Jose Andres brings test kitchen to Verizon Center main concourse

Paul Pierce and Jose Andres shared a moment in 2015 before the forward’s buzzer beater was waved off in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post) Jose Andres is the latest famous chef to take his talents to sports, with Friday’s announcement that he’ll open a “test kitchen” stand on the main concourse of Verizon Center. His collaboration with Aramark — part of the company’s Launch Test Kitchen concept — will “feature a rotating menu of his culinary offerings,” according to a press release. Andres’s local restaurant empire currently includes America Eats Tavern, Barmini, Beefsteak, China Chilcano, Jaleo, Minibar, Oyamel, Zaytinya and the Pepe Food Truck, which held an event at Nationals Park last season. Andres’s first featured restaurant at Verizon Center will be Beefsteak, which “celebrates the incredible, unsung power of vegetables — which are sexy, robust, flavorful and satisfying!” (Fact check: true!) Initial menu items will include Beefsteak’s Tomato Burger, a gazpacho bowl and a variety of “composed bowls,” listed below. Andres is a vocal D.C. sports fan — he once tried to woo Paul Pierce with food and successfully performed the Heimlich on a random fan at a Wizards game — and many of his best-known restaurants are located just a few blocks from Verizon Center. He’s also close with team owner Ted Leonsis. Andres said in a provided quote that he’s “thrilled to be able to share some of our concepts …with the fans of my beloved Wizards and Caps and all those who come to Verizon Center this fall and winter.” Aramark’s test kitchen concept will “be used to showcase local chefs, introduce new items and adopt to new food trends,” the announcement said, and will encourage fan feedback on its menus. The new stand will have a soft opening Saturday night at the Caps home opener, which might have conflicted with Game 1 of the NLCS but now will apparently not. That will cap an memorable week for Andres, whose Minibar was one of three restaurants to receive two stars from Michelin’s first-ever Washington restaurant guide. That’s exciting, but probably not quite as exciting as opening a stand at Verizon Center. As soon as I arrived the Caps scored! Go .@washcaps! http://t.co/5bT0xXP5aX El chef español José Andrés (@chefjoseandres) protagonista en el Media Day de los Wizards http://t.co/39wiz9H9C6 (Foto @SteveBuckhantz) Here are the “composed bowls” that are scheduled to be on


The universe may have 10 times as many galaxies as we thought

available data to construct a 3-D map of the universe around us, which allowed them to chart the number of galaxies that existed at different periods in history — the farther away a telescope looks, the further back in time it looks, because we're seeing light that has had to travel longer distances to reach the lens. The team's mathematical models indicate that for the universe to behave as it does, there must be more than a trillion galaxies unaccounted for. Their results are set to be published soon in the Astrophysical Journal. By looking 13 billion years into the past, Conselice's team also found that there was not an even distribution of galaxies throughout the universe's history. When the universe was young — just millions and billions of years old compared with 13.8 billion years it now has under its belt — it contained 10 times as many galaxies per unit volume. While the mass of the universe didn't change, it was distributed across a greater number of spunky, small galaxies than the layout we see closer to home. “This gives us a verification of the so-called top-down formation of structure in the universe,” Conselice said in a statement — the idea that the universe started small, creating lots of tiny galaxies that would grow and merge into the behemoths we observe today. “We are missing the vast majority of galaxies because they are very faint and far away,” he added in another statement. “The number of galaxies in the universe is a fundamental question in astronomy, and it boggles the mind that over 90 percent of the galaxies in the cosmos have yet to be studied. Who knows what interesting properties we will find when we study these galaxies with the next generation of telescopes?” Conselice estimated to the LA Times that the James Webb Space Telescope, set to launch in 2018, will “more than double” the number of galaxies that humans can observe. But if Conselice's latest findings are correct, that still leaves more than a trillion galaxies well beyond our reach. Read more: New study predicts the slow, inevitable death of the universe This virus may have stolen deadly DNA from black widow spiders The moon is a more violent place than we thought Surprising spidey sense: Arachnids can eavesdrop quite well without any ears 66 million-year-old bird fossil is the oldest squawk box ever found


In Ethiopia’s war against social media, the truth is the main casualty

thousands of activists taking pictures and photos as they take part in protest actions. They pass it to us, we verify the story using various mechanisms and share with the public,” he told The Post in an email. “When Internet is down, we have alternative ways where critical information reaches us, although the volume significantly drops.” The degree to which social media actually translates into direct activism has long been debated. Some maintain that the role of Facebook in coordinating and fueling the Arab Spring uprisings has been vastly exaggerated. Ethiopia, with its impoverished countryside, has an Internet penetration of between 4 and 12 percent, with few being able to afford the smartphones to take advantage of the 3G network — when it hasn’t been shut down. Mohammed, however, says that all it takes is a few people accessing his messages through proxies or special software and then passing it on through word-of-mouth or phone calls to other activists on the ground. Yet others active in Ethiopia's social media environment prefer not to overestimate the influence of people like Mohammed, ascribing the unrest more to people's well-founded anger rather than following orders from abroad. Daniel Berhane, an Addis Ababa-based blogger and editor of the Horn Affairs Network news site, said many times in the past, Mohammed and others have called for “days of rage” and there had been little response. It was only in the wake of huge loss of life at one of the most sacred festivals of the Oromo people that there was so much violence. His website has hosted a number of articles critical of Mohammed, and he dismissed the veracity of much of Mohammed’s reporting, but admitted that knowing through social media that others were angry helped sustain the movement. “Social medial tells you if the other district is protesting and it makes you feel like you are not alone,” he said. “It sends a signal that the rage already exists on the ground.” The problem, according to Berhane, is that there are not many online voices disputing the exaggerated narratives of the diaspora activists. The government relies on its monopoly of traditional media like radio and television and leaves the world of social media uncontested. “The government doesn’t have a clue for using alternative voices even to support their own policies,” he said. “They can’t tolerate even a 1 percent deviation from their own view.”


Calls for prosecuting war crimes in Syria are growing. Is international justice possible?

any such court simply doing the bidding of Western states. Indeed, ad hoc and hybrid tribunals are more easily prone to political manipulation by powerful states than the ICC, a fact that may explain Washington’s preference for such institutions in Syria and elsewhere. Domestic prosecutions of international crimes in Western states While there has been a handful of prosecutions of Syrian war criminals in Europe, the West’s record of international justice remains minimal. Western states could be doing more, and much closer to home, to support accountability for crimes committed in Syria. For one, states could boost their support of groups, including the Commission for International Justice and Accountability. Such organizations take unimaginable risks to collect evidence on the ground and smuggle out it out of Syria. When the day comes for a tribunal to prosecute war crimes in Syria, it will undoubtedly rely significantly on the evidence such groups can collect. The efforts of human rights and Syrian opposition groups over the last few years to collect evidence of international crimes and prepare case files for eventual prosecution may not bear fruit now, but they have not been wasted. Western states could also make it a priority to prosecute those war criminals currently residing in Western states and support their prosecution in areas where perpetrators have fled, including the refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. The list of such perpetrators is long and growing, as alleged war criminals are identified hiding among refugees in Europe. Prosecutions in Western states would represent a drop in the ocean of what is needed, but fair and transparent prosecutions would send a signal that Western governments are committed to achieving whatever justice and accountability is currently feasible. It would close the gap between the West’s rhetoric on the need for justice and the resources it is actually willing to expend on achieving accountability. Justice in Syria — imperfect options International justice for Syria is not on the horizon. Suggesting that it is raises false hopes and unfair expectations. This is something that all actors need to be wary of. But more can be done right now to support and achieve a degree of accountability for the victims and survivors of war crimes in Syria. Mark Kersten is a researcher based at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto and is the creator of the blog Justice in Conflict.


Almost half of retail grocery store managers are just guessing about their inventory

It’s the age of big data. Enormous amounts of bits and bytes are being stored in endless rows of servers in colossal data centers located throughout the world. Executives and business owners are using this unprecedented wealth of information to manage their operations with unprecedented accuracy. And, of course, these managers are using this data to automate workflows and processes for inventory management, replenishment and pricing. Or not. As reported in FoodBev Media, it appears that the typical manager of a retail shop is pretty much guessing. Blue Yonder, a retail tech company, surveyed 750 grocery managers and directors in the U.S., U.K., Germany and France. Forty-six percent of those directors said replenishment of their inventories is a manual process and a further 46 percent say that even when the process is automated it can be overridden by managers, suggesting a reluctance to rely on automation. The most disturbing metric: 48 percent said they use a “gut feeling” when making inventory decisions. The study also found a quarter of grocers feel they are not delivering at the speed that their customers require–not a great sign in an age where customers are becoming more and more demanding for speed and convenience and would have little patience for stores running out of stock. Losing customers is one risk of not automating. But there are other costs. For example, according to Blue Yonder’s research report 4 million tons of food is wasted each year by the grocery industry in the U.K. alone. That translates into a big cost in what is historically a low-margin business. A cost that could be reduced with more automation and more informed pricing, particularly for older or damaged items. Adding even more pressure to the typical small grocer is this week’s rumors that Amazon it is entering the brick-and-mortar grocery business. You can bet the managers at Amazon will not be making their inventory decisions based on a “gut feel.” They’ll be using data and automation. Lots of it. (Chief Executive Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Washington Post). “Only those retailers who understand the importance of advanced machine learning algorithms and big data will survive and thrive grocery retail into the future.” said Michael Feindt, Blue Yonder’s founder in a company’s blog post.


10 things in the D.C. Michelin Guide that don’t make much sense

Little Serow drew harsh words from the Michelin Guide. (Photo by Scott Suchman/For The Washington Post) When Michelin announced that it would release its first guide in D.C., locals were worried that the city would be misunderstood. After all, Michelin’s inspectors travel around the world evaluating restaurants from Paris to Seoul. That’s what they say makes them objective — three stars indicate the same caliber of experience all over the world, and they don’t grade on a curve — but it also risks certain restaurants or local favorites being lost in translation. We’re in the business of restaurant criticism, so we know it’s subjective and fallible. But there were several things in the Michelin Guide that left us scratching our heads. They’re unimpressed by the facades of our buildings: They’re kind of afraid to walk around our neighborhoods: They’re interested in . . . mating?: They love puns: Anxo: “This Cider House rules.” Bad Saint: “You’ll need the patience of a saint to secure a meal here.” Bidwell: “You will indeed fare well at Bidwell.” Hank’s Oyster Bar: “Prepare yourself for a sea, Proof: “It may be said that the proof is in the pudding, but this particular restaurant proves its mettle with wine.” They’re just sort of confused by Conosci: They’re into profiling dining rooms They neglect to mention the chef at some starred restaurants They don’t like control freaks They don’t know jack about barbecue They basically ignored one of the D.C. area’s largest immigrant groups


I nominated Bob Dylan for the Nobel Prize more than a dozen times

Bob Dylan aboard a train. For decades I’ve admired the work of Bob Dylan, whom I first saw at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, but it was in August of 1996 that I first wrote the Nobel Committee, nominating Dylan for its literature prize. The idea to do so originated not with me but with two Dylan aficionados in Norway, journalist Reidar Indrebø and attorney Gunnar Lunde, who had recently written Allen Ginsberg about a Nobel for Dylan. Ginsberg’s office then asked if I’d write a nominating letter. (Nominators must be professors of literature or linguistics, past laureates, presidents of national writers’ groups, or members of the Swedish Academy or similar groups.) Over the next few months, several other professors, including Stephen Scobie, Daniel Karlin, and Betsy Bowden, endorsed Dylan for the Nobel. I would go on to nominate Dylan for the next dozen years. This year, he finally won. Examining prize criteria, I learned that Alfred Nobel’s 1895 will specified that in literature the work must be “the most outstanding . . . of an idealistic tendency,” and that “during the preceding year” the honoree must “have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.” Could as much be said about Dylan’s lyrics? Can an icon of popular culture, a “song and dance man,” stand shoulder-to-shoulder with literary giants? Bobby Zimmerman alongside Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and Gunter Grass? Idealism and benefiting humanity often, of course, move hand in hand, and Dylan’s idealistic, activist songs have indeed helped change our world. His 1963 Tom Paine Award (an earlier recipient, Bertrand Russell, was one of three philosophers — not counting Sartre — to win the Nobel in literature) came after “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Oxford Town,” and other works, as well as his going South to help with voter registration drives. An attitude aired in his 1965 “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)”—“ . . . even the President of the United States / sometimes must have / to stand naked” — may have helped revise our view of presidential authority, encouraging inquiry into what became Watergate. For a generation raised in conformity, Dylan validated imagination and independence of thought; his work is emblematic of the creativity of the 1960s in the U.S., and has affected others across the globe. Asked in a Der Spiegel interview if growing up in Germany he had an “American Dream,” German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer


The world just took another huge step forward on fighting climate change

a deal to constrain international aviation emissions. Together, these steps show that, while diplomacy is never easy, we can work together to leave our children a planet that is safer, more prosperous, more secure, and more free than the one that was left for us.” HFCs don’t get much attention. But here’s why they matter: When the original Montreal Protocol phased out chlorofluorocarbons, which were destroying the planet’s ozone layer, manufacturers had to find a replacement chemical to use as refrigerants and in other industrial applications. Along came HFCs, which were much better for the ozone layer but, like CFCs, also happen to be a strong global warming agent. The chemicals are vastly more powerful than carbon dioxide over a 100 year time frame when it comes to warming the atmosphere. So one huge environmental crisis was, in effect, replaced by another problem lingering on the horizon. Scientists fear that a forecast explosion in air conditioning all around the world, especially in developing economies like India, could result in so much HFC leakage that it could warm the global temperature by an additional half a degree Celsius by the end of the century, which would blow past warming thresholds outlined in the Paris agreement. Unless, that is, HFCs are curbed. Under the “Kigali Amendment” approved early Saturday, the planned reduction of HFCs would have an impact similar to the removal of 80 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over the next 35 years, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who was also on hand for the negotiations said in a speech Friday that “it is not often you get a chance to have a .5-degree centigrade reduction by taking one single step together as countries — each doing different things perhaps at different times, but getting the job done.” Paul Bledsoe, who worked on climate issues under President Bill Clinton in the 1990s and was in Kigali for the negotiations, said the agreement could help “lessen climate change impacts like sea-level rise, wildfires, and extreme storms and floods.” In addition, “it should jump-start other efforts to get to prevent runaway climate change,” he said. The way the new amendment works is this: Developed and developing countries will have different “freeze dates,” or years when they must peak their HFC emissions and then begin to bring them down steadily over time.


Some consumers shy away from Wells Fargo in wake of scandal

Pedestrians pass in front of a Wells Fargo branch in New York. (Eric Thayer/Bloomberg News) Some consumers may be shying away from Wells Fargo after learning that employees used customers’ information to open sham accounts, according to new figures reported by the bank. The nation’s largest retail bank beat expectations when it reported more than $5.6 billion in profit for the past three months. But the bank’s earnings report also hinted that the Wells Fargo may have some trouble convincing people to open new accounts in the wake of the scandal. The number of checking accounts the bank opened in September fell by 25 percent from the same time last year, the company reported Friday. Credit card applications filed during the month dropped by 20 percent from a year ago. And the number of visits customers had with branch bankers also fell by 10 percent from last year. Wells Fargo, which has built a reputation for being more focused on “Main Street” than “Wall Street,” said that it’s too soon to know if the trouble seen last month will lead to a long-term slowdown in business. September was the month in which it became widely known that employees opened as many as 2 million unauthorized accounts to meet sales targets. And the bank says at least part of the losses seen last month could have been caused by several changes it has made as it tried to regain customers’ trust, such as scaling back its marketing and sales efforts. Still, a bigger question may be whether the bank can hold on to the consumers and small business customers that make up its retail business. Investing analysts on Friday asked the bank if it knew whether the customers affected by the sham accounts were closing their accounts. Bank executives said they didn’t have the information “at hand.” That irked analysts who were hoping for more specifics. “It’s a little frustrating not getting that retention information,” said Mike Mayo, a banking analyst with CLSA. “I think you’d want to know the customers that were impacted the most, what’s been your retention rate.” People tend to stick with their bank accounts in the long run. Many consumers do everything they can to avoid having to move all of their cash or update payment settings. And some banking analysts have said in recent days that they think Wells Fargo customers will stay with the


Why Sunday’s launch of Orbital ATK’s rocket is so suspenseful

Orbital ATK's Antares rocket was rolled out to Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on Oct. 13 (Courtesy of Orbital ATK) Two years after a rocket blew up shortly after liftoff, creating a 30-foot deep-crater and $15 million in damage, Orbital ATK is set to return to flight Sunday night, launching a newly configured rocket from a refurbished launchpad on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. The mission is to carry 5,100 pounds of research supplies and cargo — but no passengers -- to the International Space Station. But there is far more rising on the launch than that. Orbital ATK is hoping to prove it can bounce back from the 2014 explosion, which happened when the company was known as Orbital Sciences. Since then, it has flown its Cygnus spacecraft to the station aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. But Sunday’s launch would be the maiden flight of its newly configured Antares rocket using new engines. And the company wants to show NASA — and others — that it can fly reliably. NASA has a lot riding on it as well. The agency relies on the commercial sector to ferry supplies to the station — a move many said was risky given the complexities and dangers of spaceflight. But its other contractor, SpaceX, is grounded, while it investigates how one of its rockets blew up last month. SpaceX was also grounded last year after one of its Falcon 9 rockets blew up during a resupply mission. All of which — the newly configured rocket, the past disasters, the pressure on the commercial sector to prove it can fly reliably — adds to the suspense of Sunday’s launch. With so much at stake, it’s clear that Orbital ATK and NASA have proceeded very cautiously. The launch has been delayed repeatedly, as the company worked to get it vehicle-tested and in order. More recently, the launch delayed because a hurricane threatened a tracking station in Bermuda. But for now at least, the launch is scheduled for 8:03 p.m. Sunday. The rocket is on the launchpad, about 175 miles southeast of Washington. Here's the viewing area: Weather permitting, the #OA5 launch of #Antares will be visible along the East Coast Sunday 10/16 at 8:03pm EDT. Ke… https://t.co/hJYBNuwqpW


D.C.-area forecast: Spectacular Sunday, with summer-ish warmth on the way

Yesterday evening’s hunter’s moon. (Dave Lyons via Twitter) TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 10/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: View the current weather conditions at The Washington Post headquarters. FORECAST IN DETAIL Another spectacular day of sun and even warmer temperatures closes out our weekend in style. Plenty of sun and dry weather sticks around through midweek, with record highs a threat by Tuesday and Wednesday. So about that whole “official end of summer” thing … Today (Sunday): Tonight: Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the latest updates. For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through midweek… Tomorrow (Monday): Tomorrow night: A LOOK AHEAD Nothing much different to tell you for Tuesday. We’re still seeing lots of sun, little wind and warm temperatures. Expect highs in the low-to-mid 80s, which could even challenge the record highs for the day (DCA: 85, IAD: 82, BWI: 82). On Tuesday night, we’ll see partly cloudy skies and lows in the low-to-mid 60s. Confidence: Medium-High More of the same for Wednesday, as highs head back into the low-to-mid 80s under mostly sunny skies. That could again challenge the record highs for the day at Dulles (83) and BWI (82), while the record at DCA (88) may be a stretch. A cold front slowly sagging from the northwest could bring increasing clouds later in the day. Confidence: Medium


Pence delicately breaks with Trump on attacks against accusers, softens ‘rigged election’ rhetoric

also distance himself from the personal attacks Trump has launched against the women. “I believe Donald Trump. I don't know about the nine women. I haven't studied the case. I'm a lawyer. I would have to study each case to tell you about,” Giuliani said on CNN’s “State of the Union. “I'm not going to engage in Clinton-type conduct and attack them. I'm just telling you that I believe he's telling the truth.” Giuliani also sought to play down Trump’s comments about rigged elections, dodging questions about poll watching to claim that Trump was referring specifically to the way the media has covered the election. “I have dealt with wacky jerks on my side and against me for too long to blame it on the candidate. You can find just as many wacko nuts on her side that write us horrible and awful things,” Giuliani said. “So, when he talks about a rigged election, he's not talking about the fact that it's going to be rigged at the polls. What he's talking about is that 80 percent to 85 percent of the media is against him.” But when pressed, Trump's top surrogates were not willing to reject the premise that election fraud is prevalent, a theory that has not been backed by evidence. Pence, Giuliani and former House speaker Newt Gingrich specifically zeroed in on Chicago, Philadelphia and St. Louis as centers of such fraud. “You look at Philadelphia, you look at St. Louis, you look at Chicago. I mean, again, I'm old enough, I remember when Richard Nixon had the election stolen in 1960, and no serious historian doubts that Illinois and Texas were stolen,” Gingrich said on ABC’s “This Week.” “So to suggest that you don't have theft in Philadelphia is to deny reality.” Giuliani said on “State of the Union” that he would be a “moron” to reject the idea that voter fraud is an issue. “Do you want me to tell [you] that the election in Philadelphia and Chicago is going to be fair? I would have to be a moron to say that,” he said. “I would have to dis-learn everything I've learned in 40 years.” “But, in any event, should we be beyond that now? Should we be beyond Donald Trump's past and Hillary Clinton's past?” Giuliani said. Following a Friday report by The Washington Post on a 2005 video of the GOP presidential


Fifth Circuit rules on whether scanning the magnetic stripe on a card is a search

the “immense storage capacity” of cell phones or computers. Riley, 134 S. Ct. at 2489. The Supreme Court described that capacity as “[o]ne of the most notable distinguishing features of modern cell phones” that had “several interrelated consequences for privacy,” including that “a cell phone collects in one place many distinct types of information—an address, a note, a prescription, a bank statement, a video—that reveal much more in combination than any isolated record.” Id. Even more important is that the vast gulf in storage capacity between gift cards and cell phones reflects their different purposes. A primary purpose of modern cell phones, and certainly of computers, is to store personal information. See id. at 2489–91. The purpose of a gift card is to buy something. See Alabi, 943 F. Supp. 2d at 1279. The issuer of a gift card places the information on it, which can only be altered using a device that few Americans know about and even fewer own. As one court has put it, “[r]ather than using credit and debit cards to manipulate and store the data contained in the cards’ magnetic strips, individuals and society put to use the magnetic strips by using the data that the issuer encoded on them . . . to facilitate a financial transaction and purchase goods and services.” Id. at 1284. Another Fourth Amendment consequence flows from the commercial purpose of gift cards. Unlike cell phones and computers, whose function of storing personal information often results in access being restricted by a password, the raison d’être of gift cards means that third party cashiers will often be doing the same swiping that law enforcement did here. DE L’Isle, 825 F.3d at 430 (“[T]he purpose of a . . . gift card is to enable the holder of the card to make purchases, and to accomplish this, the holder must transfer information from the card to the seller, which negates an expressed privacy interest.”); Bah, 794 F.3d at 633 (“A credit card’s stored information . . . is intended to be read by third parties. That is the only reason for its existence.” (second emphasis added) (quoting United States v. Benjamin, No. 4:14-CR-3089, 2014 WL 5431349, at *11 (D. Neb. Oct. 24, 2014))); see generally Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735 (1979) (discussing the third party doctrine); United States v. Miller, 425 U.S. 435 (1976) (same). We thus join the other


‘Band-Aid on a bullet wound’: What America’s new war looks like in Afghanistan’s most violent province

soldier killed in Afghanistan was an ‘exceptional Green Beret’] As the Afghans hemorrhage casualties, lose ground and try to provide security for a handful of districts, the Americans in Helmand have become interlocutors for most of the parties involved — including the Army, the provincial governor and Helmand’s police chief, all while striking the Taliban and helping prepare Afghan units for another year of fighting. In Helmand, according to U.S. military officials, the situation could be better today had it not been for a decision at the end of 2014 to leave the Afghan Army unit covering the province — the 215th Corps — without any U.S. or NATO advisers. The decision, deemed “an acceptable risk” by the U.S. military, allowed what gains had been made by the unit since 2009 — with a massive amount of U.S. support — to quickly disappear. According to one Corps adviser, the 215th suffered more than half of the Afghan security forces’ casualties in Afghanistan for all of 2015. Their casualties this year, though, are down 50 percent. In response to the 215th’s rapid degradation in the winter of 2015, the U.S.-led mission in Afghanistan rushed in what is called an “expeditionary advising package,” a term of art for advisers needed to stave off disaster in some of Afghanistan’s more embattled regions. What started in February 2015 as seven advisers and four interpreters living alongside the 215th Corps’ leadership in the derelict remains of Helmand’s largest base has subsequently turned into what is now known as Task Force Forge with roughly 550 soldiers, civilians and contractors. Its motto: “Holding the Helmand Line.” Afghan commandos from the 7th Special Operations Kandak load up in their MI-17 helicopter to resupply a group of Afghan soldiers on Oct. 3. (Thomas Gibbons-Neff/ The Washington Post) ‘They like to know there are Americans there’ Camp Shorab, located in Helmand’s desert and built among the ruins of two previous installations there, has grown into a base complete with a mess hall, showers, WiFi, a small post exchange and an Afghan-run shop that sells souvenirs and haircuts. Even with Forge’s presence here and nearby Task Force Lethal — an American unit made up of an infantry battalion, medical-evacuation helicopters and gunships, stationed at Camp Dwyer — the 215th throughout this year has been able to conduct only small-scale operations to clear parts of Helmand’s main north-to-south road, Route 601. Earlier


Studio condo in historic Dupont mansion lists for $269,000

A 500-square-foot studio condo in a historic mansion at 1728 New Hampshire Ave. NW in the District’s Dupont Circle neighborhood is listing for $269,000. (Kevin Allen) The Dupont Circle neighborhood in Northwest Washington isn’t known for its affordable housing. In fact, the charming rowhouses in the community are generally priced well over $1 million even if they haven’t been completely renovated. The centrally located neighborhood, walkable to many of the city’s liveliest areas and served by Metro and numerous bus routes, has a median sales price of $418,000, but many of those recent sales are one-bedroom condos. For buyers who are focused on location above all, a 500-square-foot condo recently became available for $269,000 at 1728 New Hampshire Ave. NW, a historic mansion built in 1912. The top-floor condo, Unit 402, includes an off-street parking space. The monthly condo fee of $436 covers all utilities. The studio has oak flooring, views of the city and a galley kitchen with stainless-steel appliances. Both the kitchen and the bathroom have been updated. The mansion, originally built as a single-family home, is now a nine-unit condo building with an open staircase in the center that provides access to each unit. For more information, contact the Grant, Ryall and Andrew Group of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage’s Capitol Hill office at 202-531-6400. To pass on a tip or item, contact us at realestate@washpost.com and put “Town Square” in the subject line.


The Daily 202: Trump has reached his ceiling, with little or no room to grow

Joe Biden in Cleveland (David Dermer/AP) -- Sneak peek — Joe Biden’s final “cancer moonshot” report will outline the hurdles that hinder progress: San Diego police stand near the pickup truck that landed at Chicano Park after it flew off a ramp to the Coronado Bridge on Saturday and plowed into crowd gathered at a festival below. (Hayne Palmour IV/The San Diego Union-Tribune via AP) GET SMART FAST: - A 25-year-old member of the U.S. Navy who killed four people and injured nine more when his pickup truck plummeted 60 feet from a San Diego overpass has been arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol. (Cleve R. Wootson Jr.) - Federal authorities charged three members of a Kansas militia group with plotting a domestic terrorist attack on a Somali Muslim community in Garden City. The men, known as the “Crusaders,” allegedly hoped to strike after the Nov. 8 election and use bombs similar to the one Timothy McVeigh used in 1995 to kill 168 people in Oklahoma City. (Cleve R. Wootson Jr.) - China launched its longest manned space mission in history this morning, sending two astronauts aboard an orbiting space lab for 30 days. The move is a critical step in China’s plan to operate its own space station, which the country hopes to achieve by the year 2022. (Simon Denyer) - The teenage daughter of Olympic sprinter Tyson Gay was fatally shot outside a Kentucky restaurant. Police believe 15-year-old Trinity Gay, also a rising track star, was struck by a stray bullet as two groups of men fired at each other in the parking lot. (CNN) - New England authorities are bracing themselves for the arrival of the opioid epidemic’s newest — and most dangerous — killer. Known as carfentanil, the drug is 10,000 times stronger than morphine and is often used as an elephant tranquilizer. Police have been warned that even inhaling the drug or absorbing it though a cut can be fatal. (Boston Globe) - Target is yanking its clown masks from shelves until further notice, hoping to curb some of the national hysteria surrounding “creepy clown” sightings. (New York Magazine) - Boko Haram released 21 kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls to their families. They had been held in captivity for more than two years. (New York Times) - Thailand announced a month-long suspension of “joyful events,” temporarily shuttering night clubs, bars and other key sources of


Rudy Giuliani has officially out-Trumped Donald Trump

to be a moron to say that. I would have to dislearn everything I learned in 40 years of being a politician. TAPPER: The Republican Party of Philadelphia would disagree with you. They looked into the allegations from 2012, and they said that there was nothing irregular with what happened there. GIULIANI: Well, maybe ... TAPPER: Yes, there are areas where people only voted for Obama, just like in Utah there are places that only voted for Mitt Romney. GIULIANI: Maybe, maybe, maybe there are situations in which it's right. I don't -- I remember a case when I was associate attorney general where 720 dead people voted in Chicago in the 1982 election. I remember, in my own election, about 60 dead people voted. So, I can't sit here and tell you that they don't cheat. And I know because they control the polling places in these areas. There are no Republicans, that it's very hard to get people there who will challenge votes. So, what they do is, they leave dead people on the rolls, and then they pay people to vote those dead people four, five, six, seven, eight, nine times. (CROSSTALK) TAPPER: It's -- I have to -- we have to go, Mr. Mayor. But just to put a button on this, it sounds as though you are saying that Trump is serious when he says that the election is going to be stolen. (CROSSTALK) GIULIANI: No, I'm not saying that. TAPPER: You just laid out a whole case about how Democrats steal elections. GIULIANI: Look, if she wins Illinois by 8 percent or he wins Illinois by 8 percent, then that cheating isn't going to make any difference. If he wins Pennsylvania by 5, or she wins by 5, it will make no difference. If it's a one- or two-point race, it could make a difference in a few places. Not going to make a difference in Indiana. Not going to make a difference in North Carolina. Not going to make a difference in some -- a lot of other places, where they don't have this traditional cheating. (CROSSTALK) TAPPER: That's not an affirmation of the way our elections are held in this country. But we -- I'm sorry. GIULIANI: Well, we do cheat. We have people who cheat in elections. (CROSSTALK) TAPPER: You're saying only Democrats, only Democrats cheat? GIULIANI: I have found very


Rudy Giuliani goes full blown Trump in this CNN interview

they said that there was nothing irregular with what happened there. GIULIANI: Well, maybe... TAPPER: Yes, there are areas where people only voted for Obama, just like in Utah there are places that only voted for Mitt Romney. GIULIANI: Maybe, maybe, maybe there are situations in which it's right. I don't -- I remember a case when I was associate attorney general where 720 dead people voted in Chicago in the 1982 election. I remember, in my own election, about 60 dead people voted. So, I can't sit here and tell you that they don't cheat. And I know because they control the polling places in these areas. There are no Republicans, that it's very hard to get people there who will challenge votes. So, what they do is, they leave dead people on the rolls, and then they pay people to vote those dead people four, five, six, seven, eight, nine times. (CROSSTALK) TAPPER: It's -- I have to -- we have to go, Mr. Mayor. But just to put a button on this, it sounds as though you are saying that Trump is serious when he says that the election is going to be stolen. (CROSSTALK) GIULIANI: No, I'm not saying that. TAPPER: You just laid out a whole case about how Democrats steal elections. GIULIANI: Look, if she wins Illinois by 8 percent or he wins Illinois by 8 percent, then that cheating is going to make any difference. If he wins Pennsylvania by 5, or she wins by 5, it will make no difference. If it's a one- or two-point race, it could make a difference in a few places. Not going to make a difference in Indiana. Not going to make a difference in North Carolina. Not going to make a difference in some -- a lot of other places, where they don't have this traditional cheating. (CROSSTALK) TAPPER: That's not an affirmation of the way our elections are held in this country. But we -- I'm sorry. GIULIANI: Well, we do cheat. We have people who cheat in elections. (CROSSTALK) TAPPER: You're saying only Democrats, only Democrats cheat? GIULIANI: I have found very few situations where Republicans cheat. They don't control the inner cities, the way Democrats do. Maybe if Republicans controlled the inner cities, they would do as much cheating as Democrats. I think Republicans... TAPPER: I think there are a lot of


Rocket launch planned in Virginia on Monday after failed 2014 attempt. Here’s how you can see it.

Almost two years ago, Orbital Sciences’ Antares rocket exploded just seconds after liftoff from Wallops Island, Va. On Monday evening, the company (now called Orbital ATK) will try again, weather (and other circumstances) permitting. If successful, the launch will be viewable across much of the Mid-Atlantic region. (Orbital ATK) Liftoff is scheduled for 7:40 p.m. Eastern time. To see the rocket, look toward the southeast if you’re in the D.C. area. At its highest, the rocket will zip about 10 degrees above the horizon. It should be visible about 90 second after launch. “Antares should appear as a bright, moving star,” Space.com says. “Observers who use binoculars might also be able to see a short contrail.” (Orbital ATK) Be aware that it is not at all uncommon for rocket launches to be scrubbed due to weather, technical issues or security concerns. Monday’s launch was originally scheduled supposed to occur at 8:03 p.m. Sunday, but was postponed “due to a ground support equipment (GSE) cable that did not perform as expected during the pre-launch check out.” In 2014, a launch was pushed back a day because of the presence of a small, unidentified sailboat not far from the launch site. Right now, Monday evening’s weather appears promising with mostly clear skies and light winds predicted. Orbital ATK is launching the rocket as part of its International Space Station resupply mission. After reaching low Earth orbit, the rocket ejects a cargo-carrying capsule — named Cygnus — that then attaches to the International Space Station. #Cygnus is ready to go! Mate to #Antares is scheduled for later today. #OA5 https://t.co/JqvdspFvx3 Orbital has conducted several prior launches as part of this mission. After the last launch of an Antares rocket failed Oct. 28, 2014, Orbital launched two other rockets, named Atlas V, from the United Launch Alliance in Cape Canaveral. The return to Wallops Island for a launch has been delayed many times, according to Space Policy Online, as Orbital ATK attempted to replace Antares’s engine. The rocket now has a brand-new Russian engine and is ready to race into space. The Antares rocket is raised at @NASA_Wallops launch Pad-0A. @Space_Station @ISS_Research https://t.co/UED47F8xjm https://t.co/R5sNalOcUD You can stay apprised of the launch status by following NASA Wallops and Orbital ATK on Twitter, or by watching NASA TV, which will cover the launch from 7 to 9 p.m. A look at the best photos of space.


Here’s what America would be like with legal pot

Voters in California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada just approved recreational marijuana use. Here's what they can learn from Washington, Colorado and Oregon, states where marijuana use has already been legalized. Carl Sagan was famous for intoning about “billions and billions” when describing how many stars, galaxies and planets existed in the cosmos. That mantra should be chanted by anyone trying to understand marijuana use and policy in the United States. In the aggregate, Americans report smoking pot about 4 billion days a year (totaling up all the days each individual reported pot use for that year). But under the assumptions that some people understate their marijuana use on government surveys and that some users smoke more than once a day, the true annual total of use episodes could easily exceed 10 billion. These almost inconceivably large numbers lead us to three important realities about pot use. Reality No. 1: Police made about 620,000 arrests for marijuana possession 2014, which is equal to more than one arrest per minute. This sounds on its face like remarkably aggressive enforcement. But while 620,000 is a large number in absolute terms, relative to even the most conservative estimate of how often Americans use marijuana (4 billion days a year), it’s small. For every marijuana possession arrest in 2014, Americans reported using pot almost 6,500 days. To put it another way, a person who smokes pot once a week faces an average risk of one arrest every 125 years. As the chart shows, that’s a significant decline from the rate of enforcement before the recent wave of decriminalization and legalization policies. But even at the historical height of enforcement Americans did not face even a 1 in 1,000 chance of being arrested when they used marijuana. Source:  FBI Uniform Crime Reports and SAMHSA National Survey on Drug Use and Health Reality No. 2: Marijuana use almost never contributes to suicide or homicide. Now and then there is a news report on a tragedy in which someone who used marijuana took their own life or that of another person. These sad events typically trigger debates about whether marijuana use had a causal role or whether the death was due to something else, for example other drugs the person was taking or psychiatric problems they might have had. The “billions and billions” rule suggests that such arguments miss a larger point. For example, even


Photos: Sunday’s supermoon was plump like a pumpkin in the October sky

The Hunter’s Moon rises over the Atlantic Plumbing Building on Oct. 16. (Clif Burns via Flickr) Sunday’s full moon wasn’t your typical full moon. As it turned full on its closest approach to Earth, it earned the designation of a “supermoon.” “Originally a term from modern astrology for a new or full moon that occurs with the moon is within 90% of its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit, supermoon now refers more broadly to a full moon that is closer to Earth than average,” NASA says. Appearing bigger and brighter than the typical moon, October’s full moon (also known as the Hunter’s Moon since it was the time when Native Americans would hunt to prepare for winter) was an attractive target for local photographers. They captured magnificent views of the imposing moon looming over Washington’s landmarks and surrounding countryside. A beautiful collection of images is below. If you missed October’s installment of the supermoon, there are still two more to come in 2016, on Nov. 14 and Dec 14. The November version will be super special. “The full moon of November 14 is not only the closest full moon of 2016 but also the closest full moon to date in the 21st century,” NASA writes. “The full moon won’t come this close to Earth again until November 25, 2034.” The Hunter’s Moon rises over Washington, D.C, on Oct. 16. (Jen Johnson via Flickr) The Hunter’s Moon glows Oct. 16. (Jim Havard via Flickr) Hunter’s Moon over the Capitol, Oct. 16. (Victoria Pickering via Flickr) The October 14 moonrise over the Jefferson Memorial. ( Brandon A via Flickr) The Hunter’s Moon stalks the Capitol dome Oct. 16. (Phil Yabut via Flickr) Hunter’s Moon, Oct. 15, 2016. (Xavier Ascanio via Flickr) Hunter’s Moon, Oct.15, 2016. (AllTheGoodIDsAreTaken via Flickr) Hunter’s Moon over the Capitol on Oct. 17. Composite of two images. (Joseph Gruber via Flickr) Hunter’s Moon, Oct. 16. (Carol Jean Stalun via Flickr) Tonight's #HuntersMoon in #WashingtonDC @capitalweather @JimCantore @TomKierein @ThePhotoHour @yourtake @spann… https://t.co/cQInCD38N3 Tonights Supermoon was spooktacular!!! (Photo taken at the Old Post Office Pavillion) in Washington DC.… https://t.co/mXV1otjR2r


Hunter’s moon rises over Atlantic Plumbing Building on Oct. 16. (Clif Burns via Flickr) Sunday’s full moon wasn’t your typical full moon. As it turned full on its closest approach to Earth, it earned the designation of a “supermoon.” “Originally a term from modern astrology for a new or full moon that occurs with the moon is within 90 percent of its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit, supermoon now refers more broadly to a full moon that is closer to Earth than average,” NASA says. Appearing bigger and brighter than the typical moon, October’s full moon (also known as the Hunter’s Moon since it was the time when Native Americans would hunt to prepare for winter) was an attractive target for local photographers. They captured magnificent views of the imposing moon looming over Washington’s landmarks and surrounding countryside. A beautiful collection of images is below. If you missed October’s installment of the supermoon, there are still two more to come in 2016, on Nov. 14 and Dec 14. The November version will be super special. “The full moon of November 14 is not only the closest full moon of 2016 but also the closest full moon to date in the 21st century,” NASA writes. “The full moon won’t come this close to Earth again until November 25, 2034.” Hunter’s Moon rises over D.C, Oct. 16, 2016. (Jen Johnson via Flickr) Hunter’s Moon sets, October 16, 2016. (Jim Havard via Flickr) Hunter’s Moon over the Capitol, Oct. 16. (Victoria Pickering via Flickr) The October 14 moonrise over the Jefferson Memorial. ( Brandon A via Flickr) The Hunter’s Moon stalks the Capitol dome, Oct. 16. (Phil Yabut via Flickr) Hunter’s Moon, Oct. 15, 2016. (Xavier Ascanio via Flickr) Hunter’s Moon, Oct.15, 2016. (AllTheGoodIDsAreTaken via Flickr) Hunter’s Moon over the United States Capitol, Oct. 17, 2016. Composite of two images. (Joseph Gruber via Flickr) Hunter’s Moon, Oct. 16, 2016. (Carol Jean Stalun via Flickr) Tonight's #HuntersMoon in #WashingtonDC @capitalweather @JimCantore @TomKierein @ThePhotoHour @yourtake @spann… https://t.co/cQInCD38N3 Tonights Supermoon was spooktacular!!! (Photo taken at the Old Post Office Pavillion) in Washington DC.… https://t.co/mXV1otjR2r


UN: Global agriculture needs a ‘profound transformation’ to fight climate change and protect food security

low-impact climate scenario, this number could be as high as 35 million more people. “Hunger, poverty and climate change need to be tackled together,” said Food and Agriculture Organization director-general Indeed, while the impact of climate change on agriculture is expected to become increasingly severe in all parts of the world post-2030, the report notes that the most vulnerable populations include producers in developing countries whose livelihoods depend on farming. Global declines in production may also radiate throughout the world in the form of higher food prices, placing a greater strain on already vulnerable low-income communities. According to the report, “meeting the goals of eradicating hunger and poverty by 2030, while addressing the threat of climate change, will require a profound transformation of food and agriculture systems worldwide.” The report describes a variety of adaptation and mitigation techniques that can help move this transformation forward. Agriculture, forestry and land use changes, taken as a whole, are responsible for about one fifth of all global greenhouse gas emissions, the report points out. So adopting more sustainable farming practices and preventing deforestation, which often takes place to clear land for agriculture, can help mitigate climate change from the ground up. And given the huge contributions of the meat industry alone — from the methane produced by cattle to the sheer amount of land and resources required to raise livestock — a push toward a Preparation for the impact of climate change could include diversifying the types of crops farmers raise, researching and adopting more heat-resistant plant varieties and investing in better soil conservation techniques, which may help prevent some of the production losses expected in a warming world. All of these strategies will require greater investments from the international community, the report points out. It suggests that more of the funds intended for climate mitigation should be directed into the agriculture sector. Making these investments may be critical if the world is to meet the global climate goals set forward in the Paris Agreement — namely, keeping warming within at least a 2-degree temperature threshold. One And, as the report points out, meeting climate goals will likely drastically reduce the food-related risks associated with future warming. In these ways, climate change, sustainable agriculture and global food security are inextricably bound up with one another, and efforts to tackle one have profound consequences for the others. The new report drives this point home


Orbital ATK resumes flight from Wallops Island, Va., in a stunning launch visible for miles

the rocket’s engines—prompting the switch to the Russian-made RD-181. At the time, the setback touched off a wave of concern about the company and NASA, which relies on the commercial sector to fly cargo to the station. The space agency’s other supplier, SpaceX, which also has a contract to eventually fly astronauts to the station, currently is grounded while investigators try to determine why its rocket exploded last month, the second mishap involving one of its missions. In both incidents the rockets did not have passengers and no one was hurt. And in both cases, investigators suspect the problems are linked to the Falcon 9’s second stage. But on Monday evening, after months of delays, Orbital ATK and NASA officials said they were thrilled with a triumphant return. The company had flown cargo missions for NASA in its Cygnus spacecraft but did so by relying on a different rocket, an Atlas V, from the United Launch Alliance for the boost in to space. This was the first launch aboard the newly configured Antares rocket. “All vehicles appear healthy,” mission control officials said a few minutes after liftoff. The launch was also the first at the newly refurbished launch site at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility, on Virginia’s Eastern Shore about 175 miles southeast of Washington. The explosion there two years ago left a huge crater that took months to repair. The rocket exploded a few seconds into flight, fell back down to Earth and exploded like a bomb, leaving a mushroom cloud rising into the evening sky. Monday’s launch appeared to go flawlessly, and many people across the Mid-Atlantic took to social media to express their excitement about seeing flight from their decks and yards. An exuberant Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) tweeted his emoji-filled congratulations to NASA and Orbital ATK: “Whoohoo!” https://twitter.com/MarkWarner/status/788169139282116608 Before the launch, Amanda Davis, of Orbital ATK, said that preparation had been going smoothly: “Everyone is feeling really good about today.” The Antares' new engines are designed to give the rocket more reliability and performance, she said. Swapping out rocket engine sis no small feat. But they “checked out great” during testing, she said. The company has also upgraded its Cygnus spacecraft to be able to carry more cargo to the station. If all goes according to plan, astronauts aboard the station would grapple it with a robotic arm, and attach it to the station on Sunday.


to the station. The space agency’s other supplier, SpaceX, which also has a contract to eventually fly astronauts to the station, is grounded while investigators try to determine why its rocket exploded last month, the second mishap involving one of its missions. In both incidents, the rockets did not have passengers and no one was hurt. And in both cases, investigators suspect the problems are linked to the Falcon 9’s second stage. But on Monday evening, after months of delays, Orbital ATK and NASA officials said they were thrilled with a triumphant return. The company had flown cargo missions for NASA in its Cygnus spacecraft but did so by relying on a different rocket, an Atlas V, from the United Launch Alliance for the boost into space. This was the first launch aboard the newly configured Antares rocket. “All vehicles appear healthy,” mission control officials said a few minutes after liftoff. The launch was also the first at the newly refurbished launch site at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore about 175 miles southeast of Washington. The explosion there two years ago left a huge crater that took months to repair. The rocket exploded a few seconds into flight, fell back to Earth and exploded like a bomb, leaving a mushroom cloud rising into the evening sky. Monday’s launch appeared to go flawlessly, and many people across the Mid-Atlantic took to social media to express their excitement about seeing the flight from their decks and yards. An exuberant Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) tweeted his emoji-filled congratulations to NASA and Orbital ATK: “Woohoo!” Woohoo! Good job @NASA_Wallops & @OrbitalATK on the successful launch into orbit of #OA5 #Antares 🚀 🎊 👏🏻 Before the launch, Amanda Davis, of Orbital ATK, said that preparation had been going smoothly: “Everyone is feeling really good about today.” The Antares's new engines are designed to give the rocket more reliability and performance, she said. Swapping out rocket engines is no small feat. But they “checked out great” during testing, she said. The company has also upgraded its Cygnus spacecraft to be able to carry more cargo to the station. If all goes according to plan, astronauts aboard the station will grab it with a robotic arm and attach it to the station on Sunday. The latest successful launch was an Antares rocket sent by Orbital ATK to resupply the International Space Station.


Bats, of course: A Miami Beach official’s proposal to combat Zika-carrying mosquitoes

said in the resolution. Naled “poses health and environmental risks,” Rosen said, whereas “bats can eat up to 1,000 mosquitoes per hour and offer an environmentally friendly approach to mosquito control.” Using bats to reduce mosquito populations is certainly unconventional but not new, according to the American Mosquito Control Association, a nonprofit organization representing scientists and mosquito workers. In an FAQ on its website, the organization seems skeptical of the approach, noting that bats are “opportunistic” eaters that don’t necessarily “specialize” in mosquitoes. “Large, concentrated populations of mosquitoes could provide adequate nutrition in the absence of alternative food,” AMCA says. “However, a moth provides much more nutritional value per capture than a mosquito.” Still, the organization says, studies show that bats can consume 10 mosquitoes in a minute, meaning a colony of 500 bats could devour a quarter million of the insects in an hour. “Impressive numbers indeed,” AMCA says, “but to utilize them as the sole measure of control would be folly indeed, particularly considering the capacity of both mosquitoes and bats to transmit diseases.” In August, Florida officials confirmed that the Zika virus was being spread in Miami Beach by mosquitoes, prompting unprecedented travel advisories from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which warned pregnant women not to travel to the area. Last month, officials expanded the transmission zone to a 4.5-mile area of the city, saying some three-dozen people had contracted the virus locally. Other parts of the county had already seen outbreaks of the disease. Planes have sprayed Zika transmission zones in Florida with naled, a powerful insecticide that is prohibited in the European Union but used in the United States. The spraying appears to have been effective in Miami’s Wynwood district, but spraying in Miami Beach drew criticism last month from Phillip Stoddard, a Florida International University biologist and mayor of South Miami, who said it had no significant impact on the local mosquito population. Demonstrators have taken to the streets on multiple occasions in recent weeks to protest naled spraying, warning that it can kill other wildlife and cause people to develop rashes and swollen eyes. Miami Beach isn’t the first municipality to try to combat Zika with bats. In July, town officials in North Hempstead, N.Y., approved construction of bat houses in hopes of bringing more bats to the area. “Bats can eat up to 1,000 mosquitoes per hour,” Judi Bosworth, the


What to expect from Erik Bruner-Yang and Spike Gjerde’s restaurants at the upcoming Line hotel

From left, Erik Bruner-Yang, Spike Gjerde and Corey Polyoka are spearheading the food and drink options at the upcoming Line DC hotel. (The Line DC) When the Line DC hotel opens in Adams Morgan early next year, it will likely be a destination for more than out-of-towners looking for a place to lay their head for the night. That's because the Sydell Group's 220-room property will feature restaurants from two well-known area chefs: Erik Bruner-Yang of Maketto and Spike Gjerde of Baltimore's Woodberry Kitchen. (Meanwhile, the hotel project is under scrutiny by the city regarding its efforts to hire local workers in exchange for a $46 million tax abatement.) Here are some details about what the chefs have planned: Brothers and Sisters: Spoken English: A Rake's Progress: A Rake's Bar: The Cup We All Race 4: The Line DC, 1770 Euclid St. NW, opening early 2017. This post has been updated. Read more: - Four big take-aways from Erik Bruner-Yang's lawsuit against Toki Underground - Adams Morgan’s Line Hotel will have food by Erik Bruner-Yang and Spike Gjerde - Maketto review: The H Street hangout looks, acts and tastes like a party - Woodberry Kitchen review: A mingling of the familiar and fabulous


A wildlife rehab center confirms that cats are killers

ducks also turned up, and even a kestrel, a kind of falcon. “It’s impressive that cats can take them down,” McRuer said of the kestrel, adding that few previous studies have documented the number of species affected by cat predation. A feral cat hides in a wooded area near a beach parking lot at Jones Beach State Park in Wantagh, N.Y. (Frank Eltman/AP) The researchers said they took a conservative approach, counting only mammals and birds that had been found either in the mouths of cats or brought by cats to their owners. The study adds more fuel to a tense fight between conservationists, who view free-roaming cats as super-predators that spread disease and devastate wildlife, and cat advocates who argue that popular programs to neuter feral cats are the most humane way to handle them. Rebekah DeHaven, the senior attorney and associate director of humane law and policy at Alley Cat Allies, which promotes trap-neuter-return programs, commended the center’s efforts to classify the cases. But she said the study did not go far enough. “From the information shared in the study, there is no way to know how many of the mammals or birds labeled as having been subject to interactions with cats were either ill or injured, by misfortune or by another predator, prior to being found by a cat, leaving open a wide range of other possible ailments that would have led to their death even without a cat’s presence,” she said. Cats’ proximity to people, she argued, also means attacks to wildlife that occur near humans might be overrepresented in the data. This kestrel was rehabilitated at the Owl Moon Raptor Center in Boyds, Md. The Wildlife Center of Virginia said it had admitted a kestrel that was preyed upon by a cat. (St. John Barned-Smith/Gazette) But the number of animals actually killed by cats is likely much higher, McRuer said. Many of the animals admitted to the center with unknown causes of trauma had injuries consistent with cat attacks but weren’t counted because cat interactions were not observed, he said. And cat predation also extends to reptiles and amphibians, which weren’t part of the original study but whose admission records McRuer and other researchers are examining now. “It’s not surprising,” said Peter Marra, co-author of the recent book “Cat Wars: The Devastating Consequences of a Cuddly Killer.” “It’s really just the tip of the iceberg


Report proposes canceling U.S. aircraft carriers, investing in lasers to combat Russia and China

The Nimitz-class aircraft carriers USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74), foreground, and USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) conduct dual aircraft carrier strike group operations in the U.S. 7th Fleet area. (Mass Communication Spec. 3rd Class Jake Greenberg/U.S. Navy) The U.S. military is at an inflection point. Unable to remove itself completely from two protracted wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon has been forced to respond to a resurgent Russia and a rising China, while remaining ready to combat myriad terrorist threats around the world. The Pentagon’s $582.7 billion 2017 budget has attempted to put in place an architecture for these new challenges, but, according to a group of experts from the Center for New American Security, a Washington-based think tank, the Pentagon will have to make some hard decisions if it wants to effectively combat the threats of the future. The three experts, Jerry Hendrix, Paul Scharre and Elbridge Colby, have instead put together a report that uses a notional budget that implements a 2 percent increase over the 2017 budget to shape the U.S. military for the next 10 years. “We have a military that’s in great shape to defeat Saddam Hussein’s army from the first Gulf War,” Colby said, adding that the Pentagon has focused on smaller numbers but invested in more high-tech pieces of equipment with mixed success. Under the proposed budget, the Navy would increase from 272 to 345 ships over 10 years, and the Air Force would gain more than 120 aircraft. “Numbers matter,” Colby added. To fix the current balance, Hendrix, Scharre and Colby’s report suggests that the Pentagon invest in what they call a “high-low mix.” This means that the Pentagon invests in both high-tech pieces of equipment, such as the yet-to-be built B-21 long-range bomber, but also buys low-cost single-engine prop planes such as the A-29 Super Tucano to deal with threats in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq. To pay for this rebalancing, the report proposes canceling the Gerald Ford-class aircraft carrier and America-class amphibious assault ship production lines. The Ford line is estimated to cost more than $40 billion for the three proposed carriers, and the first ship in the class has already encountered numerous construction delays. Also proposed in the report is a projected $55 billion in savings over 10 years by cutting 5 percent of the Pentagon’s civilian workforce and 8,000 contractors. According to the three experts,


Can Cinderella and Elsa convince kids to eat vegetables?

disclose the terms of the deal, or whether Disney-branded produce will be priced higher than non-branded fruits and vegetables when they hit grocery shelves beginning next month. Last year, Disney partnered with Sage Fruit Co. for a similar campaign to promote the movie “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” Darth Vader helped market bags of apples, while Yoda hawked green grapes. Using well-known characters to sell nutrition is nothing new. Popeye the Sailor famously convinced kids to eat spinach, while generations have grown up chewing Flintstones vitamins. In the 1990s, hundreds of dairy-mustached celebrities helped revive milk’s popularity with the “Got Milk?” advertising campaign. “It’s not difficult to slap a character on a food and get kids to love it,” said Rob Frankel, a Los Angeles-based branding expert. “But these days, anybody who tries to sell anything to kids also has to appeal to the parents. This is a way for Disney to prove to mom and dad: See? We care about the health of your kids.” That’s different from the way items were marketed in the 1970s and ’80s, Frankel said. Back then, advertisers were focused squarely on appealing to children. General Mills, for example, marketed its popular line of sugar-laden cereals with characters like Franken Berry and Count Chocula, while Pillsbury used cartoon figures Goofy Grape, Lefty Lemonade and Freckle-Faced Strawberry to promote its line of Funny Face powdered drinks. “It was all about the ‘nag factor,’ ” Frankel said. “If companies sold the kids on it, eventually they’d whine and beg enough that mom and dad would buy it.” But that began to change in the 1990s, he said, as baby boomers took a more hands-on approach to parenting. “All these helicopter parents needed to be told, ‘Mom and dad, here’s the best thing for your kid,'” Frankel said. As a result, companies shifted their marketing tactics to appeal to parents. They began adding phrases like “all natural” and “no sugar” to their labels, and emphasized health-related benefits. Disney’s partnership with Dole is a step even further in that direction, Frankel said. “Now they can get you from both sides,” Frankel said. “The kid is happy because it’s got a Disney princess on it, and mom feels good because she’s buying a vegetable.” Read more: Lunch is too expensive Greek yogurt is no longer the trendiest yogurt Move over, princess. This year’s most popular Halloween costume is …


The Pentagon’s massive new telescope is designed to track space junk and watch out for killer asteroids

a time through the equivalent of a drinking straw to a windshield view with 10,000 objects at a time.” It is also being used by NASA to monitor asteroids and other near-Earth objects that could collide with the planet, officials said. Over the next two years, the telescope is going to be moved and reconstructed in Australia, a vantage point that would allow it to survey an under served area of space. The telescope is “a big improvement over the legacy ground-based optical telescopes that are used by the U.S. Air Force, because it can search large areas of sky and also track very faint (small) objects in and around GEO,” Brian Weeden, a Technical Advisor at the Secure World Foundation, wrote in an email. “That's a critical capability for the U.S. military, as they have a lot of very important satellites in GEO, and are increasingly worried about threats to those satellites.” The telescope would join another new space debris tracking technology known as the Space Fence, which is now being built by Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin. The radar system is going to be located on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands and would use radar to help the Air Force track 10 times amount of debris than it currently monitors. With many valuable assets in space—satellites used for intelligence, communications and guiding weapons—the Pentagon has become increasingly concerned with what it calls “space situational awareness.” Instead of being a benign environment, the Pentagon likes to say that space has become “contested, congested and competitive.” In orbit, debris moves very fast, as much as 17,500 m.p.h., so that even a fleck of paint could cause damage. In 2007, the Chinese fired a missile that blew up a dead satellite and littered space with thousands of pieces of debris. And the Air Force has been working to make its satellites more resilient. It has plans to send swarms of small satellites into orbit that are more difficult to target. “Every military operation that takes place in the world today is critically dependent on space in one way or another,” Air Force Gen. John Hyten said in an interview earlier this year when he was the commander of the Air Force Space Command. “Whether our own people in the United States are fully cognizant of the dependence on space or not, the rest of the world has been watching us very closely.”


Here’s what Congo can teach the world about peace

Idjwi is not the only Congolese success story. Throughout eastern Congo, various people decided that they had had enough violence. They set up peace committees, sometimes spontaneously and informally, other times with external support. Several such committees — in the territory of Uvira and the village of Kalehe, for instance — have developed effective mechanisms to address conflict. Teams used their personal connections to persuade the leaders of surrounding armed groups to negotiate. They mobilized their communities so that all would actively support an end to the violence. They worked with the parties in conflict for months, sometimes years, until they found solutions that satisfied everyone involved. And they kept monitoring the implementation of any agreement reached, tapping into their personal and community networks whenever they needed to address emerging issues. Their efforts paid off: They succeeded in containing fighting around their villages and promoting common interests across ethnic lines, at least for a time. It was not the army, state or police who managed to control ethnic tensions and dampen violence. It was members of the communities themselves. Local peace does not necessarily scale up to national peace Sadly, many people in eastern Congo still face poverty and violence. In the village of Kavumu (a couple of hours away from Idjwi, on the mainland), a group of inhabitants I met at the local market complained that at night, they fear being killed in their sleep by bandits who want to steal the few dollars they earned the previous day. The parents of baby girls keep worrying that their infants will be kidnapped, raped and subjected to genital mutilation, as has already happened to more than 40 babies in the past couple of years. I have heard similar stories of fear, torture and despair throughout my 15 years of research. In eastern Congo, places like Idjwi — where grass-roots organizations, social networks, strong beliefs and individual agency conspire to curtail violence — are still very much exceptions to the norm. But not all is lost in Congo. Many people strive for peace and manage to make a difference. Activists, diplomats and development workers try to address tensions in places such as Congo through projects, aid and other resources that come from the outside. Very few focus on tapping into and unleashing the talent and potential that the Congolese and others throughout Africa possess. They may wish to reconsider this strategy.


Saudi Arabia executes member of the royal family for first time in four decades

state. The influential Prince al-Waleed bin Talal, founder of business conglomerate Kingdom Holding, tweeted to more than 5 million followers under the hashtags of “justice is the basis of governance” and “decisive Salman orders retribution for a prince,” Bloomberg News reported. Executions in Saudi Arabia are typically carried out by beheading with a sword. The brawl was purportedly caught on tape. In the video below, a man who is identified as Prince Turki bin Saud al-Kabir is seen with an automatic weapon, firing indiscriminately into a crowd. While people scatter, one of them can be heard saying that the prince is drunk. فيديو مقتل عادل المحيميد وعبد الرحمن التميمي One of the last confirmed executions of a Saudi royal was that of a prince who killed his uncle, King Faisal, in 1975. The prince, also named Faisal, was immediately declared insane afterward. Other members of the royal family have been in hot water, but the closer one is to the ruling lineage, the less likely it is that he or she will be prosecuted. In September 2015, police in California arrested Prince Abdul Aziz al-Saud on suspicion of false imprisonment, sexual assault and battery after he allegedly locked three women in his $37 million mansion and abused them. After he posted a $300,000 bail, he reportedly emptied the mansion and fled the country on his private airplane. Of late, the kingdom has taken steps to diversify its economy so as to rely less on oil. Saudi Arabia’s deputy crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has been put in charge of the country’s economic overhaul. Significant obstacles are in the way. It’s unclear whether the kingdom’s powerful and ultra-conservative religious establishment will be happy with a more Western-style economic model. And then there’s a major youth bulge. More than half the country is younger than 30, and many have grown up with the expectation of easy government jobs and a lifetime of generous handouts. Saudi authorities have executed more than 108 people this year, including 47 men convicted of terrorism-related crimes, according to a Human Rights Watch report released in July. There were 158 executions in 2015, it said. Among those put to death was prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, whose death in January touched off protests in largely Shiite Iran and opened diplomatic rifts between Riyadh and Tehran. Most executions are carried out for murder and drug trafficking. Read More: Six


Gallup: Support for marijuana legalization surges to new highs

(AFP photo/DPA /Oliver Berg/Getty Images) A new Gallup poll released Wednesday shows 60 percent of American adults now say that marijuana should be legal, the highest level of support in nearly a half-century of polling on the question. The Gallup poll tracks closely with numbers from the Pew Research Center released last week showing 57 percent support for legalization. When Gallup first asked about legalization in 1969 only 12 percent of Americans supported the proposition. Support rose briefly to 28 percent in the late '70s, but languished in the low- to mid-20s throughout much of the '80s and '90s, as the federal war on drugs hit a fever pitch. As Gallup notes, support for legalization has soared in the past decade among nearly every demographic group. Close to 80 percent of 18-to-34 year olds now favor legal weed, up from 44 percent in 2003 and 2005. Gallup finds that Americans age 55 and older are now the only age group with less than majority support for legalization. Support for legalization has more than doubled among Republicans in the past decade, to 42 percent today. With 70 percent support, independents are the political group most likely to favor legalization, just edging out Democrats at 67 percent. Gallup notes that "the transformation in public attitudes about marijuana over the past half-century has mirrored the liberalization of public attitudes about gay rights and the same-sex-marriage movement." Gallup This fall, five states will decide whether to join Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and DC in legalizing marijuana for personal use. Polling in those states shows that, while the legalization measures are slightly favored by voters, the margins are very close. Most polls in those states show that support for the legalization measures is currently coming in below Gallup's 60 percent nationally. This is because there's a significant difference between support for marijuana legalization in the abstract, and support for a concrete ballot measure with a lot of nuts-and-bolts proposals for how marijuana legalization would be regulated and enforced. A voter might support the idea of marijuana being legal, for instance, but not like a law that could lead to an actual marijuana shop in their neighborhood. Perhaps realizing that the argument against legalization per se is already a lost one, opposition campaigns are focusing on specific provisions within the ballot proposals that voters may object to. In California, for instance, opponents have been alleging (mostly


National Zoo euthanizes sloth bear Hana

Hana, a sloth bear who was euthanized at age 21 at the National Zoo. (Abby Wood/National Zoo) A female sloth bear suffering from tumors was euthanized Monday at the National Zoo, officials said. Hana, a sloth bear who was born in Poland in 1994 and who came to the zoo in 1998, first became sick with liver problems this summer, a spokesman for the zoo said. Blood draws in recent weeks indicated she had elevated liver and biliary enzymes, a possible indication of liver or gallbladder disease. Although her condition initially improved on a modified diet, antibiotics and other medications, they ultimately proved ineffective. This past weekend, Hana became lethargic and showed signs of discomfort and a decline in appetite, the zoo said in a statement. She was anesthetized Monday for an exploratory surgical procedure, and veterinarians found tumors associated with her liver, bile duct and gallbladder. Staff decided to euthanize her, and a pathology report that will reveal further information about her condition is expected soon. In June, the zoo euthanized another sloth bear, Francois, after he developed severe, degenerative disc disease in his spine. Francois was 25, which is considered to be in the geriatric years for the species, which has a median life expectancy of the early- to mid-20s. During her time at the zoo, Hana gave birth to two male cubs: Balawat in 2006 and Hank in 2012. She was known for striking what appeared to be meditative poses, grabbing her toes and inhaling deeply. Hank remains at the zoo. Sloth bears are not related to sloths or necessarily lazy — they got their name from English settlers due to their dark, shaggy coat and long claws, which resemble sloths’ claws. Fewer than 20,000 remain in their native India, Sri Lanka and Nepal, and they are considered vulnerable to extinction.


Best of D.C. 2016: Your favorite restaurants and places to eat in Washington

(Dixie D. Vereen/The Washington Post) We asked, you answered. Here’s what readers voted as the best restaurants in the D.C. area. Best new restaurant Masseria (Cava Grill) Best quick lunch Cava Grill Best food truck Dirty South Deli (A Baked Joint) Best bakery A Baked Joint Best spot for vegetarians Shouk Best late-night snack Amsterdam Falafelshop Best sandwiches Taylor Gourmet (Dixie D. Vereen/The Washington Post) Best pizza Timber Pizza Co. Astrid (Astrid Riecken) Best tacos Taqueria Habanero Best sushi Kotobuki Best pho Pho Real Best ramen Daikaya Best coffee Vigilante Coffee Company Best bagels Bethesda Bagels Best frozen treats Dolcezza More Best Of winners: Drinking: bars, breweries, distilleries and more Arts: museums, galleries and more Style: shops, salons and more D.C. Life: classes, activities and more Fitness: gyms, yoga studios and more Sports: teams, venues and more


Best of D.C. 2016: Your favorite bars and places to drink in Washington

(Katherine Frey/The Washington Post) We asked, you answered. Here’s what readers voted as the best bars in the D.C. area. Best whiskey bar Jack Rose Dining Saloon Best brewery DC Brau Brewing Company Best beer list ChurchKey (Joseph Victor Stefanchik/The Washington Post) Best cocktail bar 2 Birds 1 Stone (Fritz Hahn/The Washington Post) Best place to drink outside Dacha Beer Garden (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post) Best place to dance Rock and Roll Hotel Best distillery Republic Restoratives Best bargain bar The Pug More Best Of winners: Dining: restaurants, food trucks, snacks and more Arts: museums, galleries and more Style: shops, salons and more D.C. Life: classes, activities and more Fitness: gyms, yoga studios and more Sports: teams, venues and more


Marjorie Meek-Bradley, Marcin Gortat and more Washington personalities tell us about their D.C. dream day

it’s so full of natural light and color it always puts me in a good mood. If I’m going to meet friends for coffee, one of my favorite spots right now is The Potter’s House. Their gluten-free chocolate chip muffin is so moist and tasty you can’t even believe it’s gluten-free. I also love Le Diplomate. Their french fries are just off the chain, and they have an amazing selection of French wines. I might do a little shopping, too. One of the cutest stores in D.C. is Violet Boutique, in Georgetown. They are kind of retro, and I can always find an adorable purse or funky earrings there that aren’t super-expensive. If I want to treat myself or get a unique present for a friend, I’ll go to Lettie Gooch. They have clothes that are urban mixed with boho with a slight edge of hipster. Then, I’d probably make dinner at home. I’ve been grilling lots of veggies that I get from the Mount Pleasant Farmers’ Market. I just moved back to D.C. from New York, and I love that my apartment here has a real kitchen. In New York, all I had was a stovetop. —As told to Sadie Dingfelder Marcin Gortat (Rob Carr/Getty Images) Marcin Gortat The 32-year-old Wizards center is a native of Lodz, Poland, which explains his nickname: the Polish Machine. I’d wake up at noon and rest. No, seriously — we’ll probably just rest at home, watch a movie [or] go to the movies. Obviously, if we have more time then [I might] check out one of the museums. I like the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. I like the International Spy Museum here. I definitely like to go to different concerts and shopping centers. To eat, we have this one Polish restaurant in Arlington. I don’t know exactly the street name. [I go to the movies] right here, the one attached to the [Verizon Center] arena [Regal Gallery Place Stadium 14]. I see everything. I watch all kinds of movies, everything that’s good, everything that’s new. “Warcraft” was a recent [one that was] a really good movie. I watched the new Bourne, “Jason Bourne,” and the new “Mechanic,” which was bad. I’ve seen a lot of movies. To relax, I lift. I play some video games. I sit in my office, check everything, what’s going on with my foundation [MG13, which, grants scholarships


How your money habits compare to other people in their 20s and 30s

22- to 30-year-olds who have cleared their student debt. For those still making payments, their burdens varied significantly. The average debt load in that group is $22,817, but the majority of those with debt, 51 percent, said they owed $10,000 or less. An additional 21 percent owed more than $30,000. (Courtesy of Navient) Ninety-three percent of young adults are saving for a goal. The majority of young adults between the ages of 22 and 35 — 93 percent — said they are saving. But most of them haven’t saved very much. About half of consumers had set aside less than $1,000 total for all of their savings goals. That includes 6 percent have not saved anything at all, even though they said they had a savings goal in mind. Most people are saving for near-term goals, such as a vacation or to build an emergency fund. Only one in three workers under 35 are saving for retirement. And those workers with a bachelor’s degree were much more likely in general to be saving for retirement than people with an associate’s or those who did not have a degree. The numbers also support, at least in part, a concern that many financial advisers have been bringing up for years: That people with student loan debt may have a harder time saving for retirement. Workers who had a degree but did not borrow were much more likely to have saved at least $50,000 for retirement than those who did borrow for their degrees. People in their 30s were more likely to have greater retirement savings. (Courtesy of Navient) Forty-two percent like their jobs. In total, 75 percent of the young people surveyed had jobs, including 62 percent of people with full-time jobs. That’s up from last year, when 69 percent of people had jobs, including 57 of people working full-time. The shift means that fewer people are unemployed, studying or staying at home to take care of children. The more education you have, the greater your chances of working full-time. For instance, 89 percent of people with advanced degrees were working full-time, compared to 83 percent of people with a bachelor’s degree, 61 percent of people with an associate’s degree and 49 percent of people who had some college but no degree. The likelihood of having a full-time job also increased generally with age, but tapered off for people ages 34 and


The Daily 202: Trump’s lack of self-control allows Clinton to sweep the debates

document which states that “speech whose primary purpose is to wound is inconsistent with our Vincentian and Catholic values.” But the student who designed the poster in question says he did not mean for it to be “hurtful” to anyone. “The intention was for the poster to be eye-catching,” he said. DAYBOOK: On the campaign trail: At the White House: On Capitol Hill: QUOTE OF THE DAY: “We have some bad hombres here.” -- Trump NEWS YOU CAN USE IF YOU LIVE IN D.C.: -- Today is our FINAL day of summery warmth before the weather starts turning colder – so enjoy it while you can! -- Metro Police are being criticized for using excessive -- An anonymous donor gifted $20 million to Georgetown Preparatory School this week, -- In Northern Virginia, Rep. Barbara Comstock and LuAnn Bennett faced off for their final debate. VIDEOS OF THE DAY: The big moment of the night -- when Trump declined to say if he'll accept the election results: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said, "I'll keep you in suspense," when answering a question about the tradition of accepting the results of presidential elections. Trump called Clinton "such a nasty woman": During a discussion about entitlement reform, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton a "nasty woman." Here's the "puppet" moment: At the third and final presidential debate, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said Russian President Vladimir Putin would "rather have a puppet as president." Hillary contrasted how she's spent her past 30 years compared to Trump: During the third presidential debate, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said she is “happy to compare” the record of her Republican opponent Donald Trump with hers. Trump's new ad features the mother of someone killed by an undocumented immigrant: Laura The DNC released this video featuring political stars talking about Democratic values: We Are Democrats A man pretending to be Trump stormed the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas: Beacher's Madhouse -- Mini Trump Storms Trump International in Vegas | TMZ Seth Meyers walked through his jokes of the week -- all of them related to Trump: Meyers also visited the Pentagon: Seth Visits the Pentagon And toured the monuments: Get to Know Your Monuments Need a break from election politics? Watch a total solar eclipse: This solar eclipse from March was visible in Indonesia, parts of Southern China, Northern Australia and Hawaii.


With still no signal from the ExoMars lander, scientists fear it may have crashed on Mars

An image released Feb. 19 by the European Space Agency shows an artist's impression of the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and its entry, descent and landing demonstrator module, Schiaparelli, approaching Mars. (European Space Agency/ATG Medialab via European Pressphoto Agency) This post has been updated. The ExoMars Schiaparelli lander — a European and Russian robot that was slated to touch down on Mars on Wednesday — probably crashed during landing, early telemetry data suggests. According to the European Space Agency, radio signals from the spacecraft that were picked up by an Earth telescope and a Mars orbiter suggest that Schiaparelli performed most of its six-minute descent maneuver according to plan. But sometime after deploying its parachute and heat shield, just before touching down, the lander stopped communicating. It hasn't been heard from since. The ESA hasn't conceded that the spacecraft did not achieve its planned “soft landing,” but the outlook is not good. The lander would have been the first operable spacecraft from either the European Space Agency or the Russian Federal Space Agency to successfully land on Mars. It is part of the ExoMars astrobiology mission, which also put a satellite into orbit around the Red Planet on Wednesday. Telemetry data beamed to Earth from Schiaparelli's sister spacecraft, the Trace Gas Orbiter, suggests that the lander may have jettisoned its heat shield too soon. It also seems that Schiaparelli's thrusters, which were supposed to slow its descent, were turned off earlier than expected. The ESA may try to call out to the probe in hopes that it is intact and capable of responding. But Jonathan Amos, a journalist from the BBC who was at ESA Mission Control in Darmstadt, Germany, reported that the mood there is grim. “Many scientists here at mission control have taken all this information to mean one thing,” he wrote, “that the probe crashed at high speed. It is likely it went into freefall a kilometer or two above the surface.” The news comes after a long day and anxious night of waiting The Schiaparelli lander was able to muster a hazy transmission during its descent, letting engineers know that its parachutes had deployed. But then, nothing. For several tense hours, telescopes around the globe were trained toward Mars, each listening for a faint signal from the newest arrival on the planet. Just before noon Eastern, ESA's Mars Express orbiter began transmitting a packet of data


Bye-bye, Bao Bao. Giant panda to go to China in winter 2017.

Three-year-old panda Bao Bao will soon say goodbye to D.C.'s Smithsonian National Zoo, which has an agreement that with the China Wildlife Conservation Association to send all cubs born at the Zoo to China before their fourth birthday. Here's a look back at some of Bao Bao's most memorable moments. Bye-bye, Bao Bao. One of the National Zoo’s giant pandas, Bao Bao, will go to China in late winter 2017 as part of a breeding agreement the zoo has with a wildlife conservation group there. Under the agreement, giant pandas born at the zoo in the District are sent to China by their fourth birthday. And Bao Bao, who was born there on Aug. 23, 2013, will turn 4 in 2017. “Bao Bao is very special to us at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo,” said Brandie Smith, associate director of animal care sciences, in a statement. Zoo officials said Bao Bao is the “first surviving cub born at the zoo since 2005.” Smith said in her statement that Bao Bao has “captured the hearts of people all over the world who watched her grow up on the panda cams, and she has been an ambassador for conservation.” “We are sad to see her go, but excited for the contributions she is going to continue to make to the global giant panda population,” she said. There will be a public event to “say goodbye and celebrate” before she leaves for China. Details will be released soon. Bao Bao enjoying her cake to celebrate her second birthday in August 2015. (Michael Reynolds/European Pressphoto Agency) Bao Bao is the older sister of Bei Bei, the zoo’s baby panda, who turned 1 in the summer. Bao Bao will be prepared for her travel to China. Zoo officials said they are working to make sure she will be safe and comfortable. She has to get used to being in a crate, which is how she will make the flight. Zookeepers said a crate will be put in her habitat area so she can get used to it, gradually. Keepers will have her walk through it each day and then acclimate her to staying in it for short periods of time with the door closed. She’ll get treats while she’s in the crate. For the trip to China, she will have a small entourage of a veterinarian and a panda keeper from the National Zoo. FedEx provides


sciences, in a statement. Zoo officials said Bao Bao is the “first surviving cub born at the zoo since 2005.” Smith said in her statement that Bao Bao has “captured the hearts of people all over the world who watched her grow up on the panda cams, and she has been an ambassador for conservation.” “We are sad to see her go, but excited for the contributions she is going to continue to make to the global giant panda population,” she said. There will be a public event to “say goodbye and celebrate” before she leaves for China. Details will be released soon. Bao Bao enjoying her cake to celebrate her second birthday in August 2015. (Michael Reynolds/European Pressphoto Agency) Bao Bao is the older sister of Bei Bei, the zoo’s baby panda, who turned 1 in the summer. Bao Bao will be prepared for her travel to China. Zoo officials said they are working to make sure she will be safe and comfortable. She has to get used to being in a crate, which is how she will make the flight. Zookeepers said a crate will be put in her habitat area so she can get used to it, gradually. Keepers will have her walk through it each day and then acclimate her to staying in it for short periods of time with the door closed. She’ll get treats while she’s in the crate. For the trip to China, she will have a small entourage of a veterinarian and a panda keeper from the National Zoo. FedEx provides the plane for the flight to Chengdu, China. Zoo officials said it is best for pandas to fly in the winter when it is cooler. Bao Bao will be closely monitored during the journey and have her favorite treats, such as cooked sweet potatoes, water, apples, pears and bamboo. She isn’t the first giant panda to fly to China under the zoo’s breeding agreement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association. In 2010, Tai Shan — Bao Bao’s older brother — flew to China under similar conditions. Once she gets to China, she will be taken by bus to the conservation center. Her team from the National Zoo will stay for a bit until she adjusts to her new home, zookeepers said. She will enter the giant panda breeding program when she reaches sexual maturity between the ages of 5 and 6.