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How the Ever Given was freed from the Suez Canal

InternationalApr 04. 2021

By Atthar Mirza, Júlia Ledur, Ruby Mellen
The Washington Post

The crisis in the Suez Canal last month turned the world’s attention on a single challenge few had ever considered: how to refloat a 200,000-ton mass of steel, as long as the Empire State Building is high.

Digging, tugging and pulling, it turned out, freed the ship. The days-long, round-the-clock effort to move the massive vessel involved sucking sand and mud from underneath its hull, as tugboats pushed and pulled the ship in confluence with a swelling tide.

Here’s how it happened.

The Ever Given container ship became stuck at an angle in the Suez Canal during a sandstorm on March 23, blocking for six days a vital waterway through which about 15 percent of all shipping passes.

Using satellite imagery and vessel data, The Post reconstructed the operation that released the ship

The canal narrows below the shoreline, which meant the ship was much more stuck than it appeared to be in photos. Riprap, or loosely placed stones, lines the banks, which made it even harder to dislodge the ship.

A fleet of tugboats, dredgers and salvage crews worked for several days to refloat the ship. On Monday morning, they managed to free the stern, the back of the vessel, the most visible sign of progress since the blockage.

After a morning boost from a high tide reaching nearly seven feet, a new attempt to release the Ever Given began Monday afternoon.

The Ever Given was fully dislodged on Monday at 3:05 p.m. local time.

The Ever Given got stuck the morning of March 23, amid poor visibility and high winds in one of the narrower parts of the 120-mile canal. Egyptian officials have launched an investigation into the details of the crash.

“When you’re traveling on a boat and you hit something, there’s a tremendous sense of loss,” said Gregory Tylawsky, a licensed shipmaster and founder of the Maritime Expert Group.

Early in the crisis, experts were unsure how they would be able to move the ship. “It is not really possible to pull it loose,” said Peter Berdowski, the CEO of Dutch dredging company Boskalis, which helped with the week’s efforts.

The vessel, he said, was like “an enormous beached whale.”

The canal is dug in sand and mud, meaning a boat hitting the edge would get “stuck in the sand rather than [getting] repelled by a hard wall,” said Ragui Assaad, a professor at the University of Minnesota and research fellow at the Economic Research Forum in Cairo.

There is little room for error. “As a pilot, you cannot deviate from that center line,” Tylawsky said.

Within hours of the blockage, tugboats were on the scene, followed by dredgers, working through the week to free the Japanese-owned, Taiwanese-operated ship.

– – –

Each hour the Ever Given remained stuck on a muddy bank of the Suez Canal meant worse disruptions to international commerce. A substantial share of all shipping passes through the waterway. In the face of delays, the prices of oil and coffee began to rise, and livestock faced starvation aboard some of the hundreds vessels left waiting indefinitely.

With a ship that size already caught in the canal’s bank, there wouldn’t be much for the operators to do.

“It’d be controlled chaos onboard,” said Gary Cordes, a retired shipmaster and senior adviser at the Maritime Expert Group, who said he transited the canal nine times between the 1960s and 1980s. He said it would fall on those familiar with the landscape to come up with a plan to free the ship.

Authorities worked day and night, dredging and using tugboats to dig and pull the ship away from the banks. Salvagers dredged underneath and around the hull, pumping sediment from the bottom of the canal.

The dredgers on scene were heavy-duty. The 10th of Ramadan came to help, as did the Dutch-made Mashhour, owned and operated by the Suez Canal Authority, which was touted by the Transportation Research Board in 1996 as the “world’s largest and most powerful stationary cutter suction dredger,” capable of sucking up “abrasive sand with gravel, compacted sand, sticky clay and rocks.”

Often more than 10 tugboats were also leading the effort, pushing and pulling the ship in an effort to dislodge it from the bank.

Loaders excavated the eastern embankment at the ship’s bow. Over the weekend, those efforts removed nearly 1 million cubic feet of mud and water, officials said.

In an added effort to refloat the ship, some 9,000 tons of the Ever Given’s ballast water – used to stabilize the ship – were released to help lighten the vessel, officials said.

– – –

While efforts throughout the week proved unsuccessful, the weekend bore promises of shifting tides. A full moon on Sunday night meant unusually high waters that could help refloat the ship. And more help was on the way: two big and powerful tugboats, the Dutch-flagged Alp Guard and the Italian-flagged Carlo Magno.

Through Sunday night into Monday afternoon, teams worked tirelessly to get enough of the sand and mud out from under the boat that it would rejoin the canal’s waters, staving off a catastrophe for global trade.

On Monday afternoon around 3 p.m., the Ever Given broke free, its leviathan haul slowly creeping north to the Great Bitter Lake.

“I think they did a spectacular job,” said Cordes, acknowledging he initially thought the effort would maybe take “a couple of weeks.”

The mood on the scene in the Suez Canal was ebullient, as workers cheered and vessels honked. But the ripples of the Ever Given’s release were felt around the globe.

“To do that is one thing but to do it in front of the world, with the world watching, it was massive,” Tylawsky said.

– – –

About this report: Sources: VesselFinder, Suez Canal Authority, Leth Agencies. Satellite image 2021 Maxar Technologies. The 3-D models of the Suez Canal were built based on measurements from the engineering department of the Suez Canal Authority. The positions of the Ever Given container ship and the tugboats are based on satellite imagery by Maxar, Airbus Space and Planet Labs Inc., as well as location data from VesselFinder. The dredger position is an approximation based on satellite images of the scene.

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Cairo’s mummies get a new home and a grand procession on the way.

InternationalApr 04. 2021

By Sudarsan Raghavan
The Washington Post

CAIRO – It was a parade unlike any other this city has seen.

A procession of 22 ancient Egyptian royal mummies streamed Saturday from downtown Cairo, where revolutionaries rose up to topple autocrat Hosni Mubarak a decade ago, to a new museum three miles away that represents Egypt’s future as much as its past.

At 8 p.m., the mummies – 18 kings and four queens – left the famed ochre-hued Egyptian Museum near Tahrir Square, where they had rested for decades. They were each atop specially decorated gold-and-blue-hued vehicles, resembling a boat. Or perhaps the symbol of a winged sun, an ornament worn by Egypt’s ancient rulers and seen as providing protection. Each of the 22 vehicles was emblazoned with the name of the royals mummy it carried.

The multimillion-dollar affair – called the Pharaohs’ Golden Parade – had been promoted for months. Egyptian authorities are seeking to attract tourists, a key source of foreign currency, and alter the course of an economy battered by the coronavirus pandemic, Islamist attacks and political chaos in past years.

The highly choreographed ceremony was also a nationalist vehicle to highlight Egypt’s place in history. The nation’s authoritarian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, who himself is often referred to as “a new pharaoh” for his ambitious projects and iron-fisted rule, presided over the ceremony.

In a Facebook post, Intisar al-Sissi, Egypt’s first lady, said Saturday’s event “expresses the greatness of the ancient civilization that provided humanity, and still does, with a unique and diverse legacy, contributing to its progress and prosperity.”

Most Egyptians saw the parade on television with the entire route and surrounding bridges and roads closed for security. With parts of the program prerecorded, viewers were treated to an orchestra and singer playing patriotic music and videos extolling many of the country’s famous temples, churches and mosques.

Sissi, along with senior officials and aides, watched the parade on a giant screen inside a hall of the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, where the mummies would be displayed.

The ceremony sought to recreate the ancient existences of the royals. In the procession were horse-drawn chariots and hundreds of performers wearing the traditional attire worn by ancient Egyptians.

The vehicles circled around Tahrir Square, the epicenter of Egypt’s revolution, which is now centered with an ancient obelisk and statues of lions. Flood lights bore into the night sky as yellow and blue lights lit up the area.

The mummies carried in boxes filled with nitrogen and their vehicles were fitted with special shock-absorbers to protect their millennia-old remains. Nothing was taken to chance: even their route was freshly paved.

The mummies in the procession were lined up in chronological order. The oldest rulers came first, starting with Seqenenre Taa, the last king of the 17th Dynasty, who reigned in the 16th century B.C. The last was the 12th century B.C.. pharaoh Ramses IX.

In between were two of the most well-known of ancient Egypt’s rulers: Ramses II, widely seen as the greatest pharaoh of the New Kingdom period, and Queen Hatshepsut, who ruled at a time when women pharaohs were very rare. The temples of both rulers, in Luxor and Abu Simbel, are among the most visited.

At 8:30 p.m., after following a large motorcycle escort through the empty Cairo streets, the 22 vehicles stopped in front the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in the capital’s Fustat enclave. Then, a 21-gun salute followed. Minutes later the parade entered the compound and Sissi walked out to greet the new arrivals.

They will be housed in the museum’s royal hall of mummies and will go on display by mid-month, said officials.

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Amazon admits it was wrong to suggest its workforce never needs to pee in bottles on the job

InternationalApr 04. 2021

Last week, in an unusually combative tweet-response to a congressman, Amazon insisted that its workers did not urinate in bottles.

“If that were true, nobody would work for us,” wrote the e-commerce giant that employs more than a million people worldwide. Disbelief, derision and fact-checking ensued as journalists weighed in with reported memos and contractor policies suggesting otherwise: “Documents show Amazon is aware drivers pee in bottles and even defecate en route,” the Intercept reported, citing workers who described intense pressure to hit their quotas.

Now Amazon says it was wrong.

“[We] know that drivers can and do have trouble finding restrooms because of traffic or sometimes rural routes, and this has been especially the case during Covid when many public restrooms have been closed,” the retail giant wrote in a Friday blog post, apologizing to Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., for its “incorrect” response to him.

“This is a long-standing, industry-wide issue and is not specific to Amazon,” the company said, including links to various news stories. “Regardless of the fact that this is industry-wide, we would like to solve it. We don’t yet know how, but will look for solutions.”

The company’s mea culpa came as several thousand Amazon employees in an Alabama warehouse vote on whether to unionize – a local referendum with national implications as advocates see a spark for broader changes and as President Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., back workers’ right to organize. Amazon has fought unionization aggressively, fueling long-standing criticisms that it mistreats workers even as the retail giant touts its $15 minimum wage.

Pocan rebuffed Amazon’s apology on Saturday, tweeting that it is “not about me” but about Amazon’s workers “who you don’t treat with enough respect or dignity.”

“Start by acknowledging the inadequate working conditions you’ve created for ALL your workers, then fix that for everyone & finally, let them unionize without interference,” Pocan wrote.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for further comment Saturday. Amazonchief executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.

The Twitter-fight began on March 24 after Pocan tweeted a critical response to Amazon executive Dave Clark, who suggested his company shared common ground with their strident critic Sanders – while also taking a jab at Sanders and other progressive politicians’ struggle to pass national reforms such as a $15 minimum wage.

“I often say we are the Bernie Sanders of employers, but that’s not quite right because we actually deliver a progressive workplace,” Clark said.

Pocan, who bills himself as a “small business owner, union member, and lifelong advocate for progressive causes,” objected.

“Paying workers $15/hr doesn’t make you a “progressive workplace” when you union-bust & make workers urinate in water bottles,” he tweeted.

That drew an eye-catching and soon-to-go-viral response from Amazon News that began, “You don’t really believe the peeing in bottles thing, do you?”

On March 25, Amazon also tweeted a combative response to another high-profile critic, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who had accused large companies such as Amazon of exploiting tax “loopholes.”

“You make the tax laws @SenWarren; we just follow them,” Amazon News wrote.

Online, people swiftly cited reporting that some people felt compelled to pee in bottles on the job. The Intercept’s Ken Klippenstein reported that Amazon’s tweet to Pocan raised eyebrows among staffers, too, with one security engineer suggesting the company’s account may have been hacked.

“These tweets are unnecessarily antagonistic (risking Amazon’s brand), and may be a result of unauthorized access by someone with access to the account’s credentials,” the engineer’s report read, according to the Intercept.

Nine days after its tweet to Pocan, Amazon backed off.

“This was an own-goal, we’re unhappy about it,” the company said in its blog post, using a soccer term for the unfortunate moment when someone scores on their own team.

That tweet “did not receive proper scrutiny,” the company said, and “did not contemplate our large driver population and instead wrongly focused only on our fulfillment centers.”

“A typical Amazon fulfillment center has dozens of restrooms, and employees are able to step away from their work station at any time,” the statement continued. “If any employee in a fulfillment center has a different experience, we encourage them to speak to their manager and we’ll work to fix it.”

Reporting over the years has said that both Amazon warehouse workers and contract drivers sometimes urinate in bottles to minimize their time off-task.

“I saw no effort on Amazon’s part to push delivery service providers to allow their drivers to use the restroom on a normal human basis, leading many, myself included, to urinate inside bottles for fear of slowing down our delivery rates,” former driver James Meyers recently told the Guardian, describing shifts that could stretch 14 hours.

Last fall, Amazon said it had 1,700 delivery-service partners in the United States, Canada, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom. More than 400,000 drivers deliver goods for Amazon, all either self-employed or working for other companies even if they wear Amazon uniforms and drive trucks with its branding.

– – –

The Washington Post’s Hamza Shaban and Jay Greene contributed to this report.

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Nearly 20 arrested in alleged plot against Jordan’s King Abdullah II

InternationalApr 04. 2021

By Joby Warrick, Sarah Dadouch, Steve Hendrix
The Washington Post

Jordanian authorities on Saturday arrested as many as 20 people and sought to restrain the movement of a former crown prince amid what officials called a threat to the “security and stability” of a country long regarded as a vital U.S. ally in the Middle East.

Prince Hamzah bin Hussein, the eldest son of the late King Hussein and his American-born fourth wife, Queen Noor, was told to remain at his Amman palace amid an investigation into an alleged plot to unseat his older half brother, King Abdullah II, according to a senior Middle Eastern intelligence official briefed on the events.

The move followed the discovery of what officials described as a complex and far-reaching plot that included at least one other Jordanian royal as well as tribal leaders and members of the country’s political and security establishment. One official cited unspecified evidence of “foreign” backing for the plan.

Biden administration officials were briefed on the arrests, which come at a time of heightened economic and political tension in a country long regarded as a bulwark of stability and an essential partner in U.S.-led counterterrorism operations.

Additional arrests were expected, said the intelligence official, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing security sensitivities surrounding the law enforcement operation.

In a formal statement late Saturday, the Jordanian Armed Forces confirmed that multiple arrests had occurred and that Hamzah had been “asked to cease all movements or activities that could be employed to target Jordan’s security and stability.” The statement said that the former crown prince had not been arrested but that “comprehensive investigations” were underway.

In a video statement late Saturday, Hamzah denied wrongdoing and said the actions against him were an attempt to silence him for speaking out against corruption in Jordan. In the statement delivered to the BBC by his lawyer, he confirmed that he was “not allowed to go out, to communicate with people or to meet with them, because in the meetings that I had been present in – or on social media relating to visits that I had made – there had been criticism of the government or the king.”

“I am not the person responsible for the breakdown in governance, for the corruption, and for the incompetence that has been prevalent in our governing structure for the last 15 to 20 years, and has been getting worse by the year,” he said. Hamzah, whose relations with Abdullah have been strained since his title was stripped from him in 2004, has sparred with his half brother frequently over the years, though mostly in private.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Ned Price said U.S. officials were closely following the reports and were in touch with Jordanian officials. “King Abdullah is a key partner of the United States, and he has our full support,” Price said.

Hamzah served as Jordan’s crown prince for four years before the title was transferred to the current monarch’s eldest son, Hussein, in 2004. He has held multiple positions within the monarchy, including in the army, where he holds the rank of brigadier. He commands a loyal following in Amman and, with his trim mustache and checkered headdress, often styles himself after the late King Hussein, a revered figure in Jordan.

The prince was informed of the investigation by Jordanian military officers who arrived at his house with an escort of guards, as arrests were getting underway elsewhere, the intelligence official said. Hamzah was told to refrain from travel and from posting on social media, the intelligence official said.

It was unclear how close the alleged plotters were to carrying out the supposed plan, or what, exactly, was intended. The intelligence official described the plan as “well-organized” and said some of the plotters appeared to have “foreign ties,” though he did not elaborate on that point.

The arrests of other officials were reported by Jordanian news outlets. Among them was Sharif Hasan, who also is a member of the royal family, and Bassem Awadullah, a former senior official in Jordan’s Royal Hashemite Court. An investment banker and CEO of Tomoh Advisory, a consultant firm based in Dubai, Awadullah had also served as special Jordanian representative to the Saudi government, and held Jordanian and Saudi passports, the intelligence official said.

In Israel, where news of the possible coup plot emerged at the end of the Passover holiday, officials had no immediate comment. But Israel, which has had a peace treaty with Jordan since 1994, considers stability in Amman as vital to Israel’s national interest. The two share Israel’s longest border, and Israel looks to Jordan to provide a buffer against threats from Iran.

“If this turns out to have been a serious attempt, it would be of a great deal of concern,” said Chuck Freilich, a former Israeli deputy national security adviser. “Israel takes the stability of the Hashemite Kingdom extremely seriously. They are a close security relationship.”

Jordan has been hit hard economically by the coronavirus pandemic as well as by the fallout from massive waves of refugees from Syria, its northern neighbor. Abdullah has ruled the country since King Hussein’s death in 1999, and cultivated close ties with a succession of U.S. presidents, while also clashing at times with U.S. officials over Palestinian peace initiatives. In recent years, he sparred with Trump administration officials over plans that would essentially bypass the Palestinians in seeking to redraw the boundaries of a future Palestinian state.

Under the king, the resource-poor kingdom of 10 million has been a major partner in the U.S.-led campaign against the Islamic State and has assisted U.S. forces in security operations around the globe.

– – –

Warrick reported from Washington. Hendrix reported from Jerusalem. Dadouch reported from Beirut. The Washington Post’s Shira Rubin in Jerusalem and John Hudson in Washington contributed to this report.

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This woman, 82, dresses to the nines each Sunday for virtual church. Her selfies have become legendary.

InternationalApr 04. 2021

By Cathy Free
Special to The Washington Post

It’s been more than a year now that churchgoers have been watching virtual streaming Sunday services on their cellphones and computers during the pandemic. Many have made a habit of tuning in while wearing cozy sweatpants or pajamas.

Then there’s La Verne Ford Wimberly of Tulsa, Okla.

The 82-year-old retired educator decks herself out head to toe every Sunday, then – to the delight of fellow parishioners at Metropolitan Baptist Church – posts a selfie on Facebook after the service.

Since March 29, 2020, she has taken photos of herself from her living room in 53 different color-coordinated outfits – each one carefully selected from the burgeoning closets, jewelry boxes and neatly stacked hat boxes that have satisfied her love of making a grand entrance since she was a young schoolteacher in the 1960s.

She hasn’t decided what she’ll be wearing this Easter Sunday, but those who know Wimberly said the odds are good that she’ll make a big splash.

“She never skips a beat with the hats, the clothes and all that beautiful jewelry,” said Robin Watkins, 54, the church’s executive office assistant.

“If anyone is feeling downtrodden, they just look at her [Facebook] page and immediately feel uplifted,” she said. “Her heart is as beautiful as each outfit she has shared with us.”

Parishioners often call Wimberly “Doctor.” She has a PhD in education and the years she spent as a school principal and superintendent after she’d moved on from teaching, Watkins said.

She was already known at her church for the head-turning outfits she wore every Sunday, so when the pandemic hit last year and in-person services were canceled, Wimberly decided to up her game.

“In the 20 years I’ve been going to church there, I’ve always had my little routine that I learned from my mother as a girl,” she said. “I’d pick out a nice outfit and hat and lay it out the night before, so that I could be prepared and look presentable.”

When she learned last year that Metropolitan’s service would be streamed on March 29 due to the coronavirus threat, Wimberly said she couldn’t imagine wearing her bathrobe and slippers while tuning in from her living room, even if she was by herself.

“I thought, ‘Oh, my goodness, I can’t sit here looking slouchy in my robe,’ ” she said. “I didn’t want to sit around alone and feel sorry for myself, so I decided, ‘You know what? I’m going to dress up anyway.’ “

Wimberly got up early to style her hair and put on some lipstick, then she slipped into a favorite white dress trimmed with eyelet, a sheer white ruffled hat, matching shoes and a beaded turquoise and gold necklace.

After she posted the photo and a Bible scripture for her friends, she was inundated with positive responses, she said.

“For years, everyone had known to look for me in the last row, section two, dressed to the nines,” Wimberly said. “People always looked forward to seeing what I was wearing. So when I posted that photo, everyone told me it boosted their spirits.”

The following Sunday, she decided to do it again, this time selecting a bright blue ensemble with silver and white jewelry. And the week after that, on Easter Sunday, Wimberly chose a pink skirt and beaded sweater jacket, and a matching hat decorated with pink and yellow lilies.

She soon decided to write down what she wore each week on a calendar so that she wouldn’t commit the faux pas of wearing the same outfit twice.

“It’s safe to say that 50 is a good number for the hats,” she confessed. “But the clothes? I’d better not go there. Let’s just say I’m now refusing to look at any catalogues.”

When she was growing up, Wimberly said she cared more about climbing the tallest tree with the neighbor boys than trying on the latest frilly arrivals at fashion stores in downtown Tulsa.

It wasn’t until she became a teenager and noticed that one of her junior high teachers wore a different beautiful outfit to school each day that she gradually developed an appreciation for fashion, she said.

After she graduated from the University of Tulsa and was hired in 1963 as a first-grade teacher in Chicago, Wimberly said she decided to emulate that teacher’s example and dress up for the kids.

“They’d rub my arm and say, ‘Oh, Miss Ford [her maiden name], you look so pretty,’ ” she recalled. “Pretty soon, I had so many clothes that I started a rotation and color-coding system, so I could keep surprising the kids with my outfits.”

When she moved back to Tulsa and pursued a career as a principal and administrator, she decided to continue that tradition at work and at church, said Wimberly, who has lived on her own since her husband, James Oliver Wimberly, died in 2009.

She never anticipated that anyone outside her congregation would find out about her selfie Sundays, she said. But then, on March 22, a local television reporter who attends Wimberly’s church decided to do a story about her colorful outfits.

“I started hearing from people everywhere who said my photos made them smile,” said Wimberly. “The whole point was to inspire people and make them feel good, so I’m happy that’s working.”

Her pastor, Ray Owens, said he’s not at all surprised that Wimberly’s vogue outfits are a hit.

“Dr. Wimberly’s impressive hat collection is merely an outer expression of her inner wisdom, wit and grace,” he said. “We look forward to the day she again graces our church sanctuary with her impeccable style.”

Wimberly is hopeful that she’ll be back in her pew by late spring or early summer, she said.

Of course, she’ll then face a dilemma.

“What will I wear? That will be determined by the season and the weather,” said Wimberly. “Maybe something purple with black and white. You can’t go wrong there.”

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Latest Capitol attack reignites debate over security in D.C.; family of suspect expresses sympathy for officer killed

InternationalApr 04. 2021Police officers and members of the National Guard protect the Capitol on Friday, April 2, 2021. Photo for The Washington Post by Amanda Andrade-Rhoades

By Katie Mettler, Amy B Wang, Emily Davies
The Washington Post

WASHINGTON – For residents of this city that has been under occupation for months, the arrival of spring brought a sense that life here might finally be getting lighter.

The weather had warmed, the cherry trees had blossomed and the fencing that had fortressed the District of Columbia’s power centers since the violent insurrection on Jan. 6 was beginning to fall away.

But on Friday afternoon, the dread came back after a man crashed his vehicle into two police officers outside the U.S. Capitol.

The attack that left one officer dead and the assailant fatally shot by police reignited the ongoing political debate over how to keep Congress safe nearly three months after the Capitol riots.

On Saturday, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said the recent attack “has only added to the need to address security at the Capitol in a comprehensive way.”

“Senate Committees are already conducting bipartisan and extensive reviews to ensure the Capitol is as secure as possible while also remaining accessible to the public,” Schumer said. “We are fully committed to ensuring the Capitol is safe for visitors and all who work here.”

The same day, the family of the suspect, Noah Green, released a statement saying the young man was “not a terrorist by any means.” He had been studying for his master’s degree in business administration but had also suffered from “depression and potential mental illness.” After graduating college, the family statement said, “he began to experience hardships among his peers” that may have stemmed from repeated head trauma during his years playing football, including as a defensive back at Christopher Newport University.

Green was identified as the suspect by several people familiar with the investigation. Police have not yet officially released the assailant’s identity.

Green’s family said they are “very shocked and upset” by the attack and that they “feel great sympathy” for William Evans, an 18-year Capitol Police veteran who was killed, and the officer who was injured. They learned about what had happened through the news, the family said, and were “were just as taken aback as the rest of the nation from this horrific event.”

For Capitol Hill residents, the incident Friday afternoon forced a flood of familiar feelings back to the forefront.

Josh Martin, a 43-year-old lobbyist who has worked on and around the Hill for decades, said he was running errands in Virginia when his phone started buzzing with calls and texts from co-workers. He turned on the radio, checked Twitter for updates and began worrying for his wife and young daughter, who were at the family’s home just a few blocks from the Capitol near Stanton Park.

“What happened on January 6 was pretty scary,” Martin said.

Friday afternoon brought back the “same feeling,” he said. “Like, not again.”

Capitol Police were also mourning as tragedy struck the force yet again.

Evans is the second Capitol Police officer to die in the line of duty this year; Officer Brian D. Sicknick died of injuries he suffered fighting a riotous mob during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. Four civilians died in that riot and two police officers who were there later died by suicide. Authorities and Evans’s family have not yet announced memorial or funeral plans. Sicknick was honored during a service at the Capitol.

On Saturday, Capitol Police said on Twitter that the department “is deeply grateful for the support we’ve received from around the world. We wish we could respond to each one of you. Please know your sympathy is appreciated beyond words.”

Miles of fencing went up months ago in response to homegrown threats to the seat of democracy.

There is bipartisan opposition to permanent fencing around the Capitol, though Democrats have been more measured in calling for it to be taken down, deferring to ongoing security reviews, while Republicans have seized on the fencing as evidence of Democratic overreaction. Residents of the usually quiet and idyllic neighborhoods near the Capitol have hoped that fencing and military Guardsmen will not become their permanent new normal.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has maintained for weeks that she will support the recommendations of retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, who led a task force to look at Capitol security after the insurrection. The task force’s report in March found numerous security “deficiencies” at the Capitol and called for an additional 854 Capitol Police positions, as well as increased screening and various types of fencing around the area.

After the attack Friday, Honoré reiterated that the Capitol remains a target around-the-clock.

“Any time of the day, 24/7, the Capitol could be attacked,” Honoré said on CNBC, “and it could be domestic, it could be foreign.”

The House is in the process of finalizing an approximately $2 billion security supplemental for equipment and personnel for the Capitol police, according to a senior Democratic aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, who chairs the subcommittee that oversees the Capitol Police, said Friday’s attack on the Capitol will renew conversations about the security needs. Ryan has been the rare member of Congress who has called for military fencing.

“From my vantage point, I just think we’ve got to be very careful as we move forward, that we can’t get too far ahead of ourselves without knowing that we have the ability to protect the Capitol,” Ryan said in a virtual press briefing Friday.

But Republicans, including top leadership, have criticized the security measures already in place.

Last month, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said “there are no serious threats against the Capitol” and said Congress was “way overreacting to the current need.” He said the fencing – which at the time enclosed all congressional office buildings, the Library of Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court – reminded him of a war zone.

“I’m extremely uncomfortable with the fact that my constituents can’t come to the Capitol,” McConnell said.

Freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., last month posed by a sign outside the Capitol that said, mockingly, “Welcome to FORT PELOSI” and tweeted that it was “time for this wall around the Capitol to come down!”

The location of the attack Friday, known as the North Barricade, is across the street from the Russell Senate Office Building and until recently had been hidden behind additional layers of fencing.

On Saturday morning, work crews were placing concrete barriers there along the inside of the fencing as visitors and residents walked the perimeter of the Capitol grounds.

“How close would we normally be able to get to the Capitol?” one young man asked his tour group.

Another woman whispered to a friend about the parishioners who had been celebrating Good Friday at St. Joseph’s, across the street from the Capitol, when chaos once again unfolded outside.

“I hope this isn’t the new normal, where all of this is blocked off and citizens or tourists can’t get in,” said Jackson Shuttleworth, 30, who had traveled to the District from Pittsburgh for a weekend getaway with his wife and baby. The appeal of the nation’s capital, he said, has always been its walkability and continuity.

Susan Haid, 65, paused on East Capitol Street between the Library of Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court to take a picture of the Capitol dome through thick, black fencing. It was the first time she had been in the District since last fall, before it was locked down.

“It’s really distressing,” she said. “It brings literal tears to my eyes to think we’re America and this is how we are now. And the family of the officer? There’s no words for that.”

“Another sad day for Washington,” Haid added. “It’s like spring juxtaposed with terror.”

The mood among Capitol Hill residents matched that of the dozens of National Guard members and law enforcement officers who had to resume their security posts after another targeted attack on their ranks. They mostly stood far back from the edge of the fencing, looking out at the passersby but not engaging.

But late Saturday morning, Bill Sutton, 68, and Sydnye Pettengill, 62, rode their bicycles up to the fence’s edge on First Street and climbed off. They had ridden into the city from Alexandria, picking up a bouquet of yellow and purple flowers on the way. They had been thinking about leaving a peaceful token there already, something that would hark back to the symbolism of the Vietnam War protester who slid a carnation into the barrel of a soldier’s rifle.

“And then yesterday happened,” Sutton said, “and it just added more profundity to the whole thing.”

So together, they lifted their own flowers above their heads and began weaving the stems into the fencing. And one of the officers walked up to greet them, helping from the other side

– – –

The Washington Post’s Paul Kane, Peter Hermann, Justin Jouvenal and Jennifer Jenkins contributed to this report.

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Viral video of attack on Asian couple leads to 15-year-old’s arrest months later, police say

InternationalApr 04. 2021

By Lateshia Beachum
The Washington Post

A 15-year-old male was taken into custody Friday for assaulting an Asian couple in Tacoma, Wash., inNovember, police said. The arrest comes amid a trend of attacks against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in recent months – some of them racially motivated and some deadly.

The unidentified teenagerwas arrested andcharged with second-degree assault, according to police, after a video of the incident surfaced online this week.

In the video that was shared widely on social media,several young people are gathered in a street. A young man in a red hoodie runs into one of the victims, who police later said was a 56-year-old male, and falls to the ground. The attacker gets up and approaches the male victim, who had backed away.

The video cuts to a different view of the incident a few moments later, and shows the male victim attempting to defend himself by kicking toward the attacker. The assailant then charges toward the couple and throws multiple punches at the man as his female companion clings to his arm and screams.

The attacker in the red hoodie runs away from the couple. Then the video cuts to the person behind the camera walking up to the male victim, saying “f—-d your whole life up.”

The unidentified male victim told KIRO-TV that he filed a complaint for the Nov. 19 attack the same day, but heard nothing from police. More than four months later, a family member identified the couple in the viral video of the incident when it was played on local news, according to CNN.

Wendy Haddow, a public information officer for the Tacoma police, told The Washington Post the department has only arrested one suspect so far, and “there is no known motive at this time.” She said in an email that it is “up to the prosecutor’s office if the additional charge of malicious harassment (hate crime) is added.”

Haddow said that police did not contact the victims until this week because there were no leads in the case. Police didn’t have any information about the attacker other than his height, race and age between 13 and 17.

She said the teen in custody is allegedly the one who threw the punches. He or one of his friends posted the video on social media, Haddow said.

The incident is part of a disturbing and growing trend of anti-Asian attacks since the start of the pandemic, according to research from Stop AAPI Hate, a nonprofit that runs the Stop AAPI Hate Reporting Center which tracks incidents of discrimination, hate and xenophobia against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States.

More than 3,000 anti-Asian attacks happened between March 19, 2020 and Feb. 28 with the group estimating that the total is just a fraction of that real number of crimes against Asians that happen often at businesses and on public streets and sidewalks.

The male victim told KIRO-TV that he thinks he was attacked because he is Asian.

“I’m Asian, I’m older and I’m not that big,” he told the station.

The man said when they didn’t hear back from police, he and his family left Tacoma out of fear, the news outlet reported.

He told the station that four teens were involved in the attack, and that he initially thought they were playing around. Then the punching started.

“A fist came flying in, hit me right here,” he said, pointing to the right side of his face. “I started bleeding.”

He called the police right after the incident, he told KIRO,told them what happened and didn’t hear from them until the clip of his attack was posted on Snapchat. The silence from police left the man questioning the importance of his complaint to the authorities.

While the victim said his life has been changed from the attack, he also forgives the teen.

“I want him to be better,” he said. “I want him to know this is bad.”

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Those lacking broadband test Biden plan for rural internet rollout

InternationalApr 03. 2021“What we do next has to be done right, otherwise we could be in a situation where those who are currently lacking service could, after more spending, continue to lack service,” Sen. Maria Cantwell says of the Biden administration’s $100 billion to extend broadband networks to all U.S. households, Cantwell is photographed on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 21, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Stefani Reynolds

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Todd Shields, Rebecca Kern

Federal maps show R. Clay Jackson’s beef cattle farm in rural Madison County, Va., is awash in broadband — a designation that likely rules it out of President Joe Biden’s push to connect all Americans to fast internet service.

But “the assessment is incorrect,” Jackson, owner of Senterfitt Farms and chairman of the Madison County Board of Supervisors, said in an interview. Local broadband is, in fact, sparse. “It puts us at a massive disadvantage as it pertains to applying.”

The Biden administration’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan includes $100 billion to extend broadband networks to all U.S. households. But officials relying on industry data produced inaccurate maps of internet deployment. As a result, the U.S. doesn’t know where to find everyone lacking service.

The Federal Communications Commission has long overstated how many people have broadband, creating a disconnect between data and reality. Now it’s a stumbling block for Biden’s effort to connect broadband have-nots — a cohort the White House puts at 30 million people, and others tally at 42 million or more.

“The biggest problem is false positives — places shown as having broadband when they don’t,” Michael Romano, senior vice president at NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association, said in an interview. “That frustrates financing and subsidies to places in need” because subsidy programs rule out places listed as already having service.

Private investment has helped launch U.S. cities and wealthy suburbs into a Netflix-binging, telecommuting lifestyle. Many rural areas with fewer potential customers have been left behind with poor connections, a shortcoming sharply felt as schools turned to online learning because of the coronavirus pandemic. The problem spans rich farmland, remote mountainous tracts, and isolated tribal lands — and perhaps most galling, areas just beyond suburbs that are but a short drive from modern networks.

Yet without accurate data and clear maps, officials are hard-pressed to discern precisely which areas are languishing.

“The best time to update our broadband maps would have been years ago. But the second-best time is right now,” FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in an email. “It’s hard to manage a problem we can’t accurately measure.”

Rosenworcel, a Democrat selected by Biden in January, said the FCC would update maps “in an iterative way” to better target funding.

The FCC’s known that its maps were faulty for at least five years. Now, spurred by impatient lawmakers in Congress, it says it’s working at speed to develop a new, definitive catalogue of broadband service. An internal task force is gathering precise data from providers, and the agency has asked for consumers to send emails describing their access to broadband.

Still, the effort may not produce maps until early 2022, according to testimony at the FCC’s February meeting.

Misleading maps and difficulties coordinating among subsidy programs have raised concerns among lawmakers. They began considering broadband funding even before Biden’s announcement on Wednesday of the broader infrastructure plan.

“What we do next has to be done right, otherwise we could be in a situation where those who are currently lacking service could, after more spending, continue to lack service,” Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., chair of the Commerce Committee, said at a March 17 hearing. “We can’t afford to invest this money, and then still have communities without access.”

Some see another problem: that without sufficient data, federal funds may end up building networks in places that already have broadband suppliers.

Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Commerce panel, said updated maps are needed before more federal money is spent.

“The president’s broadband proposal opens the door for duplication and overbuilding,” he said in an email.

Cable providers worry public money will fund competitors.

“Too often Congress fails to erect guardrails to ensure public money is spent on communities that lack broadband,” Michael Powell, president of NCTA – The Internet & Television Association, whose members include Comcast Corp. and Charter Communications Inc., said in a blog post. “The result is all too predictable; money finds its way to more lucrative, already served markets, shortchanging unserved areas.”

The FCC has relied on industry-reported data for its maps. Companies that provide fixed broadband service — service delivered to a residence over a line, rather than wirelessly — report which of the 11 million census blocks they serve. If even one house is served, the entire block is considered to have broadband. Areas are considered served if companies say they could provide service within 7 to 10 days.

“This analysis likely overstates the coverage experienced by some consumers,” the FCC said in releasing its most recent annual report assessing the extent of broadband deployment.

The FCC “has grossly overestimated the number of connected Americans because of faulty data gathering,” Christopher Ali, an associate professor in media studies at the University of Virginia, told lawmakers. “We don’t know the exact number of un- and under-connected rural Americans.”

Only 63% of rural Americans report having a broadband connection, according to a 2019 study by the Pew Research Center, Ali said.

Their plight is a backhanded testament to more than a decade of U.S. federal intervention. From 2009 to 2017, the U.S. spent more than $47 billion on broadband subsidies, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Subsidy programs have continued apace since then. In addition, Congress in covid relief measures and other bills has directed more than $22 billion to broadband consumer subsidies and infrastructure, according to a summary prepared by New Street Research.

The FCC in 2017 calculated it would cost $80 billion to connect all U.S. households with fast fiber connections. The amount needed now is probably more, said Ali.

The spending boost proposed by Biden “will do some incredible good if it’s spent wisely,” Ali said. “It may indeed be what we need to ensure everyone in the country has access to ‘future proof’ broadband networks.”

In rural Madison County, about 90 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., most of the 13,000 residents make do with spotty cell service or balky satellite-delivered internet, said Jackson, the farmer and county official.

Apart from about 200 people who live close to the main north-south highway, internet connectivity “is exceedingly poor with very, very limited options,” Jackson said. “We’re just left out here trying to figure out what to do.”

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U.S. economy added 916,000 jobs in March, as women reenter workforce and recovery gains steam

InternationalApr 03. 2021

By The Washington Post · Eli Rosenberg

WASHINGTON – The U.S. economy added 916,000 jobs in March, as coronavirus vaccine distribution improved, Congress approved a $1.9 trillion stimulus package, and states across the country lifted restrictions on businesses.

The unemployment rate edged down to 6% last month from 6.2% in February, according to the monthly report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The surge in hiring comes one year after the pandemic threw the U.S. economy into a tailspin, sending a signal that the recovery may have reached a turning point. It followed several sluggish months in the labor market as coronavirus cases surged and many employers paused rehiring amid concerns about efforts to control the pandemic.

Economists hailed the report as a welcome sign that the country may finally be climbing out of the steep hole of jobs lost during the last year, now at a fast enough rate to see a full recovery by some point next year.

“This is a wonderful report. Hopefully we have many more months like it ahead,” said Nick Bunker, the economic research director at Indeed, a jobs-listing service. “It’s fantastic to see the big bounce back in job gains.” At this rate, the labor market could see a full recovery by the middle of 2022, Bunker said.

The labor market lost 22 million jobs in March and April 2020. It recovered 12 million of those jobs over the next six months, but then the pace of rehiring slowed drastically as the virus began a Fall and Winter spike.

The new March data was the largest number of jobs added since August and the third-straight month of growth. The survey was taken the week of March 12th, the same week that the stimulus package passed by Democratic majorities in the House and Senate was signed into law by President Joe Biden.

It could offer clues about the trajectory of the labor market in 2021.

Women, for example, who had left the workforce in droves earlier in the pandemic, are returning to the workforce in large numbers as schools have reopened in-person learning.

But the country is far from in the clear.

Long-term unemployment, those out of work for more than six months, remains a vexing problem as many job-seekers who lost their job early in the pandemic are still out of work a year later. Studies have shown that people out of the labor market for more than six months often have a harder time landing new jobs, a trend that has proven very difficult to address in past recessions. And the personal toll grows too, as time out of work sprawls.

The number of people who have been unemployed for more than six months remains at 4.2 million – up by more than 3.1 million from before the pandemic. A whopping 43% of the unemployed have been out of work for more than six months, the BLS said.

Carter Young, 67, has been out of work since March, after being furloughed, then laid off from his job as a clerk at a resort near Sedona, Arizona. Young said he wishes he could retire, but needs the money to support his family. Even though he’s vaccinated, Young said he is still a hesitant to work in another job in retail where he’d have to interact face to face with people, until the virus is brought more under control.

“It’s sort of a catch 22,” he said. “Things are opening up, and we’ll see what happens in the state of Arizona. I’m a little nervous to going out to work with the public.”

And the threat of the coronavirus cases rising again also hangs over the economy, said Drew Matus, chief market strategist for MetLife Investment Management. Many of the jobs added in March were driven by companies reopening as pandemic restrictions were lifted, he said.

“People are concerned that some states are reopening too soon,” he said. “If states hadn’t reopened you probably wouldn’t have this number. So we’ll see what that means for covid later. It did provide a boost.”

In March, 492,000 women reentered the workforce as schools reopened for in-person learning, while 144,000 men left it, bringing the number of men and women who have left the workforce into roughly equal proportions,according to Labor Department data. It reverses the trend from last year, as more women than men left the workforce as the school year began in September.

In addition to women leaving leave their jobs because of schooling and child-care issues, many women were driven out of the workforce because of the disproportionate impact the pandemic had on female-dominated industries.

In February, about 56% of the people who had left the workforce over the last year were women. Now, women represent less than half of those displaced workers. If that trend continues, it could calm concerns that women wouldn’t return the workforce, slowing the pace of the economic recovery.

“It’s the beginning of the end of the she-cession,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton. “The minute schools reopened, and jobs were there, they came back.”

Still, more women have lost their jobs than men in the last year, Jasmine Tucker, director of research at the National Women’s Law Center pointed out.

“There’s strides heading in the right direction,” she said. “I think once we all get vaccinated and all the schools reopened, there’s going to be a surge of more of these folks coming back to the labor force.”

Janet Lieb, 62, is feeling more hopeful. The Iowa musician has been supporting herself with unemployment insurance since losing the bulk of her work performing in senior centers at the beginning of the pandemic.

But Lieb said her schedule is finally picking up again. She has performed a couple of times in recent weeks and expects to receive a lot more bookings in April and May.

“These poor folks sitting there, couldn’t see their families, had to stay really far apart from each other,” she said. “I knew when it did open up, I would be inundated. I started back and a lot of them are having me start in April and May, they’re so excited.”

President Biden hailed the report, noting that the $1.9 trillion stimulus package he signed into law last month had not fully kicked in. “Opportunity is coming and at long last, there’s hope for so many families. Credit for this progress belongs not to me, but the American people.”

But the stimulus programs are temporary, and the economy needs a long-term solution for job creation, Biden said, pointing to the more than $2 trillion infrastructure and jobs proposal the White House unveiled earlier this week. “The progress we’ve worked so hard to achieve can be reversed,” he said.

The March jobs report showed gains in industries that have been among the hardest-hit by the pandemic.

The leisure and hospitality sectors added 280,000 jobs last month, as coronavirus restrictions eased around the country. Most of that increase, about 176,000 jobs, came from hiring at restaurants, bars and other food service establishments. Arts, entertainment and recreation facilities gained 64,000 jobs, and hotels gained about 40,000.

The sector still remains about 3 million jobs short of where it was before the pandemic.

Elsewhere, employment rose 126,000 in public education at the state and local level, and 64,000 in private education. Construction added 110,000 jobs after reporting a disappointing decline in February.

Transportation and warehousing added 48,000 jobs, and retail added 23,000 jobs, driven bygrowth in clothing stores, motor vehicle and parts dealers, and furniture and home furnishing stores.

Despite the improvements, minorities, which have also suffered disproportionately during the pandemic, are still lagging behind. The unemployment rate for Blacks was relatively unchanged at 9.6% in March and edged down for Latinos to about 7.9%. For White people, it was 5.4%.

There is much work to be done before the economy returns to its pre-pandemic strength. There are still about 8.5 million fewer jobs now, compared to February 2020, and that doesn’t include the growth in the labor market that would have probably occurred over the last year under normal circumstances.

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Taiwan’s worst train crash in decades leaves 51 dead, dozens injured

InternationalApr 03. 2021

By The Washington Post · Eva Dou, Alicia Chen, Pei Lin Wu

SEOUL – A train crash in Taiwan killed at least 51 people and injured dozens Friday, authorities said, in the deadliest railway accident in decades on the island.

A construction truck that was improperly parked on a slope rolled down and collided with a passenger train on Friday morning, leaving it derailed in a tunnel on Taiwan’s east coast, according to Taiwan’s official Central News Agency (CNA).

Photos from the scene showed the train tilted inside the tunnel, with pieces of crushed metal surrounding it. Survivors climbed out of the train’s windows to escape.

The tragedy was heightened as Friday was the first day of the Tomb Sweeping Festival, an annual commemoration in Taiwan and some other parts of Asia of family members who have died. Many of Taiwan’s 24 million people were set to travel domestically over the long weekend.

The train had 374 seats but was carrying almost 500 people, with many passengers standing in the crowded cars, Taiwanese officials told local media outlets.

The accident has raised concerns about Taiwan’s transportation safety, after another deadly train crash three years earlier. In 2018, 18 people were killed and 215 injured when a train derailed in northeastern Taiwan.

On Friday, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen ordered an investigation of the cause of the crash and a rapid effort to save the trapped and injured. The last two people trapped were rescued Friday afternoon.

“All relevant units are working all-out in the rescue mission,” she said in a statement posted on Facebook.

Taiwanese Premier Su Tseng-chang expressed his condolences to the passengers and their families, according to the official Radio Taiwan International.

Wei Yu-Ling, secretary general of the Taiwan Railway Union, said in an interview that she hoped Taiwan’s government would follow through with its call for a thorough investigation. In February, two railway maintenance workers were killed and another was seriously injured when they were hit by a train.

“Compared to the Taipei Metro and the Taiwan High Speed Rail in Taiwan, the Taiwan Railways Administration has a relatively high frequency of accidents,” Wei said.

Friday’s crash took place in Taiwan’s scenic Hualien county on the east coast, one of the island’s most popular areas for tourists. In 2019, before coronavirus pandemic shutdowns began, the nearby Taroko Gorge national park received 4.8 million visitors.

Trains are a popular choice for travel in the region, with the curving mountain roads making for difficult driving.

One taxi driver in the area, Yang Yi-chung, reported on Facebook that a bus had ferried some of the survivors back to Hualien Station. A shellshocked father and son, surnamed Huang, got into his cab, he said.

“Those in the carriages stuck in the tunnel, some broke the windows, some climbed on the roofs, some were covered in blood, some were looking for their relatives,” Yang recalled one of the passengers saying.

Taiwan’s National Fire Agency said Friday evening that 51 people died in the crash and 146 were injured.

The operator of the construction truck that caused the accident was taken to a police station for questioning, according to CNA.