A museum relegated an ‘empty’ coffin to a side room for decades. Inside was a 2,500-year-old mummy.

to 700 B.C. Meanwhile, another of its mummies is a man but rests in a coffin made for a woman.) In the case of the Mer-Neith-it-es coffin, the ethical concerns were lessened because it was clear that ancient tomb robbers had already heavily damaged its contents, Fraser said. With that in mind, and in the interest of protecting the remains from Sydney’s heat and humidity, researchers at the Nicholson Museum decided to move forward with the excavations. First, they arranged for a CT scan so they could get a fuller picture of the coffin’s contents. The night before the scheduled scan, Fraser told a film crew he could barely sleep. The CT scan did not disappoint. “While the remains inside the Mer-Neith-it-es coffin were indeed mixed, the scanner detected two mummified ankles, feet and toes, consistent with a single person,” Fraser wrote in the university magazine. “The fused ends of some of the bones suggest the person was at least 30 years old.” In other words, the possibility that the mummy was that of the Egyptian priestess Mer-Neith-it-es could not be ruled out. Next came the physical excavation. Archaeologists “painstakingly” sifted through layers of debris until reaching the parts of the feet and ankles that the CT scan had revealed earlier, according to ABC News. “That should be the toes,” Connie Lord, an Egyptologist at the University of Sydney, pointed out to an excited Fraser on camera. She laughed. “There could even be toenails, which would be really thrilling. It’s weird to want that, but that’s what I want. Toenails are fantastic for radiocarbon dating.” Fraser said researchers are only beginning to learn what they can about the coffin, along with three other mummies in the Nicholson Museum’s collection. “All of these bits of information are starting to tally with what we would expect if that person was Mer-Neith-it-es herself. We’re never going to get the smoking gun. We’re never going to get a written bit of papyrus saying, ‘My name is Mer-Neith-it-es.’ But by putting together this sort of picture, we can start to refine down the possibilities.” The university is constructing a new museum, the Chau Chak Wing Museum, which will house collections from several of the school’s existing museums and galleries. The new space will include a special room devoted to mummies and Egyptology, but likely with one major difference: This time, the Mer-Neith-it-es coffin will be


Launch of NASA’s new flagship space telescope is delayed — again

predicted with 70 percent confidence that, with further tests, the telescope will be ready to launch in May 2020. The massive space telescope, which has already cost $7.3 billion to develop, was a top priority in the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine's 2000 Decadal Survey. Designed to work in the infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum, the JWST's gold-covered, 20-foot-wide mirror would collect the oldest light in the universe, allowing scientists unprecedented insight into the time known as “cosmic dawn.” It would also probe the mysteries of black holes and seek out signs of life on planets orbiting distant suns. But much of the technology required for such a fantastic instrument didn't yet exist. The JWST's creators had to invent, among other things, a main mirror and a heat shield that could unfold like origami in orbit. The cost of the mission quickly ballooned past the initial projection of about $1 billion, and the launch was pushed back from 2007 to 2008, then 2009, then 2010, then 2011, then 2013, then 2014, then 2015 or maybe 2016. The journal Nature called the JWST “the telescope that ate astronomy.” After nearly canceling the mission in 2011, Congress voted to cap all additional funding for the project at $8 billion. A new plan put the telescope on target to launch in 2018. But that date has since slipped to 2019 and, today, to May 2020 at the earliest. Acting NASA administrator Robert Lightfoot said the exhaustive integration and testing process, which can feel excruciatingly slow at times, is needed to ensure that the JWST is functional when it arrives in orbit. Unlike Hubble, which was in low Earth orbit and could be repaired by astronauts when a flaw in its main mirror was revealed after launch, the JWST will be a million miles from Earth, four times as far as the moon. “It's this really important balance between pushing and being considerate and absolutely thoughtful about where we’re going,” Lightfoot said. According to Dennis Andrucyk, deputy associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate, the launch schedule took hits after mishaps required the replacement of a transducer that was incorrectly powered, valves that were affected when the wrong solvent was run through the propulsion system and a catalyst bed that was overheated. Engineers are also working to fix small tears in the sun shield and slack in the cables that help


T-minus one week until China’s space lab crashes to Earth. Here’s what it will look like.

When Tiangong-1 rocketed into the sky in 2011, optimists hoped the space station — literal translation: “heavenly palace” — would be a model for a permanent fixture among the stars, a space laboratory that was among humankind’s first footsteps in the Cosmos. So, when an out-of-control Tiangong-1 comes plummeting to earth in a superheated trail of plasma and space debris, it may literally be an April Fool’s joke. Scientists have known for more than a year that Tiangong-1 would eventually turn into a man-made meteorite after the station stopped responding to Chinese commands in 2016, according to Space.com. The lab was returning from where it came, they were certain, but when and where it would crash was out of anyone’s control. In recent months, scientists got better numbers. They told Spain, Portugal, France and Greece a) don’t worry too much, but b) a 19,000-pound flying laboratory might be disintegrating over your skies. Or, in the words of fear-allaying scientists, Tiangong-1 was experiencing an “uncontrolled reentry.” But semantics will do nothing to change the time of the increasingly likely disintegration date: April 1, or April Fools’ Day, according to Business Insider. Although there is some wiggle room with that date, scientists have a pretty good sense of the drama that will unfold over the next few days. Tiangong-1 is spinning around our atmosphere at a speed of about 17,500 mph, taking one trip around the planet every 90 minutes. Although the air is thin in the zone where Earth’s atmosphere ends and space begins, it’s enough to slow the craft. As it loses its forward speed, gravity will continue to pull the craft toward Earth, and that’s literally when the fireworks start. “Have you ever skipped a stone on a lake?” Jesse Gossner, an orbital mechanics engineer who teaches at the U.S. Air Force’s Advanced Space Operations School, told Business Insider. “It bounces a few times, then eventually goes into the water.” The friction caused by thicker air will rip off anything sticking out of the side of Tiangong-1 — solar panels, antennae. That friction will also likely surround parts of the craft in superheated plasma. (Really, it’s nothing to worry about, France.) But don’t let that whole “superheated plasma thing” fool you. All might not be destroyed. The station is built like an onion, with layers upon layers of material. While the outside is glowing bright enough to be seen


every 90 minutes. Although the air is thin in the zone where Earth’s atmosphere ends and space begins, it’s enough to slow the craft. As it loses its forward speed, gravity will continue to pull the craft toward Earth, and that’s literally when the fireworks start. “Have you ever skipped a stone on a lake?” Jesse Gossner, an orbital mechanics engineer who teaches at the U.S. Air Force’s Advanced Space Operations School, told Business Insider. “It bounces a few times, then eventually goes into the water.” The friction caused by thicker air will rip off anything sticking out of the side of Tiangong-1 — solar panels, antennae. That friction will also likely surround parts of the craft in superheated plasma. (Really, it’s nothing to worry about, France.) But don’t let that whole “superheated plasma thing” fool you. All might not be destroyed. The station is built like an onion, with layers upon layers of material. While the outside is glowing bright enough to be seen hundreds of miles away, some components nestled inside may be relatively safe. Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at Harvard University, told the Guardian that pieces weighing up to 220 pounds could make it to Earth’s surface. According to the latest estimates, the parts of the lab that survive will crash into the ocean. Still, scientists say, eagle-eyed observers probably will see it. According to the nonprofit research firm Aerospace, parts of the burning space station “may be visible and will likely last up to a minute or more, depending on time of day, visibility, conditions and the observer’s location.” And even in the warned countries, there's an infinitesimal chance that falling debris will actually strike someone. “In the history of spaceflight, no known person has ever been harmed by reentering space debris,” Aerospace said in January. “Only one person has ever been recorded as being hit by a piece of space debris, and, fortunately, she was not injured.” Clarification: A previous version of this story indicated that, as the Tiangong-1 loses its forward speed, gravity will begin to accelerate the craft toward Earth. The space station has continually been pulled toward Earth by gravity. Read more: With Putin’s ‘invincible’ missile taunt, some hear chilling echoes of Sputnik and the Cold War A NASA astronaut films his spacewalk — and a breathtaking view of Earth A flat-earther finally tried to fly away. His rocket didn’t even ignite.


Three big questions about a Trump-Kim summit

a leading Chinese expert on North Korea, said to the New York Times. “At most, he will cut the grass, but he will not pull out the roots.” Even if Kim indicates a willingness to denuclearize, “he’ll likely follow that up with a price that the United States should not be willing to pay,” wrote Ankit Panda, an expert on Asia-Pacific security issues. That could include a drawdown of American forces in South Korea or even a broader withdrawal from northeast Asia. This would be welcomed in Beijing and Moscow, but rejected by most policymakers in Washington. “It’s worth remembering that Pyongyang’s interpretation of a 'denuclearized Korean Peninsula' is not one where its arsenal has been 'completely, verifiably, and irreversibly' dismantled as Washington would like,” Panda noted, "but one where it gives up its weapons in exchange for the United States withdrawing its nuclear shield from the Peninsula and leaving altogether." What's at stake for China? For Beijing, the Kim visit was an opportunity to reassert itself as the central player in any deliberations involving North Korea. It's also an important reminder to Trump that China's interests in the region are hardly the same as those of the United States, especially as Beijing and Washington draw lines in the sand ahead of a possible trade war. Despite the reported frostiness between Kim and Xi — and the wider apathy toward North Korea felt by many Chinese — the two countries remain historic allies. Chinese television footage of the Xi-Kim summit showed the North Korean leader scribbling notes during their discussions, the junior scribe to the wiser, stronger mentor. “Beijing is reasserting itself and looking to shape the agenda for the upcoming summits,” Adam Mount, a senior fellow and director of the Defense Posture Project at the Federation of American Scientists, said to my colleagues. “Divisions between Beijing and Pyongyang were a major asset to Trump’s pressure campaign,” he said. Reinforcing their ties would weaken “Trump’s hand in negotiations and diminish further the effectiveness of U.S. military threats.” A half-decade of somewhat tetchy relations with China, though, provided Kim the platform to emerge as a force of his own. “Shutting China out and ramping up the rhetoric with the United States gave [Kim] the space and justification he needed to expedite the building of nuclear bombs and ballistic missiles,” Jean H. Lee, a North Korea expert and fellow at the Wilson


The Energy 202: Scott Pruitt’s climate message is now official EPA guidance

to the warming of the planet since becoming EPA administrator. Now it's official internal guidance. Consider how closely the talking points match Pruitt’s rhetoric during a March 2017 interview on CNBC, with the use of words such as “precision,” “impact” and “debate” that also appear in the memo: Yet some of the talking points are also at odds with the vast majority of climate scientists abroad and at home. The talking points appear to be an effort to narrow the gap between what Pruitt and the rest of the EPA bureaucracy say publicly about climate change. For example, among the many scientific communicators that disagreed with Pruitt’s position that carbon dioxide is not a “primary contributor” to global warming was the EPA’s own website. At the time Pruitt gave that interview, it stated that “human activities have contributed substantially to climate change by adding CO2 and other heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere.” Over the course of 2017, though, the agency updated its parts of the website to reflect the administration’s de-emphasis on climate change. That Web page linking human activity to global warming has since been archived, with a message at the top stating “[t]his is not the current EPA website.” Other efforts to question climate science have not yet been realized. Pruitt also has pushed for a government-sponsored exercise to scrutinize climate science, but the White House reportedly nixed the idea. The EPA is not alone. PROGRAMMING NOTE: — Trump vs. California: Yet the legal battle between Trump and California is only heating up. — Meanwhile in Washington — "We apologize:" — Call for investigation: — Aided by Adelson: — Greenland’s quick thaw: — 182 high-tide days per year: — A 163-day drought: — It's always sunny in Saudi Arabia: But a point of caution on the announcement that Softbank and Saudi Arabia have reached an agreement to launch a massive solar power project: The Post’s Chris Mooney and Steven Mufson report “several analysts cautioned the agreement between the massive Japanese firm and the desert nation might not be fully realized, both because of its ambitious scale and because at the present it is a nonbinding memorandum of understanding.” And here are a few good longreads for the weekend: — How Trump favored Texas over Puerto Rico: — How Jim Justice left miners “in limbo — Pruitt gets a New Yorker profile: Today — Falling out of the sky:


CBD is cannabis that won’t get you high. So why are so many people using it?

turmeric and melatonin and charcoal and biotin or any of the other wonder-elixirs that have replaced Prozac in America’s medicine cabinets. The dizzying rise of CBD is a story of timing as much as of branding. As more states deregulate marijuana, the Reefer Madness stigma that surrounded it for decades seems to have gone up in smoke. But here’s why CBD appeals to some who would never smoke a joint after dinner: Take a few milligrams of CBD as, say, an oil slipped onto the tongue or a piece of candy, and it tastes unmistakably like cannabis, which is to say, slightly minty and herbaceous, and just a little funky. But cannabidiol’s effect is startlingly anticlimactic. It’s weed without the high. And this may be why CBD is legal in many states, including several that don’t allow legal recreational or medical marijuana. You can often buy it over the counter; a 25-milligram gummy frog, for example, costs about $5, less than a cocktail at happy hour. An organic chemist named Roger Adams isolated cannabidiol amid a wave of research into the medicinal promise of marijuana in the 1930s and ’40s. He filed for a patent, and in the decades that followed, marijuana growers experimented with raising plants with high levels of CBD and almost no THC, hoping that a puff might trigger its own trippy bang. It didn’t take long for them to realize that they were wrong. So, so wrong. “CBD became known as the hippie’s disappointment,” says Stuart W. Titus, the chief executive of Medical Marijuana Inc., a producer of several CBD oils and products that entered the market in 2012. Now, the hippie’s disappointment is back, rebranded as the stressed-out modern office drudge’s salvation. Gwyneth Paltrow’s obsessively followed lifestyle site Goop, never one to miss a chance to gush about a wellness trend, recently published a guide to CBD cocktails. One of the many cushy lounges offering swag at Coachella next month is promising CBD oils, along with yoga and vegan food, for all its guests. A writer for the website the Cut wrote that a little CBD made her feel “delightful.” “Some people do want the high, of course,” Titus says. “But others are looking for the health and wellness benefits.” Which, according to the charter members of the Cult of Cannabidiol, are many. Infinite, in fact. “I like to call it the super-nutrient, the super


The Sahara is growing, thanks in part to climate change

human consequences. Deserts form in subtropical regions because of a global weather circulation called the Hadley cell. Warm air rises in the tropics near the equator, producing rain and thunderstorms. When the air hits the top of the atmosphere, it spreads north and south toward the poles. It does not sink back down until it is over the subtropics, but as it does, the air warms and dries out, creating deserts and other areas that are nearly devoid of rain. “Climate change is likely to widen the Hadley circulation, causing northward advance of the subtropical deserts,” Nigam said in a statement that announced the study. At the same time, he said, the Sahara’s southward creep suggests that additional mechanisms are at work. One is probably the natural climate cycle called the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, or AMO, in which temperatures over a large swath of the northern Atlantic Ocean fluctuate between warm and cold phases for 50 years to 70 years. The warm cycles deliver precipitation to subtropical areas, and the cold cycles keep it away. Human-caused climate change can increase the intensity and length of the drier cycle. Nigam and the study’s lead researcher, Natalie Thomas, a doctoral candidate at the University of Maryland, used data from the Global Precipitation Climatology Center to arrive at their finding. They studied grids and patterns from 1920 to 2013, mixing in satellite data compiled “over the last three decades,” Nigam said. They determined that the AMO was in a positive phase that delivered more rain to areas near the Sahara from the 1930s to the early 1960s. It then switched to a negative cycle that lasted 40 years. A 1980s drought — “the most intense … of the 20th century” — was attributed to the latter phase and linked to “higher levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.” Over the second phase, the Sahara crawled south mostly, encroaching on a more tropical area known as the Sahel. Its effect could be seen on a water basin that drains into Lake Chad. “The water level has been falling precipitously,” Nigam said. “It’s very depleted. We can’t attribute it all to rainfall. There may be human draws from the lake. But it’s telling, a visible element, and it clearly lies in the area where the Sahara is encroaching southward.” Africa is the continent least responsible for human-caused climate change, but it’s the most vulnerable to


Historic U.S. Geological Survey unit gets a reprieve from the budget ax

The 133-year-old Biological Survey Unit, slated to be closed this year, has gotten a short reprieve from the budget ax, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. The U.S. Geological Survey, which oversees the division, had planned to close it this spring. The unit, which boasts a $1.6 million annual budget and six employees, helps maintain nearly a million bird, reptile and mammal specimens and historic field notes housed at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Interior Department officials sought to shutter it as a way to trim the department’s overall budget. Several academics and scientific societies protested the move, saying the unit’s staff provided access to key specimens that shed insight on critical scientific questions, including on how ecological conditions changed over more than a century out west and elsewhere in North America. New USGS budget documents show that the agency will keep the division intact at least until Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year, as it devises a plan to transfer its responsibility to the Smithsonian. The Smithsonian serves as the official repository for the collection and jointly manages it. “The Survey is directed to formulate a transition plan with the Smithsonian Institution regarding the curation of the Institution’s collection for which the Survey is currently responsible,” the documents state. A USGS spokeswoman confirmed Thursday that the Biological Survey Unit will continue operating until the end of the fiscal year. “We value our long-term relationship with the Smithsonian and are in the process of developing a transition plan,” A.B. Wade said. Researchers welcomed the temporary stay of execution but warned that it did not address larger questions about the future. Robert S. Sikes, president of the American Society of Mammalogists, said in an email that the plan to close the division “and transition its collections to the Smithsonian is shortsighted.” “Such a move curtails core work by the unit’s scientists and will undoubtedly limit use of collection materials by researchers at a time when dwindling populations of so many species is headline news,” said Sikes, a biology professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He noted that the society’s leaders had written the Smithsonian a year ago about its curatorial staff for mammals being underfunded and lacking the number of experts needed to provide researchers sufficient access to the collections. “Now the size of those collections will double while staff shrinks,”


U.S. judges for now decline to lift injunctions against Trump transgender troop ban

A federal judge in the District of Columbia on Wednesday left in place her nationwide order blocking last year’s Trump administration’s ban on transgender troops while she awaits fresh legal briefings on the impact of a policy shift announced Friday. On Friday, the president revoked the full ban he initially backed last summer for a new policy that would still disqualify many transgender troops who have had gender reassignment surgery. As the White House unveiled its new order Friday night, Justice Department lawyers filed papers asking four federal courts to lift preliminary injunctions those courts issued late last year over the previous iteration of the ban. The legal maneuvers are similar to the flurry of federal-court activity as the White House imposed and then altered entry ban orders as it navigated court decisions. The injunctions that froze the Trump administration’s initial ban on transgender troops came in lawsuits brought by some troops, would-be recruits, human rights groups and several states against a change the would undo an Obama-era policy from 2016 allowing transgender individuals to enlist and serve openly. In those lawsuits, judges in Washington, Baltimore, Seattle and Riverside, Calif., had said the Trump ban of last year probably was discriminatory and required the military to allow transgender recruits to enlist and continue to serve openly effective Jan. 1. The four courts had said the parties bringing the lawsuits were likely to win their arguments that the initial ban was unlawful. In Washington on Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly declined to lift two orders she issued late last year temporarily halting the ban. Instead, she gave GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) and the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) — who have sued on behalf of six active-duty transgender service members — until April 6 to amend their lawsuit in light of the new executive order. The judge then gave the Justice Department until April 20 to say how it intends to proceed. Justice Department senior trial counsel Ryan B. Parker and trial attorney Andrew E. Carmichael had told the court the block to the ban in essence was moot in light of the changes Friday. They asked Kollar-Kotelly to dissolve her injunction, saying the basis for it “no longer exist” and that a streamlined ban, like that issued Friday, was necessary to counter the risk to “military readiness.” “Far from a categorical ban based on transgender


China’s failing satellite is just one example of a massive space debris problem

done. Speaking at a conference in 2011, Gen. William Shelton, a commander with the U.S. Air Force Space Command, predicted much of the orbit around Earth “may be a pretty tough neighborhood ... in the not too distant future,” according to the astronomy news website Space.com. The U.S. military and NASA are both in charge of perhaps the most elaborate scheme to track objects bigger than four inches to predict their flight paths and move active equipment out of the way. The problem, Shelton indicated at the time, is that there's already enough debris in space to cause an exponential rise in the number of circulating pieces. The more pieces there are, the higher the likelihood that they will eventually collide, creating even more smaller objects that can still be dangerous to other satellites or space labs. On Earth, ecosystems can sometimes fix themselves to some extent, even if it takes decades or hundreds of years. But in space, the problem of debris will only get worse. One proposed solution would be to persuade nations to limit their debris and to prevent a repeat of past mistakes. China, for example, is estimated to have produced up to 25 percent of today’s objects in circulation during an antisatellite test in 2007 in the low Earth orbit. On these NASA graphics, you can see why the international community was outraged when China added to that zone’s debris density. Congestion isn’t spread evenly around Earth: While there are some scattered pieces farther away, there is a concentration of objects within the so-called geosynchronous region, at about 22,235 miles altitude. But the highest density of objects can be found in low Earth orbit — within 1,240 miles of our planet — which is the area China targeted in its test. That’s also where most satellites can be found. China has continued its military missile tests With more than 50 nations now operating their own space programs, initiatives to limit the release of space debris have hardly become any easier. Some technological advances have had a limited impact — for instance by making spent rocket boosters fall back to Earth quicker than in the past. (Following that rationale, one could argue that this weekend’s satellite crash may in fact help to decongest the orbit.) Meanwhile, other nations, such as Britain and Switzerland, have experimented with schemes to clean up the mess by collecting the debris


One year after delaying Obama’s nutrition rules, Trump’s FDA says it will embrace them

The Trump administration will encourage the food industry to reduce the salt in processed foods and will take steps to overhaul some food labels to make them easier to understand, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced Thursday. The FDA will also move forward with Obama-era plans to require calorie labeling on restaurant menus and new “Nutrition Facts” panels on food products, two rules the agency had delayed. The wait had alarmed consumer watchdogs and public health advocates, who have long feared that nutrition would suffer under a White House that has championed industry deregulation and criticized concerns about child obesity. But in a speech that seemed designed to signal that nutrition is still a priority at President Trump’s FDA, Gottlieb said his agency would launch a comprehensive, multi-year package of nutrition initiatives this summer, with the goal of tackling health conditions such as obesity and heart disease. “I’m committed to advancing our work in nutrition as one tool to help reduce health disparities and improve the lives of all Americans,” Gottlieb told a gathering of industry representatives, consumer watchdogs and academics in Washington, “and to help every family live more free from the burden of preventable illness.” The FDA initiatives announced Thursday are part of what Gottlieb has termed the agency’s “Nutrition Innovation Strategy.” Many of them continue programs begun under the Obama administration, such as menu labeling and sodium reduction. In 2016, for instance, the FDA announced plans to nudge the food industry toward cutting salt, releasing voluntary two-year and 10-year sodium reduction targets for more than 150 foods, including snacks and frozen pizza. While not required, the reduction targets would put significant public pressure on food manufacturers. Those plans stalled over objections from the food industry officials and some lawmakers in Congress who have argued that it is difficult to cut salt from recipes and that the science on sodium and health is unsettled. Earlier this month, the Salt Institute, an industry group, asked the FDA to reconsider that science as it develops the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. But on Thursday, Gottlieb signaled loudly that the agency would work to reduce sodium in the food supply, calling salt reduction the “single [most] effective public health action related to nutrition.” The FDA will release new, short-term sodium reduction targets in 2019, Gottlieb said, and will continue to advocate for longer-term reductions to prevent health conditions linked


Genetics may make some babies vulnerable to SIDS or ‘crib death,’ study says

Sally Clark lost both her infant sons shortly after their births. In 1996, 11-week-old Christopher fell unconscious after being put to bed and never woke up. Two years later, 8-week-old Harry was found dead slumped forward in his bouncy chair. Doctors initially concluded the first boy had died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) — in which a seemingly healthy baby dies without warning and without an obvious cause. But after Clark's second child died, prosecutors in the United Kingdom charged her with murder and put her on trial. According to scholars analyzing the widely publicized case, Clark was wrongly convicted based on a statistic. An expert witness for the prosecution claimed the chance of two cases of SIDS, in an affluent family like hers, was astronomically high — 1 in 73 million. Her defenders said the numbers assumed that SIDS strikes at random, even though we had no idea back then whether that was true. An important study published Wednesday in the Lancet shows a link between SIDS and a rare genetic mutation that would make some families more vulnerable than others — providing a possible explanation for situations like Clark's. The research involved 278 infants who died of SIDS, also called “crib death” or “cot death,” and 729 healthy controls. Four of those who died of SIDS had a variant of a gene called SCN4A associated with an impairment of breathing muscles, while no babies in the control group had it. Authors Michael Hanna from the United Kingdom's Medical Research Council's Center for Neuromuscular Diseases and Michael Ackerman from the Mayo Clinic in the United States wrote that these mutations are typically found in fewer than 5 out of 100,000 people. The paper stressed that genetics is just one of the factors that could contribute to SIDS and explained the “triple risk hypothesis”: A vulnerable infant, during a critical period in development, is exposed to an external stress. The researchers suggest that the genetic mutation could leave some babies with weaker respiratory muscles, so they would be unable to correct their breathing as quickly or as well while they are sleeping in reaction to things like tobacco smoke or a stressful sleep position. “Our study is the first to link a genetic cause of weaker breathing muscles with sudden infant death syndrome and suggests that genes controlling breathing muscle function could be important in this condition. However, more


Hack of Baltimore’s 911 dispatch system was ransomware attack, city officials say

BALTIMORE — The hack that forced Baltimore’s 911 dispatch system to be temporarily shut down over the weekend was a ransomware attack, city officials said Wednesday. Such attacks — another of which occurred in Atlanta last week — take over parts of private or municipal computer networks and then demand payment, or ransom, for their release. Frank Johnson, chief information officer in the Mayor’s Office of Information Technology, said he was not aware of any specific ransom request made by the hackers of Baltimore’s network, but federal authorities are investigating. “The systems and the software and the files are all being investigated by the FBI right now,” Johnson said. No personal data of city residents was compromised, he added. Dave Fitz, an FBI spokesman, could not be reached Wednesday. On Tuesday, Fitz said the agency was aware of the breach and providing assistance to the city, but otherwise declined to comment. The attack infiltrated a server that runs the city’s computer-aided dispatch, or CAD, system for 911 and 311 calls. The system automatically populates 911 callers’ locations on maps and dispatches the closest emergency responders there more seamlessly than is possible with manual dispatching. It also relays information to first responders in some cases and logs information for data retention and records. The breach shut down the CAD system from Sunday morning until Monday morning, forcing the city to revert to manual dispatching during that time. While the city’s 911 calls are normally recorded online on Open Baltimore, the city dispatch logs stopped recording them at 9:54 a.m. Sunday and didn’t resume recording them again until 7:42 a.m. Monday. Johnson said the attack was made possible after a city information technology team troubleshooting a separate communications issue with the server inadvertently changed a firewall and left a port, or a channel to the Internet, open for about 24 hours, and hackers who were likely running automated scans of networks looking for such vulnerabilities found it and gained access. “I don’t know what else to call it but a self-inflicted wound,” Johnson said. “The bad guys did not get in on their own without the help of someone inadvertently leaving the door open.” Once the “limited breach” was identified, city information technology crews “were able to successfully isolate the threat and ensure that no harm was done to other servers or systems” on the city’s network, Johnson said. And once “all


NTSB investigating whether damaged crash barrier contributed to fiery fatal Tesla wreck

have never seen this level of damage to a Model X in any other crash,” Tesla said in a blog post this week. Tesla attributed the crash’s severity to the highway component. The auto manufacturer, whose stock plunged in the wake of the crash and investigations, said it was “deeply saddened” by the March 23 crash. The SUV was so severely damaged that the company has been unable to obtain the vehicle’s data logs, Tesla said in the post. The NTSB said Wednesday it had recovered two pieces of equipment — the restraint control module that contains information about seat belts and the deployment of air bags, and a central “Infotainment” module with other information. But it was not immediately clear what information could be learned from the components. The SUVs sell for about $70,000. NTSB spokesman Chris O’Neil said Wednesday that the crash attenuator, overseen by the California Department of Transportation, had been damaged in a previous incident. “It had not been reset,” O’Neil said, adding that officials were “looking at the damaged attenuator and looking at an undamaged one and looking at if it had an effect.” A transportation department spokesman reached by phone Wednesday said the agency is looking into the matter. Meanwhile, O’Neil said it was unclear whether the car was being manually operated or controlled with an assisted driving feature known as Autopilot. Unlike autonomous driving, Autopilot offers a more limited set of features, such as cruise control that adapts to the speed of cars ahead and automatic steering. Tesla has said drivers using the feature should remain attentive and keep their hands on the wheel, so as not to become over-reliant on the technology. “Do we want to know whether it was in Autopilot mode or not? Yes, we want to learn that,” O’Neil said. “When we learn that, will we pursue other lines of inquiry? I think the answer to that would be, ‘Does that knowledge present a particular safety issue?’ Because the mechanics of the accident [aren’t] fully known.” The NTSB said two investigators were on the scene. The federal panel, which methodically examines railroad and plane crashes and highway incidents that can turn up broader insights on transportation safety, said that although vehicle-related fires are not uncommon, the relative newness of electric car technology made the crash a focus. Investigators will look into how the fire contributed to the difficulty of


Manafort associate had Russian intelligence ties during 2016 campaign, prosecutors say

investigators would ultimately conclude that Manafort’s interactions with Kilimnik were “perfectly permissible and not in furtherance of some conspiracy.” The information about the FBI’s assessment of the Manafort associate came in a court filing related to the upcoming sentencing of London attorney Alex van der Zwaan, whose firm worked with Manafort when he served as a political consultant in Ukraine. Van der Zwaan, 33, the son-in-law of a prominent Russian Ukrainian banker, pleaded guilty last month to lying about his September 2016 contacts with Gates and the Manafort associate, identified in court documents only as “Person A.” Prosecutors explained that van der Zwaan had lied and withheld documents about information that was “pertinent” to their investigation — that Gates had been in direct contact during the presidential campaign with a person who “has ties to a Russian intelligence service and had such ties in 2016.” They said that when van der Zwaan was interviewed by the FBI in November, he told investigators that Gates had informed him that Person A was a former officer of the Russian military intelligence service, known as the GRU. Kilimnik ran Manafort’s office in Kiev during the 10 years he did consulting work there, The Post reported in 2017. During his August 2016 meeting with Kilimnik, Manafort has said he and his longtime Kiev office manager discussed, among other topics, the ongoing campaign, including the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails. Stolen DNC emails had been released by WikiLeaks the previous month, and the hack was widely suspected to be the work of Russia. During Kilimnik’s time working for Manafort in Kiev, he had served as a liaison for Manafort to the Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, with whom Manafort had done business. Emails previously described to The Post show that Manafort asked Kilimnik during the campaign to offer Deripaska “private briefings” about Trump’s effort. A Deripaska spokeswoman has said the billionaire, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was not offered and did not receive such briefings. Kilimnik previously told The Post that he had served for a time in the early 1990s in the Russian army, but he denied any links to intelligence work. Manafort has also denied knowingly communicating with Russian intelligence during the campaign. He told the New York Times last year, however, “It’s not like these people wear badges that say, ‘I’m a Russian intelligence officer.’ ” spencer.hsu@washpost.com rosalind.helderman@washpost.com


Mountain bike excursions, cheaper WiFi and better food: Welcome to Cruise 2.0

act and just about any island port would do. Today, says McDaniel, destination is the driving force. “Survey after survey says that for making a decision about a cruise, destination is the top consideration we see, beyond ship, cruise line, even price. People want to make sure that they’re going where they want to go,” McDaniel says. She says she’s seen expedition cruises become more popular, because they allow people to travel to out-of-the-way areas such as Alaska, Antarctica, Greenland and the Galapagos, while still enjoying all the creature comforts of the ship. Internet access, once notoriously slow and prohibitively expensive on cruise ships, also has vastly improved. Today, it tends to be fast enough that you can stream movies and use FaceTime with family, McDaniel says, and prices are more affordable. Some cruise ships offer social media packages so that, for a modest fee, passengers can access just their Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat accounts. That allows them to share their latest photos — and perhaps dredge up some cruise envy (and in doing so, reach new cruise audiences). “It’s very clever,” McDaniel says. “Because word of mouth is the best kind of advertising.” In addition, cruise apps allow passengers to communicate with one another, book spa appointments and excursions, order drinks and other items and get into their cabin, all by using their phones. “You still are going to put your phone on airplane mode because you don’t want to ring up a huge cellphone bill,” McDaniel says. “But if you get Internet and you’re using the ship’s app, you’re in great shape.” And they’re feeding the appetite for better food and beverages. Flavortown has been afloat ever since Carnival teamed with Guy Fieri to offer Guy’s Burger Joint on its ships, and Jamie Oliver fans can get their fill at Jamie’s Italian on Royal Caribbean’s Anthem of the Seas. On some cruises you can find cooking classes and excursions to local markets. Others even offer diet themes: Weight Watchers is working with MSC to offer cruises with “points” listed for meals, snacks and drinks. Speaking of drinks, some ships have started brewing their own beer. Carnival Vista and Carnival Horizon (which sets sail in April) have breweries on board. Carnival Vista’s RedFrog Pub & Brewery and Carnival Horizon’s Guy’s Pig & Anchor Bar-B-Q Smokehouse|Brewhouse (Guy as in Fieri, again) transform ocean water to beer, with the help


The world’s longest river is in trouble

than three additional feet this century, which would likely leave much of the northern part of the Delta under water. In the northern coastal city of Rosetta, where the Nile finally meets the Mediterranean, these dangers are already apparent. Hamada Henidy owns a small farm here, but he cannot grow crops anymore. He does not know why. “I carried out a few tests on my land,” he told me. “I am not sure why it is not fertile anymore. It could be pollution. It could be high level of soil salinity because my land is near the sea.” Sewage adds to Henidy’s farming troubles. The authorities generally ignore sewage disposal into the river, and the banks of the canal are constantly clogged with garbage. The water is becoming more and more toxic. “Five years ago,” Henidy said, “we started feeling the pollution through the water coming from the main canal nearby, which is contaminated by chemically treated sewage disposal. And that kills our crops. The government does not care. They throw chemical waste into the Nile everywhere.” About 20 miles away from Henidy’s farm, I met Mohamed el-Sabrout, a day laborer who works on a farm not far from the Mediterranean. Sickle in hand, he talked with me about what it’s been like to work the land here over the years. “There are around 18 clay brickmaking factory towers around the farms here,” he said. “The smoke coming out of these towers laces the plants with smoke exhaust, which eventually stunts the crops here.” The government controls the amount of water that goes into the canals, Sabrout went on, and many farmers don’t know how the system works. There is competition between some landowners, he said. “It is a matter of who manages to get more water, leaving the other landowner most likely suffering a shortage. Back in the day, there was coordination and respect. There is no water management among us here.” Eventually, I turned away from the coast and headed back inland. Eighty miles from the sea, in the small town of Tanta, I found that the story for farmers was no different. I met an older woman named Beh Shaaban sitting next to her cattle. She lamented the loss of a bird called the cattle egret that used to be ubiquitous around here. The birds “have always been friends of the farmer in Egypt,” Shaaban told me.


To push patients to be healthier, some doctors write exercise prescriptions

as well as some aspects of physical health. ●The American Academy of Pediatrics has promoted the ParkRx Initiative, which was started in 2013 by the Institute at the Golden Gate and the National Recreation and Park Association with support from the National Park Service. The initiative is intended to help doctors prescribe “nature during the routine delivery of health care” by, among other things, showing them parks close to where their patients live. ●Prescription programs for healthy eating have popped up in more than a dozen states, championed by hospitals and physicians’ offices, as a means of battling diabetes, obesity and other conditions associated with nutrition. For example, a Chicago program called Food Rx pairs “doctor’s orders” with food coupons and information about community resources. ●In Hawaii, state lawmakers last year considered a bill to classify homelessness as a medical condition — multiple studies have documented the link between homelessness, poorer health and a lower life expectancy — and allow doctors to write a prescription for six months of subsidized housing. (The bill did not pass.) Such interventions are known as “social prescribing,” in which health-care professionals are asked to identify and recommend interventions outside the exam room or hospital that might help patients adopt healthier lifestyles. These efforts highlight what are called the social determinants of health and the recognition that social factors — including where you live, what you eat, how active you are, your access to health care, your income level, etc. — can be more important to your health than medical factors such as genetics. Addressing these social determinants, studies have shown, may, in fact, be more effective in managing chronic conditions and prolonging life than medications and other clinical interventions. The social prescribing trend focuses not only on food, exercise and housing, but also on “softer” activities such as making art, singing, participation in social gatherings — and their presumptive benefits on well-being and social connectedness. That’s because loneliness is also increasingly being thought of as a social determinant of health that is linked to physical- and mental-health conditions and even early death. In Britain, social prescribing is sanctioned by the National Health Service and is being embraced by primary-care physicians who send their patients to community-based organizations and activities in response to an increase in lifestyle-associated conditions (including diabetes, obesity, heart disease) and social isolation. Research has shown And yet, as I consider the


Yemen’s man-made catastrophe has no end in sight

Want smart analysis of the most important news in your inbox every weekday along with other global reads, interesting ideas and opinions to know? Sign up for the Today's WorldView newsletter. In ancient times, the Romans referred to the land known as Yemen as “Arabia Felix,” or “Happy Arabia” — a country blessed with fertile, irrigated plains and busy ports where traders came in search of frankincense, ambergris and other prized commodities of antiquity. Now, of course, Yemen is far from happy. It has been ravaged by a years-long civil war and a Saudi-led intervention in 2015 that has killed thousands of civilians during relentless airstrikes. The collapse of the impoverished country's infrastructure has spawned a host of crises, ranging from the absence of clean water in a number of cities to financial ruin for the many Yemenis who have lost their livelihoods amid the war. An ongoing Saudi blockade of Yemeni ports risks worsening the food insecurity faced by about 17 million Yemenis — close to two-thirds of the nation's population. Last week, the relief group Save the Children warned that hunger and disease could kill an estimated 50,000 Yemeni children under the age of 5 before year's end — that's an average of 130 children dying a day, one every 10 minutes. Humanitarian organizations warn of the risks created by both their funding shortfalls and the continued toll of the conflict. “We're on the brink of famine,” said David Beasley, the head of the U.N.'s World Food Program, in an interview aired by "60 Minutes” over the weekend. “If we don't receive the monies that we need in the next few months, I would say 125,000 little girls and boys will die.” Beasley went on: “We've been able to avert famine, but we know three things that are happening: We know that people are dying. We know that people are wasting. And we know that children are stunting. We have a stunting rate in Yemen now at almost 50 percent. That means they're smaller, the brains are smaller, the body's smaller because they're not getting the food or the nutrition they need.” The prospect of famine dovetails with one of the worst outbreaks of cholera in recorded history, an epidemic that has killed more than 2,100 people over the past year. Aid agencies have worked fitfully to contain the disease, but they warn that a new outbreak is


The Daily 202: Visuals and ego motivate Trump to take a harder line on Putin

With Breanne Deppisch and Joanie Greve. THE BIG IDEA: Donald Trump has defiantly refused to criticize Vladimir Putin in public, even as he’s authorized increasingly hawkish policies to counter Russian bellicosity. Administration officials are signaling this may soon change, and the president’s alpha male inclinations are a big reason. The United States this week ordered the largest expulsion of Russian spies in U.S. history, which prompted the Kremlin to retaliate on Thursday with the expulsion of 60 American officials. Two weeks ago, Trump agreed to impose sanctions on 19 Russians for alleged interference in the 2016 election. In December, he authorized the export of lethal weapons to help Ukraine fend off Russian-backed separatists — going further than Barack Obama ever would. But just 10 days ago, the president called Putin and congratulated him for securing another term even after his national security team gave him briefing material that said, “DO NOT CONGRATULATE.” Trump caught aides off guard by inviting Putin to meet soon, and he did not broach the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter on British soil — the brazen attack that has prompted the Western powers to kick out so many Russian officers. Two fresh stories offer a revealing window into Trump’s psychology and how he’s been persuaded to take a harder line toward the Kremlin despite his personal reticence to do so: -- John Hudson, Shane Harris and Josh Dawsey have inside-the-room reporting from the session at which Trump made his decision about how to respond to the poisoning of Skripal: The administration official described the internal debate using boxing metaphors: -- A new report from NBC quotes multiple senior administration officials saying on background that the puzzling divide between Trump's policy decisions and public posture on Russia stems from his stubborn refusal to be seen as appeasing the media or critics who question his silence or kind words for Putin: A pivotal moment came at the start of this month when Putin, in the Russian equivalent of our State of the Union address, boasted about new nuclear-capable weapons that can bypass any missile defense system. During the same call he congratulated Putin, Trump also told him that he hoped his announcement about the missiles was just rhetoric designed to get reelected. “If you want to have an arms race, we can do that,” Trump told Putin, according to NBC. “But I'll win.” -- A sign


Virtual library provides information about Parkinson’s disease

April is Parkinson’s Disease Awareness Month, a time to think about how much you know about the disease. You may know about the tremors and stiffness that gradually take over patients’ bodies. You may know about famous people with the disease, including Michael J. Fox. For what you may not know, there’s the PD Library. If you have Parkinson’s disease or care for someone who does, you need information. And you might just find answers in the PD Library. The free online resource — maintained by the Parkinson’s Foundation — is a gold mine for anyone with an interest in the disease. About 60,000 Americans get a Parkinson’s diagnosis every year. The movement disorder happens when brain cells can’t produce enough dopamine. There is no cure for Parkinson’s disease, but there is help for those experiencing symptoms. The library includes PSAs, podcasts and pamphlets about such things as hallucinations, medication adherence and nutrition. Medical providers might want to take a look: There are videos of webcasts for nurses who care for patients with Parkinson’s disease and for caregivers who need help with such things as engaging patients in their own care and administering medication. One helpful tool on the site is a series of slides from expert briefings. There are free booklets, too, including one on psychosis and one on sleep. Even if you don’t know someone with Parkinson’s disease, it’s worth checking out the library. It brings the symptoms of the disease to life, and that’s what awareness is all about.


How quantum mechanics defies our sense of logic

physics to find out.” Ball also wants to know, and his gorgeously lucid text takes us to the edge of contemporary theorizing about the foundations of quantum mechanics. “Beyond Weird” is easily the best book I’ve read on the subject. Currently available in Britain, it will be published in the United States in October. One of Ball’s achievements is to show how a bridge can be built between the quantum and classical domains via a process called decoherence, developed by a new generation of theorists including Dieter Zeh. As a particle intersects with the wider world, it gradually becomes quantum-mechanically entangled with ever more of its environment. The waving-ness doesn’t disappear; it spreads out further. Thus, says Ball, “the classical world is what the quantum world becomes.” For proponents of decoherence, all the universe is quantum-mechanical — it’s just that at the scale we live, quantum effects are too fuzzed-out to see. Rather than asking why the quantum world isn’t like the macroscopic world, Ball turns the question on its head, asserting that we shouldn’t assume that human-scale effects and logic extend to the microscopic scale. Which brings us to another aspect of complementarity: the dualism between our mathematical representations of quantum phenomena and our lived experience. We know that quantum math works — microchips, lasers and stunning new materials are proof of this — but the more sophisticated our equations become, the less they seem to make sense, literally and viscerally. As our symbolic power increases, our perceptual insights about the real become ever less valid in the miniscule realm, and we are pushed beyond the limits of natural language into a domain of abstract, apparently bizarre formalisms. As Ball puts it: “It’s not so much understanding or even intuition that quantum mechanics defies, but our sense of logic itself.” Yet why should atoms conform to human-scale norms? “We have absolutely no reason to expect that it is ‘reality all the way down,’ ” Ball writes. By “reality” he means a clearly defined world where things have predetermined properties. Instead of a universe of “Isness,” Ball believes that quantum mechanics describes a world of “Ifness,” where a logic of probability reigns. “Is there an Isness beyond the Ifness?” he finally asks. Possibly. If so, it won’t be anything like the Isness humans are used to. To echo Feynman: “I hope you can understand nature as she is — absurd.”


When the Dragon first came to America

delegation arrived March 31, 1868, the receiving areas surrounding the docks buzzed with anticipation. Seemingly the whole city was on hand, led by representative groups of Chinese merchants and the political class who had come early to welcome the visitors. The possible rewards of the mission seemed endless: prosperous trade, the advance of Christendom, laborers to complete the transcontinental railroad and even the chance that China, with its ancient civilization, could serve as a guide for the United States, still a relatively new republic. The Chinese chose San Francisco as the first diplomatic post for economic, political and logistical reasons. By 1868, San Francisco had established itself as the growing commercial and banking center of California. Trade with the Far East, which had always been part of the economic vision for the city, was now becoming a reality because of the transition from sail to steam transportation. The steamers allowed commerce to flourish because they provided scheduled mail and cargo deliveries, had room to carry the silver currency necessary for trade and could comfortably carry passengers enduring the long voyage to Japan and China. Politically, San Francisco was the hub of Chinese life in California, with its burgeoning Chinatown and a growing Chinese merchant class and benevolent organizations. In 1868, the message of the Ching Dynasty was one of support to the new emigrants, whom Chinese officials encouraged to honor China and its government through their contributions and behavior while working in the mines, on the railroads, in the Napa Valley grottoes or for the merchants of San Francisco’s Chinatown. The newfound ease of communication and transportation also helped build support in California for increased immigration from China. In fact, the ship carrying Burlingame also brought 700 Chinese emigrants. They had answered the call of the Central Pacific railroad labor agents and arranged the $45 payment in gold for passage to “New Gold Mountain” (Gum Shan). Their skills would be employed to build the tunnels and tracks above the canyons of the impenetrable Sierra Nevada, tasks necessary to complete the transcontinental railroad. Support for Chinese immigration remained strong until circumstances changed. The completion of the transcontinental railroad coincided with the economic downturn of the 1870s, which led to increasingly stringent restrictions on Chinese immigration that culminated with the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. The Burlingame delegation of 1868 thus represents the high point in 19th-century U.S.-Chinese relations, a time when China


A decade after ‘Food, Inc.,’ Maryland lawmakers still answer to the poultry industry

a grower in this environment were the fumes and particles that built up from these chicken houses, which caused my eyes and nose to burn, gave me headaches and made me cough. These symptoms were experienced not just by myself as a farmer but also by neighbors. There is something in the air on the Eastern Shore of Maryland that is making our children sick. One in 4 children in Wicomico County has been diagnosed with asthma. It’s not an unusual sight to see children carrying inhalers to relieve their struggles to breathe. Somerset County has a lifetime asthma rate of 21.2 percent; the state rate is 12.9 percent. Many residents are pointing to industrial chicken production as the cause because of the massive amounts of ammonia and other emissions from these factories. The industry denies any culpability, and our elected officials have put their heads in the sand. Community members have banded together and worked to pass local resolutions. We’ve attended town halls, met with legislators and organized. But because of the influence of the poultry industry in the region, our concerns have been ignored. “Food, Inc.” served its purpose of highlighting the conditions we endure. What has failed to change is the way our elected officials in Maryland continue to answer to the poultry industry, not their constituents. The General Assembly had a chance to fix that. The Community Healthy Air Act would have created an air-quality monitoring protocol for the collection of data that would inform a public-health study associated with certain large animal-feeding operations. This bill would have given us answers to whether factory farms are associated with our air-quality problems, so we could make informed decisions. Unfortunately, the bill didn’t see movement after its initial hearings. Avoiding confrontation with the all-powerful chicken industry and its cohorts such as the Maryland Farm Bureau and the Delmarva Poultry Industry Inc. is the preferred avenue for legislators. Citizens from Maryland’s Eastern Shore had to travel across the bay to find elected officials, including Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr. (D-Montgomery) and Del. Robbyn Lewis (D-Baltimore), to take a stand against the chicken lobby and introduce this bill. Not one member of the delegation supposedly representing Eastern Shore citizens has shown the political will to stand up to the chicken industry. Eastern Shore families want to know what’s wrong with the air they breathe. The chicken industry denies being any


How do you write political satire when politics are a farce?

‘You should do a ‘Veep’ about Trump.” “You should make an ‘In the Loop’ sequel about Brexit.” “Have you ever thought of doing ‘The Death of Stalin,’ but about Paul Ryan?” I get lots of requests to take my fictional TV and film projects and write versions of them responding to current events. My answer is inevitably “No!” What’s the point of fiction if it’s not somehow different from reality? Yes, it should bear a similarity, but don’t we go to it because it’s also a relief from the real world — a heightened, absurd, dramatic or amusing version of what’s happening in front of us? And I get paid to make things up, so ironically, by making my shows more real, I’d be committing fraud. But reality has jumped the shark right now, and any attempt to present a fictional version of today’s events would never be as crazy as the real thing. The truth — in Washington, London or Moscow — is much more demented than fiction, signaling a full-on existential crisis for the comedy writer. No showrunner in his or her right mind would make their sitcom president urge his press secretary to go out on Day 1 of his administration and change the laws of math. If a hapless Sean Spicer character on a TV comedy had to spin photos showing a half-empty Mall into proof of the biggest inauguration crowd ever assembled, ever, period, President Trump would tweet that it was “unwatchable.” Unwatchable comedy has come to Britain, too. Last year, Prime Minister Theresa May stood before her party conference and had a coughing fit while the letters in the slogan “Building a country that works for everyone” started falling off the screen behind her. If that had been presented to me as a script idea, I would have rejected it as too childish. It would have been a step up in maturity if the writers then suggested that the remaining letters should form the word “butt.” When people say to me that the Trump White House is so like “Veep,” I take that as an insult to “Veep.” We hired experienced consultants to tell us what language political operatives use and to walk us through the rhythm and pace of their daily lives. The real White House tried to nominate for a lifetime judicial appointment someone who was unable to answer the most basic


In emotional speech, CDC’s new leader vows to uphold science

vaccination, he continued, mentioning the 130 children who have died this flu season. “We have got to get the American public to understand that vaccination is important and needs to be fully utilized.” Redfield said the opioid epidemic is “the public health crisis of our time” and agreed with Azar that it is a medical, not a moral, problem on which the CDC will help lead the government's response. He also likened the stigma around addiction to that during the early days of AIDS. Redfield, who has five children and nine grandchildren, has close personal experience with the opioid crisis. “If any of you have tried to access care for addiction in this nation, I can guarantee you it's complicated,” he said. “It needs to not be complicated.” Although his supporters point to his strong background in infectious disease and global health, public health experts inside and outside the agency say one of his biggest challenges will be his limited governmental public health experience, especially involving emergency responses. Redfield spoke about organizing a relief effort during the 2010 Haiti earthquake and about his experiences working in Africa on the PEPFAR program. But he acknowledged that the CDC's most important mission is to protect Americans from emerging health threats, whether they are naturally occurring diseases or bioterrorism. “I pray it doesn't happen on our watch. But I want to make sure we're all prepared, whether it's flu — my biggest fear — or MERS or something else,” he said, referring to Middle East respiratory syndrome, an acute viral respiratory illness. “I respect the mission we have, which is to be prepared for what we don't expect.” Redfield said he has gotten a list of 57 items from his wife about what he should do. “Number one, listen. Number two, don't interrupt. Number three, listen.” The job heading the country’s foremost public health agency had been vacant since Jan. 31, when former Georgia public health commissioner Brenda Fitzgerald resigned after serving only half a year. She was unable to divest from “complex financial interests” in a “definitive time period,” according to an HHS statement. Fitzgerald had also purchased shares in a tobacco company shortly after becoming CDC director. Azar accepted her resignation two days after he was sworn in. Read more: New CDC director is longtime AIDS researcher with controversial background CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald resigns because of conflicts over financial interests


How Trump got to ‘yes’ on the biggest purge of Russian spies in U.S. history

Vladimir Putin, the Trump administration has at times taken aggressive action against Russia at the recommendation of the president’s top aides. “This fits the pattern of our policy toward Russia in the Trump administration,” said John Herbst, a Russia scholar at the Atlantic Council. “If you just look at policy, this administration has taken steps the Obama administration was not willing to, such as supplying antitank missiles to Ukraine. The president’s heart doesn’t seem to be in it, but for whatever reason, he’s willing to go along with his advisers.” The Monday announcement grew out of a push by U.S. allies and the intelligence community for a strong retaliatory response to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Britain. Shortly after the attack, Fiona Hill, a National Security Council senior director, began leading policy coordination meetings that culminated in a pivotal March 23 session including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, national security adviser H.R. McMaster, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray and Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats, among other top officials. The three options presented to the president were described as “light, medium and heavy” by one administration official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive deliberations. The “light” option called for expelling roughly 30 spies while leaving the Seattle consulate intact, two U.S. officials said. The “medium” option, which the president ultimately chose, would expel 48 officials at the embassy in Washington and 12 at the U.N. mission in New York, and shutter the Seattle consulate. U.S. officials declined to spell out the “heavy” option, to avoid previewing steps the president could take in response to Moscow’s retaliation, but one official noted that U.S. counterintelligence is aware of well over 40 Russian spies operating in the United States who were not included in the initial purge. On Thursday, the Kremlin announced the expulsion of 60 U.S. officials. During the meeting, the president’s aides described the options to him in broad terms and did not give a precise number of spies for the “medium” scenario, leaving the head count to subordinates, one official said. The official described the internal debate using boxing metaphors. “If you go heavy now and the Russians really retaliate, we would be more limited in what we can do later,” the official said. “With the medium option,” the official said, “you’re throwing a solid punch but withholding a fist, and


13 things to see, drink and do around Washington in April

geeks drooling more than usual: Look for three rare Cantillons on draft, multiple Hill Farmstead and Veil saisons, barrel-aged Oxbow farmhouse ales and the debut of a sour blonde from Toronto’s Bellwood among the more than two dozen specials. 11 a.m. Free; beers priced individually. — Fritz Hahn 2001: A Space Party at the National Air and Space Museum , Fifty years ago, Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” premiered at the Uptown Theater. The National Air and Space Museum marks this golden anniversary with “The Barmecide Feast,” an immersive art installation that re-creates the strange hotel room seen in the film’s penultimate scene. Your first chance to see it is during “2001: A Space Party,” an after-hours affair featuring open bars, a DJ set by chillwave performer Washed Out and a performance by Baltimore rapper DDm, paper airplane contests, an Imax screening of “Ready Player One,” TED-style talks about space by Smithsonian scientists and other galactic surprises. 8:30 p.m. $60-$65. — F.H. Petalpalooza at the Wharf , One of the National Cherry Blossom Festival’s signature events has a new name (Petalpalooza, instead of the Southwest Waterfront Fireworks Festival) and location (the new Wharf development), but it’s still packed with activities. Entertainment includes eight hours of music on three stages, a beer garden, a free roller skating rink and selfie opportunities such as an interactive “flower-by-numbers” wall. The day ends with a fireworks show at 8:30 p.m. (weather permitting). 1 p.m. Free. — A.C. Lorde at the Anthem Lorde bared her heart on her 2017 sophomore album “Melodrama,” setting her reflections on young heartbreak, longing and her own meteoric rise against a dreamy pop backdrop. Fans must have found the New Zealand singer-songwriter’s melancholy relateable: Enough of them shelled out $100-$150 for her to sell out the Anthem. She’s joined by brash hip-hop duo Run the Jewels and moody rocker Mitski on her world tour. 7:30 p.m. Sold out. — Lori McCue Shift: A Festival of American Orchestras The Kennedy Center is a grand setting for the performing arts, with a picturesque location on the Potomac River. But during this week-long festival, musicians are taken out of the center’s chandeliered concert halls and sent to less glamorous spaces around the city. The Albany Symphony’s Dogs of Desire ensemble performs new works by young American composers at the Blind Whino arts space, the National Symphony Orchestra takes up residence in historic


North Korea’s swankiest ride: Kim Jong Un’s tricked-out armored family train

in a decorously carpeted sitting area. The accommodations were very James Bond-villain chic (Kim Jong Il was a big fan of the British spy movies, the New York Times reported after his 2011 death). The armored vehicles were so heavy, the trains could move at only about 37 mph. Up above, the Kim family’s rail travels were often monitored by American U2 spy planes, the Chosun Ilbo reported. “It had a reputation for being an opulent ride for the leader,” Curtis Melvin, an expert at the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, told NBC News this week. “It maintains the North Korea leader’s lifestyle wherever he goes. It is capable of carrying the type of food and entertainment to support the leader as he travels.” A rare inside peek at that on-the-rails opulence came in 2001, when a former Russian diplomat named Konstantin Pulikovsky published an account of traveling with the North Korean leader as the train lumbered across Russia for a visit to Moscow in the summer of 2001. According to the New York Times, the book described lavish meals consumed with silver chopsticks, karaoke and beautiful “lady conductors.” Fresh lobsters were shipped in for the journey, as were cases of Bordeaux wine straight from Paris. “It was possible to order any dish of Russian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and French cuisine,” he wrote, the Times reported. “Kim Jong Il can be called a gourmet.” Pulikovsky added even Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rail transportation “did not have the comfort of Kim Jong Il’s train.” Kim used the trains on many foreign visits, including eight trips into China, beginning in May 2000, The Post has reported. The family’s use of luxury rail transport runs counter to train travel in their home country. As Andrei Lankov, a North Korea expert at Kookmin University in Seoul, noted for Radio Free Asia in 2016, North Korea, like many communist nations, sank most of its development dollars into building up industry. Infrastructure was historically ignored. “North Korean railway technology has remained virtually unchanged since the 1930s,” Lankov wrote. “Until just a few years ago, one could frequently encounter a Japanese steam engine locomotive manufactured in the 1930s but still puffing along at a North Korean railway station.” But the green and yellow trains remain an important symbol of the country’s regime and are a significant part of North Korean history. In


It seemed almost impossible to confer too much meaning on the moon that rose over the Washington region Friday night, more than 99 percent full. If it was not quite full Friday it obviously would be so Saturday, with vast significance for liturgical calendars that affect the lives of millions around the world. It meant that Sunday would be Easter, which usually is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. It meant also that Saturday would be the first full day of the Jewish festival of Passover, which comes at the time of a spring full moon. If that were not enough, it was a blue moon, so named not for its hue, but for its rarity as a second full moon in one month. martin.weil@washpost.com


Nobel Prize winner Malala visits her Pakistan hometown

MINGORA, Pakistan — Pakistan’s Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai returned to her home town Saturday for the first time since receiving a gunshot wound to the head there in 2012 for her work as an advocate for young women’s education. Yousafzai and her family arrived in Mingora, in the Swat Valley, onboard a helicopter provided by the Pakistani military. She entered her childhood home accompanied by her father, mother and brother. She sobbed upon entering the abode, where relatives, former classmates and friends had been waiting since morning to welcome her with flowers and hugs. Yousafzai, 20, won international renown after she was shot by the Taliban in Mingora. She was targeted for speaking about education for young women. The Taliban at the time claimed responsibility for the shooting, saying she was promoting “Western thinking,” adding that they had warned her family three times before deciding to kill her. She received initial treatment in Pakistan and later was taken to England for further care. She stayed in the United Kingdom to continue her education and became the youngest person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. Yousafzai said she waited for her homecoming for more than five years and had often looked at Pakistan on the map, hoping one day to return. She said she plans to permanently return to Pakistan after completing her studies in Britain. “It is still like a dream for me, am I among you? Is it a dream or reality?” she said. Yousafzai has been in Pakistan since Thursday, arriving in the capital, Islamabad, before dawn that morning, flanked by security. She had asked authorities to allow her to go to Mingora and Shangla village in the Swat Valley, where a school has been built by her Malala Fund. Security had been visibly beefed up in Mingora on Friday. The Pakistani Taliban had warned after the attack on the then-14-year-old that they would target her again if they got the chance. Arooj Bibi, a neighbor, said she was happy to meet with Yousafzai, but she was sad because her visit was so brief. Bibi said Yousafzai “lit the candle of education. God willing, there will be thousands of girls like Malala getting an education” in Swat. Yousafzai also attended a gathering at the army’s Cadet College in Swat, where the Pakistani Taliban — led by Mullah Fazlullah — had taken over the


In Afghanistan, U.S. military sprints to prove it can reverse insurgent tide

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan — The U.S. military is racing to demonstrate it is making progress in Afghanistan during a critical period that will test President Trump’s strategy and, potentially, political support for the war. Military leaders say the arrival of new troops and aircraft, along with a renewed mission to advise local operations more closely, will help reverse a Taliban resurgence that has exposed the fragility of the long American project in Afghanistan. “This is not another year of the same thing we’ve been doing for 17 years,” Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a tour of military facilities across Afghanistan last week. “This is a fundamentally different approach.” With an increased U.S. force of about 15,000, focused largely on efforts to ensure Afghan troops can launch offensives against the Taliban, Dunford said that “the right people at the right level with the right training” are in place ahead of the 2018 fighting season, a sentiment repeated by other commanders. Yet looming over the battlefield push are questions about how long support can be sustained, given skepticism in Europe about an open-ended military effort and ambivalence from Trump about involvement in foreign wars. Some experts remain skeptical the new approach can succeed where President Barack Obama’s 2010-2011 surge, with far more troops, could not. The Afghan forces would have to become “so capable and lethal” they could defeat the Taliban in battles with little help, said retired Lt. Gen. David Barno, who commanded U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005. “I am not optimistic we are going to see that happen anytime soon.” The stepped-up campaign comes as the architect of Trump’s Afghanistan strategy, national security adviser H.R. McMaster, prepares to exit the White House. His successor, John Bolton, may be a less ardent proponent of a muscular U.S. campaign. Ronald E. Neumann, who served as U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan under President George W. Bush, said the questions swirling in Western capitals were impossible for U.S. commanders to ignore. “That’s what’s driving the sense of speed” in large part, he said. “They don’t know how much firmness we have in our own project.” In a sign of the renewed Pentagon focus on Afghanistan, Dunford’s tour was one of several high-level visits in recent weeks, including stops by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Gen. Joseph Votel, who heads U.S.


We need electronic prescriptions for opioids

As the March 22 editorial “Let’s page doctors, not executioners” recognized, shifting the trajectory of the opioid crisis starts by addressing the decades-long trend of overprescribing and reevaluating the way we treat and address chronic pain. While medical professionals and the federal government have taken notable steps forward in that regard, nearly 215 million opioid prescriptions were written and dispensed in 2016. However, there are immediate, tangible solutions that we can advance to effectively prevent prescription opioid misuse and abuse before they occur. For example, greater use of electronic prescribing for controlled substances — a measure touted by the Food and Drug Administration commissioner and already implemented by more than a dozen states — would reduce the prevalence of counterfeit or fraudulent prescriptions. Recommended or mandated reporting with states’ prescription- drug-monitoring programs — systems that track prescribing and patient use of controlled substances — would provide much-needed insight to help stop instances of diversion and abuse in real time. Pharmaceutical distributors support these efforts along with other common-sense proposals that have the potential to help reverse the impact of this public-health emergency. This includes patients’ access to alternative pain treatments as appropriate. Now is the time to make these solutions a reality. John M. Gray The writer is president and chief executive of the Healthcare Distribution Alliance.


Trending: This news show for pets is an April Fool’s joke, but it would be great

BBC joked about a news show for dogs, but people wish it was real. @scottygb, People are noticing that the White House’s intern class is almost all white. @ianbremmer, This story of the disappearance of a shrimp fried rice lunch is one wild ride. @zaktoscani, People are melting for Pixar’s upcoming short film, “Bao.” @kjellyy, People were not OK with Ted Nugent’s comments about Parkland students. @AndyOstroy,


A deported veteran has been granted U.S. citizenship, after 14 years of living in Mexico

veterans. “To make sure that if I leave, it doesn’t close down. … I got a commitment to these guys,” he said. Two deported veterans are now living in The Bunker, Barajas-Varela said. The support house opened a second location last year in Juarez, Mexico, near the Texas border, and another one is in the works in the Dominican Republic. For years, deported veterans have received little to no attention in Washington because politicians are unlikely to support convicted criminals. The Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policy has steered the debate toward cutting legal immigration, creating a border wall and imposing travel restrictions on people from predominantly Muslim countries. Margaret Stock, a retired Army officer and an Anchorage-based immigration lawyer, said the majority of deported veterans, like Barajas-Varela, were green-card holders who were honorably discharged from service but were convicted of a crime after returning to civilian life. Barajas-Varela’s case is unusual, however: Only a handful of deported veterans have managed to make it back to the United States legally, Stock said. “It’s extremely rare because it takes an enormous amount of legal resources to convince the government to approve a naturalization case for somebody who’s been deported,” said Stock, whom Barajas-Varela consulted about his case years earlier. Most deported veterans are charged with an aggravated felony, a blanket term that runs the gamut, from violent crimes such as murder and rape to nonviolent ones such as theft and tax evasion, Stock said. People with that type of conviction are ineligible for American citizenship — unless the governor of the state where they were convicted decides to grant a pardon. Barajas-Varela is one of at least three deported veterans who received gubernatorial pardons from Brown last year. Another is Marco Chavez, a Marine Corps veteran who regained his lawful residency and was allowed to come back to California in December. He had been deported to Mexico 15 years earlier over an animal cruelty conviction. The other is Erasmo Apodaca Mendizabal, another Marine Corps veteran who was convicted in 1996 of burglary. In April 2016, Daniel Torres became a U.S. citizen after living in The Bunker in Tijuana for five years. Torres was brought to the United States illegally as a child and enlisted in the Marine Corps using a fake birth certificate. He joined the Marines in 2007 and served in Iraq. Barajas-Varela said he plans to eventually move back to


Pentagon identifies U.S. soldier killed in Syria during operation against ISIS

The Pentagon on Saturday identified a U.S. service member who died Friday from injuries he suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his patrol in Syria a day earlier. Master Sgt. Jonathan Dunbar, 36, of Austin, is the second American service member killed in action in Syria since the United States began backing local forces in a conflict President Trump has vowed to leave. The Thursday attack occurred during an operation against the Islamic State that also left a British service member dead. Five others were injured. The deaths occurred about two hours after Trump promised in a speech in Ohio to withdraw the roughly 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria “very soon” and “let the other people take care of it.” The incident, which took place in the city of Manbij in northern Syria, is under investigation, the Defense Department said. Dunbar joined the Army in 2005 and was deployed to both Afghanistan and Iraq. He was assigned to the headquarters of U.S. Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, N.C., in 2013. He earned three Bronze Star Medals. The “headquarters” designation for soldiers assigned to the command has been linked to the Army’s secretive Delta Force counterterrorism unit. Also killed was Sgt. Matt Tonroe, a British soldier who served in the 3rd Battalion of the elite Parachute Regiment. Tonroe had deployed numerous times for operations in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Trump has been pressing for the removal of U.S. troops from Syria, saying it makes little sense for the United States to have so many forces in the country if it has all but won the war against the Islamic State. His remarks were not planned, and it was not clear what prompted him to mention Syria in a speech about infrastructure. One administration official said it could be a year or longer before such a move happens. The president’s advisers have persuaded him to stay for now to prevent the Islamic State from reemerging and to lay the groundwork for a potential peace agreement that would be beneficial to the United States. ellen.nakashima@washpost.com


Skywatch: In early April, Mars and Saturn are cosmically inseparable

Solar system siblings Mars and Saturn begin April cosmically inseparable, at least from our earthly perspective. You can find these two planets in the morning south-southeastern sky, before sunrise. The reddish Mars begins the month at 0.3 magnitude, which is bright and gets brighter through the spring and summer, while the ringed Saturn (0.5 magnitude, slightly more dim than Mars) sits in the same space as the Red Planet, just above the teapot shape of the constellation Sagittarius. Mars and Saturn conjunct Monday when they will be 1.3 degrees apart, according to the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. In terms of action above the Sagittarius teapot’s dome, you’ll notice the two planets separate more on each morning this week. The waning gibbous moon (about 56 percent lit, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory) joins the planetary duo, as it appears to nudge Saturn on the morning of April 7. Mars will be to the left of Saturn. By the end of April, both planets are far apart in the southern morning sky. The giant planet Jupiter anchors the late night and morning sky, as it will be -2.4 magnitude, very bright. The large, gaseous planet rises in the east-southeast now in the 10 p.m. hour, by the end of April it climbs the east- southeast around 8:30 p.m. But, when you walk the dog before sunrise, watch the planet hang in the southwest throughout the month. You may notice that Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the waning gibbous moon glides above Jupiter. Catch the sliver of a young moon pass under the vivacious Venus on the evenings of April 16-17 in the western sky. It’s difficult to miss our neighboring planet, since Venus is seen at -3.9 magnitude, quite bright. The Lyrid meteors approximately peak on April 21-22, according to the International Meteor Organization (IMO.net). The shower features about 20 shooting stars an hour, as the meteors seem to emanate from the constellation Lyra, which rises late in the evening in the northeastern sky. Meteors occur when comets swing by our solar neighborhood. For the Lyrids, Comet Thatcher discovered on April 5, 1861, passed around the sun, left dusty debris in its wake and created a dusty trail. Earth smacks into that path, dust strikes our atmosphere, burns and creates a shooting star show for us. Down-to-Earth Events ●April 2 ●April 5 ●April 8 ●April 8 ●April 18 ●April 20 ●April


Why did a little girl have a persistent ‘smoker’s cough’?

bronchiectasis impairs the ability of the lungs to clear out mucus, creating a breeding ground for bacteria that leads to repeated, damaging lung infections. The immunologist also ordered a sputum test, which revealed a strain of staphylococcus bacteria in Mimi’s lungs. The results indicated that the source of Mimi’s problems was not her ears or her sinuses, but rather her lungs. Her next stop was a fifth specialist: pediatric pulmonologist Sunil Kapoor, section chief of pulmonology at Inova Children’s Hospital. The key question Shea came prepared. “I brought in a box of all of her records,” she recalled. “He listened to me recount everything, and then after about 15 minutes he asked me how her birth was.” After learning that Mimi had suffered from respiratory distress at birth and that she had a more or less constant cough, Shea remembers Kapoor telling her he knew what was wrong. “She hit all the boxes,” he recalled. Mimi had a rare inherited disease called primary ciliary dyskinesia, or PCD, which is believed to affect about 1 in 15,000 Americans. Among the telltale symptoms: a persistent year-round wet cough, nasal congestion and frequent respiratory infections. Mimi’s breathing problems at birth were a key indicator, as was bronchiectasis. About 50 percent of children with PCD have it. Sometimes mistaken for cystic fibrosis, PCD affects the hairlike structures called cilia that line the airways, reproductive tract and other organs. When cilia, which move like waves, are damaged, they are unable to effectively remove mucus and bacteria from the airways. That can trigger infections in the lungs, sinuses and ears. PCD results from faulty genes inherited from both parents. Carriers typically show no symptoms; Mimi’s case is the first in her family. PCD ranges in severity; Mimi’s case is considered fairly mild. The disorder can be hard to diagnose because it mimics common, less-severe conditions such as chronic sinusitis. A definitive diagnosis involves complex tests including a nasal biopsy or genetic testing. “I went home and Googled it, and every single symptom listed for PCD was exactly the symptoms Mimi had since she was born,” Shea said. “It honestly took my breath away.” Mimi immediately began physical therapy for her chest with an oscillation vest that helps to thin mucus, along with nasal saline treatments and periodic doses of antibiotics. Kapoor referred Mimi to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, one of 10 PCD centers


The real reason Russia blames Britain for the Skripal poisonings

provocateurs and provocation peaked during the Russian Revolution and ensuing civil war. It became embedded in Soviet political culture, as the government perceived the vulnerability of the fledgling communist state, one encircled by hostile capitalist nations and riddled — or so the Bolsheviks believed — with internal enemies. External and internal enemies became linked, and during the Stalinist terror and show trials in the late 1930s, Bolshevik leaders were “unmasked” as “ After a lull in usage during the late Soviet period, provocation discourse has made a roaring comeback in Putin’s Russia. To some extent, it is part and parcel of the conspiracy culture that has engulfed Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union, as disoriented and disempowered former Soviet citizens attempt to make sense of a complex reality. Yet provocation is different from conspiracy theories because it is such a devilishly simple, all-purpose mechanism that simply flips the narrative. While conspiracy theories typically posit a powerful and secret cabal that pulls the strings of a complex plot, provocation has a pedestrian he-said-she-said dynamic that simply pins the tail of blame on the other donkey. And allegations of provocation are by no means limited to cloak-and-dagger intrigues or power politics, but to more mundane spheres of Russian life. What are referred to as “ordinary” provocations are routinely reported in the Russian media. Sports rivalries are rife with allegations of provocation of one team by another. Bureaucratic incompetence is decried as a “ Provocation is no mere conspiracy theory, but a pervasive worldview that sees causality and blame as always potentially reversible. Though far from an “ordinary provocation,” the Russian line that the Skripals’ poisoning was a provocation is, in fact, par for the course and would seem plausible to many Russian citizens. Since the Georgian War in 2008, contested international incidents such as the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH 17 by Russia-backed separatist forces or, for that matter, conflicts such as the war in Ukraine have been widely held to be provocations by the United States or the West. It is therefore no surprise that the Russian government addressed the Skripal poisoning by shouting provocation to flip the British charges. But what if the attack is in fact best understood as a provocation — but of Western governments? Clearly aware of the audacious nature of the attack, Prime Minister May declared Britain the victim of an “unlawful use


Two new studies show how marijuana can help fight the opioid epidemic

C. Bradford, W. David Bradford and Amanda Abraham of the University of Georgia found that at the state level, medical marijuana laws were associated with an 8.5 percent reduction in the number of daily opioid doses filled under Medicare Part D, relative to states without medical marijuana laws. Reductions were even higher (amounting to 14.4 percent) for states that allowed medical marijuana dispensaries. States that allowed home marijuana cultivation had 6.9 percent reductions in opiate prescriptions. “These findings further strengthen arguments in favor of considering medical applications of cannabis as one tool in the policy arsenal that can be used to diminish the harm of prescription opioids,” the authors concluded. The studies are the latest in a long line of research showing that marijuana availability is associated with reductions in opiate use and misuse. But the Wen and Hockenberry report is significant for finding a link between recreational marijuana and opiate use — most previous research has focused on medical marijuana. There is widespread agreement among doctors and public-health experts that marijuana is effective at treating chronic pain. Doctors often treat that condition with opiate medication, despite little evidence that opiates are effective for it. “Marijuana is one of the potential alternative drugs that can provide relief from pain at a relatively lower risk of addiction and virtually no risk of overdose,” Wen and Hockenberry wrote. “These findings suggest that medical and adult-use marijuana laws have the potential to reduce opioid prescribing for Medicaid enrollees, a segment of population with disproportionately high risk for chronic pain, opioid use disorder, and opioid overdose.” In a speech in New Hampshire last month outlining the administration's plan to deal with a nationwide opiate overdose crisis that claimed over 42,000 lives in 2016, President Trump called on researchers to “come up with a painkiller that’s not so addictive.” The latest studies suggest that such a painkiller already exists — it is called marijuana, and it is legal for medical use in 29 states and for recreational use in nine states plus the District. But the Trump administration has taken an adversarial stance toward states that have legalized marijuana in some fashion. The Justice Department rescinded an Obama-era policy of noninterference for state-legal marijuana operations, and the attorney general has expressed an interest in prosecuting medical marijuana providers. If the latest research is any indication, those actions might simply make the opioid epidemic even worse.