Hatice Cengiz: The international community must bring my fiance’s killers to justice

will continue to push the Trump administration to help find justice for Jamal. There will be no coverup. Today I am inviting the international community to take serious and practical steps to reveal the truth and to prosecute those involved in a court of law. And to deliver Jamal’s body, which is still missing, to his loved ones. I am not naive. I know that governments operate not on feelings but on mutual interests. However, they must all ask themselves a fundamental question: If the democracies of the world do not take genuine steps to bring to justice the perpetrators of this brazen, callous act — one that has caused universal outrage among their citizens — what moral authority are they left with? Whose freedom and human rights can than credibly continue to defend? We are now going through a test of humanity. And it requires leadership. The biggest responsibility lies on the heads of the governments. My president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and everyone in the political, legal and judicial branches of Turkey are managing this matter in the best way possible. So I invite the leaders of all European countries and the United States to pass this test. Justice must be served. Those who ordered this murder — even if they stand in the highest political office — should also be prosecuted. I demand justice for my beloved Jamal. We must all send a clear message that authoritarian regimes cannot kill journalists ever again. Jamal had just bought a house. He had a dream of building a family. He was selecting household items with excitement. His shirts had just been given to the dry-cleaners on his return to Istanbul from a conference in London. At the consulate, I was left at the door alone. I am the one story Jamal did not complete. Now everyone, together, must help finish it and carry the torch of Jamal’s soul until his dream is realized. Read more Hatice Cengiz: Please, President Trump, shed light on my fiance’s disappearance The Post’s View: Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered four weeks ago. We’re still waiting for answers. Jamal Khashoggi: What the Arab world needs most is free expression The Post’s View: Saudi Arabia admits Khashoggi’s murder was premeditated. Fine. Who premeditated it? Abdullah Alaoudh: We Saudis will never be silent about Jamal Khashoggi’s death Jackson Diehl: Why so many Middle East observers bet on MBS


What the Jamal Khashoggi case means for dissidents around the world

Mohamed El Dahshan is an Egyptian economist and analyst. He manages OXCON Frontier Markets and Fragile States Consulting and is a nonresident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. Soon before Jamal Khashoggi went into his country’s consulate to never again be seen alive, Egyptian opposition figure Mostafa al Naggar left his office and never reached his destination. His whereabouts remain unknown, and despite a strong suspicion that the Egyptian government might be behind his disappearance, the police — which have a long-documented history of disappearing political opponents — have simply denied any wrongdoing. But al Naggar’s case did not attract a modicum of the attention that Khashoggi’s tragic case has. Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, killed by car bomb a year ago last October, also still awaits justice. As a longtime reporter on corruption issues in her home country, she had multiple run-ins with the state, which had her arrested twice for doing her work. As it stands, three men have been accused of the murder, but her family is adamant that the mastermind of her murder is still at large. Raif Badawi has been in prison in Saudi Arabia since 2012, serving a sentence of 10 years and 1,000 lashes for “insulting Islam through electronic channels,” for creating a website. Human rights organizations occasionally remind us of his plight, and Canada, whose citizenship Badawi’s wife and children hold, occasionally chimes in sheepishly. And while Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan positions himself as the seeker of truth for Khashoggi, Turkey remains one of the worst offenders against journalists globally. Just last week, it sentenced three journalists to jail for “insulting the president”. In the weeks following Khashoggi’s horrendous murder at the hands of Saudi government operatives, the resulting fallout sends an unambiguous messages to dissidents, opponents and human rights activists: Unless you’re exceptionally well connected, you will be promptly forgotten if you are killed. “We have to ask ourselves why we didn’t see such an outcry when the Saudis executed Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and other dissidents. We have to ask ourselves why there wasn’t this outcry when thousands and thousands are getting crammed up in al-Saud’s prisons facing torture and cruel treatment. And actually, in the rest if the Arab world — Sisi is doing the same; other Arab dictators are doing the same. But we didn’t see such an outcry,” notes renowned Egyptian journalist and


Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered four weeks ago. We’re still waiting for answers.

JAMAL KHASHOGGI walked in to the Saudi Consulate four weeks ago on Tuesday to obtain a simple document allowing him to marry. Instead, he was brutally murdered by a team of 15 agents sent from Riyadh. Saudi authorities now acknowledge the crime was premeditated. Yet much about it remains undisclosed, including what happened to Mr. Khashoggi’s body, which has not been returned to his family. Rather than answer those questions, the Saudi government — and its de facto accomplices in the Trump administration — have gone silent, evidently hoping that demands for accountability will fade away now that the story has been pushed from the front pages. That should not be allowed to happen. What occurred inside the Saudi Consulate on Oct. 2 is not a mystery. The basic facts are well known to senior Turkish and U.S. officials. The Turks have an audio recording of Mr. Khashoggi’s final moments that they have shared with CIA Director Gina Haspel, who, in turn, has briefed President Trump. The Turkish account, leaked to the media, is that the veteran journalist and Post columnist was immediately assaulted upon entering the consulate. His fingers were severed, and he was injected with a drug before being dismembered by an autopsy specialist who arrived in Istanbul with a bone saw. What the Turks still don’t know has been publicly voiced by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan: Where is Mr. Khashoggi’s body? And who ordered and oversaw this grisly operation? The Saudis know the answers to both those questions, and Mr. Trump might, too. Experts on Saudi Arabia are virtually unanimous in saying that such an audacious mission must have been known about, and most likely was ordered, by the kingdom’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. U.S. intelligence intercepts indicated that the crown prince ordered a plot to lure Mr. Khashoggi, a persistent if mild critic, to Saudi Arabia from exile so that he could be silenced. Two of Mohammed bin Salman’s closest aides and five probable members of his security detail already have been implicated. Yet the Saudis are deflecting questions by pretending to investigate what happened; the kingdom’s chief prosecutor traveled to Istanbul on Monday to meet his Turkish counterpart. Worse, rather than demand a genuinely independent investigation, the Trump administration is playing along. It has withheld its own conclusions about the murder while pretending to believe that the Saudis can conduct a


My firm conducts global investigations. Here’s what needs to happen for Khashoggi.

States would combine the benefits of credibility and the ability to operate free from the constraints imposed on government agencies by existing treaties. Investigators should review all communications into and out of the consulate, starting with Khashoggi’s first visit on Sept. 28, when he requested the necessary documents to marry his Turkish fiancee, and continuing through his return visit on Oct. 2, when he was killed. During the first visit, he reportedly made an appointment to return and pick up the documents, which must have triggered communications leading to the dispatch of 15 Saudi agents to Istanbul, apparently with the intent of abducting or killing him. That entire communication trail is vital to determining who was involved and what roles they played. A forensic study of all pertinent video and audio materials should be conducted to determine if they have been doctored. Turkey has leaked extensive information, but investigators need to see the materials and evaluate their authenticity. If that can be established, they will provide not only actual evidence about Khashoggi’s death but also valuable guidance when conducting interviews and open-source investigation of key players. Confidential interviews need to be conducted with all of the Saudis known to have been involved in this matter — the consulate staff in Istanbul, the Saudi agents who were flown in and their superiors in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The interviews should be conducted outside the kingdom to minimize the potential for intimidation and compromised confidentiality. During our Abu Dhabi investigation, our interviews of migrant workers were conducted away from the job site for exactly that reason. In particular, the 15-person Saudi team must be thoroughly investigated, through professional interviews and intense study of public information sources to determine exactly who they are, their jobs and reporting structures, and their networks of personal, family and professional relationships. The goal: gaining a clear picture of who these people are and who they really work for. Getting to the bottom of this conspiracy will require locating Khashoggi’s remains or determining beyond any doubt how they were disposed of. Assuming the body can be found, the investigation must include independent forensic analysis of the remains and the site where they were discovered. If the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States can muster the political will to commit themselves to a fact-based investigation, there are proven methods available that will almost certainly reveal the truth.


Why so many Middle East observers bet on MBS

necessary cure. But after a few months of exhilaration following the 2011 Arab uprising, most were discouraged by the incompetence and creeping autocracy of elected Muslim governments in Egypt and Turkey. In Mohammed, Egyptian strongman Abdel Fatah al-Sissi and their mentors in the United Arab Emirates, a lot of people in Washington saw a new way forward: enlightened dictators. Liberal reformers and pro-democracy advocates, such as Khashoggi, might be exiled or imprisoned — something American fans of the autocrats opposed. But Mohammed and Sissi would go to war with al-Qaeda and squelch the extremist clerics who inspire jihad. They would be the Pinochets and Lee Kuan Yews of the Middle East, leading a forced march to modernization that would leave Riyadh looking more like glittering, and more tolerant, Dubai. Dennis Ross, one of the most experienced American Middle East hands, noted in a Post op-ed this month that Mohammed had not only allowed women to drive and opened movie theaters but also appointed a new moderate head of the World Muslim League. “If the changes that MBS is driving actually materialize,” Ross wrote, using Mohammed’s initials, “they would discredit religious extremism, end its export out of Saudi Arabia, reconcile Islam with modernity and provide a model for development that has been lacking in the Arab Middle East.” Who wouldn’t be for that? Khashoggi, for one. The veteran journalist was one of the most incisive critics of the new autocratic wave. He, too, had been inspired by the pro-democracy revolutions of the Arab Spring, and then disenchanted with some of the results. But Khashoggi didn’t give up on democracy. On the contrary, he argued forcefully in his Post columns that checks and balances — especially in the form of free expression — remained essential to the cause of modernization, and that reform could not be carried out from the top down. “Prince Mohammed is right to go after extremists. But he is going after the wrong people,” Khashoggi wrote a year ago, pointing out that liberal advocates of the very reforms Mohammed was promoting were being arrested and jailed by the dozens, even as fundamentalist clerics continued to speak freely. Khashoggi has been falsely accused of being a supporter of Islamic extremists. He wasn’t. But he did believe that the reform of Islam cannot mean wiping out peaceful political movements that espouse Muslim values. “There can be no political reform and


We Saudis will never be silent about Jamal Khashoggi’s death

kingdom back in September 2017 and after, and targeted prominent voices outside, such as Khashoggi’s, chose to silence the moderates who call for democracy, human rights and freedom of speech. It was these voices that exposed the reality of the “reforms” that were being peddled and put the basic elements of any free society to the test. When Khashoggi was asked about when he might ever return to Saudi Arabia, he replied, “When I see Salman Alodah return to his platform, when I see Essam al-Zamil return to his activism on Twitter, when I see Abdullah al-Malki return to his writing on the accountability of the rulers to the nation.” Khashoggi was referring to the book of al-Malki on the “Sovereignty of the People” in which the latter criticized the “application of Sharia” that the Saudi state uses in order to abridge basic human rights and liberties in the kingdom. Al-Malki argues that the sovereignty and free choice of the people are paramount and should be used as a framework for any alleged application of sharia. Justice and free choice must come first. This discourse has been silenced inside Saudi Arabia because it questions absolute power and dictatorship and disputes the intent of partial and superficial reforms. Al-Malki was also referred to court this month on charges similar to those faced by others, including his relations to the people who called for constitutional reforms in Saudi Arabia, according to some people close to him. When Khashoggi left Saudi Arabia, he foresaw the dangerous elements of authoritarianism, but he never felt that his struggle against tyranny would cost him his life. Jamal is in the hearts and minds of so many, and we will keep him alive forever. We, as voices calling for democratic values in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, will never be silent or intimidated by fear or threats. If the perpetrators of the murder wanted to intimidate and threaten those who speak, disagree, or demand liberties and basic human rights in Saudi Arabia, they only made Jamal a martyr for the struggle for a better Saudi Arabia and a better Arab world. Read more: The Post’s View: How the current crown prince changed Saudi Arabia — for the worse David Ignatius: The Saudi royal family circles its wagons in the Khashoggi crisis The Post’s View: Jamal Khashoggi’s final appeal Read Jamal Khashoggi’s columns for the Washington Post Abdullah Alaoudh:


Could Khashoggi’s death trigger reforms? A 1984 murder case offers lessons.

Asia and the Pacific, Solarz used congressional hearings to publicize an extensive network of Kuomintang spies in the United States who were monitoring dissidents from Taiwan. Solarz added an amendment to the Arms Export Control Act, banning weapons sales to countries that engage in “intimidation and harassment” of people in America. He threatened to block arms sales unless FBI agents investigating Liu’s death were given access to a leading Taiwanese intelligence official. Chiang ultimately consented, and in April 1985, the official, Vice Adm. Wang Hsi-ling, was convicted in Taiwan of ordering the murder and sentenced to life in prison, although he was released after six years. Liu’s killing had a profound impact in Taiwan. Chiang moved to end the political careers of his sons, one of whom was suspected of actually ordering the hit. Chiang’s advisers used the incident to push for political reform. In May 1986, Chiang directed his vice president, Lee Teng-hui, to draw up plans for direct elections for the mayors of Taiwan’s two biggest cities, Taipei and Kaohsiung. And when the opposition Democratic Progressive Party was founded on Sept. 28, 1986, something extraordinary happened: No one was thrown in jail. On Oct. 7, 1986, just a few days shy of the second anniversary of Liu’s murder, Chiang announced that he would be ending 38 years of martial law. Chiang revealed his plans in an interview with Katharine Graham, chairman of the board of The Washington Post Co. The changes that followed were extraordinary. Chiang lifted bans on independent organizations and speech. Taiwan’s media became one of the most vibrant in Asia. Chiang died of heart disease in 1988; he was replaced by Lee Teng-hui. In 1990, months after the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing, a pro-democracy student movement called for new elections in Taiwan. Lee had just been “reelected” by the rubber-stamp National Assembly. Lee did not follow the path of mainland Chinese authorities. Instead, he promised to hold the next election in 1996 by popular vote. He won it in a landslide. Read more: Jamal Khashoggi’s final column for The Post: What the Arab world needs most is free expression Read Jamal Khashoggi’s columns for The Post Hatice Cengiz: Please, President Trump, shed light on my fiance’s disappearance David Ignatius: Jamal Khashoggi’s long road to the doors of the Saudi Consulate Editorial Board: How the current crown prince changed Saudi Arabia — for the worse


In a previously unheard interview, Jamal Khashoggi talks Saudi Arabia and freedom

Jamal Khashoggi and I wrote about opposite, but equally troubled, shores of the Persian Gulf for The Washington Post’s Global Opinions section: Jamal focused on Saudi Arabia, and me on Iran. This past summer, Jamal and I sat down with Global Opinions editor Karen Attiah for a wide-ranging conversation about the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Jamal and I used to call Saudi Arabia and Iran, respectively, home, and then their regimes made clear – in word and deed – that we were no longer welcome to return. What struck me most at the time was how much we appreciated and cared about Iran and Saudi Arabia. We both wanted better for those societies but could not overlook the abuses, repression and mistakes of their governments. Both countries are young and dynamic. Most people there want what most people want everywhere: more opportunities, more transparency, more stability. “Saudi Arabia is a country with 20 million people population. Two-thirds of them are young, less than 30 years old,” Jamal told us. “Mohammed bin Salman is putting all issues — economic, religion — in Saudi Arabia on fast-forward.” Jamal and I wrote to elevate the desires of everyday Saudis and Iranians and to perhaps encourage the leadership to change course. “Even some people who do not disagree with me writing, they will say to me, ‘But it is not the right time to say it,’ ” Jamal said during our conversation. “We are far away from democracy. Democracy in America and Finland and Denmark, it humbles the leaders. It make the leader accountable to the smallest person in the street. Our leaders? No. Our leaders see themselves as leaders who know best, and people like me and Jason are just hindering the process for their reform.” Jamal and I didn’t agree on everything, but our exchange is what is needed most right now: open, fact-based discussion about important geopolitical issues. I’m glad we are able to share Jamal’s thoughtful comments. What a great shame that his voice has been silenced. Read more: Jamal Khashoggi’s final column for The Post: What the Arab world needs most is free expression Read Jamal Khashoggi’s columns for The Post Hatice Cengiz: Please, President Trump, shed light on my fiance’s disappearance David Ignatius: Jamal Khashoggi’s long road to the doors of the Saudi Consulate Editorial Board: How the current crown prince changed


Please, President Trump, shed light on my fiance’s disappearance

Saudi Arabia, his native country, without doubting he would be safe there. After seeing how relaxed he was, I waited patiently and full of hope. But after three hours I was overcome with fear and concern. I texted a few friends to inform them, and I asked about Jamal at the consular building. I received an answer that further fueled my fears: Jamal had already left, they told me, possibly without my noticing. Trying to stay calm, I immediately called Yasin Aktay, an adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and one of Jamal’s oldest friends. Since the incident came to the attention of the press and law enforcement, I have been waiting fearfully. This much is true: He entered the consulate, and there’s no proof that he came out. In recent days, I’ve witnessed the work of the Turkish authorities as they monitor the situation closely. I am confident in the abilities of Turkish government officials. At this time, I implore President Trump and first lady Melania Trump to help shed light on Jamal’s disappearance. I also urge Saudi Arabia, especially King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to show the same level of sensitivity and release CCTV footage from the consulate. Although this incident could potentially fuel a political crisis between the two nations, let us not lose sight of the human aspect of what happened. Jamal is a valuable person, an exemplary thinker and a courageous man who has been fighting for his principles. I don’t know how I can keep living if he was abducted or killed in Turkey. Although my hope slowly fades away each passing day, I remain confident that Jamal is still alive. Perhaps I’m simply trying to hide from the thought that I have lost a great man whose love I had earned. As an individual who believes that life and death are in the hands of God, I pray to God alone for Jamal’s safe return. Read more: The Post’s View: We need answers on Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance David Ignatius: Jamal Khashoggi chose to tell the truth. It’s part of the reason he’s beloved. Tom Toles: The world must not look away from the assault on free expression Erdogan demands that Saudis prove missing journalist left their consulate alive Read Jamal Khashoggi’s columns for The Washington Post Manal al-Sharif: Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance spreads fear worldwide, but we won’t be silenced


Turkey says it has more evidence to share in Khashoggi killing

killing of Khashoggi, who was a Washington Post contributing columnist, during her visit to Turkey last month, according to people familiar with her meetings. Cavusoglu said it is the responsibility of Saudi authorities to find out what has happened to Khashoggi’s body because the 15-member hit team that Turkey says was sent to Istanbul to kill him is back in Saudi Arabia. “These 15 people who came to Turkey did not come on their own,” he said, dismissing the idea that they were rogue assassins acting independently. “They were given orders.” Cavusoglu reiterated that Turkey has not concluded that King Salman of Saudi Arabia ordered the killing. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke to Salman twice on the phone and does not consider him “the type of person who would issue a death order,” Cavusoglu said. In an opinion piece in The Post last week, Erdogan said that the order to kill Khashoggi “came from the highest levels of the Saudi government” but that he did not “believe for a second” that Salman had ordered the hit. In an interview with CNN on Monday, Khashoggi’s 35-year-old son, Salah, said the king had assured him that “everybody involved will be brought to justice” for the killing. “I have faith in that. This will happen,” he said. Alongside his brother, Abdullah, 33, Salah made an appeal for the return of his father’s body. “We just need to make sure that he rests in peace,” Salah said. Turkey has said that a 15-man squad dispatched from Saudi Arabia killed Khashoggi shortly after he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul to seek a document he needed for his upcoming wedding to his Turkish fiancee. They then dismembered his body and disposed of it as part of a premeditated plot, Turkish authorities said. After initially insisting that Khashoggi had left the consulate shortly after he entered the building, Saudi Arabia last month admitted that he was killed inside. However, it has repeatedly denied that powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, was responsible for the killing, even though his close associates are among the suspects. Turkey has repeatedly accused Saudi Arabia of not cooperating in the investigation and of destroying evidence. On Monday, a Turkish official said that at least two members of a team that Saudi Arabia sent to investigate Khashoggi’s killing were actually there to cover it up. loveday.morris@washpost.com


Sorry, this strange space rock was not sent by aliens to save us

after the Hawaiian word for “messenger,” since it was first spotted swooping past the planets at an odd angle. Its speed was so blistering and trajectory so strange that scientists concluded it had to be a visitor from another star. Subsequent observations by dozens of telescopes in every wavelength of the electromagnetic spectrum suggested it was an inert (if extraordinary) space rock — dense, dustless, and reddened by irradiation from cosmic rays. Just to be on the safe side, astronomers at the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia specifically listened for signals from any electronic device that might be attached to the object. They didn’t hear a peep. But then a preprint of a research paper to be published in the Astrophysical Journal appeared online this week, posing an “exotic scenario” in which the 'Oumuamua was a solar-powered probe built by an alien civilization. There’s no evidence to support this idea. Indeed, the majority of the study is devoted to examining how radiation pressure from the sun might push on a natural object and contribute to 'Oumuamua’s unexplained acceleration. This phenomenon is the basis for a proposed method of spacecraft propulsion called light sails, which I guess is how we get from “whoa, weird rock” to “it might be aliens!” The study authors justify their speculation by arguing that the probability of an ordinary comet intercepting our solar system after being ejected by its home star is very small. As astrophysicist Katie Mack pointed out on Twitter, coming up with far-out explanations for slightly strange phenomena is one of astronomers' favorite parlor games. (Remember the alien megastructure that turned out to be a star swathed in dust?) That doesn’t mean you need to stock up on canned goods and tin foil hats every time a weird theory gets published. “Until every other possibility has been exhausted dozen times over, even the authors probably don’t believe it,” Mack said. Other astronomers were not so forgiving of their colleagues' speculation. Since ‘Oumuamua has already sped far from our solar system, out of reach of all telescopes, scientists are stuck with the data they have. Luckily, there’s reams of it — and scores of more likely explanations for the comet’s behavior have not been exhausted. So, go ahead and cast your vote as if this is the only world we have, and no one else is out there to save us from ourselves.


The Health 202: Democrats stuck to their message on health-care. And it might win them the House.

work of Ebola response teams and putting their security at risk. Violence has escalated in recent weeks, severely hampering the response. The daily rate of new Ebola cases more than doubled in early October. ” “In addition, there is community resistance and deep mistrust of the government. Some sick people have refused to go to treatment centers, health-care workers are still being infected, and some people are dying of Ebola or spreading the virus to new areas.” OUCH: Doctors are struggling to explain the third nationwide peak since 2014 of the rare polio-like condition, acute flaccid myelitis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating 219 reports of patients with the disease so far this year, with 80 of those cases confirmed to be AFM. That’s up from 33 confirmed cases last year, the Wall Street Journal’s Sumathi Reddy reports. The spikes in cases have come every two years since 2014 and have almost always been in children. The CDC confirmed 149 cases in 2016 and 120 cases in 2014. “Doctors and the CDC differ on the possible cause of the condition and how to treat it,” Sumathi writes. “Many doctors speculate AFM is largely fueled by a common virus called the enterovirus, which for most people causes nothing more than a routine upper-respiratory infection. But the CDC believes there could be other culprits. Some experts believe the condition likely existed before 2014 and think there could be more cases, since there is no national requirement to report as there is for many other conditions, including influenza and measles.” “If there was mandatory reporting, it would help with surveillance,” Keith Van Haren, an assistant professor of neurology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, told Sumathi. “This doesn’t appear to be going away. We need to be preparing and anticipating the possibility of a more severe outbreak.” — Our Post colleague Christopher Ingraham has another helpful look at all the marijuana initiatives on the ballot today and where they are most likely to win. He writes that the latest polls show Michigan’s measure on recreational marijuana use passing with a comfortable margin. As for Nebraska’s measure on legalizing recreational pot, he writes the polling is “all over the place, with two surveys fielded at roughly the same time in October yielding opposite, lopsided results: One showed the initiative passing 51 percent to 36 percent, while the other showed it


High-tech farmers are using LED lights in ways that seem to border on science fiction

[This story has been optimized for offline reading on our apps. For a richer experience, you can find the full version of this story here. An Internet connection is required.] M ike Zelkind stands at one end of what was once a shipping container and opens the door to the future. Thousands of young collard greens are growing vigorously under a glow of pink-purple lamps in a scene that seems to have come from a sci-fi movie, or at least a NASA experiment. But Zelkind is at the helm of an earthbound enterprise. He is chief executive of 80 Acres Farms, with a plant factory in an uptown Cincinnati neighborhood where warehouses sit cheek by jowl with detached houses. Since plants emerged on Earth, they have relied on the light of the sun to feed and grow through the process of photosynthesis. But Zelkind is part of a radical shift in agriculture — decades in the making — in which plants can be grown commercially without a single sunbeam. A number of technological advances have made this possible, but none more so than innovations in LED lighting. “What is sunlight from a plant’s perspective?” Zelkind asks. “It’s a bunch of photons.” Diode lights, which work by passing a current between semiconductors, have come a long way since they showed up in calculator displays in the 1970s. Compared with other forms of electrical illumination, light-emitting diodes use less energy, give off little heat and can be manipulated to optimize plant growth. In agricultural applications, LED lights are used in ways that seem to border on alchemy, changing how plants grow, when they flower, how they taste and even their levels of vitamins and antioxidants. The lights can also prolong their shelf life. “People haven’t begun to think about the real impact of what we are doing,” says Zelkind, who is using light recipes to grow, for example, two types of basil from the same plant: sweeter ones for the grocery store and more piquant versions for chefs. For Zelkind, a former food company executive, his indoor farm and its leading-edge lighting change not just the way plants are grown but also the entire convoluted system of food production, pricing and distribution in the United States. High-tech plant factories are sprouting across the United States and around the world. Entrepreneurs are drawn to the idea of disrupting the status quo, confronting climate


Is the Trump administration serious about peace in Yemen?

Trump administration to take the heat off of the U.S.-Saudi relationship. But how can we tell if the promise is genuine? One thing the administration can and should do is to end U.S. arms sales and logistical support for the Saudi war effort in Yemen immediately, as leverage to get Riyadh to the peace table. Why wait 30 days and risk more civilian deaths in a war that has already killed far too many people? There is also a suggestion in the State Department’s official statement calling for the cease-fire that the Houthi rebels should stop first. For those who haven’t been following the conflict, perhaps this seems like a reasonable demand. But Saudi air strikes on civilians are not a legitimate quid pro quo for Houthi actions — they should be stopped in their own right. Doing otherwise could spark a “you first” approach that would allow the devastating bombing to go on for an indefinite period of wrangling, charges and counter-charges. The best way to make sure the current opening for peace in Yemen isn’t allowed to pass is for Congress to persist in its efforts to end U.S. support for the Saudi war effort. In the House, Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Adam Smith (D-Wash.) and more than 70 colleagues have introduced a measure that would end U.S. support for the Saudi war in Yemen under the War Powers resolution, which requires congressional authorization for U.S. involvement in overseas conflicts. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is poised to introduce a similar measure in the Senate. The last time he did so, in partnership with Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), their measure garnered 44 votes. In the new climate created by the Saudi assassination of Khashoggi — and the increased scrutiny of the Saudis’ role in Yemen — a renewed proposal could well pass in the Senate. Congressional action to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen is the best way to hold the Trump administration to its pledge to use its leverage with Riyadh to promote a peaceful conclusion to the war in Yemen. There is no time to lose. Read more: The Post’s View: The Trump administration backs a cease-fire in Yemen. Will it persuade Saudi Arabia? Jamal Khashoggi: Saudi Arabia’s crown prince must restore dignity to his country — by ending Yemen’s cruel war The Post’s View: Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered four


Children’s book found at scene of D.C. fatal shooting leads police to suspect

Roderick Thomas wanted a MacBook Pro laptop computer. While his family isn’t sure why, they think it must have been for his fledgling business. Police said the 27-year-old barber found someone purportedly selling the computer on the Internet, through the smartphone app OfferUp, which connects buyers and sellers of items. They agreed to meet near the Congress Heights Metro station in Southeast Washington the morning of Oct. 11. What happened next remains murky, but police said Thomas was shot dead during an argument and left to die in his car. Police arrested an 18-year-old suspect last week. His undoing, according to authorities, was not some high-tech cyber computer trail, but a children’s book police found in a backpack left behind at the crime scene. The book is “Still a Family,” a story about a homeless couple and their daughter forced to separate to live in shelters. Police said in an arrest affidavit charging DeAndre Houston with first-degree murder that the book had been checked out of an elementary school by his young brother. That, police said, led detectives to Houston’s mother in Southeast, and then to Houston. It is unclear whether Houston had a computer to sell; police did not list a computer among the items retrieved at the crime scene in the 3200 block of 12th Street SE. The suspect’s attorney and family did not respond to requests for interviews. Thomas’s shooting comes amid an uptick in deadly violence in the District. As of Tuesday morning there were 142 homicides in the city this year, compared with 97 at the same time in 2017. Thomas’s mother, Michelle Thomas, who raised her family in Southeast, said it is difficult to comprehend what happened to her son. “I would like to remember his smile and his laughter,” said Thomas, 50. “He was a loving, caring person. He smiled all the time, even in his baddest moments.” Michelle Thomas and the victim’s aunt, Ruth Johnson, 54, said Thomas sometimes got into trouble in his youth, though nothing violent. “We tried to keep him on the straight and narrow,” Johnson said. Thomas attended barber school and had two children — a girl, 2, and a boy, 5. He also had a girlfriend. They fell on hard times and ended up in a homeless shelter; his aunt said relatives took in the children. Michelle Thomas said she did not know her son had stayed


Federal judge blasts Fish and Wildlife Service, says endangered wolves cannot be shot

conserve the species and determine the impact of allowing people to slaughter the few that remain in and around the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina. Red wolves once roamed the entire southeastern United States before government-sanctioned hunting programs all but eliminated them. The animals were so desperate to survive that they started breeding with smaller coyotes that they once chased away or killed. In the late 1970s, a few wolves were captured and bred in zoos. About 10 years later, an experimental population was released into the North Carolina refuge in a bid to repopulate the animals in the wild. In what was hailed as a biological success, two breeding pairs expanded to nearly 140 in the early 2000s. But in 2012, as a few private landowners and state wildlife officials put pressure on the service to end the program in North Carolina, the population went into a startling decline. Boyle drew a connection between state agitation against the wolves and a change in federal management. “Notably … the red wolf population saw a drastic decrease from 2013 to 2015,” with only 50 wolves remaining, Boyle wrote. “The population decrease coincides with … making internal revisions to its guidelines and management policies in response at least in part to mounting public pressure against red wolf recovery efforts.” In addition to allowing red wolves to be killed, managers stopped releasing wolves into the wild or assuring the survival of pups. Meanwhile, a state program that allowed coyote hunting resulted in numerous red wolf deaths. Hunters who killed wolves said they mistook them for coyotes. The court’s decision stands to significantly alter the Fish and Wildlife Service’s most recent plan to manage the wolves, announced in June. That plan, if approved, would allow North Carolina landowners to kill any wolf that stepped onto their property. Only 35 wolves remain in the five-county area where they are managed. At the time of the June announcement, Leopoldo Miranda, assistant director for ecological services in the agency’s southeast region, said that the goal would be to intensively manage a small population of 10 to 15 red wolves at the refuge. The hope, Miranda said, would be to preserve their genetic value and wild behaviors so that red wolves could be released into an environment more friendly than eastern North Carolina. Miranda would not say whether such a place had been found or


Major donors, other leaders condemn the board and call for U-Md. president to remain

U-Md. has been roiled by the death of football player Jordan McNair. A day after regents recommended the school’s football coach and athletic director be retained, Loh stunned the campus when he announced that football coach DJ Durkin had been asked to leave U-Md. Loh’s decision, made in defiance of the regents, was hailed in some quarters as a reassertion of the university’s autonomy and a rejection of the pervasive influence of athletics. More turmoil arrived Thursday when the chairman of the Board of Regents stepped down. A spokeswoman for U-Md. did not respond to questions about Loh’s retirement Monday. A spokesman for the Board of Regents referred questions to a board statement Thursday night. In that statement, regents wrote of the complexity of the issues. Last week, the chairman of the University of Maryland College Park Foundation Board of Trustees, Geoff J. Gonella, said the board’s actions had wreaked havoc and may have dealt a “fatal” blow to the school’s $1.5 billion fundraising campaign. The A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation, which gave the largest single gift to U-Md. at $219 million in 2017, declined to comment Monday. Fifty-four of the 70 people honored as distinguished university professors, the highest honor given to tenured faculty, have signed a letter to the regents written last week. They wrote that Loh was the only university official who took full moral and financial responsibility for the death of 19-year-old McNair even though, they said, it was the football coach who was responsible for dangerous conditions in the program. “Someone who is paid 12.5 million dollars over a five-year period should have the elementary common sense to know how to run a football practice on a hot and humid summer day that does not lead to the death of a player,” the professors wrote. "By reinstating the head football coach and by pressuring the university president to resign, the Regents have revealed their distorted priorities, ones that place potential athletic success over the University’s academic purpose and the health of our athletes.” On Friday, the University Senate, which represents faculty members, staff and students, passed a scathing resolution condemning the regents' actions. The University Senate wrote that regents “grossly exceeded” their authority and “interfered with the autonomy” of the university, “demonstrated a complete disregard for academic freedom,” damaged the school’s reputation, jeopardized its accreditation and “betrayed the trust” of the campus community.


A year after the Ritz-Carlton roundup, Saudi elites remain jailed by the crown prince

assets recovered in the Ritz operation. Mohammed said in an interview last month with Bloomberg News that only eight men were still being detained. He offered no other details except to say, “They’re with their lawyers and facing the system that we have in Saudi Arabia.” But other people familiar with the detentions said the number is much higher, with 45 Ritz detainees still locked up. One of those may have won his freedom Friday when Saudi authorities released Prince Khaled bin Talal, 56, a cousin of Mohammed and Turki. Khaled is a businessman and noted religious conservative who reportedly opposed the crown prince’s decision to strip power from the country’s notorious religious police. Human rights activists and other analysts said Mohammed may be preparing to release more of the detainees to help cool the international furor over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi on Oct. 2. Khashoggi’s death inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul at the hands of Saudi agents has strained relations with Washington and Europe and drawn attention to the crown prince’s human rights practices, including his record of locking up scores of his critics. “They don’t want to do it, but they are under pressure, and they will do it to release some pressure,” said Yahya Assiri, a Saudi human rights activist living in self-exile in London. But he cautioned against overstating the importance of the release of Khaled, suggesting it was done mainly to shore up support for Mohammed within the royal family at a time when the crown prince and his father, the current monarch, King Salman, are under stress. “I think this is trying to show family unity in the face of scrutiny,” said Adam Coogle, a Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch who closely monitors the kingdom. Mohammed’s roundup of wealthy Saudis a year ago helped cement his control over many of the country’s most powerful individuals and neutralized potential political rivals within the royal family. “It’s about money and power,” said a person close to the royal family. “Mohammed bin Salman understands that if you take away their money, you take away their power.” Faced with long detentions or other punishment, some of the Ritz detainees agreed to hand over the demanded cash, which often amounted to most of their net worth, according to accounts from family, friends and human rights groups. Many Saudis and foreign observers have applauded Mohammed


“Technology 202” live event features eBay CEO, White House technology advisers

On Thursday, November 8, The Washington Post will launch the “Technology 202” live series with eBay CEO Devin Wenig, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Coordination Chris Liddell, Deputy Assistant to the President for Technology Policy Michael Kratsios and Special Assistant to the President for Tech, Telecom, and Cyber Policy Gail Slater. Wenig, Liddell, Kratsios, other key policymakers and industry leaders will discuss the promise of new technologies like artificial intelligence, 3D-printing and quantum computing, how public policy can keep up with them and whether the United States technology sector is positioned to compete globally. This event is open to press and will be streamed on The Post’s site at wapo.st/tech202wplive Media who wish to attend must RSVP. Speakers include: Siemens USA CEO Barbara Humpton also joins the program in a sponsor segment. Event Details Thursday, November 8, 2018 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM (Doors open at 8:30 AM) The Washington Post Live Center 1301 K St NW, Washington, DC 20071 Siemens is the presenting sponsor of The Washington Post’s “Technology 202” series. The University of Virginia is the supporting sponsor of Technology 202 Live.


Military faces greater scrutiny, tighter funding as Democrats take the House

would ask the Pentagon to come in and explain to us in an open public hearing what they’re doing and why,” Smith told Washington Post opinion writer Greg Sargent. “I don’t think we should let the president get away with this type of policy with no justification and no explanation for it.” Smith spearheaded a letter sent by 108 House Democrats questioning the border deployment and separately decrying the use of Pentagon funds to build a wall along a stretch of the border in Arizona where a military bombing range abuts Mexico. The letter criticized the Pentagon for approving $7.5 million in advance-planning funds for a roughly 35-mile border barrier at the Barry M. Goldwater Range. House Democrats said the barrier could cost as much as $450 million. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has defended the structure as a way to prevent migrants’ endangering themselves by entering the range. Smith is also concerned about the money the Pentagon spends to maintain bases and other infrastructure that the military has formally said it does not need. He has been pushing for Congress to begin a Base Realignment and Closure exercise, better known as BRAC, to get rid of excess military infrastructure. Mattis followed previous secretaries of defense in calling for a BRAC in 2017, but he didn’t do so amid the budget largesse of 2018. The issue is likely to resurface as the Pentagon looks to economize under increased budget pressure. Congress has not permitted the Pentagon to undertake a BRAC since 2005, largely because lawmakers have not wanted to risk the unpopular closure of bases in their districts. In 2016, the Pentagon predicted that some 22 percent of its bases would qualify as excess capacity by 2019, what defense officials have described as billions of dollars of wasted money. While the Democrats favor retaining the Obama administration’s policy of allowing transgender individuals to serve in the military, the matter remains tied up in the courts, and it is unclear whether its new leverage in the House will allow the party to press the matter. Democrats have also been particularly vocal about the Pentagon’s failure to properly account for civilian casualties caused by U.S. military airstrikes. They are likely to press the Defense Department to implement measures in this year’s annual defense policy bill aimed at increasing accountability and oversight of the process for identifying whether the military caused such deaths. paul.sonne@washpost.com


Democratic House flip may mean full legalization of marijuana in nation’s capital

Residents of the nation’s capital get no vote in Congress, but the Democratic takeover of the House may come with a consolation prize: recreational marijuana shops. D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), fresh off her reelection victory, said Wednesday she plans to introduce legislation early next year to legalize the sale of marijuana. Voters in 2014 passed a ballot measure legalizing the possession of marijuana in small amounts. But House Republicans have blocked the city from spending money to regulate and tax marijuana. That means District residents over 21 can legally grow and use marijuana, and possess up to two ounces. But it must be used and grown on private property and cannot be exchanged for money, goods or services. Residents cannot buy marijuana as they can in six states that have legalized the drug, and the District is not able to tax transactions, losing what could be millions in revenue annually. The District has several dispensaries for registered patients who use medical marijuana. But with Republicans losing control of the House, local elected officials hope the federal restrictions against recreational marijuana will end and that full legalization can commence. “We will prepare a tax-and-regulate scheme to present to the council at the beginning of the next year,” said Bowser at a city hall news conference outlining her second-term goals. “We have an untenable situation in the District,” the mayor continued. “As long as we have the ability to possess marijuana, which is our law, we also need the ability to procure marijuana legally, which we don’t have now.” She declined to offer further details. Council member David Grosso (I-At Large) has already introduced legislation authorizing the city to license pot retailers. But there’s no guarantee congressional hurdles will disappear. And there’s a complex path ahead before marijuana stores could open. The restrictions on the District’s spending come as part of annual budget negotiations between the House and the Senate. Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) is behind the anti-marijuana restrictions on the D.C. budget. But now that he will be in the minority, he probably won’t have the votes to push it through the House. A spokesman for Harris did not return a request for comment. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), who is set to lead the panel overseeing District affairs, say they will oppose the anti-marijuana rider. That means the future of the District


China's application of AI should be a Sputnik moment for the U.S. But will it be?

AUSTIN A conference here to gather American business and military experts to discuss the coming revolution in artificial intelligence was a good Election Day measure of the challenges ahead to maintain the U.S. competitive edge. Corporate and government leaders agree that China’s rapid application of AI to business and military problems should be a “Sputnik moment” to propel change in America. As a top-down command economy, China is directing money and its best brains to develop the smart systems that will operate cars, planes, offices and information — along with the transformation of warfare. The United States is struggling to respond to this world-changing challenge. What’s underway is frail and exists mostly on paper. Congress this year passed legislation calling for a national AI commission, but so far it’s just a concept. The Pentagon in June established a new Joint Artificial Intelligence Center that will spend $1.75 billion over six years, but critics fear it will be far short of what’s needed. “There is no quarterback” for AI, says Amy Webb, author of a forthcoming book called “The Big Nine ” about the top U.S. and Chinese AI companies. The United States started with a technology lead, but U.S. efforts are dispersed and decentralized. Companies have trouble sharing the structured data that machines can learn on. “China is the OPEC of data,” argues Webb. In a totalitarian society, every human and social interaction feeds a vast pool of structured data for machines to ingest. The Chinese government can then commandeer companies and people, as needed. America may need an “AI czar,” argues Ashton B. Carter, former secretary of defense for President Barack Obama. That’s because no current agency or White House office is empowered to coordinate an effort as complicated as the Manhattan Project, which built a nuclear weapon, or the “space race” that put a man on the moon. But mobilizing resources in this way requires political vision and leadership, which are lacking today in both parties. “China has a national strategy and is executing it. That’s what’s missing. There is no compelling overarching policy,” argues Paul Scharre, who studies AI at the Center for a New American Security. “It has to be a national effort, especially in terms of talent management,” agrees Robert Work, a former deputy secretary Work argues that a good start would be an AI “training corps,” a bit like the National Guard. The Pentagon


How to have an amazing date night in D.C. for $60 or less

Washington’s crowded and evolving Ethiopian dining scene, Ethiopic stands apart as the best option for a quiet dinner. Tables are spaced far apart so you don’t feel like you’re sharing a conversation (or injera) with the couple next to you. The music playing at low volume is a jazzy piano tune, not Ethiopian pop. The dining room’s a looker, too, with modern Ethiopian art on the walls and columns decorated with the Amharic alphabet. Ethiopic is especially welcoming to newcomers who may not be well acquainted with the traditional East African cuisine: Knives and forks are available for those who’d rather not eat with their fingers, and the minced-beef kitfo might not be as fiery as at smaller spots. You can eat well here, especially with the vegetarian sampler and its spiced collard greens, or the gored gored (a kind of coarser kitfo), shot through with jalapeño peppers. The location on H Street NE means after-dinner options abound. 401 H St. NE. Closed Mondays. La Jambe Forget classic bistros with dark wood and mirrors: This bright, cheery French bar in the heart of Shaw looks like a place you might stumble across in one of Paris’s cooler neighborhoods, maybe the Haut-Marais or near the Canal Saint-Martin. One wall is covered with graffiti en français, and old travel posters hang near Daft Punk fliers of a more recent vintage. There’s a full cafe menu — moules, quiche, pasta — but on a date night, it’s more fun to split one of the meat or cheese “plateaux,” which can include house-cured sausages, fragrant cheeses, Italian ham or a lovely pork-and-pistachio terrine. (Some may find the “small,” recommended for two people, to be more of a snack, so order up if in doubt.) Wine starts at $9 per glass and $30 per bottle, but if you can time your visit for happy hour, which runs from 5 to 7 p.m. weekdays, you can start your night with $6 glasses of bubbly. 1550 Seventh St. NW. Closed Mondays. Lapis The sweet scent of raisins mingling with cinnamon, cardamom and slow-cooked lamb. Fragrant steamed beef dumplings topped with vegetables and yogurt and a spice you can’t quite place. Such are the pleasures of dining at Lapis in Adams Morgan. The Popal family, which emigrated from Afghanistan in the early 1980s, ran a French bistro in this spot for more than a decade before turning to


Michigan becomes 10th state to allow recreational marijuana

Marijuana advocates scored a number of substantial ballot victories in the middle of the country on Election Day, chief among them the legalization of recreational marijuana in Michigan, which becomes the 10th state in the nation to approve recreational use of the drug. “Michigan will be the first state in the Midwest to end marijuana prohibition and replace it with a system in which marijuana is regulated for adult use,” Marijuana Policy Project deputy director Matthew Schweich, who directed the legalization campaign, said in a statement. “Adults will no longer be punished for consuming a substance less harmful than alcohol, and rather than having to resort to the illegal market, they will be able to access it safely and legally from licensed businesses.” The results in Michigan follow the opening of recreational marijuana markets in Canada and the repeal of marijuana prohibition in Mexico. With the addition of Michigan, nearly 80 million Americans — 25 percent of the total U.S. population — live in a state or jurisdiction that has legalized recreational marijuana. The most recent polling by Gallup shows that two-thirds of American adults support legalization of the drug. In deep-red North Dakota, on the other hand, voters overwhelmingly rejected an unusual bill that would have legalized marijuana without setting any possession limits or regulatory structure. The outcome in North Dakota underscores Republican skepticism of legalization — in the Gallup survey just 53 percent of Republicans nationwide said they supported marijuana legalization, compared to 71 percent of independent voters and 75 percent of Democrats. “Tonight, parents can sleep easy knowing their children won’t wake up to more marijuana use in their schools,” said Luke Niforatos, senior policy adviser to Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a group that opposes legalization. “The sensible, wonderful people of North Dakota have rejected marijuana commercialization in their state.” Elsewhere on the ballot tonight, voters in Missouri approved one out of three medical marijuana measures up for consideration, avoiding a potentially messy fight over which measure would go into law if more than one passed. Missouri’s Amendment 2 allows doctors to recommend marijuana for a number of medical conditions. Patients would be able to obtain the drug either through a dispensary or by growing it at home. As of this writing, a medical marijuana measure in Utah is leading 53-47 with 76 percent of precincts reporting. That comes after supporters and opponents of the bill struck


Trump may look away, but we can’t forget Jamal Khashoggi

The midterm elections are finally over, more or less, and we got what we got — Donald Trump is still president. Sorry, but someone had to say it. Now back to the cold realities of everyday life in the White House of Weird, beginning and ending with: Who ordered the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi, and what consequences will there be? You remember Khashoggi — the self-exiled Saudi reporter/U.S. resident and contributing columnist to The Post who, upon entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul looking to secure a marriage document, vanished. His horrific fate allegedly involved being tortured, murdered, dismembered and removed piecemeal by a squad of hit men who were waiting for him with a bone saw. For a few days, at least, Khashoggi was the lead story for many media outlets, but then, trickle by trickle, his name largely faded from the headlines, with the exception of The Post. Everyone was off to the races or to cover the next Trump campaign rally. Day after day, Trump did what Trump does: said preposterous things so the media would break out in hives and move away from unpleasantness, such as whether the United States would hold the Saudis accountable for Khashoggi’s murder. The House and Senate have discussed curtailing the arms sales about which Trump has boasted, but otherwise, the status quo is relaxed and tanned. Obviously, such global intrigues involving murder, money, oil, arms and conspiracy are complex, and this one is multipronged enough to ignite wars and destabilize global markets. The Trump administration early on apparently decided to make nice with Saudi Arabia and, as the president keeps saying, the consequences of bad blood between our two countries would be costly, both monetarily and perhaps geopolitically (to Iran’s benefit). There’s surely nothing nefarious about any of the above unless you don’t like supporting the continuing Saudi bombing of Yemen or the flows of Saudi money to Islamist extremists. But Saudi Arabia is the center of the Muslim world, and this fact is not to be trivialized. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman While stoning may be on the decline, murdering critical journalists and others who cross the royal family seems to be an acceptable practice. So, what has happened in response to the killing of Jamal Khashoggi? Really, not much. Saudi Arabia has detained 18 people implicated in Khashoggi’s murder and sent a team of investigators to help


Bowie State marching band suspended after hazing allegations

request for comment Tuesday. The historically black university in Bowie, Md., was founded in 1865. It is a public school, one of the campuses of the University System of Maryland. The Symphony of Soul is an important part of the school’s culture and traditions, rallying fans at sporting events and battling bands from other historically black colleges and universities at contests. The Bowie State band performed at the Kennedy Center in March and marched through Bowie as part of the school’s homecoming celebrations in October. The Symphony of Soul missed the last game of the season. A reporter for HBCU Gameday, which first reported the suspension, posted a video on social media of band members out of uniform in the stands, and players calling out, “Free S.O.S.!” A social media post said members of the band were petitioning to end the suspension. Hazing has been a concern nationally and in the D.C. region, one that school officials and law enforcement have tried to counter — yet disturbing incidents have happened. At Florida A&M University, the death of drum major Robert Champion in 2011 exposed the brutality and dangers of hazing rituals that were part of the band’s culture. Champion was beaten after a game and found in a parking lot; he died soon afterward at a hospital. The death led to a change in leadership at the historically black university and prison time for some of his former bandmates. Several deaths tied to fraternity hazing last year led Greek organizations, universities, parents and lawmakers to devise efforts to change campus culture. Earlier this fall, four grieving families worked with associations representing more than 100 national fraternities and sororities, with a goal of combating hazing through tougher laws and education. Those efforts include personal, often tearful, appeals from parents to fraternity members to understand the impact bad decisions can have. Last month, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) signed an anti-hazing law named for Timothy J. Piazza, a 19-year-old Pennsylvania State University student who died in 2017 after a fraternity pledging event. The law increases penalties for hazing and requires schools to have safeguards in place. In Montgomery County, Md., five teens were charged with second-degree rape last week after allegations of hazing of junior varsity football players at Damascus High School. Four juvenile male victims were identified in the attack alleged to have taken place in the locker room after school.


Could Brexit bring new troubles to Northern Ireland?

LONDONDERRY, Northern Ireland — It was “a very sociable summer,” the Derry Girls recall. As easy as the breeze, they crossed the largely invisible border into the Republic of Ireland, to visit family, or share a pint, or swim in the sea during the unseasonably warm weather. “So we all got to thinking how we take all this for granted — the freedom of it, the flow — and how it all could end,” said Nicola Herron, 52, a local doctor who joined the group of like-minded women to pressure politicians to keep things just the way they are. “It’s scary, to be honest,” said Elaine Doherty, 50, a psychologist and fellow activist in the campaign, which formally calls itself Derry Girls Against Borders. “Brexit is just months away — and there’s not a single person who can tell you what will happen to us.” The 310-mile border that cuts across the island of Ireland has become perhaps the single greatest impediment in the divorce negotiations between Britain and the European Union. “A real sticking point,” as British Prime Minister Theresa May put it. The challenges loom over how to continue to allow for the free movement of people and trade between the Republic of Ireland, which will remain in the European Union, and Northern Ireland, which will leave along with the rest of the United Kingdom. And how to keep the border just as invisible, even as the U.K. and the E.U. inexorably diverge — each free to establish their own immigration controls, customs tariffs and food safety rules. And finally, how to do all this without upsetting the delicate peace in Northern Ireland that has relied on an open border. People north and south are quick to say there will be no returning to the “Troubles” — the vicious, intimate guerrilla war between pro-British Protestant unionists and Irish Catholic republicans that left more than 3,500 people dead. Yet, sectarian lines remain deeply drawn in Northern Ireland. Many people in this border city — still known as Londonderry by Protestant residents and Derry by the 75 percent with Irish Catholic heritage — worry that a bungled Brexit could rekindle tensions and possibly lead to violence. Today, driving along the Irish border, you might pass a farmer who has a barn in one country but grazes his sheep in the other. Almost 1 million people freely cross the squiggly line


What Trump should be asking of the CIA on Khashoggi

Michael Morell, a Post contributing columnist, was deputy director of the CIA from 2010 to 2013 and twice its acting director during that period. The attempted pipe-bomb attacks on a number of prominent Americans, followed by the horrific killings in Pittsburgh, have dominated the recent news. And for good reason: These homegrown attacks on Americans are devastating and hark back to the darkest times in our nation’s history. But even amid the cacophony of tragedies we face, we cannot afford to move past the murder of Post contributing columnist, U.S. resident and Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. And the United States needs to respond — beyond simply enforcing a travel ban on those Saudis identified by their own government as having been involved. A robust process for formulating that response would include considerable work by the Central Intelligence Agency. In the early days of his first term, President George W. Bush told me that the CIA had two roles in serving him. The first, obvious to most people, was to uncover clandestine information the president needed to know to keep the nation secure. The second — less obvious but just as critical — was for the CIA to provide him with all the context and perspective he needed to make informed foreign policy decisions. These two roles have always struck me as excellent mission statements for the operational and analytic sides of the CIA, respectively — and presidents have used both. The two roles were, for example, fully harnessed by the Barack Obama administration as we closed in on Osama bin Laden. In that case, the agency had to answer the obvious question — whether bin Laden was hiding at the Abbottabad compound in Pakistan. But there were less obvious questions that the president needed answered. They included what a raid on the compound would mean for U.S.-Pakistan relations, whether taking out bin Laden would lead his followers to conduct attacks on U.S. interests, and, should the raid result in bin Laden’s death, how the various options for disposing of the body would play in the Muslim world. By the end of the policy process, a thick briefing book contained the answers to these questions and dozens of others. I hope President Trump is utilizing all the CIA has to offer while thinking through the Khashoggi case. Of course, the CIA should be collecting its own intelligence and providing it to


Hearthstone basks in the glow of 100 million users, awaits its next challenge

said Blizzard has worked throughout the years to make sure packs “feel like a good value.” Some features, like preventing players from finding duplicate legendary (the highest rarity) cards from a set in packs, are designed specifically to alleviate frustrations. Those features are unique to the digital space, fixing a problem experienced by anyone who has collected physical cards. From the beginning the “Hearthstone” built the game with a digital-first mind-set, breaking from the limitations of traditional, tabletop card games. Corporeal titans like Magic The Gathering and the Pokémon trading card game were successful, but their digital versions tried to approximate the “real thing.” “Hearthstone” was made for screens, which allowed for certain freedoms. “So when you're playing a ‘fireball’ card in a physical card game, that's usually when you extend the card to your opponent to see and say, ‘I deal five damage to your minion here or you as a hero,’” said Ben Thompson, creative director for the game. “And that's not near as compelling as playing the card and a gigantic five-damage or 10-damage fireball manifesting over the board, changing the lighting and swooping down for an explosive impact on your hero. That is something you only get to do in a digital space.” The game’s simplicity and accessibility is another key factor cited in growing the game’s popularity. “Hearthstone” content creator and player Octavian “Kripparrian” Morosan believes the clear presentation was appealing to the game’s viewers. “It's very easy to understand what's happening, where you are in any game, and it's very easy to develop your own opinion about the direction that the active player should take,” said Morosan. “It's just an extremely engaging game that's very easy to understand and watch, and that has a big impact on the different places of viewership, YouTube, Twitch.” Twitch is home to hundreds of live streams, and “Hearthstone” has seen huge success on the platform broadcasting international tournaments and collegiate competitions. Twitch analytics site Sullygnome puts '”Hearthstone" seventh among gaming titles in average viewers on Twitch in the last year, with over 377 million hours viewed. (Note: Twitch is owned by Amazon, whose CEO, Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Washington Post.) Che Chou, franchise lead for “Hearthstone” esports, echoed the open and accessible refrain when asked how the game’s competitive circuit has helped the title develop its overall audience. As Chou puts it, “There’s no reason an 80-year-old


What happened to the caravan after the midterm elections?

other people pass on news by word of mouth, but we don’t know if it’s true or false." Most of the migrants here were unaware of the rumors that the caravan’s very existence — their own journey — was a political stunt. Those tweets and news stories were posted while they walked through northern Guatemala and southern Mexico, many without phones or Internet access. How the world will consider the caravan now, after the U.S. elections, is a different question. The U.S. military inexplicably changed the name of its deployment on the border from “Operation Faithful Patriot” to simply “border support.” The number of people typing “caravan” into Google is crashing. Trump mentioned the caravan only once at Wednesday’s marathon news conference. Americans were sure that the news coverage had slowed. “Strange that the media isn’t all over the caravan story anymore,” tweeted Ben Rhodes, a former aide to President Barack Obama. On Thursday, many reporters were in the stadium with the migrants, another aspect of their journey to which the travelers had become accustomed. They had been interviewed and photographed. They had been videotaped by journalists with cameras, and by drone and iPhone. But they rarely saw where those images were published, or the words that accompanied them, like Fox News' banner headline, “Could Caravan be Bringing Unknown Diseases?” Mejia said he had been interviewed seven times since entering Guatemala from Honduras. Kellyn Godoy Hernández, 24, from Valle, Honduras, watched as groups of men lined up to grab spare pairs of donated jeans from a row of cardboard boxes. She had heard the same rumor, that President Trump had lost the election. “Personally, I’m relieved because we know that he’s been denying us entry,” she said. But she was uncertain about the accuracy of the news, which was circulating among migrants in the tents set up to distribute food. Her Samsung phone had been ruined in the rain, so she had no way to check the rumor on her own. Jonny Alexander Portillo, 24, and his cousin, Gerlin Josué Maldonado, 19, leaned against a jacaranda tree outside the stadium Thursday afternoon. They had heard that there would be elections in the United States, and that if one party won, it could be favorable for the remainder of their journey. But they still had not heard about the election results. Eleven migrants had traveled together, from farmlands in Ocotepeque, and


If Jamal Khashoggi’s killers elude justice, Iran will exploit the consequences

Boris Johnson is a former foreign secretary of the United Kingdom. It is now more than a month since the murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi – and I am starting to have an appalling suspicion. I don’t have any doubt about what happened: the plot to lure Khashoggi, who was a contributor to The Washington Post, to the Saudi consulate; the savage attack by heavies from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s own security team; the dismembering of the body. Nor do I doubt for a second that this disgusting assassination was ordered at the highest levels of the Saudi regime. But it is not the forensics that bother me. There is another reason for my nagging anxiety. After more than a month, we still have no body, and no credible account of how and when an explanation might be forthcoming. We have no clear understanding of how it is proposed that those responsible for this atrocity will be brought to justice, or in what forum this might take place. For all the talk of sanctions for the guilty, it is far from clear how they will be identified, or where they will be tried. It is all too easy to see how Khashoggi’s case could end up in a murky netherworld in which the straightforward requirements of criminal justice may be warped by the expedients of geopolitics and diplomacy. My awful suspicion — and I pray I am wrong — is that for one reason or another, the killers, or at least those who ultimately gave the order, may get away with it. There are simply too many powerful people who would frankly prefer that the whole business be brushed under the carpet. There are too many people who look at the state of the Middle East – and think that we simply can’t afford to take this investigation to its logical conclusion. They look at the pivotal role of Saudi Arabia, and they think about what might happen if that government were seriously destabilized — and they shudder. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke for this school of thought when he said that of course the killers of Jamal Khashoggi should be brought to justice — but the real problem was Iran. And Netanyahu is certainly right that Iran is a serious problem. The government in Tehran remains a disruptive force, bent on expanding its role in


The White House is letting a Russian ultra-nationalist in to the U.S. — despite sanctions

during the mass anti-Putin rallies of 2011 and 2012, he appealed to “national patriots and Russian nationalists” to abandon the protests and integrate into Putin’s government. Rogozin led by example, accepting appointment as Putin’s deputy prime minister. Upon taking office, he promised to “eliminate any attempts at corruption with an iron fist.” The strains of government must have weakened his fist, though; a 2016 investigation by Transparency International identified Dmitri Rogozin as the owner of a $7 million apartment in Moscow’s exclusive “Nearer Dacha” neighborhood, named for Joseph Stalin’s nearby country residence. For someone who had frequented Europe’s diplomatic residences, personal travel sanctions must have come as a particular humiliation. The European Union, which joined the United States in blacklisting Rogozin over the war in Ukraine, was particularly thorough in enforcing the sanctions; on two separate occasions, in 2014 and 2017, Romania rerouted his plane while in transit between Russia and Moldova to prevent it from entering E.U. airspace. “Wait for our response, bastards,” Rogozin tweeted to the Romanian government after the second incident. (No response ever came.) Rogozin’s only symbolic victory over Western sanctions came in April 2015, when he made an unannounced one-day trip to Spitsbergen, a Norwegian Arctic coal-mining island of 2,000 people with special residence and commercial rights for Russian citizens. Proudly tweeting his own photos in full Arctic gear, Rogozin accused Norway’s government of “envy” after it protested his unlawful visit. Dmitri Rogozin’s next trip to the West will not come by sneaking through a back door, but courtesy of an official invitation from the U.S. government. This will not be the first time the White House used its waiver authority to invite sanctioned Kremlin officials; earlier this year, the heads of three Russian state security agencies — including the GRU, whose agents were involved around the same time in a murder mission in Great Britain — flew in for secret talks in Washington. According to U.S. officials, the visit was “authorized and approved according to proper procedure.” Personal sanctions will work only if governments that operate them actually adhere to their terms. In rare cases, it may be justifiable to use “national security waivers” to temporarily lift sanctions on certain individuals — and these justifications must be provided to the public and to Congress. It is doubtful, however, that inviting a notorious nationalist to lecture at Rice University constitutes reasonable grounds for such action.


Suspension continues for Bowie State marching band in wake of hazing allegations

The Bowie State University marching band, the Symphony of Soul, will not perform at a football championship game this weekend, the university announced, while school officials investigate allegations of hazing. The public university in Maryland and Fayetteville State University play for the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association football title Saturday in Salem, Va. University officials notified the campus Wednesday evening: “Over the past several days, the university has worked to investigate initial allegations of hazing within the Symphony of Soul and the entire university band program. “First and foremost our top priorities are assuring the safety of our students and maintaining the integrity of the university band program. We have found sufficient evidence to confirm the existence of hazing activities; therefore, all performance activities remain suspended, including travel to the CIAA football championship game this weekend. Further investigation is needed to determine next steps to be taken through the student judicial process, but we remain committed to concluding the process as soon as possible and resuming the normal operations of the band.” The Symphony of Soul is integral to the school’s culture, rallying fans at games and competing with bands from other historically black colleges and universities at contests.


Transcript: The Technology 202 Live

impacts. And when computers were built people came and started to use that to solve their problems and then that spurred more needs. A similar thing has happened in quantum technology. It was very exotic area of physics. I mean, it’s fundamental in the sense that people say that the difference between a quantum computer and a traditional computer, even if it’s a supercomputer, is fundamentally bigger than the difference between a supercomputer and an abacus, just the way we represent information and so on. And that opens up a tremendous amount of opportunities, but in the early days how we garner that kind of physical principles to do meaningful information processing has largely been an open question. And it’s an open question of both scientific research and also technological development that we had to do to make it useful. So the efforts at DARPA, and similar efforts at IARPA and so on, are very targeted towards how do we garner this technology and demonstrate something that actually can lead to more meaningful—what are the next steps that are needed to get them to meaningful applications. And those were largely driven by government investments over the last couple of decades. And only in the last maybe five years, as I said earlier, people have built enough confidence. Maybe the private sector has now seen if they can do that maybe with an additional effort, with focused effort like this maybe we’d be able to hit this target or that target. So I think the symbiotic relation that Congressman Khanna mentioned is there is the need for pushing the technology forward and the broad base of knowledge that we have to develop, which is academics and government can work together towards that. And then out of that the private sector can capitalize on specific opportunities and actually try to make those happen. They will make their bets, take their risk, and manage those to try to make things happen. And I think we’re right at that transition, which is a very exciting time to be. Zakrzewski: And so we’ve talked about a lot of the positive things about the relationship between Silicon Valley and Washington today as well as some of the problems too. And I think the narrative that we see a lot of attention on these days is about that tension, and people even sometimes use the word “techlash.”


Boeing issues warning on potential instrument malfunction after Indonesia crash

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Airplane manufacturer Boeing on Wednesday issued a bulletin to airlines worldwide warning of erroneous readings from flight-control software on its planes, after a Lion Air jetliner crashed into the sea soon after takeoff, killing the 189 people on board. Boeing, which is assisting in an investigation into what went wrong in the Oct. 29 crash of one of its new 737 Max 8 jets, said it issued the bulletin as “part of its usual process.” The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday issued an emergency notice to all operators of Boeing 737 Max 8 and 9 planes. It warned airlines that erroneous sensor inputs like the one that came into play in Indonesia “could cause the flight crew to have difficulty controlling the airplane,” leading to “possible impact with terrain.” Boeing’s bulletin was the first indication that an error with the aircraft’s systems may have caused problems for the Lion Air flight, which took off from Jakarta. At takeoff, the plane’s altitude fluctuated dramatically, and the plane increased in speed before nose-diving into the Java Sea 13 minutes later. Indonesian investigators have recovered the plane’s flight data recorder, which showed that the plane’s airspeed indicator malfunctioned on its last four flights. “It’s a stunning simple but deadly error,” said Mary Schiavo, an aviation lawyer and former inspector general of the U.S. Transportation Department. “I can’t even recall the number of accidents I’ve worked where the accident happened the first flight after maintenance. A reported problem, they supposedly fixed it, and then it goes down.” Boeing’s bulletin said, “The Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee has indicated that Lion Air Flight 610 experienced erroneous input from one of its AOA (Angle of Attack) sensors.” A misreading in the sensor can cause a plane to dive suddenly. The bulletin provided instructions to flight crews on what they can to do correct the sensor’s “failure,” which it said can happen when the flight is being operated in manual. Indonesian investigators said Wednesday that an AOA sensor on the jet was replaced the day before the doomed flight, on Oct. 28, when a pilot flying the same aircraft on a different route, from Bali to Jakarta, reported problems with it. The pilot on the crashed Lion Air flight had asked shortly after takeoff to return to the airport in Jakarta but lost contact with air traffic controllers afterward. The Angle of Attack sensor,


Why is Trump parroting Saudi Arabia’s lines on Jamal Khashoggi even before they do?

Who needs an anonymous Saudi official when you have the president of the United States? For the second time this week, President Trump on Tuesday seemed to preview the Saudi line when it comes to the disappearance and potential murder of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey. Even if you set aside Trump’s repeated emphases that the Saudis deny wrongdoing — which is a Trump tell if there ever was one — his comments betray an apparent willingness to float and parrot Saudi talking points in a way that shouldn’t escape notice. On Monday, Trump appeared to preview the Saudi line that “rogue killers” could be responsible for Khashoggi’s death. By midafternoon, reports indicated that the Saudis may indeed soon admit Khashoggi was killed but would blame it on a botched interrogation. (The reasoning there would ostensibly be that this could help Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman escape culpability.) On Tuesday, Trump seemed to scale back the Saudis' denial yet again. After saying Monday that King Salman has issued a “flat denial,” Trump updated that statement to say on Twitter that Salman’s son, the crown prince, had “totally denied any knowledge of what took place in their Turkish Consulate.” The key words in that denial would seem to be “any knowledge of what took place.” That doesn’t mean the Saudis are denying Khashoggi was killed; it just means the crown prince was saying they didn’t order or approve it. Then to drive the point home, Trump drew the same line in an interview with Fox News. He said directly that U.S. punishment “depends [on] whether or not the king or the crown prince knew about it.” The Post’s Greg Miller spotted the trend: Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) even called it Monday before reports indicated a potentially scaled-back Saudi denial: It will be easy for Trump to dismiss such criticisms by arguing that he’s merely passing along what he was told by Salman and the crown prince. But it seems an odd coincidence that Trump has, twice in two days, passed along comments that seem tailored to an eventual admission that this was an accidental killing. That’s not something the Saudi government has said officially, but it seems to be the explanation Trump has warmed to. There are a few potential reasons for that. It could be because the Saudis skillfully tempted Trump to parrot their line. It could be


Here’s the vandalism that protesters left at Tucker Carlson’s house

The people who shouted threatening chants at the residence of Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Wednesday night did more than just unsettle a family. They defaced property as well. A report from the D.C. police department indicates: “It was discovered that unknown persons spray painted an anarchy symbol on the driveway.” In a visit to the site, the Erik Wemple Blog and Post colleague Drew Goins documented this evidence: As reported D.C. police issued this statement: “We welcome those who come here to exercise their First Amendment rights in a safe and peaceful manner; however, we prohibit them from breaking the law. Last night, a group of protestors broke the law by defacing private property at a Northwest, DC residence. MPD takes these violations seriously, and we will work to hold those accountable for their unlawful actions. There is currently an open criminal investigation regarding this matter.” When we arrived at Carlson’s house Thursday afternoon, we found two D.C. police cruisers stationed in front of the property. In his interview with Chiu, Carlson said that his wife at first thought that the protesters were actually conducting a home invasion. “She had been in the kitchen alone getting ready to go to dinner and she heard pounding on the front door and screaming. … Someone started throwing himself against the front door and actually cracked the front door,” Carlson said. None of the couple’s four children were home at the time. But there’s no mention of a cracked door in the police report. The Erik Wemple Blog asked a department spokesperson whether the police had found a broken door or whether such a detail would be included in the report. “Officers take down as much information as possible,” said the spokesperson, speaking generally about the process. When The Post visited Carlson’s place, the front door appeared to be in working condition: A woman answered the door at Carlson’s home. We asked her whether the door had suffered a crack. She took a quick look and shrugged her shoulders, as if to signal that it looked okay. She declined to allow us to photograph it from inside the house. We asked Carlson to provide a picture of the crack and haven’t received a response from the Fox News host. It’s possible that he replaced the door, or that the crack is visible from the home’s interior.


After rocket failure, Russia moves up its next launch. NASA says it is okay with that.

from side to side. The alarm sounded, a light flashed and “once I saw the light, I knew we had an emergency with the booster.” Hague and his Russian counterpart, Alexey Ovchinin, were also found immediately by rescue teams, a much better outcome than a notorious launch abort in 1975 when Soviet Union cosmonauts landed in a remote part of eastern Russia on the snowy slope of a mountain and nearly tumbled off a cliff. (They were located a day later.) But even when aborts go right, they still are not supposed to happen in the first place. This was perilously close to what is known in space industry lingo as a “bad day.” Space travel is inherently risky, but NASA and its partners try to buy down the risk. It appears to be a “fairly straightforward assembly error they made as they put the rocket together,” said Wayne Hale, former manager of NASA’s space shuttle program. “It doesn’t have anything to do with the basic design.” The mishap follows the discovery of a small, drilled hole of mysterious origin in one section. The hole is the subject of a separate investigation by Roscosmos. The Russians have floated the idea of sabotage. The hole had been clumsily patched after it had been created, and when the patch failed a small leak of air from the station triggered alarms. The hole has since been patched again and is not considered a threat to the Soyuz’s reentry because it’s in a section of the spacecraft that is jettisoned in space. The two anomalies — the launch failure and the Soyuz hole — are almost surely unrelated, according to industry experts. But this is a business that would like its current number of anomalies under investigation to be zero, not two. Bridenstine said the pair of problems “raises questions” but didn’t want to comment until the investigation is complete. The incidents also serve as a reminder that the Soyuz is the only way humans can get to the International Space Station. If the Soyuz were to be grounded for an extended period of time NASA and its partners may have to abandon the station temporarily. “I wouldn’t put the crew at risk to keep it crewed,” said Mike Suffredini, the president and CEO of Axiom Space, which is developing private space stations. Similarly, a NASA safety advisory panel last month said that with


Hong Kong literary event with Beijing critic mired in controversy as worries over political freedom grow

to call off the event. Mallet left Hong Kong last month, and he was questioned by immigration officials for hours Thursday when he sought to reenter as a tourist. He was eventually denied entry, the FT said Friday. In an emailed statement, a British consulate-general spokesman said the Foreign Office was “very concerned by the authorities’ unprecedented rejection of a visa for a senior British journalist, which undermines Hong Kong’s freedom of speech and freedom of the press.” Mark Field, Britain’s minister of state for Asia, was in Hong Kong this week and would raise Mallet’s case with local authorities “as a matter of urgency,” the statement added. Political observers in Hong Kong say that although the government never acknowledged that Mallet’s ejection was retribution for hosting the talk with Chan — whom a former Hong Kong leader equated with a criminal — it sent a clear message to all businesses and institutions to step back from controversial activities. “This is exactly how censorship and self-censorship foster each other,” said Maya Wang, China researcher for Human Rights Watch. “Everyone collectively moves back, far behind the red line, out of a sense of self-preservation.” After several Hong Kong booksellers were widely believed to have been abducted by Chinese security agents in 2016, the city’s freewheeling political publishing industry similarly withered, as stores voluntarily folded and writers shied away from digging into Chinese politics. Ma, the British novelist, said on Twitter last week that he has not been able to find a Hong Kong publisher for “China Dream” because they were “too afraid.” Publishers in Hong Kong, he told local media, insisted that he rename a character he had called “Xi Jinping.” Penguin, his British publisher, has been bolder, describing Ma’s new novel on its website as “an arrow at President Xi Jinping’s ‘China Dream’ propaganda” and “a biting satire of totalitarianism.” Ma, who published a book early in his career about Tibet — another third rail of Chinese politics — remains persona non grata in the country of his birth and has not been back in decades. He was denied entry when he last attempted to cross the southern border from Hong Kong in 2011. He lived for years in Hong Kong, where he holds permanent residency. He moved to Britain in 1997 when the territory was handed back to China. “After 1997, I thought Hong Kong would have at least


The Cybersecurity 202: Rep. Ro Khanna defends Google’s controversial decision to end Project Maven

Good morning! I’m Cat Zakrzewski, a tech policy reporter at The Washington Post. I’ll be at the helm of The Cybersecurity 202 these next few weeks. If you can’t get enough of Post newsletters, sign up here for my forthcoming newsletter, The Technology 202. You won’t want to miss our daily analysis on the complex relationship between Washington and Silicon Valley, coming to your inbox in December. THE KEY Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) is defending Google’s controversial decision to end a Pentagon project amid employee backlash against building artificial intelligence intended for warfare. Khanna’s comments at a Technology 202 Live event on Thursday were a rare sign of support for the embattled search giant at a time when the company is saddled with scrutiny from Washington lawmakers. Google said earlier this year it would not renew the deal for the military’s AI endeavor — known as Project Maven — when it expires next year after a wave of employee resignations and public criticism of its contract with the Defense Department. Khanna said Google's decision is par for the course in a democracy — and stands in contrast to China where the state exerts greater control over companies. Google's move to sever ties with Project Maven drew the ire of Republican lawmakers, who criticized the company for taking an ethical stance against working with the Pentagon while at the same time reportedly secretly began building a censored version of its search engine in China. Khanna, who represents Silicon Valley, said the government can’t force any company to do anything, but it should do more to address the Google employees’ concerns and collaborate with them on developing ethical principles and standards. “It’s not a reflexive position that they don’t want to cooperate with defense,” Khanna said. “It’s more that they want to see what are the ethical principles that are going to guide this.” Silicon Valley and the military are adapting to a shifting relationship. But in recent years, some of the most innovative technical research and development has shifted to the private sector, as technology companies such as Google and Amazon have grown to lead global industry spending on research and development. Much of Google’s spending has focused on AI. Even for smaller companies, record-breaking amounts of private capital are pouring into the technology sector. In some instances, the government is seeking to bring in innovative technologies from industry rather than