The Washington Post - USA (2021-10-26)

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A monumental restoration After mystery

splotches spread over the Jefferson Memorial,

scientists brought in lasers to clean it. B

Tracking the virus The Biden administration

is taking new steps to boost t he availability of

rapid at-home tests and reduce their cost. A

HEALTH & SCIENCE

A life of learning

Drew Weissman’s

painstaking scientific

curiosity helped p ave the

way for coronavirus

vaccines. E

STYLE

Still big on bones

Like the coronavirus,

giant decorative

skeletons have stuck

around a nother year and

adapted. C

In the News

THE NATION

Chicago is poised to use

federal pandemic aid to

create the nation’s larg-

est guaranteed basic

income program. A

Natural gas leaks in

Boston are vastly under-

reported and could con-

stitute a greenhouse ef-

fect “equivalent to coal,”

a study has found. A

Alex Padilla, the first

Latino senator from

California, is deter-

mined to pass legislation

that provides citizenship

for undocumented

immigrants. A

Vaccination will not be

required for children un-

der age 18 to travel to the

United States once the

ban on foreign visitors is

lifted, White House offi-

cials said. A

The growing commer-

cial space industry is

looking beyond rockets

with ambitions of build-

ing space stations. A

THE WORLD

The United Nations

warned that more than

half of Afghanistan’s

population could face

acute food insecurity

this winter. A

Singapore used its “fake

news” law in a push

against an anti-vaccine

website. A

The Pentagon’s plans

for countering Russia in

the Black Sea region re-

main murky despite a re-

cent show of support. A

THE ECONOMY

After the publishing of

revelations contained in

the Pandora Papers,

Metropolitan Museum

of Art officials contacted

U.S. investigators amid

questions over whether

Cambodian relics in the

collection had been loot-

ed. A

THE REGION

Metro’s top executive

said the transit agency

plans to submit a testing

plan this week, a s tep

toward bringing its trou-

bled rail cars back into

commission. B

A former Liberty

University spokesman

filed a lawsuit alleging

the school fired him

because he opposed its

handling of sexual

assault claims. B

Virginia unveiled a

$200 million project to

build turbine blades that

supply offshore wind en-

ergy on the Portsmouth

Marine Terminal. B

A judge found sufficient

evidence to sustain

charges that a teen sexu-

ally assaulted a class-

mate at a Loudoun

County high school in

May. B

A Pulitzer Prize-

winning novel from 1987

has suddenly become a

hot topic in the Virginia

governor’s race. B

Inside

MATT MCCLAIN/THE WASHINGTON POST

BUSINESS NEWS........................A

COMICS.......................................C

OPINION PAGES........................A

LOTTERIES...................................B

OBITUARIES.................................B

TELEVISION.................................C

WORLD NEWS............................A

CONTENT © 2021

The Washington Post / Year 144, No. 325

฀

BY JOHN HUDSON

AND ELLEN NAKASHIMA

In the early summer, with less
than five months to go before a
critical United Nations climate
conference in Scotland, John F.
Kerry told President Biden that
he wouldn’t achieve his goal of
tackling climate change, a key
administration priority, unless
the U.S.-China relationship im-
proved.
Kerry, a former secretary of
state and Biden’s envoy for cli-
mate, had been traveling the
globe trying to secure commit-
ments on carbon-emission reduc-
tions among allies and adversar-
ies in the hope of keeping global
temperature increases at or be-
low 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahr-
enheit), a level that scientists say
could stave off the worst effects of
climate change.
But his discussions with Chi-
nese counterpart Xie Zhenhua
were lagging as Beijing insisted
that cooperation on climate
would not commence amid
strained relations over human
rights, Hong Kong, Taiwan, trade
and a range of other issues.
SEE CHINA ON A

Tensions

on policy

strategy

w ith China

B iden aides differ on

competing priorities

ahead of climate summit

BY MEAGAN FLYNN

Last year, Virginia voters ap-
proved a bipartisan commission
to take politics out of redistrict-
ing.
This year, blowing past dead-
lines to deliver new state and
congressional maps, the Virginia
Redistricting Commission has de-
livered nothing.
The failure to reach agreement
on any maps, with time running
out to reconvene, marks a stun-
ning departure from the type of
redistricting overhaul voters
sought when they approved the
commission last year. While vot-
ers and advocates hoped to end
gerrymandering, instead what
they got was a stalemate, as com-
missioners gridlocked along par-
ty lines almost every step of the
way. Even as commissioners ac-
knowledged that partisanship
had fatally infected their deliber-
ations, none appeared willing to
set their partisan preferences
aside — raising questions about
whether it is even possible in such
a divisive environment for two
parties to agree on the meaning of
a politically fair map.
The commissioners gave up on
SEE REDISTRICTING ON A

Redistricting

failure in Va.

accentuates

party lines

But their success on the field meant

nothing if they didn’t know how to stay

alive off it. His players should have known

that by now.

A week earlier, the coach had watched

two of his boys start a fight at practice

over a tackle. Neither had walked away

BY EMILY DAVIES

H

is boys had just won the game,

but as they jogged toward him,

the football coach was still furi-

ous.

Kevin McGill, known to Southeast

Washington as Coach Kevin, would have

normally started his postgame speech

with praise after a season finisher like

today, when these 12-year-olds had en-

dured scorching heat and pulled off a win

in double overtime.

when tempers flared, as Kevin had often

admonished. And not a single of their

teammates had stepped in to defuse the

skirmish, when they were supposed to

have each other’s backs.

The fight had been a test of what Kevin

for three years had been trying to teach

them — how to act as Black men in a part

of the city where arguments often led to

gunfire — and they had failed. So he had

assigned the boys homework due before

their game in May: to write a reflection on

SEE COACH ON A

Rushing to save his players

A coach teaches more than

football on a team that lost its

11-year-old star to stray bullet

TONI L. SANDYS/THE WASHINGTON POST

Kevin McGill, known to Southeast Washington as Coach Kevin, is coaching his young players through football and life. At 34, he

has lost many friends to gun violence. But the most painful death was that of 11-year-old Davon McNeal, his star running back.

JOSHUA LOTT/THE WASHINGTON POST

Pastor Amy Mikal says her new church, A R estoration Church,

encourages attendees to reexamine their beliefs.

BY SARAH PULLIAM BAILEY

south bend, ind. — Emotions

ran high at the gathering of

about 100 pastors at a church

about five miles from the Univer-

sity of Notre Dame. Many

hugged. Some shed tears. One

confessed she could not pray

anymore.

Some had lost funding and

others had been fired from their

churches for adopting more lib-

eral beliefs. All had left the

evangelical tradition and had

come to discuss their next steps

as “post-evangelicals.”

The two-day meeting, which

took place at South Bend City

Church in mid-October, was in-

tended for just 25 pastors but

grew through word of mouth. It

is part of a larger reckoning

inside congregations and among

individuals grappling with their

faith identity in the wake of

Donald Trump’s presidency and

calls for racial justice following

the murder of George Floyd.

Many of these leaders were star-

tled to learn that about 8 out of

10 White evangelicals voted for

Trump in both of his presidential

runs, and they believe the evan-

gelical movement has been co-

opted by Republican politics.

“There’s obviously some sort

of desire for belonging for people

who feel homeless right now,”

SEE EVANGELICALS ON A

For ‘post-evangelicals,’ a reckoning

After Trump presidency,

liberal pastors reexamine

churches’ identity, values

Securities and Ex-

change Commission by

former Facebook prod-

uct manager Frances

Haugen.

While it’s unclear

whether the SEC will

take the case or pursue

action against the CEO

pers onally, the allega-

tions made by the whis-

tleblower represent arguably the

most profound challenge to Zuck-

SEE ZUCKERBERG ON A

control over the platform,

according to local activ-

ists and free-speech advo-

cates.

Zuckerberg’s role in the

Vietnam decision, which

has not been previously

reported, exemplifies his

relentless determination

to ensure Facebook’s

dominance, sometimes at

the expense of his stated values,

according to interviews with

more than a dozen former em-

ployees. That ethos has come un-

der fire in a series of whistleblow-

er complaints filed with the U.S.

ply with Hanoi’s demands, ac-

cording to three people familiar

with the decision, who spoke on

the condition of ano-

nymity to describe in-

ternal company discus-

sions. Ahead of Viet-

nam’s party congress in January,

Facebook significantly increased

censorship of “anti-state” posts,

giving the government near-total

holding the free-speech rights of

people who question government

leaders could have come with a

significant cost in a coun-

try where the social net-

work earns more than

$1 billion in annual rev-

enue, according to a 2018 esti-

mate by Amnesty International.

So Zuckerberg personally de-

cided that Facebook would com-

BY ELIZABETH DWOSKIN,

TORY NEWMYER

AND SHIBANI MAHTANI

Late last year, Mark Zucker-

berg faced a choice: Comply with

demands from Vietnam’s ruling

Communist Party to censor anti-

government dissidents or risk

getting knocked offline in one of

Facebook’s most lucrative Asian

markets.

In America, the tech CEO is a

champion of free speech, reluc-

tant to remove even malicious

and misleading content from the

platform. But in Vietnam, up-

Insiders: Zuckerberg chose growth over safety

CEO PUSHED FOR DOMINANCE AT ALL COSTS

Reports allege hard-line e thos led to bad outcomes

FACEBOOK

UNDER FIRE

Mark

Zuckerberg

BY MAX BEARAK

nairobi — Sudan’s military on

Monday detained the prime min-

ister, dissolved the government

and declared a state of emergency,

in what could be the end of a

democratic tra nsition propelled

by the millions of Sudanese who

marched in the streets for the

overthrow of longtime dictator

Omar Hassan al-Bashir more than

two years ago.

The Biden administration will

suspend $700 million in bilateral

assistance to Sudan in response to

the military’s takeover, the State

Department said Monday. Speak-

ing to reporters in Washington,

State Department spokesman

Ned Price called for the military to

release civilian leaders, restore ci-

vilian control and refrain from

using violence, including live am-

munition, against protesters.

“We are watching very closely to

see how the military responds, to

do everything we can to see to it

that the military respects the right

of peaceful assembly and ulti-

mately to see to it that the milit ary

respects the aspirations of the Su-

danese people to restore the coun-

try’s path to democracy,” Price

said. “Our entire relationship with

this entity in Sudan will be evalu-

ated in light of what has trans-

SEE COUP ON A

Sudanese

coup halts

democratic

transition

U.S. suspends aid after

military detains premier,

dissolves government

The takeaways: Key insights from

the documents and interviews. A

Rising stakes: Emissions are still
on a catastrophic trajectory. A