Some — but not all — Republicans are finally wising up about the coronavirus pandemic

How many sick and dying constituents does it take for a Republican governor to require the use of the most straightforward public health measure to slow the spread of a deadly pandemic? We’re starting to find out: So some GOP governors, including Doug Burgum in North Dakota and Kim Reynolds in Iowa, have finally instituted mask mandates. Does this have anything to do with President Trump’s defeat in this month’s election? Let’s hope so. First, though, we should understand just how terrifying the covid-19 situation has become, across the country but particularly in certain states. Tuesday was the deadliest day in six months, with over 1,700 Americans dying, according to Johns Hopkins University. One study estimates that more than 3 million Americans have active infections and could be contagious. North and South Dakota are now two of the worst coronavirus hot spots in the entire world. As Kailee Leingang writes in The Post, in North Dakota, they’ve simply given up contact tracing because there are so many people infected that the task has become impossible. Across the country, hospitals don’t have enough staff to deal with the deluge of covid patients. And Thanksgiving is next week, when people traditionally travel to gather with their family and friends. Many of us won’t this year, heeding the warnings from public health officials. But many will, and the result will likely be an increase in infections and deaths. Even now, there are holdouts among Republicans. South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R) — who urged people to come to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in August where they’d crowd into bars without masks, and welcomed President Trump for a tightly packed and largely unmasked event at Mount Rushmore in July — is still resisting. “I knew that South Dakotans could be trusted to exercise their personal responsibility, and each and every one of these people have proven me right” she wrote in a statement last week describing her recent encounters with some South Dakotans who have yet to fall ill. We can’t go back and rerun history to figure out what would have happened if Trump hadn’t made the decision to politicize mask-wearing. But he did, turning a refusal to wear masks into an emblem of Republican identity. We’ve been suffering the consequences: Nearly a quarter of a million Americans have died from covid-19, with many more deaths to come, and Trump’s administration has


Family of American kidnapped in Afghanistan fears he will be ‘left behind’

Charlene Cakora is glad more U.S. troops will be coming home from Afghanistan soon. But she also is filled with dread that the drawdown announced this week will complicate efforts to find her brother. Mark Frerichs, a civilian contractor, was abducted in Afghanistan in January and hasn’t been heard from since. “I think it’s bad news,” she said of the troop reduction plan in a telephone interview from her home in Illinois. “We want the troops home, but we don’t want Mark to be left behind.” The Trump administration says it will roughly halve the number of troops in Afghanistan, from about 5,000 to 2,500, by mid-January. Under a deal between the United States and the Taliban signed earlier this year, all American and NATO forces could be gone by May, if certain conditions are met. It is unclear whether the force reduction will minimize U.S. leverage in finding Frerichs and another American, Paul Overby, who disappeared in Afghanistan in 2014 while researching a book. Both are believed to have been taken by the Haqqani network, an insurgent group that is an offshoot of the Taliban. President Trump has prioritized negotiations for the release of Americans held captive abroad and claims to have secured freedom for more than 50 from some 20 countries during his time in office. U.S. officials call them hostages, though some were imprisoned by foreign governments, mostly under dubious charges. The State Department has offered $5 million under its Rewards for Justice program for information leading to the location, recovery and return of Frerichs and Overby. And the United States has won the release of Americans even in countries where there are no troops. Little is known about the fate of Overby, a 77-year-old author, who vanished in 2014 in Khost province near the border with Pakistan while working on a book about the Afghan conflict. He had planned to cross the border into Pakistan and was trying to arrange an interview with the head of the Haqqani network when he disappeared. His family, contacted through an intermediary, declined to comment. Frerichs, 58, was abducted on Jan. 31 this year. A former Navy diver, he had been living in Kabul for a decade working on construction projects as an engineer. He is believed to be alive and relatively well, despite being held by a militant group that has been designated a foreign terrorist organization. Zalmay Khalilzad,


Trump’s military cuts in Afghanistan highlight an array of divisions in a 19-year-old conflict

Administration would be tumultuous, but the haphazard nature of President Trump’s decision will harm our national security and jeopardize countless American, Afghan, and Iraqi lives,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said in a statement. But other Democrats who have called for the end of U.S. wars said nothing or found common cause with the president’s instincts. Rep. Adam Smith (D.-Wash.), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said he had spoken with new acting defense secretary Christopher C. Miller and believes that “reducing our forward deployed footprint in Afghanistan down to 2,500 troops is the right policy decision.” Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) addressed the issue on a bipartisan basis in a letter to the Pentagon. As veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, the two lawmakers said they have “grave concern” about the cut and asked how it will be handled. “Additionally, we continue to be concerned by the growing ISIS activity in Afghanistan and Iran’s influence in Iraq,” they wrote. “Intelligence shows that both issues are destabilizing factors in a critical region, and minimizing our military and diplomatic footprint allows malign forces to fill the vacuum we create.” Veterans — some politically active, others not — also hold an array of viewpoints. Tom Porter, the executive vice president of government affairs for the nonprofit Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said his group has not yet polled its members about the president’s latest decision. But in its 2020 survey of members, 28 percent said they think the U.S. war in Afghanistan was worth it, and 34 percent said it was somewhat worth it. Others were either neutral or held dimmer views about the conflict. Porter, who served one tour as a Navy officer in Afghanistan, said he is concerned that Trump’s decision may create a scenario in which President-elect Joe Biden may have to make a politically difficult decision about whether to add troops in Afghanistan later. He cited the departure of U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011 and the bloodshed that took place in 2014 as the Islamic State swept across parts of the country. “I would hate for that same kind of thing to happen again,” Porter said. “I know there is going to have to be date that we have to leave there. We just want to make sure it’s under the right circumstances.” In an appearance Wednesday, the new acting Pentagon chief


Kennedy Center cancels live performances through spring. Honors are still on, with a different look.

The Kennedy Center is canceling all scheduled live performances through April 25 as well as next summer’s slate of Broadway touring shows, pushing its pandemic-related closure into a second year, officials announced Wednesday. The annual Kennedy Center Honors — already postponed to March 7 — will be produced in late spring using a hybrid format of virtual tributes and live performances. The cancellations will result in the permanent layoffs of 38 employees who had been furloughed, adding to the 64 who were laid off in July, when the arts center also eliminated 47 vacant positions. The administrative staff has been cut by 36 percent since the start of the pandemic, said Kennedy Center president and chief executive Deborah Rutter. With the new cancellations, the national arts center has nixed more than half of an already limited 2020-2021 season and incurred earned revenue losses topping $80 million, Rutter said. “It’s such a complicated, complex and confusing time,” Rutter said Wednesday. “I believe this is clearheaded. We’re confronting reality. We’re doing everything in our power to address the circumstances we find ourselves in. But all of this is beyond our control.” More than 384 ticketed events have been canceled starting in January, including the Washington National Opera’s planned productions in May and July of “La Bohème” and “Blue” and the national tours of “Jesus Christ Superstar” (May 25-June 13), “Freestyle Love Supreme” (June 8-13), “Oklahoma!” (June 22-27), “Dear Evan Hansen” (June 29-July 18) and “The Band’s Visit” (July 28-Aug. 8). Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performances, originally scheduled for Feb. 2-7, will be moved to June 22-27. The arts center closed in March, when government officials banned large gatherings to prevent the spread of covid-19. Almost immediately, the center laid off about 800 hourly and part-time workers and furloughed several hundred more. Congress provided $25 million in relief funding, and the arts center spent $19.8 million on salary and benefits for employees for the first six months of the shutdown. Rutter said the $4 million balance is being used for current salary and benefits costs. “The Cares Act made it possible for us to get through last year. Without it, I can’t imagine what would have happened,” Rutter said. She declined to say whether the arts center is seeking additional federal aid. The center now has 264 administrative employees, down from 411, 153 musicians in its two orchestras and about 70 part-time


including the Washington National Opera’s planned productions in May and July of “La Bohème” and “Blue” and the national tours of “Jesus Christ Superstar” (May 25-June 13), “Freestyle Love Supreme” (June 8-13), “Oklahoma!” (June 22-27), “Dear Evan Hansen” (June 29-July 18) and “The Band’s Visit” (July 28-Aug. 8). Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performances, originally scheduled for Feb. 2-7, will be moved to June 22-27. The arts center closed in March, when government officials banned large gatherings to prevent the spread of covid-19. Almost immediately, the center laid off about 800 hourly and part-time workers and furloughed several hundred more. Congress provided $25 million in relief funding, and the arts center spent $19.8 million on salary and benefits for employees for the first six months of the shutdown. Rutter said the $4 million balance is being used for current salary and benefits costs. “The Cares Act made it possible for us to get through last year. Without it, I can’t imagine what would have happened,” Rutter said. She declined to say whether the arts center is seeking additional federal aid. The center now has 264 administrative employees, down from 411, 153 musicians in its two orchestras and about 70 part-time workers, including stagehands, theater managers and ushers, who are hired intermittently, Rutter said. Salary cuts of 25 percent for senior executives and 10 percent for those earning $75,000 that were implemented this summer will continue. After originally taking no compensation for three months, Rutter increased her salary to 25 percent in mid-June and began taking 50 percent in mid-September. Her annual pay is about $1.3 million. David McIntyre, president of Local 22 of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees, the union representing about 400 stagehands, questioned the center’s attempt to present large-scale events this winter when most venues were not. “It was clear things weren’t going in the right direction quite a while ago,” he said. “Until we get the virus under control, I don’t understand why they were even trying to plan a season.” The union’s contract with the arts center expired in September and negotiations are stalled, said McIntyre, who predicted regular activity at the arts center would not return until the fall. “They are pretty committed to what they view as necessary cuts,” he said. But Peter de Boor, a French horn player in the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra and chairman of its orchestra


Maryland crime report

Due to concerns over the novel coronavirus and social distancing, •Destruction to a vehicle •Destruction of property/vandalism •Theft from a vehicle •Thefts of vehicle parts and accessories •Tampering with a vehicle •Attempted vehicle theft •Credit or debit card theft •Identify theft •Lost property •Telephone misuse •Trespassing The following were among incidents reported by Anne Arundel County police. For information, call 410-222-8050. Annapolis Area Foxwood Ct., Glen Burnie Area Foxridge Lane, White Water Ct., Crain Hwy., Crain Hwy. near Hidden Brook Dr., Ritchie Hwy. and Furnace Branch Rd. E., Ashmore Ave. and Pebblebrook Lane, Edgewater Area Lee Airpark Dr., Severn Area Pioneer Dr. and Arwell Ct., Due to concerns over the novel coronavirus and social distancing, Center St., Center St., Gemini Dr., West St., Bay Ridge Rd., Dock St., Hillsmere Dr., Janice Dr., Norwood Rd., Park Pl., Taylor Ave., Tyler Ave., W. Washington St., Chester Ave., Due to concerns over the novel coronavirus and social distancing, citizens are encouraged to report certain incidents online at hcpd.org or by calling 410-313-2200. These were among incidents reported by Howard County police. Columbia Area Twin Knolls Rd., Black Star Cir., Cloudleap Ct., Santiago Rd., Hayshed Lane, Quiet Hours, Centre Park Dr., Sandalfoot Way, Stonebrook Lane, Swan Point Way, Yellow Bonnet Pl., Columbia Rd., Swan Point Way, Vantage Point Rd., Elkridge Area Old Washington Rd., Jessup Area Washington Blvd., Laurel Area Gorman Rd.,


A rapid at-home covid-19 test — for under $50 — just got FDA approval

nurse or processing with high-tech lab equipment. Under its emergency use powers, the FDA also authorized Lucira’s test for medical settings like doctor’s offices, hospitals and urgent care centers. Patients ages 13 and under must have the test administered by a medical professional. In recent months, companies have been racing to see who could be first to provide an at-home test, Wan reported. Many manufacturers said the test could be especially helpful this winter, with infections surging and consumers wanting to get tested before holiday gatherings. “At a time when so many people feel like they’ve lost control of so much of their lives, it would put power back in their hands,” Mara G. Aspinall, a biomedical diagnostics professor at Arizona State University, told The Post last month. “That’s no small thing.” Scientists have weighed the merits of two different ways of detecting the virus. Some of the two dozen or so companies trying to develop home tests have focused on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, a molecular process that is more precise but also more expensive and takes longer. Many more manufacturers are close to developing at-home antigen tests, which detect proteins on the surface of the virus. But these rapid tests are less sensitive, producing false negatives that could give people a false sense of security. In July, the FDA issued guidelines noting any at-home test must be accurate and easy enough for untrained people to use without confusion. Antigen tests sold directly to consumers must be more accurate than those used in medical settings up until now, the agency said, because consumers at home will be left to interpret the results on their own. Lucira said on its website that the company’s at-home test relies on molecular nucleic acid amplification technology, which is designed to detect whether an individual is shedding the coronavirus that causes covid-19. Before the pandemic, the manufacturer was focused on developing similar technology for an at-home flu test. The FDA’s emergency use authorization for the Lucira home test requires prescribing health professionals to report test results from patients according to local, state and federal requirements. Doctors and public health specialists had expressed worries about reporting and receiving data from at-home tests, because labs are not involved. These experts fear that without clear mechanisms, the country would be flying blind as it navigates the pandemic. William Wan and Laurie McGinley contributed to this report.


Astronauts on the space station discuss SpaceX’s rocket, sleeping quarters and Baby Yoda

He had flown on the space shuttle and the Russian Soyuz. And now after flying the SpaceX Dragon capsule, Soichi Noguchi is only the third person, after John Young and Wally Schirra, to travel to orbit in three different vehicles. Asked Thursday how the three compared, Noguchi didn’t hesitate. “For the record, Dragon is the best,” the Japanese astronaut said. “Short answer.” During their first news conference since arriving at the International Space Station on Monday night, the astronauts who blasted off Sunday evening said their escape from Earth’s gravity was a thrilling ride atop a spacecraft that on the ground appeared restless, grunting and vibrating before being unleashed into the skies, a fury of nine engines churning through thousands of gallons of propellant. “You can just tell it wants to get off the ground,” mission commander Mike Hopkins said. “It’s definitely ready to go, and it just leaped off the pad. It was amazing.” The mission followed a test flight in May that ended NASA’s long, ignominious absence from human spaceflight since the space shuttle was retired in 2011. With that successful mission, which sent NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the station for two months, NASA then proceeded with the Crew-1 flight, making the Dragon capsule the first privately owned and privately operated spacecraft to be certified by NASA for human spaceflight. The crew of four — NASA astronauts Hopkins, Shannon Walker and Victor Glover, as well as Noguchi — lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday evening, and arrived at the station about 27 hours later. They’re scheduled to spend six months on the orbiting laboratory conducting science experiments, including one, proposed by Michigan high school students, that will examine how spaceflight affects brain function. On Monday, the Dragon docked itself autonomously with the station, while it orbited Earth at 17,500 mph, and the astronauts sat by, monitoring the spacecraft but staying off the controls. Asked whether it was difficult to be hands off, Glover, a Navy fighter pilot with more than 3,000 flight hours in more than 40 aircraft, including 24 combat missions, said that “it wasn’t an issue.” “The rocket, the Falcon 9, performed superbly, the way it was supposed to,” he said. “Dragon performed superb.” The crew joined NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, who arrived at the station last month. Now


Stimulus funds really do keep people home, our research finds

With coronavirus rates surging, elected officials in both red and blue states are again considering new restrictions on households and businesses. Some governors and mayors have imposed new shelter-in-place orders as a last-ditch measure to avoid overloading hospitals beyond their capacity. But lockdowns remain controversial. New survey data suggests that just half of Americans would comply with a month-long stay-at-home order; a third would refuse, up from just 15 percent in April. Many think that public attitudes about these health orders simply reflect partisan beliefs. But our new research shows that underlying household economic security also shapes compliance with these governmental directives. Here’s how we did our research States and cities in the spring of 2020 turned first to shelter-in-place ordinances to try to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. To study willingness to abide by these orders, we wanted to find a way to accurately measure compliance in a way that could be compared across different towns and cities, as well as over time as different cities and states adopted and retracted those orders. We didn’t want to rely on public opinion surveys asking respondents whether they complied with such orders, since claims can be different from actions. Instead we examined large quantities of geolocated cellular phone device use patterns. We used raw data from the data analytics company UNACAST. They estimate such information as the number of people who are living in a home; the average time spent at home or outside; and changes in the average distance a user traveled. Aggregated to the county level and compared over time, this information can be used to assess compliance with orders to shelter in place. We obtained access to records that covered nearly all U.S. counties from February through July 2020. To determine how economic conditions shape compliance, we looked at differences in when states and municipalities rolled out their lockdown orders during March 2020, when the pandemic began. Counties vary in many ways, but for this analysis we focused on differences in average household income. We also took account of other factors that might influence county residents’ willingness to comply, including how severely each county was hit by the coronavirus, unemployment levels, population density, partisanship and where residents can get news. Economic security matters We found that in counties where large proportions of residents were in economic distress, residents were less likely to stay home than residents of


Australian special forces executed 39 prisoners and civilians in Afghanistan, report finds

investigators found that a small but influential group of its soldiers consciously put aside the rules of war and adopted a “self-centered warrior culture” that led to prisoners being killed and radios and weapons being planted on the victims’ bodies. Those who opposed these soldiers were intimidated into silence, which prevented reports from reaching commanders. “The report notes that the distorted culture was embraced and amplified by some experienced, charismatic and influential noncommissioned officers and their proteges who sought to fuse military excellence with ego, elitism and entitlement,” Campbell said at a news conference in the capital, Canberra. “We are a nation that stands up when something goes wrong and deals with it, and that’s what I intend to be part of.” Afghanistan’s presidential office said on Twitter ahead of the report’s release that Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison had spoken by telephone with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to express regret over the abuses and to promise that justice would be served. Australia’s Foreign Ministry had sent a letter of apology for the actions of Australian forces, it added. Campbell was in charge of Australian forces in the Middle East during part of the time the unlawful killings took place. The actions came to light when some soldiers told journalists stories of alleged war crimes, which some experts initially greeted with skepticism. A special unit has been established by the government to amass evidence and prosecute the soldiers, some of whom still work in the army. The families of Afghan victims will be offered compensation, Campbell said. An SAS unit, the 2nd Squadron, will be abolished and its name retired, he said. Governor General David Hurley, the country’s ceremonial leader, will be asked to revoke a meritorious unit citation awarded to Australia’s special operations task force in Afghanistan between 2007 and 2014, he added. There is no guarantee the investigation will result in convictions. Testimony provided by some 423 witnesses to the investigation is not admissible in court, and there is no certainty the tightly knit special forces soldiers will give evidence against one another in public trials. Investigators found some soldiers used techniques to avoid giving information that they had been taught to use if interrogated by the enemy. There is also the possibility of future political interference. British governments obstructed investigations and prosecutions of war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to Human Rights Watch, an advocacy group.


The Technology 202: Facebook content moderators want safer pandemic work conditions and hazard pay

to by the company into an account that can be carried to a new job and redeemed for benefits like health insurance. In addition to lobbying state and local officials, the coalition will also advocate for federal policies. The coalition also aims to help local businesses “compete in an increasingly online economy” and increase “transportation and delivery equity," it says. Labor advocates have criticized the plan as another attempt by the companies to avoid paying for protections guaranteed to workers classified as employees under the law. “The American economy and the way people work has fundamentally changed, yet public policy hasn’t kept up," Whitney Brennan, spokesperson for the App-Based Work Alliance, said in a news release. “Our country’s antiquated benefits system doesn’t reflect how people are working and living in the 21st century.” CNN The board temporarily voted to block certification of votes in Detroit on Tuesday but later reversed its decision. Hartmann, who now wants to walk back his vote to certify, shared a widely debunked election conspiracy theory "hammer and scorecard," which alleges that a package of CIA computer programs hacked the election. The theory was debunked by DHS's former cybersecurity chief. Los Angeles Times reporter Del Quentin Wilber Hartmann also shared numerous from OAN, a network favored by Trump, that hospitals were inflating covid-19 numbers and that the recent announcement of a promising covid-19 vaccine was politically motivated. Facebook's fact-checkers labeled the video about hospitals as false. The judge in charge of the case said he wants to set dates before the holidays so both parties can begin legal discovery, Brent Kendall at The Wall Street Journal reports. The government currently has a list of more than 100 potential witnesses, a list that could grow if states bringing their own antitrust investigation against Google chose to merge cases. More industry news: Apple cuts some App Store fees, but critics call it a ploy to avoid regulation (Reed Albergotti) The alerts are available in 15 U.S. states, territories and D.C. Want to learn more about how they work and how to turn them on? Geoffrey A. Fowler wrote this handy guide. That Pig Couch on Craigslist? Not for Sale. (Also, Not a Couch.) (The New York Times) Rockefeller Center’s scraggly Christmas tree is deemed ‘a metaphor for 2020’ (Travis M. Andrews) The Last Children of Down Syndrome (The Atlantic) The competition keeps getting younger and younger these days.


Smithsonian, National Gallery to close as coronavirus cases spike

The Smithsonian will close the National Zoo and the seven museums it had reopened in stages since July and the National Gallery of Art will shutter its galleries in response to the Washington region’s recent spike in coronavirus cases. The Smithsonian’s second pandemic-related closure will begin Monday and will last at least through January, officials said. The National Gallery of Art will close Friday at 4 p.m. Similar shutdowns were announced earlier this week in Philadelphia and Chicago, representing the start of a second wave of shutdowns eight months after covid-19 first prompted widespread closures. National Gallery of Art Director Kaywin Feldman and Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III decided to take action after monitoring the recent rise in coronavirus cases being reported. “We both expressed growing concern about the increased number of cases in the region and across the country and came to the conclusion that caution needed to prevail to protect our visitors and staff,” Feldman said. The National Gallery of Art opened its sculpture garden in mid-June, its ground-floor galleries (to limited capacity) in July and some of its main galleries in the West Building just a few weeks ago, on Oct. 26. All will probably remain closed through January, although the museum will continually evaluate the situation. “It can’t help but feel like a step backward,” Feldman said about the decision. “But what’s different this time is we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The prospect of a vaccine lifts our spirits. We have big plans for next year and lots to look forward to. We need to keep people safe in this period.” The Smithsonian began a multistage reopening July 24, when the National Zoo and the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va., were the first to welcome back visitors after being closed for four months. The Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Renwick Gallery reopened Sept. 18, with the National Museum of American History and the National Museum of the American Indian opening their doors a week later. The Hirshhorn Museum’s sculpture garden and the Smithsonian gardens surrounding its administration building reopened in August and will remain open now. The decision to close the museums and zoo was made out of caution, Bunch emphasized, adding that cases are projected to rise


while we are closing the buildings, the Smithsonian is still open online,” he added. Other cultural organizations — in the Washington region and nationally — have had to close or cancel events because of the pandemic. The Kennedy Center this week canceled live performances through April, as well as the Broadway shows it had booked for the summer. On Tuesday, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and five other institutions announced they would close Friday for six weeks because of changes in government directives. The Art Institute of Chicago announced Tuesday evening that it would close Thursday. “It is extremely discouraging to close our doors at a moment when, during a normal year, we would be preparing to welcome even more visitors for the holiday season,” the leaders of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, the Barnes Foundation, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site wrote in a joint statement. “We understand that it is vitally important to ensure the safety and well-being of our staff, visitors, members, and volunteers and we support the efforts of our government and medical professionals in reducing the spread of the virus.” Other major art museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Art in Boston and the Museum of Fine Art in Houston, are tracking their local coronavirus numbers and coordinating with their colleagues. “The governor and mayor have not requested closure of museums or any nonessential businesses or nonprofits,” said Kenneth Weine, a Met spokesman. “We will continue to be in touch with city and state officials and public health leaders and follow their lead; however, we believe that we can continue to operate safely.” The new closures will harm an already fragile field. A survey from the American Alliance of Museums released this week found almost one-third of museums remain closed after eight months and more than half of museums have had to furlough or layoff staffers. About 30 percent of museum employees are out of work, according to the survey of 850 museum directors conducted last month. The survey also found that the museums that have reopened were attracting 35 percent of normal attendance, a level that is not sustainable long-term, according to the report. Museums anticipate losing 35 percent of their income this year and about 28 percent next year.


Smithsonian museums, zoo to close as coronavirus caseload in D.C. region hits record for 16th day

The greater Washington region reported more than 5,000 new coronavirus infections Thursday — a record for a single day — with weeks of sustained increases prompting the Smithsonian Institution to close facilities that had reopened to the public. Maryland, Virginia and D.C. reported 5,077 new cases Thursday amid a national surge that has seen several states set records in recent days. It lifted the Washington region’s seven-day average number of daily new cases to 4,109 — about twice the number being reported at the end of October. It’s the 16th straight day that the region’s average daily number of cases has hit a record. The Smithsonian Institution cited the caseload rise Thursday while announcing it will temporarily close eight facilities in the Washington region that had reopened. It did not announce a reopening date, but officials said the closure will last at least through January. Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III said the decision to close the museums and National Zoo was a precaution, adding that caseloads are projected to rise after Thanksgiving, typically a busy time for the museums. The Smithsonian began reopening July 24, when the National Zoo and the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va., welcomed back visitors after four months. The closure is the latest in new restrictions added across the Washington region as caseloads have jumped. D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said Wednesday that she would impose new restrictions “soon” to combat the rise in cases. Virginia and Maryland — as well as several of Maryland’s most populous jurisdictions — also have reimposed pandemic-related restrictions in recent days. Maryland reported a record 2,910 new cases Thursday, shattering the previous high set five days before. It lifted the seven-day average number of daily new cases in the state to 2,119 — the 16th consecutive daily record — which is triple the average of the final days of October. Maryland also reported 21 additional deaths. Virginia reported 1,954 new cases Thursday, sending its seven-day average to a record 1,823 daily infections. The state also recorded 36 new fatalities. D.C.’s 213 new infections Thursday lifted its seven-day average to 167 daily cases, approaching the record of 194, set May 6. The city also reported two new fatalities. D.C. police this week said they have asked all members of the department who worked during demonstrations in the city Saturday to get tested


Tyson Foods managers had a ‘winner-take-all’ bet on how many workers would get covid-19, lawsuit alleges

As the novel coronavirus ripped through a pork processing plant in Waterloo, Iowa, in April, Tyson Foods supervisors not only kept the facility open — they also placed bets on how many workers would catch the virus, a recent wrongful death lawsuit claims. More than 1,000 employees eventually tested positive amid the outbreak, which eventually shut down the meat-processing plant and spurred harsh condemnations from local officials who said the company had failed to provide the necessary protections for its workforce. Isidro Fernandez, who worked in the Waterloo facility, was one of the workers who fell ill in April. He died on April 26 from complications of covid-19, the lawsuit says. At least five other employees at the plant died, the Associated Press reported. Fernandez’s son, Oscar Fernandez, sued Tyson Foods earlier this year over the conditions in the plant and allegations that the company misinformed workers about the extent and severity of the outbreak. “Despite an uncontrolled COVID-19 outbreak, Tyson required its employees to work long hours in cramped conditions,” the lawsuit alleges. “Moreover, despite the danger of COVID-19, Tyson failed to provide appropriate personal protective equipment and failed to implement sufficient social distancing or safety measures to protect workers from the outbreak.” The suit was first filed in Iowa state court, and Tyson Foods later asked for it to move to federal court, the Iowa Capital Dispatch reported. An amended complaint with new allegations was filed on Nov. 11. In addition to failing to properly prevent the spread of the virus, Tyson Foods managers turned the risk into a game, the amended complaint alleges. One of the plant managers allegedly “organized a cash buy-in, winner-take-all betting pool for supervisors and managers to wager how many employees would test positive for COVID-19,” according to the lawsuit. Early in the pandemic, U.S. meat-processing plants struggled to contain outbreaks inside their facilities, where employees normally work in proximity. Complaints surfaced in the spring that the many of the nation’s largest meat-processing companies had failed to provide masks to workers who could not maintain at least six feet of distance from co-workers during long shifts. Tyson Foods was forced to shut down several facilities, including the Waterloo plant, for weeks. A Tyson spokesman declined to comment on the allegations made in Fernandez’s suit. But a spokesman pointed to new precautions that were put into place after the spate of covid-19 cases in


Even without a transformative agenda, President-elect Biden can tackle covid-19

As the global covid-19 pandemic enters another phase, we are once again reminded of how unprepared and wholly inadequate our political institutions are for dealing with large-scale public health emergencies. The United States leads the world in most confirmed covid-19 cases and has the highest proportional mortality rate. While the Trump administration has blundered in approaches to stave off greater calamity, the outcome of the 2020 presidential election has raised hopes that the United States might turn a corner in its response to the pandemic. Yet, the election of Joe Biden, a long-established political figure, is hardly a fundamental political recalibration. Progressives on issues from immigration to climate change to criminal justice reform are wary of Biden’s bipartisan approach and centrist orientation. Such concerns are hardly unfounded, given Biden’s track record of concessions to the credit card industry, his role in the 1994 crime bill, the fact that just last year he promised corporate billionaire donors that under his administration, “nothing would fundamentally change,” and the fact that his current transition team includes high-ranking members of the banking and defense industries. But on covid-19, there may be reason for hope that even the most corporate-friendly politician can lead a somewhat effective response to public health emergencies. An apt historical comparison is center-right conservative Sen. John C. Spooner (R-Wis.), who, albeit in a different context, led congressional efforts to modernize federal public health infrastructures around the turn of the 20th century. Then as now, corporate interests understood that only a coordinated federal response could tackle the dangers of large-scale public health crises. Thus, Biden would not be the first moderate political figure to be concerned about too much structural change while at the same time embracing moderate reforms to meet a public health emergency. At the turn of the 20th century, Spooner enjoyed the reputation of being a noted friend of corporate interests in Washington. After having spent much of his early career as a railroad lawyer, Spooner, as one of the most influential power brokers on Capitol Hill, often facilitated corporate-friendly legislative compromises, even on ostensibly progressive landmark achievements such the Hepburn Act on railroad regulation or the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. But while looking out for big business first and foremost, Spooner also understood when more nuanced reform was critically needed, especially during a public health crisis. Already during the late 1890s, as yellow fever outbreaks


Los fusiles de francotirador que fluyen hacia los cárteles mexicanos revelan una década de fracaso estadounidense

lo que sucede cuando los cárteles están mejor armados que la Policía”, dijo un funcionario de seguridad mexicano, quien habló bajo la condición de anonimato porque la investigación seguía en curso. El mes siguiente 23 personas, incluidas cuatro policías, fueron asesinadas cuando hombres armados abrieron fuego en Villa Unión, a 70 minutos de Eagle Pass, Texas. Los investigadores recuperaron seis fusiles calibre .50. La ATF rastreó uno de ellos a una tienda de armas en los suburbios de Houston. Cinco personas han sido acusadas de una supuesta operación para traficar armas desde Texas. Los funcionarios estadounidenses dicen que han respondido a las solicitudes de México para mejorar la coordinación. Las autoridades fronterizas incautaron más de 350 fusiles y pistolas con destino a México en puntos de control durante el año fiscal 2020, la mayor cantidad en al menos una década. Eso representa apenas un poco más de 0.1% de las armas estimadas que se trafican cada año, cerca de unas 250,000. La ATF afirma que ha incrementado su presencia en México en 20% durante el último año, con el objetivo central de rastrear armas recuperadas. Aun así, los funcionarios dicen que tienen una capacidad limitada para efectuar arrestos a menos de que exista evidencia de una operación de tráfico. “Hay una variedad de factores que los agentes y fiscales pueden considerar, como armas de fuego encubiertas en un espacio oculto de un vehículo, pero no hay nada inherentemente ilegal en conducir cerca de la frontera con armas de fuego en tu auto”, afirmó Thomas Chittum, director adjunto de operaciones de la ATF. Los mexicanos ven una desconexión más profunda entre el enfoque de Estados Unidos en la guerra contra las drogas y la falta de acción para ayudar a detener el flujo de armas poderosas. “Imaginemos que los criminales estuvieran disparándole regularmente a la Policía estadounidense con armas calibre .50”, dijo Grillo. “Eso seguro causaría un escándalo y la población vería cómo las personas son por lo general capaces de comprar estas armas con la misma facilidad con la que compran una pistola”. Traducción de Gregory Escobar. Las datos de los homicidios provienen del Secretariado Ejecutivo del Sistema Nacional de Seguridad Publica (SESNSP) de México. Edición de texto: Frances Moody y Martha Murdock. Gráficos: Adrian Blanco. Edición de gráficos: Armand Emamdjomeh y Tim Meko. Edición de fotografía: Chloe Coleman. Edición de video: Alexa Juliana Ard. Diseño y desarrollo: Joanne Lee.


These 3 tools can help you navigate quarantine and testing policies by state

Since the coronavirus pandemic began in March, many states have implemented rolling travel restrictions that change often. The coronavirus case rates in both a traveler’s origin and destination can determine if a trip across state lines — even a short one — could result in necessary tests or quarantine. Now with a surge of U.S. infections, even more states are updating their policies and tightening their restrictions ahead of the holiday travel season. If you’re planning to drive or fly out of state soon, leave tracking the dizzying restrictions to the professionals. Several months into the pandemic, there are user-friendly resources that track the most up-to-date quarantine and testing rules in the United States so you don’t have to. Here are a few options to bookmark. Travel organization AAA doesn’t require you to have a membership to use its online covid-19 travel map, which details the latest state and local travel restrictions and provides links to local resources about protocols. Citywide, countywide and statewide rules are mapped out, with statewide restrictions color-coded to denote which states have quarantine or testing requirements, mask mandates, or stay-at-home orders in place. The interactive also allows you to view total coronavirus cases by state or county, and also denotes existing border closures and roadway checkpoints. A mobile-friendly road-trip planner from AAA, TripTik.AAA.com, can also help plan your road trip if you want to determine which rest stops, gas stations, restaurants and hotels remain open along your route. In September, United Airlines launched its own color-coded map of U.S. travel restrictions aimed at air travelers. The color-coded map shares coronavirus restrictions (or lack thereof) for every state — breaking down interstate restrictions, health forms required for entry at the airport, and local conditions, like whether restaurants, nonessential shops and museums are open. Clicking into each state will show more in-depth details, including mask requirements and links to local health departments. For international travel, United also has a global version of the map with country-specific information. For an in-depth look at the nitty-gritty of every state’s coronavirus restrictions, government relations company Multistate created a dashboard of state and local policies organized by jurisdiction. By scrolling down the alphabetical list to a state or local jurisdiction in question you can see the exact details of its existing travel rules, gathering restrictions and current phase of reopening. Links to local health orders, mask mandates and school closures are


More lessons from the pandemic

The Nov. 15 editorial “To catch a killer” was spot on as far as the world’s need to learn from the current pandemic to prevent the next one. It identified several concrete steps but omitted one. A travesty occurred in April when President Trump, based on a comment from a far-right media outlet, knee-jerked and ordered that the National Institutes of Health revoke its funding for a major bat disease study in China that has been looking for the next likely source of an outbreak. The NIH withdrew a highly rated five-year, $3 million grant for a bat disease study from the expert U.S. zoonotic disease team, the EcoHealth Alliance, because a minor part of their grant included collaborating with a Chinese research institute.  Mr. Trump’s desire to punish China led to this ill-informed example of cutting off our nose to spite our face. We will have less predictive knowledge about the next pandemic, and even our knowledge of the present coronavirus outbreak has suffered because of this grant being tampered with. The Biden administration should add fully restoring a robust cooperative zoonotic disease research program with China to its agenda. Both countries will benefit.  Peter T. Jenkins The writer is senior counsel of Many thanks to Theresa Thanks also to Ms. Vargas for calling out President Trump and his role in this tragedy. His total lack of leadership and shunning of responsibility continue to hamper the fight against this deadly virus, as the casualties rise to unprecedented levels. Although Koporulin did not die from the novel coronavirus, the pandemic was the cause of his dying alone. So many families have been negatively impacted in so many ways by Mr. Trump’s ineffectiveness and selfishness. Karen Gibbs Read more letters to the editor.


The pandemic is triggering another disaster: Untreated diseases

ONE DISASTER ought to be quite enough, but the pandemic is triggering another. Collateral damage to global public health is now spreading. The chief problem is that other diseases are going untreated. Especially worrisome is the disruption to measles and polio vaccination campaigns. Historically, measles and polio vaccination has been highly successful. Measles inoculation is estimated to have prevented 23.2 million deaths from 2000 to 2018. Eighty-three countries have been certified free of measles. But the disease began a rebound after 2016. According to the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of reported measles cases surged in 2019 to the highest in 23 years. Global measles deaths have climbed nearly 50 percent since 2016, claiming an estimated 207,500 lives in 2019 alone. The chief reason for the rebound was a failure to vaccinate children on time. Now, the pandemic has added to these woes. Lockdowns and transportation disruptions have contributed to postponed inoculations, and fears of contracting the virus have kept people from getting shots. “This has resulted in plummeting uptake of vaccination in many countries, falling to as low as 50% in some countries during the crisis,” the WHO and UNICEF report said. Also, measles and polio vaccination campaigns were initially paused during the pandemic to prevent infection of health workers and communities. “The result of the pause is that more than 94 million children have missed out on measles vaccination alone,” the agencies said. More than 60 planned polio vaccination campaigns in 28 countries were paused, out of concern for safety of the workers and the need to use existing infrastructure to respond to the pandemic. Now there are growing polio outbreaks; wild poliovirus transmission is increasing in the two remaining countries where it is endemic, Afghanistan and Pakistan. “Left unchecked,” the two agencies declared, “this situation poses an increasingly high risk of explosive outbreaks and potentially further international spread of both polio and measles.” The WHO and UNICEF are calling on countries to resume immunization — with precautions — and to respond to urgent outbreaks, while appealing to donors for an additional $255 million for measles and $400 million for polio vaccination campaign support in middle-income countries that are not eligible for aid from GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, which helps low-income countries finance and develop vaccines. The pandemic has also taken a toll on programs for HIV, tuberculosis and


Shoppers are panic-buying toilet paper. This time, there should be enough to go around.

Consumers are panic-buying key items again as the coronavirus surges across the country — paper towels, disinfecting wipes, baking mixes and wine — but this time around, grocery chains and food manufacturers say they will be able to meet America’s urge to hoard and keep supply chains moving, even during the holiday season. While Kroger, Giant, Target and other grocery chains have reinstated limits on high-demand items such as paper goods and disinfecting wipes, causing anxiety among shoppers, retailers and supply chain experts say they do not expect a return to the panicked hoarding and empty shelves of the spring. “I’m not going to be a Pollyanna and say things are perfect,” says Geoff Freeman, the chief executive of the trade group Consumer Brands Association. “But we are fundamentally in a different place than we were in March and April. Even retailers rationing is a demonstration of lessons learned. The psychology of empty shelves causes a vicious cycle.” Grocery chains say they were too slow to place limits on high-demand products early on and are trying to prevent hoarding so there isn’t another round of shortages. Retailers and manufacturers say they’re less panicked about widespread shortages now that they’ve spent months simplifying their supply chains, adding shelves and workers to fulfillment centers, and taking other measures to counter panic-buying. However, they don’t rule out the prospect of price spikes or local or temporary shortages due to transport bottlenecks. “We saw a major demand spike in March and April, and we’re certainly seeing another wave now as case numbers crest again across the country,” says Nick Green, chief executive of Thrive Market, an online grocer that specializes in organic food and products. “This time around, it’s a little bit of everything: cleaning products, toilet paper, cold and flu medicine, shelf-stable food. There’s less fear than there was at the beginning of the pandemic — people aren’t as worried that stores are going to run out of toilet paper or that grocery stores will be completely empty, but they’re definitely shifting their consumption habits again.” Green says Thrive Market has doubled the number of drivers in its two fulfillment centers in Nevada and Indiana and has added vertical shelving to store more inventory and to increase its ability to anticipate and handle surges in demand. The company is also buying more products directly from brands, instead of relying on third-party distributors, he


may carry a four-day supply of milk and suddenly you had people loading up on a two-week supply — but we’ve plateaued,” says Paul Ziemnisky, the executive vice president of global innovation for the trade organization Dairy Management. He says to expect plenty of milk, cheese and sour cream (although he says butter is always a little tight around the holidays). And from row crops to specialty fruits and vegetables, the supply chain is solid, according to USDA cold storage data released Oct. 22. “Much has changed since March in terms of preparation and adaptation throughout the food supply chain,” says American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall. “While the system is better prepared for a spike in purchasing, we’re hoping the public now realizes our food supply is safe and strong, so we don’t see widespread panic purchasing." Despite such confidence, retailers say they’re beginning to see spurts of increased demand, particularly in regions where shutdowns are imminent. Online toilet paper company Who Gives A Crap says sales in Ohio, which began a new round of curfews and business restrictions, have doubled in recent days. Company executives say they’ve tripled the amount of inventory in their warehouses and increased staff by 50 percent. Boxed.com, a website that sells household products in bulk, says sales of essentials have doubled since last week, as shoppers stock up on cleaning and disinfecting products (up 134 percent from a week ago), baking mixes (132 percent), wine (126 percent) and toilet paper (123 percent). “People are hunkering down again,” said Chieh Huang, the company’s co-founder and chief executive. “It’s not the ‘Oh, my gosh, the world is ending’ panic we saw in early April, but we’re definitely moving in that direction.” Darleen Gillyard, who lives in Passaic, N.J., is preparing to stock up on cat litter and refrigerated food for her two cats, TeeCee and Choo Choo. Back in March, when the first round of shutdowns took hold, she struggled to find basics such as paper towels, tissues and masks. Since then, she has begun stashing packages of toilet paper in her attic and keeps her freezer stocked with extra meals. “Right now, everything is okay — most of the stores are still stocked, but I’m scared that we’ll have to scramble for basic items again,” the 63-year-old said. “The last time, I went crazy looking for things because the shelves were completely empty."


As the coronavirus tears through rural Maryland, an ultramarathon plans to race on

the start of the race and whenever they’re grouped with other runners on the course. The event did not initially require testing or quarantining, and it still permits spectators at the start and finish lines. Even if these protocols are adhered to, Fabre said, they may not work. She said masks that get wet, either from water or sweat, are less effective than dry face coverings. And she said air particles emitted during strenuous activity can travel farther. “Even if you try to remind people what not to do, maintaining those six feet of distance or wearing your mask, it is hard for people to be entirely compliant, especially when they’re doing exercise,” she said. Even if runners are experiencing mild symptoms, Shoham said, ultramarathoners tend to run through pain or illness and “could be in denial about what’s going on.” After running for upward of eight or nine hours, their judgment could be compromised, and many could become lax in their precautions on the course. And, he pointed out, trail races tend to be social events, with runners often grouped together. Even on the course, where the trail narrows, the line of racers backs up behind a slower runner and bunches together at choke-points. The event’s website as of Friday afternoon said only 12 of the 1,200 spots in the race field remained available. It made no mention of possible refunds and said registration fees would be deferred to a future race in the event of cancellation. Kyle Herrig signed up for the event in the summer when coronavirus numbers in the region were much lower. With a couple of marathons and a handful of half-marathons under his belt, he was eager to tackle his first ultramarathon. The JFK 50 Mile race was one of the few options available. “I ultimately made the call to withdraw from the race,” he said. “It seemed selfish to me to engage in nonessential travel to the race and potentially put myself and others at risk of spreading covid.” There will be no trophy or results list to record his effort, but Herrig plans to instead run 50 miles this weekend by himself near his New York home. “And that’s part of what I don’t understand,” he said. “People would probably be bummed if they canceled, but you can still do the underlying activity on your own.” Erin Cox contributed to this report.


Ethiopia’s military chief calls WHO head Tedros a criminal supporting a rebel region

the public faces of the international effort to fight the coronavirus pandemic that has ravaged the world, he is also a high-ranking member of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the political party that rules Tigray and is now in open conflict with Ethiopia’s central government. “This man is a member of that group, and he has been doing everything to support them,” Berhanu said. Tedros was Ethiopia’s health minister from 2005 to 2012 and then its foreign minister until 2016, when the TPLF dominated the coalition that ruled the country. It was with great fanfare in Ethiopia and across Africa that he was selected to be the first head of the WHO from the continent. His colleague at the WHO, Africa Regional Director Matshidiso Moeti, defended him. “I know Tedros. I know him as somebody who is passionately promoting global health, promoting the good health of people and promoting peace, because it’s only in the context of peace that we can deliver good health for people,” she said at her agency’s regular Thursday briefing. Tedros’s sudden fall from grace in his home country relates to the severe crisis Ethiopia is experiencing after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered the army into the rugged, northern Tigray region to arrest TPLF leaders and remove them from power. The operation followed weeks of deteriorating relations between Abiy and the Tigrayan leadership that culminated in a preemptive strike by Tigrayan forces against an Ethiopian military base. Hundreds of people have died, and at least 30,000 have fled Tigray into neighboring Sudan, with reports of heavy fighting and ethnically motivated massacres of civilians. Information from the region has been scarce, however, because Internet and phone lines have been cut. Years of heavy-handed, TPLF-dominated rule of the country until Abiy came to power in 2018 have left a legacy of resentment toward the Tigrayans, one of the country’s many ethnic groups. Since the operation began Nov. 4, hundreds of Tigrayans in the capital and elsewhere have been arrested or told not to come to work. Rising international concern over the fighting has prompted offers of mediation from neighboring African countries as well as the African Union. On Thursday, President-elect Joe Biden’s foreign policy adviser Antony Blinken said he was “deeply concerned about the humanitarian crisis” and the reports of ethnic violence, and he called on both sides to end the conflict. This report has been updated.


CDC recommends against Thanksgiving travel amid surge of coronavirus cases

that “postponing travel and staying home is the best way to protect yourself and others this year” and offers questions Americans should ask themselves before making a trip. Among those questions: whether anyone included in Thanksgiving plans is at increased risk of becoming very sick from covid-19, the disease caused by the virus; and whether cases are high or increasing or hospitals are overwhelmed in a traveler’s community or destination. Those wanting to travel should also consider whether they or those they plan to visit recently had contact with others and whether they would need to take a bus, train or airplane, where distancing could be more difficult, the CDC said. “If the answer to any of these questions is ‘yes,’ you should consider making other plans, such as hosting a virtual gathering or delaying your travel,” the new guidance says. “It’s important to talk with the people you live with and your family and friends about the risks of traveling.” It is not only travel that the CDC is advising against. Officials also recommended avoiding gatherings involving members of different households, clarifying that a household member is a person who has been living in the home for at least 14 days. Students returning from college should stay isolated before leaving campus and limit indoor interactions with relatives once home. “It’s bringing together the members of the separate households where the risk is,” said Erin Sauber-Schatz, head of the CDC’s Community Intervention and Critical Population Task Force. The Thanksgiving holiday comes as coronavirus cases have skyrocketed across the United States, with the seven-day average of new cases hovering at more than 160,000 on Thursday, according to Washington Post tracking. The nation’s death toll since the start of the pandemic reached 250,000 on Thursday, and on Wednesday alone, nearly 1,900 deaths were reported, marking the deadliest day since May. The worsening national picture has heightened concerns about Thanksgiving, with public health experts fearful that travel and traditional gatherings could contribute to the surging infections. “I’m just as tired of this pandemic as everyone else is,” Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Security, said in an interview. She urged that precautions be taken despite the fatigue and the desire to see family members. “This year, we’re doing Thanksgiving over Zoom, even though my parents live 45 minutes away.” Virtual gatherings, or celebrations with only the


Maryland, with 15 more players and its coach positive for coronavirus, cancels Michigan State game

that has canceled games because of the virus. When the Badgers had an outbreak in their athletic department, they missed games against Nebraska and Purdue before returning to play this past weekend. The Terps paused team activities Nov. 11 and have not practiced since. That evening, the team moved into a nearby hotel to create a pseudo bubble while players continued to be tested daily. The players left the hotel as planned Sunday, but the team has not been able to return to practice. Rooks said the number of new cases within the program decreased over the weekend before an uptick early this week. The cases were traced back to three sources, Rooks said, declining to elaborate further. Locksley, who is isolating at home, first reported symptoms Monday evening. He cannot return to team activities for 10 days, but that does give him time to resume on-the-field coaching duties before the Indiana game if Maryland plays. The Big Ten requires players who contract the virus to sit out for 21 days so they can go through cardiac screening before returning to the field. Locksley spoke with Michigan State Coach Mel Tucker on Monday and said the Terps were preparing to play. But the team never received the go-ahead from the medical staff to resume practice. The Terps will have a similar wait in the upcoming days, with their game at Indiana scheduled for Nov. 28 and no clear timetable for returning to practice. The Terps dealt with outbreaks within the athletic department once teams began returning to campus this summer. The football program paused workouts in early July after nine athletes and staff members tested positive. The athletic department had a spike in cases in early September when 46 athletes, spanning 10 teams, tested positive for the coronavirus. Since the summer, 135 of roughly 550 Maryland athletes have tested positive, according to data released by the school. “Any time you have student-athletes who are sick or in this case that have contracted the virus, you do have concerns,” Evans said. “When you take a look at covid, we knew that going into this, this was uncertain. … Our goal was to make sure that if we decided to get back to participating and competing, which we did as a conference and an institution, that we put in the appropriate medical guidelines and protocols. And I believe we have done that.”


Maryland is far behind on drug policy reform

drug addiction as mainly a medical and psychological issue rather than a criminal issue. D.C. voters approved a referendum that would make the enforcement of laws against entheogens — naturally occurring hallucinogenic substances derived from plants, fungi and amphibians and used for religious or spiritual purposes, among the lowest law enforcement priorities. Although the law refers broadly to entheogens, the primary focus appears to have been so called magic mushrooms, whose primary active constituent is psilocybin. In neighboring Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam (D) recently said the commonwealth would “move forward with legalizing marijuana.” The legalization of medical marijuana and decriminalization of possession of small amounts of the drug have eased the burden on Maryland’s criminal justice system, but the failure to move to full legalization means that the state is losing access to millions, potentially billions, of dollars in tax revenue. Considering the huge cost of pandemic-related closures and programs, the state needs this revenue now more than ever. Though many other businesses have suffered badly during the pandemic, business at medical marijuana dispensaries has been booming. Because of the conflict between federal and state law (marijuana is still a Schedule I drug — the most restrictive category and the same as that for heroin and cocaine), legal marijuana dispensaries have to deal with cash because of their inability to work within the legal banking system. Despite this obstacle, marijuana businesses are providing a major tax benefit to states and localities. Since recreational marijuana was legalized in Colorado in 2014, tax revenue from marijuana sales have reached more than $1 billion, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue. In Washington state, 2019 marijuana tax revenue totaled $395.5 million, $172 million more than that from liquor. Moving beyond the de-escalation of the war against weed, Oregon, which legalized marijuana in 2014, approved the decriminalization of personal use quantities of drugs such as cocaine and heroin and legalized therapeutic use of psilocybin. It is particularly ironic that Maryland, home to the world’s leading center on psychedelic research — the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic & Consciousness Research, launched in 2019 — still treats psilocybin as a Schedule I drug without therapeutic use. The center’s director, psychologist Roland R. Griffiths, began conducting research on the therapeutic potential of psilocybin 20 years ago. He has conducted a series of carefully controlled studies with promising results in areas ranging from helping terminally ill cancer patients


Saudi critics use Group of 20 summit to highlight human rights concerns

BEIRUT — As Saudi Arabia prepares to virtually host the annual Group of 20 summit meeting in Riyadh on Saturday, human rights groups and the families of jailed Saudi dissidents are mounting an unusually vigorous campaign aimed at highlighting the kingdom's abuses and the plight of political detainees. Saudi Arabia announced in September that the annual, typically lavish gathering of the world’s largest economies would be held online because of the coronavirus pandemic — a setback for the modernizing country, which had envisioned the event as a chance to showcase its successes. But along with the challenge of hosting a toned-down virtual G-20 summit, Riyadh is facing a wave of calls urging world leaders to boycott or downgrade their attendance if demands for the release of Saudi female activists and other conditions are not met. The calls — from Saudi and international human rights groups, and also U.S. and European lawmakers — have confronted the kingdom with a barrage of criticism unlike any since the killing of journalist and Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents two years ago, while forcing normally circumspect Saudi leaders to publicly defend their policies. “Saudi Arabia seeks to have a leading role, but the leaders from other countries have a moral obligation to ask Saudi Arabia to improve its record on human rights,” said Alia al-Hathloul, the sister of jailed women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul, whose plight has become a rallying cry for the kingdom’s critics and who recently renewed a hunger strike to protest her detention. United Nations experts have called for her release, warning that her health is deteriorating. Saudi Arabia is the first Arab-majority nation to assume the year-long presidency of the G-20, which is made up of 19 countries and the European Union. The designation was a diplomatic coup for Saudi’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has quickly risen to global prominence with an agenda to overhaul the oil-rich kingdom’s economy and conservative society. But while Saudi organizers set the two-day summit’s official theme as “Realizing Opportunities of the 21st Century for All,” human rights groups sought to amplify what they said is Mohammed’s darker legacy: the silencing, harassment, arbitrary jailing, disappearance and torture of his opponents. Although pressure in some circles has been building, no G-20 members have announced plans to withdraw from the summit. Even so, the criticism has prompted an unusual public


Maryland football is ‘committed to getting back,’ but timeline for return is unclear

With its season interrupted by a coronavirus outbreak and its staff and roster riddled with positive tests, Maryland’s football team will begin the familiar process of wondering if and when it will be able to resume practices ahead of a scheduled Nov. 28 meeting with Indiana. The Terrapins attempted to return to practice all week, and even limited time on the field could have allowed the Terrapins to play Michigan State as scheduled Saturday. But as the team continued to test daily for the coronavirus, cases among players and coaches grew, toppling the team’s chances to practice and play. In the past two weeks, 23 Maryland players and seven staff members, including Coach Michael Locksley, contracted the virus. The Terps had to cancel games against No. 3 Ohio State and then Michigan State. Maryland’s game at No. 9 Indiana is still a week away, but its attempted preparation for the Michigan State game should provide a guide. As Maryland attempted to return to practice this week, “we had all types of contingency plans,” Locksley said. As long as the team could practice twice — even if those sessions were on the same day, with one in the morning and another in the afternoon — Locksley was optimistic the Terps could play. The program never received the necessary clearance to practice, but that flexible timeline offers encouragement for Maryland’s chances to resume team activities in time for the Indiana game. However, positive tests next week again could derail the program’s return. Speaking Thursday during a virtual news conference, Locksley and head team physician Yvette Rooks would not forecast too far ahead regarding the outlook for the Indiana game. Rooks said she’ll continue to assess the team’s testing data and “it’s a day-by-day process.” The team moved into a hotel Nov. 11 and stayed through Sunday. The number of new cases decreased over the weekend, Rooks said, but the number grew again early this week, which prevented the Terps from returning to practice. A similar uptick in the coming days could hinder Maryland’s ability to start on-field preparation for the Hoosiers. “We're committed to getting back,” Athletic Director Damon Evans said. “We're committed to doing things to get everything under control so our student-athletes in the sport of football can get back to doing what they love to do, and that's playing this game.” Other college football teams have dealt with similar


More than 50 private and public schools faced outbreaks in recent weeks

4, he said. As schools began to weigh the idea — a recommendation, not an order — state data in Maryland and Virginia gave a snapshot of several weeks of school-associated covid-19 cases that health officials described as outbreaks. Eight people at the Bullis School in suburban Potomac tested positive, according to state data this month. In Virginia, Fairfax County’s W.T. Woodson had an outbreak with five cases and Virginia Academy, a private school in Loudoun County, had one with six, according to data released Friday. Many school leaders who responded to inquiries from The Washington Post said that they had reported the cases to local health officials and that contact tracing and quarantining were done as needed. Several said there was no sign of spread of the virus in classrooms. At St. John’s College High School in Washington, President Jeff Mancabelli said D.C. health officials looked into 12 cases at the school after the Halloween weekend. He said because of the school’s hybrid schedules, just two students were on campus after he believes they contracted the virus. The school moved to all-virtual lessons for a period. “We are confident these infections didn’t occur on campus,” he said. At Bullis, Head of School Christian Sullivan said in a Nov. 9 email to families that testing at school Nov. 5 identified a student as positive. “That student was immediately pulled out of class on Friday, classrooms were sanitized, and we worked with the family to identify contacts at Bullis,” he wrote. Sullivan cited two other cases in that message, then reported five more in later emails to families that were obtained by The Post. In-person learning was reduced, according to the emails, which said there was no evidence of on-campus transmission. “If we see many infections in our Bullis community, we will not be able to offer on-campus education between Thanksgiving and the winter vacation,” Sullivan wrote Nov. 17. The school did not respond to inquiries from The Post. Many of the school outbreaks have come to light through recently created school-related outbreak “dashboards.” Maryland and Virginia have them; the District does not. In Maryland, an outbreak is defined as at least two confirmed covid-19 cases among students, teachers or staff within a 14-day period that are “epidemiologically linked” and not household contacts. Local health officials report data to the state. Experts called them a starting point but said they needed


Head of School Christian Sullivan said in a Nov. 9 email to families that testing at school Nov. 5 identified a student as positive. “That student was immediately pulled out of class on Friday, classrooms were sanitized, and we worked with the family to identify contacts at Bullis,” he wrote. Sullivan cited two other cases in that message, then reported five more in later emails to families that were obtained by The Post. In-person learning was reduced, according to the emails, which said there was no evidence of on-campus transmission. “If we see many infections in our Bullis community, we will not be able to offer on-campus education between Thanksgiving and the winter vacation,” Sullivan wrote Nov. 17. The school did not respond to inquiries from The Post. Many of the school outbreaks have come to light through recently created school-related outbreak “dashboards.” Maryland and Virginia have them; the District does not. In Maryland, an outbreak is defined as at least two confirmed covid-19 cases among students, teachers or staff within a 14-day period that are “epidemiologically linked” and not household contacts. Local health officials report data to the state. Experts called them a starting point but said they needed to expand to be helpful to parents and educators. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University and former health commissioner in Baltimore, said the dashboards leave many questions unanswered, including how many total cases are linked to each school. She also noted that without surveillance testing in schools and robust contact tracing, it is not possible to capture the extent of an outbreak. “We are not picking up on all the asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic cases,” she said. Meagan Fitzpatrick, an infectious-disease modeler at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, said the dashboard data would be more helpful with case dates, totals by school, clarity about the number of classrooms affected and breakdowns by students and staff. She added that while some schools may maintain there is no in-school spread of the virus, “if they are not testing in the aftermath of a case being found, then they don’t know.” The risks have risen with soaring cases. Before the surge, schools had the benefit of lower case rates in the community, which help protect against in-school transmission, Fitzpatrick said. “When cases are high, the first level of protection is gone,” she said. Fitzpatrick


A traveler tested negative for covid-19 before a flight. He had the virus and infected 4 passengers.

Health officials in New Zealand, a country that has a strict 14-day quarantine in place for arriving travelers, released a case study on Friday that details the risks of traveling on long-haul flights during the coronavirus pandemic — even if negative coronavirus tests are required before the flight. The report details a coronavirus outbreak linked through DNA analysis to one passenger on an 18-hour flight from Dubai to New Zealand in September. The traveler, who tested negative for the coronavirus with a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test within 48 hours of the flight, was contagious but pre-symptomatic onboard the plane, and infected at least four other passengers. In total there were seven cases linked to the flight, which had 86 passengers onboard. “By combining information on disease progression, travel dynamics and genomic analysis, we conclude that at least four in-flight transmission events of SARS-CoV-2 likely took place,” the study states. “Four of these six related genome sequences were from Switzerland, the country of origin of the suspected index case.” New Zealand’s quarantine protocols make the study a unique analysis because all passengers were monitored and retested during their required 14-day quarantine lodging, which is managed by New Zealand authorities. Most flights, doctors have pointed out, have no way of monitoring passengers two weeks after their travel. “This case speaks to how hard it is to keep infected people off a flight, even if you do PCR testing in a narrow window of time before the flight,” David Freedman, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham who has reviewed the report, told The Washington Post. “The original case most likely became infectious after he took the preflight test, but in fact was not symptomatic until 71 hours after the flight,” Freedman said. PCR coronavirus tests are estimated to be about 98 percent effective at detecting the coronavirus, which is why they are required by many countries for entry. Of the seven infected individuals, five had tested negative within 48 hours before the flight. The authors of the article say the “transmission events occurred despite reported use of masks and gloves in-flight,” and that stringent masking was required by the airline operating the flight. Freedman points out that the flight length might have impacted masking: “It would have been really hard for people to keep their masks on for the entire 18 hours.” The evidence contradicts an October Department


The sniper rifles flowing to Mexican cartels show a decade of U.S. failure

sportsman. Homicides in Mexico reached historic highs in 2018 and 2019; 2020 is on pace to set a record. Cartels that once focused on securing drug routes to the United States are increasingly fighting for control of territory, waging gun battles that can leave a dozen or more people dead. The availability of high-powered weapons has transformed that fight. In telephone recordings from the October 2019 ambush in Aguililla, Michoacán, officers can be heard shouting “I’m dying” and pleading for backup as gunfire continues. Mexican officials say at least one .50-caliber rifle and several AK-47s and AR-15s from the United States were used. “It’s a telling example of what happens when the cartels are better armed than the police,” said one Mexican security official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing. Twenty-three people, including four police officers, were killed the next month when gunmen descended on Villa Unión, 70 minutes from Eagle Pass, Tex. Investigators recovered six .50-caliber rifles; ATF traced one to a gun shop in suburban Houston. Five people have been charged in an alleged scheme to traffic weapons from Texas. U.S. officials say they have responded to Mexico’s requests to improve coordination on the issue. Border authorities seized more than 350 Mexico-bound rifles and handguns at checkpoints during fiscal 2020, the most in at least a decade. That’s just over 0.1 percent of the estimated guns trafficked each year, roughly 250,000. The ATF says it has increased its presence in Mexico by 20 percent in the past year, with a focus on tracing recovered weapons. Still, officials say they have limited ability to make arrests unless there is evidence of a trafficking operation. “There are a range of factors that agents and prosecutors can look at, such as firearms concealed in a hidden space of a vehicle, but there is nothing inherently illegal about driving near the border with firearms in your car,” said Thomas Chittum, ATF’s assistant director of field operations. Mexicans see a deeper disconnect between the U.S. focus on the drug war and a lack of action to help stem the flow of powerful weapons. “Imagine if criminals were regularly shooting at American police with .50-cals,” Grillo said. “That would surely cause an uproar and people would look at how people are often able to buy these weapons as easily as if they are buying a pistol.” Homicide data comes


Preserving cultural and historic treasures in a changing climate may mean transforming them

look of these buildings upset some former residents and their descendants. Many people we talked to held deep connections to these places that were part of their personal, family and community identities. Surprisingly, some said they would rather lose some of these buildings than alter them. Other stakeholders — including members of partner organizations and park visitors — had different opinions on what should be done. After Hurricane Dorian severely damaged Portsmouth Village in 2019, park managers made the hard decision to dismantle and remove some of the buildings while restoring others. But an important question remains: What should be done at other highly vulnerable locations? These findings inspired me to explore global, people-centered approaches to preservation and the international policies governing them. Climate change threatens many World Heritage sites. Some are archaeological sites, such as Peru’s Chan Chan, the largest adobe city on Earth, and the ancestral Pueblo cliff dwellings in Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park. Entire cities — including Venice — and historic buildings such as Australia’s Sydney Opera House are also in harm’s way. Current policy recommendations focus on restoration or defenses, and oppose physical change. The only process that exists is to add sites undergoing physical change to the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger. But adding a site to the “danger” list is politically undesirable because it can generate bad press, reduce tourism revenue and deter funders from supporting rescue efforts. My research calls for a more proactive approach, including preemptive efforts to prevent damage. I see a need for a new category: “World Heritage Sites in Climatic Transformation.” This approach draws on the ecological concept of resilience, which is essentially the ability to survive by changing and adapting. It would allow managers to repair, adapt or even transform vulnerable places. This new classification would place communities at the center of the planning process and create a searchable database of climate impacts and interventions. Transforming heritage sites may be controversial, but the clock is ticking. Researching, designing and constructing defenses takes time. For example, floodgates installed to protect Venice are being tested a decade later than planned. In my view, saving cultural and historic sites from climate change will require a new approach to heritage preservation that includes transformation. Now is the time to think creatively, with input from people whose heritages are represented in these places, to discover new pathways to protecting them.


‘I just pray God will help me’: Racial, ethnic minorities reel from higher covid-19 death rates

offensive. Fos and other experts argue the clustering of covid-19 cases is more of a social and economic phenomenon. He noted the high proportion of people in such communities who interact daily with the public as essential workers, who often live in more densely packed neighborhoods and multigenerational households, and who might not have regular doctors because they lack health insurance. In addition, minorities face a long history of unequal access to medical care — which may have impacted treatment decisions and outcomes. A study using data from the Society for Critical Care Medicine, posted this month before peer review, found that African American patients were more likely than Whites to receive an older, less-expensive and riskier blood thinner linked to higher mortality from covid-19. Blood thinners have become a critical weapon in the arsenal used by doctors against the disease because many patients with severe disease develop clots. It was not clear whether the administration of that medicine related to insurance coverage, physician preference, or something else. One of the study’s authors, Venky Soundararajan, chief science officer of data firm Nference, wondered whether some doctors chose the older, more established product for minority patients because the newer drugs were overwhelmingly tested on Whites. “If you distill it down to the root causes,” Fos said, “they are ones we have known in our country for years and we’ve just done a very bad job of addressing it. It’s some of the same reasons people are protesting in the streets — police brutality, job discrimination, environmental justice. The coronavirus shows how much racism there is in health as well.” If New York City was the epicenter of the first wave of the pandemic, the stretch of Texas along the Rio Grande Valley near the U.S.-Mexico border is the epicenter of the second. As of this week, four counties in this region had tallied a combined total of 70,000 cases and more than 3,300 deaths. Norma Ramirez, the Democratic chair for Hidalgo County, has said there is not one person in her region “who hasn’t been affected by this horrible virus.” Vanessa Alvarado, outreach coordinator for LUPE, a community group in Texas founded by labor activists César Chávez and Dolores Huerta, said immigration policy and economic challenges have exacerbated the Latino communities’ vulnerability. A Trump administration rule that took effect Feb. 24 makes it more difficult for people to get green cards


Reports of two promising covid-19 vaccines don’t mean we ‘magically,’ quickly return to normal

extent to which people are protected,” he says, “it’s important to continue to use all the tools we have to keep the virus in check, and that means masks, social distancing and ventilation.” These safeguards will ensure against transmission if the vaccines fail to prevent infection, says William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University. He urges people to be patient. “The average person wants answers yesterday,” he says. “But try to keep in mind that we are still moving at rocket speed.” Some experts say they hope for a level of protection by next summer that will allow us to resume certain activities. “I’m not sure about mass gatherings, such as baseball games, but it is plausible,’’ Reingold says. “Time will tell.” Andrew Badley, an immunovirologist who chairs Mayo Clinic’s covid-19 task force, says the return of any normal activities depends on numerous factors, including how many people get vaccinated. “The only possibility that life will return to normal by summer is if the majority of the population receives the vaccines by then and the early efficacy data is borne out in ongoing studies,” he says. He adds, however: “I think it is unlikely we will be able to vaccinate the majority of the population by then.” Schaffner expects a “substantial improvement” by summer, although probably not a complete return to our former lives. But he adds: “Next Thanksgiving could well be back to near-normal.” The two leading vaccine candidates were developed by Moderna Therapeutics, which reported 94.5 percent efficacy, and Pfizer partnering with the German company BioNTech, which demonstrated a 95 percent success rate, including 94 percent among those 65 and older. Both vaccines involve a new and promising technique based on messenger RNA, or messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), that use a synthetic form of RNA to trick human cells into making the virus’s distinctive “spike” protein, prompting the immune system to generate antibodies in response. Preliminary findings about their efficacy were based on the number of people who became ill, not on whether the vaccines prevented infection. “Although [preventing infection] might be the ultimate effect, we do not know that at this point,” says Fauci, the nation’s most recognized expert on the pandemic. “The primary endpoint [in these studies] was the prevention of symptomatic infection. So it is conceivable that the vaccine would protect you against clinical disease, but not necessarily protect you against infection.” Schooley


Canada’s covid-19 crisis needs a targeted response. When will its leaders learn?

Nora Loreto is a Canadian freelance writer. Her new book, “ At the end of October, Statistics Canada released a report that examined the impact covid-19 has had on minority communities. Though the report didn’t receive much attention, the picture it painted was damning: It found that communities with higher shares of people from minority backgrounds have seen more deaths from covid-19. In British Columbia, a province where there were relatively few deaths compared to Ontario and Quebec, the mortality rate, standardized by age, from covid-19 was more than 10 times higher in communities with more ethnic diversity than in communities that were mostly all White. In Toronto, the South Asian community was impacted most, with communities with a South Asian population of 25 percent or higher reaching a mortality rate of 35 deaths per 100,000 people, compared to communities with 1 percent or fewer South Asians, which had a rate of death of 26.2 per 100,000. The data is particularly shocking in Montreal, where communities with a Black population of 25 percent or more had mortality rates of 149.3 per 100,000 people, compared to 88.1 per 100,000 in communities with a population that was less than 1 percent Black residents. This report affirms what has been long known. Back in May, a joint investigation between the National Observer and CTV News tried to understand why the community of Montreal North became ground zero in Montreal’s outbreak. The combination of low incomes, crowded housing and high-rise clusters all helped facilitate the swift spread of covid-19. One month later, CBC journalists correlated income, race and covid-19. While race-based data for those who had covid-19, including those who died, was not collected by public health authorities, CBC’s reporting demonstrated that the mix of race, a concentration of health-care support workers and income was what made Montreal North a covid-19 hotspot. In fact, of the at least 29 health-care workers who have died from covid-19 in Canada, 13 have been Black — 45 percent of known deaths for a group who comprise just 3.5 percent of Canada’s population. Five others were Southeast Asian. The overwhelming majority of the workers who have died have not been white, according to my tracking. And yet, politicians have failed to design a pandemic response that targets the communities most at risk. No provincial leader has developed a covid-19 response strategy that would intervene directly in racialized communities


to help them battle outbreaks. Even worse, the premier of Quebec, François Legault, has denied the existence of systemic racism within the province, saying, “My definition of systemic racism is that there’s a system in Quebec of racism, and I don’t think there’s a system. … Why do we have to fight for months about one word instead of fighting together against racism?” It isn’t just Legault. Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government has not developed any targeted relief measures that would mitigate the virus’s impact within these communities. Though Ford’s government has committed funding to schools in some covid-19 hotspots, there has been no extra money specifically for schools whose student populations are more diverse. There have also been no workplace safety measures passed that help target the relationship between low-income care work and covid-19 spread. Federally, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has spoken about systemic racism. It was even mentioned in the Throne Speech, delivered Sept. 23: “The Government pledged to address systemic racism, and committed to do so in a way informed by the lived experiences of racialized communities and Indigenous Peoples.” But the promises that follow don’t mention covid-19, and there was nothing to improve the various relief programs to help underrepresented communities weather the storm. Refusing to understand the pandemic through the lens of race has allowed the virus to spread. If differences in living conditions, workplaces, communities, schools and health services drive covid-19 spread, then addressing that spread requires politicians to acknowledge its particular impact on racialized communities and act accordingly. As a second wave intensifies across Canada, and many people call for lockdown measures similar to the spring, we have to be clear about how these measures should be imposed. During the first wave, lockdowns immediately stopped covid-19 infections from rising in Toronto among the city’s whitest and wealthiest quartiles. For the rest, their infection rates continued to soar. To slow the spread of the second wave, we need to implement targeted interventions that flow money and services to racialized communities first and to give low-income workers paid time off and access to adequate places to quarantine if necessary. We also need even essential industries to slow down their production, especially if their workers are disproportionately low-income and from minority backgrounds. By slowing the spread of the virus among the most vulnerable, we can help everyone. But this takes political will — and the understanding


Yemeni rebels claim missile attack on Saudi oil facility as G-20 summit ends

CAIRO — Yemeni rebels on Monday said they fired a missile that hit a Saudi oil storage facility in the Red Sea port of Jiddah, claiming that it was in retaliation for the Saudi-led coalition's involvement in Yemen's war. The assault came hours after the kingdom finished hosting its virtual Group of 20 summit of world leaders. There was no immediate response from Saudi officials, even as videos and images posted on social media indicated a fire burning at a Saudi Aramco complex in Jiddah. Brig. Gen. Yahya Sarea, the spokesman for Yemen’s northern Houthi rebels, said in a tweet Monday morning that “with God’s help and support, the missile force was able to target the Aramco distribution station.” He added that the projectile was a new “winged missile” called the “Quds 2” and had recently become operational. In his tweet, Sarea added a satellite image of what appeared to be the oil storage tanks at the Aramco facility in north Jiddah, along with markers to indicate where the cruise missile struck. “Thanks to God, the injury was very accurate, and ambulances and firefighting vehicles rushed to the targeted place.” On Monday night, A Saudi official quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency confirmed the attack, describing the fire at the facility as caused by “a terrorist attack with a projectile.” The official added that there were no casualties and no disruption in the supply of fuel by Saudi Aramco. The attack followed a meeting on Sunday between outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Red Sea city of Neom. The strike also comes as the Trump administration is taking measures to label the Iran-aligned Houthis as a foreign terrorist group in an effort to apply pressure on Iran and its allies An American-backed coalition of regional Sunni powers, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, has been fighting the Shiite Houthis since 2015. The coalition is seeking to restore Yemen’s internationally recognized government and prevent the spread of Iranian influence in the region. More than 10,000 civilians have been killed, mostly by coalition airstrikes, according to the United Nations and rights groups. Meanwhile, what the United Nations considers the world’s severest humanitarian crisis has gripped the Middle East’s poorest nation for years, bringing millions to the edge of famine. For more than a year, the Houthis have staged