‘You can’t eat flags’: Belfast-born director examines his Irish roots to direct ‘Translations’

as a kind of, like, middle-class, moderate, inclusive person who wanted to be part of modern Ireland, with a European identity, an international identity,” Torney says. “Someone who wanted to love Northern Ireland from afar, rather than fight on the details.” That’s partly what drew him to Friel’s play, along with the mixed-up sense of borders and allegiances that came with the Brexit vote in 2016 and the 2015 death of the playwright (whose plays include “Faith Healer” and “Dancing at Lughnasa”). “I think all the Northern Irish directors kind of have ‘Translations’ on their bucket list,” says Torney, who has been Studio’s associate artistic director since 2015. “You want to get in there, because there’s something sticky about it.” The play features a mash of language — English, Gaelic, Latin, Greek — yet it’s easy to follow. Characters mainly speak English even when it’s clear to audiences that they can’t understand one another. “It’s a masterpiece of miscommunication,” Torney says. Friel works in an overtone of the 1980s strife when a character goes missing; Torney notes that “the disappeared” were not uncommon at the time. Yet the strength of the play, he suggests, is its avoidance of political melodrama. “It’s not saying, ‘Aren’t the English terrible for doing this to Ireland?’ ” he explains. “It’s saying, ‘What happens when you translate names? What happens to the country’s sense of itself?’ If you’re not given a choice to choose your own identity, it doesn’t go well.” Torney describes his relationship with Irish drama as complicated, doubly so when he encounters American versions of stage Irishness — “peasants and drink and songs and the warm hearth.” Torney, whose post-college stint as an art director included gopher work on Annie Leibovitz photo shoots, has taste that runs toward the rough-edge visions of Enda Walsh and Martin McDonagh. “That’s a full-frontal assault on a certain kind of Irishness,” he says of McDonagh’s black comedies, not including McDonagh’s thoroughly characteristic “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (which Torney hasn’t seen yet). “I think they also travel very well,” he adds, “because that Ireland is like a kind of abstract, film-noir-type Ireland.” Working against sentiment is something Torney will guard against with the frequently staged “Translations.” “I’ve seen a couple of productions that present the Irish as a sylvan pastoral paradise, people who want nothing more than to be left free among the hills,” he says.


These wily bats learn by spying on other species

were able to pass the knowledge on to their buddies just as fast; the number of exposures required for fringe-lipped bats to learn the meaning of the sound from trained members of their own species was about the same. Only a single “naive” bat failed to learn from observing another animal. By contrast, fringe-lipped bats that had to figure out the relationship between the squeaking sound and food on their own were rarely successful. Most of the time, Patriquin and her colleagues had to end the experiment before the bats got the hang of things. The fringe-lipped bat “is a consummate learner,” Patriquin and her colleagues write in their report, “capable of acquiring new information about novel, potential prey from conspecifics [members of their own species] and heterospecifics [members of other species].” Past research has revealed other animals capable of heterospecific learning. Wild birds have been shown to eavesdrop on other species' communication. Baby vervet monkeys learn to recognize the alarm calls of starlings flying above — most often when the birds are warning about a predator that also threatens monkeys. Dik diks — miniature antelope found in eastern and southern Africa — will stop grazing, look around and run for cover when they hear the alarm call of a white-bellied go-away bird. (Perhaps the lesson here is that we should all be paying more attention to birds.) And, of course, humans learn by observing the behavior of other species all the time. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors found new food sources by watching what other animals ate. Today, you might start to recognize the mail carrier's approach from your dog's insistent barking. “From a purely scientific perspective it's interesting to understand how animals learn about the world around them,” Patriquin said. “But it also Fringe-lipped bats aren't considered a threatened species, but the rain forests in which they live and the frogs on which they feed are imperiled by climate change, habitat destruction and disease. These bats may have to shift their dietary habits or their home ranges as a consequence. If they can speed up the process of adapting by learning from their neighbors, Patriquin said, they may increase their chances of survival in this changing world. Read more: Female birds sing. These biologists want you to listen. Rare deep-sea creatures may use underwater chimneys to keep their eggs warm Biologists record the machine-gun sound of the loudest known fish


A father, a musician, a salsa maker — the lives and futures lost in the Austin bombings

in what authorities called the work of a “sophisticated serial bomber.” Two men were injured. Police have not revealed the names of the victims. But the Associated Press spoke with William Grote, who said his grandson Will and a friend were struck by the blast. His grandson had nails embedded in his knees, Grote said. Bombers will often add makeshift shrapnel such as nails, screws and ball bearings to increase a bomb’s killing power. “It was so dark they couldn’t tell and they tripped,” he said, according to the AP. “They didn’t see it. It was a wire. And it blew up.” Grote said his son, who lived about 100 yards from the site, heard the explosion and raced outside. “Both of them were kind of bleeding profusely,” Grote said. Eliza May, who lives in the neighborhood, said the incident turned the area upside down. “This thing is overwhelming,” she said. “My house is a crime scene. I can see the FBI right now — they’re in hazmat suits, walking in a line down the street.” The package bomb detonated at the FedEx facility early Tuesday in Schertz left no injuries, authorities said, beyond an employee complaining of ringing in the ears, presumably from the concussive blast. She was treated and released. The package was en route to Austin, according to police, and officials said they say they think it was the work of the same person or people responsible for the four earlier explosions in Austin. The Tuesday explosion was the first outside Austin and the first bomb to percolate through the mail system. The scene of destruction now crawls up and down the Interstate 35 corridor, the main highway cutting through Austin and San Antonio. Aside from the constant requests for interviews, life had returned to normal around the site where the tripwire bomb was detonated. On Tuesday afternoon, near the site, a stain of blood remained on the sidewalk near leafy Dawn Song Drive in southwest Austin. Devlin Barrett, Mark Berman, Meagan Flynn, Julie Tate and Scott Wilson contributed to this report. This story incorrectly stated the day of the second and third bombing. It has been updated. Read more: Package bound for Austin explodes at Texas FedEx facility, second package recovered by investigators The Fix: A serial bomber appears to be targeting Austin. President Trump has said nothing. The unique terror of Austin’s deadly package bombs


Package bound for Austin detonates at FedEx facility, second explosive package intercepted, police say

statement Tuesday evening, the Austin police, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives confirmed that the package found in Austin that morning “contained an explosive device [that] was disrupted by law enforcement. No injuries were reported.” As tension lingered in Austin, authorities raced Tuesday night to a reported explosion at a Goodwill store in the city’s southwest area, where a man in his 30s was thought to be injured. But police said later it was an incendiary device rather than an explosive. Ely Reyes, an assistant chief with the Austin Police Department, said investigators have “no reason to believe” that the incident was connected to the four other explosions in Austin and the fifth in Schertz. He said the “incendiary device” went off at the Goodwill store when an employee handled two old military devices left in a box of donated items. He described the devices as six-inch-long “artillery simulators.” When an employee picked one of them up, the device “initiated,” injuring the employee, who was taken to a hospital. Reyes said he is in stable condition. The hurried response to that blast spoke to the unease in Austin as officials waited to see if another explosive would emerge. Meanwhile, investigators were carefully examining the unexploded FedEx package, hoping it could provide new evidence pointing to a possible suspect. The discovery of any unexploded device linked to the case could prove crucial for investigators, because it could lead to the identity of a suspect or suspects; the materials used to assemble a bomb potentially can be traced back to a supplier — and, in many cases, the individual purchaser. The suspect “is not stupid. He’s being diversified in his methods and attacks, and may have done this before somewhere,’’ said Malcolm Brady, a retired ATF explosives investigator. But each new device — and delivery method — offers new potential leads, such as business records, video or other evidence. “It’s a big jigsaw puzzle, and you put all the pieces of information together and go from there,” he said. Brian Manley, the interim Austin police chief, said his department had sent officers to Schertz to help investigate the “new development” there. “The working theory right now … is that that was a package that was in the shipping center destined for Austin,” he told the Austin City Council on Tuesday morning. All four explosions in Austin have


5 things to do in D.C. this week

March 16 Anders Osborne March 17-18 National Cherry Blossom Festival opening weekend March 18 George Porter Jr. March 21 March 21-24


Charles Lazarus, who turned a Washington bike business into Toys R Us, dies at 94

toys-only store in 1957 in Rockville, Md., taking on the name Toys R Us in part because the letter “R” helped fit the store’s name onto signs. He modeled his locations after the New York chain Korvettes, in which a large variety of products were stocked in long aisles, easily accessible by shopping cart. By 1966, he had four stores and $12 million in sales. Perhaps anticipating that his company had peaked, Mr. Lazarus sold Toys R Us that year to the Interstate department store chain for $7.5 million, remaining with the business as head of its toys division. When Interstate went bankrupt in 1974, Mr. Lazarus took the reins of the company, which emerged from bankruptcy and renamed itself Toys R Us in 1978. The business went on to expand at a rate of nearly 20 percent each year, elbowing department stores out of the toy business as it added locations across the country and grew to offer about 18,000 items in each store in the mid-1980s. According to Eric Clark, author of “The Real Toy Story: Inside the Ruthless Battle for America’s Youngest Consumers,” the company’s success was in part a result of tough business tactics by Mr. Lazarus. The executive used his leverage in the industry to force toymakers to accept payment months after they delivered products, and insisted they grant Toys R Us exclusive offerings, early releases and free advertising. Unusual for the time, he also oversaw the installation of a computerized inventory system that allowed him to track sales and inventory from behind his desk. “I think Toys R Us is a unique operation — the only proprietary merchandise company that rivals IBM as revolutionary in concept,” a retail analyst told The Washington Post in 1982. “Their superb controls and information systems are unrivaled in the industry.” Mr. Lazarus applied his low-cost, high-volume strategy to clothing beginning in 1983, when he opened Kids R Us stores in Brooklyn and Paramus, N.J. The brand launched stores across the country but proved less successful than Babies R Us, which opened in 1996 and sold diapers, cribs and car seats. Mr. Lazarus had by then left his day-to-day oversight role at the company, which by 1987 had made him the country’s best-paid executive, according to Forbes magazine. He earned more than $60 million that year. “If you’re going to be a success in life, you have to want


Forget Cambridge Analytica. What about Facebook’s role in ethnic strife and genocide?

educate users about the dangers of hate speech. So what sort of moral responsibility does the company bear for its role as a delivery vehicle for speech, destructive and otherwise? It’s true that we’re only just beginning to realize the complexity of the ethical, legal and practical dilemmas involved. Yet our own confusion probably doesn’t sound like much of an excuse to the people in South Sudan who have watched some of their own transform Facebook into yet another weapon of that country’s bloody civil war. The same goes for the journalists and activists in the Philippines who have endured vicious online harassment from the legions of Facebook trolls who aggressively support President Rodrigo Duterte — including his extrajudicial campaign to kill suspected drug dealers. Kenyans worry that the social media platform has aggravated ethnic tensions during contentious presidential elections there. “Facebook, notably from 2013 and more conspicuously in 2017, has been a site for ethnic hatred and incitement,” Michael M. Ndonye, a university lecturer on communications, said in an email. While traditional media face regulatory limits and the threat of lawsuits, he said, “Kenyans take to Internet platforms and Facebook to speak out about what the mainstream media shies away from, including hate speech and related content.” Social media companies certainly can’t afford to sit on their hands amid growing public indignation about their perceived reluctance to address abuses. Just a week ago, the government in Sri Lanka directly blamed the death of three people on Facebook’s failure to control hate speech that contributed to communal violence between Buddhists and Muslims in the country’s interior. Government officials ultimately resorted to temporarily blocking access to platforms including Facebook and WhatsApp in an effort to stop the bloodshed. “This whole country could have been burning in hours,” Telecommunications Minister Harin Fernando told the Guardian. “Hate speech is not being controlled by these organizations and it has become a critical issue globally.” Yet the people in these countries above have relatively limited power over a company that’s based in Menlo Park, Calif. What they do have is a strong interest in maintaining the connectivity and access to knowledge that comes with participation in globe-spanning communications platforms. Now, however, they’re also losing patience with those same firms’ unwillingness or incapacity to constrain the sorts of speech that threaten to tear societies part. Perhaps it’s time that U.S. lawmakers helped to repair the damage.


The new era of grocery just claimed its first victims

(Tops declined to comment for this story, and Southeastern did not respond to requests for interview.) “That is the trend now,” said Bill Urda, a senior retail analyst at Boston Consulting Group. “There is enormous pressure to charge a value price while also providing quality and service and the exact products that people want, when and where they want them.” “It’s a tough business — and in some ways, it’s getting tougher,” Urda added. Experts caution that grocery has always been a low-margin business, with stores eking out one to three cents of profit from every dollar spent. And for decades, America’s largest chains have been harried by the growth of Walmart and other supercenters, consolidating their market share by targeting midsize and regional players for acquisition. But a perfect storm of social and industry trends seems to have made things worse. Consumers are spending more of their food budget on restaurant meals and takeout, shrinking the available pie for grocery stores. At the same time, new competitors — from discount retailers like Lidl to superstores like Target — have squeezed onto the scene, cannibalizing the grocery business that’s left. Amazon's 2017 acquisition of Whole Foods deepened anxieties that online retailers could soon be a major force, as well. “We are operating in a different world,” said Peter Larkin, the chief executive of the National Grocers Association, which represents independently owned stores. “We now have club stores. Supercenters. Dollar stores. Drugstores. Click and deliver. Click and collect. Meal kits. Even Home Depot and Lowes sell food now. … The competition has always been intense, but it used to be supermarket-to-supermarket. Now it’s supermarket-to-all-those-other-channels.” Some observers worry that consumers may not fare well in this new world, where midsize chains and small mom-and-pop stores are increasingly under attack. Such stores have their advantages, said Patty Lovera, the assistant director of Food and Water Watch, a nonprofit advocacy group that has monitored consolidation in the grocery industry. Lovera said midsize operations are more likely to stock foods from small farmers and producers, because they aren’t locked into centralized buying contracts like larger chains. (This has become an issue at the Amazon-owned Whole Foods, which has moved to consolidate the chain’s purchasing process in a way that could limit shelf space for small and artisanal products.) Smaller independent stores are also more likely to locate in underserved areas. Lovera is concerned what will


retailers could soon be a major force, as well. “We are operating in a different world,” said Peter Larkin, the chief executive of the National Grocers Association, which represents independently owned stores. “We now have club stores. Supercenters. Dollar stores. Drugstores. Click and deliver. Click and collect. Meal kits. Even Home Depot and Lowes sell food now. … The competition has always been intense, but it used to be supermarket-to-supermarket. Now it’s supermarket-to-all-those-other-channels.” Some observers worry that consumers may not fare well in this new world, where midsize chains and small mom-and-pop stores are increasingly under attack. Such stores have their advantages, said Patty Lovera, the assistant director of Food and Water Watch, a nonprofit advocacy group that has monitored consolidation in the grocery industry. Lovera said midsize operations are more likely to stock foods from small farmers and producers, because they aren’t locked into centralized buying contracts like larger chains. (This has become an issue at the Amazon-owned Whole Foods, which has moved to consolidate the chain’s purchasing process in a way that could limit shelf space for small and artisanal products.) Smaller independent stores are also more likely to locate in underserved areas. Lovera is concerned what will become of urban neighborhoods and rural towns that lose their only full-service grocery store to growing competition. Data from the Department of Agriculture suggests this is already happening: The number of mom-and-pop stores has flatlined in the past 10 years, and their share of total stores is plummeting, according to a 2017 report. And while Winn-Dixie and Harvey’s are far from mom-and-pops, a number of those stores slated for closure are in areas where it’s a 15- or 20-minute drive to the next-closest grocery store. “There’s this logistical piece,” Lovera said. “If your neighborhood grocery store goes away and you have transportation issues, that’s a problem.” But most analysts say it’s premature to worry about consumer harms. For now, Lempert said, most consumers are benefiting from lower prices and better service as competing stores vie for their grocery dollars. And even in the more distant future, analysts said, as weaker chains such as Tops and Southeastern declare bankruptcy or close stores, consumers are likely to see even better offerings from the retailers who survive. Call it Darwinism for grocers. Lempert points to Hy-Vee, an Iowa-based retailer with 245 locations across the Midwest. The company’s newest store, a food-court-like format in


‘Portlandia’ is ending, but these nine legendary sketches will live on

tell us what happens on our favorite television show. Put a bird on it Yes, this is the most referenced of all “Portlandia” sketches, but it still holds up with its bird-happy crafters, bizarrely rushed dialogue and ironic twist ending — something the show excelled at. (See also: Whose dog is this?) Uber rating So many “Portlandia” sketches take place in restaurants, but this one has nothing to do with the vegan food or long brunch waits. A group of friends sit around a table comparing their Uber passenger ratings, and it’s all good fun until one monster reveals she only has a 3.1. Adult hide-and-seek league Taking the whole kickball phenomenon one step further, this sketch follows the Sherlock Holmies as they try to win Portland’s adult hide-and-seek tournament. The highlight is a run-in that Armisen’s character has with a little old lady who’s not having it and calls him out on his arrested development. NPR podcast If you’re obsessed with “Serial” and its many copycats, then this one’s for you: A couple of podcasters follow around Portland police officers making disparaging comments while trailed by banjo and fiddle players. Armisen does a spot-on impersonation of Ira Glass. What about men? “People are getting together and they’re addressing discrimination,” Brownstein, playing a guy, tells Armisen as they bike around town. “What I hate about it is none of it’s about us,” Armisen responds. “Where’s our movement?” And then the pair launches into a whiny song that could have been inspired by the Red Pill subreddit. Is this chicken local? Like a lot of “Portlandia,” the sketches didn’t just make fun of the city in question, but all kinds of coastal elites. That’s pretty clear in this sketch about a restaurant-going couple who want to know every tiny detail about the chicken (“his name was Colin”) they’re about to eat. Grocery store Jack McBrayer guest stars in this sketch about a guy who makes the mistake of going to the grocery store without his reusable shopping bags, bringing the wrath — and the nickname Me-No-Bring-Bags — from the shop’s employees. Yoga class fail Brownstein and Armisen play strangers seated opposite each other in a meditation class, during which she begins to fantasize about their torrid affair to come. It’s the perfect sketch for anyone who has ever built up someone in their head only to have reality come crashing in.


Even after Brexit, the U.K. will rely on Europe to print its passports

a person with knowledge of the decision said. It's only the latest development in a Brexit tale that has come to symbolize the challenges Britain is encountering as it tries to somewhat disentangle its close ties to the 27 other E.U. nations. The British passport used to be blue throughout much of the last century, starting in 1920. In 1988, the current burgundy document — which is the standard color among E.U. nations — was introduced when Britain switched to machine-readable passports. But to many British opponents or skeptics of the European Union, the burgundy passport mainly became a constant reminder of what they perceived to be servitude to Brussels. In December last year, then-minister of immigration Brandon Lewis announced that British passports would once again become blue following Brexit, heralding the move as a major success. “I am delighted to announce that the British passport will be returning to the iconic blue and gold design after we have left the European Union in 2019,” Lewis said. But the passport change, which was supposed to symbolize British national identity, is now being referred to by many, including former British cabinet minister Priti Patel, as “a national embarrassment.” “Blue Brexit passports to be made in Europe” read the front page of Thursday's Daily Telegraph. “Sacre Bleu,” exclaimed British tabloid, The Sun. “Over the last few months we have heard ministers happy to come on and talk about the new blue passport and the fact that it is an icon of British identity,” Martin Sutherland, the chief executive of the British manufacturer De la Rue, told the BBC on Thursday. “But now this icon of British identity is going to be manufactured in France.” On Twitter, “Franco-Dutch” soon began trending across Britain as hundreds learned and responded to the news. “The new Blue 'iconic' passport to be made by a Franco-Dutch company Gemalto whose headquarters is in Amsterdam, and also listed on the Paris stock exchange, a truly European enterprise. The irony hasn't been lost on the many commentators watching this story unfold..." tweeted Angela Rayner, a Labour member of Parliament. “The new and 'iconic' Blue British passport is set to be manufactured by a French/Dutch company based in Paris and Amsterdam. Simply amazing. You literally couldn't make this up,” said George Couyas, a 38-year-old interior designer who describes himself as a proud European and “Remainer” — the term for those opposing


Woman dies after ‘acupuncture’ session that used live bees instead of needles

A woman in Spain died after undergoing a supposedly routine “bee acupuncture” treatment and then suffering an allergic reaction that put her in a coma. The alternative medicine procedure is more or less what its name conjures up: Instead of a needle, an acupuncture practitioner injects bee venom into the body at certain points. In some instances, live bees are used to sting and inject venom into the person directly. The case in Spain involved live bees, according to the Journal of Investigational Allergology and Clinical Immunology, a Spanish medical journal. The patient, a 55-year-old woman, had already been going to such bee acupuncture sessions every four weeks over a two-year period to treat stiff muscles and stress, the journal stated. The woman had no history of other illness, such as asthma or heart disease, nor a history of being allergic to insect bites or bee stings before, according to her case study. In two years, she had reportedly withstood all of her bee acupuncture sessions “with good tolerance,” the journal stated — until her last visit, when she suddenly had an adverse reaction to a sting. “She developed wheezing, dyspnea, and sudden loss of consciousness immediately after a live bee sting,” the report stated. “An ambulance was called, although it took 30 minutes to arrive.” The woman was taken to a hospital but died “some weeks later,” the journal stated. During her allergic reaction, the woman’s blood pressure had dropped to the point of causing “a massive watershed stroke and permanent coma” leading to multiple organ failure, the study said. The report did not specify exactly where in Spain or when her treatment took place. “To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of death by bee venom apitherapy due to complications of severe anaphylaxis in a confirmed sensitized patient who was previously tolerant,” wrote the report’s co-authors, Paula Vazquez-Revuelta and Ricardo Madrigal-Burgaleta of the Ramon y Cajal University Hospital in Spain. Apitherapy is a type of alternative medicine that uses substances from honeybees — including honey, pollen, royal jelly, bee venom and beeswax — to treat a variety of conditions, from pain to arthritis, according to the American Apitherapy Society. Live bee acupuncture is a procedure that falls within apitherapy. A message sent through the website for the American Apitherapy Society was not immediately returned Wednesday. A call to the number listed online for the group led


‘Grandma’s food’: How changing tastes are killing German restaurants

and less of the mainstay Germanic culture that influenced this country for many decades,” said Arnim von Friedeburg, an importer of German foods and the founder of Germanfoods.org. “The cultural shift is going on, and German culture has to fight or compete to keep its relevance.” The cuisine’s long history here might be part of the reason, too. It’s “Grandma’s food,” Hauck said. At a time when American eaters seem interested in sampling new-to-them cuisines from around the globe — Native American food is the new poke is the new Uighur is the new Filipino — German food seems stodgy. Not to mention that in the age of Instagram, it suffers from an acute case of brown. It’s also hearty, heavy and boasts enough starches to make ketogenic, gluten-free Whole 30 adherents lose their minds — which makes it seem out of place in our current food culture. “In German, it’s called gut bürgerliche küche,” said Alex Herold, the owner of Old Europe, a German restaurant in Washington celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. “Translated, it’s country-style comfort food,” what most Americans think of when they think about German food. “It’s that meat and potatoes stigma,” Herold said, even though in northern Germany, dishes are lighter and have much in common with trendy Scandinavian food. That heaviness carries over to the style of the restaurants, which feel like time capsules. “There’s a brick in the garden that says this couple proposed in the '70s back in this spot, so when we renovate, that brick can’t go anywhere,” said Geoff Peveto, who runs Austin’s Scholz Garten, which opened in 1866 and is the oldest continuously operating tavern in Texas. “There’s a ton of beer steins. One of the patrons donated his collection with the caveat that it had to be displayed.” Some German restaurants would like to become more modern, but operators say they’re thwarted by regulations. “It is difficult to make yourself commercially relevant to a new client base when you are a historic landmark and functionally can’t change anything,” said Kevin Fitzgerald, who is selling Boston’s Jacob Wirth, which opened in 1868. The restaurant’s age gives it charm, like the posters that date to the 1890s, but that atmosphere comes with a tiny, narrow kitchen from the same era. “There’s a value in allowing the restaurant to adapt and be modern, as long as you keep one foot firmly


We still don’t know who will lead Italy. But one clear winner is the Kremlin.

Matteo Salvini said this week at a rally in the northeastern Italian city of Udine, where strong trade ties to Russia have been affected by the economic measures. “I want to work for peace, not for war. I do not want to assemble little tanks like the game of Risk.” Italy has long been known as one of the most pro-Russian nations in Europe. Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has celebrated birthdays with President Vladimir Putin. (The most recent birthday gift from Berlusconi was a duvet with an image of the two men smiling at each other.) So even if more mainstream candidates had won, a hard-line anti-Russia stance was never a likely outcome. One European ambassador in Rome, asked ahead of the election whether Russia was mounting an influence campaign as it is alleged to have done in the United States and elsewhere, smiled ruefully and said there was no need to do anything, because Italy was already on Russia’s side. The country’s sympathies for Moscow stem in part from strong business ties, in part from history: For decades, Italy’s Communist Party was the strongest in Western Europe. But the outcome of the election is still an unusually good result for the Kremlin. Previous Italian leaders have valued their relationship with Brussels and Washington more than their ties to Moscow. Salvini and Five Star leader Luigi Di Maio may not, analysts say. “It’s ideological. It’s a fundamental belief that Russia was mistreated after the Cold War,” said Nathalie Tocci, the director of the Italian International Affairs Institute. “They believe that if the United States gets a sphere of influence, why shouldn’t Russia?” Neither the Five Star Movement nor the League hid its sympathies toward Moscow during the campaign, even as voters focused more on domestic issues such as migration and an overall frustration with what they saw as a corrupt and out-of-touch political establishment. Although the parties’ reasons for boosting Russia are somewhat different, they converge on many policies. Officials from both parties have boasted of travels to Russia to meet key power players. Both say NATO has overreached. The League admires Putin’s promotion of traditional family values and measures against equality for gays and lesbians. The Five Star Movement is skeptical of NATO in the way some left-leaning politicians long have been, seeing it as an instrument for exercising U.S. power in engagements in Europe, the Middle East


An alien star sideswiped our solar system and sent comets reeling, scientists say

dim star would have been 50 times too faint to be seen by the naked eye. It probably flew through the solar system unnoticed by anyone living in it. There is a very, very small chance that prehistoric hominins did look up to see a new red light in the sky: Mamajek and his colleagues point out that magnetic activity may have caused Scholz's star to flare, producing a brief burst of visible light. But Scholz's star did leave other evidence of its passing, scientists say. The new study, published in the May edition of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, bolsters Mamajek's original theory by looking at the paths of more than 300 small bodies in our solar system with hyperbolic orbits. Unlike most planets, asteroids and the like, which journey around the sun on elliptical paths, bodies with hyperbolic orbits track a V-shaped path through the solar system. The study authors found three dozen of these bodies seemed to originate in the direction of the constellation Gemini, rather than being distributed evenly across the sky. This pattern squares nicely with the trajectory of Scholz's star, said lead author Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, an astronomer at the Complutense University of Madrid, in Spain. The researchers also point out eight comets with high radial velocities that warrant follow-up observations. These fast-moving balls of ice and dust may also have interstellar origins, the researchers say. Mamajek, the lead author of the 2015 study, told Gizmodo the new paper was solid, adding that Scholz's star is probably just the most recent example of a stellar visitation. But other researchers questioned the study's methods and the reliability of its conclusions, given that it's based on a mishmash of comet data by biased human observers. De la Fuente Marcos responded to that criticism in an email to The Post, pointing out that 22 percent of the observed objects with the highest inbound speeds were coming from the same part of the sky. Even if the comet database is biased to include only objects spotted by humans, he said, it wouldn't explain why so many fast-moving objects originated in the direction of Gemini. Scientists have seen one interstellar voyager — the cigar-shaped asteroid 'Oumuamua, named for the Hawaiian word for “scout,” which passed through the solar system last year. 'Oumuamua would have been too far away to be affected by Scholz's star


The U.S. needs better regulations on data privacy

Regarding the March 22 news article “Facebook to audit thousands of apps for data security”: The Facebook/Cambridge Analytica data debacle highlights the need for more comprehensive regulation of data usage and privacy in the United States. Europe is well ahead with the General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) coming into force in May. The interest in acquiring data in all fields will continue to grow significantly as computers and artificial intelligence programs become more sophisticated. The legal and regulatory framework governing data usage and transfers must keep pace if legitimate privacy concerns are to be met. This issue goes well beyond concerns about identity theft and consumer preferences. As the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica case demonstrates, the issue also involves secondary uses of data that may have been transmitted for a legitimate purpose. One can easily imagine a world in which vast quantities of readily available data can be beneficial. This includes computers analyzing genetic profiles of large numbers of cancer patients to improve treatments. But free and easily transferrable data presents opportunities for malign uses and certainly ones that would not be agreeable to the individuals the data represents. Our legislators and regulators need to be prepared to devise and implement effective regulation to maximize the benefits of big data while minimizing unwanted and unintended uses. Howard S. Schiffman The writer is director of the Cardozo Law School Masters Program in Data and Privacy Law.


The ongoing myths and misconceptions about ‘accidental addiction’

Over at Reason From Sullum And more data: Despite what you may have read elsewhere, the Drug Enforcement Administration hasn’t exactly been going easy on doctors who overprescribe. In the 1990s and 2000s, the agency targeted lots of doctors with highly publicized investigations. (I know this because I wrote about some of them.) The intent of these investigations — and the news conferences and media releases that went with them — was to scare doctors away from prescribing opioids. It worked. A lot of competent and conscientious doctors left pain treatment. But the pain their patients were experiencing didn’t go away. The demand for relief persisted. Unfortunately, but not at all surprisingly, that demand was filled by less scrupulous, less careful “pill mill” doctors willing to write prescriptions for addicts and legitimate patients alike, with about the same amount of care and attention for either. (The government and anti-opioid interests also tend to conflate addiction with dependence, which is a separate problem. Diabetics, for example, are dependent on insulin. They aren’t addicted to it.) The basic problem here is that drug cops shouldn’t be dictating medical policy. If doctors are overprescribing, medical licensure boards should intervene. But as we saw for decades with the medical use of marijuana, when it comes to controlled substances, drug warriors don’t see nuance. They tend to view intoxicating drugs with a Puritan fervor. The research suggests that one way to get more people off opioid painkillers, for example, would be to ensure better access to medical marijuana. The current U.S. attorney general isn’t having that. He advises people suffering from chronic pain to take an aspirin instead. We need rational, evidence-based opioid policy that balances the the medical needs of people in pain with the government’s interest in preventing addiction and overdose deaths. Right now, the latter is dominating the debate. Worse, it’s not at all clear that limiting access to prescription opioids actually prevents addiction and overdose.


How this retailer started with pickleball paddles and built a $33 million business on Amazon

Little Alexandria-based Amify is the 21st-century version of the thousands of enterprises that thrived around the railroads 150 years ago. Meatpackers, farmers and mail-order retailer Montgomery Ward are just a few examples of businesses that reached customers through the railroads. Instead of railroads, Amify has latched on to retail supertanker Amazon.com, which has redefined how people today buy just about everything. Amazon (founded and chaired by Washington Post owner Jeffrey P. Bezos) just a few days ago became the second-most-valuable company in the world, behind Apple. Amify is one of about 3 million “third-party sellers” that use the Amazon platform to sell their products, paying a 15 percent commission to Amazon in return. Ethan McAfee, 41, Amify’s founder and sole owner, wants to capitalize on Amazon’s growing dominance and seize what he believes is a rare opportunity. “We think there is a land rush going on,” McAfee said. “We have all these tail winds pushing us along. We are trying to grow this baby, hitting the accelerator and taking a long-term vision.” Amify’s niche amounts to a tiny slice of the Amazon juggernaut. The Seattle-based giant sells an estimated $330 billion in merchandise each year — about two-thirds of which is sold by renters such as Amify. McAfee expects to generate revenue of $33 million this year on 600,000 orders for Asics shoes, high-end Fender guitars (they expect to sell 8,000 this year), and binoculars and telescopes made by Vortex Optics, to name a few of his 350 sources. About 90 percent of Amify’s revenue comes from being a third-party seller. The rest comes from Amify’s “value add.” That means coaching clients on how to sell more through better-looking Web pages, buying Amazon advertising and combating counterfeiters. Amify’s secret sauce is knowing which products to make money on, McAfee said. “The higher price points usually have a higher margin than low price points. It’s harder selling a $15 item,” he said, “but with a $100 item, you can probably do it and make a profit. You can use technology to figure out which ones are the best bets.” Amify’s biggest costs are the goods it buys and then resells on Amazon and its labor force. The usual profit for a retailer is 3 to 5 percent of gross sales, which would put Amify’s profits in the neighborhood of $1 million this year. McAfee said he is plowing every cent of


Man fatally stabbed Thursday in the District; an arrest is made

A man was fatally stabbed in Northeast Washington on Thursday and a suspect has been arrested, the D.C. police said. The victim was identified by police as Andre Butler, 52, of Southeast. Police said he was found about 2:30 p.m. Thursday in a house in the 900 block of Mount Olivet Road NE. Police said Fredrick Lorenzo Nowlin Jr. 35, who had no fixed address, was arrested the same day and charged with second degree murder. The 900 block of Mount Olivet a residential street in the Ivy City area and lies north of the Gallaudet University campus, and south of New York Avenue NE Martin.Weil@washpost.com


Trump revokes full ban on transgender military service, defers to Pentagon on a plan far more restrictive than Obama-era policy

President Trump signaled late Friday night that he will not ban all transgender members of the U.S. military from serving, but deferred to a new Pentagon plan that is significantly more restrictive than a policy adopted by the Obama administration in 2016. The decision was acknowledged in a memorandum that was released by the White House and revoked a full ban that Trump issued in August and first announced in July on Twitter. The memorandum was filed Friday amid ongoing court battles in which the Trump administration has sought to block transgender recruits from joining the military. The new filing included a memorandum from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who recommended to Trump that any transgender service member who has undergone sex-reassignment surgery be involuntarily separated from the military.This is a developing story. It will be updated.


Trump issues order supporting ban on many transgender troops, defers to Pentagon on new restrictions

to support its conclusions, glossed over the impacts of health care costs, readiness and unit cohesion, and erroneously relied on the selective experiences of foreign militaries with different operational requirements than our own,” Mattis wrote. “In short, this policy issue has proven more complex than the prior administration or RAND assumed.” The new direction comes after months of the Pentagon’s grappling with how to change its policy after Trump unexpectedly tweeted July 26 that he was banning all transgender people from serving in the military. The president, without any plan in place, cited the “tremendous medical costs and disruption” that he believed transgender military service would cause, and said that he had consulted with “my Generals and military experts.” A day later, Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, released a memo effectively stopping the military from making any changes until a new policy was adopted, and Mattis backed the move. In August, Trump issued a presidential memorandum providing more detail. He accused the Obama administration of allowing transgender military service without identifying a “sufficient basis” that doing so would not “hinder military effectiveness and lethality, disrupt unit cohesion, or tax military resources,” and he directed Mattis to have the Pentagon adopt a new ban similar to the military’s former policy by Friday. The Obama administration began allowing transgender people to serve openly in the military in June 2016, following a review that dragged out months longer than expected amid internal conflict in the Pentagon over how the change would be made. Until then, the Pentagon considered gender dysphoria a disqualifying mental illness. In removing the ban, then-Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter stopped the military from involuntarily separating anyone in the service, and gave the service branches a year to iron out how they would begin processing transgender recruits. A year later, Mattis delayed allowing transgender recruits for an additional six months as the deadline neared, saying the issue needed more study. Trump’s tweets came a few weeks later. Federal judges required the military to allow transgender recruits beginning Jan. 1, and the Pentagon signaled in December that it would not stand in the way of the courts’ rulings. Instead, it issued new policy guidance to recruits to explain how to enlist transgender men and women, and stated in a policy paper that the guidance “shall remain in effect until expressly revoked.” dan.lamothe@washpost.com


‘Everything is lost’: A poet in conflict-torn Kashmir laments the destruction of his life’s work

calls itself a local affiliate of al-Qaeda. Its leader, Zakir Musa, appeared in a video last May, advocating sharia law in Kashmir and threatening to hang the severed heads of separatist leaders in Srinagar’s main market. Police said the three men were seeking shelter after a failed assassination attempt on a local politician, a member of India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party. They had fled the scene of the attempted attack just 25 minutes before reaching Bhat’s house, in the hills above Srinagar. Militant groups in this area, including some backed by Pakistan in Kashmir, have been fighting for independence from India since 1989, and since then a crackdown by the Indian army has led to almost 70,000 deaths, according to some estimates. The strife in Kashmir has been mostly over territorial control, but Islamist groups such as al-Qaeda have long sought to establish a presence here, although their influence in the region is disputed by experts. Bhat published two volumes of poems in 1985 — “Pain of Loss” and “Voice of Abu Zar” under the pen name Madhosh Balhami. Too poor to keep publishing, he started collecting his writings in his home, hoping to one day have enough money to release a new volume. He took up a job as the press secretary of the Jammu and Kashmir Anjuman-e-Sharie Shian, a separatist party, earning about $122 a month, while writing in his spare time. Between 1996 and 2000, Bhat served time in jail after he was criminally charged for reciting his poems at the funerals of militants. His family sold a part of their land, and his sons eventually dropped out of school to help earn money. The loss of his home now has deepened Bhat’s penury. His family has moved into a small kitchen in what remains of his house. Their possessions include little more than a few quilts and mattresses and some cooking utensils. “I couldn’t even take out an extra pair of clothes,’’ said Bhat’s wife, Fazee. But amid the tragedy, Bhat’s old poems are finding new fame in WhatsApp groups and on social media. “The poetry is revolutionary in spirit,” said Bhat’s friend Tahir Chalkey. “It has been widely shared, which has only made him more endearing to people.” Bhat said he found some solace knowing that his story was moving others: “It helps me alleviate the pain of losing the work in the fire.” vidhi.doshi@washpost.com


Syrian opposition facing down a brutal regime and Islamic extremism

Lina Sinjab is a Syrian journalist based in Beirut reporting for the BBC and other outlets. She was based in Damascus until 2013. Syria’s peaceful uprising started with demands for freedom, democracy and an end to four decades of Assad family rule. It was met by a regime crackdown that killed thousands of peaceful protesters, prompting the militarization of the revolt and essentially an extreme Islamic takeover of most of the armed opposition. “No Turning Back” is an account of the people whose personal stories shed light on that turn to arms and the radicalization we are seeing today. Rania Abouzeid excels in describing the scene and depicting the characters. Her words transport readers to the regime’s prison cells, to life under bombardment and to secret meetings of opposition fighters in the moonlight of summer nights in northern Syria. She takes us through the stages of the uprising, illuminating the hope, despair, delusion and fragmentation of the rebels. She also had access to members of the most feared groups, including the al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra. Abouzeid follows her characters over several years, providing intimate accounts of their lives and how the violence of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the manipulation of regional powers and the unfulfilled promises of the West have turned the rebels’ dreams of change into a nightmare. But Abouzeid’s perspective raises some questions. She argues that the uprising was an armed Islamic undertaking from the beginning, which parallels the Assad regime’s propaganda. The regime’s tactic has been to try to impress upon the world that there was no citizens’ uprising but rather an armed Islamic movement that threatened the government and needed to be crushed. That storyline helped the regime to crack down on peaceful activism from the outset and established the narrative of an armed Islamic insurgency. Under the regime’s instructions, many Islamists were released from prison in a 2011 amnesty, and at the same time, Assad locked up thousands of peaceful secular activists. This allowed the Islamic insurgency to mobilize and helped create Assad’s narrative that the uprising was an Islamic problem for the regime. Abouzeid recounts the amnesty but doesn’t explore the arrests of the activists and other ordinary Syrians. Many who were in Syria at the time, including myself, clearly witnessed that the rebellion was not an action of Islamic extremism. It started as peaceful, civil and inclusive of all sections of society — people from


Trump may expel Russian diplomats in response to nerve-agent attack in Britain, officials say

U.S. and European officials said Saturday that President Trump is close to expelling 20 or more Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. The move, which could prompt a new wave of retaliatory expulsions of U.S. diplomats in Russia, may come as early as Monday. But U.S. officials are still seeking clarity on how major European powers are responding to the nerve-agent attack, which critically injured a former spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement that the United States is considering a “range of options to respond to Russia’s outrageous actions in the UK, both to demonstrate our solidarity with our ally and to hold Russia accountable for its clear breach of international norms and agreements.” She declined to say what those options could be or when they might come into force. The leaked proposal to expel Russian diplomats, first reported by CNN, raised questions about whether people inside the U.S. government disclosed the pending action to force the president’s hand in taking tough action against Moscow. The proposal was advanced by the president’s advisers during meetings on Wednesday and Friday, the officials said. A senior European diplomat said the United States has been considering the expulsion of 20 or more Russian diplomats in solidarity with Britain. The decision rests with the White House, the official said, but close allies have urged the Trump administration to take the symbolic but dramatic step as a signal that the assassination attempt was a test of Western resolve that must be answered, the diplomat said. Officials, including two senior White House officials, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a sensitive decision that hadn’t been finalized. Republicans and Democrats in Congress have pressed the White House to move more aggressively against Russia in the wake of its interference in the 2016 election. In August, lawmakers passed legislation limiting the president’s ability to lift sanctions imposed on Russia in response to its military intervention in Ukraine. Since coming to power, the Trump administration has taken forceful action against Moscow, closing its consulate in San Francisco and approving lethal aid to Ukraine in its battle with pro-Russian separatists, a move the Obama administration opposed. Earlier this month, the administration imposed fresh sanctions on Russian government hackers and spy agencies for interfering in the 2016 election and for a


The Russian expulsions are a good first step. But only a first step.

THE UNITED STATES joined with 19 other countries Monday in what was described as the largest-ever collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers. The Trump administration’s contribution was the biggest: Sixty officials with diplomatic status were ordered out of the country, and the Russian consulate in Seattle was closed. The expulsions were a needed response to the nerve-agent attack on a former spy and his daughter inside Britain — the latest audacious act of aggression by the regime of Vladimir Putin. But because they do not touch Mr. Putin’s real power base, he will probably shrug them off. Russia’s espionage apparatus in the West is huge, as the scale of the expulsions indicates. Including an earlier action by Britain, some 135 Russian officials have been ordered out of 21 countries in response to the March 4 attack on Sergei Skripal and his adult daughter, Yulia. This could deal a temporary blow to Russian intelligence services. However, Russia’s malign operations in the West extend far beyond the agents it dispatches under diplomatic cover. It has an army of hackers and trolls operating online, many of whom have been busy attempting to sow confusion about responsibility for the use of the nerve agent. Mr. Putin depends on a network of government ministers and business owners to fund these operations and others — like the paramilitary force that recently attacked U.S. troops in Syria. That is the real foundation of his regime, and so far it has barely been touched. Both the British government and the Trump administration have potentially potent leverage. Many Russian oligarchs and some senior government officials have millions invested in the London property market. The government of Theresa May has legal authorities it could use to target some of those assets, but it has not yet done so. Similarly, Congress passed legislation last year mandating the creation of a list of oligarchs and officials close to Mr. Putin who could be subject to asset freezes and visa bans. The administration grudgingly produced the list but has yet to act, apart from the recent designation of a handful of officials and Internet hackers, most of whom were already under indictment or sanction. Both governments, as well as European Union officials, are promising further action, and we hope that it is forthcoming. But there is reason for concern, given the substantial support Mr. Putin continues to enjoy from several E.U. governments and


I didn’t understand male privilege until I became a stay-at-home dad

a concept called “the pedestal effect.” As I read, my male privilege became uncomfortably visible. The pedestal effect refers to when men receive undeserved praise, attention and rewards for performing work traditionally done by women, such as carrying a baby in a wrap. At the grocery store, I willingly stepped on the pedestal and used my privilege to gain attention for basic child care. And as I reflected on Peretz’s words, other pedestal moments flashed in my mind. This realization was not something I could ignore. If you believe in gender equality, it is not hard to understand why it is problematic to place one gender on a pedestal for doing the bare minimum, while the other bears the bulk of the child care. Not only is it unfair, but it also does not serve the best interests of families, and can place stress on them when parenting roles are unbalanced. For men who value gender equality and healthy families, assisting in lowering the pedestal is imperative. After reading Peretz’s comments, I wrestled with how to respond and, hopefully, how to help other dads become more aware of this privilege. I reached out to him to discuss the “pedestal effect,” and he offered practical ways to counter male privilege. He reminded me of the complexity of privilege and how it operates on different levels — individual, interpersonal, institutional and structural. We cannot dismantle institutions and structures by ourselves, but we can start with naming our privilege and giving credit to women where it is due. Naming our privilege through raising awareness is a good place to begin, because men have been socialized to interact with women in particular ways, and it can be difficult for us to see how we are perpetuating gender inequality. Peretz recommends using resources such as privilege checklists to identify your advantages. These resources can help us move unconscious thoughts and behaviors into the light of awareness. Ideally, this work will lead to interpersonal change. Men can make the effort to closely listen to women to understand how they perceive male privilege. And, most important, we need to believe them. Maybe you remain skeptical that a pedestal effect exists for fathers. Ask a mother whether she believes fathers benefit from undeserved praise. Her answer might surprise you. Men get attention and praise for doing work women do every day. Raising awareness and listening are important steps,


Yemen’s Houthi rebels fire missiles toward Saudi cities, 1 dead

Patriot missile sent to intercept the incoming rebel fire — crashing to the ground shortly after it was launched. The rebel group, known as the Houthis, has fired ballistic missiles into Saudi territory repeatedly over the past three years, during a war in Yemen that has pitted the rebels and their allies against Yemeni factions aligned with a Saudi-led military coalition. Saudi and U.S. officials have accused Iran of supplying missiles and other weapons to the Houthis, a charge the government in Tehran has denied. The multipronged attack Sunday — toward cities in southwestern Saudi Arabia, near the border with Yemen, as well as Riyadh — represented a sharp escalation of the Houthi campaign. It imperiled a fledgling effort by a new U.N. envoy to broker peace talks to end the war and seemed certain to provoke a furious Saudi response. The attack came on the third anniversary of the Saudi-led coalition’s intervention in Yemen. The coalition, which includes the United Arab Emirates, has been condemned by human rights group for conducting an air campaign that has killed thousands of Yemeni civilians, and enforcing a blockade that has helped cause a vast humanitarian crisis. The United States provides military and intelligence assistance to the coalition. About 11:28 p.m., loud explosions could be heard across Riyadh, as projectiles — apparently part of a Patriot missile defense system — could be seen streaking upward, until a puff of smoke was visible in the sky. Several other loud booms followed. As police cars raced across the city, videos shared on social media showed a large missile fragment in the median of a highway, a fiery cascade of debris amid a flurry of Patriot missiles, and what appeared to be a misfire: a missile turning sharply, shortly after it was launched, and slamming into the ground. Fragments that fell on a house killed one person and injured two others — all Egyptian nationals, the Saudi Press Agency said. The attack came as Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is conducting a coast-to-coast visit of the United States aimed at courting investors and showcasing what Saudi officials say is an ambitious reform program at home. While his visit has resulted in a robust debate among U.S. lawmakers over the wisdom of the Trump administration’s continued involvement in Yemen’s war, American officials have resisted calls to reconsider their support for the Saudi-led coalition. kareem.fahim@washpost.com


11 things to do in the D.C. area this week

Monday, March 26 Jenna Camille at U Street Music Hall Tuesday, March 27 Washington Nationals vs. Minnesota Twins at Nationals Park Devon and Somerset UK Cider Showcase at Anxo New York City Ballet at the Kennedy Center Wednesday, March 28 Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center open house Premium Irish Whiskey Tasting and Master class at the Embassy of Ireland Thursday, March 29 Mari Andrew at Sixth and I Steve Moakler at Union Stage Friday, March 30 'No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man' open house at the Renwick Gallery Awesome Con at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center Gina Turner at Ten Tigers Parlour — Fritz Hahn, Sadie Dingfelder, Chris Kelly and Winyan Soo Hoo Read more: Cherry blossoms are coming, but these 3 cherry blossom beverages are already here How to spend 24 hours eating Korean food in Annandale A guide to the best happy hours in D.C.


Would transgender troops harm military effectiveness? Here’s what the research says

Editors’ note: This post, originally published on August 1, 2017, has been updated. Last week, the Trump administration announced its new policy on transgender people serving in the U.S. military. The new policy bars almost all transgender people from military service unless they are willing to serve in their “biological sex.” Individuals who have changed, or who wish to change, their gender are prohibited from serving. Based on a Pentagon report that Secretary of Defense James Mattis summarized in amemo to the president, the new policy overturns the blanket ban on all transgender personnel that President Trump tweeted out last July. But its justification is much the same: allowing transgender people to serve would disrupt unit cohesion, a fundamental building block of combat effectiveness. But these statements rely on two myths: that diversity reduces unit cohesion, and that unit cohesion enhances military effectiveness. In fact, there is little evidence for either. Excluding groups from serving has a long history Trump’s transgender policy is another installment in a long American tradition of excluding various groups from military service because putting them in uniform supposedly undermined unit cohesion. Before World War II, the U.S. military maintained racially segregated units and opposed integration of African Americans into white combat outfits. Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Marshall defended this policy in 1940 by claiming that “to intermingle white and colored personnel in the same regimental organization . . . would inevitably have a highly destructive effect on morale — meaning military efficiency.” Threats to unit cohesion were also cited as a major reason for maintaining the ban on permitting gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military. And cohesion fears continue to appear in the debate about allowing women to serve in combat units. Myth No. 1: Diversity harms unit cohesion. Experience and research debunk the claim that uniformity among members is required for cohesive groups to form. For example, despite widespread hostility to the idea beforehand, a post-World War II Army survey about the experience of units that received black infantry replacements after D-Day found 80 percent of white officers and 96 percent of white NCOs stated that black and white soldiers had gotten along very well or fairly well. Other studies have shown that the integration of women, gays and transgender people into the U.S. military — or other militaries around the world — has not adversely affected cohesion, either.


Here are all the countries that just expelled Russian diplomats

BRUSSELS — Twenty-seven countries around the world, including the United States, have announced plans to toss out Russian diplomats in an unusually coordinated response to a nerve-agent attack in Salisbury, England, that targeted a Russian ex-spy and his daughter. Affecting at least 151 people, it is the largest expulsion of Russian diplomats since the Cold War — and virtually unprecedented in scale and scope. In Europe, even countries that normally pursue Russia-friendly policies, such as Hungary and Italy, joined the action as a sign of solidarity with Britain, a marker of just how disturbing they found the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia. Britain has pinned the blame squarely on the Russian government. Most countries said they were expelling diplomats they believed were actually undercover intelligence agents. On Tuesday, Belgium, Ireland, Moldova and Australia were the latest to join the list of countries taking measures against Russians, and NATO also said it was kicking out seven diplomats from the Russian mission to the alliance. “This sends a clear message to Russia that there are costs and consequences for its unacceptable and dangerous pattern of behavior,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg as he announced the expulsions. “And it follows Russia’s lack of constructive response to what happened in Salisbury.” Russian leaders have said they will respond to the expulsions, although they have not announced specific plans. “We know for certain that this is the result of colossal pressure and colossal blackmail that, regrettably, is Washington's main instrument in the international arena today,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Uzbekistan on Tuesday, Interfax reported. Apart from Britain, which will kick out 23 diplomats, and the United States, which is expelling 60, most of the countries have opted for one or two, a symbolic move that is unlikely to significantly disrupt Russian intelligence activities. European policymakers acknowledged the expulsions were limited in each of their countries, but they said the international sweep would force Russian intelligence services to think twice before conducting similar attacks. “The symbolism is the best way to serve a real, functional message to the leadership of Russia,” said a former head of a European intelligence service, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe the policymaking process. In other cases when the Kremlin has allegedly conducted covert attacks on Western soil, governments have often floundered about how to respond if they cannot prove Russian culpability


The Energy 202: Meet the government insiders quietly shaping Trump’s energy and environment agenda

Center for Environmental Economics, The regulation, called the Waters of the United States rule, proved to be dramatically unpopular in rural states with farms that would be burdened with complying with rules regulating agricultural runoff. Now under Trump, McGartland helped crunch the numbers justifying the proposed withdrawal of that 2015 rule. And then there's Indur Goklany, another longtime Interior employee at the department's Office of Policy Analysis, who found himself in the department’s inner circle of leadership weeks after Trump's inauguration. Through the George W. Bush and Barack Obama years, Goklany regularly worked with conservative think tanks skeptical of climate change, including publishing two books with the Cato Institute and speaking on panels held by the Heartland Institute. Now under Trump, he has repeatedly scrutinized the department’s climate research. Last April, Goklany marked up an Obama-era Park Service brochure on the effects of global warming throughout the parks at the request of one of Trump’s appointees, describing a page titled “Responding to Climate Change” as “propaganda for a favored option.” A month later, Goklany was reviewing a draft of at least one U.S. Geological Survey paper on climate change and preparing “a summary overview of climate change activities gleaned from examining” past manuals, webpages and secretarial orders. Why they matter: Without the insider allies, the Trump team may have a tougher time enacting its agenda. “They understand the way the government works,” said Don Barry, a former career staffer who served as Interior’s assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks under President Bill Clinton. “They know where the power lies and which levers to use.” — "I don't really think that's important anymore:” — Meanwhile, — New week, new investigation: The case may become a test of Zinke’s pledge to root out sexual harassment at Interior. Last year, Zinke took action by firing four senior management staffers within the department for inappropriate conduct, including sexual harassment. — Patagonia pushback: — Profanity-laced text tirade: — Grizzly plan is a go: — EPA to ease efficiency rules: — Meanwhile — Like waiting for paint to dry: — New EPA nominee: — Banks replacement: — A conservative climate approach: — Winter, in one map — Shell (yes, that Shell) just outlined a radical scenario for what it would take to halt climate change: — Meanwhile — Half of all U.S. coal plants would lose money without regulation: Today Coming Up —Zoo baby watch:


The Daily 202: How a conservative think tank is trying to tackle climate change

With Breanne Deppisch and Joanie Greve. THE BIG IDEA: PALO ALTO, Calif. — While President Trump is systematically rolling back his predecessor’s efforts to combat climate change, the conservative Hoover Institution is trying to address the reality of rising temperatures, higher sea levels and more extreme weather. The center-right think tank, which is affiliated with Stanford University and home to GOP grandees like Condoleezza Rice, is pursuing a host of initiatives that treat climate change as a pressing national security challenge and a market failure that requires government intervention. It’s a striking contrast to Washington, where the Paris accord has been abandoned, skeptics of established science hold some of the most important jobs in government and congressional Republicans long ago eschewed promises to seriously confront environmental disruption. But here, the spirit of innovation that defines Silicon Valley trumps the ideological rigidity that reigns in the capital. George Shultz, who served as Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state, embraces the idea of a carbon tax. Gary Roughead, the former chief of naval operations, studies the consequences of global warming in the Arctic. James Mattis, who spent almost four years at Hoover between retiring from the Marines and leaving to becoming secretary of defense, has also described climate change as a national security threat Hoover has even hired an alumna of Barack Obama’s White House to focus on climate change. “This is a global problem, and it’s really a problem that needs attention from the highest levels of government,” Hill said during a day-long Hoover media roundtable on Monday. “It’s difficult to solve it with 50 states and all the municipalities trying to pull and row in one direction without somebody as a captain of the ship. … It’s here, and we need to address it.” Goldman Sachs fortified its headquarters after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. When Superstorm Sandy hit New York in 2012, the investment bank’s lights stayed on while the buildings around it went dark. But many of the firm’s employees couldn’t get to work because the public infrastructure was in shambles. Hill cites this as a parable to explain why a whole-of-government response is needed to fight climate change. “You can’t live on an island,” she said. Half of Americans live in coastal counties. Cities with crucial naval installations, like Norfolk, are especially at risk. As far as most experts are concerned, the underlying facts are not up


This ancient climate catastrophe is our best clue about Earth’s future

Wing chuckled. “So, that was the first really good set of plant fossils from the PETM. It was definitely a moment that I won't forget.” The PETM is the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum — an ungainly name for the time that's considered one of Earth's best analogues to this era of modern, human-caused global warming. In a matter of a few thousand years, huge amounts of carbon were injected into the atmosphere, causing global temperatures to rise between 5 and 8 degrees Celsius. The rapid climate change disrupted weather, transformed landscapes, acidified oceans and triggered extinctions. It took more than 150,000 years for the world to recover. If history is allowed to repeat itself, the consequences for modern life could be similarly long-lasting — which is why Wing is so determined to understand this ancient climate catastrophe. “To me, it doesn’t lead me to be fearful,” Wing said. “It leads me to feel responsible. It leads me to feel that we need to be more informed.” The first major evidence for the PETM was uncovered in the early 1990s by scientists looking at the transition from the Paleocene, the epoch after the extinction of the dinosaurs, to the Eocene, when modern mammal orders first emerged. There was something strange about the thin band of sediment that represented the boundary between these two epochs: its ratio of carbon isotopes — different forms of the same element — was skewed. Further research revealed that something between 4 trillion and 7 trillion tons of carbon — the rough equivalent of the planet's entire current reserve of fossil fuels — had flooded the atmosphere in this period. It came from the decomposed remains of ancient algae and plants, so it contained a larger amount of carbon 12 — the isotope that is preferred for photosynthesis. This “spike” in carbon 12 served as a marker of the PETM and allowed researchers to start tracking the effects of this sudden climate shift in rocks and fossils around the world. Chalk deposits at the bottom of the ocean began to dissolve as carbon dioxide made seawater more acidic. Fossils of tiny, deep sea-dwelling creatures showed evidence of an oxygen shortage — a sign that the water was getting warmer. Everywhere in the ocean, creatures adapted to the changed environment, or else they died out. On land, mammals got smaller and smaller. Ancient ancestors of horses, tiny to


The Health 202: Why the medical community is concerned about a genetic testing boom

The number of kids and teens killed by Christopher writes the availability of firearms is closely related to childhood gun fatalities. — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says he wants to remove hemp from the controlled substances list that associates the crop with its cousin marijuana, Hemp has been making a recent comeback in states such as Kentucky. Several dozen processors in the state are helping turn the versatile crop into many different products. But because hemp is classified as a controlled substance related to marijuana, farmers can't grow it without a federal permit, even though hemp has only a negligible amount of the compound that gives pot users a high. —Speaking of controlled substances, our colleague Christopher explains when a person could hypothetically be given the death penalty for trafficking illegal drugs. Just under 0.6 kilograms of LSD could trigger the death penalty in a federal drug trafficking case, Christopher writes. While such a pocket-size quantity may not seem like much, it works out to about 6 million standard (100-microgram) doses of the drug. For meth, the threshold is three kilograms. The capital threshold for fentanyl is 24 kilograms, enough to squeeze into one or two backpacks. And the capital threshold for heroin is 60 kilograms — small enough to move in a few suitcases or the trunk of a small car. — Two discussion drafts of opioids legislation have been introduced by Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) with the aim of curbing the overprescribing of prescription painkillers and halting the rapid flow of fentanyl — a drug many times more potent than heroin — into the United States. The draft bills, released yesterday, aim to boost the FDA’s ability to respond to opioid abuse by allowing the agency to require drug manufacturers to package certain opioids in smaller supplies, making it easier for doctors to write prescriptions for a smaller number of opioids. They also aim to prevent unneeded or unused opioids from falling into the wrong hands by encouraging manufactures to provide a safe way to dispose the leftover drugs along with the packaging. -- A few more good reads from The Post and beyond: Today Coming Up White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah repeatedly refused to answer questions about Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin: Trump and Stormy Daniels: How the White House is handling the scandal: White House calls Stormy Daniels “inconsistent” and denies claims:


Five-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky will turn pro

Katie Ledecky’s short but spectacular collegiate swimming career is finished. The five-time Olympic champion will forgo her final two seasons of college eligibility at Stanford to embark on a professional swimming career, immediately setting her sights on the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo. “I’ve had two really great years of college swimming, have been on an incredible team that’s won back-to-back national championships,” she said in an interview with The Washington Post. “I feel like now is the right time for me to be making this transition and starting this next chapter.” Ledecky, who turned 21 earlier this month, had settled on her decision early in the school year but didn’t make it public until a speaking appearance Monday afternoon at the National Press Club in Washington. The move means Ledecky can take on lucrative endorsement deals and start competing for money. It also means she can no longer swim for Stanford, bringing to close a brilliant but brief college career. In addition to helping the Cardinal win two national championships, Ledecky won eight NCAA titles, including three earlier this month. She will still take classes at Stanford and continue training with her college teammates, but Ledecky can now focus her energy full-time on the sport’s biggest competitions, which include the world championships next summer in South Korea and the Tokyo Games. “I feel like having two years in this stage will prepare me in the best way for 2020,” said Ledecky, who grew up in Bethesda. Greg Meehan, her Stanford coach, says it’s the perfect time for Ledecky to make the leap. The midpoint of the Olympic cycle, he says, gives Ledecky ample time to adjust to life as a pro athlete and take advantage of opportunities leading into Tokyo, where she will surely be one of the biggest American stars. “I think it takes a little bit of time to learn how to be a professional athlete, and I don’t think the Olympic year is the time to do that,” Meehan said in a phone interview. “She can make the transition now, use the 2018-19 year as a transitional year and figure out how to operate day-to-day and week-to-week. Then we’ll get to summer of ’19 through summer of 2020 and things will be in place and she can just do what she needs to do.” While many swimmers might not embark on professional careers until they have


Trump says sanctions are hurting the North Korean economy. But in some ways it appears stable.

post leading the Office of the Chief Economist at the U.S. State Department, where he studied the economic effects of sanctions. As President Trump and Kim prepare to meet, the health of the North Korean economy is considered critical because it could determine how much leverage the U.S. wields and whether Kim comes to the negotiations as a leader humbled by sanctions or one unfazed by international pressure. Few doubt that the sanctions have shrunk North Korea's trade with the rest of the world, particularly over the past nine months. What remains unclear, though, is how much that reduction has constrained the country's economy. North Korean officials have offered conflicting views of the sanctions they have faced over the years, calling the trade restrictions both ineffective and “vicious.” “It is a foolish dream to hope that the sanctions could work on the DPRK,” according to North Korean state media, using the abbreviation of the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “The sanctions have failed to stop it from becoming a full-fledged nuclear weapons state and making rapid progress in the building of an economic power.” The Trump administration, however, offers a different take. Trump described the sanctions as “very biting,” and Mnuchin has cited their “very big impact” on the North Korean economy. What the sanctions appear to have achieved is a huge cut in North Korea’s exports — its sales to the rest of the world, mainly China. Exports from North Korea plunged from about $240 million a month in 2016 to less than $50 million a month by the end of last year, according to IHS Markit Global Trade Atlas. Anecdotal accounts from traders in Chinese cities bordering North Korea back up those figures. North Korean factories, they say, are closing for lack of Chinese customers. “I do believe a major reason why they’re having this meeting is because the economic sanctions have a very big impact on both their economy and their ability to get pieces of material and other things they need for their weapons program,” Mnuchin said. How much those trade losses have undermined the North Korean economy is unclear, however, because while economists expect to see a downturn, they have seen few signs of it. “The sanctions have to be creating havoc for the regime,” said William B. Brown, an economist who grew up in South Korea and who has worked


Trump’s lawyer raised possibility of pardons for Manafort, Flynn last summer

had recused himself from the probe, which led to the appointment of a special counsel, and hoped a new attorney general would remove the need for Mueller. Legal experts are split about whether the president can commit obstruction of justice while exercising powers that are constitutionally afforded to him, such as the pardon power. “It’s an open question about which there’s been a great deal of debate,” said Paul Rosenzweig, a lawyer who served on the team of Independent Counsel Ken Starr that investigated President Clinton. But, he added, “given the openness of both the legal and factual questions, it would be irresponsible of Mueller not to add this to his inquiry.” “The full truth is that it’s stone-cold stupidity on his part if he actually did it,” Rosenzweig added. The possibility of a pardon raises new questions about why Manafort has repeatedly refused to cooperate with Mueller’s team. He faces a raft of serious felony charges and, if convicted, faces decades in prison. Manafort has pleaded not guilty and has told associates he believes he can win in court. Manafort has been under intense pressure from the special counsel’s office. In July, FBI agents raided his condominium in Alexandria, rousting Manafort and his wife from bed with a search a warrant — a tactic rarely employed in white-collar criminal cases. Mueller’s prosecutors also required one of Manafort’s lawyers to testify before the grand jury, also a step rarely taken. And they have now indicted him on money laundering, conspiracy, and bank and tax fraud charges related to political consulting work he conducted in Ukraine before joining Trump’s campaign. On Tuesday, prosecutors filed new documents in court revealing that the FBI has assessed that a longtime Manafort business associate had ties to Russian intelligence during the 2016 campaign. The documents did not name the associate, but the description offered by prosecutors matched Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian national who had worked as Manafort’s translator and office manager in Kiev. Manafort has acknowledged having extensive contact with Kilimnik during the five months he served as Trump’s campaign chairman in 2016, including holding two in-person meetings with him. Emails that have been read to The Washington Post also show that Manafort asked Kilimnik to offer “private briefings” about the campaign to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian business magnate who is close to the Kremlin. Deripaska’s spokeswoman has said he was never offered such briefings.


Mueller just drew his most direct line to date between the Trump campaign and Russia

remained during the 2016 campaign. In December, they said this associate was “a longtime Russian colleague . . . who is currently based in Russia and assessed to have ties to a Russian intelligence service.” Why those six words were added in this filing when they didn't appear in the previous filing is the $64,000 question. As Philip Bump details here, this is hardly the first public indication of a link between the Trump campaign and Russia, but it is the closest connection Mueller has made in a filing to this point. Mueller hasn't weighed in on the alleged Kremlin ties of the Russian lawyer Donald Trump Jr. met with, for instance, nor has he filed anything involving Roger Stone's contacts with hackers who have been linked to Russia. The other new piece here is that Mueller's team says Gates described Person A (again, apparently Kilimnik) as “a former Russian Intelligence Officer with GRU.” (GRU is Russia's military intelligence organization.) So according to van der Zwaan, Gates talked openly about Person A's ties to Russian intelligence. Kilimnik told The Post in June that he has “no relation to the Russian or any other intelligence service.” Mueller is now apparently directly disputing that using Gates's own words, via van der Zwaan. Ever since his guilty plea last month, van der Zwaan's relation to the case has been unclear. We know he is the son-in-law of a prominent Russian Ukrainian banker, but as with other figures in this case, we have no idea why he lied to investigators. Was it an honest mistake, or was he covering something up? The new van der Zwaan filing doesn't shed a whole bunch of new light on that, but it does suggest that Mueller views Kilimnik as a possible link between the Trump campaign and Russia, and that he believes Kilimnik hasn't been forthcoming about his ties to Russian intelligence. We also know that Manafort had been in contact with Kilimnik during the 2016 campaign, meeting him at least twice and asking him to provide private briefings about the 2016 election to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch who is closely tied to Vladimir Putin. Whether that's pertinent to the broader collusion investigation is something we'll have to wait to find out. There is so much Mueller knows that we simply don't; this could be the tip of an iceberg or an extraneous fact. But those


What ‘The Americans’ gets wrong about the Cold War

show’s higher-stakes escapades (like the season one bugging of Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger’s house.) In fact, much of the work of the KGB’s Directorate S was downright boring. Jack Barsky, a former Soviet illegal who lived in New York during the 1980s, spent a lot of his time delivering packages by bicycle, earning an undergraduate degree from Baruch College and working at the MetLife insurance company, where he stole an industrial software package for the KGB. Software, which the BBC reported, was commercially available to American companies. Former KGB general Oleg Kalugin even wrote in his memoirs that the section dealing with deep-cover illegals was “the most secretive and least productive” branch of the Washington KGB station, adding, “During my five years in Washington, including one year as acting station chief, I never learned of a single case of a Soviet illegal who had penetrated the U.S. government.” In short, the show’s portrayal of foreign espionage will sometimes make KGB experts wince, but it does capture the KGB’s own mythology about its espionage work. As late as the 1980s, the British historian Christopher Andrew wrote, “KGB propaganda continued to depict the Soviet illegal as the supreme embodiment of the chivalric ideal in the service of secret intelligence.” Rudolf Abel and Konon Molody — two famous illegals — were among the heroes in the KGB pantheon, and when the legendary Directorate S chief Yuri Drozdov died in 2017, a Washington Post obituary described him as a “Soviet spymaster who planted agents across the West.” Ironically, this KGB mythology also served the purposes of the American right, which emphasized that the United States and the U.S.S.R. were engaged in an irreconcilable life-or-death struggle and that Communist agents threatened the American system from within. That conservative vision of the Cold War has helped shape “The Americans.” The show portrays the KGB’s American assets as more dangerous — and more deeply embedded — than they were in real life, just as conservatives alleged during the Cold War. One of the show’s less-realistic characters is a high-profile journalist who uses his reputation as a right-winger to supply intelligence to the U.S.S.R. Season 1 features a former civil rights activist who also collaborated with the KGB. These characters bolster the idea that anyone on the right or the left could be a KGB mole. When the show’s producers wrote a storyline for Season 2 about American


Walmart pulls Cosmopolitan from checkout aisles after pressure from anti-porn group

Walmart pulled Cosmopolitan magazine from its checkout aisles at 5,000 stores across the United States after years of pressure from an activist group that accuses the publication of being “hyper-sexualized” and “degrading.” The National Center on Sexual Exploitation, a Washington-based nonprofit formerly known as Morality in Media, said it had long singled out Cosmopolitan — as opposed to, say, the National Enquirer or other provocative content available in the checkout line — because the Hearst-owned magazine was “targeting young girls with its advertisements.” “It’s on Snapchat. It has these brightly-colored pink covers,” Haley Halverson, the center’s vice president of advocacy and outreach, told The Washington Post on Wednesday. “There are Disney stars that appear on it and [articles about] the Jonas Brothers and One Direction. … But at the same time, it’s promoting that its young readership engage in sexting, group sex.” The National Center on Sexual Exploitation, founded in 1962 to combat pornography and sex trafficking, also recently pushed back on commercials and media content it has deemed sexually explicit. For years, the group’s leaders tried to persuade Walmart and other retailers to remove Cosmopolitan from its checkout displays, where they say “customers should not be forced to be exposed to this content.” The group credited the #MeToo movement with finally persuading Walmart officials to do so. “We would say that any magazine should not be using sexual objectification to sell its magazine, but Cosmo also really wraps itself in this faux-feminist mystique, claiming that it’s actually liberating women by talking about sex,” Halverson told The Post. “But we need to raise the dialogue a little bit. … Just because we’re talking about sex in a magazine doesn’t mean we’re talking about it in an empowering way.” When asked to provide examples of publications that were discussing sex in a manner the group felt was appropriate, Halverson declined. However, she compared Cosmopolitan’s messages about sexuality to that of Playboy “because it reduces women to objects for males’ sexual entitlement.” Walmart confirmed the magazine would no longer be displayed in checkout aisles but would be available elsewhere in its stores. “As with all products in our store, we continue to evaluate our assortment and make changes,” Walmart spokeswoman Meggan Kring said in an email. “While this was primarily a business decision, the concerns raised [by NCOSE] were heard.” New York-based Hearst Communications publishes more than a dozen magazine titles, including


Trump’s transgender troop ban is as insidious as ever

So let’s hope the courts see through this charade and strike down policies that would unjustly bar transgender people from the military. The ban unveiled Friday by the White House, which won’t go into immediate effect because of the pending court challenges, is slightly more nuanced than the total ban the president staked out in his July tweets. But the effect is no less insidious, in that it would prevent most transgender people from serving in the military and likely would lead to mistreatment and dismissal of some active-duty members. Anyone with a history of gender dysphoria (the experience of incongruity between birth gender and gender identity) would be disqualified save for limited and undefined circumstances. Also disqualified would be transgender people who have undergone gender transition. Eligible for enlistment and retention are transgender people who agree to serve in their birth gender. As Shannon Minter of the National Center for Lesbian Rights observed, “It means you can’t be transgender.” The White House defended the newly revised ban as enhancing military “readiness, lethality and effectiveness” and said it was developed after extensive study by uniformed and civilian leaders. Isn’t it curious, though, that the conclusion reached was essentially the same as the one the president seemingly pulled out of thin air last year? Transgender advocates are right to call this a case of reverse engineering, with a process designed to reach the president’s announced conclusion. Consider that the administration did not name the members of the so-called expert panel that is said to have studied this issue and Mr. Mattis did not answer questions about it, citing pending litigation. Groups such as the American Psychological Association and two former U.S. surgeons general have assailed the report as distorting scientific research. Also striking is that the Rand Corp., which studied this issue in 2016 before the Obama administration lifted a previous ban, reached a different conclusion: namely, that allowing transgender people to serve in the military would “have minimal impact on readiness and health care costs” for the Pentagon. The immediate issue for the federal courts hearing the challenges to the ban will be whether to make their injunctions permanent. It is likely the issue will eventually be decided by the Supreme Court. Until that happens — and unless Congress intervenes — there will be continued, and unjust, uncertainty for the transgender men and women who want to serve their country.


Pixar’s new short ahead of ‘Incredibles 2’ will be about a Chinese mom’s baby dumpling

BECAUSE PIXAR’s The scant details so far about the “Bao” story: A Chinese woman gets “another chance at motherhood” when one of her wee dumplings “springs to life” — a type of animated magic between parent and creation that summons thoughts of “Pinocchio.” But in “Bao,” the mother must cope with “the bittersweet revelation that nothing stays cute and small forever.” “Bao” director is Domee Shi, whose first Pixar credit was as a story artist on Pete Docter’s “Inside Out,” and her résumé now includes the forthcoming “Incredibles 2” and “Toy Story 4.” Shi, who began her Pixar internship in 2011, was born in China before her family moved to Toronto when she was 2, according to the Disney Blog. As noted last week by Film Music Reporter, Toby Chu (“Burn Notice,” “Henchmen”) scored “Bao,” which is produced by Becky Neiman-Cobb and executive produced by Docter and John Lasseter. And speaking of Lasseter, you can draw a direct educational line between Shi and the Pixar co-founder. At Canada’s Sheridan College, Shi was taught by Nancy Beiman, who, as the Disney Blog notes, attended the fledging CalArts animation program alongside such fellow pioneers as John Lasseter, Tim Burton, John Musker and Michael Giaimo — as well as Brad Bird, the director of the Incredibles films. Read more: Pete Docter’s inspiration behind Pixar’s mindful ‘Inside Out’? This one goes to 11. Pixar shorts How ‘Lou’s’ anti-bullying story sprung from a moving childhood


North Korean leader meets with China’s president during ‘unofficial visit’ to Beijing

BEIJING — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a surprise trip to China this week, meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of planned summits with South Korean and U.S. leaders, Chinese and North Korean state media confirmed Wednesday. The journey, which is believed to be Kim’s first foreign trip since he came to power in 2011, adds a new piece to a complex diplomatic puzzle over the future of North Korea’s nuclear program. The announcement ends a mystery that started on Monday, when a mysterious train chugged into central Beijing, spurring reports of a high-profile visitor from North Korea. The North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) confirmed that the visitor was indeed Kim, along with his wife, Ri Sol Ju, arriving for an “unofficial” visit at the invitation of the Chinese president, Xi Jinping. The confirmation came sometime after the North Korean group is believed to have departed China. Kim traveled with all his top aides, KCNA said, including Choe Ryong Hae, often called the No. 2 leader of North Korea and the head of the powerful Organization and Guidance Department, and Ri Su Yong, the former ambassador to Switzerland and foreign minister, who is now a top official in the Politburo. China and North Korea have had close ties for decades, but in recent years, the relationship has been stressed. Kim’s visit suggests an effort to repair relations ahead of Kim’s planned meetings with the South’s president, Moon Jae-in, and then U.S. President Donald Trump. Chinese and North Korean accounts of the meeting struck a positive tone. “We speak highly of this visit,” Xi told Kim, according to Chinese state media. Kim’s toast to Xi: “It is appropriate that my first trip abroad is in China’s capital, and my responsibility to consider continuing NK-China relations as valuable as life,” according to KCNA. The question of who was on the armored train had gripped the Chinese capital for days. The train arrived unannounced. Passengers disembarked and boarded limos. After nightfall, a motorcade drove to a state guesthouse where foreign dignitaries often stay. But Chinese officials and media and the South Korean government were initially quiet about the identities of those who had been aboard. Chinese netizens looking for answers hit a wall. On Tuesday, three of the top 10 blocked terms on Weibo, a microblogging site, were “Kim Jong Un,” “North Korea” and “Fatty the third,” a popular