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In late February, Fox News host Tucker Carlson openly questioned the legitimacy of Ukraine’s political system, openly dismissing its status as a democracy. (Adriana Usero/The Washington Post)
“You can’t say it enough, Ukraine is not a democracy. … In American terms, you would call Ukraine a tyranny.”
Carlson has been channeling many of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s arguments for invading Ukraine, including that Ukraine is not a democracy. Putin has asserted that the 2014 ouster of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych — what Putin labels a coup d’etat — “did not bring Ukraine any closer to democracy and progress.” He stressed the role of oligarchs and attacks on political opponents and media outlets.
“Ukraine, to be technical, is not a democracy,” Carlson said. “Democracies don’t arrest political opponents, and they don’t shut down opposition media, both of which Ukraine has done. And by the way, Ukraine is a pure client state of the United States State Department — again, that’s fine. We are not mad about that, go ahead and run Ukraine if you want, if you think you can do a better job than Ukrainians. Just don’t tell us it’s a democracy.”
To some extent, whether Ukraine is a democracy is a matter of opinion, so we will not offer a Pinocchio rating. But Carlson — who has expressed admiration for Hungarian President Viktor Orbán and his crackdown on civil liberties — is stacking the deck against Ukraine. It is a fledging democracy, with significant growing pains, largely the result of Russian pressure and interference in its affairs. It is certainly not “a tyranny.”
Ukraine has many aspects of a democracy. The president, who is head of state and commander in chief, is chosen by a popular election. The legislature has a mix of single-seat and proportional representation. The prime minister is chosen through a legislative majority and is head of government. The Supreme Court is appointed by the president upon nomination by the Supreme Council of Justice.
But what’s on paper is not necessarily the same as what happens in practice. Ukraine’s constitution, for instance, guarantees the right to peaceful assembly, but there is no law that specifically provides for freedom of assembly.
Zelensky has been engaged in a bitter political feud with the man he defeated in a landslide 2019 election, Petro Poroshenko. Prosecutors have sought to arrest Poroshenko on charges of treason and supporting terrorism, but a court in January said he could await trial while released on his own recognizance. Poroshenko had been accused of facilitating coal purchases for government enterprises from mines under the control of Moscow-backed insurgents in eastern Ukraine, helping finance the militants. He says the charges are politically motivated.
Freedom House, a nonpartisan think tank that ranks democracies, has labeled Ukraine “a transitional or hybrid regime” in one recent report and “partly free” in a second report.
Hungary, Carlson’s fave, is also listed as a “transitional or hybrid regime” and does not rank much higher than Ukraine. Ukraine’s overall Freedom House score, moreover, is higher than that of Mexico and Indonesia, two countries often labeled democracies. | null | null | null | null | null |
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has announced a new round of sanctions targeting Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, charging that Russia’s Vladimir Putin “chose this war” and his country will bear the consequences. The sanctions target Russian banks, oligarchs, and high-tech sectors. The penalties fall in line with the White House’s insistence that it would look to hit Russia’s financial system and Putin’s inner circle, while also imposing export controls that would aim to starve Russia’s industries and military of U.S. semiconductors and other high-tech products. Biden, for now, is holding off imposing some of the most severe sanctions, including cutting Russia out of the international SWIFT bank payment system.
NEW YORK — Markets shuddered Thursday and then swung wildly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatened to push the high inflation squeezing the global economy even higher. Initially, stocks tumbled as prices surged for oil, wheat and other commodities on worries the conflict would disrupt global supplies. But the moves moderated as the day progressed, particularly after President Joe Biden said he wanted to limit the economic pain for Americans and announced new sanctions that fell short of what some had suggested. The S&P 500 tumbled 2.6% at the start of trading before flipping to a gain of 1.5%.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Treasury Department concluded that more than 80% of the billions of dollars in federal rental assistance during the pandemic went to low-income tenants. It also concluded that the largest percentage of tenants receiving pandemic aid were Black households and that many were led by women. In the fourth quarter of 2021, Treasury found that more than 40% of tenants getting help were Black and 20% Latino while two-thirds were female-headed households. Lawmakers approved $46.5 billion in Emergency Rental Assistance last year. Through 2021, Treasury said over $25 billion has been spent or allocated which represents 3.8 million payments to households.
WASHINGTON — Just what a vulnerable world economy didn’t need — a conflict that accelerates inflation, rattles markets and portends trouble for everyone from European consumers to indebted Chinese developers and families in Africa that are enduring soaring food prices. Russia’s attack on Ukraine and retaliatory sanctions from the West may not portend another global recession. Yet the conflict is threatening to inflict severe economic damage for some countries and industries — damage that could mean hardships for the millions of people. Any escalation of the crisis could derail Europe’s economic recovery by sending already elevated energy prices ever higher.
WASHINGTON — Federal regulators are suing to block UnitedHealth Group’s purchase of the technology company Change Healthcare, a deal announced more than a year ago. The U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday that the proposed deal would hurt competition in markets for health insurance and technology used by insurers to process claims and cut costs. UnitedHealth said in January 2021 that it would spend nearly $8 billion in cash to add the company and boost its ability to provide data analytics and revenue cycle management support, among other offerings. A UnitedHealth spokesman said the company would defend its case vigorously.
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The governors of four Rocky Mountain states say they will cooperate on developing ways to make hydrogen more available and useful as clean-burning fuel for cars, trucks and trains. Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming announced Thursday they’ll plan a “hydrogen hub” to be built somewhere in the region. The project will draw from $8 billion in recently approved federal infrastructure funding for four or more such regional hubs in the U.S. The Western Inter-State Hydrogen Hub will have facilities in all four states under plans to be submitted to the U.S. Department of Energy.
WASHINGTON — The number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits fell to a 52-year low after another decline in jobless aid applications last week. Jobless claims fell by 17,000, from 249,000 to 232,000 for the week ending Feb. 19, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The four-week average for claims, which compensates for weekly volatility, fell by 7,250 to 236,250. In total, 1,476,000 Americans were collecting jobless aid the week that ended Feb. 5, a decrease of about 112,000 from the previous week and the lowest level since March 14, 1970, the government said.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy ended 2021 by expanding at a brisk 7% annual pace from October through December, the government reported in a slight upgrade from its earlier estimate. For all of 2021, the nation’s gross domestic product — its total output of goods and services — jumped by 5.7%, the fastest calendar-year growth since a 7.2% surge in 1984 in the aftermath of a brutal recession. So far this year, though, the outlook for the economy has dimmed considerably in the face of accelerating inflation, higher borrowing rates, anxious financial markets and the likelihood of a serious military conflict caused by Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine. | null | null | null | null | null |
It is still early days in the Ukraine conflict, so it’s too soon to know how many civilians will ultimately be displaced, where they will go and how long it will be before they can safely return to their homes. If they ever can. But recent experiences with Afghan and Syrian refugees show it’s better to start planning for a mass exodus now. | null | null | null | null | null |
A copy of the House version of the budget bill and amendments on a member’s desk during the floor session of the House of Delegates at the State Capitol in Richmond, Va. Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022. (Bob Brown/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)
RICHMOND, Va. — The Republican-controlled Virginia House and Democrat-controlled Senate on Thursday each passed their own budgets, substantially different spending plans that negotiators will meld into compromise legislation in the coming weeks.
At a time when the state’s tax collections are soaring — $13.4 billion in unanticipated revenue is expected to be collected in this budget cycle, according to Youngkin's office — both chambers have agreed to return some of that money taxpayers. But they disagree on how much and in what form the tax relief should come. | null | null | null | null | null |
Russia’s use of cyber weapons could create new dilemmas for NATO, which in 2021 said it would weigh “on a case-by-case basis” whether a cyberattack would trigger its Article 5 collective defense principle, which establishes that an attack against one ally an attack against all allies. The article was invoked for the first time after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, setting the stage for NATO allies to lend the U.S. military support.
The swift spread of NotPetya beyond Ukraine’s borders underscores concerns about the potential global impact what may initially appear to be a targeted attack, according to Warner. | null | null | null | null | null |
Transcript: World Stage: Ukraine with Dame Karen Pierce, British Ambassador to the United States
My guest today, a day when Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded his neighbor, Ukraine, is the voice of the British government in Washington, Ambassador Karen Pierce.
Madam Ambassador, thank you very much for joining us today.
AMB. PIERCE: Thank you, David. Nice to see you.
MR. IGNATIUS: So, Madam Ambassador, you have been meeting today with some of the most senior members of your government, presumably by video, and I want to ask you what your latest information is about what's happening on the ground in Ukraine, the level of casualties, the consequences for both the attackers, the Russians, and the defenders, the Ukrainians. What are your folks reporting from the ground?
AMB. PIERCE: Well, the Russian attack continues. It continues in the northeast and the south of Ukraine. Our information is that there is Ukrainian resistance, quite strong Ukrainian resistance, and the Russian attack may not be moving as quickly as the Russians had hoped.
Much of this is still being assessed at the moment, very hard to get accurate numbers. Casualties, we're not sure of. We know that some people are trying to flee the cities and towns and go west, unsurprisingly. We know there's a lot of fear in Ukraine, but we've also been very struck by the resolve of the Ukrainian people. And Ukrainian forces claim to have shot down some of the Soviet aircraft that have been conducting airstrikes. So, that shows that Ukrainian people are ready to resist.
We understand that in Russia, this is not a universally popular move by President Putin. We watch very carefully what is happening. My prime minister today issued a further statement with more sanctions, and of course, you just had that clip of the president doing likewise.
MR. IGNATIUS: So, Madam Ambassador, there have been attacks from what we see on social media on the airport area outside Kyiv, and there has been speculation that the Russians may be seeking to move into Kyiv, at least with special forces, today. Do you have any information that would confirm that move to take Kyiv?
AMB. PIERCE: I don't have anything that I can share that would confirm it, David, but I think looking at the way the Russian forces are disposed, knowing what we do of what President Putin has said, knowing something about Russian military doctrine, I think those in Kyiv must be prepared for an attack. This is all part of the plan to destabilize Ukraine.
President Putin says he has no plans to occupy Ukraine, but really what has happened so far is dreadful enough. You know, fundamentally, this is an invasion of a sovereign independent country. We would appeal even at this late stage for the Russian action to stop.
MR. IGNATIUS: As I'm sure you saw, President Putin in his declaration of war early this morning, Russian time, spoke of his intention to "denazify" Ukraine. It was a bizarre statement, given that there are no Nazis, to my knowledge, in this government, but it suggested that his goal is to install a new puppet government in Kyiv as quickly as possible. Is that your understanding as well?
AMB. PIERCE: I think it's‑‑I think what you see with the rhetoric from President Putin is, if you like, a grotesque usurpation of the types of things that people have gone to war for in the past, legitimate causes. You know, the Second World War was fought against Nazism, and President Putin is trying to borrow all that vocabulary to give his actions in the Ukraine the legitimacy that they don't have.
Is he trying to install a puppet government? I think that must be one of his options, as you say, based on what he said, but I think if you listen to the speech he made as he was announcing recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk, there's something very visceral about his dislike and hatred even for Ukraine. He wants to see it incorporated into Russia. If you think that this is some 15 years, 2022, some 15 years after his speech that said that the breakup of the Soviet Union was one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th, 21st century, then I think it shows quite how attached he is to bringing Ukraine back under Russian control, one way or another. One way is obviously to install a puppet government.
But I think he misreads the Ukrainian people. Ukrainians are not welcoming Russians with open arms as saviors, and if I can just say, you know, 13 million Russians died in World War II and they died saying that Europe would be safe and secure. I wonder how they would feel if they see what President Putin is doing now, invading a sovereign independent country, and quite frankly taking a leaf out of an earlier leader's book, who we all fought against in the Second World War.
MR. IGNATIUS: You have been following Russia and President Putin for much of your diplomatic career. I'm sure you've noted the increasing focus, almost obsession with Ukraine, in his writings last summer and in the speeches he's given in the last week. What do you think is going on here? Some have speculated that his isolation in the Kremlin during the pandemic, his isolation from other advisors may be a factor. Do you have any thoughts you could share about what prompts this extraordinary focus to the point of invasion with Ukraine?
AMB. PIERCE: I'm not a Russia speaker, David. I'm not a Russia specialist. You'll have many people in your audience much more qualified than me. So, this is merely a personal anecdote.
But I think when President Putin first came to power, people saw him as a strong leader, and they hope that he might be able to deliver some of the new reforms that Russia needed. And if you recall, the West took Russia into the G8 at the time, and however difficult that was, there was a big strategic desire to bring Russia in from the cold. And that continues until 2014 and the invasion of Crimea. Before that, of course, we had the invasion of Georgia.
And I think what we've seen over the past decades has been a hardening of President Putin's dislike of the West, an increase in his desire to compete with the West, and not just compete with the West but to actually overturn Western values. He and Foreign Minister Lavrov are both fond of saying, "It's the end of the West." They actively want to go out and contest the universal values, the values that are in the UN Charter that we all try and live by, and they want to overturn that part of the international order.
Quite why that is, I don't know, but I would say that President Putin started, if you like, with certain geopolitical aims and aims for Russia, and that as we saw gradually with the poisoning recently, in recent years of in Salisbury, the Skripal poisoning, with the assassination in Berlin, and with the poisoning of Mr. Navalny, these tactics have become much less strategic and much more "gangsterism," for want of a better word. And I do wonder why that is, and I think you might‑‑there's something in this isolation that he's been going through because of COVID.
We also know that his inner circle has been shrinking. It's not entirely clear which parts of the Russian state are giving him good advice at the moment or, even if they are, whether or not he's listening to them. There are plenty of anecdotes from history about princes who cut themselves off from their advisors, and I do wonder, but this is my speculation, if this is one of the things that's happening with President Putin.
But it's also true, as we were saying earlier, he does have this visceral sense about where Ukraine fits in to Russia's security. It's not a sense shared by the Ukrainian people or the government that they democratically elected. Ukraine is a very different country from the one whose independence Russia agreed to in 1994.
I do want to stress this. President Putin and Russia themselves have signed to all the things about Ukraine being sovereign and independent and having territorial integrity, and now he's prepared to repudiate that. We do have to keep calling this account, and we do have to keep supporting the Ukrainian people.
MR. IGNATIUS: Madam Ambassador, one really extraordinary feature of this confrontation over the last several months has been the move by the United States and Britain together to release and publicize unprecedented amounts of intelligence information about Russian military plans, about Russian plans to destabilize Ukraine through false‑flag operations, even what was alleged to be a kill list targeting Ukrainians. Could you explain to our viewers what the rationale was for this unusual move by your government and ours and what effect you think it's had, whether it's destabilized the Kremlin's planning? Every time that they are thinking about something, it seems to wind up on the nightly news. Tell us a little bit about this approach, which is so unusual.
AMB. PIERCE: Well, I thin it speaks to the seriousness of what we were faced with, David. I think you're absolutely right. It is an unusual approach. We don't often release intelligence and evidence in this way, to very carefully brief out, but we felt the immediacy of the situation was very important, given the Russian buildup on the Ukrainian borders. And we thought the scale of what might be coming was important enough to justify releasing this information, and we have worked very closely as the UK with the U.S. in collecting the information and evaluating it and then releasing it.
Has it had an effect on Putin? I think we'll never know that. It has certainly brought a number of other countries who are not in Europe, not involved in Euro‑Atlantic security. It has certainly exposed them, I think, to Russian lies and Russian disinformation in a way that they might not otherwise have done, and I think that in turn has led to much more pushback from the international community against what Russia has done. And we saw some of that in the Security Council debate the other day and a few days earlier. So, I think it has had that sort of effect.
Was it right to do it? We think absolutely it was, partly to see if it would work as a deterrent. We'll never know whether it did cause President Putin to change his plans, but also to expose the lengths to which Russia was prepared to go to try and destabilize Ukraine. And that's a fact that needs to be out there and talked about in the international community.
MR. IGNATIUS: Let's talk about the danger that this war that's been launched so devastatingly in Ukraine could spread to NATO countries.
President Biden said today in his comments to reporters at the White House that if Russia uses cyberweapons against the United States, the United States is prepared to retaliate in kind. I want to ask you whether Britain is prepared to do the same thing if its financial institutions or other elements of its infrastructure face a Russian cyberattack.
AMB. PIERCE: Yes, we are, David, and we work very closely, again, as you'd expect, with the administration and the American agencies on this. And we exchange information scenarios and countermeasures, and we discuss all the cyber possibilities in NATO with our wider NATO allies as well. So, the Russians should be in no doubt that they will find NATO allies very well prepared.
Could the conflict spread? I don't think it will spread as a result of the conflict, but we need to be very worried about refugees and the humanitarian situation, but I do think it probably isn't the end of President Putin's designs on Europe, a Europe that was meant to be whole and free. I worry very much about the Balkan countries, where there is already Russian meddling, and I worry about the Baltic countries in this respect. The Balts, of course, are part of NATO, and Article 5 guarantee would apply if Russia tried to attack them. But I think Russian meddling in the Balkans is definitely something we can't afford to take our eye off at the moment.
MR. IGNATIUS: There have been reports for some weeks about skepticism within parts of the Russian military, within parts of the Russian policy apparat about Putin's plans, people asking how is this going to end, expressing some concerns. I want to ask you whether you see any evidence that would confirm that view that there may be some at least small cracks in the Kremlin façade as Putin moves forward so aggressively.
AMB. PIERCE: I think it goes back to the question of who does President Putin have around him. How big is that group of people around him? You know, we saw the staged advice session to President Putin where Foreign Minister Lavrov and others were seen giving their advice. It was staged, I think, for media benefit. Whether or not that advice gets given, whether or not President Putin listens, I think our assessment is he has an increasingly small circle around him. Why the factors do not get brought in to that debate or fully evaluated, he says he has no desire to occupy Ukraine. Well, if he has no desire to occupy Ukraine, why is he there in such large numbers conducting airstrikes, conducting special forces operations, conducting ground operations on such a scale from three directions? That's a big question, and he can't answer it.
So, we do need him, if he really is serious about a way out of this, to halt what he's doing and to deescalate and give Ukraine back to its own people. The Ukrainian people are not painting Russia and President Putin as their saviors, as he has once claimed. Ukrainian people want their country back, and we stand with them.
MR. IGNATIUS: The NATO strategy, as articulated by President Biden and by your prime minister, has been to inflict enough pain on Russia that the unpopularity of this war will force Putin to revise his plans, and I want to ask you what assessment you and your colleagues would make of the state of public opinion in Russia about what Putin has done. Do you think that Russians have concerns that are serious enough or prepared to protest in ways that would actually change Putin's behavior?
AMB. PIERCE: I think that's a very hard question to know because the Russian people, with whom we have no quarrel‑‑the Russian people don't have access to the same information that you and I and all the listeners do. They'll never see this program. They probably will never see all the debate in the Security Council, last night, for example. They probably didn't see President Zelensky's emotional and stirring appeal to the Russian people that he delivered in Russian assuring them that Ukraine was no threat to them. So, they have an imperfect set of evidence on which to base judgments.
Nevertheless, we do believe, based on open sources, that there are very many Russians who oppose what President Putin has done, who do believe that you shouldn't break the UN Charter by using force to cross another country's boundaries, who would like‑‑even if they agree with the general point he's been making about Russian security concerns, they don't want it prosecuted in this way. Of course, there are some hardliners in Russia who absolutely support what President Putin has done. Some of those are the oligarchs around him, and we can talk about sanctions, but that some of those oligarchs, we and the U.S. and our G7 friends have been sanctioning today and before.
But it is hard to see real information getting through to the Russian people, and we know from previous conflicts that when there are body bags, when Russian soldiers are asked to do something unreasonable, when the casualties start coming, the Russian people very sadly are often the last to know, and families are not given proper information about how their sons and daughters died in conflict.
So, I think it will take a while for that to trickle through, but I think if the Russian people could see what we see, then I think there would be a different story in Moscow.
MR. IGNATIUS: Let me ask you about what Britain specifically is doing to try to assist Ukraine and also punish Russia for its actions. Let's start with assisting Ukraine. Your prime minister, Boris Johnson, spoke this week of providing more military aid, more lethal military aid to Ukraine with a new package beyond what Britain has already provided, which has been significant. Could you give us any indication of what this new package might involve?
AMB. PIERCE: Certainly. So, we're looking at further sorts of military defensive equipment. I do want to stress that, if I may, just in case any Russians do manage to see this, if breaks through the cordon. We are only about providing defensive equipment, but we still provide defensive antitank equipment. We will provide communications equipment. We have sent our own armed forces into NATO countries surrounding Ukraine to help bolster security there. We've sent ships, and we've sent our aircraft. And we have trainers in and around the borders of NATO countries bordering Ukraine, and we were training the Ukrainians until very recently when all the Brits left.
We've given a package of over $150 million, partly for humanitarian but partly also to help the Ukrainians build their resilience, build their government structures so that they can resist whatever the Russians are throwing at them.
MR. IGNATIUS: And on the question of economic sanctions, any visitor to London can see the quite lavish displays of Russian oligarch wealth. London has become a destination of choice, and there's been some question as to whether Britain was really prepared to squeeze those oligarchs, their families, go after the properties they own. Help us understand what sanctions have been put in place as of today and how far those will go in going after, punishing, freezing the assets of Putin's inner circle.
AMB. PIERCE: So, I can assure you, David, we take this incredibly seriously, and we are determined to go after illicit financing, including Russian illicit finance. For historical reasons, some of the legislation that we need in order to do that lawfully, we have to put in place. We have had to do that from scratch, but that is now in hand and will be speeded up. The prime minister has been very clear about that.
As far as our own measures go, we have targeted specific oligarchs whose money we know helps Putin fund his defense military operations. We are squeezing that money. We have brought to a halt the special visa scheme that's allowed certain investors to come into the city of London, and we are scrutinizing some of the earlier visas that have been issued.
We have targeted five Russian banks that we also know provides money to Crimea and other parts of the Russian war machine, and we are ready to do more. The prime minister spoke about that in the House of Commons today.
We are looking at what more can be done along with our G7 partners, along with the U.S. and others, and President Biden mentioned this today. We're looking at how we can bring to a halt Russian access to capital markets, and the prime minister and foreign secretary, chancellor has all been very clear that that will be part of our next step. And we are looking at bringing forward legislation to limit and halt dual‑use technology going to the Russians, which might be diverted to their war machine. So, we are working on a sweeping set of sanctions, the like of which Russia has not seen before, but I want to stress that we're doing that with the G7. We're doing that with the Americans.
And, finally, one of the main names of these sanctions, so by no means the only one, is to try and reduce the Western dependency on Russian hydrocarbons. We need to find a way through that. Britain itself is not dependent on Russian energy, but as we know, there are other countries in Europe that are. We very much salute Chancellor Scholz's great decision about Nord Stream 2. That has our full support, and we will be working with Germany and others to find a way through getting Europe less dependent on Russian energy.
MR. IGNATIUS: So, Madam Ambassador, let me go back to the question we discussed at the beginning of our conversation. Putin has been making clear in different ways, for at least 15 years, how seriously he takes the question of NATO's eastward expansion, has often talked about Ukraine. As you look at this story and consider what may be the horrific cost of this war, do you think that there are things that could have been done, that should have been done, that might have averted the catastrophe that we now have in terms of addressing the Russians, in terms of being more insistent about a solution of the Donbas crisis? What do you think?
AMB. PIERCE: I think President Putin has used it for his own ends, to be honest, David. I think he makes these claims about NATO being a threat to Russia, but if he examined them closely‑‑and his own military can tell him‑‑NATO is a defensive alliance. It's no threat to Russia. Even now, even with war in Europe, and the Russians having crossed into a sovereign independent country, even now, NATO is on its own territory. We have not done anything that will threaten Russia, and that is our posture.
Russia has worked with NATO in Bosnia. At one time, not many people know this, Russia used to have a delegation right at the heart of NATO's military headquarters. So, I think that shows that there is a different posture possible had President Putin wanted to take it.
Instead‑‑and I'm sorry to say this‑‑he twists the deals, the agreements that have been made between NATO and Russia in the past to suit his ends. He could use all the mechanisms that exist in Europe around legal agreements, legal ways forward of raising security concerns. There are very many, NATO in the EU, have mechanisms with Russia. There's the Organization for Security and Co‑operation in Europe, where Russia is a full member. There are very many opportunities for Russia to bring forward concerns and have them debated and discussed. Instead, Russia walks away from the NATO‑‑
MR. IGNATIUS: Madam Ambassador, we need to‑‑we need to wrap our conversation here because we've come to the end of our time. This is a wonderful tour of what is a very depressing horizon. I want to thank you for joining us today.
AMB. PIERCE: Thanks very much, David. Thank you.
MR. IGNATIUS: So please join us again on WashingtonPostLive.com for Washington Post Live. We have a lot of programming coming up. Please go to our website at Washington Post Live and register for programs. Thank you very much for joining us today. | null | null | null | null | null |
Grambling State University hired Art Briles as its offensive coordinator, a school spokesperson confirmed Thursday, bringing Briles back into the college coaching ranks for the first time since Baylor fired him for his handling of sexual assault allegations against his players.
At Grambling, a historically Black university in Louisiana that competes in the Football Championship Subdivision, Briles joins the staff of former Cleveland Browns coach Hue Jackson, who took over the program in December. Offensive coordinator Ted White left the Tigers this month to become quarterbacks coach for the NFL’s Houston Texans.
A report by law firm Pepper Hamilton found that “in some cases, the University failed to take action to identify and eliminate a potential hostile environment, prevent its recurrence or address its effects.” The report found that 17 women reported incidents of sexual assault or sexual violence involving 19 football players and that Briles was informed of at least one of them but failed to report it to local authorities, as did other administrators.
Briles denied that he was involved in a coverup at Baylor.
“Let me be clear: I did not cover up any sexual violence,” he wrote in an open letter in 2017. “I had no contact with anyone that claimed to be a victim of sexual or domestic assault. Anyone well-versed in my work as a coach knows that I strove to promote excellence, but never at the sacrifice of safety for anyone.”
Former Grambling star quarterback Doug Williams, who went on to the NFL and led Washington to victory in Super Bowl XXII, claiming MVP honors, said he was disappointed by the hire. Williams, now special adviser to Commanders President Jason Wright, said he spoke to Grambling Athletic Director Trayveon Scott a few times and the program knew where he stood on the hiring.
“I don’t know Art Briles; I’ve never met him in my life,” said Williams, who also had two stints as Grambling’s coach. “But the situation, nobody else would hire him for whatever reason. I don’t know why Grambling State had to go be the one to hire him, so I’m not a fan at all.”
Asked whether he would continue to support the program, Williams said: “Oh, no. I can’t do that. No, no, no. If I support them, I condone it.”
“I’m rooted in fact,” Scott told ESPN on Thursday. “I know a lot of things are said and done. We felt it [was appropriate] to give [Briles] a chance to really redeem himself after understanding where the facts lie.”
In August, the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions said it could not conclude that Baylor violated NCAA rules with its actions regarding the sexual assault allegations, but it put the school on four years of probation for other violations that occurred between 2011 and 2016, including recruiting infractions and impermissible benefits provided to a player.
Briles, 66, compiled a 65-37 record over eight seasons at Baylor and led the program to two Big 12 championships. In 2017, he was almost named an assistant coach for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League before the league stepped in and the team reversed course. Southern Mississippi considered him to be its offensive coordinator in 2019 before school administrators overruled the move after public backlash.
After spending a year coaching in Italy, Briles was hired by Mount Vernon High in Texas, serving as its head coach in 2019 and 2020. At the time of Briles’s hiring, the superintendent of the Mount Vernon Independent School District said he had been vetted, but that process didn’t include speaking to any of the victims at Baylor or to NCAA officials.
Jackson and Briles have some history — Jackson brought Briles in as a guest to help the Browns’ offensive coaching staff in 2016, a few months after he was fired by Baylor. | null | null | null | null | null |
For the fourth straight day, Major League Baseball owners and players met among themselves and with each other with the stated purpose of reaching a new collective bargaining agreement. For the fourth straight day, they left without one — and without any indication that one might even be in reach — and instead pinned hopes for saving an on-time start to the regular season on the possibility that after months and weeks and days, something finally changes Friday.
A few things changed Thursday, at least in terms of the union’s offer. The players association modified its proposal to use draft order to combat tanking by reducing the penalties that small-market teams could incur by losing in back-to-back seasons. The owners, people familiar with their concerns say, worried that losing teams would be penalized for mere ineptitude, rather than intentional tanking.
The union also modified its proposal to fight service-time manipulation, narrowing the pool of players who would qualify for an extra year of service time under a new proposal. The exact parameters of who would qualify remain unclear.
But the outcome, at least as the union calculates it, would be that instead of a proposal under which 29 players would have achieved an extra year of service time over the past five years, only 20 players would qualify. That proposal also includes draft-pick incentives for teams that call up young players when they are ready, with the belief that it would reward teams for pulling those players up and reward those players for performing well enough not to get sent down.
Those moves on the part of the union are moves toward the owners’ established positions. But a person familiar with the league’s thinking expressed frustration Thursday that these proposals were piecemeal, leaving more substantive issues — like, for example, a reduction in revenue sharing or an expansion of the number of two-year players who qualify for arbitration — on the table where the owners have already said they will not agree to them.
The league did not counter those two moves Thursday. In fact, the owners did not respond to them much at all, according to multiple people familiar with the tenor of the negotiations. And even if they had, agreement on a way to ensure good-faith handling of young stars and consensus on the way to determine draft order would hardly qualify as signals that a deal was near — though agreement on even a small issue would, at this point, be more than the sides have been able to manage thus far.
The players believe the threshold should be far higher than it’s ever been, and therefore far higher than the league’s proposal of a more modest increase from $210 million in 2021 to $214 million in 2022. They are also appalled by the league’s attempt to nearly double tax penalties, a move multiple people on the union’s negotiating team say would limit free agent spending so much over the course of a five-year agreement that it would make any other player gains in a new CBA financially irrelevant.
The league, meanwhile, argues that if the union wants to move the tax threshold it should make a proposal to do so. The last time the union offered a change to its preferred threshold was November, when it dropped from $248 million to $245 million.
A person familiar with the union’s thinking said MLB negotiators told them that the threshold would be the last thing to be negotiated, so they haven’t felt a need to propose anything with so many other issues at play. A person familiar with the league’s thinking indicated that MLB does not feel it can agree to compromises on other issues until it gains a more complete perspective of the union’s demands — competitive balance tax included — though traditionally that number has been the last sticking point in CBA negotiations.
So they stare at one another, sliding minor changes across the table, waiting for the other to make a move. MLB has been firm in its insistence that without a deal by Monday, regular season games will be canceled. Both sides have been firm in their insistence that they will continue to show up at Roger Dean Stadium until then, to keep trying. But the results remain negligible, with nothing likely to change until one side finally decides it can afford to blink. | null | null | null | null | null |
The General Assembly now turns its attention to reconciling differences between the rival budget bills before its regular legislative session wraps up March 12. The House of Delegates approved its budget by a vote of 74-25, with all the objections coming from Democrats.
Down the hall, the Senate passed its budget by a vote of 31-9, with Republicans casting all the objections. Finance and Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Janet D. Howell (D-Fairfax) said the plan strikes the right balance between tax relief and spending, including increased funding for K-12 schools and local police, teacher and state employee raises, improved water quality and land preservation.
The amendment died after Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears (R) voted against it to break a 20-20 tie, with most Republicans opposed and most Democrats in favor. | null | null | null | null | null |
“Would this have happened to a white man? Probably not. Everyone on the jury knows that, and you have a jury that has no Black people on it,” T. Anansi Wilson, director of the Center for the Study of Black Life and the Law at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law, said before Thursday’s verdict. When he heard Magnuson’s comment, Wilson said, “I thought, this is another blow to most people of color, and particularly Black folks’, belief in the judicial system.” | null | null | null | null | null |
Parents of Michigan school shooting suspect to stand trial
Parents of shooting suspect to stand trial
The Crumbleys’ attorneys insisted the couple didn’t know their son might plan an attack and didn’t make the gun easy to find in their home.
The Crumbleys remain jailed on $500,000 bond. Last month, Ethan Crumbley’s attorneys filed a notice of an insanity defense. He is lodged alone in a cell in the Oakland County jail’s clinic.
Workers rescued from oil rig fire: A fire aboard a decommissioned offshore oil rig platform in Texas briefly trapped nine shipyard workers Thursday until they were rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter. The fire broke out shortly before 1 p.m. at a shipyard in Sabine Pass, where the Texas-Louisiana border meets the Gulf of Mexico. No workers were injured, and the cause of the fire was being investigated, Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Ryan Dickinson said. | null | null | null | null | null |
But as he confronts what could become Europe’s biggest war since 1945, Biden is also staring at the limits of the American presidency, as all his diplomatic efforts and economic threats were unable to prevent a determined authoritarian from invading a weaker country.
For now, that is largely through a buffet of tough sanctions — and a contention that Ukrainians will resist and rise up against the war coming to their doorstep.
Much of that is now delayed or potentially overshadowed by the Russia-Ukraine war, making the task of pivoting to a new agenda and message in next week’s State of the Union address all the more difficult. The challenge of calming inflation, too, could become trickier amid the uncertainty about the world’s energy supply and other disruptions resulting from war and sanctions. | null | null | null | null | null |
More than 74 million people visited The Washington Post in January 2022
The Washington Post had 74.6 million total digital unique visitors in January 2022, according to Comscore, up four percent over December. Nearly 66 million people visited the site via mobile device, six percent more than the previous month. | null | null | null | null | null |
The 40-acre National Conference Center in Leesburg, Va., will serve as a temporary home for as many as 1,000 Afghans processed there per month before they are moved into permanent homes around the country, including in the Washington region, county Board Chair Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large) said at a town hall meeting Thursday night.
Some Loudoun County residents are nonetheless concerned about living near a large processing site for Afghan evacuees.
Last week, county Sheriff Michael Chapman (R) revealed that the site was under consideration and, after meeting with DHS officials about it, suggested that the presence of the Afghans could pose security concerns while they are housed at the facility, which is a short walk from two schools.
They will arrive from Dulles Airport in buses, about five or six per week, during times of the day when there is no rush-hour traffic, he said. | null | null | null | null | null |
The General Assembly now turns its attention to reconciling differences between the rival budget bills before its regular legislative session wraps up March 12. The House of Delegates approved its budget by a vote of 74 to 25, with all the objections coming from Democrats.
Down the hall, the Senate passed its budget by a vote of 31 to 9, with Republicans casting all the objections. Finance and Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Janet D. Howell (D-Fairfax) said the plan strikes the right balance between tax relief and spending, including increased funding for K-12 schools and local police, teacher and state employee raises, improved water quality and land preservation.
The amendment died after Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears (R) voted against it to break a 20 to 20 tie, with most Republicans opposed and most Democrats in favor. | null | null | null | null | null |
For the fourth straight day, Major League Baseball owners and players met among themselves and with each other with the stated purpose of reaching a new collective bargaining agreement. For the fourth straight day, they left without one — and without any indication that one might even be in reach — and instead pinned hopes for saving an on-time start to the regular season on the possibility that, after months and weeks and days, something finally changes Friday.
A few things changed Thursday, at least in terms of the union’s offer. The players association modified its proposal to use draft order to combat tanking by reducing the penalties that small-market teams could incur by losing in back-to-back seasons. The owners, people familiar with their concerns say, worried that losing teams would be penalized for mere ineptitude rather than intentional tanking.
The union also modified its proposal to fight service-time manipulation, narrowing the pool of players who would qualify for an extra year of service time under a new proposal. The exact parameters remain unclear.
But the outcome, at least as the union calculates it, would be that instead of a proposal under which 29 players over the past five years would achieve an extra year of service time, only 20 players would qualify. That proposal also includes draft-pick incentives for teams that call up young players when they are ready, with the belief that it would reward teams for pulling those players up and reward those players for performing well enough not to get sent down.
Those moves on the part of the union are ones toward the owners’ established positions. But a person familiar with the owners’ thinking expressed frustration Thursday that these proposals were piecemeal, leaving more substantive issues — such as, for example, a reduction in revenue sharing or an expansion of the number of two-year players who qualify for arbitration — on the table where the owners already have said they will not agree to them.
MLB did not counter those two moves Thursday. In fact, the owners did not respond to them much at all, according to multiple people familiar with the tenor of the negotiations. And even if they had, agreement on a way to ensure good-faith handling of young stars and consensus on the way to determine draft order would hardly qualify as signals that a deal was near — though agreement on even a small issue would, at this point, be more than the sides have been able to manage thus far.
The players believe the threshold should be far higher than it has been and therefore far higher than MLB’s proposal of a more modest increase from $210 million in 2021 to $214 million in 2022. They are also appalled by the owners’ attempt to nearly double tax penalties, a move that multiple people on the union’s negotiating team say would limit free agent spending so much over the course of a five-year agreement that it would make any other player gains in a new CBA financially irrelevant.
MLB, meanwhile, argues that if the union wants to move the tax threshold it should make a proposal to do so. The last time the union offered a change to its preferred threshold was November, when it dropped from $248 million to $245 million.
A person familiar with the union’s thinking said MLB negotiators told them that the threshold would be the last thing to be negotiated, so the players haven’t felt a need to propose anything with so many other issues at play. A person familiar with the owners’ thinking indicated that MLB does not feel it can agree to compromises on other issues until it gains a more complete perspective of the union’s demands — competitive balance tax included — though traditionally that number has been the last sticking point in CBA negotiations.
So they stare at one another, sliding minor changes across the table, waiting for each other to make a move. MLB has been firm in its insistence that without a deal by Monday, regular season games will be canceled. Both sides have been firm in their insistence that they will continue to show up at Roger Dean Stadium until then, to keep trying. But the results remain negligible, with nothing likely to change until one side finally decides it can afford to blink. | null | null | null | null | null |
Novak Djokovic’s reign as the No. 1 player is coming to an end. (Ebrahim Noroozi/AP)
Jiri Vesely, a tournament qualifier from the Czech Republic, beat Djokovic, 6-4 7-6 (7-4), in the Dubai Tennis Championships. Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, who lost to Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open final, will be the No. 1 player when the Association of Tennis Professionals releases its new rankings next week.
“It’s great for tennis, I think, to have somebody new at world number one again,” Vesely said. “Tennis needs, of course, new number ones. A new generation is coming through. I think it’s just great.”
The 26-year-old Medvedev, the 2021 U.S. Open winner who also was the Australian Open runner-up in 2021, will become the 27th man to reach No. 1 and the first other than Djokovic, Nadal, Roger Federer or Andy Murray since Feb. 1, 2004. Djokovic, who has been No. 1 since Feb. 3, 2020, has spent 361 weeks atop the rankings in his career, the most among men’s players since the computerized rankings began in 1973.
Djokovic remains unvaccinated and has no plans to change that, he has said. He spoke this week about next month’s tournament in Indian Wells, Calif.
“I was never against vaccination,” he said. “I understand that, globally, everyone is trying to put a big effort into handling this virus. … But I’ve always represented and always supported the freedom to choose what you put into your body, and for me that is essential.”
It’s a belief that has come at a cost. Nadal’s victory in Australia broke what had been a tie with Djokovic and Federer for the most Grand Slam men’s singles championships, and Djokovic is prepared to miss other Grand Slam events if vaccination requirements force him to do so. | null | null | null | null | null |
FILE - Sally Kellerman arrives at the premiere of “The Danish Girl” at Regency Village Theatre on Saturday, Nov. 21, 2015, in Los Angeles. Kellerman, the Oscar-nominated actor who played “Hot Lips” Houlihan in director Robert Altman’s 1970 army comedy “MASH,” died Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022, at age 84. Kellerman died of heart failure at her home in the Woodland Hills section of Los Angeles, her manager and publicist Alan Eichler said. (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File) | null | null | null | null | null |
Putin’s actions seem at cross-purposes with his goals. He says he wants to keep Ukraine out of NATO, and NATO out of Ukraine; although Ukraine is no closer to joining the alliance than it was, the Russian president has galvanized the West into opposing Russia and supporting Kyiv. He says he wants to bolster Russian security, but he has dragged his nation into a war that no one but Putin seems itching to fight. Many analysts believe that Putin wants a veto over Ukrainian foreign and domestic policy, but tearing up the Minsk Agreement, which had kept a fragile peace in eastern Ukraine since 2015 — and which would have increased the clout of the breakaway regions — deprived him of exactly that veto. And while the sanctions announced by the United States, the European Union, Britain, Canada and Japan may not bring his regime crashing down soon, they will certainly make Russians poorer and unhappier.
Put bluntly, what Putin did makes little sense to most Western policy analysts and security officials, even though it presumably makes sense to Putin. That the benefits in Russia’s cost-benefit calculations are evident only to its president presents a problem both for understanding the current situation and predicting Putin’s next move. To solve this puzzle, it’s helpful to take the Ukraine crisis out of the realm of foreign policy and put it into the world in which Putin spends most of his time: that of Russian domestic politics. Viewed in that light, the war represents a continuation of Putin’s efforts to govern by presenting himself as the only leader who can successfully oppose malign external forces bent on the destruction of Russia.
While we’re used to thinking of Putin as an autocrat, and he does wield an extraordinary amount of power, the moniker can mislead in some ways. He still has to deal with business executives, politicians, bureaucrats and security officials — including those who wantonly steal from the state — as well as a public whose mistrust has fatally undermined his attempts to get the coronavirus pandemic under control. Worse, neither the elite nor the general public has any real faith in Putin’s ability to reverse nearly eight years of economic decline.
To maintain and consolidate his power in the face of such challenges, Putin has spent much of the last decade restructuring Russian politics around the idea that the nation faces existential threats from outside its borders — aided by traitors within. That framing tars all domestic opposition as tools of foreign powers and justifies the evisceration of independent media, civil society and political parties besides his own; it calls on ordinary Russians to make seemingly endless sacrifices for the greater good. Putin appears to have hit upon the idea that anyone who opposes his rule is a puppet of foreign interests when he saw public protest upend Georgian and Ukrainian politics from 2003 to 2005; he concluded (cynically or sincerely) that such unrest could not possibly be authentic. He made that theme central to his reelection campaign in 2012, and he has run with it ever since. He has used restrictive laws against “foreign agents” and “undesirable” organizations to hound and imprison hundreds of journalists, activists and opposition politicians.
When we see his pursuit of domestic control and his foreign policy as part of the same strategy — each catalyzing the other — what Putin has done in recent days begins to make more sense. From the standpoint of domestic politics, he doesn’t necessarily need an end to NATO expansion, or the ability to interfere directly in Ukrainian politics, though he would be happy to achieve these goals. What he does need is a geopolitical confrontation sufficient in scale to justify his domestic repression and, ideally, with no end in sight.
Surprisingly large protests (“solo pickets,” as the Moscow Times puts it, are the only lawful form of protest in Russia) have appeared on the streets of Russian cities. These are likely to be easily suppressed — the Russian nongovernmental organization OVD-Info reported that more than 1,700 people were arrested on Thursday — but unease is mounting. The Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers, a grass-roots group that emerged to oppose Russia’s destructive war in Chechnya in the 1990s, has publicized harrowing pictures of the poor conditions in which soldiers are being housed and fed along the border with Ukraine and launched a video campaign against the war. Any combat deaths on the Russian side are likely to feed this nascent movement. | null | null | null | null | null |
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Naz Hillmon had 28 points and eight rebounds in her final home game, lifting No. 6 Michigan to a 62-51 win over Michigan State on Thursday night to earn at least a share of the Big Ten women’s basketball title for the first time in school history. | null | null | null | null | null |
FILE - Miami Dolphin defenders Vern Den Herder and Norris Thomas (41) go after Houston Oilers wide receiver Ken Burrough (00) during the first half of an NFL football game Dec. 24, 1978, in Miami. Burrough, who was the last NFL player to wear No. 00, died Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022. He was 73. Burrough’s family announced the death, saying died at his home in Jacksonville, Fla. (AP Photo, File) (Uncredited/AP) | null | null | null | null | null |
In the crowded Senate contest in Ohio, J.D. Vance, a self-styled populist who rose to prominence with the publication of his 2016 “Hillbilly Elegy,” said this week, “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other.” In a second Thursday statement, he said, “Russia’s assault on Ukraine is unquestionably a tragedy.” But he also claimed that demands for a response are thinly veiled calls for military intervention, which he rejected.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, seen by Republican strategists as a formidable 2024 contender even if Trump runs again, did not mention the Russian invasion during a speech Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference. His spokeswoman weighed in on Twitter earlier in the week, observing that the “USA is in no position to ‘promote democracy’ abroad while our own country is falling apart.” | null | null | null | null | null |
The New York Rangers punctured that belief Thursday, dominating their Metropolitan Division rivals in a 4-1 loss at Madison Square Garden. The only bright spot for the visitors came from Alex Ovechkin, whose goal in the closing minutes prevented the shutout.
The Capitals (28-16-9) failed make the most of a multitude of chances in front of the Russian — save for Ovechkin’s one-time tip-in with 1:02 remaining for his 32nd goal — and their special teams whiffed on all four of their chances.
Mika Zibanejad gave the Rangers (33-13-5) a 1-0 lead with seven minutes left in the first period, ripping a one-timer just above the right circle past Samsonov. Alexis Lafreniere redirected a point shot past Samsonov for a 2-0 Rangers lead late in the second.
Despite the loss, the Capitals are inching back to full health. T.J. Oshie and Justin Schultz both played after missing time with upper-body injuries. For Oshie, it marked his first ice time since Jan. 15. Schultz was injured last week against Nashville.
Here is what to know from the game against the Rangers:
Ovechkin’s wife and children, who usually reside with him in Virginia, are currently visiting family in Moscow. Ovechkin’s mother and father also live in Russia.
Ovechkin was booed when he stepped on the ice for his first shift on Thursday.
That game, the Rangers’ ill will was focused on Tom Wilson. Wilson was the target of boos again Thursday, but there was no extracurriculars on the ice.
Samsonov’s start in net marked his career-high fifth straight. The 25-year-old has been thrust into the No. 1 role for the Capitals with Vitek Vanecek still on injured reserve with an upper-body injury.
The Capitals not only failed to convert on their four chances but also allowed the Rangers multiple shorthanded looks. Washington made a slight change in its third power play chance, with Justin Schultz replacing John Carlson on the first power-play unit. Carlson was bumped to the second unit. | null | null | null | null | null |
“We played good from start to finish,” Lafrenière said. “It was a really good game against a really good team. ... They’re having a really good year, too, so it was a good test for us and we responded like that.”
“I thought we had a lot of chances,” Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. “Some of them were good looks, chances that you want to get, redirects, partial breakaways, shots right through the slot ... we just couldn’t beat him (Shesterkin), not tonight.” | null | null | null | null | null |
The New York Rangers punctured that belief Thursday, dominating their Metropolitan Division rivals in the Capitals’ 4-1 loss at Madison Square Garden. The only bright spot for the visitors came from Alex Ovechkin, whose goal in the closing minutes prevented the shutout.
The Capitals (28-16-9) failed to make the most of a multitude of chances in front of the Russian — save for Ovechkin’s one-time tip-in with 1:02 remaining for his 32nd goal — and their special teams whiffed on all four of their chances.
Mika Zibanejad gave the Rangers (33-13-5) a 1-0 lead with seven minutes left in the first period, ripping a one-timer from just above the right circle past Samsonov. Alexis Lafreniere redirected a point shot past Samsonov for a 2-0 Rangers lead late in the second.
Despite the loss, the Capitals are inching back to full health. T.J. Oshie and Justin Schultz both played after missing time with upper-body injuries. For Oshie, it was his first ice time since Jan. 15. Schultz was injured last week against Nashville.
Ovechkin’s wife and children, who usually reside with him in Virginia, are visiting family in Moscow. Ovechkin’s mother and father also live in Russia.
Ovechkin was booed when he stepped on the ice for his first shift Thursday.
That game, the Rangers’ ill will was focused on Tom Wilson. Wilson was the target of boos again Thursday, but there were no extracurriculars on the ice.
Samsonov’s start in net was his career-high fifth straight. The 25-year-old has been thrust into the No. 1 role for the Capitals with Vitek Vanecek still on injured reserve with an upper-body injury.
The Capitals not only failed to convert on their four chances but also allowed the Rangers multiple shorthanded looks. Washington made a slight change in its third power-play chance, with Justin Schultz replacing John Carlson on the first power-play unit. Carlson was bumped to the second unit. | null | null | null | null | null |
American hosts Loyola (MD) following Jones' 20-point outing
BOTTOM LINE: Loyola (MD) faces the American Eagles after Kenny Jones scored 20 points in Loyola (MD)’s 52-50 loss to the Navy Midshipmen.
The Eagles are 5-5 in home games. American gives up 71.8 points and has been outscored by 8.6 points per game.
The Greyhounds are 8-9 against Patriot opponents. Loyola (MD) is 7-5 in games decided by 10 or more points.
The teams play for the 10th time in conference play this season. The Greyhounds won the last matchup 78-73 on Jan. 22. Cam Spencer scored 25 points to help lead the Greyhounds to the victory.
TOP PERFORMERS: Johnny O’Neil averages 1.4 made 3-pointers per game for the Eagles, scoring 8.2 points while shooting 35.0% from beyond the arc. Stacy Beckton Jr. is shooting 42.6% and averaging 10.7 points over the past 10 games for American.
Spencer is averaging 18.5 points, 3.3 assists and 2.3 steals for the Greyhounds. Jaylin Andrews is averaging 10.1 points over the last 10 games for Loyola (MD). | null | null | null | null | null |
BOTTOM LINE: Army visits the Holy Cross Crusaders after Jalen Rucker scored 21 points in Army’s 73-60 victory over the Bucknell Bison.
The Crusaders are 5-7 on their home court. Holy Cross averages 11.9 turnovers per game and is 6-7 when it turns the ball over less than its opponents.
The Black Knights are 8-9 against Patriot opponents. Army is sixth in the Patriot with 13.0 assists per game led by Aaron Duhart averaging 3.5.
The teams play for the second time in conference play this season. The Crusaders won the last meeting 69-65 on Feb. 5. Gerrale Gates scored 23 points points to help lead the Crusaders to the win.
TOP PERFORMERS: Gates is averaging 16.1 points and 8.5 rebounds for the Crusaders. Kyrell Luc is averaging 11.0 points over the last 10 games for Holy Cross.
Duhart is averaging 6.9 points and 3.5 assists for the Black Knights. Rucker is averaging 13.4 points over the last 10 games for Army. | null | null | null | null | null |
BOTTOM LINE: Dayton looks to keep its five-game win streak alive when the Flyers take on La Salle.
The Explorers have gone 6-8 in home games. La Salle gives up 73.4 points and has been outscored by 4.8 points per game.
The Flyers are 12-3 in A-10 play. Dayton ranks seventh in the A-10 with 13.9 assists per game led by Malachi Smith averaging 5.3.
The Explorers and Flyers square off Saturday for the first time in conference play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Christian Ray is averaging 4.8 points and 6.9 rebounds for the Explorers. Clifton Moore is averaging 10.7 points over the last 10 games for La Salle.
Daron Holmes is scoring 11.4 points per game with 5.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists for the Flyers. Toumani Camara is averaging 8.1 points over the last 10 games for Dayton. | null | null | null | null | null |
Furman visits Citadel following Moffe's 24-point game
BOTTOM LINE: Citadel takes on the Furman Paladins after Tyler Moffe scored 24 points in Citadel’s 71-67 win against the Mercer Bears.
The Bulldogs have gone 7-7 in home games. Citadel is 2-2 in games decided by 3 points or fewer.
The Paladins are 11-6 against SoCon opponents. Furman averages 77.7 points and has outscored opponents by 8.4 points per game.
TOP PERFORMERS: Hayden Brown is averaging 18.6 points and 9.1 rebounds for the Bulldogs. Moffe is averaging 12.1 points and 4.1 assists over the last 10 games for Citadel.
Alex Hunter is shooting 41.4% from beyond the arc with 3.3 made 3-pointers per game for the Paladins, while averaging 13.4 points. Slawson is shooting 47.6% and averaging 12.1 points over the past 10 games for Furman. | null | null | null | null | null |
Iowa State visits Kansas State following Brockington's 35-point outing
BOTTOM LINE: Iowa State faces the Kansas State Wildcats after Izaiah Brockington scored 35 points in Iowa State’s 84-81 win over the West Virginia Mountaineers.
The Wildcats have gone 9-5 in home games. Kansas State is eighth in the Big 12 with 8.0 offensive rebounds per game led by Mark Smith averaging 1.9.
The Cyclones are 6-9 in conference matchups. Iowa State is 3-1 in games decided by 3 points or fewer.
The teams square off for the 17th time in conference play this season. The Wildcats won the last meeting 75-69 on Feb. 12. Nijel Pack scored 19 points points to help lead the Wildcats to the win.
TOP PERFORMERS: Pack is shooting 42.9% from beyond the arc with 3.2 made 3-pointers per game for the Wildcats, while averaging 17.3 points. Smith is shooting 38.4% and averaging 8.9 points over the last 10 games for Kansas State.
Caleb Grill is shooting 36.4% from beyond the arc with 1.6 made 3-pointers per game for the Cyclones, while averaging 6.4 points. Brockington is shooting 49.4% and averaging 13.2 points over the past 10 games for Iowa State. | null | null | null | null | null |
Jacksonville State hosts North Alabama following Ortiz's 31-point showing
BOTTOM LINE: North Alabama visits the Jacksonville State Gamecocks after Daniel Ortiz scored 31 points in North Alabama’s 81-72 loss to the Central Arkansas Sugar Bears.
The Gamecocks are 9-3 in home games. Jacksonville State is third in the ASUN scoring 74.8 points while shooting 46.9% from the field.
The Lions are 2-13 in conference games. North Alabama ranks second in the ASUN with 9.8 offensive rebounds per game led by Damien Forrest averaging 2.0.
The teams meet for the second time in conference play this season. The Gamecocks won 65-55 in the last matchup on Jan. 9. Darian Adams led the Gamecocks with 18 points, and Ortiz led the Lions with 20 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Demaree King is shooting 47.2% from beyond the arc with 2.8 made 3-pointers per game for the Gamecocks, while averaging 11.2 points. Adams is shooting 41.5% and averaging 17.4 points over the past 10 games for Jacksonville State.
Ortiz is averaging 13.4 points for the Lions. C.J. Brim is averaging 11.1 points over the last 10 games for North Alabama. | null | null | null | null | null |
Liberty hosts Kennesaw State following McGhee's 28-point game
BOTTOM LINE: Liberty takes on the Kennesaw State Owls after Darius McGhee scored 28 points in Liberty’s 82-72 overtime loss to the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles.
The Flames are 11-2 on their home court. Liberty averages 11.3 turnovers per game and is 7-6 when it wins the turnover battle.
The Owls are 7-8 in ASUN play. Kennesaw State is sixth in the ASUN giving up 69.8 points while holding opponents to 43.9% shooting.
The teams square off for the second time this season in ASUN play. The Flames won the last meeting 65-50 on Feb. 1. McGhee scored 16 points points to help lead the Flames to the victory.
TOP PERFORMERS: McGhee is scoring 23.9 points per game and averaging 4.4 rebounds for the Flames. Keegan McDowell is averaging 2.6 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Liberty.
Chris Youngblood is scoring 13.7 points per game with 5.5 rebounds and 1.1 assists for the Owls. Terrell Burden is averaging 10.5 points and 4.5 assists over the past 10 games for Kennesaw State. | null | null | null | null | null |
Marquette hosts Butler after Hodges' 25-point outing
BOTTOM LINE: Butler takes on the Marquette Golden Eagles after Bo Hodges scored 25 points in Butler’s 66-60 loss to the Seton Hall Pirates.
The Golden Eagles have gone 11-3 at home. Marquette averages 74.6 points while outscoring opponents by 4.3 points per game.
The Bulldogs are 6-12 in Big East play. Butler ranks ninth in the Big East shooting 31.9% from 3-point range.
The teams play for the 10th time in conference play this season. The Bulldogs won the last matchup 85-79 on Feb. 12. Bryce Golden scored 22 points to help lead the Bulldogs to the win.
TOP PERFORMERS: Tyler Kolek is averaging 7.3 points, 5.9 assists and 1.6 steals for the Golden Eagles. Justin Lewis is averaging 12.8 points over the last 10 games for Marquette.
Aaron Thompson is averaging 8.1 points and 3.9 assists for the Bulldogs. Chuck Harris is averaging 7.0 points and 1.7 rebounds while shooting 38.6% over the last 10 games for Butler. | null | null | null | null | null |
BOTTOM LINE: Michael Cubbage and the Saint Francis (BKN) Terriers host Jordan Minor and the Merrimack Warriors in NEC action Saturday.
The Terriers have gone 3-8 at home. Saint Francis (BKN) allows 70.2 points and has been outscored by 1.7 points per game.
The Warriors are 8-8 against conference opponents. Merrimack ranks ninth in the NEC scoring 25.7 points per game in the paint led by Minor averaging 1.6.
The teams meet for the second time in conference play this season. The Warriors won 74-64 in the last matchup on Dec. 30. Minor led the Warriors with 23 points, and Rob Higgins led the Terriers with 18 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Patrick Emilien is averaging 12.8 points and 6.4 rebounds for the Terriers. Cubbage is averaging 13.6 points over the last 10 games for Saint Francis (BKN).
Mikey Watkins is averaging 9.9 points, 4.3 assists and 1.8 steals for the Warriors. Minor is averaging 14.0 points and 9.2 rebounds while shooting 55.8% over the past 10 games for Merrimack. | null | null | null | null | null |
No. 20 Texas plays West Virginia after Jones' 21-point game
BOTTOM LINE: No. 20 Texas visits the West Virginia Mountaineers after Andrew Jones scored 21 points in Texas’ 75-66 victory over the TCU Horned Frogs.
The Mountaineers are 11-4 in home games. West Virginia ranks ninth in the Big 12 at limiting opponent scoring, giving up 68.0 points while holding opponents to 43.7% shooting.
The Longhorns are 9-6 against Big 12 opponents. Texas is seventh in the Big 12 with 13.3 assists per game led by Marcus Carr averaging 3.4.
The teams square off for the 10th time this season in Big 12 play. The Longhorns won the last meeting 74-59 on Jan. 1. Carr scored 20 points to help lead the Longhorns to the win.
TOP PERFORMERS: Taz Sherman is scoring 18.5 points per game and averaging 3.0 rebounds for the Mountaineers. Sean McNeil is averaging 1.1 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for West Virginia.
Jones averages 1.7 made 3-pointers per game for the Longhorns, scoring 11.1 points while shooting 33.6% from beyond the arc. Timmy Allen is shooting 50.5% and averaging 7.9 points over the past 10 games for Texas. | null | null | null | null | null |
BOTTOM LINE: Buffalo plays the Northern Illinois Huskies after Jeenathan Williams scored 28 points in Buffalo’s 79-68 victory over the Northern Illinois Huskies.
The Bulls are 8-2 in home games. Buffalo is the top team in the MAC with 13.6 fast break points.
The Huskies are 5-12 in conference games. Northern Illinois gives up 72.4 points to opponents while being outscored by 7.6 points per game.
The teams play for the second time this season in MAC play. The Bulls won the last meeting 79-68 on Feb. 25. Williams scored 28 points points to help lead the Bulls to the win.
TOP PERFORMERS: Williams is shooting 49.0% and averaging 19.3 points for the Bulls. Ronaldo Segu is averaging 11.8 points over the last 10 games for Buffalo.
Kaleb Thornton is averaging 8.5 points and 4.2 assists for the Huskies. Keshawn Williams is averaging 17.0 points and 3.6 rebounds while shooting 42.8% over the last 10 games for Northern Illinois. | null | null | null | null | null |
BOTTOM LINE: NC State hosts the North Carolina Tar Heels after Terquavion Smith scored 21 points in NC State’s 69-61 loss to the Boston College Eagles.
The Wolf Pack are 7-9 in home games. NC State is 1-3 in games decided by less than 4 points.
The Tar Heels are 12-5 against ACC opponents. North Carolina is third in the ACC with 14.6 assists per game led by Caleb Love averaging 3.8.
The teams play for the 10th time in conference play this season. The Tar Heels won the last matchup 100-80 on Jan. 29. Love scored 21 points to help lead the Tar Heels to the victory.
TOP PERFORMERS: Dereon Seabron is scoring 18.0 points per game with 8.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists for the Wolf Pack. Smith is averaging 11.8 points and 3.1 rebounds while shooting 40.9% over the last 10 games for NC State.
Armando Bacot is averaging 15.9 points, 12.2 rebounds and 1.6 blocks for the Tar Heels. Love is averaging 10.8 points over the past 10 games for North Carolina. | null | null | null | null | null |
Stetson hosts North Florida after Johnston's 23-point outing
BOTTOM LINE: Stetson hosts the North Florida Ospreys after Chase Johnston scored 23 points in Stetson’s 75-71 loss to the Kennesaw State Owls.
The Hatters are 7-7 in home games. Stetson averages 12.2 turnovers per game and is 6-2 when it turns the ball over less than its opponents.
The Ospreys have gone 6-9 against ASUN opponents. North Florida has a 6-15 record against teams over .500.
The teams meet for the second time in conference play this season. The Hatters won 68-66 in the last matchup on Jan. 8. Rob Perry led the Hatters with 22 points, and Jose Placer led the Ospreys with 21 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Johnston is scoring 15.0 points per game with 2.7 rebounds and 1.4 assists for the Hatters. Christiaan Jones is averaging 13.1 points and 6.7 rebounds while shooting 39.5% over the past 10 games for Stetson.
Jarius Hicklen averages 2.8 made 3-pointers per game for the Ospreys, scoring 11.6 points while shooting 40.5% from beyond the arc. Placer is shooting 50.0% and averaging 20.2 points over the last 10 games for North Florida. | null | null | null | null | null |
BOTTOM LINE: UMBC hosts the Maine Black Bears after Darnell Rogers scored 26 points in UMBC’s 92-85 victory over the Hartford Hawks.
The Retrievers are 7-4 in home games. UMBC ranks ninth in the America East with 26.7 points per game in the paint led by Rogers averaging 0.3.
The Black Bears are 3-13 against America East opponents. Maine has a 4-11 record against opponents over .500.
The teams meet for the second time in conference play this season. The Retrievers won 88-46 in the last matchup on Jan. 22. Nathan Johnson led the Retrievers with 17 points, and Adefolarin Adetogun led the Black Bears with 10 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Keondre Kennedy is scoring 15.1 points per game and averaging 5.0 rebounds for the Retrievers. Rogers is averaging 2.1 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for UMBC.
Vukasin Masic is averaging 9.6 points and 3.2 assists for the Black Bears. Maks Kalnjscek is averaging 13.7 points over the last 10 games for Maine. | null | null | null | null | null |
Vanderbilt visits Mississippi State after Smith's 21-point outing
BOTTOM LINE: Mississippi State hosts the Vanderbilt Commodores after Tolu Smith scored 21 points in Mississippi State’s 66-56 loss to the South Carolina Gamecocks.
The Bulldogs are 13-2 in home games. Mississippi State ranks ninth in the SEC with 13.3 assists per game led by Iverson Molinar averaging 3.7.
The Commodores are 6-9 against SEC opponents. Vanderbilt ranks third in the SEC shooting 32.8% from deep. Shane Dezonie leads the Commodores shooting 60% from 3-point range.
The Bulldogs and Commodores meet Saturday for the first time in conference play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Molinar is averaging 18 points and 3.7 assists for the Bulldogs. Smith is averaging 12.4 points and 5.7 rebounds over the past 10 games for Mississippi State.
Scotty Pippen Jr. is scoring 19.7 points per game and averaging 3.6 rebounds for the Commodores. Jordan Wright is averaging 7.3 points and 4.3 rebounds over the last 10 games for Vanderbilt. | null | null | null | null | null |
BOTTOM LINE: William & Mary will attempt to stop its six-game road skid when the Tribe visit Hofstra.
The Pride have gone 10-2 in home games. Hofstra averages 77.4 points and has outscored opponents by 5.3 points per game.
The Tribe are 4-13 against CAA opponents. William & Mary averages 15.7 turnovers per game and is 2-5 when turning the ball over less than opponents.
The teams play for the 10th time this season in CAA play. The Tribe won the last meeting 63-62 on Dec. 30. Jake Milkereit scored 13 points to help lead the Tribe to the win.
TOP PERFORMERS: Jalen Ray averages 3.0 made 3-pointers per game for the Pride, scoring 13.1 points while shooting 41.2% from beyond the arc. Aaron Estrada is shooting 53.9% and averaging 17.7 points over the last 10 games for Hofstra.
Ben Wight is scoring 11.3 points per game with 5.6 rebounds and 0.9 assists for the Tribe. Brandon Carroll is averaging 8.6 points over the past 10 games for William & Mary.
Tribe: 1-9, averaging 59.2 points, 27.9 rebounds, 9.3 assists, 6.3 steals and 1.9 blocks per game while shooting 38.4% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 72.9 points. | null | null | null | null | null |
Videos from Kyiv show building on fire following rocket strikes
Natali Sevriukova reacts next to her house following a rocket attack the city of Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 25, 2022. (Emilio Morenatti/AP)
An air raid siren went off about 7 a.m. local time and at least one residential building in the capital caught fire after being hit by rocket debris, Kyiv’s mayor said. Multiple explosions were heard earlier in the day. Sirens were also heard in Lviv, in Ukraine’s far west and near NATO’s eastern flank. A senior Ukrainian defense official said Russian forces were near the town of Vorzel, some 20 miles to Kyiv’s northwest.
By Meg Kelly and Karly Domb Sadof2:25 a.m.
Video posted to social media and verified by The Post shows a small fire and damage to an apartment building in Kyiv in the early morning of Feb. 25. (Telegram)
Photos and videos verified by The Washington Post captured the wreckage of a multistory apartment block in Pozniaky, a residential neighborhood of Kyiv, after it caught fire early Friday morning. The fire started around 5:30 a.m. local time, according to a Telegram post from the State Service of Ukraine for Emergency Situations, shortly after explosions were heard across the city.
The first few seconds of the video show a spotlight searching across the building’s crumbling facade. Emergency personnel stand on a hill of rubble examining the missing windows, crumpled fire escapes and collapsed balconies. Interior light still glows from some windows and flames pour out of the upper stories.
A firetruck and a crane along with at least a half dozen emergency personnel working to rescue residents from the burning building are visible in photos verified by The Post. The State Service of Ukraine for Emergency Situations said more than 70 such personnel were involved in the effort.
Dalton Bennett, Elyse Samuels and Joyce Sohyun Lee contributed to this report.
By Siobhán O'Grady and Kostiantyn Khudov2:06 a.m.
Kyiv city authorities issued an urgent warning on social media shortly after 8:15 a.m. local time on Friday, telling residents to head to bunkers “immediately.” The city said it was an urgent air alert.
Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, Ganna Malyar, urged the country’s citizens to take up arms, including by manufacturing molotov cocktails or small arms, as Russia’s invasion entered its second day. | null | null | null | null | null |
Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma will take on an increased scoring role in the final 24 games. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
Kyle Kuzma spent the NBA all-star break on the beach in Turks and Caicos, completely detached from basketball. He needed to recharge after a tumultuous first four months of the season in which the Washington Wizards went from a surprising start to a plummet down the Eastern Conference standings.
There also was some self-reflection ahead of this closing stretch of 24 games. The Wizards (27-31) stand a game outside of the play-in tournament entering Thursday.
“If you look at our season, it’s been a roller coaster — a pretty deep roller coaster,” Kuzma said. “Starting out 10-3, I think that we might have got ahead of ourselves a little bit. ... We were rolling and felt really, really good. Obviously had a lot of buzz. And then we just took our foot off the gas a little bit, and I think our record kind of really reflects that. We went through some things, went through some injuries, went through covid — just like anybody else in the NBA. Once it kind of went left, it was hard to get it back right and, obviously, needed some changes.
“For us, after the [trade] deadline, this is all we got. We know the cards that we’ve been dealt. You have to understand that we have enough. … So I believe that we can do it, and I believe, ‘Why not us?’ So that’s kind of our mind-set.”
The new-look Wizards still haven’t gotten to see the fruits of the trade-deadline deal that sent Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans to Dallas for Kristaps Porzingis. The former all-star has yet to play for Washington because of a bone bruise in his right knee, and Coach Wes Unseld Jr. said he is still day-to-day. Unseld said Porzingis is doing one-on-one drills and will need to progress to three-on-three and then five-on-five. Porzingis hasn’t been ruled out of the Wizards’ back-to-back against the San Antonio Spurs on Friday and at the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday, but he would need to make significant strides quickly.
The Wizards went into the all-star break with a 3-2 stretch since the trade deadline that included a tweaked hierarchy. Kuzma averaged 18.2 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in those five games and was Washington’s best player. Not only did the trade affect his responsibilities, but losing Bradley Beal for the season to wrist surgery left a need for more offense.
Kuzma has stepped up, and Porzingis is expected to be a boon, but younger players are getting more opportunities without Dinwiddie, Bertans and Montrezl Harrell (who was traded to Charlotte) on the roster. Rookie Corey Kispert started the past five games and averaged 12.2 points. Rui Hachimura has scored in double figures in four of his past five games, including a season-high 20 in the last game before the break — a win at the Brooklyn Nets. Deni Avdija averaged 12.4 points and scored in double figures in each of the past five games after accomplishing that in just three of the previous 17.
“Guys are playing for each other,” he said. “I think that’s important. We have to continue with that spirit.”
The biggest concern is defense. That’s what the Wizards focused on during their hot start, and that’s what Unseld is known for. Washington is 21st in defensive rating and is allowing 109.8 points per game. Its 113-108 loss at Indiana on Feb. 16 was a lowlight: The Pacers scored 74 points in the paint. The return of Daniel Gafford will help the interior defense, but that must be a priority if Washington has postseason aspirations.
“We have to do a better job defensively,” Unseld said. “The last few games, we’ve seen some of that. But once again, we have to be consistent in that area. If we’re really serious with the remaining 24 games, that has to be part of our identity. We talked about it all season. We have to get back to doing it. Not just doing it for a quarter or doing it for a half — trying to do it for the most part of 48 minutes as best we can.”
The sprint is on starting Friday. The Wizards are set to play 24 games in 45 days, including six back-to-backs, before the regular season ends April 10. There’s no time to figure things out along the way. The Wizards must play with purpose if they want to make the postseason for a second consecutive season. That’s the message from Unseld.
“That’s quite dense,” he said of the upcoming schedule. “... The games are going to come fast and furious. We can’t afford, once again, to try to ease our way into this. We have to come out of the break and put our feet on the ground hopefully with a little bit of momentum. That win in Brooklyn hopefully gives us a little momentum, but it’s going to be challenging. There’s some very tough opponents within that stretch. So we’re going to try to do the best we can to get off on the right foot and keep that momentum.”
Added Kuzma: “What’s not to be excited about?” | null | null | null | null | null |
Russian President Vladimir Putin invoked the Nazis on Thursday when he announced his decision to launch a large-scale military operation in Ukraine.
The Russian leader said that one of the goals of the offensive was to “denazify” the country, part of a long-running effort by Putin to delegitimize Ukrainian nationalism and sell the incursion to his constituency at home.
The rhetoric around fighting fascism resonates deeply in Russia, which made tremendous sacrifices battling Nazi Germany in World War II. Critics say that Putin is exploiting the trauma of the war and twisting history for his own interests.
In his narrative, the West overlooked the role the Soviet Union, Russia’s predecessor state, played in the fight. In the war’s aftermath, the United States and other Western nations formed the NATO military alliance as a bulwark against the Soviet Union.
Now, Putin sees NATO as an existential threat — and Ukraine’s bid for membership as a red line for Russia’s security.
“When Putin was growing up, the Second World War was at the center of Soviet identity and the enemies were the fascists,” said Timothy Snyder, a professor of history at Yale University.
The irony now, Snyder said, is that Putin appears to be “fighting a war the way that actual Nazis did,” invading neighbors on the pretext that their borders are irrelevant.
But his attempt to recast Ukraine’s government as fascist drew widespread condemnation Thursday, including from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is both Jewish and had family members die in the Holocaust.
Three of Zelensky’s great uncles were executed as part of the German-led genocide of European Jews during the war, the president said on a trip to Jerusalem in 2020. His grandfather, who was the brother of those killed, survived.
The Ukrainian leader also fired back at Putin’s Nazi claim Thursday, saying on Twitter that Russia had attacked Ukraine just “as Nazi Germany did.”
One of World War II’s worst massacres took place near the Ukrainian capital in 1941, when German-led forces killed tens of thousands of Jews in the ravine of Babi Yar.
“As of today, our countries are on different sides of world history,” Zelensky said on Twitter, addressing Putin. “Russia has embarked on a path of evil.”
According to Michael McFaul, a former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, “there is a history of some Ukrainians fighting on the Nazi side … but a very small group.”
McFaul made the remarks in an appearance on MSNBC Thursday.
Putin, he said, “is pulling on that thread from history to say that what you had was a neo-Nazi usurpation of power [in Ukraine] in 2014,” when Ukrainian protesters ousted the Russian-backed leader and the new government pushed to join NATO.
In response to those protests, Russia invaded and annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine and began backing a separatist insurgency in the country’s east. The conflict there has simmered for years.
Now Putin is trying to paint Zelensky’s government as “Nazis supported by NATO,” McFaul said.
According to Putin, he must fight to save the Russian-speaking community in eastern Ukraine.
In his speech announcing the start of the operation, he said that the “goal is to protect the people who are subjected to abuse, genocide from the Kyiv regime.”
“To this end, we will seek to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine and put to justice those that committed numerous bloody crimes against peaceful people, including Russian nationals,” Putin said, according to Russia’s state news agency.
His language is also a red flag that he intends to overthrow the government in Kyiv, said Sergey Radchenko, a professor of international relations at Johns Hopkins University.
The Kremlin has long tried to “present the whole idea of Ukrainian nationalism as a neo-Nazi movement,” he said, adding that the narrative is historically false.
Following Putin’s logic, Radchenko said, Russia’s end goal in Ukraine could be to rid its government of “Ukrainian nationalists … who in their eyes are Nazis.”
At the same time, Snyder said, Putin’s moves to label Ukraine’s government as fascist are “completely emptied of any specificity.”
During the Cold War, the term came to apply to anyone in the West or those who opposed Russia, he said.
“Anyone can be a fascist” in Russian propaganda, Snyder said, adding that it “carries a vague emotion … for anyone anti-Russian.”
Ukraine’s state-run Twitter account on Thursday posted an image of what appeared to be a tall Adolf Hitler caressing the face of a smaller Putin.
“This is not a ‘meme’, but our and your reality right now,” the caption read. | null | null | null | null | null |
People try to flee Kyiv, Ukraine, on buses, many headed to Poland. (Heidi Levine for The Washington Post)
Hope that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military buildup was a bluff for diplomatic concessions — a view clung to for weeks by many in Europe — disappeared in the smoke and fire of missiles and advancing troops in Ukraine.
In Britain, a nation awoke to a BBC broadcast trying to Stay Calm and Carry On: “There is war in Europe. It’s 7 a.m. on the 24th of February. The headlines this morning …” French President Emmanuel Macron, who had personally sought to assuage Putin, severely warned of “a turning point in the history of Europe.” Calling an emergency summit of NATO, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, a former prime minister of Norway, declared that “peace on our continent has been shattered.”
For a continent where old-school war had largely receded into history books, where recent conflict has amounted to bureaucratic wrangling over Greek debt or coronavirus restrictions, Moscow’s full-on assault on Ukraine seemed almost incomprehensibly anachronistic — and a frightening leap into the unknown.
Despite Russia’s 12-day war with Georgia in 2008 and its 2014 annexation of Crimea, recent fears of intervention by Moscow have tilted more toward misinformation campaigns, alleged price-fixing in the energy sector, and brazen poisonings of Russian targets on European streets.
But Putin’s invasion of Ukraine served as a sudden wake-up call for the continent. What’s crystallizing now is different from the ideological tug of war with the Soviets during the Cold War. Europe is facing the escalating unpredictability of a strongman with nearly unchecked domestic authority, his actions informed by resentment of Russia’s decline after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and who may be all the more reckless because his core mission is the preservation and expansion of personal power.
For many young Europeans, Putin before now had been a bare-chested, horse-riding social media meme. Even among policymakers in London, Paris and Rome, he was viewed, alternately, as a calculating friend of the European far right or a bullying statesman bent on undermining liberal democracies — but still shrewd enough to know where to stop.
When asked at a panel last month about Putin’s intensions, Germany’s navy chief scoffed at the notion of a Russian invasion. “No, this is nonsense,” Vice Admiral Kay-Achim Schönbach said, before adding that “Putin is probably putting pressure on us because he can do it.”
Assessments began to change as evidence built over the past weeks, and warnings from Washington and London of a Russian assault grew increasingly dire. Europe braced for the consequences of a Russian incursion — including further soaring energy prices and flows of Ukrainian refugees that could turn into floods.
“European leaders have wanted to shove Russia under the carpet, they wanted to deal with China, covid, climate change,” said James Nixey, a Russia expert at the British think tank Chatham House. “They simply underestimated it willfully, or they thought Putin was being over-egged … that the Biden administration and the United Kingdom were crying wolf. They thought it was a massive bluff.”
Daniel Fried, a former U.S. ambassador to Poland, said Thursday: “It wasn’t just the Europeans. I myself didn’t think Putin would go in, because it is such a roll of the dice. But I think a lot of Europeans are stunned, surprised, and ready to reconsider policies toward Russia. He is looking to them as what he is: an unhinged dictator.”
On a continent with a dark legacy of war, France’s Le Point newsmagazine this week compared “Putin’s belligerent posture” to Adolf Hitler’s annexation of Austria and subsequent invasion of Poland. But for all the echoes of history — including the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary and the 1968 quashing of the Prague Spring — many Europeans see what is unfolding as a unique threat from a modern Russian leader more dangerously brash than many had thought.
To be sure, there were those who correctly read Putin’s incremental moves over the years as signals of how far he was willing to go to rebuild a Russian sphere of influence. The Poles, Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians — former Soviet bloc nations now within the European Union and NATO — repeatedly warned their Western neighbors of the growing Russian menace. After the attack on Ukraine, they now live even more precariously in its shadow.
“Europe and the free world have to stop Putin,” said Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in demanding the “fiercest possible” sanctions.
Still, European leaders remained locked in tense debate Thursday over how hard to hit Putin. President Biden suggested that Russian banks were not cut out of SWIFT, a vital global network for international transfers, because some European countries didn’t yet support a financial measure that some have dubbed a “nuclear option.” It remained unclear if Europe was simply giving Putin a moment to rethink. Macron on Thursday, French officials said, had spoken to the Russian president, calling for him to immediate halt military operations or face “massive sanctions.”
Bergès embraced a notion being pushed by Macron: the creation of a European army.
“Maybe it’s time,” Bergès said. “I find it crazy that in the 21st century, we’re still talking about war in Europe,” he said.
The Europeans born after the fall of the Berlin Wall are no strangers to the reverberations of war. They’re well aware of the horrors of Bosnia and Kosovo. European troops served in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Syrian civil war, too, felt more real to Europeans than to Americans, especially as hundreds of thousands of refugees streamed onto the continent.
But for some younger Europeans — including largely pacifist Germany, which has taken a highly cautious approach to Putin — the attack launched by Russia struck closer to home and amounted to a fresh reality check.
“We are witnessing an epochal change in Europe,” said Victoria Montenegro, a 24-year-old who was demonstrating on Thursday at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, which was illuminated with the colors of the Ukrainian flag. “Today I realized that our army needs to function. Usually I am pacifist. I always thought that’s a good thing when countries don’t have any army — like Costa Rica, for example. But I realized that the only things that will stop Russia is a sign of strength.”
You didn’t have to be young in Europe to have an epiphany about Putin as his forces struck. “Today I woke up, looked at my phone, and I couldn’t believe that there is an invasion,” said Berlin resident Per Brodersen, 47. “It’s a turning point today, I think we haven’t fully realized. I remember 9/11 vividly, but today is worse. Terror is one thing, but an open war against an independent country, I would have never thought that’s possible in Europe.”
The West will feel a pinch from Russia, a major producer of oil and gas. Americans may feel pain at the pump. But citizens of the European Union — who rely on Russia for nearly 40 percent of their natural gas — will almost surely feel sharper pain. The E.U. is moving to shift away from its long reliance on Russian energy, but that will take time. On Thursday alone, European natural gas prices surged by almost 70 percent.
“With the cost-of-living crisis, inflation, gas and energy prices, things kicking off in Ukraine — there’s potentially a perfect storm … that could bring us into a recessionary cycle,” said John Lunt, an event organizer in his 60s traveling through London’s Waterloo station on Thursday.
Even in Italy — a country famous for shrugging off global turbulence — people broke from routines Thursday and spoke of the conflict triggering new fears. At a protest near the Russian Embassy in Rome, university student Simona Laudicina, 19, said the idea of war in Europe had felt “anachronistic” until now. The mayor of Rome called it a day of “anguish.” Nicola Zingaretti, the leader of the region, said Europeans had been proud to enjoy such a long period of peace and prosperity. “But this came to an end tonight, with bombs falling over Ukraine,” he said.
Stefano Stefanini, Italy’s former ambassador to NATO, said he couldn’t think of a comparable moment in his “lifetime as a European.” He recounted other crises, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. None of those events had left him as aghast.
Karla Adam in London, Chico Harlan and Stefano Pitrelli in Rome, Loveday Morris in Lviv, Ukraine, Rick Noack in Paris, Emily Rauhala in Brussels and Frederik Seeler in Berlin contributed to this report. | null | null | null | null | null |
How this wave of African coups differs from previous ones
To maintain power, military leaders are likely to turn to elections
Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Damiba is sworn in as head of state in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on Feb. 16. (EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
By Erica De Bruin
Maggie Dwyer
In many ways, the recent spate of coups and coup attempts in Africa feels like a flashback to earlier periods in the continent’s history. With 11 coup attempts since 2019, coups appear to be on the rise after steadily declining, raising concerns about a return to military rule.
Recent coups, like the one in Burkina Faso, followed a familiar pattern — coup leaders suspended the constitution, closed borders, revealed the acronym of the new junta and promised their rule will be more aligned with the interests of “the people.”
But this recent wave of coups is distinct in a number of key ways. Here’s what’s different in the motives, tactics and consequences of coups in the region.
The war on terrorism gives militaries an elevated role
The coups come alongside the growth in Islamist threats in parts of West Africa. Africa’s national armies are central to combating the transnational threats, giving military leaders a heightened importance domestically and internationally.
The task has been extremely challenging — with rising military and civilian casualties and a humanitarian crisis in many countries in the Sahel region, south of the Sahara.
This security and humanitarian crisis has also created new tensions between the armed forces and elected political leaders. A perceived lack of support for the troops in their fight against insurgents has been a root grievance of coup leaders. These issues probably resonate across the ranks, giving coups support within security forces.
Combat-related coups also occurred in West Africa in the 1990s, but countries outside the region largely refrained from intervening, viewing them more as domestic and regional conflicts. The insurgencies in West African countries today have attracted wider attention, placing countries in the center of multiple international counterterrorism initiatives.
Many recent coup leaders have international training and combat experience related to the global war on terrorism, which some citizens may see as an advantage in dealing with the country’s growing security concerns. Yet it’s uncertain if — or how — military juntas will address the security situation differently. In Mali, for instance, attacks reportedly increased by 30 percent in the year following the 2020 coup.
Coup plotters are younger and include few generals
In marked contrast to prior waves of coups in Africa, coup attempts since 2019 have featured relatively low-ranking plotters.
Historically, coups from the top of the military hierarchy — those led by perpetrators ranked general and above — have been the norm. Between 1990 and 2015, data we have collected on the rank of coup plotters suggests that 45 percent of coup attempts in Africa involved at least one general.
The same is true of only three of the eleven coup attempts since 2019 — the coup in Chad, which brought Idriss Déby’s son, Mahamat, to power, and two of the coup attempts in Sudan.
The other eight attempts have come from lower in the military hierarchy. Regimes in Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea are now run by young colonels and lieutenant colonels, who drew upon their combat experience to legitimize their efforts to seize power.
Our research shows that coups from the lower ranks tend to be riskier and involve higher rates of violence than those staged by generals. In this month’s Guinea Bissau coup attempt, for instance, 11 people were killed.
Social media makes it harder to monopolize information
The control of radio and television stations has typically been a key tactical priority during coups. In the past, state broadcast announcements were usually the first way people heard of an overthrow. Social media has altered this pattern.
Citizens and journalists often capture and share what’s going on, countering the secrecy that coup plotters typically aim for. In the digital age, coup plotters and governments alike struggle to control the narrative.
Social media platforms also allow supporters on either side to quickly mobilize, sometimes filling the streets even before the coup has been announced.
And governments now have a new “weapon” to attempt to counter coups: shutting off the Internet. Blackouts, as was the case in Sudan, regularly continue long after coup attempts, marking a new tool of repression.
Regional responses have been more severe
The international context has also shifted, with regional organizations taking more active responses to coup attempts to pressure countries to return to constitutional rule.
The African Union has been remarkably consistent in its responses to coups — the A.U. suspended nearly all governments that experienced coups since 2003 and imposed sanctions 73 percent of the time. The decision not to suspend Chad following the 2021 coup, which the A.U. made citing security concerns, was an exception.
The response from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has been more varied but also, in a number of cases, more severe — the regional body directly intervened in some cases and leveraged suspensions or sanctions in others. If anything, ECOWAS has faced some criticism for having been too aggressive with sanctions in response to the recent coup in Mali.
Don’t expect regional organizations to rein in coups
Unlike in prior decades, today’s coup plotters can thus be more certain of some form of punishment. Sanctions make it costlier for coup plotters to remain in power, which suggests these recent coups are less likely to usher in long periods of military rule. Instead, militaries are likely to use elections to maintain power.
What to look for in the coming months
In the months ahead, we can expect coup leaders to take steps to consolidate their power. Coup attempts often result in repression against citizens, a pattern that is likely to continue following recent coups.
What may be distinct is the consequences of the coups for militaries themselves. Mass dismissals and leadership changes within armed forces following coup attempts have been common in the past. However, the Sahel countries may have incentives to avoid significant changes because upheavals within the ranks could undermine their counterinsurgency efforts.
In the meantime, the distinct features of this recent wave of coup attempts suggest that the dynamics of coups are evolving in important ways.
Erica De Bruin (@esdebruin) is an associate professor of government at Hamilton College and the author of “How to Prevent Coups d’état: Counterbalancing and Regime Survival” (Cornell University Press, 2020).
Maggie Dwyer (@MagDwyer) is a lecturer in African studies and international development at the University of Edinburgh and author of “Soldiers in Revolt: Army Mutinies in Africa” (Oxford University Press, 2018). | null | null | null | null | null |
Maryland guard Ashley Owusu is still seeking to recapture her form after missing four games with an ankle injury. “Whether I come out and have two points or 20 points, I’m still going to love the game at the end of the day,” she said. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
This wasn’t exactly the season Ashley Owusu imagined.
The Maryland junior had enjoyed almost nothing but success since she came to College Park — Big Ten freshman of the year, first-team all-Big Ten, two-time Big Ten tournament MVP, third-team all-American. One of the few disappointments was a Sweet 16 exit from the NCAA tournament in 2021.
Things have been different this season. Owusu’s offensive game has dipped; she is averaging just 13.7 points, more than four fewer than last season. Her shooting percentage, rebounds and assists are all at career lows. And Owusu has missed games because of injury (sprained ankle) for the first time in her collegiate career.
Despite her struggles, No. 13 Maryland (20-7, 12-4 Big Ten) maintains championship aspirations, and a healthy and productive Owusu is central to those hopes. But before the Terrapins can think about a national title, they first wrap up the regular season with No. 10 Indiana (19-6, 11-4) coming to Xfinity Center on Friday.
“Everyone gets to a point where they have ups and downs or kind of gets in a slump,” Owusu said. “I’m not trying to think about it too much because I love basketball. Whether I come out and have two points or 20 points, I’m still going to love the game at the end of the day.”
So what does a gym rat do when things aren’t going well? Simply go back to the lab. Owusu threw herself into the rehab process when she missed four games.
Coach Brenda Frese brought her off the bench in her first game back — Sunday’s loss at Michigan — and she still wasn’t herself. Owusu looked rusty, and the ankle wasn’t quite 100 percent. The loss cost Maryland a chance to keep control of the Big Ten, but the fact that the team has remained in the hunt despite losing Faith Masonius for the year, not having Diamond Miller for a long stretch and working through Owusu’s struggles is a testament to the talent Frese has accrued.
Getting Owusu back to playing like herself will only benefit the Terps in the postseason.
“I had a moment where it was kind of frustrating,” Owusu said, “but I think I was able to reel myself in and just let myself know that it’s okay to go in a slump and that no matter what I still have to come out and play my hardest for my team and for myself.”
There were some positives that came from the injury. Owusu’s absence allowed freshman Shyanne Sellers, who already was in the rotation, to start and gain more confidence. Frese called Sellers their best defensive stopper, which is impressive on a roster that includes Miller and Angel Reese.
Owusu’s move to a reserve role, for now, has allowed her to gain a different perspective.
“I wouldn’t say it’s too bad,” Owusu said about coming off the bench. “I think the game has actually slowed down for me a bit. Just watching the game from the bench … it helps anyone just seeing how the game is being played, how the other team is playing it, how the refs are playing it. So I don’t think it’s a bad thing.
“It allows me to come in even hungrier when I get into the game ready to play.”
Friday’s game against the Hoosiers provides Owusu another chance to rediscover her game — and the Terps an opportunity to establish some momentum heading into the postseason.
“It’s extremely exciting to know that we have someone like her in our pocket,” Miller said. “A lot of teams are not blessed to have an Ashley Owusu on their team. So it is encouraging that once when she does come back 100 percent that we’re not going to be missing a beat. So that’s exciting.”
Frese noted that she and the coaching staff have been cognizant of the mental drain on the roster. She already has a short rotation that has missed Owusu, Masonius, Miller and Katie Benzan for stretches. The team didn’t collapse after early losses to North Carolina State, Stanford and South Carolina — all ranked in top three at the time — before Big Ten losses to Indiana, Michigan and Ohio State. Six of the Terps’ seven losses came against teams currently ranked in the top 10. Then there was the emotional toil from Frese losing her father to prostate cancer at midseason.
Frese said her staff has sought to create a healthy balance between hard practice time and down time so players don’t get burned out.
The singular goal all season has been to complete the mission of winning the national title after the disappointment of last spring. A healthy Owusu is crucial to that goal.
“We’ve had so many things happen this year that they’re really just resilient,” Frese said. “Anytime you can get someone back healthy and as talented as Ashley and get her back into the space of where she was playing at the level she was playing at 100 percent, that’s a wild card that we haven’t had for a while.
“Credit the team. They haven’t blinked.” | null | null | null | null | null |
BOTTOM LINE: No. 1 Gonzaga will look for its 25th victory this season when the Bulldogs face the No. 23 Saint Mary’s Gaels.
The Gaels have gone 15-0 at home. Saint Mary’s (CA) is the leader in the WCC in team defense, giving up 59.5 points while holding opponents to 42.4% shooting.
TOP PERFORMERS: Matthias Tass is scoring 12.4 points per game and averaging 6.3 rebounds for the Gaels. Kyle Bowen is averaging 1.2 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Saint Mary’s (CA). | null | null | null | null | null |
South Carolina guard Jermaine Couisnard (5) drives past Texas A&M guard Tyrece Radford (23) for a basket during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022, in College Station, Texas. (AP Photo/Sam Craft)
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A look at weekend action around the Southeastern Conference: | null | null | null | null | null |
She cares for 24 pigs, 20 goats, 210 cats, a skunk and 345 other rescue animals — but who’s saving who?
Laurie Zaleski, who lives with 600 rescue animals, talks about her work, her life and her new book, “Funny Farm”
Laurie Zaleski with a goat named Nemo. (Nora Krug/The Washington Post)
By Nora Krug
MAYS LANDING, N.J. — For nearly a month, a blind lamb named Bradley has been sleeping in Laurie Zaleski’s living room. Also sharing her humble two-bedroom abode: 11 dogs, 4 chickens (in diapers), 23 cats, several kittens, a baby duck and a very loud cockatoo. Yes, says Zaleski, author of the just-released memoir “Funny Farm,” she is overdue for a home expansion. But she would never consider the alternative: fewer animals under her roof.
“I have a hard time saying no,” Zaleski explains without needing to, as we walk around her 15-acre Mays Landing, N.J., farm one recent sunny afternoon. There were animals popping out everywhere — and no wonder. Currently on the premises are, give or take, 11 dogs, 15 horses, 131 chickens, 210 cats, two cows, 22 peacocks, four alpacas, 24 pigs, five donkeys, 20 goats, four sheep, 160 ducks, five donkeys, two emu, seven turkeys, two llama, several geese and one skunk. They’re here to take refuge, to escape abuse, recover from injury or sickness or simply to experience being wanted. Even the skunk — whose scent glands had been removed — was once someone’s pet.
The story behind Stella, the first ‘talking’ dog. It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds.
This is the Funny Farm, double-entendre intended: “Because it’s full of animals, and fit for lunatics,” Zaleski jokes of the sanctuary that she built here, some 20 miles from Atlantic City, more than two decades ago.
Zaleski’s love of animals was born of personal misfortune. “It was a happy accident,” she writes in “Funny Farm” (St. Martin’s), a chronicle of the hardscrabble childhood that sparked her devotion to all creatures great and small. Don’t be fooled by the whimsical cover: This is a tale that’s heartbreaking and uplifting in equal measure. (Think “Educated” meets “Dr. Dolittle.”)
The story begins in the early ’70s in Turnersville, about 30 miles from the Funny Farm. There Zaleski lived in a well-appointed suburban home with her parents and two siblings; they had a nanny and a beach house and cocktail parties. But Zaleski’s father had violent outbursts. One day, after being threatened at knifepoint, Laurie’s mother finally had enough. She drove off with the kids and settled into a new house, a ramshackle one-bedroom in the woods that, when they arrived, had no electricity or running water and was strewn with garbage. “Its few windows were broken or cracked, and one of the wooden sills hung down, as if someone had stepped on it to crawl inside. If there once had been steps out front, they were long gone — it was a straight drop, five feet from the doorsill to the ground,” Zaleski writes. Soon after the family moved in, vandals tried to run them out, trashing the place and stealing valuables the family could barely afford in the first place.
Five-year-old Zaleski was terrified. But her mother, “unwavering in her cheerfulness,” found a way to protect her family: a dog. Zaleski’s mom got their first animal, a German shepherd named Wolf, in 1973 through one of her three jobs, cleaning cages at the local animal control. Wolf was meant to scare off the troublemakers, and for a while it worked — until Zaleski’s father figured out his family’s whereabouts and terrorized them.
Zaleski’s mom, Annie McNulty, had a weakness for difficult men and needy animals. The former nearly got her killed; the latter saved her life. Shortly after Wolf’s arrival came other animals, each with its own sad story — a baby horse with a broken leg, a runaway pig, a discarded dog. “Every time I turned around, the menagerie seemed to grow. Two by two, four by four, as if Noah had parked his ark in the woods near Turnersville, dropped the tailgate and said, ‘Welcome home,’” writes Zaleski in the same matter-of-fact style in which she speaks.
Zaleski has her own biblical ship here, though sometimes she has to send some animals elsewhere — reptiles, amphibians and wildlife — where they can be cared for by specialists. “My bathtub and sometimes kitchen sink become a trauma center for animals that get hit by cars or wildlife before they get transferred to a local wildlife rescue,” she says. Zaleski may be generous and patient, but even she has her limits. “It gets me so angry,” she says of people who abandon pets when they move. “I think to myself, I’m glad I’m not your child. Are you going to leave them behind, too?”
The animals on the Funny Farm seem never to want to leave Zaleski behind. As we walk, a trail of critters follows, including a tall and surprisingly fast-moving emu named Connor. Zaleski, dressed in full-on cowgirl gear, flashes her long eyelashes as she greets, kisses and feeds her furry and feathered friends. For her beloved German shepherd Tucker, who has a malformed esophagus, that means propping him up in a special dog highchair so he can lick a bowl of liquefied puppy food.
Fauci is my dog: Call the physician-scientist’s name at the dog park, and multiple hounds will howl
Zaleski bought the farm in 2000 intending to give it to her mother. Two weeks before the sale closed, though, her mom died of cancer, at 52. “I used to joke and say I was going to live in Philly and have cappuccinos with my friends, but I ended up at the Funny Farm,” she writes in her book. “Mom always said everything happens for a reason.”
“Funny Farm” — the place and the memoir — serve as a kind of tribute to McNulty. “My mother was a shining example of someone who would literally stop at nothing to save an animal and in a way, helping them took our minds off our horrible situation living in poverty,” Zaleski says. McNulty, who grew up in Philadelphia, followed her instincts and learned animal care from friends and neighbors and library books. One book helped her figure out how to butcher goats, a practice she put to use — to her family’s horror, and despite her own heartbreak — when the animals were accidentally poisoned by wild berries and the family needed to eat. “It was a biology lesson like no other,” Zaleski writes. She’s been a vegetarian ever since.
Zaleski is not a farmer, a wrangler, a vet or a formally trained writer. She works 30-plus hours a week at Art-Z Graphics, a photography and graphics company she owns that specializes in government contracts. She has hundreds of volunteers to help run the Funny Farm, a 501(c)(3) charity that relies on donations; two days a week it’s open to the public, free of charge. “My only time to myself is when I go to sleep and even then, there’s a pile of animals on top of me,” she says. Needless to say, she doesn’t have the time or energy for human children.
An armchair therapist might have some theories about why Zaleski and her mom became such ardent animal saviors. But Zaleski is too no-nonsense — and too busy — to delve deeply into her psyche. “We never really spoke about what saving animals meant to us. We just saw the real effects of our efforts,” she says. “Saving animals was just our way of life.” And despite the human mistreatment that, paradoxically, gave Zaleski her calling, she doesn’t hold grudges: “The majority of people are good.”
Nora Krug is an editor and writer in Book World.
My Unexpected Life With 600 Rescue Animals | null | null | null | null | null |
Los Angeles soccer is thriving, thanks to Latino fans. But it wasn’t always so.
The key to building a stable fan base for soccer in the United States
LA Galaxy's Derrick Williams, right, defends against Vancouver Whitecaps midfielder Russell Teibert during the an MLS soccer match last summer in Sandy, Utah. (Rick Bowmer/AP)
By Ulices Piña
Ulices Piña is an assistant professor of history at California State University, Long Beach. He is currently working on a book about revolutionary Mexico and the varied roles of ordinary people in the country’s long fight for democracy.
Football has a storied history in Greater Los Angeles. Starting with Super Bowl I in 1967, the area has hosted the event eight times — more than any other city except New Orleans and Miami. Most recently, on Feb. 13, the L.A. Rams wrote the latest chapter in this history, winning the Super Bowl held at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. Yet from 1995, when the Raiders left L.A. for Oakland, to 2016, when the Rams returned to L.A. after two decades in St. Louis, Los Angeles had no professional football team.
During that time, fútbol, or soccer, took advantage of the void left behind by the NFL to create Major League Soccer (MLS) franchises that could gain a foothold in L.A.’s competitive sports market. As the MLS begins its 27th season, Los Angeles is home to two thriving soccer franchises: the Los Angeles Galaxy and the Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC). Both teams have also developed unique fan cultures heavily influenced by the city’s Latino population.
But these strong relationships between the sport and city were not inevitable. In the past, teams failed to connect with the surrounding community when they engaged in shallow pandering to ethnic fan bases rather than building real relationships. These past failures to root professional soccer in the Greater Los Angeles area show that successful franchises must be genuinely embedded in the communities they represent.
In 1968, the Los Angeles Wolves became a founding member of the North American Soccer League (NASL), which became the top-level professional league in the United States and Canada. The inaugural season boasted 17 professional clubs. It marked the first time that L.A. had a full-fledged professional soccer team. But the Wolves’ team was composed primarily of British players, along with three players from South America, and the team did not attract much local interest. They did not make the playoffs, and the team folded after its first season.
By the 1970s, a large number of Mexican immigrants were settling in Southern California, bringing with them a love for soccer. Mexico had recently hosted the 1970 World Cup, which was the first international soccer competition staged in North America and globally broadcast.
To take advantage of this prospective new fan base, the NASL created the L.A. Aztecs, a name selected to reference the precolonial empire in Mexico. They were more successful than the Wolves. The team won the championship in 1974, their inaugural year, with a polyglot roster comprising players from Argentina, Armenia, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay. They also managed to integrate a few players from the Greater Los Angeles Soccer League and UCLA’s soccer program.
But even as the NASL began to cater to growing Latino communities in Los Angeles, the league did not want to present soccer as a foreign sport and risk alienating potential White fans.
Two years later, the Aztecs signed Northern Irish superstar George Best and marketed him as soccer’s “Joe Namath.” He was unveiled at a spectacular news conference at the L.A. Coliseum, which featured singer Elton John, who was brought in as part-owner of the franchise to boost the team’s appeal to White residents of Los Angeles.
Despite the publicity, the club struggled to replicate the success it achieved in its first season. In 1978, a concerned L.A. resident complained in the L.A. Times that the Aztecs should hire a well-known European coach who could fill the team with international talent from across Europe and Latin America.
And the Aztecs did just that. They recruited Rinus Michels from the Netherlands and signed Dutch superstar Johan Cruyff. The team attracted more people to games but failed to produce a championship and lost over $3.3 million.
The strategy hadn’t worked. But with Los Angeles projected to soon boast the world’s largest ethnically Mexican population outside of Mexico City, some saw an opportunity to cultivate the population as a fan base. In 1980, Mexican television company Televisa purchased the Aztecs for over $1 million. Cruyff was traded to cut down on expenses. He predicted that they “wanted to make it a Mexican team … with players who are not too expensive and draw Mexican fans.”
Televisa and the Aztecs both overestimated how much Mexican residents of L.A. would support a team based solely on the connection to Mexico. Attendance continued to drop. The following season, the Aztecs adopted a “Brazilian look.” They signed a Brazilian coach and four Brazilian players to implement a new system. Average attendance hovered just over 5,814 people per game at the 92,604-seat capacity L.A. Coliseum — the third lowest in the team’s eight-year history.
Following the 1981 season, Televisa announced that it was dissolving the club and would sell player contracts to other teams. The NASL did not last much longer. It officially suspended operations for the 1985 season. Soccer in L.A. was at a crossroads.
Despite the collapse of the NASL, American interest in soccer continued to grow across the nation. The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) selected the United States to host the 1994 World Cup with the goal of growing the sport in the country. Widely seen as one of the most successful soccer tournaments in history, the United States broke records with an overall attendance of 3.5 million, with an average of nearly 70,000 people attending each game.
One precondition imposed by FIFA for the United States to host the event was the creation of a new professional soccer league. MLS began operations in 1996 with 10 teams. And among them was the L.A. Galaxy, which began playing at the Rose Bowl with a number of notable players, including Jorge Campos (Mexico), Mauricio Cienfuegos (El Salvador), Eduardo Hurtado (Ecuador) and Cobi Jones (United States). With soccer more popular than ever in the United States, the team successfully attracted both White and Latino fans.
Still, following the 2001 season, the league briefly folded as a result of mismanagement and waning interest. It lost over $250 million and suffered from low attendance. With the future direction of the league uncertain, MLS shifted its marketing toward the country’s large Latino population, and it established another new franchise: Chivas USA.
Mexican businessman and owner Jorge Vergara saw Chivas USA as an opportunity to establish an international brand for Chivas de Guadalajara — one of Mexico’s most recognized soccer clubs — and to “really be a team for Southern California Hispanics.” Early on, Chivas USA attempted to tap into Latino fans of Mexican soccer who did not follow the Galaxy. Vergara famously quipped: “It’s the Latins versus the gringos. And we’re going to win.”
After a terrible first season in 2005, Chivas USA’s identity fluctuated from being a team “led by Mexicans to a roster of U.S. and South American players and back again, sometimes within the same season.” The team never secured its own stadium as it had promised fans, opting instead to play in the Galaxy’s newly constructed soccer stadium in the L.A. suburb of Carson.
Chivas USA made national headlines in 2013 when an HBO Real Sports exposé revealed that former employees were suing the team for racial discrimination and wrongful termination of employees who did not speak Spanish. MLS eventually bought the team back from Vergara before pulling the plug altogether.
In the meantime, the Galaxy signed global superstar David Beckham to a five-year contract reportedly worth $250 million and built a roster that won an additional three league championships. But they also encouraged the founding of Angel City Brigade, a supporter group that brought a Latin American style environment to the stadium.
And filling the void left by the dissolution of Chivas USA was the Los Angeles Football Club, an MLS expansion team, which played its first game in 2018. Its rivalry with the Galaxy, known as El Tráfico, serves as a showcase for both teams to demonstrate the inroads they have made with Latino fans in Los Angeles.
Soccer in the United States has come a long way since 1968. It’s now just as popular as baseball and is the second most popular sport among 18- to 34-year-olds. As MLS continues to expand, the history of L.A. franchises teaches us that franchises cannot simply pander to the identity politics of immigrant and underserved groups for profit without thinking deeply about their relationship to the city.
As the Galaxy and LAFC begin a new season, the question is whether they will emphasize superficial commitments to multiculturalism and Latino fans, as past franchises have done, or follow through with pledged efforts to create meaningful change for the marginalized communities in Los Angeles from which they profit. | null | null | null | null | null |
Our research identified which Latino voters are especially susceptible.
Spanish-language “I voted today” stickers, at a polling place in Philadelphia on May 21, 2019. (Matt Rourke/AP)
By Jeronimo Cortina
Before the 2020 U.S. election, the Latino community was inundated with misinformation and conspiracy theories on political and health issues — including inaccurate claims that coronavirus vaccines don’t work, Democrats were illegally harvesting ballots, a Biden administration would put the United States under the control of “Jews and Blacks,” that Joe Biden was a socialist and not a “real Catholic.” According to Maria Teresa Kumar, the founder of Voto Latino, these claims were “rampant and consequential” in the 2020 election. Much of this misinformation spread uncontested or was even outright weaponized by those opposed to Joe Biden.
The 2022 elections may be no different. The left-leaning advocacy group Avaaz reports that more than 70 percent of Spanish-language political misinformation has stayed online, compared with 29 percent of English-language misinformation. Many observers are warning that the midterm elections could involve another big wave of Spanish-language misinformation. As one Democratic strategist told NBC News: “We clearly see that the music is being turned up. It’s not going away.”
When does this misinformation matter? Our research finds that where Latinos get their information plays a large role in whether they believe conspiracy theories. Perhaps not surprisingly, supporters of former president Donald Trump are especially willing to believe.
In a forthcoming research paper, we examine the factors associated with belief in conspiracy theories in the Latino community. We partnered with the Center for Mexican American and Latino/a Studies and Univision News on a national survey of Latino registered voters, fielded from Sept. 17-24, 2020, with an oversample of Latinos in Texas. The survey was administered in English or Spanish. Here we examine the Texas sample of 401 respondents in depth.
We asked whether respondents believed certain misinformation claims. The first question asked whether Joe Biden would be under the influence of the Black Lives Matter movement and antifa if he won. (While Biden sought support from those sympathetic to the BLM movement, he did not court support from antifa, the radical anti-fascist group, nor was he controlled by these groups.) The second asked whether a “deep state” was out to sabotage Donald Trump. The third asked whether the coronavirus that causes covid-19 was intentionally released by powerful people.
Our Texas Latino respondents’ belief in all three unfounded conspiracy theories was alarmingly high: 41 percent of respondents agreed it was definitely or probably true that Joe Biden was under the influence of Black Lives Matter and antifa; 35 percent believed the deep state was out to ruin the Trump presidency; and 39 percent believed that powerful people intentionally spread the coronavirus.
Why so many Latinos voted for Trump
Who believed these conspiracy theories?
In general, Republicans were no more likely to believe conspiracy theories than Democrats — with one exception: Trump supporters. This is not surprising, since the former president was a significant spreader of misinformation. Many Trump supporters relied on the president for information, including medical advice, often remaining within a media ecosystem that was an echo chamber of false statements.
Many Latinos who keep in touch with relatives throughout Latin America and the United States do so using platforms like WhatsApp. However, those apps can present unwitting opportunities for spreading misinformation. Our analysis found that more social media use was associated with a greater likelihood of belief in conspiracy theories, increasing especially among older respondents — who used social media less frequently but were more susceptible to inaccurate claims.
Our findings suggest that Latinos are affected by a different misinformation environment than reaches the U.S. population at large, and are often targeted in ways specific to their national backgrounds. For instance, many of their sources played up worries about socialism (often using the term “government handouts”), encouraged racial resentment pitting African Americans against Latinos, or preyed on distrust of authority in the Latino community.
Spanish-language media also helped spread misinformation. Respondents who got their political information on Spanish-language outlets were more likely to believe in conspiracy theories, with that likelihood increasing almost two-thirds of a point on our seven-point “conspiracy belief” scale as the respondent went from, for example, consuming Spanish-language media “not that often” to “somewhat often.”
The multitude of these stations and their relatively low profile often allows misinformation to spread. One local station’s host claimed a BLM co-founder practiced brujería, or witchcraft. Another claimed a brooch that Lady Gaga wore at Biden’s inauguration signaled that Biden was working with leftist figures abroad.
To learn about the Democratic party's future, look what Latino organizers did in Arizona
Addressing misinformation in the Latino community
Political knowledge is the cornerstone of a functional representative democracy, according to Founding Father James Madison, who wrote to William T. Barry in 1882 that “knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.” Misinformation and belief in conspiracy theories can disrupt that, with potentially dangerous consequences for democracy.
That includes among the U.S. Latino community. Across the country, Latinos account for more than half of the population growth from 2010 to 2020.
According to the U.S. census, in the November 2020 election Latinos made up 44 percent of the total voting-age population registered to vote and over 60 percent of the citizen voting-age population nationwide. In 28 states, from Minnesota to Texas, more than half the citizens of voting age are Latinos. That’s a highly diverse population, made up of many different generations, national and socioeconomic backgrounds, levels of assimilation, and political outlooks.
This makes combating misinformation in the Latino community important for American democracy. Social media platforms like YouTube and Twitter report that they are hiring more people to review Spanish-language content and to fact-check claims.
A 2020 Nieman Lab report suggested that Spanish-language media outlets offered little to no response to misinformation, allowing conspiracy theories to flourish. Last month, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus asked for meetings with leaders of Meta, TikTok, YouTube and Twitter to discuss the issue. This month, both national Spanish-language networks announced that they are expanding their moderation capacity to address misinformation’s spread.
If policymakers and political figures want an informed Latino electorate, they may wish to support these efforts and understand the medium and targets of misinformation.
Jeronimo Cortina (@jcortina) is an associate professor of political science at the University of Houston and associate director of the Center for Mexican American and Latino/a Studies.
Brandon Rottinghaus (@bjrottinghaus) is a professor of political science at the University of Houston specializing in the executive and Texas politics. Most recently he is author of Inside Texas Politics: Power, Policy, and Personality of the Lone Star State (Oxford University Press, 2020). | null | null | null | null | null |
Friday briefing: Latest on the Ukraine invasion; updating mask guidance; George Floyd verdict; Supreme Court pick; and more
Russian forces have closed in on Ukraine’s capital.
The Washington Post verified nine different videos showing explosions over Kyiv on Feb. 25, through an audio-visual sync. Five are seen here. (Twitter and Telegram)
The latest: Rockets are hitting Kyiv, and the U.S. warned the city could fall quickly. Russian forces also reportedly captured the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and an island in the Black Sea. We have live updates here.
Russia’s strategy: To try to take down the Western-backed government and replace it with its own, experts said yesterday.
The toll: More than 130 Ukrainians were killed in the first day of the invasion, Ukraine’s president said.
The U.S. and its allies hit Russia with unprecedented sanctions.
The details: The sanctions block all of Russia’s largest banks from transactions with the U.S. and target virtually every major part of its economy. They’ll have an immediate financial effect, but likely won’t stop the invasion.
In Russia: There were rare, large protests across the country yesterday against its attack.
Coming today: An emergency meeting of NATO, the Western military alliance, and a U.N. Security Council meeting.
The CDC plans to loosen its mask guidance as soon as today.
How? It’s changing the way it decides whether an area of the country is high risk, which determines whether it recommends masking indoors.
The new system: It will start looking at coronavirus hospitalizations and hospital capacity, rather than just case numbers.
Three ex-officers were convicted of violating George Floyd’s civil rights.
What happened: J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao were at the scene when a more senior Minneapolis officer, who has been convicted of murder, knelt on Floyd’s neck. They were accused of failing to step in and help when they should have.
What this verdict means: It will likely increase scrutiny over how officers are trained to intervene with one another.
President Biden could announce his Supreme Court pick today.
The latest: He has made his final decision on whom he’ll nominate to replace Justice Stephen Breyer, who is retiring, according to Post reporting.
The candidates: Biden has interviewed at least three people for the job, all Black women: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, Judge J. Michelle Childs and California Justice Leondra Kruger.
Lawmakers want to know more about Donald Trump’s records.
What’s happening: The former president, while in office, sent boxes of White House records, some of them classified, to his Florida home. A House committee has asked the National Archives for details.
What they want to know: More information on what was classified, as well as details on any of Trump’s records that had been torn up (a potentially rule-breaking habit of his).
Most Americans have more money now than before the pandemic.
The numbers: People have $2.6 trillion in extra savings, according to new data. And balances of those with lower incomes are up 70% from 2019.
Why? Stimulus and unemployment checks provided extra cushion, although higher prices have started to chip away some of that.
And now … what to watch this weekend: The Season 2 finale of HBO’s “Euphoria” is Sunday — or if you’re looking for something lighter, try one of these feel-good suggestions. Plus, what to play: “Elden Ring,” a much-hyped video game, was released today. | null | null | null | null | null |
Theron and Kelci Jagge stand with their newly adopted son, Ruslan, at a train station in the Donetsk region in Eastern Ukraine on Feb. 9. (Courtesy Theron Jagge)
Theron and Kelci Jagge’s driver sped through Kyiv, flying over train tracks and darting through traffic in a mad dash to reach the U.S. Embassy. The couple was on a desperate mission to secure a visa for their adopted son before embassy personnel were pulled out of Ukraine’s capital.
After seven hours in the airport, and having missed their flight, the family went back to an apartment in the city. That’s when they realized the crisis was intensifying, Jagge said. Residents were being advised to stock up on water and supplies in the event of power outages, he recalled. Meanwhile, the Jagges met with a lawyer who said she could argue their case to the guards, but the attorney warned they only had about a 50 percent chance of success.
In what Jagge referred to as a miracle, it worked. On Feb. 14, the lawyer was able to get Ruslan cleared to leave the country, Jagge said. While flights out of Ukraine were getting harder to find, the Jagges managed to book one to Istanbul. From there, the family flew to the United States and rushed the boy to the hospital.
About 10 days later, Russian troops invaded Ukraine and attacks on cities, including Kyiv, followed. U.S. government officials said early Friday the capital could soon fall to advancing Russian troops, The Post reported.
Ruslan, meanwhile, remains in an intensive care unit, Jagge said, and “he’s doing a lot better now.” Once released, the boy will join the Jagges and their two other children — an 11-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son — just outside San Antonio. But Theron Jagge continues to think of the 80-odd children at the orphanage from which he and his wife had adopted Ruslan. Kramatorsk, the city in Eastern Ukraine where the orphanage is located, has experienced multiple explosions, according to BuzzFeed and the New York Times. | null | null | null | null | null |
The measures target a range of companies, banks and powerful individuals in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.
On Thursday, President Biden announced a second round of sanctions against Russia’s two largest financial institutions, multiple state-owned enterprises and a handful of Russian elites. Prime Minister Boris Johnson also told Parliament on Thursday that his government was launching the “largest and most severe package of economic sanctions that Russia has ever seen.”
Earlier this week, the European Union said it was freezing the assets of a number of prominent entities and individuals linked to the Kremlin. E.U. officials also announced early Friday a sweeping new sanctions package they said would affect everything including Russia’s oil sector and the ability of Russian diplomats to obtain visas to the bloc.
The Internet Research Agency is a Russian company based in St. Petersburg and financed by Yevgeniy Prigozhin, a Kremlin-linked businessman already under E.U. and U.S. sanctions for his ties to the Wagner mercenary group. The European Union this week listed Prigozhin’s wife and mother as sanctions targets for their involvement with businesses owned by Prigozhin.
“In this capacity, the Internet Research Agency is responsible for actively supporting actions which undermine and threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine,” the note said.
Prigozhin’s first foray into business was a hot-dog stand. In a series of food-related ventures in the 1990s, he opened a fast food cafe, then food marts and upscale restraints in Russia’s major cities. He later became known as “Putin’s chef” after founding a catering company that scored a $1.6 billion contract to source 90 percent of food orders to Russian soldiers in 2012.
The E.U. listed him, saying he plays “an active role in Kremlin decision-making process by taking part in the Russian ‘Security Council’ and influencing the elaboration of decisions by the president in the field of Russia’s defense and national security.”
The E.U. sanctioned him, saying that under Shoigu’s “command and orders, Russian troops have held military drills in the illegally annexed Crimea and have been positioned at the border.” The minister is “ultimately responsible for any military action against Ukraine,” the official sanctions note said.
The European Union, which this week placed her on a sanctions list, said that “through her function, she promoted a positive attitude to the annexation of Crimea and the action of separatists in Donbas.”
Andrey Sergeyevich Puchkov and Yuriy Alekseyevich Soloviev are high-ranking executives at VTB Bank, which is Russia’s second-largest lender. The U.S. Treasury Department blacklisted both executives on Thursday.
The administration targeted VTB Bank as well as Sberbank, cutting them off from being able to process payments through the U.S. financial system. The institutions conduct around $46 billion in foreign exchange transactions each day, about 80 percent of which is in U.S. dollars.
“The vast majority of those transactions will now be disrupted,” the Treasury Department said in a statement.
The E.U. also listed several individuals linked to VTB this week, including Denis Aleksandrovich Bortnikov, deputy president and chairman of VTB Bank management board.
In a note published in the E.U.'s official journal Wednesday, the bloc said that Bortnikov uses his position to “legitimize his father’s shadow/illegal income.” His father, Alexander Bortnikov, is director of Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB.
Among the new additions to Britain’s sanctions list is Kirill Shamalov, whom the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has described as “Russia’s youngest billionaire … previously married to Putin’s daughter Katarina.”
Shamalov, 39, is a shareholder and deputy chair of the management board at Russian government-affiliated petrochemicals company Sibur — a role in which he “is or has been involved in obtaining a benefit from or supporting the Government of Russia,” according to British authorities.
The U.K. sanctions list describes him as having “close links to President Putin and the Kremlin.” That could be because he was married for five years to Katerina Tikhonova, who is widely acknowledged outside official circles as Putin’s daughter. (Putin has never publicly identified his children.) | null | null | null | null | null |
India avoids condemning Russian invasion of Ukraine, keeps aloof from Biden’s coalition against Moscow
As fighting erupted Thursday in Ukraine, Russian and Ukrainian diplomats in New Delhi presented dueling pitches. The ranking Russian envoy, Roman Babushkin, praised Modi’s “independent and balanced” approach and offered a reminder of what was at stake. “Russia is the only country which is sharing sophisticated technologies with India and defense cooperation between us is a strong factor for international peace and stability,” he told Indian media outlets. “We have big plans and we hope that our partnership will continue at the same level which we are enjoying today.”
The Ukrainian ambassador to India, Igor Polikha, told reporters that he was “deeply dissatisfied” with India’s position, which he attributed to its “special, privileged, strategic relation with Russia.” He pleaded for Modi’s help to restrain Putin at what he called “the moment of destiny.”
Meanwhile, India’s foreign policy circles remained deeply ambivalent about the course ahead. Even though maintaining neutrality angered Washington, it would be equally difficult for India to alienate Moscow now, said Sushant Singh, a fellow at the Center for Policy Research, a think tank in New Delhi. | null | null | null | null | null |
Ukraine says Chernobyl radiation levels ‘exceeded,’ as Russia confirms its forces seized the nuclear plant
A worker sets a flag signaling radioactivity in front of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant during a drill organized by Ukraine's Emergency Ministry in 2006. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images)
The Ukrainian government warned Friday that radiation levels near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant site have “exceeded” control levels, as the Russian military confirmed it has captured the area but insisted that radiation levels remained “normal.”
“The control levels of gamma radiation dose rate in the Exclusion zone were exceeded,” the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine, a government body, said in a statement early Friday.
Local experts “connect this with disturbance of the top layer of soil from movement of a large number of radio heavy military machinery through the Exclusion zone and increase of air pollution,” it added. However, it noted that “the condition of Chernobyl nuclear facilities and other facilities is unchanged.”
Earlier Friday, the body said that although data “from the automated radiation monitoring system of the exclusion zone” indicated that the control levels of gamma radiation had risen, it was “currently impossible to establish the reasons for the change in the radiation background in the exclusion zone because of the occupation and military fight in this territory.”
The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is a 1,000-square-mile zone of forest surrounding the shuttered plant and lies between the Belarus-Ukraine border and the Ukrainian capital.
The Chernobyl nuclear power plant, then under the control of the Soviet Union, became infamous as the scene of an April 1986 disaster, when a series of explosions and fires sent a huge radioactive cloud over parts of Europe and left a no man’s land of contaminated soil and other fallout, which remains dangerous.
The catastrophe ranks as the world’s worst nuclear power plant accident.
On Friday, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that its forces have taken control of the area near the power plant as part of Russia’s wider invasion of Ukraine, which began Thursday and sparked global outrage.
“Yesterday, on February 24, units of the Russian Airborne Forces took full control of the area around the Chernobyl NPP,” or nuclear power plant, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Friday, according to the Interfax news agency.
Russia countered Ukraine’s statement and said radiation levels were normal.
“Radiation levels are normal in the NPP area. The NPP personnel continue to operate the power plant as usual and to monitor radiation levels,” Konashenkov added.
Radiation poses an invisible threat. It’s impossible to smell or see and can be detected only with a special measuring device. Health effects are not immediately apparent unless a person has been exposed to a very large dose.
Ukraine’s armed forces conducted combat and first aid training drills on Feb. 5 in an abandoned town near the site of the 1986 nuclear power plant disaster. (Whitney Shefte/The Washington Post)
In the decades since the accident, studies have shown that radiation from the Chernobyl plant led to various health conditions, including thyroid problems, particularly in children. The United Nations estimated that at least 4,000 people may have died as a result of exposure to radiation.
The Chernobyl zone, one of the most radioactively contaminated places in the world, has remained closed since 1986, although a small number of people still live in the area — mostly elderly Ukrainians who refused to evacuate.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry warned Thursday that the Russian capture of the plant “may cause another ecological disaster,” if the conflict continued.
“Our defenders are giving their lives so that the tragedy of 1986 will not be repeated,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also tweeted Thursday. “This is a declaration of war against the whole of Europe.”
In a further twist, the White House expressed its outrage over “credible” reports that Russian forces were holding the staff of the Chernobyl nuclear facilities hostage.
“We are outraged by credible reports that Russian soldiers are currently holding the staff of the Chernobyl facilities hostage. This unlawful and dangerous hostage-taking, which could upend the routine civil service efforts required to maintain and protect the nuclear waste facilities, is obviously incredibly alarming and greatly concerning,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a Thursday news briefing. “We condemn it, and we request their release.”
Konashenkov, the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, did not address reports of hostages early Friday but said the workers were still operating the plant. “The safety of power units is ensured together with the staff of the Ukrainian security battalion,” he said, adding that “the radiation background is normal.”
The Chernobyl plant decommissioning team had been operating a scaled-back “downtime” service since Feb. 15 due to an outbreak of coronavirus cases among staff, its official website said.
The building containing the exploded reactor from 1986 was covered in 2017 by an enormous concrete shelter aimed at containing radiation still leaking from the accident. Robots inside the shelter work to dismantle the destroyed reactor and gather up the radioactive waste. It’s expected to take until 2064 to finish dismantling the reactors.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a statement Thursday that it was following the situation in Ukraine “with grave concern” and appealed for “maximum restraint” to avoid any action that may put Ukraine’s nuclear facilities at risk.
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in the statement that it was of “vital importance” that the safe and secure operations of the nuclear facilities in that zone not be affected or disrupted in any way.
Andrew Jeong, William Branigin, David L. Stern and Claire Parker contributed to this report. | null | null | null | null | null |
A U.S. military aircraft takes off from Ramstein Air Base in Germany, Feb. 25, 2022, after President Biden authorized the deployment of more U.S. forces as part of NATO's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (Ronald Wittek/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
But the 30-member organization, formed to provide collective security against the Soviet Union, is also being tested more than ever as it charts a path forward while being pulled into a face-off with Russia.
After an emergency meeting Thursday, NATO’s political decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council, said the alliance may bolster its eastern flank in the days and weeks ahead, but it declined to spell when or where.
A group of Eastern European countries — including Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania — called this week for alliance consultations under Article 4 of the NATO’s charter, which allows any member to request a meeting when its territorial integrity or political independence is threatened. | null | null | null | null | null |
Alex Kersting, left, and Ravi Patel in “Butter.” (Blue Fox Entertainment)
Excellent drama about mental health has suicidal ideation.
“Butter” is a high school drama that centers on Marshall (Alex Kersting), an obese teen who feels that the only way to be seen is to film himself eating himself to death. The film deals frankly with suicidal ideation and other heavy topics, including attempted suicide, binge-eating and other disordered eating symptoms and mental illness. Language is strong (“s---,” “b----” and more), and there are scenes of underage drinking. The film focuses on the importance of accepting others and helping those who are in distress, as well as the importance of reaching out when you need help. Themes include communication, compassion and empathy. (110 minutes)
Swoon-worthy musical take on classic romance; some violence.
“Cyrano” is a musical retelling of Edmond Rostand’s classic French play “Cyrano de Bergerac.” Adapted from the 2018 stage version that was written and produced by Erica Schmidt (wife of star Peter Dinklage), it’s set in the 17th century and features pop songs, choreography, costumes and swoon-worthy romance that will appeal to teens and older tweens. Some differences from the classic: Cyrano (Dinklage) and his love, Roxanne (Haley Bennett), are childhood friends rather than cousins, and Cyrano is self-conscious about his height rather than having a large nose. Overall, the movie has strong messages about the importance of honesty and communication and presents an intentionally diverse version of 1600s Europe. Expect quite a bit of wartime violence, as well as street fighting involving swords and muskets, a man being hoisted by a noose around his neck, a fatal stabbing and a person being set on fire — but the movie’s musical elements help reinforce that it’s not real. While it’s worded in a way that children won’t necessarily understand, a woman is threatened with rape; she finds a clever solution, but her move results in terrible consequences for others. Language includes infrequent use of words such as “s---” and “slut.” (124 minutes)
Throwback cartoon recipe adds a dash of sweetness; violence.
“The Cuphead Show!” is an animated series based on the popular video game. Its vintage-style animation and bouncy pace is modeled after cartoons of the 1930s, and its content is similar, as well. Rockets, cannons, gunpowder and explosions appear often. Characters fight and argue about small things, but the central characters ultimately care about each other. They sometimes meet others who lie, steal or use violence. Insults use mostly antiquated terms: “ding dong,” “oh, banana oil,” “dumb yokels,” “loser,” “punk.” There are also some spooky scenes. The Devil is the central villain and dwells underground while trying to steal souls. His head floats around, he has horns and he turns into a serpent with sharp teeth. His voice is more funny than scary, though, and he’s easily tricked. Between bouts of cartoon violence and name-calling, there are small examples of things like sharing, forgiveness and teamwork. (12 12-minute episodes)
Very dramatic reboot of classic sitcom has language.
“Bel-Air” is a reboot of the popular ’90s show “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” which starred Will Smith. The series, now a serious drama instead of a sitcom, has numerous instances of language, including “f---,” “s---,” “damn,” the n-word, “bulls---,” “a--.” as well as scenes including drug use and violence. (10 roughly hour-long episodes)
Available on Peacock. | null | null | null | null | null |
A monument to Vladimir the Great is pictured during the prayer service for the 1,031st anniversary of Christianization of Rus-Ukraine, in Kyiv in 2019. (Future Publishing/Hennadii Minchenko/Barcroft Media/Getty Images)
“He who loves Russia and wishes it well can only pray for Vladimir, placed at the head of Russia by God’s will.” The monk Tikhon Shevkunov, who pronounced these words, had a double entendre in mind: He was connecting a 10th-century ruler of a country called Rus, whom Russians call Vladimir the Great, with present-day Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin. Shevkunov, who is close to Putin, was legitimating Putin’s rule with a gesture at eternity.
Shevkunov spoke those words in 2009, when Putin was prime minister, in the interregnum between his presidencies. After Putin’s return to the presidency in 2012, he endorsed this understanding of his role. It’s not so much that he keeps extending the term limit of his rule indefinitely into the future (it is now 2036); it’s more that he justifies perpetual rule by reference to the ancient past.
In a 2012 address to the Russian Parliament, Putin suggested that he was fulfilling an eternal cycle initiated by Vladimir. Within such a logic, Russians have no need to think of any other leader. A central problem of Russian politics — who comes next — is pushed to the side.
Since then, Putin has repeatedly invoked his namesake, who ruled from Kyiv, to claim some essential unity between Russia and Ukraine. While visiting Kyiv in July 2013, Putin claimed that God wanted the two countries to be together — that their union was based upon “the authority of the Lord,” unalterable by an earthly force. That September, he made the same claim in secular terms, speaking of an “organic model” of Russian statehood, in which Ukraine was part of the Russian body.
“We have common traditions, a common mentality, a common history and a common culture,” he said. “We have very similar languages. In that respect, I want to repeat again, we are one people.”
Ukraine was supposed to sign an association agreement with the European Union two months later, in November 2013. Putin tried to halt that process by applying pressure to the Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych. But Yanukovych’s change of mind led to broad protests, and the attempt to suppress the “Euromaidan” only made it stronger. Russian agents flew to Kyiv to help suppress the protests. Two days after a mass shooting on Feb. 20, 2014, Yanukovych fled to Russia.
By then, Russian troops were already on the move. On Feb. 24, 2014, Russia invaded the Crimean peninsula. Putin said that Crimea had to be part of Russia because Vladimir was baptized there. This baptism more than a thousand years ago “predetermined the overall basis of the culture, civilization, and human values that unite the peoples of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.”
But this is not how history works. Nothing is predetermined. There are countless lines between the past and present, not just one.
The actual history is different and much more interesting. Vladimir is a much later Russian transliteration of Valdemar, a Scandinavian name. Valdemar descended from a group of Viking slave traders called the Rus, who had established a trade route that ran through Kyiv down the Dnieper (Dnipro) River. Kyiv became their main trading post and later their capital.
Russia invades Ukraine: latest news and updates
It does appear that Valdemar converted to Eastern Christianity, after he and his family had considered a number of other possibilities, including Western Christianity, Judaism, Islam and pagan syncretism. But his doing so did not create modern nations — entities that arose about a thousand years later — let alone any sort of union among them.
What we do know about Valdemar's life suggests a more elemental truth about politics. Ancient Rus was unstable because there was no principle of succession. This is a problem shared by today's Russia. No one knows what will happen when Putin dies or is overthrown. What Russians do know is that there will be no democratic election during his lifetime to settle the issue. And so Putin strives for eternal glory through a war grounded in myth.
Ukraine is different. There, presidents lose elections and depart — something that has never happened in Russia. Ukraine’s current president, Volodymyr Zelensky (whose name is the Ukrainian version of Valdemar), defeated a sitting president in 2019.
Putin's justification of power, eternal rule sanctified by God, makes Ukrainian democracy doubly intolerable, both as Ukraine and as democracy. Thus the grand cyclical mission of one Vladimir to save a Russia created by another.
If we consider what we know of Valdemar’s actual history, we see the problems that arise in the absence of a succession principle. To win Kyiv, Valdemar made for Scandinavia to seek military assistance against his brothers, who also staked a claim. When he died in 1015, Valdemar had imprisoned his son Sviatopulk and was marching against his son Yaroslav. After Valdemar’s death, Sviatopulk killed three of his brothers, only to be defeated on the battlefield by his brother Yaroslav. Sviatopulk then brought in the Polish king and a Polish army to defeat his brother. For his part, Yaroslav recruited an army of Pechenegs — people who, incidentally, had killed his grandfather and drunk from his skull. With their aid, he defeated Sviatopulk, who fell in battle.
Ultimately, the succession from Valdemar to Yaroslav took 17 years, and was only complete when 10 of Valdemar's other sons were dead. For the next two centuries, with some brief intervals, it was more of the same. Usually the Mongols are blamed for the collapse of Rus, but the truth is that the realm was divided long before the Mongols dealt the final blow in 1241.
That history is one that might trouble Russians today. One can speak of “the test of Valdemar”: Does your country have a succession principle? Volodymyr Zelensky’s Ukraine passes this test; Vladimir Putin’s Russia does not.
Back in 2009, Shevkunov spoke of the two Vladimirs and of “God’s will” just after he and Putin had visited the grave of the 20th-century philosopher Ivan Ilyin. A few years earlier, Putin had overseen the reinterment of Ilyin’s remains. Asked in 2014 to name the historian who had most influenced him, Putin cited Ilyin.
Ilyin was no historian; he was a leading fascist thinker. He wished for a savior from beyond history, who would unite the nation with violence. In the Russia he imagined, elections would have no meaning, and leadership would depend upon charisma. Ilyin believed that Ukraine did not exist and that anyone who even mentioned its name was an enemy of Russia.
In speeches Monday and Thursday, as he ordered Russian troops into Ukraine, Putin echoed fascist themes from the late 1930s, claiming that a neighboring state did not exist, that another people was artificial while his own was real, that violence was needed to protect a people “united by blood” against another infected by “viruses.” Putin’s self-appointed role as political messiah refers to his namesake of a millennium ago, but its real sources appear to lie much nearer. | null | null | null | null | null |
A Black lawyer who dismantled barriers, for herself and many others
The first Black woman appointed to a federal judgeship, Constance Baker Motley, in her chambers in New York in 2004, at age 82. (BEBETO MATTHEWS/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
By Patricia Sullivan
Patricia Sullivan is the author of “Justice Rising: Robert Kennedy’s America in Black and White.”
From 1946 to the 1960s, Constance Baker Motley was the sole woman on the small team of lawyers waging an insurgent challenge to the South’s racial caste system and laying the foundation for the civil rights revolution that transformed American life. The first Black woman appointed to a federal judgeship, in 1966, Motley’s rulings advanced the rights of women, gays and lesbians, prisoners, and the homeless. In “Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality,” Tomiko Brown-Nagin recovers the story of this pioneering lawyer and jurist and invites a fresh consideration of the civil rights movement and the nature of its achievements.
Brown-Nagin, a legal historian and dean of Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute, captures the arc of a life spanning the Depression era to the dawn of the 21st century. The interplay of forces that set young Constance Baker on her unlikely course are key to the story. Born to working-class immigrants from the Caribbean island of Nevis, Baker grew up in a close-knit community in New Haven, Conn., and excelled as a student. Her family’s economic struggles and the rampant poverty and suffering of the Depression years drew her to community activism and into a circle of young radicals and New Deal activists. College was beyond her family’s financial reach, but good fortune intervened. A local philanthropist, moved by a bold speech Baker delivered at a community center event, offered to pay for her college education and beyond.
Baker’s first encounter with the raw indignities of segregation was on a train ride to Nashville in the fall of 1941 to attend Fisk University, a historically Black college. She thrived at this oasis of Black achievement and cultural life, but the cloistered atmosphere and student apathy about pressing social issues did not suit her. After a year, she departed for New York University and then moved uptown to Harlem to attend law school at Columbia University.
Among the few Black women who had cracked the barriers to study at one of the nation’s elite law schools, Baker attempted to find legal work in New York but met impenetrable resistance. Upon arriving to interview for an internship at a Wall Street firm, “the partner looked at her as if he ‘had seen an unidentified flying object,’” Brown-Nagin writes. After other rejections followed, Baker found her way to the operation run by Thurgood Marshall in two cramped offices overlooking New York’s Bryant Park. As Brown-Nagin describes it, “Marshall wasted no time in offering the beautiful and brainy Baker the internship she sought.” After graduation, Baker continued in a full-time position with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Soon afterward, she married Joel Motley Jr., beginning their lifelong partnership.
After World War II, the NAACP resumed a concentrated legal campaign of targeting educational inequities, part of a broader strategy to topple the South’s system of segregation. Motley tried her first case in Jackson, Miss., in 1949, challenging discriminatory pay for Black teachers. She was the first woman to try a case in a Mississippi courtroom, and she and co-counsel Robert Carter were the first Black lawyers to appear in court since Reconstruction. Black people jammed into the federal courthouse to watch the two brilliant and confident Black attorneys commanding answers and grudging respect from White officials. While the judge ruled against them, the experience elevated the hopes of Black Mississippians that change was possible.
Motley wrote the complaint for Brown v. Board of Education. The historic 1954 Supreme Court decision declaring school segregation unconstitutional marked the beginning of an intense battle. Brown-Nagin vividly captures how the seasoned legal team pushed to enforce the ruling in the face of mobs, defiant White officials and a distant federal government. Mob rule ultimately foiled Motley’s efforts to sustain the court-ordered admission of Autherine Lucy to the University of Alabama in 1956. Lucy was accepted and registered for classes, but was expelled a few days later. In 1961, in a breakthrough case, Motley headed the team that desegregated the University of Georgia with the admission of Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes, a feat that “cemented her standing,” Brown-Nagin observes. The agonizing circumstances surrounding James Meredith’s admission to the University of Mississippi in 1962, and Motley’s deep personal investment in his success, are powerfully recounted here.
By the early 1960s, the strategy of direct action involving boycotts, sit-ins and marches; the founding of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; and the launching of voting rights campaigns broadened the base and accelerated the pace of the civil rights movement. Brown-Nagin pays scant attention to this rapidly shifting landscape, sticking closely to Motley’s activities, notably her close relationship with Martin Luther King Jr. Motley played a largely overlooked role in the 1963 Birmingham campaign; most significant was her representation of the more than 1,000 students expelled from school for their participation in the protests. Motley secured an after-hours appeal before Judge Elbert Tuttle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, who struck down a lower court’s ruling that upheld the expulsions — a ruling that would have had devastating consequences for the students, their families and the local movement. Motley remembered her advocacy for these children as her greatest “professional satisfaction.”
In the mid-1960s, as historic civil rights legislation codified legal victories, desperate urban conditions exposed the limited reach of legal remedies, igniting rebellions that escalated through the end of the decade. Motley’s professional career entered a new phase. In 1964, she ran successfully for a seat in the New York state Senate, becoming the first Black woman to serve in that body. A year later she was the New York City Council’s unanimous choice to serve as interim Manhattan borough president, the first woman to hold that position. In November 1965, she ran unopposed for a four-year term. As Brown-Nagin tellingly explains, Motley believed that the mid-1960s “had ushered in a time of rebirth and reward for elite Blacks.” In Motley’s words, “For educated Blacks, our time had come.”
In 1966, Lyndon Johnson appointed Motley to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York — a historic appointment of the first Black woman to a federal judgeship. Motley was 45 years old and would serve until her death in 2005. Expectations for her were high, and, as Brown-Nagin reveals, assumptions about how her race, gender and past work as a civil rights lawyer would bias her rulings were rampant. Motley’s very presence on the bench inspired women and African Americans, and she became a generous mentor to a rising generation of female jurists.
Judge Motley interpreted and applied the changes in law that she had done much to secure. Brown-Nagin’s rich narrative highlights the major cases and rulings that marked these years and define her legacy, such as Blank v. Sullivan & Cromwell, a watershed case that opened opportunities to women in elite law firms. Among the most fascinating and controversial was Motley’s ruling in the case of Martin Sostre, which broke ground in the protection of prison inmates’ civil and religious rights. Brown-Nagin describes it as “the most audacious ruling of [her] entire judicial career.”
“Civil Rights Queen” considers Motley’s work and achievements within the world where she moved. There are brief references to more radical critiques of and approaches to the consequences of America’s tortured racial history, including a fascinating moment in 1961 when Motley engaged in a televised debate with Malcolm X on the question of “Where Is the Negro Headed?” Brown-Nagin underscores Motley’s singular focus on the law-based approach to racial change and civil rights advancement; it provided tangible results. By the late 1960s, however, Martin Luther King Jr. was among many who despaired over the poverty, deprivation and blighted hopes of Black urban communities, untouched by civil rights gains.
At a time when rights are being rolled back and history itself is under assault, this exemplary biography is timely and essential. As a Black woman, Motley was out front in dismantling gender and racial barriers; as a lawyer and jurist, she was a leader in the civil rights revolution that reached into many sectors of American life. The unfinished and perilous work to realize an inclusive and robust democracy reminds us there is no clear path. The story of Motley and the broader civil rights struggle, beyond a tally of victories and defeats, has much to teach us about the creativity, dedication, faith and boldness that keep the light burning.
Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality | null | null | null | null | null |
Of course, Russia invaded Ukraine anyway. More and tougher sanctions are planned in response, and the anticipation of them alone has been enough to crash financial markets in Russia, but at this point, Putin seems to have priced this into his calculations. In an era when sanctions often feel like the default U.S. response to every international crisis, Russia is already the second-most sanctioned country by the United States, after Iran. Barack Obama designated around 500 organizations and individuals for sanctions every year, and Donald Trump almost doubled that. The Biden administration has not been shy about slapping sanctions on countries from China to Belarus to North Korea to Cuba. Politicians love sanctions for an obvious reason: They’re a way of taking concrete action to address wrongdoing — terrorism, illegal weapons programs, human rights abuses, invading another sovereign nation — without committing U.S. military force or putting American lives at risk.
Nevertheless, the architects of the interwar sanctions system were often remarkably prescient about the risks of what they were doing. Modern sanctions took a tool of war out of the hands of generals and gave it to civilian politicians far from the battlefield. It also gave them away to punish foreign enemies with little physical or political risk to themselves. It was, therefore, very tempting to use. As Arnold-Forster put it, referring to the British foreign secretary: “When the aggressor has to go on sticking his bayonet into the passive resisters … even he will come to see in time that the process is unpleasant. But in the case of blockade there is no such direct contact with the results to act as a check.”
In the era in which they were developed, sanctions were viewed as a tool build a new international order, free from the scourge of international war. Today, they often feel like the last flailing attempts to keep that order from breaking down. | null | null | null | null | null |
Fashion’s victims: The environment, the colonized and the poor
A woman prepares to weave fabric on a handloom near Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2020. A few traditional weavers are left in the country, where huge garment factories churn out cheaper alternatives. (MUNIR UZ ZAMAN/AFP via Getty Images)
By Balaji Ravichandran
Balaji Ravichandran is a writer based in New York.
“Do you understand muslins, sir?” Mrs. Allen asks Mr. Tilney in Jane Austen’s “Northanger Abbey,” bewildered that a man should know or care about fabric. Mr. Tilney, it turns out, not only does but can even distinguish “true Indian muslins” from cheap imitations. Mrs. Allen’s remark might seem no more than a passing detail that establishes her fashion-obsessed character, but as always with Austen, there is more to it than meets the eye.
The Indian subcontinent had been the home of muslin, a cotton fabric of plain weave, for centuries. Indian muslin was as treasured in Rome as in China, and in the 16th and 17th centuries it was all the rage in Europe. Yet, if we seldom speak of muslins today, or come across fine Indian muslins only in the pages of Jane Austen, there is a reason. British colonialism, which wedded aggressive protectionism at home to violent free trade abroad, forced local artisans to give up their craft and switch to cotton cultivation instead, bringing a long and beautiful tradition to a swift and precipitous decline. Indian muslin became a rare, sought-after commodity in Europe, while English muslin — cheap, industrial, protected by the state — became the norm. As Mr. Tilney observes, “Muslin always turns to some account or other.”
Sofi Thanhauser’s “Worn: A People’s History of Clothing” is a compilation of many such “accounts” of fabric, from which we learn that, if we were a bit more curious about our clothes, they would offer us rich, interesting and often surprising insights into human history. It is a deep and sustained inquiry into the origins of what we wear, and what we have worn for the past 500 years, as well as into the material conditions and social consequences of their production.
The book is divided into five parts, each devoted to a particular fabric: linen, cotton, silk, synthetics and wool. Thanhauser travels the world and learns firsthand about the origin of each fabric, the means and manner of its production, its connections to local history, and what impact it has on the lives of the people. She also provides the larger historical and anthropological context to show how, and to what extent, textile manufacturing has been at the heart of great sociopolitical movements around the world.
Take cotton. The author begins her journey at Lubbock, Tex., where she witnesses a cotton harvest. This allows her to discuss — though not in any great detail — the role slavery played in the establishment and cultivation of a crop of which the United States is now the largest global exporter. She counts the environmental debt cotton incurs: “twenty thousand liters of water to make a pair of jeans, enough to grow the wheat a person would need to bake a loaf of bread each week for a year.” She describes the devastating effects that herbicides and pesticides have on the ecosystem, as well as on the people who work the fields. She then tours cotton factories in South India, once the leading supplier of the world’s cotton. This provides her the occasion to examine the devastating effects of British colonialism, as well as those of modern free-market practices, on what was once a rich and diverse textile tradition. Intensive cotton farming, she learns, is implicated in droughts, poisoning of water supplies, death and disease of animals, and starvation and suicide among farmers. Lastly, she turns her attention to China’s Xinjiang region and its Uyghur population, and the appropriation of its lands for the production of cotton. If the establishment of forced labor camps in Xinjiang allows China to both minimize production costs and efface the religious and ethnic identity of the Uyghur people, it is also a supply chain arrangement that has aided the profits of many Western companies.
We read of similar connections between the fortunes of linen and women’s rights in the workplace; between the decline of Chinese silk and the rise, by way of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, of mass fashion; and between the introduction of synthetic fabrics and the aggressive reach of the United States in the global textile trade. We read, again and again, of ecological disasters unleashed by the fashion industry and of the repeated displacement of diverse, handmade, indigenous clothing by cheap, industrial, homogeneous garments. We learn that fast fashion — the mass manufacture of seasonal, low-cost clothes, copied from the catwalk, designed to be disposable and destined for the landfill — is responsible for a fifth of global wastewater and a 10th of carbon emissions.
The driving force is always greed and the unquenchable desire for capital; the casualties are always the poor, the vanquished and the marginalized. Though Thanhauser finds some grounds for hope in acts of individual resistance, in small-scale revivals of indigenous traditions and local crafts, the diagnosis, and the forecast, are bleak. She understands that buying local wool, shopping at vintage stores or sewing one’s own clothes can go only so far and are, at any rate, affordable for just a few. She cannot solve this problem alone.
The subtitle of “Worn” is “A People’s History of Clothing.” Yet, as a work of history, it is less popular than personal and less about clothing itself — its types, its richness, its diversity — than about the sociopolitical dimensions of its production. Those who hope to find out from this book what wonderful clothes people used to wear, in what different ways and for what varied purposes, might be disappointed. It is one thing to describe the history and present state of textile industries in India, for example, but it is unfortunate that Thanhauser does not take this opportunity to discuss the long history of the sari, its evolution through centuries of conquest and colonialism, and its connections to gender, religion and sexuality in India. The scope of the book is narrower than its ambition, and the writing seldom attains the eloquence to which it aspires.
These reservations notwithstanding, I still want people to read this book. As an argument against the horrors of fast fashion and the social and environmental disasters it provokes, it is powerful and persuasive. What’s more, it might make you think twice about stepping into that high-street store again.
A People’s History of Clothing
By Sofi Thanhauser | null | null | null | null | null |
His speech this week makes it clear he’s out to restore “historic Russia”
Russian President Vladimir Putin signs documents, including a decree recognizing two Russian-backed breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent, at the Kremlin on Feb. 21. (Alexey Nikolsky/AFP/Getty Images)
By Daniel Treisman
President Vladimir Putin’s emotional speech on Monday justifying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was eye-opening in many ways. Among other things, it cast new light on the Russian president’s complicated and evolving relationship with the Soviet past.
Even before this week’s attack, Putin’s use of troops abroad — in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine — has been taken by some as evidence of a desire to rebuild the Soviet Union. U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), among others, have suggested this interpretation. So did President Biden in his Thursday comments announcing further sanctions.
And Putin’s own words have at times supported this interpretation — in 2005, for instance, he called the collapse of the USSR “a major geopolitical disaster of the [20th] century.”
In fact, what Monday’s speech reveals isn’t nostalgia for the Soviet state but Putin’s fury at the incompetence of early communist leaders who built it on such rickety foundations. In his current view, Vladimir Lenin and associates tore apart what Putin thinks of as “historic Russia” — and he is not about to forgive or forget.
Putin blames Russia’s Bolsheviks
In his hour-long tirade, Putin seemed at times more angry at the Bolsheviks who created the Soviet Union than at modern-day Western leaders.
Lenin, in his telling, pandered to nationalists, split up historically Russian territories and planted a land mine in the Soviet constitution by giving each Soviet republic the right to secede. Lenin, he continued, built “odious and utopian fantasies” that were “absolutely destructive” into the architecture of the state.
The Bolsheviks’ approach was “not just a mistake but much worse than a mistake.” According to Putin, their “injustices, lies and outright pillage” led directly to the 1991 Soviet collapse that scattered enclaves of ethnic Russians across now-independent countries.
Offering to help “decommunize” Ukraine, Putin made clear that the restructuring he had in mind would leave little of the country intact.
Of course, Putin’s logic here is flawed. Ukraine’s secession had nothing to do with Lenin’s secession clause. The Ukrainian independence declaration in 1991 made no mention of the Soviet constitution, which by that point had been discredited. Instead, Ukraine cited the right to self-determination in the U.N. Charter.
But that’s not the point. The real surprise in Monday’s speech is the abuse Putin heaps on communist icons and the Soviet historical record. Even the extended essay he published last summer, which in many ways prefigured this week’s speech, did not achieve the same intensity of anti-Bolshevik vitriol.
What made Putin so anti-communist?
Putin has been falling out of love with Soviet communism for a long time. The story of this disenchantment is important for what it says about the Russian president’s current motives.
As a spy in Dresden in the 1980s, Putin already saw himself as a technocratic specialist for whom too much ideology got in the way. “For us professionals,” he once told his political adviser Gleb Pavlovsky, “it hindered our work.”
As the Berlin Wall collapsed, Putin was shocked by the Soviet superpower’s inability to defend itself. Angry crowds surrounded the KGB outpost in Dresden and Putin requested reinforcements. But, as he later recalled, “Moscow was silent.” To Putin, this was a stunning betrayal of the Soviet state by its communist leaders.
Still, he remained at least ambivalent. As president, 10 years later, he was solicitous of the many communists who were nostalgic for Soviet greatness. To the horror of liberals then supporting him, he restored the rousing Soviet-era music of the national anthem. New in power, he even drank a toast to Stalin with Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov.
In part, this was electoral calculation — Putin still needed the backing of left-leaning older Russians. But in 2003, the Kremlin’s political operatives crushed the Communist Party as a political force and stole many of its voters by denouncing the party’s financial ties to billionaire oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Putin prosecuted him for tax fraud, and the Kremlin co-opted the party.
Still, Putin rarely spoke negatively about communism. In 2016, he confessed, “I really liked and still like communist and socialist ideas,” and claimed to have kept his old party card.
That Putin has complicated feelings about Russia’s past is hardly accidental. His father, a war veteran, was a loyal communist. His mother, a devout Russian Orthodox believer, secretly had the future president baptized. He grew up between two ideals.
At heart, Putin has always been a conservative, with a horror of revolutions — who was unlucky enough to grow up in a society that was forged by one. But by the Brezhnev era, when Putin came of age, the Bolshevik Revolution had crystallized into a tradition. Rather than images of anarchic street fighting, the 1917 revolution evoked ritualistic parades and collective celebrations. Paradoxically, Putin seems to have accepted the communist coloration of the Soviet past — out of conservatism.
Putin’s new identity
At least, so it seemed. But a competing idea has been building for some time. Already at the Bucharest Summit in 2008, which Putin attended as a guest of NATO, he called Ukraine a “very complicated state” that had been patched together, in part, from territories taken from Russia. At that point, he seemed to recognize Ukraine’s borders as a fait accompli.
But in subsequent years, this grievance came back in ever more elaborate forms. And now a new identity has burst through. Putin no longer accepts the compromises of the Soviet past. His recent words and actions suggest he has become a radical nationalist, out to reshape borders and forge a single people out of Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians, despite the human costs of war.
Pre-1917 “historic Russia” included a range of territories beyond just Ukraine, some of which — like Kazakhstan, the Baltic states and Moldova — have ethnic Russian minorities. If Putin stays true to the convictions he embraced in his speech on Monday, the door he has opened may prove hard for the world to close.
Daniel Treisman is a professor of political science at UCLA, a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford and co-author of “Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century” (Princeton University Press, 2022). | null | null | null | null | null |
Architectural rendering for an affordable-housing development project that Atlanta First United Methodist Church is shepherding in Atlanta. The project is a two-tower complex design that will include approximately 320 units of housing, 85 percent of which will be affordable. (Atlanta First United Methodist Church)
Houses of worship own thousands of acres across the United States, and now through millions of dollars in new grants, congregations in Atlanta, New York, Baltimore, Miami and Seattle will be building affordable housing on their properties.
The national nonprofit Enterprise Community Partners on Wednesday announced $8.5 million in grants from the Wells Fargo Foundation to help houses of worship convert underutilized land into affordable homes and community facilities. The effort was launched at Atlanta First United Methodist Church.
This money will help build roughly 6,000 affordable homes, Enterprise said.
“To meet my administration’s ambitious goal of creating or preserving 20,000 units of affordable housing, we will need the assistance of all facets of our community using all tools at our disposal,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said at the event.
In Atlanta’s Fulton County alone, faith-based organizations own more than 6,000 acres, much of which is underutilized, Enterprise said. With this funding, Enterprise will help about 15 houses of worship in the Atlanta metro area create 1,000 affordable homes over the next five years.
As pastors may lack the resources or knowledge to cut housing deals, the nonprofit organization will assist faith leaders in navigating the development process, enter into long-term ground lease agreements and refer them to vetted development partners, such as architects and designers.
Enterprise’s Faith-Based Development Initiative launched in 2006 in the Mid-Atlantic region, where it has helped faith-based organizations create or preserve more than 1,500 affordable homes and one community-based health clinic.
“It’s this notion of there’s a compelling human need that a house of worship exists in and it’s sitting on a resource. It becomes a stewardship issue. Is this something that God is calling us to do … that allows us to be good and faithful stewards to have more impact?” David Bowers, vice president at Enterprise Community Partners, told Religion News Service.
“Does this mean every house of worship should do it? No. What we are saying is that you have the need. You have the resource. There is potential to get this done in a way that helps provide for the needs of people who are living in the community in which houses of worship exist,” added Bowers, who is also an ordained minister.
Similar approaches are happening in other parts of the nation.
In California, the Rev. John Cager, pastor of Ward African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Los Angeles, helped create the Faith Community Coalition, a network of pastors that seeks to find better opportunities for faith leaders who may feel the need to sell when they’re in a position of declining revenue.
Ultimately, the coalition aims for churches to work with developers who are willing to enter into full partnerships with parishes, evenly splitting the revenue and paving the way for the houses of worship to eventually own the properties.
“The operating ethos of the coalition is that we want to do housing and do development as a ministry,” Cager told RNS in March. “We believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ.” — Religion News Service | null | null | null | null | null |
Barcelona’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, right, celebrates after scoring a goal during the Europa League soccer match between Napoli and Barcelona at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium, in Naples, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022. (Alessandro Garofalo/LaPresse via AP)
NYON, Switzerland — Russian club Spartak Moscow will play at Leipzig in the first leg of the round of 16 of the Europa League before needing to find a neutral venue outside the country to host the return match. | null | null | null | null | null |
A U.S. military aircraft takes off from Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Feb. 25 after President Biden authorized the deployment of more U.S. forces as part of NATO's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (Ronald Wittek/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
But the 30-member organization, formed to provide collective security against the Soviet Union, is also being tested more than ever as it charts a path forward while being pulled into a faceoff with Russia.
After an emergency meeting Thursday, NATO’s political decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council, said the alliance may bolster its eastern flank in the days and weeks ahead, but it declined to spell out when or where.
A group of Eastern European countries — including Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania — called this week for alliance consultations under Article 4 of NATO’s charter, which allows any member to request a meeting when its territorial integrity or political independence is threatened. | null | null | null | null | null |
On Thursday night, Carlson backpedaled, recharacterizing what he called a “border dispute” two days earlier as a conflict that “could become a world war.”
“It’s a tragedy, because war always is a tragedy and the closer you get to it, the more horrifying it seems,” he said.
In the hours preceding Carlson’s about-face, Russia’s military built on its initial attack, driving deeper into Ukraine and advancing toward major cities like Kharkiv in the east and the capital of Kyiv, where a barrage of explosions forced some residents into subway stations for cover and had others fleeing the area entirely, The Post reported.
He added: “Once conflict starts, especially when that conflict is televised, it’s really hard to know what happens next. So, anyone who thinks the invasion of Ukraine couldn’t become a world war either lacks imagination or is lying to you. It certainly could become a world war.” | null | null | null | null | null |
The 40-acre National Conference Center in Leesburg, Va., will serve as a temporary home for as many as 1,000 Afghans processed there per month before they are moved into permanent homes around the country, including in the Washington region, Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large), the county board chair, said at a town hall meeting Thursday night.
Some county residents are nonetheless concerned about living near a large processing site for Afghan evacuees.
Last week, Loudoun County Sheriff Michael Chapman (R) revealed that the site was under consideration and, after meeting with DHS officials about it, suggested that the presence of the Afghans could pose security concerns while they are housed at the facility, which is a short walk from two schools.
They will arrive from Dulles International Airport in buses, about five or six per week, during times of the day when there is no rush-hour traffic, he said. | null | null | null | null | null |
Theron and Kelci Jagge with their newly adopted son, Ruslan, at a train station in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine on Feb. 9. (Courtesy of Theron Jagge)
Theron and Kelci Jagge’s driver sped through Kyiv, flying over train tracks and darting through traffic in a mad dash to reach the U.S. Embassy. The couple were on a desperate mission to secure a visa for their adopted son before embassy personnel were pulled out of Ukraine’s capital.
From Feb. 11: Biden, Putin to speak as U.S. warns that imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine is ‘distinct possibility’
After seven hours in the airport, and having missed their flight, the family went back to an apartment in the city. That’s when they realized the crisis was intensifying, Jagge said. Residents were being advised to stock up on water and supplies in the event of power outages, he recalled. Meanwhile, the Jagges met with a lawyer who said she could argue their case to the guards, but the attorney warned they had about a 50 percent chance of success.
In what Jagge referred to as a miracle, it worked. On Feb. 14, the lawyer was able to get Ruslan cleared to leave the country, Jagge said. While flights out of Ukraine were getting harder to find, the Jagges managed to book one to Istanbul. From there, the family flew to the United States and rushed the boy to a hospital.
About 10 days later, Russian troops invaded Ukraine, and attacks on cities, including Kyiv, followed. U.S. government officials said early Friday the capital could soon fall to advancing Russian troops, The Post reported.
Ruslan, meanwhile, remains in an intensive care unit, Jagge said, and “he’s doing a lot better now.” Once released, the boy will join the Jagges and their two other children — an 11-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son — just outside San Antonio. But Theron Jagge continues to think of the 80-odd children at the orphanage from which he and his wife had adopted Ruslan. Kramatorsk, the city in eastern Ukraine where the orphanage is located, has experienced explosions, according to BuzzFeed and the New York Times. | null | null | null | null | null |
From the moment President Biden promised to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has been the likeliest pick. And that is who he will nominate on Friday to fill retiring Justice Stephen G. Breyer’s seat, report The Post’s Tyler Pager, Sean Sullivan and Seung Min Kim.
She was a high school debate champion, graduated from Harvard Law, where she was an editor on the prestigious Harvard Law Review.
She’s been a federal judge for nine years, and last year got on one of the most prestigious federal courts: the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. That appeals court is widely seen as a waiting bench for likely Supreme Court candidates.
Jackson is married, with two daughters. She’s 51 and would be one of the younger justices. (Breyer, the oldest, is 83. Amy Coney Barrett, the youngest, is 50.)
She’s won over the support of some Republicans in the past: Three Senate Republicans voted to confirm her to the seat she has now on the D.C. circuit court — a not-insignificant number these days. They were Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
"I think she’s qualified for the job. She has a different philosophy than I do,” Graham told reporters at the time.
When she was being confirmed for her first federal judgeship in 2012, Paul Ryan, who would go on to be the Republican House speaker, introduced her. The two are related by marriage (Ryan’s sister-in-law is married to the twin brother of Jackson’s husband). Ryan said "although our politics may differ, my praise for Ketanji’s intellect, for her character, for her integrity, it is unequivocal.”
But it’s not clear if any Republicans would support her now. Another potential nominee, J. Michelle Childs, a judge in South Carolina, had at least one Republican senator, Graham, talking favorably about her.
Same with civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who has represented the families of prominent victims of police shootings, and wrote that Jackson would represent the Black community well on the court.
She would be the first public defender on the modern court: Jackson wouldn’t just be making history as the first Black woman to sit on the court. Among the many ways that the Supreme Court lacks diversity is in the judicial careers of its members. No current justice has represented criminal defendants despite the fact the court regularly hears cases where convicted criminals’ lives are literally in their hands.
And no justice has held a job, like Jackson, where she represented people accused of a crime who can’t afford to pay their own lawyer. (Normally presidents pick people who have experience on the opposite side of the courtroom, like corporate lawyers or prosecuting those convicted of crimes.)
Jackson also served on a commission to lower federal drug sentences in the Obama era.
She and her allies credit her work as a public defender as helping her develop empathy. “There is a direct line from my defender service to what I do on the bench, and I think it’s beneficial,” she said at her confirmation hearing to sit on the D.C. circuit court.
But that role has also involved getting people off the hook at times. As The Post’s Ann E. Marimow and Aaron C. Davis report, she kept an attorney convicted of tax fraud out of jail. She successfully defended a man convicted of having an illegal gun in his home. And she worked quite a bit defending prisoners held in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, something she acknowledged she did while her brother was serving in the U.S. Army in Iraq.
In her confirmation hearing to sit on the D.C. circuit court, Republicans asked her about this. "Have you ever represented a terrorist at Guantánamo Bay?” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) asked her. She emphasized that in that job, she was mainly writing briefs (rather than arguing in a courtroom), and that the briefs she wrote represented the views of her clients, not herself.
One of her big decisions was on separation of power in the Trump era: In 2019, Congress was battling with Trump White House Counsel Donald McGahn about whether he should testify to the House Judiciary Committee. The case came before Jackson, who soundly rejected McGahan’s arguments. In a lengthy opinion, she wrote this well-known line: “[T]he primary takeaway from the past 250 years of recorded American history is that Presidents are not kings.”
She did once rule for the Trump administration, allowing his border wall to continue to be built in New Mexico despite the protests of environmental groups.
She played a key role in getting her uncle out of prison: When Jackson was a public defender in D.C., she received a letter from an uncle asking for her help, The Post’s Marimow and Davis report. He had been sentenced to life in prison under a federal “three strikes” law. Jackson referred him to a high-profile law firm, which took his case pro bono. His sentence was eventually committed by former president Barack Obama, which Jackson took no role in, Marimow and Davis report. | null | null | null | null | null |
When news of Brown’s expected nomination first leaked, Republicans erupted in shameless race-baiting by railing at Biden’s 2020 campaign promise to appoint a Black woman. That produced a strong reaction, which might — might — make some Republicans less likely to go straight for the racial appeals. But even if they are, you won’t have to listen too hard to discern the thumping bass line.
Yet that will not deter the accusations that Brown is responsible for crime and someone whom “regular” Americans should fear. When you hear that ugly rhetoric, recall that four of the six conservative justices — John G. Roberts Jr., Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — worked for white-shoe corporate law firms for at least part of their careers. You didn’t hear much about whether that might have skewed their beliefs about the law, because that just isn’t something members of the Senate find suspect. | null | null | null | null | null |
Residents describe hearing gun shots, seeing police converge at crime scenes and learning about violent and property crimes on neighborhood email discussion groups or social media. About 1 in 6 residents say someone in their household has been a victim of violent crime in the past five years including 23 percent of Black residents, 8 percent of White residents and 21 percent of those who are Hispanic, Asian or another non-White background. | null | null | null | null | null |
On Thursday night, Carlson backpedaled, recharacterizing what he had called a “border dispute” two days earlier as a conflict that “could become a world war.”
“It’s a tragedy, because war always is a tragedy, and the closer you get to it, the more horrifying it seems,” he said.
In the hours preceding Carlson’s about-face, Russia’s military built on its initial attack, driving deeper into Ukraine and advancing toward major cities such as Kharkiv in the east and the capital, Kyiv, where a barrage of explosions forced some residents into subway stations for cover and sent others fleeing the area entirely, The Post reported.
Carlson added: “Once conflict starts, especially when that conflict is televised, it’s really hard to know what happens next. So, anyone who thinks the invasion of Ukraine couldn’t become a world war either lacks imagination or is lying to you. It certainly could become a world war.” | null | null | null | null | null |
When news of Jackson’s potential nomination first leaked, Republicans erupted in shameless race-baiting by railing at Biden’s 2020 campaign promise to appoint a Black woman. That produced a strong reaction, which might — might — make some Republicans less likely to go straight for the racial appeals. But even if they are, you won’t have to listen too hard to discern the thumping bass line.
Yet that will not deter the accusations that Jackson is responsible for crime and someone whom “regular” Americans should fear. When you hear that ugly rhetoric, recall that four of the six conservative justices — John G. Roberts Jr., Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — worked for white-shoe corporate law firms for at least part of their careers. You didn’t hear much about whether that might have skewed their beliefs about the law, because that just isn’t something members of the Senate find suspect. | null | null | null | null | null |
But it’s not clear if any Senate Republicans would support her now. Another potential nominee, J. Michelle Childs, a judge in South Carolina, had at least one GOP senator, Graham, talking favorably about her.
She would be the first public defender on the modern court: Jackson wouldn’t just be making history as the first Black woman to sit on the high court. Among the many ways that the Supreme Court lacks diversity is in the judicial careers of its members: No current justice has represented criminal defendants, despite the court regularly hearing cases in which convicted criminals’ lives are literally in their hands.
And no current justice has served as a public defender, where the accused can’t afford to pay for their own attorney. (Normally presidents pick people who have experience on the opposite side of the courtroom, like corporate lawyers or prosecuting those convicted of crimes.)
But that role has also involved getting people off the hook at times. As The Post’s Ann Marimow and Aaron Davis report, she kept an attorney convicted of tax fraud out of jail. She successfully argued against a federal charge for a man convicted of having an illegal gun in his home. And she worked quite a bit defending prisoners held in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, something she acknowledged she did while her brother was serving in the U.S. Army in Iraq.
In her confirmation hearing last year to sit on the D.C. circuit court, Republicans asked her about this. “Have you ever represented a terrorist at Guantánamo Bay?” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said. She emphasized that as an appointed federal public defender, she was mainly writing briefs (rather than arguing in a courtroom), and that the briefs she wrote represented the views of her clients, not herself.
One of her big decisions was on separation of powers in the Trump era: In 2019, Congress was battling with Trump White House Counsel Donald McGahn about whether he should testify to the House Judiciary Committee. The case came before Jackson, who soundly rejected McGahan’s arguments that he had immunity from testifying. In a lengthy opinion, she wrote this well-known line: “[T]he primary takeaway from the past 250 years of recorded American history is that Presidents are not kings.” | null | null | null | null | null |
President Biden will nominate federal judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to replace retiring Justice Stephen G. Breyer, a historic choice that fulfills the president’s pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court.
If confirmed, Jackson, 51, would also be just the third African American in the high court’s 233-year history. A former public defender, she served as a trial court judge in Washington for eight years before Biden elevated her last year to the influential U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She was confirmed to that court after a relatively uncontentious Senate hearing and with the backing of three Republican lawmakers.
“I’m proud to announce that I am nominating Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve on the Supreme Court,” Biden wrote on Twitter on Friday as he announced his selection. “Currently serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, she is one of our nation’s brightest legal minds and will be an exceptional Justice.”
Biden will formally announce Jackson’s nomination on Friday afternoon at the White House, where he will be joined by the judge.
In a statement, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he looked forward to reviewing Jackson’s record but also signaled he would likely oppose her nomination.
“I voted against confirming Judge Jackson to her current position less than a year ago,” he said. “Since then, I understand that she has published a total of two opinions, both in the last few weeks, and that one of her prior rulings was just reversed by a unanimous panel of her present colleagues on the D.C. Circuit. I also understand Judge Jackson was the favored choice of far-left dark-money groups that have spent years attacking the legitimacy and structure of the Court itself.”
Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lindsay O. Graham (S.C.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), all backed Jackson when she was confirmed to the D.C. Circuit in a 53-to-44 vote.
Robert Barnes contributed to this report. | null | null | null | null | null |
Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) speaks to reporters while arriving for a vote in the U.S. Capitol on Monday, Dec. 6, 2021 in Washington. (Al Drago/For The Washington Post)
Republican Sen. James M. Inhofe, a conservative crusader who has represented Oklahoma over five decades in Congress, while earning a reputation as a leading denier of climate change, said Friday that he will not finish his term and retire at the end of the year.
“There has to be one day where you say, ‘All right, this is going to be it,’” Inhofe told the newspaper.
Inhofe, who won reelection with 63 percent of the vote in 2020, had previously signaled his current six-year term would be his last. But he has indicated to allies in recent months that he has been considering an early retirement due to his wife’s declining health.
Inhofe’s retirement could also prompt some musical chairs in the Senate by opening up the top GOP slot on the Armed Services Committee. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the current Commerce Committee chairman, is next most senior Republican on that panel. Should Wicker give up the top Commerce post, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) would be in line to succeed him — and perhaps hold a congressional gavel for the first time if Republicans regain the Senate majority in November.
2:36 PMDemocrats have just enough votes to confirm Jackson, if they stick together | null | null | null | null | null |
The case over carbon pollution from power plants ‘could well become one of the most significant environmental law cases of all time,’ one legal scholar says
Trains filled with coal near the Dry Fork Station energy plant in Gillette, Wyo., in November 2021. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)
“It’s hard to see why they took this case unless they were thinking about deploying it against the EPA’s ability to regulate existing power plants,” said Kirti Datla, director of strategic legal advocacy at Earthjustice, a law organization that works on environmental advocacy.
Years of legal fights over the executive branch’s power to tackle climate change — and a monumental battle by the coal industry — have led to a regulatory stalemate. In 2016, the Supreme Court halted the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, which aimed to cut the power sector’s carbon dioxide emissions by a third by 2030. In 2021, a federal appeals court jettisoned the Trump administration’s less-stringent replacement.
EPA officials under the Obama administration said the Clean Air Act gives the agency the authority to work with states to enact broad plans across the power sector to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But Trump appointees, along with GOP-led states party to the lawsuit, counter the law gives the agency only the power to mandate changes at power plant sites themselves — or as both sides in the fight say, “inside the fence.”
Westmoreland Coal Co. — which kept homes warm during winters in the 19th century, powered locomotives at the start of the 20th and helped fuel America’s victory in World World II — ranks among the hard-hit mining firms. It began mining in Westmoreland County, Penn., in 1854, expanding operations across the Appalachian Basin before relocating its headquarters to Colorado in 1995. By 2017, it sold 49.7 million tons of coal dug from mines dotting the West, from Alberta, Canada, to Texas.
But some electricity providers that once bought its coal began switching to cleaner sources of fuel that don’t require expensive emissions controls. After going more than $1 billion into debt in 2018, the firm protected itself from creditors by filing for bankruptcy. Westmoreland Mining Holdings LLC, the company that emerged from those proceedings, is now suing the EPA.
Much of the rest of the corporate sector, having poured money into reducing its carbon footprint, is concerned about the federal government stepping back. In a brief filed last month, Apple, Tesla, Amazon and a dozen other companies said the EPA’s support is “necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.” (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
Even a group of electric utilities that collectively serve more than 40 million people asked the court not to tie the agency’s hands prematurely. The court, they wrote in a brief, risks “a ruling untethered to actual circumstances” driving changes in the power sector.
The Clean Air Act “lacks the straitjacket that the EPA imposes,” the judges wrote, saying the Trump administration’s view of the law depended on a “tortured series of misreadings.”
“The EPA has ample discretion in carrying out its mandate,” the decision concluded. “But it may not shirk its responsibility by imagining new limitations that the plain language of the statute does not clearly require.”
While the administration said the Clean Air Act gives the EPA broad powers, she is arguing that the court should simply dismiss the case because there are no regulations in place for the justices to consider. Moreover, she suggests the Supreme Court can vacate the D.C. Circuit’s decision and postpone a definitive decision on the EPA’s powers until the new administration has acted.
The policy that sparked this battle — the Clean Power Plan — is now moot, since the market has done what regulators could not. “The targets were achieved way in advance, more than a decade before they would have been required,” said Carrie Jenks, executive director of Harvard’s Environmental & Energy Law Program.
“We expect Congress to speak clearly when authorizing an agency to exercise powers of vast economic and political significance,” the majority wrote in lifting the eviction moratorium imposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year.
Because the court is interpreting the provisions of the Clean Air Act, Congress could override whatever the court decides — in theory, at least. But an ideologically divided and partisan Congress has done little to address climate change or clarify the law. | null | null | null | null | null |
But it’s not clear whether any Senate Republicans would support her now. Another potential nominee, J. Michelle Childs, a judge in South Carolina, had at least one GOP senator, Graham, talking favorably about her.
If all 50 Senate Democrats support her, Biden doesn’t need any Republican votes to get her nomination confirmed by the Senate. But, given how Biden had prioritized bipartisanship, he may like for his nominee to get some Republican votes.
She would be the first public defender on the modern court: Jackson wouldn’t just be making history as the first Black woman to sit on the high court. Among the many ways that the Supreme Court lacks diversity is in the judicial careers of its members: No current justice has represented criminal defendants, despite the court’s regularly hearing cases in which convicted criminals’ lives are in their hands.
And no current justice has served as a public defender, where the accused can’t afford to pay for their own attorney. (Normally, presidents pick people who have experience on the opposite side of the courtroom, such as corporate lawyers or prosecuting those convicted of crimes.)
But that role has also involved getting people off the hook at times. As The Post’s Ann Marimow and Aaron Davis report, she kept an attorney convicted of tax fraud out of jail. Jackson successfully argued against a federal charge for a man convicted of having an illegal gun in his home. And she worked quite a bit defending prisoners held in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, something she acknowledged she did while her brother was serving in the U.S. Army in Iraq.
In her confirmation hearing last year to sit on the D.C. circuit court, Republicans asked her about this. “Have you ever represented a terrorist at Guantánamo Bay?” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) asked. She emphasized that, as an appointed federal public defender, she was mainly writing briefs (rather than arguing in a courtroom), and that the briefs she wrote represented the views of her clients, not herself.
One of her big decisions was on separation of powers in the Trump era: In 2019, Congress was battling with Trump White House Counsel Donald McGahn about whether he should testify to the House Judiciary Committee. The case came before Jackson, who soundly rejected McGahn’s arguments that he had immunity from testifying. In a lengthy opinion, she wrote this well-known line: “[T]he primary takeaway from the past 250 years of recorded American history is that Presidents are not kings.”
But Jackson has also acknowledged that being a Black woman affects how she sees the world, saying: “I’ve experienced life in perhaps a different way than some of my colleagues because of who I am, and that might be valuable — I hope it would be valuable — if I was confirmed to the court.” | null | null | null | null | null |
Opinion: Maryland can’t wait for traffic relief
A line of traffic in the northbound lanes of Interstate 270 on July 27, 2021, in Clarksburg. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
By Stephen Courtien
Howard Levine
Stephen Courtien, president of Baltimore-D.C. Building Trades, and Howard Levine, owner of Ramar Moving Systems, are advisory board members of Traffic Relief NOW.
There was a brief moment in the coronavirus pandemic when traffic basically disappeared in the region. Almost overnight, the congestion that has plagued our state for decades vanished. Some thought this might be part of a “new normal” that could last forever. A handful of politicians declared victory, claiming additional lanes for commuters were no longer needed. They even said the real answer was encouraging permanent teleworking for some unnamed group of Marylanders.
Obviously, we now know the truth. Traffic has surpassed its pre-2019 levels, and it shows no signs of slowing down. Again, Marylanders who have no other choice but to travel on Interstate 495 or Interstate 270 are back to wasting countless hours of their lives in some of the worst traffic in the nation.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that there is a solution.
Four years ago, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) announced his plan to widen the Capital Beltway and I-270, much like our neighbors in Virginia have already accomplished. That project, officially known as the New American Legion Bridge I-270 Traffic Relief Plan, relies solely on private funding to create two high-occupancy toll lanes in each direction of the Capital Beltway and I-270. These lanes will relieve congestion, improve transit services, incentivize carpooling, and allow commuters to save time and money.
After years of consistent progress, the project is on the 1-yard line, and all we have to do is push it into the end zone.
For decades, Marylanders have heard their elected representatives pay endless lip service to traffic congestion. They talk about solutions and even show empathy in public, but when the rubber meets the road, they have nothing but platitudes to offer. Platitudes might temporarily solve political problems, but they never solve real-world problems.
Public opinion polls have repeatedly confirmed what common sense dictates: Most Marylanders support adding capacity to these highways and they support the governor’s plan to do so.
Unfortunately, the people who oppose adding additional lanes have taken to making wild and nonsensical claims about the project — often magnified by the media.
They claim it won’t reduce traffic congestion. This is false. The Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement found that this project will reduce delays by 18 percent and 32 percent in the a.m. and p.m. peak periods, respectively. They claim the project has nothing to offer for transit solutions. This is false. The project provides for hundreds of millions in transit investment. They claim that trip prices on the new lanes could be up to $50. This is false. The average trip price will be $3 to $5 or less. They claim all the lanes will be tolled. This is false. Only the new Express Lanes will be tolled. The existing lanes will remain free.
And of course, they love to claim these new lanes will be for the wealthy only, referring to them as “Lexus lanes” (as if alliteration makes a claim true). This is also false. Research showed that most of the users are not affluent.
Most people don’t know that the region was designed to have not one but three concentric roads around D.C. That never happened, and we have all been paying the price for this inaction ever since.
This level of traffic congestion doesn’t just waste people’s time; it also costs the state more than $1 billion in economic activity, hampers job creation and causes businesses to look elsewhere when relocating. Maryland is known for many great things, but increasingly it is gaining a reputation as a wealthy state that can’t get out of its own way when pursuing the big, meaningful projects that really make a difference in the lives of our residents.
The facts are simple. Traffic is back and will only get worse unless substantial corrective action is taken in the very near future. We can wish for things to be different. We talk about supernatural policies that will remove people from their cars and make mass transit not only profitable but also desirable for most Marylanders.
Or we can deal with reality. If we are serious about improving the lives of Marylanders, if we are serious about keeping up with Virginia and other regional powers, then we need to expand our highways and, in the process, expand what is possible for the state that we all love.
Protecting women’s reproductive rights in Maryland | null | null | null | null | null |
This Feb. 18, 2022 photo shows the tattered scoreboard at the vacant Sand Castle minor league baseball stadium on the former Bader Field airport site in Atlantic City, N.J. DEEM Enterprises is proposing a $2.7 billion auto-centric development including a driving course and 2,000 housing units on the site of the first aviation facility in America to be called an “airport.” (AP Photo/Wayne Parry) | null | null | null | null | null |
Biden’s pick won’t shift the Supreme Court, but here’s what might
The court could push the political branches into action.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson poses for a portrait, on Feb., 18, 2022, in her office at the court in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Armand Derfner
President Biden’s plan to nominate federal Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to replace liberal Justice Stephen G. Breyer seems unlikely to alter the Supreme Court’s ideological tilt, because the overall makeup of the court will continue to include six conservatives and three liberals. Yet as the deaths of justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg demonstrated over the last six years, the court’s composition isn’t set in stone and politicians are increasingly trying to game the system to bolster support on the court for their own ideological positions.
When Scalia died suddenly in February 2016, President Barack Obama’s choice to replace him, moderate liberal Merrick Garland, seemed likely to flip the five-to-four conservative court to a five-to-four liberal one. But a Republican Senate refused even to hold a hearing on Garland’s nomination, on the theory that court vacancies that arise during presidential election years should remain unfilled until the next president takes office.
Four years later, however, when Ginsburg died in September 2020, less than two months before the presidential election, a Republican Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett with lightning speed. Just like that, a potentially liberal court majority became the most conservative court since the 1920s or even the 1890s.
Democrats cried foul, accusing their opponents of hypocrisy, but in fact the Republicans had handled both nominations according to a uniform principle: if you have the votes, you don’t need to worry about a consistent theory.
This recent history spotlights the arbitrary process that we employ to select justices, which owes more to the health and political whims of individuals than to the will of the voters. But history also highlights the power of the political branches to exercise partisan control over the court’s composition for reasons that may or may not be related to the pursuit of justice.
This history goes back to the earliest days of the republic. In 1800, Thomas Jefferson’s Republican Party won a clean sweep of the presidency and both branches of Congress. It was the end of the Federalists as a national party — except at the Supreme Court, where lame-duck officials acted quickly to leave a long-lasting Federalist legacy. During the interregnum between Jefferson’s election and his inauguration, Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth resigned, enabling the defeated president John Adams to nominate John Marshall to be chief justice. The lame-duck Federalist Senate confirmed Marshall. The new chief justice, a strong nationalist, went on to dominate the Supreme Court for 35 years while Jefferson and four more presidents watched in fuming frustration.
The outgoing Federalists also cut the number of justices from six to five to keep the incoming Democratic-Republicans from filling the first “vacancy.” The newcomers promptly restored the number to six.
Similar political maneuvering occurred again in 1866, after the Civil War, when the Republican Congress reduced the number of seats on the court from its high of 10 to seven, to prevent President Andrew Johnson, a White supremacist Democrat, from appointing justices who might block their Reconstruction efforts. Congress added back seats in 1869, after Republican Ulysses S. Grant was elected president, bringing the number of justices to the present nine.
Grant’s appointments produced instant change: the new majority reversed course on a crucial national issue in 1871, upholding the validity of “greenbacks” (paper money) issued during the Civil War, which the court had declared unconstitutional just a year before.
The most famous story about the court’s composition is, of course, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s plan to create additional Supreme Court seats after a five-to-four reactionary majority ruled a succession of his New Deal programs unconstitutional. Amid the uproar over this plan, Justice Owen Roberts suddenly reversed his position and began voting to uphold Roosevelt’s liberal economic measures. This single change has sometimes been labeled “The Switch in Time that Saved Nine.”
But the crisis never would have occurred but for an earlier, almost unnoticed retirement, one that flipped a court seat ideologically. The firmly liberal Justice John Clarke was unhappy on the court, especially because of the antics of the obnoxious and personally offensive Justice James McReynolds. Worse yet, the court’s rigid seating arrangement meant that these two men sat next to each other for Clarke’s entire six years on the court. Finally, Clarke resigned in frustration. But that decision let conservative Republican President Warren G. Harding select Clarke’s successor. Harding’s choice, former senator George Sutherland (R-Utah), became the leader of the narrow reactionary majority that repeatedly struck down New Deal laws.
A change in the court’s composition also contributed to one of its most famous rulings, Brown v. Board of Education. In September 1953, just four weeks before the scheduled oral arguments in the school segregation cases, Chief Justice Fred Vinson died of a sudden heart attack at age 63. Most observers did not expect Vinson to rule segregation unconstitutional, let alone lead the court to a unanimous decision doing so. President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Gov. Earl Warren (R-Calif.) to replace Vinson, and Warren worked assiduously to produce the unanimous landmark ruling in 1954 that ended school segregation and signaled the rejection of Jim Crow.
The end of the storied liberal Warren Court was almost as sudden as its beginning. In 1968, Warren announced his retirement before the presidential election so Lyndon B. Johnson could choose his successor, rather than running the risk that a Republican might win the election — especially his longtime California nemesis, Richard Nixon. Johnson nominated Associate Justice Abe Fortas, another strong liberal, to become Chief Justice and chose a liberal appeals court judge, Homer Thornberry, to take Fortas’s seat.
But a coalition of Senate Republicans and conservative Southern Democrats latched onto ideological and ethical issues to torpedo Fortas’s nomination. With time running short, Johnson did not try another nominee, Nixon won the election and he chose conservative Warren Burger as chief justice. Nixon and his allies then applied pressure on Fortas to resign because of financial issues, and suddenly the most liberal court in history was gone, instead of being entrenched for decades by Johnson appointments.
That began a half century in which the Supreme Court got increasingly conservative. But there was one moment when the direction might have been stopped or reversed — with a single change.
In 1991, Thurgood Marshall retired. For years, Marshall promised to serve out his lifetime appointment, often joking, “I expect to die at the age of a hundred and ten, shot by a jealous husband.” But by 1991, his health had deteriorated, he found himself consistently in dissent, his good friend Justice William Brennan had retired and opinion polls forecast that President George H.W. Bush would win reelection in 1992. Marshall retired, and Bush replaced him with the extremely conservative Clarence Thomas. Yet Bill Clinton, not Bush, won the election and Marshall lived until four days after Clinton’s inauguration. If Marshall had been able to ignore or endure his health issues, Clinton would have replaced him with a fellow liberal.
It’s possible, indeed likely, that with a liberal on the court instead of Thomas, it might have flipped the Court’s 2000 decision in Bush v. Gore — which could have opened the door to Al Gore gaining a majority of the electoral vote and thus becoming president. Given that Bush appointed two conservative justices in his second term, a Gore presidency might well have reshaped the court. In the years since, the conservative justices have rendered momentous decisions on gun rights, campaign spending, reproductive freedom, the Voting Rights Act, affirmative action and more — virtually all by five-to-four votes.
The health and whims of individual justices can shape the ideology of the court for years to come, no matter which way the political winds blow. Since Johnson’s failed attempt to replace Earl Warren, the chief justiceship has passed from the conservative Burger to the even more conservative William H. Rehnquist and John G. Roberts, Jr.
This history suggests that the court will remain extremely conservative for a long time. Today’s conservative and reactionary justices are young, and justices’ average tenure is now roughly 25 years, twice as long as it used to be. But that may not be the whole story. A court seemingly in control risks getting increasingly out of step with the country’s population, especially younger people. That could eventually prompt the political branches to rise up as they did in the past against a perceived out-of-touch Supreme Court and remake not only its composition but its structure, as it did regularly in the 19th century. | null | null | null | null | null |
For the second time in a little less than two years, President Biden has selected the person lots of people thought he would select for a huge position. First, it was Kamala D. Harris for his running mate. Now, it’s Ketanji Brown Jackson for his first Supreme Court vacancy.
But even as Jackson’s selection was considered the most likely to fill a slot Biden promised would be reserved for a Black woman, there was some pressure on Biden to go in a different direction. In particular, that meant picking fellow federal judge J. Michelle Childs, who had the backing of House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.) and was considered more amenable to Republicans.
While Childs is well-regarded, some Republicans’ decision to telegraph potential support for her certainly cut both ways. Childs was also viewed suspiciously by some labor groups, a key constituency in the Democratic Party. This stemmed mostly from her work in the private sector on behalf of employers fighting worker claims. Childs is also known to be very tough on crime at a time in which Democrats have trended more toward sentencing reform.
In picking Jackson, though, Biden and Democrats can still credibly point to her bipartisan support. She got the votes of three Senate Republicans when she was confirmed to a federal appeals court post just last year. During her 2012 confirmation hearings for a district judgeship, she received effusive praise from none other then former House speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), to whom she is related by marriage.
Jackson’s previous hearings were relatively amicable affairs, even as Republicans previewed a number of potential criticisms that they could push harder this time around. Biden seems to believe she’ll be confirmed regardless, though, and will be challenging Republicans to push back on the first Black woman nominated to the court.
There’s also what it means practically speaking. The liberal wing of the court faces a historic 6-3 deficit after President Donald Trump was able to confirm three justices in his four years. Nominating a justice who is more moderate risked rendering that wing potentially less potent. While Jackson is hardly as a fire-breathing liberal, as even Republicans admitted in her confirmation hearings, there’s a reason left-leaning groups raised concerns about Childs and not her.
The biggest question, of course, is whether Jackson will get 50 votes from Democrats — not because there are reasons to think any of them would vote against her, but because 50 votes would be sufficient, and recent history suggests having all 50 Democrats there to vote isn’t a complete given.
When Jackson was confirmed to a federal appeals court last year, she got three GOP votes from the Republican senators who most frequently cross the aisle on such votes: Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). All three will have the chance to vote on her again.
Graham, a former chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has shown significantly more deference to Biden’s ability to pick judges than virtually any other GOP senator. But right away Friday, he suggested he might fight against Jackson’s nomination, saying her selection over his preferred choice of Childs shows “the radical Left has won President Biden over yet again.”
Collins, for what it’s worth, has signaled she could oppose Biden’s nominee on process grounds. She voted against conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett last year because she said the process was too rushed, and she has raised similar concerns about Biden’s timetable.
Murkowski has also suggested this vote could be different for her.
“It is at a level that commands its own evaluation, separate and above everything that we have considered to date,” Murkowski recently told The Post’s Seung Min Kim.
Jackson’s selection is indeed historic. Of the 115 justices in our nation’s history, all but seven have been White men, and we’ve only had two Black men — Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas. Black women also account for less than 2 percent of all federal judges throughout history.
Biden’s pledge was clearly made with politics in mind. Black women are a hugely important piece of the Democratic coalition, and they proved extremely important to his win in the 2020 primaries and the general election. It was also something Clyburn pushed, as The Post’s Cleve Wootson and Marianna Sotomayor wrote recently: | null | null | null | null | null |
Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) speaks to reporters while arriving for a vote at the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 6. (Al Drago for The Washington Post)
Republican Sen. James M. Inhofe, a conservative crusader who has represented Oklahoma over five decades in Congress, while earning a reputation as a leading denier of climate change, said Friday that he will not finish his term and will retire at the end of the year.
The New York Times first reported Inhofe’s impending retirement Thursday. Inhofe, 87, confirmed the news Friday in an interview with The Oklahoman.
“There has to be one day where you say, ‘All right, this is going to be it,’” Inhofe, 87, told the newspaper.
Inhofe’s retirement could also prompt some musical chairs in the Senate by opening up the top GOP slot on the Armed Services Committee. Sen. Roger Wicker (Miss.), the current Commerce Committee chairman, is next most senior Republican on that panel. Should Wicker give up the top Commerce post, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) would be in line to succeed him — and perhaps hold a congressional gavel for the first time if Republicans regain the Senate majority in November. | null | null | null | null | null |
World Stage: Ukraine with John Bolton, Former U.S. National Security Advisor
Russia has invaded Ukraine, and the West is exploring military and economic options to punish that aggression. On Friday, March 4 at 11:00 a.m. ET, former national security advisor and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, joins Washington Post Live to discuss the invasion, America’s response and how President Biden is handling this crisis.
Former U.S. National Security Advisor | null | null | null | null | null |
It is still early in the Ukraine conflict, so it’s too soon to know how many civilians will ultimately be displaced, where they will go and how long it will be before they can safely return to their homes. If they ever can. But recent experiences with Afghan and Syrian refugees show it’s better to start planning for a mass exodus now. | null | null | null | null | null |
Ketanji Brown Jackson appears at her Senate confirmation hearing after she was nominated to be a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, April 28, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Lamarque/Pool/Getty Images)
Only two Black men have ever served on the nation’s highest court— the late Justice Thurgood Marshall and current Justice Clarence Thomas — and Black Americans are the most enthusiastic about adding a Black woman. A 65 percent majority of Black Americans say it would be good for the country, with 33 percent saying it would make no difference, according to the poll.
The court has a 6-to-3 conservative supermajority that would not change with Biden’s choice to replace the liberal Breyer. With a docket of controversial issues, the Supreme Court during this term alone is hearing a challenge to Roe v. Wade’s guarantee of the right to an abortion, as well as cases on gun control laws and environmental protections, and the public’s opinion of the court often changes based on the latest decision.
The Post-ABC poll was conducted Sunday through Thursday among a random national sample of 1,011 adults reached on cellphones and landlines. The margin of error is plus or minus four percentage points for overall results; the error margin is 12.5 points among the subsample of 90 Black adults. | null | null | null | null | null |
Biden informed Jackson of pick Thursday night, official says
Former House speaker Paul Ryan congratulates Jackson
Clerk for a Supreme Court justice, then get appointed to the job
Schumer and Durbin praise Jackson, promise swift action
Biden is following through on a promise to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court in its 233-year history. He plans to introduce Jackson at a White House event about 2 p.m. Eastern time.
The Washington Post will have live coverage of Biden’s announcement anchored by Libby Casey starting at 1:30 p.m.
By Aaron Blake12:00 p.m.
Jackson has been considered the front-runner throughout much of the process. Although the hearings are expected to be contentious, given the stakes and the 50-50 Senate — another finalist, J. Michelle Childs, was the preferred pick for some Republicans — Jackson was confirmed to a federal appeals court just last year, and she has had some bipartisan support.
It’s not clear at this point how much resistance Republicans will put up to her nomination, given it won’t change the balance of power on the court and Democrats have the necessary 50 votes. But it’s worth looking at any potential hurdles she might face. Although both of Jackson’s confirmations — last year and in 2012 to a federal-district court — were relatively amicable, Republicans have isolated a few things that could come up.
One line of potential attack spanned both her confirmations, but without Republicans going at it too hard: her representation of a Guantánamo Bay detainee, Khi Ali Gul.
By Seung Min Kim12:00 p.m.
Biden formally informed Jackson on Thursday night that he planned to nominate her to replace Breyer — for whom Jackson clerked — according to an official with knowledge of the process.
The others in contention for the nomination — California Supreme Court Justice Leondra R. Kruger and U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs — were notified Friday morning, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to confirm private conversations.
By Mark Berman11:47 a.m.
The Fraternal Order of Police praised Jackson on Friday morning, giving the former public defender a notable boost from the country’s largest policing organization.
In a statement, Patrick Yoes, the group’s president, said Jackson hailed from “a law enforcement family,” highlighting that her uncles and brother had all worked in policing. As a result, Yoes said, “she should know quite well the difficulties and dangers our officers face in the line of duty every single day.”
Yoes also pointed to Jackson’s experience on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, acknowledging that the policing group was “not always in total accord with her views” there. But, Yoes said, the people and groups involved in discussing sentencing issues — including Jackson — remained engaged with each other, leading to compromises and, eventually, he said, the First Step Act signed in 2018.
“There is little doubt that she has the temperament, intellect, legal experience, and family background to have earned this appointment,” Yoes said. “We are reassured that, should she be confirmed, she would approach her future cases with an open mind and treat issues related to law enforcement fairly and justly.”
Former House speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) congratulated Jackson on her nomination Friday morning, saying he and his wife, Janna, are “incredibly happy” for Jackson and her family.
Ryan and Jackson are distantly related by marriage. Janna Ryan’s sister is married to the twin brother of Jackson’s husband. While Jackson and Ryan do not share the same politics, Ryan has spoken highly of the judge, praising her during her 2012 confirmation hearing for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
In a tweet Friday — shared with closed replies — Ryan shared the same support he voiced for Jackson in 2012.
“Our politics may differ, but my praise for Ketanji’s intellect, for her character, and for her integrity, is unequivocal,” Ryan said.
By Robert Barnes11:26 a.m.
Is a clerkship for a Supreme Court justice becoming a prerequisite for getting the lifetime appointment itself?
If Jackson is confirmed to the high court, she would become the fifth straight justice to have earlier served at the Marble Palace as a clerk. And she would become the third person to take the place of the justice for whom she worked. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who replaced William H. Rehnquist, and Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, who replaced Anthony M. Kennedy, will be sitting just down the bench from Jackson.
Jackson, of course, would replace her old boss, Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who himself was a clerk at the high court.
All three of President Donald Trump’s nominees to the court — Kavanaugh, Neil M. Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett — were clerks. Barrett served Justice Antonin Scalia, and Gorsuch is a Kennedy alumnus.
Among the Democratic nominees, Justice Elena Kagan clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to serve on the court.
Ivy League law schools supply many clerks, and the Supreme Court reflects that, as well. If Jackson is confirmed, there would be four justices from Harvard (the others being Roberts, Kagan and Gorsuch) and four from Yale (Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Sonia Sotomayor and Kavanaugh). Barrett graduated from Notre Dame.
By Felicia Sonmez and Marianna Sotomayor11:22 a.m.
Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said Friday that Black lawmakers will be “laser-focused” on ensuring that Jackson “receives a full and fair hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.”
In recent weeks, Black female lawmakers have sought to avoid pitting potential nominees against each other in their public remarks, aiming to make sure Biden’s eventual choice would not be tainted or diminished by Democratic infighting ahead of expected Republican attacks.
The Republican National Committee on Friday immediately cast Jackson as “a radical, left-wing activist who would rubberstamp Biden’s disastrous agenda.”
“By picking Jackson, Biden put far-left special interests ahead of defending Americans’ rights and liberties,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement. “The Republican National Committee will make sure voters know just how radical Jackson is and remember at the ballot box in November.”
The organization Higher Heights for America, which encourages Black women to run for elected office, noted that Black women “have shown how powerful our activism and organizing can be in politics, yet we are still grossly underrepresented in leadership on every level.”
“There are currently zero Black women on the Supreme Court, zero Black women in the Senate, zero Black women Governors, and zero Black women who have ever served as President of this country,” the group’s president and CEO, Glynda C. Carr, said in a statement.
Biden, Carr added, “recognizes the value of diversity in his administration and has been living out that truth in the selections that he has made.”
By John Wagner10:58 a.m.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) signaled his likely opposition to Jackson’s nomination, noting in a statement that he had voted against her nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit less than a year ago.
McConnell congratulated Jackson and said he looked forward to “meeting with her in person and studying her record, legal views, and judicial philosophy.”
But, in addition to prominently mentioning his previous opposition, McConnell noted that one of her prior rulings was unanimously reversed by her present colleagues on the D.C. Circuit, and he said he understands that Jackson is “the favored choice of far-left dark-money groups that have spent years attacking the legitimacy and structure of the Court itself.”
Several advocacy groups have been gearing up to back Biden’s eventual nominee in the confirmation process.
“With that said, I look forward to carefully reviewing Judge Jackson’s nomination during the vigorous and thorough Senate process that the American people deserve,” McConnell said.
By Eugene Scott and Seung Min Kim10:57 a.m.
President Biden called Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Friday morning to inform him of his choice of Jackson, according to an individual familiar with the call.
In a statement, Schumer praised the nominee, calling the selection “an important step toward ensuring the Supreme Court reflects the nation as a whole.”
“As the first Black woman Supreme Court Justice in the Court’s 232-year-history, she will inspire countless future generations of Americans,” Schumer said in a statement. “With her exceptional qualifications, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will be a Justice who will uphold the Constitution and protect the rights of all Americans, including the voiceless and vulnerable.”
The individual who described the call spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak frankly about a private conversation.
Sen. Richard J. Durbin, who is both chairman of the Judiciary Committee and the Democratic whip in the Senate, promised to move swiftly on the nomination.
“To be the first to make history in our nation you need to have an exceptional life story,” Durbin said. “Judge Jackson’s achievements are well known to the Senate Judiciary Committee as we approved her to the D.C. Circuit less than a year ago with bipartisan support.”
“We will begin immediately to move forward on her nomination with the careful, fair, and professional approach she and America are entitled to,” Durbin added.
Republican Sens. Lindsey O. Graham and Tim Scott of South Carolina both expressed disappointment in Biden’s decision to name Jackson to the Supreme Court, given that they backed fellow South Carolinian Judge J. Michelle Childs.
There was no mention when the hearing began that less than an hour earlier news outlets had begun reporting that Jackson was Biden’s choice to succeed retiring Justice Stephen G. Breyer. Instead, Jackson and her colleagues — Judges Robert L. Wilkins and Patricia A. Millett — were questioning lawyers in the first case about federal railroad regulations. | null | null | null | null | null |
Adam Johnson, a stay-at-home father of five boys, was at the front of the mob that attacked the House chamber, and he tried to enter Pelosi’s office.
Adam Johnson, the Florida man who posed for a picture carrying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D) lectern in the Senate Rotunda of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and led a pro-Trump mob that tried to break into the House chamber that day, was sentenced to 75 days in jail Friday and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine.
The judge recommended two books to Johnson: “How Civil Wars Start” and “The Next Civil War,” which describe uprisings in other countries.
Johnson was apologetic, and his attorneys noted that he began cooperating fully with federal agents as soon as he was arrested on Jan. 8, though he had destroyed his photos and social media accounts by then. He told the judge he knew if he had committed similar acts in other countries, “I’d be on a firing wall, not before you.” He acknowledged the riot “was violent.”
Johnson, 37, of Bradenton, Fla., is a stay-at-home father of five boys between the ages of 6 and 14, according to court records, married to a medical doctor. He flew to the District on January 5 of last year and participated in a rally that night where he was captured by a Post video photographer yelling expletive-laden comments that Walton interpreted to mean that Johnson did not believe President Biden was legitimately elected.
Walton said Johnson could have turned around and gone home after that rally, in which he posted a photo of himself on Facebook with the caption, “Riot!!!” But he didn’t.
Instead, after President Donald Trump’s morning “Stop the Steal” rally on the Ellipse on Jan. 6, Johnson learned of the mob assaulting the Capitol and sprinted to join them, prosecutors said. He wound up spending 35 minutes inside the Capitol, and it was his actions in addition to parading with Pelosi’s lectern that gave Walton and the prosecutors greater concern.
As a group of rioters approached the House chamber, with representatives huddled inside, Johnson yelled for the mob to use a bust of George Washington as a battering ram to break down the doors to the chamber. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Arco played multiple videos that captured Johnson screaming encouragement to fellow rioters. Johnson also made his own video of rioters disarming a police officer, and stood near the D.C. police officer who was being crushed between doors during the attack.
Johnson also entered three highly sensitive areas of the Capitol, prosecutors said, and was photographed jiggling the handle of Pelosi’s chamber, seemingly trying to enter. Johnson said people have asked him what he would have done if the door opened and he found the speaker of the House. He said he would have asked her to take a photo with him.
Walking into the Senate Rotunda with the lectern, he was photographed by veteran news photographer Win McNamee, waving at the camera. His defense lawyer, Dan Eckhart, said Johnson “looks like a fool, wearing a hat, parading around.” | null | null | null | null | null |
Opinion: Virginians can work together on the climate crisis
A pedestrian walks through flood water on Union Street as heavy rain falls in Old Town Alexandria on Oct. 29. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)
By Andrea McGimsey
Andrea McGimsey, a resident of Loudoun County, is the executive director of the Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions.
My Northern Virginian family has been taking vacations on Assateague and Chincoteague Islands since I was a little girl in the 1970s. I love that national seashore and its magnificent wildlife, and I always look forward to our annual dinner of crab cakes at Bill’s Restaurant. Languid, peaceful days on those wonderful islands are the best that small town America has to offer.
Over the years, I have seen the toll that climate change is taking on the islands, and I worry for the businesses and people in this place I deeply love. For the sake of our coastal communities, Virginia’s elected leaders must act on climate now.
As people of faith, we believe we have a responsibility to protect people and nature. Climate change is the moral and urgent challenge of our time, and we must implement solutions at the scale and pace the science demands. By reducing planet-warming pollution from power plants and making polluters pay, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) has placed Virginia on a strong path to tackle climate change.
Keeping equity in mind when RGGI legislation was passed in 2020, our elected leaders ensured that half of the proceeds from the carbon auctions would directly benefit low-income families. Energy efficiency repairs in nearly every county in Virginia have cut their energy bills by 20 percent on average. Thanks to these investments, we are making the homes of our lowest-income neighbors more comfortable, safer and affordable.
RGGI is also a crucial tool for adapting to the ravages of climate change already baked into the Earth’s system by our profligate burning of fossil fuels. Flood damages in Virginia’s coastal region, for example, are projected to increase from $400 million to $5.1 billion every year over the next 60 years. RGGI-funded projects help communities across the commonwealth prepare for this increasing threat.
Southwest Virginia, for example, has been hit hard in recent years. A devastating deluge in Buchanan County this past summer destroyed 20 homes and tragically took a life. Buchanan received a grant to develop a resilience plan to guard against future damage from more extreme weather. In the second round of grants announced in December, the state awarded $24.5 million across 30 projects, greatly expanding the communities that are benefiting directly from RGGI funds, from Norfolk to Alexandria to Christiansburg. These are the direct, tangible benefits of a program that reduces the threat of climate change and directly takes on its terrible impacts on our fellow Virginians.
For more than a decade, RGGI has been a proven success for our neighbors from Maine to Maryland, reducing pollution and investing in cleaner energy. Republican and Democratic governors alike have supported this regional program — because it works. As a native Virginian, I could not be happier we became the first Southern state to join this common-sense, bipartisan program that powerfully addresses the climate crisis.
There is no time to waste. We are seeing the impacts of climate change today, and the warmer, expanding, surging ocean doesn’t care who is a Republican or Democrat. The stronger sheets of rain running off our mountains and swelling the rivers and creeks of Appalachian valleys don’t care either.
It’s time for all of us to work together to protect Virginians from the looming climate crisis. Let’s stay in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. | null | null | null | null | null |
TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas’ top public school administrator was suspended on Friday after attempting to step down over an offensive remark about Native Americans at a recent public conference.
But the board unanimously rejected Watson’s resignation and suspended him for 30 days, without pay.
The board’s decision came a day after Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, three indigenous state legislators and the chair of one of the state’s four Native American nations called on Watson to resign. Kelly, Watson and the indigenous nations’ leaders met Wednesday, the same day the board scheduled its special meeting. Board members said Watson also informed them of the situation.
Porter said Watson had made multiple apologies, but “these apologies have not been accepted by many who were affected.” He chided Kelly and the legislators for getting involved publicly, noting that the board has “sole responsibility” for the Department of Education’s leadership.
Before the meeting, state Senate Education Committee Chair Molly Baumgardner, a conservative Kansas City-area Republican, said Kelly should have left dealing with Watson’s remark to the board. She also said lawmakers have “always had open, honest communication” with Watson. | null | null | null | null | null |
World Stage: Ukraine with Lithuania Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte
Lithuania is a Baltic republic of 2.8 million people that gained independence in 1991 after half a century under Soviet rule. On Monday, Feb. 28 at 11:00 a.m. ET, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius speaks with Lithuania’s Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte about how she thinks the world should respond to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and what is at stake for her country. | null | null | null | null | null |
Opinion: Readers critique The Post: There aren’t two sides to heart health
The media should not be bothsidesing heart health
I write this letter from my office, looking at a cardiac catheterization of a patient with a 90 percent lesion in their left anterior descending coronary artery, with high cholesterol driven largely by diet and no family history of cardiovascular disease. In the Feb. 13 news article “Mudslinging between alt-meat and traditional agriculture is getting dirty,” it was expressed that there are two sides to the nutrition debate in cardiovascular disease prevention, but the aggregate of scientific evidence clearly demonstrates otherwise. It is estimated that 80 percent of cardiovascular disease is diet- and lifestyle-related. But for as much as popular media would say otherwise, the evidence for nutrition and the prevention of cardiovascular disease is robust and straightforward. Guidelines from the leading cardiovascular organizations worldwide all agree that a diet with an abundance of plant foods, substituting saturated fat for polyunsaturated fat and reducing dietary cholesterol, sodium and refined carbohydrates, helps to significantly reduce the risk of developing atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Those of us who care every day for patients with heart disease, the No. 1 killer of Americans, wish the media would help us to save Americans lives by prioritizing evidence-based medicine over sensational headlines.
Danielle Belardo, Jacksonville, Fla.
The writer is a cardiologist practicing in California and is co-chair of the American Society for Preventive Cardiology’s Nutrition Committee.
The amazing athleticism in endurance sports
Chuck Culpepper’s in-depth and bizarrely comical attempt at depicting the end of a grueling cross-country ski race, “Grueling sport’s finish line is tapestry of gorgeous misery” [Sports, Feb. 11], did not do a service to the amazing athleticism required for this power/endurance sport. Though culturally, we love to glorify the agony of “to complete,” a little explanation about why would have been appropriate and maybe well received. Power/endurance sports such as cross-country, rowing and maybe cycling require the highest level of overall fitness just to participate, let alone succeed in competition.
In fact, none is more strenuous and employs the body more completely than cross-country skiing. Every athlete in this competition has to meter both strength and endurance aspects of the race over a long period of time — too much power (and thus speed) too early, and the athlete might burn out and slow down before the end (fly and die). Starting out too conservatively means the athlete must exert maximum power toward the end to succeed. Both energy-management styles are legitimate approaches to attack a sport of this nature. Unremarkably, they also all result in the same outcome at the end. Skilled athletes (that is, all of these Olympians) know they have to cover the course and time the exhaustion of their resources (power and endurance) perfectly with the end of the race. Athletes who leave anything “in the tank” torture themselves for not trying hard enough. Barring an unfortunate crash, none of these athletes will come up short. All will choose to push to the end. Sprawling on the ground is a natural part of using literally all of your energy at the end. Turning the finish line into a description of art carnage without recognition of how the competitor must perform during the race, resulting in this more or less standard result at the finish, is insulting and a gross disservice to the readers and the sport.
Mike Arnold, University Park
The writer is a competitive masters rower and coach.
Where are the email addresses?
I am a longtime reader of The Post and a frequent pesterer of the many fine journalists who have written for the paper. Over the years, motivated by what they wrote, I have written something like two emails per week to writers. I contact them to thank them, provide them with context I believe they missed, or — less frequently — complain about their piece or an aspect of it. I have been able to do that because The Post, in an admirable gesture of transparency, provided me with their email addresses at the end of each article. Many writers were kind enough to reply, and, without ever meeting any of them in person, I established relationships with some of them based on our exchanges.
The Post has stopped printing journalists’ email addresses at the end of articles. I’m not sure when this policy change took effect, nor have I been able to find any statement, declaration or announcement explaining this abrupt deletion. I am going to assume it was not because your staff feared my name gracing their inbox or worried too much about not having replied to something I sent, so what was the reason?
David Ballard, Reston
I gasped with gratitude reading Chris Richards’s Feb. 11 Style appreciation, “Betty Davis was the original funky diva.” Then I applauded Davis’s musical legacy in the Feb. 13 obituary “Free-spirited funk singer and songwriter had her heyday in the 1970s.”
Both honorably and humbly brought Davis’s background, music career and later years out of obscurity into the light for 21st-century music lovers, young and old. As an elder, I remember back in the 1970s when we gentlemen were polite around our mothers, aunts and grandmothers and lip-synced to safe singers such as Marilyn McCoo of the 5th Dimension, Diana Ross and Dionne Warwick. Then we’d run out the back door, listening and partying with Davis. She wasn’t a nasty gal to us but a free-spirited soul to set the listener’s mind free, unchained.
Anointing her our original funky diva, Richards graciously documented Davis’s three high-volume, scorching solo albums — 1973’s “Betty Davis,” 1974’s “They Say I’m Different” and 1975’s “Nasty Gal” — in an aura of funky amber. Davis still sizzles. The obituary captured Davis as genre-busting and inspirational, diving extensively into how Davis influenced and positively challenged other artists, including Miles Davis (her husband for a year), to be truer to themselves and the times they’re living in. Davis was different yet had style, grace, wit and self-empowerment. It wasn’t easy for her or those who didn’t get it, her art or performances, including, as the obituary noted, the NAACP.
The message is in the music, and Davis delivered in her short career. We still have her music to play and to inspire us to be humbly different and honest in whatever we decide to do for a better life.
Aldric Crawley, Richmond
An unfair claim
In the middle of the otherwise interesting Feb. 14 front-page article about Judge J. Michelle Childs, “Childhood traumas shaped potential high court pick,” was a comment that reinforced a misimpression both generally about what judges do, and especially about Childs. The article reported that, in 2009, Childs had already presided over state court cases involving “hundreds” of people and was so well regarded that the Senate (despite frequent partisan differences over other candidates) approved her nomination for her current position as a U.S. District Court judge for the District of South Carolina on a voice vote, “meaning no roll call was needed.” But then, in the very next moment, the article declared that she “would soon use her position to stake out politically charged decisions.”
Childs did not pick the cases she was assigned. They were assigned randomly to judges on her court. The fact that in 2014 (five years after her appointment) and 2020 (11 years after her appointment) she ruled in two cases the article viewed as politically charged does not suggest that she “soon used her position” in any way. And it was extremely unfair to claim that it “stakes out” some position when a judge decides the case before her. Judges have to decide cases, even when they are “politically charged.”
Judges are human beings. They are shaped by their life experiences and can have different views about how to apply the law to the facts that are presented. But that does not mean every time they decide a case they abandon the oath to uphold the law and instead are pursuing some personal political agenda.
This is especially true of Childs, who, among many other accomplishments, is the immediate past chair of the Judicial Division of the American Bar Association and was the chair of the ABA’s National Conference of Federal Trial Judges. She has dedicated many hours to pursuing the rule of law — a rule that applies to everyone regardless of political views.
The article presented no reason to believe Childs did anything but decide the cases presented to her based on her honest view of the law. And it did a disservice to Childs and the rule of law she serves to strain so hard to assume otherwise.
Merril Hirsh, Washington
The writer is the chair of the ABA Judicial Division Lawyers Conference Special Masters Committee.
A funny family
I was surprised by the oversight in the Feb. 15 Style appreciation of Ivan Reitman and his “buddy” movies, “ ‘Ghostbusters’ director found his calling with comedy.” The appreciation discussed Reitman’s legacy on comedians who have followed him and mentioned his son’s work. But the work of his daughter Catherine Reitman and her hugely successful Canadian TV show, “Workin’ Moms,” was omitted. Was this because her show focused on women, not men?
Catherine Reitman is a very funny comedian herself and surely was deeply influenced by her father. And female friendships (a female version of the “buddy” relationship) are a significant component of her show. The appreciation did a disservice by excluding mention of Catherine Reitman or her show in discussing her father’s legacy.
Jeanne T. Cohn, Washington
More-perfect grammar
I absolutely disagree with the contention that it is inappropriate to use the term “more-permanent housing,” as put forth in the Feb. 12 Free for All letter “We could stand to be more perfect.” One might say I’m constitutionally opposed to such a notion.
The argument made in the letter was that “permanent” is an absolute, and therefore one cannot call something “more permanent.” Not so fast. Let’s shift our focus from the definition of the word “permanent” to that of the modifier “more.” For the example of Afghan evacuees wanting more-permanent housing than their current hotel rooms, “more” is clearly describing something that aims to be closer to the ideal of permanent.
Ironically, the letter writer provided “perfect” as another absolute that supposedly cannot take a modifier. This points to an excellent example of the use of “more” as indicating a striving for an ideal: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union . . . ”
Milton J. Axley, Rockville
Simone de Beauvoir’s own chops
In the Feb. 15 obituary for Marie-Claire Chevalier, “As a minor, she was at the center of a landmark abortion case in France,” the fifth paragraph began: “The women included existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre’s longtime partner and fellow writer Simone de Beauvoir.”
What? Doesn’t de Beauvoir qualify for a call-out based on her own reputation rather than Sartre’s?
Martha E. Powers, Lake Frederick, Va.
Education through art
Mark Jenkins wrote of beauty in his Feb. 11 Weekend review of Lou Stovall’s printmaking, “Uncovering the beauty of printmaking,” and rightly so.
When I reflect upon Stovall’s work, I turn to his words. Stovall collaborated with Jacob Lawrence for many years. This was long after Lawrence’s entire Migration Series debuted in February 1942 at the Phillips Collection. The series depicts the migration of African Americans from mostly rural sections of Southern states to cities in the North. Post art critic Ada Rainey wrote then that Lawrence “has done a saga in paint that will provide thought for the student of sociology for years to come. Executed in tempera, these paintings are small in size, but big in content.”
It was Lawrence’s intent to educate. It has also been Stovall’s. About his friendship with Lawrence, Stovall wrote: “Jacob and I shared a common feeling that making art was a splendid way to teach tolerance and acceptance through the lessons of history.”
Pamela Carter-Birken, Arlington
The writer is author of “Duncan and Marjorie Phillips and America’s First Museum of Modern Art.”
Don’t forget about Poland, either
The Feb. 12 Free for All letter “Don’t forget about Norway” pointed out that a Feb. 2 Post article omitted Norway from the list of NATO countries that directly border Russia. (The Post article listed Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as the only NATO members directly bordering Russia.)
But don’t forget NATO member Poland. As with Lithuania, it borders the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. Indeed, Erika Fatland’s 2020 book, “The Border: A Journey Around Russia Through North Korea, China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Norway, and the Northeast Passage,” explains: “Kaliningrad is now a Russian exclave, surrounded by Poland and Lithuania, which are both N.A.T.O. countries. It is currently the most militarized area in Europe, and an important naval base for Russia, which lost the greater part of the Baltic coast when the Soviet Union fell apart. The exclave is a constant reminder to its neighbors of Russia’s military muscle.”
Mark Prenty, Washington
Yes, we should follow the science
My compliments for the excellent reportage on the state of the “follow the science” debacle in the Feb. 14 front-page article “How ‘follow the science’ turned into a political cry.”
The article’s balanced approach in researching and reporting on this topic was impressive, and it did an excellent job covering the yin and yang of this whole matter.
As several people in the article said, it would be nice if we could work through the science as it evolves, which is the nature of scientific knowledge, and respect fellow citizens of differing opinions during the process. Of course, in today’s partisan politics, that’s much easier said than done.
Fred W. Apelquist III, Oak Hill
Don’t euphemize the truth
I was disappointed that the Feb. 12 obituary for David Osnos, “Legal adviser to titans of industry in D.C. area,” did not call what happened after Osnos’s law school graduation by its name. Law firms were not “largely segregated along religious and cultural lines,” as the article stated. Rather, many firms, and especially the prestigious “white shoe” ones, refused to hire Jews, period. It was discrimination based on antisemitism, pure and simple, and it continued until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed it.
Polite euphemisms distort the truth.
Beryl Lieff Benderly, Washington
Readers critique The Post: What we got wrong about a potato plague | null | null | null | null | null |
(Simon Ingate/iStock)
Since the start of the pandemic, thousands of youngsters in the United States have suffered a rare but serious condition called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). The condition, which researchers are still learning about, has been associated with the coronavirus, causing inflammation of the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, eyes and other organs within weeks after infection or exposure to covid-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Research shows that MIS-C has also occurred in a small number of individuals who had been vaccinated. In a study published Tuesday in the Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, CDC researchers found 21 cases of MIS-C out of more than 21 million individuals ages 12 to 20 — or about 1 per million — who had received at least one dose of vaccine between December 2020 and August 2021. All but six of the 21 individuals showed evidence that they were previously infected with the virus, which has been linked with MIS-C cases. The authors emphasized that they could not determine whether vaccination contributed to the illness in those cases.
“The vaccine is safe, and the data, if anything, should make parents feel better about getting it,” said Sophie Katz, a pediatric infectious-diseases doctor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Katz said the data shows that the chances of a child developing MIS-C after the coronavirus vaccine is about 1 in a million. “Your child is twice as likely to get struck by lightning than to get MIS-C after the vaccine,” she said. | null | null | null | null | null |
Man charged with murder in Landover area shooting, police say
Police announced an arrest in a Landover area killing. (iStock)
A 35-year-old man has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder in a shooting that took place during a drug deal in the Landover area Saturday, Prince George’s County police said. | null | null | null | null | null |
Now that it has been reported that Russian propaganda and misinformation campaigns have been launched on social media platforms and have targeted websites, including those of Fox News in the United States, Le Figaro in France, La Stampa in Italy, and Der Spiegel and Die Welt in Germany, maybe more people in this country will believe findings that the Internet Research Agency purchased political advertisements on social media in the names of Americans and U.S. organizations, and it even staged political rallies within the United States in support of Trump. | null | null | null | null | null |
In the wake of Russia’s attack, President Biden will be forced to balance short-term fixes with ambitious plans to fight climate change
Gas prices rose above $6 per gallon on Feb. 23 at a gas station in Los Angeles. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images)
The Ukraine invasion and Russia’s stranglehold on European natural gas supplies and influence on global crude oil production is upending U.S. domestic energy politics.
What is good for motorists — such as temporarily eliminating the 18.4-cent-a-gallon federal gasoline tax — isn’t good climate policy, as it encourages people to drive more. What’s good for homeowners — lower natural gas prices and fewer liquefied natural gas exports — makes it harder to rush supplies abroad to help Europe fend off gas shortages. And what was convenient for lawmakers — selling off part of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to raise revenue and hide deficits — doesn’t look so appealing today.
“From Reagan forward, gasoline prices go up, approval ratings go down and vice versa pretty reliably,” said Kevin Book, managing director of ClearView Energy Partners, a consulting firm. “It’s been true for four decades.”
For Americans, difficult battles will be fought on the home front over oil and gas policies, as President Biden considers sanctions that could initially result in more economic pain for Americans.
Biden will have to weigh policies with short-term economic rewards against long-term goals to fight climate change. Biden supporters who may disagree with some of his choices will most likely avoid an open rift to hang on to political power and pursue long-term climate initiatives.
How the Russian invasion of Ukraine is unfolding on the ground
The gasoline tax is the best example of the dilemma among Democrats. “Every $10 a barrel is 25 cents at the pump,” Book said. “Cutting an 18.4 cent tax to offset 25 cents or so can help, but the question is: How many more increases are we looking at? There are times and places where targeted tax cuts can give economic relief, but in this case the symbolic value may be more substantive.”
Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) think there is more than symbolic value at stake. They co-sponsored legislation introduced Feb. 9 that would suspend the 18.4-cent-a-gallon federal gasoline tax until the beginning of 2023. Even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the price of gasoline had jumped 90 cents a gallon over the past year, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.
Kelly, Hassan and Senate co-sponsors Raphael G. Warnock (D-Ga.) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) are all expecting tight races this fall, making the short term a priority.
But lower gasoline prices spur greater consumption, and the thirst for gas is already high. Last November, bouncing back from the coronavirus pandemic, Americans used 9 million barrels a day of gasoline, among the top 10 years ever for gasoline use. One of every 11 barrels worldwide went into the tank of an American automobile. Additionally, the federal gas taxes go to the Highway Trust Fund, and a shortfall would hurt efforts to rebuild and repair vital infrastructure. In the bill, Kelly would require the Treasury to make up for the shortfall, but that would increase the deficit.
Economy appeared ready to surge before the Russian invasion
In 2008, then presidential candidate Barack Obama called cutting the federal gas tax a “gimmick” when his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton proposed doing so for three months. Some energy experts say Biden should take the Obama approach and leave the federal gasoline tax alone, arguing that suspending it would spur gasoline consumption and encourage purchases of less fuel efficient cars, which is bad climate policy.
Jason Furman, a Harvard University professor who was chairman of the Council on Economic Advisers in the Obama administration, said in an email that “a gas tax holiday suspension would be a bad idea: it would provide relatively little relief for consumers and would also provide a decent share of its benefits to oil producers. It would even be slightly helpful to Russia by putting some upward pressure on the global price of oil, albeit not a lot.”
Instead, energy experts say, the president should focus on the long-term climate issue. That means helping Europe cut the link to Russian fuel supplies as soon as possible and strengthening renewable sources of energy.
“The faster Europe and other importing countries reduce their needs for oil and gas, the smaller the geopolitical power of Russia will be,” David Hawkins, director of the climate center at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in an email. “NATO should be looking at decarbonization as a key strategic planning requirement; it’s not ‘just’ about climate.”
“Expanding U.S. oil and gas production and infrastructure is a not a viable short-term fix,” he said, and it “would be in direct conflict with the imperative of reducing dependence on fossil fuels.”
Other Biden supporters have urged the president to slow down the issuance of permits for facilities that liquefy natural gas at minus-260 degrees Fahrenheit for shipment by special tankers to other countries. These supporters have charged that the export of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to other countries was boosting domestic prices.
In an interview in December, Bruce Nilles, executive director of Climate Imperative Foundation, said that exporting natural gas in a covid-plagued winter was “the antithesis of everything Biden’s said since taking office.” He said that “the ask of [Energy Secretary Jennifer] Granholm is: Can we please pause this? Now is not the time to be driving prices up.”
Europe will unveil a strategy to break free from Russian gas
But international strategists, most Republicans and others have said that in the six short years since the first LNG shipment from the United States, U.S. exports have created an international market, alongside Qatar and Australia as the world’s largest tanker exporters. This winter, the United States and Qatar have played key roles in diverting LNG shipments to Europe.
“We’ve seen the consequences of significant reliance throughout Europe on Russian natural gas,” said Frank Macchiarola, senior vice president of policy and regulatory affairs at the American Petroleum Institute. “But because U.S. supply has been there, Europe has been getting more natural gas from the United States than from Russia.”
Nilles said in an interview Thursday that he still opposes an expansion of LNG facilities because of the time it takes to build a new one — doing little to deal with Europe’s urgent Russia problem or help it reach its climate targets.
“It takes four years and exacerbates the other crisis facing Europe and the globe, which is climate change,” he said. “Let’s do everything we can as Americans to help Europe solve both.”
The fighting in Ukraine has also cast the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in a new light. Under past budget bills, the Energy Department has been ordered to sell off substantial portions of the reserve, which peaked at 727 million barrels. At one point, the Trump administration advocated the sale of half of the reserve. Though that never became law, other measures have resulted in the amount in the reserve falling to 582 million.
“This is exactly the situation it was designed for: a bully is trying to further intimidate us because he controls part of global oil production,” said Jay E. Hakes, administrator of the U.S. Energy Information Administration during the Clinton administration and for 13 years director of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library.
Furman said that oil prices, when adjusted for inflation, are lower than they were during the high period from 2011 through 2014. But he noted that they are still spiking. “I don’t think a SPR [Strategic Petroleum Reserve] release is economically critical at this point, but to the degree it acts as a bit of extra insurance against higher prices, it would be reasonable to do,” he said.
“Critics of using the reserve argue releases aren’t sufficient to influence a global market,” Hakes said in an email. “What they miss is that the SPR is part of a global system. Europe has commercial stocks they can release. China and others have also established stockpiles.”
He said that “admittedly, the numbers are not massive in an international market.” But, “if Putin [is] to counter by withholding additional oil from the market, he will endure short and long-term pain.”
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Here in Kyiv, we can watch Russian television, allowing us to see Moscow’s version of events. For now, the Russian media is only allowed to describe the invasion as “a special military operation in Donbas” — Orwellian language apparently dictated by Putin himself. (That reluctance to use the word “war” shows that the authorities understand that the attack may not be popular with ordinary people.) Ukrainians can track the Kremlin’s disinformation campaigns and compare them with the reality we see on the ground. Russian TV, for example, broadcasts stories of fake Ukrainian soldiers surrendering to Moscow’s forces — even though we all know firsthand that our soldiers have been offering bitter resistance.
Here at home, by contrast, it is heartening to see how people are taking on the responsibility for the defense of our country. People are doing their best to support one another, to help. A British TV reporter asked me on air whether looting has been going on in cities attacked by the Russians. The comment irritated me because it missed something very fundamental about our state of mind. To Putin, democracy means chaos. He is desperate to depict us a failed state. We’re determined to prove him wrong.
Ukrainians have a long tradition of disrespect for the government. Criticism of the authorities is in our blood. Now people are putting that aside. Before the invasion, President Volodymyr Zelensky met with the leaders of political factions, who have pledged to work together. Top business leaders have rallied around the state. The Kremlin is eager to divide and conquer, to destabilize the country. But the more Putin pushes, the more united the country becomes. We have to do everything we can to resist.
Ukrainians are doing what they can — as soldiers, as firefighters, as doctors or just as people willing to open their doors to others they don’t know. It’s also a way of showing that we are not ready to accept a world driven by madness, hatred and military force. | null | null | null | null | null |
Up until now, Russia tried to look like it was playing by the rules.
Members of a Ukrainian territorial defense battalion set up a machine gun on Feb. 25, in Kyiv. (Anastasia Vlasova/Getty Images)
By Tanisha M. Fazal
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is shocking because it is so unusual for one country to so brazenly attack another’s political independence and territorial sovereignty today. A norm against territorial conquest — especially, against the wholesale erasure of countries from the world map — has conditioned international relations since the end of World War II.
Russia’s behavior raises the question: Are we witnessing the demise of that norm?
Not necessarily — but maybe.
Countries used to conquer other countries frequently
Conquest of land, including of entire countries, used to be relatively common. As I show in my book, “State Death,” buffer countries — traditionally, countries that lie between two countries that are rivals — were especially vulnerable to conquest. Often, great powers on either side of buffer states did not trust each other not to take over the buffers between them.
Poland, carved up multiple times by more powerful neighbors, provides a clear illustration of this dynamic. But buffer states around the globe — from Korea (in 1905) to Estonia (in 1940) — died by conquest. Ukraine lies in a similarly vulnerable position, sandwiched between NATO member countries and Russia.
Beginning in the early 20th century and, certainly, after World War II, however, a norm against such territorial conquest emerged. Promoted especially by the United States, but with support from around the world, this principle is most clearly enshrined in Article 2(4) of the U.N. Charter: “All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State.”
After 1945, the violent death rate of states declined so dramatically that it virtually ceased. The norm against conquering another country is one of many factors, including the advent of nuclear weapons and increased global trade, that contributed to “the long peace” post-World War II.
Countries turned to different ways to control other governments
One consequence of the emergence of the norm against conquest was a shift in the way countries exercised political control over other countries.
The norm did not magically reverse the incentives of countries that might have taken over buffer states in previous eras. But it did change how they tried to control buffer territory. Such countries sought to achieve the same political aims via different means. Thus, we saw a rise in foreign-imposed regime and leader changes of buffer countries after 1945, such as when the Soviet Union invaded Hungary in 1956.
What does this broader history tell us about Ukraine today? If Putin’s aim is limited to overthrowing and replacing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with a pro-Russian leader, the consequences for the survivability of the norm against conquest would also be limited. As scholars such as Kimberly Howe, Roxani Krystalli and co-authors have shown in the context of Syria, however, the consequences for Ukrainians would be severe. What is more, the costs to Russia are likely to be extremely high; invaders rarely accurately assess the costs of occupation.
A more serious challenge to the norm — and one that Russia has already mounted — would be to annex some of Ukraine’s territory. Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea was a first step in this regard. The more recent “recognition of the independent republics of Donetsk and Luhansk” is another.
Until now, Russia tried to look like it was playing by the rules
International relations scholars know more about the rise than the decline of norms. But chipping away at the norm by swallowing up pieces of Ukrainian territory one chunk at a time may prove an especially effective strategy to undermine the norm.
Even as the Kremlin flouts norms and breaks international law, until now even Russia seems to have acknowledged the need to at least look like it respected international law. In 2014, Russia tried to obscure its role in the annexation of Crimea by using “little green men” rather than sending in clearly marked Russian troops, as it has done in 2022. Similarly, there was the pretext of the Crimean “declaration of independence” and subsequent deployment of a self-determination justification for Crimea becoming part of Russia. Likewise, by recognizing Donetsk and Luhansk, Russia is setting itself up to use a (sham) vote to justify irredentism — claiming these territories based on historical and ethnic ties.
In other words, Russia could have taken Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk without giving any justification. While the justifications are flimsy and unpersuasive, there’s a reason Russia took pains to provide them, as Villanova political science professor Jennifer Dixon shows. Putin is trying to manipulate existing norms for his own ends. His search for a pretext for invasion in the last week — and the efforts of the U.S., its allies and Ukraine itself to deny him one — only reinforce this point.
This time may be different
In the end, however, Putin launched the current war by rewriting history and accusing Ukraine of aggression it didn’t commit. As bombs fall on Ukrainian cities, is his end goal the Russian annexation of all of Ukraine? Putin’s Feb. 21 speech suggests regret and nostalgia for the territorial boundaries of the Soviet empire. The response to a Russian effort to change the map of Europe in this way leads to at least two possible outcomes for the norm against conquest.
A strong global response to such an annexation attempt would be a signal of the norm’s strength. The strength of norms that proscribe behavior is most visibly gauged when those norms come under a direct challenge. For example, when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 (using a similar justification to the one that Putin seems to be proposing), the large military coalition that responded reinforced the norm against conquest.
If, however, the world accepts a wholesale annexation of Ukraine, with little effective response — if Ukraine were to be erased from Europe’s map — the norm against conquest would be severely, perhaps even fatally, damaged.
Historically, most wars between countries have been fought over territory. The norm against territorial conquest was meant to decrease the incidence of this type of war. The risk of overturning the norm is a return to a world of conquest and violent state death.
Tanisha M. Fazal is professor of political science at the University of Minnesota and a 2021 Andrew Carnegie Fellow. Find her on Twitter at @tanishafazal. | null | null | null | null | null |
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