Cleveland Orchestra suspends another player

The Cleveland Orchestra announced Saturday that it has suspended its principal trombonist as part of an ongoing investigation into sexual harassment that was prompted by a July 26 Washington Post report . Massimo La Rosa, 43, who joined the orchestra in 2007, is the second musician the orchestra has suspended. William Preucil, the concertmaster, was placed on paid suspension in July, immediately after the story in The Post alleged that he had attacked and made passes at students. A statement from the orchestra announcing the suspension did not specify the nature of the claims against La Rosa. According to a 2013 article in Inside Higher Ed, a report was filed against La Rosa with police at the University of Iowa in 2011, but the complainant decided not to pursue criminal charges. In December, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, La Rosa filed a lawsuit accusing two people of defamation for alleging that he “had committed and was criminally culpable for multiple sexual assaults on numerous college campuses [where La Rosa] had been invited to serve as a guest instructor.” The orchestra did not specify whether the current suspension was related to the same or similar allegations. Since August, the law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton has been undertaking “a full independent investigation of sexual misconduct and related issues within the orchestra,” the orchestra’s statement said. Immediately after the publication of the Post article, the Cleveland Orchestra’s board set up a committee to oversee the investigative process. “We are committed to conducting a thorough and extensive review to make sure The Cleveland Orchestra is able to provide a safe, professional work environment,” David J. Hooker, one of the committee members, said in the statement. Preucil remains on suspension. For the orchestra’s season-opening concerts on Thursday and next Saturday, Peter Otto, the first assistant concertmaster, will take the concertmaster’s chair. La Rosa could not be reached for comment. anne.midgette@washpost.compeggy.mcglone@washpost.com


How badly did Russia’s interview with the Skripal poisoning suspects backfire?

inconsistencies in official United Kingdom accounts. Russia’s ambassador to Britain gave his thoughts in op-eds and interviews. “Putin’s former spin doctor,” Alexander Nekrassov, was another repeat commentator. Likewise, former British intelligence officials Charles Shoebridge and Annie Machon contributed to several talk shows. Machon and Nekrassov also provided commentary for the BBC, but other regularly featured experts gave conspiratorial contributions unlikely to be hosted on other networks. The tone of RT’s programming tended to vary dramatically, depending on the program and the journalist hosting it. One consistent theme throughout the Skripal coverage was the network’s critiques of Western political institutions and Western media. RT coverage also employed dismissive irony, humor and informality — and used social media responses to show there was wider skepticism about British claims. Our social media research suggests that, initially, English-speaking RT audiences accepted RT’s skepticism about official British accounts of the poisoning. RT’s YouTube “Skripal” playlist of 60 videos has more than 1.6 million combined views and more than 32,000 comments. These videos were upvoted a total of 32,000 times, compared with only 4,200 downvotes, which suggests viewers largely agree with their content. To understand how audiences were reacting to RT’s reporting, we analyzed the top 100 most-liked comments on two specific videos discussing the Skripal case. On one video, 73 percent of the comments suggested there was a conspiracy at work, with claims such as “it is more likely the CIA poisoned them to place blame on Russia.” Some 44 percent of comments were critical of Britain and its allies, and 27 percent noted inconsistencies in British claims. Only four of the comments were critical of Russia, Putin or RT’s claims. In response to another video, 35 percent of commentators suggested conspiracy theories, 95 percent of the comments were critical of Britain, and 26 percent suggested inconsistencies in the British narrative. Only one of the top 100 comments was critical of Russia — but it also stated that the British government was similarly untrustworthy. The previous data show that RT viewers were generally skeptical of the official British account of the Skripal poisoning. But this week’s interview with the suspects marked a dramatic change — the top 100 most-liked comments included many from viewers who felt the interview was ridiculous and that the suspects’ stories were implausible. Fully 74 percent were critical of the claims presented by the suspects. Some viewers even noted that the


Berlin’s mayor tries to wean Germans off the water bottle

BERLIN — When Germans are out and about, their water go-to is usually a bottle. But on a steaming late-summer afternoon in the nation’s capital, Berlin Mayor Michael Müller set out to convert them to the tap. “It’s always available — and an environmentally friendly choice because it avoids the production of plastic and transport costs,” he told a small crowd of perspiring environmental activists, photographers and city employees. Müller, 53, leaned over a bow-wrapped drinking fountain, filled a wineglass with water and proposed a toast to the fixture, an amenity long taken for granted in American cities but a quasi-revolutionary notion in Germany. Public drinking fountains are surprisingly rare in this country that prides itself on environmentalism, innovation and universal access to basic necessities. But Müller and his colleagues hope to change that, setting an eco-friendly example for other German cities by adding 100 new fountains to the roughly 50 already in the capital. It’s a hard pitch. Germans are among the world’s top five consumers of bottled water and the No. 1 drinkers of the fizzy kind. And that is despite the downsides: Bottled water, whether in plastic or glass, is expensive, often out-pricing beer, coffee and milk; heavy (bigger quantities are discounted); and a hassle to dispose of, given Germany’s notoriously rigid recycling rules . Public drinking fountains have not traditionally been an option here. Even with 150 of them in operation, Berlin will hardly have enough for its nearly 4 million residents, although it will be far ahead of Hamburg, which has six, Cologne, which has three, and Munich, with none. New York City, by contrast, has roughly 3,100 fountains for its 8.6 million people, Vienna has 980, and Paris has 974 (including some with sparkling water). Asked why the thrifty, pragmatic Germans have been so slow to adopt an obvious public good, Müller shrugged. “It’s not rational,” he said. “Maybe it’s because there’s no beer flowing out of the faucets.” Ironically, Berlin is catching drinking-fountain fever at precisely the moment when they are falling into disuse in the United States, victims of poor maintenance and the surging bottled-water market. In some cities, including San Francisco, Atlanta and Chicago, bottle-filling stations have become a popular eco-friendly successor. Environmental activists and politicians worldwide have long pushed cities to increase public access to potable tap water. Earlier this year, Frans Timmermans, vice president of the European Commission, told


Eliud Kipchoge smashes marathon world record by 78 seconds in Berlin

Eliud Kipchoge, Kenya’s 2016 Olympic gold medalist, set a world record in the marathon Sunday, becoming the first person to finish a marathon in less than two hours and two minutes and lowering the event’s best mark by 78 seconds in Berlin. “I lack words to describe this day,” Kipchoge said (via the Associated Press) of a time that sounds more like a commute than an athlete feat. His unofficial time was 2 hours, 1 minute and 40 seconds, but that later was lowered by one second. Kipchoge, 33, broke the record set in 2014 by Kenya’s Dennis Kimetto by 1 minute, 18 seconds. “They say you miss two times but you can’t miss the third time,” he said, breaking the mark in his latest attempt in Berlin. This time, conditions were ideal with mild temperatures and very little wind. “It was hard,” he admitted (via the Guardian). “I was prepared to run my own race early so I wasn’t surprised to be alone. I have trained so well for this race and have full trust in the programs of my coach. I am just so incredibly happy to have finally run the world record as I never stopped having belief in myself.” Amos Kipruto of Kenya was second in 2:06:23 with Kenya’s Wilson Kipsang, the former world record holder, third in 2:06:48. The women’s winner was Kenya’s Gladys Cherono, who set a women’s record for the Berlin race with a time of 2:18:11. Ethiopia’s Rutia Aga was second and Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba was third. Read more from The Post: Browns prepare to cut ties with receiver Josh Gordon WNBA champion Seattle Storm not expecting a White House invitation, wouldn’t go anyway College football winners and losers: Gone, Wisconsin Canelo Alvarez claims middleweight title with narrow win over Gennady Golovkin


World Digest: Sept. 16, 2018

for people to have a final say on any deal with Brussels. May has repeatedly ruled out a second referendum. The backing of Khan, a member of the main opposition Labour Party, for a second referendum will put more pressure on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to revisit his opposition to the idea when the party meets for its annual conference in a week. London supported remaining in the E.U. in the June 2016 referendum, which went in favor of leaving the bloc. Khan said Britain was facing either a bad deal or a no-deal Brexit, both of which were “incredibly risky.” Writing in Sunday’s Observer newspaper, he blamed the government’s handling of the negotiations and said the threat to living standards, the economy and jobs was too great for voters not to have a say. — Reuters HORN OF AFRICA Leaders of Ethiopia, Eritrea sign accord The leaders of Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a peace agreement on Sunday during a summit in Saudi Arabia, yet another sign of warming ties between two nations that have faced decades of war and unease. Terms of the agreement signed by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki were not immediately clear. Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry described it as a “seven-point agreement,” while Eritrea offered no details. The accord had been described as a further endorsement of a historic deal between the two nations in July that ended 20 years of enmity and restored diplomatic ties. Landlocked Ethiopia fought a war with Eritrea from 1998 to 2000 over a border dispute that killed tens of thousands. The conflict ended in an uneasy peace with Eritrea, which earlier fought a decades-long war of independence from Ethiopia. Yet that suddenly changed with the election of Abiy as prime minister. A whirlwind of talks ended the conflict between the two nations in July. In other news, officials and residents said ethnically motivated attacks on the outskirts of Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, killed several people and caused hundreds to flee their homes over the weekend. Ethnically based attacks over land and resources are not new in this East African nation of more than 80 ethnic groups. But the severity of such attacks has grown in recent months. — Associated Press Rebels say airstrike hits radio station in Yemen, killing 4: Palestinian fatally stabs American Israeli: Militants free 3 Indonesian hostages in Philippines: — From news services


David Salamone, who contracted polio from vaccine and helped spur changes in U.S. immunization policy, dies at 28

was cheaper to produce than the Salk vaccine. In time, the Sabin vaccine became the predominant form of polio immunization, and the Salk vaccine was largely abandoned. By 1979, the contagious or “wild” form of polio had been eradicated in the United States. Still, about eight to 10 people, mostly infants, contracted the disease each year from the vaccine itself because the Sabin oral polio vaccine, or OPV, contained a weakened but still living form of the polio virus. In rare cases, it could develop into a more virulent strain of the disease. That is how David John Salamone, who was born May 25, 1990, in Fairfax, Va., became one of the last polio patients in America — and how his suffering led to a change in federal policy that banished the disease altogether. It took two years before doctors discovered that David was born with a genetic immune deficiency called Bruton agammaglobulinemia, which left him susceptible to many infections and disorders, including polio. His parents were not told that a child with a compromised immune system could contract polio from the oral vaccine. “It was devastating and frustrating and ultimately caused me a lot of anger,” John Salamone told the Baltimore Sun in 1999. “It was like a dirty little secret: Nobody told you there were going to be sacrificial lambs.” David Salamone wore a brace on his atrophied right leg and had difficulty walking. He had a relatively typical childhood in Oakton, Va., except for his frequent visits to hospitals around the country. His father — a lobbyist, fundraiser for charities and onetime top official with the National Italian American Foundation — became his son’s advocate, writing letters to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, members of Congress and even the president. He organized other families and began to speak at medical conferences. At first, the medical establishment was unmoved. When eight to 10 children a year contracted polio, and millions of others were protected, “my feeling was it was a small price to pay,” Walter A. Orenstein, who was director of the U.S. immunization program at the CDC from 1988 to 2004, recalled Friday in an interview. Then he heard David’s story. “Suddenly, the eight to 10 people were not just tiny numbers but were real people,” Orenstein said. “Just seeing how these people’s lives were ruined made a big difference. I went overnight from being


Ethiopia’s ethnic divides rock capital as reports of killings prompt angry protests

been paid to destabilize the country and block current reforms. He said an additional 300 people were arrested in Addis Ababa after the protests. Witnesses With details still scarce about the attacks and unverified photos of mutilated corpses being shared on social media, tempers were running high in Addis Ababa, where many resident feel under siege by the Oromos living in the countryside around the city. “The Oromo people are killing too many people around Addis, and we have to protest them,” one protester said as young men marched through downtown, waving the red, yellow and green nationalist flag of pre-1991 Ethiopia. Most shops closed and much of city’s public transportation ground to a halt as the protests in different parts of the city stretched through the day. Protesters, many wearing headbands in the colors of the nationalist flag, chanted, “We need justice,” and, “The government says peace, but we are being killed,” as they stopped traffic and marched through downtown. They traversed the city’s Meskel Square, where a massive Oromo political rally was held just two days earlier. As part of his political opening, Abiy, who hails from the Oromo ethnic group, invited many exiled opposition leaders to return to Ethiopia. On Sept. 9, leaders of the Ginbot 7 opposition returned from the United States amid a massive outpouring of support in the capital. One of its leaders, Berhanu Nega, won election as mayor of Addis Ababa in 2005 before being driven out of the country, and he and the group remain popular in the city. On Saturday, it was the turn of the opposition Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) to return from exile in neighboring Eritrea. In this case, however, most of the group’s supporters came from the Oromo hinterland, which surrounds the capital, and tens of thousands flocked into the city. When these supporters jogged in formation through Addis Ababa before the rally, singing in the Oromo language and waving the OLF flag, residents found it intimidating. Scuffles broke out between Oromos and Addis Ababa residents when young Oromo men tore down Ethiopian flags from the previous week’s rally to put up their own and tried to paint sidewalks in the OLF colors. Saturday’s rally in Meskel Square, however, went off without a hitch and featured horsemen, traditional warrior dress and about 100,000 people to welcome the OLF leaders. Many of the Oromos at the rally talked about


This block has the best cheap eats and drinks in D.C.

Every few years, a new “restaurant row” grabs D.C.'s attention: Upshur Street NW, after national critics discovered Himitsu and Timber Pizza; Ninth Street NW near the Convention Center, home to Espita, All-Purpose and the Dabney Wine Cellar; or Barracks Row, thanks to award-winning sister restaurants Rose's Luxury and Pineapple and Pearls. Right now, though, the block with the claim to be the best dining destination isn't filled with Michelin-starred dining options, but a quintet of locally owned bars and restaurants offering some of the area's best tacos, delicious Cuban cuisine and reasonably priced (if not downright cheap) drinks, right on the border between Petworth and Columbia Heights. What's especially interesting is that this block came together organically over a decade — not from a developer's vision. When the Red Derby opened on the 3700 block of 14th Street NW in late 2007, “it was not a pretty picture,” says co-owner Sasha Carter, recounting “weekly” stabbings at the now-closed Carolina restaurant on the corner, and how police would set up floodlights across the street to drive off prostitutes and drug dealers. For years, as nearby stretches welcomed new restaurants and shops, the Derby's little strip remained relatively untouched. The pinball-focused Lyman's Tavern moved in next door to the Derby in 2014, followed a few months later by Taqueria Habanero, which brought the food of Mexico's Puebla to a former nail salon. The final pieces of the puzzle came from Alfredo and Jessica Solis, the siblings who own the popular El Sol downtown. Their second taqueria-and-tequila restaurant, Mezcalero, opened in 2017 before the Solises doubled down with the Cuban-flavored Little Havana in August. “It makes me so happy for D.C.," Carter says. “All of the businesses are independently owned, and none of this is cookie-cutter.” In an ideal world, it would be easy to make this a movable feast, starting with camarones al ajillo at Little Havana, moving on to Taqueria Habanero for (what else?) tacos, and finishing with platanos fritos at Mezcalero before heading to the Derby for a nightcap or Lyman's for a few games of pinball. However, the restaurants' burgeoning popularity means that one, if not all, are full on weekend nights. Still, having this many options on one block means that, if the restaurant you had your eye on is full, it's easy to see if a table is available at another one a few steps away. Little


Universities should lead efforts to slow climate change, if the federal government won’t

for example, was first proposed by future Nobel laureates Mario Molina and Sherwood Roland at UC Irvine. And at SUNY Fredonia, Sherri Mason has done extensive research on plastic pollution in the Great Lakes that led to the U.S. ban on the sale of products that contain microbeads. With good public policy informed by science, we can mitigate immense environmental challenges. Today, at SUNY Binghamton and SUNY Stony Brook, professors Stanley Whittingham and Esther Takeuchi are pioneering research on lithium ion batteries to enable the mass deployment of electrical vehicles and widespread use of renewable energy. At the University of California, researchers have developed a way to more accurately forecast nitrogen’s effects on the climate cycle, a finding that is helping to refine global climate change projection models. Given in-house expertise such as this, as well as our university communities’ passionate commitment to sustainability, we have the opportunity to use our own large operations as testbeds. At The State University of New York, for example, we have a goal of sourcing 100 percent of our electricity from net zero carbon sources, including renewables plus storage. All new building designs in the system will be net zero carbon going forward, and we are retrofitting our existing buildings, which comprise 40 percent of New York’s owned and operated facilities. The University of California has set an equally bold yet achievable goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2025. UC has expanded on-site solar power production at all 10 of its campuses, and helped bring online two new solar farms that generate 80 megawatts of electricity, the largest solar purchase to date by an American university. Moreover, by sharing with local and regional businesses and governments the best practices we develop on our own trajectory toward carbon neutrality, we have it within our power to trigger a ripple effect on climate action. This year, University Climate Change Coalition members have been bringing preeminent experts from diverse fields such as agriculture and technology to focus on climate change strategy. Member universities hosted events tackling climate issues, including a forum focused on reducing the carbon footprint of the construction industry at the University of Washington, and a Boston University summit of 150 mayors from around the globe dedicated to improving their cities’ climate resiliency. These examples of what universities are doing and others will be included during the Global Climate Action Summit this week in San


Florence brings headaches and heartache to World Equestrian Games in North Carolina

week. With Florence — and opening ceremonies — looming, state officials considered recalling the hospital for use in worse-hit areas. But Med-1 was able to stay in Tryon on pre-deployment status until Friday, when it left for hard-hit Wilmington, N.C., and Hart turned to Plan B in a covered arena. “This event is a big deal for the state of North Carolina,” he said. “They want to show their hospitality, and we understand the disaster that [they] may be looking at.” There have been many bright moments for U.S. competitors — a gold medal in the cowboy skills called “reining” and silver in the horse ballet of dressage — and spectacular displays of equine agility. The second phase of a tri-part contest known as three-day eventing took place on Saturday, just before the anticipated downpour. Horses galloped for 3½ miles through invigorating breezes, over an elaborate obstacle course created by Capt. Mark Phillips, former husband of Britain’s Princess Anne (both Olympians of an earlier era). But as Florence approached, leaving inundation in its wake, Sunday’s entire schedule was called off, even though the slow-moving storm delivered little more than mist in the morning. “The English would have been having a picnic in it,” McGaughan said. Now, the third phase of three-day eventing will be pushed back a day until Monday, “changing the essence of the sport,” said U.S. rider Marilyn Little, who described how the schedule change could work to some competitors’ advantage. Some top dressage horses, scheduled to fly out Monday, will forgo the popular freestyle segments of their displays. “Horse welfare has to be the top priority and flying the horses out on the same day as competition doesn’t work,” Michael Stone, the Tryon 2018 organizing committee president, said in a statement. Organizers had reason to be risk-averse as Florence threatened. One of the first contests — endurance riding — met with tragedy when pre-hurricane heat and humidity took a toll. The contest began with a false start, after some competitors set off in the wrong direction along the 75-mile course. One horse — a New Zealand entry named Barack Obama — had to be removed and was later euthanized. Tempers flared, and the weather deteriorated: One judge from the United Arab Emirates began live-streaming the altercations, showing police arriving to maintain order. After the skies opened, creating risky conditions under-hoof, veterinarians called off the entire competition. frances.sellers@washpost.com


Australia searches for culprit hiding sewing needles in strawberries

It’s a crime so strange that any motive seems nearly inconceivable: In Australia, someone is placing sewing needles inside strawberries — endangering those who eat them and sending panic across strawberry markets as prices plummet and government officials scramble to find a culprit. In recent days, a number of people in Australia have opened boxes of strawberries they purchased at supermarkets, only to find that the fruit has small sewing needles or pins stuck inside. At least one person claims to have inadvertently swallowed one. Some Australians have posted photos on social media showing needles they found in their berries. This weekend, the Australian newspaper reported that there have been at least seven reported cases in three Australian states, raising concerns that copycats are working separately to contaminate the berries. And the incidents then seemed to have spread, with police saying brands have been recalled across the country. On Monday, a woman was allegedly caught poking a banana with a needle in a supermarket in Queensland. It’s not yet clear if that is related to other incidents of fruit tampering. The strawberry industry in the state of Queensland is worth around $93 million annually, and the government there announced this week that it would offer a reward of roughly $70,000 for anyone with information about the culprit behind the strange attack on strawberries. "Someone is trying to sabotage the industry but also in doing that, they are putting babies' and children’s and families' lives at risk,” Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said at a news conference last week. “It is simply unacceptable. I am furious about this.” Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported that as consumers have shied away from purchasing the fruit over fears it will be contaminated with needles, farmers have ended up throwing out mass quantities of the strawberries they can’t sell. The broadcaster also said wholesale prices have dropped by around half. Neil Handasyde, president of Strawberry Growers Association of Western Australia, told the Australian broadcaster that the industry is convinced the needles “are not coming from the farm.” But he said “there’s been metal detectors purchased and tamper-proof packaging looked at.” Jamie Michael, head of the Western Australian Strawberry Growers Association, told the Australian broadcaster that the needle incidents have come at peak strawberry-selling season, disrupting the market at a particularly inconvenient time. “With strawberries you need to continue picking them,” he told ABC. “If you stop picking


How do you get out of military service? These South Koreans tried to gain weight — fast.

In South Korea, it takes extreme circumstances for young men to gain exemptions from mandatory military service. Still, some have set their hopes on doing whatever it takes to avoid conscription — even if it means gaining so much weight that they are deemed physically unfit for the armed forces. This week, South Korea's Military Manpower Administration said that a group of 12 college students studying classical music in Seoul tried to gain a huge amount of weight before the medical exams that would determine their fitness for military service. The students drank protein powder to put on weight ahead of their appointments, and some even drank a heavy aloe vera juice the day of the exams to appear even heavier than they already were. The Military Manpower Administration said in a statement that “the classmates shared tips on how to gain weight in an online chat room.” That may be how the military figured out they were gaming the system: Officials reportedly acknowledged using “digital forensic technology” to figure out that it wasn't a coincidence that the music students all put on so much weight before their appointments. "The Military Manpower Administration, via thorough investigation, will do our best to root out military service evasion crime and make an example of the violators so that a fair and just military service culture can take root,” South Korean authorities said in a statement, according to CNN. In June, Yonhap News Agency reported that intentional weight gain or loss is one of the most popular ways South Koreans try to avoid the military. Of the 59 men who illegally evaded the draft in 2017, according to the Military Manpower Administration in 2017, 37 percent had used weight as an excuse for why they could not join. United Press International reported that one man gained more than 60 pounds to avoid conscription in 2016. He went from weighing 170 pounds to 234 as part of his effort to be offered a less physically taxing job as a replacement for military service. Other South Koreans have gone so far as to purposely fracture bones, undergo unnecessary surgery or remove their teeth, Yonhap reported. Of the 12 accused music students, four are currently completing their public service and two have since finished. The six others are waiting for postings to open up at state offices, Agence France-Presse reported. But the students' initial escape from


Community deaths

Obituaries of residents from the District, Maryland and Northern Virginia. John Aaron III, geologist John Aaron III, 81, who retired from the U.S. Geological Survey as director of the office of scientific publications in 1995, died Nov. 20 at his home in Reston, Va. The cause was complications following abdominal surgery, said a daughter, Anne Aaron. Mr. Aaron, a Boston native, joined the USGS in 1960 and was a member of field parties that surveyed the Thiel Mountain range in Antarctica. He was also chief scientist on four research cruises to survey the Atlantic Continental Slope. Every December, he led a team of spotters on the lower Potomac River for the Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count. Jean Caswell, art teacher Jean Caswell, 93, an assistant professor of art history at the University of Maryland from 1980 to 1994, died Nov. 17 at her home in Silver Spring, Md. The cause was an aortic aneurysm, said a daughter, Anne Flynn. Mrs. Caswell was born Jean Miller in Baltimore and had lived in the Washington area for 64 years. Early in her career, she was a lecturer at U.-Md. and a teacher at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring and at Hyattsville Junior High School. She was a board member and a Sunday school teacher at Christ Congregational Church in Silver Spring. Mary Jane Shea, nurse Mary Jane Shea, 95, a registered nurse who retired from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 1986, died Nov. 18 at a care center in Salem, N.H. The cause was renal failure, said a daughter, Mary Doughty. Mrs. Shea was born Mary Jane Prah in Gates, Pa. She had lived in the Washington area for 62 years. She was a Navy nurse during World War II , then after her children had grown, became a nurse again, working at the State Department, World Bank and Pan American Health Organization. She moved to New Hampshire from Washington in September. Robert Kirk, aerospace executive Robert Kirk, 89, a business executive who retired in 1998 after six years as chairman of what is now BAE Systems, the U.S. subsidiary of British Aerospace Plc., died Dec. 3 at his home in Telluride, Colo. The cause was complications from Parkinson’s disease, said his lawyer, Peter Randolph. Mr. Kirk, who also had a home in the District, was born in Charleston, W.Va. He began his career in 1955 with North


Our favorite burgers in Washington, from diner-style to splurge-worthy

303 Pennsylvania Ave. SE. Georgetown, 3291 M St. NW. Crystal City, 2110 Crystal Dr., Arlington. — Maura Judkis The bacon cheeseburger at If you want a delicious, fuss-free burger — the kind that brings back memories of church picnics, family reunions and grilling on the deck — the best course of action is to head to the Potomac Grille at East Potomac Golf Course, a no-frills restaurant designed for refueling after playing 18 holes or a session on the driving range. The burgers here, pressed square on a flat-top grill with a steak weight and loaded with lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles and the all-important hot pepper spread, aren’t just for golfers. Add black-around-the-edges bacon, and make sure you get a picnic table on the veranda with a view of the putting green The Rockaway Beef at Slash Run Creative burgers are as essential to Slash Run’s DNA as its dozens of bottles of bourbon or the go-go and metal on the jukebox. But these aren’t standard bar offerings: The Barstool Rodeo is topped with beer-battered poblano peppers and coffee grounds, while Otto’s Shrunken Head mixes pork rinds, avocado slices and pineapple relish. The standout is the Rockaway Beef: A juicy patty seasoned with salt and pepper and garnished with fat strips of bacon and American cheese gets sweet heat from cherry peppers and a spicy tang from the house “Slash Sauce,” which owner Jackie Greenbaum calls a “kicked-up version of Thousand Island.” It’s perfect with waffle fries and a local craft beer. $9.25. 201 Upshur St. NW. 202-838-9929. — F.H. The Southern at Holy Cow What exactly makes a burger “Southern”? This Del Ray hot spot surveys a wide swath of the Southeast to make this specialty burger sing. Perky pimento cheese oozes out of a potato kaiser roll, and a Cajun rémoulade tops the grass-fed Angus beef patty with a hint of spice and plenty of tang. The fried green tomato is the kicker, delivering crunch to a mouthful that melds many flavors into one great bite . With nearly 50 toppings, from pulled pork to truffled creamed spinach — plus Cajun, garlic, truffle salt and sweet potato fries — there’s something for every taste at this family-friendly eatery. $10 TO $15 The Proper at Duke’s Grocery It’s no secret that the Proper burger at Duke’s Grocery is among the best in Washington; on a recent visit, I overheard


A bad smell led residents of a Mexican town to a gruesome discovery: 100 bodies in a trailer

it yet again, to a warehouse in Guadalajara, Reuters reported. Local media reports initially put the number of corpses at more than 150, but later reports said it may have been more like 100. Officials have told media outlets that the bodies belong to victims of organized crime and that they didn’t have anywhere else to put them. “We ran out of cemetery plots where we could bury them,” said Luis Octavio Cotero, head of the Jalisco Forensics Institute, according to the BBC. But Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that Jalisco’s governor had fired Cotero after complaints about the trailer, accusing him of “indolence and negligence.” Cotero insisted he had long warned that the morgue would reach capacity. About 30,000 homicides were recorded in Mexico last year, and suburbs near Guadalajara, where the trailer has been parked, have experienced a surge of violence. The Guardian reported that in July 2018 alone, Mexico recorded 2,599 homicides — the most to occur in a month since the government started keeping count. Much of the violence is related to drug cartels. Such violence has claimed about 200,000 lives in Mexico in recent years. Roberto López, the state’s general secretary, told Mexican media outlets that he was aware that the use of a trailer as a morgue was disrespectful. But López said there were few other options until a new morgue that is being built is ready to hold the bodies. “When it is built, these bodies will be transferred,” he told reporters. But it could be more than a month until the new morgue is ready, and the wait is not sitting well with residents. “We don’t want it here,” Tovar told the BBC, referring to the trailer. “They need to put it somewhere else. It stinks.” Still, state officials are left with few choices when the number of homicides keeps rising. One inspector for the Jalisco human rights commission told the AP “the physical space to keep the bodies of the dead has been outstripped … given that every day they are finding bodies in different places, in clandestine graves, shot dead in the street.” Read more The man making an offer on Mexico’s presidential jet is a staunch advocate of the border wall Mexico’s president-elect promises to clean up the environment — and build a new oil refinery Marxists, evangelicals, business executives, working-class activists — meet Mexico’s strange new ruling coalition


What everyone’s forgetting about Paul Manafort

former Soviet Union is as common as beet dishes. Indeed, Putin has cultivated his system of power around selective use of compromising information, especially evidence of financial malfeasance. And its use is reserved not only for his opponents. As the Russian journalist Yulia Latynina once wrote, “To keep kompromat on enemies is a pleasure. To keep kompromat on friends is a must.” The regime’s use of the tactic is so widespread that one scholar of modern-day Russia has described the country as a “blackmail state.” The gathering of kompromat is an organic process. Rarely is there a long-term strategy behind it; it often functions as a kind of insurance in business or political dealings. Accordingly, to say that the Russian government would have access to kompromat on Manafort is not necessarily to argue that its procurement was part of a sustained, centrally orchestrated campaign. Instead, it could have been casually generated through Manafort’s dealings with Kremlin-connected oligarchs and politicians, as well as Konstantin Kilimnik, his right-hand man, who Mueller has alleged had active “ties to Russian intelligence” through 2016. Kilimnik was integral to Manafort’s decade-long scheme to defraud the United States. He was a close confidant, business associate, interpreter and someone Manafort often described as his “Russian brain.” In Kiev, Kilimnik was known as “Manafort’s Manafort,” and he probably helped the American lobbyist to use stolen or false Ukrainian identities to set up offshore shell companies that were used to launder some $30 million. Kilimnik ran Manafort’s office in Ukraine, where investigators found forged invoices, including one that billed a Manafort front company $750,000 for hundreds of nonexistent computers. The intimate relationship between Manafort and Kilimnik is perhaps best captured by Kilimnik’s frustrated attempts to contact witnesses in Europe to ensure they would not disclose Manafort’s secret lobbying in the United States, which violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Kilimnik was also Manafort’s main conduit to Oleg Deripaska, a sanctioned Russian oligarch within Putin’s inner circle. Kilimnik facilitated Manafort’s failed investments of Deripaska’s money and communicated with Deripaska on Manafort’s behalf when the latter wanted to use his new role as Trump’s campaign chairman to “get whole.” When Manafort agreed to work for Trump for no salary, he reportedly owed Deripaska almost $30 million, including for a $10-million unpaid loan. (It is worth noting that the Justice Department attempted to persuade the oligarch to “give up Manafort” — apparently without


Yusaku Maezawa just purchased every seat on the SpaceX flight to the moon. Who is he?

On Monday, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa stood in front of a crowd of reporters at the SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., and declared jubilantly, “Finally, I can tell you that I choose to go to the moon.” And the 42-year-old announced he purchased not one but all the seats aboard SpaceX’s Big Falcon Rocket. Maezawa is not only a high-profile entrepreneur specializing in online retail and a world-famous art collector, but he is also set to be SpaceX’s first paying tourist to take a trip around the moon. Maezawa’s roughly week-long journey is tentatively scheduled for 2023, as The Washington Post’s Christian Davenport reported. “Ever since I was a kid, I have loved the moon,” he said during a news conference. “Just staring at the moon filled my imagination. It’s always there and has continued to inspire humanity. That is why I could not pass up this opportunity to see the moon up close.” Clad in a dark blue blazer over a white graphic T-shirt, Maezawa, with a giant grin dominating his youthful features, looked more like a boy band member than a person ranked 18th on Forbes’s 2018 list of Japan’s 50 richest people. But anyone who has tracked his meteoric rise would know that being different is normal for a man whose life has been defined by surprising moments. “Japanese people think I’m a weirdo,” Maezawa told British auction house Christie’s in 2017. “They say, who is this Maezawa person?” To put it simply, Maezawa is a former punk rocker-turned-self-made e-commerce billionaire with a love of expensive art. More than two decades ago, Maezawa, then just a sprightly teen, had an epiphany — he envisioned the rest of his life and was disheartened by what he foresaw. At the time, he was a student at a prestigious feeder high school in Tokyo, which meant he was destined for university and after that a career, most likely in business, the Times in London reported. But as he rode the train for an hour and a half every morning from his home in Japan’s Chiba prefecture, he told the Times he started noticing how all the people headed to their jobs appeared to be “tired and unhappy.” “I think what I hated was the feeling that I was running along tracks that had already been laid down,” he told the British publication in July. “I could see the rails stretching


Bobi Wine: Uganda’s government is afraid of the country’s youth. It should be.

Robert Kyagulanyi (“Bobi Wine”) is a musician and an independent member of parliament representing Kyaddondo East in Uganda. The past month has thrust Uganda into a rare spot on the front page of global news. At first glance, the reason seems unsettling: reports abound of torture, detentions, brutal repression of protests and crackdowns on freedoms. But look deeper, and this is a good news story. After 32 years in power, President Yoweri Museveni’s government is for the first time shaking in its boots. Not because of me, not because of any opposition member, but because of the millions of young Ugandans who know they deserve better, and are now demanding better. This is the cause that last year forced me out of the comfort of show business as a musician and into the political sphere. Growing up, I was never interested in politics. I was only an artiste doing my music. But as Museveni stayed longer and his corrupt regime started attracting scrutiny, his government became even more repressive, and the abuse of power became blatant. I started feeling that no matter how much I achieved as an individual, I would not enjoy my dignity as a citizen if the political question was not resolved and the power returned to the people of Uganda. The 12 months since have been the most trying of my life. For daring to advocate for a 21st century Uganda, I’ve been charged with treason, imprisoned and tortured. The injuries I’ve sustained have required medical care from specialists, but others, such as the Hon. Francis Zaake, have suffered even worse. Since I traveled to the United States for medical care, the ensuing crackdown has gotten worse. Friends from the United States who are known to work with me on charity projects have been deported from Uganda. Many of our supporters have been kidnapped by some military operatives, brutalized and illegally detained. There is no peace in the ghetto. The military police maintains a 24-hour presence in every corner, waiting to harass anyone who protests against my mistreatment. These past few weeks, the world watched as security agencies responded to peaceful protesters and journalists in Kampala with heavy violence and cruelty. I am fortunate enough to have a platform to bring attention to what is happening, but I have not seen the worst that this government can dole out. So many others have endured far worse


BSO musician files EEOC complaint against the orchestra

A Baltimore Symphony Orchestra musician has filed a sexual harassment complaint against the orchestra with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), alleging that the orchestra failed to take meaningful action against repeated allegations of harassment and retaliation. In an interview with The Washington Post, principal oboe player Katherine Needleman said that Jonathan Carney, the orchestra’s concertmaster, approached her for sex when the orchestra was on tour in 2005 and, since she rejected him, has engaged in a consistent pattern of retaliation: “daily hostility and efforts to undermine [my] work and authority,” she said, “combined with physical intimidation and threats.” According to the complaint, Needleman reported the harassment to the orchestra several times, starting immediately after the 2005 incident. This March, the orchestra engaged an independent law firm to conduct an investigation, which concluded this month. “The report indicated that there has not been a hostile work environment,” said Peter T. Kjome, the orchestra’s president and chief executive. “We take very seriously the allegations and are carefully reviewing the actions recommended in the report.” Those recommendations included a suggestion that Carney be sent to sensitivity training and an emphasis on anti-harassment training for all employees. Carney was not available for comment, but his attorney and spokesman Neil J. Ruther called the complaint “utterly frivolous.” “The orchestra investigated the incident in 2005 and concluded there was no substance to it,” Ruther said. “Since that time, Jonathan has done nothing to harm her in any way.” “This is an egregious abuse of what the #MeToo movement stands for,” Ruther added, saying that Carney and Needleman are equals within the orchestra. The principal oboe is the leader of the wind section, playing the note to which the orchestra tunes every night; the concertmaster is the leader of the strings but is also generally considered as a leader of the ensemble. The complaint came after a turbulent weekend in the orchestra world. On Saturday, the Cleveland Orchestra announced that it was suspending its principal trombonist, Massimo La Rosa, in the course of an ongoing independent investigation into sexual harassment. The orchestra’s concertmaster, William Preucil, has been on paid suspension since August, after a Post article revealed allegations of sexual assault. On Sunday, the New York Philharmonic announced that it intended to fire Liang Wang, its principal oboe, and Matthew Muckey, its associate principal trumpet, for unspecified “misconduct,” the New York Times reported. The two


Climate change is real. Welcome to the new normal.

percent since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, when humans started burning fossil fuels on a large scale. We know from direct observation that carbon dioxide traps heat. We know from direct measurement that both atmospheric and ocean temperatures have been rising sharply. We know from direct measurement that warmer water takes up more space than cooler water, which is the main reason ocean levels are rising. We know that warmer water is more easily evaporated, which means there is more moisture available to fuel a storm such as Florence or Harvey — and to be released by such storms as rainfall. If humankind suddenly stopped burning fossil fuels tomorrow, we would still have to adapt to the climatic changes we have already set in motion. The excess carbon dioxide we have pumped into the atmosphere will remain there for thousands of years. We will be coping with massive tropical storms, tragic coastal and riverine flooding, deadly heat waves and unprecedented wildfires for the rest of our lives. At the very least, we should be trying to reduce carbon emissions and keep global warming to a manageable level. With the landmark Paris agreement, the nations of the world agreed to try. But Trump foolishly decided to pull the United States — the world’s second-biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, behind only China — out of the deal. The administration has already proposed weakening restrictions on carbon emissions from automobiles and coal-fired power plants. And last week, there were reports that the administration also wants to loosen rules governing the release of methane, which traps even more heat than carbon dioxide. Another news item from earlier this month should be instructive: A cargo ship is presently making the journey from Vladivostok, on Russia’s Pacific coast, to the German port of Bremerhaven via the Arctic Ocean, rather than taking the usual southern route through the Suez Canal and the Strait of Gibraltar. Until now, the northern route has always been impassible because it was blocked by polar ice. But because of climate change, a lot of the ice has melted. Climate change is no longer theoretical. It is real, it is all around us, and it is going to get much worse. eugenerobinson@washpost.com Read more from Eugene Robinson’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. You can also join him Tuesdays at 1 p.m. for a live Q&A.


Elon Musk’s SpaceX plans to fly a Japanese billionaire and several artists on a tourist trip around the moon

that something could go wrong. … We better get that flight right.” Once again, Musk’s big news came in the face of nagging questions and tumult — this time generated largely by his own behavior. In the past few months, Musk has lashed out at analysts during an earnings call for Tesla, his electric car company, for asking “boring, bonehead questions.” He has accused, without proof, one of the cave divers who participated in the rescue of a Thai youth soccer team of being a pedophile. (On Monday, the diver sued him for defamation.) Then he vowed to take Tesla private, saying that the “funding was secured,” only to reverse himself shortly afterward. And earlier this month, a video of Musk smoking marijuana and drinking whiskey on a popular podcast circulated on social media. Now the Elon Musk show returned to the sprawling SpaceX headquarters outside Los Angeles, where the company — whether intentionally or not — provided a prime-time diversion to the troubles surrounding its celebrity chief executive by providing details about its long-anticipated moon shot. Last week, SpaceX posted on Twitter that it “has signed the world’s first private passenger to fly around the moon aboard our [Big Falcon Rocket] — an important step toward enabling access for everyday people who dream of traveling into space.” And late Sunday, Musk further fueled the anticipation by tweeting out artist renderings of the massive launch vehicle that SpaceX is developing to fly into deep space, with a simple message: “#OccupyMars.” But for now, the company has yet to fly a human into space. The BFR, as the rocket SpaceX would fly to the moon is known, is in development, possibly years from flying. SpaceX, which is under contract with NASA to fly its astronauts to the International Space Station, recently announced it had to delay that first flight to April. Its plan to fly tourists around the moon has also been delayed. If all had gone according to schedule, SpaceX would now be gearing up for its first lunar flight, fulfilling its pledge early last year to launch a pair of tourists “faster and farther into the solar system than any before them.” Setbacks and delays, however, don’t deter Musk or his relentless company, which has grown to 7,000 employees. SpaceX has pulled off feats no one thought possible, from the first successful launch to orbit a decade ago to


Theresa May just warned of a ‘no-deal Brexit.’ Here are some of the doomsday scenarios.

and handing the detonator to the E.U. Big stumbling blocks remain between the E.U. and the United Kingdom, including how to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and along the Irish Sea. If Britain were to exit with no deal in place, it would “quite likely to be the worst political, economic, and social crisis for a generation — maybe longer,” said Rob Ford, a professor of politics at the University of Manchester. One of the problems, he said, is the false belief that no deal would allow the status quo to simply continue. “But it fundamentally doesn’t mean that in this situation,” Ford said. “No deal means you burn the whole house down, and I don’t think awareness of that is anywhere near high enough.” Tim Lang, professor of food policy at the University of London and one of the authors of a recent briefing paper on Britain’s food security, said a no-deal Brexit would be “very risky indeed.” Britain, like the rest of the developed world, has adopted the “Toyota management” philosophy that the best way to eliminate waste is to supply and procure only what is needed, exactly when it is needed, Lang said. Businesses, on average, don’t hold more than three to five days of supply, he said. So if there’s no deal on March 29, five days later “shortages begin to happen if borders start existing again, if food inspections have to happen at borders, if paperwork takes longer.” It wouldn’t take long for the British public to feel the impact. Since the early 1980s, when Britain was about 80 percent self-sufficient in food, it has steadily slid to about 60 percent. The bulk of imported food comes from Europe. “The wild ideologues who fantasize that a no-deal Brexit would be great? They are fat cats and rich usually and don’t realize that food has very, very fragile status,” Lang said. Ian Dunt, author of “Brexit: What The Hell Happens Now?,” said that it was “quite hard to talk about the scale of the calamity, in food, in general trade, in the whole way society operates, without sounding hysterical.” He said countries are, for good reason, cautious about the food they allow in. “They know if anything goes wrong, if someone gets sick and if a child dies, gets a disease from eating a burger, the political consequences of


When Metro stopped running reliably, these people started running to work

a 5K (and then some!) in a single day . . . and then running that distance five days per week, year-round. “It’s a little longer than I’d like,” Redfern said, chuckling. But it beats spending two hours every day sitting on Metro, he said. Redfern, unsurprisingly, is a competitive marathon runner, often logging 80 or 90 miles per week in the lead-up to a big race. But his run-commuting habit was borne by a more mundane need: He and his wife moved to a new home in Washington’s 16th Street Heights neighborhood two year ago, and he needed to figure out a new route to get to work. There was no Metro station near his house. He tried the bus for a couple weeks, but it was slow. At the time, he didn’t have a car. So he started running. It takes him about 50 minutes to get to work. (Yes, he’s fast.) The commute saves him time that he’d otherwise need to spend in the early mornings, getting in his training runs. Along the way, he listens to audiobooks, or podcasts, or recordings of Supreme Court oral arguments. “It’s sort of just being efficient,” Redfern said. And the joys of avoiding Metro, he said, are an extra perk. “It’s easier to justify to my wife, because we’re saving money on Metro fares or on gas and parking passes,” Redfern said, though she still thinks he’s “totally nuts.” By now, Redfern has the logistics down pat. He keeps dress shoes and blazers at his office, along with toiletries for his office’s locker room shower. He’s given up on trying to carry his laptop to and from work — which, it turns out, helps him resist the temptation to try to bring work home with him. Instead, he runs with a small pack — crammed with that day’s slacks, a dress shirt, and in the summer, a second set of running clothes for the trip home. In the winter, he doesn’t sweat as much, so he can get away with wearing the same running clothes home. The system works seamlessly. Usually. “We did have a period last December when the locker room was being renovated. And as soon as it was announced, everyone was popping their head into my office like, ‘Jeff, what are you gonna do?’” Redfern said. But Redfern had a solution for that, too: shower wipes. martine.powers@washpost.com


Yes, space tourism is for the rich. But sending artists to space is good for us all.

On Monday night, Elon Musk introduced announced billionaire Yusaku Maezawa as the first space tourist slated to take a trip on SpaceX’s Blue Falcon rocket to the moon in 2023. Initially, the choice seemed to perpetuate the idea that space is a playground only for rich non-astronauts. But Maezawa upended that assumption by introducing the “Dear Moon” project and declaring his intention to bring between six and eight artists to the moon with him, providing otherworldly inspiration for their work. It’s a beautiful idea that recognizes the role space, the moon and views of Earth have had on art and culture since humans first cast their gazes skyward. By recognizing the importance of art and artists, SpaceX and Maezawa could inspire and stoke the curiosity of the human race, urging us to widen our perspectives. Even more important, they could help make space accessible to all of us, not just to the wealthy. Space tourism SpaceX isn’t the first company to conceive of bringing artists to space. In 2015, Lady Gaga thrilled fans by announcing that she would be the first person to perform a song in space aboard a Virgin Galactic shuttle as part of the Zero G Colony music festival, but a fatal explosion during a 2014 test flight of SpaceShipTwo put those plans on hold. (Virgin Galactic has since rebuilt and has successfully tested its new ride, and reports that more than 600 people have plunked down the $250,000 deposit for a trip.) In the early 1980s, NASA established the Space Flight Participant program to recognize the importance of sending citizens to space. First up was the Teacher in Space program, for which more than 11,000 people applied. New Hampshire teacher Christa McAuliffe made the cut, but she died in the Challenger disaster of 1986. The tragedy led to the cancellation of the program, through which NASA had also intended to bring journalists and artists to space after the successful completion of McAuliffe’s flight. In 2003, NASA announced another program to bring journalists to space, but that plan ended with the explosion of the Columbia spacecraft. Humans, whether artists or astronauts, are the most precious cargo, and of course SpaceX has to be as certain as it can be about the safety and success of the mission. Initially, SpaceX planned to bring two tourists on a lunar flight in 2017, but the additional six years leaves time


Our lack of pandemic preparedness could prove deadly

Tom Inglesby, an infectious-disease physician, is director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Eric Toner, an emergency physician, is a senior scholar at the center and led the Clade X pandemic exercise project. A few months ago, a disease caused by an engineered biological weapon played the antagonist in a fictional outbreak scenario that ended with more than 100 million dead and the global economy crippled. It was a frightening story with a real message for U.S. leaders responsible for ensuring the country's pandemic preparedness. Nature continues to create serious biological threats, with the possibility of a deadly new pandemic influenza perhaps the most worrying. Far less recognized, but potentially even more alarming: The biotechnology revolution now underway is substantially lowering the bar for the creation of biological weapons that themselves could cause pandemics. Policymakers need to pay much closer attention to the threats that could be posed by biologically engineered pathogens. There are still no licensed vaccines for most of the deadly viral pathogens that have occurred naturally in the past 40 years. That includes HIV, West Nile, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). A pathogen that combined the lethality of any of these diseases with the ability to spread like influenza could cause extraordinary illness and mortality. We and our colleagues at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security brought this threat to life in May with a tabletop exercise simulating the spread of a severe new pandemic involving a virus we called Clade X. Participants in the exercise included former Senate majority leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) playing that role as American leadership formulated its response to the threat. Former deputy attorney general Jamie Gorelick served as attorney general in the simulation, which included mock newscasts and emergency National Security Council meetings. The Clade X virus's origin as a bioengineered terrorist weapon and its pandemic trajectory shed light on feasible real-world threats and serious policy challenges. The exercise made clear that the only way to stave off a catastrophic outcome would have been a global public-health system capable of rapidly detecting a nascent outbreak and responding vigorously before it could become a pandemic. Such preparedness doesn't exist today. Government and industry must be able to develop new medical countermeasures — and to manufacture and dispense millions of doses — within months rather than years, as current capabilities would require. The


of these diseases with the ability to spread like influenza could cause extraordinary illness and mortality. We and our colleagues at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security brought this threat to life in May with a tabletop exercise simulating the spread of a severe new pandemic involving a virus we called Clade X. Participants in the exercise included former Senate majority leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) playing that role as American leadership formulated its response to the threat. Former deputy attorney general Jamie Gorelick served as attorney general in the simulation, which included mock newscasts and emergency National Security Council meetings. The Clade X virus's origin as a bioengineered terrorist weapon and its pandemic trajectory shed light on feasible real-world threats and serious policy challenges. The exercise made clear that the only way to stave off a catastrophic outcome would have been a global public-health system capable of rapidly detecting a nascent outbreak and responding vigorously before it could become a pandemic. Such preparedness doesn't exist today. Government and industry must be able to develop new medical countermeasures — and to manufacture and dispense millions of doses — within months rather than years, as current capabilities would require. The United States should place extraordinary national focus on establishing new approaches to quickly produce drugs, vaccines and rapid diagnostics for novel pathogens. Sustained political commitment to pandemic preparedness is in some ways just as vital as the work to create medical countermeasures. The United States recognized the need by launching the Global Health Security Agenda in 2014, a five-year, $1 billion initiative. The aim was to establish an international effort to strengthen countries' ability to prevent, detect and respond to outbreaks. The initiative has been embraced by more than 60 countries so far, along with the World Health Organization and other organizations. The GHSA's successes so far include better tracking of multi-drug-resistant bacteria in Vietnam and faster responses to disease outbreaks in Uganda. But the GHSA's funding will run out next year, and although the Trump administration has expressed support for the initiative, future U.S. financial support is uncertain. Investing in the GHSA directly benefits the health security of the United States because viruses don't respect borders. In the Clade X scenario, the virus first appeared in Venezuela and Germany before going global, eventually arriving in the United States. After 20 weeks, 15 million Americans were dead. The best way


SpaceX flight is bringing creative minds to space

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa will be the first paying tourist to fly around the moon, and the 42-year-old said this week that he wants company for the week-long journey: Maezawa plans to invite six to eight artists, architects, designers and other creative people to join him on the SpaceX rocket “to inspire the dreamer in all of us.” SpaceX founder Elon Musk announced Monday that the Big Falcon rocket is scheduled to make the trip in 2023. Maezawa said he wants his guests for the lunar orbit“to see the moon up close, and the Earth in full view, and create work to reflect their experience.” “I wish to create amazing works of art for humankind,” Maezawa said. Maezawa, a former musician, founded the retail firm Start Today in 1998 and built it into one of Japan’s most successful companies. In 2012, he started the Tokyo-based Contemporary Art Foundation to support young artists. Musk said the rocket is still in development and will make several test launches before it takes on passengers. The reusable 387-foot rocket is expected to cost about $5 billion. The mission will not involve a lunar landing. Astronauts last visited the moon during NASA’s Apollo program. Twenty-four men flew to the moon from 1968 through 1972, and half of them made it to the lunar surface. The average distance from Earth to the moon is about 237,700 miles. SpaceX has its sights ultimately set on Mars. In 2010, it became the first private company to launch a spacecraft into orbit and safely return it to Earth. Maezawa didn’t say who will be on his guest list for the spaceflight, but he said he’d consider inviting Musk. “Maybe we’ll both be on it,” Musk said with a smile. — Associated Press


World Digest: Sept. 19, 2018

BREXIT E.U., Britain clash over Irish border at talks The European Union and Britain clashed Wednesday over the biggest obstacle to concluding Brexit talks, with both sides urging the other to compromise just weeks before they must seal a deal. At a summit in Salzburg, Austria, European Council President Donald Tusk warned Britain that key parts of its Brexit offer — notably, keeping the Irish border open — are not satisfactory and must be revised. But Prime Minister Theresa May insisted that her solution to keep goods flowing seamlessly between Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and E.U. member state Ireland is the “only credible and negotiable plan” on the table. Britain will leave the E.U. at midnight on March 29, but both sides are desperate to reach an agreement in coming weeks to leave time for ratification by their parliaments. Both sides have pledged to ensure that there is no hard border around Northern Ireland but disagree on how to get there. The E.U. has offered to effectively keep Northern Ireland in the bloc’s customs union. The E.U.’s chief Brexit negotiator says that could be done by checking goods destined for Northern Ireland at companies and markets within the U.K. But London says this would undermine the U.K. by treating Northern Ireland differently than the rest of the country. May’s plan envisions the whole U.K., including Northern Ireland, remaining in the European single market for goods, thereby eliminating the need for a hard border. — Associated Press INDIA Ordinance bans instant divorce by Muslim men India’s government on Wednesday approved an ordinance to implement a ruling by the nation’s top court striking down the Muslim practice that allows men to instantly divorce. The government’s decision came after it failed to get approval from Parliament a year after the Supreme Court ruled that the practice of allowing men to divorce by simply uttering the Arabic word for divorce — “talaq” — three times violated the constitutional rights of Muslim women. Most of the 170 million Muslims in India are Sunnis governed by the Muslim personal law for family matters and disputes. The laws include allowing the practice, known as “triple talaq.” The government will have six more months to get Parliament’s approval for the ordinance to become law. But in the meantime, those who violate it can be prosecuted. After the court verdict, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s


The loser of the Camp David Accords

War in 1967, and it brought with it normal diplomatic, economic and cultural relations with Egypt, the most populous state in the Arab world. Sadat and Begin shared the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize for their historic achievement. Less understood about the Camp David summit, however, is how the Carter administration abandoned its support for Palestinian self-determination, blocked the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank and perpetuated the indefinite Israeli occupation of the occupied Palestinian territories — policies that continue to this day. This was a remarkable retreat for a president who viewed the Palestinians, like black southerners during the era of segregation, as “victims of injustice” and who had pledged to adopt “a more ambitious American approach” to the region to ensure that Palestinian rights were recognized as part of any solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. “Since I had made our nation’s commitment to human rights a central tenet of our foreign policy,” he later wrote, “it was impossible for me to ignore the very serious problems on the West Bank. The continued deprivation of Palestinian rights was not only used as the primary lever against Israel, but was contrary to the basic moral and ethical principles of both our countries.” As a sign of this commitment, in March 1977, Carter came out publicly in favor of a “homeland” for Palestinian refugees as a “prerequisite” to any Arab-Israeli peace settlement, something no previous president had ever done. During his first meeting with Begin, four months later, he made it clear that no comprehensive settlement could be accomplished that did not provide self-determination for the Palestinian people. But after a year of negotiations and a serious domestic political hit for calling for a Palestinian “homeland,” Carter withdrew his support for Palestinian self-determination. Instead, he grudgingly endorsed Begin’s “self-rule” plan for the West Bank and Gaza. The plan called for Arab residents of these territories to elect an administrative council that would govern the daily affairs of Palestinians, while leaving Israel in charge of security in these areas. Begin’s plan was a clever way to ensure Israel would retrain sovereignty over the these areas in perpetuity, offering the Palestinians some autonomy over their daily lives but not full control over their borders. By the time he arrived at Camp David in September 1978, Carter had fully abandoned any pretense of support for Palestinian statehood. In his


Students protest after Maryland lawsuit alleges ‘shameless corruption' in concealing rape cases

Students at the University of Maryland Baltimore County staged a campus protest this week after a federal lawsuit was filed alleging that police, prosecutors and university officials concealed reports of sexual assault. The lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Maryland, alleges far-ranging “intentional misconduct” among officials “designed to cover up justifiable complaints of sexual assault.” It went on to allege that Baltimore County, the Baltimore County Police Department, the Board of Regents for the University System of Maryland, the University of Maryland and the University of Maryland Police Department engaged in “shameless corruption.” “In contravention of Plaintiffs' rights to equal protection, Defendants intimidated witnesses, deceived victims, and intentionally misstated the applicable law,” the suit said. “They conducted punitive investigations and retaliated against victims' families. They humiliated and deceived those who complained of sexual assault.” The lawsuit detailed two women’s claims. One was an 18-year-old UMBC freshman when she was raped in her dorm in 2015 by a person thought to have sexually assaulted other students, the lawsuit said. It alleges that UMBC Police Chief Paul Dillon persuaded her not to report the assault to police, but to have it handled “administratively” instead. After the assailant was exonerated by the school, the student reported the rape to Baltimore County police, but the report was wrongly classified as a “suspicious condition,” not a sexual assault, and was never prosecuted, the lawsuit alleges. Her sexual assault examination kit was also destroyed, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit also detailed the allegations of a student who was a junior at Towson University in 2017 when she was allegedly raped by three members of the UMBC baseball team. Though she reported the assault, the lawsuit alleges that Lisa Dever, Baltimore County assistant state’s attorney and the chief of the sex offense and child abuse division, ignored evidence and “refused to charge any of the three men with a crime” and that state’s attorney Scott Shellenberger ordered them not to be served with court summonses. The Baltimore County state’s attorney’s office said it had no comment on the matter. In response to the lawsuit, UMBC students on Monday confronted the university’s president, Freeman A. Hrabowski, bringing a list of demands and saying the school should “actively work to create a safe, healthy, and inclusive environment for survivors.” Students also demanded Dillon be fired and other administrators, including members of the athletic department, be


As Theresa May tries to sell her Brexit plan, Macron calls Brexit backers liars

LONDON — Prime Minister Theresa May went to dine with European leaders this week to pitch her compromise proposals for a soft departure from the union and its trading bloc, but she ran into a wall of criticism on Thursday, hearing her counterparts declare her Brexit plan unworkable. The beleaguered British leader was in Salzburg, Austria, to try to convince a tough audience that the United Kingdom could remain so closely aligned with European Union rules and regulations that it would allow for the continuation of the “frictionless” trade the modern economy is built upon. She was also asking for more time to solve the thorny issue of the border between Northern Ireland, which remains a part of the United Kingdom, and Ireland, which is a member of the E.U. May faces opposition from not only a hard-bargaining Europe, which does not want to make it too appealing for members to leave their club, but also her own Conservative Party, populated by hard-line Brexiteers such as former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, who disparages the prime minister’s exit plan as a weak capitulation to Brussels. Challenges to her Brexit plan and her leadership will take center stage at a raucous party conference in early October. Her Salzburg trip did not help. Speaking to the media in Salzburg on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron said staunch Brexit backers had deceived the British people, promising a windfall of funds and a painless exit. Brexit was pushed by those “who predicted easy solutions,” Macron said. “Those people are liars. They left the next day so they didn’t have to manage it.” May had warned European leaders that her plan — agreed to by her divided cabinet in July at the prime minister’s official country manor, Chequers — was the only way forward. But Macron countered, “The Chequers plan cannot be take it or leave it.” Donald Tusk, the European Council president, said May’s proposal to create a British-European free-trade regime covering agriculture and goods — but not services — was not acceptable. “There are positive elements in the Chequers proposal, but the suggested framework for economic cooperation will not work, not least because it risks undermining the single market,” Tusk said. The E.U.’s single market offers much to its members but also requires the free movement of people among its countries. Britain wants to control its own immigration and make its own trade deals.


In lifting ban, WADA shows it cares much more about Russia than about doping

needs Russia to participate to maximize its revenue. Go down the list and note WADA executive committee members who also serve the IOC, and you find Danka Bartekova of Slovakia, Patrick Baumann of Switzerland and Ugur Erdener of Turkey. How ’bout that? The police and the promoters are one and the same. So people with an active and invested role in staging future Olympics want Russia — one of a dwindling number of countries willing to host the Games going forward — to participate in future Olympics. And if it means kicking the conditions they placed on Russia for reinstatement down the road, well, then so be it. It would be infuriating if it wasn’t so predictable. “It’s a far bigger issue than just whether Russia’s reinstated,” said Travis Tygart, chief executive of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, in a telephone interview. “It’s really about what type of WADA do we all want WADA to be? Do we want it to be one that has the backs of billions of sports fans who want fair play and millions of clean athletes who are demanding it? Or do we want a toothless tiger that’s the puppet of a handful of IOC sports ministers?” This is not an Olympic year, so the ramifications of Russian reinstatement won’t really gain a foothold now. Can you even say where the next Olympics will be held? They feel like they pop up every two years, and the issues that mar them follow them into the spotlight, and then they duck under cover again. Which is great if you run WADA or the IOC — or both. But the athletes who are striving toward the Summer Games in Tokyo in 2020 (did you get that?) or the Winter Games in Beijing in 2022 (bet you missed that) spent the week leading up to WADA’s decision-making as much noise as possible. The decision was telegraphed last week, when WADA’s six-person compliance review committee recommended RUSADA’s reinstatement. That led Beckie Scott, a former cross-country skier from Canada, to resign her position on that committee. Go back further, though. WADA also had said, for Russia to be reinstated, that it must accept the findings of Canadian attorney Richard McLaren, whose scathing 2016 report outlined the pass-the-urine-through-the-hole-in-the-wall shenanigans that preceded the Sochi Games. But by this summer, when IOC chief Thomas Bach sat down with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the


Marijuana use is now as common among baby boomers as it is among teens, federal data shows

of last year, 2.4 percent of seniors used marijuana monthly, and nearly 4 percent were using on at least an annual basis. Federal data showed that marijuana use among middle-aged Americans surpassed teen use several years ago, which underscores a point that often gets lost in contemporary debate about marijuana legalization: While debates about marijuana use tend to focus on the drug’s effects on young people, marijuana use is becoming more concentrated among older Americans. The effects of long-term marijuana use among that cohort are less understood. There are a number of factors driving these trends. Nine states plus the District have legalized marijuana for adult recreational use since 2012. It’s only natural that those laws would boost use among older Americans while having little effect among younger ones. The legalization wave happens to be happening as baby boomers are entering their golden years. The boomers were big supporters (and users of) pot in the late ’60s and ’70s, and it seems that many are using their retirement years to revisit some of the mind-altering experiences of their youth. Finally, medical concerns appear to be a key factor driving marijuana use among older Americans. A recent study conducted by Benjamin Han and Joseph Palamar of New York University found that more than 20 percent of marijuana users over age 65 said a doctor recommended they try the drug. Other research has shown that marijuana is particularly effective at treating chronic pain, which is particularly prevalent among the elderly. Several recent studies have found that Medicare prescriptions for opiate painkillers are lower in states with medical marijuana programs. On net, grandparents smoking state-legal weed in their homes is much less of a legal or public-health concern than teens using black market stuff at parties. But as with any recreational drug there are risks associated with marijuana use, even if the user is over the age of 60. The Han/Palamar study, for instance, found evidence for higher rates of nicotine dependence, cocaine use and prescription drug misuse among older Americans who had used marijuana in the past year. And dependency is always a concern, particularly among people who use marijuana frequently. That said, it’s becoming increasingly clear that stereotypes of marijuana users as risk-taking disaffected youth are outdated in the era of legal marijuana, with middle-aged and even older Americans becoming more likely to use the drug than their children and grandchildren.


A college cross-country team needed runners. It recruited three moms over 40.

2 seconds. In the second meet, Lopez finished second overall in the 3K with a 12:16 time. Gray was fourth with 12:20. “Judy was right,” Lopez said. “I wasn’t at the back of the pack.” Daytona State Athletic Director William Dunne has been at the college 30 years. He said he’s never seen one program make a habit of recruiting “nontraditional students.” “Our rules are different than NCAA rules. If we offer activities ... students and members of our community are interested in, and they’re eligible, why not?” he said. “It’s a neat thing where maybe a nontraditional student can participate.” Wilson found Gray, a former triathloner, after Lopez. She was running with a mutual friend who mentioned Daytona State was looking for runners. All you had to do was enroll in a semester’s worth of classes — you could even take them online — and keep up with the rest of the team. “I thought it would be exciting,” Gray said. “It’s easier to get better when you’re in a group.” She arrived at the first practice to find not only runners her daughter’s age, but ones her daughter actually ran with on her high school varsity team. Gray was the mom who threw pasta parties the night before races and braided hair on race day. “I was worried it’d be uncomfortable to have a mom figure on the team, but it’s worked out,” she said. “I didn’t know if we would fit in with them because we’re 20 years older,” said Jenny Enslin, 42, the final nontraditional recruit. “But it was really nice. At the end of the meet, one of the younger girls asked if next week we could go get our nails done together.” Wilson had contacted Enslin after she saw they both ran the Boston Marathon and realized they had mutual friends. “When she first reached out, I thought she wanted volunteers to help with the team, like an assistant,” Enslin said. “It was kind of mind boggling that she wanted older runners to be on the team.” But Wilson doesn’t treat the nontraditional athletes any differently than the 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds on the roster. She runs Division I-style workouts, the same ones she ran during previous coaching stints at Indiana, DePauw, Connecticut and South Florida. She uses Lopez, Gray and Enslin to motivate the younger runners. If they can complete these workouts and


Jogger fatally stabbed in D.C.’s Logan Circle neighborhood in what police think was a random attack

her Hispanic heritage, her mother said. At a Wednesday news conference, Newsham said Martinez, who lived in the area of the attack, was an avid runner known to run for miles in the city. He said the area where the incident took place is a “very safe neighborhood.” The chief called the attack “one of those unsettling incidents that sometimes happens in large cities.” Cora Martinez said her daughter ran every day and had participated in six marathons. She said her family is trying to find beauty in the fact she died while running. “It doesn’t make sense — she was a pure, innocent victim,” Cora Martinez said. “She didn’t have any issues with anyone.” After she was stabbed, Wendy Martinez made her way into a Chinese American restaurant. The owner described a frantic scene, saying Martinez approached the counter but could not speak. He said some customers began CPR and other first-aid methods. Newsham said that a nurse was among them. “They did the best they could, but she passed,” he said. Newsham said that there are many video surveillance feeds from businesses and homes in the area, and detectives were checking them. The chief said there were reports Tuesday night that there was more than one assailant involved, but police eventually determined that there was a single attacker. He said the confusion may have been the result of people running in fear from the scene. Newsham said the killer is described as a black man wearing a mustard-colored shirt that went to his thigh area, along with dark-colored sweatpants that were slightly rolled up. The man wore white socks and light-colored sandals, according to Newsham. He fled south on 11th Street NW. Police said that a knife was recovered at the scene. Martinez graduated from Georgetown University with a master of arts in Latin American studies in 2012, according to a university spokesman. Her mother described Martinez as a go-getter. She earned an internship on Capitol Hill with Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) after graduating from Florida Atlantic University in 2006, her mother said. From there, Martinez worked at the Nicaraguan Embassy, the Organization of American States and the Inter-American Development Bank before joining FiscalNote — a District-based management and technology company — two years ago. She was promoted at FiscalNote last year and most recently held a position as its chief of staff. On its Twitter account, FiscalNote


Tuesday night that there was more than one assailant involved, but police eventually determined that there was a single attacker. He said the confusion may have been the result of people running in fear from the scene. Newsham said the killer is described as a black man wearing a mustard-colored shirt that went to his thigh area, along with dark-colored sweatpants that were slightly rolled up. The man wore white socks and light-colored sandals, according to Newsham. He fled south on 11th Street NW. Police said that a knife was recovered at the scene. Martinez graduated from Georgetown University with a master of arts in Latin American studies in 2012, according to a university spokesman. Her mother described Martinez as a go-getter. She earned an internship on Capitol Hill with Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) after graduating from Florida Atlantic University in 2006, her mother said. From there, Martinez worked at the Nicaraguan Embassy, the Organization of American States and the Inter-American Development Bank before joining FiscalNote — a District-based management and technology company — two years ago. She was promoted at FiscalNote last year and most recently held a position as its chief of staff. On its Twitter account, FiscalNote wrote that staffers were “shocked and deeply saddened to learn that [Martinez] was killed last night.” “Wendy was an invaluable member of our team and a vibrant member of the community,” the company tweeted. Martinez’s 29-year-old brother, Juan Carlos Martinez, said Wendy loved living in the District and always found ways to help the people around her. “She was a great role model, a perfect daughter, a great sister,” he said. “A wonderful member to society and the community in Washington D.C.” Her death comes as the Washington region has experienced more than 190 homicides this year, according to tracking done by The Washington Post. Of those, more than 100 have been in the District, mainly in Southeast and Northeast Washington. The area around Logan Circle has a relatively low crime rate, with few violent crimes. Most of the incidents in the area involve vehicle break-ins. On Wednesday morning, Jessica Dillman, 34, placed flowers outside the restaurant where Martinez went for help. Dillman — who lives less than a block away — said she also is an avid runner. The block where the woman was stabbed is part of the “safe route” she takes when she doesn’t want to run


D.C.-area forecast: Periodic clouds, with slight rain chances the next couple days

8:05 a.m. update: From 5:00 a.m... TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 8/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: Tonight: Saturday: Sunday: View the FORECAST IN DETAIL Prepare for clouds more often than not — yet again. They may come with isolated rain chances the next couple of days. Try to get outdoor plans done before Sunday as more consistent periods of rain may enter the picture as early as Saturday night and then pester us into next week. Get our daily forecasts on your Amazon Alexa device. Today (Friday): Tonight Follow us on Tomorrow Tomorrow night: A LOOK AHEAD Sunday: Sunday night: Cloudiness with rain chances may spill into Monday and Tuesday, with showers and storms threatening perhaps both days. Right now it’s possible the heaviest of rain waits for overnight hours Monday. We could stay as cool as the mid-to-upper 60s on Monday, with muggier mid-to-upper 70s possible by Tuesday. Confidence: Low-Medium


World Digest: Sept. 21, 2018

In a televised address, the president said the ferry captain had been detained after leaving the steering to someone who wasn’t properly trained, the Citizen newspaper reported. The MV Nyerere’s capacity was 101 people, but the ferry was overloaded when it capsized Thursday afternoon, the government’s Chief Secretary John Kijazi told reporters. At least 40 people had been rescued, he said, but that number barely rose Friday. Dozens of security personnel and volunteers, wearing gloves and masks, had resumed work at daybreak, hauling bodies into wooden boats, after suspending efforts overnight. “More than 200 people are feared dead,” based on accounts from witnesses, a Tanzania Red Cross spokeswoman said. — Associated Press MEXICO Emergency declared as 3 die in Sinaloa floods Federal officials in Mexico declared a state of emergency for 11 municipalities in the northwestern state of Sinaloa because of flooding from a tropical depression’s heavy rains that killed at least three people, authorities reported Friday. Images in local and social media showed streets turned into raging rivers, swamping cars. El Universal newspaper posted video of an SUV being carried away by the current in Guamuchil as passengers scrambled to get onto its roof. Soldiers in trucks picked up residents and took them to safety, and the Sinaloa state government said that more than 2,000 people had evacuated and 13 shelters were set up. In a statement early Friday, state Attorney General Juan José Ríos Estavillo reported that one person drowned and two were killed by electrocution. Three women were missing in Culiacan, the state capital, after presumably being swept away. — Associated Press INDIA Bishop is arrested on charges of raping nun A Roman Catholic bishop was arrested in the south Indian state of Kerala on Friday on charges of raping a nun, police said, a day after the Vatican accepted the bishop’s request to be temporarily relieved of his duties. There was no immediate comment from Bishop Franco Mulakkal or his lawyers, though he has denied the charges in interviews in the past. Mulakkal, who heads the diocese of Jalandhar, wrote to the Vatican on Sunday asking to step down temporarily as protests and calls for his arrest grew. The Vatican accepted his request Thursday. A Vatican spokesman said he had no immediate comment. — Reuters Taiwan police arrest American 3-D gun designer: Excessive drinking killed over 3 million in 2016, WHO says: — From news services


John Bolton is dead wrong. The U.S. has every reason to cooperate with the International Criminal Court.

including Darfur, Libya, the Congo Republic, the Central African Republic and Uganda. And there is no doubt that the reach of the court’s jurisdiction has restrained conflict, whatever the difficulties that emerged in applying clean legal procedures to the nasty violence and ugly strategies of warfare. Bensouda announced that her “preliminary examination” focused largely on the Taliban and Afghan national security forces and might include al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups if a formal investigation is launched. At stake are crimes against humanity and war crimes of great magnitude orchestrated by these groups and directed toward the innocent. The impact would be felt beyond Afghanistan and into the future, as other would-be war criminals, often tied to terrorist groups, and the nations that support them would have to increasingly reckon with the practical consequences of illegal actions. The prosecutor will need our help in this, too, for we have some of the most valuable evidence against the suspects. And by cooperating, we can help strengthen the power of international action against terrorists and their supporters, in particular. But what about Bensouda’s investigations of the United States personnel, and actions, as part of this? First, the incidents cited are only a small and minor aspect of the preliminary examination, however large they loom here. The truth is that the United States has always tried to act within the bounds of international laws and expectations, as we have interpreted them. Second, the Rome Statute allows prosecutors to refrain from indictments if “there are … substantial reasons to believe that an investigation would not serve the interests of justice.” In other words, the court does not have to act if it believes that the countries implicated can take their own measures to deliver justice. In line with this, the United States should agree to establish its own “truth commission,” operating under highly credible procedures under U.S. law, but using international observers and protecting our classified sources and procedures. The truth commission would provide a channel for admitting mistakes where they occurred and providing restitution to victims where it is warranted. It would also be a marker to future generations of American leaders, who will have to wrestle with these same or similar questions of life, death and the national interest. It may surprise some that the International Criminal Court challenge in the Afghan situation provides us with precisely the means we need to strengthen


U-Md. board of regents releases independent report on Jordan McNair, laying out timeline that led to football player’s death

The school’s board of regents was briefed on the findings from a months-long independent probe into the workout that led to the June death of the 19-year-old offensive lineman from exertional heatstroke. The investigation concluded earlier this month, but the board of regents did not see the report until Friday’s scheduled meeting. A second investigation into the football program’s culture, led by an eight-person commission appointed by the school president and the board of regents, is ongoing. This is a developing story. It will be updated.


The cheeky ‘wine mom’ trope isn’t just dumb. It’s dangerous.

night, when my son was about a year old, I drank so many margaritas I spent the whole next morning throwing up. With my puffy, green face pressed against the toilet seat, I realized I was using so much energy figuring out how to escape that I had accomplished the opposite. I was trapped in a dangerous cycle. Desperate for a way out, I contacted my therapist, who recommended I consider increasing my anti-anxiety medication dosage — and, more importantly, helped me to see that to be the mother I wanted to be, I had to mother myself. It’s been three years since I reevaluated my relationship with alcohol. I haven’t chosen to be totally sober, but facing anxiety without being a wine mom isn’t an all-encompassing mandate of sobriety in the traditional sense of non-drinking. The sobriety I needed was presence: presence with the pain, presence with myself. And real presence requires going through obstacles, not around them. With alcohol masking my true emotions and my needs, I would have never sought out my therapist or thought to increase my dose of anti-anxiety medication. I would have never joined a gym or rediscovered my love for writing. And I probably never would have spoken up about my anxiety or connected with other moms facing the same thing — one of the most powerful coping tools I’ve found. Sacks, who has built a significant community on social media by encouraging authentic conversations about motherhood, is hopeful that we will see a shift in the current patterns of postpartum mental health — starting with women communicating the struggle of motherhood in an authentic way rather than reducing the stress of motherhood to a meme. “Don’t just laugh it off. Instead, take a courageous step and talk to other moms,” she says. “It can be incredibly relieving to realize others are experiencing what you’re going through.” Ashley Abramson is a mom and freelance writer living in Minnesota. Find her on Twitter @ashleyabrmsn. Follow On Parenting on Facebook for more essays, news and updates. You can sign up here for our weekly newsletter. We are on Twitter @OnParenting. More reading: Why parents should try to be happy, even when their child isn’t I tried mindfulness to quit drinking. It actually worked. PTA culture and the working mother I never understood why adults talked about so many depressing things, until I became a parent


We need to keep an eye toward the future. But the SCMaglev isn’t the answer.

In his Sept. 13 letter, “You better believe Roosevelt would have built SCMaglev,” Robert Snyder persuasively chanted the mantra of the developers of the superconducting magnetic-levitation — SCMaglev — train between Washington and Baltimore, evoking images of the sleek and shiny new world the train purportedly would usher in. However, he forgot to mention the damage to modest-income and struggling working-class families and the destruction of the infrastructure and social fabric of communities, including the potential loss of homes, businesses, schools, churches, historic structures and unique ecological environments with either under- or over-ground digging and the seizing of property through eminent domain. We have transportation and employment issues that need to be addressed with ingenuity and an eye toward innovative planning for the future, but the SCMaglev is not the answer. Susan McCutchen The writer is community liaison for Bladensburg Citizens Against the SCMaglev.