Holding Ukraine hostage: How the president and his allies, chasing 2020 ammunition, fanned a political storm

and Zelensky that was exposed by a government whistleblower and triggered an impeachment inquiry. On the receiving end of these demands was a country turning to the United States for help with legitimate desperation. Over the past five years, Ukraine has endured incursions by Russian paramilitary forces, the loss of the Crimean Peninsula after its seizure by Moscow, and a deadly and ongoing conflict with Russian-backed separatists — not to mention its own internal political and economic problems, and corruption. Against this backdrop, Ukrainian officials cited in the texts released by House committees late Thursday come across as feeling abused by their American counterparts. Zelensky “is sensitive about Ukraine being taken seriously, not merely as an instrument in Washington domestic, reelection politics,” a U.S. official, dispatched to Kiev after former ambassador Marie Yovanovitch was removed on May 7, said in a text. Sondland brushed aside his counterpart’s apprehension. “We need to get the conversation started and the relationship built,” he wrote back, “irrespective of the pretext.” Although brief and cryptic, that exchange captures a more pervasive divide within the Trump administration between career national security officials disturbed by what they perceived as a dangerous decoupling of U.S. foreign policy from core national interests, and political appointees who became complicit in the president’s use of American influence to advance his electoral interests. This account is based on interviews with more than two dozen current and former U.S. officials, as well as documents released in recent days by congressional committees involved in the impeachment inquiry against the president. The officials interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitive nature of the subject as well as fear of retaliation. Sondland did not respond to requests for comments. Trump’s preoccupation with Ukraine traces back to the 2016 U.S. presidential race, when a financial ledger surfaced in Kiev linking Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, to millions of dollars in secret payments from a pro-Russian, Ukrainian political party he advised. The disclosures forced Manafort to resign his campaign position and fueled suspicions that Trump’s candidacy was being assisted by interference from Moscow. Trump came to see the ensuing investigations of his campaign’s possible ties to Russia as part of an effort to delegitimize his presidency. In his July 25 call with Zelensky, Trump complained about the Russia probe and recycled discredited conspiracy theories, including that Russia had not really hacked the computers of the


Historic Alexandria house where a notorious slave pen was located is up for sale

The nonprofit organization that owns the site of one of the most notorious slave pens in the nation has put the building and its basement museum up for sale, after struggling for years to pay for the mortgage, property taxes and repairs. Freedom House, a registered National Historic Landmark in Alexandria, Va., is being advertised as an office or residential property priced at $2.1 million. The 1812 rowhouse has been owned by the Northern Virginia Urban League since 1996. Historians say it was one of the largest and cruelest slave depots in the country, sending tens of thousands of enslaved Africans from Virginia and surrounding states into the Deep South before the Civil War. Chair of the local Urban League’s board, Diane McLaughlin, said the board voted in April to “relieve itself of the financial burden” of maintaining and operating the museum and building. The board hoped to sell the building to the city below market value, in exchange for being allowed to retain its operations there, McLaughlin said in a statement. But the sale, which the league expected to happen by Oct. 1, has not materialized. The property was put up for sale in June as a contingency. McLaughlin said city officials told her in late September that they intend to buy the site, and she is “cautiously optimistic” it will happen. Mayor Justin Wilson (D) said the city wants “to avoid that property falling into private hands” but cannot take on the museum and its operations alone. “We’re trying to make sure the museum remains publicly accessible,” he said. “We’re willing to work with any partner that can make that happen.” Alexandria City Manager Mark B. Jinks said he expects the city to determine its next steps by the end of the year. “We’ve heard from the public . . . the museum needs to remain open,” Jinks said. “There’s so much more [history] to tell.” From the outside, 1315 Duke St. looks like an ordinary four-story rowhouse — except for the historic marker that hints at its chilling history. Between 1828 and 1836, it served as headquarters for Franklin and Armfield, at the time the richest and most successful slave-trading business in the country. After being herded off boats at the city’s port and marched to the property, enslaved people were held in the dingy basement or in cells behind the house before being forced to walk


Why is the United States still siding with the ruthless regime in Saudi Arabia?

The Post is to be commended for running a series of strong pieces [Opinions, Oct. 2] to mark the anniversary of Saudi Arabia’s assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. The question remains: Why is the United States still siding with this ruthless regime? In her commentary “Let the world hear Khashoggi’s last words in Arabic,” Karen Attiah was on point when she wrote, “The United States . . . tunes out the screams of people such as Jamal and pays more attention to the oppressive background rhythm of money changing hands in exchange for weapons.” This mercenary logic is at the heart of President Trump’s persistent efforts to block Congress from ending U.S. arms sales and military support for the brutal Saudi-led war in Yemen. His reason? Jobs for U.S. workers and revenue for U.S. weapons contractors. No amount of jobs should be an excuse for backing a murderous regime that has sparked the world’s worst humanitarian crisis and destabilized the Middle East and North Africa. And The Post’s own Fact Checker has demonstrated that the president’s claims of jobs flowing from Saudi arms deals are greatly exaggerated. Congress has a chance to end U.S. support for the Saudi war in Yemen by adopting provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act that would do just that. The time to act is now. William D. Hartung The writer is the director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy. Read more letters to the editor.


Five people injured in electrical vault explosions at Oktoberfest celebration in Calif., officials say

California Five people were hurt and revelers scrambled for safety when explosions in an underground electrical vault sent flames shooting into the sky during an Oktoberfest celebration at a shopping and dining complex in Southern California, authorities said Sunday. Two firefighters and two restaurant employees were treated for minor injuries following the blasts about 8:15 p.m. Saturday during the annual event at Old World Village in Huntington Beach, according to Battalion Chief Jeff Lopez with the city’s fire department. A third restaurant employee had moderate to severe injuries, he said. Firefighters were first called to the scene for a reported electrical fire in the underground vault. The first explosion splattered heated mineral oil used to cool the transformers and possibly ignited subsequent blasts, authorities said at a Sunday news conference. The cause is under investigation. Southern California Edison crews worked through the night to replace three damaged transformers in the vault and restore power, spokesman Robert Villegas said. As many as 1,700 customers lost electricity, he said. — Associated Press North Dakota A man sent to prison for life for helping to cover up the death of a North Dakota woman whose baby was cut from her womb is set to receive a new sentence. William Hoehn of Fargo was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole in the 2017 attack on Savanna Greywind, whose baby survived. Hoehn’s girlfriend, Brooke Crews, admitted she sliced Greywind’s baby from her womb. She was sentenced to life without parole. Justices ruled in August that a judge mistakenly classified Hoehn as a dangerous special offender and he should not have received life. Hoehn now faces 21 years in prison on two charges. Gloria Allred, the Greywind family’s attorney, says Savanna Greywind’s relatives were “disappointed and upset” about the ruling and hope Hoehn receives the maximum sentence at Monday’s hearing. — Associated Press Parkgoers get stuck on Disney World's new cable cars: Florida trappers capture record-setting python: — From news services


Dengue cases are surging around the world. Some blame a changing climate.

KATHMANDU, Nepal — His boss fell sick first, with aching pains and a high temperature. Then, some of his colleagues began showing similar symptoms. By the time Rajkumar Adhikari, 35, grew feverish and started vomiting, he learned that the sickness had a name: dengue. Adhikari, a technician at a company that makes batteries in Nepal’s capital, said he had not heard of dengue before this year, when it struck half of the staff at his office. He felt weak, his nose began to bleed and his joints were so painful it was “hard to bear,” he said from his hospital bed last month. Nepal, a Himalayan nation wedged between India and China, is experiencing an unprecedented outbreak of dengue this year, part of a broader resurgence in the mosquito-borne viral disease that experts say is linked to a changing climate. In Nepal, there have been nearly 11,000 cases of dengue since mid-July, according to government figures, more than five times the previous annual peak. Nepal is far from alone. From Brazil to Bangladesh, Honduras to the Philippines, the number of reported dengue cases has surged this year. There has been a “huge increase,” said Raman Velayudhan, the task force lead for dengue at the World Health Organization. “Unfortunately, things are a little grim at the moment.” Preliminary figures from the WHO show 2.7 million reported cases worldwide through August. This year’s final tally is likely to match the worst years on record for dengue, Velayudhan said. In the Philippines alone, more than 1,000 people have died. Dengue turns out to be ideally suited for a warming, urbanizing world. Present in fewer than 10 countries in the 1970s, it has since spread to more than 120. Dengue is fatal in less than 1 percent of cases and most people recover on their own, but careful supervision is sometimes required to treat severe manifestations of the disease. There is no medication to cure it, nor is there a widely approved vaccine. As climate change brings rising temperatures and unpredictable rainfall patterns, researchers say that 500 million more people could be at risk of contracting diseases like dengue over the next 30 years. Dengue is “headed out of the tropics and it’s also headed to higher elevations,” said Colin Carlson, a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University who studies the link between climate and mosquito-borne illnesses. “This is one of the ways in which


Next few months may show if Huawei can thrive without U.S. tech sales

which underpins the super-fast internet and telecom networks many countries are building. Of particular importance is technology from Xilinx Inc., of San Jose, Calif., that allows 5G base stations to be re-programmed from afar. Joe Madden, principal analyst at the research firm Mobile Experts in Campbell, Calif., closely tracked shipments to Huawei as the Chinese company was stockpiling parts. Madden estimates Huawei bought enough of Xilinx’s integrated circuits, known as field-programmable gate arrays, or FPGAs, to last it until next month. “I’m still forecasting them to run out of Xilinx FPGAs in November and to change over to their own parts,” Madden said. That shift could make Huawei’s 5G equipment less attractive for buyers around the world because Huawei’s technology isn’t likely to be as advanced as Xilinx’s, Madden said. With the Xilinx FPGAs, “you can put a 5G network in the field and still change the software after you put it on the tower,” he said. Telecom companies value that flexibility with 5G because the technology is new and will probably require frequent adjustments over time, he said. Huawei’s technology isn’t likely to be “field programmable” in this way, he said. “If the Xilinx chip needs to be changed out, they will be in trouble,” he said. Huawei has consistently defended its ability to keep growing despite the ban. “At the beginning of this crisis, no one believed we would make it. However, we survived,” Chief Executive Ren Zhengfei said during an event at Huawei headquarters in Shenzhen last month. “We aren’t relying only on our previous inventory to support current production,” Ren said, adding: “The results from the latter half of this year will prove that we can do well because we have real strength.” In May, immediately after the Trump administration banned the sale of U.S. technology to Huawei, most Western companies halted all sales to the Chinese company. Some have since resumed certain sales that they say don’t violate the prohibition. The ban applies to technology made in the United States, and to products made overseas that derive more than 25% of their value from U.S.-origin technology. The sales resumption has eased some of the pressure on Huawei. Companies that have confirmed they’ve re-started some sales include Skyworks Solutions of Woburn, Mass., Qorvo Inc. of Greensboro, N.C., Micron Technology of Boise, ID and Arm Ltd., a British semiconductor-design company that conducts some of its R&D in


Miss Manners: On rules ‘protecting’ ladies

Dear Miss Manners: Isn't that exactly what etiquette has always preached, in its rules about the necessity of chaperones and its shaming of women who were told that they deserve what they get if they go to a man's apartment? What do lawyers Etiquette, like the law, is tradition-based. But when there is good reason to change, both law and etiquette authorize change — if sometimes centuries after horrendous damage has been done. Note the word “authorize.” This process is not license for people to go about discarding obligations they do not like. You did well to check with the highest authority. In the matter of chaperonage, etiquette finally came to realize how vulgar it was to assume that given the opportunity, any man and any woman must be engaging in only one activity. So, a century ago, Miss Manners’ distinguished predecessors abolished the rule requiring social chaperones for respectable young people. That they were not following it anyway may have had something to do with this leniency. It had always struck Miss Manners as strange that lingering forms of protectionism have restricted the lady, rather than the assumed predator. She recalls making this point in regard to the women’s dormitory curfew rules of her school days. (Nobody listened, but 10 years later, another student — a future politician — successfully canceled the curfew.) A paramount consideration now is the devastating effect that such appendages would have on female careers. And in the cases you mention, it is the men who are calling for supervision. Perhaps they have the decency to realize that they cannot trust themselves to behave professionally. In that case, they should, indeed, provide chaperones to keep themselves in line. Dear Miss Manners: We looked, and there is another woman with a baby registry with the same name as my friend, but my friend's name populates first in the list. We think this person may have purchased from my friend's list accidentally. But now she isn't sure how to play this. Does she contact the stranger and thank them? Contact them to see if they made a mistake? What would you recommend? Could it be any That you have the least doubt about this worries Miss Manners. Your friend should immediately contact the store, which will contact the buyer. If she is then informed that, indeed, it was a random gesture to a stranger, Miss Manners will


Allergies, rashes and sinus headaches: U-Md. professors have been dealing with mold for years

Thurka Sangaramoorthy, a medical anthropologist and associate professor at the University of Maryland’s flagship campus, had to throw away her furniture, her collection of about 1,000 books, invaluable documents and personal mementos collected since she started teaching at the school in 2012. The reason? A combination of mold, mildew and moisture that have plagued her office in Woods Hall, which houses the university’s anthropology department on the College Park campus, Sangaramoorthy said. “Some of those [items] were really near and dear to me,” she said. The expensive regalia she wore when she graduated with her PhD was also destroyed by mold. “I consider my office to be a complete loss.” Fifteen professors in U-Md.’s anthropology department have battled mold, and the health complications that come with it, for years, said department chair Paul Shackel. He started keeping a log of mold-related episodes in 2015. “It affects teaching, it affects the morale of people, and people are kind of discouraged because this has been going on for a while,” Shackel said. “The university is taking steps, but the steps, I don’t think, are big enough.” Complaints about mold in the academic building have a familiar ring: A year ago, nearly 600 students were displaced from their on-campus housing at U-Md. because of a mold outbreak — an outbreak that sparked criticism of the university’s administration. Amid the mold infestation, dozens of students developed adenovirus infections, and an 18-year-old freshman died of complications from the virus. Mold does not cause adenovirus infections but can set the stage for other health problems. The director of the university health center, in emails to administrators last year, acknowledged that “mold can cause respiratory irritation that may increase susceptibility of any viral infection.” Professors in the anthropology department say they regularly carry wipes to clean mold from the walls and furniture in their offices. Some try their best to avoid their offices, opting to work from home. U-Md. in recent years has spent nearly $500,000 on efforts to control moisture in Woods Hall, including waterproofing, dehumidifiers, window sealing and a new drainage system, university spokeswoman Katie Lawson said in an email. “We care deeply for the well-being of our community, and we are working closely with faculty members in Woods Hall on interim measures and permanent solutions to address moisture control,” Lawson said. “We are currently finalizing a plan to relocate faculty offices.” Facilities Management, the


Annalena Tonelli, a health activist who fought TB in Africa, defied hardships and terrorism

Medical practice has always had a small but special place for amateurs. During China’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), 1 million “barefoot doctors” provided primary care and public health advice in rural areas. Most had a junior high education and less than a year of medical training, and they were paid peasant’s wages. Their results were decidedly mixed, and by the 1980s they were gone. More recently, “community health workers” with better training and narrower responsibilities have become essential to medical care in many parts of the world. In 2016, Liberia launched a program that has deployed 3,000 health workers who have made 1.6 million home visits and now diagnose about one-third of the country’s cases of childhood malaria. Sometimes, circumstances force amateurs into the breech. In 1942, three appendectomies were performed by pharmacist’s mates on Navy submarines patrolling in the Pacific. An account of one operation, aboard the USS Seadragon off Indonesia, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1943. (The Navy soon after forbade the practice.) And then there are amateurs who defy categorization. Such was Annalena Tonelli. Tonelli grew up in Forli, near Bologna in Northern Italy. She was trained as a lawyer but spent virtually all her adult life treating tuberculosis, first in Kenya and later in Somalia. She cured tens of thousands of people who otherwise would have died of the infection. She was assassinated at her TB hospital in Borama in the self-declared nation of Somaliland in 2003. It had 377 patients and a monthly budget of $20,000. She was 60. Tonelli was a person of immense skill, patience, courage, idealism and self-effacement. Although just before her death she was recognized with the Nansen Refugee Award, given annually by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), she is hardly known today. She is the subject of a book published this month, “Stronger Than Death: How Annalena Tonelli Defied Terror and Tuberculosis in the Horn of Africa” by Rachel Pieh Jones. The author and her husband run a school in Djibouti, but at the time of Tonelli’s death lived in Borama, within walking distance of the hospital. Pieh Jones never met Annalena Tonelli. I am lucky to say I did. In January 1993, I spent two weeks in Somalia covering the famine that accompanied the country’s civil war. I visited “Koch Hospital,” Tonelli’s TB treatment center in Merca, on the Indian Ocean south of Mogadishu, for three days.


Help butterflies, bees and birds with a pollinator garden in your yard

Monarch butterflies are on the move. They’re traveling from the Northeast to their winter home in Mexico. And as they travel, they might stop in your neighborhood for sips of nectar from flowers. But what if none of the yards offer a tasty snack for monarchs or other pollinators? You can change that. And October is a good time to start. We talked to two experts at Smithsonian Gardens for pointers on creating a home garden to attract pollinators. James Gagliardi and Sylvia Schmeichel are the horticulturalists responsible for the large pollinator garden outside the National Museum of Natural History in Washington. It features 230 plant species to attract pollinators and host their eggs. They encourage kids (and their parents) to think about a variety of animals when planning a garden. “Move beyond monarchs,” Gagliardi said. “Different pollinators connect with different plants in different ways. Beetles are pollinators. Hummingbirds, flies, bees, moths.” Gagliardi suggests finding out which plants are native to your area and seeing what those plants attract. Mountain mint, asters and goldenrod are a few of his suggestions. “Plant a variety that bloom all year long,” Schmeichel said. “If there is a particular pollinator you want, read about what they like.” And you don’t have to have a large planting space. “You can even do it in a container on your balcony,” she said. Using seeds or plants depends on the time and money you can spend. “I like to use plant material because I’m impatient,” Gagliardi said. Some flowers come from bulbs, which require a bit of patience. You plant bulbs such as daffodils, crocuses and snow drops in the fall, and they flower in the spring. Thinking ahead is important for creating a welcome spot for pollinators in every season. “You know that on a warm day at the end of winter you start to see insect activity, and there’s places for them to eat,” Gagliardi said. Providing year-round food for pollinators has benefits well beyond your yard. Pollinated plants provide berries and seeds that other wild animals eat. And about 35 percent of the world’s food crops rely on pollinators. So at your next meal, you might consider something Schmeichel mentioned: “Every third bite of food is thanks to a pollinator.” kidspost@washpost.com


Advocates say pit-bull bans are racist and ineffective. This Md. suburb supports them.

gang culture. Headlines about attacks multiplied, and Americans became convinced that the dogs were “biologically hard-wired to kill,” wrote Bronwen Dickey in “Pit Bull: The Battle over an American Icon.” The ban in Prince George’s, a county of 900,000 people, passed after two pit bulls attacked 11-year-old Dyon Toler in Temple Hills. The Maryland suburb is the second-largest jurisdiction to prohibit pit bulls, after Miami-Dade County, which outlawed the breed in 1989 after a child there was mauled. Activists began lobbying to overturn the bans more than a decade ago and were buoyed by support from the Centers for Disease Control and then-president Barack Obama, who in 2013 came out against breed-specific legislation. Research shows the biggest determinant of a dog’s behavior is how it is treated, anti-ban advocates say. They argue that local governments should focus on identifying and removing problem dogs, regardless of breed. Other advocates point out that other types of dogs — including the Presa Canario and Dogo Argentino — are bred to fight and are more likely than pit bulls to be aggressive. But pit bulls are still barred from living on military bases, and hundreds of breed-specific bans remain in place. Delta Air Lines made headlines this summer by barring all “pit bull-type dogs” from being service dogs on flights. Lisa LaFontaine, president and chief executive of the Humane Rescue Alliance, said it is a mistake to judge dogs based on breed, both because experts deny that pit bulls are inherently violent and because it is difficult to determine a dog’s precise genetic makeup. In an interview, she compared breed bans with racial discrimination. At the rally, she displayed pictures of two nearly identical dogs, one of which animal control officers in Prince George’s had determined was a pit bull and the other that they determined was another breed. The county law applies to dogs that are at least 50 percent pit bull. Marjie Alonso, executive director of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants, also connected breed bans with racism, saying pit bulls are often associated with poor, mostly black neighborhoods. “It is a lot easier to be afraid of a dog breed if you are also afraid of the people you associate with owning that breed,” she said. Franklin rejected both arguments. “It’s a ridiculous comparison. It’s a tactic to try to get African Americans in Prince George’s to want to overturn


Nobel Prize in physics awarded for research on exoplanets and the structure of the universe

“Our view of our place in the universe will never be the same again.” For almost a century, scientists have theorized that the universe began with a big bang, growing from a hot, dense particle soup into the current collection of dust, stars and galaxies flung across a vast and still-expanding space. Fifty years ago, a pair of radio astronomers stumbled upon the signature of those earliest days of expansion: the cosmic microwave background, a faint form of radiation that suffuses the entire sky. This radiation is a “gold mine” for physicists, the Nobel Committee said. By analyzing tiny variations in this ancient afterglow, scientists can peer back in time to understand how the universe evolved. Peebles studied the temperature of the cosmic microwave background to understand the matter that was created in the big bang. “It was, conceptually, a door-opening event,” said observational cosmologist Sandra Faber, a staff member at University of California Observatories. “It showed that known laws of physics could explain the universe when it was only 100 seconds old. Isn’t that amazing?” Peebles also developed tools for explaining how the universe as we know it came to be. Tiny quantum fluctuations that occurred during inflation — a period of rapid expansion of the universe that unfolded in less than one-millionth of a second after the big bang — gave rise to “lumps” of matter that would eventually evolve into galaxies, he said. These lumps, along with the still-mysterious dark matter, explain the size, shape and distribution of galaxies we see today. “I was not working alone,” Peebles said via a phone interview at the news conference Tuesday, pointing out that researchers in the Soviet Union provided important contributions to scientists’ understanding of the universe’s evolution. After the detection of the cosmic microwave background in 1964, the field progressed in fits and starts, he said: “I put out lots of wrong ideas, too, you know.” Eventually, Peebles’s theories led to the discovery of dark energy, the invisible force that drives the expansion of the universe, and dark matter, the unobservable material that holds galaxies together. Everything we can touch or see, everything ever detected by a scientific instrument, and everything that has yet to be found makes up just 5 percent of the universe. Even in that small slice of the cosmos, there is more than meets the naked eye. The science behind the second half of


have been recognized, and I think that will just continue to be, at least for me, a sore spot when any Nobel Prize in physics is awarded.” The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the prizes, told Nature last week the organization had implemented measures to address bias against women and scientists of color, including explicitly asking nominators to consider diversity in gender, geography and topic. All six recipients of this year’s prizes for medicine and physics have been white men. Yet Peebles was unique for the “intellectual interpretive stamp he put on things,” Faber said. “His work ranged from the big bang to quantum mechanics to the true nature of dark matter. I am extremely happy with this prize.” The cosmologist, who worked on questions of galaxy formation and dark matter around the same time as Peebles, said his theory “profoundly affected her,” emotionally as well as scientifically. “It tells the human race that we were born according to the laws of physics and the implication is we need to live by those,” she said. Much as Peebles’s research emphasized Earthlings’ insignificance in the context of the universe, Mayor and Queloz’s discovery revealed how rare and unusual we are. The vast majority of exoplanets discovered in the past two decades are unlike any body in our own solar system. Still, Danielsson, the Nobel committee member, said somewhere in the vast and inscrutable universe, on one of those strange and distant worlds, it’s possible that some other form of life exists. It might take years, or centuries, or even millennia, he said. But he holds out hope that one day, hidden in the darkness, humanity will find evidence that we are not alone. Read more: Found: The first ‘super Earth’ with water in its skies Scientists think they’ve found the first moon outside our solar system NASA’s new planet hunter TESS launched successfully She made the discovery, but a man got the Nobel Discover something new: We’ve curated these stories to inspire your curiosity. How marijuana is competing with wine — and not just for customers Wineries were already dealing with a labor shortage. Now legalized pot farms are competing for laborers, with year-round harvests and easier working conditions. What happens when film criticism is dominated by men Seventy-four percent of female critics liked Oceans 8, but only 62 percent of male critics did. But nearly 80 percent of


‘We too love money more than freedom’: South Park creators issue mock apology over Chinese censorship

the ban on films that promote superstitions or cults by changing its translated title — and may have walked back the LGBT identity of Kate McKinnon’s character, Vanity Fair reported — but Chinese officials blocked the film’s release anyway. That same year, “Zootopia” replaced a moose with a panda just for the film’s Chinese launch. Earlier this year, filmmakers clipped nearly three minutes of footage from the Queen biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” to remove all references to Freddie Mercury’s sexuality. The controversy over a since-deleted tweet from Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey has brought criticism of Chinese censorship to the forefront yet again. On Wednesday, “South Park” released an episode called “Band in China,” which featured the clueless Randy Marsh, the most prominently featured parent in the show, detained in a Chinese prison and labor camp for trying to sell the marijuana he grows on his Colorado farm to what he thinks will be a large, untapped market in China. Meanwhile, his son, Stan, battles with a film producer over the script for a biopic about his death metal band as Chinese advisers request rewrite after rewrite to appease the government’s strict content standards. “For this movie to really make money, we need to clear the Chinese censors,” the producer tells Stan. “You gotta lower your ideals of freedom if you wanna” do business in China, he adds, punctuating the joke with a graphic metaphor. In a scene at the beginning of the episode, several NBA players, including one wearing a Houston Rockets jersey, and recognizable Disney characters — including Elsa of “Frozen” and Thor of “The Avengers” — fly to China as brand ambassadors to entice Chinese viewers to tune in to their American programming. Randy goes to extreme lengths to satisfy the Chinese officials and regain his freedom, eventually strangling Winnie the Pooh, another victim of the country’s suppression of speech. His son rejects the censors’ demands, boldly proclaiming that he cannot sell his soul to make money in the Chinese film market. “It’s not worth living in a world where China controls my country’s art,” Stan eventually tells the producer as he abandons the biopic. Just two days after the episode aired, the NBA scrambled to respond after Morey tweeted support for protesters in Hong Kong, where millions of pro-democracy demonstrators have been clashing with police over Chinese interference in the semiautonomous territory. “Fight for Freedom. Stand


Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to researchers who discovered exoplanets and explained the evolution of the universe

James Peebles of Princeton will split the prize with Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz of the University of Geneva for “groundbreaking discoveries about our universe and Earth’s place in the cosmos.” Peebles specialized in the cosmic background radiation left over from the Big Bang, and Mayor and Queloz discovered the first planet around a distant star.This is a developing story. It will be updated.


A front full of butterflies swept through Oklahoma City on Saturday

radar from the National Weather Service in Norman indicates the butterflies likely were present to a height of about 2,500 feet. Many of the insects were swept up in the leading edge of the southward-moving air, with others trailing in its wake. Monarch butterflies are known to migrate south for the winter, the peak of their southward exodus usually falling in October. Many of the lucky monarchs were able to hitch a free ride on the southward-moving front. A population of monarch butterflies can migrate up to 3,000 miles south to the Sierra Madre Mountains, embarking on a trip they have never been on before with remarkable precision. The journey can take up to two months, with individual monarchs flying 50 to 100 miles per day. Once spring rolls around, they return in droves to the United States and Canada. According to the U.S. Forest Service, no butterfly lives long enough to complete the entire migration. Instead, it takes 3 or 4 generations of reproduction after departing Mexico for the butterflies to make it to the U.S. Northern Tier or Canada. How do we know these were butterflies (dragonflies, and other bugs) on radar? Two ways. For starters, dual-polarization radars send out horizontal and vertical pulses of radiation. Depending on how the two returned signals compare, we can draw inferences as to the shape of whatever bounced the radar beam back. In the case of the Saturday’s butterfly front, the shapes detected by radar proved to be a bit wonky — not in line with the more uniform shapes expected from precipitation. With that information, we can surmise that whatever was in the air was biological in nature. “I was here the weekend,” said Bruce Thorem, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Norman. “It definitely seemed like one of the better signatures.” Thorem added that the north wind helped the butterflies migrate south. Folks along and west of the Interstate 35 corridor in Texas may enjoy a couple of orange visitors in the breeze in the days ahead. The unusually strong return signature on the radar, commensurate with what would be seen from heavy rainfall, also suggests that whatever the beam hit had a large cross-section. Butterflies and dragonflies seem to fit the bill. How else do we know that butterflies were among the insects caught up in the breeze? Pictures! Check out the magnificent creatures’ journey below:


From Shake Shack to Starbucks, the Hong Kong-China standoff is proving bad for business

HONG KONG — One after another, the Starbucks outlets in the Wan Chai district just east of central Hong Kong were smashed up. One, set on fire and vandalized just days before and boarded up, was splattered with fresh expletive-laden graffiti Sunday. The glass door on another was broken, the sharp tiny shards littering the sidewalk. The green logo of the twin-tailed mermaid on another store was defaced by black spray paint. Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters have turned their anger toward businesses perceived as supportive of Beijing, with even American brands such as the Seattle-based global coffee chain and upscale burger joint Shake Shack becoming targets. It’s not the corporations that are in the crosshairs but rather the local franchisee, Maxim’s Group, which is detested for perceptions that it backs China over the pro-democracy protests. The pressure, however, is arguably even more intense from the other side. Beijing has been hypervigilant about any local or international corporation that has expressed even a shred of sympathy for the protest movement. Among the hardest hit has been Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways, where about three dozen employees have been fired for making comments perceived as supporting the pro-democracy demonstrators. But jitters have spread beyond the city’s borders, with shoe brand Vans, Spanish fashion house Zara and even the National Basketball Association getting caught between Hong Kong and Beijing. The mounting pressure from protesters and authorities in Beijing is exposing a harsh truth for Hong Kong. Its days as a Western-friendly global financial hub, perfectly positioned to access the lucrative Chinese market, appear numbered. Hong Kong’s strong suit has become its weakness as companies get trapped on either side of a spiraling confrontation. “Hong Kong as Asia’s world city is finished. There is no way that Hong Kong can recapture its reputation as an efficient, safe, well-governed, orderly place to live and work and do business anymore,” said Mike Chinoy, a Hong Kong-based nonresident senior fellow at the University of Southern California’s U.S.-China Institute. “Some of this stuff you can’t put back together.” Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam acknowledged in a news conference Tuesday that Hong Kong’s economy is being battered, saying that last quarter’s economic data is likely to be “very bad.” Goldman Sachs in a research note last week estimated that up to $4 billion in capital left Hong Kong for Singapore over the summer. In an American Chamber of Commerce


We can learn something from this year’s Nobel Prizes: Humility

As job titles go, it’s difficult to find one more formidable than Albert Einstein Professor of Science at Princeton University, so we can’t be surprised when a longtime occupant of that post finally wins the Nobel Prize. At 84, Phillip James Edwin Peebles — Jim, to friends and colleagues — shares this year’s prize for his work that helped to explain more than nine-tenths of everything that exists. You read that right. All that humans had ever seen or sensed — from the tallest mountain and brightest star to the tiniest speck under the most powerful microscope; everything weighed, measured, mapped or compassed; the entire cloud of humanity’s common database — amounts to only about 5 percent of the universe. Peebles, building on the work of others as all scientists do, transformed the way we understand the rest of it: dark energy and dark matter. Far be it from me to explain this stuff. In terms of physics, I’m hard-pressed to explain to a child why people on the opposite side of the Earth aren’t upside down and why they don’t fall off. But while I don’t begin to understand the astonishing work of Peebles, I am nonetheless deeply moved by it and by what it says about the human condition. For all our theories and discoveries, all our certainty and convictions, we never know the whole truth, and much of what we think we know is likely to be proved wrong somehow. Though the human brain is an awesome tool — the most powerful tool we know of — this curious and observant organ spent many thousands of years in total ignorance of almost everything. Not just run-of-the-mill brains in the heads of ordinary Joes and Janes, but the great brains of history: Aristotle’s and Bacon’s, Newton’s and van Leeuwenhoek’s, Curie’s and Copernicus’s. What Hamlet said to his school friend could be said to even the greatest minds of every age: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” The history of knowledge is taught to children as a sort of dawning — an enlightenment, if you will — in which the amusingly benighted theories of the past are steadily corrected, and the mysterious corners of existence are unlocked and explored. I remember thinking as a boy what a shame it was that I missed out on pioneering. All the great


Boris Johnson’s office spins call with Merkel, says Brexit breakthrough ‘essentially impossible’

bafflement and pushback in Europe. The account did not sound like Merkel, diplomats said. Over the past three years, the chancellor has consistently allowed for more talks, more time for Britain to figure out what it wants from Brexit and to offer solutions. Merkel’s office remained tight-lipped on Tuesday, saying it did not discuss details of private conversations. The chancellor did not address the issue during a televised statement alongside the visiting Estonian president Tuesday evening. Later in the day, Johnson’s official spokesman told reporters that “discussions are ongoing in Brussels” but also stressed that talks were at a “critical point” and that a compromise must now come from Europe. After Johnson submitted Brexit proposals last week that crossed E.U. red lines, European Commission spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud said it was on the British side that additional work needed to happen. How to address the border between Northern Ireland, which would leave with the rest of the U.K., and the Republic of Ireland, which will remain part of the E.U., has been one of the thorniest complications. The 1998 Good Friday Agreement brought an end to a hard border, after decades of sectarian conflict, and there are fears that bringing back a border would not only disrupt lives and business but also be a magnet for new violence. The E.U. has been critical of Johnson’s proposal to reintroduce customs checks. The anonymous official in Johnson’s office was quoted as saying: “Merkel said that if Germany wanted to leave the E.U., they could do it, no problem. But the U.K. cannot leave without leaving Northern Ireland behind in a customs union and in full alignment forever.” The Merkel call made clear that Europe is “willing to torpedo the Good Friday Agreement,” the official said. Use of words such as “torpedo” suggested to analysts that the briefing was deeply partisan. “The U.K. government’s attempt to shift the blame for the Brexit fiasco to anyone but themselves — today it’s Merkel — is pathetically transparent,” said Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who opposes both Johnson and Brexit. Ireland’s foreign minister, Simon Coveney, said it wasn’t his country’s fault there was a stalemate. “No country wants a deal more than Ireland, but we will not strike a deal at any cost,” he told a news conference in Dublin. Coveney declined to directly criticize Johnson, saying instead there was a “lot of misinformation” circulating. loveday.morris@washpost.com william.booth@washpost.com


In fast-thawing Siberia, radical climate change is warping the Earth beneath the feet of millions

scientists say the degradation of crop and pastureland caused by the thawing permafrost helped bring about the collapse of the region’s agriculture. Yegor Prokopyev, the retired head of Nelemnoye, says climate change is the latest shock to befall the Kolyma River region. There was communism and forced collective farming. Then capitalism and government cutbacks. His grandfather, a peasant, was declared an enemy of the working class and sent to one of this region’s many gulag prison camps. “As soon as you start getting used to something, they’ll come up with something else, and you have to adapt to everything all over again,” Prokopyev said. The idea that warming brings disaster is ingrained in the tradition of the Sakha people of Yakutia, the region laced by the Zyryanka and Kolyma rivers. An old Sakha prophecy says: “They will survive until the day when the Arctic Ocean melts.” Village elders recalled the phrase after an episode of catastrophic flooding in 2005, according to Susan Crate, an anthropologist at George Mason University, who has long studied climate change in Siberia. The radical transformation underway here, she said, should serve as a warning to people in every corner of the globe. “Changing our ways is imminent,” Crate said. Over the past 50 years, temperatures in most of Yakutia have risen at double or even triple the global average rate, according to work by Yakutsk-based scientists Fedorov and Alexey Gorokhov. The town of Zyryanka has warmed by just over 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) from 1966 to 2016, according to their analysis. The Post’s analysis, which uses a data set from Berkeley Earth, looks further back. It shows that Zyryanka and the roughly 2,000-square-mile area surrounding it has warmed by more than 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) when the past five years are compared with the mid- to late 1800s. Some regions of Siberia bordering on the Arctic Ocean are warming even faster, The Post’s analysis shows. Desyatkin, at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Yakutsk, found that the changes are even more dramatic underground. From 2005 to 2014, his team found, the number of days with below-freezing temperatures three feet below the surface fell from around 230 days a year to 190. That is significant because enormous wedges of ice lie under Yakutia. In some parts of the world, permafrost lies in a relatively thin layer just below the ground’s surface. But


U-Md. student newspaper to end century-long tradition in March

forward is dbknews.com and our social media channels.” In 2013, the Diamondback cut print production from five days a week to four when it stopped printing the Friday edition. By 2015, the paper was producing a print edition only once a week. Meanwhile, Madigan said, digital readership has “never been stronger.” Dbknews.com “Five thousand is great, but 160,000 is definitely better,” said Brennan, a senior. “We want readers to read our content.” At its peak — from 1979 into the 1990s — the Diamondback was printing 20,000 newspapers a day, Madigan said. Jessie Campisi, who graduated from the university in 2018, called the announcement a blow. She wrote and edited for the Diamondback’s news section. “It makes me sad to think that something that was a tradition and a mainstay of such a significant news source and such a foundational piece of the University of Maryland and the journalism school is going to be gone,” said Campisi, a social media curator at the Hill. “It makes sense financially and media industry-wise, but personally, you feel like you’re losing a bit of history.” Weekday print circulation among U.S. daily newspapers fell 27 percent between 2000 and 2014, from more than 55 million copies to just over 40 million, according to data from the Pew Research Center. Estimated total daily newspaper circulation in 2018 was 28.6 million. Newspaper editors at Syracuse University, the University of Nebraska, Columbia University, Cornell University and other schools have also scaled back printing operations. Last year, staff at Syracuse’s Daily Orange announced they would print three days a week, instead of four. The move saved $30,000 in printing-related costs, general manager Mike Dooling said at the time. The Diamondback has led coverage on national stories, including the death of Maryland football player Jordan McNair and the ensuing scandal that ensnared university officials. Student journalists earlier this year reported on the death of a freshman who contracted an adenovirus infection, raising concerns about the conditions of on-campus housing. University officials came under fire for waiting more than two weeks to inform the community after learning that the virus was present on campus. Kevin Robillard, a senior political reporter at HuffPost who worked at the Diamondback while attending U-Md., said he’s worried about what future students will miss out on when the print edition is gone. He called the print publication a cultural artifact that marks athletic victories and


California cuts power to more than 500,000 as high winds raise wildfire threat

blows warm from the northeast, is known as a Diablo. Forecasts for late this week call for gusts as strong as 45 mph. PG&E has sought in recent years to loosen California’s liability standards, which hold utilities liable for any damage caused by fires started by its equipment, whether the company is found negligent or not. The principle, known as “inverse condemnation,” is among the strictest in the nation. Despite heavy lobbying by the utilities, California lawmakers had refused to change that standard in recent legislative sessions. But this year lawmakers loosened it slightly to allow a lower liability threshold for utilities that first complete billions of dollars in safety improvements to power lines, transformers and other equipment. “When the power goes out, it’s fun to sit around and fantasize about the many ways you will oppose any legislation or initiatives that are favorable towards PG&E,” wrote John Holland, a Berkeley, Calif., resident facing the prospect of a power shutdown, in a Tuesday afternoon tweet. PG&E has 16 million customers, the majority of them in Northern California. The company has begun a campaign of television advertising concerning fire safety. The spots include animated illustrations of how to create “defensible spaces” around homes, jargon that has gradually crept into California’s daily conversation. Across the state, neighborhoods organize meetings to gather information about which residents would need extra help during intentional power shut-offs, who has generators and whose medical issues would be exacerbated by a blackout. This shutdown may affect about 800,000 customers who live in a crescent around San Francisco; residents of the state capital, Sacramento; and much of California wine country. The northern Sierra Nevada also falls within the planned shut-off area. Utilities attempt to give a 48-hour warning before a planned power outage, allowing customers some time to prepare for what could be a long time without electricity. The extent of this outage, the utility has warned, could mean that it will take days to turn the power back on across the affected area once the winds have calmed and temperatures cooled. Power shut-off warnings take a worst-case approach initially, and as it nears, the area affected often shrinks. In this case, the opposite occurred as wind forecasts changed to show the Diablo starting earlier and blowing more broadly. PG&E extended the area where conditions might prompt it to turn off the power, including in Marin County just north


The Energy 202: Perry meets with Ukranian officials on foreign trip as impeachment probe intensifies

It was during that call that Trump repeatedly urged Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son, according to a rough transcript of the call the White House released. Perry acknowledged to reporters he “absolutely” asked Trump to call Zelensky — but only about energy issues. “I asked the president multiple times — ‘Mr. President, we think it is in the United States and the Ukraine’s best interest, that you and the president of Ukraine have conversations, that you discuss the options that are there,’ Perry said. Perry also brushed off reports last week from The Washington Post and others that he is planning to step down as energy secretary by the end of the year. “The answer’s no. I’m here. I’m serving,” Perry said. “They’ve been writing this story that I was leaving the Department of Energy for at least nine months now. One of these days they’ll probably get it right. But it’s not today. It’s not tomorrow. It’s not next month.” A day later in Latvia, Perry was back on message about the virtues of the potential for U.S. gas to loosen Russia’s grip on Ukraine and the rest of the region. “What we’re offering is freedom of choice,” Perry said during a keynote address at a Central and Eastern European gas conference in Latvia. He continued: “We can liberate our allies everywhere, including right here in Europe ... by offering it natural gas.” And with that, Perry was off on the last leg of his European tour, leaving for Iceland. But by the time he arrived, he was facing yet more questions in the impeachment probe after CNN reported that Trump called on Perry and a pair of State Department officials to go through his personal attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, in discussions regarding Ukraine. You are reading The Energy 202 , our must-read tipsheet on energy and the environment. — Nobel Prize awarded for rechargeable batteries: — Planned power outage for hundreds of thousands in California: — Trump vs. California: Meanwhile, GM investors want in on California's climate deal: — The latest on BLM’s controversial relocation: CNN digs up Pendley speech denying ozone hole — Warren wants to block gas exports: — This songbird is being removed from the list of protected species: Today Coming Up — A cold front full of butterflies, dragonflies and other insects passed through the Oklahoma City area over the weekend:


This grandmother learned to swim in her 50s. Now, at 73, she’s a returning Ironman champion.

on his leg. His leg was amputated the day after Greenberg, then 60, ran the Boston Marathon.“ One of her great pleasures for the past three years has been competing in the Miami half-marathon while pushing a woman with disabilities in a wheelchair. Her role models include a handful of women who have represented the women’s 75-79 age group in Ironman events. She recalled a recent conversation with one such athlete, Cherie Gruenfeld, a former Ironman champion who now sticks to 70.3’s (half the full Ironman distance). Greenberg asked Gruenfeld why she quit Ironman when she was on top. Gruenfeld’s answer was simple: She wasn’t enjoying it anymore. “So I think to myself, ‘Are you still enjoying this? Is this still fun?' ” Greenberg said. “And it is.” While she happily gallops through races, astounded at how much faster she is in a race than during a training session, often dropping at least a minute per mile off her run pace, Greenberg keeps training fun by doing it with friends. “I don’t have a day where I don’t have someone to meet,” she said. While many triathletes hire personal coaches to design individualized training plans for them, Greenberg has always masterminded her own regimen, which gives her the flexibility to train with a friend or a group. Not only does the self-proclaimed chatterbox enjoy the time she spends connecting with her training buddies during a workout, she also appreciates the accountability. While most of her younger competitors in Kona will cross the finish line around the 10-hour mark, she’ll take about 14 to 15 hours to finish. She’ll be at the back of the pack overall — there will be about 2,500 participants in the race. But she plans to be ahead of the 75 or so people age 70 and older who, like her, qualified to be there. She says she doesn’t mind having the course to herself. “I just love the sport.” Pam Moore is a writer and speaker in Boulder, Colo. Read more: Employees at this Florida bar pulled about $14,000 off the walls — and they’re donating it to Hurricane Dorian relief Months later, woman meets the stranger whose life she saved Why this man put up billboards proclaiming, ‘Amy, I love you more!’ This man proposed to his girlfriend by planting a carrot inside a diamond ring, and waiting months for her to discover it


You’re going where? St. Paul, Minn.

writer and wife Zelda lived upstairs in the early 1920s), the legendary restaurant has its own colorful history — home to a basement speakeasy during prohibition and a destination for Chicago mobsters. Beautifully restored and glamorous, with a killer bar, the Commodore serves starters including lobster deviled eggs and Waldorf salad and entrees like seven-spice cauliflower and beer-battered walleye. You’ll want to dress up here, to honor the history and romance of the Commodore, which turns 100 in 2020. Toast the Fitzgeralds with a gin cocktail named for him and a sparkling wine concoction named for her. (In the summer, take a Fitzgerald walking tour with the Minnesota Historical Society.) Local faves Channel your inner homesteader and trot over to Egg|Plant Urban Farm Supply , which sells all sorts of seeds, kits, books and tools for the inspired city gardener. I scanned titles like “Attracting Beneficial Bugs,” “Epic Tomatoes” and “Good Mushroom, Bad Mushroom” and contemplated all the ways I could procrastinate on work back home — with DIY goat cheese or bitters kits and supplies for canning and pickling. The shop sells handmade brooms and canvas aprons and offers Saturday classes on topics such as cheesemaking and chicken-keeping, which has become more commonplace here (Egg|Plant even sells chicken harnesses). I bought a vegetable-themed pack of temporary tattoos and picked up a brochure on raising chickens, which points out that hens are quieter than dogs. Also in the brochure: “Take a class on chicken keeping. They depend on you for their comfort and safety.” On Grand Avenue, a shopping district where many of the independent retailers operate out of little houses, Red Balloon Bookshop was my favorite. The 35-year-old store not only offers weekly story times, author readings and a thoughtful collection of titles for kids, it also has a small section of books for adults and sells some of the best book-related merch I’ve seen for both small and large readers: “Goodnight Moon” tees, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” socks, “Make Way for Ducklings” zipper pouches, “Corduroy” onesies and “Blueberries for Sal” tote bags. Local reads: “Goodnight Minnesota” and “Boundary Waters ABC.” Also on Grand: Mischief Toy Shop, the Yarnery and Northern Brewer Homebrew Supply. Guidebook musts Keg and Case West 7th Market It’s easy to forget, when you’re walking past the crowded indoor stalls or outdoor vegetable stands in Hmongtown Marketplace , that you’re in the American Midwest. The


Caltech’s latest creation: A hovering, bird-like robot that could someday explore Mars

he said. Future versions could also be used to navigate the harsh terrain found on other planets like Mars. And unlike drones, he noted, having stabilizing legs means the robot would be able to carry heavier batteries, giving the machine more power and versatility. “I can envision this robot helping a geologist when they go on out into the field,” Gharib said. “They’d be able to carry equipment and then fly overhead and take steady images, becoming a scientists or an engineer’s companion." “There’s a perception that robots will take over the world and harm mankind, but our community is developing machines that will help society first," he added. A video released by Caltech –– which has racked up more than 23,000 views –– shows the robot delicately balancing on a ledge, spinning on one leg and walking up and downhill using its “thrusters” for balance. The current model is about two and a half feet tall and weighs less than 10 pounds, but Gharib said future models will double in size and grow increasingly fast and stable as machine learning algorithms improve the robot’s movement with more experience. The Caltech team is certainly not the first to dream of creating futuristic machines with the ability to shift between different forms of locomotion. At this year’s CES technology show in Las Vegas, Hyundai introduced a concept car designed to walk as easily as it rolls. Called “Elevate,” the daddy-long-legs-like machine has wheels at the end of long robotic legs that would allow “users to drive, walk or even climb over the most treacherous terrain,” according to the company. The company — which labeled the machine a UMV, or “ultimate mobility vehicle” — said the concept was inspired by the need for “resilient transportation” in disaster zones, where conventional vehicles are often rendered useless. “When a tsunami or earthquake hits, current rescue vehicles can only deliver first responders to the edge of the debris field,” John Suh, Hyundai vice president and head of Hyundai CRADLE, said in a statement on the company’s website. “They have to go the rest of the way by foot. Elevate can drive to the scene and climb right over flood debris or crumbled concrete.” MORE READING: Japanese researchers want to give granny a robotic monkey tail The latest tool to help police develop empathy for the public: Virtual reality headsets Meet ‘Mindar,’ the robotic Buddhist priest


U.S. airstrikes against Taliban drug labs killed 30 Afghan civilians, U.N. report says

objectives.” The U.N. report determined strikes on more than 60 sites killed 30 civilians and wounded five. The strikes were carried out in Afghanistan’s western Farah and Nimruz provinces. The dispute surrounding the drug lab strikes reflects the difficulty of separating civilians from combatants as Afghan government troops battle an insurgency with support from U.S. forces. The United States “is fighting in a complex environment against those who intentionally kill and hide behind civilians, as well as use dishonest claims of noncombatant casualties as propaganda weapons,” read the statement from U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The Taliban said the U.N. report “proved that Americans are engaged in heavy war crimes,” according to a statement released to the media Wednesday. The large number of civilians killed during operations against militants has stoked anger across Afghanistan. In April, the United Nations found that during the first quarter of 2019, forces allied with the Afghan government were responsible for more civilian deaths than the Taliban and other insurgents. That shift comes as U.S. and Afghan government forces have stepped up ground and air offensives targeting the Taliban and sources of the group's income. The increased pressure came as both the United States and the Taliban attempted to pressure the other into a peace deal. The U.N. report on the drug lab strikes said the casualty numbers should be taken as a minimum because the organization investigated allegations of more than 100 civilian casualties. Those determined killed and wounded in the report were subjected to multiple verification methods. U.N. investigators conducted site visits as part of the investigation. The U.S. military said that before the strikes were carried out, U.S. forces observed the sites for “scores of hours,” providing “the degrees of certainty required at the time of the precision strikes to assess forces were only striking legal targets and avoiding noncombatant casualties and collateral damage.” The United States has tried for years to curb the Taliban’s multimillion-dollar drug trade. U.S.-funded efforts to combat narcotics in Afghanistan came under severe criticism from a U.S. government watchdog in a report last year that said opium production and drug addiction is rapidly escalating despite efforts costing more than $8 billion since 2002. Correction: An earlier version of this story inaccurately described the number of civilians the United Nations claimed in a report were killed by U.S. airstrikes. The report lists 30 civilian deaths, not 40. sayed.salahuddin@washpost.com susannah.george@washpost.com


Scientists win Nobel Prize in chemistry for work on lithium-ion battery

batteries. The batteries have reshaped energy storage and transformed mobile devices — and reduced reliance on fossil fuels. The prize went to John Goodenough, 97, of the University of Texas; M. Stanley Whittingham, 77, of the State University of New York at Binghamton; and Akira Yoshino, 71, of Asahi Kasei Corporation and Meijo University. Goodenough is the oldest ever recipient of a Nobel Prize. The three each had a set of unique breakthroughs that laid the foundation for the development of a commercial rechargeable battery. The Nobel committee said the lithium-ion battery has its roots in the oil crisis in the 1970s, when Whittingham was working to develop methods aimed at leading to fossil fuel-free energy technologies. “We have gained access to a technical revolution,” said Sara Snogerup Linse, of the Nobel committee for chemistry. “The laureates developed lightweight batteries with high enough potential to be useful in many applications — truly portable electronics: mobile phones, pacemakers, but also long-distance electric cars. “The ability to store energy from renewable sources — the sun, the wind — opens up for sustainable energy consumption,” she added. Speaking at a news conference in Tokyo, Yoshino said he thought there might be a long wait before the Nobel committee turned to his specialty — but his turn came sooner than he thought. Yoshino said he broke the news to his wife. “I only spoke to her briefly and said, ‘I got it,’ and she sounded she was so surprised that her knees almost gave way.” The trio will share a $918,000 cash prize and will each receive a gold medal and a diploma December 10 — the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896 — in Stockholm, Sweden. On Tuesday, Canadian-born James Peebles won the Nobel Prize in physics for his theoretical discoveries in cosmology together with Swiss scientists Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz, who were honored for finding an exoplanet — a planet outside our solar system — that orbits a solar-type star. Americans William Kaelin and Gregg Semenza and Britain’s Peter Ratcliffe won the Nobel Prize for advances in physiology or medicine on Monday. They were cited for their discoveries of “how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability.” Three Nobel Prizes have yet to be announced. The prize for literature will be announced Thursday, the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday and the economics award on Monday. — Associated Press


Roger Goodell called China an NFL ‘priority market.’ After the NBA’s troubles, what’s next?

2007 and previously held preseason games in far-flung cities such as Tokyo, Barcelona, and Sydney. But holding a regular season game in China presents certain logistical challenges, starting with the country’s distance from the United States: A nonstop flight from the U.S. East Coast to Shanghai is about 15 hours nonstop, about twice as long as a flight to Europe. There’s also the matter of finding football-specific facilities for team practices and outfitting one of China’s current stadiums to host the actual game. “I think when you can fly between New York and Shanghai in an hour and a half, then we can do that. Until that time, it’s logistically very difficult,” Young told CNBC. A request for comment from either Young or Christopher Halpin, the NFL executive vice president in charge of growing the game internationally, about the league’s plans in the wake of the NBA-China controversy was not immediately answered. The financial rewards of further establishing a foothold in China could be great, however. The NFL’s digital streaming deal with Tencent, one of China’s largest Internet companies that airs four regular-season games per week, the playoffs and the Super Bowl, ends after this season, and while any new deal probably won’t be as lucrative as the reported five-year, $500 million deal the NBA signed with Tencent this past offseason, it still could be quite beneficial to the league. “More people tune in to watch the NFL in China than a prime time AFL game in Australia,” Collins told Forbes. “AFL, which is the dominant religion in Australia, sold their media rights there for the equivalent of $1.74 billion over six years.” In 2017, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady visited China and made videos, including one in which he said “my dream is to play a game here in China some day.” Whether he or any other NFL player suits up for a game there is an open question. Read more NBA coverage: Blackistone: While Adam Silver tries to straddle a line on China, the NBA misses an opportunity What’s happening in Hong Kong? Some key questions, answered. Jenkins: Don’t be mad at the NBA. Hundreds of U.S. companies have sold out to China’s regime Chinese state TV cancels broadcasts of NBA preseason games and sponsors drop out in dispute over Hong Kong comments From Shake Shack to Starbucks, the Hong Kong-China standoff is proving bad for business


Time for the U.N. secretary general to open his own Khashoggi investigation

for reasons still a bit unfathomable, Turkey’s president hasn’t asked for help. No matter. Guterres and his lawyers know that he has the legal power under the U.N. Charter to create an investigatory panel even without a request. He should do so now. Indeed, Khashoggi’s murder justifies a U.N. investigation even if we set aside the flagrant attack on journalism. Saudi Arabia defied two core rules of the international system: the ban on extraterritorial killings in peacetime and the requirement that states use diplomatic missions for official purposes, in exchange for which those missions get diplomatic immunity. Both rules are mostly honored (though with some notable violations by Iran, Russia and Israel over the years). They assure states that foreign agents will not commit crimes that might hurt their own citizens, and they allow embassies and consulates to keep open channels of diplomacy even when the sending countries have tense relations. Using a consulate as a killing chamber is an unprecedented attack on these rules. Guterres can easily claim that this is a unique, compelling case for him to act alone. He will likely find broad support for the inquiry from the United Nations' members. Delegations to the United Nations in New York should remind Guterres of this fact. How could a U.N. investigation succeed without Saudi cooperation? Skilled investigators can locate witnesses and evidence; they can get information from states through assurances not to share intelligence sources and methods. It might also produce Khashoggi’s remains or an account of their destruction. Those it identifies as behind the killing may not face prosecution or political defeat at home, but they certainly can become international pariahs. Any Saudi refusal to cooperate with the inquiry will only heighten suspicions of state complicity. Guterres has a chance to demonstrate his moral leadership in the face of the murder of an independent journalist and the importance of respect for key rules of the international order. He has the power to do so. Now is the time for him to act, so we can finally find out the facts. Read more: The Post’s View: Saudi Arabia’s trial for Khashoggi’s murder is a travesty. Congress must insist on justice. David Ignatius: The Saudi engine of repression continues to run at full speed Kenneth Roth: The Saudi crown prince should fear the long reach of justice Jamal Khashoggi: What the Arab world needs most is free expression


At Maydan, the cooking is on fire

tang. The spread that found two of us scraping every speck from its bowl is muhamarra, red bell peppers and toasted walnuts laced with sweet-tart pomegranate molasses. Rounds of flatbread, baked in the clay ovens known as toneebi in Georgia, are the vehicles by which the spreads move from table to tongue. Kebabs: Ask for “Aleppo,” a ropy wand of garlicky ground lamb that summons Syria with a sprinkling of lightly toasted crushed pistachios. Seafood: Dense yet tender shrimp, warmed over the grill and brushed with chermoula, uses saffron, paprika, garlic and more to stage a little symphony for your taste buds. Halloumi? I’ve had better grilled cheese. Servers talk about Maydan’s lamb shoulder as if it’s a misfit toy, a treasure with caveats. “It’s fatty,” we’re told on different visits. “You have to dig for the meat.” But oh, what fun it is once that spice-rubbed lamb, served with sumac-dusted raw onions and carrying some char, lands in your mouth, preferably with a pungent dab of toum. Whole chicken seasoned with coriander and turmeric is pleasing, too, almost as much for the underliner of bread that catches the drippings (“Be sure to eat the bread,” coaches an attendant) as for the centerpiece. It’s not just the big fire or the cool kids that make the scene so mesmerizing. The design is every bit the bazaar Previte paints when she calls it “midcentury modern meets the Middle East.” Think mismatched chairs, bar tops made interesting with fabric under the cover of resin and wallpaper that summons a garden with its vines. There are no bad seats per se, simply better ones. With luck, you get shown to a table on the ground floor, either a tall one that you might have to share (I’ve watched strangers exchange numbers by the end of their meals) or the more intime nook, Table 104, nestled under the stairs. “Ari Shapiro is coming in at 8 o’clock, but you can sit here now,” says Previte, grateful for the tips the NPR star gave her regarding Tunisia. (Previte’s husband is David Greene of NPR’s “Morning Edition.”) Benches and stools plumped with pillows frame a low table set with a large brass tray. Part of me wants to hang out until The Voice shows up, just to share my cheat sheet. Any debrief would include filfuli, a mescal cocktail with blood orange and paprika, reminiscent of


At Bad Saint, there’s still a line, and it’s still worth it

Métier No. 4 Minibar No. 3 Himitsu No. 2 Pineapple and Pearls No. 1 Inn at Little Washington --- The following review appeared in The Washington Post’s 2016 Fall Dining Guide. Ordering is the easy part. Getting a foot in the door of the hottest Filipino restaurant in the country? That’s where you need some help with this 24-seat shoe box. If hiring someone to stand in line for you goes against your grain (or budget), try showing up as early as 3:30 in the afternoon for a crack at the initial 5:30 p.m. seating. Also, keep in mind that if you show up 30 minutes or so before closing, there’s a chance a seat might be free, or close to it. The national attention lavished on Bad Saint appears only to have pushed the team harder to impress us. The food these days is even better than when the joint, personalized with family photos, opened to raves last year. The most arresting salad in town is a downy tower of raw shaved coconut, julienned snow peas, purple cabbage and edible flowers, invigorated with a lime leaf dressing. Some of the area’s best goat is here, too, trumpeting lemon grass and chilies in a braise that’s stained black with charred coconut. And I love the new accompaniment to a bowl of clams and sausage swimming in house-made XO sauce: fried Chinese doughnuts for sopping up the gravy. “I like people to be able to pick up food with their hands,” explains co-owner Genevieve Villamora, the smile at the door. Yes, ma’am! --- The following review appeared in The Washington Post’s 2016 Spring Dining Guide as No. 4 on a list of the year’s 10 best new restaurants. Bad news about Bad Saint: The Columbia Heights restaurant doesn’t take reservations for its 24 seats, meaning diners have to get in line early for the chance to explore the Filipino menu by chef Tom Cunanan. But what a ride once you’re in! Shrimp fritters spiky with shredded vegetables are by turns sweet, funky and loud. Chicken marinated in cane vinegar, bay leaf and garlic and finished with fresh grilled coconut might be described by a server as “life-changing.” All I know is, I scraped the bowl clean and couldn’t wait to do so again. In a word, the food here is bold. And bodacious. With luck, you’ll be squeezed into a booth


A Chinese-Korean alliance is ready to expand to Dupont

menu culled from the standing list plus dishes in development. Delivery means you can slurp shrimp dumplings and devour cumin lamb stir-fry in the privacy of home. ChiKo: Open: Prices: Sound check: -- This review originally appeared in The Washington Post’s 2017 Fall Dining Guide as No. 8 on Tom’s Top 10. ChiKo takes the fast-casual game to delicious new heights (Excellent) The most unlikely three-star restaurant in Washington asks you to order at the counter, take a number and wait for your food in a black-and-yellow space with a couple rows of tables and the soundtrack of neighbors dropping by for takeout. The food that follows — like the local chefs behind the idea, Scott Drewno and Danny Lee — redefines what it means to be a fast-casual restaurant. If you can find better “orange-ish” chicken or cumin lamb stir-fry inside the District, your next dinner is on me; part of what sets apart the slip of a space on Capitol Hill from wannabe peers is the sourcing behind the flavors. (The brisket topping the rice enriched with furikake butter comes from Wagshal’s.) Not to mention the pedigree of Drewno, formerly the executive chef of the Chinese-inspired Source, and Lee, the talent at the Korean-accented Mandu. If you think Pineapple and Pearls is a tough ticket, try to secure one of the four stools at the reservation-only kitchen counter, where the culinary equivalent of Penn & Teller oversee a bargain tasting that pretty much includes the entire standing menu, plus a few flourishes, for $50. Grateful participants start with a tiered assortment of banchan and seafood snacks (dig the shrimp in XO sauce) before moving on to glorified versions of Chinese and Korean signatures arranged on baking sheets. (Only the food is fancy here.) Almost as cool as the juicy rib-eye and slippery rice cakes, and the fried rice with smoky catfish, is the fact you can wash both back with cocktails. The 2017 Top 10: No. 10 Sfoglina No. 9 Salt Line No. 8 ChiKo No. 7 Tiger Fork No. 6 Bad Saint No. 5 Métier No. 4 Minibar No. 3 Himitsu No. 2 Pineapple and Pearls No. 1 Inn at Little Washington --- The following was originally published Aug. 11, 2017. Fast-casual fusion ChiKo off to a fast start on Barracks Row The latest definition of crack in Washington is the “orange-ish” chicken at ChiKo on Capitol


A steakhouse that’s not just for meat eaters

year’s 10 best new restaurants. St. Anselm makes meat eaters’ dreams come true (Excellent) The dream team behind one of Washington’s hottest restaurants stars Marjorie Meek-Bradley, whose local career includes Ripple (may it R.I.P.) and Zaytinya. Her new gig finds her in an exhibition kitchen in a lively Stephen Starr-Joe Carroll production, cooking food she says she likes to eat. Suffice it to say, I’ll have what she’s having: oysters sauced with smoked herb butter, a truly “monster” prawn with garlic butter, and salads that speak to the season. For a place that insists it isn’t a steakhouse, St. Anselm does a poor job of convincing us. The menu’s “bigs from the grill” are a meat eater’s fantasy; go for the juicy New York strip steak, best enjoyed in the company of garlicky creamed spinach and crisp, finger-long fries. Just be sure to start and finish a meal with, respectively, buttermilk biscuits and mint ice cream with shards of chocolate. The decor is quirky and fun. Near the busy bar hang portraits of past presidents deemed disasters, each face obscured by a lightbulb poking through the picture. The Top 10 new restaurants of 2019: 10. Gravitas 9. Little Havana 8. Sushi Nakazawa 7. Estuary 6. St. Anselm 5. El Sapo Cuban Social Club 4. Three Blacksmiths 3. Rooster & Owl 2. Punjab Grill 1. Mama Chang -- The following review was originally published Dec. 12, 2018. The stars align at St. Anselm, a tavern for the times (Excellent) St. Anselm was born with a silver spoon in its mouth. Make that three, actually: Stephen Starr, Joe Carroll and Marjorie Meek-Bradley. When news broke that the trio were opening a restaurant across from Union Market in the District, some of us forecast a hit on the horizon. Think about it. Starr is the restaurateur behind some of the most beloved dining destinations on the East Coast, including Le Coucou in New York, Parc in his home base of Philadelphia and Le Diplomate in Washington. Carroll brought a blueprint for the business, having developed the original, albeit smaller, St. Anselm in Brooklyn. Regarding Meek-Bradley, whose local career includes Zaytinya and the late Ripple, weren’t her fans all waiting for her to do something more ambitious than Smoked and Stacked, much as we appreciate the idea of sandwiches from a talented chef? Her new home is a dining room and bar carved from


After 70 years, Annie’s Paramount Steakhouse remains a haven

This restaurant is one of 10 classics in The Washington Post’s 2019 Fall Dining Guide. Annie’s Paramount Steakhouse (Satisfactory/Good) Annie’s is about as contemporary as a VCR, as complex as a Hungry Man frozen entree. Even owner Paul Katinas, nephew of the dearly departed namesake, says, “We’ve never been one to follow a trend.” The menu is a lot of fried snacks followed by common American comfort food. Does it matter? For more than seven decades, the Dupont Circle mainstay has been an LGBTQ haven, a feat the James Beard Foundation recognized this year in naming Annie’s an American classic. Know before you go: The cocktails are big, crab bites are the best start, weekend hours are round-the-clock, and the signature bull in the pan — juicy sirloin tips sauteed with bell peppers — makes a satisfying rib-sticker. Annie’s quick and chummy service makes up for any culinary misfires. “Can I have the coconut cream pie?” my companion asks a waiter. “Only if I can have a bite of it!” he cracks back. 1 1/2 stars Annie’s Paramount Steakhouse Open: Prices: Sound check: -- The following review was originally published Oct. 24, 2018. (Satisfactory/Good) Martinis and Manhattans — the size of bird baths and filled to the brim — are carefully slid across the bar and sipped before anyone dare raises his drink in a toast at Annie’s Paramount Steakhouse in Dupont Circle. Flanking a companion and me on a recent Saturday night are men who look as if they came of age when “YMCA” was blasting through discos. Helping crowd the bar are heaping plates of pasta and steak that suggest portion sizes are more important than Michelin consideration. If nothing else, Annie’s, as regulars know it, is a generous restaurant, easy on the wallet. It has also remained a safe place for men who like men — and women who like women, and everyone in the LGBTQ demographic — as shown by the banter between a bartender and a couple of customers. When a 40-something next to me watches a dapper senior pay his bill and depart, he asks the bartender, “Should I know that guy next to me?” The bartender shrugs, smiles and says, “I like them younger.” “I like them older,” replies the customer. “I like them breathing,” chimes in an eavesdropper. Somewhere, Annie Kaylor must be laughing with everyone. Gone but hardly forgotten, the restaurateur


The following review appears in The Washington Post’s 2019 Fall Dining Guide. (Excellent) Let everybody else serve fried green tomatoes. Rose’s Luxury uses a Japanese mandoline to make ribbons of the fruit — some raw, some pickled — then shapes them into an alluring “panzanella” with the support of croutons, anchovies and torn basil. Oysters on the half shell are as easy to find as robes at the Supreme Court. But when’s the last time you knocked back a brand called Happy (from Sapidus Farms in Virginia) and had them with a bracing granita fueled with Fresno peppers? Chef-owner Aaron Silverman and crew continue to come up with new tricks at his first and most famous restaurant on Capitol Hill. Monkey bread is upgraded with cheese and pepper: “cacio e pepe,” after the Italian pasta. The actual noodles in this two-story fun house are wonderful, too. Here’s hoping you get to twirl strozzapreti with a winning trio of ’nduja, honey and pecorino. Over summer, Silverman quietly launched a catering company, Roses at Home, that mines the menus of his restaurants, including the wine bar Little Pearl and the high-end Pineapple and Pearls. Already I’m plotting to have litchis, pork sausage, habanero and peanuts in the comfort of my own nest. 3 stars Rose’s Luxury: Open: Price: Sound check: -- The following review originally appeared in The Washington Post’s 2018 Fall Dining Guide. There’s a way to taste luxury without waiting in line (Excellent) See the pigs flying? Rose’s Luxury started accepting reservations in September, albeit same-day and only after everyone who has waited in the legendary line has been greeted and seated. But still! Even a little edge is better than none at this, the first of three very special dining rooms from one of the region’s top talents, Aaron Silverman. The short menu is long on surprises. Hmmm gives way to ahhhh when a scoop of dreamy coconut ice cream topped with shimmering caviar appears, ebony and ivory in perfect harmony. Other dishes are simply upgrades on the familiar. Sliced shrimp and celery ribbons on a slab of house-made brioche ramped up with Fresno chile jam make a fanciful shrimp toast. More relatable still, but just as luscious, are the pastas and the specials, one night whole grilled dorade dappled with bright snow pea gremolata. (The fish picks up subtle sweetness from its brine of litchi juice and coconut


Three Blacksmiths invites more to the table

This review appears in The Washington Post’s 2019 Fall Dining Guide as No. 8 on a list of the year’s top 10 restaurants. 8. Three Blacksmiths (Excellent) It just got easier to dine at the smallest best restaurant in the region. Co-owners Diane and John MacPherson added a chef and expanded their hours to include Wednesday night in their beguiling, 20-seat dining room in Rappahannock County. Otherwise, those fortunate to have visited before can expect a scene similar to dinners past: five courses offered at a single seating by the same people who prepared the meal. Farmers let the restaurant know what they have on Sunday. The staff noodles ideas on Tuesday before writing a menu. The only constant from week to week: “The food has to be simple, honest, delicious and beautiful,” says John, a chef. Hence a summertime ode to tomatoes served fresh, charred, in a consommé and as a roasted pâté. And scarlet tenderloin rounded out with golden pommes Anna, charred cucumber relish and a pale yellow onion soubise. Lovely nibbles and sublime desserts start and finish the dream, narrated in part by Diane, the gracious general manager. Coming soon: black walnut custard tart with compressed apples and smoked yogurt. And maybe goat from a local purveyor in Madison. Plenty of restaurants serve delicious food in attractive spaces. Three Blacksmiths suggests you’re enjoying dinner in the home of friends — friends with superb taste. 3 stars (Excellent) Three Blacksmiths: Open: Prices: Sound check: The Top 10 restaurants of 2019: 10. Thamee 9. Anju 8. Three Blacksmiths 7. Mama Chang 6. Poca Madre 5. The Restaurant at Patowmack 4. Métier 3. Pineapple and Pearls 2. Rooster & Owl 1. Seven Reasons -- The following review originally appeared in The Washington Post’s 2019 Spring Dining Guide as No. 4 on a list of the year’s 10 best new restaurants. Get to Three Blacksmiths — if you can (Good/Excellent) The lone complaint I’ve ever heard about this Sperryville sensation concerns the challenge of securing a table. “I just got in — in October,” a grateful friend emailed recently. The hardest ticket around is open just three dinners a week, seats no more than 20 diners, and is cooked and served by a team of four, plus a dishwasher. (Co-owners John and Diane MacPherson are the hosts with the most.) Everyone eats the same five-course meal at the same time, although


Chloe invites diners to eat their way around the globe

The following review appears in The Washington Post’s 2019 Fall Dining Guide. (Excellent) One way to see the world is to book a table at Chloe. Roasted sweet corn spritzed with lime and scattered with queso fresco puts me on a street corner in Mexico City. Springy Bavarian sausage with vinegary sliced potatoes and mustard whisks me to Oktoberfest. Sumac-sprinkled hummus decked out with roasted mushrooms and slivered buttered almonds has me dreaming of the Middle East. Dessert is as delightful as any small plate before it. My pet of the moment is manchego cheesecake on shredded phyllo and crowned with a lemon-quince sorbet. The long list of hits, served in a light-filled room by genial guides, has only gotten better since chef Haidar Karoum set up shop near Nationals Park. My past two visits, he was nowhere in sight, a compliment to the cast who cook and plate as if he were front and center. Drinks? Dates? Just a bite? Chloe is great for any occasion. 3 stars Chloe: Open: Prices: Sound check: -- The following review appeared in The Washington Post’s 2018 Fall Dining Guide. Near Nats park, Chloe brings a world of flavors (Good/Excellent) One of the year’s most anticipated arrivals was this restaurant near Nationals Park from Haidar Karoum, a chef who has worked at some of Washington’s most popular restaurants (Proof, Estadio, Doi Moi) and for some of its biggest talents (the gone-but-not-forgotten Michel Richard). If I lived in the neighborhood, I’d be a regular; since I don’t, I rely on it for date night, or send people there when what they want is “nice but not fancy.” The menu, long and international, starts out with snacks, continues with small plates and culminates with platters for sharing. One of many choice itineraries: properly funky and racy green papaya salad, garlicky sausage partnered with tender tiger’s-eye beans and pickled kale, glossy roast chicken set on sticky rice and enjoyed with a slap-my-forehead, chile-lime dipping sauce. Decadence is defined here by a chocolate sundae constructed with a warm brownie, almond toffee and butterscotch sauce. Chloe takes its name from the chef’s niece. She should feel honored. 2.5 stars -- The following review appeared in The Washington Post’s 2018 Spring Dining Guide as No. 7 on a list of the year’s 10 best new restaurants. A favorite chef hits his stride at Chloe (Good/Excellent) Boy, is it ever


If you need tranquility, you need Marcel’s

This restaurant is in Tom Sietsema’s Hall of Fame. Marcel’s (Excellent) One of the best antidotes to the incivility of Washington: dinner in the dining room named for owner Robert Wiedmaier’s son, soon to turn 21, just like the French-inspired restaurant. My original review of Marcel’s reads much like today’s. A meal unfolds leisurely and luxuriously with the help of servers better dressed than you are, a generous scoop of caviar topping your amuse-bouche, thick linens across the tables and background music that you notice but that never takes away from conversation. The most exciting change? A kitchen with more girl power. (Three of the four sous-chefs are women.) The format lets you order four to six courses from the range of the menu. Consider scallops topped with diced pear and trailing precise dots of sour apple gel; scored foie gras displayed on peach cremeux and pâte brisee; arctic char teetering above bright, two-toned pepper coulis; and a venison chop with quenelles of sweet potato puree and a garnish of huckleberries — haute stuff right through dessert. 3 stars Marcel’s: Open: Price: Sound: -- The following preview was originally published Dec. 16, 2018. Marcel’s is back, with a distinctive point of view Good news first: Marcel’s is back in action after a water pipe burst just before brunch service Jan. 7, flooding the posh French-Belgian restaurant with more than two feet of water. “The firefighters were savages — in a good way,” recalls chef-owner Robert Wiedmaier, who paints a picture of curtains being torn and ceilings being poked with emergency equipment. The estimated cost of the damage, including lost revenue and wages: $400,000 or so. Thanks to some quick work on the part of a designer and others, Marcel’s was able to reopen in time for Valentine’s Day, one of the restaurant industry’s biggest dates of the year. Eager to see what the refresh looked like, I invited a vegetarian to accompany me on a recent outing. The “new” Marcel’s, Wiedmaier told me, includes a four-course meatless menu, an option increasing in demand by customers. En route to our table, I’m reminded what a civilized restaurant this is. The lighting shaves a few years off everyone, the acoustics are so good you can hear a knife being sharpened in the distance and the staff are better suited than most of the people they’re fussing over. The new, gold-flecked dark carpet,


Del Mar sings a siren song of Spain

the season’s garlic. Every aspect of a meal puts the customer first, from the leather banquettes that support leisurely meals to leftovers that are retrieved from the host stand. Office mates might envy you your cuttlefish stew with sweet scallops and bright herbs the next day. Then again, they might also covet your having scored a reservation at one of the best restaurants, in one of the most exciting neighborhoods, in the entire region. The Top 10 new restaurants of 2018: No. 10 Old Maryland Grill No. 9 The Tavern at Rare Steak and Seafood No. 8 Unconventional Diner No. 7 Chloe No. 6 Maydan No. 5 Little Pearl No. 4 A Rake’s Progress No. 3 Del Mar No. 2 Fancy Radish No. 1 Elle --- The following review was originally published Feb. 7, 2018. Del Mar is already one of D.C.’s best dining indulgences The splashiest restaurant yet to grace the Wharf — Del Mar by Fabio Trabocchi — prompts two visceral responses from customers. One involves a variation on “awesome.” Whatever the exact word, it applies not just to the food, which is frequently luscious, but to the frisson in the dining room and the finesse of the staff. Sure to follow in any review, verbal or otherwise, is mention of cost. In typical Trabocchi fashion, the chef’s first deviation from Italian cooking is a pricey proposition. Even brunch can cost $100 a head (well, if the heads in question consume alcohol and order paella, one of Del Mar’s signature dishes). Let me be clear. Even if I wasn’t the beneficiary of someone’s generosity, or on an expense account, I’d save up for a meal here. In the three months since Del Mar has set sail, the restaurant has emerged as yet another example of why Washington is among the best cities in the nation for fine dining. Great ingredients and chic decor explain part of the story; a sense of commitment and a pride in doing everything just so make equally compelling impressions. Trabocchi does nothing halfway. Check out one of the lures at his raw bar. Three briny oysters from Prince Edward Island rest atop a fanciful, snail-shaped silver bowl filled with ice, garnished with seaweed and set on a gold place mat — the Mar-a-Lago of oyster presentations. The specimens are lovely on their own, but they pick up a smoky allure with the addition


Trump Organization gets approval to build more than 50 homes at Ireland golf course

statement. Eric Trump and his brother Donald Trump Jr. run the day-to-day operations of the Trump Organization while their father is in the White House. In Doonbeg and the surrounding rural towns, many residents support the Trump golf course and its expansion plans. The course, along with its hotel and restaurant, represent well-paying jobs in an area with few economic opportunities beyond farming. Even those who don’t support Trump politically often want the property to succeed. “It’s easy to see what the benefit is,” said John Flanagan, a farmer who lives near the Doonbeg course. “There’s 300 people with families working there.” Trump bought the Doonbeg course out of foreclosure in 2014, paying $11.9 million. The course lost more than $1 million every year from 2014 to 2017, according to the most recent Irish corporate records available. In 2018, the course’s revenue rose about 2 percent, from $14.2 million to $14.5 million, according to Trump’s latest U.S. financial disclosures. Documents showing whether the course made a profit or a loss in 2018 are not yet available. At the Doonbeg course, which is perched on sand dunes overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, the biggest threats might not be financial. Over the years, seawater has eroded the dunes and risks washing away chunks of fairway. The Trump Organization has applied to build a rock barrier below the dunes to prevent further erosion, and that application is in court proceedings and awaiting a national planning board decision. Some environmentalists have opposed the barrier. At Doonbeg, the Trump Organization plans to build the 53 houses for short-term visits by tourists, as well as a ballroom and a restaurant, among other facilities. Council members said no local residents lodged formal opposition to the plan. Theresa and Tony O’Dea, a couple living near the course who ultimately supported the proposal, wrote to the planning department to say they “have endured distress and many sleepless nights” because of loud music from weddings and parties as well as regular helicopter flights that pass “extremely low over our house and farmland.” Other residents said that anything to help the company turn a profit would be welcome. “What is being proposed is no way interfering with anything and just adding to it,” said Liam Ryan, a local business owner who also supports Trump’s sea wall plan. Vice President Pence and his entourage spent two nights at Trump Doonbeg last month during