Notable deaths in the Washington area

Carolina, Atlanta and Fairfax County, Va., died Aug. 27 at his home in Haymarket, Va. The cause was a heart ailment, said a daughter, Kathleen Thiringer. Mr. McKavitt was born in Atlanta and raised in an orphanage in Washington until he was 4, when he took the surname of his adoptive parents. From 1985 to 1997, he worked for Vinnell Corp. in Fairfax County and became vice president for human resources. His work included setting up Job Corps centers across the United States and in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Turkey and Egypt. He retired in 1997, then ran a consulting business specializing in human resources for start-up businesses until 2004. Ruth Field, chemist, research associate Ruth Field, 90, a chemist, research associate and teacher who retired in 2000 after 10 years as a senior researcher at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research of the National Institutes of Health, died Sept. 12 at an assisted-living center in North Bethesda, Md. The cause was a stroke, said a daughter, Melanie Field. Dr. Field, a resident of Chevy Chase, Md., was born Ruth Bisen in Brooklyn. She settled in the Washington area in 1957. After a decade as a homemaker, she became a research associate for Microbiological Associates in Bethesda. She later worked at the Food and Drug Administration, the Agriculture Department, the University of Maryland, Georgetown University and the medical center of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Louis DePalma, pathologist Louis DePalma, 62, a George Washington University pathologist for 25 years who specialized in blood diseases and cancers of the immune system, died Sept. 6 at his home in Bethesda, Md. The cause was cancer, said his wife, Adriana DePalma. Dr. DePalma was born in Brooklyn and had lived in the Washington area since 1987. He worked at the National Institutes of Health and Children’s National Medical Center before joining the GWU hospital staff in 1993. At his death, he was chief of hematopathology and molecular pathology and director of the division of clinical pathology at GWU. His medical specialties included blood coagulation and bleeding disorders. Reginald Dale, journalist Reginald Dale, 78, a journalist who from 1993 to 2002 wrote a syndicated column on global affairs for the International Herald Tribune, died Sept. 13 at his home in Etlan, Va. The cause was cancer, said his wife, Helle C. Dale. Malcolm Reginald Dale was born in Epsom, England, and was a


At Trump’s big-city hotels, business dropped as his political star rose, internal documents show

which the New York hotel market is experiencing a comeback. Individual board members either declined to comment about the minutes of that meeting, or did not return calls from The Post. In May, Sanders wrote to the hotel’s investors with a bit of good news: Revenue had increased in the first quarter of 2018. The reason, he wrote in his quarterly letter: “a last-minute visit to New York by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia,” in which a number of travelers accompanying the prince paid to stay at the Trump hotel. The Trump Organization did not respond to questions asking whether the Saudi government — a key U.S. ally — had paid for that block of rooms. Also in May, Trump nominated Soloway — the board member who had voted to end discussion of a name change — to the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition alongside a raft of celebrities, including New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, former baseball star Mariano Rivera, TV personality Mehmet Oz and Lou Ferrigno, who starred in the TV show “The Incredible Hulk.” A spokeswoman for the council said that Soloway had withdrawn his name from consideration a month later, on June 7. When The Post emailed Soloway about the hotel, his response included 62 exclamation points. “Don’t write or attempt to reach me again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” he wrote in late August. He signed the email, “Stephen Soloway . . . Presidents Council for Sports Fitness & Nutrition.” In Chicago, Trump’s hotel had a lot going for it: a prime location along the revitalized Chicago River; a roof-deck restaurant, Sixteen, with two Michelin stars; and a clientele that included at least five pro-sports teams. “Then the Embarrassment came,” said Michael Goldberg, who has owned his unit since the building opened in 2008 and, like some other investors who responded to The Post, is no fan of Trump’s politics. The pro teams stopped coming. The two-star restaurant closed. Goldberg found that he couldn’t even give away his unit for nothing. “My daughter is getting married in September. They had their bachelorette [party], and I offered it to her for free. And she said, ‘I would rather pay [to stay] somewhere else.’ ” The Trump Organization issued a statement about the Chicago hotel, saying that “the hotel is performing incredibly well, exceeding market share while garnering numerous accolades.” But in a “sales and marketing strategic update” shared


Climate scientists are struggling to find the right words for very bad news

degrees Celsius, said Shindell, bluntly. “This would be a really enormous lift.” So enormous, he said, that it would require a monumental shift toward decarbonization. By 2030 — barely a decade away — the world’s emissions would need to drop by about 40 percent. By the middle of the century, societies would need to have zero net emissions. What might that look like? In part, it would include things such as no more gas-powered vehicles, a phaseout of coal-fired power plants and airplanes running on biofuels, he said. “It’s a drastic change,” he said. “These are huge, huge shifts … This would really be an unprecedented rate and magnitude of change.” And that’s just the point — 1.5 degrees is still possible, but only if the world goes through a staggering transformation. An early draft (leaked and published by the website Climate Home News) suggests that future scenarios of a 1.5 C warming limit would require the massive deployment of technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the air and bury it below the ground. Such technologies do not exist at anything close to the scale that would be required. “There are now very small number of pathways [to 1.5C] that don’t involve carbon removal,” said Jim Skea, chair of the IPCC’s Working Group III and a professor at Imperial College London. It’s not clear how scientists can best give the world’s governments this message — or to what extent governments are up for hearing it. An early leaked draft of the report said there was a “very high risk” that the world would warm more than 1.5 degrees. But a later draft, also leaked to Climate Home News, appeared to back off, instead saying that “there is no simple answer to the question of whether it is feasible to limit warming to 1.5 C . . . feasibility has multiple dimensions that need to be considered simultaneously and systematically." None of this language is final. That’s what this week in Incheon — intended to get the report ready for an official release on Monday — is all about. “I think many people would be happy if we were further along than we are,” the IPCC’s Lynn said Wednesday morning in Incheon. “But in all the approval sessions that I’ve seen, I’ve seen five of them now, that has always been the case. It sort of gets there in the end.”


Suspect was flush with $100 bills after D.C. quadruple killing, witness testifies

Days after federal prosecutors say Daron Wint killed three members of a Northwest Washington family and their housekeeper, Wint caught a bus to New York and began splurging on his then-fiancee, according to court testimony. Devonie Hayles told jurors this week that Wint treated her to dinner, took her shoe shopping and bought her groceries. Each time Wint paid, Hayles testified, he pulled out $100 bills. The 32-year-old woman testified that Wint told her the cash was from lottery winnings and the sale of his minivan. Prosecutors contend that it was from the $40,000 in ransom businessman Savvas Savopoulos had delivered to his home in May 2015 in a failed effort to save his own life and the lives of his wife, their son and the housekeeper. The testimony in D.C. Superior Court comes four weeks into the high-profile quadruple murder trial. Prosecutors expect to wrap up their case as early as next week. The defense will then have an opportunity to present evidence. Hayles’s account brought a rare outward show of emotion from Wint, a former employee of a Savopoulos family business. Often soft-spoken, Hayles told jurors Tuesday that she met Wint via Facebook in 2013 when he sent her a friend request. They found they had things in common, including a love of cars, and began dating. When Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Bach asked Hayles to point out Wint in the courtroom, she broke down in tears. Wint also began crying, causing the courtroom clerk to walk over and offer him two tissues. Wint is charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping, arson and other charges in the May 14, 2015, killings of Savopoulos, 46; his wife, Amy, 47; their son, Philip, 10; and their housekeeper, Veralicia “Vera” Figueroa, 57. Authorities say Wint held the four captive until the money was delivered and then killed them and set the house on fire. Wint, 37, pleaded not guilty and has argued, through his public defenders, that his brother, Steffon, and half brother, Darrell, carried out the killings. The defense claims Wint was summoned to the Savopoulos home by his brothers, but remained downstairs and had no idea victims were bound in upstairs bedrooms. Neither brother has been charged. Steffon Wint testified Monday that he had no role in the killings. In court, Hayles provided an account of Daron Wint’s activities in the days leading up to his arrest on May 21,


Meet the man at the center of the high-stakes, winner-take-all $10 billion Pentagon cloud contract called JEDI

increasing importance on facing superpowers such as Russia and China. For years, those countries have steadily been working to erode the technological superiority that the U.S. has enjoyed since World War II. A robust cloud system would allow the Pentagon the kind of computing power to unleash artificial intelligence, deep learning and the technologies of the future that the Pentagon thinks will be essential for modern warfare. Developing the system “will revolutionize how we fight and win wars,” Deasy said in a statement last summer. In the interview, he stressed that “it’s not lost on us that this strategy is of paramount importance to the Department of Defense. It’s important to industry. There are a lot of people watching this. “ Tuning out the noise may prove difficult. The procurement has been controversial from the start, with allegations that it was rigged for Amazon Web Services, one of the world’s largest cloud providers, which also holds a $600 million contract to provide cloud services for the CIA. The opportunity comes as Amazon is moving aggressively to expand its business with the federal government, seeking to remake the $100 billion federal IT market just as it did commercial retail. The sudden emergence of the company’s Amazon Web Services cloud computing unit — now the fastest-growing part of Amazon’s business — has left legacy contractors alarmed and ready to fight. Earlier this year, Amazon’s competitors said their suspicions were heightened when the Pentagon awarded a contract worth up to $950 million to a start-up called Rean Cloud that is a partner with AWS. Oracle successfully protested the award and the Defense Department slashed the contract value to no more than $65 million. Then in early March, Pentagon officials revealed that they would go to just one provider for JEDI contract, sparking even more criticism from many potential bidders — though not Amazon. Microsoft said a better approach would “leverage the innovations of multiple cloud service providers.” An IBM executive likened it to the Air Force using only cargo planes for every mission. Oracle took the highly unusual step of challenging the bid before a winner was even selected. If its challenge is successful that could delay the effort or force Deasy’s team to change course. Throughout it all, the Pentagon hasn’t budged in its approach to the JEDI contract. In the interview, Deasy was adamant that awarding the contract to a single


A journalist’s disappearance may rev up a Middle East rivalry

. . Jamal has offered readers of The Post insightful commentary and sharp criticism about the seemingly impenetrable country," he wrote. The geopolitical backdrop to Khashoggi’s disappearance is worth considering. In 2013, after a military coup unseated Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and brutally crushed his Muslim Brotherhood, a host of Egyptian dissidents and Islamist politicians took up residence in Istanbul. Erdogan remains a staunch critic of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, the former army officer who ousted Morsi. Sissi has counted on the support of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two Persian Gulf monarchies that have actively worked against Islamist political parties across the Arab world. In a column for The Post, Khashoggi rebuked the “intolerant hatred” shown by the Saudis and Emiratis “for any form of political Islam.” He argued “there can be no political reform and democracy in any Arab country without accepting that political Islam is a part of it.” That’s a position welcomed by Erdogan, who once hoped his brand of religiously tinged democratic politics would be embraced by the Arab world. Instead, his rule has grown more autocratic, and the Middle East has been consumed by a series of wars and bitter geopolitical disputes. That includes the standoff between the Saudis, Emiratis and their allies on one side and Qatar on the other. Turkey flew troops and food supplies into Qatar last year and still maintains a military base in Doha. Meanwhile, the Qataris pledged to inject $15 billion worth of investment in Turkey’s flagging economy in August. Some analysts read Ankara’s moves — coupled with Erdogan’s overtures to Iran over the past year — as a riposte to the emergence of a U.S.-backed Middle East bloc including the Saudis, Emiratis and even Israel. Amid the chaos of the region’s politics, Khashoggi urged the kingdom conduct itself with “ethics” and “dignity” — and therefore called on Saudi Arabia to draw down its war in Yemen. Khashoggi also wrote about the pain of seeing friends arrested or otherwise forced into silence. “I have left my home, my family and my job, and I am raising my voice,” he wrote in his first column for The Post, where he openly worried about facing arrest if he returned. “To do otherwise would betray those who languish in prison. I can speak when so many cannot. I want you to know that Saudi Arabia has not always


Why it took the world so long to call rape used as a weapon of war by its name: A war crime

The Nobel Peace Prize committee has handed out its prestigious annual award to two groups of laureates in recent years: people who were behind treaties or agreements that paved the way for peace, and inspiring individuals or groups whose work is still very much needed to address problems unlikely to be resolved anytime soon. This year’s prize winners — Denis Mukwege, a Congolese gynecologist, and Nadia Murad, an Iraqi Yazidi — would probably fall into the latter category. Mukwege and Murad have led the way to stop the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war, but it’s hard to overstate how much more work needs to be done. Late last year, Human Rights Watch documented how Burmese troops systematically raped Muslim Rohingya women to spread terror and fear as part of what has been condemned as a “cleansing campaign” that drove hundreds of thousands out of the country and into Bangladesh. Holding the perpetrators accountable and preventing such acts is a “prerequisite for lasting peace,” said Berit Reiss-Andersen, Norwegian Nobel Committee chair. But that’s a rather new international consensus, and one that is still blatantly ignored by some nations. Doing so became at least slightly more difficult in 2008, when the United Nations finally recognized rape during conflicts as a war crime. Legally, the resolution may not have been as groundbreaking as reported at the time, given that the Nuremberg trials and subsequent tribunals in Rwanda and elsewhere had already resulted in condemnations of rape and sexual violence as crimes of war. But the 2008 U.N. resolution was unprecedented in its scope and acknowledgment of failure. It clearly stated that sexual violence in war had “become systematic and widespread, reaching appalling levels of brutality,” because not enough was done to prevent such acts, and acknowledged the “negative impact this has on durable peace, security and reconciliation, including post-conflict peacebuilding.” That link itself wasn’t new, given that rape had accompanied wars for centuries. But what changed in the 20th century was the emergence of a far more systematic use of it during ethnic cleansing campaigns and other conflicts — a disturbing development with effects that took decades to be fully understood. Early on in the century, Japanese soldiers abducted hundreds of thousands of women in occupied territories and forced them into prostitution during World War II. When the war ended, the Allied forces took a number of steps to


The U.S. wants to punish Russia for election interference. India is caught in the crossfire.

NEW DELHI — When the United States enacted a series of sanctions in retaliation for Russia’s alleged interference in U.S. elections, the goal was to punish an adversary, not to penalize friends. But that is exactly what could happen as India — a country that the United States has sought to cultivate as a strategic partner — moves ahead with a major $5 billion weapons purchase from Moscow. On Friday, during an official visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to New Delhi, India signed a contract to buy five S-400 Triumf antiaircraft missile systems from Russia. In theory, such a transaction will expose Indian entities and officials to U.S. sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act. The legislation, which was passed last year, mandated penalties for countries doing significant business with Russia’s defense and intelligence sectors. Now the crucial question is whether President Trump will grant a waiver to India for the purchase of the S-400. Last month, the United States imposed sanctions on an arm of the Chinese military for buying Russian fighter planes as well as equipment for the S-400. The United States and India have drawn closer in recent years as both countries cast a wary eye on China’s growing influence in the region. But the tussle over the Russian missile system represents a case of conflicting priorities. From the U.S. perspective, the sanctions are a necessary and appropriate response to Russian interference in the U.S. elections — and Washington expects allies to assist in that effort. India, meanwhile, is keen to deepen ties with the United States but not at the cost of severing a long-standing defense relationship with Russia. More broadly, it wants the independence to determine its own approach to countries like Iran and China, where its interests may differ substantially from those of the United States. India “cannot be put in a position where, in effect, Washington decides what kind of relationship they have with these other countries,” said Ashley Tellis, a former senior George W. Bush administration official and longtime India expert. “That’s where Delhi will draw a bright red line.” Russia is India’s largest arms supplier, a relationship that dates to the Cold War. Between 2013 and 2017, Russia accounted for 62 percent of India’s arms imports, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. That percentage is declining, however, as India ramps up defense cooperation with the United


White House report points to severe shortcomings in U.S. military supply chain

Uncertain budgets, a broken procurement system and an unfair trade environment have eroded the United States’ defense industrial base to levels at which national security could be at risk, a long-awaited White House report released Thursday concluded, bringing new urgency to problems that have worried acquisition experts for years. The report states that “all facets of the manufacturing and defense industrial base are currently under threat” and that there are entire “industries near domestic extinction,” forcing the Pentagon to look overseas for help. Top procurement officials said the findings underscored the need to think more critically about the U.S. military’s supply chain and its relationship with defense contractors. “Without a robust, secure and resilient industrial base, you cannot provide lethality for the warfighter,” said Ellen Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment. “Our industrial base is only as strong as our Department’s relationship with industry.” President Trump is expected to unveil a public version of the report Friday afternoon and sign an executive order meant to address the problems it raises. In a Thursday evening phone call, Lord and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manufacturing Eric Chewning declined to provide an exact dollar figure for how much extra defense funding would be behind the effort, and they shied away from directly answering questions about whether new subsidies for defense firms could be part of the solution. But a senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss how the White House would respond, described targeted cash infusions designed to shore up particular areas of weakness, including $70 million for a company that makes gun components and extra funding for Abrams tank parts. The report drew attention to long-standing problems affecting the defense industrial base, with a focus on China. The report makes the case that U.S. economic security and national security are inseparable, a line of thinking that the Trump administration has also used to justify erecting new trade barriers against Chinese steel and aluminum. As the global economy has become more integrated across transnational borders, the vast supply chain serving the U.S. military has become dependent on low-cost foreign components — too dependent, Trump administration officials say. Things such as machine tools, infrared detectors and night-vision systems are largely provided by foreign suppliers, officials say, raising questions about whether the U.S. military would have access to them in a protracted war. The report also alleges


D.C.’s newest restaurants include global fast-casuals and a big-name steakhouse

September brought even more fast-casual options for Washington diners, with Turkish and Mediterranean dishes competing in a crowded market. But the arrival of a new Stephen Starr steakhouse is always going to be hard to ignore. St. Anselm Kintsugi Pisco Y Nazca [First bite: Peruvian classics drowned out by a heaping side of noise] Leon Magnolia Bakery [Magnolia Bakery — yes, the one in ‘Sex and the City’ — is now open at Union Station] Tempo Read more: 14 things to do around D.C. in October, from Stanley Cup corn mazes to the area’s best beer festival How to snag a cheap meal at 4 of D.C.’s most celebrated, pricey restaurants The best places to celebrate Oktoberfest in the D.C. area


Nobel Peace Prize awarded to two figures who brought attention to ending sexual violence in armed conflicts

Denis Mukwege, a Congolese gynecologist, has treated thousands of victims of gang rape. Fellow laureate Nadia Murad is a Yazidi activist who was for several years kidnapped and held by Islamic State militants.This is a developing story. It will be updated.


Murad’s story is one of unbelievable bravery and survival. It’s also one of thousands.

The life of Nadia Murad, winner of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, changed forever when Islamic State militants overran her village in Iraq four years ago, intent on murder, kidnap and rape. She had dreamed of being a teacher or working in a beauty salon. Instead, she was rounded up, taken captive and passed among militants as a sex slave. Her six brothers and her mother were killed. “It was genocide, pure and simple,” she later recounted in a speech to the United Nations. “I was not alone, and perhaps I was a lucky one.” At least 6,800 members of the Yazidi religious sect were captured as a result of the Islamic State’s push on Sinjar. Thousands remain missing, including at least 1,300 women and children, according to Murad. More than 3,000 have escaped or been freed. Their stories permeate northern Iraq, sometimes whispered, sometimes shouted. In 2015, I met with Sahira Habo. She used charcoal and a needle to etch her husband’s name into her skin as a reminder, as she was raped and passed from militant to militant, that her heart was only his as her body became no longer hers. Her first captor, a Tunisian Islamic State militant, loaned her out to other fighters for nights. Her second, a Libyan, was possessive and full of rage and eventually beat her 2-year-old daughter to death. The interpreter cried as he translated her story. It is for women such as Habo that Murad has raised her voice, choosing to speak out while battling her own trauma. “We must work together with determination — to prove that genocidal campaigns will not only fail, but lead to accountability for the perpetrators and justice for the survivors,” Murad said in a statement Friday. The Islamic State’s brutality was already well documented by the summer of 2014. The group was notorious for its brutal executions, which it filmed and distributed online in slickly edited videos. A few months before closing in on Sinjar, they had retaken Mosul, one of Iraq’s largest cities, and the initial capture of the tiny villages clustered in the mountainous area drew limited international attention. Kurdish forces, who had been tasked with protecting the area, withdrew with little resistance, leaving tens of thousands of Yazidis to their fate. The militants considered members of the sect, which has roots in Zoroastrianism, to be apostates. As Islamic State fighters made their


mountainous area drew limited international attention. Kurdish forces, who had been tasked with protecting the area, withdrew with little resistance, leaving tens of thousands of Yazidis to their fate. The militants considered members of the sect, which has roots in Zoroastrianism, to be apostates. As Islamic State fighters made their way from village to village in their pickup trucks, tens of thousands of Yazidis fled to the hills of Mount Sinjar. Those who were stuck on the mountain would call day and night. The calls were desperate — send planes, send airstrikes, send supplies. Why was no one helping them? Men who stayed behind had been killed, their women kidnapped, they told the outside world. Islamic State Humvees were approaching, send help, send help. Citing the plight of the Yazidis, the United States eventually began its first airstrikes against the militants. But they were limited, and the calls for help continued. In the days, weeks and months that followed, the full image of the horrors that had befallen the Yazidi people, followers of an ancient religious sect, began to emerge. Even for a group that had shown itself to be so lacking in humanity, reports about Islamic State atrocities were hard to fathom. Habo, who was 27 at the time, was first held at a chicken farm. She tried to believe that the shooting she heard outside was not the male members of her family being killed. But then the militants returned, their pants spattered with blood. Her husband, her father and three brothers died that day, along with thousands of others — no one really knows how many. Around 70 mass graves have been found, according to Kurdistan’s regional government. They have not been excavated yet, with the process being delayed by the political wrangling that has also held up the reconstruction of Yazidi towns and villages, long after they were recaptured from the Islamic State. Yazidi advocates hope that Murad’s Nobel honor may draw more attention to their plight. Murad’s charity, Nadia’s Initiative, works to assist redevelopment in the area. She is also taking her battle to the courts. Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney is representing her in a legal case against Islamic State commanders. Habo has little hope that her tormentors will get their reckoning, in this life at least. Murad is fighting in the hopes that that’s a day some survivors may one day see. loveday.morris@washpost.com


Photos: Inside the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s hospital for rape victims

Dr. Denis Mukwege, the Congolese gynecologist who shared the Nobel Peace Prize this year, has treated ten of thousands of rape victims


This should be a column by Jamal Khashoggi

Editor’s note: Jamal Khashoggi is a Saudi journalist and author, and a columnist for Washington Post Global Opinions. Khashoggi’s words should appear in the space above, but he has not been heard from since he entered a Saudi consulate in Istanbul for a routine consular matter on Tuesday afternoon. Read The Washington Post editorial: Where is Jamal Khashoggi?


If this piece fails to redirect, click here.


West Nile infections show sharp increase this year

The number of West Nile virus cases diagnosed in the District, Virginia and Maryland so far this year is far more than last year, and two deaths have been reported, according to federal data. As of Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention listed 35 Virginia cases. The deaths were reported there. Mosquitoes, which transmit the virus, thrive in rainy weather, and this year has been particularly wet. Last year, 13 cases were diagnosed in Virginia, with one death. In Maryland, 30 infections have been reported this year, compared with six last year. The District reported 10 infections, compared with four last year. Most infected people show no symptoms, the CDC said. martin.weil@washpost.com


Turkey concludes that prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in Saudi consulate, two people familiar with the probe say

The Saudi writer, who has written columns for The Washington Post’s Global Opinions and has been sharply critical of his country’s government, visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Tuesday to obtain documents related to an upcoming marriage and has not been heard from since. The Saudi government has denied it is responsible for Khashoggi’s disappearance. This is a developing story. It will be updated.


The Nobel Peace Prize 2018 winners brought attention to sexual abuse in conflicts

At a time of growing global awareness about injustices against women, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to two people who have brought attention to the most extreme forms of violence they can face: a Congolese surgeon who treats victims of wartime rape and an activist who was a sexual slave of the Islamic State. In recognizing Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad, the Norwegian Nobel Committee for the first time has devoted its award to the abuse of women in conflict zones — what some experts say has been an underappreciated aspect of war. Mukwege has treated grievous injuries in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country that one U.N. official once called the rape capital of the world. Murad is among thousands of Iraqi Yazidis who have been treated as sexual property by the Islamic State, and since her escape she has become perhaps the most outspoken among them, campaigning to bring the militants to justice for war crimes. Mukwege, 63, has long been mentioned as a leading contender for the award, and Murad, 25, is the second-youngest winner. What they have in common is that both have lived in parts of the world where it is particularly dangerous to be a woman. “We want to send out a message of awareness that women, who constitute half of the population in most communities, actually are used as a weapon of war — and that they need protection,” said Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Protecting women and holding perpetrators accountable is a “prerequisite for lasting peace,” she added. The Nobel decision appeared to nod toward a broader global theme about the treatment of women and their willingness to speak out about inequities. The newfound attention to sexual harassment and sexual assault has upended the entertainment and political worlds, and earlier this year the Nobel Prize in literature was postponed because of a sexual abuse scandal affecting the Nobel organization. Reiss-Andersen said that war crimes and the #MeToo movement are “not the same thing,” but that it is important that “women leave the concept of shame and speak up.” The Nobel decision is also an affirmation of a widening — and, some say, belated — awareness about how soldiers use violence against women as a weapon of war, sometimes to instill fear or keep control, sometimes for reasons of pure brutality. Such sexual violence has typified


Saudi Arabia is creating a total mess in Lebanon

Jamal Khashoggi is a Saudi journalist and author. As if we Arabs need another crisis in our shattered world — but that’s exactly what’s coming after the mysterious resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri from Riyadh last Saturday and declarations from the Saudi royal court that Iran has officially crossed a red line. Now Saudi Arabia has created a problem for itself with some of its staunchest allies: the Sunnis of Lebanon. Even the Sunnis are aligning with different sects, some who are not friendly to Riyadh, to demand the return of Hariri, also a Sunni. It will be impossible to elect a new prime minister in Lebanon unless Hariri is returned. That is a new predicament that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS, has created — and now needs to solve. Saudi Arabia has its justification to declare war against Hezbollah: The kingdom, as the young Saudi hawk and minister Thamer al-Sabhan recently declared, no longer distinguishes between the group and the Lebanese government. The impulsivity of MBS has been a consistent theme — from the war in Yemen to the wave of arrests of constructive critics, royals and senior officials accused of corruption. The severity of Saudi Arabia’s action against Lebanon mirrors the blockade of Qatar in June — abrupt, with no room for negotiation. In the first days of the Saudi campaign against Qatar, supported by Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, the heated rhetoric and actions seemed to indicate that it would be only a matter of time before military intervention in Doha. Hezbollah, according to Sabhan, has become “a tool of death and destruction” against the kingdom — including training Saudi Shiite terrorists and helping Houthis build Iranian missiles, one of which almost landed at the Riyadh airport this month — and Lebanon will be treated as though it had declared war on Saudi Arabia. Despite Saudi rhetoric and Lebanese needs, there isn’t sufficient political will in Beirut or capacity in Riyadh to take on Hezbollah. No Lebanese fighting force comes close to matching the group’s firepower. Saudi Arabia is certainly not going to commit its scarce resources to prosecuting another war while the conflict in Yemen grinds on. What about Israel? There have been rumors of Israeli-Saudi discussions over attacking Hezbollah, both directly and through President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. If true, the reports of late-night meetings between


Saudi Arabia’s crown prince is acting like Putin

Jamal Khashoggi is a Saudi journalist and author. Saturday night’s high-profile arrests in Saudi Arabia have sent shock waves through the global political Richter scale. The arrests, including that of such well-known figures as my former boss Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, came within hours of changes in the leadership of a number of important ministries, as well as to the leadership and structure of the much-respected Saudi national guard. Saudi royals view themselves as The Party, sharing power and ruling by consent, in an arrangement that is largely opaque. What is absolutely clear after Saturday’s “Night of the Long Knives” is that Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman is upending this arrangement and centralizing all power within his position as crown prince. This purge comes on the heels of complete intolerance for even mild criticism of Mohammed bin Salman’s reforms, resulting in at least 70 arrests that have, unfortunately, garnered far less attention. Many of us living outside Saudi Arabia will not return home for fear of the same fate. Our families have been targeted instead. All of this leaves me in a difficult quandary. I champion a real campaign to tackle the rampant corruption that is draining Saudi resources, both financial and human. Our unemployment rate would drop rather significantly if the billions we squandered on kickbacks and lavish personal enrichment schemes dressed up as public-works projects were spent instead on the development of small to medium enterprises, vocational training and 21st-century education reforms. Corruption in Saudi Arabia is quite different from corruption in most other countries, as it is not limited to a “bribe” in return for a contract, or expensive gift for the family member of a government official or prince, or use of a private jet that is charged to the government so a family can go on vacation. Instead, in Saudi Arabia, senior officials and princes become billionaires as contracts are either enormously inflated or, at worst, a complete mirage. In 2004, Lawrence Wright wrote in the New Yorker about “The Kingdom of Silence” where a massive sewer project in Jeddah was really a series of manhole covers across the city with no actual pipes underneath. I, as the editor of a major paper at the time, can say that we all knew, and we never reported on it. Another example is building an airport in the wrong location simply to benefit the princes who own


Saudi Arabia wasn’t always this repressive. Now it’s unbearable.

Jamal Khashoggi is a Saudi journalist and author. When I speak of the fear, intimidation, arrests and public shaming of intellectuals and religious leaders who dare to speak their minds, and then I tell you that I’m from Saudi Arabia, are you surprised? With young Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s rise to power, he promised an embrace of social and economic reform. He spoke of making our country more open and tolerant and promised that he would address the things that hold back our progress, such as the ban on women driving. But all I see now is the recent wave of arrests. Last week, about 30 people were reportedly rounded up by authorities, ahead of the crown prince’s ascension to the throne. Some of the arrested are good friends of mine, and the effort represents the public shaming of intellectuals and religious leaders who dare to express opinions contrary to those of my country’s leadership. The scene was quite dramatic as masked security men stormed houses with cameras, filming everything and confiscating papers, books and computers. The arrested are accused of being recipients of Qatari money and part of a grand Qatari-backed conspiracy. Several others, myself included, are in self-exile and could face arrest upon returning home. It anguishes me to speak with other Saudi friends in Istanbul and London who are also in self-exile. There are at least seven of us — are we going to be the core of a Saudi diaspora? We spend endless hours on the phone trying to understand this wave of arrests that have included my friend, businessman and thoughtful Twitter personality Essam Al-Zamil. It was just last Tuesday that he returned home from the United States, having been part of an official Saudi delegation. That is how breathtakingly fast you can fall out of favor with Saudi Arabia. It is all quite shocking. But this has not been business as usual in my country. In 2003 and again in 2010, I was fired from my job as editor in chief of a “progressive” paper, Al-Watan. During the years in between, I served as media adviser to Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudi ambassador to Britain and then the United States. Perhaps it seems odd to be fired by the government and then serve it abroad. Yet that is truly the Saudi paradox. In the starkest terms, Saudi Arabia is trying to moderate the


Read Jamal Khashoggi’s columns for The Washington Post

Jamal Khashoggi, a veteran Saudi journalist, was killed in Istanbul after walking into the consulate of Saudi Arabia, according to Turkish officials. In a statement released Saturday, Fred Hiatt, The Post’s editorial page editor, said that if true, this would represent “a monstrous and unfathomable act.” Khashoggi had been writing a column for The Post’s Global Opinions section since last year. “He lamented that Saudi Arabia’s repression was becoming unbearable to the point of his decision to leave the country and live in exile in Washington,” wrote Karen Attiah, Khashoggi’s editor, on Wednesday. Hiatt, in his statement, called Khashoggi a “committed, courageous journalist.” “He writes out of a sense of love for his country and deep faith in human dignity and freedom,” Hiatt said. “We have been enormously proud to publish his writing.” Read excerpts from some of Khashoggi’s columns below. Read more: Turkish president calls Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance ‘very, very upsetting’ Where is Jamal Khashoggi? This should be a column by Jamal Khashoggi Turkey concludes Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi killed by ‘murder’ team, sources say The silencing of Jamal Khashoggi


Jamal Khashoggi is just the latest Saudi dissident to mysteriously disappear

On Tuesday, Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi walked into his country’s consulate in Istanbul. Turkish officials say he died there at the hands of a “murder squad” flown in from Riyadh to kill him and dispose of his body. Saudi Arabia has denied the accusations. But Khashoggi isn’t the first critic of the Saudi government to disappear under mysterious circumstances. In the past few years, at least three other Saudi nationals — all relatives of the royal family, all outspoken critics of Saudi leadership and all living in Europe — have been kidnapped. Friends and allies say they were thrown into prison in Saudi Arabia — or worse. “Despite the denials, the oil-rich kingdom is an absolute monarchy and has a track record of refusing to tolerate dissent by its citizens — both domestically and abroad,” wrote Middle East Eye. Here’s what happened to those dissidents: Sultan bin Turki, a Saudi prince living in Geneva, became an outspoken critic of the kingdom’s leadership after he left the country in 2002. Sultan said he was invited to breakfast the next year by Abdulaziz bin Fahd, a son of then-Saudi ruler King Fahd. Over breakfast, Abdulaziz asked Sultan to return to Saudi Arabia to “resolve” some of his issues. He refused. A couple of minutes later, Abdulaziz stepped out to make a phone call. Then, Sultan said, masked men surrounded him. They beat him, handcuffed him and plunged a needle into his neck. When Sultan awoke, he said, he was on a plane back to Saudi Arabia. Sultan said he spent seven years in prison or under house arrest in Saudi Arabia before being granted permission to fly to Boston in 2010 for a medical procedure. While there, he filed a complaint in Swiss court accusing Abdulaziz of kidnapping him, but little came of the case. In 2016, he agreed to allow Saudi Arabia to fly him from Paris to Cairo to visit his father. Friends say Sultan was assured that he would be safe. He was allowed to bring his medical team, along with Western bodyguards. Instead, the plane took him to Riyadh. Witnesses say soldiers dragged Sultan from the plane, where a team of armed guards gathered. He has not been allowed to leave the country since. Turki bin Bandar was once a key member of the Saudi royal family’s inner circle and the head of the royal family’s security. But


Military families raise concerns about housing problems after Hurricane Florence

raise concerns to AMCC management and military leadership if they have persistent issues that are not addressed.” The housing concerns are not limited to the company’s management or Camp Lejeune. A Navy spouse in Gulfport, Miss., is helping organize an effort to document housing problems in at least six states on eight bases with serious mold problems “that are not being handled properly,” she said, including in Texas, Oklahoma and North Dakota. She and half a dozen other military spouses who spoke to The Post about the housing concerns asked not to be named because they fear retaliation by the military. Military bases began privatizing housing management in 1996 in an effort to improve hazardous, dilapidated conditions. The Defense Department owned approximately 257,000 family housing units worldwide at the time, both on and off base. Because of budgetary constraints, more than 50 percent of them needed to be renovated or replaced because they were outdated or insufficiently maintained, according to the department. The spouses say the problems persisted since private companies took control, and in some cases, they have gotten worse. Reuters has been examining safety and environmental hazards “At Lejeune, some families described encountering troubles that reporters observed at other bases: lags in maintenance responses by private contractors that stir worries over health,” the news service reported. Sproat said there are fallen trees throughout Camp LeJeune, some crushing homes, and some families have lost all their belongings. In a telephone interview, a woman living at Camp Lejeune said the ceiling in her infant daughter’s room collapsed in March 2016, and there was a gushing leak in the living room. At 8 months old, her daughter was on albuterol, a prescription drug for the treatment of asthma, and had to use a nebulizer to help deliver medication for her respiratory issues. “She had a tiny oxygen mask— it was just sad,” shesaid. The woman asked to remain anonymous because she didn’t want to negatively impact her husband’s career. “I have been a thorn in AMCC’s side ever since,” she said. “We went to the media because we want them to be held accountable.” She said it isn’t the pace of Hurricane Florence repairs that she’s concerned about. “It’s the long standing problems they never address — maybe to cut corners or save money,” she said. Sproat said she feels private housing companies “are doing the bare minimum in terms of


Plagued with allergies? Here are new fixes for your itchiness and sneeziness.

With the tablets, the dose is much smaller — you take it daily — and the risk of reaction is very small. “Local side effects can occur, such as itching or tingling in the mouth,” Hoyte says. Hoyte administers the first dose in the office so she can watch for any untoward reactions. And she sends patients home with an EpiPen, a device that delivers an injection to treat a possible reaction. Another plus is that you can use the daily tablets seasonally, rather than year-round. The recommendation is to start 12 weeks before your pollen season starts. But there are downsides. The tablets are so new that insurance coverage is spotty. Doctors have less experience with them, so effectiveness and side effects are still being assessed. And tablets aren’t available for a range of other allergies, such as mold, pet dander or tree pollens. With allergy shots, a change is noticeable in the first year, and can be sustained after three to five years of therapy. Hoyte says not everyone responds to immunotherapy; about 85 percent of patients experience at least some improvement. Avoidance Avoiding pollen means keeping it outdoors when you’re indoors. Close your windows and rely on your home’s air conditioning to filter out pollen. “For avoidance measures to be effective, you have to do multiple things,” Lin says. Other things might be to shower, or at least change your clothes when you come in from outdoors; wear a mask while outside doing yard work or gardening; and if you have outdoor pets, keep them out of your bedroom. Indoor air filters aren’t that helpful with plant pollen, Tuck says. “Pollen is relatively large, so it falls onto surfaces,” she says. “Pet dander is different. It’s light enough [to float around in the air] so an air filter helps.” Rinse away Saline rinses are effective at preventing allergic reactions because they wash the pollen out of your nose. “Saline is your friend,” says Tuck, who is also a spokeswoman for the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. “Use it when you come in from outside.” Also, she says, “It can be mildly decongesting and it’s pretty immediate.” You can make your own saline solution to use with a Neti pot or small squeeze bottle. Instructions abound on various websites. The FDA has a version on its website. Go to fda.gov and search for neti pot. health-science@washpost.com


Saudi crown prince invites Turkey to search consulate for missing journalist

ISTANBUL — Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, said in an interview published by Bloomberg on Friday that Turkish authorities were welcome to search the Saudi consulate in Istanbul for Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi journalist who visited the mission earlier this week and has not been heard from since. The interview was conducted Wednesday night, after Turkish officials said they believed Khashoggi was still inside the consulate. But Mohammed said that Khashoggi, who has criticized the crown prince in his writings, had “entered and he got out after a few minutes or one hour. I’m not sure.” “We will allow them to enter and search and do whatever they want to do,” he added, referring to the Turkish authorities, according to a transcript of the interview. “We have nothing to hide.” Khashoggi’s disappearance has drawn attention to Mohammed’s aggressive pursuit of his critics and threatened to deepen a rift between Saudi Arabia and Turkey, regional powers that have competed for influence in the Middle East. More than three days after Khashoggi entered the consulate, no clear answers have emerged— even though the mission is ringed by surveillance cameras that presumably could provide some. Khashoggi, who writes for The Washington Post’s Global Opinions section, visited the consulate Tuesday to obtain documents related to his upcoming wedding, according to his fiancee and friends. A Turkish government spokesman did not immediately respond to a request to comment on Mohammed’s offer. On Thursday, Turkey’s foreign ministry summoned the Saudi ambassador in Ankara, the Turkish capital, and asked him to clarify the circumstances surrounding Khashoggi’s disappearance, according to Turkish media reports. Trump administration officials say they have requested information from the Saudi government on Khashoggi’s whereabouts and expressed their concern about his possible detention. “They have not said much,” a U.S. official said Friday, referring to the Saudi government. “They’re sticking with the party line, saying he’s not at the consulate, that they’re coordinating with the Turks. We believe something is up and they won’t tell us,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private diplomatic conversations. As attention on Khashoggi’s case intensified Friday, with newspaper editorials and U.S. senators calling for his release, Saud Kabli, the communications director for the Saudi Embassy in Washington, offered his government’s most vigorous denial yet that it was responsible for the disappearance. “Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance is a matter of grave concern


Where is Jamal Khashoggi?

JAMAL KHASHOGGI, a journalist who has turned a trenchant and questioning eye on the leadership of his country, Saudi Arabia, entered the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul on Tuesday to take care of what should have been routine paperwork. Saudi Arabia says he then left. His fiancee, waiting for him, says he did not, and he cannot be found. Turkey says it has seen no sign that he left the building. Mr. Khashoggi, a contributor to The Post’s Global Opinions section, appears to have disappeared, and we are worried. Mr. Khashoggi is not just any commentator. Over a long career, he has had close contact with Saudi royalty and knows more than most about how they think and function. His criticism, voiced over the past year, most surely rankles Mohammed bin Salman, who was elevated to crown prince last year and has carried out a wide-ranging campaign to silence dissent while trying to modernize the kingdom. Among those in his prisons for political speech are clerics, bloggers, journalists and activists. He imprisoned women who agitated for the right to drive, a right that was granted even as they were punished. Mr. Khashoggi saw the writing on the wall. After Donald Trump’s election, Mr. Khashoggi remarked at an event at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy that the kingdom was rightfully nervous about a Trump presidency. This comment apparently angered the Saudi leadership, which hoped to ingratiate itself with the new president. Mr. Khashoggi was told to stop writing and using Twitter. Seeing so many others imprisoned for their views, he decided to leave the country. He wrote for The Post in September 2017, “I have left my home, my family and my job, and I am raising my voice. To do otherwise would betray those who languish in prison. I can speak when so many cannot.” He continued writing columns for The Post after that. He wrote in February that the crown prince’s restrictions on free speech had “sucked the oxygen from the once-limited but present public square. You can read, of course, but just think twice about sharing or liking whatever isn’t fully in line with the official government groupthink.” In June, he praised the crown prince for the decision to let women drive but urged him to free the female activists. In August, he admonished Saudi leadership that it was a mistake to pick a fight with Canada


إسكات جمال خاشقجي

أجل كتابة أول مقالة له في صحيفة “واشنطن بوست”، حيث أعرب فيها عن أسفه لأن قمع السعودية أصبح لا يطاق إلى حد أنه قرر مغادرة البلاد والعيش في منفاه بواشنطن. جذبت تلك المقالة انتباهًا كبيرًا في السعودية والمنطقة المحيطة بها. كانت أيضًا أول مقالة نترجمها للّغة العربية في قسم الآراء العالمية. بعد مرور قرابة عام على نشر مقالته الأولى، فنحن نشعر بانزعاج شديد لعدم تلقي أي اتصالات من جمال منذ آخر مرة شُوهِد فيها وهو يزور القنصلية السعودية في إسطنبول يوم الثلاثاء. لم نتمكن من الوصول إليه حتى وقت كتابة هذه السطور. لقد استفسرنا عن مكان وجود جمال وقد أعربنا للمسؤولين الأتراك والسعوديين عن قلقنا العميق. يأتي الغموض الذي يكتنف مكان وجود جمال في خضم موجة من حملات القمع ضد المعارضين والنشاط السياسي والاجتماعي في السعودية تحت قيادة ولي العهد الأمير محمد بن سلمان. فخلال هذا الأسبوع فقط، أُدين الاقتصادي السعودي البارز ونجم وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي عصام الزامل بالإرهاب لأنه تجرأ على انتقاد الخطط الاقتصادية للمملكة. إلى جانب السعودية، فإن العالم يشهد ارتفاعًا في الانتهاكات المستهدفة للصحفيين وسجنهم. جمال هو أحد المؤيدين الرئيسيين للحرية والتغيير الديموقراطي في جميع أنحاء المنطقة، وكثيرًا ما يستنكر التكتيكات القاسية التي تنتهجها السلطات السعودية ضد رجال الدين البارزين وأصحاب الأعمال والنساء الناشطات وشخصيات الإعلام الاجتماعي. كنتُ أسأله من وقت لآخر إن كان بخير وإن كان يشعر بالأمان. كان يصر على أنه يشعر بالحاجة إلى الكتابة على الرغم من ضغوط السلطات السعودية. على الرغم من كل المقالات التي كتبها من أجل نشر الوعي عن محنة أولئك الذين احتُجِزوا ظُلمًا، فأنا أشعر اليوم بالحزن للمناشدة من أجل عودته الآمنة والسريعة. سواء كان يكتب عمّا يمكن أن تتعلمه السعودية من فيلم “الفهد الأسود”، أو لماذا يجب أن يسخّر ولي العهد بعض الوقت لزيارة ديترويت، أو أوجه الشبه بين العائلتين المالكتين البريطانية والسعودية، فإن ما يجعل عمل جمال فريد من نوعه هو رغبته الشديدة في إزالة الغموض عن السعودية من أجل جمهور عالمي – وربط الأحداث الواقعة في المملكة بالعالم الأوسع، باللغة الإنكليزية ولغته الأم العربية. إنه متحمس ويعمل بجد، وربما ما هو أكثر أهمية، فإنه شخص طيب للغاية. كصحفية ومحررة، فقد تعلّمتُ الكثير منه ومن تجاربه. أنا أراه ليس فقط زميلًا في مجالنا، ولكن أراه مصدر إلهام أيضًا. في الواقع، فقد كنتُ على وشك أن أرسل رسالة له عبر “وتساب” يوم اختفائه عن أفكار بشأن مقالته القادمة للـ”بوست”. جمال، إن سنحت لك الفرصة لقراءة كلماتي هذه، فأرجو أن تعلم أننا في صحيفة “واشنطن بوست” نسعى جاهدين لضمان سلامتك وحريتك. لن أنعم بالراحة حتى تظهر مرة أخرى آمنًا وسالمًا.


Turkey summons Saudi Arabia’s ambassador over writer Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance

ISTANBUL — The Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to discuss the whereabouts of veteran journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Turkey’s state media reported, after he disappeared while visiting the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Tuesday. Ambassador Walid bin Abdul Karim El Khereiji was called to the ministry Wednesday for questions about Khashoggi’s location, the private broadcaster NTV reported from Ankara, the Turkish capital. The ambassador, who met with Turkey’s deputy foreign minister, denied having knowledge of Khashoggi’s whereabouts, Thursday’s news report said. According to NTV, Khereiji was told that “the matter should be clarified as soon as possible.” Turkey’s summoning of the ambassador came as the New York-based Human Rights Watch called on the Turkish authorities to intensify their investigation into Khashoggi’s whereabouts. The journalist, who writes for The Washington Post’s Global Opinions section and has criticized the Saudi leadership over the past year, has not been heard from since he entered the Saudi Consulate on Tuesday afternoon to obtain documents for his upcoming wedding, according to his fiancee and friends. Turkish officials said on Wednesday that they believed he was still inside the consulate. That contradicted assertions by the Saudi government, which said that Khashoggi left the mission soon after entering. “If Saudi authorities surreptitiously detained Khashoggi it would be yet another escalation of Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman’s reign of repression against peaceful dissidents and critics,” Sarah Leah Whitson, the Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement released Thursday, referring to Saudi Arabia’s young and influential heir to the throne. “The burden of proof is on Saudi Arabia to produce evidence for its claim that Khashoggi left the consulate alone, and that Saudi agents have not detained him,” she said. Khashoggi entered the consulate about 1 p.m. Tuesday, according to his fiancee, who said she accompanied him but waited outside. The fiancee, who asked that her name be withheld, called police when Khashoggi did not emerge at 5 p.m., after the consulate had officially closed for the day. [Opinion: Post contributor and prominent Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi feared missing in Turkey] Before he vanished, Khashoggi was among the Arab world’s best-known journalists and commentators. As an editor of English and Arabic-language Saudi news outlets, he was a critical source for outsiders trying to understand the often-inscrutable kingdom — even as Khashoggi himself fell in and out of favor with Saudi Arabia’s ruling circles. Khashoggi


The silencing of Jamal Khashoggi

Saudi officials. The mystery surrounding Jamal’s whereabouts comes amid a wave of crackdowns on dissent and activism in Saudi Arabia under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Just this week, prominent Saudi economist and social media star Essam Al-Zamel was charged with terrorism for daring to criticize the kingdom’s economic plans. Beyond Saudi Arabia, the world is seeing an uptick in abuses and jailing of journalists. Jamal is one of the leading proponents of freedom and democratic change throughout the region, and he frequently denounces the harsh tactics deployed by the Saudi authorities against prominent clerics, business owners, female activists and social media figures. I ask him from time to time if he is okay, if he is feeling safe. He insists that he feels the need to write, despite the pressures from the Saudi authorities. For all the pieces that he has written to bring awareness to the plight of those who were improperly detained, today I am saddened to plead for his safe and swift return. Whether he is writing about what Saudi Arabia can learn from “Black Panther,” or why the crown prince should take time to visit Detroit, or the parallels between the British and the Saudi royal families, what makes Jamal’s work unique is his keen desire to demystify Saudi Arabia for a global audience — and to connect the happenings in the kingdom to the wider world, in both English and his native Arabic. He is enthusiastic, hard-working and, perhaps most importantly, incredibly kind. As a journalist and editor, I learn so much from him and his experiences. I see him as not only a colleague in our field but an inspiration, too. In fact, on the day of his disappearance, I was about to WhatsApp him to talk about ideas for his next op-ed in The Post. Jamal, if you have a chance to read this, please know that we at The Post are actively seeking to ensure your safety and freedom. I won’t be able to rest easy until you appear safe and sound. Read more: Jason Rezaian: Washington Post writer and prominent Saudi critic feared missing in Turkey Jamal Khashoggi: Saudi Arabia wasn’t always this repressive. Now it’s unbearable. Jamal Khashoggi: What Saudi Arabia can learn from ‘Black Panther’ Jamal Khashoggi: Why Saudi Arabia’s crown prince should visit Detroit Jamal Khashoggi: What Saudi Arabia’s crown prince can learn from Queen Elizabeth II


Mystery over missing writer deepens as Saudi Arabia and Turkey disagree over his status

LONDON — The mystery surrounding the whereabouts of missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi deepened Wednesday with Turkish officials saying he was still inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, contradicting a Saudi government statement that he had left it a day earlier. Khashoggi, 59, a prominent commentator who writes for The Washington Post’s Global Opinions section and has recently been critical of the Saudi leadership, visited the consulate Tuesday to obtain paperwork related to his upcoming wedding, his fiancee said. He has not been heard from since. Ibrahim Kalin, a spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said during a televised news conference Wednesday that “the information we have is that the Saudi citizen in question is still in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul.” Kalin raised concerns about the legality of the apparent detention, saying that Khashoggi’s disappearance “has a dimension of international law. There is a dimension of the law of the Turkish republic.” But an emailed statement from the Saudi government earlier Wednesday called reports that Khashoggi was missing “false.” “Mr. Khashoggi visited the consulate to request paperwork related to his marital status and exited shortly thereafter,” said the statement, which was attributed to an unnamed Saudi official. In a subsequent statement issued early Thursday, the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul said “it was following-up on the media reports of the disappearance of Saudi citizen Jamal Khashoggi after he left the building of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.” The statement added that the consulate was “carrying out follow-up procedures in coordination with the Turkish local authorities to uncover the circumstances of the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi after departing the Consulate.” On Wednesday, the State Department requested information from the Saudi government about Khashoggi’s whereabouts and expressed concern about his safety, a senior U.S. official said. There was no immediate response from the Saudis, said the official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to describe the diplomatic effort on the record. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke on the phone Wednesday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but a State Department official declined to say whether the two discussed Khashoggi’s status, citing “private diplomatic discussions.” According to a readout of the call, they discussed the war in Yemen, countering Iran and “areas for expanding U.S.-Saudi collaboration.” In a statement Wednesday, Fred Hiatt, editorial page editor of The Washington Post, said, “The Post is extremely concerned about Jamal.


.الولايات المتحدة مخطئة حيال الاخوان المسلمون، والعالم العربي يدفع ثمن ذلك

بقية العالم، ما غير المزاج السياسي في الغرب وعزز من مكانة اليمين المتطرف هناك. لا يمكن للإصلاح السياسي ولا للديمقراطية أن يتحققا في أي بلد عربي دون القبول بحقيقة أن الإسلام السياسي جزء لا يتجزأ منه. فقطاع مهم من المواطنين في أي بلد عربي سيعطون أصواتهم لأحزاب الإسلام السياسي إذا ما سمح لأي شكل من أشكال الديمقراطية. أن السبيل الوحيد لمنع الإسلام السياسي من لعب دور في السياسة العربية، هو في إلغاء الديمقراطية برمتها، الأمر الذي سيحرم كل المواطنين من حقهم الأساسي في اختيار ممثليهم السياسيين. يشرح شفيق الغبرا، أستاذ العلوم السياسية في جامعة الكويت، المشكلة على النحو التالي:” ان حرب النظام العربي على الاخوان لا تستهدفهم وحدهم، بل تستهدف من يمارس العمل السياسي وتنظيم الأحزاب ويطالب بالحريات والمساءلة بصورة مستقلة، بل تستهدف الإجراءات كل من يمتلك قاعدة شعبية في الشارع “ وبنظرة سريعة إلى التراجع السياسي الذي حصل في مصر منذ عودة العسكر إلى السلطة ، يمكن للمرء أن يتحقق من صحة ما ذهب إليه الغبرا. لقد قمع نظام الرئيس عبد الفتاح السيسي الإسلاميين واعتقل ما يقرب من ستين ألفاً منهم. وها هو الآن يمد يده الغليظة لتنال من الشخصيات العلمانية والعسكرية، وحتى أولئك الذين دعموا انقلابه. ما أدى الى موت الحياة السياسية تماماً في مصر اليوم. إن من الخطأ الانشغال بمناقشة الإسلام السياسي والتيارات المحافظة وقضايا الهوية حينما يكون الخيار بين أن يكون المجتمع حراً متسامحاً مع كافة الآراء ووجهات النظر وبين أن يُحكم بنظام مستبد ظالم. إن خمسة أعوام من حكم السيسي في مصر توضح هذه النقطة بجلاء تام. تبذل جهود هنا في واشنطن، بتشجيع من بعض الدول العربية التي لا تدعم الحرية والديمقراطية، لإقناع الكونغرس بتصنيف جماعة الإخوان المسلمين منظمة إرهابية. لو حصل ذلك، فإنه سيضعف التقدم الخجول نحو الديمقراطية والإصلاح السياسي والذي تعرض للكبت والتقييد في العالم العربي. كما سينجم عن ذلك تراجع في البلدان العربية التي حققت تقدماً في إيجاد بيئة متسامحة وفتحت باب المشاركة السياسية أمام مختلف مكونات المجتمع، بما في ذلك الإسلاميين. يشارك الإسلاميون اليوم في برلمانات عدد من البلدان العربية مثل الكويت والأردن والبحرين وتونس والمغرب، الأمر الذي أدى إلى نشوء الديمقراطية الإسلامية، مثل حركة النهضة في تونس، وكذلك إلى نضج عملية التحول الديمقراطي في بلدان أخرى. لقد أدى انقلاب مصر إلى فقدان فرصة ثمينة كانت متاحة أمام مصر وأمام العالم العربي بأسره. فلو أن العملية الديمقراطية استمرت لتم إنضاج الممارسات السياسية لجماعة الإخوان المسلمين ولأضحت أكثر انفتاحاً وإقبالاً على غيرها، ولأصبح التداول السلمي على السلطة واقعاً وسابقة تحتذى. لا تكف إدارة ترامب عن القول إنها تريد إصلاح أخطاء أوباما. لو


تحميل عام 1979 كل أسباب المشاكل السعودية… ولي العهد يعيد كتابة التاريخ

يحذر فيها من التدابير التقييدية على صور النساء المنشورة في المطبوعات والتي تبث عبر وسائل الإعلام المرئية. طلب من الملك تعديل هذه السياسات حتى “لا تجعل منا مضربا للمثل في التحجر والجمود امام العالم كله”. تم تجاهله يود محمد بن سلمان تقديم رواية جديدة للتاريخ الحديث لبلدي، قصة تُعفي الحكومة من أي تواطؤ في تبني مبدأ الوهابية الصارمة. هذا ببساطة ليس صحيحا. وفي حين أنه محق في تحرير السعودية من القوى الدينية المتشددة، إلا أنه من الخطأ ان يستبدلها بمماثلة، على الرغم من أنها تبدو أكثر ليبرالية وجذابة للغرب، فإنها لا تتسامح مع المعارضة في الخمسينات والستينات من القرن الماضي، رحبت المملكة العربية السعودية بالمصريين الذين فروا من مصر خشية أن يسجنهم الرئيس جمال عبد الناصر بسبب معتقداتهم. كثيرون كانوا جزءً من جماعة الإخوان المسلمين. لقد أحضروا معهم أساليب جديدة في الفكر الإسلامي والقانون الذي رحب به الكثيرون منا، بمن فيهم قادتنا الملك فيصل، الذي اغتيل عام 1975، اسس أول مدارس للبنات في الستينيات، وهي خطوة عارضتها المؤسسة الدينية بشدة. في نضاله من أجل إدخال البلاد في القرن الواحد والعشرين، اِعتقد أن الإخوان المسلمين يمكن أن يكونوا ثقلاً موازياً لرجال الدين الوهابيين. وكلّف الملك فيصل الشيخ مناع القطان بتحديث القضاء السعودي. وبدأت الإصلاحات، التي لم تكن لتحصل لولا علماء التابعين الإخوان المسلمين، بما في ذلك قوانين العمل، وتعليم اللغة الإنجليزية والكيمياء، وإتمام جزئي للقانون السعودي. الآن وسائل الإعلام السعودية وبتشجيع من الحكومة، تشوه سمعة القطان، قائلة إنه عضو في جماعة الإخوان المسلمين. لماذا أصبح ذلك فجأة مادة للاعتراض؟ في المملكة العربية السعودية في الوقت الحالي، لا يجرؤ الناس ببساطة على الكلام. فقد شهدت البلاد تشكيل قائمة سوداء تضم أولئك الذين يجرؤون على رفع أصواتهم، وسجن المعتدلين من مفكرين منتقدين وعلماء الدين، والقمع المزعوم ضد أفراد العائلة المالكة ورجال الأعمال الآخرين، بحجة مكافحة الفساد. الليبراليون الذين تم فرض الرقابة عليهم أو حظرهم من قبل المتشددين الوهابيين تبادلوا الأدوار، وهم الآن يحظرون ما يرونه متشددا، مثل الرقابة على الكتب المختلفة في معرض الرياض الدولي للكتاب في الشهر الماضي. يمكن للمرء أن يصفق لمثل هذا التغيير الكامل. لكن ألا يجب علينا أن نطمح إلى السماح بفتح محافل تبادل الأفكار؟ أتفق مع الأمير محمد بن سلمان في أن الأمة يجب أن تعود إلى أجواء ما قبل 1979، عندما قامت الحكومة بتقييد التقاليد الوهابية المتشددة. النساء اليوم يجب أن يكون لهم نفس حقوق الرجال. ويجب أن يتمتع جميع المواطنين بالحق في التعبير عن آرائهم دون خوف من السجن. لكن استبدال تكتيكات عدم التسامح القديمة بطرق جديدة للقمع ليس هو الحل. جمال خاشقجي كاتب ومؤلف سعودي


What Saudi Arabia’s crown prince can learn from Queen Elizabeth II

Jamal Khashoggi is a Saudi journalist and author. Robert Lacey is author of “Inside the Kingdom” and a historical consultant to the Netflix series “The Crown.” Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, likes to proclaim his reforms using a bit of “shock therapy.” He vowed to “divorce” Islamic radicals, declaring theatrically, “We will destroy them!” His war on corruption, marked by imprisoning members of the royal family in Riyadh’s Ritz-Carlton, was launched via social media. It became a national nail-biter for Saudi citizens, and even more so for thousands of the royal Saud family members and non-royal titans of business. Last month’s arrest of 11 more royals added a new dimension to the unfolding drama: the possible restructuring of the Saudi royal family. There is talk that MBS might remove royal designations for those without a direct connection to King Abdul Aziz, like Saud al-Kabir’s branch of the royal family. If so, it would represent the first major and unprecedented restructuring of the royal family. “Al-Kabir” means “the Grand” or “the Mighty,” but members of the clan are, in fact, junior relatives descending from a royal cousin, Saud al-Kabir, head of a branch of the family known as the “araif” — a Bedouin word for camels lost in a raid, then recaptured. These camels of dubious loyalty joined forces with the Sauds’ deadly rivals, the Rasheeds, in the 19th century, to bring down the second Saudi state — a Shakespearean saga of treachery, blood and betrayal, whose elements of family strife do not appear in the Saudi school curriculum. MBS’s goal is clear: He wants to tamp down a suffocating and ever-expanding tangle of royals and subordinates and prevent strife. Since Abdul Aziz’s death in 1953, Saudi Arabia has inherited dynastic structures that allowed independent power centers to develop and multiply. That led to an endless appetite for wealth, greed encouraged by unchecked power. The royals monopolized land and businesses all over the kingdom. On top of all that, they received guaranteed monthly stipends and generous grants. Indeed, the wealth of the royals has quietly irked Saudi citizens. One of the most pervasive myths about the kingdom is that all Saudis are fabulously wealthy. Most of them are not. According to 2016 World Bank data, per capita income in Saudi Arabia is lower than in the United States, the United Kingdom and most Gulf neighbors. A


Two Americans awarded the Nobel Prize in economics for their work on climate change and innovation

William Nordhaus was awarded the prize for integrating climate change into long-run macroeconomic analysis. Paul Romer shared in the honor for integrating technological innovation into long-run macroeconomic analysis.This is a developing story. It will be updated.


The Daily 202: Technology giants face big test in midterm elections

hasn’t,’ she said. ‘My mom did. And I think it affected my mom her whole life. And it didn’t make her less strong.’ With tears welling in her eyes, Ms. Heitkamp stared intently at a reporter and continued: ‘And I want you to put this in there, it did not make my mom less strong that she was a victim. She got stronger and she made us strong. And to suggest that this movement doesn’t make women strong and stronger is really unfortunate.’” -- The left is thinking about creative ways to overturn the status quo. “Facing a Supreme Court controlled by five solidly conservative justices, liberals have already started to attack the legitimacy of the majority bloc and discussed ways to eventually undo its power without waiting for one of its members to retire or die -- Trump’s supporters have rallied around Kavanaugh, even though his status as a D.C. insider seems at odds with the “drain the swamp” cause, HOW IT ALL WENT DOWN: -- In the moments after Christine Blasey Ford’s Senate testimony, Kavanaugh’s hopes of confirmation seemed dim, THE NEW WORLD ORDER: -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters Sunday that the disappearance of Saudi Arabian journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi was “very, very upsetting” — but stopped short of confirming reports that Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul -- “[The Post] reported Saturday that Turkish investigators had concluded that [Khashoggi] had been killed inside the consulate Tuesday by a team sent from Saudi Arabia, -- The disappearance and alleged killing of Khashoggi has touched off a new set of challenges for the U.S.-Saudi relationship, which has been “diligently cultivated” by both governments, -- “Did the Saudis Murder Jamal Khashoggi?” -- Authorities discovered the body of Bulgarian journalist Victoria Marinova, who was brutally raped and murdered. -- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Pyongyang to meet with Kim Jong Un, where he said the two had a “good, productive conversation” and reportedly agreed to schedule a second summit with Trump as “soon as possible.” Later Sunday, Pompeo flew to Seoul to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. “ -- Pompeo arrived in China today, where he heard Foreign Minister Wang Yi slam the Trump administration’s recent actions as having “directly impacted our mutual trust and cast a shadow over our bilateral relations.” -- The Brazilian presidential election will go to


Why the Nobel Peace Prize went to 2 people fighting sexual violence in war

As Islamic State forces swept through northern Iraq in 2014, they captured the city of Mosul and then attacked the nearby Yazidi people. Thousands of Yazidis were executed — and some 3,000 girls and women were kidnapped. Most were sexually enslaved. One of the two recipients of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize is a survivor named Nadia Murad. The other winner is Denis Mukwege, the gynecologist who founded Panzi Hospital, which treats and supports girls and women brutalized by sexual violence in Congo. The Nobel committee recognized their advocacy on behalf of victims of wartime sexual violence. Wartime sexual violence, which includes sexual torture and forced marriage, as well as rape and sexual slavery, inflicts excruciatingly painful, sometimes mortal injuries and suffering on victims, their families and their communities. But two decades of social science research has shown that these crimes are not inevitable and unavoidable collateral damage. These crimes can be mitigated — but this depends on understanding why and how wartime sexual violence occurs. What do we know about perpetrators and targets? The most important research finding is the extraordinary variability in the incidence of sexual violence by armed organizations. The fact that not all armed actors engage in rape provides critical evidence for prosecutors seeking to hold accountable those who do. Armies — including those of Congo, Sudan, Guatemala and Peru — as well as rebels commit sexual violence during war. Forces of democratic regimes also sexually abuse civilians during war. During the war in Vietnam, U.S. soldiers in some units raped civilians, including during the infamous massacre at My Lai. But some armed actors effectively prohibit rape. Rebel forces in El Salvador’s civil war committed few rapes even as state forces raped during massacres and sexually tortured detainees. The Tamil Tigers forced Muslims from northern Sri Lanka with little sexual violence. Among those armed organizations that do engage in wartime sexual violence, some victimize particular ethnic groups. Some, including the Bosnian Serbs, target boys and men as well as girls and women. Others, including the Islamic State, also target gender and sexual minorities. Understanding these differences Common arguments Wartime opportunity, ethnic hatred and lootable resources that disrupt discipline all contribute to the incidence of rape by some organizations — but these are also characteristics of organizations that do not engage in extensive wartime rape. Nor is wartime sexual violence simply a reflection of peacetime sexual violence.


in rape provides critical evidence for prosecutors seeking to hold accountable those who do. Armies — including those of Congo, Sudan, Guatemala and Peru — as well as rebels commit sexual violence during war. Forces of democratic regimes also sexually abuse civilians during war. During the war in Vietnam, U.S. soldiers in some units raped civilians, including during the infamous massacre at My Lai. But some armed actors effectively prohibit rape. Rebel forces in El Salvador’s civil war committed few rapes even as state forces raped during massacres and sexually tortured detainees. The Tamil Tigers forced Muslims from northern Sri Lanka with little sexual violence. Among those armed organizations that do engage in wartime sexual violence, some victimize particular ethnic groups. Some, including the Bosnian Serbs, target boys and men as well as girls and women. Others, including the Islamic State, also target gender and sexual minorities. Understanding these differences Common arguments Wartime opportunity, ethnic hatred and lootable resources that disrupt discipline all contribute to the incidence of rape by some organizations — but these are also characteristics of organizations that do not engage in extensive wartime rape. Nor is wartime sexual violence simply a reflection of peacetime sexual violence. It may vary sharply from peacetime patterns — often toward more-brutal forms, particularly gang rape, or occasionally toward less sexual abuse. The Nobel committee referred to sexual violence as a “weapon” of war when it selected these two honorees. To be sure, some armed actors do adopt sexual violence as a weapon. But rape is sometimes frequent without having been adopted as a weapon, strategy or policy. Rather, as at My Lai, commanders sometimes tolerate rape without ordering or authorizing it. Under these conditions, social pressures to conform to violent forms of masculinity can drive combatants to commit these crimes. In these cases, rape is a practice — rather than a strategy of war. In many such organizations, combatants that were forcibly and randomly recruited are coerced to engage in gang rape of civilians, which creates social bonds among the unit. And sexual abuse as a practice may target fellow combatants: Sexual assault of both men and women persists within the ranks of the U.S. military despite two decades of a supposed “zero tolerance” policy. Organizations that do adopt sexual violence as organizational policy may use it as a military strategy, as in some cases of ethnic cleansing or genocide.


يوجد دليل على ما حلّ بجمال خاشقجي. يجب أن يُنشَر هذا الدليل.

التأكيد الرسمي لنتائج السلطات التركية صحة رواية خطيبة السيد خاشقجي، خديجة جنكيز، التي تقول إنها انتظرته خارج البعثة حتى بعد منتصف الليل ولكن لم ترَه أبدًا. من شأن التأكيد أن يشير بقوة إلى أن الرواية السعودية غير صحيحة. كما نشر المسؤولون الأتراك تقريرًا يفيد بأن 15 مواطنًا سعوديًا توجهوا إلى إسطنبول يوم اختفاء السيد خاشقجي وكانوا داخل القنصلية عندما اختفى. وقالت وكالة الأنباء التركية الخاصة (دي.إتش.إيه.) إن المجموعة وصلت على متن طائرتين من طراز “غَلفستريم” تابعتان لشركة مقرها الرياض وإنهما هبطتا في مطار أتاتورك. إن كان هذا صحيحًا، فيجب أن تكون هناك سجلات هبوط للطائرتين، وربما بيانات المسافرين وسجلات جوازات السفر، بالإضافة إلى المزيد من الفيديوهات من المطار والقنصلية. ومن شأن نشرها أن يُكذِّب ادعاءات السعودية بعدم زيارة أي وفد من هذا القبيل. زار السيد خاشقجي القنصلية للحصول على الأوراق التي تصادق على طلاقه من زوجته السابقة. إن كان المسؤولون القنصليون الذين أخبروه يوم 28 سبتمبر/أيلول بالعودة في 2 أكتوبر/ تشرين الأول من أجل إكمال تلك المعاملة قد زودوه بالوثيقة التي طلبها، فيجب أن يكون لديهم سجلات تثبت ذلك. إنهم لم ينشروا تلك السجلات. وبدلاً من ذلك، قدموا عرضًا لبعض الصحفيين المحليين للقيام بجولة في القنصلية من أجل إظهار أن السيد خاشقجي لم يكن موجودًا هناك. إن الجولة التي قاموا بها لم تفعل شيئًا لدحض رواية مروعة قدمتها مصادر تركية رسمية – أن جثة السيد خاشقجي قد قُطِّعَت وأُخرِجَت من المبنى. مرة أخرى، إن كان لدى حكومة الرئيس التركي رجب طيب أردوغان أدلة على حدوث هذه الجريمة المروعة، فعليها أن تجعلها متاحة للعائلة والأطراف المعنية الأخرى على الفور. كان السيد خاشقجي مقيمًا في الولايات المتحدة لأكثر من عام قبل اختفائه، مما يعطي إدارة ترامب أساسًا يستوجب عليها طلب الإجابات والأدلة ذات الصلة من كل من المملكة العربية السعودية وتركيا. حتى الآن، ليس لدى كبار المسؤولين في الإدارة الأمريكية الكثير ليقولوه علنًا في هذا الشأن، وهذا أمر مثير للقلق. إن اُغتِيل السيد خاشقجي داخل القنصلية، فإنه سيضع النظام السعودي وحاكمه الفعلي، ولي العهد الأمير محمد بن سلمان، تحت ضوء جديد ومقلق يثير الحاجة إلى إعادة تقييم شاملة للعلاقات الأمريكية-السعودية. من الأفضل أن نعرف ذلك عاجلًا وليس آجلاً. Read more: Editorial: We need answers on Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance David Ignatius: Jamal Khashoggi chose to tell the truth. It’s part of the reason he’s beloved. Tom Toles: The world must not look away from the assault on free expression Erin Cunningham and Kareem Fahim: Erdogan demands that Saudis prove missing journalist left their consulate alive Read Jamal Khashoggi’s columns for The Washington Post


The climate is changing. Here’s how politics will also change.

strategy struggles with the hardest cases — industries, workers and countries with little to gain and a lot to lose from decarbonization. Rather than try to defeat vested interests, it might be easier to help them find a new way to survive. For example, activists are persuading some investors to shun fossil fuel companies, but how much effort is going into helping these companies reinvent themselves as green? The two strategies — divestment and diversification — are complementary. Indeed, the climate movement has arguably harmed itself by not paying enough early attention to generating alternatives for workers in carbon-intensive sectors. That’s why “just transition” — the notion that social groups that lose from decarbonization need to be treated fairly — is becoming a shibboleth of climate activists and will be a central theme at this year’s UN climate conference in coal-dependent Poland. Yet diversification and retraining can only go so far. Environmentalists might need to grit their teeth and accept compensation for fossil fuel asset holders. This goes against our ethical instincts, which dictate “the polluter pays” — not “let’s pay the polluter.” But these buyouts may be justified in pursuit of a larger goal. After all, this is exactly how Britain abolished slavery throughout its empire in the 19th century, with taxpayers transferring wealthy landowners the equivalent of 10 percent of GDP for the loss of their “property.” Early action is essential Thinking ahead about climate strategies will also pay off. Sectors such as insurance, real estate and agriculture will be hurt by climate change, and so they have reason to fight it. Because impacts are uncertain and in the future, we can expect them to fight hardest only when it is too late to prevent the worst effects of climate change. Instead, they will tend to seek short-term fixes like building sea walls or moving to more hospitable environments, or even more radical alternatives like geoengineering. Delaying action on climate will hurt the economy and create new demands on taxpayers for expensive, reactive measures. These outcomes can be avoided only to the extent climate-vulnerable interests can be mobilized before they feel the impact. NGOs and politicians might be more effective if they can mobilize groups like “Farmers against the next dust bowl” or “Palm Beach residents against hurricanes.” The climate is changing faster than ever. Our politics are about to as well. Thomas Hale Jessica F. Green Jeff


Romania spent over $40 million on a referendum to ban same-sex marriage. Few bothered to vote.

with the ruling Social Democrats. “We showed that we, as citizens, want a Romania based upon democratic values, a country where respect, equality and common sense guides society,” Romanian LGBT rights group Accept said in a statement. Even though the referendum originated in a 2016 petition signed by about 3 million Romanians, the Social Democrats associated themselves with the vote during the past few months, hoping the campaign they assumed to be an almost guaranteed success would boost their electoral chances overall. While they failed to mobilize same-sex marriage opponents over the weekend, their campaign once again stirred long-running anti-LGBT tensions in a country that only decriminalized homosexuality in 2001 and where same sex marriage or civil unions have been illegal since 2009. The referendum itself did not give voters a choice to vote in favor of allowing same-sex marriage, but only whether the constitutional definition of a “family” should continue to be gender-neutral. Either way, the result would not have had an immediate legal impact, but may have prevented possible future court rulings in favor of same-sex marriage or same-sex civil union. But as a growing number of government critics urged Romanians to boycott the vote, the same-sex marriage referendum also became a de facto confidence vote over the Social Democratic government. The ruling party has repeatedly shocked domestic and international observers with corruption scandals and attempts to disrupt the rule of law that triggered large protests across the country. Last year, the Social Democrats and their political allies in parliament voted to decriminalize official misconduct causing damage worth less than about $50,000 — basically turning a blind eye to all forms of petty corruption. Party leader Liviu Dragnea was himself convicted of electoral fraud in 2015 and of abuse-of-office earlier this summer. Appeals proceedings against the latest sentence are due to begin this week, which has triggered questions over the timing of a referendum some consider to be a distraction from the government’s corruption accusations. Leading party officials offered a very different take on the failed referendum, with the Social Democrats’ secretary general, Codrin Stefanescu, calling it “a failure of Romanians and of Romania in general.” More on WorldViews: Jamal Khashoggi is just the latest Saudi dissident to mysteriously disappear A ‘gross violation of human rights’: Friends, politicians react to reports of Jamal Khashoggi’s death Could the 'Trump of the Tropics’ really be the next president of Brazil?


The Khashoggi case is a crisis for U.S.-Saudi ties

Want smart analysis of the most important news in your inbox every weekday along with other global reads, interesting ideas and opinions to know? This could be the moment that Saudi Arabia finally loses Washington The grisly claims sent a jolt through the U.S. capital, which is traditionally friendly territory for Riyadh. Khashoggi, 59, had recently moved to the United States in self-imposed exile. He wrote columns for The Washington Post’s opinions section and counted many American intellectuals and journalists among his friends. If his killing is confirmed, it could prompt a decisive change in how the United States deals with Saudi Arabia. Leading Republican and Democratic lawmakers issued notes of alarm over the reports of Khashoggi’s death and threatened repercussions if they are true. Saudi authorities have vehemently denied the claims as “baseless allegations” and said a team of Saudi investigators had arrived in Istanbul to assist the Turkish inquiry into Khashoggi’s disappearance. Saudi officials in Istanbul took a team of journalists inside the consulate in a bid to prove their innocence. Meanwhile, reports in Saudi media attempted to discredit the accounts of Khashoggi’s fiancee, who first reported that he was missing on Tuesday. No Turkish official has yet publicly confirmed that Khashoggi is dead. In remarks made Sunday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said only that the mystery was “very, very upsetting” and he was “chasing” the matter. But many Turkish officials seemed confident in the assessment that the Saudis carried out murder. “There is concrete information; it will not remain an unsolved case,” said Yasin Aktay, an adviser to Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, in a Sunday interview with CNN Turk. At the time of writing, the Trump administration had not responded to the allegations Since becoming the heir to the throne last year, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS, has touted his reform plans, promising to liberalize his country and earning plaudits from a host of American commentators. But MBS’s de facto reign has also seen him terrorize rivals and arrest numerous feminists and civil-society activists, including some who now face the death penalty. Analysts argue it’s part of MBS’s need to further consolidate power. “He wanted everyone to understand that women were being allowed to drive not because they had campaigned for it, but because their rulers had issued a decree,” wrote Lindsey Hilsum, the international editor of Britain’s Channel 4 News. “The point was


How D.C. learned to love minced alligator

DC Oral History Collaborative, which trains people to record personal stories of the city. The project’s creator, Crystal HyunJung Rie, is immersing herself in the lives of five local chefs, including two mother-son teams, who have influenced — and been influenced by — the city’s recent food explosion. Rie, who grew up in South Korea, was working on a master’s degree in Asian Studies at Georgetown University when she was struck by how entrenched Korean and other Asian food was in American mainstream culture. She wondered how it had gotten to be that way. “The Asian population in D.C. is 4 or 5 percent, but you see so many Asian restaurants in D.C.,” she said. “I wanted people in D.C. to get to know the people who are preparing the food and the long stories of their struggles and their adjustment.” Rie came from somewhat of a cooking family — her grandparents had a bakery in Seoul — and as a recent immigrant, she can relate to some of the experiences her subjects describe. Some started out working in restaurants unrelated to their native culture. Some experimented with combining Asian and other cuisines. Some opened restaurants at low moments in their lives, crossing their fingers that their cooking and the city’s increasingly sophisticated palate would click. In interviews, chefs talked with Rie about the District’s transformation from a bastion of steakhouse power lunches to a mecca for young foodies. The plethora of residents who travel abroad (or just have adventurous palates), combined with relatively low rents, make it a cultural and financial sweet spot for inventive restaurateurs. “I feel like places like New York, that used to be the number one food city in America, or maybe the world, has really fallen off because the rents are too expensive,” said Edward Lee, culinary director of Succotash, a Penn Quarter restaurant that fuses the food of his family’s native Korea with the Southern cuisine of Kentucky, where he lived for many years. “Then you look at places like middle America — the rent is cheap, but you also don’t have the clientele that appreciates artistic food, so it’s too much in the other direction. I think D.C. right now is going through a time where you . . . have clientele here that really wants and is really sort of waking up to and respecting the art and craft of food.”


Evidence of what happened to Jamal Khashoggi exists. It must be released.

available. Turkish sources have said there are images of Mr. Khashoggi leaving the consulate on a previous visit on Sept. 28 but none from Oct. 2. Formal confirmation of that result from Turkish authorities would support the account of Mr. Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, who says she waited for him outside the mission until after midnight but never saw him. It would strongly indicate that the Saudi account is false. Turkish officials also have disseminated a report that 15 Saudi nationals flew into Istanbul on the day of Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance and were inside the consulate when Mr. Khashoggi disappeared. A private Turkish news agency, DHA, said the group arrived on two Gulfstreams belonging to a Riyadh-based company and that they landed at Ataturk Airport. If that is true, there should be records of the planes landing, and perhaps passenger manifests and passport records, along with more video from the airport and consulate. Its release would belie Saudi claims that no such delegation visited. Mr. Khashoggi visited the consulate to obtain paperwork certifying a previous divorce. If consular officials, who had told him on Sept. 28 to return on Oct. 2 in order to complete that business, supplied him with the document he requested, they should have records demonstrating as much. They have not released them. Instead, they made an offer to some local journalists to tour the consulate, in order to demonstrate that Mr. Khashoggi was not there. The staged tour does nothing to refute a grisly account offered by official Turkish sources — that Mr. Khashoggi’s body was dismembered and spirited out of the building. Again, if the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has evidence of such a horrific crime, it should immediately make it available to the family and other interested parties. For more than a year before his disappearance, Mr. Khashoggi was a resident of the United States, which gives the Trump administration a basis and an obligation to demand answers and relevant evidence from both Saudi Arabia and Turkey. So far, senior U.S. administration officials have had little to say publicly on the matter, which is concerning. If Mr. Khashoggi was murdered inside the consulate, it will cast the Saudi regime and its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in a new and disturbing light and require a thorough reevaluation of U.S.-Saudi relations. Better to know that sooner rather than later.


In days before he disappeared, Jamal Khashoggi told friends ‘not to worry’

ISTANBUL — Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist whose writings had jabbed his country’s leaders, seemed at ease in the days before he disappeared after visiting Saudi Arabia’s Consulate here, unconcerned about being tracked by government spies and peripatetic, as always, despite battling a cold. In London, where he attended a conference, he shrugged off an offer to stay at a low-profile hotel, rather than one booked by the organizers. During a lunch break, he left his cellphone unguarded on the table so carelessly that a friend felt the need to keep an eye on it. Khashoggi seemed mostly focused on the future, his friend Azzam Tamimi said, talking about writing his third book and his excitement about his upcoming wedding. Tamimi said that Khashoggi told him about the appointment at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Tuesday morning; he had to prove that he was divorced so that he could marry again. “He said not to worry, he was very optimistic. He said he had been treated well in a previous visit to the consulate,” Tamimi said. “He was welcomed warmly, very warmly, he said. They promised him his papers. He told me the staff at the consulate were just ordinary people. He wouldn’t have a problem.” What happened after Khashoggi entered the consulate is a mystery. Over the past two days, Turkish officials have said they believe that Saudi agents killed him shortly after he arrived. The allegations — including that a team of men was brought from Saudi Arabia to kill him — have reverberated around the world, shocked his friends and terrified other critics of the Saudi government. Saudi Arabia has vigorously denied the accusations, saying Khashoggi left the consulate on his own. A Saudi spokesman pointed out that Khashoggi had visited the Saudi Embassy in Washington several times in the past and “never faced any issues while doing so.” His friends say the cordial visits to the Saudi Embassy may have provided Khashoggi with a false sense of security. He also lacked the protective reflexes of a dissident: Khashoggi had spent his career as a part of Saudi Arabia’s establishment, ensconced in its ruling circles, and had only recently come to be regarded as a critic of the country’s leadership. And as he traveled to Istanbul in early September, he was preoccupied with his impending marriage to Hatice Cengiz, a Turkish woman he had met a