Exxon shareholders want action on climate change. The SEC calls it micromanagement.

Big investment firms are again using their vast stock holdings to pressure corporate executives over everything from boardroom diversity and political activity to food waste and plans to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. But the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has widened its definition of shareholder “micromanaging,” has sided with company management and has issued guidance effectively keeping a wide array of shareholder resolutions off annual-meeting ballots. One of the highest-profile battles is being waged over a proposal that would have urged ExxonMobil to disclose short-, medium- and long-term greenhouse-gas targets “aligned with” reductions established by the Paris climate agreement in 2015 in an effort to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius, if not 1.5 degrees. The oil giant, whose management lost a vote on a similar resolution in 2017, appealed to the SEC, which in an April 2 letter agreed that the proposal amounted to shareholders trying to “micromanage the Company by seeking to impose specific methods for implementing complex policies in place of the ongoing judgments of management as overseen by its board of directors.” It was one of 11 resolutions about climate change that the SEC allowed to be left off shareholder ballots this year, out of 62 total climate-related resolutions and nearly 400 overall, according to the Sustainable Investments Institute. The climate-related total is down from the most recent years, perhaps because many companies are already taking steps on issues such as adopting renewable energy. Half of the resolutions this year have been withdrawn after negotiations between companies and proxy sponsors. But the rest of the measures are heading toward votes. The SEC decision on ExxonMobil has aroused the ire of major investors, including 37 major money managers with $9.5 trillion in assets. Those money managers and other shareholder activists say climate change has become a concern among mainstream investors. “Climate change poses very serious risks not just to the planet but to companies’ well-being and the overall economy and society,” said Bruce Freed, president of the nonprofit Center for Political Accountability. “We have a broken political system where these issues are not being addressed, so there are more and more investors resolutions to take on these issues. It is an alternative route.” Robert J. Jackson, the lone Democratic member of the SEC, wrote recently that “materiality — the importance of a subject to a reasonable investor — is the touchstone of our securities laws. But too


Chef Guo serves an emperor’s feast in a suburban strip mall

(Good/Excellent) Given America’s dining ecosystem, in which big-city rents are high, profit margins tight and business failures common, no one should really be surprised anymore when a refined restaurant turns up in a suburban strip mall. I think it’s safe to say that some of my most memorable meals have been in places with views of a parking lot. But even armed with this knowledge, I was not prepared for the dichotomy of Chef Guo in Alexandria. Situated in a stand-alone building that squats behind an Exxon station, just steps from a sandstone-colored strip mall with a laundromat and barber shop, Chef Guo specializes in Chinese imperial cuisine, available only in tasting menus that run as much as $278 per person. The place uses some of the most expensive ingredients on earth, prepared by a Chinese master chef who serves his plates atop rare, hand-painted chargers, the kind traditionally reserved for emperors and world leaders, not biweekly-paycheck jockeys like myself. Outside the front door is the exhaust-choked world of duty and survival. Inside is the meditative cloud of Chinese royal cooking, with its connections to nature, peace, bliss and other higher spiritual planes. This is a Dorothy-to-Oz level schism. The chef is Guo WenJun, who goes by Anthony Guo for the convenience of his Western diners. He speaks little English, and I speak no Mandarin, Cantonese or any other Chinese dialect, so my gathering of facts often came from online research and third-party sources. That Guo is a serious, well-educated chef, there can be little doubt. According to his biography on the restaurant’s website, as a teenager, he apprenticed to master chef Ding GuangZhou, described as “a seventh generation disciple in the line of royal chefs.” Guo’s studies have embraced Chinese imperial cooking and classical Western cuisines. Guo, says Irene Qin, his reservationist and assistant, is considered a celebrity chef in China, where he has served as executive chef at the Beijing Palace International Hotel and the Palace Museum, among other places. “He’s more like an artist than a businessman,” Qin tells me. The opening course for each of Guo’s three tasting menus confirms his artistic bent. You won’t have to wait long for it, either. The starter awaits you at the table, covered by an ornate porcelain dome. Your server will remove the lid to reveal a lip-smacking landscape composed of sliced, carved and rolled meats and vegetables. The


2018 Fall Dining Guide

The D.C. dining scene just keeps getting better. Tom Sietsema reviews 48 of the best restaurants the city has to offer.


Athletes hire him when they think they’ve been swindled

fraud-related losses of nearly $500 million. Carlson, who tracks cases on a spreadsheet of his own, believes the actual total exceeds $1 billion. “There are cases I know about that they didn’t have access to,” he says, adding that defrauded athletes often either are too embarrassed to pursue litigation or simply don’t bother because there’s nothing left to recover. “That happens two-thirds of the time,” he explains. “The player takes a tax write-off, the scammer gets away with it, and then they can go on and do it again.” When athletes do sue, they can engender more scorn than sympathy. Another dumb jock lost their money. When will they learn? This drives Carlson nuts. If there’s anything he has gleaned from his clients, he says, it’s that they are uniquely vulnerable to trusting the wrong people — and that there’s no shortage of wrong people looking to cash in by cashing athletes out. “The average fan reads about one of these cases and thinks, ‘F— ’em, players are overpaid anyway. What the hell were they thinking investing in a Ponzi scheme or a nightclub?’ ” Carlson says. “But they don’t realize that athletes don’t know the odds the way other investors do. They’re being sold by the slickest salesmen in the world. There’s a lot more to this than people think.” B Carlson’s true love was cars — specifically, the 1973 Chevy Impala he bought in 2000 at age 16, using money he saved from working at a supermarket. Carlson had the two-door hardtop repainted and its interior refurbished, and he installed custom wheels. Then something odd started happening. “I couldn’t drive two blocks without people flagging me down, wanting to buy it from me,” Carlson says. “Everybody wanted Impalas. The most famous rapper in town, Trick Daddy, had one in his videos. All the big-time athletes had them. They were a status symbol.” He began buying and flipping Impalas and Chevy Caprices, finding the cars on eBay and Craigslist and getting them fixed up at local shops like Harold’s Auto Repair — which counted basketball star Shaquille O’Neal among its clients, and where the one-time owner, a Haitian immigrant named Harold Coqmard, affectionately referred to Carlson as “white boy.” While attending law school at Florida International University in the late 2000s, Carlson sold a 1975 Caprice convertible to Cincinnati Bengals receiver Glenn Holt. Holt, who is African American, grew


‘We don’t want another messiah’: Newly vocal Ethiopians debate an uncertain future

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — In a scene that would have been unimaginable just a year ago, some 200 Ethiopians in the capital debated their country’s politics, economics and expressed their fears over the rise in ethnic violence. The BBC’s “World Questions” current events program came to Addis Ababa on Monday demonstrating how much freedom of expression has changed in Africa’s second-most populous nation. After decades of authoritarian governments that tightly controlled the press, the new reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has transformed the country by taking the shackles off the media and promising wide-ranging reforms. But the loosening of such restrictions in Ethiopia has been accompanied by an explosion of ethnic conflict in the countryside. Millions of people have been displaced as long-simmering disputes over land boil to the surface — and as Monday’s discussion showed, people are frightened. Just in the week before the show, there were reports of tit-for-tat massacres between the Amhara and Gumuz peoples in the northern part of the country that killed dozens. “I used to be afraid of the government; now I’m afraid of the people,” said one audience member, citing a common concern over the rise in lawlessness. “Before it was dictatorship we were afraid of; now it’s about the [lack] of rule of law.” The prime minister himself was not spared criticism, either, with some singling him out for the speed and what they called the recklessness of his reforms and a personal style of leadership that often bypasses the country’s institutions. “I believe that Dr. Abiy is a problem because we want a systematic change that can sustain itself whether there is a messiah or not,” said one man. “We don’t want another messiah.” Whether it was ruled by an aging emperor, Soviet-backed army officers or former rebels, Ethiopia was rarely a place where you could criticize leaders so openly. Until last year, there were dozens of journalists and opposition politicians in jail or exile. “It would be quite impossible in this country until very recently,” said program host Jonathan Dimbleby about bringing his show to Ethiopia. “I’ve been coming here for 45 years, and it would never have been possible in that time.” Dimbleby first became known in Ethiopia when he broke the official silence over the famine raging north of the capital in 1973 with a documentary called “Unknown Famine” that seared itself across television screens in the West.


Where’s the accountability for a regime that imprisons people for their thoughts?

diverse group: They include opposition politicians, human rights activists, journalists, street protesters, religious believers, Ukrainian citizens. They include Oleg Sentsov, a filmmaker from Crimea who protested Moscow’s 2014 annexation of the territory; Anastasia Shevchenko, a single mother from Rostov-on-Don who became the first person indicted for membership in an “undesirable” political organization; Alexei Pichugin, the last remaining hostage of the “Yukos Affair,” who is now Russia’s longest-serving political prisoner; Memorial’s own regional leaders Oyub Titiev and Yuri Dmitriev; Ukrainian sailors seized in the Kerch Strait; and many others. (Note: Open Russia, the organization for which I work, was founded by Russian businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the ex-chairman and CEO of Yukos.) Politically motivated imprisonment is only one of many traits, domestic and international, that Putin’s regime shares with the Soviet Union. What is new is the seeming indifference of Western leaders to the plight of political prisoners in Russia. In Soviet times, American presidents of both parties demanded — and secured — the release of prominent prisoners of conscience. There are still people of principle in Western politics: Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) hosted the Washington launch of the political prisoner report, while former Canadian attorney general Irwin Cotler will represent Shevchenko as international counsel. Yet top-level meetings between Western and Kremlin officials are notable for the absence of any discussion of Russian political prisoners. The NGOs behind the report have called on Western leaders to change that. They also called on parliaments and governments of democratic countries to use the relatively new tool at their disposal — targeted sanctions on human rights abusers — to provide at least some accountability for those who flout Russian laws and international legal norms by imprisoning people for “thought crimes.” “There has not yet been a sustained effort to sanction the officials responsible for the persecution of political prisoners,” the report concludes, identifying several such individuals beginning with Russian prosecutor general Yuri Chaika. “Unless serious consequences are imposed on these officials, the Kremlin will continue to believe it can act with total impunity.” Read more The Post’s View: Does Russia’s constitution mean nothing to Putin? By the looks of it, yes. Vladimir Kara-Murza: Congress makes a move against Russia’s worst human rights abuser Vladimir Kara-Murza: Putin’s Russia feels increasingly like a fortress under siege Vladimir Kara-Murza: Trump should ask Putin to release Russian political prisoners Vladimir Kara-Murza: The Kremlin deploys its new law against ‘undesirables’


Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez want to cap credit card interest rates at 15 percent

Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will introduce legislation on Thursday to cap credit card interest rates at 15 percent, a steep reduction from current levels. Sanders (I), the Vermont senator running for the Democratic nomination for president, told The Washington Post in an interview that a decade after taxpayers bailed out big banks, the industry is taking advantage of the public by charging exorbitant rates. “Wall Street today makes tens of billions from people at outrageous interest rates,” he said. Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) will introduce the House version of the bill. “There is no reason a person should pay more than 15% interest in the United States,” she said on Twitter. “It’s a debt trap for working people + it has to end.” Americans have more than $1 trillion in credit card debt, according to the Federal Reserve. In addition to a 15 percent federal cap on interest rates for credit cards and other consumer loans, states could establish their own lower limits under the legislation. It would also allow the U.S. Postal Service to get into the banking business, including offering savings and checking accounts. The proposal is sure to meet stiff resistance from the banking industry, which brought in $113 billion in interest and fees from credit cards last year, up 35 percent since 2012, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. The 15 percent cap would be the same as the one Congress imposed on credit unions in 1980, Sanders said. (The National Credit Union Administration, the industry’s regulator, raised that cap to 18 percent in 1987 and has repeatedly renewed it at that higher level.) “This specific proposal will only harm consumers by restricting access to credit for those who need it the most and driving them toward less regulated, more costly alternatives,” Jeff Sigmund, a spokesman for the American Bankers Association, said in a statement. Richard Hunt, chief executive of the Consumer Bankers Association, another industry group that includes JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, called the 15 percent cap “arbitrary.” “One-size-fits-all caps would make all loans . . . harder for Americans with lower credit scores or non-traditional sources of income to receive,” he said in a statement. The legislation also has little chance of passing the Senate, where Republicans hold the majority. “I am sure it will be criticized,” Sanders said of the legislation. “I have a radical idea: Maybe Congress should stand


A dangerous delay

Sarah and Riley linked arms with Olivia and made their way through the dorm lobby into the cool night of Nov. 8. They watched as Olivia trudged to a parking lot where her dad was waiting in his car. She didn’t turn back to wave goodbye. As Olivia battled her mysterious illness, the University of Maryland was rocked by turmoil. Widespread mold that fall had forced the temporary evacuation of nearly 600 students in Elkton Hall after outraged parents besieged officials at the state’s flagship university. The administration already was dealing with a full-blown scandal over the death of Jordan McNair, a 19-year-old football player who succumbed to heatstroke in June after athletic trainers waited more than an hour to call 911 after he showed signs of extreme exhaustion. His death exposed deep problems within the athletic department and led to the dismissal of the football coach and the resignation of the university president and the chairman of the university system’s governing board. In November and December, the University of Maryland would become the epicenter of an outbreak of adenovirus, which can have symptoms similar to the cold or flu. But certain virulent strains can seriously sicken healthy individuals and be particularly dangerous to people with weakened immune systems — people like Olivia, who was on medication for Crohn’s disease, a serious digestive tract condition. In these cases, medical experts say early detection can be key to treating severe adenovirus. But it took university officials 18 days to publicly disclose that the virus was present on campus. And as the days passed, more and more students fell ill. At one point, officials discussed notifying students with compromised immune systems and residents living in Elkton Hall but the university waited until they were ready to tell the entire community , according to records reviewed by The Post. Many parents and students have denounced the administration’s handling of the viral outbreak and the mold infestation, complaining their actions endangered the roughly 40,000 students on campus. In the end, more than 40 students were sickened, and at least 15 of them treated at hospitals. Mold does not cause adenovirus, but can set the stage for other health problems. The director of the student health center, in emails to university administrators, acknowledged that mold exposure can cause respiratory irritation and “may increase susceptibility of any viral infection.” In recent statements to The Post, University


A dangerous delay

to speak. “i can’t swallow my own spit,” Olivia texted Sarah on Oct. 31, “and my neck is so lumpy bc my lymph nodes so swollen.” That day she went to her family doctor, where a pediatric nurse practitioner tested her for strep, but found none. Two days later, on Nov. 2, as her symptoms worsened, Olivia’s father urged her to visit the campus health center. There, she complained to a physician that she had a fever, fatigue and a sore throat and mentioned that a friend had mono. The doctor, Juliana Aruna, ordered a test for mono, but Olivia didn’t have time to wait at the lab. That evening, she was headed to a birthday celebration for her sister. At the dinner, Olivia whispered in between coughs that she was sure she had mono. Her father worried about her weakened immune system and was determined to take her home from school. To his surprise, she did not object. Olivia soon retreated to her childhood bedroom. Over the weekend, she complained of chills and took hot showers to soothe her shivering body. “r u coming back today?” Riley texted her on Nov. 4, a Sunday afternoon. Olivia replied that she didn’t know. “my fever won’t break,” she wrote. Nov. 9: “This is no cause for alarm” The university’s first warning of adenovirus among students came the day before Olivia’s Nov. 2 visit to the health center. McBride received an email from a physician at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, who told him about a College Park student who had been hospitalized there and tested positive for the virus. “I thought it best that you know in case there are more,” the physician, Dr. James Campbell, wrote. In a follow-up phone call, the physician told McBride that the student had been admitted with a high fever and pneumonia. It was “an unusual presentation” of adenovirus, he told McBride. The virus was in the news: It had been linked to the deaths of children with weakened immune systems living at a long-term care facility in New Jersey. The outbreak had sickened 27 children and killed 11. Some of the survivors had been treated with anti-viral medications. Certain strains can severely sicken healthy adults. The military has had multiple fatal outbreaks in barracks. A vaccine is available to military personnel, but has not been approved for the general public. Soon


A dangerous delay

the state instructed her not to make anything public until final test results were available. Hopkins physicians continued to give Olivia cidofovir and also began a blood treatment designed to boost her immunity. But it made no difference. Fluid rapidly accumulated in her once slender 130-pound body. By Nov. 16, she had swollen to 232 pounds. Her blood pressure plummeted. Her kidneys and liver were failing. Dr. Glenn Whitman – an ICU physician at Hopkins – gathered Olivia’s family in a conference room on Saturday, Nov. 17, to explain the best chance to save her life. An open cavity abdominal surgery could release fluid and pressure. A plastic sheet would temporarily hold Olivia’s organs in place. If she survived, she could face up to a year of recovery in a hospital bed. Ian and Meg asked him: What would he do? Whitman broke down into tears. He had children as well, he told them. And he would do everything to save the Paregols’ daughter, just as if she was his own. On Facebook, Ian asked family and friends to join them in prayers as Olivia underwent surgery. The pulse within her feet had become faint. Now doctors were struggling to pick up a pulse in her legs and asked Ian and Meg if they would consider amputation as a last resort. Ian and Meg tried to channel Olivia’s mind-set. At what cost would she be willing to live? “Ultimately what we really need is a miracle,” Ian posted on Facebook. Early Sunday morning, on Nov. 18, the Paregol family made the 45-minute drive home from Hopkins to shower and change clothes. A nurse called with grim instructions: Come back as soon as possible. With permission from Ian and Meg, doctors stopped giving Olivia blood pressure medication. They warned that she could die within minutes. Country music – Olivia’s favorite – played in the room as her parents and two siblings, Zoe and Evan, took turns by the teenager’s bedside. They remembered the vacation to Turks and Caicos and trips in the family Prius when Olivia crammed in the middle seat between her brother and sister. One by one they held her hand for hours that Sunday afternoon and told her how much they loved her. At 10:15 p.m. on Nov. 18, Olivia Shea Paregol was pronounced dead. Doctors listed three causes of death: organ failure, acute respiratory distress syndrome and


Protecting the world’s species — before it’s too late

Regarding the May 7 editorial “The deadly threat to biodiversity — and us”: The United Nations report on biodiversity loss points out that we are destroying habitats across the globe at an astounding rate, which could lead to the extinction of 1 million species, one-eighth of all estimated species on Earth. One statistic in the report is particularly disturbing: Humans have destroyed more than 85 percent of wetlands globally. Wetlands provide vital habitat for wildlife, help filter pollution from our waters, and help buffer the impacts of floods and droughts that are increasing in frequency and severity because of climate change. Nevertheless, the Trump administration is proposing eliminating Clean Water Act protection of isolated wetlands, which comprise 51 percent of wetlands in the United States, a move that would lead to further species extinctions and an incalculable loss to future generations. William Robert Irvin The writer is president of American Rivers. The May 7 front-page article Stephen McKevitt How ironic that Bill Marriott As the recent United Nations report Climate change, water shortages and growing urban populations force wildlife to search for new homes. Encroachment has become an urgent reality in urban and wild areas alike. The question for humans has to become, “Are we willing to share the planet?” As the U.N. report made clear, we don’t have time to waste. My organization works to instill our vision in which animals and people thrive, and in which sharing the planet is woven into the fabric of people’s everyday life and decisions, from what they buy to how they travel. By doing so, we can move from consumption to contentment, from exploitation to stewardship, and, as soon as possible, bring along everyone in our push for progress. Azzedine Downes The writer is president and chief executive of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.


A new industry in Ethiopia is creating jobs. But at what cost?

at employees. But Ethiopians consider shouting deeply insulting and grounds for quitting. Annual attrition levels in the Hawassa factories have improved but still run from 60 percent to 120 percent (the latter meaning there’s more than complete turnover in just one year). To be sure, some employers have begun to offer small bonuses for attendance and productivity, as well as allowances for food and transportation. Government officials told us they are considering a minimum wage that would lift the compensation floor for garment workers and other private-sector employees. In addition, the government is preparing a plan under which it would provide free land if foreign manufacturers finance affordable dormitories near the factories. But Ethiopia’s gamble on garment-making is by no means a sure bet. On top of the other challenges, protests related to the country’s volatile ethnic-identity politics have shut down the Hawassa Park three times in the past year and contributed to strikes at individual factories. Arkebe Oqubay, a senior government economic adviser and architect of the industrial park strategy, told us his country may not have very long to acclimate itself to the global garment industry. “Pace is critical,” he added. “We need to improve before [foreign] firms become frustrated” and give up on Ethiopia. One hopes this fear is overblown and that the clothing firms will make a long-term commitment not only to cheaply sourced goods but also to supporting a strong Ethiopian economy in which workers are protected. For that to happen, companies will need to see beyond the short-term lure of the world’s lowest wages. Together with the government, they will have to invest time, talent and resources in addressing the ethnic tension in places such as Hawassa, establish a livable minimum wage that ensures decent living conditions for workers, provide more extensive training for workers and expand worker representation. “Made in Ethiopia” doesn’t have to be a black mark on Western brands’ human rights records. It’s up to them to take the necessary steps to ensure that it doesn’t become one. Read more: Frida Ghitis: Three countries where democracy actually staged a comeback in 2018 The Post’s View: Abiy Ahmed pulls off an astonishing turnaround for Ethiopia Jason Rezaian: Is this the Ethiopian spring? An interview with Eskinder Nega. Letters to the Editor: Ethiopian-Eritrean peace must be allowed to blossom Letters to the Editor: A suggestion for Alessandra Mussolini: Show some empathy for Ethiopia


How calculus makes the modern world work

such as bone. His idea was dismissed as crackpot. Hounsfield tested his contraption on pigs’ brains but couldn’t get any medical people to take him seriously. “Finally,” Strogatz writes, “one radiologist agreed to hear him out.” At the end of the conversation the skeptical doctor handed Hounsfield a jar containing a human brain with a tumor and challenged him to image it. “Hounsfield soon brought back images of the brain that pinpointed not only the tumor but also areas of bleeding within it.” Radiologists were stunned, and others soon came on board, kicking off the age of computer-assisted tomography. Hounsfield’s liberal employer was Electric and Musical Industries, or EMI, which had paid for this development with profits from a Liverpool band. In 1979, when Hounsfield was awarded the Nobel Prize for this work (along with South African physicist Allan Cormack), pop gold was transmuted into the gold of a Nobel medallion. The invention of the CT scanner provided “another demonstration of the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics,” Strogatz writes, referencing a famous 1960 essay by physicist Eugene Wigner, which speculates on the mystery of why mathematics is found so widely in the material world. Few branches of mathematics are so variously incarnated as calculus, which Strogatz deftly defines as a “sprawling collection of ideas and methods used to study anything — any pattern, any curve, any motion, any natural process, system or phenomena — that changes smoothly and continuously.” That doesn’t cover everything, but it encompasses a stupendous range of phenomena. Calculus comes into play in general relativity, which describes the structure of space-time; it helps us analyze sound and music; and it’s essential to the study of motion, for which Isaac Newton invented it. “Calculus enabled the creation of much of what made the global positioning system possible,” Strogatz writes. It’s used in identifying fingerprints and played a pivotal role in the development of the triple-drug therapy that turned HIV from a death sentence into a livable condition. Richard Feynman, who applied tools of calculus in his theory of quantum electrodynamics, admiringly called it “the language God talks.” Though perhaps a tad hyperbolic, Feynman’s remark nonetheless provides a context for Strogatz’s generous endeavor “to show calculus as a whole, to give a feeling for its beauty, unity, and grandeur.” This is a sweeping book that takes time and patience to read, but for anyone who’s ever wanted to understand the


The world is close to conquering polio. Humans are holding us back.

in shootings and panic that rocked the polio vaccination campaign in Pakistan, one of only three countries where polio is endemic. The others are Afghanistan and Nigeria. Pakistan has made serious strides in vaccinating against poliovirus, which is highly contagious, largely strikes children under age 5 and can cause permanent paralysis. In a vaccination drive that ended April 27, Pakistani workers were able to reach more than 37 million children, nearing the target of 39 million. Pakistan has wisely enlisted Muslim religious scholars to endorse the vaccination campaigns. But there are still pockets of hard-line Islamist forces that spread irrational beliefs that vaccines are either contaminated or are part of a Western plot to sterilize Muslims, and they promote violence. A mob set fire to a government health facility in Peshawar on April 22 after rumors spread that expired vaccination drops were being administered to children. Officials said the vaccine was neither expired nor dangerous, but still, thousands of parents swamped local hospitals and demanded their children be examined. One day after the health facility was burned, a police officer guarding health workers was killed. The next day, another police officer was killed. At least 700,000 families have refused polio vaccination in the province that includes Peshawar because of rumors and panic. On April 25, two gunmen on a motorcycle shot and killed a polio vaccinator in the southwestern Pakistani city of Chaman. All the incidents have a knock-on effect, causing delays and suspensions in the vaccination campaign, which in turn leads to swathes of population not being inoculated, making them vulnerable to infection. The trouble is not only gunmen. Social media easily spreads alarmist and false rumors about vaccinations. Pakistani officials noticed a wave of vaccination refusals recently — up to 10,000 a day in Islamabad, compared with 200 to 300 in the previous campaign. Babar Atta, a Pakistani official leading the effort, said that anti-vax propaganda on Facebook was becoming a major obstacle to eradication of poliovirus, and called on the platform to take down offending posts. In the age before vaccines, millions of people were afflicted by disease and there wasn’t much they could do about it. Nowadays, vaccinations are a critical firewall against illness caused by polio, measles and Ebola. But vaccines only work if people are inoculated — and they won’t be if frightened by false information on social media or gunmen on a motorcycle.


150 years after the transcontinental railroad, indigenous activists continue to battle corporate overreach

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the union of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroad tracks in Promontory, Utah. As celebrants gather among the sagebrush in Utah’s Central Basin, a lawsuit making its way through a U.S. District Court exposes the darker underbelly of this history. The plaintiffs, a coalition of indigenous and environmental activists, filed a lawsuit against South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R) after she signed the Riot Boosting Act in March. The South Dakota bill joins others — introduced in 15 states and passed in four — that increase penalties for trespassing on or altering a variety of facilities deemed “critical infrastructure.” The legislation goes a step further by empowering prosecutors to seek civil damages not only from protesters, but also from individuals who encourage, organize or support protests. South Dakota lawmakers consulted with TransCanada, owners of the Keystone XL pipeline, on the legislation. The industry-backed push to pass laws targeting indigenous and environmental activists exposes how expanding corporate influence in American politics attacks indigenous sovereignty and chokes American democracy. But this is not surprising. The nefarious effects of these kinds of government-corporate alliances can be traced back to North America’s first big businesses: the railroads. This part of the railroad story may not be celebrated today, but it holds important lessons about the consequences of unchecked corporate power. For many Americans, the joining of iron and wood at Promontory, Utah, in 1869 symbolized the union of a nation recovering from the Civil War, a binding of disparate North American regions into an integrated whole. Artists, authors and orators marked the completion of the transcontinental railroad as the pinnacle of national unity, a triumph of American technological ingenuity and vision. One year after the rail lines joined in Utah, Walt Whitman celebrated the achievement in “Passage to India.” Thanks to the railroads, he crowed, “the distant” could be “brought near/ The lands to be welded together.” But for Native nations, the railroads were unwelcome industrial interlopers. The “lands” Whitman referenced were their homelands and hunting grounds, sacred sites and gathering places. These places were “welded” to the United States through force, political chicanery and legal fictions. To Arapahos, Choctaws, Navajos, Osages and others, the railroad meant more U.S. soldiers and land-hungry settlers. It is no wonder that some Cherokees criticized locomotives as “the introducers of calamities rather than blessings.” Corporate officials and government agents, for


‘Failing communities never have parking problems’: A suburb’s new waterfront begins to take shape

redevelopment a few blocks to the north — on the site of the old Robinson Terminal North — stalled amid rising construction costs and failure to snag a “trophy”-level hotel. That property is again up for sale. City planners Opponents staged demonstrations and fielded challengers for the City Council and mayor. After a civic battle that lasted several years, including a raucous 11-hour council meeting, multiple legal challenges, a “do-over” vote and a mayoral election in which the waterfront was the major issue, the new riverfront began to take shape. Alexandria may spend as much as $120 million on new infrastructure, landscaping and services at the waterfront, an investment that city officials say they will recoup over the next 20 to 30 years from taxes generated by the development. In all, 70 townhouses and 26 condominiums are planned on the site of the old Robinson Terminal South, at Union and Duke streets. Seventy percent of the townhouses have been sold, for prices starting from $1.2 million. So far, three townhouses are occupied. “We bought this thinking it will be our permanent home,” said Gloriana Echeverria Martin, 40, who moved from the District’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood in January, with her husband, Alonso Garza Zorrilla, and their dog, Lucy. Her commute to the World Bank in downtown Washington is longer, but she can walk to the King Street Metro stop. Garza Zorilla, 43, drives to Tysons where he works in real estate. The couple said they like that their townhouse is new and has a rooftop terrace, and they appreciate Old Town’s ambiance. The condos, still under construction, are drawing significant interest, said Evan Goldman, executive vice president of EYA, which is developing the site with JBG Smith Properties and Mitsui Fudosan America. It is an upscale development with all the expected perks: yoga studio, bicycle shop, fitness center for humans and grooming spa for dogs. Just a year ago on this site, the last of three 18th-century ships and more than 100,000 historical artifacts drew fascinated viewers. The ships (and another one found earlier) had been scuttled in the late 1700s or early 1800s as landfill to expand the waterfront. A marker in the new sidewalk will delineate the 1749 shoreline. Nearby will be a 267-seat “chef-driven” restaurant, as well as a separate cafe, with half its seats on an outdoor pier. Just north is the boutique Hotel Indigo, opened two


Just admit it! You don’t care about other species!

ferry from your mailbox to your trash can the second you just come out and admit it. But you need to admit it first. Here is a report about how, basically, everything on the planet is going extinct and it is all your fault. We are not going to trouble you any longer with the plight of the right whale. It is a good whale who did not ask for this, and it did not even harm Captain Ahab in any way. But we have spent the past few decades approaching you from the perspective that, surely, you do care about these species, even the ones who are neither charismatic nor megafauna, and that if we just appealed, you would start to turn things around. And in that time — you have, frankly, not. I have dedicated my life to the marmoset, and I find him fascinating. I know you don’t, not really, no matter how much you claim you do. I know what the cycad is and why it is worth saving. I have a strong sense of the value of gastropods. But clearly, our approach, premised on your caring even a tiny sliver, thin and tiny as a monarch butterfly wing, is not working. This is why, when the United Nations released our report, we had the chairman explicitly say, “We need to link it to human well-being; that’s the crucial thing. Otherwise we’re going to look like a bunch of tree-huggers.” Just, tell us what you actually do care about, and we can tie in to that. Starbucks! Cement! My Pillow? There’s got to be something that matters to you. We know it isn’t rare insects. Your own survival, maybe? Surely you care about that, if not about birds so majestic that their plumage is a portable rainbow, or indefatigable beetles that have endured for thousands of years — your own existence. We must protect that at all costs, so that you can keep doing the precious thing you do so well: demanding that people burn fossil fuels in order to deliver you a single container of snacks from a block away. I’m sorry. I’m not bitter. Just, be honest, please? I have had all I can take. Read more from Alexandra Petri: How to save money by avoiding everything but the bare essentials Some math problems for Donald Trump’s tax returns Friends, Romans, countrymen: Case closed!


April showers bring new dining options, including a Venezuelan hotspot and a glam cocktail lounge

April is a month of growth and rebirth — especially in the restaurant scene. New openings include a sports bar making the move from Park View to Nationals Park, a cheese-focused cafe from the owners of two craft beer bars and a first D.C. restaurant for a chef who earned rave reviews in Baltimore. 12 Stories: The newest rooftop destination at the Wharf has an exclusive entrance — an elevator whisking guests directly from the street to the top floor of the InterContinental Hotel. Run by the Gerber Group, whose portfolio includes similar penthouse lounges in New York and Atlanta, 12 Stories is most notable for its outdoor deck, which offers stunning views from the Wilson Bridge to Georgetown. Inside, floor-to-ceiling windows allow for similar (albeit climate-controlled) vistas from sofas, cocktail tables or the large bar, where bartenders pour super-chilled “Zero Degree” cocktails and tasty margaritas. Pro tip: Try to visit earlier in the week, when the lounge is less likely to be at capacity. 75 District Sq. SW. Astoria: A vacant building on a busy stretch of 17th Street NW has been converted to a stylish gem of a cocktail bar, thanks to Devin Gong, the owner of H Street NE’s Copycat Co. Copycat, which opened in late 2014, has been a fixture in our Best Bars in Washington lists, thanks to inventive bartenders and an intimate atmosphere. Astoria, nested next to JR’s, ups the ante by adding a full Sichuan food menu — numbing dan dan noodles, mapo tofu, pork-filled chile wontons — in addition to drinks. The beverages are still going to draw more people, thanks to such concoctions as the tiki-ish Lieutenant Colonel, which mixes aged rum, absinthe and plenty of allspice dram. If there’s any downside to Astoria, it’s the space itself — so narrow that there’s no room for seats, or even standing, at the bar. Instead, guests sit in plush blue chairs or large, comfortable booths, and order from cocktail servers. As at Copycat, expect Gong’s hand-drawn menus to change frequently. 1521 17th St. NW. Cinder BBQ: After more than a decade of serving Bill’s Backyard Barbecue at farmers markets and pop-up events and catering private functions, Bill Coleman has a bricks-and-mortar barbecue joint of his own, thanks to a partnership with the owners of Civil Lounge. Cinder, which replaces Ruta del Vino on the popular 800 block of Upshur Street NW, features


After outcry, USDA will no longer require scientists to label research ‘preliminary’

the disclaimer is a step in the right direction, but there still may be unnecessary obstacles preventing agency researchers from publishing their work in peer-reviewed journals.” Not every study published by a USDA scientist is required to have this disclaimer. Some research agencies at USDA, including the Agricultural Research Service, the Economic Research Service, the National Agricultural Statistics Service and the Forest Service have “agency-specific policies” that determine when a disclaimer is appropriate, said William Trenkle, the USDA scientific integrity officer. Others, such as the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, have been encouraged to follow the new guidelines. Those outline when disclaimers are needed and also describe the department’s internal review process before scientists can publish results in journals. It lists several “flags” that may trigger additional scrutiny. Some flags, under the umbrella of “prominent issues,” include “significant” scientific advancements, the potential to attract media attention, and results that could influence trade or change USDA policy. Members of other USDA agencies, including the office of the chief scientist, the communications office and the office of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, can request “corrections” and “changes,” if the scientific publication falls under the category of “prominent issues” or policy implications. “It is the responsibility of reviewers at all management levels to identify whether the manuscript contains prominent issues,” Trenkle said. If USDA or other federal “stakeholders” request alterations based on these issues, then study authors should return “the REVISED PUBLICATION” for “ACCEPTANCE of the CHANGES and/or RESPONSE to comments,” the guideline says [capitalization is in the original]. Trenkle said the policy conforms with the USDA’s scientific integrity rules and “helps to ensure that USDA scientists communicate their scientific findings objectively without political interference or inappropriate influence.” But Susan Offutt, who was the administrator of the Economic Research Service under presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, said the guide twists internal review “into a process by which policy officials get the final say on content.” Because researchers at the Economic Research Service publish statistics to aid policymakers, “just about any output” from that agency could be flagged, she said. USDA’s “interests apparently concern consistency with prevailing policy,” Offutt said, “not the public’s access to the best, unbiased science and analysis.” Read more: ‘He gets to decide’: President escalates his fight against climate science Trump administration plans to move USDA research divisions despite concerns


In the galleries: Where the celestial meets the nitty-gritty

When stars explode, they expel elements that are ultimately repurposed as planets, human bodies and other stuff. “Stuff” is a key word for “Birth of a Star,” a science lesson and art installation that emphasizes the ordinariness of its raw materials. At a time when computers can slickly simulate anything a programmer might imagine, this VisArts exhibition relies on the likes of wood and various plastics. That’s not just because Really Large Numbers, the team of Oregon’s Julia Oldham and Brooklyn’s Chad Stayrook, doesn’t have access to SpaceX-size budgets. The collaborative artists deliberately mix low- and high-tech, reduce cosmic phenomenon to minimalist gestures and give scientific data a human spin. Despite its title, the Gibbs Street Gallery show represents four stages of stardom: protostar, red giant, supernova and black hole. The evolution begins with a small globe on a floor-mounted slab, the paths of asteroids projected around it. The giant is a massive red beach ball atop a stack of gilded wood boards. For a supernova, the duo presents a blue mesh circle standing on jagged white shards that suggest an explosion. The black hole is a dark, obliquely erected cylinder that appears to be pulling white mesh into it. All four pieces incorporate animation, based on NASA imaging. But the artists hand-draw the cosmic movements and turn them into abstracted video loops. The universe is inexorable, yet Oldham and Stayrook will have their way with it, at least for now. Rather than explore the heavens, John Schlesinger surveys VisArts’s smallest exhibition space, Common Ground Gallery. The sculptural installations of “ . . . The Player to Be Named Later” respond to the room (including its closet) while looking beyond the space to area trash dumps. Some of the materials are demolition waste such as rebar, whose twisted forms are complemented by squiggles of glowing neon tubes. Among the other ingredients are the Philadelphia artist’s photographs, weathered by soaking in resin, and paintings. All the parts don’t fit together neatly, and they aren’t supposed to. Yet there are unifying factors: light and shade. The illumination from the neon and other sources turns the industrial scrap into an array of shadow puppets. The assemblages, affixed to the wall or suspended from the ceiling, dominate the space. Yet the essential action is behind and below them, where glares and flickers play on the white backdrops. Jennifer R.A. Campbell With their shiny surfaces


Have mask, will travel. Tips for coping with pollution wherever you roam.

lighting to facilitate sleep. You can also use a portable air monitor such as the IQAir AirVisual Pro to check the quality of the air outdoors and inside. (Taking the monitor on a test run at home, I was astonished to find that the sunroom, long claimed by my cat, wasn’t choked with dander and other pet-related fallout. It was fine. The bedroom with the windows that are stuck shut was the one with the “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” rating.) If you’re in a hotel room with poor air quality, the first thing to do is determine the problem and whether it can be fixed. If there are fumes from a room recently being cleaned, for example, it could be a matter of just opening a window. If the problem is mold or another issue that isn’t immediately resolvable, however, you should ask for a room change. Curb outdoor activities On bad air days, keep the exercise inside, El-Hasan says. If you’re planning a jog but the AQI rating is way up, hit the treadmill in the hotel. If you’ve scheduled a bike tour but conditions are bad, consider postponing or taking a tour in an air-conditioned vehicle. Minimize outdoor activity around high traffic or rush-hour times and when there is fire or other pollution-heavy conditions. “Heed warnings from local authorities regarding being outdoors.” Vickie Sowards, director of nursing resources for PassportHealthUSA.com Travel Clinics, advised by email. Know when to seek help Symptoms of air pollution’s effects can include dry eyes, throat, nose and skin; coughing, sneezing and wheezing; and tiredness and dizziness, which may clear up after you leave the destination. For the very young or the elderly, and people with conditions such as asthma or COPD, pollution can be much more dangerous. Do not be afraid to seek medical treatment if necessary. “I would take shortness of breath and chest pains very seriously,” El-Hasan says. If you’re outside and feel sick and those symptoms “don’t resolve fairly quickly, you should be seen. You should always err on the side of caution.” If you feel hot, sweaty, dizzy, short of breath or have chest pain or your breathing starts coming faster, “go to the ER immediately,” Hassan says. Air pollution is a serious issue: It’s responsible for 4.2 million deaths yearly. But with a bit of research and preparation, plus flexibility when you arrive at your destination, you should


Drink craft beer, eat ancient grains and other ways to respond to the planet’s loss of biodiversity

The headlines are, in a word, terrifying. On Monday, the most comprehensive report on biodiversity to date — written by 455 experts representing 50 countries — revealed that one-eighth of the world’s plant and animal species are now at risk of extinction, a dramatic rupture in the rich diversity that underpins the very existence of life on Earth. But this information should not come as a surprise. The report follows a landmark assessment released by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in February that looked at biodiversity in food and agriculture. Researchers found that of the roughly 6,000 plant species used for food, only nine account for two-thirds of the world’s crop production. One-third of global fish stocks are overfished. Most of our milk, meat and eggs comes from just a handful of animal species, and more than one-fourth of 8,000 local breeds of livestock are at risk of extinction. Once lost, the report cautioned, agricultural biodiversity can’t be recovered. That analysis was preceded by an earlier study reporting a “hyper-alarming” loss of insect biodiversity in the Americas — a shift one conservationist interviewed by The Washington Post described as “one of the most disturbing articles I have ever read.” The steady drumbeat of loss has become deafening. From soil to seed to pollinator, plant to fish to animal, species that support and sustain us are in peril. This loss has (and will) impact our health, the quality of air and water, and the experiences we have in nature. But the place where we engage with it most directly — and have the greatest opportunity to affect change — is on our plates. Pollution, overexploitation and overharvesting of agricultural resources, climate change, urbanization and changing diets have all played a role in the loss of agricultural biodiversity. But the biggest driver of change, according to the recent report, is how we use and manage our land and water. This shift is driven by industrialized agriculture, a system that emphasizes scale over sustainability. The way we grow and raise food now is compromising what we will be able to eat in the future. The FAO report says that conservationists, breeders, farmers and many others are actively working to solve this challenge through practices such as organic agriculture, integrated pest management, sustainable soil management, ecosystem restoration and diversified approaches to fisheries and farm management. But how can we, the eaters, take part?


high-yielding plants (and animals). But when we shrink our diet to just a few select crops, we might be more efficient in the short run, but we increase long-term risks. One pest or disease, coupled with the volatility of a changing climate, can endanger them all. While industries push for homogenization in the name of feeding people, the data show something different: Global agriculture produces more calories per person now than it did 60 years ago. We produce enough food but are falling short on access. Some of the lowest-paid people in the world work in food and agriculture: subsistence farmers, migrant laborers and fast-food workers who are not able to afford what they grow, raise and serve. This is where our work begins — on a systemic level. The demand for increased amounts of cheap food is not the solution. We need to cultivate greater justice and more economic prosperity, fighting for not simply a minimum wage, but a living wage that allows all of us to feed ourselves well. Food is more than fuel for our bodies. Nourishment is revealed through nutrient counts, for sure, but also through flavor, communion and the long stories of how food binds us together — and tears us apart. Once you realize that, you can pursue a more biodiverse diet. Here’s how to start: Reconsider what, on the outside, looks like diversity at the grocery store. Flip over any processed food and look at the ingredient list. Or take a walk down the produce or dairy aisle. Ninety percent of our dairy products come from one breed of cow. The world grows 1,000 varieties of bananas, but we see one — the Cavendish, a banana that is succumbing to a different strain of the same fungus that wiped out its predecessors. Reach for the foods that extend beyond that small list of commodity crops. Be curious. Seek out farmers markets and try new varieties. Take one bite, and then another and another. Savor what you have, whatever it is. “Eating with the fullest pleasure — pleasure, that is, that does not depend on ignorance,” philosopher and farmer Wendell Berry writes, “is perhaps the profoundest enactment of our connection with the world.” No country is self-sustaining when it comes to the resources required for food security. Seed by seed, meal by meal. We need each other — and we feed each other. food@washpost.com


Wild tigers face extinction. This man pursues those responsible.

from Ammann. We’d planned to meet the next morning at 8, given my late arrival, but now the note said that wasn’t early enough. We had to meet at 7. A long day was ahead, and there was no time to waste. After a fast handshake and a few quick words in the morning, we were inside a van, bumping toward the Laos border. My editors and I had decided that I would enter the country without identifying myself as a journalist, an exception to The Washington Post’s usual practice. I would travel with Ammann and planned to accompany him everywhere, taking notes and quietly snapping photos. If someone asked about my profession or my employer, I knew I’d have to answer truthfully. But no one did. Ammann wanted to cross into the country by nightfall, where he said the real journey would begin. Landlocked and mountainous, Laos has nearly 1,600 miles of borders with Vietnam and China, whose appetite for illicit wildlife products had both decimated numerous species and transformed Laos into a global epicenter of wildlife trade. Last October, the U.S. State Department again listed Laos as one of three countries whose government “actively engaged in or knowingly profited” from trafficking endangered species. CITES in a 2017 report was even blunter: “Everyone can buy everything and cross the border.” Over the next 10 days, Ammann planned to traverse much of the country, beginning in a northern region called the Golden Triangle to visit a casino town notorious for wildlife trafficking and investigate rumors of a never-before-identified tiger enclosure. And then he’d head south, stopping to buy tiger products from merchants in the country’s biggest cities, fly drones over tiger farms and search for clues involving the mysterious disappearance of 300 tigers from one of them. Lastly, he’d venture to a new resort and “zoo” named Say Namthurn, where Ammann hoped to finally meet Nikhom, the tiger butcher, along with his boss, Sakhone Keosouvanh, who helped bring tiger farming to Laos. Inside the van now, along with Ammann, were his cameraman, Phil Hattingh, a towering South African; and a young Chinese woman named Grace Chan. Ammann had met Chan, who’s from Hong Kong, in autumn 2017, after she’d contacted him to discuss elephant trafficking. She’d told him she wanted to save animals, so he had introduced her to what he believed was the best way of doing that —


Behind the Mile High City’s journey into magical (mushroom) thinking

are for personal use. Selling, even among friends, will remain a crime. No shroom stores, unlike the many marijuana shops that have flourished in Denver since the state voted to legalize recreational pot in 2012. But, like the gradual loosening of marijuana laws, Denver's city-level change to a police policy for psilocybin mushrooms may reflect a shifting view of that drug. Mexican Indians for centuries regarded magic mushrooms as mysteriously potent, both for spiritual and medical purposes. Scientists in the modern era have periodically investigated psilocybin’s potential as a treatment for maladies such as addiction and depression, coming away with promising results. A 2006 Johns Hopkins University study, titled “Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance,” found that a third of participants said a psilocybin trip was the most spiritually significant experience of their lives. Some health risks are associated with psilocybin. A 2016 Johns Hopkins survey of nearly 2,000 mushroom users asked if they’d had “bad trips.” Of those who had, about 40 percent said their bad trip was among the top five most challenging experiences of their lives; 11 percent said they put themselves or others at risk of physical harm; and 8 percent sought treatment for “enduring psychological symptoms.” One of the biggest boosts for psilocybin came last fall when the Food and Drug Administration declared psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy a “breakthrough therapy” for depression. The agency said it planned to “expedite the development and review” of a drug for that use. Colorado, as much as anywhere in America, knows its way around psychedelics. There are Psychedelic Professionals meetups and lots of ketamine clinics. "Secret" ayahuasca and peyote circles are not super-secret, and psychedelic therapists work underground, but not by much. No large organizations endorsed shroom decriminalization — unless you think the Libertarians or the Greens qualify. But no group vocally opposed it, either. In the official voter information guide, the section for “arguments against the initiative” was blank. After the initiative passed, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, who had opposed it, said he would respect the will of the people. Jamie Giellis, his challenger in a June runoff election, was also against decriminalization and will honor the vote. So expect a bumper crop of Denver shrooms this year, like a forest after a rainstorm — the law protects propagation. The growing materials, including mason jars, cost about $100 and can be found


Pakistan had all but eliminated polio. Then things went badly wrong.

government’s top anti-polio official. Despite intensive efforts to educate the public about the benefits and safety of the vaccine, he said, “we underestimated the degree of community resistance.” At a time when fear and rejection of vaccines are rising globally and measles cases are spiking, polio is seeing at least a momentary resurgence in Pakistan. Between 1994 and last year, the number of infected children in Pakistan plunged from 20,000 to just 12. But 15 new cases have been reported this year. Unless the vaccination drive starts up again soon, some health experts fear that new cases could exceed 50 this year. The threat of polio remains relatively low compared with that of measles, which was officially eradicated in the United States in 2000 but appeared in 350 new cases in 2018 and more than 700 this year. Across Europe, 34,000 measles cases were reported in January and February alone. Measles can be fatal, especially to babies, and it caused more than 110,000 deaths worldwide in 2017. Polio, though rarely fatal, is incurable, and it can permanently paralyze a child within hours of infection. It is spread through fecal matter, especially in poor and unsanitary conditions, and is endemic only in Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. “It is so depressing. One day of drama has ruined three years of work,” said a government epidemiologist in Pakistan, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media. “People who used to welcome our teams into their homes are now closing the doors.” The hysteria that started at a school in the northwestern village of Mashokhel — and quickly spread via mosque loudspeakers and WhatsApp — had both unique cultural roots and broader, modern-day lessons. The northwest tribal belt, an ethnic Pashtun region near the Afghan border and the epicenter of polio in Pakistan, is deeply conservative, religious and suspicious of authority. Refusals for polio vaccines were once common there; many people suspected that the drops were part of a Western plot to control the Muslim birthrate, and Islamist militants periodically attacked vaccination teams. Over the past several years, Atta and health officials said, educational campaigns and support from Muslim clerics helped change public opinion, extremist groups were driven from the region, and vaccine refusals plunged. But this spring, when officials announced that all children up to age 10 would be required to get polio drops, suspicion


I led a platoon in Iraq. Trump is wrong to pardon war criminals.

a military justice system that, while not perfect, prosecutes and condemns those service members who commit atrocities. In short, we have a foundation of military ethics that our combat leaders can stand on. But what happens when that ethical foundation erodes or crumbles? There are things we can learn from the German military and the Holocaust that are relevant today — without arguing that we are Nazis. One lesson is the influence of an institution’s culture on criminal behavior during wartime. The German state intentionally created such a culture (another important distinction from the current situation). Before a German soldier set foot in the Soviet Union, he received several unmistakable clues about what behavior would be acceptable. The Commissar Order explicitly called for the summary execution of all Red Army political officers, an act that violated all laws of war, including those that Germany was party to. Also, the guidelines for German troops, disseminated the day before the invasion, stated that “this war demands ruthless and aggressive action against Bolshevik agitators, snipers, saboteurs, and Jews and tireless elimination of any active or passive resistance.” “Passive resistance” would be interpreted liberally. Last, and most striking in light of Trump’s pardon of Behenna, was the Jurisdiction Order. Issued in May 1941 directly by Adolf Hitler, it informed troops that “for offenses committed by members of the Wehrmacht and its employees against enemy civilians, prosecution is not compulsory, not even if the offense is at the same time a military crime or violation.” Soldiers were literally told that they would not be tried for behavior that would be a crime anywhere else in Europe. The Wehrmacht proceeded to commit some of the worst atrocities in the history of modern warfare on a scale that obviously dwarfs anything we have seen in Iraq or Afghanistan. But the underlying lessons remain valid. Murderous leaders led murderous units. Soldiers took their cues from the guidance they were given and the examples they were shown. They were often more likely to commit war crimes because of their commanders’ signaling than because of Nazi ideology. (In my research on the Wehrmacht, I also discovered the corollary to be true: Leaders opposed to criminality led units that did not commit crimes.) When Trump champions war criminals as brave patriots who are simply victims of political correctness, he seems to push for a climate that condones unethical and criminal behavior.


With Metro’s summer shutdown, a hit on the soul: No Chick-fil-A

What will you miss out on during the shutdown of six Metro stations? Let us know how you’ll be impacted by emailing kery.murakami@washpost.com or @theDCrider on Twitter. No doubt the coming summer-long shutdown of all Yellow and Blue line stations south of Reagan National Airport will disrupt lives. But it will strike at few people’s souls like it will Jess Mears’ — it will make it harder for her to get Chick-fil-A. Mears, 31, favors the chicken nuggets to the Original Chicken Sandwich. Metro has been her lifeline to small bits of deep-fried chicken ever since she moved near Alexandria’s King St.-Old Town station in August. For many people who move to an unfamiliar place, the foods of home can be a touchstone. The absence, or inferior quality, of it can also be a source of distress, as D.C.’s bagels and pizza are for transplanted New Yorkers. Mears’ affection for Chick-fil-A isn’t as profound as all that. “It just tastes good,” she said. She moved here to take a job as membership manager for the national Libertarian Party without a car because shortly before her move, she was sitting at a red light in St. Petersburg, Fla., in her Toyota RAV4 as a city bus approached from behind. She assumed it would stop. It didn’t. For the most part, taking the train and biking around has worked out fine, she said. Except she can’t drive to get her chicken nuggets when the craving strikes. But she did find that there’s a Chick-fil-A just two Metro stops from King Street, even though going there brings laughs from even her own mother. “I don’t think it’s that funny,” she said. “But when I tell people I go to the airport to get chicken, they think it’s hilarious.” As she said this during a lunchtime run on Monday, Mears was sitting on a Yellow Line train with people lugging suitcases, bound maybe for Hawaii. Maybe Paris? Probably not Chick-fil-A. During another run a few weeks ago, she got off at Reagan and passed a Metro crew doing construction. She walked into the terminal and made a right, past a self check-in kiosk and a large plate glass window where planes can be seen taxiing toward gates. “Libertarians joke the government should run like the Chick-fil-A drive-thru, or that whoever runs the Chick-fil-A drive-thru should run the government,” Mears said. And indeed, she was


The world’s most dangerous predator is you

That’s for Earth. Just in case you thought global warming was on vacation. Jason writes that this is sure to be the hottest year on record: Meanwhile, my podmate Darryl Fears (sits next to me; Jason is all the way over on the other side of the pillar) reports that, according to a new study, anthropogenic global warming (AGW) has increased the intensity of California’s drought by as much as 25 percent. The predator story is a reminder that humans are whomping [pardon the technical jargon] on the planet in lots of different ways, and one of those ways is directly killing animals. There are no indirect effects here. This is not a case, for example, of you filling up your gas tank and then burning some fuel that sends CO2 into the atmosphere and warms the planet and increases water temperatures and boosts ocean acidity and eventually kills a coral reef and makes it hard for a really pretty fish to survive. No, that fish is already dead — we killed it! We went straight for the jugular. We poison, plunder, destroy. We’re a Swiss Army Knife of environmental damage. (But won’t I feel guilty tonight when I fire up the Big Green Egg? Aren’t I a one-man environment-wrecking crew? All that grilled meat?? Hey, it’s not like I’m serving smoked condor!) So, climate change isn’t the only thing to worry about. Sometimes I think it sucks up all of the oxygen in the room. That said, it’s a huge problem and potentially an existential one. It would help if certain political leaders and media blowhards stopped claiming that it’s a hoax dreamed up (for some unclear reason) by climate scientists. (Someone should do a story on why people don’t believe in science, dontcha think?) Note that the authors of the predator study refer to constraints from “managers.” I know that will cause some folks’ heads to explode, because that’s not purely a market-driven process, it’s not libertarian, it’s not relying on the Invisible Hand, and once you start managing things you’re on the slippery slope to World Government and Big Brother and 2+2=5. But the future of human civilization will require a lot more management than we’ve seen to date. Welcome to Spaceship Earth. Further Reading: Scientists say human activity has pushed Earth beyond 4 of 9 “planetary boundaries.” Sure way to incite a raucous debate: Say “geoengineering.”


Six great analog communication tricks

Lately I’ve been feeling ashamed and mortified by my digital incompetence, which I won’t belabor other than to say that I started to run into trouble around the time that MS-DOS came on the market. I’m still trying to memorize my Compuserve email address. I haven’t been fully comfortable with computers since Radio Shack stopped selling the TRS-80. Remember Commodore word processors? Now that was technology! Or am I dating myself. I can never remember my passwords — Thank God I’ve got the NSA as backup! Seriously, like many people I’m perturbed by the rise of the Surveillance State, but my major concern is that I haven’t done enough that’s worth surveilling. It’s a painful realization, knowing that you’re not very surveillable. You are a dull man when not even the NSA is paying attention. True fact: I still have (happily) an AOL email address, but for years now this has been the subject of derision from the young and the technical. They look at me like I’m raising leeches for their usefulness in medical treatments. But then one day recently I had to give my email address to a young, supremely wired colleague, who is so digital he has already upgraded to quantum computing and mental telepathy and whatnot, and when I ritually noted my shameful AOL address he said, gently, “Oh, that’s coming back.” He said the Silicon Valley tech geniuses have started using AOL addresses — for their ironic quality. It’s like bell-bottom pants, or a pompadour. It’s like commuting to work on a penny-farthing. Or wearing a trucker hat as you dine on the patio at Le Diplomate. Wait long enough, you’ll be back in fashion! Whatever happens with technology, I’m not going to abandon my favorite analog communication techniques, which have worked beautifully for decades and don’t need any upgrading. They include: 1. Writing notes on napkins with a finger dipped in the water glass. When someone comments, “But you’ll never be able to read that later, when it dries,” you can say, “That’s the whole point.” 2. Interacting with other human beings primarily through winks, finger-snapping, thumbs-up gestures, salutes, raised fists, peace symbols and eyebrow-flaring. In my experience, the creative use of eyebrows as a communication tool can get you through an entire day without ever having to speak a word. 3. Nailing theses to church doors. (Keep Scotch tape on hand in case


How to punish robots when they inevitably turn against us

What is required is only awareness. In some offenses there are additional requirements like specific intent. In murder we require that. But intent is derived by the awareness. You must be aware in order to intend something. In the current technology, we have the capability to do that. We have the capability of applying awareness by the criminal law definition to machines. I should say that the plan of the book is a bit different. I’m not calling for the imposition of criminal liability on machines. The point here is to call for a change in the criminal law and its narrow definitions, by stating that either you have to accept the possibility of imposition of criminal liability on non-human entities, as we have done since the 17th century on corporations, or that we should change the legal definitions. This is the point. Dylan Matthews: A question many people would probably have is, "But how do you punish a robot?" The analogy seems less clear there. Gabriel Hallevy: The rule is very simple. Any punishment that we may impose on humans, we can impose it both on corporations and on the robot, or any other non-human entity. You need some fine-tuning adjustments. We can impose imprisonment on corporations. We have no problem with it. I’m not talking about putting in prison the people who are managing the corporations. The legal technique for corporations is to ask, “What is the meaning of imprisonment?” It’s to negate its freedom. The freedom of any corporation is the legal capability to make business. Therefore, when you impose six years imprisonment on a corporation, you cannot allow the corporation during this period to do business. Robots, it has the same technique but it may lead to different consequences. When we impose imprisonment, we should ask what is the meaning of the certain punishment on the robot. It means to negate its freedom. That freedom is the freedom to commit its useful daily tasks. So you ban him from doing the daily tasks. I don’t think that imprisonment for robots would be effective as it is for humans. There are other punishments that may be effective on robots than on humans. For any corporation the most effective punishment isn’t imprisonment. It’s a fine. For robots, I can think of community service. For example, in the near future when I hire the services of a robot to


Pentagon considers new request for assistance at border

first reported over the weekend by journalists accompanying acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan on a trip to the border, comes as lawmakers voice frustration about the Pentagon’s expanding role in President Trump’s border policies, including the effort to curtail a surge in migrant crossings. A defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a proposal that has not yet been approved, said the request asks the Defense Department to provide or construct shelter for at least 5,000 migrants and to provide “wraparound services,” including food and other care. Officials are examining whether the migrants would be housed in existing military facilities or whether tents or other structures would be put in place to shelter them, the official said. If the request is approved, the migrants could be taken to a single facility or multiple sites. Additional details about the request come only days after the Pentagon announced it would shift $1.5 billion in existing military programs to fund construction of Trump’s border wall. Democratic lawmakers decried the move, saying the decision to reallocate funding without prior consultation “ignored decades of precedent and cooperation with the Congress.” The official said the steps to house migrants, if approved, would be paid for out of previously reallocated funds. In April, Shanahan approved a Department of Health and Human Services request to identify military facilities where migrant children could be placed if necessary. Lawmakers from both parties have voiced concerns that the military’s expanding involvement could detract from other priorities, including restoring military readiness and repairing storm damage to bases. The military has gradually expanded its military mission along the border, where there are now more than 4,000 active-duty and National Guard troops. To help border agents deal with a crush of people seeking to cross, Pentagon leaders have also granted limited exceptions to a long-standing policy that prevents service members from coming into contact with migrants. In a Fox News interview that aired Monday, Shanahan responded to critics of the Pentagon’s involvement in the administration’s migrant response, saying there is a “crisis at the border.” “The commander in chief has given me a direct legal order to secure the border,” he said. “I’m securing the border.” Pentagon officials are now attempting to chart out a two-year plan that would anticipate DHS and law enforcement needs so that the military does not have to respond to a steady stream of requests. missy.ryan@washpost.com


Two Saudi oil tankers, Norwegian ship apparently attacked near the Persian Gulf amid rising Iran tensions

BEIRUT — Two Saudi Arabian oil tankers and a Norwegian ship were damaged over the weekend near the Persian Gulf in what Saudi Arabia claimed Monday was an “act of sabotage,” further heightening regional tensions with Iran. There was no immediate indication as to who may have been responsible or why the damage was inflicted, but the incidents occurred at the same time and place off the coast of the United Arab Emirates only days after the United States has dispatched warships and bombers to the area to deter alleged threats from Iran. The location is near a sea lane critical to the world’s supply of oil, and the incidents followed a warning by U.S. maritime authorities that Iran might seek to disrupt commercial shipping in the area. One of the Saudi tankers had been preparing to deliver oil to the United States, and both incurred “significant damage” as a result of the apparent attack at around 6 a.m. Sunday morning, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said in a statement reported by the official Saudi news agency. A statement from Thome Ship Management, the owners of the Norwegian-flagged vessel, said an “unknown object” had created a hole in the hull of one of its ships, the MT Andrea Victory. Photographs of the ship showing a hole just above the waterline have been published, according to the Associated Press. Neither Saudi Arabia nor the United Arab Emirates produced photographs to support claims that Saudi tankers had been damaged. Falih said the apparent attacks did not cause any casualties or oil spills, and they did not attribute blame for the apparent sabotage. The incidents coincide, however, with a surge in U.S.-Iranian tensions after the United States said last week that it has received intelligence that Iran was planning some kind of attack on U.S. forces in the Middle East. In response to the threat, the Pentagon dispatched reinforcements to the Persian Gulf, including an aircraft carrier, a Patriot missile battery and a squadron of B-52 bombers. The moves prompted Iran to warn that it is prepared to retaliate if it is attacked. Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned the possible shipping attacks as “alarming and regrettable” and said it would have a “negative effect” on shipping safety and maritime security, according to the Iranian Students’ News Agency. Abbas Mousavi, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, suggested that the sabotage might have been carried out as part


African governments are cracking down on the news media. Their citizens might be okay with that.

opposition leader’s “inauguration.” A Ghanaian member of parliament exposed, on national television, the previously protected identity of investigative journalist Ahmed Hussein Suale in January 2019 and called for violence against him; Suale was killed soon after. Twenty-two African countries have blocked the Internet or social media since 2015; a shutdown in Chad has lasted more than a year. Even Benin, one of the continent’s most democratic countries, according to organizations such as Freedom House, limited Internet access during last month’s legislative elections. What do Africans think about restrictions on the press? The latest survey by Afrobarometer, an independent African research network, finds that Africans’ support for media freedoms has declined sharply over the past decade. The survey, which was conducted between 2016 and 2018 with more than 45,000 people in 34 countries, asked respondents whether they support the media’s “right to publish any views and ideas without government control” — or whether they instead support the government’s “right to prevent the media from publishing things that it considers harmful to society.” In the 2011-2013 survey, 56 percent of people interviewed in 31 countries chose media freedoms, while only 39 percent chose government control. In the latest survey, support for media freedoms in those same countries had plummeted by 10 points, to 46 percent, while support for government control had increased by the same amount, to 49 percent. Afrobarometer has been measuring these attitudes since 2008. This most recent survey was the first in which more Africans support government restrictions than media freedoms. This decline is not limited to a handful of countries. Rather, the trend is nearly universal. Only one country — Sudan — saw a meaningful increase in support for media freedoms: 61 percent of Sudanese support a free press, 12 points more than in our last survey. Most countries saw sharp declines. Those were largest in Tunisia (down 21 points), Uganda (down 21), Cape Verde (down 27), and Tanzania, where support plummeted 33 points, as you can see in the figure below. In fact, in 18 of the 34 countries surveyed, a majority now favors government’s right to halt publications. In Senegal, one of the most democratic countries on the continent, 79 percent say they favor such government restrictions on the media. Why has support for media freedom dropped so significantly? A generation ago, most countries had only one radio broadcaster, television network or newspaper; those state-owned outlets


Winners and losers of the biggest state political battles of the year, so far

20 states. This year gun-control advocates celebrated victories in Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada — the latter two being the Holy Grail of gun-control bills, expanding background checks. They were able to stop a controversial stand-your-ground bill in Arkansas. And bills championed by the NRA in West Virginia and South Carolina didn’t make it out of the legislatures there. (A notable loss for gun-control groups was legislation expanding background checks in Maryland, which didn’t pass.) The NRA counts its own victories and counters that it has been so successful expanding gun laws — some form of public carry laws exists in all 50 states — that there isn’t as much for them to do. But Eve Jorgensen is a Moms Demand Action volunteer in Arkansas who said there was a noticeable shift in momentum for the gun-control side compared with just two years ago. "In the past, even Democrats didn’t really want to talk with us in public,” she said. “Now we had some moderate Republicans standing with us.” Marijuana legalization But opponents of legalization are celebrating that legalization bills in New Jersey and New York have stalled completely. This year, they felt as if they were able to flex their muscle more than ever, said Kevin Sabet, of Smart Approaches to Marijuana. “It seems like we are fighting back the tide on state legislatures.” President Trump, kinda: New York is moving a bill to hand over Trump's state tax returns to Congress, which congressional investigators would have to go to court to get otherwise. And three states voted to join a compact to get around the electoral college, which Trump won in 2016 despite losing the popular vote, said Louis Jacobson, a senior author of the “Almanac of American Politics 2020.” Colorado, New Mexico and Delaware said they would give their electoral votes to whoever wins the popular vote. But many more states will have to do this for it to have any effect. States with 189 electoral votes are joining the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact; they need to get to 270 to do an end-run around the electoral college. Bathroom bills: Bipartisanship: “You’re seeing the dominant party in the states doing things the dominant party might be expected to,” Jacobson said. Correction: This post corrects the type of gun law that exists in all 50 states. There is a form of public carry law in all 50 states.


African swine fever has decimated China’s hog population. Will it hit the U.S. next?

African swine fever is decimating the world’s largest hog herd in China, and that holds risk and opportunity for U.S. pork producers. Affected animals have now been reported in every province in China, and the disease has spread to neighboring Mongolia, Vietnam and Cambodia. At least 129 outbreaks have been reported since African swine fever was first identified in August, according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics. It estimates that 1 million exposed animals have been exterminated and that the interruption in production has reduced the country’s overall hog population by 40 million. But experts say infection numbers and the number of culled pigs have been immensely underreported. “It’s so much more than 1 million pigs, but no one knows for sure,” said Dermot Hayes, an economist at Iowa State University who runs a small center that studies Chinese agriculture. China penalizes the “provinces that report the disease, so reporting is not a good measurement.” The virus, which is not communicable to humans, can be spread by live or dead pigs, domestic or wild, and via pork products. Symptoms in animals include high fever, weakness, skin lesions, diarrhea, vomiting and difficulty breathing. Death can occur within a week of infection. There is no treatment or vaccine, and the only way to stop the disease is to cull all affected or exposed swine herds. If that occurs, there will not be enough surplus pork in the world to make up for the anticipated shortfall in Chinese production. The financial services firm Rabobank has projected a 30 percent decline in Chinese pork production for 2019. Some analysts say this could lead to a 40 percent increase in the price of pork belly and a surge in demand for other animal proteins, including chicken. U.S. hog prices have been struggling, so the specter of a Chinese shortfall could be a boon to American producers. China is the largest producer of pork, with herds six times as large as U.S. populations, and the largest consumer of pork. The Chinese consumed about 56 billion pounds of pork last year, which accounts for more than half the global total. Even with Chinese tariffs on American pork imports at 62 percent, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates the largest demand for U.S. pork in 2019 will come from China. It anticipates that Chinese pork imports will rise 41 percent for the year. In March, China bought 23,800


Ferguson fight fans out to rest of America, with impressive local results

We are not in a post-Ferguson world. The number of mounting protests nationally has shown the reaction from millions to a grand jury decision not to indict an officer who shot and killed an unarmed teenager suburban St. Louis is just as much a part of the story as the shooting itself. Locally, what’s remarkable is how well the situation has been handled by both the protestors and police. As reported in Tuesday’s Post, “There’s no centralized movement. No coordinated planning. These are pop-up protests, emerging largely through social media.” Impressively, these protests have managed to make a large impact in a city in which protests of one sort or another seemingly happen every day. The #dcFerguson movement started things off over the summer with their shutdowns and marches. Then, on Sunday, a group managed to block Interstate 395, which is not only dangerous, but grabs a captive audience that’s forced to pay attention. Monday on CNN, I discussed the unrest with former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney and Bill Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard. At one point, Kristol said the efforts to close shopping malls and stores “deprives working class and middle class Americans of their jobs and incomes.” Here’s the thing: Working class and middle class Americans are exactly the people out doing much of the protesting. This movement has officially started to affect many average Americans, who simply refuse to sit by and live with the inherent level of entitlement that many police departments across the nation possess. We’re beyond the point of just the directly affected parties in the St. Louis areastanding up for their rights. Americans of all walks know that the use of deadly police force affects everyone’s safety and are taking to the streets to voice that opinion. That said, here in town, the Metropolitan Police Department has done an admirable job. There have been no major dustups to speak of, and even though some of the complaints in these marches are about their very department, the communication has been respectful. Of course, ensuring the safety of people exercising their first amendment rights is their job, but we’ve seen how easily that can go wrong if handled poorly. In St. Louis County last Tuesday, a pregnant woman lost an eye after police shot a non-lethal round at her car during a protest. Very rarely do movements gain ground in this country


A translation of the enchanting Mexican novel ‘The Murmur of Bees’ arrives right on time

On the East Coast, we are entering one of my favorites times of the year, a bright and fragrant period I like to call the Season of the Bees. The early risers have emerged from their winter refuge, spilling out of their hives to sip nectar from my backyard camellias. In the months to come they’ll return to gorge among the purple coneflowers, the sprightly asters and those gangly charmers, the Joe-Pye weeds. So it seems fitting that the enchanting Mexican novel, “The Murmur of Bees,” a much-loved work by Sofía Segovia should be arriving in an English translation in sync with the first appearances of furtive pollinators outside my windows. The book’s publication in the United States by Amazon Crossing announces a writer whose absorbing yet accessible prose and gift for sprinkling the mystical into a deeply human narrative is sure to draw comparisons to Latin American greats, such as Isabel Allende. (Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.) The book, translated by Simon Bruni, is set in the fertile fields and rugged hillsides around the city of Linares, southeast of Monterrey, during a tumultuous epoch in the early 1900s when Mexico was ravaged by a chaotic revolution and the scourge of the Spanish flu epidemic. Segovia writes with lush sensuality about the dynastic ranching family and its servants at the center of the novel, all of whom live on a hacienda scented by “the thyme and epazote that grew in pots in the garden,” and by the rapturous smells of “oranges, blossoms, and honey.” An “incalculably old” wet nurse named Nana Reja, who has nourished generations of the Morales clan, spends each day outside a shed in her rocking chair, eyes ever-closed until “the fireflies reminded her it was night.” Reja’s wooden immobility is shaken one day, and she disappears without explanation. Later she’s found beneath a bridge cradling a newborn boy whose body is covered in a living blanket of bees. The child is remarkably healthy, but his face has no upper lip, gums or palate. The region where he is found is known for its superstitions, and fearful peasant sharecroppers conclude he is the devilish spawn of the promiscuous witches that are said to roam nearby. “Evil will befall us, you’ll see,” warns one peon, Anselmo Espiricueta. The patriarch of the hacienda, Francisco Morales, is having none of it. He allows Reja to bring the


Trump pardoned a soldier convicted of murder. Is he hurting military effectiveness?

the time; as Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) put it, the issue was “what message do we send” to others who might consider the same. In similar ways, observers such as civil-military scholar Jason Dempsey criticize Trump’s pardon of Behenna as potentially undermining the military’s ethical code against atrocities — since the killing occurred during an unsanctioned interrogation after Mansur had been released. And the ACLU charges that the pardon implicitly sanctions war crimes. 2. Under military law, commanders are enjoined from any behavior that might influence ongoing military judicial proceedings, including giving opinions about how they should be decided. So is the president — as commander in chief — subject to this restriction over “undue command influence”? Legal scholars are debating that — because Trump has been commenting on, and influencing, ongoing trials. For instance, then-candidate Trump denounced former Army soldier Bowe Bergdahl for leaving his post in Afghanistan in 2009, after which Bergdahl spent nearly five years captured by the Taliban. After Trump took office, Bergdahl’s defense team argued that a fair trial was no longer possible, given the president’s damaging rhetoric. Or consider the cases of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher and Army Special Forces Officer Matt Golsteyn. Gallagher is awaiting trial on charges that, without authorization or combat justification, he killed a prisoner in Iraq — and then held his reenlistment ceremony with the victim’s corpse. This March, Trump tweeted that Gallagher would be moved to “less restrictive confinement” in honor of his service to his country. And Golsteyn was investigated by the Army for the unsanctioned killing of an unarmed Taliban fighter in 2010, an investigation that was reopened when Golsteyn admitted to the killing on Fox News in 2016. In December, Trump tweeted that Golsteyn was a “U.S. Military hero” whose case he would be “reviewing.” That concerns legal scholars. Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Rachel VanLandingham told the military affairs site “Task & Purpose” that such interventions damage the military justice system’s credibility, arguing, “The more Trump meddles, the more he undermines that system as being impartial and fair.” 3. Even if civil-military and legal scholars debate the pardon decision, don’t expect it to damage public opinion of the military. Polls regularly find that Americans rank the military as the most trusted institution in U.S. society. And Republicans especially favor the armed forces, as my own research finds. Here’s how I did my research. In


‘Let’s go, keg stand!’: Fraternity under investigation after forcing puppy to drink beer

The small caramel-colored dog with floppy ears stands on a table and wags its tail. Then, a voice commands, “Go.” In one swift movement, the man gripping the dog by its midsection lifts it up and turns it upside down over a silver keg. “Let’s go, keg stand!” someone bellows as another man holds a black tap near the dog’s mouth. The now-squirming canine kicks its paws in the air. Suddenly, a stream of foamy liquid squirts from the tap, hitting the dog in its face. A grinning bystander doubles over and covers his mouth. Someone else lets out a loud peal of laughter. But the incident, which was captured on video and shared to social media over the weekend, wasn’t funny to the Nassau County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals or to Hofstra University administrators. The Long Island university confirmed Monday that it suspended its chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi pending the results of an investigation after the five-second clip purportedly involving some of the fraternity’s members prompted fierce backlash. The video, which had been viewed more than 100,000 times on Twitter as of early Tuesday, also caught the attention of the Nassau County SPCA, leading the organization to launch its own investigation. “It was very wrong on so many levels‚” Gary Rogers, a spokesman for the Nassau County SPCA, told The Washington Post. “I’m sure it wasn’t the dog’s idea, ‘Hey, I want some beer.’ Animals don’t make that choice.” The dog, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel believed to be between 5 and 10 months old, was living in a house associated with the fraternity, but is now in the SPCA’s care, Rogers said. The puppy belongs to a 21-year-old senior at Hofstra, who was one of the people in the video, he said. “Our paramount concern is the safety of the dog," Rogers said. "The dog is no longer in that environment.” He added that when investigators visited the house on Monday, the canine “appeared to be in good condition” and had food, water and a bed. The video featuring the puppy was reportedly taken at an off-campus fraternity house in Hempstead, N.Y., on Saturday and shared to Snapchat, according to NBC News. In the background of the clip, people could be seen standing around in a yard. It didn’t take long for a recording of the Snapchat video to be uploaded to Twitter,