Man found killed outside vacant home in Maryland suburb

Detectives are investigating the killing of a man who was found Wednesday afternoon outside of a vacant home in the Capitol Heights area, Prince George’s County police said. Police were called to check on the welfare of a person in the 1300 block of Oates Street about 4:20p.m, officials said. Officers found a man with trauma to his body and authorities pronounced him dead at the scene, police said. Investigators did not describe what kind of trauma the victim sustained. Police were searching for a motive and suspects. Clarence.Williams@washpost.com


Could Britain really hold another Brexit vote?

Could the United Kingdom hold a Brexit do-over? That possibility seemed to worry Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who warned in a speech Wednesday that a second referendum would be a “disastrous mistake” that would bring “another year of wrangling and turmoil and feuding in which the whole country would lose.” Johnson's comments come as calls for a new vote grow louder. Even Nigel Farage, architect of Brexit, has said “maybe, just maybe, I'm reaching the point of thinking we should have a second referendum.” (To be fair, Farage said a second vote in support would silence his critics once and for all.) Most politicians, including Prime Minister Theresa May, oppose it. But if a second vote does happen, here is how it would work: First, a coalition of opposition parties backed by lawmakers of the governing Conservative Party would have to propose a second vote. Then Parliament would have to vote to authorize the measure. It sounds simple. But supporting a second vote is politically risky for Brexit supporters and detractors. Pro-Brexit politicians worry that in a second referendum, the majority of voters would choose to remain with the European Union. Polls suggest that today, a majority of Britons would vote against Brexit. (But the margin is razor thin, and it is impossible to know what might happen if there was a second campaign and vote.) Britain's Conservative Party, which controls Parliament in a coalition with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, also worries that a second vote could create the kind of chaos that would almost inevitably lead to another general election, something May and her government could lose. “Remain” politicians, meanwhile, think it would be nearly impossible to build a big enough coalition in Parliament to authorize the new vote. And if “Leave” did win again, it would be much harder for Britain to negotiate a gentle exit with the E.U., one that lets Britain stay in the single market. That is a big priority for Remain voters at this point. “It would take quite a political storm to create an opportunity for another referendum,” Kevin Featherstone, head of the European Institute at the London School of Economics, told the New York Times. “Both main parties are on record as opposing it.” Also worth noting: It is not even totally clear that Britain could remain in the E.U., even with a second vote. After all, the country invoked Article


Russian opposition leader slams Instagram for caving in to the government

MOSCOW — U.S. tech giants were thrust into the middle of the battle for Russian Internet freedom on Thursday as Instagram apparently bowed to a court order to block access to posts that embarrassed an oligarch and a top government official. Russia’s telecommunications regulator also said it had ordered service providers to block the website of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, whose team dug up Instagram posts that showed metals magnate Oleg Deripaska and Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko socializing on a yacht in Norway. Navalny had posted a YouTube video showing the Instagram posts and presenting evidence that women aboard Deripaska’s yacht worked for an escort service, and it went viral in Russia last week. Deripaska successfully sued for the removal of the posts and Navalny’s video, claiming they violated his right to privacy, and this week the government started implementing the court order. On Thursday, telecom regulator Roskomnadzor said that it had ordered Navalny’s website blocked and that it was satisfied that the Instagram posts that Deripaska sought to remove were no longer available. Google, however, had not yet complied with the demand to take down Navalny’s video on its YouTube platform, the agency said. “Roskomnadzor is hoping for a positive decision by Google,” the agency said in a statement. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Facebook, which owns Instagram, issued a statement saying that governments may ask the company to restrict access to content they say violates their laws. “We review such requests carefully in light of local laws and where appropriate, we make it unavailable in the relevant country or territory,” a Facebook spokeswoman said. Navalny criticized Instagram on his Twitter account, which remained accessible. “Instagram decided to comply with Russian illegal censorship requests and deleted some content about oligarch Deripaska,” Navalny said on Twitter. “Shame on you, Instagram!” The fight touched off by Navalny’s video, which has been viewed more than 5 million times, represents the latest escalation between the Russian government and opposition activists over freedom of speech online. While the state under President Vladimir Putin controls the top television networks and has cracked down on independent news media, many opposition websites and critical social network accounts remain freely accessible. Navalny, who rose to prominence as an anti-corruption activist and now is calling on supporters to boycott the March 18 presidential election, has used the Web to gain a nationwide following


Immigrant rights group in email says it was warned not to mention abortion to teens

it with a copy of the email. In response to questions about the email, Vera said in a statement: “When given this latest instruction, we issued an email to our legal service provider subcontractors to do two things: protect the program that serves 50,000 children a year, and provide alternative pathways to ensure that children receive the information they need for their health and well-being, including pertinent information about their reproductive rights.” Immigrants — including children — are not entitled to government-appointed lawyers in immigration court. Federal money for programs like Vera’s is a main avenue for legal advice for unaccompanied children in custody. The group’s lawyers provide one-on-one legal screenings and presentations to advise minors of their rights. The Vera Institute email directs its lawyers’ attention to how important the abortion issue is to the new head of the ORR. The office is responsible for the care of approximately 7,700 minors in custody, nearly 70 percent of whom are boys, according to HHS. The minors are facing possible deportation to countries such as El Salvador and Honduras that are ravaged by gang violence and have some of the world’s highest homicide rates. Mulcahy wrote, “I recognize that this limitation will be concerning to many of you. At the same time, this is a highly sensitive issue right now, and one of utmost import to ORR’s director.” The ORR chief, E. Scott Lloyd, has refused to “facilitate” abortion procedures for pregnant minors in custody, even at their own expense, triggering a pending lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union and a national debate over the constitutional rights of undocumented teens to access abortion services. Since October, four pregnant teens in custody have asked a judge in Washington to force the administration to stop blocking access to abortion services. Robert Carey, who was ORR director until January 2017, said that under past administrations, Republican and Democratic, the agency did not interfere with the right to obtain abortions. The federal agency did not pay for the procedures, except in the case of rape, incest or if the teen’s life was in jeopardy, he said. But the agency did not attempt to prevent minors from obtaining abortions through other means nor did it restrict lawyers’ discussions with minors in custody. Legal experts said the new limitations put lawyers in a bind if they are prohibited from telling teens in custody, for instance, that


16 things to do in the D.C. area over Presidents’ Day weekend

Friday, Feb. 16 Love Thy Beer: Winter Warmer Showcase at the Silver Spring Civic Center 50 Shades of Rosé at La Maison Francaise First date survival guide at Busboys and Poets 2018 Oscar Nominated Documentary Shorts [A 'Black Panther' pop-up bar is coming to D.C. this weekend] Saturday, Feb. 17 Frederick Douglass Bicentennial Birthday Weekend at the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site [Where to celebrate Frederick Douglass's 200th birthday around D.C.] Braxton Cook at the Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival Transformer's Heartbreaker's Ball at Comet Ping Pong Cher at the MGM National Harbor Sunday, Feb. 18 NSO Family Concert: Let's Remix the Classix! at the Kennedy Center Chinese New Year Parade in Chinatown Snarky Puppy at the Fillmore 17th Annual Winter Dance Party at Bethesda Blues and Jazz The Great American Pig Out at American Ice Company Monday, Feb. 19 George Washington's Birthday Celebration at Mount Vernon Presidential trivia at Port City Brewing Presidents' Day Pizza Party at the Midlands — Fritz Hahn, Adele Chapin, Michael O'Sullivan, Chris Richards and Briana Younger Read more: ‘Black Panther’ is exhilarating, groundbreaking and more than worth the wait Benito’s Place restaurant: A fantastic food tour of Latin America You can take a tour of Tudor Place for a dollar right now


Ethiopia’s prime minister resigns amid political turmoil

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn submitted his resignation Thursday in an apparent bid to ease political turmoil in a country that is one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies. The announcement came after the government released hundreds of political prisoners, including some prominent opposition members, sparking massive celebrations in parts of the country. A staunch U.S. ally in the fight against terrorism and the second-most populous country in Africa, Ethiopia is a regional powerhouse with grand economic ambitions. But for the past few years, it has seethed with social unrest. Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands have been imprisoned, including top opposition figures. Hours before Desalegn’s resignation, the president of another African powerhouse, South Africa, stepped down amid scandal and charges of mismanagement. According to the state-run Ethiopian News Agency, Desalegn resigned both as prime minister and chairman of the ruling party “to be part of the efforts to provide a lasting solution to the current situation.” He added that he would stay on until a successor was chosen. In his speech, Desalegn noted that people were displaced and injured, and property was damaged in the recent unrest. He said he believed that his resignation was necessary to carry out democratic reforms that are underway. Widespread demonstrations this week by the Oromo ethnic group — the country’s largest, representing more than a third of Ethiopia’s 100 million people — broke out over the perceived slow pace of prisoner releases promised in January. Young men blocked roads leading out of the capital with rocks and burning tires, disrupting public transportation. Businesses throughout the vast Oromo region were shuttered as part of a strike. The strike was lifted Wednesday with the prisoner releases. Opposition figures in Ethiopia’s extensive diaspora claimed that the government capitulated in the face of popular pressure. Desalegn was seen as a caretaker and consensus figure without a great deal of power, implementing the orders of more influential figures in the army and the ruling Ethiopia People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front. Rumors had circulated widely that he would resign after the party congress scheduled for next month. Mohammed Ademo, an analyst of Ethiopian affairs running the website Opride.com, which is often critical of the government, said the resignation was apparently moved up because the ruling party wants a more assertive person in charge during a time of crisis. “I think from the party perspective, it is


How a transgender woman breast-fed her baby

to use a breast pump to increase prolactin, a hormone that helps with milk production. A month into her treatment plan, she was producing “droplets” of milk, and three months in, she was producing about 8 ounces of milk per day, according to the study. The study stated that after the baby was born, the patient breast-fed for the first six weeks and, during that time, the infant’s pediatrician said that “the child’s growth, feeding, and bowel habits were developmentally appropriate.” The patient later supplemented the breast-feedings with formula because she was not producing enough milk, according to the study. Reisman said that at 6 months of age, the baby was “happy, healthy and very cute.” For a variety of reasons, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies breast-feed exclusively for the first six months — unless there is a medical reason not to — and then continue breast-feeding while supplementing with other foods for at least a year. For mothers who cannot produce milk on their own, or for mothers who are adopting or using a surrogate, there is a protocol that includes hormones and pumping to induce lactation. “The protocol to induce lactation is very common,” Jenny Thomas, a spokeswoman for the American Academy of Pediatrics, said Wednesday in a phone interview. Thomas, a pediatrician and lactation consultant for Aurora Health Care in Wisconsin, said the regimen used in the case study is similar to the one used for mothers who cannot produce milk on their own, except for the spironolactone needed to block testosterone. But spironolactone is considered “acceptable” to use during breast-feeding, according to LactMed, an online database from the National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine. “We wouldn’t expect spironolactone to get into the breast milk,” Thomas said. However, the patient was also taking domperidone, an anti-nausea and vomiting medication that is used off-label as a galactagogue to help increase milk production. Domperidone has not been approved for sale in the United States and the Food and Drug Administration has previously warned women against using it, saying there are “serious risks” associated with the drug, including cardiac arrhythmias, cardiac arrest and death. The transgender patient acquired it from Canada, according to the case study. Madeline Deutsch, a doctor and associate professor at the University of California at San Francisco's medical school, said she has serious concerns because there has not been adequate research


Taliban appeals to American people to ‘rationally’ rethink war effort

KABUL — Taliban insurgents on Wednesday issued an extraordinary, 17,000-word appeal to the “American people,” asking them to pressure U.S. officials to end the 16-year-old conflict in Afghanistan and asserting that the protracted American “occupation” had brought only death, corruption and drugs to the impoverished country. The letter, whose authenticity was confirmed by a brief telephone conversation with insurgent spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, was primarily aimed at a U.S. audience. Unlike previous statements issued by the Taliban, it used statistics and logical arguments — not just ideological harangues — to convince Americans that their government’s investment in the war has been a dire mistake. “Prolonging the war in Afghanistan and maintaining American troop presence is neither beneficial for America nor for anyone else,” the document said, calling on U.S. citizens, legislators and others to “read this letter prudently” and evaluate the costs and benefits of continuing to fight. “Stubbornly seeking the protraction of this war,” it added, “will have “dreadful consequences” for the region and the “stability of America herself.” The letter, sent under the banner of “The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” was issued just weeks after a blitz of deadly insurgent attacks in the Afghan capital have left the government struggling to cope with increased public anxiety and anger. It also came as the Trump administration is ramping up a new military strategy, involving thousands of additional troops, to expand the Afghan security forces and train them to defend their country independently. While insisting that “our preference is to solve the Afghan issue through peaceful dialogues,” the letter also warned that Taliban forces “cannot be subdued by sheer force” and that seeking a peaceful solution does not mean “that we are exhausted or our will has been sapped.” This combination of outreach and threat has been a hallmark of Taliban statements, including a shorter one issued shortly after the spate of attacks last month that killed more than 150 people in urban population centers . The insurgent group has said it would not revive peace talks unless foreign troops leave the country, and it has rejected feelers from the administration of President Ashraf Ghani. A spokesman for Ghani, Shah Hussain Murtazawi, responded sharply to the letter, saying, “We never negotiate with groups who resort to crime and the brutal killing of people and then claim responsibility for it. The door of peace is shut to them, but the door of


Back to his roots: Shaun White aims for 2020 Tokyo Olympics — as a skateboarder

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — Shaun White’s latest masterful performance in the halfpipe was barely five hours old. He hadn’t yet received his Olympic gold medal. But the 31-year-old snowboarder already knew what the next chapter of his unparalleled athletic career will look like: yet another Olympics. But if all goes as planned, he will be packing a different wardrobe next time because White will leave PyeongChang and began preparations to compete in the next Summer Olympics, hosted by Tokyo in 2020. The International Olympic Committee voted in 2016 to add skateboarding to the summer program, something White had dreamed about for years. “It would mean the world to me to compete in skating,” he said Wednesday afternoon in PyeongChang. “It’d be great. “ While snowboarding has brought White fame and fortune, it was actually skateboarding that launched his athletic career and first brought him any sort of attention. He was buddies with Tony Hawk before his 10th birthday, was a professional skateboarder at 17 — before he was an Olympic snowboarder — and even launched a skateboarding video game in 2010. He was the first athlete to compete in — and win — both the Summer and Winter X Games, and now he wants to follow his third snowboarding Olympic gold with the first skateboarding Olympic gold. “Man, it’s wild. I assumed at some point in my lifetime, skateboarding would get into the Olympics,” he said, “but I’m just happy that it’s come at a time when I feel physically and mentally capable of actually competing and pursuing that goal and dream.” He won’t be the first to compete in both seasons. More than 130 athletes, in fact, have participated in the Winter and Summer Games — including 10 Americans — but only five have won medals in both. Eddie Eagan of the United States was the only one to win gold in both. He competed in boxing in 1920 and 1924 and bobsled in 1932. More recently, hurdler Lolo Jones represented the United States at the Summer Games in 2008 and 2012 before switching to bobsled in 2014. And sprinter Lauryn Williams competed in three Summer Olympics before jumping in the bobsled in 2014. White realizes that his post-PyeongChang training will be tricky. Even though snowboarding tends to be a young man’s sport, he is not close to retiring. And he knows that he can’t afford to abandon his


Who knew a Tongan cross-country skier could be so engaging with his shirt on?

other, but they’re still going to give everything that they have. . . . But at the end of the day, there’s going to be three athletes on that podium. There’s going to be 80 athletes, I think 80 in that race, who don’t get a medal. There’s going to be 80 million behind them, who do cross-country skiing, or more than 80 million, I’m not sure, who wanted to be a skier. . . . But it’s the struggle that’s going to translate to all other areas of life for all of these other 80-plus million people. What is it that we do with that, that inspires those millions of kids that are watching, to push through with their challenges in life? That’s the Olympic spirit, and that’s what’s important for me.” After his — pardon the expression — podium remarks, he did interview after interview: the BBC, Sky, a Swedish network, Japanese. Crazily, a Swedish journalist asked whether Taufatofua had any advice for a certain skier who is out of form and glum. Proving the journalist not so crazy, Taufatofua said, “The fact he’s here is amazing. The country should already be so proud of him.” Might such a thought even help? On the Category 4 cyclone that struck Tonga this week, the worst in 60 years, he said, “The Tongan people and Pacific Islanders have a unique personality. They laugh at everything. They joke about everything. And they do it in a way that they can make light of anything. It could be the worst possible circumstance, and they find some way of turning it into a positive. And that’s something very unique about Polynesians, Pacific Islanders. If there’s a specific message to them, you know, we will rebuild. We’ve been rebuilding for a thousand years; we’ve had cyclones come before. What hasn’t been affected is the heart of the people.” On a potential third sport, maybe in Tokyo 2020, he said, “Maybe water’s the next thing. Something in the water. Stay tuned.” On all the people who want to be his Valentine, he dodged and said, “I’m married to what it is that I do right now, and that’s my Valentine’s.” On his two “amigos” — Chile’s Yonathan Jesus Fernandez and Mexico’s German Madrazo, Olympic novices who joined him in his learning program — he went on and on about their shared experience. On his longtime


I’m not saying the weather is inconvenient at these Olympics. I’m saying it blows.

a few stories into the air becomes, when faced with a gust, a kite. Of the 50 runs taken by the world’s best in the final, 41 ended either in a crash or an athlete bailing on a trick and casually skidding to the bottom of the course. One interpretation: “It’s not like what we’re doing is safe, anyhow,” said American Jamie Anderson, who happened to win gold. Another: “The nature of outdoor sports also requires adapting to the elements,” the International Ski Federation (FIS), which oversaw the competition, said in a statement. And one more: “Before my first run, I was just up there crying,” said Austria’s Anna Gasser, a pre-event favorite. “It is crazy that we did it today.” And that’s before the winds really picked up Wednesday. (Update: Somehow, the Nordic combined competition — normal hill/10-kilometer version — completed its ski jumping leg Wednesday without a single competitor being blown into the crowd. But the cross-country skiing portion was delayed by the wind. Go figure.) The serious stuff for the public — and not just the athletes — came on the day the women’s slalom was postponed at Yongpyong Alpine Centre — where fans dutifully filed in, sat for more than an hour, then filed back out, mobbing buses down the hill. The venues in Gangneung, a city on South Korea’s east coast, are all indoors, hosts to hockey, figure skating, speedskating and the like. And yet late Wednesday afternoon, officials issued the following statement: “Due to high winds in the Gangneung area, all activities in the common domain of the Gangneung Olympic Park have been temporarily . . . suspended to ensure the safety of all personnel. Spectators are being encouraged to stay indoors and general admission to the park has been suspended for the remainder of the day. Venue Media Centres that are in temporary structures are also closed until the high winds subside, with media continuing to work from the press tribune areas.” (Update: I’m typing this in what is very much a “temporary structure,” even if it’s as big as the White House, and not long ago a wind sent a ripple — Who’s kidding who? It was a tidal wave — across the roof, which is made of, I don’t know, plastic or something. I would like to say such an occurrence is not frightening. I would be lying.) Speaking of media,


For Olympic Athletes from Russia, a sense of unity and defiance

is being humbled in the sports world, though not without a fight. As part of the penalty set by the International Olympic Committee, Team Russia has even lost its name. Its athletes are officially stateless, dressed in bland colors, given the designation “Olympic Athletes from Russia.” But for some Russian media outlets, the Olympics-mandated term doesn’t get used. Team Russia is at these Olympics. “They’re Russian athletes speaking the Russian language with the Russian soul,” said Igor Larionov, a former NHL player who broadcasts games for Russia’s Telesport. “It’s Team Russia.” When the global Olympic body levied its sanctions in December, it kept open the door to PyeongChang for Russians without a proven history of drug use. At the time, no one knew how many athletes would be deemed eligible for the Games; evidence showed that more than 1,000 Russian athletes, across at least 30 sports, had been involved in doping since 2011. Athletes who wanted to compete in South Korea had to seek exemptions from an anti-doping panel. In the end, the IOC approved 169 Olympic Athletes from Russia. All but one of the approved athletes showed up to PyeongChang. But the severity of the IOC’s penalties goes beyond delegation size. The country has been stripped of enough medals since Sochi to lose its first-place spot in those Games retroactively. Top athletes such as speedskater Viktor Ahn, biathlete Anton Shipulin and cross-country skier Sergey Ustiugov were barred from PyeongChang. From sport to sport, Russian athletes have spoken cautiously about their place at these Games. Most have said they are just here to compete and don’t worry about the ban on their flag or their anthem. But several have spoken to a greater sense of purpose. When Semen Elistratov won a bronze medal in a short-track speedskating race, he said he was holding back tears. “I dedicate this medal to all guys that have been excluded from these Games in such a hard and unfair way,” he said. “This medal is for you.” “Of course every athlete wants to have his flag and his anthem when he stands on the podium,” said Victoria Moiseeva, a curler from St. Petersburg. “But if it has to be like that, it is. And I think we’re here to show that we’re clean and we still can do great.” In Moscow, the Olympic ban has been portrayed by top officials as a Western-led campaign


First came the massacre. Then came the coverup.

dumped into a shallow grave. We know of this atrocity because intrepid journalists from Reuters investigated it and the news service has published their searing account. “Bound together,” the story says, “the 10 Rohingya Muslim captives watched their Buddhist neighbors dig a shallow grave. Soon afterwards, on the morning of Sept. 2, all 10 lay dead. At least two were hacked to death by Buddhist villagers. The rest were shot by Myanmar troops.” The report is based on eyewitness accounts, including from Buddhist villagers who admitted to burning Rohingya homes, burying bodies and killing Muslims. It is bolstered by heart-rending photographs. The massacre at Inn Din is only one chapter in a horrific campaign against the Rohingya minority by Burmese security forces. The violence was triggered by an attack Aug. 25 by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, a small Rohingya militant group, on about 30 Burmese security posts. In retaliation, the military plundered villages and burned them to the ground. About 650,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh, where they remain. Burma has blocked international observers and foreign journalists from seeing the devastated region. The Reuters piece is especially important because of the harsh treatment of two journalists whose bylines are atop the report, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo. They were detained by authorities Dec. 12 for allegedly obtaining confidential documents, and in January charged with obtaining state secrets and violating the Official Secrets Act, a British colonial-era law with a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison. In January, the military acknowledged that 10 men had been killed at Inn Din but said they were terrorists. The Reuters article shreds that shoddy coverup. The journalists have been rightly honored with PEN America’s PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award . If Burma has any respect left for democracy, it must release them immediately and drop the charges. It is deeply unsettling that the atrocities and the assault on journalists have come as Burma’s leader, at least in name, is Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and long a champion of democracy. We have often sympathized with the restraints she faces in power, including the continued strength of the country’s generals. But the massacre at Inn Din cries out for a voice of moral clarity. Burma cannot hide any longer from a full international investigation into these crimes, and those who committed them must be held to account.


In what is probably his final Olympic run, John Daly comes in 16th yet satisfied

Athlete from Russia, and Great Britain’s Dom Parsons took silver and gold. Daly’s teammate and the man vaulted to Sochi bronze by Daly’s debacle, Matt Antoine, finished 11th. Daly finished 16th. “I got to walk off the track for four runs, hold my head high and wave to my family,” Daly said. “It was a moment I thought I would never get back. That’s enough for me. It’s not a medal, but for me . . . that’s my medal.” But Daly is here as much to enjoy as to win. The vociferous 32-year-old has been an active social media participant throughout the games, surprising teammates with trust falls and sharing his hair care routine with Us Weekly (two shampoos, conditioner, blow dry, hair cream). Those who know him consider it a surprise when he is actually wearing pants and no surprise when he eschews a shirt. Those who follow his Instagram know he has strong feelings about puppies. He has become one of the darlings of these Games because of it all, a role best suited to those who can appreciate the extracurriculars and not lose it all in competition. “It’s kind of exactly what I would have hoped for. It’s exactly what I remembered from Sochi. If anything, it’s better,” Daly said. “I know this might not happen again.” Emotional social media posts occasionally teeter into the world of the melodramatic. But Daly, a fun-loving prankster with a powerful devotion to the state of his hair, doesn’t. He is an athlete in love with his sport, who somehow forgave it when it broke his heart and was moved enough to give it one more chance. “I came back because I never wanted to wake up one morning and wish I would have tried,” Daly said. “To get that moment back . . . it was just a moment I won’t forget.” No results, no splits, no standings mattered as he headed down the hill toward the rest of his life — on his terms this time. He wasn’t heading toward a medal like he always imagined. Instead, he was heading back to his job as a sales representative, which he starts again next week. Asked about potentially competing in Beijing four years from now, he didn’t rule it out. He knows better than to say anything is final. But if Friday’s runs were his last at the Olympics,


As Elon Musk antagonized rival, the space industry battled over who will host a cocktail reception for the vice president

After he launched his giant new rocket into space last week, Elon Musk said he was spoiling for a good race in space. This week, he learned his rivals were up for the challenge, even when it involves such terrestrial trivialities as a cocktail party. Ahead of the second meeting of the White House’s National Space Council in Florida next week, a consortium of upstart entrepreneurial companies known as the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, which includes SpaceX, decided to host a reception for members of the council, who just happen to be some of the most powerful players in Washington. Headed by Vice President Pence, the policymaking council is made up of the secretaries of State, Commerce, Treasury, Transportation and Defense and other top government officials. But when the groups representing some of the more traditional space contractors, such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin, caught wind of the party, they complained to the White House, which agreed that they, too, should host the reception. The ultimate party crash? More like “we wanted to make sure the entirety of the industry was represented to the council and not just a subset,” said one industry official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. As a result, what started as a simple soiree has ballooned into a full-on convocation, according to five industry and government officials who discussed the back and forth, agreeing to speak only on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. Some history: Once derided as an “ankle-biter” by its competitors, SpaceX, and the entrepreneurial industry it has helped spawn, has emerged as a disruptive force that has forced the space industry establishment to improvise and adapt. SpaceX currently has contracts worth several billion dollars to fly cargo and eventually astronauts to the International Space Station. And it is threatening the lock that the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed and Boeing, has long had over the lucrative national security market. Such is the intensity of their rivalry that when industry veterans heard that SpaceX and its ilk in the Commercial Spaceflight Federation planned to host an low-key gathering with the vice president and others ahead of the Space Council meeting, they launched an all-out lobbying blitz insisting they be included. “It charged up a lot of groups when it was a CSF-only thing,” one official said. After taking their complaints were conveyed to the


Daisuke Nakazawa is opening a sushi restaurant in a Trump hotel. And he’s not apologizing.

a Trumpian white marble sushi bar, loud art on the walls, and wine or sake pairings served in stemware as opposed to the ceramic shot glasses known as ochoko. Largely ridiculed at the time as naive or gauche, those flourishes have since become trendsetting influences on the sushi restaurant scene. Sushi Nakazawa remains the only sushi restaurant in New York with a four-star review from the New York Times. In Washington, Nakazawa has reconnoitered by visiting Sushi Taro, the city’s only Michelin-starred sushi restaurant, and the Obama favorite Komi. Nakazawa, for the record, has never had a Michelin star of his own. Over a recent Taro omakase, he laughed as he poured Kamotsuru Gold sake, spilling a tiny gold-leaf cherry blossom into his cup. “I ordered this because I am missing Jiro, because of all this talk about my career,” he said, “but then I see it’s written on the menu as ‘Obama’s sake’ because Obama drank it there. It’s the only sake available with Jiro. No other choices. So it’s not like Obama chose it. It’s so silly how people describe things the way they want to. But it is good sake.” He discussed shopping on Kappabashi Street, the Tokyo strip known for its kitchen supplies. “But Japan feels foreign to me now,” he said, describing everyone in Tokyo as plagued with kurai kao (which literally means “dark face” but might better translate as “resting Tokyo face”). “I’m quitting smoking,” blurted Borgognone. “Oh! You’re good at quitting smoking,” joked Nakazawa. “You’ve done it a lot.” “Three times,” said Borgognone. “Five,” countered Nakazawa as they laughed. They discussed a candidate for general manager of the new restaurant and how his being gay would play with the public — acceptance? mockery? — with more concern than calculation. Notably, Borgognone also owns Chumley’s, a century-old, hallowed former speakeasy that he renovated with a trio rare in the restaurant industry — his general manager, bar director and head chef were all women. This pair, the immigrant and the feminist, defy the caricatures associated with all things Trump. As at Jean-Georges, the legendary restaurant in New York’s flagship Trump hotel, the Nakazawa team made sure to mandate a separate entrance to their restaurant . Asked the burning question on the mind of half the country — how can you help Trump’s hotel become a premier destination? — Nakazawa laughed. “You know I’m an immigrant,


Don’t politicize the fate of the red wolf

the fault of another level of government. Living in Colorado, I have seen many attempts to reintroduce species (the gray wolf, the wolverine, the mountain lion) whose home habitat was in the state of Colorado thwarted by political motivations. With the red wolf in the eastern coastal wilderness of North Carolina, it is no different. For those like me who would love to see this wonderful animal roaming the wilderness again, I find it heart-rending that our government officials will politicize any attempt to restore balance to a national wildlife refuge. The Endangered Species Act was created to preserve endangered species, not to let them become victims of political strife. Alex Marks The writer is a citizen advocate for Defenders of Wildlife. A statement in the In 1975, I was director of research in the School of Forestry at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Tex.; one of our faculty members was cooperating with the Red Wolf Recovery Project. The objective was to trap pure red wolves before the species disappeared because of natural cross- breeding with coyotes. They were trapping “wolves” in an area around Beaumont, Tex., taking measurements, calculating a “hybrid index” and selecting animals as close to “pure” as possible. After more than 40 years, I think they need to let the project go. Limited funds need to go to other threatened and endangered species with a higher probability of scientific and political success. Both are essential; the red-wolf project has neither. How about focusing on the painted bunting? This is a gloriously beautiful migrant bird, a “species of concern.” Its winter habitat in Central America and the Caribbean islands is vulnerable to development, its breeding habitat within the southern United States needs to be better understood and there needs to be greater protection against illegal trapping. Charles D. Webb The red wolf is More must be done to educate people, such as those cited in the article, on the effects that wild carnivores can have on the natural ecosystem and ways in which the human-carnivore coexistence can lead to a better maintained environment. Additionally, the Southeast branch of the Fish and Wildlife Service must do more to protect these species from encroaching coyotes and the threat of malicious outsiders while continuing the experiment in a more controlled manner so as to ensure the state receives proper notice and protections can be enforced. Tyler Allen Johnson


Maryland farm has a notable, and notorious, history

played a significant role in the Civil War. Because Darnestown was a natural point in the defense of Washington, the North stationed between 16,000 and 18,000 Union troops there under the command of Gen. Nathanial Banks. The farm became one of Banks’s headquarters, even though the Magruders had Southern sympathies and were slave owners. Darnestown had divided loyalties during the war. Maryland was a slave state, and many residents supported the Southern cause, with 20,000 Marylanders fighting with the Confederacy. During the war, a signal corps school was established on Magruder Farm. A large chestnut tree was fitted with platforms for signalers to use. With the aid of signal flags and telescopes, they exchanged information with other signalers in a chain that reached from Harpers Ferry to Georgetown. A sketch of the signal tree by David Hunter Strother, who went by Porte Crayon, appeared in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine in October 1866. When Sam and Mary Magruder died, the farm went to their daughters. Daughter Mary married Wilson B. Tschiffely, son of Frederick Tschiffely, who owned Kentlands. They remained at the farm for the rest of their lives. Ross H. Snyder, a lawyer, and his wife, Jennie, bought the farm in 1941 as a summer home before moving there permanently in 1946 with their son and daughter. They renamed it the Maples. In November 1946, their 14-year-old son, Robert, took his father’s shotgun and shot his father, mother and sister in the kitchen because he was upset with them. After going to see a movie with a friend, he walked into a Bethesda police station and confessed to killing his parents and sister. After the triple murder and sensational trial, the home remained empty until 1948, when Charles B. Iler, a Bethesda real estate broker, bought the farm at public auction for $30,000. Iler converted it into a thoroughbred horse farm. The current owners bought the property 21 years ago and have undertaken several renovations to the main farmhouse and outbuildings. The three-bedroom, two-bathroom, 3,048-square-foot house on 5.22 acres is listed at $1,085,000. Listing: 14800 Seneca Rd., Darnestown, Md. Listing agent: Chris Koons-Byrne, Long & Foster Previous House of the Week More Real Estate: Where the most expensive homes sold in the Washington area in 2017 Mortgage rates climb to their highest levels in nearly four years Questions about buying a home? Our Home Buyers Guide has all the answers.


There’s a lot to be optimistic about these days. And then there’s the Middle East.

world — mostly fight from the skies. But air dominance has its limitations in terms of shaping political realities on the ground. It is highly significant, Nasr explained to me, that Syria — which is backed by Iran and Russia — was able to down an Israeli fighter jet. “It’s the first time in 30 years that an Israeli military strike has been met with a response. It underscores how difficult it will be to dislodge Iran and Russia from Syria.” Meanwhile, Turkey has been taking increasingly bold actions in northern Syria against American-backed Kurdish forces. This raises the possibility that, at some point, Turkey and the United States — NATO allies — might find themselves firing on each other. Where are the Arab countries in this geopolitical game? “The most striking reality about the power struggle in the Middle East these days,” Nasr said, “is the absence of the Arabs. Look at the recent fighting. It is all non-Arab powers — Iranians, Turks, Russians, Israelis and Americans — engaged in combat operations to determine who will shape the Arab world.” At this point, far from being a revolutionary power, Iran is trying to ratify the status quo, largely because it has won. Its presence in Iraq and Syria is now entrenched. Its Syrian ally, Bashar al-Assad, has survived and is consolidating power over a rump Syria. Saudi Arabia’s efforts to fight Iranian influence in Yemen, Lebanon and Qatar have so far failed. Qatar is now closer to Iran and Turkey, and rifts within the Arab world continue to deepen. For its part, Russia — having aligned itself with Iran while still maintaining close ties with Israel — has emerged as the kind of outside balancer that the United States once was. “Russia . . . has become the only power broker in the Middle East that everyone talks to,” Nasr wrote in Foreign Affairs. This is not because Russia is powerful, but because it has been shrewd. Since 1973, when Henry Kissinger essentially expelled the Russians from the Middle East, the United States has been the preeminent outside power. It is losing that role through a combination of weariness, disengagement and a stubborn refusal to accept the realities on the ground. A different approach — engaging with Iran and working with Turkey and Russia — might return the United States to its unique place in the region and help


How the ﬂu hijacks your body to make you feel so wretched

nose or eyes. It then travels down the respiratory tract and binds to epithelial cells lining the lung airways via specific molecules on the cell surface. Once inside the cells, the virus hijacks the protein manufacturing machinery of the cell to generate its own viral proteins and create more viral particles. Once mature viral particles are produced, they are released from the cell and can then go on to invade adjacent cells. While this process causes some lung injury, most of the symptoms of the flu are actually caused by the immune response to the virus. The initial immune response involves cells of the body’s innate immune system, such as macrophages and neutrophils. These cells express receptors that are able to sense the presence of the virus. They then sound the alarm by producing small, hormone-like molecules called cytokines and chemokines. These alert the body that an infection has been established. Cytokines orchestrate other components of the immune system to appropriately fight the invading virus, while chemokines direct these components to the location of infection. One of the types of cells called into action are T lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell that fights infection. Sometimes, they are even called “soldier” cells. When T cells specifically recognize influenza virus proteins, they then begin to proliferate in the lymph nodes around the lungs and throat. This causes swelling and pain in these lymph nodes. After a few days, these T cells move to the lungs and begin to kill the virus-infected cells. This process creates a great deal of lung damage similar to bronchitis, which can worsen existing lung disease and make breathing difficult. In addition, the buildup of mucus in the lungs, as a result of this immune response to infection, induces coughing as a reflex to try to clear the airways. Normally, this damage triggered by arrival of T cells in the lungs is reversible in a healthy person, but when it advances, it is bad news and can lead to death. The proper functioning of influenza-specific T cells is critical for efficient clearance of the virus from the lungs. When T cell function declines, such as with increasing age or during use of immunosuppressive drugs, viral clearance is delayed. This results in a prolonged infection and greater lung damage. This can also set the stage for complications including secondary bacterial pneumonia, which can often be deadly. Why


At these Olympics, ‘sorry’ seems to be the most common word

star athlete living in fame’s bubble, White acted as if he were above reproach, then realized his “gossip” comment was a mistake and tried to save face by making an apologetic statement and attempting to explain himself on NBC’s “Today” show. “I’m truly sorry that I chose the word ‘gossip,’ ” White said. “It was a poor choice of words to describe such a sensitive subject in the world today.” He added: “It’s amazing how life works and twists and turns and lessons learned. Every experience in my life I feel like it’s taught me a lesson, and I definitely feel like I’m a much more changed person than I was when I was younger.” Put aside what White may or may not have done two years ago. His word choice in that news conference indicated he didn’t take it very seriously. His apology would have you believe that word choice was an honest mistake. Choose what to believe, but because he said both, he’s left that choice to the listener. He hoped to retreat into gold medal deification and learned that being an athletic hero is now a lot more complicated, especially as an alleged harasser in this #MeToo era. So he’s on his knees, begging for leniency. He will be a fascinating figure moving forward because, unlike others who have been shamed, fired or removed from the spotlight, White is not going to disappear. He wants to compete in the 2020 Olympics, when skateboarding joins the program. He isn’t ruling out participating in the 2022 Winter Games at age 35. He will return to the spotlight, and if he’s wise, he will do the appropriate soul-searching and show that he’s a sincere and reformed man the next time he is questioned. Only then will we know what was more genuine: his apology or the remark he was apologizing for. Meanwhile, the NBC trio of Miller, Couric and Ramo have damaged the perception of the network’s Olympic coverage. All of the broadcasting sins were avoidable, but the loose lips weren’t surprising because we live in an era in which it has become acceptable to spout off, push opinions to the edge and not care who’s listening. Are broadcasters, even esteemed ones such as Couric, allowed to make mistakes? Of course. Have they said regrettable things throughout television history? Yes, it’s an imminent consequence of unscripted programming. But it’s not


Hanyu, Japanese icon and figure skating gold medalist, goes for history on a shaky ankle

champion. It was Japan’s only gold and its first at a Winter Games since 2006. But the achievement represented far more. The gold was Hanyu’s gift to the people of Sendai, his home and the region of his country that had been devastated by the March 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Then 16, Hanyu was practicing on his home rink when the earthquake struck. The ice shook, and pieces of the ceiling started falling as he ran outside with the others. His home was damaged beyond repair, and for three days, he and his family lived in a shelter, each of them subsisting on one bowl of rice per day. The experience, Hanyu later explained in an autobiography, “Blue Flame,” whose royalties benefited victims, made him question everything. With so many dead, so many lives ruined, was it fitting that he play sports, he wondered? Should he not be working to help others? He ultimately decided that skating was what he did best, and if he could help those were suffering by excelling as an athlete, that would be his calling. “In a sense, that was the very essence and fundamental starting point of how [Hanyu] is looked at in Japan,” explains Wakako Yuki, senior writer for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan’s largest newspaper. “His way of training, his way of trying to push himself forward came from the very thought that he should do something for the people through his sport. Of course, he skates for himself and for his family. But at the same time, he has been seen in Japan as somehow a symbolic athlete — representing hope for the future.” The doors to the Gangeung Ice Arena opened at 9 a.m. this past Tuesday, and figure-skating fans rushed in, streaming toward the lower seats at the center of the arena. With the team medals awarded the previous night and the men’ competition still three days away, this was a practice day with reduced-priced tickets for a lucky 2,000. For Hanyu, unlike other competitors who had been in PyeongChang a full week, it was his first chance to test the ice on which he’ll compete. The moment he came into view, camera shutters erupted like a thousand birds taking flight. With his boyish face, Hanyu has an adolescent cuteness that is prized in Japan (known as “kawaii”), which partly explains his popularity among young fans. His love of


How to describe PyeongChang? I don’t always have the words.

seriously, almost every game. I can count on one hand the number of days in three years I haven’t had that sandwich. But I digress… Even though these Olympics are well organized and well labeled, the logistics still present challenges, too. I triple-check the bus routes about eight times before getting on a bus. At one point Friday, as I tried to get to the U.S. men’s hockey practice, I couldn’t tell whether we had reached my stop. I headed to the front of the bus, pointed, and said, “Hockey?” “Hockey?” the driver replied. Desperately hoping “hockey” wasn’t the Korean word for “no, you moron,” I disembarked. And unlike baseball and the Nationals, whose rules and history I know without needing to Google, almost everything I am covering here is new. While some of my colleagues will hone in on specific sports, my job here is to float around as needed. I know the basics. But I’m not equipped for nuance. Almost every assignment requires more in-depth research, and almost every assignment inspires a feeling of insecurity about what I know and what I don’t. The easy cure for this is to ask questions. Athletes who find themselves in the spotlight once every four years are, by and large, more willing to elaborate than the highly trained, media-wary athletes back home. I spent at least 20 minutes or so chatting with an American cross-country skiing coach and a few of his skiers about the importance of ski wax to their success. A biathlete gave me a tip on where to put a hand warmer so your hands don’t freeze in the cold. A luger lost 10 minutes explaining why cold weather makes things harder for them, and why skeleton and bobsled aren’t affected the same way. Whenever I ask questions like that, I use the phrase, “If you had to explain this to someone who knows nothing about this…” in the hopes that not all of them realize they are talking to the person who knows nothing about this. You know, the reporter’s equivalent of “asking for a friend.” Keep that between us, please. Despite it all, I did successfully make my way to my first actual Olympic competition Saturday evening: speedskating. I had studied the characters. I knew the history. I knew the format. I knew the story lines, and that no American was expected to contend. But about


The rot in USA Gymnastics goes beyond Larry Nassar

this, as a study in the International Journal of Sports Medicine made clear in 2000, was to delay the onset of puberty, when the natural development of a woman’s body makes her less adapted to acrobatic tumbling. “Intensive physical training of elite female gymnasts combined with inadequate nutritional intake can alter the normal pattern of pubertal development,” a team of scientists wrote. “In female gymnasts the onset of menarche can be influenced by keeping the amount of fat mass low.” Now we arrive at the “Casablanca” moment. Given all that we knew or could easily have known, we pronounce ourselves shocked — shocked! — that Nassar groomed his victims by smuggling food to them. Or that the adults in his skeevy orbit cared more about whether his “patients” won medals than whether the doctor was assaulting them. Talent alone does not ensure athletic greatness. Most elite athletes also cultivate self-discipline, ambition, self- sacrifice and endurance: admirable qualities, but ones that make young athletes highly vulnerable to exploitive coaches, trainers and assorted hangers-on. I have no doubt Strug would have vaulted on two injured ankles and a fractured wrist if it meant the difference between gold and silver. The job of protecting them falls first on parents. I’ve seen how that looks up close. One of my sisters was a nationally ranked sprinter, with a coveted slot on an elite track team coached by one of the most charismatic and innovative figures in the sport. In my family, coaches spoke gospel. Until the day team parents learned their children’s coach was romantically involved with his star middle-distance runner, a teenager half his age. My sister and I remember hiding on the stairs to eavesdrop as the coach was fired in our living room. Some things are more important than a trophy — or even a gold medal. But families can’t fight these battles alone. We fans have a responsibility, too. By valuing our entertainment more highly than we value the safety of athletes, we create the conditions for injury and abuse, not only in gymnastics but also in sports from football to figure skating. Ours is not the first civilization to condone the torture of talented children because they delight us. For centuries, certain choirboys were castrated to preserve their sweet, high voices. As recently as the 1800s, “castrati” were among the most popular singers in Europe. Think of that during


D.C. has given Elon Musk a permit to do a little digging for the Hyperloop

broad network of such stops across the new system. D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) visited the Boring Company in California this month, walking in a tunnel to learn more about the technology the company says will make tunneling faster and cheaper. The District’s Department of Transportation is figuring out what other permits the Boring Company would need to cut under city roads and other public spaces, according to Bowser’s chief of staff, John Falcicchio. “We’re just beginning, in the mayor’s office, our conversation to get an understanding of what the general vision is for Hyperloop,” Falcicchio said. Asked whether the Bowser administration supports the project, he was somewhat upbeat but noncommittal, adding: “We’re open to the concept of moving people around the region more efficiently.” Musk has received backing from the White House Office of American Innovation, led by President Trump’s senior advisor and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as well as Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), whose administration rolled out a welcome mat and provided a utility permit, though more permits are needed and no tunneling has begun. Maryland officials say the tunnel would run under Maryland Route 295. The Baltimore-Washington leg would be the initial stretch in the East Coast system. The overall concept is that pods with perhaps 16 people in each could speed around on electric sleds. Those sleds could also carry individual cars to and from numerous stations. There would be a main artery, with spurs connecting to various stations. Elevators would take people up and down to the tunnels. And those tunnels would be built relatively close to the surface without disturbing buildings and other structures. The stations would be somewhat modest affairs, numerous but not grand in scale like Union Station. “Stations in a Loop or Hyperloop system are small in size and widely distributed in a network — very different from large-station termini considered for train systems,” the company spokesman said. “Hyperloop” refers to a vacuum-based, people- and car-moving system, which would get rid of wind resistance. Shorter hops within or between cities might have a non-vacuum system, hence the reference to a “Loop” system. Tunnel experts say the digging part is technically feasible, if potentially slow and expensive. As for how to safely orchestrate the underground system of multiple superfast pods, transportation experts say the challenges are legion. And the naysayers are numerous, though their views are varied. Some point to Musk’s


This Olympian hadn’t seen her mom in four years. Then she looked in the stands.

a lot of ground to cover. In the last four years alone, Uhlaender has gone through concussions, surgeries and an autoimmune illness that in 2016 almost killed her. She has lost her closest friend, former Olympic bobsledder Steve Holcomb, from a toxic combination of alcohol and drugs. She has so bonded with Holcomb’s mother, Jean Schaefer, that Uhlaender lived with her for a while, adopting her as a second mom. Schaefer was in the crowd, too, on Saturday, and what she said about Uhlaender was this: “She has been through so much.” Maybe this weekend’s skeleton race was the last of Uhlaender’s career. She still isn’t sure, but she kind of thinks it might be. She is 33. She has gone into debt to fund her career. She has participated in four Olympics, finishing sixth and 11th and fourth and now 13th. She never won a medal, but she nearly did: in Sochi, she was 0.04 seconds shy of the bronze finisher, Elena Nikitina, a Russian who was later accused of doping. For a while, Uhlaender felt like she might claim third place retroactively, with the International Olympic Committee stripping Nikitina of her medal. But just as Uhlaender arrived in South Korea, a sports arbitration court cleared Nikitina of her Sochi disqualification, and the bronze remained in her hands. “When I was almost dying, I had pretty much accepted it,” Uhlaender said Saturday, and this was her way of talking about the medal and the decision and how she felt. “I had given up to a certain extent. I remember being at peace and thinking, I’ve lived a great life. But I wasn’t thinking, oh I’m a three-time Olympian. I was thinking of the people I love and the people that love me. The experiences I had standing on top of a mountain and it’s totally quiet. I thought about all the moments. It wasn’t the results. It was the moments going down the track where my stomach is in my throat. Whether or not the bronze ends up mine, that is not what it’s about.” And then, this weekend, she had one more moment to think about. She had known her mother would be coming to PyeongChang; she just hadn’t known that her mother would find her way past security, and take a spot right near the coaches, and choose a moment seconds before a race to begin their


Mueller’s new indictments put the pressure on Trump to act

been going on for a long time. It was in October 2016, before Trump won the election, that the intelligence community first officially pointed the finger at the Russians for interference. There have been subsequent reports and testimony and unanimity of conclusions about the role the Russians played — not just tried to play, but played. In one of his last acts as president, Barack Obama took unprecedented steps, placing sanctions against the Russians, including the expulsion of 35 diplomats and the closure of two Russian compounds in the United States. In July, Congress authorized the Trump administration to administer additional sanctions to punish the Russians. So far the administration has declined to do so, arguing recently that the law authorizing the sanctions is having its intended effect without the imposition of those new penalties. Beyond that, congressional leaders involved in their own investigations, particularly those on the Senate Intelligence Committee, have called repeatedly for the administration to begin to take steps to prevent, to the extent possible, further interference by the Russians in the coming elections. They are leaving to Mueller the knotty questions about obstruction of justice and criminality, but they have been clear about the threat of future interference. Trump has never forthrightly embraced the conclusions about Russian meddling. A lengthy Washington Post story in December chronicled his resistance and the reticence of his advisers on bringing up the issue. Instead, he takes the word of Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Every time he sees me, he says, ‘I didn’t do that,’ ” Trump said in November after meeting with the Russian leader. “And I believe, I really believe, that when he tells me that, he means it.” He said he thinks Putin “is very insulted by” the charges. Now the details of that interference are in plain sight. People can choose to believe what they want about whether what the Russians did influenced the outcome of the election. But what Mueller and company have put into public view makes it impossible to conclude that there was no interference or to think that the interference was not with malign intent. The president has only tweeted about the new information. He has not answered a direct question about the findings, nor has he been asked what he thinks should be done about them. That responsibility falls in part to his national security team to press him to act in


‘A person of murderous zeal’: Al-Qaeda operative given life sentence for deaths of U.S. troops

looked upon him it was the face of a confident and courageous warrior. . . . He’s no longer here.” Said Cyr, his voice breaking: “Should I speak about the survivors’ guilt that is my burden to this day?” Brian Severino, a command sergeant major who is four days shy of retiring from the Army, said none of the battles he has fought during five tours in Afghanistan and Iraq affected him like the one that killed Losano and Dennis. He “separated” himself from his family as a result, Severino said, and has been unable to enjoy a normal life. “I let down Jared and Ray Losano by not protecting them and failed to bring them home,” he said, his voice trembling. “It’s weighed on me” ever since. Harun has been in U.S. custody since 2012 and has insisted that he is a fighter for al-Qaeda, one deserving of a trial in “the world court” or in a military tribunal. Cogan rejected the defense team’s argument that Harun should receive a more lenient sentence because he was acting as a “mere soldier” in Afghanistan and his offenses did not constitute a war crime. “I do not think there was anything ‘mere’ about this soldier,” Cogan said. “It seems to me he was middle management or upper middle management” in al-Qaeda. Harun, who was born in 1971 when his parents were on a pilgrims’ journey to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, knew many senior al-Qaeda figures. He discussed his future with commander Abdul Hadi al-Iraqi and asked external operations chief Abu Faraj al-Libi to entrust him with the embassy bomb plot. Harun reported to Hamza Rabia, a senior external operations official, who arranged for him to train in explosives and poisons with Abu Khabab al-Masri, a top al-Qaeda weapons expert. He met Ramzi Binalshibh, who would become a 9/11 hijacker. He was sent by al-Qaeda to West Africa to establish a link with the leaders of what would become Boko Haram. “He was present at the creation,” said David Bitkower, one of the prosecutors who investigated the case and, although he left the government, returned to Brooklyn for the sentencing. From childhood, Harun wanted to be a mujahideen and fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. “I’ve always wanted to go to jihad,” he told investigators. After the 2003 battle, and his failed embassy bomb plot, he fled to Niger and then to Libya.


Inspection of Baltimore subway found 17 of 19 track segments checked were unsafe to operate on

The sudden, month-long shutdown of the Baltimore subway last week was prompted by a review of track curves that found 17 of 19 evaluated track segments to be in “black condition,” meaning trains could not safely operate on the rails, the Maryland Transit Administration said. Continued operation of trains in those segments and two others nearing black condition would have posed a derailment risk and could have put the system’s 40,000 daily riders in harm’s way, an inspection report preceding the closure found. MTA officials revealed that information Thursday, amid repeated inquiries for the cause of the closure announced at the end of the past week. MTA Administrator Kevin Quinn said when he was presented with the report on Feb. 8, he had no option but to shut down the system. Further inspection that weekend found similar conditions underground, he said, and by Feb. 11, the agency announced the entire system would be shuttered for up to four weeks while urgent repairs were being made. The 19 segments that raised alarm were located in 11 curves throughout the aboveground section of the 15.5-mile system. “We identified that this was a huge safety issue, and I think we started putting an operations plan together to really think about how we were going to let riders know about this,” Quinn said. MTA was aware that tracks were deteriorating in the area and had scheduled aboveground rail replacements for summer 2018, at a cost of $20 million to the state. But the January inspection, conducted by an outside firm, revealed the repairs were more urgent than agency administrators had previously thought. The problem centered on a factor called gauge face angle, where the train’s wheels come into contact with the rails. The inspection report recommended MTA take “immediate action to enact emergency repairs to their tracks.” As “wear occurs, the gauge face of the rail goes from vertical to sloped,” MTA said. In the 19 sections identified in the inspection, the angle was sloped such that wheels could have skidded off the tracks, based on MTA and Federal Transit Administration standards. “In our case, it was on curves,” Quinn said. “It was on elevated tracks on curves of the system where trains certainly push against the rail with more force as they’re going around the curves at high speeds.” Quinn said he decided to close the entire system “out of a pure abundance


Decades after three people were killed in a D.C. park, their families learn it was over $20 worth of cocaine

They were ordered to lie down, side by side and face down. Then the three were shot, more than 17 bullets fired at close range. Killed, their families would learn decades later, over a missing $20 piece of crack cocaine. In April 1991, the bodies of Samantha Gillard, 23, and Curtis Pixley, 29, both of the District, and Keith Simmons, 26, of Fort Washington, Md., were found in a popular Northeast Washington park. Although rumors of who was behind the deaths circulated in the surrounding neighborhood, it would be more than 25 years before a witness would come forward with new information that led to arrests. On Friday, the second of two men charged in the case was convicted in D.C. Superior Court. Benito Valdez, 47, of Arlington, was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder, kidnapping and sodomy while armed after a three-week trial. A co-defendant, Michael Green, 46, of Northeast Washington, had previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the deaths. Prosecutors said the men are onetime drug dealers who controlled that park during the crack epidemic of the late 1980s and mid-1990s. Family members of the victims, many of whom sat in court each day, said the arrests, trial and conviction have brought what they have waited 27 years for: justice and answers. “This has been very devastating. But at least we are finally getting closure. And I finally get to learn why — why were they killed?” said Pixley’s sister Sandra, 64. During parts of the trial before Judge Judith Bartnoff, family members of the victims rushed out of the courtroom in tears as crime-scene photos of the three bodies were displayed. The April 23, 1991, killings occurred in Langdon Park, in the 1800 block of Franklin Street NE. The park is now home to the Chuck Brown memorial, a tribute to the District’s late godfather of go-go music. Neighbors reported hearing a volley of shots, and a passer-by found the bodies hours later on a grassy slope. In the violence of the crack cocaine epidemic, the city had the dubious distinction of being the nation’s “murder capital.” The city recorded 489 killings that year and has changed dramatically since. Last year, there were 116 killings. Prosecutors based their case against Valdez largely on the testimony of four witnesses, including one of Valdez’s former girlfriends, who said he had admitted to them over the years that


For Olympians in the quadrennial spotlight, social media can be an extreme sport

and 752,000 on Instagram, “and I can scroll like this forever of the people I’ve blocked,” he recently explained. Blocking people — keeping them from seeing his posts or sending him comments — is usually easier than engaging or giving those people an open line of communication. “I’m so immune to it now,” Kenworthy said. “It’s funny because the more I block it, the less I see it. It’s funny. I’ll have someone comment, ‘You’re a [gay slur].’ Okay, you’re blocked.” There are times, though, when he will engage. Kenworthy isn’t shy about wading into political waters or debating social issues. His teammates often notice Kenworthy with his phone, engrossed or even agitated. “Sometimes I kind of look at it, like, ‘Ahh, dude,’ ” Blunck said. “He’ll be staring at his phone, like, ‘I’m in this Twitter argument.’ Well, you didn’t have to say anything. Be the bigger man and let it go.” (Kenworthy knows how to troll, too. He fractured his thumb in a training run Thursday, and in a tweet Friday he joked the silver lining was he no longer had to shake Pence’s hand.) For some athletes, the solution is complete withdrawal. Mikaela Shiffrin, the 22-year-old wunderkind ski racer from Colorado, won a gold medal and turned in a heartbreaking fourth-place finish on back-to-back days this week. Regardless of the result, one vital part of her post-race routine did not change: no Twitter, no Facebook, no Instagram, no Snapchat. Shiffrin’s social-media ban is a preservation strategy, limiting distractions and muting the incessant noise that seems to spike to deafening volumes during the Olympics. “When I’m here, I don’t actually see what people are talking about,” she said shortly after winning gold in the giant slalom Thursday. “I haven’t been on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook for two weeks now.” Some athletes can’t help it, or they see such engagement as an opportunity to bring attention to an issue, often for a larger audience. Figure skater Vincent Zhou retweeted a post from a television sports anchor this week who claimed figure skating is not, in fact, a sport. Zhou couldn’t resist. “Your job is to be a sports reporter,” he tweeted. “Figure skating is not a sport to you. Stick to reporting on ‘real sports’, do your job, and we’ll do ours.” Still plenty of others will bite their tongues, stuff their phones in their pockets and try not


Elon Musk’s space Tesla just might crash into Earth in the next million years

Remember the Tesla Roadster that Elon Musk launched into space last week? Yeah, that one. Well, three scientists just took a close look at the vehicle's orbit over the next million years, and they found there is a slight chance the car might crash into Earth or Venus. Don't panic Besides, the car would likely burn up before reaching the surface. The results, due to be published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, were posted this week on the e-print site arxiv.org. The Tesla was launched into space Feb. 6 atop SpaceX's vaunted Falcon Heavy rocket; its only passenger a spacesuit-wearing mannequin named Starman. Study authors Hanno Rein, Daniel Tamayo and David Vokrouhlický, all experts in orbital dynamics, emphasize that it's impossible to map out precisely where Starman will go as his vehicle floats through space. The roadster is drifting on an elliptical orbit around the sun that repeatedly crosses the path of Mars (though the two bodies are not predicted to collide). At its farthest, the car will be 1.67 times Earth's distance from the sun. By measuring the car's flickering brightness, other astronomers determined that it is rotating nearly every five minutes. The Roadster will experience its next close encounter with Earth sometime around the end of this century — the first of many, Rein and his colleagues say. With each successive flyby past Earth and other bodies in space, its orbit is perturbed and becomes harder to predict. But by running many simulations of how those encounters might play out, the scientists can get a pretty good estimate of what's likely to happen. They conclude that the car's “dynamical lifetime” will probably be a few tens of millions of years. But aerospace engineer Ben Pearson, creator of the site whereisroadster.com, noted the car had already exceeded its 36,000 mile warranty 511 times as of Friday morning. Hope Starman has good insurance. Update: Though Rein and his colleagues initially reported that the Roadster will experience a close encounter with Earth in 2091, they are revising their estimates as more up-to-date orbital elements have become available, so that date is no longer certain. Read more: SpaceX successfully launches the world’s most powerful rocket, the Falcon Heavy, as it sends a Tesla on a path near Mars Cassini was the mission of a lifetime for this NASA scientist. Now she must say goodbye. This NASA spacecraft will


BSO’s Hersh leads players in a confident ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, audibly improved this season by a number of new hires, strutted its stuff on that most sturdy warhorse, the Mussorgsky-Ravel “Pictures at an Exhibition,” last Saturday at Strathmore. Associate conductor Nicholas Hersh is still a little green, the enthusiasm leading to unnecessary show-and-tell. He also lets things just blare in climaxes (though many experienced conductors are equally deficient). But he is talented and hard-working, and could well ascend to a good career someday. “Pictures” is a wind/brass/percussion showpiece, and the BSO handled everything with easy confidence; the euphonium in “Bydlo” was particularly firm and expressive, and the ensemble tight as a drum-line in “Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks.” The concert opened with a true rarity, a work by Florence Price (1887-1953), America’s first significant African American female classical composer. Price graduated with honors from the New England Conservatory and was head of the music department at Clark Atlanta University; the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed a work of hers in 1933. “Dances in the Canebrakes,” a piano piece later orchestrated by William Grant Still, was a colorful quilt of influences — Joplin, Gershwin and some of the great Hollywood composers — knitted together in a quiet mastery. That Price’s own voice was perhaps a little timid, given the milieu and her place in it, is certainly understandable. But the music suggested all sorts of poignant what-ifs. Pianist Joyce Yang seems to have a thing for the Prokofiev Third Concerto, first performing it when she was a child, and playing it with the BSO at her previous appearance in 2002. Going on Saturday’s outing, I’d advise she turn her talents elsewhere. Though her silken technique brings even passagework, her fingers are not the hammering pistons of a Yuja Wang or Martha Argerich. She looks for lyricism when it’s not there, trying to make the slow movement sound like Chopin. Fine playing, but still a misfire. style@washpost.com


Olympics Day 10: Strong medal chances remain for U.S. in second half of Games

surprised even herself ICYMI: American Katie Uhlaender saw her mom for the first time in four years, South Korea’s president said the Olympics have lowered tensions with North Korea, Gus Kenworthy shared a kiss with his boyfriend, and Ester Ledecka could be the first person to win unrelated winter Olympic medals in more than a century. Also, Post Olympic rookie Chelsea Jane deciphers emergency alerts in Korean and NBC hires Adam Rippon as a commentator. In Sochi, Nick Goepper was the bronze leg of the U.S. men’s freestyle skiing podium sweep. While the team wasn’t able to repeat in PyeongChang, Goepper bumped up a notch to silver. The other returning medalist, Gus Kenworthy, made it to the finals but couldn’t put together a clean run. He finished 12th. Norway’s Oystein Braaten won gold. Returning from back surgery, American Ted Ligety wasn’t a factor in the men’s giant slalom. The day belonged to Austrian Marcel Hirscher, who won his second gold medal in PyeongChang. Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen took the silver and Frenchman Alexis Pinturault the bronze. After back-to-back Olympic silver medals in the men’s 15-kilometer mass start biathlon, France’s Martin Fourcade finally earned the gold. It was a photo finish with Germany’s Simon Schempp. In women’s 500-meter speedskating, South Korea’s Lee Sang-hwa was going for her third consecutive gold. She had to settle for silver, with Japan’s Nao Kodaira taking the win. Brittany Bowe was the top American, placing fifth. And Erin Jackson became the first African American women’s speedskater on an Olympic long-track oval for the United States. Oleksandr Abramenko of Ukraine won men’s aerials Norway won In curling, Lindsey Vonn SUNDAY NIGHT: Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir The United States plays Finland in the first women’s hockey semifinal game tonight at 11:10. On Monday morning, Canada takes on the Olympic Athletes from Russia at 7:10. The United States and Canada are both expected to move on and meet yet again for a chance at gold. The United States has only beaten Canada twice at the Olympics, both times in 1998. American Maddie Bowman begins her gold medal defense in the qualification rounds of freestyle skiing halfpipe. In round-robin curling, the U.S. women face Denmark (7:05 p.m.) and China (6:05 a.m.). The men play Canada (12:05 a.m.) MONDAY MORNING: Bobsled medal events get underway with the final runs of the two-man competition. Canadian Justin Kripps is among the favorites, along


Brazil battles yellow fever — and a ‘dangerous’ anti-vaccination campaign

Facebook post that alarmed Muniz was shared more than 300,000 times and was accompanied by dozens of comments from people saying they would not receive the vaccine. But the account of the teenager dying from side effects of the vaccine was false. Officials from the town where the young woman lived confirmed that she had died but said that the cause of death was bacterial pneumonia, not the vaccine. The yellow-fever vaccine has been used for decades, and side effects are generally mild and include headaches and low-grade fevers. There have been reports of rare cases, however, in which people have life-threatening allergic reactions or develop diseases affecting the nervous system and internal organs. Five deaths were caused by the vaccine in Brazil last year, according to the Health Ministry. “One in a million people have side effects from this vaccine. That means there will be bad reactions if we’re vaccinating millions of people at the same time,” said Carla Domingues, the coordinator of the federal government’s National Immunization Program. Facebook groups have become forums where mothers and other worried Brazilians seek information and exchange tales about yellow fever and vaccines. A group called “The Dark Side of Vaccines” has nearly 10,000 members and refers to American anti-vaccination sites such as LearnTheRisk.org and NaturalNews.com as well as translating posts from U.S.-based Facebook groups like Vaccine Resistance Movement. Sacramento, the researcher, said the anti-vaccine movement is growing in Brazil, but is still less articulated and political than in the United States or Europe. “This movement is very dangerous,” said Pedro Tauil, an epidemiologist and professor emeritus at the University of Brasilia. “We need to show people that vaccination is the best prevention — because it’s not just about individual protection, it’s also about preventing the virus from spreading to a full-blown epidemic.” Domingues, the federal official, said the phony Internet rumors are “a new thing we have to learn to deal with and combat.” However, she said, she is not concerned about fake news affecting the number of people getting vaccinated, citing the long lines that have formed during the vaccination campaign. The reach of social-media posts in this country of over 200 million can be staggering. A Facebook account listed as belonging to a Christian nonprofit organization posted a video, which was viewed 4.5 million times, showing a tearful woman detailing what she called her son’s near-fatal allergic reaction to


‘I hit rock bottom yesterday’: Injury costs skier his Olympic dream. Again.

version. How those athletes talk about how they handled their problems might not match their actions in real time. But here was Biesemeyer, in real time, analyzing his shattered dream. When he was diagnosed with a ruptured Achilles’ tendon Wednesday, the U.S. Ski Team issued a statement declaring him out for the Olympics. This is standard operating procedure. They included some of his words. Same: SOP. But damn if the words weren’t jarring. “I wonder why this happens,” the statement read. “It is hard to not think if there is a deeper meaning to it all. You are supposed to be optimistic in times like these and say something like, ‘I will come back stronger than ever.’ But I just can’t bring myself to do it.” Slaps you across the face. People know Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin. But to walk in the Opening Ceremonies, as Biesemeyer did last week, any athlete had to put in work, had to sacrifice untold joys. Obscurity isn’t a cover for less diligence, less passion. That those qualities are fostered anonymously doesn’t make them less important. “When you hear about the Olympics, all you see is the success stories,” Biesemeyer said in a half-hour phone conversation Thursday before he left South Korea. “And that’s not what it’s about in the bigger picture. For all the success stories, there are all the people that fell short that could have done it. . . . “Anybody that puts their heart and soul into anything in life or accomplishing a goal, and when you don’t achieve it due to outside forces, you can’t help [but] feel sorry for yourself.” Biesemeyer is 29, a native of Keene, N.Y., 20 minutes outside of Lake Placid. This is a fresh wound, and he can treat it as nothing but. He has skied professionally his entire adult life. He has never reached a podium on the World Cup circuit. The Olympics are the pinnacle of his pursuit. “I’ve always had this feeling that I’d be one of the best in the world,” Biesemeyer said. Does he expect to feel sorry for himself going forward? No, not in the long term and not in the big picture, because he lives a privileged life. Will he bail on his sport, on his career? Of course not, because he believes in himself and his potential. But in the moment, why pretend that the pain


A crackdown by Egypt’s Sissi is devouring his own regime

Mohamed Soltan is a human rights advocate and founder of The Freedom Initiative Last week, security forces in Egypt arrested a man named Hisham Geneina. Geneina, the former head of the national auditing agency, is not a first-rank politician in his own right. But it is clearly not his background as a financial expert that drew the attention of prosecutors. It was his vocal role as an aide to Lt. Gen. Sami Anan, the former Army chief of staff who was himself jailed last month, not long after announcing his intention to run for election against President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi. By arresting Anan, Sissi removed his last serious rival in the approaching Egyptian presidential election, which is set to begin March 26. Earlier, former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq withdrew his candidacy just a few weeks after announcing it, apparently under heavy pressure from the regime. Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat, a nephew of the former president, and Khaled Ali, a human rights lawyer, have also dropped out. Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, a former Islamist and a 2012 presidential candidate who now runs the Strong Egypt political party, was arrested earlier this month after returning from a trip to London. Fotouh drew widespread media attention for a series of interviews, during which he argued that the army bears no responsibility for the president’s inept leadership. Needless to say, the elimination of Sissi’s most serious competitors in the campaign has many Egyptians wondering whether there is even a point to voting. It is small wonder that the most popular GIF in the country on Jan. 25 — the anniversary of the beginning of Egypt’s 2011 revolution — turned out to be a short clip from the Sacha Baron Cohen film “The Dictator,” in which a mythical tyrant wins a 100-meter dash by shooting his opponents (and the judges of the race). There could hardly be a more vivid illustration of the death of genuine politics in Egypt. Since mid-2013, Egypt under Sissi has become a black hole for human rights, democratic governance and rule of law. But now the president’s campaign of repression is reaching into his own government. The arrest of Anan was viewed by analysts as a striking sign of Sissi’s willingness to challenge the top ranks of his own military establishment. The president’s firing of his top intelligence chief similarly seemed to reveal a growing rift within the ranks of the


Doping charge angers Olympic curlers, but they admit there could be benefits

GANGNEUNG, South Korea — The news of Alexander Krushelnytsky’s banishment spread fast Sunday night, bouncing from one athlete and official to the next. It came as a shock in some corners and a sad fulfillment of expectation in others. The process of sharing updates of a failed drug test has become commonplace at the Olympics, and those inside the sport tend to know first. “It’s such a tightknit community,” American Tyler George said. “That stuff gets around pretty quick.” What made Sunday night strange was the sport: Krushelnytsky, of the Olympic Athletes from Russia, is a curler. He was sent home from the PyeongChang Olympics five days after winning a bronze medal in mixed doubles for failing a drug test, reportedly for the banned heart treatment meldonium. A ‘B’ sample confirmed the initial evidence, and a case will officially be opened, according to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The curling world has not dealt with doping scandals before, but in reacting to Krushelnytsky’s failed test, it borrowed at least one emotion from other sports: anger. “It’s infuriating for the other athletes to know that this is going on, and they still get to compete,” Canadian assistant skip Marc Kennedy said. “Now you’ve got an athlete that says he was clean again and tests positive. It’s unbelievable, for every other clean athlete in the world. “And we’re in a sport where obviously it doesn’t affect that much. It’s not going to make you a better athlete, to be honest. For those athletes in the other sports that have to put up with this all the time, it’s unbelievable that they’re even allowed to be here.” Along with low-grade outrage over yet another Russian doping case and the International Olympic Committee’s decision to let Russians compete in the first place, the news prompted sport-specific sneers and jokes. A curler got busted? For what, too many Miller Lites? The implication of the barbs was obvious. Curling, as even Kennedy alluded to in his screed, is not a sport that requires strenuous physical exertion. Why would doping even matter? How could it possibly help? At least one Russian even weaponized the sentiment as a defense. Asked about the failed test, OAR women’s curling Coach Sergei Belanov said he did not believe it to be true, first by uttering three words: “No any benefit.” But according to Olympic curlers and coaches, doping would give


Major Olympic wardrobe malfunction strikes during French ice dancers’ short program

breast was exposed while she competed in the short program. Gabriella Papadakis, along with her partner, Guillaume Cizeron, still managed to notch a good score despite the wardrobe malfunction and the adjustments it caused in her movements. She was just seconds into their program when her costume pulled apart in the back by her neck, and she was visibly upset about the incident afterward. “It was kind of … in our thoughts all along the program a little bit,” said Cizeron, who handled most of the questions in a post-event media session. “When you rotate, it’s kind of hard to keep your dress on when it’s open.” The French team wound up with a score of 81.93, putting them in second place behind Canada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (83.67), with Tuesday’s free dance still to come. Team USA’s Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue were third at 77.75, with Americans also in fourth (Maia and Alex Shibutani, 77.73) and seventh (Madison Chock and Evan Bates, 75.45). “It’s just frustrating to miss a few points because of a costume issue,” said Cizeron, 23. “That’s not what we get ready for when we train. I’m still proud that we managed to pull out a program like that even with a difficulty like this. “We look forward to a new day tomorrow and we have all our chances to win. We’ll just do our best.” When asked if she was okay, the 22-year-old Papadakis offered a rueful chuckle while replying, “Not great” (via USA Today). After a question about how their style of dance has transformed the sport, she said, “Thank you for not talking about the dress anymore.” In addition to being televised live to audiences worldwide, the revealing incident was reportedly replayed in slow motion in South Korea’s Gangneung Ice Arena, where the event was held. “I was like, ‘Oh no!’ ” South Korea’s Yura Min, who finished 16th Monday with partner Alexander Gamelin, said last week of her mishap. “If that comes undone, the whole thing could just pop off. I was terrified the entire program.” Read more from The Post: Three U.S. couples among top seven in ice dancing after Olympic short program Ice dancing is more than pairs figure skating without jumps Adam Rippon turns down NBC gig to remain an Olympian through the Games Fergie and Kevin Hart stage epic battle for worst NBA all-star pregame performance


An open letter to Amazon: The D.C. region is where innovation lives

now take for granted – GPS and video conferencing as two examples – were developed by local companies under government contract. Yet even when they are applying or supplying more established technologies, these countless companies, large and small, build significant businesses and train talented technologists. And as an ancillary benefit, government purchasing practices have also created a nation-leading community of successful women and minority technology business owners. Even when the government is not directly involved as a funder or a customer, entrepreneurs often use proximity to it to grow their businesses. Some gain key insights into market regulation and coming regulatory changes to build businesses. For example, Capital One, which revolutionized the credit card industry, MCI, which challenged the status quo on long-distance phone calls and disrupted the telecom industry, AmeriChoice, which brought managed care to Medicaid recipients and the Inova Schar Cancer Institute that is seeking to treat cancer on a genomic level are all companies that apply in concert technology and regulatory insight. Others create businesses that explain or communicate the goings on of a national and international capital, such as emerging media businesses like Vox and Axios, or veteran companies like the Washington Post. Because our innovation businesses can often grow with government funding or by being proximate to power, they tend to be more mature and established before they need or want venture capital. They also have tangible, usable technology to utilize. This means that when our local businesses do turn to venture funding for growth, they are much better investments. The data shows that our region’s venture capital funding generates better returns for investors than do those of other U.S. regions. In sum, our region’s model of developing innovation-based businesses is broader and more durable than a system solely centered on venture capital. Moreover, it has created an ecosystem that applies technology and takes a practical approach to technology creation. This process is funded at a level that exceeds the amount of venture capital that is deployed in any region of the United States. Application of technology supports a broad diversity of industrial clusters in our region — media, energy, advertising/PR, advocacy, cybersecurity, precision medicine and more. Our technologists are driving advances in genomics, machine learning, robotics, virtual reality and advanced software. Viewing our region in its totality, the conclusion is clear: the greater Washington region has an innovation community that is unique and exciting.


PM Update: Clouds and spots of drizzle tonight. Springlike warmth arrives by Tuesday afternoon.

Well, today certainly didn’t warm up as much as we thought it would. Cold air stuck at the surface is being quite stubborn in giving way to a blob of warm air that wants to move in. As such, we have been stuck with the low clouds and mist/drizzle for much of today, which kept temperatures some 5 to 10 degrees below our original forecast. Warm air will eventually win this war, but how quickly it does so remains a question. Depending on the answer, Tuesday could end up a bit more gray and cool than we would like it to be. Listen to the latest forecast: Get our daily forecasts on your Amazon Alexa device. Click here to find out how. Through Tonight: View the current weather at The Washington Post. Tomorrow (Tuesday): See Jason Samenow’s forecast through the weekend. And if you haven’t already, join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram. For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Heavy rain in the central U.S. and erupting volcanoes: Want our 5 a.m. forecast delivered to your email inbox? Subscribe here.


‘Sport can make the world one together’: A gold medalist comforts a tearful runner-up

For every moment of exhilaration, every incredible wave of relief that overcomes an athlete, there’s a reminder that one person’s victory is another person’s loss and, sometimes, the end of the line. Japan’s Nao Kodaira didn’t forget that after she beat South Korea’s Lee Sang-Hwa, the two-time defending Olympia champion, in the women’s 500-meter speedskating event in an Olympic-record 36.94 seconds. What was Lee, who won silver in 37.33, feeling? Perhaps a little disappointment because she has had a chronic knee injury and some relief as she considers whether to retire from competition. It was all a little overwhelming. “I was relieved a lot as I could brush off the pressure,” Lee, who turns 29 later this month, said (via the Yonhap News Agency). “It was like a present for me, and my eyes were filled with tears. I’ve raced for the Olympics, and it finally finished. That’s why I shed tears.” The two have been respectful rivals over the years, Kodaira, 31, told the Japan Times. “I really look up to her as a human being and a skater. She is my friend.” “The sight of two of you embracing each other after the race and congratulating each other was really wonderful,” Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told Kodaira in a congratulatory call Monday (via Reuters). Lee wasn’t ruling out an attempt at competing in the 2022 Olympics. “Sometime in the last season, I asked Nao whether she would race at the Beijing Games. She answered. ‘Not without you,'” Lee said with a laugh. “At that time, I thought it was just a joke. But now, the question is too hard to give an answer to.” And the bigger picture? “Sport can make the world one together,” Kodaira said. “It’s simple.” Read more Olympic coverage from The Post: A fist-bump instead of a handshake? Norovirus precautions are trumping Olympic tradition “Women?” Or “ladies?” At the Olympics, it depends on the sport. French ski team boots Mikaela Shiffrin’s boyfriend from Olympics over salty comments Major Olympic wardrobe malfunction strikes during French ice dancers’ short program Jerry Brewer: Three U.S. couples among top seven in ice dancing after Olympic short program