How the refugee crisis is transforming the Middle East

The 2003 invasion of Iraq and the subsequent civil war produced an estimated 6 million refugees and a similar number of internally displaced. Even by those historical standards, the sheer magnitude and simultaneity of today’s refugee flows represent something new. More than 6 million Syrians have fled the country, while another 10 million have been internally displaced. Many others have fled wars and failed states in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Neighboring states have faced severe challenges in absorbing millions of refugees, while North African states and Turkey have emerged as key transit hubs for refugee flows into Europe. The new media environment, the spread of jihadist movements and the fragility of regional order exacerbate the perceived threat. Beyond the human, economic and security costs, there are some less obvious ways in which these refugee flows are transforming the nature of states and sovereignty in the Middle East. These are analyzed in a new collection of papers that we edited, based on a workshop convened last month by the Project on Middle East Political Science at George Washington University and the Middle East Studies Program at the University of Southern California with support from its Center for International Studies. Here are four key takeaways from their research: Borders should be seen not as walls but as filters Middle Eastern borders cannot be understood as solid barriers between distinct national communities. War economies and the provision of refugee support involve large-scale cross-border networks of people, goods, services and weapons. Instead of thinking of borders as walls, it may be more useful to now think of them as filters, which shape these flows in varying ways. Sometimes, these borders allow nearly uninterrupted movement into war zones (as with Turkey during much of the Syrian war) and sometimes tightening them to choke off flows (as with Jordan during the Syrian war’s later years). This variation in border filtering has significant implications for security, political identity, economies and humanitarian well-being. The humanitarian sector is changing practices of sovereignty inside of states Refugee populations in states such as Jordan and Lebanon constitute well more than a quarter of the total population, and most are not housed within geographically distinct refugee camps. The enormous strain on their infrastructure has facilitated the introduction of a semi-permanent presence of international organizations and aid workers into the everyday governance of these noncitizen populations. This is challenging core


Great Britain will exit the E.U. not with a bang, but with a blinkered negotiating strategy

like with Brussels, how the border with Northern Ireland will be managed, the future of security and intelligence cooperation, and so forth. That’s a pretty long list. There’s a lot of negotiating that needs to take place between the United Kingdom and the European Union. The conventional wisdom had been that until Great Britain triggered Article 50, it held a bargaining advantage, but once it was triggered, that advantage shifted over to the E.U. The reason is that the clock is now ticking and can’t really be stopped unless there is unanimity among the remaining 27 countries of the European Union. The greater size of the European market relative to Great Britain means the Brits are at something of a disadvantage. Without an agreement, on March 29, 2019, both the UK and E.U. would be hurt, but the UK would be hurt a heck of a lot more. So it’s a bit odd that Article 50 was triggered. Despite a lot of loose talk about London extracting framework concessions from Brussels prior to invoking Article 50, to my knowledge the European negotiators haven’t given up anything. And now the advantage shifts to the E.U., which May implicitly acknowledged in her letter: We understand that there will be consequences for the UK of leaving the E.U. We know that we will lose influence over the rules that affect the European economy. We know that UK companies that trade with the E.U. will have to align with rules agreed by institutions of which we are no longer a part, just as we do in other overseas markets. We accept that. The Economist Two separate negotiations are involved. The main Article 50 one will be about divorce terms, including over money, assets and liabilities, regularising the position of E.U. and British nationals in each other’s countries and the future of E.U. agencies in Britain. This divorce has to be approved by a “qualified majority” of member countries, excluding Britain, and approved by the European Parliament. A second negotiation will be about future trade relations between Britain and the E.U. That deal will take longer, not least because it requires the unanimous approval of all E.U. member countries plus ratification by all national and regional parliaments, as well as by the European Parliament … Article 50 puts the rest of the E.U. in a stronger bargaining position than Britain, not least because of its


I worked for Jared Kushner. He’s the wrong businessman to reinvent government.

of new investors to let Vornado, a real estate firm that owns 49.5 percent of it, get out; discussions with Chinese insurance giant Anbang fell apart this past week. Is this good dealmaking? I don’t know. If I were to assume any expertise I have is transitive to commercial real estate, I might argue that Kushner Co. overpaid for the building in the first place and overleveraged itself. But I also know what I don’t know, and I don’t make a living using vast amounts of debt to buy Class A office buildings in New York, so I will defer to people who do to opine. You could construe my evaluation as a reasonable observation by an outsider with a set of “fresh eyes,” but you’d be nuts to hand me a billion-dollar commercial real estate company because of it. When it became clear in 2012 that Kushner was conflating running lean with starvation, I submitted my resignation and left the Observer mostly on good terms with him, but I was disappointed. The company president resigned a few weeks later. Kushner eventually filled our positions with a family friend and his brother-in-law, the latter of whom had no media experience. He wanted outsiders to run the business — but loyal, compliant outsiders. A few days after Trump won the election, Kushner folded the now attenuated print newspaper and subsequently announced that the Observer, in its digital incarnation, was for sale. He probably would refer to it as a “lean” operation. I would say in his zeal to trim the fat, he began eliminating muscle and hacked into a few bones. I realize also, in retrospect, that he may never have intended to grow it or improve it. It was for him, in essence, another vanity object — like the beautiful, expensive desktop computer he used as a monitor. I worry that this new office will be more of the same: a vanity project, one that exists primarily to put Kushner in the same room with people he admires whom he wouldn’t have had access to before, glossing government agencies in the process with a thin veneer of what appears to be capitalism but is really just nihilistic cost-cutting designed to project the optics of efficiency. If the outside experts have good advice, it will be heeded only where it reinforces what the administration would do anyway. And anyone who volunteers


A British magazine suggests ‘popping’ your soup dumplings. Please don’t.

the soup out of them or ‘explode’ them as you crudely put it. My traditional food is not here just for your next cool trend.” - “Did you just equate Chinese food to popping zits? Time Out you should know better. How hard is it to find an ethnic Chinese person and just ask them how this should be eaten?” - “RIP all these dead XLB, you have died for nothing.” When food editors, who are often white, introduce their readership to “new” foods — it’s called “Columbusing” — they don’t always get it right. A similar outcry took place last year when Bon Appetit made a video of a white chef explaining how to eat pho, telling people that it’s incorrect to put hoisin or Sriracha in the soup. Asian readers inundated the magazine with criticism, both for the falsities (it’s okay to use those sauces, many Vietnamese readers pointed out) and for the poor optics of it all. Bon Appetit later removed the video. Time Out later apologized for its video, too, and posted a call-out for readers to help it with its cultural understanding. “We’ve been politely informed that bursting these lovely little parcels of culinary joy before they reach your lips really isn’t the done thing at all. So, first off, apologies to anybody who was peeved by our post. Secondly, we’d like to invite the knowledgeable food-lovers of China and Asia to tell us what traditional delicacies we Londoners should try — and how to eat them properly,” the editors wrote. When you eat xiao long bao, you want the broth to spill out into your mouth, not the bowl. For the record, here’s the best method, according to Washington Post writer Winyan Soo Hoo, who interviewed Wei Sun, co-owner of Shanghai Taste in Rockville, for a 2015 story about xiao long bao. The delicate nature of dumpling skin requires gentle chopstick maneuvering for a quick transfer from steamer basket to Chinese soup spoon. An initial bite into the skin to slurp the broth will help avoid scalding splashes or spills. “We will give you a big soup spoon before you eat,” Sun said. “Take a small bite and let the juice flow.” And please, don’t compare it to anything dermatologic. More from Food: We’re sorry: You cannot call lettuce and a side of dressing “hand salad” Are bags of pre-crushed potato chips the future


Elon Musk’s SpaceX makes history by launching a ‘flight-proven’ rocket

Elon Musk's SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on March 30. From a distance, it looked like any other rocket at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, a soaring tower of thrust and power, ready to blast off into orbit. Upon closer inspection, though, there were signs of something different about this rocket. The Falcon 9’s first-stage booster was not as clean and shiny as they usually are. It was just a touch dull, showing, ever so slightly, the scorched wear from its first launch, almost a year ago — a “flight-proven” rocket, as Elon Musk’s SpaceX likes to call it. On Thursday evening, almost one year after it had previously flown the Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX launched it again. The launch, at 6:27 p.m., marked the first time that a rocket had flown a payload to orbit, landed vertically and then been reused. The flight signaled an important landmark, capping years of work and some fiery theatrics of boosters screaming back from space only to explode in failed attempts to land on ships at sea. In December 2015, SpaceX was able to land its first rocket on a landing pad at Cape Canaveral. A few months later, the company did it again, this time at sea. Since then, it has made landing rockets as exciting — or more so — than the 3-2-1, bone-rattling liftoffs of fire and smoke that have reignited interest in space exploration. After the successful launch, an emotional Musk called it “an incredible milestone in the history of space.” Once aloft, the Falcon 9 boosters perform a bit of aerial acrobatics, turning around and then flying back to Earth. Guided by computer algorithms and GPS navigation, they make their way through the clouds to their target, slowing down by firing their engines again until they touch down softly, with remarkable, near bull’s-eye precision. Those feats are meant to serve a higher purpose than entertaining the company’s growing and at times rabid fan base, which treats launches like groupies do rock concerts. The real goal is to dramatically lower the cost of spaceflight, making it accessible as the company pursues its ultimate goal of reaching Mars. That has taken a lot of ingenuity — and computing power. Up until recently, the first stages of rockets were traditionally discarded, lost in the ocean after providing the initial power to escape Earth’s gravity. But to


Senate votes to kill rule that would help cities launch retirement plans

framed it as an issue about states’ rights. “I do not think the federal government should stand in the way of states seeking to solve very real problems, especially in the midst of a growing retirement security crisis,” Corker said in a statement issued after the vote. Supporters of the city and state retirement strategies say they can help tackle one of the biggest obstacles workers face when it comes to saving for retirement: access to a savings plan. About 55 million Americans don’t have retirement accounts or pensions through their jobs, according to AARP, which supports the local retirement plans. In addition to being automatically enrolled into a plan, workers would have the contributions deducted directly from their paychecks. People who don’t want to participate would be able to opt out. “Many Americans who lack a workplace savings plan do not save enough for retirement, and run the risk of relying exclusively on Social Security’s modest benefits when they retire,” said Nancy LeaMond, executive vice president of the AARP in a statement. When New York unveiled its retirement proposal in October, the city estimated that the initiative would affect about 1.5 million New Yorkers who don’t have access to retirement savings accounts through their jobs — or nearly 60 percent of the city’s private-sector workers. “Republicans in the Senate just voted to prevent Americans from saving for retirement,” New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer said in a statement released Thursday. “This vote was an active, willful attempt to undermine the economic security of Americans.” The efforts to simplify the savings process may also boost funding in state coffers. If more workers are able to save for retirement, that reduces the chance that they will fall into poverty in old age and need to rely on state-funded programs such as Medicaid. Officials from some states, including Oregon and Maryland, say they may be able to proceed with their retirement programs even without the Labor Department rule. But the lack of clarity could cause some states to think twice before launching their own programs, said Josh Gotbaum, chairman of Maryland’s state retirement program. “In the states that haven’t done this yet, this slows everything down,” he said. Read more: How this millennial saved $1 million by age 30 Trump administration calls the structure of the CFPB unconstitutional in filing Workers’ paychecks in limbo because of a delay in overtime rules


Applying for financial aid is going to be harder this year

said in a statement. “Protecting taxpayer data has to be the highest priority.” Koskinen’s statement “betrays a disheartening lack of understanding about how vital this tool has become in streamlining the financial-aid application process,” said Justin Draeger, president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA). The government, he said, has ignored a petition from financial aid administrators, admissions officers and guidance counselors to ease application demands that could lead to delays and backlogs for students during the outage. James W. Runcie, who heads the Federal Student Aid office at the Education Department, said the agency has “heard from students, parents and the financial-aid community that applying for aid is harder” without the tax tool, and pledged to help families successfully submit applications. Applicants can fill out the paper FAFSA form or still use the online version and manually enter tax return data. But student advocates worry that both of those options will lead to errors. And those errors may result in students being asked to verify information with additional documents, a time-consuming process that could take them out of the running for aid awarded on a first-come, first-serve basis. Advocacy groups and members of Congress have pleaded with states to push back their financial aid deadlines in light of the shutdown, since most jurisdictions rely on the FAFSA to dispense grants. Colleges and universities also want the application by March to divvy up their own institutional dollars. Because the window for submitting the form opened in October — two months earlier than usual — high school seniors completed 603,000 more FAFSA applications by mid-February than they did a year earlier, according to the National College Access Network. But the organization fears that low-income students without the proper guidance from parents or counselors are still wading through the application process, and the outage could discourage completion. The consequences of disabling the tax tool extend beyond financial aid. People enrolled in income-driven repayment plans must update their tax information every year for the government to cap their monthly student-loan bill to a percentage of their earnings. The IRS tool streamlines that certification process, but without it, people may take longer to complete the form and miss their deadline. And that could increase the amount of money they pay per month. “You incur higher costs and you face potentially unaffordable payments until you can get your information in,” said Lauren


Brexit and Britain’s delusions of empire

Want smart analysis of the most important news in your inbox every weekday along with other global reads, interesting ideas and opinions to know? Sign up for the Today's WorldView newsletter. Brexit has begun, and British Prime Minister Theresa May now faces the unenviable task of settling her nation's divorce from the European Union while also figuring out how to make up for the potentially ruinous costs of the break. A first step of sorts took place Thursday when May’s government published plans to convert thousands of E.U. laws into British ones — what my colleague Karla Adam describes as “a gigantic ’cut and paste’ job, repatriating 40 years of powers from Brussels to London.” Dubbed the “Great Repeal Bill,” the move is a bid by British leaders to calm the justifiable fears of millions of Britons — and European nationals living in the country — who are worried about Brexit's effect on their daily lives. But it’s Brexit supporters who may be in line for a real shock. Even beyond the coming “traumatic” loss of access to the E.U.’s market — as the Economist put it — the promise of a politically resurgent Britain is likely to fall flat. Much of the rhetoric of the pro-Brexit crowd centers around the reclamation of British “sovereignty” from technocrats in Brussels. But Brexit proponents have also projected a nostalgic vision of Britain once more asserting itself as a dominant player on the world stage. May trumpeted the dawn of a new “Global Britain” earlier this year: a nation shorn of its continental commitments and capable of finding a new accommodation with other parts of the world — especially those it once colonized. The ironically named 'Commonwealth' helps rehabilitate the image of the British Empire and deny its numerous genocides. “Outside the E.U., the world is our oyster, and the Commonwealth the pearl within,” the far-right, pro-Brexit United Kingdom Independence Party declared ahead of last year’s referendum. Earlier this month, it emerged that May’s government is seeking to boost trade links to many of the nations of the Commonwealth — particularly in Africa — in a move labeled by some anonymous government officials as “Empire 2.0.” And Liam Fox, charged with rebuilding these links as Britain's international trade secretary, suggested that his country had little to atone for in its imperial past. "The United Kingdom, is one of the few countries in the


Maryland open houses April 1-2

Lane 11252 Powder Run #a-27-4 5647 Harpers Farm Rd #c 21045 7252 Lasting Light Way 8518 Wind Dance Way 9058 Flamepool Way 8541 Davis Rd 6311 Short Wheel Way 6913 Deer Pasture COOKSVILLE 21723 14313 Fox Creek Ct 14427 Frederick Rd 14301 Frederick Rd ELKRIDGE 21075 6353b Loudon Ave 7165 Deep Falls Way #140 7127 Deep Falls Way #35 7259 Pebble Creek Dr #6 8857 Purple Iris Lane #34 ELLICOTT CITY 21042 4888 Castlebridge Rd 5105 Sheppard Lane 11005 Dorsch Farm Rd 3645 Macalpine Rd 2930 Eastway Dr 5307 Catalpa Ct 11001 Gaither Farm Rd 2958 Pebble Beach Dr 9073 Northfield Rd Lot 6 Northfield Rd 4747 Leyden Way 4200 Buckskin Lake Dr 4284 Buckskin Wood Dr 4809 Castlebridge Rd 10140 Frost Way 3681 Blackberry Lane 11024 Hidden Fox Ct 4038 White Star Way 21043 4934 Bramhope Lane Parcel 564 Montgomery Rd Parcel 564 Montgomery Rd 7972 Old Montgomery Rd 7972 Old Montgomery Rd Lot 8 Old Montgomery Rd 4938 Montgomery Rd 5004 Summer Solstice Pl 5111 Mintz Lane 3530 Sylvan Lane 8902 Serenity View Dr 4515 Rolling Meadows Way FULTON 20759 7922 Tilghman St 7839 Tuckahoe Ct 8825 Longwood St HIGHLAND 20777 7105 Mink Hollow Rd 6830 Santa Maria Ave JESSUP 20794 Lot 1 Lincoln Dr Lot 2 Lincoln Dr WOODBINE 21797 3262 Eleanors Garden Way WOODSTOCK 21163 11165 Chambers Ct #n MONTGOMERY COUNTY BETHESDA 20814 4801 Fairmont Ave #410 10624 Montrose Ave #1 5417 Linden Ct 5153 King Charles Way 4604 Chestnut St 9208 E. Parkhill Dr 5809 Grosvenor Lane 10606 Montrose Ave #m4 4614 Chestnut St 7500 Woodmont Ave #s918 20816 6103 Namakagan Rd 5300 Albemarle St 5801 Namakagan Rd 5409 Wehawken Rd 5101 River Rd #409 5619 Bent Branch Rd 6225 Madawaska Rd 6450 Brookes Lane #10 6450 Brookes Lane #7 5101 River Rd #705 5317 Blackistone Rd 5611 Lamar Rd 20817 8712 Seven Locks Rd 6508 Kenhowe Dr 6838 Tammy Ct 10401 Fernwood Rd 7126 Darby Rd 6505 Pyle Rd 7800 Seven Locks Rd 3 Newbold Ct 9617 Weathered Oak Ct 5816 Conway Rd 8803 Bradmoor Dr 7310 Greentree Rd 7015 Arandale Rd 7708 Beech Tree Rd 8210 Hawthorne Rd 5612 Madison St 9612 Annlee Ter 5502 Hoover St 8920 Burdette Rd 9201 Fernwood Rd 6404 Lone Oak Dr 6408 Lone Oak Dr BOYDS 20841 19830 Bucklodge Rd 22016 Ivy Leaf Dr 18414 Clear Smoke Rd BROOKEVILLE 20833 19030 Abbey Manor Dr CABIN JOHN 20818


Maryland brewers unite against bill that could allow more sales but limit taproom hours

universal acclaim was the increase in on-site barrel sales, which was spurred by global drinks giant Diageo’s plans to open a $50 million Guinness brewery and tasting room in Relay, Md. The company says its visitors center could draw at least 200,000 thirsty visitors a year. [Guinness plans to brew in America again, for the first time in six decades] “This whole thing is about Diageo,” said Delegate Dereck E. Davis (D-Prince George’s), the chairman of the House of Delegates’ Economic Matters Committee, which advanced the original bill. “No one else has the need.” The current threshold is 500 barrels, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but equates to 124,000 pints over the course of a year. The busiest taproom in Maryland is currently Frederick’s Flying Dog brewery, which sells about 230 barrels, or just over 57,000 pints per year. (Not bad when you consider they’re only open five days per week.) There’s one point that brewers didn’t seem happy about, but they agreed to in compromise: To keep beer wholesalers happy, the bill includes a provision that breweries selling between 2,000 and 3,000 barrels would have to sell their beer to a wholesaler and buy it back before selling it in the brewery taproom, a process that Franchot called a “cockamamie, dumb system.” Brewers offered a compromise that will allow them to keep their existing hours. The reduction in hours is the bigger sticking point. Tensions between breweries and the bar industry have grown in recent years, as brewery taprooms have begun staying open later, offering live music and events, and, as the industry sees it, acting like de facto bars. “Taprooms were designed for marketing, to allow one to taste the product, not to be a bar,” Branch said. “I don’t think breweries designed for tourism need to be open until midnight. Bars are open until midnight.” After the hearing, Kevin Atticks,, defended the taprooms as an essential part of a brewery’s business model. “For better or worse, when the legislature allowed taprooms a number of years ago, the vehicle for that was for breweries to get a bar license. Our breweries followed the law.” However, the Brewers Association worked with associations representing beer wholesalers and retailers to craft a proposed compromise amendment that would allow all existing breweries and brewers in planning to keep their existing hours, which are determined by local jurisdictions, but limit future breweries


1 in 4 youths exposed to secondhand smoke from e-cigarettes, study shows

An electronic cigarette in smoke. (iStock) One in four middle school and high school students report that they have been exposed to secondhand smoke from e-cigarettes in the past 30 days, according to a new study by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The finding translates to about 6.5 million youths exposed. Some of the students had smoked e-cigarettes themselves during that time, but 4.4 million were not users. More than 1 million were exposed to secondhand smoke only from e-cigarettes, the study concluded. The U.S. surgeon general reported last December that exposure to secondhand aerosol from electronic cigarettes is harmful because of the possible toxic substances, such as nicotine and heavy metals, they contain. Nicotine exposure can be particularly dangerous because it can affect adolescent brain development. “We know that secondhand e-cigarette aerosol is not harmless, and it’s critical to protect our nation’s youth from this preventable health risk,” said Brian King, deputy director for research translation in CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health and a co-author of the new study. It was published in JAMA Pediatrics. E-cigarette use among young people is a growing concern in the United States, with the surgeon general finding a 900 percent increase from 2011 to 2015. That jump makes e-cigarettes the most commonly used form of tobacco among children and adolescents in the United States, surpassing cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco and other conventional products. Flavor is one of the most common reasons young people give for using e-cigarettes, according to the surgeon general's report. But some chemicals used for e-cigarette flavoring can be harmful to health, King said. “One example is diacetyl, which is known to produce the buttery flavor in popcorn, and studies have linked inhalation of diacetyl to a severe respiratory illness,” King said. The ailment is commonly known as popcorn lung syndrome. The CDC study drew on data from the 2015 National Youth Tobacco Survey. It found that secondhand exposure to e-cigarette aerosol was greater for girls (nearly 27 percent) than boys (22 percent). Fifteen percent of black students reported being exposed, compared to 27 percent of white students. Youth who used e-cigarettes or conventional tobacco products are most likely to be exposed to secondhand smoke because of the company they often keep. “People who use multiple tobacco products are also in social environments with others who use e-cigarettes or other tobacco products,” King said. To


9 beer festivals, tap takeovers and parties to quench your thirst in April

Right Proper Brewing Company's Brookland brewery and tasting room will celebrate Saison Day with Maine's Allagash Brewing on April 8. (Photo by Fritz Hahn/The Washington Post) The annual Craft Brewers Conference returns to D.C. from April 10-13, after stops in Philadelphia, Portland and Denver. Expect more than 10,000 brewers, brewery employees, distributors and other industry folks flooding bars for tap takeovers, meet-and-greets and happy hours, many featuring beers not normally seen in Washington, and most open to the public. There are so many CBC events, in fact, that it merits its own day-by-day guide; look for that soon. Here are events before and after the main event. Hill Farmstead at ChurchKey and Sovereign If you're into craft beer, you don't need me to explain why this event will be mobbed. If you're not familiar with Hill Farmstead, this is your chance to find out why beer geeks speak so reverently about a small farmhouse brewery in Vermont, which has been RateBeer's #1 brewery in the world three years running. Beer director Greg Engert has spread the beer over two days, with Hill Farmstead founder Shawn Hill at both events. Saturday at ChurchKey is focused on Hill Farmstead's IPAs and pale ales, such as Harlan, Abner and Double Citra, plus a few darker offerings, including the divine Shirley Mae nitro porter. You're going to want to be in line at least an hour in advance if you want to have one of the 14 beers before they run out. Noon. 1337 14th St. NW. Sunday, at the Sovereign, is dedicated to a dozen “Belgian-inspired” Hill Farmstead beers, including Clara, a grisette; the 2016 and 2017 vintages of Anna, a farmhouse ale made with wildflower honey; and Brother Soigne, a lime, hibiscus and blood orange farmhouse ale made brewed with Luc “Bim” Lafontaine, former of Dieu de Ciel. 11 a.m. 1206 Wisconsin Ave. NW. Bavarian Beer Garden Launch at Owen's Ordinary The North Bethesda beer garden kicks off its spring patio season with a little slice of Oktoberfest: 12 German and German-style craft beers from breweries in the old country (Mahrs Brau, Braubäcker, Mönchshof) and closer to home (RAR, Union, Manor Hill). The kitchen has a special menu of bratwurst and other meats, and an oompah band provides the entertainment. Beers will be offered in regular and 20-ounce pours; the latter includes a free souvenir mug. Noon to 6 p.m. 11820 Trade


The Daily 202: How Trump’s threats against the Freedom Caucus may backfire

or Corrupt or Both’? https://t.co/5NgCvbnnkI (VIDEO) https://t.co/W7UP7T8APR -- Democrats are piling on: We need to hope that there is an adult someplace in the Trump Administration who will stand up for Americans. #FollowTheFacts SpaceX's booster rocket after a successful vertical landing in the Atlantic Ocean. (SpaceX via AP) GET SMART FAST: - SpaceX successfully launched a used rocket, a historic achievement that CEO Elon Musk says will “revolutionize the space industry. The test from Kennedy Space Center marks the first time a rocket delivered a payload to orbit, landed and then launched again. (Christian Davenport) - A pair of spacewalking NASA astronauts lost a key piece of the space station, sending a protective entrance barrier floating freely, forever, into the depths of outer space. The accident left Mission Control scrambling – but luckily, the teams were able to innovate a second protective door using materials already located at the station. (Amy B Wang) - A major fire in Atlanta caused a portion of its main interstate to collapse during rush hour, crumbling dramatically into a sea of flames minutes after officers halted traffic. Thanks to their impeccable timing, no one was hurt. (Gillian Brockell) - A 60-year-old State Department employee is accused of obstructing justice and concealing contacts with two Chinese foreign intelligence agents, according to newly-unsealed federal charges. For years, the department veteran -- who also held a top-secret security clearance, was showered with tens of thousands of dollars in cash and lavish gifts. (Spencer S. Hsu and Devlin Barrett) - Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) vetoed a Medicaid expansion bill, pitting him against his GOP-controlled state legislature. (Jose A. DelReal) - North Carolina lawmakers formally passed changes to the state’s “bathroom bill,” reversing the contentious H.B. 2 legislation that has embroiled state politics and cost the state millions. Still, the new measure drew intense opposition from civil rights advocates, who said it falls short of a full repeal. (Mark Berman and Amber Phillips) - Wall Street analysts said major health insurance provider Anthem is “leaning toward exiting” many Obamacare exchanges – becoming the latest in a string of major insurers who have moved to pull out from the program. (Carolyn Y. Johnson) - Forty-one of the 50 counties where insurance rates rose the most since 2012 voted for Trump. (Phil Bump) - Americans actually became less productive in 2016, the first time since 2009, according to new government


He found a sick bear cub and faced a choice — let it die or risk his life to save it.

mild pneumonia and evaluated the male cub “to make sure it didn’t have any underlying congenital issues that would have made him a poor candidate for rehabilitation.” Dave Garshellis, the bear project leader for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, said it’s hard to predict whether an orphan like this one can be reintroduced to the wild, but cubs are often more easily rehabilitated when they’re paired with other baby bears. Lone cubs have much lower success rates, he said. Authorities said the rescued bear cub is recovering and will be released into the wild in 2018. (Photo courtesy of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife) The rehabilitation process also hinges on whether caregivers can avoid habituating the animal to people by having too much contact with them. This sometimes involves feeding the cubs while dressed in elaborate costumes and giving the bear a pen that mimics a natural setting. “If they become habituated to people during the rehabilitation process they become a nuisance later in life,” Garshellis said. “They risk becoming attracted to people, which means they’ll either get shot or wind up back in captivity.” State wildlife officials said Hancock’s rescue will indeed get company: a female cub that was abandoned by its mother and is about the same age. On Friday, both were transported to PAWS Wildlife Center in Lynwood, Wash. The rehabilitation facility offers specialized care “designed to allow young bears to develop without habituating to humans so they can be returned to Oregon for release into the wild,” the agency said. Oregon state wildlife vet Colin Gillin expects to get both of them back next spring, when they’ll weigh between 100 and 150 pounds. Hancock hopes to visit Elkhorn and monitor his progress — as long as that doesn’t interfere with the cub’s rehabilitation. The place where he found the bear is one of his favorite spots on that river trail. A small patch of grass there blooms with lilies in the summer. He can’t help but feel like their encounter was more than chance. “I almost feel like he was one of my own or something,” he said. MORE READING: Manatees are no longer listed as endangered. Should we celebrate or fret? If you’ve been ignoring the live stream of April the pregnant giraffe, now’s the time to tune in The great bee bumble: Cheerios wanted to help. Its plan went terribly wrong.


So many journalists have been killed in Mexico this year that a newspaper is shutting down

Mexico City on March 25. (Carlos Jasso/Reuters) Lauria said he had no evidence that the three killings of journalists last month were linked, but he called Breach’s death “very alarming” and part of a pattern of journalists being murdered with impunity in the country, told the Associated Press. Breach was a highly respected, veteran reporter who covered crime, politics and other issues, according to CPJ. Her death prompted scores of journalists and supporters of free speech to protest in Mexico City. On March 2, Cecilio Pineda Birto, a freelancer and the founder of La Voz de Tierra Caliente, was killed at a carwash in Ciudad Altamirano, in the state of Guerrero. On March 19, columnist Ricardo Monlui was shot twice near the city of Cordoba in the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, a state plagued by warfare between rival criminal groups. At least 1,258 people were murdered in the state last year, according to news reports. On Wednesday, veteran journalist Armando Arrieta Granados, the editorial director of the daily Veracruz newspaper La Opinión, was shot and gravely wounded by four bullets as he returned to his home in the city of Poza Rica, according to CPJ. Arrieta, a 51-year-old journalist with more than two decades of experience, remained in serious condition in the hospital after the shooting, media reports said. In light of the news of Norte’s closure, many readers spoke out in solidarity with the owner’s decision, while some reporters lamented the loss of jobs and vital local journalism. Hérika Martinez, a reporter and photographer for Norte, tweeted Sunday, “today, a part of journalism in Juarez died.” Hoy la imprenta de periódico Norte de #CiudadJuárez se quedó parada. El papel está en blanco. Hoy murió una parte d… https://t.co/zTB8HWmMb5 One reader commented on the announcement on the newspaper’s website that local journalists “do not deserve to lose anyone else in this fight against those who only see our city, state and country as a bounty for their lust for wealth and power. “The memory of their struggle will not be erased,” the reader wrote. “Citizens will always be grateful for their valuable dedication to make this world a better place for our children.” More from Morning Mix: Woman miraculously claws her way out of raging mudslide, escapes certain death ‘I can’t take that place.’ An Arizona family struggles with a mother’s deportation. 5-year-old girl suspended from school for playing


The Daily 202: How Trump tied his hands on human rights

often played like a fiddle by other nations, with “war-torn” cities and a “deep state” that conspires against him. -- This weekend, John McCain once again harshly condemned Trump for likening what the United States does to brazen behavior by Putin’s regime. -- “Every president in recent history except [Trump] has understood (as Putin surely does) that America has a strategic as well as a moral interest in standing with democrats around the world, -- Critics believe Trump’s lack of moral leadership has allowed - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani plans to meet with Putin in Moscow later this month, and both countries are expected to sign a slew of documents on economic and political issues. - In Libya, there are new accusations that Russia is sending operatives to bolster an armed faction. - In Afghanistan, U.S. generals have also said Moscow may be supplying weapons to the Taliban. -- Russian American journalist Masha Gessen said Putin feels emboldened by Trump’s lack of moral leadership. -- The Post’s Moscow bureau chief David Filipov sees a “power vacuum” created by a silent Trump administration. -- Haley, the U.N. ambassador, insisted during two Sunday show appearances that Trump is “not stopping me from beating up on Russia.” Traditional Russian dolls, called Matryoshka, depict Trump and Putin at a souvenir street shop in St. Petersburg, Russia. (Dmitri Lovetsky/AP) -- With no significant U.S.-Russian projects underway and punitive sanctions in place, the United States has little, if any, leverage to pressure Putin on human rights inside Russia. - Former Russian lawmaker and Putin critic Denis Voronenkov was shot dead in a crowded Kiev square less than 72 hours after telling a Washington Post reporter he was in danger last month, making him the eighth high-profile Russian who has died since Trump’s November presidential victory. - The White House remained silent as riot police arrested thousands of peaceful anti-corruption protesters across Russia last week. Only 12 hours after the Russian crackdown had started, and following statements from several U.S. senators urging a response, did Sean Spicer address the detentions — reading from State Department remarks without addition or embellishment. - Twice-poisoned Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza urged U.S. lawmakers to take a harsher stance against Putin’s regime. Not doing so is essentially “enabling” corrupt and abusive behavior, he said during a Senate subcommittee hearing chaired by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) last week. Kara-Murza stressed the necessity of


Dispute over Gibraltar reveals hotheadedness of post-Brexit Britain

The Rock of Gibraltar, as seen from La Linea de la Concepcion near the southern Spanish city of Algeciras. (Jorge Guerrero/AFP via Getty Images) In the shadows of the massive rock pictured above live roughly 30,000 Britons, crowded onto a peninsula whose only land border is with Spain, and by extension, the European Union. Unsurprisingly, almost every single resident of Gibraltar, the United Kingdom's sole continental outpost, voted to remain in the European Union in the summer's referendum on “Brexit.” Speaking to my colleague Griff Witte in January, Gibraltar's chief minister, Fabian Picardo, described the Brexit campaign's triumph as a moment of “deep sorrow,” as his constituents, in Witte's words, “are committed Europeans and because they knew the vote to leave would give Spain leverage.” Leverage, in this case, regards heretofore weak Spanish claims on the territory. Despite its obvious geographical contiguity with Spain, and the fact that more than 12,000 workers commute into the territory from Spain every day, native Gibraltarians steadfastly maintain that they are British, as the land itself has been since the early 1700s. In a 2002 referendum, they almost unanimously reaffirmed that in the ballot box. But with its essential reliance on the Spanish mainland, Britain's withdrawal from the open border and customs agreements of the European Union means that Spain can choose to exert crippling economic pressure as a bargaining chip. On Friday, the European Union indicated that it would tacitly back Spain's claims on the territory in its draft negotiation guidelines for Brexit. The document stipulates that “no agreement between the EU and the United Kingdom may apply to the territory of Gibraltar without agreement between the Kingdom of Spain and the United Kingdom.” In other words, London will have to negotiate directly with Madrid on any Brexit-related arrangements affecting Gibraltar. The wording was immediately lauded in Spain and seen as an affront in the U.K. British Prime Minister Theresa May called Picardo on Sunday morning to say that the U.K. remained “steadfastly committed to our support for Gibraltar, its people and its economy,” and that she would defend the “freely and democratically expressed wishes” of its residents that had made their desire to remain part of Britain clear. A former leader of May's Conservative Party, Michael Howard, took the rhetoric up a few notches, saying that Britain would go to war against Spain for Gibraltar if necessary, just as Margaret Thatcher did


Amid Brexit, British citizens are suddenly gripped by nostalgia

clause that matters: the idea that we need to get back to we were before the war, modernity, the Internet or whatever you personally believe destroyed Britain’s status and made it less important than it used to be. Nostalgia is an underrated force in politics, particularly because it has the power to affect how people understand and react to change. People in one Welsh region that received more than a billion dollars in European Union investment voted for Brexit because, they told one visiting politician, they didn’t like what that money had bought. They didn’t care about the regenerated steel mill, which had been turned into new colleges, new schools and a new hospital, all of which had generated new jobs. Instead, they wanted their old jobs in the nonexistent steel industry, and they seem to hope that leaving Europe would bring them back. Nostalgia is also selective, offering false views of the past and therefore false hope for the future. The British columnist Gideon Rachman has recently pointed out that the nostalgia that shapes some of the Brexit rhetoric — that image of Britain as the buccaneering trading nation that bravely forged its way into Hong Kong’s harbor and Sydney’s bay — is actually based on ignorance. In fact, the British trading success of the 19th century were really imperial successes. They could not have happened without military intervention and colonial rule, neither of which is in the cards now. It’s pretty unlikely that the British navy is going to sink the Chinese fleet in order to impose a lucrative trade deal on modern Hong Kong, as it did in the past, let alone invade Australia. But who knows? Spain is now demanding a say in the future of Gibraltar, the tiny, rocky peninsula on the Spanish coast that remains British territory, and whose borders and status, settled by the European Union, now have to be revisited. Outraged, a former Conservative Party leader, Michael Howard, declared that the British prime minister would defend Gibraltar just as forthrightly as Margaret Thatcher defended the Falkland Islands 30 years ago. Thatcher staged a military invasion of the Falklands; so now, presumably, Britain is threatening to invade Spain. Perhaps Howard is nostalgic for the 1980s — or perhaps for the 1580s, when the English fleet defeated the Spanish Armada, nobody had burgundy passports and lots of other things were a lot better, too.


What’s new around Nationals Park in 2017? Beer gardens, brewpubs and Shake Shack.

Bardo's new brewery is right across the street from Nationals Park. (Fritz Hahn/The Washington Post) Visitors to Nationals Park won't notice too many new places to eat or drink around the ballpark on Opening Day, though a handful are planning to open later in the season. Some longtime fixtures have added extra outdoor taps and seats, while one of the most popular game-day options has shrunk. Bardo The Bullpen Bluejacket Bluejacket has added taps to its patio along with expanded seating. (Kris Coronado for The Washington Post) Due South Shake Shack Coming Soon: Read more: These beer gardens are the best places to finally welcome spring Beer of the Week: Earned Run Ale is a Nats Park exclusive New at Nats Park: A tots and wings stand, ice cream push-pops and more beer


Jerry Jones’s marijuana proposal could save NFL players’ lives

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones arrives for the opening of the NFL football annual meeting March 26 in Phoenix. (Ross D. Franklin/AP) The owner of the Dallas Cowboys said in a recent meeting of NFL owners that the league should “drop its prohibition on marijuana use,” according to Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio. While recreational marijuana use is legal in eight states plus D.C., and medical marijuana is legal is about 20 more, NFL players are banned from using the drug for any purposes under the existing collective bargaining agreement, which expires in 2020. Under that agreement, players who test positive for marijuana must enter a substance abuse program. Subsequent violations lead to fines, 10-game suspensions, and, ultimately, banishment from the league. Former NFL players Science, as it turns out, is on the players' — and now Jones's — side. There's little evidence that opiates work for the chronic aches and pains often suffered by football players. But there's strong evidence that anyone, NFL pro or otherwise, who uses opiates on a long-term basis is putting themself at serious risk for drug dependency, overdose and death. A 2014 review The implications of this finding shouldn't be understated, for either NFL players or the public. Opiate painkillers, like the ones prescribed in bulk by the NFL, kill over 15,000 people a year via overdose. No death from a marijuana overdose has been reported, according to the DEA. On the other hand, chronic pain is one of the conditions that marijuana has been shown to be effective at treating. Earlier this year the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine published an expansive literature review, spanning decades of research, showing “substantial evidence that cannabis is an effective treatment for chronic pain in adults.” The NFL, in other words, is pumping its players full of highly addictive and deadly substances that are of dubious use for treating the long-term, chronic pain suffered by so many players — and fining and suspending players who choose instead to self-medicate with a less-addictive and nonlethal substance. The disproportionality of the league's substance abuse policy was put into stark relief in 2015, when the Browns' Josh Gordon received a year-long suspension for multiple violations of the league's marijuana ban. When Ravens running back Ray Rice was charged with aggravated assault for beating his then-fiancee, his initial suspension from the league was only two games.


Would Neil deGrasse Tyson ever take SpaceX to Mars? Only if Elon Musk’s mom does it first.

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson on “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey.” (Patrick Eccelsine/Fox) Famed astrophysicist and television personality Neil deGrasse Tyson has shown he is capable of achieving just about anything, from earning no fewer than a dozen honorary doctorates to explaining the history of the universe in less than 10 minutes. But would he ever take a one-way trip to Mars? That was one of many questions Tyson fielded in an “Ask Me Anything” session Sunday on Reddit, one of Tyson's favorite pastimes. The query came on the heels of SpaceX's historic launch on Thursday of a “flight-proven” rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Falcon 9 became the first rocket to be successfully launched, landed vertically, then reused. SpaceX's founder, tech billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, has said he aims to send the first human mission to Mars as soon as 2025. “Hi Neil! Just wanted to know your thoughts on SpaceX's Falcon 9 relaunch and landing, and what do you think it means for the future of space travel?” a Reddit user named patopc1999 asked Tyson on Sunday. “[A]lso, would you ever consider to join a one-way trip to Mars?” Like so many of Tyson's answers, his response was concise, elegant and based on scientific reasoning. And it seems there remain a few key unsolved variables that prevent Tyson from committing to Musk's long-shot Mars mission. “I really like Earth. So any space trip I take, I'm double-checking that there's sufficient funds for me to return,” Tyson wrote. “Also, I'm not taking that trip until Elon Musk (sends) his mother and brings her back alive. Then I'm good for it.” SpaceX has been ambitious and aggressive when it comes to pursuing commercial space ventures, with mixed results. The company lost two rockets in two years, but has pushed on, announcing in February that it would fly two paying, private citizens around the moon late next year. Among Musk's many ambitions, he has said he wants to eventually colonize Mars. Unfortunately for those who would like to see Tyson take up residence elsewhere in the solar system, Musk's mother has actually already addressed the matter — and it appears she has no plans to blast off into space. “Oh no, I'm not moving to Mars,” Maye Musk told Mashable last year. “Frankly, it's because they need the younger people there like engineers to create a future. They


The DEA just gave a big boost to a cannabis-based seizure drug

To legally approve a medicine, the FDA must have specific information on what it contains and in what specific doses. The FDA could thus never approve the whole marijuana plant as a medicine because there are many different combinations of chemicals in different concentrations from strain to strain, plant to plant, and even from one part of the same plant to another. However, a pure CBD extract that could be dosed in a standardized manner would be a different matter, and there is no barrier to the FDA going forward. Assuming the FDA approves CBD extract as a medicine, the Drug Enforcement Administration would then have to agree to remove CBD from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, which is where it now sits by virtue of being part of an illegal drug with no officially recognized medical use (marijuana). Would the DEA really consent to scheduling as a legitimate medicine an extract of a plant they have spent decades battling? Based on a recent announcement in the Federal Register, the answer appears to be yes. The DEA is creating a separate classification for scheduling cannabis extracts, and specifically mentioned CBD as a potential example. The resulting legal framework would seem to allow CBD-derived medications to move to a less restrictive schedule while leaving marijuana on Schedule I. Even if that were to happen, however, hurdles would remain for getting the medication into the hands of those who need it. States would have to agree to mirror the federal schedule change in state-level drug scheduling, which could be contentious in some states and bureaucratically slow in others. One California legislator is trying to avoid those problems. Jim Wood, chair of the California Assembly’s Health Committee, has introduced legislation that would reschedule CBD medications in California the moment that the federal government does likewise. If passed, Wood’s legislation will eliminate delays between any future approval of CBD medications and the medication’s availability to California patients. Otherwise, Wood notes “a new bill would have to go through the entire legislative process and then get signed by the Governor.” Wood doesn’t want the normal legislative grind to slow down the rate at which “doctors can prescribe and pharmacists can dispense FDA-approved epilepsy treatments derived from CBD.” The more than 5 million Americans who suffer from epilepsy would almost certainly agree. Keith Humphreys is a professor of psychiatry and mental-health policy director at


At Fort Bragg, DeVos talks up school vouchers for military families. Not everybody is thrilled.

and up to $12,000 for high school. The Observer quoted Hampton PTA President Jennifer Hamner as saying that the consensus of parents at Fort Bragg was that they liked the Defense Department schools on the military base and want a high school to be added. She said: “It’s concerning the difference in standards. I feel like public, private and charter schools need to be playing by the same rules. I think a lot of it is, we’re pretty happy with and making sure the public system is up to snuff for our military children.” The National Association of Federally Impacted Schools and a subgroup called the Military Impacted Schools Association issued a statement expressing strong concerns about DeVos’s comments, saying that military families want more investment in public schools, not vouchers. Kyle Fairbairn, executive director of the Military Impacted Schools Association said: “Rather than distributing scarce resources in the form of a new voucher program, the Federal Government should be making good on its obligation to all federally impacted school districts. The CHOICE Act would set back education for military-connected students, period.” Hilary Goldmann, executive director of the National Association of Federally Impacted Schools, said: “On the first week of the Month of the Military Child, NAFIS believes Secretary DeVos should be focused on investing in public schools — those in which the majority of military-connected children attend — instead of praising a bill that would drain dollars away from those schools. The CHOICE Act fails to recognize the fact that public school districts that educate military connected students, including Blue Ribbon Schools, are devoted to and successful in meeting the academic and emotional needs of this unique student body. “Supporting military families and the unique needs of military-connected students is a top priority for public school districts and states. For example, the Military Interstate Children’s Compact, that has been adopted by all 50 states and Washington, D.C., addresses educational transition challenges encountered by military families including enrollment, placement, attendance, eligibility and graduation. The Compact only applies to public schools. “Impact Aid is the Federal government’s tax payment for educating military-connected students attending public schools around the country. The program is funded at less than 60 percent of the need formula established in law. NAFIS is concerned about the consequences a voucher program would have on the Impact Aid program and the tax burden on residents in federally impacted communities.”


The Daily 202: Neil Gorsuch could help cement Republican majorities for a generation

to the Islamic Republic under the Trump administration. (AP) - One in five patients with serious medical conditions are initially misdiagnosed by their primary care providers, according to an alarming new study from the Mayo Clinic. (Lenny Bernstein) - Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai yanked ads from Bill O’Reilly's show, following reports that the top-rated television host and his employer have paid five women $13 million to settle allegations of sexual harassment and verbal abuse. (Katie Mettler) - Fox News contributor Julie Roginsky also filed a discrimination suit against ousted CEO Roger Ailes and president Bill Shine. Her suit is potentially significant because it describes events allegedly taking place after Ailes’ departure, when the company vowed to clean up the “culture of harassment.” And because she's a contributor, not a full-time employee, Fox cannot force her into arbitration. (Paul Farhi) - Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) said he will remove an Orlando prosecutor from some two dozen murder cases, the latest salvo in an escalating dispute over her unwillingness to pursue the death penalty against an accused cop killer. (Mark Berman) - A Connecticut university is mourning the death of a student after choking last weekend in a pancake-eating contest at her sorority. Thousands attended a mass in honor of the 20-year-old, whose father died while rescuing people on 9/11. (Susan Svrluga) - Camels from across the Arab world are descending on Saudi Arabia for an annual beauty contest. They are judged on the length of their lashes, the size of their lips, and the placement of their back humps. Contenders strut a 12-mile runway -- and compete for more than $30 million in prize money. (Samantha Schmidt) Blackwater founder Erik Prince met with a Russian person close to President Vladimir Putin, according to U.S., European and Arab officials. THERE'S A BEAR IN THE WOODS: -- The United Arab Emirates arranged a secret meeting in January between Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a Russian close to President Vladimir Putin as part of an apparent effort to establish a back-channel line of communication between Moscow and then President-elect Trump, according to U.S., European and Arab officials. Though Prince had no formal role with the Trump campaign or transition team, he presented himself as an unofficial envoy for Trump to high-ranking Emiratis involved in setting up his meeting with the Putin confidant: "U.S. officials said the FBI has been scrutinizing the Seychelles meeting as


Bei Bei, the National Zoo’s giant panda, had a ‘restless night’ and nausea

Bei Bei eats a frozen pear. (National Zoo) The National Zoo in Washington said its giant panda, Bei Bei, had a “restless night” and nausea but is doing fine now. Overnight, zookeepers noticed that Bei Bei was “unsettled.” They thought he was experiencing nausea. Officials said zoo staff entered the panda house last night to “watch him more closely.” Bei Bei was “thoroughly checked” Tuesday morning by a veterinarian at the zoo. “He appears to be perfectly fine,” the zoo said in a statement. It went on to say that “he is eating well and nothing unusual was found in his habitat.” Bei Bei is going to be monitored throughout the day, officials said. The health mention comes about five months after Bei Bei had a more serious incident. In November, Bei Bei underwent emergency surgery at the zoo to remove a life-endangering blockage of his intestine. The blockage was a rare ailment for giant pandas. It was a dense mass that was a partially digested piece of bamboo, about the size of a lemon, that had gotten stuck on top of his small intestine. For a short time, Bei Bei had been placed on a soft foods diet, eating things like sweet potatoes and pears. He is now back to a regular diet of bamboo.


Citizen scientists may have located candidates for Planet Nine

images taken by ANU's SkyMapper telescope. Their task was to find anything that appears to move against the mostly motionless background of distant stars. This is how astronomers have looked for new solar system bodies for hundreds of years. (See the photos that helped pinpoint Pluto below.) Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh identified Pluto as a small white dot moving against the background of stars. (NASA) In just three days, about 21,000 volunteers sifted through more than 100,000 images and classified more than 5 million objects — work that would take an astronomy PhD student four years, ANU astronomer Brad Tucker wrote in the Conversation. They surveyed vast swaths of the southern sky and managed to rule out the possibility of an unknown Neptune-size object in about 90 percent of it. The four objects identified by the campaign are considered interesting enough that professional astronomers are taking a closer look. Much as Pluto did, they appear as tiny moving dots of light in the SkyMapper images; researchers don't know their distance or dimensions. Although these objects could be Planet Nine, it's more likely that they are dwarf planets, asteroids or perhaps mere blips in the data. Scientists at ANU and elsewhere will conduct further observations to figure this out. Mike Brown is the Caltech astronomer who published evidence of Planet Nine's existence, theorizing its presence based on perturbations of other outer solar system bodies. He tweeted out support for the initiative last week. @btucker22 @kbatygin @cosmos4u @BBCStargazing I would just like to say: you guys rock. We'd be thrilled if you find it! This isn't the only citizen science effort to find the enigmatic ninth planet. NASA and the University of California at Berkeley are running a similar project, called Backyard Worlds, which gives planet seekers access to archived images from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission. The two projects are complementary, not competitive: Unlike the Planet 9 Search, which hunted for distant bodies in the visible light spectrum, Backyard Worlds studies the infrared light useful for finding fainter objects. Astronomers say they have evidence of a ninth planet in our solar system. Here's what they say they know about it. Read more: New evidence suggests a ninth planet lurking at the edge of the solar system Now anyone can join the search for the mysterious 'Planet Nine' The mysterious 'Planet Nine' might be causing the whole solar system to wobble


Concerns about hiring freeze’s disruption, costs spur request for audit

GAO found agencies did that in the prior freezes despite similar restrictions, at costs of as much as 60 percent above those of using federal employees, the letter says. What does a hiring freeze mean for the federal workforce? “While we applaud efforts to streamline government, ensure efficient operations and encourage good stewardship of taxpayer dollars, we are extremely concerned about the potential for increased government spending and waste under this freeze,” says the planned request from the two senators, who are the ranking members of two subcommittees of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The letter points out that GAO concluded that the earlier freezes “hindered agency missions, caused inefficient staff utilization and clerical shortages, and resulted in lost revenue and uncollected debts.” “This freeze could also negatively affect the talent and morale of our workforce. We simply cannot afford these potential shortfalls in our current government operations and our trusted public servants and constituents who rely on these services deserve much better,” it says. The freeze, one of the Trump administration’s first actions, generally bars agencies from filling vacancies created as employees leave, and also generally bans creation of new positions. However, there are exceptions for positions related to national security and public safety, which have been interpreted to exempt a wide range of occupations. Hiring freeze closed government’s front door but left many windows open The freeze directive also told the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management to produce by late April a long-term plan for reducing the federal workforce by attrition. While the current policy will expire at that point, the new plan could call for a continued general freeze, with potential changes in the exceptions. The senators will ask GAO to investigate the extent to which work formerly done by federal employees is or is likely to be done by contractors and the costs associated with those services; the historical and projected size of the federal workforce and any savings or losses incurred as a result of the freeze; and the impact of the freeze on agencies’ budget, mission programs, customer service, workload, morale, retirement and other employment trends, among other concerns. Federal employee organizations and some members of Congress have voiced similar concerns since the freeze was announced, and several bills are pending in Congress to create more exceptions. Trump’s federal hiring freeze draws immediate fire from unions


Here’s how German courts are planning to prosecute Syrian war crimes

where he was subjected to severe torture methods, including electric shocks and being hung by the hands for long periods. Arrest warrants issued by German judges against these officials would already be a great success, signaling to perpetrators that their impunity in Syria is over and that they might be held accountable should they leave the country. Arrest warrants have a direct effect by limiting the freedom of movement. They also act as a deterrent against future perpetrators, thus helping to stop the violence. The German federal public prosecutor opened investigations of international crimes in Syria soon after the outbreak of the conflict. Pending currently are two so-called structural investigations that focus not on specific suspects but on the entire situation of the civil war and all parties to the conflict. In one of these investigations, prosecutors are currently analyzing 28,000 photos of people tortured to death in Syrian prisons. The photos were smuggled out of Syria by the former Syrian military photographer “Caesar” and are now at the disposal of prosecutors in Europe. The Syria investigations by the federal public prosecutor have already led to a number of arrests and trials in Germany. Two German nationals, for instance, have already been sentenced to prison for war crimes they committed in the civil war. These trials should be seen as the first cracks in the wall of impunity in Syria. Yet these particular verdicts bring little solace to the victims and have done little to restore justice in Syria. The majority of cases concerning Syria are prosecuted under terrorism charges, not framed as international crimes, and the few war crimes cases tend to involve unusual and specific incidents. What is more, the few war crime trials launched so far are all directed against members of terrorist groups, focusing on relatively low-ranking individuals. Until now, there has not been an individual case against actual members of the Assad regime. The recent case brought before German prosecutors is only one piece in the puzzle leading to justice in Syria. On March 27, a Spanish judge agreed to initiate proceedings against high-ranking security and intelligence officials of the Assad regime. Other investigations are pending in France. We hope that other European countries will follow. Only by living up to our commitment to human rights and the rule of law can we hope to bring justice to the victims of the Syrian civil war.


I write thrillers. My research showed me how easily terrorists can strike us.

American soil. In 2013, a Texas fertilizer plant with a history of safety violations blew up, taking the lives of 15 people, injuring 160 and destroying 150 buildings, including a middle school. Long considered an accident, it is now under investigation as possible arson or domestic terrorism. If the explosion hadn’t occurred after work hours, many more people would have died. That prompted the Obama administration to strengthen some EPA rules on the handling of dangerous chemicals to prevent accidents, but Republicans in the House are now moving to roll back even those minimal safety measures. Ammonium nitrate is a proven killer. DHS was charged with putting out rules to prevent it from being used in an attack 10 years ago; the agency is still studying the issue. In the meantime, someone on the terrorist watch list can still buy it in bulk. Chemical safety isn’t the only failure. The Transportation Security Administration, our most direct answer to the 9/11 hijackings, missed 95 percent of weapons and mock explosives smuggled through in a 2015 test, and it now faces $80 million in cuts under President Trump’s proposed budget (flight security fees would increase, but the money would go to the border wall). The biodefense sensors DHS deployed after the 2001 anthrax attacks don’t work reliably, and as Steven Brill reported in the Atlantic, nearly half of the thousands of hospitals that hold radioactive materials suitable for a dirty bomb have inadequate security. “The Bush administration put all their eggs in the ‘take the battle to the enemy’ basket, asserting that ‘the only defense is offense,’ ” says Stephen Flynn, who was the lead homeland security adviser to Barack Obama during his presidential transition in 2008, an expert adviser to the Department of Homeland Security and director of a host of blue-ribbon commissions. “This translated into homeland security being a decidedly secondary priority and their making only a token effort to advance critical infrastructure security.” He pointed me to the 2002 “National Strategy for Homeland Security,” which says outright that, except for border security and national defense, free markets and private companies would be left to take care of homeland security without government intervention. The Obama administration took steps in the right direction, in Flynn’s view, but it wasn’t enough. “America’s critical infrastructure remains extremely vulnerable to sabotage,” he said, “and the consequences of a successful attack against assets such as


Carbon dioxide levels could reach their highest point in 50 million years by the end of the century

Smoke billows from smokestacks and a coal-fired generator in 2015 at a steel factory in the industrial province of Hebei, China. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images) Continuing to burn fossil fuels at the current rate could bring atmospheric carbon dioxide to its highest concentration in 50 million years, jumping from about 400 parts per million now to more than 900 parts per million by the end of this century, a new study warns. And if greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated beyond that point, the climate could reach a warming state that hasn’t been seen in the past 420 million years. Some research suggests that, if humans burned through all fossil fuels on Earth, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations could hit 5,000 parts per million by the year 2400. The new study speaks to the power of human influence over the climate. It suggests that after millions of years of relative stability in the absence of human activity, just a few hundred years of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are on track to cause unprecedented warming. To come to these grim conclusions, which were published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, the researchers constructed a continuous record of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations spanning the last 420 million years. They created the record by compiling more than 1,500 estimates of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations drawn from 112 published studies. According to lead author Gavin Foster, a geochemistry professor at the University of Southampton, those estimates were constructed mainly using the carbon isotope composition of ancient soil samples or examining the abundance of pores on the leaves of fossilized plants, an indicator of how much carbon dioxide was available for them to draw from the air while they were alive. The findings suggest that, until humans started rapidly burning fossil fuels with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, Earth’s climate had been relatively stable for millions of years, and carbon dioxide concentrations were declining. Thanks to the human emission of greenhouse gases, though, that’s all changing at record-breaking pace. Current concentrations of CO2 emissions are at their highest in human history, currently hovering around 400 parts per million and continuing to rise. Before the Industrial Revolution, carbon dioxide concentrations had settled into an average of about 280 parts per million. On a business-as-usual pathway — a trajectory in which greenhouse gas emissions would continue at their current rate — carbon dioxide concentrations will hit a level that


First evidence found of popular farm pesticides in drinking water

(Bigstock) Of the many pesticides that American farmers have embraced in their war on bugs, neonicotinoids are among the most popular. One of them, called imidacloprid, is among the world’s best-selling insecticides, boasting sales of over $1 billion a year. But with their widespread use comes a notorious reputation — that neonics, as they are nicknamed, are a bee killer. A 2016 study suggested a link between neonicotinoid use and local pollinator extinctions, though other agricultural researchers contested the pesticides' bad rap. As the bee debate raged, scientists studying the country’s waterways started to detect neonicotinoid pollutants. In 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey collected water samples from streams throughout the United States and discovered neonicotinoids in more than half of the samples. And on Wednesday, a team of chemists and engineers at the USGS and University of Iowa reported that they found neonicotinoids in treated drinking water. It marks the first time that anyone has identified this class of pesticide in tap water, the researchers write in Environmental Science & Technology Letters. Gregory LeFevre “Having these types of compounds present in water does have the potential to be concerning,” he said, “but we don’t really know, at this point, what these levels might be.” If the dose makes the poison, the doses of insect neurotoxin reported in the new study were quite small. The scientists collected samples last year from taps in Iowa City as well as on the university campus and found neonicotinoid concentrations ranging from 0.24 to 57.3 nanograms per liter — that is, on a scale of parts per trillion. “Parts per trillion is a really, really small concentration,” LeFevre said, roughly equal to a single drop of water plopped into 20 Olympic-size swimming pools. The Environmental Protection Agency has not defined safe levels of neonicotinoids in drinking water, in part because the chemicals are relative newcomers to the pesticide pantheon. “There is no EPA standard for drinking water,” LeFevre said. The pesticides, most of which were released in the 1990s, were designed to be more environmentally friendly than other chemicals on the market. The compounds work their way into plant tissue rather than just coating the leaves and stems, requiring fewer sprays. And though the pesticides wreak havoc on insect nervous systems, neonicotinoids do not easily cross from a mammal’s bloodstream into a mammalian brain. In 2015, environmental health scientists at George Washington University and the


For the first time in more than a decade, the world’s best restaurant is in the U.S.

of earning the No. 1 place brings greater attention to Eleven Madison Park chef Daniel Humm. A native of Switzerland, Humm has already been at the highest echelons of the industry, earning the restaurant three Michelin stars as well as third place on last year’s world’s best list, after an 11-year absence of American restaurants in the top three. At the time, he attributed the rise to the restaurant’s turn toward minimalism. “I believe very much that less is more. There’s no room for error, it has to be perfect and work very well,” he told The Post in 2016. He added: “As a chef, it took me a long time to find myself.” A recent Esquire profile of the chef presciently called Humm the best chef in America. But it also portrayed a chef who doesn’t command as much name recognition as the likes of David Chang, Danny Meyer and Thomas Keller. “Maybe I feel like in all this time, no one really knows who I am,” Humm told Esquire writer Jeff Gordinier. That may soon change. In the same profile, Meyer, the restaurateur behind Union Square Cafe and Shake Shack, praised Humm as a chef who “can actually satisfy my mind and my hedonistic needs at the same time. Very few people can be a virtuoso as well as a pop artist.” The World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards committee is composed of chefs, food writers and industry experts from around the world. Both France and Spain had six restaurants on this year’s list, including the third-place El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Spain, which has topped the list twice. Five other American restaurants made the top 50 list. The greatest ascent came from Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Dan Barber’s Pocantico Hills, New York, restaurant, which earned 11th place on this year’s list, after coming in 48th last year. The other restaurants are: Le Bernadin in New York (17th place); Alinea, Chicago (21st); Saison, San Francisco (37th); Cosme, New York (40th). Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly said Blue Hill at Stone Barns was ranked No. 4 last year. It was No. 48. Read more: This is what L.A. restaurants do better than any other city’s A U.S. restaurant is No. 3 on the 2016 World’s 50 Best Restaurants list The new gimmick on (and off) Broadway: Enjoy the show — and pass the pierogi


What does a black hole look like? Astronomers are on a quest to find out.

word salad for linking radio dishes around the globe to act as one large telescope,” he said. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, one of the eight observatories that constitute the Event Horizon Telescope. (C. Malin/ESO) Over five nights during a 10-day window beginning Wednesday, the eight telescopes of the EHT will swivel as one toward the center of the galaxy. Scientists in Chile's Atacama Desert, on a volcano top in Hawaii, at the frozen expanse of the South Pole and in the high, dry mountains of Arizona, Mexico and Spain will be ready to catch the data. If conditions are exactly right at each location — skies clear, instruments working — then Doeleman will give the signal to start observing. In addition to Sagittarius A*, the EHT will target a second, even more massive black hole in neighboring galaxy M87. Once they get their five nights of observations, the astronomers around the globe will deliver their findings to supercomputers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Max Planck Institute in Germany. Doeleman expects to have two to three petabytes of data to look through — equivalent to the storage capacity of about 10,000 MacBooks. It will take the researchers months, if not years, to analyze all the findings. “VLBI is the ultimate in delayed gratification,” Doeleman said. “You can’t even know if your system is working properly until weeks and months after, when you combine the signals from all the different telescopes.” The black hole Sagittarius A* appears as a large bright spot in the orange cloud of dust at the center of the Milky Way. (D. Haggard et al./(NASA/CXC/Amherst College) Team members hope to get their first glimpse of real science this fall, and they have no idea what they might see. If predictions based on modern physics are correct, Sagittarius A* should appear as a bright ring of light (from fast-moving photons orbiting the black hole) with a dim interior. But if scientists are wrong about the way the universe works, this is where they'll find out. “It’s the most exciting proving ground, the most stringent test of Einstein’s theories,” Doeleman said. “The best result is we learn something very interesting, and it poses the next set of questions.” Read more: Are the world's most stunning shells too beautiful for their own good? First evidence found of popular farm pesticides in drinking water Citizen


Marines move forward with prosecution of drill instructor accused of putting recruit in dryer

A Marine drill instructor speaks to recruits at Parris Island, S.C., in July 2015. (Sgt. Jennifer Schubert) The Marine Corps moved forward Wednesday with the prosecution of two drill instructors accused of hazing and abusing recruits, including one who allegedly put a recruit in an industrial-size clothes dryer and turned it on repeatedly. Gunnery Sgt. Joseph A. Felix and Sgt. Michael K. Eldridge will be arraigned at Camp Lejeune, N.C., at a date that has not yet been determined, the service said a statement. Both Marines trained recruits at the service’s installation at Parris Island, S.C., and face charges of cruelty and maltreatment, being drunk and disorderly, failing to obey a lawful order and making false official statements. Felix also is accused of obstruction of justice. Attempts to reach both Marines were unsuccessful Wednesday night. Felix, reached by cellphone last year, declined to comment on the case. Felix is accused of calling a Muslim recruit a terrorist before putting him in a dryer one night in July 2015, according to documents previously released by the service. His name is redacted from them, but two U.S. officials with knowledge of the case identified Felix as the Marine involved. Felix also is accused of hazing another Muslim recruit, Pvt. Raheel Siddiqui, after Marine officials allowed Felix to continue training recruits. Siddiqui, 20, fell about 40 feet to his death March 18, 2016, after running away from Felix and careening over a railing, a Marine Corps investigation found last year. His death was ruled a suicide, but his family has contested that. The Marine Corps did not specify Wednesday whether Eldridge is involved in the same case but announced in the same statement identifying Felix that Eldridge will be arraigned. The Siddiqui case opened a window into maltreatment by numerous drill instructors at Parris Island, one of two training centers the Marine Corps runs for enlisted recruits. Hundreds of hazing and abuse cases have been investigated there in the past few years alone, and a third of them have been substantiated, according to Marine Corps documents. Most of those cases have not received any attention outside the service, and Marine officials have released details about only a few of them. Marine officials said last fall that up to 20 officers and enlisted Marines could face some form of discipline in connection with the Siddiqui case. At least two officers and a senior enlisted


Bluejacket brewery is planning a major expansion beyond D.C.

Bluejacket sells "99.9 percent” of its beer on site, says beer director Greg Engert, but that could change. (Scott Suchman for The Washington Post) Bluejacket Brewery is gearing up for a period of major expansion. The three-year-old brewery is searching for a site for a second production brewery outside Washington, as it aims to almost double the annual output at its Navy Yard brewpub from 2,200 barrels to around 4,000 barrels, add a canning line, and begin distributing its beers around the country. To manage this growth, the brewery has hired Ro Guenzel as its first Director of Brewing Operations. Guenzel comes from Colorado's Great Divide Brewing, where he was the brewery manager. He was previously the head brewer at Left Hand Brewing, also in Colorado. Greg Engert, the beer director for Bluejacket and its parent Neighborhood Restaurant Group, says the goal is “sending more beer beyond the walls of Bluejacket.” Last year, Engert says, “We did 2,200 barrels, and 99.9 percent of that was sold on-site. We think we can get up to around 4,000 in-house.” However, Engert and team are already planning beyond that upper threshold. “We're eventually looking for a site outside of D.C. to build a second facility,” Engert said, adding that there's “no timeline” for purchasing land or breaking ground. He describes the production facility as “another smallish brewery that's also a great place for people to gather and drink. It's not so much about volume as much as being able to do the things we want to.” Bluejacket produces about 2,200 barrels of beer annually — a figure its owners hope to nearly double. (Kris Coronado for The Washington Post) For example, a second facility could handle the bulk of production of Bluejacket bestsellers Lost Weekend IPA and Forbidden Planet Kolsch, freeing up space at the original brewery for more experimental beers, including the new lagers and dry-hopped IPAs that were recently introduced. The other problem, Engert says, is simply space: “We're running out of room for barrels,” with wooden vessels filled with sour and aging beers taking up valuable floorspace. “We want to brew more with the coolship, more mixed fermentation beers, and age them as long as it takes.” While a new brewery is a longer-term goal, Bluejacket is still setting up to increase production for sales both in and outside of the brewery. The most promising announcement is the canning line,


Which chemical weapon was used in Syria? Here’s what investigators know.

carries the body of a dead child, after what rescue workers described as a suspected chemical attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun. (Ammar Abdullah/Reuters) Experts say that Syria once had one of the largest chemical weapon stockpiles in the world. The collection, which stretched across 50 facilities around the country, likely contained more than 1,000 tons of mustard gas, sarin and VX. Some of the defining characteristics of these substances, vis a vis the BBC: - Sulphur mustard (also known as “mustard gas”) is easiest to distinguish — it often smells like garlic, onions or mustard. It can be clear, yellow or brown. When people come in contact with the vapor, it causes blistering of the skin and mucous membranes on contact. The gas itself is not lethal, but direct exposure can result in scarring, respiratory problems and even death from pneumonia. There is no treatment or antidote, so the body has to heal the damage. - Sarin — 20 times as deadly as cyanide — is a powerful neurotoxin. It's nearly impossible to detect, because the clear, colorless, tasteless liquid has no odor. It can evaporate and spread through the air. Within seconds of exposure, the Atlantic explained, noses run, tears form, mouths drool and vomit. Bowels and bladder empty. Next, vision blurs and chests tighten. If exposed to a high enough concentration, the victim will convulse, become paralyzed and then die within 1 to 10 minutes. A victim of the 2013 Sarin attack described the feeling this way: “It just took seconds before I lost my ability to breathe. … I felt like my chest was set on fire. My eyes were burning like hell. I wasn't able even to scream or to do anything. So I started to beat my chest really hard … to take a breath. … It was so painful. It felt like somebody was tearing up my chest with a knife made of fire.” - VX, another neurotoxin, is the world's most potent chemical warfare agent, 10 times more toxic than sarin. The oily liquid is amber in color but is odorless and tasteless. Once in the air, people can be exposed through skin contact, eye contact or inhalation. VX poisoning looks similar to sarin, but there's a key difference — VX evaporates as slowly as motor oil. It can persist in the air for a long time under average weather, posing


The secret to building the perfect draft beer list

(Illustration by Joseph Alessio for The Washington Post) Some craft beer bars try to offer something for everyone. The District’s ChurchKey, often ranked as one of the best in America, has 50 draft lines, as does its Belgian-focused sister bar, the Sovereign. But they’re not alone in the arms race of taps: The World of Beer locations in Rockville and Ballston also have 50; up in Adams Morgan, the Black Squirrel has 57. Not enough? Gaithersburg’s Old Town Pour House, part of an Illinois chain, boasts a whopping 90 lines. It’s enough to make you feel bad for City Tap House or Tapp’d Bethesda, which offer only 40 drafts each. Sometimes, though, all those choices can be overwhelming or intimidating to a less-experienced beer drinker. The solution is to find a beer bar with a smaller, tighter draft menu. When beer directors have only one or two dozen slots to fill with craft beer, they need to focus their selections, making sure everything that’s flowing really deserves to be there. There’s nowhere for a “just okay” IPA to hide. The science of putting together a beer list is the same whether you’re trying to program 15 lines or 50. A small list is more of a challenge, but it also allows bars to steer customers to newer, fresher beers that they might not think to order when browsing a longer menu. We talked to some of the people who curate the D.C. area’s best beer lists about their process, and a few themes emerged. Jump to our “perfect” beer list Variety is key. At Galaxy Hut in Clarendon, owners Lary and Erica Hoffman “try to cover all the bases” with their 28 taps, Erica says. “We need a decent amount of dark beers, a sour, something cloudy, a brown ale. Some people are dedicated to a certain style,” rather than a beer or brewery. A variety of beers from Ocelot Brewing Company. (Deborah Jaffe for The Washington Post) Know your audience. “We have people coming in who are just looking for double-dry-hopped IPAs and barrel-aged sours,” says Jace Gonnerman, who programs lists at the District’s Meridian Pint, Brookland Pint and Smoke & Barrel. “We also have regulars who are in every week for an Optimal Wit, or looking to have a couple of pints and a burger.” Being a block from Verizon Center means Brian Leonard of Free State has


These exemplary craft beer bars keep their menus short and sweet

Galaxy Hut offers 28 beers on tap, primarily from local and regional breweries. About half the lines change during the course of a week. (Photo by James Buck/The Washington Post) A bar with dozens of taps doesn't always offer the best selection of beers. Looking for smartly curated menus that offer hot new beers, old favorites and flashes of a bar’s personality? Try one of these six craft beer destinations. Dry 85 Free State Galaxy Hut Meridian Pint 3400 11th St. NW. Pizzeria Paradiso Georgetown Red Apron Burger Bar READ MORE: The secret to building the perfect draft beer list 9 beer festivals, tap takeovers and parties to quench your thirst in April Bluejacket brewery is planning a major expansion beyond D.C.


The best beer events during the 2017 Craft Brewers Conference

ChurchKey is hosting events all week, including one that features some of America's hottest young breweries on Monday. (Dakota Fine for The Washington Post) Next week is the biggest week of the year for the Washington-area beer scene. Yes, D.C. Beer Week (in August) and the week leading up to the Savor Festival (in June) are big, but they can’t match the Craft Brewers Conference. More than 10,000 brewers, sales reps and beer-industry workers will come to Washington for the annual event, which takes place at the convention center Monday through Thursday. While the seminars, keynote speeches and trade show are closed to the public, the week is filled with top-notch happy hours, tap takeovers and other events (just know that you may have to stand in insanely long lines to try heavily hyped beers). Everything listed here is free unless otherwise noted — you just pay for the beer. For dozens of additional options, check the official calendar at craftbrewersconference.com, or look for listings on dcbeer.com, which has more of the smaller and unofficial happenings. Jump to: Monday East Coast’s Finest at ChurchKey Charlie Bravo Charlie at Meridian Pint Haze for Days at Brookland Pint Bell’s Eccentric Cafe at City Tap House Dogfish Head Record Store Day at Lost and Found [The secret to building the perfect draft draft beer list] Tuesday Family Tree Reunion at City Tap House Collaboratron: Uniters of the Brewniverse at Jack Rose Dining Saloon In Conversation: Nathan Zeender of Right Proper and Walt Dickinson of Wicked Weed at Right Proper Brewing Company Soused Beer Release at DC9 Asheville Gets Funky at Anxo [Meet the three people who determine the beers you drink in D.C.] The Sovereign's Wednesday party includes new beers from Tired Hands, Jester King and the Veil. (Photo by Dixie D. Vereen for The Washington Post) Wednesday Union Craft Brewing’s Baltimore Invasion at Rock and Roll Hotel Craft Beer All-Stars Vol. 3 at the Sovereign Victory’s 21st Birthday Bash at City Tap House New Belgium Brewmaster Peter Bouckaert at RFD Washington Sour Showcase at Brookland Pint [These exemplary craft beer bars keep their menus short and sweet] Thursday The Gang’s All Here at 3 Stars Brewing IPA Festival at Meridian Pint The British New Wave at the Partisan Up in the Mountains at ChurchKey California Tap Takeover at Iron Horse READ MORE How is D.C.'s swankiest beer festival combating declining attendance? With


This jogger wants to change the way people drive

it, too. His latest T-shirt design — printed with the slogan “I Run These Streets” and timed to coincide with Distracted Driving Awareness Month — has had some legs of its own since going on sale this month. It didn’t hurt that U.S. Olympics marathon runner Kara Goucher wore one when she appeared in Women’s Running. Savage, who became a runner about six years ago, said he has had so many close calls as a jogger that it’s almost a routine: A driver veers toward him and then jerks away at the last second, obviously having been distracted by the smartphone in his hand. “I do believe I’m going to die in a distracted driving accident,” Savage, 45, said in an interview this week. “Literally on every run, I have at least two people who will swerve at the last minute.” If anything, the problem’s only gotten worse in the past few years, he said. One day last spring, the distracted driver who nearly tagged Savage happened to be a good friend and neighbor of his in Rye Brook, N.Y. The man didn’t even realize he had almost killed or injured someone he knew at first, Savage said. Savage decided it was time to do something. So Savage, who works for J. Walter Thompson, launched his own business, Dash It, in July, featuring T-shirts whose messages, like the business’s name, are double entendres. One says, “Killer emoji.” Another — which says “Not My Finish Line,” with a graphic of a highway’s double yellow line — conveys the idea that the bearer does not want the road markings to become a grave marker on a final run. (The name of the business is intended to tell drivers to “dash” their phones, his website says.) His first batch of slogans didn’t quite catch on, perhaps because they were a little too obscure. But he said he’s been pleased with the reception of his latest. “My goal is to be a grass-roots [movement] — let’s make a difference,” Savage said. A percentage of the proceeds — his goal is 20 percent — will go to the National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS) and People Against Distracted Driving (PADD). Read more of Tripping: Portland’s bike share vandalized. Motive seems particularly idiotic. Map lets you see how lousy your commute is compared to everyone else’s Study claims to find more evidence for “walking while black”


Trump and Xi, the U.S. and China: The storylines that matter

in China.” Ironically, as economic experts note, Trump's protectionist agenda is more in line with China's own practices, including its boosting of mammoth Chinese state-run companies. “Mr. Trump seems to want to move the U.S. toward China’s approach, rather than move China toward the U.S. approach of open trade and globalization,” said Eswar Prasad, a professor of trade at Cornell University, to my colleague Ana Swanson. “He seems to want the U.S. to be more like China than China to be more like the U.S. And I’m not sure that’s the best path for the U.S. to go down.” A magazine featuring President Trump on display with Chinese military magazines at a newsstand in Beijing on April 4. (Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press) The question of security There will be a Kim Jong Un-shaped elephant in the room in Mar-a-Lago. Amid a flurry of North Korean missile tests, the Trump administration is keen on getting China — Pyongyang's only real friend — to bring the pariah state to heel. Trump and other senior administration officials have signaled their impatience with North Korea and threatened unilateral action in the past week. “The clock is very, very quickly running out,” a senior White House official told reporters. "All options are on the table for us." This may all be bluster intended to pressure Beijing, which has cast itself as the honest broker between the North Koreans and the United States — much to American chagrin. Washington's longstanding frustration with what it perceives as China's unwillingness (or inability) to rein in North Korea will also run up against other geopolitical disagreements, including differences over China's expansionist role in the South China Sea and the status of Taiwan. On all these fronts, it's likely the Xi-Trump meeting will yield polite sound bites — and few real changes to the tense status quo. The question of strategy In the short term, Trump may emerge from Mar-a-Lago having burnished his credentials as a budding statesman — a pleasant photo-op here, a nice headline there. Xi, who will return home as the Communist Party is preparing for a cabinet reshuffle, has to walk a difficult line and “lose face” in the eyes of the global media and the Chinese public. But in the long term, Western observers see an alarming drift in the course of U.S.-China relations. Here's Trump and Xi meeting each other for the first time at