval,” Yiannoulis said. Still, the approval signals that the agency may soon approve the products of several cultivated meat start-ups that have been seeking regulatory approval since 2018. he said.
The cultivated-meat industry has grown to more than 151 companies on six continents, backed by more than $2.6 billion in investments, according to the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit group that promotes alternatives to traditional meat. Still, initial costs of production may make products prohibitively expensive.
“It’s actually hard to make a reasonable facsimile of an animal tissue from cultured cells,” Pat Brown, founder of plant-based Impossible Foods, told The Washington Post last year. “Theoretically it’s doable, and there’s no question that it will be done at some point. But it will never be done with anything remotely like the economics you need for food.”
If lab meats can replicate the taste and texture of traditional meat — at a similar or lower cost and with fewer downsides — it could be a game changer for global nutrition, many experts have said. The Stockholm Environment Institute recently issued a report that found the production of animal-based foods responsible for as much as 20 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, and that if meat consumption continues along current trends, it will be impossible to keep global warming below the goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius.
“This is a critical milestone toward the future of food. Cultivated meat will soon be available to consumers in the U.S. who desire their favorite foods made more sustainably, with production requiring a fraction of the land and water of conventional meat when produced at scale,” said Bruce Friedrich, president of the Good Food Institute.
Not everyone, however, is convinced the public will adopt this new technology.
“The FDA is using the same regulatory review process as biotech crops, which has not resulted in widespread consumer confidence or universal marketplace acceptance,” said Gregory Jaffe, biotechnology project director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
The regulation of lab-grown meat in the United States is being done collaboratively between the FDA and USDA. Under a March 2019 formal agreement, both agencies agreed to a joint regulatory framework wherein the FDA oversees cell collection, cell banks and cell growth and differentiation. And then the USDA will oversee the processing and labeling of human food products derived from the cells of livestock and poultry.
Every firm that makes these products must get approval from each agency, whether or not they follow the same production method as a firm that has received approval, the USDA said in a statement. Companies that want to produce these products commercially must also apply for a USDA grant of inspection, and facilities will be subject to the same food safety, sanitation and inspection regulations as other meat and poultry products. The exception is cultivated seafood, which needs only FDA approval.
The FDA said in a statement it is already engaged in discussion with multiple firms about various types of products made from cultured animal cells, including those made from seafood cells, and that the FDA is ready to work with additional firms developing cultured animal cell food and production processes. | 2022-11-16T22:44:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | FDA determines first cultivated meat safe for human consumption - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/11/16/fda-lab-meat-approval/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/11/16/fda-lab-meat-approval/ |
The pound’s fall is partly America’s fault
A stack of one pound sterling coins in front of the Union Jack. (Hollie Adams/Bloomberg)
Inflation in the United States — now 7.7 percent year over year — is relatively quiet compared with what has happened in many European countries that were exposed to the soaring cost of gas when Russia cut off supplies. Inflation is 11.1 percent in Britain, 14.3 percent in the Netherlands and 11.6 percent in Germany, which is known for its constitutional inflation hawkery. The war in Ukraine that resulted in the gas crisis is also contributing to a lot of uncertainty. By comparison, the United States appears serene and prosperous — comparatively attractive for investors seeking a haven for their money.
Which is why, although British goods and services are cheap, I didn’t buy many. I wasn’t as austere as when I lived in London — for one thing, I was staying in a hotel rather than a flat, so I had to eat out. But the most expensive thing I bought was a cheap suitcase to replace one that proved unequal to the job of holding my stuff. Other than that, I mostly enjoyed — for free — interesting conversations with smart people, and some of London’s gorgeous architecture. It may be gratifying to find that as an American, I am relatively better off today. But the fact remains that we’re all in a pretty perilous condition. | 2022-11-16T23:06:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The pound’s fall and the dollar's rise illustrate Britain and Europe’s inflation problem - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/16/pound-sterling-inflation-united-states-dollar/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/16/pound-sterling-inflation-united-states-dollar/ |
NEW YORK — Americans are bracing for a costly Thanksgiving this year, with double-digit percent increases in the price of turkey, potatoes, stuffing, canned pumpkin and other staples. Higher production costs are only part of the reason; disease, rough weather and the war in Ukraine are also contributors. Turkey supplies are at their lowest point since 1986 after a deadly avian flu wiped out flocks, and prices are up about 28%. But experts say there won’t be shortages of whole birds because producers shifted production to meet Thanksgiving demand. Meanwhile, stores like Walmart, Lidl and Aldi are offering deals to lessen the sticker shock.
WASHINGTON — Christopher Waller, a key Federal Reserve official, added his voice to a rising number of Fed officials who have suggested that the central bank will likely slow the pace of its interest rate hikes beginning in December. Waller, a member of the Fed’s Board of Governors, said he was open to raising the Fed’s key rate by a half-point next month in light of evidence that inflation may be cooling. At each of its four most recent policy meetings, the central bank has raised its benchmark rate by an aggressive three-quarters of a point. The cumulative effect has been to make many consumer and business loans costlier and to raise the risk of a a recession.
WASHINGTON — Americans stepped up their spending at retailers, restaurants, and auto dealers last month, a sign of consumer resilience as the holiday shopping season begins amid painfully high inflation and rising interest rates. The government said Wednesday that retail sales rose 1.3% in October from September, up from a flat reading in September from August. The increase was led by car sales and higher gas prices. Still, excluding autos and gas, retail spending rose 0.9% last month. Even adjusting for inflation, spending increased at a solid pace. Prices rose 0.4% in October from September.
WILMINGTON, Del. — Tesla CEO Elon Musk is defending himself in a shareholder lawsuit challenging a compensation package he was awarded by the company’s board of directors that is potentially worth more than $55 billion. Musk appeared in a Delaware courtroom Wednesday. He denied that he dictated terms of the 2018 compensation package or attended any board or committee meetings at which the plan was discussed. Musk said instead that he was entirely focused on the execution of the company. An attorney for the shareholder plaintiff spent much of his early cross-examination trying to draw Musk into admitting that he controls Tesla to such an extent that he can sway the board to do his bidding.
NEW YORK — Billionaire Elon Musk, who just took over as the chief executive at Twitter after buying the company, says he does not want to be the CEO of any company. Musk took the witness stand Wednesday in a Delaware court to defend himself in a shareholder lawsuit challenging a compensation package he was awarded by Tesla’s board of directors that is potentially worth more than $55 billion. While testifying, Musk said “I expect to reduce my time at Twitter and find somebody else to run Twitter over time. Musk sent an email to Twitter employees earlier telling them that they must be ” extremely hardcore” to build “a breakthrough Twitter 2.0” He said anyone who cannot keep up can resign.
NEW YORK — A host of Hollywood and sports celebrities including Larry David and Tom Brady were named as defendants in a class-action lawsuit against cryptocurrency exchange FTX, arguing that their celebrity status made them culpable for promoting the firm’s failed business model. FTX has been in the public eye for more than a week, after the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange ended up with billions of dollars worth of losses and had to seek bankruptcy protection. The lawsuit names “Seinfeld” creator David, as well as star quarterback Brady, basketball players Shaquille O’Neal and Stephen Curry, and tennis star Naomi Osaka, among several others.
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers plan to investigate the failure of FTX, the large crypto exchange that collapsed last week and filed for bankruptcy protection, leaving investors and customers staring at losses that could total in the billions of dollars. The House Financial Services Committee said Wednesday that it expects to hear from Sam Bankman-Fried, the 30-year-old founder and former CEO of FTX, who was previously hailed as a hero in the crypto community but now faces potential civil and criminal charges related to FTX’s collapse. The panel also expects to get testimony from FTX representatives, other crypto exchanges including Binance, Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund, Alameda Research, and others at a December hearing. | 2022-11-16T23:23:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Business Highlights: Costly Thanksgiving, retail sales rise - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/business-highlights-costly-thanksgiving-retail-sales-rise/2022/11/16/766f89c8-65fa-11ed-b08c-3ce222607059_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/business-highlights-costly-thanksgiving-retail-sales-rise/2022/11/16/766f89c8-65fa-11ed-b08c-3ce222607059_story.html |
Climate change made deadly floods in West Africa 80 times more likely
Summer and fall flooding displaced 1.5 million Nigerians and killed 612
People walk through floodwaters in Hadeja, Nigeria, on Sept. 19. (AP)
Devastating floods this summer and fall displaced 1.5 million Nigerians and killed 612. In all of West Africa, more than 800 people died. Researchers have determined that human-caused climate change made the excessive rainfall behind the flooding 80 times more probable, according to a new analysis published Wednesday.
The researchers, from the World Weather Attribution group, which evaluates the impact climate change has on extreme-weather events, made several related findings:
The rainy season in West Africa was 20 percent wetter than it would have been without the influence of climate change.
Throughout West Africa, prolonged rain events such as the one just experienced now have a 1 in 10 chance of happening each year; previously they were exceptionally rare.
Short periods of intense downpours, which worsened the recent floods, have become twice as likely in the Lower Niger Basin region because of climate change.
In their analysis, researchers uncovered what they described as a “very clear fingerprint of anthropogenic,” or human-caused, climate change.
The analysis employed weather data and climate models to compare present climate conditions to the past. The researchers focused on the Lake Chad Basin, which saw a wetter-than-average rainy season, and the Lower Niger Basin, which saw short spikes in very heavy rain, to analyze climate change impacts.
Running simulations with and without the influences of greenhouse gas emissions and aerosol pollution, the researchers were able to quantify how climate change altered the risk of extreme rainfall.
Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Benin were among the countries hit hardest by the flooding. Nearly 200 Niger residents and 22 people in Chad were killed.
The disastrous flooding was another example of extreme weather — intensified by climate change — disproportionately affecting vulnerable zones.
“In regions such as West Africa … there is less data and less scientific attention than in richer parts of the world,” said Maarten van Aalst, a researcher and director of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Center, one of the analysis’s authors. “The floods resulted in massive suffering and damages, especially in the context of high human vulnerability.”
West Africa’s typical rainy season spans from May to October, but this year’s rainy season started early. Nigeria and Niger were the first to experience sweeping floods.
In Nigeria alone, flooding injured 2,776 people, damaged 123,807 homes and inundated 392,399 hectares of farmland, said Sadiya Umar Farouq, the minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development.
“We sympathize with the families of those who lost their lives, those who have lost their livelihoods and property. This is very unfortunate,” Farouq said in a statement.
“These are natural disasters, and we pray we don’t see this again,” she added.
But the analysis concluded that the area will see such flooding with even greater frequency in the decades ahead.
The increased prevalence of these flood events will leave already vulnerable communities more susceptible and less able to bounce back.
“This can be in a physical sense, for instance if flood-protection measures have been destroyed, or houses are rebuilt with more vulnerable materials,” van Aalst told The Washington Post. “But also in terms of human vulnerability, for instance if people have invested their assets or savings to pick up their lives and then don’t have that buffer anymore if a next shock arrives.”
Along with its analysis of climate change role’s in the West Africa flooding, researchers attempted to learn the part it played in 2021’s drought in the Sahel region. The semidesert region, which depends on annual rain for crop production, took a major hit when less than 40 percent of its crop water needs were met that summer. Because of limited available data, however, the researchers were unable to determine whether human-caused warming was a factor.
The report from the researchers said both analyses point to West Africa’s vulnerability to swings in precipitation, which will only get worse as temperatures warm.
Some scientists are calling for wealthier countries, particularly in the West, to financially address the impacts of extreme weather events and climate change in suffering poorer countries.
“It is only fair that we see that challenge as part of the global responsibility to address the climate crisis: We all need to reduce emissions to avoid risks getting further out of hand but also invest much more in adaptation to reduce vulnerability to increasing hazards, and enhance capacity to cope with impacts, especially in the most vulnerable communities,” van Aalst said.
Twenty-two researchers were involved in the analysis of the floods in West Africa and 18 for the Sahel drought study.
The World Weather Attribution project has also analyzed more than a half-dozen other extreme-weather events this year to assess the influence of climate change. For example, it found that climate change made the record-setting heat in Britain in July 10 times more likely, and the extreme heat in India and Pakistan during May and June 30 times as probable. It also determined that climate change increased the rainfall that triggered summer flooding in Pakistan by 50 to 75 percent. | 2022-11-16T23:24:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Climate change made deadly floods in West Africa 80 times more likely - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/11/16/nigeria-floods-climate-change-attribution/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/11/16/nigeria-floods-climate-change-attribution/ |
Former president Donald Trump gestures after announcing another run for president Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Tuesday night, Former president Donald Trump announced his fourth bid for the White House in 2024. The announcement comes just a week after voters decidedly rejected the candidates he backed in the midterm elections.
Trump has taken the brunt of the criticism from his fellow Republicans who aren’t sold on having him represent the party again, with potential rivals already planning to challenge Trump for the nomination.
National political reporter Isaac Arnsdorf recaps last night’s announcement and outlines the potential obstacles, both legal and political, on Trump’s 2024 road to the White House.
Subscribe to The Post’s new morning news podcast, “The 7,” on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen. | 2022-11-16T23:24:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Trump is back. Back again. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/post-reports/trump-is-back-back-again/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/post-reports/trump-is-back-back-again/ |
A Calif. law that takes wage-setting power from fast-food bosses sparks fight
The law stands out at a time when efforts abound nationally to strengthen workers’ rights
By Erica Werner
Fast-food workers and their supporters march past the California state Capitol in Sacramento in August. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP)
LOS ANGELES — A first-of-its-kind California law that gives an unelected council unprecedented power over wages and working conditions at fast-food restaurants is sparking a furious backlash, with wealthy business and restaurant groups taking on the state’s powerful labor unions in an effort to overturn it.
Unions are preparing to fight back, calling the new law the most significant win for organized labor in a generation and vowing to do whatever it takes to protect it. “It’s a watershed moment in the history of the labor movement,” said Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union.
But the measure has drawn intense blowback from national business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which want the law overturned. The groups have watched warily as California has enacted a raft of worker protections in recent years, setting itself up as a national model. Opponents and outside experts are already predicting that other Democratic-controlled states might try to follow California’s lead with the fast-food panel, adding fuel to the intensifying battle nationally over worker rights.
“We are seeing a tremendous wave of worker organizing efforts across the country and this is another way I think that workers can raise their voices and be directly involved in raising standards in industry,” said Christina Chung, executive director of the Center for Law and Work at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law. “It’s really exciting, and I think other states will follow suit.”
Newsom signs law with sweeping protections for California fast-food workers
The California measure would effectively upend the power structure between workers and their bosses, allowing wages to be set by a 10-member council made up of fast-food workers, restaurant owners and others, most of them selected by the governor. The council would be empowered to enact sweeping changes, including hiking California’s $15-an-hour minimum wage to as high as $22 an hour for hundreds of thousands of mostly nonunion workers across the state.
Although Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) already signed the legislation, the law will be put on hold if opponents gather enough signatures — as expected — to get a proposition overturning it on the 2024 ballot.
Labor unions next big challenge: Keeping momentum as economy slows
The developments come as the pandemic, coupled with inflation, has forced workers, employers and policymakers to rethink the employment landscape around the nation in multiple ways. Along with some other states, California also passed a far-reaching wage transparency law that will take effect next year and require employers to include pay ranges in job listings, and also — for companies with 100 or more workers — report median salaries by race and gender. The fast-food legislation might be California’s most pathbreaking step to date.
At the same time, Congress has not passed unions’ top priority legislation — a bill called the Pro Act that would protect union organizing — and with Republicans appearing poised to take back control of the House, the door will probably slam shut on Capitol Hill for any labor-friendly bill for at least the next two years. That means unions have nowhere to look but friendly state legislatures or local governments if they want to advance their agenda.
The council created by the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act, or Fast Recovery Act, which Newsom signed on Labor Day, would be empowered to make new rules about wages, working conditions, safety standards and other issues at the thousands of fast-food restaurants in California. The council would include representation from business groups and restaurant owners, as well as unions and individual workers. But because all members would be appointed by the governor or Democratic legislative leaders, business groups are convinced it would end up as a rubber stamp for union demands.
Pay transparency is having a moment. Here's what you should know.
More significantly, according to supporters and opponents of the law, the council’s operations would amount to a dramatic departure from how wages and working conditions are currently established in this country. Typically, unionized workforces labor under contracts negotiated between unions and management, while at workplaces that are not unionized, executives simply call the shots.
The California law sets up an entirely new system, similar to some seen in European countries, with a government-appointed council making binding decisions on many key issues. Proponents and some outside observers say such a system is sorely needed, particularly after the pandemic exposed dangerous working conditions at some fast-food outlets where workers in some cases were forced to come into work sick or without proper protective equipment.
“This was always the next step in the minds of the workers, which is how are we going to win the union part of our journey and create a permanent organization where we can address sexual harassment, wage theft, burns on our arms, the lack of training and mobility,” said the SEIU’s Henry.
She said the needed change can’t happen “if we tried a very traditional way of organizing under what we consider to be outdated, racist and sexist labor laws in which we’d be going one store at a time and trying to bargain with a franchise owner who doesn’t really have the power to raise wages or change conditions because the economic decisions are made in the home offices of the multinationals.”
Business groups dispute claims of rampant labor violations, pointing to an industry-funded study purporting to show that the fast-food industry is no worse than other industries and better than many when it comes to wage theft and labor law violations. They argue that the council is actually a backdoor attempt by organized labor to get what amounts to union contracts in place in an industry it has largely failed to organize. They warn of food prices rising as much as 20 percent should the law take effect — a figure labor-aligned academics dispute — and of fewer jobs for California workers as potential store franchise owners conclude they cannot do business in the state.
“This is really about unions trying to grow their market share in the restaurant industry,” said Matthew Haller, president and chief executive of the International Franchise Association, adding that “the premise that the law was built on doesn’t stand up to the facts.”
“We weren’t dealing in facts, we were dealing in politics, and of course unions have a lot of friends in California and ultimately a lot of people are taking orders from them, not necessarily listening to the consequences of what this is going to do for food prices and the ability for franchisers” to operate in California, Haller said.
Opponents, who have already spent millions to oppose the law, say they are well on their way to collecting the requisite 623,212 signatures they need to submit by Dec. 5 to get a proposition overturning the legislation on the next statewide ballot.
Supporters are not waiting to take on the fight. On Tuesday, fast-food workers and supporters up and down the state organized by the SEIU staged demonstrations outside fast-food restaurants to try to draw attention to their cause and protest their opponents’ effort to overturn the new law.
“I don’t believe it’s fair” for business groups to try to overturn the law, said Maria Bernal, 43, who has worked at Jack in the Box in Sacramento for 10 years and was participating in Tuesday’s protest. Getting the law in place, she said, “is an emergency.” | 2022-11-16T23:26:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | A Calif. law that takes wage-setting power from fast-food bosses sparks fight - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/11/16/fast-food-wages-california/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/11/16/fast-food-wages-california/ |
The top U.S. general has drawn scrutiny for suggesting that winter may present Ukraine an opportunity to explore a peace deal with Russia
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley, foreground, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Nov. 16. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
The Pentagon’s top general on Wednesday doubled down on his assessment that the likelihood of Ukraine fully vanquishing Russia on the battlefield is “not high,” as he sought to contextualize his recent suggestion that the government in Kyiv should consider the coming winter an opportunity to negotiate an end to the conflict.
Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters emphatically that the United States would “continue to support Ukraine as long as it takes to keep them free” and that it was “up to Ukraine to decide how or when or if they will negotiate with the Russians.” But he was equally resolute in his belief that the approaching seasonal shift, when pace of combat is expected to slow, could provide “a window” to a political solution — as pushing Russia out of Ukraine completely would be “a very difficult task,” while the likelihood of Russia defeating Ukraine “is close to zero.”
It was similar comments, delivered by Milley during a speech in New York last week, that infuriated Ukrainian officials, who have vowed to take back all Russian-occupied areas, and set off a scramble within the Biden administration to dispel any impression that U.S. support may be waning. Asked Wednesday about those remarks, the general ticked through a list of Moscow’s recent battlefield losses, emphasizing his belief that such extensive setbacks would give Kyiv the upper hand should peace talks resume.
“Russia right now is on its back. The Russian military is suffering tremendously,” Milley said during the news conference alongside Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. “You want to negotiate at a time when you’re at strength and your opponent is at weakness.”
The joint public appearance came as U.S. and other Western officials endorsed a preliminary assessment indicating that Tuesday’s deadly explosion in eastern Poland was probably caused — unintentionally — by Ukraine as its military tried to intercept incoming Russian missiles. The White House and the Pentagon each said they had seen no evidence to contradict those findings, announced earlier by Poland’s president.
Austin said that the United States, which maintains a substantial military presence in Poland, had dispatched experts to aid in the Polish-led investigation and that “our information supports” the early findings. Like other U.S. and Western officials, he said that “the world knows that Russia bears ultimate responsibility for this incident,” which coincided with a mass strike across Ukraine on Tuesday.
Ukraine accused Russia initially of being responsible for the explosion, and President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday rejected assertions that his country’s military was probably at fault in what has been characterized as an unfortunate accident. Milley told reporters that he tried to contact but was unable to connect with his Russian counterpart as the incident in Poland raised fears of a broader escalation.
Zelensky has ‘no doubt’ missile that hit in Poland was not Ukrainian
The Polish explosion occurred on what the Pentagon said was a record-setting day of Russian strikes throughout Ukraine, including in Lviv, about 50 miles from the site on Tuesday. Milley said the Kremlin’s efforts to target Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, including its electrical grid, amounted to a “war crime,” adding that “over a quarter of Ukrainian civilians” are living without power as winter is about to set in.
U.S. officials anticipate that battle lines will harden in coming months, as muddy ground complicates tactical opportunities to fight. “If that happens,” Milley said, “that may become a window … for political solutions or talks to initiate a political solution.”
Austin said the United States’ role was to ensure Ukraine has the means to accomplish its goals — adding that those objectives “are the Ukrainians.’ They’re not ours.”
“In terms of what’s a good time to negotiate, we’ve said repeatedly that the Ukrainians are going to decide that, not us,” he said. | 2022-11-16T23:36:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Milley tries to clarify his case for a negotiated end to Ukraine war - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/11/16/milley-ukraine-negotiate/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/11/16/milley-ukraine-negotiate/ |
Police officers near the site where a missile killed two people on Tuesday afternoon in Przewodow, Poland. (Karolina Jonderko for The Washington Post)
PRZEWODOW, Poland — Located just four miles from the Ukrainian border, residents of the sleepy Polish agricultural village of Przewodow had gotten used to living on the edge of a country at war. But they did not expect the war’s death and destruction to land — quite literally — on their doorsteps.
The village, with a population of just 430, was left reeling after a missile hit a grain silo Tuesday afternoon, killing two local men. The reverberations spread far wider — setting off fears of an escalation that might have led to direct hostilities between Russia and NATO, of which Poland is a member.
The missile happened to hit the only agricultural building in an expanse of open fields, killing the two men instantly, said the local mayor, Grzegorz Drewnik, who rushed to the scene as first responders arrived.
For residents, the anxiety of the first days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has now returned, Drewnik said. “We had been in a stressful situation since the beginning of the war — we had a lot of refugees at first,” he said. “But we got used to it.”
Missile in Poland was accident, NATO says. But fear of war’s spillover remains.
While the village remains shaken, the fears of a widening war eased Wednesday after Polish President Andrzej Duda and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the strike was inadvertent, the result of a stray missile fired by Ukraine as part of its air defenses against a heavy Russian bombing campaign that hit infrastructure targets and cities across Ukraine, including Lviv, just 75 miles away.
Duda said the explosion in Przewodow appeared to be an “unfortunate accident,” but that investigations were ongoing. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has insisted the missile was not fired by Ukraine’s military — an assertion he reiterated in public statements Wednesday in which he demanded access to the explosion site and “proof.”
On Wednesday, the tiny village was a surreal hubbub of activity.
Police blocked off the scene of the blast while scores of journalists set up television positions on the streets. Convoys of military and police vehicles trundled past police cordons.
Photographs of the blast site, published by local media, showed a jumble of debris including wooden beams piled in a crater carved out of the earth, as well as a tractor and an overturned trailer with grain scattered beneath it. Investigators wearing gloves and white protective suits collected evidence.
Other photos posted on social media showed missile fragments, which Duda identified as a Russian-manufactured S-300 surface-to-air missile. The S-300 is used by both the Russian and Ukrainian militaries, and Duda said there was no evidence the missile was fired by Russia.
The local school in Przewodow, which serves just 71 students, did not hold classes Wednesday but was instead turned into an impromptu press center. Psychological counselors were brought in for children and adults.
“All the emotions have woken up again,” Ewa Byra, the director of the local school, said Wednesday evening.
One of the victims, 62-year-old Boguslaw Wos, was married to a school employee, who rushed to the scene of the explosion shortly after the blast occurred, her colleagues said.
“She ran toward the explosion asking where her husband was,” said Renata, the school’s 58-year old janitor who declined to give her last name. The woman has preferred to stay at school rather than return home alone. If she goes home, she can’t stop crying, Renata said.
The other victim, Bogdan Ciupek, 60, lived in a neighboring village.
Poland has a long history of tense relations with Moscow, as the capital of Russia or the Soviet Union. In 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union reached a secret deal to partition Poland, and then invaded aiming to divide the country between them. Przewodow was part of the territory occupied by the Soviets.
Now, as part of NATO and the European Union, Poland has signed treaties allowing it to seek assistance from some of the world’s strongest military powers, including the United States, Britain, and France — each of which expressed support and solidarity in the tense hours after the missile fell in Przewodow.
The two victims were well known in the tightknit community, where nearly everyone felt the explosion, which thundered through homes and rattled windows.
Father Bogdan Wazny, the local priest, was in his church reading a book when the missile struck at about 3.40 p.m. At first, like other residents, he thought it might be a gas explosion. Some residents reported hearing two large bangs.
Wazny said he did not imagine that Russia’s war in Ukraine had spilled over into Poland.
“The border that is here also mentally cuts us off from the war,” he said.
Life in Przewodow is quiet, the priest said, with residents’ main complaints being lack of public transport and amenities. He said his relatives could never remember the name of the village. Now, he suspects, they will never forget it.
“Unfortunately for this tragic reason,” Wazny said after presiding over evening mass Wednesday, which was held in remembrance of the two parishioners who lost their lives.
Only four residents showed up, weeping quietly in the pews at St. Albert Chmielowski Church. They were far outnumbered by journalists. Generally, fewer than 10 people attend weekday services, Wazny said, adding that the community remained in shock.
“The deaths of two people are a tragic event, but especially for such a small community where everyone knows each other,” he said. The two victims had helped renovate the church, he said.
“This is a simple village,” said Tomak Boguslaw, 35, as he chatted with friends outside the local shop, which was cut off from the main road by police cordons.
Now conversations had turned to funerals and complicated issues like Article 5 — the collective defense provision in NATO’s founding treaty. “It really is a tragedy,” Boguslaw said. | 2022-11-16T23:37:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Przewodow, border village in Poland, hit by deadly fallout of Russia's war - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/16/przewodow-poland-missile-nato-russia/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/16/przewodow-poland-missile-nato-russia/ |
D.C. police close probe into death of Putin critic, but questions remain
The medical examiner said Dan K. Rapoport died from trauma due to a fall, but listed the manner of death as ‘undetermined’
D.C. police said Wednesday they have closed their investigation into the death of an international investment banker and critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin after an autopsy found the businessman died from trauma due to fall, but listed the manner of his death as “undetermined.”
The less-than-definitive ruling in the death of Dan K. Rapoport leaves unanswered questions about the moments before he was found fatally injured on Aug. 14 in front of his apartment building at 2400 M Street NW, in the District’s West End. Police had responded to a call there for a person who had reportedly jumped off the roof.
Police have said they do not suspect foul play. On Wednesday, the police department’s chief spokesman, Dustin Sternbeck, said, “Currently there is not an ongoing investigation into this matter.” He added that the status could be reevaluated should additional information or evidence become available. No other details were provided.
Rapoport’s death sparked significant interest, particularly abroad, with some noting that critics of Putin have previously been attacked or met untimely deaths. Rapoport voiced support for Ukraine and criticism of Putin on his Facebook page.
He was found outside the 2400 M Apartments, a nine-story luxury complex with a rooftop pool located near Foggy Bottom, where the State Department is located, and Georgetown, an upscale neighborhood. A manager at the apartment building declined to comment and would not allow a reporter access.
A police report says Rapoport had $2,620 in cash, a Florida drivers’ license, a cracked cellphone, a lanyard for keys, a black hat and orange flip-flops. He died at a hospital.
In a statement, the D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said Rapoport died from “multiple blunt force injuries due to a fall from height.” The manner of death was ruled undetermined, and the type was listed as “sudden/unexplained.”
D.C. police probe death of international businessman critical of Putin
The medical examiner’s statement says that undetermined is used “when there is insufficient information to assign another manner.” Those other categories include homicide, suicide, accidental and natural causes. Authorities declined to elaborate or make the autopsy report public.
Rapoport’s wife, Alyona, did not respond to a message sent through Facebook. In an earlier posting on that social media site, she described herself as “heartbroken” over her husband’s death.
According to news accounts, Rapoport had been a successful businessman in Moscow and had run a company based in D.C. called Rapoport Capital, which was founded in 2012. He had lived in D.C. and moved to Ukraine around 2017. He returned to D.C. last spring, a few months after Russia invaded its neighbor.
David Satter, an author on Russian history and former foreign correspondent there who has taught at universities and had met with Rapoport, questioned how police could close their investigation without a definitive ruling from the medical examiner.
“I personally find his death very suspicious,” Satter said Wednesday.
Satter said he called Rapoport’s wife on Wednesday and said she told him she is not yet ready to speak publicly. He said the wife told him she does not yet have a copy of the autopsy report.
Yuri Somov, an interpreter and close friend of Rapoport and his family, said he does not believe Rapoport was killed in a state-sponsored attack. He noted Rapoport had lived and survived in Moscow as a businessman in the 1990s, when such occupations could be perilous, and then in Ukraine, a short distance from the Russian border.
“He was a very successful businessman at a very dangerous time in essentially a lawless country,” said Somov, who lives in the District and, along with Satter, had previously been interviewed about Rapoport by Politico. “You didn’t have to do anything wrong or questionable to be squeezed, or to disappear, or die.”
After he left Kyiv and returned to the U.S. earlier this year, Somov noted his friend didn’t hide “in the middle of nowhere,” but resided “in downtown D.C.,” where a state-sponsored killing is “exponentially more challenging.”
Somov described Rapoport as generous and thoughtful, and despite being a businessman, also a “complete romantic” — pursuits not generally seen as compatible.
He said he had contact with Rapoport in late June, when they texted about meeting for lunch. Rapoport canceled when he had to drive to an airport to pick up his dog, flown in from Ukraine. Then Somov said he went on vacation.
They never got to lunch.
“I kept thinking about how I should not have procrastinated after I came back from the beach with my 8-year-old,” Somov said. “I thought ‘I’ll call him next week. Then next week.’ Three weeks later, he’s gone.”
Omari Daniels contributed to this report. | 2022-11-16T23:45:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | D.C. police close probe into death of banker critical of Putin - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/16/russia-putin-banker-dc-death/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/16/russia-putin-banker-dc-death/ |
The results prompted Michigan’s secretary of state to predict that democracy will emerge stronger than it was before former president Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 vote
Voters at a Detroit high school on Election Day. (Nick Hagen/For The Washington Post)
All of that led Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) to make a bold prediction, one that might have seemed far-fetched before the vote: “Democracy ultimately will emerge from this time period stronger than ever before — more robust, healthier, with more people engaged and believing in it than perhaps they did back in 2018 or 2019.”
Denialism is one of several issues expected to play prominently next month in Georgia’s runoff race between Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D) and Republican Herschel Walker, who has embraced Trump’s lies about the 2020 election.
Evers, Shapiro and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) showed they come from “the governing, pragmatic wing of the party,” he said.
“They weren’t seen as kind of fire-breathing ideologues by any means,” Timmer said. “I think that those three campaigns are by and large the template for national Dems to look at how to win purple states.”
The relatively smooth election process and the repudiation of election deniers was heartening to many election officials who had watched the systems they run undermined by Trump’s push to overturn the 2020 presidential vote.
“It doesn’t mean that denial’s gone away,” said Chris Thomas, Michigan’s former elections director. “But we can maybe grab some of those people that are tightly tethered to the Trump operation and independents to get a breather and say, ‘Yeah, okay, this system worked.’”
Michigan’s adoption of the state constitutional amendment on voting rights comes four years after voters by a wide margin adopted a measure establishing no-excuse absentee voting and allowing people to register to vote at the polls.
The new voting rights amendment, approved with 60 percent of the vote, is far-reaching. It establishes nine days of early voting, expands the use of ballot drop boxes and ensures voters who don’t have photo IDs with them can cast ballots by signing affidavits affirming they are who they say they are.
“The voters want a secure and accessible election,” said Christina Schlitt, co-president of the League of Women Voters of Michigan. “And we heard loud and clear from Michigan voters … that all parties were rejecting attacks on democracy and elections.”
“There was no red wave. There was not even a red sprinkle,” Street said. “We’re clearly still a very purple state in terms of the attitudes of the electorate. But I think Democrats offer pragmatic solutions and Doug Mastriano offered divisive rhetoric.”
Michigan has allowed voters to mail in absentee ballots or fill them out in clerk’s offices. In either case, the clerks did not count the absentee ballots until Election Day. Under the new provision, voters will have opportunities to go to early voting centers, fill out ballots and feed them into voting tabulators. The machines can quickly calculate the results on Election Day, easing the workload for clerks and reducing the chances that election deniers would seize on vote-tallying delays to promote false claims.
“We’re a nation that has the freedom to vote,” she said. “In some areas there’s low participation. I think it’s on us to provide opportunities for it to be easier and to meet the voters’ needs.”
Chris Swope, Lansing’s city clerk, said he is not worried about the additional duties he and his staff will have to take on.
“To me, this is a voter-positive measure,” he said. | 2022-11-16T23:45:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Election deniers face especially stiff rebuke in Great Lakes states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/election-deniers-defeated-great-lakes/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/election-deniers-defeated-great-lakes/ |
Karen Bass is first woman elected Los Angeles mayor
Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), the mayor-elect of Los Angeles, stands for a portrait in her Washington office in 2020. Bass represented L.A. in Congress for more than a decade before running for the mayorship of the nation's second-largest city. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)
LOS ANGELES — U.S. Rep. Karen Bass was elected the next elected mayor of Los Angeles on Wednesday, taking the reins in the nation’s second-largest city during an intense period of soul-searching as it reels from a racism scandal and seeks fresh answers to seemingly intractable problems like homelessness and corruption.
The Democratic congresswoman prevailed over billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso to become the first woman elected to lead the city and just its second Black mayor. The race was Los Angeles’s most expensive contest ever and remained close until the final days of a week-long count, when Bass pulled decisively ahead and never lost her advantage. As of Wednesday evening, Bass held an insurmountable lead of just over six percentage points, and the Associated Press projected her the winner.
In Los Angeles, a liberal city that hasn’t elected a Republican mayor in more than two decades, Bass pitched herself as the progressive choice. But she also carried the imprimatur of the party establishment, winning endorsements from Democratic heavyweights like former president Barack Obama, President Biden and Vice President Harris. At a rally on the eve of the election, Harris, a fellow Californian, praised Bass for “fighting for the people whose voices aren’t in the room but must be present.”
Nonetheless, Bass faced a formidable challenge from Caruso, who sank $100 million of his own money into the race and looked to seize on Angelenos’ growing frustration with an uptick in violent crime. Until recently, he was a registered Republican and his election would have represented a rightward lurch for the city. He promised to swell the city’s police force to record levels and build temporary housing to shelter 30,000 homeless people in his first 300 days in office. Bass has called Caruso’s proposal unrealistic and pledged to house about 17,000 people in her first year.
While some of his new party’s biggest names spurned him, Caruso received several splashy celebrity endorsements in a city of stars, including from Snoop Dogg, Kim Kardashian and Katy Perry.
Perry, who was born in Santa Barbara, shared a selfie of her electronic ballot cast for Caruso, saying she’s voting for him “for a myriad of reasons (see the news) but in particular because Los Angeles is a hot mess atm.”
The city’s politics have been beset by scandal for years, but the latest made international headlines and shook the foundation of Los Angeles’s self-ascribed identity as a harmonious, multiethnic metropolis. Last month, a leaked recording emerged capturing four of the city’s most powerful Latino leaders disparaging colleagues and flinging racist remarks about a Black child, indigenous immigrants and Jewish residents.
Even the White House, which rarely involves itself in such a local political fracas, weighed in, calling for everyone captured on the recording to resign, just one day ahead of Biden’s visit to Southern California, where he appeared with Bass in support of her candidacy.
“Those officials must resign, but that’s not enough,” Bass said. “We need a new direction in L.A. and new leadership that will make sure we reject the politics of divide and conquer.”
Caruso cast the leaked conversation as another example of shady political dealing in the city — the four leaders were discussing how to draw new council district lines in order to boost Latino representation, largely to the detriment of Black voters.
“They went into a backroom to carve up the city for their own special interests, for themselves,” Caruso said during the debate. “The system is broken, and it’s full of corruption.”
Bass has for years worked with some of the figures implicated in the tape and she pointed to the track record of her nonprofit organization, the Community Coalition, which seeks to unite people across racial and ethnic lines, as a model for healing in the city. The group, known as “CoCo,” was mentioned several times on the recording as a derisive shorthand for Black political interests.
Activist Eunisses Hernandez, who defeated Cedillo in the primary, and labor organizer Hugo Soto-Martinez, who had a double-digit lead over incumbent Mitch O’Farrell as of Wednesday, would join sitting progressive members Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Nithya Raman, forming a new bloc ideologically to the left of the new mayor.
The mayor-elect, before her time in Congress, served as speaker of the California Assembly and was tasked with keeping members in line as the state navigated a brutal budget shortfall during the Great Recession — an experience cutting deals across political ideologies that may inform the next four years.
Bass’s election follows results from the Los Angeles County sheriff’s race, the area’s other marquee contest this year, which saw a retired police chief from Long Beach, Robert Luna, defeat the incumbent, Alex Villanueva. The ousted sheriff’s four years in office were defined by his brash leadership style and a series of controversies, including clashes with local leaders and a law enforcement oversight board. His critics say he has left the country’s largest sheriff’s department in shambles.
Luna and Bass, two of the highest-profile elected officials in Southern California, will take charge of their respective offices at a time when residents of Los Angeles — the city and county — are fed up with their leaders. Their jobs are different, but they will share at least one goal: rebuilding the public’s trust. | 2022-11-17T00:20:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Karen Bass is first woman elected Los Angeles mayor - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/bass-mayor-los-angeles/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/bass-mayor-los-angeles/ |
Former president Donald Trump announces his bid for president at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., on Tuesday. In Republican leadership elections, his proxy candidates were roundly defeated this week. (Thomas Simonetti/for The Washington Post)
Wednesday morning, Trump finally got what he has been clamoring for over several years: a challenger to try to take out Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whom Trump derisively calls the “old crow.”
Across the Capitol, the Trump factor played out most clearly in the House GOP battle to become majority whip, the third-ranking post in the majority. Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) ran aggressively and used his connections to Donald Trump Jr. and pro-Trump media personalities to present himself as the most conservative contender.
Banks lost to Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), the least conservative of the three contestants, on a second ballot behind the support of many hard-working, avoid-the-spotlight Republicans who want a similarly aligned whip.
It’s the odd, quirky nature of these leadership races that confound outsiders who think they will unfold in the same manner as the broader political forces. Rather than a triumphant leader who makes great pitches on political talk shows, the modern congressional leader’s success depends on doing heavy lifting in getting legislation signed into law and an enormous amount of fundraising.
“Mitch has made the sacrifices,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said after Wednesday’s vote.
“I mean, his willingness to have tough votes,” Cramer said, “and his willingness to help navigate the place when others aren’t willing to — but they’re willing to be critical.”
In addition to his nine races for leader, he also won two for GOP whip and two for NRSC chairman. Scott’s challenge was just the second time anyone actually went all the way to contesting a vote against McConnell.
“He’s got a ceiling of about 40 percent of the conference,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a staunch conservative, said of Banks.
Emmer — who, unlike Banks, voted to certify Joe Biden’s victory — ran the National Republican Congressional Committee for the past four years, a grueling job involving travel and fundraising, leaving not as much time for the conservative media circuit.
A Google search for “Jim Banks Fox News” returns more than 12 million hits; the same search for “Tom Emmer Fox News” brings back 591,000.
The third entry in that race, Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-Ga.), already serves as chief deputy whip and campaigned as a traditional Southern conservative who wanted to work hard and help members.
In the end, the contest did not come down to the perceived Trump-family backing of Banks, but, rather, it pivoted on who would advance to the second ballot against the overly aggressive Trump-ite.
“One of you two will make it into the runoff with Jim,” Massie told Ferguson, whom he supported. “And then whoever makes it in the runoff is going to beat Jim.”
Then Emmer won, 115 to 106, over Banks in the next round, collecting the lion’s share of Ferguson’s supporters.
To be sure, those Republicans winning these leadership posts are not cutting all ties with Trump, and they are not bashing him publicly. In remarks Tuesday, McConnell pointed out that there were poor candidates in the midterm elections last week who made bad decisions, driving independent voters into the Democrats’ arms.
“We underperformed among independents and moderates because their impression of many of the people in our party and leadership roles is that they’re involved in chaos, negativity, excessive attacks. And it frightened independent and moderate Republican voters,” McConnell said.
He never mentioned Trump by name. On Wednesday, at the news conference after his win over Scott, he deflected questions about Trump’s launch of his 2024 presidential campaign.
The day before, after he was nominated for speaker by House Republicans, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) snapped when asked about Trump’s timing.
“I just won the nomination for speaker. You’ve only asked me those questions for the last two years,” McCarthy said in a brief interview.
He has publicly remained close to Trump, as a way to try to encourage him to rally his most ardent supporters to the polls for GOP candidates — and to avoid Trump opposing his elevation to speaker. Republicans on Wednesday were projected to take over in January.
More than 35 Republicans, some of Trump’s biggest supporters, withheld their support for McCarthy in Tuesday’s vote, and now he must win almost all of them over before a formal public roll call on Jan. 3, to receive the required majority vote.
And those opponents are using leverage, demanding rule changes to the favor of conservatives, to pry away at McCarthy. He may only be able to spare a couple of votes in January — and his rivals intend to grind him down before they give in.
“I think there’s a significant number of people who are just like — they view the potential of a McCarthy speakership with great disapprobation,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), who ran a protest campaign against McCarthy, said after receiving 31 votes.
“We’re a member services business, and that’s what we do. We serve our members,” he said in June. | 2022-11-17T00:20:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | In GOP leadership races, Trump loses again - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/gop-leadership-races-trump-loses-again/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/gop-leadership-races-trump-loses-again/ |
Erek Barron, Maryland’s U.S. attorney, in 2017. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)
Maryland U.S. Attorney Erek Barron told his prosecutors Wednesday that each of them will be expected to take on at least one gun case in the coming months to help tackle the crush of weapons-related charges coming into the office.
Barron, who has been in the job for about a year and a half, said he hopes the new initiative will address two challenges the office is facing — an overburdened violent crime unit and a greater urgency from law enforcement officials seeking to stop gun-related violence.
“We all gotta step up,” Barron said in an interview.
Barron made the announcement during an annual awards ceremony for the office and told his prosecutors that he, too, would be taking on a gun case alongside them.
Barron said the effort was part of the office’s continued expansion of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a program the Justice Department updated in 2021 with new strategies for prevention and prosecution of gun crime. The priorities include proactively investigating gangs, violent crime organizations and community gun violence; coordinating law enforcement training at the local, state and federal level; and prioritizing community outreach, including reentry resources for people leaving prison.
Standing before his dozens of prosecutors Wednesday morning at the U.S. District Courthouse in Baltimore, Barron recounted an incident from a few weeks ago, when a staffer came to work at the U.S. attorney’s office and found a bullet shot through their office window. It was not a targeted shooting, Barron said, but it also wasn’t the first time their Baltimore office had been shot at.
“It should be a powerful reminder of communities here in Baltimore, what they go through, here and throughout Maryland,” Barron said. “That mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers and young children have to fear random bullets and other acts of violence as they live in their homes.”
A 13-year-old girl died this week after someone shot into a car in the parking lot of a liquor store in East Baltimore and hit her instead. A 13-year-old boy in Prince George’s County was shot and killed while raking leaves in his family’s front yard last week.
“We can, and must, do more,” he said.
Prosecutors who don’t usually take on gun cases will get proper training beforehand, Barron said. A spokesperson said it was the most expansive allocation of prosecutorial resources for gun cases in the office’s history.
Before his announcement, Barron had spent the morning honoring members of the staff with service awards, many of them named for previous employees of the office, including former U.S. deputy attorney general and former U.S. attorney for Maryland Rod Rosenstein.
The awards recognized the prosecutorial and investigative work of federal prosecutors, police and support staff for cases that included a cross-state burglary spree, internet crimes, immigration cases and MS-13 gang convictions.
One prosecutor, Thomas Sullivan, was recognized for his work on the case of former Prince George’s County police office Edward “Scott” Finn. Finn, who will be sentenced in the coming weeks, pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion after authorities said he failed to disclose over $1.1 million in taxable income from his company, Edward Finn Inc., which employed off-duty police officers as security guards.
The investigation into Finn later led to the indictments of 14 more Prince George’s County police officers who were accused of partaking in an elaborate double-dipping scheme to make money as private security officers while on the clock for their regular department shifts.
Family members of a gang violence victim were also honored for their help with the investigation, which led to a conviction in the case.
“Thank you … for helping achieve justice,” Barron told them during the ceremony. | 2022-11-17T00:25:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | More U.S. prosecutors in Maryland will be assigned gun cases - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/16/gun-cases-maryland-us-attorney/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/16/gun-cases-maryland-us-attorney/ |
Mystics’ Eric Thibault will pick up where his dad left off
Mike Thibault will focus all his time as general manager and his son Eric Thibault will be the new head coach. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
The scene inside Entertainment and Sports Arena on Wednesday more closely resembled a family reunion than the changing of the guard within a professional sports franchise. Then again, this was no normal organizational shift.
Mike Thibault, the winningest coach in WNBA history, stepped away from the sideline this week and passed his whistle to his son Eric, formerly the Washington Mystics associate head coach. Mike, who held the dual role of general manager and coach, will remain in that front office position.
Wednesday’s news conference featured Mike sitting on the left side of a table with Eric in the middle and assistant general manager Maria Giovannetti on the right. Those three have worked together molding the Mystics since the Thibaults arrived ahead of the 2013 season. Mike calls himself lucky for inheriting Giovannetti, who already had a community position with the Wizards and Mystics.
In the back of the room, the family affair continued. Nanci Thibault, wife of Mike and mother of Eric, was present alongside Eric’s wife Andreya. Giovannetti’s wife Veronica was also in the room. The moment seemed to encapsulate the way the franchise has run under Mike Thibault — a familial atmosphere where character counts and relationships between teammates, coaches and the front office matter. Both Mike and Eric have said that the chemistry was off in 2021, when the Mystics missed the playoffs for just the second time since the Thibaults arrived.
At the news conference, it was also announced that Giovannetti received the title of senior vice president of strategy and vision and assistant coach LaToya Sanders, who was a starter on the 2019 championship team, was promoted to associate head coach. Mike talked about Giovannetti and Sanders as if they were family, too.
“It’s a little bit more special, to be honest, to watch your own son coach a team, because he’s grown up in pro basketball for a long period of time,” Mike said. “Both when I was in the NBA, the old CBA and the W. I’m excited because he’s had an experience as a coach growing up that a lot of people don’t get, in a sense of he’s got to see it from different angles.
“His life experiences as a coach are certainly way ahead of where I was at the same time. … He is a way better coach right now than I was at the same time.”
The on-court change is also different from most coaching changes. Eric already runs practices and has had a hands-on role in developing every player on the roster. He’s been involved in decisions, even if he wasn’t the one making the final choice. There aren’t drastic changes or cultural shifts needed for a team believed to be a championship contender.
Under Mike, the team has always been about spacing, sharing the ball and being connected on defense. The Mystics were the top defensive team in the league last season, and Eric wants to find a balance between that top-flight defensive team and the offensive juggernaut that won the 2019 title. Eric said he wants them to play with a little more pace and be better in transition while continuing to play unselfishly with great spacing.
“At the center of everything we’ve done is our player development, and that’s going to continue to be the core of what we do,” Eric said.
One interesting piece will be how the relationships with players evolve. Players often voice their frustrations to assistant coaches, and they work closer together on player development, which Eric has been particularly involved with. He said it will be important, at least initially, to have “strong input on the court into what we’re doing and how we do things.”
Still, those relationships will probably change when Eric is the one controlling playing time and other details important to players.
“I’m sure there’ll be differences,” Eric said. “One of the most important things for the head coach is your relationship with your best players, your core players, and the trust that you have that you will be on the same page when it matters. I think I’m fortunate that I’ve spent a lot of time with our core group that’s here and even in the past couple weeks, just having conversations with them just to make sure that they have a clear understanding of how I want the team to operate, how I think we can all work together.
“But there’s going to be differences, right? When you control the purse strings on playing time, it’s going to be a little bit different. And that’s where I feel exceptionally fortunate to have a great staff that has also long relationships with this group of players that’s been here.”
Giovannetti, who has had a multitude of responsibilities over the years, described her assistant GM role as being heavily involved in team operations, player experience and connecting the basketball and business side. Now she will add a focus on roster construction, free agency, strategy, salary cap management and the college scouting process.
“My daughter thinks I’m a player, and I have yet to break the news to her,” Giovannetti said with a laugh.
This week marks the biggest organizational reshuffling since the Thibaults arrived, though everyone involved has already been working together for years. Eric was speaking about getting advice on being a future father, but just as easily could have been talking about the staff when he said, “It’s a village here that I’m so lucky to be a part of.” | 2022-11-17T00:29:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Mystics's Eric Thibault will pick up where his dad left off - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/16/eric-thibault-new-mystics-coach/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/16/eric-thibault-new-mystics-coach/ |
Taylor Heinicke will start his fifth game this season for the Commanders when they travel to Houston to face the Texans. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
Taylor Heinicke will start for the Washington Commanders on Sunday when they face the Texans (1-7-1) in Houston, Coach Ron Rivera announced Wednesday.
Carson Wentz was cleared to start throwing again, Rivera said, but the veteran has yet to be designated to return to practice. Rivera indicated Wentz would need to practice before the team could consider him the starter or the backup for a game.
The determination for Sunday essentially delays, at least for a week, the bigger quarterback decision for Washington.
Rivera has said whichever quarterback is chosen as the starter going forward will assume the role with the assurance the team is committed to him. Mostly.
“I don’t want them looking over their shoulder,” Rivera said Tuesday. “I want them to understand this is the opportunity and this is where we’re going with it.”
Yet the coach qualified his statement, knowing much can change week-to-week.
“Everything’s one game at a time,” Rivera said. “I’m not getting ahead of ourselves. We’re going to focus in on winning one game at a time.”
Rivera said Wednesday that Wentz threw on the field with trainers — the rest of the team had a walk-through in the indoor bubble — but the coach did not provide a timetable for when the quarterback could be designated to return. Should Wentz be unable to serve as the backup on Sunday, rookie Sam Howell will continue as the No. 2 behind Heinicke.
Heinicke took over as the Commanders’ starter in Week 7 after Wentz fractured a finger in the win over the Bears in Week 6. The team placed Wentz on injured reserve, requiring him to miss at least four weeks, and Heinicke promptly led Washington to wins over the Green Bay Packers at FedEx Field and the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium.
The Commanders (5-5) narrowly lost to the Vikings in Week 9 but bounced back to hand the Eagles their first loss of the season in Philadelphia on Monday night, which moved Washington into eighth place in the NFC.
“You want to continue to see the consistency in what he’s doing and how he’s doing things,” Rivera said of Heinicke. “You want to continue to see him take what’s there. At times, he does have a tendency to want to try to force it in certain places, but he’s done a good job, he really has, and the guys have rallied around him.”
In four starts this season, Heinicke has completed nearly 62 percent of his passes for an average of 210 yards per game and an 82.7 passer rating.
“We have time,” Rivera said. “That’s the thing that’s on our side. [Heinicke’s] done some good things, and we’ll see how it happens this week, but to me, it’s part of having to make a decision. You got to be realistic, you got to watch, and you got to see, and that’s what we’ve been doing.”
Defensive end Chase Young’s return timetable also remains uncertain. Rivera said Young participated fully in the team’s indoor walk-through Wednesday, and the team will gauge his status based on how his body feels Thursday.
Young has missed more than a year to recover from a knee injury he suffered in Week 10 last season. The Commanders designated him to return from the physically unable to perform list Nov. 2, and they now have until Nov. 23 to activate him. It’s possible they wait until the deadline before bringing him back.
Once he does return, Young will be on a limited snap count, and the team will monitor him closely, Rivera said.
“The big part of it is, especially right now, is wanting to get as close as you can to live action, and you really can’t,” Rivera said. “So we have to try and figure out how he can get as many as good reps in the next couple of days to get a good gauge of where he is at.” | 2022-11-17T00:29:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Commanders' Heinicke to start at QB vs. Texans; Wentz’s status uncertain - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/16/taylor-heinicke-commanders-qb-wentz/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/16/taylor-heinicke-commanders-qb-wentz/ |
Crucial missteps led to tragically delayed rescue in a Seoul alley
For nearly four hours before people started dying during a Halloween celebration in Seoul’s Itaewon district, partygoers pleaded with police to divert the crowds that were packing World Food Street and pushing into a 16-foot-wide alley — a tight, sloping space where most of 158 lives would be lost in a gruesome crush.
And once that crush began, it took at least 26 minutes for emergency personnel to start effectively evacuating people. Some victims were trapped for more than an hour before rescuers reached them. The delays proved catastrophic.
A Washington Post analysis of more than 350 videos and photos, some obtained exclusively and many reviewed by experts at The Post’s request, found that multiple critical factors contributed to the tragedy and death toll in Itaewon on the night of Oct. 29.
The Post, which also scrutinized emergency call logs and interviewed dozens of witnesses, determined that the alley became dangerously crowded as early as 6:28 p.m. The first of at least 13 emergency calls came in minutes later to warn of escalating chaos, with people wedged in so tightly that there were already injuries.
At 10:08 p.m., those dynamics triggered the crush.
A few police officers and other individuals at the edge of the mayhem had been trying futilely to redirect the crowd, according to videos. At least 16 more emergency calls came in between 10:08 p.m. and 10:22 p.m., when video shows five officers struggling to pull out unconscious victims.
Yet it wasn’t until 10:39 p.m. that emergency personnel closed both ends of the alley — a lag of roughly half an hour that allowed foot traffic to continue into the area, hampered rescue efforts and undoubtedly increased the fatalities, according to the experts’ review of the materials. Another 11 minutes elapsed before police mounted a broad response, according to department records.
The number of lives ultimately lost exceeded those in recent crowd-surge disasters at an outdoor concert in Houston and a soccer stadium in Indonesia. Almost 200 people were hurt; as of Tuesday, at least eight were still hospitalized.
How police action in Indonesia led to a deadly crush in the soccer stadium
“This was the easiest scenario in terms of effectively overseeing crowd control and preventing accidents,” said Young Ook Kim, an expert on crowd movement and spatial layout and behavior at Sejong University in Seoul. “If you just go assess the site and discuss potential countermeasures, anyone who has the instincts and experience would have been able to foresee the situation.”
The genesis of the deadly crush
Halloween weekend in Itaewon, a popular nightlife district in Seoul, typically draws tens of thousands of young people. Most of the raucous celebrations take place along World Food Street — a block of restaurants and bars — and the side alleys that connect it to one of Itaewon’s main thoroughfares.
With coronavirus restrictions lifted, local businesses were anticipating bigger crowds this year. “We plan to throw an epic Halloween party since it’s the first Halloween after coronavirus. Let’s party until the sun comes up,” one bar advertised.
The festivities were in full swing by 10 p.m. that Saturday, videos show, with throngs of costumed men and women making their way up and down World Food Street and into the narrow passageway just west of the Hamilton Hotel. A DJ party was scheduled to gear up at the 108 Hip Hop Lounge, which is in the alley.
Around 10:08 p.m., something shifted in the packed crowd in front of the club, video reviewed by the Post shows. People began screaming.
“This situation is extremely serious already,” noted Mark Breen, director of Safe Events, a company that specializes in safety planning for large-scale gatherings, who looked at videos provided by The Post. During the next 10 minutes, he saw evidence of crowd crush, a phenomenon that occurs when a crowd’s density crosses a critical threshold and its movement becomes almost fluid.
Kim, who also reviewed the alley videos, saw initial markers of the crush by 10:08 p.m., with some people squeezed so severely that they would have had trouble breathing.
Survivors Zara Lily, an English teacher, and Jinhyeong Yun, an ocean engineer, described what the scene felt like. “People were pushed onto each other, and there were many times where there was a wave of pushing which made people fall forwards and then back, just like ocean waves,” Lily wrote in a message from the couple’s joint Instagram account.
By 10:17 p.m., the experts agreed, the crush had taken over. Additional pressures at both ends of the alley only made it worse.
From World Food Street on the northern end, people continued turning in, unaware of what was happening. Video shows that the street itself was so congested at one point that a man tried to climb a sign on the back side of the Hamilton Hotel to escape. Meanwhile, on the alley’s southern end, partygoers on the main thoroughfare, as well as those just arriving from the Itaewon subway station, were pushing in, too.
Videos filmed between 10:17 and 10:21 p.m. show crowds converging from both ends of a narrow alley in Seoul's Itaewon district, leading to a crowd crush. (Video: @limesarah1 via TikTok, @iwanderlista via TikTok)
Just steps from the Hip Hop club entrance, videos show people pressed hard in the crowd and wincing in pain. Many were visibly gasping for air. G. Keith Still, a visiting professor of crowd science at the University of Suffolk in England, told The Post that in those panicked moments, people “could be dying on their feet.”
How to survive a crowd crush and why they can become deadly
According to the Korean newspaper Dong-A Ilbo, area businesses had asked the city days earlier to require subway trains to bypass Itaewon station over the weekend because of concerns about the volume of people who often exit there. The Seoul Transportation Corp. told The Post that it did not receive an official request. Experts said shutting down the closest exit to the alley would have alleviated some of the congestion on Oct. 29.
Failings in the emergency response
The most efficient way to alleviate a crowd crush or crowd collapse — the latter occurs when someone in the crowd falls and causes others to fall in turn, a human domino effect — is to relieve the intense pressure by removing people from the periphery as fast as possible, experts say. In Itaewon, that meant immediately evacuating people out both ends of the alley.
But The Post analysis of available video shows that it took between 26 and 31 minutes after the crush began for emergency personnel to start doing so.
By 10:22 p.m., people were already massed on top of each other at the most jammed point of the alley. The five officers on the scene had trouble reaching individuals and pulling them out given the weight of the crowd, available videos show. Meanwhile, a photo from a bird’s-eye perspective shows that foot traffic continued in from World Food Street, exacerbating the bottleneck.
Itaewon police Sgt. Kim Baek-gyeom realized something was wrong when he and two junior officers heard screams coming from the area as they responded to an unrelated call. He radioed for backup, then he and another officer ran to World Food Street to try to keep more people from entering the alley.
“There were so many people being pushed down from the [street], pressure continued to apply to the scene, making it even more difficult to evacuate people from the pile,” he told South Korea’s Hankyoreh newspaper.
Kim said he momentarily considered whether to race to his precinct for a megaphone, then decided the situation was too dire. His desperation as he begged everyone to turn around was captured in a video mash-up that has since gone viral.
“People are dying. Move back. Please cooperate,” he implored.
A small contingent of emergency workers was first able to clear the southern end of alley. Additional support and ambulances struggled to reach the site because of traffic along Itaewon-Ro, the main street, according to walkie-talkie transcripts.
“It’s too difficult to enter via vehicle. All responders travel via foot,” the response commander ordered at 10:29 p.m.
By 10:34 p.m., no emergency personnel had yet reached the northernmost section of the crush, videos show.
At 10:39 p.m., more than half an hour after the crush started, five firefighters and four police officers are finally visible in a video of the location. Subsequent video reveals how slowly the rescue progressed.
Videos filmed between 11:02 p.m. and 11:23 p.m. on Oct. 29 show how rescue efforts by emergency personnel progressed following the crowd collapse in Itaewon. (Video: @reggiebabie via TikTok; Reddit)
“Everyone needs to come to the back side,” a responder ordered via walkie-talkie at 10:56 p.m. “The number of cardiac arrests is sharply rising.”
A little more than five minutes later, videos show emergency crews evacuating the injured onto a still very crowded World Food Street.
Not until 11:22 p.m., more than an hour after the crush began, did rescuers manage to pull all the injured and unconscious from the alley and start to triage CPR on Itaewon-Ro and adjacent areas, the walkie-talkie logs show.
Though an investigation is ongoing, police have acknowledged that both their actions before the crush and their response as it unfolded were inadequate. Investigators have raided dozens of offices as part of their probe, including those of the national police chief, Seoul Metro headquarters and Yongsan Police Station.
A completely preventable disaster
Experts say the tragedy was preventable. On Halloween weekend 2021, revelers in Itaewon were assertively directed by uniformed police officers to make sure the crowds traveled in an orderly and distanced way as a part of coronavirus prevention efforts.
No such prevention plans were implemented this fall, the first Halloween celebration in three years without a coronavirus mask or distancing mandate. Law enforcement agencies instead dispatched 137 uniformed and plainclothes personnel on Oct. 29 for crime prevention, with an eye on drug use, sexual violence and petty crime. Thirty-two officers were available to handle on-site emergencies, according to National Police Agency data.
Police agencies in South Korea have robust training for crowd control and monitoring, given the frequency of demonstrations that draw tens of thousands of protesters and the nation’s history with military dictatorship, said Kim, the crowd expert at Sejong University.
The lack of prevention in Itaewon in late October partly reflects the country’s top-down culture for law enforcement. According to some police training experts in South Korea, lower-level officials have no incentive to prepare for potentially volatile events when laws or regulations don’t require it, or to suggest prevention plans not mandated in security manuals.
“Once this crush was well underway, there was probably very little that could have been done to prevent significant loss of life,” said Martyn Amos, a crowd expert and professor of computer and information sciences at Northumbria University in England. “The overriding aim of the authorities should have been to prevent it [from] happening in the first place.”
Kelly Kasulis Cho, Samuel Oakford, Imogen Piper, Julie Yoon, Bryan Pietsch and Joyce Sohyun Lee contributed to this report. | 2022-11-17T00:55:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Seoul crowd crush victims died amid delayed rescue in Itaewon alley - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/11/16/seoul-crowd-crush-itaewon-victims/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/11/16/seoul-crowd-crush-itaewon-victims/ |
Deal sends squeegee teen accused in Baltimore killing to juvenile court
Lee O. Sanderlin
Baltimore prosecutors and defense attorneys for the teenage squeegee worker accused of fatally shooting a baseball bat-
wielding man near the Inner Harbor in July agree that the boy’s case should be resolved in juvenile court.
The lawyers also reached an agreement that would see the teen plead guilty to manslaughter and be remanded to the custody of the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services, where youths serve sentences by completing programs tailored to shaping them into productive adults.
Terms of the proposed deal came to light Monday when the family of 48-year-old Hampden resident Timothy Reynolds, who was shot dead at the busy intersection of East Conway and Light streets after approaching a group of window washers with a metal bat, spoke out about the case for the first time.
Flanked by their own attorneys at a news conference, Reynolds’s relatives criticized outgoing Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby for her administration’s handling of the case. The relatives said they weren’t consulted about the terms of the agreement and felt like their voices as crime victims were being overlooked.
The teen faces first-degree murder and firearms offenses stemming from the July 7 shooting, which sparked renewed public debate about how the city should deal with the boys and young men who have for decades sought to clean motorists’ windshields for a few dollars.
News of the agreement between the teen’s lawyers and prosecutors comes ahead of a Thursday hearing in the case to determine whether his case is resolved in adult court, where he’s currently charged, or in juvenile court, where sentences focus on restoration rather than punishment.
Tried as an adult, the teen could face up to life in prison if convicted. If the facts of his case are substantiated and he is found to be “delinquent” in juvenile court, state law says he can be kept in custody up to his 21st birthday.
It will be up to Circuit Judge Charles Dorsey to decide first whether the case is remanded to juvenile court and then whether to accept the plea agreement reached by prosecutors and the defense. It’s unclear whether both issues will be handled during Thursday morning’s hearing at the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center, which is closed to the media and the public.
“We’re just crushed, and we just want justice,” Reynolds’s widow, Shannon, told reporters Monday morning.
Shannon Reynolds said she was “blindsided” Friday when the prosecutor assigned to the case called her and relayed the plea offer. She said she had lost faith in the criminal justice system and called for Mosby to recuse herself from the case.
Reynolds’s sister, Rebecca “Becky” Reynolds, said the family is “being further victimized by the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office, who took an oath to fight for the victim, and the victim is not being fought for here.”
Former Maryland deputy attorney general Thiru Vignarajah, who has twice run unsuccessfully for Baltimore state’s attorney and once for mayor, is representing the family free, he and the family said.
Vignarajah called the plea offer extended by prosecutors “laughable,” saying it would “essentially amount to him being returned to the juvenile system, spending perhaps nine months in custody and then released.”
Defense attorney Natalie Finegar, who is not involved in the case, said it’s common for those convicted in juvenile court to be required to complete six- or nine-month programs, but that they also could be asked to complete multiple programs and are not released without a judge’s discretion.
“It’s treatment-oriented, and it depends a lot on how the kid is doing and the judge’s assessment of what is appropriate at that point,” Finegar said.
Representing the teen, who was 14 at the time of the fatal shooting, are attorneys J. Wyndal Gordon and Warren Brown. They have sought to have his case transferred to juvenile court since they took on his defense, while maintaining he acted in self-defense or to protect others from a grown man armed with a bat.
Gordon and Brown called their own news conference Monday afternoon to defend the agreement reached with prosecutors after what Gordon described as “very intense and robust negotiations.”
Brown said the law makes clear that a judge’s decision over whether a child should be tried in adult or juvenile court is supposed to center on which system is best prepared to rehabilitate the child. He said a report prepared by the state juvenile services agency ahead of Thursday’s hearing outlined several programs suitable for the teen to succeed.
“That’s what the juvenile system is there for. It’s there to deal with young people. It’s there to deal with [the teen charged]. It’s there to mend them and put them back on the streets rather than send them to the state penitentiary,” Brown told reporters.
In a statement Monday evening, Mosby defended her office’s decision to recommend the teen’s case be resolved in juvenile court while maintaining that her office has been in communication with Reynolds’s “grief stricken family from day one.”
“While the actions of this juvenile are wholly unacceptable and inexcusable, we stand firm in our ultimate recommendation to the judge that this case be held in the juvenile court system,” Mosby said. “Juvenile court exists for a reason, and our decision is based on all the facts and circumstances pertaining to the actions of a 14-year-old minor.”
Mosby pointed out that it’s up to the judge to decide whether the case is tried in juvenile court, citing a recent case where her office and defense attorneys supported a teen’s case being transferred there but a judge rejected that decision.
Even if that happens, Finegar said, Mosby has options if she believes the case should go to juvenile court: If Mosby’s office drops the premeditated murder charge, the Circuit Court no longer has jurisdiction over the teen’s case.
Police say Timothy Reynolds got out of his car that July afternoon with a baseball bat near the bustling downtown intersection after an interaction with the squeegee workers there. A motorist’s dash cam captured part of the incident, and although the footage, obtained by the Baltimore Sun, picks up after the initial confrontation, it shows Reynolds, still holding the bat, walking away from the intersection.
Reynolds’s family, having previously declined to watch footage of his killing, viewed video of it for the first time Monday morning at the state’s attorney’s office, said Michael Snyder, one of the attorneys pursuing a wrongful-death lawsuit against the city on behalf of Reynolds’s family.
Rebecca Reynolds said the family waited to watch the video before taking a public stance about the case. After watching the footage, Shannon Reynolds said the video shows that her husband was killed deliberately.
“There was absolutely no justification,” she said, for the teen to claim self-defense, as his lawyers have done.
— Baltimore Sun | 2022-11-17T00:55:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Deal sends squeegee teen accused in Baltimore killing to juvenile court - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/deal-sends-teen-accused-in-baltimore-squeegee-workers-killing-to-juvenile-court/2022/11/16/fae84ae4-656b-11ed-a198-91b8afdb6c21_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/deal-sends-teen-accused-in-baltimore-squeegee-workers-killing-to-juvenile-court/2022/11/16/fae84ae4-656b-11ed-a198-91b8afdb6c21_story.html |
As next Arizona governor, Katie Hobbs vows to defend election rules
The election system doesn’t need to be overhauled, she said, but it could be improved to speed the counting of votes
Katie Hobbs, Arizona's next governor, in Phoenix on Nov. 4. (Joshua Lott/The Washington Post)
PHOENIX — Arizona’s incoming governor, Katie Hobbs, said Wednesday that she will not seek to overhaul voting systems in this crucial battleground state ahead of the 2024 presidential cycle, vowing instead to defend election rules that have come under criticism from an emboldened right flank of the Republican Party.
But she does think the system could improve so that votes in tight contests like hers are more quickly counted.
Hobbs, a Democrat who currently oversees Arizona elections as secretary of state, suggested revising time-consuming signature verification requirements for early ballots dropped off on Election Day. While some Republican lawmakers have called for eliminating or scaling back early voting, Hobbs envisions expanding it — perhaps even mailing ballots to all registered voters, as now happens in a growing number of states.
Such changes would probably face stiff opposition in a state that became ground zero for attempts by former president Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election and where there is continued deep skepticism of the electoral process.
Hobbs, 52, said in an interview Wednesday that she would aim to work with Republican lawmakers — who maintained narrow control of the state legislature — including on election-related issues. At the same time, she warned, she would not legitimize false statements about the 2020 election, which Trump lost, or about the 2022 election, which put Democrats in the governor’s office and the state’s two U.S. Senate seats for the first time since 1950.
“It takes leadership and someone who’s willing to call out the bad behavior when it needs to be called out in a way that recognizes that you’re not calling out that bad behavior to alienate a whole segment of people,” Hobbs said, sipping a flat white espresso inside a historic downtown building where plans for her transition are underway. “I’m going to be the governor of everyone … that will be my focus.”
Hobbs is projected to beat Kari Lake, a former television news anchor who centered her campaign on Trump’s false claims of election fraud. Hobbs’s win proved the most forceful rebuke nationwide of a brand of politics, introduced by Trump and incubated over the last two years, that asks voters to doubt the democratic process when it disfavors their candidates.
In a victory speech on Tuesday, Hobbs declared: “Arizonans chose solving our problems over conspiracy theories.”
Lake has yet to concede. Her campaign is weighing its legal options in coordination with Abe Hamadeh, the Republican candidate for attorney general who is lagging behind his Democratic opponent but whose race has not been called, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Hobbs, meanwhile, is headed to Charleston, S.C., for an orientation hosted by the National Governors Association. She has sought advice from two others who know the experience of transitioning into power in Arizona: former governors Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, and Jan Brewer, a Republican.
Distrust in the election process remains pronounced, especially after problems with printers on Election Day required some voters to wait in long lines in parts of Maricopa County, home to Phoenix and more than half the state’s voters. The county, an epicenter of pro-Trump efforts to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election, is again a site of furor for people who say Republican power is slipping away in Arizona, once a bright-red state that’s now purple terrain.
Just two miles from the downtown office building where Hobbs sized up her responsibilities as governor, anger boiled over Wednesday at a meeting of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, the Republican-dominated body responsible for overseeing elections in the county.
Criticism from members of the public, including numerous people who say they worked as poll workers last Tuesday, focused on problems with printers that affected 30 percent of polling sites on Election Day. A judge denied a request from Republicans to extend voting hours in light of the problems, which county leaders said did not prevent voters from casting their ballots or cause any ballots to be misread. Voters were instructed to wait until problems were fixed, travel to different voting centers or place their ballots in secure boxes that were transferred downtown and counted there.
But the county’s explanation did not satisfy those who testified. Several people who identified themselves as poll workers said they observed troubling anomalies but did not offer evidence for their claims. One said she was dismissed on Election Day for raising questions. County leaders pledged to examine their claims, while stressing there are systems in place to prevent any errors.
Some speakers pleaded with the county not to certify the election results, while others called on the board of supervisors to redo the election. Robert Canterbury, a Phoenix resident who said he formerly managed security for Trump’s campaign headquarters in Virginia, warned that people “won’t vote in the 2024 election because they know the same people in charge of the last two elections will be in charge of that election.”
Others simply expressed disbelief that the political identity of their state had changed. Kathleen Falcon exclaimed: “I’ve lived in Arizona since 1984, and from that date, Arizona has always been red. And I know it’s still red. The 2020 election was red, but something happened, something unethical, and it seems to be recurring again.”
Hobbs is taking the reins of a state undergoing a rapid transformation in its political identity — defined increasingly by independence from the two main political parties.
A decade ago, Hobbs entered politics in an effort to draw attention to the issues confronting people she served as a social worker. She rose to leadership positions within her party, working at times with Kyrsten Sinema, now the state’s senior senator.
In 2018, the same cycle that Sinema flipped a U.S. Senate seat blue, Hobbs won her own statewide race for secretary of state. In that role, she has overseen the state’s elections and worked with elections officials throughout 15 counties who are responsible for counting ballots.
She is also tasked with certifying elections, a ministerial role she intends to fulfill in the face of demands from Lake and her allies that she recuse herself.
“My office doesn’t count any ballots,” she said. Certification, she added, is “part of the job that voters elected me to do.”
On Monday night, after nearly a week of counting votes and more than a year of campaigning, Hobbs gathered with friends and family at her senior adviser’s house to watch another large drop of results.
Her hands clasped to her face, she stood in the middle of a shrieking crowd as CNN announced her win.
Soon she received a call from an unknown number labeled as “potential spam.” It was President Biden. He was “very, very congratulatory,” Hobbs recalled in the interview, her first with a newspaper since that night. “He asked how I was doing. I said, ‘Fantastic.’ And he said, ‘You are fantastic.’ ”
Things on the campaign trail didn’t always look fantastic from the outside.
Hobbs said she was fairly certain she would win, based on her campaign’s internal polling data and the voters she spoke to along the way. Sometimes doubt crept in — like when donors complained that she wasn’t talking enough about democracy issues, or moaned that she didn’t put up campaign signs on street corners.
During one stretch, coinciding with intense criticism surrounding her refusal to meet Lake on a debate stage, she took a break: “I had time to just hang out with my family,” she said.
Though her decision to not debate may have made political sense, critics say it denied voters the chance to size up the candidates in a split-screen way. Even her own supporters questioned how she would stand up to anti-democracy forces as governor if she wouldn’t confront Lake onstage.
Hobbs stands by her decision, saying there were plenty of opportunities for voters to see what each of the candidates stood for.
“I finally got comfortable just pushing back,” she said. “This is a distraction. And if everyone’s talking about this, they’re not talking about the other things that, you know, might be harmful.”
At the end of the day, she said, “I don’t think it mattered.”
Stanley-Becker reported from Washington. | 2022-11-17T00:56:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Katie Hobbs vows to defend election rules as next Arizona governor - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/arizona-governor-katie-hobbs-2022-midterm-election/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/arizona-governor-katie-hobbs-2022-midterm-election/ |
Once a ‘Young Gun,’ McCarthy weathered threats from right on path to speaker
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) speaks to staff in his office before walking to Tuesday's closed-door Republican leadership meeting to a vote on top House Republican leadership positions. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Kevin McCarthy’s rise to power began in the wake of President Barack Obama’s election, when he became the chief strategist among a trio of self-described Republican “Young Guns” in the House who vowed to retake Washington as “common sense conservatives.” The strategy helped Republicans pick up a stunning 63 seats in the 2010 midterms and vaulted the native of Bakersfield, Calif., into the job of majority whip.
A dozen years later, after leading a tighter-than-expected midterm push to reclaim the House, McCarthy awaits an even loftier prize: speaker of the House.
But this time around, after watching the two other Young Guns depart following a withering political assault from the party’s right wing, McCarthy is a survivor and victor in part because of how much he has transformed himself to appeal to the party’s most conservative elements.
McCarthy’s right-wing shift
McCarthy, 57, ended up on the path to claim the position he has long sought only after pledging fealty to former president Donald Trump and his party’s right-wing base. After winning a contentious internal party vote for speaker on Tuesday, he’ll have to work again to appease that right flank in order to win a House vote in January.
To his allies, McCarthy’s journey to potentially becoming speaker is a testament to his ability to navigate the political shoals at a time when the party has been buffeted by challenges from the right, all while keeping Trump in his corner.
“I don’t think there’s anyone who’s got that understanding and acumen like Kevin,” said former congressman Eric Cantor, a fellow Young Gun who lost a 2014 primary to a more conservative challenger. “It speaks to his ability for him to balance, to navigate all the forces that come to bear.”
Others see something less savory — a shape-shifting politician willing to quickly abandon his initial condemnation of Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, to advance his own standing and to avoid the fate of Cantor and former speaker Paul D. Ryan, the third Young Gun, who left his job under pressure from the right.
As a result, McCarthy spent much of the past two years seeking to unify his caucus, even if that meant embracing Trump’s election falsehoods and supporting the ouster of his onetime loyal deputy, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, after she voted to impeach Trump. Cheney, in turn, has become one of McCarthy’s fiercest critics.
“At every moment since, frankly, the aftermath of the election in 2020, when Minority Leader McCarthy has had the opportunity to do the right thing or do something that serves his own political purpose, he always chooses to serve his own political purpose,” Cheney said last month on NBC’s “Meet The Press.”
McCarthy’s agenda as speaker
If McCarthy is elected speaker in January with a narrow majority in the House, he will face an even thornier task than he did holding together an increasingly fractured minority party. Those divisions are likely to only deepen after Republicans underperformed in the midterms, with many blaming Trump and his handpicked candidates. He’ll be expected to deliver while dealing with the unpredictable influence of Trump, a restless base and a more conservative caucus.
“He may well gain the prize, as Paul D. Ryan did before him, but I’m not sure his reign will be any longer or happier,” said Geoff Kabaservice, vice president of the center-right think tank Niskanen Center. “I feel like Republicans are in a trap of their own making. And I say this as a registered Republican. They have overpromised to their voters, which has sparked a cycle of an unsustainable expectation, which leads to frustration and radicalism.”
McCarthy and Ryan could not be reached for comment.
McCarthy, whose reputation has long been more strategist than policy wonk, told CNN in an interview last week that his vision is to secure the border, investigate a variety of actions by the Biden administration, and propose policies to tame inflation and grow the economy.
“The first thing I’ll ask the president to do is not to call half the nation idiots or say things about them because they have a difference of opinion,” McCarthy said. “I think leadership matters, and I think it probably starts with the president. And it will start with the speaker as well.”
McCarthy’s political rise
McCarthy, 57, grew up in California’s Central Valley, where his great-grandfather ran a cattle ranch. A local publication, Cal Matters, has reported that his father voted Democratic but “gravitated toward the GOP when Ronald Reagan ran for president.”
McCarthy, who has spent most of his life in politics, has written that he ran a sandwich shop after winning $5,000 in a state lottery. (The Post’s Fact Checker reported that he ran a deli counter in a yogurt shop). McCarthy has said that after the city gave a citation for the type of sign he put outside, he considered it harassment and began shaping conservative political views.
McCarthy got his start in politics serving as chairman of the California Young Republicans and serving on the staff of Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Calif.), who had a reputation as a moderate and one of the brainiest members of Congress. McCarthy was elected to the State Assembly in 2002 and, after winning an election in 2006 to the fill the seat of the retiring Thomas, quickly rose in the Republican House leadership to serve as chief deputy minority whip in just his second term.
McCarthy’s strength was in building relationships — but unlike other recent House speakers, he spent little time in substantive committee roles.
With the Young Guns, McCarthy played a key role in recruiting Republicans to run for the House. In a book co-authored by the trio, McCarthy struck a bipartisan tone, writing about how he “learned the importance of engaging and working across the aisle whenever possible while still fighting for the principles I believe in.” At the same time, the book criticized the leadership of both parties, suggesting that the trio was best suited to lead the next generation of the GOP.
As the Republicans won a House majority, John A. Boehner became speaker, Cantor served as majority leader and McCarthy as majority whip.
When Cantor lost his primary in 2014, McCarthy succeeded him — and learned a lesson from his friend’s defeat about the power of a disruptive force in politics, which led him to accept Trump’s rise more readily than some of his colleagues.
When Boehner stepped down in 2015 under pressure on the right from the House Freedom Caucus, McCarthy was in line to ascend to speaker.
But his bid imploded. One factor, by McCarthy’s account, was an interview he gave to Fox News. He bluntly told the network that a House investigation into the 2012 Benghazi attack, in which four Americans were killed, was a means of undermining Hillary Clinton, who had been secretary of state at the time and was preparing for a 2016 run for the presidency. “Her numbers are dropping,” McCarthy said, because of the Benghazi investigation.
McCarthy apologized for blurting out loud what some considered an obvious motive behind the investigation and dropped his bid for speaker. Trump, who was then running for the GOP presidential nomination, took credit for McCarthy’s failure, saying, “They’re giving me a lot of credit for that because you really need someone very, very tough and very smart.” Ryan instead was elected speaker but, after a rocky relationship with Trump, did not seek reelection in 2018.
Republicans lost control of the House that year, and McCarthy became minority leader, putting him in line to launch yet another comeback bid for his party and himself.
Having watched a number of his Republican colleagues succumb to opponents on the right and attacks from Trump, McCarthy veered further from his initial reputation as a relatively moderate, pragmatic Republican. He embraced not only Trump, but also Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who has expressed support for QAnon, a set of false claims that became an extremist ideology and radicalized many of its followers.
Election denial and Jan. 6
After Trump lost the 2020 election, McCarthy became the party’s most prominent election denier other than the president. “President Trump won this election, so everyone who’s listening, do not be quiet, do not be silent about this,” he said on Fox News on Nov. 5, 2020, two days after Election Day. He then tweeted the video of his interview, writing, “Republicans will not be silenced.”
After rioters broke into the Capitol on Jan. 6, McCarthy voted against certifying President Biden’s win in Pennsylvania and Arizona. But in the following days, McCarthy privately told House Republicans that Trump’s actions had been “atrocious” and had incited the attack, saying “I’ve had it with this guy,” according to the book “This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future.”
As the Democratic-led House voted to impeach Trump on charges that he incited the riot, McCarthy opposed the measure but also rebuked Trump on the House floor, saying that “the president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.” McCarthy also said Biden “won the election.”
Washington Post investigation: The attack, before, during and after
McCarthy nonetheless made amends with the former president — notwithstanding Trump’s continuing insistence he won the election. McCarthy met Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in late January 2021, helping cement his standing with the party base.
As McCarthy sought this year to regain Republican control of the House, he once again recruited GOP candidates and released a plan he called Commitment to America, which laid out broad goals such as ensuring a strong economy and securing the border.
He also said that he would back efforts to open investigations into the origin of the coronavirus pandemic, the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan, and various federal policies, all of which could result in critical stories about Biden — reviving memories of his comment about how the Benghazi investigation hurt Clinton.
McCarthy, asked in a recent CNN interview whether impeaching Biden was a possibility, did not rule it out, while promising “we won’t play politics with this.”
To his critics, McCarthy’s ascent shows his willingness to bend to the far-right wing of the party. Citing McCarthy’s opposition to cutting a “blank check” to Ukraine, Cheney cast his views as anathema to the party’s foreign policy values.
“The notion that now Kevin McCarthy is going to make himself the leader of the pro-Putin wing of my party is just a stunning thing,” Cheney said in her “Meet The Press” interview, referring to the GOP’s softening opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. “It’s dangerous. He knows better. But the fact that he’s willing to go down the path of suggesting that America will no longer stand for freedom I think tells you he’s willing to sacrifice everything for his own political gain.”
But others who’ve worked with McCarthy say his political skills could be an asset in navigating a divided Washington — as long as he stays in step with his caucus.
Cantor, asked whether McCarthy will be able to pass legislation that could be signed by Biden, said “it depends where the temperature of the caucus is and their willingness to work with the president on what issues.”
Former Republican speaker Newt Gingrich, who has known McCarthy for years and traveled with him during the last week on the campaign trail, said that the Californian could work with Biden just as Gingrich collaborated at times with his nemesis, President Bill Clinton.
Gingrich said he recommended that McCarthy send Biden a list of dozens of legislative proposals and ask the president to circle the ones that would gain his signature. McCarthy then will face divergent tests of leadership for which he has spent years preparing, the former speaker said.
“My advice to Kevin is to never negotiate with anybody below the president,” Gingrich said. But when it comes to trying to corral support from House Republicans, he said, McCarthy can succeed as long as he remembers that he is dealing with this “collection of very independent people, each of whom has their own ideas.”
Cate Brown and Paul Kane contributed to this report. | 2022-11-17T00:56:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Who is Kevin McCarthy, the incoming Republican Speaker of the House? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/kevin-mccarthy-speaker/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/16/kevin-mccarthy-speaker/ |
What happens when 10,000 minks are set loose? A county is finding out.
Minks were released from their cages at a farm in northwest Ohio on Tuesday, the local sheriff’s office said. Up to 10,000 remain missing. (Sergei Grits/AP)
The minks — thousands of them — were on the loose.
“There’s been a lot of activity that has gone on out there, and as they have gotten out, they’re going to continue to move around,” Van Wert County Sheriff Tom Riggenbach said Wednesday. “How far they’re going to travel I think is difficult to say.”
Officials are investigating the minks’ release while trying to keep the rural county running smoothly as the ferret-like creatures run rampant. Although mink sightings are not uncommon in the area, Riggenbach said his office had gotten more calls than usual this week from residents trying to figure out how to handle a mink on their property or what to do with ones they’ve caught.
The creatures have also scrambled traffic, especially on U.S. Route 127, a highway less than a mile from Lion Farms USA. Law enforcement officers have been trying to get drivers off the road’s shoulder as they stop to take pictures of the barn or a loose mink, Riggenbach said. Matt Bruning, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Transportation, said he was unaware of major traffic disruptions in the county.
The highway has also been the site of many minks’ demise. The number killed there, Riggenbach said, indicates that the animals have been on the move.
The exact number of animals that are unaccounted for is unclear. Lion Farms’s owner initially estimated that the count could reach up to 40,000, before revising his estimate to about 10,000, the sheriff’s office said. Many minks stayed on the property after the release.
In addition to being a nuisance, the missing creatures are also a potential danger to other animals in the largely agricultural county of about 29,000 people. Minks regularly hunt larger prey and have previously proved dangerous to poultry on the county’s farms, and to fish in ornamental home ponds, Riggenbach said. The fact that they’re probably hungry now that they’re off the farm could make them more dangerous.
“Obviously, the instincts to need to eat for survival are going to play a part in what they do,” Riggenbach said. “That’s one of the components that puts people’s animals, pets at risk as part of this.”
Riggenbach urged residents not to approach the minks, which could bite. People can instead trap or hunt a mink that poses a threat on their own property or call licensed trappers publicized by the sheriff’s office.
No one has been charged in the incident, which the sheriff’s office is investigating as a break-in and instance of vandalism. A photo published by WANE showed “ALF” and “We’ll be back” spray-painted on the side of the barn. Riggenbach declined to confirm the graffiti.
The acronym “ALF” may be a reference to the Animal Liberation Front, an extremist animal rights movement whose members have removed animals from farms and laboratories for decades. The North American Animal Liberation Press Office, which distributes information about the ALF, said it had not been told of its members’ involvement but noted that the perpetrators left the movement’s insignia on the building. The organization also pointed to two other mink releases by its members this month in northeast Ohio and northern Michigan.
Whatever the perpetrators’ aims at Lion Farms, many minks are unlikely to survive their release. They lack survival skills, Riggenbach said, and many have already found themselves in harm’s way.
“There’s mink that have been killed just because of the traffic issues, not just on 127, but in other areas, as well,” he said. “To expect or believe that all the mink that were released are going to be able to be re-caught and that no mink were going to die as a result of this incident, that’s just not reality.” | 2022-11-17T00:57:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Roughly 10,000 mink are loose in Ohio after farm break-in - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/11/16/mink-loose-ohio/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/11/16/mink-loose-ohio/ |
A survey by the American Psychological Association found that 6 in 10 psychologists say they don’t have openings for new patients
America’s therapists are booked. Six in 10 psychologists say they don’t have openings for new patients, according to a survey conducted by the American Psychological Association.
The high demand for therapy is the latest sign of and ongoing U.S. mental health crisis exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. Though millions of Americans have returned to normal life, many people feel far from normal. A majority of the psychologists surveyed said that since the start of the pandemic, they’ve seen an uptick in patients who are dealing with anxiety, depression and trauma, and that the demand for services continues to remain high.
“We had a workforce shortage before the pandemic where we just didn’t have enough therapists to meet the mental health needs of this country,” said Vaile Wright, a senior director of health-care innovation at the American Psychological Association. “And that’s only gotten worse.”
How to get mental health help
Websites such as Psychology Today, Therapy Den and ZocDoc have directories that allow you to search for professionals who specialize in particular issues such as anxiety and depression. Once you have your list, prepare for that initial phone call by providing detailed information about your needs and what you hope to get out of therapy.
Read more advice.
If you are in crisis and experiencing suicidal thoughts call 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
The American Psychological Association also has a list of other hotlines that provide support and resources for specific issues.
In a life-threatening mental health crisis call 911.
The APA survey was conducted Sept. 20 to Oct. 7 among 2,294 doctoral-level psychologists who are licensed and active in the United States. The survey was distributed to 62,900 psychologists for whom the APA has contact information, accounting for about half of U.S. psychologists, the organization said.
The association started conducting the annual survey three years ago, when the pandemic first hit, and Wright said the latest survey shows “things are not improving” for practitioners or their patients.
Parker Hilton, a licensed professional counselor in Red Bank, N.J., told The Washington Post that he recently “started from scratch” and launched his own private practice at the beginning of October. Six weeks in, he’s already fully booked, meeting with up to 35 patients per week. Hilton said he’s seeing more people who are asking “big, wide questions” in existential conversations about meaning and purpose to life.
“What I’m seeing more than anything is people who want to connect, people who feel alone, people who feel really lost,” he said.
Susan Duncan, a licensed professional counselor in Tucson, said she doesn’t know any other therapists in Tucson who are taking new appointments. Many aren’t even picking up their phone, she told The Post, because they’re so busy meeting with their patients.
“I’m turning a lot of people away, and it’s heartbreaking. It’s really heart breaking,” Duncan said. “I think a lot of therapists are just really over — they’re maxed out.”
She said anxiety issues, particularly among young people, are common.
“The young women I am seeing, I am just blown away with the anxiety,” Duncan said. “It’s this physical manifestation of anxiety, which I hadn’t seen to this extent before.”
A psychiatry wait list had 880 patients; a hospital couldn’t keep up
In the APA survey, 51 percent of psychologists reported seeing higher rates of teens seeking therapy since the beginning of the pandemic. Hilton said that in the past, youths used to go “kicking and screaming” to appointments. Now they’re telling their parents they want to go, he said.
A survey conducted last year by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found teens and young adults have been the most stressed by the pandemic and the effect it has had on their lives.
“I know kids who lost all of their grandparents in the course of a couple of months,” said Leah Seeger, a marriage and family therapist and licensed alcohol and drug counselor based in Minneapolis. “It’s a big impact to navigate those big losses. And when they happen much faster, it’s harder.”
Roughly 7 in 10 public schools are reporting a rise in students seeking mental health services since the start of the pandemic, according to federal data released in May. And Congress has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to fund and hire staffers for mental health support at schools across the country.
Yuliana Nemes, a licensed marriage and family therapist in Upland, Calif., said teens and young adults don’t seem to attach the same stigma around therapy as older generations may have. Regardless of their age, Nemes said, her new patients often come in because of symptoms of anxiety, depression “or lack of motivation.”
Nearly half of the therapists surveyed by the APA said they have also seen an increase in patients seeking treatment for substance use disorders. Amid shutdowns in the first months of the pandemic, some people turned to alcohol to cope. Alcohol-related deaths in the United States hit the highest rate in decades during the pandemic. Seeger said she believes people are now starting to notice that their addictions are a problem.
“A lot of times, we don’t realize there’s a problem until months or weeks or years later,” she said.
Seeger said the question she has been trying to help people answer lately is: What do we do now?
“We are now dealing with the aftermath of what happened in those years,” Seeger said. “If your family business closed down because of the pandemic, you might be in a crisis moment dealing with it, but the effects after that are still going to show up in people’s psychological experience weeks, months or years afterwards.” | 2022-11-17T00:58:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Nobody can find a therapist. High demand signals continued mental health crisis. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/11/16/therapist-high-demand-mental-health/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/11/16/therapist-high-demand-mental-health/ |
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