UFOs are suddenly a serious news story. You can thank the guy from Blink-182 for that.

searching for signs of life beyond Earth, and over the years she has repeatedly encountered the same names — people who believe we’ve been visited by aliens. Tarter is not so convinced. The Times article cited Bigelow and Puthoff, whose interest in the paranormal is no secret. Tarter says Bigelow once pitched SETI on a project to investigate alien sightings and offered to fund it. “It’s hard to walk away from money,” Tarter says, but Bigelow “was so very convinced that we have been visited, and I couldn’t find it credible, and he didn’t offer any evidence.” And the article, co-written by two Times veterans, also gave a byline to freelancer Leslie Kean. The author of books on UFOs and the afterlife (which received blurbs of praise from Puthoff), Kean had previously been given an exclusive on the To the Stars launch for a laudatory HuffPost article about DeLonge’s start-up: “Inside Knowledge About Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Could Lead To World-Changing Technology.” “I just hope they have success,” Kean later told Open Minds UFO Radio. “I think what Tom [DeLonge] has done is extraordinary.” (Kean and the Times declined to comment.) On its website, To the Stars bills the UFO videos as “the first official evidence” of “unidentified aerial phenomena” (while promising “THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING”). But an online community of skeptics has swarmed the videos, noting that the “glowing aura” in one video resembles a common infrared effect caused when a hot object, such as a jet engine, is seen against a cold background, such as high-altitude clouds. “DeLonge had been promising so much for such a long time” and “people were either becoming very cynical or gathering a sense of real expectation,” says Robert Sheaffer, a former Silicon Valley engineer and former chairman of the Bay Area Skeptics. Now, he says, To the Stars has simply put forward a “a couple more blurry videos that are similar to the blurry videos we’ve had before this.” The latest blurry video An official with the Defense Intelligence Agency maintains that the hype over the secret Pentagon UFO program is misleading. “Some out there seem to be making this into more than it really is,” said the official, who was granted anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. The program, he said, was not created to investigate unearthly technology but simply to prepare for aerospace advances by foreign adversaries


Don’t let bugs ruin your summer fun: Party pros share their secrets

grass, and it’s hot and sweaty and can be very uncomfortable. Allison Jackson, owner and lead event planner of Washington’s Pineapple Productions, has ideas for many different kinds of clients, including those who want to avoid using DEET products or yard sprays. Her strategies include putting fans around the party area and “incorporating herbs that work naturally to repel mosquitoes — peppermint, lemon balm, lavender.” You can use them in flower arrangements or buy them in pots to help repel mosquitoes and bees. For her parties on hot, sticky summer evenings, she has another natural refreshing idea. “To make guests feel more comfortable, we take cool washcloths scented with lavender and pass these out. The scent also works as a natural bug repellent.” To avoid attracting bees, Jackson says to avoid displaying any sweet-smelling flowers such as peonies, garden roses or lilies. And stay away from serving sugary drinks such as lemonade. “We try and do some preemptive things,” Jackson says. “But of course, the most effective way to plan for an outdoor party is to hire an exterminator to spray the area a few days before the event.” The demand for one-time party sprays is growing, says Damien Sanchez, owner of DC Mosquito Squad. Last year, the company did one-time sprays for 434 special events inside the Beltway. The cost: about $200 to $250 to spray one acre. “One application lasts several weeks. It starts to diminish after that,” Sanchez says. “We prefer to spray three to four days beforehand.” For mosquitoes, ticks and stink bugs, the company sprays a combination of pyrethroids, which are synthetic chemical versions of oils found in chrysanthemum flowers. (Note that pyrethroids will kill ants, bees, spiders, ladybugs and other beneficial insects as well.) Janice Parker It’s always a smart idea to tell guests in your invitation that your gathering is going to be outdoors. You can also email or text people the day of the party to confirm. Guests can then choose whether to wear long-sleeve shirts, long pants or socks. “Telling people in advance lets people plan their own strategy for dealing with the mosquito issue,” Homan says. “They’ll really appreciate the advance notice for a lot of reasons. At outdoor parties, people sometimes come up to me and say, ‘I wish I had known this party was going to be in the grass. I have my brand-new shoes on.’ ” jura.koncius@washpost.com


After Egypt’s latest crackdown, will the world finally confront President Sissi’s brutality?

Aya Hijazi is an Egyptian American social activist and founder of Belady Foundation. About three weeks ago, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi issued a presidential pardon releasing more than 300 prisoners. Among them was Ahmed Etiwy, an American citizen. A few days later, Vice President Pence commended Sissi for granting clemency to the prisoners. The pardon might seem like a commendable and incremental improvement to the dismal human rights situation in Egypt. But there is more to the story. Even as Sissi was issuing pardons with one hand, he was arresting a new wave of political prisoners with the other. While continued arrests no longer seem to strike a chord with the outside world, there is reason for alarm. When Sissi began arresting political opponents early in his reign, the international community remained largely silent, accepting the official premise that he was only targeting terrorists. Having just won a second term, Sissi no longer sees the need to maintain this pretext. He has launched a new wave of arrests, beginning two months ago during the time of the national election. Egyptian security forces have detained Amal Fathy, a former actress married to a well-known human rights lawyer who was working on the case of Giulio Regeni, an Italian researcher who was kidnapped in Cairo and then tortured to death. Secular activists such as Shadi Al-Ghazali Harb and Haitham Mohamaden have also been detained. These people have no reported connection with terrorist groups. Others detained recently include prominent blogger Wael Abbas; satirist Shady-Abu Zaid; and Hazem Abdel-Azim, a former Sissi supporter who was in charge of the 2014 presidential youth campaign. There has been little criticism from the international community. Some observers naively expected a political opening and improvements to the human rights situation once Sissi had consolidated power. Sissi often uses a depressing sleight of hand when it comes to detentions: As one prisoner is released, another is arrested. For example, Amir Nagy, an American citizen and teacher, was quietly arrested on May 13 at Hurghada airport, according to his lawyer — just three days before Etiwy’s release. I can personally testify to Sissi’s brutality and how his regime lies to keep innocent people in prison. When I was living in Egypt, and after the coup that brought Sissi to power, I made a decision to avoid politics and criticism of the regime. I instead established a nonprofit that helped


Ethiopia says it is ready to implement Eritrea peace deal and privatize parts of the economy

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Ethiopia’s ruling party announced plans Tuesday to implement a long-moribund peace deal with Eritrea, opening the way for improved relations after 18 years of hostility. The surprise announcement also included plans to allow private sector involvement in industries long reserved for the state, in a major revision of economic policy. The moves are part of reforms being implemented by Ethiopia’s new prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, who was selected by the party in March after his predecessor resigned amid widespread unrest. Since becoming prime minister, Abiy has freed hundreds of prisoners and met with outlawed opposition figures, and on Tuesday, Parliament at his behest lifted a state of emergency two months early. At his inauguration, Abiy also had pledged to improve ties with Eritrea, but few expected as dramatic a move as came out of Tuesday’s meeting of the executive committee of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front. Eritrea was once part of Ethiopia and fought for decades for its independence, which it finally achieved after helping rebels overthrow the communist Derg government in 1991. Initially, it had close ties with Ethiopia’s new rebel-formed government. In 1998, however, a dispute over the nondescript border town of Badme turned into a savage, year-and-a-half-long war that claimed tens of thousands of lives on both sides. A peace agreement known as the Algiers accord was finally signed in 2000, and international arbitration awarded the village to Eritrea — but Ethiopia balked at implementing the deal. The result was two decades of hostile stalemate with periodic clashes on the border, most recently in 2016 when hundreds were killed. Ethiopia is also home to tens of thousands of Eritrean refugees and has lost access to its traditional outlets to the Red Sea along the Eritrean coast. With Ethiopia announcing its willingness to pull out of Badme, the door is finally open for improved relations between the two countries, which share extensive links. “Ethiopia and Eritrea have the most unique cultural, historical and blood ties. The suffering on both sides is unspeakable because the peace process is deadlocked. This must change for the sake of our common good,” Fitsum Arega, the prime minister’s chief of staff, tweeted shortly before the announcement. Almost overshadowed by news that Ethiopia could be reconciling with a historical enemy was what appeared to be a major shift in the country’s economic approach. While one of the fastest growing


NASA’s new administrator says he’s talking to companies about taking over operations of the International Space Station

of the moon. And this can help them as well and they can help us. It helps expand the partnership that we've seen in low Earth orbit with the International Space Station.” But the first element of the system wouldn’t be launched until 2021 or 2022, he said. Perhaps as early as this year, Boeing and SpaceX, the companies hired by NASA to fly its astronauts to the space station, could see their first test flights with people on board, though it’s possible they could be delayed to next year. Since the space shuttle was retired in 2011, Russia has flown NASA’s astronauts to the station, charging hundreds of millions of dollars over that time. Bridenstine said that it is “a big objective is to once again launch American astronauts on American rockets from American soil.” Both Boeing and SpaceX have had delays and setbacks in their programs. Government watchdogs have said they were concerned about an issue with Boeing's abort system that may cause its spacecraft to “tumble,” posing a threat to the crew’s safety. Boeing has said it has fixed that problem, as well as a concern with the heat shield that the Government Accountability Office said last year could disconnect “and damage the parachute system.” John Mulholland, Boeing's commercial crew program manager, told Congress earlier this year that the company's "analyses show that we exceed our requirements for crew safety." As administrator, Bridenstine and his staff will also have to sign off on SpaceX’s decision to fuel its Falcon 9 rocket after the crews are on board -- which some have said could put astronauts at risk. But during a recent NASA safety advisory panel, some members said they thought the procedure could be a “viable option” if adequate safety controls are in place. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk told reporters last month that he did not think the fueling process "presents a safety issue for astronauts. But we can adjust our operational procedures to load propellant before the astronauts board. But I really think this is an overblown issue.” In the interview, Bridenstine said no decision had been made yet about the fueling procedures. “I haven’t signed off on anything at this point,” he said. “We’re going to make sure we test it every which way you can possibly imagine. And that’s underway right now. We’re not going to put anybody in any undue risk.”


Mueller accuses Paul Manafort of witness tampering

to reach a plea deal with prosecutors. Many white-collar prosecutions are built by charging people lower down in an organization and then “flipping” those defendants into prosecution witnesses to get leniency in their sentencing. Manafort has repeatedly declared his intention to fight the charges against him, but it wasn’t immediately clear Monday night whether the renewed prospect of going to jail would alter his legal strategy. Manafort’s potential value as a prosecution witness is unclear, but as Trump’s former campaign chairman he participated in multiple high-level discussions within the campaign that are of great interest to investigators. According to a February indictment, Manafort in 2012 and 2013 used offshore accounts to wire more than 2 million euros to pay the former politicians, who were described as independent actors instead of paid lobbyists. Monday’s court filing highlighted anew the role of “Person A,” whom prosecutors did not name but described in detail in related cases. The description matches Kilimnik, the Russian manager of Manafort’s lobbying office for 10 years in Ukraine. A Russian citizen born in Ukraine, Kilimnik worked for Manafort in Kiev first as a translator and later as the in-country operator of Manafort’s operations. He continued to serve as a close Manafort associate during the months Manafort worked for President Trump’s campaign, including visiting Manafort in person in New York in May and August 2016. He is a Russian army veteran who trained at a language school that experts say is recruiting ground for a Russian intelligence agency. Kilimnik has denied having intelligence ties. Kilimnik did not respond to a request for comment Monday evening. During his August 2016 meeting with Kilimnik, Manafort has said he and his longtime Kiev office manager discussed, among other topics, the ongoing campaign, including the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails. Stolen DNC emails had been released by WikiLeaks the previous month, and the hack was widely suspected to be the work of Russia. During Kilimnik’s time working for Manafort in Kiev, he had served as a liaison for Manafort to the Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, with whom Manafort had done business. Emails previously described to The Post show that Manafort asked Kilimnik during the campaign to offer Deripaska “private briefings” about Trump’s effort. A Deripaska spokeswoman has said the billionaire, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was not offered and did not receive such briefings. spencer.hsu@washpost.com rosalind.helderman@washpost.com matt.zapotosky@washpost.om devlin.barrett@washpost.com


Business Digest: Wells Fargo sells branches in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio

to Troy, Mich.-based Flagstar. Wells Fargo will have 48 branches remaining in Wisconsin. After the deal is completed, the branches will be rebranded as Flagstar locations. The transition is expected to be completed late in 2018, pending regulatory approval. “Being able to increase our presence in the Midwest market — a geography we know well and find very attractive — is a terrific opportunity for us,” Flagstar president and chief executive Alessandro DiNello said in a statement. Financial terms were not disclosed. Almost 500 employees will get job offers from Flagstar. Wells Fargo will maintain some commercial lending, wealth management, retail brokerage and home lending operations in the four states. — Reuters WORLD BANK Report: Global growth healthy but will slow The steadily expanding global economy should remain resilient — at least for a couple of years — the World Bank said Tuesday. The agency predicted that global growth will decelerate slightly from a solid 3.1 percent this year to 3 percent next year and 2.9 percent in 2020. The world economy is generally healthy but must contend with rising interest rates in wealthier countries and weaker demand for commodities in developing nations. It also faces risks from trade disputes, financial volatility and geopolitical tensions. The World Bank predicted that U.S. growth will register 2.7 percent in 2018, aided by tax cuts, before slowing to 2.5 percent next year and 2 percent in 2020. China’s growth is projected at 6.5 percent this year, 6.3 percent in 2019 and 6.2 percent in 2020. — Associated Press ECONOMY Services firms expanded last month U.S. services firms expanded at stronger pace in May compared to April, as companies saw gains in business activity, new orders and employment. The Institute for Supply Management said Tuesday that its services index rose to 58.6, from 56.8 last month. Any reading above 50 signals growth. The services sector has expanded for 100 consecutive months, or more than eight years. The index is drawn from a survey of purchasing managers in the services industry, which includes finance, health care and retail and accounts for the majority of U.S. economic activity. The measure of employment picked up in April, although some of the firms interviewed by the survey said they’re struggling to find qualified workers. — Associated Press Also in Business Lord & Taylor Newell Brands U.S. job openings — From news reports Coming today 8:30 a.m.: 8:30 a.m.:


Ask Amy: Guy’s lies lead straight to the gym

Dear Amy: He and I were both working out with a personal trainer, him twice a week and me once a week. I quit the training because I found a cheaper option. My boyfriend decided to start seeing the trainer three times per week. I think this is irresponsible, considering we are in saving mode right now. This is why my boyfriend decided to cover it up and lie about it — badly. I caught on pretty quickly, but rather than be accusatory, I simply told him that if he wants to see the trainer three times per week to not feel as though he has to hide it. Even then he continued to lie about his whereabouts. Today I found his gym clothes crumpled up and hidden. I confronted him, and he finally came clean. Amy, I am really upset. He told me he was lying to protect my feelings. What? Do I have a right to be upset? How can I trust him moving forward? Am I being controlling? As he said, it's just the gym, after all, it's not like he cheated on me. Out of Shape Out of Shape: Honestly, taking good care of oneself and maintaining fitness is a good idea — even when you’re trying to economize. But your guy’s choice to watch you stop, while secretly increasing his own training, is selfish and immature. He didn’t lie to protect your feelings; he lied to protect his own. I don’t believe this one episode is a dealbreaker, but try to put this in context by taking a long-view look at your relationship: Are you always in charge? Are you the “responsible” one? Do you feel like you are parenting him? If so, then understand that this is not a great dynamic for either of you. Your control will infantilize him, and his immaturity will make you even more in charge. Healthy relationships have a sense of balance — you are good at some things, he is good at others. You take care of one another, admit to your own mistakes and always strive to do better. Dear Amy: They are well aware of my objection to their tobacco use. I am a registered nurse of more than 30 years and know well the effects of long-term tobacco use. Two of their grandparents died of tobacco-related diseases. They are both educated, family men. They are


Bernard E. Trainor, Marine lieutenant general turned journalist, dies at 89

later returned to Vietnam to command the 1st Battalion of the 5th Marine Regiment and then the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion. In 1978 he was named director of the Marine Corps Education Center at Quantico, Va. “He started us down a path to where we are now with a full-fledged, accredited Marine Corps University,” said Lt. Gen. Wallace “Chip” Gregson Jr., a former assistant secretary of defense. “He was very much ahead of his time in trying to enhance the education experience across the board, even for mere junior officers.” Gen. Trainor later served on the board of groups including the World Affairs Council and the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation. In addition to his wife of 59 years, the former Peggy Hamilton of Potomac Falls, survivors include four children, Kathleen Trainor of Arlington, Va., Theresa Trainor of Shepherdstown, W.Va., Claire Leimone of Santa Monica, Calif., and Saxon Trainor of Los Angeles; and five grandchildren. Gen. Trainor’s military decorations included the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, two Legion of Merit honors and the Bronze Star. But those who knew him said his legacy in the military extended far beyond any individual honors. “One of the reasons I came home from Vietnam, with basically my soul intact, was because not only did I learn how to call artillery and treat my men well, I was given a moral compass by Gen. Trainor,” said sculptor Peter DeCamp Haines, who studied under Gen. Trainor at the University of Colorado in the early 1960s. Gen. Trainor, a major at the time, was an instructor in the school’s ROTC program while pursuing a master’s degree in history. “We spent a lot of time on the Nuremberg trials, the message of which is, you can’t say I was just following orders,” Haines recalled. “As an officer I was guided by that. I knew I had to do the right thing. There are North Vietnamese soldiers that are probably alive today because of my intervention,” he said, referring to an incident in which he took the guns of enemy prisoners rather than shoot them. “The Marine Corps issued me a flak jacket,” he added. “Mick Trainor had provided me with moral armor.” Correction: A previous version of this obituary incorrectly reported a phrase used by Gen. Trainor’s wife, Peggy Trainor. She said he was recruited by a “squared-away Marine,” not a “squiggly Marine.” The story has been revised. harrison.smith@washpost.com


Former DIA officer charged with trying to pass secrets to Chinese intelligence

on trial in Virginia on espionage charges. While there is nothing to indicate that the three cases are connected, all three men are accused of trying to sell secrets for money to relieve financial burdens in their lives. Hansen, 58, worked as a military intelligence case officer at the DIA from 2000 to 2006, when he retired from the military. Between 2006 and 2011, he did contract work for the DIA, according to the criminal complaint. The 15-count complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City accuses Hansen of attempting to gather or deliver national defense information to aid a foreign government, acting as an unregistered foreign agent of China, bulk cash smuggling, and smuggling goods from the United States. The criminal complaint tells a convoluted tale of an FBI investigation that began in 2014, followed by meetings the next year between Hansen and the FBI, in which he described attempts by Chinese intelligence agents to recruit him. Apparently unaware of the bureau’s preexisting investigation of his conduct, Hansen met with FBI agents nine times that year, according to the court document. “Hansen claimed that he initiated the meetings with the FBI in an attempt to offer his cooperation as a source,” the complaint states. At the end of the discussions, FBI officials said, they warned Hansen not to accept any offers to work for Chinese intelligence officials and to notify the FBI if he heard from intelligence agents again. The 42-page criminal complaint describes years of suspicious behavior by Hansen, suggesting that his efforts on behalf of China stretch back more than five years. From 2012 on, Hansen sought at first to get rehired in the U.S. government to a job with a security clearance, but when those efforts failed, he began contacting former DIA colleagues, according to the complaint. He has also repeatedly attended conferences about intelligence issues and has traveled to China 40 times since 2013, officials said. In 2016, Hansen met with two former DIA colleagues in Texas. At the meeting, Hansen told one colleague that he was “stringing along” Chinese intelligence officials until the FBI decided whether to use him as a “double agent,” according to the complaint. That colleague became alarmed by Hansen’s references to Chinese intelligence and filed a suspicious-incident report, which prompted the FBI to begin using that person as a confidential source, according to the complaint. Over time, the


‘It cannot be ignored’: Runners spread awareness about eating disorders in their sport

a dialogue to confront the issue would help. But he added that, as in the case of concussions, where the coach’s role doesn’t extend to giving baseline testing or assessing injuries, there is only so much a coach can do. “I had received some training recognizing and confronting eating disorders, and we had some tools, but there were very [few] prescriptive things like, ‘Here is a check list of what to do and what to react to’ that I’m aware of,” Wartenburg said. “It’s not like a first-aid course, where every couple of years you get recertified.” To help fill that gap, the sports community is educating those within its ranks who have medical expertise. In 2014, the International Olympic Committee developed a new tool to help medical professionals, such as team physicians, evaluate an athlete’s health to determine if they are in a state of low-energy availability, which is defined as “a mismatch between the athlete’s energy intake (diet) and the energy expended in exercise.” The relative energy deficiency in sports (RED-S) clinical assessment tool also serves as a guide for when sport participation should be modified or withheld completely from at-risk athletes, who may be suffering from heart issues, low bone density, or abnormal hormonal or metabolic function. The RED-S tool is considered an important advancement in understanding high-risk athletes because it includes men in its evaluation. While the conversation around eating disorders and athletes has traditionally focused on women, male runners can suffer the same consequences. Disordered eating was Mario Fraioli’s “dirty little secret.” After graduating from Stonehill College in Massachusetts in 2004, Fraioli wanted to lose weight before taking his competitive running career to the next level. He counted every calorie that went into his body and calculated how he was burning it. He estimates that he lost 20 pounds in a few months. “I didn’t have 20 pounds to lose,” Fraioli, 36, said. When he eventually admitted to himself he had a problem, Fraioli had no idea whom to consult. He knew of no other male runners who had gone public with this illness. “I think men are more reluctant to speak out about something they are struggling with, especially something as serious as an eating disorder,” he said. “The underlying theme is fear. The fear they’re not going to get help, fear of what other people might think about them, fear of what it


China increasingly challenges American dominance of science

either Boston or San Francisco — and scientists have begun meeting every two months to share their latest work. “At this rate, China may soon eclipse the U.S.,” Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) warned at a January congressional hearing on the state of American science, “and we will lose the competitive advantage that has made us the most powerful economy in the world.” The biggest and fastest The burgeoning science race is hugely important to China’s leaders, in part because of what it says about the country’s growing global standing. In recent years, the government has invested in scientific endeavors for strategic advantage — and also boasting rights. China has 202 of the world’s 500 most powerful supercomputers — 60 more systems than in the United States. The largest radio telescope ever built — a massive, 500-meter, $180 million dish called the Aperture Spherical Telescope that hunts for distant black holes — is in the southern province of Guizhou, where its construction required 9,000 Chinese residents to relocate. President Trump has directed NASA to return astronauts to the moon. But the moon may be crowded when they arrive: Both China and India are planning to launch landers toward the moon this year. China is collaborating with the European Space Agency on a potential moon base. Last year, Chinese scientists produced “entangled photons,” light particles linked together on a quantum physics level, aboard a satellite in orbit 300 miles up. The particles were beamed to locations on Earth 750 miles apart and remained linked — which could potentially be a step toward a new form of instant and secure communication. Also last year, biologists in China became the first to successfully clone a monkey using the technique that created Dolly the sheep. Genetically identical primates, their creators said, would speed medical research because the effects of any drug being tested could be traced to the treatment, not differences in genes. Chinese leaders recently unveiled plans to become the world leader in artificial intelligence, aiming to turn the field into a $150 billion industry by 2030. Already, China’s artificial intelligence boom has led to advanced facial recognition. At a KFC restaurant in the eastern city of Hangzhou, for example, customers can now pay for their fried chicken using a machine that scans their faces. Baidu, China’s search-engine giant, plans to partner with an airport to roll out facial recognition for airline passengers this


year. China is collaborating with the European Space Agency on a potential moon base. Last year, Chinese scientists produced “entangled photons,” light particles linked together on a quantum physics level, aboard a satellite in orbit 300 miles up. The particles were beamed to locations on Earth 750 miles apart and remained linked — which could potentially be a step toward a new form of instant and secure communication. Also last year, biologists in China became the first to successfully clone a monkey using the technique that created Dolly the sheep. Genetically identical primates, their creators said, would speed medical research because the effects of any drug being tested could be traced to the treatment, not differences in genes. Chinese leaders recently unveiled plans to become the world leader in artificial intelligence, aiming to turn the field into a $150 billion industry by 2030. Already, China’s artificial intelligence boom has led to advanced facial recognition. At a KFC restaurant in the eastern city of Hangzhou, for example, customers can now pay for their fried chicken using a machine that scans their faces. Baidu, China’s search-engine giant, plans to partner with an airport to roll out facial recognition for airline passengers this year. Growing from stumps The recent scientific advancements are especially notable, given China’s fraught history. Its scientific community was devastated during the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution, when academics were denounced as “counterrevolutionary” and universities were closed, halting almost all research and scientific training. Only with the death of Mao Zedong in 1976 did China’s research community begin to regrow around its stumps. In the following decades, China’s leaders tackled their lagging status with a method their authoritarian Communist Party has become known for: top-down, long-term strategic planning. During the early 2000s, party leaders declared an ambitious 15-year goal of devoting 2.5 percent of China’s total gross domestic product to scientific research and development by 2020. They enacted rules that required Western companies, hungry for access to China’s market, to share technology with their Chinese counterparts. According to U.S. agencies, China’s military and intelligence agencies also stole research from key U.S. technology companies and sectors. In 2015, Li Keqiang, the Chinese premier, announced “Made in China 2025,” a plan to boost aviation, robotics and other high-tech industries. It recently became a flash point in the trade tensions between the United States and China, when the Trump administration proposed tariffs that target such


Think frozen vegetables are inferior? Think again.

head-to-head toss-up with good fresh produce,” Bouzari says. Crazy for cauliflower If you’re browsing the frozen-veggie aisle in the supermarket, you may be surprised by the wealth of cauliflower in the cases. What’s up with that? According to Kara Nielsen, culinary trends analyst at the marketing firm CCD Innovation, cauliflower has become de rigueur at trendy restaurants. “It’s the next kale,” she says. Cauliflower mania has spread to home cooks, with sales of products containing the cruciferous vegetable rising 71 percent in the past year, according to market research firm Nielsen. The cauliflower craze, Nielsen says, took hold when paleo dieters and other carb-averse eaters discovered that processing it into small, rice-shaped pieces could create a substitute for carb-heavy items such as potatoes and rice. The new diet star — bagged, riced cauliflower — became a supermarket fixture, in both the produce and the freezer aisles. Broccoli, sweet potatoes and other vegetables in “riced” form soon followed suit. Riced cauliflower fared particularly well in our tests. The four products that were rated “excellent” overall each contain riced cauliflower. “It’s a fairly versatile ingredient,” says Maxine Siegel, who heads Consumer Reports’ food-testing lab. “It has enough flavor that you could eat it on its own, but riced cauliflower can also replace some of the rice in recipes.” Mashed cauliflower also got high marks. Though your healthiest option will always be to buy plain veggies and season them yourself, one of our recommended products was pre-seasoned. Green Giant Riced Veggies Cauliflower with Lemon & Garlic got a high nutrition score in part because it contained no added salt, but our tasters also rated it highly for its fresh lemony flavor. “It goes to show that it is possible to have a low-sodium packaged product that tastes good,” Siegel says. From spirals to tots Spiralized veggies — low-calorie, low-carb substitutions for pasta — are also big news in the frozen-food aisle. It’s not surprising: Spiralizing from scratch takes time and specialized kitchen equipment. For fans of these foods, we found that the frozen packaged Carrot Spirals from Trader Joe’s received one of our highest nutrition and sensory scores. (Green Giant recently released a spiralized frozen-veggie line, but the items were not available in time for our tests.) Also popping up in the freezer section are veggie “tots” — similar to kids’ fried potato tots but with other vegetables inside. Of the three in


Abe is back to talk to Trump — with a list of Japan’s concerns about North Korea

win to solidify his position within the Liberal Democratic Party ahead of the party’s internal elections in September. For Abe, getting Kim to agree to a deal on Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea is a top priority. In their April 18 meeting in Mar-a-Lago in Florida, Abe persuaded Trump to urge “North Korea to promptly resolve its abductions of Japanese citizens,” but it remains to be seen whether the Trump administration will press this issue with Kim. What about China — and trade? Many Japanese analysts remain convinced that negotiations with North Korea are simply an effort to divide the United States, South Korea and Japan while extracting aid and concessions. Reinforcing these concerns, one U.S. official recently commented of the North Koreans: “Since the China visit, they’ve moved pretty dramatically, shifted in the last several weeks to North Korea’s old position.” Some in Tokyo believe that leaders in Beijing are manipulating Pyongyang in the hope of weakening U.S. alliances and distracting U.S. leaders. Here is Japan’s greatest fear — that it could find itself isolated and left to face China on its own. Many Japanese were pleased when the 2017 U.S. National Security Strategy and 2018 National Defense Strategy suggested a harder U.S. line against China. But the lengthy negotiations with North Korea continue to distract the United States from the more serious long-term challenge presented by China’s rise. On trade, the president remains critical of Japan. An April Trump tweet noted that Japan “has hit us hard on trade for years!” The administration has applied steel and aluminum tariffs to Japan and threatened tariffs on automobiles, while pressing Japan to enter bilateral trade negotiations. Meanwhile, Trump continues to talk about striking deals with Beijing, including cutting the Chinese telecommunications company ZTE some slack despite its sanctions violations. These transactional moves leave Tokyo questioning whether Trump is likely to safeguard Japan’s long-term economic interests. When Abe visited Washington in 2013, he proudly announced, as the journal Foreign Affairs put it, that “Japan Is Back.” In 2018, Abe has been such a frequent visitor to Washington that some are asking, “Again?” Abe’s visits provide opportunities to bridge the differences between the U.S. and Japanese positions, but the underlying tensions are likely to remain. Zack Cooper is a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the editor, with Michael Green, of “Strategic Japan” (2014) and “Postwar Japan” (2017).


‘I can understand about 50 percent of the things you say’: How Congress is struggling to get smart on tech

A quartet of tech experts arrived at a little-noticed hearing at the U.S. Capitol in May with a message: Quantum computing is a bleeding-edge technology with the potential to speed up drug research, financial transactions and more. To Rep. Adam Kinzinger, though, their highly technical testimony might as well have been delivered in a foreign language. “I can understand about 50 percent of the things you say,” the Illinois Republican confessed. Kinzinger’s quip drew chuckles from his peers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, but it also illustrated an unavoidable challenge on Capitol Hill. Increasingly, members of Congress are confronting a wide array of complex policy debates posed by inventions like artificial intelligence and problems like the rise of Russian propaganda online. And policymakers themselves admit they aren’t fully prepared to deal with the issues. To address that digital knowledge gap, some in Washington are now angling to revive the Capitol’s old science-and-tech think tank, the Office of Technology Assessment, which lawmakers disbanded amid partisan squabbles in the 1990s. Its foremost advocates, emboldened by recent tech mishaps, say it could aid the U.S. government at a moment when objective advice seems to be in short supply. “Look at what our future entails,” said Democratic FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, one of the office’s proponents, in an interview. “We’re going to need to figure out autonomous cars, 5G wireless, gene editing, the Internet of things.” Lawmakers earned ridicule in April when they grilled Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg over charges that he had failed to protect 2 billion users’ personal information. At times, Democrats and Republicans alike seemed mystified by the inner workings of a multibillion-dollar American corporation that they’re supposed to regulate. Republican Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (Utah) essentially asked Facebook if it’s funded through advertising. (It is.) “After the hearing, I think [lawmakers] are even more cognizant that Congress really should have its own advisers,” said Democratic Rep. Mark Takano (Calif.), one of the lawmakers pushing to revive the Hill’s tech policy shop. Even lawmakers who know Silicon Valley well have struggled in the face of dwindling resources. In May, Democrats on a key congressional committee investigating Russia released copies of roughly 3,500 ads purchased by Kremlin-aligned trolls on Facebook during the 2016 race. One of the factors in Democrats’ decision: Republicans on the panel hadn’t afforded them the staff and other tools to dissect the data they obtained.


defense and climate change, often trying to anticipate controversies before they became fodder for congressional hearings. But some Republican leaders saw the Hill’s research hub as a dollar-sucking endeavor with a liberal tint. They ultimately eliminated its funding in 1995, but left intact the law authorizing it. This spring, Takano and Foster rallied about 40 of their colleagues in the House — all Democrats — to sign onto a letter describing OTA as a “wise investment” that would “better prepare Congress to account for emerging technologies.” Since then, they’ve notched an early victory: An upcoming budget bill calls for a study to determine if OTA might be useful, a step they believe could build future momentum for its resurrection. They also plan to offer another amendment at a committee meeting Wednesday that would dedicate a meager $2.5 million for OTA in seed funding. It’s a far cry from the office’s peak in the 1990s, when it sported a roughly $20 million budget and about 140 science and tech experts. Takano said he inherited the issue from Holt, who tried unsuccessfully for 16 years to restore OTA. But Takano’s political epiphany came in 2016, when the U.S. government sought to force Apple to break the security of an iPhone tied to a deadly mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., near his congressional district. During the trial, Takano said, his peers in Congress sought to legislate on encryption, but they weren’t “fully prepared to understand all the technical issues.” Not everyone believes that new institutions are the solution. “I wholly agree that Congress can better its game on technology issues but initiative, much more than resources or a dedicated office, is the biggest factor limiting expertise,” said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the leader of the tech-focused Commerce Committee, in a statement. Whatever the mechanism, there’s still a sense within Congress that it must ready itself for the age of self-driving cars, package-delivering drones and virtual reality — and currently lacks the tech smarts to address the policy challenges they pose. “It wasn’t that long ago when you had senior members of a key committee calling the Internet a ‘series of tubes,’ ” said Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat seen as one of the Hill’s most knowledgeable voices on tech issues. “Things have improved, [but] I do think a team of dedicated technology experts, that are accountable to Congress, would help members


After Taliban assault in western Afghanistan, allegations of an Iranian role

the large border city of Herat and east toward the rest of Afghanistan. In the main market, jittery merchants pointed out fresh bullet holes and char marks on storefronts, and they described seeing bodies of Taliban fighters strewn on the streets. In the local agronomy school, the halls were lined with colorful posters illustrating tree grafting and bee pollination, but several classrooms were burned black. “If the situation stays the same, the Taliban will be back,” said a day laborer named Rashid, 28. “It’s a complicated fight. Around here, one brother is with the Taliban, and another one is with the government. But the weapons are definitely coming from Iran.” In some parts of Farah province, political and personal feuds among local officials have also strengthened the insurgents’ hands. Porchaman, a district once considered relatively safe, was initially reported Sunday to have fallen to the Taliban. By Monday, officials said it was under government control, but local leaders described an ongoing rivalry between current and former district officials, one of whom was threatening to join the Taliban fight. Elsewhere, residents and officials said the construction of dams had created a second motive for Iranian interference. Iran depends heavily on water from Afghan rivers, and the two countries have been negotiating over water rights for months. Meanwhile, though, Afghanistan has completed a large dam in Herat province and is building a second in Farah. “No matter how many soldiers they bring here to defend us, everyone agrees that Iran has the power to do this,” said one official in Anar Dara, a remote and drought-stricken district that Taliban fighters overran last month, shooting the police chief dead in his office. “They want to fight Daesh, and they want to stop the dams.” Last week, Afghan army officials invited several journalists to visit Anar Dara, where they landed in a helicopter and were escorted to the town center by a convoy of war-battered Humvees. Local police officers lined up along the deserted highway, where the officials praised their bravery and handed each an envelope with a cash bonus worth about $12. Later, in a meeting with local leaders, Qaderi tried hard to persuade local ex-soldiers and police officers to enlist in a new regional security force, which the central government is trying to build so national troops will not have to rush from one flare-up to the next. “You can enlist from


As cities report more rats than ever, scientists find eastside and westside rodents

Welcome to the age of the urban rat. There are about 2 million New York City rats, a 2014 estimate suggested, which would mean the rodents in New York outnumber the humans in Philadelphia. Do not discount the power of gnawing teeth in aggregate — Cornell University scientists once calculated rats cause $19 billion in damage annually. Rats and other rodents directly transmit 11 diseases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and they help spread a dozen more. “It seems to be the urban rat populations are becoming worse than they were,” according to Jason Munshi-South, a biologist at Fordham University and the co-author of a new study on city rat populations, published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Climate change pushes the thermometer in the rat's favor, he said. So does a renewed interest in urban living. More city-dwellers means more food, more shelter and more resources for rats. Because of this increased rodent presence — and new biological tools — scientists have recently begun to address rat populations more scientifically, Munshi-South said. Rats have lived within our shadows for centuries. Norway rats, Rattus norvegicus, crossed the Atlantic aboard European ships in the 1700s. (The name Norway rats is deceptive, as the rodents originally came from northern China or Mongolia.) If requests for pest control are any indication, rats are out in unusual numbers. Washington's 311 line fielded more than 3,000 rat complaints in fiscal 2016, a four-year high, The Post reported in September. (Headline writers have had their pick of the end-times puns — the coming ratpocalypse, a ratastrophe or Rat-narok.) In the new report, the biologist and his colleagues mapped the genetics of rats in four cities in the New World: New Orleans, New York, Vancouver and the Brazilian city of Salvador. The researchers captured at least 150 rats in each city, snipped off a bit of tissue and probed the samples for 15,000 genetic markers. By tracing subtle differences in mutations among rat populations, the scientists identified where different rat families had clustered. The resolution of the study “is so high it can add landscape features,” said Michael H. Kohn, an evolutionary biologist at Rice University in Texas who was not affiliated with the new study. Though previous researchers have looked at genetic diversity of city rats, it “wasn’t possible at this level before,” Kohn said. Last November, Munshi-South and


The best poetry collections to read this month

about the people and creatures around him. In one new poem, he senses his dead parents leaving a room before he enters; in another he recalls a paint truck “spraying a perfect line, along the edge of the road, so white/ that it glowed as if lit from within.” As Kooser records everyday pleasures and griefs, he remembers those he will never see again and underscores the deep need we all have for connection, moments of respite and the abiding sense that our ordinary moments matter. 4:30 Movie Movies provide a narrative lens and a backdrop throughout Donna Masini’s 4:30 Movie (Norton). Slipping into a theater provides the speaker respite from her sister’s terminal cancer diagnosis. But the relief is only momentary. The speaker’s mind, pushing back against impending loss, becomes a constant screen, replaying certain moments and movies, such as Steve McQueen’s “The Blob,” experimenting with various camera angles, and creating and deleting scenes. In one such scene, the speaker comes again “with my abra/ cadabra, my gang of language, to beg/ harangue” and tells God to “Leave me elbow-deep in/ your whole grab-bag/ of disaster. But bring/ her back.” He doesn’t. Instead, Masini and readers are left with these urgent, varied poems, which can be playful, surprising and sad by turns, or meditative, as in eight “Water Lilies” pieces where “the weariest/ come to rest.” Still Life With Two Dead Peacocks and a Girl Diane Seuss’s Still Life With Two Dead Peacocks and a Girl (Graywolf) is the much-anticipated follow-up to “Four-Legged Girl,” a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer. The title poem refers to the Rembrandt painting in which a girl gazes wistfully at two exquisite peacocks that have been killed to provide delicate meat for the well-to-do. Throughout this rich collection, the speaker uses art to show how women and the lower class have been portrayed and framed, so to speak, by social norms and expectations. She challenges long-held ideas about worth, privilege and beauty, and creates an alternative landscape through self-portraits and gothic still lifes. In “Self-Portrait With Levitation,” for example, the speaker notes that “embodiment has never been my strong suit./ All right, I flew when I was five. Levitated, I guess.” The poems, ranging from darkly challenging to direct and moving, require readers to levitate above their own assumptions and embrace a world that is, in many ways, “a paradise of vagaries.” bookworld@washpost.com POETRY


The Persian Gulf crisis has no winners, except maybe Iran

Want smart analysis of the most important news in your inbox every weekday along with other global reads, interesting ideas and opinions to know? Sign up for the Today's WorldView newsletter. It's been a full year since Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates launched a regional boycott and blockade of Qatar. The dispute, as we detailed last year, is rooted both in the personal squabbles of the gulf's royal dynasties as well as a broader ideological conflict. Riyadh and Abu Dhabi bristled at Qatar's independent foreign policy, decried its state-bankrolled news organization, Al Jazeera, and accused Doha of sponsoring Islamist extremism in various corners of the world. The Qataris rejected those allegations and brushed off the demands presented to them last year through Kuwaiti intermediaries. The nation's vast reserves of petrodollars have compensated for the disruptions caused by the Saudi blockade of its land borders. To prevent food shortages, Qatar cultivated new supply chains through Oman and received assistance from countries like Turkey and Iran. Meanwhile, Doha unleashed a publicity offensive that has effectively countered similar efforts by its adversaries The Qataris blunted criticism of their past behavior in part by announcing new measures to combat the financing of terrorism. It also has scaled back its tacit support for Islamist militant groups in Syria and elsewhere. "Although it didn’t mark any major strategic shift, this development gave Doha credit in the eyes of its erstwhile critics in the West," noted Hassan Hassan in Foreign Policy. "Throughout the blockade, Qatar has taken the moral high ground by largely refraining from petty retaliation, engaging in measured diplomacy, and following international law to the letter, which has further turned public opinion in Qatar's favor," wrote Sultan Barakat of the University of York for Al Jazeera, the Qatar-funded news outlet. With the international consensus largely on its side, Qatar is calling for a truce. "The blockade of Qatar — now widely viewed as instigated under false pretenses — has undermined the Middle East’s stability," wrote Qatari foreign minister Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani in the New York Times. "By now it should be clear that there can be no 'winners' in this dispute. It is therefore time for the blockading nations to abandon their delusions of victory, prioritize the security interests of the entire Middle East and end the blockade." But the standoff looks no closer to ending than it did last year. Though


Transcript: The Daily 202 Live with Sen. Bernie Sanders

without Big Brother—whether it is the United States government or increasingly, corporate America, knowing everything I do.” People know where you are right now. They know where you were shopping. They have access to your bank records. They have access to your health care records. Are you comfortable with that? And too often, I’m hearing people say, “Hey, you know what? I’m not a terrorist. If the government wants to listen to my phone calls, that’s fine.” I think that’s pretty pathetic. All right? I think we have got a—and now you asked me about Congress. Congress is so far behind the explosion of technology that it’s—we have got to start moving aggressively, and say that everything being equal, you’re entitled to your privacy. The whole world does not have to know everything about you. So, I think we’re making some progress with Facebook in terms of the kinds of political ads that they will now accept. But that is just a small step. Hohmann: I mean, even in California, there were stories about people basically running attack ads on Facebook and not being in this new system. I mean, it’s— Sanders: Right. Right. Right. But this whole issue of technology far, far outpacing of public policy to protect privacy rights is a huge issue which we have got to focus on. Hohmann: I mean, is this something that in some ways the companies want regulation; they can control it and design it, and control the bodies that oversee it, and in other ways—I mean, what do you think that framework looks like? Is it a new law? Is it a— Sanders: Well, it’s going to have to be significant legislation, and we’re working. I mean, this is so complicated. Hohmann: Right. Sanders: You know, this is not going to be a two-age piece of legislation, but the bottom line now is, the information about your life, James, is valuable to some company. Hohmann: Yeah. Sanders: Who will then tell you what kind of car you need to buy, right? And what kind of vacation you need to go on. And we have to decide as a nation whether what you do with your life is something that should be sold to companies who will explo8it that information. Hohmann: Yeah. Absolutely. I want to reiterate that you can tweet any question for Senator Sanders to the hashtag #202live, and we’ll


Man dies in shooting, another is stabbed in D.C.

The District’s streak of violence continued Wednesday evening as a man was fatally shot in Southeast Washington. The incident happened around 5:30 p.m. in the 1300 block of Stevens Road SE near the Barry Farm community. Police arrived and found the man with multiple gunshot wounds. He was later identified as Vincent Palmer, 29, of Southeast Washington. He was pronounced dead at the scene. In another case, a man was stabbed around 5 p.m. in what police are calling a domestic incident in the 700 block of 19th Street NE about a block from Benning Road NE. He was said to be conscious and breathing at the time. The D.C. region has had 119 homicides this year. Of those, 64 have been in the District — mostly in the Southeast area — and the rest in Maryland and Virginia. dana.hedgpeth@washpost.com


In private FEMA remarks, Trump’s focus strays from hurricanes

administration was roundly criticized for its performance, and hundreds of thousands in the U.S. territory remain without electricity. Trump did not mention Puerto Rico’s victims but thanked Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) for helping and noted that the power company was “in bankruptcy prior to the hurricane.” He said the recovery was a “tough job.” He also mentioned Puerto Rico in passing once with the cameras rolling. “There has never been a season like the last 12 or 13 months,” he said of the hurricane season. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” Hurricane briefings usually give politicians a chance to look decisive, and Trump bragged to friends last fall that his administration had handled a slew of hurricanes quite well. Many of Trump’s thoughts Thursday, however, did not relate to hurricanes. When Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan began speaking, Trump within 10 seconds moved the conversation to negotiating airplane prices. He said the government was getting ripped off on ships and planes because the “ordering process for the military is so bad. . . . It’s not a competitive bid.” “We saved $1.6 billion on Air Force One,” he said. “Can you believe it? I got involved in the negotiations. The press refuses to report that, but that’s okay. . . . People were really surprised.” Military officials have not been able to explain where Trump got such a figure. A Defense Department official told Bloomberg News this year that the department had no information to back up that claim. “I got involved with Boeing and was able to cut down the F-18 by millions of dollars,” Trump added. He then complained that the military was too frequently buying new and in his view, unnecessary, equipment — citing aircraft technology as an example. “Part of it is, they want to have all new. Instead of having the system that throws the aircraft off the [ship], which was always steam,” he said. “They now have magnets. They’re using magnets instead of steam. . . . They spent hundreds of millions of dollars, I’m hearing not great things about it. It’s frankly ridiculous.” The room did not respond to his assessment. Shanahan said he would brief Trump and Kelly on changes to the guidelines soon and would begin bringing him receipts. Trump said he appreciated that. A few minutes later, he analyzed election results in California, noting that he endorsed the


A political prisoner in Russia is starving. The world should take notice.

FOUR YEARS after Russia invaded and illegally annexed the Crimea region of Ukraine, the crime and its victims get little attention. One of them, a courageous activist and filmmaker named Oleg Sentsov, is determined to change that. On May 14, Mr. Sentsov, who is imprisoned in a Siberian penal colony above the Arctic Circle, embarked on a hunger strike to demand the release of 64 Ukrainian political prisoners held by Russia; he did not include himself. Since then, his health has seriously deteriorated. His lawyer says he has lost about 17 pounds and his vital organs are in danger of failing. If the strike continues, he could die during the upcoming World Cup soccer championship, which Russia is hosting. The regime of Vladimir Putin ought to be shamed into freeing Mr. Sentsov before such a tragedy occurs. As human rights groups have meticulously documented, the 41-year-old native of Simferopol, the Crimean capital, is imprisoned because he resisted the forcible Russian occupation of his country. After he coordinated relief efforts for Ukrainian soldiers trapped on a Crimean base, Mr. Senstov and an associate were arrested in May 2014 and charged with terrorism. Authorities claimed Mr. Sentsov set fire to the door of the office of a Russian political party. Mr. Sentsov denied the charge and said he had been tortured in prison. Officials answered by cynically describing his bruises as the result of his interest in sadomasochistic sex. At his trial, the prosecution’s main witness recanted, saying his testimony had also been extracted under torture. Yet in August 2015, the court sentenced Mr. Sentsov to 20 years in prison in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, about 2,000 miles from Crimea. Russia followed the invasion of Crimea with another of eastern Ukraine, which for the past several years has festered in stalemate. Mr. Putin has been offered plenty of chances to settle, by removing Russian troops from the eastern Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk; he chooses not to. Instead, he continues to maliciously meddle in Ukraine and in Western democracies, through cyberoperations and acts of violence, such as the recent attempted assassination of a former spy and his daughter in Britain. The countries that will dispatch teams and fans to Russia for this summer’s World Cup will bestow prestige on Mr. Putin in spite of this history — and in spite of his regime’s record of doping its own athletes. Their political


So how can China tame Trump? By cribbing from Japan.

contrast, is a geo-strategic rival of the United States, with incentives running in the opposite direction. There is some truth to that, but far more striking are the similarities in the way that the United States viewed Japan then and looks at China now. In both cases, Washington blamed what Americans characterized as undemocratic pathologies in the two East Asian countries’ political systems to explain the trade imbalance. The United States portrayed both Japan and China as managed economies with manipulated currencies, where the market took a back seat. Both were accused of stealing foreign technology, while pursuing policies to promote exports and limit imports. In other words, the United States’ trade problems with Japan and China were endemic to their domestic politics. There was a reason President George H.W. Bush called his trade negotiations with Tokyo the “structural impediments initiative” — they were aimed at changing the Japanese system. The criticism went both ways, of course. Leaders in Japan and now China resented U.S. intrusions into their domestic affairs and abhorred America’s adversarial legal system and activist civil society. More fundamentally, they argued that the prime driver of their surpluses with the United States was macroeconomic. They saved and invested. The Americans borrowed and spent. Industrialist Akio Morita, the then-chairman of Sony Corp., pithily summed up Japan’s disdain for the United States in the late 1980s. “America looks forward ten minutes,” he said. “Japan looks forward ten years.” Much the same statements are made by and about the Chinese today. China knows from studying the U.S.-Japan experience that their trade battles will be bitter, protracted and gradually focus more on technology rather than cheaper, mass-produced goods. This seems right. Washington’s complaints about Japan started in the 1950s, with textiles, and didn’t really wind down until 40 years later in the mid-1990s, in disputes over semiconductors and cars. But the main lesson that China has taken from Japan is the need to buy off the United States with one-off concessions, as it tried with its recent offer to import more energy and farm goods from America. That way, Beijing can head off what it suspects is Washington’s real game, which is to change its political system, or interfere with sovereign decisions, especially on currency. Washington’s impulse, in turn, might be to replicate the approach it took with Tokyo and demand changes in China’s party-state and the way it embeds its


Debate over Peyton Manning and HGH still bubbles years after Al Jazeera documentary

reporting, and wants the whole story told,” Scheeler said. “We invite the Manning parties and Plaintiffs to join Al Jazeera in a request to unseal all court filings in this case. Let’s let the public see the full story and draw their own conclusions.” The key source Al Jazeera launched its doping investigation in February 2015, with a sizeable budget and a goal to out high-profile athletes getting an illicit pharmaceutical edge. After seeking the doping expertise of Lance Armstrong (who declined to talk with them) and former BALCO president Victor Conte (who agreed to talk), Al Jazeera journalists settled on a plan to enlist an aging British track star, Liam Collins, to go undercover. Posing as a middleman for European soccer players in search of a new connection, Collins had no problem catching medical professionals offering banned drugs. But catching high-profile athletes cheating proved more difficult. In late August, in an email to the investigative team, an Al Jazeera executive producer expressed frustration that reporting trips to France, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Canada, and several cities across the U.S., had yet to deliver evidence of star athletes using banned drugs. “We now have a ton of hidden camera material in which we’ve identified a key drug supplier and a number of people involved in a drug supply chain . . . But so far we have no supporting evidence of wrongdoing on the part of leading athletes,” executive producer Peter Charley wrote on Aug. 28. “We need to get irrefutable, corroborating evidence implicating athletes.” In late September, another Al Jazeera supervisor reminded the team a hard deadline was approaching. “It is a network imperative that we broadcast this investigation this calendar year,” wrote Phil Rees, manager of Al Jazeera’s investigations. In late October, Al Jazeera team had an apparent breakthrough with Sly, a 31-year-old with an education in pharmacology who worked with professional trainer Jason Riley, who counted Zimmerman, Howard, New York Yankees star Derek Jeter, and many others as clients. (Riley has denied any involvement with banned drugs.) In a meeting in Sly’s Austin, Texas apartment surreptitiously recorded by Al Jazeera, Taylor Teagarden, a journeyman MLB catcher who last played for the Chicago Cubs, discussed how Sly had helped him get Delta-2, a banned steroid. A few days later, as Al Jazeera’s Collins accompanied him on several long drives across Texas, Sly listed athletes he claimed he’d supplied with


Soda ad blitzes conspicuously match food stamp schedules, study says

and an assistant professor of health and social policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “People will argue that individuals are ultimately responsible for their choices, but we know that the environment in which we make choices matters,” Moran said. “This study is another example of industry targeting sugary beverage marketing toward lower income families.” This study is the first to tie food advertising to SNAP distribution patterns. Because food-stamp benefits are dispersed in a lump sum each month, and because many recipients spend those funds within a week of receiving them, stores frequently see higher sales and traffic in the days after benefits get reloaded. That cycle got Moran and several colleagues wondering whether food companies tried to take advantage of the monthly food-stamp boom. To answer that question, they analyzed a 2011 census of beverage advertising in more than 600 New York state grocery stores by the state Department of Health. They found that stores were 1.88 times as likely to have soda displays on the first through ninth of the month, when food stamps are distributed in New York. That figure falls to zero in neighborhoods with few SNAP recipients, and rises to 4.35 in neighborhoods with large numbers of SNAP shoppers. “I’ve worked with a lot of work with retailers, and I know that retailers are very attuned to when households receive benefits,” Moran said. “When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense: If you operate in a state where everyone receives benefits on the same day, there’s a huge financial incentive on that day to heavily market popular items.” Moran cautions that her data is only from New York and that patterns may differ in other states. She also can’t say whether grocery stores or soda producers are to blame. Food companies frequently pay stores to place ads or shelve their products in high-visibility locations, so it’s impossible to say who is responsible for the ads researchers saw during store visits. Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Dr Pepper Snapple Group, the three largest soda producers in the United States, said they did not consider SNAP when creating their marketing plans. In a statement, the Food Marketing Institute, which represents retailers, also disputed the notion that grocery stores target ads to SNAP recipients. “Our members have long advocated that there be no distinction made between SNAP customers and traditional customers,” said Heather


The U.K.’s top court says Northern Ireland’s abortion ban violates human rights

the abortion question could jeopardize their support for her. Still, Justice Brian F. Kerr said the justices' announcement on the human rights convention “must be worthy of close consideration by those in whose power it lies to decide whether the law should be altered.” Kerr said that to require women and girls to carry fetuses to term if the pregnancy “was the consequence of exploitative behavior” does not strike “the right balance between her rights and those of society.” On Twitter last month, May congratulated Ireland on the outcome of its referendum but did not bring up Northern Ireland. Her spokeswoman told reporters at the time that she believes the decision is up to Northern Irish lawmakers. But if that's the case, it's not likely anything will happen anytime soon: Punting the decision to Northern Irish lawmakers isn't possible, because its parliament has been deadlocked for more than a year. The movement toward a referendum in Ireland was prompted in part by the spread of women's personal stories in dealing with the ban there. In 2012, Savita Halappanavar, a dentist, died after doctors in Ireland denied her an abortion as she miscarried, because the fetus still had a heartbeat. By the time they could provide her with an abortion, she had developed an infection that quickly killed her. Had she been in a country with a less restrictive abortion law, she could have sought the procedure much earlier. Like women in Ireland, women in Northern Ireland have also had to travel from home to seek abortions. And there seems to be support in Northern Ireland for abortion reform. The Northern Irish Life and Times Survey found last year that about 80 percent of people in Northern Ireland back reforms to the abortion law in cases of rape and incest. About three in four people said the same in cases of fatal fetal abnormalities. Whether the court's conclusion on Thursday will result in any concrete change remains to be seen. “The judges made absolutely clear that if a woman was brought forward they would find that our laws are incompatible with human rights,” said Les Allamby, chief commissioner of Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission. Read more Ireland just eased its tough abortion laws, but don't count on Northern Ireland following suit The many countries where abortion is basically banned How an Irish American woman’s legal case helped spur Ireland’s abortion referendum


Republican investigation finds that Obama administration misled Congress on possible Iranian access to U.S. financial system

then send a message to another bank in Europe. To facilitate the transaction, Obama officials engaged in lengthy discussions with Iranian and Omani officials; appealed to the two American banks to undertake the transfer; privately issued a special Treasury license that would guarantee it was allowed under still-existing U.S. sanctions; and even approached the New York Federal Reserve Bank for help. At the end of the day, nothing worked. Eventually, according to the report, Oman took a slower and more complicated route, gradually buying small amounts of euros in Europe that could be transferred to Iran. No one involved seems certain whether Iran has yet received all of its $5.7 billion. In undertaking the effort and not disclosing it to Congress, subcommittee Chairman Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said in an interview, “the Obama administration misled the American people by saying that Iran was not going to be granted access to the U.S. financial system. I think they did it because they were so eager to get an agreement with Iran.” Such access, said Portman, a longtime opponent of the Iran deal, “is the crown jewel, what all these countries would love. Yet our government offered it while at the same time telling the American people they weren’t offering it.” In a Thursday tweet on the report, Trump erroneously called the issuance of the license “totally illegal,” a charge the subcommittee investigators did not make. Tying the issue to the current special counsel investigation of possible ties between Russia and his campaign, Trump called on investigators to redirect their efforts to what he said were accusations that the Obama administration tried to “give Iran secret access” to the U.S. financial system. A former Obama official countered that issuing a “narrow specific license” for the transaction “cannot be described as granting access to the U.S. financial system.” Administration actions did not authorize Iran to conduct dollar transactions or business with U.S. banks or provide entry to the U.S. system. The nuclear agreement committed signatories “to give Iran access to pools of its money held overseas.” U.S. efforts in this case, said the former official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid fueling the issue, were “aimed solely to allow the movement of Iran’s own funds” from a third country to a European bank, “where Iran could then make use of them.” Although the subcommittee’s Democratic minority sat in on many of


Local Digest: Man, 27, is fatally shot in Southeast D.C.

THE DISTRICT Man, 27, is fatally shot in Southeast A man was fatally shot Tuesday in Southeast Washington, officials said. The shooting occurred about 10 p.m. in the 4600 block of Sixth Street SE. Police identified the victim as Ahkeem Goodwin, 27, of Southeast. This year, the Washington region has had 119 homicides, according to The Washington Post. Of those, 64 have been in the District, including 34 in Southeast. — Dana Hedgpeth MARYLAND Construction worker trapped in trench dies A construction worker died after he was trapped in a trench in Baltimore, officials said. The man’s body was recovered early Tuesday after an eight-hour search-and-rescue effort. Search dogs and other equipment were used in the incident in northeast Baltimore. Baltimore Fire Department officials said the worker was 19 years old but did not immediately release his name. — Dana Hedgpeth Ex-liquor store owner sentenced for bribery A former Maryland liquor store owner who pleaded guilty to paying thousands of dollars in bribes to lawmakers was sentenced to 12 months and one day in federal prison and was ordered to pay a $50,000 fine, prosecutors announced Wednesday. Shin Ja Lee, 56, took part in making payments to then-Dels. William A. Campos (D-Prince George’s) and Michael L. Vaughn (D-Prince George’s) in exchange for their help passing legislation to expand Sunday liquor sales in the county. Lee, who owned Palmer Liquor Store, was involved in five bribes in 2015 and 2016, including one each to Campos and Vaughn on April 22, 2015, prosecutors said. The first of those two occurred at a lunch in which Campos received an envelope containing $4,000 in a restaurant bathroom, prosecutors said. Lee was involved in the scheme with Young Paig, who formerly owned Central Avenue Restaurant & Liquor Store, and David Son, the head of the county liquor board at the time. Paig, Campos and Son also pleaded guilty in their cases. — Lynh Bui VIRGINIA Human remains are found in Nokesville Authorities said they have found human remains in a wooded area of Nokesville, which was being searched in connection with a missing person’s case. Prince William County police said the remains were found about 3 p.m. Tuesday near the 14800 block of Glenkirk Road. That area was being surveyed, officials said, as detectives were looking for Palmer Marsh, a 16-year-old who was last seen on May 2 in the Nokesville area. Police said that


In an internal memo, the White House considered whether to simply ‘ignore’ federal climate research

1½ years, and sought to curtail grants to outside researchers focused on climate change. NASA’s Carbon Monitoring System program was canceled because of a lack of funding (although Congress is trying to restore it), and NOAA cut back on its climate and global change postdoctoral fellowship offers this year, also citing funding concerns. Officials at EPA and the Interior Department have specifically singled out “climate change” as a phrase that should not be used in applications for agency funding. “We hear from federal scientists that they’re getting the hint that they shouldn’t talk about climate, shouldn’t work on climate, they should downplay it in what they’re doing,” said Gretchen Goldman, research director at the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Center for Science and Democracy. But the federal climate science establishment will nonetheless continue to generate findings that could clash with Trump’s push to expand fossil fuel production in the United States. Although many of these studies do not advocate specific policy approaches, they often outline negative outcomes from CO2 emissions that stem from burning fossil fuels. The government is on track this year to release the fourth National Climate Assessment, another vast document compiling specific climate-related damages across the United States. That document, along with last’s year’s climate science special report, are produced by a program that pulls together the work of 13 federal agencies invested in climate science. Those agencies, which range from the National Science Foundation to NASA, have continued much of their scientific work. NASA will put up two new satellite systems this year to study melting ice in the Earth’s polar regions, and will continue airborne missions that study ice loss from Greenland and Antarctica. NOAA continues to release monthly updates showing how much the Earth’s temperature is deviating from what has been seen in the past. It’s also steadily tracking ever-rising concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere — which recently lingered above 410 parts per million, averaged over a month, for the first time. The National Science Foundation continues to run massive Antarctic research operations and fund a wide variety of climate-related research in the field of geosciences. These includes a multimillion-dollar investment to send scientists to study Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica — the single greatest threat for fast-rising seas in our lifetimes, several scientific experts said. Still, even without the “red team/blue team” exercise going forward for now, Pruitt’s allies say that he


Chemical-free ways to fight mosquitoes

Regarding the May 31 Local Living article “Saying ‘bug off’ to unwanted guests”: Why quote a manager of an Ace Hardware store as foretelling an onslaught of mosquitoes this summer? The employee said, “With this much rain, we’re going to have the perfect storm: lots of standing water and lots of mosquitoes.” This is not a science-based statement. It is really just a scare tactic with a glaring conflict of interest because the store stands to financially benefit from scaring people. The article failed to mention altering people’s actions, such as avoiding going out at dawn and dusk and avoiding standing in shade, where mosquitoes prefer to be. Another action that people can take is getting rid of standing water near their homes, and making sure their lawns and gardens are draining properly and are not overwatered. This article relied too heavily on chemical solutions to this nuisance/health problem, even suggesting spraying by an exterminator — an action that might effectively combat mosquitoes in the moment but that will also kill beneficial bugs that eat mosquitoes. The May 29 Health and Science article “Next time you see a spider at home, don’t kill it” encouraged people not to immediately kill spiders inside and outside their homes for many reasons, including because they eat mosquitoes. There are many more ways than chemical application to combat summertime mosquitoes. Windyn Hines, Washington


Brexit needs some of Trump’s ‘madness,’ Boris Johnson suggests in leaked audio

Brexiteers hope will make Britain a force to reckon with again — is continuing undeterred. Or at least it was, until recently. Negotiations with the European Union have faltered, as May is facing a divided cabinet over the country’s post-Brexit customs and Irish border plans. The two most divisive issues are linked, as the United Kingdom may have to stay in the European Union customs union or even the single market if it wants to avoid a border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland as well as between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. May wants to avoid border checks to prevent a resurgence of violence in Northern Ireland and to satisfy her political allies there, whom she needs in order to stay in power. Brexiteers fear that May could eventually settle on what appears to be the easiest option: staying in the single market, which would force Britain to abide by E.U. rules, even though it would no longer have the power to shape them. That solution would raise the question of why Britain has exposed itself to years of negotiations only to acknowledge that it may not be as self-reliant as it had hoped it could be. Meanwhile, “remainers” fear that Brexiteers’ resistance to compromise with the E.U. could lead to a breakdown in talks with the European Union — potentially resulting in a “no-deal” Brexit. Some more apocalyptic studies predict that this could result in widespread chaos, with flights grounded, trade coming to a near-standstill and Britain running out of medical supplies and food within weeks. (In the leaked recording, Johnson ridiculed warnings over border disruptions as “pure millennium bug stuff.”) The damage would not be limited to Britain, though. It would also affect continental Europe, which is why Johnson appeared to advocate risking a breakdown in talks. It would be a kind of a “no-deal Brexit threat,” inspired by Trump’s cancellation of the June 12 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his reversal of that decision only a week later. “You’ve got to face the fact there may now be a meltdown. OK?” Johnson said, according to BuzzFeed. “I don’t want anybody to panic during the meltdown. No panic. Pro bono publico, no bloody panic. It’s going to be all right in the end.” Read more: France’s Macron threatens rare rebuke of U.S. at G-7, Trump fires back


Larry Hogan’s policies could make Ellicott City flooding worse

combustion is leading to more devastating storms in our state, Hogan recently accelerated his policy of “kick-starting” greater combustion of fracked gas in Maryland while vetoing legislation promoting wind and solar power. But let’s step back: Suburban development, while a factor, cannot begin to explain the scope of the Ellicott City calamity. Newly impervious streets did not cause a biblical 8.4 inches of rain to fall in just a few hours on May 27. And nothing on the ground can explain a similar record rain event in July 2016. The chance of two 1,000-year floods happening in two years? More than a million to one. Of course, no single weather event can be definitively tied to climate change any more than a single cigarette can be associated with lung cancer. But the trends are scientifically established: The planet is warming, triggering greater ocean evaporation. The record-hot atmosphere is packed with that moisture, and sooner or later it comes down. Extreme precipitation events such as the Ellicott City floods are happening with 50 percent greater frequency along the East Coast, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And a 2014 federal report says it is highly likely that heavy precipitation events will increase across the country because of climate change. As Hogan knows — or at least his senior staff have been told by scientists in my presence — climate change is being exacerbated by emissions of methane gas from the drilling and combustion associated with fracking. Indeed, new isotope measurements show fossil fuels contribute significantly more to the record levels of methane in the atmosphere than previously understood — and natural gas is the biggest culprit. Each methane molecule has a heat-trapping potential up to 86 times greater than carbon dioxide. This is one of the reasons the Maryland legislature banned fracked-gas drilling in our state in 2017. Hogan signed that bill. But even as Hogan has laced up his work boots and removed debris from Ellicott City’s streets, his administration has been actively helping Canadian gas companies sidestep the drilling ban by importing fracked gas and promoting its consumption. Hogan is partnering with fossil fuel giant TransCanada to pipe Pennsylvania fracked gas through Maryland. He has a $100 million plan to “kick-start” even more gas use and more pipelines across the state. Hogan uses outdated data to claim that fracked gas is somehow a clean energy.


Please don’t give up

the “suicide trance” and that he thought we would be better off without him. It seems to me it was more of a selfless act than a selfish one. I didn’t know either Bourdain or Spade personally, but I can promise that they, too, didn't want to leave their young children behind. In the depths of illness and the suicide trance, they both likely thought the same thing that my husband did. Think about it. What parent wants to leave their child? Or to miss seeing their child grow up? Depression is an illness that lies to those who have it. When they reach the point of suicide, they feel worthless and hopeless. They experience a level of pain the rest of us cannot begin to fathom. You may view it as a choice, but most who die this way viewed it as the only way to stop the intense pain, which has been compared to feeling like surgery without anesthesia. If you had to endure an open-heart operation without anesthesia, you’d probably want to die in the process (and you might actually die from suffering the pain alone). Those of us who have been fortunate enough never to suffer from the darkest depths of depression and suicidal ideation can’t begin to relate to what this experience is like. We need to stop using the phrase “committed suicide.” Spade and Bourdain died by suicide and from depression. So did Robin Williams and Avicii and my husband. Suicide is also rarely a sudden decision. It's most commonly the result of persistent voices that its victims have struggled with for years. The Foundation for Suicide Prevention reports that 123 people die by suicide every day, and those numbers have been increasing in recent years. Please don’t judge Bourdain, Spade or anyone else who dies by suicide or lives with depression. And please don’t focus on how it happened or why they died this way. None of this does anything to help the mental-health crisis in the United States. Instead, reach out to the people in your life who could use some extra support. Spread a little extra love in the world. You never know whose life you might impact with a simple compliment or a moment of kindness. If you encounter a grumpy clerk at the grocery store, do your part to make her day a bit brighter. It just might improve


The Health 202: Washington plans to tackle the opioid crisis this month

problem hitting most communities.” OUCH: An investigation from the Chinese government has shed no light on the mysterious illness that struck a U.S. diplomat at the consulate in Guangzhou, China after he heard unusual sounds, The Post’s Simon Denyer and Carol Morello report. On Wednesday, the State Department said it was evacuating additional Americans from Guangzhou after initially evacuating the government employee “who had reported hearing strange noises in his apartment and was exhibiting symptoms of brain injury,” Simon and Carol write. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said investigators were reviewing the case. “Last month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Congress that the case in Guangzhou was medically similar to the ones seen in Cuba last year, when a large part of the American Embassy staff was withdrawn after many complained of symptoms that included hearing loss, dizziness, tinnitus, visual difficulties, headaches and fatigue,” our colleagues report. They added: “The latest round of evacuations, which began Wednesday in China, was the first sign that the unexplained ailments have now broadened and threaten to become a full-blown health crisis like the one that affected at least 24 diplomats and their families in Cuba.” Earlier today, the U.S. Embassy in China sent its second alert to its citizens in two weeks over the unexplained illnesses, urging Americans to seek medical attention if they experience “unusual, unexplained physical symptoms or events, auditory or sensory phenomena, or other health concerns,” the Associated Press’s Kelvin Chan and Dake Kang report. — HHS Secretary Alex Azar said the agency won't block insurance companies from using a workaround to buffer steep increases in health premiums for consumers, a practice known as "silver-loading" that had the effect of making subsidies more generous. “Silver-loading” evolved when the administration halted extra payments to Obamacare marketplace insurers to cover cost-sharing discounts they must offer the lowest-income shoppers. By loading all of the funding loss onto mid-level silver premiums, on which subsidy levels are based, insurers were able to help consumers get larger subsidies they could then also apply to gold or bronze-level plans. — If Democrats win back control of the House this year, top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) says the "Medicare for All" proposals that many candidates are backing should be evaluated. “I’ve always been for a public option so I’m always eager to talk about that,” Pelosi told reporters yesterday during her weekly media briefing, when asked if


Germany seeks arrest of leading Syrian general on war crimes charges

U.S. Treasury has frozen the general’s assets because of his role in the crackdown that followed Syria’s 2011 uprising. Recently released court documents from a parallel suit brought against the Syrian military for its alleged targeted assassination of the American journalist Marie Colvin shed light on the state’s uncompromising effort to extinguish dissent from the start of the uprising, arresting and interrogating many who had joined the demonstrations or signaled support through their Facebook accounts. In a 2016 interview, Hassan suggested that the state’s tactics should have been tougher still, suggesting that the Syrian army should have used all-out force to crush the uprising from the beginning. Former inmates from the largest Air Force Intelligence branch in Damascus have described interrogations replete with sadism. One man said that a cellmate’s eye was almost gouged out. Another had scars along his abdomen and groin line from where he said interrogators had dripped molten plastic when he refused to give up the names of friends who had joined demonstrations. Reacting to the news Friday, survivors of several Air Force Intelligence branches described cautious optimism, and relief. “This announcement hasn’t changed the world, but it has given me something like hope,” said one man, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern for the safety of relatives still in Syria. He said the news had made him recall a night while in custody when the guards shouted at the inmates to look away and then placed a body among them. “It was my friend. I sat with him until dawn, talking like he was still with me and telling him that they would not get away with this. Maybe today we are one step closer to that promise,” the former detainee recalled. The Syrian government did not respond to a request for comment on the German lawsuit or historical allegations of torture. Assad has previously described photographs of bodies in government-run prisons as “fake news.” “You can forge anything these days,” he told Yahoo News in an interview last year. Kroker said the suit included evidence of the organization’s command structure, as well as high-resolution images showing the bodies of men and women who had been tortured to death inside the detention centers. Scott Gilmore, a Washington-based attorney with the Center for Justice and Accountability, which has also brought cases against Syrian military officials on behalf of torture survivors, described Friday’s


Special counsel Mueller indicts Paul Manafort, Russian associate on obstruction charges

investigations, agents and prosecutors often try to turn defendants into witnesses against other suspects, “flipping” those people to climb higher up the organization. Manafort has repeatedly declared his intention to fight the charges in both jurisdictions. The alleged coverup stems from work Manafort, Kilimnik and others did with former European politicians, referred to informally as the “Hapsburg group,” to advocate on Ukraine’s behalf to U.S. and European officials. The indictment charges that former Ukraine president Viktor Yanukovych and his political party retained lobbyists through Manafort to serve as intermediaries with the former European politicians. The politicians lobbied members of Congress and executive-branch officials on Ukraine in coordination with Manafort and his longtime deputy and former co-defendant, Rick Gates, according to prosecutors. Gates pleaded guilty to conspiracy and lying to investigators earlier this year in a cooperation deal with the government. The FBI has assessed that Kilimnik had ongoing ties to Russian intelligence, including during the 2016 presidential campaign when Manafort and Gates were in contact with him, prosecutors have said in court filings. Gates told investigators that he understood Kilimnik to be a former officer with the Russian military intelligence service, and others who worked with Manafort in Ukraine said that Kilimnik did not hide his intelligence background. Kilimnik has denied such ties. Manafort has acknowledged staying in frequent contact with Kilimnik during the time he worked for Trump’s campaign. He has said he met with Kilimnik in person in May 2016 and again in August 2016 in New York City, about two weeks before Manafort resigned as Trump’s campaign chairman. Manafort hired Kilimnik, who is a Russian national, as a translator in his office in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, in 2005. Kilimnik later took on more responsibilities, serving as Manafort’s liaison to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire who paid Manafort to advise him on investments. Kilimnik also became the manager and in-country representative for Manafort’s Ukrainian political consulting business. The two remained close while Manafort was working for Trump’s campaign. Kilimnik told The Washington Post they emailed and spoke frequently. In emails, portions of which were read to The Post, Manafort and Kilimnik appeared to discuss how Manafort could use his role with the campaign to make money. In one note, Manafort asked Kilimnik to offer Deripaska “private briefings” about the campaign. Deripaska has said he was never offered the briefings and did not receive them. devlin.barrett@washpost.com spencer.hsu@washpost.com rosalind.helderman@washpost.com


Under Alsop, BSO offers new look to end the season

Happy orchestras are all alike; every struggling orchestra is struggling in its own way. These days, most orchestras are struggling, but on Saturday night at Strathmore, at the end of its subscription season, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra certainly looked like a happy and unified family in a well-conceived and well-performed program. The Baltimore orchestra’s struggles have mainly been financial — this group is Exhibit A in terms of the challenges of maintaining a national-level orchestra in a midsize city without major industry and with plenty of financial problems of its own. The orchestra has responded consistently with pluck and determination. Where Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra has seen four music directors in the past 10 years (one of them, Ivan Fischer, technically a principal conductor), Marin Alsop has been in Baltimore that whole time, developing a distinctive approach, with the flourishing OrchKids program in inner-city schools and energetic programming with a strong American flavor. But the organization had a solid profile even before Alsop got there, after its years under David Zinman and the curiously underrated legend Yuri Temirkanov. All of this was reflected in the refreshing energy and athleticism of Saturday’s performance, from the first bright, crisp note of Leonard Bernstein’s “Slava! A political overture,” a humorous and amiable burlesque with some lively music. Unlike the NSO, where the struggles have to do with motivation and ensemble playing, this is an orchestra speaking with one voice and having something to say. The program focused on two tortured titans of the 20th century: Bernstein and Shostakovich. Bernstein was Alsop’s mentor when she was starting out, and I don’t think there’s a conductor in the United States who does a better job with his music. Time and again, Alsop focuses on Bernstein’s large serious scores — on Saturday, it was his second symphony-cum-piano concerto, “The Age of Anxiety” — and each time she makes a persuasive case for music to which not everyone can find the key. Bernstein’s musical language veers from lush, keening Romantic phrases from sad clarinets to manic jazzy syncopations, and Alsop effortlessly found a through line on Saturday that linked them without grandstanding, supported by Jon Kimura Parker, the fluid, mellifluous piano soloist. The counterweight to this was the Shostakovich Fifth, which at first sounded a little bit too much like the Bernstein: attractive and appealing and polished in a way that took the edges off this rugged