The Energy 202: Climate change stands to affect a key Trump priority: the Superfund program

to implement GAO’s recommendations could result in real harm to human health and the environment as the effects of climate change become more frequent and intense,” the lawmakers told Wheeler. In 2014, the Obama-era EPA issued an agencywide plan for adapting to climate change that included steps to be taken by the Superfund program. Since then, the agency has offered optional trainings on integrating climate change into the cleanup of sites. But on the ground, regional offices have inconsistently taken climate change into account. For example, EPA managers in the New York City area incorporated potentially stronger storm flows in the Passaic River in the remediation of a site in Newark. Yet regional EPA officials in Dallas, by contrast, told GAO they do not incorporate potential climate impacts into their assessments. EPA spokeswoman Molly Block said the agency is in the process of implementing a “climate resilience action plan” at Superfund sites and has encouraged approaches that would allow specific sites to adapt to new and changing risks. “The EPA recognizes the importance of ensuring Superfund site cleanups are resilient in the face of existing risks and extreme weather events and the agency has taken measures to include vulnerability analyses and adaptation planning into Superfund activities,” the agency wrote in response to the GAO’s findings. Wheeler and his predecessor, former EPA chief Scott Pruitt, have sought flip the adminisitration’s usual industry-friendly script by reinvigorating the Superfund program. Pruitt told agency employees in staff memos that Superfund cleanup efforts would be “restored to their rightful place at the center of the agency’s core mission” and at times even sided with environmental groups over polluting companies on Superfund issues. As a result, dozens of sites have been removed from the EPA’s National Priorities List, and the agency maintains an ongoing “priority list” for sites most in need of attention. You are reading The Energy 202 , our must-read tipsheet on energy and the environment. — Not all doom and gloom: A few stories from it: — Even weather patterns are seen through partisan lens: — Sierra Club rolls out political ad ahead of Democratic debate: — Climate activist group backs Hickenlooper opponent: — Lawmakers call for probe into grant to ease forest protections: — Trump vs. California: — Another climate protest in Nancy Pelosi’s office: — Biggest coal plant in the West officially shutters: Today Coming Up — Bye bye, Bei Bei:


Chartreuse liqueur’s popularity has soared. But how do you market the elixir without offending the monks who make it?

are sorted by two monks, the only people aside from the father of the order who know the full recipe. Dom Benoit and Brother Jean-Jacques have been doing it for years now; both, I learned, are training monks who will eventually replace them. The herbs are sorted within the monastery, then bags of herbs, labeled only by number, travel to the distillery, now in Aiguenoire. There, distillation is done by laypeople with the monks assisting, before the liqueur goes into huge casks to age. The two monks are the only members of the order directly involved in the production of the spirit. In taking on the task, their lives become slightly more worldly; they must interact with secular people and leave the monastery regularly to help make the liqueur. They don’t give interviews, but they forsake a purely solitary spiritual life to do a chore that enables others to live that life fully. “It’s kind of a penance,” says Holleran. “They’re given that job, and they do it out of obedience and devotion to the order, but generally it’s not a job that they would have picked.” How to describe a spirit flavored with 130 secret herbs and spices? Both green and yellow Chartreuse are sweet, but at 110 proof, the green is bracingly alcoholic, with notes that seem to shift on the palate, sometimes leaning toward anise and tarragon, then cinnamon, ginger and black pepper. The milder, more honeyed yellow is 80 proof. The bigger question has been how to sell it. Europeans have a long history of drinking herbal liqueurs as aperitifs and digestifs — think German Jagermeister, French gentian liqueurs, the vast range of Italian amari. But for many Americans, especially in the years after Prohibition, Chartreuse was a hard sell. An amusing range of old ads from Schieffelin & Co., the former American importer of Chartreuse, seems to be casting about for the right lure. Promotions of its origins, showing robed monks leaning over casks? Check. Ads that focus on its expense and luxury? Check. Ads suggesting Chartreuse has mystical, even aphrodisiacal qualities? Check. In the 1970s, the importer had some success with the younger market: Ads featured a glowing green cocktail called Swampwater and focused on the spirit’s high proof. “More bang than a Wallbanger, more fire than a Sunrise,” explained one ad. These ads predate Chartreuse president and CEO Emmanuel Delafon’s involvement with the


Airbnb partners with the Olympics to provide housing to tourists, ‘experiences’ with athletes

will boost visibility for the lodgings company and probably generate, as a result, more revenue and listings. Athletes, meanwhile, will be able to sell training sessions and other meetups with fans through what’s deemed an “Airbnb Olympian Experiences” platform. “By joining forces with the IOC and our Airbnb hosts, we’re committed to providing travel experiences that benefit the global sporting community, as well as the local communities hosting the next five Olympic and Paralympic Games,” the company wrote on its YouTube channel. Airbnb has faced criticism in recent years as it grows into new markets and cities at an exponential pace. This month, its CEO vowed to verify each of the 7 million listings after a shooting at a rental property, and in October, the company was the subject of a detailed Vice investigation involving a widespread rental-listing scam. Officials from Paris, which will host the 2024 Summer Games, are pushing back against what they’re calling a “risky” deal, according to the Guardian. The city is one of Airbnb’s biggest markets, with an estimated 60,000 listings. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo sent a letter to the head of the IOC expressing a desire to rein in the rentals, even threatening to ban them in certain neighborhoods for “destabilising local businesses and competing harshly with traditional hotels." “By removing a significant number of lodgings from Paris, Airbnb contributes to rising rents and worsens the shortage of apartments on the rental market, at a cost for all Parisians, in particular the middle class,” Hidalgo wrote. Airbnb has said it is working with local governments to implement new home-rental rules in an attempt to cut down on scam listings, multiple-property hosts and limits on renting when spaces violate local property rules. In a joint news conference, both entities expressed excitement and a positive vision for the venture. “Since it was founded in 2008, Airbnb has grown to become a global household name. This partnership supports the future sustainable operations of the Olympic Movement and demonstrates the ongoing appeal of the Olympic commercial programmes to the world’s leading brands,” the IOC said in a statement. Read more: A couple was scammed by a $12,000 Airbnb listing. Here’s how to make sure that doesn’t happen to you. Frustrated Airbnb hosts wait for D.C. to explain new regulations Places are booking quickly for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Here’s how to choose the right place to stay.


Study shows that ‘extraordinary’ level of exercise does not damage the heart

running), plus two days a week of strength training. The guidelines note that the benefits extend well beyond longevity to also include lower rates of cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, cognitive decline and serious falls in older individuals. Beginning in 2011, however, a small group of physicians began to raise alarms about too much exercise. In a TED talk video viewed more than 1 million times, cardiologist James O’Keefe of Kansas City, Mo., spoke about “startling new insights that seem to be emerging about exercise.” A runner himself, O’Keefe continued: “I’m worried I might have made a lethal mistake.” The next year, O’Keefe and colleagues wrote a paper that argued against more than 2.5 hours of running per week. By doing more, they claimed, runners might “substantially diminish the remarkable gains in longevity conferred by moderate jogging.” This contrarian claim — which I challenged at the time — made headlines for the same reason that a single runner death in a marathon attracts more attention than 25,000 successful finishers. However, it has never been confirmed by well-conducted epidemiological research with a sizable sample of heavy exercisers. Meanwhile, papers have shown that Tour de France riders live longer than noncompetitors, and that those who complete a famous 56-mile cross-country ski race (the Vasaloppet) in Sweden likewise outlive controls. More importantly, large-data meta-analyses and systematic reviews have confirmed the benefits, or at least the lack of harms, accrued by serious exercisers. Just three months ago, the British Journal of Sports Medicine published a report pulling results from 48 papers on exercise and health outcomes. It concluded: “Mortality risk was lower at physical activity levels well above the recommended target range. Further, there was no threshold beyond which lifespan was compromised.” Levine is no exercise zealot. Like most fitness advocates, he’s primarily interested in getting more people to begin moving more and sitting less. But he also believes in supporting those who are passionate about their serious exercise regimens. “Our paper, based on far more data than previous papers, is essential to counter the idea that the streets are littered with the bodies of dead runners,” he notes. “We studied the most strenuous exercisers ever, and there were no heart deaths in 10 years of follow-up.” For those seeking a less-extreme program, Levine offers this 3- to 3.5-hour weekly “exercise prescription for life,” based on his decades of reviewing exercise and health


Bei Bei the panda is heading to China. He has a better travel setup than you ever will.

an ego boost. Airline food? Not for this giant panda. Instead, his menu includes 66 pounds of bamboo, two bags of leafeater biscuits, two pounds of apples and pears, two pounds of cooked sweet potatoes and water. The cargo area will be kept at a comfortable-for-panda temperature, between 60 and 65 degrees, a FedEx spokeswoman said. According to the zoo, cool-weather months are better for the creatures to travel. As for his quarters, Bei Bei (pronounced Bay Bay) will avoid the scourge of basic economy. He is traveling in a steel-and-plexiglass transport container that FedEx provided. The zoo said it would probably be about 55 inches wide by 75 inches long and 50 inches tall; Bei Bei has been getting used to the crate (with the help of treats and training) leading up to the trip. “He will be able to move, eat and play with his toys in complete comfort,” FedEx spokeswoman Rae Lyn Rushing said in an email. “The enclosure is constructed in a way to clean and maintain it as needed.” The zoo’s panda experts were not available Monday to discuss what forms of in-flight entertainment would be available. But they have been asking for song submissions for a playlist, which the Smithsonian dubbed the #BeiBeiMixTape. Specially tailored suggestions included “Rock-A-Bye Bei Bei,” “I Got You Bei” by Sonny Bono, kind of, and the Vanilla Ice classic “Ice Ice Bei Bei.” Bei Bei must leave his birthplace of Washington under an agreement with China, which owns the pandas in U.S. zoos. As part of a cooperative breeding program, pandas must move to China once they turn 4. Bei Bei’s older siblings Bao Bao and Tai Shan already made the same trip in 2017 and 2010, respectively. His parents, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, will remain at the National Zoo. Befitting any celebrity, the panda has spent his days before the journey partying with treats such as ice cake and being feted by admirers as part of a “Bye Bye Bei Bei” celebration. The most recent message from the National Zoo on Twitter read: “Hasta la vista, Bei Bei.” Read more: National Zoo solicits mix tape suggestions for Bei Bei’s long flight to China Bei Bei showered with attention as National Zoo prepares to send him to China on Tuesday An overweight cat was denied by a Russian airline. His owner hatched an elaborate scheme using an impostor.


Overeating on Thanksgiving? Bitters can make it better.

is some delicious irony in a national holiday that bastes our heritage of colonialism in butter and leaves celebrants so incapacitated with food that, should foreign hordes wish to re-vanquish our borders, Thanksgiving would be a good time to try. Had we been thinking more clearly that year, we would have accompanied the Grand Snarf with a strategic application of bitters. Bitters are the stomach’s wingman — its appetizer before a big meal, its comfort and helpmeet in the aftermath. And while the taste of bitterness often stimulates a prehistoric “Nope!” deep in the human brain (it’s a flavor long associated with toxicity), when balanced with other flavors, bitter can be beautiful. Drink bitters come in two basic forms: potable and non-potable. Those terms are misleading, because “non-potable” bitters are poted, just typically in very small doses. Such bitters (like Angostura and Peychaud’s) are intensely flavored, with bitter plants like cinchona and gentian and other botanicals that contribute to the taste. This type is usually used in drops and dashes. Think of them as a cocktail seasoning. Potable bitters, on the other hand — liqueurs such as Campari, Suze, Jägermeister — are consumed in bigger portions. While they, too, are bitter, some intensely so, most include sweeteners that make them easier to swallow. Even though most non-potable bitters are highly alcoholic, you can walk into a grocery store and buy a bottle of Angostura bitters (which at 44.7 percent alcohol by volume is boozier than most vodkas) without ever having to show any ID. Try to drink the stuff neat, and you’ll understand why; it’s the rare teenager indeed who’d decide getting blitzed off this stuff would be a good idea. Although both types of bitters are now used mostly for the flavors they impart, they all came out of herbal medicine traditions and are sometimes still used for their digestive effect. Andrew Chevallier, an author and medical herbalist, told me via email that we experience bitterness through molecules that stimulate taste receptors in our tongues, mouths and the stomach itself. “A wide variety of compounds do this and thereby stimulate digestive activity, especially digestive secretions” like saliva, stomach acid and duodenal juices, “all of which promote the ability to process and absorb nutrients,” he said. “One of the main functions of aperitifs and bitters is precisely to promote nutrient uptake, and to aid the digestive system in efficiently processing


Arrest made in September homicide in Shaw neighborhood, D.C. police say

A suspect has been arrested in a homicide in September in Shaw, one of a cluster of shootings that raised concern among residents of the neighborhood in Northwest Washington. D.C. police said Adrian Vinson, 19, was arrested Monday in the death of Tahlil Byrd, 19, of Southeast. Vinson was charged with first degree murder while armed, police said. No address was given for him. Byrd was found shot on Sept. 29 in the 600 block of S Street NW. Two more people were wounded in separate attacks in Shaw the next weekend. After the shootings, an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner described the incidents as unsettling. “It’s scary to have these kinds of things happen,” Alex Marriott, chairman of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission for the area, told The Washington Post in October. “It’s a safe neighborhood, and it’s been a safe neighborhood for a very long time.” martin.weil@washpost.com


Local Digest: Man dies in double-shooting in Southeast D.C.

THE DISTRICT Two men were shot, one fatally, on Tuesday in Southeast Washington, according to police. The shootings occurred shortly before 1 a.m. in the 2400 block of Pomeroy Road SE inside an apartment complex off Suitland Parkway and near Fort Stanton. A D.C. police spokeswoman said both men were taken to hospitals where one was pronounced dead. He was identified as David Rogers, 24, of Southeast. The condition of the second victim was not immediately available. Police said officers found one of the victims in an apartment hallway. The second victim was found in an adjacent building. — Peter Hermann VIRGINIA A nonprofit organization that is building a $2 million facility for the homeless in Old Town Alexandria says it has reached its fundraising goal after receiving $300,000 from Amazon, Inc., which is opening a headquarters campus in nearby Crystal City. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also owns The Washington Post.) The nonprofit Carpenter’s Shelter is building a facility called New Heights in North Old Town that will include a 60-bed overnight shelter, a day shelter for the chronically homeless and a hypothermia shelter to be used during the winter, the organization said. There will also be 10 supportive housing units, the group said, and 87 low-rent apartments owned and managed by the Alexandria Community Development Corp. — Antonio Olivo A 32-year-old man was shot and killed early Monday in a parking lot in Woodbridge. Prince William County police said the incident happened about 1:05 a.m. in the 1400 block of Old Bridge Road. Police were called to investigate a shooting at a musical recording spot called DMV Studios. An initial investigation found that there had been a fight at the studio and that during the fight, the victim was shot. The victim, who was pronounced dead at the scene, was identified as Tristan Vernon Sellers of the District. — Dana Hedgpeth and Justin Wm. Moyer


How the media can help fight the flu

This fall, millions of people will get their flu shots, take appropriate sanitary measures and stay home when they are sick. Public health experts will declare, and most media reports will confirm, that these steps will help individuals avoid contracting influenza while also preventing the spread of disease to others. Yet while this coverage may seem relatively mundane, it is a significant achievement. So many other types of medical reporting dominate health headlines: sensationalist accounts of sudden outbreaks, unusual examples of individual deaths and exaggerated cases of celebrities who become ill, among them. And this sort of coverage is dangerous. We know because flu coverage once looked like that. And particularly in times when a significant share of the public thinks that government agencies may be withholding, neglecting or downplaying vital information, a news cycle that only features the most extreme or unusual cases can produce misleading impressions of both the scale of medical danger and the experience of victims. As a result, the public may ignore or disregard vital warnings while becoming distracted by a relatively small number of extreme but generally unrepresentative cases. A century ago, American newspapers faced the challenge of covering an unprecedented disease outbreak, the Spanish influenza, which ultimately took nearly 3,000 lives in the nation’s capital, an estimated 650,000 lives in the United States and more than 50 million lives around the world. The most deadly wave of Spanish influenza first appeared in an army camp outside Boston in late August 1918. By the second week of September, the disease had spread to major cities, including Washington. Newspaper coverage spread along with the epidemic. On Sept. 16, Lt. Arthur Henne, who had recently returned from a trip to New York City, fell ill and did not go to work at the Chemical Warfare Service of the War Department. Two days later, his wife, Lillian Maclean Henne, also fell ill. Arthur Henne’s symptoms seemed like hay fever or an “old-fashioned cold,” but much worse, with a headache, backache and slight fever, according to the Washington Times and other papers. Arthur and Lillian Maclean Henne were probably not the first victims of the influenza — they were just the first individuals whose illness attracted close attention from public health officials as well as the city’s newspapers. But instead of effectively warning the public by educating them on how the disease spreads, how to identify common symptoms


Chinese state media hits Trump where it will hurt the most: The Midwest battleground

might expect from, say, the North Korean government. Over the weekend, it published an article that neatly incorporated several of its favorite subjects: reporting on foreign cultural phenomenon and embarrassing the government of the United States. Just southeast of Saginaw, Mich., is a small town called Frankenmuth. It’s one of maybe a dozen towns across the country that are broadly thematic. Frankenmuth’s gimmick is that it models a small town in Bavaria, with half-timbered gift shops and various thematic tourist spots. Two businesses in particular are the anchors of the tourist industry in town: Zehnder’s, with its famous chicken dinners, and Bronner’s CHRISTmas Wonderland. Bronner’s is probably self-explanatory in a number of different ways. It’s a Christmas wonderland indeed, dedicated year-round to hawking the Christmas spirit in the form of tangible bits of commerce, with that energy peaking, as you might expect, in the coming weeks. My mother used to live in Mount Clemens, Mich., which isn’t really that close, but Frankenmuth and Bronner’s are the kind of places you travel a bit farther than you usually would to see. “We’re the world’s biggest Christmas store,” Wayne Bronner, the company’s CEO, told me over the phone Monday. “We have about two million visitors a year come through. Our record day is 27,000 people in one day. We have 50,000 gifts and trims, and we’re 120,000 square feet in size.” The store is open 361 days a year, save Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day and Easter. The record day came a year or two ago on the first weekend in December. Recently the store saw another guest: A Xinhua reporter named Wang Ping, whose stories generally cover Chicago and the upper Midwest. Thanks to that visit, Xinhua readers learned some of the same facts about the store that Bronner shared with me. But they also learned a little more. “Giant Christmas store in U.S. Michigan filled with made-in-China items,” the headline reads. Wang spoke with a manager named Cindy Baxter who said that Bronner’s buys a number of items from China, some 30 to 40 percent of the inventory. Prices had increased as a result of the China-U.S. trade war, Baxter told Wang, thanks largely to increased tariffs on products from China. And just like that, Xinhua had its story: Christian Michigan business being hurt by Trump’s trade war. Bronner confirmed to me that Baxter’s general numbers were right. About a


Boeing faced only ‘limited’ safety review from NASA, while SpaceX got a full examination

IG’s conclusion, saying the additional costs were justified and that Boeing was forced to shoulder more of the costs up front. In a brief interview recently, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Boeing’s problems with the 737 Max were separate from issues that have arisen in its work for NASA. Boeing, he said, “is a big company. They do a lot of different things. … I don’t want to suggest that the challenges with the 737 Max has implications on” its work for the space program. But Boeing’s space division is not immune from deficiencies that might affect flight safety. For example, last year propellant leaked during a test of Boeing’s emergency abort system. Boeing determined why the leak had occurred, and the leak did not recur in a subsequent test. However, earlier this month, another test of the emergency abort system encountered a different problem when only two of the capsule’s three parachutes deployed. The uncrewed capsule made a soft return to Earth with just the two chutes, and NASA and Boeing declared the test a success. But the reason the third parachute didn’t deploy was a human one: Someone had failed to notice that a smaller chute had not been hooked to the larger main chute it was designed to pull out. Boeing said the lapse hadn’t been spotted because the point at which the two chutes were supposed to be latched together was hidden from view inside a housing. At the time the safety reviews were announced last year, Musk’s behavior had rankled top NASA officials, who worried about the message Musk’s public alcohol and marijuana consumption would send about how the company would enforce workplace safety and a drug-free environment. Bridenstine said then that he had “a lot of confidence in the SpaceX team.” But he added that “culture and leadership start at the top. Anything that would result in some questioning the culture of safety, we need to fix immediately.” “If I see something that’s inappropriate, the key concern to me is what is the culture that led to that in appropriateness, and is NASA involved in that?” he said. “As an agency, we’re not just leading ourselves, but our contractors as well. We need to show the American public that when we put an astronaut in a rocket, they’ll be safe.” Musk responded to NASA’s concerns by sending an email to SpaceX employees in which


60% of Superfund sites could be hit by climate change, new government report finds

a group of mostly Democratic lawmakers, including presidential candidates such as Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who asked the congressional investigative arm to look into the issue in 2017. After the release of the report, Senate Democrats sent a letter to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler demanding an explanation for agency leaders’ “failure to embrace addressing climate change as a strategic objective.” “We believe that EPA’s refusal to implement GAO’s recommendations could result in real harm to human health and the environment as the effects of climate change become more frequent and intense,” the lawmakers told Wheeler. In 2014, the Obama-era EPA issued an agencywide plan for adapting to climate change that included steps to be taken by the Superfund program. Since then, the agency has offered optional trainings on integrating climate change into the cleanup of sites. But on the ground, regional offices have inconsistently taken climate change into account. For example, EPA managers in the New York City area incorporated potentially stronger storm flows in the Passaic River in the remediation of a site in Newark. Yet regional EPA officials in Dallas, by contrast, told GAO they do not incorporate potential climate impacts into their assessments. EPA spokeswoman Molly Block said the agency is in the process of implementing a “climate resilience action plan” at Superfund sites and has encouraged approaches that would allow specific sites to adapt to new and changing risks. “The EPA recognizes the importance of ensuring Superfund site cleanups are resilient in the face of existing risks and extreme weather events and the agency has taken measures to include vulnerability analyses and adaptation planning into Superfund activities,” the agency wrote in response to the GAO’s findings. While the Trump administration has rolled back Obama-era rules limiting carbon emissions from cars and coal plants and proposed cuts to Superfund funding, EPA leaders have also made a point of working to accelerate cleanup efforts at highly polluted sites. Dozens of sites have been removed from the EPA’s National Priorities List, and the agency maintains an ongoing “priority list” for sites most in need of attention. “All Americans deserve timely action on Superfund site cleanups in their communities — not delays,” Wheeler said in announcing updates to that priority list last month. “We will continue to advance or accelerate Superfund cleanups across the country by addressing issues that cause site-specific delays.”


National Symphony Orchestra’s ‘Tristan’ was lacking in D.C. They made up for it in New York.

telling lines before wounding Tristan with his sword — something this concert performance left to the imagination. In Washington, the NSO is the familiar local team. In New York, under Noseda, they’ve become honored visitors. On Sunday afternoon at David Geffen Hall — the concert venue formerly known as Avery Fisher Hall, still awaiting its promised renovation — was crowded with fans and insiders. And whether inspired by the locale or more secure after two performances, or both, everyone onstage rose to the occasion. Noseda was still fast, but his driving, even panicky approach had softened into something more spacious. The tempos had become malleable rather than hurtling. The score had more shape, the motifs emerged more clearly and, as the singers found more room to breathe, moments that had flown by at the Kennedy Center, such as Brangaene’s “Habet acht,” took root and became moving. Gould found some melting pianissimos, and Goerke unsheathed a saber of sound that shone the way toward her interpretation of the whole role. And in a city filled with good orchestras, which the night before had been treated to a memorable one-two punch of Prokofiev from the gleaming Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Riccardo Muti at Carnegie Hall, the NSO more than held its own. The NSO has always been an orchestra of unfulfilled potential; these days, it seems, it’s finally unlocking it. If Noseda’s interpretation shifted considerably over the week, the musicians were able to follow him, offering limpid winds and caressing horns, more effective with his restraint than they had been with force. Even after years of concert-going, it’s always a joy and a bit of a surprise to be reminded how much performances by the same people can vary from one night to the next. There was more to this transformation, here, than just chance and chemistry: Noseda made different decisions on the podium and the orchestra followed him. There’s a humility in being able to change, and letting go of old ideas, to make something better. So it wasn’t even the New York performance of “Tristan” that gave me hope for the NSO’s future: It was the path that all the musicians had traveled to get there. Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that these concerts marked Christine Goerke's role debut as Isolde. They were her American debut in the role. This story has been updated. anne.midgette@washpost.com Read more:


ISIS killed our daughter. They cannot have the last word on U.S. hostages.

Carl and Marsha Mueller live in Prescott, Ariz. Nearly five years ago, the Islamic State tweeted that our daughter, Kayla Mueller, was dead. In the preceding two years, while the world had watched with shock and outrage at the Islamic State’s increasingly brutal and public actions, our family was being silently taunted by the era’s most notorious terrorist group. Kayla was a 24-year-old humanitarian aid worker in Aleppo, Syria, when she was kidnapped by the Islamic State in August 2013. During her captivity, Islamic State members wrote to us with impossible demands for Kayla’s release, eventually threatening her with violence and death. All the while, our family put its trust in the U.S. government to bring her home. Then, in February 2015, the Islamic State sent us photos of Kayla’s lifeless body, saying she had been killed in an airstrike by the U.S.-led military coalition. Islamic State members apparently assumed this information would prompt us to give up on Kayla. They could not have been more wrong. We didn’t want to allow the terrorist organization that brutalized our daughter to have the last word on Kayla’s life. We had many unanswered questions about what exactly happened to her, how and why she was killed, by whom, and where they may have buried her. Unfortunately, the U.S. government couldn’t provide us with clear answers or conclusive proof that Kayla had been killed the way the group claimed. We were haunted by rumors that the Islamic State’s version of events was false. Some of the rumors even claimed that Kayla wasn’t dead. If there was the remotest chance she was still alive, we weren’t going to let her down again. A dear friend of our family, a former FBI special agent, Ali Soufan, saw the pain we were living with every day and offered to help. Ali and a team from his security organization took on the case, working to find out what happened to Kayla during her time in captivity. They have uncovered more information in the past few months than the U.S. government provided us in six years. Our search for Kayla has taken us around the world, where we met with some of the people directly involved in her captivity. From the accounts of Yazidi girls held with Kayla, we know that our daughter was kept captive by Abu Sayyaf, a senior Islamic State leader (now dead), in his


In the Blue Ridge foothills, the National Zoo has a quiet spot for conservation

The Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington is home to hundreds of types of animals on exhibit for visitors to see. But less than 100 miles away, members of 20 species live, out of public view, with scientists and researchers in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It’s like a college campus, but for wild animals. The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute is a research and breeding center in Front Royal, Virginia. Scientists who live on site play an important role in studying, breeding and training members of endangered species or species already extinct in the wild. Devin Murphy, a communications specialist for the Smithsonian, said the property was bought in the mid-1970s because its 3,200 acres provided ample space for animals to roam. KidsPost recently got an exclusive look inside the institute and an opportunity to learn about a few of the species living there. What looks like a simple, red brick building is a facility dedicated to fast-running flightless birds. Guam rails are extinct in the wild and haven’t been seen on Guam, an island U.S. territory in the Western Pacific Ocean, for more than 20 years. There are 12 of them in gated indoor spaces with shrubs and trees. Conservationists want to establish a sustainable population of Guam rails on the island, but they’re not in a hurry. Guam rails are secretive and territorial, making them sometimes difficult to breed. A resident 3-year-old Guam rail, Tasi, is actually quite sociable. But he was hand-raised by his keeper, Erica Royer, and when she let him out of his enclosure, he followed a KidsPost reporter everywhere. Because he is used to human contact, he wouldn’t do well in the wild. “His purpose is purely for education as an ambassador for his species,” Royer said. At the facility, other rails are paired to breed and produce eggs. As with a lot of species, the younger you release them in the wild the better off they are. “From when they hatch, we keep them for at least six months,” Royer said. Guam is not ready for the birds to come back. The island has about 1 million to 2 million brown tree snakes that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is working to get rid of. Snakes reached Guam aboard cargo ships after World War II and preyed on the flightless birds, leading to their extinction in the wild. For now, the birds


New children’s books highlight endangered animals

the places in which they live. “The Woolly Monkey Mysteries: The Quest to Save a Rain Forest Species” By Sandra Markle. Ages 8 to 12. With their short, thick fur and strong, gripping tails, the two species of woolly monkeys spend most of their time high up in 150-foot-tall trees. That makes them difficult animals to count and to study. But cameras mounted aloft have provided valuable information and captured, as this book shows, amazing photographs. Experts now believe that Peru’s lowland woolly monkeys (and the seed-filled waste they produce) are necessary to the survival of the rain forest. “Camp Panda: Helping Cubs Return to the Wild” By Catherine Thimmesh. Ages 10 to 12. The giant panda is much-beloved in China, but in the past 40 years, at least half of its habitat has been destroyed by the expansion of the human population. “Camp Panda” tells about efforts to reintroduce the giant pandas into the wild so that the species might have a future. As part of the complex process, shown in photos, people wear panda costumes (that smell like pandas) while weighing and measuring the young bears. Why the disguises? The cubs aren’t supposed to get used to seeing and being around people, because people could pose a threat to them in the wild. “Beyond Words: What Elephants and Whales Think and Feel” By Carl Safina. Ages 10 and older. With the help of dedicated scientists, Carl Safina studied elephants in an African national park and killer whales (also known as orcas) off the coast of Washington state. He learned about their strong family bonds, the surprising ways they communicate (both close up and miles apart) and how they play, grieve and hang out with one another. This book makes a strong case for protecting the ability of these intelligent, expressive and endangered animals to live freely. “Back From the Brink: Saving Animals From Extinction” By Nancy F. Castaldo. Ages 10 and older. This hopeful book focuses on seven groups of animals — including whooping cranes, California condors and American alligators — that were brought back to healthy numbers by a combination of government rules, scientific programs and individual initiatives (see William Hornaday’s efforts on behalf of the American bison). As she celebrates these successes, Nancy F. Castaldo also makes clear that dangers, such as the effects of climate change, still cloud the future of these and other creatures.


Animal species are disappearing, and we the people are the problem

extinct naturally,” said Stuart Pimm, a professor of conservation ecology at Duke University. “But the basic fact is that human actions are driving species to extinction about a thousand times faster than they would go extinct naturally. That’s the scale of the problem.” This happens in various ways. The golden lion tamarin and many other endangered animals are threatened by fragmented habitat, which can separate males and females and keep them from having enough babies for a thriving population. Others struggle to survive because people have introduced invasive species, such as rats or goats, that eat their eggs or the plants they depend on. Pollution, including vast amounts of discarded plastic, and climate change may be harming others. Then there’s hunting. Populations of pangolins, mammals that look like little armored anteaters, are dwindling as poachers trap them for their meat and for their scales, which are used in traditional medicines that have no proven benefits. Even as animals rapidly disappear, Pimm said there’s reason to be hopeful. Conservation biology, a field focused on keeping wildlife around, has existed for only a few decades, and it’s making progress, he said. In much of the world, whale watching has taken the place of whale hunting. Grizzly bears and many other animals in the United States are protected because they’re on the Endangered Species List. “Once a species gets put on the list, its chances of surviving are very good indeed,” Pimm said. People, including many kids, have become more aware of their impact on the environment, and they’re taking action. They may reject plastic bags and bottles or use a bike-share program to get around town. Zoos are more focused than ever on helping wild populations of the animals they have on exhibit. One of the animals on display at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington is the golden lion tamarin. And although it is endangered, things are looking up for this carrot-topped primate. Conservation organizations, including one Pimm founded, Saving Species, have worked to reconnect the small swaths of forest where the monkeys were barely hanging on. Now about 3,200 golden lion tamarins exist in the wild, according to the IUCN. That’s 20 times as many as there were in the 1990s, when the species was listed as critically endangered. “The golden lion tamarin was on the brink of extinction. It isn’t now,” Pimm said. “There’s a lot of hope.” kidspost@washpost.com


Want to help save animals threatened by extinction? Become a citizen scientist.

familiar and charismatic species as giant pandas, tigers and African elephants. But they also include lesser-known animals such as red knots. Kids, many scientists believe, are a piece of the conservation puzzle. There are lots of ways they can help, for instance, staying away from protected beach areas that are reserved for shorebirds such as the red knot. Kids can also help by becoming citizen scientists. As citizen scientists, they observe nature, document what they see and share what they know. “Observing wildlife and nature is the start of everything when it comes to conservation,” said Bill McShea, a conservation ecologist with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute for more than 20 years. “It’s the basis for what scientists do.” If kids spot a red knot on a trip to the Eastern Shore, they can let scientists know through eBird, a project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The eBird website (or free mobile app) has a form with sections to identify the species and indicate the where and when of the sighting. The project has documented more than 100 million bird sightings, according to the eBird website. Another citizen science program, eMammal, encourages kids to become camera trappers. Volunteers help professional scientists collect and upload animal photos captured by camera traps, or motion-sensing cameras. The photos become part of the Smithsonian archives that scientists use to gain insight into the secret world of wildlife. “Those observations, feeding into a central place, is the way we’re doing science right now,” McShea said. And the photographic data does help scientists, said Stephanie Schuttler, a wildlife biologist and a research associate at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. She said kids participating in eMammal at a school near a protected tiger reserve in India had identified six tigers roaming near the school after dark. The discovery helped Schuttler and other scientists identify and count individual animals and determine where they go when people aren’t around. The kids’ work also promotes future conservation by helping them connect with nature. “That starts discussions about wildlife,” Schuttler said, “and encourages conservation.” “Kids have a lot of power to change minds about the importance of taking care of nature,” McShea said. “Most of our history is, when the people move in, the wildlife moves out. And we’re kind of running out of that option. The big question is: Can we find a way to safely coexist?”


Republican leader backs restrictions that could end for-profit colleges’ aggressive recruitment of veterans

In an unexpected move, Senate Education Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) is backing bipartisan legislation that would limit the revenue for-profit colleges can receive from enrolling veterans. Alexander’s decision, which comes after years of opposition on his part, arrives a week after Sens. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) introduced legislation to close a loophole in the 90/10 rule, which prohibits for-profit colleges from getting more than 90 percent of their operating revenue from federal student-aid funding. Military and veterans’ education benefits do not count toward that threshold despite being federal aid. As a result, some veterans groups say for-profit colleges aggressively recruit military members. About 30 percent of GI Bill tuition benefits went to for-profit schools in 2017, according to the Government Accountability Office. The legislation, dubbed the Protect VETS Act, would end the exemption and impose penalties for violating the revenue rule. Schools that flout the caps for a year would be barred from enrolling new military students using Department of Defense education benefits, while those who break the law for three years could lose access to all federal financial-aid funding. “I appreciate the work Senators Carper, Cassidy, Lankford and Tester have done to take a highly partisan issue and create a bipartisan solution,” Alexander said in a statement. “This is a responsible and reasonable step to ensure that all of our military and veteran students are attending quality institutions worth their time and money.” The senator’s decision was first reported by Bloomberg Government. Although veterans issues usually garner bipartisan support in Congress, Republicans have remained on the sidelines in efforts to treat military education benefits the same as federal student aid under the revenue rule. Many have questioned the fairness of the 90/10 rule because it applies only to for-profit colleges. Congress first capped the amount of taxpayer dollars for-profit colleges could receive at 85 percent in 1992 to crack down on fly-by-night schools making money from student aid programs. The government figured a for-profit school with quality programs should have no trouble deriving at least 15 percent of its revenue from students willing to put up their own money. The for-profit industry fought the rule, which was relaxed six years later as the cap was raised to 90 percent, and military education benefits were exempted. In a paper released last year, Alexander wrote that the rule was neither


Two U.S. service members killed in helicopter crash during Afghanistan combat

KABUL — Two American service members were killed Wednesday when their helicopter crashed in eastern Afghanistan while supporting combat operations, according to the U.S. military. The military said the fatalities brought to 19 the number of U.S. combat deaths in Afghanistan this year, adding that the crash is under investigation. The Taliban said the helicopter was shot down as Afghan and U.S. forces were preparing to launch an attack in the area, according to a statement from Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman. The statement identified the helicopter as a Chinook, but Fawad Aman, the Afghan Defense Ministry deputy spokesman, said it was a smaller combat helicopter. A lawmaker from Logar province said the crash occurred near an American outpost in the province. The helicopter “hit a mountainous area, and we understand that it occurred five kilometers away from a U.S. base,” Mohammed Asif said. Nineteen service members have been killed this year by hostile forces, surpassing the total of 13 who were killed in 2018. More than 2,400 U.S. troops have died in the war since 2001.A U.S. Special Forces soldier was killed by small-arms fire in eastern Afghanistan on Sept. 16. Earlier that month, a suicide bombing in Kabul killed another service member, and the attack prompted President Trump to break off talks with the Taliban. The Trump administration is intent on bringing home the bulk of U.S. forces by next year. But efforts to negotiate a peace deal to facilitate the withdrawal were scuttled in September. Since then, top U.S. negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad has sought to restart talks by negotiating a prisoner swap as a goodwill gesture. On Tuesday, an American and an Australian were freed from Taliban custody, and the Afghan government released three high-profile militants linked to the Taliban. Over the past year, the United States reduced its troop strength unilaterally, cutting 2,000 troops and bringing the total number of American troops in Afghanistan down to about 13,000. In a draft of the peace deal between the United States and the Taliban, U.S. troop levels were set to decline to 8,600, down from 100,000 in 2011. If talks do restart in the wake of the prisoner exchange, it is unclear whether the two sides will return to the agreement reached in September. While the role of the U.S. military in Afghanistan has been described by the Afghan government as mentoring or training, security forces still rely


Animal attractions get new scrutiny from travel companies

parks. It also adds to the company’s previous bans on experiences that involve travelers touching wild animals, such as tiger cub-petting, and on “demeaning” animal performances. SeaWorld and other sites that feature dolphins and other marine mammals have strongly pushed back against the policies, and some tourism companies have resisted the trend. The chief executive of Attraction Tickets Direct, which calls itself “the UK’s No. 1 Broker for Florida Attraction Tickets,” recently said the company would continue selling SeaWorld tickets, citing its “remarkable” rescue work. Dan Ashe, president and CEO of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which represents about 240 major North American sites, including the National Zoo and SeaWorld, said in a statement last month that TripAdvisor was letting “a radical minority dictate corporate policy.” The company says it consulted “experts on all sides of the debate” to come to its decision. In an interview, Ashe said visitation at AZA facilities is growing, and he faulted TripAdvisor for putting attractions held to his group’s accreditation standards in the same basket as the worst facilities. “We are constantly mourning the fact that people are losing their connection with nature. But then through actions like those of TripAdvisor, we’re trying to increasingly put limits on their opportunities to connect with nature in environments that work for them, as well as the animals,” he said. “I would have hoped for a more discerning, differentiating approach.” But animal protection organizations, which have pressured or helped travel companies to design such policies, say they’re a reflection of growing consumer concern about keeping intelligent and social animals in confinement. “This is happening either because an industry has suddenly had an attack of conscience, or an industry realizes that there’s a financial interest in changing their ways,” said Chris Draper, head of animal welfare and captivity at the Born Free Foundation, a charity that opposes animal captivity and partnered with British Airways on its policy. The policies vary in the details. Expedia Group, for example, removed big cat and elephant interactions from its sites in 2017 but has not cut marine mammal attractions. A spokesman said Expedia relies on the AZA and animal welfare groups to help its decision-making but added that it is taking “a much closer look at our animal welfare policies,” after a recent report, from the welfare organization World Animal Protection, calling it a “significant driver of the dolphin industry.” Whether


An airman was accused of spreading white-nationalist propaganda. He’s been demoted but is allowed to continue serving.

marriage and shared memes of Pepe the Frog, a meme used as a hate symbol by the alt-right. Reeves repeatedly referenced an “ethnostate” in the his alleged posts. He also appeared to mock people in interracial relationships, including his own family members: “We have little-to-no control over our family members,” one post read. “My younger brother reproduced with a full blood Aztec....“ “Respectable, upstanding men of Evropean heritage shouldn’t be engaging in sexual relations with women of other heritage,” another post said. Less than six months after he was publicly linked to the Discord posts, the Air Force stripped Reeves of his rank, reducing him to a technical sergeant and dropping him from his status as a senior noncommissioned officer. But his commander decided to keep Reeves in the Air Force, despite posts that showed him making racist comments and recruiting for a white-nationalist organization so toxic it had to rebrand when its secret message boards were outed, taking on the name American Identity Movement. White-supremacist and extremist groups have long targeted military service members and veterans. In 2008, the FBI published a report warning about the tendency for white-supremacist groups to recruit active members of the military and veterans, often placing people with combat experience in leadership roles. The leader of Vanguard America, which the Anti-Defamation League identifies as a white-supremacist group, was a recruiter for the Marine Corps. A self-avowed white nationalist, Christopher P. Hasson, a 50-year-old Coast Guard lieutenant and Marine veteran, allegedly plotted a mass terrorist attack this year to “establish a white homeland.” Colorado ranks among the top states for white-supremacist propaganda, the Denver Post reported in March. The Air Force, like each branch of the military, has an explicit policy banning its members from promoting white-supremacist groups. “Air Force military personnel are prohibited from actively advocating supremacist, extremist, or criminal gang doctrine, ideology, or causes,” the branch’s instruction manual says. “Members who actively participate in such groups or activities are subject to adverse action.” Kirby told The Washington Post that Air Force commanders have several disciplinary actions to choose from when an airman is found to violate that policy. “When Airmen fall short of this expectation, they are held accountable,” she said in an email. “Each case is evaluated based on the facts presented, and commanders have a variety of administrative and/or disciplinary actions they can administer based on the findings of the case.”


Trump pardons people accused of war crimes because he thinks war should be savage

the chivalric notion of warfare came to be embodied in international treaties like the Geneva Conventions and domestic statutes like the Uniform Code of Military Justice — which formed the basis for the prosecutions in the three cases into which the president inserted himself. These laws ensure that the burdens of war fall almost exclusively on professional soldiers, who are granted legal immunity to kill enemy soldiers; in turn, they open themselves up to the reciprocal risk of getting killed by the enemy. Trump’s pardons each involved alleged crimes committed by U.S. soldiers against individuals hors de combat, a technical legal term meaning individuals who are “outside” of combat. Army Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn was charged with murder in the killing of a suspected Taliban bombmaker, known as Rasoul, who was in the process of being released from U.S. custody in Afghanistan in 2010. Golsteyn was initially reprimanded but not charged by the military, but during a later job interview with the CIA, Golsteyn admitted that he had executed the man and burned the body, which caused the military to reopen its investigation. Golsteyn was scheduled to be tried in February. Former Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance was convicted in 2013 on two counts of murder for ordering his platoon to open fire on civilians riding a motorcycle in Afghanistan. Members of his platoon testified that the victims did not pose a danger to the platoon, and that Lorance had “repeatedly” targeted unarmed civilians, according to the New York Times. Lorance received 20 years in prison. Former Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher was charged with killing a wounded Islamic State detainee who was being treated by a U.S. medic. Gallagher was accused of executing the prisoner with a knife, although at trial the medic dramatically changed his story and claimed to have killed the prisoner himself, by placing his finger on the man’s breathing tube after the knife injury. Gallagher was acquitted of murder but convicted of posing with the corpse for a photograph, and he received a demotion. Trump reversed the demotion. Such acts violate the core feature of the “war convention” (as the philosopher Michael Walzer has called it) that evolved out of the chivalric notion of combat: namely, the prohibition on harming civilians and soldiers who are either prisoners of war or wounded and therefore incapable of fighting back. (Civilians can be killed as collateral damage —


Indoor farming looks like it could be the answer to feeding a hot and hungry planet. It’s not that easy.

BALTIMORE — The next big thing is here, all girders and concrete pads, glass roofing and gravelly dirt. Viraj Puri, co-founder of one of the nation’s largest indoor farm companies, walks through the construction site, and even without the luminous frills of thousands of butter lettuces, it’s easy to see that the building going up where Bethlehem Steel once stood is something ambitious in the world of food. The Sparrows Point steelworks in Baltimore, once the largest steel-producing facility in the world, was shuttered in 2012, leaving no trace of what once supported 30,000 families with Bethlehem Steel wages. Now the vacated land is dominated by a FedEx distribution center, an Amazon fulfillment center, an Under Armour warehouse. And by the beginning of December, Puri’s Gotham Greens farm will join them, part of a global craze for decentralized indoor food production. Food and agriculture innovation have sucked up remarkable amounts of investor capital in recent years and could become a $700 billion market by 2030, according to a Union Bank of Switzerland report. Millions are being invested globally in indoor urban farms because of their promise to produce more food with less impact, with two dozen large-scale projects launching in Dubai, Israel, the Netherlands and other countries. Still, the next big thing may be stymied in the United States by high start-up costs, high urban rents and lack of a safety net in a food system that is highly dependent on subsidies and bailouts for a few commodity crops. (An American Farm Bureau Federation report last month found that almost 40 percent of conventional farm income in 2019 will be provided by trade bailouts, disaster insurance, the farm bill and insurance indemnities.) And for indoor urban farms, especially those that rely solely on artificial light, there’s another concern: lightbulbs. In September, the Trump administration announced it would roll back Obama-era energy efficiency standards that would have effectively phased out the standard pear-shaped incandescent variety. The step is expected to slow the demand for LED bulbs, which last longer and use less electricity than many other types but are more expensive. The rollback, slated to take effect in January, is being fought by 15 states and a coalition of environmental and consumer groups that claim the changes will speed climate change and raise consumers’ energy bills. For indoor urban agriculture, especially indoor vertical farms, the reversal represents a threat to an


will have only about 60 full-time employees. For Puri, Fain and others, the necessity to succeed with indoor urban agriculture is self-evident. More than 95 percent of head lettuce in the United States comes from two drought-prone states, California and Arizona, and according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, traditional agriculture accounts for 80 percent of the country’s water consumption, as high as 90 percent in many Western states. In 2018 alone, three food-borne illness outbreaks on traditional romaine farms killed six people, hospitalized 128 and infected 300, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The safety challenges of outdoor farming are becoming more acute with climate change and unexpected shifts in pests and bird migrations. After Hurricane Sandy in 2012, news stories reported that local Gotham Greens lettuces were some of the only leafy greens available in grocery stores in New Jersey and New York. Indoor farming gives cities “urban resiliency,” something planners are increasingly concerned about. Cities are where most of us live, says Sabine O’Hara, dean of the College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability and Environmental Sciences at the University of the District of Columbia. The conversation now, she says, is how to shrink the food footprint of cities, how to make cities more sustainable and their food systems robust when disaster strikes. By the end of the year, Gotham will operate 500,000 square feet of greenhouses across five states. Gotham Greens’ first indoor greenhouse farm debuted in 2011 in Brooklyn on the rooftop of an old bowling alley. The second was on the roof of a Whole Foods, also in Brooklyn, and the third was in Queens atop what once housed the Ideal Toy Co., which made the Betsy Wetsy doll after World War II and had its last big hit with the Rubik’s Cube. Another, in Chicago, sits on the second floor of an eco-friendly cleaning products company. The eighth farm, in Baltimore, will be Gotham Greens’ biggest to date, and has raised $45 million in equity capital. At Sparrows Point, Puri walks past what will be the packaging room, the break room and the computer control room. He lists off some stats. One indoor acre at Gotham is as productive as 40 acres of conventional soil. Gotham Greens’ Baltimore farm will require 95 percent less water and 97 percent less land than a traditional dirt farm, and only about an eighth of


NTSB calls for redesign of key component of Boeing 737 NG after deadly Southwest incident

Federal safety officials on Tuesday recommended that Boeing be required to redesign a key component of its Next Generation 737 and that airlines retrofit thousands of planes as a result of an investigation into a deadly Southwest Airlines incident last year. The sweeping recommendations by the National Transportation Safety Board were a response to an April 2018 engine failure on a Southwest plane during a flight. A fan blade broke off and destroyed part of the structure that houses the engine, the NTSB found in issuing its probable cause for the deadly incident. A metal latching mechanism flew out and smashed against the plane, blowing out a window and leading to a violent decompression that prompted panic in the cabin, investigators said. Passenger Jennifer Riordan, a philanthropy executive and mother of two from Albuquerque, was seated next to the blown-out window. She was sucked halfway out of the plane and died of blunt impact trauma, a medical examiner found. The latching mechanism was part of the overall airplane engine-housing structure, known as a fan cowl, that played a key role in the incident. The NTSB said it is crucial that interactions between different engine and airplane components that played any part in the deadly incident “be well understood to preclude a failure of the fan cowl structure on Boeing 737NG-series airplanes.” To that end, the NTSB issued several recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration. It said the FAA should require Boeing to “redesign the fan cowl structure on all Boeing 737 next-generation-series airplanes to ensure the structural integrity” of that structure in case of another broken fan blade. The FAA also should require Boeing to install that redesign on new 737 Next Generation jets and require airlines to “retrofit their airplanes with the redesigned fan cowl structure,” the NTSB said. NTSB Chairman Robert L. Sumwalt III said it is not the role of his organization to consider the costs of such a change but to make sure planes are as safe as they can be with new technologies that have become available in the more than 20 years since the 737 Next Generation was certified. Sumwalt said he did not fault Boeing for the design issue, saying the company used the best technologies at its disposal in the 1990s. But there is now an opportunity to make the planes safer, he said. Sumwalt also said that airlines have increased the


In Dublin, Chapter One begins and ends with pampering

a cap of egg white take the tongue on a buzzy garden tour. A flotilla of snacks appears. First, a coin-size, saffron-tinted biscuit made with carrot powder and sporting a dab of whipped ricotta and a drizzle of apple syrup and balsamic. A gougère, stuffed with fondue-soft Coolea Farmhouse Cheese and tricked out with shaved white truffles, melts on the tongue like cotton candy. A finger of pickled herring, hinting of allspice and bay leaf, comes with a see-through sheath of kohlrabi, soft yet crisp. We haven’t seen a menu yet, but the first few moments in the bar prime us for something special in the chic dining room. Born in Bishopstown, a suburb of Cork, Lewis came to a then-modest Chapter One, linked to the Dublin Writers Museum, 26 years ago. He brought with him a background that included time on a family dairy farm; a stint as a baggage handler at JFK Airport in New York, where he figured out he wanted to pursue cooking; and restaurant jobs in London and Geneva before returning home. His longtime promotion of his country’s products made him a pioneer of contemporary Irish cooking. Chapter One received its first Michelin star, designating “a very good restaurant,” in 2007, an accolade the restaurant went on to maintain every year since, along with a slew of national honors. Lewis’s lush cookbook, “Chapter One, An Irish Food Story” (Gill Books, 2013), weighs five pounds, relies on paper from wood pulp of managed forests and comes with recipes that remind you that chefs have brigades of support in the kitchen — and you don’t. I’d buy it for inspiration alone, however, and for the long list of sources for the restaurant’s choice staples. Lucky are the patrons who land at Table 15. Positioned in front of “End of the Night,” a painting of a luminous if weary ballgoer, the perch comes with a view of the kitchen, dashing in green marble. No matter where you sit, however, the woven wool chairs hug you. The output of Irish artisans graces the walls of the restaurant, which could pass for a gallery save for the cooking fragrances. The way Lewis sees it, “decor and food are intertwined.” Chapter One gives customers several ways to sample its cooking, via pre-theater, a la carte and tasting menus, making it accessible to a larger audience. Four courses seems like a good


The last goodbye: Bei Bei, the giant panda, leaves National Zoo for China

while zoo officials and a top-ranking minister from the Chinese Embassy, Li Kexin, assembled to say farewell. At 8:35 a.m., keepers dragged out bunches of extra branches and a wheeled cart filled with a broom and other materials for the flight. Then, at 8:50 a.m., as zoo director Steve Monfort and Li looked on, a forklift carrying the white shipping crate — with a placard that read “live animals” and Bei Bei inside — emerged and headed for the truck. It was followed minutes later by the zoo’s chief veterinarian, Don Neiffer, and assistant curator of giant pandas, Laurie Thompson, with their flight bags and equipment. They accompanied Bei Bei on the trip. Then the keepers, most in their khaki pants and blue jackets, huddled. “He is probably the last cub we’ll have here in a long time,” Brandie Smith, the zoo’s deputy director, had said earlier. “It’s sad because it’s Bei Bei’s departure, but it’s also sad because it’s the end of an era for the panda program at the National Zoo.” “We will have cubs in the future,” she said, “but not [with] this little family of pandas. It will be the next generation.” Bei Bei traveled on a Boeing 777 cargo jet for the 8,508-mile journey, which started a little after noon Tuesday. The plane was cavernous, but the 240-pound panda was the only freight. The plane had a giant image of Bei Bei on the fuselage. He had 66 pounds of bamboo, two pounds of apples and pears, two bags of panda biscuits and two pounds of cooked sweet potatoes to eat on the trip. Once in Chengdu, he would be greeted by experts from the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda, then be driven to the Bifengxia Panda Base, about 90 miles southwest of Chengdu. He will be in quarantine for 30 days. When he reaches maturity in about three years, he will enter a breeding program. China owns and leases all giant pandas in U.S. zoos. The animals, and especially their cubs, have been part of the relationship between the two countries through good times and bad, from the Cold War to the current trade tensions and turmoil in Hong Kong. “I think this is a success story,” Monfort said. “Why would anybody want to mess with that? . . . To me, they symbolize the beginning of something between our


maternal age,” and it is unlikely that she will get pregnant again. “One would expect it to get easier,” Pamela Baker-Masson, a spokeswoman at the zoo, said of the departing animal. “But there is this undeniable attachment that I have to this bear.” She said Bei Bei is “incredibly charismatic” and has “a very distinct charm.” “I’ve come to know him,” Baker-Masson said. “And I remember the day he was born.” It’s not clear how, or whether, the zoo will get giant panda cubs again. Nor is it clear whether the Chinese will want the two adults back when their lease expires next year, on Dec. 7. Both were born in China, and their lease has already been extended twice by the Chinese since the animals arrived at the zoo in 2000. Monfort said he does not anticipate any problems and said he could see China extending the lease on the adults again. “They’re still young enough, I believe, to do that,” he said. “And that may mean they won’t produce any cubs. We don’t know for sure. . . . We’d like to keep them here as long as we can. This is the only real life that they’ve known.” But if China decides it wants the National Zoo’s pandas back, “that’s their right,” he said. Li lamented the departure of Bei Bei and said he was aware that the zoo wanted to keep giant pandas in Washington. “We’re working on it,” he said. “My government is open for any kind of cooperation of this kind, with many countries, of course, including the U.S.” The National Zoo has had giant pandas almost continuously for 47 years. Under the agreement with the Chinese, all giant panda cubs born in U.S. zoos must be sent to a breeding program in China once they turn 4 years old. Bei Bei turned 4 on Aug. 22. Two of the zoo’s cubs have already been shipped to China — Tai Shan in 2010 and Bao Bao in 2017. The zoo’s first giant pandas, Hsing-Hsing, a male, and Ling-Ling, a female, were gifts from China during the administration of President Richard M. Nixon in 1972. Ling-Ling died in 1992. Hsing-Hsing died in 1999. As few as 1,864 giant pandas live in the wild, while several hundred more live in zoos and breeding centers around the world. Their conservation status is listed as vulnerable. michael.ruane@washpost.com dana.hedgpeth@washpost.com


Virtue is the secret ingredient at the exceptional Shouk

exit this world in relative peace, knowing that my last meal, at least, was not a small act of destruction. I’d view it as a parting gift/apology to those left to deal with the greenhouse gases we boomers and Gen Xers produced, in part from the burger empires we erected in the 20th century. “Billions and Billions Served” takes on darker associations in a world frantically searching for solutions to the problems it created. This knowledge — you could be cynical and call it self-satisfaction — is one of the underlying appeals of Shouk. For all the veggie deliciousness it produces, the fast-casual is selling a lifestyle choice, in which you select a meal that causes little to no harm, no matter how far back you trace an ingredient. Virtue becomes its own umami. It floods the brain with a pleasure uniquely its own. “For me, plant-based eating is the only sustainable way forward,” says Friedman during a phone interview. “People are rapidly waking up to the benefits of eating more plant-based” food. The beauty of Shouk’s approach is its silence on the issues. No matter which shop you visit — the first one in Mount Vernon Triangle or the second in the Union Market district — you won’t find any chest-thumping pronouncements about the inherent value of vegetables. The closest thing to an endorsement are the ripped-open bags of beets and potatoes that sit in a window nook at the K Street NW store, each specimen offering up a wordless lecture on the advantages of whole vegetables. Nussbacher had only a few rules for his chef when conceiving Shouk (the Hebrew word for “market”), and one of them was that he wanted no processed foods, “just vegetables, thoughtfully put together . . . to appeal to non-vegans,” Friedman remembers. A lesser cook might have been daunted by such a challenge. Not Friedman, a professionally trained chef who went to finishing school in the kitchens of Daniel Boulud and Michel Richard. He has developed a masterly touch with the seeds, legumes, vegetables and spices at the heart of Shouk’s cross-cultural take on Israeli street food. (Please, let’s not bicker further about the origins of these dishes; both Nussbacher and Friedman say their fare is a celebration of traditional Arab, Palestinian, Eastern European and North African foodways.) The menu is small, and Friedman emphasizes the cross-utilization of star ingredients, such as


Can Boris Johnson win the support of Labour voters who want Brexit?

it,” said Gareth Flynn, a local Labour organizer. Local volunteers are the foot soldiers in British general elections. They pass out leaflets and make their case door-to-door, urging their neighbors to show up at the polls. And what these volunteers see and hear in the Midlands and northern England is that Johnson is a decent salesman. They detect that Brexit is as popular as ever, maybe even more so, especially among voters who feel like they’ve been ignored — or slandered as gullible, xenophobic, closet racists too ignorant to see all the upsides of continued membership in the world’s largest trade bloc. “We were told, ‘You’ve never had it so good,’ but Wigan never really felt the benefit of the European Union,” Flynn said. “We know we sent more money to Europe than we’ve got back. We’re not fools.” Flynn recalls distributing Labour leaflets in 2016 that highlighted how remaining in the E.U. would mean cheaper cellphone bills when people traveled in Europe. “Son, I haven’t been on proper holiday in four years,” passersby told him. “Roaming charges in the south of France wasn’t cutting it,” he said. “There is a very, very strong sense of anger in towns like mine,” Wigan’s member of Parliament, Lisa Nandy, said on a Guardian podcast last month. “We asked people to come out, we asked them what they thought, we asked them to choose. And now we’re saying, actually, I’m afraid we’ve decided differently,” she said. “And it feeds that sense of being alienated from the political system, and a political system that just simply doesn’t care what people think.” Nandy has tried to bridge conflicting positions on Brexit. In a challenge to her party’s leadership in recent days, she supported moving Johnson’s Brexit deal forward in the approval process “to see if we can improve this deal and keep people’s trust in our democracy.” Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn assured Nandy that he understood concerns in constituencies like hers, adding, “I know that she joins me in being pretty alarmed at the way in which manufacturing industry is under stress at the moment” and could leave Britain as the result of a sharp break with the E.U. The message to Labour Leavers: We’re still fighting for you. On the facade of Wigan’s Victorian, red-brick City Hall, there’s a plaque that reads: “By the end of the 19th century Wigan was one of the


An onslaught of pills, hundreds of thousands of deaths: Who is accountable?

companies have been on an endless quest for steady profits because the prices of their drugs are unstable and generally declining, said David Amsellem, a managing director at financial firm Piper Jaffray and an expert on specialty pharmaceuticals. He calls these companies “low-market businesses that are looking for pockets of high margins.” That situation has contributed to constant churn in the business. Companies are routinely bought and sold, divisions spun off, names changed. That’s part of the reason the firms responsible for the vast bulk of sales from 2006 through 2012 are virtually unknown to most of the nation. The generic companies don’t promote drugs on television, like the big-brand pharma companies. “They’re order-takers,” Amsellem said. Less obscure are the big distributors: McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen. Also mentioned in the ARCOS data are retailers who distributed drugs. They are some of the most familiar names in America, including Walgreens, CVS and Walmart. In statements to The Post on Tuesday in response to the release of the DEA database, several drug companies issued broad defenses of their actions during the opioid epidemic, saying they were committed to providing a legal product to legitimate pain patients while combating the diversion of drugs. The drug epidemic is a case of supply and demand, and the newly released data makes clear that supply was never in doubt. The demand side is a more complex public health issue that brings into play the ongoing challenges of communities where the social fabric has been frayed. The new data shows that pills surged most dramatically into central Appalachia, particularly coal country, and bordering areas where the economy has been depressed. Many people in those areas have endured hardship and job injuries. They need painkillers, including the powerful kind provided by derivatives of the opium poppy. Almost lost in the national controversy over the opioid epidemic is that some people need them badly. In the 1990s, amid extensive drug industry marketing, the medical community seized on a big idea: that freedom from pain was a fundamental human right. As a result, some of the stigma associated with opioid painkillers, which are cousins of street heroin, dissipated. Within a decade, the pills became their own self-sustaining industry, a black-market and even street-corner product. The painkillers arrived in bulk at small-town pharmacies. That trend is parallel to a rise in the death rates in those communities. Prescription opioid


76 billion opioid pills: Newly released federal data unmasks the epidemic

a less addictive form of opioid it called OxyContin. Purdue paid doctors and nonprofit groups advocating for patients in pain to help market the drug as a safe and effective way to treat pain. But the new drug was highly addictive. As more and more people were hooked, more and more companies entered the market, manufacturing, distributing and dispensing massive quantities of pain pills. Purdue ending up paying a $634 million fine to the Food and Drug Administration for claiming OxyContin was less addictive than other pain medications. Annual opioid sales nationwide rose from $6.1 billion in 2006 to $8.5 billion in 2012, according to industry data gathered by IQVIA, a health care information and consulting company. Individual drug company revenues ranged in single years at the epidemic’s peak from $403 million for opioids sold by Endo to $3.1 billion in OxyContin sales by Purdue Pharma, according to a 2018 lawsuit against multiple defendants by San Juan County in New Mexico. During the past two decades, Florida became ground zero for pill mills — pain management clinics that served as fronts for corrupt doctors and drug dealers. They became so brazen that some clinics set up storefronts along I-75 and I-95, advertising their products on billboards by interstate exit ramps. So many people traveled to Florida to stock up on oxycodone and hydrocodone, they were sometimes referred to as “prescription tourists.” The route from Florida to Georgia, Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio became known as the “Blue Highway.” It was named after the color of one of the most popular pills on the street — 30 mg oxycodone tablets made by Mallinckrodt, which shipped more than 500 million of the pills to Florida between 2008 and 2012. When state troopers began pulling over and arresting out-of-state drivers for transporting narcotics, drug dealers took to the air. One airline offered nonstop flights to Florida from Ohio and other Appalachian states, and the route became known as the Oxy Express. A decade ago, the DEA began cracking down on the industry. In 2005 and 2006, the agency sent letters to drug distributors, warning them that they were required to report suspicious orders of painkillers and halt sales until the red flags could be resolved. The letter also went to drug manufacturers. Even just one distributor that fails to follow the law “can cause enormous harm,” the 2006 DEA letter said. DEA officials


The military needs immigrants. The Trump administration wants to keep them out.

far fewer lawful permanent residents are seeking military service and expedited citizenship, and they are now less likely than civilians to have their applications for naturalization approved. Defenders of Trump policies justify stringent screening and ruthless removal policies on the basis of security and rule following, which might hold up if either was pursued in good faith. But by the Pentagon’s own admission, a single MAVNI recruit has been charged with failing to register as a foreign agent over the course of the program’s 10 years. An unreleased Rand Corp. report “found no evidence that the Mavni program had caused any security problems … the program’s recruits were generally better educated and performed better than the average enlisted soldier,” the New York Times wrote. Immigrant recruits face far higher barriers than American-born recruits with real security risks, such as white supremacist links. These new screening procedures are embarrassingly inconsistent and removed recruits like Zicheng Li for foreign ties — sometimes the very foreign ties they believed they were recruited for. New procedures have made it more difficult for qualified service members to file for naturalization, with their new units not educated on their role in the naturalization process, and new policies requiring senior military commanders to sign paperwork have put an undue burden on applicants. Naturalized recruits have found themselves subject to shifting policies denying them security clearances without cause. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement is required to consider a veteran’s service, health and other factors when considering deportation; a new report found that agents are largely unaware of or not following this policy. None of this makes America safer. The Trump administration changed the calculus of assessing immigrant service; the trade-off is no longer security vs. the benefits of a diverse force. Instead, the core assessment is how far these anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric can go before the strong and diverse force America requires is no longer possible. Throughout its history, the U.S. military has reluctantly and with real ugliness expanded the pool of who may serve and whose service is valued. It has also been exponentially rewarded for redefining the standard recruit to include women, people of color, the LGBTQ community and immigrants. The military now relies on the adage that the only thing that matters about who is in foxhole, or a cyber cell, or a submarine is whether the person next to you can do the job.


Transcript: Sondland’s Nov. 20 public testimony in front of the House Intelligence Committee

Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare a recess at any time. There is a quorum present. We will proceed today in the same fashion as our other hearings. I'll make an opening statement and then Ranking Member Nunes will have the opportunity to make a statement. Then we will turn to our witness for an opening statement, and then to questions. For audience members, we welcome you and respect your interest in being here. In turn, we ask for your respect as we proceed with today's hearing. It is the intention of the committee to proceed without disruptions. As chairman, I'll make all necessary and appropriate steps to maintain order and to ensure the committee is run in accordance with House rules and House Resolution 660. With that, I now recognize myself to give an opening statement in the impeachment inquiry into Donald J. Trump, the 45th president of the United States. This morning, we will hear from Gordon Sondland, the American ambassador to the European Union. We are here today as part of the House of Representatives' impeachment inquiry because President Donald Trump sought to condition military aid to Ukraine in an Oval Office meeting with the new Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in exchange for politically motivated investigations that Trump believed would help his re-election campaign. The first investigation was of a discredited conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, was responsible for interfering in the 2016 election. The second investigation that Trump demanded into -- was into a political rival that he apparently feared most, Joe Biden. Trump sought to weaken Biden and to refute the fact that his own election campaign in 2016 had been helped by a Russian hacking and dumping operation and Russian social media campaign directed by Vladimir Putin to help Trump. Trump's scheme undermined military and diplomatic support for a key ally and undercut U.S. anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine. Trump put his personal and political interests above those of the United States. As Ambassador Sondland would later tell career Foreign Service officer David Holmes immediately after speaking to the president, "Trump did not give a expletive about Ukraine. He cares about big stuff that benefits him like the Biden investigations that Rudy Giuliani was pushing." Ambassador Sondland was a skilled dealmaker, but in trying to satisfy a directive from the president found himself increasingly embroiled in an effort to press the new


Transcript: Laura Cooper and David Hale’s Nov. 20 testimony to House Intelligence Committee

of a congressional subpoena. I wanted to share a few reflections on two words that have come up a lot in the course of these hearings and those words are corruption and anti-corruption. We are supposed to believe, I -- I imagine, listening to my colleagues, that Donald Trump is a great anti-corruption fighter, that his only concern about Ukraine was that it would fight corruption. But let's look at that argument. Let's look at the President's words and look -- let's look at his deeds. Ambassador Yovanovitch was an anti-corruption champion. No one has contradicted that that has come forward to testify here. She was a champion. And on the day she is at a meeting acknowledging in Ukraine another anti-corruption champion, a woman who had acid thrown in her face and died a painful death after months, she is called back to Washington because of a vicious smear campaign by the President's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, among others. She is recalled. That is not anti-corruption, that is corruption. And one of the people responsible for this smear campaign, in addition to Mr. Giuliani -- and it is a long and sordid list of those who were involved -- is a man named Lutsenko, someone who the minority's own witness acknowledges has a poor reputation as self-serving and corrupt. And what do we see about Mr. Lutsenko and his predecessor, Mr. Shokin? What does the President have to say about one of these corrupt former prosecutors? He praises them. He says they were treated very unfairly. That's not anti-corruption, that's corruption. And when Ambassador Sondland testified today that there was unquestionably a quid pro quo and everybody knew it, conditioning a White House meeting that Ukraine desperately wanted to show its friend and foe alike it had the support of the President of the United States, when that was conditioned -- that official act was conditioned on the receipt of things of value to the President -- political investigations -- that was not anti-corruption, that was corruption. And when Ambassador Sondland testified today that he could put two and two together and so can we, that the -- there was also a quid pro quo on the military aid, that aid was not going to be released unless they did a public statement -- Ukraine did a public statement of these political investigations the President wanted, that's not anti-corruption, that


The Energy 202: Pete Buttigieg, polling high in Iowa, targets farmers with climate message

THE LIGHTBULB Pete Buttigieg is polling incredibly well in Iowa. And the mayor of South Bend, Ind., did nearly everything possible during the fifth Democratic debate to try to boost his support even more in the big corn-growing state -- by repeatedly hammering how farmers can be part of the solution to climate change. Buttigieg spent much of Wednesday evening honing an environmental message designed to cast farmers as a key group in battling climate change, more than perhaps any other candidate on stage during the debate hosted by The Washington Post and MSNBC in Atlanta. “American farming should be one of the key pillars of how we combat climate change,” Buttigieg said. That message, he added, is a good way of recruiting ”everybody to be part of the solution, including conservative communities where a lot of people have been made to feel that admitting climate science would mean acknowledging they’re part of the problem.” This message may resonate in nation’s first state to vote in the Democratic primary: A recent Des Moines Register-CNN poll showed Buttigieg surging with support from 25 percent of likely Iowa caucusgoers, with Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former vice president Joe Biden all behind the small city mayor in essentially a three-way tie at about 15 percent support. When asked about President Trump’s subsidies to farmers amid a trade war with China, Buttigieg pivoted to a part of his $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion climate plan to support farmers and ranchers in adopting management techniques that capture carbon dioxide from the air. “I believe that the quest for the carbon-negative farm could be as big a symbol of dealing with climate change as the electric car in this country,” Buttigieg said during the debate. Buttigieg also called out Trump for exempting dozens of oil refineries from having to blend biofuels — notably, corn-based ethanol — into their gasoline. Renewable fuel policy means little outside the nation’s Corn Belt, but it is perennially a high-priority issue in Iowa, which grows more corn than any other state. “Look, I don’t think this president cares one bit about farmers,” Buttigieg said. Like many other Midwestern states earlier this year, Iowa was hit with catastrophic floods of the sort which will become more frequent and severe as the world continues to warm. In the past, Buttigieg has made that connection when campaigning in Iowa.


Especially at Thanksgiving, a sustainable meal is about more than carbon emissions

and writing about all this, I welcomed the chance to hear the ideas of people who don’t eat, sleep and breathe food, and who are younger than your typical agriculture journalist. And, sure enough, their ideas were different. Environmental issues were part of the picture, but the students had a much more expansive definition of sustainability, including social (does everyone eat and enjoy this food?), economic (can people afford it and make a living growing it?) and waste considerations. Well, that’s a tall order! What was for dinner? Their first plan was dumpster diving, but not everyone found that appetizing. Plan B was a vegetarian menu made mostly of food from a nearby Hudson Valley farm. When we arrived, they were baking apples (with no sugar, because sugar has to come a long distance). Apples are also reasonably affordable (for fruit) and accessible all year. In the oven was the main dish — shakshuka, made with tomatoes and eggs from the farm. The tomatoes were discounted to $1 per pound because they were on the verge of going bad. Although the students didn’t know the farm’s environmental or labor practices, those unknowns were trumped by the fact that they were saving the tomatoes from the trash. There was steamed broccoli with the shakshuka; they chose fresh rather than frozen because the price was about the same and the fresh had less packaging (although they know there’s less waste associated with frozen vegetables). The only other food was a loaf of whole-grain bread, taken from the day-old shelf. The total cost was $65.22 for a dinner for 18. But where were the lentils? They seemed to fit so many of the students’ criteria, as well as being a hobby horse of mine. Turned out that one student flat-out refused to eat anything with lentils, so they were off the table. Though the students used standard numbers to calculate the greenhouse gas emissions for their dinner, there’s no way to take cover crops, or no-till, or any of the other practices that can make a food more sustainable into consideration at the grocery store. We just don’t have the information. Their primary focus was, instead, on the criteria that were tangible: They wanted to minimize waste and buy local. We can all agree about cutting food waste; it’s a win any way you slice it. But their other priority — buying local


Transcript: Vindman and Williams testify in front of the House Intelligence Committee on Nov. 19

about President Trump's scheme to condition official acts -- a White House meeting and hundreds of millions of dollars of U.S. military aid to fight the Russians -- on a deliverable by the new Ukrainian president, Zelensky: two politically motivated (ph) investigations that Trump believed would help his re-election campaign. One of those investigations involved the Bidens, and the other involved a discredited conspiracy theory that Ukraine and not Russia was responsible for interfering in our 2016 election. As Ambassador Sondland would later tell career Foreign Service officer David Holmes immediately after speaking to the president, "Trump did not give a" -- he then used an expletive -- "about Ukraine. He cares about big stuff that benefits the president like the Biden investigation that Giuliani was pushing." To press a foreign leader to announce an investigation into his political rival, President Trump put his own personal and political interests above those of the nation. He undermined our military and diplomatic support for a key ally and undercut U.S. anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine. How could our diplomats urge Ukraine to refrain from political investigations of its own citizens if the president of the United States was urging Ukraine to engage in precisely the same kind of corrupt and political investigations of one of our own citizens? At the White House, career professionals became concerned that President Trump, through an irregular channel that involved his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, E.U. Ambassador Gordon Sondland and Rudy Giuliani, was pushing a policy towards Ukraine at odds with the national interest. This morning, we hear from two of the national security professionals who became aware of those efforts. Lieutenant Colonel Alex Vindman, whose family fled oppression in the Soviet Union when he was a toddler, is a career Army officer, an Iraq War veteran who was awarded a Purple Heart, and an expert in Russia and Ukraine who has worked at the highest levels of the Pentagon. In July 2018, he was detailed to the White House in part to coordinate policy on Ukraine. SCHIFF: Jennifer Williams is a career Foreign Service officer who is currently detailed to the Office of the Vice President and responsible for Europe- and Eurasia-related issues. Following his initial and congratulatory phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky on April 21st, President Trump asked Vice President Pence to represent him at Zelensky's upcoming inauguration. Ms. Williams was working on


The Technology 202: LinkedIn reports takedowns of fake profiles, violence and even child exploitation

in competing with tech rivals such as China. “We’re in the process of potentially losing the [artificial intelligence] arms race to China right now, because they have more access to more data than we do, and their government is putting billions of dollars to work subsidizing the development of AI in a way that we are not,” said Yang, who claimed that the United States fell behind on technology when it shuttered the Office of Technology Assessment in 1995. Calls to bring back the office have grown in popularity in recent years as Congress struggles to address emerging tech issues. Fellow candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) also released a plan to bring back the office, arguing it would help curb corporate lobbying influence in shaping tech policy. A bipartisan group of members of Congress introduced legislation to refund the office in September. Yang also presented a less-tested idea for a “World Data Organization” that would act as a World Trade Organization to regulate data. Both South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) also hammered on the need for America to compete with China on tech innovation. There were far less fireworks on tech than during the last debate, but there were many passing references to the issues. Booker took aim at the uneven distribution of venture capital dollars, saying 75 percent go toward three large metropolitan areas. Former vice president Joe Biden took a jab at Trump’s tweets, saying it’s time to “start talking civilly.” Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) plugged her legislation to require greater transparency around political ads. The candidates did not directly attack giants such as Facebook, Amazon and Google during this round. The only Amazon mention came when Warren compared a detention center at the border to “ a giant Amazon warehouse filled with cages of women, cages of men, and cages of little girls and little boys.” Amazon, whose chief executive Jeff Bezos also owns The Post, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Axios editor Dan Primack tweeted: NIBBLES: Google will restrict political advertisers, including President Trump, from targeting specific categories of people based on their political affiliation, my colleague Tony Romm reports. The company is outlining its policies after largely remaining quiet in recent weeks while Facebook and Twitter took divergent approaches to political ads. Political advertisers will only be able to target YouTube and Google users based