Scientists just found telltale evidence of an ancient methane explosion in the Arctic

A methane mound in the Canadian High Arctic. (Stephen Grasby and Geological Society of America Bulletin) More than 100 million years ago, a sudden period of global warming — possibly brought on by a series of volcanic eruptions — released a massive upwelling of previously frozen methane gas from the bottom of the Arctic Ocean into the water, new research suggests. And the discovery has scientists pondering whether human-caused climate change could cause it to happen again — and what the consequences would be. Scientists have long debated whether methane venting from the seafloor is able to reach the surface. But even the possibility has some experts concerned. If a sudden surge of methane did manage to escape into the atmosphere today, there could be dire consequences for the global climate. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, whose climate-warming influence in the atmosphere is up to 30 times as strong as carbon dioxide over short time periods. Some scientists worry that a sudden, large release of methane could trigger a dangerous climate feedback loop, exacerbating global warming and causing even more gas to be released as a result. “What’s been suggested as happening both in the geologic record and as a concern for the modern is you sort of have a runaway scenario,” said Stephen Grasby, a research scientist with Natural Resources Canada, who contributed to the new research. The good news is that many scientists believe that most methane leaking from the ocean floor is unlikely to make it into the atmosphere because it will get trapped or dissolve into the water column on the way up. And some research has also suggested that, despite rapid warming in the Arctic, a large-scale release of methane is unlikely to be triggered by modern climate change any time soon. Still, the new findings provide suggestive evidence that changes in the ancient climate may have had a dramatic effect on the earth’s methane deposits — and they suggest that, at some point, a similar relationship could occur again. Grasby, along with a team of scientists from institutes in Canada and Europe, discovered evidence for the ancient methane leak during a recent expedition to remote Ellef Ringnes Island in the Canadian Arctic, which they have described in a paper published this month in the Geological Society of America Bulletin. There, they found a cluster of 139 strange, rocky mounds, which they say were


Two new brewpubs to visit in Northern Virginia

1916, the brewery, once Alexandria's largest employer, closed and never reopened. Fast forward almost a century, and Portner's great-great granddaughters Catherine and Margaret Portner have decided to bring the family name back to brewing in Alexandria. After almost five years of searching for a location, the sisters secured a space for a brewpub in the Modera Tempo complex near the Van Dorn Street Metro Station, with a wide-open bar and a patio large enough for 70 people to sit at umbrella-shaded tables. Cabinets along one wall display old Robert Portner beer bottles, mugs and photos. The mainstays of the draft beer menu are four “Pre-Prohibition” beers, which Catherine Portner says are inspired by recipes and notes in Robert Portner's unpublished memoir and family papers. Go for the refreshing Hofbrau Pilsener, with its crisp, floral hops, or the Vienna Cabinet Lager, which has inviting toffee notes. It doesn't hurt that the brewer behind these beers, Brian McElvaney, knows his way around German beers: He apprenticed at Einbecker, in Einbeck, Germany, before brewing at Vulkan and then the Stone Brewery in Berlin. Four other “Brewmaster Seasonal” beers include a Washington Capitals-inspired “Rock the Rot” red IPA (“rot” is “red” in German), a single-hopped Chinook pale ale, and the sweet “I'd Give Up Chocolate But…," a stout brewed with 10 pounds of Ghirardelli cocoa. What makes Portner Brewhouse most interesting, though, is the Craft Beer Test Kitchen, which will turn the brewpub into an incubator for small brewers. Homebrewers who've come up with a beer they want to share with the world can drop off the recipe and two samples at the bar. The Portners and their brewing team will review the entries and create large-scale batches to put on tap. Catherine Portner says the goal is to offer a new beer every four to six weeks. Up first are two vintage-style ales from the Lost Lagers team of Mike Stein and Pete Jones; they'll be followed by a Scottish Light beer made by Jonathan Stone, the winner of the recent D.C. Homebrewers Club's recent Cherry Blossom Competition. 5770 Dow Ave., Alexandria. 571-312-0243. Open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday. Read more: These two new pop-up bars will have flaming tiki drinks and classic cocktails Dank and resinous, this is the 4/20 beer you’ve been searching for


The effects of climate change will force millions to migrate. Here’s what this means for human security.

Security: Environmental Change and Human Mobility,” brings together analysis and discussion from experts on climate change, resource management, migration, foreign policy and national security, and included government and nongovernmental organization policymakers and foreign policy practitioners. The report provided a number of guiding principles for policymakers. Here are five key findings: 1) Over the next 20 years, a 2016 NIC report warns, increasing numbers of countries may be overwhelmed or destabilized by climate-related stresses such as famines, weather-related disasters or resource shortages. In 2015, for instance, a tropical cyclone hit Yemen — the first in the country’s recorded history — dropping several years’ worth of rain in a single day. The flooding heightened political tensions in a country “already suffering a humanitarian crisis from war and water shortage,” according to the NIC. These are not isolated incidents. We see conflicts over water and land resources growing in Mexico, Syria, Nigeria, Mauritania, Somalia, Mali, Vietnam and many other countries — along with parts of the U.S. Southwest. 2) Extreme weather events are likely to displace more people. 3) Many displaced people head to nearby cities, and that’s a problem. Figuring out the “pull” mechanisms to direct people where their needs can be met is a policy priority, as is job creation. An added challenge is the rising trend of “urbanization without growth” — when new jobs or economic growth fail to keep up with the influx of new residents, leaving environmental migrants few work options. 4) We don’t adequately define “environmental migrants.” 5) “Planned relocations” will become more frequent. None of these challenges has an easy fix, but many governments, international organizations and communities are looking at ways to boost the resiliency of communities at risk from climate change, as well as facing the reality that climate change will displace millions more in the coming decades. In 2015, for instance, more than 100 governments pledged to support the Nansen Initiative, a Swiss-Norwegian plan to bring about greater global collaboration to protect people displaced by climate change and disasters. With the numbers of displaced people rising, there’s a lot to discuss — and a lot of lives at stake. Kelly M. McFarland is director of programs and research at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy and an adjunct professor in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Vanessa Lide is associate editor with the Monkey Cage, based at Georgetown University’s Institute


Prince William gets squirted with water by a cheeky London Marathon runner

A right cheeky runner manages to squirt Prince William. (Chris Jackson/Pool via AP) A funny thing happened to Prince William as he and his wife, Kate, and brother, Prince Harry, handed out water to runners during the London Marathon. Someone cheekily squirted the future king with water and, no, it wasn’t his playful younger brother. One of the runners managed to get the duke of Cambridge, with a few drops hitting the duchess, as the royals greeted runners near the finish line Sunday. Many in the field of nearly 40,000 stopped for handshakes, high fives and selfies — and gratefully took water from the royals, whose Heads Together organization is the chosen charity of the marathon. Heads Together “aims to change the national conversation on mental health and well-being, and is a partnership with inspiring charities with decades of experience in tackling stigma, raising awareness, and providing vital help for people with mental health challenges,” its website says. The quick-reacting duke clamps his eyes shut. (Chris Jackson/Pool via AP) Fortunately, the future king was amused. Not even a few drops of water could ruin Sunday’s marathon. (Chris Jackson/AFP/Getty Images)


‘We’ll finish together’: London Marathon runner hailed for act of ‘ultimate sportsmanship’

Runners in the London Marathon on April 23 were cheered on by Britain's young royals. Heir to the throne Prince William, his wife, the Duchess of Cambridge, and younger brother Prince Harry joined members of a mental-health charity watching the race on a corner in the capital. A runner paused to do something nearly unthinkable for a competitive athlete in an important race as he neared the finish line of the London Marathon on Sunday. Before a royal audience and thousands of onlookers, he slowed, sacrificing his own precious seconds, to help a struggling runner whose legs were about to buckle cross the line. Matthew Rees, competing with the Swansea Harriers running club, stopped just short of finishing the 26.2-mile race to help David Wyeth of Chorlton Runners, who was clearly in trouble. A race official was also quick to help at the finish line just outside Buckingham Palace and Wyeth received immediate attention from paramedics. 👏 This is incredible! Swansea Harrier Matthew Rees helps a struggling runner cross the line at the #LondonMarathon https://t.co/Fg83sBfpoo “I saw him try to stand up again and his legs just went down again, and I thought, ‘This is more important,’ ” said Rees, 29 (via the Mirror). “Getting him across the line is more important than shaving a few seconds off my time.” Wyeth was running in memory of his beloved uncle Alan when, suddenly, the race took a turn. “I was on track at least to mile 20 and thought I was coming through a dark patch, but it just got darker and darker,” he told The Sun. “I turned into The Mall and my legs just went beneath me. The next thing I heard, two meters out was Matthew’s voice in my ear encouraging me up, ‘Let’s do this, I’ll get you over the line.’ ” Rees said that when he spotted Wyeth he knew there was “no other option” but to lend a hand. “I had to help him, he’d come 26 miles and the finish was just there. When I went over and spoke to him, you could see how determined he was. “He said, ‘I need to finish.’ I said, ‘We will finish, we’ll finish together.’ ” Rees downplayed his heroics, which are not uncommon in the running community. “This moment was caught on camera but this was happening throughout the race, everyone’s helping each other out. I


Record-breaking climate events all over the world are being shaped by global warming, scientists find

framework to the Arctic sea ice record to quantify the influence of global warming on the 2012 record-low extent. And, according to Diffenbaugh, the framework can also be applied to certain specific physical conditions — atmospheric patterns, for instance — that help make an extreme event, like a storm or a heat wave, possible in the first place. For example, he said, the team examined data on the water vapor content present in the atmosphere during a period of intense flooding in Colorado in 2013 and found that its condition was “clearly more likely with global warming than without global warming.” In the future, this strategy could become an important way to improve projections of certain types of extreme weather events under different climate scenarios, by analyzing the likelihood of specific conditions and patterns that could combine to give rise to different weather outcomes. Overall, the researchers’ approach is a “step forward” from the types of individual case studies that have been done in the past, according to climate scientist Adam Sobel, director of Columbia University’s Initiative on Extreme Weather and Climate, who was not involved with the new research. The strategy “allows general statements about what fraction of events of the given types selected have a statistically significant anthropogenic influence subject to the assumptions,” he said in an email to The Post. He added that the findings linking extreme temperature events to global warming in so many places are not exactly surprising. What’s more interesting, he said, are the physical processes that have made these extreme possible in the first place — that is, the idea that the temperature signal here is found to be due not just to simple global warming, but to “changes in the frequency of atmospheric patterns,” he said. This reinforces the importance of looking not just at whole events, such as heat waves and floods, but at their complex, underlying physical causes — and to what extent these causes may be affected by climate change. As it is, the new study focuses only on climate change and extreme events that have already occurred since the pre-industrial era. But Diffenbaugh points out that the same framework could be used to make predictions about the future climate. “We’ve had about a degree Celsius of warming over the last century,” he said. “But our framework can be readily applied to ask about different levels of global warming.”


Jake Tapper sells his Forest Hills home for $1.4 million

The exterior of the Tappers’ former home. (Courtesy of the Hersh Group) Jake Tapper unloaded his Northwest D.C. property on March 23 for $1.4 million. The CNN bigshot and his wife, Jennifer, are fixtures in Forest Hills, the upscale Northwest neighborhood that boasts a ton of embassies. The Tappers bought the house in 2007 for $1.2 million, according to public record. The four-bedroom, three-and-a-half bath residence, which boasts a wraparound rear deck overlooking Rock Creek Park, is most easily recognizable by its vibrant pink front door. According to listing agent Ira Hersh of the Hersh Group, the couple, who have a 9-year-old daughter and a 7-year-old son, opted to sell in favor of more “outdoor space.” We’re sensing a trend here. Recently, cable news broadcaster Mika Brzezinski of “Morning Joe” listed her Georgetown pad. The home sold for $1.4 million. (Courtesy of the Hersh Group) The former Tapper residence is in Forest Hills. (Courtesy of the Hersh Group) The Tappers purchased the home in 2007. (Courtesy of the Hersh Group) The home boasts a bright pink front door. (Courtesy of the Hersh Group) The Tappers apparently sold their home in favor of more “outdoor space.” (Courtesy of The Hersh Group)


These pesky caterpillars seem to digest plastic bags

Holes in a plastic bag, the result of 10 worms chewing for 30 minutes. (CSIC Communications Department) The shopping bag is an infamous source of plastic pollution. The 2010 documentary “Bag It” estimated that Americans use 102 billion plastic bags per year. Bags are persistent. Plastic at the waste dump can last for an estimated 1,000 years. And they are pernicious. A wild baby manatee named Emoji died in a Florida zoo in February after filling its guts with plastic bags and other litter. To curb our reliance on cheap plastic, Washington began levying 5-cent bag fees in 2009. Several other municipalities have followed suit. Of course, plastic bags are useful, too. Federica Bertocchini, a biologist at Spain's Institute of Biomedicine and Biotechnology of Cantabria and a hobbyist beekeeper, used such a bag to collect pests called wax worms. The caterpillars, the larvae of the moth Galleria mellonella, had infested her hives, chowing down on honey and wax. She plucked the wax worms from the beehives and dropped the caterpillars into a plastic bag — only to find “the worms all around and the plastic bag full of holes,” as Bertocchini said in an email to The Washington Post. Bertocchini is an expert in embryonic development, not in caterpillars or things that chew through plastic. But the accidental discovery was too intriguing to pass up. The scientist contacted her colleagues at the University of Cambridge, Paolo Bombelli and Christopher Howe. “Once we saw the holes the reaction was immediate: that is it, we need to investigate this.” As the three scientists reported Monday in the journal Current Biology, the wax worms aren't simply chewing the plastic into tiny bits. Instead, it appears that the animals — or something inside them — can digest polyethylene, a common plastic, producing ethylene glycol. “It was very exciting to find this, mainly because me and Paolo and Chris have been talking about this plastic biodegradation issue for a few years,” Bertocchini said. Their study was the most recent entry in a growing body of literature that suggests some organisms can process plastic. In 2015, scientists at Stanford University reported that mealworms, the beetle larvae used as fishing bait (and occasionally dusted with barbecue seasoning, as in eco-friendly snacks), can turn Styrofoam into carbon dioxide and droppings. In 2016, Japanese researchers discovered that microbes living close to a bottle-recycling plant could metabolize plastic. Compared with


How the British elections could speed up Scottish independence

1 by the English, is incapable of reinventing or renewing itself to take account of Scotland’s pro-E.U. sentiment. The Scottish government’s proposals for a “differentiated” Brexit deal which would have maintained Scottish membership in the E.U.’s single market were rejected by May’s government. Although there is a pro-independence majority in Scotland’s devolved legislature, the power to hold a legally binding referendum rests with the Westminster government. Sturgeon must seek permission for a fresh plebiscite, permission that has been refused. May, whose government is consumed by Brexit, has no wish to fight on a second constitutional front. “Now is not the time” for a second independence referendum, she says, although this implicitly concedes that there may be an appropriate time for a second independence poll at some point. Her government, however, intends to delay that moment of reckoning for as long as possible. It would be perverse, it argues, to hold a referendum in response to Brexit before the full terms and conditions of Brexit have been determined. Sturgeon desires a vote in late 2018 or early 2019 as the details of Britain’s exit from the E.U. become clear; May is determined that no referendum will be held until the impact of Brexit has been felt. If Brexit is a success, U.K. government sources think, Scottish enthusiasm for independence will be diminished. If this is a mighty gamble for May, Sturgeon is also playing a game heavily freighted with risk. Falling oil prices and a stagnant Scottish economy mean that an independent Scotland would begin its existence saddled with a deficit of close to 10 percent of gross domestic product. That would require urgent attention, demanding spending cuts and tax increases. The Union long guaranteed economic security, but this, too, seems less certain in a post-Brexit environment. Even so, independence must be a leap into the unknown, a voyage of national rediscovery that is pregnant with uncertainty. For instance, it is not clear what currency an independent Scotland would use; for that matter, the precise relationship between Edinburgh and London as well as between Edinburgh and Brussels remains a matter of conjecture. Joining the E.U. as a newly independent state would come with terms and conditions, not all of which might prove palatable to Scotland. Sturgeon says she would wish to rejoin the E.U., although that leaves open the question of how the border with England — an E.U. frontier in


The Taliban ‘cultural weapon’ that is driving U.S. and Afghan forces apart

well understands how to apply limited resources for maximum effect. In fact, despite a reputation for cultural myopia, the Taliban’s use of such attacks reveals that it understands Afghan military and intelligence gaps far better than its opponents do. Using Afghan soldiers to plot large-scale attacks on Afghan or U.S. troops is in effect a “cultural weapon” that targets a key weakness in Afghan and the U.S. civil-military apparatus: a deep aversion to casualties. Since 2007, such insider attacks have killed more than 157 NATO personnel, mostly U.S. troops, and more than 550 Afghan soldiers. At times, the attacks have also served as an effective tool for the Taliban to drive a wedge between Afghan and U.S. forces. In 2012 and 2013, NATO forces even discontinued joint operations below the battalion level with Afghan troops and temporarily stopped training Afghan forces to avoid the risk of being killed by disgruntled Afghan soldiers. The Taliban employs at least four methods to stage such attacks. First, the group infiltrates Afghan forces as a way not only to target Afghan and NATO personnel, but also to collect tactical intelligence and undermine cooperation. Most Taliban infiltration is in the ranks of the poorly vetted Afghan local police, a network of U.S.-funded village-defense units that receive basic training from U.S. forces to protect their communities. Second, the Taliban recruits rogue and aggrieved Afghan soldiers to either facilitate insider attacks or personally conduct attacks on behalf of the insurgency. Taliban members often coerce Afghan soldiers through financial incentives, ideological pressure and intimidation — including the kidnapping of family members — as well as influences through tribal networks. Third, the Taliban has become adept at impersonation, with fighters posing as Afghan police or army personnel to evade security inspection and barriers while infiltrating checkpoints. The group frequently uses counterfeit Afghan military uniforms and identity cards to penetrate Afghan security ranks. At times, these tactics have involved some level of facilitation or complicity by rogue Afghan soldiers, especially in providing identification cards and access to bases. And, fourth, the Taliban exploits those disgruntled Afghan soldiers who are personally motivated to stage or facilitate an attack for reasons ranging from grievances rooted in personal clashes and insults to cultural misunderstandings, disrespect for religious beliefs or local norms, civilian casualties and miscommunication. At times, combat stress is a factor. But the Taliban often exploits these weaknesses to convince resentful soldiers


The Daily 202: Trump is caving on border wall funding after showing his base that he tried

back by a Houston police officer in 2010. Ruth Bader Ginsburg joined her. (Robert Barnes) - Members of the Writers Guild of America voted overwhelmingly to authorize their union to call a strike as contract negotiations barrel towards a May 1 deadline. If an agreement can’t be worked out, some of the most-loved shows on television may stop production. (Elahe Izadi) - A recent string of extreme weather events has been substantially shaped by human-influennced global warming, according to a new study. The conclusion comes as scientists have become increasingly adept at analyzing what impact climate change has on bizarre weather patterns. (Chelsea Harvey) - Four marijuana activists were arrested after lighting joints in front of the Capitol, part of a demonstration urging lawmakers to remove marijuana from the nation’s list of most dangerous drugs. A number of other protestors, also illegally in possession of marijuana on federal land, were not arrested. (Perry Stein) - In Pennsylvania, real-estate executive and GOP bundler Jeff Bartos joined a growing field of candidates hoping to unseat incumbent Sen. Bob Casey (D) in 2018. Bartos sought to brand himself as a conservative businessman and Casey as an out-of-touch Washington insider, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Dave Weigel noticed that Bartos's introductory video presented stock images from Hangzhou, China, as coming from D.C. - A Tennessee teacher accused of abducting a 15-year-old student will be transferred to his home state to face charges after he was arrested in California. His capture ended a five-week manhunt in which the teacher allegedly traveled through nine states and had plans to take the teen girl to Mexico. (Lindsey Bever, Cleve R. Wootson Jr. and Peter Holley) - In Japan, tattoos are associated with the mafia. Even tourists who are seen sporting body art larger than the size of a band-aid can be denied access to pools, restaurants, and convenience stores. But as Tokyo prepares to host the 2020 Summer Olympics – and the huge number of ink-sporting athletes who will compete – some are seeking to put an end to the bias. (Anna Fifield profiles one.) President Trump unveiled his tax plan on April 26, after months of pledging to make drastic changes to the tax code. The Post's Damian Paletta explains why tax reform is so complicated. TAX REFORM: -- Trump will propose cutting the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent, moving to fulfill one


Washington Performing Arts announces a nicely balanced 2017-18 season

the Orchestra de Santa Cecelia, a co-presentation already announced by the Kennedy Center, and once with Itzhak Perlman; Mitsuko Uchida will play an all-Schubert recital; and Boris Berezovsky will make his first solo Washington Performing Arts appearance, after illness forced him to cancel a scheduled Hayes series debut in 2003-04. And the violinist Maxim Vengerov, who has focused more on conducting in recent years, will return in a virtuoso recital. But even some of these orchestra concerts exemplify the more artist-driven approach that has characterized Washington Performing Arts under Jenny Bilfield, its president and CEO. The Trifonov and Salonen pieces, for example, present two familiar performers in a different guise, as composers. And some other projects — like “The Blue Hour” or the multimedia work “A Chinese Home” by Wu Man and the Kronos Quartet (currently in the midst of a five-year collaboration with Washington Performing Arts), telling the story of centuries of Chinese history through music of many composers around a house that was built in China and then reassembled in the U.S. — have arisen as a result of ongoing conversations with artists. “We’re finding a great deal of receptivity to thinking creatively and long-term,” Bilfield said in a telephone conversation last week. “There are now artists we have a habit of working with, and have different projects in the pipeline. Managers, too, know what topics and directions will excite us. Everyone wants to serve art and artists in more intimate ways. That’s very much on our mind.” One example of an ongoing relationship is the great American composer Steve Reich, who will come to D.C. with the Signal ensemble for a performance of his seminal “Clapping Music” as well as the East Coast premiere of his recent work “Runner” — in a performance that will mark Washington Performing Arts’ first collaboration with the Library of Congress. (Tickets, therefore, will be free.) Another, of a very different kind, is a three-part series exploring ways that people listen to music, carried out in conversations between the jazz pianist Aaron Diehl (who will also have his own performance) and the director of special projects at Washington Performing Arts, playwright Murray Horwitz. Among rising young artists, two noteworthy groups are making Washington Performing Arts debuts: the duo piano team Anderson and Roe, who performed with flair at the National Gallery last fall, and the PUBLIQuartet, whom Stephen Colbert invited to improvise


Nine years after being cheated out of bronze medal, Olympic heptathlete learns it’s hers

Chernova of her bronze medal following the discovery of turinabol, an anabolic steroid, in enhanced tests of her old samples. Since news broke of a widespread, Russian state-sanctioned doping scandal in 2015, the IOC has been retesting samples given by thousands of athletes who participated in the 2008 and 2012 Games. While a handful of athletes from other countries have turned up positive results, including that of a Jamaican sprinter, which stripped Usain Bolt of a relay medal, Russia has seen the most consequences. Chernova is the 18th Russian athlete from the 2008 Olympics to test positive for a banned substance from retesting. Part of the reason, the Associated Press reported, is because the new tests can now detect turinabol specifically if it was used within weeks instead of days using the same samples provided in 2008. “Such a significant extension of the detection window is the obvious explanation for the unfortunately spectacular and unprecedented high number of positive cases which were revealed,” the IOC disciplinary panel said in its decision posted online on Monday. “Doping is a planned process in which the detection window is a key parameter. The athletes using the substance at the time, and/or the persons who were supporting them in this respect, planned with the detection window applicable at the time. They did not expect that the detection window would subsequently be significantly extended, by virtue of a new method capable of detecting long-term metabolites during a much longer period of time.” While bad news for Russia’s track and field athletes, most of who remained ineligible to compete at the international level because of the allegations, it was good news for Sotherton. Thanks 👍🏼 to everyone who has congratulated the late Olympic success. I'm truly overwhelmed. I now feel more satisfied 😊 with career 🥉🥉🥉 Sotherton, 40, now has three bronze medals to her credit. Along with the new one for the 2008 heptathlon, which requires athletes to compete in seven track and field events ranging from an 800-meter run to the shot put, Sotherton has one from the event in 2004. She also won a bronze medal for Great Britain in the 4×400-meter relay in 2008. “I would swap all three medals for a gold, obviously, but to win three Olympic medals, regardless of what color they are, is an achievement and I feel very happy about that,” Sotherton told the BBC on Tuesday.


Five myths about the Palestinian hunger strike

Palestinian protesters wave their national flag during a demonstration in the West Bank town of Bethlehem to show their support for Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails after hundreds of detainees launched a hunger strike on April 17. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images) Approximately 1,200 Palestinian prisoners are in a second week of a hunger strike, following the controversial publication of an op-ed in the New York Times by the high-profile prisoner Marwan Barghouti. The hunger strike has brought renewed attention to the issue of imprisonment in Israel, where the approximately 6,500 Palestinians incarcerated in Israeli jails are viewed as convicted terrorists by most Israelis, but considered political prisoners by most Palestinians. Hunger strikes are not new in Israel. However, as the first mass collective strike in several years, this strike is notable, especially with the leadership of Barghouti who — despite serving multiple life sentences — is often compared to Nelson Mandela and enjoys popular support in Palestinian polls. Many misconceptions about the hunger strike remain. My research with both ex-prisoners and former members of Israel’s security sector counter several common myths. Myth No. 1: Prisoners are striking to get released from prison. Palestinian hunger strikes, like those undertaken in Northern Ireland and South Africa, are usually focused on improving conditions and seeking rights inside the prisons, articulated to prison authorities via a list of demands. In past strikes, demands have included increasing the number of blankets, giving more time in the yard and granting access to books, radios and television. In the current strike, the primary demand is to ensure regular family visits. Israeli prison policy allows for two monthly family visits; however, because family members in the West Bank and Gaza must apply for permits to travel to Israel (which are often denied), some prisoners have gone years without a family visit. Also, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reduced coordinated family visits in the summer citing budgetary limitations. Other demands include pay phones to make family calls, improved medical services and an end to administrative detention (detention without charge or trial). Myth No. 2: All Palestinian prisoners are terrorists. The majority of the 6,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israel are convicted on charges related to terrorism. However, according to the Israel Prison Service (IPS), the true number of “security prisoners” is about half, with other prisoners being members of groups supporting armed resistance, or individuals who were involved


Don’t let clouds ruin your solar eclipse — here’s where it’s most likely to be clear

(Eric Adams/AP) On Aug. 21, the moon will totally block out the sun along a 60-mile-wide path from Oregon to South Carolina. The last time a total solar eclipse swept across the entire continental United States was 1979, and the next time it happens isn’t until 2045. Given the rarity of the event, people have been making travel plans and booking hotels since last year. But before you buy the plane ticket, you might want to consider which destination has the best odds of clear skies in August. The eclipse begins at 10:15 a.m. Pacific Time near Lincoln Beach, Ore., and races across the United States until 2:49 p.m. Eastern Time when it crosses the tip of Cape Romain, just east of McClellanville, S.C., as it heads out to the Atlantic Ocean. Places north and south of the path of totality — including all of Alaska and Hawaii, Mexico, Central America and northern South America — will see a partial eclipse. In the Washington, D.C., area, for example, the moon will cover roughly 81 percent of the sun. Unfortunately, while astronomers have been predicting the paths and timing of eclipses decades into the future, meteorologists can’t say more than a day or two in advance whether it will be cloudy enough to ruin the show. Weather events operate on tiny scales from the molecular (latent heat released when water vapor condenses) to the global (jet stream patterns). This means small changes in conditions can lead to large differences in outcomes. Chaos plays a large role in weather forecasts — but not in eclipse predictions. To decide where to go for the best chance of clouds not hiding the eclipse, we have to turn to the past. That is, look for places along its path with the best odds of clear — or at least partly sunny — skies in August. “The big challenge with a summer eclipse is the risk of showers and thunderstorms, which are by nature short-lived and impossible to predict in a pinpoint fashion,” Weather Underground’s Bob Henson wrote. “Fortunately, the midday timing of the eclipse in the western and central U.S. should be just ahead of the typical formation time of the next day’s showers and thunderstorms.” But Henson also notes that mid-August is also near the peak of hurricane season, which means there’s increased risk of cloudiness, especially for the Southeast. Along the South Carolina


Huge storms in northern Africa have tripled since the 1980s. Scientists blame climate change.

over the course of the study period. The researchers also found that these increase tracks strongly with a warming trend in the Sahara. The Sahel, itself, hasn’t been seeing a particularly notable increase in temperature in recent years. But the Sahara region just to the south is one of the world’s most rapidly warming places, besides the Arctic, Taylor noted. As a result, there’s been a stark change in the temperature gradient across the region of Africa spanning the Sahel — and the scientists believe that this effect has caused a change in certain specific types of wind patterns that are known to strongly influence the formation of thunderstorms. “They argue that this warming has led to increased convection through enhanced wind shear (the difference in wind speed over a relatively short distance, either vertically or horizontally, in the atmosphere) and changes to the Saharan air layer,” explained Liu in his comment. “These are reasonable speculations that could probably be validated using simulations of the regional climate.” The effect of temperature changes on wind patterns has been widely discussed by climate and atmospheric scientists looking at different parts of the world. Changes in temperature in specific regions can alter the thickness of the atmosphere in those places, which can affect the way air moves from one part of the world to another. Some scientists have speculated, for instance, that rapid warming in the Arctic may be causing changes in the North Atlantic jet stream. Still, there’s more work to be done before anyone can say for certain what’s been going on with the Sahelian storms. Current models don’t fully account for all the atmospheric processes that cause these systems to form, Taylor said, and they haven’t actually been able to reproduce the increase in frequency that the observational record has revealed. The researchers and colleagues at the UK’s Met Office, its national weather service, are currently collaborating on a project they hope will produce “much more detailed computer simulations in which we can simulate the dynamics of these weather systems much better,” Taylor said. “And we’re looking to see what those simulations will tell us in a world with increased greenhouse gases.” But for now, he said, scientists are fairly confident that the Sahara will continue to warm at a faster pace than the rest of Africa. “So our best guess is that this will continue to provide more and


Republicans launch effort to roll back the Dodd-Frank banking regulations

are stuck in the slowest, weakest, most tepid recovery in the history of the republic,” he said of Dodd-Frank. “We have seen millions who remain unemployed and underemployed and an economy working at roughly half of its potential.” He said his legislation, dubbed the Financial Choice Act, would unleash the markets by lifting burdensome regulations. While it is unclear whether any big-bank chief executives have explicitly lobbied against Hensarling's bill, several have said they do not want to see 2010's Dodd-Frank law thrown out. “We have redesigned the way in which large financial institutions in this country function,” and reworking those regulations would add new uncertainty, Morgan Stanley chief executive James Gorman said recently. “I would not start again. That’s a terrifying thought to start again, because what’s going to replace it?” .@RepHensarling: Under the Financial #CHOICEact there will be economic opportunity for all and bank bailouts for no… https://t.co/AdKqCMOwxi But Democrats, who have nicknamed Hensarling's bill “The Wrong Choice Act,” noted that there is a lot in the proposal Wall Street does like. The bill weakens the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, for example, and repeals the “Volcker rule,” which restricts big banks’ ability to make risky financial bets. Big banks would face “stress tests” less often to prove they could survive economic turmoil, and regulators' ability to provide oversight of insurance companies or hedge funds would also be curtailed. And for big banks, the biggest boost in Hensarling's may come through the proposed repeal of a provision, known as the Durbin amendment, which caps the fee banks can charge retailers for processing debit-card transactions. The provision “has cost consumers billions of dollars in diminished access to affordable banking services like free checking and debit card rewards,” James C. Ballentine, chief lobbyist for the American Bankers Association, said in a letter to House and Senate members earlier this week. Those types of changes help big banks, not small ones, Democrats said. “I have never seen so many bad ideas crammed into one bill,” said Rep. Stephen F. Lynch (D-Mass.). “I hope people are paying attention at home. ... You should pay attention to this stuff.” Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, called the legislation “dead on arrival.” Despite objections from Democrats, the legislation is likely to pass the committee and face a House vote by the middle of next month. Its fate in the Senate is


Transcript: The Washington Post Hosts Reporters Without Borders 2017 World Press Freedom Index

of powerful people out into the open source world. So that information is out there. Journalists do a courageous and amazing job in bringing it out. And those who they expose don’t like it and guess what? They’re mean, tough, nasty people and they fight back. And so what we’re seeing is the product of that clash. And we mourn every single time a journalist is attacked or killed because they’ve done their job. But if you look at the successes as well, including just in the last two or three months in the United States, an extraordinary flowering of investigative journalism that has absolutely tied the hands of President Trump in a number of areas and changed his policies and his personnel. If you look at the Michael Flynn case. I was a little bit more pessimistic three months ago about whether the traditional methods of journalism can work in the kind of political climate that we have. I’m more optimistic today that they can. Priest: And just to stay on that optimistic note for a minute. You had mentioned corruption and strengthening laws against corruption and transparency. If you want to look at a great illustration of what the power of journalism can do, go to OCCRP. I’m not going to spell it out right now but they are a foundation-funded organization that has done amazing work on corruption in Eastern Europe, the caucuses and elsewhere. And so we’re trying to also come with the positive things here and I think again, journalists are so resilient they figure out ways around obstacles and we had a couple more questions. Yes, over here. Flintoff: My name is Corey Flintoff. I’m a former correspondent for NPR in Russia and my question is to Zaina and Erol. To what extent do you think these autocratic regimes are sharing techniques for surveillance and hacking against journalists and specifically, do you have a sense of whether Russia is sharing its techniques and doing training for the regimes in Syria and Turkey? Erhaim: About the Syria part, it’s confirmed that—well, first, they have moved underground. They own the sky. So definitely, they’re running the electronic system of the regime and they’re helping it a lot in the digital phase. Even before starting the invasion of Syria, we knew then that they are providing this experience in the technology and they created this electronic army


Charles Barkley, Scott Van Pelt lament ESPN’s mass firings

ESPN laid off 100 employees on April 26. The sports network let go NFL reporter Ed Werder and Jayson Stark along with other on-air and online staff. The world of sports journalism was shaken Wednesday, as ESPN fired around 100 employees, including several dozen reporters and on-air personalities. The seemingly endless roll call of those laid off by the network produced laments about the situation from the likes of Charles Barkley, speaking on TNT, and “SportsCenter” anchor Scott Van Pelt, who survived the purge. During TNT’s coverage of the NBA playoffs, Barkley took a moment to address the turmoil at a rival sports network and express a message of solidarity. “ESPN is not our competition,” he said. “We’re in this thing together.” “I’ve been in the business a long time, we know all the people in the sports business,” Barkley said, while sitting at his familiar “NBA and TNT” desk with co-analyst Shaquille O’Neal and anchor Ernie Johnson. “We see them in the [NBA] Finals, we see them in the conference finals, and a lot of people at ESPN got laid off today, and I want to wish all the guys and girls nothing but the best. “This is a tough business at times, and you see these people all the time on television, and then you see them doing events. I just want to let them know I was thinking about them.” “We’re all in the toy department,” Johnson said, referring to the derisive term long directed at sports sections from elsewhere within news organizations. “We’re all getting to work in sports, man. It’s all fun and games, but when a day like this happens — we have a lot of friends up there, we wish you well.” Classy comments from Charles Barkley and @TurnerSportsEJ during @NBAonTNT halftime regarding the layoffs today at E… https://t.co/4xbKtDhYli Later on Wednesday evening, Van Pelt used his perch hosting the midnight edition of ESPN’s flagship sports-news show to offer poignant thoughts on one of the most painful days in the history of his workplace. The Maryland native began by noting his many trips to Baltimore to attend Orioles games, and he cited the city’s tradition of rowhouse residents taking great pains to keep their marble stoops clean and shiny, all the better to reflect “pride and respect” in their neighborhood. “This was a very difficult day in our neighborhood,” Van Pelt said to


For some failed racehorses, there’s another course to pursue

a future over fences. Three months on, he’s living up to her expectations. “His happiness level is higher at all times now that he’s out in the fields,” she said. “And he’s already more powerful.” Timber racing brings its own risks for both horse and jockey. A slight misjudgment over wooden fences can send them sprawling to the ground. Most get up and gallop on, but for a horse, a broken leg is usually a death sentence. Many timber horses hit their stride around 9 or 10, may compete until 15 and go on in their retirement to be fox-hunters. That’s the path followed by another of Murphy’s trainees, Grinding Speed, a lanky gray thoroughbred. “Speedy” wasn’t as fast as his 1996 Kentucky Derby-winning father, Grindstone, and was sold in 2009 for $2,000 and then reigned over jumps, twice taking home another famous timber race win, the Virginia Gold Cup. He now fox-hunts with his owner, Maryland lawyer Michael Wharton, who describes him as an “amenable” animal who “only occasionally forgets” he’s no longer a racehorse. Jody Petty riding Guts for Garters clears one of 22 fences on his way to victory in the Maryland Hunt Cup in 2014. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post) Not all horses are as easy to retrain, and many still end up in kill pens despite a 2007 law banning horse slaughter for meat in the United States. The closure of domestic slaughterhouses brought unintended consequences, according to a 2011 GAO report, which reckoned that in its wake, “U.S. exports for horse slaughter increased by 148 and 660 percent to Canada and Mexico.” The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals estimates that more than 100,000 horses, including many thoroughbreds, are shipped to slaughterhouses, and is calling for legislation banning their export. During his flat racing days, the future didn’t look very bright for last year’s Maryland Hunt Cup winner, Senior Senator. “He was going to get shot if we hadn’t found him,” said his trainer, Joe Davies. The rangy bay gelding caught the eye of Davies’s wife, who devotes hours to watching flat races on the Internet in the hope of spotting timber prospects — big, athletic horses that seem to have staying power. When she watched Senior Senator come to the end of a race on the flat, he looked as if he was only just warming up. “He’d run out


The U.S. Postal Service designed this awesome stamp to celebrate the eclipse

(U. S. Postal Service) On Aug. 21, a total solar eclipse will cross the United States for the first time in more than 20 years. To celebrate, the U.S. Postal Service is creating the best stamp they’ve ever designed — at least in my humble, science-loving, sky-watching opinion. The new Forever stamp will change with the heat of your finger. It’s the first time this thermochromic ink has been used on a stamp. It will change from a dark image of the eclipse — with the sun’s corona still visible — to the moon with the sun’s corona behind it. The photograph itself is of the total solar eclipse over Libya in 2006, taken by astrophysicist Fred Espenak. Pretty neat! The big stamp reveal will happen on June 20 — the summer solstice — at the Art Museum at the University of Wyoming. The Postal Service notes that thermochromic inks are vulnerable to UV light, so you can’t leave your mail out in the sun. To make sure your Forever stamps stay thermochromatically awesome forever — or at least for a very long time — they will offer special UV-blocking envelopes. The solar eclipse begins around 9 a.m. Pacific on the West Coast and will be seen over 11 states before it ends on the East Coast around 4 p.m. Eastern. Nine major cities just happen to be in the path where the sun will be 100 percent covered by the moon, including half of Kansas City and St. Louis, most of Nashville and all of Columbia and Charleston, S.C.


Vultures cause backup along southbound George Washington Memorial Parkway in McLean, Va.

A group of turkey vultures — munching on some dead animal — is causing a backup of traffic Thursday evening along the southbound side of George Washington Memorial Parkway near Route 123 in McLean, Va. U.S. Park Police officials said the backups began around 5:30 p.m. near Route 123, also known as Chain Bridge Road, and stretch about three miles toward the Turkey Run Park exit. The vultures are on the side of the road, and it is not clear what they are eating. But officials reminded drivers to keep moving and not gawk and cause bumper-to-bumper traffic. “They’re just vultures,” said Sgt. Alice Wilson with the Park Police. “There is no crash.” A pair of vultures made a nest last spring atop an empty building on K and 11th streets NW in D.C. (Courtesy of Tom Dillon) “They’re not bothered by the traffic,” she said. “It’s dinner time.”


Zenebech Injera, once the best Ethiopian restaurant in D.C., is reopening this summer

At her new location, Zenebech Dessu will have room to make injera only for diners, not for those who want to take her flatbread home. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post) Less than a year after shutting its doors in Shaw, Zenebech Injera Restaurant will reemerge in Adams Morgan, the neighborhood that once buzzed with Ethiopian restaurants and nightlife. Zenebech's owners hope to reopen in June at 2420 18th St. NW and pick up where they left off: as the best Ethiopian restaurant in Washington. Zenebech announced the reopening Thursday on its Facebook page, which was first reported by PopVille. Michael Demissie, son of restaurant founders Zenebech Dessu and Gebrehanna Demissie, confirmed the news in a phone call. Demissie, 25, and his older brother, Surafal, 34, will manage the operational side of the new Zenebech, but their mother will continue to run the show in the kitchen. [The 10 best Ethiopian restaurants in the Washington area] The brothers' father, however, has decided to step away from day-to-day operations, though he'll be an informal advisor. "He wants a break," Michael Demissie says. The new location will have a larger dining room, with space for about 75 customers, but its kitchen will be smaller than the one at the previous restaurant on T Street NW, which Dessu and Demissie sold last year after rejecting countless offers from developers. In practical terms, the smaller kitchen means Dessu will be able to prepare her famous injera only for diners, not for those who want to take the fermented flatbread home. [‘I decided I had to sell it’: Sale of Ethiopian-owned buildings leaves a void in D.C.] In moving to Adams Morgan, the matriarch and her two sons plan to make a few changes. For starters, they're applying for a liquor license so they can operate a full bar. They plan to hire an experienced bartender to manage it and create cocktails, perhaps even drinks with Ethiopian flavors. They also plan to expand the vegetarian and vegan options, a nod to the trend toward more plant-based eating. Because the family is now renting, instead of paying a mortgage, they expect prices to increase. Michael Demissie says the prices of some dishes, but not all, could rise by $1 to $1.50 each. "It will go up a little bit because our overhead will go up a little bit," he says. "We're trying to stay as affordable as possible."


Round 1 NFL draft grades: 49ers, Texans ace Thursday’s test, but what are the Bears and Browns doing?

held a picture of his late grandmother. McKinley immediately apologized for his language and said the league can fine him later. It was a sincere and moving moment, albeit possibly with a PG rating for its expletives. If McKinley brings the same intensity to his pass-rushing efforts, the Falcons’ trade up to get him will be justified. Buffalo Bills: B No. 27 Tre’Davious White, CB, LSU Buffalo picked up a third-round selection in this draft and a first-rounder next year from the Chiefs to move down, and still ended up with a solid cornerback prospect in White. Dallas Cowboys: B No. 28 Taco Charlton, DE, Michigan It was fine for the Cowboys to opt for a pass rusher in Round 1 as long as they focus on their desperate need for secondary help during the remainder of the draft. Pittsburgh Steelers: B No. 30 T.J. Watt, LB, Wisconsin There is a pretty good record of guys named Watt from Wisconsin being able to succeed in the NFL. And T.J., younger brother of J.J., fits in well on the Pittsburgh defense. Carolina Panthers: B- No. 8 Christian McCaffrey, RB, Stanford This is an interesting choice. The Panthers, with Jonathan Stewart on the wrong side of age 30, did need a running back. Leonard Fournette was off the board. McCaffrey’s versatility will bring a new dimension to the Carolina offense. But is it justified to use such a lofty pick on a running back who is likely to get in the range of 10 to 15 carries per game rather than 20 or more? Cincinnati Bengals: B- No. 9 John Ross, WR, Washington Ross is a speedster. He put that on display for all to see at the NFL scouting combine. But he’s also a good all-around receiver. Still, the Bengals probably didn’t need to use the No. 9 choice to get him. Miami Dolphins: B- No. 22 Charles Harris, LB, Missouri Harris will fit in well on the Miami defense. But many had expected the Dolphins to continue building their offensive line by taking guard Forrest Lamp. New York Giants: B- No. 23 Evan Engram, TE, Mississippi Engram is a fast tight end who will create matchup problems for defenses. But the Giants took him ahead of David Njoku, who was regarded by many as the draft’s No. 2 tight end behind O.J. Howard. They also opted against taking a running


Despite the NFL’s growing painkiller crisis, Roger Goodell won’t soften his stance on marijuana

those things have to be considered. And it’s not as simple as someone just wants to feel better after a game. We really want to help our players in that circumstance but I want to make sure that the negative consequences aren’t something that is something that we’ll be held accountable for some years down the road.” Goodell isn’t exactly wrong when he says marijuana can be addictive: Research has shown people can become dependent on it and suffer anxiety, insomnia, appetite disturbance and depression when they quit. But here’s the thing: That same research says that a far smaller percentage of marijuana users (9 percent) become addicted to it compared with other drugs, such as the ones NFL teams pump into their ailing players. For instance, court documents uncovered by The Post in a lawsuit filed by former players against the NFL found that in 2008 and 2009, the New York Jets gave out 2,859 doses of highly addictive Vicodin to its players. The numbers are similarly high for other teams, and the court documents allege that teams violated federal laws governing prescription drugs and disregarded guidance from the Drug Enforcement Administration guidance on how to store, track, transport and distribute controlled substances. In March But Goodell apparently won’t even consider what many believe to be a safer alternative to pain relief even though the tide clearly is turning against such stances, even within league circles. At best, he’s being exceedingly overcautious. “We look at it from a medical standpoint,” Goodell said Friday. “So if people feel that it has a medical benefit, the medical advisers have to tell you that. We have joint advisers, we also have independent advisers, both the NFLPA and the NFL, and we’ll sit down and talk about that. But we’ve been studying that through our advisers. To date, they haven’t said this is a change we think you should make that’s in the best interests of the health and safety of our players. If they do, we’re certainly going to consider that. But to date, they haven’t really said that.” Jerry Jones — the league’s most powerful owner — reportedly urged his fellow owners to drop the prohibition on marijuana at the NFL owners’ meetings in March. Such a move must be worked out in collective bargaining between the owners and the players, and the current CBA runs through 2020. Until then, Goodell


A mysterious illness kills 11 young people in Liberia, where Ebola raged

Girls play kickball in the Capitol Hill area in 2014 in Monrovia, Liberia, when the threat from the Ebola virus seemed to decrease. (Michel duCille/The Washington Post) World Health Organization officials said Friday that they are investigating a troubling report out of Liberia of a “cluster of unexplained illnesses and deaths” in an area several hours from Monrovia. Since April 24, at least 17 people have fallen ill with fever, vomiting, headache, diarrhea. Eleven have died and five are still hospitalized at the Francis Grant Hospital in Greenville, Sinoe County, which is about 4.5 hours southeast of the capital. Most of the victims are younger than 21. While the symptoms appear to mimic those of Ebola in the early stages, specimens analyzed from seven of the people who died came back negative for the virus. The WHO said rapid-response teams from the WHO, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other partners have been sent to the area and are looking into reports that the victims may have attended the funeral of a religious leader. “Further testing underway to find out the cause of the illness and deaths,” the WHO said in a statement. “The investigation teams will try to find if this could be in relation to the consumption of same food and drinks and if there is an environmental exposure to some chemicals or bacteria.” Monrovia was one of the epicenters of the Ebola outbreak in 2014-2015. More than 10,000 people were confirmed to have been infected, and more than 4,800 died. Read more: U.S. yellow fever vaccine supply will be gone by this summer, but CDC has a plan What makes people donate a kidney to a stranger?


U.S. military launches investigation into deaths of Army Rangers, citing potential friendly fire

An Army Apache helicopter flies over Afghanistan. (Photo by Capt. John Giaquinto/Army) The U.S. military has launched an investigation into the deaths of two elite Army Rangers in Afghanistan early Thursday, saying they may have been killed by friendly fire during a three-hour battle with Islamic State militants. Sgt. Joshua P. Rodgers, 22, and Sgt. Cameron H. Thomas, 23, died during a large nighttime raid in Nangarhar province, the Pentagon said Friday. They were members of the Army’s 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, a Special Operations force that specializes in raids. U.S. military headquarters in Kabul said in a statement Friday that the operation began about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday and included two platoons of Rangers and a similar number of Afghan commandos. They came under fire from “multiple directions and well-prepared fighting positions” within minutes of their helicopters landing, the statement said. U.S. and Afghan forces nonetheless closed on their targets and killed several high-level leaders from Islamic State-Khorasan, the group’s affiliate in Afghanistan, and up to 35 fighters, U.S. military officials said. Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said Friday that about 50 Rangers and 40 commandos were involved. He declined to say how many militants they faced, but he said U.S. jets, drones, ground-attack helicopters and an AC-130 gunship were used throughout the operation. “We were expecting a tough fight,” he said. The U.S. military statement said airstrikes were launched in defense of U.S. forces to enable operations and to evacuate the fallen soldiers and a third Ranger who was wounded about 3 a.m. Thursday. The Pentagon has no indication there were any civilian casualties, the statement said. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in a statement Friday that the families of the two soldiers have his sympathy. “Fighting alongside their Afghan partners, Josh and Cameron proved themselves willing to go into danger and impose a brutal cost on enemies in their path,” Mattis said. “They carried out their operation against ISIS-K in Afghanistan before making the ultimate sacrifice to defend our nation and our freedoms. Our nation owes them an irredeemable debt, and we give our deepest condolences to their families.” The raid occurred in the Mohmand Valley, where U.S. forces two weeks ago dropped for the first time in combat a 22,000-pound GBU-43 bomb — known as the “Mother of All Bombs.” Afghan officials estimated that anywhere between 36 and 100 Islamic State fighters were killed


Transcript: CEO Series with Richard Branson

is coming back; that we’re going to bring the coal jobs back. [LAUGHTER] You firmly believe that renewable energy will win the day. Will it win the day, or has it already won the day, renewable energy? Not necessarily here, in this country, but globally? Branson: I can’t think of anything more stupid than to talk about bringing coal back. [LAUGHTER] Actually, there are some things which are even more stupid, but anyway. I mean, first of all, digging coal is a pretty horrible job. It kills a lot of people that work in coal mines. Most countries have got rid of that now. The people who were digging coal in coal mines are now working, you know, putting solar panels on peoples’ roofs. You know, working on creating windmills. A whole new revolution of new jobs is being created. America should be setting an example to other countries that are still reliant on coal, to show that you don’t have to be reliant on coal anymore. Fortunately, China was new coal-power station every week, and now moving rapidly towards clean energy. They have dirty energy in their face. I mean, the coal, if you go into Beijing and other places, you can hardly see. So they have another incentive as well to—[OVERLAPPING] Capehart: Would you say that China is leading the renewable energy revolution? Or is that too— Branson: Yeah. No, China is definitely leading the clean energy revolution today. They’ve already, I would say, overtaken America. And the reason that the clean-energy revolution is really taking off now is the price they’ve managed to drive solar panels down. I think on some of the more technical things, like battery power, America is still ahead, and Europe. But as far as just replacing dirty energy, China, I would say, is moving the quickest. Capehart: Is the reason why you’re getting into space travel is because you’re trying to ensure that we have a way, and some place to go, before Earth turns into a galactic raisin? [LAUGHTER] Branson: Generally speaking, the Earth is a pretty good place to be, and we’ve got to make sure that we keep it a good place to be, and make it an even better place to be. I mean, if you look at the last six decades, and study the last six decades, every decade has got better, and better, and better; whether


The Trump-inspired comedy bubble might be about to burst

which aired while the real correspondents’ dinner was taking place at the Washington Hilton, was filled with humorous barbs and a sense that comedians like “Daily Show” alum Bee, who have long made snide hay of the mainstream media, now see themselves allied with journalists in a determined quest to value fact over fake. Samantha Bee during “Not The White House Correspondents’ Dinner.” Bee’s special also carried with it the slightest whiff of fatigue. In her white tuxedo with black piping and lapels and backed by a rockin’ glamazon guitarmy, she took the stage and unleashed a barrage of jabs that have become her specialty. As she expressed gratitude for an aggressive media (and urged viewers to donate to the nonprofit Committee to Protect Journalists), Bee made it clear that it’s still her job to mock the media wherever necessary; Saturday’s big target was Jeff Zucker’s CNN, where ceaseless punditry supplanted original, on-air reporting of any depth. The better bits of Bee’s special were pre-recorded, including satirical “clips” of her hosting the correspondents’ dinner in different White House eras (Woodrow Wilson, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon) and a “Man in the High Castle” spoof in which George Takei slips Bee a reel of film that reveals Hillary Clinton had become president after all. In that parallel place, life was blissfully dull, and all the late-night comedians were bored. That might happen anyhow — and sooner than we think. An itinerant late-night viewer is already adept at noticing how similar the Trump-related monologues have become, regardless of who delivers them: Colbert, Meyers, Oliver, Bee, “Daily Show’s” Trevor Noah, or either Jimmies Fallon or Kimmel. It’s hard to imagine the stamina it will require for all of these hosts to keep the same jokes aloft 1,000 or more days from now, and harder still to imagine the audience’s appetite for Trump jokes, particularly when they don’t seem to make a shred of difference. What’s the point of mocking those who are deaf to all criticism? What fun can be permanently sustained in satirizing a subject who is already a walking, talking satire of his own persona? The calculated misjudgment in Atamanuik’s “The President Show,” which airs Thursday nights at 11:30 on Comedy Central, is that there is unlimited demand for Trump lampoonage. Atamanuik’s impression has been called one of the best around, but the premiere episode failed to make a clear


Pret A Manger’s new vegan offerings are as gorgeous as they are healthful

Vegan lunch offerings at Pret A Manger, clockwise from left: turmeric tofu balance box, Mediterranean mezze salad, Chakalaka wrap, miso sweet potato banh mi, black bean wrap and Asian greens veggie pot. (Maura Judkis/The Washington Post) There are two types of rainbow foods in our food-obsessed, endlessly-Instagrammable world. First up are the neon, artificially colored ones, like the Starbucks Unicorn Frappuccino or the rainbow bagel. And then there are the virtuous rainbows: all-natural, full-color ROYGBIV arrays of fruits and vegetables that are appealing to food photographers. They’re just as pretty as a Unicorn Frappuccino, but the self-satisfied feeling you get from knowing they’re healthier, too, can impart an extra hint of flavor. Surely, that was part of the idea behind Pret A Manger’s newest menu offerings. Not the only consideration, of course: The new wraps, bowls and sandwiches are vegetarian and vegan, providing a rare oasis of choices for eaters who are used to compromising on flavor. But when it comes to appealing to meat-eaters, it doesn’t hurt that these composed offerings are pretty good looking — and on-trend, too. There’s pink beet hummus, orange sweet potato, yellow ginger dressing and plenty of greens, from avocado to spinach. Pret has even suggested a hashtag for those rainbow social media snapshots: #notjustforveggies. Entree portions are priced between $7 and $10, and the snacks are priced around $4. The British-founded chain, with about 400 locations, is smart to push vegetables in the United States, where diners are increasingly turning away from meat. A March report from the Natural Resources Defense Council found that Americans ate 19 percent less beef from 2005 to 2014. Consumption of chicken and pork also dipped during that time, though not as dramatically. Being veggie-friendly has already paid off elsewhere. In London, Pret has opened entire veggie-only locations, where sales were expected to plummet but instead grew 70 percent compared with when those shops offered non-vegetarian options, Business Insider reported. The brand’s worldwide sales rose 15 percent last year in part because of the demand for vegetarian offerings, according to the Financial Times, with about a fifth of sales coming from newer products. Perhaps the American locations will get a similar boost from the new veggie offerings. Fans on social media have been singing the menu’s praises. In a taste test, Washington Post reporters favored the artfully arranged turmeric tofu box with sweet potatoes, beet hummus and jicama-zucchini


Ethiopia is facing a killer drought. But it’s going almost unnoticed.

World Food Program supplies are distributed in a village in Jijiga district, part of Ethiopia's Somali region. (Michael Tewelde/World Food Program) ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — The announcement by the United Nations in March that 20 million people in four countries were teetering on the edge of famine stunned the world and rammed home the breadth of the humanitarian crisis faced by so many in 2017. Yet even as donors struggle to meet the severe needs in the war-torn nations of Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen, another crisis, more environmental in nature, is taking place nearby — nearly unnoticed. On Thursday, the Ethiopian government increased its count of the number of people requiring emergency food aid from 5.6 million to 7.7 million, a move that aid agencies say was long overdue. The figure is expected to rise further as southeast Ethiopia confronts another fierce drought. But with food crises erupting across the continent and the government's budget strained by last year’s drought, the money isn't there to fight it. There could eventually be as many people in Ethiopia needing emergency food assistance as in Somalia and South Sudan combined. Ethiopia, long associated with a devastating famine in the 1980s, returned to the headlines last year when it was hit by severe drought in the highland region, affecting 10.2 million people. Food aid poured in, the government spent hundreds of millions of its own money, and famine was averted. Now it’s the turn of the lowland region, particularly the area bordering Somalia, where a drought brought on by warming temperatures in the Indian Ocean has ravaged the flocks of the herders in the region and left people without food. With their sheep and goats mostly dead, the nomads are clustered in camps surviving on aid from the government and international agencies — but that food is about to run out. “This response capacity that is currently holding it at bay is about to be overwhelmed,” said Charlie Mason, humanitarian director of Save the Children, which is particularly active in Ethiopia’s impoverished Somali region. “We’ve spent all the money we’ve got, basically.” With donors focused on Somalia across the border, little international aid has found its way to the Ethiopian areas hit by that drought. “I think it’s partly because there are other priorities, and they are not signaling loudly enough to donor offices,” Mason said. According to a document detailing Ethiopian’s


He fought with Russian-backed militants in Ukraine. Now he’s a U.S. soldier.

fought with the Kurdish peshmerga in northern Iraq before coming back to the United States. Francis Cuvelier on patrol on the southern front lines of Kirkuk, Kurdistan. (Photo by Rick Findler) Following inquiries by The Post, the military has “begun an inquiry to ensure the process used to enlist this individual followed all of the required standards and procedures,” said Kelli Bland, a spokesman for the U.S. Army’s recruiting command, in an email. In Ukraine, Cuvelier, also known as Lenormand, fought for the Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic, the breakaway state subject to U.S. government sanctions and labeled terrorist by the U.S.-allied government in Kiev. Cuvelier’s service with the group appears to be in direct violation of a March 2014 executive order that was applied to the republic that June. The order prohibits U.S. citizens from assisting by way of “funds, goods or services,” any of the sanctioned entities covered by the order, opening up Cuvelier to possible federal prosecution. The U.S. Army often forbids those who display “extremist views or actions” from entry, said Lt. Col. Randy Taylor, a spokesman for the Army’s Department of Manpower and Reserve Affairs, in an email. Taylor added that “if an Army official determines an applicant has the potential for meeting Army standards, the official may in exceptional cases allow those who have overcome mistakes and past conduct, made earlier in their lives, to serve their country. However, in many cases a history of gang or extremist activity is disqualifying.” Cuvelier said he has changed. “The [U.S.] army is my only chance of moving on and cutting with my past,” Cuvelier said in a text message. “I realized I like this country, its way of life and its Constitution enough to defend it.” “By publishing a story on me, you are jeopardizing my career and rendering a great service to anyone trying to embarrass the Army. My former Russian comrades would love it. … so, I please ask you to reconsider using my name and/or photo.” As a dual citizen, Cuvelier would be subject to more extensive background checks if he had sought an Army position requiring a security clearance, but he did not need one as an infantryman, Bland said. If Cuvelier had no outstanding criminal activity in the United States and didn’t discuss his past, there would have been no reason to bar him from enlisting, she added. Cuvelier grew up in


Defense department: Star athletes at academies can’t defer active duty to turn pro

of Defense has reversed a policy change made last year that cleared the way for military service academy athletes to defer their active duty commitments to play professional sports. The reversal, signed Saturday by Defense Secretary James Mattis, nixes the change made last May by the previous administration that allowed star Navy quarterback Keenan Reynolds to play on the practice squad for the Baltimore Ravens last year, and serve as a reserve in the offseason. “Our military academies exist to develop future officers who enhance the readiness and the lethality of our military services. Graduates enjoy the extraordinary benefit of a military academy education at taxpayer expense,” Pentagon Chief Spokesperson Dana White said Monday in a news release. “Therefore, upon graduation, officers will serve as military officers for their minimum commitment of two years. The department has a long history of officer athletes who served their nation before going to the pros including Roger Staubach, Chad Hennings and David Robinson.” The policy change — signed during the NFL draft — was a case of unfortunate timing for Air Force wide receiver Jalen Robinette, who had been hoping to get drafted and defer his service. Rumors of the policy change started to circulate last week, and Air Force announced before the draft that, unlike Reynolds, Robinette would have to serve two years’ active duty before pursuing a career in the NFL. Robinette went undrafted. The military academies occasionally have produced star football, basketball and baseball players. Staubach, Hennings and Robinson — three of the most famous examples — all served before turning pro, though. When the change was made last year for Reynolds, military officials cited the public relations benefits of having more professional athletes come from the academies. “When we have guys coming out of the Naval Academy who go on and play professional sports, or go on and do other things that are high-profile, it gives us a chance to show who we are and show the type of people that we attract and recruit,” said Ray Mabus, then the Secretary of Navy. The news of last year’s change had been greeted with enthusiasm by Air Force coaches, who hoped they would have a better chance at recruiting elite high school athletes. “Keenan Reynolds may end up being the greatest thing to happen to Air Force baseball,” Falcons baseball coach Mike Kazlausky told the Colorado Springs Gazette last year.


She fought to box in a hijab. Now she’s inspiring the next generation of Muslim women fighters.

including hijabs. And Nike is launching a line of athletic wear aimed at Muslim women. Zafar, who turns 17 this month and hopes to compete in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, is petite and knows that finding opponents her age and size will not be easy, so she also is training others who wear hijabs, shattering the myth of “hitting like a girl.” That was the rap on Zafar when she first took up the sport at 13 and stepped into the ring against a boy. “All the boys around the ring kept telling him, ‘She’s just a girl. Punch her pretty little face off. You can’t let a girl beat you,’ ” Zafar said in 2015. After she scored the last jab, she had the last word with the boy and his friends: “I might be a girl, but you hit like a girl.” Zafar, whose coach told her that the loss “just shows you’re not perfect,” is looking for her next fight and hopes to line up two more this summer. Saturday proved to her that she has skill, but needs experience. For now, she says, it’s “back to the office” and she planned to celebrate Monday with a run. Whatever comes next, Amaiya has already amazed her father. “I have seen her fight and train with pro and amateur men boxers and know she has an unbelievable amount of stamina and can go a long time fighting with no muscle fatigue. Hits don’t faze her. So none of those were my concerns,” he said. “I was just in unbelief that Amaiya made this rule change happen and she is only 16. “When she was a little girl around two or three she use to pretend she is 16. She used to say I am Amaiya and I am 13 and I am so and so who can do this and this. To see her at 16 going to full-time college, driving herself around, mentoring young girls, and to walk into her ring while making hijab part of the uniform single-handedly just brought tears in my eyes. Just like that three-year-old independent thinker who makes up her mind and confidently goes after her dreams, she now does so making it a reality. My girl is a trailblazer with a humble, strong heart who doesn’t just think of herself but how her resiliency will affect girls who will follow her.”


WNO loses top administrator

Michael Mael, right, executive director of the Washington National Opera, with composer Jake Heggie on opening night of “Dead Man Walking” at WNO in March. Mael will step down from his post at the end of the season. (Yassine El-Mansour.) Another transition at the Washington National Opera: Michael Mael, the company’s executive director, is stepping down as of July 1, he announced Tuesday. Mael took over his current role at WNO in 2011 after three years as chief financial and chief operating officer with the company. A calm and affable presence in a turbulent field, he presided over a return to stability after the Kennedy Center, in 2011, took over the company, which appeared headed for bankruptcy. For the past four seasons, WNO has boasted balanced budgets, after a long history of losses. Mael, who reports to the Kennedy Center president, Deborah Rutter, also leaves a power vacuum at the top of a somewhat volatile hierarchy. Francesca Zambello, WNO’s artistic director, and Philippe Auguin, the company’s music director, both report to him and have reportedly been jockeying for position to a certain degree. Despite the triumph of last year’s “Ring” cycle, which Mael cited as one of the company’s signal accomplishments on his watch, Auguin has been underrepresented in this year’s season, although he is currently preparing for “Madame Butterfly,” which will open May 6. Both Zambello’s and Auguin’s contracts expire in 2018. The WNO board will immediately begin the search for Mael’s successor. Mael, who worked for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra before coming to WNO and who holds an MBA from Stanford, did not specify his next steps. His departure, he said, is wholly unrelated to the abrupt departure of the Kennedy Center’s vice president for marketing, David Kitto, who left April 21. “This is not the first time I’ve done this,” Mael said by phone Tuesday morning, adding, “I have never actually stayed in a job for more than five years.” When he left the BSO 10 years ago, he said, he had three requirements for his next job: in D.C., a nonprofit and not in the arts. “That worked out pretty well,” he said, laughing. “I’m not ruling anything out. But it’s hard to imagine a better arts job than the one I have right now.”


Trump raises prospect of government shutdown to leverage better budget for GOP in fall

“furlough,” or leave without pay. In total, the furloughs accounted for 6.6 million days of lost work. The lost productivity cost the government $2 billion. Diplomatic meetings were canceled, and U.S. officials largely stopped traveling to conferences and events around the country. The processing of tax returns slowed, and many agencies begin operating with much smaller staffs. Many government functions, such as law enforcement and national security, continued, but national parks closed and economists believe there was a sizable impact on the economy, particularly in the Washington area. Once government shutdowns end, the federal employees are typically repaid for the time they were on furlough. In order to permanently end the Senate filibuster, Trump would need the agreement of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R.-Ky.), who has said in the past he would not support this. It’s a position that most sitting senators share. On April 7, 61 senators, including a number of Republicans, signed a letter to Senate leaders saying they opposed the elimination of the 60-vote threshold. McConnell has already changed the Senate rules this year, however. To secure the confirmation of Neil M. Gorsuch, Republican leaders changed the rules on Supreme Court nominees to require only 51 votes — a simple majority. Democrats on Capitol Hill pounced on Trump's tweets, calling them irresponsible. In a statement, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said that the 2013 government shutdown was “a devastating blow to economic growth, amounting to an estimated $1.5 billion lost for each of the 16 days of the shutdown.” “I hope the president does not seriously wish to have the consequences of a government shutdown resting squarely on his shoulders,” Leahy said. Meanwhile, when asked Tuesday morning about Trump’s tweets, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) began with a shrug and a smile: “How many times have I had this, ‘Do you agree with the tweet this morning?’” “Look, we’ve got a long ways to go between now and September, but I share the president’s frustration,” Ryan said. “What a lot of people in America don’t realize is appropriations bills, they take 60 votes to pass. They can be filibustered. So, all appropriations bills therefore have to be bipartisan because Democrats can always filibuster an appropriations bill. Having said all that, I feel very good about the wins that we got with the administration in this bill.” Sean Sullivan and Ed O'Keefe contributed to this report.


The Daily 202: Why the markets shrugged off Trump’s threat to break up the big banks

yesterday, leaving him critically injured and prompting police to lock down the residential area for hours in pursuit of the assailant. The gunman and another person – believed to be his neighbor – were found dead in a home not far from the crime. (Mark Berman) - The State Department issued a new travel alert advising all Americans to be cautious if they travel to Europe this summer due to the spike in terrorist attacks on the continent. It’s the fourth travel warning for Europe issued by the State Department in the last year, and is slated to end in September. (Carol Morello) - A U.S. antimissile defense system recently installed in South Korea is now operational. Installation of the THAAD battery was hotly contested in Seoul, where critics say the U.S. scrambled to install the device before that country holds a presidential election that might lead to a decision to halt its use altogether. (Missy Ryan) - A prominent militant who fought with Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine and participated in far-right European politics has completed U.S. Army training and is serving in an infantry division in Hawaii, according to military records. The 29-year-old’s ability to join the Army has raised a host of questions about both the military's recruiting and vetting process. (Thomas Gibbons-Neff) - The Supreme Court ruled that anti-discrimination laws allow cities to sue banks for predatory lending practices, but said the plaintiffs must meet a strict burden of proof for showing how the practices harmed local governments. (Robert Barnes) - A federal appeals court declined to rehear a landmark case to overturn net neutrality – letting the current regulation stand, and paving the way for opponents to appeal to the Supreme Court. (Brian Fung) - Thousands of demonstrators gathered in major cities across the U.S. for “May Day” protests on Monday, using the forums largely to speak out against Trump’s labor and immigration policies. The demonstrations occurred as the scope of Trump’s approach to immigration is coming into focus – with immigrant arrests rising 33 percent in the first weeks of his administration. (Sandhya Somashekhar) - The Writers Guild of America reached a new contract agreement with television and movie studios overnight, averting a potentially devastating strike that would have impacted some 240,000 employees who work in the industry. (LA Times) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said his country will vote on whether or not to


Solving the problem of food waste

that encourage excess production. Another is to use real-time technology to monitor storage and temperature conditions and communicate with retailers and wholesalers. As part of the Food Safety Modernization Act, recently passed by the Food and Drug Administration, by 2018, all food transport fleets will have to prove they maintained proper temperatures during shipping. An additional source of agricultural waste is consumer preference for perfectly uniform vegetables—farms throw away what they know they can’t sell. Finding outlets for unconventional-looking produce will reduce some of this waste. In India, for example, Rainbow Agri bills itself as “the internet of farmers,” and, among other things, allows farmers to reach out directly to customers with their unsold produce. Finally, longer term, changing our diets so we eat less meat (which requires enormous quantities of water to produce) and consume more local vegetables will also help agriculture become more sustainable, and encourage less waste. What business can do In both the non-profit and for-profit sectors, organizations are innovating to address the problem. The retail/wholesale stage of the supply chain accounts for 40 percent of food waste, or 25 million tons a year in the United States. “Much of the food supply goes wasted not because the food is rotten or spoiled,” said Ricky Ashenfelter, chief executive of Spoiler Alert, “but because food manufacturers, wholesale distributors and retailers lack the real-time responsiveness and communications support needed to manage unsold inventory.” Companies like Ashenfelter’s have stepped in. Spoiler Alert is an online business-to-business platform that connects suppliers and outlets, allowing businesses to quickly find ways to sell, donate or give away unsold food to nonprofits, including food banks, food kitchens and charities. Food Cowboy, an app that diverts extra catered food to charities, uses location-based technology to route food to users. After companies input specifics about the food they can donate and charities share what they need, the app makes the most efficient match. Another innovative company is Zero Percent, an online food donation marketplace that simplifies the process for commercial kitchens to donate unused food to soup kitchens. These innovations are aimed squarely at food waste. Other companies have created products that have the end effect of reducing waste, even if that’s not the business’s primary goal. For example, mail-order kits that deliver exactly the right amount of ingredients for each meal have the net effect of reducing waste, because consumers who plan their meals


Louisiana’s coast was already sickly. Now it’s being hit by a plague.

Bad idea, he said. Who knows where the bugs will go after the cane is gone. They could wander to native plants, even farm crops, and develop a taste for those. But the insects don’t wait for human transport. Even now they hop aboard grackles and red-winged blackbirds that flock into the reedy cane, hoping for a ride to another healthy batch of cane to get a meal and lay eggs. They’re also known to hop into air boats piloted by fishermen. Scientists have pleaded with the owners to wash them down. Guy Davies, an inspector for the Florida Division of Plant Industry, collects insects called Asian citrus psyllids that carry bacteria causing the disease “citrus greening,” or huanglongbing, in May 2013 in Fort Pierce, Fla. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Diaz said experts are weighing options to fight the threat. An idea for a controlled burn is derived from China, where blazes are set in marshes to get rid of the swarm. But fire can spread, and the Louisiana coast has a network of oil and gas wells that could explode in flames. Planting a plague-resistant strain of cane has come up, but no one knows whether such a thing exists. Insecticide is another consideration, but that could get expensive because of the vast area that needs spraying and would require environmental assessments. Another concern is the inadvertent contamination of speckled trout, redfish, shrimp and oysters — not to mention the birds that feed on them. Maybe the parasite’s natural predator, a tiny wasp from Asia, can be employed. They have been considered as a solution to the stink bug problem as well, but it takes years of study before a new species can be released, for fear that the wasp might turn on native animals and start killing them, too. Or maybe, just maybe, the insect is its own worst enemy. It might eat itself out of house and home before anything else can be done. “What you could end up with in 10 years is the bugs will die back,” Nyman said, after killing all the cane. “They’ll become a smaller part of the landscape, both the bug and the plant.” Read more: Forget the Grinch. This greedy bug is the real Christmas tree thief The 12 most dangerous invasive species — other than humans The great bee bumble. How a Cheerios plan to save bees went terribly wrong


Marine recruit needed skin grafts to treat chemical burns suffered at boot camp, documents reveal

Marine Corps and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). Combined, they show that a hazing scandal that erupted last year at Parris Island following the death of a recruit, Pvt. Raheel Siddiqui, is part of a history that includes dozens of cases of hazing and abuse against recruits in the past five years. Gen. Robert B. Neller, commandant of the Marine Corps, has said that hazing and abuse of recruits will not be tolerated. The service has responded to the cases that emerged last year by increasing the number of officers and drill instructors who oversee recruits and reemphasizing in training the responsibilities that go with supervising Marine recruits, said Capt. Joshua Pena, a Marine spokesman. Siddiqui, 20, died at Parris Island on March 18, 2016. He fell 40 feet over a railing after facing physical abuse from his drill instructor, Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Felix, according to military documents. Separately, Felix also is accused of putting another Muslim recruit in an industrial-sized clothes dryer and turning it on repeatedly in July 2015. He and another former drill instructor, Sgt. Michael K. Eldridge, face charges that include cruelty and maltreatment, being drunk and disorderly, failing to obey a lawful order and making false official statements in that case. Raheel Siddiqui, 20, died at the Marine Corps recruit depot at Parris Island, S.C., while in initial training. (Courtesy the Siddiqui family) VanDyke, who could not be reached for comment, was accused by numerous recruits and some other drill instructors of abusing recruits. He denied many of the allegations, but acknowledged to investigators that he had previously been removed from training for three days after grabbing a recruit by the throat. VanDyke regularly struggled with his temper and coped with post-traumatic stress after a 2010 deployment to Afghanistan in which he treated civilians who were wounded, he told investigators. He took responsibility for any harm he caused the burned recruit, although he said he did not remember using bleach. “I know I need to face the punishment because I have done wrong things,” VanDyke told investigators. “Whatever punishment is deemed appropriate, I will accept. I know my career as a Marine is over, which I hate because I love being a Marine and fighting for my country.” The burned recruit did everything he could to continue training, applying burn cream repeatedly even as he performed exercises and went to the rifle range. Eventually,


These are Tom Sietsema’s top 10 new restaurants in Washington

the best include puffed biscuits called golgappa, filled with avocado, yogurt and chutney; uttapam pancakes; and pao bhaji, a kind of Indian sloppy joe. 3309 Connecticut Ave. NW. bindaasdc.com. Executive chef Irvin Van Oordt of Tiger Fork in downtown D.C. shows how the restaurant creates the rice noodles used in its Cheung fun. 6. Tiger Fork In decor and food — not to mention atmosphere — this buzzing Blagden Alley destination is an ode to an Asian night market. Chef Irvin Van Oordt offers a tight but delicious menu. Never eaten raw potatoes? His dish of crispy sour potatoes includes them along with fried spuds to delicious effect. Wontons and a rice noodle dish of cheung fun are worth your attention, too. Behind 922 N St. NW (in Blagden Alley). tigerforkdc.com. Server Natalie Brito with stuffed sour cabbage at Ambar in Arlington. (Dixie D. Vereen for The Washington Post) 5. Ambar The Arlington spinoff of the Balkan restaurant on Capitol Hill is charming enough to stand on its own merits. Witness the obliging service and attractive decor featuring photos from Belgrade, Serbia, where there's another branch. Of course, the food, from the rich veal soup to the dips and stuffed cabbage, is reason enough to become a regular. 2901 Wilson Blvd., Arlington. ambarrestaurant.com. Duck bomba rice at Arroz. (Dayna Smith for The Washington Post) 4. Arroz Mike Isabella already has restaurants devoted to Greece, Japan, Italy, Mexico and France in his portfolio. This swanky addition specializes in the food and drinking pleasures of Morocco, Spain and Portugal. Such dishes as the duck bomba rice and burned eggplant are in the capable hands of executive chef Michael Rafidi. Don't miss the towering rum baba for dessert. 901 Massachusetts Ave. NW. arrozbymic.com. Peking duck breast with biscuits at Himitsu. (Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post) 3. Himitsu This Petworth restaurant is small — only 24 seats — but mighty. A no-reservations policy hasn't kept diners away from the Japanese-accented spot from chef Kevin Tien and bar maven Carlie Steiner. Strong dishes coming out of the accommodating open kitchen include a riff on Peking duck served with biscuits and whole fried shrimp with warm spices. 828 Upshur St. NW. himitsudc.com. Beet tortelloni at Sfoglina. (Dixie D. Vereen for The Washington Post) 2. Sfoglina Fabio and Maria Trabocchi claimed their Van Ness restaurant would be a more casual sibling to such spots as Fiola


eBay pulls listing for SUV prosecutors said Aaron Hernandez used in 2012 double-murder

It didn’t take long for decency to trump capitalism, as the SUV at the epicenter of the Aaron Hernandez double-murder trial, which hit eBay on Tuesday, was quickly removed by the online auction site. Bids for the silver 2006 Toyota 4-Runner, in which prosecutors said the late New England Patriots player was riding when Safiro Furtado and Daniel de Abreu were shot to death in a drive-by incident in 2012, reached more than $100,000. Hernandez, who was serving a life sentence in connection with a 2013 murder, was found not guilty of those murders just days before his suicide. It took a little less than two weeks after the death of Hernandez — he committed suicide April 19 — for the vehicle to turn up on the Internet. “This is the REAL DEAL !!!” the listing read. “Aaron Hernandez’ infamous silver Toyota 4-runner. As seen in the New York Times, we’re auctioning off this piece of Patriots football memorabilia … The Toyota is just the way it came from the [Boston police] impound yard and still has the black soot on the map lights and sunroof switch where police dusted for finger prints!! The SUV has 53,000 miles on the odometer and runs great!! The winner of the auction will also receive a framed jersey autographed by Hernandez himself.” The Toyota 4Runner once used by Aaron Hernandez, which prosecutors said was used in a double murder, was put on eBa… https://t.co/VyVIQMdAqu Buddy Clair, the owner of Westford Auto Sales in Westford, Mass., had posted the for-sale notice and said eBay had given him no reason for removing it. There were 115 bids reaching $101,500 when it was pulled, the Boston Globe reports. Clair still hopes to sell the SUV, perhaps through another outlet, for its retail value of $20,000 or to a collector for more. “It’s valuable to somebody and somebody should have the right to own it without being criticized,’’ Clair said. “If we got lucky on this and sold it, we had talked about donating to the people that were involved in the history of it.” Clair said he is handling the sale for Jack Fox, an East Providence, R.I., dealer who had leased the SUV to Hernandez as part of a promotional agreement in exchange for autographs and appearances. Fox and Hernandez entered into the agreement shortly after the tight end entered the league and he often