Bowie State’s band put on probation following evidence of hazing

Bowie State University placed its marching band, Symphony of Soul, on a one-year probation Friday and disclosed that the band director had resigned after an investigation found evidence of hazing by members of the musical group. The announcement from the public university in Prince George’s County, Md., came nearly a month after the 88-member band’s activities were suspended as officials looked into hazing allegations. Investigators concluded that members of the band had violated the school policy on hazing and the student code of conduct. The policy prohibits “any action taken or situation created intentionally to produce physical or mental discomfort, harassment or ridicule.” Details about the rule-breaking incidents were scant. Allegations, the university said, included “incidents involving paddling, which are still under investigation; intentional physical discomfort; punishment for certain conduct; harassment and ridicule.” The university also noted that the band has “an unauthorized Constitution” that “prescribes physical discipline for conduct infractions, requires students new to the band to do certain acts of service for other band members, and further delineates differences in conduct and consequences for those new members.” While on probation, the university said, the band’s activities will be significantly limited. It will perform only on campus during certain ceremonial and academic functions, including commencement, and it will not be allowed to take overnight trips. A summer band camp will be suspended until 2020, and new students will not be allowed to join until fall 2020. In addition, the university said, band director Adolph Wright has resigned. Billy Bennett, an assistant band director, has been appointed acting director until an interim leader can be named. “While the incidents of hazing among Bowie State band members were serious, I want to emphasize that they do not rise to the level of harm and tragic outcomes of other recent, high-profile acts of hazing that have been reported by the media,” university President Aminta H. Breaux said in a statement. “If the band’s inappropriate practices had continued unchecked, they may have resulted in very different outcomes. That is why as a university we are fortunate to have learned about these incidents of hazing, so the university could design, and put into place, a plan to correct the behavior.” A spokeswoman said that Bowie State police continue to investigate allegations related to the hazing. Bowie State has about 6,300 students and is one of three historically black universities within the University System of


More adenovirus cases found at UMd, total rises to 22

The University of Maryland health center said Friday that it has learned of 22 confirmed cases of students with Adenovirus. In four cases, tests showed the presence of Adenovirus 7, which can cause more severe illness than other strains. The death of one Maryland student has been linked to an Adenovirus infection. According to the health center, the 22 confirmed cases include a number of students who had were sick earlier in November, but have since recovered. In a statement issued Friday, the health center distinguished between Adenoviruses that cause colds and are widely found at this season, and a more dangerous strain, known as Adenovirus 7. It said that strain turned up in four specimens sent for testing. Adenovirus 7 , the statement said, may cause more severe illness particularly for patients with chronic medical problems, or with immune systems compromised by illness, or by medicine. For them, the health center said, “it is vitally important” not to ignore flu-like symptoms and to visit a physician within 48 hours of developing the symptoms. In describing flu-like symptoms, the announcement listed high fever and cough/sore throat and vomiting/diarrhea. Martin.Weil@washpost.com


The Trump administration tried to save a U.S. university by playing nice with an autocrat. It failed.

toward Washington. CEU’s departure is just one among a series of setbacks for U.S. interests as Orban steers the country closer to Moscow, its Cold War-era master, and away from a Western orbit that Hungary had been desperate to join only a generation ago. Orban has defied Washington in recent months by ignoring a U.S. extradition request for a pair of Russian arms dealers, sending them to Moscow instead. Meanwhile, Hungary began sheltering the fugitive pro-Russian former prime minister of Macedonia and has been unmoved by U.S. appeals that he be sent home to serve a prison sentence on corruption charges. “Orban thinks the U.S. is weak and will not act,” said Peter Kreko, executive director of the Budapest-based analysis firm Political Capital. “It’s incredible that the autocratic leader of a country of 10 million people can play these games with the U.S. and not face any consequences. It’s a humiliation.” A senior U.S. official acknowledged setbacks in the relationship, but argued that there were early signs of progress in areas such as energy and defense. Ultimately, he said, it is too soon to judge a policy that has been in effect for only months. “The jury is out. This approach may fail. I don’t know. I do know that the previous approach [of isolating Hungary] was not working,” said the official, who spoke under the ground rules that his name not be used. Kicking out CEU is perhaps the most blatant example yet of Orban’s unwillingness to bow to U.S. wishes. The university has enjoyed strong bipartisan support on Capitol Hill, with representatives of both parties warning that ejecting the school will undercut academic freedom and harm U.S.-Hungarian relations. CEU was founded by Hungarian American financier George Soros in a bid to build bridges between East and West after the Iron Curtain tumbled. The university, which has dual accreditation in the United States and Hungary, educates graduate students drawn from more than 100 countries. Many of its programs are ranked among the world’s best, and it 21-member board of trustees is studded with top scholars from Oxford, Harvard, Stanford and beyond. But the affiliation with Soros — the university’s honorary chairman and major funder — has made it a target for Orban, who has turned the 88-year-old liberal into his personal nemesis and political boogeyman. The university’s troubles CEU then set up a program at Bard College in New


‘Major’ damage to Anchorage area after severe 7.0-magnitude earthquake in Alaska

lanes during the evening rush to allow commuters to leave the city, said Anchorage Police Chief Justin Doll. A rock slide temporarily closed the Seward Highway, the only southbound transportation corridor out of Anchorage. Officials later cleared the slide and reopened the highway. The city opened the Egan Civic and Convention Center downtown for anyone requiring a warm place to sleep. Hettrick said about 60 people had been in and out of the center following the earthquake. City officials have no tally of how many people had been displaced. Michelle Tobia, the manager at Bell’s Nursery in Anchorage, was in her two-story house next to the store when the earthquake hit. “The whole house was rolling is what it felt like,” Tobia said. She grabbed her dog, Daisy, a husky-Labrador mix, and ran upstairs to shelter under a door frame. After the shaking stopped, “stuff was everywhere,” she said. “Glasses off the countertops, DVDs spewing out of the TV stand.” The plant nursery next door was dark and the parking lot empty. Inside, a cleaning crew was picking up pots of poinsettias and toppled Christmas trees. Tobia said she was confident they would reopen by the afternoon when the lights were back on and employees had a chance to clean up their own homes. Police officers were dispatched across the region to handle “multiple situations,” the department said. A journalist with the news station KTVA shared a photo of the damage in that newsroom, where pieces of the ceiling had apparently fallen on desks and the floor. The Minnesota Drive off-ramp near Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport drew a string of spectators. Keri Scaggs and her neighbor RieAnn Fullwood snapped selfies in front of the collapsed road as a third neighbor, still in her bathrobe, waited for them in the car. Scaggs clutched a bottle of Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey, while Fullwood snuggled her cat. The pair fled their cabins in the Spenard neighborhood after the tsunami warning. “I grabbed the essentials,” Scaggs said. “Birth certificate, passport and Pappy Van Winkle,” she said, cradling the bottle in the crook of her elbow. The Federal Aviation Administration had declared a ground stop at the airport after the earthquake. At 11:30 a.m. in Anchorage, the FAA said it had begun letting flights depart from the airport, but the ground stop was kept in place for arrivals. Samuel Shea, the science operations officer


Saudi crown prince exchanged messages with aide alleged to have overseen Khashoggi killing

it is done, when you complete that analysis, there’s no direct evidence linking him to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.” Pompeo, who declined to comment on the CIA’s classified assessment, said the United States was working closely with Saudi Arabia on major foreign policy issues, including Afghanistan, and that the kingdom was a vital regional counterweight to Iran. “They are a relationship that has mattered for 70 years across Republican and Democrat administrations alike,” said Pompeo, who previously served as the CIA director. “It remains an important relationship, and we’re aiming to keep that relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.” Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said the question of holding the killers responsible and the strategic importance of the U.S.-Saudi relationship were separate issues. “Accountability for the murder of Khashoggi stands alone. It is distinct from any other factor going on,” Mattis said in remarks at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California. “Right now, we do not have a smoking gun,” he said, noting that he had seen all the latest intelligence in the matter as of Friday. “We do not have a smoking gun [showing] that the crown prince was involved. We certainly need to continue to explore . . . all aspects of the murder and find anyone who was involved, but that should not in any way dissuade us from basically confronting Iran,” which the Trump administration views as its major adversary in the Middle East and one that Saudi Arabia is essential to confronting. Responding to the CIA’s findings, a Saudi official said in a written statement that Mohammed “communicates regularly with various senior officials within the Royal Court on different matters. At no time did [he] correspond with any Saudi officials in any government entity on harming Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi citizen. We continue to categorically reject any accusations based on speculations.” Qahtani has emerged as a key player in the killing and a compelling link to the prince. He shows up in another portion of the CIA’s assessment: An alleged member of the Saudi hit team that U.S. and Turkish officials said Qahtani oversaw, Maher Mutreb, called Qahtani from inside the consulate to inform him Khashoggi was dead, The Post has previously reported. Mutreb, a security official who was often at the crown prince’s side, is seen on security camera footage entering and leaving the consulate on the day Khashoggi was killed.


‘We don’t want him here’: Saudi crown prince is a protected pariah at G-20 summit

BUENOS AIRES — The legions of protesters demonstrating at a leaders summit here have unfurled a sea of standard-issue signs, ranging from “No to Imperialism” to “Yankees Go Home.” But a newer rallying cry also appeared on a smattering of homemade posters. “Mohammed bin Salman, Assassin!” For Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Group of 20 leaders summit in Buenos Aires has amounted to a key test: his first appearance at a major international event since the killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi who was a frequent critic of the kingdom’s de facto leader. “The CIA thinks he is the one who ordered the kill on Khashoggi,” said Cristian Pirovano, a 40-year old teacher from Buenos Aires, referring to U.S. intelligence assessments that the crown prince almost certainly orchestrated the assassination of Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributing columnist, at his country’s consulate in Turkey. “We don’t want him here, because of the assassination of the journalist, because of what the Saudis are doing in Yemen, because of all this death,” Pirovano said. Mohammed came to the summit a pariah to some leaders — he was positioned at the far edge of the back row in the annual “family photo” with attending leaders Saturday, and leaders including Germany’s Angela Merkel had let it be known before the summit that they would not see Mohammed in Argentina. The crown prince also holed up in the fortified Saudi Embassy away from the rest of the Saudi delegation after his arrival here, amid moves by Argentine prosecutors to investigate human rights complaints against him. But Mohammed was also secure in the knowledge that President Trump had already said the crown prince’s culpability, if any, would not rupture the U.S. relationship with Riyadh. That guarantee helped convince Mohammed that he could make the trip on behalf of his country, which is slated to host the same G-20 gathering in 2020. And Mohammed has found comfort in some quarters here — a high-five from a grinning Russian President Vladimir Putin and a brief but symbolic televised exchange with Trump, his daughter Ivanka Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The White House said Trump merely “exchanged pleasantries.” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also photographed smiling next to Mohammed at their private meeting Friday, and British Prime Minister Theresa May has defended her plans to also meet with the young Saudi. But the


A Russian rocket carrying a crew of three, including a NASA astronaut, launches successfully, two months after a failure triggered an emergency abort

The first Russian rocket to fly with people since a harrowing failure two months ago blasted off Monday morning in a successful return to flight. The Soyuz rocket and spacecraft launched at 5:31 p.m. local time (6:31 a.m. Eastern time) with three people on board — NASA astronaut Anne C. McClain, Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko — en route to the International Space Station from a remote launch site in Kazakhstan. “A great launch,” a NASA commentator said during a live stream of the event. Six hours later, the spacecraft reached the station and docked with it, culminating a successful mission. The crew is expected to stay on the station until June. In October, a Soyuz rocket malfunctioned when one of its side boosters failed to separate properly and slammed into the rocket. That triggered an automatic abort of the spacecraft, carrying the two-member crew on a wild ride nearly to the edge of space before they fell safely back to the ground. Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, has since said the failure was caused by a “deformed sensor” damaged during the rocket’s assembly. Instead of delaying the next flight with crews on board, the agency actually moved it up — a decision that NASA approved. In a recent interview, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Roscosmos has been “very transparent” about the investigation into the malfunction. “They have shared with us all the data we need to be comfortable and confident that we understand the problem and that it has been resolved,” he said. NASA has been forced to rely on Russia for transportation to the space station since the shuttle retired in 2011. While there are several systems capable of flying cargo and supplies to the orbiting laboratory, the Soyuz is the only vehicle able to fly people there. After the failure, officials in the United States and Russia said they had a sense of urgency to get it back up and running. The malfunction did little to lessen McClain’s resolve. “I would have gotten on the Soyuz the next day,” she recently told reporters. She said she was confident that Roscosmos had fixed the problem by asking “the three important questions: What happened? Why did it happen? And how do we ensure it doesn’t happen again? Nobody was going to give the green light until those three questions were answered.” McClain, an Army lieutenant


Another diplomat was diagnosed with ‘Havana syndrome.’ Here’s what we know.

Last week, another Canadian diplomat was diagnosed with a mysterious disease so weird it’s been referred to in some circles as “the thing.” The illness afflicts only government employees from the United States and Canada. Sufferers report feeling pulsing or hearing a ringing in their ears. Then headaches, dizziness, trouble concentrating and struggles to remember basic words and facts. Diplomats have been complaining about “Havana syndrome,” named for the city where nearly all the victims were based, for two years. And it certainly seems like they’ve been targeted by a hostile government or rogue officials. But, though the United States has sent CIA and FBI officials to investigate, we know very little about what’s happening or who’s behind it. The newest case marks the 13th time a Canadian officer or family member has reported these “unusual health symptoms.” More than 20 Americans have also been affected. In light of this news, the Canadian government has said it will allow all staff posted in the Cuban Embassy to return home “if they wish.” When was the first case reported? On Dec. 30, 2016, a CIA agent operating in Cuba stopped by the U.S. Embassy’s health office. According to the New Yorker, the patient described “strange sensations of sound and pressure while in his home, followed by painful headaches and dizziness.” About a week later, the spy was back in the health office, complaining of another attack. What happened next? American officials told the New Yorker they weren’t sure how seriously to take things at first. “It’s like serial killers,” one former State Department official said. “It usually takes three or four before police conclude ‘Wait a minute, these are connected.’ ” Soon, though, the pattern emerged. By February, two more CIA officers reported the same strange sensations. By spring, 16 people had reported symptoms. By the fall, another five Americans were afflicted. The attacks were unusual — some people reported hearing sounds; others said they felt a pulsing, followed by a severe pain. People were afflicted at home, in hotel rooms, in temporary residences several floors above the ground. Around the same time, some Canadian officials began to report some strange symptoms. A Canadian diplomat and his wife were awakened one night by a feeling of waves of pressure. Their children had nosebleeds. Eventually, as many as 12 Canadians were afflicted by the symptoms. In response, Canada’s foreign service began warning


Good people doing good deeds, and the Nobel Peace Prize

Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.) was no doubt right when he argued in his Nobel Peace Prize nomination of chef José Andrés, “Because of Mr. Andrés’s work, millions of people have been fed. This is the most basic human need” [“José Andrés nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize,” Style, Nov. 28]. Mr. Delaney would also be right to have the impression that the prize is given to good people doing good deeds, notwithstanding that Alfred Nobel had a specific idea of how to create global peace: global cooperation among countries on demilitarization of international affairs. Nobel’s plan would permit nations to spend on food instead of guns and missiles — and would no doubt provide food for billions of people. Fredrik S. Heffermehl The writer is author of “The Nobel Peace Prize, What Nobel Really Wanted.”


Polio-like disease in U.S. kids appears to have peaked for 2018, CDC says

Federal health officials said Monday that cases of the paralyzing, polio-like illness that was spiking in children in the United States this year appears to have peaked. In 2018, 134 cases of acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM, have been confirmed in 33 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Another 165 cases are under investigation. In a statement, the CDC said officials expect the number of cases to decline for the remainder of the year. Most of the latest confirmed cases occurred in September and October. As AFM AFM is caused by inflammation of the spinal cord that results in severe muscle weakness and paralysis, often in the limbs. More than 400 confirmed cases, most of them in children, have been reported in the past four years, and one child with AFM died last year. Clinicians say the condition is underdiagnosed and underreported. Competing theories have emerged about what triggers AFM. Several experts say there is a strong correlation between AFM and outbreaks of a common respiratory virus called enterovirus D68. Some enteroviruses are known to attack the spinal cord. The CDC is also looking into other possible causes, including whether AFM is caused not by a viral infection but by the patients' immune systems. Without clear guidance, doctors are trying several kinds of treatment. While some children have seen improvement, no treatment has been found to lead reliably to full recovery. The CDC has seen a pattern of every-other-year spikes of AFM. In 2014, there were 120 confirmed cases; in 2016, there were 149 cases. The CDC says states will continue reporting possible AFM cases, and medical experts will continue to review them and determine if they are cases of AFM. The number of confirmed cases by state will be updated. Read more: Experts chase the cause of a paralyzing, polio-like childhood illness spiking this year in the U.S. New tick species capable of transmitting deadly disease is spreading in the U.S.


Your guide to the government shutdown that may be coming

(back when Mexico would pay for it), and now he says he’d allow the government to shut down if the spending package doesn’t include $5 billion for his wall. The Democrats have conceded to $1.67 billion for enhanced border security, but Trump isn’t satisfied. Meanwhile, some Democrats wonder why a deal was made in the first place, especially one that didn’t include protections for “dreamers,” the undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children. Just because the government “shuts down” doesn’t mean everything grinds to a halt. Essential personnel keep working, and federal programs often have enough funds to keep operating. The special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election would continue its work. Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s office is “funded from a permanent indefinite appropriation and would be unaffected in the event of a shutdown,” a Justice Department spokesperson told CNN last week. “The appropriations bills before Congress do not touch” the special counsel’s office. That’s hard to say. The agencies are all responsible for putting together shutdown contingency plans. But if prior government shutdowns are a guide, perhaps the most visible effect is the closing of national parks across the country. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers could be furloughed without pay (though Congress usually approves back pay). But most of the government’s most pressing services continue, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget: In prior shutdowns, border protection, in-hospital medical care, air traffic control, law enforcement, and power grid maintenance have been among the services classified as essential, while some legislative and judicial staff have also been largely protected. Mandatory spending not subject to annual appropriations, such as for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, also continues. Other examples of activities that continue are those funded by permanent user fees not subject to appropriations, such as immigration services funded by visa fees. There was a shutdown for two days at the beginning of this year, but the biggie was in 2013. It was fall, and the major fight of the moment was over funding the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. Republicans, who had the majority in the House, refused to fund the government unless Obamacare was defunded. The idea of holding the rest of the government hostage to kill the health-care law was spawned by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.). You may remember his 21-hour filibuster, in which he famously read his daughter


Despite pause in trade war, U.S. and China’s economic relationship is forever changed

lower labor cost economies.” The Commerce Department last month also began drafting regulations to limit exports of advanced technologies, including robotics, biotechnology, artificial intelligence and quantum computing. The measure, which echoes Cold War-era limits on dealings with the former Soviet bloc countries, aims to safeguard national security and U.S. technological leadership, according to a Federal Register notice seeking comments on the proposal. “In previous trade talks, China has insisted on the U.S. responding to its requests, as well, including looser export controls and a more lax investment regime. The U.S. is moving in the totally opposite direction vis a vis China, and unlike tariffs, these new regulations will not be up for give and take,” said Cutler. The new export controls are fueled by concerns that China is trying to steal or buy American technology to help it leapfrog Silicon Valley. Begun in 2015, the “made-in-China 2025” program of subsidies for domestic companies in 10 technology sectors is aimed at displacing U.S. companies as world leaders, the administration says. The administration is struggling to balance worries about aiding a state-directed economy’s rise and U.S. corporate demands to share in the wealth generated there. “China’s innovation community and high-tech community is thriving. It’s well-financed and very global,” said Craig Allen, the president of the U.S.-China Business Council. “Many of our members want to have a role in that, sell into that, partner with Chinese companies.” U.S. officials argue their demands for greater market access for foreign companies would benefit Chinese consumers. But administration complaints over China’s state subsidies for technology companies and limits on foreign ownership of joint ventures threaten Beijing’s economic model. “Trump’s problem is that he has demanded the structural transformation of the Chinese economy into something that works more like the U.S. economy and his administration has defined China as our economic and military enemy,” said William Overholt, a senior fellow at the Harvard University Asia Center. “The demand is nonnegotiable and everyone in both the U.S. and China knows it.” China could move quickly to pick up stalled negotiations for a treaty that would encourage investment by granting foreign and domestic firms equal treatment, according to Jeff Moon, a former trade negotiator in the Obama administration. “The two sides have discussed these industrial issues for years in other contexts, and substantive discussions can ramp up quickly if we stop pretending that these are new issues that have


Oppression in the Middle East is worse than ever — and Trump is encouraging more

AS CONGRESS considers its reaction to the state-sponsored murder of Jamal Khashoggi, it’s important to take into account that it was not an isolated act. The strangling and dismemberment of the journalist by a 15-member Saudi team form part of a pattern of brutal repression by the regime of King Salman and his highest-ranking son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, that far exceeds that of previous rulers. Saudi Arabia, in turn, forms part of a quartet of Sunni Arab dictatorships, all allied with the United States, that have sought to eliminate all forms of dissent, including free media, independent civil society groups and anyone advocating liberal reforms. The regimes, which include Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, as well as Saudi Arabia, don’t hesitate to employ the most extreme methods to accomplish their aims, including mass arrests, torture, forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. In doing so, they are repeating the mistakes of previous Arab dictators and storing up trouble for the future, in the form of alienated citizens and stagnant economies. In offering the regimes unqualified support, the Trump administration in turn is putting vital U.S. interests at risk. One probable reason for the CIA’s conclusion that Mohammed bin Salman was involved in the Khashoggi murder is the operation’s resemblance to numerous others launched from the crown prince’s court over the past 18 months. As The Post’s David Ignatius reported, a team of Saudi intelligence operatives working with close advisers to the crown prince have kidnapped a number of dissidents domestically and abroad. The detainees have been held in secret prisons and tortured. Among the victims are women’s rights activists who advocated the right to drive and who remain imprisoned. Mohammed bin Salman has taken cues from UAE ruler Mohammed bin Zayed, and the two dictators in turn have sponsored Egypt’s Abdel Fatah al-Sissi and the ruling al-Khalifa family of Bahrain. The four countries joined in an ill-considered boycott of Qatar, and support the same factions in the civil wars of Yemen and Libya, helping to perpetuate the conflicts and, in Yemen, the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. While attention has been focused on the Khashoggi case, the Sissi regime has been stepping up its assault on what remains of civil society in Cairo. Since late October, dozens of human rights activists and lawyers have been arrested, including 19 on Nov. 1, according to reports by Amnesty International and Human


The world’s tyrants are laughing at Trump — and America

death of George H.W. Bush rather than continuing his feud with the Bush family. With Trump, you can never take such human niceties for granted. And if he had been as petty and mean-spirited as he was after John McCain’s death, it would have been a big news story. So a disaster averted. But not much accomplished either. If Trump took any action to rally his fellow democratic leaders to confront the looming threat of China or Russia, or to hold Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to account for the murder of Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi, there was no indication of it. Two months have passed since Khashoggi’s killing at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul and a week since Russia’s illegal seizure of Ukrainian vessels in the Kerch Strait, and the perpetrators of those crimes still have not paid any price for them. The iconic image from the G-20 showed Mohammed bin Salman and Putin giving each other high fives, laughing and smiling. It reminded me of the classic David Low cartoon after the Nazi-Soviet pact in 1939 showing Hitler and Stalin curtsying to each other, with Hitler saying, “The scum of the earth, I believe,” and Stalin replying, “The bloody assassin of the workers, I presume?” Mohammed bin Salman and Putin are no Hitler or Stalin, but they do have fresh blood on their hands — including that of the countless victims of Saudi bombing in Yemen and Russian bombing in Syria — and they are getting away with their crimes because Trump won’t do anything to hold them to account. Trump’s refusal to meet with Putin officially at the G-20 is hardly the kind of action that will get the Russian strongman’s attention. (They instead saw each other at dinner.) Rather, it signals American weakness that will encourage Putin to transgress further. Likewise, denying overwhelming evidence of Mohammed bin Salman’s complicity in Khashoggi’s murder signals that Trump isn’t tough enough to hold his ally to account. The Saudi crown prince was thumbing his nose at the United States with his chumminess toward Putin and his insistence, despite U.S. entreaties, to continue exploring the purchase of an S-400 air-defense system from Russia. He was also undercutting one of the chief rationales that Trump offers for his obsequiousness to Mohammed — the Saudis’ opposition to Iran — given that Russia is Iran’s chief ally. Putin, for his part, mocked


U.S.-led coalition said to have targeted Syrian army positions

Syrian Arab News Agency said the positions targeted Sunday night are in the Ghorab Mountains south of the town of Sukhna. There has been no immediate confirmation from the U.S.-led coalition. Such attacks by the coalition targeting Syrian troops are rare. In 2016, warplanes of the U.S.-led coalition bombed Syrian army positions in the eastern city of Deir al-Zour and killed dozens of soldiers. U.S. troops have a base in Tanf in southern Syria near the Jordanian and Iraqi borders, and U.S. troops are also in the north, near the border with Turkey. — Associated Press AFGHANISTAN Taliban commander killed, officials say A top commander of the Taliban was killed in the southern Afghan province of Helmand in a joint operation by Afghan and U.S. forces, Afghan officials and Taliban fighters said Sunday. Abdul Manan, who was in charge of Helmand for the insurgent group, was killed with 29 others in an airstrike on Saturday while he was meeting local commanders and fighters in the Nawzad district, Gov. Mohammed Yasin Khan said. The commander’s death was confirmed by Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid and by the U.S. military, which said Afghan forces had gone on the offensive with U.S. support, notably through precision airstrikes, to push the Taliban to accept peace talks. The death of Manan, who commanded Taliban fighters as they steadily increased their control over Helmand in the years after the end of most international combat missions in 2014, was seen as a major success by Afghan officials. Both the Western-backed security forces and the Taliban have pushed to gain the momentum at the same time as efforts have been stepped up to find a peaceful settlement to end the 17-year war in Afghanistan. — Reuters 10 civilians reportedly killed in airstrike At least 10 civilians were killed in an airstrike in eastern Paktia province Shausta Jan Ahady, a former provincial council member, said women and children were among those killed in the strike, which was carried out a day earlier. A spokesman for the provincial government, Abdullah Hsrat, said that the airstrike killed four insurgents and that an investigation has been launched into the allegations of civilian casualties. Ahady said the area is under the Taliban’s control, making exact information hard to obtain. — Associated Press Labour will try to topple May if Brexit deal is rejected: Bangladesh opposition leader ineligible to contest polls: — From news services


Khashoggi friend sues Israeli firm over hacking he says contributed to the journalist’s murder

JERUSALEM — A Canada-based Saudi activist filed suit this week against an Israeli cybersecurity firm, alleging that the Saudi government used the firm’s spyware to hack his cellphone and access sensitive conversations he conducted with slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Attorneys for Omar Abdulaziz, 27, who is based in Montreal, lodged a civil case against the NSO Group in Tel Aviv on Sunday, legal papers show. The opposition activist has said he learned that his phone had been hacked in August, some two months after he clicked on an infected link. The Citizen Lab, a University of Toronto project that investigates digital espionage aimed at civil society, concluded with “high confidence” that the Saudi government targeted his cellphone using Pegasus spyware created by NSO. Before being notified that his phone had been hacked, Abdulaziz was in regular contact with Khashoggi, with whom he had struck up a friendship. Khashoggi, a contributor to The Washington Post’s Global Opinions section and a critic of the kingdom, was killed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 by members of a 15-man team from Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has dismissed two senior officials close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, in connection with the killing but denies that the crown prince knew of the operation. The legal filing argues that the Israeli software provided the Saudis with knowledge of conversations between Abdulaziz and Khashoggi about projects they were working on. The sophisticated software enables the operator to access all information stored on a target’s phone and to secretly film or record audio. “The details of this collaboration were known to the authorities in the Kingdom through the Pegasus system,” the court papers say. The filing says Abdulaziz will argue that use of Pegasus spyware to expose his communications with Khashoggi contributed to the decision to murder him. In their exchanges, Abdulaziz has said, Khashoggi asked him to help design a website advocating human rights in the Middle East and assist with a logo for a foundation Khashoggi planned to set up called Democracy for Arab World Now. Khashoggi also discussed sending Abdulaziz funding for a project the two called “the bees,” which involved buying foreign SIM cards for activists in Saudi Arabia who wanted to open Twitter accounts critical of the government and feared being traced on their Saudi SIM cards. Khashoggi was also directly critical of


Her 7-year-old big sister was killed by gunfire. Then she, too, was shot.

was killed in October. A 3-year-old boy was grazed by a bullet Tuesday afternoon, just a week after Amy’s shooting. Amy does not understand that her sister is gone, said her great-grandmother, Vivian Nealy, 62. “She said, ‘Taylor, she’ll be back.’ I just let her think that,” Nealy said. She shook her head about the relentless violence in her beleaguered West Baltimore neighborhood, Sandtown-Winchester, where Gray was arrested three years ago. “It’s terrible,” Nealy said. “Something’s got to be done. I’m scared to go out of the house. I don’t go to the market. Scared to go to a doctor’s appointment. If one of the kids is having something at school, I’m scared to come out of my house, really. Enough is enough.” 'It's getting worse' Amy’s shooting outraged Marvin “Doc” Cheatham Sr., president of the Matthew Henson Neighborhood Association, which represents a community five blocks away. “We are having children shot. We are having random shootings,” he said. “The problem between the police and community is widening. It’s getting worse. It’s not getting better.” He and others have accused Baltimore police of refusing to do their jobs after six officers were charged in the death of Gray, a 25-year-old black man who suffered a fatal spinal injury in police custody. Three of those officers were found not guilty by a Baltimore judge, and criminal charges against the rest were dropped. “Since Freddie Gray, police have taken a knee,” Cheatham said. “They are complaining about the football players taking a knee. But what about the police taking a knee?” But others point to the refusal of many witnesses to cooperate with investigators — a no-snitching code that has left many homicides unsolved and the killers on the streets. At a news conference after Amy was shot, a grim-faced Gary Tuggle, Baltimore’s interim police commissioner, decried the cycle of violence and asked the city’s residents for help in ending it. “At the end of the day,” he said, “we have to do more, not just as a police department, but we have to do more as a community.” Though Baltimore’s homicides have fallen from 2017’s record level, the city is likely to reach more than 300 killings by the end of the year. By comparison, Washington has recorded 150 killings so far this year. Tuggle offered few details about the gunfire that left Amy hospitalized. “We know it was a shootout


Trump administration approves seismic tests that could harm thousands of Atlantic dolphins and whales

Don Beyer (D-Va.) called for congressional action to regulate seismic testing in a tweet Friday. “Since Donald Trump has decided to ignore the concerns of residents and stakeholders directly impacted by seismic blasting and offshore drilling,” he said, “it is time for Congress to step in and put a stop to this by passing my bill, the Atlantic Seismic Airgun Protection Act.” Numerous other Democrats, including Sen. Edward J. Markey (Mass.) and Rep. A. Donald McEachin (Va.), also criticized the administration’s decision in tweets. According to one model prediction used in a 2014 study by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in 2014, nearly 2.5 million dolphins would be harassed or possibly killed by acoustic sound blasts each year in the middle and southern Atlantic, and nearly a half-million pilot whales would be affected. Six of the impacted mammals in the study area were endangered species, the report said, including four types of whales. The species most impacted would be humpback whales, 12 of which could be killed each year it said. However, BOEM has asserted that there is no confirmed evidence that animals are actually harmed by seismic mapping and considers the threat “negligible.” But that assessment has not comforted opponents of seismic activity. Fewer than two weeks ago, the National Marine Fisheries Service pleaded with commercial fishermen to be careful not to harm Atlantic right whales after an unprecedented 20 deaths in 2016 and 2017 reduced their numbers to a mere 400 in the wild. “We are very concerned about the future of North Atlantic right whales,” Barb Zoodsma, right whale biologist for NOAA Fisheries, said in a Nov. 15 statement. “We lost 20 right whales in U.S. and Canadian waters since 2017 during an Unusual Mortality Event. The number of right whale deaths is troubling for a population of a little more than 400 animals, particularly because we estimate that there are only about 100 breeding females who are producing fewer calves each year." Out of concern for wildlife and fisheries, the Obama administration denied six permits for seismic testing weeks before Trump took office in 2017. “In the present circumstances and guided by an abundance of caution, we believe that the value of obtaining the geophysical and geological information from new air-gun seismic surveys in the Atlantic does not outweigh the potential risks of those surveys’ acoustic pulse impacts on marine life,” said Abigail Ross


Saudi Arabia’s investigation of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder is a complete farce

attorney general on his statement on Nov. 15 exonerated the crown prince. A few days later, Jubeir said: “If you think our investigation is a Mickey Mouse one, criticize us, but wait until it is done.” Well. I am a Saudi academic who graduated from a Saudi college, studied Saudi law for a long time and have been observing the Khashoggi case play out as well as the role of current attorney general. The Saudi investigation so far into Khashoggi’s murder is a total “Mickey Mouse” probe. Back in February, I wrote on the Saudi attorney general and referenced the Royal Decree on July 17, 2017, that transformed the office of Commission of Investigation and Prosecution into the office of the attorney general and noted the promise of “complete independence” that was never fulfilled. From the beginning, despite his lack of any experience in criminal investigation of criminal cases, Saud al-Mojab was appointed as an attorney general just a few days after MBS became crown prince. Mojab was chosen probably because he proved to be a yes man during his time as a member of the Supreme Judicial Council, the highest judicial body that controls administrative affairs of judges. The climax of the crown prince’s infringement on the independence of the position of prosecution was back in November 2017 when the crown prince personally headed a committee that should have been the purview of the attorney general in investigating corruption cases, Instead, the attorney general was just a member of the committee reporting to his boss, MBS. The attorney general who is investigating the death of Khashoggi, who was likely killed because of his peaceful activism, is the same one that is seeking the death penalty against my father, prominent Saudi scholar Salman Alodah, and others, for similar activism. According to President Trump, “representatives of Saudi Arabia say that Jamal Khashoggi was an ‘enemy of the state’ and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.” Thus, if Khashoggi had been abducted alive and tried in the Saudi courts, he would probably have faced the death penalty through a totally controlled attorney general, and vastly intimidated and threatened judges. The judges who are supposed to oversee the Khashoggi case are under enormous pressure from the crown prince. Just this week, two judges were released after a few months of extrajudicial detention over their refusal to stand for the royal anthem, according to


To punish the Saudis, protect the Jamal Khashoggis still at work

Vance Serchuk is an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. Senate leaders who emerged from a closed-door briefing by CIA Director Gina Haspel on Tuesday were unequivocal: Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was directly involved in the murder of Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi on Oct. 2 at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. The debate between Congress and the Trump administration will now intensify over various potential forms of retaliation against Riyadh, such as targeted sanctions and limiting military assistance. But one straightforward response to this appalling crime should be undertaken immediately: increasing U.S. support for the world’s remaining Jamal Khashoggis — namely, the courageous but increasingly embattled Arab journalists, academics, rights activists and public intellectuals who risk their lives in pursuit of a better Middle East. There are hundreds such individuals in the Middle East today who seek to expose corruption and advocate fundamental liberties such as exercising freedom of expression. They persist despite intensified threats directed against not only them but also their loved ones. Some have been driven into exile, as Khashoggi was, but even abroad, many continue to be targeted. The United States can do a great deal more to help and protect these people. Most fundamentally, American officials at the highest level should make clear to their counterparts in Arab governments that the fate of journalists, dissidents and government critics is not a matter of indifference to Washington or to the American public. Independent of U.S. security or economic interests, Arab leaders must understand that abuse of their citizens will have a direct impact on relations with the United States. Top U.S. leaders — including the president, vice president and secretary of state — can reinforce this message by personally engaging representatives of Arab civil society, welcoming them and their family members to the White House and the State Department, and meeting with them when traveling in the Middle East. This is also something that members of Congress and their staffs should be doing, independent of the administration. Senators and representatives seized by the Khashoggi murder would do well to open their offices to Arab dissidents and activists, and to champion the cases of those being unjustly detained or harassed. For those uncertain where to start, there is no shortage of nonpartisan think tanks and other advocacy organizations — including the Project on Middle East Democracy, Freedom House and


A new CIA leak adds to the evidence against MBS. Congress must act.

PRESIDENT TRUMP and his top aides keep insisting there is no “direct evidence” or “smoking gun” connecting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the murder and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. A new leak from the CIA underlines just how disingenuous those claims are. According to an agency assessment reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, the crown prince had at least 11 exchanges of messages with a top aide around the time a hit team overseen by that aide was entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul and ambushing Mr. Khashoggi. It was already known that the 15-member hit team was headed by an official, Maher Mutreb, who is close to Mohammed bin Salman, and included at least four other operatives connected to the prince’s personal security detail. It was known that Mr. Mutreb called Saud al-Qahtani, the crown prince’s closest associate, from the consulate and told him to “tell your boss” that Mr. Khashoggi was dead. Now we also know that Mr. Qahtani and Mohammed bin Salman exchanged numerous messages at this time. According to the Journal, the CIA assessment says, “It is highly unlikely this team of operators . . . carried out the operation without Mohammed bin Salman’s authorization.” Its conclusion that the crown prince “personally targeted” Mr. Khashoggi and “probably ordered his death” is labeled as “medium-to-high confidence.” So, yes, there is no “direct evidence” — but any reasonable assessment must conclude that the crown prince is responsible. That the Trump administration refuses to draw that conclusion means its policy toward the kingdom is based on denying reality. Whether the United States preserves or alters its present relationship with Saudi Arabia, the starting point must be recognizing the truth about the regime and its reckless de facto ruler. That’s why there ought to be an independent international investigation of the Khashoggi case. In addition, congressional leaders should insist that CIA Director Gina Haspel appear before relevant committees to lay out the agency’s evidence and answer questions. After the administration offered spin rather than hard intelligence to senators last week, the chamber voted overwhelmingly to advance a War Powers Act resolution that would stop U.S. military support for Saudi Arabia’s disastrous war in Yemen. That was a good first step, but legislators should support legislation that is broader. One bill with bipartisan sponsorship would require the administration to sanction anyone in the Saudi leadership connected to the


VOA fires journalist over interview with Chinese exile

There is a certain challenge in interviewing the billionaire Chinese exile Guo Wengui, who has many stories to tell. The subhead of a New York Times Magazine profile from January 2018 put the matter in direct terms: “From a penthouse on Central Park, Guo Wengui has exposed a phenomenal web of corruption in China’s ruling elite — if, that is, he’s telling the truth.” One of Guo’s many claims badly needing verification is that the tragic disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was the work of Chinese officials seeking to hide an organ-harvesting operation. A bonus: Guo fled China in 2014 and is under investigation there for allegations including bribery, fraud and rape — all of which he denies. Over the years, journalism has evolved to contain folks such as Guo: The trick lies in hearing them out, taping their allegations, returning to the office, vetting them and, ultimately, presenting the investigative results to the public. From “60 Minutes” to the smallest local television outlet, that’s standard operating procedure for interviewing whistleblowers and bombthrowers. During an interview on April 19, 2017, however, Voice of America (VOA) took a more direct approach. Sasha Gong, the chief of VOA’s Mandarin Service, was set to do a three-hour marathon interview with Guo — live. The session was cut short after about an hour and 20 minutes, amid infighting at the VOA about how to handle the statements made by the talkative exile. For VOA, an international broadcaster funded by the U.S. government and part of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, it was a high-profile production scandal. Last Thursday, VOA director Amanda Bennett announced that one of the service’s employees had been “removed” and another suspended over the goings-on, while disciplinary proceedings continue for two others. Investigations of the incident, wrote Bennett in a memo, “upheld the actions by VOA leadership, concluding that the unprofessional abrupt termination resulted from a series of apparent failures to follow explicit instructions from management and good journalistic practices.” At most news organizations, a gaffe of this sort is commonly dealt with by a statement from the outlet, followed by quiet disciplinary action. At a government-run broadcaster, by contrast, there’s a bit more paperwork. The disciplinary process — during which the employees were on leave with pay and benefits — lasted 19 months, a bureaucratic marathon driven by four probes of the particulars: An 85-page reconstruction by the


U.S. Customs officials thwart Egyptian locust invasion

If the threat of an invasion by Egyptian tree locusts has been keeping you up at night, fear not, officials at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency have got your back. The agency’s ever alert, highly-trained agriculture specialists spotted a specimen on Nov. 19, hiding in a shipment of Italian wine that was entering the country through the Port of Baltimore. Such threats must be taken seriously. The locust was immediately transported to an entomologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture for identification. Out of an abundance of caution, the wine was put back into its shipping container for safeguarding. There was no word on when it would be released. The entomologist determined that the hitchhiker was Anacridium aegyptium, more commonly known by its street name, the Egyptian tree locust. (And yes, we are aware that most insects don’t have “street names.” We’re just trying to have a little fun.) Like many other types of locusts, the Egyptian tree locust is a bad actor, a very bad actor. According to CBP, it is a “voracious leaf feeder and a pest to grapevines, citrus and other fruit trees, and vegetable plants.” It is most commonly found in Europe. Should it — like many other invasive pests — gain a foothold in the United States it could be disastrous. "This interception demonstrates the criticality of Customs and Border Protection’s agriculture protection mission at our sea, air and land ports of entry,” said Casey Durst, CBP’s director of field operations in Baltimore. “CBP agriculture specialists work hard every day to intercept invasive insects and federal noxious weeds, and to prevent the introduction of foreign plant and animal diseases that could seriously harm U.S. livestock industries.” CBP’s agricultural specialists have extensive training in the biological sciences and agricultural inspection. On a typical day, they inspect over 1 million people as well as air and sea cargo imported to the United States and intercept 352 agriculture pests and 4,638 prohibited meat, plant materials or animal products.


The Health 202: Trump administration lets Medicare plans off the hook

every year, and dentists routinely prescribe opioids to the vast majority. Only recently have dentists — the most frequent prescribers of opioids for youths between the ages of 10 and 19 in 2009 — started to reconsider the use of narcotics in managing post-surgical pain.” The report found that about 6 percent of the nearly 15,000 people ages 16 to 25 who were prescribed opioids in 2015 from dentists were diagnosed with opioid abuse within a year. That’s compared with 0.4 percent in a similar group who were diagnosed with opioid abuse who did not receive opioids from dentist. “These are kids who could have gotten Advil and Tylenol, and 6 percent showed evidence of becoming addicted,” Andrew Kolodny, who co-directs opioid treatment research at Brandeis University, told Cohen. “That’s huge.” OUCH: Cases of the rare polio-like disease acute flaccid myelitis seem to have hit their peak for 2018, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. There have been 134 cases of AFM in 33 states this year, with another 165 under investigation. “In a statement, the CDC said officials expect the number of cases to decline for the remainder of the year. Most of the latest confirmed cases occurred in September and October,” our Post colleague Lena H. Sun reports. This year’s surge was the third spike in the illness since 2014, and health officials are still scrambling to understand what exactly is causing AFM. There were 120 confirmed cases in 2014 and 149 in 2016 “Competing theories have emerged about what triggers AFM,” she adds. “Several experts say there is a strong correlation between AFM and outbreaks of a common respiratory virus called enterovirus D68. Some enteroviruses are known to attack the spinal cord. The CDC is also looking into other possible causes, including whether AFM is caused not by a viral infection but by the patients' immune systems.” — In a new poll from Gallup, a majority of Americans say it’s the federal government’s responsibility to make sure all people have health care. But just 4 in 10 respondents -- fewer than last year -- say there should be a government-run health-care system, underscoring the challenges Democrats face in trying to advance their "Medicare-for-All" ideas. The differences are stark between the parties, the poll found. — A federal judge expressdc concern about the merger between CVS Health and Aetna and is considering requiring CVS to “halt


2018 has been a dangerous and deadly year for journalists

line is longer; the queue is longer and the resolve is greater.’ ” Journalists indeed kept going back — with deadly consequences. On Sept. 6, Samim Faramarz was reporting from the scene of a bombing in Kabul when a second explosion hit, cutting the broadcast and killing Faramarz and his cameraman, Ramiz Ahmady. His last words were broadcast live: “The area is completely terrorized. I can smell blood here, and as you can see in the pictures. ...” And then he, too, was gone. On Oct. 2, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul. He never emerged, and his disappearance — along with the eventual confirmation that he had been killed — sparked a months-long diplomatic crisis that’s still unfolding. Initially Saudi Arabia denied any role in the killing and even that Khashoggi was dead. Over the ensuing weeks, however, the Saudis changed their story, eventually admitting that Khashoggi had been killed by “rogue” Saudi agents. They have since charged several men who were part of the alleged hit squad. Five of them face the death penalty. But the Saudi account is increasingly at odds with evidence shared by Turkey, where Khashoggi was killed and dismembered. It is also contradicted by the CIA, which has concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing. Since the killing, the United States, Europe, Canada and others have warned of consequences but have not delivered much of a concrete response. President Trump has refused to blame Mohammed directly, preferring to talk up the value of Washington’s relationship with (and arms sales to) Riyadh. In his final column for The Washington Post, Khashoggi wrote about the need for press freedom in Saudi Arabia and across the region. “The Arab world needs a modern version of the old transnational media so citizens can be informed about global events,” he wrote. “Through the creation of an independent international forum, isolated from the influence of nationalist governments spreading hate through propaganda, ordinary people in the Arab world would be able to address the structural problems their societies face.” The piece was published on Oct. 17, 15 days after he was killed. Read more: Press freedom is in retreat around the world — including here A Bulgarian journalist was raped and killed in a case that has shocked Europe Editorials defending the press are a nice start. Here’s where to go next.


The Technology 202: Those cheap drones you use for extreme sports? The Pentagon wants them, too.

the growing list of challenges Facebook is confronting as the social networking giant grapples with multiple scandals. While Rodriguez notes “there’s no firm data showing a significant uptick in departures or employee dissatisfaction” so far, the change is notable because the tech giant “had long been known around Silicon Valley as the company that no one leaves." Here’s how a former Facebook director summed up the situation: “Once it becomes weird to tell people that they work at Facebook, or once their moms aren’t proud of them anymore, that’s when people are going to head to the exits,” he said, as quoted by Rodriguez. “I think we’re already getting there.” NIBBLES: There is a way the United States could hamper China's technological ambitions amid trade tensions between both countries, and it involves semiconductors. The Financial Times also reported that should they face American export controls, “Chinese-owned plants could continue producing lower-end semiconductors, such as analogue chips, used in everything from industrial robots to electric vehicles. Out of reach in the medium term would be making the most advanced chips able to support AI functions or 5G telecommunication networks.” BYTES: Effective Dec. 17, the company will use algorithms to flag and delete images that violate its stricter policy, which has few exceptions — Microsoft plans to bring broadband Internet access to 3 million Americans living in rural areas by July 2022 “Without a proper broadband connection, these communities can’t start or run a modern business, access telemedicine, take an online class, digitally transform their farm, or research a school project online,” Smith said. — More technology news from the private sector: — The United States must develop a national artificial intelligence strategy to maintain its dominance in the field over foreign competitors such as China, Britain and France, — An algorithm may soon attempt to predict if travelers at foreign airports represent a threat under a new Department of Homeland Security program — More technology news from the public sector: —Tech news generating buzz around the Web: — “Uber Technologies Inc on Monday confirmed it hired a senior U.S. auto safety official involved in the federal government’s handling of self-driving cars for its autonomous vehicle efforts,” Today Thursday Delta Air Lines debuted the United States’s first facial recognition terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport: George H.W. Bush’s legacy honored at U.S. Capitol: Michelle Obama talks to London girls about ‘impostor syndrome”:


Trump administration gives Russia an ultimatum on Cold War-era arms treaty

be sympathetic to a Kremlin argument that the United States is tearing up one international agreement after another, after Trump’s decision to leave the Paris climate agreement and the Iran nuclear deal. Their frustration may have been fueled by Pompeo’s decision to deliver a blistering foreign policy address in Brussels just before the NATO meeting, using a city that serves as a capital for the European Union to lash out at multinational organizations and “bureaucrats.” Trump critics “claim America is acting unilaterally instead of multilaterally, as if every kind of multilateral action is by definition desirable,” Pompeo said. “Our mission is to reassert our sovereignty, reform the liberal international order, and we want our friends to help us and to exert their sovereignty as well,” he said to stony silence from the European audience as he excoriated a long list of multilateral organizations. European officials and Democrats in Congress have complained that the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw was done without due consultation and squandered an opportunity to focus the world’s attention on Russia’s alleged violations of the treaty, which center on its covert development of an intermediate-range, ground-launched cruise missile designated 9M729. The Kremlin says it continues to adhere to the treaty. “The administration’s sudden decision to withdraw unilaterally is a political and geostrategic gift to Russia,” the top-ranking Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations, Armed Services and Intelligence committees said in a letter to Trump on Monday. “It takes the focus away from Russia's transgressions and malign behavior and instead feeds a narrative that the United States is willing to shred our commitments unilaterally without any strategic alternative.” U.S. diplomats say they do not expect Russia will ever return to compliance with the treaty, in part because they think the Kremlin has decided it needs the missile technology to protect itself against China, with which it shares a border. Garrett Marquis, the spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said European leaders should hardly be surprised by the Trump move. “The U.S. has engaged in extensive consultation with our allies on Russia’s violation of the INF Treaty, which has been ongoing for more than five years,” Marquis said in an emailed statment. He also cast the decision to withdrawal as a fait accompli instead of a move still under discussion. “On October 20th, the President made clear the U.S. will terminate the Treaty,” he said. michael.birnbaum@washpost.com john.hudson@washpost.com


CIA Director Gina Haspel to brief key senators behind closed doors about Khashoggi killing

CIA Director Gina Haspel on Tuesday will brief a key group of senators behind closed doors on the details of the agency’s assessment that the Saudi crown prince likely ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, just days before the Senate is expected to begin debating a resolution to withdraw support for the Saudi military campaign in Yemen. The briefing will be just for Senate leaders and the heads of national security committees seen as having an interest in Saudi policy regarding Yemen and the intelligence surrounding Khashoggi’s killing, according to multiple people familiar with plans. Bipartisan leaders from the Foreign Relations Committee, the Armed Services Committee, the Intelligence Committee and the Appropriations subcommittees that fund the State and Defense departments are expected to be included. The plan for the briefing was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Republican and Democratic senators have been demanding to hear from Haspel, who was noticeably absent last week from a similar, all-senators briefing with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. Senators complained that the Trump administration was depriving Congress of key information about the killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributing columnist, by refusing to order Haspel to go to the Hill and explain the CIA’s assessment that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was probably responsible. Some senators accused the White House of barring Haspel’s participation, prompting CIA spokesman Timothy Barrett to declare that nobody had told Haspel not to appear. But the furor was so serious that even Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), a confidant of President Trump’s, said he would refuse to support “any key vote” until Haspel came to the Hill to speak to lawmakers. As the senior Republican on the Appropriations panel for state and foreign operations, Graham will be part of the briefing. Last week, the Senate took the historic step of voting to take up a resolution, spearheaded by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), to end American support for the Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen, where humanitarian conditions have reached a crisis level. For some of the 14 Republicans who supported the opening procedural step last week, the vote was intended as a warning shot to Trump, to inspire him to start openly condemning Mohammed or withholding military support. Haspel’s briefing may placate some of those senators. But it is not expected to deter Senate Democrats


After losing court battle, Pentagon will send green-card holders to recruit training

week. They will be placed in available slots, and the services will have to consider factors such as their needs and prospective recruits’ preferences. The injunction eases pressure on a group of prospective troops that the Pentagon has long recruited, pitching self-betterment and, in some cases, a chance at U.S. citizenship. About 18,000 U.S. troops were green-card holders at the beginning of the Trump administration, and about 5,000 joined the military each year before the stricter policy, Pentagon officials have said. Some military officials have raised concerns internally that the growing backlog of green-card holders could present problems for a military always in need of new troops. The directive, which was obtained by The Washington Post, was issued two days after a reporter began asking military officials last week about the glut of potential recruits waiting to train and whether it was complying with the injunction. In the Navy, officials overseeing the issue called it “untenable” in a recent document reviewed by The Post and warned that the situation brings “increasing risk of mission failure.” The document said the average wait time for a green-card holder to join the U.S. military had grown to 354 days as opposed to 168 for U.S. citizens, raising the possibility that the Navy would miss its recruiting goals. If the Pentagon ordered the services to comply with the court injunction, the Navy should ship lawful permanent residents to the “maximum extent possible” to fill about 1,154 open slots in recruit training in December and January, officials added. A military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said the Navy has more than 2,870 green-card holders under contract and waiting to go to recruit training. A Marine Corps spokesman, Gunnery Sgt. Justin Kronenberg, said his service had 1,062 additional green-card holders awaiting recruit training. Like the other services, the Marines were awaiting additional guidance from the Pentagon last week.“The Marine Corps Recruiting Command has kept full pace with [Defense Department] policy updates and is in compliance with all guidance regarding Lawful Permanent Resident accessions,” Kronenberg said. “We’ve maintained maximum transparency concerning the process with our LPR applicants to ensure they and their families are informed and their questions are answered.” The Marine Corps sent 1,044 green-card holders to recruit training in 2016 and 1,169 in 2017, but the number dropped to 808 in the most recent fiscal year


Study bolsters findings that marathons increase heart stress. But what it means is unclear.

had demonstrated that 14-year-old cross-country runners also developed high troponin readings after a 90-minute treadmill workout. But the teens had no adverse clinical symptoms, continued racing for their youth teams, and clearly represented a group with little to no coronary risk. The Spanish team has been studying marathoners since 2011, according to lead researcher Juan Del Coso, from Madrid’s Universidad Camilo José Cela. When they noticed many runners walking in the final miles, they wondered about the runner’s training programs for the event. The researchers first studied skeletal muscle strain among runners and found that those who trained less produced more markers of muscle damage. This led them to wonder about heart muscle damage, which produced the Research Letter results. “I do not think the increased cardiac strain is going to produce a heart problem per se,” Del Coso wrote in an email. “If you’ve prepared correctly, which includes training, nutrition, and hydration strategies, then there is no reason to stop running marathons.” However, Del Coso believes less-well-prepared amateurs should be more cautious when picking a race distance. “If you began training only a few months back, of if your busy life impeded your training, you should choose shorter races.” Average marathon times have slowed dramatically in recent decades compared with the 1970s and 1980s, as slower — and presumably less-well-trained — runners have flocked to the marathon. However, there appears to have been no associated increase in marathon death rates, according to Bill Roberts, a physician who compiles such rates for the Twin Cities and Marine Corps marathons. (Amazing marathon stat: November’s New York City Marathon, with more than 50,000 starters from around the world, had a 99.8 percent finish rate.) Meanwhile, support for the benefits of regular, even intense, aerobic exercise remains as strong as ever. A month-old Cleveland Clinic paper tracked the mortality rates of 122,000 patients for a median 8.4 years after they had undergone treadmill stress testing. Subjects at the highest level of fitness, termed “elites,” had an 80 percent lower risk of death than the lowest, most sedentary subjects. The elites, with aerobic capacities roughly equivalent to a 21-minute 5K race (or 3:20 marathon) even fared 23 percent better than the next-highest group. “Current endurance athletes should not be worried,” said Hartford’s Paul Thompson. “They always live longer than their sedentary peers, and there remains no conclusive evidence that their exercise is dangerous.” localliving@washpost.com


Watch SpaceX’s rocket spin wildly, then crash land in the water

Over the past three years, SpaceX has perfected the art of flying its rocket boosters back to Earth so that they can be reused. The company, founded by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, has pulled off the feat numerous times, making the landings seem routine. Until Wednesday. After launching a Dragon cargo spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the first-stage Falcon 9 rocket booster fell back toward Earth, pointing itself in the direction of its landing site near Florida’s coast. But as it neared land, it started spinning wildly. Then the live feed provided by SpaceX went out, and for a few moments it wasn’t clear what happened. Did it blow up? Did it crash on land or in the water? Soon, Musk made it clear that the booster had landed in the water, touching down softly. No explosion. No one was hurt. In a series of tweets, Musk said that a hydraulic pump for one of the fins that help stabilize and steer the rocket had stalled. As the engines fired to slow the rocket, they ended up stabilizing it and “enabling an intact landing in water!” he wrote. As for the primary mission — delivering cargo and supplies to the International Space Station — that was a success, the company and NASA said.


China exports its high-tech authoritarianism to Venezuela. It must be stopped.

Venezuelans to show the card when they make their day-to-day transactions. He has said the card will be used to ration subsidized gasoline and track food purchases, which is why many at first saw it as a 21st-century ration card. Others took it as just a bit of mindless bureaucracy, or as a way to pressure Venezuelans into continuing to vote for the regime. Indeed, the Maduro political machine used the card to monitor whether the poor turned out in the fraud-ridden presidential elections earlier this year, according to Reuters. Those who didn’t vote were threatened with losing access to state resources, including the subsidized food parcels that are all that’s keeping many from starving. But the revelations about ZTE’s involvement in developing and deploying the system put an entirely different hue on it. The “carnet de la patria” isn’t just a means of railroading dependent voters into backing a calamitous regime at the polls. It goes further than that. It represents an early experiment in exporting China’s model for high-tech authoritarianism, with powerful computer algorithms calculating individualized loyalty scores to dole out or withhold privileges and life chances accordingly. It turns out that China’s digital panopticon is an export product. In Venezuela, Beijing is using the technology it has developed at home to help sustain a notoriously unstable client state’s leadership in place. The United States can’t allow China to export the technology of 21st-century dictatorship around the world. Under existing U.S. sanctions on Venezuela, companies are banned from providing technological support for serious human rights abuses and the repression of protesters. ZTE’s role in the ID card scheme should certainly qualify as technological support of repression. It should lead to additional sanctions on the company in Europe and Canada. Unfortunately, for reasons that have remained murky, ZTE has an ally in the White House. Last May, in a hard-to-parse moment, President Trump began tweeting specifically in support of ZTE. But the president also has a long record as a harsh critic of the Maduro regime. Congress should act to ensure that Trump’s sympathy for ZTE does not outweigh his antipathy toward the Maduro regime, and to make sure China pays a price for exporting dictatorship as a service. Read more Francisco Toro: No, Venezuela doesn’t prove anything about socialism John Pomfret: A China-U.S. truce on trade only scratches the surface of a broader conflict Fred Hiatt: Trump is


Slip into the holiday spirit with one of these Washington-area outings

return every year, but there are always newcomers like Driftwood, which was named “Best in Parade” in its first year. To make the most of the trip, leave time to wander and look at the historic city’s festive decorations, including the impressive tree outside the Market House, and pop into its boutiques before dinner. Hit Sailor Oyster Bar for a taste of the bay or head to Preserve, on Main Street, for clever farm-to-table cooking. Eastport Yacht Club Parade: Dec. 8 from 6 to 8 p.m. Free. Feel like you're skating on water and cozy up to a Guinness As the temperature plummets, you might think you missed out on the ideal season to take in the sights of the Wharf. But head to the pier outside of the Anthem, and you’ll find one of the most scenic skating rinks in the area. Glide across the fresh sheet of ice, underneath a charmingly minimal light setup, and you’ll spy cars zipping across the nearby bridge, tour boats sailing and onlookers sitting in the bleacher seats at one end of the rink. Go at night, and the backdrop includes the illuminated marquees of new and long-standing waterfront businesses. If you need a bite in between laps in the rink, there’s a snack shack at the entrance, which dispenses the usual concession fare, including hot chocolate. Once you’ve shown off your skating skills — or become too well practiced in graceful tumbling — take a stroll to the opposite end of the strip, if the warm glow of the permanent fire pit on the way doesn’t lure you in, and get cozy at Kirwan’s on the Wharf. One of D.C.’s best cracks at the Irish-pub formula, it scores points for mixed pints, bacon and cabbage and a bar nook tucked behind sliding liquor cabinets. Wharf ice rink: Open daily through late February. $8-$12 for admission; $6 skate rental. Finish your shopping, have a drink at a fire pit and let your pet meet Santa Multitasking is the reason to visit Wunder Garten this season. Sure, the three-year-old NoMa beer garden is the neighborhood’s best place for sitting around a fire pit with a mug of Irish coffee or hot chocolate spiked with peppermint schnapps, or just a local craft beer. (It’s also dog-friendly, making it a popular weekend destination for four-legged residents.) But Wunder Garten’s Winterfest, which runs through Dec. 16, makes


You can finally have happy hour with D.C.'s original hometown brewery

The Heurich House Museum has become the unofficial capital of the Washington beer scene over the past few years, and not just because the D.C. Brewers' Guild has its headquarters there. The home of early 20th century brewer Christian Heurich has hosted beer tastings, brewer meet-and-greets and an annual Oktoberfest party in its garden. And this month, to celebrate a new exhibit about the Christian Heurich Beer Company, the museum will start hosting regular happy hours in its gallery. It’s a new angle for the museum: While the Heurich Brewing Co. was once the largest nongovernment employer in Washington, the Heurich House’s mission is focused on Heurich’s well-preserved 1894 mansion near Dupont Circle, known as the Brewmaster’s Castle. It includes ornate woodcarvings and much of the original furniture, but there is precious little about the brewery for visitors to see in its collection. In mid-November, the Heurich House opened an exhibition called “Home/Brewed,” which tells the story of the Heurich Brewing Co. through original bottles and barrels, old black-and-white photos, and colorful advertisements touting the brewery’s sponsorship of the Washington Senators. Visitors can pick up an old phone handset to hear a catchy 1954 radio jingle extolling the virtues of Old Georgetown beer, one of Heurich’s brands. It’s all thanks to Jack Blush, a local beer collector who amassed over 1,000 Heurich-related items over four decades and loaned the treasure trove to the Heurich House. “This is probably what people have been wanting to see from us,” says Kim Bender, the executive director of Heurich House. "[Christian Heurich’s] house is really cool — the woodwork is wonderful — but this is what really connects him to the people of Washington. “This,” she says, gesturing around the artifacts in glass cases and on the walls, “is the reason we’re talking about him at all.” Three hundred people RSVP’d for the Nov. 16 opening party, and walk-up visitors were turned away. Over the next three weeks, the exhibition will be open Wednesday through Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. Some of these Home/Brewed happy hours will feature mini tours and Q&A sessions led by Bender, Blush or historian and author Garrett Peck. Beers and snacks are available for purchase. “We’re not a Smithsonian, where we’re open every day for people to come through,” Bender says. “We need an experience: People can come see all the beer memorabilia while enjoying a modern craft


Saudi ambassador returns to Washington for the first time since killing of journalist

Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States, Prince Khalid bin Salman, has returned to Washington for the first time since the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi Embassy spokeswoman said Wednesday. The return of Khalid, the younger brother of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, came as dignitaries gathered in Washington for the funeral of former president George H.W. Bush. It was not clear whether Khalid, whom some have accused of aiding a coverup of Khashoggi’s killing, would resume his duties as the kingdom’s ambassador in Washington. A Saudi official had said the prince planned to attend Bush’s funeral, but the embassy spokeswoman said Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir would be “representing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.” The Bush family wanted the state funeral to focus on the life and legacy of the 41st president, though Bush cultivated strong and lasting ties with the Saudi leadership over decades of public service. “The U.S.-Saudi relationship had its finest hour under Bush. It’s no surprise that the Saudis want to remember the good old days,” said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA official and a Saudi Arabia expert at the Brookings Institution. Khashoggi was a critic of the Saudi government and a Washington Post contributing columnist. “Given the acute crisis in U.S.-Saudi relations, Riyadh urgently needs a capable ambassador in Washington, but not one so tainted with the Khashoggi murder and coverup,” Riedel said. Khalid abruptly left Washington in October as U.S. officials and lawmakers called on the kingdom to straighten out its shifting explanations of Khashoggi’s death. Saudi authorities had first claimed that Khashoggi walked out of the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul after his Oct. 2 visit. They then said he died in a confrontation that escalated into a fistfight, then later admitted that he was killed by Saudi agents who flew to Istanbul from Riyadh for the purpose. As the shifting accounts fell apart under scrutiny, Khalid drew the ire of top Republicans, who accused him of lying to them about various details during briefings, including why Saudi officials could not produce security camera footage showing Khashoggi leaving the consulate. Security camera footage did show Khashoggi entering the consulate. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was particularly incensed when the Saudi ambassador told him that the video was not available because the surveillance equipment only live-streamed content and did not record it. “I’ve never, ever heard


Mike Locksley reaches deal to be Maryland football coach

Alabama offensive coordinator Mike Locksley has agreed in principle to be Maryland’s head football coach. The school announced his hiring Tuesday evening. The sides reached a five-year deal with an option for an additional year, according to multiple people with knowledge of the situation. Locksley will earn roughly $2.5 million annually, according to a person with knowledge of the deal. Locksley’s deal is similar to what DJ Durkin signed when he became the program’s head coach in 2015 and should give Maryland flexibility to hire or retain higher-salaried assistants. Maryland plans to introduce Locksley at a Thursday news conference. Locksley, a Washington native, has twice worked as an assistant on the Terrapins' staff. He coached running backs from 1997 to 2002, and he returned as the offensive coordinator from 2012 to 2015. He served as interim head coach for the final six games of the 2015 season after Maryland fired Randy Edsall. When the school passed over Locksley for the permanent job in favor of Durkin, Locksley headed to Alabama to be an offensive analyst. “I am thrilled to be returning home and to have the opportunity to lead the Maryland football program,” Locksley said in a statement released by Maryland. “This has always been a special place for me and my family, and I am honored to take on this role at the state’s flagship institution. Our goal is to create an atmosphere and environment focused on the total development of our student-athletes. Our focus will always be to help them become more successful in all areas of their life through their association with our program." Locksley, 48, has helped lead Alabama’s offense to historic heights this season, his first calling plays for the Crimson Tide. Alabama (13-0) beat Georgia to win the SEC championship on Saturday and will return to the College Football Playoff as the top seed and defending national champion. Alabama’s offense averages 47.9 points per game (second nationally), 527.6 yards per game (seventh) and 7.92 yards per play (second). Alabama’s quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa, is a favorite to win the Heisman Trophy. Earlier on Tuesday, Locksley won the Broyles Award, which is given annually to the nation’s top assistant coach. “Two years ago, I was in the Nick Saban witness protection program,” Locksley said in his speech at the Broyles Award ceremony in Little Rock. “I was out of a job. I just left the University


San Francisco Chronicle hires writer and ‘Racist Sandwich’ podcast host Soleil Ho as its new restaurant critic

a wealth of experience to the job despite her relative youth. At age 31, she’s a trained chef who has worked at restaurants in New Orleans and South Minneapolis; a freelance writer for various publications (including Bitch Media, the New Yorker and GQ); co-author of “Meal,” a “graphic novel on culinary mentorship, queer romance, and eating insects”; and co-host of the influential “Racist Sandwich” podcast. In the latter role, Ho has spent a fair amount of time in San Francisco, exploring its diverse and legendary restaurant scene. “It seems like a really polarized scene, which is something I really want to dig into. There are the [restaurants] that Michelin organization would notice and actually award stars to. Then there are the ones that a lot of people who have money just wouldn’t go to,” Ho told The Washington Post. “Then there’s the whole issue with the wealth disparity and how does that manifest in the restaurant world. Where do dishwashers go to eat as opposed to the tech people? There are places that service all of those classes of people, but only one of those categories actually gets noticed by food critics. I’m hoping to expand that reach a little bit,” she added. Born in Chicago, Ho grew up in New York City and has lived in Iowa, New Orleans, Portland and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. She now lives in Minneapolis, which she plans to leave behind after the holidays. When she takes over as critic at the Chronicle, Ho doesn’t plan to don wigs and go in disguise to review restaurants, but she does plan to adhere to the codes and ethics of the Association of Food Journalists. At the same time, Ho said anonymity has traditionally favored big-budget restaurants over mom-and-pop places. Keeping her photos up on the Internet will then tend to level the playing field for all establishments. “It is interesting because I am a millennial, and it is a bit too late for any notion of anonymity,” she said, with a laugh. “You would expect the higher-end or chef-driven restaurants to have photos of the critics already on the walk-in fridge, but the average restaurant where they don’t have a huge budget for PR, they don’t have eyes on that sort of thing. They can just as easily Google me as soon as they hear about it. They don’t have to investigate too much.” Ho plans


Kroger and Walgreens want you to have a one-stop shop for food and drugs

Looking for avocados? They’re near the Aleve. Band-Aids? You passed them when you grabbed a banana. A one-stop shop for your grocery and pharmacy needs is what Kroger and Walgreens have in store. Through “Kroger Express,” the grocer will add more 2,300 products at 13 Walgreens locations in Northern Kentucky, selling dairy, meat, produce, frozen foods and more. The first pilot store is already open in Florence, Ky., with the remaining 12 locations debuting early next year. Shoppers can also order Kroger groceries online to be picked up at Walgreens. The partnership comes as brick-and-mortar retailers look for new ways to compete with e-commerce giants, especially when it comes to groceries. Analysts say both companies could stand to benefit: Kroger could see a major boost to its national footprint if the pilot expands, for example. And Walgreens could reel in foot traffic as shoppers regularly refill their prescriptions and decide to pick up dinner, too. But analysts also have a lot of questions: How will profits be divided between the companies? Will the space inside Walgreens stores be leased out to Kroger? Will Walgreens pay its own employees to stock Kroger items? Could there be any overlap between Kroger-brand and Walgreens-brand items sold on the same shelves? “There are so many things we don’t know,” said Bill Kirk, a food retail analyst at RBC Capital Markets. “And frankly, I think it’s because they don’t know yet.” A Kroger official said the company would not share the pilot’s financial details. “We’re in test-and-learn mode,” the official said. Walgreens said its own employees will stock Kroger Express shelves, and that Kroger is responsible for supplying the products to Walgreens locations. Kroger’s groceries will take up about 4,000 square feet of a Walgreens store, which average about 10,000 square feet of inventory. Walgreens declined to say whether that space would be leased or shared under some other arrangement. Grocery sales is tricky territory for big-box retailers. Food spoils quickly and doesn’t necessarily reel in huge profits. Plus, drug stores like Walgreens aren’t only competing with existing grocery stores, but also with a slew of companies that deliver groceries to peoples' homes, fast-casual restaurants and subscription meal kits. The pilot suggests Kroger plans to sell a lot of food. Kirk said the 2,300 food items to be stocked at Walgreens are likely to be popular items that won’t sit on the shelves for long.


Suspected shoplifter killed during struggle with armed store employee

A suspected shoplifter at a discount store in Prince George’s County was fatally shot inside the retail outlet Wednesday afternoon during a struggle with an armed employee, according to police. Seat Pleasant Police Chief Devan Martin said the employee, a member of the Discount Mart’s management team, was legally permitted to have the weapon. The precise circumstances of the shooting, which occurred about 2:20 p.m. in the store in the 400 block of Eastern Avenue, remained under investigation Wednesday. The name of the person who died was not immediately made public. The store is located near the border with the District. Martin said officers arrived at the store and found the suspected shoplifter on the floor and wounded. That person later died at a hospital. He said officers learned the person had been suspected of theft and had been shot during an altercation with the store employee. Martin said the gun discharged during the scuffle but did not elaborate. Police said they were investigating whether the person who was shot was armed. Martin said there were about a dozen witnesses and many security cameras. lynh.bui@washpost.com


USA Gymnastics files for bankruptcy, plans to fight to preserve certification

the Nassar scandal, saying that the sport “deserved better.” It also comes 20 months before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where the U.S. women’s gymnastics squad will seek its third consecutive Olympic gold medal in the prestigious team competition, and reigning individual all-around champion Simone Biles will attempt to defend her Rio 2016 title. Both the U.S. women and Biles are favorites to do so, with the U.S. women dominating the world championships in Qatar in October, claiming the team title and Biles earning a record fourth gold in the individual all-around. As the USOC and USA Gymnastics trade procedural moves, hundreds of young women await redress for emotional and psychological damage inflicted by the former team doctor who has been sentenced to jail for the rest of his life. Carson, former chief legal counsel for the U.S. Golf Association, joined USA Gymnastics’ reconstituted governing board in June and was named the panel’s chair Nov. 29. She declined to provide an estimate of the payouts the governing body expects to make to the gymnasts victimized by Nassar. Earlier this year, Michigan State paid $500 million into a settlement fund to compensate Nassar victims under its watch. Nassar was employed by Michigan State and served as the volunteer team physician for USA Gymnastics. In both cases, leaders at Michigan State and USA Gymnastics ignored allegations of abuse for years and failed to refer athletes’ claims to law enforcement in a timely manner. Carson said the board had discussed the step of filing for bankruptcy protection long before the USOC’s Nov. 5 announcement that it was taking the initial step toward dismantling USA Gymnastics. The step was taken, she said, because the mediation process was “not moving at any pace.” A Chapter 11 bankruptcy process will consolidate the claims before one judge in one court who would likely appoint a mediator to broker a resolution. She characterized it as “a critical first step” toward rebuilding the organization’s trust with gymnasts and their families, the public and corporate sponsors, many of whom fled the sport in the wake of the Nassar scandal. Any settlements with victims will be funded by insurance bought by USA Gymnastics prior to the Nassar scandal. Carson said the amount paid to victims would not be affected by the Chapter 11 filing. Apart from those insurance proceeds, she added, the organization has “no other significant assets” to pay claims. liz.clarke@washpost.com


At least one person shot at a restaurant supply company in Baltimore

At least one person was shot in an incident early Wednesday at a wholesale restaurant supplier in Baltimore. The incident happened just before 5 a.m. at the “Restaurant Depot” along Annapolis Road. Baltimore Police said one man was shot and taken to an area hospital. His condition was not immediately disclosed by police. Officials said they believe two suspects went into the business with the intention to rob it. During the robbery, police said, the man was shot. In a statement, police said, “At this time it is unknown if the suspects are still inside the location or they escaped.” A SWAT team and law enforcement are on the scene, and drivers should expect delays in the area as some streets are closed. dana.hedgpeth@washpost.com


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The Daily 202: Flynn sentencing memo hints at how much Mueller knows that we still don’t

congressman John Barrow. -- In another runoff, Little Rock elected an African American mayor, Frank Scott Jr., a 35-year-old banker who was formerly state highway commissioner. -- The fate of the Weekly Standard — which has continued to critique Trump from the right long after most other conservative publications — is uncertain. GET SMART FAST: BUSH 41 REMEMBERED: -- Mourners gathered at the Capitol to honor George H.W Bush before his funeral today at Washington National Cathedral. -- Bush’s funeral has created an informal reunion for former members of his administration who have gathered to celebrate his life. -- The United States will recognize a national day of mourning today for Bush. -- Bush’s death has sparked debates about his legacy on race issues. -- Trump’s use of a motorcade to visit George W. Bush at Blair House, which is 250 yards from the White House, triggered some light criticism. KHASHOGGI FALLOUT: -- Contradicting assertions from Trump and members of his Cabinet, Republican senators said a briefing from CIA Director Gina Haspel on the killing of Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi has convinced them of the Saudi crown prince’s involvement. “In recent days, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis have said that no single piece of evidence irrefutably links Mohammed to the killing. But the senators, in effect, said that did not matter, because the evidence they heard convinced them beyond the shadow of a doubt. ‘If the crown prince went in front of a jury, he would be convicted in 30 minutes,’ said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. … Graham leveled sharp criticism at Pompeo and Mattis, saying he thought they were ‘following the lead of the president.’ He called them ‘good soldiers.’ “ -- The GOP senators essentially accused Trump of helping Saudi Arabia try to cover up the killing. -- Not all Republicans: A GOP congressman justified Trump’s response to Khashoggi’s killing by saying, “Journalists disappear all over the country.” THE TRADE WAR: -- U.S. stock markets fell 3 percent as skepticism grew of Trump’s claims the United States and China reached a trade breakthrough during the G-20 summit. “In a series of Twitter posts Tuesday, the president threatened to slap additional import penalties on Chinese products if China did not make major changes in its economic relationship with the United States. -- “Once again this