Devastated by lockdowns, Hawaii’s struggling tourism industry pins its hopes on the first signs of reopening

expired July 31, on top of the state’s unemployment benefit. The aid helped cover new purchases to help her 16-year-old son learn remotely: a desk, chair, printer and Internet service. Duarte’s family has otherwise gotten by thanks to her husband’s job in construction, and the fact that the Fairbankses kept all of the inn’s employees on the company’s health insurance. In the last week of September, more than 17 percent of Hawaii’s labor force was receiving unemployment benefits, again, the highest rate in the nation. Even more were receiving Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, an emergency program Congress passed to cover gig workers, the self-employed and contractors who have otherwise not normally qualified for traditional or jobless benefits. As the inn stays open, Duarte doesn’t plan to look for other work. But she worries the career that has supported her for 20 years might not look the same in a coronavirus economy. “I’d have to start over,” she said. “And the way things are now, it would be difficult to find another job.” Even with Hawaii’s loosened restrictions, everyone expects it will take some time for travelers to return. Some Hawaiian hotels are even waiting to book rooms for a few more weeks or months to see if covid-19 cases stay under control. Green, Hawaii’s lieutenant governor, said hotels might reach an occupancy rate of 45 percent by March 2021. Fairbanks said another PPP loan from Congress would help sustain the inn until tourism picks up momentum. Yet the White House and Congress have been at odds for weeks over another stimulus package, and it looks unlikely that there will be any deal before the Nov. 3 election. At times focus has centered on relief for the airline industry and $1,200 stimulus checks. Other proposals have included redirecting unused funding from the Paycheck Protection Program. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell has repeatedly called for more fiscal aid that can reach workers in industries that will take some time to recover, including travel, restaurants, hotels and entertainment. “It also seemed likely that the sectors most affected by the pandemic — those relying on extensive in-person contact — would face a long and difficult path to recovery,” Powell said earlier this month at the National Association for Business Economics virtual annual meeting. “These sectors and people working in them would likely need targeted and sustained policy support.” But businesses dependent on tourism have


Transcript: Climate Solutions: Next Generation

they changed their lifestyles and they put in their resources around a new clean source of water and then it goes away and it's further devastating for these regions. And that's the inspiration for the formation of the new company WellBeyond, which began consulting for other NGOs around their clean water infrastructure implementation and now we're developing technology to leverage the technology that's already rapidly evolving in these regions to further support these communities and put the power and the knowledge and the education in their hands to manage their own water. MS. SELLERS: Sarah, thank you. Karan, Sarah was inspired by a trip overseas. But the disaster that came to your attention was right on your doorstep. Tell us about what prompted you to get involved in this environmental work. MR. JERATH: Absolutely. So, this was the Deepwater Horizon spill, which happened in 2010. And my family and I moved from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia in 2008, and essentially just seeing the devastation in our backyard, the Gulf of Mexico, because we live around 30 minutes from there, really sparked my interest in trying to solve solutions that could have a global impact. At that time, I was in high school. I didn't have a college degree, and so what my limiting factors were, were just not having resources. And so, what I decided to do was to use a science fair as a way to be able to engage in these types of solutions. And freshman year of high school, I got involved with the science fair, talked to one of my teachers who happened to have contacts within the oil and gas industry, and that ultimately then allowed me to use software and simulations to develop this solution. But what really sparked my interest in this was just seeing this devastation over the course of three months not come to a standstill. As you can imagine, the news headlines were all over, not only within our local community but around the world. And after seeing all the solutions that were developed, that really sparked my interest in thinking if I could do something regardless of the scale, and regardless if it even worked, me actually contributing and making an attempt would be--would be something that I would--that I would want to do. And so, over the course of two years, within the science fair program, I developed


these regions. So, the dramatic change between a drought and the flood will actually affect the groundwater. So, we're seeing more turbid water underneath the surface, especially in the deeper aquifers, and that's problematic not just for water quality but also for the equipment that's downhole if you're pumping water out of the ground. It's compromising that equipment. It's making it more costly to have to--be able to rehab and install these systems. So, if it gets much worse, it's going to be incredibly problematic. So, I'm hopeful that these amazing young people are going to help us address these issues and the awareness of these issues. MS. SELLERS: And a quick follow-up on that, because many of the problems you describe we have documented as well in the United States and your focuses overseas. Do you see yourself bringing these technologies back to work in areas like the Texas border, the Navajo Nation, other areas where there's very poor water quality or lack of access to clean water? MS. EVANS: We get that question a lot. And we have actually done a little bit of disaster response work in Texas after hurricanes. The problem in the U.S., of course, is politics and policy. It--we have this really niche expertise in groundwater and cultural understanding in the United States, that's a lot trickier, there's a lot more--a lot more red tape to get through. However, I think with the new innovations we're working on right now, it can be translated anywhere in the world. So, we are actually hopeful that we can start working on the border or on the reservations and provide solutions at home, as well as overseas. MS. SELLERS: Thank you. Karan, Amnesty International recently had a survey that suggested that Generation Z has been more affected and is more upset about climate change than prior generations. Why, Karan, are these issues resonating so much with young people now? MR. JERATH: Because this is our problem. This is ultimately a problem that we have inherited, that we, I think youth especially in this day and age, are realizing that our leaders, if they're not going to solve it for us, we have to be the ones to take this initiative and solve it ourselves. Quite frankly, in today's day and age, climate change is the biggest threat to national security. But the thing is, it doesn't just


Tracking a secret outbreak in Iowa

How genetic science can help expose, track and contain coronavirus outbreaks. And your voting questions answered.


A pandemic should be the great equalizer. This one had the opposite effect.

Pandemics should be the great equalizer. They affect everyone, rich and poor, Black and White, urban and rural. After all, even the president of the United States contracted the coronavirus. But covid-19 has actually had the opposite effect. The virus is ushering in the greatest rise in economic inequality in decades, both globally and in the United States. Despite all the concern about inequality within America, it’s worth noting that global inequality — the gap between the richest and poorest around the world — had declined over the past few decades. Thanks to the rise of China, India and other countries, the share of people living in abject poverty (under $2 a day) is less than a quarter of what it was in 1990. But an astonishing set of statistics compiled by the Economist shows how years of progress are being undone in months. The World Bank estimates that about 100 million people are falling back into extreme poverty this year. Sub-Saharan Africa, which had enjoyed economic growth every year for the past 25 years, will shrink in 2020. The World Food Program — recipient of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize — estimates that the number facing hunger will double this year to 265 million people. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation warns that vaccination rates for children are as low as they were over two decades ago. Behind all these statistics are individual human beings who are starving or sick, their children wasting away, desperate and deprived of hope. The divide between rich and poor is stark even in the United States. Two new studies estimate that between 6 million and 8 million people have been pushed into poverty over the past few months. Millions of Americans can’t pay their electric bills or are skipping meals to save cash. A recent survey found that 38 percent of those who have lost work due to covid-19 don’t have even a month’s worth of savings. Consider how the pandemic is widening inequality in the United States. The Post analyzed Labor Department data on how the past four recessions affected the top 25 percent of income earners vs. the bottom 25 percent. In the recessions of 1990, 2001 and 2008, both groups lost jobs at about the same rate — which was a few percent. In the current recession, the top 25 percent, after a slight initial decline, has bounced back completely.


Tracking a secret outbreak in Iowa

Post Reports is the daily podcast from The Washington Post. Unparalleled reporting. Expert insight. Clear analysis. Everything you’ve come to expect from the newsroom of The Post. For your ears. Martine Powers is your host, asking the questions you didn’t know you wanted answered. Listen online. How genetic science can help expose, track and contain coronavirus outbreaks. And your voting questions answered. Read more: In a pandemic rife with confusion, where essential data and clear guidance have been difficult to find, clues to controlling coronavirus outbreaks can be found in the virus’s own genetic code. Sarah Kaplan reports on an undisclosed outbreak in Postville, Iowa — and the genetic evidence it left behind. Your voting questions, answered. One listener asks, how do campaigns get involved in challenging votes? Election law attorney Ben Ginsberg explains. If you have a question about voting, check out The Washington Post’s guide on how to vote in your state. You can also ask Post Reports on Twitter or Facebook — or write us an email at PostReports@washpost.com. Subscribe to The Washington Post: https://postreports.com/offer


Weather satellite captures stunning fall foliage coloring the Eastern U.S.

Fall foliage is reaching its peak color across parts of the Appalachians in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, where weather satellites captured their shades of amber from more than 22,000 miles above the ground. On Wednesday, satellite-derived weather maps plotted the colors, which could be seen stretching from the Virginias and high terrain of western North Carolina all the way north to the Canadian border. Those are the same areas that are listed as experiencing peak color currently, making the upcoming weekend a perfect one to enjoy the tranquil scenery — weather permitting, of course. Among the best places to see the colors? The Blue Ridge Mountains, the mountains of North Carolina, northern and western Pennsylvania, all but eastern New York State, the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire. Satellite imagery corroborated that story. The GOES East weather satellite, which hovers 22,236 miles above our heads, revealed a rust-colored tinge to the ordinarily verdant vegetation. That illustrates where fall foliage is at or near peak. Geosynchronous orbit describes the height at which an object can revolve around Earth in perfect alignment with a given point on the planet’s surface, constantly looking down at the same place on the ground. There is only one altitude at which this is possible, because satellites are subjected to the constant earthward pull of gravity and their immutable desire to barrel ahead in a straight line. At the level of “geosync,” a satellite is curved toward Earth at the same rate that it tries to run away into space, the perfect balance making a circular orbit around Earth. Leaves change color in the autumn as the days become shorter. Photosynthesis, a key chemical reaction that employs chlorophyll, a green pigment found in plants, is dependent on sunlight. As sunlight wanes, the production of chlorophyll slows, and other buried colors can emerge. Among them are shades of orange, red and yellow, produced by beta-carotene, anthocyanins, and flavonols respectively. Chlorophyll is required for a plant to produce food, or glucose. Once the leaves are unable to do that, they become a net sink of energy for a plant, rather than a source. So if you live in the high elevations of the Mid-Atlantic or the Northeast, this upcoming weekend may be an opportune time to enjoy the vibrant colors.


A Japanese Olympic swimmer was caught having an affair. He’s now suspended for the rest of 2020.

was having an extramarital affair. Seto, who won a bronze medal in the 400-meter individual medley at the 2016 Rio Olympics and is the current world champion in that event and the 200-meter IM, has apologized multiple times after a tabloid published a story last month detailed how the married father of two had visited a “love hotel” — a hotel that offers stays of as short as a few hours — with a woman who was not his wife. “I intend to sincerely give my full attention to swimming … so that I may regain the trust of my family, whom I hurt deeply with my irresponsible behavior, and regain the acceptance of my family as well as all of you as a swimmer,” Seto said in a statement released through his management company on Tuesday. Seto, 26, admitted to the affair and resigned as captain of Japan’s Olympic swimming team last month after the magazine published the story. He still will be able to swim in next year’s Tokyo Olympics and already has qualified by virtue of the world championships he won in 2019. However, he has lost sponsorship deals with the Japanese Olympic Committee and All Nippon Airways. Japanese sporting officials have previously issued strict punishments to athletes who, in their eyes, have tarnished the country’s honor. In 2014, the Japan Swimming Federation suspended Naoya Tomita — a world short-course breaststroke champion — for 17 months after he was caught stealing a professional photographer’s camera from the pool deck at the 2014 Asian Games. At the Asian Games in Jakarta four years later, four members of the Japanese men’s basketball team were sent home after checking into a hotel with four women deemed to be prostitutes. The players later were suspended from competition for one year. In 2018, the Japanese Canoe Federation suspended kayaker Yasuhiro Suzuki for eight years after he admitted to spiking an opponent’s drink with anabolic steroids in an attempt to get him to fail a drug test. Two years earlier, Olympic badminton player Kenichi Tago was kicked off the national team after losing nearly $100,000 at illegal casinos in Japan, where most forms of gambling are prohibited. Read more: Tokyo to hold gymnastics meet featuring foreign teams Negotiations with Nassar victims held up by insurers, USOPC claims in lawsuit Beijing is planning to host another Olympics. Clashes over human rights are back, too.


Presidents have long disguised their health problems. There is only one solution.

during a train tour of the country campaigning for Senate ratification of the Versailles Treaty, Wilson exhibited symptoms that foretold a major stroke that then occurred in October. His doctor suggested resigning because he lacked the physical capacity to handle the burdens of the office. Wilson ignored this advice and finished the last roughly 17 months of his term. While the White House hid Wilson’s incapacity from the public, the stroke rendered him unable to manage either the physical or intellectual demands of the political fight for the treaty, effectively ending his presidency. Wilson’s medical history was a prelude of sorts to Franklin Roosevelt’s successful campaigns for New York governor in 1928 and 1930. In 1923, polio had left him paralyzed from the waist down. Though he could not hide his disability, he encouraged the false belief that he had largely recovered from the paralysis. Speeches at the Democratic conventions in 1924 and 1928 created the false impression of a vigorous man capable of serving in executive positions. Successful terms as governor, in turn, opened the way to the Democratic presidential nomination in 1932. With the country in an unprecedented economic collapse and the ineffective Herbert Hoover in the White House, Roosevelt’s disability actually boosted his political ambitions. As a political leader who was seen to have largely recovered from a health crisis and been an effective governor of the country’s largest state, Roosevelt situated himself as the ideal political figure to lead the country out of the depression and restore America’s economic health. Roosevelt urged the country to become “prophets of a new order.” His New Deal, with a host of groundbreaking laws that made America a more humane society, made him the most popular president since his cousin Theodore and gave him a landslide reelection victory in 1936. Although his second term fell short of his initial achievements, the onset of World War II, with Nazi Germany in control of Western Europe, gave Roosevelt a fresh surge of appeal and an unprecedented third term. Despite his disability, his years in office and legislative accomplishments made him seem like the right leader to steer the country through the international crisis. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 made questions about his polio and broader fitness to do the job all but disappear. But by 1944, the 62-year-old president was in declining health and his weight loss and


As election nears, Pentagon leaders’ goal of staying out of elections is tested

media. Milley, meanwhile, has spoken repeatedly about the military’s duty to defend the Constitution rather than any particular party or leader. In an interview with NPR over the weekend, Milley sought to minimize the possibility that the military could be pulled into an election dispute, as experts have warned. While most academics suggest the most likely such scenario would involve the president employing the military to address post-election unrest, Milley appeared to address an assertion that the military could be asked to help arbitrate the result. “I would tell you that in my mind, if there’s a disputed election — it’s not in my mind, it’s in the law — if there’s a disputed election, that’ll be handled by Congress and the courts,” he said. “There’s no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of a U.S. election. Zero, there is no role there.” Peter Feaver, a scholar on civil-military relations at Duke University, said the Trump campaign’s decision to run its recent advertisement showing Milley — along with Esper, Vice President Pence and national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien — next to Trump as they oversaw the 2019 military operation that resulted in the death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi illustrated the “tone deafness” of Trump’s campaign team to norms governing military involvement in partisan activities. While presidents seeking reelection, including Barack Obama in 2012, have frequently made reference to their decisions as commander in chief, and shown military personnel in campaign material, Feaver said the inclusion of a senior uniformed officer was especially problematic. “I’m sure that Esper and Milley are uncomfortable with this and don’t like the appearance, even though they’re not allowed to say it,” Feaver said of the ad. “And I hope they don’t say it, because that will just extend the damage by getting them crosswise with the president.” Officials said neither Milley nor Esper knew about the ad, which one official said was later taken down, ahead of time. The ad recalls an incident in August in which several uniformed troops in American Samoa were featured in a Democratic convention video, which resulted in an Army investigation. Relations between Trump and Esper, Trump’s second confirmed defense secretary, have been visibly strained since June, when Esper spoke out against Trump’s desire to use active-duty military troops to address widespread protests against racism and police brutality. Officials have said Trump has


Emboldened by his covid-19 recovery, Trump pushes return to normalcy

on the condition of anonymity to offer a frank assessment. These officials had also hoped that the president would incorporate the importance of basic health protections against the virus into his messages. “He looks completely out of touch,” said Mike DuHaime, a Republican consultant close to former New Jersey governor Chris Christie and campaign manager Bill Stepien, both of whom were infected with the virus. “He doesn’t appreciate what it would be like for a regular person. He gets the best medical treatment of everyone in the world and is acting like he’s Superman. It really reinforces a lot of negative notions about him and how he handled coronavirus from the beginning.” The White House disputed that characterization, saying the president is projecting strength and optimism. “Any suggestion that the President of the United States has not taken the threat of covid-19 seriously is completely false,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement. “As the entire country has confronted covid-19, President Trump has never wavered in his message of strength and optimism to the American people, and as he personally defeated the virus the President has once again reminded the nation that he is a fighter and that if we all fight together we will defeat this.” Deere also pointed to the president’s decisions to limit travel from China, shut down the country in the spring, expand testing and push the development of therapeutics and vaccines as evidence that Trump has taken the virus seriously. On Monday night, Trump tossed masks to supporters from the stage. Private polling shared among campaign advisers, as well as public polls, shows Trump’s handling of the pandemic remains his biggest albatross — and is among the top concerns for voters in swing states. Those internal findings are buttressed The poll also showed that many judge Trump harshly for failing to take what they regard as adequate protections to avoid contracting the virus. Almost 2 in 3 voters say he did not take appropriate precautions, and 6 in 10 say they do not trust the administration to provide complete and accurate information about his health. A similar percentage said they do not trust what he says about the pandemic. Several experts and former administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter, said the White House outbreak was a result of carelessness and disregard


Join The Washington Post at Middleburg Film Festival Oct. 15-18

was infiltrated by communists, regarded Dr. King as a subversive bent on challenging systemic segregation and the status quo. To ruin Dr. King, the FBI director used every means at his disposal. William Sullivan, Hoover’s right-hand admitted in their pursuit of Dr. King, “no holds were barred.” Bugs were planted in Dr. King’s hotel rooms, his phones tapped, informants paid. The Bureau enlisted journalists to write hostile stories about Dr. King, never alerted him to threats on his life, and when King received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, the FBI threatened to blackmail him unless he committed suicide. A timely and revelatory film, directed by Emmy® Award-winner and Oscar®-nominee Sam Pollard. · Post film-screening discussion: Post Opinions contributing columnist Michele Norris in conversation with director Sam Pollard at Friday, Oct. 16 at 12PM ET. “The Dissident” · Showtime: Friday, Oct. 16 at 9:15PM ET (this film will be viewable for three hours from showtime) · Synopsis: Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was critical of his beloved Saudi Arabia and of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s policies. On October 2, 2018, Khashoggi entered the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul and never came out. His fiancée and dissidents around the world are left to piece together clues to his brutal murder—and in their dogged quest for truth, they expose a global cover-up perpetrated by the very country he loved. With exclusive access to the Turkish government’s evidence; to Khashoggi’s fiancée, Hatice Cengiz; and to Khashoggi’s close friend and fellow Saudi insurgent, Omar Abdulaziz, Academy Award–winning filmmaker Bryan Fogel unearths hidden secrets in this real-life international thriller that will continue to rock the world long after the headlines have faded away. · Post film-screening discussion: KPCC The Frame’s John Horn in conversation with director Bryan Fogel on Friday, Oct. 16 at 11:15PM ET. Festival attendees can also join Post journalists for the following panel discussions: · Post Film Critic Ann Hornaday in conversation with Sophia Loren on Friday, Oct. 16 at 4:00PM ET following the presentation of the festival’s Legacy Tribute Award to Loren. The discussion will touch on Loren’s career and collaborations – and her current film, “The Life Ahead.” · Post Arts Editor Janice Page in conversation with the cast of, “Minari” on Saturday, Oct. 17 at 9:00PM ET following the presentation of the festival’s Cast Spotlight Award to the cast. For the full schedule and ticket information, visit https://films.middleburgfilm.org/.


Trump wants to try for herd immunity. Without a vaccine, it could kill millions.

Other coronaviruses are called “seasonal” because, like the flu, they circulate every year. The result of letting the infection go in the general population will, in all likelihood, be a persistent problem, not a nightmare followed by a blissful awakening. CDC Director Robert Redfield told Congress in late September Returning to pre-pandemic levels of activity risks a return to levels of transmission like those we saw in the hardest-hit places in the early spring, such as New York, New Orleans and Detroit, with hospitals overwhelmed and ICU beds in short supply. All the sacrifices of the last months will have been largely wasted, delaying but not fundamentally changing the devastation of an unmitigated pandemic. Among other consequences, this will mean that the return to “normalcy” hoped for by herd-immunity proponents will not occur, as fear of exposure would keep people home even if there were no rules requiring it. Indeed, economists report that states that ended their spring lockdowns early have had the worst, not the best, economic outcomes, resulting from rampant viral spread. “Flatten the curve” was a good idea when the world first heard the concept in March, and it still is. Even if we assume herd immunity will come sooner or later through the natural spread of the infection, we should prefer to delay it. A flatter curve, with more infections delayed, means a health-care system better able to cope with the cases it does have. Treatments are getting better, and there are indications that more people who would have died of covid-19 earlier in the outbreak are surviving. Further, data suggest that only two-thirds of the 225,000 excess deaths from March to August were covid-related; an overwhelmed health-care system means there is little reserve to care for all the other diseases hospitals were created to treat. And there is every reason to expect medical care for this new disease to be better in three or six months than it is now. Last and most important, vaccines are being tested that might just protect us if we can stay uninfected long enough to get our immunity that way. We can find common ground with the proponents of focused protection on the need to find more and better ways to shield the vulnerable until then, and to be smart about what restrictions we use to reduce viral spread. We also agree that control measures are taking a toll


A rocket booster and a dead satellite avoided a collision Thursday, illustrating the ‘ticking time bomb’ of space debris

It appears that a dead Soviet satellite narrowly missed a Chinese rocket stage Thursday night as they sped hundreds of miles above the Earth’s surface, another in a series of close calls for junk whizzing around in orbit. Throughout the space community there was widespread concern over a worst-case scenario — that shortly before 9 p.m. Eastern the objects would collide, creating a massive debris field, adding even more pollution to space that could last decades, according to LeoLabs, a California-based company that tracks debris for satellite companies. If that happened, the collision could have produced thousands of pieces of space debris, the most since an active communications satellite operated by Iridium and a dead Russian satellite crashed into each other in 2009 some 500 miles over Siberia. But shortly before 10 p.m. LeoLabs reported that there appeared to be no collision. The company’s radar showed the rocket stage intact with “no signs of debris.” It added that there was “no indication of collision.” In addition to a couple thousand operational satellites, there is a lot of trash in space — spent satellites and old rocket boosters, the flotsam of previous collisions and military maneuvers, such as when China shot down a dead satellite with a missile in 2007. The more junk in space, the greater the possibility of additional collisions, which in turn would produce even more debris, further exacerbating a problem that is growing worse. “Every week we see close approaches, where derelict satellites, rocket bodies, are passing within 100 meters of each other,” said Daniel Ceperley, LeoLabs’ founder and CEO. “This isn’t like this happens once a year. This happens multiple times a week. It’s sort of a ticking time bomb that’s just out there in space.” He said the chance of a collision was less than 10 percent but added “that’s extremely high for the space industry. At one in 10,000, a satellite operator will move their satellite. At one in 1,000, it’s is considered an emergency.” So far this year, the International Space Station has had to maneuver three times to avoid debris, NASA said. Speaking at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing recently, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine lamented the growing problem and said in addition to the times the station has had to maneuver there “were three potential [collisions] that made us very nervous.” The challenge, he said, is “we don’t have as a nation,


As covid-19 cases surge, global study paints grim picture for elder-care homes

system. At least 30 fatalities have been linked to Hong Kong’s care home network, roughly a quarter of all covid-19 deaths in the city. Terry Lum, a professor at the University Hong Kong, said that the big worry was that covid-19 could slip into facilities through seemingly healthy staff members. “We worry about infected staff who do not have symptoms,” he wrote in an email this summer. It’s not all gloom. Despite their aging populations, South Korea and Japan have avoided large-scale deaths in care homes. China, where the coronavirus first emerged, has not reported a large number of deaths in elder-care homes. A number of nations that initially saw large-scale deaths in care homes have performed better as their outbreaks went on. At least some current hot spots in the U.S. Southwest have so far avoided the scale of care home deaths that the Northeast saw in spring, alongside a broader decline in mortality rates. But it can be hard to isolate tactics that work. In some facilities in Spain and Britain, having staff live on site and submit to frequent testing appears to have helped keep the virus out. In the United States, rapid response teams that isolate patients and take them to hospitals have been helpful in limiting the virus’s spread. Even proven tactics, though, can exact a cost in quality of life. Without visits from families and friends, many residents can suffer emotionally. “We are well aware of the mental problems facing the patients in nursing homes, as a consequence of their loneliness,” said Trabucchi, who added he saw no alternative. Having staff live on site would be difficult in many nations, where private agency staffers often work at multiple facilities. Even the expense of testing staff members regularly could affect the margins of an industry often based on cheap, easy labor. Many tactics have a significant financial cost. In South Korea or Hong Kong, where the state is heavily involved in long-term care facilities, the government may cover them. But in nations where private ownership of elder-care homes is common, such as Britain and the United States, companies must keep expenses down. “They have to provide a lot more staff, they have to provide a lot more equipment, they have to have more space,” said Shereen Hussein, a professor of care and health policy at the University of Kent. “This means profit margins are reduced.”


Africa’s largest dam powers dreams of prosperity in Ethiopia — and fears of hunger in Egypt

restricted, and Abdelkhaleq has already had to pay a $600 fine for over-planting. Irrigation Ministry officials enforce a rule that limits farmers to four days of water at a time from canals, followed by at least two weeks without, the strictest rationing in years, farmers say. “They are rationing the water because the Nile’s waters are already down,” said Ali Mohamed, 42, Abdelkhaleq’s son. “It’s lower this year, and every year is less and less.” He blamed the dam, but Mostafa al-Naggari, head of the rice committee of Egypt’s Agriculture Export Council, said the current rice production restrictions are primarily driven by the need to satisfy the growing population’s demand for water and meet national development goals. Egypt’s politicians and pundits have jumped at the chance to portray Ethiopia as the cause of this crisis, accusing Addis Ababa of negotiating in bad faith on filling the reservoir and in turn threatening to plunge millions of Egyptians into darkness and poverty. That rhetoric is popularized on talk shows in hyper-nationalist terms. “This is our right,” said Ahmed Mousa, one influential TV personality. “No one treats Egypt this way.” Whether the dam will contribute to water shortages in Egypt is largely a function of the eventual water-sharing agreement that Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia sign. “It all comes down to how much water Ethiopia will agree to release during and after a drought,” said Kevin Wheeler, a hydrologist at Oxford University who has co-written multiple papers on the dam. “During the onset of a drought, Ethiopia will decide whether to continue releasing water at the same rate, thus continuing to generate power and provide downstream countries with water, or else fill its reservoir to ensure longer-term energy production.” Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, sought to assuage Egyptian concerns in his speech at this year’s U.N. General Assembly. “I want to make it abundantly clear that we have no intention to harm these countries,” he said. “What we are essentially doing is to meet our electricity demands from one of the cleanest sources of energy. We cannot afford to continue keeping more than 65 million of our people in the dark.” In Egypt, even mild comments that might seem in favor of the dam require anonymity. One U.N. official in Cairo, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk freely about a politically sensitive issue, said that the dam had “not so far


Md. House work group votes to propose banning chokeholds, restricting no-knock warrants

A legislative work group appointed by Maryland House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones voted to recommend repealing the Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights, a controversial statute that protects police accused of wrongdoing and has been cited by critics as a major roadblock to holding officers accountable. Five months after George Floyd’s killing sparked a national outcry for police reform, the panel — composed of 10 Democrats and four Republicans — also voted Thursday to recommend independent investigations of officer-involved killings and a police use-of-force standard that includes a ban on chokeholds; a restriction on the use of no-knock warrants; and a requirement that officers intervene if they see a colleague using unreasonable force. Violators should be subject to criminal penalties, the work group said. “I think we have made some really strong recommendations that are going to move Maryland forward on police reform and police accountability for, particularly, minorities,” said Del. Vanessa E. Atterbeary (D-Howard), the chairwoman of the work group. While some of the proposals endorsed by the panel have been discussed in the General Assembly before, they now will probably have the backing of Jones (D-Baltimore County), who ascended to the speaker’s position last year after the death of longtime Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel). The legislature has moved considerably to the left in the past two years and has been energized by the protests following Floyd’s death. Still, any significant overhaul would draw strong pushback from the Maryland Fraternal Order of Police, which wields considerable authority in Annapolis. And while Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) is more aggressive about policing changes than the man he succeeded in January, President Emeritus Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert), the Senate itself remains more politically moderate than the House. The vote to repeal the officers bill of rights, which is the oldest statute of its kind in the country, was 9 to 5, with Del. Michael A. Jackson of Prince George’s the lone Democrat to vote no. Approved in 1974, the law allows officers to wait before cooperating with internal misconduct inquiries, scrubs records of complaints after a certain period and ensures that only officers — not civilians — handle complaints. Jackson, a former county sheriff, said he wanted the work group to consider replacing some of the language in the statute instead of pursuing a complete repeal. But other lawmakers were insistent. “I was on a police


State asked to halt sale of three Baltimore Museum of Art paintings

Former trustees, committee members, donors and docents of the Baltimore Museum of Art have asked Maryland officials to halt the institution’s plans to sell paintings by Andy Warhol, Clyfford Still and Brice Marden, and to investigate what they describe as irregularities and conflicts of interest surrounding the sales. In an eight-page letter to Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh and Secretary of State John C. Wobensmith, the 23 signatories charge that the museum’s plan is a breach of the public trust and should be stopped. The Baltimore Museum of Art announced Oct. 2 that it expected to generate $65 million from the sale of three paintings — Warhol’s “The Last Supper,” Still’s “1957-G” and Marden’s “3.” It plans to use $10 million for new art acquisitions and about $1 million for diversity and equity programs, and will set aside the remaining $54 million in an endowment for other expenses, including raises for staff. In announcing the plan, Director Christopher Bedford said that the museum is financially sound and that the sale of three works by White men is intended to address systemic racism and injustice that “should have been addressed with determination centuries ago.” In a statement, the BMA said it is confident that there are no legal issues related to the proposed deaccessioning plan. In 2018, the museum sold seven paintings, including works by Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and Kenneth Noland, for $16.2 million. It used the proceeds to purchase art by women and artists of color. These latest deaccessions take advantage of a rule change that allows greater flexibility for the use of proceeds from sales. In April, the Association of Art Museum Directors temporarily changed its guidelines primarily to help museums that are being hard hit by the pandemic. As a result, the BMA can use the interest generated by the sale for a broad range of expenses, including paying staff and funding diversity initiatives. Critics say the museum could fund these programs without selling these critical pieces. Laurence J. Eisenstein, a former trustee who signed the letter, said it is unclear how much money will be used for equity and inclusion work — efforts he supports — and he said there is nothing that binds the museum to continue to use the money that way in the future. “To the extent it’s being presented as an equal justice initiative, that is a smokescreen — the museum is,


Choosing the suburbs over city life during the pandemic

the second quarter of 2020, Realtor.com’s quarterly Cross Market Demand Report found that 51 percent of property searches on the site from city residents in the nation’s 100 largest metro areas were for homes in the suburbs of those metro areas, a record high since the website began tracking that data in 2017. In addition, Redfin real estate brokerage reported that a record number (27.4 percent) of Redfin.com users were looking to move to a different metro area during the second quarter of 2020. “Covid-19 has acted as a catalyst for people who were already thinking of moving to the suburbs,” says Jamie Koppersmith, an associate broker with McEnearney Associates in the District. “Some of my clients are thinking that now that they don’t have to be downtown for work every day, maybe they can get more living space for the same amount of money in the suburbs.” Multiple factors are driving the interest in moving, including low mortgage rates that increase affordability for buyers; the ability of many people to work remotely; and concern that some city amenities will take years to be widely available again. The pandemic has also led many people to reevaluate their lifestyle, with some recognizing that they want to live closer to their family. Other city dwellers want to have more living space and expand their access to outdoor space, two features that are harder to come by and more expensive within city limits. “The past five months or so have been great for Greenwich and other Connecticut towns,” says Yashmin Lloyds, a real estate agent with Compass in Greenwich, Conn. “A lot of young families who planned to move from Manhattan in five years or so sped up their plans by two or three years because of covid-19. I’m also seeing a lot of buyers from all over the country who have moved to be closer to their aging parents because of the pandemic. Some of them are looking for properties with a private guest space or the ability to build a guesthouse for their parents.” More than 16,000 New Yorkers switched their mail to suburban Connecticut addresses from March through June, according to U.S. Postal Service data reported by the Hartford Courant newspaper. “We’ve seen a big volume of buyers since the pandemic started coming from Seattle and from cities in California to more rural areas outside Tacoma,” says Lindsay Weingart, a


Regarding using a public bathroom in the middle of a pandemic

As the holiday season approaches, Americans preparing to travel hundreds of miles to see family or friends may notice a green mile marker off in the distance: Public restrooms are ahead. Using shared bathrooms at gas stations, train stations, rest stops and restaurants during long road trips is inevitable. But restrooms are typically small, poorly ventilated spaces — the exact type of environment public health experts say Americans should avoid to reduce the transmission of the novel coronavirus. The Washington Post has received dozens of questions from readers about ways to mitigate risks while using public restrooms during the pandemic, especially as states start to reopen and people begin to travel again. In the before times, public restrooms were already seen as tiled dens for germs. Now, we’re wearing masks, avoiding crowds and packing hand sanitizer wherever we go. The Post spoke with infectious-disease experts and epidemiologists about what you should consider when entering a public bathroom. — The virus is most likely to travel person to person via respiratory droplets. — Put on a mask before entering any shared restroom. — Avoid crowds, and try to make it a quick trip. — Wash your hands with soap and water before leaving the restroom. Bring hand sanitizer as a backup plan. Bathrooms first made a splash in June when scientists illustrated how a toilet flush can send a plume of aerosolized droplets up to three feet in the air — almost like a human sneeze, said Chuck Gerba, an environmental microbiologist and professor at the University of Arizona. Traces of viral RNA from the novel coronavirus have regularly been found in the feces and urine of covid-19 patients. But evidence of the virus’s genetic material doesn’t mean the virus is still infectious. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports it is “unclear whether the virus found in feces may be capable of causing covid-19.” Scientists have successfully isolated the virus from urine in laboratory settings. But other research suggests that the coronavirus is far less likely to be transmittable person to person after traveling through the human body, and specifically the colon. Emily Sickbert-Bennett, the director of infection prevention at UNC Medical Center, told The Post that regardless of how the virus may be transmitted — either through aerosolization or via surface contamination — preventive measures remain the same: Wear a mask and practice good hand hygiene. “Whether or


Fall color is popping in D.C. area and will increase with the cool nights ahead

summer, this fall has delivered an abundance of sunny, mild days and clear, crisp nights — a great recipe for intense autumn hues. It will be a picture-perfect fall weekend, ideal for taking a hike at a local park or a road trip into the mountains. That said, you’re probably going to want to dress in layers. It will be a cold start, if you’re headed out early Saturday. Temperatures will be in the 30s over much of the area and even near freezing at higher elevations. Sunny skies will help temperatures rise to near 60 Saturday, except 50s in the mountains. On Sunday, it will be a little less chilly. Sunny skies will persist with highs from 60 to 65. After this weekend, much of next week appears warm without major storminess. By next weekend we may be talking about another cool down. Last week a reader wondered about the best places to see fall color. There are, of course, the well-known spots like the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia (which seems likely to be packed this weekend), but that’s just a small slice of what this region has to offer. I asked Capital Weather Gang photographer Kevin Ambrose about some of his favorite spots locally and where he might be headed soon. Kevin told me he was recently in Capon Springs, about 80 miles as the crow flies to the west of D.C. The colors looked fantastic. “That’s one of my favorite places to shoot foliage before fall color peaks in the D.C. area,” he wrote in an email. As we get deeper into fall, toward the end of the month and into early November, the show pushes into the immediate area. “My two favorite fall foliage locations are Great Falls and the Tidal Basin,” Ambrose wrote. As a carless city person myself, I agree with Ambrose about the Tidal Basin. Then there’s Arlington National Cemetery and many nooks within Rock Creek Park. It also may be the best time of year to wander neighborhoods taking in all the ever-changing sights, sounds and smells. Do you have any particular favorite fall spots? We would love to know. Perhaps they can be detailed further in a future post as peak color arrives in the immediate area during the weeks to come. Keep up with the leaf change through the government websites for


‘Nobody has very clear answers for them’: Doctors search for treatments for covid-19 long-haulers

be told for sure: ‘This is what is going to happen to you. This is not what is going to happen to you.’ And that’s the part that’s difficult for us in medicine, because it’s not completely clear.” Clinicians have learned, for example, that a wide spectrum of patients experience long-term symptoms, from those who were hospitalized to those who had mild bouts, from the young to the old. Southern Connecticut was hit early in the pandemic, when the virus was overwhelming the greater New York City area and relatively little was known about the course of the disease. “The symptoms that they have span every organ system,” said Jennifer Possick, the Winchester Chest Clinic’s medical director. “It has so many more faces than I thought it would.” No one knows how many long-haulers there may be, although a British team recently estimated that as many as 10 percent of the people who contract the disease suffer prolonged symptoms. In July, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 35 percent of people who had mild versions of covid-19 had not returned to their pre-disease state of health two to three weeks later. Many long-haulers have organized online support groups, such as Survivor Corps and Body Politic, to share tips and discuss symptoms. Chiluisa’s family moved from Ecuador to Connecticut when he was 11, and he grew up in the area. He worked as an EMT, owned a bakery and then went back to school to become a CT scan technician at Yale New Haven Hospital. He was in the hospital’s emergency department in early March when the virus struck the region. Exposed to a positive patient, he came down with mild symptoms — aches, low-grade fever and some sweating, he said. By the time he could get tested, the result came back negative. Lutchmansingh said she will never know whether Chiluisa was infected then by the novel coronavirus or some other pathogen. In May, however, there was no doubt. Chiluisa awoke sweating profusely, with a fever of 103 degrees. This time, he tested positive for the coronavirus. He was hospitalized for seven days, five of them in intensive care, where he directed doctors not to put him on a ventilator, regardless of how severe his illness became. He feared the consequences of sedation and intubation more than the alternatives, he said. Instead, physicians treated him with a combination


did not disappear as it has in some other covid-19 patients, has been altered. Most ominously, an MRI shows that the white matter of his brain is littered with tiny lesions that may be the cause of neurological problems, including memory lapses, trouble concentrating, difficulty finding words and stuttering. He has insomnia, depression and anxiety, and other symptoms that resemble post-traumatic stress disorder. The brain lesions are more commonly found in older people, or those with uncontrolled metabolic disorders such as diabetes or chronic high blood pressure, said his neurologist, Arman Fesharaki-Zadeh. Chiluisa has no such underlying conditions. If the brain is a series of interconnected highways, each lesion is a work zone that slows the flow of information, Fesharaki-Zadeh said. They also may make Chiluisa prone to dementia at an earlier age. “For someone without a history of metabolic disorder . . . for his brain to look the way it did to me was quite striking,” he said. No one knows whether Chiluisa’s dysfunctions are permanent or progressive, or whether his brain will find new paths around the obstacles and restore his ability to live and work normally. Chiluisa’s heart and lung problems present other mysteries. Despite some lingering bacteria in his lungs that have resisted antibiotic treatments, Chiluisa performs relatively normally on tests of pulmonary and cardiac function. But instead of progressing, his condition has fluctuated unpredictably as the months have passed. He becomes winded and exhausted quickly. His blood pressure rises rapidly. “He has a lot of symptoms that are ongoing, that are seemingly suggestive of an underlying heart condition, but our testing, for the most part, has been normal,” said Erica Spatz, an associate professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Yale School of Medicine who is Chiluisa’s cardiologist. It’s possible, she said, that the virus has disrupted Chiluisa’s autonomic nervous system, which controls functions such as heart and respiratory rates. Or perhaps Chiluisa’s own immune and inflammatory response to the viral attack did the damage. The symptoms are probably not permanent, Spatz said, but it’s not clear how long they may last. “This feels very hard, because we don’t know,” she said. “And we’re learning as we go, and we’re learning from our patients and with our patients about their experiences. And that’s very unsettling as a physician, to not feel that you’re ahead.” Similarly, Lutchmansingh has no conclusive explanation for why Chiluisa can become


lingering bacteria in his lungs that have resisted antibiotic treatments, Chiluisa performs relatively normally on tests of pulmonary and cardiac function. But instead of progressing, his condition has fluctuated unpredictably as the months have passed. He becomes winded and exhausted quickly. His blood pressure rises rapidly. “He has a lot of symptoms that are ongoing, that are seemingly suggestive of an underlying heart condition, but our testing, for the most part, has been normal,” said Erica Spatz, an associate professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Yale School of Medicine who is Chiluisa’s cardiologist. It’s possible, she said, that the virus has disrupted Chiluisa’s autonomic nervous system, which controls functions such as heart and respiratory rates. Or perhaps Chiluisa’s own immune and inflammatory response to the viral attack did the damage. The symptoms are probably not permanent, Spatz said, but it’s not clear how long they may last. “This feels very hard, because we don’t know,” she said. “And we’re learning as we go, and we’re learning from our patients and with our patients about their experiences. And that’s very unsettling as a physician, to not feel that you’re ahead.” Similarly, Lutchmansingh has no conclusive explanation for why Chiluisa can become so short of breath that he briefly put himself on supplemental oxygen on two recent occasions. “Edison’s normal, run-of-the-mill lung-function testing is normal,” she said. “But he clearly doesn’t feel well. We’ve [examined] the usual already. Now we’re going to the unusual.” She said she is exploring whether the muscles that aid the lungs in respiration are working normally. For Chiluisa and his family, the disease — along with the worry it has caused, including over financial issues — has become exhausting. At one point in his convalescence, he said, he ran through his paid time off and Yale stopped paying him. Currently, the state of Connecticut’s medical insurance program is picking up his costs, but he believes Yale will eventually have to pay the tab because he was exposed in the workplace. Still, he frets that a financial burden will fall on him and his family. A spokeswoman for the hospital declined to discuss Chiluisa’s employment history. Worried about reinfection, an extremely unlikely possibility, Chiluisa is also uncomfortable working at the hospital, where he currently performs administrative duties. And since he is still coughing, he also doesn’t like being around other people. Encouraged by his family, he is contemplating


The Daily 202: Town hall shows how deeply in denial Trump remains about coronavirus

a formidable obstacle to any deal passing Congress before Election Day. … [McConnell] spent much of Thursday doubling down on his opposition, publicly denouncing the White House deal taking shape and swatting away Trump’s directive to ‘Go big or go home!!!’ … McConnell said he didn’t think Pelosi and Mnuchin would reach a deal, anyway. And at an earlier event the majority leader all but ruled out a vote on a large-scale relief bill.” “U.S. intelligence agencies warned the White House last year that President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani was the target of an influence operation by Russian intelligence, according to four former officials familiar with the matter,” Shane Harris, Ellen Nakashima, Greg Miller and Dawsey report. “The warnings were based on multiple sources, including intercepted communications, that showed Giuliani was interacting with people tied to Russian intelligence during a December 2019 trip to Ukraine, where he was gathering information that he thought would expose corrupt acts by … Joe Biden and his son Hunter. The intelligence raised concerns that Giuliani was being used to feed Russian misinformation to the president, the former officials said … “The warnings to the White House, which have not previously been reported, led national security adviser Robert O’Brien to caution Trump in a private conversation that any information Giuliani brought back from Ukraine should be considered contaminated by Russia “Several senior administration officials ‘all had a common understanding’ that Giuliani was being targeted by the Russians, said the former official who recounted O’Brien’s intervention. That group included Attorney General William P. Barr, [Wray] and White Counsel Pat Cipollone. … In a text message on Thursday, Giuliani said that he was never informed that Andriy Derkach, a pro-Russian lawmaker in Ukraine whom he met on Dec. 5 in Kyiv, was a Russian intelligence asset. … But Giuliani met again with Derkach in New York two months later.” "The link to the New York Post story will still be blocked under a policy that prohibits sharing people’s personal information,” Elizabeth Dwoskin reports. "Late Thursday night, Twitter executive Vijaya Gadde tweeted that the company made the decision after receiving ‘feedback’ over the past 24 hours that the policy on hacked materials as written could result in undue censorship of journalists and whistleblowers. Going forward, the company will remove content only if it’s directly posted by hackers or those acting in concert with them. It will


Transcript: The Future Reset: Building a Healthy Food System

all of our energy programs and most local governments, states, and municipalities have developed goals for renewable energy that show a diversity of energy production. How does this relate to the food system? We currently have a very globalized, export-based food system. In most places about 10 percent of the food is local. If you were to increase that to a place where you have a meaningful percentage of local that can support the local food economy, then you have a diversity of producers. So, you have different ranges of producers from large to small, but more economic opportunity for the smaller and midsize farmers. If you increase that target and set a target as a local government, aggregating the purchasing power of your large institutions and saying, "We all agree. We are going to support our local food economies," create jobs along the supply chain in our local food economies; and bring different types of food production to the plates of our community, which would include the protective foods, the healthy foods, the produce that matters to them. You have local governments that can direct that but they can also take into account local means of production. So, a program could be developed from local government, as we did in Los Angeles, and you're also supporting urban agriculture. So, like in the World War II era, my grandparents had victory gardens, and that certainly seems to be coming back during the time of COVID. So, layering in all of those methods of production, but an important thing also is the methods of distribution. So, one of the things we saw was a supply chain disruption dependent on very opaque supply chains that were hardwired into the system. If you have a dedicated forum of distribution of food that serves local--is dedicated to serving the local farming community as well as food insecure populations and public serving institutions such as school districts, that can create some more diversity and mission into the supply chain that will help in times of crisis. There was one like that that did quite well during the pandemic; it's called The Common Market. That was started in Philadelphia; it's a nonprofit. And it also has facilities in Georgia and Chicago and Texas. So, it was able to support the local farming economy as well as serve schools and food banks, with that healthier food. So,


Pubs, central to cultural life in Northern Ireland, close to control covid-19

BELFAST — Bittles, a destination whiskey bar in the center of this city, was firebombed during the decades of sectarian violence known as the Troubles. Proprietor John Bittles recalls being warned by police that he should get a weapon to protect himself, that militants might show up ready for a shooting. The coronavirus era, he said, has been worse. “This stuff with covid has actually had a bigger detrimental effect than all that there,” said Bittles, 59. “Maybe it’s because I was younger and it went over my head, but this here is completely unprecedented times.” The roughly 1,200 pubs of Northern Ireland were forced to close on Friday, again, to beat back the coronavirus. They will remain shuttered for at least a month, part of a “circuit breaker” to limit social contact and slow transmission. Schools will be closed for an extended half-term break, as well. It is possible the 7,000 pubs in the Republic of Ireland could follow, as health officials there recommended on Friday the country move to Level 5 measures, the most strict. The new restrictions are a heavy blow to establishments already bruised by a spring lockdown and the social distancing measures they’ve had to incorporate since. But as pub-goers in Belfast nursed their last drinks this past week, the conversation was less about finances than about the loss of a central part of cultural life. “The pub to me is home, really,” said flame-haired and tattoo-emblazoned Ollie Woodhouse, 24, sitting in the Sunflower, a pub popular with the arts and media crowd, the LGBT community, tradespeople, hipsters, hospitality workers — with everyone really. Suzanne Magee, 32, a manager at the Sunflower, said she is “devastated” by the closure. Pubs in Northern Ireland aren’t mere boozers, but way stations. For many living alone, including the elderly, the establishments can be a point of social contact, as vital as a daily stop at the rural post office or the church. It’s where people share life stories, bond, sing ballads and “have relief,” Magee said. “It’s not all about getting pissed,” said Magee, using the term for drunk. “It’s about people.” Among other things, her pub hosts Spanish language classes and a mental health group for heavy metal fans. She said the government should invest in community services during the shutdown — “anything that will get people through the loneliness.” Dean Quinn, 21, goes to the Sunflower


The Technology 202: Silicon Valley's prized legal shield is increasingly in jeopardy as Republicans escalate attacks

enjoy under Section 230. Meanwhile, the companies are also dealing with the threat of increased antitrust scrutiny. Traditionally, Democrats have been more aggressive than Republicans in calling for the companies to be broken up or otherwise regulated. But some Republicans are more aggressively calling for antitrust action amid the controversy. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), one of the companies' most vocal critics, suggested that Facebook had monopoly power on Twitter. Note to readers: The Technology 202 won't publish Monday or Tuesday. We'll be back in your inbox on Wednesday, Enjoy the weekend! Trump claimed not to know much about the group when asked by NBC News host Savannah Guthrie at his televised town hall. “What I do hear about it is that they are very strongly against pedophilia, and I agree with that,” Trump said. The QAnon conspiracy theory, which claims that Democrats and celebrities abuse children, has gained some traction in mainstream Republican politics has been labeled by the FBI as a terrorist threat. NBC's Ben Collins noted adherents of the conspiracy theory would celebrate the president's remarks: That could make it harder for Silicon Valley companies to follow through on their recent promises to crack down on QAnon. YouTube is the latest to change its policies, and it did not say how many videos and channels would be affected. Several of the most popular accounts pushing the conspiracy theory were removed yesterday, Elizabeth and Isaac Stanley-Becker report. YouTube began removing some of the content after updating its hate and harassment policies prohibit content that "targets an individual or group with conspiracy theories that have been used to justify real-world violence." YouTube will still allow discussions of the conspiracy theory that don't involve targeted harassment. Twitter made a similar decision this summer, resulting in the immediate ban of 7,000 QAnon accounts. Facebook most recently decided to ban the content entirely. YouTube previously acted against QAnon related videos and channels for violating its policies about Holocaust denial and covid-19 misinformation. The states will issue a statement that they are still scrutinizing aspects of Google's business and may not join the federal case, Tony Romm reports. The states leading the probe include Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee and Utah. The Justice Department's complaint is expected to focus on Google's search business. A group of approximately a dozen Republican attorneys general plan to join the lawsuit, which is expected


Readers critique The Post: Thank you for space to breathe. Now back to reality.

the Ellipse, representing the more than 200,000 coronavirus victims in the United States, deserved to be on the Oct. 5 front page. Instead, the top headlines all described the confusion, mendacity and incompetence surrounding one specific case of the disease — the one who was under treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, the one largely responsible for the tragic course of the pandemic in this country. The circus surrounding the president’s own illness reflected the administration’s approach to managing the virus, with stubborn denials and shockingly careless behavior leading us here, to a field of empty chairs. Patrick L. Phillips, ●● On the night of Sept. 24, two men were fatally shot in D.C. — one in Southeast and the other in Northwest. Each of the shootings received about four column inches of coverage in The Post’s Local Digest on Sept. 25 [Metro]. On Sept. 26, the Northwest death was detailed in more than an additional 20 inches of coverage [“Slaying might be linked to pot, police chief says,” Metro]. I saw not another word on the Southeast death. I find it terrible that The Post contributes to a climate that accepts as routine killings in Black communities, usually finding that it warrants no more than minimum notation. Though I understand that such crime is thankfully rare in Ward 3, where I live, I fear The Post’s pattern of coverage in effect serves to normalize killings elsewhere. Appropriate and equivalent coverage of killing, wherever it happens, would better inform all of us and could help generate the public and political will to address both the causes of crime and its punishment when it does occur. Mark Rosenman ● The Oct. 4 Election 2020 graphic “Where Trump and Biden stand on the issues” was very informative. I liked its format of “Yes”/“No” on topics with brief explanations. But it was very disappointing that there was not even the slightest addressing of labor rights. Does anyone at The Post work for a living? Kevin P. Creighan The writer is secretary-treasurer of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA. ● In his Oct. 1 Thursday Opinion column, “Joe Biden outperforms the performer president,” Matt Bai used the words “the childhood stutter that has now returned.” As a person who stutters, I know that one does not outgrow this childhood-onset fluency disorder. We manage it with different coping techniques to communicate effectively. Cathy Henderson


In-flight meals, bar carts and pajamas: Here’s what airlines are selling to grounded travelers

In a difficult year for airlines, carriers are getting creative with how they can still make some money off grounded travelers. Those travelers who won’t be able to fly at all this year are bringing the in-flight experience home through meals, snacks, clothing and even entire bar carts plucked from 747 planes. From meals to designer clothes, here is a selection of things airlines are selling to make ends meet. This week, Finnair announced it will begin selling its business-class in-flight meals in Finnish grocery stores. A Finnair spokesperson told The Washington Post via email that its “menu” will start with Nordic-Japanese main course options like “Finnish reindeer and beef in teriyaki-radish sauce,” smoked fish and mushroom risotto, and roasted carrots with blue cheese mousse, for $7 to $15 per dish. The dishes change every two weeks, and the airline is only selling the meals via K-Citymarket stores in Finland — starting at one location in Vantaa on Thursday. The grocer’s other locations have yet to decide if they will also carry the meals. The airline says the move is a way to support Finnair employees amid the coronavirus pandemic. “This is a new business opening for us and employs our chefs,” Marika Nieminen, vice president of Finnair Kitchen, said in a news release. “As so many of Kitchen’s employees are temporarily laid off, we can create new work and employment for our people.” Thai Airways is also targeting passengers who are missing in-flight meals. The airline recently opened a diner inside its Bangkok headquarters, complete with plane seats and cabin-themed decor. The company, which filed for bankruptcy in May, offers “Taste of Travel” meals made by its in-flight catering teams, with the menus showcasing its international chefs. Options have included grilled eel and ginger beef with rice by a Japanese chef, braised noodles with prawns by a Chinese chef, and lamb chops, tandoori chicken and grilled kebabs by French, Indian, and Middle Eastern chefs, respectively. The meals it has been serving since July have been a success, the airline said in a statement on its website in September, and it will continue operating Wednesdays through Sundays with new “specials meals” being added this month. Singapore Air also recently announced it will offer in-flight dining meals and experiences for locals called “Discover Your Singapore Airlines.” This includes repurposing an Airbus A380 as a runway restaurant serving up in-flight meals, as


Partially true: ‘You’re the president. You’re not like someone’s crazy uncle.’

supporters, no matter how aberrant and reprehensible they might be. Trump still falsely insists that mail-in ballots are not legitimate, that we are “rounding the corner” on covid-19 (repeating his lie that we have a favorable death rate compared with other countries) and that Obama spied on him. He has not come up with a health-care plan despite repeated promises to provide an alternative to Obamacare, which he wants the Supreme Court to strike down in its entirety. And he wouldn’t say whether he took a covid-19 test on the day of the first debate (which was required by the debate rules). Independent of any specific answer, Trump’s ranting, bellicose and opaque responses only cemented the impression he gave in the first debate. “Crazy uncle” actually is not too far off the mark. It is tiresome to listen to the same lies, the same evasions, the same self-reverential proclamations. He has nothing new to say, just more whackadoodle accusations and insults. He is now equal parts repugnant and boring. Meanwhile on ABC, former vice president Joe Biden’s town hall lasted 90 minutes (compared with Trump’s 60 minutes) and offered long, policy-rich answers on criminal justice (acknowledging that parts of the 1994 crime bill were wrong); covid-19 and a potential vaccine (he’ll listen to the scientists); and the Supreme Court (he’ll clarify his position on adding seats and other reforms after the vote on Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who he accurately said did not answer many questions). On foreign policy, Biden said, "We find ourselves in a position where we’re more isolated in the world than we’ve ever been. Our ‘go it alone, America first’ has made America alone.” He continued: “You have Iran closer to having enough nuclear material to build a bomb. North Korea has more bombs and missiles available to it. We find ourselves where our NATO allies are publicly saying they can’t count on us.” He pledged to reverse Trump’s directive banning transgender Americans from serving in the military. Where Trump mocks masks, Biden promises to use persuasion. “I’d go to every mayor, I’d go to every councilman, I’d go to every local official and say, ‘mandate the mask.’” He added, “The words of a president matter.” His most compelling answer might have come on race, when he explained his devotion to criminal justice reform and wealth accumulation for Black Americans: Even after the debate ended, Biden


Fact-checking the dueling town halls of Trump and Biden

with a person with known COVID-19 was more commonly reported among” the positive cases (42 percent) than the negatives (14 percent). Coronavirus-positive patients were more likely to have reported dining at a restaurant (any area designated by the restaurant, including indoor, patio and outdoor seating) “in the 2 weeks preceding illness onset” than those who tested negative, the study says. The study says that in the 14 days before illness onset, 71 percent of the positive cases and 74 percent of those who didn’t catch the virus “reported always using cloth face coverings or other mask types when in public.” The rate of mask-wearing is almost the same, so the takeaway from this study is that the positive cases had more contacts with a person known to be infected with the virus and dined out more. “Exposures and activities where mask use and social distancing are difficult to maintain, including going to places that offer on-site eating or drinking, might be important risk factors for acquiring COVID-19. As communities reopen, efforts to reduce possible exposures at locations that offer on-site eating and drinking options should be considered to protect customers, employees, and communities,” the study says. “We were expected to lose 2,200,000 people and maybe more than that. We’re at 210,000 people.” — Trump Trump loves to use the statistic. But it’s incredibly misleading. Trump is citing a possible death figure that was a worst-case scenario produced by Imperial College London, which assumed that 81 percent of the population became infected — 268 million people — and that 0.9 percent of them would die. It did so by also assuming people took no actions against the coronavirus — nobody avoided crowded elevators, wore masks, washed their hands more often, or bought gloves or hand sanitizer — which the study acknowledged was unrealistic: “It is highly likely that there would be significant spontaneous change in population behavior even in the absence of government‐mandated interventions.” Moreover, even the 1918 flu pandemic is believed to have infected no more than 28 percent of the population, making the 81 percent figure suspect, noted Alan Reynolds of the Cato Institute. Trump routinely mentions this figure to suggest he saved that many people from death, even as the actual death toll rises far above many of his earlier predictions. On March 29, he even said that a “very good job” would be if the death toll


He was Mexico’s defense minister — but also a drug cartel ally, U.S. prosecutors say

group known as H-2, an offshoot of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel. It operated mainly in the western states of Sinaloa and Nayarit. The court documents lay out a devastating picture of a senior official who, prosecutors say, used his power to help a drug cartel at every turn. Cienfuegos ensured that the Mexican military did not carry out operations against H-2 but instead focused on its rivals, the documents say. He is accused of finding ships for the cartel’s drugs. Cienfuegos even tipped off H-2 about the fact that it was under investigation by U.S. law enforcement, according to the documents. Using that knowledge, H-2 killed one of its own members, a person who senior cartel leadership “incorrectly believed” was assisting U.S. officials, according to the allegations. The former minister’s actions were detailed in thousands of BlackBerry messages he sent and were corroborated by witness accounts, the documents say. He did not immediately enter a plea. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years on drug conspiracy charges if found guilty. Mexico’s governments have increasingly turned to the armed forces to take on criminal organizations because of persistent corruption in the police. Cienfuegos’s detention was a bombshell in Mexico, where the military is one of the most trusted institutions. “We are facing an unprecedented situation,” President Andrés Manuel López Obrador told his daily news conference Friday, referring to the detentions of the two former ministers. “This is an undeniable sign of the decomposition of the regime.” Since 2007, the U.S. government has provided Mexico with about $3 billion in security and justice aid through the Merida Initiative. Yet the country remains the No. 1 source of heroin and methamphetamines reaching the United States and a major corridor for cocaine and fentanyl. The Trump administration recently warned that unless it shows progress, “Mexico will be at serious risk of being found to have failed” to meet its international drug-control commitments. It called for more efforts to dismantle drug organizations and crack down on fentanyl production. Corruption in Mexico’s armed forces has typically been construed as an issue of individuals, rather than the institutions, said Adam Isacson, a security analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America. But the arrest of Cienfuegos seems to point to a web of corruption that “goes all the way up” to the top of the military, he said. U.S. and Mexican security experts said Cienfuegos


Former Mexican defense minister arrested on drug charges in U.S., officials say

MEXICO CITY — U.S. officials arrested a former Mexican secretary of defense on drug charges on Thursday, authorities said, a stunning development for a nation that honors its armed forces and has relied on them to fight narcotics traffickers. The detention of retired Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos in Los Angeles was announced in a late-night tweet by Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard. The minister said he expected to be informed by Mexican consular officials of the charges in coming hours. A Mexican government official confirmed the arrest was requested by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. He spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe information that was not yet public. Cienfuegos, 72, was secretary of defense from 2012 to 2018 under then-President Enrique Peña Nieto. Mexico’s military holds the lead role in fighting organized crime and has worked closely with U.S. anti-drug agencies. The Mexican armed forces have killed or arrested numerous top narcotics traffickers in recent years. But violence has grown and crime groups have penetrated towns and cities around Mexico, diversifying into an array of activities including kidnapping and extortion. The Mexican police have been riddled with corruption for years — but U.S. officials had deemed the military more trustworthy. Still, Falko Ernst, the senior Mexico analyst for the International Crisis Group, said that military officers posted in some parts of the country were known to cut deals with trafficking groups. “This myth of the cleanliness and incorruptibility of the armed forces has always been not really paired with reality,” he said. The arrest comes as the Trump administration has been pressing Mexico to take tougher steps against trafficking organizations. The country is the source of almost all the heroin and methamphetamines arriving in the United States, and a major transit route for cocaine and fentanyl. In September, Trump said in an annual drug finding that Mexico “must clearly demonstrate its commitment to dismantling the cartels” and work harder to seize chemicals used in the production of fentanyl. Cienfuegos was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport with his family. While charges were not announced, the Associated Press quoted an unidentified source as saying the arrest warrant listed drug trafficking and money laundering allegations. Cienfuegos is the highest-ranking Mexican official to be detained in the United States since the arrest in December of Genaro García Luna, on allegations of taking millions of dollars in bribes from the Sinaloa cartel. García


Aim assist in the crosshairs

and keyboard and controller players in a single lobby isn’t a problem,” Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek, a former CS:GO professional and one of the world’s most popular gamers, told The Post. “But when the stakes are high and you’re playing for money, there has to be competitive integrity and a level playing field. That means separate competitions for mouse and keyboard players and for controller players. This topic will remain controversial so long as mouse and keyboard and controller players are competing in the same competitions. When there will be separate competitions, this will be a nonissue.” But competitive integrity isn’t so easy to achieve when one considers the additional wrinkles that require smoothing to achieve complete fairness. The move to online-only tournaments during coronavirus, for example, introduces the variable of latency due to Internet connection speeds. The speed and consistency of a connection to a match is the difference between life and death for pro gamers — and the difference between a big payday and a pittance. Beyond latency, drug abuse, cheating and outright match-fixing have all impacted high-profile esports leagues and events. Addressing how technology unevenly impacts competitive play is not unique to esports. Motorsports has dealt with the problem of determining which technologies confer an unfair advantage for a long time. Driving aids like active suspension and traction control were banned in Formula One on the grounds that they helped the drivers too much. Since the initial ban, traction control was re-allowed for a few years — and then it was banned again. In competitive swimming, LZR swimsuits dominated at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but were then banned for giving an unfair advantage to the swimmers wearing them. Earlier this year, the world of elite running erupted in controversy when Nike Vaporfly shoes were allowed for the now-canceled Tokyo Olympics, equipment considered by many critics to be a form of “technological doping.” “Unless you make all athletes wear exactly the same shoe from the same brand that’s scaled to their own body size and abilities, you’re never going to be able to isolate or immunize the sport away from the influence of technology,” the sports technologist Bryce Dyer said on “All Things Considered.” For shooters chasing pure competitive integrity, getting rid of aim-assisted controllers solves only one variable in an endless equation of comparative advantage. In that sense, when addressing the question of whether it’s best for a


‘Strangest time I’ve ever been in’: Music venues deal with the new normal

Phase 3. And on the same day of Bowser’s announcement, Anne Arundel County allowed entertainment venues, including Annapolis’ Rams Head On Stage, to reopen. But owners of the selected D.C. music venues say they hadn’t realized how restrictive the government rules would actually be. Chief among them: No more than 50 people are allowed inside a venue at one time — a number that includes performers, servers, bartenders and kitchen staff as well as audience members. Patrons must be seated at tables, and those tables must be 20 to 30 feet from the stage, depending on whether there’s singing, in addition to being six feet apart from other tables. Performers onstage must also remain six feet from each other. The capacity limit, which applies regardless of the venue’s square footage or pre-pandemic fire capacity, has proved the most controversial aspect of the District’s pilot program. “Once you have the band and the staff, we’ll have about 35 people in the joint,” says Pearl Street Warehouse’s Bruce Gates. “We’re not going to get through to April having 35-person concerts. But look, it’s a step. I’d like to think they’ll come out with a second pilot that will have slightly more workable rules.” Daniel Brindley has seen both sides, booking larger outdoor shows at Jammin Java, and now arranging for much smaller indoor gigs at D.C.’s Union Stage. “It does rub me the wrong way when there’s like this little bit of opening, and you’re like, ‘Ooh, a ray of light.’ But that kind of flips back into torture,” Brindley says. “You’re just giving me this little bit of hope, and then if you look at the ramifications of what you’re asking me to do, I’m very likely going to lose money doing this and not create an experience that is correct.” For others, the selection was a poisoned chalice: City Winery vice president of marketing Rachel Insler says the Ivy City winery and concert venue was “encouraged by the mayor’s announcement,” but declined to participate because City Winery wasn’t aware of the 50-person limit before the mayor’s announcement. “It is not economically viable for us to reopen with a capacity restriction of 50 people that includes attendees, performers, and staff,” she says. Despite venues worrying about the laundry list of do’s and don’ts, music fans seem eager to come back. The Hamilton has scheduled just three shows, all of which have


The world is loud. These upcoming classical music performances will give you some comfort.

and access to streams, go to nationalphilharmonic.org. Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts Especially promising is an appearance by Avery Fisher Prize winner and MacArthur Fellow pianist Jeremy Denk (Oct. 25), who plans a program of works by Mozart, Thomas “Blind Tom” Wiggins, Tania León, Scott Joplin and Frederic Rzewski, and a birthday card in the form of Beethoven’s final piano sonata (Op. 111). For a schedule and tickets ($10-$125), go to caramoor.org. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra adds to its already ample “BSO OffStage” digital stage with “BSO Sessions,” a new weekly pay-per-view concert series that combines hi-def recordings from a freshly-mic’d Meyerhoff Hall with interviews, rehearsal footage and a documentary eye. Forthcoming episodes will feature the work of violinist, composer and educator Jessie Montgomery (Oct. 21); unpack a trio of “hidden treasures” by Florence Price, Irving Fine and Dmitri Shostakovich (Oct. 28); and explore works by Caroline Shaw, Bryce Dessner and Michael Abels. For schedule and tickets ($10), go to BSOmusic.org/OffStage. New York’s Baruch Performing Arts Center and Opera Omaha pair up to present the virtual premiere of “dwb (driving while black),” a new chamber opera in the form of a searing 50-minute sung drama, performed by soprano (and librettist) Roberta Gumbel, composed by Susan Kander and aimed squarely at the center of the nation’s ongoing reckoning with racial injustice. Chip Miller directs this stream-tailored adaptation, and New Morse Code — the duo of Hannah Collins (cello) and Michael Compitello (percussion) — provides a tense and clangorous setting. It’s viewable October 23 through October 29 (after a requested donation). Register to view at baruch.cuny.edu/calendar. With the new season comes another change as the Alexandria-based Classical Movements refreshes its series of socially-distanced chamber concerts with a new name and 22 more performances, starting on Halloween and continuing through December 19. On Oct. 31, magician and cellist Drew Owen — a.k.a. Musico the Magnificent — will be joined by special guest violist Elizabeth Pulju-Owen for a family-friendly and sufficiently spooky pair of afternoon concerts (1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.) complete with a costume contest and plenty of “no-contact” treats. That evening, they’ll clear the cobwebs for “A Venetian Halloween,” featuring NSO musicians playing an autumnal chunk of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons as well as Puccini’s “Crisantemi.” (If this isn’t a perfect opportunity to step up your mask game, I’m not sure what is.) For schedule and tickets ($40-$45) go to classicalmovements.com.


America needs to reinforce the message to Putin that killing your critics is wrong

THE EUROPEAN UNION and Britain have now delivered a reminder notice to the Kremlin, saying, “The use of chemical weapons constitutes a serious breach of international law.” The global treaty banning chemical weapons was signed by Russia in 1993 and ratified by Moscow in 1997. So it is entirely appropriate that sanctions be imposed on Russian officials for the poisoning with a chemical agent of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The United States has yet to act, and must not delay. Mr. Navalny, the leading opposition figure to President Vladimir Putin, survived an assassination attempt in August after political organizing in Tomsk. He fell ill aboard a plane en route to Moscow; the plane made an emergency landing in Omsk. Recovering in Germany, where he was treated, Mr. Navalny has blamed Mr. Putin. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has confirmed that the substance used to poison him had “similar structural characteristics” to the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok. In response to this, Russia’s reaction has been to deny and obfuscate rather than investigate. The attack on Mr. Navalny, an anti-corruption fighter who has demonstrated remarkable resiliency in leading the opposition, must have been approved at the highest levels. Novichok was a chemical weapon created by the Soviet Union near the end of the Cold War, and the OPCW report suggested the substance used to sicken Mr. Navalny may have been modified in some way from earlier compounds. Novichok was also used to poison former military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter in 2018 in England. These look like state-sponsored assassination attempts. As an E.U. statement said, Novichok “is accessible only to State authorities in the Russian Federation. In these circumstances and taking into account that Alexei Navalny was under surveillance at the time of his poisoning, it is reasonable to conclude that the poisoning was only possible with the involvement of the Federal Security Service.” The new sanctions — asset freezes and travel bans — are imposed on Alexander Bortnikov, director of the Federal Security Service, a successor to the Soviet KGB, and Andrei Yarin, a Kremlin official “whose role was to counter Alexei Navalny’s influence in Russian society including through operations meant to discredit him,” according to the E.U. statement. The others sanctioned are Mr. Putin’s first deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kirienko; a regional boss; two deputy defense ministers; and the Russian chemical weapons research


President of St. Augustine’s University in North Carolina dies of covid-19 complications

university in July. McPhail self-quarantined about three weeks ago after he feared he may have been exposed to the novel coronavirus, said James Perry, a former Florida Supreme Court justice and the chairman of the school’s board of trustees. McPhail tested positive while still mostly asymptomatic, Perry said. But about two weeks ago, McPhail had difficulty breathing and was taken to the emergency room. His condition seemed to be improving while he was hospitalized, but about three days ago, he took a turn for the worse, Perry said. He died Thursday night. “We were very hopeful and prayerful,” Perry said, “But that’s the nature of this pandemic. Nobody knows what it’s going to do.” McPhail was an inspiration to the students, Perry said. “He had the Ivy League background — but he didn’t have the Ivy League arrogance.” McPhail was a first-generation college student, born and raised in Harlem, Perry said. “Our students could relate. “He was a good person,” Perry said. “That’s my ultimate compliment.” McPhail earned his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, his master’s degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. He went on to hold numerous leadership roles in education and nonprofit organizations, including serving as the founding chancellor of the Community College of Baltimore County. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) mourned McPhail’s death with a statement on social media. The university plans a memorial on campus Oct. 27, with spacing and other safeguards, and a virtual event as well. The News & Observer reported that people gathered in the rain Friday for a prayer and to leave long-stemmed roses outside of McPhail’s house on campus. He told the outlet in August, as students were returning for the semester, that he ended every day driving around campus, checking on whether students were following public-health guidelines, and rolling down his window to remind them to stay safe. The school has only had a couple of positive coronavirus tests among students, Perry said. He said McPhail was a stickler for following health protocols, and made clear that anyone who didn’t comply would be sent home. Perry said St. Augustine’s students, like many at HBCUs, didn’t have the privilege to feel immune from the virus, or invulnerable. “Our kids know it’s real,” he said. McPhail “was very careful in what he did,” Perry said. “Life is tenuous — very tenuous.”


Trust in science is crucial

The Oct. 12 front-page article “Another casualty of 2020: Trust in science” observed that covid-19 therapies and vaccines have become entangled in the presidential election-year politics and explained how this has compromised the public’s trust in the work of our health agencies. There is some positive news about public trust, however, suggesting that this relates far more to the circumstances surrounding covid-19 than to Americans’ views on the value of science itself. Our recently commissioned survey shows overwhelming bipartisan confidence in science. Seventy-nine percent of Americans expressed confidence that scientists are working on their behalf, and 80 percent believe it is important for elected officials to listen to scientists. Public trust in the covid-19 response can be regained. Not only must policymakers check their political aspirations at the door when lives are at stake, but also more scientists must convey information directly to the public about covid-19 and other urgent issues ripe for the spread of misinformation. Science is neither Republican nor Democratic. It is a dispassionate process. Science is also not static — when a new threat like covid-19 arises, the science will evolve and so will the advice associated with it. Scientists are the best positioned to de-dramatize science and instill trust in the scientific process. Let’s engage them. Mary Woolley The writer is president and chief executive of Research!America, a not-for-profit public education and advocacy alliance. Regarding the Oct. 15 editorial By most accounts, the American public’s perception of a covid-19 vaccine is tainted — with disinformation. To ensure that more people will take a new vaccine, social scientists must join the public debate on the safety and efficacy of an approved vaccine. The irony is rich; scientists are uniquely positioned to receive approval for a vaccine from the Food and Drug Administration. Still, soon after approval, the voices of scientists must fade into the white noise of the public debate. Because Americans have absorbed far too much disinformation during the race to approve a vaccine — much of which is related to it being an election year, and some that must be attributable to the lingering distrust of Operation Warp Speed. Regrettably, after months of partisan bickering, the public debate has been weaponized and a vaccine is increasingly becoming something to be feared, not celebrated. Mark M. Spradley Read more letters to the editor.


Despite its 10-day assault in Helmand, Afghan Taliban accuse U.S. military of violating February accord

remained mired in disputes over procedural rules, as it has been since the talks started Sept. 12. The sides have yet to touch on the critical issues at stake: How to end the country’s 19-year civil conflict and combine two starkly different visions of a future government into one. In recent days, Afghan delegates to the talks said the Taliban was doubling down on its initial demands over the rules and terms to govern substantive discussions. The Taliban has insisted that all talks be conducted under the terms of the U.S.-Taliban pact, which did not include any Afghans, and under the authority of Sunni Muslim law, although Afghanistan has a sizable non-Sunni minority. Since Trump’s announcement, several Afghan delegates in Doha say, the Taliban’s initial stiff but polite reception has given way to sharper, dismissive rebuffs. One delegate said the Taliban is acting “as if they have defeated the United States” and the Afghan delegation is there to surrender. “We still want to act responsibly and find a way to end the war through negotiations, but as the violence rises, public pressure is mounting and people are starting to question why we are even at the table,” said delegate Nader Nadery, an Afghan government administrator. “We have to find a balance between the sense of urgency and the temptation to rush into a peace that cannot hold.” On Saturday, a Taliban spokesman in Doha said the group wants to keep negotiating and has actually reduced its attacks in recent months. Afghan delegates said they, too, will continue to participate, but they expected the talks to languish until after the Nov. 3 U.S. election. The Taliban appear to hope that a reelected Trump would abandon the war entirely, while Afghan analysts say a Biden administration would probably review U.S. policy and consult with military leaders, who advise keeping some troops here permanently. Few Afghans believe the insurgents could take over the country by force, but many expect it’s inevitable that they will play a significant role in any future government. Afghan and foreign experts have labored for months to come up with viable options for joint rule, but with the talks at a standstill, those efforts have been left on the drawing board. Instead, a flurry of informal proposals have emerged. At one extreme is an Iran-style regime, led by Muslim clerics with controlled elections and technocratic ministries. At the other