Maryland open houses Feb. 23-24

7021 Oak Forest Lane BRINKLOW 20862 513 Tanbark Ct 513 Tanbark Court CHEVY CHASE 20815 3901 Woodbine St 116 Hesketh St 3314 Shepherd St 33 W Kirke St 6808 Hillcrest Pl 4007 Woodlawn Rd 4601 N Park Avenue 4606 Morgan Dr 5500 N Friendship Blvd #2010n 4601 N Park Ave #1513 3712 Bradley Lane 5500 Friendship Blvd #1822n 4601 N Park Ave #9-J 6808 Hillcrest Pl 4620 N Park Ave #707w 4007 Woodlawn Rd 3712 Bradley Lane CLARKSBURG 20871 22929 Turtle Rock Ter 23208 Rainbow Arch Dr 23306 Robin Song Dr 13418 Dutrow Dr 23628 Public House Rd 22929 Turtle Rock Ter DAMASCUS 20872 9021 Damascus Hills Lane GAITHERSBURG 20877 18162 Royal Bonnet Cir 18722 Capella Lane 20878 15613 Quince Trace Ter 114 Treehaven St 164 Crown Farm Dr 85 Chevy Chase St 164 Crown Farm Dr 13930 Saddleview Dr 155 Lazy Hollow Dr 20879 1323 Travis View Ct 19684 Club Lake Rd 1007 Travis Lane 19583 Brassie Pl #8-B 18520 Mountain Laurel Ter 18348 Gardenia Way 20882 20116 Sweet Meadow Lane 25701 Long Corner Rd GERMANTOWN 20874 27 Sky Blue Ct 14112 Schaeffer Rd 14112 Schaeffer Rd 1 Crownsgate Ct 20174 Timber Oak Lane #165 20876 22210 Canterfield Way 12029 Arista Manor Way HYATTSVILLE 20783 8415 20th Ave 3302 Pennsylvania St 8415 20th Ave 1101 East West Hwy KENSINGTON 20895 4012 Decatur Ave 2722 Jennings Rd 2804 Mccomas Ave 2804 Mccomas Ave LAYTONSVILLE 20882 8614 Augusta Farm Lane MONTGOMERY VILLAGE 20886 10037 Maple Leaf Dr NORTH BETHESDA 20852 11000 Luxmanor Road 6730 Sulky Lane 14 Chancelet Ct 5809 Nicholson Lane #1011 5809 Nicholson Lane #301 5809 Nicholson Lane #301 NORTH POTOMAC 20878 11613 Flints Grove Lane 13610 Query Mill Rd 11613 Flints Grove Lane 14 Tuckahoe Ct OLNEY 20832 3321 Tidewater Ct #c-10 4320 Skymist Ter 18316 Leedstown Way 17505 St Theresa Dr 17505 St Theresa Dr POOLESVILLE 20837 19224 Walters Ave 17121 Campbell Farm Rd POTOMAC 20854 11215 Marwood Hill Dr 12039 Great Elm Dr 10213 Garden Way 10601 Deborah Dr 11604 Broad Green Ct 11513 Dahlia Ter 7815 Whiterim Ter 10828 Lockland Road 11513 Dahlia Ter 7815 Whiterim Ter 10828 Lockland Rd 12515 Sycamore View Dr 10810 Deep Glen Dr 11301 Berger Ter 11215 Marwood Hill Dr 9809 Hall Rd 11301 Berger Ter ROCKVILLE 20850 14185 Travilah Rd 14185 Travilah Rd 20852 11067 Cedarwood Dr 10500 Rockville Pike #1104 125 Wootton Oaks Ct 5802 Nicholson Lane #2-1007


Immigrant recruits face more scrutiny than white supremacists when they enlist. Here’s why.

Officially, U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Christopher Paul Hasson wielded a secret security clearance and oversaw development of vessels designed for drug enforcement and counterterrorism operations. But, prosecutors said, time at his work computer also drifted to planning a domestic terrorist attack and building a hit list as the self-avowed white nationalist stockpiled guns at home. Hasson’s arrest last week in Maryland, where he faces drug and gun charges, has raised questions about how the military screens for hate group affiliations or other threats, especially compared with how the Pentagon has approached vetting its foreign recruits — an arduous process that has led to a number of lawsuits. Few tools to screen for hate group affiliation are available beyond visible tattoo inspections and a criminal record check during the enlistment and commission process, said Air Force Maj. Carla Gleason, a Pentagon spokeswoman. Individual military services have rules for how they rescreen and investigate potential violators after they are in uniform, she said. By contrast, a Pentagon program for skilled foreign recruits designed to trade expedited citizenship for service requires layers of intensive vetting. Recruits with valid visas are screened by the State and Homeland Security departments before even entering the program, and since 2016 they have been subjected to additional counterintelligence screening and security checks similar to a top-secret clearance. Continuous vetting requirements, even after recruits had been naturalized, were reversed by a federal court after a judge ruled they were so stringent that they violated constitutional equal-protection laws. The Pentagon said it feared insider threats in the military. “The military is neglecting checks on native-born Americans,” said Margaret Stock, a retired Army officer who helped implement the foreign recruit program at the Pentagon. “And they’re focused on vetting the least dangerous group in the military.” The Pentagon could institute simpler broad checks for native-born and foreign recruits alike to block or catch more bad actors, she said. The Defense Department said it feared security holes in the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest recruitment program, or MAVNI, which was shuttered in 2017, though it acknowledged in court filings that none of the thousands of naturalized recruits from the program have been charged with espionage-related crimes. One Chinese national who entered the program was charged with failing to report as a foreign agent but did not make it to basic training, and the new vetting procedures did not play a


United States and South Korea reach stopgap deal on troop cost-sharing

a deal before the summit. He said he expects the United States to push harder in the next round of negotiations, so that the president can declare a “win” ahead of elections in 2020. “The way Washington views the alliance has changed since Trump took office,” he said. “With Trump’s isolationist pursuits, the United States is not taking the role of global policeman anymore.” The deal has also been closely watched in Japan, which is next in line in Trump’s campaign against what he sees as “free-riders” taking advantage of U.S. defense spending. Although senior members of his administration have repeatedly tried to convince Trump that the United States gains enormous national security benefits by stationing troops in Japan and South Korea, the president is determined to get more from both countries, especially because both run trade surpluses with the United States. South Korea hosts about 28,500 U.S. troops on more than 20 sites, while Japan hosts around 54,000, about half of them on the island of Okinawa. Michael Bosack, a special adviser at the Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies in Japan, said the agreement with South Korea would reassure U.S. allies that a deal is possible with the Trump administration. But he warned that U.S. brinkmanship tactics have already fueled doubts about the country’s commitment to its allies. “While in the short-term, this may mean allies pay more for things like cost-sharing measures, in the long-term it erodes trust in U.S. security guarantees, which bears far more significant costs,” he said. If the United States is seen as “extortionist” in the negotiations, it could undermine public support for the alliance in South Korea, he said. Japan is due to begin negotiations over defense cost-sharing at the end of this year or early next year. Tokyo will argue that it is anything but a “free-rider,” especially because it is making significant purchases of F-35s and the Aegis Ashore missile defense system from the United States. But Bosack said those purchases won’t show up directly in the troop cost-sharing balance sheet. “If Japanese officials are counting on those things alone to carry them through cost-sharing negotiations, they are in for a rude awakening,” he said. Meanwhile, the United States and North Korea plan to hold a new round of talks in another Asian nation next week, as they prepare for the Trump-Kim summit, South Korea’s presidential office announced Sunday. simon.denyer@washpost.com minjoo.kim@washpost.com


A who’s-who of the many, many people in the Russia investigation’s orbit, illustrated by Steve Brodner

establish a backchannel to the Kremlin. Contact of Papadopoulos, with contacts in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Tried with Papadopoulos to arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin during the campaign. Met with Trump A close ally of Flynn. First told investigators she never spoke with Flynn about a discussion Flynn had with the Russian ambassador about sanctions during the transition. She revised her statement after Flynn’s guilty plea contradicted her initial claim. His meeting with Manafort and Gates at Manhattan’s Grand Havana Room on Aug. 2, 2016, is a fulcrum of the investigation. Prosecutors believe the men exchanged information, including internal polling data, then left through separate exits. Son-in-law of a prominent Russian-based banker and the first person sentenced in the Mueller probe, he received a 30-day sentence for lying to the FBI about his contacts with Gates. Extensive Russian ties and questionable financial activity came to light even before the campaign ended. He was convicted of bank and tax fraud in August and pleaded guilty in September to conspiring to defraud the United States and obstruct justice. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said this month that Manafort lied to prosecutors after agreeing to cooperate. A longtime ally of Manafort who joined him on the campaign. Was indicted with Manafort on bank and tax fraud charges, but pleaded guilty and testified against Manafort. Onetime Manafort business partner. Investigators say that, through Kilimnik, Manafort offered to give Deripaska “private briefings” on the campaign. Pence was lied to by Flynn during the transition process, when Flynn denied he had discussions with the Russian ambassador about sanctions relief. Flynn was forced to resign just 24 days into his tenure as national security adviser. The highest-ranking Trump aide to plead guilty as part of the investigation. Mueller argued that Flynn should receive no prison time because of his substantial assistance in the investigation. U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan delayed sentencing, which suggests Flynn may still go to prison. Aras (left) and Emin (right) financed Trump’s Miss Universe pageant in Moscow in 2013, then requested the 2016 sit-down at Trump Tower. Phone records provided to Congress show that Trump Jr. and Emin spoke briefly three days later. The first Russian national convicted of seeking to influence U.S. policy in the run-up to the 2016 election by acting as a foreign agent. Butina admitted to working with an American political operative to


Doggy massages and canine quiche: A reporter unleashed among Japan’s pampered pooches

shape of bones. On Valentine’s Day, why not treat your dog to a heart-shaped cake? Perhaps your dog could celebrate Easter with a bunny cake, or get into the Halloween spirit with a doggy doughnut. A friend who was skiing in Japan accidentally booked a room in a dog-friendly hotel, and was somewhat nonplussed to come down for breakfast in the morning to find dog food laid out, even if it was on a different table than the human offerings. Public transport isn’t welcoming. Dogs weighing more than 10 kg (22 pounds) aren’t allowed on trains or in taxis, and smaller ones need to be carried in enclosed bags or crates. But Japan Airlines offers special charter flights to domestic tourist destinations once a year that let dog owners bring their pets inside the cabin. Dogs aren’t allowed off their leashes in Japanese parks, and there are very few dedicated dog runs. Instead, in our apartment building in Yokohama, Wancott “Total Dog Service” offers a large indoor exercise area, as well as a gym with a hydrotherapy tank, a wobble board and a mini-treadmill, for rehabilitation from injuries and general fitness training. Given that our building used to contain a human gym until Wancott took the space, I’m not sure how I feel about that. I play soccer and work out at home. But for dogs that aren’t getting enough exercise, Wanwan Fitness in Tokyo offers a swimming pool, a balance ball and hurdles, and even aromatherapy massages. It’s not only the pampering that makes dog owners in Japan stand out. Here, good manners and consideration for others have a high premium in society. Dog owners always pick up their dog’s poop, without exception, but also often carry a bottle of water to squirt and wash down anything their pet has urinated on. It’s called “manner water.” Some take things a step further, laying down a mat to catch the waste before it even touches the ground. Trash cans were largely removed from Japanese streets after a 1995 sarin gas attack on the subway. Dog owners have to take dog waste home and flush it down the toilet: A paper bag inside a plastic bag makes that an easier prospect. But embark on a road trip and you have a problem. For that, you need a poop bag attached to a magnet, so you can stick it on the outside


Saudi Arabia appoints first female ambassador to United States

ISTANBUL — Saudi Arabia has appointed Princess Reema bint Bandar, a former business executive and philanthropist who lived in the United States for more than two decades, as the country’s next ambassador to Washington. She is Saudi Arabia’s first female ambassador. Her appointment, which was announced in a royal decree late Saturday, was the latest sign of the kingdom’s effort to rehabilitate its image in the United States after U.S. lawmakers censured the Saudi leadership for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen, and the arrests and alleged torture of Saudi women’s rights activists. Reema will replace Khalid bin Salman, who served as ambassador when Khashoggi, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post, was killed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Khalid, a younger brother of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was accused of helping to cover up the murder. Another royal decree issued Saturday said Khalid will serve as deputy defense minister. The CIA concluded in November that Mohammed is likely to have ordered the killing, which Saudi officials have denied. Despite the CIA finding and pushback from Congress, President Trump has steadfastly defended Mohammed, Saudi Arabia’s day-to-day ruler, insisting that human rights concerns should not override the strategic partnership between Washington and Riyadh, which includes shared antipathy toward Iran, or threaten American jobs that depend on Saudi purchases of U.S. weaponry. Reema’s father, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, had the longest tenure of any Saudi ambassador to the United States, serving for 22 years until he retired in 2005. Like her father, Reema was educated in the United States and graduated from George Washington University in 1999, according to a biography posted on the website of the official Saudi news agency. Reema has worked for Saudi Arabia’s General Sports Authority and as the chief executive of Alfa International, a luxury retail company. She has promoted greater inclusion for Saudi women in sports and breast cancer awareness, according to her official biography. In recent years, Reema has been a vocal advocate for the crown prince’s reform program, which has focused on diversifying Saudi Arabia’s economy and social changes such asgranting women the right to drive. But in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in June, after the driving ban had ended, Reema appeared to acknowledge complaints that Mohammed was sending contradictory signals to women. He had lifted the driving ban but,


In Japan’s Okinawa, voters deliver a resounding no to new U.S. military base

TOKYO — Voters in the Japanese prefecture of Okinawa resoundingly rejected the construction of a new U.S. military base on their island in a referendum Sunday, causing a fresh headache for the central government and for U.S. forces in Japan. Okinawa is home to about half the 54,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan and houses the largest U.S. air base in the Asia-Pacific region. The U.S. military says its presence on the island is vital not only for the defense of Japan, but also for keeping peace in the region. But Okinawans say their small island bears an unfair burden of the U.S. military presence in Japan, and on Sunday, they made their resentment felt. The results showed that 72.2 percent of voters rejected the construction of a U.S. base at Henoko, in the north of the island. The turnout was over 52 percent. The construction of the Henoko base was originally seen as a way to appease public opinion in Okinawa because it was intended to replace a U.S. Marine Corps air station that is in a much more built-up area. But opponents say it isn’t enough to close the Futenma air station and move it to Henoko: They want fewer U.S. bases on their island, wherever they might be built. Environmentalists also complained that the landfill work needed to build the Henoko base would destroy coral reefs and a habitat for manatees. The nonbinding referendum was backed by Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki, who was elected in September and had campaigned against the construction of the Henoko base. But his subsequent appeals to the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to cancel the base construction have fallen on deaf ears, with the central government making clear that it sees no alternative to its plan to build at Henoko and close the Futenma site. Tamaki called the referendum’s result “extremely significant.” He urged the government to review its position and enter into dialogue over the closure of Futenma. “Regarding the relocation of the Futenma airfield, I hope each one of the people [of Japan] will discuss it as their own issue, with an understanding that the burden of national security should be borne by the entire people,” he told reporters, according to public broadcaster NHK. Okinawans complain about the noise of low-flying aircraft and the dangers of accidents from U.S. bases, as well as crimes committed over the years by


China has put 1 million Muslims in concentration camps. MBS had nothing to say.

China is a leading oppressor of Muslims, so it should come as no surprise that the crown prince of Saudi Arabia — the kingdom that views itself as defender of the Islamic faith — would visit Beijing to deliver a stern rebuke. After all, China has penned an estimated 1 million Muslims into concentration camps in western China. It has sent ethnic Han Chinese to live with Muslim families and report on anyone who refuses to eat pork or shave his beard. It is wrenching children from parents to reprogram them away from their faith and culture in mass orphanages. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman must have had a lot to say when he met Chinese President Xi Jinping late last week. Wait, what’s that you say? The prince had nothing to say on behalf of China’s Muslims? In fact, he defended what China calls an effort to fight extremism? Yes, that is in fact what happened. And the reason is simple: In return, China defended Saudi Arabia’s right to orchestrate a murder and get away with it. Your concentration camps are your internal affair. My conspiracy to commit murder is my internal affair. How nice, we understand each other. It has been nearly five months since Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was lured to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, murdered and dismembered. Little accountability has been achieved since then. It is not that little has been discovered about the crime. Despite a shifting series of lies from the Saudi government, we know quite a lot. We know that the crown prince, who is second in command to his father, King Salman, told a top aide a year before the killing that he would use “a bullet” on Khashoggi if the exiled journalist did not return to Saudi Arabia and stop criticizing the Saudi regime. We know that when Khashoggi visited the consulate to take care of some paperwork, he was instructed to return on a set day the following week. We know that the Saudi government then sent two planeloads of 15 officials, including close aides to Mohammed, to Istanbul. One was a forensic expert who came equipped with a bone saw. We know that when Khashoggi entered the consulate, this hit squad instructed the consul to leave his office. He left and has not been publicly heard from since. We know, thanks to Turkish eavesdropping, that Khashoggi was then


Big Money Joins Fight Against $1 Trillion in Wasted Food

water-based solution the company says extends the ripeness as many as four days. The challenge is that individuals — not restaurants, supermarkets or farms — are among the main offenders. In the United States, about 43 percent of all the waste happens at the end of the supply chain, in home kitchens, according to a 2016 ReFed report. A study from the Natural Resources Defense Council found 68 percent of what’s trashed is still edible. People are aware of their shortcomings, according to a 2016 survey. They feel guilty, but not guilty enough to make a difference. But not everyone is sold on the idea that the answer lies in more stuff. “I worry about this food-tech, food-waste boom becoming a food-waste bust,” said Elizabeth Balkan, director of the NRDC’s food-waste program. If consumers want to throw away less food, what they have to do is plan better and store smarter, she said. It does “require lifestyle adjustments, but it shouldn’t be things that require a lot of costs and newfangled devices.” The hope for serious change, and the greatest opportunity for investment, rests with grocery stores, where narrow margins and tough competition from Walmart, Amazon’s Whole Foods Market and European transplants Aldi and Lidl provide bottom-line incentive. (Amazon founder and chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Washington Post.) Not only is revenue lost from tomatoes gone mushy and expired cheddar, there is the added expense of getting rid of it. “When they started to realize the cost of food waste, we started to see a change,” said Anne Greven, global co-head of food and agriculture innovation at the Dutch lender Rabobank. Start-ups have stepped in. FoodMaven, which sells discounted surplus food and what it describes as “imperfect produce” to restaurants and commercial kitchens, announced $10 million of investment in January, from members of the Walton and Pritzker families, on top of $8.6 million from a first round of funding. Afresh Technologies, which taps machine learning to help retailers buy just enough to keep inventories in balance, followed a $1.7 million seed round in January 2018 with an undisclosed, but larger, funding round that closed in December. Other companies include Bluapple, maker of a gas-absorbing device for refrigerators that claims to add a few more days to berries and greens, and Ovie, which says its Smarterware combines Tupperware and sensors to let you know how much time that leftover


for serious change, and the greatest opportunity for investment, rests with grocery stores, where narrow margins and tough competition from Walmart, Amazon’s Whole Foods Market and European transplants Aldi and Lidl provide bottom-line incentive. (Amazon founder and chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Washington Post.) Not only is revenue lost from tomatoes gone mushy and expired cheddar, there is the added expense of getting rid of it. “When they started to realize the cost of food waste, we started to see a change,” said Anne Greven, global co-head of food and agriculture innovation at the Dutch lender Rabobank. Start-ups have stepped in. FoodMaven, which sells discounted surplus food and what it describes as “imperfect produce” to restaurants and commercial kitchens, announced $10 million of investment in January, from members of the Walton and Pritzker families, on top of $8.6 million from a first round of funding. Afresh Technologies, which taps machine learning to help retailers buy just enough to keep inventories in balance, followed a $1.7 million seed round in January 2018 with an undisclosed, but larger, funding round that closed in December. Other companies include Bluapple, maker of a gas-absorbing device for refrigerators that claims to add a few more days to berries and greens, and Ovie, which says its Smarterware combines Tupperware and sensors to let you know how much time that leftover fruit salad or beef stir-fry has left. Companies such as Copia and Goodr are making food donations easier. Older companies, too, see the benefit of new products to address the problem. Newell Brands’ Rubbermaid advertises the containers in its Fresh Works line as capable of prolonging the life of items such as strawberries and leafy greens. Walmart “looks at food waste in a more holistic way,” said Stephanie Feldstein, population and sustainability director for the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity. For example, the biggest U.S. retailer cut strawberry delivery time from farm to store by 50 percent, adding two to three days to the berries’ usable lives. Through its Customer Value Program, Walmart reduces the price on items that will expire soon to increase the likelihood they’ll be purchased and creates a standardized date label to lower the chances anything goes bad at home. Walmart donates to local food banks what does not get sold. “Waste, at its heart, is an expense,” said Laura Phillips, Walmart’s senior vice president for global sustainability. — Bloomberg


How ‘justice is being put on hold’ until the government shutdown ends

Immigration Judges, Ashley Tabaddor. Only one fourth of the courts’ 400 judges were deemed “essential,” all of whom have dockets with detained individuals. This accounts for only 5 to 10 percent of all immigration cases. Tabaddor described the partial shutdown as a “tremendous disruption to cases in an already overburdened court.” Over the past two years, the immigration court backlog has grown by hundreds of thousands. Recently numbers reached 800,000, of cases primarily involving people who have been released from custody or who have never been in custody. On average, immigration courts see several thousand cases per day. During the shutdown, they have been canceled. No future date has yet been set; many cases will need to be bumped to the end of the line. The furlough, Tabaddor said, undermines the integrity of the court and highlights “yet another way the immigration system has been pulled into a policy debate it should be immune from.” More than two decades ago, during the Clinton administration, the nation endured an unprecedented government shutdown. The Clinton-Gingrich impasse of 1995 to 1996, which remains the longest to-date, caused hundreds of thousands of federal employees to be furloughed. There was no legal basis for what was an “essential” government function then, according to Neil J. Kinkopf, who was with the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel at the time. “Either you had a credible claim that there was a statutory authority to proceed in spite of lack of appropriations or not,” he said. There has since been some legislation on the meaning of “essential,” though even with limited precedent there seems to be little more clarity today. Attorney Burakiewicz’s suit asked that the named plaintiffs be paid owed wages. On Tuesday, the National Treasury Employees Union filed a similar lawsuit. Of the 2.1 million federal workers nationwide, The Post reported, approximately 800,000 are expected to be affected by the shutdown. There are 420,000 federal employees deemed “essential,” who are expected to come to work; “essential” government employees are those “performing emergency work involving the safety of human life or the protection of property.” At least 380,000 other federal workers are “furloughed." Read more Trump aides lay foundation for emergency order to build wall, saying border is in ‘crisis’ President Trump threatened to declare a national emergency to get his wall. Can he do that? Trump to make prime-time address, visit U.S.-Mexico border amid shutdown stalemate


Jeremy Corbyn says Labour would back a second Brexit referendum

Jeremy Corbyn is using Brexit to play his own political games.” May spent the weekend in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, at a meeting of the leaders of European and Arab states, seeking support for additional language to her Brexit deal that would make it palatable to her party. Many Conservative Party lawmakers have rejected May’s Brexit deal because it could keep Britain too closely tied to Europe to guarantee that there would be no return of a hard border in Ireland. While in Egypt, the British prime minister resisted calls to seek a delay for Brexit. “A delay in this process doesn’t deliver a decision in Parliament, and it doesn’t deliver a deal,” she said at a news conference Monday. “What it does is precisely what the word delay says, it just delays the point in which we come to that decision.” Corbyn’s spokesman said the Labour leader believes May is “recklessly running down the clock” in an attempt to “force MPs to choose between her botched deal and a disastrous no deal.” Corbyn’s move toward backing a second referendum was applauded by Labour leaders who don’t like Brexit. Labour lawmaker David Lammy tweeted, “This is a big step towards uniting our party and most importantly our country. No Brexit deal meets the fantasy promised in 2016. So the only way any specific form of Brexit can be made legitimate is through ratification in a #PeopleVote which includes the option to remain.” London Mayor Sadiq Khan said in a statement that a second referendum would be “the right decision for London — and for the whole country — to give the public their say for the first time on a final Brexit deal. I hope members of parliament will support this move, which is vital to protect jobs and growth. The prime minister must now withdraw article 50 to prevent Britain crashing out of the EU without a deal within weeks and to give us time to sort out her mess.” Campaigners for a second referendum are hopeful that if the Labour leadership fully lines up behind the cause, they could have a fighting chance at a second vote. But others said this seemed like a ploy by Corbyn to stop further splits in his party. Tim Farron, a former leader of the pro-European Liberal Democrats, said, “This is so weak. Or utterly cynical. One or the other.”


The new divide in the climate change fight: Immediately vs. eventually

the people,” a student added. “You know what’s interesting about this group is, I’ve been doing this for 30 years,” Feinstein said. “I know what I’m doing. You come in here, and you say it has to be my way or the highway. I don’t respond to that.” Climate activist Bill McKibben, writing for the New Yorker, noted the significance of the time frame presented by the senator. "The irony is that, when Feinstein said she’s been 'doing this for thirty years,' she described the precise time period during which we could have acted,” McKibben wrote. “James Hansen brought the climate question to widespread attention with his congressional testimony in 1988. If we’d moved thirty years ago, moderate steps of the kind that Feinstein proposes would have been enough to change our trajectory." McKibben hits on a central point. For years, the political fight over climate change has been between those who accept the scientific consensus that the world is warming — and, increasingly, the direct evidence of that warming — and those who either denied that warming was taking place or, also increasingly, denied that human activity is the main driver of that warming. (This excellent interactive rebuts the latter point.) Now, there’s a new divide: between those who think that addressing climate change can happen at a moderate pace and those who are responding to the urgency that has become a steady undercurrent of new climate analysis and reporting. In a live stream Sunday evening, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), the primary sponsor of the Green New Deal in the House, called those who fall into the former group “climate delayers.” As Vox’s David Roberts pointed out over the weekend, this was precisely the distinction that the New York Times’s Bret Stephens failed to grasp in an essay this month. In it, Stephens framed the opposition of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to the Green New Deal in the context of the existing climate fight. Was Pelosi a climate skeptic, he asked insincerely, given that she didn’t embrace the idea that immediate action was needed through mechanisms such as the Green New Deal? “Stephens gets the basic question right: Is climate change a priority-one emergency, threatening progress in all other areas, as the [U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] and America’s own scientists say? Or is it a manageable problem, addressable with patient, meliorist policy?” Roberts writes. “Stephens chooses


The Washington Post announces the launch of the Jamal Khashoggi Fellowship

The Washington Post today announced the launch of the Jamal Khashoggi Fellowship, a new global opinions program established to honor the late Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi. The fellowship will provide an independent platform for journalists and writers to offer their perspectives from parts of the world where freedom of expression is threatened or suppressed. The Post has named Hala Al-Dosari, an award-winning activist, scholar and writer from Saudi Arabia, the first Jamal Khashoggi fellow. “We are honored to pay tribute to Jamal’s life and work and to the values he cared most about, including human rights and freedom of expression,” said Fred Hiatt, Editorial Page Editor at The Post. “And we are honored that Hala has agreed to be the first fellow. Hala is a respected and leading voice on women’s issues, health policy and political reform across Saudi Arabia and the Arab Gulf states. We look forward to having her join our roster of contributors offering informed and different perspectives that they may not be able to express in their own countries or region.” As a fellow, Al-Dosari will write columns focused on the most important issues shaping the Middle East today. She is currently a scholar in residence at the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice in the School of Law at New York University. She serves as an advisory board member for Human Rights Watch for the Middle East and North Africa region and the Gulf Center for Human Rights. She holds a PhD in health services research from Old Dominion University, a Master of Medical Science from the University of Surrey and a Bachelor of Science from King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Al-Dosari’s columns will also be translated in Arabic and available on Post Opinion’s Arabic language page.


Baltimore Symphony Orchestra plays on, and with gusto, despite no new contract

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra continues to perform, even though the musicians and management still haven’t agreed to a new contract. At issue is the length of the BSO’s season, which management wants to cut drastically. The musicians have made it clear that they want to play, for a full season, and play they did Sunday afternoon in the Music Center at Strathmore. On the podium was Nicholas Hersh, who joined the BSO as associate conductor in 2014. This regular subscription program was a step up from the normal assignments for the position, such as holiday and kids concerts. It opened with “Rondes de printemps,” a movement from Debussy’s “Images,” which Hersh gave an active, almost breathless propulsion. For much of the time, he uses both arms to give the beat, a style that leaves little room for providing cues or other direction. Cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan, winner of the gold medal at the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition, returned to the BSO to play Elgar’s Cello Concerto. He attacked the piece with a beefy, full sound, and luxuriated over rubato slow passages with yearning phrasing. But the playing was not without a few blemishes, including in double-stops and on harmonic notes here and there. Perhaps his finest moment came in a rarefied, heartfelt encore, “El cant dels ocells” as arranged by Pablo Casals. Crisp, raucous low brass introduced Prokofiev’s Sixth Symphony, given a competent reading by Hersh and the orchestra. A few intonation issues unsettled the flute solos in the first movement, but the menacing horn notes, on wailing siren-like crescendos, drove the music to a fever pitch. Both the swooning romantic melody and the military march of the second movement were powerful and full-throated. The gallop-style theme of the finale moved progressively from insipid to threatening, making for a satisfying conclusion. style@washpost.com


A kosher couple in Silver Spring wanted Chinese — so they bought a restaurant

In the summer of 2017, a flier went up on a bulletin board inside the Shalom Kosher grocery store in the Kemp Mill Shopping Center in Silver Spring, Md. Chin & Lee, a Chinese restaurant a few storefronts down, was up for sale. Was anyone interested in buying it? One of Ami Schreiber’s friends snapped a photo, stuck it on Facebook and tagged Ami, along with a message: “Schreiber, you’ve been talking about this for the better part of two decades.” It was time for him to put up or shut up. It was time for Ami, a software engineer, and his wife, Rivka, a financial planner — two people in their 40s with zero experience in running a restaurant — to buy a restaurant. “Every day, we get up and shake our heads and say this is not a normal thing,” Ami told me last week, nearly a year after the Schreibers opened their carryout restaurant. It’s called Holy Chow, and it serves kosher Chinese food. Ami’s friends in the Orthodox community of Kemp Mill were accustomed to him reminiscing about the kosher restaurants in New Jersey, where he grew up, including his favorite: Chopstix, a Chinese restaurant in Teaneck. The shopping center near his Silver Spring house boasts a kosher pizza parlor, a kosher bakery, a kosher candy store and that kosher supermarket, but no Chinese. Would it support one? “I’m a data person,” Ami said. “My wife’s a numbers person. Together we started plotting things out.” They scrutinized demographic information. They surveyed their friends. They estimated what it would cost to buy equipment and supplies. Then, to be safe, they doubled those estimates. “It just kept making sense,” Ami said. “The demographic here, in terms of a high concentration of Jewish people that keep kosher, is too much to ignore.” For advice, Ami consulted Uri Herzog, one of the owners of Chopstix, the beloved restaurant from his youth. Herzog came in as a part-owner. The Schreibers were confident they’d find an audience for kosher Chinese food — so confident they took out a home-equity loan — but they knew they couldn’t be the ones doing the actual cooking. Kosher, they know. Chinese, not so much. They advertised in Chinese-language papers for a head chef and, after a few false starts, brought David Sun aboard. He’s been a chef for nearly 40 years — most recently at Oriental


Watch it, folks. The new scope can spot lunch or a little intrigue

Everyone looks sketchy when viewed through the lens of a spotting scope. That’s the first thing I noticed after setting one up in my new office. A few months ago, my office moved from the back of The Washington Post building to the front. My old office overlooked a firehouse on 13th Street NW. My new one gives me an expansive view of Franklin Square. As soon as I saw that view, I knew I had to procure the means to examine it in detail, if only to keep track of the resident squirrels. I already own a pair of binoculars. They’re good for looking at birds in the backyard and taking to a ballgame when you’re in the nosebleed seats. But binoculars seemed a bit pedestrian. Galileo didn’t use binoculars. So I went looking for a spotting scope, the telescope’s macho cousin. You can spend a lot of money on one. For thousands of dollars you can get high-density extra-low-dispersion glass, a magnesium chassis, angled eyepiece and a body full of argon gas to help keep the lenses free of fog. I didn’t think I’d need any of that in the comfort of my aerie. I paid 50 bucks for a used scope I found on Craigslist. What I liked most about it was the handmade wooden case it came in, which had been lovingly constructed by a previous owner. It held the cheap Japanese scope, a squat, foot-high tripod and a metal circlet to hold the former to the latter. The little tripod is so the user can lay prone in a bog, looking at his prey. Since I wasn’t planning any bog-squatting, I decided to screw the scope to a full-size tripod. It turns out that a spotting scope is harder to use than a pair of binoculars. The field of view is so narrow that it’s difficult to tell where you’re looking. I’ll see something with my naked eye down in Franklin Square and then peer into the eyepiece to try to find it. But all I get at first is a confusing tangle of tree branches, frozen grass or cracked pavement. I quickly realized that the scope is pretty useless for squirrels. They move too fast. No, it’s better at stationary things: a quartet of Lime scooters tucked together on the sidewalk, the food trucks on 13th Street, the Commodore Barry statue facing 14th, the


Oscars 2019 live updates: ‘Green Book’ wins best picture; Colman beats out Close for best actress; Malek wins best actor; Gaga and Cooper’s intimate ‘Shallow’ performance

sang the end of the song into the same microphone. Given how closely they were sitting and the longing glances they were exchanging, many people were likely wondering whether they were going to kiss. (They didn’t). Hey, it’s acting, right? 9:57: Paul Lambert, Ian Hunter, Tristan Myles and J.D. Schwal win best visual effects for “First Man. ” 9:46: “Period. End of Sentence.” by Rayka Zehtabchi and Melissa Berton wins for documentary short subject. The creators of “Period. End of Sentence.” — the documentary about the stigma around menstruation faced by women in India — were shocked when they took the stage: “I can’t believe a film about menstruation just won an Oscar!” Zehtabchi said. “A period should end a sentence, not a girl’s education,” Berton added. 9:43: “Bao” by Domee Shi and Becky Neiman-Cobb wins for best animated short film. The duo, looking excited, both offered short personal speeches following the win. Domee Shi offered supportive words “to all of the nerdy girls out there who hide behind their sketchbooks." “Don’t be afraid to tell your stories to the world,” she said. “You’re gonna freak people out but you’ll probably connect with them, too, and that’s an amazing feeling to have. ” Neiman-Cobb, meanwhile, reflected on having her first child — something that coincided with the creation of “Bao." “I got to make a short about a mother just as I was becoming one,” she said gleefully. 9:33: David Rawlings and Gillian Welch perform “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings” from “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. ” 9:30: “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” wins best animated feature. Director Peter Ramsey was the first black director to be nominated in the category. “We want you all to know, we see you,” Ramsey said to the audience. “You’re powerful. This world needs you, okay? This world needs you. So please, we’re all counting on you.” 9:22: Mahershala Ali wins best supporting actor for “Green Book.” This is his second Oscar. Though “Green Book” is one of the most polarizing Oscar contenders this year, Ali’s performance as jazz pianist Don Shirley has garnered positive reviews. Ali thanked Shirley and said that “trying to capture his essence pushed me to my ends, which is a reflection of the person he was and the life that he lived. ” He also thanked his co-stars and director Peter Farrelly before dedicating the award to


It’s orchid time at the Smithsonian, but annual exhibit takes hard work year-round

During the recent government shutdown, Smithsonian horticulturist Virginia Thaxton continued to work. She walked into the closed, dimly lit, empty museums once a week. “It was eerie,” she said of walking alone among the artifacts in the usually bustling buildings. Thaxton also kept up her work at the Smithsonian Gardens Greenhouse, preparing for the annual Smithsonian Gardens and United States Botanic Garden (USBG) orchid exhibition, where hundreds of orchids are on display. The shutdown delayed the exhibition by only two weeks, because the horticulturists, gardeners and technicians were still working hard to keep the orchids and other rare plants healthy. Both the Smithsonian and USBG have huge greenhouses that mimic the light, temperature and humidity of the plants’ native environments. The greenhouses are long, rectangular glass buildings that open into bays (hallways) large enough to drive a truck into so plants can be moved without being exposed to the elements. Thaxton has been working with rare plants at the Smithsonian Gardens Greenhouse for years. “There are at least two horticulturists working in the greenhouses 365 days a year,” she said. In addition to 8,000 orchid plants, the Smithsonian Gardens Greenhouse in Suitland, Maryland, produces the plants inside and around all Smithsonian museums. There’s even a special greenhouse for the nectar-source plants that feed the butterflies in the butterfly pavilion at the National Museum of Natural History. The USBG Production Facility has about 4,000 orchids in three greenhouses. It includes a section devoted to carnivorous (meat-eating) plants and plant species that are extinct in the wild. The USBG sends plant waste to be composted and then brought back to the facility to be used. The Smithsonian uses some fertilizer but not poop from the National Zoo. Why not? The zoo animals don’t digest everything completely, so manure is full of seeds, which sprout and cause confusion between what was planted and what’s leftover from the animals. The Smithsonian facility isn’t open to the public. But USBG opens its 85,000-square-foot (nearly two acres under glass) production facility in Southwest Washington to the public for one day each year. This year’s open house is March 9. You have to reserve tickets, and they usually sell out in advance. For a private tour, you can become a junior botanist by following the steps on the USBG website, which includes activities to do at the conservatory and at home. Thaxton said one of her favorite


Wallace Broecker, who helped popularize term ‘global warming,’ dies at 87

our field,” Richard Alley, a geosciences professor at Pennsylvania State University, once told the alumni magazine Columbia College Today. “He is intellectually so huge in how the earth system works and what its history is that all of us are following Wally in some way or another.” Wallace Smith Broecker was born in Chicago on Nov. 29, 1931, and raised in nearby Oak Park, Ill. His father ran a gas station, and his mother was a homemaker. Dr. Broecker initially studied at Wheaton College, a Christian school in Illinois. He was contemplating a career as an actuary when a classmate, Paul W. Gast (later the chief moon rocks scientist at NASA), encouraged him to apply for a summer internship at what was then Lamont Geological Observatory. The internship proved transformative. Working under J. Laurence Kulp, a geochemist and Wheaton graduate, Dr. Broecker used new methods of carbon dating to study samples that were tens of thousands of years old. At Kulp’s encouragement he transferred to Columbia for his senior year of college, receiving a bachelor’s degree in geology in 1953. While some peers taunted Dr. Broecker for his religious background, dubbing him and other evangelical Christians the “theo-chemists,” he came to view the Lamont observatory as a sanctuary, describing it in a 2016 memoir as “my geochemical Garden of Eden.” He received a doctorate in geology in 1958 and joined the Columbia faculty one year later. Dr. Broecker was dyslexic and said he never typed or used a computer, writing manuscripts for his many books and articles by hand. He was often far away from his office, traveling across the oceans in search of water samples, seafloor cores or foraminifera, tiny marine animals useful for tracking ancient climatic change. In 1987, he shared the Vetlesen Prize, a leading earth science honor, with geochemist and oceanographer Harmon Craig. The two researchers, the selection panel said, had “done more to characterize the chemistry of the oceans and its exchange with the atmosphere and the solid earth than any other scientists anywhere.” President Bill Clinton awarded him the National Medal of Science in 1996. Dr. Broecker’s wife of 55 years, the former Grace Carder, died in 2007. He married Elizabeth Clark, one of his lab workers, in 2009. In addition to his wife, survivors include five children from his first marriage; two children from a separate relationship; two sisters; seven grandchildren; and seven


The Trump administration backs off its hard line on a North Korea deal

the sanctions implemented by the United Nations Security Council in 2017 would indeed remain in place until there was “full, verified denuclearization.” But he also suggested other types of sanctions could potentially be relaxed before then. “Remember these sanctions cover a broad array of activities,” he said. “The core economic sanctions, the sanctions that prevent countries from conducting trade, creating wealth for North Korea, those sanctions are definitely going to remain in place. There are other things we could do — exchanges of people, lots of other ways that North Korea is sanctioned today — that if we get a substantial step and move forward, we could certainly provide an outlet which would demonstrate our commitment to the process as well.” This seems like a shift in emphasis at least. Pompeo had not previously carved out these other types of sanctions when delivering his ultimatums; he simply said no sanctions relief without total denuclearization, full stop. Maybe he thought it was just assumed that he was talking only about the U.N. sanctions? But a look back at Pompeo’s remarks suggests this is more than just a matter of emphasis. At multiple points over the past year, Pompeo has said outright or clearly suggested that no sanctions would be lifted short of total denuclearization. What’s more, he often did so while emphasizing that the Trump administration wouldn’t entertain the kind of incremental approach that it now seems to be considering. “We’re not going to relieve sanctions until such time as we achieved our objectives,” he said in May 2018. “We are not going to do this in small increments, where the world is essentially coerced into relieving economic pressure.” He added in June: “The president has been very clear: Sanctions will not be lifted until such time as the denuclearization itself has been completed. Look, we’ve been down the path before where promises have been made and not kept.” Pompeo repeatedly mentioned sanctions remaining in place without indicating that he was referring to just U.N. or economic sanctions. In fact, in testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in July, he made clear that both U.N. and U.S.-imposed sanctions were included in the ultimatum. “Until North Korea eliminates its weapons of mass destruction, our sanctions and those at the United Stations will remain — United Nations — will remain in effect,” he said. In November, CBS’s John Dickerson asked whether “any


The Technology 202: Advocate urges Congress to protect digital rights of people of color as it crafts privacy bill

workers cope by telling dark jokes about committing suicide, then smoke weed during breaks to numb their emotions,” Newton wrote. Bob Duncan, vice president of operations for business process services at Cognizant, said the company warns applicants that the job includes graphic content. “We share examples of the kinds of things you can see … so that they have an understanding,” Duncan told the Verge. “The intention of all that is to ensure people understand it.” Facebook also published a post that provides further explanation about the company’s relationship with content reviewers. The story prompted many reactions and comments on Twitter. From Newton: From Antonio García Martínez, a former Facebook employee and author, and Motherboard’s Joseph Cox: From Alex Stamos, former chief security officer for Facebook who now teaches at Stanford University: BYTES: Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella defended the company's decision to sell it augmented reality headset to the military following employee criticism, “We made a principled decision that we’re not going to withhold technology from institutions that we have elected in democracies to protect the freedoms we enjoy,” he told CNN Business at the conference. ”We were very transparent about that decision and we’ll continue to have that dialogue [with employees],” he added during the interview. (My colleagues Tony Romm and Drew Harwell wrote about employee calls to cancel the contract on the grounds that it could turn warfare into a “video game” here.) -- Lime said it found a “bug” that can cause “sudden excessive braking” while the company's electric scooters are in use Lime said it has started issuing remote fixes for the problem, which reduced the number of incidents. The company also said that the abrupt braking issue usually occurs when scooters are going downhill at top speed. — Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, who was arrested this month and awaits arraignment, said Facebook bears some responsibility for her ordeal — More technology news from the private sector: -- A group of 14 Democratic House members demanded that Google and Apple stop hosting a Saudi government app that can allow men to track women's movements in Saudi Arabia “Keeping this application in your stores allows your companies and your American employees to be accomplices in the oppression of Saudi Arabian women and migrant workers," — The odds that Musk's project to build a high-speed tunnel in Chicago will become reality are dimming — A group of


Hello, hive mind: Bees can do basic arithmetic, a new study finds

The oval-shaped brain of a honeybee is roughly the size of a single sesame seed. It contains fewer than 1 million neurons, while the human brain contains 100 billion. A team of entomologists is asking what all those extra nerve cells are good for after finding that bees can do the kind of fundamental mathematics once thought to distinguish humans and the primate animals they most closely resemble. Many animals display some degree of quantitative understanding as they forage and fight, hoard and hide and find their way back home. Counting, for instance, is pervasive. But bees can do something more, according to a paper published this month in the peer-reviewed Science Advances journal. They can add and subtract, placing one of the world’s leading pollinators in the venerable company of monkeys, parrots and, yes, spiders — the cognitive A-list of the animal kingdom. The findings contribute to a growing body of evidence that the brains of insects are more powerful than once thought — capable not just of a vague numerical sense but of the sort of learning and complex memory tasks that make arithmetic possible. It also sheds light on the evolution of quantitative abilities in other species, decoupling numerical understanding from human language. “A small biological processing system can perform quite complex things,” said Scarlett Howard, the paper’s lead author and a postdoctoral fellow at the French National Center for Scientific Research. The small neural network employed by bees, she said in an interview with The Washington Post, points to a possible alternative to high-energy computing, suggesting that artificial intelligence should seek to model natural systems “that have evolved in complex and challenging environments.” The research builds on the discovery of the same researchers last year that bees understand nothing — that is, the concept of nothing. The authors reported that bees trained to perceive notions of “greater than” and “less than” were also able to order zero at the beginning of a numerical continuum — a capacity that put them on the same plane as the African gray parrot, notable for its ability to copy human speech, as well as nonhuman primates and even preschool children. In the new study, conducted last year at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in southeastern Australia, the researchers devised a Y-shaped maze to train 14 bees to add and subtract. The first sight encountered by the insects was a


Why scientists sometimes make extraordinary claims

chairman of the Harvard Astronomy Department, along with his long list of other accomplishments — can add a certain gravitas to a claim that might be dismissed if it came from somewhere else. But it also shapes who can get away with extreme ideas in the first place. Pushing the boundaries of plausibility comes with risk to one’s career and reputation, so while anyone can use hyperbole as a tool, the risk that one bears is substantially higher if you are not insulated by a name-brand institution, along with titles and accomplishments from adjacent name-brand institutions. Outlandish claims are, in some sense, a luxury concentrated in the hands of those who already possess other luxuries — a kind of academic weight whose heft accumulates with time. The fact that hyperbolic ideas remain a privilege is precisely what limits them as a tool for moving the boundaries of the possible. Truly innovative thoughts can come from anywhere — including, like ‘Oumuamua, from outside the system itself. What lights the fuse of curiosity is specific to each person: For some it takes a spaceship, while for others, a strange rock will do. In my experience talking with guests at the Adler Planetarium, media attention is certainly a factor in why many people want to talk about ‘Oumuamua, but relatively few seem wedded to the idea of it being a defunct alien spacecraft. Most people are interested for the same reason scientists are: It came from outside the solar system! It’s weird! There is mystery! For any discovery, the most far-flung interpretation is always out there (whether someone writes a paper on it or not), much as the subject of a photograph exists outside the bounds of the picture itself. Moreover, outlandish ideas are not demons, called into being by someone voicing their name — we should neither fear them, nor give them more power than they’re due. While there is no way of knowing what will become of ‘Oumuamua, its discovery is a harbinger of others yet to come: Near-future sky surveys, such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, are expected to find other interstellar space rocks on their way past the sun. In the meantime, what moves the needle of our knowledge isn’t really hyperbole, but the fact that we happened to catch this particular rock as it made a brief appearance here, that we learned as much as we did.


Why West Virginians in coal country are turning to beekeeping

profit of $6 per pound. She estimates that will bring in $1,200 and $1,800 to pay off a few bills and invest in her new business, Meant to Bee Apiary and Artisan Creations. Moten plans to sell a few jars of honey to friends and also craft and sell homemade honey-scented soaps and lip balm made with organic beeswax. Getting stung now and then is a small price to pay, she said, for some extra pocket money and fresh honey for her breakfast toast. Moten is among 35 West Virginians who became apprentice beekeepers last year after taking Beekeeping 101 classes through the Appalachian Beekeeping Collective program operated by Appalachian Headwaters, a nonprofit started in 2016 to restore native hardwood forests and streams on former mining sites throughout central Appalachia. With another 55 “wannabe” keepers currently being trained in a new round of classes, beehives are a “win-win-win” for the region, program co-founder Kate Asquith said. Besides supplementing the incomes of West Virginians living at or below the poverty level, she said, beekeeping will help to pollinate scarred landscapes and perhaps give a boost to the threatened honeybee population. Worker bees fly away from their boxes to pollinate, then return to tell other bees through a “waggle” dance where to find a nectar source. As an incentive for beekeepers, equipment is free for those who are part of the program, and staff workers will handle the sticky job of harvesting, cleaning and bottling the honey every spring and summer. "The cost to each beekeeper is nothing except their time," Asquith said. "In West Virginia, even though many people live in poverty, they have a lot of open space, free of pesticides and herbicides, to keep hives." Appalachians have been tied to their land for generations, said Asquith, but when mining jobs in the eastern United States began to dwindle after coal prices fell in the 1980s, young people often felt they had no choice but to leave. "People are migrating out and not moving in, and entire communities built around the coal industry are in serious decline," she said. "But bees are good ambassadors. Our hope is that through beekeeping, people will be able to build up their skill base." James Scyphers, a former coal miner and carpenter from Athens, W.Va., has been able to do just that. When he learned about two years ago that the Appalachian Beekeeping Collective


The week’s other summit: Kushner to meet Saudi crown prince

of Kushner’s trip will almost certainly be his meeting with the Saudi crown prince. Kushner has reportedly consulted with Mohammed over a range of matters, including the ambitious royal’s plans for economic restructuring and how to weather the controversy over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Mohammed is even alleged to have once quipped that he has Trump’s son-in-law “in my pocket.” Last week, my colleagues reported on new revelations in a document released by congressional Democrats that key members of the Trump administration wanted to sell nuclear power plants to Saudi Arabia in the early months following Trump’s inauguration — no matter the objections of senior national security officials. The news sent alarm bells ringing among nonproliferation experts wary of Riyadh pushing for its own nuclear weapons. “It is critical to understand production of nuclear fuel for a civilian power plant is just a short step away from a different type of fuel that is suitable for a nuclear weapon,” wrote global affairs commentator David Andelman. “And, most worryingly, the Saudis seem anxious to produce their own fuel domestically rather than buying it, at lower prices, from the United States or any other nation that adheres to non-proliferation controls.” The inquiry also revealed the White House’s possible pecuniary interest in such a deal. My colleagues unpacked Kushner’s murky role in the proceedings: “The report ... notes that one of the power plant manufacturers that could benefit from a nuclear deal, Westinghouse Electric, is a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management, the company that has provided financial relief to the family of Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and a senior White House adviser. Brookfield Asset Management took a 99-year lease on the Kushner family’s deeply indebted New York City property at 666 Fifth Ave.” “Kushner’s conflicts of interest are considerably more entangled than that,” Luce wrote. “But the moral is simple. U.S. administrations used to spread best practice to the Middle East and beyond — or at least to pay lip service. Under Trump, the flow has reversed. Washington is importing the Gulf’s culture of patronage clientelism.” That shouldn’t be surprising. “Trump, of course, is most comfortable when the West Wing is operating as a family office,” wrote Vanity Fair’s Emily Jane Fox, an expert on the Trump family. “[It] helps to explain why, despite an anti-nepotism law that stood for 50 years, he deputized his son-in-law to lead some


Very high carbon dioxide could suppress cooling clouds, climate change model warns

he assumes that human civilization will find a way to avoid putting all that carbon into the atmosphere. “I hope there’s going to be sufficient technological progress that we’re not going to get there. But it’s not outside the realm of the possible,” Schneider said. Matt Huber, a Purdue climate scientist who has studied the effects of clouds on climate, offered a cautious assessment of the new paper. “Whenever you see a surprising result in a climate model, you get concerned that the model is itself just too tippy, that there’s something that should be stabilizing the model,” he said. But Huber noted that the Schneider paper offers a potential answer to a long-standing riddle. For decades, scientists have known that 55 million years ago, the Earth endured a strangely hot phase — called the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). That’s the famous “crocodiles in the Arctic” period. How did Earth get so sweltering? Carbon dioxide is an obvious element of the mystery, but climate models cannot seem to nudge the planet into such high temperatures without extraordinary levels of CO2, such as 4,000 ppm or higher. And the geological record does not show CO2 higher than 2,000 ppm. So there must be another factor. One possibility has been that a massive escape of methane from the ocean floor tipped the climate into a new hothouse regime. But the Schneider paper offers another conjecture: Vanishing cloud cover could lead to a climate tipping point. Stratocumulus clouds are produced as warm air rises from the surface and cools, causing water vapor to condense. Such cloud decks are known in California as marine layers, and they are notorious for rolling into coastal cities and turning warm days cold. These clouds cover large swaths of the tropical ocean. The formation of the cloud decks depends on the cooling process at the top of the clouds. This occurs at a physical scale that traditional climate models cannot easily capture. “They simply fall through the computational mesh,” Schneider said. He and his colleagues have developed a new model that uses what is known as a large eddy simulation. The model indicates that the cooling process necessary for these cloud decks will be suppressed if the planet gets too warm. Read More Trump White House is creating a panel to counter scientific consensus on climate change, officials say Hurricanes are strengthening faster due to climate change


The military’s male-only draft registration requirement is unconstitutional, a judge ruled. What comes next is unknown.

in the Armed Services,’ that time has passed.” The decision is unlikely to be the last word in the long-running debate. The case was brought by the National Coalition for Men, a nonprofit men’s rights organization, and two draft-aged men, one in Texas and the other in California. “This ruling is going to force the government eventually to either get rid of the selective service requirement or require both sexes to register. It’s got to be one or the other,” said the coalition’s attorney, Marc Angelucci. A similar case, pending in federal court in New Jersey, was brought by a young woman seeking to register for the draft. She has also challenged the constitutionality of the male-only requirement. The cases come as the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service, formed in 2017, interviews Americans about how they view the Selective Service System and prepares recommendations due to Congress next year about what to do with the draft and how to make national service more desirable. Joe Heck, the commission’s chairman, said Monday in an interview that the group has been monitoring both court cases and the decision Friday makes its work more relevant. Research has shown that a small majority of Americans believe that women should register for the draft, and the information the commission has gathered anecdotally backs that, he said. But Heck, a one-star general in the Army Reserve and a former Republican congressman from Nevada, said that many Americans are entrenched in their positions, often falling along generational lines. “It does seem like the folks for and against fall into two distinct groups,” he said. “The younger folks — the 18- to 25-year-olds — are all saying that, yes, women should have to register. That it’s a matter of equality — and that’s both males and females. But when you get to an older demographic, those are the ones who are more reluctant to have women register. Those are the ones saying, ‘Don’t draft our daughters.’ ” A Pentagon spokeswoman, Air Force Lt. Col. Carla Gleason, referred questions about the ruling to the Justice Department. “We need and appreciate every qualified patriot who is willing and able to serve,” she said. The Justice Department declined to comment or to say whether the government would appeal. Because the decision does not include an injunction blocking the government from continuing with the requirement, the question remains: “How


World’s largest known bee is rediscovered

You’d think that the world’s biggest bee would be hard to lose track of. But Wallace’s Giant Bee — an Indonesian species with a 2½ -inch wingspan and enormous mandibles — was last seen by researchers in 1981; it was feared to be extinct. But scientists finally spotted the rare bee in January, in the Indonesian province of North Maluku on the Maluku Islands. They detected a solitary female bee after investigating the region for five days. A photographer captured the first-ever images of a living Wallace’s Giant Bee (Megachile pluto) at the insect’s nest in an active termite mound. “It was absolutely breathtaking to see this ‘flying bulldog’ of an insect that we weren’t sure existed anymore,” photographer Clay Bolt, who captured the images of the giant, said in a statement published by the University of Sydney in Australia. Little is known about the habits of these elusive insects. The resin bees’ dark-colored bodies measure about 1½ inches in length — about as long as a human thumb — and they build communal nests on termite dwellings in trees, according to a 1984 study by Adam Messer, a researcher who was with the Department of Entomology at the University of Georgia that year. Messer was the last scientist to document the supersize bees in the wild — until now. “Messer’s rediscovery gave us some insight, but we still know next to nothing about this extraordinary insect,” Eli Wyman, an entomologist at Princeton University and one of the researchers who rediscovered the lost bee, said in the statement. The rediscovery could help researchers learn more, Wyman said. — Live Science


After hitting ‘rock bottom,’ some addicts and alcoholics find a road to recovery

and self-control were a long time coming for Josh Horton, 35, who saw the inside of a jail cell for the first time at age 16 with an arrest for a DUI for alcohol intoxication. As his use mushroomed from marijuana to cocaine to opiates, his only objective was to “continue to successfully drink and use drugs,” he says. For 13 years, Horton went in and out of detention and treatment, his substance use bookended by behaviors and situations frightening and almost humorous: A high school dropout, he says he took the GED while intoxicated — and passed. Once he was arrested for repeatedly firing a 9mm handgun outside his townhouse while drunk — luckily not injuring anyone or himself. Arrested, shackled and naked, he was kept in solitary confinement for three days detoxing from the prescription anti-anxiety drug Xanax and alcohol, without the medical assistance that is usually offered to prevent seizures that are common when going cold turkey. “My story is a lot about chaos and failure,” he says, “and that I didn’t die in the process like a lot of my friends.” In 2013, Horton got sober through what he says was “a mixture of education, opportunity and love, all meshed together,” and his story of failure began to tilt toward success. Returning to a local community college, he eventually won a scholarship to the University of Mississippi and got a law degree there. “Serving others was imperative for my own recovery,” he says. “It gave me something to live for and aspire to.” Today, Horton is an attorney with a South Florida law firm, working on cases that range from investigating kickbacks and wrongful deaths at sober-living homes to suing pharmaceutical companies on behalf of individuals and municipalities. “This work is so important to me personally because I can’t count the number of friends I’ve buried as a result of opioid-use disorder,” Horton says. It’s truly personal: His best friend got a bad dose of heroin, and it killed him. “His two little girls found him, and they had to go sit on the sidewalk with their suitcases packed because ‘Daddy was hard and had flies in his mouth,’ ” Horton says. “My ability to try to prevent this kind of tragedy and loss propels me to do this work day after day.” Popping pills at 14 Donell Rheubottom, 38, didn’t think those odds of overdose


Trump isn’t the only one wanting a Nobel. Kim does too, report says.

HANOI — President Trump thinks he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to make peace with North Korea. Now, it appears North Korean leader Kim Jong Un might want one, too. After last year’s Singapore summit, and especially before this week’s summit in Hanoi, North Korean internal propaganda has been busy promoting the idea that Kim deserves a prize, Radio Free Asia reported this week. “After the first U.S.-North Korean summit, the authorities began saying during propaganda lecture sessions that Kim Jong Un is a front-runner for the Nobel Peace Prize,” a North Korean government official told RFA’s Korean Service. “Ever since … the Nobel Peace Prize became a hot topic of discussion here in North Korea,” the official said. Another individual in North Hamgyong province told RFA the propaganda had intensified ahead of the second summit. “The prize is suddenly receiving a lot of attention ahead of the second summit. Authorities are putting out propaganda that idolizes Kim Jong Un, saying there’s a global ‘praise fever for the world’s greatest man,’” the person told RFA. “The propaganda even mentions that Western and Japanese media sources are lavishing praise upon the Supreme Leader, saying he’s a potential winner of the Peace Prize.” The RFA report could not be independently confirmed. Even if it is true, it may simply represent meaningless sycophancy directed toward Kim. But optimists might see it as a sign that Kim is serious about the peace process and is preparing to make compromises about his nuclear and missile program. Kim Myong-Chol, executive director of the Center for Korean-American Peace and an unofficial spokesman for the North Korean government in Japan, told Britain’s Telegraph newspaper that he believed Trump deserved the prize but that “Mr. Kim would not turn the honor down if it was given to both of them together.” “It would be a great honor and one that indicates that things on the Korean Peninsula are going in a very favorable direction.” Earlier this month, Trump said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had personally given him “the most beautiful copy” of a letter nominating him for the prize for opening talks with Kim. Abe refused to confirm or deny the story, although unnamed Japanese government officials told domestic media that the prime minister had indeed submitted a nomination last year. Trump has also appeared bothered that President Barack Obama won the prize in 2009.


Young man fatally shot in Columbia Heights area of the District

THE DISTRICT Young man shot to death in Northwest A young man was fatally shot Wednesday afternoon in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Northwest Washington, according to D.C. police. The shooting occurred about 2:40 p.m. in the 1300 block of Monroe Street NW, just off 13th Street and west of the Park View neighborhood. Police Chief Peter Newsham said the shooting occurred in an alley behind a row of houses. The victim had not been identified as of Wednesday evening; police said he appeared to be in his late teens or early 20s. Newsham said video surveillance shows that the victim got into an altercation with three young men and that one left and returned a short time later with a gun. Newsham said that that person shot the victim. “It appears it was a targeted killing,” the chief said. The victim was shot multiple times. Complete descriptions were not immediately available but Newsham said the gunman was black, in his late teens to early 20s, of medium height and a slim build. He was wearing a hooded jacket with fur around the edges. — Peter Hermann Suspect, 25, arrested in January stabbing death D.C. police arrested a suspect Wednesday in the killing last month of a 46-year-old man who was stabbed in Northeast Washington, according to the department. Dujuan George, 25, was charged with second-degree murder while armed. He is expected to make an initial appearance in D.C. Superior Court on Thursday, at which time additional information about the case will be made public. George is charged in the Jan. 8 stabbing of Abdul Watts of District Heights, Md. Watts was attacked about 3:35 p.m. in the 5300 block of Dix Street NE. — Peter Hermann D.C. man charged in shootings, one fatal A D.C. man was charged with murder and assault with a dangerous weapon after a fatal shooting in January and another shooting this month, police said. About 3 p.m. on Jan. 15, officers responded to the 1200 block of North Capitol Street NW for a report of a shooting, D.C. police said in a statement. They found 22-year-old Davane Williams of Northeast dead at the scene, the statement said. On Tuesday, Tyree Irving, 22, of Northeast was arrested and charged with first-degree murder while armed in Williams’s shooting, police said. Police also said Irving was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon after he allegedly shot


The inescapable irony of the Brexit crackup

They promised complexity, confusion and uncertainty — and, by golly, they delivered. What we’re talking about is Brexit; that’s shorthand for Britain’s decision to leave the European Union. The deadline is March 29, and as yet, there is no agreement on the new rules that would govern Britain’s relations with the E.U. All this is yet another threat to Europe’s economic and political stability. “There’s no majority in Parliament for anything,” says Thomas Wright, head of the Brookings Institution’s Center on the United States and Europe. The most fearsome possibility seems to be “no deal”: The laws and regulations binding the United Kingdom to the E.U. would expire without a replacement. The result, say many commentators, would be a fearsome economic slump. “Supply chains would stop,” says Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, an expert on Europe at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a think tank. The cross-border flow of parts and components — which often requires legal certifications of various sorts — would plunge, because the E.U. rules would no longer apply and there would be no replacement. “The UK auto industry would have to close,” says Kirkegaard. Nor would it be an isolated example, he adds. Supermarkets have already warned that they won’t be able to import many fresh fruits and vegetables from the continent. An economic study by the Bank of England estimated that a “disorderly no deal” could result in as much as a 10 percent drop in the economy (gross domestic product). The pain would be shared with E.U. countries, because the United Kingdom is a large market for their exports. Assuming widespread economic consequences, Kirkegaard doubts that a “no deal” decision could “last very long.” Both the E.U. and the United Kingdom would be drawn back to the bargaining table. But to what end? One possibility is a second referendum. Until recently, this seemed a long shot, because both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party opposed it. The voters have spoken through the referendum, Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May has said, and the government was bound to respect their will. But this week, Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party leader, reversed himself and said he would accept a new vote. On paper, this could end the controversy. Public opinion polls in Britain consistently show a 53-47 percent majority for remaining in the E.U. The trouble is that this policy would leave a huge segment of the


Theresa May acknowledges the possibility that Brexit may not happen next month

LONDON — Prime Minister Theresa May admitted Tuesday for the first time that Brexit could be delayed, as the two main parties in Parliament struggle over how — or even if — Britain should leave the European Union. May told lawmakers that if they reject her Brexit withdrawal agreement again next month, they will have an opportunity to vote on whether to ask the E.U. to delay Brexit beyond the scheduled March 29 departure date. May said European leaders would probably grant an extension only once and that any delay should be “short and limited.” She suggested that an extension until June would be best so Britain would not have to take part in the next round of elections for the European Parliament. This was a major concession by May, who has long insisted that her Brexit deal was the best and only one on offer and that it would be reckless to delay leaving the E.U. Her acceptance of a possible extension indicates how much she and her weak government have ceded control over Brexit to an assertive but divided Parliament. Hardcore Brexiteers fear, and those who want to stay in the E.U. hope, that a delay might lead to the end of Brexit. “My suspicion is that any delay to Brexit is a plot to stop Brexit,” Conservative lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg tweeted. “This would be the most grievous error that politicians could commit.” But May remains intent on making Brexit happen, and there isn’t yet enough momentum behind any alternatives. Since Parliament overwhelmingly rejected her withdrawal deal last month, May has appealed to reluctant European leaders to give her a legally binding assurance that Britain won’t be chained to E.U. customs and trade regulations forever, in an effort to keep the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland open and invisible. So far, May has not made demonstrable progress. Meanwhile, the British prime minister has faced a buzz saw of opposition over her handling of Brexit from both moderates and hard-liners in her own Conservative Party. The hardcore Brexiteers, led by figures such as former foreign minister Boris Johnson, think May’s compromise Brexit plan would keep Britain tied too closely to Europe. May was also lashed by the resignations last week of three prominent moderates who want Britain to remain in the bloc and fear May is about to drive the country over a cliff edge


Does a universal draft make sense for our security?

to raise a combat army — and given that women weren’t then allowed in combat — the court wrote that the two sexes “are simply not similarly situated for purposes of a draft or registration for a draft.” Thus, constitutionality wasn’t an issue. Much has changed since the 20th century, at least culturally, and the question is whether Rostker would still stand given those changes. For one thing, since 2015, all military jobs have been opened to women, including direct combat. No sane person has ever argued that women aren’t as brave as men or that they lack any other qualities or values necessary to military success. But in discussing women’s expanding military roles, we return to the question of what ground combat really means. As the Defense Department defined it in 1994, it means “engaging an enemy on the ground . . . while being exposed to hostile fire and to a high probability of direct physical contact with the hostile force’s personnel.” What changed in 2015? Nothing — except the definition of combat, which the Pentagon altered so that civilians could pretend that this is not a travesty. It took only a generation or so for the culture to be manipulated into believing that women are equal to men not just under the law but in every conceivable way. This is, of course, a purely political abstraction with existential consequences. Moreover, this entire debate isn’t really about military preparedness but social engineering — changing the way people perceive things so that they can be arranged according to the designs of a relatively very few. What’s missing from all such cultural arrangements is a full appreciation of human nature, which remains essentially the same through most of time. Progressives will twist themselves into balloon poodles trying to codify gender differences, but heaven forbid we should speak of sex differences, not to mention cultural adaptations to better ensure survival of the species. Maybe no 18-year-old American “woman” will ever be conscripted or ordered to fight men mano a mano, but it seems more than a possibility at this point. I’m going to go out on a limb and simply say that a civilized nation doesn’t put its women in combat where they have an unequal ability to survive. How’s that for your equality equation? kathleenparker@washpost.com Read more from Kathleen Parker’s archive, follow her on Twitter or find her on Facebook.


New Michael Cohen testimony may undermine Trump’s spin on Mueller

in the national interest, without disclosing his direct financial stake in these arguments. Trump lied to the American people about both of these things. He initially lied about knowing of the hush-money payments, and he lied about the Moscow project talks. Both infuse Trump’s election with fraudulent behavior. He denied voters information about campaign expenditures designed to cover up alleged affairs, and denied them information about ongoing business negotiations with Russia. Cohen’s testimony may add more detail to our understanding of both. And as Timothy O’Brien notes, Cohen is hinting he may shed light on how the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer was involved in the hush-money scheme, which could open a window on other aspects of Trump’s business dealings (which are still being examined by prosecutors). Extensive wrongdoing has already been established All this will be another reminder, from Trump’s former personal lawyer, of just how much wrongdoing — and possible criminality — has already been established. “Cohen’s testimony will cause a national audience that may be accustomed to Trump’s behavior to confront the wide range of lies he has told to cover up misconduct,” Bob Bauer, the White House counsel under President Barack Obama, tells me, including “his denial he had anything to do with hush-money payments, that he had any business dealings with Russia during the campaign, that he has nothing to hide in his business or tax history.” Beyond all this, the Mueller investigation has already established an extensive criminal plot by Russia to sabotage the election on Trump’s behalf. We already know Trump’s top campaign advisers, in attending that 2016 Trump Tower meeting, eagerly tried to conspire with what they fully believed was a Russian government effort in that regard. Even if Mueller does not bring criminal charges, we already know that happened. We already know Trump helped Donald Trump Jr. lie to the American people about this meeting, too. We already know Trump engaged in extensive, repeated efforts to derail a full accounting of all of it, including of a foreign attack on our democracy irrespective of whether his campaign conspired with it. As Brian Beutler observes, all of these things go to the core of “our understanding of how Trump came to power” and just how infused that was with criminality and deception, an understanding that is enormously important to arrive at but is “still developing.” Yes, a limited disclosure of Mueller’s findings


This Harvard runner lost his shoe but won his race. Now he’s asking if anyone’s seen part of his toe.

think about 300 meters in, the back of my shoe got clipped, and it came halfway off. I kind of jogged around uncomfortably for another 100 or 200 meters to try to pull it on without stopping. At around 400 or 500 meters, I just let it come off, and I tried to calm down, relax and not think about it as long as I could. My coach came up with a race plan for me and my teammate to sit back until about 1,800 meters and then try to advance. Obviously when my shoe came off, I thought, ‘Well, we can try to stick to that, but it’s going to be hard.’ My teammate came up on my shoulder and gave me some space. It just gave me the opportunity to calm down a little bit. The race plan went kind of how we anticipated aside from that mishap in the beginning. Do runners plan for this scenario? Like, has some coach in your running career ever gone over what to do if your shoe comes off? It’s not something that ever comes up, but the general consensus from a coach would be just stay relaxed, don’t get too flustered, because if that happens, you won’t be able to keep up anyway. There was never really any planning for this on my part. Did you ever think about stopping, putting your shoe on and then trying to run to catch up? In hindsight, that might have been the correct thing to do, but in the moment, I thought if I stopped the moment might get away from me. I had tied my shoes so tight that it might have taken me a while to get my shoe back on. Okay, so you’ve lost your shoe. You’re still running. How are you feeling? Immediately, I was like, okay it doesn’t feel too bad. I knew my foot would be a little torn up, but I thought I could make it a little more than halfway without it bothering me. I’ve never actually done any significant running barefoot, aside from playing soccer or some drills in high school, but I’ve never had experience trying to run that distance or that fast without shoes on. I probably noticed it about 2,000 meters in. I felt the skin start to peel away, and then it clumped up underneath my foot, and it felt


U.N. report on Gaza says Israeli forces may have committed war crimes

JERUSALEM — Israeli security forces may have committed war crimes and should be held individually and collectively accountable for the deaths of 189 Palestinian protesters in Gaza last year, according to a report published Thursday by the United Nations. The U.N. Commission of Inquiry criticized Israel’s rules of engagement and said the majority of the Palestinians killed “did not pose an immediate threat of death or serious injury to others when they were shot.” The report also noted that thousands of demonstrators have been maimed by Israeli snipers during the weekly protests along the border fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the report, saying it “set a new record for U.N. hypocrisy” and was “based purely on an obsessive hatred of Israel.” Israel’s newly appointed foreign minister, Israel Katz, labeled the commission a “theater of the absurd” and said the report was “hostile, mendacious and biased against Israel.” Israel has said the protests, which are ongoing and described by Gazans as the Great March of Return, are particularly violent and could act as a cover for Hamas, the Islamist militant group that controls Gaza, to infiltrate Israel and carry out attacks. But the U.N. commission, which conducted about 325 interviews with victims, witnesses and officials from both sides about events in Gaza through Dec. 31, said only 29 of the dead could be clearly identified as members of Palestinian armed factions. Criticizing the Israeli military’s rules of engagement, which have included using snipers to prevent protesters from reaching the border fence, the commission said “less lethal alternatives remained available and substantial defenses were in place, rendering the use of lethal force neither necessary nor proportionate, and therefore impermissible.” The Israeli military has remained vague about its operating procedures in dealing with the protests, saying only that they are “classified in line with accepted military practice worldwide.” The report estimated that as many as 23,000 Palestinians were injured by the Israeli military, including hundreds who lost limbs. It said Israeli snipers intentionally shot at journalists and health workers even though they were clearly marked as such. “The commission has reasonable grounds to believe that during the Great March of Return, Israeli soldiers committed violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. Some of those violations may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity, and must be immediately investigated by Israel,” said the commission’s chairman, Santiago


From Putin to Kim Jong Un, Trump has a habit of taking foreign autocrats at their word

a news conference with Putin, Trump failed to challenge Putin’s claims that Russia had not interfered in the election — just days after the Justice Department charged a dozen Russian intelligence officers with stealing Democratic Party emails. “I have great confidence in my intelligence people,” he said at the time. “But I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.” Trump also called the Russia investigation “a total witch hunt” and claimed it had damaged relations between the two countries. On Thursday, Trump said he did not believe that the North Korean leader was responsible for Warmbier’s medical condition and that Kim “feels badly” about his death. “He tells me he didn’t know about it, and I take him at his word,” Trump said, choosing to believe Kim even as he walked away from a nuclear deal at their summit in Vietnam. After the news conference, Nikki Haley, who recently stepped down as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, tweeted that “Americans know the cruelty that was placed on Otto Warmbier by the North Korean regime.” “Our hearts are with the Warmbier family for their strength and courage,” she wrote. “We will never forget Otto.” Last year, Saudi journalist and Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul and never walked out. A month after his disappearance, the CIA determined that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered his killing. “The accepted position is that there is no way this happened without him being aware or involved,” a U.S. official familiar with the CIA’s conclusions told The Post last November. But Trump was not convinced. He suggested that Khashoggi may have disappeared at the hands of “rogue killers” and stood by the crown prince even as the CIA concluded he was responsible for Khashoggi’s death. Asked in an interview with The Post in November about whether the crown prince had any role in Khashoggi’s killing, Trump said that “maybe he did and maybe he didn’t.” He added: “But he denies it. And people around him deny it. And the CIA did not say affirmatively he did it, either, by the way. I’m not saying that they’re saying he didn’t do it, but they didn’t say it affirmatively.” Read more: Why Kim Jong Un wants relief from ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions ‘Sometimes you have to walk’: Trump leaves summit empty-handed at


The Technology 202: Critics say FTC’s fine against app now known as TikTok doesn’t go far enough

drivers that have given at least 10,000 rides $1,000 in cash that can be applied to IPO shares. NIBBLES: Republicans and Democrats debated during a hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee “Are we here just because we don’t like the California law and we just want a federal preemption law to shut it down?” said Sen. Maria Cantwell (Wash.) But senators from both parties did agree when it came to chiding representatives of the tech industry at the hearing. “We now realize this data-sharing is not a bug,” said Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), according to Birnbaum. “It is a business, it is a business model, and big tech has made a whole lot of money by exploiting the use of this data.” BYTES: Amazon is rolling out a new program that will allow brands to delete listings for imitation products on its platform, In addition to giving brands more power to monitor fake products on the platform, the company is rolling out a tool that will allow Amazon to verify a product’s authenticity when it enters a warehouse via a unique code that companies can print or stick on to their packaging. Amazon engineers are also refining algorithms that can detect counterfeit goods on the service. “In shifting some monitoring duties and authority to brands themselves, Amazon is taking an unusual step,” Stevens wrote. “Other tech companies use outside contractors to help monitor their platforms but don’t generally let users remove content.” -- Most of the anti-vaccination content that is broadly circulated on Facebook is produced by a relatively small group of pages on the social network -- The company OneWeb wants to send a constellation of satellites to space that could bring Internet access to remote parts of the world — Amazon is backing out of a skyscraper under construction in its hometown of Seattle — More technology news from the private sector: — The Federal Trade Commission brought its first case against the use by a company of fake paid reviews on Amazon — More technology news from the public sector: — News about tech workforce and culture: — Tech news generating buzz around the Web: — News about tech incidents and blunders: — Today in funding news: Coming soon: Michael Cohen details his work as Donald Trump’s “fixer”: Tornado touches down during snow showers in New Mexico: Heinz’s Ketchup Caviar is just as bizarre as it sounds: