More people are traveling the world than ever. But the number coming to America is dropping.

Travelers can’t get enough of globe-trotting. But have they had enough of the United States? According to the World Tourism Organization, a United Nations agency, the number of international tourist arrivals around the world reached 1.4 billion last year. That represented a 6 percent increase, and the organization forecast the number to grow by 3 or 4 percent this year. But in the first half of this year, the number of international visitors coming to America has actually dropped nearly 1.7 percent. That’s according to preliminary data from the Commerce Department’s National Travel and Tourism Office, which shows that slightly more than 37 million foreign travelers came to the country between January and June. According to a forecast from the U.S. Travel Association, an industry trade group, the outlook for 2019 is for visitor numbers to remain just about the same as last year. Even if that holds true and the country doesn’t see a dip for the full year, the news is not good. “It’s generally going to be underperforming,” says David Huether, the group’s senior vice president of research. There’s a grab bag of reasons for the downturn, observers say. The latest version of a monthly report from the travel association, out this week, warns that foreign visits to the country remain vulnerable. “Ongoing global economic cooling, prolonged and expanding trade tensions, and uncertainty surrounding the Trump administration remain major risks to international traveler sentiment,” the report says. The value of the dollar also remains strong, making travel more expensive for visitors from other countries, Huether says. Trade wars with China could cost the country 1.9 million inbound visitors and $11 billion in spending between 2018 and 2020, according to research from the consultancy Tourism Economics, part of Oxford Economics. Through July, travel from China is down 3.7 percent compared with last year, according to Commerce Department figures. That’s on top of a drop last year, the report says. “Someone should care about this as much as they care about U.S. auto manufacturing or agriculture,” says Adam Sacks, president of Tourism Economics. “Given the size of the traveling class in China and how much that’s grown, and the strong desirability that the U.S. holds in Chinese travel intentions, we’d expect to see growth in the range of 10 percent. Instead, we saw a 5.7 percent decline.” China warned its citizens about traveling to the United States in June,


The health-care system’s second-class citizens

Alicia Mundy is the author of “Crystal Mesh: How Addiction to Money Turned Medical Device Makers and Doctors Into Street Dealers,” due out in October. As I was writing this review, Alabama had passed a draconian law that bans abortion except in cases where a woman’s health is at serious risk. The Food and Drug Administration had approved a new prescription drug injection to increase women’s sex drive and end what some ads called the “tragedy” of low libido. And OB/GYNs around the country were offering “vaginal rejuvenation” through laser procedures that narrow the vaginal opening to create “a more youthful, pre-pregnancy state” — a technique that has prompted an FDA warning on safety. If there was any doubt of an audience for Jennifer Block’s advocacy book, those recent events should lay that notion to rest. In “Everything Below the Waist: Why Health Care Needs a Feminist Revolution,” Block reveals the travails of women trapped by a medical profession that poorly serves their needs. Despite the growing presence of female doctors, many women still suffer from the neglect and chauvinism of paternalistic male physicians, resulting in both undertreatment and overtreatment of symptoms and illnesses. While advocating for women, Block also argues that the women’s movement has not delivered the magnitude of change in female care that’s needed. Fifty years after the start of the feminist revolution, American women are still second-class citizens when it comes to health care. In one of her opening vignettes, a 46-year-old woman undergoes a minimally invasive hysterectomy at a major medical center. Two days later she complains of severe pains, and her heart rate jumps. Her doctor’s response is to send her home with a prescription for anti-anxiety pills. Two days after that, the woman is rushed into emergency surgery, and doctors find that her intestine had been damaged during the hysterectomy. She leaves the hospital with a colostomy bag. “You may already be familiar with this story,” Block writes. “Woman needs medical care. Woman is ignored. Woman has to fight.” Block notes that “there are no sacred cows in this book,” and that includes America’s fertility industry, where women endure open-ended treatments for a diagnosis of “unexplained infertility.” That leads to budget-busting artificial insemination, embryo freezing, repeated injections and surgery. Block tracks down a doctor in Pennsylvania, Danielle Miller, who produces better outcomes by taking the time to find the underlying reasons that women


The Cybersecurity 202: Ransomware attack against the 2020 election could disrupt statewide voting databases

security legislation up for a vote. House Democrats have passed legislation requiring voting systems to use paper ballots and authorizing $600 million in election security funding to states, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has blocked the measures. “In a divided government, the only way we can accomplish this vital task is to put politics aside and pursue bipartisan solutions that can pass a Democratic-led House and a Republican-led Senate, and go to a Republican President’s desk for a signature,” wrote the co-chairs of the Blue Dog Coalition and its task force on national security. Also yesterday, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) listed “greater action to deter Russia and secure our elections ahead of 2020, including votes on bipartisan election security legislation and new funding in the 2020 appropriations process” as one of five major priorities for this fall in a letter to colleagues. PWNED: After failing to negotiate down a hacking group’s ransom request for more than $5 million in bitcoin in exchange for unlocking its computer systems, the city of New Bedford, Mass. reversed course and managed to restore its services on its own, The city initially offered hackers $400,000, a number closer to other ransoms the hacking group has collected in recent months. The Ryuk group — named for the ransomware it uses — has collected as little as $100,000 from a public school district in New York to as much as $600,000 from Riviera Beach, Fla. The original $5 million demand would have been among the highest-known hacking ransoms ever collected. — Cybersecurity news from the public sector: — Cybersecurity news from the private sector: — Cybersecurity news from abroad: The cryptocurrency media lit up recently after a Forbes contributor reported that NASA was developing a “quantum cryptocurrency.” The only problem was that the article, now taken down, was based on a tweet by Bloomberg reporter William Turton, which reported that the NSA -- not NASA -- is working on developing “quantum resistant crypto” … meaning “cryptography.” Forbes quickly removed the article, but as CNN’s Kevin Collier pointed out, the damage was done. Reuters’s Joseph Menn: For what it’s worth, quantum-resistant cryptography refers to encryption that’s complex enough to withstand the code-breaking power of a new generation of super-powerful quantum computers that are currently being developed. Government agencies, academics and international standards bodies have been working on the problem for quite some time.


Sentences halved for three Blackwater guards in 2007 shootings of unarmed Iraqi civilians

A federal judge resentenced three former Blackwater Worldwide security guards Thursday, cutting by about half the prison terms imposed for the shootings of unarmed Iraqi civilians in a Baghdad traffic circle in 2007, after an appeals court found their initial 30-year sentences unconstitutionally cruel. The September 2007 shootings left 14 dead and 17 wounded, setting off a diplomatic crisis on oversight of American security contractors during one of the deadliest periods in the Iraq War. After a three-hour hearing Thursday in Washington, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth handed down prison terms of 15 years for Paul A. Slough, 39, of Keller, Tex.; 14 years for Evan S. Liberty, 37, of Rochester, N.H.; and 12 years and seven months for Dustin L. Heard, 38, of Maryville, Tenn., on multiple counts of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter each. The hearing marked the latest turn in an extended prosecution since the events in Baghdad. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in August 2017 set aside sentences imposed after a 2014 trial, because the men’s convictions included one count of committing a felony while armed with a military weapon, a charge that carries a mandatory 30-year term. The appeals court panel ruled that the charge, usually aimed at violent drug traffickers, had never been applied to security contractors carrying government-issued automatic weapons and explosives in a war zone, resulting in “grossly disproportionate” punishment. At resentencing, the defendants asked for time-served — about five years for each of them — while prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia sought terms of 26 to 30 years, on the basis of the number of victims attributed to each of the men. The defense cited the men’s military and other service to their country, model behavior in prison, regret for the loss of innocent lives and the havoc of war. Lamberth acknowledged the good character they had demonstrated while imprisoned and the extraordinary support shown by scores of family members, friends and backers who traveled at their own expense from their home states and filled the courtroom. Among those at the hearing was Blackwater founder Erik Prince, who declined to comment. The judge said, however, that the men’s lawyers could not “change the facts” underlying their jury convictions: firing wildly for 20 minutes into cars stalled in midafternoon traffic at Nisour Square on Sept. 16, 2007, and sending machine-gun


Theirs was the ‘purest love.’ Then a suicide bombing changed everything.

she ran through the back kitchen and crossed the partition. The power was out, but she could still make out the carnage. Bodies and dismembered limbs were strewn everywhere she looked. She found Mujtaba lying in the street. He was still breathing when she knelt by him and begged him to stay with her. Then the men around them picked him up and piled him into a car with others who had been wounded. Fatana’s father, Abdul Mohammad Elyasi, was one of the few men in their family who didn’t attend the wedding that night. But when he heard the blast, he ran toward the venue to help carry bodies out of the hall. In the chaos, he couldn’t find his sons. Then his phone started ringing — each call carrying news that drove him further into grief. First he learned that one son was badly wounded, then gone. Then another son. Then nephews. A grandson. A future son-in-law. “I felt thankful they were born and we raised them,” he said. “But then someone just walked in and killed them and so many others.” One at a time, their bodies returned to his modest house, seven in all. Farzam, 5 years old. Haroon, 40. Arash and Kamran, both 13. Abdul Naqib, 16. Abdul Qadeer, 18. And Mujtaba, 22. “I felt ruined,” Mujtaba’s father, Amir Mohammad Azizi, said. “Everyone liked him, and he liked everyone.” More than a year earlier, hundreds of friends and relatives had gathered at this same house to celebrate Fatana and Mujtaba’s engagement. She wore a rose-gold dress with a bright pink scarf, Mujtaba a black suit with a matching pink tie. Her heart swelled when he slipped the ring onto her fourth finger, tying their fates together forever. Now, so many men were crowded around his body, she hardly had the chance to say goodbye. The next day, as the men buried Mujtaba, Fatana’s mind flooded with the promises he’d made her when he was alive. “I’ll make a good life for you,” he had said. “I’ll take care of you.” A few nights later, she fell into a deep sleep and dreamed that he had returned. He sat beside her and they chatted closely like they used to when he visited during their long engagement. Then she jolted awake. It was dark, and Mujtaba was gone. Only her sisters were sleeping beside her. siobhan.ogrady@washpost.com sharif.hassan@washpost.com


One more state bans coyote-killing contests

Hello, and happy weekend. This week, Arizona — a state that’s hardly considered a leader when it comes to animal rights — became the fourth state in the nation to ban most private wildlife-killing contests. As I wrote earlier this year, states are increasingly scrutinizing such competitions, which also face criticism from some hunting groups that view the events as unethical. In other animal news this week: º Hurricane Dorian has been hard on humans — and animals, too. º Some Canadian raccoons are feeling a bit tipsy º Meet Garlic, a cloned kitten. Thanks, as always, for reading!


Military service was once a fast track to U.S. citizenship. The Trump administration keeps narrowing that possibility.

not interested. As native-born citizens have become less willing to join the military, the percentage of immigrants serving has increased. About 65,000 immigrants currently serve in the active duty military out of 1.29 million, including many who are not citizens – in no small part as a way to become U.S. citizens. The Trump administration has made that harder through a series of small changes But the Trump administration has pursued a range of policies trying to slow that down. In 2017, the administration directed the Department of Defense to implement new barriers restricting the ability of immigrants to serve in the military and use that service as a path to citizenship. As a result, servicemembers are filing far fewer applications for naturalization. What’s more, servicemembers are now less likely than civilians to have their applications approved. Last year, the AP reported that the military was discharging immigrant recruits who had enlisted under a program called Military Accessions Vital for the National Interest (MAVNI). MAVNI made it easier to recruit “legal aliens whose skills are considered to be vital to the national interest” by offering them a fast track to citizenship. The Trump administration announced that it would discontinue MAVNI, despite Pentagon support for it. Further, earlier this summer the administration announced it would stop blocking deportations for active-duty troops, their families, and veterans. Then came the latest policy in this series, withdrawing automatic citizenship for the children of some servicemembers. To be sure, the Trump administration is not the first to deport veterans. In January, the Government Accountability Office revealed that between 2013 and 2018, United States Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) did not offer additional review in veterans’ deportation proceedings, as policies required, and that some were improperly deported. But the Trump administration has intensified efforts to separate military service from citizenship. The Immigrant Legal Resource Center advised in 2018 that “it may now be faster for [lawful permanent residents] seeking citizenship to remain civilians.” These policy changes hurt military recruitment and effectiveness Today’s military relies on immigrants both for numbers and for access to critical languages and skills. That’s why, after the September 11 attacks, President George W. Bush signed a 2002 Executive Order expediting naturalization for anyone serving in the military from then on, and in 2008 implemented MAVNI. In 2014, the Obama administration expanded MAVNI to include recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).


Transcript: Chasing Cancer Boston

something that there were 3 million people in 1975. There are something like 15 million now. In another 10 years there will be something like 18 or 20 million. So it is growing significantly, and that should tell you some good things about the cancer research and treatment that is going on. But when I was treated, I'm a superstitious baseball executive. I should have known something was wrong. And I was diagnosed on Friday the 13th. So I remember that date vividly. I was in my late 30s. I was feeling healthy and full of energy. I was working for the Baltimore Orioles at the time. And there was this thing about this nagging cough that wouldn't go away, and I'd just came back from a motorcycle trip in Europe. And I kept coughing over there. So I went to see a doctor and he diagnosed me with B-cell Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I couldn't even spell it at the time, let alone understand what it was. It was devastating. I was the first of my cohort group to experience this kind of diagnosis. Like the mayor, I also spent 40 days in treatment. Like the mayor, I had a bone marrow transplant. I was the beneficiary of some important experimental treatments that led to my recovery. I had a relapse during the course of my chemotherapy, and I was told that that was a particularly adverse event and that my probabilities of survival had shrunk considerably. So I went on. And Dana-Farber, an institution that the mayor spoke of reverentially--and I do too--came up with a younger doctor with a new modality, and he applied that to me. It included the bone marrow transplant that I referred to. I went in with two good friends, or two friends, I should say, at the same time, and I was the only one who survived the treatment. But what it did do for me is temporarily change my whole perspective. It permanently changed a part of my perspective in ways that I think the mayor could resonate with as well. The experience is profound. And if it is well-delivered by loving people, if you feel a sense of community and family support, you're never the same again. MS. WINFIELD CUNNINGHAM: What are some of the specific ways your outlook on life was changed? Did you view relationships differently? Did you view your


Transcript: Chasing Cancer Boston

make sure that we maintain access for those patients. I would also say there's--we talked about sort of different populations of cancer pain: those that have active cancer, those that are in survivorship. Another group that's particularly important to address are patients that have substance abuse disorder or are in remission for substance abuse disorder and now get diagnosed with cancer and have severe pain. And that's where it becomes really a bit of a tightrope in terms of how do we safely manage their pain effectively. And so, we've tried to come up with a team approach where we use substance use disorder specialists, social work, psychiatry, psychology, palliative care, interventional pain clinicians to identify non-opioid means to control those folks' pain, because they're a particularly vulnerable population, as well. MS. CUNNINGHAM: That's really--I never thought of that. That's really interesting, yeah. I want to talk a little bit about marijuana use for chronic pain. Colorado, New York, and Illinois have now passed laws allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana for chronic pain. What are your thoughts on that? DR. KAMDAR: I'll let Jason take this one. DR. YONG: Yeah, sure. So, I think the jury is still out. I think there is some signal where we have found benefit for patients dealing with chronic pain or cancer pain. I think we still haven't found that right ratio of how much of the different substances, the THC component or the in cannabidiol component, the CBD component. The challenges are that it is difficult to study, because THC, the component in marijuana that is psychoactive, is still Schedule I; whereas CBD maybe Schedule V and easier to study. But the majority of the compounds that we have are a combination of them. So, if we're looking to do a validated clinical study with the FDA approval, it requires a lot more rigor and having to go through more hoops to get the Schedule I substance. DR. KAMDAR: Just to give folks reference, a Schedule I drug is the equivalent is studying something like heroin, which is--you can imagine the security and regulatory elements of that. And so, you know, I think when it comes to medical marijuana, if we took a poll of this room, half the people would say it's horrible, it's going to be sort of the next gateway to the next opioid crisis. And everybody else would say


Transcript: Chasing Cancer Boston

opportunities to provide them to people around the rest of the country and the rest of the world? DR. KUNG: I think drug costs are certainly an area of intense conversation, not only in the cancer space but across all of medicine. I think that access and the democratization of some of these innovative therapies, that it really is the obligation of the academic medical centers, the comprehensive cancer centers, to do the research to conduct the clinical trials that will ultimately lead to an approval. And the approval of a drug is how you democratize it and make it available to anybody, anywhere. And so, I think that those of us that work at academic medical centers like Memorial Sloan Kettering, we're obliged to do the kind of clinical trials that ultimately provide access to all cancer patients through approvals. MS. SELLERS: One of our listeners is asking over Twitter what the difference is between personalized medicine and precision medicine. And if any of you want to take a quick shot at that one... DR. JURIC: So, the difference fundamentally is simply about methodology that we use to characterize the cancer. In its essence, targeted therapies, personalized therapies are very similar: We're trying to give the right treatment to the right patient at the right time. What changes over time is the technology itself. So, now, we can use so-called "next-generation sequencing," which is a very precise way of determining so-called mutations or errors in various genes that drive cancer. And with these methodological improvements came the need to kind of reframe our thinking about cancer, and precision oncology as a term emerged. But it's fundamentally about the deeper and deeper understanding that we have about cancer using better and better and more precise technologies. I think the NTRK example that we heard just a few minutes ago is really a wonderful example how these precision approaches have completely changed the framework. Think about it: NTRK is one of the first examples of something called disease- or cancer-agnostic drug development, where it's not so much about what cancer does the patient have, it's about what mutation is driving their cancer. And if there is a mutation, the chances of success with that drug approaches about 75 percent, regardless of the actual disease. Some other biomarkers, we call them, or mutations that we use to select treatment are very context-dependent.


Trump officials broke law by using entrance fees to keep parks open, watchdog says

The Interior Department broke federal spending law when it dipped into national park fees to keep its most popular sites operating during this winter’s partial federal shutdown, the Government Accountability Office concluded Thursday. In a 17-page opinion, the GAO found that Trump administration officials violated the law by using fees parks collected under the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, which are designed to support visitor services and to fund operations and basic maintenance. This approach violated the lands law as well as the Antideficiency Act, which imposes restrictions on how agencies can redirect money without congressional approval. At the time, National Park Service Deputy Director P. Daniel Smith said the agency needed to divert the funds because keeping parks open but understaffed was no longer tenable. The report, which was requested by the two top Democrats on the House and Senate appropriations panels overseeing Interior, used harsh language to describe the administration’s decision to tap entrance fees during the shutdown without explicit authorization from Congress. “Instead of carrying out the law, Interior improperly imposed its own will,” the opinion states. “Interior cannot select which restraints apply to its appropriations and when these restraints apply.” The public watchdog, which noted that the Park Service did not respond to its request for an explanation of its actions, instructed the agency to restore the money it had diverted, report the violation to Congress and outline what actions it had undertaken to prevent another diversion from happening during a future shutdown. Money from the fund was spent from Jan. 5 to Jan. 25; the Park Service said Friday that it had used nearly $10.3 million during that period. “With this decision, we will consider such violations in the future to be knowing and willful violations of the Act,” the opinion says. Interior spokeswoman Melissa Brown rejected the GAO’s legal analysis in an email. “We completely disagree with the GAO’s erroneous opinion regarding our appropriate and lawful use of FLREA funds,” she said. “The department acted well within its legal authority to clean up restrooms and pick up trash, so the American people could enjoy their national parks.” Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) and Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), who had requested the opinion, hailed the GAO’s findings. “The Secretary of Interior seems to think the rule of law doesn’t apply to the Trump administration,” said a statement from McCollum, who chairs the House subcommittee on the


When a black-owned funeral home in a gentrifying city has no one left to bury

about $2 million, more than twice the assessed value. That figure was unimaginable 75 years ago. Land records show that his uncle Ocy D. Hall paid $10,000 for the rowhouse near Seventh Street and Florida Avenue. Ables said he has not met the buyer, negotiating only through a real estate agent, Amy Harasz. Harasz, citing a confidentiality agreement with her client, said in a text message that she was unable to divulge the buyer’s identity, details about the sale or plans for the property. The view beyond Hall Brothers’ front stoop — a new condo tower to the right, another rising to the left, a former Wonder Bread factory turned into a WeWork space down the street — in no way resembles what Ables remembers from childhood. In those years, he spent afternoons and weekends hanging out at the funeral home, stowing himself in emptycaskets during games of hide and seek with his cousins. In later years, they befriended a worker at the Howard Theatre who sneaked them in a side entrance to see the likes of Smokey Robinson and the Temptations, Chuck Brown, James Brown and Aretha Franklin. “If we saw a white person, we’d ask, ‘What are you doing here?’ ” Ables said of the neighborhood. “Now it’s the opposite.” In recent months, he sold the hearse, a bright-white 1994 Cadillac. He figured he would scrap the metal “Hall Brothers” sign above the entrance — the “B” fell off long ago — along with stacks of American Funeral Director magazines, a TV that hadn’t been turned on in years, and his embalming tools. He planned to seek guidance from the District’s Board of Funeral Directors about what to do with a dozen or so containers of unclaimed cremated remains, four of which were beneath a stack of files on the floor to the left of his desk. Another, holding the ashes of Yvonne C. Henley, who died in 1988, was on his office mantel. “Her daughter came down from New York to order it,” he said. “We haven’t seen her since.” Ables seemed most concerned about those 18 ledger books scattered around his office, and preserving a record of people such as Lonnie Burton, a “laborer” who died of “congestive heart failure” May 7, 1947; Sarah Lee Rush, 37, whose 1981 death occurred after a “gun shot wound of the chest”; and Clyde Gossett, 29, a “counselor” who


These 5 countries are busy prepping for a post-Brexit world

DUBLIN — To measure Ireland’s profound vulnerability to a no-deal Brexit, just go to any slaughterhouse or supermarket in this nation — and ask who eats that beef, or how that bread, milk and beer reached the shelf. Take Guinness. It’s brewed in Dublin, bottled and canned in Belfast, sent back for distribution from Dublin, then often heads back north or across the Irish Sea to Britain for three border crossings before it reaches the consumer. The same goes for milk, which is shipped back and forth for processing and sale in both jurisdictions. Similarly fluid trade applies for cattle, pigs and sheep. Northern farmers often sell their animals for slaughter in the south, and the meat often is shipped back into Northern Ireland or elsewhere in Britain. Then there is Ireland’s dependence on Britain for critical goods and services: prescription and over-the-counter drugs, electricity and natural gas. These would keep flowing in a no-deal Brexit, but they would travel more slowly and at greater cost to Irish consumers. “I’m convinced we will be hit harder by a no-deal Brexit than Britain itself,” said Dan O’Brien, senior economist at one of Ireland’s main think tanks, the Institute of International and European Affairs in Dublin. “We are much more trade-dependent. We export more beef to Britain than anywhere else. Even more importantly, a huge amount of our imports either come from the U.K. or via the U.K. Many of us produce goods bound for Britain. Everyone in Ireland is a daily consumer of British goods.” As a result, nowhere outside Britain is watching the Brexit shenanigans at Westminster more closely or nervously than Ireland, whose own economic management is held hostage by the British government’s vow to leave the European Union and its borderless trade environment without any successor agreement in place. Economists broadly agree that Ireland’s vibrant economy is close to overheating, with near-full employment and rising wages amid unaffordable housing, deficits tamed thanks to record tax hauls from U.S. multinationals based here, and growth near the top of the E.U. table. The government of Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said it wants to unveil a 2020 budget next month that keeps a fiscal lid on things — but the crash-out Brexit being threatened next door would force the Irish to do the opposite, pumping money into an economy suddenly reeling from a severe shock. “It is hard to plan when


As potential deal with the Taliban looms, Pompeo says U.S. ‘delivered’ on mission in Afghanistan

an agreement “in principle” in peace negotiations. On Thursday, two NATO service members — an American and a Romanian — were killed in a suicide car bomb attack in Kabul at a checkpoint near NATO headquarters and the U.S. Embassy, the coalition said in a statement. The agreement is expected to see the partial removal of U.S. troops in exchange for the Taliban renouncing al-Qaeda and preventing the group from recruiting, fundraising, training and other activities. But the Islamic State, a Taliban enemy, could play a complicating role as it becomes a greater threat in Afghanistan. “While it’s true that the U.S. did achieve its initial goal of eliminating al-Qaeda sanctuaries in Afghanistan, it would be premature to proclaim ‘mission accomplished’ on the counterterrorism front in Afghanistan,” said Michael Kugelman, a South Asia expert at the Wilson Center. “To be sure, al-Qaeda has been degraded in a big way, but it remains resilient, and the newer threat of ISIS in Afghanistan is potent,” he said, using another name for the Islamic State. The United States invaded Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001, less than a month after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon. Originally, the military incursion aimed to oust the Taliban and bring Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda to justice. But the war has stretched on for 18 years through three U.S. presidencies, taking the lives of more than 2,300 Americans. Since 2014, U.S. and NATO troops have been involved in an advisory mission to help Afghan troops. So far this year, 16 American troops have been killed, including three in recent weeks. That compares with 13 killed last year and 11 in 2017. “There is a real achievement that has taken place, and we have in fact for now almost two decades greatly reduced the risk that an attack on the United States of America would emanate from Afghan soil, or for that matter from Pakistan, as well,” Pompeo said. Pompeo paid tribute to the Americans who have fought in Afghanistan as well as in Iraq. “For those who were engaged in our wars in Iraq or in Afghanistan, they took real risk, and they are to forever be considered special by me and by the American people,” he said. According to Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan, the draft calls for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from five


Martin Weitzman, environmental economist who emphasized uncertainty, dies at 77

decades working as an environmental economist, producing insights that included the calculation of green GDP, in which the economy is measured partly by accounting for the harmful effects of pollution and the destruction of natural resources. When it came to climate change, an issue that he described as the “wicked problem,” he broke from many of his peers to argue that most economic models were probably far too conservative, creating the “illusion of sureness.” “Everything in climate change is uncertain because we don’t know what these extreme values are,” he said in a video interview for Harvard’s Center for the Environment. “They’re outside the range of most of our models, they’re outside the range of our usual thinking, so that there’s no way we can really, truly pin down the probability of a catastrophe and the magnitude of a catastrophe.” Dr. Weitzman focused not on likely outcomes but on low-probability, high-impact scenarios known as fat tails. He argued — convincingly — that the worst-case possibilities of a warmer planetary future were so bad, they could not be ignored. A Bloomberg tribute last week dubbed him “the man who got economists to take climate nightmares seriously.” In 2015, Dr. Weitzman partnered with a former student, Gernot Wagner, to publish “Climate Shock: The Economic Consequences of a Hotter Planet.” The book highlighted some of the risks posed by global warming and explored geoengineering, including proposals to reflect sunlight (known as solar radiation management), as a relatively inexpensive way to offset its effects. “ Dr. Weitzman was born Meyer Levinger (or Levenger; his wife said she was unsure of the correct spelling) in Manhattan on April 1, 1942. His mother died when he was an infant. With his father serving in the Army during World War II, Meyer was put into foster care; he was ultimately adopted by two elementary school teachers, who named him Martin Lawrence Weitzman and raised him in the planned community of Levittown, N.Y. He studied math and physics at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, graduating in 1963, and received a master’s degree in statistics and operations research from Stanford the next year, followed by a doctorate in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1967. Dr. Weitzman taught at Yale and MIT before joining Harvard in 1989. And while he generally distanced himself from politics and the application of his theories, he advised organizations including the World Bank,


‘We’ve got to protect ourselves’: Some threaten to shop elsewhere if they can’t openly carry guns

Chad Howard carries a pistol everywhere he goes. And he isn’t about to stop now. On Friday morning, he left home as he always does: with his .40-caliber Smith & Wesson clipped to his right hip. He took his wife to the hospital for blood tests, then went to the local Walmart Supercenter in Corinth, Miss., where he waited to see whether he — and his visible firearm — would still be welcome. Days earlier, Walmart had become the latest big-box chain to take a public stand on guns when it announced it would ask customers to stop openly carrying firearms in its 4,750 U.S. stores. ‘The retailer said it would stop selling ammunition for military-style rifles and handguns, and would push Congress to pass tighter gun-control laws. Walmart’s stand represented a major shift in the way retailers are positioning themselves in an increasingly fraught debate over who has the right to have guns, and where. Walmart wasn’t alone. Within hours, Kroger, the country’s largest grocery chain, said it too would ask customers to refrain from openly carrying firearms at all 2,800 of its stores. CVS, Walgreens and Wegmans made similar announcements in quick succession. In total, those retailers have more than 23,000 stores in the United States, though some of them are in places that already have such a policy against openly carrying guns. Other big chains, such as Target, Starbucks and Chipotle, have had such policies against open carry for years. Gun-control advocates and industry experts hailed it as an admission by one of the country’s largest corporations that the government wasn’t doing enough to stop gun violence. “The sheer size and power of Walmart means this is perhaps the biggest blow to the NRA in the history of the organization,” said Chris Allieri, a crisis management expert and founder of Mulberry & Astor, a public relations firm in New York. “This is not some left-leaning coastal CEO sending a tweet or two. This is Walmart saying. ‘This is how we’re going to do business going forward. Take note.’ ” Although Americans took to social media to say Walmart’s efforts made them feel safer about shopping at the company’s stores, the National Rifle Association and gun rights groups increasingly are encouraging members to stop shopping at retailers that have tightened their open carry policies in recent days. Freedom Movement USA, a group of constitutional conservatives calling for a


Afghanistan’s Ghani to visit Washington as peace deal limps and violence surges

Ghani’s plans to visit Washington. “Seeking peace with this group that is still pursuing the killing of innocent people is meaningless,” Ghani said Thursday. Adding to the chaos, the head of the Afghan intelligence agency was forced to step down Thursday after the day’s Kabul bombing and an Afghan security raid in Jalalabad that killed four brothers and aroused local protests. Critics have accused Ghani of abetting political turmoil by insisting on holding the election under dangerous conditions in an effort to win a second term. Others accused his government of failing to plan for Afghan talks with Taliban leaders that are supposed to come after a U.S. deal. Conflicting U.S. statements have also heightened public confusion and worry about the proposed deal, which has been negotiated in secret. Khalilzad has painted it as a positive step, and President Trump has stressed the urgency of removing U.S. forces from the country. But a key Republican senator and a group of former U.S. diplomats have warned against a hasty withdrawal. The diplomats said Afghanistan could collapse into civil war unless some troops remain and a stronger deal is signed. Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen tweeted Saturday evening that the group had held meetings with Khalilzad, Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani and U.S. Army Gen. Austin “Scott” Miller, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. “Both meetings were positive and well attended,” he wrote. In the absence of U.S. government openness about the deal, alarmist rumors have spread across Afghan society. People are worried that thousands of Taliban prisoners may be released, that the deal will not spell out the rights of women, and especially that the Taliban will wait until thousands of U.S. troops are withdrawn and then renege on its promises with impunity. “Everything that’s happening is a mystery,” said Abdul Azam, a telephone company worker. “Do we know if the Taliban doing the negotiations are the real Taliban group in power? We hear the president making speeches and saying everything will be fine, but it’s not. People are confused and afraid.” In west Kabul, where many Shiite Muslims and minority ethnic Hazaras live, the fear is palpable and specific. Omid Hajji Agha, 19, said mosques in the area were “full during Muharram in the past, but not anymore. There is no security here. Everyone talks about peace, but peace talks are cheap words. Still the fighting continues.” pamela.constable@washpost.com siobhan.ogrady@washpost.com


Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwean leader who helped liberate and destroy his country, dies at 95

could fly to Europe for a shopping spree. Mr. Mugabe had three children with Marufu. A complete list of survivors was not immediately available. Although much of black-ruled Africa suffered bankruptcy and famine, Zimbabwe retained a modest measure of prosperity. Zimbabwe’s farmers not only fed the country’s own rapidly expanding population — now more than 16 million — but exported corn and other food to its hungry neighbors. Mr. Mugabe’s government instituted health and education programs that lowered the infant mortality rate and increased the number of high school and university graduates. Zimbabwe’s uneasy stability began to crumble in the late 1990s as inflation, unemployment and the AIDS epidemic ate away at the country’s social and economic gains. Faced with rising discontent, Mr. Mugabe targeted one of the country’s most visible minority groups: the 4,500 white commercial farmers. Mr. Mugabe dispatched thousands of unemployed war veterans and street thugs to harass the owners and seize their property. The government instituted a “land reform” policy that turned over the most successful farms to the political elite. Productivity plummeted — production of corn, Zimbabwe’s main staple, fell by two-thirds — and the country swung from being a net food exporter to a basket case within a few years. Nearly 1 million black farmworkers and their families lost their jobs and homes, according to a 2008 study by Zimbabwean economists for the U.N. Development Program. Mr. Mugabe’s unbroken string of electoral success ended in February 2000, when voters rejected a draft constitution that would have legitimized his vastly increased power. Four months later, a new opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, won 57 of the 120 elected seats in parliament, capturing urban centers throughout the country and falling just short of a majority. The government responded with a wave of repression, rounding up opposition leaders and attacking urban demonstrators, while in the countryside armed gangs destroyed the homes and food supplies of opponents. Mr. Mugabe branded his foes as traitors and saboteurs, shut down independent media outlets and undermined the country’s independent judiciary. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was beaten, arrested and charged with plotting to kill Mr. Mugabe — only later to be acquitted. Zimbabwe’s economic and political misery deepened. Basic public services such as water and sanitation, public schools and hospitals collapsed, and by 2008 the rate of inflation exceeded 10 million percent. Even many of Mr. Mugabe’s former allies called


The Germany of 1892 was liberating for W.E.B. Du Bois. Many minorities don’t feel that today.

in life of “Wine, Women, and Song,” he wrote in his autobiography. “I ceased to hate or suspect people simply because they belonged to one race or color.” Part of the acceptance he found in Germany may be due to his privilege, according to Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst, a professor of African studies at the University of Cologne. “When confronted with a person of Du Bois’s standing, white people in Berlin acted differently,” she said. But that didn’t mean racism didn’t exist in Germany and across the continent. Anti-Semitism was commonly taught at major universities, and Berlin had also been instrumental for ushering in a new era of heightened imperialism and brutality abroad. Just seven years before Du Bois arrived, Bismarck had organized the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 and formalized Europe’s scramble for Africa. In Europe’s universities, racist theories about “minor races” were being developed by scientists. The theories would travel to the United States and help justify Jim Crow laws. Those laws, in turn, were later studied by colonialists and the Nazis to implement and maintain the brutality of colonial rule and the Holocaust. They also helped underpin the violence of the 20th century’s first genocide. In what is now Namibia, German troops shot, starved, and tortured tens of thousands of Herero and Nama people to death. Hundreds of thousands more died in the Maji Maji revolt in German East Africa, in present-day Tanzania. At the time of his stay in Berlin, Du Bois could not recognize the structures and thinking underlying the violence. “He was 24 and for him imperialism and colonialism was a sort of normality that he was working himself out of,” said Martin Klepper, a professor of American Studies at the Humboldt University in Berlin. “He came back to the states and then he became really much more critical than he had ever been of colonialism and imperialism and racism.” In fact, after his return to the U.S., Du Bois vehemently denounced colonialism, and wrote extensively about what he saw as a common origin for the violence he saw at home and abroad. “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line — the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea,” he wrote in “The Souls of Black Folk.” For many Germans, the same can be said of


A bigger crop: Why Maryland’s medical pot growers are adding more plants

believes the difference stems partly from social shifts: People have become more comfortable requesting the drug, and doctors with recommending it. But Maryland also crafted a patient-friendly program, Darin said, which compared to elsewhere has a more generous list of conditions that qualify for treatment. “We’re hustling to expand our production,” said Darin, whose company is tripling growing space in its warehouse in Taneytown, east of Frederick near the Pennsylvania border. Regulators noted that there is still substantial room for growth in the medical cannabis market in Maryland, which has opened 82 dispensaries across the state in less than two years. In most states, medical marijuana patients account for 1 to 4 percent of the population, said William C. Timburg, the cannabis commission’s director of policy and government affairs. In Maryland, the 70,000 registered patients represent a little more than 1 percent of state residents. In theory, that means the medical marijuana market could quadruple. The commission was overwhelmed this spring with about 1,200 patient inquiries a day, on top of about 300 applications to become a registered patient — an onslaught so great the agency purchased an emergency call center to deal with it. As the industry expands, it’s also working to remedy problems — namely that minority-owned companies were largely shut out during the first round of licensing. For the round of business approvals underway, the cannabis commission identified 61 disadvantaged Zip codes and awarded an extra 15 points to applicants from those areas, provided they meet other socioeconomic and residency requirements. Existing growers said their expansions also reflect an easing of the regulatory hiccups, legal challenges and political controversies that threatened to throttle the industry in its early days. Maryland lawmakers dedicated few resources to launching the industry, relying on a panel of volunteers to come up with a way to regulate and administer it. The General Assembly also spent a few years debating how to restructure the industry’s regulations and passing new laws to expand how many companies could hold licenses to grow or process the drug. “We’ve basically been operating on quicksand since the beginning,” said Mackie Barch, who now chairs the Maryland Wholesale Medical Cannabis Trade Association. As the industry has taken off, some jurisdictions that initially were reluctant to embrace it have shifted their stances. Carroll and Anne Arundel counties, for example, have loosened restrictions on the businesses. Last week, the University of


Cutting refugee admissions will have severe consequences for the U.S. military

Robert J. Natter is a retired U.S. Navy admiral who served as commander of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet and U.S. Fleet Forces from 2000 to 2003. Mark P. Hertling is a retired lieutenant general who served as commanding general of U.S. Army Europe from 2011 to 2012. America was founded as a safe haven to persecuted people and a beacon of hope, liberty and freedom to people around the world. Those themes reflect our values, and the welcoming of refugees to our shores is one of our proudest legacies and a fundamental part of who we are as a nation. As military leaders, we spent nearly four decades defending these values. But today, a core American legacy is at risk, as the Trump administration is reportedly considering issuing severe, unprecedented cuts — potentially even zeroing out — the bipartisan U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, the established legal means of entry for these deserving people. This week, we joined a group of 27 retired generals and admirals — all of whom have been operational leaders in military conflicts and exhibited courage in defending our values on the battlefield — in writing to President Trump expressing grave concerns about the direction of this vital program. That’s because for many of us, welcoming refugees is not just a matter of smart policy and a reflection of our national values; it is also personal. Many of us know these refugees: They worked for and with us in our fight against terrorists and insurgents. The tangible and significant improvements we were able to make in the lives of millions as well as efforts to protect our own soldiers, sailors and Marines would not have been possible without the dedicated efforts of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan interpreters, logisticians, engineers and others. Many of those individuals were targeted because of their assistance to us. They and their families have often been threatened for working with coalition forces, yet they bravely continued in their service at every level from translating conversations at the infantry squad level to contributing to task-force-level diplomatic missions. They may claim different cultures and speak different languages, but they have all put their lives on the line along with our citizens as part of our team. Many of our partners continue to live in fear, given the continued hazardous situations in various parts of the world. In Iraq alone, more than 100,000 await entry


First sisters to become Army generals say it was ‘not a game of chance. It is hard work.’

One sister had wanted to be a soldier since she was young; the other planned to have a career in the Foreign Service. Both marked a milestone for the U.S. Army this summer: Maj. Gen. Maria Barrett and Brig. Gen. Paula Lodi are believed to be the first pair of sisters to become generals, the military branch’s highest category of rank. “The fact that both of us would have come from the same family, it almost makes you want to go out and get a lottery ticket,” Barrett told The Washington Post. “Except, this is not a game of chance. It is hard work, it is strong leadership skills, it’s strong technical competency. Then you realize that this is a very tough bar in and of itself for both of us to make it.” Their rise to the general’s rank signals to younger soldiers that women can fill prestigious leadership roles in many sectors of the traditionally male-dominated Army, said Emma Moore, a research assistant for the military, veterans and society program at the Center for a New American Security, a bipartisan think tank that studies national security. “They’re testaments to the fact that you can join the Army and have very different experiences and rise to the top,” Moore said. “There’s a job for anyone and everyone in the military.” Lodi, 51, was promoted to general on July 12 and works as the director of health care operations for the Army’s surgeon general. Barrett, 53, is the commanding general of NETCOM, which runs the Army’s cyber networks. About 16 percent of the military’s 1.3 million active-duty personnel are women, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. A natural bottleneck in promotions means more women occupy low-ranking leadership positions than high-ranking ones, Moore said. The military has sometimes struggled to adapt to increasing numbers of female service members. Sexual assaults reported in the military increased by 38 percent last year. Women’s medical issues are often brushed off or misdiagnosed. Body armor was designed for men until the branches began adding new sizes a few years ago. Still, there have been bright spots. Barrett and Lodi joined the Army shortly before 1994, when the Pentagon opened to women all roles except direct combat jobs. That opportunity, Moore said, paved the way for women to prove themselves and advance within the Army. The Pentagon opened all combat roles to women in 2015.


Why the world of personal finance needs more politics

The vast majority of sessions are devoted to teaching attendees how to tell their “story” so that they can profit from their personal finance passion. (Typical session topics include “How to Get Booked & Paid to Speak” and “How to Build a $1 Million Blog.”) Over and over again, the systemic problems facing Americans are simply accepted as a given and unfixable, and tossed back onto the individual for him or her to solve. Rarely mentioned are the political system’s many contributions to common economic troubles. A session on debt management points out, “bankruptcy is not necessarily the end of the world,” but doesn’t mention, say, how as a senator Joe Biden led an ultimately successful push to make bankruptcy harder for people to access, or that then-professor Elizabeth Warren lobbied hard against those changes. A session on retirement planning discusses the common obstacles cutting into millennial finances — the surging cost of child care, student loans, employers relying on contract employees, lack of health insurance — without any political context for why those obstacles are there. As a result, one speaker says, savings is “really just on the people.” No one appears to doubt this. Instead a questioner raises his hand and asks, “How do you gamefy savings?” It’s all connected, as a quick stroll to the main floor of the FinCon exhibit floor shows. There you’ll find the financial literacy advice from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which once protected consumers from Wells Fargo but now under the Trump administration takes apart regulations protecting people seeking payday loans. Then there’s Medi-Share, the Christian health-care cost sharing company. It offers less expensive rates than the typical insurance policy. How can it do that? Because it’s technically not insurance, it doesn’t need to be Affordable Care Act compliant. It’s an extremely imperfect individual solution for the healthy and devout for a problem that we’re inured to but that, in fact, should never lose its horror: The United States is the only developed country that does not guarantee universal and affordable health care. It’s not that the financial stars and would-be financial gurus attending FinCon are apolitical — many most certainly are not. (As Dieker said to me, “If there’s a meetup for frugal living, why isn’t there a meetup for democratic socialism?”) It’s that few link the two in their work. Andy Hill, founder of the personal finance blog and


The Health 202: Pelosi and Trump want a deal on lowering drug prices. Now is their time.

Health 202, our must-read newsletter on health policy. AHH: A Washington Post-ABC News poll out this morning finds Americans, regardless of their political party, overwhelmingly support expanding background checks for individuals who buy guns and for allowing law enforcement to temporarily take weapons away from individuals who may be troubled as part of "red flag" procedures. “The Post-ABC poll finds 86 percent of Americans support implementing ‘red-flag’ provisions, which allow guns to be taken from people judged to be a danger to themselves or others,” our Post colleagues Mike DeBonis and Emily Guskin report. “And 89 percent support expanding federal background checks to cover private sales and gun-show transactions. Both measures are supported by at least 8 in 10 Republicans, white evangelical Christians, members of gun-owning households and other traditionally conservative groups.” The poll also found more than 70 percent of Americans in both parties say improving mental health monitoring and treatment could reduce mass shooting incidents, while there’s more division across party lines about whether stricter gun controls could reduce such shootings. OOF: Health officials said Friday that a fifth person died from a mysterious spate of vaping-related lung illnesses reported across the country. There are now 450 possible cases across 33 states and one territory, our Post colleague Lena H. Sun reports. “Although federal and state officials said the definitive cause of the illness remains unknown, ‘the severity of the illness and the recent increase in the incidence of this clinical syndrome indicates that these cases represent a new or newly recognized and worrisome cluster of pulmonary disease related to vaping,’ according to a report by health department officials in Wisconsin and Illinois, who conducted a joint investigation of 53 patients,” Lena reports. The Food and Drug Administration is investigating samples taken from ill patients. CDC officials believe a chemical exposure is likely. But federal officials stress no one substance — including the oil derived from vitamin E that officials found in samples of marijuana vaping products collected by sick people — has been found in all samples. “Even though the definitive cause remains unknown, the mysterious lung illness is coming into focus as officials and clinicians identify clinical similarities in illnesses among people who vape. Preliminary reports released Friday from clinicians and state health departments in Wisconsin, Illinois, North Carolina and Utah confirm patterns that doctors treating patients have described,” Lena writes. “Most patients have been young


Gas regulators like the one blamed for deadly Flower Branch blast were supposed to be replaced

Mercury gas regulators — like the one blamed in a deadly 2016 explosion in Silver Spring — were supposed to be replaced across Maryland years earlier, according to a plan Washington Gas presented to state officials. While seeking a rate increase in 2003, the gas provider said it would replace all 66,793 of its indoor mercury gas regulators over the next decade, to address age and environmental concerns. Washington Gas received permission for the rate hike, but does not appear to have delivered on its plan, records show. Three years after the regulators were to have been replaced, one became the prime suspect in an explosion that destroyed an apartment building. In an order issued this month, the Public Service Commission demanded Washington Gas explain what happened to its 10-year program to replace all indoor mercury regulators by 2013. The commission also ordered the utility to say why, if the regulators were not replaced, it should not face a civil penalty. Brian Edwards, a spokesman for Washington Gas, declined to comment Monday, saying the utility is preparing a response to the commission. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded in April that a failed gas regulator and a disconnected vent line probably allowed gas to build up “to an explosive level” inside a basement meter room at the Flower Branch apartments, a mostly low-income complex just outside Washington. The resulting explosion killed seven people, injured more than 30 and displaced more than 100. The regulator and vent were owned and operated by Washington Gas and were the utility’s responsibility to maintain, NTSB investigators said. The regulators reduce the pressure of gas coming into a building. If a regulator leaks or fails, the vent pipe is supposed to carry gas safely outdoors, where it can dissipate. Washington Gas officials have said that they disagree with the findings and that the NTSB didn’t sufficiently investigate other potential causes. In its order, the Public Service Commission demanded that Washington Gas provide a plan describing its process for implementing safety recommendations the NTSB issued after its investigation, including better record-keeping, procedural changes for gas technicians, and replacement of the regulators. The utility has until early next month to respond. After that, the commission plans to schedule a public hearing on the matter. In 2003, an engineer for Washington Gas told the commission that the utility planned to replace more than 6,000 regulators a year for


World Digest: Sept. 9, 2019

that the administration was “hopeful that in the coming days, or perhaps weeks, we’ll be back at the negotiating table with them.” — Simon Denyer and John Hudson COLOMBIA Reportedly leaked intelligence documents indicate that President Nicolás Maduro’s socialist government is harboring Colombian rebels inside Venezuela, allegations that dovetail with evidence that Colombian officials say they will present this month to the United Nations. Bogota-based Semana magazine has published a report that it said was based on Venezuelan documents showing how a top military official under instructions from Maduro ordered generals to provide support to a “Red Group” — a code word for guerrillas — at “training zones” inside Venezuela. Maduro’s spokesman called the documents badly forged fakes. The allegations come against the backdrop of rising tensions between the two countries after Colombian President Iván Duque accused Maduro of providing safe haven to the former chief negotiator of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, who said he was rearming. Semana did not say how it obtained the documents and published only heavily redacted excerpts. The Associated Press was unable to verify the report. But Colombian Foreign Minister Carlos Trujillo said the report coincides with information his conservative government has collected showing that Maduro has repeatedly violated a U.N. Security Council resolution from 2001 banning support for terrorist groups. He said Duque will present the evidence when he addresses the U.N. General Assembly this month. — Associated Press MOROCCO A Moroccan journalist appeared Monday in a packed courtroom on charges that she had an illegal abortion after becoming pregnant while single. Hajar Raissouni, 28, has been jailed since Aug. 31. She denies having had an abortion and claims she was married to her Sudanese fiance under Islamic law. The fiance, a gynecologist and two others also were jailed. Abortions are illegal in Morocco, as is premarital sex. Raissouni faces up to two years in prison if convicted on all counts. Raissouni claims she was arrested outside a clinic she visited for an “urgent intervention,” not an abortion. She works for the Arabic-language paper Akhbar al-Yaoum, which is critical of the state. Family members say that her arrest was politically motivated and that she was targeted because she covers a grass-roots opposition movement. Police reportedly forced Raissouni into a medical exam at the time of her arrest. — Associated Press Attacks in Burkina Faso kill 29: — From news services


Boris Johnson has four options to escape his Brexit mess. One of them is to go to jail.

Boris and Brexit go next. Perhaps the most straightforward solution to the crisis is the one that has bedeviled Britain for nearly three years: to negotiate a withdrawal deal with the E.U. that better resembles the lofty vision outlined by Johnson and his Brexiteer allies during the 2016 referendum campaign. Hard-line Brexit advocates, including the prime minister, disparaged the agreement that his predecessor, Theresa May, hammered out during her Downing Street tenure, and it was defeated in Parliament three times. Johnson promised to bring back a better deal, using the threat of a no-deal departure as leverage. But the E.U. has refused to blink, and top European officials have said they have seen no sign of any substantive negotiation. Neither have members of Johnson’s cabinet: Amber Rudd, a senior minister who resigned Saturday night in protest over the purge of 21 fellow moderate Conservatives, told the BBC on Sunday that she had “no idea” what the British government was seeking from Europe and that there was little effort in the government to loosen the logjam. Johnson was in Dublin on Monday meeting his Irish counterpart, Leo Varadkar, to try to make headway on one of the thorniest Brexit questions: how to prevent a hard border between the Republic of Ireland, an E.U. member, and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. But Varadkar said at a news conference that Johnson had yet to give him any solid proposals. Both leaders agreed the two sides remain far apart. Humiliating defeats in Parliament last week mean Johnson will not be legally allowed to take Britain over the cliff edge of a no-deal exit on Oct. 31. Instead, he will need to ask for yet another delay from the E.U. He has said he won’t, having campaigned for his job on a pledge that Britain would exit the E.U. by Halloween, “do or die.” He reiterated that promise last week, telling Conservative Party members in a letter on Friday that Parliament had “passed a law that would force me to beg Brussels for an extension to the Brexit deadline. This is something I will never do.” But Johnson is not exactly known for keeping his word. He could, conceivably, ask the E.U. for the delay, then launch an election campaign railing against the opponents who forced him to do it. But pro-Brexit voters, who have overlooked many a Johnson foible, might


The Afghanistan war is likely ending. One longtime correspondent asks: Was it worth it?

symbolic ending. American troops transitioned to anti-terrorism operations and training Afghan forces. The burden of fighting the war was shouldered by Afghans, but with a lot of American and NATO help. Especially in recent years, the war has become mere background noise for Americans. It was barely mentioned during the first two Democratic presidential debates. Now, the Trump administration is considering a withdrawal of troops in exchange for a Taliban promise to block international terrorists from operating on Afghan soil, as well as assurance the group will take part in an intra-Afghan dialogue. Not everyone thinks President Trump’s blunt rhetoric about wanting to end the war has been wise. “If the enemy knows you’re going home regardless, why should he compromise on important issues?” a former senior commander in Afghanistan recently told me. “I don’t want to rule out the possibility there could be an acceptable agreement, but clearly the context of how the negotiations are being carried out is not the most desirable.” The former commander, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss ongoing negotiations, also questioned the absence of the Afghan government at the bargaining table. “It is their country after all,” he said. For this trip, my first since 2016, I wanted to see whether the new strategy to conclude the war felt different from previous attempts. But another question was looming too, one that was only growing more haunting with the signals that the war was, at last, coming to an end: Was it all worth it? The conflict had left 2,400 U.S. service members dead and more than 20,000 wounded; more than 145,000 people in all, including Afghan military, police and civilians, have died, according to a 2018 report from Brown University’s Costs of War Project; America has spent $737 billion on the war. Had all this death and maiming and money been justified by the results? Few people in 2001 disputed that evicting al-Qaeda from Afghanistan was necessary. But that mission had mostly been achieved in the early days of the war. What about everything that had happened since? What had America gotten right, what had we gotten wrong — and what, in the end, were the consequences? I The Taliban had taken control of much of Afghanistan in 1996, after decades of civil war. But the group quickly became oppressive; women were forced out of jobs and


‘As far as I’m concerned, they’re dead.’ How Trump’s peace talks with the Taliban broke down.

Post Reports is the daily podcast from The Washington Post. Unparalleled reporting. Expert insight. Clear analysis. Everything you’ve come to expect from the newsroom of The Post. For your ears. Martine Powers is your host, asking the questions you didn’t know you wanted answered. Listen online. Peace talks with the Taliban have fallen apart. What happens next? President Trump announced Monday that U.S. peace talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan are “dead.” This comes after news this weekend, when Trump announced that he had canceled a secret meeting at Camp David with Taliban and Afghan leaders, stalling the effort to secure a deal to end the 18-year war and begin a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. His decision came after weeks of uncertainty, insurgent violence and a deadly attack in Kabul that killed 12 people, including a U.S. service member. Outside the negotiations, an array of politicians, military leaders and diplomats warned that a hasty deal and troop pullout could lead to chaos and civil war. National security adviser John Bolton, a vocal critic of the potential peace deal, was omitted from negotiations. He has not opposed reducing the current U.S. troop level to 8,600 — about the number in Afghanistan when Trump took office — but rejects any deal with the Taliban. Bolton instead argues the president can simply decide on a reduction without a deal. “At some point, [the president] will say, ‘This is what I want to do,’” says national security reporter Karen DeYoung. “And I believe that will be based not only on what’s happening in Afghanistan, but also on what the political impact is here.” More on this topic: ‘They don’t think they should be running forward on something that’s so divisive’ The House Judiciary Committee is expected to vote this week on a resolution giving itself additional tools to investigate President Trump — its first formal step toward possibly beginning impeachment proceedings. The Democratic base and 2020 presidential candidates increasingly favor an impeachment inquiry, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Democrats in Republican-leaning districts have been reluctant. Congressional reporter Rachael Bade joined other Post reporters in attending town halls across the country. In Pennsylvania, she took the temperature of Rep. Susan Wild’s (D-Pa.) blue-collar, industrial district, which narrowly flipped blue during the last election. “Constituents did ask about impeachment,” Bade says, “and her response was, ‘I’m a former lawyer, and we


Distinguished person of the week: Someone is doing something about guns

and their management teams are entirely justified in taking steps to protect both, not to mention trying to create a safer country for all of us. McMillon went to El Paso and wrote, “We’ve also been listening to a lot of people inside and outside our company as we think about the role we can play in helping to make the country safer. It’s clear to us that the status quo is unacceptable.” (Emphasis in original.) Well, that’s more than we’ve gotten from Trump and the Republicans. Walmart will stop selling short-barrel rifle and handgun ammunition and end handgun sales in Alaska. McMillon explained that “there have been multiple incidents since El Paso where individuals attempting to make a statement and test our response have entered our stores carrying weapons in a way that frightened or concerned our associates and customers. We have also had well-intentioned customers acting lawfully that have inadvertently caused a store to be evacuated and local law enforcement to be called to respond.” As a result, Walmart is requesting customs not carry firearms openly in its stores. Perhaps most intriguing he stated that Walmart will “work alongside other retailers to make the overall industry safer, including sharing our best practices.” (Emphasis in original.) It’s not clear whether there might be some industry-wide action. There is, for example, an Association for Retail Technology Standards (governing standards for software and hardware), so perhaps in the future we might see an Association for Retail Customer and Employee Safety. In any case, after Walmart’s move, Kroger announced, “Kroger is respectfully asking that customers no longer openly carry firearms into our stores, other than authorized law enforcement officers.” Moreover, it will also be "joining those encouraging our elected leaders to pass laws that will strengthen background checks and remove weapons from those who have found to pose a risk for violence.” Let’s hope other retailers follow and that there is concerted action from the business community in support of gun-control legislation. What’s good for Walmart and Kroger, in this case, is good for the United States. For taking the first step, we can say, well done, Mr. McMillon. Read more: The Post’s View: Walmart is acting to curb gun violence. How about Congress? Jennifer Rubin: Every Democrat should be talking about guns The Post’s View: How many more names will be added to the list before Mitch McConnell acts on guns?


All processed food isn’t bad. We took a nutritionist shopping to find reasonable options.

It’s time to set the record straight on processed food. If you come here often, you know I think it bears the lion’s share of the blame for obesity and its attendant diseases, because processing — and only processing — enables the cheap, nutrient-challenged, ubiquitous foods that are specifically designed to be overeaten. But “it’s processed” isn’t a reasonable objection to any particular food. It depends on how it’s processed. Processing is a tool, and, like any tool, it can be used for good or for evil. If I have a hammer, I can use it to fix my neighbor’s roof. Or I can kill his dog. Likewise food processing. (Also genetic modification, in case I don’t have a big enough fight on my hands already.) When processing is used, for example, to extend shelf life, add nutrition or kill pathogens, that’s all good. Also when plants are processed into convincing meat substitutes, decreasing (eventually) our beef consumption and the carbon that goes with it. Planty burgers aren’t significantly better for you than beef, but their processed-ness has nothing to do with it. I am fully persuaded that the best way to eat a healthful diet is to cook with whole or whole-ish ingredients. But I am also fully persuaded that we’re not going back to a world where that’s the norm. For too many people, too much of the time, cooking is a chore. If you walk through a supermarket, you’ll find plenty of those cheap, nutrient-challenged, processed foods designed to be irresistible. But you’ll also find processed foods that are convenient, reasonably nutritious stand-ins. To find them, I took Alice H. Lichtenstein shopping. She’s a professor at Tufts University who could fairly be called a grande dame of nutrition, one of the most influential voices in the field. We went to two markets: a Stop & Shop (the Massachusetts equivalent of D.C.’s Giant supermarkets) and a Trader Joe’s. Most of our picks are veg- and grain-heavy. This isn’t because meat is bad; it’s because meat doesn’t lend itself to shelf-stable products as easily as, say, lentils. By all means, add shrimp or chicken or eggs or beef (or planty burger) to some of these to turn them into a meal. I’m also not considering flavor. People’s tastes are too personal for that. I’m also not dealing with environmental impact or animal welfare, although I think those are hugely


Europe is genuinely worried about Britain

Want smart analysis of the most important news in your inbox every weekday, along with other global reads, interesting ideas and opinions? In May 2016, Boris Johnson took to the stage at Vote Leave headquarters in London to make the case that Brexit was neither a right-wing endeavor nor, as critics said, one that would rob young Britons of freedoms and opportunities the European Union provided. “We will be vindicated by history,” Johnson said at the time, one month before the country voted to leave the E.U. It remains to be seen what Johnson’s place in political history will be, but so far he has hardly looked victorious. Within only a few weeks as prime minister, he has already lost the first series of key votes in Parliament, his parliamentary majority, the goodwill of Conservative Party moderates — including his own brother — and the patience of E.U. leaders. He may still be able to avoid becoming one of the shortest-serving prime ministers in U.K. history by regaining the upper hand in a potential snap election, but some of the fallout of his recent moves appear more difficult to reverse: A perception at home and abroad that British democracy is now itself at stake. In Europe, the project Johnson heralded as the true expression of “liberal cosmopolitan European enlightenment” is increasingly seen as a troublesome case study for how quickly liberal democracy’s lights can start to flicker. By comparing Johnson to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban — who has faced criticism for expanding government control over the judiciary, the press and academia — Austrian newspaper Der Standard was among the more fretful voices. “Johnson and his henchmen clearly think Brexit is more important than democracy and the rule of law,” the paper’s London correspondent, Sebastian Borger, wrote. Germany’s international public broadcaster DW was more blunt. “Boris Johnson, the UK dictator,” blared the headline of an opinion piece by the network’s senior European correspondent, Barbara Wesel. The bemused undertone that previously accompanied some European commentary on the Brexit chaos is gone. Suspending Parliament in the way Johnson did, wrote political scientist Yascha Mounk in France’s Le Monde newspaper, constituted the “most flagrant attack on democracy that Britain has ever known.” If populism blighted “the most entrenched of democracies,” said an editorial in the French paper, it “would be terrible news for the entire continent.” The underlying fear is that there is


D.C.-area forecast: Tolerable warmth today; humidity increases tomorrow but breaks Friday

TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT A somewhat subjective rating of the day’s weather, on a scale of 0 to 10. 6/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: Tonight: Tomorrow: View the FORECAST IN DETAIL Summer may be over in the meteorological books, but you wouldn’t know it this week as heat and humidity sneak back in tomorrow and Thursday for an unwelcome visit. A cool front should come to the rescue Friday, but only for a day. Best shower chances are Thursday through the weekend, but they’ll be scattered in coverage. Get our daily forecasts on your Amazon Alexa device. Today (Tuesday): Tonight: Follow us on Tomorrow (Wednesday): Tomorrow night: A LOOK AHEAD Thursday A not-so-unlucky Friday the 13th dawns with northeast winds as high pressure noses into the area, bringing a much cooler and slightly less humid break in the pattern. Any showers are light and widely scattered. Highs only reach the mid- to upper 70s. Breaks in the clouds should give glimpses of the rising full “harvest” moon in the evening as lows range through the 60s. Confidence: Medium Saturday/Sunday


First case of West Nile virus in Maryland this year reported by health officials

Maryland health officials confirmed Tuesday the first case of West Nile virus in the state this year. A statement from Maryland Department of Health identified the infected person only as “an adult living in the National Capital Region in Maryland.” West Nile is a mosquito-borne virus that does not cause symptoms in four out of five infected people, the statement said. Those who do get sick may develop fever, headache, body aches, skin rash vomiting or diarrhea two to 14 days after being bitten, officials said. Fewer than 1 percent develop more severe infections, according to the release. There were 45 cases of West Nile cases reported in Maryland last year, state health officials said. Officials urged residents to avoid mosquitoes, eliminate standing water sources on their property, wear long pants and sleeves when outdoors, and use insect repellent. Those seeking more information about the virus may visit the health department’s website. justin.moyer@washpost.com


A chaotic final night for Parliament leaves Johnson with bleak choices on the path to Brexit

also cited a clear preference for a deal to manage the withdrawal and said there is still plenty of time to come to terms before E.U. leaders meet for a summit Oct. 17-18. “There is a way forward,” he said. “If we really focus, I think we can make a huge amount of progress.” He declined, however, to specify new proposals. And Varadkar maintained that he had not seen any. The Irish leader also savaged a favorite Johnson talking point, insisting that a British exit without a deal would lead only to more rounds of negotiation — not to an end to Britain’s Brexit agony. “There is no such thing as a clean break,” Varadkar said as Johnson grimaced. A joint statement following the news conference and a subsequent hour of meetings said that “common ground was established in some areas although significant gaps remain.” The question of how to handle the border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland, which will remain a member of the E.U., has bedeviled Britain’s Brexit plans from the start — and will be key to talks in the coming weeks. Both the British and Irish governments say they don’t want a hard border, complete with checkpoints and barriers, dividing the island. But the Irish, and the E.U., have insisted on a “backstop” that would in effect keep Britain in the E.U.’s customs union until a solution can be found that allows for two trading systems to exist side by side. Johnson has rejected such an arrangement, saying it would keep Britain from striking deals with other countries, such as the United States, and reaping the benefits of life outside the E.U. If there are benefits to be had, they remain stubbornly elusive three years after a majority of Britons voted in a referendum to exit the E.U. With the country still polarized along Brexit lines, polls show Johnson’s Conservatives with a significant lead over the opposition Labour Party. Whenever an election comes — analysts say November is now likely — the prime minister is expected to play on frustration among pro-Brexit voters who blame Corbyn and other opposition leaders for the country’s inability to get out. But with multiple choices for both the pro- and anti-E.U. sides on the ballot, any election is highly unpredictable. Just how polarized Britain has become was evident Monday afternoon


The Energy 202: Bill Gates, Ban Ki-Moon and other leaders propose ways to adapt to a warming planet

change is akin to admitting defeat. While measures to meet the emissions-cutting goals of the 2015 Paris climate accord should be ramped up, they write, this doesn’t preclude taking steps toward adaptation at the same time. “Even if we were to live in 1.5 degree world we would need massive adaptation,” Verkooijen said, referring to the goal spelled out by a U.N. panel of scientists of preventing the world’s average temperature from rising 1.5 degrees Celsius over preindustrial levels. “Investing in adaptation is not a tradeoff with mitigation. We need to do both.” Financially, the reason is simple: It is typically cheaper to adapt now than it is to recover later, the report says. “We make the obvious case that people and the economy are massively hurt by climate change,” said Andrew Steer, president of the World Resources Institute, which also co-manages the commission. “The reason why Gates said he would join is the 500 million small farmers who are hugely threatened. Their yields could fall by up to 30 percent and undermine all the efforts” of organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which spends hundreds of millions of dollars to help rural farmers out of poverty. The commission’s report estimates that investing $1.7 trillion in five areas between 2020 and 2030 could generate up to $7 trillion in net benefits. The areas include setting up early warning systems for floods or heatwaves, constructing infrastructure to withstand a changing climate, improving agriculture techniques that could boost cereal yields, investing in making water resources more resilient and protecting mangroves to fortify coasts from storm surges. Often, they write, adaption can be as simple as fixing leaky water lines in drought-prone areas to conserve water or planning coastal roadways with future sea levels in mind. Investments in adaptation often come with “what wonky people call co-benefits,” Steer said. For example, more resilient agriculture will take more climate-warming carbon dioxide out of the air. And more mangrove forests means more habitat for fish. But currently, Verkooijen said, only a quarter of the world’s infrastructure spending is done with adaptation in mind. “We need to get finance flowing to infrastructure investments,” he said. The projects can often avoid conventional construction. New York City could lower the cost of flood protection by $1.5 billion, or 22 percent, by adopting “green” approaches and playing down engineered approaches such as seawalls. The authors, though,


A controversial dog park that divided Chevy Chase will be dismantled

More than 100 people packed into a public hearing in Chevy Chase Village on Monday to debate what one board member called “the most contentious and emotionally charged issue” in the community’s history: the barking of dogs. The village board voted 5 to 2 in favor of disestablishing the dog park that has divided this Maryland suburb for months. The gate of the fence enclosing the area will be removed, turning it into a park where dogs are welcome but must be leashed. “The size and location of this off-leash area is not meeting standards,” board chairwoman Elissa Leonard said before a chorus of boos from dozens of dog lovers who wore matching white hats to show their support of the park. “You should be ashamed of yourselves!” someone from the crowd yelled before leading a mass exodus from the meeting. The decision put an end to months of howling from the humans in this wealthy enclave just outside Washington. What began as a plan to turn a patch of land frequented by local pups into a formal dog park became a breeding ground for animal animus. Neighbors who live directly beside the park complained that they found their lives disrupted by the barking dogs, the carelessness of their companions and the nuisance of outsiders’ cars parked in front of their homes. The tension escalated when The Washington Post published a story about the divisions, chronicling the powerful players embroiled in the debate: Leonard, the wife of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell; Doug Gansler, a former attorney general of Maryland; loads of lawyers; and Chubbs, a 5-month-old golden retriever. While Chubbs has been rolling in his newfound fame (dog sitters on Rover.com contacted his parents to ask whether he was the Chubbs), neighbors who opposed the dog park found themselves being threatened by anonymous commenters online. They said strangers have driven past their houses to beep, yell and create even more noise. Dog owners shared the address of the park on Reddit to encourage people with particularly vociferous pooches to visit. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) brought his 3-year-old Siberian husky, Toby, to the park to sniff out the situation. The president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, better known as PETA, sent a letter reminding the board that dog parks are the “canine version of a human happy hour.” By the time the board convened Monday to


Two clouded leopard cubs to make debut at National Zoo in Washington

Two clouded leopard cubs are expected to make their debut Wednesday at the National Zoo in Northwest Washington. One is a male named Paitoon and the other is a female named Jilian. They were born in March and April at the Nashville Zoo. They’ll be on exhibit starting Wednesday for short periods. They’ll be on display to the public from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the zoo’s Asia Trail. Zoo officials said the cubs are “learning how to climb” and becoming more independent. As they get more familiar with their new exhibit, zoo keepers said, they’ll spend more time in public view. Zookeepers have been working with the young cubs on various skills, such as teaching them to touch a target so “keepers can look at different parts of their bodies,” officials said. “The cubs are extremely curious and precocious,” Asia Trail curator Michael Brown-Palsgrove said in a statement. He said they’ve been busy “exploring and investigating every nook-and-cranny of their new home.” Clouded leopards are native to Southeast Asia. They are arboreal and have sharp claws, long tails and large paws. They like to climb, wrestle and vocalize to each other, experts said. They’re listed as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Experts said about 10,000 clouded leopards live in the wild. They face such threats as deforestation and illegal wildlife trafficking, according to experts. In captivity, clouded leopards typically are “hand-raised as cubs” so it improves their survival chances, experts said. They usually get paired with future mates when they’re 1-year-old. Clouded leopards can be aggressive to each other, and after decades of research, scientists figured out that if they’re “raised together from a very young age” it “greatly reduced” their aggressive tendencies toward each other and “increased the chances they would breed successfully as adults,” according to a statement from the zoo. Zoo officials said that the population of clouded leopards in captivity in the world is “gradually becoming more stable.” Zoo officials hope Jilian and Paitoon will be “ambassadors” in letting the public know about “this elusive species.” The two cubs will live together but will not be breed when they’re adults because they’re not “an ideal genetic match.”


U.K. Parliament again rejects Boris Johnson’s call for an early election, narrowing the besieged prime minister’s options

“It’s possible that every single defeat and every awkward speech and all the difficulties were part of some master plan to produce a future election victory,” said Tony Travers, a political scientist at the London School of Economics. “But if you stand back and look at what’s going on, they have, to a degree, lost control of events.” Whether he can regain that control could hinge on his dealings with Europe in the coming weeks. Earlier on Monday, Johnson had struck a notably conciliatory tone during a visit to Dublin — an indication, perhaps, that the prime minister knows his best hope for escaping his Brexit quagmire lies with his European counterparts, who are eager to avoid a chaotic British exit. Standing beside Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, Johnson insisted again that Britain “will come out on October 31.” But he also cited a clear preference for a deal to manage the withdrawal and said there is still plenty of time to come to terms before E.U. leaders meet for a summit Oct. 17-18. “There is a way forward,” he said. “If we really focus, I think we can make a huge amount of progress.” He declined, however, to specify new proposals. And Varadkar maintained that he had not seen any. The Irish leader also savaged a favorite Johnson talking point, insisting that a British exit without a deal would lead only to more rounds of negotiation — not to an end to Britain’s Brexit agony. “There is no such thing as a clean break,” Varadkar said as Johnson grimaced. A joint statement following the news conference and a subsequent hour of meetings said that “common ground was established in some areas although significant gaps remain.” The question of how to handle the border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland, which will remain a member of the E.U., has bedeviled Britain’s Brexit plans from the start — and will be key to talks in the coming weeks. Both the British and Irish governments say they don’t want a hard border, complete with checkpoints and barriers, dividing the island. But the Irish, and the E.U., have insisted on a “backstop” that would in effect keep Britain in the E.U.’s customs union until a solution can be found that allows for two trading systems to exist side by side. Johnson has rejected such


Too many spiders? It’s just a cosmetic issue.

Q: Locust Dale, Va. A: First, be aware that spiders eat insects, including ones that damage homes and garden plants. So they are good to have around and not as dangerous as you might think. In the continental United States, there are only two kinds — black widow and brown recluse — with bites that are really worrisome, and even those don’t warrant being labeled as lethal, said Rod Crawford, the curator of arachnids at the Burke Museum in Seattle and author of blog posts that debunk myths about spiders. Deaths from black widow bites in the United States are extremely rare, he said, even though these spiders are common in most states. “People die every week from wasp stings, Africanized bees, not to mention hourly from auto accidents,” he said. “Why worry about a spider?” Spider webs and droppings do look ugly, though, so a spider infestation can be a cosmetic issue. The main solution is to wipe away the cobwebs and wash off the droppings, which Crawford said are chemically similar to bird poop. Pesticides aren’t as effective as advertising from pest-control companies might make you think. “Nobody has ever formulated a commercially available pesticide for spiders,” Crawford said. “They are all formulated to be toxic to insects. So none that I know of has a residual effect on spiders. Most will kill the spider if you spray it right on the spider itself, but if you see it, why not just wipe it away?” Pest-control company Terminix refers to “spidercide” on its website but uses the term interchangeably with insecticide — ignoring the fact that expecting something that works against insects to also be effective against spiders is like equating control measures for fish with those for mice. Spiders and insects are just as different. A call to the Terminix national number, 877-837-6464, confirmed Crawford’s point. Lawrence Craig, a Terminix sales associate, said spider control is part of the company’s general maintenance service. “Spiders are secondary,” he said. “They eat other bugs. So we take care of ants, earwigs” and other insects, “and by getting rid of the food sources, we also get rid of the spiders.” There are pesticides that kill spiders on contact, he said. “But spiders walk on toes. It’s not like roaches or ants that drag their bellies.” So insecticides that have a residual effect because of how insects contact them are effective


Is it really possible that plant-based foods such as the Impossible Whopper are healthful?

With many American consumers interested in reducing their consumption of animal products without becoming vegetarian or vegan, the food industry has come up with a new craze: plant-based. Look around your grocery store, and you’ll see a growing number of dairy, egg and meat substitutes bearing this label. But the industry has taken liberties with the definition of “plant-based.” Rather than focusing on whole foods such as vegetables, fruits, legumes and nuts, which is what health professionals mean when they recommend “plant-based eating,” food manufacturers are developing ultra-processed burgers out of pea or soy protein, methylcellulose and maltodextrin, and liquid “eggs” out of mung bean protein isolate and gellan gum. Then they crown this ultra-processed food with an undeserved health halo. Fast-food companies have joined forces with the manufacturers. Impossible Foods veggie burgers are on the menu at Burger King and White Castle; Beyond Meat is offering options for Subway’s meatless meatball subs, Dunkin’s meatless sausages, Del Taco’s burritos and Carl’s Jr.’s meatless burger, and has just partnered with KFC to test out vegan fried “chicken”; and vegan JUST Eggs are being used in breakfast sandwiches at Tim Hortons. (Note: These items might not be available at all locations.) Plant-based ultra-processed products such as these are formulated to taste like the real deal. Thus, consumers can feel virtuous or principled for choosing plants over meat without sacrificing too much flavor. But is there any value to plant-based products that have been crushed, extruded and shaped into facsimiles of the foods they are replacing? Let’s look at that question through several lenses — considering nutrients, how processed the food is and how producing the food affects the planet. When I was in nutrition school, the health value of food was mostly calculated based on the presence of desirable nutrients, such as fiber and vitamins, and on the absence of negative nutrients, such as sodium or trans fat. If you compare ultra-processed plant-based foods and similar animal-based foods solely on their nutrients, you’ll find they are roughly the same. Plant-based foods are purposely formulated to mimic animal-based foods, so plant-based milk is enriched with calcium and vitamin D to mimic cow’s milk, while veggie burgers are rich in protein and made with iron and zinc to imitate beef. But they aren’t always made to reduce the presence of less-healthy nutrients. Sometimes, the processed plant-based food will have more sodium than the processed