Clue in Mueller filing suggests Manafort kept working on topic of interest to Russia after indictment

that took place in 2016, while he was busy working as Trump’s campaign chairman. “Mr. Manafort explained to the Government attorneys and investigators that he would have given the Ukrainian peace plan more thought, had the issue not been raised during the period he was engaged with work related to the presidential campaign,” they wrote. The new details indicate that Manafort continued to pursue a possible deal, even as it was clear that his every move was being closely scrutinized by Mueller’s team. The FBI had conducted a predawn raid of his Virginia condo in July 2017. By October, a federal grand jury in Washington indicted him on charges that including failing to register as a foreign lobbyist while working in Ukraine. In February 2018, as Manafort exchanged emails about the “initiative for peace” document, there were extensive news reports that Rick Gates, his longtime deputy in Ukraine who had also been charged in October, was preparing to plead guilty and provide information about Manafort’s work to Mueller. Indeed, one day after Manafort emailed the “initiative for peace” document, he and Gates were charged a second time by Mueller’s team — this time in Virginia, where they were accused of engaging in tax and bank fraud related to their handling of their Ukraine profits. The following day, Gates pleaded guilty. The new documents show that Mueller is also exploring whether Manafort had ongoing contact with the White House — suggesting Manafort may have believed he retained pull with the Trump administration, even as he wrestled with unfolding legal problems. He also remained in contact with Kilimnik, the filing shows. A Russian army veteran and talented linguist, Kilimnik had gone to work for Manafort in Kiev in 2005 and had emerged over the years as a key Manafort aide. He served as Manafort’s liaison to top Ukrainian and Russian politicians and business leaders, including Oleg Deripaska, a Russian aluminum magnate who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and wa Experts on the region say that Russia saw an opening with Trump’s election, prompting a variety of players to circulate peace proposals for Ukraine as he took office that were generally acceptable to the Kremlin. In February 2017, Kilimnik told Radio Europe/Radio Liberty that he was working on one proposal that would pave the way for Yanukovych’s return to power. He said in the interview that Manafort was not involved. rosalind.helderman@washpost.com


لا تزال تونس تعاني من إرث الديكتاتورية بعد ثمان سنوات من إطلاقها للربيع العربي

احتفل التونسيون يوم الاثنين مرة أخرى بالذكرى السنوية لثورتهم في عام 2011 التي ألهمت أيضًا انتفاضات الربيع العربي الأوسع حول الشرق الأوسط وشمال إفريقيا. يعيد التونسيون وغيرهم النظر في هذه الأحداث مرة أخرى هذا العام ويحاولون استنباط معناها الأكبر. لا يزال الكثيرون يتطلعون إلى تونس كنموذج محتمل للانتقال الديمقراطي الناجح، حتى وهم يدركون أنّها لا تزال تجربة هشّة. لكن مع احتفال التونسيين بهذه المناسبة هذا العام، أصبح من الواضح أنّ الانتهاكات التي أدّت إلى الثورة في طيّ النسيان. المسألة ليست أنّ التونسيين لم يحاولوا التحقق من الماضي. في عام 2013، أصدر المشرّعون قانونًا ينصّ على إنشاء عملية عدالة انتقالية تهدف إلى فضح انتهاكات حقوق الإنسان من جانب الحكومة ومحاسبة المسؤولين عن الانتهاكات وطلب التعويضات والمصالحة في نهاية المطاف. في عام 2014، أنشأت الحكومة لجنة الحقيقة والكرامة لتنفيذ هذه العملية. كما هو الحال في العديد من لجان الحقيقة الأخرى، مثلما حدث في جنوب إفريقيا وتشيلي، فإنّ عملها لم يصل إلى مستوى توقعات الضحايا. مع ذلك، افتتحت اللجنة 62,720 ملفًا للضحايا وأجرت 49,654 مقابلة سرية خلال أربع سنوات قصيرة. لقد كشفوا عن جرائم كانت مخفية لعقود. في مايو/أيار الماضي، بدأت اللجنة بإحالة القضايا إلى 13 محكمة خاصة في جميع أنحاء البلاد أُنشِئَت بموجب قانون العدالة الانتقالية. لهذه المحاكم الخاصة أيضًا صلاحية النظر في قضايا ضد أشخاص سبق الحكم عليهم في المحاكم العادية على خلفية نفس الجرائم، نظرًا لأن المحاكم التي نظرت في هذه القضايا في وقت سابق قد لا تكون مستقلة تمامًا أو جاهزة للتعامل مع مسؤولية القيادة. بالطبع، فإنّ الجرائم التي اكتشفتها اللجنة لم تكن خفية بالنسبة للضحايا. في الدولة البوليسية التي قادها زين العابدين بن علي، الذي كان رئيسًا من عام 1987 حتى الإطاحة به في عام 2011، كان بإمكان المواطنين العاديين العيش بجوار ضحايا التعذيب والاختفاء القسري والاغتصاب من قبل رجال الأمن وألّا يعلموا عن عذاب جيرانهم. فرضت الحكومة قيودًا على كافة السبل التي تُمَكِّن المواطنين من تبادل المعلومات “الحساسة”: حرية التعبير والصحافة والتجمع وإنشاء الجمعيات. الآن شارفت نهاية تفويض اللجنة. لكن الحكومة لم تنتظر حتى تقرأ تقريرها النهائي قبل انتقاد عملها. الخلفية السياسية واضحة: الانتخابات الوطنية الأخيرة في عام 2014 جلبت العديد من أعضاء النظام القديم إلى السلطة. كان لدى البعض منهم مصلحة راسخة في عرقلة الجهود الهادفة لكشف المسؤولين عن القمع والجرائم الاقتصادية. اليوم، يمتلك وزيران حاليان نفس الحقيبتَين اللتَين أشرفا عليها في عهد بن علي في عام 2011، بينما خدم وزيران آخران على الأقل كوزيرَين في عهد بن علي بصلاحيات أخرى. لقد ساهم ذلك في نشوب مناخ سياسي معادٍ جدًا للكشف عن الماضي. كانت أحدث علامة


في قضايا ضد أشخاص سبق الحكم عليهم في المحاكم العادية على خلفية نفس الجرائم، نظرًا لأن المحاكم التي نظرت في هذه القضايا في وقت سابق قد لا تكون مستقلة تمامًا أو جاهزة للتعامل مع مسؤولية القيادة. بالطبع، فإنّ الجرائم التي اكتشفتها اللجنة لم تكن خفية بالنسبة للضحايا. في الدولة البوليسية التي قادها زين العابدين بن علي، الذي كان رئيسًا من عام 1987 حتى الإطاحة به في عام 2011، كان بإمكان المواطنين العاديين العيش بجوار ضحايا التعذيب والاختفاء القسري والاغتصاب من قبل رجال الأمن وألّا يعلموا عن عذاب جيرانهم. فرضت الحكومة قيودًا على كافة السبل التي تُمَكِّن المواطنين من تبادل المعلومات “الحساسة”: حرية التعبير والصحافة والتجمع وإنشاء الجمعيات. الآن شارفت نهاية تفويض اللجنة. لكن الحكومة لم تنتظر حتى تقرأ تقريرها النهائي قبل انتقاد عملها. الخلفية السياسية واضحة: الانتخابات الوطنية الأخيرة في عام 2014 جلبت العديد من أعضاء النظام القديم إلى السلطة. كان لدى البعض منهم مصلحة راسخة في عرقلة الجهود الهادفة لكشف المسؤولين عن القمع والجرائم الاقتصادية. اليوم، يمتلك وزيران حاليان نفس الحقيبتَين اللتَين أشرفا عليها في عهد بن علي في عام 2011، بينما خدم وزيران آخران على الأقل كوزيرَين في عهد بن علي بصلاحيات أخرى. لقد ساهم ذلك في نشوب مناخ سياسي معادٍ جدًا للكشف عن الماضي. كانت أحدث علامة على نبذ الحكومة لاستكشاف تاريخ الدولة المسيء في ديسمبر/كانون الأول الماضي خلال المؤتمر الختامي للّجنة عندما حان الوقت لتقديم نتائجها الرئيسية. لم يحضر أي مسؤول حكومي. قالت رئيسة اللجنة سهام بن سدرين خلال ملاحظاتها الافتتاحية: “نأسف لغياب المسؤولين عن حكومتنا، والمسؤولين من برلماننا، والمسؤولين من رئاسة جمهوريتنا.” لم يكن هذا الغياب مفاجئًا بالمرة. حاول السياسيون المنتسبون إلى الائتلاف الحاكم وقف عمل اللجنة عدة مرات. انتقدت النقابات التي تمثل قوات الأمن بشدة عملية العدالة الانتقالية وحثّت في إحدى المناسبات الأعضاء على الإضراب حتى الإفراج عن زملائهم المحتجزين بتهمة التعذيب. رفض جميع المتهمين بالمشاركة في الانتهاكات الماضية التعاون مع أوامر الاستدعاء للمثول أمام المحاكم الخاصة. هذه إشارة مقلقة بالنسبة لسيادة القانون في تونس. لقد فقد العديد من التونسيين الثقة في الدولة نتيجة لما يرونه فشلًا في إجراءات العدالة الانتقالية. بالنسبة إلى هؤلاء التونسيين، فإنّ السؤال المفتوح هو ما إذا كانت الدولة تمثل الشعب بالفعل أو إن كانت تسيء معاملتهم أو تسحقهم بالأقدام. اليوم، مع الأسف، انتهاكات الماضي مستمرة – التعذيب لا يزال “منتشرًا بكل مظاهره”، وفقًا للجمعيات التونسية غير الحكومية. لا تزال الدولة تقيد الحريات المدنية وإن كانت بدرجة أقل من الماضي – على سبيل المثال، من خلال مقاضاة المدوِّنين ومغنّي موسيقى الراب وسجنهم في بعض الحالات بسبب كلامهم السلمي بموجب قوانين


Xi Jinping deploys China’s legal system to bully the West

television to offer what was likely a forced confession, claiming he had returned to China voluntarily. He was jailed for more than 18 months, and when he was released in the fall 2017, he was banned from leaving China, although he has not been charged with any additional crimes. In another case, Georgetown University student Victor Liu and his sister, Cynthia Liu, both U.S. citizens, have been blocked from leaving China for months because Chinese authorities suspect their father of having committed bank fraud. It’s pretty clear that Chinese authorities are holding the Liu children as human collateral in a case against their father. Canada has also seen this movie before. Soon after Canadian authorities took custody of a Chinese-born aerospace executive named Su Bin on an espionage-related extradition request from the United States in June 2014, China arrested a Canadian couple — Kevin and Julia Garratt — who ran a coffee shop in the northeastern city of Dandong and accused them of spying, too. In March 2016, Su pleaded guilty to hacking into the computer systems of major U.S. defense contractors, stealing reams of information on the C-17 military transport plane, along with details about the F-22 and F-35 fighter jets. Only after Su pleaded guilty were the Garratts released. The Su case provides a key to the fates of Kovrig, Spavor and Schellenberg. As the case against Meng wends its way through Canada’s courts, China will likely keep them in custody, like it did the Garratts, with a gun at Schellenberg’s head. Depending on how Meng fares, China will respond. This might be shocking to those in the West, but it’s becoming increasingly normal in a country where law enforcement’s main function is not to keep the peace but to keep the Communist Party in power. It’s no coincidence that these actions have intensified under the rule of President Xi Jinping, who has used China’s security services to drum up corruption charges against potential competitors and purge them from the party’s ranks. Before Xi took power in 2012, the Chinese Communist Party conducted its foreign policy with a certain degree of circumspection. China’s diplomats understood the reputational risks of thuggish behavior overseas and worked quietly to rein in the worst tendencies of China’s security agencies. Now, however, those brakes are broken, and even ambassadors are conscripted to validate China’s truculent behavior across the globe. Read more: John Pomfret:


Britain’s leaders have failed. It’s time to give the people another say.

campaigners such as myself. But it has since entered the mainstream and will be the only way forward for a country desperate to avoid a calamitous Brexit or total stagnation. So what happens next? Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the opposition, lost the vote of no confidence he tabled in the government last night. May took to the podium to say she will reach across the benches to find a solution — after more than two years of refusing to do so. It then transpired that this grand exercise in consensus-building would not include Corbyn, who refuses to engage until the option of a No Deal departure is taken off the table. The gridlock continues, costing the nation $645 million per week. Corbyn’s plan involves the same sort of have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too logic (“cakeism,” as it is known in Brussels) of which the government stands accused. A “jobs-first” Brexit is a pipe dream. Members of his front bench have expressed doubts about the prospect of renegotiation; the country wants certainty, not a further back and forth. Fundamentally, both Corbyn and May refuse to face up to reality. Her plan is dead. His is deluded. What was promised in 2016 cannot be delivered. There is, understandably, no Brexit that leaves us with the same benefits that we enjoyed as members of the E.U. without incurring some costs. New facts have emerged about the reality of leaving the E.U., including the potential of a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and a $50 billion divorce bill. It is reasonable to ask the people whether they want to continue on a course that is not as easy as it first seemed. Factions in Parliament disagree intractably on the trade-offs Brexit should involve. Some want more sovereignty at the cost of significant economic damage. Others prefer to minimize damage but to lose the control promised to voters. Neither option is particularly palatable, and no outcome will be able to command a majority in Parliament. For this reason, the country has just one option left: handing the decision back to the people to decide. Young people will be at the center this time round — and rightly so. Read more: The Post’s View: There’s no good way out of the Brexit disaster Megan McArdle: The best solution to Brexit: Leave, ‘good and hard’ George F. Will: Theresa May’s Brexit plan isn’t dead yet


Just how long are Republicans going to enable the Trump-Putin partnership?

The Republican Party, once the strong-on-defense party -- the party whose revered president said of the desired end to the Cold War, “We win, they [the Soviets] lose,” -- showed its new, true colors on Wednesday. The Associated Press reports on Wednesday’s vote on sanctions relief for a Russian oligarch. “The Senate has narrowly upheld a Treasury Department decision to lift sanctions from three companies connected to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. A vote to move forward on a Democratic resolution that would have reversed Treasury’s decision failed Wednesday on a 57-42 vote, just short of the 60 votes needed." Eleven Republicans voted with Democrats to oppose lifting sanctions. In a floor speech before the vote, Minority Leader Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) argued: Why, then, Schumer asked, should sanctions be lifted when Deripaska still retains 45 percent interest in the companies, his in-laws get 7 percent and the “large percentage that Russian banks, controlled by Putin, own – the control is just as tight as it was before”? The lifting sanctions was nothing but a gift, “another example President Trump trying to lighten the burden on Putin’s oligarchs,” Schumer said. While 11 Republican senators deserve credit for breaking with the president and his pro-Putin stance, the more disturbing question is why the rest voted to protect Trump, and by extension Putin, rather than defend the sanctions regime they had originally supported. (The New York Times dryly reports, “The Republicans who voted against the administration plan were adhering to what had once been party orthodoxy: taking a hard line against Moscow. The Republicans who voted in favor of lifting the sanctions did so at a time when President Trump’s warmer stance toward Russia has inflamed questions about the Kremlin’s efforts to help elect him.”) The vote came as controversy and suspicion swirl regarding Trump’s efforts to keep secret, even from his own advisers, the contents of private meetings and calls with Putin as well as news of the FBI’s opening a counterintelligence investigation into Trump’s possible status as a Russian asset. On Wednesday Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to Trump demanding to know if Trump “preserved all records, including notes, transcripts, documents, and communications related to any meetings, telephone calls, or any other interaction that you have had


In rebuke to Trump administration, more than 130 Republicans join House Democrats to oppose lifting sanctions against Putin ally

The 362-53 vote registers formal House disapproval of plans to relax sanctions against companies controlled by Russian President Vladimir Putin ally, Oleg Deripaska, and comes despite last-minute appeals by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. A similar measure narrowly failed in the Senate this week, despite 11 Republicans breaking ranks to vote with Democrats.This is a developing story. It will be updated.


Happy Hour Roundup

* The Toddler-in-Chief just threw some applesauce at the grown-ups again: It’s difficult to say what’s more pathetic -- the idea that this is supposed to persuade President Trump’s supporters that he’s “fighting,” or the possibility that they might actually thrill to it. -- gs * Amy Goldstein reports that the horror of family separations at the border was even worse than we knew: This administration has done a lot of despicable things, but this one has to rank near the top of the list. * Jeanne Whalen and Karoun Demirjian report that even many Republicans are uneasy with how solicitous the administration is being toward Russia: Even Putin is probably saying, “You’re going to lift sanctions on Deripaska NOW? Dude, don’t be so obvious!” * Yoni Appelbaum offers a detailed, well-argued case for initiating impeachment proceedings against the president without further delay. The key distinction that the piece makes effectively is between saying Trump unquestionably has committed offenses that merit impeachment and conviction right now, and arguing (as Appelbaum does) that hearings should be set in motion, to channel angst about Trump’s unfitness to serve into a rule-bound congressional process. -- gs * Michael Levenson reports that former Trump economic adviser Gary Cohn says the shutdown is completely wrong and can't figure out what strategy Trump is following, if any. * Natalie Kitroeff and Robert Gebeloff report on how deeply the shutdown is hurting in places where government jobs are the best jobs around. * David Corn has the tale of how right-wing members of Congress and Fox News are cooperating to smear a former FBI official. * Laura Santhanam reports on a new PBS/NPR/Marist poll showing that 57 percent of voters say they will definitely vote against Trump in 2020. So much winning! * Eric Boehlert argues that it’s time the New York Times owns up to the mistakes it made in covering Trump and the Russia scandal during the campaign. * Amelia Thomson-Deveaux explains why Trump has so much to fear from the New York State attorney general * Kim Parker, Nikki Graf, and Ruth Igielnik report that Generation Z is just as liberal on all kinds of issues as Millennials are, which is good news for Democrats and bad news for Republicans. * Alyssa Rosenberg explains what Karen Pence is doing that's right and admirable. * And Glenn Kessler and Meg Kelly run down some of


DC has a new comics imprint about teens. And, of course, it’s by Brian Michael Bendis.

said], ‘Don’t mess it up,’ ” he says. “Patrick, who is as deeply rooted in the modern DC Comics as any artist, is coming with me to make sure this is all being done with the proper love and care.” Bendis will also oversee the retro-nostalgia-fueled “Wonder Twins” (written by Mark Russell and art by Stephen Byrne), “Dial H for Hero” (written by Sam Humphries and art by Joe Quinones) and a new heroine in “Naomi” (written by Bendis and David F. Walker and art by Jamal Campbell). Wonder Comics is intended for new readers, but Bendis recognizes that adults who grew up loving characters such as Superboy, Impulse and Robin in the 1990s will probably be interested in these adventures. He says readers new and old should be satisfied. But don’t let the nostalgically designed superhero suits fool you: These stories take place in the here and now. “These characters are back in continuity and telling a future-forward story that really matters to the DC Universe right this second,” he says. “That is the absolute best way to introduce them to a new audience.” Balancing out the return of so many fan-favorite characters with Wonder Comics is the creation of a new one: Naomi, a young girl of color in a Pacific Northwest neighborhood where nothing ever happens, yet she is somehow connected to the one time something (involving superheroes) did happen in her town. Being allowed to freely create new characters at DC reminds Bendis of the time comic-book legend Jack Kirby came to DC in 1970 after years at Marvel and created the Fourth World, which resulted in the making of the New Gods and one of DC’s greatest villains ever, Darkseid. “This is not the Fourth World, and I would never compare myself,” Bendis says. “But you can’t help but [say] you’ve been given the exact same freedom to do something with it. So David and I and Jamal have been working very hard to build something brand new. The story starts very intimate and small, and it opens into an enormous thing that literally will be added to the DC universe and any writer can play with.” As for the eventual Naomi/Miles Morales comparisons, and whether Bendis can strike creative lightning twice bringing a new character of color to a major publisher, he says: Stay tuned. “People are going to see a connection,” he says.


Why Alaska has more at stake in the government shutdown than any other state

Alaska is in the fourth year of a statewide recession. It has the nation’s highest unemployment rate and, since 2015, the fastest rate of job losses. And its weak economy is particularly vulnerable to a prolonged government shutdown — the federal impasse has sidelined more federal workers per capita there than in any other state. (D.C. is higher.) About 5,700 of Alaska’s 15,100 federal employees are likely affected by the shutdown — about 1.7 percent of its entire workforce, according to an analysis of federal data by the Post’s Ted Mellnik, Laris Karklis and Kevin Schaul. That’s more than three times the national rate. At least 382 of those workers applied for unemployment benefits in the three weeks ending Jan. 11, according to Patsy Westcott, employment and training services director at the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. That’s up from 40 such claims in November. It’s one of many small signs the shutdown is beginning to take a toll in the state, especially in its vital fishing industry. Westcott said she expects the claims to be “higher than normal” for the duration of the shutdown. The benefits are a temporary stopgap. Employees will be expected to repay them once shutdown ends. (The applications were previously reported by Liz Ruskin of Alaska Public Media.) But state economist Karinne Wiebold said she wasn’t revising her forecast that, in 2019, the state will see its first job growth since 2015. Most (61 percent) of Alaska is government land managed by five different federal agencies, according to the congressional Research Service. The state’s main industries, including fishing, tourism and oil and gas, all depend on the day-to-day actions of federal workers and regulators. The fisheries have so far avoided major disruption, despite a few close calls. Most boats are still getting by on licenses and inspections which occurred before the shutdown. But time is running out. Major commercial boats are required to carry onboard observers to monitor their catch. But when they return from a trip, those observers must be debriefed by the National Marine Fisheries Service — and it’s not holding debriefings during the shutdown. Stacey Hansen, who manages North Pacific observers at Saltwater, said five of her employees were unable to work because they hadn’t been debriefed. Three of them are among the limited pool of observers who hold higher levels of certification. If qualified observers aren’t available, otherwise ready


As Brexit deal goes down in flames, exasperated Europe wonders what Britain wants

with a proposal — any proposal — that could win a majority at home, to form a basis for continued talks. So far, Westminster appears unable to do so, with a clear majority agreeing on scenarios that would be unacceptable, and with no common vision for a path forward. In Brussels, diplomats said the scale of the defeat suggested May had fundamental political problems with the Brexit process that went beyond any individual policy in the deal, meaning they could do little to influence the discussion from outside. The vote was a “crystal clear” rejection of the withdrawal deal, the E.U.’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, told the European Parliament on Wednesday, after entering the chamber to applause. “This vote is not a clear manifestation of a positive majority which would define a positive alternative to the proposal on the table today,” Barnier said. “It’s up to the British government to indicate how we ought to take things forward on March 29 toward an orderly withdrawal.” But he said that the current agreement was the “objective” outcome based on Britain’s own red lines, including a vow to uphold the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that quelled a long-running insurgency in Northern Ireland. That agreement depends on an open border between the Republic of Ireland, which is remaining in the E.U., and Northern Ireland, which would exit the E.U. along with the United Kingdom. Ireland has insisted on keeping the border open, and the British government also has said that is a priority, even as lawmakers have objected to the steps in the deal to go about it. Barnier said if Britain changes its red lines — by softening its opposition to remaining permanently in the E.U. Customs Union, for example — more discussions could be possible. European leaders said they would not abandon their red lines — and their Irish allies — just to ease the life of an unruly departing member. There was more openness to the possibility of extending the March 29 deadline. “When Parliament needs more time, then this is something that will have to be considered by the European Council, and personally I would see that as a reasonable request,” German Minister Peter Altmaier told the BBC. An extension would need the consent of the remaining 27 E.U. leaders. It would be relatively easy to offer one until July, when a new European Parliament needs to be


Sorry, but Trump is not ‘tough on Russia’

To defend himself from accusations of collusion or collaboration with Russian government officials during the 2016 presidential election and after, President Trump recently repeated a familiar claim: “I have been FAR tougher on Russia than Obama, Bush or Clinton. Maybe tougher than any other President.” His statement might have been closer to the truth if he had referred to his administration rather than himself. The Trump administration has a tough policy on Russia, one that I mostly support. But Trump himself does not. For the past two years, he has consistently made it clear that he does not support his own administration’s policy toward Russia. The Trump administration’s National Security Strategy states very bluntly that “China and Russia challenge American power, influence, and interests, attempting to erode American security and prosperity.” Trump, however, has never expressed support for this approach. He has said the exact opposite, suggesting time and time again that he wants to be Russian President Vladimir Putin’s friend, and that “getting along with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing.” After Putin invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea in 2014, the Obama administration increased military spending in Europe and pushed for several enhancements of NATO capabilities, including new troop deployments closer to Russian borders. The Trump administration has supported and expanded this policy. As candidate and president, however, Trump has persistently berated, criticized and undermined NATO. Most recently, we have learned that Trump has even threatened to withdraw from the alliance. Even reports of these threats are a gift to Putin, since they undermine the credibility on which its deterrent effect depends. The Trump administration rightly has continued the Obama policy of sanctioning Russian officials and companies in response to Putin’s belligerent behavior. Trump, however, has never expressed support for these sanctions. When he signed into law Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), he made clear his disdain for the law. And then out of the blue, the Trump team has called for the lifting of sanctions on the companies controlled by Oleg Deripaska, even though Putin has not changed his belligerent behavior at all. In November 2018, Putin detained two dozen Ukrainian sailors in international waters. The Trump administration has rightly criticized this criminal act. Trump has said very little: “Not good. Not happy about it at all … we do not like what’s happening either way.” “Either way”? As if the Ukrainians share


A journalist almost married a con man. It turns out, she wasn’t the only one.

In July 2010, Abby Ellin, a New York-based journalist, got engaged to a Navy doctor. He seemed exotic: He told her that he had worked undercover with the CIA and had made contact with Osama bin Laden. But Ellin soon grew suspicious. He gave her fake pearls that he claimed were high-end Mikimotos. She found out he was still trying to reconcile with his ex-wife. The Secret Service was watching him, he said. Her doubts mounting, Ellin, then 42, broke off the engagement. More than a year later, on a blustery March day in 2012, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) called Ellin to tell her that the man — whom she nicknamed the Commander — had illegally prescribed Vicodin and other drugs. Ellin later discovered that he had a second ex-wife and was engaged to another woman while she was engaged to him. He had no CIA ties. He eventually served 21 months in prison. In May 2015, Ellin published a cover story in Psychology Today in which she used her experience to explore how deception works. Her new book “Duped: Double Lives, False Identities, and the Con Man I Almost Married” looks even deeper into the subject. By telephone, Ellin (a friend and professional colleague of mine) talked about duplicity in her life — and ours: (This interview has been edited for length and clarity.) Q: A: Eventually the journalist won out over the person who wanted to be in love. Q: A: Q: A: Q: A: I think that’s in part because women haven’t had the opportunity to be as duplicitous, at least in the corporate world. And women do tend to suspend their disbelief more because we want to be partners. In that regard, men have a more receptive audience. Also, women tend to lie because they don’t want to hurt other people’s feelings, whereas men do it to puff themselves up. Q: A: Q: A: Q: A: But I’ve also talked with a lot of people and found so many who were either deceivers or had been duped. It wasn’t hard to find them. I met a guy who said that as soon as he was married, he knew he was going to cheat. Q: A: Q: A: Q: A: bookworld@washpost.com DUPED Double Lives, False Identities, and the Con Man I Almost Married By Abby Ellin PublicAffairs. 272 pp. $27.


GOP senators protect Trump administration’s plan to lift Russian sanctions

Republican senators Wednesday successfully defended the Trump administration’s plan to lift sanctions on companies controlled by a Vladimir Putin ally — despite the defection of nearly a dozen Republicans who broke ranks to vote with the Democrats. The Democratic effort to block the relaxation of sanctions on the companies of Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska fell just a few votes shy of the 60 needed to advance the resolution to a final vote, even after attracting the support of eleven Republican senators including Marco Rubio of Florida, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ben Sasse of Nebraska. The defeat means the Treasury Department is likely to lift the sanctions in the coming days. Treasury, Deripaska and his companies didn’t respond to requests for comment. The U.S. sanctioned Deripaska and his companies in 2018, among a group of Russian elites the U.S. said had furthered “the Kremlin’s global malign activities, including its attempts to subvert Western democracy.” Some Democrats said they were wary about relaxing sanctions on Deripaska’s companies, in part because of his ties to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to defraud the United States and obstruct justice in the investigation of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Deripaska helped fund consulting work Manafort did for a Ukrainian political party, invested in a Manafort investment fund and lent Manafort millions of dollars, according to court records. The Treasury Department in December proposed lifting sanctions against the companies while leaving those against Deripaska intact, after protests from European countries that the company sanctions were causing havoc in aluminum markets. Treasury notified Congress on Dec. 19 that it intended to lift the sanctions because Deripaska had agreed to reduce his stake in En+ Group, the holding company that controls the aluminum giant Rusal, from about 70 percent to 44.95 percent, and to limit his voting shares to 35 percent. This would protect the companies “from the controlling influence of a Kremlin insider,” which had been the goal of punishing the firms, Treasury said. But Senate Democrats balked at the plan, and tried to stop it through a resolution of disapproval. Some Republicans agreed, breaking with the Trump administration and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. “I’ll vote to disapprove Treasury’s easing of sanctions on Russian businesses involving oligarch & Putin ally Oleg Deripaska. He still would maintain significant control given his ties to Putin. Easing the sanctions


Theresa May’s Brexit plan isn’t dead yet

to 171. Britain’s 2016 referendum came hard on the heels of the 2015 surge of asylum seekers into Europe. Much more than the margin of Brexit victory probably was provided by anxiety about Britain’s and Europe’s social cohesion. Since then, however, the immigration issue has cooled: Those identifying it as “the most important issue confronting Britain” plummeted from 48 percent in June 2016 to 17 percent in October 2018 . Of the four nations that compose the United Kingdom, Scotland and Northern Ireland voted Remain, Wales and England voted Leave. Many Remainers disparage many Leavers as “ English nationalists.” Brexiteers can cite a noble pedigree for their sentiments: Speaking in 1933 to the Royal Society of St. George, Winston Churchill said: “On this one night in the whole year we are allowed to use a forgotten, almost a forbidden word. We are allowed to mention the name of our own country, to speak of ourselves as ‘Englishmen.’ ” The E.U. has dangerously promoted the blunderbuss principle that nationalism — the belief that one’s nation has uniquely admirable aspects — is always dangerous. This principle stigmatizes normal and often defensible judgments. In 2016, many Brexiteers had an aspiration with a glistening pedigree — Churchill’s vision of British greatness ensured by looking not across the English Channel but across the Atlantic to ever-closer relations with what Churchill called “the Great Republic.” This prospect lost luster when, 138 days after the referendum, that republic elected Donald Trump, whom many of Charles Darwin’s countrymen think evolution passed by. Diminishment and loss of control have been recurring British anxieties since the nation emerged depleted from World War II. In the Brexit debate, references to Suez have rekindled painful memories of the 1956 British-French-Israeli invasion intended to reverse Egypt’s nationalization of the Suez Canal. The invasion was halted by a furious President Dwight D. Eisenhower using the leverage of Britain’s financial weakness. Brexit is an attempt to revive national control and stature. It is subtracting from both. Brexiteers believe that the fact that leaving the E.U. has proved to be so difficult a prison break validates Euroskepticism. They ask: Britain, which has been in the E.U. since 1993, was self-governing since the Romans departed in 410, so how calamitous can Brexit be? Very, respond Remainers, with increasing plausibility as the prospect of a “hard Brexit” — divorce with no new U.K.-E.U. legal and commercial relationships in


Government shutdown may create a ripple of disruptions for travelers

Carolyn Brown flew from Philadelphia to Miami on a recent Friday. “Absolutely no wait in either PreCheck or regular line,” says Brown, who edits a travel website. “Shocked,” she adds. But the real shock may be just ahead. January is typically the slowest time of the year for almost any type of travel in the United States. So a few TSA agents calling in sick are unlikely to affect the overall speed of screenings. Experts say the effects of the shutdown might be felt when the busy spring-break-travel season begins. Gordon Gray, the director of fiscal policy of the American Action Forum, a nonprofit think tank that has calculated the costs of the shutdown, warns of a scenario in which thousands of TSA agents quit their jobs and find new work. Even if the shutdown ends quickly, the agency would be short-staffed. “We could find ourselves at the end of February with not enough TSA staff to do screenings,” he says. Add more travelers to the equation, and you have a recipe for gridlock on the ground. That’s not all. Take the Smithsonian museums and zoo and the national parks. After the shutdown ends, it could take weeks before some of these facilities are fully operational. That could affect spring trips to national parks and to the District. Khan, the tourism professor, says there are other aspects of the shutdown that few visitors consider. They include reduced food-safety inspections, which could affect restaurants. Several large meetings and conferences could lose federal funding and federal participants, which might hurt businesses that depend on tourists and other travelers. “Hotels are suffering across the country due to lack of business travelers,” Khan says. “Since attractions are closed, many food service and restaurant operators will suffer. For example, food trucks depend on office employees and tourist attractions for business. In many cases, their operation is the primary source of income for families.” It’s difficult to prepare for the ripple effects. Most travelers are doing nothing more than worrying, which is not an effective strategy. Gray, the fiscal policy expert, says travelers will have to go the “extra mile” during and after the shutdown. Anytime your trip touches the federal system — whether you’re being screened at the airport, applying for a passport or Global Entry credentials, or passing through customs — Gray advises that you expect delays. Those are the easy ones to anticipate.


Tribes face food and medicine crisis as shutdown continues, lawmakers are told

As the partial government shutdown drags on, Native American tribes in urban and rural areas are facing food shortages and a health care crisis because federal funds that stock pantries and provide medicine for diabetes and opioid addiction have been cut off, witnesses told a House committee Tuesday. In addition to the shutdown’s impact on indigenous people, citizen observers at national parks are reporting poaching of wild game such as deer, garbage piled high and trees that have been illegally cut as most park workers remain on furlough, former Interior officials who appeared before the committee said. “We have thus far had to deny purchase of care requests that are critical to chronic care management -- insulin, blood pressure medication, thyroid medication and antibiotics -- thus impacting the quality of life for the individuals we serve,” said Kerry Hawk Lessard, executive director of Native American Lifelines, which provides services to indigenous Americans from Baltimore to Boston. Hawk Lessard said the organization closed its doors Saturday when funding ran out. “We are not alone in feeling these impacts,” Hawk Lessard said. “Many of the 41 Urban Indian Health Programs that span 22 states are struggling without adequate funds.” Hawk Lessard was one of three Native Americans who testified before the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee that arranged a panel of care providers and former Interior officials to address the shutdown’s effects on the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the system of national parks and wildlife refuges. Aaron Payment, a representative of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians in Michigan, said $7.5 million in federal funds that was due today will not arrive. The money is part of a $30 million yearly draw down that is normally doled out quarterly. Before past shutdowns, Payment said, administrations have reached out to tribes to discuss alternatives that could help them bear the strain but “with this shutdown we were given less than 24 hours notice” and “the administration is not doing that kind of outreach.” As a result, organizations that serve Native Americans will struggle to feed those in need. “Even though our administrative funds will not run out until the end of this month, Indian Tribal Organizations are already beginning to furlough our warehouse employees and other staff in order to try and stretch the funds we do have ... to make sure our people get fed.” Interior officials said the


Giant Food Stores will place robotic assistants at 172 locations, company says

spend more time serving customers and help reduce the risk caused by spilled foods. Because he is doing assistant work, Maturo said, Marty isn’t replacing human jobs. He said the customer response has been largely positive. Maturo said people often “just walk right by” the robots. “Then there’s a large majority of people that are very excited to see a robot in the store,” he said. “They tend to take pictures of it, video of it and selfies with the robot,” he added. “It’s very cool.” In a statement emailed to The Washington Post, Marc Perrone, President of the United Food & Commercial Workers Union International Union — which represents workers in grocery stores such as Kroger, Ralphs, Albertsons, Safeway and Vons — said technology can be a force for good, but not when it comes at the expense of workers and the economy. “The aggressive expansion of automation in grocery and retail stores is a direct threat to the millions of American workers who power these industries and the customers they serve,” the statement said. “When companies automate these jobs, they hurt workers who need these jobs to earn a living. They also shortchange shoppers forcing inferior customer service and products on them for the same price." “We will be watching.” the statement added. “It remains to be seen what Giant is ultimately using this technology for.” Giant isn’t the only retailer turning to robots to police its many aisles. In December, Walmart announced plans to place 360 autonomous robots inside stores across the country by the end of January. Their job: scrubbing the store’s expansive aisles and collecting data in the process. Those robot custodians are powered by Brain Corp, a San Diego-based technology company that has partnered with Walmart. The retailer has a fleet of more than 100 of the devices operating in its stores. Automation will allow workers to perform new tasks in some industries, but it won’t stop millions of people from needing to switch occupations or upgrade their skills in the coming years, according to a McKinsey Global Institute report released last year. The report estimates that as many as 800 million people may lose their jobs to robots by 2030. Some of those jobs sound a lot like cleaning floors at Walmart. “Activities most susceptible to automation include physical ones in predictable environments, such as operating machinery and preparing fast food,” the report


Everything you need to know about a government shutdown

effects on scientific research? Of the 800,000 federal employees furloughed or working without pay, thousands are researchers. These include agency scientists at the Agriculture Department, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Geological Survey. "The current government shutdown has far-reaching effects that put America's scientific progress at risk. While there are reports that agencies such as NOAA and the USGS are still issuing alerts about weather and natural hazards, much of the scientific research into how to prevent these kinds of disasters has stalled," said Christine McEntee, executive director of the American Geophysical Union. "This shutdown could affect the EPA's ability to meet deadlines for assessing chemicals, and NOAA isn't able to track fish for commercial harvesting or endangered species to protect them from passing ships." What are the effects on government websites? A rising number of federal websites are falling into disrepair. In the past week, the number of outdated Web security certificates held by U.S. government agencies has exploded from about 80 to more than 130. Various online pages run by the White House, the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Archives and the Department of Agriculture appear to be affected by the latest round of expirations. Security experts say the issue could have unintended consequences for Internet users of all skill levels. What are the effects on the Justice Department? Many attorneys and judges at the Department of Justice are not working and cases are waiting. Justice Department employees involved in criminal investigations and prosecution are among those working without a paycheck. The shutdown delays almost all federal civil cases, including discrimination cases, whistleblower cases, disciplinary cases and retaliation actions taken against federal employees. It further backlogs thousands of immigration court cases. What are the effects on the TSA? The Transportation Security Administration seems to have been noticeably impacted by the shutdown. Airports across the country are facing staffing shortages as "many employees are reporting that they are not able to report to work due to financial limitations." As of Jan. 16, numbers from the agency showed 6.1 percent of employees – nearly 1 out of every 16 workers – did not come to work. TSA said the call-outs have forced three major airports — Atlanta, Houston and Miami — to operate under contingency plans meant to address various disruptions. Miami temporarily closed a


States report sharp increase in unemployment claims by federal workers as shutdown approaches one month

ever have to make a decision between paying their mortgage and buying groceries,” Bowser said. “The federal government must rethink this decision and allow us to offer federal employees the same support they are offering our nation.” Even with those rules, state officials are reporting new stresses on centers where workers can apply for unemployment benefits and look for jobs. The influx of federal applicants is occurring just as job centers are traditionally jammed with seasonal workers who become unemployed after the holidays. In the Washington region, more than 10,000 people have filed for unemployment assistance in the District, Maryland and Virginia, according to state and city officials. The bulk of those claims have been filed in the District, because federal workers are required to request unemployment in the jurisdiction that houses their place of employment. But the surge in new applicants is spread throughout the country, underscoring how the shutdown is affecting local economies far beyond the Washington region. In Pennsylvania, 2,334 federal workers filed for unemployment benefits between Dec. 22 and Jan. 9, compared with 150 who applied for the assistance during the same period one year ago. Federal workers now account for 15 percent of all new applicants in Pennsylvania, according to Bill Trusky, the state’s deputy unemployment compensation secretary. The numbers could be higher when including federal contractors. Combined with the influx of seasonal workers, wait times at Pennsylvania unemployment call centers have increased eightfold over the past week, with the average caller being placed on hold for more than 35 minutes. With Trump recently vowing the shutdown could “last months or years,” Trusky fears the number of applications from federal workers could grow dramatically in the coming weeks as more of them exhaust savings. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) has warned that the state might have to eventually lay off state workers funded with federal dollars if the shutdown drags on. “The longer this goes on, and the more people are furloughed, our claims will rise,” Trusky said. In Georgia, which has about 100,000 federal workers, more than 1,200 applied for unemployment benefits during the week ending Jan. 12, up from 100 during the last week of December. Those federal workers account for 9 percent of weekly applicants, according to information compiled by the Georgia Labor Department. In Maryland, Comptroller Peter Franchot’s office said this week that 172,000 workers in his state are affected by


The Energy 202: Shutdown leaves communities near toxic Superfund sites on edge

shutdown that has paralyzed normal functions at agencies like the EPA. “It’s so crazy that a site can be listed like ours, and then overnight we lose contact with the federal agency responsible for overseeing it,” Chapman said in an interview. “It’s like they have officially just gone away.” The shutdown threatens to fray already strained relations between affected communities and the federal government, which residents often see as too sluggish in its cleanup efforts. “In the world of Superfund, the community relationships with the agency are always a big issue,” said Peter deFur, an environmental consultant working on Superfund issues. During the shutdown, the agency is unable to move forward with federally managed cleanups or plan new ones. Agency employees also cannot hold or attend meetings with community members to let them know what is going on. Earlier this month, the EPA had to cancel a public hearing on its $26.5 million plan to dig up and haul out contaminated soil. “It does not make any sense to cancel it and not reschedule it,” said Thomas Frank, an East Chicago environmental activist. “That doesn’t make sense. There are people in the community that would benefit from getting their voices heard.” And the effects of the shutdown will stretch past the point at which President Trump and congressional Democrats end their impasse over border wall funding. “You’re putting further stress on the limited pot of money and the ability to clean up sites,” said Mathy Stanislaus, who oversaw the Superfund program during the Barack Obama administration. Throughout the shutdown, EPA officials have repeatedly emphasized that it can act in the event of a disaster at a Superfund site. “The Superfund Program will continue to respond at sites where there is an imminent threat to the safety of human life or to the protection of property,” EPA’s Konkus said. The EPA’s acting administrator, Andrew Wheeler, noted that as well during a Senate hearing Wednesday. He also reiterated the Trump administration’s commitment to the Superfund program. “Many of these sites have languished for years, even decades,” Wheeler said. “How can these Americans prosper if they cannot live, learn and work in healthy environments? The answer is simple: They cannot.” On that point, left-leaning environmentalists and the Trump administration actually agree. But for residents near neglected Superfund sites, the shutdown still feels like the same old story of unkept promises. “In economically disparaged


In U.S. and Britain, a permanent sense of crisis

countries have clear feelings “Rarely have British and American politics seemed quite so synchronized as they do in the chilly dawn of 2019, three years after the victories of Brexit and Donald J. Trump upended the two nations’ political establishments,” wrote Ellen Barry and Mark Landler of the New York Times on Saturday. “The countries seem subject to a single ideological weather system — one that pits pro-globalization elites against a left-behind hinterland.” They point to the now-familiar story: The effects of the 2008 global financial crisis accentuated the divides between those in metropolitan centers and depressed post-industrial towns. Anger among the latter fueled both Trump and Brexit. “The people in those areas just said: ‘O.K., we’re not giving them any more time, the people in London and D.C., your time is up. We’re not going to wait a few more years for a recovery,’” Michael Lind, the author of “Land of Promise: An Economic History of the United States,” told the Times. “They decided: ‘There’s a limited pie. This pie is not growing.’” But it’s become painfully clear that neither Brexit nor Trump will redress these economic anxieties Brexit, too, was provoked by the illusory visions of politicians. The years since the referendum have proved that there can be no easy divorce with the European Union — and that life outside the continental bloc may be far more bleak and lonely than imagined. At a town hall this week on the other side of the English Channel, French President Emmanuel Macron flatly declared that “the British people were sold a lie." Others see an even darker plot — the shadow of the Kremlin. The paralysis in both countries "adds up to a strategic bonanza for Vladimir Putin and his vision of a revanchist Russia,” wrote the Daily 202’s James Hohmann. “We don’t know exactly how much Moscow spent supporting influence operations to impact the U.K. and U.S. elections in 2016, but it seems hard to overstate how good the Kremlin’s return has been on what Western intelligence agencies believe was a relatively modest investment.” For Britain, there’s a sense of historical comeuppance. “Partition — the British Empire’s ruinous exit strategy — has come home,” wrote Indian leftist writer Pankaj Mishra. “In a grotesque irony, borders imposed in 1921 on Ireland, England’s first colony, have proved to be the biggest stumbling block for the English Brexiteers chasing imperial virility. Moreover,


Gotta get your kids out of the house this weekend? Try one of these D.C.-area spots.

It’s the perfect storm for parents of energetic little kids: a long weekend with more frosty weather on the horizon, and the (free) indoor play options at the Smithsonian museums remain closed because of the shutdown. But you don’t have to stay cooped up in the house; head to one of these family-friendly spots and let your kids try something new — and burn off all that excess energy. National Building Museum More people are exploring the National Building Museum in 2019: For the first week of January, attendance was up about 60 percent from the same period last year, according to Emma Filar, NBM’s director for marketing and communications. This is a prime destination for families, since the soaring Great Hall has plenty of indoor space for little ones to toddle around and the kid-focused “Play Work Build” and “Building Zone” spaces are outfitted with building blocks, books and trucks. The museum’s “Creative in Residence,” choreographer Heather Sultz, is hosting free, all-ages workshops based around improvisational movement on Saturday (10:30 a.m.) and Monday (2 p.m.). 401 F St. NW. $10, $7 ages 3-17; free for federal workers with valid ID. Admission fee not required for Sultz workshops. U.S. Botanic Garden It may be a wintry mess outside, but it’s lush and green inside the U.S. Botanic Garden, which is unaffected by the shutdown and is open as usual. Kids can climb up to the canopy walk in the Tropics House and look down at the jungle, or marvel over orchids in bloom. Children ages 9 and older can check out a Junior Botanist Adventure Kit, a.k.a. a backpack filled with interactive activities that will guide them through the various rooms. 100 Maryland Ave. SW. Free. BloomBars BloomBars founder John Chambers calls Baba Ras D’s Harambe drumming music program a “rite of passage” for D.C. kids. But if you want to take your family to the 10:30 a.m. Saturday show at this art space in Columbia Heights, be prepared to get there early: With the shutdown, Chambers estimates there’s been a 15 to 20 percent spike in attendance for all programming, as folks have more time on their hands than usual. “For Harambe, there are lines down the block. Once we reach capacity we have to turn folks away,” Chambers says. This infectious singalong is geared to kids ages 7 and younger. If you miss Baba Ras D, there’s Nous


I run a Yosemite gift shop. We’re still open, Ann Coulter.

amount of drugs coming through the desert over back roads or no roads is a drop in the bucket compared with what is coming through regular ports of entry. Let’s at least be honest. “The wall” is about legal and illegal immigration, fear and racism. The gift shop in Yosemite National Park is actually open, despite Coulter’s assumption that we are not. The shutdown has had a small impact on us so far. Visitors can still enter the park, even if they find services reduced. The shutdown is having a far greater impact on the hundreds of Yosemite National Park Service employees and their families, on the contractors that need sign-offs on work done to be paid, on the primary concessionaire, which is laying people off. The shutdown compounds problems not helped by floods in April and fires in July and August that closed the park. And this is just one national park, among more than 400 park units, and just one agency of the Department of Interior. The shutdown affects millions of people, so being concerned (or not, in this case) about its impact on a single small business is complete nonsense. I don’t know if it is irony or travesty or both, but it was exactly 75 years ago that Ansel Adams published a book and mounted an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York titled “Born Free and Equal.” They told the story of the Japanese Americans still interned at a “relocation camp” in Manzanar, to the east of the Sierra Nevada here in California. Ansel decried the situation and sought to show its wrongs but also the strength of these American citizens to cope and survive. “The purpose of my work was to show how these people, suffering under a great injustice, and loss of property, businesses and professions, had overcome the sense of defeat and dispair [sic] by building for themselves a vital community in an arid (but magnificent) environment,” Ansel wrote of this work. It was wartime, and there was virulent anti-Japanese sentiment. The exhibition closed prematurely. The book was pulled from the shelves and burned. The U.S. government shuttered the internment camps and returned people to their homes the next year, before the end of the war and, significantly, before the Supreme Court had an opportunity to rule on the matter. The camps were illegal and immoral, and the government


Student debt has kept home ownership out of reach for 400,000 young families, Fed reports

Skyrocketing student loan debt put homeownership out of reach for 400,000 Americans in their twenties and thirties from 2005 to 2014, according to a new report from the Federal Reserve. Starting from census data showing a drop of 8.8 percentage points in homeownership among that age cohort, the Fed’s researchers estimate that rising student loan balances account for roughly 2 percentage points of that drop, or nearly a quarter of it. “While investing in postsecondary education continues to yield, on average, positive and substantial returns, burdensome student loan debt levels may be lessening these benefits,” the researchers conclude. “As policymakers evaluate ways to aid student borrowers, they may wish to consider policies that reduce the cost of tuition, such as greater state government investment in public institutions.” From 1989 to 2016, the share of American families of all ages with an outstanding student loan balance rose from 8.9 percent to 22.4 percent, according to the Fed’s Survey of Consumer Finances. The median family with student loan debt now owes $19,000 on those loans, according to the survey, up from a median balance of just $5,600 in 2016 dollars in 1989. While the Fed’s latest report focuses on young families, those headed by older adults are also experiencing rising student loan burdens. Thirty-four percent of families headed by someone between 35 and 44 have outstanding student loan balances, as do 24 percent of families headed by people in their forties and fifties. Student loan indebtedness is now just as prevalent among these middle-aged Americans (24 percent) as it was among 18- to 34-year-olds (24 percent) in 1998. If those trends continue, in just a few years people with student loan debt will account for a majority of households headed by someone under the age of 25. And as that generation continues to age, many will carry their debt with them, some well into retirement: In 2016, for instance, 3.6 percent of Americans age 65 to 74 were still paying off a student loan, up from 0.6 percent as recently as 2001. The Fed’s researchers write that in forthcoming work they’ll be looking at the effect of student loan debt not just on homeownership but on access to credit overall. The preliminary data they have shows that “higher student loan debt early in life leads to a lower credit score later in life,” which “has implications well beyond homeownership, as credit scores


The Cybersecurity 202: How does a country spy on its citizens? A cybersecurity company got an inside look

rocked the presidential election. The DNC did not allege the Trump administration knew about the post-midterm phishing campaign. PATCHED: Sens. Angus King (I-Maine) and James E. Risch (R-Idaho) reintroduced a bill aiming to protect U.S. energy infrastructure from cyberattacks in part by considering ways to use low-tech procedures and analog devices. The Securing Energy Infrastructure Act would direct the energy secretary to set up a two-year pilot program within the Energy Department’s National Laboratories to identify security vulnerabilities. The program would also aim to study the use of analog and physical controls to isolate and protect industrial control systems from digital attacks. “Securing our energy infrastructure is not an abstract policy idea, it is an immediate need to protect our grid from the real threat of malign actors,” King said PWNED: The partial federal shutdown continues to take a toll on government websites. The Britain-based Internet security company Netcraft said the number of expired Web security certificates used by federal agencies rose to more than 130 from about 80 in the past week The government also can't buy tools that automatically renew certificates to keep federal sites online. Matthew Prince, chief executive of Cloudflare, said he contacted the Justice Department and NASA to pitch his company's services including automatic renewal of certificates, but to no avail. -- The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Northern California sued the federal government to obtain information about federal authorities' alleged “social media surveillance activities,” “The public has a right to know how the federal government monitors social media users and speech, whether agencies are retaining social media content, — Rep. Douglas A. Collins (R-Ga.), the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said data privacy and encryption are among the cybersecurity issues where he sees potential bipartisan agreement — More cybersecurity news from the public sector: — The data breach that has been named “Collection #1” contains dizzying figures — including almost 773 million unique email addresses, according to security researcher Troy Hunt, who reported the breach — but it is not as dire as it sounds — More news about security incidents: — German authorities are considering preventing Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei from involvement in the country's 5G networks — More cybersecurity news from abroad: Today How popular is the border wall? Schiff compares Trump to 5th grader after canceling congressional trip: Trump long-touted online polls during the 2016 campaign:


The Senate needs a do-over

The House voted by an overwhelming margin of 362 to 53 to override President Trump’s decision to lift sanctions on three Russian companies in which Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska holds a 45 percent ownership stake. A large majority of Republicans (136, to be precise) voted with Democrats. This comes days after 11 Republicans voted with Democrats in the Senate to do the same, falling three votes short of 60 votes needed for cloture. The New York Times noted As stunning a vote against their party’s leader as the British Parliament’s Brexit rebuke of British Prime Minister Theresa May, House Republicans see what too many Senate Republicans do not: Continuing to run interference for Trump on Russia risks their implication in an unprecedented scandal concerning the president’s loyalties and manipulation by the country’s most formidable international threat. Put differently, when are Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) going to stop enabling the Trump-Russia relationship and put American national security interests ahead of party tribalism? (Seriously, why did Romney, an early and resolute voice about the Russia threat, come to the Senate, if only to enable Trump’s toadyism?) Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) wants to give Senate Republicans a second chance. “We’ve made clear that Treasury’s plan is insufficient and lets [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and his cronies off the hook,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “We’ve made clear that Putin’s malign activities around the globe have not abated. We’ve made clear that there is no reason to relieve sanctions on one of our chief adversaries when there has been no conciliations, and in exchange for nothing.” Pointing to the House vote, he said, “So now two votes — two small votes — stand in the way of passage here in the Senate. Let the overwhelming, bipartisan House vote be a message to my Republican friends in the Senate: We should pass this resolution. We should not let Putin get his way simply because President Trump has always wanted him to too often.” He concluded, “So I’m going to shortly reconsider the resolution before it expires tonight at midnight. I strongly urge my friend the Leader not to block the request and give Republican senators a chance to change their minds on this incredibly important motion.” As one would expect, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) again sided with Trump — and the Russian oligarchs — disallowing


In the galleries: Science expands nature art, on grand and minuscule scales

Incised into stones or painted on cave walls, images of nature are the oldest known artistic subjects. Forty or so millennia later, flora and fauna remain popular motifs, but a new sort of nature art has arrived, at least in the Washington area. Local exhibition spaces — some, but not all, connected to scientific institutions — are displaying work that depicts worlds too small or too big to be perceived by the unaided human eye. One explanation is simply that people now can see many things that were previously imperceptible, thanks to devices such as electron microscopes and the Hubble Space Telescope. Advancing scientific knowledge also offers new conceptual subjects, on both cosmic and microscopic scales. There’s a shift from poetic, humanistic and spiritual themes, which perhaps seem too vague amid the current fashion for “data-driven” thinking. Technology is now widely considered benign and even liberating, which it wasn’t during, say, the Industrial Revolution. Yet much contemporary science-minded art is concerned with such tech-driven threats as species extinction and global climate change. The latter is the impetus for “Endangered: From Glaciers to Reefs,” Diane Burko’s show at the National Academy of Sciences. The Philadelphia painter-photographer compounds art and science in near-abstractions layered atop oceanographic charts. Burko began by collaborating with glaciologists to depict retreating ice at both poles, a project documented in a 12-minute video that melds footage of ocean waves and flowing paint. Sometimes textures tell the story: One piece uses white crackle paint to simulate buckling ice, and the pigment is thickly applied in “Reef Grid,” a series that shows how coral reefs, too, are disappearing. Burko’s art can be read as representing general issues of change and fragility, but the maps underneath the paint hitch the pictures to specific places and a particular threat. “Ground Truth: Corona Landmarks,” also at NAS, depicts landscapes in the context of technology. Julie Anand and Damon Sauer set out to photograph the 180 remaining targets that had been placed in a grid in the Arizona desert so that satellite-based cameras could calibrate their scale and focus. The top-secret Corona Project, which ended in 1972 and was declassified in 1995, was a CIA and U.S. Air Force surveillance program of China and the Soviet Union. Although Corona’s metal birds are extinct, many more remain. The Phoenix-based artists map the paths of the publicly known satellites that were overhead at the moment the


‘A real reporter takes the bullet’: An Indian journalist’s scoop cost him his life — but exposed a dark secret

cuts or manipulation — just hard facts,” Anshul explained in 2017. “Something that my father always wanted. In the very first edition, he wrote an editorial on the front page taking an oath that truth will never be compromised, no matter what the circumstances, and he stood by it.” That dedication to truth led the journalist to begin tracking down reports on Singh’s behavior. According to India Express, in May 2002, his newspaper published anonymous claims from Dera followers about sexual exploitation. "Everybody was shocked as no one could imagine a person staying in Sirsa going against a man as powerful as” Singh, Anshul told the Print. The reporting continued throughout the year. On the afternoon of Oct. 24, 2002, Chhatrapati returned home from work, then heard men calling for him outside. When he stepped into the street, he was gunned down. Weeks later, Chhatrapati died from his injuries. According to Anshul, before passing away, his father gave police a statement implicating Dera members as the likely actors behind the attack. “Police deleted the relevant portions from his statement about the Dera chief and his followers and no case was made out,” the son would say later. Chhatrapati’s family continued to push the government for an investigation. Anshul, who was 21 when Chhatrapati was gunned down, took over the publication of his father’s newspaper. The government eventually relented and opened an investigation in 2003, the Hindustan Times reported. The probe into the murder dragged on for years, in part because authorities had also begun a criminal inquiry into the sexual assault allegations. As The Post reported in 2017, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation questioned 18 Dera members. Two women told investigators they were raped by Singh. One explained that “when she entered the Dera chief’s sprawling chamber, the doors automatically closed and she found him watching a pornographic movie on a big screen.” Singh was eventually charged with rape and criminal intimidation, and investigators also dug into his role in the journalist’s murder. Following his conviction of rape charges in 2017, the murder case became a priority. Prosecutors would eventually argue Singh ordered three Dera followers — Kuldeep Singh, Nirmal Singh and Krishan Lal — to carry out Chhatrapati’s assassination. More from Morning Mix: Democrats demand investigation after report that Trump ordered Michael Cohen to lie to Congress Trump reportedly told Michael Cohen to lie. His own attorney general pick


The Technology 202: Sen. Schatz calls on technology industry to share cyber threats

share threat information between specific kinds of technology companies, according to a person familiar with the deliberations who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record. There could, for instance, be one threat-sharing group for marketplace businesses like Uber, Airbnb and Lyft, and another for social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Sen. Schatz said he thinks the industry can sort out these challenges. “We’re confident they’re moving expeditiously and will be able to establish an ISAC,” he said. BITS: Britain-based cybersecurity company Netcraft said the number of expired Web security certificates used by federal agencies has risen to more than 130 from about 80 in the past week as the government shutdown continues Matthew Prince, chief executive of Cloudflare, said he contacted the Justice Department and NASA to pitch his company's services including automatic renewal for certificates, but the offer went nowhere. NIBBLES: Sophie Alpert, an engineering manager at Facebook who identifies as transgender, said she left the company after being “harassed” by employees for her views on diversity “Facebook is good for many people, but it's not the right place for me right now,” Alpert wrote BYTES: A Health and Human Service’s Office of Inspector General report found that since 2017, “the Trump administration has separated thousands more children from their parents than it previously disclosed and that it tracked these kids in ad hoc, disparate databases, including Excel spreadsheets and Microsoft Sharepoint accounts, further complicating the already tortured process of figuring out where those children are today,” she reported. The report said the number and status of the children separated from their parents under the Trump administration policy is unknown. . It lists the “lack of an existing, integrated data system to track separated families” as a key obstacle to reunification, Lapowsky reported. -- The talk about safety and revised ambitions for autonomous vehicles at the CES technology show in Las Vegas and the Detroit auto show this year underscores how “cautious optimism” in the driverless car industry has replaced the hype of previous years A fatal crash involving an Uber test autonomous vehicle ushered in this more cautious approach. Moreover, developers of autonomous vehicles still face difficulties in addressing simple road scenarios — such as unprotected left turns. “The immediate future of autonomous vehicles is more subdued: plodding shuttles that drive around the block and cars that travel in


One answer to the environmental alarms going off

The Jan. 17 editorial “Our alarming climate,” which noted two recent studies that demonstrate an acceleration in climate change, rightly called for the adoption of “policies such as a carbon tax that would encourage economic growth without emissions growth.” One recent congressional initiative to that end is the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, introduced on a bipartisan basis in both houses of Congress late last year (S.B. 3791/H.R. 7173). This measure would place a fee on fossil fuels — starting at a modest level but increasing annually — that would reflect the environmental costs of fossil fuels and provide an economic incentive to develop and use less carbon-reliant technologies. Importantly in this polarized political environment, the revenue from the carbon fee would be returned to the American public on an essentially per capita basis through a monthly dividend. The bill also contains a border carbon adjustment mechanism on imports and exports to counter the disadvantage U.S. industries would otherwise face from competitors in countries that have not imposed similar carbon fees. In short, it’s a win-win approach for the American people, American competitiveness and the environment, while serving a much-needed role in combating climate change. Richard Juhnke


This cybersecurity CEO says he won’t take a salary until the shutdown is over

none of them really signed up for this — this is my risk,” said Jafari, who wouldn’t share the size of his salary. “I decided I should be able to give up more.” Many federal contractors are indeed giving up plenty. Unlike furloughed federal employees, who are set to receive back pay once the shutdown ends after Trump signed legislation Wednesday authorizing it, federal contractors aren’t in line for similar amends. A Washington Post analysis found that almost 10,000 companies hold contracts with federal agencies affected by the government shutdown, and the overall average value of their work is about $200 million a week. Though his efforts won’t quite cover the loss of revenue Jafari expects from the stalled work, it will help lower the much higher overhead costs of carrying furloughed workers; he estimates a 15 percent annualized revenue shortfall from the shutdown. And it will prevent him from having to spend money and time replacing people in a highly competitive field were he to cut them loose: Affected workers include in-demand data analysts, cloud computing architects and program managers. “I’m not trying to be generous. I’m trying to invest,” he said, adding, “I can’t overstress the very tight labor market. And it’s even tighter when you have to add in the clearances and other stipulations in this marketplace." While more than 100 lawmakers have said they will refuse their salaries or donate their pay to charity during the shutdown, Jafari’s move isn’t common for business leaders who work as federal contractors, said Paul Light, a professor at New York University who studies the federal workforce. “It’s quite unusual — it’s rather patriotic almost — and it’s certainly a down payment on future grace,” he said. Management experts said such actions could pay off with both current and future workforces. As the fundamental promise of working in government or government-related jobs gets tested following the longest shutdown on record, it could be much harder to retain or draw in people, especially those who have many options in the private sector. Yet Jafari may be able to point to how, even if government contracts are more unpredictable, “we, as compared to competitors, look after you even if the government goes wacky,” said Peter Cappelli, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School who studies human resources issues. “That’s how organizational culture gets passed on to people — it’s through


Metro is losing $400,000 a day during shutdown, agency says

term, Metro could consider staffing or service adjustments, such as scaled back use of eight-car trains and extra trains to meet rush-hour demands.” Wiedefeld added that the transit agency could be forced to seek additional funding from the District, Maryland and Virginia if it cannot find the money to continue operating the system in the longer term. Meanwhile, the shutdown means federal grant money the agency is owed is not being disbursed, leaving the agency with $33 million in capital spending that has not been reimbursed. The transit agency will face a $50 million shortfall for January if reimbursements don’t come through, Wiedefeld said. “If the federal shutdown continues for an extended period, Metro will be forced to either turn to its Line of Credit (LOC) to support the Capital program, incurring additional costs, or defer important state-of-good-repair projects, which could undermine our recent reliability gains,” Wiedefeld said in the letter. In a joint statement Thursday night, Warner and Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said the effects on Metro highlight the need for the shutdown to be ended swiftly. “At a time when Metro already is undertaking substantial, disruptive projects to improve safety and reliability, President Trump’s shutdown is jeopardizing the health and stability of the entire Metro system,” the senators wrote. “This wasteful, destructive shutdown must come to an end.” Metro declined to elaborate on the letter issued by Wiedefeld, saying the document “speaks for itself.” “It would be premature for Metro to speculate on the long-term impacts,” Metro spokeswoman Sherri Ly said. Among the questions the agency declined to answer: How long can its $1.9 billion operating budget absorb steep operating losses before drastic action — such as a service cut — must be taken? Metro declined last week to issue preliminary figures on how the shutdown was affecting ridership, citing a need to gather a more holistic portrait of the data. Internal ridership figures obtained by The Washington Post showed the transit agency was losing an estimated 50,000 rail trips per day compared with last year. Metro also expressed concern that if the Federal Transit Administration is not up and operating soon, it could delay the certification of the Metrorail Safety Commission, the oversight panel set to assume safety oversight duties from the FTA. Without certification by the April deadline, the region risks losing $638 million in federal grant funding


Business recap: The week of Jan. 14

Retail U.S. shoppers spent Adobe, which collects its data by measuring 80 percent of all online transactions from the top 100 U.S. Web retailers, said the amount was 16.5 percent higher than last year’s total. Mobile platforms made up 51 percent of traffic to retail websites during the November to December period and were responsible for nearly a third of all online spending. Earnings Netflix reported The company added 8.8 million subscribers, slightly higher than the many analyst estimates of about 8 million. Of those subscribers, 7.3 million were international, nearly a million more than many had forecast. Domestic subscriber additions of 1.5 million were in line with estimates. The company’s revenue, however, was slightly below analyst expectations, coming in at $4.19 billion compared to consensus projections of $4.21 billion. Trade A surprising development The news comes less than two weeks before a high-level delegation from Beijing is scheduled to arrive in Washington for talks. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in recent weeks has proposed a tariff reduction as an incentive for China to sweeten its offer to the United States, according to two people familiar with the discussions who were not authorized to speak publicly. Administration hard-liners are opposed to eliminating the tariffs before China has taken irreversible steps to meet U.S. demands. Sanctions In a rebuke The vote of 362 to 53 on Thursday will not prevent the Trump administration from easing sanctions on three companies connected to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch with ties to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, as Senate Republicans narrowly blocked a similar measure recently . But the House vote does mean that a majority of Republicans on Capitol Hill oppose President Trump’s efforts to soften punitive measures on a Russian oligarch — a rejection with potential implications for the administration’s continued stance on Russia and for the GOP lawmakers who backed the plan to ease the sanctions.


The two issues that undermined the E.U.

As we watch Britain go through the paroxysms of Brexit, it is easy to view its decision to leave the European Union as an act of foolishness, a self-inflicted wound that will impoverish Britons for years. Europe is Britain’s largest market, taking in almost half of the country’s exports. Losing special access to it is a high price to pay for some symbolic gains in sovereignty. But the Brexit debacle also shines a light on Europe itself, and what one sees is a continent and a political project that have stopped working — at least for many of the people at its Western European core. I say this as an ardent supporter of the European Union. The United States and the E.U. have been the two main engines behind a world based on open markets, democratic politics, liberty and law, human rights, and global welfare. These values will probably be eroded worldwide if the strength and purpose of either of these centers wane further. For the past three decades, the European project has been wandering off course. What began as a community of nations cooperating to create larger markets, greater efficiency and political stability has become obsessed with two massive issues that have undermined its central achievements. The first was — after the Soviet Union’s collapse — the rapid integration of many new countries that were far less economically and socially developed than the E.U.’s original members. Since 1995, it has expanded from 12 countries to 28. Originally focused on opening up markets, streamlining regulations and creating new growth opportunities, the E.U. soon became a “transfer union,” a vast scheme to redistribute funds from prosperous countries to emerging markets. Even in today’s strong economic environment, spending by the E.U. accounts for more than 3 percent of Hungary’s economy and almost 4 percent of Lithuania’s. This gap between a rich and a poor Europe with open borders inevitably produced a migration crisis. As Matthias Matthijs pointed out in Foreign Affairs, from 2004 to 2014, about 2 million Poles migrated to Britain and Germany and about 2 million Romanians moved to Italy and Spain. These movements put massive strains on the safety nets of destination countries and stoked nationalism and nativism. The influx into Europe of more than 1 million refugees in 2015, mostly from the Middle East, must be placed in the context of these already sky-high migrant numbers. And as


Model who claimed U.S.-Russian collusion tape held in Moscow on prostitution charges

MOSCOW — A model from Belarus who claimed to have recordings shedding light on the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia was detained at a Moscow airport Thursday on prostitution allegations, the police said. The model, Anastasia Vashukevich, had been deported from Thailand earlier in the day after spending nine months in prison on charges of conspiracy and soliciting prostitution. She was booked to fly to Minsk, Belarus, but was detained along with three others traveling with her as she changed planes at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport, according to her husband and another person traveling with her. No evidence has emerged of the tape that Vashukevich claimed showed contacts between Trump campaign officials and Russians. Her arrest in Moscow was unexpected and blocked her from possibly talking to dozens of journalists waiting for her in the airport’s arrivals zone. Gregory Kogan, a close friend of Vashukevich, asserted that Russian and Belarusan diplomats in Thailand had pledged the group would be safe if they left for Russia or flew via Moscow. The four now face charges of inducement into prostitution, said a police statement quoted by the Interfax news agency. They face a maximum of six years in prison. Vashukevich, a model and self-described “sex expert” also known as Nastya Rybka, became an unlikely figure in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. Alexei Navalny, a Russian anti-corruption activist, last year highlighted Instagram videos from 2016 apparently showing her on a yacht with Russian metals magnate Oleg Deripaska and a Russian deputy prime minister. Soon after her apparent connection to Deripaska came to light, Vashukevich and several Russians were arrested while conducting what she described as a sex training seminar for Russian tourists in the Thai resort town of Pattaya. In jail, she pleaded for U.S. help, saying she had recordings revealing ties between Russia and Donald Trump. Deripaska used to work with Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Deripaska has denied wrongdoing. On Tuesday, she and her seven co-defendants pleaded guilty in Thai court, clearing the way for them to be deported. “They’re dumb allegations, with no grounds and no explanation,” her husband, Nikolay Vashukevich, who wasn’t one of the four detained, said in a text message as he waited in the airport’s transit area to learn his wife’s fate. anton.troianovski@washpost.com rosalind.helderman@washpost.com


Rebuking Trump, over 130 House Republicans challenge plans to lift sanctions against Putin ally

In a rebuke to the Trump administration, 136 Republicans joined House Democrats Thursday to oppose a Treasury Department plan to lift sanctions against companies controlled by an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The overwhelming 362 to 53 vote will not prevent the Trump administration from easing sanctions on three companies connected to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch with ties to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, as Senate Republicans narrowly blocked a similar measure on Wednesday. But the House vote does mean that a majority of Republicans on Capitol Hill oppose President Trump’s efforts to soften punitive measures on a Russian oligarch — a rejection with potential implications for the administration’s continued stance on Russia, and for the GOP lawmakers who backed the plan to ease the sanctions. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and GOP Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) both broke with Trump to join Democrats to support the resolution, along with the rest of their leadership team – a particularly awkward rebellion for the White House and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky). “I don’t believe this issue should divide our two parties. In fact, it should unite us … Congress must guard against playing partisan politics with sanctions,” said Rep. Mike McCaul (R-Texas), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who previously served as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, where he led an effort to improve cybersecurity in the wake of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 elections. “I think many members find Treasury’s case for delisting these particular Russia companies to have an argument, but not very compelling,” he added. “Because we cannot be sure that we have removed the heavy hand of this Russian oligarch, I cannot support the delisting of these sanctioned entities at this point in time and therefore I support this resolution.” Treasury last month said it intended to lift sanctions the U.S. imposed last year against Deripaska’s companies, including a major aluminum producer, while keeping sanctions intact against Deripaska himself. The company sanctions initially caused havoc with global aluminum prices, prompting European allies to complain. Treasury said it was prepared to lift the company sanctions because Deripaska agreed to reduce his ownership below 50 percent. His reduced stake would protect the companies “from the controlling influence of a Kremlin insider,” Treasury said, adding that the companies had been sanctioned "solely because they were majority-owned or controlled by Deripaska.”


State Dept. employees ordered back to work as Trump nixes Pelosi trip and Davos delegation, citing shutdown

legal flexibility to determine who is essential and who must stay home, though some have argued that the agency is going too far. “There is no credible justification” for some of these decisions, said Charles Tiefer, a professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law and expert on government contracting. He said decisions to restart agency operations that had been closed to help farmers and energy-sector workers, for example, ran contrary to past government practice. “These are instances of the government working with some part of the private sector that is favored.” White House officials, though, have argued that they are simply trying to minimize the impact of the shutdown on as many people as possible. They have reinstated Internal Revenue Service employees to help process millions of tax returns next month, and they have found a way to pay food-stamp benefits in the coming days as well. “We are operating under duress in terms of trying to keep this government running,” a senior administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the operations. Trump has not gotten involved in the minutiae of agency decisions but has told Russell Vought, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, and others to do whatever they can to bring employees back to work so agency operations can continue, if legally possible. Still, the moves by federal agencies have been uneven. The Small Business Administration, a key liaison to thousands of U.S. companies, has stopped originating new loans, and many consumer protection entities have halted inspections. And some agencies are resuming certain operations while keeping others closed. At the Interior Department, bureaus have modified their contingency plans to sustain current and future mining, drilling and grazing operations on public land. On Friday, the Bureau of Land Management changed its plan to allow for 19 percent of its 9,260-person workforce to continue on the job during the shutdown. According to BLM officials, employees who are back on the job are working on activities including law enforcement, grazing activities and preparing for March lease sales that will take place in several Western states. Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, for its part, has also brought back employees to avert any delays in its March auction for offshore oil and gas drilling. Randall Luthi, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, praised the decision. “The offshore energy


As a classical music critic, I used to think the ‘Star Wars’ score was beneath me. I was wrong.

If you live long enough, you see the pop culture of your youth rise to classic status. So it is with “Star Wars.” The movie I first saw in a small theater in central Maine the summer it came out in 1977 is now ubiquitous concert-hall fare. On seeing that both the National Symphony Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra were presenting screenings with live orchestral accompaniment of “A New Hope” (the film we knew as the original “Star Wars”) in September, I did an informal online search and found “Star Wars” being played by at least 13 symphony orchestras this season alone, from Sydney to St. Louis. (The NSO is continuing the theme with “Return of the Jedi” next week and “The Force Awakens” Feb. 21 to 23.) Being played in a concert hall isn’t necessarily a marker of quality. These days, you find movies of all stripes on orchestra seasons, as film music has seen its role vis-a-vis classical music transformed from poor cousin to possible salvation. But at the very least, it’s a way to get younger audiences in the door. Orchestras across the country this year are offering Harry Potter films, “The Little Mermaid,” “Ghostbusters” and “Rebel Without a Cause,” as well as movies with more sanctioned “classical” scores, such as “An American in Paris” and “West Side Story” (both coming to the BSO this spring). What I found notable about “Star Wars,” though, is that the more I saw it, the more I realized that it really belongs in a concert hall. I saw “A New Hope” with both the NSO and the BSO in September and found that the experience confirmed something I had started to suspect: As a classical music critic, I was clueless. That is: While I liked John Williams’s music just fine when I first saw the film at age 12, by the time I had attained legal adulthood, laden with a cargo of acquired snobbery about the superiority of Western civilization, I had learned, and bravely parroted, that “film music” was somehow beneath me. And for the next three decades, through all the sequels I didn’t see and the quartet Williams composed for the inauguration of Barack Obama in 2009, which I did, I continued to use “film music” as a pejorative term that, if looked at closely, probably meant to me something akin to “something which one enjoys, but


On Croatia’s Dalmatian coast, the sleepy city of Sibenik shakes things up

at Pelegrini, Sibenik’s lauded restaurant that got a Michelin star in March 2018 (one of only three in Croatia). With 28 indoor seats, it opened in 2007 in a 700-year-old palazzo; the alfresco tables along the stairs overlooking the cathedral and on the terrace with four medieval wells add another 28 seats in fair-weather months. Like the forts that focus on reviving Sibenik’s heritage, Pelegrini delivers fresh ingredients sourced from the region and crafted into culinary art. “We have to respect nature and use what’s around us,” says Rudi Stefan, Pelegrini’s chef and owner. “The best amuse-bouche in Dalmatia during summertime is a tomato picked at 6 p.m., delivered to our kitchen at 6.30 p.m., sliced in four, sprinkled with a little salt and olive oil — and that’s it. That tells the story of our terroir.” Meals at Pelegrini come with a touch of performance. The staff delivers gorgeously presented dishes to each table with choreographed moves. The minuscule kitchen churns out highlights such as mussels harvested by the restaurant’s dedicated shellfish diver and a modern take on traditional veal under peka (a baking bell) — cooked sous-vide, finished on the grill and served with rosemary cream-filled potatoes. Unlike most of the restaurants in Sibenik, Pelegrini is open year-round, though it draws few diners in winter months. (It’s best to call ahead.) Set on bringing people to Sibenik during the city’s lull, Stefan last March organized the inaugural Chefs’ Stage, a gastronomy and hospitality congress that gathered 35 international chefs, including Slovenia’s Ana Ros, with panels, master classes, dinners in remarkable locations, and presentations of small producers. The impetus of change has swept Sibenik on many fronts. On your stroll through town, you may stumble into SHE, a vegan bistro in a light-flooded ground floor of a 19th-century townhouse on a tiny piazza just up from the seafront. You may order the homemade gnocchi with rucola pesto or spinach falafel to savor with the handcrafted bread, and then come evening take the winding stairs up to the small rooftop bar to enjoy the signature cocktail as the sun dips. You may drop by a yoga class or a sound bath at the SHE Atelier upstairs. But the behind-the-scenes is what really makes the story of SHE. Its mastermind, Irena Ateljevic, is a former academic renowned for her research in the field of tourism and cultural geography. When she quit