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FILE - Maria Bakalova poses for photographers upon arrival at the amfAR Cinema Against AIDS benefit the during the 74th Cannes international film festival, Cap d’Antibes, southern France, on July 16, 2021. Bakalova both stars in her latest film, “The Honeymoon,” and worked as a producer, something she said she hopes to do more of in the future, in an interview with the Associated Press on Dec. 14, 2022. (Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP, File) | 2022-12-29T14:26:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Maria Bakalova wants to make you feel something - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/maria-bakalova-wants-to-make-you-feel-something/2022/12/29/8fd6f1d6-877d-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/maria-bakalova-wants-to-make-you-feel-something/2022/12/29/8fd6f1d6-877d-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
White men charged in attack on Black teens at South African swimming pool
A South African police van. (iStock)
Police in South Africa are set to charge a White man with attempted murder and have charged two others with assault after an attack on Black teenagers trying to use a swimming pool while on vacation sparked widespread outrage.
Video of the incident, which was shared widely on social media, appeared to show a White man choking and striking a Black teen in the face before pushing another Black teenager into the pool and gripping him in a headlock, seemingly to try to push him underwater.
Kgokong Nakedi, 18, told reporters that he and a 13-year-old relative were assaulted on Christmas Day by White people at a vacation resort they were visiting in Bloemfontein, in the Free State province. Nakedi said it started with verbal harassment as the people tried to prevent the teens from using the pool, then escalated into assault. Nakedi could not be immediately reached for comment early Thursday.
“They harassed us because we are Black,” Nakedi later told News Central TV in an interview. “They said we were not allowed to swim in the pool because it is for Whites only.”
It was the first holiday season the entire family had spent together since the pandemic, he added. “My main concern was the safety of my younger brother in this situation,” Nakedi said.
The incident added fuel to a national conversation about persistent racism almost 30 years after the end of South Africa’s apartheid era. It was condemned by the president, who called for the country to take a united stand against racism, saying it is “deplorable” that adults would resort to violence with “disturbing ease.”
A 48-year-old suspect, whom South African police did not name, was due to appear in court Thursday to face a charge of attempted murder. Two other men — Johan Nel, 33, and Jan Stephanus van der Westhuizen, 47, face charges including common assault and “crimen injuria,” which consists of “unlawfully and intentionally impairing the dignity or privacy of another person,” according to police, and have already appeared in court.
Police declined to confirm whether the men charged were the same as those who appeared in the video, noting that video evidence was still being considered by the court.
Nakedi said his cousin recorded the attack and the footage was posted online.
President Cyril Ramaphosa issued a statement Tuesday calling for the country to take a united stand against racism. “As black and white South Africans, we should be united in condemning all manifestations of racism and attempts to explain or defend such crimes,” he said. “It is deplorable that adults dealing with teenagers resort to violence with such disturbing ease.”
According to an earlier police statement, officers arrived at the Bloemfontein resort on Christmas Day shortly after 3 p.m. and found that the groups had dispersed. A man at the scene then approached the officers and alleged that two teenagers had been assaulted by a group of White men over use of the swimming pool, police said.
“Certain minorities think that they own the place and it’s their country,” Nakedi said in the interview. “But the truth is, it’s our home. Things like that are outdated.” | 2022-12-29T14:59:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Attack on Black teens at South Africa swimming pool leads to charges - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/29/south-africa-swimming-pool-racism/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/29/south-africa-swimming-pool-racism/ |
The Noon Yards Eve party at Yards Park lets families ring in the new year without staying up late, thanks to games, music and a balloon drop at noon. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
From celebrations to resolutions, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day combine for one of the busiest and topsy-turvy 48-hour stretches of the year.
Whether you’re looking for a free party at a low-key bar, a family-friendly celebration or fireworks on New Year’s Eve, we’ve got ideas — and we can help you recover with a brisk hike or a decadent brunch on Jan. 1.
If you’re going out to party on Saturday, consider using the SoberRide service, which offers a free $15 Lyft credit for rides home between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m. The code, which can be entered directly into the Lyft app, will be posted on the SoberRide website at 9 p.m. Saturday.
Parties for the whole family
If staying up until midnight is out of the question for both kids and parents, go for these afternoon NYE festivities.
Family New Year’s at Metrobar: At Northeast Washington’s Metrobar, the fun starts at 4 p.m. with games for kids, hot cocktails for grown-ups, and fire pits and patio heaters to keep everyone toasty. 4 to 7:30 p.m. Free, but there’s a waitlist.
First Night Alexandria: Old Town brings back its long-running celebration, featuring 12 hours of entertainment for the whole family from comedians, DJs and a variety of bands, including children’s musicians. Food trucks set up in the Market Square, and the party ends with fireworks over the Potomac to ring in the new year. Noon to midnight. Free to $80.
Happy Noon Years Eve: The Meadowside Nature Center in Rockville offers a pair of afternoon New Year’s Eve celebrations, with countdowns at both noon and 2 p.m. Different activities take place every 15 minutes, and snacks are provided, but parents should bring a drink for kids to toast with. Note: The noon event is on a waitlist. 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. and 1 to 2:15 p.m. $7.
Noon Yards Eve: Count down to 2023 before nap time with activities for little ones such as train rides, glitter tattoos, carnival games, crafts and a magic show at the Yards development on the Southeast waterfront, before a big balloon drop at noon. The Eventbrite page says that advance registration is full, but walk-up admission is welcome. 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Free.
Rocknoceros New Year’s Eve Ball: For the first time since 2020, Rocknoceros takes to the stage at Vienna’s Jammin’ Java to perform such catchy favorites as “Brush Your Teeth” and “Five Little Monkeys.” Noon brings an apple juice toast. 11 a.m. $10.
Smokey Bear’s New Year’s Eve Countdown: Enjoy s’mores around a campfire, games and activities at the Maydale Nature Classroom in Colesville, Md., as well as a noon countdown. 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. $8.
Happenings at bars
The last night of the year doesn’t have to mean steep cover charges and open bar “deals”: All events are free unless otherwise noted.
As You Are Bar: “New Queer’s Eve” features DJ Nu Kicks and Tito’s Vodka specials, beginning at 9 p.m. A portion of sales benefits local nonprofit HIPS.
Astro Lab Brewing: The Silver Spring brewery is open as usual, with an invitation to “bring in your own fancy (or not so fancy) dinner to celebrate” after 7 p.m. There’s a free toast at midnight.
Breadsoda: Pool, shuffleboard and darts are free at the Glover Park rec room between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m., and there’s a free toast at midnight.
The Brighton: The waterfront bar features DJ Sunny and a la carte drinks, with an optional ($120) open bar beginning at 10 p.m.
Busboys and Poets: All nine branches of the progressive bookstore and event space are open late with viewing of the Times Square ball drop, a champagne toast and party favors.
Dew Drop Inn: DJ Retrospekt spins beginning at 8 p.m.
Eighteenth Street Lounge: The fabled ESL, which reopened in Blagden Alley earlier this year, celebrates with Smitty D of local house legends 95 North and Martin Miguel in the main room, and Smudge and Mr. Bonkerz in the Red lounge. Doors open from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. $20, no advance tickets.
Fight Club: The 2000s-themed bash features a DJ spinning hits from two decades ago, a Polaroid photo wall and midnight toast. Throwback snacks include pizza nuggets with 24-month prosciutto, fish sticks served with caviar and tartar sauce; and high-end Lunchables. Food and drinks are available a la carte; optional all-you-can-drink punches, wine beer and cider tickets are $80. 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Franklin Hall: College football is the priority at Franklin Hall on Dec. 31 — it’s home to D.C.’s University of Georgia alumni, and the Peach Bowl kicks off at 8 p.m. After the game, stick around for free food, a DJ and midnight toast.
The Fountain Inn: Georgetown’s newest tasting room for high-end spirits and refined cocktails isn’t going the pricey route on New Year’s Eve: Its doors are open as usual, and the lounge is dropping its usual two-hour time limit to allow everyone in the place after 9:30 p.m. to stick around until midnight.
The Green Zone: DJ Bassam drops baladi, dabkeh and “fierce Arabic dance music” at the Adams Morgan cocktail bar, beginning at 9:30 p.m., while bartenders shake up Middle Eastern-inspired drinks downstairs.
The Imperial: Head to the Adams Morgan for an all-day happy hour with $11 sparkling cocktails, such as the French 125 and classic Champagne cocktail, $2 oysters Rockefeller, and half-price seafood towers (regularly $30-$202). The drink specials run from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m.; an evening party in the cellar bar is sold out.
Ivy City Smokehouse: It’s a “dress to impress” night of go-go from D.C.’s Chalyss Band, plus a midnight toast. 9 p.m. $30.
Jackie Lee’s: The midnight toast is a pony bottle of the Champagne of Beers, which tells you everything you need to know about Brightwood’s neighborhood bar. (Well, that and the balloon drop.) Drink specials include $23 bottles of bubbly.
Jaleo: José Andrés’s flagship D.C. restaurant celebrates twice on New Year’s Eve: There’s gratis cava at 6 p.m., when 2023 arrives in Spain, and again when the clock hits midnight in D.C. If you don’t want to pay $120 for all-you-can-eat tapas, just make plans to be there for the 6 p.m. toast.
La Jambe: There are two ball drops at the Shaw restaurant on Dec. 31: One, at 6 p.m., marks midnight in Paris. Then, for midnight here, there’s a $60 deal with bottomless Crement and French cocktails, as well as a special food menu. Reservations are not required, but suggested.
Lulu’s Winegarden: There are 13 hours of discounted sparkling wine at Lulu’s on New Year’s Eve, beginning at noon. Select bottles are $35 all day, sparkling cocktails are featured on the menu, and there are two happy hours — 3 to 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. — with even more deals. Reservations are suggested, but the bar is open for walk-ins.
The Midlands: The Park View beer garden is going to be hopping on Saturday afternoon — it’s a University of Michigan alumni bar, and they’re playing in the Fiesta Bowl at 4 p.m. Maybe things will have settled down before DJ the Question starts spinning for the New Year’s crowd after the game. Maybe not. Either way, there’s a choice of champagne toast or jello shot toast at midnight.
New Vegas Lounge: A night of soul and R&B with the Out of Town Blues Band includes a midnight toast. 10 p.m. to 2 p.m. $25; more at the door.
Quarry House Tavern: The Silver Spring basement bar is open as usual. A concert in the back room with Bad Moves, Light Beams and Cryptid Summer (7 p.m., $15) is sold out and currently on a waitlist.
Quincy Hall: Karaoke runs from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., and there’s also a midnight toast.
Red Bear Brewing: The New Year’s Eve Drag Ball, hosted by Desiree Dik, features D’Manda Martini, Mari Con Carne and other performers, followed by a DJ dance party and champagne toast at the NoMa brewpub. 9 p.m. $25.
Red Derby: The tables are all booked for the Red Derby’s annual Decades of Decadence party, which features ’70s music on one floor and ’90s tunes on the other, but the bars are open for walk-in customers beginning at 7 p.m., and there are free party favors and a midnight toast. A tarot reader will be on-site if you have questions about what 2023 will bring ($10 per reading).
The Runaway: You can rock out with DJ Matt Mathews of Rock Candy and sip $5 beer-and-shot combos at the new Brookland bar without a cover, or pay $75 for a burger and unlimited Miller High Life ponies and/or prosecco from 8 p.m. until close. Your choice.
Service Bar: Service Bar, ranked number 18 in this year’s list of the 50 Best Bars in North America, is open as usual on New Year’s Eve: Make a reservation for the patio, or just show up at the bar, where seats are first-come, first-served.
Showtime: The Bloomingdale hole-in-the-wall features DJs Marcello Bentine and Neal Becton spinning vintage Brazilian vinyl, plus a “champagne” toast. (Their quotation marks, not ours.)
Solly’s U Street Tavern: The flip side of Franklin Hall (see above), Solly’s welcomes Ohio State alumni for the Peach Bowl at 8 p.m., followed by drinking as usual the rest of the night.
Trade: Drag artists Vagenesis and Citrine host Trade’s party, with music by DJ Dez and a midnight toast.
Whitlows: The bar’s first New Year’s since moving from Arlington to Shaw features a number of drink specials, such as $5 Bud Light drafts and $25 bottles of sparkling wine, beginning at 8 p.m., and music from DJ Killabeatz.
Wunder Garten: The Harry New Year’s Eve features the music of Harry Styles and One Direction in the NoMa beer garden from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.
First-Day Hikes: No matter how you celebrated or what time you went to bed, there’s nothing like starting a new year with fresh air in the great outdoors. First Day Hikes are held in state and local parks across the country on Jan. 1, with many options in Maryland and Virginia. Sky Meadows State Park in Delaplane continues its tradition of opening at 5:30 a.m. to allow for views of the sunrise from its overlooks, while later in the day, rangers lead hikes focused on wildflower meadows and the history of the park. Mason Neck State Park in Lorton offers ranger-led walks for experienced hikers as well as family-friendly and wheelchair-accessible hikes. Fairfax County turns its First Hike Fairfax into a photo safari, offering prizes for the best pictures taken on county trails on Dec. 31 or Jan. 1.
Maryland again extends its First Day activities across three days, from Dec. 31 to Jan. 2, with both ranger-led and self-guided excursions around the state. Highlights include a guided hike to look for sharks’ teeth and fossils on the beach at Calvert Cliffs State Park; a dog-friendly 2-mile hike at Annapolis’ Quiet Waters Park, followed by hot chocolate and s’mores; and a choice of long (3.5 miles) or short (1.5 miles) jaunts with rangers through Patuxent River State Park in Brookeville. All hikes are free, though some require advance registration.
National Bell Festival: On the first day of 2023, bells large and small will ring out throughout Washington as part of the fourth-annual National Bell Festival. You can hear chiming all over the city, whether it’s during a “full peal” attempt at Washington National Cathedral, which could last for more than three hours, or at a concert at St. John’s Church at Lafayette Square featuring the 16-member handbell ensemble Virginia Bronze. On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, a bronze bell from 1863 will toll 160 times to commemorate the 160th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Various times and locations. Free.
Fit DC Fresh Start 5K: All ages are welcome to run, walk or just cheer for participants during this 5k race, hosted by Mayor Muriel E. Bowser. Register online in advance, or in-person on Sunday at the startling line near Freedom Plaza. 10 a.m. Free.
Brunch plans
Buffalo & Bergen: If you’re still in a bad way from New Year’s Eve, celebrate National Bloody Mary Day with a drink garnished with a mini everything bagel stuffed with lox and cream cheese at the bagel-and-cocktail counter’s Union Market or Capitol Hill locations. 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Busboys and Poets: Guests at any of the nine Busboys and Poets locations can roll out of bed and eat dressed in robes and sweats for brunch specials, such as $6 mimosas and $13 pancakes until 4 p.m. Start times vary per location.
Dauphine’s: House band the House Mess brings smooth tunes to the Downtown New Orleans-themed bar, where brunch deals includes smoked fish dip ($11), gumbo ($14) and shrimp and grits ($29). 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Freddie’s Beach Bar: The Arlington LGBTQ bar features a jazz performance by the Indigo Trio, plus $2 mimosas and $5.50 Bloody Marys. 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
H Street Country Club: Queen Shi-Queeta-Lee hosts a glitzy drag brunch performance, and ticket prices include a free mimosa and brunch buffet. Bottomless drinks are available for an additional $22. 12 to 2 p.m. $55.
Jack Rose Dining Saloon pop-up at the Imperial: Although Jack Rose Dining Saloon will be closed for New Year’s Day, parts of its menu will be available at the Imperial at an oyster and whiskey tasting. Oysters go for $2 all afternoon, but the Imperial’s regular brunch menu is also available. 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
El Techo: The Shaw bar is hosting bottomless brunch with a choice of entree with bottomless margaritas, Bloody Marys, mimosas or Tecates for $45. 12 to 7 p.m.
Tiki TNT: Have a tropical-inspired afternoon with bottomless mimosas ($25) or a seasonally-appropriate outing with the “It’s a Bit Nipply Outside” cocktail ($16) with chocolate and coconut. Entrees, including pancakes topped with pandan and ube, are available throughout the six-hour celebration. 12 to 6 p.m. | 2022-12-29T15:56:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Free and cheap New Year's Eve parties and New Year's Day events - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/29/new-years-eve-new-years-day/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/29/new-years-eve-new-years-day/ |
3 ways to tap billions in new money to go green — starting next month
In 2023, you can electrify your home — and your car — with the help of the U.S. government. Here’s how.
A contractor carries a solar panel on the roof of a home in San Jose in February. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News)
Earlier this year, Congress passed the biggest climate bill in history — cloaked under the name the “Inflation Reduction Act.” But while economists say the bill may not reduce inflation very much, it could do one important thing for a country trying to move away from fossil fuels: Spur millions of households across America to switch over to cleaner energy sources with free money.
Starting in the new year, the bill will offer households thousands of dollars to transition over from fossil-fuel burning heaters, stoves and cars to cleaner versions. On Jan. 1, middle-income households will be able to access over a half-dozen tax credits for electric stoves, cars, rooftop solar and more. And starting sometime in mid-2023, lower-income households will be able to get upfront discounts on some of those same appliances — without having to wait to file their taxes to get the cash back. This handy online tool shows what you might be eligible for, depending on your Zip code and income.
But which credits should Americans focus on — and which are best for the climate? Here’s a guide to the top climate-friendly benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act, and how to access them.
Heat pumps — the best choice for decarbonizing at home
Ah, heat pumps — one of the most popular technologies of the transition to clean energy. “Heat pump” is a bit of a misnomer for these machines, which are more like super-efficient combo air conditioning and heating systems. These appliances run on electricity and move heat, instead of creating it, and so can be three to five times more efficient than traditional gas or electrical resistance heaters.
“For a lot of people, a heat pump is going to be their biggest personal impact,” said Sage Briscoe, the federal senior policy manager at Rewiring America, a clean-energy think tank. (Heat pumps have become so iconic that Rewiring America even has a heat pump mascot.)
But many consumers encounter obstacles when switching over to heat pumps. In some areas, it can be difficult to find a contractor trained and willing to install them; some homeowners report that contractors share misinformation about heat pumps, including that they don’t work in cold climates. (Modern heat pumps do work in cold climates, and can heat a home even when outdoor temperatures are down to minus-31 degrees Fahrenheit.) Briscoe recommends that homeowners look for skilled contractors who know about heat pumps and do advance research to figure out which models might work best for their home.
Electric vehicles — top choice for cutting car emissions
If you are like the millions of Americans who don’t live in a community with ample public transit, the best way to decarbonize your transport is switching to an electric car. But electric cars can be prohibitively expensive for many Americans.
There are limitations, per the new law. The vehicles will also have to be assembled in North America, and cars that cost more than $55,000 aren’t eligible, nor are vans or trucks that cost more than $80,000. This week, the Internal Revenue Service provided a list of vehicles that are expected to meet the criteria starting Jan. 1.
Beginning about March, however, that $7,500 credit will be split into two parts: Consumers can get a $3,750 credit if the vehicle has a battery containing at least 40 percent critical minerals from the United States (or a country that the United States has a free-trade agreement with) and another $3,750 credit if at least 50 percent of the battery’s components were assembled and manufactured in North America. Those rules haven’t been finalized yet, so the tax credit starting on Jan. 1 is a stopgap measure until the White House has ironed out the final version.
What new electric vehicle tax credits mean for you
“I would be buying a car in the first quarter,” he said.
Rooftop solar — the best choice for generating clean energy
For people who don’t own their own homes, there are other options as well. Renters can subscribe to a community solar project to lower their electricity bills and get indirect benefits from the tax credits.
Tips, tricks and words of caution
The most important thing to know, Briscoe said, is whether you qualify for the upfront discounts for low- and moderate-income Americans — which won’t be available until later in 2023 — or the tax credits, which will be available Jan. 1. (Try this tool.) If going the tax credit route, it’s better to spread the upgrades out across multiple years, since there is an annual limit on how many of the credits you can claim in a given year. And, she warned, it is not always going to be easy: It can be hard to find the right installers and the right information for how to make use of all the available government resources.
But ultimately, Briscoe said, how you start decarbonizing your life isn’t as important as just starting. | 2022-12-29T17:28:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The top 3 climate-friendly tax credits coming out in 2023 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2022/12/29/climate-tax-credits-clean-energy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2022/12/29/climate-tax-credits-clean-energy/ |
Faith leaders ask why Jan. 6 report left out Christian nationalism
A copy of the congressional report on the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. (Julio Cesar Chavez/Reuters)
Asked by lawmakers this year to describe those who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Officer Daniel Hodges of the D.C. police told the House select committee tasked with investigating the insurrection that “it was clear the terrorists perceived themselves to be Christians.”
Two members of the committee, Reps. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) and Adam Kinzinger of (R-Ill.), also independently noted in conversations with the news media the incidence of Christian nationalism.
“Had there not been some of these errant prophecies, this idea that God has ordained it to be Trump, I’m not sure January 6 would have happened like it did,” Kinzinger, an evangelical Christian, said on a Christianity Today podcast episode in March.
Indeed, the influence of Christian nationalism among the Jan. 6 rioters was clearly evident in the flags and banners they waved. In the days before the assault, “Jericho Marchers,” inspired by the Bible’s Book of Joshua, circled Capitol Hill praying for the election results to be overturned. When rioters stormed into the Senate chamber Jan. 6, they huddled in prayer.
Yet the committee’s final report, a 845-page document released Dec. 22, mentioned Christian nationalism by name exactly once, and only in passing.
Some prominent Christian leaders had pressed the committee to examine Christian nationalism, sending a letter to the members in June urging lawmakers to investigate the ideology’s impact on the events of Jan. 6.
On Thursday, the Rev. Nathan Empsall, the head of the group Faithful America and a signer of the letter, released a statement in reaction to the report, saying, “The January 6 committee giving only passing mention to the pivotal role of Christian nationalism in its final report is a missed opportunity to fully understand what led to violence at the Capitol — and to prevent future political violence.”
The report’s one overt reference to Christian nationalism came when describing supporters of Nick Fuentes, a right-wing Catholic who was in Washington on Jan. 6 but has not been accused of entering the Capitol building. The report notes that Fuentes’s followers, often self-described as “Groypers,” have “repeatedly promoted white supremacist and Christian nationalist beliefs,” but it did not elaborate as to how.
Devotees of Fuentes’s group, America First, are known for chanting “Christ is king,” as they did in Washington the morning of the insurrection. Fuentes himself, a white supremacist and antisemite, is one of several extremists who began openly associating themselves with Christian nationalism by name after the insurrection.
The report also makes multiple mentions of “Jericho March” events that led up to the Capitol attack, although the committee did not delve into the religious tenor of those gatherings, despite the demonstrators’ hymn-singing, and the presence of banners with religious slogans and even the blowing of shofars by those in attendance.
The report does repeatedly cite a Washington Post op-ed by Peter Manseau, in which the historian and founding director of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History’s Center for the Understanding of Religion in American History, catalogued how religious beliefs influenced one rioter’s participation on Jan. 6.
Manseau responded to the report in a Twitter thread, lamenting the “scant attention” paid in the report to “the religious dimensions of the attack,” arguing that the omission “may prove a disservice to history.”
Manseau speculated that the lack of attention to Christian nationalism may be a “strategic” move, saying on Twitter that committee members probably did not want to “risk ‘J6 Committee Targets Christianity’ becoming a talking point.”
Kinzinger has been an outspoken critic of Christian nationalism, tweeting his condemnation of the ideology on multiple occasions and rebuffing calls by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) that the Republican Party become the “party of Christian nationalism.”
Raskin said in May 2021 that he had taken a personal interest in the “marriage between Donald Trump and fundamentalist Christianity.” He said the tie was a source of “bafflement” to him but that he had begun reading books such as Kristin Kobes Du Mez’s “Jesus and John Wayne” — a work cited by many scholars who study Christian nationalism.
On Dec. 14, Raskin heard testimony on the subject on Capitol Hill from Amanda Tyler, the executive director of Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and the founder of Christians Against Christian Nationalism.
“Christian nationalism helped fuel the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, uniting disparate actors and infusing their political cause with religious fervor,” Tyler told the House Oversight subcommittee on civil rights and civil liberties, which Raskin chairs.
Christians Against Christian Nationalism co-produced a report on its view of Christian nationalism’s role in the Jan. 6 riot but declined to comment on the report’s release.
The precise reason for Christian nationalism’s general absence from the report remains a mystery. A recent Washington Post investigation into the document’s drafting quoted Jeremy Adler, a spokesman for Rep. Liz Cheney (R), who sits on the committee, as saying the Wyoming lawmaker “won’t sign onto any ‘narrative’” regarding Jan. 6 that “suggests every American who believes God has blessed America is a white supremacist.” | 2022-12-29T17:29:38Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Faith leaders ask why Jan. 6 report left out Christian nationalism - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2022/12/29/jan-6-report-christian-nationalism/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2022/12/29/jan-6-report-christian-nationalism/ |
Southwest’s woes continue with thousands of canceled flights Thursday
The meltdown of the airline’s operations began when the storm hit Denver and elsewhere last week, then spiraled out of control
Travelers wait outside the Southwest Airlines baggage office at Oakland International Airport on Wednesday in Northern California. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)
Southwest Airlines’s long recovery from a punishing winter storm and breakdown of internal technology continued Thursday, with the airline once again canceling more than half of its scheduled flights in an effort to hit the reset button on its struggling operation.
The Thursday cancellations were disclosed Wednesday, while early Thursday data from tracking service FlightAware showed few scrubbed flights for Friday. The airline’s chief executive has targeted the weekend for a recovery as New Year’s Eve looms.
The meltdown of the airline’s operations began when the storm hit Denver and elsewhere last week, then spiraled out of control, overwhelming computer systems that unions representing Southwest employees had warned were at risk of failing. With its unusual point-to-point routing system, rather than a hub-and-spoke system, the airline has needed several days to get crews and planes back in position to resume a normal schedule.
Southwest Airlines slashed thousands of U.S. flights again on Dec. 27, leaving passengers stranded across the country. (Video: Reuters)
As has been the case for much of the week, other major airlines have canceled only a handful of flights Thursday. The 2,359 flights scrubbed by Southwest on Thursday represents 96 percent of all domestic cancellations.
Southwest executives and union leaders have pointed to aging computer systems that are supposed to help Southwest recover in the face of disruptions, but which couldn’t keep up with the scale of the problems. Pilots and flight attendants have described waiting hours to reach the carrier’s scheduling office and have said managers essentially lost track of where employees were located.
Phillip A. Washington, chief executive of Denver International Airport and the Biden administration’s nominee to lead the FAA, on Wednesday called on three airlines — including Southwest — to take part in an after-action review. Washington said in a statement he wanted to understand their challenges in recovering from the storm.
Tens of thousands of passengers, meanwhile, have faced missed holiday plans, long waits on hold and in airports, and expensive alternative travel.
Southwest has pledged to invest in modernization, but union leaders say they had previously warned the airline’s management of the risks, only to find that their calls for new technology went unheeded.
Green said the airline would also turn to repairing its relationship with passengers.
“We’re focused on restoring the reliability and level of customer experience we expect of ourselves and that you expect from us,” he said. | 2022-12-29T17:29:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Southwest Airlines's woes continue with thousands of canceled flights - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/12/29/southwest-airlines-flight-cancellations/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/12/29/southwest-airlines-flight-cancellations/ |
Top Buffalo-area official shoulders blame for late blizzard travel ban
Abandoned vehicles litter a road in Buffalo on Sunday. (Malik Rainey for The Washington Post)
The top official in New York’s Erie County said Wednesday that he takes full responsibility for issuing a travel ban that many residents have criticized for coming too late to stop people from driving during the brunt of last week’s historic blizzard.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz tweeted that he does not know whether instituting the ban earlier “would have changed anything but it was my decision and I bear full responsibility.”
The county, which contains Buffalo, announced a travel ban shortly before 9 a.m. Friday, giving motorists a 41-minute heads-up as many of them were driving to work. The ban went into effect minutes before 79 mph winds struck the area. The timing of the ban has become one of the flash points as Western New York grapples with the aftermath of a storm that took the lives of at least 37 people in Erie County.
Although county officials had been imploring people to stay home and for businesses to close, those were merely advisories. Last Thursday, a day before the storm, some residents were begging the top emergency official to enact a ban, with more than a dozen people across Facebook and Twitter posting and responding to Poloncarz’s updates that they would still be forced to work given the mad rush of the holiday weekend.
Earlier that morning, “life-threatening conditions” and “dangerously strong” winds were encroaching on Buffalo, according to forecasts. In his news conference early Friday, Poloncarz drove home how dangerous the blizzard was going to be. Only twice in his tenure had the National Weather Service indicated a weather event would have an “extreme impact,” he said. Six minutes after the ban went into effect, Poloncarz shared on Facebook that the Weather Service in Buffalo had recorded 72 and 79 mph winds in the area. Nearly 13,000 people had already lost power.
The executive’s comment is the latest development in the mounting scrutiny over how officials prepared for a historic blizzard that they spent ample time warning residents about but seemingly did not properly prepare them for.
In a news conference Wednesday, Poloncarz said officials deciding on when to issue the driving ban weighed projections indicating the storm band would not hit until midmorning and the need for overnight shift workers to be able to get home. “If anyone’s to be blamed, you can blame me,” he said. “I’m the one who has to make the final call on behalf of the county.”
He also slammed Buffalo leaders for failing to quickly and efficiently plow streets so that people could get out of their homes and get food and heat. And he accused Mayor Byron W. Brown’s administration of being absent in the coordinated local and state response, saying no one from the city has attended any of their daily calls for elected officials.
The county ended up taking over the cleanup efforts for a third of Buffalo, Poloncarz said, and is in discussions with state officials about handling all plowing for the city during future large storms.
“The mayor is not going to be happy to hear about it, but storm, after storm, after storm, after storm — the city, unfortunately, is the last one to be opened, and that shouldn’t be the case,” Poloncarz said. “It’s embarrassing, to tell you the truth.”
Brown has deflected Poloncarz’s admonishments and defended his handling of the blizzard preparation and response. In an interview Wednesday, Brown said he gets people’s frustration, anger and fear but stuck to his narrative that his constituents were “adequately prepared” and “adequately notified.”
“Everything that could have been done in the lead-up to the storm and during the storm was done,” the mayor said.
Residents, however, do not feel that way.
In response to Poloncarz’s tweet addressing his decision about issuing the ban, people on Twitter again shared their anger and frustration.
“It absolutely could have changed everything,” one user replied, going on to explain that people had already left for work or to buy supplies when the ban was announced. “If the ban had been done the day before & all business didn’t even open Friday, this wouldn’t have happened.” | 2022-12-29T17:30:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Top Buffalo official shoulders blame for late blizzard travel ban - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/12/29/buffalo-blizzard-driving-ban/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/12/29/buffalo-blizzard-driving-ban/ |
Presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden on Nov. 20, 2019 in Atlanta. (Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post)
From a $1.9 trillion economic stimulus to an attempted mass forgiveness of student loans, the Democrats’ agenda over the past two years has been much more progressive compared with 2009-2010, the last time the party controlled both Congress and the White House. A lot of factors and people drove that leftward shift, the most important being Joe Biden, who won the presidency and made these policies happen. But other than Biden, the politician most responsible for this new and improved Democratic governance is Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.).
Warren created a wide-ranging progressive agenda, built support for it across the party and the country, and helped fill the government and outside groups with allies who are helping her push it forward. That is an impressive trifecta, particularly considering that Warren not only isn’t the president but also isn’t the Democratic leader of either house of Congress or even the chair of a major committee.
Many Biden administration policies are versions of ideas Warren pushed either in her Senate office or her 2020 presidential campaign: a minimum 15 percent tax that higher-earning corporations must pay based on the profits they report to shareholders; the loan cancellation; a crackdown on mergers of big companies in the same industry; an “industrial policy” aimed at producing microchips and other modern economic necessities in the United States rather than abroad; abortions being conducted in veterans hospitals in states where they are otherwise limited; the sale of hearing aids over the counter without a prescription; the appointments of more public interest lawyers and fewer corporate attorneys to federal judgeships.
This is not the Warren presidency, but it’s certainly a Warren-infused presidency.
“I am so grateful to President Biden for being willing to listen to ideas. He didn’t adopt every one of them that I advocated for, but he’s been open,” Warren told me in an interview this month over Zoom.
Warren wasn’t alone on these issues. Left-wing organizations, activists and other members of Congress were pushing in the same direction. The role of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) has been particularly important. The Democrats’ newfound progressivism probably doesn’t happen without the Vermont senator’s 2016 presidential campaign, which reignited the party’s left wing.
But Warren’s ideas — whether her own, or ones she has amplified from the broader Democratic left — have been more frequently translated into policy than Sanders’s.
The Massachusetts senator, an expert in bankruptcy law before entering politics, is most influential and prescient on economic policy. For example, she was warning more than a year ago that the cryptocurrency industry was a potential financial bubble. But on noneconomic issues, too, she has been an early adopter of stances that later became more mainstream in the Democratic Party, such as impeaching then-President Donald Trump, getting rid of the filibuster and creating a federal right to an abortion.
“My team is less about folks who have a lot of political experience and more about people who really know a subject area. So I’ve had microbiologists, sociologists, people with advanced degrees in education, tax specialists. … People who came to it, maybe not knowing a lot about Capitol Hill, but knowing a lot about the problem in the area they’ve studied,” Warren said.
But it’s not just that Warren has lots of ideas. What goes less noticed is how shrewd she is at the politics of advancing her agenda. From the moment she entered the Senate in 2013, she has been fixated on presidential appointments, popularizing the mantra that “personnel is policy.” When Barack Obama was in office, Warren successfully organized opposition to potential appointees who she felt were insufficiently progressive, most notably former treasury secretary (and current Post contributing columnist) Lawrence H. Summers’s bid to become chair of the Federal Reserve. Looking to avoid such fights, Biden has generally avoided nominating people for key posts whom Warren and other progressives would object to.
Her work on student loan cancellation is another illustration of her political savvy. (Even if the Supreme Court invalidates the broad forgiveness program, the Biden administration has already forgiven billions of dollars through smaller loan cancellations that were done because of prodding from Warren and the party’s left wing.) She has consistently emphasized that Black Americans who have attended college on average have higher debt burdens and lower incomes compared with college-going White Americans. Casting debt cancellation as a racial inequality issue was smart, because the Democratic Party is dominated by a center-left wing skeptical of progressives like Warren but eager to show its support for Black causes. Once Biden was elected, Warren joined forces with powerful Black figures in the party, most notably Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (Ga.), to push the issue.
Warren also emphasized that loan forgiveness was popular with the public, particularly with younger voters whom Democrats needed in the midterms. That was typical Warren. While she is often cast by the party’s centrists as proposing overly liberal ideas that will annoy moderate voters, Warren in fact tends to fixate on issues where she is aligned with popular opinion. For example, drastically increasing taxes on the wealthy, as Warren has repeatedly called for, is very popular with voters but not with major party donors.
Tact is also part of her broader strategy. In pushing for loan cancellation, Warren was relentless, constantly doing interviews and tweets calling for Biden to take action. But she never criticized the president directly. She has sharply attacked some of Biden’s appointees, most notably more centrist figures such as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. But she keeps strong ties with Biden in part by rarely publicly rebuking the president.
“Even where there are areas of disagreement, she has been generously supportive of what the president is trying to get done — which has been critical to the president’s success,” White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain told me in an email message. He added, “She is a true thought leader in our party, and combines that with a relentless determination to turn those policy thoughts into action.”
The third key to Warren’s success is her network building. She hires ambitious staffers, gives them a platform to be creative and encourages them to depart for bigger roles. She endorses progressive candidates in local, state and federal races, looking to build allies at all levels of government. And Warren is regularly doing interviews with left-wing journalists, giving speeches at progressive think tanks and personally calling activists on the issues that she is working on.
So when the senator is trying to get one of her ideas adopted, she can call people in government but also create public pressure that forces them to act. “The inside and the outside, you’ve got to do them both,” she says.
You might be thinking that Warren can’t be that great at politics — after all, she ran for president in 2020 and finished well behind Biden and Sanders. There were certainly some bad moments in her presidential campaign, particularly Warren’s struggles to define a clear position on Medicare-for-all.
Even so, her campaign was a great success in highlighting national problems, such as corporations not paying taxes, and thereby effectively forcing the next Democratic president to address them. Yes, she was trying to win the primary. But she also wanted to come up with ideas that resonated with Democratic voters and changed the party’s policy trajectory even if she wasn’t the nominee. And that’s exactly what she did.
With Republicans soon to be in control of the House, Democrats in Washington won’t be able to pass big legislation as they did in 2021-2022. But even with that limitation, Warren has tons of ideas that could be implemented through the executive branch, the Democratic-controlled Senate or at the local and state level — and she has the relationships and savvy to get them adopted.
Warren didn’t become the president. But she has shaped a presidency. | 2022-12-29T17:59:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Joe Biden is in the Oval Office. So are Elizabeth Warren’s ideas. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/29/elizabeth-warren-ideas-biden-presidency/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/29/elizabeth-warren-ideas-biden-presidency/ |
Southwest’s biggest problem? Staffing.
A departures board in Dallas on Wednesday shows delayed and canceled flights, many by Southwest. (Shelby Tauber/Reuters)
When considering the ongoing disaster at Southwest Airlines, keep in mind that when things go this wrong, there’s almost never just one explanation.
Years ago, psychologist James Reason likened our defenses against catastrophe to layers of Swiss cheese: Each slice has holes in it, but if you stack enough of them together, the holes almost never line up, so you still have an effective barrier. There’s a temptation on those rare occasions when everything does line up disastrously to pick one of the holes and dub it the “real” cause. But it would be more accurate to say that it was everything all at once.
As with Southwest, which has canceled more than 13,000 flights, leaving holiday travelers and their bags stranded across the country. When I was in business school, the company was practically a mandatory case study because of its legendary efficiency. Now, it has suffered one of the worst meltdowns in industry history. On Tuesday, the company announced that two-thirds of scheduled flights would be canceled, essentially a hard reboot of the whole system.
How did it come to this? If I had to pick only one factor — one hole in the cheese — it would be staffing. That’s hardly Southwest’s only problem, but it’s probably the one problem that made all the others worse.
The Post's View: Southwest put investors ahead of its customers and employees
The operational efficiency and brand loyalty that made Southwest a case study were built on a foundation of human capital. You can’t run a finely tuned productivity machine with disgruntled, undertrained employees who are phoning it in; you need teams that work together well and solve problems on the fly. Southwest has long been known for its strong corporate culture; as Gary Leff of the indispensable View From the Wing blog told me, “Front-line people, from gate agents to flight attendants, at Southwest Airlines usually seem to like their jobs, which can be a contrast from other carriers.”
Companies that are good at getting the best out of their employees sometimes underinvest in other aspects of the business, because they can get away with it, relying on their workforce to patch any holes in the system. (A corollary of Reason’s Swiss cheese model is that you can often make bad decisions for quite a while before they catch up with you.) That can turn into a problem if the workforce itself has holes in it. And during the pandemic, some big ones opened up at Southwest.
In February 2020, the airline employed 62,436 people. Eighteen months later, that number had fallen to 54,512. It has since recovered, and then some; the latest data show a workforce of more than 66,000. But Leff noted that almost a fifth of those people joined the company within the past year. It takes time to integrate a workforce shift of this size — especially at a complicated operation like an airline.
That’s not unique to Southwest — many airlines shaved their payrolls as air traffic plummeted and now have to rebuild them. But it might have mattered more for Southwest because other peculiarities of the company’s operations threw up unique challenges: a point-to-point operational model that makes it more likely problems at one airport will cascade throughout the system; notably short turnaround times that get the most out of the company’s planes during normal times, but leave little buffer for extended delays; and a badly outdated system for assigning crews that seems to have required a lot of manual fine-tuning.
Then the holes began to line up, one by one. The holiday travel boom. Vicious weather that slowed operations at multiple airports. A slew of respiratory viruses ripping through the workforce. All of it put pressure on the system, which had apparently become nearly intolerable by Dec. 21, when the company was threatening to fire Denver ground crew members who called in sick without a note from a doctor they had seen. Telemedicine visits, the memo added, wouldn’t count.
Eventually something broke, and then everything broke, especially the system for assigning crews. Employees had to phone in to figure out where to go — only the phone lines jammed, and they couldn’t get through. According to Marty St. George, chief commercial officer of LATAM Airlines, time spent on hold counts against the Federal Aviation Administration work-hour limits — so crews could time out just trying to get their work schedule and then have to take a mandatory rest period before they could legally fly.
“There’s a lot of institutional knowledge that was lost during the pandemic,” said Leff. “Lack of experience and lack of systems hit a perfect storm of bad weather, insufficient staffing redundancy, and sick call-outs … it all snowballed.”
There is, of course, no way to run the counterfactual and see how Southwest’s 2019 workforce would have performed in this crisis. But one suspects they’d have done a lot better with more years working together under their belts.
One also suspects there are other snowballs out there; airlines are not the only sector that cut payrolls during the pandemic. Fortunately, there are few other industries where snowballs can cascade to an avalanche as quickly and dramatically as they do in transportation. Unfortunately, no matter where the snowballs are headed next, we’re likely to notice they’re rolling only after they’ve already grown big enough to do considerable damage. | 2022-12-29T17:59:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The problem behind Southwest's cancellations? Staffing. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/29/southwest-airlines-cancellations-staffing/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/29/southwest-airlines-cancellations-staffing/ |
Whitney Houston and exhausted Black women
There was a Whitney Houston out there in the world. She was perfect and acceptable, so we could be too.
Perspective by Helena Andrews-Dyer
Whitney Houston performs in Los Angeles in 2009. (Matt Sayles/AP)
Whitney Houston saved so many of us, but I think we killed her. Or, more politely put, we wrung her dry — squeezing out every last bit of her once-in-a-century talent for ourselves. Then we expected her to always conjure up more magic from whatever secret fountain she alone had access to. Without a break. Without a thank you.
Black girls must die exhausted. That’s the phrase — made popular by a recent bestseller — that played on repeat in my head while watching the new Houston biopic, “Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” directed by Kasi Lemmons and starring British actress Naomi Ackie.
The movie itself isn’t very good. It’s more of a YouTube mash-up of the icon’s greatest hits stitched together with ripped-from-the-headlines moments. But the idea that mainstream success not only cannot save a woman of color but will actually kill her in the end stuck with me long after the final scene depicting one of Houston’s (anyone’s) greatest vocal performances.
What the singer represented at her zenith — a voice that lit you on fire, a face made for magazine covers, a crossover image so powerful it was undeniable — was its own powerful pill. A body-numbing antidote to a seemingly never-ending Cold War, war on poverty and war on drugs. I know because I was practically addicted to her myself.
As a latchkey kid growing up in a majority-White town during the Reagan era, the “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” singer was like a talisman to me. If I ever felt out of place, unpretty, unseen, I could always hum a Houston tune and know that I was none of those things. There was a Whitney Houston out there in the world. She was perfect and acceptable, so we could be too.
She was the kind of Black performer the Girl Scout moms in our conservative Christian town could get behind. Everyone loved her. No one could deny her. So when my mother decided I should sing “Greatest Love of All” for the annual Rotary Club talent show, 8-year-old me was beyond geeked. The plan was to belt out the lyrics — No matter what they take from me/ They can’t take away my dignity — and blow minds. That night I took home third place, in an emerald-green taffeta gown with sleeves as puffed up as my pride. I used her, too.
10 years after Whitney Houston’s death, what have we learned about her — and ourselves?
Pitchy I may have been, but channeling Whitney’s perfection for those three minutes onstage in an elementary school auditorium filled with faces that didn’t look like mine was enough to get me through the next few years of forced self-doubt. She filled me up. Meanwhile, the music industry, the pop-culture peanut gallery and Houston’s rocky private life were pulling her down.
Houston’s brand of perfectionism and exceptionalism was critical to her success, acting as a sort of cape for her (and for fans like me) until the weight of doing the impossible proved to be just that. She died in 2012 by accidental drowning at the Beverly Hilton hotel hours before a planned performance at Clive Davis’s pre-Grammy party.
In one of the most contemplative scenes of the film, Houston is trying to make a comeback after another stint in rehab. She sits alone in front of a bathroom mirror, singing the melody of “Home” to herself in the hopes of reigniting the Voice. It’s not going to happen. The audience knows it, and on some level so does she. But the struggle, the longing for what once was, is quietly heartbreaking as the water for the bath runs in the background.
“Yes, I’m exhausted,” Houston tells her guru, Clyde, earlier in the film. “All Black women are exhausted.” There were more than a few whispered amens in the theater after that line. The movie finally put a period on a point that too many Black women already know. If Houston couldn’t navigate the mainstream, could any of us?
“If you never get a vacation, you’ll find a way to take one,” she says in the film, rationalizing her addictions. More ummhmms followed.
Carrying elections, entire political movements and industries across the finish line is superhero work. Imbuing little Black girls you’ll never meet with confidence is a yeoman’s effort that for too long required sacrifices and a sort of sectioning off of one’s identity. Just ask Michelle Obama. Too bad we can no longer ask Houston, whose legacy (beyond the Voice) might be a lesson in taking back what they don’t want to give up — yourself. | 2022-12-29T19:00:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Whitney Houston and exhausted Black women - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/12/29/whitney-houston-black-women-essay/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/12/29/whitney-houston-black-women-essay/ |
How the New Taliban Crackdown Fits in Afghan Women’s Saga
Women’s rights in Afghanistan have been the subject of debate and conflict for more than a century, with efforts to improve their status followed by moves to roll them back. When the radical Islamists of the Taliban returned to power in 2021, two decades after they’d been ousted by US forces, they first said they’d moderated their views regarding women. That pledge proved short-lived, however. In the latest restrictions of women’s rights, women were banned in December from attending university and working for aid groups.
When the Taliban returned to power after the collapse of the US-supported government, their leaders initially promised to rule differently than they did in the late 1990s. But today, Afghan women are — once again — the primary victims of their rule. Not long after taking power, the group barred teenage girls from getting an education beyond the seventh grade, dismissed thousands of women from government jobs and prevented females from traveling alone unless accompanied by a male relative. Women are again forced to wear burqas in public. Initially, the Taliban limited women university students to gender-segregated classrooms. On Dec. 20 they were banned altogether. The next week, women were barred from working at non-governmental organizations, prompting several international aid groups to cease operations and raising questions about the delivery of assistance during the harsh winter months. Women made up almost half the staff in Afghanistan of the International Rescue Committee, one of the groups that closed down. | 2022-12-29T19:00:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How the New Taliban Crackdown Fits in Afghan Women’s Saga - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-the-new-taliban-crackdown-fits-in-afghan-womens-saga/2022/12/29/32e9ebdc-879f-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-the-new-taliban-crackdown-fits-in-afghan-womens-saga/2022/12/29/32e9ebdc-879f-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
House investigation faults FDA, Biogen for Alzheimer’s drug approval
Biogen, the company that makes the Alzheimer's disease drug Aduhelm, has headquarters in Cambridge, Mass. (Steven Senne/AP)
The biotechnology company Biogen and its regulator the Food and Drug Administration worked in concert, ignoring internal concerns from the company and skirting the agency’s own written guidance, to allow the Alzheimer’s treatment Aduhelm to receive accelerated approval and hit the market at a cost to patients of $56,000 a year, according to a scathing report released Thursday by two House committees.
The “unusual” collaboration, which resurrected Aduhelm three months after Biogen had canceled clinical trials, unfolded through at least 115 meetings, calls and email exchanges between the company and the FDA in a year, said the report by the Committees on Oversight and Reform, and Energy and Commerce.
The joint effort climaxed with staff from the agency helping Biogen draft a document used to brief the FDA’s own advisory committee before it met to discuss Aduhelm on Nov. 6, 2020. Although the FDA often follows an advisory committee recommendation, it did not this time. After no member of the advisory committee recommended Aduhelm, the FDA changed course, allowing Biogen to move its drug to an accelerated approval process.
At the FDA’s suggestion, the drug was labeled for use by the nation’s more than 6 million Alzheimer’s patients, even though it had been tested only on people with early Alzheimer’s and mild symptoms, the report said.
“It’s the worst decision the FDA has ever made” in the last half-century, said Sidney Wolfe, founder of the advocacy group Public Citizen’s Health Research Group. “It was an unprecedented alliance between the company and the FDA.”
“We fully cooperated with the Committees’ evaluation and we continue to review their findings and recommendations,” the FDA said in a statement responding to the report. “It is the agency’s job to frequently interact with companies in order to ensure that we have adequate information to inform our regulatory decision-making. We will continue to do so, as it is in the best interest of patients. That said, the agency has already started implementing changes consistent with the Committee’s recommendations.”
The agency had previously conducted an internal investigation of its handling of Aduhelm, concluding more than a year ago that although the collaboration “exceeded the norm in some respects,” there was “no evidence” that dealings between the company and regulator “were anything but appropriate.”
The internal report said the decision to work “proactively” with Biogen “is consistent with FDA policy” in light of both “the large unmet medical need” for Alzheimer’s treatment, and an FDA official’s view that one of the Aduhelm studies could represent “a home run” as far as safety and effectiveness.
The report by the two House committees faulted the company too, saying that Biogen knew the initial $56,000 per year price ― reduced to $28,000 in January 2022 ― would put a heavy burden on patients. But the Cambridge, Mass.-based company estimated the treatment could earn them as much as $18 billion per year and exulted in a slide presentation to its board: “Our ambition is to make history … to establish (the drug) as one of the top pharmaceutical launches of all time.”
In fact, Aduhelm proved to be a financial dud, generating just $3 million in revenue for all of 2021.
In a statement responding to the report, Biogen said it had cooperated with the committees and “stands by the integrity of the actions we have taken.” Biogen’s statement also cited the FDA’s internal investigation, which concluded that there was no evidence of impropriety in the dealings between the agency and company.
Biogen stuck with the $56,000 per year price tag despite projections that the drug could wind up costing Medicare up to $12 billion in a single year. Other Alzheimer’s sell for much less. A year’s supply of Aricept costs less than $8,000; Exelon, a drug in the same family, costs about $8,800 a year’s supply; and Namenda costs less than $3,000 per year.
The report lays out recommendations that the FDA should follow to “help restore the American people’s trust,” as well as measures that Biogen and other drug companies should take to “fulfill their responsibility to the patients and families.” Since the recommendations leave it to the FDA and company to change their policies, it is unclear whether they will actually prevent future aduhelm episodes from occurring.
The committees recommended that the FDA document all its communications with drug sponsors, establish a system for partnering with companies to produce the reports used to brief its own advisory committees and update its formal guidance for developing and reviewing new Alzheimer’s drugs.
Aduhelm, a lab-made protein administered directly into a patient’s vein, was said to work by reducing a sticky substance in the brain called amyloid beta, which clumps between neurons and disrupts their function. Some scientists have theorized that buildup of amyloid beta in the brain causes Alzheimer’s disease.
In September 2015 Biogen began enrolling patients in two Phase 3 clinical trials, which test the safety and effectiveness of a drug and compare it with standard treatment. Three and a half years later, in March 2019, the company announced it was ending both trials after receiving an independent report concluding that the treatment was not likely to slow the memory loss, confusion and other symptoms of brain impairment caused by Alzheimer’s disease.
But the drug’s death was short-lived.
The report shows that two months after the trials ceased, representatives from Biogen and the FDA met at neurology conference in Philadelphia and discussed findings from the studies. The FDA official suggested the agency and company schedule a special meeting to discuss data from the trials.
FDA documents reviewed in the new report show that Biogen began informal talks with the agency to review whether data from the unfinished trials revealed some benefit to patients. A meeting between the FDA and Biogen in mid-June 2019 led to both agreeing to form a joint “working group.”
The collaboration would lead to the FDA and Biogen moving forward on the drug, even though staff at both the agency and the company expressed reservations about some of the decisions that were made.
In addition, the FDA’s approval ran counter to its own guidelines on early Alzheimer’s disease treatments, which said that “there is no sufficiently reliable evidence” that a drug’s effect on amyloid beta by itself would be enough to benefit patients. Scientists have expressed conflicting opinions as to whether amyloid beta is a cause of Alzheimer’s or simply a consequence of the disease.
The report also found that a team of Biogen staff examined the financial impact the initial price of Aduhelm would have on patients and concluded that the country’s “over 65 population will face challenges with [their] ability to pay.” The team estimated that two-thirds of Medicare patients at risk of developing Alzheimer’s would have to pay some of the cost themselves, even though more than half have incomes of less than $50,000 a year and more than one-third have assets worth less than $5,000.
Although the report found that the company “appears to have developed financial assistance programs for eligible patients,” investigators wrote “these programs would leave significant gaps in coverage.”
Despite the expected hardship the price would impose on patients, Biogen expected to spend “between $500 million and $600 million to build out its sales force” to market the drug, the report said.
Five months after the drug entered the market, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that the monthly premium for Medicare Part B would rise by 14.5 percent in 2022, half of that in anticipation of higher costs due to the new Alzheimer’s treatment.
The report said the percentage increase translated to a $21.60 jump in monthly premiums for Medicare Part B beneficiaries, “reportedly the largest dollar increase in the program’s history.”
For its part, Biogen went ahead with a broad label that Aduhelm was for “people with Alzheimer’s disease,” despite the reservations from staff about the lack of evidence of clinical benefit for patients in more advanced stages of the disease than those involved in the clinical trials. Some inside the company even expressed concern that pushing ahead with the labeling plan “could damage the company’s credibility,” the report said. | 2022-12-29T19:01:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | House investigation faults FDA, Biogen for Alzheimer’s drug approval - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/12/29/alzheimers-fda-biogen-aduhelm/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/12/29/alzheimers-fda-biogen-aduhelm/ |
Quick, agile, adept with both feet and laserlike with his headers, he helped Brazil win three World Cup titles
Pelé in 1969. (AP)
He was hailed as the king of soccer, but it was Pelé’s other nickname — the Pérola Negra, or Black Pearl — that best evoked the rare brilliance he packed into his diminutive frame. Pelé, who for decades staked a claim as the world’s most celebrated athlete, died Dec. 29 at 82.
His death was announced in a statement shared by his official social media accounts. Additional details were not immediately available, but Pelé had been hospitalized in São Paulo, Brazil, for the past month, undergoing treatments for colon cancer.
Pelé’s eminence in soccer spanned three decades in which he helped Brazil win World Cup titles in 1958, 1962 and 1970. Quick, agile, adept with both feet and laserlike with his headers, Pelé was built for scoring and blessed with a jazz master’s improvisational skills on the soccer pitch.
Nonetheless, born and reared in poverty, the soccer champion formally known as Edson Arantes do Nascimento was among the world’s first athletes to recognize the power and riches of the personal brand.
Later in his career, after retiring from Brazilian club Santos, which was the country’s dominant team in the 1960s, Pelé took his global aura to America, signing with the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League in 1975, when he was in his mid-30s. The deal was reportedly brokered by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, one of Pelé’s ardent admirers and a believer in the international goodwill spawned by “the beautiful game.”
The genius of Pelé’s play prompted a 48-hour cease-fire in at least one civil war as Nigerians put their arms down to behold his mastery during a 1969 exhibition in Lagos.
It wasn’t just Pelé’s skill that transcended boundaries; so, too, did his fame. He never knew the origin of his nickname. “Pelé” has no meaning in Portuguese, but it was simple enough for a child to pronounce and make itself understood in all languages, as did Pelé’s signature smile.
As he remarked in a 2001 interview, “Wherever you go, there are three icons that everyone knows: Jesus Christ, Pelé and Coca-Cola.”
A year earlier, the international governing body of soccer, FIFA, named Pelé and Argentina’s Diego Maradona co-players of the 20th century. The question of who was the game’s greatest of all time — Pelé, with his three World Cup titles, or Maradona, with his one championship in four World Cup appearances — roiled passions well beyond South America. It was a debate that offended Pelé.
Diego Maradona, mesmerizing soccer star and Argentine legend, dies at 60
Nonetheless, Pelé’s behavior off the field was not above reproach. He had frequent extramarital dalliances and refused to recognize one of his daughters as his own despite DNA tests proving he was her father.
To the soccer stars who supported Pelé, there was no doubt about who was the greatest. They were consumed by another debate: Was Pelé invented for soccer, or was soccer invented for Pelé?
“Pelé was the only footballer who surpassed the boundaries of logic,” Dutch-born great Johan Cruyff once said.
Raised a Roman Catholic, Pelé said he remained a man of faith and saw his life’s work as fulfilling God’s destiny for him. That destiny, however, did not imply a vow of poverty, chastity or single-mindedness.
Pelé saw wealth as power, and he used his fame in sometimes questionable business endeavors. Over the years he made and lost fortunes and was a pitchman for video games, soft drinks, computer products and pharmaceuticals.
Rising from near-poverty, he was sometimes humbled and astonished by his success.
“It’s not easy to separate Edson from Pelé psychologically,” he wrote in one of his autobiographies. “Pelé has taken on a life of his own. He overtook everything. I sense the dichotomy between Edson and Pelé every time I take out my Mastercard. On one side is the image of me doing a bicycle kick together with the signature of Pelé, and on the other is my real signature.”
But he had no ambivalence, no trace of doubt about the ability behind the brand.
“In music, there is Beethoven and the rest,” Pelé said in 2000. “In football, there is Pelé and the rest.”
Learning from his father
Edson Arantes do Nascimento was born in Três Corações in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state in October 1940. His birth certificate is dated the 21st, but he observed Oct. 23 as his birthday.
He learned to play soccer from his father, João Ramos do Nascimento, a minor league player who found work later in life as a government clerk. Pelé’s upbringing was so austere that he reportedly fashioned soccer balls from wads of paper stuffed into socks or used grapefruits instead.
When Pelé was 5, his father joined a football club in the São Paulo suburb of Bauru and relocated his wife and three children there. To help subsidize the family’s meager income, Pelé shined shoes as a child. But his love of soccer was so great, and his lack of interest in his studies so profound, that he quit school after the fourth grade to play the game in the streets and ply a short-lived trade as a cobbler’s apprentice.
Pelé was called up to Brazil’s national team at 16. And he made his World Cup debut at 17 — the youngest player at that point to compete in the World Cup. Pelé scored six goals in the 1958 tournament, including a hat trick in the semifinals against France and two goals in the 5-2 final over Sweden.
When the 1962 World Cup up got underway in Chile, he was no longer a teenage phenom. Despite his modest size, at 5-foot-8, Pelé was widely acclaimed as the world’s best player. He scored a goal in Brazil’s 2-0 victory over Mexico in the first game, but an injury ended his tournament. Brazil went on to defend its title without him.
With Pelé injured again in 1966, Brazil was unable to defend its title.
Pelé was 29 when the 1970 World Cup kicked off in Mexico. Pelé scored the opening goal in Brazil’s 4-1 victory over Italy in the final. “I told myself before the game, ‘he’s made of skin and bones just like everyone else,’ ” said Italy’s Tarcisio Burgnich, who defended Pelé in the World Cup. “But I was wrong.”
Goalkeeper Costa Pereira said much the same after his Portuguese club fell to Santos in the 1962 Intercontinental Cup. “I arrived hoping to stop a great man,” Pereira said, “but I went away convinced I had been undone by someone who was not born on the same planet as the rest of us.”
After retiring from Brazilian soccer in 1974 and reportedly $1 million in debt after bad investments, Pelé signed a three-year, $2.8 million contract with the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League. Sports Illustrated later reported the nascent league’s average attendance jumped nearly 80 percent after he came to the United States.
Pelé led the Cosmos to the league championships in 1977. He played his final game — an exhibition against Santos at Giants Stadium — in which he competed for his American club in one half and his former Brazilian club the other half.
Pelé’s marriages to Rosemeri dos Reis Cholbi and Assíria Lemos Seixas ended in divorce. He was linked romantically for many years to the model Xuxa, who was 17 when they began to date in 1981. In 2016, he married Marcia Aoki, a business executive 32 years his junior.
Pelé had at least six children among his marriages and other relationships, including daughter Sandra from an affair with a housemaid. Based on DNA evidence, Sandra successfully sued in Brazilian court for legal recognition and also wrote a book titled “The Daughter the King Didn’t Want.” She died of cancer in 2006.
His son Edson “Edinho” do Nascimento, a former goalkeeper for Santos, was arrested in 2005 in a money-laundering case and in 2017 received a sentence of almost 13 years. He was allowed to serve his sentence under an arrangement that permitted him to work for Santos on player development.
Pelé wrote at least two autobiographies and dabbled in acting and composing. He was tapped as a United Nations’ ambassador for ecology and the environment in 1992. From 1995 to 1998, he was Brazil’s minister of sport.
Pelé’s health problems mounted after age 65. He underwent eye surgery for a detached retina, had a hip replacement and was hospitalized for a urinary tract infection.
At 74, he signed a lifetime contract with Santos that included a licensing deal for merchandise marking their achievements together.
Nearly four decades after kicking his last competitive ball, Pelé was still building a legacy that lifted a nation, and his sport, in a new century. “Pelé was one of the few who contradicted my theory,” artist Andy Warhol mused after completing his silk-screen portrait of the soccer great in the late 1970s. “Instead of 15 minutes of fame, he will have 15 centuries.” | 2022-12-29T19:26:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Pelé, Brazil’s ‘king of soccer,’ dies at 82 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/12/29/pele-brazil-soccer-dies/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/12/29/pele-brazil-soccer-dies/ |
Perspective by Steven Goff
Pelé was born Edson Arantes do Nascimento and was named for inventor Thomas Edison. (Joedson Alves/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)
On a rainy fall afternoon in 1977, at a stuffed stadium in New Jersey’s Meadowlands, boxing legend Muhammad Ali joined dignitaries from entertainment and political circles to watch Pelé end his soccer career.
From the VIP section, Ali watched the Brazilian treasure play half the game for the New York Cosmos and half for Santos, his original club. A capacity crowd at Giants Stadium and a broadcast network audience — unheard of then — saluted O Rei, the King.
Brazilian soccer legend Pelé died on Dec. 29 at 82. He helped Brazil win the World Cup in 1958, 1962 and 1970. (Video: Drea Cornejo/The Washington Post)
Just as Ali eclipsed his craft, Pelé transcended the sport, holding sway over audiences with magnetism and a million-dollar smile. And when he addressed the 77,000-plus fans, telling them “love is more important than what we can take in life,” he asked them to chant, “Love, love, love.”
Almost in unison, they abided.
On Thursday, six years after the planet lost Ali, the world lost one of the 20th century’s other revered sports figures: Pelé died at 82.
He was born Edson Arantes do Nascimento, named for inventor Thomas Edison, in a small city, Três Corações, or Three Hearts. The world would know him by his stage name, which had no specific meaning but, as the decades passed, meant the world to billions.
Long before Prince, Shakira and Beyoncé, there was soccer’s one-name wonder, Pelé. It was not an intentional marketing ploy; Brazilians often go by one name. But more than 40 years after his last competitive game, he remained one of the most recognizable names on the planet.
He will go down in history as one of the sport’s greatest players, if not the best. Vigorous dissent will rise from Argentina, which claims Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi. Who is best? Who cares? Each offered enormous happiness.
“I was born for soccer,” Pelé once said, “just as Beethoven was born for music.”
He did not coin the phrase “the beautiful game” to describe soccer, but he did popularize it.
Pelé’s legacy remains at work in America. His name has resonated for decades, in particular for those who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s. For a younger generation, he is a mythical being, reduced to grainy videos that provide evidence of his brilliance as a goal scorer, creator and innovator.
His greatest contribution here was igniting the soccer boom and introducing a sport that had not even reached niche status. In suburban parks, soccer became fertile ground for a sport that did not require exceptional height or strength. Long before playground basketball hopefuls wanted to be like Mike, the soccer brigade wanted to be like Pelé.
He played stateside for just 2½ years, past his prime but still magnificent following a sterling career with Santos and the national team. His impact, though, was profound.
Because of him, generations embraced soccer, learned its nuances and pleasures, and passed along its joys. What parent hasn’t taken a turn as a youth coach?
After Pelé’s farewell, the North American Soccer League lasted just seven more years, through 1984. The foundation, though, had been laid for FIFA to award the 1994 World Cup to the United States and set attendance records that still stand.
The tournament will return in 2026, a joint venture with Mexico and Canada. The United States will become just the sixth country to host the tournament multiple times.
If not for the 1994 World Cup, MLS probably would not have launched two years later. The league is approaching 30 teams, and numerous stadiums have risen with soccer in mind.
The sport’s growth helped elevate the men’s national team to the World Cup almost every four years since 1990, sparked women’s pro leagues and crafted the most decorated women’s national team in the world.
These days, famous European clubs have built hardcore U.S. followings and league matches are omnipresent on TV.
“Without Pelé coming to the Cosmos, it’s an arguable point the sport might never have reached the heights it’s at today,” Jim Trecker, the Cosmos’ communications director during Pelé’s stay, said in an interview. “He ignited people’s interests and millions were introduced to soccer because of him — solely.”
Pelé does not deserve credit for everything. With or without him, Latin American demographics would have grown the game and technology would have made watching it more accessible. What he did was bring soccer into the mainstream and onto Madison Avenue. He made it cool.
Pelé understood it would take more than bicycle kicks and hat tricks to draw an American public nourished on football, baseball and basketball. Soccer needed a showman to make a genuine pitch, to highlight the game’s beauty and nuance, and to win over a curious public and a skeptical media.
Pelé embraced celebrity, joining the New York sports constellation featuring Joe Namath and Reggie Jackson, among others. He and the Cosmos were VIPs on the nightclub circuit. His stage grew larger each season — from Downing Stadium on Randall’s Island on the East River, to Yankee Stadium, then Giants Stadium, where average attendance swelled to 34,000 in 1977.
On the road, the Cosmos were the circus and a Broadway blockbuster rolled into one, Pelé starring alongside West Germany’s Franz Beckenbauer and Italy’s Giorgio Chinaglia in a lineup that could’ve competed with the best in the world.
So many opposing players wanted to swap jerseys with Pelé after matches, the support staff would bring a stack of extras on the road.
In a 1976 preseason game in San Antonio, it became clear the crowd was going to rush the field at the final whistle and mob him. With about five minutes left, the team made sure a car was running outside a tunnel. When the ball rolled out of bounds near that exit, Pelé acted as if he would retrieve it for a throw-in. Instead, he dashed to the vehicle.
He went where the sport needed him, whether it was the Rose Bowl or Virginia’s W.T. Woodson High, where the Washington Diplomats played in 1976.
Pelé’s final NASL regular season match was at Washington’s RFK Stadium, and his last official appearance came at Soccer Bowl ’77 in Portland, Ore. He went out a champion. Early this year, Pelé tweeted his memories of the farewell game at Giants Stadium.
“On the last day of work, I cried with joy and sadness at the same time,” he wrote. “Joy for the journey. Sad because it had to end. But above all, with a heart full of gratitude.”
Citizens of the world felt the same. | 2022-12-29T19:26:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What Pelé, soccer’s one-name wonder, meant to the beautiful game - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/12/29/pele-soccer/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/12/29/pele-soccer/ |
Rep. Jamie Raskin has diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Here’s what to know.
Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) on Capitol Hill in 2021. Raskin announced Dec. 28 that he has a serious but curable form of cancer. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) announced this week he has a serious but curable form of cancer known as diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. His diagnosis has drawn well-wishes from across the political spectrum, including from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who said she’ll be praying for him.
Raskin, who was treated for colon cancer in 2010, said he is about to begin outpatient chemo-immunotherapy and that the “Prognosis for most people in my situation is excellent after four months of treatment.”
Here’s what to know about the form of cancer Raskin is fighting.
What is diffuse large B-cell lymphoma?
What is the prognosis? | 2022-12-29T20:14:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Rep. Jamie Raskin has diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Here’s what to know. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/29/raskin-lymphoma-faq/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/29/raskin-lymphoma-faq/ |
Quick, agile, adept with both feet and laserlike with his headers, Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pelé, who helped Brazil win three of its five World Cup championships and was among the world’s first athletes to recognize the power and riches of the personal brand, and who for decades staked a claim as the most celebrated athlete worldwide, has died.
-AFP via Getty Images/AFP via Getty Images
Seventeen-year-old Pelé, birth name Edson Arantes do Nascimento, center, weeps on the shoulder of goalkeeper Gylmar Dos Santos Neves after Brazil’s 5-2 victory over Sweden in the final of the soccer World Cup in Stockholm.
Pelé dribbles past a defender during a friendly match between Malmoe and Brazil in Malmoe, Sweden.
Pelé with his mother, Celeste.
Pelé signs autographs for members of the French soccer team as they leave Lancaster House in London after attending the reception for eliminated World Cup teams.
Bippa/AP
Pelé and his wife, Rosemarie dos Reis Cholbi, with daughter Cristina at a park in Santos, Brazil.
Pelé performs a scissors kick during a game.
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, with her husband, Prince Philip, presents a cup to Pelé in Rio de Janeiro during her state tour of South America.
Pelé makes his way past an opposing team’s goalie to score during a game in Rio de Janeiro.
A jubilant Pelé, riding on the shoulders of fans, holds the ball with which he scored his 1,000th goal, in Rio de Janeiro
Pelé jumps and celebrates with a teammate after scoring his team’s first goal against Italy in the World Cup final at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City.
Kurt Strumpf/AP
Pelé flashes victory signs as he rides down the Champs-Élysées on his way to a reception at Paris’s Hôtel de Ville, the city hall.
Jean-Jacques Levy/AP
Pelé holds a ball he autographed for President Richard M. Nixon as the soccer player and his wife, Rosemarie dos Reis Cholbi, visit the White House.
Pelé speaks with Johnny Carson on the “Tonight Show” in Los Angeles.
Allen Green/AP
Pelé signs autographs as he is cheered by the crowd before the Brazil vs. Scotland World Cup game in Frankfurt, Germany.
Pelé during a training session with young boys in Bangkok.
Pelé in action during a game.
Pelé signs to play soccer for the New York Cosmos during a news conference in New York.
Cosmos star Pelé and teammate Mordechai Shpigler congratulate each other at the end of their exhibition game against the Dallas Tornado in New York.
Pelé waves to fans during a parade in Taipei Stadium during a four-day youth soccer promotion visit in Taiwan.
Pan Yueh- Kang/AP
Pelé, of the New York Cosmos, flips through the air after a scissors kick during a game against the Rowdies in Tampa Bay.
JIM BOURDIER/AP
Artist Andy Warhol takes a photograph of Pelé in New York for use in painting a portrait of the soccer star.
Claudia Larson/AP
Pelé is carried by his Cosmos teammates during his final game at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.
Pelé shows a group of children his soccer form at the Warner communications office in New York.
Pelé listens in to James Scully, 3, for his prospects of becoming a soccer player during his visit to the Children’s Ward of the Middlesex Hospital in London.
Harris/AP
Pelé wipes away tears during his wedding to Assiria Seixas Lemos in Recife, Brazil.
Altamiro Nunes/AP
President Bill Clinton takes a turn with the ball as he joins Pelé at the Mangueira School during his visit to Rio de Janeiro.
Pelé prepares to step in cement to leave his mark on the Walk of Fame at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro during a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the world-famous soccer venue.
Pelé holds the Olympic Torch alongside Arthur Nuzman, the president of the Brazilian Olympic Committee, at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro as the flames makes its way around the world en route to Athens for the Olympics.
GIUSEPPE BIZZARRI/AP
Pelé signs autographs as he visits Pontaise stadium after a news conference concerning the partnership between the Swiss Club FC Lausanne-Sports and Campus Pele in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Pelé and the English soccer star David Beckham pose for photos during a U.S. Soccer Foundation fundraising gala in New York.
Pelé poses in front of an image of himself at the exhibition about his life called “King’s Marks” in Brasilia.
Photo editing and production by Stephen Cook | 2022-12-29T20:14:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Photos: Remembering Brazilian soccer star and legend Pelé - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/photography/interactive/2022/soccer-legend-pele/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/photography/interactive/2022/soccer-legend-pele/ |
Unusual winter warmth will cap the toastiest year on record for parts of Europe
Records that were set New Year’s Eve 2021 are likely to be set again this year.
People walk along Tynemouth Longsands Beach, in Tynemouth, England, Dec. 26, 2022. (Stefan Rousseau/AP)
Temperatures in Europe will close out 2022 much like they started — and where they spent a lot of the year — with record warmth overtaking much of the continent.
Widespread areas of record-challenging temperatures are set to expand into Central Europe and Eastern Europe through the holiday weekend and into next week before an eventual relaxation and reconfiguration of the saucy weather pattern. Even as the pattern relaxes, warmer than normal temperatures seemingly will be dominant for landlocked regions of Europe well into January. This latest bout of unusually mild winter weather comes as the U.K. Met Office announced Wednesday that 2022 will be the warmest year on record for the United Kingdom. The office also indicated it will be the warmest year in a 364-year Central England temperature series, a data set that holds the longest instrumental period of record on the planet.
Europe just had its hottest summer on record
“While many will remember the summer’s extreme heat, what has been noteworthy this year has been the relatively consistent heat through the year, with every month except December being warmer than average,” said Mark McCarthy, head of the service’s National Climate Information Center, in a news release.
The weather service in Britain is only the first major organization making such declarations for the year as it wraps up. Additional countries and intergovernmental agencies are sure to follow, with the European continent more broadly also likely to rank high up the list of warm years.
Similarly to what is expected over the next week, warmth overtook the U.K. on New Year’s Day 2022, when record maximums for the date were set in England, Scotland and Wales.
The latest round of weirdly warm readings is getting underway in France and Germany as this year prepares to close. Numerous locations remained above 50 degrees (10 Celsius) for overnight lows Thursday morning, including what would be the warmest December night on record in several locations — but the readings will probably be topped again in nights to come.
Myriad records are likely to fall New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day across Europe. Additional records are possible in Eastern Europe during the first week of the new year.
Temperatures of at least 59 degrees (15 Celsius) are anticipated in much of the heart of the continent, and it’s probable that readings surpassing 68 degrees (20 Celsius) will occur in some locations. These are values more like those seen in spring, and perhaps even late spring, than the middle of winter.
France could experience an average of 14 or more degrees (8 Celsius) above average, countrywide, on the final day of the month, according to meteorologist Guillaume Séchet. That’s probably enough for the warmest New Year’s Eve on record for the country, he wrote.
A list of daily high temperature records for the final day of the year in several German cities — including 57 degrees (14 Celsius) in Berlin and 62 degrees (16.8 Celsius) in Dresden — shows that most were set only one year ago.
“Almost all of them will probably be cracked again this year,” tweeted Kachelmannwetter, a weather company and popular weather account from Germany.
Europe is seeing its warmest weather on record so late in the year
Throughout the holiday weekend, average daily readings in excess of 20 degrees (11 degrees Celsius) above normal are forecast to occur in a belt from much of Germany in the west to Ukraine in the east. After that period, Eastern Europe and parts of Asia will experience the highest temperatures compared to normal before diminishing somewhat over time.
Energy supplies may benefit from the persistent warm weather. The ongoing Russian occupation of Ukraine continues to degrade the country’s infrastructure — and energy supplies remain a concern amid high prices and inconsistent supply. So any break in the cold can be helpful.
The cause for the excessive warmth is a familiar one.
Strong belts of jet stream winds over the North Atlantic and into Scandinavia sit in contrast to strong and resilient high pressure (also known as a “heat dome”) over mainland Europe as well as locations to the south. In addition to the heat dome supplying its own warmth because of squashed cloud cover and little rain, the larger configuration acts to pull hot air off the deserts of the Iberian Peninsula and Africa, eventually delivering it to neighbors downwind.
U.K. sees hottest day on record, with temperatures hitting 40 Celsius
Over the summer, a wave of extreme temperatures of at least 104 degrees (40 Celsius) was recorded in the U.K. for the first time in modern history. Other than some cold weather earlier in December, the heat story kept resurfacing with regularity in Europe across the year.
The warmth of 2022 — often arriving hand in hand with drought conditions — is strongly influenced by human-caused climate change. Some days with extreme temperatures would be exceedingly difficult, or in some cases impossible, without background warming. | 2022-12-29T20:14:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Unusual winter warmth will cap the warmest year on record for parts of Europe - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/12/29/europe-record-warmth-uk-hottest-year/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/12/29/europe-record-warmth-uk-hottest-year/ |
Adams Morgan plaza is no place for the unhoused
A plaza in the Adams Morgan neighborhood at the intersection of Columbia Road and 18th Street NW in D.C. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
The Dec. 23 Metro article “Ruling jolts battle over an Adams Morgan plaza” made me think about how that public space was used before it was chain-link fenced off: It was a dwelling place for homeless people who set up as a kind of community after the bank building was closed. It has never been ideal for living space, and that is the contention now: that it be preserved as a sort of campground for homeless people. It is not fair to them, and never will be. They are left with a slab of concrete, freezing in the winter, sweltering in the summer, with no protection except, possibly, flimsy tents set up on the hard surface. Why preserve this miserable space? The farmers market that was mentioned has found another location down the street, and in fact, there is a much better corner for a public market in front of the Truist Bank, just cater-cornered from the disputed plaza.
Let’s talk about fairness. It is pitiful and unfair to subject homeless people to living on a street corner in the middle of an entertainment neighborhood, suffering with the weather, the noise and whatever else is happening to upset their lives. There is and must be a better solution for people without a permanent address and with unsettled lives. We can do better than provide them with an empty plaza in front of a deserted building in the middle of a busy neighborhood.
John F. Coates, Washington | 2022-12-29T20:32:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Adams Morgan plaza is no place for the unhoused - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/29/adams-morgan-plaza-is-no-place-unhoused/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/29/adams-morgan-plaza-is-no-place-unhoused/ |
Christmas for Ukrainians and Ukrainian expats
Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas for the first time on Dec 25 at the Church of Honor of the Icon of Holy Mother in Dnipro, Ukraine. (Heidi Levine for The Washington Post).
My husband and his family, Ukrainian Catholics, immigrated to the United States after World War II. We have always celebrated Christmas on or near Jan. 7, on the Julian calendar. Keeping this date made the family feel closer to celebrating with their beleaguered countrymen in Ukraine. When I would tell people who wished us Merry Christmas that we would be celebrating in January, many would say, “Oh, yes, Orthodox Christmas.” Well, no. We are not Orthodox but Eastern Rite Ukrainian Catholics. We have liked celebrating in January not only to feel closer to Ukraine but also because things seemed less hectic, less commercial, and it was more likely to snow in January.
Ironically, as the Dec. 26 news article “In Ukraine, a new wartime debate: When is Christmas?” noted, some Ukrainians want to celebrate on that date to distance themselves from all things Russian, a fact verified in an email from my friend Lesya from Kharkiv, Ukraine, (who escaped to Uzhhorod). She wrote that she was happy to attend the Christmas liturgy on Dec. 25 for the first time.
Natalie Gawdiak, Columbia | 2022-12-29T20:32:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Christmas for Ukrainians, and Ukrainian expats - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/29/christmas-ukrainians-ukrainian-expats/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/29/christmas-ukrainians-ukrainian-expats/ |
Who’s Asian? Good question.
People buy food Dec. 5, 2021, at a market in Ankara, Turkey. (Burhan Ozblici/AP)
I enjoyed reading the Dec. 23 Style article “The big ‘Asian American’ question.” For once, someone has tried to explain that not all “Asians” are from China, Japan or the Korean Peninsula. The article included Southeast Asians and South Asians as Asian, which is good, but it did not go far enough, literally.
A little more than a decade ago, a prominent, local company that marketed to several federal government agencies had been advertising its expertise on D.C.’s WTOP radio station as offering communications services “from Asia to Afghanistan.” How many Americans (or even Asian Americans) know that there’s also a Central Asia and a West Asia? People from Central Asian countries such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, which used to be in the former Soviet Union, are Asian. And people from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Yemen and many other Middle Eastern countries are Asian, too. What about Israel? Israel is also a part of West Asia. And what about Turkey, which has been negotiating accession to the European Union for decades? Well, only 3 percent of Turkey’s landmass and 10 percent of its people are in Europe; the rest are in Asia. So, who is an “Asian American”? Go figure!
Vinod Jain, Ashburn | 2022-12-29T20:32:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Defining Asia isn't simple - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/29/defining-asia-isnt-simple/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/29/defining-asia-isnt-simple/ |
The unimaginable cruelty in Ukraine echoes horrors in the U.S.
The courtyard of the Kherson regional children's home in Kherson, Ukraine, on Nov. 25. (Bernat Armangue/AP)
Under the Trump administration, I was heartbroken when I read of immigration officials separating children from their parents when they crossed into the United States and failing to keep accurate records of the children and parents. Now I read in the Dec. 25 news article “Ukrainians struggle to reclaim children stolen by Russia” that Russian President Vladimir Putin has encouraged the Russian troops and administration to steal Ukrainian children and put them into the Russian adoption system.
Both are unimaginable cruelties.
Robert Finkelstein, Reston | 2022-12-29T20:32:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Forced Russian adoptions of Ukrainian children is unimaginably cruel - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/29/forced-russian-adoptions-ukrainian-children-unimaginably-cruel/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/29/forced-russian-adoptions-ukrainian-children-unimaginably-cruel/ |
The people have been taken out of the gun-control narrative
Gun-control advocates confront attendees of the National Rifle Association's annual convention on May 28 in Houston. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
The Dec. 26 news article “Lost loved ones from 7 cities in America’s homicide crisis” raised the question of why we are allowing this to happen.
It’s because “we the people” have been taken out of the political narrative that controls the homicide crisis. The “political narrative” has for too long been controlled by special interest groups (the National Rifle Association), rural Republican politicians, gun and ammunition manufacturers, and members of Congress who represent a constituency that dilutes the will of the people where the crisis occurs. Unless “we the people” are willing to dilute the power of congressional representatives by increasing the number of congressional districts, the crisis will continue.
Further, it is time to stop acquiescing to right-wing window dressing that appeases rural appetites for military-style rifles, semiautomatic handguns, vetting processes that do not work, laws that allow guardians, parents or relatives of shooters to go free with a slap on the wrist, and gun laws that have been stretched to limits never intended by our Founding Fathers. Until we are willing to examine this crisis the same way we have examined the opioid crisis, we will not find a solution.
Ray Orem, Richmond | 2022-12-29T20:32:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The people have been taken out of the gun-control narrative - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/29/people-no-longer-have-power-over-gun-control/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/29/people-no-longer-have-power-over-gun-control/ |
Heavy rain and severe storms to affect southern U.S. into new year
The first day of 2023 could feature flooding, damaging winds and the risk of tornadoes in the region
The American GFS model simulates troughing, or the persistence of low pressure, over the western United States, as a ridge of high pressure builds in the East. (WeatherBell)
The new year is just days away, and it looks like 2023 will begin with a lot of weather activity across the South. Multiple storm systems are expected to roll across the south-central United States in the days ahead, setting the stage for flooding rains, damaging winds and perhaps some tornadoes.
The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center has outlined a level 2 out of 5 “slight” risk for severe weather on Monday in a region including Dallas, Memphis, Little Rock, Shreveport, La., Jackson, Tenn., Evansville, Ind., and Tupelo, Miss.
A widespread 4 to 7 inches of rain is expected to soak the South over the next five days, with localized flooding possible from East Texas along the Interstate 10 and I-20 corridor up the lower Mississippi Valley into Illinois and east to Georgia. Atlanta, home to Hartsfield-Jackson, the busiest airport in the world, also could be drenched for days.
Photos: Winter storm unleashes severe weather across U.S.
The disturbed weather has the potential to disrupt travel plans at the beginning of the year, coming on the heels of a particularly chaotic Christmas holiday travel stretch in the United States..
Heavy rain setup
The overarching pattern is dominated by a trough, or dip in the jet stream, in the West. A ridge of high pressure will become established and park over the eastern United States.
That high will bring temperatures 15 to 20 degrees above average in spots. In D.C., which last week dealt with readings as low as 9 degrees and experienced its coldest December reading in 33 years, there should be highs in the mid-60s amid an early taste of spring.
In the western United States, however, that trough — filled with cooler air and low pressure — will keep conditions unsettled while maintaining temperatures about 5 to 10 degrees below average.
The two air masses are expected to clash over the central United States along a stalled cold front that should stream moisture northward.
System #1
Heavy rain is likely in the lower Mississippi Valley on Friday, shifting into parts of the Deep South, including the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, in the evening. By Saturday morning, storms and downpours are expected to be rolling through Georgia and South Carolina, with a second batch of more-moderate rainfall in the Ohio Valley. Both areas of inclement weather should meet in the Mid-Atlantic with some showers on Saturday afternoon.
The second system, the same that will deliver severe weather to the South, also could bring another round of heavy rainfall. That rain will take the form of scattered thunderstorms after lunchtime Monday along and east of the I-35 corridor in Texas and Oklahoma. Then storms are expected to combine to create a stream of downpours and thunderstorms that will roll east, dropping another couple inches of rain. That system is expected to move through Mississippi and Alabama on Tuesday, with additional downpours in the Midwest.
The American GFS model simulates a widespread 3 to 5 inches of rain falling between the two storms in East Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, West Tennessee and along parts of the Ohio River in western Kentucky and southern Illinois. There could be localized totals of up to seven inches in Georgia.
Fortunately, since the rain will be spread over two events, there may be a lower flood risk. Still, plan for challenging travel on Interstates 10, 20, 22, 30, 40 and 59.
Severe weather risk
Monday’s episode of active weather also will feature some severe storms. The instigator, an upper-air disturbance, is south of the Alaskan Aleutians, but it is expected to dive southeast in the coming days. A pocket of vorticity, or spin, within the system will enhance upward motion in the air ahead of it, brewing scattered to widespread showers and thunderstorms across parts of the South on Monday.
Storms are likely to begin Monday after lunchtime in eastern Oklahoma and near and east of Dallas. They should grow into a sheared environment, or one characterized by changing winds with height. That could encourage thunderstorms to rotate, presenting a tornado risk.
They are likely to march northeast, affecting the greater Ark-La-Tex region. Storms eventually may merge into a line and continue east with additional damaging winds or spin-up tornadoes. Mississippi, Alabama and West Tennessee will have to monitor that threat closely into early Tuesday. | 2022-12-29T20:33:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Heavy rain, severe storms set to impact Southern U.S. into New Year - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/12/29/tornado-severe-flooding-rains/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/12/29/tornado-severe-flooding-rains/ |
Why 2022 was a very good year
By Jonathan Alter
A 2022 sign displayed in Pristina, Kosovo, on Dec. 30, 2021. (Armend Nimani/AFP/Getty Images)
Jonathan Alter is the author of books about Franklin D. Roosevelt, Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter, and of the Old Goats newsletter on Substack.
The first time I realized that 2022 might be remembered as what Frank Sinatra called “a very good year” (relatively speaking) was Dec. 6, when Herschel Walker delivered a surprisingly gracious concession speech after losing the Senate runoff in Georgia. This meant that not only had all of the high-profile election deniers running statewide in battleground states lost in the midterms, but all except one (Kari Lake in Arizona) rejected the example of their leader and conceded.
Before 2020, conceding defeat was routine, but now it feels like a sign of remission from the authoritarian cancer metastasizing through much of the body politic. While there’s no full cure in sight yet, 2022 will likely be seen in retrospect as a year of recovery.
We can’t ignore the bad news this year that led to all the “red wave” predictions in both parties: Inflation reached a 40-year high; mass shootings continued unabated; the southern border is out of control; at least 261,000 Americans died from covid-19; and the country remains divided.
But those storm clouds should not obscure the sunlight.
If 2024 works out okay, historians are likely to downplay inflation and other passing afflictions and depict 2022 as the year when the “big lie” lost and Donald Trump began shrinking as a political force. The bottom line is that if democracy has a good year, then so does America.
All December, the news kept getting better on that front. First, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in a North Carolina case designed to uphold a fringe legal theory that would allow state legislatures to overrule the will of state courts and ultimately the people. The justices seemed inclined to reject at least the more dangerous version of that fallacious “doctrine.”
On Dec. 19, the House select committee on Jan. 6 wrapped up historic hearings that could presage legal accountability for Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The key witnesses in the coup attempt — including Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide whose testimony this summer was a turning point — are appearing before state and federal grand juries that have the power to turn 2023 into a nightmare for the former president.
On Dec. 21, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed Congress, bearing witness to the immense suffering and impressive spirit of his people. When Russia invaded in February, it looked as if he, and Ukraine, had only days to live. Now, Zelensky was greeted with bipartisan support for the billions in military aid he needs to defend not just his country but the democratic ideal.
And soon after, Congress revised the antiquated Electoral Count Act. The reforms don’t address every threat to free and fair elections, but they go a long way toward easing what former federal judge J. Michael Luttig called a “clear and present danger” to our system.
This year, we learned anew that democracy and national security can work hand-in-hand. Like Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Lend-Lease aid to Britain in 1941, the $45 billion to help Ukraine resist Vladimir Putin’s invasion — about 5 percent of the U.S. defense budget — might be seen by historians as a pivot point for this century’s international order. In tandem with President Biden’s skillful repair work on NATO, the money will help cripple the Russian military, deter Chinese aggression toward Taiwan (despite Beijing’s increased saber-rattling) and send a global message that might does not make right. All told, a bargain.
It was a year of setbacks for authoritarians beyond Moscow. In Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro — the “Trump of the Tropics” who ramped up deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest by 50 percent in the first six months of his presidency — lost reelection and conceded (sort of). In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte, who bragged about his many extralegal assassinations of drug users, retired. Even China’s Xi Jinping and Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, though still securely in power, were beset by domestic unrest more challenging (and inspiring) than they have faced before.
Washington, by contrast, was strangely functional. It’s unclear how much credit Biden deserves for the successful sausage-making, which involved mincing by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, Sen. Joe Manchin III and other lawmakers of both parties. But the results are plain: the Chips and Science Act, which includes huge investments to check China with development of a domestic semiconductor industry; a modest gun safety bill (the first in nearly 30 years); codification of same-sex-marriage rights; confirmation of the nation’s first Black female Supreme Court justice; the Inflation Reduction Act’s $370 billion investment in clean energy, which analysts view as a tipping point toward moving beyond fossil fuels; and an omnibus budget bill with job-creating investments in defense, health and education.
Even when things seemed to go badly in 2022, there were silver linings. The Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision striking down a woman’s right to choose provoked a strong reaction against it, first in an August referendum in red Kansas and then across the country in November. The year ended up better for reproductive rights than seemed likely when a leaked draft of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s opinion was published in May.
Of course, to paraphrase Shakespeare, all’s not well just because the year ends well. Inflation is down but not necessarily out. Even if the economy stabilizes, the new year might bring a stalemate in the Ukraine war, a Supreme Court decision ending affirmative action and a debt ceiling crisis — as well as the usual unexpected events.
And there are still two days left in 2022 — enough time for the roof to cave in, though not for Herschel Walker to serve in the Senate. | 2022-12-29T21:20:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Why 2022 was a very good year - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/29/2022-good-year-democracy-america/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/29/2022-good-year-democracy-america/ |
In George Santos, the GOP gets the representative-elect it deserves
Representative-elect George Santos (R-N.Y.) attends the Republican Jewish Coalition Annual Leadership Meeting in Las Vegas on Nov. 19. (David Becker for The Washington Post)
Sooner or later, the Republican Party’s devolution was bound to saddle GOP leaders with someone exactly like Rep.-elect George Santos of New York: a glib, successful candidate for high office who turns out to be pure fantasy with zero substance.
Santos, 34, who helped give Republicans their slim House majority by winning an open Long Island seat previously held by a Democrat, has admitted to “embellishing” his résumé and using a “poor choice of words” in touting his credentials. Those are understatements akin to calling the Amazon a creek or the Grand Canyon a ditch.
Following initial reporting by the New York Times, journalists have discovered that, basically, Santos’s whole life story — as he sold it to voters — is a lie. He did not attend the exclusive Horace Mann Prep school in the Bronx, according to school officials. He did not graduate from Baruch College, as he had claimed. He did not climb the ladder of Wall Street success via Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, as he boasted. He is not “a proud American Jew,” as he wrote in a campaign document seeking support from pro-Israel groups, but instead considers himself “Jew-ish, as in ‘ish.’” Which apparently means not being Jewish at all.
Those are just a few of the acknowledged or apparent lies Santos told. He presented himself as the made-for-television incarnation of the vitality and diversity the Republican Party would like to project: a handsome gay Latino man, wealthy and self-made, whose very existence refuted the charge that today’s GOP shamelessly panders to racism and bigotry.
With that existence now revealed to be an illusion — with the “George Santos” voters elected shown to be a fictional character — most leading figures in the GOP have been silent. One exception is Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), who defended him with tweets acknowledging that Santos lied but accusing “the left” of lying, too, although most of the examples she cited were not lies at all. “The left said George Floyd didn’t die of a drug overdose, they lied,” she wrote. Fact check: Floyd was murdered, and a jury convicted former police officer Derek Chauvin of the crime.
Some Democrats have called for Santos not to be seated in the new Congress; others have called for an immediate House Ethics Committee investigation. GOP leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), hoping for Santos’s vote to be elected House speaker, has offered no comment as to what steps, if any, the incoming Republican majority might take.
The most honest thing House Republicans could do, in my view, is welcome Santos with open arms. The party embarked on the path of make-believe politics long before Santos came onto the scene. All he did was expand the frontier.
For me, the key moment came when Republicans decided not to write a platform for the 2020 presidential election — when, in effect, they refused to tell voters what they would do if elected. They pledged only to enact whatever policies President Donald Trump might propose, ceding their political philosophy to a man who, by Post count, told more than 30,000 lies during his four years in the White House.
The party can’t blame it all on Trump, though. In today’s GOP, a leading figure such as Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) — a cum laude graduate of Princeton University and a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School who clerked for Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist — routinely rails against smarty-pants “elites” who supposedly look down on regular folks like him.
Greene and others have shown that the way to prominence in the party is not through legislative or administrative accomplishments but via attention-grabbing displays of performative outrage. If you can “own the libs” on Fox News and on Twitter, you can raise a lot of campaign cash; and if you can raise tons of money, you can have tons of power. What does it matter if what you say has no grounding in fact? By the time you get called on it, you’re off to the next over-the-top statement.
Santos’s carapace of lies is so elaborate and encompassing that it may suggest psychological issues we should hope he gets help in addressing. And there are serious legal questions about the source of $700,000 he reported lending to his campaign, with both local and federal prosecutors now said to be investigating.
But his idea of building a political career in the Republican Party on sharp-edged rhetoric and audacious lies was hardly original. Santos just took that routine further than his soon-to-be colleagues have done. We’ve had lots of metaphorical empty suits in Congress over the years. Now comes the emptiest yet. | 2022-12-29T21:20:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | In George Santos, the GOP gets the representative-elect it deserves - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/29/george-santos-gop-deserves-representative-elect/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/29/george-santos-gop-deserves-representative-elect/ |
Mariah Carey, queen of the American dream
By Darrel Alejandro Holnes
Mariah Carey performs at the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting ceremony in New York on Dec. 3, 2014. (Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
Darrel Alejandro Holnes’s most recent book is the poetry collection “Stepmotherland.” He is a Creatives Rebuild New York playwright in residence with the Latinx Playwrights Circle.
My boyhood Christmases were haunted by the memory of the United States’ invasion of Panama. The violence of war in 1989 shook the Christmas tree in our living room until its ornaments fell and smashed on the presents below. But five years later, there was a happier memory to add: My father brought home Mariah Carey’s new “Merry Christmas” album from the U.S. military PX in Corozal.
It was the first album I listened to all the way through. I already knew most of the traditional Christmas carols on the album in English from Balboa Elementary School and was enchanted with the new songs, especially “All I Want for Christmas is You.” Growing up, I believed in Mariah Carey more than I believed in Santa Claus.
As a young Black boy growing up in an early ’90s Panama, still riddled with poverty tied to both U.S. and homegrown racism, narco wars and the recent invasion, for me Carey’s hit song brought the kind of joy one could seemingly derive only from being successful in the United States. It brought the joys of the American dream.
Nearly 30 years later, it still does. “All I Want for Christmas is You” is more popular than ever. In each holiday season since 2019, it has reached the summit of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart in the United States. This year, it sits atop global Billboard charts, which rank songs based on streaming and sales from more than 200 territories.
Earlier this month, I was on my way to see “Merry Christmas to All,” Carey’s Madison Square Garden holiday show, when I asked my friend Rachel: Despite having heard the song a million times, why do I still feel so fulfilled when I hear it?
In the arena, we were surrounded by fans who had flown in or driven from far-flung places to see the “Queen of Christmas.” One fan, Mai, flew in from Uruguay, and Carey gave her a front-row seat.
When the show began, red curtains parted as a concert band played a big-band-style arrangement of a section of the Act 1 “March” from another holiday classic, Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker.” She descended onto the stage under a spotlight, riding a snowflake with her legs elegantly crossed, as she sang whistle notes to the tune of “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy,” which she has included on special editions of her holiday album and in her Apple TV Plus show, “Mariah Carey’s Magical Christmas Special.”
Carey was then escorted off the snowflake by dancers wearing white tuxedos and top hats to a cheering crowd. She glided across the stage wearing a tiara and a sparkling silver and white ball gown with a tight bodice, splits up to her thighs, and open-toed stilettos. She was soon flanked by an all-Black church choir, the singers wearing white robes with yellow collars and starting her off with “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.”
“What we really need to do now is give you a little tiny bit of joy for your life. Would you like that?” Carey asked as she started her second number, a funky and fun “Joy to the World.”
As Rachel and I watched, we heard at least six languages, and saw many same-sex couples, a few women in hijabs, a man with a kippah, a South Asian family of mostly elders who told me they had driven in from New Jersey — all in communion. I hear Carey’s singing — a mixture of gospel, jazz and pop — as an expression of her mixed identity as a biracial woman with an immigrant Afro-Venezuelan, Irish American heritage.
I realized that more than the song had brought me to the arena. Carey is a musical meeting ground for in-betweeners like me, who have resisted the constant demands to exclusively tick a race or ethnicity box “Black” or “White” or, in my case, “Black” or “Hispanic/Latine.”
This is a common problem for people like us. A few years after the invasion, my family moved from Panama City to the Panama Canal Zone, and we were the first Black family in our neighborhood on Ancon Hill. Years later, I went to college in Houston and then graduate school in Ann Arbor, Mich., where I was constantly asked to choose an identity, to check just one box. It was miserable straining to see and present my identity through a myopic lens. Why couldn’t I always be all of me?
Carey’s grandfather was a Black Latino like me. According to video interviews with Carey and her memoir, “The Meaning of Mariah Carey,” her grandfather came to the United States from Venezuela (some sources say his place of birth was Cuba) and changed his name from Roberto Núñez to Robert Carey (“Bob Carey” in her memoir). He fathered Mariah’s dad, Alfred Roy, with his wife, an African American woman named Addie Cole. Alfred was consequently part Afro-Venezuelan and part African American, and due to his father’s name change became Alfred Roy Carey, not Alfredo Núñez.
Carey talks about her Latin American heritage in her memoir, which she co-wrote with Michaela Angela Davis, and has engaged with her heritage musically in many of her works: the “Mariah en Español” EP released in 1998; a Spanish-language version of her duet with Miguel, “#Beautiful”; a bossa nova version of her ballad “Butterfly,” and more. She even speaks some Spanish in the music video for “Honey,” which she shot in Puerto Rico.
She has seemingly refused to choose: She lets her music encompass the various identities that make her who she is today. What joy to embody one’s complexity rather than hide it.
Perhaps this is the secret to her diverse appeal, and why it feels so patriotic — so quintessentially American. Her radically inclusive and fluid style of holiday music is now part of our national heritage, expanding what it means to be from this nation.
Last century, it seemed that to become an American icon you played to the dominant majority, but this century, our icons play to a global majority of minorities — like those in Carey’s audience at the Garden. The endurance of her music across four decades despite racism and prejudice is why my parents wanted me to believe in her story. And it’s why her music matters today. The little joy she attempts to bring each holiday is not only an escape from but also a way through today’s broken empires.
After all, the conquests and slavery we survived on this continent were about the pursuit of gold, but the American Dream is about the pursuit of happiness. If all of us, the people of the in-between spaces at the show, could lift our voices to the heavens as Mariah Carey did in the arena that night, maybe we could be heard, be seen, be understood, be valued in this country as we value her. And isn’t that our 21st-century American dream? | 2022-12-29T21:20:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Mariah Carey's Christmas songs are patriotic anthems for a new America - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/29/mariah-carey-christmas-music-american-dream/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/29/mariah-carey-christmas-music-american-dream/ |
Since abortion restrictions were implemented in Texas, this organization has seen an uptick of homeless women with unplanned pregnancies looking for shelter. (Video: Whitney Shefte/The Washington Post)
In Texas, Medicaid covers new mothers for only two months after they give birth. For now, Robinson, 22, and others have up to a year of coverage because of the federal pandemic public health emergency that President Biden extended through April.
The limits on Robinson’s Medicaid coverage after the emergency insurance lapses hinges on Texas’s long-standing rejection of Obamacare, which included provisions for expanded Medicaid. And it has set up an uncomfortable dynamic: While Texas and nearly a dozen other red states have resisted expanding Medicaid for those who are pregnant, many of them have also restricted access to abortion, leading to more new mothers needing coverage.
“There’s a discussion among Republicans and those who are anti-choice about what should we be doing to support mothers?” said Usha Ranji, associate director for reproductive health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Some national antiabortion groups that support postpartum Medicaid expansion have proposed other legislation to expand funding for those who are pregnant, in the wake of new state curbs on abortion after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision erased the protections of Roe v. Wade.
Republicans have long controlled both chambers of the Texas legislature, which allowed them to pass one of the strictest abortion laws in the country last year ahead of the Supreme Court’s decision. Last year, the Texas House also passed a measure that would have expanded postpartum Medicaid for a year. But the Texas Senate — including Sen. Bryan Hughes, author of the state’s restrictive abortion law — halved postpartum Medicaid to six months. Abbott signed the bill, but because it didn’t cover those who had had abortions, the Biden administration refused the extension.
Robinson had graduated high school but not college, She initially worked as a hotel housekeeper but soon had to quit, unable to stand all day. She applied for front desk and restaurant positions, she said, but, “Most jobs don’t want to hire me, seeing the belly sticking out.”
Viola’s House serves five homeless pregnant women ages 18 to 24 at a time, providing housing, coordinating medical care and offering other support. Most arrive already enrolled in Medicaid, according to Yolanda Washington, the residential services manager who helps them arrange for health care.
She said many of the women at the maternity home don’t know their Medicaid benefits will expire. Her granddaughter found out the hard way when she went to a doctor three years ago and was told she no longer had coverage.
But for the law to pass in the upcoming session, Phelan has to persuade fiscal conservatives in the Texas Senate, including hard-right Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, that the measure saves money in the long run and should be a priority over other antiabortion proposals by Hughes and others, such as barring out-of-state travel for abortions or requiring men to pay child support from conception.
Seago is pushing a revamped version of last year’s bill sponsored by Rep. Toni Rose.
Pregnant Texans are more likely to be uninsured and less likely to seek prenatal care than those in the rest of the country, and the state has high rates of maternal mortality and morbidity, especially among Black women. At least 52 pregnancy-related deaths were reported in 2019, 27 percent occurring 43 days to a year after pregnancy, according to a report released this month by the state Department of State Health Services. Severe medical complications from pregnancy and childbirth also increased significantly between 2018 and 2020, from 58.2 to 72.7 cases per 10,000 deliveries in Texas, according to the report.
“People are quickly falling off the pregnancy-related coverage and not getting coverage because the income eligibility threshold is quite low in Texas and they are not getting private coverage and reporting health concerns they either address in the emergency room or don’t address,” said Kari White, lead investigator with the Texas Policy Evaluation Project at the University of Texas at Austin. | 2022-12-29T21:37:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Texas, red states consider expanding Medicaid after abortion restrictions - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/12/29/abortion-medicaid-texas/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/12/29/abortion-medicaid-texas/ |
Suspected California serial killer charged in 4 additional slayings
Wesley Brownlee stands with public defender Allison Nobert during his arraignment in San Joaquin County Superior Court on Oct. 18, 2022. (Hector Amezcua/AP)
A suspected serial killer whom police said was caught while “out hunting” for another victim has been charged in four additional slayings, bringing the total to seven, California authorities announced this week.
Wesley Brownlee, 43, was also newly charged with attempted murder in an attack on a woman who escaped last year. Brownlee is accused of carrying out shootings of seemingly random victims under the cover of darkness before fleeing the scenes of the seven killings and the one failed attack.
The spree of shootings unfolded in 2021 and 2022 in California’s Central Valley, stoking fear among residents. While the killer remained at large over the fall, Stockton Police Chief Stanley McFadden told the public to “have your head on a swivel.”
Police arrested Brownlee on Oct. 15 after tailing him as he drove. He was taken into custody around 2 a.m. while armed with a gun and dressed in dark clothing, with a mask around his neck, McFadden said as he announced the arrest.
“We watched his patterns and determined early this morning he was on a mission to kill,” McFadden said during a news conference at the time. “He was out hunting.”
Brownlee was initially charged in the killings of Jonathan Hernandez Rodriguez, Juan Cruz and Lawrence Lopez Sr., the Los Angeles Times reported. The crimes took place between August and September in Stockton, according to police.
On Tuesday, the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office announced that it had filed an amended complaint charging Brownlee in the killings of Juan Alexander Vasquez and Mervin Harmon of Alameda County, as well as Paul Yaw and Salvador Debudey Jr. in San Joaquin County. He was also charged with attempted murder in the attack on Natasha LaTour, who survived and told police the attacker wore dark clothes, a dark jacket and a black “covid-style” mask.
District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar said in a statement that officials were working to “ensure justice for these victims.”
“We would like to thank the community for their support and law enforcement for their diligent investigation and apprehension of the suspect,” she added.
According to the complaint, Vasquez was fatally shot April 10, 2021. The shootings of Harmon and LaTour came six days later. More than a year passed before Yaw was killed on July 8, 2022, and Debudey Jr. on Aug. 11.
The victims, several of whom were homeless, according to the Los Angeles Times, were attacked while alone at night or early in the morning.
Authorities said the killings were linked by ballistic and video evidence and that tips from the public helped lead to a suspect. Before the arrest, police had released hazy footage of a person of interest, which did not show the person’s face. Police said they were seeking a suspect who cruised in a vehicle and lurked near parks in the dark, then homed in on a target who he would approach on foot.
That was what Brownlee was allegedly doing when he was arrested, the Los Angeles Times reported. Investigators had been watching him for several days after identifying him as a suspect when, Stockton police spokesperson Joseph Silva told the newspaper, they saw him get out of the car he was driving and close in on a person in a park.
Brownlee is set to be arraigned Jan. 3 on the additional charges. | 2022-12-29T21:37:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Wesley Brownlee charged in 4 additional killings, authorities say - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/12/29/stockton-killer-additional-charges/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/12/29/stockton-killer-additional-charges/ |
A weekly newspaper on Long Island uncovered the story about misrepresentations by Rep.-elect George Santos about his background. (David Becker for The Washington Post)
Months before the New York Times published a December article suggesting Rep.-elect George Santos (R-N.Y.) had fabricated much of his résumé and biography, a tiny publication in Long Island was ringing alarm bells about its local candidate.
The North Shore Leader wrote in September, when few others were covering Santos, about his “inexplicable rise” in reported net worth — from essentially nothing in 2020 to as much as $11 million two years later.
The story noted other oddities about the self-described gay Trump supporter with Jewish heritage, who would go on to flip New York’s 3rd Congressional District district from blue to red, and is now under investigation by authorities for misrepresenting his background to voters.
“Interestingly, Santos shows no U.S. real property in his financial disclosure, although he has repeatedly claimed to own ‘a mansion in Oyster Bay Cove’ on Tiffany Road; and ‘a mansion in the Hamptons’ on Dune Road,” managing editor Maureen Daly wrote in the Leader. “For a man of such alleged wealth, campaign records show that Santos and his husband live in a rented apartment, in an attached rowhouse in Queens.”
The Leader reluctantly endorsed Santos’s Democratic opponent the next month. “This newspaper would like to endorse a Republican,” it wrote, but Santos “is so bizarre, unprincipled and sketchy that we cannot. … He boasts like an insecure child — but he’s most likely just a fabulist — a fake.”
It was the stuff national headlines are supposed to be built on: A hyperlocal outlet like the Leader does the leg work, regional papers verify and amplify the story, and before long an emerging political scandal is being broadcast coast-to-coast.
But that system, which has atrophied for decades amid the destruction of news economies, appears to have failed completely this time. Despite a well-heeled and well-connected readership — the Leader’s publisher says it counts among its subscribers Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Jesse Watters and several senior people at Newsday, a once-mighty Long Island-based tabloid that has won 19 Pulitzers — no one followed its story before Election Day.
When Santos apologized for “embellishing my résumé,” in a New York Post interview published Monday, he also vowed to serve out his term as a U.S. congressman.
Local news doesn’t get much more local than the Leader. A weekly published and primarily run by Grant Lally, an attorney whose parents bought it in the late 1990s, most of the newspaper’s staff works part time and holds down other jobs to pay the bills.
“Nobody can survive on local papers alone,” Lally said in an interview.
Lally was particularly well-prepared to cover the race for New York’s 3rd; he had run for the seat himself in 1994, 1996 and again in 2014. A lifelong Republican, Lally was George W. Bush’s floor manager in Miami during the 2000 presidential election recount.
The Leader’s staff, which includes students and retirees, all are steeped in the largely wealthy local communities on the North Shore of Long Island, which gives them access to local political gossip. “We can boil that down very quickly,” said Lally.
A few years ago, Lally said, he went to lunch with Santos, who was soliciting support for his political career. “Right from the start, there was something off with him,” he recalled.
Santos told Lally that his family was from Belgium. Years later, Lally said, he watched Santos on the campaign trail “talking about his grandparents who had fled the Holocaust from Ukraine.”
“It was just a flagrant blatant concoction,” Lally said.
Lally has stayed in touch with his former staffers from his congressional campaigns, who would sometimes call him to gossip about local elections over the spring and summer. “You wouldn’t believe what we are seeing about Santos,” Lally recalled being told on some of those calls.
One tip came from a local home builder who said he had driven Santos around Long Island to look at mansions the candidate claimed to own and wanted to renovate. But Santos wouldn’t let the builder inside any of the homes, Lally said. He claimed he had tenants that prevented them from entering.
Another call came from a state senator who said a house in the Hamptons that Santos claimed to own was worth far less than the candidate said — and was owned by someone else anyway.
These tips helped inform the Leader’s reporting and its editorial, which were deeply skeptical of Santos’s claims of sudden riches.
“We expected it to pop a lot more than it did,” Lally said. For one, he thought that Santos’s opponent, Robert Zimmerman (D), would have made more of the Leader’s endorsement and “pushed” the contradictions his newspaper uncovered into larger publications such as Newsday and the New York Times.
Zimmerman told the Post that there were “many red flags that were brought to the attention of many folks in the media” but that “frankly a lot of folks in the media are saying they didn’t have the personnel, time or money to delve further” into the story. “This experience has shown me just how important it is for everyone to support local media.”
Kim Como, a spokeswoman for Newsday, did not answer specific questions about the paper’s coverage of Santos but said in a statement: “We are continuing to cover the Santos story every day.”
It’s possible that the Leader’s reporting fell into a void in part because there are fewer papers to cover the news than in the past. The number of journalists has declined by 60 percent since 2005, according to government statistics.
Research from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University this year found that on average two newspapers are disappearing in the U.S. every week. The nation has lost more than a quarter of its newspapers since 2005 and is on track to lose one-third by 2025. There are now more than 1,600 counties with only one newspaper, typically a weekly.
“Local journalists are kind of like having beat cops walking the street,” said Tim Franklin, senior associate dean and professor at the Medill School. “Just as good beat cops can help keep a neighborhood safer, the presence of local journalists help to keep our politics more honest and our government more accountable.”
Franklin predicts that “if we don’t fix the crisis in local news, we’re going to see more George Santos-type cases and instances of politicians going unchecked.”
Santos and his representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
Ashley Fetters Maloy contributed to this report. | 2022-12-29T22:04:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | A tiny paper broke the George Santos scandal, but no one paid attention - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/12/29/north-shore-leader-santos-scoop/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/12/29/north-shore-leader-santos-scoop/ |
Fashion designer Vivienne Westwood in 2010. (Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters)
Her death was announced in a statement by her namesake fashion house, which did not cite a cause.
Ms. Westwood transitioned from urban streetwear to couture fashion, helping dress London punk rockers like the Sex Pistols with ripped shirts and safety pins before introducing flamboyant pirate shirts and petticoats in the 1980s. She later experimented with corsets and pinstripe tailoring, creating designs that were exhibited in museums around the world, while also making headlines for promoting nuclear disarmament, vegetarianism and efforts to fight climate change. | 2022-12-29T22:05:06Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Vivienne Westwood, provocative British fashion designer, dies at 81 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/12/29/designer-vivienne-westwood-dead/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/12/29/designer-vivienne-westwood-dead/ |
Patricia Daly, nun who led moral battles in corporate world, dies at 66
Sister Patricia Daly, widely known as Sister Pat, at a 2015 conference by the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. (Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility)
In 1977, a 21-year-old novice who was starting her life as a Dominican nun showed up the annual meeting of the textile company J.P. Stevens, which was locked in a fight with employees seeking union representation.
The novice’s order, Sisters of Saint Dominic of Caldwell, had Stevens stock in its retirement portfolio, she had discovered. Now, Patricia Daly wanted to see how the union issue would play out at the meeting in New York.
She was stunned to find religious groups and their supporters in active protest of the company, using their holdings as shareholders as leverage to gain access and seek influence over company policies. Sister Pat — as she became widely known — returned to the convent with an appeal that would define her life and work.
“There’s a whole network here, shouldn’t we be part of it?” she told the New York Times Magazine in 2007, recounting her discussions with her superiors. “And they said, ‘OK, good, that’s your job.’”
Sister Pat, who died Dec. 9 at a health-care facility in Caldwell, N.J., at 66, became a leader across a network of faith-based groups using their power as investors to push companies to pay greater attention over issues such as climate change, labor conditions and human trafficking.
Over more than four decades, Sister Pat met with chief executives, roamed annual meetings and confronted corporate giants including General Electric and ExxonMobil as a voice of ethical stewardship. (The J.P. Stevens union standoff became the basis for the 1979 movie “Norma Rae.”)
Her successes rarely came easily and were often incremental — requiring years of steady pressure by the groups she led, including the Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment (now called Investor Advocates for Social Justice).
In 1999, she helped persuade William Clay Ford Jr., the executive chairman of Ford, to leave a corporate alliance that lobbied against regulations limiting greenhouse gases. General Motors and Daimler Chrysler later followed Ford’s example.
She joined efforts to press ExxonMobil for greater progress in reducing emissions linked to global warming. A shareholder resolution she proposed failed in 2007, but its more than 30 percent backing was a clear message to company leaders. In 2017, ExxonMobil put a climate scientist on its board.
“We are now, this company and every single one of us, challenged by one of the most profound moral concerns,” she said in 2007 to ExxonMobil chief executive Rex Tillerson, who later became secretary of state in the Trump administration.
The Record newspaper in Bergen County, N.J, described her as an “ecclesiastical torn” — who rarely wore a habit and whose bag often had a bible, the Wall Street Journal and copies of Institutional Investor magazine. Sister Pat sought to frame her work as more of moral persuasion.
“We always felt it was a matter of engaging companies, sitting down at the table in a very respectful format … in a dialogue session, not negotiations, but a dialogue session,” she said.
Her public image, however, was shaped for years by one fiery encounter.
In 1998, she proposed a resolution at the General Electric annual meeting for the company to publicly acknowledge health risks from eating fish from Hudson River, which had areas contaminated by polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, from GE plants. Sister Pat’s coalition took out a full-page ad in the New York Times with a mocking spin on GE’s slogan: “On the Hudson, G.E. Brings BAD Things to Life.”
She said the cost of the ad took a major bite from the coalition’s small budget. “We are out on a limb with this one,” she said at the time.
At the meeting, Sister Pat drew comparisons between General Electric’s claim that PCBs where harmless and the tobacco industry’s former assertions that smoking posed no serious health risks.
“That’s an outrageous comparison,” said GE’s chairman, Jack Welch.
“That is an absolutely valid comparison, Mr. Welch,” she responded.
“You owe it to God to be on the side of truth,” he said.
But her resolution failed.
‘Never backs down’
Patricia Anne Daly was born on Aug. 4, 1956, in Brooklyn and raised in Queens, where her mother was a teacher and her father worked as a freight forwarder for an import-export company.
Sister Pat recounted taking an early interest in the inner workings of global commerce. Her father once showed her a bill of lading for some fabric shipped to Jamaica to make lingerie for U.S. stores.
“He said, ‘Imagine what they must be paying people in Jamaica to make it worthwhile to ship the fabric there and back,’” Daly recalled.
Sister Pat graduated in 1976 from Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn., with a degree in religious studies. A year earlier, she entered the Sisters of Saint Dominic and received the habit in June 1976. She made her full profession to the order in 1984. She received a master’s degree in theology of justice from Maryknoll School of Theology in Maryknoll, N.Y., in 1982.
In addition to her activism, she taught religion and social justice at Roman Catholic high schools in New Jersey from 1977 to 1981, then served as associate campus minister at St. Peter’s College (now St. Peter’s University) in Jersey City until 1987. She also was a board member of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, an umbrella organization of more than 200 members including Sister Pat’s group.
“So much of the conversation today is from the foundation laid by Sister Pat,” said Nell Minow, vice chair of ValueEdge Advisors, which helps guide institutional investors in what is often called “ESG,” or environmental, social and corporate governance.
Sister Pat is survived by her mother Anne; three sisters and a brother. The cause of death was cancer, her order said.
In 1999, Vanity Fair named Sister Pat to its Hall of Fame as someone who “translates belief into commitment and never backs down from a fight.” | 2022-12-29T22:05:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Patricia Daly, nun who led moral battles in corporate world, dies at 66 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/12/29/sister-patricia-daly-nun-dies/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/12/29/sister-patricia-daly-nun-dies/ |
FILE - Brazil’s Pele scores past Venezuela’s goal keeper Fabrizio Fasano in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Aug. 24, 1969. Pelé, the Brazilian king of soccer who won a record three World Cups and became one of the most commanding sports figures of the last century, died in Sao Paulo on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022. He was 82. (AP Photo, File) (Uncredited/AP) | 2022-12-29T22:08:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Nobody disputes Pelé’s greatness but goal count fuels debate - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/soccer/nobody-disputes-peles-greatness-but-goal-count-fuels-debate/2022/12/29/17b844a2-87be-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/soccer/nobody-disputes-peles-greatness-but-goal-count-fuels-debate/2022/12/29/17b844a2-87be-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
FILE - Brazil’s Pele is hoisted on the shoulders of his teammates after Brazil won the World Cup final against Italy, 4-1, in Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca, June 21, 1970. Pelé, the Brazilian king of soccer who won a record three World Cups and became one of the most commanding sports figures of the last century, died in sao Paulo on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022. He was 82. (AP Photo, File) (Uncredited/AP) | 2022-12-29T22:08:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | As 'The King,' Pelé enchanted fans and dazzled opponents - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/soccer/pele-was-a-world-icon-and-brazils-king-of-beautiful-game/2022/12/29/13575f90-87bb-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/soccer/pele-was-a-world-icon-and-brazils-king-of-beautiful-game/2022/12/29/13575f90-87bb-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
Oscar White Muscarella, archaeologist who exposed looted artifacts and fakes, dies at 91
He often quoted Sherlock Holmes in his four-decade quest to prove that many antiquities held by his employer -- the Metropolitan Museum of Art -- and other museums were stolen or fake.
Oscar White Muscarella in 1957, seated in front of a cut in the wall of a tomb chamber. (Oscar White Muscarella archive)
One day in 2003, Oscar White Muscarella, an archaeologist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, took a stroll through his workplace.
Wearing a blue seersucker suit spiffed up by a paisley ascot, he pointed at a display of ancient Greek art. “Looted,” he told a Village Voice reporter. His assessment of a glass case of pottery: “All plunder.”
Dr. Muscarella, a pipe-smoking, Sherlock Holmes-quoting rabble-rouser, didn’t care about angering his superiors, who unsuccessfully tried to fire him three times and disrupt what became a four-decade quest to prove that many antiquities held by the Met and other museums were stolen or fake.
“This museum is one of the main plunderers in this planet’s history, and it will not stop it,” Dr. Muscarella, who died Nov. 27 at age 91, told Newsday in 1995. “There are things in this museum that are plundered. It didn’t fall from the sky.”
After joining the Met in 1964, Dr. Muscarella spent years battling museum officials, including the powerful director Thomas Hoving, over labor issues and pushback from his criticism. But after a court-ordered fact-finder in 1977 ultimately sided with Dr. Muscarella, declaring that he had not displayed “unprofessional and improper conduct,” the Met had no choice but to keep him on staff.
It was an uncomfortable arrangement.
“I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to Oscar Muscarella,” Harold Holzer, then the Met’s communications director, told the Village Voice. “I just don’t understand why anyone who hates museums would work in a museum.”
But Dr. Muscarella didn’t hate museums. He deplored what he called “bazaar archaeology” — the community of morally corrupt museum curators, collectors and dealers who looked the other way as they traded, sold and displayed looted or fraudulent artifacts. The only artifacts that museums should hold and display, he thought, were those collected and properly documented by archaeologists.
“I am against all buying of ancient art from dealers,” Dr. Muscarella told the New York Times in 1978. “If the objects are genuine, we’re buying plundered art; if they are false, we’re buying forgeries. And the public is paying for these forgeries or for these bribes to looters and public officials.”
Dr. Muscarella first became critical of the Met’s antiquities dealings in 1973 after the museum’s purchase — for approximately $1 million — of a 2,500-year-old Greek vase from Robert E. Hecht Jr., a controversial dealer who was later indicted in Italy on charges that he dealt in looted artifacts. The statute of limitations expired before the trial ended.
As museum visitors lined up to view the vase, questions surfaced about its price and provenance. Dr. Muscarella worried that the piece had been looted and that its extraordinarily high price — curators at other museums appraised the vase at $500,000 or less — would encourage similar behavior by shady dealers.
Met officials brushed off the questions.
“Why can’t we just appreciate the vase for what it is: a glorious object with brilliant colors and an extraordinary composition?” Dietrich von Bothmer, then the museum’s curator of Greek and Roman art, told the New York Times.
Dr. Muscarella disagreed, telling the paper that his bosses had “abdicated responsibility” and that they “should have checked out every possible origin, of our vase before it was purchased.”
He was right. Italian government officials said the vase had been looted from the country’s soil, and they waged a three-decade battle to get it back. The Met finally returned it in 2008.
Though he was ostracized by many of his peers at the Met, Dr. Muscarella persisted in what became a lifelong quest to expose other looted or fraudulent artifacts. Speaking at conferences and in media interviews, he frequently quoted his hero, Sherlock Holmes. One of his favorites was: “I never guess; it is a shocking habit — destructive to the logical faculty.”
In 1978, he published a study alleging that 247 ancient Near Eastern artifacts held in museums or displayed in collection catalogues were of suspicious origin or frauds. Two years later, at a lecture at the University of Chicago, Dr. Muscarella said none of them had been removed.
“Some say a public debate is not the ‘gentlemanly’ way of doing things,” Dr. Muscarella told his audience. “I don’t expect anyone to take my word as gospel, but any museum director who refuses to have a suspect object tested should be fired — it’s a betrayal of everything he stands for. Such attitudes amount to a corruption and destruction of the discipline, and make the director an accomplice to a distortion of the past.”
Dr. Muscarella kept digging.
In 2000, he published “The Lie Became Great: The Forgery of Ancient Near Eastern Cultures,” in which he catalogued more than 1,250 suspicious artifacts around the world. “If collecting stopped,” he wrote in the book’s introduction, “plunder would stop — certainly it would be mitigated — and forgery manufacturing would decrease. But these arguments are derided as naive by the self-serving and partisan collecting culture, which is essentially a component of the forgery culture.”
Oscar White was born March 26, 1931, in Manhattan. His father, an elevator operator, and his mother weren’t married. As a toddler, his mother abandoned him and his brother, who lived in foster care until 1937 when they were reunited. By then, she was in a relationship with another man — Salvatore Muscarella, marrying him in 1939.
Oscar excelled in school. He was admitted to Stuyvesant High School, a public but competitive college-preparatory school in Manhattan, where he joined the archaeology club. After graduating in 1948, he briefly studied at New York University but dropped out and enrolled at City College, where he studied in history. In 1953, he saw a campus announcement for an upcoming archaeological dig at a Pueblo Indian site in Colorado and traveled there by bus to work.
After graduating from City College in 1955, he earned a doctorate in classical archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania, where he met fellow graduate student Grace Freed, marrying her in 1957. Dr. Muscarella worked at dozens of archaeological sites around the world.
“His work spans an area from Greece to Afghanistan, from the Neolithic to the Persian period,” Elizabeth Simpson, an archaeologist and historian, wrote in the introduction of an essay collection about his work. “Oscar has persisted against formidable odds to become one of the profession’s outstanding archaeologists, in the broadest sense of the term.”
Dr. Muscarella died at home in Philadelphia, his son Lawrence F. Muscarella said. The cause was lymphoma, though Dr. Muscarella had also been ill with cerebral vascular disease and covid-19.
In addition to his son, he is survived by his wife; a daughter, Daphne M. Dennis of North Wales, Pa.; and a granddaughter.
Despite the antagonism between Dr. Muscarella and his bosses, he remained employed by the Met until his retirement in 2009.
“He was largely excluded from departmental matters,” Simpson wrote. “He often was not told about acquisitions, gallery changes, meetings, newly appointed staff, or visiting colleagues.”
Still, Dr. Muscarella carried on with his work.
“As anyone who knows him can attest,” Simpson wrote, “and as his life story shows, Oscar is not to be deterred.” | 2022-12-29T22:38:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Oscar White Muscarella, archaeologist who exposed looted artifacts and fakes, dies at 91 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/12/29/oscar-white-muscarella-met-museum-archaeologist-who-exposed-looted-artifacts-fakes-dies-91/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/12/29/oscar-white-muscarella-met-museum-archaeologist-who-exposed-looted-artifacts-fakes-dies-91/ |
Amanda Coletta
A woman cries outside Vila Belmiro in Santos, Brazil, Pelé's home stadium, after learning Thursday of the soccer giant's death. (Eraldo Peres/AP)
SÃO PAULO, Brazil — In the more than six decades since he first lifted Brazil’s national team to World Cup glory on the soccer pitch, crafting the enduring image of the “beautiful game” style of Brazilian soccer and catapulting to global sports superstardom, fans and analysts have searched far and wide for “the next Pelé.”
But as the world reacted to the death of the soccer giant, perhaps both the best and most popular to ever play its biggest sport, it was clear that while some had come close to meeting that bar, the man born Edson Arantes do Nascimento was a singular, transformative figure.
Beyond his unmatched three World Cup championships, his creative, acrobatic play, love for the game and infectious joy made him a global icon. “Eternal,” tweeted Santos, the Brazilian club that he joined as a slim teenager and with which he spent nearly two decades of his career, with a photo of a crown, a nod to another of his nicknames: “O Rei” — “The King.”
Pelé died at age 82 at the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein in São Paulo, where he was being treated for colon cancer. Since his admission to the facility in late November, his condition had been a cause for concern in Latin America’s largest nation and around the world.
Even before his death was announced, his apparently worsening condition prompted fans to post videos of his sporting genius. A clip of rapper Snoop Dogg and boxer Mike Tyson praising the Brazilian icon went viral. “He must have done things no one had ever seen before,” Tyson says.
On Thursday, tributes from world leaders, athletes and celebrities poured in from around the world. Mourners gathered outside the São Paulo hospital and left tributes at the entrance of the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, a temple of soccer.
In Brazil, a country riven by deep divisions after a historically close presidential election in October, and where some supporters of outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro have been camping outside army barracks to call for a military coup to keep him power, Pelé’s death united bitter political foes — in grief.
“I had the privilege that other Brazilians didn’t have: I saw Pelé play live at Pacaembu and Morumbi,” tweeted President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, to be inaugurated Sunday. “Play, no. I saw Pelé give a show. Because when he got the ball he always did something special, which often ended up in a goal.”
Ciro Nogueira, Bolsonaro’s chief of staff, tweeted: “On this very sad day when we lost a great king, every tribute is small. There isn’t a corner of the earth that doesn’t know his name.”
Brazil’s toxic politics stain a soccer icon: The national team jersey
On Thursday, a day when many Brazilians were traveling or preparing to travel for New Year’s celebrations, his death was the talk of crowded bus and train stations and airports.
“Every Brazilian feels sad today,” Antonio Ferreira said at a bus station in São Paulo. “It doesn’t matter the team you support. Pelé was the biggest player we have.”
Neighboring Argentina, a bitter footballing rival, also mourned. FIFA in 2000 voted Pelé and Argentine soccer icon Diego Maradona as the greatest players in the sport’s history. Argentine President Alberto Fernández offered a “great embrace” to his family and the people of Brazil.
“One of the best footballers in history has left us,” he tweeted. “We will always remember those years when Pelé dazzled the world with his skills.” Argentine captain Lionel Messi, who won his first World Cup last week, posted photos with Pelé and the words “Rest in Peace.”
The Italian football club Napoli, where Maradona, who died last year, achieved cultlike status, posted a photo on Twitter of the two players — both wearing the No. 10 jersey of the playmaker — holding hands and walking in a heavenly place with the word “Eternal.”
Before he was the slim 17-year-old that lifted Brazil to its first World Cup title in 1958 and later to two more, Pelé was a boy from the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. In a country shot through with economic disparity, he played soccer barefoot, with a ball from rags stuffed into a sock.
His rise was meteoric. At his first World Cup, he scored three goals in the semifinal over France and two more in the 5-2 final over host Sweden. The Brazilian government declared him a national treasure to prevent him from ditching his Brazilian club, Santos, for a deeper-pocketed European side.
Soon, he was effectively synonymous with the sport. After retiring from Santos, he took on the role of soccer evangelist. He signed with the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League in 1975. His three seasons with the team are credited with popularizing youth soccer in the United States, enabling the country to host the World Cup in 1994 and establish Major League Soccer, which started play two years later. He retired from competitive play in 1977.
For all his genius on the pitch, Pelé’s reputation off it was not without criticism.
When Brazil’s military dictatorship came to power in 1964, he drew criticism for not using his influence as a national hero to condemn it. In “Pelé,” a 2021 Netflix documentary, he admitted that he had heard the stories of the dictatorship’s repression and torture of dissidents.
“I don’t think I could have done anything different,” Pelé said. “It wasn’t possible. What were you doing during the dictatorship? What side were you on? You get lost in these things. I am Brazilian. I want what’s best for my people. I was no Superman. I didn’t work miracles or anything.”
His career as a businessman was marred by bungled deals, and over time, he earned a reputation as a corporate shill. In one episode of the “Simpsons,” he appears on a soccer field to briefly hawk wax paper and then collect a big sack of cash.
But in Brazil on Thursday, that aspect of Pelé’s legacy was set aside. Days before Lula’s inauguration, coverage of Pelé’s death dominated the national media. Globo, the television network, suspended regular programming to broadcast only news about his death.
In the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, sportswriter Juca Kfouri said Pelé was one of the best known names in human history — rivaling that of even Jesus.
“Pelé is alive,” he wrote. “Edson is the one who died.” | 2022-12-29T23:31:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The world mourns Pelé - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/29/pele-dies-reaction/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/29/pele-dies-reaction/ |
Taliban’s Latest Cruelty Creates Surprising Cracks
Analysis by Ruth Pollard | Bloomberg
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - DECEMBER 22: Afghan women protest against a new Taliban ban on women accessing University Education on December 22, 2022 in Kabul, Afghanistan. A group of Afghan women rallied in Kabul against a governmental order banning women from universities. Armed guards barred women from accessing university sites since the suspension was announced on December 20. (Photo by Stringer/Getty Images) (Photographer: Getty Images/Getty Images Europe)
Are we seeing the first real cracks in the Taliban’s veneer of absolute power?
The extremist group’s cruel obsession with denying women and girls any agency over their lives has condemned Afghanistan to exist on the margins — a fundamentalist, Islamist patriarchy devoted to removing any trace of the female gender from the public eye. Women and girls had already been excluded from secondary schools, as well as government jobs, and in November, from parks, gyms and swimming pools. But with their recent bans on women attending university and working for non-governmental organizations, which play an abnormally large role in the economy, perhaps even the Taliban have gone too far.
At a time when the regime is seeking to engage with other governments in order to stabilize the aid-dependent economy, the group’s actions are at once barbaric and counterproductive. These decrees, from the Taliban’s reclusive supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, have caused some division in the lower ranks. Getting access to the Fund for the Afghan People — a Geneva-based foundation that holds $3.5 billion of Afghan central bank reserves frozen by the US — to provide liquidity to the banking sector, support exchange rate stability and pay for critical imports like electricity is now even more remote.
Unfailingly brave, women and girls have been protesting the Taliban’s repressive measures since they retook power in Afghanistan in August 2021 on the heels of Washington’s decision to withdraw its military at any cost. And what a cost. Facing a second freezing winter since the US-backed government collapsed, 97% of Afghans are living in poverty and two-thirds are in dire humanitarian need. The UN has estimated that excluding women from the workforce is costing the already-beleaguered economy $1 billion per year.
Afghan men are now also taking action over the bans. Not just in the capital, but in more conservative cities like Kandahar and Herat. University lecturers have resigned and male students have walked out of their classrooms in support of female scholars. A professor in Kabul destroyed his diplomas live on TV, stating: “From today I don’t need these diplomas anymore because this country is no place for an education. If my sister and my mother can’t study, then I don’t accept this education.” Like the female demonstrators, these men have been met with Taliban violence, though for women, just leaving the house without a male escort can be deadly.
As tech entrepreneur Sara Wahedi, who has been unable to return to Afghanistan since the Taliban came to power last year, noted in a tweet, “we may be witnessing the beginning of a revolution.” Still, we are a long way from the kind of mass mobilization over women’s rights in neighboring Iran.
As a priority, the US and its partners in the two-decade-long military occupation of Afghanistan must move beyond their policy of strategic neglect toward a more positive approach — one guided by Afghan experts not tainted by the corruption of former governments. At the time that President Ashraf Ghani’s government collapsed, the inspector general had 65 open investigations into corruption and bribery, procurement and contract fraud, theft, money laundering and other misuses of aid funds.
This should be a collective effort, in the way nations have come together to support Ukraine in its battle against Russia’s brutal war, without boots on the ground. The two situations could not be more different — Ukraine has a cohesive, stable government and close ties with those who have supported the development of its military since Moscow’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. Afghanistan has the Taliban. But this model is still worth considering. Some first steps could include an intensive, coordinated lobbying campaign to draw together UN member states to support Afghanistan civil society and elevate this crisis beyond gender ministries to the very top of government.
From the time the administration of former President Donald Trump signed a “peace deal” with the Taliban in February 2020 that set the stage for the withdrawal of US troops — an agreement his successor Joe Biden decided to honor — Afghan women knew that all the advances they’d made in education, at work and in government were under threat. Just how quickly those gains were eroded has been agonizing. Listen to them — it is the only way forward.
• Biden’s $7 Billion Betrayal of Afghanistan: Ruth Pollard
• Zawahiri Killing Gives Taliban an Opening With US: Bobby Ghosh
• The World Doesn’t Need a More Restrained America: Hal Brands
Ruth Pollard is a Bloomberg Opinion editor. Previously she was South and Southeast Asia government team leader at Bloomberg News and Middle East correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald. | 2022-12-29T23:35:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Taliban’s Latest Cruelty Creates Surprising Cracks - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/talibans-latest-cruelty-createssurprising-cracks/2022/12/29/f4d8e26e-87c4-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/talibans-latest-cruelty-createssurprising-cracks/2022/12/29/f4d8e26e-87c4-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
The congressman who ‘embellished’ his résumé long before George Santos
Rep. Douglas R. Stringfellow (R-Utah) sits before a television camera to tearfully admit that his story of war heroism was a hoax. (Bettmann Archive)
Douglas R. Stringfellow was the future of the Republican Party. In 1952, the GOP gained control of the House, Senate and White House for the first time in two decades, and Stringfellow was among the new arrivals. The Utahn was young (30 years old) and charismatic (a former radio DJ) and had a résumé most politicians could only dream of.
On electrifying speaking tours and at campaign events, he recounted his World War II service, for which he had been awarded a Silver Star. He had joined the OSS, the precursor to the CIA, and while behind enemy lines on a secret mission, he had captured the German physicist Otto Hahn, thus stopping the Germans from developing a nuclear bomb. He was captured by the Nazis and tortured in a concentration camp before escaping. He was the sole survivor of his OSS unit. Then, toward the end of the war, he stepped on a land mine, leaving him permanently disabled; he met his future wife, a USO performer, while recovering in a military hospital.
Only the parts about the land mine and meeting his wife turned out to be true.
Today, Rep.-elect George Santos of New York is under fire for running on a résumé that appears to be largely invented. Santos has called his lies about his educational background, professional experience and family ancestry “embellishments” and has so far resisted pressure to step down. House Republican leadership, set to gain a narrow majority in the next Congress, has been largely silent amid calls to expel Santos.
Unlike Santos’s, Stringfellow’s fabrications were mostly focused on one thing: his war service. And there was a kernel of truth inside his fake story. He really did enlist in the Army in 1942, and he really was grievously injured by a land mine, for which he was awarded a Purple Heart. He returned to Utah with his bride after the war, eventually gaining the ability to walk short distances with the aid of a cane. Stringfellow began telling his fake wartime story in church soon afterward, long preceding his political career.
The audience for Stringfellow’s story grew and grew; soon he was going on national speaking tours. He was a terrific public speaker, and the details he shared of his spy mission were harrowing. He was forced to run over a pile of people burning to death, he said, and he watched his Nazi captors torture his friends as they tried to get him to talk. He would lift his hands to show scars at the base of his fingernails, saying they came from bamboo strips the Nazis shoved under his nails and then lit on fire.
Encouraged by local GOP party leaders to run for Congress, he gave his campaign stops a revival-like quality as he led supporters on an emotional journey through his war story. He won the open seat in a landslide.
Even after he entered Congress, his star continued to rise, culminating in a 1954 appearance on the hit television show “This Is Your Life.” Each episode featured a notable guest who is surprised with people from his or her past who recount the guest’s climb to success. Stringfellow’s commanding officer told the audience of the congressman’s heroics against the Nazis — heroics that Stringfellow said later he knew were lies.
Some of the veterans who actually had captured Hahn saw the show, according to the Salt Lake City Tribune, and did not appreciate Stringfellow’s stealing their valor. Soon, journalists and Utah Democratic leaders started digging and calling Stringfellow’s record into question.
At first, Stringfellow, who was running for reelection, dismissed the questions as political attacks, even going so far as to ask Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower to release his (nonexistent) OSS records. But when the Army Times published an investigation with incontrovertible evidence of his falsehoods, the jig was up. Utah’s senators and leaders in Stringfellow’s church urged him to confess, and he did.
Reading from prepared remarks on live TV on Oct. 16, 1954, he told his constituents, “Somewhere along the line, the idea … was integrated in introductions that Doug Stringfellow was a war hero … Like many other persons suddenly thrust into the limelight, I rather thrived on the adulation and new-found popularity,” he said, according to Time magazine. “I began to embellish my speeches with more picturesque and fanciful incidents. I fell into a trap, which in part had been laid by my own glib tongue.”
When the speech was over, The Washington Post reported, “the youthful veteran cried openly.”
Stringfellow’s contrition only went so far; he declined to return the many awards and honors that had been bestowed on him by civic groups over the years, saying he “felt these were given me for my present abilities and activities,” The Post reported. He did not resign from Congress, but when Republican Party officials found another candidate to run for his seat, he stepped aside. He moved to California and spent the rest of his life out of the public eye, dying in 1966 at the age of 44.
In 2013, Stringfellow’s family found an unpublished autobiography in the congressman’s belongings, which they gave to the Salt Lake Tribune. In it, Stringfellow wrote that up until a few months before he was publicly exposed, he himself had believed the story of his wartime heroics. He must have come up with the delusion while recovering in the hospital from his land mine injury, he surmised. Several psychologists specializing in PTSD told the Tribune that while extremely rare, this type of delusion was possible.
So why did he never go public with this claim? According to Stringfellow’s autobiography, he would have rather been seen as a liar than as “crazy.” | 2022-12-29T23:35:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Before George Santos, Rep. Douglas Stringfellow fabricated his résumé - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/12/29/george-santos-douglas-stringfellow/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/12/29/george-santos-douglas-stringfellow/ |
Justice Dept. sues large drug distributor for its alleged role in opioid crisis
A federal lawsuit accuses AmerisourceBergen of ignoring federal drug laws and allowing its pills to spill into the black market
(Keith Srakocic/AP)
Federal prosecutors Thursday sued one of the nation’s largest pharmaceutical distributors, alleging that the company repeatedly violated federal drug laws and helped fuel the nation’s deadly opioid crisis.
In a civil suit filed in U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania against AmerisourceBergen and two subsidiaries, the Justice Department accused the company of ignoring warning signs and allowing its opioid pills to spill into the black market.
The federal Controlled Substances Act requires pharmaceutical distributors to monitor their customer orders and notify federal officials of any that may be of unusual size or ordering patterns that could suggest the drugs are being diverted for illegal uses.
During nearly a decade, between 2014 and 2022, the suit alleges, the Pennsylvania-based company did not report hundreds of thousands of suspicious drug orders.
For example, AmerisourceBergen distributed drugs to two pharmacies in Florida and West Virginia and allegedly knew that those drugs were likely being sold in parking lots for cash, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
If found guilty, the company could owe upward of $1 billion in penalties. The civil lawsuit does not charge or name people within the company.
Justice Department officials described the lawsuit as part of its larger efforts to hold accountable the companies and individuals who have inflamed the nation’s opioid epidemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and contributed to lowering the American life expectancy.
“In short, the government’s complaint alleges that AmerisourceBergen prioritized profits over its legal obligations and over Americans’ well-being,” Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said during a telephone briefing with reporters.
In a statement, AmerisourceBergen denied the allegations and said the Justice Department “cherry picked” a small number of pharmacies out of “the tens of thousands of pharmacies that use AmerisourceBergen as their wholesale distributor.”
“Even in these five hand selected examples presented by the DOJ, AmerisourceBergen verified DEA registration and State Board of Pharmacy licenses before filling any orders, conducted extensive due diligence into these customers, reported every sale of every controlled substances to the DEA, and reported suspicious orders of controlled substances to the DEA for every one of these pharmacies — hundreds of suspicious orders in total,” company spokesperson Lauren Esposito said in the statement.
The Justice Department described the shortcomings at the company as “systemic” and outlined in the lawsuit how it believes the internal safeguards at AmerisourceBergen declined in recent years. In 2014, the company implemented a new internal monitoring system that was intended to flag suspicious orders. Prosecutors allege in the lawsuit that the program was designed to detect fewer suspicious orders than its previous system.
For example, in 2017, AmerisourceBergen and one of its main subsidiaries filed fewer than 350 orders as suspicious from the subsidiary to the Drug Enforcement Agency — an approximately 99% drop from 2014, according to the lawsuit. By comparison, that same year two big competitors reportedly filed about 200,000 and 40,000 suspicious order reports.
Even when employees at the company detected potentially suspicious orders, the company largely failed to report those to the Drug Enforcement Agency, according to the lawsuit.
The suit alleges that AmerisourceBergen’s regulatory department — the part of the company intended to catch suspicious orders — has been underfunded, even as the budget has gone up in recent years.
In 2014, the department’s budget was $4 million — less than what it spent on taxicabs that year and less than half of what the company’s CEO was paid, according to the suit.
Esposito said the company’s compliance diversion control program has operated in compliance with federal law for decades. She cited a federal judge’s decision in July that rejected claims that AmerisourceBergen and two other pharmaceutical distributors bore responsibility for the consequences of an inundation of opioids in West Virginia.
At the time, the companies successfully argued that they had no way of telling that prescriptions were not legitimate and that any of their drugs may have been funneled to the black market.
AmerisourceBergen did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the relatively small number of orders that the Justice Department claimed the company flagged to the Drug Enforcement Agency.
The lawsuit also links the company to two overdose deaths in Colorado after the company identified 11 patients as potential drug addicts that purchased pills from an independent pharmacy they distributed to. The company continued to distribute to the pharmacy even after those identifications, according to the lawsuit.
AmerisourceBergen “repeatedly refused or negligently failed to report suspicious orders placed by pharmacy customers that Defendants had reason to know were allowing opioids and other controlled substances to be diverted into illegal channels,” the 87-page lawsuit states. “This includes instances in which Defendants knew that opioids they distributed were likely being sold in pharmacies’ parking lots for cash but they continued to supply those pharmacies with huge amounts of opioids anyway.”
In February, drugmaker Johnson & Johnson and three major distributors, including AmerisourceBergen, finalized a $26 billion agreement to bring relief to states and communities affected by the opioid epidemic. | 2022-12-29T23:36:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | DOJ announces opioid lawsuit - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/12/29/doj-opioid-lawsuit/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/12/29/doj-opioid-lawsuit/ |
Former airline, business travel columnist stuck in Southwest chaos
Keith L. Alexander covered the airlines for more than 15 years, including for The Post’s weekly ‘Business Class’ column. He, too, was caught in Southwest Airlines’s chaos. Here are his observations and lessons learned.
Perspective by Keith L. Alexander
Keith L. Alexander has covered airlines for The Washington Post’s weekly “Business Class” column. (The Washington Post)
It was a little after 4 p.m. Monday, and I had been at Pittsburgh International Airport for more than 12 hours. I was praying my 5 p.m. Southwest Airlines flight to Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport was going to take off. And so far, so good.
But around 4:30 p.m., I saw on the terminal that the flight was delayed until 5:30 p.m. Minutes later, I saw that the flight was delayed until 6 p.m. Still, thinking optimistically, a delay is not a denial, and Southwest would have alerted me via email, text or its website if it was going to cancel this flight.
As we approached 6 p.m., I looked out the window near Gate A1 and saw the large Boeing 737. Bam. We have a plane. But then the gate agent made an announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, we are just waiting for the pilot.” We have no pilot. Less than two minutes later, the same agent says the flight was now canceled. My second canceled flight in two days. Hundreds of angry passengers converge on the already frazzled gate agents who now found themselves in the crosshairs of tearful, profanity-spewing Southwest passengers.
During my first six or so years as a Washington Post writer, I covered the airline industry and wrote a business travel column called “Business Class.” For 15 years before that, I covered the airline industry for other publications including USA Today and Business Week magazine.
I have covered massive layoffs, downsizings and mergers within the airline industry going back to TWA and US Air and US Airways. I have written about the unprecedented grounding of the nation’s airlines and fallout as a result of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. I have chronicled winter storms, hurricanes and other weather disasters that crippled airlines and their operations.
But I have never seen anything like what I saw during Christmas weekend.
Southwest canceled thousands of flights this week, accounting for more than 90 percent of all U.S. airlines flight canceled. The cancellations lasted more than a week.
Southwest announced, via a widely distributed press release on Thursday, that it plans to return to “normal operations” on Friday and expects “minimal disruptions.”
The airline blamed its operation problems on a severe winter storm that pummeled its operations. But other major airlines, both larger and smaller than Southwest, were able to operate the majority of their flights through the storm. It seems Southwest’s problems were more than just weather. The Post obtained a Dec. 21 internal memo regarding the airline’s Denver operations — among its largest operations in the country — which saw an “unusually high number of absences” among ramp employees who were using sick or personal days. In three of the four bullet points in the memo, the airline threatened “termination” for those employees who “alleged” sickness and could not provide a doctor’s note, tried to use a personal day or who refused to work mandatory overtime.
A day later, Southwest sent a similar memo to its agents at BWI, also obtained by The Post.
“These memos show Southwest was dealing with unprecedented morale issues days before the storm event hit,” longtime airline analyst Joe Brancatelli said.
With its low, nonrestrictive fares and cheerful, animated employees, Southwest for much of the late 1990s and early-to-mid-2000s was more than the go-to company for price-conscious customers; it became a model for many retailers, hotels and other companies that compete for loyal customers and dedicated employees. But longtime airline industry consultant Darryl Jenkins noted that as the airline expanded over recent years, it did so at the cost of updating technology and maintaining employee relations.
“They grew big and became a ‘big boy’ airline. They became so focused on earnings, they failed to modernize,” Jenkins said. “Of all the sad things I’ve seen in the airline industry in 40 years, this is at the top of the list.”
Brancatelli said the airline has been operating with systemwide technology that has not been upgraded since the 1990s. “They haven’t updated their customer service, phone system and crew scheduling systems in decades. And it finally caught up with them,” he said.
Calls and emails to Southwest were not returned.
Ed Stewart, who was Southwest’s main spokesman for 15 years until his 2006 retirement and who now runs an airline consulting company, still boasts about the airline’s employee culture and the employees’ monthly performance bonuses and being the only carrier never to have a layoff. But he said it could take weeks before Southwest executives figure out what went so wrong this past week.
“It was definitely more than just weather. But they need more time to find out what happened,” he said.
After spending Christmas with family in Pittsburgh, I needed to be back in Washington to attend a friend’s funeral on Wednesday. After my first flight was canceled Christmas night, Southwest airport agents encouraged the long line of displaced travelers to go to its website to rebook. But that did not work because all flights were marked “unavailable.” When we called the toll-free number, we got busy signals. When I managed to get through, I was on-hold for five hours before I gave up.
Before sunrise Monday, I was dropped off at Pittsburgh International and was greeted by a sea of bodies of people laying across chairs, on their suitcases and across the tiled floors. For many of these travelers, I later found out, it was the first Christmas they spent with family in three years due to the pandemic.
Unlike several other major airlines, Southwest does not have an agreement to fly their displaced passengers on other airlines, so travelers have to purchase tickets on their own.
When the flight was canceled, I looked at other airlines such as American. But they wanted $1,300 to $1,500 for a one-way flight. I then considered an old trick I learned as an airline writer, called hidden-city flights. This is when you book a one-way flight to a destination that connects in the city you actually want to fly into. For example, I found a Delta Air Lines flight into New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport that connected into Washington’s Reagan National Airport. Because I did not have luggage checked (never check bags during the holidays), I could have caught that flight to JFK and simply exited the airport in Washington as opposed to catching the connection to JFK.
That $350 was a little pricey, and honestly, I had tired of airlines and airports. So, I opted to rent a car and drive the nearly four-hour trip. I thought that was simple enough, since I reserved and got a confirmation number from Enterprise in Pittsburgh. But the next morning, I was called by the manager to tell me none of the rental companies had cars, despite what the websites said and the confirmation number I had printed out. My cousins and I were using our cellphones trying to find me a rental in Pittsburgh. One worker said I might have to tip an agent $150 to get a car. Sigh.
I’m so thankful for Saira Evans, the manager at the Hertz in Monroeville, Pa., who located a car for me, no tip required and called me. I joined the thousands of displaced Southwest passengers who were navigating icy and slushy roads.
I no longer cover the airline industry. For the past 16 or so years, I have been writing about murders, assaults, robberies and other violent crimes as a crime and courts reporter in Washington. Readers have often asked me if I missed covering airlines. My response remains the same: I appreciate covering crime, which for the most part, results in people being held accountable for their actions. | 2022-12-29T23:38:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Former airline, business travel columnist stuck in Southwest Airlines chaos - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/12/29/southwest-airlines-chaos-christmas-airport/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/12/29/southwest-airlines-chaos-christmas-airport/ |
Biden says he wants to dismantle Title 42. So why has he expanded it?
People walk along the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso on Dec. 27. (Justin Hamel/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
Apparently, Trump considered covid a liberal media hoax except when useful for punishing foreigners.
Human rights advocates and public health experts alike criticized the policy as probably both illegal and lacking a credible epidemiological purpose. Whatever its intentions, it didn’t reduce stress at the border; instead, it increased attempted border crossings, as many people expelled without consequence or due process turned right around and tried again to enter the United States.
That is, if they weren’t kidnapped, tortured, raped or otherwise violently attacked first. This happened in more than 10,000 cases of expelled migrants, as documented by Human Rights First.
As a presidential candidate, Joe Biden pledged to restore the integrity of the asylum system. He promised that anyone qualifying for an asylum claim would “be admitted to the country through an orderly process.” As president, though, Biden dragged his feet in terminating Title 42. He finally agreed to end the program this past spring. But termination has since been delayed by complicated court rulings, which Biden officials seem to have fought only half-heartedly.
This week, the Supreme Court determined that Title 42 must remain in place at least until the court decides a related issue (probably in the coming months). Given the Biden administration’s claims of wanting to end Title 42, the president should theoretically be mad about the delay.
“The administration has taken the position in court that they can no longer justify keeping Title 42 in place, given the lack of any public health justification,” said Lee Gelernt of the American Civil Liberties Union, which is challenging the expulsion policy. “If you look at the administration’s actions, however, it’s clear they’re fine with Title 42 remaining in place.”
To be clear: Resources at our southern border are strained. Communities there have been overwhelmed by an influx of migrant families needing shelter, food and other support. But the solution is not to close our borders to asylum seekers, in violation of U.S. human rights obligations.
Americans often complain that immigrants should come here “the right way,” but for many migrants, showing up at the border unannounced and turning themselves in is the only legal pathway available. If given options to come here that don’t require paying gangs and crossing deserts, people would gladly take them — which would in turn alleviate stress at the border.
To its credit, the Biden administration has taken baby steps on that last recommendation.
Its Uniting for Ukraine program, for instance, has vetted and “paroled in” more than 82,000 Ukrainians and their immediate relatives abroad, which has discouraged Ukrainians from showing up en masse at our southern border (as had been the case early in the war). A similar but much more restrictive program was created for Venezuelans, whose numbers are capped at 24,000; a parallel program is reportedly in the works for Cubans, Nicaraguans and Haitians.
But again, these additional legal pathways can be created while still upholding the ability to apply for asylum at our borders. That’s what U.S. law requires — and what Biden has, repeatedly, promised to do. | 2022-12-30T00:23:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Biden says he wants to dismantle Title 42. Why has he expanded it? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/29/title42-migrant-asylum-biden-solutions/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/29/title42-migrant-asylum-biden-solutions/ |
D.C. mayor: Feds failed on Jan. 6 by thinking far-right was ‘friendly’
The transcripts of Mayor Muriel E. Bowser and D.C. Police Chief Robert J. Contee III’s interviews were the part of the latest release of materials from the House Jan. 6 select committee
Testimony Mayor Muriel E. Bowser and D.C. Police Chief Robert J. Contee III gave before the House Jan. 6 committee was released Thursday. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
The D.C. mayor told lawmakers investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack that Capitol Police were unprepared for the violent assault because of a mistaken belief that white supremacists would not harm them.
“People thought they were friendly to law enforcement and that they loved their country,” Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said in her January 2022 interview with the House committee, a transcript of which was released Thursday. She said, however, earlier D.C. rallies of “white nationalist groups … showed us that they were antagonistic to law enforcement.”
In interviews with the House committee, Bowser and D.C. Police Chief Robert J. Contee III also faulted the Defense Department for not responding more quickly to the Capitol as rioters mobbed the building, while explaining their own reservations about deploying federal personnel on city streets. Bowser also described an attempt by President Donald Trump to take over the city’s police force in the summer of 2020, with some details emerging publicly for the first time with the release of her testimony.
The transcripts of Bowser and Contee’s interviews were part of the latest release of materials from the House Jan. 6 select committee, which this month issued their final report on the attack and recommended that Trump be charged with insurrection and obstruction of Congress.
Trump has blamed Bowser for the chaos on Jan. 6, saying she refused help from the National Guard. But Bowser and Contee said it made sense for the city to ask in advance of Jan. 6 only for unarmed Guard support to help with traffic and free up police for potential mayhem. Federal officers also have jurisdiction over the Capitol grounds, not D.C. police.
“It wasn’t for the Capitol. That is a separate request. It wasn’t for the White House. That is a separate request,” Contee said. “I don’t need military guys with long guns, you know, ushering people coming out of the Metro.”
Even that limited request from the District was met with what Contee described as “unusual” pushback from Army Secretary Ryan D. McCarthy. Unlike governors, the D.C. mayor cannot deploy National Guard troops on her own. McCarthy said the D.C. National Guard could not deploy east of Ninth Street NW — nine blocks from the Capitol — or be moved at all without explicit Army permission.
Contee called that restriction “odd” but said he assumed federal authorities would request National Guard support as needed and “pivot” in response to an emergency.
“My lesson learned, everybody does not pivot necessarily as quickly as the Metropolitan Police Department does,” he said.
National Guard troops requested by Capitol Police at 2:30 p.m. did not arrive at the building until three hours later. Steven Sund, the chief of Capitol Police at the time of the breach, told the committee his request in advance of Jan. 6 for National Guard support was denied.
By contrast, Contee said D.C. police were at the Capitol less than 20 minutes after being requested, even though the chief had not heard directly from Sund. Bowser said she later told McCarthy, who demanded an explicit Capitol Police request for troops, “Your Capitol is being overrun. I don’t have permission to be up there either, but MPD is there … they need help.”
When D.C. police got to the Capitol, Contee said, he was surprised and concerned to see a small and “scattered” Capitol Police force.
Tim Barber, a spokesman for the Capitol Police, directed an inquiry on Thursday to a statement the department had released to The Washington Post in the fall of 2021.
That statement said Capitol Police “expected and planned for violence from some protesters with ties to domestic terrorist organizations, but nobody in the law enforcement or intelligence communities imagined, on top of that threat, Americans who were not affiliated with those groups would cause the mayhem to metastasize to a volume uncontrollable for any single law enforcement agency.”
Yogananda D. Pittman, who led Capitol Police intelligence at the time of the riot and was later named acting chief after Sund resigned, told a congressional committee in February 2021 that there was “no evidence whatsoever” race played a role in planning for Jan. 6.
Both Bowser and Contee said, as was reported in the days after the attack, that the Army secretary was concerned about the “optics” of having “boots on the ground.” Bowser said she also thought there was concern within the Defense Department that Trump “would try to use the United States Army to storm the Capitol.”
McCarthy, whose interview was also released Thursday, told the committee he was concerned about “soldiers in plain view of a certification of election” when Trump supporters — including former administration official Michael Flynn — were calling for martial law.
The Jan. 6 select committee on Dec. 19 unanimously agreed to send supporting records for the committee’s criminal referrals to the Justice Department. (Video: The Washington Post)
They said Army officials suggested D.C. turn to federal officers for backup instead, an idea both Bowser and Contee rejected outright.
“A guy who is normally, you know, chasing career criminals, or whatever he is doing in his federal job that day, now armed with a long gun, going out into, you know, crowds of thousands of people” is “a recipe for disaster,” Contee said.
Unidentified staff from the Bureau of Prisons and other federal agencies had been deployed in D.C. during racial-justice protests the previous summer without any coordination. Federal police had forcefully cleared protesters from Lafayette Square in front of the White House on June 1, 2020, about 30 minutes before Trump walked through the area for a photo op. Trump had publicly complained that D.C. police and Bowser had lost control of the city, and The Washington Post reported that Trump had threatened to take over the 3,800-member D.C. police force to control the protests.
In her deposition, Bowser provided a more detailed and candid description of how that proposal was formed and played out over several tense hours. The mayor said the proposal to federalize D.C. police and the Secret Service clashed over the protests.
The mayor said she was told of the plan by White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, with White House counsel Pat Cipollone on the line.
“I’m telling them it would be a complete disaster; we’re going to lose the city,” Bowser said. “I was concerned that we would have a riot in the [District]. I mean, a real one. A real riot.” Bowser said Meadows’s “basic tenor was that this was going to happen; there was nothing I could do about it.”
Federal law allows the president to take control of D.C. police officers in certain emergency situations. But Bowser said city officials pushed back in what she described as a “heated conversation.” She said Trump officials told her that “they didn’t want protests outside the White House.”
Trump had expressed anger at officials in several states as protests turned turbulent but had little power over them.
“The president didn’t want any of these protests happening in any American city,” Bowser said. “And the place where he could stop it was D.C.”
The Washington Post reconstructed who did what to clear protesters from Lafayette Square, which sits north of the White House, on June 1. Watch how it unfolded. (Video: Sarah Cahlan, Joyce Lee, Atthar Mirza/The Washington Post)
The mayor said Trump’s bid “hearkens to an ugly segregationist past of the [District],” which only won limited home rule 50 years ago. “Everything balled up in this is bad for our democracy and is bad for our self governance.”
In the end, the Trump administration did not follow through on its threats. Bowser later credited Attorney General William P. Barr for “leading the charge against some pretty outrageous conduct,” and said the fact that he had left the White House by Jan. 6 was “problematic,” even though he was involved in the 2020 protest response she criticized.
The mayor said she never actually spoke to Trump herself: “I believe we had a president who talked via Twitter, and that’s how we talked to him.”
Bowser and Contee both said they were prepared for a large and unruly protest on Jan. 6, 2021. The director of D.C.’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency had alerted them on Dec. 30 that some Trump supporters wanted to “storm the Capitol and occupy the building to halt the vote.”
But both said that instead of memos passed around within agencies, there should have been a meeting of relevant officials making clear that organized, violent extremists planned to descend on the Capitol, as described in a memo from the Norfolk FBI office on Jan. 5.
“I don’t think I want to get notified about Armageddon through an email,” Contee said. | 2022-12-30T00:36:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | House Jan. 6 transcripts for D.C. Mayor Bowser, police chief Contee released - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/29/bowser-contee-jan6-transcripts/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/29/bowser-contee-jan6-transcripts/ |
Thomas Jefferson High under fire for delay in notifying students of national merit award
Thomas Jefferson High School in Fairfax County is one of the nation's top-ranked high schools. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
A group of Virginia parents is calling for leaders at one of the nation’s top-ranked high schools to be fired after officials failed to timely inform students they had qualified for a national award.
Some students at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County were not told until late this fall they had been named “commended students” by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation — a distinction that helps students compete for academic scholarships, honors programs and college admissions. Students who applied for colleges ahead of early deadlines were not able to mark the distinction on their applications, parents said.
“It’s really important to be able to say, ‘Hey, I just want you to know I am among the top academic performers in our nation,’” said Asra Nomani, parent of a former Thomas Jefferson student and education advocate who wrote an op-ed about the school withholding the notifications. “Checking that little box on the application becomes your ticket into all kinds of opportunities.”
Now, parents plan to deliver a letter to state and county education leaders demanding that Ann Bonitatibus, the principal at Thomas Jefferson, and Brandon Kosatka, director of student services, be terminated from their posts. The parents also want a consistent policy across schools and school districts that mandates how students should be informed about awards.
Each year, roughly 1.5 million students compete in the National Merit Scholarship Program, according to its website. Students enter by taking the PSAT/NMSQT, a nationwide standardized test, usually during their junior year.
This year, just 50,000 of the highest scorers qualified for recognition. The top scorers are named finalists or semifinalists, meaning they can compete for a Merit Scholarship award. Fairfax County students who earned that status were acknowledged publicly early this year.
With the Commended Students, Fairfax County Public Schools called the delay a “one-time human error” and denied allegations that Thomas Jefferson officials deliberately withheld information from the 261 students receiving that distinction. School counselors have sent emails and made phone calls to colleges where affected students had applied to inform them of students’ commendations, said Julie Moult, a schools spokeswoman.
“FCPS understands the hard work and dedication of each and every student who competes for college acceptance and scholarship opportunities,” Moult said in a statement. “We are continuing to look into this matter and will take any necessary steps to ensure consistency in appropriate and timely notification of National Merit recognitions going forward.”
About 34,000 students nationwide qualified as commended students. Those students do not compete for Merit Scholarships but are eligible for other awards. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation, which oversees the competition, advises high schools to notify students of this distinction — a process that did not happen until late this fall at Thomas Jefferson, parents said. Fairfax Schools officials did not answer a question about whether other high schools in the system have had issues notifying commended students.
The issue at Thomas Jefferson came to light after parent Shawna Yashar discovered in mid-November her son had been awarded a letter of commendation by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, Nomani said. Students are typically notified of their commended-student status in September so they can mark the distinction on college applications, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.
Yashar’s son said he and other students received the letters on Nov. 14 during their homeroom period. Yashar said she contacted Bonitatibus about the delay, and eventually spoke on the phone with Kosatka.
Kosatka, according to Yashar, said the school wanted to hand the letters out “discreetly.”
“There’s not a lot of kids who didn’t get either award, and we didn’t want them to feel bad about it,” Yashar recalled Kosatka saying. School system officials said they could not verify that conversation took place.
“I was just really upset that they didn’t provide this information to students,” Yashar said in an interview with The Post on Thursday.
Other parents have since come forward to share similar experiences or criticize the school for the delay. Harry Jackson, whose son is a junior, said the issue could have “catastrophic” effects for the student body at Thomas Jefferson — the majority of which are students of color.
“It’s an asset,” Jackson said about the national distinction. “It has value, if you’re promptly notified.”
Nomani said her son, who graduated from Thomas Jefferson in 2021, likely missed out on opportunities because he was not notified about his Commended Student status in 2020. (A school spokeswoman said the district’s digital records show commended students from the Class of 2021 were notified by email in September 2020.)
“We were not able to put on his application that he had this honor, to have him then identified for scholarship programs,” Nomani said. She is now planning to contact her son’s school and asked to have his application reconsidered. | 2022-12-30T01:07:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Va. school delayed national award notices, parents want leaders fired - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/12/29/thomas-jefferson-high-national-merit/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/12/29/thomas-jefferson-high-national-merit/ |
Death row inmate appeals sentence over Comedy Central footage
Texas inmate argues that a stand-up comedian’s taping was improperly used to sentence him to death for attacking an elderly married couple
The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington. (Samuel Corum/AFP/Getty Images)
A Texas inmate filmed as part of a Comedy Central roast by comedian Jeff Ross while in jail is appealing his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the stand-up’s footage was improperly used to sentence him to death for attacking an elderly married couple.
Gabriel Hall was awaiting trial for a high-profile capital murder charge when Ross, known as the “Roastmaster General” for his insult comedy, was invited to Brazos County Jail and interviewed Hall and other inmates in 2015.
Though it never aired, the video was later subpoenaed and presented to the jury by the prosecutor, who argued Hall did not show remorse four years after the 2011 killing. But Hall’s legal team has argued that the taping happened without his lawyers’ knowledge and violated the inmate’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel.
It is unlikely that justices would pick this case to hear at a Jan. 6 conference, when the court could pluck a few cases from hundreds filed to review, according to legal experts. However, the experts also questioned the jail’s decision to let film crews in without inmates’ lawyers present and the prosecutors’ decision to use the tape during sentencing.
FAQ: What cases are before the Supreme Court this term?
Hall’s lead attorney, Robert Owen, argues that this bench, the most conservative in decades, should take the case to probe a gap in legal precedent on the Sixth Amendment, comparing the comedy roast with using a jailhouse informant.
“The case is about when the state can interfere with the attorney-client relationship between an accused person and their counsel,” Owen told The Washington Post. “No one has addressed this question of whether the state violates an accused person’s right to counsel by giving a third party access to the defendant.”
The unusual circumstances of this case make it less pressing for the highest court, where justices are focused on legal questions with far-reaching impact, said Bruce Green, a Fordham Law professor specializing in legal ethics. Green evaluated the case when a colleague asked him if he would write an amicus brief supporting Hall.
“That said, I think it’s pretty outrageous,” Green said. “To me, it would be pretty inappropriate for the prison authorities to allow a reporter without permission of Hall’s lawyer. That’s essentially what they did, but it was worse. It was an insult comic whose job it is to provoke people.”
The Texas Attorney General’s office did not respond to a request for comment from The Post. The state has argued that the use of the comedy show video doesn’t constitute a violation of the Sixth Amendment — which prohibits the government from deliberately eliciting incriminating information from defendants via a state agent — because Ross did not have that authority. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals agreed, rejecting Hall’s appeal.
Ross did not seek Hall out for the prosecution like a state agent, and Hall could have not talked with the comedian or shared anything that could implicate him, said Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, an organization advocating for capital punishment. It’s also possible that the video was not what swayed the jury during sentencing, Scheidegger said.
On Oct. 20, 2011, then-18-year-old Hall broke into the garage of a College Station home in an attempted burglary, repeatedly stabbing one of the residents, 68-year-old Edwin “Ed” Shaar Jr., a Navy veteran who had Parkinson’s disease. He then shot and killed Ed at point-blank range. Hall also tried to shoot Ed’s wife, Linda, who was in a wheelchair, but the gun jammed, so he stabbed her as she was on the phone with 911. Hall fled, not taking anything, while Linda survived and described Hall to police. He was arrested shortly after and indicted.
Around the same time, Ross sought to produce a comedy roast set in a jail, he told an Entertainment Weekly reporter later that year. He said he had wanted to humanize those behind bars. Comedy Central executives told Ross there would be too much red tape to accomplish it, but Ross put out an ad in the American Jails magazine. Wayne Dicky, then the jail administrator and now the sheriff for Brazos County, called after he saw the ad, saying he was open to allowing the film crew in if they provided additional security.
“I wanted to do something that would enlighten people, not make it about the politics but about the people,” Ross said at the time. His representatives did not respond to requests for comment about this case. Since news about the case broke, Ross has liked tweets expressing that he shouldn’t be blamed for how the video was used.
Dicky, who did not respond to a request for comment, promoted the show as a reward for good behavior, and fliers placed around the jail encouraged participation.
After Hall was indicted, he was appointed trial counsel in November 2014. They sent the Brazos County sheriff a “no contact” letter that said Hall’s legal team had to provide written approval if officers wanted to talk with Hall.
Three months later, Ross spent several days interviewing the inmates on camera for the show. At one point, Ross walked into one of the jail’s housing pods and up to a table where Hall and other inmates were sitting. The 17-minute conversation captured on video was never aired, but court documents filed by Hall’s legal team shed light on what was said.
The camera appears to focus on Hall for most of the conversation, as Ross comments on his intimidating demeanor and references his Asian heritage.
Ross asks Hall what he is in jail for and suggests, “Hacking somebody’s computer?”
“Something like that, yes,” Hall answers.
“‘Hacking’ being the operative word,” another inmate says.
“Yeah. Yeah, used a machete on someone’s screen,” Hall says.
In another part of the conversation, Ross talks with the inmates about life behind bars and brings up Texas’s aggressive use of the death penalty. Texas kills more prisoners than any other state.
“Well … they’ll basically screw you over, over the most … ah, petty s---,” Hall says.
When the jail administrator learned about the conversation, he contacted Comedy Central to request the interview not be published, citing the high-profile case, according to court records. Dicky also asked the network to give him a digital copy. Weeks later, the state subpoenaed the footage and notified Hall that it intended to use it in its evidence during the punishment phase of the trial.
The prosecutor pointed to it as proof that Hall felt little remorse for his crimes and little appreciation for human life.
The jury deliberated for more than seven hours and sentenced Hall to death. Hall, now 29, has spent more than seven years on death row.
Owen, Hall’s lead attorney, said that if the Supreme Court passes on hearing the case, another federal court could still review his client’s conviction to determine if he had a fair trial. Two other post-trial proceedings in Texas remain ongoing. | 2022-12-30T01:07:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Death row inmate appeals sentence over Comedy Central footage - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/29/comedy-roast-death-sentence-appeal/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/29/comedy-roast-death-sentence-appeal/ |
Brazil's Neymar helped carry a banner honoring Pelé during the World Cup in Qatar. (Pedro Nunes/Reuters)
The soccer world lost its greatest legend Thursday, when Pelé died at age 82, and the sport’s biggest stars poured forth their tributes.
One of the most heartfelt came from Neymar, the 30-year-old forward who has followed in Pelé’s footsteps as Brazil’s foremost active player. Neymar also wears the jersey number, 10, that Pelé made iconic and was subsequently worn to exhilarating effect by the likes of Michel Platini, Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi.
“Before Pelé, ‘10’ was just a number,” Neymar wrote in Portuguese on his Instagram account. “I read that phrase somewhere, at some point in my life. But that sentence, beautiful, is incomplete. I would say that before Pelé, football was just a sport.
“Pelé changed everything,” Neymar continued. “He turned football into art, into entertainment. He gave a voice to the poor, to black people and especially: Gave visibility to Brazil. Football and Brazil have raised their status thanks to the King! He is gone, but his magic will remain. Pelé is ETERNAL!!”
Messi, who recently equaled Maradona’s greatest feat by leading Argentina to a World Cup title, shared a simple message Thursday, writing “Rest in peace, Pelé” in Spanish.
Another renowned No. 10, Germany’s Mesut Özil, posted a photo of Pelé and Maradona while tweeting: “Rest in peace to one of the greatest legends of the game. Your legacy will live forever. I’m sure ‘Heaven FC’ with Maradona and Pele together will be invincible forever.”
Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo is associated with jersey No. 7, but as with Pelé, Maradona and Messi, he is often named in best-ever discussions. On Thursday, Ronaldo showed his reverence for the late luminary by using one of Pelé's nicknames that reflected the latter’s regal standing in their sport.
“A mere ‘goodbye’ to the eternal King Pelé will never be enough to express the pain that currently embraces the entire world of football,” Ronaldo wrote in Portuguese. “An inspiration for so many millions. … He will never be forgotten and his memory will live on forever in each of us football lovers. Rest in peace, King Pelé.”
Perspective | What Pelé, soccer’s one-name wonder, meant to the beautiful game
Also hailing Pelé as the “king” was Kylian Mbappé, who scored three goals for France in the World Cup final and also converted in a shootout that went to Argentina. Mbappé's heroics had garnered accolades earlier this month from Pelé, who — in his final social media post — referred to the 24-year-old Frenchman as “my dear friend” while saluting Messi and Co. for an “enthralling” triumph.
“The king of football has left us but his legacy will never be forgotten,” Mbappé wrote Thursday.
Also nicknamed the “Black Pearl” and formally named Edson Arantes do Nascimento, Pelé was born into impoverished circumstances but wasted little time making his mark in soccer. At age 15, he impressed Brazilian club Santos enough to earn a contract, and Pelé was just 17 when he led his country to the 1958 World Cup title. After helping Brazil top the tournament again in 1962 and 1970, Pelé remains the only player to win the World Cup three times.
How many goals he scored is a matter of some debate, depending on how much weight one gives to friendlies and how much credence one places in historical accounts. Whether it was 778 in 846 official matches (per RSSSF) or 1,281 goals in 1,363 matches (per FIFA), video of his exploits and testimony from those who saw Pelé play make clear that his brilliance extended far beyond a preternatural ability to put the ball in the net.
“Pelé had everything a player should have,” said Cesar Luis Menotti, a former teammate with Santos who went on to manage Argentina to the 1978 World Cup title. “Agile, jumped like no one, could kick with both legs, physically very strong and brave. There was no one like Pelé.”
“I had the privilege that younger Brazilians didn’t have: I saw Pelé play, live, at Pacaembu and Morumbi,” tweeted Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. “Play, no. I saw Pelé give a show. Because when he got the ball he always did something special, which often ended up in a goal.”
In the United States, President Biden and former president Barack Obama also shared words of praise.
“For a sport that brings the world together like no other, Pelé’s rise from humble beginnings to soccer legend is a story of what is possible,” Biden said on Twitter. “Today, Jill and I’s thoughts are with his family and all those who loved him.”
“Pelé was one of the greatest to ever play the beautiful game,” Obama tweeted, sharing a photo of himself holding a signed Brazil jersey with the Brazilian icon. “And as one of the most recognizable athletes in the world, he understood the power of sports to bring people together.”
FIFA President Gianni Infantino pointed to Pelé’s grace on and off the field.
“‘The King’ rose [to] the throne with a smile on his face,” Infantino said in a statement. “Football could be brutal in those days, and Pelé was often on the receiving end of some rough treatment. But, while he knew how to stand up for himself, he was always an exemplary sportsman, with genuine respect for his opponents. … Today, we all mourn the loss of the physical presence of our dear Pelé, but he achieved immortality a long time ago and therefore he will be with us for eternity.”
Pelé died of complications from colon cancer, according to his manager. Pelé had been receiving treatments for the illness at a hospital in São Paulo, approximately 185 miles southwest of his hometown of Três Corações. Santos’s stadium will host his funeral Monday and Tuesday (via the AP).
After retiring from Santos in 1974, Pelé played an incalculably valuable role in expanding the popularity of soccer in the United States by signing with the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League. His presence turned the previously struggling squad into an international sensation and helped lure European stars such as Giorgio Chinaglia and Franz Beckenbauer to what had been a backwater for the sport.
“Football lost the greatest in its history today — and I a unique friend,” Beckenbauer, who led West Germany to World Cup titles both as a player and manager, said Thursday. “Born in Três Corações, Pelé had three hearts: for football, for his family, for all people. One who played with the stars and always remained grounded. In 1977, I went to the United States. Because I really wanted to play in a team with Pelé at the New York Cosmos. That time by his side was one of the greatest moments of my career. We became U.S. champions together straight away, and Pelé called me his brother from that moment. It was an unimaginable honor for me.”
“Pele was the sport’s first global superstar,” Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber tweeted. “His legacy and contributions to the game are unmatched — here in the United States and throughout the world.” | 2022-12-30T02:39:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Soccer world pays tribute to Pelé after Brazilian star’s death - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/12/29/pele-death-tributes-neymar-ronaldo/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/12/29/pele-death-tributes-neymar-ronaldo/ |
By Patrick Stevens
Maryland's Don Carey shook off a shooting slump to score a season-high 19 points and lead the Terrapins to an 80-64 win over UMBC on Thursday in College Park. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
Don Carey has played college basketball long enough — five seasons plus a transfer sit-out year wedged in between — to feel certain his shot will eventually fall.
After a slump of more than a month, it finally did Thursday night for the Maryland graduate transfer. Carey scored a season-high 19 points in the Terrapins’ 80-64 victory over UMBC.
“It definitely feels good to see one go in, but in terms of my demeanor, I’ve been consistent with that,” said Carey, who is in his first year at Maryland after stops at Mount St. Mary’s, Siena and Georgetown. “I know the type of player I am. I know the type of work I put in. And I know how practice goes as well. Eventually, the work will show.”
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Carey’s effort in the nonconference finale helped the Terps pull away late and improve to 15-0 all-time against UMBC. Carey had shot just 17.1 percent (6 for 35) from three-point range over his past seven games, and Coach Kevin Willard had made a lineup change in Maryland’s last outing, starting Ian Martinez and bringing Carey off the bench.
Carey scored 16 points in the second half and shot 5 of 7 from the outside for the night to tie a career high for three-pointers made in a game.
“Don’s unique, man,” Willard said. “I wish I had his confidence as a player. I didn’t have it. He’s not stopped working on his shot at all. It’s almost a little bit too much. He’s one of those guys who needs to see the ball go in.”
Jahmir Young added 18 points in the Terps’ final tuneup before resuming Big Ten play Sunday at Michigan.
Jenkins: The NCAA stole Reggie Bush's Heisman Trophy. It's time to give it back.
Craig Beaudion II and Jarvis Doles both scored 14 points for the Retrievers (9-5). UMBC had won six in a row since a Nov. 26 loss at Georgetown.
UMBC lingered well into the second half and remained within a possession when Carey made a three-pointer with 12:47 remaining to make it 48-42. That came early in a 16-4 run, and the Retrievers never cut the deficit to less than eight points in the final 10 minutes.
Carey helped finish things off, accounting for 13 of Maryland’s last 23 points to emphatically leave a shooting spell in the past.
“The only difference was the shot was going in, so there was a difference,” Carey said. “Definitely can build off this momentum, but I’m more happy that we just played together and really gritted out that game.”
Here’s what to know from Thursday’s game:
Reese’s return
Forward Julian Reese logged his first game action in 15 days and did all of his offensive damage at the foul line in the second half, making 7 of 12 free throws.
Reese collected seven rebounds in 23 minutes.
“I was happy with the minutes he was able to get,” Willard said. “He had seven full days off, so seven days of no basketball and no contact. He’s only had two practices. He’s going to be rusty, and he’s going to look a little rusty.”
Reese was initially injured in the first half of a Dec. 14 loss to UCLA and sat out the Terps’ rout of Saint Peter’s eight days later.
While graduate student Patrick Emilien made his second consecutive start, Reese checked in 3:31 into the game and played 12 scoreless minutes in the first half.
Reese finished the game 0 for 2 from the floor but was an effective part of Maryland’s effort to get to the foul line in the final 20 minutes.
“I feel like I changed the game a little bit, attacking the rim,” Reese said. “I feel like I left some plays out there, but I can always get those next game. We’re going to work on that.”
A need for threes
Carey’s strong night was especially conspicuous considering how the rest of Maryland’s perimeter shooters fared: 1 for 17 from three-point range.
The Terps began the night ranked 260th in Division I in three-point shooting at 32.2 percent. And with UMBC coming in with a better three-point percentage defense than only three other Division I teams, it seemed about as ideal an opportunity as Maryland would find to find a rhythm from the outside.
The Terps missed 15 of their first 16 before making 5 of 8 in the final 13 minutes, including their last four tries to close the game. Carey made the last three.
“I know no one believes me, but we are a good shooting team,” Willard said. “If [Carey] can kind of get going, it’s really going to open up some things for Donta [Scott], for Julian. It’s just going to spread the floor.” | 2022-12-30T04:33:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Maryland pulls away from UMBC as Don Carey snaps out of shooting slump - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/12/29/maryland-mens-basketball-umbc/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/12/29/maryland-mens-basketball-umbc/ |
Two men killed in separate shooting incidents in D.C., police say
Two men were fatally shot and a third man was wounded Thursday night in two separate shooting incidents in Southeast and Northeast Washington, D.C. police said.
One man was found unconscious and not breathing in the 2000 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in Anacostia about 9:28 p.m. The victim suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to 7th District Cmdr. John Branch.
A second wounded man, who investigators believe was an unintended target, was found conscious and breathing and was taken to a hospital for treatment, Branch said. No motive was immediately known in the shootings, Branch said late Thursday.
Investigators were looking for a gray Buick sedan, officials said.
About two hours earlier, police were called to the 2700 block of 7th Street in Northeast where another man was reportedly shot, according to Officer Sean Hickman, a police spokesman. The victim was taken to a hospital and later pronounced dead, Hickman said.
Police were searching for a red SUV with four people inside, according to the department’s Twitter account. | 2022-12-30T05:42:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Two men killed in two D.C. shootings Thursday night - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/30/fatal-shootings-southeast-northeast-dc/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/30/fatal-shootings-southeast-northeast-dc/ |
Ask Amy: My husband had a baby with another woman during our separation
I just found out that during that time my husband had an affair with his colleague and conceived a baby. The lady pulled into my husband’s driveway while we were having a graduation party for our daughter, got the baby out of the car and proceeded into the house!
I confronted her and she told me that my husband is the father of her baby. I could not even comprehend this. I admit I tried to attack her, and it became an ugly scene. My own two teenagers and his whole family knew about the baby and didn’t tell me!
We have been married for 25 years. My husband said he still loves me and that the affair is over. Otherwise he won’t discuss it. He allows the woman to come over to his place with the baby. I told him she shouldn’t be over there, but he doesn’t listen to me.
He has apologized for what he did and tells me I need to let it go so we can move forward. I don’t know what to do. He has cheated on me more than once. He won’t go to counseling, nor will he discuss how this happened. We continue to live in separate homes.
How are we going to move forward if we can’t talk about what has happened? I’m so angry and resentful. I hate him at times, but I still love him, too. His choices make me feel so undervalued.
Distraught: Let’s recap. You and your husband live separately — and you have lived apart for the last two years. During that time he has conducted another relationship and has fathered a child. He’s told everyone about this except for you (and this includes your teenage children).
Dear Amy: My nephew is getting married this coming summer. I’m trying to decide if I want to go. I have never really had a relationship with him; I doubt we’ve said 100 words to each other in 22 years.
His parents (my brother and his wife), and siblings are solid Trump followers, while I identify myself as a “rabid liberal.” I have nothing in common with my brother and his family, and I don’t really know many of the extended family who will probably be there.
The thing is, I like his fiance, and don’t want to hurt her feelings. But is it worth it to spend a day with people who don’t want me, and who I don’t want to be with?
Rabid: You’ve received an invitation to this wedding, so it’s fair to say that someone in this family “wants” you to attend. If you haven’t exchanged as much as 100 words with your nephew over his lifetime, then it is possible that you don’t actually know all that much about him.
A wedding is a family event — not a political event. If you attend, your assumptions about these family members might be verified, or they might be altered, even slightly, toward nuance.
Only thing I would have added was a recommendation to watch George Carlin’s monologue on stuff. It’s a really funny sendup and reinforces your point that Lost in Grief isn’t alone or “crazy” or “bad” or “wrong” for having this problem.
KT: I’m a proud graduate of the School of Life, with a minor in clutter studies. | 2022-12-30T05:43:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ask Amy: My husband had a baby with another woman during our separation - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/12/30/ask-amy-husband-affair-baby/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/12/30/ask-amy-husband-affair-baby/ |
Carolyn Hax: Is it disloyal to stay friends with brothers’ ex-wives?
( Nick Galifianakis for The Washington Post)
Carolyn Hax is away. The following first appeared Nov. 19, 2008.
Dear Carolyn: My husband says that, because my two brothers divorced, their exes are out of our family. I am nice to my brothers’ new girlfriends, but the marriages were both for 20 years, and I think of the exes as my sisters.
Also, I’ve known my husband’s brother’s ex-wife since junior high school — longer than I’ve known my brother-in-law. We still hang out, and I consider her a good friend. My husband says my loyalty should be with the new women and none of the exes.
I don’t want to be thought of as disloyal, but I have a very hard time with this situation. I don’t want to have to pick one side.
— Troubled
Troubled: I don’t want to take sides either, so I’m going to have to figure out a nonpartisan way to point out that your husband is being a complete tool.
The responsibility of adults to behave like adults isn’t situational; we all bear it every day, under pressures big and small. However, the more complicated the situation, the more urgent it becomes that people resist the temptation to behave like miffed adolescents.
You don’t just discard people because they’re in a new place on the org chart. Explaining decency is about as self-defeating as explaining a joke, but I’ll do it anyway: Excommunicating these exes now would send the message that you were nice to them only because you had to be.
That will certainly be true with some relatives; you put on a civil face with Aunt Toad only because your uncle married her, and because recoiling with horror and screaming at the Thanksgiving table aren’t polite ways to react. If your uncle were to divorce her, then you’d be under no obligation to stay in touch.
But where the affection is genuine and independent of the family tie, then it’s only natural for your loyalties to reflect that independence. In fact, integrity demands it. Memo to your husband: Where one spouse shows integrity, it’s on the other spouse to show some respect.
Integrity also demands, of course, that you be judicious in maintaining ties to exes, as well as being kind to any newcomers. You don’t want to blather on about the ex in front of the new squeeze, or invite the ex just to spite others, or otherwise exploit your friendship with the ex to advance your own agenda. And although you don’t need to explain yourself to anyone, you should be clear on your own reasoning, so your behavior remains principled and consistent.
Conveniently, by making sure any against-the-spousal-grain decision is also a thoughtful one, you inoculate yourself against behavior that would be legitimately disloyal: fraternizing with an ex who did something inexcusable. If one of these exes abused your brother-in-law, for example, or mistreated him without showing any indication of remorse, then your husband, alas, would be right: You would be obligated to pick a side.
I’d conclude by saying that it’s not about family, it’s about justice, but even that would be off the mark; in deciding the right thing to do, the only absolute that applies is that there are no absolutes. The “right thing” is unique to each situation — so the right thing for your husband to do is to accept that you’ll decide for yourself. | 2022-12-30T05:43:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Carolyn Hax: Is it disloyal to stay friends with brothers’ ex-wives? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/12/30/carolyn-hax-brothers-ex-wives-friends/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/12/30/carolyn-hax-brothers-ex-wives-friends/ |
Miss Manners: Neighbor steps in front of me during group conversations
“Bart,” said teasingly, “are you acting as my bodyguard tonight? I assure you that I can defend myself if our argument about farmers markets reaches a fever pitch.”
Dear Miss Manners: I recently got married for the second time, and have moved two hours away from my hometown and everyone I know. Our marriage is great, but there is a woman in my husband’s friend group — which consists of his friends and their wives or girlfriends — who is a problem.
This woman clearly learned a lot in high school. And much like it was there, the only way to shut down such behavior is to ignore it. Miss Manners would think it particularly easy to ignore social media posts. | 2022-12-30T05:43:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Miss Manners: Neighbor steps in front of me during group conversations - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/12/30/miss-manners-neighbors-friends-conversations/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/12/30/miss-manners-neighbors-friends-conversations/ |
A new gulf is emerging between the president and much of the country’s elite
By Catherine Belton
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, on the sidelines of an informal summit for leaders of former Soviet republics in St. Petersburg on Dec. 27. (Alexey Danichev/Sputnik/AFP/Getty Images)
When Vladimir Putin visited Minsk last week to discuss deepening cooperation, a sarcastic joke by his host, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, seemed to ring all too true. “The two of us are co-aggressors, the most harmful and toxic people on this planet. We have only one dispute: Who is the bigger one? That’s all,” Lukashenko said.
As Putin approaches New Year’s Eve, the 23d anniversary of his appointment in 1999 as acting Russian president, he appears more isolated than ever.
More than 300 days of brutal war against Ukraine have blown up decades of Russia’s carefully cultivated economic relations with the West, turning the country into a pariah, while Kremlin efforts to replace those ties with closer cooperation with India and China appear to be foundering the longer the war grinds on.
Putin, who started his career as a Soviet KGB agent, has always kept his own counsel, relying on a close inner circle of old friends and confidants while seeming to never fully trust or confide in any one. But now a new gulf is emerging between Putin and much of the country’s elite, according to interviews with Russian business leaders, officials and analysts.
Putin “feels the loss of his friends,” said one Russian state official with close ties to diplomatic circles, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. “Lukashenko is the only one he can pay a serious visit to. All the rest see him only when necessary.”
Even though Putin gathered leaders of former Soviet republics for an informal summit in St. Petersburg this week, across the region the Kremlin’s authority is weakening. Putin is due to discuss regional affairs with Chinese President Xi Jinping over video conference on Friday morning in Moscow, but Xi already made clear in September his “concerns” over the war.
India’s Narendra Modi this month wrote an article for Russia’s influential Kommersant daily calling for an end to “the epoch of war.” “We read all this and understand, and I think he [Putin] reads and understands too,” the state official said.
Among Russia’s elite, questions are growing over Putin’s tactics heading into 2023 following the series of humiliating military retreats this autumn. A divide is emerging between those in the elite who want Putin to stop the military onslaught and those who believe he must escalate further, according to the state official and Tatyana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Despite a media blitz over the last week, with Putin holding a series of carefully choreographed televised meetings with military top brass and officials from the military-industrial complex, as well as a question-and-answer session with a selected pool of loyal journalists, members of the Russian elite interviewed by The Washington Post said they could not predict what might happen next year and said they doubted Putin himself knew how he might act.
“There is huge frustration among the people around him,” said one Russian billionaire who maintains contacts with top-ranking officials. “He clearly doesn’t know what to do.”
The Russian state official said Putin’s only plan appeared to lie in “constant attempts to force the West and Ukraine to begin [peace] talks” through airstrikes on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure and other threats. Putin repeated the tactic this week by declaring on Christmas Day that he was open to peace talks even as Russia launched another massive missile strike just days later on Thursday, taking out electricity supplies in several regions. “But,” the official said, Putin is willing to talk “only on his terms.”
The billionaire, the state official and several analysts pointed to the postponement of Putin’s annual State of the Nation address, when the Russian president generally lays out plans for the year ahead, and the cancellation of his annual marathon news conference as signs of Putin’s isolation and an effort to shield him from direct questions since he has no map for the road ahead.
The news conference, in particular, could have proved risky given that hundreds of journalists are typically brought to Moscow from Russia’s far-flung regions, which have been disproportionately affected by casualties and the recent partial mobilization.
“In the address, there should be a plan. But there is no plan. I think they just don’t know what to say,” the billionaire said. “He is in isolation, of course. He doesn’t like speaking with people anyway. He has a very narrow circle, and now it has gotten narrower still.”
In the question-and-answer session with the handful of journalists, Putin countered such assertions about the postponement of his speech to parliament. He said he had addressed key issues in a series of recent public meetings, and it was “complicated for me, and the administration, to squeeze it all again into a formal address without repeating myself.”
But his comments on the war have been short on details. He has gone no further than saying conditions in the four Ukrainian territories that he claims to have annexed, illegally, are “extremely difficult,” and that his government would try to end the conflict “the faster, the better.”
Putin again sought to lay the blame on the U.S. and NATO for dragging out the war, in what seemed almost a tacit admission that he had lost control of the process. “How can he tell us everything is going to plan, when we are already in the 10th month of the war, and we were told it was only going to take a few days,” the state official said.
“He is a figure who in the eyes of the elite appears to be incapable of giving answers to questions,” she said. “The elite does not know what to believe, and they fear to think about tomorrow.”
“To a large degree, there is the feeling that there is no way out, that the situation is irreparable,” she continued, “that they are totally dependent on one person, and it is impossible to influence anything.”
Alexandra Prokopenko, a former adviser at Russia’s Central Bank who resigned and left Russia in the weeks after the start of the invasion, said in an interview that her former colleagues “try not see the war in terms of winners and losers. But they know there is no good exit for Russia right now.”
“There is a feeling that we cannot attain the political aims that were originally forwarded,” the state official said. “This is clear to all.” But no one knows how large a loss Russia can sustain before its leaders believe its existence is in jeopardy, he said.
Further underscoring the growing distance between the president and the business elite, Putin also canceled his annual New Year’s Eve meeting with the country’s billionaires, officially citing infection risks.
With such a huge question mark hanging over the year ahead, two camps have emerged within the elite: “The pragmatists who consider that Russia took on the burden of a war it can’t sustain and needs to stop,” and those who want to escalate, Stanovaya said.
Those in favor of escalation include Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the Putin ally who leads the Wagner Group of mercenaries and continues to publicly berate Russia’s military leadership.
“We don’t know what will happen in the future,” said a longtime member of Russian diplomatic circles, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. “There might be another wave of mobilization. The economic situation in the next year will start to worsen more seriously.”
Sergei Markov, a hawkish former Kremlin adviser who is still in contact with Putin’s team, said it was clear Putin still did not have an answer to the principal question ahead of him. “There are two possible paths ahead,” Markov said. “One is that the army continues to fight while the rest of society lives a normal life — as it was this year. The second path is as it was when Russia went through World War II, when everything was for the front and for victory. There was such a mobilization of society and the economy.”
“The fact is that these 300,000 mobilized do not have enough weapons,” Markov said. “When will they get the military technology? Putin also does not have the answer to this question.”
According to Markov, who supports escalation, India and China’s doubts have arisen because Putin did not win fast enough. “Privately they say, ‘Win quicker, but if you can’t win, we can’t build good relations with you,’ he said. “You should either win or admit your loss. We need most of all for the war to end as fast as possible.”
Others said the reason for the tepid relations with India and China’s leaders was because they were clearly more worried about further escalation. “We hear there is a worry about the prospect of escalation to the nuclear level,” the longtime member of Russian diplomatic circles said. “And here, it seems to me everyone spoke very clearly that this is extremely undesirable and dangerous.”
In an interview last week with Russian daily RBK, Mikhail Zadornov, chairman of Otkritie, one of Russia’s biggest banks, who served as finance minister from 1997 to 1999, noted that Russia had lost markets in the West that it had been building since Soviet times. “For 50 years, a market, mutual economic connections, were being built. Now they are destroyed for decades to come,” Zadornov said.
On the whole, members of Russia’s economic elite “understand this isn’t going to end well,” the Russian billionaire said. Prokopenko, the former Central Bank official, said the Russian elite, including many under sanctions, are watching the situation in horror: “Everything they built collapsed for no reason.” | 2022-12-30T06:39:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Putin grows increasingly isolated as Russia's war in Ukraine falters - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/30/putin-isolated-russia-ukraine-war/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/30/putin-isolated-russia-ukraine-war/ |
Europe’s Spring Weather Is Putin’s Winter of Discontent
You don’t usually wear a T-shirt to welcome the New Year in Europe. But if the weather forecast proves correct, Berliners will enter 2023 in spring-like temperatures of about 15 degrees Celsius, the average for the day is usually closer to freezing. Paris and Zurich may reach 18 degrees in the first or second day of the New Year.
In normal times, the unseasonably mild weather would be unmitigated bad news: another sign of global warming. But right now, the warmth — and relatively strong wind — is good news for a continent battling an energy crisis. It mean there will be a lot less gas and electricity demand plus more wind power. With it come lower prices. The loser is President Vladimir Putin of Russia.
With nearly half of the heating season in the rear mirror — the midpoint comes around Jan. 15 — Europe can now breath a little easier. I may be tempting fate, but even a pessimist like myself can say there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
Unless the continent suffers an extremely cold second half of the winter, it should have enough gas to avoid a crisis-like scenario. The current forecasts suggests the mean temperature in northwest Europe on New Year’s eve will be nearly 8.5 degrees Celsius above the long-term average. The last time the deviation was this large was exactly a year ago, when Europe also experienced a warm Christmas.
Despite a brief period of colder-than-seasonal temperatures in early December, the 2022-23 winter has been so far rather mild. Considered in heating degree days — a measure of energy demand when compared against mean local temperatures — the region has experienced 809 HDDs since the beginning of October, about 9.5% below the 30-year average, according to Bloomberg data.
If the weather in the next five days proves as warm as the forecasts suggest — including a spring-like New Year’s Day — the cumulative number of HDDs since October would extend their drop to 13% below the long-term average. That’s a massive decrease, which comes on top of further reductions due to companies shutting down production, switching from gas to oil, and households turning down their thermostats in response to energy-saving campaigns.
With demand down, Europe isn’t depleting its gas storages as fast as expected — or feared. Over the last seven days, Germany has managed to inject more gas into storage than it withdrew — unusual during the Christmas season. As a result, the country’s gas stores are 88.8% full, almost 15 percentage points above the 10-year average. The situation is similar across the European Union, where storage levels are at 83.1%, a whooping 30 percentage points higher than at this time in 2021. There should be enough gas left by the end of the heating season in March under almost any scenario. And that means that refilling storages for the 2023-24 will be easier than expected.
The best benchmark for the Europe-vs-Putin gas fight is TTF, the cost of natural gas in a hub in the Netherlands. Earlier this week, TTF prices plunged to less than 80 euros ($85) per megawatt hour, the lowest since Russia invaded Ukraine last February. In August, TTF prices surged to a record high of 350 euros per MWh, and prices briefly spiked to 150 euros per MWh in mid-December during a cold spell.
Aided by lower gas costs, softer demand and stronger wind-power generation, European electricity prices have also plunged. Day-ahead German prices, which soared to 700 euros per MWh in August, plunged on Wednesday to less than 14 euros per MWh. French and British short-term electricity prices fell sharply, too.
Europe has got very lucky this winter. It was unusually mild in October and November, reducing demand at a critical time. Barring 10 very cold days in early December, it has remained warmer-than-seasonal since. But remember: it’s the weather. God knows it could change for the worst. The vagaries of the weather shouldn’t be the basis for planning for the future. Otherwise, everyone, from central bankers to captains of the industry, would have to count on winter being warm again in 2023-24. The gods of weather giveth but the they can also take away.
Can Europe’s Energy Bridge to Russia Ever Be Rebuilt?: Javier Blas
Putin Will Carpet-Bomb Ukraine Unless the West Acts: Ruth Pollard
Russia’s Mass Abductions Are Genocide: Andreas Kluth | 2022-12-30T07:14:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Europe’s Spring Weather Is Putin’s Winter of Discontent - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/europes-spring-weather-is-putins-winter-of-discontent/2022/12/30/521b0744-8807-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/europes-spring-weather-is-putins-winter-of-discontent/2022/12/30/521b0744-8807-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
Is Iran On the Verge of Another Revolution?
What to expect in 2023:Going into the new year, I’ll be keeping my eye on two stories that could dramatically change the geopolitics of the Middle East: the protests in Iran and the general election in Turkey. I’ll focus on the former here, and come back to the latter in a column soon.
The most important question about the Iranian protests is whether they can evolve into a full-blown revolution capable of toppling the Islamic Republic. Some argue that bridge has already been crossed: What began as sporadic demonstrations against the restrictive dress code for women — sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police — has long since evolved into full-throated calls for the downfall of the regime.
Three months after Amini’s death, the protests have lasted longer than any previous expressions of public dissent since the 1979 Islamic revolution that led to the creation of the theocratic state. In the past four decades, the political system installed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini has left Iran isolated in world affairs, debilitated its economy and denied its people both economic opportunities and a political voice.
Unsurprisingly, the mostly young protesters want the entire edifice of that state dismantled. The regime’s heavy-handed crackdown — including mass imprisonment, rape, torture and executions — has not cowed them. If anything, their voices have grown more strident, their demands more insistent. It is the regime that is showing signs of strain: Diverting an aircraft to prevent the family of a famous soccer player from leaving the country, apparently because he is a prominent supporter of the protests, smacks of desperation. Calls for the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei are now routine, as are the destruction of statues and posters of the regime’s heroes, such as the military commander Qassem Soleimani.
Khamenei, having himself played an important part in the events of four decades ago, can hardly have missed the recent parallels. This may explain his vague offer of compromise: The possible suspension of the morality police. Just as in 1979, the protesters have rejected the ruler’s eleventh-hour olive branch.
But to bring him down, the protesters will need to coopt some elements of the state; Khomenei was able to overthrow the Shah of Iran only after large sections of the armed forces mutinied. There have as yet been few signs of disgruntlement within the security apparatus, which is comprised of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, the military, the paramilitary Basij and the police.
But if we’ve learned any thing from the history of revolutions — including Iran’s own — it is that change can come slowly, and then all at once.
From the year behind us:Pakistan’s Floods May Reveal China as a Fair-Weather Friend: Islamabad has tried to switch allegiance from Washington to Beijing, but when it came to the crunch Chinese assistance was conspicuously lacking. For one thing, the government of President Xi Jingping was beset with problems of its own. For another, China simply hasn’t developed the state infrastructure and bureaucratic system to respond quickly to disasters abroad
An Unarmed Putin Wants a Culture War With the West: With his troops suffering humiliating reversals in Ukraine, the Russian president has been trying to rally international opinion behind him by retreading old anti-Western tropes from the Soviet era. But if anything, Moscow had more pomp as a cultural beacon under the USSR than it has soft power with Putin now.
Tunisia’s Democracy Is Collapsing. Biden Shouldn’t Just Stand By: Kais Saied’s consolidation of power has gone unchallenged by Western powers and by an American president who promised to make the promotion of democracy the leitmotif of his foreign policy. It is not too late to undo the damage.
US Should Brace for More Pushback From Erdogan: With Turkey’s economy in tatters and an election looming, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will need every distraction he can engineer. Anti-Western foreign policies are red meat to his base, so the US and Europe should expect more provocations in the months ahead.
An Indian Restaurant’s Rise Mirrors Asheville’s: Chai Pani, which serves Indian street food, is the most outstanding restaurant in the US this year. This is a testimony to both the evolution of American tastes and the rise of small cities like Asheville, NC. | 2022-12-30T07:14:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Is Iran On the Verge of Another Revolution? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/isiran-on-the-verge-of-another-revolution/2022/12/30/0abf5052-8808-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/isiran-on-the-verge-of-another-revolution/2022/12/30/0abf5052-8808-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
How EU Is Withholding Funding to Try to Rein In Hungary, Poland
Analysis by Zoltan Simon | Bloomberg
Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, speaks during a news conference in Budapest, Hungary, on Monday, Oct. 3, 2022. Hungary’s parliament is likely to approve Monday the first of more than a dozen anti-corruption measures that the government has vowed to implement to unlock billions of euros in European Union funds. (Bloomberg)
For years, the European Union failed to muster an effective response as Hungary and Poland challenged the bloc’s democratic norms. In a radical shift, the EU is now wielding its funding in a bid to reverse the erosion of the rule of law in its two wayward members, essentially withholding a combined €138 billion ($147 billion) of financing from them. The two states have taken some steps back toward the fold, though it’s unclear whether they will get in line.
1. What’s the issue with Hungary?
Since returning to power in 2010, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has created what he’s described as an “illiberal” state in which there is little effective oversight of his rule. He’s appointed loyalists to the courts, the chief prosecutor’s office and the media authority; a big parliamentary majority allowed him to single-handedly write a new constitution; and he’s sought to limit the rights of some minorities, including LGBTQ communities. The European Parliament has passed a resolution stating that it no longer considers Hungary a full-fledged democracy. Transparency International, a not-for-profit graft watchdog, rates Hungary as among the most-corrupt of the 27 EU countries.
2. And with Poland?
Poland’s de facto leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has held up Orban as an example as he’s overhauled the nation since 2015. The ruling Law & Justice Party, which Kaczynski heads, is criticized for exercising political influence over the media and judiciary and in particular for a regime of disciplining judges. In 2021, the country’s top court challenged the EU’s legal foundation when it ruled that Poland’s constitution overrides some of the bloc’s laws.
3. Why did initial EU responses fall short?
While countries must adopt stringent democratic criteria to join the world’s largest trading bloc, there are few tools available to deal with errant members once they’re in. When the EU tried to act against Hungary in the past, Orban found a way out — dragging his feet on demands for change, cutting deals that fell short of meaningfully curbing his power, and exploiting shortcomings in the bloc’s charters. The EU’s Article 7 procedure can ultimately lead to the suspension of voting rights for a member that has violated common values. But because its use requires unanimity, pledges by Hungary and Poland to veto such a motion against the other have rendered the article useless.
4. What’s changed?
Criticized by rights advocates and lawmakers in the European Parliament, among others, for bankrolling renegade members while failing to stop their slide away from democracy, the EU has decided to withhold funding — or threaten to do so — in an effort to elicit change. Member states have joined together to do this using a so-called conditionality mechanism, which took effect in 2022 and allows the bloc to freeze funding when it sees its money at risk, including due to suspected graft. The EU used the tool for the first time against Hungary after Orban’s fourth consecutive election victory in April 2022. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, has also frozen funding for alleged violations of the bloc’s Charter of Fundamental Rights, which covers judicial independence and non-discrimination.
5. How much money is at stake for Hungary and Poland?
On Dec. 22, the European Commission effectively froze almost €22 billion of Hungary’s 2021-27 cohesion funding, money set aside for poorer members to promote sustainable development. The reason: Hungary’s failure to comply with the Charter of Fundamental Rights, in particular in the protection of academic freedom, refugees and LGBTQ people. Two weeks earlier, EU member states suspended €6.3 billion in funding because of lingering corruption concerns. The EU also blocked €5.8 billion in grants from Hungary’s Covid recovery fund, pending changes to improve judicial independence in the country. For its part, Poland has seen no money yet from its €35.4 billion Covid recovery program, which includes grants and loans, nor from €75 billion in cohesion funds, which may be held up until the country complies with the EU charter. In addition, Poland is incurring a daily fine of €1 million a day for flouting an EU court order to dissolve a disciplinary chamber for judges, a sum that has grown to more than €400 million. Poland filed a complaint in December aimed at stopping the fines.
6. How important is the money to the two governments?
Very. Like many countries in Europe, both are dealing with cost-of-living crises, with inflation aggravated by the fallout from Russia’s war on Ukraine. Orban already emptied state coffers in early 2022 as he campaigned for re-election. With most EU funds blocked, he’s had to impose sweeping windfall taxes to plug budget holes. Kaczynski’s ruling party needs continued EU funding to maintain generous welfare spending ahead of elections expected in October, with polls showing it may lose power to the opposition.
7. Is the punishment having the desired effect?
Both countries have moved tentatively to try to reconcile their differences with the EU in the hopes of freeing up the cash flow. After almost a third of Polish municipalities declared themselves “free of LGBTQ ideology,” most revoked the resolutions following EU threats to suspend aid payments to local governments over the matter. Poland’s government also moved to reverse some of the most contested elements of its court overhaul. Yet legislation to that effect has been stalled in a dispute among the parties in the governing coalition. In Hungary, the government has passed more than a dozen pieces of anti-corruption legislation and has pledged to meet EU demands on judicial independence by the end of March. At the same time, Orban has downplayed EU concerns about democracy, casting doubt on his commitment to fundamental change.
--With assistance from Piotr Skolimowski and Stephanie Bodoni. | 2022-12-30T08:42:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How EU Is Withholding Funding to Try to Rein In Hungary, Poland - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-eu-is-withholding-funding-to-try-to-rein-in-hungary-poland/2022/12/30/ba3641fc-8818-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-eu-is-withholding-funding-to-try-to-rein-in-hungary-poland/2022/12/30/ba3641fc-8818-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK LINE: Lafayette -1.5; over/under is 121.5
BOTTOM LINE: Lafayette hosts the American Eagles after CJ Fulton scored 20 points in Lafayette’s 90-65 victory over the La Salle Explorers.
The Leopards are 0-2 in home games. Lafayette is 1-6 in games decided by 10 points or more.
TOP PERFORMERS: Leo O’Boyle is shooting 41.7% from beyond the arc with 2.3 made 3-pointers per game for the Leopards, while averaging 12.6 points. Kyle Jenkins is averaging 11.5 points over the last 10 games for Lafayette.
Geoff Sprouse averages 2.1 made 3-pointers per game for the Eagles, scoring 10.6 points while shooting 41.8% from beyond the arc. Matt Rogers is averaging 13.7 points and 5.5 rebounds over the last 10 games for American. | 2022-12-30T08:42:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | American hosts Fulton and Lafayette - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/american-hosts-fulton-and-lafayette/2022/12/30/e5f4664a-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/american-hosts-fulton-and-lafayette/2022/12/30/e5f4664a-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
BOTTOM LINE: Appalachian State plays the Southern Miss Golden Eagles after Tyree Boykin scored 20 points in Appalachian State’s 79-53 loss to the Marshall Thundering Herd.
The Golden Eagles are 7-0 in home games. Southern Miss has a 4-2 record against opponents over .500.
The Mountaineers are 0-1 against Sun Belt opponents. Appalachian State has a 3-2 record in games decided by at least 10 points.
The Golden Eagles and Mountaineers face off Saturday for the first time in conference play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Austin Crowley is shooting 47.1% and averaging 16.2 points for the Golden Eagles. Felipe Haase is averaging 16.1 points over the last 10 games for Southern Miss.
Boykin is shooting 34.1% from beyond the arc with 2.0 made 3-pointers per game for the Mountaineers, while averaging 11.4 points. Donovan Gregory is averaging 10.8 points, 3.4 assists and 1.5 steals over the past 10 games for Appalachian State. | 2022-12-30T08:42:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Appalachian State visits Southern Miss following Boykin's 20-point game - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/appalachian-state-visits-southern-miss-following-boykins-20-point-game/2022/12/30/e9d50148-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/appalachian-state-visits-southern-miss-following-boykins-20-point-game/2022/12/30/e9d50148-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
Ashton-Langford leads Boston College against Syracuse after 21-point game
BOTTOM LINE: Boston College takes on the Syracuse Orange after Makai Ashton-Langford scored 21 points in Boston College’s 70-65 overtime win over the Virginia Tech Hokies.
The Orange have gone 6-3 at home. Syracuse is the top team in the ACC with 36.8 points in the paint led by Jesse Edwards averaging 10.0.
The Eagles are 1-1 against ACC opponents. Boston College ranks eighth in the ACC with 32.2 rebounds per game led by T.J. Bickerstaff averaging 7.0.
The Orange and Eagles meet Saturday for the first time in conference play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Judah Mintz is scoring 15.6 points per game and averaging 2.1 rebounds for the Orange. Joseph Girard III is averaging 2.8 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Syracuse.
Ashton-Langford is scoring 11.5 points per game with 3.4 rebounds and 2.0 assists for the Eagles. Jaeden Zackery is averaging 10.9 points and 3.5 rebounds while shooting 36.9% over the last 10 games for Boston College. | 2022-12-30T08:43:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ashton-Langford leads Boston College against Syracuse after 21-point game - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/ashton-langford-leads-boston-college-against-syracuse-after-21-point-game/2022/12/30/0db96cca-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/ashton-langford-leads-boston-college-against-syracuse-after-21-point-game/2022/12/30/0db96cca-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
Brantley leads La Salle against VCU after 24-point performance
BOTTOM LINE: La Salle visits the VCU Rams after Khalil Brantley scored 24 points in La Salle’s 80-76 win over the Howard Bison.
The Rams have gone 8-1 in home games. VCU scores 68.6 points while outscoring opponents by 5.4 points per game.
The Explorers are 2-2 in road games. La Salle allows 72.7 points to opponents and has been outscored by 4.5 points per game.
TOP PERFORMERS: Adrian Baldwin Jr. is shooting 50.0% from beyond the arc with 1.5 made 3-pointers per game for the Rams, while averaging 12.3 points, 6.6 assists and 2.8 steals. Brandon Johns Jr. is shooting 47.2% and averaging 11.0 points over the past 10 games for VCU.
Hassan Drame is averaging 7.8 points and 5.1 rebounds for the Explorers. Brantley is averaging 11.8 points over the last 10 games for La Salle. | 2022-12-30T08:43:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Brantley leads La Salle against VCU after 24-point performance - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/brantley-leads-la-salle-against-vcu-after-24-point-performance/2022/12/30/496405ce-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/brantley-leads-la-salle-against-vcu-after-24-point-performance/2022/12/30/496405ce-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
Canisius Golden Griffins play the Rider Broncs
BOTTOM LINE: The Rider Broncs and the Canisius Golden Griffins square off in Lewiston, New York.
The Golden Griffins are 2-7 in non-conference play. Canisius is second in the MAAC with 11.4 offensive rebounds per game led by Bryce Okpoh averaging 2.8.
The Broncs are 3-6 in non-conference play. Rider averages 72.1 points while outscoring opponents by 2.7 points per game.
The Golden Griffins and Broncs face off Saturday for the first time in conference play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Jamir Moultrie averages 2.4 made 3-pointers per game for the Golden Griffins, scoring 11.4 points while shooting 41.9% from beyond the arc. Jordan Henderson is averaging 13.5 points over the past 10 games for Canisius.
Mervin James is averaging 12.4 points and 6.6 rebounds for the Broncs. Dwight Murray Jr. is averaging 18.3 points over the last 10 games for Rider. | 2022-12-30T08:43:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Canisius Golden Griffins play the Rider Broncs - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/canisius-golden-griffins-play-the-rider-broncs/2022/12/30/740a8d52-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/canisius-golden-griffins-play-the-rider-broncs/2022/12/30/740a8d52-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
BOTTOM LINE: No. 6 Texas visits the Oklahoma Sooners after Marcus Carr scored 41 points in Texas’ 97-72 win against the Texas A&M-Commerce Lions.
The Sooners are 5-1 on their home court. Oklahoma ranks ninth in the Big 12 with 14.4 assists per game led by Grant Sherfield averaging 3.8.
The Longhorns play their first true road game after going 11-1 with a 2-1 record in neutral-site games to begin the season. Texas ranks third in the Big 12 with 25.3 defensive rebounds per game led by Timmy Allen averaging 4.0.
TOP PERFORMERS: Sherfield is averaging 18 points and 3.8 assists for the Sooners. Tanner Groves is averaging 11.1 points over the last 10 games for Oklahoma.
Carr is shooting 44.6% from beyond the arc with 2.8 made 3-pointers per game for the Longhorns, while averaging 17.8 points, 4.3 assists and 1.8 steals. Tyrese Hunter is averaging 11.3 points and 3.2 assists over the past 10 games for Texas. | 2022-12-30T08:43:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Carr leads No. 6 Texas against Oklahoma - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/carr-leads-no-6-texas-against-oklahoma/2022/12/30/691f5e30-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/carr-leads-no-6-texas-against-oklahoma/2022/12/30/691f5e30-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK LINE: Michigan State -16.5; over/under is 144.5
BOTTOM LINE: Buffalo plays the Michigan State Spartans after Devin Ceaser scored 25 points in Buffalo’s 129-62 win against the SUNY-Canton Kangaroos.
The Spartans have gone 4-1 at home. Michigan State has a 3-2 record in games decided by 10 or more points.
The Bulls have gone 0-2 away from home. Buffalo is second in the MAC with 14.9 assists per game led by Curtis Jones averaging 2.8.
TOP PERFORMERS: Joey Hauser is shooting 48.8% and averaging 14.1 points for the Spartans. Tyson Walker is averaging 1.7 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Michigan State.
Jones is averaging 14.6 points and 1.7 steals for the Bulls. Zid Powell is averaging 11.7 points and 1.6 steals over the past 10 games for Buffalo. | 2022-12-30T08:43:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ceaser leads Buffalo against Michigan State after 25-point game - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/ceaser-leads-buffalo-against-michigan-state-after-25-point-game/2022/12/30/42a10b32-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/ceaser-leads-buffalo-against-michigan-state-after-25-point-game/2022/12/30/42a10b32-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
Coppin State plays Rutgers on 5-game road slide
BOTTOM LINE: Coppin State hits the road against Rutgers looking to end its five-game road skid.
The Scarlet Knights have gone 8-1 in home games. Rutgers ranks sixth in the Big Ten with 14.8 assists per game led by Paul Mulcahy averaging 4.5.
The Eagles are 2-11 on the road. Coppin State ranks sixth in the MEAC scoring 30.8 points per game in the paint led by Sam Sessoms averaging 10.6.
TOP PERFORMERS: Cam Spencer is shooting 39.6% from beyond the arc with 1.8 made 3-pointers per game for the Scarlet Knights, while averaging 12.4 points, 3.4 assists and 2.7 steals. Clifford Omoruyi is averaging 14.6 points, 9.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks over the last 10 games for Rutgers.
Sessoms is averaging 22.9 points, 5.3 assists and 1.8 steals for the Eagles. Nendah Tarke is averaging 12.4 points over the last 10 games for Coppin State. | 2022-12-30T08:44:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Coppin State plays Rutgers on 5-game road slide - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/coppin-state-plays-rutgers-on-5-game-road-slide/2022/12/30/ff660278-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/coppin-state-plays-rutgers-on-5-game-road-slide/2022/12/30/ff660278-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
Daniels and Villanova host Marquette
BOTTOM LINE: Villanova hosts the Marquette Golden Eagles after Caleb Daniels scored 23 points in Villanova’s 74-66 loss to the UConn Huskies.
The Wildcats are 5-0 in home games. Villanova ranks fourth in the Big East at limiting opponent scoring, giving up 67.6 points while holding opponents to 43.0% shooting.
The Golden Eagles are 2-1 in Big East play. Marquette is eighth in the Big East giving up 70.2 points while holding opponents to 43.1% shooting.
The Wildcats and Golden Eagles match up Saturday for the first time in conference play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Daniels is scoring 16.2 points per game with 5.0 rebounds and 3.4 assists for the Wildcats. Eric Dixon is averaging 16.2 points and 6.2 rebounds while shooting 48.8% over the past 10 games for Villanova.
Tyler Kolek is averaging 9.4 points, 7.5 assists and 1.8 steals for the Golden Eagles. Kam Jones is averaging 16.2 points over the last 10 games for Marquette. | 2022-12-30T08:44:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Daniels and Villanova host Marquette - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/daniels-and-villanova-host-marquette/2022/12/30/f4110864-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/daniels-and-villanova-host-marquette/2022/12/30/f4110864-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
Delaware faces Elon after Nelson's 22-point game
BOTTOM LINE: Delaware hosts the Elon Phoenix after Jameer Nelson Jr. scored 22 points in Delaware’s 87-73 loss to the Hofstra Pride.
The Fightin’ Blue Hens are 4-3 in home games. Delaware is third in the CAA scoring 71.6 points while shooting 44.7% from the field.
The Phoenix are 0-1 against conference opponents. Elon has a 1-7 record against opponents over .500.
The Fightin’ Blue Hens and Phoenix meet Saturday for the first time in CAA play this season. | 2022-12-30T08:44:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Delaware faces Elon after Nelson's 22-point game - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/delaware-faces-elon-after-nelsons-22-point-game/2022/12/30/299277b6-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/delaware-faces-elon-after-nelsons-22-point-game/2022/12/30/299277b6-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
George Washington faces Loyola Chicago on 4-game road slide
George Washington Colonials (6-7) at Loyola Chicago Ramblers (6-6)
BOTTOM LINE: George Washington will attempt to stop its four-game road skid when the Colonials visit Loyola Chicago.
The Ramblers have gone 4-1 in home games. Loyola Chicago is eighth in the A-10 in team defense, allowing 67.6 points while holding opponents to 41.9% shooting.
The Colonials are 0-2 on the road. George Washington has a 0-1 record in games decided by less than 4 points.
The Ramblers and Colonials face off Saturday for the first time in A-10 play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Philip Alston is averaging 13.3 points and 5.7 rebounds for the Ramblers. Braden Norris is averaging 2.2 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Loyola Chicago.
James Bishop is averaging 20.5 points and 4.8 assists for the Colonials. Brendan Adams is averaging 16.8 points over the last 10 games for George Washington.
LAST 10 GAMES: Ramblers: 4-6, averaging 65.3 points, 28.9 rebounds, 12.8 assists, 5.3 steals and 2.9 blocks per game while shooting 47.0% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 66.6 points per game. | 2022-12-30T08:44:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | George Washington faces Loyola Chicago on 4-game road slide - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/george-washington-faces-loyola-chicago-on-4-game-road-slide/2022/12/30/888d5994-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/george-washington-faces-loyola-chicago-on-4-game-road-slide/2022/12/30/888d5994-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
BOTTOM LINE: Oakland hosts the Green Bay Phoenix after Blake Lampman scored 20 points in Oakland’s 83-61 victory over the Milwaukee Panthers.
The Golden Grizzlies are 3-2 in home games. Oakland is 2-10 against opponents with a winning record.
The Phoenix are 1-2 against Horizon opponents. Green Bay has a 0-11 record in games decided by at least 10 points.
The Golden Grizzlies and Phoenix face off Saturday for the first time in conference play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Lampman is shooting 34.9% from beyond the arc with 2.7 made 3-pointers per game for the Golden Grizzlies, while averaging 11.8 points and 1.8 steals. Trey Townsend is averaging 17.4 points and 7.4 rebounds over the last 10 games for Oakland.
Zae Blake is averaging 10.5 points for the Phoenix. Cade Meyer is averaging 11.4 points and 3.8 rebounds while shooting 55.3% over the past 10 games for Green Bay. | 2022-12-30T08:44:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Green Bay hosts Lampman and Oakland - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/green-bay-hosts-lampman-and-oakland/2022/12/30/543c3d9e-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/green-bay-hosts-lampman-and-oakland/2022/12/30/543c3d9e-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
UCLA Bruins (11-2, 2-0 Pac-12) at Washington State Cougars (5-8, 0-2 Pac-12)
Pullman, Washington; Friday, 11 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Washington State takes on the No. 11 UCLA Bruins after Mouhamed Gueye scored 22 points in Washington State’s 82-73 loss to the Utah State Aggies.
The Cougars are 3-1 in home games. Washington State averages 12.8 turnovers per game and is 2- when it turns the ball over less than its opponents.
The Bruins are 2-0 against Pac-12 opponents. UCLA has a 10-0 record in games decided by 10 or more points.
The Cougars and Bruins match up Friday for the first time in conference play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: TJ Bamba is averaging 16.8 points for the Cougars. Gueye is averaging 13.5 points over the last 10 games for Washington State.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. is averaging 17 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.8 steals for the Bruins. Jaylen Clark is averaging 14.5 points over the last 10 games for UCLA. | 2022-12-30T08:44:50Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Gueye leads Washington State against No. 11 UCLA after 22-point game - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/gueye-leads-washington-state-against-no-11-ucla-after-22-point-game/2022/12/30/a4a3d892-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/gueye-leads-washington-state-against-no-11-ucla-after-22-point-game/2022/12/30/a4a3d892-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
Holmes and Dayton host Davidson
BOTTOM LINE: Dayton visits the Davidson Wildcats after Daron Holmes scored 22 points in Dayton’s 69-57 victory over the Duquesne Dukes.
The Wildcats have gone 4-2 in home games. Davidson is 0-3 in one-possession games.
The Flyers are 1-0 against A-10 opponents. Dayton is fifth in the A-10 with 25.6 defensive rebounds per game led by Toumani Camara averaging 7.4.
The Wildcats and Flyers square off Saturday for the first time in conference play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Foster Loyer is shooting 37.0% from beyond the arc with 2.6 made 3-pointers per game for the Wildcats, while averaging 17.4 points, 5.4 assists and 2.1 steals. Sam Mennenga is averaging 15.5 points and 7.4 rebounds over the last 10 games for Davidson.
Mustapha Amzil is shooting 37.3% from beyond the arc with 1.6 made 3-pointers per game for the Flyers, while averaging 10.8 points. Holmes is shooting 58.0% and averaging 18.0 points over the past 10 games for Dayton. | 2022-12-30T08:45:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Holmes and Dayton host Davidson - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/holmes-and-dayton-host-davidson/2022/12/30/99e10326-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/holmes-and-dayton-host-davidson/2022/12/30/99e10326-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
House and No. 22 New Mexico host Wyoming
BOTTOM LINE: No. 22 New Mexico takes on the Wyoming Cowboys after Jaelen House scored 26 points in New Mexico’s 88-69 win against the Colorado State Rams.
The Cowboys have gone 4-2 in home games. Wyoming is 2-7 against opponents over .500.
The Lobos are 1-0 against MWC opponents. New Mexico is 10-0 against opponents over .500.
The Cowboys and Lobos face off Saturday for the first time in conference play this season.
House is scoring 17.2 points per game with 3.5 rebounds and 5.3 assists for the Lobos. Jamal Mashburn Jr. is averaging 16.9 points over the last 10 games for New Mexico. | 2022-12-30T08:45:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | House and No. 22 New Mexico host Wyoming - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/house-and-no-22-new-mexico-host-wyoming/2022/12/30/2d40fdba-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/house-and-no-22-new-mexico-host-wyoming/2022/12/30/2d40fdba-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
Johnson leads South Carolina against Eastern Michigan after 25-point performance
Eastern Michigan Eagles (3-9) at South Carolina Gamecocks (6-6)
Columbia, South Carolina; Friday, 7 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: South Carolina faces the Eastern Michigan Eagles after Meechie Johnson Jr. scored 25 points in South Carolina’s 65-58 victory over the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers.
The Gamecocks have gone 5-0 in home games. South Carolina has a 2-4 record in games decided by 10 points or more.
The Eagles are 1-4 on the road. Eastern Michigan is seventh in the MAC scoring 74.9 points per game and is shooting 44.7%.
TOP PERFORMERS: Gregory ‘GG’ Jackson II is averaging 16.6 points and 7.4 rebounds for the Gamecocks. Hayden Brown is averaging 11.8 points over the last 10 games for South Carolina.
Emoni Bates averages 2.7 made 3-pointers per game for the Eagles, scoring 19.4 points while shooting 36.6% from beyond the arc. Noah Farrakhan is shooting 39.9% and averaging 13.6 points over the last 10 games for Eastern Michigan. | 2022-12-30T08:45:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Johnson leads South Carolina against Eastern Michigan after 25-point performance - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/johnson-leads-south-carolina-against-eastern-michigan-after-25-point-performance/2022/12/30/6d322558-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/johnson-leads-south-carolina-against-eastern-michigan-after-25-point-performance/2022/12/30/6d322558-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
Knecht leads Northern Colorado against Idaho State after 22-point performance
BOTTOM LINE: Northern Colorado takes on the Idaho State Bengals after Dalton Knecht scored 22 points in Northern Colorado’s 81-72 loss to the Weber State Wildcats.
The Bengals are 3-3 on their home court. Idaho State is fifth in the Big Sky with 22.7 defensive rebounds per game led by Miguel Tomley averaging 3.8.
The Bears are 0-1 in conference games. Northern Colorado has a 1-2 record in one-possession games.
TOP PERFORMERS: Brock Mackenzie averages 2.5 made 3-pointers per game for the Bengals, scoring 14.0 points while shooting 43.8% from beyond the arc. Tomley is shooting 38.7% and averaging 13.4 points over the last 10 games for Idaho State.
Knecht is averaging 18.2 points and 7.8 rebounds for the Bears. Matt Johnson is averaging 2.5 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Northern Colorado. | 2022-12-30T08:45:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Knecht leads Northern Colorado against Idaho State after 22-point performance - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/knecht-leads-northern-colorado-against-idaho-state-after-22-point-performance/2022/12/30/31241f2a-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/knecht-leads-northern-colorado-against-idaho-state-after-22-point-performance/2022/12/30/31241f2a-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
The Bulldogs are 7-0 in home games. Gonzaga averages 85.1 points and has outscored opponents by 13.6 points per game.
The Waves are 0-4 on the road. Pepperdine is 0-2 in games decided by less than 4 points.
The Bulldogs and Waves face off Saturday for the first time in conference play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Drew Timme is scoring 21.8 points per game with 8.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists for the Bulldogs. Julian Strawther is averaging 12.9 points and 7.7 rebounds over the last 10 games for Gonzaga.
Lewis is scoring 19.4 points per game with 5.9 rebounds and 2.7 assists for the Waves. Houston Mallette is averaging 13.3 points and 3.2 assists over the past 10 games for Pepperdine. | 2022-12-30T08:45:50Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Lewis leads Pepperdine against No. 10 Gonzaga after 23-point game - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/lewis-leads-pepperdine-against-no-10-gonzaga-after-23-point-game/2022/12/30/5f33c9ac-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/lewis-leads-pepperdine-against-no-10-gonzaga-after-23-point-game/2022/12/30/5f33c9ac-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
LIU hosts Sacred Heart following Galette's 23-point outing
BOTTOM LINE: Sacred Heart plays the Long Island Sharks after Nico Galette scored 23 points in Sacred Heart’s 74-67 loss to the Stonehill Skyhawks.
The Sharks have gone 2-2 in home games. LIU is 2-9 against opponents over .500.
The Pioneers are 0-1 against NEC opponents. Sacred Heart ranks fourth in the NEC with 8.1 offensive rebounds per game led by Galette averaging 2.3.
TOP PERFORMERS: Jacob Johnson is averaging 11.6 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals for the Sharks. Marko Maletic is averaging 16.2 points over the last 10 games for LIU.
Raheem Solomon is shooting 34.6% from beyond the arc with 1.8 made 3-pointers per game for the Pioneers, while averaging 12.2 points and 1.5 steals. Galette is shooting 42.4% and averaging 15.9 points over the past 10 games for Sacred Heart. | 2022-12-30T08:45:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | LIU hosts Sacred Heart following Galette's 23-point outing - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/liu-hosts-sacred-heart-following-galettes-23-point-outing/2022/12/30/5b440e64-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/liu-hosts-sacred-heart-following-galettes-23-point-outing/2022/12/30/5b440e64-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK LINE: Houston Baptist -1.5; over/under is 163.5
BOTTOM LINE: Houston Baptist hosts the New Orleans Privateers after Brycen Long scored 21 points in Houston Baptist’s 111-67 loss to the Texas Tech Red Raiders.
The Huskies have gone 3-4 in home games. Houston Baptist allows 85.0 points and has been outscored by 5.8 points per game.
The Privateers have gone 0-5 away from home. New Orleans ranks ninth in the Southland with 19.3 defensive rebounds per game led by Tyson Jackson averaging 3.4.
TOP PERFORMERS: Long averages 3.0 made 3-pointers per game for the Huskies, scoring 15.5 points while shooting 43.3% from beyond the arc. Bonke Maring is shooting 59.7% and averaging 14.5 points over the past 10 games for Houston Baptist.
Jordan Johnson is averaging 15.1 points, 3.7 assists and 1.8 steals for the Privateers. Khaleb Wilson-Rouse is averaging 11.3 points over the last 10 games for New Orleans. | 2022-12-30T08:46:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Long and Houston Baptist host New Orleans - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/long-and-houston-baptist-host-new-orleans/2022/12/30/0a4bebe4-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/long-and-houston-baptist-host-new-orleans/2022/12/30/0a4bebe4-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
Louisiana Tech visits Charlotte after Williams' 31-point performance
BOTTOM LINE: Charlotte hosts the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs after Brice Williams scored 31 points in Charlotte’s 82-67 win over the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders.
The 49ers are 6-0 on their home court. Charlotte ranks sixth in C-USA with 14.7 assists per game led by Aly Khalifa averaging 3.5.
The Bulldogs are 1-1 in C-USA play. Louisiana Tech ranks eighth in C-USA with 23.2 defensive rebounds per game led by Isaiah Crawford averaging 3.6.
The 49ers and Bulldogs square off Saturday for the first time in C-USA play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Williams is averaging 10.6 points for the 49ers. Igor Milicic Jr. is averaging 1.5 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Charlotte.
Crawford is averaging 13.1 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.6 steals for the Bulldogs. Keaston Willis is averaging 2.5 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Louisiana Tech. | 2022-12-30T08:46:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Louisiana Tech visits Charlotte after Williams' 31-point performance - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/louisiana-tech-visits-charlotte-after-williams-31-point-performance/2022/12/30/4d1cb1c4-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/louisiana-tech-visits-charlotte-after-williams-31-point-performance/2022/12/30/4d1cb1c4-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
Louisiana visits Old Dominion following Brown's 25-point game
BOTTOM LINE: Louisiana plays the Old Dominion Monarchs after Jordan Brown scored 25 points in Louisiana’s 77-76 loss to the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers.
The Monarchs have gone 7-1 in home games. Old Dominion is sixth in the Sun Belt in rebounding averaging 35.0 rebounds. Mekhi Long paces the Monarchs with 7.5 boards.
The Ragin’ Cajuns are 0-1 in Sun Belt play. Louisiana ranks second in the Sun Belt with 16.0 assists per game led by Themus Fulks averaging 6.1.
TOP PERFORMERS: Imo Essien is averaging 6.1 points for the Monarchs. Tyreek Scott-Grayson is averaging 13.2 points over the last 10 games for Old Dominion.
Fulks is averaging 8.1 points and 6.1 assists for the Ragin’ Cajuns. Brown is averaging 20.1 points over the last 10 games for Louisiana. | 2022-12-30T08:46:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Louisiana visits Old Dominion following Brown's 25-point game - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/louisiana-visits-old-dominion-following-browns-25-point-game/2022/12/30/69c64426-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/louisiana-visits-old-dominion-following-browns-25-point-game/2022/12/30/69c64426-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
Miles and No. 18 TCU host Texas Tech
BOTTOM LINE: No. 18 TCU hosts the Texas Tech Red Raiders after Mike Miles scored 21 points in TCU’s 103-57 win against the Central Arkansas Sugar Bears.
The Horned Frogs have gone 7-1 at home. TCU is 8-0 in games decided by 10 or more points.
The Red Raiders play their first true road game after going 10-2 with a 2-2 record in neutral-site games to start the season. Texas Tech ranks third in the Big 12 shooting 36.9% from downtown. Daniel Batcho leads the Red Raiders shooting 75% from 3-point range.
The Horned Frogs and Red Raiders match up Saturday for the first time in Big 12 play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Miles is scoring 18.1 points per game with 3.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists for the Horned Frogs. Emanuel Miller is averaging 10.5 points and 4.7 rebounds while shooting 57.6% over the last 10 games for TCU.
Batcho is averaging 13.3 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.6 blocks for the Red Raiders. Pop Isaacs is averaging 2.2 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Texas Tech. | 2022-12-30T08:47:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Miles and No. 18 TCU host Texas Tech - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/miles-and-no-18-tcu-host-texas-tech/2022/12/30/30aadfc0-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/miles-and-no-18-tcu-host-texas-tech/2022/12/30/30aadfc0-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
Montana State puts home win streak on the line against Eastern Washington
Eastern Washington Eagles (7-7, 1-0 Big Sky) at Montana State Bobcats (8-6, 1-0 Big Sky)
BOTTOM LINE: Montana State will try to keep its four-game home win streak intact when the Bobcats take on Eastern Washington.
The Bobcats are 5-0 in home games. Montana State is second in the Big Sky at limiting opponent scoring, giving up 68.3 points while holding opponents to 41.6% shooting.
The Eagles are 1-0 against Big Sky opponents. Eastern Washington ranks second in the Big Sky with 9.3 offensive rebounds per game led by Cedric Coward averaging 1.8.
TOP PERFORMERS: Darius Brown II is averaging 6.2 points and five assists for the Bobcats. Raequan Battle is averaging 16.9 points over the past 10 games for Montana State.
Steele Venters is scoring 14.3 points per game with 2.5 rebounds and 1.1 assists for the Eagles. Angelo Allegri is averaging 11.1 points and 5.1 rebounds while shooting 39.0% over the past 10 games for Eastern Washington. | 2022-12-30T08:47:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Montana State puts home win streak on the line against Eastern Washington - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/montana-state-puts-home-win-streak-on-the-line-against-eastern-washington/2022/12/30/81c14d46-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/montana-state-puts-home-win-streak-on-the-line-against-eastern-washington/2022/12/30/81c14d46-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
BOTTOM LINE: B.J. Omot and the North Dakota Fightin’ Hawks host Grant Nelson and the North Dakota State Bison in Summit play.
The Fightin’ Hawks are 4-3 in home games. North Dakota is 3- when it turns the ball over less than its opponents and averages 13.4 turnovers per game.
The Bison have gone 0-2 against Summit opponents. North Dakota State is fifth in the Summit scoring 70.6 points per game and is shooting 42.9%.
TOP PERFORMERS: Jalun Trent is averaging 5.1 points and 3.1 assists for the Fightin’ Hawks. Omot is averaging 11.4 points over the last 10 games for North Dakota.
Tajavis Miller is shooting 33.3% from beyond the arc with 1.8 made 3-pointers per game for the Bison, while averaging 9.5 points. Nelson is shooting 50.8% and averaging 12.5 points over the last 10 games for North Dakota State. | 2022-12-30T08:48:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Nelson and the North Dakota State Bison visit conference foe North Dakota - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/nelson-and-the-north-dakota-state-bison-visit-conference-foe-north-dakota/2022/12/30/3f166e0e-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/nelson-and-the-north-dakota-state-bison-visit-conference-foe-north-dakota/2022/12/30/3f166e0e-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
Nelson leads Manhattan against Saint Peter's after 22-point showing
BOTTOM LINE: Manhattan takes on the Saint Peter’s Peacocks after Anthony Nelson scored 22 points in Manhattan’s 80-69 victory over the Marist Red Foxes.
The Jaspers are 2-0 in MAAC play. Manhattan is sixth in the MAAC shooting 34.2% from downtown. Aryan Arora leads the Jaspers shooting 100% from 3-point range.
The Peacocks and Jaspers meet Friday for the first time in conference play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Jaylen Murray is shooting 50.0% from beyond the arc with 2.0 made 3-pointers per game for the Peacocks, while averaging 12.6 points and 3.2 assists. Isiah Dasher is averaging 13.5 points over the past 10 games for Saint Peter’s.
Samir Stewart averages 3.7 made 3-pointers per game for the Jaspers, scoring 16.9 points while shooting 41.3% from beyond the arc. Nelson is averaging 14.8 points, 3.8 assists and 2.3 steals over the past 10 games for Manhattan. | 2022-12-30T08:48:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Nelson leads Manhattan against Saint Peter's after 22-point showing - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/nelson-leads-manhattan-against-saint-peters-after-22-point-showing/2022/12/30/a8c698b0-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/nelson-leads-manhattan-against-saint-peters-after-22-point-showing/2022/12/30/a8c698b0-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
No. 22 Xavier hosts No. 2 UConn after Hawkins' 22-point game
BOTTOM LINE: No. 2 UConn visits the No. 22 Xavier Musketeers after Jordan Hawkins scored 22 points in UConn’s 74-66 victory over the Villanova Wildcats.
The Musketeers are 7-1 on their home court. Xavier averages 83.9 points while outscoring opponents by 9.9 points per game.
The Huskies are 3-0 in Big East play. UConn scores 82.9 points and has outscored opponents by 23.8 points per game.
TOP PERFORMERS: Souley Boum is scoring 17.3 points per game and averaging 3.9 rebounds for the Musketeers. Adam Kunkel is averaging 1.6 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Xavier.
Adama Sanogo is scoring 17.8 points per game with 6.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists for the Huskies. Hawkins is averaging 12.8 points over the past 10 games for UConn. | 2022-12-30T08:48:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | No. 22 Xavier hosts No. 2 UConn after Hawkins' 22-point game - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/no-22-xavier-hosts-no-2-uconn-after-hawkins-22-point-game/2022/12/30/49922304-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/no-22-xavier-hosts-no-2-uconn-after-hawkins-22-point-game/2022/12/30/49922304-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
Northern Arizona visits Weber State after Jones' 26-point game
BOTTOM LINE: Weber State hosts the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks after Dillon Jones scored 26 points in Weber State’s 81-72 win over the Northern Colorado Bears.
The Wildcats are 3-1 in home games. Weber State is 4-7 against opponents with a winning record.
The Lumberjacks have gone 0-1 against Big Sky opponents. Northern Arizona is fifth in the Big Sky scoring 73.0 points per game and is shooting 42.3%.
The Wildcats and Lumberjacks meet Saturday for the first time in conference play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Jones is averaging 15.3 points, 9.4 rebounds and 3.7 assists for the Wildcats. Steven Verplancken Jr. is averaging 12.2 points and 1.4 rebounds while shooting 42.4% over the last 10 games for Weber State.
Carson Towt is averaging 8.9 points, 8.2 rebounds and 3.4 assists for the Lumberjacks. Jalen Cole is averaging 17.3 points over the past 10 games for Northern Arizona. | 2022-12-30T08:48:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Northern Arizona visits Weber State after Jones' 26-point game - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/northern-arizona-visits-weber-state-after-jones-26-point-game/2022/12/30/a109e38e-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/northern-arizona-visits-weber-state-after-jones-26-point-game/2022/12/30/a109e38e-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
BOTTOM LINE: Sean Pedulla and the Virginia Tech Hokies visit Tyree Appleby and the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in ACC action Saturday.
The Demon Deacons are 7-0 on their home court. Wake Forest is 3-2 in games decided by 3 points or fewer.
The Hokies are 1-1 against conference opponents. Virginia Tech is 10-2 against opponents over .500.
The Demon Deacons and Hokies square off Saturday for the first time in conference play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Appleby is shooting 50.4% and averaging 18.0 points for the Demon Deacons. Cameron Hildreth is averaging 12.3 points over the last 10 games for Wake Forest.
Pedulla is shooting 48.0% and averaging 17.3 points for the Hokies. Grant Basile is averaging 2.1 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Virginia Tech. | 2022-12-30T08:49:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Pedulla and the Virginia Tech Hokies take on conference foe Wake Forest - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/pedulla-and-the-virginia-tech-hokies-take-on-conference-foe-wake-forest/2022/12/30/65b67d82-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/pedulla-and-the-virginia-tech-hokies-take-on-conference-foe-wake-forest/2022/12/30/65b67d82-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
Perkins and Saint Louis host Saint Joseph's (PA)
BOTTOM LINE: Saint Louis faces the Saint Joseph’s (PA) Hawks after Javonte Perkins scored 23 points in Saint Louis’ 69-67 loss to the SIU-Edwardsville Cougars.
The Hawks are 5-2 in home games. Saint Joseph’s (PA) is 3-4 against opponents over .500.
The Billikens are 0-2 on the road. Saint Louis is the top team in the A-10 with 36.0 points per game in the paint led by Javon Pickett averaging 6.3.
The Hawks and Billikens square off Saturday for the first time in conference play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Erik Reynolds II is averaging 18.6 points and 1.5 steals for the Hawks.
Yuri Collins is averaging 12.7 points and 10.3 assists for the Billikens. | 2022-12-30T08:49:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Perkins and Saint Louis host Saint Joseph's (PA) - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/perkins-and-saint-louis-host-saint-josephs-pa/2022/12/30/9d65196a-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/perkins-and-saint-louis-host-saint-josephs-pa/2022/12/30/9d65196a-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
Rhode Island faces Duquesne following Freeman's 21-point performance
BOTTOM LINE: Rhode Island takes on the Duquesne Dukes after Brayon Freeman scored 21 points in Rhode Island’s 75-66 loss to the Georgia State Panthers.
The Rams are 0-2 on the road. Rhode Island has a 3-8 record against opponents over .500.
TOP PERFORMERS: Dae Dae Grant averages 3.3 made 3-pointers per game for the Dukes, scoring 17.2 points while shooting 43.0% from beyond the arc. Jimmy Clark III is shooting 42.3% and averaging 11.6 points over the last 10 games for Duquesne.
Ishmael Leggett is averaging 16.2 points and 5.8 rebounds for the Rams. Freeman is averaging 12.8 points over the last 10 games for Rhode Island. | 2022-12-30T08:49:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Rhode Island faces Duquesne following Freeman's 21-point performance - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/rhode-island-faces-duquesne-following-freemans-21-point-performance/2022/12/30/afee2130-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/rhode-island-faces-duquesne-following-freemans-21-point-performance/2022/12/30/afee2130-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
Saint Francis (BKN) visits Cent. Conn. St. after Amos' 20-point game
BOTTOM LINE: Cent. Conn. St. hosts the Saint Francis (BKN) Terriers after Kellen Amos scored 20 points in Cent. Conn. St.’s 80-72 loss to the Saint Francis (PA) Red Flash.
The Blue Devils have gone 1-4 at home. Cent. Conn. St. averages 11.7 turnovers per game and is 2- when it has fewer turnovers than its opponents.
The Terriers are 1-5 on the road. Saint Francis (BKN) is second in the NEC with 10.6 offensive rebounds per game led by Max Enger averaging 4.0.
The Blue Devils and Terriers meet Saturday for the first time in NEC play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Amos is averaging 14 points for the Blue Devils. Nigel Scantlebury is averaging 9.9 points over the last 10 games for Cent. Conn. St..
Rob Higgins is averaging 11.5 points and 3.8 assists for the Terriers. Larry Moreno is averaging 10.4 points over the last 10 games for Saint Francis (BKN). | 2022-12-30T08:49:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Saint Francis (BKN) visits Cent. Conn. St. after Amos' 20-point game - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/saint-francis-bkn-visits-cent-conn-st-after-amos-20-point-game/2022/12/30/709f1138-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/saint-francis-bkn-visits-cent-conn-st-after-amos-20-point-game/2022/12/30/709f1138-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
Saxen leads Saint Mary's (CA) against Santa Clara after 20-point game
BOTTOM LINE: Saint Mary’s (CA) plays the Santa Clara Broncos after Mitchell Saxen scored 20 points in Saint Mary’s (CA)’s 85-58 victory over the San Diego Toreros.
The Broncos are 10-1 in home games. Santa Clara ranks sixth in the WCC with 31.4 points per game in the paint led by Brandin Podziemski averaging 7.1.
The Gaels play their first true road game after going 11-4 with a 3-2 record in neutral-site games to start the season. Saint Mary’s (CA) is 0-1 in one-possession games.
TOP PERFORMERS: Keshawn Justice is averaging 12.4 points and 3.3 assists for the Broncos. Podziemski is averaging 18.3 points, 8.4 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.4 steals over the last 10 games for Santa Clara. | 2022-12-30T08:49:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Saxen leads Saint Mary's (CA) against Santa Clara after 20-point game - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/saxen-leads-saint-marys-ca-against-santa-clara-after-20-point-game/2022/12/30/629cf06e-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/saxen-leads-saint-marys-ca-against-santa-clara-after-20-point-game/2022/12/30/629cf06e-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
BOTTOM LINE: Colorado plays the California Golden Bears after KJ Simpson scored 31 points in Colorado’s 73-70 victory over the Stanford Cardinal.
The Golden Bears are 1-8 in home games. Cal allows 65.7 points and has been outscored by 7.7 points per game.
The Buffaloes are 1-2 in Pac-12 play. Colorado averages 76.1 points and has outscored opponents by 6.9 points per game.
Simpson is averaging 18.2 points and 3.7 assists for the Buffaloes. Tristan da Silva is averaging 14.4 points over the last 10 games for Colorado. | 2022-12-30T08:50:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Simpson leads Colorado against Cal after 31-point outing - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/simpson-leads-colorado-against-cal-after-31-point-outing/2022/12/30/e66c0722-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/simpson-leads-colorado-against-cal-after-31-point-outing/2022/12/30/e66c0722-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
Smith and East Tennessee State host VMI
BOTTOM LINE: East Tennessee State visits the VMI Keydets after Justice Smith scored 20 points in East Tennessee State’s 73-71 victory against the Wofford Terriers.
The Keydets have gone 5-0 in home games. VMI is fourth in the SoCon with 9.5 offensive rebounds per game led by Sean Conway averaging 1.9.
The Buccaneers have gone 1-0 against SoCon opponents. East Tennessee State is fifth in the SoCon scoring 33.1 points per game in the paint led by Jalen Haynes averaging 11.0.
The Keydets and Buccaneers meet Saturday for the first time in SoCon play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Conway is averaging 15.2 points and 6.4 rebounds for the Keydets. Asher Woods is averaging 14.7 points over the last 10 games for VMI.
Deanthony Tipler averages 2.5 made 3-pointers per game for the Buccaneers, scoring 12.4 points while shooting 40.0% from beyond the arc. Jordan King is shooting 34.6% and averaging 13.1 points over the last 10 games for East Tennessee State. | 2022-12-30T08:50:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Smith and East Tennessee State host VMI - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/smith-and-east-tennessee-state-host-vmi/2022/12/30/0633bec4-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/smith-and-east-tennessee-state-host-vmi/2022/12/30/0633bec4-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
Southern Utah faces UT Rio Grande Valley following Jones' 20-point showing
The Thunderbirds have gone 5-1 in home games. Southern Utah is third in college basketball with 89.2 points and is shooting 47.7% from the field.
The Vaqueros are 0-1 in WAC play. UT Rio Grande Valley averages 82.8 points while outscoring opponents by 3.9 points per game.
TOP PERFORMERS: Drake Allen is averaging 10 points and 1.5 steals for the Thunderbirds. Jones is averaging 18.4 points and 3.5 rebounds while shooting 40.4% over the past 10 games for Southern Utah.
Justin Johnson is scoring 19.8 points per game with 4.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists for the Vaqueros. Will Johnston is averaging 16.6 points and 3.5 assists over the last 10 games for UT Rio Grande Valley. | 2022-12-30T08:50:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Southern Utah faces UT Rio Grande Valley following Jones' 20-point showing - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/southern-utah-faces-ut-rio-grande-valley-following-jones-20-point-showing/2022/12/30/54a8f5de-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/southern-utah-faces-ut-rio-grande-valley-following-jones-20-point-showing/2022/12/30/54a8f5de-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
Texas A&M hosts Prairie View A&M after Coleman's 24-point game
BOTTOM LINE: Texas A&M faces the Prairie View A&M Panthers after Henry Coleman III scored 24 points in Texas A&M’s 64-52 victory over the Northwestern State Demons.
The Aggies have gone 5-1 in home games. Texas A&M averages 74.8 points while outscoring opponents by 6.0 points per game.
The Panthers are 1-7 on the road. Prairie View A&M allows 73.4 points to opponents while being outscored by 2.9 points per game.
TOP PERFORMERS: Wade Taylor IV is averaging 15.3 points, 3.7 assists and 2.3 steals for the Aggies. Tyrece Radford is averaging 11.7 points and 5.6 rebounds while shooting 36.4% over the past 10 games for Texas A&M.
William Douglas is averaging 15 points and 1.5 steals for the Panthers. Jeremiah Gambrell is averaging 12.3 points over the past 10 games for Prairie View A&M. | 2022-12-30T08:50:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Texas A&M hosts Prairie View A&M after Coleman's 24-point game - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/texas-aandm-hosts-prairie-view-aandm-after-colemans-24-point-game/2022/12/30/f852e35c-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/texas-aandm-hosts-prairie-view-aandm-after-colemans-24-point-game/2022/12/30/f852e35c-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
BOTTOM LINE: Seattle U hosts the Cal Baptist Lancers after Cameron Tyson scored 20 points in Seattle U’s 85-67 win against the George Washington Colonials.
The Redhawks have gone 5-0 in home games. Seattle U is seventh in the WAC with 24.7 defensive rebounds per game led by Tyson averaging 3.6.
The Lancers are 0-1 in WAC play. Cal Baptist is third in the WAC giving up 63.6 points while holding opponents to 42.0% shooting.
TOP PERFORMERS: Brandton Chatfield is averaging 7.7 points and 5.6 rebounds for the Redhawks. Tyson is averaging 17.4 points over the last 10 games for Seattle U.
Taran Armstrong is averaging 11.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 4.7 assists for the Lancers. Joe Quintana is averaging 9.6 points over the past 10 games for Cal Baptist. | 2022-12-30T08:50:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Tyson leads Seattle U against Cal Baptist after 20-point performance - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/tyson-leads-seattle-u-against-cal-baptist-after-20-point-performance/2022/12/30/8bf1f77a-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/tyson-leads-seattle-u-against-cal-baptist-after-20-point-performance/2022/12/30/8bf1f77a-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
UMass puts road win streak on the line against Saint Bonaventure
BOTTOM LINE: UMass will try to keep its five-game road win streak intact when the Minutemen take on Saint Bonaventure.
The Bonnies are 5-1 on their home court. Saint Bonaventure ranks fourth in the A-10 shooting 34.1% from downtown, led by Yann Farell shooting 37.7% from 3-point range.
The Minutemen are 2-0 in road games. UMass is second in the A-10 with 11.1 offensive rebounds per game led by Matt Cross averaging 2.4.
The Bonnies and Minutemen face off Saturday for the first time in A-10 play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Daryl Banks III is averaging 15.6 points for the Bonnies. Farell is averaging 2.0 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Saint Bonaventure.
Cross is averaging 12.1 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals for the Minutemen. T.J. Weeks is averaging 9.6 points over the last 10 games for UMass. | 2022-12-30T08:50:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | UMass puts road win streak on the line against Saint Bonaventure - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/umass-puts-road-win-streak-on-the-line-against-saint-bonaventure/2022/12/30/02d162f4-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/umass-puts-road-win-streak-on-the-line-against-saint-bonaventure/2022/12/30/02d162f4-8817-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
UNLV hosts San Diego State following Bradley's 27-point game
BOTTOM LINE: San Diego State plays the UNLV Rebels after Matt Bradley scored 27 points in San Diego State’s 71-55 victory over the Air Force Falcons.
The Aztecs are 1-0 against conference opponents. San Diego State is seventh in the MWC with 14.0 assists per game led by Darrion Trammell averaging 3.8.
The Rebels and Aztecs meet Saturday for the first time in MWC play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Elijah Harkless is averaging 15.8 points, 3.2 assists and 1.5 steals for the Rebels. Luis Rodriguez is averaging 1.5 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for UNLV.
Trammell is averaging 12.6 points, 3.8 assists and 1.9 steals for the Aztecs. Micah Parrish is averaging 1.5 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for San Diego State. | 2022-12-30T08:50:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | UNLV hosts San Diego State following Bradley's 27-point game - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/unlv-hosts-san-diego-state-following-bradleys-27-point-game/2022/12/30/428d12ae-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/unlv-hosts-san-diego-state-following-bradleys-27-point-game/2022/12/30/428d12ae-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
BOTTOM LINE: UAB plays the UTSA Roadrunners after Jordan Walker scored 25 points in UAB’s 79-73 overtime win over the UTEP Miners.
The Blazers are 9-0 on their home court. UAB leads C-USA averaging 86.3 points and is shooting 47.1%.
The Roadrunners are 0-2 in conference games. UTSA is sixth in C-USA with 23.5 defensive rebounds per game led by Jacob Germany averaging 5.2.
The Blazers and Roadrunners square off Saturday for the first time in C-USA play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Walker is shooting 38.6% from beyond the arc with 4.3 made 3-pointers per game for the Blazers, while averaging 24.6 points, 4.8 assists and 1.5 steals. KJ Buffen is shooting 56.5% and averaging 11.1 points over the last 10 games for UAB.
Japhet Medor is shooting 41.2% and averaging 12.0 points for the Roadrunners. John Buggs III is averaging 2.5 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for UTSA. | 2022-12-30T08:50:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Walker and UAB host UTSA - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/walker-and-uab-host-utsa/2022/12/30/fbfdaec4-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/walker-and-uab-host-utsa/2022/12/30/fbfdaec4-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
Western Kentucky takes on Middle Tennessee on 3-game losing streak
BOTTOM LINE: Western Kentucky aims to stop its three-game slide with a victory over Middle Tennessee.
The Blue Raiders are 4-1 in home games. Middle Tennessee is eighth in C-USA shooting 29.9% from deep, led by Jared Jones shooting 100.0% from 3-point range.
The Hilltoppers are 0-1 in conference play. Western Kentucky ranks ninth in C-USA scoring 31.0 points per game in the paint led by Dayvion McKnight averaging 9.2.
The Blue Raiders and Hilltoppers match up Saturday for the first time in C-USA play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: DeAndre Dishman is scoring 12.7 points per game with 5.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists for the Blue Raiders. Eli Lawrence is averaging 11.1 points and 3.5 rebounds while shooting 43.3% over the past 10 games for Middle Tennessee.
McKnight is averaging 16.6 points, 4.4 assists and 1.8 steals for the Hilltoppers. Emmanuel Akot is averaging 11.9 points over the last 10 games for Western Kentucky. | 2022-12-30T08:51:06Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Western Kentucky takes on Middle Tennessee on 3-game losing streak - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/western-kentucky-takes-on-middle-tennessee-on-3-game-losing-streak/2022/12/30/5bc9684e-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/western-kentucky-takes-on-middle-tennessee-on-3-game-losing-streak/2022/12/30/5bc9684e-8816-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
Ukraine live briefing: Drones target Kyiv after fiercest missile attack in weeks
Firemen attend to a residential building after it was destroyed by a falling missile in a suburb of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Dec. 29. (Ed Ram for The Washington Post)
Air raid sirens were heard in Kyiv early Friday, a day after missile strikes rippled across the country in one of the fiercest Russian attacks in recent weeks. The Kyiv region’s governor, Oleksiy Kuleba, said the same day in a Telegram message that Ukraine’s air defenses had repelled a drone attack.
Engineers raced to restore power to large parts of Ukraine that had suffered blackouts after strikes on energy infrastructure. In Kyiv, 40 percent of the population was affected by outages, the city council said Thursday. Nearly all of Lviv, a city of more than 700,000 before the war, was without electricity, its mayor said, adding that transportation and water supply would also probably be impacted. There were also blackouts in the Odessa region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping virtually on Friday to discuss “the most pressing regional affairs,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Ukraine said that Russia fired 69 missiles and 23 attack drones on Thursday, most of which were intercepted by the country’s air defenses. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said its military intercepted 54 missiles and 11 drones. “Unfortunately, there were several hits,” he said in his nightly address. “And I thank everyone who is working to restore energy supply.”
The conflict in Ukraine is deadlocked, the country’s head of military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, told the BBC. “We can’t defeat [Russia] in all directions comprehensively. Neither can they,” he said. “We’re very much looking forward to new weapons supplies, and to the arrival of more advanced weapons.”
Russia launched air- and sea-based cruise missiles at energy and civil infrastructure facilities across Ukraine on Thursday, the country’s Armed Forces said in a statement. Shelling was reported from the Chernihiv, Sumy and Kharkhiv regions. Many civilian health-care facilities have been taken over by Russia to treat its wounded, particularly in the Luhansk region, the statement said.
Ukraine conducted counteroffensive operations in Kreminna, advancing 1.5 miles the past week, according to Brig. Gen. Oleksiy Hromov, the deputy chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the Ukrainian General Staff. Another official in the Luhansk region claimed that Ukraine hoped to regain control of the city by early 2023.
Ukraine’s security services have placed the mayor of Poltava, a city in central Ukraine, under suspicion for sharing information on troop deployment. The agency said in a statement that the official allegedly had shared data that was not publicly available.
President Biden signed an omnibus bill that will bring “crucial assistance to Ukraine,” he said on Twitter. The bill, signed into law on Thursday, will be used for purposes including “providing emergency assistance for the situation in Ukraine,” the White House said in a statement.
The United Kingdom provided $2.77 million of military aid to Ukraine in 2022, and has committed to the same level of funding in 2023, the Defense Ministry said Friday. The country has helped Ukraine with air defense weapon systems, bomb de-arming kits and antiaircraft guns.
A Russian security official who fled the country will be deported from Kazakhstan, Reuters reported, citing his wife. Maj. Maikhail Zhilin, who objected to the invasion of Ukraine, Russia on Sept. 4.
Belarus summoned the Ukrainian ambassador after a missile from Ukraine strayed into its territory, according to the foreign ministry of Belarus. Such incidents can lead to “catastrophic consequences for everyone,” said Anatoly Glaz, a spokesman for the country’s foreign ministry, which has demanded an inquiry by Kyiv.
Putin, unaccustomed to losing, is increasingly isolated as war falters: A new gulf is emerging between the Russian president and much of the country’s elite, writes Catherine Belton. More than 300 days of brutal war against Ukraine have blown up decades of Russia’s carefully cultivated economic relations with the West, turning the country into a pariah, while Kremlin efforts to replace those ties with closer cooperation with India and China appear to be foundering the longer the war grinds on. | 2022-12-30T08:55:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Russia-Ukraine war latest updates - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/30/russia-ukraine-war-latest-updates/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/30/russia-ukraine-war-latest-updates/ |
Myanmar’s Path From Junta Rule to Democracy and Back
Having reclaimed power in Myanmar after a brief period of limited democracy, the military continued to clamp down on the former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who at 77 years old is set to spend the rest of her life in jail. She and other civilian leaders have been detained since February 2021 following her party’s emphatic victory in general elections that the military disputed, then annulled. The arrests set off street protests that were met with deadly force. In turn, some of the regime’s opponents have taken up arms. The turmoil has devastated the economy of a country that was already struggling with the Covid-19 pandemic.
1. What’s happened with Suu Kyi?
She and Win Myint, who served as president in the last civilian government, were found guilty soon after the coup of inciting dissent against the military and flouting Covid restrictions while campaigning for the November 2020 elections. Since then she’s been convicted in a series of trials on charges including violating the colonial-era Official Secrets Act and corruption, and sentenced to a total of 33 years in prison. Her legal defense team described all the allegations against her as groundless. Election workers appointed by the junta haven’t said clearly whether they will dissolve Suu Kyi’s pro-democracy party, the National League for Democracy (NLD). She has vowed that it will continue its work “for the people.”
2. What came out of the election?
The NLD won 83% of the parliamentary seats at stake in the vote, an even better performance than its 2015 landslide. The election commission and international observers called the vote fair. But the military alleged that the NLD had interfered in the electoral process. At the time of the coup it said it was seizing power for at least one year. Six months later, it set a new deadline for elections — August 2023 — and said army chief Min Aung Hlaing would head a caretaker government in the meantime. In September 2021, the junta dropped the reference to a caretaker government and said it was now a “union government” tasked with carrying out state duties more effectively. A year later it extended the state of emergency until February 2023.
3. How did people react?
Violence flared after the coup as Suu Kyi’s supporters demanded her release and the restoration of the elected government. Soldiers have killed more than 2,300 people, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), a human rights group, which reports that more than 15,600 have been detained. According to the United Nations’ Human Rights Council, ill-treatment and torture have resulted in deaths in detention. Some supporters of the previous government have constituted what they call the National Unity Government, forming armed units known as the People’s Defense Forces; they’ve allied with ethnic insurgent groups that have long battled the military. In 2021, the NUG declared a “people’s defensive war,” urging civilians to rise up against the junta. The tactics of the resistance forces include assassinations, clashes with army troops and attacks using improvised explosive devices. As of mid-2022, the NUG claimed resistance forces had killed more than 8,000 junta soldiers since the coup.
After World War II, Burma, as it was then known, emerged from British colonial rule and plunged directly into civil conflict. Ethnic minorities make up a third of the population of 55 million and occupy half the land, including areas where valuable resources such as jade, gold and teak are found. A deal providing them with greater autonomy fell apart after Suu Kyi’s father, Aung San, who was slated to become the country’s first leader, was gunned down in 1947. A coup led by army chief Ne Win in 1962 started a half-century of military rule, during which the country descended into desperate poverty. Troops viciously suppressed pro-democracy protests in 1988. Two years later the army annulled an election that Suu Kyi’s party had won by a landslide. Under house arrest for much of the next 20 years, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
5. How did she get into government?
The junta began a transition to civilian rule with a new constitution in 2008 that reserved 25% of parliamentary seats for the military — enough to block any amendments to it. Still, Suu Kyi’s party took part in by-elections in 2012 after the government agreed to the release of political prisoners, the freedom to assemble and an opening to foreign investors. Her party then swept to victory in the first full elections in 2015, defeating the ruling party by a margin of nearly 10-to-1. The constitution bars Suu Kyi from serving as president because her children are UK citizens. Thus, in 2016 she became state counselor, a newly created role akin to prime minister, as well as foreign minister.
6. How did the first term go?
Her administration liberalized banking, insurance and education and curbed inflation. But about a third of the population was living in poverty and businesses remained mired in red tape. The military continued to control the defense, home affairs and border affairs ministries. Its forces have been accused by United Nations investigators of practicing “ethnic cleansing” and “crimes against humanity” with “genocidal intent” in driving more than 700,000 Rohingya people over the border to Bangladesh since 2017. (Among Myanmar’s Buddhist majority, prejudice against the Rohingya — Muslims castigated as illegal immigrants and stripped of citizenship — remains fierce and widespread.) Amid the opprobrium, foreign direct investment fell to $2.3 billion in 2019 from $4.7 billion in 2017.
7. Why the coup?
The military operates almost as a state within a state, and its allies still control vast swaths of the economy. The scale of Suu Kyi’s victory may have prompted fears among the generals of new efforts to chip away at their privileges, after their exceptionally poor electoral performance. They turned on her even though she defended them in 2019 at the International Court of Justice against the genocide allegations — increasing her popularity at home at the expense of her international reputation. In its statement on the day of the coup, the military said it was necessary to act in response to alleged voter fraud before the new parliament sessions began later that week.
8. What’s the fallout been?
Western countries responded with new economic sanctions, just five years after many had been lifted, although it’s unclear how much impact they will have. The US extended its sanctions in March 2022, saying the military had committed “atrocities against the people of Burma, including the violent repression of political dissent.” But China, Myanmar’s most important trading partner, has rejected calls at the UN for an arms embargo and has affirmed support for the regime. Japan and India worry that tough measures against the junta only risk increasing China’s influence there. In early 2022 Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen become the first foreign leader to visit the country since the coup. The junta has drawn closer to Russia despite the war in Ukraine — Hlaing has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin “as a leader of the world.” Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore, Myanmar’s biggest foreign investor, has said sanctions would only hurt Myanmar’s people. They seem to be suffering anyway: The economy contracted by 18% last year and the share of people living in poverty likely doubled over the period, according to the World Bank. It said the economy remained weak in 2022 due to high inflation and lingering domestic conflicts.
--With assistance from Nisid Hajari. | 2022-12-30T10:18:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Myanmar’s Path From Junta Rule to Democracy and Back - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/myanmars-path-from-junta-rule-to-democracy-and-back/2022/12/30/8442200c-8822-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/myanmars-path-from-junta-rule-to-democracy-and-back/2022/12/30/8442200c-8822-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
US Bond Performance Shows Fed Isn’t Behind the Curve
Back in March, “the Fed is behind the curve” was the prevailing narrative of too little, too late when it came to containing inflation. The only problem was that the $30 trillion US bond market disagreed. The people who buy and sell Treasury securities around the world were obviously aware of the surging cost of living and bet their fortunes and reputations on the Federal Reserve fulfilling its data-dependent mandate to bring inflation, which peaked at 9.06% in June as measured by the Consumer Price Index from a year earlier, down to the central bank’s target of 2% before spiraling prices became embedded in the economy.
To be sure, US debt of all types violently lost 13% in 2022 as the Fed raised its target interest rate on overnight loans between banks seven times, from 0.25% to 4.50%, in an unprecedented amount of tightening for the 109-year-old central bank in such a short period of time. Even so, US bonds still outperformed the benchmark for fixed-income assets globally as well as related securities issued by the Group of Seven developed economies, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The bond market’s relative confidence in the Fed shows no signs of flagging even with the exogenous economic fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Vladimir Putin’s war against its people. So when the US Labor Department said last week that the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index — the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation — rose at a slower pace in each of the past three months, going from a 0.55% jump in August to a 0.46% rise in September to a 0.26% increase in October and finally to a gain of just 0.17% in November, no one at the central bank suggested ending the historic pace of credit tightening. Chair Jerome Powell made that clear when he said in a press conference earlier this month that wages -- a key driver of inflation -- are growing “well above what would be consistent with 2% inflation.”
J. Bradford DeLong, professor of economics at the University of California at Berkeley, former deputy assistant Treasury Secretary under President Bill Clinton and author of the just-published “Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century,” never was among the crowd of economists scorning the Fed for being behind the curve. On the contrary, in his Dec. 24th Substack essay, DeLong extolled “ A High Five for Team The-Fed-Has-Got-This.”
“The Federal Reserve does not have to move slowly,” he wrote. “The past six months have demonstrated that there are very few downsides to the swift movement in monetary policy that 75 basis-point increases in interest rates every month and a half deliver. And a 75 basis-point increase at an [Federal Open Market Committee] meeting is not a speed limit. This suggests: Take advantage of optionality. When the situation is unclear, pause—and then move fast when the situation becomes clear.”
As persistent as inflation has been, it was 10th-slowest among 34 developed economies in the third quarter, as well as below the average for European countries, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. In the market for US Treasury securities, breakeven rates on five-year notes, which are a measure of what traders expect the rate of inflation to be over the life of the securities, narrowed to 2.17% from a high of 2.56% in April, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Zero-coupon inflation swaps, where one side of the transaction pays a fixed payment calculated on the inflation bet in exchange for the payment based on actual inflation, continue to endorse Powell’s commitment to restore price stability. These trades, which the strategists at Credit Suisse Group consider the most liquid inflation derivatives, show consumer price inflation at 5.9% in the next month, 2.4% in six months and 2.3% within 11 months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The resilience of the economy with unemployment at 3.7% and third-quarter gross domestic product growing at an annualized 3.2% amid unprecedented credit tightening may derive in part from the Fed’s easier policy at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in April 2020 when unemployment climbed to 14.7%, the highest since the closing years of the Great Depression eight decades ago. At the end of 2020, unemployment was still hovering 3.2 percentage points above 2019’s 3.5%, with 2020 inflation 0.6 percentage point below the 1.9% of the prior year. Unemployment was 4.6% in October 2021 when the Fed was pilloried for keeping rates low with inflation at 6.2%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
No major economy rebounded as fast or recovered as much as the US from the pandemic. After the Fed dramatically reversed its easier stance, many pundits incorrectly predicted or declared a recession would occur this year. They continue to make the same forecast in the year ahead. Yet there is no average forecast for a contraction before at least mid-2024, based on the 56 economists contributing quarterly growth estimates to Bloomberg. The same economists who 12 months ago said fourth-quarter GDP growth would be 3.6% before they reduced it to zero in October, revised the final quarter to 0.2% growth in November, with similar upward revisions going forward, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“It’s hard for me to define what recession would look like in 2023 as we sit here today,” Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, the largest in the US, said in an interview last month in his office overlooking a waterfront blissfully free of the supply-chain bottlenecks that bedeviled the economy a year ago. “We feel [higher prices] at the [gas] pump, we feel it at the grocery store. That’s called inflation. That doesn’t necessarily mean recession. The American consumer, which is 70% of our economy, continues to move with the pace that we’ve never witnessed before. July, August, September and now October spending, which was up 1.2%, seems not to be affected by higher prices.”
DeLong, for his part, doesn’t rule out the foreboding consequences of the Fed’s monetary moves in the months ahead. “This plague-ridden business cycle is one of the rare times that I do not envy the members of the FOMC,” he writes. “What they decide to do over the next six months will start to affect the real economy of demand, employment, and production starting one year from now, and start to affect the inflation news starting a year and a half from now. Many things good and bad will happen in the next eighteen months. And whatever the Federal Reserve decides to do, it is sure to regret it afterwards.”
So far, at least, the bond market isn’t signaling any of the things that would put the Fed behind the curve.
• Wall Street Got 2022 Half Right. The Rest Hurt: Jonathan Levin
--With assistance from Shin Pei. | 2022-12-30T10:18:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | US Bond Performance Shows Fed Isn’t Behind the Curve - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/us-bond-performance-shows-fed-isnt-behind-the-curve/2022/12/30/8a1a99da-8829-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/us-bond-performance-shows-fed-isnt-behind-the-curve/2022/12/30/8a1a99da-8829-11ed-b5ac-411280b122ef_story.html |
Panda cub at National Zoo begins process of getting his own place
Xiao Qi Ji, now 2 years old, is exploring a new habitat area with his mama that will someday be his own
Giant panda Xiao Qi Ji, who's now 2 years old, bites down on a piece of sugar cane at the National Zoo. (Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute)
Just like a human toddler, the giant panda cub at the National Zoo is reaching his milestones.
The latest: preparing to one day have his own place.
Xiao Qi Ji, now 2 years old, has begun visiting a new habitat area at the Northwest D.C. zoo where he could someday live on his own, zookeepers said. He has been living with his mother, Mei Xiang, in an enclosure in one part of the panda area; his father, Tian Tian, lives in another nearby. Pandas eventually live solitary lives, experts noted, and so it was time for Xiao Qi Ji to venture out.
National Zoo’s female giant panda has a new ‘miracle’ cub
Xiao Qi Ji is coming “of the age to ‘move’ away from his mother and go live on his own,” Pamela Baker-Masson, a spokeswoman for the zoo, wrote in an email. “He will transition to the new yard,” Baker-Masson said, and keepers will watch the pandas for “cues as to when the ‘separation’ has taken place.”
Xiao Qi Ji went into the new area with his mother and showed “no hesitation” in exploring the space, keepers at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute said in a statement last week.
Keepers watched Xiao Qi Ji’s behavior closely to make sure he wasn’t intimidated and still ate, slept and played comfortably. The young panda left his scent, ran, climbed trees, and checked out the waterfalls, views and new smells.
His mother sat happily nearby, munching on bamboo. Sometimes, Xiao Qi Ji stopped exploring and ate near his mother. Other times, he rested close to her as she ate, or the two played together. Xiao Qi Ji also figured out that he can “interact with his keepers through the glass when they are on their way” to the nearby red panda exhibit, zookeepers said.
Xiao Qi Ji was born in August 2020, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, becoming the first giant panda cub in five years at the D.C. zoo. At the time of his birth, mom Mei Xiang was 22 years old, making her the oldest giant panda to give birth in the United States.
Mei Xiang had previously had pregnancy issues, including five false pregnancies during a five-year period after giving birth in 2005. In 2012, she was artificially inseminated after unsuccessful natural breeding with Tian Tian and became the first giant panda in the country to give birth after the use of frozen semen, experts said. But that 2012 cub died six days later.
Giant pandas came to the zoo 50 years ago and changed D.C. forever
Xiao Qi Ji’s name, Mandarin Chinese for “little miracle,” was chosen in a public naming contest several months after his 2020 birth. The name reflects the “extraordinary circumstances under which he was born” and celebrated “the collaboration between colleagues who strive to conserve this species,” zoo officials said at the time.
China owns and leases all giant pandas in U.S. zoos.
Pandas have long had a big following at the National Zoo, which this year celebrated the 50-year anniversary of the arrival of its first giant pandas. All three of its current giant pandas — Xiao Qi Ji, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian — are set to go to China at the end of 2023.
One of Mei Xiang’s cubs, the wildly popular Tai Shan, was flown to China in 2010, as part of a breeding program. Another, Bei Bei, departed in 2019.
From 2015: D.C.’s favorite panda celebrates 10th birthday in China
As Xiao Qi Ji becomes more acclimated to his new area, keepers said, the zoo will have more flexibility to move all three pandas around.
Keepers said they expect it will take more time in the new space before Xiao Qi Ji finds his favorite spot to hang out in, as giant pandas usually do. For now, experts said Xiao Qi Ji is showing all the normal behaviors of enjoying his new space as he wanders independently from his indoor space to his new outdoor area.
Still, zookeepers said they have no plans to separate Xiao Qi Ji from his mom immediately. In the wild and in zoos, most panda cubs are weaned between 18 months and 2 years of age. | 2022-12-30T10:18:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Panda cub Xiao Qi Ji at National Zoo in DC reaches another milestone - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/30/panda-cub-national-zoo-dc/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/30/panda-cub-national-zoo-dc/ |
BWI advances $425 million expansion of domestic terminal
An overhaul of the domestic terminal and baggage handling facility is the largest investment in the airport’s history
A rendering of the A/B connector area under construction at BWI, which will add concession and food space. (BWI)
Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport is ramping up work on a $425 million overhaul of its domestic terminal and outdated baggage facilities — the largest investment in the airport’s history.
The expansion project aims to improve domestic connections for passengers between concourses A and B while adding new concession space and modern bathroom facilities. It comes as Southwest Airlines, the airport’s main carrier, works on a $135 million maintenance facility at BWI, its first in the Northeast.
“We want people to come to the airport and have a convenient experience. In order to do that, we’ve got to provide more capacity, and that’s what this project is all about,” said BWI chief executive Ricky Smith.
Officials say the next phase of development will ensure that Baltimore remains an attractive choice for Washington-area travelers who have access to three major airports. It also will allow for future growth as the airport works to return to the record passenger traffic it was experiencing before the pandemic. In 2019, with nearly 27 million passengers passing through BWI, it was the busiest airport in the Washington region.
Three years into the pandemic, passenger traffic is still about 15 percent lower, but is outpacing recovery projections, Smith said. Last year, BWI carried 18.9 million passengers.
BWI executive director says airport on a path to recovery amid pandemic
The expansion aims to improve the passenger experience with updated facilities at the concourses used by Southwest, which carries about 70 percent of traffic at the airport. The work includes a two-level, 141,000-square-foot extension and the renovation of about 84,000 square feet. Five new gates will be built.
Passengers will be able to more quickly and easily make connections between concourses A and B, airport officials said. Still, travelers might not see the biggest piece of the project: a new baggage handling system, which will have baggage screening and processing technology to allow luggage to move more quickly.
The existing facility opened in 2005 and was built to serve much smaller aircraft and a lower number of passengers. In the past 15 years, Smith said, Southwest has shifted from jets that carried 137 passengers to bigger aircraft with seating for 175, which meant about a 30 percent increase in passengers, more luggage and capacity challenges.
“That increase of passengers is causing stress on our hold rooms, our restrooms, our concessions, all the facilities or amenities in the airport that passengers experience,” he said. “Without the A/B Connector project, Southwest Airlines could not experience the growth that the market is demanding here, and so we have to provide them the capacity to grow. We want to make sure that that demand continues.”
Site preparation began in January, including demolition work and relocation of utilities. The state Board of Public Works in October approved a $332 million contract to Bethesda-based Clark Construction Group for the expansion and baggage system work. The company recently began to install the concrete foundation that will support the new structure.
The new baggage handling system and connector are expected to be completed in late 2025.
Maryland Transportation Secretary James F. Ports Jr. said at a recent regional transportation panel that the project is “one of the largest capital expenditures” in Maryland and that, along with Southwest’s plans for a maintenance facility, it will create jobs in the state.
Southwest, which has been at the airport for nearly three decades, said it is proceeding with plans to create a repair shop on a 27-acre site where it will host all the parts, tools, equipment and resources necessary to support maintenance needs in the region. The facility will include a hangar to accommodate up to three Boeing 737 aircraft and an apron with space for up to eight jets, along with office and workshop space, the airline said. The project comes with a 30-year lease with BWI, which airport officials said represents the airline’s long-term commitment to the region.
BWI is one of Southwest’s largest hubs and a central base for its crew in the Northeast. The airline employs more than 4,600 people at the airport, where it operates about 186 flights daily to more than 65 destinations.
“We are honored to demonstrate our continued commitment to the airport, and to Maryland, by progressing with plans to build a first-class maintenance hangar to support our Employees and Customers,” Landon Nitschke, Southwest’s senior vice president of technical operations, said in a statement. | 2022-12-30T11:10:38Z | www.washingtonpost.com | BWI airport advances $425 million expansion of domestic terminal - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/12/30/bwi-airport-southwest-expansion/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/12/30/bwi-airport-southwest-expansion/ |
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