Trump administration imposes sanctions on Syria’s Assad, his family and close associates

The Trump administration on Wednesday imposed new sanctions on the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, designed to prevent private and foreign investors from supporting reconstruction and revenue-producing efforts in the war-torn country. The measures were the first implementation of the Caesar Act, passed by Congress last year and named for a pseudonymous photographer who smuggled out thousands of pictures of torture in Assad’s prisons. Together, the Treasury and State departments targeted 39 individuals and entities for new economic and visa restrictions. Many of the measures match or expand sanctions previously enacted by the administration and European allies. “The United States will not stand by while the Assad regime displaces civilians to benefit regime-friendly elites,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. “The Treasury Department will continue to use its tools and authorities to target the Assad regime and its supporters, as they seek to profit off the suffering of the Syrian people.” Many of the Treasury sanctions target private-sector investment in hotel and mall developments, many of them planned on land abandoned by those arrested or fleeing the violence. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that Assad and his wife will be placed under sanctions. This is the first time the United States has taken the step for Asma al-Assad, whom the European Union placed under sanctions in 2012. Pompeo called Asma al-Assad “one of Syria’s most notorious war profiteers.” A senior administration official, one of several who were authorized to brief reporters on the condition of anonymity, said she was involved in “various holding companies” and other activities as “the business head of the family.” The designations also extend to Maher al-Assad, the president’s brother and head of the infamous Fourth Division of the Syrian Arab Army, and Bushra al-Assad, the president’s sister, who resides abroad, as well as other members of the Assad family and the prominent Hamsho family, which has close ties to the government. “As of today, the sanctions provisions of the Caesar Act are fully in effect,” Pompeo said in his statement. “Anyone doing business with the Assad regime, no matter where in the world they are, is potentially exposed to travel restrictions and financial sanctions.” Although Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies have retaken much of the territory initially occupied by opposition forces during the nine-year civil war, it has come at the cost of the destruction of much of the


Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández tests positive for coronavirus

my work through virtual media, through telework.” He said doctors had advised him to rest and that he would continue to be medically evaluated. He planned to isolate himself but continue running the government, he said in a statement. Hernández is just over two years into his second term as president. His government imposed a strict nationwide curfew in mid-March to limit the spread of covid-19; it started reopening the battered economy a week ago. The Central American nation of 9 million has reported 9,656 cases of coronavirus and 330 deaths, according to a database maintained by Johns Hopkins University. The president said his wife, Ana García, and two of his aides have also tested positive for the virus. Hernández has been a deeply controversial president. He won a second term in a 2017 election that was criticized for being plagued with irregularities. He was the target of widespread protests last year led by teachers and doctors angered by planned cuts in government funding. He has also been accused of ties to drug gangs. Hernández’s brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, a former Honduran congressman, was convicted in U.S. court last year of trafficking cocaine. During that trial, U.S. prosecutors alleged that the president took a $1 million bribe in 2013 from Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. In April, U.S. prosecutors alleged that former national police chief Juan Carlos Bonilla coordinated the shipment of tons of cocaine on behalf of Hernández and his brother. The president has denied the accusations. He says they came from untrustworthy informants and he has fought drug cartels. Hernández has retained close ties with the Trump administration, which has valued his cooperation in cracking down on unauthorized migration. Honduras passed legislation last month that allows greater cooperation with the United States against drug trafficking, focusing on deterring private jets that transport cocaine from Venezuela to the Central American country. The president of neighboring Guatemala expressed support for Hernández Wednesday. “I stand in solidarity with the President of Honduras … and the first lady,” Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei tweeted. “I lift up my prayers for your speedy recovery and express to you my consideration, respect and esteem.” Hernández is at least the second head of government worldwide to be infected by the coronavirus. British Prime Mininster Boris Johnson was diagnosed with covid-19 in March and treated in intensive care in May. He has since recovered.


The Cybersecurity 202: How secure are electronic pollbooks and vote reporting tools? This new program aims to find out

report found that the 2016 theft was a result of “woefully lax” security procedures, including sharing passwords for top-level access and only using one authentication procedure to get into systems. Many of the practices defied the standards DHS imposes on other civilian agencies, Wyden points out in a letter to National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe. The letter asks Ratcliffe whether the agency intends to meet 22 cybersecurity recommendations from the intelligence community inspector general. The report itself slams the CIA for making too little progress securing its data The breach of the CIA hacking tools was uncovered only after anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks published the information a year later in March 2017. It was the largest known unauthorized disclosure of classified information in the agency’s history. The operatives behind the “Secondary Infektion” group targeted everyone from French President Emmanuel Macron and former U.S. secretary of state and presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to the World Anti-Doping Agency and Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, Ellen Nakashima and Craig Timberg report . They relied on fake news articles and social media accounts with small followings to spread misinformation. “The claims, detailed in the report by research firm Graphika, were rarely subtle,” Ellen and Craig report. “Clinton in 2016 was dubbed a “MURDERER.” Political rivals were depicted as incompetent or alcoholics. The World Anti-Doping Agency, which barred Russia and many of its athletes from the 2016 Olympics, was falsely accused of colluding with pharmaceutical companies.” Graphika was unable to determine which arm of Russia’s extensive intelligence operations was behind the effort. The operation was less effective than Russia’s Internet Research Agency’s efforts in 2016 to spread misinformation, or the distribution of stolen emails from the Clinton campaign, researchers say. But the scope of the effort and the fact it remained undiscovered so long underscores the scope of Russian disinformation operations that could affect the 2020 contest. “This shows that we are still uncovering blind spots in our understanding of Russian interference and have work ahead of us to make sure we’re properly prepared to defend the 2020 election,” said Camille François, Graphika’s chief innovation officer. “Who are these guys and what are they really trying to achieve: These are questions we’re not currently able to answer. That’s disconcerting.” The international human rights group’s analysis criticized the apps for tracking citizens’ locations in real time and storing that data in a central server where it would be


The Health 202: Some low-income health providers say they’re still shut out of coronavirus relief funds

of Aurora Park — was the other side of the coin. To treat in place requires having effective means of treatment, staff who know how to deploy that treatment and procedures to stop the spread of infection,” Will Englund reports. “When the novel coronavirus pandemic struck, nursing homes did not swamp hospitals with patients. But neither did they prevent the deaths of more than 30,000 of their residents or, in many cases, even provide decent palliative care.” Many facilities were “more or less winging it” when the pandemic hit, he adds. Other homes took a different approach. One nursing home — the Terrace View Long-Term Care Facility in Buffalo — has 390 beds. Four of its residents were infected, and after all were transferred to an affiliated medical enter, one patient died. That’s far fewer deaths than at Absolut Care of Aurora Park, a nursing home with 310 beds which treated patients in place. At the end of May, 153 of its residents were infected and 61 had died. There have been more than 51,000 covid-19-related deaths linked to long-term care facilities across the country. That’s according to an analysis of state data by the Wall Street Journal’s Jon Kamp and Anna Wilde Mathews. Yet nursing homes and such facilities have started easing restrictions and allowing visitors again. “Deaths among senior-care center staff and residents appear to represent at least 40% of the overall count of more than 116,000 U.S. fatalities related to Covid-19 as compiled by Johns Hopkins University,” they report. “The pace of reopening elder-care facilities is uneven around the U.S., with a patchwork of rules that is frustrating some of their operators.” The panel’s chairman, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), sent letters to CMS and the five companies, looking for information related to the management of the pandemic in the facilities, Politico’s Kyle Cheney and Rachel Roubein report. “The panel is probing a wide range of issues, from the scale of the outbreak in the facilities to potential shortages of protective equipment for patients and staff,” they report. “The five companies Clyburn is contacting — Genesis HealthCare, Life Care Centers of America, Ensign Group, SavaSeniorCare and Consulate Health Care — operate more than 850 facilities for 80,000 residents in 40 states. Each has seen outbreaks at multiple facilities, including more than 1,500 across 187 facilities at Genesis HealthCare, according to the committee.” In the letter to


and Anna Wilde Mathews. Yet nursing homes and such facilities have started easing restrictions and allowing visitors again. “Deaths among senior-care center staff and residents appear to represent at least 40% of the overall count of more than 116,000 U.S. fatalities related to Covid-19 as compiled by Johns Hopkins University,” they report. “The pace of reopening elder-care facilities is uneven around the U.S., with a patchwork of rules that is frustrating some of their operators.” The panel’s chairman, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), sent letters to CMS and the five companies, looking for information related to the management of the pandemic in the facilities, Politico’s Kyle Cheney and Rachel Roubein report. “The panel is probing a wide range of issues, from the scale of the outbreak in the facilities to potential shortages of protective equipment for patients and staff,” they report. “The five companies Clyburn is contacting — Genesis HealthCare, Life Care Centers of America, Ensign Group, SavaSeniorCare and Consulate Health Care — operate more than 850 facilities for 80,000 residents in 40 states. Each has seen outbreaks at multiple facilities, including more than 1,500 across 187 facilities at Genesis HealthCare, according to the committee.” In the letter to the homes, Clyburn wrote: “Family members also report that nursing homes have failed to provide timely information about outbreaks and symptoms experienced by their loved ones—sometimes only notifying them of a problem after their loved ones passed away … Such practices unquestionably fall short of the care Americans expect for the most vulnerable amongst us.” They’re warning the campaign event set for Saturday in a nearly 20,000-person indoor arena will become a “super spreader,” the New York Times’s Noah Weiland reports. Bruce Dart, the executive director of the Tulsa health department, called it a “perfect storm that we can’t afford to have.” “Tulsa County, which includes the city of Tulsa, tallied 89 new coronavirus cases on Monday, its one-day high since the virus’s outbreak, according to the Tulsa Area Emergency Management Agency. The number of active coronavirus cases climbed to 532 from 188 in a one-week period, a 182 percent increase; hospitalizations with Covid-19 almost doubled,” Noah reports. The event is particularly risky because the longer people are in a contaminated space, the more virus particles they can inhale. William Schaffner, an infectious-disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, put it bluntly: “That virus, I guarantee you, will be present


The Daily 202: On fifth anniversary of Charleston church shooting, a victim’s husband pursues racial reconciliation

chances of surviving covid-19,” Karla Adam, Lateshia Beachum and Carolyn Johnson report. “It reduced the risk of death for patients on ventilators by a third and cut the risk of death for patients on oxygen by a fifth, heartening news that drew widespread interest and hope. British regulators speedily approved the drug for use in hospitalized patients requiring oxygen … Dexamethasone is a workhorse steroid typically used to treat inflammation, including flare-ups of rheumatoid arthritis, and was given as a tablet, liquid or as an intravenous preparation in the trial. Some other steroids are also being tested against covid-19. Outside physicians tempered their optimism about the news with urgent calls to release details of researchers’ findings so doctors could pore over the data and understand the benefits and limitations of the drug.” “And they usually don’t develop clinical symptoms of covid-19,” Joel Achenbach and Laura Meckler report. “The findings could influence policymakers who are facing tough decisions about when and how to reopen schools and day-care centers. … The study also has implications for the likely disease burden in countries with much younger populations, many of which are in the developing world. Most of the countries hit hardest by the coronavirus have had relatively old populations.” “Scientists who simulated toilet water and air flows say in a new research paper that aerosol droplets forced upward by a flush appear to spread wide enough and linger long enough to be inhaled. The novel coronavirus has been found in the feces of covid-19 patients, but it remains unknown whether such clouds could contain enough virus to infect a person. The authors say the possibility of that mode of transmission calls for action in the midst of a pandemic — first and foremost, by closing the lid,” Karin Brulliard and William Wan report. “The D.C. health department confirmed the problems with samples collected at Judiciary Square and Anacostia testing sites after residents reported delays in receiving test results,” Dana Hedgpeth and Fenit Nirappil report. “Officials say they will hold ‘special testing sessions’ for the affected residents on Wednesday and Thursday. Details of testing sites are available on NeedATestGetATest.com. Health officials say they will take steps to prevent future errors, including adding more refrigeration to testing sites. The news came as the District, Maryland and Virginia reported 841 new coronavirus cases Tuesday, as well as 58 additional fatalities. The new numbers lift the region’s


Halt in ecotourism threatens conservation efforts worldwide

is no coincidence that the destruction of ecosystems has coincided with a sharp increase” in infectious diseases. Added Midori Paxton, head of ecosystems and biodiversity at the United Nations Development Program, “Intact nature gives us air, water and food and serves as a ‘natural vaccine’ to reduce the frequency and intensity of future outbreaks.” Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, investments in nature are in jeopardy as resources are diverted and tourism dollars supporting conservation dwindle. Most world travel destinations have experienced shutdowns as borders have been shut, visas restricted and quarantines enforced to limit the spread of the virus. National parks, game preserves and wildlife sanctuaries in Africa, Asia and beyond have closed. The closures have led to reduced protection for wildlife and lost incomes as rangers, guides, drivers, cooks, animal caregivers and others have been let go. The U.N. World Tourism Organization estimates a decline of international tourism of 60 to 80 percent by the end of the year compared with 2019, with trillions of dollars and millions of jobs lost. “The biggest concern in the short term is continued investment in ecotourism and rural areas to make up for lost revenue streams and jobs,” said Johan Robinson of the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP), noting that the global cutbacks due to covid-19 could last a year or more. The collapsed tourism economy adds new stressors on top of ongoing challenges from vanishing habitats to climate change to human encroachment. Already, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the U.N. Development Program have reported an increase in natural-resources exploitation and illegal killings of wild animals and threatened species. In Costa Rica, a new ecotourism initiative to help conserve the once-common white-lipped peccary — similar to a wild boar — has seen few visitors. Meanwhile, the white-lipped peccaries are increasingly endangered due to hunting of the large animals and deforestation. In Namibia, a cheetah conservation center can no longer rely on tourist visits to help fund operations. In Gabon in March, the government closed its great-ape parks to tourists due to covid-19, as have other African countries. The closures have drained funds from efforts to protect critically endangered gorillas and other great apes. In Sumatra, ecolodges can’t provide their usual support to a sanctuary for nearly extinct Sumatran rhinos and a nearby elephant hospital. In the wading pools, swamps, marshes and rainforests of northern Cambodia, tourists used


If China wants a better relationship with the U.S., it must behave better

“deranged” and “the public enemy of mankind.” Open diplomatic channels are positive, and there was no reason for Pompeo to refuse the meeting. But based on the official readouts, it’s clear no progress was made. The State Department’s statement said the two leaders “exchange[d] views” and Pompeo stressed the need for China to stop its unfair practices in the commercial, security and diplomatic sectors. “He also stressed the need for full transparency and information sharing to combat the ongoing covid-19 pandemic and prevent future outbreaks,” the statement said. Beijing still won’t come clean with what it knows about the origins of the virus, won’t share early virus samples and won’t publish honest statistics about its own outbreak. A report this week by Republican members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee details how Beijing’s deliberate coverup made the pandemic worse from the beginning to this day. “This was a failure of monumental proportions and it is imperative that we uncover the truth so we can set up future safeguards to prevent this from happening yet again,” ranking Republican Michael McCaul (R-Tex.) said in a statement. Pompeo raised this issue not to score points or insult China, but because Beijing’s misbehavior related to covid-19 continues to contribute to the deaths of Americans. Beijing constantly says we should cooperate on shared interests. But if China won’t cooperate honestly on a pandemic, what exactly can we cooperate on? According to China’s foreign ministry “Yang pointed out that he hoped China and the U.S. would be accommodative to each other . . . and push their bilateral relations to the track of coordination, cooperation and stability,” said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian. Beijing’s pattern is familiar: insult or attack anyone who criticizes Beijing’s bad actions, decry the high state of tensions and then offer to go back to business as usual without offering to do one thing differently. But this time, there is no returning to business as usual. As Pompeo and Yang talked, Trump signed a bill authorizing sanctions on Chinese officials for their internment of Uighurs. China’s foreign ministry called it a “malicious attack” on China’s internal affairs. If John Bolton’s book is to be believed, Trump told Xi he supported these camps, which is awful if true. But the bill passed the House 413 to 1 and passed the Senate by unanimous consent. Washington’s opposition to mass atrocities is bipartisan, and


‘It’s very discouraging’: America’s new $600 billion rescue program for small businesses is off to a rocky start

On Monday, the Fed announced that banks could start registering to participate in the program. On Tuesday, Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell told a Senate panel there was “substantial interest” from banks in taking part in Main Street loans. But the banking community is less enthusiastic. “We have limited interest from community banks nationwide,” said Paul Merski, executive vice president for the Independent Community Bankers of America. “It’s a very challenging and complex program.” Some of America’s biggest banks — JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo — told The Washington Post they plan to participate, but they have yet to update their websites. Wells Fargo’s website still says the bank is “encouraged by the intent of the program.” JPMorgan’s website directs customers to the Fed’s website. Bank of America doesn’t mention the Main Street program on its small-business lending Web page. Federal Reserve officials say it’s too early to suggest the program is in trouble. They say it takes a few days to register banks and, probably next week, loan applications will begin across the nation. “It’s still early days in the program,” said Joel Werkema, a spokesman for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, which is overseeing the program. “We are seeing a steady stream of interest, with banks large and small initiating registration since Monday." There are two major concerns about the Main Street Lending Program: First, that not enough banks will participate, and second, that not many small and midsize businesses will want the loans because the terms are too onerous. “Banks and businesses to date are showing little interest in the existing program," former top Fed staffers William B. English and Nellie Liang wrote in a paper released Thursday by the Brookings Institution. "Banks generally say that these are loans they would make anyhow. Potential borrowers say the loans are too expensive and burdensome.” The minimum loan size at the moment is $250,000, making it too big for a lot of small businesses. Community bankers have urged the Fed to lower the minimum amount to $100,000. Businesses also have to submit a lot more paperwork to get a Main Street loan, more than they did for the popular Paycheck Protection Program. One bank executive, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said that out of hundreds of thousands of clients, only about 1,000 had inquired about the


Huawei chip unit short-circuited Trump’s sanctions. Then it got burned.

the sale of U.S. technology not only to Huawei, but also HiSilicon’s suppliers and the suppliers of those suppliers. “For HiSilicon, it’s really a big hit,” Linda Sui, a director at research firm Strategy Analytics, said of the new sanctions. “Nobody can bypass U.S. technology.” A smartphone chipset looks unassuming — a small, black square — but it reflects the limit of how small and precise humans can draw a pattern. In high-end smartphone chips, each transistor, or switch, is so small that more than 10,000 of them, end to end, would still be less than the thickness of a sheet of paper. Each new generation must be smaller yet. To cope with the crushing research costs, companies and nations decided decades ago to specialize. Today, a few companies flatten sheets of pure silicon into near-perfectly flat surfaces, while several others make machines that draw microscopic patterns with beams of light. Other companies make software to design the circuit paths, and yet other companies construct the chips in rooms so clean the air is free of dust. These specialized suppliers are now being told to pick between the United States or China, resulting in a profound remapping of the global semiconductor supply chain. A number have chosen the United States in recent weeks, deepening Beijing’s urgency to develop its own suppliers. For instance, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. — which manufactures cutting-edge chips for Huawei as well as Apple and other leading brands — said earlier this month it will follow the U.S. sanctions, leaving HiSilicon in the lurch. Semiconductor fabrication plants, or fabs, like TSMC have little choice but to abide by the U.S. sanctions, as they rely on U.S. suppliers to operate, said Dan Wang, a technology analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics. “Any modern semiconductor fab requires U.S.-origin equipment,” he said. Huawei has been quiet on the new sanctions, beyond a statement in May saying its business would be “inevitably affected.” It declined last week to comment further. HiSilicon was formally established in 2004, on the heels of a major humiliation for Huawei. Cisco Systems had sued Huawei the previous year, alleging its Chinese rival had copied and pasted some of its router code for use in its own cheaper products. The case was settled out of court, but Huawei’s reputation was battered. Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, came close to selling his company to Motorola in 2003, believing a U.S.


The Health 202: Black patients are less likely to face discrimination from black doctors

York City last weekend (which was outdoor). “McEnany refused to answer whether the administration thought indoor events and outdoor protests carried the same amount of risk of coronavirus transmission,” Politico’s Max Cohen reports. ”She also declined to answer when asked which health experts the White House had consulted about conducting rallies this summer.” For some patients it means days or weeks on a ventilator, while others experience no symptoms at all. “Among their lines of inquiry: Are distinct strains of the coronavirus more dangerous? Does a patient’s blood type affect the severity of the illness? Do other genetic factors play a role? Are some people partially protected from covid-19 because they’ve had recent exposure to other coronaviruses?” Joel Achenbach, Karin Brulliard and Ariana Eunjung Cha report. Here’s what scientists do know: Covid-19 is more likely to be worse for people over the age of 60. It’s worse for people with chronicle health conditions, including diabetes, lung disease and heart disease. Edward Behrens, chief of the rheumatology division at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, called the disease’s variability “the most critical question about covid.” National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins highlighted one potential breakthrough on his blog, noting that scientists developed a tool to sort patients’ blood, finding 22 proteins that appeared repeatedly among severely ill patients. That kind of information could be useful, if blood tests and analysis are done early to determine what patients are most at risk of becoming very sick. There are also other new theories related to genetics, obesity and differences in immune system, they add. OUCH: There is no official tally of the number of health-care workers who have died of the coronavirus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says more than 77,800 have tested positive and more than 400 have died. But the agency admits that’s is too low. The nation’s largest nurses union, National Nurses United, lists the number of health-care worker deaths at 939, based on information from its chapters, obituaries and social media. “And those may be just the first casualties, with new coronavirus cases surging in parts of the South and the Far West and the possibility of a second wave of the pandemic in the fall,” Ariana, Kent Babb and Brittany Shammas report. “Co-workers of those who’ve died have been left to deal not just with grief but a mix of anger, frustration and fear. Heath care, after


Mexico’s president has given up in the fight against the coronavirus

On June 13, as Mexico surpassed 17,000 pandemic-related deaths and the country’s novel coronavirus contagion curve showed no signs of turning downward, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador released a video with what he called “a decalogue to emerge from coronavirus and face the new reality.” The video, recorded in one of the grand hallways inside the National Palace, showed López Obrador at his most vacuous. There were no mention of serious public policies or new health measures to contain the pandemic, much less any announcement of urgent economic assistance. Instead, López Obrador offered a litany of banalities. In the video, the president suggested Mexicans should try “to be happy” and remain “optimistic.” They must “reject selfishness” and “consumerism.” They should go out, “be free” and “enjoy the sky, the sun and fresh air.” López Obrador also recommended eating beans and corn (“that blessed plant”) and tells citizens to consider raising chickens in their backyards, a custom he laments has been lost to modernity. Finally, he says, people should look for an ideal, “a utopia.” “We will only be happy if we are good,” he preaches, pausing on every word. This was not his first “decalogue.” In February, he reacted to growing outrage against gender violence with a similar list that included statements like “women should be respected” or “those who attack women should be punished.” But Saturday’s sermon should not be dismissed as just another ill-advised attempt to replace public policy with demagoguery. Behind López Obrador’s “respectful” advice to the Mexican people lies a darker truth: He has chosen to leave Mexicans to fend for themselves. This should come as no surprise. Over the last few months, López Obrador utterly abandoned his responsibility in the fight against covid-19. He irresponsibly downplayed the risks of the pandemic, much like others with similar populist dispositions. He also ignored the most basic social distancing and hygiene norms. In true Trumpian fashion, he still refuses to wear a face mask, even when others around him comply (Hugo López-Gatell, Mexico’s coronavirus tsar, has inexplicably also refused to endorse masks as mandatory). López Obrador dismissed his own health experts’ quarantine timeline to embark in a series of unnecessary public appearances. Perhaps under the messianic impression that he could end a pandemic by decree, he has repeatedly announced the end of the threat, even when Mexico’s caseload kept climbing. On Sunday, in a different video, he


Beijing’s new coronavirus outbreak carries an urgent message for the world

Want smart analysis of the most important news in your inbox every weekday, along with other global reads, interesting ideas and opinions to know? In much of Beijing, life had returned to something like normal weeks ago. Then Beijing announced Thursday its first domestically transmitted coronavirus case in 55 days — a 52-year-old man surnamed Tang. Tang told officials that he had not left the city in more than two weeks and had not been in contact with anyone outside the city. Authorities soon discovered dozens more cases, mostly linked to a sprawling market in Beijing’s southeast. On Saturday, it reimposed strict “wartime” measures to prevent a second wave of infections. Residents, taken aback by a partial lockdown in the city, described something akin to deja vu. “Two months of things loosening up, and life feeling like it’s going to be normal, and all of a sudden we’re back to where we were in February,” Nelson Quan, restricted to a compound in the Yuquan district, told Al Jazeera. The number of cases remains small for a city of 22 million. But authorities are taking few chances: 1,200 flights in and out of Beijing’s two airports were canceled on Wednesday. Schools closed just a month after reopening. Since Tang’s case was announced, the city claims to have tested more than 3.5 million people. In the weeks before this outbreak, Chinese officials had spoken proudly of their success in containing the coronavirus, suggesting China could be a model for others to follow. But the new cases show that model may be much more fragile than it first appeared. The new cases in Beijing raise worrying questions — not only about how the virus could have gotten to Xinfadi market, which is the obvious concern, but also about whether livestock or even fish carry the virus. Chinese officials said the virus could have been circulating near the market since April. One thing is painfully clear: This pandemic is far from over. Beijing is battling a second wave, but other nations are not yet over their first. In the United States, Vice President Pence wrote in the Wall Street Journal’s opinion section this week that the media got it wrong: The United States was not facing a second wave of infections, it was “winning the fight against the invisible enemy.” Numerous experts, including Anthony S. Fauci, America’s top infectious-disease official, contradict that assessment. “I


Trump would rather embrace an alleged murderer than have Ivanka face scrutiny

Jamal Khashoggi walked into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in October 2018 to obtain documents for his coming wedding. His fiancee was waiting outside. He never emerged. He was drugged and dismembered, cut apart with a bone saw. No part of him has been seen since. He was erased from the Earth by agents of the Saudi Arabian government acting, American intelligence officials believe, on the orders of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Khashoggi lived in the United States and worked for this newspaper. His murder was a brazen and ostentatious act, a statement from the Saudi government about its views of an open press and its ability to strike at its enemies anywhere in the world. President Trump’s response to the killing has been consistently sympathetic — not to Khashoggi and the principles of government accountability, but to the crown prince and the Saudis. He repeatedly insisted Khashoggi’s death shouldn’t put at risk more than $100 billion in arms sales — a figure that was wildly inflated. It was an unexpected response from an American president, if not an entirely unexpected one from Trump. A few weeks after Khashoggi vanished, after it had been established by the intelligence community that the crown prince — or MBS, as he’s known — bore culpability for the death, Trump released an unexpected statement defending the Saudis’ foreign policy efforts. “The world is a very dangerous place!” it began. After touting those arms deals, he lamented Khashoggi’s death. Then, an unstated “however.” “Representatives of Saudi Arabia say that Jamal Khashoggi was an ‘enemy of the state’ and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood,” the statement read, “but my decision is in no way based on that — this is an unacceptable and horrible crime.” “King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman vigorously deny any knowledge of the planning or execution of the murder of Mr. Khashoggi,” it continued. “Our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information, but it could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event — maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!” “That being said, we may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi,” it went on. “In any case, our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.” Again, there was no obvious prompt for the statement. No obvious urgency demanding Trump step up to cast doubt


Vermont borders states with major covid-19 outbreaks, but you won’t find that here

practice. “Social distance? Oh, okay,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Geez, I’ve been doing that now for a year. It was way ahead of the covid thing.” Some warn that Vermont’s numbers — like the rest of the world’s — were never an accurate picture of the virus’s reach because of an early shortage of test kits, perhaps creating the false impression that the coronavirus skipped them. The state says there are no covid cases in Guilford, a town of 2,100 people less than an hour’s drive from the state-run veterans home in Holyoke, Mass., where at least 74 people died. But word travels in a small town: The manager of the country store had heard of at least five suspected cases; a local organic farmer knew of a sixth. “We’re living proof,” said Amit Sharma, 43, confirming that his family of five had suspected the coronavirus in March, but only one member was tested — and tested positive. Others felt sick, but Sharma said a nurse at the local hospital said there weren’t enough tests to go around. The overwhelmingly white state also did not initially track cases by race and ethnicity, spurring calls from the state’s NAACP chapter to collect the information. Once Vermont began tracking the data, it showed worrisome disparities. African Americans are just 1.4 percent of the state’s population in the census, but the Vermont Department of Health said Friday they account for 7.8 percent of coronavirus infections, or 86 cases. In Ira, a landlocked town surrounded by communities with covid-19 cases just over the New York state border, residents say they took precautions because that’s how it is in Ira: People take care of each other. Volunteers fight fires, plant one another’s vegetable gardens and clear fallen trees from roofs after a storm. “People here are very sensible. They’re very kind,” said Sara Meling, 74, a retired marketing executive. “There’s a huge sense of community even though we don’t have a downtown. People leave you alone, but if your car is in a ditch, they’re there in seconds.” Vanquishing the coronavirus made it all the sweeter when the townspeople reunited for the state’s annual “Green Up Day” in late May to pick up litter from the roadside. They gathered in a drizzle outside Town Hall. Everyone wore masks. And they replaced the potluck with bottles of water and chips. A sign out front said


D.C. street closures possible Friday, into weekend as part of planned demonstrations

D.C. police Thursday announced possible street closures and restrictions for downtown Washington ahead of expected demonstrations Friday and into the weekend. Several events are planned Friday tied to Juneteenth, the celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. Police said other demonstrations are expected into the weekend — the third consecutive weekend that streets in the downtown area might see closures amid daily protests over police violence. Police said intermittent closures are possible Friday, Saturday and Sunday as needed, although day-long closures weren’t expected. In the downtown area, street closures are possible south of L Street NW, roughly between 18th and 12th streets NW. South of E Street on and near the Mall, the closures roughly extend to Independence Avenue SW between 17th and Third streets. Vehicles will be allowed for essential business or traveling to and from a residence, police said. Officials warned drivers to expect delays, saying they might need to use alternate routes.


Bureau of Prisons riot-control teams suspend exercises after incidents

The Bureau of Prisons said Thursday that it is halting exercises by its riot-control squads until it can put new safety measures in place in the wake of incidents in which prison staffers were injured. The decision comes amid increasing public scrutiny of the Bureau of Prisons, which deployed Special Operations Response Teams, or SORTs, to help quell unrest in the nation’s capital in recent weeks over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and other instances of police misconduct. A memorandum issued Thursday by Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz said recent incidents involving SORT exercises were dangerous for other prison staffers. As a result, the Bureau of Prisons decided to “issue guidance to suspend mock exercises” until new safety guidelines are in place, according to a statement from the agency. The two exercise incidents occurred last year, according to the memorandum. In one, a SORT member deployed a stun grenade, or “flash bang,” that “hit a staff member role player and detonated, causing significant injury requiring surgery and ongoing treatment,” according to the memorandum. A review of the incident found that the officers were not supposed to be using that type of munition. In the second mock exercise, SORT members forced their way into a locked room in which there were two prison staffers with medical conditions who were not involved in the exercise. The SORT members allegedly pepper-sprayed the room and fired a projectile that struck a staff member in the chest. That led to a physical altercation, “including pushing and shoving, between SORT members and the uninvolved staff members,” the memorandum said. The inspector general found that “inappropriate and dangerous events” occurred during the two exercises because of “inadequate policies” at the Bureau of Prisons. The agency has come under public scrutiny over the use of prison riot teams to deal with protesters on the streets of Washington, many of them in gear that made it hard to identify who they were or what agency they were with. The Bureau of Prisons said it would implement the inspector general’s recommended changes, which include designating a safety officer for any exercises, recording the exercises and drafting clearer rules to govern such exercises.


The Trump administration is moving to restrict international students. Why that’s a bad idea.

The number of international students in the United States fell about 2 percent in the 2018-2019 academic year — and that was before the covid-19 pandemic closed borders and shut down most international air travel. Now a steeper drop is likely not only because of covid-19 but also because of Trump administration moves to restrict the ability of foreign students to study in the United States. The administration is ramping up restrictions on visas for Chinese students — the majority of international students here — and is considering cutting or eliminating a work-study program for foreigners. International students pour billions of dollars every year into the U.S. economy. Furthermore, educators say students from other countries bring important diversity to campuses. In this post, Kendra Sharp, professor of humanitarian engineering at Oregon State University, explains why administration policies making it harder for international students to study here will wind up hurting not only the students and schools affected but also the United States. Sharp is also a senior adviser to the provost for international affairs at Oregon State University. Against the backdrop of covid-19 and widespread protests decrying racism and police brutality, the Trump administration is ramping up restrictions on visas for Chinese students to study in the United States. The administration is also considering pausing or ending the post-study optional practical training (OPT) work program for international students in this country. And Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) recently introduced legislation in the Senate that, if passed, would put a temporary but open-ended hold on the issuance of visas to new Chinese students. These are but the most recent federal actions threatening our ability to attract, retain, and benefit — both intellectually and economically — from international students and scholars. Neither the U.S. higher education system nor our economy can afford to lose these students who help drive our innovation, global competitiveness, and ability to prepare our domestic students to work in an increasingly globalized workplace. In 2019, 1.1 million international students enrolled in U.S. institutions of higher education representing over 5 percent of the total. Chinese students comprised one-third. At my own institution, our 3,400 international students make up 11 percent of our student body. The organization known as NAFSA: Association of International Educators, estimates the contribution to the U.S. economy from international students studying at U.S. colleges and universities at $41 billion and the creation of almost 460,000 jobs. State


Beijing cuts flights, shuts schools as new coronavirus cases raise alarm

China is moving rapidly to seal off its capital of 22 million residents by canceling flights and trains amid growing fears that a potential second wave of the novel coronavirus is gathering strength in Beijing and could spread to the rest of the country. Authorities on Wednesday canceled 1,200 flights in and out of Beijing’s two airports and sharply reduced long-distance bus services. Beijingers were banned from making nonessential trips outside the city and required to take nucleic tests before they leave, municipal officials said at a briefing where they announced 31 new cases of the coronavirus. While Beijing’s case numbers are low by global standards, they are vexing Chinese authorities who had touted their success in quickly stamping out the coronavirus and had taken pains to ensure it would not infect the seat of the ruling Communist Party. Government officials announced “wartime” measures on Saturday after dozens of cases were discovered at the Xinfadi wholesale market in southwest Beijing, which carried worrying echoes of the original outbreak in Wuhan late last year. In the days since, Beijing has steadily reintroduced stricter measures, potentially foreshadowing the difficulty that many governments could face in warding off future waves of the virus. After classes resumed just a month ago, Beijing’s schools were again shut on Wednesday, as were some gyms, swimming pools and public attractions. The city raised its emergency response to the second-highest level, and entry and exit checkpoints and temperature checks returned to neighborhoods in the city center. The scenes were reminiscent of those during the outbreak’s peak in February and March, albeit with less-strict lockdown measures. The risk of people in Beijing traveling in and out of the city and spreading infections countrywide is “severe,” acknowledged Chen Bei, Beijing’s deputy party chief. “We need to take decisive action . . . resolutely control this gathering epidemic and resolutely curb its spread inside and outside the city,” Chen said. Officials said Beijing has tested about 356,000 people since Saturday, underscoring the extent of their concern. Adding to a sense of frustration with the virus’s reemergence, Chinese experts said it may have been lurking undetected for weeks. “The Beijing outbreak very likely didn’t start in June, or May, but a month before that,” Gao Fu, head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters in Shanghai. “There can only be so many cases around us now if there


A travel writer contemplates a less mobile future

self-interrogation. I discovered that tourism, along every stage of the supply chain, accounts for 8 percent of all global carbon emissions. I calculated that, over the past decade, my flights alone have melted a tennis-court-sized chunk of polar ice. And I came to understand that, in the absence of radical and discriminatory policies such as punitive flight taxes and a new age of cultural protectionism, all of these problems are destined to get worse. Before the coronavirus interrupted the trajectory, the United Nations forecast that global tourist arrivals will grow 30 percent, to around 2 billion per year, by the end of 2030. A few months later, a global pandemic was supercharged by this same hypermobility, as a novel virus hitched a ride from China’s Hubei province and spread to every corner of the world. Inevitably, the travel industry was the first of our freedoms to feel the pinch, as governments scrambled to stifle viral transmission from overseas. In places where the first wave of infection has subsided, it looks as though a surreal shadow of the summer holiday season, enabled by so-called “travel bubbles,” will return. But if, as many have been tempted to postulate, this virus can be seen as a karmic distress signal — an envoy from the future betraying the fragility of our globalized society — the question lingers: Should we be preparing for a life less mobile? During lockdown, I’ve been thinking a lot about whether a more sedentary life need necessarily be a more boring one. One of the curious things about spending a lot of time on the road is that you eventually reach a stage where the magic wears thin. You can only see your first equatorial sunset, first wild elephant or first Himalayan peak, once. After that, as you tend to push further afield in pursuit of that increasingly fugitive taste of awe and stimulation, it’s sometimes tempting to view travel as an act of diminishing returns. Profound questions begin to surface. Do we really need to cross the world to sate our curiosity? How can we justify regular trips abroad if those trips are contributing to the ruination of the planet we profess to covet? In the weeks that I spent in isolation with my family, going out sparingly, leavening the boredom with books and home improvements, camping with the kids in the garden, I found myself wondering whether I


After Aunt Jemima was retired, companies are rethinking Uncle Ben, Cream of Wheat and Mrs. Butterworth’s

images connote racist tropes, even as the companies tried throughout the years to modernize them. “You see servile black folks who are content, if not happy, to serve whites,” he said. Their names, particularly the use of “aunt” and “uncle,” hark back to times when whites would not bother to address black people by their full names, he said. Until this week, change had come slowly for these brands. The mascots of these brands have undergone various makeovers over the years: A short-lived campaign in 2007 depicted Uncle Ben as an executive at the company bearing his name. Aunt Jemima was given a new look in 1989, with pearl earrings and a lace collar in place of her headscarf. Few of the changes, Pilgrim said, have been meaningful. Years ago, the Aunt Jemima brand contacted him to solicit ideas for ways to update the character, he said. The ideas he suggested included depicting the character eating, which he thought would send a subtle but powerful message that she was not just cooking for others. “There’s something communally beautiful when you’re sharing a meal, as opposed to making a meal and then standing in the kitchen,” he said. His ideas weren’t adopted. The swift succession of moves by these food companies threw into contrast the few major national brands remaining on supermarket shelves whose names or mascots have provoked controversy. Chiquita Banana, whose mascot is a Carmen Miranda-esque figure stereotypical of Latin culture, did not respond to an emailed query. Although much of the reaction to the news on social media was met with some version of “what took so long?,” others expressed dismay at the apparent demise of the long-standing characters. Chambers says some white people might greet the news defensively, and he allowed that many people have “irrational” attachments to certain brands. “If you tell me a brand represents stereotypes and racism, then I might read that as an attack on me,” he says. “And I’m like, ‘I’m not racist.’ ” But he says it is often a matter of perspective: “You might have the latitude to see it as just pancake mix, so hey, you enjoy your pancake mix.” More from Voraciously: How to host a get-together as safely — and graciously — as possible Amid accusations of discrimination, Bon Appétit staff vows to ‘dismantle racism’ Black chefs have overcome countless obstacles. This might be the hardest yet.


In pandemic, travel pros repurpose their gear to entertain kids, haul groceries and stay comfy

from trips to Bali, Fiji and Tahiti to wrap around his face for protection. Wayne Hubbard He’s approaching each day like an adventure, dressing in outdoorsy apparel and carrying his camera bag — retrofitted with coronavirus necessities such as hand sanitizer — everywhere. “Now I’m like this urban garden guy,” he says, laughing. “I’m out there, wearing my drywick clothes that I would never normally wear at home, laying on the ground photographing plants in my new garden and rabbits in the grass.” By continually taking photos, he says, “I’m still discovering.” [What’s it like to go on vacation during a pandemic? I went to a newly reopened resort to find out.] Nikki Vargas At a time when hugs are off-limits and stress is high, we might be inclined to pull comforting items closer. Despite living in Hawaii, I gravitated toward gear meant for warmth during the start of the pandemic — wearing my cozy wool mountaineering socks around the apartment and hiding out under an oversize shawl I had brought from Jordan. Edwards says she’s been snuggling up on the couch with her camping blanket — an item that she had previously used only in her travels. And Bruce Poon Tip, the founder of G Adventures, is finding comfort in jogger-style pants. “Pre-lockdown, they were strictly for flights, and they would be squirreled away as soon as I landed,” he writes via email. “But, they are all I have worn since March.” Lola Akinmade Akerström, a travel writer and National Geographic photographer, says her children have also been wearing an item typically used only in-flight: the airline eye masks. “Here in Sweden as we’re heading into the summer, we sometimes get 16 to 20 hours of sunlight so my kids have started using the airplane’s eye covers,” she writes via email. Before the pandemic, blackout curtains would suffice, but now that her children are unable to travel, Akerström explains, they’ve started using the eye masks to re-create the feeling of sleeping on an airplane. “There are certain things you use that are ingrained in who you are,” Edwards says. Even if she’s not using her travel items in the same way as she would on the road, “I can pick up any of them and connect a time, a story and a place to them,” she says. “So it’s natural to want to use them. It makes me feel


Macron visits London in first foreign trip since covid-19 lockdown

LONDON — French President Emmanuel Macron was in London on Thursday for his first foreign trip since late February, as Europe begins to reopen borders that were shuttered to control the coronavirus pandemic. The primary purpose of the visit was to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Charles de Gaulle’s historic radio broadcast from London on June 18, 1940, when he sounded the first call for French resistance to Nazi Germany in World War II. Macron’s crossing of the English Channel was heavy with ceremony. There were flyovers, first in Paris and then in London, performed by the French air force’s Patrouille de France and the Royal Air Force’s Red Arrows. But some of the pomp was punctured by the need to be mindful of social distancing guidelines. Britain’s Prince Charles greeted Macron with a namaste gesture during a commemorative event at Carlton Gardens, near a statue of de Gaulle. Prime Minister Boris Johnson awkwardly directed the French leader to stand on the opposite side of a red carpet during a photo call outside 10 Downing Street. Johnson Johnson, 55, battled the virus for weeks and spent several nights in an intensive care unit. Charles, 71, said this week that he has not fully recovered his sense of smell since getting the virus in March, the BBC reported. His meet-and-greet with Macron, which included a cup of English tea, marked his first face-to-face engagement with a world leader in months. But such meetings are becoming possible again in Europe. Even as coronavirus cases are rising around the world and several U.S. states are seeing spikes in infections, Europe seems to have brought its outbreak under control. The continent hasn’t seen a resurgence after nearly a month of loosened lockdown restrictions in certain countries. On Monday, France joined much of Europe in officially reopening its borders. The French Foreign Ministry no longer requires a 14-day quarantine for most new arrivals from within the European Union, and France will gradually reopen its borders to travelers from outside the E.U. starting July 1. But Britain, which has seen the highest death toll in Europe, has lagged behind its neighbors in lifting restrictions. It requires a two-week quarantine for most people coming into the country. Macron’s delegation had to receive a special dispensation to enter for Thursday’s short visit. There was no indication after Thursday’s meeting that the British government would revisit its quarantine policy


Iraqi hospitals become nexus of infection as coronavirus cases rise dramatically among doctors

sleeping. In the coming weeks, we’ll see the impact of that,” Hussein said. A doctor named Yasser said that he was one of the first medical professionals in Iraq to contract the novel coronavirus. He quickly got tested and took time off from work at a hospital in Sadr City, a suburb of Baghdad, to fight the disease, his body convulsing as he struggled for breath. “But now it’s all wrong,” he said. “My doctor friends who get it now wait 10 days for test results, even though they know they have it. The management doesn’t care about our safety, they just care that the staff is working.” He spoke on the condition that his family name not be used because he fears reprisal from hospital authorities. Iraq’s Health Ministry has yet to publicly disclose the number of medical staff who have fallen ill. But it announced on social media Thursday that Haider Hashim al-Maksusi, a nurse working in the capital’s largest hospital complex, had died of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Maksusi was pictured in his dark blue scrubs, pen in pocket and mask around his neck. Poor medical infrastructure, shortages of personal protective equipment and public skepticism about the severity of the threat are all to blame for the increasing cases across Iraq, doctors and health officials say. “We’re fighting a war with faulty weapons,” said Ibrahim, a doctor in Baghdad’s Hussainiya hospital. He also spoke on the condition that his family name be withheld. “I dreamed all my life of being a doctor. I regret that now.” Ibrahim said he had seen colleagues contract the coronavirus and heard of about 80 others. He said his cousin, a doctor in the eastern province of Diyala, died in March, begging for an ambulance to take him back to a facility that would treat him. Iraq’s hospital wards are no strangers to battles. During a bloody sectarian war that peaked in 2007, they received bombing victims most days. The Islamic State brought more carnage still. But this time, the enemy is different, and as its spread challenges public health experts around the globe, many in Iraq worry it could bring an already staggering health system to its knees. The virus started slowly here. As neighboring Iran became the regional epicenter of the epidemic, reporting more than 3,000 cases a day for almost a week by the end of


Eye care comes into focus during coronavirus

What is it about the eyes that have prompted the repeated coronavirus warnings? Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned again and again. Wear a face mask, which may be effective because they remind you not to touch your face and eyes, among other things. Or use face shields, if you are a health-care worker. “If someone sneezes in your face or if you touch a contaminated surface and then rub your eye,” says Jessica Belser, a microbiologist at the CDC, you risk getting the novel coronavirus in your eyes. You want to protect your eyes from respiratory viruses for two main reasons. There is a direct connection between the eyes and the nasal passages, which can lead to respiratory infection. And viruses can infect the eyes themselves, which is called conjunctivitis — or pinkeye. Eyes have natural protective mechanisms such as tears to wash irritants away and immune mediators to combat threats that hang around. But viruses can take advantage of the eye in a couple of ways. They can bind to proteins in the eye, which are similar to those in the lining of the nose and throat. Then they can enter (infect) cells and replicate themselves. Viruses can also travel with tears through tiny holes in the eyelids and down a duct that drains into the nose. “Sometimes people put eye drops in and find they can taste them,” says Laura Di Meglio, an optometrist at the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute. The story with covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, is far from definitive. But observational studies suggest that eye protection reduces transmission, according to a review article published this month. Scientists know much more about other viruses, such as those that cause flu and colds. Belser studies flu viruses and has demonstrated that exposure to the eyes can result in respiratory illness in an animal model. (This experiment used ferrets with customized goggles to deliver virus-containing aerosols.) “Influenza can cause conjunctivitis and respiratory infection,” says Sonal Tuli, an ophthalmologist at the University of Florida. The same is true for adenovirus, a common cause of colds and bronchitis. “At a day care or school, when you see an outbreak of conjunctivitis, you think adenovirus,” says Tuli, who also is a clinical spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Conjunctivitis is an umbrella term for inflammation of


Saudi Arabia’s crown prince uses travel restrictions to consolidate power

Lulua are forbidden to leave. Some members of MBS’s own family can’t travel abroad, either, the sources said. The roughly 300 Saudis who were held at the Ritz-Carlton make up a big portion of the “banned” community. The detainees included some of the kingdom’s most prominent business leaders, such as Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who has invested in banks and hotels around the world. He and most of the others were released after they were forced to pay a percentage of their financial assets, which MBS claimed had been obtained improperly. But even these 200 or more who “settled” their cases have been prevented from traveling freely, along with their families, according to various sources. One source from a banned family estimated that the number of Ritz-Carlton detainees and family members whose travel has been restricted is between 2,000 and 2,500, but this number couldn’t be confirmed. In addition to the Ritz-Carlton cases of alleged corruption, MBS has detained 131 prominent political and religious figures since September 2017, according to a list compiled by Human Rights Watch in November. Their families, too, have been subject to travel bans. The same report by Human Rights Watch cited these family restrictions as one of the repressive abuses in the kingdom. “In addition to directly targeting Saudi citizens for arrest … in some cases authorities have also punished their family members by imposing arbitrary bans on travel outside the country or freezing their assets and access to services,” the report noted. An early case that showed how the system works was the Sept. 10, 2017, arrest of cleric Salman Alodh. His brother Khalid immediately tweeted the news, and he was arrested two days later. They both remain in prison, according to human rights monitors. Since then, 17 members of the Alodh family, some under the age of 10, have been prevented from traveling abroad, according Alodh’s son, Abdullah, an adjunct professor at George Washington University. Abdullah was outside the country when his father was jailed and has refused Saudi requests to return home. “It’s a widespread practice now in Saudi Arabia,” said Abdullah. “They use it to threaten or intimidate or silence a family.” A classic example of this squeeze technique was the travel ban imposed in 2017 on the son of Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi. When Khashoggi’s oldest son, Salah, was prevented from leaving the kingdom, Khashoggi was told his son would


U.S. Olympic training centers to start gradual reopening June 26

will be safe to have competition with or without spectators next year,” Lyons said of the Tokyo Games, alluding to the lack of a vaccine, a global death toll that is over 450,000 and the prospect of a second wave of the pandemic. The only course is to proceed as if the Games will open July 23, 2021, as planned, which in many sports will mean adjusting the rules and procedures for selecting athletes after this summer’s qualifying events were canceled. Looking to 2021, in sports such as gymnastics, a new group of age-eligible athletes will be in the mix and must be factored into a revamped selection process. The financial implications of the coronavirus have been profound at both the USOPC, which announced in May it was paring roughly 20 percent of its staff of around 500 through layoffs, furloughs and voluntary buyouts, and among the governing bodies of specific sports. As Lyons noted, most sports’ governing bodies receive the bulk of their revenue from membership fees and events. “Most of those have come to a grinding halt,” she said. Max Cobb, head of the USOPC’s National Governing Bodies Council, told The Washington Post last month that lost revenue could reach $100 million. If the 2021 Tokyo Games cannot be held, Hirshland said cuts would be significantly deeper. Regarding athletes’ right to express themselves on issues of politics and human rights, Hirshland sent a letter this month to U.S. athletes announcing the formation of “an athlete-led group to challenge the rules and systems in our own organization that create barriers to progress, including your right to protest.” The implication was that the USOPC is willing to loosen its long-standing prohibition and penalties imposed on athletes who use their competitive platform to advocate, protest or express their views. Such a step would violate the Olympic Charter’s much-debated Rule 50, which bars any “demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda.” Hirshland didn’t directly answer a question about whether U.S. athletes who kneel in protest during competitions would be sanctioned, saying, “We have not done the work [yet] to make any modification to the rules or the policies.” Hirshland said “about 30” athletes have volunteered to be part of that review process. “We are 100 percent clear on our commitment to racial equality and equality overall,” Hirshland said, pledging that the organization will examine any policy that is a barrier to that.


You don’t need a telescope to be a stargazer

Protests, a global pandemic and political upheaval are reshaping life on Earth. Meanwhile, our planet circles the sun — and other stars predictably appear and disappear in the night sky. That’s probably not what TV host and Cincinnati Observatory house astronomer Dean Regas had in mind when he wrote “100 Things to See in the Night Sky.” But his book points to an unexpected source of entertainment, and even solace, in the skies above. You don’t need a telescope to become a stargazer — with the help of your eyes and even your fingers, you can enjoy the constellations, planets, nebulas and satellites that crisscross the sky each night. Regas teaches readers how to use their fingers — a pinkie, which represents about one degree of sky, three fingers, which represent about five, a fist, which represents about 10 — to make rough estimates of the star’s angles. Using those measurements, you can locate celestial bodies and identify constellations. There’s navigational help in the sky, too. Polaris, also known as the North Star, can help lead the way. So can Merak and Dubhe, stars Regas dubs the “ultimate pointer stars” for their ability to point not just to Polaris, but a variety of other constellations visible in the Northern Hemisphere. The book is packed with star maps, quotes and photos. But according to Regas, “The best teacher of astronomy is the sky itself.” Investing some time into stargazing will yield not just a better understanding of Earth’s relationship to its galactic surroundings, but a bit of perspective in unsettling times. As the world roils, the stars spin on.


One reason for police violence? Too many men with badges.

excessive force. Since then, a 2015 New York Police Department’s Inspector General’s report examined all substantiated cases of excessive force by NYPD officers between 2010 and 2014 and concluded that although women made up 17 percent of all officers, they were involved in only 3.2 percent of excessive force cases. Another study looked at all reported police uses of force in the District of Columbia from 2014 to 2018 and found although women made up 22 percent of sworn officers during the study period, they accounted each year for only 10 to 16 percent of all uses of force. Despite these data, there are still few female police officers and as of 2018, only about 11 percent of America’s hundred largest police departments had female chiefs. Female police chiefs and supervisors were even thinner on the ground in smaller departments and federal law enforcement. A major reason for this is that law enforcement recruitment, training and treatment of officers tends to drive women away. Recruiting ads frequently emphasize images of SWAT teams battering down doors; recruiters focus on job fairs for veterans and male-dominated university criminology programs; police academies are modeled on military boot camps and overvalue physical strength while undervaluing communication skills and emotional intelligence. A locker room atmosphere prevails in many police precincts, and rotating patrol shifts are devastating to family life. Even police uniforms and equipment are largely designed for men. When I joined the D.C. police reserve corps in 2016, I discovered the “unisex” pants and shirts issued at the police academy pinched and gaped in all the wrong places, the required firearms were harder to use for those with smaller hands and the duty belt system was clearly designed only for those able to pee standing up. Years of research make clear the kinds of changes needed to recruit, retain and support more female officers: Use recruiting messages that depict police as helpers and public servants, not warriors; be creative in recruiting nontraditional applicants; abandon counterproductive paramilitary training rituals; crack down on workplace sexual harassment, and develop more family-friendly schedules. It doesn’t take rocket science — but it does take political will. Many critics have highlighted the fact that America’s police departments are typically much whiter than the communities they serve. In our increasingly diverse nation, there’s no excuse for white-dominated police departments. In the same vein, there’s no excuse for male-dominated police departments, either.


Hong Kong families, fearing a reign of terror, prepare to flee the city

pathway to citizenship in Britain, or finding ways to migrate to Taiwan, Canada or Australia. Applications for police certificates required to migrate elsewhere soared almost 80 percent to nearly 21,000 in the latter half of 2019 from a year earlier, even before the advent of the security law, coinciding with a crackdown on pro-democracy protests. Animal rescue groups have reported an increase in surrendered dogs as their owners leave Hong Kong. Protesters fearing persecution have sought refuge in Germany, the Netherlands and the United States. The exodus of talent recalls the pre-handover years, when anxiety over Beijing’s rule drove tens of thousands of people out of Hong Kong. Many eventually trickled back — having obtained second passports as insurance — after the initial period of Chinese control seemed relatively benign. This time is different; many say they have no plans to return and see little hope for a better Hong Kong. Those preparing to leave say they are racked with guilt about abandoning their home at a pivotal moment, yet deeply worried about their futures and those of their children if they were to stay. Families spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of partial or full anonymity for fear of retribution from the authorities or their employers. “This is not a happy thing,” said Law, a 40-year-old business executive who plans to move with his family to Taichung, Taiwan, when travel restrictions related to the novel coronavirus ease. “It isn’t like we will have a farewell party to celebrate. I feel a bit ashamed, like I’ve betrayed the protesters.” Beijing in recent weeks has redrawn its relationship with Hong Kong, whose autonomy and political freedoms it previously promised to preserve until 2047. Facing widespread resistance to its encroachment, the party has moved to quash dissent with the security law, which Western governments have said violates the handover agreement and the “one country, two systems” model it established. Washington has said it will no longer treat Hong Kong as distinct from China, and has begun to rethink the special trade status that helped Hong Kong flourish as a financial center. Zhang Xiaoming, deputy director of China’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs office, last weeklikened the security law to “anti-virus software” and said forces in Hong Kong are trying to subvert Communist rule — emphasizing that Beijing now sees the city as a restive region that must be controlled. The


Spyware technology found on phone of Moroccan journalist, report says

Technologists who discovered spyware made by an Israeli company targeting journalists in several authoritarian countries said they found the same spyware used against a Moroccan journalist three days after the company announced a policy against such uses. Amnesty International’s Security Lab, the forensic technology arm of the well-known human rights organization, said it found telltale signs that NSO Group’s Pegasus software had been used to infect the cellphone of an award-winning Moroccan journalist and human rights defender, Omar Radi. On Sunday, the group released its analysis of Radi’s phone. In its report, Amnesty said its research “demonstrates NSO Group’s continued failure to conduct adequate human rights due diligence and the inefficacy of its own human rights policy.” Because NSO says it sells its software only to governments, Amnesty assumes the surveillance was conducted by Moroccan authorities. In a statement, a company spokesman said: “NSO is deeply troubled by the allegations in the Amnesty International letter. We are reviewing the information therein and will initiate an investigation if warranted.” It would not confirm or deny whether Morocco is a client. The Moroccan government did not respond to requests for comment from The Post. NSO says it markets its tools to governments for fighting terrorism and crime. Israel classifies Pegasus as a weapon and must approve any exports of the technology. The software can surreptitiously gain access to a phone’s camera, microphone, text messages, emails and location information. NSO has become the target of intense scrutiny by nongovernmental technologist groups and journalists in recent years, and lawsuits have alleged Pegasus software was used against nonviolent dissidents, journalists and human right activists. The firm, founded in 2010, has denied its products have been misused and says it conducts due diligence of potential clients. NSO software was instrumental in the capture of Mexican cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. In 2018, the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School issued a report alleging Pegasus was used by six countries with a record of spyware abuse against civil society: Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. A lawsuit filed in Israel by a Saudi dissident alleges Saudi authorities used Pegasus to infect his phone and track his friend, Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi, before Khashoggi was killed and dismembered on orders, U.S. intelligence officials concluded, of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. WhatsApp, the communications application owned by Facebook,


Mexico’s Central de Abasto: How coronavirus tore through Latin America’s largest market

MEXICO CITY — Martín Mateo had a cold. Or so he thought: sore throat, body aches, runny nose. “He felt bad but kept working,” said his son, Carlos. The 50-year-old father had labored for decades as a tomatero — a tomato man — at Latin America’s biggest food market. Coronavirus? He didn’t believe in it. Then he started gasping for breath. Within days, he was dead. By then, scores of Mateo’s fellow tomateros also were infected. Workers hoisted yellow signs outside the market reading “High Contagion Zone.” At least 10 tomato men died from mid-April to mid-May. They included Mateo’s cousin Antonio, a bookkeeper at a neighboring stall named Guillermo, and a bald man everyone called El Peluche — loosely, “Fuzzy.” The tomato aisle at Mexico City’s famed Central de Abasto market offers a glimpse into why the virus has hit the country so hard. It scythed its way through the sprawling complex, picking off workers made vulnerable by the problems of poverty: chronic illnesses, distrust of government, a need to keep earning money. While there are no official data, vendors can name dozens of people in the vegetable aisles alone who lost their lives — green-bean sellers, chili vendors, potato men — in one of the most brutal outbreaks in the city. “Here we didn’t believe” the coronavirus was a threat, said 57-year-old Anastasio Ramón Alonso, a longtime tomato vendor. “But when people began to die and die and die, we lost our incredulity.” Officials have reported more than 20,000 coronavirus deaths in Mexico, undoubtedly an undercount. The virus appears to have entered the country with the upper class — people returning from business trips in Italy and skiing holidays in Colorado. But it spread quickly to low-income workers, who have been hit particularly hard. As in the United States, Mexico’s poor have less access to adequate health care. They suffer high levels of diabetes, hypertension and obesity. But here, the situation is especially precarious. About half of Mexico’s workers hold “informal” jobs — maid, laborer, market vendor — with no unemployment insurance. Carlos Mateo, 31, followed his father into the tomato trade. He typically pockets about $10 a day. “If we didn’t work,” he said, “we had no money.” In Mexico City, the epicenter of the country’s epidemic, officials are now ramping up testing and contact tracing. Belatedly, the city-owned market has dispatched health workers to check on


Migrant farmworkers die in Canada, and Mexico wants answers

TORONTO — Each summer for the past five years, Aaron has traveled from his home in Mexico to Canada as one of the tens of thousands of temporary foreign workers who seed, tend and harvest the crops that keep the country fed. This year's journey was different. Flights were limited. There were temperature screenings and questionnaires before he took off and after he landed. On arriving in British Columbia this month, he checked into a hotel for a 14-day quarantine. “I trust that everything will be fine,” said Aaron, a 31-year-old husband and father from Guanajuato state who spoke on the condition of anonymity. But in this year of the novel coronavirus, the precautions have not kept all of Canada’s migrant farmworkers safe. At least 600 have contracted the coronavirus, and at least two, both Mexicans, have died. Mexico, which provides nearly half of Canada’s migrant farmworkers, has become so concerned that officials said this week they’re hitting the “pause button” on plans to send up to 5,000 more to Canada until they’re satisfied the conditions that led to the deaths of Bonifacio Eugenio Romero, 31, and Rogelio Muñoz Santos, 24, will be rectified — threatening a labor crunch for Canada’s already squeezed agricultural sector. “For us, it was only responsible to halt the coming of further workers until we have this clarity,” said Juan José Gómez Camacho, Mexico’s ambassador to Canada. Mary Robinson, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, said the loss of these workers would be “incredibly unfortunate” and would create “greater uncertainty, not only impacting this year’s harvest but next year’s cropping plans.” The pandemic has highlighted Canada’s dependence on the 60,000 temporary foreign workers who arrive each year from countries such as Mexico and Jamaica as part of a federal government program, and without whom hundreds of thousands of tons of blueberries, asparagus stalks and grapes would wither on the vine. They’re so vital that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared them essential workers, exempt from the restrictions that have shut the borders to most foreigners. They must quarantine for 14 days; Trudeau gave employers $37 million to cover those costs. Trudeau said he offered condolences to Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. “We should always take advantage of moments of crisis to reflect,” he said. “Can we change the system to do better?” Advocates for migrant farmworkers have long criticized what they say are unfair


Covid-19 makes us face the hazy line between ‘elective’ and ‘essential’ medicine

other settings where they might be of greater service. On the other side of the equation, there are certainly diseases that become more dangerous when left unattended. A few of my colleagues in other cities worry vocally about how many gastrointestinal malignancies they’ll find once routine practice picks up again. Less vocally, they worry about the legal implications of not having made the diagnosis earlier, wondering if they’ll be liable for not having pushed more procedures into hospital settings even as federal or professional society guidance and state executive orders limited elective procedures. The potential hazards of clinical lag time also hold true for other specialty areas — blurry vision can herald impending strokes, and unattended orthopedic injuries can settle into contractures. In the background is the unsettling awareness that interventions deemed essential in one state may be elective in the next, particularly for politically sensitive services like abortion. The line dividing essential from elective care is always a subjective one, because risk-benefit calculations tend to shift over time. The past few months have occasioned especially dramatic fluidity, but larger-scale changes have also unfolded over the past several decades. In the 1960s, specialties began lobbying for new interventional environments like the ambulatory surgical center, while emergency rooms arose as distinct hospital spaces for managing acute concerns. Meanwhile, chronic disease prevalence and pharmaceutical incentives inspired increasing professional interest in the idea of risk states (like high cholesterol as a precondition for heart disease, or age and gender as preconditions for breast cancer), which in turn entrenched preventive maneuvers (from annual physicals to mammograms to a daily aspirin) as vital elements of routine care. The insurance industry overlaid these developments with thorny questions about medical necessity. In a sense, it’s been remarkable how successfully patients have avoided clinical settings in these first few months of the pandemic. Early anecdotal reporting noted surprising drops in hospital admissions for common medical emergencies like cardiovascular events, appendicitis and strangulated hernias, and international data have begun to confirm these trends. In the United States, emergency catheterization procedures for life-threatening heart attacks were down 38 percent in the early phase of covid-19, despite predictions that those events would be, if anything, more prevalent during a viral pandemic. Fewer cirrhosis patients are being admitted to Veterans Health Administration hospitals, according to a study recently published by my colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania, and those who are admitted


The Daily 202: Ousting police chiefs does not ensure systemic reform, activists fear

report. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) “said Friday that the city met benchmarks it set for entering the second phase, including a decline in community spread of the novel coronavirus. She is asking residents to continue practicing social distancing and wearing masks. The D.C. Health Department reported 36 new confirmed cases of the virus Sunday and two deaths — a 62-year-old man and a 73-year-old woman — bringing the total number of infections and deaths to 10,020 and 533, respectively.” “The first statistics from the program, which began on June 1, indicate that tracers are often unable to locate infected people or gather information from them,” the Times reports. “Only 35 percent of the 5,347 city residents who tested positive or were presumed positive for the coronavirus in the program’s first two weeks gave information about close contacts to tracers, the city said in releasing the first statistics. The number ticked up slightly, to 42 percent, during the third week, Avery Cohen, a spokeswoman to Mayor Bill de Blasio, said on Sunday.” “The tomato aisle at Mexico City’s famed Central de Abasto market offers a glimpse into why the virus has hit the country so hard. It scythed its way through the sprawling complex, picking off workers made vulnerable by the problems of poverty: chronic illnesses, distrust of government, a need to keep earning money. While there are no official data, vendors can name dozens of people in the vegetable aisles alone who lost their lives — green-bean sellers, chili vendors, potato men — in one of the most brutal outbreaks in the city,” Mary Beth Sheridan reports. “‘Here we didn’t believe’ the coronavirus was a threat, said 57-year-old Anastasio Ramón Alonso, a longtime tomato vendor. ‘But when people began to die and die and die, we lost our incredulity.’ Officials have reported more than 20,000 coronavirus deaths in Mexico, undoubtedly an undercount. The virus appears to have entered the country with the upper class — people returning from business trips in Italy and skiing holidays in Colorado. But it spread quickly to low-income workers, who have been hit particularly hard.” “Clayton is the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and a longtime corporate lawyer with deep connections to Wall Street. But he has no experience as a federal prosecutor,” Renae Merle reports. “After three years at the SEC, Clayton was widely expected to step down this year and


How to develop a vaccine — quickly and ethically

Post Reports is the daily podcast from The Washington Post. Unparalleled reporting. Expert insight. Clear analysis. Everything you’ve come to expect from the newsroom of The Post. For your ears. Martine Powers is your host, asking the questions you didn’t know you wanted answered. Listen online. Carolyn Johnson Read more: The biggest challenge for a coronavirus vaccine could be getting countries to share. Volunteers are signing up to put their lives on the line for a coronavirus vaccine. Many are convinced that they’ve already had covid-19. Subscribe to The Washington Post: https://postreports.com/offer


Going to my first concert of the pandemic felt like preparing for battle. Then I got there.

garden parties, but its fledgling attempt to bring music back to real life, led by founder Neeta Helms, was an ambitious model for what live music might look like for the foreseeable future. As Phase 2 of reopening relaxed some restrictions in the District starting Monday, it’s likely that more attempts to gather skittish audiences will spring up around the area. Even so, the baby steps of Saturday’s gathering in the garden felt like a giant leap. “There are a lot of reasons to worry,” Helms would tell me in a debrief on the phone the next day. “But I feel like we have to try to go ahead.” This time out, hand-sanitizing stations stood at the ready and little flags staked out each listener’s spot for standing, six feet apart (though couples could cluster). It felt odd at first, but also oddly luxurious if you’ve ever been vexed by the personal space afforded by seats in a concert hall. Attendees improvised their hey-I-know-you reunions in the rows through a mix of elbow bumps and weird waves and salutes. The musicians, too, had some improvising to do. Ensembles representing the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the New Orchestra of Washington, as well as the Barclay Brass ensemble (which includes members of the Maryland, Annapolis and Fairfax symphony orchestras) were staggered across the three programs and spread around the stage — the unfamiliar acoustics of socially distant performance requiring more reliance on visual cues between the players. A quintet of horn players from the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra opened the evening easing into selections from Giles Farnaby’s “Fancies, Toyes, and Dreams” before seguing into “That’s a Plenty,” a 1914 rag-turned-jazz-standard by Lew Pollack, and one of a few detours into ragtime that lent the program a disarming lightness. Members of the NSO later took on Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag” and Barclay Brass chased the second suite from Handel’s “Water Music” with Allen Toussaint’s “Java.” (And in all cases, even when a rag sounds a little rusty, it feels right.) The wind quintet of National Symphony Orchestra players also gave a brilliant account of Valerie Coleman’s “Umoja” (written for Imani Winds) that held court against the noisy birds in the tulip magnolia above us. And a quintet of string players from the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra showcased the skilled interplay of concertmaster Claudia Chudacoff and violinist Peter Haase, delivering a stirringly


Colombia planned well for the pandemic. The region is reeling.

covid-19 and everything else. The interview with Duque last week offered a useful window on a country and region that matter increasingly to U.S. trade, immigration and security policy. Duque said he had been studying warnings late last year from the WHO about the danger of a respiratory pandemic, so when covid-19 emerged in Wuhan, he paid attention. He declared a national health emergency on March 6, closed Colombia’s schools March 14, ordered the elderly to stay at home March 20, and imposed a national quarantine March 25. Those early moves helped keep Colombia’s rate of infection low, by comparison with its neighbors, but it didn’t spare the country entirely. According to data gathered by Johns Hopkins, Colombia had recorded 68,836 cases and 2,353 deaths as of Monday. That is a tiny fraction of Brazil’s 1,083,341 cases and 50,591 deaths — which ranks second only to the United States in both categories — but is still a hefty burden. Colombia is still recovering from a decades-long insurgency fueled by its powerful drug cartels, and Duque has tried to maintain the national reconciliation and recovery. He confirmed recent news reports that remnants of the notorious Medellin cartel had helped provide covid-19 relief in that region. He said Medellin has become a center for combating the virus using a computer app that helped provide food and money to needy residents during the quarantine. According to the Associated Press, Medellin had recorded just 741 Covid-19 cases as of June 13. Coca production has surged again in Colombia in recent years, after falling sharply a decade ago because of eradication efforts. Duque said he is trying to reduce production, but carefully. On the day we spoke, he announced there had been a 9 percent reduction in cultivated coca areas last year, a gradual rate of decline he expects to maintain over the next three years. For Latin America countries, the covid-19 crisis has been compounded by poor health-care infrastructure and scarce resources. A report released last week by the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development notes that as of 2017, per-person health spending in Latin America and the Caribbean was only about a quarter of what was spent in developed OECD countries. A World Bank blog noted this month, “The impact of the pandemic will itself be highly unequal in Latin America: both in terms of health and economic outcomes,


The future of travel, according to guidebook writer Rick Steves

Travel has changed considerably since European travel expert Rick Steves published his first guide “Europe Through the Back Door” in 1979. In the time it took Steves to write 50 guidebooks, host 10 seasons of “Rick Steves’ Europe” on TV, start a public radio show, release a mobile app for audio tours and grow a company that guides 30,000 people through Europe each year, he’s adapted to innumerable changes to the industry. Now Steves is adjusting to the next major development in travel: the coronavirus pandemic. From his home in Edmonds, Wash. (where he’s spending his first summer in 30 years, as he’d normally be in Europe for the season), Steves recently discussed the future of travel with The Washington Post. (Editor’s note: This Q&A is the first in a weekly series from By The Way, in which we interview prominent voices in the industry on the How do you think your business will change? Between writing the guidebooks and your tour program that brings so many people to Europe annually, what do you think is going to happen next? Oh, nobody knows what’s going to happen next. I’m not going to morph into something else. I’m not going to start doing gourmet river rafting tours in Idaho. If there’s no European travel, we’re not going to be taking tours around Europe, and there’s not going to be guidebooks for Europe. I do Europe and there’s a certain “Rick Steves” kind of Europe, and it’s not social distancing. I don’t want to take people to Amsterdam and have them eat in little bubbles. You go to an Irish pub to sit next to a stranger and drink beer. You go to France to have your cheeks kissed. You go to Italy to do the passeggiando, you know, when everybody’s out strolling together and licking their ice cream cones. I think that’s going to come back, but it’s going to be a while. For me personally, the future of people staying six feet apart and wearing masks is not my idea of travel. Do you think that travel will return to how it looked before the pandemic? Or what do you think potential changes could be? I’m all about accessibility. I like Europe to be accessible. For things to be accessible, it has to be a really quality experience and it’s got to be affordable. The only way somebody can have


PM Update: Showers and a few storms linger this evening; more of the same tomorrow

Some heavier storms have remained intact well north and south of the Beltway, but for many of us the precipitation has morphed into scattered lighter showers. These showers may linger at times, along with an isolated heavier storm, for the next few hours. A broken line of storms approaching the Beltway, I-270 and I-95 south from the west has weakened considerably, with the exception of the northern portion heading northeast into Frederick County. That’s where the lone severe thunderstorm warning in the area is still in effect, stretching from northern Loudoun County into southwest Frederick County. Otherwise some parts of the DMV can expect briefly heavy rain, lightning and a gusty breeze as these somewhat scattered storms move through from west to east over the next hour or so. Very heavy storms are plowing through areas just northeast of the Beltway from around Laurel to Columbia, where some damaging winds gusts are possible. This activity is headed toward northeast Howard and northern Anne Arundel counties, and eventually Baltimore. Another area of heavy storms, with a history of taking down some trees, continues over Southern Maryland, focused in Calvert County. Additional storms are popping up to the southwest toward Fauquier County and could affect parts of Prince William and Fairfax County over the next hour or two as they develop further and head northeast. Storms earlier did cause some spotty reports of damage including trees down in parts of Charles County (near La Plata and in Faulkner) and St. Mary’s County (in Clements). In Montgomery County, downed trees were reported in Clarksburg and Kensington while in Bethesda, trees fell along the Outer Loop of the Beltway, causing an accident but no injuries. Radar shows numerous thunderstorms north and northwest of the District as well as to the southeast, which have triggered severe thunderstorm warnings (see above radar map). While some isolated damaging gusts are possible with these storms, the main hazards are heavy downpours and frequent lightning. The storms stretch along the Interstate 270 corridor, break up some over the Beltway (except for a smaller storm dashing through Bethesda), and then pick back up in Charles and St. Mary’s counties, and are moving northeast around 30 mph. Additional storms are flaring up well southwest of Washington, which could target the Beltway after 6 p.m. if they hold together. While the most intense activity is likely for the next hour or two,