Andrew Fairlie, celebrated Scottish chef who won Michelin stars, dies at 55

lime juice. French chef Michel Roux once described Mr. Fairlie’s restaurant as “a temple of gastronomy in Scotland.” In 2017, Restaurant Andrew Fairlie became the first Scottish establishment included in Les Grandes Tables du Monde, a guide listing 170 of the most distinguished restaurants in the world. Andrew Patrick Fairlie was born in Perth on Nov. 21, 1963. He grew up helping his father prepare dinner for the family, including his mother and four siblings. “My dad was an economics teacher and cooked because my mum worked later in a shoe shop, and we would do it before she got home because everyone was starving,” he told the Scotsman newspaper. “Simple things: omelet, mince and tatties. . . . For seven people every night, that’s a lot of potatoes to peel. But I liked it.” At 15, he left school and found work in the Perth hotel. “One Saturday I had my ‘tarragon moment,’ when there was a wedding on and there was a sauce chasseur with something in it I couldn’t identify,” he said. “The chef told me it was tarragon, and that was when I asked to work in the kitchen.” At 20, he became the first-ever winner of the Roux scholarship in France, named after the French culinary brothers Michel and Albert Roux. That honor led him to trainee positions at three-starred Michelin restaurants, including at Les Prés d’Eugénie in southwest France under Michel Guérard, a founder of nouvelle cuisine. Back in Britain, Mr. Fairlie became chef de cuisine on the Royal Scotsman luxury “cruise train,” which serves haute cuisine to well-heeled passengers touring the Scottish Highlands. He went on to become head chef at the Disneyland Hotel in Paris, where he set up a fine-dining restaurant and ran the hotel’s California Grill, specializing in gourmet pizzas. In 1994, he became head chef at the hotel One Devonshire Gardens in Glasgow, where he won his first Michelin star. Success there led him to open Restaurant Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles in 2001. The restaurant was awarded a Michelin star within a year and added a second in 2006. The restaurant thrived, helped by Mr. Fairlie’s “Secret Garden,” an ivy-covered walled space in which he and his head grower, Jo Campbell, grew often-rare vegetables, fruits, herbs and edible flowers to be used in his restaurant dishes. His first marriage, to Ashley Laird, ended in divorce. In 2018, he married


The Daily 202: Davos is in decline as elites fail to tackle the globe’s biggest problems

David Wainer: “Faced with that reality, world leaders are increasingly falling into one of three camps in their approach to the president, according to Stephen Walt, a professor of international affairs at Harvard University: following Trump’s lead, resistance -- however futile -- and trying to make the most of his policy vagaries. Yet lacking any consensus against Trump, Walt sees many leaders as engaged in a waiting game to try and sit him out. ‘There is no longer this idea that he’d be reined in by the establishment and that you’d have a fairly normal administration,’ said Walt. ‘People are now fully aware that he’s extremely impulsive and erratic and will continue to challenge the status quo. That means something different depending where you are.’ “Leaders from all three camps will be present in Davos: those from traditional U.S. allies such as Canada and Germany who are resisting as far as possible in the hope they can wait Trump out; rivals from China and Russia who thought they could exploit the opportunities but have found him too erratic; and those in countries like Israel, Hungary and Brazil who have benefited from the environment around Trump’s rise,” Wainer writes for Bloomberg. “Among the forum’s headline attractions is German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who can be expected to build on her New Year’s address denouncing nationalism and populism that reinforced her status as a Trump adversary. Yet she and Macron were unable to prevent Trump from quitting the Iran nuclear deal or the Paris climate accord. Germany is in the firing line if he follows through on his threat to impose punitive tariffs on imported cars.” -- An American delegation still planned to attend after Trump pulled out on Jan. 10, including the secretaries of state, treasury and commerce, but the White House announced they’d stay home last Thursday afternoon. -- “Of the Group of Seven countries, only Germany, Italy and Japan will send their top leaders. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping also won’t be in attendance,” Ishaan Tharoor reports from Davos in his WorldViews newsletter. “But that doesn’t mean there’s no chance of fireworks. A new crop of statesmen will get to make a splash, from right-wing Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and his Italian populist counterpart, Giuseppe Conte, to Ethiopia’s reformist prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, and New Zealand’s pathbreaking female leader, Jacinda Ardern. The most anticipated appearance


statements from the Trump administration and GOP loyalists on Capitol Hill, Oleg Deripaska, the Russian oligarch with close ties to Vladimir Putin, stands to benefit greatly from the U.S. lifting sanctions on his companies. -- Russian pop star Emin Agalarov canceled his U.S. tour amid a dispute about an interview with Mueller’s team. -- An American banker with ties to Putin has attracted congressional investigators’ attention for seeking access to Trump’s presidential transition team. -- A lawyer for American Paul Whelan, who is being detained in Moscow on espionage charges, said his client was given a flash drive containing a “state secret.” -- Michael Cohen threatened to sue CNBC in 2014 over Trump’s low ranking in the news channel’s list of the country’s top business leaders. THE NEW WORLD ORDER: -- An Iraqi scientist who is imprisoned in Irbil described the aid he provided to the Islamic State in producing chemical weapons. “The stories shed new light on a chemical weapons project that was unique in the history of modern terrorist groups, with university laboratories and manufacturing facilities and a cadre of scientists and technicians. Weapons created by the Islamic State were used in scores of attacks on soldiers and civilians in Iraq and Syria, collectively inflicting hundreds of casualties, U.S. and Iraqi officials say.” -- U.S. spies have been secretly meeting with their North Korean counterparts for a decade, -- A think tank report identified another secret North Korean missile base days after the White House announced plans for a second summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un. SOCIAL MEDIA SPEED READ: Deripaska, the Russian oligarch accused of election interference who just got sanctions relief from the Trump administration, is staying away from Davos this year, per a Post correspondent in Moscow: Kamala Harris’s communications director tweeted a photo of the newly announced presidential candidate: Harris’s press secretary added this: Harris’s deputy press secretary emphasized her common points of background with her boss: A PBS NewsHour reporter analyzed the specifics of Harris’s announcement: A CNN reporter remarked on the number of women already running for president: The communications director of C-SPAN remembered another black woman who sought the Democratic nomination: An NBC News reporter shared this photo of a Democratic senator and 2020 contender meeting with a former gubernatorial candidate: Booker responded to a Twitter user who asked about his 2020 plans: A New York Times reporter noted what


What the U.S. casualties in Syria tell us about America’s wars

ground-combat billets. If the Pentagon takes Mac Donald’s advice to roll back gender integration, the result would be a loss of highly dedicated and skilled warriors. We are already seeing such a loss because of the Trump administration’s animus against immigrants. In 2009, the Pentagon launched the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) program to enlist soldiers who were not U.S. citizens or permanent residents but who had vital skills such as medical training or knowledge of languages such as Russian, Mandarin or Pashto. The 10,400 troops enlisted as part of the program included many who served in Special Operations forces — including Sgt. Saral K. Shrestha, a Nepalese native who speaks fluent Urdu and won the Army’s soldier-of-the-year competition in 2012. But the MAVNI program was suspended by the Obama administration in 2016 pending a review of background checks, and it was ended in 2017 by the Trump administration. Five hundred MAVNI soldiers have already been kicked out of the Army, potentially leaving them vulnerable to deportation, but the process is now on hold pending the resolution of several lawsuits. The ostensible justification was security concerns, even though a 2017 Rand Corp. study found no evidence of any security problems, including any recruits involved in terrorism or espionage. Taher wasn’t part of MAVNI, but she was only able to risk — and ultimately lose — her life fighting for the United States because she came here before Trump instituted a ban on travel from five majority-Muslim countries, including Syria. Social conservatives and nativists appear determined to deny the United States the human capital it needs to defend itself. Highly skilled female service members such as Kent and foreign-born interpreters such as Taher are some of the United States’ most valuable and underappreciated weapons systems. We should honor them and make it easier, rather than harder, to utilize volunteers like them in the future. Read more Max Boot: The casualties in Syria show that Trump’s policies are leaving our troops exposed Robert S. Ford: Trump’s Syria decision was essentially correct. Here’s how he can make the most of it. Hugh Hewitt: The red line in Syria is still there. In fact, it’s a darker red. Richard Cohen: Trump’s losing Syria. Will he lose the whole region too? Josh Rogin: Trump is leaving 50,000 Syrian civilians to die Dan Crenshaw: Why guys like me go to places like Syria


Trump shut down the government over his wall. It’s jeopardizing his other priorities.

800,000 federal workers and thousands more contractors are not getting paid, which limits their consumption of goods and their ability to pay their bills on time. The White House’s own Council of Economic Advisers says the shutdown reduces quarterly GDP by roughly one-tenth of one percent each week, a benchmark Trump often uses to tout economic strength. The Commerce Department is not releasing economic data that analysts and investors rely on for their decision making. Small businesses can’t apply for loans. The Securities and Exchange Commission may be delayed in approving IPOs, mergers and market oversight. And consumer confidence is now at its lowest point of the Trump presidency. Two of Trump’s key legislative achievements of his first two years were passages of a criminal-justice bill and a package of bills to address the opioid crisis. But the shutdown may slow or halt implementation of some aspects of those laws. For instance, potentially thousands of federal prisoners who would be eligible for early release under the new criminal justice law are now in limbo. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy is mostly empty, which coordinates drug policy and oversees several grant programs. A spokesman for the Department of Justice, which oversees some opioid-related programs, could not say what the specific impact has been because “due to the shutdown" he’s “not authorized to respond to any inquires that are not related to national security.” Trump’s reelection is nearly two years away, but that doesn’t mean this shutdown won’t have electoral consequences. Most Americans blame Trump for the shutdown, and the longer it goes on and the worse the pain is for Americans, the better the chance is that it could be a factor come November 2020. When Republicans shut down the government in 2013 over Obamacare funding, they ended up keeping the House in the midterm elections the following year and regained the majority in the Senate, suggesting shutdowns may not be top of mind for voters. But there is some indication that it’s hurting Trump more with his voters this time. An NPR-PBS NewsHour-Maris poll conducted last week found a quarter of Trump’s 2016 voters aren’t sure if they’ll vote for him again. Trump has held strong on his border wall funding for fear of upsetting his base, but the longer the shutdown drags on, the more he risks losing his less ardent supporters in the process.


Supreme Court allows Trump restrictions on transgender troops in military to go into effect as legal battle continues

said the administration did not want “barriers unrelated to a person’s qualification to serve” preventing the military from recruiting or retaining the best people available. The policy approved said that “not later than July 1, 2017,” the Pentagon would update its medical standards to include people who have a history of gender dysphoria, the medical term for wanting to transition. It added that the Pentagon would begin taking transgender recruits in July 2017 for the first time as long as their doctors certified that they had been mentally and emotionally stable over the previous 18 months. Mattis delayed opening the military to transgender recruits on the eve of that deadline by another six months, citing a request from the Joint Chiefs of Staff for further study. In the meantime, the Pentagon would continue to treat transgender troops with dignity and respect, Mattis said in a memo. Advocates for transgender people decried the move, saying the issue already had been studied at length. The situation was thrown into turmoil a few weeks later with Trump’s tweet. Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, released a memo the following day effectively stopping the military from making changes until a new policy was adopted, and Mattis backed the move. Meanwhile, the president’s ban was challenged in court. Trump issued a presidential memorandum the following month that accused the Obama administration of allowing transgender military service without identifying a “sufficient basis” that doing so would not “hinder military effectiveness and lethality, disrupt unit cohesion, or tax military resources.” He directed Mattis to have the Pentagon adopt a new ban similar to the military’s former policy by March 23, 2018. With legal battles still underway, Mattis wrote in a memo to the president that he was in favor of letting most transgender troops already in the military stay, so long as they have not undergone gender-reassignment surgery and are able to deploy across the world. But Mattis’s view on bringing in additional transgender people as recruits was more closely aligned with the president’s. Federal judges required the military to begin allowing transgender recruits beginning in January 2018, and the Pentagon has not stood in the way of those rulings. Instead, it provided policy guidance to recruiters to explain how to enlist transgender men and women and said those guidelines “shall remain in effect until expressly revoked.” robert.barnes@washpost.com dan.lamothe@washpost.com


The real problem with Brexit: Britain can’t decide what kind of country it is

Sherlock Holmes was fond of declaring that a tricky, seemingly impenetrable case was “a three-pipe problem,” demanding a lengthy period of quiet contemplation before the key to its unlocking could be found. Sometimes the solution to these cases would appear, intuitively, baffling or even absurd. But, as Holmes reminded Dr. Watson, “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” The great detective, however, was never tasked with solving a riddle as complex and apparently unresolvable as Brexit. On Tuesday, Theresa May endured a humiliation of the sort that in less extraordinary times would render the British prime minister’s position unsustainable. At long last, more than 2½ years after Britain voted to leave the European Union, she was prepared, and able, to present the withdrawal agreement reached with the 27 remaining E.U. members to the House of Commons. This was the “meaningful vote” that would determine whether a deal could be reached. The answer was not in doubt, only the details. The United Kingdom is stuck in the political equivalent of a Samuel Beckett play: Matters cannot go on like this, yet all alternatives are equally disagreeable. Waiting for Brexit has become an existential farce. The debate is not just an argument about leaving the European Union but, instead, a broader dispute about the kind of country Britain wishes to be. This week promises more of the same, only more so. The details last week, of course, were ugly: No government has ever before been defeated by as many as 230 votes, and certainly not so comprehensively repudiated on the single biggest decision the country must make in nearly half a century. Despite that, May struggles on. She is not for turning, even if comparisons between her position and Margaret Thatcher’s end there. Having survived internal rebellion and a confidence vote on her leadership last month, Conservative Party rules mean she is free from a challenge by her own side for a year. She will go, if she goes at all, only of her own volition or if the Labour Party successfully carries a vote of no confidence in Her Majesty’s government in the House of Commons. Labour tried and failed that on Wednesday, however, so there is little sign the opposition can force a change in government or a general election that would at least allow for a resetting of the parliamentary arithmetic and,


Senate Republicans all but surrender to Trump on wall despite shutdown’s toll

until the government reopens because of security concerns — and the speaker’s insistence that there will not be any money for a wall in any agreement that resolves the impasse. “What I don’t understand is how Nancy Pelosi can be such an inept negotiator as to not try to get something that her and her colleagues really, really want,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said. Senate Republicans have largely decided to stay in lockstep with the president, even as the shutdown has affected their home states. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), like other agricultural state lawmakers, has been under pressure over the negative impact of the shutdown on farmers, who have been hit hard in Trump’s trade war. The administration extended a key deadline for farmers to apply for bailout funds meant to offset struggles from tariffs. But some have warned that the industry could face other setbacks if the shutdown continues. Asked whether she would be open to supporting a bill without wall money, Ernst — a new member of Senate leadership who is on the ballot next year — responded: “I would want to know that the president, um, would be supportive of it.” What about a compromise bill? “Only if the president would sign it,” Ernst answered. In a 20-minute interview, Murkowski described in detail the pain the partial shutdown was inflicting on Alaska. The state, with its federally managed lands, fisheries managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the largest Coast Guard base in the nation at Kodiak, has more federal workers per capita affected by the shutdown than any other. “I understand that maybe my urgency on this is because I come from a state that is so heavily impacted right now. And it’s frustrating to me that other colleagues are not sharing this sense of urgency,” Murkowski said. But her home-state colleague, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R), stressed that he is firmly behind the president’s wall requests, calling it “eminently reasonable” and emphasizing that Democratic senators had entertained upward of $25 billion in wall money as recently as last February. Border-state Republicans are particularly firm behind Trump, who visited McAllen, Tex., earlier this month as he ramped up his public relations effort for the wall. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), a McConnell confidant up for reelection next year, responded “Uh, no,” when asked whether he would entertain voting for a bill that did not include wall


They sought ‘lead paint virgins’ and bought their settlements. It will be hard for those victims to get their money back.

A Chevy Chase company that made millions of dollars from deals with victims of lead poisoning targeted an “entire generation of youth coming of age in Baltimore” with its deceptive practices, Maryland’s top law enforcement official alleges. But even if a lawsuit filed by Attorney General Brian E. Frosh (D) is successful, the amount of restitution those victims can receive is severely limited by a separate class-action claim. The settlement of that lawsuit, brought by two of Access Funding’s former customers, entitles victims of the company to receive about $750,000 — about 4 percent of what Frosh’s office asserts they are owed. Brian Brown, an attorney who represented the victims in the class-action suit, said his firm, Brown & Barron, got “the best possible deal for our clients.” Under the terms of the settlement, the victims “released” claims filed by Frosh’s office and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2016, meaning they cannot receive additional restitution. Frosh’s office is appealing the lawsuit in the hopes that it will be able to win back money for the victims. Access Funding made deals with people poisoned by lead paint in their homes who were awarded “structured” settlements, which are paid in small increments over decades, ensuring that plaintiffs do not spend their money all at once. The company obtained rights to structured-settlement payments worth nearly $18 million from 100 Maryland residents between 2013 and 2015, according to an investigation launched by Frosh’s office in response to reports in The Washington Post. More than 70 percent of the residents were victims of childhood lead poisoning. Access Funding was founded in 2012 by Lee Jundanian, Michael Borkowski and Raffi Boghosian, all of whom are named as defendants in Frosh’s lawsuit. None of them responded to requests for comment. One of their customers was Freddie Gray, who was poisoned by lead paint long before his death in police custody plunged Baltimore into riots in 2015. Gray and his two sisters sold $435,000 of their settlement — valued at $280,000 — for about $54,000. A Prince George’s County judge, to whom Access Funding funneled most of its cases, approved the deal. Neither Gray nor his sisters were in court for the approval. Much of Frosh’s investigation either confirms or amplifies reporting by The Post. A motion filed in connection with the state’s lawsuit this month details how Access Funding bombarded victims of lead paint poisoning, many


Shutdown draws domestic violence shelters to the brink, imperiling life-or-death services for women

if they’re not there, they could be killed or seriously hurt,” Spriggs said. Leigh Ann Fry, president and CEO of Bay Area Turning Point in Webster, Tex., said her staff was in tears last week when she told them of possible furloughs because of the shutdown. Fry said employees, some of whom are single mothers, immediately realized they might not be able to feed their families. It then dawned on them that furloughs would mean cutting back services to victims: The staff could not fathom telling people that they could no longer provide help. The extension of the grants makes it feel as though a huge burden has been lifted, at least for the time being, she said. “I think people don’t realize that family violence can be so impacted,” Fry said. “They’re thinking Coast Guard, postal workers. People don’t realize agencies like ours who literally save lives on a daily basis are impacted by this shutdown.” Victim-service organizations in some states, including Florida and Tennessee, are more reliant on federal funds than others. In Morristown, Tenn., Donna Kelly spent the week preparing to lay off half of her staff on Monday and planned to train volunteers to step in. Her organization, Cease, serves six counties in northeastern Tennessee and was planning to cut back services in the most rural areas. The layoffs are no longer planned, Kelly said, but 80 percent of the organization’s funding comes from federal grants, and she can’t rely on receiving that funding as the shutdown continues. Cease has been able to access smaller grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development electronically during the shutdown. Other organizations have been unable to access HUD funding to subsidize transitional housing costs. They cannot get into HUD’s computer system, and staffers who could assist are furloughed. The agency said it is working on a solution. Advocates say they worry that people who are in danger might not seek out services because they think the shutdown has caused cutbacks. They implored those who seek help to turn to the shelters and nonprofit organizations in any case because they almost certainly will try to help. “We do not want any survivors to think that they do not have resources available to them and they should not seek out help if they need it,” said Chase Tarrier, public policy coordinator at End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin. He said the organizations


Welcome, hedgehogs. The increasingly popular pet is now legal in Fairfax County homes.

Hedgehogs, those small and prickly little creatures, are no longer illegal to own in Fairfax County. On Tuesday, the county’s Board of Supervisors legalized hedgehogs as household pets. It also lifted a rule requiring a permit to keep hermit crabs and chinchillas. “The board added these three animals to the list of commonly accepted pets,” the county said in a statement. Officials said they can be kept as household pets without special permissions. Why the change? County officials said hedgehogs have become increasingly popular, leading to inquiries about whether they were allowed in Virginia’s most populous jurisdiction. In Northern Virginia, hedgehogs also are allowed as pets in Arlington and Loudoun counties. Maryland allows them, as well. They’re banned in New York City, California, Pennsylvania, Hawaii and in the nation’s capital. Last year, an attempt to make them legal in the District failed after animal rights groups stepped in and expressed concerns. Those who support hedgehogs as house pets argue that they’re hypoallergenic and don’t require as much maintenance as dogs or other common pets. Chris Schindler, vice president of field services for the Humane Rescue Alliance, testified Tuesday against allowing hedgehogs in Fairfax homes. He said small, exotic animals often end up at shelters after people realize the effort needed to keep them as pets. “People get them and then realize there’s more to caring for them,” he said. Hedgehogs need to forage and dig, Schindler said, and they’re also nocturnal. He noted that they can carry salmonella, possibly making them dangerous for children to handle if hands aren’t washed afterward. Hedgehogs have been bred in captivity in the United States since the 1990s, after imports of the animal were banned because of the risk from hand-foot-and-mouth disease, animal experts said. It isn’t the first time officials in the D.C. area have decided on the legality of more exotic or unique animals. Arlington last year banned the ownership of a variety of wild pets — although existing pets were allowed to stay. The Arlington County Board prohibited ownership of primates, raccoons, wolves, coyotes, squirrels, foxes, leopards, tigers, lions and bears. Also on the no-go list are venomous snakes, certain scorpions, centipedes and spiders. The hedgehog, though, was allowed. But before you run out to get one, county officials recommend that talking to a veterinarian or reliable breeder, as hedgehogs require particular environments, food and care.


Americans across the country are helping feed federal workers as the shutdown enters its second month

of those quaffs have already been enjoyed. PayItFurloughed is designed not only to express compassion to hard-pressed federal employees but also to help small craft breweries, which can’t bottle or can new beers because the government doesn’t have the resources to approve labels, Martell said. The D.C. breweries currently involved with PayItFurloughed are 3 Stars, DC Brau and Atlas Brew Works. “Buying someone a beer is such an American thing to do,” Martell said. ” ‘You’re having a bad day? Let me buy you a beer.’ ” Martell said that he and Goldberg — who invested a total of $1,000 in the project — are looking to expand PayItFurloughed to other cities and regions, probably starting with the suburbs around Washington, where other small breweries could participate. Purchased beers will remain available for a week after federal employees receive their first back paycheck, Martell said. If any remain after that, Martell added, the beers will be put “on virtual ice until, unfortunately, we go through this all over again.” And speaking of expansion, Andrés released a video over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend to say that World Central Kitchen will be expanding the #ChefsforFeds relief program that launched last week at ThinkFoodGroup’s test lab at 701 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Late on Tuesday, Andrés offered a few more details on Twitter. The expansion, he said, would include more than 30 eateries in 12 states, plus the District and Puerto Rico. The expansion will help World Central Kitchen exceed the 6,000 to 8,000 federal workers that the nonprofit and its partners have been feeding each day in Washington. Nate Mook, executive director of World Central Kitchen, said Wednesday that the nonprofit has already activated food trucks and restaurants in several areas, including Little Rock, Ark.; Cincinnati; Puerto Rico; and Los Angeles. What’s more, he said, some celebrity chefs and restaurateurs have signed up for duty in their respective towns. They include Rick Bayless and Stephanie Izard in Chicago; Spike Mendelsohn in Washington; Ming Tsai in Boston; and Andrew Zimmern in the Minneapolis area. “A lot of folks have been reaching out and saying, ‘How can we support? What can we do? We’re seeing what you guys are doing and we’re inspired.'” Mook said during a phone interview with The Washington Post. World Central Kitchen, Mook added, is trying to take a strategic approach to opening kitchens, mobilizing them in cities


What you saw -- or missed -- during the lunar eclipse

Last Sunday, I convinced two friends to stay up until midnight with me and stand in the bitter cold to watch as the full moon underwent a total eclipse. Over the course of several hours, the Earth’s shadow crept across the lunar surface, engulfing it in an eerie red glow. The red color is a result of the way light from the sun gets filtered as it passes through Earth’s atmosphere; the atmosphere scatters blue light (thus the robin’s egg color of a cloudless sky) but redder wavelengths pass on through and get reflected back to us as they bounce off the moon’s rocky surface. What we saw -- and you did too, if you watched it -- was the reflected red glow of every sunrise and every sunset on Earth, happening all at once. This phenomenon isn’t just cool; it’s scientifically valuable. The light that reaches the moon carries in it signatures of the molecules it encountered as it passed through the air around Earth. During the eclipse, astronomer Alison Youngblood, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, used the Hubble Space Telescope to split apart that light and parse it for clues about the chemical composition of Earth’s atmosphere. You might ask: doesn’t NASA already know what Earth’s atmosphere is made of? And you’d be right. But Youngblood and her colleagues hope that this technique, called spectroscopy, might one day be applied to study the atmospheres of more alien worlds. As exoplanets pass in front of their stars, their atmospheres -- if they have them -- will filter a bit of sunlight. With new telescopes, Youngblood said, scientists might study that light to find signs of oxygen, water, and the other chemicals that life needs to live. Had my friends and I been watching the eclipse with a telescope, we could also have seen the tiny flash of light as a meteor struck the lunar surface. Observations first reported by eagle-eyed amateur observers, and supported by professional astronomers, suggest that a small space rock crashed into the western part of the moon. “This is something that people all around the world didn’t know that they were going to sign up for,” Noah Petro, a research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, told National Geographic. “I said going into the eclipse that this is really cool,” he added. “This observation just reinforces how bloody cool it


shadow crept across the lunar surface, engulfing it in an eerie red glow. The red color is a result of the way light from the sun gets filtered as it passes through Earth’s atmosphere; the atmosphere scatters blue light (thus the robin’s egg color of a cloudless sky) but redder wavelengths pass on through and get reflected back to us as they bounce off the moon’s rocky surface. What we saw -- and you did too, if you watched it -- was the reflected red glow of every sunrise and every sunset on Earth, happening all at once. This phenomenon isn’t just cool; it’s scientifically valuable. The light that reaches the moon carries in it signatures of the molecules it encountered as it passed through the air around Earth. During the eclipse, astronomer Alison Youngblood, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, used the Hubble Space Telescope to split apart that light and parse it for clues about the chemical composition of Earth’s atmosphere. You might ask: doesn’t NASA already know what Earth’s atmosphere is made of? And you’d be right. But Youngblood and her colleagues hope that this technique, called spectroscopy, might one day be applied to study the atmospheres of more alien worlds. As exoplanets pass in front of their stars, their atmospheres -- if they have them -- will filter a bit of sunlight. With new telescopes, Youngblood said, scientists might study that light to find signs of oxygen, water, and the other chemicals that life needs to live. Had my friends and I been watching the eclipse with a telescope, we could also have seen the tiny flash of light as a meteor struck the lunar surface. Observations first reported by eagle-eyed amateur observers, and supported by professional astronomers, suggest that a small space rock crashed into the western part of the moon. “This is something that people all around the world didn’t know that they were going to sign up for,” Noah Petro, a research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, told National Geographic. “I said going into the eclipse that this is really cool,” he added. “This observation just reinforces how bloody cool it is. If you missed the eclipse -- or liked it so much you want to watch another one -- never fear! The next total lunar eclipse visible from North America will occur in May 2022. -- Sarah


The Cybersecurity 202: FBI cyber investigations hit hard by shutdown

limbo, “A longer shutdown could result in an even lengthier recovery time — and therefore greater exposure to threats at all levels of government,” Ferrante, who now leads the cybersecurity practice at FTI Consulting, told me. That slowdown could be particularly damaging because the FBI is trying to meet an ambitious goal of “deterring, detecting, disrupting, and dismantling,” 8,400 computer crimes during the 2019 fiscal year. The FBI declined to comment on whether the shutdown might affect that goal. In the longer term, the shutdown could be a devastating blow to workforce morale and permanently impair the bureau’s ability to recruit top cyber talent. Berglas, an executive at the cybersecurity firm BlueVoyant, has fielded several recent calls from FBI cyber agents looking for private-sector jobs, he told me. “Agents who are technically savvy and able to investigate very technical crimes are already wanted by the private sector at salaries that dwarf what they’re making at the bureau,” Berglas said. “Now, it’s been a month since the shutdown and they’ve already missed a paycheck and they’re often living paycheck to paycheck. That’s not just cruel, it’s a massive morale hit.” PINGED: DHS issued an emergency directive to civilian agencies Tuesday requiring them to protect their data from being hijacked by hackers It’s not clear how many agencies were infected, a senior official told Ellen, but no Defense Department or classified networks were affected. The hacking campaign targets the “Domain Name System” (DNS), which translates Web or domain names into IP addresses. It was first spotted last fall by private-sector firms including Cisco and FireEye and was aimed then at government and industry targets in the Middle East. The U.S. government response to the hacking campaign will be affected by furoughs of information technology staff due to the ongoing government shutdown. Here’s a take from Alex Stamos, former chief information security officer at Facebook, who’s now teaching at Stanford: PATCHED: The 2019 National Intelligence Strategy released Tuesday by Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats warned that U.S. adversaries are increasingly taking advantage of technological progress to pose “new and evolving threats” in cyberspace, computing and other areas The document also said that the U.S. intelligence community plans to improve its understanding of adversaries' cyber operations, increase the production of cyberthreat intelligence and seek to prevent and counter malicious cyber activities via diplomatic, military, economic tools and other means. “The intelligence strategy is


In Davos, U.S. executives warn that China is winning the AI race

“I would say the U.S. has the potential to fall behind if the CEOs and the education and the government don’t start doing more to actually do the upskilling,” said Bob Moritz, PwC chairman. Executives from the world’s leading tech companies urged business leaders to focus more on AI. The U.S. government has mostly focused on AI from a military context. The Pentagon announced in June that it was establishing a Joint Artificial Intelligence Center that will spend $1.75 billion over six years, but experts say it’s a small fraction of the scope of China’s investments. “The ability to apply AI to every industry, every company is going to open new lines of revenue. It’s going to increase operating efficiency,” said Ruth Porat, chief financial officer of Alphabet, the parent company of Google. “To the extent you are not embracing it now, you are slowing down the ability to actually continue to scale in any market globally." Liang Hua, chair of Chinese telecom giant Huawei, told a small group of reporters that “computer power will be the new electricity” and that his company had recently released a “cost-effective” AI chip and was working on other AI and machine-learning initiatives. “This is the start of a revolution that’s going to change enormous amounts of things, from the workplace, jobs, what people do, development of knowledge in the absolute. It’s very exciting,” Schwarzman said. But there were also cautious voices noting that this next digital revolution would probably cause even more people to lose their jobs and more ethical issues because machines learn from data and some data sets have biases. “Frankly, there’s a trust quotient around this,” said Kelly Grier, U.S. chair of EY. She said AI has enormous potential but that companies must have “the ability to rely on and have confidence that the algorithms that are developed with artificial intelligent technology capabilities actually do what they are intended to do and they don’t have implicit bias of the architect of those algorithms.” Moritz said China, in particular, has a lot at stake if the AI revolution causes mass unemployment at factories. Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com already has a vast warehouse outside Shanghai that is almost entirely operated by robots. China has built factory towns that could become ghost towns. But the Huawei executive said his country can deal with those ramifications by creating new jobs. “While definitely AI will


Russian oligarch’s deal for sanctions relief is sweeter than publicly portrayed, document suggests

A Russian oligarch allied with Vladimir Putin will, along with close associates, maintain majority control of a major energy company from which the Treasury Department is lifting sanctions despite the Trump administration’s promise to hold him accountable as a key beneficiary of Moscow’s “malign activity” worldwide. Oleg Deripaska, along with his ex-wife, ex-father-in-law and a foundation Deripaska launched years ago, will together maintain well over 50 percent of the shares in En+ Group, the most influential of three companies from which the Treasury Department is lifting sanctions, according to an agreement outlining the deal’s terms, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post on Tuesday. En+ Group controls Rusal, one of the world’s biggest aluminum suppliers, and EuroSibEnergo, Russia’s largest private power company, which are also addressed in the Treasury deal. The New York Times first reported on aspects of the agreement, which appears to show that Deripaska is being treated more generously than the Trump administration has acknowledged. The Treasury Department did not respond to a request for comment, but administration officials, including Secretary Steven Mnuchin, have vigorously defended the deal. The Post was unable to reach a spokesman for Deripaska. The Trump administration sanctioned Deripaska and these three companies in April while taking aim at individuals and businesses with close ties to the Russian state. Before that, he was the subject of intrigue for his ties to President Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who once worked for Deripaska as an investment consultant. Deripaska has said Manafort owes him millions of dollars. While serving as Trump’s campaign chairman, Manafort offered to give Deripaska “private briefings” on the 2016 presidential race — what Manafort’s spokesman has characterized as an effort to settle past debts. Deripaska’s spokeswoman said he never received briefings from Manafort. Now it appears Deripaska may be the beneficiary of a different arrangement with the Trump administration, as shares in his companies promise to rebound with Treasury’s decision to lift punitive measures against them. Neither Deripaska nor his allies will retain voting rights in En+ Group commensurate with the holdings they will maintain in the company under the deal’s terms, according to the agreement. But the document has revived frustration among Democrats who, earlier this month, were unable to secure enough Republican votes in the Senate to block the deal. “My concern all along was that Deripaska would retain control over his companies and benefit


Can we make artificial intelligence ethical?

Stephen A. Schwarzman is chairman, CEO and co-founder of Blackstone, an investment firm. I am not an engineer. Or a coder. Or a scientist. But I am someone who has spent years looking at companies and industries to see which are poised for growth and which are on the decline. And one thing I see every day is that most companies and industries are about to be transformed, if they haven’t been already, by artificial intelligence. AI will reshape the world in ways we can’t imagine, much as the printing press and the Internet did at their inceptions. That means the United States must remain the lead player in AI if we are to guarantee our future in a competitive global economy. Already, many countries are investing heavily in artificial intelligence, and the United States, too, has made great progress. But this is a moment that calls for America’s unique capacity for leadership, not just in advancing the technology, but in preparing for the ethical questions and disruptions AI will create. Too often, we think only about increasing our competitiveness in terms of advancing the technology. But the effort can’t just be about making AI more powerful. It must also be about making sure AI has the right impact. AI’s greatest advocates describe the Utopian promise of a technology that will save lives, improve health and predict events we previously couldn’t anticipate. AI’s detractors warn of a dystopian nightmare in which AI rapidly replaces human beings at many jobs and tasks. If we want to realize AI’s incredible potential, we must also advance AI in a way that increases the public’s confidence that AI benefits society. We must have a framework for addressing the impacts and the ethics. What does an ethics-driven approach to AI look like? It means asking not only whether AI be can used in certain circumstances, but should it? Companies must take the lead in addressing key ethical questions surrounding AI. This includes exploring how to avoid biases in AI algorithms that can prejudice the way machines and platforms learn and behave and when to disclose the use of AI to consumers, how to address concerns about AI’s effect on privacy and responding to employee fears about AI’s impact on jobs. As Thomas H. Davenport and Vivek Katyal argue in the MIT Sloan Management Review, we must also recognize that AI often works best with humans


Officials in anti-vaccination ‘hotspot’ near Portland declare an emergency over measles outbreak

supply evidence of dangerous backsliding in containment of the virus, Hotez said, blaming the anti-vaccination movement. “This is a self-inflicted wound,” he said. In 2015, a woman in northwestern Washington died of pneumonia after contracting measles. It was the first U.S. death from the virus since 2003. Last year saw the second highest number of reported cases of measles since 2000, according to the CDC. A total of 349 cases were confirmed across 26 states and the District of Columbia, only surpassed by the 667 cases in 2014. Orthodox Jewish communities were at the center of several outbreaks last year in New York and New Jersey, after unvaccinated travelers returned with the virus from Israel, which was battling an outbreak. The year before, Minnesota reported 75 cases of measles, mostly in a Somali community where the discredited theory blaming autism on the MMR vaccine had taken hold. Because measles is still endemic in parts of the world, said Opel, “periodic introduction by people traveling is what’s causing frequent outbreaks here.” A high level of protection is required to prevent transfer of the highly contagious virus, he added. Somewhere between 92 and 94 percent of the population must be immunized. Clark County is already below that level, he observed, “before you factor in other things like people just missing their appointments.” The county’s health department emphasized how easily the virus can spread, remaining for as long as two hours in the air of a room where an infected person has been. “If other people breathe the contaminated air or touch a contaminated surface, then touch their eyes, noses or mouths, they can become infected,” the county warned in a statement Tuesday. “Measles is so contagious that if one person has it, 90 percent of the people close to that person who are not immune will also become infected.” While the illness often begins with cold-like symptoms and a rash, doctors emphasized that many infected people suffer from additional complications, including pneumonia and, in more serious cases, inflammation of the brain known as encephalitis and even seizures. “It’s not a benign illness,” Opel said. More from Morning Mix: His comment at lunch scared his school classmates. It led police to a plot to attack Muslims. ‘Help! Miguel is hurt!’: Baseball’s first unanimous Hall of Famer overcame a sardine-boat tragedy ‘I have the receipts': Young progressives, including Ocasio-Cortez, named to House Oversight Committee


D.C. Council acts to halt evictions, foreclosures for unpaid federal workers

than a hurricane, it’s different than a wildfire, it’s different than a tsunami — because it’s man-made and it’s completely unnecessary.” Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) plans to visit Port City Brewing Co. in Alexandria on Wednesday to talk to the owner about how the shutdown is hurting craft brewers because new labels can’t be approved. Bowser will join mayors from across the country that day to demand an end to the shutdown as part of the opening news conference for the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Winter Meeting. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), the District’s nonvoting U.S. representative, will host an “emergency town hall” Thursday night to hear stories of workers and business owners hurt by what she calls the “Trump shutdown.” A Tuesday report by the D.C. chief financial officer estimated the city is losing about $10 million a week in revenue as a result of the shutdown, not including increased spending on social services. City officials warned that the shutdown may require budget cuts if it does not end soon. In the meantime, D.C. lawmakers are working to mitigate the impact of the government closure. The bill passed Tuesday would require judges to halt eviction or foreclosure proceedings if residents can prove that they have been furloughed or made to work without pay. “A possible sudden onslaught of additional homeless District residents will create a severe hardship for the federal workers and will also greatly impact the District’s homeless services system,” said council member Anita Bonds (D-At Large), who wrote the bill. She originally crafted the legislation to prohibit lenders and landlords from cracking down on tenants who miss payments during the shutdown, but she softened the language amid legal concerns. The legislation would take effect immediately for 90 days if Bowser signs it. The mayor said she needs to review the bill but supports the idea in principle. In Virginia, state Sen. Jeremy S. McPike (D-Prince William) has proposed legislation to place 30-day stays on foreclosures and evictions on workers who miss payments because of the shutdown. His emergency bill would need to pass both chambers of the state legislature by two-thirds margins. On Tuesday, Montgomery County Council President Nancy Navarro sent a letter to President Trump, Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on behalf of the all-Democratic nine-member body, saying that the shutdown “is having a dramatically negative fiscal impact on Maryland and Montgomery


D.C. experiences coldest day in more than a year

This story has been updated. People felt cold on Monday. They could scarcely avoid it. But feelings are one thing. Cold facts and figures are another. And even by that measure, Monday could be called Washington’s coldest day in more than a year. At 8:19 a.m. the official reading for Washington stood at 15 degrees. That was the District’s lowest reading since Jan. 7, 2018, when it was 8. Sunday was cold, too. Just before midnight, Washington’s official temperature had skidded to 18 degrees. Perhaps readings in the teens may not always be intolerable. But they have come amid relentlessly fierce winds and fiercer gusts. As of 5 p.m., Monday’s average wind speed was 21.5 mph. Nevertheless, some dared the elements late Sunday and early Monday to see the lunar eclipse. A Twitter post called the experience both “very cool” and “bone-chilling.” Now Tuesday was cold, too.In the morning. In fact, it might have seemed for a time that Tuesday was going to replace Monday as the coldest day since Jan. 7, 2018. But NO! The mercury slid to 16 degrees. It was there at 7:36 a.m. One degree “warmer” than Monday. But there it stopped. And later in the day, it climbed above freezing. It almost felt like spring. Many school systems in the region announced two-hour delayed openings for Tuesday. Fairfax County schools said it would give time to address “ cold weather mechanical issues” in buses that were idle since Friday. martin.weil@washpost.com


TV meteorologists can make more people take climate change seriously

a trusted local source of information, with an influence that few, if any, others have. Serving our local communities is a privilege that comes with great power and responsibility. But I hesitate to use the word “responsibility” when it comes to climate change communication, because it implies obligation. This decision of whether to engage on climate should be a personal choice, not a mandate. I prefer to think about climate change communication as a great opportunity for meteorologists to make a substantial positive effect on our world and expand the way we connect with our viewers. Engaging in climate communication offers added importance to our careers, a divergence from formulaic forecasts. For some, like me, the motivation stems from where we can best live a fulfilled, purpose-driven life — a life in which we are part of a bigger effort to help society. For others, it is an opportunity to differentiate from other local broadcasters in the market by connecting with viewers through science communication. A couple of months ago, I started a new journey, plunging face forward into the climate challenge. I quit my job as the main meteorologist in West Palm Beach, left my salary and stability behind, and enrolled in the climate and society master’s program at Columbia University. It simply felt like the right thing to do at a time when the world seems to be moving in the wrong direction. The climate challenge is a place where my knowledge, experience, passions and platform all intersect. It’s the place I can best make a difference. And that’s just as true for many broadcast meteorologists across this great nation of ours. Local communities are where some of the biggest climate communication challenges exist and where local experts are afforded the greatest opportunities to make a difference. Meteorologists are sewn into the unique cultural fabric of our cities and towns. We understand our people. Our people understand us. It’s us and only us, with our background in science, our communication charisma and our trusted local voice that can bridge the gap between science and society. At a time when mobile apps are seizing market share, connecting the dots between climate change and your local forecast is an opportunity to get away from common, data-driven predictions by adding your own expert perspective. In this age of quantity over quality, climate communication adds substance, helping raise the bar in local


‘We’re left in the dark’: As many industries get shutdown relief, those without political clout feel left behind

the loss of tax revenue to the U.S. Treasury, according to a person familiar with the department’s response. Second and third calls have been scheduled with agency officials for Monday and Tuesday. A Treasury Department spokeswoman declined to comment Some industries saw the potential fallout of a shutdown coming — and worked to mitigate it. During last year’s three-day government shutdown, the National Pork Producers Council and other livestock groups successfully pressed the Agriculture Department to continue publishing livestock pricing data — the major source of market information for the meat industry — reversing the position of the Obama administration. That policy has continued in the current shutdown. The pork council continues to have an open line to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and his staff, said council spokesman Jim Monroe. The USDA has for the last month continued to buy commodities under President Trump’s bailout for farmers hurt by the trade war with China, a large portion of which goes to pork producers. “They’ve listened to our concerns, and we’re very pleased,” Monroe said. And American Farm Bureau Federation executive vice president Dale Moore and a handful of his colleagues privately outlined their worries about the freeze in USDA loans and federal subsidies with Purdue just before he took the podium Monday to address farmers and ranchers gathered in New Orleans for the Farm Bureau’s annual convention, according to John Newton, the Farm Bureau’s chief economist. Two days later, Purdue announced that 2,500 employees in the Agriculture Department’s Farm Service Agency were being summoned back — without pay — for three days to hundreds of local offices across the country to help farmers complete paperwork for loan applications, process existing loan payments and open mail to “identify priority items.” Yet other USDA programs are drastically pared back. The Rural Housing Service, a $30 billion operation that funds construction, home loans and loan guarantees for homeowners, hospitals, child-care centers, libraries and schools in small-town America — along with rental assistance for the elderly and disabled — is largely shuttered, with thousands of employees across the country on furlough. As a result, no new loans or guarantees can be processed or closed. Rental assistance is flowing for now but will end in a month if the shutdown continues, according to David Lipsetz, chief executive of the Housing Assistance Council, a nonprofit group that helps build rural housing. “This shutdown is hitting poor


Travelers bound for Britain face new Brexit uncertainty

Teri-Lee Lawler-Baack is a little nervous after the British Parliament’s recent vote on Brexit, which set the stage for a potentially chaotic “no deal” departure from the European Union on March 29. She’s not the only one. “I’m holding my breath,” says Lawler-Baack, a retired investment adviser from Vacaville, Calif. She’s headed to Berkshire and the Isle of Wight this summer, and like many travelers with plans to visit the United Kingdom, she doesn’t know what to expect. “Will there be long lines for immigration in both directions?” she wonders. “What about the exchange rate? Should we buy pounds before we leave? Will Brexit even happen?” Nearly 4 million Americans visited Britain in 2017, the last year for which numbers are available, according to VisitBritain, the U.K.’s tourism-marketing organization. That’s an increase of 13 percent from the previous year and the highest number in 19 years. Although most visitors arrive and depart by air, just over 1 in 10 leave through the Channel Tunnel to explore the rest of Europe. Given the contentious exit negotiations, it’s no surprise that official sources of information have been quiet on the Brexit issue. The U.S. State Department, usually a reliable source of information for travelers, doesn’t mention Brexit on its information site for American travelers or its most recent travel advisory, dated Dec. 17. However, British authorities have published several helpful guides for inbound travelers, including a roundup of the expected changes post-Brexit. Most, if not all, of the worries are unfounded, experts say. “There is no change in travel relations between the U.S. and the U.K.,” says Ninan Chacko, CEO of Travel Leaders Group, a travel agency chain based in New York. But if you’re used to booking your reservations yourself, this may be the year to work with a travel adviser. Professional agents keep close tabs on entry and exit requirements, exchange rates and travel safety, and a competent travel expert can warn you if the situation changes or in the unlikely event that you need to rebook your trip. Staying informed is the best way to Brexit-proof your trip to Britain, says Simon Hudson, director of the Center of Economic Excellence in Tourism and Economic Development at the University of South Carolina. “Be flexible,” he says. “Arm yourself with knowledge about Brexit’s key issues.” Passports and entry requirements: Security: Airline passenger rights: Travel to and from the E.U.: Currency: Officials


Maryland offers free rides to unpaid federal workers commuting to work

The Maryland Transit Administration will waive fares for all federal employees commuting to work during the government shutdown. Workers who flash their federal ID can board the state’s bus, commuter trains and light-rail lines free. MTA joins a growing number of transit agencies across the country, including the Fairfax Connector, offering free rides to workers affected by the partial government shutdown, now in its 34th day. “Every single state transportation service is going to be free,” Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said Thursday while visiting unpaid Transportation Security Administration workers at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. Hogan and state transportation officials urged Metro to join the effort to help federal workers in the capital region. At a Metro board of directors meeting Thursday, General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld said there were no immediate plans to offer free or reduced rides to the affected federal workers. The agency is losing an estimated $400,000 a day during the shutdown as the loss of federal workers cuts into its already flagging ridership. Metro spokeswoman Sherri Ly said Thursday afternoon that the agency will explore options. “We appreciate Governor Hogan’s leadership to support federal employees, who account for a significant portion of Metrorail’s rush-hour ridership,” Ly said. “Working with our Maryland, DC and Virginia board members, we will explore ways to consider how we can implement the governor’s request on Metro.” Elsewhere in the region, the Fairfax Connector is offering free rides to all federal employees who are still required to report to work without pay. Those workers only need show their federal photo identification to board. The benefit is available on all routes, including the express lines to and from the Pentagon and downtown Washington. Last week, transit systems in Tampa, Kansas City and Austin announced free fares, with some offering passes to TSA workers. Faiz Siddiqui and Arelis Hernández contributed to this report.


Many Americans think that climate-change deniers ‘get what they deserve’ when disasters strike

that those who deny climate change “get what they deserve” when natural disaster strikes. To do this, we sampled 4,056 people using Lucid’s Fulcrum academic tool. Although the data are not nationally representative, Lucid targets representativeness on factors such as age, race, income, sex and region of residence. Data from Lucid has been shown to be much more reflective of nationally representative benchmarks than conventional convenience sample data. We asked our survey respondents two sets of questions. First, we asked about their views on climate change. Respondents could indicate that they do not know whether climate change is occurring; that climate change is not occurring; that climate change is occurring, spurred by “natural causes”; and, finally, that climate change is occurring because of “human activities.” About 54 percent of our respondents indicated that climate change is caused by human activities, an opinion shared by the overwhelming majority of the scientific community. Among those who believe human activities are causing climate change, we asked whether “people who don’t believe in climate change get what they deserve” when naturally occurring disasters strike where they live. Respondents indicated their agreement using a standard seven-point scale, ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree.” Shot through with schadenfreude More than a third of people who believe that climate change is primarily caused by humans agree at least somewhat with the idea that natural disaster victims who do not accept climate science get what they deserve when they’re hit by climate-caused disasters. The overwhelming majority (68 percent) of these people were Democrats, although some Republicans (22 percent) and independents (10 percent) held these feelings as well. Further, we find evidence consistent with the idea that this schadenfreude is fueled by partisan teamsmanship. The biggest politically motivated predictor of thinking that climate deniers deserve to be hit by natural disasters was whether someone identifies as an ideological liberal. In fact, among Democrats, identifying as a liberal is associated with approximately a 38 percent greater likelihood of believing that climate-change deniers get what they deserve if their region is devastated by a hurricane. To be clear, we do not mean to suggest that only liberals and Democrats blame victims or wish them ill, or that they are generally more likely to do so. We looked at only a single issue in this study: extreme weather patterns resulting from climate change. We expected those who agree with the scientific


Far from her homeland, my mother finds comfort at a Patel Brothers grocery store

My mom’s bucket list doesn’t include lavish trips to far-flung locales like Bora Bora or Peru. Instead, it stars a grocery store — more specifically, a Patel Brothers location in Naperville, Ill. She has heard rumors of its size, including one particularly egregious claim that it’s as big as a football stadium. (Most people agree that it’s as large as any beloved Midwestern supermarket, which is rare for an Indian grocery store in the States.) Every time she speaks about it, her eyes become wide and animated, as if she is running through the aisles in her mind. Recently, upon hearing that one of my friends is from Naperville, she asked him a million questions, not about his childhood or career, but about the Patel Brothers. Is it really that big? Is it really busy? Is it really as nice as everyone says? It’s unfathomable to her that such a place could exist. She arrived in the United States from India in the early 1980s, armed with a jet-black braid that fell down her back, dreams of dental school and an adamantine sense of determination. It was the first time she had been on a plane, the first time away from the comforts of home. Gone was the man who delivered fresh milk to the door in thick glass bottles and the vegetable seller who roamed the streets of her neighborhood shouting out his selections for the day. As she and my dad settled in a small, barren apartment in Detroit, with just a sleeping bag and a radio, there was only one place to find the flavors of home: a tiny, dimly lit Patel Brothers that was as well stocked as it could be. Still, she was thankful. There she could find mounds of jaggery; bags of crispy, salty sev; and pounds of whole wheat atta for making rotis. It meant she wouldn’t have to warm up limp grocery store pita and pretend it was naan or live off the one American dish she did like: bean tostadas at Taco Bell. Patel Brothers Just as Patel Brothers has evolved, so has my mom. She is no longer an immigrant fresh off the plane, trying to adjust to a new home thousands of miles from everything and everyone she knew. She owns a thriving dental practice that she built tooth by tooth. Her English features a robust vocabulary dotted with


from the comforts of home. Gone was the man who delivered fresh milk to the door in thick glass bottles and the vegetable seller who roamed the streets of her neighborhood shouting out his selections for the day. As she and my dad settled in a small, barren apartment in Detroit, with just a sleeping bag and a radio, there was only one place to find the flavors of home: a tiny, dimly lit Patel Brothers that was as well stocked as it could be. Still, she was thankful. There she could find mounds of jaggery; bags of crispy, salty sev; and pounds of whole wheat atta for making rotis. It meant she wouldn’t have to warm up limp grocery store pita and pretend it was naan or live off the one American dish she did like: bean tostadas at Taco Bell. Patel Brothers Just as Patel Brothers has evolved, so has my mom. She is no longer an immigrant fresh off the plane, trying to adjust to a new home thousands of miles from everything and everyone she knew. She owns a thriving dental practice that she built tooth by tooth. Her English features a robust vocabulary dotted with a soft accent. She likes one more item at Taco Bell (a soft taco with beans), and she has developed an inexplicable penchant for candy corn. At her local supermarket, she picks up bottles of ranch dressing and peruses the bulk bins for grains and nuts. Patel Brothers is no longer her place of survival; it’s her place of escape. Grocery shopping is usually a chore, one she does out of a strong distaste for restaurant food and even stronger drive to feed my dad, my brother and me a mind-blowing range of high-quality home-cooked Indian meals. At Patel Brothers, memories of her childhood flood back to her brain and her taste buds. In the produce section, she always excitedly points out the plump and craggy karela, filling the thin plastic bag to the top. Same for the okra — she swears Indian grocery stores always carry better okra — and mango, which she buys 12 at a time during peak season. On the rare days Patel Brothers stocks fresh sitafal, a fruit she reminisces about more than any other, it’s game over. On the aisle brimming with bags of lentils and flours, she pauses often to explain the favorite


With $100,000 donation to food bank, Nationals again aim to help during shutdown

during the shutdown. Ross’s response — “I know they are, and I don’t really quite understand why” — sparked outrage on social media. Around 800,000 furloughed federal employees are scheduled to miss their second consecutive paycheck this week if the government does not reopen. “It’s important to note that the government being central to Washington, D.C., so there are a lot of people being affected in the D.C. Metro area. But there are government programs that are being affected throughout the country,” Doolittle said. “I think it’s awesome that the Nationals have taken kind of the lead on this and it would be really exciting if we could maybe see some other teams follow suit.” Thursday afternoon, the Boston Red Sox Foundation, Boston Bruins Foundation and Celtics Shamrock Foundation made a $75,000 donation to the Massachusetts Coast Guard members affected by the shutdown, according to The Boston Globe. The Coast Guard is the only military branch currently working without pay. The donation to the Capital Area Food Back is the second measure the Nationals have taken to aid federal workers during the shutdown. On Jan. 7, they announced that employees or spouses of employees of federal agencies affected could start postponing monthly ticket payments. “For those of you who are employed by federal agencies impacted by the shutdown, we want to make sure that your NATS PLUS plan isn’t adding to your stress," the Nationals wrote in an email earlier in the month. Now the Nationals Dream Foundation hopes it can help alleviate a bit of stress in another way. “The Nationals put up $100,000, but people don’t need to put up a lot of money in order to make a big impact with the Capital Area Food Bank," Doolittle said. “Because every dollar being donated to the food bank provides two-and-a-half meals. So, like, a $20 donation is 50 meals. So at a time when someone has no idea when their next pay check is coming in, that could go a really long way.” Read more on the Nationals: Nationals may not make another bullpen move before spring training Jayson Werth weighs in on ‘the little furry creature’ Bryce Harper’s free agency Max Scherzer has a big announcement as Missouri retires his number Brian Dozier had more lucrative offers, but Nationals were ‘the best fit’ Bryce Harper signing with the Cubs is ‘not going to happen,' says Joe Maddon


Style Invitational Week 1316: Lies, damn lies, with statistics — a fake-trivia contest

(Click here to skip down to this week’s winning neologisms) Although the Chinese outnumber us 4 to 1, Americans have a greater combined weight. Manure collected from stalls at Churchill Downs has been proved to increase lawn growth by 153 percent vs. regular horse poo. In a study of 67 athletes who said they gave 110 percent, it was found that they actually gave an average of only 93.2 percent. When fully inflated, an adult Shar-Pei can reach up to seven feet in circumference. As 92 percent of politicians can tell you, lots of otherwise sensible people will believe anything when a few “statistics” are flung into the argument; some folks are so intimidated by numbers that they just turn off their brains and nod passively at the most patently ridiculous figures since Barbie’s. The Greater Loser Community has made hay from this phenomenon — 762.4 bales of it since 1993 — in various jokes over the years, especially in our bogus-trivia contests. So let’s go all digital at once: This week: Tell us some bogus trivia using “statistics” or some bogus quantitative measure, as in the examples above from earlier fictoid contests. Submit entries at wapo.st/enter-invite-1316 (all lowercase). Winner gets the Lose Cannon, our Style Invitational trophy. Second place receives the absolutely finest papier-mache rattle/maraca in the shape of a lime green frog wearing a bikini and covered in polka dots that you will ever see. Brought back directly from Cuba by Loser Ellen Goldlust. Other runners-up The Style Conversational And from The Style Invitational four weeks ago . . . FaR-OUT wit: T-O-U-R neologisms Week 1312 4th place: Tutorrid: Hot for teacher. (Jeff Contompasis, Ashburn, Va.) 3rd place: Manafortune cookie: “This isn’t the last sentence you’ll get. Lucky numbers: 15 to 30.” (Jesse Frankovich, Grand Ledge, Mich.) 2nd place and the Mr. Turdy molding toy: Troubleshouting: “YES, I HAVE ALREADY REBOOTED MY COMPUTER!!!” (Duncan Stevens, Vienna, Va.) And the winner of the Lose Cannon: Bit o' Uranus: Candy that did not sell as well as the Mars Bar. (Mark Raffman, Reston, Va.) Marginal-mastery TOUR: Honorable mentions Heel of Fortune: Looturgy: #MeTourism: Rotunderpants: Autoritarian: Attourniquet: Detouronomy: EUrotica: Altruotomy: Fortune nookie: Ampututor: Foxtrot Uniform: Et tu, Robin? A-trou-cious: BotRus BotRus Ghali: Distributor Cap: Dontourage: Tortuoso: Fartuoso: Full discloture: Go Ruth! Echotourism: “Got Russians?”: Microtrump: Torus trap: Heart-out: “I Get Round”: Nanotruth: Routhouse: Trotuous: Troubadorks: Blot rush: Auto-reject: Still running —


Autistic teen wins a lifetime supply of peanut butter. He’s giving jars away to furloughed workers.

Eric McKay, 15, really, really likes peanut butter. He prefers it with jelly slathered on two English muffins each day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. His mother, Tracy McKay, said he goes through a jar every three days. But his supply was running low. Eric, who has autism, tweeted to grocery store chain Lidl to ask when peanut butter would go on sale again. His mother had bought 72 jars last February at their local store’s grand opening. The company responded with a challenge: Get 72,000 retweets, and in exchange they would give him a lifetime supply of store-brand peanut butter. He succeeded. With his father — a furloughed federal worker — at his side at the Lidl store in Dumfries, Va., Eric and his family gave away several peanut butter jars Jan. 23 to other workers furloughed during the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. Eric is planning another peanut butter giveaway Saturday. His mother said her family, of Woodbridge, Va., including Eric’s three teenage siblings, have been making do "on a shoestring” since her husband has been unable to work because of the partial shutdown. He provides the family’s main source of income. She said Eric, who goes by the nickname “Bean,” told her he wanted to give away the peanut butter because “my dad is stuck at home. We don’t have any income, but we do have peanut butter, so we should share it.” Tracy McKay said, “To him, it was the obvious thing to do.” His mother said Eric’s preference for a particular food isn’t uncommon for people with autism, who can be sensitive to tastes, textures and sounds. She said they often choose to narrow their diets to foods with which they’re comfortable. For Eric, that’s peanut butter and English muffins. The teenager’s peanut butter challenge started after his mom bought six cases of Lidl peanut butter when it was on sale at the Dumfries store for 78 cents a jar. There was no limit, so she bought as much as she thought they could eat before it expired. Tracy McKay, who doesn’t like peanut butter, said Eric numbered the jars and put them in their basement. When Eric told his mother about his supply running low, she suggested that he tweet to Lidl to ask when it would be on sale again. The store responded in a Twitter message and gave him another 72


The shutdown is Trump’s ultimate attack on American intellectual life

creation in 1846 to today, the Smithsonian has funded and coordinated scientific, humanistic and artistic research programs; facilitated dialogue between professional researchers and the public; and built collections that are storehouses of knowledge as well as sites of democratic exchange. The first secretary of the Smithsonian, scientist Joseph Henry, insisted that “the worth and importance of the Institution is not to be estimated by what it accumulates within the walls of its building, but by what it sends forth to the world.” Almost a century later, the long-standing commitment to bring knowledge to bear on democracy remained fierce during World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt believed that “books [were] weapons” in the Allies’ fight against totalitarianism. If Nazis burned books and tried to “put thought in a concentration camp,” then it fell to American democracy to bring books that can liberate the mind into the hands of as many readers as possible. The Office of War Information (OWI), together with the nonprofit Council on Books in Wartime (CBW), thus coordinated to produced English- and foreign-language editions of American books to provide to foreign readers liberated by the Allies. Roosevelt also tapped engineer Vannevar Bush to head the Office of Scientific Research and Development during the war to expand scientific understanding, seeing it as instrumental for exploring and safeguarding American democracy. In his landmark report “Science — the Endless Frontier” (1945), Bush stressed that scientific research is the “proper concern of Government,” and such a view “is in keeping with the American tradition — one which has made the United States great. . . . Without scientific progress we could not have maintained our liberties against tyranny.” In 1950, such a sentiment was axiomatic, leading Congress to fund the National Science Foundation (NSF), an independent federal agency devoted to scientific research. And yet, these institutional bulwarks of democracy are now closed. The Smithsonian’s approximately 154 million artifacts, documents and specimens are not being sent “forth to the world,” but are inaccessible to researchers and the public. A particularly troubling closure is the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, which also has been turned into a sealed vault. As Americans confront growing political divides today, they are being denied access by their own elected officials to the vital sources of their past to understand and navigate inequality and polarization. And while the NSF’s record of accomplishment has been extraordinary, and its


provide to foreign readers liberated by the Allies. Roosevelt also tapped engineer Vannevar Bush to head the Office of Scientific Research and Development during the war to expand scientific understanding, seeing it as instrumental for exploring and safeguarding American democracy. In his landmark report “Science — the Endless Frontier” (1945), Bush stressed that scientific research is the “proper concern of Government,” and such a view “is in keeping with the American tradition — one which has made the United States great. . . . Without scientific progress we could not have maintained our liberties against tyranny.” In 1950, such a sentiment was axiomatic, leading Congress to fund the National Science Foundation (NSF), an independent federal agency devoted to scientific research. And yet, these institutional bulwarks of democracy are now closed. The Smithsonian’s approximately 154 million artifacts, documents and specimens are not being sent “forth to the world,” but are inaccessible to researchers and the public. A particularly troubling closure is the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, which also has been turned into a sealed vault. As Americans confront growing political divides today, they are being denied access by their own elected officials to the vital sources of their past to understand and navigate inequality and polarization. And while the NSF’s record of accomplishment has been extraordinary, and its contributions to the U.S. economic leadership, technological prowess, national security and way of life are unmistakable, it too has been deemed “nonessential” in today’s shutdown battle. Now, instead of providing support to researchers in the sciences, the NSF offers an orange “ALERT” message on its website: “Due to a lapse in appropriations, NSF is closed.” There is no way — nor a reason — to weigh which closure is the most painful for its staff or will have the most deleterious effects on Americans’ well-being and productivity. But the closure of the National Archives is a particularly disturbing symbol of a democratic culture that has lost its way and is sorely cut off from its past. Locked within the archives and out of reach of the nation they helped bring into being are the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Perhaps this is fitting, because it is a lack of historical consciousness, a failure to recognize that the dissemination of knowledge is the only safeguard for democracy, that got us into this mess in the first place.


Despite shutdown, grants for arts and culture groups are back on track — at least for now

The National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts will reopen Monday after being shuttered since Dec. 22 because of the partial government shutdown. The federal cultural agencies provide crucial support to museums, libraries, artists and scholars across the country, and February is a critical time for their grantmaking decisions. The independent offices, created in 1965, each had budgets of about $153 million last year. The agencies, which the Trump administration’s first two budgets tried to eliminate, will use remaining FY18 administrative funds to reopen for up to four weeks, officials said. The agencies hope to “minimize any interruption in the awarding of federal funds,” according to the NEH website. “I want to underscore that since they are being taken off furlough, [employees] will receive all of their salary and benefits,” NEH Chairman Jon Parrish Peede wrote in an email. Washington’s federally supported museums used a similar fiscal move at the start of the shutdown. The National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo used reserve funds to stay open for the first 10 days of the shutdown, which coincided with the busy holiday season. The NEH awards grants to cultural and educational institutions, scholars and partner agencies in 55 states and territories and the District of Columbia. The NEA supports theaters, dance companies and music and visual arts groups in all 50 states and the District, including such local organizations as Arena Stage, Ford’s Theatre and the National Symphony Orchestra. It also supports arts education and community arts programs. The federal agencies have been closed and their federal workers furloughed since the government shutdown began Dec. 22. Peede said that “prudent fiscal management” would allow its employees to return. “Reopening now coincides with the critical workload in mid-January through February that is necessary to award spring grants,” according to a statement on the NEH website. An NEA spokeswoman provided the same statement about its reopening. Arts and humanities organizations have been struggling with the effects of the shutdown. California Humanities has suspended grants, and other NEH partner agencies have been tapping reserves and cutting expenses in anticipation of losing federal support. Matthew Gibson, executive director of Virginia Humanities, another of the NEH’s state partners, said the field is concerned for the future. “If this were to continue, I think we would have to think of other ways to tighten our belts,” Gibson


The Technology 202: Workers in heartland states most at risk of losing jobs to AI, new study finds

technologies. Efforts to expand such protections have largely faltered in Congress. Last summer, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced legislation that would support Americans displaced by automation with job retraining and financial assistance. The TAA for Automation Act of 2018 stalled in the Senate. As Gillibrand enters the 2020 race, she could potentially elevate the issue. She mentioned job training programs as a key issue when she announced she was forming a committee to explore a presidential campaign on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” Another effort in Congress has been the Artificial Intelligence Caucus. Members of the caucus have introduced legislation that would create a formal federal panel on artificial intelligence that would study the impact it will have on jobs. Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.) was recently named the caucus co-chair in December. “The rise of artificial intelligence offers a host of new benefits for Americans — including new job opportunities,” McNerney told me in a statement. “However, as our economy shifts, it’s critical that we examine the impact of AI on our nation’s workforce and potential displacement that may result.” BITS: The Chinese government appeared to block Microsoft's search engine Bing on Wednesday, even though the company had already censored its results to gain acceptance by the government, The move appeared to be “a startling renunciation of more than a decade of efforts by Microsoft to engage with Beijing to make its products available,” The New York Times said. Microsoft has long cooperated with local companies to provide its Windows and cloud services, and it has established a research and development center in the country. If the block is permanant, it would signal that it’s becoming more difficult for Western companies to operate in the world’s largest Internet market by users. NIBBLES: U.S. politics followed tech leaders all the way to Davos, Switzerland, where they are facing questions about taxes and the partial federal government shutdown. Michael Dell, the founder and head of Dell Technologies, said he opposes a proposal by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) to tax the rich with a 70 percent tax rate on income above $10 million Meanwhile, Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said federal employees who have been furloughed have started to work as drivers for the ride-hailing company Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said at Davos that the social network must regain the public's trust following data privacy scandals BYTES: Zumigo, a company


The Finance 202: Economists worry ‘zero growth’ may be reality as shutdown drags on

tell me. Yet they agree the closure of key government agencies is approaching an inflection point, beyond which the pain will be more widely spread and tougher to measure. “The economic impact of the shutdown is modest,” Ryan Sweet, director of real-time economics for Moody’s Analytics, tells me. “But we’re now getting into the period where the spillover effects are becoming more intense.” Lewis Alexander, chief U.S. economist for Nomura, agrees the shutdown is now “at a point where these effects could become nonlinear.” This Friday, 800,000 federal workers will miss their second straight paycheck. And the shutdown appears to be weighing on consumer confidence more broadly Hassett, appearing on CNN, said even if the shutdown persists through March, the damage will be short-lived. He predicted a rapid rebound: “The second-quarter number would be humongous,” he said. Other economists aren't as sanguine. While the economic hit from the furloughed workers alone is “fairly small," other problems could have a bigger impact. "What can become quite large is the knock-on effect Housing assistance for low-income renters has been thrown into limbo; millions of families relying on food stamps could see benefits curtailed; rural home buyers can’t get loans backed by the Agriculture Department; neither can small-business owners, since the Small Business Administration is shuttered; tax refunds could be delayed as hundreds of Internal Revenue Service employees are skipping work because of financial hardship; and companies looking to go public can't, since most Securities and Exchange Commission employees have been furloughed. These sorts of “second-round effects” could flatten first-quarter economic growth “because creditors and suppliers of businesses hit by the shutdown will become less patient if it drags on,” Pantheon Macroeconomics chief economist Ian Shepherdson wrote in a Wednesday note. “Federal employees will receive their back pay, but that doesn’t mean that the businesses they patronize will be made whole by extra spending after the shutdown. In short, then, don't be deceived by benign payroll numbers for January; people and businesses are being hurt by the shutdown, and the pain will intensify.” — Trump blinks in SOTU staring contest with Pelosi. Here was Trump late last night: — House Democrats put an offer for more “border security" on the table to end the shutdown. But they won't support a wall. The letter was not final, and the exact figure Democrats will suggest was not yet determined, but lawmakers and aides said it


The Daily 202: An unintended consequence? Shutdown highlights the importance and value of government.

net to survive that are suffering because of scaled-back government services. A lot of what the feds do is background noise. Like breathing, regular people don’t think about it. Until they lose oxygen. -- The airports, where TSA agents are being forced to work without pay, have gotten a lot of attention in this regard. -- The shutdown is also hobbling key parts of the financial system as companies ditch plans and scramble to deal with how to operate without the help of regulators -- -- Consider this trio of dispatches from the Associated Press: 1. “Government shutdown delays, disrupts environmental studies,” by John Flesher and Tammy Webber: “The rainwater collection system is broken at the environmental research station on a remote, rocky Pacific island off the California coast. So is a crane used to hoist small boats in and out of the water. A two-year supply of diesel fuel for the power generators is almost gone. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service personnel ordinarily would help with such problems. But they haven’t been around since the … shutdown began a month ago, forcing researchers with the nonprofit Point Blue Conservation Science to rely on volunteers to haul bottled water and 5-gallon jugs of diesel to the Farallon Islands National Refuge, about 30 miles from San Francisco. … ‘We’ve found some creative solutions, but things will get more strained the longer the shutdown is continued,’ said Pete Warzybok, a marine ecologist with Point Blue. … “Scientists with universities, nonprofit organizations and private companies say their inability to collaborate with federal partners, gain access to federal lands and laboratories, and secure federal funding is jeopardizing their work on a vast array of subjects, including invasive and endangered species and air and water quality. Researchers might miss court-ordered deadlines for reports involving endangered plants or animals. Warm-weather field studies that must be planned months in advance could be delayed or canceled. And studies that rely on strict monitoring or testing schedules could be compromised.” 2. “Rescuers who respond to distressed whales and other marine animals say the federal government shutdown is making it more difficult to do their work,” Patrick Whittle reports from Maine. “A network of rescue groups in the U.S. works with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to respond to marine mammals such as whales and seals when the animals are in trouble, such as when they are stranded on


They went to Mexico for surgery. They came back with a deadly superbug.

at Grand View Hospital, linked to eight of the infections, until Mexican authorities confirm its safety. Hospital officials did not return calls seeking comment. Nor did the medical tourism agency Weight Loss Agents, which books procedures there and at other hospitals. A woman who answered the agency’s telephone blamed reports of infections on “a competitor’s smear campaign.” She declined to give her name. Mexican authorities said they temporarily closed the hospital’s operating unit in December, but the facility has since reopened and resumed surgeries, according to patients posting on its website. The Tijuana cases highlight the growing number of Americans getting antibiotic-resistant infections overseas after traveling to get medical care abroad. Some who were not traveling for medical procedures but fell ill and went to foreign hospitals have also contracted such infections. Officials say they are anxious to prevent such pathogens from gaining a foothold in the United States, because they are so difficult to treat. “We pounce when we see them [extremely antibiotic-resistant infections] because we know they can smolder and spread,” said Maroya Spalding Walters, an epidemiologist leading the CDC team investigating the outbreak. “And no one may recognize it until this becomes an out-of-control wildfire.” According to Patients Beyond Borders, a medical tourism guidebook, 1.7 million Americans traveled to other countries in 2017 for medical care, and that number is expected to increase. Many, such as Capone, travel to save money. Mexico is among the top 10 destinations. Weight-loss surgery, in vitro fertility procedures and cosmetic surgery are among the most sought treatments generally, according to the Medical Tourism Association, a U.S.-based organization whose members include hospitals, clinicians and insurance companies. There is little data about infectious diseases related to medical tourism. But the CDC has documented several outbreaks, including severe skin infections among dozens of patients who had cosmetic surgery in the Dominican Republic in 2013 and 2017. Several of the infections were drug-resistant. In 2014, five New York residents contracted Q fever, a flulike illness caused by bacteria found in goats, sheep and cows, after getting injections of fetal sheep cells in Germany. The World Health Organization considers the superbug infecting Capone — carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa — one of its three highest priorities for new antibiotics. The organism packs “a double whammy,” Walters said, because it has a genetic mutation that allows it to transmit its antibiotic-destroying gene to other bacteria to make them resistant


White House seeks list of programs that would be hurt if shutdown lasts into March

in addition to dealing with the daily problems caused by the shutdowns, Mulvaney is forcing them to comprehend how to run parts of their bureaucracies without money for an extended period of time. The impact is expected to spread to at least tens of millions of people, who rely on government services that are impacted. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose Mulvaney’s demand. A senior White House budget official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe the request, said “prudent management means planning and preparing for events without known end-dates.” These requests will be first presented to the White House’s budget office and then sent to Mulvaney. The official said the request does not signal whether the administration believes the shutdown will last to March. The shutdown has already caused the federal government to stop paying 800,000 employees, but the impact is expected to become exponentially broader in the coming weeks. The federal court system is likely to halt major operations after Feb. 1, and the Department of Agriculture does not have funding to pay food stamp benefits in March to roughly 40 million people. The White House also faces a backlash from many federal workers, who face missing a second consecutive paycheck in the coming days. Some workers have balked at continuing without being paid, and their unions are filing legal action against the administration. And there were new signs on Wednesday that federal agencies are still trying to comprehend the scope of their growing problems. The U.S. General Services Administration, an agency that manages many of the government’s leases and contracts, notified a number of departments that it is likely to need new flexibility from Congress in order for it to make utility and lease payments in the coming days. It has asked Congress for the ability to redirect $520 million so that it doesn’t fall behind on these costs. The request is still pending. Many federal agencies lease space in commercial buildings around the country, and if the GSA can’t make rental payments for these departments the government could incur major fees and other costs. This could also have a big impact on the property owners, which rely on large government payments for their income. GSA has stressed to agencies that they will not be evicted if the payments are missed, but it is unclear what