IMF warns Group of 20 that more fiscal spending is needed amid pandemic downturn

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMY The International Monetary Fund on Monday warned Group of 20 major economies that the coronavirus crisis is not over and called on the United States, Britain and other countries to increase the amount of fiscal spending planned. Premature withdrawal of fiscal support at a time of continued high rates of unemployment would “impose further harm on livelihoods and heighten the likelihood of widespread bankruptcies, which in turn could jeopardize the recovery,” senior IMF officials warned in a blog published Monday. The blog, titled, “The Crisis is Not Over, Keep Spending (Wisely),” said swift and unprecedented action by G-20 and emerging market economies had averted an even deeper crisis, with G-20 countries alone providing $11 trillion in support. The IMF last month forecast a 2020 global contraction of 4.4 percent and a return to growth of 5.2 percent in 2021, but warned that the situation remained dire and governments should not withdraw stimulus prematurely. On Monday, it said coronavirus infections were continuing to spread, but much of the fiscal support provided was now winding down, with cash transfers to households, deferred tax payments and temporary loans to businesses either having expired or being set to do so by year-end. “Larger support than currently projected is desirable next year in some economies,” the IMF said in a longer report. It pointed to Brazil, Mexico, Britain and the United States, citing large drops in employment and projected fiscal contractions. — Reuters RETAIL America’s ailing malls suffered a pair of body blows over the weekend as two major landlords followed their ever-growing list of bankrupt tenants into Chapter 11 protection. Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust and CBL & Associates Properties sought protection from creditors Sunday, citing pandemic-induced pressures on their tenants and, in turn, themselves. Together the two REITs account for some 87 million square feet of real estate across the United States, according to court papers. The pandemic worsened an already dire situation for bricks-and-mortar retailers, with a steady stream of chains falling victim as their customers shifted to online shopping. J.C. Penney, J. Crew Group and the owner of Ann Taylor are among the dozens of chains that have sought court protection since covid-19 shutdowns throttled in-store shopping this year. That’s an even bigger problem for the likes of PREIT and CBL, which own less productive malls than rivals such as Simon Property Group and Macerich, according to Bloomberg Intelligence


Where to find Thanksgiving takeout in D.C., whether you’re dining solo or with a small group

The Thanksgiving holiday usually revolves around travel and home-cooked meals, but this year is an exception. If the coronavirus pandemic has you staying in town, and if you’re completely sick of meal prep at this point, you can still enjoy a plate of turkey with all the trimmings. Here’s where to find a Thanksgiving dinner to-go in the D.C. area, whether you’ll be virtually eating with family members during a communal Zoom, planning a small outdoor Friendsgiving feast, or just wanting to outsource the stuffing. Order early, if possible — some spots, such as Denizens Brewing Co., have already sold out their Thanksgiving meals. Note: Many of these restaurants offer meals for a variety of group sizes; check the websites for more information. 1789 Preorder by: Pick up: Clyde’s restaurants throughout the area are serving a $32.99 traditional turkey dinner for one that has all the bases covered (including white and dark turkey meat, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and a choice of pie). Sister fine dining restaurant 1789 in Georgetown goes a bit fancier with a $75 Thanksgiving meal for the solo diner, including chestnut stuffing and roasted honey nut squash soup with dessert choices including pumpkin cheesecake. 1789restaurant.com; clydes.com. Convivial Preorder by: Pick up: Thanksgiving dinner for one at chef Cedric Maupillier’s French bistro in Shaw is a $58 three-course affair, beginning with a choice of soup or salad (or venison country pâté) leading into a turkey plate that includes mashed potatoes, chestnut and mushroom stuffing and yam gratin and then decidedly American dessert options such as apple pie. convivialdc.com. Pop’s SeaBar Preorder by: Pick up: This Jersey Shore-themed Adams Morgan spot is throwing out all the rules and serving lobster instead of turkey. (Why not?) The Zoom conversation-starter $31.99 platter for one includes a hefty lobster with drawn butter, corn and German potato salad on the side. popsseabar.com. Bresca Preorder by: Pick up: Brioche stuffing is on the menu at 14th Street’s Michelin-starred Bresca, where a $125 Thanksgiving meal for two includes a portion of heritage turkey accompanied by such sides as two casseroles (green bean and sweet potato) and milk bread loaves with port wine cranberry jam. The meal includes an apple galette for dessert. brescadc.com. Sababa Preorder by: Pick up: For something a little different, Israeli restaurant Sababa’s three-course Thanksgiving dinner for two involves turkey kofta kebabs and tahini green bean casserole, ending with pumpkin spice


Transcript: Transformers: 5G

the federal government isn't necessarily on board with cities using this transition to 5G to leverage this kind of change. MAYOR LICCARDO: Yeah, I think, you know, the FCC under this administration has certainly been very industry friendly. And the perspective of many in the industry is what we really need is federal mandates that essentially tell cities, you better approve all these permits, get all these small cells up on the poles, get out of the way, and don't charge us anything for it. We need rapid deployment that doesn't cost us anything and we need you to move at the speed of light. And the challenge of course is that it actually takes human beings to approve the permits, ensure that the installations are safe, get them up on poles, and that costs resources. And as a result, we have really two different models of moving forward. We certainly know there are some cities that have been resisting unduly and charging excessive fees in trying to extract a lot of concessions that probably aren't appropriate. But what we also know is that the only way this is going to work, if we believe this should really function as a public utility is that either the government needs to ensure that there is equitable deployment of this technology and this infrastructure. And that may require, for example, the industry to step up or may require the federal government to step up, but one way or another we need more equitable deployment. And if we don't believe that this is a public utility, then it seems to me that we should expect that the industry would be subjected to all the vagaries of a market and cities should be able to charge whatever fees they want. Now, I don't think the extreme--any of us believe that that's the best outcome. I think what we'd like to see is a more collaborative approach in which industry and government recognize the imperative of moving very quickly. Let's charge fees that are appropriate, that help pay for the basic staff that's required to put these in place, but ensure that we can deploy these equitably. MR. MARKS: You know, in the second half of this program, we're going to turn to the national security concerns with 5G, and the U.S. is really in a race with China and with a lot of the


Transcript: Transformers: 5G

intellectual property, and certainly the data that, you know, enables adversaries to influence our population, now you're talking about the crown jewels of our society. And to say that AT&T or any company is going to protect that data as much as you would want standards that were as robust as the military is for protecting data to ensure that those crown jewels don't fall to our adversaries. MR. MARKS: Diane, you've talked--said that people generally go with the supplier that is cheapest and that these other concerns tend to be more ancillary. And yet, the U.S. has not completely struck out in its efforts to get allies to steer clear of Huawei and ZTE. You know, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and increasingly chunks of Europe, although not all of it, and many of them have made little compromises, why is that? MS. RINALDO: I think people--again, it is 2020 and people understand the national security concerns of what using one vendor over another means for their networks. It's important that we are able to educate, that we're able to share information, and we're doing that. I would say in the past ten years the United States has gone above and beyond to ensure that our allies around the world are properly--that they have the ability to have the same type of intelligence that we have in our country and that we share that information and that they know the possibilities of having an unsecure, untrusted vendor in their networks and what that could do to them. You know, it is vital to our not only national security, but we all understand at this day and age that national security and economic security run hand-in-hand. So, I think you have to be cautious on how you deal with issues of national security. You know, it is not a binary choice, that if there is a national security concern that maybe the government should take it all in house. You tend to the issues that you're currently dealing with. The United States has flourished under its current competitive innovation model. Would we upend that? No, of course not. We tend to it. As part of my former duties at the House Intelligence Committee, we worked on the Cyber Information Sharing Act, which was passed into law in 2015, which allows companies to share threat vectors with one another without fear of


Oregon decriminalizes possession of hard drugs, as four other states legalize recreational marijuana

PORTLAND, Ore. — The epiphany came in 2009, as Hubert Matthews prepared to spend another night on Portland’s streets. For two decades he had been using drugs, then committing crimes to get more. He wanted out, but he saw no easy escape. His frequent use made him an easy target for police, leaving him a homeless, middle-aged man trapped by his addiction and the laws he broke to feed it. “I had to take a hard look at myself and say ‘I’m 47 years old and I don’t have anything going. I’m not a kingpin. I don’t have a job. I’m just a dope fiend,’” Matthews said. “I was getting arrested a lot for possession and little stuff over and over again to where my criminal record caused me to not be able to get a job, to not be able to get an apartment.” Matthews, who is now a recovering addict and a drug abuse counselor, believes others will have an easier path after Oregon voters approved a controversial ballot measure decriminalizing possession of small amounts of so-called hard drugs, including cocaine, heroin, oxycodone and methamphetamines. Measure 110 also applies marijuana sales taxes toward payments for drug addiction treatment. Marijuana has been legal in Oregon since 2015. Oregon also joined the District of Columbia in decriminalizing psychedelic mushrooms. Four other states — New Jersey, Arizona, Montana and South Dakota — voted on Tuesday to legalize recreational marijuana, and Mississippi legalized cannabis for medical use. In total, nearly a third of the states have now eased the criminal consequences of marijuana use, though federal law still prohibits it. Nearly 40 years after the start of the nation’s War on Drugs, Oregon’s upvote puts it at the forefront of shifting American attitudes about what communities should do about drug abuse. Proponents of decriminalization say it offers a remedy to a costly campaign that has done little improve society but has wreaked havoc on minority communities. An Oregon study showed that Black and Native American people were more likely to be convicted of drug crimes than White people, creating a record that follows low-level drug users around for the rest of their lives. Oregon’s measure, which passed with almost 60 percent support, goes further than other states that have increasingly eased restrictions on drug use. Measure 110 decriminalizes hard drugs often associated with crippling addiction and social decay. In favoring rehabilitation over


Ethiopia sends troops into renegade northern province as long-simmering tensions explode

reports of clashes, it said. Ethiopia’s Council of Ministers declared a six-month state of emergency in Tigray, asserting federal authority over the region. The TPLF once dominated Ethiopia’s ruling coalition before Abiy took office in 2018 and the party was sidelined. Tensions with Tigray escalated in recent months after the region went ahead with its own local elections even though all polls were suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic. On Oct. 7, Ethiopian lawmakers voted to withhold budget support from Tigray, a move that one Tigrayan official said was “tantamount to a declaration of war.” Most of Ethiopia’s military equipment is in Tigray because of a long-running war against neighboring Eritrea, which ended in 2018, when the countries signed a peace deal. Now, Abiy, who won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for his reform efforts in Ethiopia and peace overtures to Eritrea, is trying to dislodge the Tigrayan-linked old guard elements from the military. A statement on Tigray TV attributed to the regional government accused the federal government of deploying troops to “invade Tigray to cow the people of Tigray into submission by force,” the Associated Press reported. It said the regional government had started to oppose the federal government to avert more destructive measures.” It warned of “proportional measures” for any damage to people or property. “This war is the worst possible outcome of tensions that have been brewing,” said William Davison, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group. “Given Tigray’s relatively strong security position, the conflict may well be protracted and disastrous,” he said. A war could “seriously strain an Ethiopian state already buffeted by multiple grave political challenges and could send shock waves into the Horn of Africa region and beyond,” he added. Conflict in Tigray would further increase instability in Ethiopia and add to a host of recent crises that Abiy’s government has faced, including tensions with Egypt over an Ethiopian dam project on the Blue Nile and a locust outbreak across East Africa. As the country has opened and political reforms have taken hold, ethnic and other political violence has also flared up. At least 54 people from the ethnic Amhara group were killed in a schoolyard by rebels Sunday, according to Amnesty International. The government blamed the Oromo Liberation Army for the attack in the far western part of Oromia near the border with South Sudan. Tigrayans dominated Ethiopian politics after helping to


The Daily 202: Trump’s demand that courts block the counting of ballots fits with pattern of litigiousness

limit the spread of the virus. … “Nearly 89,000 new infections were reported Tuesday, bringing the U.S. total to more than 9.3 million cases. The virus continued its surge through the Midwest and Plains states. Seven states set records for hospitalizations of patients with covid-19 … including Indiana, Iowa, Ohio and Wisconsin." The president's win can be attributed to his inroads among Latinos in Miami-Dade County. Trump lost the county by 30 points in 2016. On Tuesday, he kept his deficit to the single digits, percentage wise. Four years ago, 62 percent of Latinos in the state backed Hillary Clinton, with just 35 percent voting for Trump. This year, Biden held a much narrower edge among the state’s Latino voters, just 52 percent to 47 percent in preliminary exit poll results, Jocelyn Kiley reports. Trump improved his performance among voters ages 30-44 as well: This group went for Clinton in 2016 but roughly split their votes between Biden and Trump this year. Notably, consistent with pre-election surveys, Trump lost some ground among older voters in the Sunshine State compared with four years ago. “Trump’s campaign went from largely ignoring Hispanic voters in 2016 to making them a focus of his 2020 campaign,” the Miami Herald reports. "Within weeks of his inauguration, Trump began making overtures to Cuban Americans in Miami, rolling back [Barack Obama’s] normalization of relations with Cuba’s communist government and warning of the specter of socialism coming to the U.S. … Trump consolidated much of the Cuban-American vote, winning over not only older, more conservative exiles, but also new arrivals who’d leaned toward Obama in 2012. … Trump also made inroads with Latino voters who hail from other parts of Latin America, including Venezuela and Colombia, as he consistently campaigned against the specter of socialism.” Analysts faulted the Biden campaign for treating the Latino community like a monolith. “While Biden performed well in the state’s metropolitan regions, he struggled to gain steam among Hispanic and Latino voters in the Rio Grande Valley and to overcome Trump’s strength in the rural areas of the state, the Texas Tribune reports. 'A Democratic presidential candidate has not won statewide in Texas since 1976. While few in the party anticipated Biden would win Texas on Tuesday, they expressed hope that a close enough margin could help down-ballot candidates and lay the foundation for future Democratic gains across the state. But many competitive


The Health 202: States split on abortion measures but advanced marijuana legalization

The election may not be resolved for days, even as Trump falsely asserted election fraud overnight and threatened to go to the Supreme Court to get “all voting to stop.” (As The Post notes, however, lawsuits to challenge state election procedures and practices would have to be filed in lower-level courts. And while voting has stopped, counting has not.) The situation is a nail-biter, to say the least – including for members of Trump’s own administration who are deeply frustrated by its turbulence and the president’s recent threats to fire top health officials and political appointees as part of a second-term purge. “I’d like to have some nails left to stab myself with tomorrow,” a senior administration official told me last night. Voters in New Jersey, Arizona and Montana backed measures to legalize recreational marijuana, while South Dakota became the first state to approve both recreational and medical marijuana at the same time. Mississippians, meanwhile, voted to create a medical marijuana program that will allow doctors to prescribe marijuana to patients with 22 qualifying conditions. “A decade ago, recreational marijuana was illegal in all 50 states. Voters allowed it in Colorado and Washington in 2012, sparking a movement that already included 11 states and Washington, D.C., heading into Tuesday’s elections. Supporters hope additional victories, especially in conservative states, could build pressure for Congress to legalize marijuana nationwide,” the Associated Press's David A. Lieb writes. The push to relax drug laws was not limited to marijuana. Oregon also became the first state to approve the therapeutic use of psychedelic mushrooms. D.C. voters approved a measure that would move towards decriminalizing psychedelic plants, including psilocybin-containing mushrooms, by making them among the police's lowest enforcement priority. Incumbent GOP governor Mike Parsons won reelection in Missouri against his Democratic challenger, state Auditor Nicole Galloway. The race was seen as the best chance for Democrats to flip a governor seat. State governors are particularly crucial amid the coronavirus pandemic, due to their key role in coordinating testing and treatment supplies and distributing a vaccine. The win by Parson, who has taken a largely hands-off approach to the pandemic, means he will oversee efforts to coordinate a likely statewide vaccination campaign in the coming year. “[T]he virus dominated the governor’s race and became a lens through which other issues, such as the economy and healthcare, were seen. Missouri has reported more than 188,000 cases over the


How newspaper front pages treated an Election Day with no clear winner

to information, Moos said. Especially in the Internet age, she said, most people know the facts by the time they look at a newspaper and are seeking to learn what those facts mean or what comes next. Editors, for their part, have to make decisions about their front pages that will still be accurate in the morning. Their choices, Moos said, are about how to frame what is known for the historical record. “They’re making a decision knowing that it can’t be wrong, and it also needs to convey some kind of context or forward look so that it’s relevant the next morning,” she said. Wednesday’s front pages were largely subdued, with cautious language, dark colors and few exclamation marks. Moos said those themes contrasted with how newspapers have treated the results in other election years, such as 2008, when Barack Obama won the presidency. Then, front pages leaned heavily on the word “historic” and used exclamation points to remind readers that much of the country was enthusiastic about the result. Newspapers’ very different approach Wednesday was noteworthy, Moos said. She said it symbolizes the nationwide anxiety over what might come next, amid businesses boarding their windows and people stocking up on groceries to prepare for potential civil unrest. One newspaper took a different approach from most of its peers. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution used a double-decker headline summarizing comments from both presidential candidates in the early morning hours: “Trump: I have won. Biden: It’s not over.” Below it was a photo of election workers counting ballots. The front page was met with swift backlash online from people who said the framing was likely to confuse Americans about the reality that the race was undecided, despite Trump’s false claim of victory. “Here’s a newspaper that disgraced itself last night,” tweeted Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at New York University and frequent press critic. “And since it’s the print edition, no way to correct or take it back. To title your next-day coverage with a false claim rather than a true fact is quite the spectacle, @ajc.” HuffPost reporter Michael Hobbes sarcastically tweeted a comparison: “One marathon runner declared himself the winner after 20 miles. The other runners say marathons are 26.2 miles. We’ll leave it up to you to decide.” Moos said the headline exemplified how a “both sides” approach to journalism — one that seeks neutrality by falsely framing two


Maryland crime report

Due to concerns over the novel coronavirus and social distancing, the police department will take police reports for minor and nonviolent crimes by telephone. To increase social distancing, callers may be required to file a report online at aacounty.org when re porting the following crimes. If the crime is in progress, call 911 or 410-222-8610. •Destruction to a vehicle •Destruction of property/vandalism •Theft from a vehicle •Thefts of vehicle parts and accessories •Tampering with a vehicl e •Attempted vehicle thef t •Credit or debit card theft •Identify theft•Lost property •Telephone misuse •Trespassing The following were among incidents reported by Anne Arundel County police. For information, call 410-222-8050. Brooklyn Park Area Belle Grove Rd., Ritchie Hwy., Glen Burnie Area Warwickshire Lane, Due to concerns over the novel coronavirus and social distancing the policedepartment has implemented a policy of telephone reporting for relatively minor and nonviolent crimes. Callers will be screened, and when appropriate for telephone reporting an officer will collect information. The non-emergency phone number is 410-268-4141. Ashton Ct., Madison St., Edelmar Dr., Forest Dr., Forest Hills Ave., Gemini Dr., Heritage Ct., Hilltop Lane, S. Monroe St., Stonecreek Rd., Youngs Farm Rd., Due to concerns over the novel coronavirus and social distancing, citizens are encouraged to report certain incidents online at hcpd.org or by calling 410-313-2200. These were among incidents reported by Howard County police. Columbia Area Cedar Lane, Lee Deforest Dr., Nightmist Ct., Stevens Forest Rd., Area of Murray Hill Rd., Area of Waterloo Rd., Black Star Cir., Farstar Pl., Sea Shadow, Turnabout Lane, Wincopin Cir., Green Mountain Cir., Twin Rivers Rd., Elkridge Area Gateway Overlook Dr., Ellicott City Area Baltimore National Pike, Cotoneaster Dr., Pine Orchard Lane, Bonnie Branch Rd., Montgomery Rd., Jessup Area Willowwood Way, Laurel Area Forest Gates Path, High Ridge Rd.,


Patrick Mahomes helped pay the cost of opening Arrowhead Stadium for voting

And so we, the Chiefs organization, the Hunt family [which owns the team] and Patrick Mahomes and his 15 and the Mahomies Foundation came together and said, ‘If that’s what it’s going to take, we’re committed to this point. Let’s go.’ ” Mahomes, 25, said he was voting for the first time and, in a team meeting on voting initiatives over the summer, realized that he hadn’t properly registered. Now the face of the NFL, Mahomes was part of a group of players whose video statement following the death of George Floyd helped sway Commissioner Roger Goodell to film a video in which he admitted that the league was late to understand why players knelt during the national anthem and to say that Black lives matter. Mahomes, who signed a 10-year, $503-million contract extension with the Chiefs five months after winning the Super Bowl, also established roots in Kansas City, purchasing a stake in the Royals. “I love this city and the people of this great town,” he said in late July, when he made the purchase. This opportunity allows me to deepen my roots in this community, which is something I’m excited to do.” NFL teams typically are off on Tuesdays and the league took the additional step of closing facilities and offices this Tuesday to encourage voting, something it and the NFL Players Association advocated. Last week, that initiative resulted in the league and NFLPA saying that 90 percent of players had registered to vote. Stadiums and arenas around the country became polling sites. “I thought Arrowhead was the perfect place for it, and the Chiefs were all aboard with it and some other guys on the team,” Mahomes said, “We all just made our efforts strong and really got it to be a central point for everybody to go vote.” According to Donovan, costs that he described as “a six-figure investment by us” were split and may have an effect on voting in Kansas City for years to come. “We’ll work with the election board on exactly how we can expand and what makes the most sense in terms of how many elections,” he said. “We actually were having that conversation earlier today in between voting activities. And like I said, if you actually come here and see what we’re doing and how we’re doing it, there’s a lot of interest in utilizing this a lot more.”


Coronavirus updates: United States tops 100,000 new virus cases in a day for first time

Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio, Nebraska, Minnesota, Indiana and West Virginia — reported record-high numbers of current covid-19 inpatients, according to data tracked by The Post. “We are again in danger of losing control of this pandemic in Iowa,” Suresh Gunasekaran, chief executive of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, wrote in an urgent appeal to the state’s residents. “Our COVID positivity rates skyrocketed twice before, but this is the first time we have seen rates this high while also dealing with record patient hospitalizations.” Some hospitals in the St. Louis and Omaha metropolitan areas have started rescheduling elective surgeries to free up beds, while the head of the Arkansas Hospital Association said at a briefing Tuesday that the state was facing a critical shortage of health-care workers as states furiously compete for nurses. Facing a sweeping second wave of infections, more European countries have ramped up restrictions as the continent’s tally of infections has surpassed 11 million. The Netherlands banned public gatherings with more than two people from different households, while Hungary shuttered bars and issued a nightly curfew, according to Reuters. British lawmakers on Wednesday overwhelmingly voted for a month-long nationwide lockdown in England, to start Thursday. Unlike the one in the spring, schools and universities will remain open. But pubs, restaurants, gyms and nonessential businesses will close for four weeks. Until recently, the administration of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was reticent to impose a nationwide lockdown, preferring instead a targeted, regional approach. But Johnson said that, when confronted with fresh data showing cases and hospitalizations climbing rapidly, he had to act. “The curve is already unmistakable,” he told Parliament. The politicians opposed to the new lockdown — many from Johnson’s own party — say they are too severe and will hurt the economy and civil liberties. Kate Bingham, chair of Britain’s coronavirus vaccine task force, told Parliament on Wednesday that data on the two leading vaccine candidates — developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca and by Pfizer and BioNtech — should be available by December, the Associated Press reported. World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Tuesday that while a coronavirus vaccine is needed, other underlying problems that afflict nations worldwide are just as pressing. “The need for a #COVID19 vaccine is very real,” he wrote on Twitter. “But it will not fix the vexing vulnerabilities afflicting us all. There’s no vaccine for poverty,


Ted Leonsis has lost three friends to suicide. He doesn’t want to lose any more.

your community, tell your family, tell your friends. We are going to end up with a big, big issue if we don’t talk about it.” So Leonsis is talking about it. We know that more than 1.2 million people have died worldwide of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. It’s an enormous number, one that would have seemed incomprehensible at this point 10 months ago. Yet take a guess as to how many people take their own lives each year. According to the World Health Organization, it’s around 800,000 — or one every 40 seconds. Plus, the WHO says, “There are indications that for each adult who died by suicide there may have been more than 20 others attempting suicide.” And that’s without a pandemic further coloring people’s moods or driving them to addictions. Leonsis’s experiences are poignant personally and pertinent in the moment. In each case, he said, the call with the news of his friend’s suicide floored him. But he noticed, too, common themes. Not only were these friends unwilling to talk about their problems before they took drastic action, but the way they died wasn’t discussed in the aftermath. Their families and friends couldn’t or wouldn’t talk about it. That’s both completely understandable and absolutely damaging. “So we’re on rinse-and-repeat mode,” Leonsis said. “And now the pandemic hits, and we have every single day a hammering on our collective psyche of anxiety, depression. Whatever’s going to happen to our collective and individual mental health could be, in terms of numbers, as bad or worse than the actual pandemic. But we won’t really face it.” What does this have to do with sports? Leonsis, as we all should, worries about his family and friends. But, as we all should, he worries, too, about the players who perform for us — the players who work for his three professional teams. For generations, athletes have been trained not to show vulnerability. That’s both physically, by playing through pain, and mentally, maintaining focus despite external distractions. But in 2020, suppressing those emotions feels neither healthy nor realistic. And yet opening up remains a struggle. Back in the summer, when Major League Baseball was navigating a shortened season in which games were played in front of empty ballparks and players endured the stresses of regular virus testing coupled with travel, I wrote about the mental strains of trying to perform under


Australia has almost eliminated the coronavirus — by putting faith in science

Melbourne is located. After a sick doctor in his 70s treated more than 70 people in the city before being diagnosed, Hunt accelerated a 10-year plan to phase in video consultations with physicians. Within 10 days, almost anyone in Australia could see a doctor over the Internet under Australia's highly subsidized health-care system, including psychiatrists. When private hospitals said they were in danger of going broke because non-urgent surgery had been canceled, the government stepped in with emergency funding, securing beds that could be used for coronavirus patients. In private, Hunt swapped practical stories with his wife, Paula Hunt, a former infectious-diseases nurse who kept a 1995 bestseller by U.S. science journalist Laurie Garrett, "The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance," on her bedside table, he said. "It's valuable to have a very strong sounding board," he said. The coordination was not always smooth, and lapses did occur. Federal officials were uncomfortable with Melbourne's extreme lockdown and felt the state border closures went too far. Hunt, Morrison and federal health advisers tried to criticize the rules without undermining overall confidence in the response. While opinion polls show strong support for the tough measures, many people have been badly affected. Australia entered its first recession in 29 years, small businesses have closed, and reports of depression are up. On Tuesday, an anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne turned violent. Police arrested 404 people. And for a time, it appeared Australia's early success was imperiled, after lax security at hotels in Melbourne that were housing returned travelers led to a second outbreak in July. By August, more than 700 cases a day were diagnosed. It looked like Australia could lose control of the virus. Almost all public life in Melbourne ended. After 111 days of lockdown, the number of average daily cases fell below five. On Oct. 28, state officials allowed residents to leave their homes for any reason. Australia currently bans its citizens and residents from overseas travel, a decision that has been particularly tough on its 7.5 million immigrants. On Oct. 16, Australia opened its border to New Zealand, which, despite limited outbreaks, never experienced a full second wave. The government is awaiting results of four vaccine trials in which it has invested. Most Australians will have access to a vaccine by the middle of next year, Hunt said, a major step toward allowing them to travel.


From ‘Surrender Dorothy’ to ‘Surrender Donald’: The Beltway bridge has a new message

The Washington region’s favorite canvas for pithy commentary bears a new message, one that gives voice to a sentiment more than half the country apparently feels. An unknown person or people went out on the CSX railroad bridge over the Capital Beltway near the Mormon Temple in Kensington, Md., and daubed it with “Surrender Donald.” It’s just the latest bit of graffiti scrawled on the bridge. Most have referenced the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints house of worship that rises, Emerald City-like, in the background. This isn’t the first time “Surrender Donald” has been on the bridge. In August 2018, an anti-GOP prankster from Montgomery County named Claude Taylor helped arrange for two men to place three-foot-high magnetic letters on the bridge spelling out the same message. The words were visible to motorists on the Outer Loop below. “You have to have been in D.C. for some period of time to kind of get it,” Taylor told me then. “This is an inside joke for sure.” It’s an inside joke that’s been rattling around the Beltway for at least 40 years. Many old-timers remember when it read “Surrender Dorothy.” Those words didn’t seem like an act of political commentary so much as an act of whimsy. (To be fair, the Mormons never found it that whimsical.) It’s never been revealed who first painted “Surrender Dorothy” on the bridge, but we know where they got the idea: from a baker’s dozen of gently vandalistic Catholic schoolgirls. In 2011, I spoke with Chris Brennan and Ann Cassidy Principe, both of whom attended Holy Child, a parochial girls’ school in Potomac, Md. In October 1974, 13 Holy Child classmates had a sleepover at the McLean, Va., home of Maureen Leonard O’Grady. During the night, they sneaked out, drove to the Linden Lane overpass near the CSX bridge and inserted wadded-up newspaper in the chain link fence there, spelling out “Surrender Dorothy.” Holy Child happened to be doing “The Wizard of Oz” for its school play that year. “We thought it was brilliant,” Brennan, Holy Child Class of 1975, said of their prank. Montgomery Journal staff photographer Hoke Kempley snapped a picture. It ran with the headline “Wicked Witch of the Beltway.” Some time later, the words were painted in white on the green railroad bridge. A tradition began: As soon as “Surrender Dorothy” was painted over, vandals would repaint it. I


A local’s guide to Dubrovnik, Croatia

385 91 205 3488 website: Twitter: instagram: barba.dubrovnik Carbon Graphite Products Factory, located in the Port Gruž area, is one of the preeminent enduring monuments of the city’s communist era. Still owned by the workers, the factory now partly houses the Red History Museum, a mandatory stop for all who are interested in what everyday life was like in Dubrovnik during that Yugoslavian period. The small museum is interactive, run by young local enthusiasts and very educational. BTW: address: Ul. Svetog Križa 3, 20000, Dubrovnik, Croatia latlng: phone: website: https://www.redhistorymuseum.com/ Twitter: instagram: redhistorymuseum Steps away from Love Bar and the TUP Complex, Dubrovnik Beer Company hosts brewery tours that allow you to witness the magic of craft-beer production firsthand. The brews here are all unfiltered and unpasteurized — and if you prefer to cut to the point, you can taste them in the tap room, straight from the source. On some nights, there’s even live music. BTW: address: Obala pape Ivana Pavla II 15, 20000, Dubrovnik, Croatia latlng: phone: 00 385 95 356 9620 website: http://www.dubrovackapivovara.hr/ Twitter: dubrovnikbeer instagram: Peppino’s is a perfect place to regain your energy after climbing the numerous steps of the Old City. Located in the heart of the district, the popular shop is known for its gelato’s full and creamy flavor, as well as its variety: Whether you choose yogo strawberry, choco Oreo, pistachio, or Fererro Rocher premium, you can’t go wrong. BTW: address: Ulica od puča 9, 20000, Dubrovnik, Croatia latlng: phone: website: http://www.peppinos.premis.hr/ Twitter: instagram: peppino_s Formerly the area where Dubrovnik housed those with the plague, this spot today is the most popular local beach in the vicinity of the Old City. Danče is not a long, sandy beach, but rather a massive rock formation with a few plateaus where locals like to play mini-football barefoot or soak up the sun with a glass of gemišt, a mix of white wine and mineral water. With ladder access to the water, the beach is great for cliff-jumping. BTW: address: latlng: 42°38′26.3″N 18°06′04.1″E phone: website: Twitter: instagram: Gruž, formerly a factory-laden industrial zone in communist Yugoslavia, is a walkable district with a lot of local spirit, old aristocratic summer villas and a charming promenade along the sea. Somewhere in the middle of that promenade, you will find Dubrovnik’s biggest green market and the fish market in its background. And while tourists crowd most other parts


Coronavirus testing and sanitized snorkels: How all-inclusive resorts are adapting to the pandemic

Between high-octane election anxiety and covid-19 fears, for Americans who are comfortable traveling, all-inclusive resorts may be more appealing than ever. Aside from the well-documented risks of traveling during the coronavirus pandemic, it’s a vacation traditionally designed for less stress; just show up and unwind. “I just figured it’d be nice to be in one place, not moving around,” says Lee Abbamonte, a travel blogger who’s visited every country and both poles. Abbamonte has stayed in all-inclusive resorts during the pandemic. “Also [staying at an all-inclusive] stops prices from going through the roof like it can at regular hotels, regarding drinks and food and stuff like that.” Anthony Melchiorri, the CEO of Argeo Hospitality and host of Travel Channel’s “Hotel Impossible,” says the transparent pricing of all-inclusives is particularly appealing at a time when many Americans are facing economic hardships. And that appeal may last beyond the pandemic. “One of the things during coronavirus, and even after, is people are on a tight budget right now,” Melchiorri says. “People were unemployed for a while, some people are still unemployed. So going to an all-inclusive, they know what to expect. They know how much it’s going to cost them." Of course, not all of resorts are low-cost accommodations. The category ranges from budget-friendly to extremely luxurious. And these days, the latter price tag doesn’t just buy travelers high-thread-count sheets and fine dining — it can also promise an elevated sense of security. ÀNI Private Resorts are beachfront or cliff-side properties in Anguilla, Dominican Republic, Sri Lanka and Thailand that are rented out to one group at a time. “We’ve been operating with this concept from day one, and with the pandemic and covid, all of a sudden we’re feeling super well positioned,” says ÀNI chief executive Ira Bloom. “People are just much more interested in having places to themselves.” The appeal of getting away without being near strangers is showing itself in ÀNI’s Caribbean bookings, where nightly rates this winter begin at $6,550. “The calendar just keeps getting filled up with groups, that I guess have been super eager to get out in a way,” Bloom says. Each ÀNI guest in the group must show proof of a negative coronavirus test before arrival at the property. The resort staff are also tested before arrival to the property, where they then live for the duration of a group’s visit. But coronavirus testing


Bustos says the biggest change guests would notice while dining at the property is the spacing between seating. The resort limits how many diners can be in restaurants at a time and avoids putting large parties near each other. The same is true for activities like boating trips, which have been limited to 50 percent occupancy. Bungalows Key Largo has kept other activities afloat by making sure rental equipment, like snorkel gear, gets extra sanitation between guest uses. Bustos says interest in such activities doesn’t seem to be diminished by the pandemic. In fact, at Sandals and Beaches Resorts, interest in scuba diving has actually increased during the pandemic. From July through September, diving certifications grew by 28 percent this year compared with 2019. As part of its Sandals Platinum Protocols of Cleanliness, the resort makes sure all diving and PADI equipment, as well as areas like pool decks, undergo frequent sanitization, and social distancing is required on boats and at pools. “Our job was to not change the Sandal’s experience while making sure that we kept everyone safe,” says Sandals deputy chairman Adam Stewart. When the pandemic hit, Velas Resorts developed a 15-page “Stay Safe With Velas” program with seven categories of health and sanitary measures. Guided by the World Health Organization and the government of Mexico, the program includes installing touchless hand sanitizer dispensers around the property and implementing health screenings for both guests and staff, including temperature checks and “smell-sensory” tests. Juan Vela Ruiz, vice president of Velas Resorts, says some of those changes may be kept even after a vaccine is widely distributed. “They are good for overall health for both guests and staff,” Ruiz said in an email. “For instance, the daily health checks of employees on arrival to and departure from the resort ensures our team’s and their families’ safety. This is just one of the initiatives we plan on continuing.” Melchiorri says these elevated approaches to coronavirus protocols is what will help bring back business — not only for all-inclusives, but all hotels. “It shouldn’t look like I’m going into a hospital,” says Melchiorri. “It should look like I’m going on vacation.” Read more: A travel group report says flying is safe. The doctor whose research it cited says not so fast. Where can Americans travel to in the Caribbean? 7 private islands you can actually rent (even if you’re not a Kardashian)


Military ballots could play greater role in narrow state counts

recent days of fraud and raised questions about a “mail-in ballot dump,” his campaign has said there “are and should be exceptions” for troops stationed overseas. U.S. troops have been voting by mail since the War of 1812 and, in larger numbers, the Civil War. In 2016, troops and their families sent more than 630,000 ballots. About 20,000 of those were rejected, mostly because they arrived too late. This year, military authorities urged troops to vote early because of postal delays related to the coronavirus pandemic. How military mail-in ballots are treated varies by state. According to research compiled by Count Every Hero, 28 states and the District of Columbia allow military ballots to be counted after Election Day. Among the states that are still counting, military ballots can be received up to 15 days after that date. Some states allow troops to vote by email or fax. In Arizona, state rules require that military ballots must be received by Election Day. Georgia, meanwhile, permits the processing of military ballots that are postmarked by Election Day and received by Nov. 6. In Nevada, they must be postmarked by Election Day and received by Nov. 10. Pennsylvania requires them to be signed by Nov. 2 and received by Nov. 10. North Carolina requires them to be sent by 12:01 a.m. on Election Day and received by Nov 12. Finally, Alaska allows military ballots that are postmarked by Election Day. For those coming from within the United States, the deadline is Nov. 13; for those coming from overseas that are received by Nov 18. In a call Thursday organized by Count Every Hero, retired Gen. George Casey, who served as Army chief of staff during the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, asked state officials to include assurances when they certify state votes that all service member ballots have been counted. “We ask so much of them, they deserve to know that their voices are heard,” he said. It was unclear Thursday how many more military ballots could arrive in battleground states, or how they could be affected by legal challenges. Some critical states have seen larger numbers of military absentee voters this year compared with the number in 2016. In North Carolina, 14,550 service members requested absentee ballots, with 9,750 returned as of Wednesday, said Caroline Myrick, a data analyst with the state board of elections. The number of ballot requests


Virginia’s game against Louisville postponed after coronavirus cases among Cardinals

that stressed us a bit, and I think that there’s concern for the other linemen and also the fact that when you get into the training room, that’s a definite concern.” Virginia Coach Bronco Mendenhall did not have an immediate comment. The postponement marked yet another virus-related delay for the Cavaliers, who had season openers against Georgia and Virginia Military Institute canceled and another against Virginia Tech pushed back. The reigning ACC Coastal Division champions originally were set to open Sept. 7 against Georgia at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta in a nationally televised prime-time showdown. Uncertainty surrounding the pandemic led to that game being scrapped. With the ACC moving to 10 conference games and one nonconference opponent for each school in an effort to salvage the season, the Cavaliers added VMI for the opener Sept. 11. That game was canceled when the Southern Conference voted not to play fall sports. Next on the schedule was Virginia Tech on Sept. 19, which would have marked the first time since 1970 the in-state rivals met in a season opener. A spike in positive tests within the Hokies’ locker room pushed that game to Dec. 12. A game at Clemson on Oct. 3 briefly became Virginia’s next scheduled opener until the ACC moved up a scheduled meeting with Duke to Sept. 26. The Cavaliers’ opener against the Blue Devils, a 38-20 victory, had been scheduled for Nov. 14. The postponement of Virginia-Louisville is the latest instance of the pandemic affecting scheduling in one of the Power Five conferences. Virginia Tech, for instance, was to open the season Sept. 12 against North Carolina State until the Wolfpack reported a spike in cases throughout its athletic department and paused all football-related activities. The game was moved to Sept. 26. The open date this weekend allows the Cavaliers additional time to prepare following an injury scare to quarterback Brennan Armstrong. The sophomore left this past weekend’s 44-41 win against then-No. 15 North Carolina late in the fourth quarter after absorbing a blow to his left leg. Armstrong limped off the field at Scott Stadium with help from the athletic training staff and did not reenter. Keytaon Thompson and Lindell Stone combined to run out the clock and end Virginia’s four-game slide, its longest in four years during the regular season. Mendenhall indicated Tuesday afternoon that Armstrong, who accounted for four touchdowns against North Carolina, was on


How North Dakota became a covid-19 nightmare

in large outbreaks. The virus is everywhere, affecting every profession and demographic. We see high case counts among health-care workers, in congregate living facilities and among hospitality workers — but the outbreak isn’t limited to these occupations. Entire offices that do not have prevention protocols in place are being wiped out by the virus. Contact tracers have become overwhelmed. The North Dakota Department of Health recently announced the discontinuation of contact tracing, asking people who test positive to reach out to their own close contacts to notify them to quarantine. This change has likely added to covid-19’s spread across the state. Deaths have more than doubled in the past month, and hospitals are at capacity. Rural hospitals are especially challenged. Typically, their critically ill patients are transferred to larger cities in North Dakota, which have better-resourced care facilities. But as even our larger hospitals are swamped, patients from rural areas have been sent out of state for care. Families are left behind, wondering if their loved ones will recover and return home or remain hospitalized out of state and die alone. Health-care workers are being pushed to the brink caring for patients with no relief. Jeffrey Sather, medical director for Trinity Health’s Emergency Trauma Center in Minot, N.D., said recently that when he asks his colleagues how they’re holding up, they reveal a dreadful truth: “I have to watch someone suffocate to death, every day, and sometimes several times a day.” This leaves all of us on the front lines of this pandemic wondering what it will take for people to finally change their behavior. Astonishingly, there are still no statewide mitigation measures being enforced in North Dakota, leaving the task of stopping covid’s spread to local leaders. After a grueling six-hour meeting last week, the Bismarck City Commission voted 3 to 2 to approve a “pandemic mitigation strategy” requiring masks in public places and limiting social gatherings. The catch: There is no penalty for non-compliance. So while this is a step in the right direction, it won’t be enough to curb the contagion. What our situation demonstrates is that individual cities and counties cannot stop this pandemic themselves. North Dakota’s efforts should be coordinated and led by the state, with support from the federal government. We need a statewide mask mandate with strict enforcement measures, increased lab capacity to provide timely testing, and better contact tracing and education on


World Digest: Nov. 6, 2020

RUSSIA The Kremlin said Friday that it was alarmed by a rise in coronavirus cases, but it was too early to judge the effectiveness of its policy of trying to contain the disease without a full lockdown. Russia reported a record daily tally of 20,582 new cases, bringing its total to 1,733,440 — the world’s fourth-largest behind the United States, India and Brazil. “The trend is alarming; the pandemic is developing,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call. Asked whether Russia’s measures had been effective in containing the virus without imposing lockdowns, Peskov said: “It is probably too early to talk about this.” In recent months, Russian authorities have said harsh restrictions are not needed and stressed the importance of hygiene. Russia has also developed vaccines, though they have not been universally recognized as effective. — Reuters Protester killed in Iraq as tensions flare again: Brazilian state suffers days-long blackout: Tunisia will accept deportees from France: — From news services


Virus spreads in much of the U.S., setting records and straining health care

end of October, we were right around 30 inpatients,” Mielke said. “Yesterday, we had 225. In October, we had one floor dedicated to covid-19 patients. Now, we have multiple floors, wholly dedicated to covid-19 patients.” The hospital, the city’s largest, has moved some patients with other illnesses to El Paso Children’s Hospital to free up beds for covid-19 patients. The city’s convention center has been outfitted to accept patients. The state of Texas has deployed more than 130 nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists and other workers to University Medical Center to help in the crisis, Mielke said. David Wyatt, an intensive-care nurse at University Medical Center who had just finished a 14-hour shift Wednesday, said his hospital is feeling the strain. “The hospitals are just getting overrun,” he said. Lawler’s medical facility in Omaha is “setting records every day,” he said. “We are seeing more and more cases, and our hospitals are filling up rapidly. Welcome to the concept of exponential growth.” Nationally, the mortality rate from covid-19 has declined, in part because doctors have learned to use medications such as the steroid dexamethasone and techniques such as proning — laying patients on their stomachs to ease their ability to breathe. But increases in deaths lag behind rises in the case count by several weeks. Authorities expect that to occur again in November and December, and mortality rates could rise if hospitals are overwhelmed. “If your ventilators are being run by a dermatologist, your outcomes are not going to be good,” Lawler said. Janis M. Orlowski, chief health-care officer for the Association of American Medical Colleges, said “in those areas where there’s an explosion, like Utah, like Nebraska, like in the Dakotas, like Colorado, we are seeing what we saw in the South at the end of the spring and the beginning of the summer. . . . The hospitals are overrun. There are no ICU beds.” Health-care workers are taking off work because they are sick, burned out or have child-care problems, she said. “Are we smarter from understanding the disease from six months ago? Yes,” she said. “Do we have our hands around having adequate supplies? No.” Michael Fraser, chief executive of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, which represents state health departments, said the election has also played a role in the public health response. “There’s been this sense of people giving up,” he said. “You


Away from U.S. election fever, coronavirus rages on

rate in Europe after Belgium, asked the World Health Organization to send an emergency medical team to the country because thousands of Czech medical professionals have been infected with the virus. Though death rates are not as high as they were in the first wave of the virus, they are slowly climbing around the world. According to a tally by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, Latin America now accounts for 1 out of 3 coronavirus-related deaths. The picture is all the more alarming in the United States. “With nearly 9.5 million coronavirus cases reported, the United States is adding new infections at an unprecedented rate,” my colleagues reported. “The seven-day average for new cases hit record highs in 20 states spanning every region of the country Wednesday, with the largest increases in Colorado, Maine, Minnesota and Iowa.” Trump’s record in managing the crisis has not helped. In public and private, he has feuded with many of the administration’s senior public health officials, blaming their warnings and assessments for stoking panic and hurting the American economy. An internal report put forward at the beginning of the week by Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, seemed to fault the administration for not adequately preparing for what could be a dark winter. “We are entering the most concerning and most deadly phase of this pandemic … leading to increasing mortality,” said Birx’s report, which my colleagues reported on first. “This is not about lockdowns — it hasn’t been about lockdowns since March or April. It’s about an aggressive balanced approach that is not being implemented.” Birx contradicted Trump on many fronts “Even if Biden wins, we still have several months of the Trump administration in which the epidemic is at its worst,” Carlos del Rio, an infectious-disease expert at Emory University, told the New York Times. “Trump is not in charge. He’s given up, he has basically implied, ‘I don’t care about this’ and he has turned it over to the governors.” The Biden camp has already assembled a coronavirus task force of leading public health experts, who will attempt to map out strategies for, among other things, an efficient, widespread delivery of vaccines and better coordination between federal agencies and the states, should there be a change in power. But their efforts may get stymied in the current smoldering political environment. “The transition team has also discussed contingency


Ethiopia’s military carries out airstrikes in Tigray as Abiy moves to impose federal control over region

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Friday announced that the military carried out a round of airstrikes against regional security forces in the northern Tigray region, saying the operation destroyed rockets and other heavy artillery. His declaration on state television came the same day he moved to impose full federal control over Tigray and strip its ruling Tigray People’s Liberation Front of power, while also disarming its large paramilitary force and local militia. The government “has been forced to take rule of law enforcement measures to effectively respond to the unceasing belligerence perpetrated by the TPLF clique in violation” of the constitution, Abiy said in a statement that launched a six-month state of emergency approved earlier this week. Abiy said a state of emergency task force, led by the chief of staff of the armed forces, had been established with the authority to disarm security forces in Tigray, impose a curfew and restrictions on movement, and detain anyone suspected of taking part in illegal activities “that endanger the constitutional order.” The development further escalated hostilities, including clashes in parts of Tigray in recent days between the federal government and the TPLF, which ruled the country as part of a coalition until 2018, when Abiy took power. Fighting between the sides erupted Wednesday after Abiy accused the region’s rulers of attacking government military bases and attempting to steal artillery and military equipment. The conflict drew an urgent international response as concerns mounted over its impact on the Horn of Africa if fighting spread beyond Ethiopia’s borders. Sudan on Friday closed its border with Ethiopia. Despite attempts by the United Nations and African Union to mediate in the conflict, there was little evidence that Abiy, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, was willing to step back from a full-scale confrontation and launch talks with the TPLF. On Thursday, Birhanu Jula, deputy chief of the Ethiopian National Defense Force, said more government troops were being moved into the area, and he declared that Ethiopia had entered an “unexpected war” in Tigray. U.N. Secretary General António Guterres expressed alarm Friday at the growing conflict and joined others in calling for a de-escalation in tensions. “The stability of Ethiopia is important for the entire Horn of Africa region,” Guterres said Friday on Twitter. “I call for an immediate de-escalation of tensions and a peaceful resolution to the dispute.” An international humanitarian official,


Transcript: “Virus Hunters” A Conversation with Christopher Golden, PhD and Kendra Phelps, PhD

MR. IGNATIUS: Welcome to Washington Post Live. I'm David Ignatius, a columnist for The Post. Today, it's my pleasure to welcome two experts who are on the front lines of infectious disease research, Dr. Chris Golden, who is an epidemiologist and ecologist; And Dr. Kendra Phelps, who is a field researcher. The two of them are among the stars of a National Geographic special called "Virus Hunters," which will premier this Sunday at 9:00. I've had a chance to watch an early cut, and I'll tell you, this is one of the scariest but also one of the most inspiring pieces of television journalism that I've seen about the pandemic and the issues that we all need to think about. I should mention that the special that will be on television Sunday is part--linked to November issue of National Geographic, which is all about the COVID-19 pandemic and what it's meant in America and around the world. Again, the articles are powerful, carefully researched, and quite moving. So, you'll want to look at that, as well. I want to start with Dr. Golden and ask you to tell us a little bit about the kind of research you do as a virus hunter. We see you in the field in some situations that, as I mentioned, are sometimes terrifying. But tell us what the purpose of this research is. You say you're looking for next pandemic, the next COVID-19 or Ebola. How do you do that? DR. GOLDEN: That was absolutely the focus of this documentary, was to really highlight the frontline researchers like Kendra, like Jim Desmond, and others who are really at the frontlines, trying to characterize novel pathogens, viruses, bacteria, that are found within wildlife populations and could potentially spill over into human populations. My own research is kind of not immediately on infectious disease itself, but really trying to understand the human health impacts of environmental change, and really trying to characterize the environmental, social, and cultural factors that drive people to kind of interface more and more with wild habitats or with domesticated animals and present a danger for disease emergence. MR. IGNATIUS: So, describe for our viewers what they'll see in the documentary Sunday night. You get into vehicles in the field and you go places where you're going to encounter viruses in the process of transmission and spread that could end up threatening


has happened in the past, how did people respond to pandemics historically, and what are the ways that we could actually use monitoring, surveillance, and tracking of wildlife diseases to help prevent the next pandemic. And then, we head to Turkey and look at Kendra's work, and it's a very similar situation where we are looking at characterizing these novel viruses and pathogens within a bat population. MR. IGNATIUS: So, Dr. Phelps, tell us a little bit about what we see in the documentary. You're in Turkey looking for the origins of MERS, the Middle East Syndrome virus, or some future version of it, and we see you with something I've never heard of before called a harp trap. Tell us what a harp trap is and a little bit about your research with bats. DR. PHELPS: Well, I think the documentary, as Dr. Golden mentioned, really highlights the--what I like to call boots-on-the-ground surveillance. So, what does it take to get out in the field and, when you're working with bats, that means working at night, getting bit by mosquitoes, not being able to see much more than, you know, a few feet in front of you, just based on what your headlamp can reach. So, working with bats and these proactive disease monitoring programs has been really interesting and definitely something--even though I've worked on bats for almost 20 years, it's kind of a new area of research that I have been expanding into over for the last three years. Now, we typically use harp traps to catch bats. And harp traps, the name comes from the fact that there are four banks or four rows of basically fishing line. So, it's very thin, fine line that's clear. And the bats don't see it when they first emerge from--in Turkey, we were at a cave. So, there--you know, they're not expecting us to be there. So, they're going about their typical flight pattern and they don't see the nearly invisible fishing lines of the harp trap. So, they run into them and slide slowly down the strings into a catchment bag at the bottom and we retrieve them from that bag, which you'll see in the episode. MR. IGNATIUS: And Dr. Phelps, what is it about bats that makes them such extraordinary carriers of these viruses that leap species? We learn in the documentary about the origins of


squashing any future pandemics is thinking about how we interact with the environment, how our purchases and our decisions on where we donate money. Donate money to habitat conservation or restoration. If we can protect wild areas and keep animals, wildlife, from being in contact with humans, that's the best idea. So, I guess it really comes back to, you know, having a broad knowledge of where you're buying your products, what impact that could potentially have on the environment, and try to minimize that impact as much as possible. And obviously, don't consume wildlife species, would be my last suggestion. And one thing I wanted to add, you know, Virus Hunters does talk about wildlife or game hunting here in the United States, but here in New York City, where I live, there are 80 live animal markets that not only sell domesticated species, but they're also selling some exotic species, and this is legal under the New York State law. So, it isn't just tropical areas; it can be here, right in New York City, where you could be exposed to a unique pathogen from a wild animal that was transported all the way from another continent. So, it--you know, thinking about those types of purchases. Don't support that--types of businesses. MR. IGNATIUS: And Dr. Golden, one other practical issue that I'm sure viewers will think about, there's a memorable scene at a hog facility in the United States where you're, among other things, taking nose swabs of little pigs that are, I assume, on their way eventually to market, to see if they may have some viral disease. We remember swine flu emerged from pigs. And the implication of that scene is that industrialized agriculture, that growing food plentifully, cheaply, with animals packed together in cages or other conditions may unintentionally be a disease generator. Could you just talk briefly about that problem? DR. GOLDEN: Sure. I think that this kind of ties back to when Kendra was talking about viral shedding. The entire idea of viral shedding is that animals that are stressed are more likely to replicate and propagate viruses within their own bodies, and then that increases the risk of spillover. So, whether this is forest fires, deforestation, and mining leading to stress in wildlife; or it is the conditions by which factory farming and industrial agriculture house animals and lead to stress that


the ways in which we can respond to pandemics if and when they should occur. And so, something like voting next week is also a really important action to take into consideration if you really want to care about stopping the next pandemic. MR. IGNATIUS: All right. So, we have just a minute left, and I want to take a question from our audience that's specific to COVID-19. This is from Linda Leong from Colorado, and she asks--I'll put this to Dr. Phelps, "What happens if COVID-19 mutates? Does this mean it could be a threat for years to come?" Dr. Phelps. DR. PHELPS: Well, that's a really good question. And I'm not a human epidemiologist, so I am not studying COVID-19 pathogenicity and how viral strains may be mutating. It is a possibility, but in my personal opinion, I'll put it that way, I don't feel like there's going to be significant mutations in the sense that we will have to start from ground zero to figure out how to develop therapeutics or vaccines. So, it may be something similar to the flu vaccinee that we get annually--and I encourage everybody to get that vaccine this year--that when we do have a COVID-19 vaccine, that it may be something that we have to--we're still learning a lot about the vaccine. It hasn't even been made available to the public, but it could potentially be where our antibodies from the vaccination wane over time enough that we need to get annual vaccinations, but there could be significant shifts in the strain of COVID-19 that we have to slightly make modifications each year for the vaccine to be most effective. But I don't believe that there are going to be significant mutations that lead to a whole different virus and a whole different pandemic. MR. IGNATIUS: So, I feel we could continue this conversation for a while longer, but I'm going to direct viewers to their television sets Sunday night at 9:00 Eastern when they can watch this fascinating documentary, "Virus Hunters." I want to thank Dr. Golden and Dr. Phelps for being our guests today on Washington Post Live. Thank you, both. DR. GOLDEN: Thank you so much, David. DR. PHELPS: Thank you. MR. IGNATIUS: So, thank you for joining us. We'll be back with Washington Post Live next week. Gosh, there's an event coming up next week that we're


NBA, players reach deal to open season Dec. 22, play 72-game schedule

By comparison, 132 days passed between the final game of the 2019 Finals and the start of last season. The NBA is attempting to make up for lost time after the coronavirus prompted a four-month shutdown March 11. Initially, the two sides floated the possibility of a January or February start to the season, but the NBA reversed its position once it became clear that the ongoing spread of the virus would make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to host large amounts of fans in arenas this season. The United States saw a record 116,707 new coronavirus cases Thursday, and Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said recently that sporting events might not see a return to normal until the fourth quarter of 2021. The Athletic reported Thursday that the NBA might seek to open a portion of luxury suites at limited capacity this season. The players’ union initially was reluctant to move so quickly through the offseason and preferred starting on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, in large part because of the physical and mental toll of the bubble. But delaying the start until January could have cost the NBA as much as $1 billion, ESPN.com reported, and the players had little tolerance for further hits to their wallets as the clock ticked on their decision. With an estimated $4 billion gameday-related revenue drop coming this season because of the coronavirus, the sides ultimately concluded they needed to maximize their television visibility by playing showcase games on Christmas Day and returning the postseason closer to its standard calendar. The NBA’s postseason television ratings, which were held in August, September and October this year, sagged with competition from the NFL, MLB and college football. Some teams will find themselves more rushed than others. The Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat will be hardest hit; they will be asked to report to training camp just seven weeks after concluding the Finals in October. Lakers star LeBron James joked last week on HBO that he would be ramping up slowly. “I’m cherry-picking the whole first half of the season,” James said. But eight teams that weren’t invited to the bubble haven’t played since March. Six more, including the Washington Wizards, have been off since mid-August. All told, 22 of 30 teams haven’t played since at least the first week of September. “Additional details


Scattered and silenced by the pandemic, choral groups are trying to find their voice

In March, Eugene Rogers was in Ann Arbor, Mich., celebrating his appointment as the new artistic director of the Washington Chorus by completely scrapping and reimagining his inaugural season for a virtual future. Meanwhile, in Washington, Steven Fox, music director of the Cathedral Chorus Society, was reeling from the forced cancellation of a program two years in the making — a celebration of the ratification of the 19th Amendment featuring the premiere of a CCS commission from composer Lisa Bielawa. And in New York, Bielawa was trying to figure out what to do with herself after losing access to her primary instrument — other people. Every corner of the classical music world has been hit hard by the pandemic, but perhaps no subset seems as uniquely centered in the coronavirus’s crosshairs as choral music, which relies upon — and, indeed, exists as — a combination of public safety no-no’s: large groups, proximity and voices raised to the heavens (i.e., major distribution of droplets). Look closely at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report covering one of the first termed “superspreader” events — an outbreak in early March among the 122 members of a choir in Skagit County, Wash., that sickened 53 and killed two — and you’ll see singers recast in an ugly new pandemic-era nomenclature: superemitters. For choruses and choristers — a great many of whom volunteer for their positions on the risers — the music may be the meeting place, but the act of singing is what generates the sense of community and connection that keeps them returning to rehearsals — as a small percentage of the Choral Arts Society of Frederick recently did. More studies than any of us have time for here demonstrate the function of music as a social binding agent (and in the case of one study, “a special form of social cognition”) as well as a source of physical well-being (aiding everything from posture to breathing) and chemical pleasure (helloooo, dopamine). This goes for those listening, too. Put another way, that sense of belonging you get while standing before a chorus of hundreds singing at the holidays isn’t just you feeling festive — it’s your body behaving like a body. If talking to a loved one over Zoom doesn’t feel quite the same as sharing a sofa or a coffee in person, it’s partly because — get ready for some science —


The ways our modern tech stack up to sci-fi and fantasy marvels

reserve a wearable turbine T-73 from Jetpack International for a very reasonable $200,000. As for a more functional model: as well as the commercial parameters — safety, portability, fuel efficiency — there’s also the small matter of the piloting skills of the buyer. Factor in problems arising from flight path interference, and investors may feel they’re looking at another Ford Edsel. “By the turn of the millenium [sic] a technology known as VIRTUAL REALITY will be in widespread use. It will allow you to enter computer generated artificial worlds as unlimited as the imagination itself.” So begins sci-fi movie “The Lawnmower Man” (1992), whose intro was at least taken seriously by TV commissioning editors: the following year would see a short-lived British game show, “Cyberzone,” where contestants lumbered around a digital metropolis, while one episode of 1995’s “The Outer Limits” imagined virtual reality headsets so immersive they gave their wearers clairvoyance. Nearly 30 years later, it seems technology is catching up with its 1990s prophecies: the Oculus Quest gaming headset had sold 400,000 units by the close of last year. But according to international research, widespread VR still has an ethical barrier to overcome. It seems few have considered the negative effects of prolonged recreation in a digital playground, such as false memory brought about by identity hacking (where VR realizations of groups or individuals can be deliberately manipulated), and the decompression effect of reentering normality. Maybe, as with the many attempts to revive 3-D television, people aren’t yet ready for widespread total immersion. Moving objects instantaneously has been an enduring fantasy for over a century. From the vanishing cat of Edward Page Mitchell’s 1877 story “The Man Without a Body” to the 1956 novel “The Stars My Destination” and its citizens capable of “jaunting” using willpower, humans have longed to be zapped from A to B. The good news is the phenomenon exists — provided we’re not the passengers. Quantum teleportation involves “entangling” separate, unconnected particles until their statuses match. Qubits of information can be sent between quantum computers, and recently enabled a “jamming session” where Alexis Kirke, a PhD holder in arts and mathematics at the University of Plymouth, used an Australian IBM quantum computer to “accompany” him as he played the “Games of Thrones” theme. Not as exhilarating as interdimensional transport, perhaps, but the manufacturer that perfects a home computer capable of quantum teleportation will be a


the absence of a human bedside manner. If we can’t create an evil master control program, can we at least create the mannequin version? It’s nearly 50 years since Michael Crichton directed “Westworld,” adapted from his novel about a dust-bowl theme park whose chief robot cowpoke turns rogue and begins dueling for real. Androids that convincing might not yet walk among us, but they certainly exist, albeit in a more benevolent form. At the Kodaiji Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan, enlightenment seekers can enjoy sermons preached by Mindar, a robot speaking as Kannon Bodhisattva, the Buddhist deity of mercy. As one observing priest remarked: “It will just keep updating itself and evolving. That’s the beauty of a robot. It can store knowledge forever, and limitlessly.” The only thing stealthier than a machine priest could be something you can’t see at all. Artificial invisibility has been dreamed of for decades, perhaps most fondly imagined in the 2005-set video game “Metal Gear Solid” (1998), which allowed players to use stealth camo to evade enemies. We may already be on the cusp of such technology. European scientists have recently discovered that a key part of quantum computers — photonic circuits — can turn invisible when red femtosecond laser pulses are shone through them. Not quite the magic cloak Harry Potter fans long for, but proof that high-tech invisibility has moved beyond the “Ghost camouflage” that was recently able to evade night-vision. When imagining 2015, the screenwriters for “Back to the Future, Part II” got some lucky picks: gargantuan TVs, thumbprint transactions and a lasting obsession with the 1980s (as well as Michael Jackson’s performing hologram). But the levitating hoverboards, whispered to be real at the time of the film’s production, are still just a pipe dream. That didn’t stop French inventor Franky Zapata attempting to cross the English Channel on a hoverboard last year. It might not have been the model as flown by Michael J. Fox in the movie — that appeared to use a form of flux pinning (as opposed to a flux capacitor), while Zapata’s device was jet-based, and ran off a kerosene-filled backpack — but it allowed its pilot to float from Calais to Dover in 22 minutes. Whether the board will become commercially viable is open to speculation; die-hards who still want the Mattel version from the movie will have to contend with a desktop replica on Amazon.


For nearly 200 dogs, a journey from a South Korean meat farm to a shelter in Maryland

2017. Tori turned up at a protest of the dog meat trade in Seoul in 2018, apparently dropped off there by Moon’s daughter. As a presidential candidate, Moon had promised to phase out the dog meat trade but has been silent on the issue since taking power, despite a petition signed by 200,000 people. His government now says it needs to consider the livelihoods of people engaged in the business and expects “the system to change gradually in line with social discussions.” Even North Korean leader Kim Jong Un got in with the dog-friendly mood, giving Moon two Korean hunting dogs in 2018 who gave birth to six “peace puppies” the following year. Many dog farmers also sell animals into the underground dog fighting business, and some of the animals rescued last week were aggressive and understandably distrustful of humans. But Flocken said the vast majority will be ready to find their “forever homes” after some weeks of behavioral training. The few who are too terrified and anxious to live with people will be sent to a specialist shelter, where they will receive “incredible care.” Last year, Flocken adopted a 5-year-old golden retriever from a dog-meat farm. It has taken months for Chewbacca to become less anxious, Flocken says, and “he’s still a little rough around the edges — but he’s part of our family now.” Some dogs from the latest rescue mission in South Korea are already getting used to a domestic routine. Patten, 62, who is taking care of the Chihuahua, Cassie, said the dog has spent most of her time in a crate in Patten’s room since arriving Oct. 23. Initially, Cassie wouldn’t come out at all when Patten was around. Now she’ll inch out for a pet when Patten sits by the crate, only to quickly retreat back inside. “I’m just going with my instincts,” she said. “I’m not pushing her. It’s a lot of Google reading.” Anna Frostic, senior vice president of programs and policy at the Humane Society, has taken a 4-month-old puppy, a yellow lab mix with white spots on her toes and chest, into her Virginia home in Alexandria’s Old Town. “It’s pretty remarkable that she’s been able to adopt so quickly as a pet,” said Frostic. So far, the pup mainly sleeps and “continues to roll over from one cute position to another,” Frostic said. When out for a walk, “she


The results of our national election may tell a story of division. Ballot measures tell a different tale.

This column has been updated. The results of our national election may tell a story of division, but state ballot propositions tell a different tale. They show Americans agreeing about significant priorities, including a fundamental remaking of our justice system. There is much to be grateful for here, and something to build on. The American people — step by step, in red states and blue — are ending the war on drugs. With strong majorities, ballot measures in four states — Arizona (59.8 percent of the vote at the time of this writing), Montana (56.6 percent), New Jersey (66.9 percent) and South Dakota (54.2 percent) — legalized recreational marijuana. This brings to 15 the number of states that have done so. In Mississippi, a supermajority of 74 percent legalized medical marijuana. Oregon, which legalized marijuana in 1973, passed a measure (58.8 percent) to decriminalize even so-called hard drugs, following a successful example in Portugal. Possession of small amounts of drugs including heroin and cocaine will still be illegal but as a civil violation, carrying a small fine, not a criminal violation bringing prison time. Funds saved from changed enforcement practice will support addiction recovery centers. Among other things, these measures will reduce prison populations. In another blow against the injustices of mass incarceration, 59.1 percent of California voters supported Proposition 17 to restore the vote to parolees. In this they joined Florida’s voters, who in 2018 (with a near-supermajority of 65 percent) amended their state constitution to automatically restore voting rights to convicted felons who have completed their sentences, except for those convicted of murder or sexual offenses. The people of Mississippi successfully replaced a state flag that had included emblems of the Confederacy with a new one decorated with a magnolia, stars and the phrase “In God We Trust.” In Rhode Island, citizens removed the words “Providence Plantations” from the official state name. We do have the capacity to grapple with our past of racial domination and develop new narratives for who we are and what we want to be. Why do our national electoral politics look so different? The problem is not with the American people or our choices per se but with the rules we use for organizing our elections. In general, we use a plurality system, sometimes confusingly referred to as “first past the post”: Whichever candidate has the most votes wins the election. When there


Asha Gomez made her name as an Indian American chef. But she’s tired of being pigeonholed.

south of France.” In her first book, “My Two Souths,” released in 2016, Gomez embraced the boundaries of the southern Indian state of Kerala and the American South to understand the culinary connections between two places she calls home. (But don’t call it fusion — “I think it’s the other F word,” she says). In that book, she writes of growing up in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, surrounded by extended family in a community fondly called Carmel Compound, after her maternal grandmother. There, she watched her mother and three aunts in the kitchen. “Under the tutelage of these loving women, I absorbed lessons in preparing traditional, coastal Keralan fare,” Gomez wrote. At 15, she moved to the United States, first to New York and later to Atlanta. “The fact that my last name is Gomez from Portuguese influences, that I grew up with no taboos against eating meat and that I’m from a Christian community that can trace its history all the way back to St. Thomas the Apostle, speaks to an intersectionality and diversity in my background that many in the U.S. were not familiar with,” she said in an email. In Atlanta, she ran an ayurvedic spa, where she served her Keralan home cooking to clients after their appointments. In 2012, she opened her own restaurant, the acclaimed Cardamom Hill, a precursor to the style of cooking she would later write about in “My Two Souths.” Two-and-a-half years later, she closed its doors, and now she focuses her attention on her kitchen studio, The Third Space, for culinary pop-ups and custom dinners. Gomez is among many chefs of color who have pursued a greater understanding of their family’s food in a culinary journey. But when recognition of expertise assumes an inextricable bind to ethnic identity, food can stifle more than it can free. When chef and writer Jenny Dorsey was in culinary school, she requested a fine-dining restaurant such as Per Se or Jean-Georges for her externship. Her adviser, however, returned with several names but only one in fine dining — Annisa, the now-shuttered Michelin-starred restaurant in Manhattan owned by Chinese American chef Anita Lo. “Annisa is a lovely restaurant. I would have been happy to work there. But it was literally the only fine-dining restaurant that they came back with as an option,” Dorsey said. “I’m Chinese American, and I happen to want to work in fine dining. But


The Health 202: Biden is expected to unwind dozens of Trump-era health-care changes

in 2018. Congress could potentially make the whole lawsuit irrelevant by passing a law increasing the penalty to $1, although with control of the Senate still up in the air, it's unclear whether it would do so. In the middle of a pandemic, the stakes are high. If the law is overturned, it could cast into doubt insurance for people with preexisting conditions. This could potentially affect hundreds of thousands of Americans who have contracted the coronavirus if covid-19, which sometimes causes lingering effects, is classified as a preexisting condition. The Supreme Court has been hearing oral arguments over teleconference during the coronavirus pandemic and broadcasting them live for the first time. Tomorrow's arguments will be aired on C-SPAN. An administration official said that the White House chief of staff and at least five other aides have received positive coronavirus test results in the period around Election Day, Anne Gearan and Josh Dawsey report. “Meadows, who tested positive Wednesday, at first told others not to disclose his condition. But after his diagnosis became public late Friday, the official confirmed that a broader outbreak threatens to create a new crisis in the West Wing just as Meadows and other top aides are trying to help President Trump navigate a bitter loss at the polls to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden,” Anne and Josh write. The latest outbreak is at least the third wave of infections to strike the White House. The first, which erupted in the days after a Sept. 26 Rose Garden ceremony honoring Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, resulted in Trump testing positive and entering the hospital with covid-19. Two weeks later, at least five aides or advisers to Vice President Pence tested positive. But despite repeated infections, the White House has continued to ignore public health guidelines around the use of masks or social distancing. “Meadows, for instance, has rarely worn a mask in public, has ridiculed Democratic governors for locking down bars, restaurants and other businesses and has fought with federal science advisers about the administration’s response to the pandemic,” Anne and Josh write. The White House has also faced criticism for failing to conduct contact tracing or genetic analysis that could determine the source and spread of the outbreaks. This pattern may be playing out again. The administration official told The Post that many White House staffers and Cabinet officers who had close contact with Meadows


McDonald’s to roll out ‘McPlant,’ a meat alternatives line

RESTAURANTS Fast-food giant McDonald’s on Monday decided to debut its own plant-based meat alternatives line called “McPlant” in 2021, including a patty that Beyond Meat subsequently said it helped co-create. “Beyond Meat and McDonald’s co-created the plant-based patty which will be available as part of their McPlant platform,” a Beyond Meat representative said in an email. Beyond Meat was the front-runner for a contract as it had conducted tests of a “P.L.T.” burger at nearly 100 McDonald’s locations in Canada this year. McDonald’s reported market-beating profits and revenue for the third quarter on Monday. “Plant-based products are an ongoing consumer trend. It’s not a matter of if McDonald’s will get into plant-based, it’s a matter of when,” McDonald’s chief executive Chris Kempczinski said on a call with analysts. Analysts, rival fast-food companies and plant-based protein producers have been closely watching McDonald’s, as it is one of the few national chains without a plant-based burger on the menu. While other chains have started offering plant-based meat options, including Restaurant Brands International’s Burger King, White Castle and Dunkin’ Brands Group, a McDonald’s contract could be the biggest and would put the plant-based meat movement front and center in the United States. McDonald’s said that under its McPlant line, it could offer products including burgers, chicken substitutes and breakfast sandwiches, which it expects to test in some markets in 2021. — Reuters CYBERSECURITY Zoom Video Communications must implement a new information security program as part of its proposed settlement with U.S. regulators over user privacy issues, the Federal Trade Commission said Monday. The resolution did not have a financial component, but the agency said Zoom would face fines of up to $43,280 for each future violation under the agreement. It said Zoom’s misleading claims about giving users a secure channel of communication while offering a lower level of protection gave people a false sense of security. “Zoom’s security practices didn’t line up with its promises,” said Andrew Smith, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. A company spokeswoman said the security of its users is a top priority for Zoom. “We have already addressed the issues identified by the FTC,” she said. The FTC voted 3 to 2 along party lines to approve the settlement. Democratic commissioner Rohit Chopra issued a dissenting statement saying the company’s failures warrant serious action. Zoom has been a big beneficiary of the coronavirus shutdowns, with millions


The Technology 202: Trump's refusal to concede presents a new test for social networks

the United States launches its own antitrust case against the company, Jeanne Whalen reports. The European Union successfully fined the search giant $10 billion for antitrust violations, but critics say the court's decision to allow Google to decide its own remedies failed to make serious change. “The bad actor gets to decide what their medicine is going to be. And that’s just crazy, right?” Megan Gray, general counsel of rival search engine DuckDuckGo, said in an interview. The fixes Google did adopt changed little, Gray said. Google spokesman Jose Castaneda disputed the idea that the European Commission investigations have changed nothing, saying that the changes were “generating billions of clicks for more than 600 comparison shopping services.” Google is appealing the E.U. rulings. The United States could be more willing to force Google to sell off parts of its business. “It’s more difficult to win a case in the U.S. than in Europe. However, the U.S. in the past has applied more far-reaching remedies, mandating divestitures and breakups,” said Gene Kimmelman, former chief counsel for the Justice Department’s antitrust division, who now serves as senior adviser to the nonprofit tech policy group Public Knowledge. The Justice Department may also be more willing to break up an American company than European regulators, experts say. “In a way the best thing that could happen in the E.U. would be for the U.S. action to succeed,” said Damien Geradin, a lawyer in Brussels who regularly represents companies opposing Google in antitrust matters. The regulation will require companies to get a government license to sell facial recognition and cyber-surveillance technologies with military capabilities, Patrick Howell O'Neill at MIT Technology Review reports. The change comes in response to growing concerns about the use of the technologies by authoritarian governments in other parts of the world. Enforcement will be up to individual European Union members and guidance to consider the risk of human rights violations in licensing is nonbinding. The action still needs to be finalized by the International Trade Committee and European Parliament. VR Furries Are Now Running Around The Four Seasons Total Landscaping (BuzzFeed) Twitter argued over a map of Thanksgiving food preferences by state…the Internet is healing. Isn't everything just a vehicle for gravy anyway? (Don't @ me) The right take: In other news…one Biden tech supporter we missed yesterday. Is the Reddit co-founder gunning for a potential role on the transition team?


With diplomatic challenges mounting, Palestinians just lost their lead negotiator to covid-19

JERUSALEM — The death Tuesday of longtime negotiator Saeb Erekat deprives the Palestinian leadership of one of its most seasoned operators just as it confronts diplomatic upheavals across the region, a transition to a new presidential administration in Washington and Arab allies who are suddenly willing to engage with Israel on their own. Leaders from around the world noted the passing of Erekat, who died of complications from covid-19. A figure who loomed large in the region’s diplomatic affairs for decades, he was well known to the Middle East experts likely to staff the State Department under Joe Biden’s presidency. An academic who spoke fluent English and advocated nonviolent change, Erekat earned a reputation as a negotiator who had read everything and came prepared. “If there had been no Saeb Erekat, you would have had to invent one” said Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. negotiator who knew Erekat over more than 40 years. “And if there are ever again going to be serious negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, they are going to have to find another one.” Erekat, 65, had a history of respiratory trouble and received a lung transplant in the United States three years ago. After he fell ill with covid-19 in October, his daughter, a physician, treated him at his West Bank home in Jericho until he was transferred in critical condition to an Israeli hospital in Jerusalem. His presence there for three weeks sparked small protests by Israelis who held Erekat responsible for Palestinian terrorist attacks. Some Israeli politicians said the government should have insisted on concessions from the Palestinian Authority before allowing him to receive treatment. But until contracting covid-19 in October, Erekat remained active in the inner circle of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. “Dr. Erekat devoted his life to defending and fighting for the achievement of our right to freedom, self-determination, national independence, and the return of Palestine’s refugees,” the Palestinian Authority said in a statement. “His memory will remain eternal, enlightening his people's conscience until the fulfillment of what he fought with them to achieve: the end of Israel's brutal occupation and the realization of Palestine’s independence with Jerusalem as its capital.” Erekat was remembered with respect, even by many Israelis. Nitzan Horowitz, leader of the left-wing Meretz party and an advocate for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, said that “despite his frustration with the situation, he never abandoned his adherence


Man arrested and charged in September slaying in Columbia Heights

A Northwest D.C. man has been arrested and charged in a September homicide in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, police said Tuesday. D.C. police said John Pollard, 33, of Northwest, was fatally shot on Sept. 30 in the 3200 block of Hiatt Place NW just off 16th Street in Columbia Heights. Authorities on Monday arrested Randle Price, 28, of Northwest Washington. He is charged with first degree murder while armed — felony murder, according to officials. The case remains under investigation.