Is Theresa May a bad negotiator, or is Brexit just an impossible proposition? Answer: Yes.

start unless you feel there’s a reasonable chance of success,” Burns said. “I think one has to feel sympathy for May. She was given a mandate beyond her control and did not have any leverage on her side.” Jason Langrish, executive director of the Canada Europe Roundtable for Business, who has helped negotiate trade accords with Europe, agreed that May had few good options going in. “Brexit is a mess and always was going to be one,” he wrote in an email, saying May’s final product was “reasonable.” But, he said, May did face particular challenges and make a couple of blunders. To start, Langrish argued, Britain lacked the dealmaking capacity and expertise of the European Union team. In the last two decades, Britain has left much of that work to Brussels, which meant it didn’t have a team of seasoned experts ready to swoop in. In addition, he said, May triggered Article 50 — the portion of the Treaty of Lisbon accord that gives nations the option of unilaterally pulling out of the E.U. — without first building a consensus around what the British negotiating position would be. That’s a problem, because triggering Article 50 sets a deadline. “They have since wasted a lot of time and energy during the two-year period and seem no closer to a unified position,” he wrote. May also laid out several “red lines” in her January 2017 Lancaster House speech on her vision for Brexit, like a free-trade agreement with Europe with all the perks of the single market but none of the downsides, that were tough sells from the start. By framing the conversation that way, May raised expectations, leading to disappointment when she had to backtrack. May also, Langrish wrote, “never seemed to grasp that the UK was in a far weaker negotiating position than the EU due to the relative sizes of their economies.” And she made the strategic error of triggering an election to try to grow her conservative majority, only to lose seats, forcing her to come up with a compromise on one of the hardest Brexit issues, Ireland. Of course, May couldn’t have known how the election would turn out. But her “lousy campaigning” Langrish wrote, didn’t help matters. Read more: Brexit: ‘The word you’re looking for is shambolic’ Britain’s Brexit crisis was entirely self-inflicted Theresa May comes up empty in Brussels, with no new Brexit concessions


POLITICO: Washington Post to run full-page ad on Khashoggi killing

POLITICO’s Jason Schwartz writes: Read the full story.


The year’s brightest comet will zip past Earth this weekend and may be visible to naked eye

and, from 7.2 million miles away, will dart past Earth on Dec. 16. In the days ahead it may — emphasis on the word “may” — increase enough in brightness to unveil itself to the naked eye. If the comet brightens to a third-magnitude object, the human eye could technically see this fuzzy, blue-green cotton ball (assuming perfectly dark conditions, with eyes adapted to dark conditions, far away from light pollution). But a pair of binoculars is your best bet. Aim your eyes toward the Pleiades (or Seven Sisters) star cluster to find the comet. Wirtanen will be in the eastern sky during the early evening, and the comet will be due south near 10 p.m., said Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory. Find it in the western sky, still near the Pleiades at about 2 a.m. Comet Wirtanen orbits the sun every 5.44 years, and it is part of a comet family shaped by the planet Jupiter’s gravity, according to Chester. Earth has been visited by Wirtanen many times. On the comet’s last visit, in 2013, viewing conditions were generally poor. For its next tour in 2024, the viewing probabilities are also expected to be poor, according to the University of Maryland’s Comet Wirtanen Web pages. The 2018-type close approach will not happen again for at least 20 years, Chester noted. The Maryland astronomers report the comet reached fifth magnitude earlier this week, as predicted, but cruising around the sun, the comet should brighten. While the comet is close to the Earth, it will not come all that close in Earthly terms. The streaking dirty snowball is about 30 times the distance from Earth to the moon, according to NASA. This comet was discovered in January 1948 at the Lick Observatory on California’s Mount Hamilton, and it is among five discovered by astronomer Carl Wirtanen. Majoring in physics, mathematics and astronomy, Wirtanen earned his bachelor’s degrees (1936) and his master’s degree (1939) from the University of Virginia. He was born in 1910 in Kenosha, Wis. At age 12, Wirtanen’s violin teacher brought him to a local observatory so he could see the cosmos through a telescope, according to the American Astronomical Society’s obituary. The observatory visit led him to make his own reflecting telescope, the obituary said, “deepening his interest in astronomy.” We can today use his namesake comet to deepen our own interest in the skies above.


Russian agent’s guilty plea intensifies spotlight on relationship with NRA

to the Senate Intelligence Committee in April. She and Torshin also discussed “the importance of a political program” as part of the trip, according to Butina’s plea agreement. Included in the group was Keene, as well as Pete Brownell, the group’s vice president, who would take over as president in 2016, according to documents provided to Congress. Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke attended as well, later disclosing in Wisconsin records that his travel had been funded by Butina’s group. Major NRA donors Arnold Goldschlager and Joseph Gregory were in attendance, as well. The sometimes lavish December 2015 festivities included a visit to the famed Bolshoi Ballet, a Russian gun-manufacturing company and the private offices of the Russian Foreign Ministry for a meeting with the country’s top diplomat, Sergei Lavrov. The group also met with Dmitry Rogozin, a deputy prime minister who had been hit with sanctions by the United States after Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014. Attendance at the meeting with Lavrov was limited to just seven people, documents provided to Congress show. In a statement, Lavrov’s spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, told The Post earlier this year that the meeting came at the request of the Americans, as part of the ministry’s “traditional interaction” with large civic organizations. “The declared topic of the meeting was aspects of the bilateral relationship and international questions,” she said, noting that Americans are often particularly focused on Middle East policy. After the Americans left Russia, Butina reiterated to Torshin the goal of the trip: “We should let them express their gratitude now, we will put pressure on them quietly later,” she wrote to him, according to court documents. Butina and Torshin’s efforts to use the NRA as a springboard to broader influence in the Republican Party was evident in the run-up to the NRA’s 2016 annual meeting in Louisville, where Trump was scheduled to speak. About 10 days before the event, an American Republican operative named Paul Erickson emailed a campaign aide to Trump. Erickson, who was romantically involved with Butina, wrote that his involvement with the NRA had placed him in a position “to slowly begin cultivating a back channel to President Putin’s Kremlin,” according to a copy of the email read to The Post. “The Kremlin believes the only possibility of a true reset in this relationship would be a new Republican White House,” he continued. He suggested that during the NRA


The Cybersecurity 202: House Democrats plan to push hard on election security next Congress

to share cyber threat information with the government, he said. Nearly 200 private-sector organizations are receiving threat information from the government under that program, but only six are sharing in, according to June numbers from DHS. PATCHED: Navy Secretary Richard Spencer ordered a review of cyber vulnerabilities in his service branch as Chinese hackers have breached Navy contractors and subcontractors over the past 18 months Lubold and Volz noted that Spencer did not mention China in the memo, but there are several indications that Chinese hackers are behind the breaches. “Cyber fingerprints pointing to China include the remote administering of malware from a computer address accidentally exposed as located in the island province of Hainan, and a documented use of a suite of custom hacking tools shared among known Chinese hacking groups,” according to Lubold and Volz. “U.S. officials also say they have classified sources and methods that make it clear China is responsible.” PWNED: Cyber weapons, information operations, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things constitute “long-range emerging threats” against the United States After sending a questionnaire to the Defense, State and Homeland Security departments as well as the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the GAO analyzed the answers and listed cyber weapons among 26 threats, some of which could either materialize in about five years and some of which have no time frame. Those threats fell into four broad categories: “adversaries’ political and military advancements,” “dual-use technologies,” “weapons” and “events and demographic changes,” such as climate change and pandemics. The report identified quantum information science as an example of dual-use technology that could threaten the United States. “Quantum communications could enable adversaries to develop secure communications that U.S. personnel would not be able to intercept or decrypt,” the report said. Also, “quantum computing may allow adversaries to decrypt information, which could enable them to target U.S. personnel and military operations.” — The Federal Election Commission approved a proposal by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) to allow lawmakers to use leftover campaign funds to bolster the defenses of their personal electronic devices and accounts. “Given the growing cybersecurity threats posed by foreign governments hacking the personal accounts and devices of elected officials, it is common sense to permit these same funds to be spent on cybersecurity as well,” Wyden told me in an email before the FEC voted on his proposal. Additionally, as I noted yesterday, Wyden intends


The global cashless movement meets its foe: Local government

Lawmakers in New Jersey recently advanced a bill that would ban businesses from going cashless — a move that would put the state at odds with the global trend toward electronic payments but would bolster resistance from local officials who see no-cash policies as discriminatory. Almost 1 of 3 Americans in 2018 say they don’t use cash during a typical week of purchases, according to a Pew Research Center study released this week. The findings reveal that Americans are becoming less reliant on paper currency, mirroring shifts in Sweden, India and China. But state and local officials say that restaurants and shops that adopt cashless policies have left some members of the community behind —— individuals without the means to open a bank account or who lack access to lines of credit or the mobile apps that power digital payments. The New Jersey measure, which would apply only to face-to-face sales and would exclude Internet and phone purchases, comes as officials push similar efforts to bar no-cash rules in New York, Philadelphia and the District. While cashless policies offer consumers the promise of convenience and provide businesses greater protection against theft and shoddy record-keeping, they also can exclude low-income consumers or undocumented immigrants, critics say. According to FDIC estimates, 6.5 percent of American households were unbanked in 2017, meaning they did not have an account with an insured financial institution. Another 18.7 percent of households in the United States have a checking or savings account but still relied on financial services outside of a traditional bank — such as payday loans or check-cashing businesses — the estimate showed. “Cash-free businesses are discriminatory by design and pose challenges to low-income communities that may not have access to credit/debit,” New York City Council member Ritchie Torres said on Twitter last month when he introduced a bill that would ban the practice. According to the Pew study, the decline in the use of physical currency is uneven among the population when race, age and income are accounted for. Pew found a significant gap in cashless adoption tied to annual household income, with adults making at least $75,000 more than twice as likely to make all their purchases without using cash in a typical week, compared with people who make less than $30,000. The Pew findings suggest that the benefits of going cashless may come with a cost that only some groups of people


Republicans failed to govern. Democrats have a chance to succeed.

This week was a vivid demonstration of the inability of conservatives to deliver results after the great populist revolts in 2016 in Britain and the United States. And it showed that there is a golden opportunity for liberals in both countries to tackle the public concerns that motivated the mistaken decisions to vote for Brexit and Donald Trump. To put it bluntly, the Tories under Prime Minister Theresa May and the Republicans under President Trump have failed as governing parties. That’s because they can’t reconcile their inflammatory rhetoric with the practical realities of economic and social policy in the 21st century. The conservatives talked big to aggrieved voters, but they have come up empty. This past week offered a rare chance to test the propositions on trade, immigration and other issues that have been polarizing British and American politics. Conservatives presented easy solutions — for Britain, a Brexit escape from a meddlesome European Union; and for America, a border wall (and other symbols) to address the real strains caused by immigration. But the conservative quick fixes didn’t work. They were ill-planned, half-baked, jingoistic responses to serious issues. Rather than remedy the inequities that bothered middle-class Brits and Americans, they instead sought to turn back the clock with proposals that simply didn’t fit today’s globalized world. May’s Brexit plan was an attempt to negotiate an exit from the E.U. that she never fully believed in herself. She had to compromise to the point of incoherence because a hard Brexit and total separation would have been unworkable for Northern Ireland and unacceptable for Scotland, risking the potential breakup of the United Kingdom, not just its departure from the E.U. Trump’s border mania was different. It has been political demagoguery dressed up as policy. The inflammatory campaign seemed to work the first time in 2016, helping Trump get elected, but not the second, in the midterms. When Trump tried real policy to deal with immigration and trade over the past 18 months, he produced little. His fire and fury toward Mexico led to only modest revisions in the North American Free Trade Agreement, and his separation of migrant families as a deterrent to seeking asylum shocked the conscience of the country and the courts and has mostly been shelved. And finally, Trump’s tantrum this week, threatening to shut down the government if he didn’t get his promised wall, embarrassed even Republicans. It was


The climate is changing too fast to take half-measures

and Mountain Valley pipelines, that, respectively , will lead to the emission of 30 MTY and 40 MTY. That’s an 8 MTY decrease vs. a 70 MTY increase. For states to lead the way on climate change, they have to reduce carbon pollution, not increase it. Glen Besa The writer is a former director of the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club. I was delighted to But, the governors should acknowledge that the construction of gas pipelines, including the Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast pipelines shepherded through Virginia by Mr. Northam and the Potomac River pipeline boosted by Mr. Hogan, will tie both states to a future dependent on fracked natural gas, which scientists (and these governors) have agreed contributes significantly to climate change. I hope the governors will reconsider their support for these pipelines as they “get to work.” It would be hypocritical to claim the mantle of leadership on the environment when they’re simultaneously fast-tracking fossil-fuel infrastructure. Beth Kreydatus Two Dec. 11 front-page Jeanne Connelly Regarding the Dec. 11 Did the top White House adviser on energy and climate really say that “no country should have to sacrifice economic prosperity . . . in pursuit of environmental sustainability”? So is President Trump planning on building a bubble over Mar-a-Lago so he can sit peacefully while the rest of us succumb to environmental degradation? Edward Basile Climate scientists, concerned about Did the API believe the climate scientists’ conclusions? Yes. For example, API members began installing their ocean oil-drilling platforms at such a height as to anticipate the scientists’ predicted rising seas. A responsible approach, beginning in the 1960s, on the part of the API would have been to gradually phase in renewable-energy development while phasing out oil and gas technologies. Instead, after just a few decades, we now live in a world on the brink of global catastrophe. Stan Pearson The Dec. 12 front-page As a public-health physician, I believe our failing planetary health requires bold political action to accelerate the deployment of Arctic ice restoration approaches. It is rational to invest in research and deployment of feasible solutions such as Ice911’s reflective sand method and other known innovations such as marine cloud brightening, ice-thickening technologies, etc. We can ensure that Arctic ice is restored so that we can leave our planet habitable for future generations. The time for “radical” action to become “rational” action is now. Paul Zeitz


How running transformed the life of an NPR host

You’ll want to love Peter Sagal’s book, “The Incomplete Book of Running,” especially if you’re a runner and particularly if you like Sagal, the host of NPR’s popular news quiz show “Wait, Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me!” For those of us old enough to remember, the title and cover photo are a spoof of Jim Fixx’s iconic 1977 book, “The Complete Book of Running,” which helped set off the U.S. running boom. Sagal, 53, is a very good runner — he regularly qualifies for the Boston Marathon, a feat most running mortals cannot hope to achieve — and a very good writer. He is clever, warm, funny and engaging, and as a longtime Runner’s World columnist, he knows his running stuff. But the book is not just about running. It’s about running and personal growth, which is both its virtue and its vice. The marathon is an easy metaphor for life’s trials, and if you happen to actually be a marathoner, well, there’s probably no avoiding it. Much of the ground Sagal covers here is well trodden: See George Sheehan’s “Running and Being,” and Haruki Murakami’s “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.” Sagal took up distance running (for the second time) at 40, in the midst of a horrific divorce and a midlife crisis. He beat himself into shape and eventually became an excellent marathoner despite his lack of athletic gifts. Along those thousands of miles, many of them solitary, he explored the psychic and physical suffering that helped him accept the disintegration of his marriage and find peace as a runner. If you haven’t read something like that story by now, you probably don’t read running books. Too many people have written it — some well, some poorly — for Sagal to have much chance to say anything original. The same holds true for his advice on starting out as a runner and his tips on healthful eating. There’s little here you can’t find on the Internet or in another book. Still, what elevates Sagal’s reflections is that he has endured some hard times that transcend his divorce and midlife angst. A plump, unathletic teen, he took up distance running for the first time at the age of 15, in the grip of self-loathing and an eating disorder. He lost 40 pounds by exercising relentlessly and secretly restricting himself to less than a thousand


Theresa May presses for Brexit concessions at Brussels summit

little leeway on the basics of the deal. Some diplomats said they were confused about what precisely May was asking for. Other European countries, watching the political chaos engulf Britain, are stepping up emergency preparations in case Britain crashes out of the union on March 29 without a deal in place. Diplomats say they believe that is increasingly likely, since the British Parliament appears paralyzed by fragmentation. Although May won Wednesday’s confidence vote, the 200-to-117 party vote exposed the depth of anger within the Tory ranks and left it unclear whether any Brexit deal proposed by the unpopular leader can carry the parliament. If there is no deal, planes won’t be able to fly between Britain and mainland Europe. Transportation would grind to a halt, and food and medicine from Europe would no longer flow into Britain. Millions of Europeans living in Britain and British living in the E.U. could lose their legal status overnight. The economic toll could throw Britain into a depression. Although Europeans say they may be able to put in place temporary emergency plans to offset some of the pain, they would far prefer a deal. Negotiations could be extended with the consent of the remaining 27 E.U. leaders, but E.U. diplomats say that would only happen if negotiators were confident that the extension was in the service of wrapping up the current deal, not beginning a new one. And late June is probably the latest they could go, given Europe’s election calendar. Many leaders made clear they were exasperated by the back-and-forth British debate, where members of May’s own cabinet have demanded changes to a deal they approved just last month. Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite tweeted a photograph of a chocolate Christmas tree and told the British: “Finally decide what you really want and Santa will deliver.” Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, asked what Europe could offer to help the deal pass in Britain, said the debate there had slipped away from reality. “It is difficult to judge,” he said, “because many of the skeptics do not really argue rationally.” According to the deal on the table, if the two sides cannot strike an acceptable trade agreement before the end of Britain’s two-year transition period, Britain would remain inside the E.U. Customs Union. The primary concern is to avoid a hard border between Ireland, which is staying in the E.U., and Northern Ireland, which would depart


Vast forests of dead or stressed trees prompt new federal approach to restoration out West

Melissa Martin, planning and information program manager for Medicine Bow. “This is about providing resiliency for the future, so we don’t wind up in a situation 100 years from now [like] we find ourselves in today.” That situation is bleak. A generations-old policy of fire suppression and reduced timber harvests caused stressed, overstocked forests that were unable to fend off mountain pine beetles and spruce bark beetles. Both insects bore through bark to lay their eggs, and the larvae that hatch spend the winter in place, emerging only when fully grown to begin the cycle anew the next summer. Their activity severely disrupts a tree’s nutrient system. Unleashed by drought and warm winters — both tied to climate change — the rice-size insects have attacked huge swaths of the Rockies, Tetons, Cascades and Sierra Nevada since the 1990s. Nearly half of the lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service, or 81.3 million acres, needs attention. Their poor condition, in combination with a succession of wildfire seasons unprecedented in their deadliness and destruction, is forcing a reckoning among federal agencies, environmentalists, timber companies, ranchers, outdoor enthusiasts and local communities. “Expansive work is needed to reduce fuels and threats from insects and diseases,” wrote Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen after Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced a new management strategy in August. “Poor conditions demand treatments at a scale that match the immensity of the problem,” she added. “But we can’t do it alone.” Environmentalists, who have often battled the government on the issue, agree that Washington must speed efforts to cull beetle kill in forests up to five times denser than a century ago. Tinder-dry dead trees jeopardize the purity of water supplies for parched cities and the lives and property of millions of people who live in what’s known as the wildland-urban interface — areas prone to wildfires. “If we are going to have a chance at combating climate change, forests are one of our best tools for mitigation because they sequester carbon,” said Chris Topik, director of the Nature Conservancy’s Restoring America’s Forests initiative. “So it’s vital that we help them to adapt.” The Trump administration’s shift to decades-long management plans encompassing vast stretches is in stark contrast to the Forest Service’s historical practice of grooming parcels of 3,000 to 10,000 acres over a period of months. In New Mexico, the agency is preparing an environmental report for the 185,586-acre


PM Update: Rain is likely through the night, then possibly more scattered for a time Saturday

* Clouds thickened and lowered throughout the day as a storm system destined to boost us to the wettest year on record moves in. Rain is likely across the area into the night, and we’ll see raindrops off and on much of the weekend. With some luck, there’ll be a few moments without rain as well. Listen to our daily D.C. forecasts: Apple Podcasts | Amazon Echo | More options Through tonight: View the Tomorrow (Saturday): Sunday: See Camden Walker’s forecast through the beginning of next week. And if you haven’t already, join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram. For related traffic news, check out Gridlock. Want our 5 a.m. forecast delivered to your email inbox?


Theresa May comes up empty in Brussels, with no new Brexit concessions

BRUSSELS — British Prime Minister Theresa May’s two days of efforts to persuade European leaders to soften their Brexit demands appeared to backfire Friday, as a Brussels summit broke up with Europe’s stance tougher than it was before her diplomatic push. Facing rebellion at home over compromises she made in negotiating how Britain will withdraw from the European Union, May sought adjustments to sweeten the agreement for her Tory backbenchers and allow an orderly Brexit in March. E.U. leaders initially appeared open to symbolic statements to help calm British furies. But even symbolism moved out of reach after May’s efforts unsettled Europeans who are weary of dealing with Britain’s domestic political dramas. Several European leaders said they were directing their governments to speed emergency preparations for Britain’s crashing out of the E.U. with no deal at all, a prospect that could create a humanitarian and economic crisis after the March 29 exit deadline. And although May tried on her way out to spin the meetings as a success, her fellow leaders suggested that her statements bore little relationship to reality. “Those take us forward. Those are welcome. This is the clearest statement we’ve heard yet from the European Union that it’s their intention for the backstop never to be necessary,” May said of a Thursday night statement from the 27 other E.U. leaders that simply repeated the substance of the already agreed, toxic-in-London deal. The backstop refers to a provision that would keep Britain in the E.U. customs union if a better solution is not found to preserve an open border between Northern Ireland, which is set to leave along with Britain, and Ireland, which will remain in the E.U. Everyone agrees they need to keep the border open to prevent a return to sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. May said she would keep speaking with fellow leaders to win further reassurances that customs union membership would only be temporary. But others said that while phone lines to Europe were always open, changes to the deal were impossible. “I have no mandate to organize any further negotiations,” said European Council President Donald Tusk. “But, of course, we will stay here in Brussels, and I am always at Prime Minister Theresa May’s disposal. It’s my job and it’s my pleasure.” He noted that, for all the criticism directed toward Europe by hardcore advocates of Brexit, “we have treated Prime Minister May


The sage grouse’s future was starting to look bright, but then along came Trump

100 degrees. In the winter, they grow feather-like appendages on their feet to help them walk on snow. In extreme cold, they burrow into it. Sage grouse are considered indicator species for the great expanse of open range where they reside. At least 297 species of birds, 87 species of mammals, 63 specials of fish and countless species of reptiles and insects call the sagebrush steppe their home. Loss of sage grouse habitat affects them all. In September 2015, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided not to put sage grouse on the Endangered Species List, which would have restricted development within their habitat. Energy and mining executives were relieved — and so were ranchers and other landowners. They wanted to take care of the problem themselves. With “What’s good for the bird is good for the herd” as their mantra, the ranchers worked with state and federal land managers to preserve sage grouse habitat. They removed invasive trees and kept cattle away from sensitive areas during mating and nesting seasons. These steps were both unprecedented and profitable: By allowing the birds to flourish, ranchers were ensuring the health of the land their cattle depended on. “The whole approach was based on cooperative, locally led conservation,” said Duane Coombs, a Nevada rancher and coordinator for sage grouse conservation. “It involved sitting down at a table and talking about mutual objectives. Sure, there are differences that come up, but you have to just talk through them and focus on common goals. That’s the basis of a civil society.” The Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies encouraged member states to create grouse conservation plans. Wyoming, a state rich in oil, gas, minerals — and sage grouse — drew 5-mile buffers around sage grouse mating grounds. They banned industry activity within six-tenths of a mile from those grounds and limited surface disturbance to 5 percent of each square mile within the larger buffered zone. Other states soon followed Wyoming’s lead. Oil and gas developers weren’t happy. But after the 2016 election, they knew they had a friend in high places. The Trump administration promised it would revisit sage grouse protections — a significant move because the federal Bureau of Land Management manages half of all sage grouse habitat, and leases large areas to ranchers and industry. On Dec. 6, the administration announced the elimination of Obama-era regulations that conserve sage grouse habitat.


Poliolike illness AFM tests an overstretched public health system

The mysterious, poliolike disease that has struck more than 480 people — mostly young children — across the United States since 2014 comes at a time when the U.S. public health system is already overstretched. Reported in 46 states and the District, acute flaccid myelitis, known as AFM, causes muscle weakness and in some cases paralysis in the arms or legs, terrifying parents and puzzling medical researchers. More than 90 percent of those affected are children. The disease has flared while state and federal governments largely have stopped making new investments in public health. Some infectious disease experts think the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has taken too long to understand the cause of the disease, but no high profile critic has directly blamed the slow action on low public health funding. Still, many public health experts argue the lack of investment further strains a system that faces multiple challenges, including sharp upticks in sexually transmitted diseases and hepatitis A and C, the opioid epidemic, seasonal flu viruses, and frequent natural disasters such as hurricanes and wildfires. The low spending has thrown the U.S. public health system into “crisis,” according to the Trust for America’s Health, a nonpartisan, D.C.-based research organization that promotes disease and injury prevention. “Insufficient funding has hampered the ability of the CDC and state and local health departments to keep pace with the new and continuing threats to the health of the American people and to fully fund prevention initiatives,” the group said in a report this year on public health financing. State and local health departments must frequently shift personnel from one challenge to meet a new one, such as AFM this year or the Zika virus a couple of years ago. “When something unusual like this comes up, we don’t have a pot of money to address that,” said Kristen Ehresmann, Minnesota’s director for infectious diseases. “And neither does the CDC. We have to put staff on that new issue. You’re constantly taking people off one thing in order to address another.” CDC funding, three-fourths of which makes its way to local and state health departments, and public and private partners, in the form of grants, has lagged behind inflation since 2009 and has been almost flat since 2014. Notably, the portion of the agency’s budget that goes to states for controlling infectious diseases has also remained largely unchanged in the past four


and rehabilitative therapy. The CDC said that about half of patients with AFM have recovered. The agency also issued instructions on the type of specimens it needs to help understand the cause of the disease. The CDC has research laboratories to investigate new diseases, as does the National Institutes of Health and academic medical systems, often operating under federal grants. To nail down a cause for AFM, officials are looking to researchers at institutions such as the University of Tennessee Medical Center, the University of Colorado and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Parents and clinicians have criticized the CDC for the time it has taken to respond to the disease. Even some of the CDC’s own medical advisers have complained. “Frustrated and disappointed — I think that’s exactly how most of us feel,” Keith Van Haren, a neurologist at Stanford University Medical Center and a CDC medical adviser told CNN in November. 'This is a tough disease' Some parents have also bitterly complained that the CDC hasn’t reported the deaths of some children from AFM. Nancy Messonnier, director of the agency’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, in a conference call with reporters in November said the CDC could not specify the number of deaths linked to AFM because of a lack of follow-up investigation that it is now trying to correct. The CDC said one child confirmed to have had AFM in 2017 died, although a spokeswoman, Kate Fowlie, said in an email, “it is unclear what role AFM played in the death.” She said no deaths among AFM patients have been reported to the agency this year. Since it appeared six years ago, AFM has spiked every other year, in 2014, 2016 and 2018. Many patients tested positive for an enterovirus known as D68, which was previously associated with respiratory symptoms but not weakness in the arms and legs. The link has led to a supposition that the virus may have mutated. But the enterovirus has not been present in all those with AFM, prompting some scientists to investigate whether environmental or genetic factors might be playing a role. Messonnier said the CDC is now also exploring the possibility that the symptoms may be caused by an aberrant immune response to an infection rather than the infection itself. Some researchers also think that another virus might be a contributor. “It’s very possible and maybe


Brexit would be hard for Britain. Staying in the E.U. would be worse.

2 million E.U. nationals to work within its borders. Should continental economies stagnate further, that tide would likely swell, further increasing the backlash that led to the Leave victory in the first place. Should Italy default on its debts, an increasing likelihood, Britain will likely be asked to shoulder some of the bailout’s cost. More immigration and higher taxes to fund more bailouts will not go over well with British voters. Optimists who think that staying in would permit Britain to influence the E.U.’s policies ignore the repeated examples to the contrary. The E.U.’s rejection of the British prime minister’s plea for slight adjustments to her exit deal is merely the latest in a series of acts that show the E.U. holds Britain in contempt. The sad fact is that the E.U. looks at Britain as a cash cow whose economy sends money directly and indirectly to the other member states. It will not hesitate to milk the cow until it drops. Britain’s future outside the E.U. would be bright even after a necessary, and perhaps painful, adjustment. Modern Britain is the child of 30 years of reform begun by Margaret Thatcher and completed by Tony Blair. Their efforts reinvigorated British entrepreneurship and optimism. Financial deregulation coupled with pro-market reforms created the London powerhouse that attracts workers from all over the globe. They aren’t coming because they crave access to the E.U.; they come because they crave access to Britain’s real asset — its people. It’s easy to see the difference between the United Kingdom and the E.U. when you visit London and Paris, as I just recently did. Paris is beautiful but forlorn. The stores are old, the buildings are old, and spirits are downcast. London, by contrast, sparkles with the new. New buildings, new stores and the energy positively crackles from the streets. Ask any leader in Britain’s business world and they will tell you they worry about the post-Brexit future. But look in the eyes of anyone, leaders included, and you see that they will rise to that challenge with resolution rather than resignation. Remainers think Britain’s prosperity depends on its location. Leavers think its prosperity, long-term, depends upon its character. Freed from the shackles of the E.U.’s rules and Franco-German domination, Leavers contend, British character will remain indispensable to a tired continent and create new opportunities across the globe. Seeing the French and the British up


D.C. man fatally shot Saturday night in Northwest

A 21-year old man was fatally shot in Northwest on Saturday night, D.C. police said Sunday. Police identified the victim as Curtis Davis, of Southeast. Officers responding to a report of the sound of gunfire in the 1100 block of 1st Street Northwest at around 6:19 p.m. found Davis wounded. He was transported to a hospital were he was pronounced dead. The homicide is under investigation, and police are offering a reward of up to $25,000 to anyone with information that leads to an arrest and conviction. rachel.chason@washpost.com


Under record-setting rain, birdwatchers look to the skies for the Christmas Bird Count

American birds are migrating — and in some cases, dying — as a result of climate change. Based in New York, Bateman took part in the District’s Christmas Bird Count for the first time in the hopes of learning about shifts in the D.C. bird population from longtime local birdwatchers. “We’re already seeing that some species are leaving areas that are becoming worse because of climate change, and moving into areas that are becoming better,” Bateman said. A 2014 report from the National Audubon Society, a nonprofit group that advocates for birds, painted a grim picture, predicting that global warming will threaten the survival of more than half of all species of birds in North America. The Washington area faces particularly dire threats, with increasingly scorching summers, milder winters and intensifying rainfalls. These drastic climate changes could in turn force bird populations to move to more suitable regions. The oriole, Maryland’s state bird, could abandon the Mid-Atlantic region by 2050 seeking cooler temperatures, the Audubon report said. The District’s official bird, the wood thrush, could also be forced to migrate to cooler climates. Other birds common across the continent, such as the chipping sparrow, may start concentrating in the District more as the winters get warmer, and some species, including robins, may stick around longer, migrating less during the winter, Bateman said. Because they’re highly visible, birds are important messengers for scientists, Bateman said. “They’re sort of like this barometer of change,” she said. “They’re letting us know that things are not the same, and climate change is happening now.” The Christmas Bird Count therefore is essential to adding data to scientists’ understanding of climate change, she said. “People like this that are willing to come out in the rain and look for birds . . . this is how I’m able to do my science, because people care this much,” Bateman said. As the group trekked around the park Saturday morning, eyes glued to binoculars, the birds seemed quiet and hidden at times, hunkered down in the pouring rain. But only a few minutes into the hike, Bateman saw a flash of red and heard a faint but familiar “chip, chip chip.” “A female cardinal just landed in there,” she said, pointing to a tree in the distance. “She’s somewhere in there.” Then, others in the group spotted a flock of robins flying in the distance. Andrés Anchondo, who


White House prepares for shutdown as both sides dig in over Trump’s wall

days before Christmas, is fading. GOP congressional leaders are scrambling to find an alternative that could stave off a shutdown. But White House officials signaled to lawmakers Friday they would probably not support a one- or two-week stopgap measure. Some congressional Republicans support such a “continuing resolution,” but the White House rejection has dramatically increased the odds of a spending lapse. “We could be headed down the road to nowhere,” said Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.). “We’ll have a [continuing resolution] rather than a shutdown, I hope.” Several budget experts believe a partial shutdown, which would impact agencies that manage law enforcement, homeland security, housing and other programs, could drag on for days, if not weeks. That is in part because Trump believes the final days of the existing Congress are his best chance to extract $5 billion in funds to partially build a wall along the Mexico border. In early January, Democrats take control of the House of Representatives, giving them more control over the process. Multiple agencies and senior administration officials are preparing for the possibility that about a quarter of the government — and more than one-third of federal workers — could be left without funding during the holiday season. The agencies themselves are providing scant information about what they will do if their funding lapses, and with the deadline days away, mass confusion remains about what would actually happen in a partial government shutdown. The Statue of Liberty, for example, closed to thousands of visitors during a brief government funding lapse in January. National parks across the country stayed open, though without visitor centers and fees and with only minimal emergency staff. National Park Service officials confirmed Friday that parks would stay open this time — but they declined to say whether the Statue of Liberty would again close. “We are not going to speculate on any possible change in government operations,” Jerry Willis, a spokesman for the national park that encompasses the Statue of Liberty, wrote in a text message. He referred questions to the Park Service, where another spokesman wrote an identical message in response to an inquiry. The lack of clarity on all fronts is seizing Washington just ahead of the Christmas holiday and as Democrats prepare to take control of the House, illustrating how jarring the transition in power could be next year. Trump and some of his conservative allies


Diplomat from Melania Trump’s native Slovenia warns of waning U.S. influence in Europe

The foreign minister of Slovenia, a small Balkan country that many Americans associate with native daughter Melania Trump, came to Washington last week to warn that the United States must make its leadership more visible in Europe or risk being eclipsed by China and Russia. Miro Cerar, a former prime minister who now is Slovenia’s top diplomat, met Friday with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton. It was the first official visit paid to Washington by a Slovenian foreign minister since 2010. Although Slovenia is a nation of just 2 million people, it has attracted a lot of interest from China, Cerar said in an interview with The Washington Post. The United States has been much less visible by comparison, he added. “It’s not enough to have good economic cooperation,” he said. “I tell you, the Chinese come to Europe. As prime minister, I met five times with the Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang in order to discuss political relations and business. So I think it would be very good if our friends and allies in the United States would be more present in the region.” At a time when the United States is turning inward with President Trump’s “America First” agenda, China and Russia have expanded their influence around the world. Russian foreign aid has increased 300 percent since 2010, while U.S. foreign aid has been a target of the White House’s proposed budget cuts before being restored in Congress. China has been even more ambitious, building infrastructure projects such as ports, railways, airports, stadiums and power plants throughout Africa and Latin America. Its tactics are the same in Slovenia, where Cerar said China offers to build infrastructure quickly with cheap money that leaves the country in debt but is too alluring to turn down. Cerar predicts many countries in the Balkans and Eastern Europe will gravitate to Beijing and Moscow politically as well as economically. “If Russian or Chinese interests prevail, we will lose the region,” said Cerar, whose Modern Center Party is considered moderate. “The United States could be much more present.” Some countries in Europe, particularly those that have experienced a significant influx of refugees fleeing Syria, have seen a rise in nationalist and right-wing parties with anti-immigrant agendas. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban won a landslide victory in an election dominated by the issue of immigration. In Slovenia’s elections this


Former Special Forces soldier, once lauded as a hero, faces murder charge

A former Special Forces soldier once lauded as a hero of the Afghanistan war was notified Thursday that he faces a charge of premeditated murder in connection with the 2010 killing of a suspected Taliban bombmaker, according to the veteran’s attorney and an Army spokesman. A forthcoming Article 32 hearing will assess the evidence against former Army Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn and determine if the case should go to trial, said Phillip Stackhouse, the attorney. Golsteyn has been investigated by the military since 2011, when authorities say he admitted he had killed the man. His statement came during a polygraph test he took while applying for a job at the CIA, according to Army documents. Lt. Col. Loren Bymer, a spokesman for Army Special Operations Command, confirmed the charge was read to Golsteyn. A hearing has not yet been scheduled, Bymer said. The prosecution marks the latest twist in the fall of a man who at one point was a highly decorated soldier. It also comes amid a string of other cases in which Special Operations veterans are accused of carrying out serious crimes, including a Navy SEAL who has been charged with murder in the alleged execution of an unarmed Islamic State militant in Iraq and two SEALs and two Marine Raiders who have been charged with murder in the death of a Special Forces soldier in Mali. Stackhouse has maintained that Army investigators exaggerated what Golsteyn said in the CIA job interview. He indicated Thursday that he and Golsteyn will fight the charge. Golsteyn, a 2002 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., led a team from the 3rd Special Forces Group in the Battle of Marja in 2010, earning a Silver Star for his valor. On Feb. 20, 2010, he repeatedly braved enemy fire after watching a Taliban sniper nearly hit a nearby Marine, launching a mission to kill the enemy marksman and coordinating numerous airstrikes, according to a military summary of his actions. Two days earlier, two Marines working with Golsteyn’s unit — Sgt. Jeremy R. McQueary, 27, and Lance Cpl. Larry M. Johnson, 19 — were killed by improvised explosives. According to Army documents obtained by The Washington Post, Golsteyn later recounted during the job interview that afterward he and his soldiers began searching homes nearby and eventually found materials needed to make bombs like the one that had killed the Marines.


May sets mid-January date for Brexit vote in Parliament

LONDON — After a failed bid to secure further concessions from European leaders on Brexit, Prime Minister Theresa May returned to Parliament on Monday with little to offer beyond a new date for a vote on the deal outlining how Britain will withdraw from the European Union. May said parliamentary debate on the deal would resume Jan. 7, with a vote held the following week. That didn’t satisfy her critics. Opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn tabled a largely symbolic motion of no confidence in the prime minister, “due to her failure to allow the House of Commons to have a meaningful vote straightaway.” The motion, directed at May personally, might be embarrassing for her but could not bring down her government. It also doesn’t require the government to allot time to debate it. On Monday it was unclear when or if such a debate would happen. If a Parliament-wide no-confidence vote went ahead, May would probably win. Brexit hard-liners in her party, as well as the Democratic Unionists of Northern Ireland that prop up her minority government, signaled that they would back the prime minister. The latest developments come after what was arguably May’s worst week as prime minister. Last week, Britain’s embattled leader dramatically yanked a parliamentary vote on her Brexit deal, which would have faced a massive defeat. By delaying the showdown, she bought herself time, but she also angered many lawmakers. Her own party triggered a no-confidence vote, which May survived, but more than a third of her fellow Conservatives voted against her, a serious blow to her credibility. May then received a chilly reception in Brussels, where European leaders made clear they weren’t interested in any renegotiation. With only three months to go before Britain is set to leave the E.U., May is trying to get her deal through the British Parliament. Brexiteers don’t like it because they want a cleaner break with the E.U., and pro-Europeans don’t like it because they think it is inferior to the current arrangement. If May doesn’t get parliamentary approval, and if nothing else changes, Britain would crash out of the bloc without a deal in March, a scenario that could halt travel and trade and be economically disastrous, at least in the short term. “I know this is not everyone’s perfect deal; it is a compromise,” May said. “But if we let the perfect be the enemy of


I voted for Trump. Now his wall may destroy my butterfly paradise.

Right now, in Mission, Tex., we don’t worry about immigrants who crossed the border illegally or drug smugglers. We worry about having to defend our private property from seizure by the federal government. I work at the National Butterfly Center — which is along the U.S.-Mexico border — documenting wildlife and leading educational tours. Many of our visitors are young students from the Rio Grande Valley. When they first arrive, some of the children are scared of everything, from the snakes to the pill bugs. Here, we can show them animals that roam free and teach them not to be afraid. We talk about how we planted native vines, shrubs and trees to attract some 240 species of butterflies, as well as dragonflies, grasshoppers and other insects. The bugs brought the birds — including some you can’t see anywhere else in America, like Green Jays and Chachalacas — and from there, the bobcats and coyotes. We want to teach kids what it takes to create a home for all kinds of animals. President Trump’s new border wall — which he has threatened to shut down the government to fund — will teach them what it takes to destroy it. The first section, funded by Congress in 2018 for construction starting early next year, will cut right through our 100-acre refuge, sealing off 70 acres bordering the banks of the Rio Grande. The plan that we’ve seen calls for 18 feet of concrete and 18 feet of steel bollards, with a 150-foot paved enforcement zone for cameras, sensors, lighting and Border Patrol traffic. On the south side of the barrier, flooding will worsen. On the north side, animals (including threatened species like the Texas tortoise and the Texas horned lizard) will be cut off from ranging beyond the wall for feeding and breeding. Flood lighting will disrupt the usual patterns of nocturnal species. We dread the destruction that will come when the bulldozers arrive, which could be as early as February. That loud, heavy machinery will cause irreparable damage to the habitat we’ve worked so hard to restore. We’re not the only ones standing in the wall’s path. It will also slice through the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, and in Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park — which draws birdwatchers from all over the country and has hosted countless picnics and barbecues for local families like mine. The wall will cut


Again, China debases the rule of law. This time, President Trump chimes right in.

of our knowledge, Khashoggi is not a United States citizen,” he said. Despite the murder, Trump continues to embrace the crown prince, as he embraced Putin in Helsinki less than five months after the Salisbury poisoning. As he told Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly last year Now Trump is dragging Canada down into his sordid sense of reality. At the request of U.S. law enforcement, Canada on Dec. 1 detained Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of telecommunications company Huawei Technologies and daughter of the company’s founder. This was in accord with international law, based on serious allegations that Meng would eventually have the right to defend herself against. She has been granted bail in Vancouver, B.C. China, furious, detained two Canadians, lawlessly, and is holding them. The contrast was stark — until Trump essentially reduced Meng’s arrest to the level of another hostage-taking. “If I think it’s good for what will be certainly the largest trade deal ever made. . . . I would certainly intervene,” he said, adding, “It’s also possible it will be a part of negotiations.” Whether Meng is guilty of a felony is apparently not relevant. With his cynical, purely transactional view, Trump sandbagged Canada and its claim that the arrest was a matter of law enforcement alone; encouraged other nations to seize foreigners as negotiating tools; and undercut any insistence that innocent, unjustly held prisoners be freed without trade-off or condition. I have never met Wang Bingzhang, now 70 and ailing in his remote Chinese prison. But, after writing a novel for young readers inspired partly by his story, I have had the good fortune to become friends with his family. I have met the grandchildren he has never seen. And I had hoped that the government of Justin Trudeau, mindful that most of Wang’s family lives in Montreal, might persuade China to release Wang on humanitarian grounds. I still have that hope. But now Canada has more immediate worries in its relationship with China, having upheld the rule of law on behalf of a neighbor who scoffs at it. Last week, the U.S. Senate, voting unanimously to condemn the Saudi crown prince for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, sent one hopeful signal: Not everyone in the U.S. government has abandoned our founding principles. A bit of good news, but hardly enough to undo the damage being perpetrated from the White House. fredhiatt@washpost.com Read more from


A soldier rose to become a general. His daughter says he abused her for years.

it at length with The Post over the past seven months. Five other people as well as letters from the 1980s and 1990s corroborated parts of Elmore’s account. Those people included Grazioplene’s sister, who said the general admitted years ago that he assaulted his daughter. Grazioplene, 69, is among the few generals in modern history that the Army has attempted to court-martial. He retired in 2005 after a career that included stints as a commander within the 82nd Airborne Division and senior staff positions at the Pentagon. After retiring, he became a vice president at the contractor DynCorp International but is no longer with the company. He maintains his innocence, but he and one of his lawyers, Thomas Pavlinic, declined to discuss the case. Multiple attempts to reach other family members, including his wife, son and other siblings, were unsuccessful. “I will not comment,” Grazioplene said in a Sept. 6 phone call. “The charges are false and incorrect. Nope.” The Army last year convened a hearing at Fort Meade, Md., in which Elmore testified. The service determined that there was enough evidence to hold a trial, but the case was dismissed because of a decision in another case — United States v. Mangahas — by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. It found that a five-year statute of limitations applied in the Mangahas case, which centered on an allegation of rape from 1997. A military judge, in response, dismissed the case against Grazioplene, saying the clock had also run out on prosecuting the general. On Dec. 3, however, a grand jury in Prince William County indicted Grazioplene on multiple counts of rape and incest, following a four-month investigation, and he was arrested Dec. 7 in Gainesville, Va. There is no statute of limitations in Virginia on rape charges. With a new case pending, Elmore and her attorney, Ryan Guilds, declined to comment further beyond what they said in interviews before the new charges were filed. Officials in Prince William and with the Army also declined to comment on the case and on whether they are cooperating. Elmore said that her memories of abuse start when she was 3 years old. Her first recollection of it is her father molesting her while she was sitting on a washing machine in her maternal grandmother’s home in LeRoy, N.Y., she said. “It was just him and myself, and I can


The strange scene inside the Yemen peace talks in Sweden

Hind Aleryani is an award-winning Yemeni journalist and women’s rights activist. Anyone would expect that people who are fighting on opposing sides in a war would not be laughing and shaking hands during official consultations. But when it comes to Yemeni peace talks — well, our way is different. You could see people from the warring parties at last week’s talks in Rimbo, Sweden, laughing with one another, shaking hands and smiling. You wouldn’t think that anything was wrong between them. The ambassador of a country that plays a major role in the Yemen war once told me, “I’m constantly amazed by the sight of a Yemeni national who is shaking the hands of a person who blew his house up. It’s extremely difficult for me to imagine myself forgiving the people who have killed my country’s soldiers.” Yes, it’s quite a baffling thing, but I’ll explain. This round of negotiations started off much more positively compared with past attempts. Before previous negotiations, media campaigns on both sides fueled the idea of war and the need for it to continue. This time, the anti-peace media campaign wasn’t as strong, and there were concessions made by the parties loyal to the legitimate government of Yemen recognized by the United Nations. For example, previously, the Houthis demanded that their soldiers be allowed to leave the country to receive treatment in Oman, a request that was completely out of the question in the last round of negotiations. This time, Houthis were allowed to send their injured soldiers abroad. These concessions indicate the presence of a great deal of pressure from the United States and the international community on Saudi Arabia — pressure that increased following the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. After a long period of neglect, the world is now talking about the famine in Yemen and the disastrous humanitarian situation, and some countries have decided to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The U.S. Senate has also signaled it wants to end U.S. support for the war. The outcome of the negotiations was a cease-fire in Hodeida, which is a positive sign, even though the two sides have not signed the agreement yet. There was an agreement to conduct further negotiations next month, another promising sign. We saw representatives of the two sides shaking hands in front of our very own eyes in Rimbo, and it was a touching moment for


It was her dream to play with the National Symphony. On Saturday, she did.

of the show was so relaxed — there was so much good-natured joking onstage between the conductor and the guest vocalist, Ashley Brown — that it put her at ease. At intermission, Cathy left the auditorium and went backstage to the green room, where she practiced her part again and again and again. Onstage, the NSO did “Carol of the Bells,” then a selection of Hannukah music. Next up: “Sleigh Ride.” Reineke explained what was about to happen, and Cathy walked from the green room, through a door and onto the Concert Hall stage. The bright lights meant Cathy couldn’t see the audience. She didn’t see that many of them were giving her a standing ovation before she’d played a note. Cathy had wanted to do this, she told me, not just for herself, but to honor public school music teachers everywhere, teachers who had to put up with knuckleheads like her, the young Cathy, who’d joked and giggled with the boy who sat next to her in orchestra. She did it for teachers like Anne Lee Knobloch at Stratford Junior High and Dorothy Baumle at Washington-Lee High, who maybe sometimes thought they weren’t getting through to their students. But they did get through, for here was Cathy at the Kennedy Center, her elementary school violin tucked under her chin. “You get that sense of alertness and getting ready to play,” Cathy said of those few precious moments before the conductor raises the baton. “You’re there, you’re alert, you’re waiting, and that is a wonderful feeling. I had forgotten how nice that feels. It just feels nice to be all in black, sitting in a group.” And then the NSO was off like a shot: jaunty, buoyant, whip slapping, horse whinnying, sleigh bells jingling (ring-ting-tingling, too). Three minutes later the song was over and Cathy got up to walk offstage. Before she slipped back through the door, she turned and blew a big kiss to the crowd, which was back on its feet, applauding. Helping Hand I’ll give you a standing ovation if we raise $225,000 by Jan. 4 for Bright Beginnings, N Street Village and So Others Might Eat. The three charities work with homeless families and adults in our area, putting them on the road to self-sufficiency. They’re all partners in The Washington Post Helping Hand. Please visit posthelpinghand.com and click where it says “Donate.” john.kelly@washpost.com Twitter: @johnkelly


The Technology 202: Major tech companies could be battered by ACA ruling if it’s upheld

operations in New York with a new campus and thousands of jobs The search engine giant is joining Apple and Amazon in growing their operations outside Silicon Valley. William Floyd, director of public policy and government relations at Google, told the Journal that Google’s ambition to add 7,000 employees in New York over the next 10 years is “a conservative estimate.” The planned expansion is also set to make Google one of Manhattan’s largest corporate office tenants, according to the Journal. (Amazon founder and chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Post.) — Amazon.com has a name for unprofitable items: CRaP. It stands for “Can’t Realize a Profit,” and the company wants to get rid of them as it seeks to make its retail business more profitable “Amazon also has greater leeway to curb CRaP items because of the rise of independent sellers on its site,” Stevens, Terlep and Gasparro reported. -- An artificial intelligence start-up selling a “risk rating” of babysitters said it has put its service on “pause” after The Post's Drew Harwell reported that the company's technology was subject to biases. The start-up, called Predictim, said on its website that it would “focus on evaluating how we offer our service and making changes to address some of the suggestions we received.” The company scanned the social media accounts of babysitters and came up with an assessment of their personalities, according to my colleague. But as Drew wrote last month, Predictim's technology “remains entirely unproven, largely unexplained and vulnerable to quiet biases over how an appropriate babysitter should share, look and speak.” — As the dispute between Apple and Qualcomm continues, Apple said it will update the software on iPhones in China to avoid stopping sales of older versions of the phone on the Chinese market — More technology news from the private sector: — An initiative to develop quantum computing is getting closer to becoming law after the Senate approved the National Quantum Initiative Act. — More technology news from the public sector: — Workers protested the conditions at a Minnesota fulfillment center, increasing scrutiny of the company's treatment of warehouse employees. — More news about tech workforce and culture: — Today in funding news: Coming soon Stephen Miller: Trump will “absolutely” shut down government over wall funding. A Cameroonian journalist covered an American’s death. The government charged her with fake news: Starbucks to offer coffee delivery:


His fiancee was killed on a run in Logan Circle. He was left with the rest of his life.

On a chilly December morning, nearly three months after the runner’s death, her makeshift memorial was still visible. But things had changed. The pairs of running shoes and dozens of bouquets that had been arranged outside the Chinese American restaurant were gone. The few flowers that remained had wilted, and containers that once held candles now overflowed with dirty rainwater. Colorful wax was strewn about the pavement. Standing outside the Logan Circle restaurant, just feet away from where his fiancee was viciously stabbed, Daniel Hincapie had a vision. “I can see it so clearly, I can see her running down the street,” he said. “And this time, she just keeps going.” Wendy Martinez, 35, was fatally stabbed while running on the evening of Sept. 18, in what D.C. police said was a brutal and unprovoked attack by a stranger. It was the worst day of Hincapie’s life. The best day had come just six days prior. A perfect proposal He wanted the engagement to be a surprise, but Hincapie knew his girlfriend was not easily fooled — he’d failed to shock her on past birthdays. They’d met in 2015 while he was training for his first half-marathon. Hincapie was nervous, so a co-worker at the Inter-American Development Bank introduced him to Martinez, an avid runner. “She approached me and said, ‘Hey, if you want some tips, let me know,’ ” Hincapie said. They started talking and, soon after, ran together. They began dating a year later. After months of preparation, Hincapie, 38, planned the engagement for Sept. 12 — a Wednesday. At lunchtime, he would have a friend lure Martinez to a place in the city she considered sacred: the Spanish Steps, just north of Dupont Circle. “If I had planned it during the weekend, she would have known in, like, a second,” he said. Everything was perfect. The photographer he’d hired for the occasion was hidden in plain view. Hincapie waited at the top of the steps, dressed in a blue suit. As he was watching in one direction, Martinez arrived from another. Driving with the friend, she spotted him. “Wendy, being Wendy, said, ‘Wait, that’s Dani! I recognize that head anywhere!’ ” Hincapie said, laughing as he stood in the exact spot where he’d proposed. “She realized something special was happening,” he added. “She’s smart.” The ring was an emerald — the national jewel of his native Colombia


Three countries where democracy actually staged a comeback in 2018

By almost any measure, 2018 has been a disastrous year for democracy. Authoritarian leaders have made decisive moves to tighten their grip on power by eroding practices indispensable to a functioning democracy, such as the rule of law and a free press, and blithely ignoring or violently suppressing mass protests in places such as Hungary, Nicaragua, the Philippines and elsewhere. And yet, there are parts of the world where, quite unexpectedly, the struggle for democratic reform made giant strides — a reminder that the right mix of activism, leadership and circumstances can suddenly change the course of history. The good news came from starkly different countries, where undemocratic practices had been playing out in unique ways. Remarkably, whether toppling autocrats or reversing corrosive practices, the bold leaders and committed activists that shocked the system managed to achieve their goals without violence. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the year came in Ethiopia, a country of 100 million people and a solidly authoritarian past. Its jails teemed with political prisoners and journalists, and regime critics knew that the safest place was in exile. Since overthrowing a military regime in 1991, the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) monopolized power, profited from corruption, crushed its critics and blatantly favored the privileged ethnic Tigray minority. But then, in March, tensions within the EPRDF produced something of an internal coup, and the party chose Abiy Ahmed as its new chairman, making him prime minister and the first member of the oppressed Oromo minority to hold the post. His appointment ushered in changes that Ethiopians at home and abroad could hardly believe. Abiy freed thousands of political prisoners. He released jailed journalists — not a single one remains in prison, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists — and ended a decades-old war with neighboring Eritrea. The euphoria that gripped Ethiopia, as opposition leaders started returning home, spread to the diaspora. Abiy met with a hero’s welcome during his travels to exiled Ethiopian communities. In a meeting with Ethiopian dissidents in the United States he explained his vision: The next step, he declared, is a “democratic election.” Abiy and Ethiopia face enormous challenges. Economic turmoil and ethnic conflict could yet lie ahead. But the prime minister also enjoys an extraordinary amount of support. His push for fair elections, his tolerance of dissent, and his selection of women as cabinet officers, the head of the Supreme


Saudi Arabia ‘rejects’ U.S. Senate resolution blaming crown prince for Khashoggi killing

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The government of Saudi Arabia on Monday condemned a recent U.S. Senate resolution blaming Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, calling the Senate vote “blatant” interference in the kingdom’s internal affairs, according to a Saudi government statement. The Senate measure, which passed unanimously on Thursday, was a sweeping condemnation of Mohammed’s policies, including his crackdown on internal dissent. It also was a rebuke of President Trump’s defense of the crown prince and Trump’s position that Khashoggi’s death should not threaten the financial and strategic ties between Saudi Arabia and the United States. In its lengthy response to the Senate on Monday, Saudi Arabia accused the lawmakers of making “unsubstantiated claims and allegations” and said it “categorically rejects any interference in its internal affairs, any and all accusations, in any manner, that disrespect its leadership, represented by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and the Crown Prince, and any attempts to undermine its sovereignty or diminish its stature.” The Saudi government used similar language during a flare-up in August with Canada, after the Canadian Foreign Ministry called for the release of an imprisoned Saudi women’s rights activist. Saudi Arabia announced that it was expelling the Canadian ambassador to Riyadh and halting new trade and investment deals. Saudi officials did not announce any measures against the United States on Monday, and the statement took pains to praise the Trump administration. It said that “the Kingdom appreciates the prudent position taken by the United States Government and its institutions regarding recent developments.” Khashoggi, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post, was killed by Saudi government agents in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. A CIA assessment concluded the crown prince, who is the country’s effective ruler, had likely ordered and monitored the killing. The Saudi government has said it is investigating Khashoggi’s death, but its prosecutors have already absolved Mohammed of any responsibility. The Senate’s rebuke of Mohammed went beyond the Khashoggi case, faulting him for contributing to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, the continuing blockade of Qatar by Saudi Arabia and its allies, and the detention and torture of Saudi dissidents and activists, including a group of women’s rights advocates. The Senate also approved a separate measure on Thursday to end U.S. participation in the Saudi-led war effort in Yemen. kareem.fahim@washpost.com


Riccardo Giacconi, Nobel laureate known as the father of X-ray astronomy, dies at 87

Giacconi was born in Genoa on Oct. 6, 1931. After his parents separated, he lived for most of his youth in Milan with his mother, a high school teacher of math and physics. Although a sometimes difficult student — by his account, he cut school and reveled in correcting his teachers — he was attracted to physics, particularly the study of elementary particles and cosmic rays. He received a PhD in physics from the University of Milan in 1954 and began research in cosmic rays early on. A recipient of a Fulbright fellowship, he soon left for brief stays at Indiana University and then at Princeton. After Princeton, he was brought to American Science and Engineering, a private research company, to start a program in space science. In his 14 years at AS & E, from 1959 to 1973, he was credited with creating what became the new science of X-ray astronomy. He held leading roles in succeeding years at important scientific institutions and on major research projects. Among these were the Space Telescope Science Institute at Johns Hopkins. He served there from 1981 to 1992. At the institute he had responsibilities for operating the Hubble Space Telescope. His reasons for leaving the telescope institute were disclosed in the biography he submitted years later for the Nobel committee. It suggested the depths of human emotion that exist beneath what may seem the austere exterior of science. “In 1991 my son Marc died in an automobile accident,” he wrote, and the telescope institute, Hubble and the city of Baltimore, “were continued and painful reminders of devastating grief. “ He “jumped at” the chance to become head of the European Southern Observatory. It was based in Germany, and he headed it from 1993 to 1999. In 1999 he began five years as the president of Associated Universities Inc., a Washington-based manager of laboratories. He was a recipient of NASA’s Distinguished Public Service Award and of the National Medal of Science, which President George W. Bush awarded to him in 2003. Dr. Giacconi’s survivors include his wife, the former Mirella Manaira, of San Diego; two daughters, Anna Giacconi of San Diego and Guia Trutter of Lake Forest, Ill.; and two grandchildren. The biography that he prepared for the Nobel committee in 2002 was dedicated to his wife and daughters. He also wrote that it was in memory of his son, Marc Antonio. martin.weil@washpost.com


These bats carry the lethal Marburg virus, and scientists are tracking them to try to stop its spread

Amman suit up in special helmets and face shields connected to battery-powered respirators that muffle their voices. Underneath protective gowns they wear Kevlar-lined waist-high pants to guard against snake bites. On their hands are cut-resistant leather gloves, like those worn by law enforcement, over two pairs of medical gloves to protect against bat bites. Towner also had a video mounted on his helmet. “Hey, Brian, right down there is a bunch of males. You see ’em?” shouts Towner in the cave, his voice muffled by the head gear. The bats take flight, which is when they relieve themselves of what Amman calls the “rain of pee and poo.” Amman, holding a net, heads to where Towner is pointing, veering far away from an enormous python. He returns with two bats, which go into a pillowcase Towner is holding. Each pillowcase will hold about five bats since bats don’t like to be alone. Only males are caught; the scientists don’t want to burden females carrying pups. Catching the bats is the easy part. Getting the trackers on is trickier. Amman dreads the prospect of using sutures because they are messy and complicated. But given the failure in Atlanta, he has brought the necessary kit. He hopes a last-minute purchase of different veterinary glue may do the trick. Towner lifts the first bat out of a pillowcase, cradling it in his gloved hands. The bat is calm. Its big brown eyes blink, unaccustomed to the light. Towner places it stomach down, wings tucked in. One hand covers its head, the other its feet. “Hello, big fella,” Amman says to the bat. “You have been selected to take part in the GPS Price is Right sweepstakes.” He squeezes a thin line of glue on its back, another line of glue on the tracker and presses down gently but firmly. For several long seconds, no one utters a word. Towner breaks the silence. “That’s on pretty good,” he says softly, flicking at the device. “WOO-HOO!” Amman shouts, relief washing over his face. Up go his arms, signaling a touchdown. “I’m so happy, Jon,” he gushes. “I didn’t want to suture them. . . . I gotta tell ya. This is just better than Christmas.” They glue the remaining units and release the bats. One near miss occurs when two bats chew through a bag and almost escape. “Okay, dude,” Towner says to the last


Villagers nicknamed him “Marburg.” His older children were not allowed to go to school for two months. He was no longer able to work as a motorbike taxi driver. Now he barely gets by as a banana farmer. “Marburg has made me suffer,” he said. Investigators can’t pinpoint how the outbreak began. But they strongly suspect the spillover was linked to bats in the Kitaka mine. Richard’s seven-months-pregnant wife died while being transferred from one hospital to another. “She started bleeding from the nose. Then blood came out of her oxygen mask. It was all over her face,” he said. He had to bury her and their 18-month-old son the same evening. There was no time for a funeral. On the side of the house, under a banana tree, their unmarked graves lie under a patch of red dirt. It’s the CDC team’s last day in the forest. Time for the final test. A female vervet monkey and her baby look down from a tree as Amman and Towner huddle over a laptop. The lodge has no Internet service. The only connection comes from a portable device that seems to take forever to connect. Finally, a green bar appears on the screen. A good sign. Then it grows longer, an even better sign that data is loading. Then the numbers pop up. Amman can see that Bat No. 14 logged more than 3,000 data points in one night. That means he flew a good distance. So did Bat No. 11. “Oh man, this is awesome! This dude moved!” Amman exclaims, grinning widely. Days later, Amman would be able to tell that the bats flew in different directions, some traveling up to 15 miles. At least two flew southwest toward a spot near another town on the other side of the forest. That could mean a broader area of infection risk. Perhaps the bats were headed to a big fruit tree. Or another cave. Travel between far-flung roosts could be one way the virus is transmitted to other colonies. GPS coordinates show the two bats flew to an area two miles due east from an existing road. That is definitely something to be investigated, perhaps on a future trip. For now though, the pair of scientists are quietly thrilled that their effort, years in the making, had worked. “Good job,” Amman said quietly, giving Towner a high-five. “Good job,” Towner replied.


The Kremlin scores a big victory as Davos lets in sanctioned oligarchs

Last week brought the Kremlin a major victory against Western sanctions. After an intense lobbying campaign by Vladimir Putin’s regime, aided by the government of Switzerland, the Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF) reversed its decision to ban three Kremlin-connected oligarchs from its upcoming meeting in Davos. “I am pleased that after discussions with all relevant parties, careful consideration of international legal frameworks and strong support from the Swiss government, we are able to host business and political leaders from all G20 countries,” said Alois Zwinggi, the WEF’s managing director. Translated from the euphemistic language of corporate press releases, this means that Russian oligarchs Oleg Deripaska, Viktor Vekselberg and Andrei Kostin will be invited to attend the Davos forum, the world’s premier gathering of political and business leaders, held every winter in a small ski resort in the Swiss Alps. Deripaska, Russia’s principal aluminum magnate; Vekselberg, owner of the Renova industrial conglomerate; and Kostin, head of the state-owned VTB bank, were disinvited from Davos this year after being sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department over their ties to the Kremlin’s “malign activity around the globe.” “Russian oligarchs and elites who profit from this corrupt system will no longer be insulated from the consequences of their government’s destabilizing activities,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said at the time. Deripaska was also singled out for reportedly “threatening the lives of business rivals, illegally wiretapping a government official, and taking part in extortion and racketeering.” A regular at Davos meetings, Deripaska was known as the host of the forum’s most lavish parties, which featured buckets of caviar, free-flowing Dom Perignon champagne, and live performances by the likes of Enrique Iglesias. The list of attendees reads like the who’s-who of world politics and business. It seemed that Davos might have to forgo Deripaska’s hospitality this coming January. The initial decision by the forum’s organizers was caused less by their moral qualms than by the U.S. Treasury Department’s provision that “non-U.S. persons could face sanctions for knowingly facilitating significant transactions for or on behalf of the [sanctioned] individuals” – that is, by a fear of facing sanctions themselves. In the end, the Kremlin’s lobbying efforts (which included a personal conversation between Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Swiss President Alain Berset) overcame the reservations. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov welcomed the fact that the WEF management “embraced our position” by reversing the ban. The size and composition of


The Health 202: More people are getting treatment for mental health and substance abuse

THE PROGNOSIS Ten years ago, Congress passed a law requiring insurance companies to cover behavioral health conditions in the same way they covered physical conditions. And there seems to have been some progress — in the years since, use of treatment services for mental illness and substance use disorders has skyrocketed. A new study from independent nonprofit FAIR Health analyzed individual procedures or services covered by private insurance companies from 2007 to 2017. In that decade, use of services for behavioral health, which includes substance abuse and mental-health conditions, went up 320 percent. Treatment related to use and dependence on amphetamines climbed more than 3,000 percent, while use of treatment for anxiety diagnoses spiked more than 240 percent. Coverage for such conditions is rising at a time when the United States is undergoing a major crisis in opioid addiction, which led to 47,600 overdose deaths last year. Since the passage of two key laws making access to insurance easier, experts said they’ve seen a dramatic rise in treatment claims from those with substance abuse and mental health conditions. Mental-health experts are pleased with the developments. But some also caution there’s much more work to be done to meet the growing demand. Broken down, FAIR Health found coverage for services related to amphetamines increased a whopping 3,157 percent. Meanwhile, claims for those seeking treatment for barbiturate use went up 2,233 percent; for hallucinogens went up 2,055 percent; and for cannabis increased 585 percent. The increase isn’t as obvious for coverage of mental-health conditions, but still there’s a clear uptick. The use of treatment for anxiety diagnoses increased 242 percent, for post-traumatic stress disorder went up 177 percent, for major depressive disorder went up 172 percent and for bipolar disorder increased 103 percent in the 10-year period. FAIR Health president Robin Gelburd said the largest spike overall in the use of behavioral health services occurred between 2010 and 2011, following passage of the 2010 law that expanded health coverage to millions of Americans: “It almost suggests there was a need that had been unmet until such time that people were getting proper coverage,” Gelburd said in an interview, adding the data suggests “clearly there is a before and after of utilization that would suggest people recognize they had the ability to plan for and cover expenses they may not have been able to before.” She added: “At the same time, in terms


‘I gotta tell ya. This is just better than Christmas.’

the truth. So many of the scientists I’ve spoken to this year have said things that delighted, surprised, and awed me. They’ve also given quotes so amazingly nerdy I nearly fell out of my chair laughing. So, for the last Speaking of Science newsletter of 2018, I wanted to share with you some of the best things scientists have told me and my colleagues this year — and the stories that inspired them. “Is it engorged or is it … like that?” -- A member of the exploration vessel Nautilus crew, upon witnessing the contortions of a deep sea gulper eel “I liken it to playing that claw game at a fairground, but with a very, very valuable prize ... and you’re doing it blindfolded and remotely from 300 million miles away.” -- Science system engineer Elizabeth Barrett, describing what it will be like for NASA’s InSight lander to place scientific instruments on the surface of Mars “Look, you’re an astrophysicist. Your mind is out there. I’m a dinosaur hunter. My mind is down here.” -- Self-taught fossil hunter Ray Stanford, explaining how employees at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center failed to spot the “spectacular” array of dinosaur footprints he found on a slab of rock by their parking lot “I promised myself with this new baby I would put the most important things first. But now here I am doing this phone interview with the baby in my arm.” -- Urgency bias researcher Meng Zhu, explaining how even experts struggle to set priorities and follow through “I’m just really proud of our species.” -- Metrologist Jon Pratt, when nations voted to redefine the kilogram according to a universal constant “To me it’s just this fountain of the unknown elements of the world. I mean, we’re talking about a whole group of animals whose habitat is the body of another animal. Just think about that. ... I think they have figured out answers to questions we don’t even know are questions yet.” -- University of Connecticut scientist Janine Caira, talking about her all-time favorite organisms: parasites “I reckon I discovered pulsars in large part because I was a minority person [at Cambridge]. And I have a strong suspicion that other minority people might have similar feelings and work equally hard and discover things." - Astronomer and pulsar-discoverer Jocelyn Bell Burnell, explaining why she would put her entire $3 million Breakthrough


Dollar stores understand the age of inequality better than almost any other business

number of dollar stores in the United States has increased from about 20,000 to 30,000 outlets between 2011 and 2018. What makes this particularly noteworthy is that this growth is occurring in an economy that’s growing. Unemployment is low. Household incomes are finally beginning to move up. Yet many people still feel so under pressure they are turning to dollar stores to stretch their household finances. As it turned out, there are few businesses that understood our age of inequality better than the dollar store industry. In a country where almost 40 percent say they cannot come up with $400 in an emergency, where people appeal on GoFundMe for help paying everything from medical bills to the rent, it should be little surprise that there’s a major customer base for stores that promise the lowest of low prices. Todd Vasos, the chief executive of Dollar General, explained the industry’s success last year: “The economy is continuing to create more of our core customer.” Yet, a report released this month by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance argues that while these low-cost businesses claim to help their customers, they are doing the opposite. By opening up — for the most part — in low-income neighborhoods, they drive locally owned options out of business, including grocery stores. But the dollar stores rarely carry anything in the way of fresh fruit and vegetables, opting instead for canned, frozen or processed foods. Their lean business model means they employ fewer people than more conventional retailers. (That’s why many dollar stores are such a mess — there are fewer employees tidying up after the customers.) Finally, dollar store customers are shopping there for the perceived bargain price, but the merchandise might not be as cheap as it initially appears. Often the low prices are maintained by shrinking the package size, resulting in less bang for the buck. At the Dollar Tree where I met Pearson, the tin foil is $1.00 for a 15 square feet package. Walmart sells 75 square feet for $4.06 -- more than 18 square feet per dollar. In other words, this is stuff purchased by people who need to stretch their money to make it last to the next paycheck or government benefit remittance, people who often can’t afford to look for the best bargain out there. Many are too poor to shop at Walmart. The typical Walmart customer resides in a


Her dad’s friendship with Charles Barkley made you cry. This is why she shared it.

When her dad died in June, Shirley Wang promised herself to live less tethered — to be okay with risks and plan great adventures. The 22-year-old had just completed her degree from Tufts University and spent the spring fretting over where to land next. She thought back to something her father, Lin Wang, had suggested as a post-graduation endeavor: move to Macau, a territory of his homeland, China. So after the cancer took him, Shirley Wang booked a one-way flight. She had spent the two years since her dad’s diagnosis learning all she could from him: about his childhood in China, his life inside the Cultural Revolution and his immigrant community in Iowa City, the events and experiences that shaped his life before she and her brother were born. Along the way, she used her skills from studying journalism to become her family’s memory-keeper. She wrote her dad a short story about her dog Junior, a Shih Tzu that he never wanted but that grew to be a comforting companion through all the pain. For Father’s Day, she asked friends and family from across the globe to send her 30-second video messages for her dad, which she compiled into a 20-minute film that he watched on repeat. She queried her dad, a cat-litter chemist with a PhD, for the kind of information that didn’t come up in casual dinner conversation. She wanted to ask as many questions as possible, before he could no longer give her answers. What came of her inquiries, her wish to remember, was published Saturday morning on NPR’s “Only a Game”: a story about her father’s unlikely friendship with NBA star Charles Barkley — one she and her family had dismissed as far-fetched until Barkley appeared at Lin Wang’s funeral. Her dad had told versions of the story for years. She just never really believed him. “Something like Charles Barkley showing up at your dad’s funeral, that’s a full perspective-shifter,” Shirley Wang said in an interview with The Washington Post on Monday, two days after her heartfelt tale swiftly went viral. “I knew there were a lot more questions I needed to be asking.” She spent the next few months being curious, revisiting the taped interviews she had conducted with her dad before he died, from the comfort of the couch in their family room. In China, navigating failed SIM cards and time differences, she talked


Nuruddin Farah lost a sister to terrorism. His new novel shows the pain left behind.

When Nuruddin Farah writes fiction about the ravages of terrorism, the details may be imaginary but the scars are real. The celebrated Somali novelist, a frequent contender for the Nobel Prize in literature, lost his sister Basra Farah Hassan in 2014. A nutritionist working for UNICEF, she was murdered, along with at least 20 others, when the Taliban bombed a restaurant in Kabul. Farah’s new book, “North of Dawn,” places its characters far from flying shrapnel but deep in conflicted grief. Like his previous novel, “Hiding in Plain Sight,” it’s concerned with difficult questions of forgiveness and recovery in the aftermath of violence. The story opens in Oslo, when a Somali diplomat named Mugdi gets word that his only son has blown himself up at the airport in Mogadishu. Mugdi and his wife, Gacalo, suspected their son was radicalized, but news of his death makes it impossible to ignore the truth any longer: They are the parents of a suicide bomber. Shocked and disgusted, Mugdi wants nothing to do with the memory of his late son. “How can I mourn a son who caused the death of so many innocent people?” he asks. “I explode into rage every time I remember what he did.” But his wife refuses to relinquish her love for the young man, and she’s determined to keep their parental connection alive by inviting their son’s widow and her two children to Oslo. That invitation, sent on the wings of affection and duty, ensnares Gacalo and Mugdi in a complicated kindness that will alter the rest of their lives. “North of Dawn” is a story we rarely hear, a tale concerning the terrorist’s family that takes place in the long shadow of grief, shame and twisted loyalty. It’s also a story pulsing with the adrenaline of our era: a toxic mix of zealotry and xenophobia. It’s not hard to imagine that Farah, who currently lives in South Africa, has infused the protagonist of this novel with his own dismay. Mugdi is a Somali who “detests Somalia’s dysfunction.” He’s a foreign-born resident who fears his host country’s growing intolerance. He’s a spiritual man who has lost his faith in organized religion, though “the ringing of the muezzin stirs memories within him.” As the novel opens, Mugdi is thrust into the awkward role of welcoming a daughter-in-law poisoned by the same radicalism that turned his son into a killer.


A fitness fanatic runs into an alarming ailment that was caught in the nick of time

Barry Goldsmith went to great lengths to stay out of the doctor’s office. His belief in the power of exercise — particularly running — to keep him fit and healthy had long been an article of faith. If he wasn’t feeling well Goldsmith would lace up his shoes and “run it off.” The Maryland patent lawyer routinely racked up about 30 miles per week — more when he was training for a marathon or triathlon — interspersed with swimming, cycling and weight training. For more than 30 years, his strategy worked. “Barry is incredibly fit and he’s always been this major athlete to avoid seeing doctors,” said his wife, Paula, a former teacher. His aversion persisted even after his sister became a family physician. But several years ago, Goldsmith, now 56, experienced a series of alarming episodes he couldn’t outrun. They followed a pattern: first a rush of what felt like acid would shoot up Goldsmith’s legs. Then came 10 minutes or so of pounding heart palpitations that ended with a wave of nausea. At first, the episodes were sporadic. But eventually they increased in frequency and duration, leaving Goldsmith crumpled on a neighbor’s lawn at the start of a run. The couple were shocked to discover that Goldsmith’s problem was potentially fatal and had been germinating for years, partly camouflaged by his stellar level of fitness. “Being in good physical health was a blessing and a curse,” Goldsmith said recently. “The longer I waited, the more I put myself at risk.” Off the charts Goldsmith first noticed the problem in 2014 at the end of a cross-country flight. Landing in California, he stood up and felt the rush of acid, palpitations and nausea, which subsided fairly quickly. Maybe, Goldsmith remembers thinking, he had been sitting too long. When the episodes recurred every month or so, he found them “concerning,” but for months did not mention them to his wife or his internist whom he saw every year or so. In 2015, he developed occasional morning headaches. Goldsmith consulted the cardiologist he had seen as a precaution for a low heart rate, which can result from vigorous exercise, but did not mention the episodes. The doctor said that Goldsmith appeared to be healthy. “He told me, ‘I’m fine now, I cleared it,’ ” Paula recalled, “and kept pushing.” By 2016, the morning headaches were occurring more often. At times Goldsmith