The Cybersecurity 202: U.S. officials are working on a Huawei long game

Krebs told senators. “If we can unlock the open radio access network piece, the vendor base in the United States, the innovation base is going to explode.” An open radio access network, or O-RAN, is basically a software-based version of the more hardware-focused RAN, which is more compatible with components from other vendors. The government should consider funding some basic O-RAN research to make it more lucrative for U.S. tech companies to move into the space, Krebs told panel Chai Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), saying “the private sector is going to surge into the market if we can make it compelling.” Federal Communications Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel suggested using FCC-sponsored 5G “innovation zones” in New York City and Salt Lake City as testing grounds for the components. “We need an approach to supply chain security that recognizes that, despite our best efforts, secure networks in the United States will only get us so far,” Rosenworcel told lawmakers. “We need to start researching how we can build networks that can withstand connection to equipment [with] vulnerabilities around the world.” That frank talk is a sea change from just six months ago when officials first began to publicly contemplate a future in which Huawei isn’t barred from 5G by allies with whom the United States shares vital intelligence. Huawei has steadfastly maintained it has never aided Chinese spying and would refuse to do so if asked. Spying concerns are supercharged, though, because 5G will carry orders of magnitude more data than existing wireless networks and power a new generation of connected devices such as autonomous vehicles and automated factories. U.S. officials also say Huawei is getting an outsize portion of the 5G market because Beijing’s subsidies help it undersell competitors such as Samsung and Nokia. To be sure, U.S. officials haven’t given up on swaying European leaders. And they’ve had some success convincing them to restrict Huawei from “core” parts of 5G where it would have far more access to sensitive data. Some European nations are also discussing restricting Huawei from edge portions of 5G in particularly sensitive geographic areas, such as around government buildings, Jim Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who works closely with international cybersecurity leaders, told me. But most U.S. allies continue to push back on pleas to fully bar the company. During the past few weeks, leaders in England and Germany inched ever


Olympic champion honors her cancer recovery by running in New York City Marathon

The message Kikkan Randall wants to send over the 26.2-mile New York City Marathon course is as clear as the writing on the loud socks she loves to wear: “It’s going to be OK” with a pink K in script symbolizing her name and so much more. It’s a natural mantra for Randall, the skier nicknamed “Kikkanimal” for the drive that led her to teaming with Jessie Diggins to win the United States’ first gold medal in women’s Olympic cross-country competition at the 2018 PyeongChang Games. And it’s one that has helped her power through treatment for Stage 2 breast cancer that was diagnosed three months after her Olympic triumph. Chemotherapy (six rounds, three weeks apart) and a lumpectomy last November behind her, she will try something else Sunday, joining more than 50,000 runners in the New York City Marathon, the first Randall has ever run. She will use her appearance to bring awareness to AKTIV against Cancer, an organization co-founded by Grete Waitz, a legendary Norwegian and New York Marathon runner who died of cancer in 2011. Its aim is to help cancer patients integrate physical activity with treatment. For AKTIV, more than 5,000 pairs of those wild socks have been sold. “It’s surprising how many similarities there are between being an athlete and being a cancer patient,” Randall, 36, said in a phone interview. “As an athlete, I was always careful about not getting sick. I was always being sure to wash my hands and avoid public places, all that kind of stuff. You’ve got to get enough sleep. You’ve to eat right. You’ve got to get through a big process one step at a time. I just actually used some of the same tools and mind-set that I used as an athlete to go through my treatment.” Randall says she feels good now and is “like a little bee just buzzing around,” training for the marathon, making speeches, working with business partners such as L.L. Bean, and raising her son, Breck, with her husband, Jeff Ellis, at their home in Penticton, B.C. Over the years, though, even as she was preparing for five Olympic appearances, she thought about trying a long-distance footrace. “I thought about running the marathon before I even finished my ski career. I had gotten involved with AKTIV against Cancer while competing in Norway,” Randall said. “From my ski results, I have some name


Cool runnings: After heated dispute, Tokyo agrees to shift Olympic marathons to more clement climes

degrees Fahrenheit, with high humidity adding to the health risks for athletes. Last month, the IOC abruptly decided to shift the races 500 miles north to Sapporo, where daytime temperatures are often about 10 degrees cooler. The IOC said it made the decision after its president, Thomas Bach, saw television scenes of marathon runners collapsing in extreme heat at the world track and field championships last month in Doha, Qatar. The dispute had risked creating a bitter mood in the run-up to the Games, with Koike arguing a successful Tokyo Olympics depended on trust between the host city and the IOC. It came to a head during this week’s visit by an IOC delegation led by John Coates, the head of its coordination commission. But the central government and Games organizers said they were grateful it had now been resolved. “I pay a great respect from the bottom of my heart to Governor Koike, who had made a tough decision,” said Yoshiro Mori, president of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee. “I hope to see the Olympics being held with all of us becoming one team.” Olympics Minister Seiko Hashimoto and the IOC’s Coates also expressed their thanks to Koike for the decision and for putting the health of athletes first. “I’m very aware of the special place of the marathon in the minds of Japanese citizens,” Coates told a news conference. “Sure, we want good memories for the children, the next generation of athletes and distance runners. We also didn’t want bad memories. “We did not want Tokyo being remembered, both in the minds of your people but also in minds internationally, by some of the scenes we saw in Doha.” Coates said there had been a divide among athletes, between those who had prepared for the heat in Tokyo, and another, African group, who were in favor of the move to Sapporo. But the decision had to be made looking at the “lowest common denominator” in terms of athletes’ health, he said. He also read out a letter from Bach in which the IOC president asked for the understanding of the people of Tokyo for the decision. The IOC also agreed that Tokyo will not have to pay for moving the marathon and race walks, and to reimburse some of the some costs the city had incurred to stage the race. As concerns mounted over the heat, the IOC


U.S. envoy in Afghanistan seeking prisoner exchange to free two hostages held by Taliban, Afghan officials say

The Washington Post, “It is not clear yet.” Also unclear is whether Trump supports the resumption of talks with the Taliban. Trump has repeatedly pledged to bring American troops home from “endless wars” abroad. In October, he authorized a hurried drawdown of U.S. forces from Syria. Although Trump declared peace talks with the Taliban “dead” in early September, informal “discussions” focused on identifying confidence-building measures have continued behind the scenes, according to a senior Taliban official. The Taliban official spoke by phone from an undisclosed location on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to provide information to the media. In early October, Khalilzad met with Taliban leaders. Other Afghan officials have suggested a reduction in violence is necessary before peace talks can continue. The conflict in Afghanistan has escalated in recent months, and civilian casualties have reached record levels. So far this year, more than 8,000 civilians have been killed or injured, according to the United Nations. Hamdullah Mohib, the Afghan president’s national security adviser, said in a news conference Monday that the Afghan government is demanding a cease-fire before any peace talks with the Taliban. The announcement marks a sharp departure from the government’s previous position of openness to direct talks without preconditions. Mohib said a cease-fire would be a test of the Taliban’s ability to control its fighters. Suhail Shaheen, the spokesman for the Taliban’s political office in Doha, Qatar, responded, “The accusation of disparity and division among our rank and file is an empty claim made by the spoilers of the current peace process.” The Taliban has long refused to meet directly with the Afghan government, even without preconditions, as the insurgents view Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s government as a puppet of the United States. In Pakistan, Khalilzad met with Prime Minister Imran Khan and held talks with the country’s powerful military chief earlier this week. Khalilzad’s Kabul visit comes amid continuing political uncertainty in Afghanistan, where the results from the country’s recent presidential election remain in limbo. Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission has delayed the announcement of the results until mid-November. Afghans voted Sept. 28 in polls that had been repeatedly delayed by security concerns. Khalilzad and Taliban negotiators appeared to be days away from announcing a peace deal in September before the effort was halted by a tweet from Trump. The deal included an agreement on the withdrawal of most American troops from


Passenger dies after early-morning crash in Woodbridge, police say

VIRGINIA An 85-year-old Woodbridge woman died after she was involved in a crash in Prince William County, officials said. The incident happened at about 8 a.m. Thursday near Minnieville Road and Fowke Lane in Woodbridge, according to Prince William County police. Maria Amparo Ruiz was a passenger in a Toyota Corolla when the driver of the car was crossing Minnieville Road and struck a pickup truck headed north. Ruiz was pronounced dead on the scene, and the drivers of both vehicles were hospitalized with serious injuries. The cause of the crash is under investigation. — Dana Hedgpeth MARYLAND Maryland’s Agriculture Department has issued a quarantine in an attempt to contain the spotted lantern fly in Cecil and Harford counties. The Baltimore Sun reported that the quarantine, announced Monday, restricts movement within the quarantine zone of regulated articles, such as construction waste or plants, that may contain the insect in any of its stages. An invasive species, spotted lantern flies feed on more than 70 types of plants and crops, from grapes and apples to oak and pine trees. The insect is native to China, Vietnam and parts of India. After it was detected in Berks County, Pennsylvania, the insect has spread to other parts of that state and to parts of Delaware, Virginia and New Jersey. — Associated Press


14 of the best things to see, drink and do in November in the D.C. area

sponsored by the Danish Embassy; the Icelandic Association of Washington’s Christmas Bazaar at American Legion Post 177 in Fairfax; and the Norwegian Christmas Bazaar at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Bethesda. Books, knitwear, holiday decorations and baked goods are common, but each country puts its own spin on the festivities: Iceland will serve lamb hot dogs at its cafe, and the Danish Club has a Lego area where kids can play while parents shop. Another date to circle on the calendar is Nov. 23, when Finnish Ambassador Kirsti Kauppi opens the Finnish Christmas Bazaar at River Road Unitarian Church in Bethesda, and the Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine of the Holy Family opens its doors for a two-day bazaar in Brookland. — Fritz Hahn Bye Bye, Bei Bei Everyone knew that Bei Bei would eventually leave the National Zoo to join a Chinese panda-breeding program, following in the paw-steps of older siblings Tai Shan and Bao Bao, but that doesn’t make it any easier to say farewell to the 4-year-old cub. The National Zoo is planning a week of special events to mark Bei Bei’s departure, including Q&A sessions with panda keepers; a station for writing postcards that will accompany Bei Bei to China; the chance to make a “friendship and luck” bracelet; and daily treats for Bei Bei to eat and play with. If you can’t make it to the zoo in person, tune in to Panda Cam for wall-to-wall Bei Bei coverage. Various times at National Zoo. Free. — Fritz Hahn ‘Comedy Bang! Bang!’ Live Comedian Scott Aukerman was at the forefront of the podcast boom when he started “Comedy Bang! Bang!” (originally called “Comedy Death-Ray”) in 2009 — first as a radio show, then as a podcast. The weekly improv show on Aukerman’s Earwolf network has been both a breeding ground for improv comedy talent (such as Nick Kroll, John Mulaney and Andy Daly) to test out outlandish characters and a place for established stars to get extra silly (including Jon Hamm, Sarah Silverman and Patton Oswalt). Aukerman, who recently directed Zach Galifianakis in Netflix’s “Between Two Ferns” movie, is celebrating the 10th anniversary of “Comedy Bang! Bang!” with a live tour that features two of his most frequent (and most versatile) guests: Lauren Lapkus and Paul F. Tompkins. 7:30 p.m. at Warner Theatre. $35-$45. — Rudi Greenberg ‘Heroes: Principles of African Greatness,’ What could be more timely, in


Baghdadi’s death could mean more American withdrawal in the Middle East. That’s bad news.

The death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is a real victory in the war against terrorist groups. The Islamic State is one of the most cruel and dangerous organizations to have roamed the planet in a long time, and its leader’s death damages it badly. But as recent protests from Iraq to Lebanon have shown, the Middle East remains a troubled region. And if Baghdadi’s death produces a greater U.S. disengagement from the Middle East, then things could spiral downward even faster. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the world suddenly focused its gaze on the Middle East and recognized one seminal fact: The region was almost unique in having made no significant political, economic or social progress in decades. Throughout the world, communism had collapsed, juntas had disappeared, and economic growth had transformed developing countries. But in the Middle East, time had stood still, and even moved backward on some measures. This stagnation, many believed, was the atmosphere in which Islamic extremism and terrorism were able to grow and spread. In 2002, the United Nations released a report on Arab development, written and researched by Arab experts, that laid bare the region’s profound challenges. It identified three deficits that needed to be overcome to bring the region into the modern world: deficits of freedom, female empowerment and knowledge. It spoke more broadly of the lack of economic opportunity, political rights and social progress in much of the Arab world. Governments around the world resolved that these were the crucial issues to address in the Middle East. In the following years, gains were made in several areas, such as life expectancy, literacy and the status of women. But as the U.N.’s most recent Arab Human Development Report points out, “Since 2010 nearly all Arab countries have slowed or reversed their average annual human development advances.” This despite the fact that the Arab Spring of 2011 seemed to highlight the need for greater reforms. Why? Partly because the Arab Spring was largely a failure. Only Tunisia transitioned to democratic rule. Egypt saw the return of repressive rule; Syria experienced a civil war and the bloody resurgence of the Assad regime; and Yemen and Libya are in free fall. But even beyond these breakdowns, the region continues to face daunting challenges. The demographics remain grim. The Middle East has the highest youth unemployment rate in the world. The economic model remains highly inefficient, expensive


For many black millennials, student debt is biggest hurdle in homeownership

because minorities are less likely to be homeowners and have less wealth, they are less likely to be able to help their children with things such as money for a down payment or closing costs — often the biggest obstacles for would-be home buyers. “This explains part of the reason for the persistent gap in homeownership across racial and ethnic groups,” McCargo says. “And it’s another reason to sound the alarm for boosting the minority homeownership rate as the best way to build long-term wealth for black households.” Despite the bleak housing numbers for black millennials, Donnell Williams, president of NAREB, says he’s optimistic the trend can be reversed. He points to Urban Institute research using Freddie Mac data showing that black millennials represent 11.4 percent of the pool of mortgage-ready applicants in 31 of the country’s largest metropolitan areas. This group represents people below age 40 who don’t have a mortgage, but have strong enough credit to qualify for one; a debt-to-income ratio of 25 percent or less; and no recent foreclosures, bankruptcies or serious delinquencies. While the percentage of mortgage-ready white and Hispanic millennials outpace that of blacks — 19.9 percent and 18.5 percent, respectively — the figure still represents 1.7 million African Americans with a potential for homeownership. “Wealth building through homeownership is indeed possible and we need to make that happen,” Williams says. “And homeownership represents the tools black Americans in general, and millennials in particular can use to build or rebuild their wealth.” NAREB recently launched a campaign aimed at getting younger people of color to embrace homeownership. The effort is called House Then The Car and focuses on communities that have large numbers of millennials and Gen Xers who do not own homes. Car loans are still preventing African Americans in this demographic from buying homes, data from Freddie Mac show. The campaign includes enhancing financial education, improving homeowner awareness through online educational campaigns and streamlining the mortgage process. The goal is to reach mortgage-ready black millennials who make more than $100,000 annually, but have delayed or not considered homeownership, adds Antoine Thompson, NAREB’s executive director. Rodney Hampton started home shopping when he returned to Dallas in 2017 after getting his MBA and working in Kansas City, Mo. The 37-year-old Dallas native works in financial services and says he watched home prices rise sharply over the past few years but still decided to jump


The world is flunking in the fight against disease

by neglect. The panics have been real: the anthrax letters; severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East Respiratory syndrome, both coronaviruses; the swine flu pandemic; the Ebola virus disease outbreaks in Africa, taking thousands of lives. These events should be taken as warnings, but they have not been. That is the conclusion of a globe-spanning survey of 195 nations, looking closely at their readiness to combat infectious disease outbreaks, either natural or man-made, including those of high consequence, meaning they could overwhelm the national and international capacity to manage them. The study, the Global Health Security Index, was carried out by the Nuclear Threat Initiative and the Center for Health Security at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, with help from the Economist Intelligence Unit. It plumbed each country with 140 questions about readiness in the fields of disease prevention, detection and reporting, rapid response, adequacy of existing health systems, meeting international standards and the overall risk situation. The world flunked. The index shows that “no country is fully prepared for epidemics or pandemics. Collectively, international preparedness is weak.” The average national score was 40.2 of a possible 100. Only 19 percent of countries received top marks for detection and reporting; fewer than 5 percent of the nations scored in the highest tier for being ready to respond rapidly to an epidemic. The United States ranked at the top overall, with a score of 83.5, but fell to 19th place in the category of overall risk environment and vulnerability to biological threats. This was the first year of the index; hopefully it will spur progress that will show up in future editions. National boundaries don’t stop infectious disease, but how nations are governed remains an important factor in preparing and fighting sickness, and there are a host of reasons that they fall down on the job. The most significant is a lack of political will and a failure to make preparedness a priority, including by chronically underfunding public health. But the problem does not stop there. The current Ebola outbreak is being fought with an effective experimental vaccine and with benefit of lessons drawn from the 2014 outbreak, yet the struggle faces new hurdles, such as how to overcome fear, suspicion and distrust in a war zone. Nations need to prepare for old problems, and new ones. They need to not lapse back into neglect after each panic.


Skywatch: What’s happening in the heavens in November

The heavens prepare a cosmic buffet in November with a planetary conjunction, Mercury’s transit across the sun and a light sprinkling of Leonid meteors. On Nov. 11, it’s the transit of Mercury, when the fleet innermost planet will move across the face of the sun from 7:35 a.m. Eastern time to about 1:04 p.m., according to Fred Espenak, a retired NASA astronomer who runs eclipsewise.com. The website offers transit details. A rare celestial event, this transit is Mercury’s fourth of the century, with 10 more to go. Against the sun’s bright face, Mercury will appear as a tiny dot chugging steadily along for hours. If you miss this transit, the next one is Nov. 13, 2032, but it’s not visible to the United States. The next transit visible here is May 7, 2049, said astronomer Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory. Be warned: Do not look directly at the sun. Do not look at the sun through the unprotected lens of a telescope or binoculars, as you will go blind instantly. Do not use dime-store eclipse glasses, because you will not discern Mercury’s tiny dot against the sun’s face, and don’t use those glasses with binoculars or a telescope. Options for safe viewing Nov. 11 include watching it online via slooh.com or finding live Facebook or Twitter feeds. • In Washington, see the transit live through a telescope that is safe for the eyes at the Phoebe Waterman Haas Public Observatory, adjacent to the National Air and Space Museum. It’s on the terrace along Independence Avenue near Fourth Street SW, 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. (airandspace.si.edu). • George Mason University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, with the Northern Virginia Astronomy Club (novac.com), will set up safe viewing in the morning at the Shenandoah parking deck beginning 7 a.m. on the Fairfax campus. Physicist Hakeem Oluseyi will speak at 8:15 a.m. on “Measuring the Universe: How Transits Led to the First Absolute Measurement of Distances in the Solar System,” at the university’s Hub Ballroom. RSVP: alumni.gmu.edu/MercuryTransit. Viewing program ends at 10:30 a.m. • The University of Maryland Observatory, College Park, will set up transit viewing at a campus location to be determined. Information will be on the website: www.astro.umd.edu/openhouse. Gazing into the southern and southwestern sky after sunset, you’ll see the planets Saturn, Jupiter and Venus. The bright Venus (-3.8 magnitude) will hug the southwestern horizon now as night falls


with binoculars or a telescope. Options for safe viewing Nov. 11 include watching it online via slooh.com or finding live Facebook or Twitter feeds. • In Washington, see the transit live through a telescope that is safe for the eyes at the Phoebe Waterman Haas Public Observatory, adjacent to the National Air and Space Museum. It’s on the terrace along Independence Avenue near Fourth Street SW, 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. (airandspace.si.edu). • George Mason University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, with the Northern Virginia Astronomy Club (novac.com), will set up safe viewing in the morning at the Shenandoah parking deck beginning 7 a.m. on the Fairfax campus. Physicist Hakeem Oluseyi will speak at 8:15 a.m. on “Measuring the Universe: How Transits Led to the First Absolute Measurement of Distances in the Solar System,” at the university’s Hub Ballroom. RSVP: alumni.gmu.edu/MercuryTransit. Viewing program ends at 10:30 a.m. • The University of Maryland Observatory, College Park, will set up transit viewing at a campus location to be determined. Information will be on the website: www.astro.umd.edu/openhouse. Gazing into the southern and southwestern sky after sunset, you’ll see the planets Saturn, Jupiter and Venus. The bright Venus (-3.8 magnitude) will hug the southwestern horizon now as night falls in early November. It will rise higher in the next few weeks. To the upper left of Venus, find Jupiter (-1.9 magnitude, bright), which is dim compared with Venus. Above Jupiter, find the ringed planet Saturn in the south — relatively dim at 0.6 magnitude. Gaseous and large Jupiter seems to scoot closer to Venus for a few weeks. On Nov. 24, the effervescent Venus gently nudges Jupiter, according to the Naval Observatory. As night falls on Thanksgiving, Nov. 28, see the new, skinny crescent moon loiter with Venus and Jupiter. The young moon then scoots close to Saturn on Nov. 29. The Leonid meteors will be light this year. The shower peaks the weekend of Nov. 16-18. With about 20 shooting stars an hour at peak late at night, the fat, gibbous moon could wash out many meteors. (The full moon is days earlier, Nov. 12.) Some astronomy groups suggest looking late at night on Nov. 16-17, but the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada predicts the peak Nov. 17-18. How do you find them? Find a dark sky away from streetlights, be patient and look up. ●Nov. 4 ●Nov. 5 ●Nov. 9 ●Nov. 20


Restaurants put climate change on the menu

San Francisco restaurateurs Anthony Myint and Karen Leibowitz may have been ahead of their time with their environmentally minded restaurant. The Perennial, which closed in February after three years of business in the city’s challenging Mid-Market neighborhood, tried to tackle climate change through hyperlocal sourcing, energy efficiency, an eco-conscious design, food waste prevention and consumer education, among other planet-friendly practices. But the culinary couple, partners in life and work, haven’t lost their sense of urgency around global warming and how the restaurant industry could play a key role in combating the problem. Their latest climate change campaign with a culinary bent: an optional surcharge on California restaurant checks. It’s part of a new public-private initiative supporting carbon farming practices that Myint and Leibowitz are leading called Restore California. The pair came to realize that one restaurant alone can’t change the food system fast enough to make an impact on the climate crisis. It takes an international village of concerned culinary industry leaders, they say, to take on a topic that many diners and chefs can find tough to digest: the critical role that regenerative agriculture — think practices like composting and cover cropping — can play in mitigating the impact of global warming. In a state now suffering the wrath of hotter, drier weather in the form of larger, more frequent and more devastating wildfires, Myint and Leibowitz’s message has only taken on more urgency. As the co-founders of the popular pop-up Mission Street Food, Myint and Leibowitz are no strangers to industry innovation. In 2014, they founded the nonprofit organization Zero Foodprint, which serves as a resource for restaurants and food service providers that want to find ways to reduce their carbon footprint, by, say, switching to renewable energy, eschewing plastic or sourcing sustainably raised beef. To date, around 30 restaurants have achieved carbon-neutral status under the program; twice that number are on their way to earning the stamp. Michelin-starred Bresca is Washington’s lone entry on the list of Zero Foodprint’s carbon-neutral restaurants, which includes such other upscale dining establishments as California’s Atelier Crenn, Benu and State Bird Provisions. “With small adjustments we can make huge impacts for our environment,” says Bresca chef/owner Ryan Ratino, who works with “imperfect” foods and whole animals, composts and uses compostable containers, and avoids plastic and over-ordering. “My hope is that these sustainable practices become a lifestyle for our restaurants and in this


A Halloween candy bowl was empty, so a young trick-or-treater shared his own stash with strangers

husband sent her the video of Jackson and said, “You won’t believe this.” “He renewed the faith that there are still some good people out there,” Hodges said. Their daughter checked the bowl when she got back to their Gambrills, Md., home in Anne Arundel County to see whether any candy was left. “Nope, someone got it,” she said of Jackson’s candy. Jackson’s dad, 27-year-old Ty Champagne, said no one knew what Jackson was doing in the moment, but he wasn’t surprised by his son’s good deed. “That’s the type of kid Jackson is. He’s always giving,” Champagne said. “He’s a very sweet, kind and soft-spoken kid. I’ve never seen a moment where he acts out negatively toward humanity.” Hodges said she wanted Jackson to “know how much he touched everyone.” After Jackson’s dad reached out on social media, she asked whether they could give him candy, but his parents said that wasn’t necessary. Hodges then asked if they could buy him a gift card to his favorite store. The families plan to meet over the weekend so the Hodgeses can meet Jackson and give him a gift card to Target. Champagne said Jackson gives a box of his toys each year at the holidays to kids in need, and he and his dad had talked about giving more this season. Jackson enjoys the Harry Potter character, as well as dancing and playing make-believe, his dad said. Friday morning before Jackson went to school, Champagne told his son that some people might mention the video. His dad advised him to say thank you and “don’t get a big head." And if he felt like it, his dad advised, he could explain why he left his own candy in the empty bowl. Champagne said he asked his son why he did it, and Jackson responded, “For the kids after me.” Jackson was excited to go to school Friday after his new stardom. “He’s a spotlight kid,” Champagne said. “He’s meant for the camera.” Read more: She dreamed she swallowed her engagement ring. She woke up to find it was true. 650 people formed a human chain to move children’s books from one library to another ‘I had to buy it and finish it’: Why 1,000 people offered to crowd-stitch the quilt of a dead woman none of them knew How a town came together to rescue a missing 6-year-old — and


The FDA learned of an E. coli outbreak in September. Six weeks later, the agency finally announced it.

of those affected, it’s rare for the CDC to determine a singular source. By not announcing their findings immediately, Marler said, these agencies prioritized shielding the romaine industry over informing consumers of a public safety risk. “If I eat romaine lettuce, and I found out romaine lettuce poisoned 11 people and put them in the hospital, I may not want to eat romaine lettuce,” Marler said. “It’s a lie to the public in all respects. People who are in charge of our public health are not telling the public what’s going on.” Marler said the latest cluster of romaine-related infections shares notable similarities with the two major E. coli outbreaks from the spring and fall of last year. A March 2018 outbreak, which sickened 210 people across the country and left five dead, was linked to romaine grown in the Yuma, Ariz., area. The outbreaks were caused by contamination of an E. coli strain known as O157:H7. It produces a Shiga toxin that, in severe cases, can lead to hemolytic uremic syndrome, a type of kidney failure. “All of those outbreaks share the same fact pattern as this one — the only difference is they decided not to tell us about this one,” Marler said. “Pick whatever excuse you want, but whatever it is, it’s a ridiculous excuse.” The revelation comes as the CDC announced a separate outbreak of salmonella infections linked to ground beef. The agency said Friday it was investigating 10 reported cases of “Salmonella Dublin” spanning six states, where victims experienced illnesses that “are more severe than expected for salmonella.” One person died of the salmonella outbreak in California and eight people have been hospitalized, the CDC said. Ill patients have reported eating different types and brands of ground beef “purchased from many locations.” Those affected, whose ages range between 48 to 74, became sick sometime between Aug. 8 and Sept. 22. “Of nine ill people with information available, eight (89%) were hospitalized, which is much higher than we would expect for Salmonella infections,” the agency wrote. “The hospitalization rate is usually about 20%. . . . In five (50%) ill people, Salmonella was found in samples of blood, which indicates their illnesses may have been more severe.” Read more: Top HHS official to run FDA on temporary basis while Trump readies nomination of Texas cancer doctor What we know about the mysterious vaping-linked illness and deaths


Amtrak aspires to a 2-hour D.C.-N.Y. trip, but it’s going to take a lot more than faster trains

is at capacity and doesn’t meet modern railroad standards. Amtrak and the federal government have identified dozens of projects to rebuild and expand tunnels, bridges and tracks that are near or at the end of their useful life. Amtrak has a backlog of $33.3 billion in projects needed just to bring its assets to a state of good repair, and just over $28 billion of that is in the Northeast Corridor. The railroad said it needs $3.3 billion a year over the next 10 years to address the backlog; its capital spending plan shows it has a $17.6 billion shortfall. “What we really need is massive investment in the physical infrastructure that the trains are going on,” Mathews said. “It is more than just some track work and some station work. We have really delayed important investment for decades and decades, and it’s starting to catch up to us.” Railroad officials and some advocates point to progress on planning fixes for some of those critical assets, and to ongoing track and station projects. Some of the most critical and expensive bottlenecks, such as the Hudson and Baltimore tunnels, lack the funding to take them from planning to construction. In recent years, Amtrak has been on a mission to improve service while reducing spending and to tackle some of it’s biggest infrastructure challenges. The nonstop Acela — D.C. bound in the morning and New York bound in the afternoon — is the latest initiative to attract more riders and remain relevant. Its speed is just one aspect. The service that caters to the business traveler follows recent efforts to re-brand the railroad to make it more appealing to millennials and position itself as a more environmentally friendly travel option. It also precedes other investments in the corridor, chiefly the delivery of new Acela train sets starting in 2021 and of a new station in New York, also that year. Amtrak invested $1.46 billion in capital projects in fiscal year 2018, the most in its recent history. The money was spent on projects aimed at increasing comfort on the corridor’s Acela and Northeast Regional services that carry nearly 40 percent of its 31.7 million passenger trips each year, including freshening up train interiors with new carpets, seat covers and cushions. The long-distance trains serving the Northeast are getting upgraded bedding, towels and linens. The investment included an overhaul of WiFi systems aboard


Surprise: Trump allegedly got his Ukraine conspiracy theory from the Russia-tied criminals on his campaign

hardly the only one with a controversial relationship with Russia. Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, has ties to Russia and Russian interests dating back more than a decade, as Philip Bump has documented. He was indicted after documents revealed nearly $13 million in undisclosed payments from a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine. The New York Times reported in July 2017 that Manafort was $17 million in debt to pro-Russian interests in Ukraine. He and Gates were also in business with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who sued them in 2018 for allegedly defrauding him to the tune of $19 million. There is evidence that Manafort signed a $10 million a year contract with Deripaska in 2006 to push a proposal that was pitched as something that “can greatly benefit the Putin Government,” and there is also evidence that Manafort took out a $10 million loan from Deripaska at one point. Flynn’s ties to Russia are more tenuous, but he has made a series of curious decisions involving himself with it. In 2013, as the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in the Obama administration, he became the first U.S. official to visit Russia’s GRU, its military intelligence agency. Flynn then reportedly sought to invite GRU officers to the United States, even after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine. After leaving the Obama administration, Flynn sat next to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a gala in 2015 for the English-language Russian propaganda channel RT and was paid $45,000 for his trip. He was paid another $23,000 by Russia-tied entities that year, according to documents released in 2017. When serving briefly as Trump’s national security adviser in early 2017, Flynn lied to Vice President Pence and investigators about his talks with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, claiming they had not discussed sanctions during the transition period even though they had. It was enough to cause Sally Yates, then acting attorney general, to warn the White House that Flynn was vulnerable to Russian blackmail. Flynn would later plead guilty to lying to the investigators. So we have two men who have been convicted of offenses related to their Russia ties, have both lied to investigators about their interactions with Russian interests, and who apparently played a significant role in pushing a theory to Trump that Russia did not actually interfere in the 2016 election. They instead pointed the finger at Russia’s nemesis, Ukraine, and that has


National Digest: Firefighters report progress on blaze northeast of Los Angeles

CALIFORNIA Authorities lifted all evacuation orders as firefighters made progress Sunday on a large blaze that sent thousands fleeing homes and farms northwest of Los Angeles. Crews working in steep terrain were tamping down hot spots and keeping an eye on lingering gusts in mountain areas that could carry embers, Ventura County Fire Capt. Steve Kaufmann said. Firefighters have contained 50 percent of the blaze, which has burned nearly 15 square miles of dry brush and timber. More than 11,000 people evacuated after the flames spread Oct. 31 during dry winds that fanned fires across the state this fall. In his first recent comments on the California fires, President Trump threatened to cut aid funding to the state. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has done a “terrible job of forest management,” Trump tweeted. When fires rage, Trump tweeted, the governor comes to the federal government for help. “No more,” he tweeted. Newsom replied with a tweet of his own: “You don’t believe in climate change. You are excused from this conversation.” — Associated Press MISSISSIPPI People carrying a white-nationalist flag were caught on security cameras trying to film in front of a new memorial to lynching victim Emmett Till. Patrick Weems, executive director of the Emmett Till Memorial Commission, told the Associated Press that the incident was captured Saturday by new security cameras at the memorial site in Mississippi. Security video from the commission shows the people, including a person carrying the flag of a neo-Confederate group, filming at the site. They are seeing running away after a security alarm sounds. “They basically showed a group of people coming out and filming what looked to be some kind of propaganda video at the historic marker,” Weems said. Till was 14 when he was kidnapped, beaten and killed in 1955 after he allegedly whistled at a white woman. An all-white jury in Mississippi acquitted two white men of murder charges. The memorial is at the site where Till’s body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River. — Associated Press Jimmy Carter returns to teach after a fall: — From news services


Boeing declares spacecraft abort system test a success, despite the failure of one parachute

testing is very complex, and today our team validated that the spacecraft will keep our crew safe in the unlikely event of an abort.” Boeing spokesman Todd Blecher said the company will review the data from the test “to determine how all of the systems performed, including the parachute deployment sequence.” He characterized the parachute problem as “a deployment anomaly, not a parachute failure.” Chris Ferguson, a former NASA astronaut who works at Boeing as its director of crew and mission systems, said the test went “pretty much the way I had envisioned.” Mike Fincke, a NASA astronaut slated to fly on the first mission with crews, said it shows Boeing is “committed to safety, and we are really looking forward to flying.” The test came just days after Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing’s chief executive, was grilled by members of Congress over the problems the company has had with its 737 Max airplanes, which resulted in two crashes, killing 346 people. The scandal has engulfed the company and tarnished its reputation — one member of Congress during the hearings last week accused Boeing of building “flying coffins” — and so it needed the test Monday to go perfectly. While not perfect, having two parachutes working is “acceptable” to meeting the test objectives, Boeing spokesperson Jessica Landa said during the broadcast. Initially, Boeing did not intend to live-stream the event, but NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine insisted, writing on Twitter that he wanted “transparency for the taxpayer.” Boeing and Elon Musk’s SpaceX are under contract from NASA to build spacecraft to ferry astronauts to the space station. The first flights were supposed to take place in 2017, but both companies have suffered problems and delays. NASA has been unable to fly astronauts anywhere since the space shuttle was retired in 2011 and relies on Russia to launch its rockets to space. The delays have forced NASA to negotiate buying additional seats on Russian rockets at a cost of more than $80 million each. Last year, Boeing, which is being paid $4.8 billion by NASA under what is known as the commercial crew program, suffered a major setback during a test of its abort engines when four of eight valves failed to close properly, allowing propellant to leak. The investigation and efforts to fix the problem resulted in a one-year delay, according to the Government Accountability Office. But the system has since been tested


Michele Roberts: After China situation, NBPA must help raise players’ awareness of international issues

and its culture did not match what he saw during his first trip to the country. Roberts admitted that the union has not done enough to help prepare players before their international travels and that it is the NBPA’s responsibility to take proactive steps to prevent its members from doing unintentional harm to their reputations and brands. “For many of the players that went over there, it was their first trip to China,” Roberts said. “Many had no idea what was going on in Hong Kong. Most Americans, let alone most basketball players, are not aware of the politics that have been of concern in China. If we’re going to be sending our guys all over the globe, then we have to make sure they’re armed with the knowledge of where they are going and what’s happening in the locales they’re visiting and playing in. “That’s a role we’re going to play as a union. It’s a role I don’t think we’ve done a good job of fulfilling to date. We’ve got to be capable of providing information to the players [and assisting them if] they ask for help in formulating a comment.” As the China issue has shifted to the back burner with the season in full swing, Roberts has started to look ahead to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Her hope is that the competition will be a unifying event and an opportunity to heal. The Olympics will also be another major test for the players, who will be headed abroad for more international exhibitions during the closing months of the 2020 presidential election campaign. Until then, Roberts offered to be a sounding board for any players who might be struggling to make sense of current events. “The players are pretty independent,” she said. “They don’t ring my phone off the hook asking me what they should say. I sometimes wish they would.” Read more: Jose Calderon played pro basketball for 20 years. Now, a daunting challenge: His first 9-to-5. Stephen Curry’s broken hand sends Warriors spiraling into an identity crisis Rui Hachimura finally showed his age, but Wizards aren’t worried: ‘That guy’s a winner’ Kevin Durant confesses that altercation with Draymond Green contributed to departure from Warriors Joel Embiid and Karl-Anthony Towns suspended two games each for brawl during 76ers-Timberwolves game Sign up for our weekly NBA newsletter to get the best basketball coverage in your inbox


New York City Marathon: Joyciline Jepkosgei wins first marathon in near-record time

Joyciline Jepkosgei of Kenya delivered a dominant performance in her marathon debut, winning the New York City Marathon in a near-record time and Geoffrey Kamworor, also of Kenya, won his second NYC Marathon in three years. Jepkosgei won in a time of 2 hours 22 minutes 38 seconds, seven seconds off the women’s course record, and beating Mary Keitany, the four-time NYC winner, by 54 seconds. At 25, Jepkosgei is the youngest winner since Margaret Okayo won at 25 in 2001. Jepkosgei, who holds the world record in the half-marathon, pulled away from Keitany with about three miles left and becoming the first runner to win the New York City Half-Marathon in March and now the marathon. “I knew Mary had more experience in marathon, so I was trying to push [through],” Jepkosgei told ESPN, adding that she looked back several times just to be sure. Desiree Linden was the first American across the finish line, placing sixth in 2:26:46. Fellow American Kellyn Taylor was seventh in 2:26:52. Kikkan Randall, who won a gold medal for the United States in cross-country skiing at the 2018 Olympics, accomplished her goal of finishing in under three hours in her first marathon. Randall, who completed chemotherapy and surgery for breast cancer that was found in May 2018, finished in 2:55:12. Kamworor pulled away with about two miles to spare, finishing in 2:08:13, with Albert Korir 23 seconds behind him and Girma Bekele Gebre third in 2:08:36. “I saw I was able to go, and I was feeling strong,” Kamworor told ESPN. Kamworor, who holds the world record in the half-marathon, was met at the finish line by training partner Eliud Kipchoge, who recently completed the first sub-two-hour marathon, a feat accomplished under tight, optimal conditions and one that does not count as a record. In the early going of the men’s race, Lelisa Desisa, the reigning men’s champion, dropped out after just seven miles, perhaps still feeling the effects of winning the marathon in the world championships in extreme heat last month in Doha. With the marathon “season” complete, runners will begin focusing on the Summer Olympics in July and August in Tokyo. The trials marathon for the U.S. team is Feb. 29 in Atlanta. Last week, Olympic officials formalized their plan to move the race north to Sapporo’s cooler temperatures. Highs in Tokyo during those months regularly exceed 86 degrees, with high


Calif. governor hits back at Trump over wildfire criticism, threat to cut aid

President Trump on Sunday criticized California’s Democratic governor for his handling of wildfires and made a vague threat to cut aid as blazes continue to burn in the northern and southern parts of the state. The comments are the latest installment of the president’s long-standing grievance with California, a state that has clashed with Trump’s administration, particularly on issues of environmental regulation. In Trump’s first significant mention of California’s wildfires on Twitter since the massive Kincade Fire broke out in late October, the president accused Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of doing a “terrible” job of forest management. Newsom later responded with his own tweet: “You don’t believe in climate change. You are excused from this conversation.” The governor’s criticism was a jab at Trump’s long-standing refusal to acknowledge the impact of climate change or the man-made factors that accelerate it. As he has before, Trump made several erroneous claims about the causes of and potential solutions for the wildfires while writing that he had told Newsom previously to “clean” the forest floors. The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment seeking clarification about his statements, including the specific funding of which Trump was speaking when he declared “no more.” In a statement to The Washington Post several hours after Trump’s initial criticism, Newsom defended his administration’s management of the wildfires shot back at Trump a second. “We’re successfully waging war against thousands of fires started across the state in the last few weeks due to extreme weather created by climate change while Trump is conducting a full on assault against the antidotes,” the governor said. Trump’s Sunday tweets are a retread of his own past remarks about California’s wildfires. In January, he threatened to cut off Federal Emergency Management Agency aid to the state as it grappled with the destruction from a deadly and devastating 2018 fire season. It was unclear whether he had the authority to do so. In decrying California’s forestry management, he echoed an prior suggestion that wildfires can be mitigated by cleaning or “raking” the forest floor. The president’s criticisms, however, reflect a broad misunderstanding of the climate-driven science behind the seasonal wildfires and at the same time mischaracterizes the realities on the ground in California. While fire prevention generally includes some level of debris management, scientists and fire-prevention experts agree California’s wildfire situation largely stems from the region’s intensifying heat that dries


In Kenya’s battle against al-Shabab, locals say the military is fighting terror with terror

finds a decomposing body on the side of a road days or months later. Other times, the hyenas that prowl the desert get there first. Human rights groups, local media and the United Nations have documented dozens of allegations of abuse by the Kenyan security forces, including 88 cases of alleged enforced or involuntary disappearance since 1980. Allegations of abuses against ethnic Somalis have dogged the KDF for decades — starting long before it sent troops into Somalia in 2011. Experts have warned that their clampdowns often serve to radicalize populations instead of contributing to peace, but the KDF has always denied any wrongdoing and rejects any link between its activities and radicalization. In Kutulo, residents estimate that al-Shabab has recruited hundreds from the area in just over a year, since a local religious teacher was arrested by the KDF in the neighboring village of Aws Mudul and later found dead by herdsmen on a remote dirt road. “The KDF does what it wants,” said Mohamed Elmi, the uncle of Abdulkadir Elmi, 34, the man who was killed. “No one has ever stopped them. Even tonight we will barely sleep, out of fear of them.” The U.S. government has given Kenya’s military tens of millions of dollars’ worth of training, equipment and other support over the past eight years and “regularly stresses the importance of respecting human rights with all of our Kenyan counterparts at all levels,” said Lt. Cmdr. Desiree Frame, a spokeswoman for U.S. Africa Command. The U.S. military has at least 200 service members in Kenya. Presented with specific allegations made by residents of Kutulo, the KDF issued a blanket denial that its soldiers had in those instances or ever committed such abuses. In a statement, the KDF said any credible allegations would be referred to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, a watchdog set up by the government. Jedidah Waruhiu, one of the commissioners of that body, said the KDF has not referred any allegations to her office, nor has the KDF cooperated with her investigators when she has brought them complaints from community members. “We have not been able to complete one investigation of the KDF,” she said in a phone interview. “They have refused us access or cooperation in every case. It frustrates our work greatly.” The Kenyan government has also refused to cooperate with the office of the U.N. special rapporteur for


Don’t abolish political ads on social media. Stop microtargeting.

likely be safely targeted down two levels, to the state and then to the county or congressional district level. This would be a major departure from the way political ads are sold on the Internet today. But as Twitter’s announcement highlights, nothing about the status quo is immutable. It is the product of decisions the Internet companies have made. Will those companies continue to use an ad-sales technique that further divides our democracy? Internet advertising companies have created this problem. What are they willing to do to fix it? It would be unwise, unnecessary and counterproductive for political speech to be shut out of the Internet advertising market altogether. The overall advertising market has moved decisively toward the Internet. Political advertising on the Internet is an important part of our political discourse — perhaps the most important. I favor more political speech, not less. The far less drastic step of forswearing the microtargeting of political ads would in essence turn back the clock about a dozen years. In the decades before Facebook began to sell targeted ads in 2007, plenty of campaigns were well-fought. Political actors who wished to communicate with voters individually or in a highly targeted fashion could still do so using their own email, telephone and address lists. Similarly, anything political actors posted on their own pages would still reach their followers. Moving the Internet advertising market for political ads closer to a broadcast model would not eliminate all problems in Internet political advertising, but it would knock out some of those that most threaten the integrity of our discourse. When candidates — or anyone else — try to influence voters, they should be willing to let a wide range of voters hear what they have to say, instead of a precision-targeted few. “Requiring people to stand up in public for their political acts fosters civic courage,” wrote Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in Doe v. Reed, “without which democracy is doomed.” Read more: Megan McArdle: Actually, we don’t want Facebook and Twitter making too many judgment calls The Post’s View: Twitter is banning political ads. If Facebook won’t, it must at least moderate them. Ellen L. Weintraub: Foreign spending in our elections is a threat to our national sovereignty Molly Roberts: Jack Dorsey has no excuse Will Cathcart: Why WhatsApp is pushing back on NSO Group hacking Opinions: Time to regulate political ads on social media


For some cancer patients, monitoring symptoms can extend their lives

early, and intervened on earlier, people lived longer and did better,” he said during an interview in August. And a longer life isn’t the only benefit researchers have found since then. “Monitoring PROs improved people’s symptoms and quality of life,” he said. “It decreased use of the emergency room.” To Basch, the evidence is clear. These technologies pick up symptoms that clinicians will miss, not because of a lack of empathy but because of the limitations of human communication within the large-scale health system. The challenge, he said, is implementing good PRO tools in practice. “The truth is that it’s hard to do, and can easily be done poorly,” he said “It’s frustrating that it takes so long to get this into routine practice,” said Sandra Wong, chief of surgery at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health in New Hampshire. “And practice totally lags behind evidence right now. We have all this great data about how it works, and we know it will take years and years before people put it into practice.” The gold standard of medical evidence is the randomized clinical trial, like the ones carried out by Basch and Denis. But both of those studies analyzed patient data within a single institution. Achieving similar results in messier, everyday clinical practice can be difficult. Barbera, in Calgary, launched her recent retrospective study as a way to measure the impact of PROs in a real-world setting. Barbera points to interactions between doctors and patients as a potential challenge to reaping the benefits of PROs. “Clinicians may underestimate what’s happening, or miss what’s happening, and patients don’t want to volunteer what’s happening,” she said. “They want to be seen as well-behaved patients, good patients.” Wong agrees. “We rely on the patient to call us when something’s wrong,” she said. “A lot of patients wait too long.” Pusic, in Boston, notes that doctors aren’t taught how to collect and use information about symptoms from patients. “We underestimate the difficulty of putting that information in the hands of clinicians in a way that they would find useful,” she said. “It’s data they’re not used to dealing with.” Wong said many institutions around the world have launched new programs to capture patient-symptom data with varied success. And they’re not just in cancer: A range of fields have begun to investigate the best ways to use PROs. “We’re seeing it done a million different ways,” Wong said. health-science@washpost.com


Scientists are baffled: What’s up with the universe?

The universe doesn’t look right. It suddenly looks . . . out of whack. That is the strange message coming from astronomers and physicists, who are wondering whether they need to revise cosmic history. The universe is unimaginably big, and it keeps getting bigger. But astronomers cannot agree on how quickly it is growing — and the more they study the problem, the more they disagree. Some scientists call this a “crisis” in cosmology. A less dramatic term in circulation is “the Hubble Constant tension.” Nine decades ago, the astronomer Edwin Hubble showed that the universe is orders of magnitude vaster than previously imagined — and the whole kit and kaboodle is expanding. The rate of that expansion is a number called the Hubble Constant. It’s a slippery number, however. Measurements using different techniques have produced different results, and the numbers show no sign of converging even as researchers refine their observations. No one is panicking. To the contrary, the theorists are intrigued. They hope the Hubble Constant confusion is the harbinger of a potential major discovery — some "new physics." “Any time there’s a discrepancy, some kind of anomaly, we all get very excited,” said Katherine Mack, a physicist at North Carolina State University who co-wrote a recent paper examining the issue. The Hubble Constant is a central feature of any theory about the evolution and ultimate fate of the universe. This number may have zero effect on daily human existence, but there’s a lot at stake cosmologically. “Where’s it all going to go? How’s it all going to end? That’s a big question,” Mack said. One widely supported estimate of the cosmic expansion uses the background radiation that permeates space — light emitted when the universe was young. That gives a Hubble Constant of about 67 kilometers per second per megaparsec. (A parsec is a distance of a bit more than three light-years. According to this estimate, a galaxy one million parsecs from Earth is receding at 67 kilometers, or about 42 miles, per second, and a galaxy twice as distant is receding at 134 kilometers per second.) But another carefully calibrated measurement, based on light emitted from exploding stars — supernovae — has come up with a Hubble Constant of 73. This isn’t horseshoes or hand grenades: Close doesn’t count. People want the actual, real, universe-expanding Hubble Constant, and no one is eager to round it to


In the galleries: L.A. professor finds heavenly inspiration in Harvard Computers

Los Angeles artist Lia Halloran wants to touch the heavens and to celebrate women who had the same ambition long before her. Her “The Same Sky Overarches Us All,” at the University of Maryland Art Gallery, mostly consists of seven-foot-high vertical prints inspired by a group of women known as the Harvard Computers. Halloran weaves their story, along with her own and the universe’s, into cosmic vignettes. Employed by Harvard’s observatory in the late 19th century, the Computers were assigned to interpret glass photographic plates of the stars. They were hired not because they had astronomical knowledge — although some did — but because they worked cheap. Crunching data in the pre-digital age required lots of labor, and women could be paid substantially less than men. The information they compiled still informs astronomy today. Halloran is a professor of art, not astronomy, but she works at the boundary of art and science, as well as the juncture of earth and sky. Most of her pictures in this show are derived from photos in Harvard’s archives and are made in a way that deliberately straddles painting and photography. She paints blue ink on translucent paper, and she uses these originals to produce white-on-blue cyanotypes (the technology best known from architectural blueprints). Light-sensitive paint is applied to make the prints, which are exposed by the sun. The artist doesn’t portray the Computers literally, but she does offer silhouettes of leaping women on nine panels. Each bears the name of a member of Harvard’s ground crew, whose hopes may be inspired by the name of one of them: Annie Jump Cannon, the first female officer of the American Astronomical Society. Other prints are derived, carefully but not exactly, from plates the Computers analyzed. The images, which have an appropriately Victorian vibe, combine milky swirls with fields of white dots on deep-blue fields. Most are contained within circles, as if glimpsed through a telescope, and some sprawl across multiple sheets. “Comet” rockets through five panels that in total are almost 18 feet wide. The picture is sufficiently sweeping to evoke a vast universe, but romantic enough to suggest a Jules Verne fantasy. As a teenager, Halloran achieved fame as a skateboarder. More recently, she has become a pilot, a pursuit she celebrates in a video split across three screens. “Double Horizon” was compiled from footage shot during more than 30 flights she made while


Britain has embraced the best route out of the Brexit crisis

quickly complete the break with Europe if they are given a majority. To his credit, Mr. Johnson earlier this month negotiated a new exit deal with Brussels that is more palatable than the “no-deal” crashout Britain appeared to be headed for when Mr. Johnson took office as prime minister in July. Still, economists say the plan would leave Britain poorer over time by constraining trade with its largest partner. It would set up a potentially troublesome customs border between Northern Ireland and the rest of Britain. Northern Ireland, Scotland and even Wales might seek independence in an effort to remain in the E.U. Many who voted for Brexit in 2016 did not anticipate those outcomes; they were promised — by Mr. Johnson, among others — that Brexit would only shower the country with benefits. The small Liberal Democrat party and the Scottish National Party oppose Brexit. But Labour, the main alternative to the Conservatives, has taken a muddled position, promising to negotiate a new deal with Brussels and then call a referendum on that deal. It leaves pro-Europe “remainers” with a difficult decision, particularly as Labour’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is offering a far-left agenda of nationalization and other socialist measures that would probably do more damage to Britain’s economy even than Brexit. A Corbyn government could also poison transatlantic relations, even if President Trump leaves office. The Labour leader has a long history of antipathy toward U.S. foreign policy and flirtation with its enemies, including Venezuela’s Chavista regime and the Mideast militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah. Mr. Johnson, who has friendly relations with Mr. Trump, has a Churchillian view of the U.S.-British partnership and favors a free-trade agreement with Washington. Those who wish for neither the economic and strategic diminishment that Brexit would impose on Britain, nor Mr. Corbyn’s radical agenda, can hope for a surge by the Liberal Democrats and other small parties. If Labour defeats the Conservatives next month but falls short of a majority, it might be forced into a coalition that would temper its agenda while allowing a new referendum on Brexit. However, Britian’s election system, which awards seats in individual districts to the first finisher in multicandidate races, tilts against the small parties. All this means an election may not leave Britain better off, or even resolve whether and when it leaves Europe. It is, nonetheless, its best chance for ending its prolonged political crisis.


Saudi, UAE Twitter takedowns won’t curb rampant disinformation on Arab Twitter

the Saudi royal court and the general supervisor of the Center for Studies and Media Affairs, Qahtani was implicated in Khashoggi’s October killing, and the United States imposed sanctions on him. Widely regarded as Mohammed’s confidant, Qahtani is considered the architect of Saudi Arabia’s malicious digital media campaign, procuring bots and spyware to target perceived critics of the country. To suspend Qahtani now, allegedly for “platform manipulation,” when he has not tweeted since October, is unusual. It has been suggested that Twitter may have found evidence linking Qahtani to an operation against critics of Saudi’s leaders, but Qahtani’s reputation as “Lord of the Flies” began way back, during the Persian Gulf crisis in 2017. He endangered the lives of people when he initiated a Twitter blacklist to name and shame sympathizers of Qatar and promote regime change. Oddly, despite providing an archive of the tweets from suspended accounts, Twitter has not provided Qahtani’s archive. Twitter claims there was no evidence that his account was linked to broader information operations, yet open-source investigations have suggested Qahtani was the main orchestrator of such tactics. It is possible his tweets are not being released for other reasons, such as an ongoing investigation. Why now? Although 4,500 accounts may seem like a lot, the number is a drop in the ocean, compared with the number of accounts suspended without publicity. Studies show there are probably millions of fake accounts promoting political propaganda and hate speech in the region. From pro-Russian Turkish bots, to accounts with links to the Iranian government, the region is being roiled by multiple, competing influence campaigns. But most of the time, there is no smoking gun, and attribution to a specific actor is difficult. Despite its reputation for malicious behavior, Saudi Arabia has rarely been publicly rebuked by Twitter, so the recent action by Twitter is likely to be political. Indeed, with the impending anniversary of Khashoggi’s death likely to generate a lot of propaganda, Twitter wishes to appear proactive in tackling influence operations. The account suspension is more symbolic than anything else. Twitter probably hopes that the account suspensions will bring in a new era of a less toxic Arabic Twitter. This is unlikely to happen. The reality is that it is easy to set up a Twitter account. Like a game of Whack-a-Mole, suspended fake accounts will be replaced by more sophisticated efforts at deception. Marc Owen Jones


As dollar stores move into cities, residents see a steep downside

it’s appropriate for city government to pick winners and losers in the economy. It isn’t.” Most Dollar Generals don’t sell produce. But in response to rising criticism it added fruit and vegetables to the store across from the senior home — grapes, apples, avocados, potatoes sandwiched between bags of fried pork skins and cases of Michelob Ultra. Dollar stores are a staple in rural America. While Walmarts and other supercenters attract shoppers from miles beyond a small town, Dollar stores fill the gaps in between. Dollar Tree bought Family Dollar in 2015. Together, the chains operate more than 15,100 stores across the United States and Canada. It plans to hit 26,000 stores. Dollar General operates more than 15,200 stores. Seventy percent of the company’s existing stores are in communities with 20,000 people or less. In 2017, the company notched its 28th consecutive year of positive same-store sales growth. And it is expanding rapidly. In 2009, Dollar General opened 500 stores. In 2017, it hit 1,315 new stores. In the past year, Dollar General’s stock price is up 22 percent. Dollar Tree’s slumped 7 percent. Some argue the dollar stores aren’t a response to chronic poverty, but an instigator. “It creates an overall sense of the neighborhood being run-down,” said Stacy Mitchell, the co director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. “It’s a recipe for locking in poverty rather than alleviating it.” Grocery stores run on thin profit margins — usually between 1 and 3 percent. And they employ more workers than dollar stores to keep perishable food stocked. “It’s no longer the big-box grocery store” that threatens local businesses, said David Procter, a Kansas State University professor who studies rural grocery stores. “But it’s the discount retailer that’s coming to town and setting up shop right across the street.” Others cities are grappling with dollar stores, too. Mesquite, Tex., a Dallas suburb, approved changes to its zoning code last year that will limit the number of dollar stores. The guidelines prevent them from opening within 5,000 feet of each other. And stores must dedicate 10 percent of floor space to fresh food. In New Orleans, the city commissioned a study last year to assess the impact of dollar stores. On a recent afternoon, Jacqueline Wilson loaded honey graham crackers into her cart at a Family Dollar in North Tulsa. The nearest Walmart is a 15-mile drive. There was more dog


revitalization. They support restrictions on dollar stores, and they try to spend in the neighborhood. Onikah orders her groceries online now. “It’s convenient for me, but it does not show the power of the dollar in the community,” Onikah said. “My money is going elsewhere.” Finding a grocer hasn’t been simple. The Tulsa Economic Development Corporation had an agreement with one company focused on combating food deserts, but those plans fell through. That left Rose Washington, the group’s executive director, to find a local group that could sell fresh, affordable groceries. Residents worried that if the food was priced too high, shoppers would just turn back to the dollar stores. This month, a deal was reached with ECO Farms, a local company that focuses on indoor vertical farming to solve food deserts. Two company executives, Jim Bloom and Adam James, said that while this is their first try at a grocery store, they’re intent on making healthy food a reality in District 1 — not a luxury. “We’re attending to this as a human right, not a geographic privilege,” James said. But grocery stores have struggled here before. Wilson said she’s considering moving to South Tulsa to be closer to a local supermarket chain and Walmart. Rent for a one-bedroom apartment there is nearly what she pays for a house in North Tulsa. But she’s tired of having to drive across town for basics. “We’ll just have to keep living on potato chips and doughnuts and pop,” she said. “That’s all we are offered on this side of town.” Dig Deeper: Consumer Culture + Income Inequality Want to read more about how wages affect how we shop? Check out our curated list of stories below. Context matters: How luxury goods benefit society While offensive in times of political and economic upheaval, luxury has been an inspiration for creativity and fuel for thought throughout history. Here’s what the rise of dollar stores tell us about income inequality Dollar General and Dollar Tree operate more than 30,000 stores nationally and plan to open thousands more, vastly outnumbering Walmarts and other retailers. Understanding how communities are hurt when malls close There’s only one remaining department store in the only mall in Hermitage, a city of 16,000 in western Pennsylvania. When Macy’s and Sears closed, nearly 200 people lost their jobs — the equivalent of 1 in 5 retail positions in the city. rachel.siegel@washpost.com


This little butcher shop in rural West Virginia is turning out world-class burgers

Shop. “I started in the dish pit,” he says. “They didn’t let me touch a knife for three months.” He worked his way up to sausage-making and more advanced work. And he nearly set up his own shop in Asheville. He and a partner had plans for a butchery, but just before they were set to sign a lease, the partnership fell apart. Pete went to work with a childhood friend who owned J.M. Stock butcher shop in Charlottesville and did a week-long apprenticeship at the Meat Hook in Brooklyn. A deus ex machina soon steered them to West Virginia when Kate’s parents called with a proposition: They had purchased an old ice cream shop a few miles from their farm and were looking for energetic young people (cough, cough) to run it as a grocery store. Did they know anyone who might be interested? Their little hamlet was a rural food desert, with the nearest stores selling fresh produce half an hour away. “My dad’s thinking was, ‘What does this town need?’ ” Kate says. “But I think it was partly a play to get us back here.” They immediately drove to Capon Bridge and arrived at the property in the pitch dark, wielding flashlights to check out the potential project. Things didn’t look promising. The building had started out its life as a Tastee Freez knockoff called Big T, and was crowned with a strange, mushroom-shaped roof. It had sat vacant for eight years by the time they arrived. “I mean, it had no front door,” Kate recalls. “It was a mess.” But it didn’t take long for the couple to decide to go for it. Getting the building into shape required a modern-day barn raising. Family and friends pitched in. They spent their days installing drywall and grinding down concrete floors. Out of money, they used Kickstarter donations to complete the project. Within months, the run-down building was transformed into a warm, rustic-meets-sleek market. Old barnwood wraps the checkout counter, and the shelves are filled with produce and grocery staples, craft beer and wines. When they opened their doors, they weren’t sure what to expect. “We had nothing on the shelves except condiments and chips,” Kate recalls. Still, they sold out of everything — and since then, they’ve made adjustments and adapted to their clientele, a mix of locals and weekenders from the Washington suburbs. They started


Did Russia interfere in Brexit?: An unpublished report roils U.K. politics before election

Nearly 3½ years since Britain voted to leave the European Union, an unpublished report that investigates possible Russian interference in that decision is once again roiling British politics — only a little more than a month before a crucial general election that may decide the country’s future. On Tuesday, opposition lawmakers took Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government to task for an alleged delay in the publication of the report, which is titled “Russia” and includes evidence from British intelligence agencies about alleged Russian interference in British elections and other possible threats. “What on earth do they have to hide?” Emily Thornberry, shadow foreign secretary for the opposition party Labour, said in the House of Commons. Some media outlets have suggested that rather than presenting a damning picture of Kremlin meddling in the Brexit vote, the report tamps down speculation. Citing two sources, BuzzFeed News reported last week that the report found no evidence that Russia interfered in the Brexit referendum or the 2017 general election. But time is of the essence. Britain is due to vote for a new Parliament on Dec. 12, which means Parliament is scheduled to be dissolved so campaigning can begin — on Tuesday. This means if the report is not released soon, it probably will be delayed until after the British election. Critics of the government say the delay is inexplicable. The report, produced by Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, was finalized in March and sent to Johnson’s office on Oct. 17. Dominic Grieve, a former member of Johnson’s government who is chairman of the committee, told the BBC this week that any arguments not to release the report before the election would be “entirely disingenuous and grossly misleading." However, government ministers have said the report is simply going through the proper procedure for the release of sensitive information. “It’s been lodged with Number 10 [Downing Street] and it will be published in due course,” Michael Gove, a member of Johnson’s cabinet, told BBC Radio 4′s Today program on Tuesday. As in the United States, allegations of Russian interference in Britain’s elections have cast a pall over voting results in Britain during the past few years. Britain’s vote to exit the European Union won by a 52-48 percent majority, leading to years of controversy about how to leave the bloc, and even whether it still should. Kremlin foes say Russian President Vladimir Putin was one


U.S. should consider pooling data with other countries to beat China in artificial intelligence, group says

of the world than the competition for dominance in AI. AI will probably determine which country wins in the economic realm and, in turn, in the national security realm. In 2017, China announced its goal to become the world leader in AI by 2030. The United States responded by creating the commission to review America’s competitive position and to advise Congress on what steps are needed to maintain U.S. leadership. Former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt and Work were chosen from among 15 appointed commissioners to lead the group. The focus of the commission is on AI for national security in both the public and private sectors. But AI-enhanced economic superiority is a national security concern, Work said. Schmidt and Work spoke about the challenges that the United States faces in winning support from a skeptical private sector, and in maintaining engagement with China while ensuring it doesn’t work to the United States’ detriment. “There’s somebody on the horizon who is different in values from us who is quite capable,” Schmidt said. “We should do whatever it takes to make sure that the U.S. wins in this space.” Since the commission was formed earlier this year, it has been gathering facts and compiling an overview of U.S. government activity on AI. The second phase, which will conclude a little bit more than a year from now, will draw up recommendations. The interim report lays out seven consensus principles and five lines of effort that will guide the commission’s next phase. The report gives 27 initial judgments on areas the commission believes require more attention or action, such as pooling data from democratic nations. On another hot-button topic, the report said lethal autonomous weapons are an important area for study but did not make a recommendation for action. The commission plans to meet with the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other civil society groups to understand their objections to these types of weapons. China is developing such weapons. While artificial intelligence advances ricochet around the world at the speed of the Internet, Work noted that what the Defense Department worries about is China integrating emerging technologies in a way that would give them a battlefield advantage. The challenge, Schmidt and Work noted, is drawing on the expertise of Chinese nationals in U.S. research while protecting the national interest. They said they had heard


D.C. police arrest suspect in fatal shooting of man in Northeast Washington

D.C. police on Mondayarrested a suspect in the death of a 22-year-old man who was shot in September in Northeast Washington, according to authorities. Members of the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested Tyrell Powell, 22, of Southeast. Powell is charged with first-degree murder while armed in the shooting of Semaj Alsobrooks, of Northeast, who was attacked just before midnight Sept. 4 in the 3900 block of East Capitol Street NE. Another man who was shot survived, police said. Authorities did not describe a possible motive in the shooting; additional details are expected after the suspect makes his initial appearance in D.C. Superior Court. peter.hermann@washpost.com


Investing in Saudi Arabia’s oil company is an investment in a brutal regime

SAUDI CROWN Prince Mohammed bin Salman appears confident he has overcome the international backlash that followed the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi 13 months ago. Last week, the annual investment conference the kingdom sponsors saw the return of senior government officials and business executives who boycotted it last year, soon after a killing that U.S. intelligence concluded was ordered by the crown prince. On Sunday, the Saudi oil company, Aramco, announced that it was finally going forward with its first public share offering, an initiative Mohammed bin Salman has been touting since 2016. Before Western investors pile in, they ought to consider how Saudi Arabia has changed in the nearly five years since its previous ruler, King Abdullah, died, as a new report by Human Rights Watch shows. Even without the report, the Aramco initial public offering comes with some red flags. The first shares are being offered only on Saudi Arabia’s small stock exchange, and there are reports that domestic investors are being pressured into buying them. Mohammed bin Salman has promoted a $2 trillion valuation for the company, even though international analysts say that may be a third more than it is worth. Aramco temporarily lost half its production following an Iranian-sponsored attack on its production facilities in September, and its ability to defend itself against further strikes is questionable. But the political risks may be even graver. As Human Rights Watch documents, Mohammed bin Salman’s much-hyped push to modernize the kingdom has been accompanied by some of the most brutal and arbitrary repression in its history. Around the time of his promotion to crown prince in 2017, the report recounts, Saudi intelligence, prosecution and security services were purged and placed under the direct control of the royal court. There followed wave after wave of political arrests. First came “prominent clerics, public intellectuals, academics and human rights activists” in September 2017; then, two months later, “businesspeople and royal family members.” In May 2018, it was the turn of women’s rights activists, 19 of whom were seized. The sweeps continued even after the murder of Khashoggi and the international backlash that followed. In April writers and activists were arrested in another crackdown, the report says. Four more religious figures were detained last month. Jailing peaceful domestic critics is nothing new for the Saudi regime. What makes the Mohammed bin Salman era different, Human Rights Watch says, “is the sheer


Trump administration imposes sanctions on top aides to Iranian leader Khamenei

On the 40th anniversary of the U.S. Embassy takeover in Tehran, the Trump administration imposed new sanctions Monday on the core inner circle of advisers to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and added $20 million to a reward for information about a former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran 12 years ago. The sanctions target some of Khamenei’s closest advisers, including his second son, Mojtaba Khamenei, who often represents his father at official functions even though he has never been appointed to a government position, U.S. officials said. Others sanctioned include Ebrahim Raisi, the newly appointed head of Iran’s judiciary, and Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani, the supreme leader’s chief of staff. The list also includes an adviser who arranged credit lines for oil shipments to the Syrian government, and the head of Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff, the top military body in Iran. As if to underscore the long history of conflict between the United States and Iran, the Treasury Department also sanctioned Hossein Dehghan, one of Khamenei’s military aides, who was a commander in Lebanon during the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 service members. “Today’s anniversary is a stark reminder that we are dealing with, today, the same regime that sprung up 40 years ago; the same regime that remains committed to violence and hostage taking that our diplomats encountered so long ago,” said a senior administration official, referring to the 1979 student takeover of the U.S. Embassy in which more than 50 diplomats and military guards were held captive for 444 days. This official, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity under the Trump administration’s media guidelines. “Forty years later, the revolutionary regime in Tehran has proven, time and again, that its first acts after gaining power were a clear indication of its evil character,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a statement. “The regime continues to unjustly detain Americans and to support terrorist proxy groups like Hizballah that engage in hostage taking.” Pompeo expanded on his characterization of Iran in a ceremony at the State Department to commemorate the anniversary, an event attended by many of the surviving hostages, their relatives and the families of some of the five Americans known to be missing or imprisoned in Iran. Pompeo demanded Iran release them. “Everyone involved in the Iran hostage crisis showed the world what they were made of,” he


Inside the little-known world of flavorists, who are trying to make plant-based meat taste like the real thing

CRANBURY, N.J. — Marie Wright dips four long strips of paper, the kind you’d sniff a perfume sample from in Sephora, into bottles of clear liquid marked Methyl Cinnamate, Ethyl Butyrate, y-decalactone and Furaneol. She holds the four strips together and wafts them, fanlike, under her nose. Suddenly, the lab smells of strawberries. Wright is the vice president and chief global flavorist for Archer Daniels Midland, one of the world’s largest food processors and suppliers. She’s a former French perfume industry chemist who has created more than 1,000 individual flavors for major food and beverage companies, and she’s now facing one of the biggest challenges of her career. Consumers are seduced and beguiled by flavorists without even being aware of it. Flavorists are the people who tinker with nacho cheese dust, Hot Pockets and pumpkin spice lattes. They are the tastemakers, driving consumer trends and making food craveable. Wright and the planet’s 200 or so other flavorists are bringing their alchemy to plant-based meat. It’s the biggest craze the food industry has seen in a long time, driven by concerns about climate change, animal welfare and human health. It is still dwarfed by the $49 billion beef industry; however, the Swiss investment firm UBS predicts growth of plant-based protein and meat alternatives will increase from $4.6 billion in 2018 to $85 billion by 2030. Despite its swift ascent, plant-based meat is the antithesis of recent trends such as local and farm-to-table dining, representing an embrace of highly processed foods made palatable in a laboratory by technicians such as Wright. “These are great proteins from a nutritional perspective, but plant-based presents some challenges with tastes that can be unpleasant,” Wright says. First, there is the masking of the vegetal “green” notes in pea protein and the “beany” notes in soy, often by adding other ingredients and chemicals. “There isn’t one magic bullet, not one molecule or extract. It tends to be common pantry items like salt, spices, molasses, honey,” Wright says. Vanilla extract is often used for masking because it is known for how it binds to a protein, rendering its own distinctive taste undetectable. “It sacrifices itself,” she says. She describes vegetal notes that are more about aromatics. The goal is not to remove these aromas, but to prevent them from being perceived. “Smell and taste are closely linked in the appreciation of flavor but are independently triggered,” she says.


Some wasps and flies can turn fellow insects into zombies

The sting of a wasp can be painful to humans. But for certain caterpillars, spiders and worms, it can mean being turned into a puppet slave for days, until they die a grisly death. Sound like the stuff of Halloween nightmares? It’s just an ordinary day in the world of insects, where an estimated 10 percent — about 120,000 species — are parasitoids (pronounced pare-uh-si-TOID). That is, they occupy and live off a host insect, eventually killing it. Parasitoid insects have been around for at least 100 million years, since before there were dinosaurs, says Floyd Shockley. He is collections manager in the department of entomology at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. A lot of them are hymenopterans (hi-me-NAHP-ter-ans). This is the order that includes ants, bees and wasps. Shockley says this makes sense because “they’re already equipped with stingers to inject chemicals” to make their victims do their bidding. They’re also all females. That’s because there’s only one reason parasitoid insects take over other insects: to lay eggs in them. Hatched larvae munch on the insides of their still-alive host. Then, when they’ve matured, they eat their way out. There are fly parasitoids that decapitate (or take the heads off) fire ants. Hairworm parasitoids that make grasshoppers jump into water and drown. Even a fungus that pierces the heads of ants to distribute its spores. “But wasps,” Shockley says, “do some of the coolest stuff.” Glyptapanteles (glip-tuh-PAN-teh-leez) wasp larvae feed on an inchworm’s insides till they’re ready to pupate, or live in a cocoon-like structure. Then they push their way through its skin and attach to the outside of its body. “Two larvae stay behind inside, manipulating the worm into protecting their brothers and sisters,” says Shockley. Anelosimus eximius Shockley’s favorite parasitoid might be the emerald wasp. It stings a much larger, heavier cockroach, making it docile. Then it climbs on its head and steers it by its antennae back to its nest “like a dog on a leash,” Shockley says. “It’s weird.” Scientists only recently developed the tools to study parasitoid wasp DNA. They’re researching how hatched larvae avoid triggering immune responses, reactions that would make their hosts kick them out. They think this is important for understanding human immune responses. Unfortunately, this research might get harder. Insects are in decline around the world, and Shockley says parasitoid insects are especially vulnerable. They usually have only


Adam Rippon’s path to becoming ‘America’s sweetheart’ was not all fun and (Olympic) games

balanced life — without disappointing anyone invested in his success. Rippon recalls one attempt to placate his mother by distancing himself from a distracting boyfriend: “I would go back to being like a Ken doll with just a flat plastic front who did nothing except eat, sleep, and skate,” he writes. “Beautiful” is breezy and chatty, as though Rippon is massaging the script for one of his Instagram stories. He’s a pro at well-placed pop culture references and, where some elite athletes seem otherworldly — made from different stuff — he comes across as the relatable Olympian next door. His flair for storytelling peaks in tune with the drama surrounding his life: desperate financial struggles through his 20s; the devastation of failing to qualify for the 2014 Olympics; a catastrophic injury ahead of the 2018 Games. In particularly compelling chapters, he reveals how he came out both personally and professionally — and how being gay affected his skating career. (“It’s not an overt homophobia, where gay skaters are punished, but a softer and equally insidious version of it,” he describes.) He now equates his sexuality to a “fun fact . . . like any other bit of biographical trivia.” But it was a headline-grabber during the Games, when Rippon publicly criticized Vice President Pence, who was chosen as the head of the U.S. delegation to the PyeongChang Games, for not supporting gay people. The feud culminated in a Twitter spat with various members of the administration. Once the cacophony calmed down, and after claiming his medal, Rippon ran into the U.S. men’s hockey team at a party. The members all wanted to take a photo with him because their girlfriends were fans. “It was like ‘Freaky Friday’ to me,” he writes. When he was a shy little kid, everyone on the hockey team wanted to beat him up. “Now they all wanted to take my picture and I was trying to be their friend. If I had a dollar for every girlfriend selfie I took with an athlete, I would have made back all the money I had spent on training to get myself to the Olympics in the first place.” So, okay. Rippon might have gone home from the athletic world’s largest stage with a bronze medal in tow. But this memoir? It’s pure comedic gold. bookworld@washpost.com Beautiful on the Outside By Adam Rippon Grand Central. $28. 256 pp


‘Our children are in jail’: How India is keeping Kashmir isolated and in fear

We answered yes, and he began screaming at our driver, asking us to leave. “Do you guys have any shame?” he yelled. “You journalists dance on television that everything is normal here while we are being killed and silenced. Our children are in jail and have been disappeared and you tell the world that all is good, that we are rejoicing!” The Indian media is viewed with suspicion and anger in Kashmir. There is growing resentment over the skewed coverage — most journalists have resorted to simply reproducing official government lies. Gulfam Wani, a local baker, asked me, “How does the Indian media sleep at night with this propaganda against us Kashmiris every day?” A few miles ahead, I met Muzaffar Ahmed. He is 20 and works with his father and brother in a local bakery in Parigaam. His father, Shabbir, told us that on Aug. 6 members of the Rashtriya Rifles, a security unit deployed in the valley, knocked on the door. They came in a mine-resistant vehicle used by the Indian army. They started breaking the windows of his house. Muzaffar told me the officers were drunk. Close to 30 officers ransacked the house. They showered expletives on the family. One of them held Muzaffar by the neck and asked, "Where are your accomplices?” He dragged Muzaffar to the local mosque and asked him to throw stones at it. When Muzaffar refused, they beat him again. “Throw stones at the mosque, like you throw stones at us,” he said they told him. The Ahmed brothers were beaten for two hours before they were taken to the central jail. Muzaffar told me that once there, they were beaten for hours with a bamboo stick. When they went unconscious, they were woken up with electric shocks. He shows me his burnt skin. The two brothers were held for 20 days. After they were released, Shabbir put them in a tempo and hurried them to a hospital in Srinagar. The doctor told him that his son barely survived with his spine. Muzaffar, who prayed five times a day in the local mosque, broke down: “They have broken my bones; I cannot prostrate myself before Allah.” He is still looking for answers. Why was he arrested? He said he has never taken part in a single protest. His father wanted to know how the family will survive with his two working sons