The government is going to counter ‘misinformation’ about GMO foods

that information, as written in the budget, oversteps what scientists really know. While there’s a widespread consensus that GM crops are safe, there are valid and lingering questions about the environmental and social impacts of GMOs. Last year, an academic analysis of 14 years of farm data found that an uptick in GM seed plantings goes hand-in-hand with increased herbicide use, for instance. Some herbicides have been found to contribute to health problems in animals and humans. Many of the touted benefits of GMOs haven’t materialized, either, argues Andy Kimbrell, the executive director of the Center for Food Safety, a D.C. nonprofit that has filed numerous legal challenges against the makers of GM crops. An October analysis by the New York Times found that the technology does not significantly increase yields. And few GM products with tangible consumer benefits — such as better taste or nutrition — have yet made it onto the U.S. market. “So yes, that gives them a marketing problem,” Kimbrell said. “But Monsanto has plenty of money to advocate for GMOs ... Why do we need to use taxpayer dollars?” One possible answer, from industry’s perspective, is that taxpayer dollars are already funding a Department of Agriculture initiative to label GM foods. Last year, Congress passed a bill mandating that food companies disclose the GM ingredients in their products, and USDA has said it is actively working on the standards for those labels. Patrick Delaney, a spokesman for the American Soybean Association, said it will be important for consumers to understand those labels once they roll out, likely after September 2018. “We recognize that there is a need for better and more accessible information on what this technology is and what it provides to consumers, he said by email. “We supported (and still support) that $3 million in funding for biotech education ... to better inform the public about the use of biotechnology in food and agricultural production.” Correction: This story originally said that the Food and Drug Administration was working on an initiative to label GMO foods. The effort to develop those labels is based at the Department of Agriculture. The Post regrets the error. More from Wonkblog: Industry is counting on Trump to back off rules that tell you what's in your food The apple that never browns wants to change your mind about genetically modified foods Your 'organic' milk may not be organic


Read the full testimony of FBI Director James Comey in which he discusses Clinton email investigation

security of encrypted devices. Now, I believe this is an issue where law enforcement and stakeholders need to work together to find solutions rather than coming to Congress with one-size-fits-all legislative fixes. What are you doing to engage with stakeholders on this issue and what kind of progress are you making, if you can tell us? COMEY: Thank you, senator. I think there's good news on that front. We've had very good, open and productive conversations with the private sector over the last 18 months about this issue, because everybody realized we care about the same things. We all love privacy. We all care about public safety. And none of — at least people that I hang around with, none of us want back doors. We don't want access to devices built-in in some way. What we want to work with manufacturers on is to figure out how can we accommodate both interests in a sensible way? How can we optimize the privacy, security features of their devices and allow court orders to be complied with? We're having some good conversations. I don't know where they're going to end up, frankly. I could imagine a world that ends up with legislation saying, if you're going to make devices in the United States, you figure out how to comply with court orders, or maybe we don't go there. But we are having productive conversations, right now I think. HATCH: Right, Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act is up for reauthorization this year. We now have almost a decade of experience using the statute. So we have much more to go on than simply speculation or theory. Now, the intelligence value of Section 702 is well-documented and it has never been intentionally misused or abused. Every federal court, including the FISA court that has addressed the issue, has concluded that Section 702 is lawful. Administrations of both parties have strongly supported it. Describe for us the targeting and minimization procedures that Section 702 requires and how each agency's procedures are subject to oversight within the executive branch. COMEY: Thank you, senator. As I said in my opening, 702 is a critical tool to protect this country and the way it works is we are allowed to conduct surveillance — again, under the supervision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on non-U.S. persons who are outside the United States if they're using


The most common punishment for killing a journalist in Mexico: Nothing

Police investigators work on the crime scene where Mexican journalist Maximino Rodriguez Palacios was killed by gunmen in the Mexican city of La Paz on April 14. (Agence France-Presse via Getty Images) As the number of Mexican journalists killed for doing their jobs has spiked in recent months, organizations trying to draw attention to the murders have had to use stronger language to describe the epidemic. Amnesty International said it was “open season” on journalists and described a “war” against the media. The British human rights organization Article 19 described a “new peak” in violence. But a scathing new report by the Committee to Protect Journalists described the violence with a pointed word: preventable. The committee said government indifference and rampant corruption have contributed strongly to the attacks on journalists. “Endemic impunity allows criminal gangs, corrupt officials, and cartels to silence their critics,” the CPJ said in its report, released Wednesday, which was World Press Freedom Day. “Despite federal government efforts to combat this deadly cycle, justice remains elusive, and impunity the norm.” A lack of political will to end impunity exposes Mexico as one of the most dangerous countries for jouros worldwide. https://t.co/oieC05tDKs According to the CPJ, between 2006 and 2016, 21 journalists were killed in Mexico. The country ranks sixth on the organization's index of journalist killings that go unpunished. “The messenger risks being a victim of the story he or she investigates, at times at the hands of government officials, police commanders, common criminals, and drug traffickers who go unpunished,” wrote Adela Navarro Bello, director of Tijuana-based Zeta magazine, which is under police protection after authorities learned that a cartel planned to attack its headquarters. Carlos Lauría, the CPJ's senior program coordinator for the Americas, told The Washington Post that even when suspects are identified in journalist killings, the authorities rarely link the crimes back to cartels or their leaders. “The criminal justice system is incapable of providing any answers for journalists and their families who are being killed with impunity,” he said. “The collusion between the government and organized crime, yes, it’s a fact that it’s blocking the possibility of investigators ever getting to the bottom of these cases.” Citing the violence, the Mexican newspaper Norte in Ciudad Juárez announced last month that it was shutting down. “On this day, esteemed reader, I address you to report that I have made the decision to close this


The EPA climate website taken down for review was accurate, scientists say

scientists are challenging the idea that the climate change site is in need of reviewing or updating at all — or at least, that it warranted being taken down during the review process. “[E]very administration has the right and indeed responsibility to review, update and improve the policies and websites of agencies under their purview, so there is nothing inherently wrong with the EPA website being revised,” said Matthew Huber, a climate scientist at Purdue University, by email. “It does strike me as unusual and irresponsible to take the entire climate change website down at once and not conduct a rolling review and update. This is akin to removing all emergency exit signs from a movie theater while a movie is showing because the upper management has decided they might need to improve their disaster plans.” According to Huber, the previous climate site contained valuable information related to the safety of human communities, such as a report aimed at helping citizens protect their health against extreme heat in the future. “So the administration has removed a well executed, scientifically valid guide to protecting health — information needed right now not just in the distant future,” he said. “This seems to be a direct abrogation of the EPA’s mission ‘to protect human health and the environment.’” And other experts added that the information housed on the website was already accurate in its previous form. “In particular, it was careful to describe the uncertainties associated with climate risks, such as rising sea level and changing incidence of extreme weather and climate events,” said Kerry Emanuel, a meteorologist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “It presented the current understanding of the science and possible solutions in a fair and balanced way. I am sorry to see it go.” And Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University, previously told The Post, regarding the EPA website, that “it’s hard to understand why facts require revision.” The EPA did not respond to a request for comment. These website changes may have been planned for months now. In January, EPA staff members reported that the Trump administration was planning to scrub climate change information from the agency’s site — a plan that Trump administration officials backed away from shortly thereafter. What the final product will look like, after revisions and updates, remains to be seen. But in the meantime, the climate science world is watching closely.


8 beer festivals, tappings and parties to quench your thirst in May

A selection of beers at Ocelot Brewing Company, which is celebrating its second anniversary in May. (Deborah Jaffe for The Washington Post) May is a weird month for the Washington area's beer scene, falling between two of the biggest events of the year: the Craft Brewers Conference, which ended in mid-April, and the Savor Festival, which takes place June 2 and 3. But it's still a banner month for festivals, especially outside of the city, and sees the releases and rereleases of several noteworthy beers. Crab Cakes and Crab Cake Flying Dog's Dead Rise Ale — the beer made with Old Bay — is returning to local bars and liquor stores, just as crab season is getting underway. To celebrate, Flying Dog is hosting a party at its Frederick brewery. A $15 ticket to Crab Cakes and Crab Cake includes one Dead Rise (now in cans), a crab cake from Roasthouse Pub and a slice of a large crab-shaped cake made by Buttercream Bakeshop. 3 to 8 p.m. 4607 Wedgewood Blvd., Frederick. Mad Fox Spring Bierfest Beers from more than 20 Virginia breweries will flow at Mad Fox's outdoor Spring Bierfest in Falls Church. Sample ales from Triple Crossing (Richmond), Three Notch'd (Charlottesville), Adroit Theory (Purcellville) and Benchtop (Norfolk), among others, while listening to live music and eating grilled meats and veggies. Admission is $30 and includes six tickets for beer or food; a $55 couples ticket includes 20 food and drink tickets. The $65 VIP ticket adds early admission and unlimited food until 5 p.m. Noon to 6 p.m. 444 W. Broad St., Falls Church. The American Artisans of Craft Brewing Here's an event that would have been impossible to host a few years ago: Owen's Ordinary is hosting a special tap takeover with some of the most highly acclaimed small craft breweries in the country, including Jester King, Grimm, Prairie and Holy Mountain. (Seriously, Jester King's Figlet, with figs smoked at Austin's legendary Franklin Barbecue, available in North Bethesda?) There's no cover charge, and all beers go on tap at noon. 11820 Trade St., North Bethesda. Port City Trifecta release party at Port City Brewing Company Every year, judges at the Great American Beer Festival name the best large, midsize, small and very small breweries in America, based on the results of blind-tasting panels. During last month's Craft Brewers Conference, the three most recent winners of the Best


Cowboys’ Stephen Jones: It’s time for NFL’s marijuana policy ‘to be heavily scrutinized’

positive thing that people would say. It does have addictive nature. There are a lot of compounds in marijuana that may not be healthy for the players long-term. All of 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.” Increasingly, active and former players are becoming aware of the relief marijuana can bring and are urging a change in the league’s ban, which would have to be negotiated into the next collective bargaining agreement between the union and players. Already, the NFL Players Association has said it plans to propose changes to the policy and former players are pressing for a change as they seek alternative treatments because of their growing awareness of the dangers of painkillers and anti-inflammatories such as Toradol, which was overprescribed by team physicians. The sport’s overreliance on drugs for pain management is the focus of an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration and one study showed that retired NFL players use opioids at four times the rate of the general population. The Post’s Rick Maese accompanied former NFL players recently as they visited CW Hemp, a Colorado company, and listened as representatives explained that its cannabis is rich in cannabidiol (CBD), which acts much differently than the marijuana that most people know. Founded to help cancer patients get through radiation and chemotherapy, the company grows plants that an official told former players used to be called a “hippie’s disappointment” because they are high in CBD and low in THC, the ingredient that supplies a high. Although it remains a Schedule 1 drug deemed by the government to have no medicinal value, the Food and Drug Administration is considering how it classifies CBD, an extract that could be approved for prescription as a medication if the DEA classifies it differently from marijuana. While the Trump administration may crack down on marijuana, it is legal in 29 states and the District of Columbia, another reason Stephen thinks the NFL’s relationship to marijuana should be re-examined. “You know, I think it should be a part of what’s looked at,” he said. “When you re-look at the whole program, I think


The jet stream is about to get weird, again, and it could lead to extreme weather

to visualize our atmosphere’s behavior as waves in the ocean. In this manner, we can simplify complicated dynamics into the basic facts we know about waves in general. One such characteristic is the tendency for waves to become standing waves, as on a plucked guitar string, where both ends of the string are vibrating so that the string appears to not be moving at all. Recent research suggests that wavenumber-6 patterns are more likely to develop into standing waves, trapped in a repetitive pattern referred to as planetary wave resonance. Under this alignment, all forward motion of storms (west to east) becomes stuck in a hemisphere-wide traffic jam, and the probability of extreme weather events increases. Rossby waves and extreme weather The atmosphere likes traffic jams about as much as you and I do, and the animation below illustrates why. Notice the stationary nature of the highs (red) and lows (blue) over an eight-day period. Depending on where you live and what type of pressure system sits overhead, you’re stuck with the same type of weather day after day. You can imagine how this might create issues after a few days of persistent rain or unrelenting heat. Ensemble forecast 500mb heights and anomalies through May 14. (Pivotal Weather) The atmosphere wants to get out of the traffic jam. It wants to restore forward motion and balance. That’s the whole point of weather — to balance the energy across Earth. So it will begin to produce weird conditions to break the traffic jam and return to its normal and preferred west to east flow. This is where our increased vulnerability for extreme weather events comes from. Floods, severe weather, spring snows and even early season tropical storms are all fair game over the next few weeks. Also troubling is the potential for an increase in this extreme weather pattern as the climate changes. Research published recently in Nature suggests a link between Arctic warming and atmospheric wavenumber-6 patterns. Enhanced warming in the Arctic would lead to a weaker temperature gradient between the tropics and the poles, resulting in more occurrences of a wavy, amplified jet stream capable of producing extreme weather. Naturally, nothing is guaranteed when it comes to the weather, and this pattern may only result in a damp and dreary early May for both coasts of the United States. But if things start to get crazy, we’ll know why.


‘Treachery’: Favorite craft brewery Wicked Weed enrages fans by joining Bud

200 employees. In order to innovate, push the boundaries, and grow, we’ve decided to take on the High End branch of Anheuser-Busch as a strategic partner. Translation: Wicked Weed sold out to a Big Brewery. And not just any big brewery. To Anheuser-Busch (AB InBev), the maker of Bud, the most despised brand in the world to craft beer aficionados not only for what passes as its flavor but for mocking craft beer aficionados in two successive Super Bowl ads. One of the ads, titled “brewed the hard way” (which seems to imply craft brewers take an easier route when working with less money and equipment) states in bold all-capital letters “It’s not brewed to be fussed over.” “The people who drink our beer like to drink beer brewed the hard way,” it stated, adding, “Let them sip their pumpkin peach ale.” Wicked Weed brews both pumpkin and peach beers, such as its Peach Habanero Saison and its Pumpkin Up The Volume. The ads were likely a reaction to the rise of craft breweries — more than 3,000 opened since 2012, putting the number of craft breweries at 5,234 of the country’s 5,301 breweries. Budweiser VP Brian Perkins defended the spot to Ad Age, saying, “occasionally we do have a little bit of fun with some of the overwrought pretentiousness that exists in some small corners of the beer landscape that is around beer snobbery,” which he called “the antithesis of what Budweiser is all about.” The exterior of Wicked Weed in Asheville, N.C., on Wednesday. (Maddy Jones /Asheville Citizen-Times via AP) Reactions to the sale of were swift and furious. Several companies announced they won’t be selling Wicked Weed beers any longer, nor will they be working with the company. “We will be tapping all of our Wicked Weed kegs as soon as taps free up starting now and donating 100% of the proceeds to Doctors Without Borders,” Brawley’s Beverage, a South Carolina beer retailer wrote on Facebook. “We will no longer sell Wicked Weed. Best of luck to the people we have gotten to know at Wicked Weed.” Black Project brewery, which was in the middle of two collaborations with Wicked Weed, announced that it will cease its relationship due to the sale, citing AB InBev’s “business strategies, mission, and overall ethics.” (Chuck Burton/AP) “In Denver alone, we’ve seen several instances of highly aggressive, predatory, and what we


Stephen Hawking just moved up humanity’s deadline for escaping Earth

after contracting pneumonia, Hawking underwent a tracheotomy that left him unable to speak. He communicates using the assistance of a voice-producing computer. In recent months, Hawking has been explicit about humanity's need to find a "Planet B." In the past, he has also called for humans to colonize the moon and find a way to settle Mars — a locale he referred to as “the obvious next target” in 2008, according to New Scientist. Remaining on Earth any longer, Hawking claims, places humanity at great risk of encountering another mass extinction. “We must … continue to go into space for the future of humanity,” the 74-year-old Cambridge professor said during a November speech at Oxford University Union, according to the Daily Express. “I don’t think we will survive another 1,000 years without escaping beyond our fragile planet,” he added. During the hour-long speech, Hawking told the audience that Earth's cataclysmic end may be hastened by humankind, which will continue to devour the planet’s resources at unsustainable rates, the Express reported. His wide-ranging talk touched upon the origins of the universe and Einstein's theory of relativity, as well as humanity's creation myths and God. Hawking also discussed “M-theory,” which Leron Borsten of PhysicsWorld.com explains as “proposal for a unified quantum theory of the fundamental constituents and forces of nature.” Though the challenges ahead are immense, Hawking said, it is a “glorious time to be alive and doing research into theoretical physics.” “Our picture of the universe has changed a great deal in the last 50 years, and I am happy if I have made a small contribution,” he added. Some of Hawking's most explicit warnings have revolved around the potential threat posed by artificial intelligence. That means — in Hawking's analysis — humanity's daunting challenge is twofold: develop the technology that will enable us to leave the planet and start a colony elsewhere, while avoiding the frightening perils that may be unleashed by said technology. When it comes to discussing that threat, Hawking is unmistakably blunt. “I think the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race,” Hawking told the BBC in a 2014 interview that touched upon everything from online privacy to his affinity for his robotic-sounding voice. Despite its current usefulness, he cautioned, further developing A.I. could prove a fatal mistake. “Once humans develop artificial intelligence, it will take off on its own and


The Daily 202: French presidential election becomes Trump vs. Obama proxy war

assistance. (Des Bieler) - Curt Schilling accused Orioles outfielder Adam Jones of lying after he said he was called the “n-word” by a Red Sox fan at Fenway Park, pointing to what he claimed was a “lack of evidence” from others in the stands. (Des Bieler) - Russia, Iran and Turkey have agreed to create “de-escalation zones” in Syria – renewing diplomatic efforts to bring warring parties to heel in the country’s six-year conflict. It is unclear how the deal differs from previous failed cease-fires, in which Assad’s regime has continued to strike rebel-held areas. The State Department expressed concern about the effort, including the involvement of Iran as a so-called “guarantor.” (Louisa Loveluck and Karen DeYoung) - Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is poised to sign a sweeping bill that would outlaw so-called “sanctuary cities” and other localities in the state – imposing costly fines, and even jail time, on officials who refuse to cooperate with ICE agents. If passed, the legislation would be the country’s most significant crackdown so far on sanctuary cities. (Maria Sacchetti) - A new lawsuit accuses Wells Fargo employees of “targeting” undocumented immigrants on the street and persuading them to open bank accounts at their local branches – scouring locations such as construction sites and factories for potential recruits, and even offering them money to open an account. It’s the latest in a string of alarming allegations that have engulfed the San Francisco-based banking giant, whose employees say they were forced to resort to questionable tactics to meet the company’s unrealistic sales quotas. (Kristine Phillips) - The head of U.S. Special Operations, testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, said sending additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan would be a “welcome boost” for his men and could lessen the need for them to conduct dangerous missions alongside local forces. Deploying additional troops is a possibility being considered by the Trump administration. (Missy Ryan) - Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar returned to Kabul after spending two decades in exile, pleading for peace and unity in a town where his ruthless fighting once earned him the nickname “Butcher of Kabul.” Hekmatyar’s return comes just eight months after he signed a controversial peace deal with the government, which allows him immunity for past crimes and the chance to lead his party, the Hizb-e-Islami, back into Afghan politics. (Pamela Constable) - A California father says he and his family were


D.C.-area forecast: Intense morning storms bring travel troubles, afternoon storms also a risk

9:40 a.m. update: Even though the worst of the rain has ended in the metro area, standing water remains on some roads from runoff and overflowing streams. Remember not to cross a flooded road in your vehicle. Turn around, don’t drown. Scroll down for the forecast for the rest of the day and stay tuned to our blog for a recap of this morning’s storms and further updates on any new storm potential later today. 8:55 a.m. update: The heaviest of the rain should move east of the city over the next half hour. Additional light to moderate rain falls for a while longer after that. (NWS) Scroll to the bottom of this post for updates on this morning’s storm that have now expired. Original post from 5 a.m. TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 5/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: View the current weather conditions at The Washington Post headquarters. FORECAST IN DETAIL Lingering rain has some impacts this morning. Let’s consider it a way to work on ending our drought! At least we have a drier, calmer air mass trying to move in as the weekend progresses. It’s also kind of chilly. Today (Friday): Tonight: Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the latest updates. For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the weekend. Tomorrow (Saturday): Tomorrow night: “Reflections at the zoo” taken April 1. (Shamila Chaudhary via Flickr) A LOOK AHEAD Sunday: Sunday night: 60s and sunshine could dominate both Monday and Tuesday! Enjoy refreshing, slightly below-average temperatures this time of year. You may not even notice much chill, thanks to such a strong sun angle. Speaking of which, wear that sunscreen! Confidence: Medium-high Expired updates from earlier this morning 8:45 a.m. update: 8:38 a.m. update: Severe Thunderstorm Warning including Washington DC, Arlington VA, Alexandria VA until 9:30 AM EDT https://t.co/BkgUrvAmRA 8:15 a.m. update: Area of high wind potential shows up well on radar. As high as 60-70 mph a few thousand feet up. St Charles MD abou… https://t.co/VOwLaNP9Wy 7:58 a.m. update: Severe Thunderstorm Warning including Waldorf MD, Dale City VA, Lake Ridge VA until 8:45 AM EDT https://t.co/dK6wvl76jg


Tips for your Cinco de Mayo weekend travel: Street festivals and Metro track work

NW; west on U Street to 12th Street NW and ending on U Street between 12th and 13th Streets NW. D.C. police said traffic will be heavy in the area as there will be performance platforms scattered around the neighborhood, from noon to 7 p.m. - If you are driving around Embassy Row, be aware of heavier volumes of pedestrians in the area Saturday. More than 40 embassies will be opening their doors to visitors for the annual Around the World Embassy Tour. - On Sunday, the Sundress Fest at Wonderland Ballroom will close two blocks in the Columbia Heights area. The annual block party will close Kenyon Street NW from 11th Street NW to 13th Street NW from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. - Downtown, the area around Freedom Plaza, Pennsylvania Avenue NW between 13th and 14th Streets, will be closed from 4 a.m. to noon Sunday for the Race for Hope 5K. Then the following roads will close from 9 a.m. to noon: Pennsylvania Avenue NW between 14th and 3rd streets NW; 3rd Street NW from Pennsylvania Ave NW to D Street SW; 4th Street NW from Pennsylvania Ave NW to D Street SW; Independence Avenue SW, from 7th to 3rd streets SW. Metro Track work will affect all Metro lines this weekend. SafeTrack Surge No. 14 continues on the Green Line, which means buses are replacing train service between Greenbelt and College Park. Here are the details of the affected lines: Red Line Orange Line Blue Line Silver Line Yellow Line Green Line Road Work In Maryland, if you are headed to the beach, be aware of possible lane closures and changes to traffic patterns near the Bay Bridge as crews continue to do work, including inspection and maintenance work on the bridge. Motorists are urged to drive with caution. The good news for drivers in the Virginia is that there will be no lane closures on southbound Interstate 95 in Dale City this weekend. Transportation officials have moved the work to the weekend of May 12. The work over Neabsco Creek is expected to create extensive congestion and delays. In Leesburg, Va., however, if you drive one of 230 vehicles that use the Forest Mills Road (Route 727) bridge over Crooked Run, you want to find an alternative. The bridge is in poor condition and is closing until fall 2017 for a major replacement, officials said.


After promising to cooperate, ex-Trump adviser Carter Page turns inquiry back on Senate panel

Carter Page, an adviser on Donald Trump's presidential campaign, speaks at the New Economic School in Moscow on July 8, 2016. Page is a former investment banker who previously worked in Russia. (Pavel Golovkin/AP) Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser whose interactions with Russia are under FBI investigation, has repeatedly said he wants to cooperate with Congress's Russia probes to clear his name. But in a letter this week to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Page appeared to initially duck specific questions regarding his interactions with Russian officials, suggesting that the panel seek that information from inside the U.S. government instead. In an email to The Post, Page characterized the letter as a “preliminary response” to a Senate request that he begin providing detailed information no later than May 9, leaving open the possibility he will release more information to the committee in coming days. But he titled the letter a response to “request for even more irrelevant data” and asked that the committee first release to him information the government has collected through surveillance “as a starting point.” The FBI last summer obtained a secret court order to monitor Page's communications after convincing a federal judge that there was probable cause to believe the energy consultant was acting as an agent of the Russian government. Page has angrily denied that allegation in a series of media interviews and public statements, insisting he is the victim of a smear campaign by Democrats. Trump named Page as an unpaid adviser in March 2016. During his time working with the campaign, officials have said he never met with Trump. But he submitted policy memos and attended a handful of meetings in Washington of the volunteer group. Page drew attention during the campaign after he traveled to Moscow in July 2016 and gave a speech criticizing the U.S. government. Page took a leave from the campaign in September after the foreign visit drew scrutiny. Quietly, Page also caught the interest of U.S. investigators, in part because a former British intelligence officer conducting research for political opponents of Trump claimed in research memos that Page was used as a liaison between the Trump campaign and Russian officials conducting an influence and cyberhacking campaign to affect the election, an allegation Page has denied. Page was already familiar to the FBI from a 2013 federal espionage case that had surfaced evidence that Page had


A Mexican prosecutor called a murdered woman an ‘alcoholic’ who was ‘living out of wedlock’

an argument, then, allegedly, parted ways. The boyfriend was drunk when police found him, unable to give a statement for several hours. Authorities say he is their main suspect, although they can't rule out an attack by someone else, or even suicide. And here's what the city's public prosecutor — charged with investigating her killing — decided to share about the crime, via the office's official Twitter account: Osorio was “alcoholic and a bad student”; “She had left home and was living out of wedlock with her boyfriend”; “She had been taking drugs with friends.” That apparent attempt to embarrass a dead woman quickly went viral, provoking a backlash across the country. More than 50,000 people have used the hashtag #SiMeMatan (if they kill me) to speculate on the ways their personal lives would be used against them if they were found slain. “If they kill me, they will say I lived alone in Mexico City. They will say I was a feminist. They will invent everything to make me responsible for my murder,” one student wrote. “#SiMeMatan it will be for being a Mexican journalist,” tweeted Laura Castellanos, a freelance reporter in Mexico. Others suggested that they would be blamed for going outside alone, wearing a skirt or using contraceptives. That reaction was sparked, in part, by a sad reality: Women in Mexico are being abducted, raped and killed at record rates. Almost half of the country's female population said that it's experienced domestic violence. Between 2013 and 2014, seven women were killed every day in the country. Between 2001 and 2010, the number of women killed in Mexico's biggest drug battlegrounds jumped 500 percent. Thousands of others have disappeared. “Violence against women isn't an epidemic, it's a pandemic in Mexico,” Ana Güezmez, the country's representative to United Nations Women, told Reuters. And female victims have few options. In 2014, just 1 in 10 sexual assaults was reported to local authorities, according to Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography. The Mexican government’s National Institute for Women says more than 80 percent of sexual assaults are not reported, and barely 4.5 percent of criminals face sentencing in Mexico. The city's public prosecutor has since removed the tweets. Rodolfo Rios, who heads the office, said in a statement that the communications were “inappropriate.” “The behavior, private life or social status of a victim should never affect an investigation,” he commented.


How three schools creatively face the challenge of educating immigrant students

content and special education teachers. Regardless of the content area or placement on the service continuum, instruction is geared toward meeting the rigorous state standards required for graduation. Ossining High School also provides culturally responsive pathways for its emerging bilingual students. In the Integrated Co-Teaching Model, an English as a New Language Teacher and a content area teacher co-plan, co-teach, and co-assess students as they fully participate in classes with native English speakers. Additionally, the school’s Emergent Literacy Program provides accelerated instruction that integrates literacy and content learning for students with low literacy skills or interrupted formal education. For students 18-21 years old, a special program at OHS provides Spanish instruction of general academic subjects so that students can pass the TASC (former GED) exam for graduation. For ensuring that all students receive the support they need to learn, NEPC recognizes Ossining High School as a School of Opportunity. — (Photo provided by Washington Technology Magnet School) High School: Washington Technology Magnet School City and State: St. Paul, MN Principal: Superintendent: Enrollment: 2,077 (grades 6-12) Economically disadvantaged students: 93 percent Washington Technology Magnet School, located in St. Paul, Minnesota, is a comprehensive magnet secondary school with a science, mathematics and technology focus. Washington Technology has a uniquely diverse student body, with significant Karen and Hmong populations from Southeast Asia, among others. Fifty-nine percent of Washington Technology students are English Language Learners. The school uses a co-teaching model, with both English Language and content teachers providing these students with the instruction that they need. In fact, many students who attend Washington Technology had no formal schooling before arriving in the United States as teenagers. These students work towards content mastery and graduation until they reach the age of 21. While Washington Technology works to help students become proficient in English, students’ native cultures and languages are supported and valued. All students have the opportunity to enroll in Hmong and Karen language and culture classes, and a Hmong dance class is also available during the extended school day. Washington Technology encourages parental involvement, so both Karen and Hmong parent groups are available as well as a six-week “parent academy” held each fall in several languages. Washington Technology Magnet School exemplifies a school that values its students’ cultural and language backgrounds while providing the support students need to succeed academically. As such, Washington Technology Magnet School highly deserves its recognition as a School


This company wants to build a wireless network for drones, trains and automobiles

new name — Ligado — and even grander ambitions. If it succeeds, Ligado will be well-positioned to control a massive chunk of the industrial market for connected devices, a market that Morgan Stanley thinks will be worth $110 billion a year by 2020. Success, however, depends on billions of dollars of investment in construction, not to mention getting the blessing of regulators who blocked the company’s path once before. Ligado is promising not only to build the world’s first wireless network using ground-based airwaves that had long been considered unsuitable for cellular use, but it’s also planning to join that capability with a satellite hovering above North America. The novel pairing, its executives say, will largely support industrial customers, not individual consumers. But, they emphasize, that doesn’t mean the average American won’t see benefits from the hybrid network. “It’s new owners, a new board, a new management team,” Ligado chief executive Doug Smith said. “We’re excited with the solution we came up with. This is not another cellphone network. It is absolutely a type of service that doesn’t exist today.” For example, the new system could allow self-driving cars to receive instant GPS location readings that are accurate to within five inches, according to Smith. Achieving that level of accuracy will probably become vital to the automotive industry as vehicle automation goes mainstream — whether for parallel parking or for staying in the correct lane at 60 miles per hour. Ligado’s satellite-terrestrial network could also give railroad companies a boost. The high-precision location features may allow train dispatchers to pinpoint the precise endpoints of a train, which could help avoid collisions or improve the efficiency of rail operations. “Knowing exactly where that end-of-train is at any moment makes it much safer,” said Sid Bakker, president of TPSC, a railroad telecommunications provider. “If we can communicate that to the back office, or to other trains or maintenance vehicles, we just increase driver safety.” Emergency helicopter services could benefit from satellite-terrestrial communications, too — enabling rescue workers to keep their choppers humming at peak performance by automatically sending diagnostic data back to base. That data about the equipment could help maintenance crews anticipate a mechanical or electronic problem in the aircraft before it begins. In an industry in which everything is fine-tuned to the last detail and backed up by contingency plans, the inability to get live, real-time maintenance data from aircraft


Olympic volleyball team of Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross breaks up over contract

Kerri Walsh Jennings wants to compete at her sixth Olympics in Tokyo in 2020. But it won’t be with partner April Ross. (Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP) A dispute over her contract with the Association of Volleyball Professionals, one of two professional beach volleyball circuits in the United States, led to an unintentional consequence on Friday for five-time Olympian Kerri Walsh Jennings. She will now no longer compete with partner April Ross, with whom she won a bronze medal at last summer’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. “I have a ton of respect for April,” Walsh Jennings told the Associated Press. “I just have a different vision for the future.” Walsh Jennings has long hoped for beach volleyball to become a sport the general public pays attention to more than once every four years during the Olympics. According to Walsh Jennings, the AVP does not share that vision, so while Ross signed her new player contract, Walsh Jennings refused. “It has been a challenging period over the last five months as I, along with many other players, have worked hard to foster a dialogue amongst ourselves and with the AVP to express our concerns with the highly questionable and contestable the AVP player agreement,” Walsh Jennings wrote on Facebook on Thursday. Walsh Jennings outlined her concerns about the AVP’s “poor treatment” of the athletes, which included the negotiation process. For example, to even look over the contracts, athletes had to sign a nondisclosure agreement, the 38-year-old said. “[A]typical behavior at best, [the NDA] immediately divided the athletes and greatly hindered our ability to openly discuss the player contract,” Walsh Jennings wrote. “This was followed by a negative response to every counter proposal that was put forth. A hard line was drawn and the players were forced to choose; for all intents and purposes, there was no real negotiation.” “We’re being kept in a small little fishbowl,” Walsh Jennings later told the AP. “I know our sport deserves more. We’ve been told we’re small, and we believe it.” AVP owner Donald Sun declined to comment on Walsh Jennings’s accusations, telling the AP simply, “I respect her decisions and wish her well.” Walsh Jennings and Ross aren’t barred from pairing up for international tournaments, but that would mean maintaining two partnerships for both players as they compete separately in the United States this year. Walsh Jennings confirmed to the AP that was not a


A scientist explains how to take pictures on Mars

This computer-generated images depicts part of Mars at the boundary between darkness and daylight, with an area including Gale Crater, beginning to catch morning light. Northward is to the left. Gale is the crater with a mound inside it near the center of the image. (Image courtesy of NASA) For the past decade, the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment — a $40 million camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter — has been taking photographs of Mars and its rocky, ever-changing surface. The spacecraft orbits about 200 miles above the massive planet, but it is powerful enough to zero in on objects as small as three feet across — about the size of your desk at work. Since it began orbiting the Red Planet in 2006, the HiRISE camera has captured about 50,000 images, thousands of which were commissioned by curious members of the public. Ingrid Daubar, a research scientist at the Jet Propulsion lab in Pasadena, Calif., told The Washington Post that HiRISE is the largest camera ever sent to another planet and it's known among experts as “the people's camera.” “I haven't looked at all of the photos, but I think some of the images are beautiful,” said Daubar, who spent nine years on the HiRISE operations team. “Some members of the public are prolific photographers.” Members of the public don't actually shoot the images with a joystick, but they do play a significant role in identifying target locations for HiRISE to photograph. After selecting a location using NASA maps online, amateur photographers can request that scientists train the camera on their target of choice, often with a persuasive written explanation. HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) has been photographing the surface of Mars for a decade. (Photo courtesy of NASA) HiRISE team members review the suggestions before adding approved requests to an extensive planning schedule created several weeks in advance. Planners consider what can be gleaned scientifically from each potential image and whether the photo request aligns with the spacecraft's timeline, as well as the operational schedule of a series of radio dishes around the world that are in contact with the orbiter when they're facing Mars. “A lot of coordination goes into a single photograph,” Daubar said. “But in the end you can get an image of your favorite crater. There are also valleys and volcanoes and cool geologic formations that people are drawn to.” Despite


Chris Pine’s SNL monologue reminds us how bad Hollywood’s superhero diversity problem is

last month after David Gabriel, a vice president of sales, suggested that diversity was causing sales to slide. “What we heard was that people didn’t want any more diversity. They didn’t want female characters out there,” Gabriel said at the Marvel Retailer Summit, according to Entertainment Weekly. “We saw the sales of any character that was diverse, any character that was new, our female characters, anything that was not a core Marvel character, people were turning their nose up against. That was difficult for us because we had a lot of fresh, new, exciting ideas that we were trying to get out and nothing new really worked.” Online, readers slammed Marvel for changing old characters rather than coming up with new ones — or reintroducing old ones — that reflected their communities. @JasonFalter @Marvel They don't even have 2 create new 1s: Living Lightning, Silverclaw, Firebird, et al.; tons of… https://t.co/J2w36YT3bG In an op-ed for the Guardian, comics critic J.A. Micheline rejected the idea that diversity could be blamed for poor sales and urged the comic-book industry to expand its audience. “I can promise you that it’s not women going into comic-book shops, sick of female characters,” Micheline wrote. “I can similarly promise you that people of color are not entering comic-book shops and turning their noses up at faces that look like theirs. By even making remarks like these, Marvel is seemingly conceding that its target audience, its ‘core’ audience — and their ‘core’ characters — are white and male.” Moviegoers were introduced to The Black Panther in Marvel Studios' "Captain America: Civil War," but for The Post's David Betancourt, this has been a 50-year journey. Little wonder that Marvel Studios, a Disney subsidiary that owns such lucrative franchises as “The Avengers,” “Ant-Man” and “Guardians of the Galaxy,” has been slower to reflect diverse characters on the big screen. A popular graphic put together in 2015 by Twitter users @fauxparse and @comikazejeff pointed out that, “more often, Marvel heroes are played by white dudes named Chris than all women put together.” More often, Marvel Heroes are played by white dudes named Chris than all women put together. http://t.co/P52g5a9GJL The graphic above is two years old now, but even updating for newer Marvel releases like “Captain America: Civil War,” “Doctor Strange” and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” its premise holds true. It also doesn’t include DC Comics, which owns


A Russian photojournalist selects powerful images about Africa made by his Italian colleague

Malesa Khali, a 35-year-old mother of three, is shown in Waterfall, Lesotho, in July 2006. She became sick in August 2005, testing positive for HIV. Her husband died in 1998. She was on anti-retrovirals and received food from the World Food Program. (Francesco Zizola/Noor Images) A doctor looks at an X-ray of lungs at a center run by Doctors Without Borders in July 2008 in Kuyera, Ethiopia. Untreated tuberculosis often leads to malnutrition. At the time, up to 20,000 severely malnourished patients were admitted to the Doctors Without Borders programs in the region, over 8,000 of them children. (Francesco Zizola/Noor Images) In Sight is launching a new series, “PHOTOGRAPHERS edit PHOTOGRAPHERS,” beginning with photographers from the international photo agency NOOR in celebration of its 10th anniversary. NOOR is an Amsterdam-based collective of international photojournalists and documentary storytellers focused on contemporary and global issues. The first edit is by Russian photojournalist Yuri Kozyrev, who selected work from Italian photojournalist Francesco Zizola. “Italians are such amazing people. They enjoy life, they love their food, but they are also very serious. Francesco is a very serious photojournalist and I greatly admire his work on Africa and the refugee crisis,” Kozyrev said. “It’s important to remember how long Francesco has been in the profession and how much he has grown as a storyteller. This partially explains how he could foresee a major story like the massive refugee exodus via the Mediterranean Sea that wouldn’t break until months later as a global story,” Kozyrev said. “Francesco was aware of Italy’s suffering with the African migration and was already working in Lesbos long before the hordes of international journalists began to arrive.” A child suffering from severe malnutrition is weighed at a stabilization center in southern Ethiopia in July 2008. (Francesco Zizola/Noor Images) Villagers in Uganda stand amid corn they planted on land that the government said was a national park in 2007. The villagers claimed the land had belonged to them for generations. In order to plant the corn, the villagers chopped down trees planted by the Face Foundation as part of a carbon trading project. (Francesco Zizola/Noor Images) A Dinka shepherd boy stands among his the cows at a South Sudanese cattle camp in March 2011. The Dinkas lead their herds to areas that maintain water and pasture during the dry season. (Francesco Zizola/Noor Images) Children play on the banks of a tributary of


5 things we learned from Sally Yates’s testimony on what the White House knew about Michael Flynn

Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about potentially lifting U.S. sanctions President Barack Obama had just levied on Russia. These sanctions were punishment for alleged Russian meddling in the election to try to help Trump win. About a week before Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration, the world learned that Flynn and the ambassador were talking. Pence then went on CBS News's “Face the Nation” and said Flynn's conversations with Kislyak “had nothing to do” with sanctions. But Yates had intelligence showing otherwise. Flynn's conversations with Kislyak were picked up by the FBI during “routine surveillance” of the Russian ambassador, and she knew they had talked about sanctions. She went straight to the White House's top lawyer, Don McGahn, to tell him that Flynn was lying to them. She did it for two reasons, she said in her testimony: Former acting attorney general Sally Yates testified that Gen. Michael Flynn lied to Vice President Pence when he said he hadn't discussed sanctions with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak, on May 8 at the Capitol. “We had two concerns. Compromise was certainly the number one concern. And the Russians use compromise material information in a variety of ways, sometimes overtly, sometimes subtly. And again our concern was that you have a very sensitive position like the national security adviser and you don't want that person to be in a position where the Russians have leverage over them.” “But I will also say that another motivating factor is we felt like the vice president was entitled to know that the information he had been given and he was relaying to the American public wasn't true.” 2. What (or whether) the White House did anything with this information is unclear In a testimony before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee, May 8, former acting attorney general Sally Yates described her exchanges with White House counsel Donald McGahn about then-national security adviser Michael Flynn. Flynn was ousted in February after misleading Vice President Pence about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. Yates testified that she told McGahn that Flynn was lying so that they could do something about it. She said McGahn called her back the next day to talk more. Specifically, she said, he wanted to know: - Why does it matter to Yates's Justice Department if one White House official lies to another? (She explained it was because Flynn could be blackmailed by the Russians for being caught


Full transcript: Sally Yates and James Clapper testify on Russian election interference

Security Adviser Flynn told the truth to the FBI? YATES: No, he asked me how he had done in the interview, and I specifically declined to answer that. BLUMENTHAL: Because it was part of an investigation? YATES: That's right. BLUMENTHAL: Was that intended to indicate to him that Michael Flynn had a problem in that interview? YATES: No, I was intending to let him know that Michael Flynn had a problem on a lot of levels, but it wasn't necessarily with respect to how he performed in the interview. I was intentionally not letting him know how the interview had gone. BLUMENTHAL: And lying to the FBI is a crime, correct? YATES: It is, yes. BLUMENTHAL: Violation of 18 United States Code 1001? YATES: That's right. BLUMENTHAL: And it's punishable by five years in prison? YATES: Yes, it is. BLUMENTHAL: So, if Michael Flynn lied to the FBI, he had a ton of legal trouble facing him? YATES: He could face criminal prosecution if he lied to the FBI, yes. BLUMENTHAL: And if he became a foreign agent for another country, for Turkey, which he was a foreign agent for, without getting permission from the Department of Defense, he faced criminal penalties for that and still faces them, correct? YATES: Yes. It's certainly FARA violations can be criminally prosecuted, yes. BLUMENTHAL: In fact, it's a violation of 18 United States Code 219, and that's punishable by two years in prison, correct? YATES: Mm-hmm. BLUMENTHAL: And his failure to disclose payments from foreign sources which also he had done before you went to Donald McGahn is also criminally punishable, is it not? YATES: That was not a topic I discussed with Mr. McGahn and so it's not something I can discuss here today. BLUMENTHAL: But it is in fact, from your knowledge a violation of criminal law, is it not? YATES: To not disclose payments for it, yes, but I'm not speaking to his specific conduct, just generally that it is, yes. BLUMENTHAL: If Michael Flynn is prosecuted for any of these crimes, isn't it possible that the vice president of the United States might be a witness? YATES: I guess it would depend on the crime. BLUMENTHAL: If it were a false statement to the FBI about his conversations with the Russians, wouldn't the vice president potentially be called as a witness to corroborate that false statement? YATES: You know,


The Daily 202: 10 important questions raised by Sally Yates’s testimony on the ‘compromised’ Michael Flynn

if she had any evidence that would suggest that anybody in the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government intelligence services. “Senator, my answer to that question would require me to reveal classified information,” she said. “So I can't answer that.” She circled back later to clarify, “Just because I say I can't answer it, you should not draw from that an assumption that that means that the answer is yes.” Former director of national intelligence James Clapper was asked on May 8, about misdirection from administration officials, including President Trump, over who interfered with the 2016 presidential election. He said that "helps the Russians by obfuscating who was actually responsible." 9. Why is Trump still so cagey when it comes to assigning blame to Russia for election interference? Clapper said it’s not helpful when people don’t acknowledge who was really behind the cyberattacks. 10. Will Flynn face any criminal charges? Welcome to the Daily 202, PowerPost's morning newsletter.Sign up to receive the newsletter. WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING: In his testimony before the Senate on May 3, FBI Director James Comey misstated key findings in the Hillary Clinton email investigation, say people close to the inquiry. Clinton aide Huma Abedin forwarded a far smaller number of emails to her then-husband Anthony Weiner than Comey indicated, and none of them were marked as classified at the time. -- FBI Director James B. Comey overstated key findings involving the Hillary Clinton email investigation during testimony to Congress last week, according to people close to the inquiry. Neither of those statements was accurate, said people close to the investigation: Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says he sees 2017 as "another tough year for the valiant Afghan security forces and the international troops." ESCALATION: -- Trump’s most senior military and foreign policy advisers have proposed a major shift in strategy in Afghanistan that would effectively put the United States back on a war footing with the Taliban. - The plan envisions an increase of at least 3,000 U.S. troops to an existing force of about 8,400. The U.S. force would also be bolstered by requests for matching troops from NATO nations. - Trump is expected to make a final call on the strategy before a May 25 NATO summit in Brussels that he plans to attend. - The proposal faces resistance from some senior administration officials who fear a repeat of earlier decisions to intensify


Earth could break through a major climate threshold in the next 15 years, scientists warn

(NASA via Associated Press) Global temperatures could exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above their preindustrial levels within the next 15 years, according to a new scientific study, crossing the first threshold under the Paris climate agreement and placing the world at a potentially dangerous level of climate change. The report comes as climate agreement participants are watching the United States — where the Trump administration is debating whether to withdraw from the Paris accord — and as That IPCC’s upcoming special report and the increasing urgency about minimizing global warming were one impetus for the study, according to co-author Benjamin Henley, a research fellow at the University of Melbourne in Australia. The study focuses on a natural planetary system known as the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation, or IPO (it’s also sometimes referred to as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation). It’s an alternating pattern of ocean temperatures that shifts periodically between warm and cool phases, helping to drive temperature and weather patterns all over the world. During cool, or “negative,” phases, tropical regions of the Pacific Ocean tend to be colder, and the global mean temperature is lower. The system is similar to the El Niño/La Niña cycle, the major difference being that phases of the IPO tend to last much longer — sometimes a decade or more. The phenomenon is believed to be a natural form of climate variability unrelated to human-caused climate change, although it does have the potential to influence the progression of global warming. For most of the 2000s, the IPO has been in a negative phase, and scientists think its cooling effect has helped to Researchers say 2015 was the hottest year on record, and that it "smashed" the previous record, which was 2014. The Post's Chris Mooney explains what that could mean for weather patterns, the Paris climate deal and 2016. Many scientists believe that the planet is now transitioning back into a positive, or warm, phase, which could amplify, rather than offset, human-caused climate warming. This means we could reach milestone temperature thresholds faster than we would if the IPO had remained in its negative phase. That’s the conclusion of the new study, written by Henley and Andrew King of the University of Melbourne. Using model projections of future climate warming under a business-as-usual scenario, they suggest that the Earth could hit the 1.5-degree temperature threshold as early as 2025, while the continuation of the negative phase


In China, rumors are flying about David Dao’s alleged $140 million settlement from United Airlines

from Vietnam. It actually says quite a bit. Psychological studies suggest that rumors often spread amid social anxiety and reflect believers’ stress, fear or resentment. The discussions in China about the huge settlement revealed that people contrast this large amount with the potential compensation that mistreated individuals in similar or worse situations could receive in China. These online discussions sometimes brought up references to the father of a tainted milk victim, who was indicted on a charge of “blackmailing” when he demanded an additional 3 million yuan (about $435,000) in compensation after his daughter sustained kidney damage from the melamine added to a dairy company’s baby formula sold in China. He had agreed initially to a settlement of 400,000 yuan (about $58,000) — then spent five years in jail and was only recently declared innocent by a higher court. Incidents such as this and the general perception of the lack of justice and fairness in China made the $140 million United settlement rumor go viral. The rapid spread of the rumor also may relate in part to the rosy images Chinese people often have about the outside world, which influence their domestic attitudes and even exit intentions, as my previous research has found. Can rebuttals improve the public’s trust of the government? My work also shows how the Chinese government attempts to combat rumors, particularly those that put it in a negative light. Because the United settlement was not directly about China, the Chinese government had no official response to the rumor, but some media outlets and websites discussed why $140 million is not a very plausible amount. There’s a deeper story, though. For the believers, rumors often serve as symbolic warning tales about some larger social and policy issues, regardless of the veracity of the specific “facts” those rumors allege. My research, therefore, focuses on individuals’ opinion on social and policy issues related to the rumors, not just their belief about the rumors’ specific content. My experimental study finds that anti-government rumors reduce citizens’ trust in the government. Perhaps more importantly, it suggests that rebuttals can generally reduce people’s belief in the specific content of rumors — but often fail to restore public trust in the Chinese government on policy issues related to the rumors. For example, following a high-speed train collision in Wenzhou a few years ago, a viral rumor claimed that the family of the foreign victim


An obvious way to fight the opioid epidemic — and make doctors’ lives easier

OxyContin pills. (Toby Talbot/Associated Press) Doctors have gotten a bad rap as addictions to prescription painkillers have ravaged communities throughout the country. As the critique typically goes, the medical community helped make the United States the top country in terms of opioid consumption — which, in turn, gave way to a surge in addiction and overdoses. That’s not necessarily fair. Research has consistently shown showing that under the right medical supervision, the vast majority of opioid prescriptions do not result in addiction or heroin use. But a new paper circulated by the National Bureau of Economic Research does show that doctors could contribute substantially to the fight against opioid abuse — just by looking up patient prescription histories. As the opioid epidemic gained momentum, most states implemented “prescription drug monitoring programs,” which collected Medicare data on prescriptions for controlled substances. The idea was to figure out which patients were abusing the drugs by “doctor-shopping” — going to multiple doctors to get drugs at multiple location. But each state designed these programs a bit differently: Some were built solely for law enforcement to access, but not health providers. Others simply encouraged providers to access the data. Ten states specifically required health providers to look up more information about their patients before giving them painkillers. The result? Only states with “must-access” programs saw doctor-shopping fall substantially. The number of people receiving drugs from five or more prescribers fells by 8 percent, and the number of people receiving drugs from five or more pharmacies dropped 15 percent. In fact, the study’s authors estimate that implementing “must-access” programs in every state would save $174 million in Medicare drug spending every six months. The data is limited because it doesn’t tell researchers what happens to the drugs after they’re prescribed. Legitimate patients will take the pills as instructed, but others might sell the drugs or give them to people for whom the prescriptions weren’t intended. But “the monitoring programs make the physicians aware that there are patients showing up for drug-seeking reasons,” said Thomas C. Buchmueller, a health economist and professor at the University of Michigan and co-author of the paper. “It’s a red flag.” Buchmueller suggests that must-access programs could make the lives of health providers themselves easier. Many physicians find themselves in a tough position: They want to help people in pain, but they don’t want to contribute to the opioid crisis by


Gaze at the ‘flower moon’ in full bloom Wednesday night

The full “flower moon,” May 10, 2017. (George Jiang via Flickr) May’s full moon arrives Wednesday evening and, where skies are at least partially clear, it will beam brilliantly in the night sky. The May moon is most commonly known as the “flower moon,” given the prolific blooms at this time of year and end of frosty weather in most areas. The flower moon is officially full at 5:42 p.m. Eastern time, before it has actually become viewable over the United States. But once the moon starts to rise in the eastern sky around sunset, it will still appear full to the human eye at over 99 percent illumination. In Washington, the moonrise is at 7:58 p.m. Wednesday, while the moonset occurs at 6:44 a.m. Thursday. Increasing clouds Wednesday evening in Washington mean that it would be best to get out and see the moon early. The clouds may obscure the moon as the night wears on. The moon will also appear bigger when it just starts to emerge above the horizon as the presence of buildings and trees give it scale. In addition to being called the flower moon, May’s full moon is sometimes called the “milk moon” or “corn planting moon.”


Whole Foods shakes up leadership to fix its struggling business

Whole Foods named a new chief financial officer and five independent directors to its board. Whole Foods Market on Wednesday announced a drastic shake-up of its board of directors, replacing five of 12 members in a bid to reassure investors that it is taking action to bounce back from a sustained slump. The company has posted seven consecutive quarters of declining sales at its stores open more than a year amid an assault from fast-growing competitors. “We understand that significant change is required at an accelerated pace,” John Mackey, the chief executive, said on a conference call with investors. The retailer also pledged to take on $300 million in new cost-cutting initiatives, which include rethinking how it staffs its stores and building a more efficient supply chain. And it will accelerate the nationwide launch of an “affinity program,” which includes discount coupons. Pilot versions have driven more trips to its stores. The company’s financial results underscored why a turnaround effort is urgent. Even though its revenue increased 1.1 percent to $3.7 billion, its comparable sales sank 2.8 percent. A drop in foot traffic was to blame for that decline: Transactions fell some 3 percent in the quarter. Whole Foods, in some ways, is a victim of its own success. As big-box stores and supermarkets saw the growth Whole Foods was enjoying by offering organic products, those conventional grocers jumped into the market — and often undercut Whole Foods’s prices. Now that shoppers have many more choices, Whole Foods is struggling to snare and retain them. The affinity program is part of Whole Foods’s effort to attack that problem. The chain is also trying to appeal to price-conscious with a new store concept called 365 by Whole Foods, which has a smaller footprint than a typical Whole Foods and has fewer frills. (For example, it doesn’t have a meat or deli counter.) Whole Foods stock was up about 2 percent in after-hours trading, suggesting that investors were at least somewhat cheered by the plan. The new board members include several with deep retail experience, including Ron Shaich, the chief executive of fast-casual dining behemoth Panera Bread; Sharon McCollam, Best Buy’s chief financial officer; and Ken Hicks, the former chief executive of Foot Locker. Whole Foods also announced Wednesday that it had named a new chief financial officer. Keith Manbeck comes to the grocery chain from Kohl’s, where he was a senior


In video, Mexican soldier appears to execute detained man

largely taken control of some towns in this region east of Mexico City. The Mexican army said it deployed about 1,000 troops to quell the violence last week. Officials accused the smugglers of using women and children as human shields during the clashes. The following day, May 4, villagers in Palmarito protested the army’s actions, blaming the armed forces for the altercations and deaths. Protesters created a blockade on a highway on Thursday, burning tires, vandalizing vehicles and carrying banners calling for an end to the violence. “Palmarito is in mourning, we want peace and tranquility,” one sign read, according to photos captured by AFP. Days later, large crowds of relatives and friends attended a funeral mass for four people killed in the clashes. Residents vandalize a vehicle seized by military personnel during a protest against the army on the outskirts of Puebla, Mexico, on May 4. (Reuters/Ozair Viveros). Mexican media identified the man apparently executed as Raúl Jiménez Martínez, 46. In Palmarito, the town where the encounter took place, Diario Cambio spoke to the man’s parents, who described their son as hard-working and honest, dedicated to working in the fields. Friends and relatives accompanied the parents to place a cross on the road a week after his death. The parents denied that Martínez was involved with organized crime, and do not know why he was killed by the military. They said they were unaware of the people accompanying him that night and did not know why he was in that area at such late hours. The video published Wednesday circulated a day after a damaging “Armed Conflict Survey” by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, which ranked Mexico among 10 countries with the world’s most “lethal conflicts,” with 23,000 deaths from its battle with criminal cartels, second only to conflict deaths in Syria. All the other listed countries besides Mexico — Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Turkey, South Sudan and Nigeria — are in war zones, border on them or are “failed states” facing terrorism. The total number of “conflict deaths” in Mexico “is all the more surprising” considering that they “are nearly all attributable to small arms,” John Chapman, chief executive of IISS, said in a statement. “Mexico is a conflict marked by the absence of artillery, tanks or combat aviation.” The tally dealt a blow to Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, who is struggling with the


The one piece of Michelle Obama’s legacy that President Trump can’t wreck

country’s largest food companies had already axed 6.4 trillion calories from their product lines. PHA has also overseen marketing campaigns for water and fresh produce, which appear in grocery stores, gas stations and media outlets around the country. “We’ve seen tremendous conversation and cultural shift,” said Deborah Eschmeyer, the former executive director of Let’s Move!, evaluating the legacy of the campaign earlier this year. “This is a new wave for the private sector.” This arrangement has not always been popular: PHA was criticized for partnering with Walmart in 2011, and some liberals have faulted the former first lady for lending her imprimatur to junk-food brands, or for letting corporations “water down” her public-health message. Even some of Mrs. Obama’s allies have said PHA’s partnerships run counter to her nutrition agenda, given that many food companies lobby against nutrition regulations even as they embrace voluntary initiatives. That is the case this year, as well: The National Association of Convenience Stores signed a PHA commitment, promising to push its member stores to stock healthier snacks and bottled water — only weeks after it led an effort to delay menu-labelling requirements that the first lady had also advocated for. Still, at a time when much of the last administration’s nutrition policies seem destined for a rollback, some advocates see reason for optimism in the new partnerships. Earlier this month, the Trump administration froze regulations, championed by the former first lady, that would further reduce the sodium and increase the whole grains served in school meals. The administration has also delayed rules requiring restaurants, grocery stores and other establishments to put calories counts on their menus, and has signaled an interest in pushing back the rollout of new and more transparent nutrition labels. On top of that, the Omnibus bill passed by the House last week forbids government agencies from working with industry on any sort of voluntary sodium requirements, or from issuing any guidelines on food marketing to children. The first lady has praised initiatives to limit the sorts of foods that get advertised to kids, and cheered federal efforts to get junk-food ads out of schools. Absent those sorts of regulations, Obama’s supporters are pinning their hopes for nutritional change on private companies. “They have to respond to the marketplace no matter what goes on in Washington,” said Marion Nestle, a prominent food activist and professor at New York University who has


Traffic, transit tips for Mother’s Day weekend

be closed from 6 a.m. Saturday to 3 a.m. Sunday: - 4th Street NW between Pennsylvania Avenue NW & Independence Avenue SW The 2017 National Police Week 5k is scheduled for Saturday. This event will close several streets in downtown Washington throughout the day. This map shows you the route of the race, which will impact traffic from 7 a.m. until around 11 a.m. And here is the full list of street closures. The D.C. Bike Ride is Sunday. Last year the event drew about 8,000 cyclists for a tour of some of Washington’s most famous sites. This year’s ride starts at West Potomac Park on Ohio Drive SW and ends on Pennsylvania Avenue at Third Street through Sixth Street NW. D.C. police said drivers should be alert for bike traffic and rolling street closures on the 20-mile course of the recreational ride. (See map below). The traffic disruptions are expected through noon Sunday, with some streets near the Mall affected. Here is a full list of closures. Metro Track work will affect all Metro lines, except the Red Line, this weekend. The most significant work will close a segment of track downtown from Federal Triangle to Foggy Bottom, affecting travelers on the Orange, Blue and Silver lines. Metro says crews will be replacing tile and installing ceiling grid and a cable for cellphone coverage along the tunnel walls. Besides that, SafeTrack Surge No. 14 concludes this weekend on the Green Line, which means buses are replacing train service between Greenbelt and College Park. Here are the details of the affected lines: Orange Line Blue Line Silver Line Yellow Line Green Line Road work The good news for drivers is there’s not much going on in terms of planned road construction this weekend. In Montgomery County, crews will be doing some resurfacing work on Maryland 193 (University Boulevard) between the Capital Beltway and Piney Branch Road. The work will require single lane closures in each direction on Saturday between 4 a.m. and noon. In Prince George’s County, resurfacing work will require some ramp closures and detours in the area of U.S. 50 and MD 202 exit. Drivers will go around closures in the eastbound U.S. 50 ramp to southbound MD 202 and southbound MD 202 ramp to eastbound U.S. 50. The work will take place from 9 p.m. Friday until noon Saturday, and 9 p.m. Monday until 6 a.m. Tuesday.


Trump, China reach preliminary trade agreements on beef, poultry

White House officials pitched the agreement as a major breakthrough. China just agreed that the U.S. will be allowed to sell beef, and other major products, into China once again. This is REAL news! The new arrangements include an agreement from China to allow imports of U.S. beef, on certain conditions, by July 16. The United States has pressured China for years to allow beef imports, but the process has been constantly delayed. “It’s at least a $2.5 billion market that’s being opened up for U.S. beef,” Ross said. The beef industry praised the agreement. "It's impossible to overstate how beneficial this will be for America's cattle producers, and the Trump Administration deserves a lot of credit for getting this achieved," National Cattlemen's Beef Association President Craig Uden said. Similarly, Washington has agreed to advance a new rule that would allow China to export cooked poultry to the United States. The impact of this change on the U.S. poultry industry is uncertain, but Ross said it would not be severe. And there were numerous other parts of the preliminary agreement. This included language that appears to pave the way for U.S. firms to export liquid natural gas to China, the expediting of Chinese safety reviews for U.S. biotechnology applications, and cooperation between Chinese and U.S. regulators over financial transactions. Other parts of the arrangement would direct China to issue bond underwriting and settlement licenses to “two qualified U.S. financial institutions” by July 17, a date that is significant because it comes 100 days after Trump and Xi met in Florida. And the United States has agreed to allow Chinese entrepreneurs to a Washington summit in June. Trump spent months on the campaign trail berating China for its trade practices, but he has softened his approach since winning office. He has initiated reviews of China’s support of its steel and aluminum industries and its impact on U.S. trade, but the outcome of those reviews is unclear. He has shown a willingness to back away from trade-related threats after consulting with aides and foreign leaders, and he has recently heaped praise on Xi and what he perceives as China’s willingness to negotiate. Christopher Balding, an associate professor at the HSBC Business School in Shenzhen in China, said Trump had created leverage with his “undiplomatic statements” on the campaign trail. “However, the importance of this deals shouldn't be overstated,” he added. “These are


Charities are realizing that poor people also deserve healthy food

recipe cards developed by the food bank for low-income consumers. Roman said that the food bank made nutrition a priority when a 2015 study revealed that nearly half of the household its was serving included people with high blood pressure, and almost a fourth had a family member with heart disease. “That was really clarifying,” Roman said. The food bank has launched a number of nutrition programs, including cooking classes and a “mobile market” that brings fresh produce to high-risk neighborhoods. In September, it banned some junk-food donations. Those programs represent major changes for food banks over the last five years. In 2012, one study of U.S. food banks found that almost half did not have any nutrition policies or standards in place. That began to change in the aftermath of the recession, advocates say, when more families began to rely on food pantries, and for longer periods of time. The increased usage — along with rising obesity, diabetes and heart disease rates — forced many in the sector to begin reconsidering the role they played in their clients' lives. “Many of our food banks now view themselves as more than a distribution center for food,” Feeding America wrote in a 2014 announcement describing one of its earliest healthy-food pushes. Three years later, major challenges remain: A study published this month in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics concluded that modern food pantries are still “largely unable to support healthy diets.” Small food banks struggle to source fresh produce, meat and dairy, and find places to store it. And there’s a persistent anxiety about upsetting or deterring corporate donors, Roman said. Some of the largest contributors to the food bank are companies such as Walmart, Pepsi, Mars and Kellogg's, which either manufacture or sell large amounts of soda, candy, processed snacks and sugary cereals. Still, Roman said, consumers are increasingly asking these companies to provide healthier products — and she sees little reason food banks shouldn’t do the same. “It’s a priority for everyone,” Roman said. “We’re having these realizations at a time when consumers are also demanding changes.” More from Wonkblog: Industry is counting on Trump to back off rules that tell you what's in your food What Americans get wrong about food stamps, according to an expert who's spent 20 years researching them The one piece of Michelle Obama's legacy that President Trump can't wreck


Breaking down this week’s signs of retail’s big reckoning

of its total sales online, and sales in that channel are growing robustly. It suggests there is a path forward for the retailer in a digital world. Abercrombie Fitch is looking for a buyer. If Abercrombie goes under the wing of one of its key rivals, it would emphasize just how dramatically the retail landscape has been reshaped recent months. Walmart has been scooping up e-commerce players such as Moosejaw and Modcloth. Familiar names such as The Limited and American Apparel have closed all of their stores; Payless Shoe Source filed for bankruptcy and pulled out of hundreds of malls. And buckle up, because the retail roller coaster could have more twists ahead: The parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue reportedly is exploring acquiring Macy’s or Neiman Marcus. Grocery behemoth Albertsons may be considering a bid for troubled Whole Foods Market. Rue21 appears to be weighing whether to file for bankruptcy. Gillette makes another run at your mailbox. In addition to subscriptions, it is to offer one-off purchasing. And once customers have used the service initially, they can reorder by texting the word “BLADES” to a certain phone number. The service itself is not exactly a game-changing disruption, but its arrival underscores how urgent the fight is for Gillette. A key P&G rival, Unilever, bought Dollar Shave Club last year and can put serious muscle behind expanding the young brand. The showdown between 110-year-old Gillette and the razor start-ups is symbolic of a broader shift in the industry. Niche players are increasingly pulling dollars away from big retailing monoliths to the tune of $200 billion a year, according to research by Deloitte. Everyone from Macy’s to Campbell Soup is facing similar pressure from boutique-like insurgents, to which customers are flocking for a unique, exclusive vibe. Meanwhile, Gillette’s maneuvers serve as an interesting case study for the wider consumer goods industry. Many brands are currently dabbling in what’s known as a “direct-to-consumer” model, in which they sell through their own branded stores and websites, rather than through general merchandise or department stores. In the digital era, it gives them more control of how their product is distributed, displayed and priced, but it also requires them to add a new competency to their business. If Gillette can do well with a direct-to-consumer model, it might not be long before other familiar drugstore and grocery store brands begin going in the same direction.


NASA won’t put astronauts on first flight of new rocket

repair a large dome that was to be part of a liquid oxygen fuel tank. “This was a significant event for us,” Gerstenmaier said. The first flight of the SLS was originally envisioned by Congress for 2016. On Friday, Lightfoot said that various delays in the program have pushed the first mission to 2019, with the exact timing still uncertain. Gerstenmaier said that, after the first uncrewed mission, NASA will need about 33 months to revamp a mobile launcher at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., to handle the second SLS mission, which will have additional hardware and stand 40 feet taller on the launchpad. That means it is unlikely NASA will launch astronauts on the SLS before 2022. Phil Larson, the space policy adviser in the Obama White House, said of this new delay in the rocket schedule, “This is something that I think a lot of people saw coming. I don’t think too many people within NASA are shocked.” The commercial space sector — including SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, and Blue Origin, owned by Amazon.com chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos (who also owns The Washington Post) — is racing to develop its own rockets that are comparable in scale to the SLS. “This really isn’t about NASA versus SpaceX, or NASA versus Blue Origin, it's more about the past way of doing business versus how do we run the government more like a business,” Larson said. The agency had considered adding two astronauts to the first SLS flight in an effort to respond to the clear desire of Trump and his aides for some kind of dramatic space mission, with astronauts, that could be achieved in the first term. Trump has made allusions to space exploration in speeches but has never spelled out exactly what he wants. During a conversation recently with astronauts aboard the International Space Station, Trump said he wanted to send astronauts to Mars in his first term, or by the end of his second term “at worst” — but the manner of his comment suggested that he was either joking or speaking off the cuff with minimal grasp of the technical challenges of a Mars mission. Lightfoot, asked about that comment, said of the White House, “They have not asked us to go to Mars by 2024.” Photos of Saturn from the Cassini spacecraft; Perseid meteor shower; Kepler space telescope’s detection


The Trump administration wants to send more military advisers to Afghanistan. Good luck with that.

leaders are typically more concerned with threats to their own rule from other elites within their state, especially the risk of a coup d’etat from dissatisfied officers or militia leaders. SFA partners thus have a strong incentive to use U.S. aid to bolster their own internal security, rather than for whatever military operations that the United States wants. Host regimes therefore often look the other way when their officers sell U.S. supplies on the black market, pocket the U.S.-provided salaries of “ghost soldiers,” use U.S.-provided equipment to settle scores with rival groups or extort protection payments from local civilians. This kind of corruption buys the loyalty of heavily armed elites who might otherwise be rivals, and it protects the regime’s internal political position. But it saps military readiness and undermines combat motivation: Why should Afghan or Iraqi soldiers risk their lives in combat for corrupt, cronyist officers who care only about lining their own pockets? The result is a military designed for internal politics, not for effectiveness against the external enemies that Americans care about. Security Force Assistance can work, but only if the stars align and the conditions are right In our paper, we looked at three historical examples where the United States sent significant security force assistance: Iraq from 2003-2014, El Salvador from 1979-1992, and South Korea from 1949-1953. These examples show just how hard it is to pull off SFA successfully. In Iraq, the United States invested more than $25 billion on the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), deployed thousands of trainers and advisers, and by 2007 fielded more than 100,000 other U.S. troops to provide security until the ISF could take over. Yet the resulting Iraqi military collapsed in June 2014 when challenged by numerically inferior Islamic State fighters in Mosul. How could all this assistance produce so little real military power? Here’s the problem: The U.S. and Iraqi governments had two very different visions for the ISF. The United States wanted trained military technocrats who could defeat the insurgency. The Iraqi regimes of Ibrahim al-Jaafari and Nouri al-Maliki, however, saw that kind of ISF as a danger to their power, not an asset. The regime preferred a corrupt military it could control to a professionalized one it could not. All that U.S. effort thus created a military that was well-suited to Jaafari’s or Maliki’s internal political requirements, but a very poor tool for defeating ISIS. The


The U.S. census is in trouble. This is why it’s crucial to what the nation knows about itself.

group that could be compared to the census count. Moreover, because the armed forces were segregated, it was possible to calculate any differences in the undercount between black and white males. Black Americans were abut three times as likely to be undercounted as white Americans. That started a long and challenging effort to reduce the undercount, and especially the problem that it was differential by race. Keep in mind that many of the benefits of the census don’t depend on absolute numbers but on relative numbers. This is self-evident in true of how many seats a state gets in Congress — count only 90 percent of every state, and each state would still get the right number of congressional seats. It is also true of many social benefits. Transportation and education grants, for example, are allocated proportionately. Areas and groups that are differentially undercounted are penalized, as the grant funds go to those places more fully counted. The only practical way to reduce the differential is to count 100 percent of everyone everywhere. The consequences of not reaching that goal are substantial. The Veteran’s Administration wants to put a new hospital where it can serve elderly veterans. To do so, it needs measures of age and of veteran status that are accurate. A significant undercount puts the hospital in the wrong town. A poor-quality census means policies that miss their mark. HF: Undercounts and overcounts seem technical, but they have led to big partisan fights. Can you explain what happened? KP: The biggest controversy emerged in 2000. It was a controversy over whether we could sample the non-respondents. When we sent the forms out, 65 to 70 percent of the population responded automatically, but then you had to find the other 35 percent by knocking on doors or other procedures to ensure they were included. The Census Bureau knows that when you get down to the last hard-to-find groups — the last 4 to 5 percent of the population, who perhaps don’t have phones, or don’t speak English as their first language, or don’t trust the government — it was actually more accurate to sample the neighborhoods where the hard-to-count cluster than to try to find everyone. At a certain point, you run out of money and time. It is better to sample, use your best staff to ensure that everyone in the sample is found, and use the sample


Marines are back in Afghanistan’s most violent province, and their mission could expand

Southwest, numbers about 300 service members and replaced an Army unit named Task Force Forge on April 29. The new mission returns Marines to a part of Afghanistan where more than 20,000 were based in 2010 and 2011 at the height of a troop surge that included more than 100,000 U.S. troops across the country. Helmand province has long been considered Afghanistan’s most violent province and was the site of hundreds of Marine deaths between 2008 and 2014. Security across Helmand has continued to deteriorate on the whole since the Marines left — a point illustrated recently in March, when Afghan soldiers in Helmand’s hotly contested Sangin district moved their base of operations out of the district’s center after months of conflict with Taliban fighters. The Marine task force’s headquarters is at Camp Shorab, an Afghan base that was once the site of a sprawling Marine installation known as Camp Leatherneck. Thousands of Marines worked from there as combat troops fanned out across Helmand province in small formations, patrolling on a daily basis. Marine Brig. Gen. Roger Turner, the commanding general of Task Force Southwest, speaks at Camp Shorab, Afghanistan, on April 29. (Sgt. Lucas Hopkins/Marine Corps) Turner, speaking from his headquarters Friday, said that none of his troops have seen any combat in their first few weeks deployed, but they are traveling from Camp Shorab regularly. Task force advisers also are based in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital, and have already visited the headquarters of each brigade of Afghan troops with which the unit partnered. “We’re still seeing a lot of the same activity that we were seeing years ago from the Taliban. They are still scattering IEDs everywhere,” the general said, referring to improvised explosive devices. “They still kind of indiscriminately target people. They arrest people, they put them in jails, and they extort their families and they extort the farmers for their poppy production and tax them. . . . It’s more of the same.” The task force assists the Afghan army’s 215th Corps and Afghan police from the 505th Zone, which combine to provide security in Helmand. U.S. military officials say the advising comes at the “corps level,” meaning it focuses primarily on advising upper echelons of Afghan leaders in the region. The Trump administration and the Afghan government are mulling the placement of more U.S. advisers alongside Afghan officers who lead smaller battalion-size formations. Turner


‘Where I work … it is dangerous to be alive’: A slain Mexican journalist’s prescient speech

Mexican journalist Javier Valdez was killed in the state of Sinaloa after attackers opened fire on his car on May 15. He's the fifth reporter to have been killed in Mexico in recent months. “Where I work, Culiacán, in the state of Sinaloa, Mexico, it is dangerous to be alive.” That's what Mexican journalist Javier Valdez said not too long ago, in 2011, when he accepted an International Press Freedom award from the Committee to Protect Journalists. Not only did Valdez work in one of the world's most dangerous countries for reporters — he also did some of the most dangerous work, covering crime and corruption in one of Mexico's most violent states. “To do journalism is to walk on an invisible line drawn by the bad guys — who are in drug trafficking and in the government — in a field strewn with explosives,” he said at the time. “This is what most of the country is living through. One must protect oneself from everything and everyone, and there do not seem to be options or salvation, and often there is no one to turn to.” On Monday afternoon, he was fatally shot near the offices of the newspaper he founded, Riodoce. He is the fifth reporter killed this year in Mexico, and his death comes just one day after about 100 assailants attacked seven national and international journalists covering a security operation in the state of Guerrero. They were on the highway that leads to Iguala, where 43 students from a teacher training college vanished in 2014. Riodoce, which Valdez founded in 2003, focused almost exclusively on crime and corruption. The reporter was an expert on drug trafficking and organized crime, subjects he covered extensively in his books. It was a dangerous enterprise, and Valdez had come under attack before. In 2009, assailants hurled a grenade into the Riodoce newsroom. Valdez, who also worked as a correspondent for the national newspaper La Jornada, specialized in chronicling the human toll of the violence in Mexico. In a story from 2014, he described the pain of realizing that your child has been kidnapped: Raúl felt like his eyes were filling with shattered glass. The tears didn’t beg permission. They began to fall. They ran down his skin. One of his children had been kidnapped. The police said it was an abduction. But he knew instantly that they were going to