Saeb Erekat, Palestinian negotiator who shaped Arab-Israeli peace agreements, dies at 65

Saeb Erekat, a top Palestinian negotiator who helped craft some of the most sweeping bids for Arab-Israeli peace but was left dismayed by both Israeli resistance to key concessions on land and Palestinian infighting that eroded his people’s unity, died Nov. 10 at a hospital in Jerusalem. He was 65. The cause was complications from covid-19, according to his office and family. He had a heart attack in 2012, and five years later, he received a lung transplant in Virginia to treat pulmonary fibrosis. He announced early in October that he had tested positive for the coronavirus and was rushed to the Israeli hospital from his home in Jericho on Oct. 18. He was placed on a ventilator the next day. Dr. Erekat, who honed his fluent and idiomatic English during studies in San Francisco and Britain, was for decades a principal international voice of the Palestinian cause. Even as peace efforts faltered in the late 1990s, he remained a fervent backer of the “two-state solution” in which a Palestinian nation would exist side by side with Israel. Yet Dr. Erekat also shared the deepening Palestinian frustration as aspirations of statehood appeared to slip further away after a flurry of optimism generated by the landmark Oslo accords of the 1990s. The agreements — hammered out by representatives including Dr. Erekat, when he was a protege of Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat — expanded Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Additional gains fell apart amid the second of two Palestinian uprisings against Israel, known as intifadas, and the construction of Israel’s “separation barrier” with the West Bank. When asked in 2015 if the optimism of Oslo was lost, he told the BBC: “It aches my heart to say yes.” The Palestinians, while blaming Israeli leaders, were also weakened by a family feud. The main Fatah party was left in control of the West Bank while the militant group Hamas held the Gaza Strip, which came under an Israeli blockade and retaliatory attacks. Dr. Erekat temporarily resigned his negotiator post in 2003 after being left off a team led by future Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, who was engaged in a power struggle with Arafat (who died in 2004). Dr. Erekat stepped down again in early 2011 after the leak of the “Palestine Papers,” which detailed years of confidential exchanges in the peace process and in which Dr. Erekat


Tourists are buying fake covid-19 test results on the black market to travel

With global coronavirus cases rising, many countries are now requiring negative coronavirus test results for entry, but getting a test in time can be difficult for travelers. So it may have been only a matter of time before a black-market option emerged: counterfeit test results. The practice of forging or purchasing fake results has surfaced in destinations around the world, with instances of manipulated negatives in Brazil, France and the United Kingdom. Last week, French officials broke up an alleged forgery ring that was selling false test certificates at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport. According to the Associated Press, the group was asking $180 to $360 (150 to 300 euros) for the digital certificates of a negative result. Police charged the group of seven (six men and one woman) with forgery and fraud after investigating how an Ethiopia-bound passenger acquired a false coronavirus document at the airport in September. The fake certificates were stored on mobile phones and had the name of a medical lab located in Paris, the BBC reported. Police in Brazil recently arrested four domestic travelers who forged negative coronavirus tests to visit the island of Fernando de Noronha on a private jet, according to the Associated Press. The island, which is known as one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, reopened to tourists on Oct. 10 and requires entrants to present negative coronavirus test results acquired no more than one day in advance. According to a U.K. newspaper, the practice has also surfaced in England: The Lancashire Telegraph reported speaking with one man who doctored a friend’s negative coronavirus test, printed it out and used it for international travel. The newspaper also spoke to another traveler who was offered a fake document from their travel agent. As test-result protocols for travel are becoming more high-tech, however, it’s unlikely that many travelers would be able to travel with a manipulated document. The state of Hawaii, for example, requires visitors to preregister in their online testing program, use an approved testing partner, and upload results to a digital portal. Paper copies are not accepted. A new app called CommonPass launched last month for passengers on United Airlines and Cathay Pacific Airways to upload their coronavirus test results directly to their airline for verification when flying through some airports. The health-screening app aims to decrease global reliance on quarantines by centralizing a traveler’s coronavirus status and documents


Coronavirus spread hits record levels in Maryland, Virginia amid national spike

our state has been preparing for this fall surge for the past eight months, we cannot afford to let our guard down,” Hogan tweeted Monday. “Wear a mask, wash your hands, and watch your distance.” The rate of new infections in the D.C. region continues to hover at about half the U.S. average, even while the number of new cases marches upward along with states across the country. The national seven-day average of new infections per 100,000 residents stood Monday at 33. That number was 14 in D.C., 17 in Virginia and 20 in Maryland. By comparison, North Dakota — the state with the highest rate of infection — is recording 176 new cases per 100,000 residents, more than 12 times the rate in the nation’s capital. The recent daily average in D.C. is 93, up from 36 at the start of October but still about half the record level set during the early days of the pandemic. The city has been recording a lower rate of new infections than its neighboring states. John D. Voss, vice chairman for quality and safety at the University of Virginia Health System, attributed part of the regional increase to fatigue with following protocols known to keep the virus from spreading. He said the local rise in cases is one piece of an increase nationally. “There’s growth in every area of this country,” he said. “All of the same factors are at play.” Voss said infections will probably continue to rise as the weather cools — pushing more activities and social gatherings indoors — and people begin holiday travel. Although pandemic-related developments have been grim in recent days, Monday brought a bright spot as a vaccine developed by drug giant Pfizer and German biotechnology firm BioNTech was found to be more than 90 percent effective. William A. Petri, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, said it was a promising development, with the best part “how effective it is.” He said the rate of effectiveness surpassed the expectations of health experts. Petri said he expects first responders, health-care workers, the elderly and others at high risk to have first access to a vaccine. The general population could expect to be vaccinated by late spring or summer, he said. In Virginia, the seven-day average of new cases set another record Monday, two days after the state recorded its highest


With coronavirus cases spiking nationwide, all signs point to a harrowing autumn

try to get every single patient to a bed that has a nurse and a doctor, and respiratory therapist, and all of the things that they need to care for them,” said Julie Watson, chief medical officer of Integris Health, which operates 18 hospitals across Oklahoma. “So it’s exhausting, to be honest with you. It’s exhausting, because there’s just no break.” Watson said the system has hired hundreds of additional nurses on a contract basis, but resources are still stretched. “The part that is most frustrating for us as physicians is it does not have to be this way,” she said. “We shouldn’t have to choose between surgeries that patients need and caring for patients who get covid because they’re not wearing their mask, or, God forbid, someone who was around someone who wasn’t. That, to me, is unjust.” That same worry persisted in Minnesota, where Amy W. Williams, executive dean of practice at the Department of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic, said the number of covid-19 patients in the hospital rose sharply in the past two weeks as the virus spread rapidly in the Upper Midwest. Williams said her top concern was maintaining adequate staff because Mayo personnel were becoming exposed or infected in the community along with other people, forcing them to quarantine and miss work. The startling surge has compelled new efforts in some parts of the country to slow the rampant virus. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) announced Tuesday that by week’s end, bars and restaurants must stop serving at 10 p.m. In addition, he put in place new caps on weddings, funerals and other social gatherings. Iowans also will soon be subject to stricter coronavirus rules, as the state faces a daily case count that has nearly doubled since the first day of the month. Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) said Tuesday at a news conference that masks will be required at indoor gatherings of more than 25 people and outdoor gatherings of over 100 people. Groups that congregate at restaurants, bars or other gatherings will be limited to eight people, unless they are all from the same household. Each participant in a youth or high school sporting event will be allowed only two spectators, and masks will be required for staff members and customers at personal-services businesses such as hair salons. The new restrictions are notable for Reynolds, who has resisted implementing a statewide mask


How the lessons of 2020 may make travel better in the long run

The conventional wisdom is that 2020 has nearly destroyed travel. And though it’s true that covid-19 ruined our vacations and took a wrecking ball to a large part of the industry, the conventional wisdom is wrong. “Actually, the pandemic is making travel better in many ways,” says Clayton Reid, CEO of MMGY Global, a marketing company known for its research on consumer trends and travel. “It’s forced travel companies to introduce innovative contactless service. They have new booking procedures and a commitment to cleanliness and safety. I believe these are long-term shifts.” He’s right. Many of the positive changes appear to be here to stay. Among them: ●Contactless service ●New booking policies ●Commitment to cleanliness and safety ●The return of common sense ●Room to breathe ●Safety-first policies ●Focus on the customer ●Environmentally friendly ●Spending more time outdoors ●Politeness is back ●And so are travel agents I second that. When I was stuck in France during the outbreak, I called a travel adviser to get me home. And she did. A year ago, who didn’t want a travel experience without the crowds? Common-sense policies, more civility, a more environmentally friendly industry — those were on everyone’s wish list. Well, now we have these positive changes, and it looks like they’re here to stay. Thanks, 2020.


Frostburg State University cancels in-person classes, again, as virus surges through western Maryland

that most transmission is coming via social and household gatherings,” said Liz Medcalf, a university spokeswoman. Forty-five students and employees who have contracted the virus are in isolation, she said. Frostburg State made a temporary pivot to online learning on Oct. 29 after the school’s health center recorded a spike in cases. The campus resumed in-person classes about a week later as the caseload continued to fluctuate and concerns over the school’s handling of the virus lingered. Students say some classmates have chosen to leave campus. Sixty cases of the virus were reported on and around campus during the last two weeks of October, data from the university show. The university said last Wednesday that 26 students were in isolation. Classrooms will shutter, but the school’s residence halls will remain open, officials said in an email sent to students. Fewer than 1,150 students moved into the dorms this semester; 400 students are living in a public-private apartment complex on the grounds. Campus dining will provide to-go meals through the end of the semester on Nov. 24, officials said. Health officials in Allegany County reported 89 new cases of the virus Wednesday, pushing the county’s caseload to 1,245. The county’s case rate stood at more than 66 per 100,000 people Tuesday, the highest in Maryland, the health department said on its Facebook page. The region on Wednesday opened a free, drive-through testing clinic at the Allegany County Fairgrounds for children and adults. The clinic will operate three times a week, officials said. “By partnering with the Allegany County Health Department to establish a new testing site, we are able to increase local testing capacity at a time when the need is high,” said Robert R. Neall, Maryland’s health department secretary. “With covid-19 cases and positivity rates ticking up in the region and across the state, it is critical for all Marylanders who need a test to be diligent about getting a test.” Hogan unveiled new statewide restrictions Tuesday, including orders to limit indoor gatherings to 25 people. The governor “strongly advised” Marylanders from traveling outside the state and reduced indoor operations at restaurants from 75 to 50 percent capacity. Shortly after the Frostburg State announcement, the University of Maryland in College Park said it would pause football team activities after eight players tested positive. The school’s Saturday game against Ohio State University has been canceled, officials in the athletics department said.


How Biden aims to amp up the government’s fight against climate change

Climate Mobilization” to coordinate action across the federal government. In a sign of how government institutions outside the usual environmental agencies are beginning to grapple with climate change, the Federal Reserve’s biannual financial stability report released this week warned, “Climate change adds a layer of economic uncertainty and risk that we have only begun to incorporate into our analysis of financial stability.” Federal Reserve governor Lael Brainard, a leading contender for treasury secretary under a Biden administration, welcomed climate’s inclusion in the report, and Fed Board Chair Jerome H. Powell described it last week as a long-term risk. On Tuesday, the Fed requested to join the Network for Greening the Financial System, a global coalition of central banks and bank supervisors working to manage climate risks. Several former Obama officials noted how the last Democratic administration ended without a complete overhaul of federal policies affecting climate change. Obama made the issue a major focus in his second term, but he did not launch his climate action plan until June 2013, and key departments such as Interior did not finalize their own comprehensive plans before he left office. Christy Goldfuss, who oversaw many of those efforts as managing director of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and who co-chaired the new report, said Biden is now positioned to institute climate-focused policies across the government since he made it a central issue in his campaign. It will be essential for Biden to quickly fill jobs left vacant under President Trump, rebuild departments and return the leadership of agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management back to D.C., she said. “This is it. This is the moment for climate action,” said Goldfuss, now senior vice president for energy and environment policy at the liberal think tank Center for American Progress. “Climate change impacts every aspect of people’s lives, it impacts every aspect of the economy, and the federal government is connected to every aspect of those as well.” Changing the way the government buys goods and services could have a ripple effect in the private sector because of the purchasing power of federal agencies, Goldfuss said. Groups like the BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of labor and environmental groups, have championed policies like California’s Buy Clean law, which requires the state to consider the pollution emitted by manufacturers of glass, steel and other materials when making purchasing decisions. Feldman declined to comment


Planning a ski trip during covid-19? Keep these safety tips in mind.

For most slopes in America, November signals the start of ski and snowboard season. Millions of travelers make their way to the mountains every winter dreaming of fresh powder. But, of course, things aren’t so certain this year. Between coronavirus cases climbing, health concerns and travel restrictions, would-be skiers and snowboarders may find it difficult to venture out. David Beuther, a Denver-based pulmonologist at National Jewish Health who plans to take a ski trip this season, says families may have to navigate these issues all winter, even with this week’s hopeful news of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine. “Overall, I don’t think there’s going to be a substantial change or relief of the pandemic during the next ski season.” However, there is some good news. “Skiing is such a low-risk activity, and it’s a low transmission activity,” says Darcy Selenke, the medical director of Grand County Public Health and staff physician for Denver Health at the base of Winter Park Resort. “People naturally socially distance when they ski. It’s pretty hard to ski consistently within six feet of anybody.” For those who do decide to plan a ski or snowboarding trip this winter, here are ways to reduce coronavirus-related health risks. Beuther says the safest option is to stay home this winter. However, choosing a ski destination carefully may lower coronavirus risks for those heading out. “This pandemic is going to be up and down in different areas of the country,” he says. “A general ground rule is to always be looking at the rates of disease … locally in that county or that ski resort town, and also where you are.” Keep in mind that the mountain destinations with small year-round populations are particularly vulnerable to outbreaks. “With the last significant increase in cases of covid across the U.S., there’s always a little bit of angst and anxiousness about inviting people from all over the U.S. and potentially the world into your small resort town with sometimes limited resources,” Selenke says. Selenke adds that any traveler with a suspected coronavirus infection should avoid going on a ski trip, not only to avoid spreading the virus to the local community, but also because of the risk of getting more sick being in high altitude. “That’s going to make your underlying infection worse,” she says. Beuther is concerned people may think that because they’re going to a remote destination, they’ll forget about standard


area. Because we all want to go skiing and … we want to stay open. The sport is supposed to be fun, and we want everyone to be safe and respectful.” For Beuther’s ski trip, his family will stay at a condominium instead of a hotel. A condo can help travelers reduce contact with strangers and allow families to prepare meals themselves. “We’re going to bring our own food, and we’re going to eat in the condo instead of going out to the restaurants,” Beuther says. Selenke recommends others to do the same. “We would encourage people to drive and pick up groceries, to plan on eating at wherever they’re staying,” she says. “Everyone just needs to plan not having après ski at a restaurant.” If you’re traveling with people outside of your household, Beuther recommends staying in separate places and only spending time with each other outdoors. Throughout the pandemic, the ski and snowboard industry has been actively preparing for the winter season with the coronavirus in mind. One noticeable change this year is the ticketing process. Many ski resorts are requiring prior reservations to better manage crowd sizes. “Some of the resorts are only selling their day tickets in advance online,” says Anelise Bergin, director of digital marketing and communications for Ski Utah, adding that some resorts may also be reducing parking capacity to limit guests. “Really plan out your trip and make sure that you look at the specific resort that you’re looking to travel to, and make sure that you completely understand all of their changes and their ticket process." Although capacity may be reduced at resorts, you should still be able to lock in your ski or snowboard time this winter. “For the vast majority of days, we think that we’ll be able to accommodate everyone who wants to be there,” Muscente says. “But you really have to plan for every day.” Travel during the pandemic: Tips: Holiday travel | Coronavirus testing | Sanitizing the hotel | Using Uber and Airbnb Flying: Packing | Airports | Staying healthy on plane | Mileage | Fly or drive | Best days to fly Road trips: Tips| Rental car | Snacks | Train | Foliage finder | Art road trips Camping: First-time | Camping alone | Meals | Glamping| National parks Places: Hawaii | Machu Picchu | New York | Private islands | Caribbean | Mexico | Europe


Maryland crime report

Due to concerns over the novel coronavirus and social distancing, •Destruction to a vehicle •Destruction of property/vandalism •Theft from a vehicle •Thefts of vehicle parts and accessories •Tampering with a vehicle •Attempted vehicle theft •Credit or debit card theft •Identify theft •Lost property •Telephone misuse •Trespassing The following were among incidents reported by Anne Arundel County police. For information, call 410-222-8050. Crofton Area Crain Hwy. near Davidsonville Rd., Ferndale Area Baby Baer and Big Baer courts, Aster Dr., and Kimberley Lane, Glen Burnie Area Hideaway Loop, Foxridge Lane, Quarterfield Rd., Linthicum Heights Area Nursery Rd., 700 block, Nov. 2. From business. Due to concerns over the novel coronavirus and social distancing, Center St., Gemini Dr., Paddington Pl., Americana Dr., Americana Dr., Boxwood Rd., Cherry Grove Ave. S., Coybay Dr., Gemini Dr., Heritage Ct., Heritage Ct., Heritage Ct., Hilltop Lane, Hilltop Lane., Merryman Rd., Silopanna Rd., Due to concerns over the novel coronavirus and social distancing, Columbia Area Snowman Ct., Columbia Rd., Dark Fire Way, Hayshed Lane, Woodside Ct., Lynx Lane, Placid Lake Ct., Elkridge Area Ducketts Lane, Landing Rd., S. Hanover Rd., Ellicott City Area Corporate Ct., Halcyon Ct., Baltimore National Pike, Clarksville Pike, Pierce Dr., Thornbrook Rd., Valley View Overlook, Fulton Area Maple Lawn Blvd., Jessup Area Dorsey Run Rd., Waterloo Rd.,


Anne Arundel County and Howard County home sales

Highland Farms Cir., Nob Hill Dr., Summer Hill Dr., GLEN BURNIE AREA Aster Dr., Hardmoore Ct., Rowe Dr., Washington Blvd., GLEN BURNIE-MARLEY CREEK AREA Boxwood Dr., Country Club Dr., Dumbarton Rd., Fox River Hills Way, Howard Rd., Martha Rd., Nabbs Creek Rd., Pine Way Dr., Rapid Water Way, Warfield St., HANOVER AREA Beaver Dam Ct., Hardwick Ct., Otterbein Way, Sycamore Pl., JESSUP AREA Horseshoe Cir., LAUREL AREA Carriage Walk Lane, Marsh Crossing Dr., LINTHICUM HEIGHTS AREA Charles Rd., Hampton Rd., Kingwood Rd., Regency Cir., LOTHIAN AREA Mallard Landing Ct., MILLERSVILLE AREA Caracle Ct., Mesa Rd. N., Old Mill Rd., Saddleback Ct., NORTH BEACH AREA Bay Front Ave., ODENTON AREA Bed Stone Lane, Cedar Elm Dr., Country Oak Dr., Greyswood Rd., Hinshaw Dr., Old Waugh Chapel Rd., Seneca Dr., Tuckahoe Ct., Williamsburg Lane, OWENSVILLE (WEST RIVER) AREA Judge Ct. E., PASADENA-ROCK CREEK AREA Barnsley Ct., Brookfield Rd., Champion Ct., Dunlap Rd., Escalon Ave., Highview Rd., Jacobia Dr., Kingsley Ct., Lyndale Rd., Mansion House Crossing, Paradise Beach Rd., Rockingham Ct., Wapati Ct., Whites Cove Rd., RIVA AREA Tudor Hall Rd., SEVERN AREA Beckman Terr., Chevron Rd., Dove Ct., Faulkner Rd., Huguenot Pl., McCamish Ct., Queenstown Rd., W B & A Rd., SEVERNA PARK AREA Baltimore Annapolis Blvd., Charington Ct., Fairhaven Ct., Knollwood Rd., McKinsey Rd., Park Rd., SHADY SIDE AREA Linden St., These sales data recorded by the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation in May were provided by Black Knight Inc. For information about other residential real estate transactions, visit washingtonpost.com/homesales. CENTENNIAL-BENSON AREA Cabery Rd., Coventry Court Dr., Firefly Way, Hannon Ct., Larchmede Ct., Mount Hebron Dr., Thornton Lane, Vivaldi Lane, Woodland Rd., CLARKSVILLE AREA Flutie Lane, Mill Creek Ct., COLUMBIA (EAST) AREA Enberend Terr., Hayshed Lane, Raccoon Ct., Swan Point Way, Thunder Hill Rd., Whiteacre Rd., COLUMBIA (WEST) AREA Clarksville Pike, 10545-Joel Barry Brown to Jacquelin D. Wiseman, $675,000. Cloudy April Way, Fallriver Row Ct., Moonfall Way, Ring Dove Lane, Timothy Ct., Wind Way E., Wyndham Cir., DAYTON AREA Oak Ridge Ct., ELKRIDGE AREA Abbey Rd., Beechfield Ave., Deborah Jean Dr., Huntshire Dr., Mt. Holly Way, Woodvale Pl., ELLICOTT CITY AREA Blueberry Hill Lane, Brittany Dr., Eastwood Pl., Four Quarter Rd., Hidden Garden Lane, Hunting Horn Dr., Mayfair Cir., Old Farm Lane, Roberts Rd., Sonia Trail, Trotters Chase, Trotters Chase, FULTON AREA Iager Blvd., Ports Lane, Tuckahoe Ct., GLENWOOD AREA Clarks Meadow Dr., HANOVER AREA Druce Way, Druce Way, Saint


We’ve known how to fight the coronavirus since March. We just have to do it.

warning — and advice from world-leading experts. As we head into the fall and winter, we have to go back to the future to avert disaster. We have to actually implement the advice that was being given in March by the public health Cassandras, and we need to do so now. Here are four steps to avoid another catastrophe in the coming months. Implement nationwide testing: That is why I joined other experts in the spring to call for a nationwide surveillance system for the coronavirus, understanding that relatively small investments in our existing public health surveillance infrastructure could help us stay on top of local outbreaks. The great advantage: We could avoid widespread lockdowns using much more selective approaches to prevent community-wide spreading events. Such surveillance would depend not just on more testing but on “smarter testing.” Instead of simply focusing on positive test results, we need serosurveys of multiple communities; we need the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to move rapidly to help states and localities set up “sentinel testing” to act as an early warning system; and we need to investigate the data we already have through systems like syndromic surveillance. We needed to do all of this to answer four questions: Is the outbreak in a city or state getting better or worse? And how fast? Who is getting covid-19? And what are their outcomes? Today, we don’t have better answers to those questions than we had seven months ago. But if we want to keep opening up businesses without triggering large-scale outbreaks and shutdowns, we have to put these systems in place immediately. Get more PPE to the front lines: It is hard to believe, but eight months into this pandemic, many nursing homes and other health facilities across this country still didn’t have enough PPE. A big part of the problem remains that manufacturers and innovative companies are willing to ramp up production in the United States only if there is predictable demand, so they aren’t left with excess capacity and supplies that negate their investments. Just as it is doing with vaccine manufacturers, the federal government needs to sign long contracts for PPE to give manufacturers predictability and then distribute the supplies to vulnerable Americans and health facilities in need. And it still wouldn’t hurt to go through with the original plan and send masks to each household: A Washington Post-ABC News


Trump is now sabotaging national security to soothe his bruised ego

So this will be President Trump’s parting gift to the nation: He is deliberately sabotaging the national security of the United States. His refusal to accept the results, even though it wasn’t a particularly close election, has taken an insidious new turn now that his political appointee in charge of authorizing the start of the Biden transition is refusing to give the okay. The delay undercuts all aspects of government’s functioning and leaves the country needlessly vulnerable to security threats. We’ve seen this before. In 2000, the delayed transition “hampered the new administration in identifying, recruiting, clearing, and obtaining Senate confirmation of key appointees,” the 9/11 Commission concluded. To avoid a possible repeat of such a vulnerability, the commission recommended that “we should minimize as much as possible the disruption of national security policymaking during the change of administrations” so that “transitions can work more effectively and allow new officials to assume their new responsibilities as quickly as possible.” Trump is now actively undermining that recommendation — for no purpose other than ego. It would cost him nothing to begin the transition; in the extremely unlikely event that he is able to overturn the election results in several states and secure a victory, the transition authorization could easily be rescinded. Transition sources tell me the Trump administration also hasn’t yet complied with the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation that “the outgoing administration should provide the president-elect, as soon as possible after election day, with a classified, compartmented list that catalogues specific, operational threats to national security; major military or covert operations; and pending decisions on the possible use of force.” “This is serious stuff. We are talking about the national security of the country, and Trump and Republicans on the Hill are playing politics with it,” John Bellinger , a former senior official on George W. Bush’s National Security Council, told me. “The loss of time in a truncated transition really does pose a threat to the national security of the country.” Much of the outrage has focused on Emily Murphy, who as administrator of the General Services Administration has the formal task of “ascertaining” the winner of the election. She’s a longtime public servant who, I’m told, justifiably fears the wrath that Trump would bring down on her if she authorizes the transition. Hopefully she can be persuaded that avoiding another 9/11, or its equivalent, is worth getting fired or flamed


Four SEC games, including Alabama-LSU, postponed as conference grapples with pandemic

left an open week before its Dec. 19 championship game to allow for games to be pushed back. However, that date is already being held for an LSU-Florida game that was postponed from Oct. 17 after an outbreak in the Gators’ program. Some SEC teams could still try to finish their schedules Dec. 19, but Alabama (6-0) is a heavy favorite to win its division and go to the SEC title game, and Florida (4-1) is leading the other division. “The opportunity to reschedule the Alabama at LSU game will need to be evaluated,” the SEC said. “The rescheduling of games on the remaining SEC football schedule may include December 19 as a playing date.” “We are dealing with covid and contact tracing. I can’t go into detail. It’s a very fluid situation,” Orgeron said Monday of his Tigers, who have started the season 2-3. He acknowledged that some unspecified starting players were affected by the outbreak but asserted then that the Tigers were “focused on playing Alabama on Saturday night.” LSU may have been down to one scholarship quarterback, freshman TJ Finley, and been perilously thin at other positions, per multiple reports. On Wednesday, Orgeron said that Zach Von Rosenberg, a 30-year-old punter, had played second-team quarterback. The SEC’s coronavirus policy mandates a minimum of 53 scholarship athletes be available for a team to play, including at least one quarterback, four defensive linemen and seven offensive linemen. Orgeron revealed his team’s outbreak “started last week, probably Tuesday or Wednesday.” He said the subsequent need to place numerous players in quarantine is “when you get into the low [scholarship] numbers.” Mississippi State Athletic Director John Cohen declared Monday that his football team did not have “the minimum number of scholarship student-athletes available” for the Auburn game because of positive tests, contact tracing and what he described as “non-covid injuries.” “While we are disappointed that Saturday’s game has been postponed, our priority is the health, safety and well-being of our student-athletes and staff,” Cohen added. “We will continue to follow all established protocols and evaluate the most responsible path to return to the field.” Mississippi State Coach Mike Leach told reporters Monday that his team was “close to canceling” its game this past weekend against Vanderbilt, which the Bulldogs won. “We knew there was a pretty good chance we’d have to cancel this week,” he said, “just because we were that


These venues are high-risk areas for spreading the coronavirus, model suggests

on risk levels. That resulted in a chart listing different activities on a 1-to-10 risk level, with opening the mail being the least risky (1) and going to a bar, a sports stadium, a music concert or a religious service with more than 500 participants the most risky (9). That was not a scientific study but, rather, an aggregation of wisdom from some doctors. But the chart was distributed globally and translated into many languages — a sign of how much people wanted to know about how they might be able to safely coexist with the virus. Meanwhile, governors and mayors and their health department officials struggled to decide how to impose restrictions and for how long. Guidance offered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had no regulatory power and was sometimes disregarded by local and state governments eager to reopen. Brute-force shutdowns — closing nonessential businesses, banning sporting events, imposing curfews, removing the rims and nets from basketball backboards — were employed in many states in March and April during the first desperate weeks of the pandemic, when infections were spreading exponentially in the Northeast and some large cities. Hospitals feared they would soon have to ration care. Those shutdowns reversed the course of the crisis in the United States while also crashing the economy. Many states reopened while still having large numbers of new infections, a premature move that health experts blame for the subsequent national spikes in cases in the summer and now again in the fall. Shutdowns remain unpopular with public officials and with many scientists and doctors who see the collateral effects on people who are economically vulnerable or need steady medical care or emergency treatment for health issues not related to covid-19. And so officials have hoped to find nuanced approaches to rising case numbers — something short of shutdowns but still effective at reversing the dangerous trends. Redbird said she plans to use mobility data to observe how the pandemic has warped our culture. “What I’m going to watch for: How long does it take for the pattern of human interaction to return to normal — or, even, if it does,” she said. Read more: New York’s block-by-block lockdowns are curbing covid-19. But residents aren’t pleased. Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine is more than 90 percent effective in first analysis, company reports Shutdowns prevented 60 million coronavirus infections in the U.S., study finds


The McPlant is coming. McDonald’s won’t name its supplier, but all signs point to Beyond Meat.

have introduced plant-based options in recent years, but most of these have been partnerships with Impossible Foods or Beyond Meat. Fast Food partnerships, from KFC to Dunkin' to Qdoba, have been key drivers of these brands’ national growth. McDonald’s decision to create its own plant-based line raises the question if other fast food chains will eventually do the same. Whether that happens or not, the introduction of a plant-based line by the world’s largest fast food chain will certainly challenge these brands’ dominance of the plant-based market.” Last year, McDonald’s worked with Beyond Meat to test out a P.L.T. (plant, lettuce and tomato) sandwich at select locations in Ontario, and Beyond Meat says it is involved in the production of the McPlant as well, which would make sense. Earlier this year, Reuters reported that Impossible Foods pulled out of the competition to supply meatless burgers to McDonald’s, saying it could not produce enough to keep up with the chain’s demand. When contacted by The Post, Beyond Meat responded with a one-sentence statement through a spokesperson: “Beyond Meat and McDonald’s co-created a plant-based patty which will be available as part of their McPlant platform.” During an earnings call, Beyond Meat chief executive Ethan Brown said basically the same thing, that he felt “good about what we’re contributing to the McPlant platform,” according to a report by the Motley Fool. Brown added that he prefers when a chain brands its product with Beyond’s name, such as Carl’s Jr.'s Beyond Famous Star burger, but respects McDonald’s decision to stick with the McPlant handle. The questions around Beyond Meat’s involvement with the McPlant burger don’t seem to be helping the company’s stock, which dropped nearly 17 percent on Tuesday. When will America gets its hands on a McPlant burger? That, too, is a mystery. Borden said that some markets will begin taste-testing the sandwich next year but that a timetable was not immediately available. In a blog post on Monday, McDonald’s simply wrote, “Markets can adopt the McPlant when they’re ready and we expect some to test the burger next year.” In more-concrete news, McDonald’s said it will introduce a crispy chicken sandwich to restaurants across the country next year, a development that should come as welcome news to franchisees who had been waiting not-so-patiently to compete in the fast-food poultry wars. Described as a fried chicken fillet topped with crinkle-cut pickles and butter,


What determined if schools reopened? How many Trump voters were in a district.

Debates about whether to open schools have raged since the summer. Whatever else might shape these decisions, it would make sense that the local intensity of covid-19 spread would play a major part: School districts with low rates of cases would be more likely to open than school districts with high rates. Those districts would likely stick with a more cautious, online-only approach. But a new study we conducted, examining some 10,000 school districts across the country — some 75 percent of the total — remarkably finds essentially no connection between covid-19 case rates and decisions regarding schools. Rather, politics is shaping the decisions: The two main factors that determined whether a school district opened in-person were the level of support in the district for Donald Trump in 2016 and the strength of teachers’ unions. A third factor, with a much smaller impact, was the amount of competition a school district faces from private schools, in particular Catholic schools. The finding is a testament to how the nationalization of partisan politics affects governance at all levels. Traditionally, local governments — and particularly school boards, whose members are often elected in nonpartisan, unusually timed elections — have been more technocratic than their state or federal counterparts. Public officials at the local level concentrate on problems like keeping streets paved and deciding whether to build a new elementary school or buy new buses. Yet this study suggests that the polarizing politics of red and blue caused school boards to drift away from a dispassionate analysis of covid-19 numbers toward the political preferences of their constituents. The “nationalization” of local politics at all levels has been observed for years by political scientists, but this may be the first time it has been documented so starkly in school boards. The database of school districts we used included information about whether school districts opened — and to what extent. To capture the prevalence of covid-19 cases, we drew on information from Johns Hopkins University; we focused mainly on the number of new cases per 10,000 in the last two weeks of August in each district, when many school boards were making their first decisions about whether to open in-person. The measure indicating support for Trump was straightforward: the share of votes in each district for Trump. The link between covid-19 cases and a decision to open was minuscule and inconsistent: We found no statistical link


The best barbecue joints in the D.C. area

elegant tangle of smoke, acid, flesh and fat. Their spare ribs are textbook, the kind that let you sink your teeth into them, feeling that small, electric tug of meat from bone. Their chicken and Texas sausage hold their own, though the former’s aggressive seasonings can sometimes overwhelm the delicate white meat. Texas Jack’s brisket, usually its main attraction, was uncharacteristically tight on my recent order, as if the moisture had been leached from the slices. I chalked this up to the pandemic and the problem of slicing meats too early for takeaway, giving the beef time to degrade before unwitting customers (or a critic) can pick up their orders. 2761 Washington Blvd., Arlington. 703-875-0477. DCity has ditched the traditional smokehouse hierarchy, in which a single pitmaster leads the crew and gets all the recognition (and the higher salary). Instead, Southeast Restaurant Group has instituted a team approach to smoking meats at DCity, where they keep a large-capacity J&R smoker running 24/7. The approach has paid off handsomely for the brand that debuted seven years ago as a tiny takeout with a big reputation. (If you’ll recall, Federalist Pig’s Sonderman was the pitmaster then, back when DCity still believed in a top-down structure.) No matter what meat you order at DCity — turkey, brisket, wings, pulled pork, spare ribs — it will arrive bathed in beautiful wood smoke, a mixture of fruit woods and post oak. In a region where barbecue joints often try to skate by with machines that can barely cough up a decent cloud of wood smoke, DCity is the real deal. The place is at the top of its game. 203 Florida Ave. NW. 202-733-1919. Not only did co-owners Debby Portillo and Fernando Gonzalez open their restaurant during a pandemic, but they did so while also trying to renew their L-1A visas. Both circumstances have presented unique challenges to the couple from El Salvador. “To all that we’ve been through, now we have to add the renewal process. It’s a lot for us,” says Portillo, whose family has a long history of running restaurants and pupuserias back in the home country. 2Fifty is a joint project from Portillo, Gonzalez and Portillo’s father, Samuel, and it is singularly dedicated to Texas-style barbecue, under whose spell Gonzalez fell after a tour of Lone Star State smokehouses. The couple started out selling sandwiches and ingenious vacuum-sealed meats at farmers


Trump may be headed out the door, but Saudi Arabia’s global enablers remain

In November 2017, Jamal Khashoggi told me “In Saudi Arabia, we cannot choose our leaders. We can only hope they get it right.” Less than a year later, the Post contributing columnist would be murdered by agents of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a leader he did not choose. Throughout his bloodstained rise to and consolidation of power, MBS, as the crown prince is generally known, placed his hopes in President Trump and Jared Kushner. But on Saturday, the news was official: The United States voted out Trump, electing Joseph Biden as the 46th president of the United States. According to conventional wisdom, now that the American people have sent the Trump administration packing, MBS should be shaking in his thobe. But the harsher reality is that the systems that have helped paved the way for Saudi Arabia’s current trail of tyranny are still very much in place. Trump and Kushner, almost from the very beginning of the Trump administration, signaled that Saudi Arabia would be given extra special treatment. “We put our man on top,” Trump reportedly bragged when Mohammed bin Salman became crown prince after wrenching power from his older cousin in 2017. Saudi Arabia was the first country that the then-freshly elected and notoriously travel-averse Trump flew to early in 2017, to an extravagant fete put on by the regime, which is said to have spent as much as $68 million on the summit. MBS would go on to say, “Trump was the right person at the right time” for Saudi Arabia. The Saudi and Emirati governments reportedly offered the Trump campaign help to win the 2016 election, according to the New York Times. In 2018, MBS reportedly bragged that he had Kushner “in his pocket,” according to the Intercept. While Trump has been in office, Saudi Arabia has arrested influential personalities and activists, including women’s rights advocates. It also tried to pursue an impulsive war against Qatar, and imposed a blockade on the country. Kushner reportedly gave advice to Mohammed bin Salman on how to weather the storm after Jamal’s gruesome murder, and Trump later bragged to Bob Woodward about shielding MBS from congressional scrutiny. Jamal’s assassination was personal and devastating. But the entire country of Yemen has been bludgeoned by Saudi Arabia and its partners in the gulf coalition that has orchestrated airstrikes against it since 2015. The United States has been one of


Chad Wolf planning Latin America trip amid staff concerns about coronavirus

Acting Department of Homeland Security secretary Chad Wolf is making plans to travel to several countries in Latin America next month, a proposal that has raised concerns about the necessity of such a trip in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. The trip is tentatively scheduled for the week of Dec. 7, and it could include stops in El Salvador, Panama, Colombia, Brazil and Ecuador, according to three people with knowledge of the plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the preparations. The United States has more confirmed coronavirus infections than any other country in the world, but Latin American nations have been especially hard-hit, and Brazil and Colombia have mortality rates from the disease that exceed the U.S. mark, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. There are no major conferences for Wolf to attend in the region that week, and at least one person familiar with the outlines of the plan referred to the trip as “a boondoggle.” “There are no specific events requiring the travel,” the person said. “The region is hard-hit by covid and embassies will be hard-pressed to deal with so many visitors in a covid-safe way.” In addition to top aides, Wolf’s travel would require a Secret Service security detail and the assistance of embassy staffers in each nation. Homeland Security officials declined to discuss Wolf’s tentative plans. “The Department of Homeland Security does not comment on allegedly leaked documents,” spokesman Alexei Woltornist said in a statement. “The Department will continue to carry out its mission protecting the Homeland.” One person with knowledge of the plans said the purpose of the trip would be to advance discussions on a range of topics, from cargo security to cybercrime and criminal fugitives. The DHS delegation will observe the same diplomatic protocols followed by the State Department to minimize the risk of spreading the coronavirus, the person said. While a stop in Brazil is the least likely of the five nations on the itinerary, the other four remain part of Wolf’s plans, the person said. Under Trump, DHS has signed “asylum cooperation agreements” with Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador that allow U.S. authorities to take migrants seeking humanitarian protections and fly them to Central America instead. The agreement with Guatemala is the only one that has taken effect, but Trump administration officials have sought to reach bilateral agreements


Boris Johnson’s Brexit has a Joe Biden problem

the former vice president to Western leaders, including those of France, Germany and, it did not go unnoticed, Ireland. In the call to Johnson, Biden stressed his support for the 1998 Good Friday Agreement in Ireland, which was brokered by President Bill Clinton and ended decades of sectarian bloodshed. Biden emphasized the importance of implementing Brexit in a way that supports the still ongoing peace process, British officials said. In its readout of the call, Downing Street did not mention Northern Ireland. Biden has made a big deal of his Irish heritage. And alongside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), he has warned the British that there will be no U.S.-Britain trade deal if Brexit undercuts the free movement of people and goods in an Ireland where the old militarized land frontier between north and south has been removed, and the border today is invisible. Candidate Biden warned that “any trade deal between the U.S. and U.K. must be contingent upon respect for the agreement and preventing the return of a hard border.” Johnson has potentially upset that delicate balance with legislation to carry out his version of a Brexit, called the Internal Market Bill, which one of his own ministers called a violation of international law. In the event that Britain cannot strike a trade deal with the European Union, the bill would place a priority on the free flow of goods between Northern Ireland and Britain, which in turn could reintroduce border checks to the island — between the Republic of Ireland, a part of the European Union, and Northern Ireland, a part of Britain. In their 20-minute telephone call, Biden and Johnson sought common ground, “promoting global health security; pursuing a sustainable economic recovery; combating climate change; strengthening democracy, and working together on issues such as the Western Balkans and Ukraine,” according to the Biden transition team. But there is a question about how much Washington will need London in a post-Brexit world. Before Brexit, U.S. administrations could count on Britain to serve as an ally and proxy in Europe. But in a speech Tuesday in the House of Lords, former British prime minister John Major warned that Johnson’s Brexit makes Britain less important. “Suddenly, we are no longer an irreplaceable bridge between Europe and America. We are now less relevant to them both,” said Major, a member of Johnson’s Conservative Party. “We are a top second-rank power,


This is what the pandemic is doing to the country

On Wednesday, 31 states were at the highest seven-day averages of new coronavirus cases they had seen since the pandemic erupted this year. Twenty-two states were reporting more hospitalizations than at any previous point. Ten states saw their highest seven-day averages of deaths from covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. We are in the middle of the third coronavirus surge the country has seen over 2020. The first ended in early April after the number of new cases confirmed each day reached 31,000. The second began in early June, just as Vice President Pence was writing that the country was not undergoing a second wave of infections. By July 22, the country was seeing 67,000 new cases a day before the surge receded. The current surge, the third, began Sept. 12. It is ongoing, with the country exceeding 127,000 new cases Wednesday — as many cases that day as were added in total from the beginning of the pandemic through March 28. The situation is bad. The map below shows case, hospitalization and death data relative to each state’s peak and as a function of population. It also shows the rate of positive tests in each state, a measure of how broadly the virus is spreading. In 28 states, at least 10 percent of tests are coming back positive. (Data on hospitalizations and positive rates are from the COVID Tracking Project.) The White House has repeatedly touted the fact that a smaller percentage of those who contract the virus are dying than earlier in the pandemic, which is true. It is also true both that the ratio of new cases to deaths has been fairly steady since early July and that the current surge in cases threatens to fill hospitals with coronavirus patients, reducing hospital capacity for any type of patient, covid-19-related or not. The point of “flattening the curve” this year wasn’t just to limit the spread of the virus; it was to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed. In some states, they already are. What the interactive above tracks is not just the spread of the virus but the administration’s embrace of a hands-off approach to containing it. In mid-August, President Trump added neuroradiologist Scott Atlas to the White House coronavirus task force, where he began advocating for a policy of allowing the virus to spread while protecting vulnerable individuals and increasing hospital capacity. Those latter two goals


‘Covid-hell.’ ‘Humanitarian disaster.’ Experts sound the alarm about U.S. coronavirus outbreak.

short on beds and staff. “Our hospitals are full,” Megan Ranney, an emergency medicine professor at Brown University, said in an interview. “Our workers are getting sick. And it is simply overwhelming the system.” The rapid rise in hospitalizations could foreshadow a long period of rising deaths, said Scott Gottlieb, former director of the Food and Drug Administration. Although improvements in care have pushed the mortality rate below 1 percent in the United States, 1,549 people died of the virus Wednesday, the highest toll since April. The distribution of hospitalizations across the country means it will be hard for health-care workers from one region of the country to serve as backup in another area, Gottlieb wrote on Twitter. The only slightly reassuring news is that most hospitals have not entered true crisis mode, he said Thursday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “Every hospital system is a little pressed right now,” Gottlieb said. “There’s only a handful that are really overwhelmed: Wisconsin, parts of Texas, Utah, South and North Dakota.” But the trends suggest that that could change. Osterholm said ballooning numbers of infections nationwide mean more hospitals could soon look like those in El Paso, where health-care workers are bringing in mobile morgues and airlifting patients to other cities. “We have to tell the story of what’s coming; people don’t want to hear that El Paso isn’t an isolated event,” he told Yahoo Finance on Thursday. “It will become the norm.” Frieden tweeted that the United States has entered “the exponential phase” of virus spread and that the situation will worsen significantly before it improves. But he emphasized that policy decisions have an impact, and throwing in the towel is the wrong solution. “Not all of the US is experiencing the same rate of Covid spread — some states are doing much better than others,” he wrote. “For example, South Dakota (the state with the highest rate) has 100 times more spread than Vermont right now.” Individual decisions also make a difference, Gottlieb said, especially as people prepare to travel and visit people outside their household for Thanksgiving. The transmission of the virus tracks closely with people’s movement in their communities. “If people on the whole just go to the store one less time a week, you could substantially reduce spread,” Gottlieb said on “Squawk Box.” The lack of that kind of self-sacrifice is one factor that Ranney said she believes


A covid-19 vaccine might be tough to distribute in countries at war

populations may refuse to be vaccinated, and some may even launch forms of violent resistance. Suspicions and violence against health workers are nothing new — misinformed people across Europe murdered surgeons, physicians, pharmacists and nurses in response to cholera outbreaks in the 19th and 20th centuries, for instance. When Ebola broke out in 2014 in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, protesters could be seen carrying signs declaring “Ebola is a lie!” Some people engaged in violent attacks on clinics, health workers and burial teams, resulting in numerous deaths of humanitarian workers. There’s evidence that public awareness campaigns in the form of radio advertisements, signs and door-to-door canvassing resulted in greater compliance with measures that prevent the spread of Ebola. With violence against health workers often driven by fear or anger, humanitarian organizations have adopted strategies like recruiting trusted community members and training them to deliver accurate public health information as a way to broaden support for their work. In the Ebola example, people tended to associate security forces accompanying vaccination teams with distrust and fear of forced vaccination — while vaccination teams without military escorts typically encountered far more willing communities. The international medical assistance group Doctors Without Borders, for instance, generally refuses military support, believing this approach generates less suspicion from armed groups. In this year’s increasingly polarized political environment, misinformation and skepticism pose a truly global challenge to efforts to combat the coronavirus. In a September survey, nearly two-thirds of Americans worried that pressure from the Trump administration would prompt the Food and Drug Administration to rush the approval of a covid-19 vaccine, and potentially ignore safety concerns. Other surveys suggest Republicans in particular have grown distrustful of scientists including Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — a Trump adviser on the pandemic whose covid-19 advice has often been at odds with the president’s views. These findings suggest that from Washington to more remote areas in conflict-affected countries, building up trust in government messaging will be an important part of the global covid-19 response. In order for vaccination campaigns to work, public health officials note it is essential that governments present a clear and consistent message to build public confidence in vaccine programs. Higher levels of trust in government are linked to individuals being more likely to accept vaccines. Professors: Don’t miss TMC’s expanding list of classroom topic guides. Jori Breslawski


As coronavirus soars, hospitals hope to avoid an agonizing choice: Who gets care and who goes home

patients, nearly 3,000 are on ventilators — more than double the number of ventilated patients as of Oct. 1, according to The Post’s coronavirus tracking data. With the rise in infections came more disturbing news: a significant uptick in the number of people who have died: 1,408 more deaths were reported as of Wednesday evening. Tennessee, Alabama and Minnesota all reached new highs in their daily death tolls. In Illinois, there was a new high of infections again — 12,657 — marking a toll of at least 10,000 cases each day over the past week. The state’s number of hospitalized covid-19 patients is at 5,042, topping the old high set near the end of April. Its 153 deaths was just short of a record set in late May. In Ohio, more than 2,745 people are hospitalized with covid-19, a number that has doubled in the last 16 days, according to health department data analyzed by The Post. The state also reported 76 additional deaths and 5,874 new test-confirmed infections. In Iowa, a record number of patients are in intensive care. The state had a record high of new cases, 4,764, along with 26 new deaths, according to The Post’s tracker. “The cat’s already out of the bag,” said Albert Ko, an infectious-disease physician at the Yale School of Public Health who’s treating covid-19 patients. “We’re having widespread transmission. It’s going to get worse, certainly for the next month.” A group of Illinois health-care workers wrote an open letter to Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) on Monday predicting that “Illinois will surpass its ICU bed capacity by Thanksgiving.” Two leaders of the group, the Illinois Medical Professionals Action Collaborative Team (IMPACT), said Illinois is “on a bad trajectory.” “Cases have been rising really sharply, especially in Illinois, where for the past four days we had more than 10,000 cases, which was the highest number of cases that a state had experienced,” said Vineet Arora, chief executive of the team. Arora, who is also a hospitalist at the University of Chicago, is afraid the rate of infection will reach a point similar to New York at the height of its spring surge, “where physicians were having to decide, does this patient have a higher chance of surviving, or this patient?” Anticipating a further surge in coronavirus patients, the Cleveland Clinic hospital system decided to postpone most nonessential


Sports were a distraction from the pandemic. Now they’re being battered by it.

called off a game, and two other programs, Seton Hall and Minnesota, announced they were pausing activities. The Ivy League took the extraordinary — or sensible — step of calling off all winter sports Thursday. “What America has to understand is that we are about to enter covid hell,” said Michael T. Osterholm, an adviser to President-elect Joe Biden and the director of the Center of Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, during a CNBC interview. “It is happening.” We may be en route to hell, but the International Olympic Committee expressed confidence this week that some fans would be allowed at the rescheduled Olympics in July. The sports world remains a utopia of optimism and tunnel vision. Of course, hope means nothing to this coronavirus. It can be defeated only by science, and for now, the best defense is diligence about wearing masks, social distancing and following health protocols. Sports have set a decent example. But as NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said recently, “Ninety percent [compliance] is not good enough in this environment.” And it’s a tall order to ask large groups of people to grade out better than 90 percent at anything. It was a worthwhile reset for most major sports to take a break from mid-March to late July. They learned plenty about the virus, and time helped the NBA, WNBA and NHL develop bubble concepts to complete their seasons. Other enterprises figured out some best practices, too. But since then, you have seen the problems with waiting. The nation has neither developed a uniform strategy nor agreed to adhere to the simplest measures for people to protect each other. Now the virus is out of control. For leagues determined to play, it seems best not to delay. In hindsight, the Big Ten and Pac-12 should have tried to stay on schedule instead of initially opting to delay until the new year, only to change their minds to keep up with their peers. Now they’re late to the party and experiencing the same issues as programs that started in September. The difference is they’re at a competitive disadvantage trying to cram in their seasons before the scheduled start of the College Football Playoff. Consider what the NBA is doing, rushing back to play by Christmas after just finishing a season that lasted into October. Why not wait and hold out hope for a


Mortgage rates climb on news of coronavirus vaccine breakthrough

competing forces that will keep rates in an uneven pattern,” Michael Borodinsky, vice president of Caliber Home Loans in Edison, N.J., said in an email. “The current higher rates of covid-19 infections could force local economies to shut down, which would in turn support lower mortgage rates. The longer-term hopes for a successful vaccine will boost the economy and push rates marginally higher.” Borodinsky added that with the Fed’s plan to stick with its purchase of mortgage-backed securities until at least 2023, “we can expect mortgage rates to remain near historically low levels for the foreseeable future.” Freddie Mac’s averages come from its Primary Mortgage Market Survey — a questionnaire sent every week to 80 lenders nationwide to capture the rates they’re offering buyers. The survey is confined to borrowers with excellent credit seeking conventional mortgages making a 20 percent down payment. “Mortgage rates jumped this week as a result of positive news about a COVID-19 vaccine,” Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, said in a statement. “Despite this rise, mortgage rates remain about a percentage point below a year ago and the low rate environment is supportive of both purchase and refinance demand. Heading into late fall, the housing market continues to grow and buttress the economy.” Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, said he thinks that, given the vaccine news, “we’ve seen the bottom for mortgage rates. But we won’t see any notable increases, either.” The existence of the vaccine means that the economy will grow in 2021 and investors will be less likely to invest in safe assets such as mortgage bonds, Yun said. For buyers, the difference in monthly payment on a $400,000 30-year fixed-rate loan at this week’s rate of 2.84 percent, compared with last year at this time, when the rate was 3.75 percent, is about $200 per month. However, Yun said, fast-rising home prices negate some of the impact of low-interest rates. Meanwhile, the high demand from buyers, driven by the low interest rates, is squeezing the supply of homes for sale. Thus, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, the overall number of borrowers seeking mortgages fell slightly. The market composite index, which measures the volume of both application types, dropped 0.5 percent from last week. The purchase index decreased 5 percent from last week but rose 16 percent from a year ago. The refinance index rose 1 percent


Here’s what travelers can expect from Black Friday, Cyber Monday sales during the pandemic

it a hotel room or plane tickets, make sure to check prices ahead of time to compare them with offerings during the sale. It is the best way to find out just how good of a deal you can secure. Because time is arbitrary in 2020, Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals are no longer tethered to their day. Many retailers started their holiday sales back in October. EF Go Ahead Tours And who says the holiday has to stop in November? The DoubleTree Suites by Hilton in downtown Salt Lake City, for one, is offering its “buy one, get one free” Black Friday deal (with chocolate chip cookie on arrival) through the end of the year. Healdsburg Inn on the Plaza in California wine country is offering 50 percent off stays when booked between Nov. 27, 2020, through April 1, 2021. Because of the unpredictable nature of the pandemic, it’s nearly impossible to make concrete travel plans. Travel brands are offering deals accordingly. “There will be a lot more flexibility at play than they’ve seen in years past,” Corwin says, adding that travelers should be looking for great deals but also for the most lenient cancellation or rescheduling policies. She says many airlines and hotels have implemented flexible policies as is, but she is seeing many offer further flexibility during the sales. Many companies are offering bookings without cancellation or change fees. For example, Intrepid Travel’s sale is offering 20 percent off international trips and 10 percent off domestic trips that may be changed without a fee 21 days before scheduled departures — whether that’s for a new travel date or a completely different trip. In Florida, the 30 percent off Black Friday and Cyber Monday trips to Margaritaville Resort Orlando and Encore Resort at Reunion can be canceled without fees and come with resort credits to sweeten the deal. Travel during the pandemic: Tips: Safe holiday travel | Coronavirus testing | Sanitizing your hotel | Using Uber and Airbnb Flying: Pandemic packing | Airport protocol | Staying healthy on plane | Fly or drive | Best days to fly Road trips: Tips | Rental cars | Best snacks | Long-haul trains | Foliage finder | Art road trips Camping: First-time | Camping alone | Meal planning | Glamping | National parks Places: Hawaii | Machu Picchu | New York | Private islands | Caribbean | Mexico | Europe


The Health 202: The U.S. is poised for another wave of covid-19 deaths, public health experts warn

with Alexandra Ellerbeck Lately, the U.S. election has overshadowed the coronavirus pandemic. Yet in the background the virus has been spreading more rapidly than ever before, positioning the nation for yet another surge in fatalities — and one that could prove more deadly than either of the first two waves over the spring and summer. “I’m very concerned about the attention having shifted away from the pandemic crisis,” Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, wrote me in an email. “The exponential spread has continued unabated, while much of the country’s attention has been election-centric.” Over the past week, an average of more than 120,000 people have tested positive every day, about double the rate in July. On Tuesday, the United States reached another one-day record, with more than 135,000 new cases. And this time, cases are spreading the fastest in the country’s center. At least five states, including Missouri and Wisconsin, set single-day highest for fatalities on Tuesday, Brady Dennis, Jacqueline Dupree and Marisa Iati report. At least five more — including Illinois and Pennsylvania — set single-day highs for new cases. Bloomberg News reporter Steven Dennis: Hannah Meisel, an NPR reporter who covers Illinois: Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R): “As a worrisome summer gives way to a harrowing fall, the nation’s surge of coronavirus cases shows no signs of easing,” they write. “With little help and scant guidance from a Washington stuck in political limbo, some states and localities rushed to put in place new restrictions aimed at slowing the virus’s spread. Still, almost every metric appeared headed in an ominous direction.” Almost no part of the country is exempt. Infections are surging in the greater Washington region, which now has a rolling seven-day average of more than 3,000 daily new cases across D.C., Maryland and Virginia. In New York, daily new cases have doubled over the past three weeks. Even California, which has implemented some of the strictest mitigation measures, reported its testing positivity rate has risen above 4 percent for the first time since late August. Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, said “it scares the hell out of me.” “This is like one huge coronavirus forest fire, and I don’t think it’s going to spare much human wood out there unless we change our behavior,” Osterholm told my colleagues. Osterholm is among a host


traditional aversion to confronting its member countries has come at a high price,” Maria writes. “As covid-19 spread, WHO often shied away from calling out countries, as big donors such as Japan, France and Britain made repeated mistakes, according to dozens of leaked recordings of internal WHO meetings and documents from January to April.” The Trump administration cited WHO's refusal to publicly call out China for failing to share information in its decision to cut off funds to the agency and withdraw the United States. Biden has said that he intends to reverse that decision. The World Health Organization's annual meeting with delegations from member states is taking place this week. In the wake of Pfizer’s announcement of early data suggesting 90 percent effectiveness for its coronavirus vaccine, other drugmakers are lining to stake their own claims as top contenders in a fierce competition to develop a safe and effective vaccine. Moderna on Wednesday said that it has enough data for a first interim-analysis of its Phase 3 vaccine trial. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, said he expected data to be available in a week or less. Because investigators are not conducting so-called challenge trials, in which participants are purposefully infected with the virus, they must wait until a number of people in their study group have been naturally infected and then analyze the data to see how many of these individuals are from the placebo group versus how many received a vaccine. Surging cases across the United States have sped clinical trials along by increasing the number of infections in the study groups. Russia also announced that its coronavirus vaccine, known as Sputnik V, is 92 percent effective, although the scientists have not released details from the study or the trial protocols. The results are also based on only 20 cases, which may make them less compelling than the 94 confirmed cases in the data from Pfizer and BioNTech, although scientists have said that the results are not implausible. In Brazil, meanwhile, the nation's health regulator gave the go-ahead to resume trials of a vaccine developed by the Chinese firm Sinovac. The trials were briefly suspended after a volunteer died, although the Brazilian partner in charge of the trial said that the death was unrelated to the vaccine. Both China and Russia approved their vaccines for emergency use at home before completion of Phase 3 trials. “Of


A nest filled with hundreds of ‘murder hornets’ was destroyed ‘just in the nick of time,’ officials say

captured specimens. They followed them back to the nest, which Spichiger said was located less than 30 feet from a children’s play set. At approximately 5:30 a.m. on Oct. 24, Spichiger and his team of scientists set up scaffolding around an alder tree in the Sheltons’ backyard to reach the nest, which stood about eight feet off the ground, according to KOMO. They blocked off most of the opening with a thick foam covering and wrapped cellophane around the trunk. As some entomologists hit the tree to stir up the hornets, others sucked up the insects through a vacuum hose stuck in the remaining opening to the nest. “The whole thing was just wild,” Shelton told the TV station. Before pumping the tree with carbon dioxide and sealing it with foam cellophane, scientists managed to capture nearly 100 hornets, including two queens. But more insects remained, so officials returned later that week to finish carrying out their plan. On Oct. 28, they used a chain saw to cut off the part of the tree that contained the nest, taking this segment of the trunk back to a laboratory at Washington State University to analyze the nest. Inside a walk-in cooler, where the cold temperatures stunted the insects’ mobility, the scientists cracked the tree open with a sledgehammer and collected hornets at various stages of life. Of approximately 500 insects collected throughout the operation, Spichiger said they found nearly 200 queens — an especially concerning figure because most of them were virgins, meaning they would later leave their nest, mate and then start their own colonies following the winter. “There’s no doubt that had we not intervened and destroyed this nest, we would be starting with that number of 200,” he said during the news conference this week. Because the hornets are well-suited to live in many parts of the West Coast — and anywhere east of the Mississippi River — it was crucial to remove the nest to protect honeybees, which act as pollinators for a wide array of agricultural production, Spichiger said. Entomologists in his department have continued monitoring the area for additional nests in recent weeks and plan to do so through Thanksgiving. “Even though we’re fighting this fight in Washington right now, it literally is for the rest of the country,” he added. “To protect our managed pollinator system alone is a great reason to do it.”


China forces ouster of Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmakers, quashing opposition

HONG KONG — China forced the ouster of four pro-democracy lawmakers from Hong Kong's legislature Wednesday, triggering a mass walkout of opposition legislators and solidifying Beijing's stranglehold on the city. The move, announced by Hong Kong officials after Beijing issued a new directive to disqualify lawmakers it deemed unpatriotic, represented a decisive blow that virtually eliminates opposition in the legislature for the first time since Hong Kong's handover from Britain in 1997. Beijing’s ruling, bypassing Hong Kong’s courts and political structures, underlined its efforts to sharply curb the financial center’s autonomy. The intervention and its timing also signaled to President-elect Joe Biden that the ruling Communist Party has no intention of easing its crackdown on Hong Kong, a subject of bitter dispute between the United States and China. The four lawmakers — among them accountant Kenneth Leung and lawyer Alvin Yeung, who leads a liberal party — were barred in July from seeking reelection in legislative contests that were originally scheduled for September but that the government postponed for a year, citing the coronavirus. They were initially told they could stay on until the elections. But on Wednesday, Beijing passed a resolution that any lawmakers who support Hong Kong’s independence, or are otherwise deemed unpatriotic for reasons such as petitioning foreign powers to intervene in the city’s affairs, must be disqualified. Pro-democracy representatives had already threatened to resign en masse if that happened, and they announced hours later that they would walk out of the legislature, saying it was no longer a legitimate political forum. “They have totally given up on ‘one country, two systems’ in Hong Kong,” said Wu Chi-wai, leader of the Democratic Party, referring to the framework by which the city enjoyed autonomy within China. “Our colleagues are being disqualified by the central government’s ruthless rules.” They would formally resign Thursday, he said, adding, “We will continue to fight, and find a path.” Almost a dozen pro-democracy legislators In a news conference, the four expressed sadness and dismay, and said they had fought for the democratic principles in Hong Kong’s mini-constitution and laws. “We are all professional people, giving up a lot of our time and resources because we want to fight for justice and the core values of Hong Kong,” said Leung, who has represented the accountancy sector for the past eight years. In a previous interview with The Washington Post, Leung pushed back against the


Maryland game against Ohio State canceled after eight Terps test positive for coronavirus

Maryland’s football game against Ohio State has been canceled because of an elevated number of coronavirus cases within the Terrapins’ program, the school announced Wednesday. It is the eighth major college football game scheduled for this weekend to be postponed or canceled because of coronavirus concerns, five of them involving Top 25 teams. The No. 3 Buckeyes were scheduled to visit College Park on Saturday, but eight Maryland players tested positive for the coronavirus in the past week, the school said in a statement. Following a recommendation from university health officials, the decision to pause team activities and cancel the game was made by Athletic Director Damon Evans and Darryll Pines, the president of the university. “There is nothing more important than the health and well-being of our student-athletes, coaches and staff,” Evans said in a statement. “We realize that this news is disappointing to all of the Maryland fans out there who were looking forward to the Terps taking on an outstanding Ohio State team, but the responsible thing for us to do is pause football activities, given the number of positive cases currently in our program.” Every weekend since the college football season began, a handful of games have been postponed or canceled. With cases spiking across the United States, an increasing number of games are being affected. Four SEC games were postponed this weekend, leaving only three matchups on the conference’s schedule. “We’ve seen disruption in every conference and in leagues at the professional level, so the fact that we have disruption this week is not fully news,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey told reporters Wednesday. “The significance of the number of contests affected fully is.” The SEC scheduled its conference championship game for Dec. 19 with an open date Dec. 12. Many of the postponed games were rescheduled for Dec. 12, but with the number of affected games increasing each week, it is becoming more difficult to fit them into the schedule. The SEC said in a statement that Dec. 19 could be considered for rescheduled games involving teams not in the title game. “It’s a difficult circumstance, no way to paint it otherwise, but we knew that challenges would emerge for college sports,” Sankey said. “... We’ll continue to move forward with our efforts to support healthy competition leading us to a conference championship in football. That’s been our goal while acknowledging the potential for adjustments


Prisons and jails have become a ‘public health threat’ during the pandemic, advocates say

at freeing people from prisons, jails and immigration detention facilities, with limited success largely because a 1996 law limits inmates’ ability to sue. Now, advocates say, those gains are being eroded, leading to fears about additional outbreaks and mounting death tolls. A recent overview by the Covid, Corrections, and Oversight Project at the University of Texas at Austin found that the death curve in Texas prisons remains “stubbornly high”; in one East Texas prison, the Duncan Unit, nearly 6 percent of inmates have died. “The truth is, there is really only one way to meaningfully reduce the risk of spread, and that is to release enough people to make it possible for those who remain to socially distance,” Dolovich said. In some cases, courts or governments are intervening to reduce prison and jail populations. After an outbreak at San Quentin State Prison, a California appellate court ruled in October that the facility must halve its inmate population by releasing or moving nearly 1,500 people. Infections erupted at San Quentin in May after officials transferred 121 inmates from a facility in Chino, Calif. Though the Chino prison was suffering its own outbreak, officials took no steps to keep the new arrivals separate from the existing population. Since then, more than 2,200 prisoners have tested positive in San Quentin, along with 298 staff members. Twenty-eight inmates and one worker have died in what the court called the “worst epidemiological disaster in California correctional history.” The prison’s failure to adopt and implement measures to protect prisoners is “morally indefensible and constitutionally untenable,” the court wrote. A San Quentin representative did not respond to requests for comment. Across California, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has released nearly 6,000 inmates in four months, bringing the state’s prison population to its lowest level in three decades. Thousands of additional inmates are deemed vulnerable and eligible for release. In New Jersey, which has recorded more virus-related prison deaths than almost any state in the nation, Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed legislation last month that could free about 20 percent of state inmates, primarily people within a year of release. The first 2,200 were freed last week. New Jersey is an outlier. Dolovich said about half the reduction in jail population has been erased since May. Prison numbers have shown less change. And while there is too little public testing information to determine whether infections have ramped up as


one time, and have the results rolling in all day and all night long, you’re going to make the best decisions at the time,” she said. To keep the infected and noninfected apart, “you’re literally talking about moving literally hundreds of people every day.” Since the outbreaks, “we’ve completely changed our testing plan and how we deal with outbreaks,” she said, adding that the facility now tests prisoners at “decision points,” including when an inmate enters or is released from the prison and during contact tracing. “We’ve had very good outcomes, comparatively speaking,” Chambers-Smith said. As of Monday, the Pickaway death toll stood at 35. Before the virus was detected at Pickaway, inmates worried that guards didn’t take the threat seriously. For example, Harold Davis III saw Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) on the news telling people to wash their hands, keep surfaces clean and stay six feet apart. So when a corrections officer wearing latex gloves tried to pat Davis down as he was leaving the chow hall, Davis asked to shake out his pockets himself. “I don’t want you touching me with that pair of gloves that you just touched three or four hundred people with,” said Davis, who is in prison for drug trafficking, theft and vandalism. But he said the officer told him to shut up and patted him down anyway. After Viney’s death, the Ohio National Guard was deployed to Pickaway to help with testing. Work was suspended at the prison-run meatpacking facility, which processes food that is then sold to Kroger and Heinen’s grocery stores. But prisoners kept getting sick. Inmates described seeing ambulances — sometimes six at a time — outside the prison, and receiving little information about who was infected. Timothy Bailey, who is serving a 10-year sentence for drug trafficking, recalled being worried about his friend James Webb, 64. Webb, locked up for nearly five years on rape charges, suffered from a bone marrow disease. “If you touched him, he’d bruise,” Bailey said. Webb died of covid-19 on April 27. Another covid victim, Christopher Malone, 68, had been in prison since 1987 for murder and felonious assault. Tavaughn Lewis, 27, remembered Malone as a father figure. In prison for manslaughter since he was 19, Lewis said Malone was the rare older inmate who looked out for him and told him he had value. Lewis said it fell to him to tell


Daily coronavirus infections surpass 3,000 in D.C. region, setting record for eighth day

Ralph Northam (D) on Tuesday urged residents to follow health protocols to slow the virus’s spread, but said it is not the time to toughen enforcement or impose new restrictions. D.C. officials this week said they are regularly evaluating restrictions. Maryland is recording an average of 23 new cases each day per 100,000 residents, a statistic that stands at 18 in Virginia and 16 in the District. The national average Wednesday stood at 37 new cases per 100,000 residents. Caseloads have been rising in the Washington region for weeks. Health experts say colder weather has pushed activities indoors and that the public is increasingly letting down its guard with regard to social distancing, mask-wearing and limiting social interactions. Contact tracing shows much of the spread is occurring during social and family gatherings. Officials also have sounded the alarm in recent weeks about holiday travel potentially increasing the virus’s spread. More than 350,000 people opted into Maryland’s smartphone contact-tracing app on Tuesday, the first day it was operational, state officials said. The app, available on Apple and Android phones, assigns users random numbers that can be used to trace whether they have encountered someone who later tests positive for the virus. Some of Maryland’s highest rates of infection are in rural areas that were largely spared in the spring when the virus swept through the state’s populated Washington suburbs and the Baltimore area. The seven-day average of new cases in Western Maryland’s Allegany County is more than five times that of 14 days ago. On Wednesday, Frostburg State University in Allegany County suspended in-person courses for the rest of the semester following a campus outbreak. Forty-five students and employees who have contracted the virus are in isolation. The University of Maryland on Wednesday canceled Saturday’s football game against Ohio State University after eight Maryland players tested positive for the virus this week. Wednesday’s seven-day average of 3,015 new infections in Virginia, Maryland and D.C. was well above the peak seen during the first wave of the pandemic. Before this recent surge in cases, a record high of 2,218 average daily infections had stood since May 31. Despite the sharp rise in caseloads, the number of coronavirus-related fatalities in the region has generally held steady, with the seven-day average standing at 21 on Wednesday. The region added 31 new deaths Wednesday, with 16 in Maryland, 15 in Virginia and none in D.C.


Spanberger sparked a debate about ‘defund the police’ attacks. Cameron Webb slogged through them.

Democratic Party rather than something we should weaponize among ourselves.” Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), who represents deep-blue Arlington and Alexandria, said he was skeptical about how much Republican attack ads truly hurt Democrats in swing districts, believing Trump’s mobilization of supporters was the most potent and obvious factor affecting those contests. Beyer also said Webb’s race — he would have been the first Black doctor ever elected to Congress — may have been a factor, especially given the racially polarized presidential campaign. “Without Trump on the ticket, [Webb] might have been able to do better,” Beyer said. “Trump was bringing out the White working class, who in much of the South are still not going to be excited about a Black candidate. They may not consider themselves racist at all — I’m not trying to say that — but it is a subtle part of their world perspective.” Luria also noted that the lines of the 5th District had been redrawn since 2008, the last time a Democrat won, so that they favored Republicans even more. But when it came down to it, Webb said, he had to commend Good for sticking so closely to his pro-Trump messaging. Webb, who observed strict social distancing precautions because of the pandemic, also said he wished he would have found more ways to get in front of voters safely. He felt especially constrained because he was potentially exposed to the virus when treating covid-19 patients in the University of Virginia hospital. The source for many of the “defund” attacks against Webb stemmed from a television interview Webb gave this summer, when the Democrat expressed support for racial justice protesters and said the “defund the police” language that was flooding the streets then should be used “appropriately.” Thereafter, he found himself repeatedly denying that his comments amounted to support for defunding the police. But Webb had no regrets about his words, saying he found it important in a conversation about racial justice to at the very least acknowledge the viewpoints of people across the district who both supported and opposed calls for “defunding” police. “That’s something that is sometimes incompatible with our hot-mic politics, but it’s so important for us to be able to do from a healing perspective,” he said. “The key here is being able to hold space for the range of views that exist and say, how do we move forward?”


Trump administration official who questions global warming will run key climate program

David Legates, a meteorologist who claims that excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is good for plants and that global warming is harmless, has been tapped to run the federal agency that oversees a major scientific report on how climate change is affecting the United States. Legates, a controversial figure who joined the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in September, will move to a new slot as head of the U.S. Global Change Research Program as early as Thursday, according to two people familiar with the move who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly. Legates could not be reached for comment. His views on climate run counter to the scientific consensus that human activities — primarily the burning of fossil fuels — have generated greenhouse gases that are causing global temperatures to rise, ice sheets to melt, sea levels to rise and triggering other irreversible damage to the planet. A NOAA spokesman declined to confirm Legates’s move. The shift would put Legates in position at least to influence the authors chosen to craft the National Climate Assessment, a congressionally mandated report that periodically examines climate change damage and includes projections for the United States, down to regional and local levels. The assessment is used by federal and state governments and industry to make decisions about infrastructure projects, to allocate resources and to plan for disasters. The version released in 2018 has been cited in court cases in which cities, states and individuals sued fossil fuel companies and the U.S. government, arguing that they have failed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions despite knowing about the severity of the problem. That assessment was released under the Trump administration but had been largely completed by federal agencies and outside scientists under President Barack Obama. It angered the White House by warning that human-caused climate change already was fueling deadlier wildfires, increasingly intense hurricanes and brutal heat waves. The report’s authors warned that climate change poses a severe threat to Americans’ health and pocketbooks, as well as to the country’s infrastructure and natural resources. “I don’t believe it,” President Trump later said of those findings. A former NOAA official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Legates’s appointment made little sense. “Sometimes these moves are made at the end of an administration. It’s like tilting at a windmill: It’s a nice move to


With its leader in jail, this city cowered to his will

Two months later, Iturbe publicly threatened to resign. He said the state had failed to protect him. Elsewhere in Mexico, mayors have grown so afraid that they have governed from outside their municipalities. Since receiving multiple death threats, Yanet Morales Huizar, the mayor of Apulco in Zacatecas state, has governed almost entirely over the telephone from an undisclosed location. “I decided I had to protect myself,” she said. Iturbe opted to stay in Amacuzac. If the threats continued, he said, he would quit. “I spoke to my family about it,” he said. “They told me to keep going.” By June of this year, Iturbe was a different man: confident, outspoken, funny. He sat behind his desk wearing a surgical mask. The city had been battling a growing number of coronavirus cases. “The state government never sent me the security I asked for,” he said. “But we are trying our best.” A few months earlier, investigators with the state attorney general’s office had searched a cattle farm once managed by the Miranda family, looking for a mass grave. The team brought shovels and dug into the brown dirt. “What I can confirm is that it was a search for bodies, but I still cannot tell you if there was a discovery or not,” said Uriel Carmona Gándara, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office. The Miranda family had exploded in anger. “They are tearing up everything,” said Brito, Miranda’s daughter-in-law. “They won’t even tell us what they are doing here.” Mazari Hernández was arrested in late 2019 and his detention dramatically changed the security dynamic in Morelos, weakening Los Rojos just as the Jalisco New Generation cartel was expanding across the country. If the Miranda family had once been untouchable in Amacuzac, officials said, that was no longer the case. In April, Miranda’s brother was found killed near the livestock market. Iturbe said he was starting to feel more comfortable. He was hopeful that security conditions were beginning to stabilize. But it turned out the decline of Los Rojos and the fall of the Miranda family did not mean that Amacuzac was safer, or out of cartel control. An internal security map of Morelos shared by state authorities showed a new fight for power between groups representing the Familia Michoacana and the Jalisco cartel. “Security hasn’t improved,” said one official. “It has just changed.” By October, violence had again seized Amacuzac.


Surveillance, reeducation and the Office of Honesty: How China tames its people

Traditionally there have been two ways to define China watchers — either as “panda huggers” or “dragon slayers.” Panda huggers tended to be foreigners who lived in China for years, learned the language, watched the progress of economic and political reform in the 1980s, and spent time with the Chinese people in the hinterlands during a period of magical thinking about China. (Full disclosure: I lived in northeast China and Hong Kong in those years.) “Panda hugger,” I realize now, was (and is) probably a derisive term. The dragon slayers were, quite simply, the unseduced. They saw China’s communist rulers as expansionist, working toward a day when they would no longer struggle to feed their own people and instead be able to position China on the world stage as an aggressive superpower. The dragon slayers weren’t surprised when tanks rumbled into Tiananmen Square in June 1989, crushing student demonstrators. Panda huggers, like me, were stunned. That’s why “We Have Been Harmonized: Life in China’s Surveillance State,” by Kai Strittmatter, should come with a warning label for panda huggers. His engrossing, deeply reported and somewhat Orwellian survey of today’s China raises unhappy questions we all have yet to answer. “The China we once knew no longer exists,” he writes early in the book. “The China that was with us for forty years — the China of ‘reform and opening up’ — is making way for something new. It’s time to start paying attention.” Strittmatter is a German journalist who writes for the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. From 1997 until recently, he was a foreign correspondent in Beijing. Before that, he studied Sinology and journalism in Munich; Xian, China; and Taipei, Taiwan. So he comes to this issue with the clear-eyed vision that accompanies firsthand experience. Early in the book, Strittmatter takes aim at the two assumptions that panda huggers hold dear: If China wants to modernize, it will eventually have to embrace capitalism; by extension, if it has capitalism, democracy will soon follow. And, if China wants the Internet (and it does), it will have to accommodate the openness that comes with it. Strittmatter makes a compelling case that we are wrong to accept either of these beliefs. To make his argument he takes readers on a China tour that is part George Orwell, part Aldous Huxley. In the city of Rongcheng, for example, Strittmatter pays a visit to the Office of