Why was a Nobel Prize awarded to a man who celebrated a war criminal?

creating a new one. This is why we, the victims of cruel nationalist aggression, find ourselves dumbfounded by the decision of the Nobel Prize jury, a highly respected institution that we would have expected to uphold and protect the very ideals that compelled the Western world to stand up to the evils of war, to make such a distinguished award to one who masterminded death and destruction. This protest is not about the western Balkans and the experiences of the generations who have lived through hell because of Milosevic and his enablers. It is not about attacking the freedom of speech or freedom of association, which we also have fought long and hard to enjoy. This protest is not about a man who merely had fringe political opinions, ideological beliefs or qualms about what is morally just. It is a protest against rewarding a writer who amplified support for a war criminal and endorsed his premeditated plan to exterminate the ethnic and the political other. The implications of this decision bode ill for all humanity, for they embolden other leaders and writers with such gruesome motivations and tendencies. Handke was not on the right side of history in Kosovo or the Balkans; he was not on the side of noble ideals; instead, he found shelter on the dark side of the tragic events in the Balkans. The will of Alfred Nobel specified that the prize should go to authors who have “produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction.” It is hard to see how the Nobel Committee’s decision to give the award to Handke conforms in any way to this standard. Nobel, through his legacy, all but erased criticism that he was a Merchant of Death because of his invention of dynamite. Now, however, the Nobel Committee has sadly — and indelibly — attached itself to Peter Handke, a celebrator of Slobodan Milosevic, the Butcher of the Balkans. Read more: David Von Drehle: We can learn something from this year’s Nobel Prizes: Humility The Post’s View: Abiy Ahmed’s Nobel Peace Prize is deserved, but he still has work to do in his country Michelle Gulino and Malaak Jamal: Ethiopia’s leader won the Nobel Prize. But he’s got a long way to go for peace. Agon Maliqi: Remembering the U.S. intervention that worked Jasmin Mujanovic: How the European Union is betraying the Western Balkans


Mexico’s release of El Chapo’s son is a shocking capitulation

Mexico has endured 13 years of a bloody and painful conflict that has taken the lives of 200,000 people and seen the disappearance of at least 30,000 more. The country’s drug war has perplexed two consecutive Mexican presidents: Felipe Calderón, who recklessly began the push against Mexico’s powerful drug cartels, and Enrique Peña Nieto, whose corruption-riddled administration made the problem worse. Current President Andrés Manuel López Obrador promised a new strategy: “hugs, not bullets,” a unilateral surrender of the government’s legitimate use of force. Despite record-high violence, López Obrador insisted he would not engage in the same policy of confrontation favored by his predecessors. “We don’t want war,” he has said. On Thursday, he proved just how much he is willing to concede. The story does not bode well for Mexico. At around 3:30 p.m., violence erupted in Culiacán, the capital of the northwestern state of Sinaloa. According to the government’s account — laid out hours later in a sloppy and amateurish video by Mexico’s security minister, Alfonso Durazo — a squad of 30 soldiers from the newly minted National Guard came under fire while on patrol along the “Tres Ríos” residential area. When a number of men shot at the group from a nearby building, Mexican armed forces responded in turn and took control of the residence. Inside, they found four assailants. One of them was eventually identified as Ovidio Guzmán López, the 29-year-old son of drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the powerful leader of the Sinaloa cartel now serving multiple life sentences in Colorado. A suspected drug lord in his own right, the younger Guzmán had recently been indicted, along with his older brother Joaquín, on charges of drug trafficking by U.S. authorities. Though details are still hazy, Mexican soldiers proceeded to hold him. Someone took a picture of the detainee, an informal mugshot in which he looks arrogantly into the camera. Perhaps he knew what was coming. In the government’s initial version of events, numerous criminal units soon “surrounded the residence, showing superior firepower” to that of the smaller contingent of Mexican armed forces. As this happened, the city of Culiacán turned into a war zone. It hadn’t taken long for news of Guzmán’s predicament to reach other members of the Sinaloa cartel. A caravan of pickups and trucks, some of them outfitted with war-like contraptions with high-caliber weapons at the ready, began firing thousands of


How Boris Johnson could pass his Brexit deal on ‘Super Saturday’ — and who could stand in the way

LONDON — Finally! A Brexit deal! Prime Minister Boris Johnson confounded skeptics when he announced that Britain and the European Union had a new withdrawal agreement. But Brexit is not yet sorted. The next big showdown will come Saturday — “Super Saturday,” as Britain’s media are calling it — during a rare weekend session of the House of Commons. The fiercest battles over Brexit have always been fought within Britain. Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May, recognized that when Parliament rejected the deal she negotiated with the Europeans — three times. Indeed, within minutes of Johnson’s revised deal landing Thursday, Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) diminished its chances by declaring that the party’s 10 members of Parliament would not support it. Now, Johnson must figure out how to make up for those votes, and then some. Analysts calculate that he needs about 60 votes beyond what was already locked up to get to the 320-vote threshold for the deal to pass. Tim Bale, a politics professor at the Queen Mary University of London, estimated that it was possible, but not probable, that Parliament would back Johnson on Saturday. Rob Ford, a politics professor at the University of Manchester, said it will be “tight.” Mujtaba Rahman, an analyst with Eurasia Group, predicted the vote would come down to “single digits either way” but that, without DUP support, it was “difficult to see” the deal passing. The Financial Times count If Johnson is to defy expectations, for the second time in one week, he will need to find new pockets of support. So whom might he persuade? Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the official opposition Labour Party, has said his party will not back the agreement. “Johnson’s negotiated a worse deal than Theresa May,” Corbyn tweeted Thursday. “This sellout deal risks our rights, protections and [National Health Service]. It won’t bring the country together and should be rejected.” But some Labour lawmakers — most likely those who are Euroskeptics, or who have Euroskeptic constituencies — may buck their party and vote with Johnson. Labour has a nuanced — some say muddled — position on Brexit, and some of its members of Parliament may want to enter the next general election with Brexit in the rearview mirror. “Some Labour MPs also think that once we get this deal done, we can go back to politics as usual,” Bale said. Being able to focus on other


Sweet excess: How the baby food industry hooks toddlers on sugar, salt and fat

make sure the packet looks different from infant formula. There just aren’t that many people talking about these things. The research hasn’t caught up with the market.” BESPOKE BABY FOOD There are bright spots in the baby-toddler nutrition world. Long dominated by the tiny glass jars of Gerber and Beech-Nut, entrepreneurs are launching healthier brands in convenient pouches and in the refrigerated aisle of the grocery store. Neurosurgeon Teresa Purzner recently launched baby food company Cerebelly, with $6.7 million in funding to support a line aimed at brain development. Angela Sutherland and Evelyn Rusli launched Yumi organic baby foods in the Los Angeles area in 2017, a subscription service that mails customers tiny jars of “baby borscht” and parfaits of mango buckwheat pudding. And Serenity and Joe Carr, paleo-diet proponents, started Serenity Kids in 2016, a line of meat-forward, higher-fat baby foods available in 3.5-ounce pouches at Whole Foods for $3.99. Most of these newcomers are significantly more expensive than Gerber and Beech-Nut, putting them out of reach for low-income parents. And WIC, which feeds about half of the 4 million babies born in the United States each year, has not approved pouches, sticking with more established shelf-stable glass jars that are often anchored by sugary fruit purées. The government does not have guidelines for daily sugar limits for children under 2. But for children between 2 and 18, a limit of 25 grams of added sugar is recommended. In a recent analysis of 469 conventional baby foods in the United States, 35 percent contained more than 10 grams of total sugar in a 4-ounce, single-serve jar or pouch. As a point of comparison, a regular-sized Snickers bar has 20 grams of sugar. Rick Klauser, chief executive of vegetable-forward Sprout Foods, said that major brands take advantage of government loopholes that don’t require fanciful nutrition and ingredient labeling on the front of packages to match up with the order of ingredients on the back. “Consumers are already frustrated, they think they know what they are feeding their babies, but there’s a gap in my mind between what we’re telling people and what we’re feeding them,” he said. Klauser said that cleaning up communication on labels is crucial for toddler food products, and that the return on investment will be seen in the reduction of health-care costs. “By 18 months” he said, “a child’s nutrition journey is more or less forged.”


As vaping-linked deaths rise to 33, officials are still seeking answers

Lung illnesses and deaths linked to vaping nationwide have continued to rise as federal health officials expand lab testing to understand the mysterious afflictions, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. As of Oct. 15 The rapidly rising fatality numbers since the first death was reported in August have helped fuel a crackdown on battery-powered devices that simulate smoking. Health advocates have long raised alarms that products touted as a healthier alternative to cigarettes are getting youths addicted to nicotine, and the Trump administration plans to ban the flavored products often blamed for drawing in young people. Some policymakers are also citing the recent surge in vaping-related illnesses as they halt e-cigarette sales at the state level. Announcing the latest increase in illnesses, the CDC reiterated its conclusion that products containing THC, the psychoactive component of marijuana, are a main culprit and should be avoided. About 78 percent of patients say they used vaping products containing THC, according to the CDC, and nearly a third of patients reported using only THC products. Ten percent said they vaped only nicotine, although doctors caution that people may be reluctant to admit to using marijuana. Investigations suggest that THC-containing products bought off the street or obtained from friends, family and illegal dealers are particularly dangerous, the federal health agency said. Opponents of vaping sales bans have argued that new policies should target black market items rather than e-cigarettes as a whole. But because the cause of the lung illnesses remains unclear, “the only way to assure that you are not at risk while the investigation continues is to consider refraining from use of all e-cigarette, or vaping, products,” the CDC says on its website. Deaths confirmed by the CDC span 24 states: Alabama, California (3), Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia (2), Illinois, Indiana (3), Kansas (2), Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota (3), Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Oregon (2), Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia. The new numbers reinforce earlier findings that patients are largely male and young. About four out of five people afflicted are younger than 35 years old, according to federal data. Patients range from 13 to 75 years old and have a median age of 23. Those who have died tend to be older, with a median age of 44, the CDC said. Federal and state health officials are still studying the illnesses, which they say have


A marmot’s final moment before becoming fox food wins an award — and tells us about climate change

“The Moment” was rare yet relatable. In a picture captured by Chinese photographer Yongqing Bao, a female Tibetan fox and a Himalayan marmot meet. The fox, hunting to feed her three cubs, crouches, ready to pounce. The marmot, upright and pivoting on one small claw, opens its mouth in a silent screech. The creatures face each other — suspended in what Roz Kidman Cox, chair of the judging panel for Wildlife Photographer of the Year, called an “extraordinary” natural moment. “Photographically, it is quite simply the perfect moment,” said Cox, who awarded Bao first place in the photography contest, which is sponsored by London’s Natural History Museum. “The expressive intensity of the postures holds you transfixed, and the thread of energy between the raised paws seems to hold the protagonists in perfect balance.” Bao told BBC he waited for hours in an alpine meadow of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, an expanse of elevated land in central and east Asia, to capture the hunt. The fox lay in the grass, waiting for passing prey. The young marmot walked into her trap. The pictures that followed Bao’s award-winning moment are gruesome, Bao told BBC. He summarized the end result simply. “That’s nature,” he said. Bao was born and raised in the area where he captured the photo, according to the museum. He developed a fascination with local wildlife and now serves as director and chief ecological photographer of the Qilian Mountain Nature Conservation Association of China. “During years of photography, I have come to realize that there is a long way to go in terms of environmental conservation,” Bao told London’s Natural History Museum. “As a photographer, I believe that it is my responsibility to let people know that wild animals are indispensable friends to humans.” Sir Michael Dixon, the museum director, said in a news release that the plateau is often referred to as the “Third Pole” because of the “enormous water reserves held by its ice fields.” The area, he said, is under “threat” because of “dramatic temperature rises” attributed to global climate change. “At a time when precious habitats are facing increasing climate pressures, seeing these fleeting yet fascinating moments reminds us of what we need to protect,” Dixon said. The grasslands where the foxes live are used by livestock herders, according to the museum, which means the foxes’ habitat and food sources are disturbed by humans. Their usual prey


Two Americans detained in China on ‘bogus’ charges, their families say

“Jacob frequently travels from the USA to China to provide support for the teachers there.” A GoFundMe page set up to help Harlan with legal costs says that police picked up him and his 8-year-old daughter, Viara, from their hotel in Weifang in eastern China. They took Harlan’s phone and computer and he was not allowed to contact his wife at home in Utah with their four other children for 48 hours, the post says. Then Viara was allowed to call her mother and leave China with a family friend. Harlan is still being held in a hotel near Zhenjiang, north of Shanghai, under police surveillance, the page says. As part of China Horizons’ business, Harlan “meets these groups at the airport, gets them situated in their new homes, troubleshoots for them throughout their stays,” the page says. Petersen is the company’s director, based in Rexburg, and a student at Brigham Young University at Idaho, according to a GoFundMe page her parents set up. She has been traveling to China for a decade, including for China Horizons. She was detained on Sept. 27 and has been held in a jail in Zhenjiang ever since, her parents said. She has had no contact with anyone apart from a consular officer, who is allowed to see her only once a month, they said. “Alyssa has been [formally] charged with ‘Illegally moving people across borders’ which is a bogus charge as she has been doing this for 8+ years with no issues,” her parents wrote. Chinese officials taped and monitored the conversation, her father, Clark Petersen, told EastIdahoNews.com. “There was a lot of fear at first. We are Latter-day Saints, [so] we’ve fasted and prayed for her, and we’ve felt peace knowing that she is going to be OK,” he said. China Horizons will close its business at the end of this month, according to a post on its Facebook page, saying, “We are no longer able to send teachers to China safely.” “Because of the changes that are taking place in China right now, the owner, Jacob Harlan, and the director, Alyssa Petersen, have been detained in China for 13 days now and may be so for the next few months or years,” it said. “They are being charged for bogus crimes, and their families are working on getting them international lawyers to help them get back home to the states.” anna.fifield@washpost.com


Virginia town becomes home to nation’s first drone package delivery service

starts performing the service.” Susie Sensmeier, who agreed to take part in Friday’s event after attending a Wing demo a few weeks ago, said she wished she had had access to Wing’s service in the summer when her husband was recovering from a broken leg. Walgreens, which is also participating in the project by offering a list of 100 products for sale, including over-the-counter medical goods, snacks and drinks, is pitching it as a boon to parents with sick kids. The idea in Christiansburg, a town of about 22,500 where Wing set up shop in partnership with nearby Virginia Tech, is for customers to be able to use an app on their phone to place an order and get a delivery within about 10 minutes. The drone that arrived at the Sensmeiers’ had departed from a base that Wing calls a nest, about a mile away. Built from artfully arranged gray shipping containers, the nest is like a slice of Silicon Valley tucked behind a Mexican restaurant and a bar in small-town Virginia. Inside, about a dozen of the drones sit on launchpads where their batteries can be charged. The drones are made of the same kind of foam used in bicycle helmets and fly using a combination of 12 helicopter-like rotors and two wing-mounted propellers. A single pilot can monitor up to five of the autonomous aircraft from a control booth inside one of the shipping containers. Observers who monitor the air are stationed around town. From the nest, the drone travels at speeds up to 65 mph and can carry three-pound packages to homes within about 3½ miles. When it arrives, the drone lowers the package, nestling it on the ground. Hundreds of potential customers have signed up, a Wing spokeswoman said. Christiansburg Mayor Michael Barber said Wing had done a good job of being visible in the community, showing up at street festivals and markets, where the company has been flooded with interest. “It’s one of the more exciting innovations to come our way in a while,” said Barber, a retired banker and veteran of town politics. “I’ve not heard any complaints whatsoever.” Wing isn’t charging for deliveries, and unlike UPS, Uber and Amazon, the other companies that have obtained or are publicly known to be seeking approval to deliver packages by drones, it’s not already in the delivery business. (Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos


Why the Irish border is a perpetual Brexit snag

of the United Kingdom, a heated debate has emerged over what to do to about the border after Brexit. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has made it clear that Ireland would not accept any deal that led to the implementation of a hard border. In addition to concerns that such a change would create major inconveniences for trade and movement, there are serious fears that reinstating a militarized border could reignite old tensions. On paper, the conflict ended more than 20 years ago, but there are still open hostilities that have at times bubbled up into violence. Earlier this year, clashes broke out in the city of Londonderry, also called Derry, after a police raid against suspected militant Irish nationalists. In the chaos that followed, Northern Irish journalist Lyra McKee was shot dead in what police called “a terrorist act.” That evening of turmoil in the border city reignited concerns that despite two decades of peace, the conflict was not entirely over — and added further to the stress over what Brexit could do to the border. To keep the border between the two sides soft, former British prime minister Theresa May tried to sell lawmakers on a plan known as the Irish backstop, which would require Britain to maintain ties to European trade policies. That enraged the pro-Brexit camp, which said it would subject the U.K. to E.U. rules even though it would no longer have any voting power in the E.U. In his first remarks to Parliament after he succeeded May as prime minister this summer, Boris Johnson said that to agree to such a system would violate Britain’s independence and self-respect. “If an agreement is to be reached,” he said, “it must be clearly understood that the way to the deal goes by way of the abolition of the backstop.” Irish leaders lashed out at that suggestion, and Johnson and Varadkar reportedly shared a tense phone call soon after. But now Johnson has suggested a different plan that would allow the United Kingdom to completely withdraw from the E.U. customs rules by implementing a special customs border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. That arrangement would allow certain goods to be imported in Northern Ireland, for example, as long as they don’t go any further than that. Not everyone is content with this plan, and some are especially concerned by the idea that this would in theory lead


The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded for a baffling reason

Meron Estefanos is a Swedish Eritrean human rights activist, journalist and refugee advocate. Last week, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Many Eritreans — myself included — were flabbergasted. Abiy deserves credit for his reformist agenda in Ethiopia and his marathon diplomacy in the Horn of Africa. But the decision to award him the prize, at least in part, for his peacemaking efforts with Eritrea is puzzling. Despite last year’s euphoria surrounding the peace deal between the two countries, nothing has changed on the ground. Abiy’s goodwill impacted the lives of Eritreans in the first few months after the deal. But the benefits were short lived, and Eritrea’s repressive status quo continues today. The dispute between Eritrea and Ethiopia was based on a small border town called Badme. Over the course of a two-year conflict from 1998 to 2000, as many as 120,000 lives from both sides were lost. In 2000, the Algiers Peace Agreement was signed, ruling Badme would be part of Eritrea. But the Ethiopian government refused to implement the decision. For two decades, the Eritrean government used this “no war-no peace” situation to justify unlimited national service, forced labor, severe restrictions on freedom of movement and expression and arbitrary arrests and disappearances. In particular, the prolonged compulsory military conscription in the name of the border conflict led to a massive Eritrean exodus. Thousands of Eritreans took the perilous journey across the Sahara and the Mediterranean in search of freedom, something they cruelly lack in Eritrea. So when Abiy announced that he was ready to end the standoff between the two countries, it was almost a dream come true. In September 2018, Eritrea and Ethiopia signed an agreement that formally ended the border conflict, and in November, the United Nations Security Council lifted its nine-year arms embargo and sanctions against Eritrea. The border between Eritrea and Ethiopia opened in September, too, giving Eritreans the opportunity to leave the country without the need for a passport, exit visa or the promise of return. My youngest brother crossed to Ethiopia after being conscripted at 15 and serving for 19 years as a prison guard in Sawa military camp. He was among the thousands who fled the country when the border opened. But in December, without notice or explanation, the border closed again. Peace was meant to normalize the relationship between the two countries and relieve


Parliament votes to withhold approval of Brexit deal, postponing Boris Johnson’s moment of reckoning

on the British people.” Her voice rising with passion, May said, “If you don’t want no deal, you have to vote for a deal. Businesses are crying out for certainty. People want certainty in their lives.” Johnson’s deal offers a more distant relationship with the E.U. than the agreement she struck. His plan, however, would see Northern Ireland stay largely aligned to the E.U., even though it would leave the bloc with the rest of the country. Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party said the deal was not in the province’s “long-term interests.” The party’s 10 lawmakers are expected to vote against it. “It was once said that no British prime minister could ever agree to such terms,” Democratic Unionist lawmaker Nigel Dodds said in Parliament. “Will he now abide by that and reconsider the fact that we must leave as one nation together?” John Major “It is a shame and an outrage frankly that Northern Ireland is treated like some disposable inconvenience to be bartered away,” Blair said. Without the support of the Democratic Unionists, Johnson has had to look for other pathways to a majority for his deal. There has been much wheeling and dealing at 10 Downing Street. There was speculation that Johnson might offer the 21 lawmakers he expelled from his party last month a way back in if they voted with him. He also offered new pledges Friday night to protect workers’ rights, which was seen as an attempt to woo more Labour lawmakers, especially those who are either Brexiteers or who represent Brexit-backing constituencies. Labour’s Corbyn called those pledges “empty promises.” This deal, Corbyn said, would “absolutely, inevitably lead to a Trump trade deal, forcing the U.K. to diverge from the highest standards and expose our families once again to chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-treated beef.” But some Labour lawmakers representing Euroskeptic constituencies have indicated they will support Johnson’s deal. In an opinion column in the Guardian newspaper, Melanie Onn, a Labour lawmaker from Grimsby, a pro-Brexit town populated by “Labour-leavers,” implored her colleagues “to use this unique chance to help us move on.” “The risk of letting this final shot at a deal slip through our fingers is too great,” she said in a piece she wrote with a Conservative Party lawmaker. Johnson is also hoping to bring on side the 28 hard-line Brexiteers from his party who have previously been resistant to a Brexit


Days after opening its first U.K. restaurant, Chick-fil-A announces the location will close

Chick-fil-A opened the doors of its first United Kingdom restaurant Oct. 10, marking the popular but controversial chicken chain’s second location outside the United States as it seeks to expand internationally. Nine days later, the company announced that it will close the location within six months. The news came as an LGBTQ group held protests outside the brand-new restaurant at the Oracle Mall in Reading, denouncing the company’s opposition to same-sex marriage. A mall spokesperson told the BBC that the company would not be allowed to stay beyond its initial “six-month pilot period,” calling it the “right thing to do.” But Chick-fil-A said it had always planned to operate there for only a limited time. “We have been very pleased with the lines since opening Oct. 10 and are grateful for customer response to our food and our approach to customer service,” the company said in an email Saturday, including photos of customers waiting in line. “We mutually agreed to a six-month lease with the Oracle Mall in Reading as part of a longer term strategy for us as we look to expand our international presence.” Reading Pride, a U.K.-based LGBTQ advocacy group, announced its stance against the restaurant’s opening Oct. 14. In a statement shared on Twitter, the group said it was “staunchly opposed to Chick-fil-A setting up shop in the UK and certainly in Reading.” “The chain’s ethos and moral stance goes completely against our values, and that of the UK as we are a progressive country that has legalized same-sex marriage for some years, and continues to strive towards equality,” the statement said. The group cited infamous comments Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy made in 2012 about believing in the “biblical definition of the family unit.” It also pointed to the company’s donations to organizations such as the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which says in its statement of faith that marriage is “exclusively the union of one man and one woman.” Chick-fil-A has defended its giving, telling Business Insider that the money given to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes funds camps its foundation has hosted through a partnership with the organization. “These kids are important to us,” Rodney Bullard, the company’s vice president of corporate social responsibility, told Business Insider. “We develop relationships with them over the years to where there is a crisis, they actually come to people, in part to people in our staff.” Protests of


The Daily 202: Mattis, McRaven and the revenge of the four-stars

the Vatican that they were sexually abused as boys by former D.C. archbishop and cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was defrocked this year amid sexual abuse allegations. -- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed 33 deaths among 1,479 lung injuries associated with the use of e-cigarettes. -- The landmark opioid epidemic trial could be averted if a meeting among drug company CEOs, state attorneys general and the lawyers for 2,600 cities and counties ends in a settlement. -- The Census Bureau’s request to collect citizenship data based on state driver’s license and ID records raises privacy and accuracy concerns among civil rights organizations and census experts. -- In one of his last official acts before passing away, Elijah Cummings signed two subpoenas seeking documents related to a temporary end to a policy change that allowed some immigrants with severe health issues to remain in the U.S. -- A sudden increase in the number of Mexican families and asylum seekers trying to cross into the U.S. has raised fears of a new border crisis. -- An ailing 37-year-old Mexican immigrant died in Immigrations Customs Enforcement custody after officials waited more than seven hours to transfer him to a hospital, a case that raises new questions about the man’s treatment. -- Roylan Hernandez-Diaz, a Cuban immigrant, died by suicide in his Tennessee detention cell after spending more than four months imprisoned while attempting to receive asylum. -- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he fears the “erosion of truth” but will continue allowing politicians to lie in ads on his platform. -- New York City voted to shut down the troubled Rikers jail complex and replace it with four smaller jails by 2026. -- The Parkland school shooter’s death penalty trial is set to begin in January, according to a new court order. -- A new Pew Research Center survey found that 65 percent of American adults describe themselves as Christians when asked about their religion, down 12 percentage points over the past decade. THE NEW WORLD ORDER: -- Heavy gunfire consumed the streets of Culiacan on Thursday afternoon, as Mexican security forces struggled to fend off members of the Sinaloa cartel, once led by notorious drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. -- Eight migrants from Cameroon who survived a shipwreck off the coast of Mexico have been locked in an old facility that formerly produced sterile flies for agriculture purposes. --


that 65 percent of American adults describe themselves as Christians when asked about their religion, down 12 percentage points over the past decade. THE NEW WORLD ORDER: -- Heavy gunfire consumed the streets of Culiacan on Thursday afternoon, as Mexican security forces struggled to fend off members of the Sinaloa cartel, once led by notorious drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. -- Eight migrants from Cameroon who survived a shipwreck off the coast of Mexico have been locked in an old facility that formerly produced sterile flies for agriculture purposes. -- The past three months in Afghanistan have been the deadliest for civilians in a decade, according to a U.N. report. -- Thousands have taken to the streets in Lebanon to protest corruption. -- Robb Report, an American publication partly owned by U.S. media giant PMC, hosted a private yachting trip to Saudi Arabia almost one year to the day after journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered by the Saudi government. -- The U.K. and the E.U.’s new Brexit deal sets up a potentially close vote in Parliament. -- China’s economy recorded its slowest rate of growth in more than 27 years. -- China has detained two Americans working for an education organization, -- The government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro won a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council. -- A Hong Kong court ruled against allowing same-sex unions in the city. SOCIAL MEDIA SPEED READ: A Post reporter who covers Trump’s private businesses notes that the president’s club at Doral could use the revenue that the G-7 will bring: From George W. Bush’s former White House press secretary: Another alum of the Bush administration, who now writes for the Atlantic, fact-checked a claim on Fox News: The deputy White House press secretary spoke at length to Fox News and then said he was too busy to answer questions from assembled journalists: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg continues to whitewash and sandpaper the true origin story of his social network: Trump told a room full of Texans that their state profited from devastating hurricanes: And tributes flowed to the late Elijah Cummings: VIDEOS OF THE DAY: Trevor Noah went on a lightning round of Trump scandals: His team also compiled some of the administration’s more notable flip-flops on Syria policy: Jimmy Kimmel thinks Trump just doesn’t care anymore: Here are some of the most historic moments in Rep. Cummings’s political career:


PBS series reveals great views of Earth from space, value of satellite photography

If you’ve ever viewed a solar eclipse, you’re familiar with the neck-stiffening sensation of looking up as the sun is briefly overshadowed by the moon. But what would the same eclipse look like if you viewed it from space? “Life From Above,” a four-part series from PBS and BBC Studios’s Natural History Unit, has the answer. The show, which premieres at 10 p.m. Wednesday on PBS stations, showcases views of Earth from space — and also reveals the scientific importance of satellite photography. The first satellites helped trigger a space race that stoked the Cold War. But cameras posted above Earth also make plenty of scientific contributions. They allow scientists to measure oncoming storms and the extent of the flooding that follows. They help lead researchers to animal life in places that are hard to monitor or explore on land — such as Antarctica, where researchers can use satellite imagery to track penguin colonies using the brown color of their guano trails. And they capture the ebb and flow of animal and plant life. Episode 1 of the series, “Moving Planet,” is filled with gorgeous imagery and breathtaking views. One of its highlights is footage of the 2017 solar eclipse taken from high-altitude weather balloons launched by schoolchildren and college students across the United States. (Not all satellite footage involves rockets.) The live, near-space views of the eclipse flip traditional eclipse imagery on its head. Suddenly, the eclipse isn’t the sun disappearing behind the black disc of the Moon’s shadow — it’s the sweep of that shadow across the landscape. And imagery from the International Space Station shows the enormous shadow’s trajectory across the entire country, illustrating the scale of the celestial body. Whether you watch for the scientific tidbits or just the pretty pictures of the planet, “Life From Above” offers plenty of eye candy — and a refreshing bit of perspective thanks to cameras that literally rise above daily life.


Tiger Woods says he wants to add Olympic gold to all those green jackets

much else to play for, really, other than right up here. And yet somehow the guys really enjoyed the whole Olympic experience. I think that says it all.” Woods missed the Olympics — and the entire PGA Tour season — in 2016 as he recovered from back surgeries, but he returned in full in 2018 and has since added to his résumé with wins at that year’s Tour Championship and this year’s Masters. “I went to my first Olympic Games when it was in Los Angeles,” Woods said, referring to the 1984 Summer Games. “So now to have the opportunity to be a part of the Olympics, because golf in my lifetime wasn’t a part of the Olympics, is an important aspect for us and the growth of the game. “The game has become so global and so reaching that I think the Olympic Games is a great extension of that and I’d like to be a part of it.” The Olympic men’s and women’s tournaments feature fields of 60 golfers, with qualification based on the Official World Golf Rankings for men (as of June 22, 2020) and the Women’s World Golf Rankings (as of June 29). The top 15 golfers in each qualify automatically, though countries are limited to four golfers who can qualify this way. After that, the remaining spots go to the highest-ranked players from countries that do not already have two golfers qualified, with a limit of two per country. Woods sits ninth in the world golf rankings, behind five other Americans. The tournament will be held at Kasumigaseki Country Club, which is about an hour northwest of Tokyo. Woods soon will play in two events in Japan, a skins competition with Rory McIlroy, Jason Day and Hideki Matsuyama and then the Zozo Championship, a new tournament that’s part of the PGA Tour’s inaugural three-tournament Asia swing. Read Olympic organizers want to move the marathon 500 miles from Tokyo over heat fears Lasers, rabbits and new Nikes: How the two-hour marathon barrier was broken Eliud Kipchoge becomes the first to run a marathon in under two hours Brigid Kosgei of Kenya shatters the women’s marathon world record by more than a minute Dutch gymnast Bart Deurloo sings “Be Like That” for Simone Biles Gymnast Simone Biles breaks record for world medals won by a gymnast Noah Lyles, with two world track championship gold medals, returns home


Boris Johnson to seek a new vote Monday on his Brexit deal, as confusion swirls over exit delay

LONDON — Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowed he’d never, ever ask the European Union to push the Brexit deadline beyond October. Now he has relented. At the very last minute on Saturday night, Johnson asked the Europeans for a Brexit delay until the end of January 2020. In fact, he sent three letters, leaving people to puzzle over exactly which one meant what — and to wonder: Where Brexit is headed next? A most excellent question. Because nobody really knows. After lawmakers voted 322 to 306 to withhold support for Johnson’s new Brexit deal, scuppering his hope of finalizing Britain’s exit plan at an extraordinary — but ill-named? — “Super Saturday” session in Parliament, the prime minister was forced to fold and seek an extension. A bill passed last month by British lawmakers mandated that if a deal were not approved by Saturday, Johnson would have to formally seek a three-month extension beyond the Oct. 31 deadline. Johnson did that. Grudgingly? For sure. With an eye on looming elections? Indubitably. After the Saturday showdown in Parliament came a kind of Sunday hangover, with the British people, and the Europeans, in a bit of a fog, as they read the morning papers and slurped tea. Johnson’s government announced it was now seeking a “meaningful vote” on his Brexit deal on Monday afternoon — a ballot that Johnson was denied by Parliament’s maneuverings on Saturday. If that vote happens, Johnson’s ministers promised, the Brexit deal will pass. On the Sunday morning talk shows in Britain, Johnson’s cabinet emphasized momentum and speed and “let’s get Brexit done.” His opponents, including members of his own Conservative Party, emphasized wait and scrutinize, and let’s first see what the government’s economic analysis says about the impact. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told the BBC, “Notwithstanding the parliamentary shenanigans, we appear to have now the numbers to get this through.” As for Johnson’s three letters to the E.U., the first did not contain his signature. Much was made of this on political Twitter. “Childish,” senior Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said Sunday, suggesting it was a stunt. But it turns out that the lack of signature doesn’t matter much, as it was an official communique from the prime minister. The president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, said late Saturday that the British government had notified the E.U. of its extension request. “I will now start consulting E.U.


Gun battle involving El Chapo’s son highlights growing challenges to Mexican government control

CULIACAN, Mexico — They were out there somewhere. Everyone knew the Sinaloa Cartel members dominated this northwestern Mexico city. The gang once led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman had influenced Culiacan’s politics and businesses for decades. But what happened this past week was unprecedented. When Mexican authorities tried to detain one of El Chapo’s sons, hundreds of gunmen with automatic weapons swept through the city, sealing off its exits, taking security officials hostage and battling authorities. After several hours, the besieged government forces released Ovidio Guzman, who was wanted on U.S. federal drug-trafficking charges. “We always knew they [traffickers] fought and killed each other. But there was never an attack on the civilian population,” said Alicia Guzman, 52, who runs a candy store near a traffic crossing blocked by the gunmen. She and her family scrambled to their nearby home when the cartel members roared up, and cowered inside for hours. The offensive in Culiacan has sparked intense criticism of the crime-fighting strategy of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. And it has exposed one of the country’s foremost problems: the government’s slipping control over parts of the territory. There are an increasing number of areas “where you effectively have a state presence, but under negotiated terms with whoever runs the show locally,” said Falko Ernst, the senior Mexico analyst for the International Crisis Group. The Culiacan assault, captured on cellphone videos that zipped around social media, “visualizes it very forcefully,” he said. Thursday afternoon’s attack came on the heels of several incidents highlighting the ability of organized-crime groups to challenge the government. On Monday, gunmen ambushed a convoy of state police in the western state of Michoacan, killing 14. Last month, the Northeast Cartel ordered gas stations in the border city of Nuevo Laredo to deny service to police or military vehicles, leaving them desperate for fuel. But never had Mexicans seen a city of nearly 1 million people openly seized by a cartel — forcing the cancellation of school classes, the closure of the airport and the postponement of a professional soccer game. “It was a political defeat, a security defeat, and a defeat of perception — of the way Mexicans view their own government,” said Gustavo Mohar, a former top security official who is now a consultant. López Obrador took office last December vowing to depart from previous governments’ reliance on the military to fight organized-crime groups, a


A second Brexit referendum? London protesters keep the cry alive.

leave the bloc by Oct. 31. Video posted on social media showed senior Conservative politicians — allies of Johnson — being jeered at by demonstrators as they left Parliament. Andrea Leadsom, the business secretary, tweeted: “Why do the so called ‘People’s Vote’ protesters think it’s ok to abuse, intimidate and scream in the face of someone they don’t agree with? So frightening, and so grateful to the police.” Nicholas Cook, 61, a lawyer standing near Big Ben, said Johnson’s deal was a bad one. “What’s Brexit for? What’s the tangible benefit? No one has given us any idea, any real point of difference as to why this is a good idea, other than ‘gaining control,’ whatever that means,” he said. In June 2016, Britons voted 52 percent to 48 percent to leave the E.U. Three years on, polls show that Britons would vote, by a similarly small margin, to stay in with the 28 other E.U. nations. Pollsters say that it’s not that people have changed their minds, but rather that some older voters have died and young people are overwhelmingly pro-E.U. “If politicians voted on it three times and couldn’t make up their minds, it should go back to the people,” said Clare O’Neill, 22, an education worker. Brenda Beckett, 56, a school administrator, said she was marching on behalf of herself and her kids. “We have two children who speak fluent Spanish, and they would like to work freely in Spain if they could. But once we leave the E.U., they would have to jump through hoops. It’s a right we had in our 20s and 30s, and I feel like they should, too,” she said. Johnson said that the way to heal the rift in Britain would be for Britain to “get Brexit done” and to leave the E.U. by the end of the month. Kevin Kibble, 65, a charity worker standing near Westminster subway station, said that the best way to heal divisions would be to revoke the E.U. divorce papers filed by Britain, known as Article 50. But he predicted that even if Johnson does ultimately steer Britain out of the E.U., it would only be temporary. “If we are thrown out, we will go back in,” he said. “There is only one place for us. We are a tiny little island, and we’re a part of Europe whether we like it or not.” karla.adam@washpost.com


The Cybersecurity 202: Russia’s false flags in Winter Olympics cyberattack herald a more complicated future

agencies. This case deals a major blow to Russian claims that it’s nearly impossible to attribute who is really behind an attack in the shadowy world of cyberspace. But it also offers a warning at how other false flags could be successful -- and let nation-states hack their enemies with impunity. It’s clear in this example how sophisticated adversary such as Russia can use its intelligence capability and understanding of other countries’ cultures to plant just enough seeds to cast doubt, just like it did in the 2016 election. For example, Kremlin hackers who breached the Democratic National Committee pretended to be a lone Romanian hacker dubbed Guccifer 2.0 — a far shoddier cover than in Olympic Destroyer, but it contributed to distrust in U.S. intelligence agencies’ attribution to Russia. And three years later, conspiracy theorists -- and President Trump -- continue to question whether the Kremlin is to blame. “As the 2020 election approaches, Olympic Destroyer shows that Russia has only advanced its deception techniques — graduating from flimsy cover stories to the most sophisticated planted digital fingerprints ever seen,” Andy writes. “And if they can fool even a few researchers or reporters, they can sow even more of the public confusion that misled the American electorate in 2016.” The attack on the Olympics was unique for how extensively Russian hackers seeded their malicious software with elements that appeared to come from North Korea, China and Russia itself. The clues were so contradictory, in fact, that they seemed designed to make attribution seem impossible rather than to pin the case on one particular nation. “It … sent a message to the security community: You can be misled,” Craig Williams, a researcher at Cisco, told Andy. All three nations have a prolific history of hacking adversaries, and North Korea and Russia both had clear motives. For Pyongyang, the attack would be an opportunity to poke its capitalist neighbor and Korean War adversary. For Moscow, it would be revenge against the International Olympic Committee for barring Russian athletes from competing under their country’s flag after a humiliating doping investigation. One big break in the case came when a researcher with Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab found a piece of malicious software that looked North Korean but was wrongly constructed — suggesting a deliberate attempt to fake a North Korean attack and undermining the case against a key suspect. The case cracked wide open,


Boris Johnson lost again. But he could still win the Brexit fight.

Johnson’s deal, that would mean the United Kingdom could leave the E.U. only on his terms if he won a second referendum. What seems to have moved off the agenda, at least for the next couple of days, is the prospect of a general election — but that could still quickly come back. If Johnson’s deal had failed, rather than just been delayed, then the prime minister might have requested the extension from the E.U. but then put pressure on the Labour opposition to vote for an election early next week. If his deal fails next week, that could still happen. Labour may well want to wait until the Oct. 31 deadline has passed, but if Johnson can’t get support for his deal, the government might look to other parties, such as the Scottish National Party, and get a very short bill through that allows an election. And as the government and Parliament work out how to respond to the latest Brexit developments, the Johnson government has still not passed its queen’s speech — the big set-piece vote in which the government's legislative plans for the year ahead are laid out. Normally, governments must secure Parliament’s backing for their legislative plans. The speech has been given, but it is still to be voted on and the government could still lose the vote. That would be constitutionally extraordinary: The last time a government was defeated on a monarch’s speech was in 1924. But without an election or a viable alternative government, Johnson is likely to continue in office no matter what. If the Labour opposition objects to this state of affairs, it could try to oust the prime minister by calling a vote of no confidence in Parliament. But they will do so only if they think they have enough support to form a government themselves — and, at the moment, they don’t. Once a Brexit extension is in place, though, Labour could try to trigger a general election and take Brexit out of the hands of Johnson’s government once again. The latest twist to the Brexit drama was not in Johnson’s script. But the drama is still being written. And it doesn’t yet look like any of the players know how it will end. Read more: No, Brexit is not really about making Britain imperial again Brexiteers ignored Ireland. Ireland may have the last laugh. Brexit is breaking British politics


Even if Johnson’s deal passes, Brexit won’t just be ‘done’

Want smart analysis of the most important news in your inbox every weekday, along with other global reads, interesting ideas and opinions? When British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged members of Parliament on Saturday to back his Brexit deal, The delay increases the likelihood of parliamentary maneuvers that could derail or alter Johnson’s plans this week, but Johnson isn’t heading toward certain defeat. He could still secure approval for his deal, perhaps without having to make use of the Brexit extension beyond Oct. 31, which Johnson was forced to request Saturday. After more than three years of uncertainty, there might be a tight majority for his agreement. In case his deal is approved, Johnson is likely to celebrate himself as the man who got “Brexit done” — a phrase he has frequently used in the past. But in reality, the United Kingdom’s Brexit woes are here to stay. Many of the Brexit concerns that have been on Britons’ minds in recent years — a breakup of the United Kingdom or the possibility of severe economic ramifications, for instance — would remain a risk, even if Johnson’s deal is approved. Northern Ireland is expected to remain at the center of the Brexit debate one way or another. Johnson’s proposed deal would avoid the reintroduction of border checks between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, but only because it would, in practice, move the customs border into the Irish Sea, which separates the islands of Britain and Ireland. Even though Northern Ireland would leave the E.U. customs union with the rest of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland would — at least initially — in some aspects remain aligned with the European Union. That’s a major headache for Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which has backed the Conservative Party in Parliament but won’t support Johnson’s deal. The party fears that his plans would drive Britain and Northern Ireland apart and could lead to Northern Ireland eventually unifying with the Republic of Ireland. “Paradoxically Mr. Johnson and Brexit may have done more for a united Ireland than the [Irish Republican Army] ever did,” Jonathan Powell, a former adviser to prime minister and Labour party leader Tony Blair, wrote in the Financial Times over the weekend. Poll numbers indicate that support for unification is on the rise in Northern Ireland. Those advocating a break with the United Kingdom could see a similar rise


The Technology 202: House Science Committee chair takes aim at Silicon Valley’s handling of Trump’s falsehoods

the spread of misinformation ahead of the elections. The issue has become a flashpoint among Democratic White House hopefuls. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Joe Biden have criticized Facebook’s recent decision to run a Trump campaign ad that made false claims about the former vice president’s dealings with Ukraine. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), has called on Twitter to suspend the president’s account. Johnson’s comments came during a wide-ranging interview with me and C-SPAN’s Peter Slen, where we discussed the state of tech regulation in Washington and her committee’s efforts to ensure the United States is investing in technology. Here are some excerpts from that conversation, which have been edited for clarity: On disinformation ahead of the 2020 election: Zakrzewski: Johnson: And it has to be bipartisan. You know, the Constitution is bipartisan. The responsibility to this nation is not partisan. We have allowed ourselves to fall off into a lot of partisanism. On partisanship in Congress: Zakrzewski: Johnson: On how the United States should think about artificial intelligence and automation: Slen: Johnson: Zakrzewski: Johnson: On the future of privacy regulation: Johnson: You are reading The Technology 202 , our guide to the intersection of technology and politics. BITS: Democrats are struggling to keep up with a flood of incendiary online ads from the Trump campaign, Even as Democrats investigate the president for impeachment, Trump’s campaign has been able to use the scandal to its advantage, running a variety of ads experimenting with attacks on Biden, including one that made false allegations that the former vice president threatened to withhold foreign aid from Ukraine if it didn’t end an investigation into his son. Biden, in contrast, has drastically dialed back his online advertising. “We see much less of that kind of experimentation with the Democratic candidates,” said Laura Edelson, a researcher at New York University who tracks political advertising on Facebook, told the Times. “They’re running fewer ads. We don’t see the wide array of targeting.” Edelson compared Trump’s lead to a “a supercar racing a little Volkswagen Bug.” Meanwhile, digital consultants focused on helping Democrats win online report pushback against ads that might be perceived as overly provocative or as clickbait. But that strategy could be a losing one online. While Facebook denies that negative ads do better on the platform, its refusal to remove false ads seems to have given negative attacks like those from the Trump campaign an


Australia’s leading newspapers black out front pages to protest governmental media restrictions

Australia’s leading media outlets began a coordinated campaign Monday to protest restrictions on press freedom by blacking out copy on front pages. Monday’s show of unity by competing media outlets came amid mounting concerns about what government critics describe as a culture of secrecy, in which national security legislation has been deployed to deliberately target investigative journalism. In early June, authorities raided the home of News Corp. journalist Annika Smethurst and the offices of the Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC), the country’s public broadcaster. The raids appeared to be part of an effort to identify journalists’ sources behind multiple sensitive stories. One of the media investigations had revealed plans to extend Australian authorities’ spying powers. Another series exposed allegedly unlawful killings by Australian forces in Afghanistan. The raids could still result in the prosecution of three journalists. Australia ranked far above the United States and Britain in the Press Freedom Index this year, published before the raids occurred. But without a constitutional protection for freedom of speech in Australia, top editors have grown increasingly concerned that authorities could abuse expansive national security legislation to suppress uncomfortable revelations or pressure media outlets. “Australia is at risk of becoming the world’s most secretive democracy,” David Anderson, the managing director of ABC, said in a statement. Among the media outlets and corporations that support Monday’s press freedom initiative, branded as the “Right to Know Coalition,” are News Corp., ABC, the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), the Guardian and Nine. One of Nine’s newspapers, the Sydney Morning Herald, specified that the initiative aimed to protect whistleblowers, restrict government secrecy and expand freedom-of-information laws. The coalition also wants to force the government to exempt journalists from national security prosecutions, to overhaul defamation laws and to provide journalists with a “right to contest search warrants.” Michael Miller, the executive chairman of News Corp. Australasia, wrote in a commentary for the Australian newspaper: “For years, governments, courts and public authorities have been building a great wall to keep much of what they do a secret and using legislation to make it a criminal offence for media to tell you.” Miller pointed to more than 70 pieces of legislation introduced since Sept. 11, 2001, that he said “have created roadblocks to stop you finding out what’s going on in this country.” Australia has more national security laws than any other country, legal researcher Rebecca Ananian-Welsh wrote in a commentary in


Why didn’t Greta Thunberg win the Nobel Peace Prize?

LONDON — Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg was the odds-on favorite to win this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. The award would have capped an already extraordinary year, in which Thunberg evolved from a student sitting outside the Swedish parliament, all by herself, to become the leader of a global youth movement, inspiring millions of schoolchildren around the world to join her in calling for greater action on climate change. “How dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words,” she told world leaders in a blistering speech at the United Nations last month. But instead of bestowing the prize on the 16-year-old Swede, the Norwegian Nobel Committee gave it to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who was praised for his efforts to “achieve peace and international cooperation.” Why was Thunberg passed over? How could so many forecasters have been so wrong? The peace prize selection process is highly secretive — all the committee would reveal was that there were 301 nominations this year. The names of some contenders are made public by their nominators. Thunberg, for instance, was nominated by three Norwegian lawmakers. But the full list will not be released for 50 years. It can also be hard to anticipate the winner because the selection reflects the idiosyncrasies of five individuals picked by the Norwegian parliament. That doesn’t stop people from guessing — or betting — on the winner. On Thursday night, Thunberg was the favorite with bookmakers William Hill (2/5) and Coral (4/7). But she had several factors working against her, according to analysts who have followed the award. Henrik Urdal, head of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, omitted Thunberg from the Nobel Peace Prize shortlist he publishes. He explained his decision to The Washington Post, saying there “isn’t scientific consensus that there is a linear relationship between climate change — or resource scarcity, more broadly — and armed conflict.” Janne Haaland Matlary, a politics professor at the University of Oslo, agreed that Thunberg was a “wild card” nominee. The link between climate change and conflict is still “quite tenuous at this point,” she said. “Everyone sees flooding can cause conflict, migration and so on, but this is in no way well established as a security policy issue yet.” The prize has gone to environmental champions before. In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former vice president Al Gore won


Why U.S. presidents find it so hard to withdraw troops from the Mideast

polls, has stated she would pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan before a peace deal is reached. Her ideas about the Middle East were criticized by her rival, former vice president Joe Biden, who suggested they are naive. “I have never heard anyone say with any serious background in foreign policy, ‘Pull all troops out of the Middle East,'” Biden told reporters in Ohio on Wednesday. Warren’s campaign tried to clarify the candidate’s remarks in a subsequent statement that said she “was referencing combat troops, not those stationed in the Middle East in noncombat roles.” Spokeswoman Alexis Krieg added that Warren “believes we need to end the endless wars” and wanted to “responsibly remove U.S. troops from combat in the Middle East.” The explanation belied the complexities of the U.S. presence in the Middle East. The United States has tens of thousands of troops stationed in the region who are not directly involved in conflict but certainly support conflicts, including those stationed in major (and expanding) air bases like Al Udeid in Qatar or the naval base in Bahrain. It is not clear if Warren’s standard would apply to the 5,200 troops in Iraq who support Iraqi security services but do not engage in direct conflict, the 1,000 troops in Syria who supported the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces or even the 1,800 troops heading to Saudi Arabia to help deter Iran and its proxies. But the idea that the U.S. position in the Middle East needs rethinking does have cache. “Does anybody think that what we’ve been doing for the past 20 years has actually been working?” tweeted Ilan Goldenberg, Middle East security director at the Center for New American Security and a former State Department and Pentagon official. Before Trump and Warren, President Barack Obama had his own ideas about bringing troops home. While Obama did pull U.S. troops out of Iraq in 2011, he sent thousands back in 2014 as the Iraqi military crumbled under pressure from the Islamic State. Meanwhile, his plans to pull out of Afghanistan completely never came to pass. During his two terms, the United States conducted airstrikes or military raids on seven nations: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. Obama may have succeeded in ending U.S. involvement in the worst of the fighting, but he left troops deeply embedded in regional conflicts that proved just as hard to decisively end. Trump’s


A local’s guide to Singapore

coconuts. The sambal, a chile paste made more pungent and flavorful by the addition of shrimp paste, is likewise made in-house. Choose from a variety of sides to go with your aromatic rice; the ayam goreng berempah (spiced fried chicken) is the most famous and popular option, but the fish varieties are delicious, too. BTW: Label: LUNCH address: 28 Ann Siang Rd., Singapore 069708 latlng: phone: 011-65-6635-2999 website: http://www.thecoconutclub.sg/ Twitter: instagram: thecoconutclubsg Singaporeans get into heated arguments over where to find the city’s best chicken rice, practically the national dish. There’s no consensus, and so much to weigh: How fragrant is the rice? How juicy is the chicken? How does one stall’s chile compare with another’s? But having grown up within walking distance from the original Wee Nam Kee, I will always be partial to its flavorful rice and consistently good chicken, paired with all the condiments. There are other popular dishes here, such as the hotplate tofu and sambal kangkong, but the roasted chicken rice really is the star. Of the several outlets across the city, this branch is the closest to the original, which started across from the popular Novena Church. BTW: Label: LUNCH address: 101 Thomson Rd., #01-08 United Square, Singapore 307591 latlng: phone: 011-65-6255-6396 website: Twitter: instagram: Skip the tourist traps along the Singapore River and head north instead to this open-air restaurant in a popular residential neighborhood for one of the city’s most famed offerings: crab. Mellben cooks its giant crabs in more than a dozen ways, but the iconic chile crab, the black pepper crab and the salted egg yolk are favorites. The clay pot crab bee hoon soup is a must-order; locals will order extra vermicelli noodles to soak up the thick broth. BTW: Label: DINNER address: 232 Ang Mo Kio Ave. 3, St 22, #01-1222, Singapore 560232 latlng: phone: 011-65-6285-6762 website: Twitter: instagram: Tucked away in a quiet corner of Dempsey Hill (former British army barracks that are now converted into upscale restaurants and boutiques) is the world’s first Michelin-starred Peranakan restaurant. Peranakans, or Straits Chinese, are descendants of the early Chinese settlers to then-British Malaya, and their food reflects early inter-marriages between the Chinese and Malays. Their cuisine was once at risk of near-extinction in Singapore, but it has been brought back through the dedicated work of chefs like Candlenut’s Malcolm Lee. Go for the Ah-Ma-Kase (a play on the Japanese


Parliament denies Boris Johnson support for his fast-tracked Brexit deal, making Oct. 31 exit unlikely

of this bill.” But Corbyn’s vision of Brexit — remaining closely aligned with the European Union and seeking a second referendum by the people to approve a deal — is anathema to Johnson. Lucy Powell, another Labour lawmaker, said that “pausing” Brexit “feels like a very churlish reaction to what is a straightforward request” for more parliamentary time. While lawmakers asked to press ahead on Brexit, House of Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg told them that they would be debating the National Health Service on Wednesday and the economy the following day and not sit at all Friday. Political analysts said lawmakers weren’t wrong to be concerned about the three-day period Johnson proposed for the Brexit legislation. Hannah White, deputy director of the Institute for Government, an independent think tank, wrote in a post that the timetable proposed was “deeply inadequate.” “For a constitutional bill which makes probably the most significant changes to the U.K.’s position in the world that the Commons has been asked to consider for decades, it is extraordinary,” she wrote. “The government must know this, but it is asking MPs to agree the timetable or be seen to be thwarting Brexit.” “Anyone who claims meaningful legislative scrutiny is possible on this timetable is — at best — misguided,” she added. Jonathan Tonge, a professor of politics at the University of Liverpool, expressed a similar sentiment. “It’s an absurdly constrained timetable,” he said. “There hasn’t been a single economic assessment done yet, and the deal is significantly different from” former prime minister Theresa May’s. When asked about the absence of an economic analysis, Johnson said the agreement would be a “powerful positive shot in the arm for the U.K. economy.” The deal seeks to leave the E.U. single market, diverge from E.U. customs regimes and tariff schedules, and allow Britain to make independent trade deals around the world. The Johnson exit is a harder Brexit than that envisioned by his predecessor, May. Johnson’s deal also differs most markedly from May’s over the vexing issue of Northern Ireland, which his deal leaves much more closely aligned to the European Union by effectively putting a border down the Irish Sea. Some lawmakers pointed out that Parliament spent months debating a bill on how circus animals are treated. Other commentators compared passing Johnson’s Brexit in three days to reading Tolstoy’s phone-book-thick “War and Peace” on the bus ride home. william.booth@washpost.com karla.adam@washpost.com


Transcript: The 2020 Candidates: Andrew Yang

as a little bit overly optimistic. MR. COSTA: Is it overly optimistic to believe that $1,000 a month will somehow change that dynamic in a dramatic way, or are there other factors out there that you may have to consider if you're elected president, cultural factors, family factors? MR. YANG: To me, again, the Freedom Dividend is just a foundation or a floor. It doesn't solve the problems. It's not a magic bullet. It does get the boot off of people's throats. It does help reverse the mindset of scarcity that is tearing us apart. Right now, if Americans can't pay their bills--which 78 percent of us are struggling to do--studies have shown that that constrains your mental bandwidth and has the functional impact of decreasing your IQ by 13 points, or 1 standard deviation. So if anyone watching this has this feeling that America is getting less rational, less reasonable, less optimistic, less forward-looking, we are, by the numbers, because that is what you would expect if you were to introduce pervasive financial insecurity into a population. The Freedom Dividend helps reverse that mindset of scarcity with at least the beginning of a mindset of abundance, which will help us focus on climate change and other problems. But it does not solve everything. It will supercharge non-profits and arts and cultural organizations, journalism. All the things that we volunteer in our lives that right now the market ignores will actually have a much better chance to flourish with the Freedom Dividend in place. MR. COSTA: What about the aging crisis that could be on the horizon, a baby boom generation that's getting older, may not have enough in their savings account, living longer because of healthcare and new developments in medicine? Should there be more of a focus on the aging population rather than the whole population in general? MR. YANG: Well, the Freedom Dividend would stack on top of Social Security, would be in essence the greatest expansion of Social Security benefits in generations. And I agree with you a hundred percent that we have a massive crisis on our hands because half of Americans will never retire. They will never have the savings. And do you all want to live in a country where Americans are just working themselves to death until the day they die? When you go into a convenience store, it's going to be


Tyson, America’s biggest chicken producer, now makes a plant-based ‘nugget.’ Is it any good?

household one. The phrase pops up here and there in the annals of chicken history: A 1967 promotion by the National Broiler Council (now the National Chicken Council) introduced a recipe for nuggets that called for boning breasts and cutting them into pieces to “roll in seasoned crumbs.” And a Mrs. Thomas Young of Searcy, Ark., won the 1971 National Chicken Cooking Contest with a concoction called “Dipper’s Nuggets.” But the nugget turned juggernaut only after McDonald’s named its battered poultry product the McNugget. (The inventor of the snack that came to be known as the nugget, a Cornell professor named Robert Baker, actually called it a “Chicken Crispie” or a “chicken stick.”) By 1986, America was full-throttle nuts for nugs. A Washington Post story about the craze was headlined “Nugget Mania” and described the chicken chunks as “the hot dog of the ’80s.” And they’re still popular, with countless variations (dinosaur-shaped! air-fried! maple-waffle seasoned!) to be found in grocery freezer cases. Not that they are universally loved — along the way, they’ve taken more hits to their reputation than Lindsay Lohan. They’re often made a symbol of the obesity epidemic and America’s dysfunctional relationship with food. And urban legends about what’s actually inside that crust has prompted the National Chicken Council to post a defense of the product. (Anytime you have to remind people that “there is no pink slime” in your product, you know there’s a PR problem.) Which brings us to the nugget’s latest chapter: the plant-based option. Now that Big Chicken is going meatless, we set out to try the new guy on the plant-based block. We tasted the new nuggets along with a few other veggie options for comparison — and for the poultri-vores among us, there also were Tyson’s classic, real chicken nuggets to remind us of the Platonic ideal. So are Tyson’s newest nuggets up to scratch? In short, cluck no. Here’s what our panel had to say: Raised & Rooted Nuggets Alas, the hyped newbie was most of our testers’ least favorite — even at first sight. “He’s so pale,” lamented one. Several pointed out a strange chemical flavor that had us canceling this wannabe bird. “Fake smoke? No, just no,” opined another. “Is something burning?” someone asked. And its consistency, which included a couple of nuggets with chunks inside them that popped out from the rest of the filling (“a nugget


Abiy Ahmed’s Nobel Peace Prize reflects his olive branch diplomacy. But some of these overtures have fallen short.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was awarded the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for “his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighboring Eritrea.” Abiy’s peacemaking efforts have produced limited results, however. Abiy Ahmed’s approach to peacemaking The roots to Abiy’s success and failures are rooted in his framing of Ethiopia’s political conflicts as emanating from a particular political culture of intolerance. His solution to these conflicts is a philosophy he calls Medemer (“synergy” in Amharic), which centers on the need to change societal norms. Abiy’s olive branch diplomacy has to be understood in the context of this broader norm-changing project. Medemer — although a highly vague concept — has involved inculcating values such as tolerance, forgiveness and civic duty into the population through practices such as public dialogues and nationwide street cleanup campaigns. Abiy has also tried to transform the public image of the leader in Ethiopia by projecting an image of a prime minister that is humble and not feared. The model doesn’t see class, nationalist and other contradictions as inherent to politics. Instead Abiy’s approach seeks to depoliticize social cleavages and focus on norms that govern individual behavior, such as tolerance and civility. This framing of politics led to an approach to peacemaking in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa that centered on the national leader making symbolic overtures to domestic and foreign rivals to establish trust. He broke a 20-year stalemate with Eritrea Abiy’s first overture was to his former mentors-cum-nemesis, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). In a radical departure from Ethiopian political tradition and practice, he initially reached out to his rivals in the security establishment, allowing those who were willing, such as military chief of staff Samora Yunis, to resign gracefully and with amnesty, while maintaining people like Arkebe Oqubay in advisory roles. Abiy allegedly offered the same amnesty to intelligence chief Getachew Assefa but was rejected. For more than two years Abiy’s Oromo Democratic Party and the security establishment had unofficially been at war with each other over the terms of the reform process. Abiy attained international praise, however, through the olive branch he extended to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. Ethiopia and Eritrea ended their two-year border war — responsible for almost 100,000 casualties — with a cease-fire in 2000. The two neighbors could not agree on the terms to


A mother’s ‘bucket list’ for her ‘terminally ill’ daughter went viral. But now she’s charged with her murder.

case as “extremely emotional,” Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said Turner was arrested at a hotel in Glendale, Colo., on Friday morning and is being held without bond. It was not immediately clear whether she had an attorney. Children’s Hospital Colorado, where Olivia had been treated, has declined to comment, the Associated Press reported. Turner allegedly began perpetuating the fatal sham in 2011, when she started posting about her daughters’ medical woes on her personal blog. Olivia, she wrote, had a misshapen head and a vascular malformation in her brain, causing her to have seizures, KUSA reported. Her other daughter had “osteomyelitis,” a bone infection, Turner wrote. She claimed the family moved to Colorado from Texas to seek better medical treatment, leaving her husband behind. But as time wore on, the girls’ predicaments grew increasingly dire. For Olivia, it came to a head in July 2015, when Turner claimed Olivia’s recovery was nearly hopeless. In her GoFundMe campaign created that month, she said Olivia “added a new diagnosis to her already long list.” Now, in addition to a tumor, developmental delays, seizures, autism, sensory processing disorder, focal cortical dysplasia, digestive issues and hydrocephalus, Turner wrote, Olivia now had “neurogastrointestinal encephalomyopathy.” She defined it as a “degenerative mitochondrial disorder that causes the entire body to shut down a system at a time.” It would lead, “eventually,” to her death. “This is a story about a sweet little princess that everyone has grown to love,” Turner began in her plea on the GoFundMe page. Two years later, Olivia’s story was all over TV, as she lived out her bucket list in her final months. There she was riding shotgun in a police cruiser. Hosing down a fire from a firetruck tower ladder. Saving Disney princesses from villains while dressed up as “Bat Princess,” as part of the Make-A-Wish Foundation surprise. “You could give me all the money in the world,” Turner told KUSA the day Olivia became an honorary firefighter, “and I’ll give it back to you to be able to watch this again.” Olivia died in hospice care on Aug. 20, 2017, allegedly of “intestinal failure” as her mother claimed at the time — but it wasn’t until 2018 when authorities began a thorough investigation. That’s when Turner brought her older daughter to see a new physician, claiming the girl had survived cancer and undergone chemotherapy. The physician, phoning doctors in


Democrats shouldn’t let Trump’s problems turn them into the party of war

(Hawaii) — expressed strong opposition to the wars in the Middle East. During the September Houston presidential debate, even Biden said, “We don’t need those troops there. I would bring them home.” Buttigieg, a veteran of the conflict in Afghanistan, said that even if U.S. commanders cautioned against withdrawal, “we have got to put an end to endless war.” But since Trump’s change of heart on Syria, the tone among Democrats has changed. Biden, who has always reserved a role for military force in the Middle East, took a shot at Warren’s commitment to bring the troops home, saying, “Leading the free world requires us to show up, have some skin in the game,” suggesting he’d reduce our forces but maintain bases in Pakistan and elsewhere with troops able to respond to potential threats. Buttigieg, a former U.S. Naval Reserve officer, who has made himself the voice of a national security establishment outraged by Trump’s heresies, now rejects any proposal to “completely withdraw” troops from the Middle East. It will be “messy,” he says, but U.S. troops will be there “for as long as I am alive.” Buttigieg now argues that the U.S. deployment in Syria — a “light footprint” of 1,000 soldiers — should be the model for Afghanistan. More broadly, Clinton, still embittered by her 2016 loss to Trump, put a despicable edge on the debate, warning that Gabbard, who called on Democrats to reject “regime change wars” during the last debate, was possibly being used by Russia as a third-party spoiler. Like other contenders, Gabbard has repeatedly denied any intention of running on a third-party ticket. Once again, those who challenge the failed policies of the establishment are tarred as apologists or worse. The problem with the revived interventionist position is that it makes little sense. The United States has been fighting in Afghanistan for 18 years with no end in sight. The U.S. position in Syria — an armed occupation by a token force inside a foreign country without permission or legal mandate — was eroding long before Trump acted. Neither the Syrians nor the Turks were about to allow the Kurds to consolidate an independent region within Syria. If either decided to act, the United States had no desire to escalate to stop them. With a competent president, a negotiated agreement might have allowed for a less destabilizing withdrawal. In both Syria and Afghanistan, however,


Industry dominates Trump’s new council of science advisers

the council, in a statement. “PCAST will be critical to our continued efforts, with each member bringing a unique expert perspective to the table.” PCAST’s members investigate the country’s pressing scientific questions at the president’s direction. Typically, academic members of a PCAST outnumber its industry scientists. This was true for the councils under Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Industry veterans dominate Trump’s inaugural PCAST, as they did under George W. Bush. Only one of Trump’s seven new PCAST members works in academia. Two members do not have doctoral degrees. The newly announced members are: Catherine Bessant, the chief technology officer at Bank of America; H. Fisk Johnson, chief executive at S.C. Johnson & Son; IBM Research director Dario Gil; Cyclo Therapeutics Vice President Sharon Hrynkow; A.N. Sreeram, Dow Chemical’s chief technology officer; HP Labs’ chief technology officer Shane Wall; and K. Birgitta Whaley, an expert in quantum information at the University of California at Berkeley. Trump’s PCAST will eventually expand to 16 members, according to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, including additional academic scholars. George H.W. Bush chartered the first PCAST in 1990, following a tradition dating back to World War II of soliciting scientists and engineers to advise the White House. Trump’s PCAST comes unusually late in his administration. George W. Bush and Clinton announced their first waves of PCAST appointees within their first year as president. Obama named several scientists to his PCAST in December 2008, while president-elect. During the Obama administration, PCAST issued 40 reports on topics such as drinking water safety, forensic science and data privacy. A landmark 2012 PCAST report recommended freeing parts of the radio frequency spectrum that belonged to the government. The Federal Communications Commission adopted spectrum sharing in 2015, and commercial trials are underway; Google tested new wireless technology on the 3.5 GHz band, once restricted to Navy systems, at four NASCAR races in 2017. After PCAST recommended in 2015 that some hearing aids should be available over-the-counter, the Food and Drug Administration began a regulatory process to allow their sale. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) cited the PCAST report when she introduced legislation in 2017 to support nonprescription hearing aids. Read more: USDA relocation has delayed key studies and millions in funding, employees say 2018 was the year of scientists running for Congress Why people are marching for science: ‘There is no Planet B’


The 2019 ozone hole is the smallest on record since its discovery, but there’s a catch

chemically active forms of chlorine and bromine. These chemical reactions are maximized on the surface of high-flying clouds, but milder-than-average conditions in the stratosphere above Antarctica this year inhibited cloud formation and persistence, according to a NASA statement. This helped prevent the loss of a considerable amount of ozone. For example, unlike what typically happens, there was no area above Antarctica this year that was completely lacking in ozone, according to measurements from NOAA using weather balloons. The weather systems that minimized ozone depletion in September, known as “sudden stratospheric warming” events, were unusually strong this year. About 12 miles above Earth’s surface, temperatures during September were 29 degrees higher than average, NASA reported, “which was the warmest in the 40-year historical record for September by a wide margin.” As can occur with stratospheric warming events in the Northern Hemisphere, this weather event helped to weaken the Antarctic polar vortex, a ribbon of high-speed air encircling the South Pole that typically concentrates the coldest air near or over the pole itself. Instead, the Antarctic polar vortex was knocked off balance and slowed significantly, from an average wind speed of 161 mph to just 67 mph. The slowing vortex allowed air to sink in the lower stratosphere, where it warmed and inhibited cloud formation. In addition, the reconfigured weather map helped to import ozone-rich air from other parts of the Southern Hemisphere, rather than sealing off the polar region entirely. This also helped boost ozone levels there. Interestingly, climate change isn’t expected to cause more frequent sudden stratospheric warming events over the South Pole, and instead it could strengthen, not weaken, the polar vortex overall. In contrast with global warming, the discovery of the ozone hole by scientists at the British Antarctic Survey in 1985 galvanized international action. This swiftly resulted in a binding international treaty that many experts consider the most successful environmental agreement to date. In fact, policymakers are even using it to address HFCs, ozone-depleting chemicals that are also global-warming pollutants. Since 2000, atmospheric levels of CFCs have been slowly declining, but they are still sufficiently abundant to cause annual ozone hole at the South Pole. Assuming that CFC use continues at recent rates and that no ozone-depleting chemical substitutes are found and widely used, scientists anticipate the ozone hole to shrink to its 1980 size by about 2070 as CFCs still in the upper atmosphere gradually decline.


University of Maryland fires two in connection with contract ‘irregularities’

The university also found “significant evidence” that U-Md. “was purposefully and repeatedly deceived.” The foundation, created in 1973 to support the business school, has been affiliated with the university since 1997. The university said it has asked the University System of Maryland’s internal audit office to broaden the review, and that the state attorney general is also seeking outside legal counsel in the matter. The university said it fired two individuals “implicated in the investigation” but did not identify them. It also suspended the foundation’s federal contracting activities and assigned a senior university official to oversee its finances. On Monday evening, Triantis wrote in an email that he had “always acted with integrity and in the best interests of the University” during his tenure as business dean. “I am disturbed to read broad allegations in the Washington Post by University of Maryland officials that I signed documents I was not authorized to sign and somehow misled the university and the federal government,” Triantis wrote. “I was not involved in the details of the contracting process and I did not sign the contracts at issue." He added: “It was my privilege to serve as a dean at Maryland and I respect the university, but on these specific allegations, a serious error has occurred. I cannot let these charges go unaddressed. I have yet to be interviewed by anyone associated with the university on these questions during their formal review process, and I welcome the chance to participate in the review.” Hopkins said in a statement it became aware of the U-Md. review on Friday. “At this point, we are seeking to learn more from the University of Maryland about its review process and preliminary findings,” Karen Lancaster, an assistant vice president at Hopkins, said in an email Monday. Much about the situation remained publicly unknown, including the dollar amounts of the contracts involved, because U-Md. did not elaborate on written statements. U-Md. Provost Mary Ann Rankin said in a statement: “The violations are limited to a small number of individuals, but the risk is significant. Their actions could hinder the University’s ability to secure future federal funding. “It is important to note that the federal agencies have had no complaints about the quality of instruction/training delivered by the Smith School and expect that we will continue to provide the agreed-upon deliverables, in spite of the need to correct the contract irregularities.”


What is happening in Brexit? The defeat of Boris Johnson’s timetable and what happens next.

argued that this was basically impossible and could result in poorly thought-out laws that would cause major problems in the future. Q: A: Earlier in the day, Johnson had suggested that if his timetable were rejected, he would withdraw the legislation and seek a national election, but he did not immediately do that Tuesday evening. Q: A: Q: A: Johnson’s deal says the entire United Kingdom will leave the E.U. custom union and that there will be a legal customs border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In practice, it could be argued that this means the customs border would be across the sea between Britain and Northern Ireland. Q: A: The deal also says Northern Ireland lawmakers will get a vote on how closely they want to stay aligned with the E.U. after four years and that Northern Ireland will remain aligned with E.U. law on value-added tax on goods. Q: A: That idea argued that until a future trade deal somehow dispenses with the need for border checks, or until technology is developed that does the job of border agents and achieves an invisible border, the backstop would require Britain to remain in the E.U. customs union and parts of the single market. That idea was controversial in part because Britain would be subject to E.U. rules even after losing its say over them, provoking a fierce response from hard-line Brexiteers. Q: A: Q: A: Q: A: A key factor to watch will be whether Labour supports the call for a second referendum. Jenny Chapman, the Labour MP in charge of Brexit policy, said it would, but Corbyn has said the priority would be blocking Johnson’s deal. Q: A: May had supported remain before the referendum, but she pledged to take Britain out of the E.U. However, she became mired in bitter, complicated negotiations on how that would happen. The withdrawal deal she reached with E.U. leaders was repeatedly rejected by Parliament. May called an election in April 2017 that was aimed at strengthening her position in Parliament, but she instead lost her parliamentary majority. Despite all these setbacks, she clung on. It was only after her deal was rejected the third and final time in May that she announced she would resign. She has remained a member of Parliament. Q: A: Q: A: Q: A: Q: A: This article draws on information from an article


The democratic success story that no one is talking about

off as the local branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Ennahda Party, decided to distance itself from an Islamist agenda. Terrorist movements staged attacks that aimed to undermine representative government. Secular conservatives tried to push back on civil liberties. And yet Tunisians kept returning to the ballot box — or taking to the streets to express their dissent. And so they’ve managed to keep their remarkable democratic experiment grinding along. They passed laws protecting minority rights; civil society groups have continued to press vocally for reforms. (And the fact that Tunisian democracy continues to exist at all remains the most eloquent possible rebuke to the Islamist militants.) Yes, I know the objections. Tunisians aren’t happy. Prosperity and good government remain a mirage. The country’s young democratic institutions are fragile. And let’s face it — it’s a small country (pop. 12 million), more of an outlier than a representative of its own region. Yet there are some fundamental features of Tunisians’ continuing fight for an open society that aren’t so easily dismissed. Ask Americans and Europeans about the prospects for democracy around the world, and you’ll often hear a lot of sloppy thinking. You might be told that Muslims and Arabs (frequently regarded as one and the same) are inherently authoritarian. You might be informed that Africans are too “underdeveloped” (read: “primitive”) to handle democratic institutions. They clearly haven’t been paying attention. Earlier this year, activists in Sudan (pop. 43 million) succeeded in toppling one of the continent’s most vicious dictators. The latest Nobel Peace Prize effectively singled out Ethiopia (pop. 108 million) for its tremendous progress in opening up a once-closed society. In Algeria (pop. 43 million), Tunisia’s next-door neighbor, armies of protesters continue to demand reform from their own ossified autocracy. The vibrancy of political discourse on social media among Egyptians, Yemenis and Saudis demonstrates that people around the world still long to express their views, to shape how they’re governed, to participate in their own fates. Indeed, when I look at Tunisia — or Hong Kong, or Taiwan, or Indonesia — I can’t help wondering if maybe, just maybe, the future of democracy really lies outside of the West. These days it can sometimes be hard to escape the impression that Europeans and Americans are too complacent, too self-absorbed to stand up and fight for their freedoms. Freedom is hard work, after all — especially if you take


Google scientists say they’ve achieved ‘quantum supremacy’ breakthrough over classical computers

the process demanded the entire capacity of a supercomputer, plus an additional storage mechanism. And no matter how good algorithms for classical computers get, he said, quantum computers are improving exponentially faster. “We are in the quantum supremacy regime,” Martinis said. The Nature paper “is a very strong statement towards that, and it’s going to get stronger and stronger in the future.” Computer scientists refer to systems such as Sycamore as “Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum technology,” or NISQ. This term (yet another Preskill invention) describes machines that can perform some calculations but are still too small and error-prone to be fully functional. The true revolution will happen slowly — Montanaro guessed it will be 10 to 15 years before a resilient, large-scale quantum computer comes online. But in the meantime, scientists can start to design more-modest algorithms for NISQ machines, using them to model solar panels, superconductors and other systems where quantum effects play an important role. Still, it’s the grandest possibilities presented by quantum computing that entice companies and governments to keep plugging away at it. Several technology companies are competing to create quantum machines; IBM has even made its prototype available online for anyone to use. Last year, President Trump signed into law the National Quantum Initiative Act, which establishes research centers to focus on quantum information science. Meanwhile, China has spent billions on quantum technology development. The most obvious potential applications of this research are in the realm of national security. Entangled particles could one day be used for “quantum communication” — a means of sending super-secure messages that doesn’t rely on cables or wireless signals. The tremendous processing power of quantum computers might be used to break previously unbreakable codes. Then again, some experts worry this capacity will be used to steal people’s passwords — potentially imperiling online systems including email, banking and more. But spying and hacking are far from the technology’s only uses. Biologists might use quantum computers to understand natural processes far too complex for classical machines to simulate. Pharmaceutical researchers could employ them to discover new drugs. Quantum computing promises to generate better artificial intelligence and more-effective nanotechnologies. “In many ways quantum brings computing full circle,” Pichai said, “giving us another way to speak the language of the universe and understand the world and humanity not just in 1s and 0s but in all of its states: beautiful, complex, and with limitless possibility.”