From the emperor to sumo wrestling, Abe harnesses Japan’s traditions to impress Trump

TOKYO — Perhaps no world leader has been as assiduous in flattering President Trump’s ego as Shinzo Abe. But Japan’s prime minister may have just outdone himself, pressing the country’s time-honored traditions into service for the American president’s upcoming trip. It’s a strategy that raises eyebrows here, even as it receives a degree of sympathy. Japan’s leader is viewed as doing what needs to be done to maintain his country’s most important foreign alliance and keep a mercurial president in check. Trump’s four-day state visit, which will begin Saturday, comes amid a trade war with China, the collapse of nuclear talks with North Korea and rumbling trade tensions with Japan — and ahead of a Group of 20 meeting in Osaka in June, when Abe will play host to Trump and other world leaders. During this trip, Trump will not only become the first foreign leader to meet Japan’s new emperor, Naruhito, but he also will take ringside seats at the first sumo tournament of the new imperial era, presenting a specially made “Trump Cup” to the winner, officials say. In a further accommodation, special seats will be placed for Trump and first lady Melania Trump right by the ring — in a place where spectators normally sit cross-legged on mats. That has spread ripples of unease through this most conservative of sports. Normally, VIPs sit in a special enclosure set back and above the ring. “Even if the guest is the president of our ally, the issue is about a state sport whose history and traditions people pay a lot of attention to,” Akihiro Terada, a 64-year-old businessman, wrote in a letter to the Mainichi newspaper. Japanese officials defended the seating plan as extending hospitality to a foreign guest, and said Trump’s mere attendance will help bring sumo to a wider audience. “It will make Japanese people feel closer to the president himself and allow Prime Minister Abe to introduce his close friend to the Japanese people,” said an official in Washington, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the bilateral relationship. Trump says he agreed to come only because Abe told him that the imperial succession in Japan is “about 100 times bigger” for Japanese people than the Super Bowl is for Americans. Many people think it is entirely appropriate for the leader of Japan’s closest ally to be the first to visit


Tom Sietsema’s 8 favorite places to eat (plus one to avoid) for March 2019

kitchen windows on two sides let diners watch the ballet of cooks in motion. If noise is among your peeves, request a seat in the relatively peaceful wine room off the entrance. 12435 Park Potomac Ave., Potomac. 301-340-0081. Entrees, $16 to $31. CHIKO Just like the original fast-casual attraction on Capitol Hill, it’s a little Chinese, a little Korean, and a lot delicious. Co-owners Scott Drewno and Danny Lee have another hit on their hands with their spinoff in Dupont Circle, which benefits from all the learning that took place on Barracks Row. This time around, there’s more space for the cooks to slice and dice before service, and the tables are free-standing rather than bolted to the floor, resulting in easier seating for groups in particular. The drill will be familiar to fans, who can count on finding the pork and kimchi pot stickers and cumin lamb stir-fry, but also some fresh ideas: cold noodles slicked with chile oil and crunchy with roasted peanuts, and a riff on shrimp toast that pairs wedges of crisp buttered ciabatta with springy diced shrimp in XO sauce. Dunk, dunk away. A perch at the four-seat, reservations-only chef’s counter puts you face to face with the cooks and pretty much gives you a taste of the whole menu. “I’ll be your sherpa tonight,” says one of the masters of the wok. Then he entertains customers with a tiered tray of salads and other nibbles before moving on to offer chopped brisket and furikake butter on steamed rice and a finale of coconut custard treated to candied almonds and lime zest. The cherry on top of all the fun: Unlike its sibling, the offshoot does lunch. 2029 P St. NW. 202-331-3040. Main dishes, $15 to $18. CONVIVIAL Times are tough. Competition is fierce. Diners want ever more from their restaurants, and Convivial has responded by introducing weekday lunch hours. They’re considerate ones to boot: 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Dropping in on a weekday, I’m pleasantly surprised to see chef-owner Cedric Maupillier at the door, wearing the checked shirt of a server rather than a white chef’s jacket and handling phone calls and seating guests. “I only have one manager,” he says. He leads me to a window table in the light-filled dining room, where my eyes are drawn to some of his fresh creations. One is a baguette spread with Plugrá butter and


Two teenagers are dead after U-Md. did not act quickly enough. It’s time the school does what it asks of its students: Learn.

and reporting by my colleagues — is horrifying and heartbreaking. But other students remain at the school. What assurance do they have that the university will put their well-being before its own image the next time a threat emerges? What assurance do they have that they won’t have to sit in the dark, unaware of a lurking danger, simply because officials decided they didn’t feel like sharing the light? Paregol’s death occurred just months after the campus mourned another student, Jordan McNair, a 19-year-old football player who collapsed of heatstroke during a team workout. If he had been immersed in cold water and treated right away, he might have survived, experts have said. Instead, more than an hour passed before paramedics were called, and by the time the teenager arrived at a hospital, his temperature was 106 degrees. That death alone should have been enough for the university to realize, and never forget, that delayed actions can be deadly. That much was obvious even before the university shelled out more than $1.57 million for an investigation into the incident. The story The Post published about the university’s response to the adenovirus outbreak was based on more than 100 interviews and thousands of pages of documents, including medical records, emails and text messages. Taken together, they appear to show a disturbing disregard for student safety. Even after officials were made aware that the school might be in the middle of an outbreak of the virus, which has been linked to other deaths, students received a campuswide email that mentioned only the flu and hand, foot and mouth disease. “This is no cause for alarm,” it read. By then, according to the story, Olivia Paregol had been out of school for a week and had told her friends that she had “puked blood.” Paregol, who was on medication for Crohn’s disease and had spent a semester sick from mold in her dorm room, had not been tested for the virus at that time. Her family learned there had been cases of it on campus, according to the story, only after the teenager ended up in a hospital and her father called a university official and pleaded, “I need some answers. I need to know what’s going on because she should not be this sick.” Parents entrust their children to colleges and universities. They also pay a lot of money to those institutions.


Will Theresa May’s departure fix British politics? Don’t bet on it.

a significant erosion in support from the most ardent pro-Brexit voters. May will step down as of June 7, but she will remain in place until her successor is selected. Johnson must run through the hurdles of the leadership contest, and he will have any number of rivals. Members of the Conservative Party must weigh the potential costs to its coalition of picking someone other than Johnson against the costs of putting their futures in the hands of someone so many of them do not fundamentally trust. Johnson is also fully capable of making a hash of his leadership bid. Rule nothing out when it comes to him. Johnson enjoys the apparent goodwill of President Trump. The president roiled British politics when he visited there last summer by saying in an interview with a British newspaper that he thought Johnson would make a fine prime minister. The interview landed just as May was hosting Trump at an elaborate ceremony and dinner and caused an uproar until the president lavished praise on his host the next day. But the president, who embraced the Brexit vote when it happened, has also been friendly with Farage. He will be in Britain for a state visit just before May steps down and will be watched closely for any signs of partiality in the Tory leadership fight. However the leadership contest turns out, the next prime minister will be responsible for managing the country’s exit from the E.U. May tried three times to get Parliament to support her plan, only to be defeated, in one case by the largest margin in the country’s history. She tried to work within her party — stubbornly, in the estimation of her critics — and when she hit the wall, she sought cross-party talks with Labour and its leader, Jeremy Corbyn. Those talks predictably went nowhere, which is where things now stand. European leaders have set Oct. 31 as a hard deadline — no more extensions, they have said. That could mean a “hard Brexit,” a departure without any real plan. The hard-liners in the Conservative Party have favored that course on the theory that Britain can and should write its own destiny. Others worry for good reason about the collateral damage to the nation’s economy and the standing in the world of such a step. Can a new prime minister do better? A new pro-Brexit leader will be


My husband is unjustly imprisoned in Iran. The international community must help.

bunk bed in a small room, he cannot even straighten his back. But with a book in his hands, he is able to put out of his mind the noises and smells from his 25 cellmates crammed underground and imagine that he is back home in Princeton’s Firestone Library. When we can speak, Xiyue brings up memories of Shaofan, including the funny sounds he made as a baby and the beautiful afternoons when he rode on his father’s shoulders on the way home from day care. Shaofan, however, was too young to remember those moments now. He is quickly growing up into a boy who is curious about the world but confused about his place in it. Recently, he has begun to act out more and ask about his father less. He often refuses to come to the phone during those rare moments when Xiyue is able to call home. My husband and our family are innocent victims in this quarrel between powers. He is an academic researcher and a father, not a political figure or spy. It is fundamentally unjust that he continues to be treated as a hostage or bargaining chip in a geopolitical dispute. But with will, anything is possible. I implore the Iranian, U.S. and Chinese governments, and other members of the international community, to come together and find a way to free this innocent man and bring him home to his family without delay. He has already been unfairly kept from his family for far too long. I have not lost hope. Though each week is a flurry of activity between working at my full-time job and caring for Shaofan as a single mother, I still look forward to the day when Xiyue will walk through our front door again. At a local fair in Princeton recently, my friends and I set up a table to raise awareness of Xiyue’s plight. Shaofan applied stickers bearing his father’s image onto water bottles and gave them away to people passing by. When people stopped by to hear our story, Shaofan chimed in loudly, “And my daddy is not a bad guy!” Like all children in this world, Shaofan needs his father. I plead for mercy to be granted to my husband to let us reunite and heal. I continue to pray that when Shaofan blows out his birthday candles next year, Xiyue will be right there, too.


Moe Berg was a colorful character. This documentary about the ballplayer and spy, not so much.

Rating: The promising documentary “The Spy Behind Home Plate” has a subject that should guarantee a home run: professional baseball player Morris “Moe” Berg, who played 15 seasons as shortstop and catcher, including two with the Washington Senators, before going to work for the U.S. government as an intelligence agent during World War II. The film has more than enough true material to fuel an effective thriller, but director Aviva Kempner doesn’t quite manage to bring this fascinating figure to life. The son of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine, Berg was born in Harlem in 1902. Berg’s skill on the diamond was his ticket to enter worlds not usually open to Jews at the time: Princeton University, where he played baseball, and, later, the big leagues. Although Berg would pass the New York State bar exam, he defied his father’s wishes that he become a lawyer, pursuing baseball instead. His professional career began in 1923 as a shortstop with the Brooklyn Robins (a precursor of the Dodgers). Sport was not Berg’s only interest. In the offseason, he used his earnings to travel and was far from a passive tourist. In Paris, he studied Sanskrit at the Sorbonne. During the 1932 season, when Berg was a catcher in D.C., his linguistic proficiency got him invited to embassy parties that earned him a reputation as a womanizer. In 1934, the U.S. fielded an all-star team, which included Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth, to send to Japan. Berg, who had already visited the country and could speak the language, was a natural choice. Taking place at a time when tensions were flaring between the two nations, the series of exhibition games served as an unofficial diplomatic mission. For Berg, who brought along a 16mm movie camera — and a letter from the State Department giving him the okay to photograph the city — it was also a surveillance opportunity. The Japan trip marks Berg’s emergence as an agent, which became official when he joined the Office of Strategic Services in 1943. But footage from the trip also helps reveal why Berg doesn’t light up the screen. Images of the legendary Ruth from the 1934 tour reveal an irrepressible personality. His mischievous grin, the way he wiggles a little when he runs to base — the Sultan of Swat, as Ruth was known, had an unmistakable magnetism. Berg, on the other hand, who’s seen throughout


National parks are both a treasure and challenge. There’s a solution.

overfilled septic tanks, pollution and sea level rise, to unsafe walkways, potholes, and leaky roofs. Even the North Dakota park bearing Roosevelt’s name has major road closures this season “due to continued deterioration.” During this past winter’s 35-day government shutdown, I shuddered at photographs of the trampled and broken, century-old trees of Joshua Tree National Park. Closer to home, I visit Fort Washington along the Potomac River, where, as in many parks, the signage is worn, the parking lots are pitted, outbuildings are shuttered. The old lighthouse is standing, but barely. Current tax dollars, fees and the support of the National Park Foundation (the parks’ charitable arm) are simply not enough to meet the nationwide demand and disrepair. Sadly, if the parks had a homeowners’ association, they would be racking up citations for violations. The human invasion into the parks goes beyond the tramping of millions of feet. The effects of climate change are also taking a toll. In a recent study, researchers from the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Wisconsin documented significant temperature increases and lower precipitation levels that threaten the biodiversity and ecosystems of the parks: Glacier National Park — loss of greenery, melting glaciers; Yellowstone, the world’s first national park — devastation of whitebark pine forests. Pollution, temperature changes and sea level rise threaten the 30 coral species of Dry Tortugas National Park and the structural integrity of the park’s centerpiece, Fort Jefferson (where Samuel Mudd was imprisoned after his conviction for conspiring in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln). And, of course, the fragile ecosystem of Everglades National Park is more vulnerable than ever to sea level changes that result in seawater creeping in ever more rapidly to threaten bird and water habitat. Here’s the thing: We can do something. In the recently approved House spending bill for the Interior Department , under which the National Park Service falls, appropriators have targeted $2.7 billion for operations, maintenance, construction and climate mitigation. It’s not enough, but it’s a start. Like millions of Americans, I have some skin in the game. Of the 61 national parks, I’ve only visited 38, and I want them to be around and in good repair when I finish the list. So, as I get my RV ready for summer travels, I hope Congress gets to work to make our parks ready for this season and for future generations.


Still angling for a deal, Trump backs Kim Jong Un over Biden, Bolton and Japan

Trump the first foreign leader to be welcomed there since Naruhito ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne at the beginning of May. Following palace custom, the president walked much of the red carpet alone, greeting an honor guard and schoolchildren waving U.S. and Japanese flags. In the evening, the Trumps were back at the palace for a six-course, black-tie banquet, beginning with consommé a la royale and including turbot and beef. Trump called himself “profoundly honored” to have been the first state guest of the new imperial era — known as the Reiwa era — invoked ancient Japanese texts and thanked the people of Japan “for their incredible hospitality and warm welcome in this majestic land.” So far, Japan’s attempt to court and flatter Trump during this four-day state visit appears to be paying off. Talking to the media before his summit discussions with the Japanese leader, Trump described Abe as a “truly amazing prime minister” and Japan as a “really interesting and fabulous place.” “We understand each other very well, we’re very committed to each other as nations, so we have a situation where we have the best relationship that we’ve ever had with Japan, and we’re going to keep it that way,” he said. Crucially for Japan, Trump signaled that a trade deal between the two nations — something he has been impatient to deliver — would be delayed until after July’s Upper House elections in Japan. He said the two leaders would “get the balance of trade straightened out rapidly,” adding that an announcement would come “probably in August.” Trump wants to see Japan cut tariffs for U.S. agricultural products, after the United States’ withdrawal from the 11-nation Trans Pacific Partnership left its exporters at a disadvantage. He has also threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on foreign cars, although he declared this month he would delay imposing them for 180 days to allow room for negotiations on restricting import volumes. But Abe’s constant reminders to Trump that Japan’s car companies have poured money into the United States, including in regions dominated by Republican voters, also appear to be paying off. Trump also boasted that Japan has become one of the world’s top purchasers of U.S. defense equipment and would be buying 105 F-35 stealth aircraft, giving it the largest such fleet of any U.S. ally. But Trump said he believed a trade deal could be reached that would


These 6 veggie burgers aren’t meant to taste like meat — and that’s what makes them so good

The Impossible Burger has quickly become the vegetarian standard on restaurant menus throughout the country — including at Burger King (Impossible Whopper) and White Castle (Impossible Sliders). The big name in plant-based burgers is taking over Washington as well, with such places as Ted’s Bulletin, Fare Well and the Farmers Restaurant Group trio replacing their housemade veggie burgers with Impossible patties, which are engineered to look, taste, and even bleed like a traditional beef patty. More inclusive plant-based offerings are encouraging, but these bleeding burgers clearly cater to diners with medium-rare cravings. “There are vegetarians who don’t want anything that reminds them of meat, and other vegetarians who didn’t become vegetarians because they hated the taste or the texture of meat,” says Ran Nussbacher, founder of D.C.’s popular plant-based eatery, Shouk. “They just hated what had to happen to bring that dish to their plate. I think it’s great to have options for both.” There are still some D.C. restaurants turning fresh medleys of vegetables, legumes and grains into exciting patties. Here are six veggie burgers that have survived the Impossible invasion: They still deliver when it comes to taste and texture, and they don’t have to mimic meat to do so. Shouk The burger at this fast-casual Israeli street food spot is a plant-based masterpiece. No vegetable or legume dominates the hefty patty; instead, chickpeas, black beans, lentils, mushrooms, cauliflower, beets and scallions come together to create a perfectly balanced blend. Accompanied by fresh arugula, roasted tomato, pickled turnip, charred onion and creamy tahini, the Shouk Burger introduces bright flavors and rich textures in every bite. Unlike most veggie burgers loaded with toppings that inevitably ooze out of their buns, the soft pita swaddles the burger and all of its fixings, ensuring that you can savor every last bite. $10.95. 655 K St. NW; 395 Morse St. NE. Busboys and Poets Any burger that comes with avocado is bound to be a crowd-pleaser, but the vegan burger from Busboys and Poets, Andy Shallal’s local restuarant-and-bookstore chain, proves to be more than just its accessories. Arugula, tomato, vegan chipotle mayo and a vegan brioche bun also play supporting roles, but the lentil-based patty is the star of the show. Its thickness suggests that it might fall apart, but it holds together nicely without losing any elements along the way. A side salad, fries or berries are included as the burger’s


China wages relentless crackdowns on its Muslims. But Saudi Arabia stays quiet as it bolsters ties with Beijing.

is the world’s biggest importer of Saudi oil, overtaking the United States in 2009. China bought $46 billion worth of products from Saudi Arabia in 2018, a year in which overall bilateral trade increased by 33 percent to $63 billion. But Saudi Arabia is also a critical market for China. It is the biggest market in the Middle East for Chinese goods and for contract services such as construction. China is in the process of negotiating a trade deal with the Gulf Cooperation Council, and Saudi Arabia is the biggest member. The economic relationship has become much more multifaceted since Xi came to power in 2013. In 2016, China and Saudi Arabia upgraded their relationship into a “comprehensive strategic partnership.” Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative to build infrastructure and influence around the world neatly fits with the crown prince’s ambitious Vision 2030 plan to diversify the Saudi economy. But there is also political symbiosis. China has an official policy of noninterference in other countries’ domestic affairs, and that is a “shared value,” Murphy said. Saudi Arabia’s traditionally close relationship with the United States has been materially tested by the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributing columnist who was killed inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last year. Turkey and others have said Saudi leadership had a role in ordering Khashoggi’s death. A stronger relationship with China could help Saudi Arabia overcome its increasing diplomatic isolation and help rehabilitate its image after the Khashoggi slaying, said He Wenping, research fellow at the Institute of West-Asian and African Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “Riyadh can also reestablish its influence worldwide and overcome diplomatic and security dilemmas brought about due to the ‘unreliable’ U.S.,” he wrote in the Global Times newspaper. Riyadh appreciated Beijing’s silence on the killing of Khashoggi, especially amid the outcry from other world powers, analysts say. “Beijing made it clear that they didn’t care about the Khashoggi case. MBS got the red-carpet treatment when he came to China,” said Giorgio Cafiero of Gulf State Analytics, a geopolitical risk consultancy, referring to the crown prince by his nickname. And now Saudi Arabia is making sure to repay the favor by staying quiet about Xinjiang. “They’re both sensitive about criticism of their international policies,” Cafiero said. “Both China and Saudi Arabia have atrocious human rights records, and they don’t want any spotlight on it.” anna.fifield@washpost.com kareem.fahim@washpost.com


Trump goes to Tokyo. There will be pomp and photo ops.

families would help to nurture Japanese support for tough policies on Pyongyang. The more memorable highlights may come from the less ceremonial events, however. On Sunday, Trump awarded a custom-made cup to the winner of the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament. This is the first sumo tournament under Naruhito, and Trump sat ringside — unlike other important visitors, who typically watch from some distance away in box seats. Trump and Abe will also play golf together, as they have in the past, but that will take a back seat to the sumo tournament. The agenda for this trip is full of symbolism, but some will say it lacks substance. After all, the biggest unresolved issue on the bilateral agenda is trade, which is conspicuously absent from the program. That is by design. Japanese leaders are hoping to keep trade off the agenda, to the extent possible. Tokyo is frustrated with Trump’s threat to use Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act to place tariffs on automobiles, ostensibly for national security reasons. At a recent campaign rally, Trump even claimed that Abe had promised $40 billion in investment in U.S. car factories. Japanese officials have disputed this claim. Moreover, Washington’s demands for Japanese concessions in agriculture, without significant U.S. compromises in exchange, have caused anger in Tokyo. U.S. agricultural exporters face major losses in Japan because of the U.S. withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which left other countries with better trade terms. Abe would ultimately like the United States to join the TPP’s successor regime, so he is not willing to give the United States advantageous trading terms without Washington rejoining the TPP. Finally, concerns are growing about the upcoming renegotiation of the host-nation support agreement for U.S. forces in Japan. Trump has reportedly requested huge increases in Japanese support, which are likely to be politically untenable for Abe. Ultimately, Japanese leaders hope to work closely with the United States and other like-minded nations to respond to the economic and technological challenges China presents, rather than focusing on issues of U.S.-Japanese burden-sharing. For the moment, Japan may have won a reprieve. U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer is still engaged in difficult trade negotiations with China and may not be ready to turn his attention to Japan. Therefore, leaders in Tokyo are likely to aim to defer these difficult economic discussions until after elections for the upper house in July at


Are Americans benefiting from the strong economy — aside from the rich? A Fed report raises questions.

Amid what is likely to become the longest period of sustained economic growth on record, a new report shows that millions of middle-class and low-income Americans still aren’t on solid enough ground to weather a sustained downturn. Since the Federal Reserve’s annual report on household well-being began in 2013, the survey (most recently of more than 11,000 Americans) has become a key measure of whether the benefits of the recovery have reached beyond the upper end of the socioeconomic spectrum. Although this year’s report painted a positive picture overall, officials said, it identified underlying fragility and exposed pockets of distress. In line after line, the report lays out the everyday concerns that plague U.S. households. Almost 4 in 10 people (39 percent) said they wouldn’t be able to scrape together the cash to meet a $400 emergency expense. Even without any sudden expense, about 17 percent of adults said they would miss a payment on at least one bill during the month surveyed. More than 6 in 10 said losing their job would mean they couldn’t cover three months of expenses, even if they took out loans, sold assets or borrowed from friends and relatives. Only 36 percent said their retirement savings are on track. Almost a quarter of Americans skipped some form of medical care in the past year because they couldn’t afford it. Separately, 1 in 5 faced major, unexpected medical bills. About 4 in 10 of those folks were still carrying debt related to those bills. The survey covers 2018, when the unemployment rate averaged 3.9 percent, the lowest since 1969, and the economy grew 2.9 percent, matching its post-Great Recession high. Average hourly earnings grew 3 percent, easily the fastest rate since the recession’s end. But those figures are broad national averages — if gains are going disproportionately to the wealthy few, trends among the majority of U.S. workers could be missed. When David Moore, owner of D&D Automotive in Las Cruces, N.M., heard he will soon be living through the longest economic expansion on record, he sounded indignant. “It’s not expanding for me,” he said. “It’s getting worse.” Moore has been a mechanic for 40 years. He said these days, customers often have to leave their cars with him until payday rolls around, or until they can scrape together the money. “I had three jobs this week that I lost because it’s too much money,”


Climate change threatens the West’s far right

the center-left and the center-right parties.” It’s not an isolated trend. In neighboring France, some 25 percent of voters aged 18-25 voted for the Greens — compared with 15 percent for the far-right National Rally, whose proponents long claimed they represented the aspirations of the country’s youth. Green parties also did well in Britain, Austria, Sweden, Ireland, Denmark and the Netherlands. From winning just 17 seats in the 751-seat European Parliament in 2014, the Greens secured 69 seats this time around, a haul that may make them the fourth largest bloc in the continental assembly. “This is confirmation for us that the topics we’ve been working on for years are the topics that matter to the public in their everyday life and for the future of their children,” said Sergey Lagodinsky, a newly elected Green member of the European Parliament from Germany, to my colleagues. “We had times when we wondered: Is this a fringe agenda? Now we know it’s not. It’s the mainstream agenda.”’ In recent months, massive demonstrations over climate change have rocked European capitals, dwarfing the mobilizations of the continent’s far right. Climate change, said an editorial in France’s Liberation newspaper, “has become the principal criteria of judging political action in the European Union.” For that reason, it’s causing the once-ascendant far right a headache. “The Greens will destroy this country and our job must and will be to fight the Greens,” Alexander Gauland, co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany, told reporters. Gauland’s party entered Germany’s Bundestag, or parliament, for the first time after elections in 2017 on a platform that inveighed against the spectral threat of immigration and Islam. It doesn’t believe that men are contributing to climate change, a view shared to varying degrees by other far-right parties in Europe as well as President Trump. But future generations on both sides of the pond may be more animated by fear of planetary calamity and may seek to mobilize politics in their countries to better adapt their societies to the changing climate. That’s the bet that insurgent Democrats are making in Congress and that jubilant Greens and other liberal factions have made in Europe. “The Greens represent the only project of the future,” French Greens leader Yannick Jadot said Monday on local television. To be sure, their appeal remains limited mostly to Western and Northern Europe’s more affluent societies. For European liberals, it’s a welcome


The best sales pitch for the Green New Deal

The Green New Deal has faced a bevy of criticism since its introduction, most of it from climate-denying Republicans. Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) and Sen. Edward J. Markey (Mass.) have led the charge for the proposal with an emphasis on its potential economic benefits as the pathway to victory. But an equally good argument, and one that may even bring skeptics and Republicans into the fold, involves the national security benefits of fighting the climate crisis. Put bluntly, the Green New Deal is the biggest step we can take toward a more secure America. For nearly two decades, since 9/11, most Americans have been convinced that Middle East-based terrorism is the greatest threat to our nation. What most of us failed to ask, however, was why we were targeted. After the attacks, cable news anchors asked “Why do they hate us?” without really seeming to care about the answer. The explanation isn’t particularly complicated. For close to three-quarters of a century, Americans have involved themselves in the domestic politics of many countries in the Middle East, often with little regard for how those actions affected the residents of these nations. Unsurprisingly, this behavior angered many people in the region. During much of the 20th century, America was the largest oil producer in the world. As a result, U.S. petroleum companies were among the largest in the world. Our nation’s engagement in the Middle East began somewhat benignly before World War II, when Gulf Oil, SoCal and Texaco won concessions to develop oil fields in Kuwait, Bahrain and, most important, Saudi Arabia. “The gaining of the [Saudi] concession by an American company,” writes historian Daniel Yergin, “would inevitably begin to change the web of political interests in the region.” In 1938, the Dammam Well No. 7 revealed a commercially promising amount of petroleum in the region, which spawned business relations and eventually U.S. government interest in the kingdom. American involvement in Middle Eastern geopolitics would only grow from there. Throughout the Cold War, maintaining the global flow of oil was critical because it drove economic growth in capitalist nations. Thus, American oil companies expanded operations throughout the Middle East, and our government built close relationships with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran — where we joined the British in orchestrating the overthrow of Mohammad Mosaddegh, who nationalized the oil industry, and installed the more U.S.-friendly Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Things became


Health officials are targeting communities battling measles. Anti-vaxxers are, too.

Post Reports is the daily podcast from The Washington Post. Unparalleled reporting. Expert insight. Clear analysis. Everything you’ve come to expect from the newsroom of The Post. For your ears. Martine Powers is your host, asking the questions you didn’t know you wanted answered. Listen online. How the anti-vaccine movement took hold in the U.S. The modern anti-vaccine movement began in the 1980s with a mother in Virginia. She believed her son had been injured by the DPT vaccine — and went on to start one of the most powerful anti-vaccination organizations in the United States. The anti-vaccine advocates have a rhetorical advantage over scientists. They speak with certainty about the ill effects of vaccines. And today, in the echo chambers of social media, the movement has metastasized into something far darker, with charismatic speakers, scientific-sounding theories and well-produced videos to back it up. “You have scientists and researchers who cannot talk in absolutes when it comes to risk. There is nothing that is without risk,” says health reporter Lena Sun. “They can say the preponderance of the evidence shows this, or the data shows this — that is not nearly as compelling or heart-wrenching as a mother who comes to you and says, ‘The light went out of my son's eyes after he got a vaccination.’ ” More on this topic: Trump softens Iran rhetoric After ordering 1,500 troops to the Middle East, President Trump denied that the United States is seeking regime change in Iran. “We’re not looking for regime change. I want to make that clear,” Trump said at a joint news conference Monday with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “We’re looking for no nuclear weapons.” Michael Kranish More on this topic: Green wave in European politics European voters soured on traditional political parties in favor of climate-focused activists in a green wave that swept several countries over the course of the E.U.’s parliamentary elections. More on this topic:


Trump basked in spotlight in Japan, even as his focus seemed elsewhere

be seen again — his second such meeting with the families. “The United States also remains committed to the issue of abductions, which I know is a top priority for Prime Minister Abe,” he said during their news conference Monday. “The United States will continue to support Japan’s efforts to bring these abductees home.” And he announced a new space agreement, albeit with few specifics. “I am pleased to confirm that Prime Minister Abe and I have agreed to dramatically expand our nations’ cooperation in human space exploration,” Trump said. “We’ll be going to the moon,” he continued. “We’ll be going to Mars very soon. It’s very exciting.” Before leaving Japan on Tuesday, Trump visited American troops — some sporting “Make Aircrew Great Again” patches on their uniforms — for Memorial Day at Yokosuka Naval Base outside Tokyo. “From America’s earliest days, fearless Americans have said goodbye to their loved ones, gone off to war and stared down our enemies, knowing that they may never, ever return,” Trump said. “Memorial Day links every grateful American heart in eternal tribute to those brave souls who gave their last breath for our nation, from Concord to Gettysburg, from Midway to Mosul.” Despite some notable policy cracks between Trump and Abe, from the Japanese perspective, the trip was still largely a success. Jeff Kingston, a professor at Temple University in Tokyo, said Abe must be pleased the summitry sent “a strong message of solidarity” to Beijing and Pyongyang. “Trump reveled in all the pomp and circumstance, and the fawning — judged excessive by some — paid off in generating good vibes that will stand Abe well domestically and regionally,” he said. For Japanese officials, one of the main goals was simply to strengthen the U.S.-Japan relationship, and Abe is a careful student of Trump — understanding, among other things, that he is most likely to influence the president when physically by his side. To that end, Abe flew to D.C. in April to visit Trump, and by June, the two men will have met three times in as many months. They have also spoken and met in person more than 40 times. Noting all the red carpets — literal and proverbial — that the Japanese had rolled out for their American guest, one Japan-based journalist assessed the trip with a quip: “I’m surprised they didn’t put on a geisha show for him.” ashley.parker@washpost.com


The trick to getting rid of ants for good (it’s not a spray)

Q: Washington A: It’s smart to start with fastidious housekeeping. Putting a tray under the cats’ bowls is a good step, and rinsing the bowls as soon as the cats finish eating helps, too. If that isn’t enough, though, you might need to resort to pesticides — but in a smart way. Forget about using ant spray, which spreads pesticide in your home but hardly ever solves an ant problem. It just kills the ants visible at the moment, something you could also accomplish by wiping them away with a damp cloth and rinsing it out. All types of ants live in colonies that consist of hundreds or even millions of individual ants, with one or more egg-laying queens. For permanent control, you need to get rid of the whole colony, including the queens and grubs that are growing into the next generation of worker ants. Slow-acting pesticides that ants don’t recognize as poison can do this. When the pesticide is mixed into sweet or fatty bait they like, foraging ants carry bits back to the nest and share it with their mates. It might take two weeks or longer, but eventually this can do in the whole colony. You can buy slow-acting pesticide for ants in bait stations enclosed in plastic, a handy, mess-free solution. But gel formulations, which come in squeezable or syringe-type tubes, are even more effective, according to Michael Potter, a University of Kentucky entomologist who is often called in to advise pest-control companies. “Oftentimes the squeezable gel formulations are more versatile in that you can put out lots of small dabs of bait wherever ants are trailing (along cracks, edges, both horizontal and vertical surfaces, etc.),” Potter wrote in an email. Though the same active ingredients are often found in both types of products, the gels are more likely to have sweet, sugary baits, which are often favored by the types of ants found indoors, he said. Ants are finicky about what food they like, and they sometimes change their preferences. Luckily, there are numerous brands of both gel and plastic baits, and they use different flavors of bait. “If a certain type of ant won’t take your bait, you may need to try another,” Potter said. In the Northeast, small ants are probably odorous house ants, Potter said. Gels marketed to professionals, which homeowners can also buy online, are highly effective, he said. An


One thing might keep the Impossible Burger from saving the planet: Steak

It was a veggie-burger tasting, sometime in the late 1990s, that made me swear off veggie burgers. In the Clinton era, they were enough to shake anyone’s confidence in the category, and mine was shaken to the tune of two decades of abstinence. But it’s a new day in plant-based meat substitutes. The two versions making headlines — in both food and business news — are the Beyond Burger, made mostly from pea protein, and the Impossible Burger, mostly soy. The news is pretty good. They’re very convincing impostors, and people who have given up meat — or want to eat less of it — are flocking to such chains as Umami Burger and Red Robin to give the Impossible a try. And once Burger King rolls out the Impossible Whopper countrywide, I think it’s safe to use the word “mainstream.” But the companies behind these products are looking to do more than offer a meaty experience without the meat. They’re out to save the planet. Bruce Friedrich, executive director of the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit organization that supports and promotes meat substitutes, doesn’t foresee the complete replacement of meat, but he predicts transformation on the order of cellphones replacing landlines. Sure, some dinosaurs still have landlines, but the way we communicate has changed. Pat Brown, CEO of Impossible Foods, which makes the Impossible Burger, aims higher. “We’re dead serious about completely replacing beef,” he told me. The company plans to do it “by completely eliminating the economic incentive for animal farming and fishing,” and it plans to do it by 2035. Is that possible? Is it desirable? Even though I’d answer both questions with a resounding “probably not,” I’m a big fan of the category, and I believe it will change the market for meat — a market that could use some changing. Some of the wins are unequivocal. Although people certainly disagree about the extent to which animals suffer in our system — on farms and in slaughterhouses — all those problems go away. So does risk for food-borne illnesses from fecal contamination. Eating plants, rather than feeding them to animals and eating the animals, is inherently more efficient. No antibiotics are required. I still think cattle play an important role turning grass that’s grown on unfarmable land into high-quality protein and providing milk, farm labor and transportation to some of the world’s poorest farmers, but we


She was accused of hitting her student but kept her job. Now, she’s under investigation again.

your work? Why are you not doing your work? Go to timeout. Go to timeout.” Keyla Concepción, a spokeswoman for the Broward Sheriff’s Office, said they are investigating on behalf of the state Department of Children and Families. Pembroke Pines police spokeswoman Amanda Conwell said her department was “aware of the allegations of child abuse made at Pasadena Lakes Elementary” and no arrests had been made. Adar, of Fort Lauderdale, said she and her husband, Matt, had noticed Ezra becoming more aggressive throughout the school year. When Ezra started cursing, Adar said she asked his teachers if anything was wrong and sent his therapist to observe the class. The teachers had not noticed any problems, they told Adar, but they would keep an eye out. Then, Adar’s mostly nonverbal son said the name of one of his teachers while he was cursing. The Adars suddenly understood. They sent Ezra to school with an AngelSense device that serves as a GPS tracker and audio recorder for children with special needs. The dialogue the device captured disturbed them. They gave the recording to the school’s principal, Adar said, and called the Department of Children and Families. Finally, things changed: The teacher and teacher’s aide were removed from the classroom. Ezra transferred to another school in the district. Other students moved to other schools or other classrooms at Pasadena Lakes. The superintendent met with upset parents. The Adars created a petition to allow video and audio surveillance in Florida’s special-education classrooms, where recording currently is illegal. Texas, Georgia and West Virginia have laws that allow or require surveillance in special-education classrooms. Matt Adar said he wanted to create another layer of accountability for students with autism, many of whom are unable to speak up for themselves. “How would we know if anything is going wrong in school?” he said. “We would have no idea. This is our way of speaking for them.” Editor’s note: This report was updated on May 28 with a statement from the Broward County school district. Read more: A high school newspaper opposed its school’s ‘Redskins’ nickname, and the debate is dividing the student body Report: The effect chronic stress has on children at school — and why policymakers should care Family of U-Md. student who died of adenovirus takes step toward suing school Why is it so hard to keep schools staffed with teachers? This graphic explains it.


Anti-vaxxers target communities battling measles

country, including among Eastern European immigrants outside Portland, Ore., the Somali community in Minnesota and ultra-Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn, and here in Rockland County — all groups that have experienced recent outbreaks. “This is a national movement of people who are nothing but charlatans, conspiracy theorists and people . . . spreading misinformation,” said Rockland County Executive Ed Day. “The type of propaganda they spread is a danger to the health and safety of children within our community and around the world.” In many ways, vaccines are a victim of their own success. Years ago, people were intimately familiar with the suffering caused by diseases such as polio, whooping cough and measles. Today, they’ve been virtually eliminated — along with the memory of their terrible effects. As a result, generations of parents have grown up “more likely to be scared of the vaccine than the disease,” said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “It’s very easy to appeal to those fears.” The modern anti-vaccine movement began about 40 years ago in response to legitimate concerns about the side effects of a pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine. But it has metastasized into something far darker in the echo chamber of Facebook chat rooms, WhatsApp and YouTube — especially against a backdrop of rising suspicion of elites, including drugmakers, doctors and public health officials. Anti-vaccine activists have a rhetorical advantage: They speak with absolute certainty about frightening cases of so-called vaccine injuries based on changes parents say they observe in their children after getting shots. Scientists and researchers, by contrast, rarely speak in absolutes. They say vaccines save countless lives, but like all medicines, have side effects — albeit rare ones. And they sometimes challenge what parents think they have seen with their own eyes by explaining that health problems such as autism often become apparent around the same time children are receiving multiple shots — even though there is no causal connection. A reaction spurs a movement The modern anti-vaccine movement began in 1980 with a heartbreak that propelled a Virginia mother into activism. Several hours after her eldest son — then 2½ — got his fourth shot to prevent diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus, Barbara Loe Fisher said she found him staring straight ahead as if he couldn’t see her. “When I called out his name, his eyelids fluttered, his eyes rolled back in


Utah students track a 150-year-old race to join the East and West by rail

Students in Kayse Fernandes’s fourth-grade class used to ignore the railroad tracks that run next to the freeway and along the outskirts of their city. If they did think about them, they figured they were just an old-fashioned way to get from one place to another. But after researching, writing and illustrating a graphic novel about the colossal effort it took to build the nation’s first railroad to link the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, these kids at Horace Mann Elementary in Utah are bursting with information and awe. They can tell you who paid for the railroads and how laborers, many of them Chinese immigrants, used gunpowder to blast through mountains inch by inch, losing body parts and lives in the process. “It inspired me to support and protect the railroad,” said Keegan Barney, who is 10. “This railroad took six years to build. Men worked hard. They died for it. And some people are going to go spray-painting this [railroad], doing graffiti on this? … I mean seriously.” Eight fourth-grade classes were chosen to make graphic novels as part of a major celebration in Utah to mark the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. The state happened to be where Central Pacific and Union Pacific crews joined their separate rail lines on May 10, 1869. And Utah is hosting something like a birthday party, with festivals, reenactments and train demonstrations, at Golden Spike National Historical Park. Students at Horace Mann spent weeks researching how the railroad companies raced each other to the finish line, deciding what story to tell, drawing panels and writing the words. “It gives you confidence to draw and write your own things,” said Scarlett Smith, 9. The students said they had fun — and learned more — by creating a graphic novel instead of writing a report on their own. “You had to have your own thoughts of how to do the certain pages,” said Marley Pitcher, 9. “You can be more creative with all of your thinking.” She and the others liked how they were in charge of what to write and draw. “You feel like what it was like back then, what they used and how dangerous it actually was,” said Micah Yancay, 10. “They would basically work you to death because you’re basically working nonstop.” Just as the railroad companies competed, the class split in half while working on


Trump’s trip to Japan reveals some mixed signals

U.S. trade partners. The Trump administration argues that imports of automobiles and auto parts harm U.S. national security because they hurt domestic producers and their ability to invest in new technologies. Japan and the European Union have six months to negotiate new deals with the United States before Washington imposes tariffs on these imports. Although Abe seemed to catch a break with the delay, the reprieve is likely to be brief. Trump implied that a deal could be announced as early as August, although Japan will probably attempt to delay negotiations further. Abe’s government might also try to obtain better terms by offering to redress the trade imbalance through other means, such as additional defense procurement or investment in the United States by Japanese companies. 2. Security cooperation is generally strong — and expanding to new frontiers Despite Trump’s well-known criticisms of alliances and burden-sharing, this visit was devoted to reaffirming the commitment of the United States and Japan to their long-standing security relationship. Trump visited the U.S. naval base at Yokosuka and gave a speech aboard the USS Wasp emphasizing American military might. He also visited the JS Kaga, an Izumo-class helicopter carrier that Tokyo views as a symbol of its increasing contributions to the alliance and to regional security. In addition, the two leaders announced plans for a U.S.-Japanese manned moon mission, a new area of bilateral cooperation that directly responds to recent Chinese actions. In January, China became the first country to land on the far side of the moon, and its space exploration ambitions have reinvigorated U.S. interest in returning to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972. Trump directly linked the joint mission to security concerns, saying, “From a military standpoint, there is nothing more important right now than space.” 3. But the allies continue to suffer from mixed signals The two leaders’ symbolic displays of the strengths of the U.S.-Japan relationship danced around latent tensions in the security arena — as illustrated by their divergent treatments of the North Korean issue. For Japan, Trump’s visit was an opportunity to coordinate policy and keep Tokyo’s views in the picture — and minimize chances that Japan will be surprised by future developments in U.S. talks with North Korea. Japan scored at least one win. Trump met with the families of Japanese abductees on Monday, reaffirming U.S. support for securing the return of Japanese citizens


E.U. elections don’t matter much. But the anger behind this one will.

look no further than the Greens, who increased their representation in the European Parliament by about a third, albeit from a low starting point. One way to regard the E.U. election results: They don’t really matter. No one much cares about the elections because the European Parliament is weak, making it a ripe target for symbolic votes that don’t reflect what you’ll do when your nation’s general elections roll around. Another way to look at the results: The elections’ very aimlessness is itself a major problem, a symbol of the E.U.’s democratic accountability gap — and of the way that the gap exacerbates tensions within the European Union between sovereignty and multilateralism. In March, when I visited Britain, a pro-Brexit protester told me, “We wanted a common market. We got a common government.” One can argue, persuasively, that a common market as broad and deep as the E.U.’s requires some sort of a common government. Someone has to set everything from financial regulations to labor standards. Submitting to such a government inherently means some loss of democratic power; your vote, and those of your neighbors, simply carry more weight if you are one of 4.8 million Irish citizens than if you are one of the E.U.’s 512 million. But the democratic deficit has been deepened into a chasm by the European Union’s byzantine governance structure, most of which operates at several levels of remove from democratic control. That’s bound to feel like a step backward if you have a proper democracy closer to home. And the more important decisions the E.U. takes onto itself, the more the citizenry will chafe at its power. Just as Sunday’s election results likely don’t signal much about what voters intend to do in national elections, it isn’t even clear how much influence the results will ultimately have over E.U. policy. But the results do tell us, with crystal clarity, that voters are still fed up with the status quo. They may want to return to a rosy-hued past of national strength and unity, or press forward toward an environmentalist paradise, but they all agree that they hate the incumbents, the policies they’ve supported and, increasingly, the institutions that put those policies into practice. And even if the E.U. elections don’t matter much, that anger will Twitter: @asymmetricinfo Read more from Megan McArdle’s archive, follow her on Twitter or subscribe to her updates on Facebook.


Jordan McNair’s legacy deserves full transparency. Maryland hasn’t been so clear.

an issue about McNair’s case, or about the athletic department. Rather, when Post reporters sought information about why dozens of Maryland students became ill late last year, the tally was stunning: $63,646 — and change. The options: Pay or narrow the focus. The reporters on the latter story — which involved the death of 18-year-old Olivia Paregol after a campus outbreak of adenovirus — chose the latter and paid less than $700. But at what cost to further sunshine on information that might have enlightened the public as to what transpired? Put the money aside. There are legitimate reasons to withhold information. Students’ academic records are protected. Health records are protected. Some conversations can be protected as attorney-client privilege, and some information can be withheld because it is part of the decision-making process. The idea, in the last case, is that officials should be allowed to freely debate and deliberate without worrying about their questions becoming public. But take one snippet of the McNair case that’s still befuddling: Why did Evans, a day after McNair’s death, provide the public with incorrect information regarding the circumstances of the May 29 workout? He said McNair had completed a set of 10 110-yard sprints with his teammates. Durkin, in a subsequent availability at Big Ten media days, reiterated that idea. In fact, as an independent report later concluded, McNair had pulled up with symptoms after seven such sprints. Evans has since released a statement saying he got bad info, but not from whom or how. Why does it matter now? Well, if you want to play grassy-knoll conspiracy theorist, were coaches and athletic trainers getting their stories straight to make it seem as if no one could have seen McNair’s perilous condition before it was too late? I’m of the mind that there’s no conspiracy that’s too wild to consider here. What we know is that the University of Maryland elected to withhold 69 pages of Evans emails. A school attorney wrote that “the University finds that the disclosure of these materials, even in part, would be contrary to the public interest because disclosure would inhibit free and frank debate and discussion within the university, would chill governmental decision-making, and would impair the integrity of the University’s decision-making process.” I’ll add: and could expose potentially egregious errors in judgment by several parties, many of whom are still employed in important jobs in the


An added virtue of habitat gardens: They’re pleasing to humans, too

a shady grove on the west side of the National Museum of American History. It represents the microbial life in healthy garden soil that not only nourishes and protects plants but also allows trees to signal to one another chemically when they are threatened by pests or disease. Nature is connected in ways we are only beginning to comprehend. The sculptures and other pieces work with interpretive panels to heighten the show’s theme. They also lighten it with their whimsy. If you want a laugh with your education, the display named “Nests,” on the Constitution Avenue side of the Natural History Museum, offers vastly upscaled re-creations of nests, conveying the immense design variety between species. Slung from one limb like a hammock is the pendant nest of a Baltimore oriole. Nearby is a bottlelike nest made from dried mud reinforced with feathers — the nursery of the barn swallow. In the Middle Ages, cottages were constructed from mud and horsehair, and thatched with reeds. It’s as if the birds were showing us the way. The replicated nest forms are drawn from the Smithsonian’s collection of 5,000 nests, Faust said. Each species brings its own marvelous architecture to the world. The pollinator garden is a series of linear borders on the east side of the Natural History Museum. It has always been a place full of large summer perennials and annuals that are easy to grow, long-flowering and happy in this town’s heat and humidity. They include various asclepias, tithonia, giant coneflower and the Maryland wild senna, the last a native plant deserving much more garden use. As part of the exhibition, natural materials have been assembled within the framework of playful insect sculptures to provide habitat for various species of bees and other insects. By July, the garden has a lush quality that persists into the fall. It is in not cleaning up all the fading material in autumn that allows creatures such as bumblebees, fireflies and various butterflies to maintain their life cycles and flourish. “It’s okay to be a little bit messy,” said Marisa Scalera, the project manager for “Habitat,” which runs until the end of next year. “Messy can be beautiful.” “Habitat” is the first coordinated exhibition by Smithsonian Gardens. Others are planned. “We have 25 million visitors annually,” Faust said. “We hope to bring this into their consciousness, what they can do.” adrian.higgins@washpost.com @adrian_higgins on Twitter


MBS is not reining in his thuggery. That’s bad news for Saudi activists.

Saudi women’s rights activist Malak al-Shehri fled to the United States a year ago amid a wave of arrests of other women who had advocated the right to drive. After the murder and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last October, it emerged that some of those women had been held in secret prisons and brutally tortured. In the wave of international outrage that followed, a big question in Washington was whether Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who likely ordered both operations, would respond to Western entreaties to rein in his thugs. The past month has brought a decisive answer: no way. On April 4, Shehri’s husband, Ayman al-Drees, was arrested on the couple’s farm in Saudi Arabia, among at least 14 other people with ties to one of the imprisoned activists. The new detainees have been held without charge and have been allowed only one phone call to their families. Their condition is unknown. That’s not the only message MBS, as the crown prince is known, has sent to his domestic and foreign critics. On April 25, Norway’s security service notified Iyad el-Baghdadi, a close collaborator of Khashoggi who lives in Oslo, that he was the target of a threat from the Saudi government. And on May 16, Saudi planes once again bombed civilian targets in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, killing seven people, including at least four children. That attack came weeks after Congress passed — and President Trump vetoed — legislation that would have ended all U.S. support for Saudi forces in Yemen. Shehri was arrested in 2016 for posting a picture of herself without a head covering on social media. She was released after outsiders protested. But times, she says, have changed. Then, the Saudi leadership was sensitive to Western public opinion. Now, she says, “I don’t think they care anymore, because they think Trump is supporting them.” Shehri and several other exiled Saudi activists were in Washington last week attempting to change MBS’s calculus. Like Iraq’s Saddam Hussein before him, the Saudi ruler is betting that he faces no serious risk of U.S. punishment for perpetuating his brutality, whether it is the torture of peaceful feminist activists or the bombing of schoolchildren in Yemen. And why not? Trump doubled down on his support for the regime after the murder of Khashoggi. And Congress, despite expressions of outrage, has failed to coalesce around meaningful sanctions that could


Time to go outside: These are the D.C. area’s best new rooftop bars and beer gardens.

McClements, who owns the nearby Salt and Sundry as well as Little Leaf, this bright and enticing getaway is decorated with colorful plants hanging from the wooden walls, and French-style cafe tables with bright turquoise chairs and festively patterned cushions. Cork is known for French and Spanish wines from small producers, which pair well with cheese or pasta. Even better: The patio is open at 11 a.m. Tuesday through Sunday, making it perfect for those working lunches when your boss is out of town. 1805 14th St. NW. If you’re craving a spacious and kid-friendly spot: Dacha Beer Garden More than two years after Shaw’s popular Dacha Beer Garden announced it was opening a second location near the Navy Yard, drinks are finally flowing across the street from Nationals Park. Save the attractive modern American restaurant for a rainy day and find a long table on the patio, where up to 700 people can relax in the shade of linden and maple trees. A vintage Airstream trailer serves as a bar, dispensing cans of rosé, spritzes and tallboys of European and American craft beers. (Look for the refreshing Dachnik Helles Lager, specially made by DC Brau.) Parents will love the play area, which has a large toybox and space for kids to push trucks around, and dogs are also welcome to visit. 79 Potomac Ave. SE. If you need a break from the basement: Players Club’s Skybox Player’s Club is a windowless basement bar filled with video games, pool tables and lounge furniture, plus speedy delivery from nearby Shake Shack. Its rooftop Skybox, on the other hand, is an airy spot with fancy cocktails served in silver julep cups — the Red Hot Chili Pineapple Batida, a sweet-and-spicy mix of tequila, pineapple and chile peppers is the standout — and bar stools perched along the deck railing, offering views of Logan Circle and 14th Street. If it wasn’t for the retro-’70s graphics and color scheme, you might not know the two spots were related. The only bother about Skybox can be access: Reaching the roof requires taking a private elevator from Player’s Club, and waiting for your number to be called can take up to half an hour on sunny days. 1400 14th St. NW. If you’re seeking monumental views: POV at the W Hotel The W’s POV is probably the most famous rooftop bar in Washington, thanks to its


tables, planters and trellises. It’s a perfect destination whether you’re famished or thirsty. Order cocktails, wine or beer from the bar at No Kisses and carry them out to a table; order pizza and sandwiches at the counter at Sonny’s and a server will bring it out to the patio when the food’s ready. A cute vintage Citroen truck parked on the patio serves cocktails, wine and beer (with a smaller selection than indoors) and also takes food orders. Babies and dogs are welcome. 3120 Georgia Ave. NW. If you work downtown and are looking for after-work drinks with a view: The Summit at the Conrad Hotel Some neighborhoods, such as Shaw and the Wharf, are flush with rooftop bars. But downtown, most of the penthouse space is atop inaccessible office buildings. That’s not the case at the Summit, the bar atop CityCenter’s Conrad Hotel, which opened May 20. (Unlike Estuary, the well-reviewed restaurant and bar downstairs, Summit has no connection with chefs Bryan and Michael Voltaggio.) Take a seat at the canopied bar, an umbrella-shaded table or the low-slung lounge seats and you’ll have a view that might take in the Capitol, a Smithsonian museum and even the Wilson Bridge, with the tip of the Washington Monument in the distance. Frosé and an Aperol spritz are available on draft, while the best cocktails are the most simple. And while there are large couches and tables that can be reserved for groups, most of the seats are open to anyone. 950 New York Ave. NW. If you’re looking for a boozy taste of the tropics: Tiki TNT A tiki bar on the water promises a good time, but Tiki TNT delivers more than just potent and fruity drinks. The menu is stocked with classics, such as the Missionary’s Downfall and the 3 Dots and a Dash, but don’t overlook the “not so classic” beverages: The Grog combines lemony verbena tea and the housemade rum packed with allspice notes, while the frozen Rum in Coke is a slushy mix of rum and Coca-Cola served in an actual Coke can. There are multiple levels of outdoor seating, including two bars where the walls roll up like garage doors. The roof offers the choice of dining tables surrounded by bamboo fencing and strung lights, or a shady bar decorated with rum bottles and a mural of palm fronds. 1130 Maine Ave. SW. fritz.hahn@washpost.com


D.C.-area forecast: Storms break heat today; best chance of weekend showers on Sunday

TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT A somewhat subjective rating of the day’s weather, on a scale of 0 to 10. 3/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: Tonight: Tomorrow: View the FORECAST IN DETAIL Storms could approach severe levels today but at least manage to push the real heat and humidity out of the area tomorrow. Weekend warmth is tolerable and, while afternoon or evening showers and storms are possible both days, Sunday afternoon/evening presents the greatest chance of getting wet. Get our daily forecasts on your Amazon Alexa device. Today (Thursday): Tonight: Follow us on Tomorrow (Friday): Tomorrow night: A LOOK AHEAD Early risers on Saturday can catch a glimpse of Venus and the last sliver of the moon on the eastern horizon just before dawn. For the rest of us, a typical early summer day awaits with moderate humidity and highs mainly in the mid-80s. Thunderstorms are possible later in the afternoon and evening but should be isolated. Overnight lows are low-to-mid 60s. Confidence: Medium-High Sunshine early Sunday should give way to increasing clouds and what looks to be numerous showers/thundershowers in the afternoon continuing well into the night. Highs hold in the upper 70s to lower 80s. Much cooler air surges in overnight with lows in the mid-50s to lower 60s. Confidence: Medium Monday


Md. man found fatally shot inside vehicle in D.C.

Washington, according to D.C. police. The victim was identified as Eric Eugene Marshall, 34, of Capitol Heights, in Prince George’s County. Police said the shooting occurred shortly before 7:30 p.m. in the 4600 block of Reed Terrace SE, in the Benning Ridge neighborhood. Marshall was killed less than a half-mile from his home. Officers reported finding the victim unconscious with multiple gunshot wounds to his body and head, according to a police report. He was found in the driver’s seat of a 2007 Mercedes-Benz CLS 550. — Peter Hermann VIRGINIA Arrest made in decades-old abduction A Fairfax County man has been arrested in connection with an abduction nearly 20 years after the incident, authorities said Thursday. Allen Lewis Buracker, 67, was taken into custody after the Fairfax County police cold case squad developed “new investigative leads” that led them to the suspect, police said. Police did not explain the nature of those leads. Police said Buracker approached a woman Aug. 8, 1999, as she was trying to find a business in the Burke Town Plaza. Buracker told the woman he would show her where the business had relocated, and he led her to a vacant office, police said. Buracker then pulled out a knife and tried to restrain her, police said. The woman struggled with Buracker and managed to flee. Buracker was arrested in Hyattsville on Thursday morning, police said. He is charged as a fugitive from justice, but police said he will be charged with abduction with intent to defile after he is extradited to Fairfax County. Police said Buracker has lived and worked in numerous counties in Maryland and Virginia since the 1990s, including Fairfax, Prince George’s and Stafford. Police said there may be additional victims. Anyone with additional information can call the Major Crimes Bureau at 703-246-7800. — Justin Jouvenal MARYLAND Cyberattack fix to cost Baltimore millions Baltimore’s budget office has estimated that a ransomware attack that has hobbled the city’s computer network will cost at least $18.2 million. The Baltimore Sun reports that budget director Bob Cenname forecast the estimated cost at a Wednesday meeting. The total includes nearly $5 million that the municipal IT office has already spent. The city’s network was hit by the cyberattack May 7. Officials have said hackers using the ransomware variant RobbinHood demanded Baltimore pay the equivalent of $76,000 in bitcoin, which city leaders say won’t happen. — Associated Press


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

and beer samples from local breweries. Beyond music and beverages, activities include beard grooming (Honest Abe would approve), guided tours of the grounds, lawn games and square dancing, while food trucks offer snacks for sale. Through Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. $65 adults, $35 ages 7 to 20, free for children 6 and younger. Dupont Kalorama Museum Walk: When visitors come to town, the Smithsonians and the National Gallery of Art are usually top of the must-visit list. But this city is full of cultural attractions, and this weekend, five institutions near Dupont Circle are opening their doors as part of the Dupont Kalorama Museum Walk. If you haven’t been to the Federal-era Dumbarton House, the Woodrow Wilson House or the National Museum of American Jewish Military History, this is the perfect time to visit — and it’s also a chance to reacquaint yourself with the permanent collection at the better-known, and recently renovated, Phillips Collection. Through Sunday. Hours vary by museum. Free. Beer in the Burbs at Fairfax Old Town Square: The first craft beer festival in Fairfax City features 14 breweries from around the Old Dominion, including Chaos Mountain, Brothers and Old Ox, as well as Fairfax’s own Ornery and Chubby Squirrel. The event celebrates the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, bringing classic rock bands to the family-friendly party in Old Town Square. Noon to 5 p.m. Free admission; sample pours are $3, while full pints are $8. Takoma Trukgarten at Takoma Park Mystery Friends at Black Cat Sunday, June 2 ‘The Life of Animals in Japanese Art’ at the National Gallery of Art Thouxanbanfauni at Songbyrd D.C. crab cake competition at Ivy City Smokehouse: What happens when you pit eight chefs from Washington restaurants to put an individual spin on a favorite local dish? You get the 14th edition of the D.C. Crab Cake Showdown. Ivy City Smokehouse will host chefs from Coconut Club, Pappe and Hank’s Oyster Bar, among others, to craft their best crab cake — using True Blue Maryland crab meat — and you get to be the judge. If one sea creature isn’t enough for you, there will also be an oyster bar, smoked fish assortment and New England clam chowder station. One ticket gets you all of this as well as beer, wine and liquor. Noon to 3 p.m. $85. — Hau Chu, Fritz Hahn, Adele Chapin, Rudi Greenberg and Chris Kelly


In a crowded field of big-name IPOs, Beyond Meat emerges as the surprise MVP

Founded in 2009 by vegan and Washington-area native Ethan Brown, Beyond Meat strives to make products that are “indistinguishable from their animal-based counterparts,” according to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. But its appeal is about more than just creating a believable meat substitute, the company says. Beyond Meat is positioning itself as an ethical alternative for the climate-concerned and health-conscious in the $1.4 trillion meat industry. Though skeptics question whether mass-market demand for fake meat can be sustained, the projections are optimistic: Barclays recently predicted meat alternatives could capture as much as 10 percent of the global protein market. The appetite is strongest in Europe, which accounted for nearly 40 percent of global sales for plant-based meats in 2017, according to Allied Market Research. “By eating our plant-based meats, consumers can enjoy more, not less, of their favorite meals, and by doing so, help address concerns related to human health, climate change, resource conservation and animal welfare,” the company said in its SEC filing. “The success of our breakthrough innovation model and products has allowed us to appeal to a broad range of consumers, including those who typically eat animal-based meats.” A possible partnership with McDonald’s could catapult Beyond Meat further. The fast-food chain is looking to include a vegan burger on its menu, and its chief executive, Steve Easterbrook, told CNBC on Wednesday that McDonald’s is already testing meat alternatives in Europe. Beyond Meat’s stock spiked 13.4 percent after his comments, closing at $97.50 that day. Jefferies analysts told investors this week that Beyond Meat is well-positioned to partner with McDonald’s and that a deal could boost its stock price by as much as 30 percent. Goldman, the JPMorgan analyst, expects Beyond Meat to sign up with a major fast-food chain by year’s end. He noted that Don Thompson, former chief executive of McDonald’s, now sits on Beyond Meat’s board. The Beyond Burger, a plant-based burger primarily made of pea protein, debuted in the meat section of 51 Whole Foods markets in October 2016. Today it’s carried in 30,000 locations, mostly in the United States and Canada, and the product line has expanded to include “crumbles” akin to ground beef and sausage. But deals with three European distributors will soon take its products overseas, and the company announced Tuesday it is partnering with Zandbergen to build a manufacturing plant in the Netherlands by early 2020.


Gov. Hogan calls on regents to probe U-Md.’s handling of deadly adenovirus outbreak

a “truly independent body” would examine the circumstances surrounding the outbreak and his daughter’s death, including communication with public health officials and compliance with the college’s infectious disease response policies. The Paregol family, which notified U-Md. on May 20 of a potential wrongful death claim, believes the teenager could still be alive if the university had not withheld information about the presence of adenovirus, giving doctors more time to administer an antiviral treatment. Adenovirus can have symptoms similar to a cold or flu, but some virulent strains can sicken healthy adults and be lethal to individuals with weakened immune systems, such as Olivia Paregol, who was on medication to treat Crohn’s disease, a chronic digestive tract condition. In these cases, early detection can be key to treating severe adenovirus, according to medical experts. David McBride, the director of the university health center, first learned Nov. 1 that a student had been hospitalized with adenovirus. The next day, Paregol visited the university health center complaining of a sore throat, fever, fatigue and swollen lymph nodes, according to medical records. No one mentioned that adenovirus could be a possible cause of her sickness. Adenovirus was making national headlines because it had been linked to the deaths of children with weakened immune systems living at a long-term care facility in New Jersey. That outbreak killed 11 children and sickened more than two dozen. Paregol languished as doctors struggled to pinpoint the cause of her illness. On Nov. 13, her father called the university pleading for answers while the medical condition of the freshman deteriorated at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. It was only then that McBride disclosed to Paregol’s father that there were adenovirus cases on campus. Paregol tested positive for adenovirus that day and doctors quickly began an antiviral treatment. The teenager died five days later. Ian Paregol said any investigation into U-Md. should also examine overcrowding and mold in the dorms. A mold outbreak sickened College Park students and set the stage for additional health problems. Olivia Paregol had struggled with respiratory problems during the fall semester while living in Elkton Hall, a mold-infested dorm from which students had to be relocated. Mold does not cause adenovirus, but McBride, in emails to administrators, acknowledged that “mold can cause respiratory irritation that may increase susceptibility of any viral infection.” “Students were at greater risk for adverse health consequences because the university also


This city could upend British politics forever

Peterborough is a mid-sized English city, well off the tourist trail and best known for its centuries-old cathedral. Next Thursday, however, it could become known as the town that upended British politics forever. Thursday is when Peterborough residents will choose their new member of Parliament in a special election, known as a by-election, after voters forced the incumbent, Labour’s Fiona Onasanya, out of office. This vote would be heavily contested in normal times, as the Peterborough constituency historically swings between Labour and the Conservatives. But these are anything but normal times for Britain. Last week’s European Union elections showed that voters were deserting the traditional two parties in droves. Labour and the Conservatives polled a combined 23.2 percent of the vote excluding Northern Ireland, the lowest share for the two in any British election in recent history. Both parties were trounced by the upstart Brexit Party, which won with 31.6 percent, and the Tories finished fifth behind the pro-E.U. Liberal Democrats and the Greens. English voters have traditionally been willing to back minor parties in E.U. elections only to come back to their traditional parties for British parliamentary elections. Polls show this will happen again, but only slightly. According to the polls, between 50 and 70 percent of the voters who backed Brexit, the Liberal Democrats or the Greens in the E.U. election plan to vote for the same party in the next general election. And that makes the race in Peterborough a crucial test for both major parties. The city of Peterborough voted strongly for the Brexit Party last week (38 percent) and to leave the E.U. (61 percent) in the 2016 referendum. The Peterborough constituency itself, which includes only a portion of the city, voted to leave by even higher margins. Assuming the poll data mentioned above will apply to the by-election, Brexit Party’s candidate, Mike Greene, will likely receive between 20 and 30 percent of the vote. That normally would not be enough to win, but there are 15 candidates in the race. Some of the minor contenders, such as the candidate of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, won’t be a factor. But most of England’s other significant major or minor parties has a candidate, and this will split the non-Brexit Party vote so significantly that Greene could slip through. The Labour Party’s candidate, Lisa Forbes, is probably the most likely to emerge as Greene’s primary


Despite warnings and planning, Metro shutdown leads to commute meltdown for many

was going to be bad, but many riders were hopeful that the months of planning and preparations by officials would ease the pain. Not so far. “Overall it’s been rough for people,” said Alexandria City Council member John T. Chapman (D). The city of Alexandria is posting daily updates on the morning and evening commutes on its website. “[Commuters have] had to adjust their commute from 15 to 45 minutes, we’ve been told,” Chapman said. Metro officials said problems were to be expected this first week. The 107-day shutdown of Blue and Yellow Line stations south of Reagan National Airport is the first phase of a three-year platform reconstruction project. The six stations affected — Braddock Road, King Street-Old Town, Eisenhower Avenue, Huntington, Van Dorn Street and Franconia-Springfield — serve about 17,000 riders daily. “As anticipated during the first few days of a major shutdown such as this, there have been some operational issues that will generally be smoothed out during this first week as we settle into our operations and customers adapt to the travel alternatives,” Metro said. The transit agency said it would take 20 buses to handle the same number of customers as one fully loaded train. “Even with additional buses, it is not possible to replicate the capacity of rail with buses given traffic conditions and space constraints at bus bays which must still accommodate regular bus service that continues to operate,” the agency said in a statement. Metro did not respond to questions about reports that many of the problems stemmed from shuttle drivers contracted from out of state, but did say Metro did train the drivers on the routes they would drive. On Wednesday, the union that represents Metrobus operators said the agency was pulling some of its drivers from their regular routes and reassigning them to routes that serve passengers affected by the shutdown. It criticized the practice, saying that the operators have not been properly trained on the new routes, which compromises both passenger and driver safety. Metro said that while the agency’s goal is to keep employees on their regular assignments, the shutdown requires “all available resources and the flexibility of our operators to provide support as needed.” Some riders did exactly what officials feared would happen — gave up and returned to their cars. Alexandria officials reported that travel times across the city Wednesday were up 12 percent compared with


Five people, including one child, shot in Southeast D.C. incident

was closed Monday, because of Memorial Day. Outside the entrance to the center, about 14 police chalk marks indicated where bullet casings had been retrieved. Wright said police are searching for a gray or silver four-door vehicle that was seen fleeing Sumner Road toward Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE. Barry Farm is about 1.5 miles north of where a 15-year-old was fatally shot Sunday morning outside a convenience store in the Congress Heights neighborhood. The area is being redeveloped, with longtime tenants challenging the plans in court. Near the recreation center, some boarded-up houses appeared to be vacant, while piles of construction debris sat on other lots where homes had been demolished. “There needs to be more security,” Edwards-Hines said. “You don’t know what’s going on inside those vacant units.” The first of the day’s other reported shootings occurred a few minutes before 1 a.m. in the 2700 block of Langston Place SE. The next shooting was reported hours later, about 1:30 p.m. in the 3100 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE. The address was about a mile south of Barry Farm. The next shooting was reported in midafternoon in the 2700 block of Wade Road SE. The site is less than half a mile from Barry Farm. Around 3:45 p.m. the sound of gunfire was reported in the 1200 block of Howison Place SW, police said. They said a man was found a few blocks away who had apparently been grazed by a shot. He was taken to a hospital. Howison Place is a one block north-south street that runs between M and N Streets SW. It is no more than a half mile from Nationals Park. About 8:30 p.m., a shooting was reported in the 600 block of 13th Street NW, near Metro Center. The site is about a half mile east of the White House. Another shooting was reported to police about an hour later, in the 1300 block of Brentwood Road NE. In the 1300 block of Half Street SW, a shooting was reported just before 11 p.m. The site is within two blocks of where shots were reported earlier on Howison Place. The Half Street shooting was also near the ballpark. In addition, a shooting was reported around midnight Tuesday morning, in the 2600 block of Birney Place SE. Connections among the incident appeared tenuous. In several of them, an automobile was


Here’s the dirty truth about China’s rare-earths threat

the past few years, Chinese companies have mined more than 70 percent of the world’s total production of rare-earth ore. Some non-Chinese mines have also shipped ore to China, so processing companies there have made an even higher portion of the world’s high-purity rare-earth oxides. The total global market for rare-earth oxides is only about 150,000 tons a year — an amount of material that could fit into a single large ship. The total value of the global rare-earths trade is only a few billion dollars. It matters a great deal to individual companies but is minuscule in the global economy. Yet rare earths turn into magnets used in electric motors and generators, which go into electric cars and wind turbines; they also go into batteries and lasers and sensors. Important products. But it is not clear how the Chinese government could readily upset the industries that make those products by depriving the United States of rare-earth shipments. The United States imports only a small amount of rare-earth oxides, and those imports are more likely to be used to somewhat improve the efficiency of oil refining than as an input to manufacturing high-profile, high-tech products. Chinese rare-earth oxides are generally turned into magnets or motors or other downstream products, either in China or elsewhere, before they are sent to the United States. To disrupt the trade relationship with the United States, China would have to ban exports of many products, not just rare earths themselves. In some cases, like the rare-earth content of Apple’s iPhones, the final assembly of the consumer product takes place in China; to stop those rare earths from getting to U.S. consumers, China would have to ban consumer product exports. Perhaps the Chinese government would contemplate banning iPhone sales in a huge trade conflagration, but at that point, access to rare earths would be the least of America’s concerns. To cut off U.S. rare-earth consumers, Beijing would also need to disrupt trade to many other countries. Otherwise, if China suspended exports of rare-earth magnets to the United States, Japanese firms that currently have excess magnet-making capacity and receive rare-earth oxides from China would simply make the magnets that American consumers want. Chinese oxides would still reach Americans. And then there are the non-Chinese producers of rare earths. Ten years ago, Chinese mines accounted for about 95 percent of global production, but now mines in Australia and


Markets sink as Trump opens new trade war front against Mexico

straight weeks, losing 6.55 percent. That is more than halfway toward a correction, which is a 10 percent decline from the high. The broad market had not dropped four weeks in a row since 2014. Numerous sectors, from oil to automobiles to banks and railroads, were reeling from Trump’s threat to impose a 5 percent tariff starting June 10 on the $348 billion in goods that the U.S. imports from Mexico. Trump’s threat follows his frustration over Mexico’s apparent inability to slow or stop the flow of illegal immigration crossing the Mexican border and entering the U.S. Automobile stocks were among the hardest hit because they are the most vulnerable to tariffs on Mexico-built products, with Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler trading down 2.26 percent, 4.25 percent and 5.82 percent respectively. Verizon, Cisco and Dow Chemical were the biggest drags on the blue chips, with 29 out of the 30 stocks losing ground. Only McDonald’s showed a gain. Nine of 11 U.S. S&P sectors were down, with only utilities and real estate staying out of the red. “This is very concerning, ” said Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist at Invesco. “This is a new and unexpected frontier in that tariffs are being used as a weapon beyond just trade policy. Markets don’t like surprises and this is a big surprise.” Losses were broad and deep as the month closed. Financial stocks were also hit hard. JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of American and Wells Fargo were down in the early afternoon. Shares in Kansas City Southern, a railroad network that carries freight between the U.S. and Mexico, fell 4.5 percent. Union Pacific, which derives 5 percent of its revenue from goods coming in from Mexico, dropped 1.59 percent. Commodities were moving. Gold prices increased 1.46 percent to $1,305.90 an ounce as money gravitated to safety. Copper prices, a predictor of economic activity, fell. Oil prices fell sharply on fears that a slowdown could reduce global consumption. West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude, both bellwethers, crashed more than 5 percent. U.S. oil was selling at $53.50 per barrel. Mexico is also one of the biggest suppliers of oil to the U.S., selling more than 22 million barrels to its northern neighbor in March, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Asian markets were in decline across the board. Japan’s Nikkei 225 tumbled 1.6 percent, the Hong Kong Hang Seng


Restaurants in stores are trendy again, but their goal is as old as ever

When you eat at a restaurant in a store, there is a very good chance you will eat salad. There is always salad: Chicken Caesar at the Barnes & Noble Kitchen. Gem lettuce with radish and feta at RH, the Restoration Hardware restaurant. Golden beet and tatsoi salad at Terrain Cafe, the Anthropologie restaurant. There has always been salad: Sliced pineapple and cheese salad for 55 cents at Marshall Fields, sometime in the early 20th century. Or, in 1980, $8 for a salade de cresson with watercress and smoked turkey — expensive at the time — at SoHo Charcuterie, a restaurant that once existed within a New York location of Ann Taylor, the patron saint of the pencil skirt. When the first department stores began opening restaurants to serve their shoppers, those shoppers were women, and those women ate salads. Many of those retail restaurants went away, but now they’re back again, and there are still women — and men, this time, too — eating salads. Except they’re also eating roasted bone marrow, or coconut rice cakes, or tofu with cauliflower and harissa, and drinking nitro cold brew and sparkling elderflower-blackberry sodas. Retail restaurants are just like other restaurants. Except they’re in a store, which makes them nothing like other restaurants, because they don’t carry the same risks. They have a guaranteed space, a steady stream of customers and an ulterior motive: to get you to buy stuff. And not just another salad. It’s “old retail,” said Barbara Kahn, professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. “The notion of the impulse buy, and the idea that the more time you spend in the space, you’re more likely to buy something.” Come for the avocado toast. Leave with some jeans. Department stores in the early 20th century “They were not cheap, but they were not luxury places,” said restaurant and retail historian Jan Whitaker, author of “Service and Style: How the American Department Store Fashioned the Middle Class.” “The whole idea was to keep your customers in the store as long as possible. And so you’re not going to have some place that nobody can afford.” They were mostly open for lunch, with elaborate salads — considered very upscale at the time — as well as hot dishes. There would be fashion shows in the restaurant, and extravagant displays of merchandise, especially around the holidays. But


they’re in a store, which makes them nothing like other restaurants, because they don’t carry the same risks. They have a guaranteed space, a steady stream of customers and an ulterior motive: to get you to buy stuff. And not just another salad. It’s “old retail,” said Barbara Kahn, professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. “The notion of the impulse buy, and the idea that the more time you spend in the space, you’re more likely to buy something.” Come for the avocado toast. Leave with some jeans. Department stores in the early 20th century “They were not cheap, but they were not luxury places,” said restaurant and retail historian Jan Whitaker, author of “Service and Style: How the American Department Store Fashioned the Middle Class.” “The whole idea was to keep your customers in the store as long as possible. And so you’re not going to have some place that nobody can afford.” They were mostly open for lunch, with elaborate salads — considered very upscale at the time — as well as hot dishes. There would be fashion shows in the restaurant, and extravagant displays of merchandise, especially around the holidays. But after World War II, department stores began to decline: People moved to the suburbs, and discount stores captured more market share. As companies began to cut back, the restaurants suffered. By the 1970s and ’80s, said Whitaker, they seemed hopelessly outdated. “They were these sort of formal-looking restaurants . . . with big columns and chandeliers and all that kind of stuff,” said Whitaker. “People would have said, ‘Oh that’s where old ladies go.'” Some survived in New York, but the mall food court ascended elsewhere. The first American Ikea opened outside Philadelphia in 1985, with a 200-seat restaurant serving its now-iconic Swedish meatballs. Other brands, throughout the years, have similarly experimented, with varying degrees of success. Ralph Lauren’s Chicago restaurant opened in 1999, and is still dishing out burgers and lobster bisque. But nothing remains of Torpedo Joe’s, a short-lived sandwich chain that occupied flagship Old Navy stores in the late ’90s. Retail restaurants come and go. But what’s different about the most recent wave is that it’s not just big chains. Smaller clothing brands, single-location boutiques, banks and cellphone companies are getting into the restaurant business, some in a way that competes with independent restaurants nearby. There’s a