IOC is forced to defend itself after Russian curler reportedly fails drug test

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — Russian athletes were invited to compete at the Winter Games because the International Olympic Committee said they had proved they were clean and that the governing body for the Olympic Games felt other athletes would be ensured of fair competition and a level playing field. The IOC was forced to defend its decision to include Russian athletes in these PyeongChang Games on Monday morning after curler Alexander Krushelnytsky reportedly failed a drug test, jeopardizing the bronze medal he won last week in mixed doubles and inviting increased scrutiny on the IOC’s handling of the situation. Appearing at a news conference Monday morning in PyeongChang, IOC spokesman Mark Adams declined to comment on the specific case but noted that a “very, very rigorous program” was established to determine which Russian athletes should be allowed to compete here. “There was a sense from the IOC that we wanted individual athletes, if they could prove they were clean, to have the chance to participate in the Olympic Games. I think we would very much stick by that process, stick by that decision that athletes should not be judged as a group,” Adams said. “We should try to find a way — and we did find a way — to rigorously test them and provide a route for clean athletes to compete.” Krushelnytsky reportedly tested positive for meldonium, which has been on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of banned substances since January 2016. Competing with his wife, Anastasia Bryzgalova, Krushelnytsky won a bronze medal in mixed doubles curling Tuesday. The pair earned third place with a win over Norway, which would receive the bronze medal if Krushelnytsky’s failed drug test is confirmed by a B sample, according to a Reuters report citing an unnamed person close to the situation. The Court for Arbitration in Sport confirmed Monday afternoon in PyeongChang that it “has initiated a procedure involving the athlete Aleksandr Krushelnitckii,” suggesting that his B-sample likely also tested positive. The court said no hearing date had yet been scheduled. The web site Inside the Games reported that the B-sample was tested earlier in the day at the World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited laboratory in Seoul. Krushelnytsky has reportedly been stripped of his accreditation and has left the Olympic Village. Some expressed shock that he would test positive for meldonium, a drug used to treat heart disease and other chronic conditions in Russia


Without NHL players, Olympic men’s tournament gives a glimpse of the future

and turning chances into real threats. For most teams, games reveal why players here are not in the NHL. The skilled players are too slow to keep up, and the fast players have trouble stickhandling and controlling the game. “Here’s a perfect example: The South Korean team [has] a bunch of guys that can fly,” Roenick said. “You put a puck near them, and the puck explodes into 15,000 pieces.” The Russians, many of whom play together in the KHL and have NHL-caliber skill, stand out in their capacity to execute an offensive plan. They maintain the shape of their attack, and their passes zip from tape to tape. For other teams, offense largely consists of panicked whacks at the puck, perhaps in the general direction of a teammate — “a lot of hope-fors,” Roenick said. Fischer pointed out that the lack of high-end talent has especially harmed the potency of power plays. That makes teams more inclined to take penalties, which further mucks up games. For connoisseurs, the tournament serves as a unique glimpse at some of the sport’s brightest prospects, who typically don’t play on national television or with Olympic-level stakes. Finland’s Eeli Tolvanen, a Nashville Predators prospect, stands among the tournament’s leading goal scorers. Swedish defenseman Rasmus Dahlin is the heavy favorite to be picked first in the next NHL draft. Team USA’s Jordan Greenway is a scout’s dream, a blend of massive size, soft hands and fearlessness. “It’s a lot of young players who are eventually going to be big stars in the National Hockey League,” said former NHL star Alexei Yashin, a two-time Olympic medalist from Russia. “So they can shine here first. It’s like Peter Forsberg in ’94.” For hockey fans who want to see the best in the world, they can still turn to the Olympics. The attention placed on the new kind of men’s tournament has distracted from the high level of the women’s tournament. While the rest of the field has improved, Canada and the United States have taken the women’s game to new heights while creating a tenacious rivalry. “Men’s hockey? I’ve watched zero,” Washington Capitals Coach Barry Trotz said. “The women’s hockey was fantastic. . . . The women go at it hard. I could tell you this about the women’s game: It looks totally different now than it did eight years ago.” In the previous five Games, hockey


Beats, rhymes and ice: Olympians rely on their tunes, and science backs them up

BONGPYEONG, South Korea — Before Darian Stevens could begin her slopestyle skiing qualifying run, she had to find the right song. A combination of fate and feeling would guide her. Standing at the top of the course, having been told she could drop in, Stevens sifted through her phone’s music shuffle until the right song filled her ears: “Caught Up,” by Usher. “If I get too in my head, I know I don’t perform that well under pressure,” Stevens said. “I just need a distraction. I just let my body take over and do what it knows how to do.” As snowboarders and freestyle skiers walk from the end of their runs through crowds of reporters and supporters, equipment in hands and goggles on forehead, you might notice a curious accessory protruding from the top of their jackets. For a certain percentage of riders, probably a small majority, those wires and ear buds are as much a part of their uniform as bindings and boots. Throughout the PyeongChang Olympics, snowboarders and skiers have provided personal soundtracks. Women’s halfpipe gold medalist Chloe Kim told ESPN that she listened to “MotorSport” by Migos during her iconic final halfpipe run. For his gold medal halfpipe trip, Shaun White had a Post Malone song in his ears. Slopestyle skier Caroline Claire listened to Playboi Carti. Halfpipe snowboarder Maddie Mastro chose Cage The Elephant. The individual nature of their sports allow riders to listen to music in competition. There are no teammates to interact with or coaches to heed. But they do not do it just because they can. Music helps the athletes block out distractions, focus before a race and perform better during it. The sports require rhythm and artistry, and those who choose to roll with an iPod might see inherent benefit in those areas. According to Matthew Stork, a PhD candidate from the University of British Columbia who has researched and written on the relationship between music and performance, researchers have come to understand the phenomenon through the term “entrainment.” It means the tendency of biological rhythms — heart rate, respiration rate, even brain waves — to align with musical rhythms. “In other words,” Stork said in an email, “there is an innate human tendency to synchronize movement with musical rhythm.” On her slopestyle skiing runs Saturday, 2014 silver medalist Devin Logan bobbed and bounced to Kendrick Lamar as she started, moving


Why is Ethiopia in upheaval? This brief history explains a lot.

the center of Ethiopian politics before. But the power vacuum left by Meles’s death and the increasing authoritarianism erupted into popular protests in 2015, and since then the ERPDF’s cohesion has been severely challenged. The two presidents of the largest regional states in the country, Amhara and Oromia — home to the two largest ethnic groups (the Oromo being the most populous, the Amhara the second) — this summer announced that they partly support the protests, and have demanded genuine regional self-rule and an end to Tigrayan dominance. Since the last rounds of the protests in 2017, the EPRDF has gone through what it calls a “deep reform.” To try to relieve the pressure on the regime and aim for “national reconciliation,” over the past weeks Hailemariam released more than 6,000 political prisoners, including the Oromo opposition leader Merera Gudina. In doing so, however, the ruling party did not clearly admit that it had ever detained political prisoners at all. The delay and uncertainty about the party’s intentions prompted renewed protests across Oromia. In an attempt to calm the unrest, on Feb. 13 the ERPDF released new rounds of roughly 700 prisoners, including the journalists Eskinder Nega and Andualem Arage and Oromo opposition leader Bekele Gerba. Why did Hailemariam to resign — and who will replace him? The ERPDF’s internal reform processes had already signaled displeasure with the central leadership of the party. A December 2017 statement from the party’s executive committee blamed the current leadership for a lack of good governance and for failing to protect civilians in the unrest. The statement encouraged the coalition’s four member parties to replace their leaders, something the TPLF did shortly. Similarly, the Southern Ethiopian People’s Democratic Front has asked its leaders, including Hailemariam, to step down. But who will replace him as prime minister? The ERPDF’s central committee is currently meeting, discussing this question with what are surely heated ethnic debates. Given the protests in the Oromo region, it might seem natural to appoint an Oromo to lead the country. This will, however, require the support of the second-largest ethnic group, the Amhara, the traditional elite of pre-EPRDF Ethiopia. Members of the committee are surely motivated in their discussions by knowing that if they cannot unite behind the same candidate, the coalition risks a real split along ethnic lines and a battle over which faction will control the government. To avoid a


The next five years will shape sea level rise for the next 300, study says

The world is far off course from its goals in cutting greenhouse gas emissions — and research published Tuesday illustrates one of the most striking implications of this. Namely, it finds that for every five years in the present that we continue to put off strong action on climate change, the ocean could rise an additional eight inches by the year 2300 — a dramatic illustration of just how much decisions in the present will affect distant future generations. “One important point was to reveal that sea level [rise] is not in the far future, it’s now, and because the system is so slow, we just can’t see it at the moment,” said Matthias Mengel of Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, the lead author of the study, which was published in Nature Communications. “But we cause it now.” The study, which also included scientists at institutions in Australia and Austria, takes as its premise that the world will work to achieve the Paris climate agreement’s sharp cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. The goal is to limit warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), which requires that the world essentially cease adding any more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere by 2050 or so. This, in turn, means that global greenhouse gas emissions must reach a peak by either 2020, 2025 or 2030 (or possibly 2035) and then begin to decline rapidly. The longer the wait, the faster the necessary decline after the peak. If we delay longer still, it simply becomes too difficult to bring emissions down fast enough to avoid dangerous levels of global warming. All of this has major implications for the global sea-level-rise commitment, the study finds. Because emissions today impel rising seas over centuries, the researchers were able to calculate a surprisingly large impact of present choices on sea levels in the distant future. For every five-year delay in the peaking of emissions, the middle-range sea level projection for 2300 increased by 20 centimeters, or about eight inches, the study found. “The more cumulative emissions, the more warming, the more sea level,” Mengel explained. And that’s just the central estimate in the study. At the extreme end of what’s relatively unlikely but still certainly possible, the research found that each five-year delay could mean as much as an additional meter, or over three feet, of sea level rise. That is because of the ever-growing


Three U.S. men’s speedskaters fail to advance in 500-meter heats

honest and say it kind of pissed me off,” U.S. Coach Anthony Barthell said. “To see how it all went down, two of the guys couldn’t even get a lap in because of two falls in front of them basically. But, I know it’s short track and it happens — but to have that draw, it’s kind of ridiculous.” Hong also felt the impact of the North Korean skater, Jong Kwang Bom, who was one of the four skaters in his heat. On the first start, Jong fell face down to begin the heat, seemingly without contact, though officials decided to restart the race anyway. It took just seconds after the restart for Jong to jostle with Japanese skater Keita Watanabe and then fall again, which forced Hong to dodge them. Jong was penalized and disqualified. “That collision really slowed me down,” Hong said, “but I tried to fight through it.” Hong, like his coach, like his teammates, emphasized the fact that all short-track races are like this. The women’s 3,000-meter relay later in the evening, for example, included penalties to the teams in position for silver and bronze medals — Canada and China — which meant that the winner of the B relay, the Netherlands, ended up with a bronze medal. Chaos reigns in this sport, whatever the draw or size of the field. The U.S. women, too, were shut out of their last chance for an individual medal when neither Jessica Kooreman nor Lana Gehring could emerge from qualifying heats in the 1,000 meters. Maame Biney’s quarterfinal finish in the 500-meter race was the best finish from any American short-track woman at these Olympics. That team is rebuilding, and building around young, raw talent such as Biney. Nothing about the field or draw affected them. Krueger wouldn’t make excuses, either — though he did wonder aloud whether the Americans’ failure to advance after a treacherous draw might induce change in the selection process. As for the additional skater in the field, who walked past reporters without comment Tuesday night, Krueger said he tried not to think about it. “I knew there was going to be some position shifting due to the North Korean participation, but regardless of North Korea participating or not, I have to be stronger than what I did today,” Krueger said. “I’m not going to blame North Korea’s participation for my poor skating performance.” chelsea.janes@washpost.com


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Sarah Sanders offered a very bad defense of Trump’s response to Russia

der Zwaan, a London-based attorney. In addition, it has filed charges against two other former campaign staff, Paul Manafort and Rick Gates and 13 Russian individuals who worked to influence the 2016 election through fake social-media accounts. How much the FBI was involved in those charges and pleas is not clear, but it is clearly the case that the Mueller investigation broadly has not been fruitless. Karl transitioned to another question that arose after Friday’s indictment against the Russian social media trolls: Has the president done anything to prevent future election interference? (Trump has rarely raised the issue in public, never saying anything specific about a response.) The interference did indeed take place during the administration of Barack Obama, but there are some significant asterisks that should be applied there. First, the Obama administration took the highly unusual step of offering a public warning a month before Election Day about Russia’s attempt to compromise the election. That statement was released on Oct. 7 — the same day as the “Access Hollywood” tape and the start of WikiLeaks releasing emails stolen from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman. In addition, as The Washington Post reported in December 2016, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) opposed challenging the Russians publicly out of apparent concern it would influence the election. (Last month former vice president Joe Biden confirmed this reporting.) After the election, the Obama administration unveiled a slew of new sanctions against Russia. (Flynn’s guilty plea to Mueller stemmed from his lying to the FBI about a discussion he’d had with Russia’s ambassador about those sanctions.) Karl asked what Trump had done to Russia in response to the interference. Sanders replied the administration had met with local election officials and vendors about election and election-machine security. She said it had also been a subject of conversation with other heads of state and the administration was working with its allies. The exchange continued. What that last incident is is not clear. Sanders’s initial statement about Trump being tougher than Obama, though, seems like a stretch. The Trump administration has refused to implement new sanctions approved by Congress aimed specifically at punishing the country for its election interference. The properties seized by the government were a response to Russia’s expulsion of diplomatic staff after the passage of the aforementioned sanctions. Responding to Welker, Sanders also noted the military expansion and the export of natural gas to


CDC warns about salmonella infections traced to kratom

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and several states are investigating an outbreak of salmonella illness linked to kratom, an unregulated herbal supplement that is sometimes used for pain, anxiety and opioid-withdrawal symptoms, the CDC said Tuesday. The agency, which urged consumers to not use kratom in any form because of the possibility of contamination, said the infections started in October and have affected 20 states. Eleven people have been hospitalized, and no one has died. Most of the people sickened have reported consuming kratom in pills, powder or tea, according to the CDC, which didn't name any specific brands or suppliers. Symptoms of a salmonella infection include diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps. The CDC said that whole genome sequencing performed on salmonella samples from ill people showed that the germs were closely related genetically, making it likely they came from a common source. Three people in California have been sickened; the other affected states, including Utah, Oregon, Ohio and Pennsylvania, have had one or two cases. Kratom, which comes from a tree in Southeast Asia, is at the center of a fierce debate over whether it should be banned. In 2016, the Drug Enforcement Administration tried to classify kratom in the same category as heroin but backed off after an intense public backlash. Recently, the FDA has supported a kratom crackdown, saying the botanical is potentially dangerous and addictive. The DEA is reviewing the FDA's recommendation and conducting its own analysis. Kratom is widely available on the Internet and is sold in some head shops, gas stations and corner grocery stores. It has been banned for sale and possession in at least five states and in several cities, including Washington and San Diego. The FDA said recently that a new computer model it developed shows that kratom contains opioid compounds that can cause potentially lethal side effects such as seizures and depressed breathing. The agency said there is no evidence that kratom is safe for any medical use, including for the treatment of opioid-withdrawal symptoms. Kratom advocates have attacked the FDA's views, saying the supplement is much safer than traditional opioids such as oxycodone and can help addicts wean themselves off the powerful painkillers. The American Kratom Association, which promotes access to the herb, is launching an online campaign this week, using the slogan #IamKratom, to increase support. Earlier this month, the group


This is exactly the wrong time to retreat from space

On July 20, 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin bounded across the lunar surface as Michael Collins orbited above. We now sail across our solar system. Rovers gambol on Mars, the Cassini spacecraft just plunged through a gap in the rings of Saturn, and the Voyager spacecraft soars into interstellar space, more than 13 billion miles away, still sending back signals to Earth. But proposed budgets drastically cut support for telescopes that tell us about the universe’s origins and spacecraft that trace the changes on our home planet. And the United States has stood on the sidelines as nations across the world develop the next generation of land-based optical observatories. Rarely has there been a more exciting and promising time for space science. Telescopes pointing deep into space detect thousands of planets orbiting faraway suns. Life may reside in the ocean worlds of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn or be revealed in the ancient history of Mars. Gravitational-wave observatories probe the inner workings of black holes, like the one at the center of our galaxy. We have the opportunity to understand the origins of dark matter and dark energy, which constitute 95 percent of the universe but remain mysterious. The United States has been a remarkable engine of innovation, creating knowledge for the ages and solving society’s problems today. We have the talent and the entrepreneurial spirit to build on our grand history of discovery. We need only the vision and the will. Thomas F. Rosenbaum The writer, a physicist, is president of the California Institute of Technology. Edward C. Stone The writer is a professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology, project scientist for the Voyager mission and former director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.


The Health 202: Trump administration pulls back from key Medicare goals

the Armed Forces “That’s a harsh reality check for the Pentagon’s plan to recruit tens of thousands of new soldiers, sailors, pilots and cyber specialists over the next five years,” Bryan writes. “The Army plans to add 4,000 troops to reach a total of 487,500; the Navy will add 7,500 sailors for a total of 335,400; and the Air Force is seeking an additional 4,000 volunteers to reach 329,100 active-duty personnel...But the military is struggling to reach its current recruiting goals.” "The bleak demographic trends among the military-age population could make filling the ranks with qualified recruits exceedingly difficult for years to come," OUCH: HHS's top communications official Charmaine Yoest is leaving the agency for the Office of National Drug Control Policy, according to sources at the agency and several news reports late last week. Over the months Yoest served as HHS's secretary of public affairs, there was a marked shift in the access reporters were given to top HHS officials compared to under the previous administration. --In the wake of the Parkland, Fla. school shooting last week -- which killed 17 people and prompted students to gather in front of the White House to call for change -- Trump has focused mostly on the need for better mental-health treatment instead of talking about stricter gun control. That bought him some criticism from the medical community, “Mental health professionals welcome more resources and attention, but they say the administration is ignoring the real problem — easy access to guns, particularly the kind of high-powered highly lethal assault weapons used in many of the most recent mass shootings,” Lindsey writes. The American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics were among several leading medical groups that penned a statement calling on the administration and lawmakers to declare gun violence a national public health epidemic. --However, Trump has signaled support for one piece of gun control legislation aimed at improving the background-check system used to purchase guns “Federal agencies are required to report various felonies, indictments and other crimes — including domestic assaults — into the federal database, but Congress has no power to compel states to do the same,” Josh writes. “The Murphy-Cornyn legislation would offer direct financial incentives, as well as favorable future access to other federal assistance programs, to states that report infractions into the system.” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said over the weekend Trump


Break out the hankies: I didn’t understand that Olympians were so small — and so vulnerable

back those feelings, and Chock and Bates still had to answer for the mistake. This is how this works. Baseball players and football players and the rest answer for their tiniest tumbles every single day. Those who take them in the biggest moments — the Bill Buckners of the world — answer for them for a lifetime. Bates and Chock will do that, too. Jacobellis has answered for one premature celebration for more than a decade and, because she hasn’t won the gold medal that would render those questions moot, will probably do so forever. But in these sports, in this world, the pain is sharper, and the time to think about it endless. In the major professional sports, where massive wealth offsets defeat, where fans pay money to support the endeavor, where athletes are employed to entertain, sympathy is harder to generate. And in my experience, because of that money and the luxury their job provides, defeat does not render those athletes as miserable somehow. Exceptions exist. I’ve watched Max Scherzer wander around the clubhouse, eyes wide in devastated shock, after two Game 5 losses. I’ve seen a team whose legacy will only be defined in October continue to stumble there, unable to change its reputation. But most of those players play again. Most of them get the same stage a year later, or at least the same chance to reach that stage. And most of them return to comfortable lifestyles. In the Olympics, a mishap can mark the lasting memory of an entire career. Many athletes will have to find real jobs when they return home. American skeleton racer John Daly has already returned to work. U.S. speedskater Brian Hansen said he’ll probably start looking soon. Bates has been skating for some time now, and Chock might need surgery. With young teams climbing the rankings, this might have been their best chance. As Chock choked through tears, she wondered whether it was their only one. Everyone knows all this, of course. Even an Olympic rookie like me knows the raw emotions of a once-every-four-years sport are always the story, along with the adversity and challenges that generate them. One reader continues to remind me via email of her rating system for Olympic stories: the hankie. My recent story on short-track speedskater John-Henry Krueger earned three hankies, she said. Someday, I hope to hit four. But to be here,


Olympics Day 12: U.S. adds to medal count, while Lindsey Vonn goes for gold

skated to silver at the Nagano Olympics, and she has been a figure skating icon ever since. We caught up with her before the Olympics to ask about her career and advice for figure skating fans. How did the Nagano Games influence your life and career? I don’t think there was one moment, Games or championship that changed my life; instead, it was the journey of being an athlete. It’s like that saying, “Enjoy the journey, not the destination.” However, I am very proud and honored to have competed and represented our country in two Olympics. [Nagano and again at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.] My Olympic dreams started all because I watched the ’88 Olympics and saw Brian Boitano win the gold medal. His performance that night changed my life. It was as if a lightbulb went off and I knew that one day I wanted to be at the Olympics. Then, fast forward 10 years, I was competing at my first Olympics! I remember getting my Team USA gear, and wearing it made me feel one foot taller! It was really a dream come true. Do you still watch? Of course! And, I’ll be in Korea cheering for Team USA. [Kwan is in PyeongChang on behalf of Procter & Gamble.] Are there any behind-the-scenes skating things that viewers might not know about? One thing I do enjoy watching is how athletes prepare to get in the zone. I like seeing how every athlete is different — some athletes jump/stretch, some zone out listening to music, some are talkative, while others are meditating and visualizing their performance in a corner. I think it would be fun for the viewers to think what kind of Olympian would they be. This interview has been edited. Below is a TV roundup for the rest of today and tomorrow, taken from The Post’s comprehensive TV guide. All Olympic events can be streamed live online at NBCOlympics.com. (Here’s that schedule.) Times are Eastern. Tuesday, Feb. 20 NBC NBCSN CNBC Wednesday, Feb. 21 NBC NBCSN USA CNBC Read more Post coverage of the PyeongChang Olympics: In Olympic freestyle halfpipe, four American friends will vie for three medals Ice dancing is sensual. The Shibutanis try to portray passion of a different kind. ‘They’re fearless’: College players lift U.S. men’s hockey into Olympic quarterfinals American Brita Sigourney earns bronze on final run of freestyle skiing halfpipe


Trump’s unhinged Russia tweetstorm boomerangs back on Republicans

avoiding grappling with whether it might have helped tip an extremely close election to Trump — an uncomfortable topic, because that might place a question mark over Trump’s legitimacy. And that raises another related uncomfortable question — a forward-looking one. Trump and his media allies have gone to enormous lengths to discredit and hamstring a full reckoning into what happened. Numerous Republicans in Congress have perverted and weaponized the oversight process to lend an assist to that effort. Because Trump refuses to take Russian sabotage of the 2016 presidential election seriously, Trump is conspicuously failing to organize a response to the threat of Russian meddling in upcoming elections, even though intelligence officials warn this effort is already upon us. Republicans such as House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.) have greeted the Mueller indictment by claiming our election security must be taken seriously. But how many Republicans are openly calling out Trump’s inaction in that regard, which the indictment gives us ample grounds for taking even more seriously? As the Atlantic’s David Frum suggests, we need to discuss a “bigger and darker question,” namely whether Trump — and, crucially, congressional Republicans — may not particularly care about this threat if they stand to benefit from it. Much of this is speculative, which provides a way for those who find these topics awkward to avoid reckoning directly with them. But the specific conduct of GOP lawmakers in declining to show a united front against Russian sabotage of our democracy is a topic that needn’t remain speculative. It can be fully fleshed out and established with empirical, journalistic inquiry. Trump has unwittingly invited this inquiry. We should take him up on it. * PUBLIC WANTS ACTION ON MASS SHOOTINGS: So Republicans say Congress isn’t doing enough, but Trump is doing enough? Makes sense. * WHITE HOUSE SAW FLORIDA SHOOTING AS ‘REPRIEVE’: Another sign of just how awful it must be to work inside the Trump White House. * HOUSE INTEL COMMITTEE IS AT WAR: This will be widely spun in the press as “partisan bickering,” but the fact is that one party is far more serious about getting to the bottom of Russian sabotage than the other is. * FACEBOOK WALKS BACK TRUMP MESSAGE: In other words, Facebook now concedes that Russians used it as part of a plot to help Trump win. Of course, that won’t stop Trump supporters from continuing to


قمع السيسي يقوض تماسك نظامه

محمد سلطان هو مدافع عن حقوق الإنسان ومؤسس مبادرة الحرية. آية حجازي هي ناشطة اجتماعية مصرية-أمريكية ومؤسسة مؤسسة بلاد في الأسبوع الماضي، اعتقلت قوات الأمن في مصر رجلا يدعى هشام جنينة وهو الرئيس السابق لأكبر الأجهزة الرقابية في مصر.لا يعتبر جنينة سياسيا في المقام الأول، ولكن من الواضح أن خلفيته كخبير مالي لم تكن هي التي استرعت انتباه المحققين في مصر، ولكن دوره كصوت متحدث باسم الفريق سامي عنان رئيس أركان الجيش الأسبق الذي تم سجنه الشهر الماضي بعد وقت قصير من إعلان اعتزامه الترشح للانتخابات ضد الرئيس عبدالفتاح السيسي . ومع اعتقال عنان ، يكون السيسي قد أزال منافسه الجاد الأخير في الانتخابات الرئاسية المصرية المزمع إجراؤها في 26 مارس/ آذار.وفي وقت سابق، سحب رئيس الوزراء الأسبق أحمد شفيق ترشيحه بعد أسابيع قليلة من إعلانه، على ما يبدو تحت ضغط شديد من النظام. كما انسحب محمد عصمت السادات ، ابن شقيق الرئيس المصري الأسبق، وكذلك خالد علي وهو محام في مجال حقوق الإنسان من السباق. كما تم اعتقال عبدالمنعم أبوالفتوح ، وهو مرشح إسلامي سابق للرئاسة عام 2012 ويدير اليوم حزب مصر القوية، في وقت سابق من هذا الشهر بعد عودته من رحلة إلى لندن. وقد لفت أبوالفتوح انتباه وسائل الإعلام على نطاق واسع بعد أن قام بإجراء سلسلة من المقابلات قال خلالها إن الجيش لا يتحمل أي مسؤولية عن قيادة الرئيس غير الرشيدة. وغني عن القول إن القضاء على المنافسين الفعليين لـ السيسي يجعل المصريين يتساءلون إذا ما كان هناك أي معنى للتصويت المنتظر. ليس من المستغرب أن مقطع الفيديو القصير (جيف) الأكثر شعبية في البلاد خلال الذكرى السابعة لثورة 25 يناير/كانون الثاني هو مقطع من فيلم الديكتاتور يصور طاغية أسطوري يفوز في سباق 100 متر عدو عن طريق إطلاق النار على خصومه (وعلى حكام السباق)، لا يمكن أن يكون هناك مثال أكثر وضوحا على وفاة السياسة الحقيقية في مصر. ومنذ منتصف عام 2013، أصبحت مصر تحت حكم السيسي ثقبا أسود لحقوق الإنسان والحكم الديمقراطي وسيادة القانون.لكن حملة القمع التي يقودها الرئيس تمتد الآن إلى نظامه، واعتبر المحللون اعتقال عنان دليلا على استعداد السيسي للطعن في الرتب العليا لمؤسسته العسكرية. ويبدو أن إقالة السيسي لرئيس جهاز الاستخبارات في البلاد يكشف عن صدع متنام داخل صفوف الأجهزة الأمنية. ومن الواضح أن بعض البيروقراطيين أنفسهم بدأوا يتساءلون عما إذا كانت طموحات السيسي الشخصية صارت تهدد بقاء الدولة، وعلى أقل تقدير، يمكن للمرء أن يجادل بأن البلد يتجه نحو انهيار الحياة المدنية على نمط كوريا الشمالية. وبإغلاق وقد شاهد كاتبا هذه المقالة هذا الأمر مباشرة خلال الأشهر الستين التي قضيناها في


The #KFCCrisis has some Britons so upset that they’ve called police — and Parliament

play, but by “a couple of teething problems” with its new delivery partner, DHL. “We know that this might have inconvenienced some of you over the last few days, and disappointed you when you wanted your fried chicken fix — we're really sorry about that,” KFC said Saturday. “Shout out to our restaurant teams who are working flat out to get us back up and running again.” By Tuesday, KFC announced that more than half of its 900 restaurants in the United Kingdom are back open, though it remains unclear when all locations will be fully operational. Two days ago, a disappointed customer posted a video on YouTube showing a closed location in Manchester, England. “So we're going to have to hit a McDonald's up,” the customer said in the video. “This is s‑‑‑ mate. We like our chicken. You know we like our chicken.” On cue, the hashtag #KFCCRISIS began trending. And the Sun, a British tabloid, splashed the news across its front page. DHL said that a number of its deliveries had been “incomplete or delayed” because of operational issues, CNN Money reported. The mishap came just months after KFC partnered with DHL as part of the fast-food chain's ambition to “revolutionize” the food service distribution market in the Britain. A news release from October said DHL will manage KFC's warehouse and distribution service, with a “greater focus on innovation, quality and service performance” and a promise to “provide a faster turnaround of orders.” KFC assured its customers that “the Colonel is working on it,” a lighthearted reference to the late Col. Harland Sanders, the U.S.-based chain's founder. Sanders acquired a service station in the 1930s in Corbin, Ky., and later transformed it into a restaurant, where he cooked his signature fried chicken. He franchised Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1952 at the age of 62 and sold it for $2 million 12 years later. Sanders, whose image is featured in KFC's logo, is now known in more than 100 countries for his fried chicken recipe. KFC is now owned by Yum! Brands, a Kentucky-based company that also owns Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. This post has been updated. Read more: I did a very deep dive into Donald Trump’s KFC picture A grandmother is suing KFC for $20 million because she didn’t get enough chicken No bond for KFC employee accused of killing co-worker in Maryland parking lot


The moth orchid, while lovely, has overshadowed other, less common varieties

did my orchid peeping in the capacious, ornate glasshouses of Longwood Gardens, in Kennett Square, Pa., where “Orchid Extravaganza” runs until March 25. I asked my guide, Longwood orchid expert Greg Griffis, how can we break out of the phalaenopsis rut? He took me to the Cascade Garden, a small gallery within the greenhouses marked by Amazonian rain forest plants. A cluster of creamy yellow blossoms hovered above a bed of red-tipped bromeliads. This is a variety named Lemon Drop, a type of oncidium orchid. Oncidium orchids lend themselves to growing in the home because they fall into the middle of ranges for light, temperature and watering, he said. “Most orchids bloom on new growth, and one of the nice things about oncidiums is they produce multiple leaves, so it’s easier to have multiple flowers,” he said. Bill McLaughlin, plant curator at the U.S. Botanic Garden, said oncidiums have some of the most convoluted parentage in the byzantine orchid-breeding world, but that genetic soup works for them in their ability to survive as a houseplant rather than pampered on the greenhouse bench. But back to Dracula. I asked Griffis to show me some tropical slipper orchids, and he led me to the winding path in a small, lush jungle called the Tropical Terrace, where two great colonies of the orchids known as paphiopedilums were clustered. The first group was of the deep purple types — collectors call them vinicolor — near the top of the winding path. At the bottom, there were brighter white and light green versions veering toward yellow. This is a rarer group that includes blooms in red and honey colors. It has taken breeders more than half a century to produce these, Griffis said. “They can flower horribly deformed and the next year be perfect,” he said. It sounds like the purple ones are the slippers to wear at home. The culture is fairly easy, he said. They like it warm, shaded and on the humid side — an east window would be a good bet. He recommends growing them in a soil mix of quarter-inch bark, perlite and fine charcoal. They like their roots moist but not soaking wet. If you like cymbidiums — I find the blooms lost in the thicket of their upright leaves — they are happy to spend the summers outside in the shade. The trick is to leave them out


Thirty-six minutes after the gold medal was won, the Olympics happened

phrases it, and they’re from countries without ample snow, and they’re here to struggle and to finish and maybe even to inform and to inspire. They’re also friends, and some of them have trained together on their uphill mission, and so soon after the Colombian crossed, four of them did something outstanding: They stood shoulder to shoulder at the finish line, the Colombian, Sebastian Uprimny; the Tongan, Pita Taufatofua; the Moroccan, Samir Azzimani; and the Portuguese, Kequyen Lam, as one last man made his way toward 116th place. The Mexican, German Madrazo, 43, looked halting through his last stretch. He looked as if his body might fold in on itself. For a second, it seemed he might not make it and that after all that fight against all that backup ski and ice that all the other skiers had made, he and his Mexican flag might tumble into the snow. The remaining crowd cheered him on, with a few Swiss flags here, Norwegian flags there, South Korean flags here, all waving in support, for this moment, of Mexico. Slowly, painstakingly, Madrazo edged toward the great and vivid line and made his way across, and his four friends put up their hands, right there as 4:56 turned into 4:57 p.m. and the day finally concluded. They all formed a beautiful blob of a group hug, and then they all — all stragglers and all Olympians — put Madrazo on their shoulders as he waved his flag. Uprimny called it “very moving.” Madrazo said his “mind was blurry” and the remaining crowd was “unreal” and “The most emotional part was when I saw Pita.” Uprimny said the group hug included no words because, “We didn’t need to talk.” Madrazo said his body hurt worse than usual. Taufatofua did a barrage of interviews and said of the course: “You see that hill over there? It doesn’t end. It looks like it ends, but it keeps on going.” He said he felt pain “in my stomach, my breathing.” He said, “This has been the toughest year of my life.” Jacob, his coach, said, “It’s a great part of the Olympics, just to see these guys and the exotics.” They had had their finishes and their hug, but as they unfastened themselves from that hug, they still had another Olympic moment to go. Here came Cologna, the Swiss gold medalist, going all Federer and all


What Obama did, didn’t do and couldn’t do in response to Russian interference

actions could come only from very senior levels of the Russian government.” Late that month, Republican leaders issued a statement warning states in abstract terms to secure their election systems. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) opposed a broader public statement, arguing the intelligence was not confirmed. Without McConnell on board, a bipartisan statement was off the table. In early October 2016, then-Secretary of State John F. Kerry put together a package of possible responses, but they were tabled. He later pushed for a bipartisan commission to investigate the interference efforts, but the White House worried it would be viewed as partisan. During the first week of that month, though, the administration did take some actions. National security adviser Susan E. Rice summoned then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak to the White House to give him a message to relay to Putin. That same day, the director of national intelligence and Department of Homeland Security issued an unusual joint warning, blaming Russia for interference efforts and warning state elections officials to secure their systems. Hours later, the “Access Hollywood” tape is published, and WikiLeaks began dumping Podesta’s emails. The government warning is buried. A week before the election, the White House sent a secure message to Putin. It “noted that the United States had detected malicious activity, originating from servers in Russia, targeting U.S. election systems and warned that meddling would be regarded as unacceptable interference,” according to The Post’s report. “Russia confirmed the next day that it had received the message but replied only after the election through the same channel, denying the accusation.” On Nov. 8, 2016, Trump won an electoral college victory. The following month, The Post broke its story about Russian interference efforts. Shortly before the new year, the Obama administration issued sweeping sanctions meant to punish Putin for Russia’s meddling. In early January 2017, intelligence agencies completed a report detailing Russian interference efforts. With Trump in office, further response to Russia has largely been tabled. When Congress approved additional sanctions against Russia last year, the Russians responded by forcing American diplomats out of facilities in their country. Trump, in turn, ordered Russians out of three facilities in the United States. But Trump opposed the sanctions before they got through Congress, and they have largely gone without implementation, despite the president signing them into law last August. Earlier this month, Trump’s own national intelligence director told a Senate


Why the White House wants to create a commercial space czar to oversee SpaceX and others

under the umbrella of the Commerce Department since the Federal Aviation Administration is required by law to license rocket launches, and the Federal Communications Commission licenses radio frequency spectrum use. Moving much of the regulation from the Department of Transportation to Commerce reflects an ideological difference, he said. “Both commerce and transportation are tasked to promote and regulate industry, but Republicans perceive commerce as putting promotion ahead of regulation,” he said. Whoever is in charge, the challenge will be whether the office has enough staff and resources to oversee the growing industry—“and they are already struggling to meet the workload of their existing responsibilities,” Weeden said. The council's recommendations follow other wins for the industry, which for years has lobbied Congress to take the sort of hands-off approach that it said would allow it to flourish. More than a decade ago, it pushed for human space flights to be regulated by the same “informed consent” standards that govern extreme sports such as skydiving. More recently, Congress pass legislation giving U.S. companies the right to the resources they mine in space — on asteroids or on the moon, for example. The space council's meeting came a couple weeks after SpaceX launched its massive Falcon Heavy rocket and returned two of the boosters safely to a landing site on Cape Canaveral. Nick Ayers, Pence's chief of staff, tweeted before the launch that the rocket could have “major (positive) ramifications for US space industry if this goes according to plan.” In his speech, Pence said the launch and landings were “very impressive indeed.” Pence attended a reception where one of the boosters was on display Tuesday evening, ahead of the second meeting of the Space Council, which includes the secretaries of state, commerce, defense and transportation, among others. He also toured the facilities of the United Launch Alliance, the joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, as well as Blue Origin, the rocket company founded by Amazon.com chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos. (Bezos also owns The Washington Post.) In an interview earlier this month while attending the Falcon Heavy launch, Ross, the commerce secretary, said he applauded the growing space industry's success in winning back a large portion of the world’s market share for commercial launches. He said one of the council’s top priorities is “to accelerate the progress of the commercialization of space. We’re moving quite aggressively to try to accomplish that.”


9 ways millennials are changing the way we eat

If you’ve noticed a positive change in food trends over the last 10 years, thank a millennial. Loosely defined as people born from the early 1980s until about 2004, millennials are the largest U.S. age demographic, and as such they are key tastemakers. Their food preferences are helping determine what you’ll find in grocery stores and restaurants across the country. Millennials are in college, starting new jobs, getting married or having kids. Right now, there are more millennials in the workforce than any other age bracket, and their consumer choices matter. Here’s how this generation is influencing the way we eat. ( These are generalizations based on statistics, and not necessarily true for every millennial you know.) They want the truth from food manufacturers. They love customization. They want easy. They are redefining “healthy.” They want better baby food. They value the planet. They love to snack. They love the keto diet. They will try anything. While there are many positive changes in food and nutrition because of millennials, there is one troublesome statistic to note. According to IFIC, about 40 percent of millennials say that friends and family are a top source of their nutrition information (only 21 percent of boomers give that answer — they trust doctors and dietitians more). There’s no way to know how trustworthy someone’s sister’s nutrition information is. Plus, millennials rely heavily on websites, bloggers and social media fitness professionals for health information. This can spread nutrition myths (like their love of organic food), and can be harmful for future generations, including their very well-fed babies. localliving@washpost.com


The Finance 202: Senate Republicans not on board with Trump’s protectionist agenda

asked him why he is so adamant about cutting legal immigration, a big shift from the GOP’s traditional stance of accepting legal immigrants and fighting only illegal immigration.” — Rs and Ds urge Ex-Im action. The Hill's Vicki Needham: “A bipartisan group of 68 House lawmakers are urging Senate leaders to get the Export-Import Bank running at full speed again. Reps. Denny Heck (D-Wash.) and Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) on Tuesday sent a letter with 66 of their colleagues to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) urging the upper chamber to quickly confirm four nominees to the Ex-Im Bank’s board of directors. ‘We believe the Senate should move forward expediently in approving these nominees so that Ex-Im can continue to play the important role it has in past years, supporting U.S. exports and creating and maintaining U.S. jobs,’ the letter said.” — Kushner vs. Kelly for access. NYT's Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Maggie Haberman: ”Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, is resisting giving up his access to highly classified information, prompting an internal struggle with John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, over who should be allowed to see some of the nation’s most sensitive secrets, according to White House officials and others briefed on the matter. Mr. Kushner is one of dozens of White House officials operating under interim security clearances because of issues raised by the F.B.I. during their background checks, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the clearances. The practice has drawn added scrutiny because of Rob Porter, the former staff secretary who resigned under pressure this month after domestic abuse allegations against him became public.” — Administration eyes student debt relief. WSJ's Josh Mitchell and Katy Stech Ferek: “The Trump administration indicated Tuesday it is considering allowing more Americans to erase student debt in bankruptcy. A decades-old federal law prevents Americans from discharging student debt in bankruptcy court unless they prove to a judge’s satisfaction that they face an “undue hardship,” such a stringent standard that few borrowers even try. The Trump administration can’t change the law without congressional approval. But it can decide how aggressively to fight a borrower’s request to cancel loans in court.” — Don Jr. defends Trump businesses. AP's Muneeza Naqvi: “Donald Trump Jr. said that any talk of his family profiting from his father’s presidency


Tech giants should resist Russia’s iron grip of censorship

WHAT IS a good, reliable test of an open society? Can a citizen post something online calling the president a crook or a fool? Not in Russia, where speech is not free and the Kremlin’s whims rule. Consider the online protest of Alexei Navalny, a Russian anti-corruption campaigner and leading voice of opposition to President Vladimir Putin. Blocked by the Kremlin and courts from running for president on arbitrary grounds, he has called for a boycott of the March election in Russia, at which Mr. Putin is expected to claim an easy victory and fourth term. Mr. Navalny has turned to YouTube to get his anti-corruption message out. The Russian censors are not happy. Mr. Navalny’s latest YouTube video — he has made several in recent years — is a 25-minute portrayal of a potentially corrupt association between one of Mr. Putin’s top aides and one of Russia’s richest oligarchs, featuring a secret rendezvous on a luxury yacht with a call girl, whose Instagram account and published memoir provided some of the open-source information. The title of the piece is “Yachts, oligarchs, girls: the huntress for men exposes the bribe taker.” Mr. Navalny suggests strongly that Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska was currying favor from a Kremlin official, Sergei Prikhodko, aboard his yacht and also floats some speculative theories about Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. Mr. Navalny’s video went viral within days. It has been viewed more than 5 million times. But Mr. Putin’s power structure — and it is a very personalized kind of power — took offense. Mr. Deripaska went to court and won an order to take down some of the videos, claiming they violated his privacy. The Russian media oversight agency, Roskomnadzor, demanded YouTube and Instagram take down the offending material or else it would be blocked in Russia and also warned Russian media to remove it. The Russian outlets complied. So did Instagram, owned by Facebook, where some of the material had been posted. YouTube, owned by Google, passed a warning on to Mr. Navalny’s staff members that if they don’t remove the content, Google might be forced to do it, but Mr. Navalny’s people were unbowed. So far, YouTube has not removed the video. The pressure on the Western tech giants goes to the heart of a growing problem for them. When they promise to obey local laws, they risk becoming instruments of


Montgomery County and Frederick County home sales

Lane, Turncrest Dr., Wild Olive Ct., ROCKVILLE AREA Bargate Ct., Cartina Terr., Commonwealth Dr., Diamond Cove Terr., Fordham St., Gloxinia Dr., Lambertina Pl., Nature Lane, Old Georgetown Rd., Old Stage Rd., Pleasant Dr., Sawdust Cir., Topping Rd., Winding Rose Dr., SANDY SPRING AREA Celebrity Lane, SENECA PARK-CEDAR GROVE AREA Berland Pl., Gateshead Cir., Owls Nest Cir., Village Green Cir., SILVER SPRING AREA Crosby Rd., Grace Church Rd., Luzerne Ave., Pershing Dr., Springwood Dr. S., TAKOMA PARK AREA Boston Ave., Elson St., Garland Ave., Jackson Ave., Lockney Ave., Park Ave., TWINBROOK AREA Atlantic Ave., Crawford Dr., Shetland St., WHEATON AREA Berry St., Broadview Rd., Claridge Rd., Crest Rd., Georgia Ave., Hayden Dr., Ivanhoe St., Medway St., Valleywood Dr., Frederick County These sales data recorded by the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation were provided by Black Knight Inc. For information about other residential real estate transactions, visit washingtonpost.com/homesales. ADAMSTOWN AREA Morland Dr. N., BRADDOCK HEIGHTS AREA Maryland Ave., BRUNSWICK AREA Wills Creek Dr., BURKITTSVILLE-JEFFERSON AREA Shadywood Dr., EMMITSBURG AREA Robindale Dr., FREDERICK CITY-ADAMSTOWN VILLAGE AREA Adelay Ct. W., Ashburn Terr., Basswood Rd., Black Duck Ct., Cambria Rd., Cawley Dr., Collinsworth Pl., David Lane, Eisenhower Dr., Glenrock Dr., Hiteshow Dr., Jefferson Commons Way, Lancaster Pl., Mockingbird Lane, Thornhill Pl. E., Walcott Lane, FREDERICK CITY-LIBERTYTOWN AREA Algonquin Rd., Baldridge Terr., Carrollton Dr., Culler Ave., Everly Dr. S., Holden Rd., Megan Ct., Mosby Ct., Rambling Way S., Rippling Brook Rd., Third St. E., Seventh St. E., Waterview Ct., FREDERICK CITY-MOUNTAINDALE AREA Bethel Rd., Brigade Cir., Codorus St., Ellsworth Way, Fox Meade Ct., Harrison Ct., Key Pkwy., Melrose Ct., Mountain Creek Cir., Springfield Lane, Vista Dr., Wetherburne Way, GARFIELD AREA Pleasant Valley Rd., IJAMSVILLE AREA Lawson Rd., Prestwich Terr., Seths Folly Dr., Winmoor Dr., KNOXVILLE AREA Rosemont Dr., MIDDLETOWN AREA Basset Pl., Glenbrook Dr., Mount Tabor Rd., Stine Ct., MONROVIA AREA Bow Ct., Maryland Manor Dr., Will Mill Terr., MULLINIX AREA Foggy Bottom Ct., Leafy Hollow Cir., Oak View Dr., Ravenwood Rd., Woodville Rd., MYERSVILLE AREA Ward Kline Rd., NEW MARKET-LAKE LINGANORE AREA Beach Dr. E., Constance Way, Darby Rd., Gala Way, Jordan Blvd., Queen Anne Ct., White Pelican Way, Woodcrest Rd., ROCKY RIDGE-CREAGERSTOWN AREA Motters Station Rd., THURMONT AREA Catoctin Highlands Cir., Hillside Ave., Redhaven Ct., URBANA AREA Baker Valley Rd., Ethan Ridge Dr., Knott Lane, Penrose St., Shawfield Lane, Sugarloaf Pkwy., WALKERSVILLE AREA Adventure Ave., Discovery Blvd., Revelation Ave., WOODSBORO AREA Dublin Rd.,


In PyeongChang, maintaining Olympic venues relies on a poor and aging workforce

GANGNEUNG, South Korea — Hockey players from Finland were circling with the puck, finishing off the final seconds of a win against Germany, and then the clock hit zero. Some arena rock music came on. Players filed into lines for handshakes. A public-address announcer ran through the final statistics, and slowly, the fans filed out, leaving the arena empty, except for all the things left behind. “Okay, everybody in position,” a cleaning manager told about 20 elderly workers, and then it was time for the next act at the Gangneung Hockey Center, just one of the Winter Olympics venues where a South Korean societal crisis hides in plain sight. Because as the fans neared the exits, a new set of people was entering the arena. The man who walked toward Section 212, holding a plastic bag, picking up Coke bottles and potato chip packaging, was 67. The woman who headed toward Section 214, using a hand rag to clean the seats, scrubbing away shoe tracks and smeared chocolate, was 68. The man who cleaned Section 110, mopping the aisles, was 78. The man who helped clean the bathrooms, wiping the floors and stocking the toilet paper, was 82. And they had to move quickly. In 90 minutes, the arena doors would reopen, and another hockey game would start. All fans would notice was a clean arena. “Knees. Shoulders. It all hurts,” said one worker, Lee Seon-dae, 68. “I’m too tired to do this.” Every nation depends on its own version of low-wage labor, but in South Korea, there is a twist: Those workers increasingly tend to come from the very generation that spearheaded the country’s 65-year rise to prosperity. As it has aged, that generation has become drastically more vulnerable and impoverished than the rest of the country, sliding backward because of a meager safety net and diminishing support from their children. Nearly half of South Korean seniors now live in relative poverty — the highest rate, by far, in the industrialized world. As a result, at a time when they should be retired, they have gone looking for minimum-wage work. “The old generation of this country might see the situation as unfair,” said Lee Jun-young, a professor of social welfare at the University of Seoul. “They worked very hard to build the nation when they were young, but many of them are now living a very poor life.” The


A ‘dairy-free’ yogurt is being recalled in the U.K. — because it contains milk

Co Yo is one of those yogurt brands that has the right mix of everything: an on-trend ingredient (coconut), chic branding, suitability for vegans and people with dairy allergies — or just those who are avoiding dairy for health reasons — and celebrity endorsements from such stars as Nigella Lawson, who featured the brand in one of her cookbooks. Too bad it was found to contain milk Co Yo is being recalled in the United Kingdom after trace amounts of dairy were found in the yogurt, distressing vegans and customers with dairy allergies. The company posted a statement on Twitter, saying they were “devastated” by the revelation because “being dairy-free sits at the heart of everything we do.” The company has terminated its relationship with the supplier at fault, and is working to get all of the contaminated yogurt off grocery store shelves. Americans don’t need to worry, said Chuck Waghorne, managing director of Eat Co Yo U.S. The recall is limited to the United Kingdom. “One of the manufacturers in the U.K. failed to report an allergen contaminant,” said Waghorne. “We, upon learning that had happened, submitted all of our ingredients to an independent lab for testing, and they came back negative.” A vegan diet can be full of minefields. Adherents to the diet — either for ethical or health reasons — have to trust chefs and food producers to do the right thing. A British chef made headlines last month for posting on social media that she “spiked” a vegan’s food with animal products, inviting a furor (the chef’s fiance later said that the self-identified vegan had declined a special vegan menu and ordered a cheese pizza). There’s a subgenre of YouTube prank videos where people try to convince their vegan friends that they’ve intentionally fed them real meat, which often makes them feel sick. But the Co Yo problem is bigger, because the brand is also favored by people who have dairy allergies, who could become seriously ill. There have not been any reports of illness yet. The U.K.’s Food Standards Agency encouraged people with dairy allergies to return the yogurt to stores for a full refund. More from Food: Hankering for cheese? Still stuck on steak? Time for a little vegan support. Mushrooms are turning up in coffee, chocolate, even beauty ‘dusts.’ How come? A British chef said she ‘spiked’ a vegan’s meal. Then she lost


SpaceX’s Internet satellites are part of a wave of new tech that could give you more choice in broadband providers

SpaceX hit another orbital milestone on Wednesday: It launched a pair of experimental broadband satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The test satellites are another step forward for chief executive Elon Musk, who dreams of building a worldwide network of thousands of orbiting devices that can beam Internet signals down to Earth from low orbit. While much of the project is aimed at connecting developing countries to the Web, many people in wealthy nations are likely to benefit, too, experts say, thanks to the increased broadband competition it may prompt. SpaceX's effort is just one of many new communications innovations, which include 5G data and more efficient use of our airwaves, that could boost competition in your local broadband market in the coming years. If it pays off, the result may be faster Internet speeds, better service and lower prices. Along with SpaceX, about a dozen such companies are exploring the idea. Although satellite Internet isn't new, the companies are promising a new generation of satellites that orbit much closer to Earth than traditional data satellites and can send and receive signals in a fraction of the time. The idea is to blanket the world in wireless broadband, effectively adding a new Internet provider in areas with only one or two services. The same goal is driving Microsoft's initiative to transmit Internet signals over unused TV airwaves. The company has said it hopes to bring 2 million rural Americans online by 2022. Since July, Microsoft has launched seven pilot projects in areas such as Georgia, Kansas, Maine, Virginia and Washington state. Meanwhile, AT&T announced this week that it would start rolling out 5G — a next-generation alternative to 4G mobile data — in three metropolitan areas: Dallas, Waco, Tex.; and Atlanta. Designed for cellular devices that haven't hit the market yet, AT&T's 5G capability hints at a future of incredibly fast speeds and low lag for mobile service, an ideal combination that could support self-driving cars, smart appliances and other gadgets in the Internet of Things. Verizon has plans to make 5G a viable substitute for home broadband for as many as 30 million households, and smaller carriers have looked into the idea, as well. This potpourri of new technologies could bolster competition in various ways, according to Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Project at the New America Foundation. For example,


This simple technological fix helped veterans get health benefits

HF: The federal procurement system is sometimes not hugely efficient — are there ways to mitigate this? MC: The U.S. Digital Service sees a lot of projects at a lot of agencies, including projects involving contractors. Contractors often want to do the right thing and use the best technologies, and part of the obstacle is providing them with the right requirements by writing the contract the right way or moving away from a model where you draft all the requirements at the outset toward an agile model of iterating quickly. We have many experiences where contractors are happier because they can work in ways that are closer to the tech industry. In my experience, everyone wants to write the best thing they can. So finding and dealing with those obstacles can unlock a more effective and efficient experience for both sides. HF: You came from Google, which works by applying machine learning to big problems. The U.S. government has a lot of data but doesn’t use those techniques to the same extent. What opportunities are there to change things? MC: We see data scientists in places like the Office of the Inspector General at Health and Human Services. At the same time, other parts of government work in silos, making it hard to work together. Some of that is by design, thanks to the U.S. Privacy Act, and there are good reasons why you might not want information to be too readily available or combined. There is the potential for very solid wins through straightforward changes. Someone asked me at a conference panel what I thought about blockchain in government. I replied that if we could just tackle paper, I would be happy. There is room to think about machine learning and predictive analytics, but a lot of what is to be done is the “block and tackle” work of ensuring that government information starts digitally, so you avoid transcription errors and typos. There are so many gains to be had just from starting there. This article is one in a series supported by the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Opening Governance that seeks to work collaboratively to increase our understanding of how to design more effective and legitimate democratic institutions using new technologies and new methods. Neither the MacArthur Foundation nor the Network is responsible for the article’s specific content. Other posts in the series can be found here.


Mattis expected to back allowing transgender troops to stay in the military

that he had reached his decision “after consultation with my Generals and military experts,” citing the “tremendous medical costs and disruption” he believed it would cause. Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, moved afterward to stop any changes from taking place until a new policy was adopted, and Mattis backed the move. The Obama administration began allowing transgender people to openly serve in the military in June 2016, prompting some people to come out for the first time. It’s unclear whether Trump will adopt Mattis’s recommendations, which the president requested in an Aug. 25 executive order. Trump directed the military at the time to “return to the longstanding policy and practice on military service by transgender individuals that was in place prior to June 2016,” but left an opening under which Mattis could advise him in writing on changing Trump’s new policy. The order gave Mattis until Wednesday to establish a plan. A Rand Corp. study commissioned by the Pentagon ahead of its 2016 policy change found that there were between 1,320 and 6,630 transgender service members among 1.3 million people on active duty — less than 1 percent of the force. The study concluded that it would cost between $2.4 million and $8.4 million to treat them annually, a “relatively small” amount. Mattis questioned last year whether the numbers in the Rand study were accurate, but said he wanted to study the issue further. It is not clear how Mattis’s recommendations will address how transgender recruits are processed. Before the Obama administration’s policy change, the Pentagon for years considered gender dysphoria a disqualifying mental illness. The policy adopted in 2016 banned the services from involuntarily separating people in the military who came out as transgender, and gave the Pentagon a year to determine how to begin processing transgender recruits. But Mattis delayed allowing transgender recruits for an additional six months as the deadline neared. The decision “in no way presupposes an outcome,” but needed additional study, Mattis wrote at the time. Trump issued his ban on Twitter a few weeks later. Since then, the Trump administration has been challenged in lawsuits, and federal judges required the Pentagon to open the military to transgender recruits beginning Jan. 1. The Pentagon indicated in December that it would not stand in the way of the court’s ruling and issued new policy guidance to recruiters


Marcel Hirscher misses a gate — and misses out in bid for three Olympic golds

Michael Matt claimed the bronze, perhaps dimming the angst about Hirscher back home. David Chodounsky led a trio of Americans with an 18th-place finish, outskiing his No. 26 starting position despite suffering a back injury this week. Mark Engel came in 31st, and Nolan Kasper skied out in his second run. Despite colossal expectations, Hirscher entered Thursday with muted hopes. In training runs the past two days, Hirscher found the snow powdery and clingy. He prefers hard, icy courses, like the ones predominant in Europe. In training, Hirscher said, he could never find a setup that allowed him to navigate the conditions with speed. A significant part of Hirscher’s success lies in his ability to test and choose the most effective equipment. Thursday, he found nothing that made him anticipate success. “We were not able to find something that made it possible to let the skis go around the gates smooth and clean,” Hirscher said. “Skiers, they sometimes have a grip problem on ice, for example. I never have grip problems on ice. If it is grippy and hard, packed snow like here today, I’m really not able to handle this. But this is as well my mistake of my technique and my powerful skiing. The smoother you ski, the better you are in these conditions.” Hirscher found himself at peace following the run. First, he had two gold medals. Second, no matter how stunning his performance to the grandstand, he figured it could happen. Knowing the conditions, he had been preparing to swallow defeat for three days. “If you have already accepted you have no chance if nothing is going to change, then you have enough time to be fine with it,” Hirscher said. Kristoffersen would take a similarly sanguine approach to his stunning failure. He had come out of the first hairpin turn too late, and turning around the next gate, his boots hit a wall formed by a groove. Rather than slow down, he charged but couldn’t turn the next gate in time. He had taken a risk to win, and he had no regrets. “Pick myself up?” Kristoffersen said. “I’m already up. I’m not down in the snow anymore.” As he built the greatest men’s skiing career of his era, Hirscher prioritized season-long championships, which meant safer lines and a cautious approach. He still won World Cup races, a startling 55 of them; he possessed so


They qualified for the Olympics. Then they had to prove their sex.

recommendation from the IOC Athletes’ Commission, did Olympic officials finally halt compulsory verification. The names of athletes who “failed” the IOC’s tests have been kept confidential; however, estimates suggest that one or two Olympians per Olympics were likely unfairly disqualified from competition thanks to these dubious tests. Even after the end of compulsory testing, suspicion-based testing continued. From 2000 to 2010, the IOC maintained the right to check any competitor it found “suspicious.” In other words, Olympic officials could require a test based on an Olympian’s physical appearance‚ a standard that punished strong-looking women who violated Western norms for femininity. With the Cold War over, a racial dynamic has become the most prevalent theme in the rumors swirling around these women. Most notably, during the 2016 Rio Olympics, many people voiced cruel criticisms of South African runner Caster Semenya. Semenya has been in the public spotlight since 2009, when she won the 800-meter race in the track and field world championships. Her times slowed during the 2012 Summer Olympics, which many people suggested was a result of the IAAF’s hyperandrogenism policy, which required women’s naturally produced testosterone to be below a certain threshold to compete as a woman. After Semenya claimed gold in the 2016 800-meter event, followed by Burundi runner Francine Niyonsaba and Kenyan Margaret Wambui, many people questioned their performances, not even trying to cloak the racism and assumptions about femininity underpinning their complaints. Poland’s Joanna Jozwik, the fifth-place finisher, epitomized this mentality, telling reporters, “I’m glad I’m the first European, the second white” to cross the line. The IOC suspended the hyperandrogenism standard for the 2016 and 2018 Olympics; yet, unlike the doubts voiced in Rio, few have worried about its absence in PyeongChang. As has been the case in most Winter Olympics, accusations of gender fraud remain tellingly absent. This is likely because most competitors look like Shiffrin and Vonn. Many Americans have sat on the edge of their seats cheering each run that Vonn and Shriffin have skied during the Olympics, and they received attention and adulation from fans and media alike. While we should absolutely recognize their achievements, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that one reason they are so celebrated is because they conform to our narrow conceptions of what female athletes ought to look like. If they didn’t, they might face questions about their success being too good to be true.


The Health 202: Gun violence research by the government hasn’t been funded in two decades. But that may soon change.

declined in 14 states in the 12-month period before July 2017, according to new provisional data from CDC reported by Stateline. “The reported drop in overdose deaths occurred in Wyoming, Utah, Washington, Alaska, Montana, Mississippi, Kansas, Rhode Island, Oregon, California, Tennessee, Massachusetts, Arizona and Hawaii,” Christine writes. “That compares with declines in only three states — Nebraska, Washington and Wyoming — reported for an earlier 12-month period that ended in January 2017....Previously, the CDC only made death data available once a year and it was 12 to 14 months behind. In a fast-moving opioid scourge, epidemiologists say the increased frequency of overdose death reporting is a welcome improvement." OOF: Calls to suicide hotlines in Puerto Rico have almost tripled in the months since Hurricane Maria The suicide rate is the highest it has been in four years, Julio Santana Mariño, a psychology professor at Universidad Carlos Albizu in Puerto Rico, told El Nuevo Día the common risk factors for suicide were compounded in the aftermath of the storm. “It’s normal for there to be family conflicts, but when you add the stress of more than five months without power, without food, living patterns change ... it makes it harder for people to manage daily life,” Santana Mariño said. OUCH: Robert Weaver, Trump's nominee to lead the Indian Health Service, has withdrawn his name from consideration after a series of Wall Street Journal articles reporting that he'd embellished some of his previous professional experience and left a former employer in financial disarray. The paper reported that while Weaver said he maintained leadership positions at a hospital, former colleagues and supervisors claimed he served as a registration clerk. Weaver, who is a member of the Quapaw tribe, was nominated for the position in October. --Trump has been prodding Congress to pass a "Right to Try" law making experimental medications available to terminally ill patients, CNBC reports. A top priority for a number of conservative groups, Trump called for a Right to Try law in his State of the Union address last month. These laws, which 38 states have enacted, allow patients to take experimental medications outside of clinical trials as long as the therapies have undergone preliminary safety testing. Here's our Health 202 on Right to Try. --Yesterday New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, signed his first law in office, restoring $7.5 million for women’s health and family planning that was


For some Democrats running for Congress, a strategic navigation of gun issues

Democrats have found their latest dose of political adrenaline in the fight over tougher gun restrictions, appearing to have Republicans on the defensive following their slow-moving response to the massacre of 17 at a Florida high school on Feb. 14. But there are also a fair number of Democrats running for Congress with mixed views on the issue, sounding quite different from those in the party who are angling for the 2020 presidential nomination. The most noticeable example is Conor Lamb, a 33-year-old from outside Pittsburgh with a sterling résumé running in a special House election next month. Lamb served as a captain in the Marine Corps until 2013, when he went on to serve as a federal prosecutor focusing on opioid crimes. Lamb also likes guns and does not believe in banning any weapons, even the type of “military-style’” weapon used in Florida last week. He does not support new limits on the size of ammunition clips. “I think the problem of crime prevention is much more complex than banning individual guns,” he said at Monday’s debate with the Republican nominee, state Rep. Rick Saccone (R). Lamb supports an enhanced background check system along the lines of what Sens. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) and Joe Manchin III (D-W. Va.) have proposed, but not much else. He strikes a measured tone that is at odds with most Democrats who are pounding their chests at years of inaction on gun laws. “I recognize that there is great passion on both sides of the gun-control debate,” he said. It’s not surprising he has struck this pose. Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District gave President Trump a sweeping margin in 2016, when the longtime GOP incumbent, Tim Murphy, won by acclamation as the Democrats did not bother to field a candidate. After Murphy resigned last year amid a personal scandal, Lamb jumped into the race and made it surprisingly competitive, softening the liberal edges on issues such as guns in a region where National Rifle Association memberships and hunting licenses are ingrained in the culture. He is not alone in being something of an apostate on guns. Democrats are fielding a number of House candidates who have mixed records on guns, if not outright praise from the NRA. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has touted its recruitment of Paul Davis to run in a conservative-leaning district in Kansas as one of its finest recruits. He


They left their slower teammate behind. Now their country’s fans want them banned.

GANGNEUNG, South Korea — Noh Seon-Yeong’s tears have mobilized the hosts of the PyeongChang Olympics, marring the Games for a nation that prides itself on sportsmanship and civility. Noh, a long-track speedskater, cried in the infield of the Gangneung Oval on Monday night after being humiliated by her teammates in the quarterfinals of the team pursuit. Kim Bo-Reum and Park Ji Woo walked by their distraught teammate, unmoved, after abandoning her in an event that is defined by cooperation. Only one person on the Korean team comforted her: Coach Bob de Jong, a four-time Olympic medalist for the Netherlands. Koreans were so angered by the display that a petition was started on President Moon Jae-in’s website asking that Kim and Park be banned from the national team because “it is a clear national disgrace that such people with a personality problem are representing a country in the Olympics.” By Wednesday, that petition had 400,000 signatures. In the pursuit, teams of three skaters race for time. Cooperation is permitted; skaters can push their teammates, literally, and strategy often calls for a faster skater to be positioned behind a slower one to do just that. Most teams trade off the lead spot, but all stay in the pack. But instead of helping Noh or even skating at a pace that would keep her with the pack, Kim and Park skated away from their slower teammate in their quarterfinal heat Monday night. Noh finished alone, four seconds later, exposed as the weakest link in a team that could have — and, according to the sports’ long-standing unwritten rules, should have — shielded her. Kim and Park gained nothing by finishing earlier. The clock runs until all three skaters cross the line. Shortly after Noh did, with none of her teammates within reach, she broke down in tears. Kim, 25, told reporters the group had trained hard for these Olympics and “our third racer was far behind us, and the gap became even wider as we reached the finish line,” according to the Korea Times. These comments were not received well by South Koreans, who have little tolerance for criticizing colleagues in public. The uproar grew so great that Kim addressed the problem in a last-minute news conference Tuesday night in which she apologized for “hurting the feelings of so many people.” Park didn’t appear. Neither did Noh, who was sick with the flu,


NSO guest conductor Marek Janowski breathes new life into old program

This week’s National Symphony Orchestra program didn’t set my pulse racing when I saw it last year — three overplayed works from the mid-19th-century German canon — but the lack of breadth was more than compensated for by the urgent, variegated interpretations of guest conductor Marek Janowski. He blew the dust off everything, making the NSO musicians sit up and take notice. While not wholly successful, last evening’s performance at the Kennedy Center unfolded with an engrossing what’sgoing-to-happen-next vibe, which I didn’t think was possible in such familiar repertoire. In Weber’s Euryanthe Overture, Janowski, a veteran opera conductor, gave an object lesson in storytelling as music-making. He infused solid orchestra leadership with an in-depth knowledge of the opera’s plot. This double layer of control made the ghost scene shiver marvelously and the triumphal march strut with extra pomp. Though the NSO hadn’t done it in a long time, the piece felt both alive and lived-in. Violinist Stefan Jackiw, making his NSO debut, is in his early 30s but looks half that. A lithe, charismatic player, he seemed to be fencing with the Bruch Concerto rather than caressing it, every non-lyrical gesture a slashing one. To be sure, there was much gentle and imaginative playing in the Adagio, the tone whispering, keening and sometimes singing, but in the virtuoso passages elsewhere, he seemed to be mainly about speed. Though his bow arm produced lines of immaculate purity, his vibrato doesn’t grow organically out of the sound — it’s applied, like makeup, but here with spots missing. Janowski’s long experience in accompanying singers made for a very satisfying collaboration. I’ve rarely heard the NSO match a soloist so well, both in ensemble and balance. The NSO did Brahms C Minor Symphony just a couple of years ago, with Christoph Eschenbach, so the experience of being led by someone who is all business and knows precisely what he wants must be a little jarring. Janowski took both of the middle movements faster than I’ve ever heard, and certainly faster than the orchestra was used to. In the Un poco allegretto, the musicians weren’t sure when, or whether, to breathe, and the oboe and clarinet solos early in the Andante came off as slightly frantic. That said, this interpretation was soaring and vital. Janowski has mastered the trick of underlining details without slowing down for them, and thus the splendor of Brahms’s architecture was


An ambling journey around the world, without leaving PyeongChang

apparel store. It’s big, bustling, airy and rowdy. “Right now we’re out of stock of Molson Canadian,” said Photi Sotiropoulos of the Canadian Olympic Committee. “Canada Olympic House is a slice of Canada in PyeongChang, and we want the house to reflect Canadian values,” he said. “One of the things that we did when we surveyed Canadians about what it meant to be Canadian — we did this as our rebranding campaign was upon us; we asked Canadians what it meant to be Canadian — and the words that we got were ‘inclusiveness,’ ‘diversity,’ ‘peace,’ ‘promotion of peace,’ and then when we took all those ideals together. We sort of realized that those ideals, those Canadian ideals, are also Olympic ideals. . . . So our rebrand is ‘Be Olympic,’ with a Canadian flag in the middle of it.” As in all houses, athletes appear. They walk from the maple leaf-shaped bleachers down to a stage, high-five fans and join in singing “O Canada.” At Sweden’s small house with its generally private indoors and its lawn chairs gazing upon a ski slope outdoors, the athletes do an afternoon news conference. At Holland House, near midnight, they emerge from behind a wall to roaring fans. Holland, of course, prides itself in having started all this. It legendarily had a hut near the beach in Barcelona in 1992. By the time things got to Sydney in 2000, it was something of a rage. Now it’s polished, spiffy. It’s in the enviable and scary position of having to outdo itself. It does so. It sells out its 700 tickets at 15,000 won ($13.94). It has a ticket window (!) outside, with people stopping by to explain to the kindly Dutch attendants inside about why they know someone who put them on a list who knows someone who knows they belong inside even though it’s sold out. Everyone wants to be that kind of place. Korea House and Japan House sit like twin towers inside the Olympic Park, the former celebrating 2018, the latter looking to Tokyo 2020. Just outside, there’s Canada, even if it can be elusive if the wanderer either gets bad directions, whiffs on good ones or both. Somewhere nearby, there’s Russia, celebrating Russia even if these Olympics aren’t. Some 40-ish minutes away, Austria House is kind of quirkily placed, but that hasn’t stopped people from finding it or even from


CDC seeks new labs for bioterror pathogens to replace aging facility

the labs. When China began seeing human infections from a lethal strain of bird flu in 2013, officials reached out to CDC researchers to assess the likelihood that the virus could emerge as a pandemic, and if so, “how bad it would be,” said Daniel Jernigan, who heads the influenza division. That risk assessment involved animal studies and required “specialized equipment that basically sucks in the air and determines what size particles and how infectious they are,” he said. Of all emerging influenza viruses, that strain of H7N9 has the greatest potential to cause a pandemic if it evolves to spread easily from human to human. It also poses the greatest risk to cause serious disease. The CDC’s high-containment facility has four quadrants, each focusing on different viruses, with the main work centered in a biosafety level 4 lab — the maximum safety level — surrounded by a suite of biosafety level 3 labs. In 2014, the labs came under scrutiny because of incidents involving the mishandling of dangerous pathogens, including Ebola, anthrax and bird flu. Those problems involved human error and breakdowns in protocol, and prompted an overhaul in lab safety and creation of an associate director for lab safety. They did not result in any known infections or illnesses. During an agencywide meeting Friday, CDC Acting Director Anne Schuchat said the new facility would address issues that have arisen over the years as well as the aging of several automated systems. Last year, the CDC briefly suspended work at the high-containment facility because of concerns about air quality in the hoses that are part of the required full-body protective suits. The original hoses had been installed in 2005. Work resumed after testing by an outside laboratory determined that the breathing air being supplied met federal standards for such labs. Over the years, there have also been news reports about shower and other equipment malfunctions. In 2009, a software error in a lab operating system caused a shower to fail to release chemicals in a decontamination chamber, according to USA Today. Officials said that and other failures posed no risk and that building engineers were able to operate the chemical shower manually. Read more: CDC scientists pursue deadly monkey pox virus in Africa She thought the weird sensation was a stray eyelash. It was eye worms. Children's deaths from flu rise sharply amid signs season may be hitting plateau


Mueller is about to take a big step closer to Trump

lobbyist that was predicated on the promise of incriminating information about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton delivered by the Russian government. (“I love it,” Trump Jr. said when it was offered.) Manafort has reportedly denied knowing what the meeting was about, skimming past an email subject line from Trump Jr. that read “FW: Russia — Clinton — private and confidential” before seeing his invitation to attend the meeting. Trump Jr. has said that Manafort spent the whole meeting looking at his phone, implying that the meeting was so useless and boring that Manafort could barely be bothered to pay attention. We later learned, though, that Manafort was taking assiduous notes. So that’s one question: What would Manafort who’s cooperating with Mueller’s team say about that meeting? About Trump Jr.’s efforts to set it up? About whether Trump knew it was happening, which he’s denied? The evening after the meeting was set, Trump gave a speech in which he pledged “a major speech on probably Monday of next week, and we’re going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons.” That speech didn’t happen — nor did the promised dirt on Clinton materialize. Manafort is also believed to have tried to leverage his position with the campaign to bolster his relationship with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Manafort offered private briefings on the campaign to Deripaska, who’s close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Emails obtained by Mueller suggest that Manafort saw his prominent position as a way to “get whole” with Deripaska, opening up a number of questions about how Manafort’s position may in fact have been used. With Gates cooperating, Mueller’s team gains important leverage over someone who certainly can answer a number of outstanding questions about the campaign and the people working on it. It’s still very much the case that Trump himself may never be implicated in aiding the Russian effort and exonerated of having had any knowledge about it. But Manafort is one of the few people who might know what Trump knew — or Manafort might be able to himself put pressure on people, like Kushner or Trump Jr., who are even closer to the president. “Collusion” has not been proved. Manafort is innocent until proved guilty. But moving Gates from hostile to friendly certainly puts a lot more pressure on Trump and his senior team than existed 24 hours ago.


Transcript: Addiction in America – On the Front Lines Boston

the things we are going to focus on and try and work on is what are some alternatives we can make available for people. And help educate folks about what those alternatives are, and what kinds of presenting circumstances they would work best in. Because for the chronic pain sufferers, it’s a completely different conversation in my mind than it is for the short-term stuff. Bernstein: Got you. Here’s a question from someone on Twitter. She says, “How can we encourage businesses to take a chance on hiring people in early recovery?” I hadn’t really thought about that, but is it a difficult road to get rehired when you’re in recovery? Are businesses reticent to do that, and if so, what can we do about that? Baker: You know, I’ve always been advised by my mother especially to not answer questions I don’t know the answer to. [LAUGHTER] That’s a hard question. Bernstein: It is a tough question. It’s a very tough question. Baker: What I would say is that, for the most part, I think employers—for the most part—try to be pretty—and there are laws in place as well—try to be pretty good about helping existing employees, who end up with a problem with any kind of substance, okay, alcohol, drugs, opioids, whatever it might be—go into treatment and find their way back to work. I mean, there’s legislation on this. There are regulations, and there are corporate best-practices on this, that have all moved very much to support folks, help them get better, so that they can get back to work and be productive again. With respect to new hires, I guess that’s a more complicated question because I would assume that no one’s required under law to say anything about the fact that they’re in recovery. Bernstein: You might have to. Baker: But depending upon the nature of their recovery, and what that requires them to do, that may factor into a conversation they would need to have with somebody in HR. I think I’m going to have to parking-lot that one and do a little homework on it. I mean, I’m literally processing. Bernstein: Fair enough. Baker: We have medical marijuana in Massachusetts, which is legal, and I do know there are people who deal with their employers on that issue, because that’s turned out to be an effective way for them to deal with pain


In America’s absence, Japan takes the lead on Asian free trade

Yoichi Funabashi is chairman of Asia Pacific Initiative, a Tokyo-based think tank. Since the war, Japan has for the most part conceived the ideal regional framework to be an Asia-Pacific fusion in partnership with the United States. Refusal to participate in initiatives excluding the United States, such as the East Asia Economic Caucus (EAEC), has been paired with support for U.S.-inclusive frameworks, such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and East Asia Summit (EAS). The guiding principle was to keep the United States in Asia. However, the inauguration of TPP 11 marks the creation of a new, Japan-led pan-Asianism. The Japanese government is still hoping for a multilateral Asia-Pacific fusion order including the United States. Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso confided to Vice President Mike Pence in early February that Japan encourages a U.S. return to TPP. However, Pence’s response to Aso’s solicitation was to bring up the Trump administration’s wish for a U.S.-Japan bilateral free-trade agreement — something unwelcome in Japan. In reality, opposition to U.S. reintegration among CPTPP members is germinating. The Trump administration has made clear that its possible interest in returning to TPP is premised upon renegotiation of the deal favoring U.S. interests beyond the original agreement. That would necessitate concessions that member countries would flatly refuse. Were the United States to find the original agreement terms palatable and attempt to return, that, too, would be tough. CPTPP has suspended 22 TPP clauses that were swallowed by developing countries in exchange for U.S. market access, such as investor-state dispute mechanisms and intellectual property and labor laws. It is possible the Trump administration would push for extra clauses, for example concerning currency, when returning to the TPP framework. But with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe adamantly opposed, that is a lost cause. Even if only the 22 suspended clauses are reactivated, the political costs for developing countries, such as Vietnam, could become unacceptably high relative to the less demanding CPTPP. The United States is highly unlikely to return to the deal soon during the Trump administration, and even for a while beyond. However, the world will not stop simply because of U.S. disengagement. CPTPP countries look set to ratify the deal by 2019. After reaching an agreement in principle last year, Japan and the European Union are aiming for their Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) to come into force by early 2019. Japanese focus will then most


Many lenders are loosening requirements for prospective home buyers

Will I or won’t I? An essential concern shared by prospective home buyers who need to finance their purchase is whether they will qualify for a mortgage for the amount and terms they require. Pushback against overly tight credit after the housing crisis, a shrunken proportion of first-time buyers and worry about affordability as home values rose led to some tweaks to guidelines that could ease financing pressures for home buyers this year. Unlike the too-loose standards during the housing bubble, today’s borrowers still need to prove they can handle the loan. “We are seeing thoughtful underwriting of loans and a greater understanding that younger first-time buyers are in a growth phase of their careers,” said John Pataky, executive vice president of the consumer division of EverBank in Jacksonville, Fla. “The approach is measured and guided, so we know that people becoming homeowners have the wherewithal to repay the loan as their income and career grow.” Among the main changes to mortgage loans in the past year or two are the availability of low down-payment loans, a loosening of the debt-to-income ratio requirements and easing of rules about how student loan payments are calculated. “Our challenge is always to increase access to sustainable credit,” said Jonathan Lawless, vice president of customer solutions for the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) in Washington. Since mid-2016, there has been marginal easing in every aspect of mortgage loans, said Jonathan Corr, chief executive of Ellie Mae in Pleasanton, Calif. “We’ve seen a very slight drop in the credit scores of approved loans, a slight increase in the debt-to-income ratios and an increase in loan-to-value, which means people are taking advantage of low down-payment loan programs,” Corr said. Still, borrowers with shaky finances should not expect a loan approval like the old days. People who are weak in some areas would need to compensate with stronger finances in other areas. Borrower confusion over loan rules In spite of the existence of low down-payment loans and down-payment assistance programs, a NeighborWorks America survey in 2017 found that, on average, consumers think that 17 percent is the minimum required down payment to own a home. Yet loans with zero, 3 or 3.5 percent minimum down payments are readily available now. In some cases, unsubstantiated concern might be stopping people from even applying for a loan. According to the recent Ellie Mae Borrower Insights Survey, 29 percent