As D.C. prospers, supermarkets proliferate — except in poor areas

New Jersey-based grocery-store consulting firm Matthew P. Casey and Associates, said that chains consider density when choosing locations and that the largely bedroom communities in Wards 7 and 8 often lack the daytime population needed to support large-scale supermarkets. The greatest obstacle, he said, is that grocers in poorer areas need to make 30 percent more than a store in an affluent neighborhood to offset costs associated with shoplifting, security, cleanliness and staff turnover. “Traditionally, it’s a tougher area to make a profit,” Gorland said. Even affluent Washingtonians often complain about their local grocery. The Safeway on Connecticut Avenue in Northwest’s Chevy Chase neighborhood is derided as antiquated, while the Giant on Van Ness Street sometimes draws barbs for bare shelves and poor service. Yet residents in those areas are in proximity to alternatives such as the Whole Foods in Tenleytown or the Safeway in Georgetown, with its vast parking, outdoor patio and lounge furnished with comfortable armchairs, a fireplace, complimentary WiFi and flat-screen televisions. The area’s options are plentiful enough that the Wegmans announcement prompted a smattering of concern in a Cleveland Park email group about potential traffic congestion caused by the supermarket. Raymond Blanks of Ward 7 often takes the bus to a Whole Foods three miles away in Ward 5. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post) Resident of Ward 7 wish they had such problems. Their only immediate option is the Safeway just off the intersection of Minnesota Avenue and Benning Road, which was why Raymond Blanks, a retired educator who lives nearby, rode a bus more than three miles on a recent Friday to buy rockfish, sweet potatoes and organic carrots at the Whole Foods on H Street NE. “It was beautiful,” he said as he waited for another bus to deliver him home, his green Whole Foods bag on his arm. At his neighborhood Safeway, Blanks said, he once asked a worker for bok choy: “He looked at me like I was a brother from another planet. They don’t carry it.” “They never have enough cashiers,” Blanks continued. “And they have lines that go all the way to Anacostia.” ‘We’ve got nothing over here’ On another afternoon, Theresa Stephens, 67, a retired clerical worker who lives in Anacostia, could not find sliced pimentos and mushrooms after driving 1½ miles to her nearest Safeway, this one on Alabama Avenue SE. So she drove another 1½ miles to Giant,


We may not like our veggies. But with rollbacks to health care, they’ve never been more important.

Prevention, more than 80 percent of Americans are not consuming enough fruits and vegetables. And yet, there is no better health-care plan than a healthy diet. Vegetables, especially broccoli, help prevent the leading causes of death in the United States, including heart disease, cancer, diabetes and strokes. A depletion of the healing nutrients found in vegetables also makes it more difficult to break chemical addictions to substances such as opioids, something that has become an epidemic in some states. But last month, the Food and Drug Administration signaled its intent to rewrite long-delayed menu-labeling rules passed as part of the Affordable Care Act. Several nutrition-related riders were added to an appropriations bill, including one that targeted voluntary sodium reductions for the food industry. And Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said that the department would be slowing the implementation of aggressive standards on sodium, whole grains and sweetened milks in school breakfasts and lunches that were passed during the Obama administration. So now, we get to create a new generation of people who turn up their noses at healthy food. Maybe they can use the same excuses we use. We’re too stressed after work and we need something comforting, something fatty, fried or sweet. Or how about it takes too much time to prepare vegetables? For some, fresh vegetables and fruits are too difficult to find, especially in low-income neighborhoods where the corner store serves as the “supermarket.” But what accounts for the fact that “kids around the world,” as Medical News Today put it, are pushing one of the healthiest foods in the world off their plates? They are being served broccoli, just not eating it. One explanation is the rarely acknowledged fact that human beings have extremely wide variations in sensitivity to sweet and bitter tastes. “Although many bitter foods are harmful and should be avoided, there are bitter compounds in fruits and vegetables with beneficial effects on health,” according to a research funded by the Monell Chemical Senses Center and National Institutes of Health. “Some of these compounds include . . . organosulfur compounds (found in cruciferous vegetables).” Sulfur — so that’s what makes broccoli taste so nasty to me. “Public health efforts to increase fruit and vegetable intake have been challenging, and the resistance to increase consumption may in part be due to the bitter tastes of these foods,” the researchers noted. “Indeed, many of the ‘healthy’ vegetables


Alain Senderens, world-renowned French chef who fed the less formal gourmand, dies at 77

of “crusty calf served with Thai vinaigrette, carrots prepared as tagliatelle and popcorn”; and a dessert of “souffleed meringue with peppermint and its licorice ice-cream.” For nearly three decades, Lucas Carton boasted three Michelin stars. But in 2005, Mr. Senderens stunningly declared that he wished to renounce the rating, along with the heavy staffing, fancy linens and floral arrangements, and other trappings that went along with the most haute of haute cuisine. Cooking while striving to maintain the Michelin rating, he said, was like “working under the sword of Damocles.” “I don’t want to feed my ego anymore,” he told the Times. “I am too old for that. I can do beautiful cuisine without all the tra-la-la and chichi, and put the money into what’s on the plate.” Mr. Senderens employed an architect to redesign the restaurant’s interior, keeping its famous wooden features but otherwise adopting a more modern, international decor. Marble tabletops were lit from the inside. Japanese paintings represented the Asian profile of many dishes on Mr. Senderens’s menu. With a pared down staff and fewer luxuries, the price tag for a meal dropped into the range of $100 a head, attracting a younger, less formal clientele. To Parisians, the change was so cataclysmic that Le Figaro reportedly compared it to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Michelin disputed that the stars were Mr. Senderens’s to return and awarded the new Lucas Carton restaurant, renamed Alain Senderens, a two-star rating. For his part, Mr. Senderens described its offerings as “three-star cuisine but not at three-star prices.” He joked that he replaced turbot with burbot, a cheaper fish, and forsook truffles but not imagination. “To make a pigeon in soy sauce and serve it with tea, even for me that makes me afraid,” he told the Times in 2005. “Have I gone too far? Will I be taken for a fool? But oh, the juices I can make with vegetables!” Mr. Senderens was born in Hyères, in southeastern France, on Dec. 2, 1939. His father, a high-end barber, and his mother “thought that the principal things in life were eating well and reading,” Mr. Senderens told the Times. He apprenticed at a hotel in Lourdes before becoming a rotisserie chef at La Tour d’Argent, the historic Paris restaurant. After his retirement a few years ago, the restaurant Alain Senderens became known once again as Lucas Carton. Mr. Senderens’s writings


Alexandria and Arlington Animal Watch

Alexandria These cases were reported recently by the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria, which operates the city animal shelter and provides animal control services to the city. For information or to report emergencies involving animals 24 hours a day, call 703-746-4774 or go to Grounded hawk: Close call for chipmunk: Arlington These cases were reported recently by the Animal Welfare League of Arlington, which operates the county animal shelter and provides animal control services to the county. For information or to report emergencies involving animals 24 hours a day, call 703-931-9241 or go to awla.org. Baby bird gets assistance: Baby bunnies doing fine: Injured raccoon found: Kitten yoga: — Compiled by Bonnie Smith


Russia sanctions in House’s hands, as lawmakers clamor for a rebuke to Putin

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) right, and Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) confer on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, June 28, 2017, as the panel conducts a hearing on Russian intervention in European elections. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP) The fate of stiffer sanctions against Russia and Iran is once again in the hands of the House, after the Senate unanimously approved technical fixes that should clear the way for the House to pass the legislation. But even if House lawmakers move relatively quickly, it may not be fast enough to satisfy Democrats. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday that he and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had hoped that Congress would approve the bill stepping up sanctions against Iran and Russia before President Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin next week on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in Germany. “It’s critical, critical that Congress speak in a loud and clear and unified voice to President Putin: Interfering in our election, the wellspring and pride of our democracy, will not be tolerated,” Schumer said. The Senate passed the bill by an overwhelming 98 to 2 vote, one day after expressly approving the comprehensive Russia sanctions portion of the measure by a vote of 97 to 2. In addition to codifying existing sanctions and imposing new ones, the bill takes the rare step of giving Congress at least 30 days to review any steps the president wants to take to change sanctions policy — effectively a chance to bar the president from rolling back existing punitive measures. The president’s warm approach to Russia, and his reticence to accept the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia was behind a series of hacks and disinformation campaigns that colored the 2016 U.S. elections, have given many lawmakers in both parties pause. But in the last week, Democrats began to suspect that House Republicans were intentionally slowing the sanctions bill down at Trump’s behest. The overwhelming vote in the Senate, as well as sentiments toward Russia in the House, suggested that there would be veto-proof support for the measure in Congress. But senior administration officials said last week that the president’s team planned to step up its lobbying against the measure, objecting especially to the provision that restricts Trump’s moves absent congressional approval. Against that backdrop, the House’s request that the Senate make technical changes to get around a constitutional


Why artists become activists: It’s not only the election

(Eric Snoza) Melissa Snoza Executive Director and Founding Member, Fifth House Ensemble Full-on activist. Driving issue: Community connections “We wanted to engage our curiosity and the collaborative nature of chamber music to tell stories,” the 36-year-old flutist says of the 11-member Chicago ensemble that’s in its 11th season. But what began as a standard attempt to bring art into communities backfired when the group realized that simply carting concerts toward communities “absolutely didn’t work.” By working with communities, Fifth House has learned how to meld music with pressing matters. Fifth House helped bridge gaps between Indiana’s DePauw University and its surrounding rural county with a year-long residency culminating in the concert “Harvest.” For the 2014 “Broken Text,” Fifth House partnered with Chicago’s Raven Theatre, Great Books Foundation (a literacy and social justice organization) and St. Leonard’s Ministries, which helps released prisoners transition back to freedom. The reaction, says Snoza: “More people in positions to make decisions need to see this.” Speaking by phone from Calgary as the ensemble tours, Snoza is fervent and fluent as she speaks on a range of issues, from where minors are held in the Illinois prison system to the chronic risk of wage theft suffered by undocumented workers. “Spending time with people, learning what’s important, finding ways to tell stories to people who wouldn’t otherwise hear them,” Snoza says, “it gives us purpose.” “There’s an upward surge,” she adds of this kind of social connectivity in classical music. “We may have been outliers at beginning. It was weird to be engaging in projects with partners who are not in the arts. We’re seeing way more of that now.” Fifth House Ensemble and San Fermin in concert. (SnoStudios) Footnote Michael Dove, Forum Theatre artistic director. (Courtesy Forum Theatre) Michael Dove Artistic Director, Forum Theatre Full-on activist. Galvanizing issue: Sandy Hook When “All the Way” dramatist Robert Schenkkan swiftly finished his dystopian “Building the Wall” after Trump’s election, the D.C.-based National New Play Network organized a let’s-do-it-now “rolling world premiere” in several theaters across the country. Tall order: Theaters typically can’t alter plans mid-season. But lately the Silver Spring troupe has been leaving a slot open precisely to be more responsive. Dove, 35, said yes right away. Forum’s current season featured plays the company judged would still matter more than a year ago as they listened to early campaign themes. The paranoia of an Arab man in


U.S. announces sanctions on Chinese bank, arms-sales package for Taiwan

of dollars of transactions that funnel money into North Korea for use in its weapons programs. Under the sanctions, U.S. citizens also will be generally prohibited from doing business with Sun Wei and Ri Song Hyok, who are accused of establishing and running front companies on behalf of North Korea, and Dalian Global Unity Shipping Co., which is accused of transporting 700,000 tons of freight annually, including coal and steel products, between China and North Korea. The administration announced the sanctions just hours before South Korea’s new president, Moon Jae-in, arrived at the White House for a two-day summit with Trump. Moon campaigned on a platform of greater engagement with Pyongyang, and he has questioned the need for the U.S.-backed THAAD missile defense system that is being installed on the peninsula, which Beijing and Pyongyang have opposed. Mnuchin said that the United States is “in no way targeting China with these actions” and that U.S. officials “look forward to continuing to work closely with the government of China to stop the illicit financing in North Korea.” Mnuchin added that this “very significant action” sends the message that the United States will follow the money trail leading to North Korea and continue to crack down on those assisting the country. “North Korea’s provocative, destabilizing and inhumane behavior will not be tolerated,” Mnuchin said. “We are committed to targeting North Korea’s external enablers and maximizing economic pressure on the regime until it ceases its nuclear and ballistic-missile programs.” China has repeatedly made clear it opposes “unilateral” sanctions in addition to those agreed to by the United Nations Security Council. Only last week, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said his country opposed the "long-arm jurisdiction" of the United States in this matter. “We have repeatedly stressed this stance in our communication with the United States, and the U.S. side is also clear about it,” he said during a regular news conference. In a separate announcement, administration officials said they had approved an arms package for Taiwan that includes advanced rocket and anti-ship missile systems — another measure China has repeatedly said that it firmly opposes. The package is slightly larger than one that was put on hold at the end of the Obama administration, the officials said, but includes largely the same weapons capabilities. The sale is considered relatively modest compared with past arms packages. Still, China views the self-ruled island as part


How I rebooted my beauty regimen in South Korea, a country that takes skin care seriously

brand affiliated with Samsung are small, clean and within walking distance to Myeong-dong’s shopping area. Rooms from $97. Hotel Cappuccino 155 Bongeunsa-ro, Gangnam-gu 011-82-2-2038-9500 hotelcappuccino.co.kr/en Use the elevator with the angel on it at this trendy-yet-whimsical hotel in the upscale Gangnam area. Fifty cents is added to your bill and donated to a nonprofit organization at the end of your stay. Rooms from $175 Where to eat Balwoo Gongyang 56 Ujeongguk-ro, Gyeonji-dong, Jongno-gu 011-82-2-733-2081 c146.danah.co.kr At this Michelin-starred vegetarian restaurant inside the information center for the country’s Temple Stay program, the chefs are all monks in the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism. From $30. Tea Therapy Cafe/School/Gallery 6-1 Anguk-dong, Jongno-gu 011-82-2-730-7507 teatherapy.com Follow a light lunch or herbal tea (blends created by the owner, a certified Oriental medicine physician) with a foot bath at this cozy cafe. Add a medicinal mixture (brewed from some of the same ingredients used in different teas) to your bath to decrease stress or improve circulation for $5. Teas from $3. Myongdongjeong 299 Samil-Daero. Jung-gu 011-82-2-3789-5130 myongdongjeong.modoo.at Try everything from acorn jelly to jellyfish salad and barbecued ribs at this quiet, traditional Korean restaurant popular with locals. Tasting menu from $35. What to do Sulwhasoo Flagship Store and Spa 8 Dosan-daero 45-gil, Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu 011-82-2-541-9270 us.sulwhasoo.com Whether booking a 40-minute guided tour of the five-floor flagship store of Korea’s most famous luxury skin-care brand, or a facial at one of its two spas, advance reservations are recommended. Treatments from $110. Spa at Four Seasons Hotel Seoul 97 Saemunan-ro, Dangju-dong, Jongno-gu 011-82-2-6388-5000 fourseasons.com/seoul Separate from the hot tub by the hotel’s pool, the hot, warm and cold plunges in this spa-within-a-spa are separated for men and women, quiet and bathing-suit optional. There are jars of coarse salt and showers set up with stools and hoses so you can take your time self-exfoliating. Entrance fee is $55. Kwangdong Hospital of Traditional Korean Medicine 612, Bongeunsa-ro, Gang nam-gu 011-82-2-2222-4907 en.ekwangdong.co.kr This medical spa offers everything from facial acupuncture, to menopause therapy, weight-loss programs and herbal skin detox wraps, all overseen by doctors. Treatments from $60. Korea Furniture Museum 121 Daesagwan-ro, Seongbuk-dong, Seongbuk-gu 011-82-2-745-0181 kofum.com Advance reservations are required to visit this museum, which is much more interesting than its name suggests. On display in 10 preserved hanok (traditional homes) are more than 2,000 pieces of furniture from the Joseon Dynasty. Entrance fee is $20. Information visitkorea.or.kr — D.M.


Want to see this summer’s solar eclipse? Here are some viewing options across the U.S.

time, with the shadow leaving American soil via McClellanville, S.C., at 2:49 p.m., Eastern daylight time. In between, it will cross cities in Oregon, Idaho, a sliver of Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, a sliver of Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Darkness will last anywhere from a few seconds to two minutes 41 seconds, depending on the location. While eclipses are fairly common — they happen about once a year, sometimes more — they’re often in remote areas or over water. This will be the first total solar eclipse that has been visible in the continental United States since 1979, and it’s the first to cross the country coast to coast in 99 years. Throughout the country, universities, parks, farms, museums, hotels and other venues are hosting festivals and viewing parties to celebrate the phenomenon. Nichols will be traveling with a team from the Adler Planetarium about 330 miles south of Chicago to Carbondale, Ill., which is located in the path of totality. She ticks off the things she’s excited to see, such as getting a glimpse of the wispy outer atmosphere of the sun, called the corona. “This is the jewel of a total solar eclipse and the only time on Earth that the corona can be seen with the naked eye,” Nichols says. (Outside of the path of totality, a partial eclipse will be visible, and it will be too bright to see the corona; it will appear more like an ordinary day. You can watch the total solar eclipse on NASA’s website.) And then there are the animals. It will be the first total solar eclipse Nichols has seen from the land — she watched the eclipse of Aug. 11, 1999, from a ship in the Black Sea — and she says that she’s curious what will happen. “Animals think it’s time to go to bed. So cows might start walking toward the barn because they think it’s nighttime. And birds might go to roost because they think it’s nighttime. And crickets might start chirping because they think it’s nighttime,” she says. It’s a reminder of the interconnectedness of the universe. “Something in space is literally directly affecting stuff here on Earth. That’s the most amazing part to me,” Nichols says. The path of the moon’s umbral shadow across South Carolina during the upcoming total solar eclipse. (Courtesy of NASA) Wherever you


Taiwan arms sale, North Korea sanctions outrage Beijing in test of U.S.-China ties under Trump

Pro-China demonstrators rally in Hong Kong on June 30 as the city marks the 20th anniversary of the city's handover from British to Chinese rule. (Damir Sagolj/Reuters) BEIJING — On Friday, U.S. Ambassador Terry Branstad, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and a clutch of American cattlemen in 10-gallon hats gathered at a chic hotel in Beijing to sip champagne and celebrate the return of U.S. beef after 14 years. The servings of American cattle at the event were a product of the 100-day plan negotiated when Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in April. Trump’s message then was: You help us rein in North Korea, and the rest is on the table in trade talks. But the message is changing — and so is the mood. Just hours before the ceremonial return of U.S. beef, the White House announced two moves that could spoil the U.S.-China party: the latest round of arms sales to Taiwan and fresh sanctions on North Korea that target a Chinese bank. U.S. flags and branding are seen on American beef samples during a promotional event in Beijing on June 30, 2017. (Fred Dufour/AFP/Getty Images) China quickly denounced the Taiwan weapons deal as a slap at Beijing’s sovereignty and framed the sanctions as disruptive overreach by Washington. Both moves show the Trump administration coming to terms with the challenges of getting China to tighten the screws on its client state North Korea, where the regime of Kim Jong Un depends on Beijing as its lifeline. As Trump tweeted June 20, “It has not worked out.” Clearly, Trump is frustrated. And now, so are the Chinese. At a news briefing Friday, Lu Kang, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said Beijing has launched “solemn representations” with the United States over the arms sale. He also spoke out about the sanctions, warning of consequences to U.S.-China ties. The “U.S. wrong moves go against the consensus achieved at Mar-a-Lago,” he said. Kim Jong Un has tested nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles at an unprecedented rate since he came into power. Yet, the country is under some of the toughest sanctions ever. This is how the regime is able to funnel billions of dollars into its nuclear program. The Chinese Embassy in Washington said in a statement: “The Chinese government and Chinese people have every right to be outraged” over Taiwan. The island has received


D.C. police arrest suspect in 2016 killing in Southwest Washington

D.C. police on Thursday arrested a suspect in the November shooting death of a 24-year-old Maryland man in Southwest Washington, according to authorities. Troy Souder, 26, of Northeast Washington, was charged with second-degree murder while armed. He could make an initial appearance in D.C. Superior Court later on Friday. Police said Souder is charged with killing Marcus Barnes, of Temple Hills, about 11 p.m. on Nov. 30. in front of an apartment building in the 100 block of Irvington Street SW. Authorities did not provide a motive.


Trump has become the ringmaster of a circus — but it’s one big distraction

him in the White House. And what’s a circus without clowns? To wit: the trio of Sean Spicer, Kellyanne Conway and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, whose antics are more cause for pathos than amusement. Yet Washington’s Big Top Circus is, in truth, a mere sideshow. The Main Event is being staged far from the public’s eye. It’s where special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, and his team of first-rate prosecutors and federal agents, are focused laser-like on the Russian government’s campaign to disrupt and undermine the 2016 U.S. presidential race; the possible involvement of Trump or his campaign with the attempted foreign sabotage; and Trump’s possible obstruction of justice in the firing of FBI Director James B. Comey. The daily claims of Trump, his White House staff and personal counsel, and right-wing media that the FBI investigation has come up empty, call to mind the movie “The Untouchables,” and crime boss Al Capone’s sneering taunt to pursuing federal agent Eliot Ness: “You got nothing.” Capone learned better. The Trump cabal’s dismissal of the federal probe is little more than a blustering attempt to put on a brave front. Trump does not know what information the army of prosecutors and investigators are busily acquiring from witnesses at home and abroad, including, ta-da, possible sources within Trump’s own political and business circles. Watergate The beginning of Richard M. Nixon’s demise was launched by the surreptitious penetration of the Democratic National Committee to steal information and set up means to illegally monitor DNC operations. The five arrested culprits, dismissed by Nixon’s press secretary as participants in a “third-rate burglary,” were found to be tied to Nixon’s own Committee to Re-Elect the President, appropriately known as CREEP. After the break-in, Nixon okayed the payment of hush money to the burglars. He went so far as to work with his staff to hatch a plan to have the CIA impede the FBI investigation — an act that led the House Judiciary Committee to vote an article of impeachment that prompted his resignation from office on Aug. 9, 1974. Fast-forward to 2015. Once again, thieves set out to surreptitiously penetrate the Democratic National Committee to monitor and steal internal information. This time, however, the cyber-intrusion was the handiwork of Russian agents. According to U.S. intelligence services, their assault on U.S. democracy, and other actions to disrupt the presidential election, were launched on the specific instructions of Russian


A new frontier for diamond mining: The ocean

percent of the value of diamonds De Beers mines onshore each year, but more countries are pushing for exploration to begin along their coastlines. At the unveiling last month of the SS Nujoma, a giant exploration vessel, former Namibian president Sam Nujoma smashed a bottle of champagne over the hull, surrounded by signs that read: “The future of marine diamond mining is here, and it’s Namibian.” The SS Nujoma is seen at its official launch on June 15 in Walvis Bay Harbor, Namibia. Debmarine Namibia, a partnership between the Namibian government and De Beers, owns the SS Nujoma, the world’s most advanced diamond exploration vessel, which sucks up sediment from the ocean floor in an effort to find diamonds. (Hildegard Titus/AFP/Getty Images) Mining sites turned ghost towns In 1908, a railroad worker named Zacharias Lewala found a shiny stone in the desert of southwestern Namibia. South Africa’s diamond rush had been underway for a few decades, and now another boom began in the territory to its northwest, with miners finding some valleys strewn with the precious stones. Germany, which controlled present-day Namibia until World War I, extracted 7 million carats between 1908 and 1914. A century later, many of those mining sites are now ghost towns. All that’s left of Kolmanskop, where Lewala found his diamond, is a cluster of abandoned wooden houses, their living rooms covered in sand. It is a portrait of the rapid boom-and-bust life cycle of diamond mining. Mining companies have invested billions in technology that would lead to new finds. And there have been some big ones: In 1982 in Botswana, De Beers opened a mine called Jwaneng, which produces roughly 12 million carats per year, worth over $2 billion. But known diamond deposits began to diminish in recent years, even as demand for the gems has remained strong. Last year, the world spent $80 billion on diamond jewelry, more than half of it in the United States, an all-time high. Demand in emerging economies such as China and India is also expected to increase. Those trends — diminishing supply and rising demand — made Namibia’s offshore deposits all the more important. In the 1990s, De Beers sent its first commercial vessels into the Atlantic in search of diamonds. Now, more than 90 percent of Namibia's diamond-related revenue comes from offshore finds. These days, the company uses drones to fly over vast stretches of the


New Jersey confronts shutdown of state government

Beachgoers take camp at Leonardo Beach near the Leonardo State Marina, which remains closed due to the New Jersey government shutdown, Saturday. (Julio Cortez/AP) New Jersey residents were feeling the impact as a state government shutdown took effect Saturday, shuttering parks and other public sites and disrupting ferry service to Liberty and Ellis islands. Among those affected were a group of Cub Scouts forced to leave a state park campsite and people trying to obtain or renew documents from the state motor vehicle commission, among the agencies closed by the shutdown. Meanwhile, Gov. Chris Christie (R) and the Democratic legislature returned to the statehouse Saturday to try to resolve the shutdown, which came about after leaders failed to reach an agreement on a new budget by Friday night’s deadline. Andrew Spears, a leader with Cub Scout Pack 124 in Tinton Falls, said his group was told to leave Cheesequake State Park on Saturday morning. “We knew this was probably coming, but it’s still a shame we have to head out,” Spears said. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) ordered a government shutdown of nonessential services on June 30 after he and the legislature failed to enact a budget. Liberty State Park was closed, forcing the suspension of ticket sales and ferry service from the site to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Also closed was Island Beach State Park, where the state owns a residence the governor can use. Christie had said he was planning to be there for the Fourth of July holiday, but on Friday he said he would stay in Trenton if the government shut down but his family would still go to Island Beach. Asked Saturday if it was fair for his family to be able to use the park while others couldn’t, Christie was defiant. “The governor has a residence at Island Beach,” he said. “Others don’t. That’s the way it goes. Run for governor and you can have the residence.” Associated Press A man stands in a boat as it is pulled off at the Leonardo State Marina boat launch, which remains closed due to the New Jersey government shutdown. (Julio Cortez/AP)


Skywatch: Jupiter and Saturn entertain the evening crowd and Venus provides morning pageantry

1 a.m., and late in the month, it sets after 11 p.m. The young moon scoots over Jupiter on July 28 in the western heavens after sundown. Saturn hangs high in the south-southeast after dusk, at zero magnitude, which is bright enough to see for city dwellers. Find the fattening moon sliding over the star Antares — Mars’ visual doppelganger — on July 5, and on the next night, the portly moon bellies up close to Saturn. The ringed planet hangs in the southern sky for most of July in the constellation Ophiuchus, setting generally a few hours before sunrise. NASA’s long Cassini mission will crash into Saturn for a “grand finale” on Sept. 15. If you’re vacationing at an East Coast beach this month, you’ll catch Venus easily, as the brilliant planet rules the morning sky before sunrise. The spirited planet — bright at negative fourth magnitude — rises around 3 a.m. now, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory, and the sun rises before 6 a.m., so you can glimpse a pre-dawn show. Throughout the month, Venus and the star Aldebaran dance a tango. This week as you look east, Venus is far above Aldebaran, which is closer to the horizon. On July 20, see the sliver of a last quarter, crescent moon close to Venus. Mars returns in September as the Red Planet takes a summer sabbatical in the sun’s glare. Earth reaches aphelion July 3, the most distant spot on its imperfect, annual orbit around the sun. A total solar eclipse occurs Aug. 21, when a narrow band of shadow — the moon blocks light from the sun — makes its way from northern Oregon via Wyoming, Missouri, Illinois and other states, only to exit through South Carolina. Eclipse enthusiasts no doubt will jam into that 73-mile band to catch totality. The rest of the United States will see varying conditions of a partial solar eclipse. Eclipse Web resources include greatamericaneclipse.com and NASA’s eclipse2017.nasa.gov, which offers scientific information and interactive maps for feature events. The Naval Observatory has a website that provides local eclipse circumstances throughout the United States. You should also know about eye safety. Protect your eyes, as looking into the sun can make you blind. Down-to-Earth Events: ● July 3 — ● July 5 ● July 8 — ● July 15 — ● July 18 — ● July 20 — ● July 21 —


Hints From Heloise: New life can’t take flight

Dear Heloise: I’m getting married in late August, and my fiance wants to travel to Europe for our honeymoon. I don’t! I’m apprehensive about traveling to a strange place where I don’t know the language, customs, monetary system or foods. I know my fears are unreasonable, but how do I conquer them? Ginger E., Valdosta, Ga. Ginger E.: ● Instead of thinking, “I’m worried about where we’re going,” think, “It is so exciting to see something new.” ● Research where you’re going. Perhaps you could take an evening class to study the language of that country. Read about the history and customs of the people who live there. Find places you want to see for yourself, then make sure you go there. ● Don’t worry about things you have no control over, such as the weather. Don’t worry about things that probably won’t happen. ● Use common sense when traveling. Be aware of what you’re eating and drinking, and be alert in strange surroundings. If you don’t want to lose something, don’t bring it along. Ask the hotel manager or tourist guide what parts of town you should avoid. Enjoy the experience of new sights and sounds. Dear Heloise: I want to know how to attract butterflies to my garden. My kids love to watch them, and my son especially loves to study their habitats. I want to keep encouraging them to study nature. Emma W., Quincy, Mass. Emma W.: ● You can buy a butterfly box at a garden store, or make one from the instructions online. This will offer them shelter. ● But most of all, butterflies are attracted to certain flowers, especially ones they can lay their eggs on. A few of the flowers they usually like are: allium, goldenrod, snapdragon, bee balm, lavender, stonecrop, blueberry bushes, lupine, sweet alyssum, catmint, mint and zinnia. Dear Readers: ● If ice cream thaws, it should not be refrozen. Ice crystals form in the product, and the flavor changes. ● Flour can be frozen. ● Baker’s yeast will freeze for years without going bad. ● Any bakery item with a cream filling should not be frozen. The items will become soggy. Heloise’s column appears six days a week at washingtonpost.com/advice. Send a hint to Heloise , P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, Tex. 78279-5000, or email it to Heloise@Heloise.com. 2017, King Features Syndicate


Mindfulness, captured beautifully in the children’s book, ‘Now’

tooth and smiles to show off her gap, “because it is the one that is missing.”As the child names and declares each of these her favorites, their evanescence gives way to a lasting sense of delight. Even the very youngest listener will enjoy both the satisfaction of listmaking and the immediacy of this delicious, effervescent embrace of the moment. — Kathie Meizner “Exploring Space: From Galileo to the Mars Rover and Beyond,” by Martin Jenkins (Candlewick ) For kids fascinated by the expansive universe, Exploring Space: From Galileo to the Mars Rover and Beyond (Candlewick, Ages 8 to 12) offers an excellent guide to what’s beyond the Earth’s atmosphere and how we have gathered this information. Martin Jenkins’s lively explanations and Stephen Biesty’s dynamic and detailed illustrations work together to elucidate some epic feats of engineering, starting with Voyager I, the unmanned spacecraft that has been journeying across the Milky Way since 1977. While Jenkins spells out the many challenges posed by space exploration, such as extreme temperatures and atmospheric changes, Biesty shows how technology has been developed to allow study nonetheless, such as telescopes (earthbound and orbiting), gigantic rockets, countless satellites and the International Space Station (ISS). Biesty offers up double-page spreads that reveal the inner workings of ingeniously constructed machinery. Look at all the gadgets of the latest spacesuit, then turn the page and see how Russians and Americans share the ISS. “Exploring Space” also looks into the future, foreseeing how a Mars colony and a space elevator from Earth might look. Jenkins notes that each would require massive expenditures of money and resources, but on a clear summer night, it does no harm to dream. — Abby McGanney Nolan “Be True to Me,” by Adele Griffin (Algonquin Young Readers) Set in the summer of 1976, Be True to Me (Algonquin, Ages 14 and up) probes the tensions between rival girls in an old-money beach community on Fire Island: privileged Jean Custis and “breezy, laid-back” Fritz O’Neill, the longtime guest of a prominent family. At first, their competitiveness focuses on the annual tennis championship, but it sharpens with the arrival of handsome Gil Burke. As the unknown nephew of another local family, Gil’s Southern roots make him as much of an outsider as Army brat Fritz. The two are immediately drawn to each other, but all three are aware that Jean’s influence and connections could smooth Gil’s future


Jury still out on Maryland’s new bail rules

for pretrial restructuring as a state delegate decades ago. “It’s what makes the federal system and D.C. work so well. And I imagine that will be a significant issue in the 2018 session.” Searching for equity Liberal lawmakers in Maryland — including then-state Sen. Brian Frosh (D) — tried for years to pass a law abolishing bail, without success. They said poor defendants who posed no danger were stuck behind bars awaiting trial because they couldn’t post bond, while others who could find the money got out, even if their records suggested they were likely to commit additional crimes. Last year Frosh, who became attorney general in 2015,issued an opinion that said the state’s bail system probably was unconstitutional, and asked the state Court of Appeals to consider changing pretrial release rules. The courts took initial action in November and formally adopted the change inFebruary, saying judges and commissioners should consider a defendant’s ability to pay when setting bail and impose the least onerous conditions when individuals don’t pose a danger or a flight risk. The bail bond industry, which opposed the changes, said judges and commissioners had begun reducing their use of bail, releasing more defendants on personal recognizance and holding more in jail with no bond, starting with the release of Frosh’s opinion and then a letter from Judge John P. Morrissey in October. Industry leaders took the issue to state lawmakers, hoping the General Assembly would overturn the court’s decision before it took effect. After a tense legislative battle that pitted members of the state’s powerful Legislative Black Caucus against one another, lawmakers took no action, allowing the court rule to go into effect as planned. Critics of the court rule say one of their top concerns is that low-risk defendants will not return to court for trial, or that people will be held without bond who should have been released. They also cite cases in which defendants are required to purchase ankle bracelets or other devices so they can be monitored after their release, which in some cases can be more expensive than bail. “I know the intent [of the Legislative Black Caucus] was to not have as many African American males in jail until their trial date,” said Del. C.T. Wilson (D-Charles), a criminal defense attorney and member of the caucus who supported a pro-bail bill. “What has been done has had a more detrimental


Thanks to the U.S., an Afghan all-girl robotics team’s inspiring story ends in tears

Tech CEO Roya Mahboob talks with Post Opinions about what happens next for Afghanistan's all-girls robotics team, which was denied entry into the United States for a competition. WHEN THE members of an all-girl robotics team from western Afghanistan learned that they were going to participate in the inaugural First Global Challenge — an international competition that will be held in the District of Columbia this month — they traveled 500 miles to visit the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. The six teenagers risked this arduous journey not once but twice, hoping to secure one-week business travel visas to the United States. Their efforts ended in tears when their visa applications were denied. Now, they will watch from afar as their robot competes without them. This is a dispiriting — and, for the United States, self-defeating — end to what might have been an inspirational story. The team faced long odds, not least because they were girls striving for a technology-based education in Afghanistan. According to a recent Thomson Reuters Foundation expert poll, the country is the most dangerous in the world for women. Girls have been threatened with grenades and acid attacks for attending school, and 55 percent of school-age girls are currently missing out on an education. Science and engineering are especially male-dominated, making the team’s achievements even more striking. The Afghan girls also faced unique challenges when trying to assemble their robot. While other teams received their materials in March, the box sent to Afghanistan was held up amid terrorism concerns. Yet the girls remained undaunted and began building prototypes with household supplies. As one member of the team told Forbes, they just wanted a chance to prove themselves to the world. How sad that the U.S. government has prevented them from doing so in person. These girls embody the values the United States has championed around the world and sought, at great cost, to cultivate in Afghanistan. Their story is a testament to innovation, entrepreneurship, equality and grit. Given that the U.S. government has also invested substantially in promoting girls’ education and women’s empowerment in Afghanistan, the visa denial is inexplicable. (And, in fact, the U.S. government offered no explanation.) Though few business travel visas are granted to Afghans each month, it is hard to understand why the State Department would not make an exception for these intrepid girls and all that they stand for. In their


Missing: The District’s Liberty Bell, lost since the early 1980s

(dc council photo/It seems too large to vanish, but nobody seems to know the whereabouts of the District’s replica Liberty Bell, which has been gone these many years. ) On the eve of July 4, which is an obviously appropriate time, the D.C. Council announced a search to find the city’s missing Liberty Bell. It is only a replica of the original Liberty Bell, which is an icon of American independence and is on display in Philadelphia. But it is a big bell, it is — or at least it was — our bell, and it is lost. It is equal in size to the original, the council said, and it weighs a ton. Literally. According to the council, the 2,000-pound bell was given to the city by the federal government on July 20, 67 years ago. It was presented in recognition of exceeding the sales goals for U.S. savings bonds. Apparently every state, every U.S. territory and the U.S. Treasury Department were given one of the bells. At first, the D.C. bell was on display at the top of the steps of what was then the District Building, now the Wilson Building. Later it was moved to a small park in front of the building. Then, as beautification work on Pennsylvania Avenue got underway, it became necessary to move the bell. Several other small monuments also required temporary relocation. The other monuments were all eventually returned to their original sites, according to the council. But not the bell. On Monday, atop its announcement, the council urged: “Help Us Find the Liberty Bell.” The bell was at its site on April 2, 1979. But, the council said, by July 30, 1981, it had been declared missing. Meanwhile, it can not be concluded that the bell was hidden in plain sight. The council said the Liberty Bell it seeks is NOT the double-sized replica in front of Union Station. Nor is it the replica between the Treasury Building and the White House. No tip is too small, the council said. Those with information can contact Josh Gibson at 202-741-0897 or jgibson@dccouncil.us. As to where the bell might be, the value of the metal in it probably ought not to be ignored. Current prices for scrap brass or bronze are about a dollar per pound. At such prices, the bell, at least in theory, could bring about $2,000 in cash. However, melting


Let’s hop right to it: Are we seeing more rabbits in our area this year?

Readers are reporting a bunny explosion around the Washington area. These rabbits are among the Eastern cottontails spotted by Susan Hale in Kent Island, Md. (Susan Hale) Rabbits breed like rabbits, so perhaps it’s no surprise that people in the Washington area claim to be seeing lots of them. But are they seeing more of them? Yes, says Karen Taylor of the Sleepy Hollow neighborhood in Falls Church, Va., who writes: “I’ve seen many more rabbits this year than the past four years. There are half a dozen little ones that run around my patio and come right up to the French doors.” Peter Wall Here’s Maryland’s Dolores Milmoe: “We, too, have experienced an explosion of rabbits this year on our farm south of Poolesville. There are plenty of foxes this season as well, so no lack of predators.” And Ted Mastroianni of Washington’s Glover Park neighborhood: “We first started seeing one small, thin rabbit on our block last year. This year, several have been seen by us and our neighbors.” Jim Lieberman Susan Hale Of course, all of this evidence is what scientists call “anecdotal.” It has not been certified by someone with a clipboard and a calculator, someone like Lindsay Rohrbaugh, a wildlife biologist with the District’s Fisheries and Wildlife Division. It just so happens that Lindsay’s office is in the middle of a rabbit survey, inviting citizen scientists to regularly walk prearranged routes and count the Eastern cottontail rabbits (and chipmunks). Those results aren’t in yet, “But anecdotally, yes, I would say it seems to me that people are seeing more rabbits,” she said. As for why, Lindsay feels there is no smoking carrot, per se. “It’s just the general predator-prey interaction, the up and down you see from year to year,” she said. “ You have a high rabbit population one year, that’s more food for predators, then the rabbit population goes down. Until we get more data, I don’t know what we can say beyond that.” Mike Fies We know that rabbits are prolific breeders — “They can actually be bred on the same day their young are born,” Mike said — with multiple litters per year. Why more this year? “In the short term, weather may play a part,” Mike said. “Weather affects the cover availability. When you’re at the bottom of the food chain, basically the more that survive, the more you have.


D.C. community and cultural events, July 6-12, 2017

Correction: Thursday, JULY 6 “Common Ground: Our American Garden” “Who We Are” Native landscape tour After School Lounge Lego Club Taratibu! Discovering the Sussex Declaration U.S. Air Force Strolling Strings Friday, JULY 7 “Write” Stuff Festival Mark Damisch Hillyer Art Space: Jessica Burnam, Julia Kwon and Gloria Duan “Citadel and Husky: The Tide Turns Friday Evening Parades at Marine Barracks Saturday, JULY 8 Ranger Run “Nothing Short of Hell on Earth” “Who Was ‘the White House Iceberg?’ ” Interactive sound experiences Library used-book sale “After 1001 Nights” Sunday, JULY 9 Palisades farmers market Monday, JULY 10 Adult yoga National Museum of the American Indian gallery tours Tuesday, JULY 11 Movies at THEARC SummerSet DC Classical music concert Adult pilates Wednesday, JULY 12 Americans With Disabilities Act program Book talk Adult barre Adult yoga Tai chi lab Yoga in the galleries Lunder Conservation Center tour — Compiled by Carrie Donovan TO SUBMIT AN EVENT Email:


Loudoun County Animal Watch

Loudoun County These were among recent cases reported by the Loudoun County Department of Animal Services. For animal shelter hours and location, and information on adoption, licensing, rabies clinics and low-cost neutering, call 703-777-0406. The horns of a dilemma: Cat’s curiosity leads to trouble: Into the woods: And let this be a lesson to you: And they’re off! — Compiled by Sandy Mauck


Montgomery County Animal Watch

Montgomery County This case was received by the Montgomery County Animal Services Division. For information, call 240-773-5900. This number provides recorded information on topics such as the new animal services and adoption center’s hours and location in Derwood, adoption and licensing procedures, and lost-and-found and field services. Dog attack: Humane Society adoptions The Montgomery County Humane Society’s private rescue shelter has dogs, puppies, cats and kittens available for adoption. Call 240-252-2555 or visit mchumane.org. MCHS Adoptions and Education Center, 601 S. Stonestreet Ave., Rockville.Hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, except holidays. Reduced FEES FOR CATS Cats and kittens will be available for adoption at the next open house of Friends of Montgomery County Animals at the following location. Call 301-977-4833, or visit fmca.org or facebook.com/fmcainfo. PetSmart at Milestone Center, 20924 Frederick Rd., Germantown. Hours: 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday. Cats at no-kill shelter Cats and kittens will be available for adoption through the Animal Welfare League of Montgomery County’s no-kill shelter at the following location. For information, call 301-740-2511 or visit awlmc.org. Animal Welfare League of Montgomery County no-kill shelter, 12 Park Ave., Gaithersburg. Hours: 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday. — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton


At least 14 killed in gunfight in drug-plagued northern Mexico state

Police officers guard a crime scene after authorities reported a gunbattle with armed men near the beach resort of Mazatlan, Mexico, on Saturday. (Mario Rivera Alvarado/AP) MEXICO CITY — The gunfight occurred between rival drug gangs in a rural part of Chihuahua state, which borders Texas and New Mexico, according to the state prosecutor’s office. Initial reports put the death toll at 26, but Felix González, a spokesman for the state prosecutor, said that 14 deaths had been confirmed as of Wednesday afternoon. The violence follows a deadly incident Friday in which 17 suspected drug traffickers were killed near the Pacific Coast city of Mazatlan in a confrontation with police that some relatives of the victims suspected might have involved extrajudicial killings. Three days later, nine people were killed in the state of Puebla, east of Mexico City, as part of a festering dispute among fuel thieves. The recent violence has underscored the deteriorating security across Mexico. More than 11,000 people were killed in the first five months of this year, an increase of 30 percent over the same period last year, putting Mexico on pace for what could be the deadliest year in its post-revolution history. After an initial decline during the first two years of Enrique Peña Nieto’s presidency, killings have roared back to levels that are comparable with those during the worst years of the country’s drug war. Violence has been fueled by fractures within long-dominant drug cartels, the growing demand for heroin and other opiates across the border in the United States, and the widespread corruption within Mexican government and security forces, which allows lawlessness to flourish. Chihuahua has a long history of drug-war violence, including in Ciudad Juarez, the border city that came to symbolize the savagery of the violence. The governor of Chihuahua, Javier Corral, of the opposition National Action Party (PAN), has accused his predecessor, César Duarte, from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), of ignoring criminal cases and brokering deals with drug cartels. Duarte fled last year to El Paso and is wanted on corruption charges. Corral told the Wall Street Journal this week that drug traffickers were “sent to the Sierra de Chihuahua, and they began to take control of the towns, the local police forces, and they became bosse The Wednesday clash occurred after 5 a.m. in a village called Las Varas, in the municipality of Madera, between a drug gang


U.S. diplomat blasts China and Russia for ‘holding the hands’ of North Korean leader

leaving Washington, Trump revealed more frustration with Xi, whom he has personally lobbied to enact sanctions on Chinese banks that do business with North Korean companies. The U.S. Treasury Department announced last week that it would block the Bank of Dandong, along the border region between China and North Korea, from accessing U.S. markets. Officials said this was the first of potentially greater sanctions by the United States. On Twitter, Trump wrote: “Trade between China and North Korea grew almost 40% in the first quarter. So much for China working with us — but we had to give it a try!” Chinese data released in April showed that China’s trade with North Korea grew 37.4 percent during the first three months of the year compared with the same period in 2016. China said then that overall trade grew even as it complied with U.N. sanctions and stopped buying North Korean coal. South Korean army howitzers are shown Wednesday during military exercises in Paju, near the border with North Korea. (Ahn Young-Joon/AP) Russian and Chinese diplomats used the U.N. Security Council meeting to push their joint proposal for a suspension of North Korean nuclear and missile testing in exchange for a suspension of U.S. and South Korean military exercises. Both countries also condemned the U.S. antimissile system being deployed in South Korea and called for it to be removed. Early Wednesday in Asia, U.S. and South Korean forces fired missiles in joint military exercises that the U.S. Pacific Command cast as a show of “ironclad” resolve. Daniel Pinkston, a lecturer in international relations at Troy University in Seoul, said he saw no chance that Washington and Seoul would agree to halt joint exercises, calling it “a non-starter.” During the U.N. meeting, a Russian official questioned whether North Korea’s missile was an ICBM, suggesting it was an intermediate-range weapon. That prompted Haley to request a second turn at the microphone, during which she said: “If you see this as a threat, if you see this for what it is, which is North Korea showing its muscle, then you need to stand strong. . . . If you choose not to, we will go our own path.” Danny Russel, who served as senior Asia director at the National Security Council under President Barack Obama, said Trump has a “rare blue moon” opportunity this week to meet with and rally the major players —


Young wine pros pour their efforts into D.C.’s restaurant renaissance

Daniel Runnerstrom, far left, Niki Lang and Brent Kroll are the team behind Maxwell Park in the District’s Shaw neighborhood. (Dave McIntyre / ) A sometimes unheralded factor in Washington’s restaurant renaissance has been the active cadre of young sommeliers who have raised the bar for wine service. Some of them are now branching out, and they might just change the way we drink and think about wine. They certainly may change our concept of wine bars. Maxwell Park, the brainchild of sommelier Brent Kroll, opened June 26 in Shaw, not far from the convention center. When I visited four days later, people poured through the door as soon as it opened at 5 p.m. An hour later, customers were standing and waiting for one of the 33 seats in the modest corner establishment. Kroll, 31, has been a familiar face to the District’s wine lovers for nearly a decade from his stints at Ardeo, the Oval Room and Adour. He managed the lists for Iron Gate and the Passenger as wine director for the Neighborhood Restaurant Group before moving to Proof last year for a brief stint as general manager. Kroll is not the only sommelier involved in the project. Max Kuller, owner of the Fat Baby restaurant group (Proof, Estadio, Doi Moi) and a sommelier himself, is a business partner. Daniel Runnerstrom, formerly of Iron Gate, and Niki Lang, formerly of Voltaggio Brothers Steak House and Fiola Mare, help manage the bar. Both are certified sommeliers through the Court of Master Sommeliers and can partner into ownership if Maxwell Park succeeds. Named for a place in Detroit where Kroll played as a child, Maxwell Park oozes fun, right down to the chalk provided for customers to write or doodle on the slate bar. And because many customers today like to stay connected, the bar is lined with electrical outlets that include USB ports. Your check will be presented in a copy of a pocket wine guide by Oz Clarke or Hugh Johnson — another sign that “this is meant to be fun, not a dissertation,” as Kroll says. Kroll modeled Maxwell Park after wine bars in New York rather than more food-centric examples in Washington’s first wave of a decade ago. “I want this to be a true wine bar, not a restaurant marketed as a wine bar,” he says. “If you have 20 dishes on your menu


Something sweet is buzzing at D.C.’s wastewater treatment plant

be, we have to figure out how to manage them,” Burnham said. “Bees are like anyone else — they need food, water and good weather.” The bees’ initial home in an open spot on the rooftop was too windy. And despite the apiary’s proximity to the Potomac, water was still a problem, said Burnham, who has served as D.C. Water’s bee consultant. Bees, being resourceful, compensated by drinking condensation from a nearby air conditioning condenser, she said. It wasn’t until it came time to service the condenser that officials discovered that several thousand had met their end after being sucked into the unit, Burnham said. Now they provide water for the apiary and have put the hives in a spot that shields the bees from the wind. The bees, Burnham said, appear to be doing well. Even so, there’s always a risk. This queen situation for one thing. Brower and Burnham planned this particular welfare check for midmorning because that’s when most of the bees are out working, he said. Even so, there are plenty left in the hive and more than a few buzzing about. Brower and Burnham go about their task, slowly pulling the frames from the blue and white boxes. A silver smoker sits atop one of hives. Using a sharp metal tool, Brower carefully lifts one of the frames from its wooden box. He gently pushes the bellows of the silver can, which emit a few slow puffs of smoke over the bees. Bill Brower bottles a batch of honey from the rooftop bee colony at D.C. Water. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post) “It calms them,” he explains. “They think there’s a fire so they just hang in place.” He slowly turns the frame over while Burnham peers, examining the individual cells looking to see how many eggs have been laid and which might be hatching. After examining one particular frame, Burnham turned to Brower. “What do we say now, Bill?” she asked, a wide grin on her face. “We say, ‘Boo-YA!’ ” In other words, things look great. She pointed to a large bee with a yellow dot. It’s the queen. “There was some possibility that they would reject her,” Burnham said. But there she is alive and laying eggs. “That’s what the ‘boo-YA’ was about.” Added Brower: “It is fascinating to learn how these creatures work — so different from how human populations operate. If


A worthy legacy of the Ebola catastrophe

Liberian nurses carry the body of a suspected Ebola victim. (Ahmed Jallanzo/European Pressphoto Agency) ONE OF the most disturbing lessons to emerge from the Ebola virus disease epidemic in West Africa in 2014-2015 was how unprepared the world was for it. David Nabarro, special adviser to the U.N. secretary general, told a Senate panel recently that the virus was missed in late 2013 and played down in 2014, even in July of that year when numbers of cases were doubling every three weeks. Ultimately, 11,314 people died in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. When it was over, several studies concluded that the world needs a well-funded, rapid-reaction mechanism, a firefighting team ready to deploy quickly in the face of spreading disease. The World Health Organization proposed a $100 million contingency fund but so far has raised only $31.5 million, Mr. Nabarro said. “In multilateral work, funding is oxygen,” he added. “When it comes to responding to outbreaks, WHO is starved of oxygen.” Now comes the World Bank with a novel program that could help realize the goal of rapid response to such emergency health threats and save lives. The bank has announced the issuance of $500 million in specialized bonds and derivatives that will help poor countries cope with a pandemic such as Ebola. The effort will create a trust fund, the Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility, that can be quickly deployed for pandemic response, complementing the WHO fund. Investors who buy the bonds and provide the trust-fund financing upfront will reap premiums (at first, Japan and Germany are covering the premiums) but will also be taking a risk. If there is a major outbreak, the investors will lose some or all of their cash. This is the first time such an approach has been tried for pandemic risk, but a similar idea underlies insurance against other natural disasters and catastrophes. One big advantage is that instead of waiting around for slow-moving national governments to fund a disease response, the resources necessary for saving lives will be available quickly, when they can do the most good. The trust-fund money will be used to respond to six viruses that are most likely to cause a pandemic, including influenza, Ebola, severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome. The financing to 77 eligible countries will be triggered depending on how far and fast a disease spreads and whether it crosses international borders.


The message behind the murder: North Korea’s assassination sheds light on chemical weapons arsenal

the most consequential,” he said. As Kim Jong Nam’s assassination demonstrated, the delivery of such weapons can be easy — especially for deadly pathogens, but also for toxic chemicals, he said. And any military response would be delayed for days or weeks while investigators attempted to find evidence that firmly pointed to a perpetrator. “A chemical attack would be knowable, almost as soon as it happens,” Weber said. “But Kim Jong Un is a brutal guy, and he may have no qualms against doing it. Or he may just miscalculate.” Sending a message Kim Jong Un’s plan to use VX to kill his half brother included extensive measures to ensure secrecy — so many, in fact, that some experts think the North Koreans wanted to keep their enemies ignorant about its use of the toxin, or at least unsure. After Kim Jong Nam’s death, Pyongyang requested the immediate return of his body, without an autopsy being performed. Malaysia refused, and soon afterward, local news media reported an attempt by unknown individuals to break into the morgue where the body was kept. The attempt failed, but in the weeks since, North Korea has insisted that the leader’s half brother died of a heart attack and that any reports of chemical toxins were lies spread by outsiders. Some longtime North Korea analysts are convinced that the killing was intended mostly as a warning to other members of the Kim family who might be plotting Kim Jong Un’s overthrow. The leader has a history of extreme brutality toward relatives whom he suspects of plotting against him. He may have seen Kim Jong Nam — a free-spoken man of leisure who enjoyed protected status in China and was widely reported to have intelligence contacts with several foreign governments — as a possible future choice by Beijing to replace him. “It might have just been an expression of how much he hates traitors,” said Joshua Pollack, a former government consultant on North Korean weapons programs and now editor of the journal Nonproliferation Review. “There’s no doubt that VX was an unusual choice for an assassination. But I think it was probably chosen because they thought no one would look for it.” Other current and former U.S. officials say that North Korea would have calculated that the VX would be found eventually. According to these officials, Kim Jong Un’s plan was to showcase his ability to


Which is more impressive: Becoming a triathlete or a neurosurgeon? Anyway, here’s a guy who’s both.

you have to do is grab your [phone] and a pair of underwear and my glasses, and I can just run over there with those things in my hand,” Bender said. “That’s the nice thing about being a doctor. You get towel service and you get clean scrubs, and you can pick those up at work, and you don’t have to carry anything more with you.” If he doesn’t run in the morning, Bender will go for a 4:45 a.m. swim at his local gym or a run at night. Bender and his girlfriend, Alex Murray, try to go on three-to-six-mile runs every night around Baltimore. Bender will sometimes take a longer loop home to put in extra miles. Whoever makes it home first will start dinner, usually homemade pasta, pizza, salad or things on the grill. But with any type of athletic activity, Bender’s outdoor training comes with risks. He has broken multiple bones from riding his bike and running near the Inner Harbor. Only four days before his big race at the 2016 Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, Bender broke his big toe while training. He didn’t know whether he could race on it but did anyway and finished 38th in his age division with a time of 9:32:56. Bender’s training isn’t the only thing that comes with risks. At work he performs hundreds of diagnostic cerebral angiograms, the same procedure he performed on the man in his 70s on that early morning in late June. During the procedure, patients are sedated but awake. It’s part of Bender’s job to talk to the patients during the operation, all while maneuvering a catheter through the blood vessels of the body up to the neck and head. From there, an iodine dye is injected into the blood vessel so X-rays can be taken. The process allows Bender to see whether there are any blockages of blood vessels. If there is a blockage, doctors can use different techniques to unblock the artery. But the procedure isn’t foolproof. There can be infections at the puncture site where the catheter is injected or — more serious but less common — a stroke. But with the man in late June, Bender maintains his composure in the operating room, getting through the surgery without any complications. When he is done, he exits the room, takes off his surgical face mask and glasses and examines


Washington Post bestsellers: July 9, 2017

by slavery. [8] 10. SEE ME (Vision, $7.99). By Nicholas Sparks. A former criminal and a lawyer fall in love. [4] Nonfiction/General 1. MILK AND HONEY (Andrews McMeel, $14.99) By Rupi Kaur. A collection of poetry and prose about survival. [55] 2. THE OTHER WES MOORE:ONE NAME, TWO FATES (Spiegel Grau, $16). By Wes Moore. Two boys with the same name, born a year apart, with similar childhoods, become very different adults. [10] 3. SPY SITES OF WASHINGTON, DC: A GUIDE TO THE CAPITAL REGION'S SECRET HISTORY (Georgetown University Press, $24.95). By Robert Wallace. A guide that outlines the secret side of Washington, DC. [3] 4. YOU ARE A BADASS: HOW TO STOP DOUBTING YOUR GREATNESS AND START LIVING AN AWESOME LIFE (Running Press, $16). By Jen Sincero. [68] 5. GET A FINANCIAL LIFE:PERSONAL FINANCE IN YOUR TWENTIES AND THIRTIES (Ingramcontent, $16.99). By Beth Kobliner. A guide to help adults in their 20s and 30s plan for their financial future. [1] 6. HIDDEN FIGURES:THE AMERICAN DREAM AND THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE BLACK WOMEN MATHEMATICIANS WHO HELPED WIN THE SPACE RACE (William Morrow Paperbacks, $15.99). By Margot Lee Shetterly. An account of the untold heroes of the space race. [29] 7. THE 5 LOVE LANGUAGES:THE SECRET TO LOVE THAT LASTS (Northfield, $15.99). By Gary Chapman. A guide to help communicate in relationships. [231] 8. ON TYRANNY:TWENTY LESSONS FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (Tim Duggan Books, $7.99). By Timothy Snyder. A historian examines how dictatoriships rise and how to fight it. [18] 9. MINDSET :NEW PSYCHOLOGY OF SUCCESS (Ballantine Books, $17). By Carol Dweck. Stanford University psychologist discusses the link between mindset and success. [80] 10. HOW TO READ LITERATURE LIKE A PROFESSOR: A LIVELY AND ENTERTAINING GUIDE TO READING BETWEEN THE LINES (Harper Perennial, $15.99). By Thomas C. Foster. [47] Hardcover Fiction 1. CAMINO ISLAND (Doubleday, $28.95). By John Grisham. A young novelist investigates a rare book dealer who dabbles in the black market. [4] 2. MURDER GAMES (Little Brown and Company $28). By James Patterson. A criminal book author is recruited by a NYPD detective to help solve a series of murders. [1] 3. USE OF FORCE: A THRILLER (THE SCOT HARVATH SERIES) (Atria/Emily Bestler Books, $27.99). By Brad Thor. The CIA seeks the help of a former Navy SEAL turned covert counterterrorism operative when a body of a highly suspected terrorist washes up on the Mediterranean shore. [1] 4.


How Baltimore can reform its way out of a crime wave

City residents and leaders are understandably skeptical of the police and unlikely to provide those new resources. As a recent Justice Department investigation highlighted, and organizations such as the No Boundaries Coalition in Baltimore have long argued, Baltimore police officers have an ugly track record of civil rights abuses and violence. These abuses came into the national spotlight in 2015 with the tragic death of Freddie Gray. The result is a political stalemate in which everyone is unhappy. The police department is understaffed but spending too much on overtime. City leaders can neither defend spending more to rebuild the police force nor avoid paying the overtime bills. The public vacillates among anger at police abuses, outrage at overtime costs and concern over mounting violence. City and state leaders can work together to break this deadlock. In past crises, Maryland State Police have taken over routine duties such as traffic patrol, freeing up city police officers for beat policing and other higher priorities. Putting more officers on the streets could help deter would-be shooters — and reassure scared people. That’s a short-term solution. The longer-term challenge is to shape a police department that both respects civil rights and polices effectively. Recently, Baltimore City and the Justice Department signed a consent decree mandating new protocols and new training for the police department. The consent decree is an important step toward reform, but it will create challenges. Detroit took 11 years to meet the stipulations of its consent decree. Conforming to a consent decree cost Los Angeles $300 million. Here is a new idea: Maryland could create a Baltimore police reform fund that would tie a stream of annual grants for the Baltimore Police Department to successful implementation of the consent decree. The grants would be dedicated exclusively to recruiting, training and retaining officers. Such a fund could motivate the Baltimore Police Department to execute the consent decree in a timely fashion. It could address the root of the department’s personnel problems while bringing down the unpopular overtime costs. By tying new money to police reforms, the fund could break the current political impasse and reassure state leaders and residents that public monies were being well spent. As summer heats up, we must do something to bring the violence under control while helping the Baltimore Police Department rebuild for the future. Working together, city and state leaders can do both. The writer was


In Uruguay’s marijuana experiment, the government is your pot dealer

Pot has been legalized for recreational or medical use in more than half of U.S. states and the District of Columbia, but it remains essentially prohibited under federal law. American activists have been bracing for a confrontation with the Trump administration and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who opposes the liberalization trend. Canada, Mexico, Colombia and other nations across the Americas also are moving to legalize cannabis on a limited basis. But only Uruguay has set up a comprehensive system to regulate every facet of the plant’s life cycle, from tiny seed to smoky haze. Uruguayans say their model is designed to strike a balance between prohibition and the kind of exuberant marijuana economy emerging in some U.S. states, where well-funded businesses may have incentives to encourage consumption. In Uruguay, anything that smacks of commercial marijuana branding or advertising is banned. The two private firms authorized to supply the pharmacies with industrial quantities of dope — four tons annually — can’t even put their company labels on the packaging. “The risk of what they’re doing in Colorado is that you end up with something like the tobacco industry,” said Julio Calzada, one of the public health officials who designed Uruguay’s regulatory model after lawmakers approved legalization in 2013. He said the country won’t allow a competitive industry peddling pot versions of Marlboro and Camel. “The concept here is totally different.” “To us, marijuana is a vegetable substance with a capacity to generate addiction, so what we’re trying to do is control the production, distribution and consumption of that substance as effectively as possible,” he said. A potent strain of marijuana known as "Colombian Red" with flowers ready to harvest at a cannabis club greenhouse in Montevideo, Uruguay, on June 22. (Nick Miroff/TWP) Socially liberal, but regulated It’s no fluke that this is happening in socially liberal Uruguay. Gambling and prostitution are legal and regulated here. Uruguay is also the only Latin American nation outside Cuba that has broadly legalized abortion, and it was one of the first to recognize civil unions and adoption by same-sex couples. Uruguay also is accustomed to relatively high levels of regulation and a big state role in the economy, with an array of government-owned banks, gas stations and utilities. Over the years, activists began to argue: Why not weed? The experiment is not without skeptics and detractors — one reason it has taken longer than expected


Irina Ratushinskaya, Soviet dissident who turned captivity into poetry, dies at 63

poems that bore witness to an undiminished optimism. “We live stubbornly,” she began one poem : Ms. Ratushinskaya meets Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s prime minister, in December 1986, two months after her release from a Soviet labor camp. (Press Association/via AP) like a small beast who’s gnawed off his paw to get out of a trap on three. We’ve mastered that science And with brave smile — that way the wounds are bandaged tighter. . . To avoid detection, Ms. Ratushinskaya wrote her poems on bars of soap, using the burned ends of matchsticks. When the poem was finished and Ms. Ratushinskaya had memorized its text, she hid her creation by washing it away. Eventually, the poems were written on cigarette papers and smuggled out of the camp to her husband, who arranged for publication in the West in collections such as “Beyond the Limit” (1987). “Reading her poetry is a profound emotional experience,”wrote Maria Carlson, a professor of Russian, in a review of that book for the New York Times Book Review. For Ms. Ratushinskaya, an untrained poet who studied physics in college because she feared that the humanities were hamstrung by Soviet ideology, the camp served as a kind of literary classroom. “All poets should have such a school,” she told People magazine in 1989. “It taught me to be very spare and concise.” She and fewer than a dozen female political prisoners were largely confined to a hut known as the Small Zone, and sometimes sent to an isolation cell — known by its acronym, SHIZO — where they were starved and kept in freezing temperatures. “How do you expect to bear children after spending time in SHIZO?” a camp official once asked her. She was later treated for infertility, and in 1993 had twin sons, Sergei and Oleg. While Ms. Ratushinskaya said that she was inspired by the example of fellow Soviet writer and dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (“never believe them, never fear them, never ask them for anything,” he once wrote of jailers), the type of survival-minded lifestyle that she described in her memoir was something new to Western readers. Male prisoners such as Solzhenitsyn and Vladimir Bukovsky described their time in the camps as being filled with discussions of chess problems and politics, the writer Francine du Plessix Gray observed in a review for the Times Book Review, but the women of Ms. Ratushinskaya’s camp “spent


The dream of ‘clean coal’ is burning up

fuel used in electricity generation in the United States, without any diversion of greenhouse emissions. This is the second federally funded clean-coal boondoggle. The first, known as FutureGen, was supposed to showcase innovative carbon capture and storage technology at a breakthrough Illinois plant. Despite a strong push from the local congressional delegation, the George W. Bush administration ended the hapless experiment, and the plant never operated, despite an Obama-era effort to revive it. More wasted money. It is tempting to say this history proves that “clean coal” is a fantasy. To that, there is strong pushback from the coal industry and some environmentalists who believe the technology will be needed to tackle climate change. China has built many coal plants in recent years, facilities that will not be retired for decades; it will be disastrous if they continue belching carbon dioxide into the air for that whole time. The technology’s advocates point to a federally backed Texas plant that came online in January, which experienced none of the usual budget problems and is supposed to cost-effectively provide captured carbon dioxide to local drillers, which use it to extract hard-to-obtain oil. Other carbon capture technologies in development may work better. Or maybe not. Scarce dollars supporting clean coal could go to a variety of other on-the-cusp technologies — from innovative batteries that can help scale up renewables to revolutionary nuclear reactor designs. No one, and certainly no one in Congress, knows what a decarbonized energy sector will look like. Lawmakers should resist channeling cash to favored experiments and distribute research money and other incentives on merit. Much of the government’s complex web of energy programs, tax breaks and other incentives could be eliminated if Congress fostered markets in which the best low-carbon technologies were profitable and would therefore rise into use naturally. The preferences of private companies, entrepreneurs and consumers, spurred by simple price signals, would determine how to wring carbon dioxide out of the economy. This freedom-maximizing, flexibility-preserving, waste-minimizing policy is a carbon tax. It is long past time the country had one. Read more here: Terry McAuliffe: Here’s how states can lead on clean energy Michael Gerson: Forget the Paris accord. Here’s what can really fight climate change. Robert J. Samuelson: Two cheers for a carbon tax, but don’t expect it to fix everything The Post’s View: With more people hitting the road, it’s time for a carbon tax


Here’s every total solar eclipse happening in your lifetime. Is this year your best chance?

[This story has been optimized for offline reading on our apps. For a richer experience, you can find the full version of this story here. An Internet connection is required.] On Aug. 21, a total solar eclipse will traverse the continental United States. It’ll be the first to traverse coast to coast in nearly a century. There will be 69 total solar eclipses visible from somewhere on the planet in the next 100 years, but only a few will be visible from North America. A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon aligns between the Earth and the sun. The shadow directly under the moon, called the umbra, is a total eclipse. The moon will also have a penumbra, which is a lighter shadow around the umbra. This is viewed as a partial eclipse. The path of the moon’s umbra as it moves across Earth is called the path of totality. On average, a total solar eclipse can be visible from somewhere on Earth every 1.5 years. While all of North America will be able to see the eclipse on Aug. 21, most of the continent will only see a partial eclipse, which may or may not be noticeable depending on where you are. A total eclipse will only be visible along the path of totality, which is about 60 to 70 miles wide at any given point. The farther you are from this path, the less noticeable the eclipse will be. The path of totality for the eclipse in August stretches from coast to coast — passing over Oregon in the west and moving all the way across the country to South Carolina in the east. This is a rare event; it’s the first time the path of totality will eclipse only over the contiguous United States. The last time a total solar eclipse occurred in the Lower 48 was 1979. The next time a total solar eclipse will traverse from coast to coast will be in 2045. In the last 100 years, some areas have been in the paths of multiple eclipses: New England, for example, saw five. (During its World Series dry spell from 1918 to 2004, the greater Boston area alone saw two.) Others weren’t so lucky. Just 200 miles away in New York, construction on the Empire State Building had not started yet the last time the city saw a total solar eclipse (1925). San


Hospital: Ailing China Nobel laureate in critical condition

BEIJING — A stark update issued by the hospital where he is being treated said he was suffering from poor kidney function and bleeding in the liver from metastasizing tumors. It heightened pressure on Beijing, which has resisted appeals from several nations to let Liu and his family go. A Foreign Ministry spokesman asked other countries at a daily news briefing “to respect China’s national sovereignty and refrain from interfering in its domestic affairs due to an individual case.” On Monday, the office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel asked Beijing for a “signal of humanity for Liu Xiaobo and his family.” Liu’s health has been the subject of international attention after news emerged in late June that the dissident had been transferred to a Chinese hospital because of late-stage liver cancer. Supporters and Western governments urged China to allow Liu to choose where he wanted to be treated and to release him. Beijing has resisted, citing Liu’s fragile health and arguing that he is receiving the best possible care in China. Liu was convicted in 2009 of inciting subversion for his role in the “Charter 08” movement calling for political changes. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize a year later while in prison. Two foreign doctors who were permitted to visit Liu this past weekend said Sunday that they deemed him strong enough to be evacuated, apparently contradicting Chinese expert opinion. Chinese leaders face two unpalatable choices, analysts say. If China sends Liu abroad, he could speak out against Beijing in his remaining days and become a worldwide media icon. If Beijing maintains the status quo, his death in custody would tarnish the Communist Party’s image. Liu’s plight has drawn public protests in Hong Kong. On Monday, dozens of people waved banners and chanted slogans as they staged a sit-in outside the Chinese government’s representative office, urging Beijing to allow Liu to be treated overseas. The Chinese facility treating Liu says it is providing him with the best possible care and that Liu is too ill to be moved. Its update Monday appeared to highlight his deteriorating condition. The First Hospital of China Medical University said that Liu is also suffering from low blood pressure and that an MRI scan revealed growing cancer lesions.


America’s glorious guilt

our own. So we are left with a constant struggle and a glorious guilt. There are limits to the resources and capabilities of any nation. But Americans who do not feel a stab of pride at the liberation of Nazi death camps, and the reconstruction of postwar Europe, and the sacrificial spirit of the Peace Corps, and the extraordinary achievements of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief — such people do not fully understand their own country. They have somehow missed one of the primary things that make it lovely — our holding of the truth that Medina is not beyond or beneath the demands of human dignity. This conviction is now being tested in four nations across East Africa — South Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya — where some 20 million human beings urgently need help. Season after season of sporadic and inadequate rainfall, complicated in some cases by conflict, have brought many places to the verge of famine. Here in Kenya, I consistently heard that conditions are “worse than 2011” — which is like an economist saying that conditions are worse than the Great Depression. The analogy holds. In both cases, the assets built over a lifetime — whether measured in stocks or goats — are lost. The global response, so far, has been better than in 2011. A famine warning was declared last year, and in Kenya, the government and the charitable sector, with help from the U.S. government, have been encouraging resilience with water trucks, school feeding programs, and small cash benefits to buy water and food. But this success is partial and fragile. If the next rainy season, four months from now, is inadequate, the coping mechanisms will break down on a massive scale. And by the time we see images of death on CNN or the BBC, help may come too late for the most vulnerable. Whatever happens, Medina says, will be “God’s will.” But a failure of compassion would be entirely our own. Read more from Michael Gerson’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook Read more on this issue: Richard Cohen: Young men in devastated countries used to dream of America The Post’s View: Millions may starve in Africa. The U.S. should do something about it. Gayle Smith: Five myths about famine Jackson Diehl: No one is paying attention to the worst humanitarian crisis since WWII


Siemens and AES team up on industrial-size batteries

Ownership of Fluence will split evenly between the two firms. If regulators sign off on the deal, the company will be based in Washington with an additional engineering center in Erlangen, Germany. The firm will try to capitalize on a broader trend toward greater dispersion of power management assets, as utility companies and large businesses find new ways to store and process power. In the District, for example, Pepco Holdings is launching a $720 million plan to build three additional substations, which process power at the sub-local level across the city. Within the past few years advances in power storage technology have made power storage more economically viable, spurring a race among companies to smooth out load times in pursuit of lower costs. “Fifteen or twenty years ago, power was produced in a single power plant and distributed to buildings,” said Dan Wishnick, an executive at Siemens Energy, “but now you’re seeing a trend away from centralized power to decentralized power.” The market for industrial-scale power storage “is comparably small right now,” said Dan Finn-Foley, senior analyst with GTM Research, “but prices have dropped precipitously in the last couple of years, and the economics are starting to make a lot more sense. That’s getting people’s attention.” The market is already crowded with some of the biggest names in the electronics industry, including Samsung, BYD, LG-Chem and Tesla. Siemens has a smaller foothold in the energy storage market, through an internal business unit it has built out since 2012. The partnership with AES, which operates its own power networks, could give it the scale it needs to compete. Together, the firms work in more than 160 countries. If Fluence’s entry into the market has the effect of driving down prices, it could make it easier for alternative energy to gain broader use in far-flung places. Costs for alternative energy can vary widely based on weather and physical proximity to the energy source. Gigantic batteries are seen as an obvious solution to help smooth out that variation, but industry analysts say the idea has only recently become technologically viable on a large scale. “Renewable energy sources are just not always going to be where you want them and how you want them,” said Don Hillebrand, an energy expert with the Argonne National Laboratory, a Chicago-based energy research center. “Cheap battery sources enable all of those technologies and allow them to work together.”


While bills mount for Olympic hosts, IOC members pass the aperitifs

an Olympics won’t imperil the local economy on the level of Athens or Rio. After years of IOC abuses, the leverage belongs to the prospective hosts, not to the Campari sippers. Cities are in a position to make demands, and they should start by demanding a larger cut of the TV and sponsor money as the price of doing business. The IOC has created a veritable financial dust bowl with its epic waste and costs, until only these two cities will have anything to do with them. Whoever loses out on 2024 will get 2028 — and inevitable overruns. The price of Tokyo 2020 already has doubled from its original estimate to $12 billion. Hamburg, Rome, Boston and Budapest all dropped out of 2024 bidding because their citizens wouldn’t stand for the excesses and corruption. Another half-dozen countries bailed out of contention for the 2022 Winter Games. The IOC, apparently realizing that it has run out of pockets to pick, launched something called Agenda 2020 to try to rein in waste and to stress “after-use” and “sustainability.” Funny though. The IOC hasn’t addressed one very large reason the Olympics are such a burden: its hoarding of the lion’s share of TV and sponsor-marketing revenue that could relieve some of the financial pressure. The IOC does almost none of the work, yet strictly controls what economists Robert Baade and Victor Matheson term the “monopoly rents.” Study after study shows that hosting an Olympics enriches only a few local industrialists, while making cities poorer. Whoever is designated to host in 2024 — the IOC will make the announcement in September — will be left with a river of graft from building and renovation projects, a huge security bill and potential white elephants. So the real question for Paris and Los Angeles is not who gets to host first, but how to offset the damage when they do? By far the main source of Olympic revenue is TV rights fees, which amounted to $4.1 billion in 2016. The IOC pockets fully 70 percent of that. Why? For what? Shouldn’t host cities command a larger cut — because their citizens’ safety will be imperiled, their skylines provide the beauty shots, and they are required to provide 40,000 hotel rooms, including five-star accommodations for NBC, and an endless supply of black fig confit for the 115 members of the IOC? Unless it drives a harder


Turn your summer harvest into a refreshing drink

will give you many drinkable edibles to pass around, alcoholic or not. When tomatoes start to come in, it’s time for a homegrown bloody mary. Mash up some good ripe ones with a small food mill, which removes skin and seeds. If you’ve grown horseradish, grate in a bit of the root. Pick a celery plant, and there’s your swizzle stick, to stir in the vodka. Better yet, make your own V8 juice. Ever since W.G. Peacock invented the classic beverage in 1933, children and grown-ups alike have drunk this tasty medley as an honest stab at a veggie-rich diet. Today, for its original variety, Campbell Soup Co. assembles the same cast of eight players — tomatoes (which predominate), beets, celery, carrots, lettuce, parsley, watercress and spinach — but you can also compose your own V8, or V7 or V13, with whatever vegetables you like. Try beets, celery, cucumbers, fennel, peppers, onions and scallions. Greens of many kinds can go in, if they’re consumed fresh. Among starchy vegetables, only the young and tender ones, like little Japanese turnips, are juicy enough. Save the potatoes for cold vichyssoise. I hardly need to explain this to a generation that grew up making smoothies and filling up at juice bars, but turn your taste buds loose and there are infinite combinations you can come up with, especially if you throw in herbs such as parsley, basil, tarragon, marjoram and dill. I find lemon verbena the most drinkable herb, for its delicate flavor, divine aroma and beautiful yellow-green color. Its leaves, like those of bay leaves, may be too stiff to consume unless very young, but an infusion of it makes the most gorgeous pitcher of cold tea, with the sunlight shining through it. If I were a martini girl, I’d float a lemon verbena leaf in my glass. Need I even mention juices from homegrown fruits? Apple cider completes the summer for us, though if we had all the right trees lined up, we’d have enjoyed cherry, plum, peach and pear nectars along the way. Any fruit can be made into juice, of course, and some of the best juices are made with easy garden plants such as strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. And melons! I don’t often encounter melon drinks, but why not? Those fruits are the definition of juicy. At the start of a meal, try serving guests a big bowl of


U.S.-Russia meeting over ‘so-called irritants’ scheduled for Monday

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini address a joint news conference after their meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on Tuesday. (Francois Lenoir/Reuters) The United States and Russia will hold a high-level meeting in Washington Monday to discuss “so-called irritants” in their relationship, the State Department announced Tuesday. The term has been used in the past to describe diplomatic differences and sanctions, including the Obama administration’s decision in December to expel 35 Russian diplomats and shut down Russian-owned compounds in Maryland and New York in response to Russian meddling in last year’s election. The Monday meeting between Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov follows the cancellation of a session scheduled last month in St. Petersburg. Russia shelved the meeting after the Trump administration announced an expansion of sanctions in response to the ongoing Ukraine crisis. In a news conference Tuesday in Vienna, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov characterized the continued barring of Russian officials from the properties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and on Long Island as “outrageous.” He said that “we are thinking of concrete steps” to retaliate if they are not returned. “I think it is shameful for such a great country as the United States, the champion of international law, to leave the situation in such a suspended state,” said Lavrov, whose government has called the seizure of the compounds illegal. Russian media, quoting unnamed Foreign Ministry sources, said that the government has drawn up plans to expel 30 U.S. diplomats and seize unspecified American property there if the compounds are not returned. Asked about those reports, Lavrov said, “Naturally, we will ensure that the law prevails . . . We are currently thinking over specific steps, and I don’t think it should be discussed publicly right now.” During a meeting in May with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Lavrov was told that the administration was prepared to return the compounds and to drop demands that Russia in turn permit construction of a new U.S. consulate in St. Petersburg. U.S. officials said at the time that they were still considering placing conditions on the compounds — multi-acre properties that Russia insisted were only used for recreational purposes — including removal of diplomatic immunity from the premises. After his meeting with Tillerson, Lavrov and Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to Washington, met with President Trump in the Oval Office.