disease. “At first I thought it was kind of great that I have something to do now — it can help ease my anxiety and become a purposeful task,” Morris told “Seven months into the pandemic, front-line doctors have in many cases become experts in treating covid-19. But they are experts without, for the most part, the most fundamental tool in medicine — solid evidence upon which to base their decisions,” “The National Institutes of Health is preparing to launch a large, randomized trial to formally test different doses of blood thinners, which have been widely used to treat blood clots caused by the virus. Blood plasma from people who have recovered has now been given to more than 60,000 covid-19 patients, but the evidence that it works is still only suggestive. ‘It is unfortunate we don’t have the kinds of data we would like to have now,’ said Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. ‘That emphasizes and underscores something I repetitively talk about: the importance of the placebo-controlled randomized trial. Because if that had been done, we would have the answer to that right now.'" “In a study in Philadelphia, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found the rate of virus exposure among Black and Hispanic women to be five times higher than among White and Asian women. Doctors say that, anecdotally, they are seeing this same pattern in the D.C. area,” Samantha Schmidt and Rebecca Tan report. “Tollie Elliott, the chief medical officer at Mary’s Center, said the figures may reflect the actual burden of the disease within the Latino community, which has struggled to access testing. On average, pregnant women see their doctors much more frequently than other people, which allows more opportunities for medical professionals to detect signs of infection. The virus has been devastating for Latinos, who are overrepresented in occupations classified as ‘essential,’ including construction, cleaning and caregiving. And Latinos more often reside in crowded apartments and multigenerational homes where the coronavirus easily spreads. In Montgomery County, a Washington suburb with 1 million people, Hispanic residents accounted for 73 percent of all new infections in June despite representing only 20 percent of the population." The general election was scheduled for Sept. 19. “The decision follows confirmation last Tuesday that several members of a family in Auckland had tested positive for the virus, ending the Ardern government’s record


A Baltimore house once owned by Frederick Douglass has become a history lesson

adviser to President Abraham Lincoln. In 1892 — three years before his death at his home in Anacostia — Douglass returned to Baltimore for a visit. He bought a plot that held Strawberry Alley Methodist Church, where he worshiped in his youth. He razed the church and built five properties as rental homes for African Americans. It was his way of creating stability and community for Black people in Baltimore after the Civil War. The five homes of Douglass Row were listed on the National Register of Historic Places nearly a century later, in 1983. Kerry Stanley and her then-husband had bought the center home at 520 S. Dallas St. a year earlier for $23,000. All of the homes had White occupants at the time, including Stanley, who learned about the properties’ connection to Douglass through a neighbor. “I knew nothing about Frederick Douglass beyond what I had been taught in school in my formative years. But I knew he was important and significant, so I said we have to do something about this,” recalls Stanley, 62. Another neighbor told Stanley that there was a sign under the formstone of her house. Intrigued, Stanley had a contractor peel away the facade and discovered a marble plaque that read Douglass Place. After more than a year of research, she was successful in listing the homes on the historic register. She later gifted Morton with the documents she used to build her case. Stanley and her husband moved out of the home in 1990, selling the property for $72,500. Since then, homes on the block have been largely unkept or uninhabited. Fields says, “It’s unfortunate that our city of Baltimore and our state of Maryland have not seen fit to do better than what they have done with these properties — so individuals like Mr. Morton have stepped up to the plate.” Fields argues that neglected homes associated with prominent African Americans should be bought by the local government, restored and turned into tourist destinations. Instead, people like Morton, who spent $40,000 on renovations, have bought and fixed up the homes. “We have lots of wonderful museums,” Fields says, “but the issue with smaller or niche historical sites is a fight for equity and funding in dollars.” There are many ways in which “the physical and tangible evidence of African Americans, their contributions and their history is largely vanishing or misunderstood” in


How covid-19 is shaping long-term changes in the apartment market

While property owners, managers and residents grapple with the ongoing effects of the novel coronavirus, the pandemic is already leading to permanent changes in apartment living. From technology and design to day-to-day operations, services and amenities, to how community staff interact with residents, there are several trends that have emerged that are probably here to stay. Apartment operators are constantly innovating to create a more resident-focused experience that offers comfort and convenience. The coronavirus has accelerated this movement, prompting operators to deploy new technologies and innovative solutions in a matter of weeks, including online lease renewals, schedulers for fitness centers and pools, concierge services integrated into community apps, enhanced virtual and self-guided tour options and more. As we move forward, we will probably see a continued trend toward contactless tech, including keyless entry options such as smartphone integration and voice recognition. With these updates, we may also see more apartment communities adopt smart-home innovations, such as Bluetooth shower heads, motion-detector lighting and remote-access thermostats. Enhanced community apps that integrate services such as takeout and grocery delivery options, already a growing trend pre-pandemic, will probably become even more common. If you’re searching for a new apartment, expect the process to look different. Virtual leasing and self-guided tours were not widely implemented pre-coronavirus, but the pandemic has pushed these touring tactics to the forefront and turned the leasing process into a no-contact experience. Many property managers are taking this time to revamp their websites and update their community’s photos and videos while developing comprehensive virtual tour options, including prerecorded and live videos. These tours can go well beyond the standard slide show by showcasing the unit layout, giving you a sense for the overall community atmosphere and facilitating an interactive experience with the community staff. More communities have also started offering self-guided tours as an alternative to the traditional tour experience. As social distancing requirements continue, property owners are looking at how amenity spaces are designed to determine if there is a layout or concept that makes more sense. As with many businesses, owners are looking to the outdoors for solutions. Outdoor living areas have always been popular with residents — a trend that continues to grow in the wake of the coronavirus. As more Americans take to the outdoors for walks, recreational activities and social gatherings, more individuals are factoring outdoor amenities into their apartment search. Dog parks, gardens, rooftop bars


Local digest: Man fatally shot in Northeast Washington, police say

THE DISTRICT A 31-year-old man was fatally shot Saturday afternoon in a neighborhood near Union Station, according to D.C. police. The victim was identified as Arvel Wills of Northeast Washington. Police said he was pronounced dead on the scene in the 500 block of I Street NE, just north of the H Street corridor. Officers responding to reports of gunshots found Wills about 5:35 p.m. and said he had been struck multiple times. No arrest had been made, and police said the motive was unknown. — Peter Hermann VIRGINIA A man was arrested in a fatal stabbing that happened Friday during a fight, authorities said. On Friday about 2:10 a.m., authorities responded to the Babylon cafe in the 3000 block of Golansky Boulevard in Woodbridge, Prince William County police said. They found 28-year-old Charlie Davis III of Dumfries. He was stabbed when a large fight broke out in the cafe’s parking lot, police said, and he was taken to a hospital, where he died. On Saturday, police said they charged Abdur Rahman Roland, 31, of Woodbridge with second-degree murder in the slaying. He was being held without bond. — Dana Hedgpeth and Justin Wm. Moyer Natural Bridge State Park is facing an uncertain financial future as it struggles to pay off a loan taken out to purchase the land several years ago. The Roanoke Times reported Saturday that the nonprofit group that bought the 215-foot-high limestone arch and surrounding property is unlikely to make a half-million-dollar loan payment. The Virginia Conservation Legacy Fund bought the land in 2014 before it could be carved up for sale at auction. And the nonprofit borrowed $9 million from the Virginia Resources Authority to close the deal. The nonprofit soon fell behind on the loan and other debts. A possible foreclosure was avoided when the property became a state park in 2016. The loan payment will nearly double in 2020, prompting concerns among state officials about the property’s future. Stephanie Hamlett, executive director of the Virginia Resources Authority, raised the possibility of transferring the property to a new owner in a letter to the fund in April. — Associated Press


The number of pregnant Latinas with covid-19 is staggering. And a warning sign, doctors say.

of the highest numbers of infections among pregnant women. Among the hardest hit was Mary’s Center, a nonprofit organization that operates community health clinics in the Washington area. Between March and July, Mary’s Center tested 215 pregnant women for the coronavirus, the vast majority of them Latina. More than 150 of them — nearly 70 percent — were positive. “It’s very, very alarming,” said Maria Gomez, chief executive of Mary’s Center. “We still can’t figure out why we’re seeing these numbers.” As of late July, the number of pregnant women who tested positive for the coronavirus was decreasing in most areas of the District and was stable in others, said Constance Bohon, a D.C. obstetrician-gynecologist who is part of the local committee of OB/GYN providers who meet regularly to discuss cases. But doctors worry about a potential rise in cases in the fall, Bohon said. Research about the impact of the coronavirus on pregnant women continues to be limited. A report from the CDC in June found that infected pregnant women may be more likely than infected nonpregnant women to be treated in an intensive care unit or need a ventilator but are not at higher risk of death. Pregnant women who are Black or Hispanic appear to be disproportionately affected by infection during pregnancy, according to the report. Tollie Elliott, the chief medical officer at Mary’s Center, said the figures may reflect the actual burden of the disease within the Latino community, which has struggled to access testing. On average, pregnant women see their doctors much more frequently than other people, which allows more opportunities for medical professionals to detect signs of infection, Elliot said. The virus has been devastating for Latinos, who are overrepresented in occupations classified as “essential,” including construction, cleaning and caregiving. And Latinos more often reside in crowded apartments and multigenerational homes where the coronavirus easily spreads. In Montgomery County, a Washington suburb with 1 million people, Hispanic residents accounted for 73 percent of all new infections in June despite representing only 20 percent of the population. In Virginia’s hard-hit Fairfax County, Latino residents make up 17 percent of the population but 59 percent of all coronavirus cases. And in D.C., Latino residents represent 11 percent of the population, but a quarter of all cases. Elliott said that none of the pregnant women who have tested positive for the virus at Mary’s Center has died


No signs of large-scale insect apocalypse in North America yet, study says

In recent years, the notion of an insect apocalypse has become a hot topic in the conservation science community and has captured the public’s attention. Scientists who warn that this catastrophe is unfolding assert that arthropods — a large category of invertebrates that includes insects — are rapidly declining, perhaps signaling a general collapse of ecosystems across the world. Starting about 2000, and more frequently since 2017, researchers have documented large population declines among moths, beetles, bees, butterflies and many other insect types. If verified, this trend would be of serious concern, especially considering that insects are important animals in almost all terrestrial environments. But in a newly published study that I co-wrote with 11 colleagues, we reviewed more than 5,000 sets of data on arthropods across North America, covering thousands of species and dozens of habitats over decades of time. We found, in essence, no change in population sizes. These results don’t mean that insects are fine. Indeed, I believe there is good evidence that some species of insects are in decline and in danger of extinction. But our findings indicate that, overall, the idea of large-scale insect declines remains an open question. For most scientists, the idea of disappearing insects is a foreboding prospect that would have harmful repercussions for all aspects of life on Earth, including human well-being. But some scholars were skeptical of the reported insect apocalypse. A number of studies that showed broad declines were limited geographically, focusing mainly on Europe. Typically these studies analyzed only a few species or groups of species. Some particularly long-running assessments showed that declines in the past 30 years occurred after periods when the relevant insect populations increased. Many insect populations are known to naturally fluctuate, sometimes dramatically. Many scientists concluded that while the prospect of mass insect losses was concerning, the jury was still out on what was actually happening. Ecologist Bill Snyder and I thought that the studies suggesting widespread insect die-offs produced an intriguing pattern with important ramifications, but that the evidence wasn’t strong enough yet to draw conclusions. We wanted to examine what was happening in North America, which has an immensely diverse landscape and, surprisingly to us, had not been broadly analyzed for insect declines. For our study, we decided to use data from sites in the Long Term Ecological Research Network (LTER), which is supported by the National Science Foundation. The network includes


28 sites across the United States that have been studied in depth since the 1980s, and it covers deserts, mountains, prairies and forests. With almost 40 years of data collected, we hoped trends at these sites would be a good complement to European insect studies. We put together a 12-person team that included six undergraduate students, postdoctoral scholars Michael Scott Crossley and Amanda Meier, and colleagues from the U.S. Agriculture Department. When we finished compiling our data sets, at least some of us expected to see broad insect declines. Instead, the results left us perplexed. Some species we considered declined, while others increased. But by far the most common result for a species at a particular site was no significant change. The vast majority of our species had stable numbers. At first, we thought we were missing something. We tried comparing different taxonomic groups, such as beetles and butterflies, and different types of feeding, such as herbivores and carnivores. We tried comparing urban, agricultural and relatively undisturbed areas. We tried comparing different habitats and different periods of time. But the answer remained the same: no change. We had to conclude that at the sites we examined, there were no signs of an insect apocalypse and, in reality, no broad declines at all. We are confident in our analysis and our conclusion, but a more important question is why our results are so different from those of other recent studies. I see two potential explanations: location and publication bias. As I have noted, most insect decline papers have come from European data. Indeed, Europe has better and more extensive long-term data than other parts of the world. It is also one of the most densely populated parts of the world — three times higher than North America. Moreover, almost all of Europe’s land has been modified for human use. Agriculture is widespread and intense, and cities and suburban areas cover large swaths of the landscape. So perhaps it is unsurprising that Europe has also lost a larger proportion of its wild creatures compared to North America. Publication bias is not about dishonesty or false results. It refers to the idea that more dramatic results are more publishable. Reviewers and journals are more likely to be interested in species that are disappearing than in species that show no change over time. The result is that over time, declining species can become overrepresented


Attendees at D.C. rally for racial justice should follow travel order, mayor says

“As we head into the weekend, Marylanders should keep in mind that the top activities reported in contact tracing investigations were family gatherings, house parties, and outdoor events,” he said in a tweet. “It’s easy to become complacent, but we can’t afford to let our guard down.” Hogan on Friday issued the fourth extension of a moratorium on phone, cable, water, gas and electricity shut-offs for residents who cannot pay their bills. Late fees are also prohibited. The moratorium now remains in place until Sept. 1. Meanwhile, the Arlington County Board on Friday passed an emergency ordinance that bans groups of more than three people from congregating on sidewalks and streets that are posted with the restrictions and requires those who are walking to stay at least six feet away from others in those areas. Violations could include a traffic fine of up to $100, the county said in a news release. In a statement, Board Chair Libby Garvey said the move came after it became clear some residents were not wearing masks or social distancing. “The Board hopes that this step will make it clear to our entire community that this pandemic is far from under control and that we are serious about maintaining social distance to slow its spread and save lives,” Garvey said. Maryland, Virginia and the District added 2,222 infections Friday, bringing the region’s total to 190,360 since the start of the pandemic. The three jurisdictions reported 39 new fatalities, lifting the death toll to 6,252. D.C. added 69 new cases and one death, Maryland had 1,169 new cases and five deaths, and Virginia reported 984 new cases and 33 deaths. That’s the highest number of coronavirus-related fatalities in a single day in Virginia since May 28. The seven-day average of daily caseloads in D.C., Maryland and Virginia stood at 2,083 on Friday, just below the roughly 2,200 daily average recorded at the height of the pandemic. Much of the recent increase is a result of spikes in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia and in the Baltimore metro area, although two Washington suburbs Friday recorded their highest daily totals in weeks. Prince George’s County saw its largest number of infections since May 30, while Montgomery County’s was the highest since June 13. The District’s caseload has generally held steady in the last half of July, while Northern Virginia’s daily cases are little changed since mid-June.


A teenage pop sensation becomes a soldier, and the Israeli army tries to cope

RAANANA, Israel — As one of Israel's biggest pop stars, Noa Kirel's shining face adorns billboards, and she appears daily in an array of commercials, reality television shows and teen dramas. Famous since 14, her YouTube videos have garnered millions of viewers, and last month she signed a multimillion-dollar music deal with Atlantic Records, reportedly the largest by any Israeli artist with a U.S. label. But for the foreseeable future, every media interview, every public appearance, every television taping and photo shoot must be strictly coordinated with the Israeli army. Kirel, 19, was drafted into the army six months ago under Israel’s mandatory conscription law. As teen pop superstardom encounters military conformity, it is proving to be a challenge for the wildly popular singer — who cannot walk down the street without being mobbed by fans — as well as for the army brass. “It’s not easy, but there is something very authentic about it,” Kirel said during an interview at her family home. When she’d breezed into the room, with long sleek hair, bright blue eyes and a flawless complexion, she was instantly charismatic and immediately fussed over by her manager, publicist and mother. Two soldiers were also present, assigned to monitor and clarify her comments. In the short time she has served, Noa, as she is affectionately known by her fans, has already stirred a handful of controversies. In February, on the day of her draft, a nerve-racking affair at which recruits part from their parents, the paparazzi were there in full force vying for a first photo of her in uniform. After a month of basic training, which Kirel said she enjoyed because she was ordered around like every other recruit and forced to do “normal” chores such as cleaning toilets, she was placed on the “talent track,” allowed to form her own music act and dispatched to perform for the troops. In no time, however, a short video clip of her singing with two male backup dancers clad in military fatigues and heavy combat boots went viral, drawing ridicule and criticism on social media. The backlash caused the army to cancel all military dance roles. More recently, a commercial for a cable television company featuring Kirel in U.S. military fatigues singing “Let the Sunshine In,” from the musical “Hair,” left some in the army’s top echelon uncomfortable at the sight of an active-duty soldier in a


American attitudes toward covid-19 are divided by party. The pandemic itself might undo that.

Since the coronavirus pandemic began, numerous polls have found U.S. public opinion seems to be polarizing along party lines over such issues as who fears the virus, wears masks, complies with social distancing and supports policies that help flatten the curve. We were concerned partisanship might be undermining the unified response required to fight the pandemic. But our research found the public health crisis itself might help to undo political polarization — at least, on issues related to the virus. We find fear of becoming seriously ill from covid-19 helps blunt knee-jerk partisan reactions, which suggests the most effective public messaging strategy to bring Americans together might be fear itself. Public health experts say combating covid-19 requires near universal Well, it actually confirms what we know about how party identification affects public opinion. Average citizens aren’t political experts, so they use shortcuts like party identification to make sense of politics. Most important, they take cues from their favored party leaders as to what political positions they should hold. Polarization occurs when party leaders take clear and opposing positions on issues. But it is not inevitable. If party leaders take similar positions, ordinary Americans will, too. Public opinion about the pandemic has followed this pattern. Majorities of both Republicans and Democrats initially supported most initiatives to contain the pandemic because leaders on both sides endorsed them early on. But eventually President Trump signaled the threat had passed while Democratic leaders urged continued caution. As a result, the partisan divide on opinions and behavior increased dramatically between spring and summer. Is it hopeless to imagine public unity over steps to slow the spread of the virus? Yes — unless something were to disrupt the relationship between party identification and attitudes toward public health policy. That something would need to make the costs of using party as a shortcut for policy position outweigh the benefits of not having to become a covid-19 expert. We thought fear might have that potential. If following your party can make you or someone you love seriously ill, blindly following party leaders becomes very costly. Fear can make people more likely to think seriously about their political positions rather than to uncritically follow the party line. At UNC-Chapel Hill, we contracted with Qualtrics to field two nationally representative online surveys in early April and in early June, in which the same 1,300 people answered both. This “panel” design


allows us to observe how their attitudes changed and to what effect. We asked people whether they supported policy measures to mitigate the effects of the virus and whether they were doing things like wearing masks. We also asked which party they identified with and how concerned they were about becoming seriously ill from covid-19. Between April and June, the percentage of respondents saying they were “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” about becoming seriously ill dropped from 67 percent to 53 percent, and party polarization increased. For example, in April, Democrats supported government mask mandates at a rate 11 percentage points higher than Republicans. By June, that difference in support had ballooned to 25 points. But here’s the key finding: This polarization was almost entirely driven by Republicans who were becoming less concerned about the virus or who had never been concerned. The chart below reveals the pattern. The left side tracks how support for mask mandates changed among those who were either never concerned about getting sick or got less concerned between April and June. In April, these Republicans and Democrats were 13 points apart. By June, they were 36 points apart. The pattern among those who either always feared getting seriously ill or those who got more concerned, which appears on the right side of the chart, is different. In April, these Republicans and Democrats were only about 5 points apart, and in June they remained less than 10 points apart. Fear also affects how individuals behave. In the chart below, we show the differences in the percentage of partisans who report wearing masks in public “very often.” Among those not concerned about getting sick or becoming less concerned, party differences grew from 18 points to 25 points. For those who remained fearful or became more fearful, polarization grew, but by less. Fear’s effect on Republicans was profound. More fearful Republicans were 25 points more likely than less fearful Republicans to report wearing masks “very often.” The effect of fear persisted even when we took into account other important factors, like how strong a partisan someone was, what news they consumed, or how severe the outbreak was in their home county. When people are afraid of getting sick, they rely less on partisan shortcuts and take positions and actions to reduce the risk of what they fear. If reducing concern resulted in more polarization, then increasing concern should


Plane cabins could change dramatically because of the pandemic. Here’s how.

As coronavirus cases continue to rise, it’s clear that the standard plane cabin layouts we’re used to aren’t working in a pandemic. A face mask is less reassuring when you’re sitting elbow-to-elbow with a stranger for an extended period of time, with many airlines no longer distancing passengers as the pandemic threatens their business model. While some airlines continue the responsible-yet-costly move of blocking off middle seats for travelers’ safety, a redesigned cabin layout could mean they wouldn’t have to. There has been an outpouring of design ideas since the pandemic began, from flipped middle seats and double-decker rows, to seat upholstery that changes color when sanitized. Design firms proposing changes to the average plane cabin are tackling different aspects of the in-flight experience, with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for social distancing and increased cleanings in mind. “It’s important to innovate while being mindful of the realities of the world we live in. We know, for instance, that keeping the middle seat free is not a viable economic model for airlines," says Anna Meyer, a spokesperson for London-based design firm PriestmanGoode. "Equally, we know that screens between every seat does not present the best investment at this time. Nor will it suit all passengers, especially families or couples traveling together.” Some new seat designs are squarely focused on physically separating passengers, while others aim to implement new technologies that will make it easier to sanitize plane cabins and give passengers peace of mind. The most recent technology to make waves is PriestmanGoode’s proposal for “Pure Skies” seating, which includes upholstery that changes color when sanitized with UV light, so that passengers know their seat is clean upon arrival. Once the seat is used again, it returns to its original color. “Seat fabrics include photochromic and thermochromic inks that react to new cleaning methods like UVC and heat cleaning,” PriestmanGoode said of the material. The new technology is proposed only for business-class cabins, so it will come at a premium and will take “at least three years to develop and certify.” When could the design take shape in actual planes? “While we can’t comment on specifics, we’ve had interest from airlines, suppliers and seat vendors,” PriestmanGoode’s Meyer said. “There is a clear consensus in the industry that change needs to happen, that the aviation industry is in a state of flux and that for the long-term health of


Local digest: Ultrasound shows panda at National Zoo carrying a healthy fetus

THE DISTRICT New signs emerged Monday suggesting that giant panda Mei Xiang is carrying a healthy fetus, as an ultrasound showed “exciting movements,” according to the National Zoo. Her fetus was kicking and swimming in the amniotic fluid, the zoo said in a tweet. The fluid surrounds the growing fetus in the womb. In addition, the tweet said, the fetus’s spine and blood flow were visible. On Friday, the zoo said an ultrasound that morning showed what looked like a fetus. The zoo said it had launched its 24-hour-a-day panda cam watch. Officials said then that they were hopeful that a healthy cub could be born soon. The Monday ultrasound appeared to provide new evidence that the fetus was viable. It prompted the zoo to tweet: “Keep your paws crossed!” — Martin Weil MARYLAND A Capitol Heights man has been arrested in the shooting death of 51-year-old Kim Gooden, a woman identified in charging documents as his girlfriend. Kenneth Duane Sedgwick, 50, was charged with first- and second-degree murder and assault, Prince George’s County police said in a news release Tuesday. Authorities said he was in police custody in the District and would be extradited to Prince George’s. Gooden and Sedgwick, both of Capitol Heights, were in an “ongoing relationship,” police said. Investigators think Sedgwick shot Gooden in the early-morning hours of Aug. 12 in an apartment in the 4100 block of Southern Avenue in Capitol Heights, according to charging documents. Officials said they later obtained surveillance footage showing the suspect fleeing the area in Gooden’s car minutes after a witness reported hearing loud pops. On Friday, Prince George’s officers conducted a welfare check at the Southern Avenue home and found Gooden with multiple gunshot wounds, police said. She was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said. — Katie Mettler Shots were apparently fired Monday night as a large group of motorcyclists briefly shut down Interstate 270 in Frederick County, Maryland state police said. About 50 people on sport motorcycles briefly closed the northbound lanes of the highway around 8:30 p.m. and began performing stunts and burnouts, state police said. As troopers headed to the area, the group left and went to a park-and-ride lot on Route 80, state police said. The motorcyclists left as troopers arrived, police said. State police said a caller reported hearing shots while the motorcyclists were on the interstate, and shell casings were later found


as an ultrasound showed “exciting movements,” according to the National Zoo. Her fetus was kicking and swimming in the amniotic fluid, the zoo said in a tweet. The fluid surrounds the growing fetus in the womb. In addition, the tweet said, the fetus’s spine and blood flow were visible. On Friday, the zoo said an ultrasound that morning showed what looked like a fetus. The zoo said it had launched its 24-hour-a-day panda cam watch. Officials said then that they were hopeful that a healthy cub could be born soon. The Monday ultrasound appeared to provide new evidence that the fetus was viable. It prompted the zoo to tweet: “Keep your paws crossed!” — Martin Weil MARYLAND A Capitol Heights man has been arrested in the shooting death of 51-year-old Kim Gooden, a woman identified in charging documents as his girlfriend. Kenneth Duane Sedgwick, 50, was charged with first- and second-degree murder and assault, Prince George’s County police said in a news release Tuesday. Authorities said he was in police custody in the District and would be extradited to Prince George’s. Gooden and Sedgwick, both of Capitol Heights, were in an “ongoing relationship,” police said. Investigators think Sedgwick shot Gooden in the early-morning hours of Aug. 12 in an apartment in the 4100 block of Southern Avenue in Capitol Heights, according to charging documents. Officials said they later obtained surveillance footage showing the suspect fleeing the area in Gooden’s car minutes after a witness reported hearing loud pops. On Friday, Prince George’s officers conducted a welfare check at the Southern Avenue home and found Gooden with multiple gunshot wounds, police said. She was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said. — Katie Mettler Shots were apparently fired Monday night as a large group of motorcyclists briefly shut down Interstate 270 in Frederick County, Maryland state police said. About 50 people on sport motorcycles briefly closed the northbound lanes of the highway around 8:30 p.m. and began performing stunts and burnouts, state police said. As troopers headed to the area, the group left and went to a park-and-ride lot on Route 80, state police said. The motorcyclists left as troopers arrived, police said. State police said a caller reported hearing shots while the motorcyclists were on the interstate, and shell casings were later found there. There was no indication that any people or objects were struck, police said. — Martin Weil


The Cybersecurity 202: Fighting Trump on mail voting is major theme of Democrats’ convention week

Commerce Department will require overseas chip manufacturers to get a special license before selling any chips to the Chinese telecom giant if they use any U.S. equipment or software, Jeanne Whalen and Ellen Nakashima report. That could be cripping for Huawei because the vast majority of semiconductors use U.S. technology or software in some way. The new move expands on a similar May Commerce ruling that only applied to chips that used Huawei designs. The new rules “will prevent Huawei from circumventing U.S. law through alternative chip production and provision of off-the-shelf chips produced with tools acquired from the United States,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement. Huawei has long denied U.S. accusations that it can't be trusted not to aid Beijing spying. The Commerce Department also added 38 new Huawei affiliates to its blacklist, including many cloud-computing subsidiaries. The recording is of an unverified call between Biden and the former president of Ukraine and has been flagged by U.S. intelligence officials, Democrats slammed the tweet. Trump has “irrevocably shown his true colors yet again” by retweeting Russian propaganda, Biden spokesman Andrew Bates told CNN. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, clapped back on Twitter. Trump retweeted the clips from a The data was collected from apps for advertising purposes and sold by a company called Babel Street, Babel Street has also contracted with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) plans to introduce legislation that would close the loopholes that allow government agencies to purchase such data. “As part of my investigation into the sale of Americans’ private data, my office has pressed Babel Street for answers about where their data comes from, who they sell it to, and whether they respect mobile device opt-outs, Only about 200 counties have signed up for a Department of Homeland Security election service that scans voter databases for potential concerns, Kevin Collier at NBC News reports. “This is good progress. It's not great progress,” said Geoff Hale, director of the Election Security Initiative led by DHS. Part of the problem is that even though the tools are free, local officials must still pay to implement them. Unprotected systems could leave small cities and counties at risk of hackers locking up their databases before Election Day, Hale said. The attack gave hackers unauthorized access to the personal data of guests and employees, the company said in


The Senate’s ‘grave’ Russia report: What we learned, and what it means

The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday released its fifth and final report on Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, and the notably bipartisan report raises plenty of new questions about that effort’s links to the Trump campaign. The report, like its predecessors, does not allege a conspiracy or collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. But it does detail significant new information and raises questions about potentially vital information that has been withheld both by Trump allies and the administration — and renders the full picture of what happened obscured to this day. Below are some of the most important things we learned. Attorney General William P. Barr has picked up on President’s Trump’s allegation that the Russia probe was a “witch hunt” and has tasked U.S. Attorney John Durham with investigating its origins. When Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz reported that the investigation was properly predicated, Barr and Durham issued highly unusual statements disputing that. The new report, though, makes that argument significantly more difficult. Not only does it point to additional bases for the investigation, but it’s the product of a bipartisan committee in the GOP-led Senate. Chief among the revelations is the role of Konstantin Kilimnik. The report describes the ally of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort as a “Russian intelligence officer” — going beyond special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s more anodyne contention that Kilimnik had “ties to Russian intelligence.” And the report says the regular and increasing contact between Manafort and this alleged Russian officer during the campaign, as detailed by The Washington Post’s Philip Bump, constituted a “grave” threat. “The Committee found that Manafort's presence on the Campaign and proximity to Trump created opportunities for Russian intelligence services to exert influence over, and acquire confidential information on, the Trump Campaign,” the report says. “Taken as a whole, Manafort's high-level access and willingness to share information with individuals closely affiliated with the Russian intelligence services, particularly Kilimnik and associates of [Putin-linked Russian oligarch] Oleg Deripaska, represented a grave counterintelligence threat.” The committee also cleared former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos of knowingly conspiring with Russians, but it said his contacts raised a very valid concern on that front as well. “The Committee further found that Papadopoulos’s efforts introduced him to several individuals that raise counterintelligence concerns, due to their associations with individuals from hostile foreign governments as well as actions these individuals undertook,”


New signs suggest giant panda is bearing a healthy fetus, National Zoo says

New signs emerged Monday suggesting that giant panda Mei Xiang is bearing a healthy fetus, as an ultrasound showed “exciting movements,” according to the National Zoo. Her fetus was kicking and swimming in the amniotic fluid, the zoo said in a tweet. The fluid surrounds the growing fetus in the womb. In addition, the tweet said, its spine and blood flow were visible. On Friday, the zoo said an ultrasound that morning showed what looked like a fetus. The zoo said it had launched its 24-hour-a-day panda cam watch. Officials said then that they were hopeful that a healthy cub could soon be born. The Monday ultrasound appeared to provide new evidence that the fetus was viable. It prompted the zoo to tweet: “Keep your paws crossed!”


UNC-Chapel Hill’s student newspaper sums up school’s coronavirus policy with an f-bomb

effect on the university and its local community. She cited an explainer, published Monday, on the university’s covid-19 dashboard, and to ongoing coverage of campus workers’ fears about returning to campus and demands that the university address those concerns. “This is basically our full time job to serve our community and readers and hold the University accountable,” she said. “It came to a point where it just felt something needed to be said … the words we would typically use were not enough.” The editorial itself detailed grievances with the university, questioning its decision to move forward with in-person instruction. “We’re only a week into the semester and four covid-19 clusters have already surfaced on and around campus,” the editorial read. It said the university’s leadership “should have expected students, many of whom are now living on their own for the first time, to be reckless. Reports of parties throughout the weekend come as no surprise. Though these students are not faultless, it was the University’s responsibility to disincentivize such gatherings by reconsidering its plans to operate in-person earlier on.” Hours after the editorial published, the University announced Monday a reversal to move to all-remote learning, starting Wednesday. School officials announced the change after testing showed rapid spread of the virus — 177 cases of covid-19 were confirmed among students, out of hundreds of tests. Masten, who wrote the editorial, told The Washington Post she began writing it on Friday after reports emerged of the first clusters of cases on UNC-Chapel Hill’s campus. “I knew how big of an issue this was because people on our campus — students, faculty, graduate student workers, student activists, essential workers — have been fighting for the university to go all remote since March. They knew something like this would happen,” Masten said. “I knew that we had to speak out on it.” Pogarcic said she did not expect the editorial to resonate the way it did, but said the response may reflect concerns students and the university community have been expressing for months. “People’s lives are at risk, our lives are at risk. We’re students — we work and go to campus. It just was reaching a boiling point,” she said. “We’ve been writing about and trying to raise the alarm about this for weeks. It took us using that word to get people to look and pay attention.” The pandemic changed how


Flying blind on the economic effects of the pandemic

pandemic persisting and no vaccine available for the rest of the calendar year, what does this mean for the economy this fall? Here I need to acknowledge an awkward truth: The pandemic has not affected me or mine all that seriously. I am affluent enough to have not received any money from the original Cares Act. My spouse and I, as professionals with a decent-size house, were able to transition to working from home without too much inconvenience. There are ways in which we have saved money, because of less travel. My point is that the economic effects of the pandemic on my family have been marginal at best. This accords with my economic class, as my Post colleague Heather Long pointed out in an excellent story over the weekend. Her lead makes the obvious point: “U.S. stocks are hovering near a record high, a stunning comeback since March that underscores the new phase the economy has entered: The wealthy have mostly recovered. The bottom half remain far from it.” She notes that some economists are calling the current situation “a K-shaped recovery” because of the diverging economic prospects for the rich and poor. Economists Laura Tyson and Lenny Mendonca reach a similar conclusion: “The COVID-19 crisis is falling hardest on the most vulnerable: people of color, people with disabilities, immigrants, women, the less educated, and other workers trapped in precarious, non-standard, and low-wage jobs without health insurance or benefits.” It is not just the failure to pass another rescue package that has a disproportionate impact on the less well-off in America. Trump’s obsession with defunding the Postal Service has similar effects. As Vox’s Catherine Kim noted in April: “The service’s accessibility and affordability are especially important to rural communities that live in poverty and to people with disabilities, who can’t afford the cost of a private business to deliver their daily necessities. (In 2017, the rural poverty rate was 16.4 percent, compared with 12.9 percent for urban areas.)” Regardless of whether the Postal Service is able to mail ballots, the poor rely on the service for other critical needs far more heavily than those of us who can afford to FedEx things. So it would seem as though at least half the country is about to feel the effects of the pandemic and the Trump administration’s poor response to it even more acutely than in the spring. What does


reach a similar conclusion: “The COVID-19 crisis is falling hardest on the most vulnerable: people of color, people with disabilities, immigrants, women, the less educated, and other workers trapped in precarious, non-standard, and low-wage jobs without health insurance or benefits.” It is not just the failure to pass another rescue package that has a disproportionate impact on the less well-off in America. Trump’s obsession with defunding the Postal Service has similar effects. As Vox’s Catherine Kim noted in April: “The service’s accessibility and affordability are especially important to rural communities that live in poverty and to people with disabilities, who can’t afford the cost of a private business to deliver their daily necessities. (In 2017, the rural poverty rate was 16.4 percent, compared with 12.9 percent for urban areas.)” Regardless of whether the Postal Service is able to mail ballots, the poor rely on the service for other critical needs far more heavily than those of us who can afford to FedEx things. So it would seem as though at least half the country is about to feel the effects of the pandemic and the Trump administration’s poor response to it even more acutely than in the spring. What does this mean for the election? It depends on whether you believe that greater economic deprivation will lead to a surge in voting against the incumbent. Intuitively, the answer is yes. There are two important caveats to that intuition, however. First, sometimes people get so exhausted and impoverished that they simply give up on political action and focus on mere survival. Articles about “an exhausted, exasperated nation … suffering from the effects of a pandemic that has upended society on a scale and duration without parallel in living memory” make me worry that those made worse off simply will not vote out of general fatigue. Second, no voter only votes because of their economic circumstances. Trump, after all, is polling the worst among college-educated voters, which is the group benefiting the most from pandemic economic policies. Rural whites who rely on the Postal Service could very well decide that whatever Trump’s flaws, he remains the better option. My real fear is that we may not know the political and economic effects for quite some time. The economic divide could be exacerbated by the concomitant divide in press coverage. To put it gently, I don’t expect the Bloomberg reporter who wrote about


FAQ: Who is Konstantin Kilimnik and why does his name appear 800 times in a Senate report?

KYIV — The Senate Intelligence Committee's final report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections describes numerous links between members of the Trump campaign and an array of Russian and Russian-linked oligarchs, political figures and middlemen. One connection in particular set off alarm bells for the committee: the close ties between Trump’s then-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and Konstantin Kilimnik, a Ukrainian-Russian who headed Manafort’s office in the country. “Kilimnik is a Russian intelligence officer,” the report said. Manafort’s willingness to share information with Kilimnik and other people affiliated with the Russian intelligence services, it added, “represented a grave counterintelligence threat.” A lawyer for Manafort has declined to comment. The 50-year-old Kilimnik was Manafort’s right-hand man in Ukraine — “Manafort’s Manafort,” as many in Kyiv described him. He started out in the mid-2000s as Manafort’s primary interpreter, when the American political consultant was hired to run the political campaigns of Viktor Yanukovych, a tough, Kremlin-linked politician from eastern Ukraine. Kilimnik rose to run Manafort’s operations in Ukraine after Manafort helped Yanukovych win the presidency in 2010. When Yanukovych fled the country following a pro-Western revolution in 2014, Manafort and Kilimnik continued to work with pro-Russian Ukrainian parties and politicians. Kilimnik was also the main contact with the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, with whom Manafort had business dealings, the report said. Kilimnik served as a liaison between the two men, and their relationship continued during the U.S. presidential elections, according to the report. Kilimnik was born in Ukraine but attended a military language institute in Moscow from 1987 to 1992 during the collapse of the Soviet Union. The institute was linked to the Russian military intelligence agency, or GRU, but he has always denied any connection to the intelligence services. He reportedly now resides in Moscow and did not make any public comments after the report’s release. Much of what the report says about Kilimnik has previously been touched upon or mentioned briefly during political investigations and in media reports. What’s new here is the level of detail. Kilimnik’s name appears about 800 times in the Senate intelligence report. The report said Manafort’s proximity to Trump “created opportunities for the Russian intelligence services to exert influence over, and acquire confidential information.” Kilimnik, for his part, “likely served as a channel to Manafort for Russian intelligence services, and that those services likely sought to exploit Manafort’s access to gain insight into the


U.S. tightens restrictions on Huawei yet again, underscoring the difficulty of closing trade routes

including many of Huawei’s cloud-computing subsidiaries around the world. Any company selling U.S. technology to those subsidiaries will now need a license from the Commerce Department. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo characterized the new rules as attempting to close loopholes, saying Huawei had “continuously tried to evade” the blacklisting. The Semiconductor Industry Association criticized the latest measure. “We are still reviewing the rule, but these broad restrictions on commercial chip sales will bring significant disruption to the U.S. semiconductor industry. We are surprised and concerned by the administration’s sudden shift from its prior support of a more narrow approach intended to achieve stated national security goals while limiting harm to U.S. companies," the group said. “We reiterate our view that sales of non-sensitive, commercial products to China drive semiconductor research and innovation here in the U.S., which is critical to America’s economic strength and national security,” the group added. The industry executive has been pushing the administration to allow U.S. companies to sell chips Huawei uses to make cellphones and other consumer devices, arguing that those pose no threat to U.S. national security. The Trump administration has focused on Huawei’s telecom network equipment as posing a security threat, saying Chinese officials could tap into that equipment installed overseas to spy or to disrupt infrastructure. Huawei has dismissed those allegations. Semiconductor chips are designed with highly automated software that programs billions of lines of code. The industry executive said only three companies in the world make that software, known as electronic design automation, and all are subject to U.S. export controls because of their U.S. operations. Two — Synopsys Inc. and Cadence Design Systems — are headquartered in California. A third, Mentor Graphics, was acquired by the German company Siemens in 2017, but all of its operations are in the United States, which is what counts for export control purposes, the executive said. Moreover, there are only a handful of manufacturing toolmakers in the world for semiconductor production, each of which is the only one of its kind and is a necessary part of the process, the executive said. Three of these companies are based in California: KLA-Tencor, Applied Materials and Lam Research. Remove any one of these companies and it’s impossible to build a chip, the executive said. “It’s like a puzzle,” the executive said. “If you’re missing one piece, you can’t build the puzzle.” The Dutch company ASML also


A teacher made a spreadsheet tracking covid-19 in schools. She has more than 700 entries.

a national resource for hundreds of educators and parents around the country. To Morris’s knowledge, it’s the first publicly available database of schools with covid-19 cases, and it shows nearly every state already has had schools affected by the virus. “We knew this would happen, and we had tried to make it known that it would happen, but seeing it on paper was, I think, the eye-opening part about it,” Morris said. “It’s just that terrifying moment when you open it up and just keeps scrolling and you’re like: ‘How can there be so many?’ ” As the Trump administration urges schools to open, outbreaks continue to befall schools that have started in-person classes. The Cherokee County School District in Georgia has shut down three high schools and sent almost 2,000 people to quarantine. In Nebraska this weekend, the Broken Bow School District canceled classes after three staff members tested positive for covid-19. Morris said she didn’t create the document to push a political agenda — she simply wanted to disseminate as much information as possible to educators. “My goal is to keep people healthy and save lives and to provide data that can hopefully help people make data-informed decisions for the future of their schools,” Morris said. Morris is the theater director at Olathe High School, where her own school district has offered parents the choice of online or in-person classes. Morris will hold her extra-curricular theater productions online, but as of now, her classes are expected to be in-person unless the school distract changes the format. Kansas has seen about 33,600 cases of covid-19 and just over 400 deaths to date. On Aug. 7, Morris started plugging school districts and case numbers into a spreadsheet. Two days later, she sent her initial findings to colleagues and her school board members. Soon, she posted the spreadsheet in teacher Facebook groups, which led to an overwhelming response, she said. “Many people were very thankful to have that information and equally they were shocked and had no idea that it was this widespread,” Morris said. When people started sending her more articles, she added a link to upload new information. Hundreds of submissions came pouring in. The work became so overwhelming that Morris accepted help from retired teachers, stay-at-home parents, other educators, and even some students from Rutgers University. Now, she has about 35 people updating the spreadsheet. “It feels unifying


Don’t just look at covid-19 fatality rates. Look at people who survive — but don’t entirely recover.

pain or shortness of breath, which can be progressive and debilitating. When I asked whether the risk of long-term disability from covid-19 could potentially end up being greater than the risk of death, Cooper said: “Yes, absolutely.” Those patients would, on average, be much younger than the ones who are dying; the median age in the German study was 49. These are patients with many years of life to lose, either to disability or early death. And there are disturbing findings from much younger patients; a study of 186 children who had MIS-C, the (thankfully rare) inflammatory syndrome that can occur with pediatric covid-19, showed 15 had developed aneurysms of the coronary artery. But you can’t generalize from such small studies, especially since covid-19 is rapidly becoming the most-studied disease in human history; if we regularly put patients with other viral infections through cardiac MRIs, what might their hearts look like a few months in? We desperately need larger, more comprehensive studies, and, thankfully, they’re in the works — one of the largest and the best will follow 10,000 British patients. But these take time to set up, and as genetic epidemiologist Louise Wain, a researcher on the British study, told me ruefully, “No one warned us a year ago that we were going to have a pandemic.” She hopes to have the 1,000th patient enrolled by September, which is amazingly fast, but still not quick enough for policymakers and individuals who have to decide whether to leave our hermitages. “All of us, me included, have tired,” says Yancy. And, in recent months, our laser focus on fatality rates has offered at least the young and healthy what seems like a beacon of hope. Without hard data, it has been easy to dismiss reports of longer-term complications as anecdote, hysteria or media hype. But at this stage, the absence of data isn’t proof that those effects aren’t real. Of course, even if the risks are higher than we thought, we still must make trade-offs — crops must be picked and kids educated, pandemic or no. But whatever your personal cost-benefit analysis was, it should become more conservative with those potential long-term complications factored in. At the very least, says Yancy, “Wear the mask. When you think about all these ramifications, wear the mask.” Read more from Megan McArdle’s archive, follow her on Twitter or subscribe to her updates on Facebook.


Hearts of palm fills in for the seafood in this plant-based ceviche

Overview Overview This post has been updated. Los Angeles chef Jocelyn Ramirez remembers when it hit her: She and a friend were making a salad for dinner, and her friend brought out some hearts of palm. “I took a bite, and thought it had the texture and even a little bit of the taste of crab meat,” Ramirez said. She filed it away. The memory came in handy when she started moving toward a plant-based diet. She had been experiencing thyroid problems she wanted to treat through food, and she had made vegan smoothies for her father as he recovered from cancer. “To be honest with you, seafood was one of the hardest things to transition from,” she told me in a phone interview. Eventually, Ramirez, 37, started developing recipes for her plant-based catering company, Toto Verde, and a cookbook, “La Vida Verde,” which was published this year. She based many of the dishes for both on recipes from her Mexican abuela, but her grandmother grew up in Mexico’s landlocked state of Zacatecas, not near the coast. So when Ramirez wanted something that would easily stand in for seafood in a traditional ceviche, she thought about other childhood memories: trips to California crab shacks, her mother’s tilapia ceviche. Then, she remembered those hearts of palm and their crab-like flavor. Hearts of palm, a.k.a. palmitos, are vegetables harvested from the center of some palm species native to Central and South America. They’re packed in brine and remind me a little of canned artichokes. But once you marinate them in lemon juice and olive oil and fold in avocado, tomato, cucumber, jalapeño and cilantro, and scoop them up with tortilla chips or layer them on tostadas, the ceviche vibe is unmistakable. (In fact, while Ramirez’s version is Mexican in style, hearts of palm star in one of the traditional ceviches of Ecuador.) When I tested her recipe, I polished off a serving and proceeded to nibble on it for days thereafter, using it in much the same way I would any salsa: dolloping it onto tacos and salads and grain bowls. When the coronavirus pandemic hit, Ramirez hit pause on her efforts to start a restaurant. She transitioned her catering business into one focused on education — perfect for someone who had previously worked in academia. She created virtual cooking classes and ingredient kits. Her book, in a way, is her response


‘Blood on his hands’: In scathing obituary, woman blames governor for her father’s covid-19 death

of the effort that I had made to try to keep my parents safe, I couldn’t compete with the governor’s office and I couldn’t compete with the Trump administration,” Kristin Urquiza said. Inspired by the famous AIDS quilt meant to humanize victims, Kristin Urquiza wrote to Ducey, asking him to attend her father’s funeral to see a result of what she called his “inaction and active denial” of the pandemic’s effects. Ducey’s office, she said, did not reply. Ptak declined to say whether the governor received the request and whether anyone from his office responded. About three weeks after Arizona’s stay-at-home order expired, Mark Urquiza developed a cough and a high fever, according to his daughter. His family arranged for him to take a coronavirus test the next day, but Kristin Urquiza said he never received the result. By June 16, Mark Urquiza felt sick enough that he asked to go to a hospital. There, his daughter said, he tested positive for the virus. Kristin Urquiza said she struggled to get news about her father’s condition from his doctors and nurses, who were stretched thin by a surge of patients. Sometimes, she said, her family spent hours on the phone with hospital employees, trying desperately to get information. Mark Urquiza died on June 30, four days after entering the intensive care unit. His family never determined how he became infected. A GoFundMe page raised money for his funeral. Kristin Urquiza said that since her father’s death, she has felt like a storm is forming inside her body, preparing to bear down on the desert of her home state. She started an ofrenda, a traditional Mexican display to honor the dead, for her father outside the state capitol. When it was time to write his obituary, Kristin Urquiza said, “there was no question in my mind that I wouldn’t just say the truth.” She has also channeled her rage into a social media campaign called “Marked by Covid,” which uses a play on her father’s name to spread information about covid-19 in hopes of sparing other families similar suffering. She said the Trump administration should create an enforceable federal mask requirement and stop minimizing the advice of its health experts. The nation’s leaders, Kristin Urquiza said, have failed to lead. “This entire tragedy is the fault of a terrible policy,” she said, “and on top of that, inconsistent and embarrassing leadership.”


The college covid-19 mess: It was all so predictable

This week, some universities that decided to reopen campuses during the covid-19 pandemic realized it wasn’t going to work within days of welcoming students back to campus. They announced they were switching to remote learning. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Notre Dame were among them, while other schools that had planned to reopen abruptly changed course. Surprised? Of course you aren’t — because, as Liz Willen, the author of the post below explains, it was all predictable and even preventable. Willen is the editor of the Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. This first appeared on the Hechinger Report’s website, and Willen gave me permission to publish it. NEW YORK — The worst part about watching students pack up to leave one of the country’s largest public universities this week, just days after arriving? Knowing just how predictable — and preventable — all of it was. After videos of maskless college parties went viral, a rapid coronavirus spread on college campuses seemed inevitable. The week in-person classes began, four virus clusters and a rising number of cases at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill left administrators scrambling: They quickly reversed course, announcing that all undergraduate learning would be remote while residence hall occupancy would be reduced. “The current data presents an untenable situation,” a memo sent to students on Monday said. And what of the “die-in” protests by faculty, graduate students and cafeteria workers at the flagship campus, worried about their health? The pleas for safety to come first? Ignored. “You spoke. The university didn’t listen,” proclaimed a scathing editorial in The Daily Tar Heel, the student newspaper, which listed at least nine missteps the school had made in reopening. A later Tar Heel editorial gained attention for its bold and spot-on headline, and noted, “We’re tired of the gaslighting, tired of the secrecy, tired of being treated like cash cows by a University with such blatant disregard for our lives.” In other parts of the country, concerns about bringing students back to campus are growing, even with detailed protocols in place about testing, cleaning and quarantining. The World Health Organization this week warned that young people in many countries are becoming the main drivers of virus spread. Decisions are changing daily. The University of Notre Dame changed course on Tuesday as cases


The Daily 202: Washington's old guard argues Joe Biden would restore American exceptionalism

foreigners taken advantage of them, but he has rejected the notion that the United States is unique from every other country. He has engaged in false moral equivalency, befriended autocrats and said at the United Nations that every country should pursue its own national interests instead of the global interest. Whether threatening to withdraw from NATO or pulling U.S. troops out of Germany, Trumpism represents a repudiation of the bipartisan Washington consensus that has more or less existed since World War II about the imperative of American leadership as a beacon of hope and freedom in a dangerous world. “Joe Biden will be a president we will all be proud to salute,” said former secretary of state Colin Powell, 83, a retired general who served under three Republican presidents and himself seriously considered seeking the GOP nomination. “I support Joe Biden because, on Day One, he will restore America’s leadership and our moral authority. He’ll be a president who knows America is strongest when, as he has said, ‘We lead both by the power of our example and the example of our power.’ He will restore America’s leadership in the world and restore the alliances we need to address the dangers that threaten our nation, from climate change to nuclear proliferation.” A video that played before Powell’s speech featured retired diplomats and generals decrying what they say has happened to America’s moral standing on Trump’s watch. Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine whom Trump recalled from her post and then testified against him during the House impeachment probe, said foreign leaders will respect Biden in ways they do not Trump. “They trust him. They trust his judgment. And they know that his word is good,” she said. Former Republican senator Chuck Hagel (Neb.), who served alongside Biden in the Senate for 12 years and then worked with him as Obama’s defense secretary, accused Trump of “failing the troops” and a “dereliction of duty” by refusing to confront the Kremlin over intelligence that the Russians offered bounties for the killing of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. “Trump has degraded and debased the presidency and our country in the eyes of the world,” Hagel said. Trump has dismissed reports about the Russian program as a “hoax,” even as the administration opened a leak investigation to hunt for the people who disclosed information about what has been described by sources as solid


Misinformation about the coronavirus is thwarting Facebook’s best efforts to catch it

fewer people. And yet, throughout the pandemic, Facebook’s systems have failed to catch viral misinformation. For example, a documentary called “Plandemic,” which claimed that wearing a mask can cause people to develop covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, was shared millions of times before it was removed. The Avaaz study adds to anecdotal evidence that the company is falling short. For example, the group pointed to an article that falsely claimed that the American Medical Association was “encouraging” doctors to overcount deaths from covid-19. The article was fact-checked by two independent fact-checking groups, which found it to be misleading. It received more than 6 million likes and comments, and 160 million estimated views, according to Avaaz. “We share Avaaz’s goal of limiting misinformation, but their findings don’t reflect the steps we’ve taken to keep it from spreading on our services,” said Facebook spokesman Andy Stone. “Thanks to our global network of fact-checkers, from April to June, we applied warning labels to 98 million pieces of covid-19 misinformation and removed 7 million pieces of content that could lead to imminent harm. We’ve directed over 2 billion people to resources from health authorities and when someone tries to share a link about covid-19, we show them a pop-up to connect them with credible health information.” A growing body of research has found that online misinformation about health influences people’s beliefs and behavior. A recent study by King’s College London of 2,000 people in the United Kingdom found that roughly a third thought the coronavirus was cooked up in a lab and that authorities were hiding the true death toll from the virus. Thirteen percent of respondents believed the pandemic was part of a global effort to force people to be vaccinated. People who held these beliefs were more likely to get their news from social media and to violate lockdown rules, the study found. More than a third of Americans say they won’t get a coronavirus vaccine when one is developed, according to a recent Gallup poll. To conduct its study, Avaaz first identified a sample set of 82 websites that have been identified by fact-checkers as sources of health misinformation, both about the coronavirus and other topics. The group then tracked how problematic articles from those sites were shared across Facebook. One big finding, which tracks with other research, is that certain Facebook pages act as “super spreaders” of viral


The Health 202: Democrats say the Postal Service is delaying prescription deliveries, but pharmacies don't agree

has committed nearly $11 billion for development, testing, manufacture and stockpiling of hundreds of millions of doses.” “Covid is now the No. 3 cause of death in the U.S. — ahead of accidents, injuries, lung disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and many, many other causes,” former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Thomas Frieden told CNN. Only heart disease and cancer are killing more people than the virus. Frieden also told CNN that over the past week Americans were eight times as likely to die of covid-19 as Europeans. Some researchers suggest the threshold for herd immunity may be lower than previously predicted. “To achieve so-called herd immunity — the point at which the virus can no longer spread widely because there are not enough vulnerable humans — scientists have suggested that perhaps 70 percent of a given population must be immune, through vaccination or because they survived the infection,” the New York Times reports. “Now some researchers are wrestling with a hopeful possibility.” More than a dozen scientists told Apoorva Mandavilli that the threshold could be as low as 50 percent, based on new statistical models. The reason is that people may have different susceptibility to the virus and different rates of contact with other people. Once the people who are most susceptible and most likely to interact with large numbers of people are infected, it could become harder for the virus to spread. But experts say that this isn’t a reason to let the virus run rampant. The death toll to reach even a lower level of herd immunity would still be extremely high. At this point, Mandavilli writes, “it is not certain that any community in the world has enough residents now immune to the virus to resist a second wave.” Negotiations have been ongoing for more than a year, but with new trial dates approaching, pressure is mounting for parties to reach a settlement in opioid lawsuits. “Around a dozen attorneys general, including those from Florida, Delaware and North Carolina, made their latest settlement demand on a Monday call with the drug companies,” the Wall Street Journal reports. Sources told the newspaper that “the ask includes a collective $21.14 billion from McKesson, AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal, and $5.28 billion from Johnson & Johnson.” Most of the money would go to combating the crisis. The negotiations come as the number of drug overdoses has spiked during the coronavirus pandemic.


One way to solve the shortage of poll workers: Let high school students do the job

with another term in office or to put the incumbents out on the street by transferring power to their successors. Every American election, said White, summons voters to weigh the past against the future. This awesome ritual threatens to become derailed in 2020. Older poll workers worried about covid-19 Even in a year when early voting is likely to set new records, physical polling places remain essential to the election process. General elections demand the greatest staffing and depend on some 600,000 poll workers at more than 200,000 polling places across the nation. Poll workers are often thought of as the linchpin of democracy. These are nonpartisan or at least bipartisan temporary jobs, filled by people who take a few hours of training, set up voting equipment the night before the election, check voter IDs, distribute ballots, and help the elderly or voters with disabilities cast their ballots. The 2016 general election called for more than 900,000 poll workers, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. There’s the rub. In the 2018 election, according to the Commission, 58 percent of poll workers were 61 or older. The Pew Research Center reports that 27 percent of poll workers that year were, in fact, 71 or older. The pandemic threatens all of this. More than half of poll workers are right in the target age group for high risk of covid-19. This year, reports indicate that a shortage of poll workers created significant problems during primary season as older precinct workers worried about becoming infected during the pandemic. Wisconsin had to call out the National Guard to fill vacant poll worker positions during its April primary, according to the Election Assistance Commission, which also reported that while about one-third of jurisdictions typically report difficulty finding poll workers, that number shot up to 70 percent in 2018. Election officials are eying the 2020 general election nervously, wondering whether they will have sufficient numbers of poll workers to function properly, or whether polling places will need to be consolidated to meet the supply of volunteers. High school students can play a role Here’s where high school students can play a role. Most states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, require poll workers to be registered voters — that is, a U.S. citizen at least 18 years old who meets the state’s residency requirements. Youth poll worker programs provide an exception: 46 states


Target’s breakout quarter underscores big-box retailers’ growing footprint

The pandemic has reshaped consumer habits and priorities, leading to skyrocketing fortunes for a handful of retailers and creating a growing divide between big-box stores such as Target, Walmart and Home Depot and the rest of the industry. Quarterly earnings released this week by major retailers paint a picture of shifting spending patterns as consumers spend less on food and essentials, but more on big-ticket items including furniture and electronics. Profits soared by about 80 percent at both Walmart and Target during the second quarter, driven by a surge in online orders. Home sales are up, too, giving a boost to Lowe’s and Home Depot, where profits rose by 74 percent and 25 percent, respectively. All four retailers also reported major spikes in year-over-year sales. Lowe’s led the way with a 30 percent increase in revenue, followed by Target (where sales grew 25 percent), Home Depot (23 percent) and Walmart (6 percent). “There is less panic-buying as we’ve settled into a new normal, but people are spending more on the big-ticket items,” said Deborah Weinswig, chief executive of Coresight Research. “There’s been a realization this isn’t just a temporary situation anymore.” But the gains have hardly been universal. Kohl’s, the midpriced department store chain, for example, posted a 23 percent drop in sales and 80 percent decline in profits this week. “Kohl’s poor results, which stand in contrast to those of Home Depot and Walmart, underscore the discriminatory and uneven impact of the pandemic on retail,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail. “The recovery for some retailers will be prolonged and protracted.” Analysts say the latest round of earnings also underscores the nation’s growing income inequality. Millions are out of work and relying on unemployment benefits and stimulus checks for groceries, while the well-off are working from home, splurging on swimming pools, new TVs and other leisure items. Even when shoppers do spend on clothing, they’re increasingly buying at the two ends of the spectrum: trading down to lower-priced apparel at chains such as Walmart, Target and TJ Maxx or spending at higher-end boutiques and luxury stores, leaving midrange retailers in the lurch. At Target, executives on Wednesday said a rebound in clothing, coupled with increased demand for items such as video games, kitchenware and home decor helped boost sales growth to record levels. The company also reported a 200 percent spike in online sales and a 700


Americans overwhelmingly oppose school reopenings, data finds

and employees wear masks while in school. Meanwhile, 80 percent support staggering schedules, so at no time would all students be physically present, with some attending on some days and times while others attend at other days and times, leaving more room for social distancing. But the policy idea with the highest level of support — backed by fully 90 percent of respondents — is for students to continue learning remotely, from home. Again, though, there are partisan differences, with Republicans less likely to support protective measures — even though significant majorities do. When asked about covid-19 testing for school reopenings, 67 percent of Republicans support it; 76 percent support social distancing within schools; 71 percent support mandatory mask-wearing policies; 69 percent support staggering schedules, and 80 percent support allowing students to continue remotely. We asked respondents how much they trust different political figures to provide accurate information on covid-19. Just over two-thirds (69 percent) expressed “a lot” or at least “some” trust in their city’s mayor. Slightly less than two-thirds (65 percent) extend that level of trust to their state governor. Meanwhile, only 55 percent of respondents said they trusted their local school leaders. Perhaps most interesting, only 24 percent of our sample said they trusted Trump’s information on covid-19. This distrust, though, breaks down along partisan lines, with 72 percent of Republicans saying they trust information from the president compared with just 7 percent of Democrats. Overall, we find while many citizens have strong reservations about schools reopening, that’s especially true among Black Americans, who also worry that remote instruction will cause Black and Latinx students to fall behind. That’s because Black and Latinx parents in our sample are less likely to have access to a desktop computer or laptop, with 19 percent of Black parents and 18 percent of Latinx parents saying they experience difficulty compared with only 8 percent of White parents. As covid-19 deaths continue to climb, it is unsurprising the issue of school reopenings has become contentious. With the economic downturn, many adults feel under pressure to return to work — and many, if not most, working parents rely on schools for daytime child care. Further, many American parents rely on schools to provide mental and physical health services, supervised play and physical activity, free meals, and individualized learning plans, all difficult to replace when those schools are physically closed. At the same times,


Hawaii won’t allow tourists until at least October because of coronavirus surge

Travelers that gambled on planning a trip to Hawaii for later this year may need to rethink their timing. The state has officially delayed its reopening to mainland travelers until at least Oct. 1. The move replaces a program that was set to allow entry with a negative test on Sept. 1 and comes after a recent surge in coronavirus cases that prompted the state to impose quarantine restrictions on inter-island flights between Kauai, Hawaii Island and Maui. All residents and non-tourist visitors will continue to be subject to a mandatory 14-day self-quarantine, according to guidelines. Officials say any potential new reopening date will be announced in advance to allow the islands’ hospitality and tourism staff time to prepare for an influx of visitors. Gov. David Ige (D) made the delay official in a news conference on Tuesday, stating that the state "will continue to monitor the conditions here in Hawaii as well as key markets on the mainland to determine the appropriate start date for the pre-travel [covid-19] testing program.” This is the second time Hawaii has delayed its reopening to out-of-state travelers in 2020, with reopening plans announced in June originally being pushed back to September. “We want to welcome back our visitors once our state is ready to do so in a safe manner that will hopefully avoid the need to backtrack in the future," said Chris Tatum, president and CEO of the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA). "Once we receive details on the process and requirements from the Department of Transportation and the DOH, we will share that information with the visitor industry.” The state has also imposed tighter restrictions on gathering sizes in lieu of a broader shutdown. Hawaii’s current total covid-19 case count is at 5,349, with the highest daily spike in new cases hitting 354 on Aug. 13. The death toll is 41. In the early days of the pandemic, Hawaii was widely lauded for its low covid-19 rate and quick containment strategies, with 900 cases occurring before June. “We cannot deny that Hawaii is seeing a surge in the positive covid-19 cases. ... There are numerous clusters and wide community spread,” Ige said. “With the case count increasing the way it has, it would be very difficult to implement and start the pre-travel testing program on September 1.” Read more: Plane cabins could change dramatically because of the pandemic. Here’s how. 9 uniquely


Coronavirus caseload across Washington region drops to lowest level in a month

a month ago, according to Virginia Department of Health data. Elsewhere in the region, Maryland is “moving in a good direction,” said Neil J. Sehgal, an assistant professor of health policy and management at the University of Maryland School of Public Health. He said he continues to be concerned about Prince George’s County, which has the highest seven-day test positivity rate in the state, although that number reached a low Wednesday of 5.12 percent. The statewide average positivity rate is 3.22 percent. Sehgal said he is particularly concerned about possible infections as the University of Maryland reopens and some students return to campus. The university has announced that classes will be online until mid-September because of the prevalence of the coronavirus in Prince George’s, where the College Park campus is located, and other parts of Maryland. “We’re bringing in students from every state in the country, and what happens when you have an influx of people and you increase the density regionally, you’ll continue to see community spread,” Sehgal said. Leaders in some of Maryland’s most populous jurisdictions are asking Gov. Larry Hogan (R) for detailed information from the state’s contact tracing system, saying the data is critical to their fight to control the novel coronavirus. The mayor of the city of Baltimore and county executives in Montgomery, Frederick, Baltimore, Anne Arundel and Howard counties sent a letter Friday to Hogan asking for information about how long it takes before a person who tests positive is interviewed by a contact tracer. The letter also asked for information about where people are coming into contact with others who are infected with the virus. The local leaders said they also want the state to produce contact tracing data broken down by jurisdiction, instead of the statewide information offered on the Maryland website. “We recognize that aggregated statewide data provides indicators for the state,” the letter reads. “However, our local health departments have epidemiologists who have expertise and knowledge specific to our local communities.” The letter is the latest missive sent from local leaders to Maryland officials over the state’s handling of the pandemic. In July, local health department officers sent a letter to the deputy state health secretary asking the state to consider rolling back reopenings. Hogan released data in July that showed “family gatherings” were the highest-risk type of assemblies, while work places outside the home were the locations that brought


WHO warns young people are emerging as main spreaders of the coronavirus

The World Health Organization warned Tuesday that young people are becoming the primary drivers of the spread of the novel coronavirus in many countries — a worrisome trend experts fear may grow in the United States as many colleges and schools begin to reopen. Many nations in Asia, which had previously pushed infections to enviably low rates, have experienced surges in recent weeks at the same time that the age of those infected skewed younger. “People in their 20s, 30s and 40s are increasingly driving the spread,” Takeshi Kasai, the WHO’s Western Pacific regional director, said at a news briefing on Tuesday. “The epidemic is changing.” More than half of confirmed infections in Australia and the Philippines in recent weeks have been in people younger than 40, WHO officials said, a stark contrast to predominantly older patients from the previous months. In Japan, 65 percent of recent infections occurred in people below age 40. Because symptoms are often milder in the young, Kasai noted, many are unaware they are infected. “This increases the risk of spillovers to the most vulnerable: the elderly, the sick, people in long-term care, people who live in densely populated urban areas and underserved rural areas,” Kasai said. The global health agency’s warnings come amid intense debate in the United States about whether to bring students back to classrooms. So far, at least 168,000 people in the United States have died of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, according to a Washington Post analysis. For colleges and universities, where students in their late teens and 20s live in tight quarters and mingle at off-campus gatherings, the problem has proved particularly vexing. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill confidently reopened campus last week with social distancing measures, including leaving dorms partially vacant and blocking off chairs in lecture halls so students had to sit farther apart. But abruptly, on Monday, the school decided to close again when 177 students tested positive for the virus, as outbreaks sprang up in residence halls and a fraternity house. Other colleges are reporting similarly concerning numbers. On Tuesday, the University of Notre Dame announced that it will halt in-person teaching for at least two weeks after reporting that 147 people had tested positive since Aug. 3. Michigan State University also said Tuesday that it will shift to remote learning for the fall semester after 187 people in surrounding


Kasai said. The global health agency’s warnings come amid intense debate in the United States about whether to bring students back to classrooms. So far, at least 168,000 people in the United States have died of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, according to a Washington Post analysis. For colleges and universities, where students in their late teens and 20s live in tight quarters and mingle at off-campus gatherings, the problem has proved particularly vexing. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill confidently reopened campus last week with social distancing measures, including leaving dorms partially vacant and blocking off chairs in lecture halls so students had to sit farther apart. But abruptly, on Monday, the school decided to close again when 177 students tested positive for the virus, as outbreaks sprang up in residence halls and a fraternity house. Other colleges are reporting similarly concerning numbers. On Tuesday, the University of Notre Dame announced that it will halt in-person teaching for at least two weeks after reporting that 147 people had tested positive since Aug. 3. Michigan State University also said Tuesday that it will shift to remote learning for the fall semester after 187 people in surrounding East Lansing were linked to an outbreak at a college bar in July. At least 189 people at the University of Kentucky have tested positive for the virus since Aug. 3, according to the university’s website, representing a little more than 1 percent of those tested. But public universities in several states are forging ahead with plans to fully reopen campuses, including those in Georgia and Florida, which have among the highest infection rates in the nation. While unwilling to close those campuses, governors in Texas and Florida in recent weeks have instituted limits on bars and alcohol consumption, citing the skyrocketing number of young people who are contracting the virus. The actions came after videos of packed bars and crowded house parties with no partygoers wearing masks put several college towns on high alert. An analysis by Davidson College in North Carolina that examined two public institutions in every state found that 23 planned some kind of in-person instruction. Experts say they are doing so in the face of stark warning signs of a potentially hazardous fall term ahead. California’s public colleges and universities have decided to conduct most classes virtually. Several others, including Brown University and the University


Idaho law barring transgender athletes is blocked by judge, a ‘relief’ for Boise State runner

to ban transgender athletes from competition, including in Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Ohio and Tennessee, where lawmakers have argued that transgender athletes are gaining an unfair advantage in sports at all levels at the expense of cisgender girls and women. House Bill 500 clashes with NCAA policy, which requires one year of hormone treatment to compete on a female team. Advocates and prominent athletes have called for the NCAA to move men’s basketball tournament games scheduled to be played this March in Boise, Idaho’s capital. “The NCAA is working with national and international groups as it reviews its current transgender athlete policy,” NCAA spokeswoman Gail Dent said in a statement provided to The Washington Post before the judge’s ruling. “Inclusion and fairness are the objectives in addressing the complex set of issues. The NCAA Board of Governors will hear an update regarding the policy review at its October meeting as it considers future championship host sites. The NCAA is also monitoring the lawsuit involving Idaho Bill 500 and will review the court’s decision when it is made.” Though Hecox is now eligible to compete under NCAA regulations, it remains unclear when she might be able to try out for the cross-country or track teams at Boise State. The Mountain West Conference, the school’s league, announced this month that it was canceling all fall sports and potentially moving them to the spring because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Hecox said in an interview with The Post in June that she had been in touch with a Boise State assistant cross-country coach this spring and had followed the team’s training regimen throughout the summer to prepare to try out. “I’m just hoping, when it gets closer to the school year, we can all have a conversation about how much it would mean to me to be on the team. I would have to try out and make the team first of all, but I would hope the coaches and athletic directors would welcome me with open arms,” Hecox said in June. “I specifically chose this school out of many colleges because I love the school. I love Boise State.” Read more: An 80-year-old cycling grandma set a world record. Then she was accused of doping. If college football players have complications from coronavirus, expect lawsuits to follow After losing a coach to coronavirus, Texas football team braces for a season of unknowns


In the new Hong Kong, Beijing forges a loyal opposition

March for a discussion on Hong Kong-U.S. relations. The delegation included U.S. officials such as Hanscom Smith, the consul general in Hong Kong, and China-friendly establishment figures such as Regina Ip and Horace Cheung, a lawmaker representing the city’s largest pro-Beijing party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB). Leung, a London School of Economics graduate, said he had hoped to use the trip to understand how U.S. sanctions against Hong Kong would work in practice, after President Trump signed legislation authorizing penalties against officials who undermined the territory’s autonomy. Accountants and Western businesses broadly have expressed concern that sanctions could damage Hong Kong’s viability as a financial center. “I really do not want Hong Kong to be sanctioned. If anyone tries to put sanctions on Hong Kong, including the U.S., it will not be a very welcoming place for businesses,” Leung said in an interview. “It was a bipartisan conference, it was open and transparent, and that’s why I went.” Leung repeated his stance to election officials, who nonetheless disqualified him for not opposing sanctions explicitly enough during the trip and at a subsequent news conference. “Soliciting foreign governments to interfere with the internal affairs of the People’s Republic of China and/or the Hong Kong government, especially by imposing sanctions, is an act endangering national security,” election officials said. While Leung “might not be directly requesting or appealing for” sanctions, they added, “the supporting or assistive role” they asserted he played rendered him unsuitable for office. Leung described their explanation as “total bulls---.” Photos of Cheung from the same trip, taken and publicized by the State Department, were used in campaign brochures for the DAB — placed above a promise to voters that the party can “reflect Hong Kong’s sentiments to the outside world.” Cheung was not disqualified, nor were any hopefuls from his party. Cheung didn’t respond immediately to an emailed request for comment. Besides Leung, election officials disqualified prominent activist Joshua Wong, other young candidates allied with him, and sitting lawmakers including Dennis Kwok and Alvin Yeung of the pro-democracy Civic Party. The reasons given ranged from opposing the national security law to writing opinion pieces in foreign newspapers, all cited as proof that the candidates in question would not be able to uphold Hong Kong’s law. Kwok, a lawyer, was disqualified because the authorities said he would use his position as