SpaceX crew capsule suffers failure that sends a cloud of smoke over Florida Space Coast

A SpaceX capsule designed to ferry NASA astronauts to the International Space Station suffered a failure during an engine test Saturday afternoon that sent a billowing plume of smoke into the air over Cape Canaveral, Fla. No one was injured, and it was not clear what caused the accident or how serious it was. In a statement, the company said the failure occurred as it was conducting “a series of engine tests.” The initial tests were “completed successfully, but the final test resulted in an anomaly on the test stand.” The failure comes at a critical time for the California-based company founded by Elon Musk. It hopes to fly astronauts to the space station as soon as this year as part of NASA’s “commercial crew program.” And it comes ahead of tests of the capsule’s escape system, which is designed to jettison the spacecraft away from its rocket in the event of an emergency. Now both of those could be delayed as the company investigates what went wrong. The engines that failed Saturday are part of that abort system. Reports from local media outlets showed a large reddish cloud of smoke that, according to Florida Today, “could be seen for miles.” “Ensuring that our systems meet rigorous safety standards and detecting anomalies like this prior to flight are the main reasons why we test,” SpaceX said in its statement. “Our teams are investigating and working closely with our NASA partners.” In a statement on Twitter, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said, “This is why we test. We will learn, make the necessary adjustments and safely move forward with our commercial crew program.” Earlier this year, SpaceX conducted a successful uncrewed test flight of its spacecraft, known as Crew Dragon, which flew to the space station, docked and then returned home.


Trump plausibly committed impeachable offenses. A leading expert explains how.

we can understand the latter from that juxtaposition: Thus, Bobbitt argued, in evaluating what we’ve learned of Trump’s conduct: In attempting to answer that question, Bobbitt pointed out, both Trump’s obstructive efforts and his response to Russian sabotage of our democracy should raise serious concerns. On the first, it’s key to understand the situation as a kind of three-legged stool. Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III did not indict, due to Justice Department policy against indicting a sitting president. At the same time, he also declared that presidents are not immune to obstruction statutes if they interfere with law enforcement processes with “corrupt intent.” Finally, Mueller amassed extensive evidence suggesting that Trump did in fact violate those statutes corruptly, while conspicuously declining to exonerate him of those violations — something he could have done if he believed Trump did not commit them. Taken all together, then, what Mueller told us is that Trump can and very likely did break the law extensively and that he cannot be held legally accountable for it while in office. In our interview, Bobbitt described the implications of all this for impeachment this way: What’s more, this obstructive conduct can be directly tied to the other element of the case against Trump: his response to Russian electoral sabotage. Importantly, Trump did not merely seek to derail an investigation into his campaign’s conspiracy with that Russian sabotage — that is, into his own conduct. Rather, Trump also sought to derail a full accounting of the Russian attack on our political system, separate and apart from whether his own campaign conspired with it. He did this because acknowledging the sabotage would detract from the greatness of his victory, which also led him to fail to marshal a serious response to the next round of interference. Bobbitt explained the relevance of those facts to the impeachment question this way: When I asked Bobbitt directly whether it’s plausible that Trump committed impeachable offenses, he replied: Bobbitt, however, is not arguing for a formal impeachment inquiry right at this moment. He told me he’s arguing for “pre-impeachment hearings” that flesh out as much additional information as possible within the framework of what Mueller has now told us: We can debate endlessly whether anything could get the country to come together on any of this, but that approach — both aggressive and sober, as E.J. Dionne Jr. puts it — appears


Inside the special counsel’s long hunt to uncover whether the Trump campaign conspired with Russia

meeting as the Agalarov representative. “I realized they had significant knowledge of the topic.” Mueller’s team interviewed everyone who attended the meeting except Veselnitskaya, who is in Russia, and Trump Jr., who declined to participate voluntarily, they wrote. (It is unclear whether prosecutors attempted to subpoena the president’s son.) The picture that was emerging was one of a campaign that was eager for Russia’s help at the same time the Kremlin had been working to elect Trump. As 2017 stretched on, former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his communications with the Russian ambassador during the transition. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying about his contacts with Mifsud and two Russians. By July 2018, Mueller had charged 25 Russians with participating in two plots to influence the White House race. But the special counsel still had not resolved whether Russia coordinated with Trump associates. A possible break in the case In September last year, Mueller’s team got a break. Manafort, who had been a central figure in the investigation from the start, agreed to plead guilty to financial crimes and failing to register as a foreign lobbyist for work he had conducted in Ukraine before leading the Trump campaign. At last, prosecutors had access to a key member of Trump’s inner campaign circle who also had deep connections in Russia, including a business relationship with Oleg Deripaska, a billionaire with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Manafort’s deputy, Rick Gates, told prosecutors that, as soon as Manafort joined the campaign, he had asked Gates to prepare memos describing his elevated new role for Deripaska and three leading Ukrainian politicians. Emails show Manafort tried to get a message to Deripaska to offer him private briefings about Trump’s effort. Manafort told investigators he never gave Deripaska such briefings. Manafort’s liaison to the Russian aluminum magnate was his own longtime Russian employee, Konstantin Kilimnik, who the FBI had assessed had ties to Russian intelligence, according to the special counsel. The report said Manafort also provided campaign polling data to Kilimnik, described to him a strategy to win the election for Trump by contesting traditionally Democratic-leaning Midwestern states and discussed with him a pro-Russian peace plan for Ukraine, a top foreign policy goal of the Kremlin. Manafort would later say he understood Trump’s sign-off, if elected, would be necessary to advance the plan. Manafort’s cooperation meant prosecutors


The weather stations that monitor climate change are at risk. This is why.

When the Central African Republic erupted in civil war in December 2012, nine of the country’s weather stations participating in the Global Climate Observing System stopped reporting within months. When we reached out to the country’s national meteorological service to find out what happened, the response was striking: “destroyed by war,” “personnel forced to leave.” The destruction of weather stations might seem like a footnote to a conflict that killed thousands and displaced more than 1 million people. But today, on Earth Day, as scientists work to understand changes to our climate and how those changes affect people’s lives, the loss has a particular sting. In recently published research, we show the data loss in the Central African Republic is part of a wider trend. Violence and instability create gaps in knowledge that deprive affected communities — and scholars — of important information. Here is why this happens: Weather might affect conflict — but how does conflict shape weather data? There’s growing evidence that weather shocks, such as high temperatures and droughts, are associated with a higher risk of civil conflict — rebellions and insurgencies — particularly in vulnerable areas in Africa. Climate change will probably increase the frequency of these shocks, so scholars study this relationship to understand the implications for future conflicts. But this research depends on having accurate weather data. We became concerned by the possibility that civil conflict could be affecting temperature observations — which, in turn, would affect scholars’ ability to study the relationship between climate and conflict. How could this be? Most temperature data come from readings taken at weather stations distributed unevenly worldwide. The tasks of establishing, staffing and maintaining these stations fall under the jurisdiction of national governments. This means unstable political conditions could influence the climate record in two ways. First, the ability to establish and maintain weather stations could be related to a country’s governing and bureaucratic capacity, factors that also influence the risk of civil conflict. Second, violence and instability could lead to the destruction of facilities, as was the case in the Central African Republic, or divert government resources from the collection of weather data. Here is how we did our research. Pursuing this hunch required looking beneath the hood of commonly used temperature data sets to learn about the actual weather station observations on which they are based. This meant poring over “metadata” — the data that


He promised ‘hugs, not bullets.’ Now Mexico’s AMLO is facing an outcry over soaring violence.

people in poor areas. But he has also continued policies that gave the military a central role in fighting violent crime. López Obrador has promoted the creation of a new, 80,000-member National Guard that would largely comprise former military police and national police. It will be led by a military general who has been deeply involved in the war against the cartels. Ricardo Márquez, who formerly held senior positions in Mexico’s intelligence and security services, said the president’s plans suffered from a lack of coordination between the new security force and the plan for more social services. He also noted that since Mexico declared an all-out offensive on drug gangs in 2006, the number of military personnel involved has increased from 37,000 to 63,000. “This is an indication that having more military forces participating in domestic security isn’t the solution,” he said. Since 2006, organized crime groups have killed about 150,000 people, according to a U.S. Congressional Research Service report issued last year. Gutierrez said that Friday night’s attack in the town of Minatitlan “was directed against a certain person and that person’s relatives” who were at the birthday party. He declined to give details, saying the investigation was confidential and was being handled by the state prosecutor’s office. The news outlet Reforma quoted a person as saying the gunmen worked for the Cartel Jalisco New Generation, which has become one of the nation’s most influential crime groups in recent years. The attackers were pursuing a bar owner at the party who had not made an extortion payment, the news outlet reported. Among those killed were bystanders, including a college student and the child, according to media reports. In recent years, Mexican authorities have worked with the U.S. government to capture or kill many of the heads of the country’s most important drug-trafficking groups. But the organizations have splintered and diversified into other activities such as extortion, stealing gas from the state-run oil company, and car robberies. Reacting to the outcry, López Obrador vowed Monday that his government would bring peace to Veracruz. “We inherited a serious problem of complicity between the authorities and crime groups,” he said. “We will not tolerate this.” He added that creating the new National Guard would improve the situation. “In six months, crime levels will decrease,” he said. Gabriela Martinez contributed to this report. Correction: An earlier version of this report misidentified Ricardo Márquez.


Sri Lanka timeline: How eight explosions wrought devastation on Easter Sunday

anonymity over safety concerns, told AFP that Taprobane, the hotel’s ground-floor restaurant, was packed with families. The blast set off “utter chaos,” the manager said. Guests throughout the hotel heard and felt the explosion. Julian Emmanuel, a doctor in the United Kingdom, told the BBC the room he was staying in with his wife and children “rocked.” They evacuated and were ushered through the back door, where they saw the damage and passed the bodies. Two explosions about 10 seconds apart gutted a second-floor restaurant at Shangri-La, blowing out the ceiling and windows and exposing wires. Witnesses said all they could hear was screaming. “Everyone just started to panic; it was total chaos,” Kieran Arasaratnam, a professor at Imperial College London Business School who was staying in the hotel, told the BBC. “Everyone was running and a lot of people just don’t know what was going on. People had blood on their shirt, and there was someone carrying a girl to the ambulance. The walls and the floor were covered in blood.” Authorities moved between overturned tables to inspect the bodies strewn there, some of them tucked beneath white sheets, reported ABC Australia. A third hotel, the Kingsbury, also was attacked in the same time frame. Across the country in Batticaloa, evangelical worshipers at Zion Church were the only victims on the east coast in the attacks. A witness told the BBC he heard a “big bang” while cycling and saw “smoke billowing into the sky about half a mile away.” The initial chaos of the six blasts made way for swift condemnations from world leaders and a near shutdown of the country. Officials called in all available law enforcement and health-care workers in the affected cities. University classes were canceled indefinitely, and the government told schoolchildren to stay home Monday and Tuesday. Extra security descended upon the Bandaranaike International Airport, and the government shut down access to social media. In the Colombo district, Catholic officials canceled all Easter masses. In Vatican City, Pope Francis condemned “such cruel violence.” On Sunday afternoon, hours after the six blasts, government officials announced a curfew would go into effect at 6 p.m. — but they were forced to implement it earlier than that. Five hours after the six initial explosions, another blast was reported at the low-budget Tropical Inn, located near the national zoo in Dehiwala, south of Colombo. A witness told local


Police identify 16-year-old killed in District, seek vehicle of interest

A 16-year-old who was fatally shot in his Northwest Washington home was identified Saturday, and police said they are seeking a vehicle that was seen near the scene of the Friday homicide. Breon Austin of the Park View neighborhood was shot shortly after 4 p.m. in the 700 block of Princeton Place, D.C. police said. An officer riding a bicycle was flagged down by a person who had heard the gunshots in the home, and the teen was inside with multiple gunshot wounds, police said. A few other people were also inside. Austin was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. A surveillance-camera image captured a gray, four-door sedan, with a sunroof and stickers on the driver side, near the scene of the crime. D.C. police said a man wearing a black mask and black jacket was also seen. “At this point, we really don’t know what happened,” D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham said Friday night. D.C. police are offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to as arrest in the case. justin.jouvenal@washpost.com


After years of repression, Ethiopia’s media is free — and fanning the flames of ethnic tension

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — From a collection of modest offices in a half-empty high rise, one of Ethiopia’s most prominent journalists publishes his weekly paper with a staff of just four. The country has imprisoned U.S.-educated Eskinder Nega multiple times, most recently for six years. But under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government, he and some dozen other jailed journalists have been released and are free to write. His new weekly Ethiopis takes a strident tone, especially against the city administration and activists from Ethiopia’s Oromo ethnic group, newly empowered by their fellow Oromo, Abiy. He sees his paper and his activism as part of his long struggle for democracy. Others see it as a danger to Ethiopia’s delicate political state and as part of a wave of news outlets that are taking sides and worsening tensions in the country’s many conflicts. “Who’s to say what is extreme?” Eskinder said from his tiny office, adorned with portraits of the Virgin Mary and an Ethiopian emperor known for uniting the country. “Do we have a consensus on what extreme is?” After becoming prime minister a year ago, Abiy embarked on reforms that brought home exiled politicians and armed opposition groups, freed political prisoners, made peace with Eritrea and opened up a heavily restricted media sector. Ethiopia has been a rare bright spot of increased rights and democracy on a continent more known for leaders overstaying their mandates. Its progress in media freedom — there are no longer any imprisoned journalists — has been so dramatic that it was chosen to host World Press Freedom Day next month. The changes have also prompted conflicts and unearthed long-buried grievances, often revolving around land and ethnicity. To many, a newly polarized press is making things worse. “It’s a familiar story to what we’ve seen in other countries undergoing a rapid and messy democratization, and it will require a massive effort to ensure that high-quality journalism and civic dialogue prevails without compromising freedom of expression,” said Nicholas Benequista of the Washington-based Center for International Media Assistance. In the 2019 World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders, Ethiopia rose 40 places, from 150 out of 180 countries to 110 — the biggest improvement this year in any country. Next year, Ethiopia will hold its first free elections in 15 years, and there are fears that the toxic media environment could lead to violence. “This opening


NASA subcontractor to pay $46 million fine over aluminum NASA cited in rocket failures

A NASA subcontractor will pay a $46 million fine after admitting to falsifying test results in aluminum manufacturing for nearly two decades, the Justice Department said Tuesday. The aluminum parts in question made their way into use in “frangible” joints that hold explosive charges in rockets used by NASA and missiles used by the Missile Defense Agency. NASA blames the aluminum parts for two failed rocket launches, something the company disputes and the Justice Department did not prove. As part of the agreement, the Norway-based company has pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud and the agency has agreed not to file any additional charges. The company, formerly called Sapa Extrusions and now Hydro Extrusion, has been suspended from government contracting since September 2015. Since the investigation began, prosecutors say Hydro Extrusion has fired the employees involved and overhauled its internal testing and quality control systems. “This proposed resolution ensures that the victims of this conduct, including the U.S. military, can replace faulty product put into the supply chain and help recover the costs foisted on taxpayers to investigate this scheme,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Zach Terwilliger said in a statement. The failed launches occurred in 2009 and 2011; protective covering did not separate as planned and the rockets were too heavy to get into orbit, according to NASA. A subsequent NASA inspector general’s investigation led to Sapa’s aluminum production plant in Portland, where a former lab supervisor admitted in 2017 to falsifying aluminum test results and instructing others to do the same. He is serving a three-year prison sentence. Thousands of test results were faked between 1996 and 2015, according to the court documents released Tuesday, giving the government and other clients false assurance of the aluminum’s ability to hold up to stress and elongation. Those products should have been scrapped after failing to meet testing standards, prosecutors said. Aluminum extrusions used by NASA failed the agency’s own tensile tests despite having been certified as passing by the company, according to court filings. But prosecutors in Alexandria wrote they could not find the original 2007 test results to confirm that they were altered as part of the scheme. Employees who raised concerns were ignored, according to the court documents, including a lab technician who in 2014 told the main plant manager he was “dreading” the “daily practice” of being asked to “fake tests, pass


In Russia’s Far East, both Kim Jong Un and Putin seek to send messages to U.S.

for a lifting of sanctions of economic sanctions against North Korea. “The position assumed by the United States of America is not constructive, and we see that,” he told Interfax. Putin is unlikely to break with the U.N. Security Council over sanctions against North Korea. But Kim also rejects the U.S. position that sanctions cannot be lifted until the North fully dismantles its nuclear program. U.S. officials remain wary of Putin’s ability to play spoiler in the negotiations. This was a factor in the State Department’s decision to dispatch its point man for the negotiations, Steve Biegun, to Moscow last week ahead of the Kim-Putin summit. Biegun raised specific instances in which the United States believes Russia violated U.N. sanctions against North Korea, according to diplomats familiar with the discussions. Biegun urged Moscow to maintain sanctions against the isolated country to fulfill a shared goal of advancing the denuclearization discussion. In response, Russian officials said they would expel North Korean laborers in December when their residence permits expire, potentially limiting a key source of cash for the North, people familiar with the discussions said. Before Biegun’s visit, Russia proposed a “joint action plan” to address North Korea’s nuclear program, but the United States has not supported it, fearing that it could become a mechanism for Russia to push for the lifting of sanctions against North Korea. In a journey receiving much attention in the Russian press, the North Korean leader traveled by armored train to Vladivostok, a journey of 435 miles from Pyongyang. His train is expected to pull into Vladivostok on Wednesday morning, a day before Putin arrives. In Vladivostok, a main thoroughfare has been decorated with flags from the two countries. Major roads were closed in anticipation for Kim’s arrival, and a concert stage was being prepared at a university where the summit is expected to take place. “It’s not that Kim is some great friend with Russia. It’s part of his plan to continue work on diplomacy with everybody else, to put pressure on Washington,” said Sue Mi Terry, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. At the height of tensions in 2017, Moscow voted alongside Beijing for relatively tight sanctions, although some illicit trade between Russia and North Korea has invited criticism from the United States. Kim is traveling at a leisurely pace on his famously slow train, with an expected


I felt like an incompetent mother. Then I learned how to not feel so alone.

I found my calling at Whole Foods. Fourteen years ago, one of my kids developed anaphylactic allergies to nuts, and the other was diagnosed with celiac disease and ulcerative colitis. These issues required a stringent diet that forbid not only gluten (which, back then, almost no one had heard of) but sugars, starches, grains and nonfermented dairy. Whole Foods was my only hope. It took an hour of shopping — cross-referencing allergen pamphlets, reading labels, and calling manufacturers — before I realized: Whole Foods did not carry any packaged items that were gluten-free, starch-free, grain-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, and nut-free, which probably meant they didn’t exist at all. An employee who’d been helping me said, “Processed foods are terrible for you, anyway. You just need simple dishes with whole foods. Easy!,” and proceeded to describe how to make “spaghetti” (which I’d said was my kids’ favorite) — by steaming spaghetti squash and gently teasing out the strands with a fork. I wanted to tell her the truth — that I’m a horrible cook who could no more use a fork to gently scrape spaghetti strands out of squash than I could use a fork to gently take contacts out of my eyes — but I thanked her, stretched my lips into what I hoped resembled a smile and plopped a squash into the cart. It dawned on me then that I’d need to make every breakfast, lunch, dinner and even snacks from scratch. I pressed my chest into the cart handle to quell my rising panic, but images of all that we’d been through with our children overwhelmed me — my toddler’s tiny face swollen nearly beyond recognition, one eye shut, after a bite of peanut chicken; the raw, animal wail from my other son, waking after surgery. Just as the tears started falling, I heard, “Angie? Is that you?” And there was Kathy, a fellow mom from a local playgroup. I considered hiding, but before I knew it, she was enveloping me in a hug, asking what was wrong, and I was telling her. She listened and told me about a mutual friend whose son had recently developed life-threatening allergies and how she’d been crying in Whole Foods, Safeway, Giant, everywhere. Soon, we were laughing about gently forking squash, and I felt better. The act of telling my story out loud and hearing about another’s experience made me feel not


Newly obtained documents shed light on start of Baltimore riot

crime is legal for a night. “You could tell as soon as the kids came into the school that morning, it was different,” said Ebony McKiver, 38, who at the time was a government teacher at Douglass with a freshman son. By early afternoon, many in the school had left already, some picked up by nervous parents who’d seen the fliers. The school system has said about 75 students walked out of the school about 3 p.m., an hour before dismissal, but teachers suggest that number was far smaller. By then, the situation outside already was spiraling out of control, the records show. Damron, in his recounting, wrote that MTA Police had been alerted to the “purge” memes by school police and had started coordinating a response, and “requesting assistance” from Baltimore police, earlier in the day. They had asked schools police Maj. Akil Hamm — now the schools police chief — about 1:30 p.m. to stagger school dismissal times that afternoon, another timeline shows, but that request was denied. Hamm said it was denied by then-schools CEO Gregory Thornton, who concluded that there was too little notice. By 2:45 p.m., police from the city, the MTA and the schools already were gathered at the Mondawmin Metro station for a roll call, with the Baltimore police officers in riot gear. The first MTA dispatch about a rock being thrown came a minute later, at 2:46 p.m., according to Damron’s email. Within 10 minutes, Baltimore police had formed a skirmish line across the bus loop, blocking access to buses, even as more teenagers arrived by Metro to “join in the unrest,” Damron wrote. At 3 p.m., a dispatch noted that the Metro station was being shut down, which Damron attributed to the growing number of people “participating in the riot” and “communication with commanders on the scene.” It was around this time that schools officials have said the group from Douglass left the building. McKiver said some of them wanted to check out what was going on. Others were just trying to get home. All of them, she said, walked into chaos and couldn’t get out. McKiver’s son, Kahmal Cooper-Flight, now a 19-year-old freshman at University of Maryland Eastern Shore, briefly left the school with some friends before returning to go home with his mother. “It was just a very unreal thing to be in the middle of,” he said. For


Lyra McKee’s killing shows how dangerous it is to be a journalist in Northern Ireland

Séamus Dooley is Irish secretary of the National Union of Journalists (United Kingdom and Ireland). The murder of Lyra McKee in Derry, Northern Ireland, on Thursday night has cast a long shadow. Though she was only 29, McKee was a widely respected journalist who had just signed a two-book deal with acclaimed publisher Faber & Faber. She was also a passionate campaigner for LGBT rights in Northern Ireland, penning a 2014 letter to her teenage self about being gay that went viral and was the basis of a short film. A pioneering user of social media to tell stories about her community, McKee represented the new, modern face of Northern Ireland. She was a prophetic voice who rose above tribal differences and sought to promote a more inclusive society, free of sectarianism, bigotry and intolerance. But this light was extinguished when she was shot dead while reporting on a riot in the Creggan neighborhood in Derry. The riot began after the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) conducted a number of raids in the area as part of an investigation into the activities of the so-called New IRA. As a freelancer, McKee was on hand to witness the gas-bombing attack on security forces and was standing by a police Land Rover when she was struck by a bullet. She was rushed to the hospital but died of her wounds. Two teenagers were arrested in connection with the shooting, and then subsequently released without charges. On Monday, the PSNI announced that more than 140 people have contacted police in Derry seeking to pass on information about the murder after a “massive” response. The New IRA has since reportedly admitted responsibility for McKee’s killing. The killing of a journalist in the line of duty is both horrific and senseless. The National Union of Journalists has been at the forefront of organizing vigils throughout Northern Ireland, but there has also been a remarkable community response — from sister trade unions, the LGBT community and even political leaders. On Good Friday, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party Arlene Foster paid her first visit to the Creggan, a nationalist enclave. Foster and the leaders of five other parties also issued a joint statement condemning the killing, an unusual occurrence at any time but especially significant in the fraught political atmosphere stemming from Brexit. Faced with tragedy, Northern Ireland’s political parties were able to come


The al-Qaeda suspect was stripped naked and shot. Will Trump pardon his murderer?

Before he spent five years in prison for murdering a suspected al-Qaeda detainee, Michael Behenna was a rising military officer from a prominent law enforcement family. An Army Ranger in the famed 101st Airborne Division, Behenna deployed to Iraq in 2007 at the height of the U.S. troop surge, leading an infantry platoon of 18 men. Behenna — whose mother helped prosecute Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and whose father worked as an FBI analyst and Oklahoma state investigator — has always insisted he acted in self-defense when he killed Ali Mansur. Behenna was paroled five years ago after an effort to overturn his conviction failed. Now he is seeking a different path to vindication: a presidential pardon. It is a bold ask for someone who stripped a prisoner naked, interrogated him without authorization, shot him twice and then claimed at his court-martial that he was protecting himself. But Behenna, now a 35-year-old ranch hand, is pitching his case at an opportune moment for U.S. military members accused of war crimes. Prompted by adulatory profiles on “Fox & Friends,” President Trump has voiced support for a Navy SEAL and a Green Beret who have been charged with murder but haven’t faced trial yet. Trump tweeted last month that Eddie Gallagher — a Navy SEAL charged with fatally stabbing a teenage ISIS prisoner under his care in Iraq and then holding his reenlistment ceremony with his corpse — would be moved to a less restrictive confinement before his trial. “In honor of his past service to our Country,” Trump said on Twitter. And in December, Trump tweeted that he would review the case of Matt Golsteyn, an Army major and former Green Beret who admitted to killing a suspected Taliban bombmaker in Afghanistan and burning his body. “A U.S. Military hero,” Trump declared on Twitter. There are signs that lobbying efforts on Behenna’s behalf may be having an impact, too. “We know we have a president who is very sympathetic to the very difficult situation that soldiers, sailors and Marines were put in during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars,” said John Richter, a former head of the Justice Department’s criminal division who is representing Behenna and has spoken to White House officials about his case. Behenna was told that he had to complete his parole in 2024 before he could seek a pardon recommendation from the Justice Department. But two months


Transcript: World Press Freedom Index

Opening Remarks MR. RYAN Every year, Reporters Without Borders, the world’s largest non-governmental organization devoted to protecting the rights of journalists, compiles the World Press Freedom Index. And as you know, this report is a massive undertaking, presents exhaustive research into the media environment of 180 different countries. Among the Index’s many valuable features is its indication of important changes in trends, raising alarm about places where press freedom is in decline and acknowledging areas of improvement. Sadly, as we all know too well, this is a time of growing danger for journalism. As the report indicates, journalists around the world are encountering censorship, harassment, violence every day, just for doing their jobs. In every region of the world, tyrants are increasing their grip on the press, trying to prevent reporters from holding the powerful to account.This year’s Index highlights a particularly disturbing trend in the Americas, where many countries have seen declines in their press freedom rankings including the United States. At The Washington Post, we take the cause of press freedom very seriously. We are no stranger to assaults on journalists, as we’ve seen in the cases of Jason Rezaian, Austin Tice, and, tragically, Jamal Khashoggi. For their friends and colleagues here, these attacks have been an agonizing reminder of the dangers that journalists face. Through The Washington Post Press Freedom Partnership Initiative we announced last year, we have made a sustained and long-term commitment to raising awareness of cases like these. These abuses are unacceptable to everyone who appreciates democratic values and human rights. Free societies rely on the free flow of information, which citizens need to make their most important decisions: how to vote, where to invest, where to travel, whom to trust. To make these decisions we need accurate information, not only about our own countries, but about others around the world. In this way, an attack against a journalist anywhere is very much an assault on liberty everywhere. Today’s event features several accomplished journalists on the frontlines of the fight for journalistic independence, as well as scholars of the First Amendment, and other experts on press freedom. We are also fortunate to be joined by people who have a positive story to tell. The Washington Post’s Dana Priest will moderate a discussion with the ambassador from Ethiopia, which is this year’s most improved country, moving up 40 spaces on the list; and the ambassador


Transcript: World Press Freedom Index

press freedom plays most of the role [? 00:05:42. So we need capacity-building in many areas in delivering the news and creating different platforms. Unless we are exposed to a different environment, unless we get a chance to debate, there is no any other shortcut to get to what is to be. So there are many areas that we need in capac-- MS. PRIEST: MR. FITSUM But the negative side of social media, like Facebook, Twitter, and others, is there are faceless people who can say anything they want, hate speeches that incite violences, and in some cases they take it for granted and create some conflicts, even in some cases, and that creates some panic which may grow at alarming rates [? 00:07:29]. So I don't think the Western countries have also money to deal with this. I think it's a challenge for everyone. But the way the Western countries observe [unclear 00:07:46] and--countries like Ethiopia is totally different. So, yes, it's important to regulate, but how? And hate speech laws are seen as silencing dissent. We had some challenges in the past, like anti-terrorism law, societies and charity law, which are now totally repealed and replaced by other more just laws. So it's under discussion, whether we have to have a hate speech law or not, what is the best practice, and how can we narrowly enact it so that it doesn't silence dissent, and again, discourage free press. We need support on this as well. And we don't want to get back to where we were. We are enjoying what we have, so we want to continue to deepen our democracy. MS. PRIEST: MS. OLOFSDOTTER: MS. PRIEST: MS. OLOFSDOTTER: So this, of course. builds trust in society, where we always scrutinize our public officials. And this has also led to that we are one of the least corrupt countries in the world, and also one of the most innovative countries in the world. So it goes together, both democracy and economy, and how a country can prosper if you have the proper institutions. If you are really going the way where you are going, this will help you in so many ways, both democracy and economically. But of course, we are challenged as well. And we have put in large efforts to educate our public, new program for schools, how do we teach kids to be media


Trump administration has EPIC plan to develop the world’s smartest weather forecasting model

down the barrier between NOAA’s modeling and the outside world and accelerate model development. The code for the GFS, Jacobs said, will be open-source and available to anyone. EPIC will provide training and support so outside scientists can become comfortable running and adapting the model for their research efforts. “My hope is that when we throw this code out there, university researchers, principal investigators, post-docs and industry scientists will download the code and start to run it,” Jacobs said. “They’ll help debug [the model], improve its physics and data assimilation, and we’ll benefit from their research.” Jacobs admitted that this community approach will present some challenges. He said that, as the current version of the code isn’t user-friendly, it will need to be made more accessible and “hardware agnostic” to run on different systems. But he was upbeat about its potential benefits, saying EPIC would use cloud computing so multiple users could run the model simultaneously. In the past, bottlenecks could arise because the model was operating in a single computing environment. If users identify a model error, “we’ll have the ability to stand up parallel versions of the model, do tests and determine month in and month out how proposed updates improve the situation,” Jacobs said. Operating the model in the cloud, he stressed, will offer both NOAA and its users tremendous flexibility considering the increasing number of vendors and decreasing costs for cloud computing. As proposed, EPIC will be a virtual center with no physical location but operated from existing NOAA modeling hubs. Jacobs said he expects program funding to support work on the model through contracts and grants awarded to partners in academia and research labs. Cliff Mass, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Washington and longtime critic of how NOAA has managed its modeling efforts, wrote in a blog post that he is “really optimistic” about EPIC. “Done correctly, EPIC could lead to a much more effective and coordinated approach to developing a new U.S. global modeling capability,” he wrote. “A modular, unified national modeling system shared between government, academia, and the private sector. Will the U.S. FINALLY organize itself properly to regain leadership in global numerical weather prediction? Time will tell. But I am more optimistic today than I have been in years.” The Trump administration’s 2020 proposed budget for NOAA, including support for EPIC, is now in the hands of Congress.


A guide to exploring the D.C. area’s food halls — for all budgets and cravings

playgrounds in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. As the name implies, the hall serves as a 21st-century block party, where locals gather not just for drinks and dinner, but for a chance to display the latest gravity-defying, drip-painting dessert to their Instagram followers, who will immediately suffer from a serious case of FOMO. Block founder Arturo Mei is a genius in creating an attractive third space. Essential orders: Adult beverages: Beyond eating and drinking 4221 John Marr Dr., Annandale, Va. — T.C. Pike Kitchen Advertised as a place for “Asian fare with excitement,” Pike Kitchen serves up the greatest hits from Korea, Japan, Vietnam and elsewhere. Founder James Park has a sharp eye for food trends, whether they originate in Southeast Asia or in the immigrant communities of Los Angeles and New York. Both traditional and trendy eats are gathered under one roof here, scattered among the eight vendors that circle the boisterous dining area. Essential orders: Adult beverages: Beyond eating and drinking: 1066 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Md. — T.C. Quarter Market Before Ballston Common Mall was redeveloped into trendy Ballston Quarter, the lower level was the food court, full of fast food outlets and takeaway restaurants. The makeover has tweaked the formula: Instead of McDonald’s or Panera Bread, the restaurants include new fast-casual concepts from the brains behind D.C.’s acclaimed Himitsu and Timber Pizza. Instead of laminated plywood tables, customers sit in comfy leather club chairs and tall bar stools, or dine in a terraced outdoor courtyard. Overall, this ain’t the food court you remember. Essential orders: Adult beverages: Beyond eating and drinking: 4238 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Va. — F.H. The Spot Montgomery County is known for the Asian restaurants that fill the strip malls along Rockville Pike, but the Spot, which opened in August 2018, saves walking and driving time by putting multiple concepts under one roof in Rockville Town Square. Essential orders Adult beverages Beyond eating and drinking 255 N. Washington St., Rockville, Md. — F.H. Taste of Urbanspace Rushed into the third level of Tysons Galleria, the same space that Mike Isabella surrendered last year as his restaurant empire started to crumble, Taste of Urbanspace has yet to establish a visual identity separate from the former Isabella Eatery. The new food hall looks much the same as the old one. But the (at present) six food vendors at Urbanspace are operating at a very high level,


food court, full of fast food outlets and takeaway restaurants. The makeover has tweaked the formula: Instead of McDonald’s or Panera Bread, the restaurants include new fast-casual concepts from the brains behind D.C.’s acclaimed Himitsu and Timber Pizza. Instead of laminated plywood tables, customers sit in comfy leather club chairs and tall bar stools, or dine in a terraced outdoor courtyard. Overall, this ain’t the food court you remember. Essential orders: Adult beverages: Beyond eating and drinking: 4238 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Va. — F.H. The Spot Montgomery County is known for the Asian restaurants that fill the strip malls along Rockville Pike, but the Spot, which opened in August 2018, saves walking and driving time by putting multiple concepts under one roof in Rockville Town Square. Essential orders Adult beverages Beyond eating and drinking 255 N. Washington St., Rockville, Md. — F.H. Taste of Urbanspace Rushed into the third level of Tysons Galleria, the same space that Mike Isabella surrendered last year as his restaurant empire started to crumble, Taste of Urbanspace has yet to establish a visual identity separate from the former Isabella Eatery. The new food hall looks much the same as the old one. But the (at present) six food vendors at Urbanspace are operating at a very high level, serving up a whole wide world of flavor. Essential orders: Adult beverages: Beyond eating and drinking: 2001 International Dr., McLean, Va. — T.C. Tastemakers Food Hall Tastemakers is more than a place to dine on freshly made bao buns or jerk chicken: The Brookland warehouse is a working commercial kitchen, home to around four dozen start-ups and food trucks. The seven rotating stalls in the food hall include familiar names such as Bullfrog Bagels and Captain Cookie and the Milkman, but also some only-at-Tastemakers vendors. Essential orders: Adult beverages: Beyond eating and drinking: 2800 10th St. NE. — F.H. Union Market The closest thing in Washington to such famous foodie destinations as Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market or New York’s Chelsea Market, Union Market is home to dozens of stalls selling prepared foods and meat or fish you can take home to cook yourself, as well as shops that stock hostess gifts and sharpen dull knifes. The market opened to acclaim in 2012, and has been a zoo on weekends ever since. Essential orders Adult beverages Beyond eating and drinking 1309 Fifth St. NW. — F.H. fritz.hahn@washpost.com tim.carman@washpost.com


A billionaire’s children, a D.C. fifth-grader, a celebrity chef: the victims in Sri Lanka

employer. “It is with great [sadness] and deep regret that as Dieter’s brother that I confirm that Dieter was among the victim’s that passed away in Sri Lanka,” Derrick Kowalski wrote on Facebook. “As we know that Dieter saw his friends as family, we would like to share our grief over this tragic incident.” He added: “We have all lost a brother.” Dieter Kowalski, a Wisconsin native working for the education publishing company Pearson, left Friday for a business trip to Colombo. “And the fun begins,” he wrote on Facebook. “Love these work trips. 24 hours of flying. See you soon Sri Lanka!” Kowalski had just arrived at the Cinnamon Grand hotel when a bomb detonated inside the ground-floor restaurant, where families and guests were gathered for an Easter breakfast buffet. “We’re angry that a good man, who took simple pleasure in fixing things, has been killed, along with many others, by evil men and women who know only how to destroy,” John Fallon, the chief executive of Pearson, wrote in an email to employees Monday, TV station Fox 6 reported. Kowalski was a senior leader for Pearson’s operation technical services team. He was traveling to Sri Lanka to meet with local engineering teams to “troubleshoot some difficult challenges that were important to our customers,” Fallon said in his email. A relative of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was killed in the blast at Shangri La. Eight-year-old Zayan Chowdhury was having breakfast with this father Moshiul Haque Chowdhury Prince. Zayan was the grandson of Hasina’s first cousin Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, who was in Hasina’s cabinet from 2009-13 and is currently a member of the parliament. His son-in-law Moshiul was injured in the explosion. Bangladesh’s Awami League spokesperson Mahmubul Alam Hanif confirmed Zyan’s death. His body is scheduled to be flown to Bangladesh on Wednesday. Other victims included three children of Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen, the largest private landowner in Britain and the largest single shareholder for the popular clothing brand ASOS. Povlsen and his family were visiting Sri Lanka for the Easter holiday, the BBC reported. Three of his four children were killed in the bombing attacks, a spokesman for one of his companies, Bestseller, told the BBC. “Unfortunately, we can confirm the reports,” the spokesman said. “We ask you to respect the privacy of the family, and we therefore have no further comments.” At St. Anthony’s Shrine


Saudi Arabia’s intolerance weakens its Islamic leadership

One of the most alarming trends in Saudi Arabia is how the country is responding to religious reforms and political Islam. The use of Islam to justify the oppression of women, as well as the murder of Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi, underscore how Saudi Arabia is endangering its position as a leading Islamic country at a time of rising Islamophobia throughout the world. [Read this column in Arabic] In a statement after Khashoggi’s murder, the White House said “representatives of Saudi Arabia say that Jamal Khashoggi was an ‘enemy of the state’ and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.” Implying that someone as moderate as Khashoggi was somehow a political threat has hurt the kingdom’s credibility beyond repair. Saudi Arabia is not only the birthplace of Islam, but the monarchy’s legitimacy is founded on adherence to Islamic teaching. Since the era of King Faisal, the state has been actively engaged in the bureaucratization of the religious establishment, closely controlling what once was a fragmented and somewhat independent community of religious scholars. The state’s authority over religion has served to validate some of its most reprehensible political decisions. Many royal decisions and pieces of legislation — such as the counterterror law and the cybercrimes law — have rendered any public challenges to official religious scholars’ decisions almost impossible. Independent religious figures who gained popularity in promoting real sociopolitical reforms through Islamic principles are now constantly targeted and excluded from any religious debate. As a female activist in a deeply religious society, I often had to engage in the religious debate on rights and freedom. Many enlightened and independent religious scholars bolstered our arguments on constitutional reforms, women’s rights and minority rights. Abdullah Al-Malki, who was arrested in 2017 amid the national campaign to end the ban on women driving, has been pushing the boundaries on a range of issues, including gender equality. During the campaign in favor of women driving, another independent scholar offered me a well-informed religious interpretation that used the same Islamic principle — of the precedence of deterring harm rather than securing interests — that was used in 1990 by the supreme scholar at the time to ban women from driving. Sheik Abdelaziz bin Baz, Saudi Arabia’s supreme cleric who died in 1999, banned women from driving in his 1990 fatwa because he said it may lead women to freely mingle with men who were not relatives,


Tesla investigates Model S explosion in Shanghai

Tesla is investigating video footage that appears to show smoke billowing from a Tesla Model S just moments before it exploded in a Shanghai car park. The blast was captured in a widely shared video on Chinese media, prompting the electric carmaker to launch its own inquiry. “We immediately sent a team on-site and we’re supporting local authorities to establish the facts,” the company said in a statement. Sunday’s incident is the latest involving a Tesla catching fire. In June, a Model S burst into flames while driving in Los Angeles. The driver’s wife posted a video of the car with fire and smoke coming from underneath it, CNN reported. “This is what happened to my husband and his car today,” she wrote. “No accident, out of the blue, in traffic on Santa Monica Blvd. Thank you to the kind couple who flagged him down and told him to pull over." In February, a Tesla driver in South Florida was killed after the vehicle swerved through traffic, hit a median and trees, then burst into flames. According to the Sun-Sentinel, the car’s battery reignited at least three times while the car was in the impound lot. A separate wreck in South Florida last year led the family of one passenger to sue Tesla on allegations the car’s battery pack is defective. According to the law firm representing the family, there have been at least a dozen cases of Tesla Model S batteries catching fire after a collision or while stationary, in recent years. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the fatal 2018 crash, as well as others involving the Palo Alto, Calif.-based carmaker. Tesla, which has more than 500,000 vehicles on the road, maintains that its cars are 10 times less likely to catch fire than gasoline-powered ones. But experts say that battery fires can be harder to extinguish, because heat tends to build up in the lithium-ion battery systems. Sunday’s incident comes at a sensitive time for the company. Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, said in a note to clients Monday that he is expecting a “train wreck quarter” when Tesla reports first-quarter earnings on Wednesday because of its weak delivery numbers and cost trajectory. Earlier this month, Tesla shares dropped more than 8 percent after the company announced lower-than-expected vehicle deliveries. Ives said the stock continues to remain under pressure as investors worry that Tesla’s


At Lyra McKee’s funeral in Belfast, the priest asks why it takes a young journalist’s death for politicians to come together

has been popular again, featured on the British hit TV sitcom “Derry Girls,” set in Northern Ireland in the 1990s during “the Troubles,” the 30 years of vicious sectarian strife that left 3,500 dead. Patrick Kielty, a comedian from Northern Ireland whose father was killed by the loyalist paramilitaries with the Ulster Defense Association, wrote on Twitter: “Today Lyra McKee is laid to rest. She believed in peace, tolerance and equality. The exact opposite of those responsible. They will never win because Lyra will always be the future. And her truth will continue to be told.” Speaking at the beginning of the service, the dean of St. Anne’s, the Very Rev. Stephen Forde, said: “Lyra was a person who broke down barriers and reached across boundaries, this was her hallmark in life, this is her legacy in death.” He added: “She was a child of the Good Friday Agreement,” the 1998 accord that mostly ended the violence in Northern Ireland. “She was a primary school pupil in north Belfast when the agreement was signed. She grew up to champion its hope for a society that was free from the prejudices of the past.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) last week led a congressional delegation to London, Belfast and Londonderry, where she repeatedly warned all sides that if the chaos of Brexit did anything to undermine the Good Friday Agreement — by imposing again, for example, a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, then Congress would block any trade deals between the United States and Britain. In reaction to McKee’s killing, friends of the journalist on Easter Sunday went to the Londonderry headquarters of the dissident republicans and dabbed their handprints, covered with red paint to symbolize blood, over the building’s facade. Nearby, in the area of the city known as the “Free Derry Corner,” the scene of violent clashes between British forces and Irish republicans in the past, someone had spray-painted graffiti proclaiming: “Not in Our Name. RIP Lyra.” Alongside some older graffiti that read “IRA,” someone else had added the words, “Are Done.” The Derry group associated with the “New IRA,” called Saoradh, had its social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter suspended. Members of the original Irish Republican Army, or IRA, put down their weapons in the cease-fire that accompanied the peace accord more than 20 years ago. The “New IRA” represents a very


Big night for gay marriage and marijuana legalization

Residents in two states voted to legalize recreational marijuana on Tuesday, while those in two other states voted to legalize gay marriage and a third state elected the first gay U.S. senator. Maine and Maryland became the first states in which voters approved gay marriage. It had failed previously in 32 states, including Maine as recently as 2009. In addition, Wisconsin elected the first openly gay U.S. senator in history, with Rep. Tammy Baldwin's (D) victory over former governor Tommy Thompson (R). Colorado and Washington state, meanwhile, became the first states to legalize the production, sale and possession of recreational marijuana. Other states have legalized medical marijuana (including Massachusetts on Tuesday). But Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) sounded a cautionary note Tuesday, warning Colorado voters that federal law still prohibits marijuana use. "The voters have spoken and we have to respect their will," Hickenlooper said in a statement. "This will be a complicated process, but we intend to follow through. That said, federal law still says marijuana is an illegal drug, so don’t break out the Cheetos or gold fish too quickly.” In Oregon, the third state attempting to legalize recreational marijuana, the measure was falling short of majority support with less than half of precincts reporting. Washington may also join Maine and Maryland in legalizing same-sex marriage. A measure there led 52 percent to 48 percent with half of precincts reporting. In Minnesota, a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage was too close to call, with neither side getting majority support.


The U.N. wanted to end sexual violence in war. Then the Trump administration had objections.

carefully worded his response on Tuesday. “The resolution calls on all U.N. member states to support victims through better access to justice, medical and psychological assistance and reintegration into society,” he said. But other U.S. allies were more blunt in their responses, suggesting that the U.S. objections were threatening the dignity of women worldwide. “Women and girls who suffered from sexual violence in conflict, and who obviously didn’t choose to become pregnant, should have the right to terminate their pregnancy,” said Delattre, the French ambassador. The initial version of the draft resolution had stated that victims of sexual violence should be able to access services, which specifically included “sexual and reproductive health.” Amid objections, a subsequent version referred only to “comprehensive health services” for victims of sexual violence. But for the Trump administration, even offering vaguely defined “comprehensive health services” for sexual violence victims went a step too far. In the end, the Trump administration’s opposition to abortions trumped other countries’ determination to offer support to victims of sexual violence. In practice, the watering-down could give nations accused of committing or backing such violence a pretext to justify a lack of progress in supporting victims. Also removed from the final resolution were references to expanded U.N. monitoring that would keep track of violations of the resolution. That, in practice, could mean that perpetrators will have to fear less international scrutiny than originally planned. To avert a U.S. veto, the passed resolution included only watered-down references to the work of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is supposed to prosecute war crimes but has recently found itself in a clash with the Trump administration after it considered investigating U.S. troops over the war in Afghanistan. Unlike most of the world, the United States never ratified the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding treaty. For advocates dedicated to ending sexual violence in conflict, the U.S. resistance appeared especially contradictory for an administration that has often portrayed itself as championing the rights of Yazidi women, who have faced sexual violence by the Islamic State in recent years. Human rights groups argue that the U.S. move sends the wrong message, after decades in which sexual violence has become a more systematically used weapon of war. Whereas rape has often accompanied conflict in history, the use of sexual violence as a systematic intimidation tool mostly emerged in the 20th century. Between 1992 and 1995, Serb troops


Health officials must learn from their mistakes before Ebola jumps the fence — again

WHEN THE Ebola virus appeared in Congo last year, the 10th outbreak in four decades, there was some hope of progress against what very often produces a trail of death. The hope was that a new vaccine developed by Merck after the epidemic in 2014-2016 would be effective and contain the outbreak, if enough people could be inoculated. Many months later, the news about the Merck vaccine VSV-EBOV in a clinical trial is promising indeed: It has shown to have an almost 98 percent efficacy. But lately, worrisome developments have overtaken the good news. Ebola infections are rising. The reasons offer a window on the dangers when war and insecurity mix with disease. Human fears and ignorance aggravated by military coercion and violence create formidable medical and biological challenges. This same lethal nexus is showing itself in the cholera epidemic in war-ravaged Yemen, and in the attacks on anti-polio campaigners in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Global public-health authorities need to figure out not only how to save lives with medical treatment but also how to do so in war zones, as is sometimes accomplished, albeit with difficulty, in humanitarian relief. In the case of Ebola, the primary health-care tactic is to contain the virus inside a ring, interrupting transmission, a process that requires several steps: surveillance, case investigation, contact tracing and vaccination. In the 2015 West Africa outbreak, which killed more than 11,000 people, that proved extremely difficult. The success of the new vaccine, with more than 100,000 inoculated so far, has given health-care workers and others an important tool to interrupt transmission in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri. So far, Ebola is largely confined to that one area of Congo and has not spread as widely as the West Africa epidemic. As of April 22, there were 1,353 confirmed and probable cases, with 880 deaths. Yet, lately, case counts have risen to double digits on many days. A surge of violence has intimidated many people from seeking treatment, making the virus harder to contain. The region is a battleground for an estimated 120 militias, a conflict fueled by the presence of valuable minerals. In February, a Doctors Without Borders treatment facility was partially burned down. The State Department has ruled the area off limits for security reasons, so the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is not on the ground, but many public-health and medical responders from Congo


Trump administration prepares a rule civil rights groups worry may deny care to transgender patients

consequential, unsettled civil rights questions of our era. The Supreme Court on Monday jumped into the debate, announcing it had accepted three cases involving gay and transgender employees and related to anti-discrimination laws in employment. The potential new HHS rule is part of a broader effort by social conservatives in the Trump administration to change the language around LGBTQ people in official documents, regulations and the law to represent more traditional views on relationships and rights. This includes adding references to “marriage between man and woman” and removing terms such as gender rights. HHS officials declined to comment for this report. But earlier this month, they published a proposed rule that would remove collection of data on the sexual orientation of foster youth and parents and guardians in its Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System. LGBTQ rights groups have argued that asking for that information, which is voluntary, is critical to ensuring the well-being of children. Research funded by HHS has shown that roughly 20 percent of youth in foster care identify as LGBTQ and are more likely to report poor treatment and suffer worse outcomes. Julie Kruse, director of federal policy at the Family Equality Council, said in a statement that government agencies “cannot improve care and outcomes for youth if they do not have data to measure their efforts." HHS, in a draft rule related to foster and adoptive care published April 19 in the Federal Register, argued that a third of states surveyed recommended that such information be removed because of its self-reported nature, which might make it unreliable, and its sensitive nature. “[T]hey questioned the implications of having this information in a government record,” HHS wrote. HHS has not officially announced its work on the Affordable Care Act nondiscrimination rule, but signaled its efforts as part of a lawsuit involving the Franciscan Alliance, a hospital company, and the Christian Medical and Dental Associations in the Texas case. A judge in 2016 issued a temporary injunction that prevented the groups from having to provide care that violates their beliefs, and the case has been in progress since. Luke Goodrich, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said the organizations provide care to a diverse group of patients — including transgender individuals — and have done so for decades. However, they have studied the medical evidence and believe transition-related care such as a hysterectomy or hormone therapy “involve


Maryland middle school cancels play but now says the show might go on

abruptly canceling a show not long from opening. “Unfortunately we have decided to cancel the Spring Musical dates of May 2nd, 3rd and 4th,” the letter said, adding that a parent meeting would be held Tuesday to answer “any of your questions, comments or concerns.” Some parents complained that they went through spring break without knowing why the show was being stopped. Justine Christianson, president of the school’s PTSO, said she had received an email Tuesday morning from Monica Goldson, interim chief executive of the Prince George’s school system, saying the cancellation came after teachers expressed concerns about “the extended use of profanity” in the musical. That email said the play’s content had been reviewed by school officials who decided to cancel the play because copyright laws did not permit a change in language. “It was then deemed more appropriate for high school and not middle school,” the message from Goldson said. It added that school system officials would create a process for approval of plays before students begin practicing “to ensure this does not happen again.” At the parent meeting Tuesday, school officials mentioned a number of concerns — with racial humor, sexual innuendo and what one described as some “cuss words.” Parents pressed to know more about when and how concerns had arisen — and where the process had gone wrong. “This play is two weeks out. . . . I find it completely unacceptable,” one mother said. The decision to revisit the issue came after a student who was at the gathering suggested the disclaimer about more mature content, so families could decide if the show was suitable for the very young. A school board member, Pamela Boozer-Strother, who represents the area and attended the meeting, supported the disclaimer. “It was something that had been on my mind,” she said later. “I was glad the student asked it, and she was able to take us in a new direction of a solution that may be possible.” The school system said it would report back within two days about whether the show will go on, Boozer-Strother said. “I don’t think the reasons for all of this were made very clear, but I am glad there is a way forward and that the students don’t feel all of their hard work was for nothing,” Christianson said. Karl Kippola, a professor and director of the theater and musical theater program


Faulty vent and regulator caused deadly Silver Spring explosion, federal investigators say

Nearly three years after an explosion destroyed two apartment buildings and killed seven people in Silver Spring, the National Transportation Safety Board pointed to failed Washington Gas equipment on Tuesday as responsible for the tragedy. The gas company immediately pushed back on that conclusion, an indication that blame will ultimately be decided through lawsuits filed by tenants and relatives of the dead against Washington Gas and the landlord, Kay Management. The NTSB said a failed gas regulator and a disconnected vent line probably allowed gas to build up “to an explosive level” inside a basement meter room at the Flower Branch apartments, a mostly low-income complex just outside Washington. Eventually, the gas reached “an ignition source” that sparked the blast, according to the agency, which in addition to investigating civil aviation accidents in the United States probes significant railroad, highway and marine accidents, as well as those involving pipelines. The regulator and vent were owned and operated by Washington Gas and were the utility’s responsibility to maintain, NTSB investigator Rachael Gunaratnam said during an agency board meeting. But Gunaratnam said other breakdowns contributed to the dramatic explosion, which killed five adults and two small children, most of them immigrants. Despite numerous instances of people smelling gas in the weeks before the explosion, neither Kay Management, which runs the Flower Branch Apartments, nor firefighters notified the gas company, she said. Kay Management changed the lock to the meter room without making a new key available to the fire department as required by law, Gunaratnam said. As a result, firefighters responding to a call about the smell of gas two weeks before the explosion were unable to get into the meter room. After prying the door partially open and not detecting gas, she said, firefighters left. “Six times in the weeks and months preceding the accident, residents reported a natural gas smell to Kay Management,” NTSB Chairman Robert L. Sumwalt said during Tuesday’s meeting. “In each case, maintenance staff reported that they did not detect gas or attributed the smell to the painting of apartments.” Washington Gas chief executive Adrian Chapman said in a statement Tuesday that while company officials have “great respect for the NTSB and we know they worked diligently,” the company disagreed with the findings. The company does not think the evidence showed a failure of its equipment, Chapman said. “We also do not believe the NTSB sufficiently investigated


Supreme Court’s conservatives appear likely to let Trump add citizenship question to 2020 Census

method that has a 98 percent accuracy rate and another that might be even more accurate, “is it arbitrary and capricious for the secretary to say, I’ll go with the 98 percent because that’s a known quantity?” Alito asked New York Solicitor General Barbara D. Underwood. She was arguing on behalf of 18 states as well as cities and counties challenging Ross’s decision. Underwood said Ross’s reasoning cannot survive scrutiny under the federal laws that dictate how such decisions are made. “The secretary decided to add this question about citizenship to the 2020 Census although the record before him contained uncontradicted and strong evidence that it will cause a decline in the response rate of noncitizens and Hispanics, to the detriment of the states and localities where they live,” she said. The challengers’ best hopes seem to be in persuading either Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. or Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, Trump’s most recent nominee to the court, to uphold the lower courts’ decisions. But both seemed more accepting of Francisco’s arguments. “Do you think it wouldn’t help voting rights enforcement?” Roberts asked Underwood, telling her that it was “quite common” to add demographic questions to the census form. Dale Ho, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, said it would not help with Voting Rights Act enforcement if the result was a census so riddled with incomplete information that it was distorted. Kavanaugh asked questions of both sides, but he also seemed to lean toward recognizing the secretary’s authority and that the citizenship question did not seem so unusual. “The United Nations recommends that countries ask a citizenship question on the census,” he said. “And a number of other countries do it. Spain, Germany, Canada, Australia, Ireland, Mexico ask a citizenship question.” “Does that international practice, that U.N. recommendation, that historical practice in the United States affect how we should look at the inclusion of a citizenship question in this case?” Kavanaugh asked. Lawyers for the challengers said that the important thing was how the question would affect the 2020 Census and that there was universal agreement among experts that it would cause a problem. Douglas Letter represented the Democratic-led House of Representatives, which is arguing the case alongside the states, and immigrant and civil rights groups. He urged the court to reject any change that would result in a less-accurate count. Helping to enforce voting rights


America’s new pastime? Milking goats.

of goats per dairy soared, a sign of increasing consolidation in the industry. According to Janet Fletcher, publisher of the Planet Cheese blog and author of three books on cheese, small-time goat-milkers are being bought out by those with enough cash to compete on a global scale. She points to the 2017 sale of Meyenberg Goat Milk Products of Turlock, Calif., and the 2015 sale of Redwood Hill Farm in Sebastopol, Calif. Both were scooped up by Swiss dairy giant Emmi, which also bought Cypress Grove Chevre, makers of the cult cheese Humboldt Fog. At the end of 2017, Canadian dairy giant Saputo bought Wisconsin-based Montchevre for $265 million. It is now one of the largest goat cheese producers in North America. Dairy goats’ gain may be dairy cows’ loss. The nation’s dairy herd grew just 3 percent from 2007 to 2017, with growth so concentrated in Texas, Michigan and Idaho that about 3 of 5 states actually ended the period with fewer cows. Studies show more than 3 percent of children have a cow’s milk allergy. It can cause gut symptoms and skin problems such as eczema. But allergies alone do not explain the decline of cow’s milk. According to the USDA, an average American drinks about 18 gallons a year. In the 1970s, it was closer to 30. As cow’s milk loses the healthy reputation that once immunized it from competition, alt-milks such as oat, almond and soy milks have swept in to claim market share. Goats are not far behind. Americans’ demand for goat’s milk has steadily risen since the late 1980s when chefs such as Alice Waters at Chez Panisse blew our minds with fresh goat’s cheese on salads. Early goat cheese producer Laura Chenel became nearly a household name, but her product was still a specialty item you would buy in a fancy gourmet shop or health food store. Carrie Liebhauser, marketing director of LaClare Family Creamery in Malone, Wis., says this country is finally catching up with the rest of the world — at least in terms of milk from goats. “We are developing a palate for things that are more international and European, and there’s much more awareness of lactose intolerance. Goat’s milk isn’t free of lactose but it’s lower, and the fat globules in goat’s milk are much smaller and break down more easily.” Liebhauser says LaClare has grown 300 percent just


‘Dark day for Sainsbury’s CEO’: The slow burn of a regrettable ‘hot mic’ moment

People do many things before starting a media interview. They take a deep breath. They make small talk. They go over their notes. Mike Coupe, the CEO of British supermarket chain Sainsbury's, apparently sings show tunes. Coupe was preparing for a television interview to discuss the company's newly announced $10 billion deal to buy Walmart's British arm, Asda Group, when he quietly, impassively, began singing a familiar tune -- with the camera and audio on. "We're in the money, the sky is sunny," the CEO sang at a level just above a hum. "Let's lend it, spend it, send it rolling along." The broadcaster, ITV, released the video, and from there, it was curtains for any hope of keeping it from going viral. Catching a CEO singing that song in that context -- the opening song from the film "Gold Diggers of 1933," a tune from the Broadway musical production of "42nd Street," and the theme "Marketplace" listeners will recognize hearing on a day the stock market's up -- was, well, online gold. While some may find Coupe's rendition of "We're in the Money" video funny, it probably won't be to employees if the merger ends up leading to store closures or job losses (Sainsbury's CFO told Sky News, when pressed, that none are planned). If the deal goes through, Sainsbury's said the combination of the two chains would generate earnings "synergies" of around $681 million and create the largest grocer in Britain. Indeed, Coupe's on-air ditty had sparked plenty of blowback by Tuesday. GMB, a trade union in Britain that includes retail workers, asked "what on earth will Asda workers who are worrying about their futures think when they see this?" adding "it's not only crass, it's completely unprofessional and utterly insensitive." Others found it insensitive or showing "a complete lack of humility or compassion" for workers who faced planned job cuts or restructured roles in past months. A tweet by a reported employee said "spare a thought for all the families" while Jennie Formby, the general secretary of the Labor Party, said the incident "won’t be taken well by the thousands" of union workers worried about their jobs. Others winced at the blunder amid the news rollout and offered a reminder of what some called the first rule of P.R.: "If you're wearing a mic, and are in front of a camera, ALWAYS assume you are being recorded,"


Some streets in downtown closed for D.C. police event near Metro Center

Some streets in downtown Washington will be closed and no parking will be allowed in parts on Tuesday due to a D.C. police event. The 24th annual Blue Mass is happening at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church on 19th and G streets NW. That will create some street closures and no parking areas from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. Vehicles parked in those areas will be ticketed and towed. The following streets will be closed and there will be emergency no parking:


Fascinating new book captures 4.5 billion years of climate and weather in 200 pages

a tornado. And it even delves into the polar vortex. Revkin, who is now strategic adviser for the National Geographic Society, discusses this book effort in a short interview below. What was the motivation for writing the book? Most of my stories and books related to climate change or weather have conveyed individual facets of a grand enterprise — chronicling a team camped on sea ice drifting near the North Pole, a scientist probing a core from a salt marsh or ice sheet, a solar lab here, a nuclear plant there, leaked White House documents or global treaty strategies. Here, I’ve been able to outline humanity’s evolving relationship with weather and the climate system through 100 moments, many of them upending old knowledge and revealing that science is more about the process than some magical set of facts. Who is its intended audience? It may sound pat, but this book was literally written for everybody — in the sense that it’s descriptive, not prescriptive. The chronology shows how research and observations pointing to human-driven global warming are an inherent part of the broader sweep of science illuminating the nature of Earth’s climate system — including the parts that remain unknown and some even unknowable. It was designed for everybody in another way — with art accompanying every milestone and clarity guaranteed by my co-author, Lisa Mechaley, a longtime middle school science teacher who now helps other busy teachers incorporate environmental insights into lesson plans (and who happens to be my wife!). In researching all of these fascinating vignettes about our evolving understanding of weather and climate throughout history, what one thing surprised you the most? I was most surprised, after more than three decades of reporting on climate and weather, by how much I didn’t know — that the worst wildfire in U.S. history wasn’t in the West, that so many amateur scientists played vital roles in knowledge building, that a woman first documented carbon dioxide’s potential to warm the planet and another invented the windshield wiper, that the jet stream was weaponized in World War II. You write a lot about some of the most important people who made critical, groundbreaking discoveries about weather and climate. Is there someone who, in your mind, stands out as being vastly underappreciated for his or her discoveries? I loved stumbling on a pioneering insight about the potential for climate to change written


Nobel literature prize may be postponed after reports that Swedish princess and others were harassed

Each year, literature fans around the world eagerly await the announcement of the Nobel Prize's literature winner, but this October they may be disappointed. For the first time since the end of World War II, the institution that picks the winners — the Swedish Academy — may be forced to postpone the announcement amid deepening internal crises, according to media reports that appear to be based on internal discussions. The Swedish Academy’s interim secretary indicated in an interview with Swedish radio last week that the committee was discussing a possible postponement of the prize and said that “clarity on that point will come soon.” At least one of the committee members has publicly advocated for delaying the announcement. So far, six members of the 18-person committee have suspended their activities. In a damning statement last week following an investigation, the secretive institution acknowledged in a news release that it was “in a state of crisis following a period of strong disagreement between members over important issues.” The statement was a surprisingly frank assessment of the organization’s failings in regard to sexual harassment allegations and upholding secrecy arrangements ahead of the winner’s announcement, which is made in early October. But on Saturday, the academy’s woes worsened further as details emerged about an alleged sexual harassment scandal. Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet quoted three people describing a 2006 incident in which French photographer Jean-Claude Arnault, the husband of former Swedish Academy member Katarina Frostenson, allegedly groped the heir to the Swedish throne, Crown Princess Victoria, during an academy event. The Swedish Academy did not respond to several calls Monday. Another statement is expected Thursday. In response to the revelations, the Swedish royal family expressed its support of the #MeToo movement but did not comment on the specific 2006 incident. Arnault has denied the incident happened and has also rejected similar, separate accusations. Last year, 18 women accused Arnault of having committed sexual assaults or having harassed them, with several of them believed to have occurred on the property of the Swedish Academy. After the committee refused to remove Frostenson from the board, three members vowed to give up their active memberships, even though they are not allowed to resign. Committee members are part of the 18-person body for life, which is why their de-facto resignations have thrown the academy into deep trouble. (A reform of the organization will soon allow members to leave


Russia’s airstrikes in Syria mark a huge departure for Moscow

We've become surprisingly accustomed to Western powers, such as the United States, Britain and France, intervening militarily in the Middle East. The confirmation on Wednesday that Russian warplanes have begun carrying out airstrikes in Syria is something different. These strikes are an exceptionally rare example of Russia using its considerable military might outside its traditional sphere of influence. In fact, to find a Russian military action that is as brazenly open and as far out of Moscow's back yard, you may well have to look deep into the Cold War period. That is not to say that Russia hasn't used that might in recent years. Russian troops are currently accused of fighting alongside rebels in eastern Ukraine. In 2008, Moscow sent troops into Georgia and its air force bombed the capital, Tbilisi. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia fought in two bloody wars in Chechnya and carried out airstrikes during Tajikistan's civil war. However, almost all of Russia's international military action in recent years has taken place in the "near abroad" — a term used in Russia and elsewhere to describe post-Soviet states that Moscow still considers strategically vital. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has only rarely and indirectly been involved in conflicts outside this sphere of influence — Russian soldiers were in Bosnia and Kosovo during the 1990s but functioned as peacekeepers. (Russia continues to send a small number of military experts and troops to participate in the United Nations' peacekeeping missions). [Kerry warns of "grave concerns" about Russia's intent with airstrikes in Syria] Even when you delve further into the Soviet era, it is hard to find Russian military action comparable to the airstrikes in Syria. Soviet troops fought a brutal war in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989, but at the time the country was a direct neighbor of the Soviet Union. Soviet troops were involved in uprisings in Hungary 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968, but — again — all of these countries were clearly within Moscow's sphere of influence. Soviet troops were stationed in Vietnam during the war there and Soviet planes flew during the Korean War, but the Soviet Union did not play an official role in these and other proxy conflicts at the time (one of the more significant examples of Soviet military support in this period came during the Angolan civil war, though Soviet-backed Cuban troops formed the majority


The weather in the Middle East has gone haywire because of a freak storm

A savage flash flood killed 10 teenagers in Israel. Massive amounts of hail bombarded Syria. And a blinding dust storm swept across portions of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. These extreme events were all connected to an intense weather disturbance that arrived in the Middle East from the Mediterranean Sea early this week. Few countries in the region were untouched. In two days, some places in Israel received a third of the rain they would expect in a year, the New York Times reported. Tel Aviv received an inch of rain in an hour, while Jerusalem was drenched by about two inches, Haaretz.com reported. Some areas were also hit by hail. Yeshiva World News, an online publication, described the flooding in Israel as “epic.” Social media video showed floodwater pouring through streets, homes and businesses. In addition to the 10 Israeli teenagers who were swept away while hiking near the Dead Sea, flooding also took the lives of two teenagers from a Bedouin community and two Palestinian children. Despite the loss of life, Yeshiva World News reported that Israel’s Water Authority described the rain as “important, blessed and good.” It came in the midst of a long-term drought in the region. Torrential rains also hit Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt, causing flooding. On Wednesday, parts of Egypt were “impassable” because of high water, CBS News reported. In Cairo, floodwater inundated roads and stranded vehicles. To the south, on the storm’s dry side in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, strong winds collected sand and dust from the desert, forming monstrous dust storms. The Kuwait Times said the dust caused visibility “to drop drastically.” In Saudi Arabia, a video posted to social media showed an airplane engulfed in sand as it landed at Jazan Regional Airport in the southwestern corner of the country. The chaotic weather was unleashed when the disturbance, loaded with cold air at high altitudes and able to draw moisture off the Mediterranean, moved over the hot, dry desert. The atmosphere turned extremely unstable because of the colliding air masses. This same disturbance had undercut a massive heat dome that formed over Western Europe last week and brought record heat to Paris and London. The disturbance is progressing east and is expected to weaken, meaning improving conditions in the Middle East this weekend.


These magnets stick around

Yay, I’ve just sent in my order for our latest pair of Loser magnets: the one above and the one atop this week’s Style Invitational, Week 1329, that I send out to the honorably mentioned in The Style Invitational; I hope to get them back from the magneteers in about two weeks. We’ve been giving out the Bob Staake-drawn business-card-size artworks — I order 500 of each design — since I deposed the Czar in December 2003 and retired the previous HM prize, bumper stickers. Each series lasts about a year; the current one has run somewhat longer, since January 2018 (this year’s magnets will sport a safe “2019-20” date). Here’s a little history of the magnets Meanwhile, I think I have enough of the current “We’ve Seen Better” and “IDiot CARD” to see us through this week’s ink and even the sure-to-be-huge list of foal-name honorable mentions next week. First Offenders, you still get the Fir Stink for your first ink. We want you to come back for more. NO-HOLDS BARD: THIS WEEK’S SHAKESPEAREAN TAILGATER CONTEST Where the term “tailgater” comes from isn’t clear, but the light-verse couplet it refers to has been around at least since 1966, when the humorist Richard Armour put out “Punctured Poems: Famous First, and Infamous Second Lines.” In a tailgater, you choose a line from a classic poem, then turn it into a couplet by writing a funny second line. For example, Armour started with the first line of “Jenny Kiss’d Me” by Leigh Hunt (1838): Jenny kissed me when we metNot oft such quick results I get. This week’s Style Invitational, Week 1329, has a couple of twists on the tailgater form. First of all, the source has to be Shakespeare (the Invite luvvvvs Shakespeare, whose every word is all over the Internet). Second, you don’t have to use a Shakespearean sonnet or other poem; you can a play. But because you’re writing a mini-poem, you’re probably best off by choosing a line that’s in a poetic meter; fortunately that includes tons and tons of lines from the plays. (“He jests at scars that never felt a wound” — pure iambic pentameter, ba-DUM-ba-DUM-ba-DUM-ba-DUM-ba-DUM.) And finally, you can opt to use the Shakespearean line as the second in the couplet. Heck, why not? We’ve run two previous tailgater contests; use the results as guidance and inspiration for Week 1329. Week 970 Note that


Ireland is a tax haven — and that’s becoming controversial at home

During the last couple weeks, strange things have been happening in Ireland. A mysterious organization called the Irish Tax Agency launched a Facebook campaign to advertise how Irish tax authorities gave preferential treatment to international property investors. The Sunday Business Post revealed Ireland’s economic development agency, the IDA, was paying for changes to Wikipedia pages about itself and its chief executive. It had gotten caught up in an “edit war” with a Wikipedia user who kept on making edits “linking Ireland and its stakeholders to negative stories, particularly on economics, taxation and Brexit.” For a long time, Ireland has used taxes to aggressively attract incoming investment. Now this strategy is being questioned. The financial professionals and lawyers who have developed the corporate tax avoidance industry like to avoid terms such as “tax haven.” Instead, they prefer language about regulated entities that spread risk with efficient tax planning, aimed at facilitating a non-bank based structured finance regime. However, the Senate, the E.U. parliament and a growing list of social science experts prefer more straightforward language. As the recent research of Gabriel Zucman and the CORPNET research team at the University of Amsterdam shows, Ireland is a “conduit tax haven,” acting as a tax-avoiding funnel between nation-states and enabling the transfer of capital without taxation. Ireland’s corporate-friendly tax policies have been controversial for decades. However, they were transformed during the financial crisis. When the Irish state was in major financial difficulty, it used a long-standing feature of the corporate tax code known as “Section 110″ to attract international investment. This feature basically allows for the legal creation of “special purpose vehicles” (SPVs) that can structure themselves to pay little or no tax. These Section 110 vehicles also tend to have few or no employees. They are legal constructs to store capital and wealth. Such special purpose vehicles and other investment funds have led to the development of a massive shadow banking sector, which Ireland’s Central Bank has little power to regulate. The international Financial Stability Board estimates almost €2.5 trillion ($2.8 trillion) in assets are administered in Ireland’s shadow banking sector. These legal and financial gymnastics to store capital and avoid tax are different from the income profit shifting strategies of companies such as Apple and Google, which are based around a completely different set of legal strategies. Ireland’s shadow banking sector has turned Ireland into a central node in the global


Trump’s campaign manager says Russia ‘never’ helped. That lie will please Trump.

he’s lying. The Mueller report concluded that “The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion,” to help Trump win. The report documents what this looked like over dozens and dozens of pages. So the sabotage effort was not remotely inconsequential, let alone nonexistent. What’s more, the report concluded that the Trump campaign “expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts,” and documents this at length, as well. So we know the campaign itself viewed the Russian efforts as “help.” It’s remarkable how the Trump propaganda network continues to hold the report up as total vindication (based on outright lies about what the report found, particularly on obstruction of justice), while pretending the report’s extensive conclusions on the Russian sabotage effort itself simply don’t exist. Of course, we now know — from that Times report — that Trump’s underlings are discouraged from mentioning the Russian interference campaign at all, because it raises doubts about the greatness of his victory. So, when Parscale tells this lie, he surely knows it will be very pleasing to the Audience of One. But we actually know more than this. We know that Trump’s hatred of this truth cramped the government’s ability to marshal a response to more of the same. This was also documented in an exhaustive Post report from December 2017, which concluded that Trump’s “refusal to accept what even many in his administration regard as objective reality” has “impaired the government’s response to a national security threat.” And we now know that this persisted right up through Nielsen’s departure. Never mind whether these recent leaks represent an effort by Nielsen to rehabilitate herself; even if so, much of this story have been confirmed, and the story is obviously significant well beyond what this means for Nielsen. Parscale is denying that the campaign will accept Russian help again. But Mueller’s report confirms the campaign welcomed it last time. Now, in an act of staggering dishonesty and bad faith, Trumpworld is claiming, in effect, that the Mueller report vindicates Trump’s claim that the whole Russia story was a “hoax” — including the Russian attack itself, irrespective of whether there was any criminal conspiracy — even though the Mueller report concluded precisely the opposite. Combine this with Trump’s ongoing refusal to marshal a serious response to another round in 2020, and it’s hard to read


A life in images: Remembering Afghan photojournalist Shah Marai

Agence France-Presse chief photographer Shah Marai, 41, was among the dozens of people killed Monday in a suicide bombing in Kabul. Marai was one of nine journalists lost in a second blast that targeted those first at the scene. Marai, a veteran photographer who had been working in his home country for 22 years, started at AFP as a driver. Those 22 years included 17 years of war, starting in 2001 when the United States removed the Taliban from power. His coverage of Afghanistan did not shy away from the carnage, but he still found and dutifully captured moments of humanity, culture and beauty present in the people and the land. The father of six had just celebrated the birth of his first daughter, Khadija, 15 days before his death. “This is a devastating blow, for the brave staff of our close-knit Kabul bureau and the entire agency,” said Michele Leridon, Agence France-Presse’s global news director. “We can only honor the strength, courage, and generosity of a photographer who covered often traumatic, horrific events with sensitivity and consummate professionalism.” “He was a gentle being, always smiling, always in a good mood. He was a tall man full of thoughtfulness,” said Polka’s director of photography, Dimitri Beck, who met Marai in Afghanistan in the early 2000s. “He was a great team leader. Always calm and serene, very professional. He was a great photographer in a country where news photography was a new thing at that time. His loss is a great one for the Afghan press. This attack is representative of the state of freedom in general and press freedom in particular in Afghanistan.”