Yellow jackets: Fall’s fearsome and feisty wasps that can sting repeatedly

become a problem in the fall? I contacted Scott Famous, beekeeper, executive board member of the Montgomery County Beekeepers’ Association of Pennsylvania and a queen breeder, to learn more about the troublesome wasp and its aggressive behavior in the fall. Famous explained how changes in weather set these wasps off: Hungry yellow jackets often target honeybee hives for food, eating the bees and their larvae, then finishing the meal with some sweet honey for dessert. Honeybees tend to be more sluggish in cool weather compared to yellow jackets, so attacks in the fall are more successful than those in the summer. Unfortunately, yellow jackets have been known to massacre entire beehives. Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported a sad account from 2018 in which the wasps destroyed a third of a commercial beekeeper’s hives. In a warming climate, yellow jackets will survive longer in greater numbers and may cause more damage to honeybee hives. Conversely, very cold winters have been found to kill the wintering yellow jacket queens, preventing new colonies. Yellow jackets can sting multiple times, unlike most bees, which sting only once. Bees have a barb on their stingers that becomes stuck in a victim’s flesh, producing a single sting, while yellow jackets have stingers without barbs that can puncture flesh multiple times while injecting venom. The yellow jacket’s food supply may increase in the near future, which has the potential to increase their populations. The culprit is the spotted lanternfly, an invasive species native to China, Bangladesh and Vietnam, which has been spreading through the Mid-Atlantic states and is now in Virginia and Maryland. The lanternfly excretes a sugary substance called honeydew after feeding on tree sap that is consumed by both bees and wasps. The abundant supply of lanternflies and honeydew feeds yellow jackets. As with all invasive species, including stink bugs and snakeheads, only time will tell if the lanternfly becomes truly disruptive on a large scale. On a side note, after honeybees ingest honeydew from the lanternfly, they produce honey with a smoky bacon flavor, which is very undesirable for human consumption. Yellow Jackets as a team name Many teams and schools have chosen Yellow Jackets as a name because of the wasp’s aggressive nature and powerful sting. Georgia Tech is probably the most recognized school for calling its teams the Yellow Jackets. But did you know a National Football League team was called the Yellow


New ‘Midway’ movie aims for reality, but the discovery of wreckage brings the battle home

The first thing the research ship picked up in the darkness below was the trail of wreckage. A jagged piece here, a hunk of twisted metal there. Clues, perhaps, to the demise of the mighty Japanese ships the R/V Petrel was searching for. Could this be debris from the enemy aircraft carriers as they were battered by American dive bombers? Later, out of the gloom, a form emerged. The Petrel’s underwater robot circled it carefully, as experts studied the video feed and realized this was the Imperial Japanese Navy’s aircraft carrier Kaga, sunk at the World War II Battle of Midway. The discovery last month of the long-lost Kaga and another Japanese carrier, the Akagi, came three weeks before the release of the new $100 million movie “Midway,” which opens Friday. The find served as a reminder of the violence of the famous World War II sea battle, and made for a contrast between the drama on the big screen and the reality on the ocean floor. The movie re-creates the epic June 1942 struggle in the Pacific Ocean with fitting bombast. There are explosions, grimacing pilots and bold, if mythical, pronouncements. The sunken carriers, on the other hand, rest in the depths — shattered wrecks dripping with 70 years of sea encrustations. The bow of the Kaga is deeply buried in the sea floor, which it struck after sinking through 17,000 feet of water. Part of its stern is gone — blown off in battle or in sinking. Three thousand Japanese sailors and airmen died in the battle, and Japan lost its four best aircraft carriers — Kaga, Akagi, Soryu and Hiryu, according to historians Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully. All four ships had been involved in the attack on Pearl Harbor six months before, which plunged the United States into World War II. The battle came after American code-breakers figured out that the Japanese planned to attack the American-held Midway atoll, about 1,400 miles northwest of Hawaii. The Navy set up an ambush and assailed the Japanese force as it approached. The Americans also lost many planes, pilots and sailors, along with the carrier USS Yorktown. But the battle changed the course of the war in the Pacific and led to the eventual Allied victory over Japan. The Petrel is part of an underwater exploration project started by the late Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft. The research


Fear and loathing ahead of the British election

Want smart analysis of the most important news in your inbox every weekday, along with other global reads, interesting ideas and opinions? A month away from another national election, British voters aren’t exactly gushing with excitement. Instead, the atmosphere is one of fear and loathing. A quarter of the country actually said they would use the word “fear” to describe their feelings about the vote. Fifteen percent said they felt anger, while 14 percent said they were simply confused. And whether through aloofness or despondence, 27 percent said none of the words offered matched their feelings. This grim appraisal of Britain’s election, due to be held Dec. 12, reflects the fact that for so many, the election reflects not progress but gridlock. This is the second early election that has been called in just over two years and much of the political debate still revolves around Britain’s plan to leave the European Union, which was voted on in June 2016 but lingers, forever debated and delayed. All this, despite the fact that an average of opinion polls from a variety of sources now consistently suggest that a majority of Brits no longer want to leave the E.U. The impact of Brexit on the election was made clear on Monday when Nigel Farage, activist and leader of the upstart Brexit Party, announced that he would not field candidates in seats held by Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government. The move, which Farage suggested was a unilateral alliance to stop a second Brexit referendum, appeared likely to help Johnson win a majority in Parliament. Opponents of the government now argue they need to band together themselves. Even if these pro-Remain groups can’t formally come together, the battle lines have been drawn. It’s a “brutal binary choice between the newly merged Tory-Brexit friends-of-Trump party and a flaky progressive remain alliance,” the Guardian’s Polly Toynbee writes. Britain has been living with Brexit uncertainty for over three years now. For a moment, it looked like Farage could spoil that plan. His Brexit Party had far outperformed the Conservatives in a European Parliament election this summer and though both he and Johnson are pro-Brexit, the style of Brexit they seek is different: Farage told President Trump that his party planned to run against the Conservatives in the December vote, unless Johnson abandoned his E.U. plan for a harder, riskier Brexit. Nick Timothy, a former adviser to


Uber CEO apologizes to staff for calling Khashoggi’s killing a ‘mistake’: ‘I was plain wrong’

Uber’s chief executive apologized to his staff Tuesday after igniting a firestorm by referring to the slaying of journalist Jamal Khashoggi as a “mistake” by the Saudi government. In his weekly all-hands meeting with employees, Khosrowshahi told staff it was wrong to refer to the Khashoggi killing the way he did in an interview with Axios, according to employees in the room and excerpts of the remarks reviewed by The Washington Post. He also said he was sorry to put the company in the position he did. “I don’t believe that the Khashoggi murder is something to be forgiven or forgotten, and I was plain wrong to compare it to anything that we have been through,” he said. “That was absolutely wrong.” Khashoggi was a Post contributing columnist and a critic of the Saudi government. U.S. intelligence has concluded that his killing inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul was ordered by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The CIA based its conclusion on audio recordings and intercepted phone calls, among other intelligence. The Saudi royal family has denied coordinating Khashoggi’s killing. In the interview, which aired Sunday, Khosrowshahi compared Khashoggi’s killing to the fatal crash involving an Uber self-driving vehicle in Tempe, Ariz., last year. “It’s a serious mistake. We’ve made mistakes, too — with self-driving, and we stopped driving and we’re recovering from that mistake,” Khosrowshahi said in the episode of “Axios on HBO.” “I think that people make mistakes, it doesn’t mean they can never be forgiven. I think they have taken it seriously.” Employees said Khosrowshahi issued his two-minute mea culpa to open the company’s weekly all-hands meeting, something that expanded on a public apology Khosrowshahi had made Monday on Twitter. The remarks had helped fuel the hashtag #BoycottUber. “I think some folks are right to have been outraged,” he said, according to his remarks at the all-hands meeting. “All of us have to take responsibility for what we do and be accountable, so I will take that accountability as your leader.” “I am sorry for what I said during that interview,” he added, further characterizing his comments as a “mistake." An Uber spokesman declined to comment on Khosrowshahi’s remarks. Uber has previously faced boycotts triggering the hashtag #DeleteUber, which led to hundreds of thousands of app deletions. Khosrowshahi contacted Axios about an hour after the interview to clarify his comments on Khashoggi. In an emailed statement


SpaceX launches 60 Starlink satellites, in another step toward a network broadband Internet service

SPACE TECHNOLOGY SpaceX launched its second batch of 60 Starlink satellites on Monday, taking another step toward Elon Musk’s vision to create a network for space-based broadband Internet service around the world. One of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets rumbled aloft at 9:56 a.m. local time from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The satellites deployed a little over an hour after the launch. A space-based Internet service will be an important source of funding for the closely held company, according to Musk, who founded SpaceX in 2002 with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets. SpaceX launched its first batch of satellites in May and has tinkered with the design to increase spectrum capacity. The first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket, which flew in three previous missions, landed back on a drone ship about 8½ minutes after the launch. SpaceX called off an attempt to use two vessels to catch the fairing — the nose cone that protects the payload — out of concern about sea conditions. The company still plans to retrieve the fairing, which was used in one mission earlier this year, once its two halves splash down. SpaceX plans to continue launching Starlink satellites in batches and aims to provide service to parts of the northern United States and Canada next year, according to Starlink’s website. The company isn’t alone in wanting to start a constellation: Jeff Bezos’s Amazon has a rival effort called Project Kuiper, and SoftBank Group-backed OneWeb aims to have a network available by 2021. (Bezos also owns The Washington Post.) — Bloomberg News MANUFACTURING Adidas plans to idle experimental “speed factories” in the United States and Germany, redeploying techniques developed there to suppliers in Asia, where the vast majority of its products are already made. The decision is a setback for anyone who hoped that projects such as the speed factories represented the dawn of a new era of manufacturing in Europe and North America. The facilities were pitched as a way for Adidas to profitably produce footwear in high-cost, developed economies. The move reflects Adidas’ need to bridge the often conflicting goals of catering to customers’ changing whims ever faster while holding down production costs. Outsourcing the next-generation techniques it developed for the factories, including enhanced 3-D printing, is sensible for a company that makes only a tiny fraction of its own products, Cedric Rossi, an


Birds fall in love, and they have the moves to prove it

them look like Dr. Seuss characters. They perform complicated tangos in lakes. Scientists weren’t sure for a long time what purpose the mating dances served. That’s because some of these birds may have gotten together last season, says Price. They’ve already successfully had babies together. They don’t need to attract each other anymore. “It’s such an obvious question,” he says. “Why bother with the dance when you could just get on with raising your brood?” He thinks he may have found an answer. Perhaps 1 million years ago or more, a male grebe needed bright colors and tricky moves. He evolved to have them so he could convince a female that he was Mr. Right. His colors and dances raised her hormone levels. This caused her to lay extra eggs. It also may have made her work extra hard to take care of their babies, even to the point of exhaustion. Over many generations, though, male grebes started to look less dazzling. Their partners figured out how many eggs to lay, so they didn’t have to work too hard. But the flashy mating behavior stayed the same. Explains Price, “If a guy brings home 12 roses every day, and on the 10th day he doesn’t, that might [upset] his wife.” So the birds are stuck forever in their mating rituals. This is true for zebra finches, waved albatrosses, tropic birds and juncos, too. If you look out your window, you might catch common cardinals feeding and singing to their partners to make them happy. Humans “have a sense of well-being” from our relationships, says Price. “And animals do, too.” Bird couples can split up, Price says. “But there are tremendous advantages to not getting divorced. A [familiar] mate can hit all the right buttons.” One study separated canary couples for the winter. When the birds got back together, they bred a whole month earlier than usual. It’s no secret that birds are endangered everywhere in the world. At least 800 million of them die every year by accidentally hitting windows, Price says. The same number die from attacks by house cats. Price hopes that if people can understand that birds, like humans, feel emotions, they will care more about their survival. “There are a lot of things you see in your backyard that look like love,” he says. You can help that love continue by keeping your kitties inside. kidspost@washpost.com


A new D.C. restaurant will promote immigrant causes right in Trump’s front yard

social responsibility, such as: KFC’s decision to buy only chickens raised without antibiotics important for human medicine or Starbucks’ plan to phase out single-use plastic straws by 2020. Immigrant Food, after all, is a for-profit restaurant company — with ambitions to open other locations — behaving like a nonprofit that wants to educate and motivate others to take action for immigrants. Yet there is risk involved in this business plan, says Aaron Allen, whose consulting group works with major restaurant chains on various issues, including corporate social responsibility. “What will be interesting is how polarizing this may potentially become,” Allen says. Immigrant Food, he adds, hasn’t expressly gone after Trump in its public statements or media materials, but “it’s an undercurrent to what they’re doing.” This approach could potentially alienate a segment of customers, Allen says, and that “gets away from the spirit of what the hospitality industry is supposed to do.” Then again, if you review Schechter’s career, it almost reads like a prelude to Immigrant Food. In the early 1990s, Schechter, 60, co-founded a strategic communications firm that worked with Fortune 500 companies and foreign governments. He has advised political campaigns around the globe. He has invested in José Andrés restaurants. He co-manages a goat farm in Virginia. He speaks six languages. And he, like his partners in Immigrant Food, has visceral connections to other countries. He’s a first-generation American, born in Rome to immigrant parents — his father was from Vienna and his mother from Hamburg — who became naturalized U.S. citizens. After living in Latin America for years, the family moved to Washington when Schechter was 15. Limardo, 44, moved to the United States just five years ago from Venezuela. He left his homeland when the economy and the political situation “made it impossible to live there,” he says. A classically trained chef who once had his own restaurants in Caracas, Limardo landed in Baltimore in 2014 and quickly became a star all over again at Alma Cocina Latina. The third founder of Immigrant Food is Ezequiel Vázquez-Ger, 32, a native of Argentina and a partner with Limardo in Seven Reasons. He came to the United States shortly after receiving his economic degree from the Universidad Católica Argentina in 2010. Before moving into the restaurant business, he had a public affairs firm focused on Latin American companies. The founders’ first-generation immigrant tales are, in a sense,


A general was the leading suspect in the biggest anti-corruption case in Mexico. Then he disappeared.

MEXICO CITY — It was the third hearing in one of Mexico’s biggest corruption cases in years, but the general accused of abetting billions of dollars in oil theft was nowhere to be seen. Judge Angélica Lucio Rosales looked out at the crowd of lawyers and family members in the federal courtroom, unimpressed. “Where is General Trauwitz?” she asked. When Eduardo León Trauwitz, 53, missed the previous hearing, his lawyers said he was in the hospital. This time, they said, he was out of the country. In a case that has come to be seen as a test of Mexico’s ability to crack down on corruption, it was a remarkable illustration of the challenges ahead: Even getting the accused to appear in court is not easy. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador galvanized Mexico’s electorate last year in part by railing against corruption. He argued that Mexicans should be furious that their government — a “mafia of power,” he said — was stealing from them. López Obrador, known here as AMLO, had no shortage of examples. Mexico is the most corrupt country in the Group of 20, according to Transparency International, and bribes, kickbacks and outright theft have pervaded the government for decades. In many cases, government officials and security personnel have been accused of accepting bribes from criminal organizations. That’s a growing concern in a country where the government is unable or unwilling to exert authority over much of its territory — as in the northern state of Sonora, where nine American Mormon women and children were gunned down in broad daylight last week. One of the major questions of López Obrador’s presidency was if and how he would pursue former officials for corruption. Doing so would be well received by his supporters, and by the United States and other governments. But it would threaten fragile alliances between López Obrador and some of the country’s most powerful men and women. Then there was the other problem: Was an anti-corruption campaign in a judicial system as flawed as Mexico’s even possible? “AMLO has to be very careful about how he goes after corruption,” said University of San Diego political scientist David Shirk, who studies Mexico’s judicial system. Graft “is so pervasive and entrenched in Mexico’s power elite that if he probes too deeply among powerful individuals, there’s certain to be a backlash.” The case against Trauwitz, a former director of security


Germany has slashed its tax on tampons. Many other countries still tax them as ‘luxury’ items.

its 10 percent tax. Taxes on menstrual items in the 28 E.U.-member states range from as little as zero in Ireland to as high as 27 percent in Hungary. Denmark, Croatia and Sweden are also high taxers, each with a 25 percent VAT. Since 1992, E.U. member states have had to apply a minimum 15 percent VAT on consumer goods and services, with the option to apply a reduced rate of as low as 5 percent on certain “essential” items. (This was to ensure a steady rate of tax flows within E.U. countries.) Consequently, some countries such as the United Kingdom, Lithuania and Czech Republic only have a 5 percent VAT as they’ve requested and received an E.U. reduction on sanitary items by labeling them as essential items. In contrast, indebted Greece raised its tax on tampons from 13 percent to 23 percent in 2015 as part of austerity measures imposed by its European creditors. As Ireland didn’t have a consumer goods tax on menstrual items before 1991, it was grandfathered in and allowed to keep the items tax free. In 2015, France reduced its tax from 20 to 5.5 percent. That same year the British government announced it would donate proceeds from the tax to women’s charities in response to pressure to scrap the country’s 5 percent tax altogether. The E.U.’s control over tax codes was one issue spurring supporters of the 2016 “Leave” campaign and the U.K.’s ultimate vote in favor of Brexit. As Quartz reported, Amid the Brexit campaigning, in March 2016 the E.U. unanimously agreed to allow members states to remove all sales taxes on female hygiene products starting in 2022. The move followed years of protests and petitions in the U.K., as well as France. “While the euroskeptics describe it as a perfect example of the relatively small decisions the UK government is forced to negotiate with the EU, those in favor of remaining in the EU highlighted the approved resolution as promising for future negotiations,” Quartz’s report from the time continued. It remains to be seen which will happen first: The E.U.’s 2022 proposed VAT change, or the U.K.’s Brexit from the union. In the meantime, women’s rights activists are eyeing which country will remove its tax next. Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to Germany’s federal parliament as the Reichstag, rather than Bundestag. The article has been corrected. Read more:


Justice for victims of violent crime in Mexico is rare. Can the deaths of nine Mormons change that?

Funerals have begun for the nine U.S.-Mexican nationals who were gunned down Monday as they were driving in a caravan of SUVs in northern Mexico. Yet there’s still much that is unknown about why the family of fundamentalist Mormons was ambushed and whether this was a deliberate hit or a case of one drug cartel mistaking the caravan as that of a rival. We do know, however, that in Mexico, perpetrators of violent crimes are rarely held to account, despite efforts to reform the criminal justice system in recent years. Here are factors that may play a role in whether those who committed Monday’s attacks will be brought to justice. The number of homicides in Mexico rose to 33,341 last year, while 40,000 people were reported missing. A 2019 report by the group Justice in Mexico, based at the University of San Diego, attributed a “third to a half” of the violence “to the presence of organized crime groups, particularly drug trafficking organizations.” Yet roughly 98 percent of violent crimes, including homicides, go unsolved in Mexico. That rate, based on various academic studies, has generally held steady for roughly 15 years, said Vanda Felbab-Brown, who researches drug and crime policy as a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a D.C.-based think tank. “The weak rule of law is really the crux of the problem,” said Arturo Sarukhán, former Mexican ambassador to the United States. “It’s one of Mexico’s Achilles’ heels.” The U.S. government has contributed more than $300 million since 2008 to a project to overhaul Mexico’s justice system, as The Washington Post’s Joshua Partlow reported in 2017. “It is hard to overstate the significance of the restructuring,” Partlow wrote. “It seeks to turn the notoriously ineffective police into professional investigators. It strengthens the independence of judges. It provides more rights to defendants in a country where authorities have been known to demand bribes, extract confessions under torture and doctor evidence.” U.S. funds went toward equipping courthouses with cameras and new technology and training police and legal personnel. The changes were badly needed. Mexico’s opaque judicial system was a remnant of the country’s authoritarian, one-party rule throughout much of the 20th century. “Police were often seen as an instrument of control — not investigation,” Partlow reported. “Judicial appointees, meanwhile, were expected to be loyal to the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party. Judges rarely disagreed with the written cases put together by


Former Twitter employees charged with spying for Saudi Arabia by digging into the accounts of kingdom critics

by a person familiar with the case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing case. Asaker’s charity, MiSK, belongs to Mohammed, who is referred to in the complaint as Royal Family Member 1. According to the complaint, Asaker was “working for and at the direction of” Mohammed “with respect to his online presence” on Twitter. In 2015, when most of the activity took place, Mohammed was a rising figure in the Saudi royal family. After King Abdullah died in January 2015 and Mohammed’s father, Salman, took the throne, he was appointed defense minister and, a few months later, deputy crown prince. The activity was particularly pronounced — with Abouammo repeatedly viewing the dissident Abdulaziz’s data and calling Asaker — during that period, according to the complaint. The Saudi Embassy did not respond to a request for comment. The case shows “just how early” the pursuit of Mohammed’s critics began as well as “a willingness to pursue these people even when it involves the subversion of major American corporations and the targeting of people in friendly countries,” said Brookings Institution senior fellow Tamara Cofman Wittes. The charges also reflect the wealth of data that tech firms compile on their users, including email addresses, payment methods and Internet protocol addresses that can give up a user’s location. The case “is incredibly significant,” said Adam Coogle, a Human Rights Watch researcher who just published a study on Saudi Arabia’s targeting of dissidents. “Twitter is the de facto public space of Saudi Arabia — the place where Saudi citizens come and discuss issues. It’s a space in which the Saudi authorities have used various means to curtail critical voices, including by seeking to unmask anonymous accounts.” President Trump has drawn criticism for his administration’s continuing close relations with the Saudi government, which has yet to act decisively against those involved in the Khashoggi killing. Asaker began cultivating Twitter employees in 2014 in an effort to gather user information the Saudi government could not obtain elsewhere, the complaint alleges. Abouammo, who was arrested in Seattle, worked for Twitter as a media partnerships manager. He met Asaker in London in late 2014. Within a week, he began illicitly accessing data for the Saudis, according to the complaint. One of his targets was referred to in the complaint as “Twitter User 1,” a “prominent critic” of the Saudi kingdom and royal family with


‘Far Sector’ introduces DC’s newest Green Lantern in an Afro-futuristic murder mystery

When Gerard Way reached out to award-winning science-fiction author N.K. Jemisin and asked whether she’d be interested in writing for a new Green Lantern series, Jemisin admitted to being more excited than she thought possible about potentially working on a comic. A story featuring a black woman wielding a power ring in the deepest depths of space had never been realized in the Green Lantern mythos. Jemisin began asking herself who would be at the center of such adventures. The answer? Jo Mullein, the rookie-ish protagonist of “Far Sector,” available Wednesday from the Young Animal imprint at DC and illustrated by DC Comics rising star artist Jamal Campbell. A Green Lantern ring, the most powerful weapon in the DC universe, helps the superheroes police their respective sectors (the sections of space divided up among them to protect). “Lantern Mullein,” as Jo is referred to in the first of “Far Sector’s” 12 issues, is so far out in deep space, her sector is off the books. She’s investigating a murder in a place where one hasn’t taken place in over five centuries, giving her innumerable suspects in a city that has gone to great lengths to void itself of emotion to prevent such crimes. By putting a black woman front and center in the Green Lantern universe, Jemisin said there’s a chance to showcase those who might normally be relegated to side character roles, not given a chance to save the day in a sci-fi-esque story. That, to Jemisin and Campbell, is much more important than the celebration of them as a black writer/artist team behind the launch of a new black character assuming the mantle of a well-known superhero. (Though it’s worth noting that such a collaboration in itself is a rarity in mainstream comics.) “A lot of times what people mean when they say diversity, it’s like a little smattering,” Jemisin said. “What it ends up resulting in is, once you’ve got the black guy, people stop. We’ve already got a black person, we don’t need another black person, and it usually seems to be a black man. It’s kind of rare to see the lone black person be a woman. “Once you start to get to the point where you have actually more than one given set of people, maybe then you’re beginning to actually move beyond the sort of tokenizing effect of superficial diversity, and maybe you’re


Google eyes banking as it widens its reach

Google is wading into the highly competitive world of banking, adding to its long line of businesses as regulators scrutinize tech giants for potential anti-competitive concerns. The web search giant announced Wednesday it will offer checking accounts beginning next year through a partnership with Citigroup and Stanford University’s credit union. Consumers will access their accounts through the Google Pay mobile app, meaning the service won’t compete directly with traditional banks that have storefronts seemingly on every corner. The arrangement will give Google a potential trove of new data about spending habits, income and other details, valuable for better understanding consumers. But it will probably face scrutiny as part of a broad investigation of Google from regulators and state attorneys general. Known as Cache, the banking program was reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal. Details of the checking accounts, such as fees and limits, weren’t immediately available. With a plethora of mobile, online and traditional banking options available, Google will have to differentiate Cache from competitors to persuade consumers to switch. Google joins tech giants including Facebook, which is working to launch a cryptocurrency known as Libra, and Apple, which has its mobile wallet and a credit card, that have pushed into the financial services industry. U.S. banks have struggled with how to react to Silicon Valley’s encroachment into the banking world. Some have partnered with tech start-ups in hopes of gaining access to younger consumers who may rebuff traditional banks but could need a mortgage or small-business loan later in life. But the industry has fought efforts by tech companies to provide some banking services directly to consumers. Square, a mobile payments company, and Rakuten, known as the Amazon of Japan and operator of U.S. rewards program Ebates, have applied for a special banking license that would allow them to offer checking and savings accounts. Walmart attempted to obtain such a license over a decade ago but retreated amid aggressive resistance from the banking sector. The industry is expected to mount a similar campaign against Rakuten and Square. Google is taking a potentially less-threatening route by partnering with Citigroup, which would control the regulatory pipes of the checking accounts offered by the tech giant. But some senior executives have cautioned that tech companies could leverage such relationships into building their own financial infrastructure or siphon off valuable consumer data. Citigroup and Google will be co-branded on the accounts. Google


12 killed in Kabul suicide blast, including children

of hostages, including two foreigners — one American and one Australian — who were kidnapped by the insurgents in 2016. No group has publicly claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attack. It was unclear whether the prisoners Ghani said would be released were still in custody Wednesday. The three prisoners — Mali Khan, Hafiz Rashid and Anas Haqqani — belong to the Haqqani network, a violent group allied with the Taliban. The network has been behind the abductions of a number of high-profile foreigners in recent years, including U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl, who was held for five years. Haqqani is the son of the Haqqani network’s founder. His older brother is the deputy leader of the Taliban. The three prisoners were expected to be transferred to Qatar on Tuesday evening, according to an Afghan security official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the exchange. He said that the two hostages, U.S. citizen Kevin King, 63, and Australian Timothy Weeks, 50, had not yet been released but that the Afghan government hoped that transferring the Haqqani network commanders would lead to an exchange. Ghani’s announcement about the exchange was a departure from his government’s past statements that releasing Haqqani would be a “red line,” and it comes at a politically sensitive time. Results from a Sept. 28 presidential election that pitted Ghani against his political rival, Abdullah Abdullah, who is serving as Afghanistan’s chief executive, are pending. On Wednesday, the country’s election commission said the results would not be announced Thursday as planned. The target of Wednesday’s blast appeared to be an armored vehicle belonging to GardaWorld, a Canadian security company, and at least four of the wounded were foreigners, said Nasrat Rahimi, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry. He did not know the nationalities of the wounded. GardaWorld said in an emailed statement that its employees were “impacted” in the attack but declined to comment further. The powerful blast shook Kabul during rush hour, smashing windows of houses and shops nearby, residents said. The deaths of at least three children in the attack added to a growing number of child casualties in Afghanistan. Last month, the United Nations said that between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30, at least 631 children were killed in Afghanistan and 1,830 were wounded, an 11 percent increase compared with the same nine-month period the previous year. siobhan.ogrady@washpost.com


The Finance 202: John Bolton takes heat for speaking to Morgan Stanley clients but not Congress

budget.Bloomberg's Bryce Baschuk: “The Trump administration ratcheted up its pressure on the World Trade Organization by raising the possibility of blocking the approval of the institution’s biennial budget and effectively halting its work starting next year... Because WTO decisions must be made by a consensus among all 164 members, the U.S.’s blocking maneuver would threaten the proper functioning of the organization responsible for overseeing the rules of global commerce.” — Senate Dems blast farm bailout. Bloomberg's Mike Dorning: “Senate Democrats attacked [Trump’s] $28 billion farm trade aid program for “vast inequities” favoring Southern farmers at the expense of their counterparts in the Midwest and Northern Plains, growers of cotton over soybeans, and large producers over smaller ones. “’The Trump administration is using a flawed formula that helps big, wealthy farms and billion-dollar foreign-owned companies, while small farms get left behind,’ said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. ‘The USDA must stop picking winners and losers, and ensure all of America’s farmers get the help they need -- not just a lucky few.’” — “The trip, which has not yet been announced, would highlight Cook’s strong relationship with Trump as he seeks further relief for Apple from U.S. tariffs on imports from China. The tariffs are part of a prolonged, tit-for-tat trade war between the world’s largest economies.” TRUMP WATCH: — “Larry Kudlow, director of the White House National Economic Council, is spearheading the effort behind Trump’s second tax cut package and is widely seen as a leading proponent of the new 15 percent rate. It is unclear if Trump has approved the idea, but the president has pushed aides to develop a simple tax message for 2020 focused on middle class tax relief.” IMPEACHMENT MINUTE: — “Dean and dairy farmers for years have grappled with consumers’ decadeslong move away from traditional cow’s milk, as beverage sales shift toward bottled water, fruit juices and milk alternatives made from soy and oats. Within the milk business, Dallas-based Dean’s brands have struggled as grocery chains push low-price store brands and in some cases build their own milk plants, reducing their reliance on Dean.” — “The decision lets stand a groundbreaking ruling from the Connecticut Supreme Court that said the manufacturer of the Bushmaster AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle can be sued and potentially held liable for the 2012 massacre in Newtown, Conn … The lawsuit was brought by the estates of nine victims


The Technology 202: Disinformation campaigns targeting veterans are in the spotlight on Capitol Hill today

sure they don’t become tools for Russian manipulation of American voters, and responsible actors need to take serious stock of how they interact with, rely on and amplify the information found on those platforms,” said Sen. Mark R. Warner (Va.), the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee. “This report helps us better understand how the GRU conducts its information warfare operations,” committee’s chairman, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), said. “It’s clear that the foreign influence threat is persistent and evolving, and we cannot flag in our collective effort to combat it. NIBBLES: Federal regulators are looking into a controversial new partnership between Google and health-care system Ascension to harvest and analyze the data of tens of millions of patients, Google declined to comment on the HHS probe, but maintains that its partnership with Ascension falls within the guidelines established by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Google says the project aims to “modernize Ascension’s infrastructure.” The project has also drawn scrutiny from members of Congress. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) expressed concerns that the company will not disclose whether it will use the data for profit or independent research — both of which could put Google’s “Project Nightingale” in violation of federal privacy law. “As science continues to drive technological innovation, we must not sacrifice privacy,” wrote Klobuchar, who used the report to renew calls for Congress to pass her Protecting Personal Health Data Act, which would introduce new health data regulations. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D.-Conn.) also slammed Google. BYTES: Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi apologized to employees yesterday for his remarks referring to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by the Saudi government as a “mistake,” “I don’t believe that the Khashoggi murder is something to be forgiven or forgotten and I was plain wrong to compare it to anything that we have been through,” he said in an all-staff meeting, according to a transcript obtained by The Post and employees in attendance. “All of us have to take responsibility for what we do and be accountable, so I will take that accountability as your leader.” Khosrowshahi’s apology followed backlash, including renewed calls on Twitter to boycott the company. Saudi Arabia is Uber’s fifth-biggest shareholder, and Khosrowshahi praised the head of its sovereign wealth fund, who sits on Uber’s board of directors, in the Axios interview. The remarks were similar to a clarification Khosrowshahi offered Axios shortly after his interview. The


The end of an era as a zookeeper and her giant panda say goodbye

Bei is the last of the zoo’s three giant panda cubs to depart, and he could be the last cub in Washington for a while, closing a joyous chapter in local history that began 14 years ago. China owns and leases all giant pandas in U.S. zoos. The animals, and especially their cubs, have been part of the relationship between the two countries through good times and bad, from the Cold War to the current trade tensions. But the zoo has not had a cub since Bei Bei was born in 2015. Its adult giant pandas — the female, Mei Xiang, and the male, Tian Tian — did not produce one this year. Zoo officials announced in September that Mei, after being artificially inseminated in March, had a false pregnancy, in which she exhibits all the signs of pregnancy but is not really pregnant. She also had a false pregnancy last year, and the year before, and as many as six other times previously. “Mei Xiang is of an advanced maternal age,” zoo spokeswoman Annalisa Meyer said in an email Monday. “It’s unlikely she will get pregnant again.” It’s not clear how, or if, the zoo would get giant panda cubs again. Nor is it clear whether the Chinese will want the two adults back when their extended lease expires next year on Dec. 7. Both were born in China. “It’s hard to say what’s going to happen,” Thompson said. “Right now we don’t know if there will be another extension of our adults or if we will have to send them to China, and if we will get new pandas.” The National Zoo has had giant pandas almost continuously for 47 years. Thompson cannot envision the zoo without them. “I really can’t,” she said. “I don’t want to.” Under the agreement with the Chinese, all giant panda cubs born in U.S. zoos must be sent to a breeding program in China once they turn 4. Bei Bei turned 4 on Aug. 22. He leaves on a 16-hour nonstop flight on Nov. 19. Two of the zoo’s cubs have already been shipped to China — Tai Shan in 2010 and Bao Bao in 2017. On Monday, after Thompson, 48, had knelt before an enclosure, feeding Bei Bei chunks of apple, she reflected on her years with him and her almost quarter-century caring for the zoo’s famous black-and-white bears. She will


The greens of autumn require extra care when frost threatens

sowing. The flea beetles were so eager to devour the mustard greens that the first batch was a write-off — the seedlings were peppered with holes. In went new seed, but this time under row covers. A nearby and exposed line of turnips was also attracting another serious pest of brassicas, the harlequin bug. Row covers are made of spun polypropylene and let in water and reduced levels of light. They are not cheap — a 50-foot length costs between $30 and $50 — but with care they can last several years. Once the protected plants start growing, you have to elevate the cloth. This is done by fashioning hoops every four feet or so to create a low growing tunnel. Mine are about 18 inches high. One way to provide the supports is with galvanized wire you cut into lengths, which might vary from four to six feet, depending on the width of your row. In one long bed, I have fashioned something a little fancier by buying lengths of half-inch and quarter-inch PVC plumbing pipe. I used a hacksaw to cut the half-inch pipe into 18-inch lengths, which were hammered into the soil in opposing pairs. The narrower pipe was cut to 48 inches. The ends of the section were pushed into the larger pipes to form a perfect arch between them. The row covers fall into two basic types — lightweight versions that screen out insects but provide no real insulation, and thicker ones that do both. The heavier type is meant for use only in cool months, but that’s all I had on hand against the pests in late summer, so on it went. Lo, the re-sown greens seemed to like it. I squeezed in a line of radishes between them, and all are now robust and begging to be eaten. I bought the row cover several years ago from Johnny’s Selected Seeds, whose catalogue carries four grades of insulating cover, varying in weight, price and frost protection. The lightest adds two to four degrees of frost protection, the heaviest more than eight degrees, said Jen Goff, product technician for tools and supplies. The thicker the cover, the more light it blocks, which is an issue as we approach the darkest weeks of the year. “One common practice is to uncover crops on nice days,” she says. This will also help with air circulation against fungal


Want to cut down on animal products but just can’t give up bacon? Reducetarians won’t judge.

more plant-based options to the public. In April, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a green initiative called OneNYC 2050 that includes the elimination of processed meats and a 50 percent cut in red meat purchases at city-run facilities and public schools by 2040. A month earlier, all 1,700 public schools in the city adopted Meatless Mondays for the 2019-2020 school year. Students will kick off the school week with a vegetarian breakfast and lunch. For several years, the Humane Society of the United States has been working with some of the country’s largest food management groups to develop menus, train culinary professionals and expand plant-based dining at universities, hospitals, health-care facilities’ cafeterias, school districts, prisons and military bases. Arizona State University, for one, created the Fresh Start to the Week program, which encourages students to swap out a meat-centric meal for veg-friendly dishes once a week. Daily Root stations, which serve plant-based meals three times a day, have sprung up on ASU’s four campuses. On the other side of the country, the University of Connecticut has been experimenting with burgers that blend beef with vegetables and mushrooms. The first brand failed for being too realistic — the students mistook the red juice for blood, not beets — and not tasty enough. “It was good with toppings,” said Dennis Pierce, director of dining services, “but as a stand-alone, it had a little bit to be desired.” The second attempt was much more successful. The students have been gobbling up the Bo Jackson mushroom-beef burger — more than 37,000 pounds over two 16-week semesters. The university has also taken on the burger’s best buddy, the hot dog. With the proper condiments, the carrot dog could go mano a mano with the Chicago hot dog. “The plant-based movement is here to stay,” Pierce said. “We have seen a significant decrease in the consumption of meat and sugary beverages. The students are definitely eating healthier.” As for Russell Kateman, the new convert regularly dines on sauteed broccoli, soups and salads. He still eats a steak once a month, with his son’s full support. Andrea.Sachs@washpost.com More from Wellness: Could social media and diet trends be contributing to a little-known eating disorder? A well-balanced diet can help keep you healthy. But no single food will lower your blood pressure. What are ‘hormone diets’ — and can they really help you lose weight quickly?


Trump is focused on the China trade war when he should be concerned about space

power. No wonder China has articulated the ambition to eclipse the United States as the No. 1 space power by 2045. This goal is an integral part of President Xi Jinping’s “Chinese dream” concept, enshrined into the Chinese constitution in 2017, that aims to turn China into the lead global power by 2049, just in time to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. Far from being a distraction or an add-on to these Earthbound ambitions, space is vital to this plan. By 2050, China is predicted to be the world’s top economy; to preserve that position, it will need vast extraction of new resources, not all of which will continue to be available on Earth. And though the plan for this economic zone is a long-term one, Chinese space policymakers and scientists have persuaded the country’s leaders to make consequential investments in efforts such as China’s Lunar Exploration Program. This push is serious. Ouyang Ziyuan, chief scientist for China’s lunar program, began to make the case that China should develop the capacity to extract lunar resources in 2002, arguing that “the moon could serve as a new and tremendous supplier of energy. . . . Whoever first conquers the moon will benefit first.” Two years later, China approved its lunar mission. Five years later, with Ziyuan as chief scientist, China launched the Chang’e 1, an unmanned craft that orbits the moon. This year, as part of that resource extraction goal, Chang’e 4 landed on the far side of the moon, so shocking the Trump administration that it set a goal for a lunar return by 2024. In January, China announced plans to establish a permanent research base on the lunar South Pole by 2036. These ambitions are very real. Accessing vast new stores of energy to fuel its economy is a key motivation for China’s space economic zone. Building an industrial base on the moon is necessary to enable China’s ambition to build a ring of orbital power stations to supply all of Earth with constant green electricity built from lunar materials, a concept called space-based solar power. China’s intent to industrialize Earth-moon space to build solar power satellites was specified by a top space official, Lt. Gen. Zhang Yulin, in 2016. In February 2019, China made its initial investments in the world’s first space-based solar power plant. This pattern ought to convince


The 10 best barbecue joints in the D.C. area

other than the ones they create themselves. The ribs are the undeniable star: charred, crusty, smoky and meaty. I could gnaw on these bones all day long. The chopped pork is a pile of minced pig meat, completely irresistible when mixed with the half-spicy sauce. The brisket may not compare to the best around Washington, but the sauced slices of lean-side beef are still slammable enough. The only bad news here is Rolling Rib’s seasonal status: The place closes down for winter on Nov. 17, reemerging next March. Which means you only have a few days left this year to enjoy this fine smokehouse in Prince George’s County. 9423 Marlboro Pike, Upper Marlboro, Md. 301-599-0099. No. 3 on last year’s list. Yes, Sloppy Mama’s got demoted this year, dropping two spots from its No. 3 ranking in 2018. But the downgrade should come with an asterisk. Joe and Mandy Neuman are among the most ambitious owners in Washington barbecue. They made their bricks-and-mortar debut, with an advertising executive’s sense of timing, on July 4 in a converted Pizza Hut in Arlington. The location serves as the hub for a sprawling smokehouse empire, with satellite counters at Union Market and Ballston Quarter Market. This business model requires a lot of smoked meat and a lot of travel, and I sense the husband-and-wife team are still perfecting their systems. In the past few months, I’ve tasted the best that pitmaster Joe Neuman can produce (meltingly tender slices of moist brisket at Ballston), and I’ve observed the flaws in the system (spare ribs that had hardened into meat sticks, presumably from an extended stay in a holding unit at the Lee Highway shop). In barbecue, timing is everything, and Sloppy Mama’s is the latest evidence. Main location: 5731 Lee Hwy., Arlington; counters at Union Market, 1309 Fifth St. NE. and at Ballston Quarter Market, 4238 Wilson Blvd., Arlington. No. 8 on last year’s list. Earlier this year, pitmaster Shawn McWhirter walked away from DCity, the smokehouse that he had led ever since Rob Sonderman parted ways with the business to open Federalist Pig. Omar Marroquin, culinary director for Southeast Restaurant Group, DCity’s parent, has stepped in to manage the pit crew here. Marroquin suffers no fools — and no shortcuts. Among his first marching orders: Stop passing off two-day-old meats as fresh from the smoker. The changes are palpable at DCity, which made


Turn back-of-the-package recipes into a memorable Thanksgiving meal with these simple upgrades

Stroll through just about any grocery store this time of year, and you’ll come across aisles and end caps brimming with what marketing, tradition and consumer habits have deemed essential Thanksgiving ingredients: Canned pumpkin. Bags of marshmallows. Cans of sweet potatoes. Cartons of crispy onions. These have become American Turkey Day staples, but almost every package has at least one more thing in common: a recipe on the label. After so many years, it’s hard to know which came first, the popularity of the ingredients or the dishes they star in. It’s your typical chicken-and-egg conundrum, but the fact is, it doesn’t matter. However they got there, these dishes have been folded into many of our Thanksgiving meals. The real question is, how do they hold up? I decided to test package recipes for six staples, and I’m happy to report that all, save one, were pretty good, if not great. That doesn’t surprise me, a self-taught cook who made a lot of label dishes in my early years in the kitchen. It really shouldn’t surprise you, either. After all, brands often have just one shot to impress a customer with a recipe using one of their products. “You better make sure that recipe is airtight or else they’re not going to come back and buy it again,” says Meredith Tomason, the test kitchen manager and chef at Nestlé USA. Tomason, the pastry chef behind the late RareSweets bakery in Washington, works hand-in-hand with the marketing staff from Nestlé’s brands to develop “back of pack” recipes. The factors the team considers include food trends, the way consumers are using the products and the equipment found in a typical home kitchen. Tomason also generally assumes she is writing for a beginning to mid-level cook, so the instructions need to be simple and brief to not only appeal to them but also fit on the label. The balance is “how can we make it inspirational and aspirational and still easy at the same time,” she says. Case in point: Libby’s “famous pumpkin pie.” Libby’s is a Nestlé brand, so when its staff decided it wanted a new pie recipe for its redesigned label, Tomason started tinkering. The biggest alteration involved subbing sweetened condensed milk for the granulated sugar and some of the evaporated milk. Tomason cites two reasons for this: A creamier texture and the fact that dumping in a whole can


The Health 202: Trump’s vaping policy is about as clear as smoke

that deadly superbugs pose a greater risk than experts previously estimated. Previous figures missed about half of the illnesses and deaths, our Post colleague Lena H. Sun reports, but the new report found drug-resistant germs and infections sicken about 3 million people a year and kill about 35,000 annually. “Five germs account for the most urgent threats. Three are long-recognized dangers: C. diff., drug-resistant gonorrhea, and carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae (CRE), also known as ‘nightmare bacteria’ because they pose a triple threat,” Lena writes. “They are resistant to all or nearly all antibiotics; they kill up to half of patients who get bloodstream infections from them; and the bacteria can transfer their antibiotic resistance to other related bacteria, potentially making the other bacteria untreatable.” “We want to have diagnostic tools and medical treatments for problems we know we’re going to have,” said Helen Boucher, chief of infectious diseases at Tufts Medical Center. “But we also need to prepare for the kind of resistance that we could never predict. We know from history that bacteria and Mother Nature are smarter than we are.” — An outside review found that the University of Maryland followed protocol in the adenovirus outbreak on campus last year that led to the death of one student, 18-year-old freshman Olivia Paregol. But the report also found “areas of weakness” and included 14 pages of recommendations for how to deal with such emergencies. In May, The Post reported that university officials waited 18 days before informing students about the presence of adenovirus that eventually sickened nearly four dozen students. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) called for an investigation, and the University System of Maryland Board of Regents picked six people with “subject matter expertise” to conduct that review, our Post colleague Jenn Abelson reports. “The report concluded that the university ‘adhered to the requirements of all local, state and federal regulations and statutes governing reporting and communication concerning infectious diseases’ and ‘the response to adenovirus was in accordance with the University’s own internal policies and procedures,’ ” Jenn writes. She added the report’s recommendations “included more frequent monitoring of disease trends on campus, sharing health information with regional providers, designating an individual responsible for crisis communications and conducting air sampling after mold remediation.” The Paregol family said it plans to move forward with a wrongful-death lawsuit against the college. — And here are a few more good reads: Coming Up


Transcript: Kent and Taylor public testimony in front of House Intelligence Committee

answered the lawful subpoenas that you received. The story that you have shared with us today and your experiences I think is a very deeply troubling one. It is the story of a dedicated ambassador, someone who served with great distinction, Ambassador Yovanovitch who was the subject of a vicious smear campaign at the beginning of the year. It is the story of once this ambassador was pushed out of the way, the creation of a irregular channel which Ambassador Taylor you described went all the way from the president through Mick Mulvaney through Ambassador Sondland, through Ambassador Volker to Rudy Giuliani. That over time became apparent, was not serving the U.S. interest but running deeply contrary to the U.S. interest was in fact conditioning a White House meeting that the President of Ukraine desperately sought to establish himself of the new President of Ukraine and to demonstrate to friend and foe alike that he had a relationship with his most power patron, the United States of America, and conditioned $400 million of bipartisan taxpayer-funded military support for a nation at war, on the front lines of Russian expansionism. A suspension of which was not in the U.S. interest, not in Ukraine's interest, not in our national security interest in no way, shape or form. You've described a situation in which those in the service of the president make it clear to the Ukrainians, they need to publicly announce these investigations or they weren't going to get that meeting and they sure weren't going to get that military assistance. Now I would point out and this may not have come to your attention but it certainly came to our attention, on September 9th, Inspector General informed our committee that the Director of National Intelligence was withholding a whistle-blower complaint in violation of the statute. By that point on September 9th, that complaint had made its way to the White House. On September 9th when the Inspector General informed Congress that that complaint had been withheld, the White House also learned that Congress now inevitably would learn about the complaint. It was less than 48 hours later that the military aid would be released. Over the weeks to come or over the days to come rather, we will hear from other dedicated public servants about other aspects of this effort to invite foreign interference on our election, to condition a White


Woman critically injured in Maryland pit bull attack

A woman was critically injured in an attack by two pit bulls Wednesday in Maryland. The incident happened at about 8 p.m. in the 11000 block of McKay Road in Fort Washington, according to Prince George’s County police. Police Chief Hank Stawinski said initial findings showed that someone called 911 after hearing a woman “crying for help.” When officers responded, they found a woman being attacked by two large dogs, he said. One of the officers was “not able to scare the dogs away” and fired a gun once. One dog was struck and died, officials said. Another officer fired at the other dog, which wasn’t hit. It ran away before being found by police, Stawinski said. Helicopters were used to search for the dog, which was taken to an animal shelter, according to animal control officials. The dogs were identified by animal control officials as American pit bull terriers. The woman was taken to a hospital and was “very, very seriously injured,” according to Stawinski, who described her injuries as “critical.” He said officers took “lifesaving measures to prevent this woman from further injury.” He said it wasn’t clear whom the dogs belonged to, but authorities believe the victim was “associated with a nearby home” and “may have known or been familiar with these animals.” The incident remains under investigation. Police said animal control officials had not received prior calls from the home about the dogs. When officers searched the home, Stawinski said, a third dog was found in a cage in a downstairs area. That dog is in the custody of animal control officials. The attack comes less than one month after heated debate on the Prince George’s County Council about whether to overturn the county’s pit bull ban. Opponents of the ban said it was ineffective and inhumane, while proponents said the 22-year-old ban keeps the community safe. The council voted Oct. 22 to overturn a measure that would have repealed the ban, but members said they planned to continue discussion. dana.hedgpeth@washpost.com


The deadliest form of plague has infected two people in China, and information is scarce

Two people in China were diagnosed with a severe form of the plague, according to reports in Chinese media — raising alarms for citizens despite promises from health authorities that control measures are in place. Local health officials confirmed the two cases of pneumonic plague on Tuesday, according to Xinhua News, China’s state-run news agency. The two patients, who authorities say received “proper treatment,” hail from China’s Inner Mongolia region. Additional information on the patients and their health status was not available Wednesday, and it’s not clear when the cases were identified. Officials told Xinhua that “relevant disease prevention and control measures have been taken.” Caixin, a Chinese financial news outlet, reported that the patients were first treated at the Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, which replaced all of the chairs in its emergency room after the patients’ arrival. They have since been transferred to another hospital. The pneumonic plague is the most serious form of the disease, according to the World Health Organization, and the only type that can spread from person to person through the inhalation of respiratory droplets. It is sometimes caused by untreated cases of the more common bubonic plague, and symptoms include fever, shortness of breath and rapidly developing pneumonia. But the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday told Beijing residents not to worry about contracting the disease, according to the Wall Street Journal. In a statement, the agency said authorities were investigating anyone they believe may have been exposed to the patients. Even though the center said the likelihood of the plague proliferating further was “extremely low,” residents took to social media with concern, the Journal reported. Some were perturbed by what they considered to be a delayed disclosure from health officials. Many fearful posts about the disease on Weibo, the country’s version of Twitter, have been deleted. Their apprehension was purportedly exacerbated by Li Jifeng, a doctor at Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, who said on social media she had treated the two patients on Nov. 3, according to the Journal. The Wednesday post, which remained online for several hours before it was deleted, indicated that one of the patients was a man who had difficulty breathing and became feverish 10 days before arriving at the Beijing hospital. He was initially treated by doctors at a facility in Inner Mongolia, but his condition did not improve, Li wrote. The man’s wife also developed symptoms,


rapidly developing pneumonia. But the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday told Beijing residents not to worry about contracting the disease, according to the Wall Street Journal. In a statement, the agency said authorities were investigating anyone they believe may have been exposed to the patients. Even though the center said the likelihood of the plague proliferating further was “extremely low,” residents took to social media with concern, the Journal reported. Some were perturbed by what they considered to be a delayed disclosure from health officials. Many fearful posts about the disease on Weibo, the country’s version of Twitter, have been deleted. Their apprehension was purportedly exacerbated by Li Jifeng, a doctor at Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, who said on social media she had treated the two patients on Nov. 3, according to the Journal. The Wednesday post, which remained online for several hours before it was deleted, indicated that one of the patients was a man who had difficulty breathing and became feverish 10 days before arriving at the Beijing hospital. He was initially treated by doctors at a facility in Inner Mongolia, but his condition did not improve, Li wrote. The man’s wife also developed symptoms, the Journal reported. Acknowledging concerns about the delayed timing of the announcement, Li wrote that “for such infectious diseases, various agencies are working overtime to repeatedly verify, investigate, report and so on, so official notices must be accurate and cannot be sent casually.” The plague is caused by Yersinia pestis, a bacteria typically found in small mammals and their fleas, according to WHO. The pneumonic plague is more deadly than the bubonic plague, which is rarely spread from person to person. The disease becomes pneumonic once it spreads to the lungs. Symptoms of pneumonic plague include “fever, headache, weakness, and a rapidly developing pneumonia with shortness of breath, chest pain, cough, and sometimes bloody or watery mucus,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If left untreated, the pneumonic plague is always fatal. More than 3,200 cases of the plague were reported worldwide between 2010 and 2015, and 584 of those were fatal, according to WHO. The plague, known in the Middle Ages as the “Black Death,” was responsible for wiping out about 60 percent of Europe’s population nearly 700 years ago. In the late 1800s, the disease killed millions in China and Hong Kong, as well


Report finds U-Md. followed protocols in mold, adenovirus outbreaks

Nearly a year after an adenovirus outbreak killed a freshman at the University of Maryland, an outside review found the college followed protocols in how it responded to the crisis but made numerous recommendations for handling campuswide emergencies. Olivia Paregol, an 18-year-old freshman, died of adenovirus on Nov. 18, 2018, after suffering from health problems during the several months she lived in a mold-infested dorm. A Washington Post report in May revealed that university officials waited 18 days to tell students about the presence of adenovirus that eventually sickened about 45 students. The 141-page report concluded the university’s response to the adenovirus and mold outbreaks at the College Park campus “should have been viewed and handled as campus-wide emergencies . . . which would have provided earlier opportunities for escalation and more effective emergency management for both incidents.” In the wake of the outbreaks, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) requested an investigation, and the University System of Maryland Board of Regents picked six individuals with “subject matter expertise” to conduct a review. The panel said it examined thousands of documents and interviewed university employees, contractors that worked for the college and Paregol’s father. The report concluded that the university “adhered to the requirements of all local, state and federal regulations and statutes governing reporting and communication concerning infectious diseases” and “the response to adenovirus was in accordance with the University’s own internal policies and procedures.” But the report identified “areas of weakness” and included 14 pages of recommendations. Those included more frequent monitoring of disease trends on campus, sharing health information with regional providers, designating an individual responsible for crisis communications and conducting air sampling after mold remediation. “Our campus works tirelessly on behalf of the health and safety of our students, faculty and staff, and we will carefully consider the report’s recommendations,” university President Wallace D. Loh wrote in a campuswide email Wednesday in response to the report. “The panel unanimously found that university employees prioritized student health and safety above all else. At the same time, our work on campus safety is always ongoing.” Ian Paregol, Olivia’s father, said he appreciated the panel’s efforts but thought the Oct. 22 interview conducted with him was an “afterthought” because he was the last one scheduled and was asked only three questions. “We do not want another child and family to suffer through this unimaginable pain, and if pushing for an


More intervention from Trump in war-crimes cases could come soon, officials say

of crimes, especially after the cases have been discussed on television, one former senior administration official said. In May, Trump pardoned former Army 1st Lt. Michael Behenna, who was convicted in the 2008 murder of an Iraqi prisoner suspected member of al-Qaeda. The discussion was renewed on Nov. 4 when Fox News personality Pete Hegseth announced that Trump was interested in taking action in the cases by Veterans Day. Trump is know to speak regularly with Hegseth. Alyssa Farah, a Pentagon spokeswoman, referred The Post to Esper’s previous comments on the issue. The Pentagon chief acknowledged last week that he had discussed the issue with Trump but declined to say whether he supports exonerating the service members involved. “But I do have full confidence in the military justice system and we’ll let things play out as they play out,” Esper added. “I offered ― as I do in all matters ― the facts, the options, my advice, the recommendations and we’ll see how things play out." The cases include that of Army Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn, a former Special Forces officer who faces a murder trial in the death of a suspected Taliban bomb maker; former Special Warfare Operator Chief Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who recently was acquitted of the most serious charges against him but convicted of a lesser war crime; and former Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance, who was convicted of second-degree murder in 2013 and is serving a 19-year prison sentence for ordering his soldiers to open fire on three men in Afghanistan. Trump could act next in the case of Lorance, who lost his case after nine members of his unit testified against him. Lorance’s relatives traveled to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas from several states this week in anticipation that Trump could set him free, said David Gurfein, a retired Marine who is assisting the family as the chief executive officer of United American Patriots, a nonprofit that raises money to help people charged with war crimes. Lorance’s supporters have argued that Army prosecutors in his case hid details, including that biometrics showed the men were affiliated with the Taliban. The U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals ruled in 2017 that the information would not have been permitted at a new trial. Gurfein said he is “very optimistic” Lorance could be released soon, though the details for how that would occur are not clear. An


Five myths about testosterone

studies attempting to link T to financial recklessness are weak. An often-cited 2008 study by two Cambridge University neuroscientists set out to show that financial gains might raise T levels, causing riskier bets, which in turn would raise T — a dangerous spiral. They measured the T of 17 traders in the mornings, and again in the afternoons, for eight days and tracked their financial performance. The scientists managed to show that people who had relatively high T in the morning tended to have higher earnings that day. But they either didn’t look for, or didn’t find, an association between a day’s high earnings and testosterone levels in the afternoon — which is what their risk-spiral hypothesis would require. Again, the paper’s modest findings were probably due to chance, given how many analyses were conducted. Myth No. 5 “The science is quite clear,” T researcher Aaron Baggish of Massachusetts General Hospital told the New York Times. “An androgenized body has a performance advantage.” Researchers affiliated with the International Association of Athletics Federations asserted that “wide sex difference in circulating testosterone concentrations … largely account[s] for the sex differences” in athletic performance. But T’s effect on athleticism isn’t straightforward, in either men or women. At the most basic level, no study has ever concluded that you can predict the outcome of speed or strength events by knowing competitors’ T levels. And while T does affect parameters related to athleticism, including muscle size and oxygen uptake, the relationships don’t translate into better sports performance in a clear-cut way. Consider a study of 52 teenage Olympic weightlifters — an elite group, male and female. Among the boys, there was no relationship between T levels and strength, and among girls, the athletes with lower T lifted more weight. In one widely disputed study, researchers claimed to have found that high T levels predict high performance across various track-and-field events. But in one of several analyses produced by the authors, in three of 11 running events athletes with the lowest T levels did better than those with the highest levels. Indeed, in the 100-meter race — which requires explosive strength, a trait often associated with T — the lowest-T runners ran about 5 percent faster than their highest-T counterparts. Such variable findings, common in the literature, cast doubt on the thesis that T is a master key to performance differences in sports. ryoung@barnard.edu Twitter: @Karkazis


White House and Pentagon prepare for Trump to issue pardons in war-crimes cases, officials say

a “Keep America Great” rally in Louisiana on Thursday night, but that did not occur. U.S. officials said they will be watching his Twitter account for an announcement on Friday, but added that he could publicize them later, or one at a time. A Pentagon official, asked about the case, referred comment to recent remarks made by Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper. Esper acknowledged last week speaking with the president about the issue but declined to share his personal opinion. “I do have full confidence in the military justice system and we’ll let things play out as they play out,” Esper said. “I offered ― as I do in all matters ― the facts, the options, my advice, the recommendations and we’ll see how things play out.” The cases include that of Army Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn, a former Special Forces officer who faces a murder trial in the 2010 death of a suspected Taliban bombmaker; former Special Warfare Operator Chief Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who recently was acquitted of murder but convicted of posing with the corpse of an Islamic State militant; and former Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance, who was convicted of second-degree murder in 2013 and is serving a 19-year prison sentence for ordering his soldiers to open fire on three men in Afghanistan. Golsteyn faces a court-martial that is scheduled for February. He first came under investigation in 2011 after he applied for a job with the CIA and disclosed during a polygraph test that he had killed someone on deployment and burned the body, according to Army documents and a Washington Post interview with Golsteyn in February. Golsteyn said he killed the suspected bombmaker in an ambush after he had been detained and crossed paths on base with a tribal elder working with U.S. forces. U.S. troops were required to set the detainee free, he said, prompting fears that he would kill the elder. Golsteyn contends the ambush of the man, who was unarmed at the time, was legal. Gallagher was tried by the Navy in a case over the summer that fell apart after another SEAL in his unit testified in court that he had actually killed a wounded Islamic State detainee in Iraq at the center of the case. Gallagher was convicted instead of taking a photograph with an Islamic State member’s corpse and demoted one rank to petty officer first class.


What runner Mary Cain’s story about Nike can teach parents about vetting coaching programs

At 17, Mary Cain was one of the brightest stars women’s running had ever seen. Now, at 23, having all but disappeared from the limelight, she’s speaking out against the abuse she allegedly experienced as a member of Nike’s Oregon Project, which was the sport’s premier training group until it was shut down in October. But experiences like Cain’s aren’t isolated to Nike, or to elite runners. Athletes of all sports and at all levels can be targets of abuse, according to sports psychology consultant Kay Porter. In a New York Times op-ed, Cain describes being told she had to maintain a certain weight, at the expense of her performance — and her health. She lost her period for three years. As a result she lacked the estrogen to maintain her bone health and broke five bones. By the time she quit the NOP in 2016, she was at risk for osteoporosis and infertility, was having suicidal thoughts and was cutting herself. She says she felt trapped. Nike has promised to investigate Cain’s claims. The problem While research shows an outsized focus on weight can be damaging, as was the case for Cain, it’s not the only way that coaches can hurt young athletes. According to the European Journal of Sport Science, abusive behavior may be physical or verbal, or it can involve a denial of attention and support. Cain says she experienced all three. As a result she faced an impossible choice: leave the world’s best running program and abandon her Olympic dreams, or suffer in silence. According to Porter, the pressure Cain says she felt to keep quiet is not uncommon. For high school athletes who dream of making a Division I college team, quitting doesn’t feel like an option. “It’s incredible pressure,” says Porter. So, she says, they simply “suck it up.” One Colorado mom, who asked that her name be withheld so she could speak candidly, shared a similar story about emotional abuse her daughter endured from her gymnastics coaches. The girl, who is now 14, started gymnastics when she was a toddler and had always loved the sport. But a switch to new coaches when she was 10 changed that. The girl’s mother said she eventually learned the coaches took a punitive, fear-based approach and rarely, if ever, offered positive reinforcement. She says her daughter called one day for a ride home in the middle


Readers critique The Post: The future is female. So is the present.

Every week, The Post runs a collection of letters of readers’ grievances — pointing out grammatical mistakes, missing coverage and inconsistencies. These letters tell us what we did wrong and, occasionally, offer praise. Here, we present this week’s Free for All letters. I spent 25 years in broadcast journalism, a rewarding and challenging career. In the 1980s, I was denied international travel for investigative stories I was working on because it was deemed unsafe for a woman. In the 1990s, I spent a lot of time gritting my teeth about comments made to me while covering fires, plane crashes and riots. For reasons I cannot fully explain, the photograph that accompanied Paul Kane’s Nov. 3 @PKCapitol column, “Hill’s swift exit casts light on Congress in #MeToo era,” gave my heart a lift. Five women journalists reporting on an important story of our time. The twist and turns of #MeToo rage on — and for good reason. This photo shows progress is being made. Rosemary Freitas Williams ● Reid Wilson’s Nov. 3 Travel column, “Stellar skiing and lower costs at France’s ‘Grand-Bo,’ ” said that Mont Blanc is “the highest mountain peak in Europe.” At 15,777 feet high, Mont Blanc is the highest peak in Western Europe, but that is good enough to make it only the seventh-highest peak in all of Europe. Russia’s Mount Elbrus tops the list at 18,510 feet. For those trying to climb the Seven Summits (the highest peak on each of the seven continents), it isn’t a trivial issue. Peter Len ● The Oct. 24 news article “Computer achieved ‘quantum supremacy,’ Google says” correctly stated that each quantum bit (qubit) is associated with twice as many binary states as binary digits (bits) but gave this example: “Two qubits are associated with four possible numbers, three with eight, four with 16.” Really? That seems like bits to me: 000, 001, 010, 100, 110, 101, 011, 111. John SanFilipo ● Please find a way to give Joel Achenbach an honorary degree in physics and astronomy. His description in the Nov. 5 Health & Science article “A cosmic mystery” of the expanding universe and the speed of its expansion was more easily understandable than anything I’ve read recently on the subject. While the actual answer to the “Hubble constant” is sort of like trying to count the number of angels dancing on the head of a pin, Achenbach did


the highest peak in Western Europe, but that is good enough to make it only the seventh-highest peak in all of Europe. Russia’s Mount Elbrus tops the list at 18,510 feet. For those trying to climb the Seven Summits (the highest peak on each of the seven continents), it isn’t a trivial issue. Peter Len ● The Oct. 24 news article “Computer achieved ‘quantum supremacy,’ Google says” correctly stated that each quantum bit (qubit) is associated with twice as many binary states as binary digits (bits) but gave this example: “Two qubits are associated with four possible numbers, three with eight, four with 16.” Really? That seems like bits to me: 000, 001, 010, 100, 110, 101, 011, 111. John SanFilipo ● Please find a way to give Joel Achenbach an honorary degree in physics and astronomy. His description in the Nov. 5 Health & Science article “A cosmic mystery” of the expanding universe and the speed of its expansion was more easily understandable than anything I’ve read recently on the subject. While the actual answer to the “Hubble constant” is sort of like trying to count the number of angels dancing on the head of a pin, Achenbach did full justice to the issue of understanding our vast universe. Now, if he could only apply his writing and analytical skills to sorting out the political mess our dear country is in — that may be harder than understanding how fast the universe is expanding! John Mason ● President Trump, in the photograph accompanying the Oct. 25 news article “ ‘Pottymouth’: Trump presides over a coarsening of U.S. politics,” appears to be making a gesture, right arm extended with a fist, left arm crossing over with the hand in the crook of the right arm, that when I was growing up in the Bronx, unequivocally and emphatically meant something quite vulgar. This gesture, supposedly of Italian origin, was universally recognizable even to children. There couldn’t have been a more appropriate illustration to capture the subject of the article. Lawrence D. Powers ● Though he would claim otherwise, Dana Milbank has been sucked into President Trump’s boorish habit of name-calling. His unnecessary use of ad hominem epithets, such as “lickspittle” and “oleaginous,” weakened his otherwise reasoned and compelling Oct. 25 Impeachment Diary, “Lickspittle Lindsey’s week of walk-backs” [Friday Opinion], on the craven flip-flops of Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.). Milbank may


Trump intervenes in three military justice cases involving war-crimes accusations, issuing pardons

President Trump notified the service members involved by phone, according to one of their lawyers and a U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. The cases involve Army Maj. Mathew Golsteyn, a former Special Forces officer; former special warfare operator chief Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL; and former Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance, who was convicted of second-degree murder in 2013.This is a developing story. It will be updated.


Only 8 percent of Americans say marijuana should be completely illegal

for medical use only. Just 8 percent said it should not be legal at all, a steep drop from the 15 percent recorded in 2016. As with many political issues, the public’s preferences on marijuana are well to the left of where the policy currently stands. The plant remains illegal for all purposes under federal law. Recreational marijuana is legal in 11 states plus D.C., in most cases because of voter-approved ballot initiatives. Most other states have some form of medical marijuana law, although in many cases there are severe restrictions on the conditions for which medical marijuana can be used, or on the types of marijuana that can be used. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, just four states — Idaho, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas — prohibit marijuana use in all forms. “As more and more states have moved forward with their own marijuana liberalization policies in recent years, public support has only grown stronger,” Erik Altieri, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said in a statement. “At a time when the political divide is larger than ever, the issue of marijuana legalization is one of the few policy issues upon which most Americans agree.” Legalization foes contend that marijuana use comes with negative health effects. This week, the group Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) highlighted the results of a study in the journal JAMA Psychiatry showing a half-percentage-point increase in rates of problematic cannabis use among teens in states that have legalized recreational use. “Legalization efforts are sending the message that marijuana use is safe and state sanctioned,” SAM President Kevin Sabet said in a statement. "No amount of marijuana use is safe for young people and more must be done to halt its normalization.” Most of the Democratic presidential candidates support legalizing recreational use in some form or another. But there are notable outliers, among them former vice president Joe Biden, who long supported “tough on crime” legislation while he was in the U.S. Senate. He opposes legalization but has signaled a preference to reduce criminal penalties for pot use. Billionaire Democratic hopeful Mike Bloomberg recently called marijuana legalization “the stupidest thing anyone has ever done.” President Trump, meanwhile, has had little to say about marijuana one way or another during his time in office, though he did recently reiterate support for letting states decide their own policies.


A decade after Sergei Magnitsky’s death, his legacy lives on

Valery Borschev, former chairman of the Moscow Supervisory Commission, referred to the proceedings as “an abomination that offends every normal human feeling.” He described the verdict as “an affront to international public opinion.” It was international public opinion that stepped forward to compensate for the lack of justice at home. In 2012, the U.S. Congress made history by passing a law — named for Magnitsky — that imposed targeted sanctions on Russian officials complicit in human rights abuse by revoking their visas, freezing their assets, and blacklisting them from the American banking system. Then-Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov — who played a key role in convincing Congress to support this law despite resistance from the Obama administration, which was bent on a “reset” with Putin — called the Magnitsky Act “the most pro-Russian law in the history of any foreign parliament,” because it targeted those who abused the rights of Russian citizens and plundered the resources of Russian taxpayers. (In 2019, the United States would use the Magnitsky Act to sanction one of the organizers of Nemtsov’s assassination, an officer in the Russian Interior Ministry and close aide to Kremlin-backed Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.) Five other countries have followed the United States in passing their own Magnitsky laws; more are considering similar measures. The principle behind this law was as revolutionary when it first passed as it sounds obvious now: level sanctions at those who deserve them. Where previous legal regimes targeted whole countries for the wrongs of their unelected rulers, the Magnitsky Act brought personal accountability. Perhaps nowhere is this more relevant than in Putin’s Russia, whose officials and oligarchs have grown accustomed to enjoying the privileges of democracy in the West (where they keep their money, buy their homes, and park their families) while denying basic democratic rights to their own people. There is a long way yet to fully end this hypocrisy — and still no shortage of Western enablers willing to look the other way. But the Magnitsky Act has set a standard that is here to stay. Magnitsky sanctions are a poor substitute for justice. Those complicit in torture, murder, wrongful imprisonment, and other gross violations of human rights should face something more than a visa ban or an asset freeze. But where impunity reigned before, there is now a way to bring abusers to account, a universal and permanent mechanism of personal accountability for


In damning report, watchdog paints troubling picture of relationship between NASA and Boeing

than what Russia charges. Rides on SpaceX’s Dragon capsule would cost about $55 million per seat, the IG found. The report was more bad news for Boeing, which has been engulfed in scandal since the crashes of two of its 737 Max jets killed 346 people. Dennis Muilenburg, its chief executive, was stripped of his title as chairman, and the months-long grounding of the passenger jets cost the company $5.6 billion in revenue in the second quarter. Criticism has been withering on Capitol Hill. Thursday’s IG report came a day after another report highlighted the struggles of another of Boeing’s big projects for NASA — the development of the Space Launch System rocket, which has yet to fly but NASA is hoping to use to fly astronauts to the moon. According to that report, the SLS rocket, the Orion crew capsule that would fly on top of it, and related ground systems has so far cost the agency $34 billion, a number that is projected to grow to $50 billion by 2024. The report comes just days after Boeing conducted a test of the Starliner’s abort system, which would ferry the crew to safety in the case of an emergency. Boeing and NASA deemed the test a success despite the fact that one of the three main parachutes failed to deploy. Boeing officials said that two were sufficient to land the spacecraft softly and safely, and it quickly identified the cause of the failure: a pin attached to a smaller parachute that was to pull out the larger main chute was not secured properly, a human error. The pin was underneath a protective sheath and out of sight. In the future, Boeing officials pledged to test that the link was secure by tugging on it. SpaceX has also had problems with its spacecraft. In April, the vehicle was destroyed during a test of its abort engines. But the company this week completed the same test and it appeared to go well. SpaceX also has had serious problems with its parachutes. The same month that its Dragon capsule exploded on the test stand, the company conducted a drop test in which three parachutes failed to deploy, “resulting the loss of the test sled,” the IG found. Since then the company said it has completed 14 tests of a new parachute design. During a speech at NASA’s Ames Research Center on Thursday


Amazon will challenge Pentagon’s award of $10 billion JEDI contract to Microsoft

litigation.” Microsoft did not provide comment. Amazon is the commercial cloud-computing market leader, holding a 48 percent market share, according to market-research firm Gartner. Microsoft is the second largest, with a 15.5 percent share. Amazon is also the only company to hold the Defense Department’s highest-level security certification, called Impact Level 6. Microsoft made strides during the year-long period the award was tied up in litigation, finalizing a number of partnerships that analysts say may have narrowed the gap. Microsoft says it has made enormous progress on Level 6 certification and will be ready by the time JEDI is implemented. Amazon filed its notice to protest under seal with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. The company will still need to file a formal protest, laying out its arguments in detail. The JEDI contract, announced in March 2018, is designed to modernize the Pentagon’s computing infrastructure in the hands of a commercial tech company. For more than a year, the Pentagon faced harsh criticism that the procurement was written with Amazon in mind. Tech rival Oracle, which wanted the contract but was eliminated in an earlier phase of the competition, sued the Defense Department and Amazon in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, alleging conflicts of interest on the part of numerous defense officials who had close relationships with Amazon. The procurement was repeatedly delayed while Oracle’s claims were investigated. The procurement took a new turn earlier this summer when Trump asked Esper to reexamine the Pentagon’s broader approach to the contract, citing concerns it would go to Amazon, people familiar with the matter told The Post at the time. The president said on television that he had received “tremendous complaints” about the contract from Amazon’s competitors, specifically Oracle, IBM and Microsoft. Soon afterward, he retweeted a link to a Fox News segment that referred to the contract as the “Bezos Bailout.” Trump has gone after Amazon for a variety of reasons, including coverage in The Post he doesn’t like, White House officials have previously told the newspaper. He has often derisively referred to the “Amazon Washington Post.” The Post’s leaders have said that Bezos, who bought The Post in 2013 in his personal capacity, plays no role in coverage decisions at the newspaper. Retired Navy Cmdr. Guy Snodgrass, who worked as a speechwriter for former defense secretary Jim Mattis, wrote in a recent book that Trump sought to “screw”


Latin America’s generals, back in the political labyrinth

to address significant public-safety deficits. In places such as El Salvador, Colombia, Mexico and Nicaragua, soldiers have taken the lead in anti-drug operations related to interdiction, eradication and apprehensions. In Mexico, the armed forces’ involvement in public life is such that the government disbanded its civilian federal police to create a paramilitary National Guard, mostly formed by soldiers and marines. While the militarization of a country’s internal affairs can be highly popular in times of crisis, opening this door is bad news for democracy. Whereas in the United States there is a long tradition of military subordination under civilian authority, in Latin America involving the military in internal affairs has often led to bloodshed and coups. And there is little evidence that Latin American armies are effective at governing, whether directly or indirectly. Military governments during the 1970s resulted in economic catastrophes and rampant human rights violations. Today, the armed forces have been unable to make a difference in reducing drugtrafficking or ameliorating organized crime. Instead, militaries conducting domestic public safety have contributed to increased levels of violence and violations of human rights. The armed forces have also been exposed to corruption as they are tasked with fighting organized crime. Latin American leaders and governments should resist the temptation to reach for the military to solve their countries’ problems. Rather than looking for seemingly easy solutions that further erode confidence in civilians’ ability to find solutions, they should invest in civilian institutions to address public-safety deficits, including investing in police reform, rooting out corruption in the judiciary and launching institutional checks and balances to reduce government abuse. The United States has an important role to play, as well. Deploying the U.S. military to conduct anti-drug operations in Mexico, as President Trump offered recently to his Mexican counterpart after a horrible massacre involving U.S. citizens, will only further empower that country’s armed forces at the expense of civilian rule. Instead, the United States should leverage its influence in the region to encourage civilian oversight over military affairs, military accountability and respect for the constitutional order. This can be accomplished by redirecting U.S. aid from military purposes to the strengthening of civilian institutions. Otherwise, in the absence of civilian solutions, the specter of military rule — both direct and indirect — will increasingly haunt the region for the foreseeable future. Read more: Francisco Toro: Bolivia needs a political solution out of this