A mysterious medical condition gets a name — and a genetic link to deafness

Heather Withrow with her son, Orion. (Anastasia T. Withrow) He loves dancing to songs, such as Michael Jackson’s "Beat It" and the "Macarena," but he can't listen to music in the usual way. He laughs whenever someone takes his picture with a camera flash, which is the only intensity of light he can perceive. He loves trying to balance himself, but his legs don't allow him to walk without support. He is one in a million, literally. Born deaf-blind and with a condition, osteopetrosis, that makes bones both dense and fragile, 6-year-old Orion Theodore Withrow is among an unknown number of children with a newly identified genetic disorder that researchers are just beginning to decipher. It goes by an acronym, COMMAD, that gives little away until each letter is explained, revealing an array of problems that also affect eye formation and pigmentation in eyes, skin and hair. The rare disorder severely impairs the person's ability to communicate. Children such as Orion, who are born to genetically deaf parents, are at a higher risk, according to a recent study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics. The finding has important implications for the deaf community, said its senior author, Brian Brooks, clinical director and chief of the Pediatric, Developmental and Genetic Ophthalmology Section at the National Eye Institute. “It is relatively common for folks in deaf community to marry each other,” he said, and what's key is whether each of the couple has a specific genetic "misspelling" that causes a syndrome called Waardenburg 2A. If yes, there's the likelihood of a child inheriting the mutation from both parents. The result, researchers found, is COMMAD. Because the disorder was only recently identified, there is much to learn about its impact over a lifetime. Brooks, who estimates that fewer than one person in a million is affected, has seen only a couple cases. Orion is one of them. The study's finding made things clearer for Heather Withrow, Orion's mother. “It was more like an ‘Oh, cool, that explains it!’ kind of discovery,” she said from Austin, where the family lives. When Withrow was pregnant with Orion, she and her husband, Thomas Withrow Jr., suspected that he might be born deaf. While their daughter, 11-year-old Anastasia, has normal hearing, their other son, 12-year-old Skyler, is deaf. Then the results of initial imaging showed their third child would likely be born blind. A subsequent


The full text of the Trump administration’s new travel ban executive order

already been admitted to the United States; or any individual who has been granted withholding of removal, advance parole, or protection under the Convention Against Torture. (c) Waivers. Notwithstanding the suspension of entry pursuant to section 2 of this order, a consular officer, or, as appropriate, the Commissioner, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), or the Commissioner's delegee, may, in the consular officer's or the CBP official's discretion, decide on a case-by-case basis to authorize the issuance of a visa to, or to permit the entry of, a foreign national for whom entry is otherwise suspended if the foreign national has demonstrated to the officer's satisfaction that denying entry during the suspension period would cause undue hardship, and that his or her entry would not pose a threat to national security and would be in the national interest. Unless otherwise specified by the Secretary of Homeland Security, any waiver issued by a consular officer as part of the visa issuance process will be effective both for the issuance of a visa and any subsequent entry on that visa, but will leave all other requirements for admission or entry unchanged. Case-by-case waivers could be appropriate in circumstances such as the following: (i) the foreign national has previously been admitted to the United States for a continuous period of work, study, or other long-term activity, is outside the United States on the effective date of this order, seeks to reenter the United States to resume that activity, and the denial of reentry during the suspension period would impair that activity; (ii) the foreign national has previously established significant contacts with the United States but is outside the United States on the effective date of this order for work, study, or other lawful activity; (iii) the foreign national seeks to enter the United States for significant business or professional obligations and the denial of entry during the suspension period would impair those obligations; (iv) the foreign national seeks to enter the United States to visit or reside with a close family member (e.g., a spouse, child, or parent) who is a United States citizen, lawful permanent resident, or alien lawfully admitted on a valid nonimmigrant visa, and the denial of entry during the suspension period would cause undue hardship; (v) the foreign national is an infant, a young child or adoptee, an individual needing urgent medical care, or someone whose entry is otherwise


The new politics of immigration seem certain to shrink international tourism to the U.S.

despite being a legal resident for a decade. A children’s book author from Australia. A scholar from France. People have been turned away at points of entry to the United States forever, of course, but the increased attention to these incidents will certainly deter people from taking the risk. The government of Nigeria issued a warning to its citizens about travel to the United States, citing confusion about rules for entry. The government pointed to several recent incidents of people being denied entry despite holding valid visas. Then there are high-profile acts of violence. When two Indian men were shot during an apparently racially motivated attack near Kansas City, Kan., family members of the men, one of whom died, issued a warning to their fellow countrymen. “There is a kind of hysteria spreading that is not good because so many of our beloved children live there,” one said to the media. The father of the man wounded in the attack had stronger words. “The situation seems to be pretty bad after Trump took over as the U.S. president,” he said. “I appeal to all the parents in India not to send their children to the United States in the present circumstances.” The effects on tourism are not theoretical. On Monday, Reuters reported on data from flight-analysis firm ForwardKeys. Their numbers suggested that inbound travel fell 6.5 percent during the eight days after the first Trump immigration ban was announced. Those figures recovered when a court blocked the ban from being enacted, but, once the administration announced plans for its revised ban, those numbers dropped again. Bookings from the Middle East dropped 27 percent after the ban. What economic effect might result from the new politics of immigration remains to be seen. But tourism will almost certainly be negatively affected. In the wake of the new executive order, the National Restaurant Association quickly put out a statement expressing its concerns. “We must balance our safety and security with the importance of the economic contributions of travel and tourism to our country as we are already seeing negative effects the previous Executive Order is having on our economy,” Executive Vice President Cicely Simpson wrote. In January, the entire leisure and hospitality industry employed 15.79 million people in the United States. Not all of those people deal with international travelers. Over the next few months, though, it seems likely that even fewer will.


The Cold War is back. ‘The Americans’ shows us how to end the first one.

season, for example, Elizabeth donned one of her many disguises to befriend Young Hee Seong (Ruthie Ann Miles), a Korean immigrant whose husband Don (Rob Yang) happened to have information the Jenningses’ handlers wanted access to. Elizabeth played the role of caring friend so well it became real for her. Ultimately, she faked her own suicide, killing, at least metaphorically, the part of her that had developed deep ties to a target. In the forthcoming season, Stan finds himself tested when his agency and the CIA put pressure on him to fully turn Oleg Burov (Costa Ronin), a Soviet official who had reached out to Stan in the hopes of halting a biological arms race. “Burov is a decent man. He did the right thing. Not for money, or because I twisted his arm,” Stan tells a Justice Department official in frustration. “I just don’t know what kind of organization we are if we punish him for that.” The idea that affection is poisonous rather than sustaining has even passed to a new generation. Any next-door neighbors might be slightly anxious when their children start dating, but for Elizabeth and Philip, their daughter Paige’s (Holly Taylor) sweet romance with Stan’s son Matthew (Danny Flaherty) carries with it the risk of short-term exposure, or long-term ties to a man who could ruin or end their lives. “The Americans” is frequently described as a bleak show. But for all the shattering stories it tells, “The Americans” makes clear that human connection is inevitable. And Philip and Elizabeth’s handlers, as well as Stan’s bosses at the FBI, caution against love and friendship and even mere respect because they know just how powerful those ties can be. Elizabeth and Philip’s marriage was arranged for operational convenience, not ardor; the blossoming of their relationship into a real marriage has been a source of anxiety for their handlers. In a similar way, Stan’s ability to see Oleg as anything more than a tool to be manipulated marks him as a kind of squish within the FBI, rather than the decent, nuanced, flawed man Stan himself is. There’s a tiny green shoot of optimism, an almost 1960s sensibility, that springs from this strain of this grim, 1980s drama. These relationships allow Soviets and Americans to see people who live in the other country as individuals rather than as vast hordes engaged in a mindless ideological project aimed


11 restaurants around Washington to try right now

Beef short rib with jalapeño Cheddar grits, crispy sweet potatoes and cilantro lime crema at the Smith. (Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post) There's an uncertainty that comes with trying a restaurant for the first time, especially if the place is new. No need to fret about these spots, though — they've all been recently visited by Post staffers, who have given them the seal of approval. The Smith There's something for everyone at this (loud) dining room near Verizon Center. Check out the crab cake tots, meatless bibimbap and s'mores in a jar. 901 F St. NW. Beverage director and co-owner Carlie Steiner oversees the small dining room at Himitsu. (Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post) Himitsu The tiny “young establishment is a case study in contemporary dining,” Post food critic Tom Sietsema says, with “food that tastes like a celebration but is priced for workday consumption.” Highlights include Peking duck, deep-fried Brussels sprouts and tuna tartare. 828 Upshur St. NW. Guacamole with grilled avocado at La Puerta Verde. (Dixie D. Vereen for The Washington Post) La Puerta Verde Sietsema calls this Mexican restaurant “yet another score from Mindful Restaurant Group in burgeoning Ivy City,” joining siblings Ari's Diner, Denson Liquor Bar and Dock FC. Strong contenders on the menu include guacamole, fried cod tacos and the chile relleno. 2001 Fenwick St. NE. The Smokehouse fish board at the Tavern at Ivy City Smokehouse. (Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post) Tavern at Ivy City Smokehouse Fish is the name of the game at this Ivy City hangout, where strong dishes include the crab cakes, grilled shrimp and fish and chips. Non-seafood eaters will enjoy the chicken wings, spare ribs and fried chicken sandwich. 1356 Okie St. NE. The beet Reuben at On Rye. (Dayna Smith for The Washington Post) On Rye The modern sandwich shop inspired by Jewish delis offers especially enticing Reubens made with smoked beets or portobello mushrooms and spiced broccoli rabe. Also try the egg cream. 740 Sixth St. NW. Ravioli de chucho with skate and plantains at Alma Cocina Latina. (Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post) Alma Cocina Latina Another reason to make the trip to Baltimore: Explore Venezuelan fare beyond arepas — though there are good ones here, too. “The food here is so compelling, I couldn't wait to return after my initial trip and came back the next night,” Sietsema says. 2400 Boston


Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon will roil D.C. traffic Saturday

along the route when no runners are in the vicinity. Watch for “No Parking” signs along the route. Streets generally reopen as the last runners pass by and any race equipment is removed from that sector. See the course map below for the marathon, half marathon and 5K run. The map is a bit different from previous years, but the event still is very likely to have a high impact on streets in neighborhoods that include Capitol Hill, Adams Morgan, Columbia Heights, Southwest Waterfront and Anacostia. Driving on the South Capitol Street and East Capitol Street bridges also will be affected. See the D.C. police department’s list of street closings. The sponsors are in a new partnership with Waze, the travel guidance app. Waze will incorporate the street closing schedule into the app. Its alerts and push notifications will offer alternative routes, parking options and information on detours and traffic congestion. Important note for the runners, who will likely number about 25,000: Metrorail is not opening early this time. The subway system won’t be available until its usual Saturday start time of 7 a.m. Participants can reserve parking in Lots 6 and 7 at RFK Stadium for $16.50 per car. The event sponsors arranged for a shuttle bus service from RFK to the start line, but that’s by reservation only and the seats are now filled up. The event sponsors have a discount deal with the SpotHero parking reservation service, so drivers can look for off-street parking within walking distance of the start line. Also, there will be a runner drop-off point at 14th Street and Independence Avenue SW, which is about three-tenths of a mile from the start. The start times of the marathon and half marathon were adjusted to account for Metro’s new restrictions on its opening and closing hours. In years past, the sponsors of big events could request an earlier opening or later closing if they agreed to cover Metro’s operating costs for the extra time. The half-marathon draws about four times more participants than the marathon, and half-marathoners have a good shot at reaching the 8:30 a.m. start via Metrorail. The D.C. Streetcar will suspend Saturday service along H Street and Benning Road NE until the marathon passes, about 1 p.m. D.C. Circulator will modify two bus routes on Saturday. The National Mall route will delay opening until 10 a.m. The Woodley Park-Adams Morgan-McPherson Square


Why China is so mad about THAAD, a missile defense system aimed at deterring North Korea

truck-mounted launcher, which destroys the missile using kinetic energy. Because the incoming missile is destroyed at a high altitude, the effects of weapons of mass destruction can be mitigated with the device. The system is designed to be highly mobile, and it consists of four main components: a truck-mounted launcher; eight interceptors on the launcher; a transportable radar system; and a fire control system that links the various components with external command centers. So why is it in the news right now? THAAD systems have been deployed in a number of places around the world, including Guam and Hawaii. However, last year the Defense Department announced it would deploy a system to South Korea, where it would be operated by U.S. forces stationed in the country. In a statement, the Pentagon described the move as a “defensive measure” against North Korea after the country continued to pursue nuclear weapons and tested a number of ballistic missile systems. This week, the situation on the Korean Peninsula escalated dramatically. On Tuesday, North Korean state media reported that the country has practiced attempts to hit U.S. military bases in Japan with a number of recently launched missiles. The number of missiles fired suggested that North Korea was training to see how quickly it could set up its extended-range missiles in a wartime setting. That same day, the United States announced that it has begun deploying THAAD to South Korea this week. While the land where the system is due to be deployed is not ready yet, the equipment will be kept at a U.S. air base in Osan until the site is prepared. Full deployment is expected as early as June. The news of the THAAD deployment sparked a threat of “consequences” from China. “I want to emphasize that we firmly oppose the deployment of THAAD,” said Geng Shuang, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, at a daily news briefing in Beijing on Tuesday. “We will resolutely take necessary measures to defend our security interests.” Why is China so angry? On the surface of it, it may be hard to understand Beijing's fury with THAAD. For one thing, it's a purely defensive system — THAAD systems don't carry warheads, relying on the force of the “interceptor” to destroy the incoming missile rather than a detonation. And while, in theory, the system could be used to intercept Chinese ballistic missiles, it would only work


would not be able to take out short-range missiles and artillery that do not reach high altitudes, hinting that the radar may be the real reason for the deployment. More broadly, Beijing is concerned that the United States is hoping to use both South Korea and Japan to contain China in the future. “If South Korea insists on becoming a US puppet, China will have to act against it,” the nationalist state newspaper Global Times wrote in an editorial early this year. How is Beijing retaliating? Chinese reaction appears to be moving to hurt South Korea economically. Beijing has already placed restrictions on Korean businesses that operate in China, including shutting down stores of Lotte, a South Korean conglomerate that offered a golf course as land for THAAD use. More measures are expected. Chinese travel agencies are stopping the sale of tickets to South Korea, and there have been growing calls in China to boycott South Korean products and even cancel tours by K-pop stars. Such moves carry significant weight. South Korea has grown increasingly dependent economically on China in recent years. China is South Korea's largest trading partner, and the value of its exports to the country were $142 billion in 2014 — more than twice the value of its exports to the United States. Chinese pressure also comes at a time of political transition in South Korea. Scandal has sidelined President Park Geun-hye, who is expected to find out this week whether she will be impeached. And Moon Jae-in, the leading liberal candidate to replace her, has suggested he may reconsider the THAAD deployment. What does this mean for the United States? During last year's presidential campaign, Donald Trump spoke frequently of the threat posed by North Korea and suggested he may lean on China, which he said had “total control over North Korea.” However, since taking office in January, the new U.S. president has been uncharacteristically mute on the subject, despite provocations from Pyongyang. This has left many North Korea-watchers wondering what exactly his eventual policy will be. The deployment of THAAD seems to be one of the first real moves against North Korea, though it was largely a continuation of policies undertaken by President Barack Obama. The backlash from China and various dramatic moves by North Korea, however, show that the situation is complicated. Read more: China warns of ‘consequences’ over deployment of U.S. antimissile system


Poachers just killed a beloved white rhino — inside a French zoo

For the past decade, poachers have killed rhinoceroses in the wild and in protected reserves around the world at alarming rates, threatening the survival of four of the world’s five rhino species. The poaching is driven by a demand for rhino horns in southeast Asia that has grown nearly insatiable; so much so, experts say, that any living rhino — anywhere in the world — is now at risk of being killed. Perhaps no rhino death illustrates that threat more forcefully than the killing of Vince, a 4-year-old male white rhino who was slaughtered this week inside his enclosure at a zoo outside Paris. The rhino — discovered by his keeper at the Thoiry Zoological Park on Tuesday — now holds the ominous distinction of likely being the first rhino to be killed by poachers inside a zoo, experts said. “This is the first time we’ve heard of it,” said Crawford Allan, senior director of TRAFFIC North America, a regional office of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). “It’s certainly the first time it’s happened in Europe. “It’s an incredibly shocking and distressing occurrence,” he added. “It’s also a game-changer for zoos. They’ve woken up today and realized their world has changed if they have live rhinos in their collection.” (Courtesy of World Wildlife Fund) In a statement posted on Facebook The zoo pinned the killing on criminals who forced open an outer gate outside the rhinoceros building overnight. The intruders then forced open a second metal door and broke open “an intermediate inner door” that allowed them access to the animal lodges, the zoo said. Police told Reuters that Vince was shot three times in the head. One of the animal’s horns was removed, probably with a chain saw, the zoo said. “His second horn was only partially cut, which suggests that the criminals were disturbed or that their equipment proved defective,” the zoo said. “The other two white rhinoceros living in Thoiry, Gracie aged 37 and Bruno aged 5 years, escaped the massacre and are safe.” “Vince was found this morning by [his] caretaker, who is very attached to the animals she cares for, and is deeply affected,” the zoo added. “This odious act was perpetrated despite the presence of five members of the zoological staff living on the spot and surveillance cameras.” A white or square-lipped rhino feeding at a zoo in Johannesburg on Jan. 12. (Kim Ludbrook/European


By 2030, half the world’s oceans could be reeling from climate change, scientists say

A diver checks the bleached coral at Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef. (XL Catlin Seaview Survey/Agence France-Presse) More than half the world’s oceans could suffer multiple symptoms of climate change over the next 15 years, including rising temperatures, acidification, lower oxygen levels and decreasing food supplies, new research suggests. By midcentury, without significant efforts to reduce warming, more than 80 percent could be ailing — and the fragile Arctic, already among the most rapidly warming parts of the planet, may be one of the regions most severely hit. The study, published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications uses computer models to examine how oceans would fare over the next century under a business-as-usual trajectory and a more moderate scenario in which the mitigation efforts promised under the Paris Agreement come into effect. In both scenarios, large swaths of the ocean will be altered by climate change. Nearly all of the open sea is acidifying because of greenhouse gas emissions. But the researchers found that cutting greenhouse gas emissions could significantly delay future changes, giving marine organisms more time to migrate or adapt. “Things that live in the ocean are used to regular variability in their environments,” said lead study author Stephanie Henson, a scientist at the National Oceanography Center at the University of Southampton in Britain. “It gets warm in the summer and it gets cold in the winter, and species survive that kind of range in temperature or other conditions perfectly well.” But she noted a warming climate could eventually cause changes in the ocean that have never happened before — hotter temperatures, lower pH or less oxygen than have ever naturally occurred. When this happens, some organisms may no longer be able to tolerate the changed conditions and will be forced to migrate, evolve as a species or face possible extinction. There’s a large degree of uncertainty in the scientific community about how organisms will react. But there’s evidence to suggest major challenges ahead. Mass coral bleaching events in the past few years have been largely attributed to unusually warm water temperatures. Large-scale coral death on the Great Barrier Reef last year is thought to be strongly linked to climate change. “So we wanted to know when will climate change actually push the system outside the range of natural variability that organisms are used to,” Henson said. The researchers focused on four specific climate-influenced “drivers,” of


The shocking reality for a generation of Syrian children

of humanitarian aid, and more than 2.5 million kids are currently living as refugees or on the run in search of safety. But it will take much more than international fundraising to staunch their suffering. A report published this week by Save the Children detailed the astonishing and tragic fate of an entire generation of Syrian children who are growing up with the trauma of six years of bombing and bloodshed. “I would be confused if I didn’t hear or see airstrikes, because they happen so often," said Ala'a, an adolescent living in the country's south, who was interviewed in the report. This has profound consequences in terms of their development. Various rights groups and humanitarian organizations have warned of an alarming spike in child suicides. They fear the devastating long-term consequences for Syria's future as its young people grow up amid the ruins of one of the Middle East's most venerable societies. "After six years of war, we are at a tipping point, after which the impact on children's formative years and childhood development may be so great that the damage could be permanent and irreversible," said Marcia Brophy, a mental health adviser for Save the Children in the Middle East. More than 70% of Syrian kids show symptoms of PTSD or “toxic stress”. 75% have lost a loved one. 80% describe grief & extreme sadness. #pt The report, titled "Invisible Wounds," laid out a chilling snapshot of what more than a half a decade of fighting has done to a generation of children - 80 percent of children and adults said children and adolescents have become more aggressive, and 71 percent said that children increasingly suffer from frequent bedwetting and involuntary urination — common symptoms of toxic stress and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among children. - Two-thirds of children are said to have lost a loved one, had their house bombed or shelled or suffered war-related injuries. - 51 percent of adults interviewed said adolescents are turning to drugs to cope with stress. - 59 percent of adults said they knew children and adolescents who had been recruited into armed groups. Almost half knew of children working at checkpoints or barracks. - One of every four children is now at risk of developing a mental health disorder. According to the report, 48 percent of adults surveyed said they had seen children who had lost the ability to speak


WikiLeaks strikes again. Here are 4 big questions about Vault 7.

U.S. was only in control of dozens of zero days. This information dump could possibly reveal many important vulnerabilities held by U.S. assets. If so, the leaked information could be a troubling degradation of U.S. cyber-capabilities, because once known, these pathways toward access become useless. But we should remember that cyber-capabilities are as much about the technical abilities and human capital in the U.S. government rather than the pure number of exploits available at one time. If there is any positive to be taken from this, it could be that this allows for the holes identified in the data dump to be fixed. It also reignites the debate on the responsibility of government to disclose vulnerabilities to the public. 3) Is cyberespionage on the rise? Caution is the key, and we should not be surprised that the CIA has extensive cybersecurity capabilities. The great majority of cyber-actions that are not criminal are what might be termed cyberespionage. Information operations seeking to gain an advantage by manipulating information and risk often drive cyberconflict behavior, a key theme in my team’s ongoing research on cyber-coercion. The real danger here was pointed out by Thomas Rid, professor at King’s College, who noted that misinformation could be slipped into these files to sow discord. Among the thousands of files, one or two fake campaigns waged by the U.S. would foment discord and mistrust. The common misguided focus on cyberwar often misses the importance of deception in cyber-operations, a point noted by Erik Gartzke and Jon Lindsay in their research. 4) What’s next? The next steps are clear. The cybersecurity community has been waiting for the Trump administration to release its promised cybersecurity executive order. Now is the time to do this, but we must go beyond the circulated drafts that just order more studies on current vulnerabilities and capacity. A clear plan of action that would delineate lines of control over cyber-operations and protection of critical infrastructure in the U.S. government, limit access of critical systems to contractors, and create a scalable plan to recruit young cybersecurity talent are pressing needs. And responsibility for these continued cyber-breaches needs to be established — and prevented in the future. Brandon Valeriano is the Donald Bren Chair of Armed Politics at the Marine Corps University and a Reader at Cardiff University. He also serves as an Adjunct Fellow at the Niskanen Center and is the author of


Yellow fever outbreak in Brazil worries U.S. officials

dangers posed by mosquito-borne diseases around the world,” said Erin Staples, a medical epidemiologist at the CDC. “It’s critical that nations have the capacity to quickly detect and control these outbreaks in order to decrease the illness and death and prevent the spread to other locations.” The CDC has been working with PAHO and the WHO to provide technical assistance to Brazilian authorities. Fauci said clinicians need to keep yellow fever on their radar in case they start seeing possible clusters of cases in areas where there are also Zika outbreaks and in possible travel-related cases. Most infectious disease clinicians haven’t ever seen a case of yellow fever, he said. “This is not ‘chicken little, the sky is falling,’” he said. “It’s a public health heads-up.” Extensive immunization campaigns, along with effective mosquito control — especially in developed countries — have reduced yellow fever cases worldwide. Localized outbreaks still occur in parts of Africa and Central and South America, accounting for an estimated 84,000 to 170,000 severe cases of disease and 29,000 to 60,000 deaths annually. In late 2015, an outbreak of yellow fever in Angola and Congo resulted in 961 confirmed cases and 137 deaths. During that outbreak, the world’s emergency vaccine stockpile reserve was exhausted, making the outbreak more difficult to control. Historically, yellow fever has claimed millions of lives, including many thousands in the United States. The Philadelphia epidemic of 1793, for example, killed about 10 percent of the city’s population and prompted the federal government to flee the city, the authors noted. The fearsome disease starts like a common flu, with symptoms of headache, fever, muscle pain, nausea and vomiting. But in about 15 percent of patients, it develops into a more severe form, with high fever, jaundice, internal bleeding, shock, organ failure and death. Up to half of those who develop the severe form may die. To prevent a similar occurrence during a future yellow fever outbreak in Brazil or elsewhere, the authors note that “early identification of cases and rapid implementation of public health management and prevention strategies, such as mosquito control and appropriate vaccination, are critical.” Read more: Obamacare repeal bills gut crucial public health funds, including outbreak prevention These 12 superbugs pose the greatest threat to human health, WHO say Surge in human infections of bird flu is causing alarm Birth defects in Zika pregnancies 20 times higher than in pre-Zika years


After online photo scandal, female Marines unite to start a campaign of support

respect for all women who have met the standards asked of them in service of their country,” said Justine Elena, 31, a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves who served in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2011 and started the gofundme campaign on Wednesday. “Women shouldn’t have to survive both being deployed to war, being away from your family and loved ones, and then come home and have to also survive the brothers in arms that we were told would always look out for our us,” she said.” That’s what’s so painful.” Donations will go toward Headstrong, a charity that she said has been of great service to women in the military and veterans who continue to struggle with mental health issues and the military-to-civilian transition. “We will continue to identify additional organizations in the coming days,” she wrote on the gofundme page, which hopes to raise $30,000. The Defense Department said this week it is investigating reports on the Facebook page that shared the nude photos, which was taken down but had a membership of 30,000 active-duty and retired male Marines, Navy corpsmen and British Royal Marines. The site was said to be “for men only” and contained threatening and salacious comments, often about rape, along with the intimate photos of women service members and veterans in various states of undress, according to media reports. The women in the nude photographs were identified by their full names and ranks. Both active duty and veteran women’s photos were shared online without their consent. The existence of the shared drive was first reported through the website Reveal, in conjunction with the War Horse military news website. Since the scandal, female veterans have taken to Facebook to post stories about everything from everyday slights to sexual assault while serving in the military (known as military sexual trauma), and said they planned more activism in coming days. Women are the fastest-growing population in the military, but many say they still struggle to be treated with respect, despite having served next to men in nearly every aspect of daily military life, including combat situations. “This sort of behavior marginalizes us more as we continue to train to not only serve our country, but protect what we rightfully earned,” Elena said. “It’s the title of U.S. Marine that’s supposed to bond us together despite all those things, but clearly there are some who think otherwise.”


Reading, writing and hunger: More than 13 million kids in this country go to school hungry

regularly come to school hungry. Increasingly, advocates are focusing on programs that ensure kids have enough to eat when they are not in school, and after school and summer meal programs are on the rise. In my home state of New Hampshire, a mother and 20-year veteran of the Navy saw a need to feed kids on the weekends, and founded the organization End 68 Hours of Hunger. Back in 2010, Claire Bloom was at a book club meeting in her affluent town of Dover, when a teacher in attendance mentioned that she had students who went from lunch on Friday to breakfast on Monday with nothing to eat. “I was appalled; absolutely stunned and appalled,” Bloom, 70, told me recently, adding that she never dreamed there was poverty in her community. She went to the school and offered to “throw some money” at the problem, and was told that they didn’t need money. They needed someone to create a program to pack food to send home with kids on Fridays. Without blinking an eye, Bloom took on the project. She enlisted volunteers, found a place to store and pack food, partnered with grocery stores, and figured out how to create three dinners, two lunches and two breakfasts for under $10. The concept is remarkably simple. Volunteers pack knapsacks with meals for the weekend for one child, and the knapsacks are left outside the classroom. Students in the program pick them up on their way out the door, and drop the empty bags off on Monday mornings. School nurses identify children in need and contact parents privately. In 2011 Bloom delivered 19 knapsacks to three elementary schools in Dover. Today her organization operates in eight states and more than 40 communities, and is still growing. The nonprofit has an annual budget of $1.1 million made up entirely from monetary and food donations. Everyone involved, including Bloom, is a volunteer, and one hundred percent of donated funds are used to feed at-risk children. Other organizations run backpack programs, but I find Bloom’s story particularly inspiring because it begins with one mother caring about someone else’s children. And all the statistics in the world fail to convey the urgency and heartbreak of the issue as powerfully as Bloom’s recollection of what happened in the first school she worked with in Dover. “The school nurse called a 6-year-old girl into the office and


Is Trump giving Putin a pass on a missile deployment?

of his Cabinet secretaries that existing sanctions must be maintained. “Russia has violated multiple international treaties in the past 10 years, including the INF and START treaties, by developing missile systems explicitly banned under those agreements,” Russia expert Alina Polyakova of the Atlantic Council told me. “This latest violation of the INF treaty is perhaps most egregious, because it pertains to a fully developed land-based missile system rather than the development of parts. The Obama administration accused Russia of violating the INF treaty and senior defense and State department officials warned Congress of Russia’s non-compliance.” However, she notes that “there have been no real consequences for Russia’s pattern of delinquency. The Trump administration now has an opportunity to correct that short sighted policy.” The House of Representatives intelligence committee will hold an open hearing on March 20 on the investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, the committee's chairman, Devin Nunes, said on March 7. Congress surely would be supportive of such a move. In a report on keeping Europe “whole and free” for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, former ambassador Eric Edelman and Whitney M. McNamara advise (p. 47) that “NATO should consider . . . bringing back a version of the submarine-launched cruise missile (SLCM) and a new ALCM. The United States, for example, might consider developing a lighter, shorter-range version of its Long-Range Standoff (LRSO) missile to replace its aging ALCM. These weapons could become part of the NATO inventory delivered by dual-capable aircraft.” They continue, “The United States could also re-field tactical nuclear weapons in existing 155-mm howitzer battalions in the Baltics that are unable to hit deep Russian targets, enabling NATO forces to occupy a key position on a lower rung on the escalatory ladder. In addition, the United States should start the research and development of a new Pershing-3 ballistic missile.” Their bottom line: “In light of existing Russian breaks from the [INF] agreement, the United States should consider eventually withdrawing from the INF Treaty.” When news of the deployment first came to light last month, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, issued a blistering statement. “As Vladimir Putin continues his testing of the new administration, Russia’s deployment of nuclear-tipped ground-launched cruise missiles in violation of the INF Treaty is a significant military threat to U.S. forces in Europe and our NATO allies,” he


Forget Disneyland. If you’re a beer lover this is the happiest place on earth.

(Vincent Mundy/Bloomberg) Do you like beer? Of course you do. But do you really, really, really like beer? Are you into craft beers, homemade brews and collecting bottles? Then you’re a bona fide beer lover. Now, there’s a hotel that’s just for you. It’s also a place that can teach business owners something about branding. But first, let’s talk beer. There’s a craft beer company from Scotland called Brewdog that hasn’t sold any beer yet here in the United States. But it plans to. How to get the word out? Many business owners would resort to the traditional methods like advertising or marketing campaigns. But the owners at Brewdog have decided to do something different to create a buzz and build a community. They’re starting a hotel.A beer hotel. Located in Columbus, Ohio and conveniently next to Brewdog’s 100,000 square foot brewery, guests at the company-owned hotel called The DogHouse will soon be able to enjoy certain amenities that only super-serious beer loving lunatics will appreciate. According to the Daily Mail, the hotel will feature a “craft beer spa, complete with hop face masks, malted barley massages, “Hoppy Feet” pedicures, plus hop-infused shampoo and shower gels.” (hop-infused shower gels?). But that’s not all. Rooms will overlook the feeders inside the brewery and there will be mini-fridges filled with specially chosen craft beers…located in rooms and in the showers, of course. The brewery’s finest offerings will be on tap throughout the facility and guests can enjoy brewery tours as well. Oh, and let’s not forget the “deluxe beer-infused breakfasts, lunches and dinners, with beers matched to every course.” Yum. Burp. “Every single part of your stay at DogHouse will be absolutely dominated by hops, malt and incredible beer; from your shower, to your breakfast, to the view from your room, to the minibar and perks like your own Punk IPA tap,” BrewDog co-founder James Watt told the Daily Mail. “Forget Disneyland, this is the new happiest place on Earth.” Brewdog has discovered a creative way to get attention and build its brand by connecting its products to other businesses (a hotel) that one normally wouldn’t think about. Yet it all kind of makes sense. Or maybe I’ve just had a few too many…


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Breaking news! This is a developing story. It will be updated.


Harvard theorists: How sailing aliens could have caused fast radio bursts

FRB we couldn’t sleep.” Astrophysicists have detected only 25 other FRBs since Bailes and four other astronomers published their groundbreaking report in 2007, he said. But the origin of FRBs remained an open question. The problem proved to be at once formidable, resilient and brain twisting. Some scientists proposed that FRBs were the fault of massive neutron stars, suns that had collapsed into dense cores. Perhaps there existed stellar flares capable of spitting out a radio wave that traveled across half of the known universe. Or maybe vanishing black holes spewed the FRBs our way. “I am not exaggerating when I say there are more models for what FRBs could be than there are FRBs,” Cornell University astronomer Shami Chatterjee told The Washington Post in January. “We don’t have a convincing model for FRBs at the moment,” Bailes said. “The leading model is some form of very exotic neutron star.” The new hypothesis put forth by a pair of theorists at the Center for Astrophysics was even more exotic. Loeb and his co-author, Manasvi Lingam, ditched natural sources entirely. They speculated that FRBs could, in theory, be traced back to extragalactic civilizations. Specifically, aliens who flashed superpowered beacons or cruised through space on the wings of giant light-sail technology. “It’s a delightful thought experiment,” said Bailes, who was not involved with the paper. (Bailes told The Post he considered himself more of an FRB hunter than a theorist.) But, he said, the The two Harvard theorists recognized that their FRB origin story dealt with possibility, not probability. “Deciding what’s likely ahead of time limits the possibilities,” Loeb said. “It’s worth putting ideas out there and letting the data be the judge.” FRBs could represent artificial beams, Loeb and Lingam wrote, created by a far-off civilization either as giant beacons or “for driving light sails.” Given the luminosity of the FRBs detected on Earth, an intelligent civilization would need to harness energy from a sun and cool the machinery with planet-sized amounts of water. Although alien traffic controllers would need to keep this beam aimed at the sail, distant observers would see only a flash as the beam pivoted across the universe. When sailing by light, the sun’s radiation provides propulsion. If caught by a large enough sail and given adequate time, solar photons bouncing off a reflective surface could push a spacecraft with ever-increasing speeds. Solar sailing has been a


Trump’s proposed NOAA cuts would disarm our coasts in the face of rising seas, scientists say

proposed cuts to Regional Coastal Resilience grants, which deal more specifically with bracing communities for adverse climate and weather events. These programs “build resilience of coastal communities to the negative impacts from extreme weather events, climate hazards, and changing ocean conditions,” Much like these are the Also proposed for the chopping block are several research and education initiatives that provide valuable information to help coastal communities plan for the future. The “It’s not a basic science program,” said Don Boesch, who directs the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. “It’s pretty applied to management of those research reserves and areas they represent throughout the whole state.” This is important for the preservation of the plants and animals that call these areas home — but because Of similar importance is the “They’re a conduit of information from the communities to scientists and universities, and a conduit of information from universities to communities so that they can take advantage of the newest breakthroughs in science,” Lubchenco added. It’s a popular program, according to Boesch, who noted that Sea Grant typically enjoys bipartisan support among lawmakers. This is just one aspect of the White House plan that may make it a hard sell in Congress. Ad “The federal dollars leverage a lot of additional financial resources,” she said, adding that by cutting the federal funding, “you hurt states big-time.” For now, the budget cuts remain only a proposal — but one that could place coastal communities at a disadvantage in the face of sea-level rise, natural disasters and other impending environmental changes. In fact, well-planned adaptation efforts could make the difference in whether cities such as Miami and New Orleans survive into the next century. But although the effects of climate change remain among the greatest risks to the U.S. shoreline, one also doesn’t necessarily have to believe in anthropogenic global warming to acknowledge the services provided by these programs. In addition to climate adaptation efforts, they also support resilience against storms and other natural events, research on fisheries management, the preservation of wetlands (which have value for recreation and biodiversity as much as coastal buffering) and general community planning processes. “Just from a dollars-and-cents perspective, avoiding human suffering, why would you do anything to pull back on support where most people live and where most of the infrastructure is built?” said Arroyo of the Georgetown Climate Center. “That’s not cost effective.”


Deadly fungal infection that doctors have been fearing now reported in U.S.

A strain of Candida auris cultured in a petri dish at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. <br /> (Shawn Lockhart/CDC) Nearly three dozen people in the United States have been diagnosed with a deadly and highly drug-resistant fungal infection since federal health officials first warned U.S. clinicians last June to be on the lookout for the emerging pathogen that has been spreading around the world. The fungus, a strain of a kind of yeast known as Candida auris, has been reported in a dozen countries on five continents starting in 2009, when it was found in an ear infection in a patient in Japan. Since then, the fungus has been reported in Colombia, India, Israel, Kenya, Kuwait, Pakistan, South Korea, Venezuela and the United Kingdom. Unlike garden variety yeast infections, this one causes serious bloodstream infections, spreads easily from person to person in health-care settings, and survives for months on skin and for weeks on bed rails, chairs and other hospital equipment. Some strains are resistant to all three major classes of antifungal drugs. Based on information from a limited number of patients, up to 60 percent of people with these infection have died. Many of them also had other serious underlying illnesses. Those at greatest risk are individuals who have been in intensive care for a long time or who are on ventilators or have central line catheters inserted into a large vein. In the United States, the largest number of infections has been reported in New York, with at least 28 cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Infections have also been reported in Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey. Last June, the CDC sent an urgent alert to clinicians to start looking for the infections, which are difficult to identify with standard laboratory methods. Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “As soon as we put out that alert, we started to get information about cases and now we know more about how it spreads and how it’s acting,” Tom Chiller, the CDC’s top fungal expert, said in an interview Thursday. The CDC now tracks the number of infections, updating the case count every few weeks. In addition to the 35 infected patients, an additional 18 were carrying the organism but weren't sickened by it. The microbe is among a group of newly emerging drug-resistant threats, health officials said. “These pathogens are


About those mysterious fast radio bursts from deep space …

The Whirlpool Galaxy. Not directly relevant at all to this blog item but still cool to look at. (NASA) [Programming note: We have a newly extended list of options for labeling our blog items. After the old standard categories of “news" and “opinion," we also have the categories of “analysis," “perspective" and “review." For some reason my blogging software defaults to “perspective," which sounds to my ear like “opinion lite." No raving allowed. No promiscuous opinionating. I will continue to lobby for a “blather" category. And “drivel."] Thursday, the inbox featured a bulletin from Harvard, saying scientists think the Fast Radio Bursts from deep space could conceivably be coming from aliens zooming around the cosmos in laser-powered light-sails. I think I am summarizing this accurately and without exaggeration. Hang on, let me call up the news release. Oh, yeah, here it is: “Could Fast Radio Bursts Be Powering Alien Probes?” Frowny-faced skeptic though I may be, one can make the case that the detection of alien civilizations would involve something like this — anomalies picked up by telescopes for which there is no obvious natural explanation. That’s what Freeman Dyson told me something like 20 years ago: Someday we’ll see something. The something in this case are the FRBs, first detected in 2007. They’re very brief flashes of light in the radio portion of the spectrum. There may be hundreds of thousands of them pinging the Earth every day from all points of the heavens. If the FRBs are artificial in origin, the implication is that the universe is lousy with alien light sails. From the news release: To power a light sail, the transmitter would need to focus a beam on it continuously. Observers on Earth would see a brief flash because the sail and its host planet, star and galaxy are all moving relative to us. As a result, the beam sweeps across the sky and only points in our direction for a moment. Repeated appearances of the beam, which were observed but cannot be explained by cataclysmic astrophysical events, might provide important clues about its artificial origin. [Harvard professor Avi] Loeb admits that this work is speculative. When asked whether he really believes that any fast radio bursts are due to aliens, he replied, “Science isn’t a matter of belief, it’s a matter of evidence. Deciding what’s likely ahead of time limits the possibilities. It’s worth putting


Dr. Gridlock’s travel tips for marathon weekend

Runners make their way through the streets of the District during the Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post) The traffic congestion calendar is emerging from a winter lull. This is a very busy weekend for events that could slow the pace of travel in the D.C. region. The prime culprit is the Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon, an annual event that takes runners through many of the District’s neighborhoods on Saturday between 7 a.m. and about 2 p.m. Start times have been adjusted this year because of Metro’s policy of not opening early for special events. While St. Patrick’s Day isn’t till next Friday, this weekend is the time for St. Pat’s parades. And despite the chill, many people are likely to be around the Tidal Basin and the Mall to see how the cherry blossoms are advancing. The Capital Weather Gang tells us to expect more sun than clouds on Saturday, but it will be breezy and chilly, with a high temperature in the mid-30s. We’ll have more sunshine Sunday, and the temperature will be slightly warmer, in the upper 30s to low 40s. Don’t forget to spring the clocks forward. Daylight saving time begins at 2 a.m. Sunday. Sporting events: The Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament continues through the weekend at Verizon Center. Watch for extra congestion in the Gallery Place-Chinatown Metro station and on the streets around Verizon Center. If you’re planning to take transit to any of these events, check the schedule of Metrorail maintenance disruptions below. But first, let’s review the big event, the Saturday marathon. Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon The map below shows the routes for the marathon, half-marathon and 5K run. The event is likely to have a high impact on streets in neighborhoods that include Capitol Hill, Adams Morgan, Columbia Heights, Southwest Waterfront and Anacostia. Driving on the South Capitol Street and East Capitol Street bridges also will be affected. Here is the D.C. police department’s list of street closings. The event sponsors are in a new partnership with Waze, the travel guidance app. Waze will incorporate the street closing schedule into the app. Its alerts and push notifications will offer alternative routes, parking options and information on detours and traffic congestion. The sponsors have a discount deal with the SpotHero parking reservation service, so drivers can look for off-street parking within walking distance of the start line. Also, there will


The world’s oceans are storing up staggering amounts of heat — and it’s even more than we thought

A diver films a reef affected by bleaching off Lizard Island in the Great Barrier Reef. (XL Catlin Seaview Survey via AFP/Getty Images) The world is getting warmer every year, thanks to climate change — but where exactly most of that heat is going may be a surprise. As a stunning early spring blooms across the United States, just weeks after scientists declared 2016 the A “The ocean is the memory of all of the past climate change,” said study co-author The new value is a number that significantly exceeds previous estimates, Trenberth noted. Compared with ocean warming estimates produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the new values are about 13 percent greater. This is the result of a new methodology for estimating ocean warming, involving a series of steps “that really make this paper different than previous ones,” Trenberth told The Washington Post. In previous decades, there have been a lot of challenges associated with monitoring temperature changes in the ocean. Before the year 2000 or so, most monitoring instruments had to be deployed from ships. This mean that scientists only had the most reliable data for parts of the world that lie along major shipping routes. In the past 15 years, though, scientists have developed the “Argo” network, a system of free-drifting devices that are designed to periodically adjust their buoyancy, so they can sink several thousand meters into the sea, collect measurements, and then rise back up to the surface. There are now about 3,500 of these devices deployed throughout the world’s oceans, leading to a much better dispersal of observations. The new study, which was led by Lijing Cheng of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and included other scientists from that institution, from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, employs a new methodology for using both the recent Argo measurements and past observations from ships to produce a continuous series of estimates from 1960 to 2015. The scientists incorporated an updated database of pre-Argo measurements that have been corrected for certain biases, as well as information from climate models, and extended existing observations of ocean conditions taken at specific locations to larger areas of the sea. They then conducted a comparison of recent Argo data with measurements created using their new methodology and found that the method produces true-to-life results. The results suggest that the ocean


The Kansas City Royals have named an official craft beer. Will other teams follow?

The Craft & Draft section of the Kansas City Royals’ Kauffman Stadium serves more than 75 brews. (Chris Vleisides /Jason Hanna/Vleisides Photo Studio) Try to imagine watching a baseball game from the center field stands on a sticky summer afternoon, enduring the remorseless sun for hours, without a cold beer to quench your thirst. Heck, try making it through two innings without hearing the cry, “Beer here!” For more than a century, baseball and beer drinking have been intertwined as two great American pastimes. In the late 19th century, the St. Louis Browns’ Sportsman’s Park featured a beer garden in the outfield, a feature that foreshadowed many of today’s ballpark amenities. But beer and baseball go deeper than refreshment in the bleachers: There was often a strong tie to a team’s local brewery. When Baltimore Orioles fans heard play-by-play announcer Chuck Thompson exclaim, “Ain’t the beer cold!” after a home run or rally, they knew it was time to crack open a National Bohemian. (Jerold Hoffberger was an owner of the team as well as the owner of the National Brewing Co.) >> QUIZ: Test your knowledge of baseball and beer below Rhode Island’s Narragansett became sponsors of the Red Sox during World War II But as the U.S. beer market began to contract, with fewer than 100 breweries operating across the country by the late ’70s, the big national brands took over baseball. Budweiser became the official beer sponsor of Major League Baseball in 1980, a position it will retain through at least 2018, while Miller Lite began showing ads featuring Bob Uecker, Billy Martin and George Steinbrenner. Today, as craft beer sales rise and domestic macrobrews continue to lose market share, some ballparks offer in-house bars branded with the names of local craft beers: Anchor Plaza and Taproom at AT&T Park in San Francisco, the Great Lakes Brewing bar at Cleveland’s Progressive Field or the Flying Dog Grill at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. But more often than not, beer-loving fans face an illusion of choice, as Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors are the official beer sponsors of most teams. While Nationals Park sells local brews from the District Drafts carts, most space goes to AB-InBev products, such as Goose Island and Shock Top. (A notable exception is Seattle’s Safeco Field, where stands offer sour beers, cask ales and dozens of craft choices.) 6/18/1966 Orioles at Red Sox As Opening


Would-be Boston Marathon runners disqualified due to racecourse error in qualifying event

Woodlands runners won’t be among those running in the Boston Marathon, shown here in 2016, after a course mix-up. (Steven Senne/Associated Press) Ulysses Montoya looked down at his GPS tracker while passing the second mile marker during The Woodlands (Texas) Marathon on Saturday and found something curious. His Garmin watch read 1.2 miles. As he ran on, hitting the other mile markers, his tracker remained behind. “At first I figured maybe the first few banners were placed incorrectly,” he said in a phone interview on Friday. Midway through what was supposed to be a standard 26.2-mile race, however, Montoya figured out something was wrong with the course, not his tracker, when he caught up to another runner whose GPS watch also lagged behind the mileage banners. Their trackers would remain behind until the finish line, which Montoya crossed in fourth place with a time of 2:37:03. Not bad for 25.4 miles of running. Unfortunately, though, because of the course error, Montoya’s exceptional time in what was supposed to be his first-ever full marathon will not qualify him for the Boston Marathon. He found that out on Thursday when Woodlands organizers sent an email to him and the more than 100 others whose times would’ve qualified them for the world-renowned race. The email also explained why Montoya’s GPS tracker never caught up to the mileage markers. “I would like to apologize and accept full responsibility on behalf of The Woodlands marathon with the mistake that ensued where our LEO (lead motorcycle) led runners off course in the beginning of the race at the intersection of Grogan’s Mill and High Timbers,” Woodlands race director Willie Fowlkes wrote in the email sent on Thursday and later posted to Facebook. “This error caused the course to be short by .8 miles.” “Regretfully, runners for The Woodlands Marathon 2017 event will not be eligible to qualify and enter registration for the 2018 Boston Marathon,” Fowlkes continued. “It is extremely disappointing that The Woodlands Marathon will not be represented in the 2018 event.” “Disappointing” is the same word Montoya used to describe how he felt after reading the email on Thursday. The 24-year-old said the news didn’t come as a surprise, however. As a longtime member of the area’s running community, Montoya said there had been chatter all week on social media about the race’s mistake and that it was unlikely the Boston Athletic Association, which


These creatures faced extinction. The Endangered Species Act saved them.

DDT, was an invisible killer of condors. Compounding the problem, carrion killed by lead shot poisoned birds that fed on the carcasses. They’ve been protected by federal law since 1967 and state law since 1971. By then, they were already too far gone. In 1982, only 23 were left worldwide. Five years later, they were rushed into a captive breeding program for intensive recovery. Without it, condors would probably no longer exist. In 1992, federal officials started releasing a few into the wild, and now there are 410 birds. Although the recovery program says there are “more California condors flying free in the wild” since the program’s start, their survival is still an open question. One of the first things the Interior Department did under its new secretary, Ryan Zinke, was rescind an Obama administration regulation that outlawed hunting with lead shot. A gray wolf at the Wildlife Science Center in Forest Lake, Minn. (Dawn Villella/AP) Gray wolf The gray wolf, Canis lupis, has a public relations problem that’s hard to overcome. In fables, it menaces Little Red Riding Hood and blows down the houses of pigs. In horror tales, a man unfortunate enough to be bitten by a werewolf transforms into one. But wolves once roamed the whole of North America, the greatest distribution of any wild animal, and were an essential part of the ecology. They helped control populations of deer, elk and bison, ensuring that those animals roamed about rather than ruined areas by remaining too long, trampling the ground and demolishing trees that other animals relied on for habitat and safety. As humans colonized the east and expanded to the west, ranchers came to despise wolf packs that killed cattle on instinct learned over thousands of years of hunting prey. They were hunted, shot, trapped and poisoned throughout the lower 48 states until they were on the brink of extinction. Gray wolves were listed as endangered in 1978. Although some progress was made toward their recovery, they continue to be listed as endangered in 39 states and parts of another five because shooting and trapping still happen. A distinct north Rocky Mountain population was de-listed due to recovery six years ago. Opponents of the endangered listing are working to remove wolves from the list, as conservationists complain that there isn’t a sufficient number to escape extinction. But it’s clear that protection has led to a rebound.


Why Chipotle’s Southeast Asian chain couldn’t make it work

ShopHouse's first location opened in Dupont Circle in 2011. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post) All 15 locations of ShopHouse, the Southeast Asian fast-casual restaurant owned by Chipotle, will close on March 17. The closings, first reported by Nation's Restaurant News on Thursday, left fans distraught. But it was easy to see the move coming after Chipotle announced in October that it was halting investments in the brand. Instead, the burrito giant's spinoff aspirations will focus on two other endeavors: Pizzeria Locale and Tasty Made, a pizza joint and a burger place, respectively. "We just didn't believe that ShopHouse warranted continued investment," Chris Arnold, a spokesperson for Chipotle, said in an email. ShopHouse, which opened its first location in 2011 in Dupont Circle, offered customizable rice, noodle and salad bowls inspired by the cuisines of Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore. It represented a glimmer of hope for diners interested in something different and at least marginally more nutritious than what was served at most fast-casual chains. But selling Southeast Asian cuisine proved to be a losing gamble in an industry dominated by burgers and sandwiches. The top 10 quick-service and fast-casual brands, as ranked by U.S. sales in 2016's QSR 50, an annual list published by industry publication QSR magazine, don't include any restaurants serving Asian cuisine. The list is topped by the likes of McDonald's, Starbucks, Subway, Burger King and Taco Bell. Even when QSR broke out supposed “ethnic” brands — the label is a bit of a stretch — the results aren't that impressive. Taco Bell was ranked at No. 5; further down the list are Chipotle (12), Panda Express (22), Qdoba (34), Del Taco (37) and Moe's Southwest Grill (43). Only one Asian concept made the top 50: Panda Express, a chain perhaps best known for its fried, sticky orange chicken, which is a far cry from ShopHouse's grilled steak seasoned with fish sauce, or its sweet and sour tamarind vinaigrette. A tofu bowl from ShopHouse. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post) Those Southeast Asian flavors were unfamiliar to many Americans. Darren Tristano, president of market research firm Technomic, said that when the brand launched, he believed the biggest challenge would be getting consumers to see that Southeast Asian cuisine wasn't outside the norm. "When your core focus is on that, it just makes it very, very difficult," he said. He points to Mexican, Italian and Chinese as the big three


D.C.-area forecast: Feeling like midwinter as a significant snow threat looms Monday night into Tuesday

Blossoms against a blue sky earlier this week. (Skywalkerbeth via Flickr) 11:40 a.m.: 10:15 a.m.: From 5 a.m. TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 3/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: View the current conditions at The Washington Post headquarters. FORECAST IN DETAIL We’re starting what may end up the longest below-normal stretch of this cold season. And we’re not yet out of the time of year where the extra cold air also delivers snow risks. A juicy storm looks set to bump into the cold dome over our region, and we’re still closely watching what might happen as that unfolds. First, a cold but visually pleasant weekend. Today (Saturday): Tonight: Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the latest updates. For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the weekend… Tomorrow (Sunday): Tomorrow night: The D.C. region is in for a drastic change in temperatures over the weekend and the potential of snow soon after. Capital Weather Gang’s Jason Samenow has your weekend forecast. A LOOK AHEAD We should see rays of sun Monday morning and perhaps into midday. But clouds are on the increase with time. First they are thin and high level, but as we get through the afternoon they’ll lower and the sky takes on that fuzzy “pre-storm” look. Highs mostly reach the upper 30s to lower 40s. Light snow, or perhaps rain turning to snow, could enter the region by sunset or so, from south to north. Snow then overtakes the area heading into the night. At first it’s probably light to moderate, but it should start piling up readily. By late night, periods of heavy snow become a risk, and that lasts into sunrise while potentially mixing with some sleet and rain, especially near and east of Interstate 95. Confidence: Medium There’s some question as to how long the winter storm lingers around here Tuesday. It’s a decent bet that the brunt of it comes late Monday night into Tuesday morning, and then anything the rest of the day is lighter by comparison. It could also end near or shortly after sunrise. Either way, plenty of “damage” is likely to be done as we rise. Delays and closures are certainly a risk if the storm comes together, as are plenty of downed tree limbs and even trees, thanks to a number having already started to green up. The thing about March, though,


PM Update: Clear and cold tonight. Significant snowstorm begins Monday evening

day considering what’s on the horizon for us. Make sure to check our official snowfall forecast early and often as it will remain volatile with a complicated storm system on the way. Precipitation will hold off until sunset Monday night, so use this evening and the first part of Monday to make whatever preparations you might need. Through Tonight: Worm Moon at D.C. sunset. George Jiang via Flickr View the current weather at The Washington Post. Tomorrow (Monday): Into the evening, snow may mix with sleet and rain at times, especially around D.C. and at points south and east of the city. Intensity should really pick up after around 10 p.m. As the night wears on, most areas north and west of Southern Maryland should see precipitation transition to mostly all snow, with the most significant snowfall occurring after midnight and into Tuesday morning. Heaviest amounts are likely north and west of the Beltway. Low temperatures will range from 30 to 32 degrees, with an increasing east wind at 10 to 20 mph. Programming note: See Brian Jackson’s forecast through the week. And if you haven’t already, join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram. For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Winters Revenge Tour: Yes it will indeed snow in winter in the midwest. Be prepared for difficult and slow travel Monday. #inwx #ilwx https://t.co/Yn459eBxqK How’s this for a stat. Through yesterday, Seattle (yes Seattle!) had more accumulated snow in 2017 than Minneapolis. That oddity will come to an end after today, with Minnesota experiencing its first significant snowfall, as well. Snow, becoming heavy at times later today. #mnwx #wiwx #snow https://t.co/9qVRMgPpFC And a bit closer to home, folks in the southeastern U.S. woke up to some of the white stuff this morning. If you think it’s hard to get snow in March in D.C., it’s even harder to get for our southern friends. Charlotte had its first measurable snow in March for the first time since 2010. Some March snowfall today across much of North and South Carolina. #ncwx #scwx https://t.co/pcF4BMa2BW And just in case you were wondering, both of these systems that brought snow to the Midwest and the Southeast are the two storms that are going to phase with each other off the East Coast to form our impending nor’easter. Want our 5 a.m. forecast delivered to your email inbox? Subscribe here.


Heavy snow likely in D.C. area Monday night, paralyzing blizzard from New York to Boston

where such amounts are considered to have at least a 50 percent likelihood. National Weather Service snowfall forecast for D.C. Snow that falls in portions of the Washington area could be heavy and wet. The weight of the snow on power lines and tree branches, some of which have begun to flower and leaf, along with top wind gusts to 25 to 30 mph, could lead to power outages in portions of the region. (Programming note: Capital Weather Gang will live blog the latest model forecasts for this storm on Sunday evening starting around at 10 p.m. at washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang) The storm will be particularly severe from New York City to Boston, which will be hit by a punishing combination of very heavy snow and strong winds very late Monday night into Tuesday. Blizzard watches have been posted for this area as travel could be made impossible because of snowfall amounts of 12 to 18 inches and wind gusts over 50 mph. The snowfall rates could exceed three inches per hour at times in this zone, with the possibility of thundersnow. The brunt of the storm will hit New York City from roughly 4 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday and Boston from about 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. National Weather Service forecast snow totals Monday night to Tuesday night. (WeatherBell.com) In the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, more than 50 million people are under winter storm or blizzard watches and/or warnings. The storm will generate large waves and a powerful tidal surge that will batter the Atlantic beaches, particularly in eastern New England. In eastern Massachusetts on Tuesday and Tuesday night, the storm “has the potential to wreak havoc on the coastline given a potential for 2 to 3 foot storm surges and waves in excess of 20 feet just offshore” the Weather Service forecast office serving Boston said. Farther south into the Delmarva, some minor coastal flooding is possible around high tide Tuesday morning. GFS model simulation of the winter storm Monday to Tuesday night. The power of the storm is tied to the merger of two flows of energy off the Mid-Atlantic coast, one originating from Canada and a second from the Gulf of Mexico. The storm will fall on the 24th anniversary of the “Blizzard of 93,” the most extreme March storm to hit the East Coast in recorded history. While it won’t be that strong, Monday night’s storm is


D.C.-area forecast: Heavy snow and mixed precipitation to sweep through metro Monday night into Tuesday

The Capital Weather Gang's Jason Samenow breaks down the expectations for the winter storm barreling toward the D.C. area on March 13 and 14. * Winter storm warning for areas along and west of Interstate 95 in D.C. area, including the District, 7 p.m. Monday to 2 p.m. Tuesday * TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 5/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: View the current weather conditions at The Washington Post headquarters. FORECAST IN DETAIL Today we brace for a major late-winter storm set to begin this evening and continue into Tuesday. Depending on where you live, moderate to heavy amounts of snow could fall or a sloppy mix of snow, sleet and rain. The heaviest snowfall is expected to occur in our far western and northern areas, but the storm will likely will prove disruptive for much of the region through at least Tuesday morning. We want to stress that this forecast is extremely complex and we have lower confidence in predicted snow amounts than usual. This is especially true along and east of the Interstate 95 corridor where we have reduced our predicted snowfall amounts some. Starting Wednesday, in the wake of the storm, the region is locked into a winterlike regime with colder-than-normal temperatures through the weekend. Programming note: We will post a new, detailed update on the storm threat late morning at washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang Today (Monday): Tonight: Between 8 p.m. and midnight, precipitation should starting picking up in intensity while temperatures edge close to freezing. In our colder areas toward Loudoun County and northern Maryland, snow accumulation may begin. Elsewhere, snow or mixed precipitation may not accumulate much in this window. The best chance for accumulating snow will occur after midnight and toward the pre-dawn hours. Along and to the east and southeast of Interstate 95, the snow may alternate and mix with sleet and rain, limiting accumulations some. Across the entire region, the precipitation may be quite heavy, and temperatures should fall into the upper 20s in our coldest areas to the low 30s elsewhere. Confidence: Low-Medium Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for the latest updates. For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the weekend … High-resolution NAM model simulated radar at 5 a.m. Tuesday. Tomorrow (Tuesday): Total snow accumulations may vary substantially over short distances, but we expect generally around 3-6 inches inside the Beltway, with the potential for more north


The U.S. military made a short video to improve relations between Japan and South Korea. It could actually work.

and Republic of Korea,” “‘These Flights Demonstrate the Solidarity between South Korea, The United States, and Japan to Defend Against North Korea’s Provocative and Destabilizing Actions …’ — Admiral Harry B. Harris Jr., Commander of US Pacific Command,” and “Cooperation with Japan and the ROK Broaden capabilities to Defend Against Threats.” The video has since been viewed more than 100,000 times. But should we expect it to make any difference? Could it actually improve strained relations between Japan and South Korea? One test is to see whether it changed minds in Japan — where, for example, 70 percent support Japan’s withdrawing its ambassador from South Korea. In January, we conducted an online experiment that involved 1,050 people from Yahoo Cloud Japan. We randomly assigned half of these people to watch the video about Japan and South Korea. The other half watched an unrelated video about a U.S.-Australia military exercise. Here’s what we found: - People who watched the video were more supportive of Japan-South Korea military cooperation. About 45 percent of those who watched the video supported further strengthening cooperation between Japan and South Korea, compared with 38 percent of those who watched the other video. There were similar increases in support for cooperation in other realms, such as the economy, environmental protection and disaster prevention — even though none of these are mentioned in the video. In other words, watching a 38-second video only once was enough to change Japanese views on cooperation with South Korea. - At the same time, people who watched the Japan-South Korea video became a bit less supportive of sharing military information with South Korea and deploying the Japanese military alongside the United States to help South Korea. It may be that the video led some Japanese to fear involvement in a crisis on the Korean Peninsula. Of course, this experiment is necessarily artificial in that it asked people to watch the video. Most people aren’t surfing the U.S. Pacific Command website of their own accord. Nevertheless, watching the video even once did have an effect, increasing Japanese support for cooperation with South Korea even though relations between the two countries were at historically low levels. For the United States, the question going forward is whether such diplomatic efforts could help strengthen an alliance with Japan and South Korea against an increasingly threatening North Korea. Yuki Asaba is a professor at the University of


Professor: I know firsthand how an American education helps foreign students, and how they help make America great

order addresses these concerns by exempting people already in the United States with valid visas — an exemption that would in theory cover many of the affected college students. In addition, the recent order gives border guards the discretion of allowing entry by nationals from the named countries if they are returning to the United States to resume study. However, this discretion opens the door to potential denials of entry if these students leave the United States to visit family back home or simply go somewhere sunny for spring break. The uncertainty felt on campuses is not limited to liberal colleges that designate themselves “sanctuaries.” It affects blue and red areas of the country, private and public universities and colleges, and secular and religious institutions. Liberty University, one of the most conservative evangelical colleges in the nation, has more than 900 international students from more than 80 countries enrolled. It is vital that universities continue to serve as incubators for cross-cultural exposure and communication. This is especially critical in the field of international affairs, where we teach the value of the American tradition of going out into the world and where students often prepare for careers in public service, international development and international business. Those who study international affairs do so because they possess a curiosity about other cultures and an understanding that the history of their own country is inextricably linked to that of others. Often this curiosity is sparked or deepened when students travel abroad, or when they build relationships with those who visit from other countries. The latest executive order reads: “Each of these countries is a state sponsor of terrorism, has been significantly compromised by terrorist organizations, or contains active conflict zones.” These are places where few Americans will travel. This is precisely why we should ensure that students from these countries are able to pursue an American education. Cross-cultural engagement, whether on campus or in communities, diminishes the fear of “the other” that can so easily grow when we limit opportunities for interactions with those who are different from ourselves. In the current political climate — in which “nativism” is being emphasized — it is of paramount importance that educators encourage and increase our students’ opportunities to engage with people from different national origins, religions and ethnicities rather than block these opportunities out of fear or misunderstanding. Diversity exists in all societies. For every potential


different from ourselves. In the current political climate — in which “nativism” is being emphasized — it is of paramount importance that educators encourage and increase our students’ opportunities to engage with people from different national origins, religions and ethnicities rather than block these opportunities out of fear or misunderstanding. Diversity exists in all societies. For every potential security risk, there is a potential Nobel Prize winner such as Shirin Ebadi of Iran, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her tireless efforts in support of women’s rights and democracy. (Ebadi, a lawyer, now lives in exile in the United Kingdom.) As a professor at the American University’s School of International Service in Washington, and as associate director of Bridging the Gap, a program that forges connections between academics and policymakers, I work to show how our understanding of international affairs often comes from personal engagement — whether by field research abroad or by engagement with foreign students and scholars at home. A policy that restricts travel from critical countries not only denies young people access to the best educational system in the world and a deeper understanding of democratic governance, it robs American students of the benefits of a globalized campus. International students bring an array of benefits that range from language tutoring to cultural exchange. More than that, hosting students from other countries often challenges our worldviews, tests our assumptions, and helps us to better understand nuances that would otherwise be missed if we weren’t engaging with them directly. Seeing the plight of refugees in the news does not have the same effect on our understanding of the world and our moral compass as does sitting next to someone whose family sought refuge in the United States. Without the exchange that underlies international affairs education — an exchange that is supported by the U.S. government through programs such as the Fulbright Scholarships — we will be less capable of leading the world in so many different fields. We must keep the international in international affairs education because we cannot learn about the world unless we are confronted with what we do not understand. We cannot grow unless we face new experiences. We cannot imagine unless we seek a world beyond ourselves. We must continue to teach the profound implications of taking pen to paper, not only to our students, but to the students of the world.


Why the FDA hides the names of grocery stores that sell contaminated food

competitive position of any business” to disclose retailer names. “FSIS now routinely posts these lists,” said Deirdre Schlunegger, the chief executive of STOP Foodborne Illness, an advocacy group for patients that lobbied FSIS 10 years ago. “We obviously believe consumers should have as much information as possible to make safe food decisions.” Today, when FSIS issues a Class I recall — those that seem “reasonably” likely to cause health problems — it also issues a list of all the retail locations that have, or have had, the product. During last month's massive cheese recall, for instance, FSIS published a list of every Safeway, Albertsons and Pak ’n’ Save that sold Taylor Farms salads containing Sargento pepperjack. But because FDA regulates the cheese itself, there was no such list of stores that sold the cheese outside salads. “It does makes me wonder why the FDA can’t do the same,” said Sandra Eskin, the director of the Safe Food Project at Pew Charitable Trusts. “The fundamental issue is — is this information important to consumers during a recall? I would argue yes.” But the man who led the effort to reform FSIS’s traded secrets rule has his own suspicions as to why the FDA hasn’t followed his lead. Richard Raymond, who was the undersecretary of agriculture for food safety under President George W. Bush, says that the fiercest opposition to the change came from the food industry. Raymond, who had been the chief medical officer in his home state of Nebraska, came to Washington, D.C., determined to change the rules on confidential information. He found himself surprised by the level of resistance. “They were scared to death it would hurt their business,” Raymond said. “The retail stores want to protect their brand. … When you ask why FDA hasn’t done it, I suspect they don’t want that fight themselves.” The FDA did not respond to Raymond's comment by press time. But Gremillion, of the Consumer Federation, would like to see the agency take action. “Why do confidential business interests trump public health in some cases and not others?” he asked. “We need more transparency around this.” More from Wonkblog: The one way fast food may actually be ‘good’ for you How Yelp plans to clean up one of the restaurant industry’s most dangerous flaws Sure, that food has the government’s organic label. But that doesn’t mean it was made without man-made chemicals.


NASA just found an orbiter that’s been missing around the moon for 8 years

The 70-meter antenna at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California (NASA) No one had heard from Chandrayaan-1 since Aug. 29, 2009. That's when the pioneering moon orbiter — the first lunar probe ever launched by the Indian Space Research Organization — abruptly went silent just 312 days into what was supposed to be a two-year mission. The orbiter has been missing ever since. It's no bigger than a refrigerator and difficult for Earth-based telescopes to discern given the moon's nighttime glow, making the craft hard to track down. Plus, the moon's lopsided topography — riddled with mascons, or areas of dense material with higher-than-average gravitational pull — makes satellites' orbits incredibly unpredictable. But the silent, stealthy Chandrayaan-1 couldn't evade powerful radio telescopes. Scientists at NASA's Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California's remote Mojave Desert and at the National Science Foundation's Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia worked together to detect the long-lost orbiter by sending out radio waves in its direction and listening for the echoes that bounced back. “To be declared lost and then found after eight years is a great accomplishment,” Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, the former ISRO chair who helped conceive the moon mission, told the Times of India. The search technique, developed by researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, is a new one. Capitalizing on the fact that Chandrayaan-1's orbit takes it over the moon's north pole, they used Goldstone's largest antenna to direct a powerful beam of microwaves toward the spot they expected the probe to be. The antenna is usually used to communicate with spacecraft much farther away — it's still in touch with the Voyager 1 probe way outside the solar system. But it could also be applied much like a police officer's radar gun. When the microwaves struck Chandrayaan-1, they bounced back toward Earth, where the Green Bank radio telescope was listening. During four hours of observations, Green Bank detected two blips that resembled the signature of a small spacecraft. That timing matched the period of Chandrayaan-1's orbit. The data also provided information about the spacecraft's speed and distance from Earth, which could be used to update projections of its orbit, and subsequent radar observations confirmed the new calculations. The researchers used the same technique to find NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter — an easier task because the LRO is still operational. But this could be just the beginning of


‘This … follows from the basic laws of physics’: Scientists rebuke Scott Pruitt on climate change

includes a physical understanding of how carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere affect the planet’s temperature; evidence from past climates (in which carbon dioxide has served as a key planetary knob controlling temperature); and a stark record of ever rising concentrations of the atmospheric gas that have been predictably accompanied by rising temperatures. The conclusion is also supported by the lack of any other major factor — such as changes to the sun, the activity of volcanoes, or natural cycles like El Nino — that appears capable of explaining changes to the Earth’s temperature. Finally, it is backed by the results of multiple computer simulations that represent scientists’ most sophisticated mathematical understandings of how the Earth’s system — binding together the atmosphere, the oceans and land surfaces — works. Scott Pruitt testifies during a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill on Jan. 18. (Zach Gibson/AFP/Getty Images) Accordingly, the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — the top scientific authority on the matter, though it is often rated as rather conservative by scientists — has steadily increased the level of confidence it places in this central conclusion. In 1995, the IPCC merely said that “the balance of evidence suggests that there is a discernible human influence on global climate.” By 2001, though, the group had concluded it was “likely” that humans were driving global warming. By 2007, the IPCC said it was “very likely.” By 2013, it was saying it was “extremely likely.” There continue to be think tanks and advocates who say otherwise — but their case becomes harder and harder to make. No wonder, then, that Pruitt’s remarks triggered such a strong response. “We understand and accept that individuals and institutions both public and private can reach differing conclusions on the decisions and actions to be taken in the face of this reality,” the American Meteorological Society letter finished. “That’s the nature of the political process in a democratic society. But mischaracterizing the science is not the best starting point for a constructive dialogue.” More from Energy and Environment: On climate change, Scott Pruitt causes an uproar — and contradicts the EPA’s own website This climate lawsuit could change everything. No wonder the Trump administration doesn’t want it going to trial EPA environmental justice leader resigns, amid White House plans to dismantle the program For more, you can sign up for our weekly newsletter


Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is rising at the fastest rate ever recorded

by human activity have actually remained fairly flat for the past three years. The fact is, even if emissions have remained pretty stable in recent years, humans are still pouring billions of tons of greenhouse gases into the air each year. And even if these emission levels really are starting to plateau — and it will be years before we can say whether that’s actually the case, or whether the recent flattening is just a blip on an otherwise upward trend — they’re still evening out at an all-time high, after decades of climbing. Additionally, carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for a long time, Tans noted. This means that new carbon dioxide emissions have a cumulative effect, adding to emissions that were already there. “So record-high CO2 emissions, even though they stay flat, translates directly into a record-high CO2 increase” in the atmosphere, he said. Because carbon dioxide hangs around for so long, we’ll be feeling the warming effects of this year’s jump in concentration years in the future — even if we stopped all our greenhouse gas emissions today. And Tans added that it’s not only atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide that we have to worry about, but also oceanic levels as well. There’s a continuous gas exchange that takes place between atmosphere and ocean, Tans noted. Scientists say that at least half of all the carbon dioxide we’ve poured into the air since the industrial revolution has likely been absorbed into the sea. But it hasn’t disappeared forever, he cautioned. “If we then proceeded by technical means — by some invention or some chemical engineering development — to pull CO2 out of the atmosphere and bury it, then the additional CO2 that’s in the oceans will come back into the atmosphere,” Tans said. Such technology, often referred to as “negative emissions,” has actually been proposed by scientists as a possible future means of combating climate change. It’s a long way from becoming a reality at the moment, but Tans noted that even if it reached that point, it still wouldn’t be able to completely reverse the climate crisis. “It’s not enough to pull the excess that’s in the atmosphere at that time — we’d also have to pull out what went into the oceans,” he said. “If we want to undo this, we would have to artificially pull out all of the cumulative emissions since preindustrial times.”


Hollywood producers say Canada is censoring them over an indigenous character

application process at Parks Canada that has no clear set of guidelines. “Hard Powder” features Neeson as a snowplow driver whose son is killed by a local drug kingpin. “Fueled by an unwavering drive for vengeance and armed with heavy machinery, this unlikely hero sets out to dismantle the cartel with extreme prejudice, and he’s not stopping until he gets to the top of the food chain,” according to a synopsis of the film published in Variety. That quest for revenge sparks a turf war between the Viking, a vegan gangster in designer suits who drives a Tesla, and a native mob boss played by Tom Jackson, a Canadian TV actor and entertainer who has received the Order of Canada, the nation’s most prestigious civilian honor. Voyce said he started the application process a couple of months ago, with the hope of starting to film March 20. Initially, Parks Canada wanted to make sure that filming would not identify iconic locations in the parks. Then they asked if one of the gang members was a First Nations person, Voyce recalls: “They said it was a real concern and that it was really problematic.” The application to film was refused. Parks Canada said in a statement said that several factors affected its decision to reject the request from the producers of “Hard Powder,” including concerns over safety and environmental mitigation as well as the film's content. Although not commenting on the censorship issue directly, the agency said that it "works to present Indigenous stories in a respectful way that is consistent with reconciliation," adding that for too long, "the stories of Canada's indigenous people were ignored or misrepresented." Instead, it wanted the role of indigenous people to be "celebrated." Jackson, who was born on a Cree reservation in Saskatchewan and frequently plays indigenous roles on film and TV, wrote a letter of support for the film to Parks Canada. “I don’t feel my culture is insulted even slightly by the script,” he wrote. “Admittedly there is gang violence in this script, but in true storytelling form and in life, gangs are around us.” Shamberg said that arrangements are being made to shoot the film elsewhere in Alberta and British Columbia — but no national parks are involved. Read more: ‘Need your prayers’: The youth-suicide crisis gripping a Canadian community Trudeau launches investigation into the deaths and disappearances of Canada’s indigenous women