National Edition

Partly sunny. Warmer and humid

for most. Highs in 80s. Partly cloudy
tonight. Late-night thunderstorms.
Lows in upper 60s to lower 70s.
Weather map appears on Page A24.

VOL. CLXIX . . . . No. 58,779 © 2020 The New York Times Company SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020 Printed in Chicago $3.00

RUSSIA IS TRYING U.S. JOB GROWTH

WHITE HOUSE MEMO

TO ASSIST TRUMP It’s Distracting SLOWS, SIGNALING

But Is TikTok
IN RACE, U.S. SAYS Really a Risk? LONGER RECOVERY
ATTEMPT TO HURT BIDEN SPIKE IN ‘CLOSED’ SIGNS
By DAVID E. SANGER
and JULIAN E. BARNES

Beijing Is Said to Prefer TikTok has long presented a

President’s Defeat and
May Take Action
By JULIAN E. BARNES
WASHINGTON — Russia is us-
ing a range of techniques to deni-
grate Joseph R. Biden Jr., Ameri-
can intelligence officials said Fri-
day in their first public assess-
ment that Moscow continues to
try to interfere in the 2020 cam-
paign to help President Trump.
At the same time, the officials
said China preferred that Mr.
Trump be defeated in November
and was weighing whether to take
more aggressive action in the
election.
But officials briefed on the intel-
ligence said that Russia was the
far graver, and more immediate,
threat. While China seeks to gain
influence in American politics, its
leaders have not yet decided to
wade directly into the presidential
contest, however much they may
dislike Mr. Trump, the officials
said.
The assessment, included in a
statement released by William R.
Evanina, the director of the Na-
tional Counterintelligence and Se-
curity Center, suggested the intel-
ligence community was treading
carefully, reflecting the political
heat generated by previous find-
ings.
The White House has objected
in the past to conclusions that
Moscow is working to help Mr.
Trump, and Democrats on Capitol
Hill have expressed growing con-
cern that the intelligence agencies
are not being forthright enough
about Russia’s preference for him
and that the agencies are intro-
ducing China’s anti-Trump stance
to balance the scales.
The assessment appeared to
draw a distinction between what it
called the “range of measures” be-
ing deployed by Moscow to influ-
ence the election and its conclu-
sion that China prefers that Mr.
Trump be defeated.
It cited efforts coming out of
pro-Russia forces in Ukraine to
damage Mr. Biden and Kremlin-
linked figures who “are also seek-
ing to boost President Trump’s
candidacy on social media and
Russian television.”
China, it said, has so far sig-
naled its position mostly through
increased public criticism of the
administration’s tough line on
China on a variety of fronts.
An American official briefed on
the intelligence said it was wrong
Continued on Page A19
parenting problem, as millions of
Americans raising preteens and
teenagers distracted by its viral
videos can attest. But when the
C.I.A. was asked recently to
assess whether it was also a
national security problem, the
answer that came back was
highly equivocal.
Yes, the agency’s analysts told
the White House, it is possible
that the Chinese intelligence
authorities could intercept data
or use the app to bore into smart-
phones. But there is no evidence
they have done so, despite the
calls from President Trump and
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
to neutralize a threat from the
app’s presence on millions of
American devices.
It made little difference. When
Mr. Trump issued an executive
order on Thursday that would
effectively ban TikTok from
operating in the United States in
45 days — part of an effort to
force a sale of the app to an
American company, most likely
Microsoft — he declared it
threatened “the national security,
foreign policy and economy of
the United States.”
In a surprise addition, he
issued a similar ban on WeChat,
a Chinese social media app on
which millions of people, largely
outside the United States, con-
duct everyday conversations and
financial transactions.
There is no doubt the actions
by the administration are the
toughest since it took steps last
year to block the use of Huawei
telecommunications equipment
by American companies. And
there is a fear running through
Silicon Valley that Mr. Trump —
seen as eager to punish the Chi-
nese, and as angry at viral Tik-
Tok videos that mock him and at
the app’s role in deterring attend-
ance at his rally in June in Tulsa
— is opening the door for coun-
tries around the world to declare
Facebook and Google to be simi-
lar threats to their own security.
Measuring national security
threats has always been tinged
as much by politics as intelli-
gence assessments: Think of
John F. Kennedy’s warning of the
“missile gap” with the Soviets in
the 1960 election, or George W.
Bush’s declaration of an immi-
nent Iraqi nuclear ability on his
ill-fated march to war 17 years
ago.
Mr. Trump’s warning about the
Chinese threat has been expand-
ing: Days before the executive
order, the State Department
Continued on Page A16
Talks on Relief Plan Near
Collapse as Millions
Lose a Lifeline
By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ
and GILLIAN FRIEDMAN
The American economy slowed
in July as the pace of hiring eased
from the robust rate of the previ-
ous two months, a victim of wan-
ing momentum and the re-
surgence of the coronavirus in
many parts of the country.
Employers added 1.8 million
jobs, well below the 4.8 million
jump in payrolls in June, the La-
bor Department reported, after
virus-related restrictions caused
some businesses to close for a sec-
ond time. The unemployment rate
fell to 10.2 percent.
Hours after the report under-
scored the slowing recovery, talks
between administration officials
and congressional Democrats on
how to pump more aid into the
economy were on the verge of col-
lapse. White House advisers said
they would recommend that Pres-
ident Trump bypass Congress and
act on his own — though his power
to do so was unclear.
Prominent among the unre-
solved issues were a revival of the
government’s $600-a-week sup-
plement to unemployment aid, a
lifeline for millions of jobless
workers until it expired at the end
of last month, and a possible ex-
tension of an eviction moratorium
covering many of the nation’s ten-
ants.
Even with July’s gains, fewer
than half of the 22 million jobs lost
in March and April have been re-
stored. And economists warn that
the rest of the lost ground will be a
challenge to regain.
“The easy hiring that was done
in May and June has been ex-
hausted,” said Michelle Meyer,
head of U.S. economics at Bank of
America. “With many companies
not running at full capacity, it be-
comes harder to get that incre-
mental worker back in.”
Over all, the job market reflects
the crosswinds buffeting the econ-
omy less than 100 days before the
presidential election. Retailers
Continued on Page A7
PHOTOGRAPHS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES, FROM TOP: SAUMYA KHANDELWAL; MYRTO PAPADOPOULOS; KC NWAKALOR TALKS FAIL The president pre-
pared to use executive orders and
Inequity at the Boiling Point bypass Congress. PAGE A7
Nearly everywhere around the world — including, from top, India, Greece and Nigeria RENT’S DUE As federal aid lapses,
— temperatures are rising. But a hotter planet does not hurt everybody equally. The a wave of evictions could devas-
poor and the marginalized are likely to be much more vulnerable. Pages A12-14. tate the housing market. PAGE B1

As Beirut Staggers, an Explosion Abolish the Police? Survivors With Virus Infection Rate Low,
15 Years Earlier Casts a Shadow Of Seattle’s Chaos Have Doubts New York Lets Schools Reopen
By MARLISE SIMONS By NELLIE BOWLES By ELIZA SHAPIRO
and VIVIAN YEE SEATTLE — Faizel Khan was Schools across New York can
The blast ripped off balconies being told by the news media and reopen for in-person instruction
along the Mediterranean, his own mayor that the protests in this fall, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo
smashed windows blocks away his hometown were peaceful, with said on Friday, solidifying New
and echoed across Beirut, leaving “a block party atmosphere.” York’s status as one of the few
a city shattered by the immeasur- But that was not what he saw states in America that has a coro-
able loss. through the windows of his Seattle navirus transmission rate low
It happened 15 years, five coffee shop. He saw encamp- enough to bring children back into
months and three weeks ago, ments overtaking the sidewalks. classrooms — not only in its rural
when Rafik Hariri, Lebanon’s for- DIEGO IBARRA SANCHEZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES He saw roving bands of masked GRANT HINDSLEY FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES communities but also in the coun- HIROKO MASUIKE/THE NEW YORK TIMES

mer prime minister, was assassi-
nated along with 21 others by a
suicide bomber in an explosives-
packed van that devastated the
waterfront of the Lebanese capital
and roiled the Middle East.
Now, as Lebanon’s 6.8 million
people grapple with the trauma of
the enormous explosions on Tues-
day that killed more than 150 peo-
ple and leveled wide stretches of
Beirut, they are also bracing for
the verdicts in Mr. Hariri’s assas-
sination from a special U.N.-
backed court in the Netherlands.
Tuesday’s explosion displaced
thousands of Beirut residents.
But just as few people in Leba-
non trust their government to
hold officials to account for this
week’s blasts, almost no one is ex-
pecting the full truth about the
massacre of Mr. Hariri and his en-
tourage on Valentine’s Day in
2005.
Already, in the aftermath of the
latest explosions, political fac-
Continued on Page A11
protesters smashing windows
and looting.
Young white men wielding guns
would harangue customers as
well as Mr. Khan, a gay man of
Middle Eastern descent who
moved here from Texas so he
could more comfortably be out. To
get into his coffee shop, he some-
times had to seek the permission
of self-appointed armed guards to
cross a border they had erected.
“They barricaded us all in
here,” Mr. Khan said. “And they
were sitting in lawn chairs with
Protests devastated Faizel
Khan’s Seattle coffee shop.
guns.”
For 23 days in June, about six
blocks in the city’s Capitol Hill
neighborhood were claimed by
left-wing demonstrators and de-
clared police-free. Protesters
hailed it as liberation — from po-
lice oppression, from white su-
premacy — and a catalyst for a na-
tional movement.
Continued on Page A20
try’s biggest city.
Just a few months after New
York became a global center of the
pandemic, the governor opened
the door for millions of students
across the state to return to class-
rooms, even as most public school
students in the country will start
the school year remotely.
But Mr. Cuomo’s announce-
ment does not guarantee that
school buildings in the state’s
more than 700 local districts will
actually reopen in the coming
weeks. It is now up to local poli-
New York City schools will also
be able to host students.
ticians and superintendents to de-
cide whether to reopen, and how
to do so. Their in-person reopen-
ing plans must also be approved
by the state’s education and
health departments.
Under the governor’s an-
nouncement, schools can decide
to open as long as they are in a re-
gion where the average rate of
Continued on Page A6

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-8 NATIONAL A18-21, 24 BUSINESS B1-6

Gaza Feels Pain of Pandemic
The blockaded Gaza Strip has not re-
corded any cases of community trans-
mission of the coronavirus, but travel
restrictions make life difficult. PAGE A5
INTERNATIONAL A9-17 At Motorcycle Rally, Defiance
At an annual gathering of tens of thou-
Colombia’s Divisions Intensify
Biden’s Pick? In Biden’s Time
On issues big and small, including the
choice of a running mate, Joseph R.
Biden Jr. doesn’t mind extending his
timetable — again and again. PAGE A18
Falwell Takes Indefinite Leave
Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Lib-
Trump Goes After WeChat
The app, which the administration is
restricting, is how many Chinese living
abroad stay connected. PAGE B1
Aid and Jobless Black Workers
ARTS C1-6 An extra $600 a week smoothed out
differences in benefits among states
A City’s Slow Reawakening
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The arrest of the country’s most power-
ful politician has reignited the emotions
that fueled its civil war. PAGE A9
sands in Sturgis, S.D., where masks erty University, agreed to a request by and among their residents. PAGE B1
were rare, one woman said, “If we get the school’s board of trustees. PAGE A21 Life isn’t quite back to normal, but New
it, we chose to be here.” PAGE A8 Yorkers are again strolling the High EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23
Line and other scenic gems. PAGE C5
Fast Tests Come With Risks
SPORTSSATURDAY B7-10 Jamelle Bouie PAGE A22

Recognizing Korean P.O.W.s
A ruling set a precedent for thousands
seeking to hold both Koreas account-
able. The Saturday Profile.
PAGE A10
Tests that offer rapid results are less
accurate. But with shortages and delays
persisting, “pretty good is a lot better
than none,” as one expert put it. PAGE A8
Why N.F.L. Players Opted Out
Players are sacrificing income and
opportunities out of family concerns or
over close contact on the field. PAGE B7
The Power of Subversive Girls
The horror comedy “Jennifer’s Body,”
with Megan Fox, showed Lena Wilson
the value of teen scream queens. PAGE C1
U(DF463D)X+@!$!.!$!z
A2 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020

A. G. SULZBERGER
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Inside The Times The Newspaper

THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY And Beyond

CORRECTIONS A19
CROSSWORD C3
OBITUARIES B11-12

Helping you live better. OPINION A22-23

WEATHER A24
No matter where you are.
VIDEO
A coronavirus vaccine is being
developed with extraordinary
speed. In this Opinion report,
Jeneen Interlandi, who writes
about health, science and educa-
tion, breaks down the dangers of
JORDAN AWAN
rushing it. nytimes.com/video

The News Quiz

Did you follow the headlines this week? Take our quiz to find out.
AUDIO
What do Trump supporters talk
1. Which substance did officials say likely 8. Cori Bush defeated William Lacy Clay, a about when they talk about 2020?
caused the immense explosion that rocked veteran congressman, in a Democratic In the latest episode of “The Argu-
Beirut on Tuesday? primary on Tuesday. If elected in Novem- ment” podcast, Dan McCarthy
a. Ammonium nitrate ber, she would become the first Black and Helen Andrews, both pro-
b. Natural gas woman to represent which state in Con- Trump conservatives, join the host
c. Semtex gress? Ross Douthat for a reelection
d. TNT a. Arizona roundtable.
b. Kansas nytimes.com/theargument
2. Instagram released its TikTok rival on
c. Missouri
Wednesday. What is it called?
d. South Dakota
a. Instagram Bytes
b. Instagram Clips 9. The former king of Spain announced on
c. Instagram Reels Monday that he was leaving his country.
d. Instagram Vids His departure comes amid which trouble?
a. Drug abuse allegations
3. The Census Bureau said it would wrap
Give the gift they’ll up the survey a month early. How many
households are still uncounted?
b. Financial investigations
c. Rumors of an illegitimate child
d. A tell-all book written by his wife

open every day. a. 30 million

b. 60 million
c. 90 million
10. Who was charged as the “mastermind”
in a recent Twitter hack that netted Bitcoin
NEWSLETTER
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Gift subscriptions to The New York Times. a. A disgruntled Twitter employee
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ing conspiracies issue: how to deal with an un-
a. Beaches
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c. Sharing masks 11. Two astronauts made the first water nytimes.com/newsletters.
d. Eating with others landing by NASA since 1975. Where did
they splash down?
5. Which of the following infectious dis-
a. The Caribbean Sea
eases is not making a comeback as the
b. Gulf of California
coronavirus pandemic consumes global
c. Gulf of Mexico
health resources?
d. Lake Tengiz
a. Malaria
b. H.I.V.
c. Smallpox
d. Tuberculosis
EVENT
6. The Manhattan district attorney’s office
The Times’s Offstage series ex-
is investigating President Trump and his
plores theater-making during the
company for a possible crime, a new court
pandemic. Its second episode will
filing suggests. Which one?
discuss “Suffragist,” a musical
a. Bank fraud
that tells the true story of the
b. Embezzlement
rivalry between Carrie Chapman
c. Larceny
Catt and Alice Paul, and feature
d. Money laundering
two numbers from the work in
7. What are the hibakusha? Find previous quizzes at nytimes.com/newsquiz. progress. Aug. 13 at 7 p.m. E.D.T.;
a. Atomic bomb survivors The News Quiz is published online on Fridays. to R.S.V.P., visit
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8. C; 9. B; 10. D; 11. C. This quiz is by Will
c. Prisoners of war
Solutions: 1. A; 2. C; 3. B; 4. B; 5. C; 6. A; 7. A;
d. Earthquake victims

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 THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020 Y A3

Of Interest
NOTEWORTHY FACTS FROM TODAY’S PAPER

In June, Richmond’s mayor and Last year alone, Belarus lost

Virginia’s governor vowed to take $400 million because of a Russian
down the statues of Civil War leaders oil tax system that prevented Minsk
erected along Monument Avenue. from buying oil at lower rates and
Four of them are now being stored at then selling it on to Europe at market
the city’s wastewater treatment plant. prices.
Black Dance Finds a Powerful Backdrop C2 Belarus Strongman May Win Election
Despite Steadily Losing His Grip on Power A10
•
Ethel Smyth, a composer and leader •
of the women’s suffrage movement in Indonesia has more than a million
England, spent three weeks at active club badminton players.
London’s Holloway prison in 1912 for ‘When You Say Badminton, You Say Indonesia’ B8

throwing rocks at a politician’s house. •

‘Trapped’ in Obscurity, Now Freed C1
MIN HEO
Hundreds of thousands of people in
• Beirut remained displaced from their
Direct investment in businesses “Jennifer’s Body” was Diablo Cody’s homes after Tuesday’s deadly
began to rise after the last recession, next screenplay after she won the explosion, with roughly one in 10
climbing 206 percent from 2010 to Oscar for “Juno” in 2008. In it, people in the city needing shelter.
2015. Last year, it grew 11 percent. Megan Fox plays a demon who has U.N. Warns of Dire Shortages as Leaders Mull

Rich Families Throw Lifelines to eat boys to remain beautiful. Cause of Beirut Explosion A11

To Struggling Businesses B6 ‘Jennifer’s Body’ & Me C1

The Conversation Spotlight

FOUR OF THE MOST READ, SHARED AND DISCUSSED POSTS ADDITIONAL REPORTAGE AND REPARTEE
FROM ACROSS NYTIMES.COM FROM OUR JOURNALISTS

Where Do Republicans Go From Here?
Friday’s most read article was this column from Opinion’s
David Brooks considering what comes next for Republicans if
President Trump is not reelected. Mr. Brooks argues that
Trumpism will survive, but because its ideological borders are
not well defined, Republicans’ future may be guided by young-
er conservatives like Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton.
Wirecutter, The Times’s product recommendation site, has
been looking into flyswatters recently. On Thursday, staff
members had a little fun on Twitter, where they shared a few
takeaways from an interview with Michael Dickinson, an
aeronautics professor at the California Institute of Technology
who has spent over 15 years studying the evasive flight behav-
iors of houseflies.

Coming Next: The Greater Recession

Here’s a thread on how to efficiently swat flies. The key:
Also a top read Friday was the Opinion columnist Paul Krug-
You don’t want to be visible, and you want to be as fast
man’s article arguing that if lawmakers don’t provide another
as you possibly can. One way to gain a speed advantage
round of economic aid, the financial pain felt across the coun-
is to use a swatter with a longer handle. If you have an
try could grow even worse.
object in your hand, the speed with which you can move
the end of it is proportional primarily to the length.

But even that offers only a minimal advantage. “The

skill really comes down to getting your swatter close to
the fly before you flip it because you want to minimize
the distance ... and I think you can do that whether you
have a crappy flyswatter or a good flyswatter,” Professor
Dickinson said.

“The foolish thing about almost every flyswatter I’ve

ANGELA WEISS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
ever seen is that they’re visually very conspicuous.”
Because flies rely heavily on sight, Professor
‘I Was a Little Scared’: Inside America’s Reopening
Dickinson’s ideal swatter would be “clear and non-
Schools
reflective.” But we didn’t find any clear flyswatters out
States including Indiana, Mississippi and Georgia welcomed
there (free startup idea).
students back to school as early as last week, even as parts of
the country struggle with a second spike in the number of
coronavirus cases. But, as Adam Wren and Dan Levin report,
quarantines quickly followed. The pair talked to a handful of So lastly, we asked the professor what he uses to swat
“student pioneers” about what it was like to be among the first flies. His answer: a rolled-up newspaper. As he told us,
American schoolchildren back in classrooms this school year. it’s more about technique than tools, so if you already
Recipe: Choco Pan de Coco have a flyswatter you like, just stick with it.
This recipe comes from the chef Bryan Ford, who grew up in
New Orleans eating dense, little pan de coco buns from the Wirecutter @wirecutter
Honduran bodegas around town. His version uses a sourdough
For insect control and product advice, visit nytimes.com/wirecutter.
starter and adds cocoa and chocolate chips for sweetness.

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with the same appeal right now. But
would a disinfected doorknob inter-
est you? To attract travelers, hotel
chains are promoting their commit-
ment to sanitation. Hilton even
struck a partnership with Lysol.

Support
brighter futures.
PAUL WINDLE

Quote of the Day Here to Help Learn how you can sponsor
U.S. JOB GROWTH SLOWS, REMEMBER YOUR NEIGHBORS DURING A HEAT WAVE classroom subscriptions at
SIGNALING LONGER RECOVERY nytimes.com/sponsor.
A1
Cities around the world are facing more
“What started as an frequent and more deadly heat waves, and
New York is no exception. Officials took
exercise class note this year, delivering thousands of
air-conditioners to low-income seniors,
encompassed so much providing millions in aid for summer util-
more. I’m a therapist ity bills, and modifying the city’s cooling
center program to account for risks from
on a bike. I’m sure a the coronavirus.
lot of people can relate But community organizers say the city’s
response could use some help in one key HOLLY PICKETT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
to the emotional loss.” area: communication. The most heat-
can go.”
vulnerable New Yorkers — seniors, people
JACKIE ANSCHER, a spin instructor in New York City officials noted that the
of color and people with chronic illnesses
Long Beach, N.Y., on how being GetCool Air Conditioner Program had
unemployed has been more than a
— sometimes don’t know about the pro-
installed more than 48,000 AC units for
financial loss. grams available, according to activists.
low-income seniors, and that the city does
Getting the word out doesn’t just de-
support direct outreach programs. The
pend on the city. Community groups and
city’s Be a Buddy program, for instance,
individuals can play an important role, too.
which started in 2017, works with commu-
Mike Harrington, an assistant director
nity organizations to pair volunteers with
at The New School’s Tishman Envi-
residents in heat-vulnerable neighbor-
ronment and Design Center, said commu-
hoods and to check in on them during heat
nity outreach was crucial.
waves.
Mr. Harrington said groups distributing
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The good news is that you don’t need to

food aid in cities, which are currently very
be in a formal program to be a buddy. And
active because of the coronavirus, could
you don't need to be in New York. As
easily provide information on extreme
Mr. Harrington said, it doesn’t take long to
heat. This conversation could be as
check on a neighbor. GRETA MORAN
straightforward as: “Hey, here’s your food.
Also, next week there’s going to be a heat For more climate-related ideas and advice, sign
wave event. So, make sure if you don’t up for the Climate Fwd: newsletter at
have an AC that you have somewhere you nytimes.com/column/climate-fwd.
A4 SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020

Tracking an Outbreak
Y

Coronavirus Update Hot Spots in the United States

As of Friday evening, more than 4,922,900 people across every state, plus Washington, D.C., and four U.S. territories, have tested positive for the
coronavirus, according to a New York Times database. More than 160,200 people with the virus have died in the United States.
U.S. Unemployment Rate Declines to 10.2%
Average daily cases per 100,000 people
Cuomo Says New York Schools Can Reopen in the past week

Wash.
India Tops 2 Million Confirmed Infections 16 32 48 Few or
no cases
Mont. Maine
N.D.
Minn.

Minn.
By JAMES BARRON Vt.
Ore. Idaho N.H.
Economists and investors looked one way on Friday, while officials Mass.
S.D.
in New York — and teachers, parents and students — looked the N.Y.
Wis.
other. Looking back to July, the economy stumbled even as it picked Calif. Wyo. Mich. Conn. R.I.
up 1.8 million jobs. Looking ahead to September, schools in New
York got a green light to reopen if local infection rates stay low. But Pa. N.J.
Nev. Neb. Iowa
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo left it to individual school districts to figure Ohio
Md.
out when and how. Ill. Del.
Ind. D.C.
The economy lost momentum as the coronavirus swept into Colo. W.Va.
Utah
parts of the country that had largely been spared early in the pan- Ky.
Va.
Kan.
demic. The 1.8 million new jobs were only about 37 percent of the 4.8
million that were added to payrolls in June, and in many states, Mo.
businesses like restaurants struggled with a return to tighter re- Ariz. Tenn. N.C.
strictions. Some closed all over again. And, while the unemployment
Okla.
rate dropped to 10.2 percent last month from 11.1 percent in June, it S.C.
Ark.
is still above its highest point from the 2008-9 recession. N.M.
Ala.
Meanwhile, talks on a pandemic relief package resumed. Demo- Ga.
cratic congressional leaders offered to drop their demand for a La. Miss.
stimulus package to $2 trillion, from $3.4 trillion — essentially ask-
ing the White House to split the difference.
Texas
Mr. Cuomo’s announcement on schools cemented New York’s
status as one of the few states where virus transmission is low Alaska
enough to consider going ahead with reopening plans. “If anyone
can open schools, we can open schools,” he declared. But his an-
nouncement did not mean that schools in the state’s 700 or so local Fla.
Puerto Rico
districts would actually open. The districts’ in-person reopening Hawaii
plans must still be approved by state education and health officials.
Union leaders representing teachers have said that in at least some
parts of the state they do not believe it is safe to reopen.
Sources: State and local health agencies. The map shows the share of population with a new reported case over the last week. Parts of a county with a
A Chilling Forecast by Year’s End population density lower than 10 people per square mile are not shaded. Data for Rhode Island is shown at the state level because county level data is
infrequently reported. Data is as of August 7, 2020, at 5 p.m. Eastern. THE NEW YORK TIMES
Cases have been trending upward in nine states, among them
Oklahoma — which reported 854 new cases on Friday, 14 more than
on Thursday — and Massachusetts, where Gov. Charlie Baker said
lower infection rates elsewhere had “caused some residents to feel a RESEARCH
bit too relaxed.” He hit the brakes, indefinitely postponing the next
phase of reopening. He also made good on his threat to limit the
number of people at outdoor gatherings like backyard barbecues.
He said that starting Tuesday, the maximum will be 50 people, down
from 100. Indoor gatherings remain limited to 25.
Superspreading May Last for Only Two Days
Nearly 160,000 Americans have died in the pandemic. The death By KATHERINE J. WU Schiffer and his colleagues re- free spikes in virus load appear to drawn between Covid-19 and the
toll in the United States could almost double in the next four ported that coronavirus super- happen very often, which “really flu, both of which are diseases
months, hitting nearly 300,000 by December, according to data For a spiky sphere just 120
spreading events were most likely distorts our ability to tell when caused by viruses that attack the
released Friday by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, nanometers wide, the coronavirus
to happen at the intersection somebody is contagious,” Dr. respiratory tract. But plenty of dif-
an independent health research center that is part of the University can be a remarkably cosmopolitan
where bad timing and poor place- Schiffer said. That, in turn, makes ferences exist, and in many ways
of Washington. But more than 66,000 of those deaths could be traveler. it all too easy for people to oblivi-
ment collide: a person who has the coronavirus is more formida-
avoided if 95 percent of Americans wore face coverings between Spewed from the nose or mouth, reached the point in their infection ously shed the pathogen. ble. “This study adds yet another
now and then.
it can rocket across a room and when they are shedding large “It really is about opportunity,” layer to how it’s different from in-
splatter onto surfaces; it can waft amounts of virus, and are doing so said Shweta Bansal, an infectious
Even in states with mask mandates, enforcement has lagged. On fluenza,” said Olivia Prosper, a re-
into poorly ventilated spaces and in a setting where there are plenty disease ecologist at Georgetown
Friday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois announced “emergency rules” searcher at the University of Ten-
linger in the air for hours. At its of other people around to catch it. University who was not involved
that he said were aimed at “scofflaw” businesses that have dis- nessee, Knoxville who uses math-
most intrepid, the virus can According to a model built by Dr. in the study. “These processes re-
dained a mask rule in effect since May 1. He said that enforcement ematical models to study infec-
spread from a single individual to Schiffer’s team, the riskiest win- ally come together when you are
would begin with warnings and could escalate to fines of $2,500. tious diseases but was not
dozens of others, perhaps even a dow for such transmission may be not only infected, but you also
“It’s clear there is still an even greater need to get people to wear involved in the study. “It’s not just
hundred or more at once, prolifer- extremely brief — a one- to two- don’t know you’re infected be-
masks,” Mr. Pritzker said in a statement. ating through packed crowds in about how sick it makes you, but
day period in the week or so after a cause you don’t feel crummy.” also its ability to transmit.”
what is called a superspreading person is infected, when coro- Some of these unwitting coro-
event. Moreover, certain people may
New Coronavirus Cases Announced Daily in U.S. navirus levels are at their highest. navirus chauffeurs, emboldened be predisposed to be more gener-
As of Friday evening, more than 4,922,900 people across every state, Such scenarios, which have The virus can still spread out- to go out in public, may end up
been traced to call centers, meat ous transmitters of the coro-
plus Washington, D.C., and four U.S. territories, have tested positive side this window, and individuals causing a superspreading event navirus, although the details are
for the virus, according to a New York Times database. processing facilities, weddings outside it should not let up on that sends the pathogen blazing
and more, have helped propel a “still a mystery,” Dr. Schiffer said.
measures like mask-wearing and through a new population. But when a superspreading
pandemic that, in the span of eight physical distancing, Dr. Schiffer This confluence of factors — a
months, has reached nearly every event occurs, it likely has more to
said. But the longer an infection person in the wrong place at the do with the circumstances than
60,000 corner of the globe. And yet, while drags on, the less likely a person is wrong point in their infection —
some people seem particularly apt with a single person’s biology, Dr.
to be contagious — an idea that sets the stage for “explosive trans-
to spread the coronavirus, others Schiffer said. Even someone car-
might help experts advise when to mission,” Dr. Bansal said.
barely pass it on. rying a lot of the coronavirus can
New cases end self-isolation, or how to allo- The team’s model also pointed
“There’s this small percentage stave off mass transmission by
cate resources to those most in to another important variable: the
of people who appear to infect a lot avoiding large groups, thus de-
30,000 need, said Dr. Mahmud, who was remarkable resilience of the coro-
of people,” said Dr. Joshua Schiffer, priving the germ of conduits to
not involved in the study. navirus when it is aloft.
a physician and mathematical travel.
Catching and containing a per- A growing body of evidence now
7-day modeling expert who studies in- “A superspreading event is a
average son at their most infectious is an- suggests that the coronavirus can
fectious diseases at the Fred be airborne in crowded, poorly function of what somebody’s viral
other matter, however. Some peo-
Hutchinson Cancer Research Cen- ple stricken with the coronavirus ventilated indoor environments, load is and if they’re in a crowded
ter in Seattle. Estimates vary from start to feel unwell within a couple where it may encounter many peo- space,” he said. “If those are the
March 1 August 7 two levers, you can control the
population to population, but they days, whereas others take weeks, ple at once. The virus also travels
Note: Friday’s total is incomplete because some states report cases after
press time. Data is as of August 7, 2020, at 5 p.m. Eastern. consistently show a striking skew: and many never end up experienc- in larger, heavier droplets, but crowding bit.”
Sources: State and local health agencies; hospitals; C.D.C. THE NEW YORK TIMES Between 10 and 20 percent of coro- ing symptoms. The length of the these quickly fall to the ground af- Both Dr. Mahmud and Dr. Pros-
navirus cases may seed 80 percent so-called incubation period, which ter they are expelled from the air- per noted that not everyone has
of new infections. Other respira- spans the time between infection way and do not have the same the means to practice physical dis-
Around the Globe tory diseases, like the flu, are far and the onset of symptoms, can be reach or longevity as their smaller tancing. Some people work essen-
more egalitarian in their spread. so variable that some people who counterparts. Dr. Schiffer said he tial jobs in packed environments,
India has now reported more than two million cases, and the
Figuring out what drives coro- catch the virus fall ill before the thought the coronavirus might be for instance, and are left more vul-
countries in Africa have posted more than one million.
navirus superspreading events person who gave it to them does. more amenable to superspreading nerable to the consequences of su-
With 2.02 million cases and 41,585 deaths, India has the world’s perspreading events.
could be key to stopping them, and That rarely happens with the flu, than flu viruses because it is better
third-largest caseload, after the United States and Brazil. Its seven- That makes it all the more im-
expediting an end to the pan- which reliably rouses a spate of at persisting in contagious clouds,
day average for new cases has been above 50,000 since July 30, and portant for those who can partici-
demic. “That’s the million dollar symptoms within a couple days of which can ferry pathogens over
many prominent Indian politicians, including the powerful home question,” said Ayesha Mahmud, pate in control measures like
infection. relatively long distances.
minister, Amit Shah, and B.S. Yediyurappa, the chief minister of who studies infectious disease dy- mask-wearing and physical dis-
If the coronavirus reaches a “It’s a spatial phenomenon,” he
Karnataka State, have recently been hospitalized after testing pos- namics at the University of Cali- said. “People further away from tancing to remain vigilant about
peak in the body before symptoms
itive for the virus. On Friday, about 900,000 community health work- fornia, Berkeley. appear — if symptoms appear at the transmitter may be more likely their behavior, Dr. Mahmud said.
ers began a two-day strike to protest being assigned to handle con- In a paper posted Friday to the all — that increase might be very to be infected.” “That’s what we should be do-
tact tracing and work in quarantine centers without adequate pro- website medRxiv that has not yet tough to identify without frequent Since the start of the pandemic, ing,” she said. “Not just to protect
tective equipment. been through peer review, Dr. and proactive testing. Symptom- many comparisons have been ourselves, but to protect others.”
Africa’s million cases is twice the number that it had just a
month ago, but the true toll may be higher because testing is ex-
tremely limited. Governments locked down early, sometimes even A new study found that
banning sales of liquor to limit social contact. But officials soon superspreading events
realized that most people could not afford food if they were not typically occur during a
working, and loosened the restraints. brief window when
Norway put its reopening on hold after its case count edged up. people are at the point
“We need to slow down now to avoid a full stop down the road,” in their infections when
Prime Minister Erna Solberg said before the government banned they are shedding large
bars from serving alcohol after midnight. “There is a connection amounts of virus, and
between alcohol consumption and how you behave,” she told the doing so amid many
newspaper Dagbladet. other people.

‘I’ve Got to Enjoy My 20s’

Huge outdoor parties are taking place across Europe — in
forests, in warehouses and on boats. Some draw thousands of fun
seekers; few of them bother with masks. Worried politicians and the
police, unable to stop the gatherings, fear that they will spur an-
other round of infections — a concern the partygoers discount. “Of
course this virus scares me, but I’ve got to enjoy my 20s,” said Sar-
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ah Salter, 21, a Swiss college student at a party near Paris called the
Piracy. The crowd danced beneath a skull-and-crossbones flag.
In Britain, the tabloids dutifully document the parties. A London
event last weekend was closed by the police in the politest way
possible: They let the D.J. play until 4:30 a.m., when dawn was not
far off.

Coronavirus Update wraps up the day’s developments with infor-

mation from across the virus report. DAVID GANNON/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

Tracking an Outbreak Global Response
THE MIDDLE EAST
Covid-19 Spares Gaza,
But Travel Restrictions
Prove Less Forgiving
By ADAM RASGON
and IYAD ABUHEWEILA
JERUSALEM — There was
barely enough space to move on
the popular Omar al-Mukhtar
street in Gaza City on the eve of
the Muslim celebration of Eid al-
Adha as throngs of Palestinians —
almost none with masks —
crowded into colorful clothing
shops and huddled around make-
shift food stands.
“If the virus were here, we
wouldn’t be so close to each other,”
said Saber Siam, 28, a salesman at
a clothing store selling imported
items from China and Turkey.
“You wouldn’t find me holding a
customer’s arm or kissing his
cheek to encourage him to pur-
chase our clothes.”
The blockaded Gaza Strip
might be one of the only places in
the world where no cases of com-
A fear that Israel is
‘tightening its closure’
on the territory.
munity transmission of the coro-
navirus have been recorded — an
achievement attributed to the
coastal enclave’s isolation as well
as swift measures taken by its mil-
itant Hamas rulers.
The pandemic, however, hasn’t
left Gaza untouched.
Citing the need to combat the vi-
rus, the various governmental au-
thorities controlling the borders of
Gaza have imposed new restric-
tions on movement outside the
territory. That has exacerbated an
already challenging situation for
Palestinians who say they ur-
gently need to travel to Israel and
the West Bank, as well as for those
wishing to escape the bleak eco-
nomic reality by emigrating by
way of Egypt.
In March, fearing the poten-
tially disastrous consequences of
an outbreak in Gaza, Hamas au-
thorities ordered all travelers re-
turning to the territory by way of
Israel and Egypt to enter quaran-
tine facilities for three weeks.
They could not leave quarantine
until they had passed two virus
tests.
The system seems to have suc-
ceeded, sparing Gaza’s health sec-
tor, already devastated by years of
war and conflict, from additional
Adam Rasgon reported from Jeru-
salem and Iyad Abuheweila from
Gaza City.
OVERWHELMED LABS
China’s Offer to Help With Testing Is Met With Distrust in a Struggling Hong Kong
By SUI-LEE WEE
and TIFFANY MAY
The offer was presented as a fa-
vor to Hong Kong, a city strug-
gling with a surge in coronavirus
infections: a team of 60 medical
officials from mainland China who
would help expand testing across
the city.
But it is being viewed with skep-
ticism by some residents, who
worry about the growing reach of
the Chinese Communist Party and
the testing project’s potential im-
plications for their privacy.
Hong Kong could use the help.
The largest wave of coronavirus
infections to hit the semiautono-
mous city has overwhelmed its
isolation wards and testing facili-
ties in recent weeks.
To reopen schools and lift re-
strictions on public gatherings
and businesses, the local govern-
ment needs an effective system of
coronavirus testing that can help
contain the outbreak. The prob-
lem is, the city is short of workers
who can conduct testing, and the
government’s labs are already
running at maximum capacity.
By mid-July, labs were operat-
ing around the clock, processing
10,000 tests a day, a rate that is un-
sustainable, according to Carrie
Lam, Hong Kong’s top leader. The
government has had to limit ac-
cess to testing in recent days, say-
ing that it would allocate tests
only to people with symptoms, or
who had been in close contact with
confirmed cases.
The ability to provide testing for
all who need or want it is a chal-
lenge for many cities and coun-
tries. That is where China comes
in.
“If you want to have a quantum
jump in terms of the number of
tests done per day, then we defi-
nitely need some help from other
countries, or the mainland gov-
ernment,” said Leo Poon, head of
the division of public health lab-
oratory sciences at the University
strain. Medical officials detected
all 78 known infections in the terri-
tory at quarantine facilities.
Still, experts did not rule out the
possibility of the pandemic pene-
trating into the area’s densely
populated cities and towns.
“All it takes is one small mis-
take,” said Gerald Rockenschaub,
the head of the World Health Or-
ganization’s mission to the Pales-
tinians. “There’s no guarantee the
virus won’t get inside.”
Mr. Rockenschaub also warned
that Gaza lacked the resources to
deal with a widespread outbreak,
noting that medical institutions
carry only about 100 adult ventila-
tors, most of which are already in
use.
Hamas initially instituted other
restrictions in Gaza. But it later
lifted many of them, enabling resi-
dents to follow significant parts of
their daily routines. They have
been flocking to beaches, working
out at gyms, eating at restaurants,
praying at mosques and shopping
in markets, among other activi-
ties.
“We’re glad we haven’t had to
confront the death we’ve heard
about in other countries,” said
Moath Abed, 29, an unemployed
nurse residing in Gaza City.
Israeli authorities have permit-
ted Palestinians in need of emer-
gency and lifesaving medical
treatment to use the Erez crossing
— the sole pedestrian passage-
way between Israel and Gaza.
But they have tightened restric-
tions on movement for others in
the territory, creating problems
for people like Munir Sabitan, 53, a
resident of Gaza City who works
in kitchen installation.
Mr. Sabitan used to visit his wife
and three children, who are Arab
citizens of Israel, with a mer-
chant’s permit. In March, though,
Israel froze those permits as the
virus started spreading in its com-
munities.
Now Mr. Sabitan is concerned
that he will miss his daughter’s
wedding in the Negev desert re-
gion if Israel doesn’t soon grant
him permission to cross the bor-
der.
“The wedding was postponed
twice, but it won’t be again,” he
said, noting that the new date was
Aug. 17. “I feel drained from this
experience. My daughter calls ev-
eryday and I tell her I’m still wait-
ing for permission.”
Gisha, an Israeli rights group
that closely monitors Gaza, ap-
pealed to the Israeli authorities on
Mr. Sabitan’s behalf, saying they
were applying “a double stand-
ard” to him because they had al-
lowed immediate family members
of other Israelis to fly into the
of Hong Kong.
When it comes to conducting
widespread testing, China is in a
league of its own. The Chinese
government takes pride in its abil-
ity to marshal the resources
needed for mass testing, citing it
as an advantage of the Commu-
nist Party’s system of centralized
control.
When officials in the central
Chinese city of Wuhan, where the
virus emerged, were confronted
with a new outbreak in May, they
tested 11 million people in roughly
two weeks. In Beijing, the govern-
ment mobilized close to 100,000
community workers in June to
test roughly 2.3 million residents
in about a week, as it tried to
stamp out a new outbreak of its
own.
In June, Guo Yanhong, a senior
official with China’s National
Health Commission, said that
China had been able to triple its
nationwide testing capacity to 3.8
million tests a day from three
months earlier, according to a gov-
ernment statement. Based on this
rate, testing 7.5 million, the entire
population of Hong Kong, “should
not be a problem,” the local pro-
Beijing newspaper Wen Wei Po re-
ported.
Beijing dispatched seven medi-
cal experts to Hong Kong on Sun-
day to help with testing, Chinese
state media reported. Yu Dewen, a
health official from the southern
province of Guangdong who is in
charge of the team, said that even
with the help of third-party lab-
oratories, Hong Kong could only
process 20,000 to 30,000 tests a
day, according to Southern Me-
tropolis Daily, a state-run Chinese
newspaper. He said the team’s
goal was roughly 200,000 samples
a day.
The seven experts who arrived
on Sunday were laying the
groundwork for a larger team of
technicians who would cross the
border and work with three lab-
oratories to ramp up testing. The
THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020
country to participate in wed-
dings, bar mitzvahs and funerals.
“Israel is effectively tightening
its closure on Gaza under the
guise of the pandemic,” the group
said.
The authorities have continued
to deny Mr. Sabitan entry, point-
ing to the pandemic as well as the
May decision by the Palestinian
Authority, which governs Pales-
tinians in the West Bank, to halt
coordination with Israel to protest
Israel’s threats to annex parts of
the West Bank.
Among the matters that the au-
thority will not coordinate on are
travel permits for Palestinians in
Gaza, making it harder to apply
for them.
The Coordinator of Govern-
ment Activities in the Territories,
the Israeli Defense Ministry arm
responsible for issuing permits to
Palestinians, declined to com-
ment on specific cases. But it said
it has been working “around the
labs are Hong Kong subsidiaries
of mainland companies: Sunrise
Diagnostic Center, established by
the Chinese genomics giant BGI;
Kingmed Diagnostics; and Hong
Kong Molecular Pathology Diag-
nostic Center, according to The
South China Morning Post.
BGI is one of the biggest compa-
nies conducting coronavirus test-
ing in China. In just three days, it
built an “air capsule” testing lab in
Beijing that was capable of run-
ning 100,000 tests a day.
Its unit, Sunrise Diagnostic
Center, could help build similar
makeshift testing facilities in
Hong Kong if needed, according to
The Post. The firm would be able
to process up to 30,000 tests a day
by the end of this week. That ca-
pacity could be increased by five
times — to 150,000 a day — by
pooling five samples in one tube.
But many Hong Kong health ex-
Collecting a sample from a taxi driver at a testing site in a Hong Kong parking garage last month.
clock” to “provide the best and
most appropriate response” for
Gaza’s needs.
“We note that the narrowing
down of movement through the
Erez crossing for exceptional
medical and humanitarian cases
is solely meant to prevent the
spread of the coronavirus,” it said.
Iyad al-Bozom, the spokesman
for the Hamas-run Interior Min-
istry, said that since the pandemic,
authorities in Gaza have allowed
Palestinians with valid Israeli per-
mits and “urgent travel needs” to
leave the enclave through Erez.
He said that if Mr. Sabitan re-
ceives a permit, he would be able
to exit the territory.
For the same reasons, Neveen
Zanon, 41, a resident of Rafah, has
also not been able to get permis-
sion to visit her father in Nablus,
where he is suffering from esoph-
ageal cancer.
“He barely has enough energy
to speak on the phone,” she said.
perts are skeptical of universal
testing, seeing it as a waste of re-
sources and hard to achieve in a
short time.
Instead, they say the govern-
ment needs to test more people
who are deemed to be at greater
risk of infection, such as nursing
home residents and public trans-
portation workers.
Arisina Ma, president of the
Public Doctors Association, a
large union representing physi-
cians in public hospitals and the
Department of Health, said doc-
tors were surprised by the gov-
ernment’s decision to invite Chi-
nese experts.
Dr. Ma said the process was
“very problematic” because of its
lack of transparency. She noted
that a top health official who
heads the communicable diseases
branch in the city’s health protec-
tion bureau had been unable to
PHOTOGRAPHS BY SHBAIR FATIMA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
“I’m worried he won’t be with us
by the time I get a permit to see
him.”
She said that when her mother
was ill in 2011, she wasn’t able to
receive a permit until after her fu-
neral took place.
“I don’t want to go through such
a painful experience again,” said
Ms. Zanon, who lives in a cramped
two-room apartment with her
husband and six children.
In March Egypt and Hamas
sealed the Rafah crossing be-
tween Egypt and Gaza for people
trying to leave Gaza. Mr. al-Bo-
zom of the Interior Ministry said
Hamas was concerned that quar-
antine facilities could become
overburdened if too many Pales-
tinians exited Gaza through Rafah
and then returned shortly there-
after.
But the new restriction has
complicated the plans of many
young Palestinians hoping to flee
the poor living conditions in Gaza,
provide any information about
what the Chinese team was doing
in the city.
“It felt like a higher-level politi-
cal decision,” Dr. Ma said.
Hong Kong’s medical facilities
have the capacity to increase test-
ing but have not been told by the
government to do so, Dr. Ma said.
She wondered if Beijing’s help
was even necessary.
“We are not so devastated that
we need to ask for help,” she said.
“Even when hospitals in America
and the United Kingdom are dev-
astated, they just try to mobilize
their own personnel. In Hong
Kong, we have sufficient and ade-
quate personnel to do it.”
Some establishment-backed
critics have argued that it is doc-
tors who have made it difficult or
prohibitively expensive for people
to get tested.
Regina Ip, a pro-Beijing law-
ANTHONY KWAN/GETTY IMAGES
Y A5
Neveen Zanon, above at right
and far left at center, at her
home in Rafah. She has been
unable to get permission to
leave the Gaza Strip to visit her
ailing father. Nidal Kuhail,
near left, had intended to leave
Gaza City and move to Europe.
His plans are now in limbo.
where youth unemployment is
more than 60 percent and poverty
is rampant.
Nidal Kuhail, 26, had intended
to quit his job at a restaurant in
Gaza City, where he earns $13.22
per day, and move to Europe to ei-
ther study or work. Now his plans
are on hold.
“There’s no future or horizon
here,” said Mr. Kuhail, who has
been studying German at a cultur-
al institute in Gaza. “The jobs are
so few and so many people are de-
spairing. I feel like I have no other
choice but to immigrate.”
In Gaza, 32 percent of Palestin-
ians said they want to emigrate
because of the economic, political
and social situation, according to a
June poll by the Palestinian Cen-
ter for Policy and Survey Re-
search.
Egypt opened Rafah in May
2018 after years of keeping it
largely closed, and thousands of
Palestinians in Gaza have moved
abroad.
Mr. Kuhail, who has only left
Gaza once in his life, said he still
was hopeful he would find a way to
Europe.
“I’ll eventually make it,” he
said. “I know when I do, I’ll be in a
place where there are opportuni-
ties to build a decent life.”
maker in Hong Kong, said the city
had not been able to do nearly
enough testing because of what
she described as the medical pro-
fession’s grip over the process. “I
think it is protectionism — ‘you
have to do it our way,’ ” she said of
the Hong Kong health care sector.
The cost of taking a coronavirus
test is also exacerbating the prob-
lem. At most private hospitals,
tests may only be done after a con-
sultation with a doctor. That
means one test can cost about
$200 — a price tag that adds up for
families.
But for some residents, the
prospect of more readily available
tests was overshadowed by con-
cern that the outreach by Beijing
was only the Communist Party’s
latest intrusion into their lives.
They found it especially un-
nerving in the wake of the sweep-
ing national security law that Bei-
jing imposed on June 30 to quash
dissent in Hong Kong. Police offi-
cers investigating alleged subver-
sion crimes under the new law
have been collecting DNA sam-
ples from people arrested at pro-
tests.
The Hong Kong government
has not said who it plans to test,
but it has pledged that DNA sam-
ples will not be transported to the
mainland.
But the local government’s lack
of transparency about the move to
invite Chinese experts and the in-
volvement of Chinese testing
companies have raised alarm
bells, activists say. Compounding
such fears, the Hong Kong gov-
ernment said it was looking into
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the potential criminality of
“spreading rumors” that the test-
ing program could lead to the har-
vesting of DNA samples.
The chairman of Sunrise Diag-
nostic Center, Hu Dingxu, has said
that samples would not be sent to
the mainland, according to Wen
Wei Po, the pro-Beijing newspa-
per.
A6 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020
Tracking an Outbreak Planning for the Fall
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES
Focus on Reopening Classrooms Impeded a Revamp of Online Learning
By DANA GOLDSTEIN
With some combination of opti-
mism, anxiety and wishful think-
ing, many educators spent their
summers planning, in minute de-
tail, how to safely reopen class-
rooms. Teachers stocked up on
sanitation supplies as superin-
tendents took a crash course in
epidemiology and studied supply
chain logistics for portable air fil-
ters.
But with the pandemic now
surging across a wide swath of the
country, many of those plans have
been shelved, and a different reali-
ty has emerged for the nation’s ex-
hausted and stir-crazy families:
Millions of American children will
spend their fall once again learn-
ing in front of laptop screens.
In places where schools haven’t
already reopened — in some, to
just as quickly close again — edu-
cators are spending the little time
they have left before the new aca-
demic year moving to focus more
fully on improving online instruc-
tion, which failed to reach and en-
gage many children in the spring,
leading to growing achievement
gaps by income and race.
But what if they had started
much sooner?
“Clearly, lots of time was lost,
and it’s unfortunate,” said Morgan
Polikoff, a professor of education
at the University of Southern Cali-
fornia. “We’re not going to have a
ton of in-person instruction in this
entire school year,” he predicted,
echoing some public health ex-
perts.
When schools abruptly moved
to remote learning in March, the
majority of districts did not re-
quire teachers to provide any live
instruction, and many interac-
tions between educators and stu-
dents took place over email and
text message.
Lessons were often passive, re-
volving around online videos and
worksheets. Students without ac-
cess to computers and Wi-Fi, or
without a tech-savvy adult to help
them, fell behind, and in some
cases, consequences are expected
to be long-lasting. An alarming
number of students didn’t show
up for remote learning at all.
To avoid a repeat, Dr. Polikoff
said, “We should be pouring abso-
lutely everything we can into
making the online experience as
good as possible.”
Instead, American educators
spent the late spring and summer
planning to welcome students
back to classrooms. They did so at
a time when the outbreak ap-
peared to be under control, and
the message from politicians, pe-
diatricians and many parents was
clear: Reopening schools, in per-
son, was a priority to restart the
economy and educate children.
But as districts stocked up on
face shields and disinfectant
sprays, many governors were al-
lowing bars and restaurants to re-
open. Delays in providing virus
test results grew. And local lead-
ers were left to figure out the de-
tails of running schools during a
public health crisis largely on
their own.
Most of the country’s largest
districts settled on some mix of in-
NEW YORK STATE
Cuomo Gives Schools Approval to Open
From Page A1
positive coronavirus tests is be-
low 5 percent over a two-week pe-
riod. That threshold was recom-
mended by the World Health Or-
ganization to begin general re-
opening and has recently been
adopted by some school districts.
Most of the state, including New
York City, has maintained a posi-
tivity rate of about 1 percent. New
York calculates its test positivity
rate based on reporting from all of
the state’s counties. Mayor Bill de
Blasio has said that New York City
schools can open only if the posi-
tivity rate is below 3 percent.
“All schools can open,” Mr.
Cuomo said during a news confer-
ence.
“If anyone can open schools, we
can open schools,” he said, adding,
“we have the best infection rate in
the country.”
Governors in other states, in-
cluding Ron DeSantis of Florida
and Greg Abbott of Texas, have
gone beyond Mr. Cuomo by ac-
tively encouraging school dis-
tricts to reopen. But the pandemic
is raging in those states, prompt-
ing officials in major districts like
Miami-Dade and Houston to an-
nounce that they would start the
school year remote-only.
If New York City and most of the
state’s other districts reopen, it
will be a remarkable turnaround
from the spring, when hundreds of
people were dying a day from the
virus and the state’s hospital ca-
pacity was stretched to a breaking
point.
The city has recently logged
fewer than 200 reported cases a
day, although lags in test results
could compromise that data.
person and remote learning, but
they have been forced to shelve
those plans in recent weeks as vi-
rus cases soar in their communi-
ties. Of the nation’s 15 largest
school systems, only two, New
York City and Hawaii, now plan to
start the year with open class-
rooms, even part-time. On Friday,
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New
York cleared the way for schools
in the state to choose to reopen,
but the decision remains in the
hands of local officials.
President Trump and his educa-
tion secretary, Betsy DeVos, have
threatened to withhold federal
funding from schools that do not
teach in person but have provided
no detailed recommendations on
how to do so safely. Nor has Con-
gress provided the billions that lo-
cal officials say they need to cover
the costs of retrofitting buildings
for pandemic conditions.
Governors and state education
departments, too, focused more
on the hope for an in-person re-
opening than the chance that on-
line eduction could continue.
Only 11 state reopening plans
Though Mr. Cuomo has tried to
assert his power over school clo-
sures throughout the pandemic, in
some cases contradicting Mr. de
Blasio on key decisions, he has
signaled that his role in the debate
over reopening for the fall will be
limited to setting the threshold for
a safe reopening, and unilaterally
shutting down schools if that
threshold is reached.
Mr. Cuomo frequently cele-
brates the state’s transformation
from a global center of the virus to
one of the safest places in the
country in terms of transmission
levels, and has received accolades
for his management of the crisis.
New York’s test positivity rate is
now among the lowest in the na-
tion; the rate in states like Florida
where there has been enormous
resistance to reopening schools
reached as high as 20 percent last
month.
The school reopening debate,
however, presents the governor
with a political conundrum from
which it might be difficult to
emerge unscathed.
If the city does reopen schools,
it could alienate him from educa-
tors and the teachers’ union, a cru-
cial ally. But if the city halts or de-
lays its opening plan, it could
leave more than one million fam-
ilies in the lurch over child care,
and hundreds of thousands of low-
income children, homeless chil-
dren, and students with disabili-
ties without in-person learning for
months to come.
Mr. Cuomo acknowledged those
difficulties on Friday, saying that
he had been “deluged” with calls
from parents and teachers who
have concerns about reopening.
“If the teachers don’t come
MIKE BLAKE/REUTERS
require districts to put in place
specific strategies for delivering a
quality education remotely, ac-
cording to research from the Cen-
ter on Reinventing Public Educa-
tion, a think tank and advocacy
group. Just a few states — such as
Maine, Connecticut and South
Carolina — have taken a central-
ized approach to making sure stu-
dents have access to computers
and internet connections at home.
Local control of education is a
centuries-old American tradition,
but one that may not be well
suited to emergency planning
during a pandemic.
“Every system, every school
had to think through this, often in
isolation,” said Jamila Newman of
TNTP, formerly the New Teacher
Project, a nonprofit that provides
consulting services for districts
across the country on staffing and
student achievement. “Districts
were spending the lion’s share of
their time focused on an in-person
plan or a hybrid plan that feels in-
credibly untenable in most
places.”
Fewer than half of districts of-
back, then you can’t really open
the schools,” he said. “If the par-
ents don’t send their students,
then you’re not really opening the
schools.”
Union leaders who represent
teachers in New York City and the
rest of the state have raised
alarms about reopening, saying
they do not believe it is currently
safe to do in-person instruction in
at least some parts of the state.
Mr. Cuomo has a political alliance
with Michael Mulgrew, the presi-
dent of the city’s powerful United
Federation of Teachers, which
represents New York City teach-
ers.
Though it is illegal for teachers
to strike in New York, Mr. Mul-
grew recently hinted at potential
legal action against the city if it re-
opens schools and the union does
not believe adequate safety pre-
cautions are in place.
On Friday, Mr. Mulgrew re-
sponded to the governor’s an-
nouncement with a terse state-
ment: “As Governor Cuomo
noted, parents and teachers must
be confident that schools are safe
before they can reopen. In New
York City, that is still an open
question.”
Teachers older than 65 and
those with pre-existing conditions
are eligible for medical exemp-
tions that will allow them to work
from home.
“I don’t think you want to get
into a legal battle with the teach-
ers,” Mr. Cuomo said on Friday,
adding, “teachers have to feel
safe, they can’t teach if they don’t
feel safe.”
The governor directed districts
to publicly post their plans for
testing teachers and students af-
OLIVIER DOULIERY/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
In some districts, discussions have shifted quickly from social dis-
tancing and ventilation to tense debates over how many hours of
live interaction teachers will be expected to provide to students.
fered summer professional devel-
opment programs for educators,
or have a plan in place to continue
coaching them on remote teach-
ing practices during the school
year, according to a database of
more than 100 local plans, includ-
ing those for the nation’s 30 larg-
est school systems, compiled by
the Center on Reinventing Public
Education.
In many parts of the country,
collective bargaining agreements
between districts and teachers
play a large role in determining
how services are administered.
Part of the summer was spent re-
negotiating emergency work
agreements created for the pan-
demic, with the assumption that
teachers would be in classrooms
at least part of the time.
But in recent weeks, those dis-
cussions have shifted quickly
from focusing on social distancing
and ventilation to tense debates
over how many hours of live inter-
action teachers will be expected to
provide to students, and whether
they should use their vacant class-
rooms as television sets, of sorts,
for video instruction.
Ms. Newman said the contin-
ued uncertainty over when stu-
dents might return to schools
could hamper the ability of educa-
tors to provide quality remote
learning. In some regions, she
suggested, it might make sense to
consider the possibility of spend-
ing the entire school year online.
“People won’t necessarily be
able to get back into the comfort-
able cadence of instruction,” she
said, “if there’s always this hope
that right around the corner —
next week, next month — we can
ter the school year begins — a de-
mand from the teachers’ union
that New York City has not re-
leased significant details on. The
governor said all districts should
release information about where
students and teachers can be
tested and how quickly test re-
sults can be provided.
Mr. Cuomo also asked all dis-
tricts to post their protocols for
when someone in a school tests
positive. Mr. de Blasio outlined the
city’s plan for that last week: Just
two cases in different classrooms
of the same school could force its
closing for two weeks.
And Mr. Cuomo said school dis-
tricts must hold more virtual
meetings with parents and teach-
ers throughout August to answer
questions.
Mr. Cuomo is leaving most of
the other details about how to ac-
tually reopen safely to individual
school districts, which have spent
the summer creating reopening
plans to be approved by the State
Education Department. Districts
across the state are tentatively
planning to reopen late in August
or early next month. New York
City is scheduled to start school on
transition back.”
There are places where educa-
tors have already forged ahead in
the past months with creative
plans for remote learning.
During the spring, KIPP New
Jersey, a charter school network
of 15 schools that overwhelmingly
serves Black and Latino children
from low-income families, did not
require its teachers to provide live
instruction. But it is planning big
changes for the fall semester,
The pandemic got
worse, and schools
now have to catch up.
which, pending state approval,
will be online until October at ear-
liest.
Students in kindergarten, first
grade and second grade will begin
the day with a 30-minute social-
emotional check-in with teachers
and peers, followed by 90 minutes
of live instruction in reading, writ-
ing and math. For academics, they
will be placed into small groups of
10 students.
The network has learned that
limiting class sizes may be even
more important online than in the
physical classroom, said its chief
executive, Ryan Hill. On Zoom, for
example, it is helpful for a teacher
to be able to see all of their stu-
dents’ faces at once, instead of
having to scroll through multiple
screens.
Los Angeles Unified, the na-
HIROKO MASUIKE/THE NEW YORK TIMES
Sept. 10.
The challenges facing all dis-
tricts are myriad, but especially
so in New York City, the nation’s
largest school system, and the
only major district in America
currently planning to reopen even
part-time.
New York City and other dis-
tricts across the state are still de-
veloping strategies that allow for
social distancing in school build-
ings, trying to find enough nurses
to staff school buildings, and up-
grading or replacing ventilation
systems in classrooms. Some
New York City buildings are more
than a century old and lack work-
ing windows.
Districts are also scrambling to
improve their remote instruction
plans; educators did not have
much time to perfect online learn-
ing when schools shuttered sud-
denly in the spring.
Most of the state’s districts have
submitted their reopening plans,
Mr. Cuomo said, though about 50
of the proposals were still incom-
plete. New York City was granted
a two-week extension on their
plan, and the final version was
submitted on Friday.
tion’s second-largest school sys-
tem, decided last month that it
would start the school year online.
It has published data showing that
when schools closed in March,
about a third of middle and high
school students did not actively
participate each week in online
learning — a national problem.
The district plans to use staff
members such as bus drivers to
help make phone calls to track
down students who do not turn in
assignments or show up for online
classes.
Another major concern is how
schools will facilitate socialization
and warmth between students
and teachers. When schools sud-
denly shut down this spring, chil-
dren continued to interact online
with the classmates and teachers
they knew and loved; that won’t
be the case for many in a new aca-
demic year.
To address that, the Esperanza
Community School in Tempe,
Ariz., plans to keep most students
with their teachers from last year,
according to Hannah Wysong, a
teacher leader at the school.
Esperanza is a public school led
by a collective of teachers, so it is
able to operate outside of the typi-
cal bureaucracy that can make it
hard to embrace nontraditional
practices, Ms. Wysong said.
In Odessa, Texas, the Ector
County school district, which
plans to open this month under a
hybrid model that combines re-
mote and in-person schooling, has
come up with a plan to provide in-
ternet access to its rural popula-
tion, some of whom live in areas
not reached by broadband
providers.
During days when students are
slated for remote learning, they
will be able to come to school
buildings to access devices and in-
ternet in a supervised, socially
distanced space.
As difficult as remote learning
was for many teachers and stu-
dents in the spring, it could be just
as tough for parents and care-
givers who juggled their jobs and
basic child care while trying to
help students navigate a seem-
ingly endless array of apps and lo-
gins.
Miami-Dade County, the na-
tion’s fourth largest district, is try-
ing to address that problem
through online training for par-
ents.
Shelley Gonzalez, the mother of
a rising second grader, partici-
pated in several sessions this
summer. During one, she learned
about the importance of giving
her son, Luis, breaks for “sunlight
activities,” like basketball or play-
ing with LEGOs, that allow him to
recharge.
She was also introduced to a
tool called “Immersive Reader”
that helps Luis, who has been di-
agnosed with attention deficit-hy-
peractivity disorder and vision
problems, focus on specific pas-
sages he is supposed to read, by
reducing distractions on the
screen.
“I am hoping this teaches par-
ents and kids you can learn any-
where,” Ms. Gonzalez said. “You
don’t have to be sitting in a class-
room.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio has said
that he may not make a deci-
sion on reopening New York
City schools for a few weeks.
Districts across the state are
mandating mask use and social
distancing, and many have pro-
posed different hybrid models
that would involve cohorts of chil-
dren cycling in and out of build-
ings on alternating days. Some
small districts are planning to
bring students back into buildings
full-time.
Other cities across the state
have taken different approaches.
Buffalo’s superintendent has al-
ready indicated that he might pre-
fer to delay the start of in-person
learning until October. Mr. Cuomo
said on Friday that districts could
decide when to reopen buildings
as long as their infection rate
stayed low. In Syracuse, most high
school students will likely learn
remotely.
Many teachers and parents
across the state have expressed
alarm about returning to school
buildings as the virus has spiked
in other states. But some families
say they are desperate for schools
and child care centers to open so
they can return to work. About 75
percent of New York City students
are low-income and many of their
parents are essential workers or
employees who cannot work from
home.
Some local officials, including
Mr. de Blasio, have indicated that
they may not make a final decision
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whether to reopen, even part-
time, until late this month or even
early next month.
New York City’s system, with 1.1
million children and 1,800 schools,
is planning to open on a hybrid
model, in which children report to
school one to three days a week
and learn online the rest of the
time.

Tracking an Outbreak The Economy and Capitol Hill
Businesses with jobs to fill in Kansas City, Mo., left, and Independence, Mo., right. “With many companies not running at full
capacity,” said Michelle Meyer, a Bank of America economist, “it becomes harder to get that incremental worker back in.”
EMPLOYMENT
Job Growth Slows, Signaling a Longer Recovery
From Page A1
continue to file for bankruptcy,
while airlines and hotels operate
at a small fraction of capacity.
Some companies are calling back
laid-off employees, even as other
employers continue to shed work-
ers.
The longer the crisis goes on,
the greater the toll for businesses,
especially smaller ones.
“We’re going to start to see a lot
of small businesses fall by the
wayside, a lot of people who are
unemployed become chronically
unemployed,” said Kenneth S. Ro-
goff, a Harvard University econo-
mist who has written extensively
on financial and economic crises.
“We’re in very, very dangerous
territory.”
And underscoring the preva-
lence of what economists term
“churn” in the labor market, some
jobless Americans have secured
work only to find themselves out
of a job for a second time.
CUMULATIVE CHANGE IN JOBS
Since July 2016 FEB.
+ 5 million
0 Unemployment among other
145 million total jobs in July ’16
– 5
–12.9 million
since Feb.
–10
–15
’17 ’18 ’19 ’20
Source:
Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Seasonally adjusted. THE NEW YORK TIMES
Finally finding work,
only to be laid off a
second time.
After coronavirus-related lock-
downs forced dining establish-
ments in New York to close in
March, Hannah Lane, 24, was laid
off as a server in a popular Gram-
ercy Park restaurant where she
made about $60,000 a year.
She applied for unemployment
benefits, but had to wait two
months for the payments to begin.
Then, in early July, as New York
allowed restaurants to open for in-
door dining, Ms. Lane was re-
called to her job.
“I went back into work, clocked
in, went back on payroll, the whole
nine yards,” she said.
She had spent just one day
there when Gov. Andrew M.
Cuomo reversed course and pro-
hibited dining inside restaurants.
Ms. Lane was laid off again, and
found herself back on unemploy-
ment and looking for work.
The leisure and hospitality in-
dustry was hit hard in the down-
turn and faces new restrictions on
bars and indoor dining in states
like California, Florida and Texas.
Last month, it added 592,000
jobs, or one-third of the net gain
for the economy over all.
July’s job growth in the industry
followed a jump of 3.4 million in
May and June, seasonally ad-
justed, but employment in the
field is still 4.3 million below
where it was in February.
The retail industry, another
hard-hit sector that has seen nu-
merous bankruptcies in recent
months, added 258,000 jobs last
month.
The pandemic’s toll on jobs in
those categories has hit lower-
paid workers especially hard, in-
cluding millions who depend on
tips. For big increases in hiring at
restaurants and bars, employees
may need to wait until indoor din-
Jeanna Smialek and Ben Cassel-
man contributed reporting.
ing is again permitted in states
like New York — something un-
likely to occur until a vaccine is
found.
While the survey of households
released on Friday counted 16.3
million Americans as unem-
ployed, the Labor Department
has reported that over 30 million
are receiving some sort of unem-
ployment benefit.
The household survey does not
count people as unemployed if
they have given up the search for
work and are not considered part
of the labor force. There are also
differences between the Labor
Department’s definition of unem-
ployment and state requirements
for benefits.
However it is measured, the
pandemic’s economic pain has not
been distributed evenly.
The seasonally adjusted unem-
ployment rate for Black adults
was 14.6 percent in July, down
slightly from 15.4 percent the
month before and a little more
than two percentage points from
its peak in May — but still more
than double its 5.8 percent rate in
February.
Joblessness for white workers
eased to 9.2 percent in July. While
that rate is up sharply from 3.1
percent in February, it has fallen
about five percentage points from
its April peak.
minority groups also remains ele-
vated. The rate for Hispanic work-
ers was at 12.9 percent, up from 4.4
percent before the crisis. Asian
workers — who before the down-
turn had the lowest jobless rate of
any demographic group — posted
a 12 percent unemployment rate
in July.
Policymakers have noted the
differing impact. “The rise in job-
lessness has been especially se-
vere for lower-wage workers, for
women, and for African-Ameri-
cans and Hispanics,” Jerome H.
Powell, the Federal Reserve chair,
said at a news conference in late
July. “This reversal of economic
fortune has upended many lives
and created great uncertainty
about the future.”
For some workers, securing a
position has meant accepting
lower pay.
When the pandemic hit, David
Espy was a safety manager over-
seeing the construction of a resort
hotel at Walt Disney World in
Florida. But in mid-March, when
virus-related shutdowns forced
entertainment venues to close,
Mr. Espy lost his job.
After being unemployed for one
month, Mr. Espy, 59, was hired by
a consulting company called
Safety, Solutions and Supply. Be-
fore the pandemic, he was making
$125,000 a year. Now, he earns
$75,000.
The new job does not pay him
enough to cover his expenses, in-
cluding two car loans and the
mortgage on his house in Valrico,
Fla., where he lives with his wife
and a 20-year-old son. To make
ends meet, he is spending $2,000
of his savings each month.
“I would call myself underem-
ployed,” he said. “I’m working at a
reduced rate just to pay my bills.”
Even as some employers recall
laid-off workers, others are con-
cluding they can no longer stay in
business. That has caused finan-
cial and emotional damage for
owners and employees alike.
For Jackie Anscher, the closing
of the boutique fitness studio
where she taught spinning classes
in Long Beach, N.Y., until March
meant more than the loss of a job.
It was the end of something she
was passionate about and halted
the deep connections she had built
with clients.
“I miss it like I’ve lost a limb,”
she said. “What started as an ex-
ercise class encompassed so
much more. I’m a therapist on a
bike. I’m sure a lot of people can
relate to the emotional loss.”
Ms. Anscher, who taught eight
to 10 classes a week, said her fi-
nancial situation was stable be-
cause of her husband’s job. But
there is nowhere to go to keep
teaching as gyms remain closed.
THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020
CONGRESS
President Is Preparing
To Bypass Lawmakers
As Stimulus Talks Fail
By EMILY COCHRANE
and JIM TANKERSLEY
WASHINGTON — Crisis ne-
gotiations between the White
House and top Democrats
teetered on the brink of collapse
on Friday, as both sides said
they remained deeply divided
on an economic recovery pack-
age and President Trump’s ad-
visers said they would recom-
PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRISTOPHER SMITH FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES mend that he bypass Congress
and act on his own to provide re-
lief.
It was not clear what power
Mr. Trump might have to move
unilaterally to extend jobless aid
or otherwise redirect federal re-
lief money as he sees fit because
Congress controls spending.
But the announcement by Mark
Meadows, the White House
chief of staff, and Steven
Mnuchin, the Treasury secre-
Jobs Remain Far Below Pre-Pandemic Levels tary, that they were counseling
Cumulative change in jobs by sector, since July 2016 him to do so reflected the failure
of days of marathon talks to
Construction reach a bipartisan compromise
+2 million to pump more aid into the slow-
CHANGE ing economic recovery.
FEB.
SINCE FEB. It came after another unpro-
FOUR YEARS AGO ductive meeting between the
–444,000
administration officials and
Democratic leaders, which
‘17 ‘18 ‘19 ‘20
ended with no agreement and
no additional talks scheduled.
Manufacturing Lawmakers on Capitol Hill
+2 million said they were bracing for the
president to act unilaterally to
FEB. reinstate supplemental unem-
ployment benefits in some form,
possibly by invoking a law that
–740,000
governs federal response to nat-
‘17 ‘18 ‘19 ‘20
ural disasters like hurricanes.
Retail Administration officials have
FEB.
suggested that Mr. Trump might
seek to repurpose funds that
–913,000 Congress allocated for coro-
navirus relief this year that have
–2 million not yet been spent by states or
federal agencies.
‘17 ‘18 ‘19 ‘20
Critical issues continue to di-
vide the parties, including the
Business and professional services
overall price tag of the bill and
+2 million FEB.
whether to help states and local-
ities across the country bridge
budget shortfalls that are a di-
rect result of the pandemic re-
–1.6 mil. cession. The central tension
‘17 ‘18 ‘19 ‘20 point has been how much addi-
tional assistance to send to un-
Education and health employed Americans, who were
+2 million FEB. receiving a $600-per-week sup-
plemental check from the fed-
eral government on top of their
normal state benefits until the
–1.6 mil. program lapsed at the end of
July.
‘17 ‘18 ‘19 ‘20 Republicans have shifted po-
sition on the additional unem-
Leisure and hospitality
ployment benefits, first propos-
+2 million ing to extend them at a much
FEB. lower rate, then raising their bid
in negotiations with Democrats.
But Mr. Trump has remained
steadfast in his public opposi-
tion to any money for states and
local governments, which he
has falsely said would go only to
–2 states run by Democrats and
does not have any relationship
to the current crisis.
–4.3 mil. He reiterated those com-
–4 plaints on Friday afternoon on
Twitter, vowing, “We are going a
different way” with negotia-
tions.
–6 Lawmakers and policy ana-
lysts in Washington were split
‘17 ‘18 ‘19 ‘20 on Friday over whether any uni-
lateral move by Mr. Trump
Data is seasonally adjusted.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics THE NEW YORK TIMES would effectively scuttle further
talks, or serve to accelerate
them. Democrats emerged from
what they called a “disappoint-
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE ing” afternoon negotiating ses-
15% sion and accused the adminis-
tration of refusing to compro-
mise.
RECESSIONS
“I don’t care what rose they
try to pin on it, it’s got a lot of
thorns,” said Speaker Nancy
10 10.2% Pelosi of California. “This isn’t
about negotiating or leverage or
anything. It’s about meeting the
needs of the American people.”
Administration officials held
out the possibility that further
5 negotiations could yet yield a
compromise.
“I don’t want to speculate as
to whether there is an agree-
ment or not,” Mr. Mnuchin said.
“We will continue to try to get an
0 agreement that’s in the best in-
terest of the people, and that’s
‘06 ‘08 ‘10 ‘12 ‘14 ‘16 ‘18 ‘20 why we’re here.”
While the executive orders
Data is seasonally adjusted.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics THE NEW YORK TIMES had not yet been completed, Mr.
Meadows said it was likely that
action would come over the
weekend. But Mr. Trump
“This was a forced retirement,” shut down after seven years.
Ms. Anscher, 58, said. “I’m not Some of the bikes have been sold, abruptly scheduled a news con-
ference on Friday night at his
ready to retire. I’m waiting to see and Ms. Horowitz has been clean-
how I can pick up the pieces.” ing out the space on the South Bedminster, N.J., golf resort.
“This is not a perfect answer
Stephanie Horowitz, the stu- Shore of Long Island, a few blocks
dio’s owner, didn’t think the mora- from the Atlantic. Seven part-time — we’ll be the first ones to say
torium on classes would be the workers, including Ms. Anscher, that,” Mr. Meadows said of the
end of her business, Ocean Ride, have lost their jobs. prospect of presidential orders.
when it was imposed in March. “We were a staple in the com- “But it is all that we can do and
She offered spinning classes over munity, and we had a good run,” all the president can do within
the internet, she said, “but it never Ms. Horowitz, 40, said. “It’s emo- the confines of his executive
took off the way we needed it to.” tional. We had just bought new
By mid-July, the financial drain bikes last year. Who knows what Nicholas Fandos contributed re-
was too great, and she decided to the future holds for any of us?” porting.
Y A7
power, and we’re going to en-
courage him to do it.”
Democrats, who had earlier
said they would be willing to
lower their spending demands
to $2 trillion from $3.4 trillion,
said the White House needed to
return with a higher overall
price tag, after Mr. Trump’s ne-
gotiators declined to accept that
offer. Republicans have pro-
posed a $1 trillion plan.
“The House is Democratic,
they need a majority of Demo-
cratic votes in the Senate,” said
Senator Chuck Schumer of New
York, the Democratic leader.
“Meet us in the middle — for
God’s sake, please — for the
sake of America, meet us in the
middle.”
Mr. Mnuchin and Mr. Mead-
ows demanded that Democrats
agree to lower the amount of aid
for state and local governments,
and provide more specifics
about how they were proposing
to compromise on a revival of
lapsed unemployment benefits.
A jobs report on Friday that
found that the United States
economy added 1.8 million jobs
in July further muddled the
talks, giving each side support
for its talking points. Democrats
seized on it as a call to action,
quickly issuing a statement call-
ing for a face-to-face meeting to
continue negotiations on the
stimulus package.
But the White House and Re-
publicans, who are pressing for
a narrower recovery measure,
cheered the report, which beat
economists’ expectations, and
were likely to see it as confirma-
tion of their argument that it is
time to scale back federal help
The overall scope and cost of
any agreement remains one of
Negotiations end
with no further
meetings planned.
the most significant sticking
points, along with how much aid
should be provided to state and
local governments. Republicans
have offered $150 billion in new
relief, arguing that a significant
portion of aid allocated in the
$2.2 trillion stimulus law has not
yet been spent, while Demo-
crats included nearly $900 bil-
lion in their opening proposal.
In a private call with Republi-
can senators on Friday morn-
ing, Mr. Mnuchin and Mr. Mead-
ows indicated that the funding
for state and local governments
remained one of the most stark
divisions between the two par-
ties, according to two people fa-
miliar with the discussion, who
spoke on the condition of ano-
nymity to disclose the details of
a private phone call.
One person said that the two
administration officials singled
out education funding as an-
other sticking point, given that
Democrats were pressing for far
more relief to send to schools, as
well as a Democratic demand
for additional relief for the Post-
al Service and election protec-
tions ahead of the general elec-
tion in November.
Mr. Trump has threatened all
week to act on his own if no deal
could be reached, telling report-
ers that he might move as soon
as Friday or Saturday to sign ex-
ecutive orders to forestall evic-
tions, suspend payroll-tax col-
lection and provide unemploy-
ment aid and student loan relief.
But it was not clear that he had
the power to do so without Con-
gress, which controls spending
— or whether any actions he
takes that survive court chal-
lenges would suffice to prop up
the slowing recovery.
Any move to reprogram un-
spent federal dollars for unem-
ployment could prompt legal
challenges that could stall its de-
livery. Even without those chal-
lenges, overburdened state un-
employment offices could need
weeks or as much as a month to
begin supplementing traditional
benefit checks again with fed-
eral dollars. The orders would
do nothing to help small busi-
nesses that have already ex-
hausted federal assistance or
state and local governments
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bracing for layoffs amid declin-
ing tax revenues.
Economic forecasters expect
the job market to cool even fur-
ther this month and in Septem-
ber, particularly if consumer
spending declines because of
the expiration of unemployment
benefits.
A8 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020
Tracking an Outbreak The New Reality
SECRET RAVES
Are Illicit Parties Putting New Yorkers at Risk? A False Positive Shows
By MIHIR ZAVERI
On a humid Saturday night, un-
der a segment of the Kosciuszko
Bridge, which connects Brooklyn
and Queens, hundreds of people at
an illicit gathering danced and
swayed to the thumps of elec-
tronic music. Some wore masks.
Many did not.
Many were attending their first
party in months, since the pan-
demic had forced many venues to
close.
“People were just enjoying
themselves,” said one of the at-
tendees, Jimmy Escobar, 30, of
Brooklyn. “People got locked up
for so long, and they finally got to
go out.”
New Yorkers, by and large,
have adhered to rules mandating
social distancing and mask wear-
ing. The diligence has helped keep
the coronavirus under control in
the city even as outbreaks have
raged across the country, primari-
ly in the South and the West.
As the summer wears on, how-
ever, mounting reports of parties,
concerts and other social events,
like the rave attended by Mr. Esco-
bar, are raising fears that New
York’s hard-earned stability may
be tenuous.
Over the last few weeks, videos
and photos posted on social media
— at bars, at beaches, at ware-
houses, at pools, at hotels — show
densely packed, mask-free
crowds, similar to the Memorial
Day weekend gatherings at Lake
of the Ozarks in Missouri and in
states like California and Florida
that are now reeling from virus
outbreaks.
The images contrast sharply
with the memories of a brutal
spring in New York that left tens
of thousands dead, disproportion-
ately ravaging low-income com-
munities and neighborhoods with
high numbers of Black and Latino
people.
“It’s disrespectful,” Gov. An-
drew M. Cuomo said at a recent
news conference about the party-
ing. “It’s illegal. It not only vio-
lates public health, but it violates
human decency.”
Many of the images show how a
segment of the nightlife industry,
a crucial piece of New York City’s
culture, is desperately trying to
revive itself after having been
shut down when the pandemic hit.
But other events, which charge
for tickets, drinks or other ameni-
ties, perhaps illustrate how some
people are looking to capitalize on
the public’s restlessness.
Osvaldo Chance Jimenez, 44,
who has helped organize under-
ground parties in New York City
in the past, said the growing num-
ber of events risked seeding fu-
ture outbreaks, which would
likely disproportionately affect
communities of color, particularly
in Brooklyn and Queens where
many of the gatherings are taking
place.
Mr. Jimenez has used his Insta-
gram account, @hilovenewyork,
to draw attention to what he sees
as reckless behavior. He pointed
to yacht parties where organizers
are selling tickets for up to $100,
and a requirement at a day club at
the Ravel Hotel in Long Island
City, Queens, that guests pay be-
tween $35 and $50 to take a rapid
coronavirus test on site, as exam-
ples of what he called “vulture
capitalism.”
“It is the arrogance of money,”
he said. “These people do not
HUGE PUBLIC GATHERING
At Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota,
‘If We Get It, We Chose to Be Here’
By MARK WALKER
STURGIS, S.D. — Tens of thou-
sands of motorcyclists roared into
the western South Dakota com-
munity of Sturgis on Friday, lining
Main Street from end to end, for
the start of an annual rally that
kicked off despite objections from
residents and with little regard for
a public health emergency ravag-
ing the world.
It could have been any other
past summer rally in Sturgis, with
herds of R.V.s, bikers and classic
cars converging for the Sturgis
Motorcycle Rally, a 10-day affair
that was expected to attract
roughly 250,000 enthusiasts this
year — about half the number who
attended last year but a figure that
puts it on track to be among the
country’s largest public gather-
ings since the first coronavirus
cases emerged in the spring.
Save for a few hard-to-spot
hand sanitizer stations, it could
have been any other major festi-
val in pre-pandemic times.
“Screw Covid I went to Sturgis,”
read a black T-shirt amid a sea of
Harley Davidson and Trump 2020
outfits sported by the throng of
people walking along Main Street.
Their gear did not include face
masks, and social distancing
guidelines were completely ig-
nored.
Kristina Alaniesse, 36, has been posting images on social media of reckless behavior at parties.
care.”
Lauren Flax, a D.J., producer
and artist based in Brooklyn, said
people should not be partying yet.
Ms. Flax has lost work and is liv-
ing off unemployment checks and
other government assistance. But
she said that even thinking about
holding a dance party would be ir-
responsible before there was a
better understanding of the virus
and better testing technology.
“I don’t think any of us should
be thinking about our career right
now,” she said.
Asked this week about the rave
under the Kosciuszko Bridge, and
an illegal boat party with more
Finding mask-free
crowds from bars to
beaches in the city.
than 170 guests that was held over
the weekend, Mayor Bill de Blasio
said the authorities had moved
quickly to address a few cases of
wrongdoing and that most people
were following the rules.
“But where we see something
wrong, we got to go in and stop it
immediately,” the mayor said.
The New York City Sheriff’s Of-
fice, one of the city agencies
tasked with enforcing the social
distancing rules during the pan-
demic, has responded to several
reports of illegal parties since the
pandemic began, including the
boat party, Sheriff Joseph Fucito
said.
He said the office was trying to
take a more proactive approach to
stop the parties before they take
place.
Dr. Jay Varma, Mr. de Blasio’s
senior adviser for public health,
said the city had not “seen any
large clusters specifically associ-
ated with any of these events.” But
about 15 percent of people who
test positive in the city, and are in-
terviewed by contact tracers, re-
ported being at some sort of gath-
ering outside of their home, city
officials said.
City data indicates that while
the parties and other gatherings
South Dakota is among several
states that did not put in place a
lockdown, and state officials have
not required residents to wear
masks, giving attendees who rode
in from outside the state fewer re-
strictions than they may have had
back home.
Attendance on Friday was on
par with previous years, said Dan
Ainslie, City Manager for Sturgis.
“It’s kind of like a typical rally,”
Mr. Ainslie said of the number of
people coming into town, “and the
crowds are still building.”
Indeed, fears that the rally
could be a potential super-
spreader event did not appear to
scare riders from attending. Bik-
ers flocked to tents featuring tat-
too artists, apparel, gear and food.
Health experts say the coro-
navirus is less likely to spread out-
doors, especially when people
wear masks and socially distance.
But large gatherings like the
motorcycle rally also increase the
number of visitors inside restau-
rants and stores. A few businesses
in Sturgis put up signs limiting the
number of customers who could
enter, but most did not post such
notices.
Over the past week, there has
been an average of 84 coronavirus
cases per day in South Dakota, a
31 percent increase over the previ-
ous two weeks. At least four new
SEPTEMBER DAWN BOTTOMS/THE NEW YORK TIMES
are on the rise, the outbreak does
not appear to be worsening. The
number of new hospitalizations in
a day has not reached 50 in weeks
— in March and April, it was rou-
tinely higher than 1,000 per day,
according to city data.
An uptick in cases also did not
materialize after thousands of
protesters, many of them wearing
masks, gathered for weeks during
Black Lives Matter demonstra-
tions across the city.
But the fear, Mr. Jimenez and
others say, is that younger people
who get infected while attending a
party, and who may be less likely
to be severely affected by the vi-
rus, will spread it to more vulnera-
ble people.
“Things are only going to get
worse,” he said. “I feel for my city.
I pray that I’m wrong.”
Andrew Rigie, the executive di-
rector of the New York City Hospi-
tality Alliance, said the parties
should not come as a surprise.
“People will socialize in
nightlife spaces, whether you like
it or not,” Mr. Rigie said. “You
could have unsafe, unregulated
nightlife. Or you can do every-
thing you can to have safe, regu-
lated nightlife. But we can’t act as
if it’s not going to exist.”
Mr. Rigie said that local, state
and federal governments should
be providing financial assistance,
like rent support, to these busi-
nesses and others affected by the
nightlife shutdown, and that there
should be better guidance and re-
search on how to operate safely.
Some businesses, like the Ravel
Hotel, have tried to figure that out
themselves, with mixed results.
The hotel’s day club, Profundo,
which has an outdoor rooftop pool,
re-opened in late June at 50 per-
cent capacity and required guests
to be tested for the virus on site.
The rapid tests used by the ho-
tel were made by Abbott Labora-
tories, according to Gothamist.
The tests, authorized by the Food
and Drug Administration for
emergency use, were designed to
provide results within minutes.
But the F.D.A. had said in May
that the tests might be delivering
false negative results, raising
questions about safety at Pro-
fundo.
Then, on July 4, videos and pho-
virus deaths and 105 new cases
were reported on Thursday.
Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican,
encouraged people to attend the
rally in an interview on Fox News
on Wednesday night, saying the
state had successfully hosted
other large events — including a
Fourth of July celebration at
Mount Rushmore that President
Trump attended — without seeing
a direct increase in virus cases.
Plus, she said, the state’s economy
benefits when people visit.
The state’s Department of Tour-
ism has estimated that the annual
festival generates about $800 mil-
lion in revenue.
The rally, which has taken place
every summer in Sturgis since
1938, commenced amid strong ob-
jections from residents. In a city-
sponsored survey, more than 60
percent of the nearly 7,000 resi-
dents favored postponing the
event.
Little could be done to stop the
event, said Doreen Allison Creed,
the Meade County commissioner
who represents Sturgis. Ms.
Creed said the county lacked the
authority to shut down the rally
because much of it takes place on
state-licensed campgrounds.
When it became clear that it
would go on as planned, the city
said in a news release that
changes would be made to safe-
tos posted on social media showed
several poolside guests at the ho-
tel not wearing masks, and stand-
ing and dancing close together. In
a statement, the hotel acknowl-
edged that those guests were “not
following directions,” but said that
it had “retrained security and staff
on how to handle these situations
moving forward” with the help of
the city.
An F.D.A. spokeswoman said
this week that the agency had
since worked with Abbott to im-
prove the test. A spokeswoman for
the hotel said this week that the
tests were no longer being admin-
istered, but would not answer
questions about why.
Seth Levine, an owner of the
Ravel Hotel, said in a separate
statement that the site also pro-
vides guests with hand sanitizer,
masks and printed rules about so-
cial distancing. A security team
makes sure guests wear masks
when moving around the prop-
erty, he said.
Some guests said they believed
that the tests and other measures
had adequately lowered the risk of
infection or transmission. Joey
Sutera, who works in marketing,
said he went to the rooftop pool on
July 4 with 30 friends.
A D.J. performed at Profundo
on Monday, and the venue was
beckoning guests to gather there
this weekend. One of its posts on
Instagram offered a free bottle of
rosé to some guests who missed
celebrating their birthday be-
cause of the pandemic. A poolside
table was listed at $500 on the ho-
tel’s website.
Mr. Escobar, who attended the
party under the bridge, said he
was not worried about contract-
ing or transmitting the virus. He
did not have symptoms, he said,
and a sign at the party told people
to wear a face covering.
“If people want to go out and en-
joy themselves, regardless of risk,
let them do it,” he said.
But Kristina Alaniesse, 36, who
has worked as an event promoter
and now posts images on Insta-
gram of reckless behavior at par-
ties, said the danger was not only
for the partygoers, but the people
they interact with later.
“It’s not a time to celebrate,” she
said. “We’re not out of the woods.”
guard residents from the coro-
navirus, including adding hand-
sanitizing stations to the down-
town area. The city plans to offer
coronavirus testing for its resi-
dents once the rally concludes on
Aug. 16.
While the most recent C.D.C.
guidelines do not suggest a spe-
cific limit for the number of at-
tendees at gatherings or commu-
nity events, they encourage or-
ganizers to maintain a capacity
conducive to reducing the spread
of the virus. The agency encour-
ages people to socially distance at
six feet apart and wear masks.
“Attendees will be asked to be
respectful of the community con-
cerns by practicing social distanc-
ing and taking personal responsi-
bility for their health by following
C.D.C. guidelines,” the news re-
lease said.
INACCURATE RESULTS
The Risk of Fast Tests
By SARAH MERVOSH
Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio re-
ceived a negative coronavirus test
result on Thursday, hours after a
positive test result had stopped
him from meeting with President
Trump in Cleveland. The contra-
dictory results during a high-pro-
file moment underscored the chal-
lenges of testing, an issue that has
repeatedly stymied the virus re-
sponse in the United States.
“I’m sure the internet is lighting
up with, ‘Well, you can’t believe
any test,’” Mr. DeWine, a Republi-
can, said during an interview with
92.3 WCOL, a Columbus radio sta-
tion, on Friday.
“No one should take the results
of this test and say, ‘Oh, none of
these numbers are right,’” he add-
ed. “There is always a possibility
for error.”
At issue are two types of coro-
navirus tests that are increasingly
taking center stage as part of the
virus response in the United
States. As part of a screening by
the White House, Mr. DeWine first
received an antigen test, a newer
type of test that provides faster re-
sults but is less accurate than tra-
ditional laboratory testing. He
was later tested using a more
standard procedure known as
polymerase chain reaction, or
P.C.R., an accurate but time-inten-
sive method that requires sam-
ples to be processed at a laborato-
ry.
Widespread, fast testing is the
cornerstone of any virus response
and an area where the United
States has consistently fallen
short. In order to ramp up testing
to a level needed to stop the
spread of the virus, experts are in-
creasingly recommending a strat-
egy that casts a wide net with
widespread adoption of faster,
less accurate tests. But that
comes with drawbacks.
To better understand the differ-
ence between the two types of
tests and the accuracy of testing
overall, we spoke with Dr. Bill
Miller, an epidemiologist at the
Ohio State University.
What is the difference between a
P.C.R. test and an antigen test?
A P.C.R. test is the test that is prob-
ably most familiar to Americans.
It involves taking a swab from a
person’s nose and sending the
sample to a laboratory to process.
The approach amplifies a se-
quence of nucleic acids in order to
detect tiny amounts of the virus.
Because the process amplifies the
sequence, the test is highly accu-
rate, but the results can take hours
or days to process. “It allows you
to get very high sensitivity, mean-
ing most people who have the vi-
rus who have a P.C.R. test are go-
ing to get identified,” Dr. Miller
said.
But there have been problems
with access to the tests. As cases
spiked, the demand overwhelmed
laboratories, and shortages in the
supply chain meant many Ameri-
cans had to wait days — or even
weeks — for results. The delays
render the tests largely useless.
Experts say results are needed
within 24 to 48 hours to effectively
quarantine and contact trace. In
the United States, turnaround
times are often stretching three to
five days, or more.
BENJAMIN RASMUSSEN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
But on Friday, throngs of ral-
liers parked their bikes and
walked shoulder to shoulder
along the downtown streets, nary
a mask in sight. Police officers sta-
tioned at the intersections also
were not wearing masks.
Bruce Labsa, 66, drove from
North Carolina last week to be
among the first in town. This was
the first year he would be able to
attend the rally since retiring, and
he did not want to miss it. On Fri-
day, he was not wearing a mask,
and he said he had no concerns
about catching the coronavirus.
“I don’t know anyone who’s had
it,” Mr. Labsa said.
Amy Sboboda, 27, who was
working in a women’s apparel
shop for bikers called One Sexy
Biker Chick, said Friday’s crowd
of shoppers had been steady. She
said she didn’t know what to ex-
Antigen tests look for a protein
that is a part of the virus. They can
also be done using a nasal swab,
but can provide faster, easy-to-de-
cipher results, similar to a preg-
nancy test.
Antigen tests can provide re-
sults in less than an hour. But be-
cause the process does not ampli-
fy particles, Dr. Miller said “the
ability to detect the virus is lower
by definition.”
How accurate are the results?
All virus tests have the possibility
of an inaccurate result. “It is just a
fact of clinical testing,” said Dr.
Miller, who recommended using
common sense about the risk of
exposure when evaluating unex-
pected results.
But antigen tests are generally
less sensitive and less accurate
than the traditional nasal swab,
laboratory test. Interestingly,
antigen tests are more likely to
produce false negatives — miss-
ing someone who has the virus —
than false positives, the opposite
of what appears to have happened
to Mr. DeWine.
Mr. DeWine
is expected to
be tested again
on Saturday.
States are in-
creasingly
turning to anti-
gen tests as
part of a strat-
egy to ramp up
DeWine
testing. Mr.
DeWine is part of a bipartisan
group of governors — four Repub-
licans and four Democrats — who
are negotiating to purchase the
tests from two medical compa-
nies, Becton, Dickinson & Com-
pany and the Quidel Corporation.
If results are not always accurate,
why push for more rapid testing?
The United States is currently
testing at a daily rate of 241 tests
per 100,000 people, according to
an estimate by Harvard Global
Health Institute. By the same esti-
mate, the country would need 355
tests per 100,000 people to slow
the spread of the virus, and more
than 1,000 tests per 100,000 people
to truly suppress the virus by de-
tecting and responding to out-
breaks as they occur.
To ramp up enough testing, ex-
perts say the United States cannot
rely on traditional one-by-one lab-
oratory tests alone.
Antigen tests offer one strategy
that could prove useful for
crowded settings like nursing
homes or schools. “You have the
advantage of being able to quickly
identify people who might be in-
fected and getting them isolated
and separated,” Dr. Miller said.
“Whereas where you have to wait
48 or 72 hours for a test result to
come back, you have that window
of time where people are often not
fully isolated or quarantined.”
In short, there are societal
benefits to casting a wide net with
faster, less accurate tests.
“The antigen tests do give us a
cheap way to do a lot of tests that
are pretty good,” Dr. Miller said.
“Pretty good is a lot better than
none, and it collectively gets us a
lot closer to the goal of being able
to isolate and quarantine people
when they need to be.”
Main Street in Sturgis, S.D.,
on Friday. Thousands of mo-
torcyclists filled the city for a
rally despite some objections
because of the pandemic.
pect, but was happy to see people
turning out.
“We are allowed to make our
own choices,” she said, “if we get
it, we chose to be here.”
Still, Nelson Horsley, 26, of Rap-
id City, S.D., said he expects there
will be a rise in coronavirus cases
in the area once the rally con-
cludes next weekend. But he said
he didn’t feel the need to wear a
mask while walking around down-
town Friday afternoon. He com-
pared the virus to getting the sea-
sonal flu.
“I haven’t seen anyone out here
wear a mask so it kind of feels like
it defeats the purpose,” he said, to
wear a mask himself.
While most residents opposed
the rally, some offered their front
yards as camp sites for bikers who
were unable to find a hotel room.
But many others said they were
worried about the impact the rally
would eventually have on the
small community.
Among those was Patricia Via-
tor, 64, who has lived in Sturgis for
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16 years. She said she became re-
signed to the fact that there was
nothing residents could do to keep
thousands of bikers from coming
to the city.
“It scares me more than before
because we don’t have many
cases around here, but now this in-
creases the chances of us locals
getting it,” she said.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020
K Y
Protesters in Medellín, Colombia, on Tuesday condemned the arrest of the former leader Álvaro Uribe. In Bogotá, the capital, other citizens banged pots in celebration of his detention.
Ex-President’s Arrest Underscores Colombia’s Deepest Divisions
By JULIE TURKEWITZ
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — The former
president Álvaro Uribe has dominated
Colombia’s political landscape for dec-
ades as the country’s most beloved —
and most hated — politician.
To some Colombians, he is a savior, the
only leader who was willing to take the
tough measures necessary to restore se-
curity in a nation battered by a long, cru-
el civil war.
To others, he is a criminal whose no-
holds-barred fight against insurgents
showed little regard for human rights
and left thousands dead, many of them
civilians.
His house arrest, ordered by the Su-
preme Court this week in connection
with a case that harkens to some of the
grimmest aspects of the war, has intensi-
fied the country’s deep left-right rift,
drawing Colombians back into the
pitched political battle the country has
been trying to overcome for years.
“The country has so many wounds,”
said Paloma Valencia, a senator and sup-
porter of Mr. Uribe who began following
him as a college student, “this makes any
kind of reconciliation many times more
difficult.”
Just hours after the announcement of
Mr. Uribe’s detention, his supporters on
the right and his detractors on the left
poured into the streets around the coun-
try, honking their horns or banging pots
in outrage or celebration. Political com-
mentators said the move threatened the
country’s fragile reconciliation following
a 2016 peace deal that ended the conflict,
which had been the longest running war
in the Americas.
By the next morning, Mr. Uribe’s party
had revived a call to overhaul the justice
system — an apparent move to stop fu-
ture detentions they viewed as unfair —
and the current president, Iván Duque, a
staunch Uribe ally, assailed the court’s
decision to detain his mentor.
Soon, the office of the inspector gen-
eral, which oversees the conduct of pub-
lic employees, was issuing an urgent call
for public servants to “respect and not at-
tack the justice system.”
Colombians, the office said, must “stop
the aggression and the extreme polariza-
tion that could bring new scenes of vio-
lence. To the crisis created by the pan-
demic of Covid-19, we cannot add a pan-
demic of hate that clouds the future,
threatens democracy and submerges us
in a new night of pain.”
At a crowded pro-Uribe gathering in
Medellín following the decision, a throng
of cars cloaked in Colombian flags lined a
major downtown avenue. And protesters
said they were outraged that their hero
had been detained while, under the
terms of the 2016 peace deal, thousands
of former guerrilla fighters have gone
free.
Santiago Vásquez, 23, called Mr. Uribe
“the best president Colombia has ever
had,” describing him as the man who
crippled the country’s largest rebel
group, known as the FARC. He feared the
former president’s detention would
strengthen the left, ushering in the old
days of violence.
“Uribe! Amigo! Colombia is with
Jenny Carolina González and Sofía Vil-
lamil contributed reporting from Bogotá
and Megan Janetsky from Medellín, Co-
lombia.
you!” Mr. Uribe’s allies shouted.
Hundreds of miles away, in the capital
of Bogotá, Colombians leaned out of
homes across the city, banging pots in
frenzied celebration. Families of those
who had died in the war had thought Mr.
Uribe would never be called before a
court to answer for his role and found
themselves barely able to believe the
news.
IVAN VALENCIA/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mr. Uribe has been accused of
bribery, fraud and witness tampering.
“I pray that he pays for all the pain,”
said Lucero Carmona Martínez, 61, who
said her son Omar, 26, was killed by secu-
rity forces at a time when Mr. Uribe was
president and the military, under pres-
sure to increase the body count in com-
bat, was killing civilians along with rebel
fighters.
Mr. Uribe, over the last 40 years, rose
from being a relatively small-time bu-
Fighters in 2016, during Colombia’s war. Some people hold Mr. Uribe responsible for thousands of civilian deaths.
reaucrat to the most powerful politician
in the country, wielding his charisma to
create an entire political movement —
Uribismo — in his name.
He has long said that his father was
killed by the FARC, something the group
has denied.
When he became president in 2002, a
decades-long insurgency that had begun
as a fight over inequality had grown dev-
astatingly violent. Highway blockades,
kidnappings and city bombings were
regular occurrences, and much of the na-
tion was desperate for someone to re-
store order and to defeat the FARC.
Mr. Uribe made combating the insur-
gents his government’s top priority.
Many people credit him for significantly
weakening the FARC and putting an end
to much of that terror.
“Without President Uribe, Colombia
would not be a democracy,” said Ms. Va-
lencia, the senator. “It would be a failed
state like Venezuela.”
But as Mr. Uribe fought leftist guerril-
las, his critics accused him of overseeing
a period of horrific abuses committed not
just by the army, but also by paramilitary
groups allegedly doing the dirty work of
the government.
“He believed the ends justified the
means,” said Iván Cepeda, a political op-
ponent.
While Mr. Uribe was president, Co-
lombian soldiers killed thousands of in-
nocent people, many of them peasants,
according to years of investigation by
prosecutors and human rights groups.
Soldiers often tried to pass the dead off
as guerrilla fighters to show they were
winning the war.
José Miguel Vivanco, who leads the
Americas division for Human Rights
Watch, said he raised the problem many
times with Mr. Uribe over the years, but
found the former president dismissive,
quick to anger and unwilling to tackle the
issue.
“His human rights record is deplor-
able,” Mr. Vivanco said.
Mr. Uribe has long denied a connection
to paramilitary groups, instead saying
he fought against them.
In an unexpected twist, the investiga-
tion that has led to Mr. Uribe’s house ar-
rest examines relatively lesser crimes —
at least when compared to the crimes at
the core of other investigations involving
him.
In the current case, the Supreme Court
is examining whether Mr. Uribe partici-
pated in bribery, fraud and witness tam-
A country falls back into
the pitched political battle
that fueled its civil war.
pering in an effort to influence the testi-
mony of an alleged paramilitary mem-
ber, Juan Guillermo Monsalve. He is sus-
pected of pushing Mr. Monsalve to
retract a statement in which he linked
Mr. Uribe to the creation of paramilitary
groups.
Among the other inquiries into Mr.
Uribe’s conduct are several that examine
possible connection to paramilitary mas-
sacres. His brother Santiago has been
charged for alleged involvement with a
paramilitary group.
The former president, who is now a
senator, but is likely to be suspended
from that post, has not been formally
charged in the case in question. But the
Colombia justice system allows for him
to be held as the investigation continues
if judges believe witness tampering
FEDERICO RIOS/NATIVE
A9
FEDERICO RIOS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
could take place.
If found guilty, the former president
could spend approximately six to eight
years in prison, according to the law pro-
fessor Francisco Bernate.
Mr. Uribe’s lawyer, Jaime Granados,
denied the charges Wednesday, saying
that “President Uribe did not ask anyone
to bribe any witnesses.”
His supporters, including Mr. Duque,
have denounced the detention as unjust.
“It hurts, as a Colombian,” Mr. Duque
said, that “an exemplary public servant,
who has occupied the highest post in the
state, is not allowed to defend himself in
liberty, with the presumption of inno-
cence.”
Mr. Uribe is now ensconced in a coun-
tryside home called El Ubérrimo in Co-
lombia’s north. On Wednesday, people
close to him announced that he had
tested positive for Covid-19, adding that
he was not in serious condition.
The home, set on expansive terrain,
has a horse track, a swimming pool and a
stable. At the moment his house arrest
does not require guards or police, said
the court, but simply requires that he
sign a contract and pay a bond.
Mr. Uribe served as president until
2010, leaving after a court decision pre-
vented him from running for a third
term. But he retains significant power.
Mr. Uribe’s support was essential to the
victory of Mr. Duque, who swore to up-
hold his mentor’s legacy.
When the government reached an
agreement with the FARC, ending more
than five decades of bloody conflict,
many hoped the treaty would help heal
deep wounds. But the country’s divisions
remained strong in the years that fol-
lowed.
The deal’s opponents argued it was too
lenient on rebel fighters — and were an-
gered that it was passed despite a na-
tional vote against it. And its supporters
accuse Mr. Duque of lacking the will to
fully implement it. Hundreds of former
fighters and community leaders have
been killed since it was passed, leading
critics to accuse Mr. Duque of failing to
protect them. And many rural communi-
ties are still awaiting the roads, schools
and electricity that had been promised.
Among the chief opponents to the
terms of the deal was Mr. Uribe, who
thought the accord was too easy on rebel
fighters.
His detention, many said this week, re-
inforced those rifts, fostering resent-
ment on the right and strengthening the
idea on the left that the former president
is a criminal.
“This is an important advance in
terms of justice,” said Francisco
Gutiérrez Sanín, a Colombian political
scientist, highlighting the fact that many
of the country’s powerful figures have
not had to answer to the justice system.
“But on the other hand it radicalizes and
makes Uribismo more extreme.”
In Medellín this week, Nora Villa, 58,
an Uribe loyalist at the support march,
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vowed to fight the left. “We are going to
see more division,” she said.
While in Bogotá, Luz Marina Bernal,
60, an activist whose son, Fair, 26, was
killed by security forces during Mr.
Uribe’s mandate, said something about
Mr. Uribe that she could not have imag-
ined saying just a few days ago: “I think
there is a possibility that he will be con-
victed of all he has done.”
A10 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020

THE SATURDAY PROFILE

Landmark Verdict Against North Korea Also Brings Overdue Respect in South
By CHOE SANG-HUN
PYEONGTAEK, SOUTH KOREA

H
E was only 17 when Chinese
troops backing North Korea
overran a hill being defended
by his South Korean Army squad and
took him prisoner in the early hours of
Dec. 28, 1951.
He spent the next 40 years toiling in
North Korean coal mines as a prisoner
of the war between the Koreas. “We
P.O.W.s lived inside a fenced-off camp
guarded by armed sentries at four
corners and were escorted to work by
officers carrying pistols,” he said.
“We were nothing but slaves.”
Decades later, the former P.O.W.,
now 86, scored a landmark legal vic-
tory when the Seoul Central District
Court ordered North Korea and its
leader, Kim Jong-un, to pay him the
equivalent of $17,600 in damages for
holding him against his will and forcing
him to work in the mines. The verdict
marked the first time that a court in
the South recognized P.O.W.s who were
illegally held in the North — an ac-
knowledgment of their suffering there.
In its ruling, the court blocked part
of the man’s name from the public, and
fearing that North Korea might retali-
ate against his children still in that
country, the former P.O.W. spoke only
on the condition that he be identified
by his last name, Han, and that his face
be partly obscured.
There is little chance that North
Korea or Mr. Kim will pay what’s owed
to Mr. Han. And it could take years for
his lawyers to find and confiscate any
North Korean assets.
Still, for Mr. Han, the verdict was
justice served, and justice long over-
due.
“I could not understand the judge’s
words in the courtroom,” Mr. Han said, PHOTOGRAPHS BY WOOHAE CHO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

referring to the unfamiliar legal terms.

“But when my lawyer held my hand ‘Five decades have passed and nobody came looking for us and tried to save us.’
and explained that we had won, tears
came to my eyes,” he recalled in an HAN, A FORMER PRISONER OF WAR
interview at his two-room apartment in
Pyeongtaek, a city south of Seoul, en boat off South Korea. He turned out him to decide whether to travel on to
where he lives with his wife, who has to be a South Korean lieutenant who South Korea or return to the North with
Alzheimer’s disease. had survived prison camps and coal the money.
The families of two victims of North mines in the North. In the South, he Mr. Han said he thought: “How could
Korean torture — the American college was found to have black lung disease. I live comfortably in the South while
student Otto Warmbier and a South More aging P.O.W.s fled to the South my children and grandchildren in the
Korean minister, the Rev. Kim Dong- North did not even have enough corn to
in the following years, as a famine
shik — previously won court judgments eat? With the money, I could buy tons
forced the North to ease control on its
against the North in the United States. of corn in the North, but I would never
people. They all testified in government
But Mr. Han’s case showed that a simi- see my brothers again.”
debriefings, memoirs, news confer-
lar lawsuit could be successfully waged He used the money in November
ences and interviews to forced labor,
in South Korea, where efforts to bring
starvation and deaths in North Korean 2001 to smuggle himself, his youngest
P.O.W.s home or to hold the North ac-
mines and identified hundreds of fellow son, the son’s wife and their two chil-
countable for holding them against
war prisoners still alive in the North. dren to the South. There, Mr. Han’s old
their will have long been considered a
Shocked that their long-lost sons and 7th Army Division promoted him to
lost cause, given the political tensions
siblings were still alive, South Korean sergeant and formally discharged him.
between the two Koreas.
families wanted to help them flee the He received his unpaid salary, military
The case set a precedent for thou-
North. Soon, a cottage industry devel- pension and other subsidies that South
sands of South Koreans whose relatives
oped for human traffickers to smuggle Korea provides for returning P.O.W.s.
were kidnapped by the North or who
refugees out. He then smuggled his wife, another son
lost family members or property to the
So far, 80 P.O.W.s have made it to and a daughter out of the North.
North’s military.
Mr. Han was one of six children from South Korea, some later testifying in

a farming family in Jeongeup, South
Korea, when he was taken prisoner. He
and two friends from his village had
volunteered for the South Korean Army
in the spring of 1951, less than a year
after North Korea invaded the South —
setting off a war that has not officially
ended.
He would spend the next half-century
in the North, most of that time doing
backbreaking work in its coal mines.
Over the years, North Korea officials
allowed the P.O.W.s to form some sem-
blance of a life, giving the miners citi-
zenship in 1956 and allowing them to
marry. Mr. Han wed a North Korean
Mr. Han with a photo of the family he raised in North Korea. The South Kore-
an soldier was captured in 1951 and put to work in the coal mines for 40 years.
stant hazard. Prisoners who tried to
escape were hunted down and never
heard from again.
“When there was a methane gas
explosion, we could hardly recognize
the bodies because they were literally
cooked in flames,” Mr. Han said, recall-
ing the names of P.O.W. friends he had
lost. “We smelled like nothing else,
working soaking wet with sweat but
having no time to wash our clothes.”
women, including Mr. Han’s North
Korean mother-in-law, also worked in
the mines.
“We thought that relations between
South and North Korea would improve,”
Yoo Young-bok, a former P.O.W. who
escaped the North in 2000, told the U.N.
commission. “But five decades have
passed and nobody came looking for us
and tried to save us.”
court in support of Mr. Han’s case — the
seeds of which were planted by South
Korean activists, who suggested the
lawsuit in 2016.
Mr. Han, who retired from the
Hamyon coal mines at age 60, was
living in Kyongwon, in northeast North
Korea, when a man showed up in Au-
gust 2001, asking whether he wanted to
meet his South Korean relatives. Mr.
Han said he followed the man across
the river border to China, his youngest
son tagging along.
Around that time, Han Jae-eun, Mr.
Han’s youngest brother in South Korea,
got a call from a human trafficker.
B
UThis family is still divided. Two
sons, a daughter and four grand-
children live in the South, and a
son, a daughter and four grandchildren
in the North. The two Koreas do not
allow their citizens to meet or commu-
nicate with one another, except during
occasional official family reunions.
After the court ruling last month, Yoh
Sang-key, a spokesman for the South’s
Unification Ministry, said the govern-
ment would “cooperate with North
Korea and the international community
to make concrete progress in resolving
the problem of P.O.W.s.”
Mr. Han’s life story epitomized that of

woman that year, and together they had
five children.
But the former P.O.W.s from the
South and their children were assigned
to the bottom of the North’s songbun, or
class system, and often given the most
dangerous jobs in the mines. Six days a
week, Mr. Han said, he rode up to half a
mile underground into the dark tunnels,
where he toiled 12 hours a day in swel-
tering heat, with methane gas a con-
When an armistice was signed in
1953 to halt the fighting, 82,000 South
Korean soldiers remained missing or
were believed to have been taken pris-
oner. In 2014, the United Nations’ Com-
mission of Inquiry estimated that at
least 50,000 South Korean P.O.W.s were
not repatriated. North Korea returned
only 8,300, keeping many more for
forced labor in postwar coal mines.
Men were in such short supply that
N
ORTH KOREA has denied holding
any South Koreans against their
will. The missing soldiers were
eventually counted among the war
dead and largely forgotten in the South.
Mr. Han’s mother died in 1961 believing
that her son had been killed in battle.
(His father died before the war.)
Then, in 1994, an emaciated refugee
from North Korea named Cho Chang-ho
was found adrift on a ramshackle wood-
“I first could not tell whether the man
was telling the truth or it was a scam,”
said his brother, a taxi driver in In-
cheon, west of Seoul. “The brother we
all thought was dead more than a half
century ago turned up alive.”
The brothers had a tearful reunion in
Hunchun, China, across the border
from Kyongwon. The younger brother
gave Mr. Han what money he had
brought with him, $8,000, and asked
thousands of South Korean P.O.W.s who
were abused by North Korea for dec-
ades but ignored in their home country.
The thought haunts him still.
“Think of all those 50,000 men in the
North,” Mr. Han said. “That was a few
army divisions worth of soldiers
trapped in the enemy territory, still in
active service because they have never
been discharged. And what have you
done for them?”

Belarus Strongman May Win Election Despite Steadily Losing His Grip on Power
By IVAN NECHEPURENKO
MINSK, Belarus — The man of-
ten described as “Europe’s last
dictator” has never looked so
shaky.
During his 26 years in power,
Aleksandr G. Lukashenko — the
iron-fisted president of Belarus
and the longest-serving leader in
the former Soviet Union — has
danced between Russia and the
West, alternating praise and
blame as he targeted one side or
the other as the reason for his
country’s and his own misfor-
tunes.
But as he faces his most difficult
challenge yet ahead of a presiden-
tial election on Sunday, Mr. Luka-
shenko has lost his political bal-
ance, attacking all sides at once as
he struggles to explain an upsurge
of popular discontent.
After lashing out at Moscow last
week over what he described as a
squad of Russian mercenaries
sent to disrupt the election, Mr.
Lukashenko on Thursday claimed
that Belarus was under attack
from a new team of saboteurs who
could be Americans or Ukrainians
or perhaps from Russia.
“A hybrid war is going on
tion is in little doubt: Mr. Luka-
shenko, 65, will be declared the
winner for a sixth time. But what
is usually a tightly choreographed
rite of affirmation has been upset
by the largest protests in Belarus
since the collapse of the Soviet
Union nearly 30 years ago.
In the past, Mr. Lukashenko,
who commands a large and often
brutal security apparatus, has
never been shy about demonstrat-
ing that he can crush any dissent.
But this time he seems cornered,
with opposition rallies in Minsk
and smaller cities attracting up to
tens of thousands of people.
On Thursday, thousands came
out to the Kyiv public garden in
Minsk to support Svetlana G.
Tikhanovskaya, a candidate
whose platform has consisted of
one point: Get rid of Mr. Luka-
shenko. People waved, clapped
and shouted of the president, “Go
away!”
“People just lost patience,” said
Nikita, 27, who declined to give his
last name, citing fear of repercus-
sions at his work, a state-run oper-
ation.
Ms. Tikhanovskaya’s emer-
gence as a candidate was the re-
An opposition rally in Minsk, Belarus. The country’s president
has lost allies amid economic woes and a poor virus response.
Belarus’s provinces.
Another would-be rival, Viktor
D. Babariko, the former head of a
Russian-owned bank in Belarus,
was also jailed on suspicions of fi-
nancial wrongdoing. And the third
most popular candidate, Valery V.
Tsepkalo, fled the country last
month, saying that he was about
TATYANA ZENKOVICH/EPA, VIA SHUTTERSTOCK
Feduta said. “He can extend his
rule, but he cannot restore his
power.”
The Belarusian economy is fal-
tering in part because of a col-
lapse in oil prices. Members of the
economic and government elite
have turned against Mr. Luka-
shenko. Tightly controlled media
vodka, ride tractors and frequent
a sauna to prevent infection.
Last month, he claimed that he
had himself been infected but suf-
fered no damage to his health. In
an interview with a Ukrainian
blogger on Wednesday, he hinted
that he had been deliberately in-
fected, but didn’t specify who
would plot against him.
Regarding the opposition ral-
lies, he said in the interview that
while about 20 percent of Bela-
russians might be against him,
most of the country continued to
support his policies.
“I am a realist — I understand
that the pandemic and everything
else have come together,” he said.
“I don’t have any jitters about the
election,” he added. “I just won’t
be comfortable if there will be
brawls on the streets that will
need to be dispersed.”
One of his supporters, Lyudmila
S. Khrokhaleva, who is in her
early 70s, said it was also a matter
of perspective.
“These people are young and
inexperienced. They have nothing
to compare the current situation
with,” she said on Friday before
going to a polling station to give
Yet many now regard Mr. Luka-
shenko as weak, Mr. Feduta said,
including the president’s own offi-
cials and members of law enforce-
ment. “The main thing, though, is
that Russia sees his weakness, too
— the country that sponsored his
regime.”
Although the two countries are
longtime allies supposedly com-
mitted to forming a “union state,”
Russia and Belarus have been en-
gaged in a simmering feud for
years as the Kremlin has shown
increasing reluctance to bankroll
its smaller neighbor through re-
duced-price energy.
Mr. Lukashenko, in turn, has re-
jected pressure from President
Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to sur-
render some of his country’s
sovereignty in exchange for finan-
cial help. Last year alone, Belarus
lost $400 million because of a Rus-
sian oil tax system that prevented
Minsk from buying oil at lower
rates and then selling it on to Eu-
rope at market prices.
“In this situation, he will turn
more to people in uniforms,” said
Artyom Shraibman, the founder of
Sense-Analytics, a Minsk consult-
ing firm and research group, said
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to be detained. outlets like state television have

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against Belarus, and we should
expect dirty tricks from any side,”
he told security officials in Minsk,
the Belarusian capital. “We don’t
even know who they are: Ameri-
cans with NATO, or someone from
Ukraine, or our eastern brothers
showing their affection toward us
this way.”
The outcome of Sunday’s elec-
sult of efforts by Mr. Lukashenko
to clear the ballot of all strong
competitors. She was declared the
united opposition candidate last
month after the arrest of her hus-
band, Sergei, who had been a lead-
ing opposition contender after at-
tracting a sizable following large-
ly through a YouTube show in
which he interviewed people in
The president’s mounting trou-
bles, said Aleksandr I. Feduta, his
disenchanted former campaign
manager, have left Mr. Lukashen-
ko in a situation he has never be-
fore experienced: almost entirely
bereft of allies outside the security
system.
“It is a catastrophe for him,” Mr.
lost their grip in the face of vibrant
online ones that often support his
opponents. And his response to
the coronavirus pandemic has
also left him exposed.
For months, he denied that the
virus was a serious threat and
ridiculed that idea that it could be
fatal, suggesting that people drink
her support to Mr. Lukashenko in
early voting.
“There is something you can
compare Belarus with — in the
1990s, Belarus was in ruins,” she
added. “Thanks to Mr. Lukashen-
ko, to his ability to organize and in-
spire people, we have not lost any-
thing. On the contrary, we are
moving forward.”
in an interview.
That could be enough for the
president to claim yet another
election victory on Sunday. But
Mr. Shraibman said Mr. Luka-
shenko’s era was ending.
“This is clearly the fall season
for him,” Mr. Shraibman said.
“The question is what month it is
— October or November?”

U.N. Warns of Dire Shortages as Leaders Mull Cause of Beirut Explosion
By MARC SANTORA
As rescue workers continued to
comb the debris for survivors of
the deadly explosion in the port of
Beirut, and as the United Nations
warned that Lebanon faced a hu-
manitarian catastrophe, the na-
tion’s leaders debated the possible
cause of the blast but provided lit-
tle new information.
Lebanon’s president, Michel
Aoun, on Friday raised the
prospect that “external interfer-
ence” might have played a role in
Tuesday’s disaster.
“The cause has not been deter-
mined yet,” he said. “There is a
possibility of external interfer-
ence through a rocket or bomb or
other act.”
But he said that was one of
many lines of inquiry, and he did
not offer evidence to support the
suggestion.
Lebanese officials have sug-
gested that the powerful blast that
leveled large swaths of the city,
killed more than 150 people and
displaced thousands on Tuesday
was caused by the detonation of
some 2,750 tons of ammonium ni-
trate fertilizer stored in a ware-
house at the port.
If that is the case, they have not
explained what set off the ammo-
nium nitrate. There were two ex-
plosions, and it is possible that the
first, smaller one ignited the sec-
ond larger one, but the govern-
ment has not issued any public
statements about the origin of ei-
ther.
The government has promised
an investigation, and Mr. Aoun
said it would look at how the ex-
plosive material entered the coun-
try and was stored, “whether the
explosion was a result of negli-
gence or an accident” and “the
possibility that there was external
interference.”
The ammonium nitrate had
been stored at the port for more
than six years, since it was confis-
cated from a cargo ship leased by
a Russian businessman. The
chemical remained in a storage
hangar at the port, officials said,
despite repeated complaints from
the port authorities that it was
dangerous and should be dis-
posed of.
The suggestion that govern-
ment officials knew of the dangers
Adam Rasgon, Ronen Bergman
and Nick Cumming-Bruce contrib-
uted reporting.
As Lebanon Staggers Anew, a Blast
From 15 Years Earlier Casts a Shadow
From Page A1
tions are bickering over whether
to call for an international investi-
gation along the lines of the one
into Mr. Hariri’s assassination.
The Hariri proceedings cost
nearly $700 million, took many
years and became a virtual indus-
try unto itself, with a staff of
nearly 400 and 11 full-time judges
— all for a trial never even at-
tended by the four defendants.
They are all low-level operatives
of Hezbollah, the militant Leba-
nese Shiite political organization.
Their whereabouts is unknown
and they were tried in absentia.
Even more fundamentally,
prosecutors have not addressed
the basic underlying question of
who — or which government, if
any — ordered the attack and why.
The case, much like the blasts
that devastated Beirut this week,
is a searing example of the debili-
tating lack of accountability, gov-
ernment dysfunction and volatile
political divisions that have long
plagued Lebanon.
Even before the explosions on
Tuesday, the country had been
reeling from enormous debt, a
precipitous economic crisis, cor-
ruption, the coronavirus pan-
demic and the burden of absorb-
ing more than a million war refu-
gees from Syria.
Then came the tremendous
shock wave that swept across the
city. Officials have attributed its
terrifying force to a giant stock-
pile of highly explosive material
that the government had ne-
glected for years, allowing it to sit
in a dense urban area despite the
obvious risks.
President Michel Aoun said the
authorities would examine
“whether the explosion was a re-
sult of negligence or an accident”
and “the possibility that there was
external interference,” including a
bomb or other deliberate act.
But, just as it did with the Hariri
assassination, this week’s tragedy
has inflamed Lebanon’s deep po-
litical divides. On Friday, Hassan
Nasrallah, the secretary-general
of Hezbollah, angrily denied spec-
ulation that the blasts may have
been caused by a weapons cache
belonging to the group.
“Several factions who oppose
Hezbollah have started spreading
lies that the hangar is a weapons,
missile or ammunitions depot,”
Mr. Nasrallah said, saying the in-
tent was to “terrorize the Leba-
nese people and paint Hezbollah
as responsible for the disaster
that befell them.”
The same kind of divisions have
loomed over the Hariri case since
the beginning. Hezbollah has dis-
Waiting for aid in downtown Beirut on Thursday. The United Nations said the city will likely face shortfalls of food and medicine.
posed by the ammonium nitrate at
the port for years and failed to act
has only fueled public disgust and
anger at the government over
chronic mismanagement of the
country.
While the government has di-
rected attention to the port work-
ers by announcing that it had de-
tained 16 employees and ques-
tioned others, the public’s anger
has focused on the government’s
inaction, incompetence and cor-
ruption.
The French are assisting in the
investigation, with a team in
Beirut helping to collect evidence
from the blast site.
Dominique Abbenanti, an offi-
cial with the French forensic
team, told The Associated Press
that the explosion “appears to be
an accident” but that it was too
early to say for sure.
On Friday, Hassan Nasrallah,
the secretary-general of Hezbol-
missed the court as a tool of its en-
emies — Israel and the United
States. Its leader, Mr. Nasrallah,
has said it would never surrender
any followers to the court and
publicly warned that traitors
would have their hands amputat-
ed.
The court had been planning to
announce verdicts on Friday but it
delayed them until Aug. 18 be-
cause of the explosions. But what-
ever the outcome, it will fail to
solve one of the most important
cases in the nation’s recent his-
tory.
At the time of his assassination,
Mr. Hariri, a billionaire business-
man and former prime minister
with high-placed friends in France
and Saudi Arabia, was clashing
with President Bashar al-Assad of
Syria, whose country’s military
JACQUES BRINON/ASSOCIATED PRESS
ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri
had been occupying Lebanon for
nearly three decades.
Mr. Hariri had been seeking to
end Syria’s domination. He also
disliked Hezbollah’s close links
with Syria and Iran.
Parliamentary elections were
looming and Mr. Hariri, the coun-
try’s dominant Sunni Muslim poli-
tician, had been likely to return as
prime minister.
Immediately after the assassi-
nation, suspicion fell on Syria. An
early United Nations investiga-
tion pointed to the involvement of
Syrian high officials and their
Lebanese associates.
Under enormous international
pressure, Syria withdrew from
Lebanon two months later. But the
possible roles of Syria and Iran in
the assassination were enor-
mously difficult to prove and were
not examined at the trial, a lapse
that was widely criticized.
“The most shocking thing about
the case is how little was invested
into finding out who ordered and
planned the assassination and
who had an interest in killing Ha-
riri,” said Guénaël Mettraux, a ju-
rist appointed by the court as a de-
THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020
lah, a powerful Lebanese militant
group and political party, made his
first public statement about the
explosion, denying speculation
that it may have been caused by a
weapons cache belonging to the
group.
“I would like to affirm and an-
nounce today an absolute, total,
resolute and decisive denial that
we don’t have anything in the
port,” he said. “We don’t have a
weapons depot. We don’t have a
missiles depot. We don’t a missile,
gun, bomb, bullet or ammonium
nitrate.”
He said that “several factions
who oppose Hezbollah” have been
spreading lies that Hezbollah was
storing weapons, missiles or am-
munition at the storage hangar
that exploded, and that Hezbollah
controls the port.
An Israeli official said that the
country’s intelligence services be-
lieve the area in the port where the
fense lawyer. “There is a murder
but no one with a motive.’’
Instead, the prosecution fo-
cused on the activities of the four
low-level defendants: Salim Jamil
Ayyash, Hassan Habib Merhi,
Hussein Hassan Oneissi and As-
sad Hassan Sabra. All were linked
by investigators to Hezbollah.
Records of their mobile telephone
data placed the defendants close
to the bombing. Their phones
went silent immediately after-
ward.
A fifth suspect, the highest
ranking, was dropped from the in-
dictment after he was killed in
Syria. The suspect, Mustafa
Badreddine, was the head of
Hezbollah’s military wing and a
close confidant of Mr. Nasrallah.
Fear among Lebanese officials
that a trial could not be held safely
in Beirut led to the creation of the
court, known as the Special Tri-
bunal for Lebanon, formed in 2009
under a resolution of the United
Nations Security Council.
With a mandate to investigate
crimes of terrorism based on Leb-
anese law, the court was assigned
a mixed Lebanese and interna-
tional staff. Not being a U.N. body,
half its budget was paid by Leba-
non and half by mostly Western
governments, including France
and the United States, which had
supported the creation of the
court.
The difficulties were apparent
from the start. Investigators sent
by the United Nations had to work
under heavy security in a country
where bombings were routine.
Witnesses feared testifying; some
recanted or disappeared. Detlev
Mehlis, a German prosecutor sent
by the United Nations soon after
the killing, reported that his work
had been frustrated by the Syrian
authorities, who had denied any
involvement.
Mr. Mehlis identified close to 20
suspects, including four senior
Lebanese security officers and
top Syrian officials. But then Mr.
Mehlis left the investigation, hav-
ing been warned that U.N. officials
could no longer guarantee his se-
curity. Some suspected that his in-
quiry, rather than resolving the
case, risked inflaming conflict
among Lebanon’s Shiite and
Sunni factions.
Mr. Mehlis’s successors were
increasingly focused, it seemed,
on crime scene forensics.
As the tribunal opened 11 years
ago, lawyers close to the prosecu-
tion said that evidence about the
role of senior Lebanese or Syrian
officials, though widely reported,
had not risen to the level required
at trial. A pretrial judge shocked
many by ordering the release of
DIEGO IBARRA SANCHEZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
blast happened is full of Hezbollah
facilities, but there is no conclu-
sive evidence linking Hezbollah to
this particular storage of ammo-
nium nitrate.
Hezbollah is considered a ter-
rorist group by the United States
and the European Union.
Hundreds of thousands of peo-
ple remained displaced from their
homes, with about one in 10 people
in the city needing shelter. Thou-
sands of wounded still needed ur-
gent care on Friday, but with three
of the city’s largest hospitals in
shambles, local officials were
struggling to meet the demand.
The United Nations warned Fri-
day that the country was facing
the prospect of dire shortages of
food and medicine.
With the country’s largest grain
depot destroyed, United Nations
officials expressed concern about
basic food security in the nation of
nearly 7 million people.
the four high-ranking Lebanese
security officers implicated by Mr.
Mehlis, citing a lack of evidence.
“I believe there was a desire not
to get to the bottom of the killing
for political reasons,” said Michael
Young, a senior editor with the
Carnegie Middle East Center in
Beirut who wrote about the assas-
sination. “Important information
was available in the first few
years.”
Norman Farrell, the current
prosecutor, a Canadian, has said
he hoped to bring some form of
justice, perhaps “incomplete jus-
tice’’ even without defendants
present.
Asked why the prosecution had
not determined who was behind
the killing, Wajed Ramadan, a
spokesman for the tribunal, re-
plied in an email: “A judicial insti-
tution can only try people based
on evidence that can stand up in
court.”
The trial focused overwhelm-
ingly on technical evidence. Pros-
ecutors produced elaborate maps
of when and where calls from the
defendants’ cellphones had been
Families gathered amid the ru-
ins of what used to be the entrance
of the port, looking for information
about the fate of loved ones as in-
ternational rescue teams joined
the search for scores of missing
people.
The Lebanese Red Cross be-
lieves at least 100 people are still
missing, most of whom had been
working at the port.
The European Union has sent
more than 300 rescue workers,
sniffer dogs, vehicles and equip-
ment to Lebanon. Search crews
from Russia also joined the effort
on Friday.
“Our experience shows that we
can find people alive until up to 72,
75 or 80 hours after an explosion
or an earthquake, so for now we
are still in time and we cling on to
this hope,” Col. Vincent Tissier,
head of the French team, told re-
porters.
The mother of Joseph Akiki, a
BRYAN DENTON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
made, showing a systematic
tracking of Mr. Hariri’s move-
ments. The prosecution even con-
ducted a re-enactment of the ex-
plosion on a military base in
southern France.
Mr. Mettraux, who now teaches
law at the Irish Center for Human
Rights at Galway, said the under-
lying goal of a court prosecution in
the Hariri case was unrealistic.
“We defense lawyers contribut-
ed to making it look like a real
trial,” he said. “We had to argue,
but we had no real evidence the
accused were even alive.”
Early supporters of the tribunal
had said that its aim had been to
empower the judiciary and intro-
duce a new era of accountability in
a country, and a region, with a his-
tory of settling political disputes
by assassination. But opinions
quickly divided as opponents of
Mr. Hariri denounced it as a tool to
attack Syria and Iran.
Dr. Sari Hanafi, a sociologist at
the American University of Beirut
who has studied Lebanese per-
ceptions of the tribunal, said the
polarization surrounding the trial
Y A11
23-year-old electrician at the port,
offered an emotional plea on Leb-
anese television for the safe re-
turn of her son.
“I will keep waiting because I
know Joe Akiki is strong,” she
said.
A few hours later, his lifeless
body was pulled from the rubble,
raising the official death toll to 154.
Lebanon’s economy was al-
ready in a state of crisis before this
week’s disaster. Unemployment
was soaring along with inflation.
Basic services like trash col-
lection and power were spotty,
and corruption was endemic at
government ministries. More
than a million people in the coun-
try live in poverty, according to
the United Nations, and a recent
survey found half the population
fearful they could not find enough
to eat.
After the blast, the situation has
grown even bleaker.
The World Health Organization
said it had airlifted medicines and
surgical supplies to support the
country’s health care system.
Christian Lindmeier, a spokes-
man for the agency, told reporters
in Geneva that there was rising
concern that the catastrophe
could worsen the coronavirus out-
break in Lebanon.
The explosion destroyed 17 con-
tainers filled with hundreds of
thousands of masks, gowns,
gloves and other personal protec-
tive equipment needed for medi-
cal workers battling the pan-
demic, Mr. Lindmeier said.
While the spread of the disease
has been limited in Lebanon,
which has reported fewer than
6,000 people infected with the vi-
rus and 70 deaths, the United Na-
tions said it had recorded 255 new
cases on Thursday, a daily high.
Some of the most active areas of
community transmission were in
neighborhoods devastated by the
blast.
The W.H.O. and UNICEF, the
United Nations’ children’s agency,
said they were bringing in re-
placement supplies of personal
protective equipment from logis-
tics hubs in Dubai but appealed
for money to support relief efforts
and the Covid-19 response.
At the same time, the U.N.
World Food Program said that the
destruction of the nation’s largest
grain silo at the port “will exacer-
bate an already grim food security
situation.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Above and left, visitors paying
their respects to Mr. Hariri in
February 2015. His motorcade
was targeted on Valentine’s
Day. Twenty-one other people
were also killed in the blast.
partly reflected Lebanon’s failure
to address the trauma of its 1975-
1990 civil war.
Massacres and disappearances
were never fully investigated;
warlords were never prosecuted.
That led many Lebanese to ques-
tion the international push to
achieve justice for Mr. Hariri — a
wealthy and privileged pro-West
politician — rather than resolve
the crimes committed during the
war.
“The issue was, ‘Why Hariri,
and no one before Hariri?’” he
said.
Holding the trial far away in the
Netherlands, with many pro-
tected witnesses testifying behind
closed doors, may have further
dimmed its reputation among
Lebanese.
For some critics of the expand-
ing field of international justice,
the Lebanon Tribunal has thrown
fresh doubts on the efficacy of cre-
ating costly special institutions to
deal with distant and complex
crimes.
In this case, an inconclusive
outcome was produced and the
defendants were absent.
“This was a disproportionate
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use of resources, given the small
group of people killed, compared
to atrocities elsewhere in the
world,” said William Schabas, a
law professor at Middlesex Uni-
versity in London. “It will ulti-
mately be symbolic because no
one found guilty can be punished.
And if they are found, they will
have to be tried all over again.”
A12 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020

If you’re poor and marginalized, you’re likely Athens Baking in the treeless, concrete neighborhoods.
to be more vulnerable to extreme weather.

As Earth Heats Up,

Inequity Boils Over
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
IT WAS A RECORD 125 DEGREES Fahrenheit in Baghdad in July, and 100 de-
grees above the Arctic Circle this June. Australia shattered its summer heat
records as wildfires, fueled by prolonged drought, turned the sky fever red.
For 150 years of industrialization, the combustion of coal, oil and gas has
steadily released heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, driving up aver-
age global temperatures and setting heat records. Nearly everywhere
around the world, heat waves are more frequent and longer lasting than
they were 70 years ago.
But a hotter planet does not hurt equally. If you’re poor and margin-
alized, you’re likely to be much more vulnerable to extreme heat. You might

Days per year above 95°F

The average number of extremely hot days
expected per year between 2020 to 2039
under a moderate warming scenario. ≤1 10 50 100 200

Source: Climate Impact Lab THE NEW YORK TIMES

be unable to afford air-conditioning, and you might not even have electricity
when you need it. You may have no choice but to work outdoors under a sun
so blistering that first your knees feel weak and then delirium sets in. Or the
heat might bring a drought so punishing that, no matter how hard you work
under the sun, your corn withers and your children turn to you in hunger.
It’s not like you can just pack up and leave. So you plant your corn higher
up the mountain. You bathe several times a day if you can afford the water.
You powder your baby to prevent heat rash. You sleep outdoors when the
power goes out, slapping mosquitoes. You sit in front of a fan by yourself,
cursed by the twin dangers of isolation and heat.
Extreme heat is not a future risk. It’s now. It endangers human health,
food production and the fate of entire economies. And it’s worst for those at
the bottom of the economic ladder in their societies. See what it’s like to live
with one of the most dangerous and stealthiest hazards of the modern era.

Guatemala The dry season lasts longer and the crops die. India The dangers rise with the temperatures.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANIELE VOLPE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

EDUARDO ROQUE, 38, is among Guatema- Eduardo Roque and his wife, Isabela RABITA BENDS DOWN, fills a bowl with
la’s original people, part of the Ch’orti’ Esquivel, live in a hamlet about 150 sand, lifts it atop her head, climbs up and
Mayan community living in one of the miles from Guatemala City, where corn down the stairs. Up and down, countless
poorest and driest corners of the Ameri- crops wither and his sons must lug times each day, even as the heat increases
cas, known as the Dry Corridor. firewood back to their home. through the morning and the air gets sticky.
Rising temperatures are ravaging the Her legs ache from the climbing. Her head
land. spins sometimes. Breaks can’t be longer
The early summer rains that nourish his Malnutrition runs higher in the largely than five minutes, or she’ll get a hectoring
small fields have diminished measurably indigenous region, called Chiquimula, from the foreman on the construction site.
in recent years, according to scientists, where Mr. Roque lives with his wife and Occasionally, she comes down with a fever
and five long and harsh late summer nine children. Water has to be rationed. and has to take a day off. When she has her
droughts have cursed this region in the The amount of greenhouse gases emit- period, it’s the worst.
last decade. The country as a whole is ted by the average Guatemalan each year The other day, she tried to shake the sand
warmer by about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit is tiny — 1.1 metric tons, compared with off herself, to no avail. The sweat had glued
since 1960, with far more frequent hot 16.5 tons per person in the United States the sand to her skin.
days and nights. The rains don’t come — and Mr. Roque’s carbon footprint is, Rabita, who does not use a surname, is
when he needs them for his crop, Mr. very likely, smaller still. Electricity came helping to build a government housing
Roque says. “When we need the sun, to his village only recently. The family project. She and her husband, Ashok Kumar,
suddenly, we are receiving water.” doesn’t have a car, motorcycle or tractor. are Dalits, at the bottom of the Hindu caste
Mr. Roque’s harvests of corn and beans, He built his house by hand, from mud, ladder. They own no land in their village in
staple foods, failed three years in a row. with only a few pillars of concrete. Bihar, which has long been one of the most
Desperate, he hustled for work in the But Guatemala is poised to feel the terrifying places to be a Dalit. They work on
capital, Guatemala City, bought a patch of effect of a hotter planet acutely. Yields of other people’s lands, when there is work,
land near a small creek, planted rows of maize and beans could fall by around 14 and Rabita gets paid less than half what a
corn there. On his old corn fields, he has percent by 2050, according to a recent man makes.
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planted trees, and in their shade, he is study; coffee grown in lower elevations is
trying coffee. unlikely to be “economically viable.”
Climate models project longer dry peri-
Photographs by Myrto Papadopoulos in ods in the future.
Athens, Ilana Panich-Linsman in Houston, “The models show that this should
KC Nwakalor in the Niger Delta, Nigeria, happen in the next decades,” said Edwin
Daniele Volpe in Jocotán, Guatemala, Castellanos, director of the center for
Saumya Khandelwal in Lucknow, India, and environmental studies at the University of
Juan Arredondo in New York City. Additional the Valley of Guatemala and a co-author of
reporting by Shola Lawal and Orji Sunday. the study, “but it’s already happening.”
And then there’s the extreme vagaries of
the rain. It rains when it’s not supposed to,
she says, and washes away the crops. Peo-
ple like her have to leave home to put food
in their stomachs.
For years, Mr. Kumar had been working
hauling sacks of vegetables at a city market,
sending home money. The pandemic
changed all that. Mr. Kumar came back
home, borrowed money to make ends meet.
 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020
PHOTOGRAPHS BY MYRTO PAPADOPOULOS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
PHOTOGRAPHS BY SAUMYA KHANDELWAL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Rabita with her husband, Ashok Kumar,
at work at a construction site in Luc-
know, India, where the heat makes her
head spin. Bottom, watching wrestling
on a phone with other villagers.
Now he and Rabita work to pay off those
debts. Their oldest son, Guddu, 15, works
alongside them. Their 3-year-old, Sumari,
hangs around.
Episodes of extreme humid heat at levels
the human body cannot tolerate for many
hours at a time have more than doubled in
frequency since 1979, according to a recent
scientific paper. South Asia and the Gulf
Coast of the United States are among the
places hardest hit. Sweat can’t evaporate as
fast. The body can’t cool down.
The International Labor Organization calls
heat an occupational health hazard, with
construction workers like Rabita especially
vulnerable. Most people can work only at half
their capacity when temperatures exceed 91
degrees Fahrenheit, and exposure to many
hours of heat can be fatal, the group warns.
Economic losses from heat stress are pro-
jected to increase to $2.4 trillion in 2030. But
this cost, too, is expected to be unequally
spread.
South Asia and West Africa are expected to
be the hardest hit, not just because of high
heat and humidity, but because of how vul-
nerable laborers like Rabita are to begin
with.
Y A13
HASIB HOTAK, 21, has been sleeping on a
rooftop in Athens. To be precise, he has been
sleeping on a carpet, under the stars, on a
rooftop in Athens. There’s a small room on
the roof, with a sheet of corrugated tin on top
and a curtain for a door. The heat of the day
turns it into an oven. It is suffocatingly hot to
sleep inside. It belongs to a friend who, like
Mr. Hotak, is a homeless Afghan refugee,
and who sleeps on a bed on the roof, draped
with a mosquito net.
In late July, peak summer in Athens, the
sun burned the rooftop by midday. Mr. Hotak
walked through the city to one of Athens’s
largest public parks, Pedion Areos. Some
days, he volunteered with an aid group that From left: Hasib Hotak, right, in the
gives out sandwiches to homeless refugees rooftop shack he shares with Rahmat
like him. Other days, he sat under a wide- Nazari; using a shower on the south
armed tree and scrolled through his phone. coast of Athens; eating on the roof
There aren’t a lot of places where a young before the sun turns it into an oven.
Afghan man feels welcome in Athens, he
said. Once, he and a friend went to a cafe,
hoping to chat over a cup of coffee, only to ing class Athens neighborhood where many
be thrown out. The owner said Greeks migrants have settled.
wouldn’t patronize his establishment if they The city has grown hotter by the decade.
saw refugees at a table. According to temperature records kept by
Mr. Hotak was 16 when he left his home in the National Observatory of Athens, there
the Sholgara district of Afghanistan, the only were fewer than 20 hot days (with tem-
one among his 11 brothers and sisters to do peratures over 99 degrees Fahrenheit, or 37
so. After one failed attempt to enter Europe Celsius) per year in the first decade of the
and two years in a refugee camp, he was 1900s. By the mid-1980s, there were still
granted asylum in Greece. That’s when he fewer than 50 hot days. Between 2006 and
arrived on the rooftop refuge with a friend, 2017, though, the number had risen to 120
in the crowded warrens of Kolonos, a work- hot days.
Houston The summers could get steamier.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ILANA PANICH-LINSMAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
THE AIR-CONDITIONER in her room gives From above: Norma Rodriguez outside
Norma Rodriguez some breathing space at the trailer in Houston; Dominga Rodri-
the end of a long day. guez at work; and Noe and Candelario
At 18, just out of high school, Ms. Rodri- Rodriguez. Money is tight, bills are
guez is working two jobs to help her family. juggled and air-conditioning is a luxury.
One at a shoe store, the other at a restau-
rant. Her father, Candelario Rodriguez, a
roofer by profession, is unemployed. The jacket. “This year,” Dominga said, “we just
family’s truck has broken down, so she has hope there isn’t another hurricane.” Hurri-
to hustle for rides. Her mother, Dominga, is a cane Hanna came close in July, but spared
part-time housekeeper in a nearby hotel the city.
where business is slow. Her brother, Noe, 9, Houston is one of the country’s fastest
is on summer vacation from school. Money warming cities. Average temperatures have
is tight. Bills are juggled. Windows are cov- risen by more than 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit
ered during the day to keep out the sun. since 1970. In mid-July, the city’s heat index
Air-conditioners are turned on only at night. peaked above 110 degrees. It offered a
Showers are limited to every other day. glimpse of the future. If emissions of green-
The summer air is steamy in Houston. house gases continue to rise at their current
Even when you move slowly, you drip with pace, Houston could see 109 days each year,
sweat. When you’re working outdoors, in on average, where the heat index tops 100
construction, as Norma’s father used to before degrees.
the pandemic, sweat pools in your work boots. Ms. Rodriguez, who plans to attend com-
Three of his co-workers have collapsed from munity college this fall, has more immediate
heat exhaustion over the years. concerns. A co-worker at the restaurant
The perils of the past haunt them. Their where she works complained of symptoms of
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East Houston neighborhood, home to mainly the coronavirus in late July. He said he would
Latinos like the Rodriguez family, was hit get tested, and she hasn’t heard from him
particularly hard by Hurricane Harvey. The since. She needs the job, but she worries
heat packed into the atmosphere brought about getting sick — and even more about
exceptionally heavy rains, flooding the Rod- infecting her family.
riguez’s two-bedroom trailer and a car. They “If I bring it home to my family, it’s some-
waded through floodwaters to be rescued by thing else for me to worry about,” Ms. Rodri-
an 18-wheeler truck, Norma carrying a pet guez said over the weekend. “If we’re all going
chicken and a cat in her backpack, and to be sick, who’s going to take care of us?”
Dominga, who can’t swim, wearing a life Continued on Following Page
A14 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020

Nigeria Close to the gas flares, it’s 22 degrees hotter.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY KC NWAKALOR FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

DARKNESS NEVER FALLS on Faith Osi’s The heat for Faith

village.
Five tall methane gas flares loom over
Obrikom, in the heart of the oil-rich delta
in southeastern Nigeria. They are part of
the huge petrochemicals operations of the
Italian multinational Agip, and they burn
24 hours a day, like blowtorches through
the steamy tropical air.
It’s normally hot here. Temperatures
reach 91 degrees Fahrenheit on average in
the hot season and drop only slightly in
the rainy months. The flares make it even
hotter, even at night, and particularly if
you’re too poor to live anywhere other
than within a few hundred meters of the
flares, where land is cheaper. One study
found that temperatures were 22 degrees
Fahrenheit higher around homes closest
to the gas flares.
For decades, oil extraction has poisoned
the air, land and water of the Niger Delta
region, while its people have reaped little
by way of jobs or development in the area.
Heat is arguably the least understood of
these threats. It’s everyday. It’s invisible.
And, for Ms. Osi, who is in her mid-30s, it’s
exhausting.
It saps her. She can barely work for
three hours a day on her cassava farm,
and even then, she feels like she can
hardly breathe. Headaches torment her
often. Relief comes only from a bucket of
cold water over her head.
It was worse when she was pregnant.
She would pat her belly with a wet cloth.
At night she would lay on the bare floor.
The bed was too hot. She would barely
sleep.
The other day, with the air clammy from
the rains, she bathed the youngest of her
eight children, Miracle, who is 1 year old.
In minutes, Miracle was glistening with
Osi is exhausting. It
saps her. She wor-
ries about heat rash
for her daughter
Miracle, 1. Far left,
their home in
Obrikom, Rivers
State, Nigeria, and,
left, the cassava
farm, where Ms. Osi
can barely work for
three hours a day.
sweat and screaming from discomfort. Ms. The dangerous extremes of climate
Osi worried about heat rash. She emptied change are already affecting Nigeria’s
nearly a can of talcum powder on the baby. poorest people. Hotter days and hotter
Her husband, Azubuike Osi, 42, turned to nights are more frequent, while the number
cigarettes for relief. The kids flapped their of cool days and nights has decreased, a
clothes to air their bodies. They all try to trend that studies have observed through-
sleep under the fan, at least until the elec- out West Africa.
tricity goes out, which it sometimes does on One of the greatest public health con-
the hottest nights, and then some of the cerns is that the nights are hotter, making
children sleep outside on the balcony, bat- it hard for people to sleep and easier for
tling mosquitoes. Malaria is rampant. mosquitoes to breed.

New York Heat is deadly for older Americans, and isolation is its sly accomplice.

ON A SWELTERING SUNDAY in July, with

temperatures soaring to 93 degrees Fahr-
enheit, Rafael Velasquez, 66, sat in the
courtyard of his apartment complex with a
cold bottle of water pressed to his face. He
liked sitting outside on a bench, feeding
the pigeons. He kept a hand towel to wipe
the sweat.
There wasn’t much to do inside. He’s
lived alone since his wife died a couple of
years ago. He can’t afford to buy an air-
conditioner, and he said he had no idea
how to get a free one from a city program
designed to help seniors stay cool during
the pandemic, when cooling centers are
mostly closed.
He had a window fan in the living room,
and one standing fan that he dragged from
the bedroom to the living room every
morning. Mostly, he watched stuff on his
phone. He can’t afford cable.
In the United States, heat kills older
people more than any other extreme
weather event, including hurricanes, and
the problem is part of an ignominious
national pattern: Black people and Lati-
nos like Mr. Velasquez are far more likely
to live in the hottest parts of American
cities.
His Brooklyn neighborhood is excep-
tionally vulnerable to heat extremes.
According to the most recent available
data, from 2018, Brownsville was among
New York City’s hottest, with average
daytime highs around two degrees Fahr-
enheit higher than the city as a whole.
Those neighborhoods are often the
same areas that have faced some of the
highest rates of coronavirus deaths. This
spring, around 10 residents of Mr. Ve-
lasquez’s senior housing complex died
from the virus.
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“Inequality exacerbates climate and

environmental risks,” said Kizzy Charles-
Guzman, a deputy director for resilience
efforts in the mayor’s office.
Isolation makes it worse.
With no one to check in on you, even a
mild case of dehydration can take a quick
turn for the worse if you’re frail or suffer
from other ailments, like heart disease.
According to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, 600 Americans die
each year from extreme heat. A recent
academic study, though, estimated that as
many as 12,000 people may be dying of
heat-related ailments; 80 percent of them,
the researchers said, are over the age of 60.
Mr. Velasquez’s five daughters live in the
Bronx. He said he hadn’t seen them in
months because of the pandemic.
The other day, when the city issued a
heat alert and the senior center on the
ground floor opened for the first time in
JUAN ARREDONDO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
months as a cooling center, he went to pick Rafael Velasquez,
up two plastic bags of groceries: black 66, who lives in
beans, breakfast cereal, peanut butter and Brooklyn, cannot
other provisions that would last. afford to buy an
He won a round of bingo, and a roll of air-conditioner.
paper towels as a prize.
 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020 Y A15

China Launches Another Demolition Drive, This Time Outside Beijing

By STEVEN LEE MYERS
and KEITH BRADSHER
The people who would destroy
the village came in the middle of
the night last week. Hundreds of
guards breached the wall sur-
rounding the village and began
banging on the doors of the 140
courtyard homes there, waking
residents and handing them no-
tices to get out.
Many tried to protest but were
subdued by the guards, and by
this week, the demolition was al-
ready in full swing. Backhoes
moved house by house, laying
waste to a community called Xitai
that was built in a plush green val-
ley on the northern edge of Bei-
jing, only a short walk from the
Great Wall of China.
“This was a sneak attack to
move when we were unprepared,”
said Sheng Hong, one of the resi-
dents.
The destruction of the village,
one of several unfolding on the
suburban edges of Beijing this
summer, reflects the corruption at
the murky intersection of politics
and the economy in China. What is
perfectly acceptable one year can
suddenly be deemed illegal the
next, leaving communities and
families vulnerable to the vaga-
ries of policy under the country’s
leader, Xi Jinping.
Back when these developments
were built, turbocharging China’s
economy was priority No. 1 and
many were blessed by local gov-
ernments. Now, led by Beijing’s
paramount leader, Cai Qi, the local
authorities have declared that the
projects in fact violated laws in-
tended to protect the environment
and agricultural land. KEITH BRADSHER/THE NEW YORK TIMES

This summer of demolitions fol-
lows previous campaigns to
“beautify” Beijing’s historic alley-
way neighborhoods, known as hu-
tongs, and to clear away ram-
shackle migrant neighborhoods in
the city’s south, ostensibly out of
concern for building safety.
Those projects largely targeted
poorer residents, with a thinly
veiled goal of capping the city’s
population at 22 million people.
The latest campaign has landed
on the comparatively well-to-do,
people able to afford single-family
homes — in some cases second
homes — in the still-largely bu-
colic countryside outside Beijing’s
congested urban core.
A common denominator of all
these campaigns is that the people
most affected have virtually no re-
course once the government de-
termines a policy, typically with
no public deliberation or even
much explanation.
“There is no hope under this
system,” said Paul Wu, who leased
a home in Wayaocun, another vil-
lage about 30 miles west of Xitai.
Demolitions began there in late
June, targeting six developments
now declared a blight on the coun-
tryside.
The risk of such blunt govern-
ment actions lies in sowing resent-
ment and distrust of the Commu-
nist Party state, even among
those in a rising middle class who
have benefited most from the
country’s economic transforma-
tion. The demolitions have al-
ready set off at least three clashes
between protesters and police of-
ficers in riot gear wielding tear
gas and pepper spray.
The impetus for the latest cam-
paign, which began just as the
country was emerging from the
worst of the coronavirus pan-
demic, remains unclear. Mr.
Sheng, the Xitai resident who is
also a prominent economist, said
the campaigns were driven by po-
litical — not economic or envi-
ronmental — motives.
He cited Mr. Xi’s well-publicized
anger in 2018 over the construc-
tion of illegal villas in the Qinling
Mountains in Shaanxi Province.
Since then, Mr. Xi has raised the
issue of protecting green space on
Steven Lee Myers reported from
Seoul, South Korea, and Keith
Bradsher from Wayaocun, China.
Reporting and research were con-
tributed by Chris Buckley in Syd-
ney, Australia, and Claire Fu and
Liu Yi in Beijing.
Villas scheduled for demolition in Wayaocun, outside Beijing. The clearings are part of campaigns to “beautify” the capital’s alleyway neighborhoods.
a number of occasions, creating
pressure on local officials to dem-
onstrate fealty by responding vig-
orously.
“The local officials are in a con-
test to see who can demolish the
most,” Mr. Sheng said. “Nobody
will punish you for demolishing
more, but if you demolish less, you
could go to prison.”
The State Council, the country’s
top government body, met last
year to discuss the issue of illegal
residential construction, empha-
sizing that there should be an
evaluation of any property’s envi-
ronmental impact and due consid-
eration paid to owners’ interests.
Little of that appears to have hap-
pened.
In Wayaocun, Mr. Wu and his
wife paid for the construction and
lease of a wood-framed house in
2009, not long after the village cre-
ated an enclave of vacation
homes. It was called Russian Style
Scenic Park. The developer that
built the cottages was a company
on China’s northern border that
imported timber from Siberia. Mr.
Wu envisioned it as a place where
he and his wife and parents could
escape the city on weekends.
“I prefer a more natural envi-
ronment,” he said in an interview
outside the village, a quiet place
where the roads are lined with
morning glories and weeping wil-
lows but that is now surrounded
by police checkpoints as demoli-
tion work continues.
The village, in the Changping
District of Beijing, designated the
developments as tourism and cul-
tural projects, sidestepping zon-
ing restrictions against purely
residential construction on what
was classified as agricultural
land.
The village government ulti-
mately allowed the construction
of more than 1,000 homes. The
projects brought money and jobs
to the village, which also built the
roads and utilities to the commu-
nities.
Mr. Wu, who with his wife owns
and operates a company supply-
ing kitchen equipment for Bei-
jing’s hotels and restaurants, paid
660,000 renminbi in cash, just un-
der $100,000 then, for a 49-year
lease; China allows the leasing of
land but not its sale.
“I had the psychology of a gam-
bler,” Mr. Wu said, “but I thought
the system would change.”
The contract was signed by a
village official and the developer,
Manzhouli Aiyingsi Timber Lim-
ited, so it had the appearance of
government approval. Mr. Wu and
KEITH BRADSHER/THE NEW YORK TIMES
his wife later spent another
$40,000 on improvements and
have since spent most weekends
there.
The first sign that something
was amiss came in 2010, when the
developer’s corporate registra-
tion was dissolved. A year later,
residents were told a court de-
clared the developments illegal,
but officials reassured them that
their homes were safe.
Then, in 2013, Wayaocun’s party
secretary, Xing Ruyi, and its
elected village chief, Xing
Quanpu, were convicted on
charges that they had allowed
construction on agricultural land
without going through the process
of rezoning it. They were sen-
tenced to 51 months and 42
months in prison, and fined.
Still, no one moved against the
homes, leading their occupants to
believe the community would be
somehow protected. Then, in
June, notices appeared on the vil-
lage’s gates and homes, citing the
court order from nine years earli-
er.
On June 29, scores of residents
gathered to protest, including Mr.
Wu, and clashed with police offi-
cers in riot gear who fired tear gas
and pepper spray, according to a
video that circulated, briefly, on-
Police checkpoints, above, surround villages while the destruc-
tion takes place. “There is no hope under this system,” said Paul
Wu, who, along with his wife, leased a home in Wayaocun.
line. A number of people were ar-
rested, residents said. “We are all
ordinary people,” a woman shouts
repeatedly in the video, “why do
you bother?”
A similar video showed a con-
frontation in yet another village
facing demolitions in the same
district, Yanshou. Both have since
been censored inside China’s
Great Firewall.
Mr. Wu’s village remains cor-
doned off as the demolition work
continues. The twisted wreckage
of homes can be viewed while hik-
ing among apricot and walnut
trees on stonewalled terraces in
the hills nearby. Gray trucks line
up outside the village’s ornate red
and blue gate: They are driven by
scrap dealers hoping to collect
doors, windows, boards or any-
thing else salvageable or at least
recyclable.
Officials with the Beijing gov-
ernment did not respond to inquir-
ies about the campaign. It is not
clear how many developments
like these might be targeted. An
article in People’s Daily in 2013,
around the time of the cases
against Wayaocun’s leadership,
cited 108 similar projects around
Beijing that included thousands of
homes.
For those affected, there is little
recourse. Another person in Mr.
Sheng’s village, Alon Bar, pur-
chased a 70-year lease on his
house in 2008, confident that it
had the support of the authorities
under a government policy then
CLAIRE FU/THE NEW YORK TIMES
known as xin nong cun, or “new
countryside.”
Mr. Bar is an Israeli agronomist
who first went to China in 1988 on
a government project to help de-
velop agriculture and introduce
water-conservation techniques
He ultimately stayed and settled
down.
“This policy was the policy;
now the policy has changed,” said
Mr. Bar, 66, who has been in Israel
most of the year because of the co-
ronavirus travel restrictions.
Since Monday, he has been receiv-
ing photo and video updates on
the demolitions.
“They took the money — mil-
lions — and did whatever they
liked,” he added. “There is no ac-
countability.”
Emphasizing his fondness for
the country, he described a Kafka-
esque effort to understand the
government’s decision and seek
avenues for appeal before it was
too late. A Chinese lawyer, he said,
could not find the court decision
that was cited by the authorities in
ordering the demolitions.
A district official told the resi-
dents to sue the village for com-
pensation, while village officials
replied that they had no money to
pay even if they lost. The night-
time occupation of the village by
hundreds of guards, he said, was a
tactic intended to intimidate any
opposition before it could draw at-
tention to the government’s ac-
tions. “This is not Kafka,” he said.
“This is the Mafia.”

Trump Administration Penalizes Hong Kong Officials for Crackdown on Protesters

By PRANSHU VERMA
and EDWARD WONG
WASHINGTON — The Trump
administration imposed sanctions
on Friday on Hong Kong’s chief ex-
ecutive, Carrie Lam, and 10 other
senior officials in Hong Kong and
mainland China over their roles in
cracking down on political dissent.
The move comes after Beijing
announced in June that it was im-
posing a national security law in
Hong Kong to grant security agen-
cies expansive powers.
The sanctions are the first
against officials in Hong Kong and
mainland China over suppression
of pro-democracy protests and dis-
sent in the territory. Last month,
President Trump signed an execu-
gree of autonomy that Beijing itself
promised to the Hong Kong peo-
ple,” Secretary of State Mike Pom-
peo said in a statement on Friday.
“The United States will therefore
treat Hong Kong as ‘one country,
one system,’ and take action
against individuals who have
crushed the Hong Kong people’s
freedoms.”
Mr. Pompeo was referring to
“one country, two systems,” the
term widely used to describe the
promise that China made in an in-
ternational treaty signed with Brit-
ain in 1984 that Hong Kong would
remain autonomous for 50 years
after its transition from British to
Chinese rule in 1997.
Treasury Department officials
the arrest of 4,000 pro-democracy
protesters that led to over 1,600
people being injured, according to
Treasury Department officials.
Many of the protesters were re-
leased on bail hours after their ar-
rests.
Also facing penalties are the
leaders of China’s liaison office to
Hong Kong and of its Hong Kong
and Macau affairs office, both of
which enact Beijing’s policies in
the territory. The most senior Chi-
nese official named is Xia Baolong,
who oversees the Hong Kong and
Macau affairs office, which is un-
der the State Council, China’s cab-
inet. Mr. Xia is believed to be
trusted by Xi Jinping, China’s
leader.
it is unclear if any of the 11 individu-
als have assets or property in the
United States that would be frozen
under the measure.
The officials are prohibited from
traveling to the United States.
Ms. Lam addressed the threat of
facing sanctions during a news
conference last month, saying she
would “laugh it off.”
“I’m not worried,” she said. “I
don’t have assets in the United
States and don’t really yearn to go
to the U.S.”
Dali L. Yang, a political scientist
at the University of Chicago, said
the sanctions appeared to be “very
targeted.”
“It’s much more about sending a
message and demonstrating that
try to suppress them, firing tear
gas and using batons to beat dem-
onstrators in subway cars and al-
leyways. Those tactics escalated
the protests, becoming the focal
point of grievances.
The Trump administration has
taken a series of measures in re-
cent months that have heightened
tensions between Washington and
Beijing. Administration officials
say they are largely taking recipro-
cal actions that counter bad behav-
ior by the Chinese Communist
Party.
On Thursday, Mr. Trump signed
two executive orders barring
American residents and corpora-
tions from making any transac-
tions with the Chinese-owned Tik-
people in China or make transac-
tions with Chinese businesses.
Last month, the administration
imposed sanctions on senior Chi-
nese officials, including a member
of the Communist Party’s ruling
Politburo, over human rights
abuses against the largely Muslim
Uighur ethnic minority in the Xin-
jiang region. Officials have also
shut down the Chinese Consulate
in Houston, citing economic espio-
nage efforts by diplomats; banned
some students affiliated with Chi-
nese military institutions from
traveling to the United States; and
arrested officers or affiliates of the
People’s Liberation Army in the
United States on accusations of
visa fraud.
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tive order seeking to punish China
for its repression in Hong Kong.
“The Chinese Communist Party
has made clear that Hong Kong
will never again enjoy the high de-
Elaine Yu and Austin Ramzy con-
tributed reporting from Hong
Kong.
said Ms. Lam was being penalized
because she was “directly respon-
sible” for enacting Beijing’s poli-
cies that stifle dissent in Hong
Kong.
Others facing sanctions include
Chris Tang, the commissioner of
the Hong Kong Police Force, and
Stephen Lo, who led the police de-
partment until 2019 and oversaw
The chief of the liaison office,
Luo Huining, is the most senior
mainland official in Hong Kong.
The Treasury Department also
named Zheng Yanxiong and Eric
Chan, two officials taking up senior
posts established by the new na-
tional security law.
The actions announced on Fri-
day are symbolic to a degree, since
the administration is acting on
something that is in violation of
and impinging on the freedom and
the democratic potential of Hong
Kong,” he said.
Pro-democracy protests
erupted in Hong Kong in June 2019,
and the police soon began taking
increasingly hard-line measures to
Tok and WeChat apps within 45
days, saying the use of the services
posed a national security risk be-
cause they do not keep user data
private. Officials did not detail
what the ban would entail. WeChat
is widely used in China, and halting
the use of the app in the United
States would be onerous for any-
one trying to keep in touch with
The Trump administration has
also imposed visa restrictions on
Chinese journalists in the United
States and effectively expelled
dozens of them. That has incited
Beijing to take harsh actions on
American journalists, including
expelling employees of The New
York Times, The Wall Street Jour-
nal and The Washington Post.
A16 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020
A Public Warning
Aimed at Russia
Over U.S. Bounties
Pompeo Said to Have Sternly Discussed
Payouts With Nation’s Foreign Minister
By EDWARD WONG
and ERIC SCHMITT
WASHINGTON — Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo has warned
Russia’s foreign minister against
Moscow paying bounties to Tal-
iban-linked militants and other Af-
ghan fighters for killing American
service members, U.S. officials
said.
Mr. Pompeo’s warning is the
first known rebuke from a senior
American official to Russia over
the bounties program, and it runs
counter to President Trump’s in-
sistence that the intelligence from
U.S. government agencies over
the matter is a “hoax.” The action
indicates that Mr. Pompeo, who
previously served as Mr. Trump’s
C.I.A. director, believes the intelli-
gence warranted a stern message.
Mr. Pompeo delivered the warn-
ing in a call on July 13 with the
minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, choos-
ing to do so during a conversation
that, officially, was about an unre-
lated topic — the possibility of a
meeting of the five permanent
members of the United Nations
Security Council, the U.S. officials
said in the past week.
The secretary of state did not
explicitly point to the covert boun-
ties scheme organized by a Rus-
sian military intelligence unit that
was first reported in late June by
The New York Times, most likely
because the details of what Ameri-
can intelligence has learned and
how it gathered the information
remain classified, one of the offi-
cials said. In public, Mr. Pompeo
has carefully avoided answering
direct questions about American
intelligence on the Russian boun-
ties. But late last month in con-
gressional testimony, he said
broadly that he had raised with
Mr. Lavrov “all of the issues” that
put American interests at risk.
In the call, Mr. Pompeo made it
clear to Mr. Lavrov in language
about payouts and red lines that
the United States was strongly op-
posed to the program, the official
said, adding that the secretary of
state had been livid about what
the intelligence had said about the
bounties.
The American officials who
spoke about Mr. Pompeo’s call did
so on the condition of anonymity
because of the sensitivity of the
matter. Mr. Pompeo and the State
Department have been careful not
to reveal any details of actions he
might have taken based on the in-
telligence over the bounties. That
is perhaps because of both the
classified material and to avoid
potential fury from Mr. Trump,
who has strongly dismissed re-
ports of the intelligence and has
tried to cultivate a friendship with
President Vladimir V. Putin of
TikTok Can Be Distracting, but Is It Really a National Security Risk?
From Page A1
announced a “Clean Network”
initiative, threatening to ban not
only apps, but Chinese undersea
cables, telecommunications firms
that have operated in the United
States for years and businesses
that store information in the
cloud.
Sorting out the real threats
from the imagined ones is as
complex as the design of the
internet. But the threat TikTok
poses, intelligence officials say,
Officials say a threat
pales against the one
posed by Huawei.
pales against the one created by
Huawei, the Chinese telecom-
munications giant that was seek-
ing to wire up the United States,
Europe and much of the develop-
ing world, using the transition to
5G networks to control global
communications.
“Is TikTok a problem?” Sena-
tor Mark Warner, Democrat of
Virginia and the ranking member
of the Senate Intelligence Com-
mittee, said on Thursday at the
Aspen Security Forum.
“Yes, but on the hierarchy of
problem we are talking about, an
app that allows you to make
funny videos” does not really
rank, he said.
Huawei is a far deeper con-
cern, Mr. Warner said, because it
seeks to rebuild internet infra-
structure — putting in the
switches and cell towers on
which American communications
run. In the 5G era, that will also
be the infrastructure on which
manufacturing, gas supply lines,
agriculture and self-driving cars
Russia.
Mr. Pompeo’s private move is
the latest example of a common
occurrence in the administration:
American officials quietly carry-
ing out actions that are at odds
with Mr. Trump’s statements and
his stance on important issues.
The Times reported that senior
American officials, including
some on the White House Na-
tional Security Council, had debat-
ed for months over what to do
about the Russian effort. Russian
officials have denounced the re-
ports on the bounties as lies.
Mr. Trump said last week that
he did not mention American in-
telligence assessments of the
bounties program when he spoke
this month with Mr. Putin. “That
was a phone call to discuss other
things, and, frankly, that’s an issue
that many people said was fake
news,” he said in an interview
with “Axios on HBO,” even though
the C.I.A. had placed medium con-
fidence in the assessment.
Mr. Trump also brushed off past
declarations by his own com-
manders that Russia had been
providing weapons and cash to
the Taliban for years, but the com-
manders did not specifically cite
any bounty program.
He later told reporters during a
trip to Florida that the intelligence
was “another Russia hoax.”
“They’ve been giving me the
Russia hoax — Shifty Schiff, all
these characters — from the day I
got here,” he said, using his nick-
name for Representative Adam B.
Schiff of California, the top Demo-
crat on the House Intelligence
Committee.
Mr. Schiff complained on Friday
that U.S. intelligence officials had
so far failed to provide more de-
tailed information about the sus-
pected Russian payments, as law-
makers were promised in early
July. “We have yet to receive this
information,” Mr. Schiff said in a
statement.
The bounties operation is over-
seen by a Russian military intelli-
gence unit, U.S. officials said. An
obvious channel the Americans
could use to address the issue is an
important one between the top
military officers in both nations,
said Andrew S. Weiss, a former
American official and Russia ex-
pert at the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace. But it is
not known if the current officers,
Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and
Gen. Valery V. Gerasimov, the
chief of the Russian general staff,
have spoken of the bounties via
that channel.
“Delivering a very clear and
credible message that we will use
all means to protect our people is
the only thing that gets the Rus-
operate. In a time of conflict,
China could, in theory, order the
systems shut down or subtly
manipulated.
Even so, through much of last
year, Mr. Trump talked about
Huawei as a card in trade negoti-
ations, undercutting his own
aides, who were pressing allies
to ban China’s products.
That has changed since the
president began blaming China
for spreading the coronavirus.
And recent events — like the
drying up of Chinese supplies for
dealing with the pandemic and
the crackdown by China against
the pro-democracy movement in
Hong Kong — have persuaded
allies like Britain to reverse
course and ban Huawei’s pres-
ence in their networks.
But allies seem unlikely to get
as exercised about TikTok. No
one is saying that it can bring the
American economy or the NATO
alliance to its knees — though it
can lead to a lot of dinner table
arguments over the time and
attention it has sucked away
from other things.
That does not mean there is no
threat. There are worries about
the location-identifying elements
of TikTok, which is why the
American military and intelli-
gence agencies have banned it
on official phones and discour-
aged its use on personal phones.
There is concern about what
other data it could, in theory, pull
from the phones.
The White House has never
discussed the underlying intelli-
gence. The most recent C.I.A.
assessment, the latest of a series,
has been kept classified, though
it has been widely circulated and
much discussed in Washington.
Now that intelligence assess-
ment is playing a significant role
in the debate over whether the
way to solve this problem is for
Microsoft, or another “very
American” company, to use Mr.
sians’ attention,” Mr. Weiss said.
“Sadly, neither Pompeo nor
Trump are credible messengers in
that department.”
Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin have
spoken eight times this year, ac-
cording to a Kremlin list of the
Russian president’s diplomatic
activity — twice as many times as
they spoke in all of 2019.
Soon after The Times first re-
ported the intelligence assess-
ments about the suspected Rus-
sian bounties on June 26, the State
Department prepared a series of
talking points warning Moscow
against making payments to Tal-
iban-linked groups in Afghanistan
to kill American soldiers there, ac-
cording to a U.S. official, who
spoke on the condition of ano-
nymity to discuss internal admin-
istration deliberations on the mat-
ter.
The talking points were to be
used by top officials in the State
Department, including Mr. Pom-
peo and John J. Sullivan, the
United States ambassador to Rus-
sia, in their discussions with top
Russian officials. But the U.S. offi-
cial did not know whether Mr.
Pompeo or Mr. Sullivan used the
talking points and, if so, how and
when they were conveyed.
The comments last week by Mr.
WHITE HOUSE MEMO
Trump’s words, to take owner-
ship.
But the problem extends well
beyond TikTok.
Mr. Trump’s move and the
Clean Networks initiative are
based on a belief that the United
States can control its internet
environment and keep it out of
Chinese hands, including smart-
phones and the fiber-optic cables
that carry data across the Pa-
cific.
Sue Gordon, the former deputy
director of national intelligence,
who left last year after three
decades at the C.I.A. and in other
posts, said that even under the
best of circumstances, a huge
proportion of American data
would flow across Chinese net-
works.
“That’s the reality of an inter-
TikTok would effectively be banned from operating in the U.S. under an order by President Trump.
Trump were the latest instance of
the president evading a potential
point of tension with Mr. Putin,
with whom he has publicly sided
in the past in criticizing his own in-
telligence agencies’ findings on
Russian election interference in
2016.
Since the intelligence on the
bounties became public, the White
House has been criticized for inac-
tion. Intelligence officers put the
information about Russia and the
possible bounties in the Presi-
dent’s Daily Brief in February,
though Mr. Trump has said he was
never personally told about it. Mr.
Trump rarely reads the written
briefing and instead listens to a
verbal summary from a C.I.A. offi-
cer.
Mr. Pompeo is the most out-
wardly loyal of Mr. Trump’s cab-
inet members, and he makes
great effort to avoid the appear-
ance of any differences of thought
or action between them.
But unlike Mr. Trump, he has
publicly condemned some of Rus-
sia’s policies, including its shadow
war in Ukraine and seizure of
Crimea.
Mr. Pompeo is considering a
run for president in 2024, his asso-
ciates say. His aggressive state-
ments against Russia and China
connected world,” she said. “We
have to learn how to live in dirty
networks.”
That will remain the reality
even if TikTok’s operations are
sold to Microsoft. To “clean” the
app, the company would most
likely have to rewrite almost all
of its software. And the existing
code has already been down-
loaded more than a 160 million
times in the United States, and
two billion times worldwide.
If Huawei’s installation of
equipment around the world
poses a high risk, and TikTok a
comparatively low one, WeChat,
according to other officials,
presents a more acute — though
limited — problem.
American officials believe that
China has the ability to monitor
communications on the commu-
POOL PHOTO BY GREG NASH
could in part be an effort to re-
inforce an image of himself as a
traditional Republican foreign
policy hawk, which Mr. Trump is
not.
On Afghanistan, Mr. Pompeo
has been trying to prod the Af-
ghan government and the Taliban
to negotiate a peace agreement
that would allow Mr. Trump to
withdraw thousands of American
troops.
He has avoided directly an-
swering public questions about
specific actions the State Depart-
ment might have taken in re-
sponse to the intelligence reports
on the Russian bounties.
During a Senate Foreign Rela-
tions Committee hearing on July
30, Senator Jeanne Shaheen,
Democrat of New Hampshire,
asked Mr. Pompeo what the gov-
ernment should be doing to push
back against Russia on this issue.
He answered in general terms.
He said that “intelligence col-
lection” could help prevent the
“tactical event” — apparently
meaning the killing of American
service members — from occur-
ring, and that “our diplomats do
make very clear our expectations
and set a set of red lines.”
Asked whether Mr. Trump
should condemn the Russian ac-
nications platform.
WeChat is not widely used in
the United States, except for by
one key group — Chinese-born
software engineers in Silicon
Valley and other high-tech work
forces, according to American
officials. They use WeChat to
collaborate on tough mathemati-
cal, software or engineering
problems, trading solutions back
and forth. Proprietary data can
be scooped up by Chinese intelli-
gence services, an American
official said.
A close reading of American
statements makes it clear that,
so far, much of the risk attributed
to the Chinese apps is theoreti-
cal. Mr. Trump’s executive order
on TikTok was carefully couched
in the future tense.
“This data collection threatens
NG HAN GUAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Secretary of State Mike Pom-
peo’s warning is the first pub-
licly known rebuke from a sen-
ior American official to Russia
over the bounties program.
tions to Mr. Putin, Mr. Pompeo
said, “I’ll leave it up to the presi-
dent what he wants to say to other
leaders.”
Ms. Shaheen cited a Daily Beast
article published the previous day
that said the State Department
had warned Russia that there
would be repercussions if it paid
the bounties. The report offered
no details on how the agency had
delivered the warning, and Mr.
Pompeo did not refer to it in his an-
swers.
Also during the hearing, Mr.
Pompeo said that he had “raised
all of the issues that put any Amer-
ican interests at risk” with Mr.
Lavrov, “whether it’s our soldiers
on the ground in Syria, soldiers on
the ground in Afghanistan, the ac-
tivities that are taking place in
Libya, the actions in Ukraine.”
A public summary from the
State Department about the July
13 call between Mr. Pompeo and
Mr. Lavrov said the two had “dis-
cussed issues of mutual concern,
including Afghanistan.”
The department declined to
comment about the details of the
call.
On July 15, Christopher Rob-
inson, a deputy assistant secre-
tary in the department’s Europe
and Eurasia bureau, said at a
news conference: “I think the sec-
retary’s been very clear that we
have a frank conversation with
Russia with regard to Afghani-
stan. We have taken steps to ad-
dress all threats, and we will con-
tinue to do so. Whether it’s from
Russia or Iran or any other actor,
we will take the steps necessary.”
In response to a senator’s ques-
tion about the bounties during a
congressional hearing on China
on July 22, Stephen E. Biegun, the
deputy secretary of state, said
that any such actions by Russia
“will be met with the most severe
circumstances most severe conse-
quences.”
He also said that any knowl-
edge of something like the boun-
ties program would result in at
least two things: a notification to
commanders that would be ac-
companied by the military taking
necessary steps to protect Ameri-
can service members, and “the
subject of a conversation between
very senior officials, and both gov-
ernments, in no uncertain terms.”
Mr. Biegun did not explicitly
confirm the intelligence on the
program, saying he had to be
mindful of the fact that the infor-
mation “comes from sensitive
sources and methods.”
Robert C. O’Brien, the White
House national security adviser,
echoed Mr. Biegun in an op-ed ar-
ticle published last Sunday by The
Washington Post that listed the
Trump administration’s attempts
to counter various activities by
Russia.
“If recently reported allega-
tions of Russian malign activity
toward Americans in Afghanistan
prove true,” he wrote, “Russia
knows from experience that it will
pay a price — even if that price
never becomes public.”
to allow the Chinese Communist
Party access to Americans’ per-
sonal and proprietary informa-
tion — potentially allowing China
to track the locations of Federal
employees and contractors, build
dossiers of personal information
for blackmail, and conduct corpo-
rate espionage,” the order said.
Intelligence officials insisted
the C.I.A. assessment did not
mean the app was safe or that
installing it on a phone was wise.
One intelligence official said he
had warned his own family mem-
bers not to install it, and some
lawmakers also see TikTok more
as a surveillance program than a
way to watch dance videos.
“It’s all fun and games until
the communists start data har-
vesting,” Senator Ben Sasse,
Republican of Nebraska, said in a
statement.
But the threat of TikTok has to
be kept in perspective, especially
given all of the personal informa-
tion being sucked up, sold and
shared by smartphone apps.
Christoph Hebeisen, the direc-
tor of security intelligence re-
search at Lookout, a company
that focuses on the security of
mobile devices, examined the
TikTok app and came to a conclu-
sion close to that of the intelli-
gence agencies: Beijing does not
seem to have access to the com-
pany’s data on American users,
but it could probably get it if it
wanted to.
But he said that he thought
that was not too much different
than if the American government
obtained a Foreign Intelligence
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Surveillance Act warrant to get
the data of an American social
media company.
“If you are China, you proba-
bly don’t want your government
officials to have Facebook on
their phones,” he said, “and if you
are the U.S., you probably don’t
want your government officials
to have TikTok.”

At Least 17 Die as Indian Jetliner Skids Off Runway During Monsoon Storms
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
NEW DELHI — An Indian jet-
liner trying to land during a tor-
rential downpour in southern In-
dia on Friday night skidded off a
slick runway, crashed into a wall,
tumbled into a valley and split in
half, killing at least 17 people and
injuring scores.
The Air India Express Boeing
737 was a special repatriation
flight carrying more than 180 pas-
sengers from Dubai to Kozhikode,
a city along India’s southwestern
coast in Kerala State. Many
aboard were Indians who had
been stranded in the Persian Gulf
during the coronavirus pandemic
and had been waiting for months
to return home.
Indian media showed injured
passengers lying on their backs in
the hallways of a hospital, trans-
ported there by emergency work-
ers in a drenching rain. According
to news reports, as many as 120
people had been injured.
Air India Express said in a bul-
letin posted on its Twitter account
that 17 people were killed, includ-
ing the two pilots. The captain of
the flight was described by Indian
news media as a decorated former
military officer who had served as
a test pilot for the Indian Air
Hari Kumar contributed report-
ing.
As Traffic Signals Change,
Some See a Token Gesture
By TIFFANY MAY
At one of the most prominent
street crossings in Mumbai, the
little people in the signal lights
have swapped their straight-
legged trousers for triangular
frocks.
The city, India’s largest, last
week installed 240 pedestrian sig-
nals that replaced male stick fig-
ures with female silhouettes along
a stretch of road in the Dadar
neighborhood. Mumbai is the first
city in the country to install such
signals, and officials say the initia-
tive represents a commitment to
empower women.
The government “is ensuring
gender equality with a simple idea
— the signals now have women,
too,” wrote Aaditya Thackeray,
the tourism and environment
minister for Maharashtra State, of
which Mumbai is the capital.
But critics called the move a su-
perficial token that would do little
to fix entrenched issues of gender
inequality in India. While women
have occupied powerful positions
in the country — Indira Gandhi
became India’s first female prime
minister — instances of high-pro-
file violence against women in
public have left many reluctant to
leave home unaccompanied after
dark. And domestic abuse and
sexual assault are the most com-
mon crimes against women and
girls, according to government
statistics.
Women in India also face obsta-
cles in education and employ-
ment. For every 100 boys in the
country, only 73 girls are enrolled
in secondary schools, according to
government statistics. And wom-
en work fewer paid hours than
men, bearing the brunt of unpaid
domestic labor.
“It’s a gesture, but a tacky one,”
said Pooja Sastry, a 32-year-old
urban planner from Bangalore.
“Those stick figures don’t make us
Karan Deep Singh contributed re-
porting.
After Quitting E.U., London Moves to Thwart Scotland’s Calls for Independence
By MARK LANDLER
LONDON — Barely six months
after Britain broke away from the
European Union, Prime Minister
Boris Johnson is increasingly con-
sumed with trying to stop the
breakaway of restive parts of the
United Kingdom.
On Friday, Mr. Johnson sent his
popular Treasury chief, Rishi
Sunak, to Scotland, to tamp down
nationalist sentiment that has
surged there in recent months.
Another top minister, Michael
Gove, went to Northern Ireland
with nearly $500 million in aid to
help frustrated companies deal
with new checks on shipped
goods.
Experts have long predicted
that Brexit would strengthen cen-
trifugal forces that were pulling
apart the union. But in Scotland, in
particular, the coronavirus pan-
demic has accelerated those
forces, forcing Mr. Johnson to
mount an elaborate — some say
belated — charm offensive with
the Scottish public.
The situation is less acute in
Northern Ireland, where reunifi-
cation with the Republic of Ireland
still seems a distant prospect. Yet
businesspeople there, including
those loyal to London, worry they
will be hurt by a costly, bureau-
cratic trading system between
Northern Ireland and the rest of
the union.
Mr. Sunak, who as chancellor of
Force.
All week in Kerala the monsoon
rains have been pouring down. At
least 15 people were killed by a
landslide in the state earlier on
Friday, when a hill of rock and
sludge crashed into a workers’
hostel on a tea plantation.
The weather had been so bad
that the India Meteorological De-
partment had declared a red alert
in three of Kerala’s districts, in-
cluding the area where the crash
happened.
“There is no doubt that extreme
feel any safer on the road.”
“It means nothing for the aver-
age Indian woman, or a female
construction worker crossing the
road for her daily wage job,” she
added. “The crime rate isn’t going
to come down. Domestic violence
isn’t going to come down.”
A brutal gang rape on a Delhi
bus in 2012 shook the country, set-
ting off protests and discussions
of women’s safety in cities. It also
led to stricter punishment for
crimes against women, including
the death penalty for rape.
But sexual assault, harassment
and domestic violence have re-
mained persistent. The country —
which was found to be the most
dangerous place for women when
it comes to sexual violence and
harassment, according to a 2018
Thomson Reuters Foundation poll
of 550 global experts — reported
33,356 rapes and 89,097 assaults
against women that year, accord-
ing to government statistics.
When Mr. Thackeray tried to in-
troduce more night cafes and 24-
hour gyms and movie theaters in
Mumbai in January in an attempt
to add vitality to city life, his politi-
cal rivals from the Bharatiya Ja-
nata Party opposed the plan be-
cause they said it would make
women more vulnerable to rape.
“If culture of alcohol gets popu-
lar, it will lead to an increase in
crime against women,” one party
leader was quoted as saying at the
time.
India’s rollout of the new traffic
icons followed similar decisions in
other countries. Germany and
Australia added dresses to pedes-
trian-crossing signs. Vienna
swapped its solo figures for same-
sex couples ahead of the Eurovi-
sion Song Contest in 2015, and
kept them based on popular de-
mand. In Geneva in February, offi-
cials not only replaced half the pe-
destrian-crossing signs with im-
ages of women — in a mix of pants
and dresses — they also added sil-
houettes of a pregnant woman, an
the Exchequer is coordinating the
British government’s economic
rescue effort in response to the co-
ronavirus, noted that 65,000 Scot-
tish firms were getting 2 billion
pounds ($2.6 billion) in loans to
survive the lockdown. The pan-
demic, he said, had reaffirmed the
enduring value of the union.
“If I look at the last few months,
to me that is a good example of the
union working really well,” Mr.
Sunak said, after touring a factory
in Glasgow that makes genera-
tors. He brushed aside questions
about independence, saying, “I
don’t think now is the time to be
talking about these constitutional
questions.”
The problem is: A majority of
the Scottish public seems to dis-
agree. In an average of recent
polls, 52.5 percent of people say
they would vote for Scottish inde-
pendence. That is a dramatic
swing from the 2014 referendum
on independence, when Scots
voted to stay in the union by 55.3
percent to 44.7 percent.
It is also the first time the polls
have consistently shown a major-
ity for breaking away, said John
Curtice, a professor of politics at
the University of Strathclyde and
Britain’s leading expert on
polling.
The numbers have clearly
alarmed the government. Mr.
Sunak is the fourth cabinet min-
ister to visit Scotland in the last
THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
weather conditions contributed to
this,” Shashi Tharoor, a prominent
member of Parliament from Ker-
ala, said in a televised interview.
“During our monsoons, things can
be very, very difficult.”
Aviation experts said that it was
hard to slow a plane on a slick, wet
runway. According to a statement
by Air India Express, the plane
“overshot” the runway, which was
on a flat hilltop, with deep gorges
on either end.
Pilots call such landing areas
“tabletop” runways. And the run-
Mumbai, India, replaced male figures on 240 pedestrian crossing signals with female silhouettes, but critics call it superficial.
older woman, a woman with an
Afro and two women holding
hands.
In Australia, when Melbourne
added female figures to traffic
lights in 2017, some residents con-
tended it was regressive and het-
eronormative to assume the fig-
ure in pants was male while a fig-
ure in a dress was female, CNN re-
ported.
Other Indian cities have taken
steps to try to increase safety for
female travelers. Delhi, the capi-
tal, made public transportation
free for women last year, a pro-
gram that officials say has in-
creased the number of female rid-
ers and added to their sense of se-
curity. “Safety is produced by
more women in these spaces,”
said Sneha Visakha, a legal re-
month — a list that has included
Mr. Gove and the prime minister
himself.
“The U.K. government is suffi-
ciently worried that it is sending
people north on a regular basis,”
Professor Curtice said. “London
may only have woken up to this in
the last couple of weeks, but it’s a
long-running story.”
Nationalist sentiment was al-
ready building last year, Professor
Curtice said, as Britain hammered
out a withdrawal agreement with
According to polls, a
majority in the north
support walking out.
the European Union. Scots voted
overwhelmingly to stay in the Eu-
ropean Union during the 2016
Brexit referendum.
Pro-independence feelings
have hardened in Scotland during
the pandemic because many peo-
ple there believe that Scotland has
done a better job managing the
crisis than the Johnson govern-
ment in neighboring England.
England’s per capita death rate is
higher than Scotland’s, and it con-
tinues to record more cases.
Under the terms of limited self-
A passenger
being treated in
Kozhikode, India,
after an Air India
Express Boeing
737 crashed while
landing Friday
night. Airline
officials said
there were 190
people aboard.
way at the Kozhikode airport had
a history of safety concerns.
Several international airlines
had stopped flying bigger aircraft,
including Boeing 777 and Airbus
A330 jets, into Kozhikode because
of the runway’s length, which
raised the risk that pilots might
lack enough landing space to stop
an aircraft from plunging off the
end. India’s NDTV channel said
that of all four airports in Kerala,
Kozhikode has the shortest run-
way.
Indian media showed images of
searcher.
Vijayshree Peddnekar, an ur-
ban planner and co-founder of the
Urban Project, said on Twitter
that she had suggested the idea to
Kiran Dighavkar, an assistant
commissioner.
Mr. Dighavkar, who confirmed
the idea came from the urban
planning organization employed
by his municipal office, told The
Free Press Journal that the fig-
ures in dresses were intended to
make people aware of their uncon-
scious bias that assumes men as
the default.
“In subtle ways, the ‘man’ be-
comes the representation for ev-
erything around us,” he said.
In response to criticism that the
installation of traffic lights does
government in the United King-
dom, Scottish authorities are re-
sponsible for matters like public
health, while the British govern-
ment handles immigration, for-
eign policy and, importantly, Mr.
Sunak’s rescue packages to pro-
tect those who lost their jobs in the
lockdown.
Scotland’s overall performance
during the pandemic is open to de-
bate; it is far smaller and more
sparsely populated than England.
Some epidemiologists say it ranks
in the middle of European coun-
tries in dealing with the virus.
Scotland’s first minister, Nicola
Sturgeon, is far more popular in
polls than Mr. Johnson, and her
Scottish National Party stands to
run up a huge mandate in parlia-
mentary elections next May. That
would make it harder for Mr. John-
son to refuse a Scottish demand to
hold another referendum.
Political analysts said the Scot-
tish National Party’s strategy has
long been clear: to appeal to peo-
ple who voted to remain in the
United Kingdom in 2014, but also
to stay in the European Union two
years later.
“To wait until the polls shifted in
Scotland was strikingly naïve,”
said Anand Menon, a professor of
European politics at Kings Col-
lege London, referring to Mr.
Johnson’s effort to woo the Scots.
“The question is, whether this
frantic activity is too little, too
the jetliner’s fuselage cracked in
half but there appeared to be no
fire. The plane’s nose had been
badly smashed and wet chunks of
debris lay scattered over a grassy
field.
Air India Express said that
there were 184 passengers, includ-
ing 10 infants, aboard, along with
four cabin crew members and two
pilots.
The plane skidded off the run-
way around 7:40 p.m. Rescue
crews were still dousing the plane
with water more than an hour lat-
er. Huge crowds surrounded the
wreckage as injured passengers
were pulled out, their eyes dazed,
their faces wet. The rain contin-
ued to pelt down.
“Considering the severity of the
accident, the loss of life was lim-
ited,” M.B. Rajesh, a former mem-
ber of Parliament from Kerala,
told the NDTV news channel.
“That is a relief.”
He said that all passengers had
been evacuated by 9:15 p.m.
Flight radar suggested the
plane may have circled the airport
before trying to land. Survivors
told local news media that the air-
craft bounced up and down many
times before landing.
The runway abuts the edge of a
valley, where the plane ended up.
“The valley is about 50 feet
deep and it’s no surprise that the
not go far enough to improve the
safety of women, Mr. Dighavkar
said in an interview that it didn’t
invalidate the intentions behind
the signals.
“It’s a small gesture toward
gender equality and woman em-
powerment,” he said. “It’s a sign of
how this city thinks. It depicts the
character of the city.”
Shilpa Phadke, a sociologist and
co-author of “Why Loiter? Wom-
en and Risk on Mumbai Streets,”
said that such symbols, when
adopted widely, could play a valu-
able role in reinforcing women’s
right to exist in public spaces, es-
pecially late at night.
“If you have a number of such
lights across the city, it sends a
subliminal message that women
belong there,” she said.
late.”
Mr. Gove, who holds the title of
chancellor of the Duchy of Lan-
caster, faced a different dilemma
in Northern Ireland. Britain’s
withdrawal agreement from the
European Union, analysts said,
actually helped ease nationalist
tensions because it preserved an
open border between north and
south on the island of Ireland.
But the deal came with a trade-
off. Instead of bisecting Ireland,
the border will effectively run up
and down the Irish Sea. Northern
Ireland, though part of the British
customs territory, will adhere to a
maze of European Union rules
and regulations, which means
goods shipped from England,
Scotland and Wales will require
customs checks.
Mr. Gove said the British gov-
ernment would pay £200 million
($260 million) to defray the cost of
this paperwork for companies and
£155 million ($202 million) for a
new “light touch” technology sys-
tem to streamline the process.
“I don’t accept the argument
that there’s a border down the
Irish Sea because Northern Ire-
land businesses, Northern Ireland
people will continue to have to-
tally unfettered access to the rest
of the U.K,” Mr. Gove said during a
visit on Friday to a carpet factory
in Portadown.
His words, analysts said, were
designed primarily to soothe un-
Y A17
plane, after skidding, broke in
two,” Mr. Tharoor said
In 2010, a similar but much
more tragic accident happened at
another hilltop airport just 150
miles up Kerala’s coast, in Manga-
lore. An Air India Express flight
from Dubai carrying 166 people
skidded off the runway, tumbled
into a valley and burst into flames.
The plane in that crash was also a
Boeing 737, and 158 people died.
Like many countries, India has
severely cut back on international
air operations during the pan-
demic. But, at the same time, it
has initiated an enormous rescue
operation to bring home stranded
Indians using its national carrier,
Air India, its naval ships and
countless clerks, health workers,
police officers, sailors and diplo-
mats. (Air India Express is a sub-
sidiary of Air India.)
More Indians have been
stranded in Gulf countries than in
any other region of the world and
the Indian embassies organizing
the flights have given priority to
citizens with medical emergen-
cies, pregnant women, students
and people who have lost their
jobs.
Mr. Tharoor said that many In-
dians on the flight Friday night
had been anxious to come home.
“And now for this to happen?”
he said. “It’s obviously shaken ev-
ery soul in Kerala to the core.”
PRARTHNA SINGH FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Dr. Phadke and Ms. Sastry said
that, ultimately, street lamps and
well-lit women’s public toilets
were more important than traffic
icons wearing dresses.
Ms. Visakha, the legal re-
searcher, agreed that symbolism
without larger change was not
meaningful. She said she had
laughed at the photos of the traffic
lights because they indicated a
lack of understanding of the real
needs of women in cities.
“We finally have a figure in a
traffic signal so now women are
equal to men,” she said of the
stunt. “It’s so patronizing.”
“If the cities continue to be hos-
tile,” she added, “am I supposed to
congratulate someone for point-
ing out that I belong to the city as
well?”
ionists, who worry that Brexit will
distance Northern Ireland from
the rest of the United Kingdom
and hasten its eventual reunifica-
tion with the Irish republic. In as-
suaging the unionists, however,
they said he would antagonize na-
tionalists, whose emphasis is on
fortifying Northern Ireland’s con-
nection with the south.
“Michael Gove is a smooth
talker, but nationalists wouldn’t
believe a word that would come
out of his mouth,” said Monica Mc-
Williams, an academic and former
politician in Belfast. “Those who
voted against Brexit won’t be con-
vinced by him, even if he is hand-
ing out pieces of candy.”
In a week shadowed by the
death of John Hume, the Nobel
Peace Prize-winner and architect
of the Northern Irish peace
process, the reunification of Ire-
land is not an immediate concern
for Mr. Johnson’s Conservative
government. But in both coun-
tries, the prime minister faces
building pressures.
To some analysts, it exposes a
contradiction at the heart of Mr.
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Johnson’s unrelenting drive to
leave the European Union.
“You had a Brexit that took no
account of the wishes of people in
Scotland or Northern Ireland,”
said Bobby McDonagh, a former
Irish ambassador to Britain. “But
that exists in parallel with a Con-
servative Party that celebrates
the United Kingdom.”
A18
For Biden, the Race to Fill the Ticket Is a Saunter, Not a Sprint
By KATIE GLUECK
Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s campaign staff
is making plans to introduce his eventu-
al vice-presidential choice to key party
constituencies. Donors are readying
finance events featuring the still-un-
named running mate —
POLITICAL “date and time to be
MEMO announced.” An in-person
reveal is being discussed.
But as the political
world awaits his announcement, Mr.
Biden himself has not appeared to be in
a big rush — no surprise to those who
know him well.
His first self-imposed date for nam-
ing a running mate, around Aug. 1,
came and went. The first week of Au-
gust, another timeline he publicly
floated, is nearly over, and an aide
confirmed that an announcement would
not happen this week. Mr. Biden has
reached the final stage of his delibera-
tions and is expected to name his
choice shortly before the Democratic
National Convention, which begins on
Aug. 17. And while that is in keeping
with the timeline of the two previous
Democratic nominees, it is at odds with
Mr. Biden’s own words.
“The deadline for a V.P. nomination is
the convention,” said Representative
Cedric Richmond, a co-chairman of Mr.
Biden’s campaign. “He’s very delibera-
tive with his decision-making. It
works.”
This kind of approach — being
openly meditative about the issue at
hand, with a penchant for missing his
own deadlines as he mulls his options
— is in line with how Mr. Biden has
made other big political choices
throughout his career. Those who have
worked with him over the years de-
scribe nonlinear decision-making pro-
cesses with input from allies and family
members, a barrage of questions from
Mr. Biden, and a habit of extending
deadlines in a way that leaves some
Democrats anxious and annoyed, while
others say it brings him to a well-con-
sidered decision, eventually.
That tendency was on display in
2019, as Mr. Biden grappled with
whether to run for president, missing
one self-imposed deadline after another
to make a decision. A similar pattern
played out ahead of the 2016 election,
when Mr. Biden wrestled for months
with whether to run before ultimately
deciding against it, devastated by the
2015 death of his son Beau.
Ahead of the 2004 presidential race,
he engaged in extensive deliberations
about a bid, even going to Boston to
discuss the contest with John F. Kerry,
the eventual nominee, before ultimately
deciding against running. He had a
moment of indecision just before he
announced his run for president in 1988,
too, he wrote in a memoir.
On a different scale, he is routinely
late to his own events, he lingers on
rope lines and phone calls, and he and
his team were slow to formulate re-
sponses during several pivotal mo-
ments of the 2020 contest.
Mr. Biden is not a man who can be
rushed, on issues big or small.
And he views the vice-presidential
pick as an especially weighty matter.
“He knows when what he’s decided
really matters,” said Senator Chris
Coons, Democrat of Delaware. “He
takes time to make those decisions
well. He doesn’t struggle to make those
decisions, he makes them in a series.
He listens to the relevant experts, he
consults the relevant data.”
In this case, Mr. Coons said, Mr.
Biden has all the data he needs — he
knows the results of the vetting process
and his team has heard a range of
outside opinions. And he heads into the
weekend with a few important conver-
sations left, including, Mr. Coons sug-
gested, with vice-presidential contend-
ers and trusted advisers. Mr. Biden is
weighing who would make a “trusted,
Jonathan Martin and Shane Gold-
macher contributed reporting.
Trump Accuser’s Defamation Suit Can Proceed, New York Judge Rules
By NICOLE HONG
A New York judge has rejected Presi-
dent Trump’s bid to temporarily halt pro-
ceedings in a lawsuit filed against him by
the writer E. Jean Carroll, who has ac-
cused him of rape, a ruling that allows
the case to move forward in the months
before the presidential election.
The decision was a victory for Ms. Car-
roll, who sued Mr. Trump last November
for defamation after he called her a liar
and said he had never met her. She pub-
lished a memoir last summer that ac-
cused Mr. Trump of attacking her in a de-
partment store dressing room in Man-
hattan in the 1990s.
Lawyers for Mr. Trump had sought to
put the lawsuit on hold while an appeals
court is deciding whether to dismiss a
similar lawsuit filed against Mr. Trump
by Summer Zervos, a former contestant
on “The Apprentice” who has accused
him of sexually assaulting her.
In their bid for a delay, the lawyers also
said the Constitution gave a sitting presi-
dent immunity against civil lawsuits in
state court.
On Thursday, Justice Verna L. Saun-
reliable, capable partner,” the role, Mr.
Coons said, Mr. Biden filled as Barack
Obama’s vice president.
“He’s taking the time to make sure
that he gets the inputs that he would
value, both a chance to hear from peo-
ple who know well and have worked
closely with the different candidates,
but also time to talk to them directly,”
he said Thursday night, asked where
Mr. Biden was in the process.
Yet as the process has stretched out,
each day has also brought intensive
lobbying, uncertainty for the contend-
ers and, increasingly, visible factions.
State Senator Annette Taddeo of
Florida said she and other lawmakers
and donors had expressed concerns to
the campaign about the possible selec-
tion of Representative Karen Bass of
California, whose record of travel to
Cuba as a young activist and respectful
remarks about Fidel Castro when he
died could alienate voters in Miami.
“It’s our job not just to speak up on
his behalf but to speak up when we
believe we can avoid an error in the
campaign, and that’s what I’ve been
doing,” said Ms. Taddeo, a member of
Mr. Biden’s Latino leadership commit-
tee who spoke highly of her fellow
Floridian, Representative Val Demings,
ders in New York rejected their argu-
ments, pointing to a recent U.S. Supreme
Court ruling that concluded Mr. Trump
could not block a subpoena for his tax re-
turns by the Manhattan district attor-
ney’s office.
The Supreme Court ruling determined
that the president did not possess abso-
lute immunity against state criminal
subpoenas.
Although that ruling pertained to a
criminal investigation, Justice Saunders
wrote that the same legal question was
relevant to Ms. Carroll’s lawsuit —
“whether the Supremacy Clause of the
Constitution bars a state court from ex-
ercising jurisdiction over a sitting Presi-
dent of the United States during his
term.”
“No, it does not,” Justice Saunders
wrote.
She said the Supreme Court’s ruling
applied to “all state court proceedings in
which a sitting president is involved,” in-
cluding those involving the president’s
unofficial or personal conduct.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers, who did not re-
spond to a request for comment, could
appeal the ruling.
PETE MAROVICH FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
and voiced a view privately shared by
other prominent Democrats in South
Florida. She continued, “We need to
hurry up and pick and move on.”
Ms. Bass, who is well liked across the
ideological spectrum of the Democratic
caucus, has said that her views on Cuba
had evolved and that she would not
repeat those comments about Mr. Cas-
tro. A spokesman pointed to a support-
ive statement made by the Cuban-
American mayor of Coral Gables, Fla.,
Raúl Valdés-Fauli, who praised Ms.
Bass’s “commitment to democracy” and
governing experience, and said that
“the Biden-Bass ticket will win Florida.”
Republicans, in the meantime, are
previewing their attacks on several of
the potential contenders, including
Susan Rice, the former national securi-
ty adviser, and Democratic opposition
research is also flying, aimed at cutting
down some contenders in the mix.
Senator Kamala Harris has faced
sharp questioning from some Biden
supporters about whether she would be
loyal to his political agenda — an issue
that has played out publicly and creat-
ed fierce backlash.
“People close to the campaign, to
actually start undermining these candi-
dates, was just wrong and so terribly
For now, the ruling allows the lawsuit
to enter the crucial discovery phase, in
which both sides will exchange docu-
ments and other materials.
Lawyers for Ms. Carroll had requested
that Mr. Trump provide a DNA sample to
determine whether his genetic material
is on a dress that Ms. Carroll said she was
wearing at the time of the incident.
The ruling also means both Ms. Carroll
and Mr. Trump could sit for depositions
under oath in the coming months.
Roberta Kaplan, a lawyer for Ms. Car-
roll, said, “We are now eager to move for-
ward with discovery so that we can prove
that Donald Trump defamed E. Jean Car-
roll when he lied about her in connection
with her brave decision to tell the truth
about the fact that Donald Trump had
sexually assaulted her.”
Some of the findings during discovery
could be disclosed publicly in court fil-
ings ahead of the election in November,
although Mr. Trump’s lawyers could seek
other avenues to delay the case.
In a book excerpt published last June,
Ms. Carroll, a longtime columnist for Elle
magazine, wrote that Mr. Trump threw
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said he would name a running
mate around Aug. 1, then floated the first week of the month. Now, he says,
the pick will come shortly before the convention on Aug. 17. “He’s very delib-
erative with his decision-making,” said a co-chairman of the Biden campaign.
stereotypical, and a throwback to the
1950s,” said Randi Weingarten, the
president of the American Federation of
Teachers. “Joe Biden is being more
transparent than I think virtually any
other presidential nominee I’ve seen
before, but with that unfortunately
comes the politics that these incredibly
accomplished women are now facing.”
As the process has turned openly
divisive, other Democrats wish Mr.
Biden had adhered to his original stated
timeline and named someone by now.
But former Senator Barbara Boxer,
who served with Mr. Biden in the Sen-
ate, said that he must have time to
deliberate, and that it is useful to see
potential candidates tested under pres-
sure.
“Joe is a person who has very strong
views, and he’s very smart about
putting out the positive and the nega-
tive on any issue,” Ms. Boxer said. “All
this chatter about, ‘hurry up, hurry up’
— I think that’s wrong. Because as we
go day by day, we get a chance to see
these women in action.”
Andrew Bates, a Biden spokesman,
said that Mr. Biden “bases consequen-
tial decisions on being informed and
hearing from a wide variety of credible
experts,” arguing that approach stood
in contrast to President Trump’s deci-
sion-making style.
Mr. Biden is now determining his
personal degree of comfort with a nar-
rowed group of candidates, according to
people in touch with the campaign.
Asked in an interview last week if Mr.
Biden had ideas about who fit that bill,
former Senator Harry Reid of Nevada
said: “My knowledge is, I think he
knows within two or three people who
he feels comfortable with. He’ll have to
narrow it down to number one. He’s the
only one who can do that.”
Names frequently discussed in Biden
circles over the last week, according to
interviews with top Biden allies, include
Ms. Harris, Ms. Rice and Ms. Bass,
JEFFERSON SIEGEL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
The writer E. Jean Carroll accused
the president of attacking her at a
department store in the mid-1990s.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020
HANNAH YOON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
along with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of
Michigan. Some supporters also remain
enthusiastic about Ms. Demings and
Senators Elizabeth Warren and Tammy
Duckworth among others, but acknowl-
edge that there is a fluid process that
only Mr. Biden, his wife, his sister and a
few close longtime aides probably have
full visibility into.
In the meantime, signs of a public
rollout have surfaced. Mr. Biden’s cam-
paign is increasingly considering how
the eventual candidate should engage
important political constituencies, and
has sought input regarding the commu-
nity leaders and organizations the
running mate should contact, and what
kinds of events she could do, according
to multiple people familiar with the
proceedings.
In a fund-raising appeal sent Thurs-
day, Mr. Biden wrote, “I’d like to per-
sonally invite you to join me and my
running mate for our first grass-roots
fund-raiser together as the official
Democratic ticket.” Details, the mes-
sage said, will be sent “once they’re
finalized.” Another fund-raising invi-
tation hosted by Women for Biden —
without specifics on date or time — was
headlined, “introducing our running
mate.”
Mr. Biden, for his part, has rejected
the idea that his search process has
been slower or messier than those of
previous nominees.
“It’s been very orderly,” he said dur-
ing an interview that aired Thursday
with members of the National Associa-
tion of Black Journalists and National
Association of Hispanic Journalists.
“Every one of the women we’ve inter-
viewed is qualified. And I’ve narrowed
it down.”
Added Ms. Weingarten, “This is one
of those moments where you have to let
Joe be Joe, and you have to trust that
he knows what he’s looking for and
what he needs.”
her up against the wall of a dressing
room at Bergdorf Goodman, an upscale
department store in Manhattan, and
forced himself on her. She said the
episode occurred in late 1995 or early
1996.
She had kept the black, wool dress that
she was wearing that day, she wrote.
Ms. Carroll announced earlier this
year that she had departed from Elle
magazine, saying the magazine fired her
after Mr. Trump insulted her reputation.
Her contract was terminated early, but
Elle says it was not over her allegations
against him.
Mr. Trump has denied Ms. Carroll’s al-
legations. He said he did not know her,
even though the two were photographed
together at a party in 1987 with Ms. Car-
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roll’s former husband. Mr. Trump later
said that the image was misleading.
He also said that Ms. Carroll had fabri-
cated the episode to sell her book and
that she was “not my type.”
Ms. Carroll is one of more than 10
women who have accused Mr. Trump of
sexual misconduct before he was presi-
dent. Mr. Trump has denied all of the ac-
cusations.

House Can Sue to Force Testimony From McGahn, Appeals Court Rules
By HAILEY FUCHS
WASHINGTON — The House
Judiciary Committee can sue to
force the former White House
counsel Donald F. McGahn II to
testify before Congress, a federal
appeals court ruled on Friday.
The United States Court of Ap-
peals for the District of Columbia
Circuit said in a 7-to-2 decision
that enforcement of congressional
subpoenas was crucial to its
oversight duties over the execu-
tive branch and remanded to a
panel of judges other issues Mr.
McGahn raised in the case. Mr.
McGahn is unlikely to appear be-
fore Congress ahead of the elec-
tion, but the decision endorsed
strong congressional oversight
powers and Congress’s ability to
take the White House to court if an
administration fails to comply
with its subpoenas.
“Effective functioning of the
legislative branch critically de-
pends on the legislative preroga-
tive to obtain information, and
constitutional structure and his-
torical practice support judicial
enforcement of congressional
subpoenas when necessary,”
Judge Judith Rogers wrote for the
court’s majority. “And it cannot
undertake impeachment proceed-
ings without knowing how the offi-
cial in question has discharged his
or her constitutional responsibil-
ities.”
The two judges on the court ap-
pointed by President Trump,
In a Historic Senate Run,
Asking All to Come Along
By ELAINA PLOTT
Marquita Bradshaw, an envi-
ronmental justice advocate who
has run her Senate campaign on a
shoestring budget, won an upset
victory in the state’s Democratic
primary on Thursday, brushing
aside a party-backed candidate
who had significantly outraised
her.
Ms. Bradshaw, a political novice
who grew up in South Memphis,
won by roughly 9 percentage
points to become the first Black
woman to gain a major party’s
nomination for the U.S. Senate in
Tennessee.
She faces an uphill climb
against the Republican nominee,
Bill Hagerty, to claim the seat held
by the retiring Senator Lamar Al-
exander. Tennessee has not
elected a Democratic senator
since Al Gore, 30 years ago.
In an interview on Friday, Ms.
Bradshaw embraced her status as
an underdog.
“Working people showed that
my viability was different,” she
said. “I knew it was going to hap-
pen — I could see the momentum.”
Ms. Bradshaw finished ahead of
four opponents, including James
Mackler, an Army veteran backed
by the Democratic Senatorial
Campaign Committee who, ac-
Matt Stevens contributed report-
ing.
Russia Is Trying to Assist Trump in 2020 Race, U.S. Intelligence Assessment Says
From Page A1
to equate the two countries. Rus-
sia, the official said, is a tornado,
capable of inflicting damage on
American democracy now. China
is more like climate change, the of-
ficial said: The threat is real and
grave, but more long term.
Democratic lawmakers made
the same point about the report,
which also found that Iran was
seeking “to undermine U.S. demo-
cratic institutions, President
Trump, and to divide the country”
ahead of the general election.
“Unfortunately, today’s state-
ment still treats three actors of dif-
fering intent and capability as
equal threats to our democratic
elections,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi
and Representative Adam B.
Schiff, the chairman of the House
Intelligence Committee, said in a
joint statement.
It is not clear how much China is
doing to interfere directly in the
presidential election. Intelligence
officials have briefed Congress in
recent days that much of Beijing’s
focus is on state and local races.
But Mr. Evanina’s statement on
Friday suggested China was on
weighing an increased effort.
“Although China will continue
to weigh the risks and benefits of
aggressive action, its public rheto-
ric over the past few months has
grown increasingly critical of the
current administration’s Covid-19
response, closure of China’s Hous-
ton Consulate and actions on
other issues,” Mr. Evanina said.
Mr. Evanina pointed to growing
tensions over territorial claims in
the South China Sea, Hong Kong
autonomy, the TikTok app and
other issues. China, officials have
said, has also tried to collect infor-
mation on the presidential cam-
paigns, as it has in previous con-
tests.
The release on Friday was short
Maggie Haberman contributed re-
porting from New York.
OCTAVIO JONES/TAMPA BAY TIMES, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
Donald F. McGahn II, ex-counsel to the White House, may have
to appear before Congress, but probably not before the election.
Gregory G. Katsas and Neomi J.
Rao, recused themselves from the
case. Both had served in the ad-
ministration before joining the
bench, and Judge Katsas had
served as deputy White House
counsel under Mr. McGahn.
The House Judiciary Commit-
tee subpoenaed Mr. McGahn in
April 2019 as part of its investiga-
tion into possible obstruction of
justice by Mr. Trump. He was a
key witness for the inquiry con-
ducted by the former special
counsel Robert S. Mueller III into
the possible obstruction of justice
and Russian interference in the
2016 election. Mr. McGahn told the
cording to filings with the Federal
Election Commission, had raised
more than $2 million. The most re-
cent filings available showed that
Ms. Bradshaw’s campaign had
raised only $8,400 by the end of
March.
But she said that in the race’s fi-
nal weeks, her campaign saw a
surge in small-dollar donations
from across the state, which she
attributed in large part to a plat-
form that wove together issues of
environmental and social justice
— issues, she said, that too many
Tennesseans are grappling with
day-to-day and that too few law-
makers are currently addressing.
On the campaign trail, Ms.
Bradshaw wrote and spoke fre-
quently about environmental rac-
ism, drawing on her experience
growing up near a Superfund site.
“People here know how impor-
tant it is for an environmental-jus-
tice voice to be in the U.S. Senate,”
she said. “It’s about the impor-
tance of shaping a just transition
away from pollution. People’s
health and lives are on the line.”
Ms. Bradshaw rejected the no-
tion that Tennessee was a deci-
sively red state. As an organizer,
she said, she was intimately
aware of just how many people
across the state simply don’t vote
— more, she said, than active Re-
publican and Democratic voters
combined.
on specifics, but that was largely
because the intelligence commu-
nity is intent on trying to protect
its sources of information, said
Senator Angus King, the Maine in-
dependent who caucuses with the
Democrats.
“The director has basically put
the American people on notice
that Russia in particular, also
China and Iran, are going to be
trying to meddle in this election
and undermine our democratic
system,” said Mr. King, a member
of the Senate Intelligence Com-
mittee.
Intelligence officials said there
was no way to avoid political criti-
Officials say that
much of China’s focus
is currently on state
and local elections.
cism when releasing information
about the election. An official with
the Office of the Director of Na-
tional Intelligence said that the
goal was not to rank order threats
and that Russia, China and Iran all
pose a danger to the election.
Fighting over the intelligence
reports, the official said, only
benefits adversaries trying to sow
divisions.
While both Beijing and Moscow
have a preference, the Chinese
and Russian influence campaigns
are very different, officials said.
Outside of a few scattered ex-
amples, it is hard to find much evi-
dence of intensifying Chinese in-
fluence efforts that could have a
national effect.
Much of what China is doing
currently amounts to using its
economic might to influence local
politics, officials said. But that is
hardly new. Beijing is also using a
THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONAL SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020
special counsel that the president
ordered him to have the Justice
Department dismiss Mr. Mueller,
and when he refused and threat-
ened to quit, Mr. Trump backed
off. Later, the president ordered
him to deny that he had ever
asked and to issue a memo saying
as such. He threatened to fire Mr.
McGahn if he failed to comply.
The committee sued Mr. Mc-
Gahn, who left the White House in
2018, when the administration di-
rected him not to appear, asking
the court to quash the claims that
Mr. Trump’s aides are “absolutely
immune” from its subpoenas.
The decision was a major loss
The environment and social justice are central to Marquita Bradshaw’s Senate run in Tennessee.
She said that the strategy of “re-
lational organizing” that enabled
her to identify new voters in the
primary would underpin her cam-
paign ahead of the general elec-
tion as well.
The Tennessee Democratic
Party also believes Ms. Brad-
shaw’s candidacy has the oppor-
tunity to entice Republicans who
are perhaps jaded by the party’s
rightward lurch in the Trump era.
“I am always hearing from peo-
variety of means to push back on
various Trump administration
policies, including tariffs and bans
on Chinese tech companies, but
those efforts are not covert and it
is unclear if they would have an ef-
fect on presidential politics.
Russia, but not China, is trying
to “actively influence” the out-
come of the 2020 election, said the
American official briefed on the
underlying intelligence.
“The fact that adversaries like
China or Iran don’t like an Ameri-
can president’s policies is normal
fare,” said Jeremy Bash, a former
Obama administration official.
“What’s abnormal, disturbing and
dangerous is that an adversary
like Russia is actively trying to get
Trump re-elected.”
Russia tried to use influence
campaigns during 2018 midterm
voting to try to sway public opin-
ion, but it did not successfully
tamper with voting infrastruc-
ture.
Mr. Evanina said it would be dif-
ficult for adversarial countries to
try to manipulate voting results
on a large scale. But nevertheless,
the countries could try to interfere
in the voting process or take steps
aimed at “calling into question the
validity of the election results.”
The new release comes on the
heels of congressional briefings
that have alarmed lawmakers,
particularly Democrats. Those
briefings have described a
stepped-up Chinese pressure
campaign, as well as efforts by
Moscow to paint Mr. Biden as cor-
rupt.
“Ahead of the 2020 U.S. elec-
tions, foreign states will continue
to use covert and overt influence
measures in their attempts to
sway U.S. voters’ preferences and
perspectives, shift U.S. policies,
increase discord in the United
States, and undermine the Ameri-
can people’s confidence in our
democratic process,” Mr. Evanina
said in a statement.
The statement called out An-
for the Trump administration,
which has sought to stonewall
subpoenas issued by Congress
since Democrats assumed control
of the House in 2019. The lawsuit
against Mr. McGahn was the first
of several last year in which Con-
gress asked the courts to compel
the administration to cooperate
with its oversight requests. Al-
though the Senate acquitted Mr.
Trump of the House’s impeach-
ment charges in February, the
House has persisted in its sub-
poena lawsuits.
Judge Rogers wrote that presi-
dents have long cooperated with
subpoena enforcement, but Mr.
Trump had taken an “unprece-
dented categorical direction”
when his administration refused
to cooperate with the impeach-
ment investigation. Enforcement
lawsuits may be “an essential tool
in keeping the executive branch at
the negotiating table,” she said.
In the wake of the court’s deci-
sion, congressional Democrats
celebrated the ruling. Speaker
Nancy Pelosi called it “a victory
for the rule of law.” In a statement,
the chairman of the Judiciary
Committee, Representative Jer-
rold Nadler, said it was “a blow
against the wall of impunity that
President Trump has tried to build
for himself.”
Still, Mr. McGahn, who has re-
turned to private practice, is un-
likely to testify before Congress in
the near future. The court re-
manded other issues in the case to
MAX GERSH/THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
ple who say, ‘I didn’t leave the Re-
publican Party — the Republican
Party left me.’ And those are the
other voters that we will be going
after,” said Mary Mancini, the
chairwoman of the state party.
She said that Tennessee’s Re-
publican Senate primary, in which
Mr. Hagerty traded attacks with
his opponent, Manny Sethi, an or-
thopedic surgeon, had reflected
“some of the most divisive cam-
paigns in Tennessee history.”
driy Derkach, a pro-Russia mem-
ber of Ukraine’s Parliament who
has been involved in releasing in-
formation about Mr. Biden. Intelli-
gence officials said he had ties to
Russian intelligence.
Intelligence officials have
briefed Congress in recent weeks
on details of the Russian efforts to
tarnish Mr. Biden as corrupt,
prompting senior Democrats to
request more information.
A Senate committee led by Sen-
ator Ron Johnson, Republican of
Wisconsin, has been leading an in-
vestigation of Mr. Biden’s son
Hunter Biden and his work for
Burisma, a Ukrainian energy
firm. Some intelligence officials
have said that a witness the com-
mittee was seeking to call was a
witting or unwitting agent of Rus-
sian disinformation.
Democrats had pushed intelli-
gence officials to release more in-
formation to the public, arguing
that only a broad declassification
of the foreign interference at-
tempts can inoculate voters
against attempts by Russia, China
or other countries to try to influ-
ence voting.
In meetings on Capitol Hill, Mr.
Evanina and other intelligence of-
ficials have expanded their warn-
ings beyond Russia and have in-
cluded China and Iran, as well.
This year, the Office of the Direc-
tor of National Intelligence put
Mr. Evanina in charge of election
security briefings to Congress and
the campaigns.
Intelligence and other officials
in recent days have been stepping
up their releases of information
about foreign interference efforts,
and the State Department has
sent texts to cellphones around
the world advertising a $10 million
reward for information on would-
be election hackers.
How effective China’s cam-
paign or Russia’s efforts to smear
Mr. Biden as corrupt have been is
not clear. Intelligence agencies fo-
cus their work on the intentions of
the three-judge panel, and the
Justice Department said that it
would continue to fight the sub-
poena in court.
The circuit court also ruled in a
separate case on Friday, concern-
ing the administration’s ability to
divert funds appropriated by Con-
gress to the border wall. The
House had sued the administra-
tion, arguing that it usurped legis-
lative powers by identifying more
money than Congress had allocat-
ed. The decision in Mr. McGahn’s
case established that the judiciary
could intervene in this case as
well, the court ruled.
The Justice Department said it
also planned to fight the border
wall suit.
“While we strongly disagree
with the standing ruling in Mc-
Gahn, the en banc court properly
recognized that we have addi-
tional threshold grounds for dis-
missal of both cases, and we in-
tend to vigorously press those ar-
guments before the panels hear-
ing those cases,” the department’s
spokeswoman, Kerri Kupec,
wrote in a statement.
In 2019, a lower court had or-
dered Mr. McGahn to comply with
the subpoena and issued a
scathing dismissal of the adminis-
tration’s arguments. Judge Ke-
tanji Brown Jackson of the United
States District Court in Washing-
ton called them “fiction,” adding,
“presidents are not kings.”
A three-judge panel from the
“The G.O.P. and Tennessee can-
didates have become so extreme
that they are alienating more Ten-
nesseans every day,” she added.
“We have an incredible opportuni-
ty to make the case to those voters
that there is a better option for you
— that you have a real choice
here.”
And when it comes to the par-
ty’s base voters, Ms. Mancini said
there was already palpable enthu-
siasm about the historic nature of
foreign governments, and steer
clear of assessing if those efforts
have had an effect on American
voters.
The first reactions from Capitol
Hill to the release of the assess-
ment were positive. A joint state-
ment by the Republican and Dem-
ocratic leaders of the Senate Intel-
ligence Committee praised it, and
asked colleagues to refrain from
politicizing Mr. Evanina’s state-
ment.
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida,
the acting Republican chairman of
the committee, and Senator Mark
Corrections
INTERNATIONAL
An article on Friday about Sahar
Fares, a paramedic who died in
the explosion in Beirut, misstated
her age. She was 27, not 24.
SPORTS
An article on Friday about allega-
tions of sexual abuse against the
Olympian George Morris mis-
stated part of the name of one of
the places where an equestrian
athlete said she was abused. It
was the Flintridge Riding Club,
not Academy.
An article on Thursday about the
future of Henrik Lundqvist’s
career misstated the number of
Mr. Lundqvist’s career wins and
shutouts. He has won 459 games
in his career, not 449, and has 64
shutouts, not 63.
ARTS
An article on Friday about street
art on boarded-up storefronts in
New York misattributed the
words on a sign created by an
anonymous artist on Wooster
Street. The words were taken
from Frederick Douglass’s 1852
speech “The Meaning of July
Y A19
court of appeals later reversed
that decision, ruling that the judi-
ciary could not intervene in the
matter. The decision on Friday
from the en banc court revived the
lawsuit and found that the House
Judiciary Committee had stand-
ing.
The decision fell along ideolog-
ical lines. The judges in the major-
ity were Democratic-appointees,
and the dissenting judges were se-
lected by Republican presidents.
Those two judges, Judge Thomas
B. Griffith and Judge Karen L.
Henderson, were the majority on
the panel that dismissed the law-
suit.
In his dissent on Friday, Judge
Griffith warned that involving the
courts in interbranch disputes
could risk transforming the judi-
ciary into a political referee. There
is a “vanishingly slim” chance
that Congress would benefit from
the majority’s decision anytime
soon, at the cost of the public trust
in the judiciary, he said.
Historically, congressional sub-
poenas have expired once a new
Congress convenes. If Mr. Mc-
Gahn does not testify before Janu-
ary, the case itself may become
moot.
“The majority’s opinion is a
Pyrrhic victory for Congress,”
Judge Griffith wrote. “If we ven-
ture into this increasingly politi-
cized territory, we risk undermin-
ing that neutrality and losing the
public’s trust.”
A Democrat is a big
underdog, but says
there are plenty of
those in Tennessee.
Ms. Bradshaw’s nomination.
“What we saw last night was that
Tennessee Democrats were
clearly looking to elevate voices of
women of color,” including the
race’s runner-up, Robin Kim-
brough, she said. “This is an im-
portant time in Tennessee his-
tory.”
Ms. Bradshaw appeared to in-
voke that fact on Thursday
evening as she delivered her vic-
tory speech.
“When we entered this race,
many told us that we didn’t have a
place here,” she said. “And hard-
working Tennesseans said differ-
ent tonight.”
The Sunrise Movement, an in-
fluential group of progressive cli-
mate activists, cheered Ms. Brad-
shaw’s victory in a tweet and
praised her platform. “It’s 2020
and big things are happening,” the
organization said.
Still, for all the enthusiasm Ms.
Bradshaw may have whipped up
among the state’s liberal base,
Tennessee remains one of the red-
dest states in the country, noted
Tom Ingram, former chief of staff
to Mr. Alexander. Mr. Hagerty de-
feated a crowded field by cam-
paigning almost exclusively on
President Trump’s endorsement.
“This is still Trump country,”
Mr. Ingram said.
Warner of Virginia, the Democrat-
ic vice chairman, said they hoped
Mr. Evanina continued to make
more information available to the
public. But they praised him for
responding to calls for more infor-
mation.
“Evanina’s statement high-
lights some of the serious and on-
going threats to our election from
China, Russia, and Iran,” the two
men’s joint statement said. “Ev-
eryone — from the voting public,
local officials, and members of
Congress — needs to be aware of
these threats.”
Fourth for the Negro”; it was not
poetry by an unnamed artist. The
error was repeated in a picture
caption.
THE MAGAZINE
An article on Page 20 about
Covid-19 treatment research
misstates Lynn Schnapp’s posi-
tion at the University of Wiscon-
sin medical school. She is chair of
the department of medicine, not
chair of the medical school. It also
refers incorrectly to the partici-
pants in a conference call. Dr.
Stella Hahn was not in the confer-
ence room with her colleagues
during the call.
Errors are corrected during the press
run whenever possible, so some errors
noted here may not have appeared in
all editions.
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Abolish the Police? Survivors of Seattle’s Chaos Have Their Doubts

From Page A1
In the wake of the killing of George
Floyd by the Minneapolis police, the
Black Lives Matter movement is calling
to defund the police, arguing the criminal
justice system is inherently racist.
Leaders in many progressive cities
are listening. In New York City, Mayor
Bill de Blasio has announced a plan to
shift $1 billion out of the police budget.
The Minneapolis City Council is pitching
a major reduction, and the Seattle City
Council is pushing for a 50 percent cut to
Police Department funding. (The mayor
said that plan goes too far.)
Some call for “abolishing the police” al-
together and closing down precincts,
which is what happened in Seattle.
That has left small-business owners as
lonely voices in progressive areas, argu-
ing that police officers are necessary and
that cities cannot function without a ro-
bust public safety presence. In Minne-
apolis, Seattle and Portland, Ore., many
of those business owners consider them-
selves progressive, and in interviews
they express support for the Black Lives
Matter movement. But they also worry
that their businesses, already debilitated
by the coronavirus pandemic, will strug-
gle to survive if police departments and
city governments cannot protect them.
On Capitol Hill, business crashed as
the Seattle police refused to respond to
calls to the area. Officers did not retake
the region until July 1, after four shoot-
ings, including two fatal ones.
Now a group of local businesses own-
ers — including a locksmith, the owner of
a tattoo parlor, a mechanic, the owners of
a Mexican restaurant and Mr. Khan — is
suing the city. The lawsuit contends that
“Seattle’s unprecedented decision to
abandon and close off an entire city
neighborhood, leaving it unchecked by
the police, unserved by fire and emer-
gency health services, and inaccessible
to the public” resulted in enormous prop- PHOTOGRAPHS BY GRANT HINDSLEY FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

erty damage and lost revenue.

The Seattle lawsuit — and interviews
with shop owners in cities like Portland
and Minneapolis — underscores a key
question: Can businesses still rely on lo-
cal governments, which are now rethink-
ing the role of the police, to keep them
safe? The issue is especially tense in Se-
attle, where the city government not only
permitted the establishment of a police-
free zone, but provided infrastructure
like concrete barriers and portable toi-
lets to sustain it.
The economic losses that businesses
suffered during the recent tumult are
significant: One community relief fund
in Minneapolis, where early protests in-
cluded vandalism and arson, has raised
$9 million for businesses along the Lake
Street corridor, a largely Latino and East
African business district. “We asked the
small businesses what they needed to
cover the damage that insurance wasn’t
paying, and the gap was around $200
million,” said Allison Sharkey, the execu-
tive director of the Lake Street Council,
which is organizing the fund. Her own of-
fice, between a crafts market and a Na-
tive American support center, was
burned down in the protests.
Some small businesses have resorted
to posting GoFundMe pleas for dona-
tions online.
Many are nervous about speaking out
lest they lend ammunition to a conserva-
tive critique of the Black Lives Matter
movement. In Portland, Elizabeth Snow
McDougall, the owner of Stevens-Ness
legal printers, emphasized her support
for the cause before describing the dam-
age done to her business.
“One window broken, then another,
then another, then another. Garbage to
clean off the sidewalk in front of the store
every morning. Urine to wash out of our
doorway alcove. Graffiti to remove,” Ms.
McDougall wrote in an email. “Costs to
board up and later we’ll have costs to re-
pair.”
The impact of the occupation on Cafe
Argento, Mr. Khan’s coffee shop on Capi-
tol Hill, has been devastating. Very few
people braved the barricades set up by
the armed occupiers to come in for his
coffee and breakfast sandwiches. Cars
coming to pick up food orders would turn
around. At two points, he and his work-
ers felt scared and called 911. “They said
they would not come into CHOP,” said
Mr. Khan, referring to one of the names
that protesters gave to the occupied Cap-
itol Hill area. “It was lawless.”
He had to start chipping in for private
security, when his business had already
been hurt by the coronavirus.
But he considers himself lucky — and
he was. Even weeks after the protests,
blocks of his previously bustling neigh-
borhood remained boarded up and cov-
ered in shattered glass. Many business
owners are scared to speak out, Mr. Khan
said, because of worries that they would
be targeted further.
One mid-July morning in the neigh-
borhood, workers in orange vests were
mopping off the sidewalks and power-
spraying graffiti off the sides of build-
ings. Two window repair guys said they
had their hands full for weeks.
A confusing array of security teams
wandered around, armed with handguns
and rifles. Some wore official-looking pri-
vate security uniforms. Others wore cas-
ual clothes and lanyards identifying their
affiliation with Black Lives Matter. A
third group wore all black with no identi-
fying labels and declined to name their
group affiliation.
When a tall man in a trench coat and
hiking boots walked over to question Mr.
Khan, the man spread his coat open, re-
vealing several pistols on harnesses
around his chest and waist. He presented
a badge on a lanyard that read “Black
‘They barricaded us all in here. And they were sitting in lawn chairs with guns.’
Faizel Khan, who owns a coffee shop and is part of a lawsuit contending Seattle let occupying protesters damage property and stifle revenue in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.
Iconic Global, a Washington State-based
private security contractor.)
Mr. Hearns has had bad experiences
with the police in his own life. He says he
wants police reform, but he was appalled
by the violent tactics and rhetoric he wit-
nessed during the occupation.
He blamed the destruction and looting
on “opportunists,” but also said that
much of the damage on Capitol Hill came
from a distinct contingent of violent,
armed white activists. “It’s antifa,” he
said. “They don’t want to see the
progress we’ve made. They want chaos.”
Many of the business owners on Capi-
tol Hill agreed: Much of the violence they
saw and the intimidation of their patrons
came from a group these business own-
ers identified as antifa, which they distin-
guished from the Black Lives Matter
movement. “The idea of taking up the
Black movement and turning it into a
white occupation, it’s white privilege in
its finest definition,” Mr. Khan said. “And
that’s what they did.”
Antifa, which stands for anti-fascist, is
a radical, leaderless leftist political
movement that uses armed, violent pro-
test as a method to create what support-
ers say is a more just and equitable coun-
try. They have a strong presence in the
Pacific Northwest, including the current
protests in Portland.
When the occupation in Seattle started
in early June, Mayor Jenny Durkan
seemed almost amused. “We could have
the Summer of Love,” she said.
After President Trump took aim at the
governor of Washington State and Se-
attle’s mayor on June 11, Ms. Durkan de-
fended the occupation on Twitter as “a
peaceful expression of our community’s
collective grief and their desire to build a
better world,” she wrote, pointing to the
“food trucks, spaghetti potlucks, teach-
ins, and movies.”
The lawsuit by the small-business
owners, filed by the firm Calfo Eakes on
June 24, seizes on such language, point-
ing out that the city knew what was hap-
pening and provided material support
for the occupation.
Matthew Ploszaj, a Capitol Hill resi-
dent, is one of the complainants. He said
his apartment building was broken into
four times during the occupation. The Se-
attle Police were called each time and
never came to his apartment, according
to Mr. Ploszaj. When he and another resi-
dent called the police after one burglary,
they told him to meet them outside the
occupation zone, about eight blocks
away. He and other residents spent
nights at a friend’s house outside the
area during the height of the protests.
The employees of Bergman’s Lock and
Key say they were followed by demon-
strators with baseball bats. Cure Cock-
tail, a local bar, said its workers were
asked by protesters to pledge loyalty to
the movement: “Are you for the CHOP or
are you for the police?” they were asked,
‘It’s antifa. They don’t want to see the progress
we’ve made. They want chaos.’
Rick Hearns, a Black Lives Matter guard merchants paid for
protection, who blamed white activists for damage on Capitol Hill.
according to the lawsuit.
The business owners also found that
trying to get help from the Seattle Police,
who declined to comment for this article,
made them targets of activists.
Across from Cafe Argento is a funky
old auto repair shop called Car Tender
run by John McDermott, a big, soft-spo-
ken man. On June 14, Mr. McDermott
was driving his wife home from their an-
niversary dinner when he received a call
from a neighbor who saw someone try-
ing to break into his shop.
Mr. McDermott and his 27-year-old
son, Mason, raced over. A man who was
inside the shop, Mr. McDermott said, had
emptied the cash drawer and was in the
midst of setting the building on fire. Mr.
McDermott said he and his son wrestled
the man down and planned to hold him
until the police arrived. But officers
never showed up. A group of several hun-
dred protesters did, according to Mr. Mc-
Dermott, breaking down the chain-link
fence around his shop and claiming that
Mr. McDermott had kidnapped the man.
“They started coming across the fence
— you see all these beautiful kids, a mob
but kids — and they have guns and are
pointing them at you and telling you
they’re going to kill you,” Mr. McDermott
said. “Telling me I’m the K.K.K. I’m not
the K.K.K.”
The demonstrators were livestream-
ing the confrontation. Mr. McDermott’s
wife watched, frantically calling anyone
she could think of to go help him.
Later, Mr. McDermott’s photo and
shop address appeared on a website
called Cop Blaster, whose stated aim is to
track police brutality but also has gal-
leries of what it calls “Snitches” and “Cop
Callers.” The McDermotts were catego-
rized as both of those things on the web-
site, which warned they should “keep
their mouths shut.”
Many of the listings include names
and addresses of people who are said to
have called the police. Since the Cop
Blaster post went up, Mr. McDermott’s
shop has received so many harassing
phone calls and messages that some em-
ployees have had to take time off.
A block away is Bill Donner, the owner
of Richmark Label, who let police offi-
cers use the roof of his factory to monitor
the demonstration. His company had
spent 50 years making labels for prod-
olence turned deadly, Councilwoman
Kshama Sawant, who represents Capitol
Hill, defended the protesters’ use of their
own armed guards instead of the police.
“Elected committees of self defense
have historically played vital roles dur-
ing general strikes, occupations and in
mass movements, in order for the work-
ing class and marginalized people to de-
fend themselves and carry out neces-
sary functions in place of the forces of the
state,” she wrote. She has called for the
local police precinct to be permanently
placed under “community control.”
When the mayor sent in police officers
to end the occupation after the shootings,
Ms. Sawant wrote on Twitter, “Shame on
Mayor Jenny Durkan for deploying Se-
attle police yesterday in a brutal attack
against peaceful Black Lives Matter pro-
testers & homeless neighbors at the Cap-
itol Hill Organized Protest.”
Many protesters who remained in
early July milled around a small en-
campment at Seattle Central College,
some with rifles over their shoulders.
The smell of weed drifted through. The
streets were full of moving trucks.
The crowds were gone, but now and
then, the demonstrators gave speeches
about the importance of disbanding the
police. Sometimes the activists spoke
about what went wrong with the occupa-
tion. One woman on a bullhorn argued to
passers-by that the police left too quickly
and that a sustainable police-free region
would have to be built slowly.
These days, storefronts in the neigh-
borhood remain boarded up, covered in
Black Lives Matter signs and graffiti.
Demonstrators still hold evening pro-
tests, albeit smaller and quieter than be-
fore. But the businesses remain on edge.
“This is an ongoing crisis,” Mr. Donner
said on Tuesday. “Protesters are appar-
ently staying until they get some of what
they want. No one knows what level of
city cooperation will be enough for
them.”
But the area is slowly going back to its
old normal. The park and playing fields
have been cleared, and police officers
have returned to the streets. An apart-
ment building that opened this summer
is finally attracting prospective tenants.
A spokeswoman for Mayor Durkan did
not comment on the lawsuit but acknowl-
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Lives Matter Community Patrol.”
His name is Rick Hearns and he identi-
fied himself as a longtime security guard
and mover who is now a Black Lives Mat-
ter community guard, in charge of sev-
eral others. Local merchants pay for his
protection, he said as he handed out his
business card. (Mr. Khan said he and his
neighbors are now paying thousands of
dollars a month for protection from
ucts like whiskey, soaps and natural beef
jerky. Many days during the occupation,
Mr. Donner, who said he was in favor of
police reform, had to negotiate with the
occupiers of the zone for access to his fac-
tory. Twice, he called 911 and was told the
‘They have guns and are pointing them at you and telling you police would not be coming to the area.
The experience of the small-business
they’re going to kill you. Telling me I’m the K.K.K.’ owners seems a universe away from the
John McDermott, who was attacked by protesters when he stopped an intruder in his shop. rhetoric of Seattle’s politicians. As the vi-
edged small businesses’ frustrations.
“Many who live and work in Capitol
Hill and other parts of the city continue
to witness daily protests that are rightly
demanding an end to systemic racism,”
she wrote. “In some circumstances, busi-
nesses and residents have faced prop-
erty destruction in the last two months.”
She encouraged the businesses to file
claims.
 THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONAL SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020 Y A21

Days After Deleted Post,

Falwell Will Take Leave
From Liberty University
By ELIZABETH DIAS
Jerry Falwell Jr., one of Presi-
dent Trump’s most prominent and
controversial evangelical sup-
porters, will take an indefinite
leave of absence from his role as
president and chancellor of Lib-
erty University, the board of
trustees announced on Friday.
The news comes days after Mr.
Falwell posted, and then deleted, a
photograph on Instagram of him
posing alongside a woman with
his pants unzipped and his arm
around her.
Mr. Falwell did not immediately
respond to a request for comment.
Earlier in the week, he apologized
for the photo.
Franklin Graham, who leads
the Billy Graham Evangelistic As-
sociation, defended Mr. Falwell in
an interview on Friday evening.
“He is a great leader and he has
taken this school — it is one of the
largest universities in the United
States,” he said. “He’s done an in-
CANDICE CHOI/ASSOCIATED PRESS credible job. He is a great leader
Mayor Bill de Blasio said a lightning strike was responsible for leaving Upper Manhattan residents without electricity Friday morning. and I certainly support him.”
Mr. Graham said he had not
spoken with Mr. Falwell about the
“I’m convinced Falwell should
step down,” he wrote.
Mr. Falwell is a member of the
board’s executive committee.
Members of the board include his
brother, Jonathan Falwell, who
leads Thomas Road Baptist
Church in Lynchburg; and Mr.
Graham’s son William F. Graham
IV.
Mr. Falwell has been involved in
a number of controversies in re-
cent years.
In May he tweeted Blackface
and Ku Klux Klan imagery,
prompting demands for his firing
and resignations of at least four
Black faculty and staff members.
In April a student filed a class-
action lawsuit against Liberty
over how it has handled the coro-
navirus pandemic.

Blackout Raises Questions About New York’s Power Grid
By MICHAEL GOLD
Three days after a huge tropical
storm swept through the New
York City region and left more
than a million people without
power, much of Upper Manhattan
was briefly plunged into darkness
early Friday morning.
The blackout, which Mayor Bill
de Blasio said was caused by a re-
cent lightning strike, lasted for
less than an hour. But it left tens of
thousands of Con Edison
customers without electricity, fur-
thering worries about the integri-
ty of the region's power grid that
were raised by the damage caused
by Tropical Storm Isaias earlier
this week.
Nearly an hour later, Con Edi-
son reported a separate outage in
Queens, the borough hardest hit
with storm-related blackouts.
The lack of power has exacer-
bated the distress brought by the
coronavirus pandemic, particu-
larly in the city’s suburbs, which
were hit harder by the storm.
Many in the region who have
been forced to remain at home are
still without the phone or internet
service necessary to work re-
motely, or air-conditioning that
can bring relief in a humid New
York summer.
“I really wish Con Ed would get
the memo that they have to be
clearer in their game plan for New
Yorkers,” Mayor Bill de Blasio
Sean Piccoli contributed reporting.
Protest Leader Livestreams N.Y.P.D. at His Doorstep
By LIAM STACK
and ANNIE CORREAL
Derrick Ingram, an organizer of
a group leading New York’s Black
Lives Matter protests, was be-
sieged inside his Manhattan
apartment on Friday while a po-
lice helicopter patrolled overhead,
officers banged on his door and
police dogs waited in the hallway.
The street outside had been
closed off by roughly two dozen
police vehicles and dozens of offi-
cers, including some wearing riot
gear. At the end of the block, Black
Lives Matter supporters had
gathered with bullhorns and cam-
eras to protest what appeared to
be Mr. Ingram’s imminent arrest.
“What did I do? What did I do?”
he said on a livestream posted on
Instagram. “I was born Black,
that’s what I did.”
The tense standoff in the Hell’s
Kitchen neighborhood continued
for several hours as Mr. Ingram,
28, talked to lawyers via Zoom and
communicated with the outside
world over the Instagram video.
He declined to let the officers
enter his apartment without a
warrant. A police spokeswoman,
Sgt. Jessica McRorie, said later
that the officers were there to ar-
rest him on charges that he had
assaulted an officer.
In the end, the police left shortly
after 1 p.m. without arresting him.
said at a news conference on Fri-
day. “People are depending on this
power.”
As of Friday afternoon, more
than a million customers in New
York, New Jersey and Connecti-
cut remained without electricity.
Only about 52,000 of them were in
New York City.
Connecticut was particularly
hard hit. About 400,000 customers
of the state’s main electric suppli-
er, Eversource, still did not have
power, and the company has said
its repairs would likely not be
complete until Tuesday.
Friday’s outage in Manhattan
began around 5:15 a.m., affecting
about 180,000 businesses and
homes in the Upper West Side,
Upper East Side and Harlem, ac-
cording to Con Edison. Photos and
videos posted on social media
showed complete darkness
stretching for blocks.
The utility said the blackout fol-
lowed “a problem on our transmis-
sion system” that caused three
power networks in Manhattan to
“lose their electric supply.”
Service had mostly been re-
stored by 6:45 a.m., though about
60 customers were still without
power in the borough on Friday af-
ternoon.
In the Queens outage, more
than 5,000 customers were with-
out power in the mostly resi-
dential Middle Village neighbor-
hood. A Con Edison spokesman
said that outage was still being in-
vestigated and that it had been
Supporters gathered near the residence of Derrick Ingram, an organizer of Warriors in the Garden.
With hundreds of people watch-
ing on Instagram, Mr. Ingram sat
in the living room of his West 45th
Street apartment while a police of-
ficer pounded on his door and told
him to come out.
mostly resolved.
But Richard Nadler, 88, was still
without power as of Friday after-
noon. His daughter, Evelyn Sti-
dolph, said that Con Edison did
not expect Mr. Nadler’s power to
return until Saturday night.
“He is not happy,” Ms. Stidolph,
54, said of her father, who lives
alone.
Mr. Nadler previously lost elec-
tricity on Tuesday afternoon; his
service was restored almost 24
hours later.
Having a second outage within
three days meant Mr. Nadler was
again facing concerns over the
loss of his refrigerator, where he
stores insulin required for his dia-
betes, and the chairlift he needs to
move between the floors of his
home.
Still, Ms. Stidolph, who lives a
mile away and did not lose power,
said her father was fortunate com-
pared with some of his immediate
neighbors.
“I feel bad for the block because
there are so many elderly here
and they live alone,” she said.
“They have home aides come in
for a few hours, and that’s it.”
Even as the outage on Friday
morning was resolved, much of
Queens remained without power
— more than 28,000 customers,
which accounts for more than half
of the city’s outages.
Across the region, utility com-
panies have said that some busi-
nesses and homes could be in the
“This was an attempt to silence
our movement,” he said. *This
militarized police response en-
dangers the safety of residents in
Hell’s Kitchen and across” New
York City.
dark into next week, as part of
what is emerging as the worst nat-
ural disaster to hit the area since
Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
After the storm, Gov. Andrew
M. Cuomo of New York called for
an investigation into the state’s
utilities, accusing them of not ad-
equately preparing.
“We don’t contract for sunny
day service,” Mr. Cuomo said on
Thursday. “We contract for every
day service.”
The governor has often criti-
cized utilities over power outages
following storms or unexpected
blackouts — including in July
2019, when an equipment failure
at a Con Edison substation caused
an hourslong blackout on Manhat-
tan’s West Side.
Con Edison estimated that it
would not fully restore service dis-
rupted by the storm until Sunday
evening — a timeline that several
city politicians, including Mr. de
Blasio, called unacceptable.
A spokesman for Con Edison
said that the utility did not believe
the outages were connected to
any lingering effects from the
tropical storm.
Mr. de Blasio said that the out-
age in Manhattan appeared to be
“weather-related” but did not pro-
vide more details.
The outages briefly halted serv-
ice on several subway lines — the
1, 2, 3, A, B, C, D, E, F, N, Q, R and W
trains — and brought delays to the
Metro-North Railroad.
JEENAH MOON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
demics,” Mr. Ingram told a report-
er in June, referring to the virus
and racism.
During the livestream, he said
he had never assaulted or threat-
ened anyone. He said he feared
photograph or his leave.
About the photograph, Mr. Gra-
ham said: “All of us in life have
done things that we’ve regretted. I
think he certainly has regretted
that. It was a foolish thing.”
Under the Falwell family’s lead-
ership, Liberty has grown in five
decades from a modest Baptist
college to an evangelical power-
house with cash investments and
endowments of nearly $2 billion,
nearly 46,000 undergraduates
and a campus that sprawls across
Lynchburg and neighboring coun-
EVAN VUCCI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
ties in Virginia.
Jerry Falwell Jr., a prominent
The university was founded by
evangelical Trump supporter,
Mr. Falwell’s father as a bastion of
social conservatism, one that was is the president and chancellor
of Liberty University.
unabashedly assertive as it
trained what it called “Champions
for Christ.”
The decision for Mr. Falwell to Students denounced a
take a leave of absence was made
by the executive committee on be-
photo with his pants
half of the full board, but not all unzipped and his arm
members of the board were con-
tacted in advance of the decision, around a woman.
according to one board member
who declined to speak publicly.
In the photograph, both Mr. Fal- Last year the former editor of
well and the woman have their the Liberty student newspaper
pants unzipped. His hand is close wrote an op-ed in The Washington
to her chest. “More vacation Post calling Mr. Falwell out for si-
shots,” the post said. “Lots of good lencing students and faculty who
friends visited us on the yacht. I spoke out against his support of
promise that’s just black water in Mr. Trump.
my glass.” Calum Best, 22, who graduated
Mr. Falwell responded to criti- from Liberty in May and who has
cism of the photo earlier this week spoken out against Mr. Falwell’s
in an interview with WLNI, a local political activity, called the move
Lynchburg radio station. “Yeah, it “a victory.”
was weird. She’s pregnant. She
“It feels like they did it more be-
couldn’t get her pants zipped and I
cause they were embarrassed,
was like trying to like . . . I had on a
more than because it was the cor-
pair of jeans I haven’t worn in a
rect thing to do,” he said. But, he
long time and couldn’t get zipped
either. So, I just put my belly out
like hers. She’s my wife’s assist-
said, “it’s great that he is gone.”
“He is the one who holds up Lib-
ant, she’s a sweetheart. I should erty’s culture of focus on money,
material well-being, political na-
have never put it up and embar-
rassed her. I’ve apologized to ev- tionalism,” he said. “Without Fal-
erybody. I promised my kids I will well gone, we can’t really change
try to be a good boy from here on any of that.”
out.”
A now-deleted video of a party
on the yacht, titled “Trailer Park
Boys,” showed Falwell family
members and friends in costumes
in an apparent reference to the Ca-
nadian mockumentary series.
Students from Liberty ex-
pressed outrage about the photo
on social media. Several pointed
out that it was in direct violation of
the school’s code of conduct.
On Thursday, Representative
Mark Walker, Republican of North
Carolina and a former instructor
at Liberty, wrote on Twitter that
Mr. Falwell’s “ongoing behavior is
appalling.”
No day is complete
without
The New York Times.
Make sense of the news, every day,
with David Leonhardt.

The
But the tremendous show of force At one point, the officer could be The Warriors in the Garden that he was being targeted for
renewed questions about how the heard saying they were treating formed in New York amid the having filed complaints with the

Police Department is addressing
the protests for racial justice that
have continued in New York for
weeks, and how they are dealing
with those who participate.
The episode came about 10 days
after a transgender woman, Nikki
Stone, 18, was arrested and taken
away from a protest in an un-
marked van in a move that drew
criticism from Mayor Bill de Bla-
sio and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.
Mr. Ingram is a founder of War-
riors in the Garden, group that has
Mr. Ingram “like a gentleman.”
“Why do you think ‘hostage ne-
gotiation’ is here right now?” Mr.
Ingram said to who were watch-
ing the video. “They have dogs. I
can hear the dogs in the hallway.
They’re texting me right now.”
Addressing the audience, he
said he was afraid that the officers
would hurt him if he went outside
or would plant something incrimi-
nating in his home if he let them in.
The video was interrupted at
another point. When it resumed,
demonstrations that began after
the killing of George Floyd. Sev-
eral of its leaders — most of whom
are Black and in their 20s — live in
Hell’s Kitchen and elsewhere Mid-
town Manhattan.
The group’s Instagram follow-
ing has swelled to more than
30,000 users over the course of the
summer as it attracted the atten-
tion of so-called influencers. Sev-
eral of its members have been ar-
rested during the recent protests.
Before he began organizing pro-
Morning
city’s Civilian Complaint Review
Board, which investigates allega-
tions of police misconduct, after
clashes with pro-police protesters
in Bayside, Queens, in July.
The group’s message —
shouted on the street outside Mr.
Ingram’s apartment — has been
“peaceful protest.” Its goal, lead-
ers said in June, is to change the
criminal justice system.
A Newsletter
One of Mr. Ingram’s supporters,
a 22-year-old woman named Bob-
bii, who declined to give her last
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led many marches and rallies
around the city since forming in
June. The police spokeswoman
did not offer details about the as-
sault he is alleged to have been in-
volved in and she said the investi-
gation was continuing.
Troy Closson and Ali Watkins con-
tributed reporting.
he said he believed the officers
were interfering with his cell-
phone calls so every time he got
one, a “detective” intercepted it.
The claim could not be verified.
In a statement issued later, Mr.
Ingram said the officers who came
to his home had not produced a
warrant and had “used threats
and intimidation tactics.”
tests, Mr. Ingram used his own In-
stagram account mostly to talk
about his Haitian heritage and his
diet and fitness regimen. He has
participated in protests despite
having lupus, an autoimmune dis-
ease that he said put him at a
higher risk of complications were
he to contract the coronavirus.
“We are fighting two pan-
name, said that some protesters
occasionally teased him and oth-
ers in his group for their reputa- Sign up for the newsletter
tions as peaceful organizers. nytimes.com/themorning
“Warriors in the Garden —
other people in Black Lives Mat-
ter make fun of them sometimes
because their whole thing is don’t
ever engage with the police,” she
said. “They’re always so careful.”
A22
JAMELLE BOUIE
Trump and Allies Think They Know Who Counts
OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS, the Trump
administration has fought to shape the
2020 census to its political benefit and
the benefit of the Republican Party. In
2018, it sought to introduce a citizenship
question on the census itself, to reduce
response rates among immigrant com-
munities. Then, after that was rebuffed
by the Supreme Court, it tried to exclude
unauthorized immigrants altogether, in
direct conflict with the Constitution,
which calls on Congress to count “the
whole number of persons in each State.”
Now it wants to cut the census short and
deliver it uncompleted — a last-ditch ef-
fort to rig the nation’s politics for the sake
of its exclusionary political vision.
The goal is to freeze political represen-
tation in place as much as possible, to
keep demographic change — the grow-
ing share of Americans who are Black,
Hispanic and Asian-American — from
swamping the Republican Party’s ability
to win national elections with a white,
heavily rural minority.
The census, as Trump and his allies
correctly understand, is a critical source
of dynamism within the American politi-
cal system. A political majority (or in
Trump’s case, a minority) can try to insu-
late itself from demographic shifts and
transformations, but the fact of manda-
tory reapportionment makes that diffi-
cult. New people — whether immigrants
or Americans moving from place to place
— will always mean new politics.
It is ironic, then, that the origin of the
census lies less in principles of demo-
cratic representation, and more in the in-
terests of slaveholders, who wanted po-
litical recognition of their slave wealth,
with constitutional assurance that this
peculiar interest would always weigh on
future apportionment. But in a perfect
example of unintended consequences,
the slaveholders’ push for a census
would help lay the groundwork for the
end of the institution itself.
The decennial federal census comes
out of the fight over congressional repre-
sentation at the Constitutional Conven-
tion. Upon gathering in Philadelphia in
1787, the delegates agreed quickly that
the United States should have a bicamer-
al legislature, in keeping with the Virgin-
ia Plan, James Madison’s blueprint for a
new national government. They agreed,
too, that the lower house of Congress
should be directly elected by voters, with
the upper house chosen indirectly. But
they disagreed, sharply, over apportion-
ment.
Madison’s plan called for apportioning
representation in both chambers of the
national legislature according to “the
quotas of contribution, or to the number
of free inhabitants, as the one or the
other rule may seem best in different
cases.” Proportional representation, he
thought, would lead larger states like
Pennsylvania and his native Virginia to
join the union, since they would have
greater say in government. As would the
smaller states of the lower South —
North Carolina, South Carolina and
Georgia — which were expected to expe-
rience rapid growth as a result of new mi-
grants and the “natural increase” of
slaves.
Of course, it wouldn’t be so easy. Under
the original Articles of Confederation,
each state claimed equal representation
in Congress. Small-state delegates like
those from Delaware and Connecticut
liked that arrangement and sought to
preserve it as much as possible. Against
supporters of population-based appor-
tionment — who noted it was “the rights
of the people composing” the states who
deserved representation — small-state
delegates argued that the federal gov-
ernment was to be formed for states “in
their political capacity, as well as for the
individuals composing them.” Besides,
they continued, larger states would dom-
inate the government if the convention
abandoned the principle of equal repre-
sentation.
The solution, as most Americans
know, was the “Great Compromise,” in
which equal state voting would survive
in the Senate and proportional represen-
tation would prevail in the House of Rep-
resentatives. This was a momentous de-
cision, not just because it kept the con-
vention from falling apart, although it
did, but because it dictated the shape of
the compromise over how to actually
proportion representation.
At the time, Michael J. Klarman, a le-
gal historian, noted in “The Framers’
Coup: The Making of the United States
Constitution,” that “most elite statesmen
believed that political representation
ought to reflect wealth as well as popula-
tion” and “several state constitutions
provided for legislative apportionment
based partly on wealth.” As Charles
Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina
argued, the South’s “superior wealth”
should have “its due weight in the gov-
ernment.” And Northern delegates like
Rufus King of Massachusetts sympa-
thized with this view, confessing he “had
always expected that as the southern
states are the richest, they would not
league themselves with the northern un-
less some respect were paid to their su-
perior wealth.”
If equal state representation — which
disregarded the size and wealth of each
state — was the rule for the Senate, then
proportional representation in the House
had to factor in wealth, including the
ownership of slaves, the major economic
interest for the South. This led us to the
three-fifths clause, based on a proposed
“federal ratio” for taxation under the Ar-
ticles, which ensured slave wealth repre-
sentation. “The three-fifths clause,” the
historian George William Van Cleve
writes in “A Slaveholders’ Union: Slav-
ery, Politics, and the Constitution in the
early American Republic,” “was the ex-
plicitly chosen political-security founda-
tion for the constitutional bargain pro-
tecting the political economy of the slave
states.”
Even still, in its initial apportionment
of the House, the committee responsible
gave the eight Northern states a modest
seven-seat advantage over the five
Southern states, 36 to 29. More impor-
The history of the census
is a lesson in unintended
consequences.
tant, as the historian Jack N. Rakove ex-
plains in “Original Meanings: Politics
and Ideas in the Making of the Constitu-
tion,” the committee left reappor-
tionment up to the discretion of Con-
gress. “The Atlantic States having the
government in their own hands, may
take care of their own interest,” ex-
plained Nathaniel Gorham of Massachu-
setts, “by dealing out the right of Repre-
sentation in safe proportions to the West-
ern States.”
This was a problem for the Southern-
ers, who were already unhappy with
their initial minority status in the legisla-
ture. Discretionary reapportionment
gave the Northern majority control over
the political future of the region. As I said
earlier, there was broad expectation of
rapid growth in the South and its western
lands, including among enslaved people.
Would a Northern majority account for
slave growth in its reapportionment?
Would it give equal political representa-
tion to the migrants of the Southwest? Or
would it entrench itself against demo-
graphic change? “Those who have
power in their hands,” warned George
Mason of Virginia, “will not give it up
while they can retain it.”
The solution was to take reappor-
tionment out of the hands of Congress.
“According to the present population of
America,” Mason declared, “the north-
ern part of it had a right to preponderate,
and he could not deny it. But he wished it
not to preponderate hereafter when the
reason no longer continued.”
Northern delegates resisted, but they
lost. “The apportionment of representa-
tives in the future,” Klarman writes,
“would be based on a census, which the
Constitution would require Congress to
undertake within three years of its first
meeting and then again once every dec-
ade.” And slaves would be counted on the
same three-fifths basis as they were for
the initial apportionment of the House.
To assuage a Northern public that might
object to representation for enslaved
people, a Pennsylvania delegate, Gou-
verneur Morris, proposed a clause to tie
representation to taxation, which had
not yet been under discussion.
Instead of saying outright that en-
slaved people would count for represen-
AFP/GETTY IMAGES
tation, they would link representation to
“direct taxes” (which no delegate ex-
pected the federal government to ever
impose) and link that to a population that
included slaves. “The delegates could
pretend that they were not doing what
they were actually doing,” the historian
Robin L. Einhorn explains in “American
Taxation, American Slavery.” She quotes
the delegate James Wilson of Pennsylva-
nia making this exact point: “Less um-
brage would perhaps be taken” against
“an admission of the slaves into the rule
of representation, if it should be so ex-
pressed as to make them indirectly only
an ingredient in the rule, by saying they
should enter into the rule of taxation:
and as representation was to be accord-
ing to taxation, the end would be equally
attained.”
In other words, as with so much of the
Constitution of 1787, the census is
wrapped up in slavery as an institution of
significant political and economic influ-
ence. And the slaveholder gambit
worked, for a time. As slavery grew to
new heights in the first decades of the
19th century, mandatory reappor-
tionment gave greater influence to the
slaveholding South, providing it with a
strong grip on the federal government.
But what no one at the time of the
founding could have anticipated was
mass immigration to the Northern states
and its territories. Millions of immi-
grants — the bulk arriving from Ger-
many, Ireland and Britain — reached
American shores between 1830 and 1860.
Rather than settle in the South to com-
pete with enslaved Africans, they re-
mained in the North, moving to cities like
New York and Boston or going west to
states like Ohio, Michigan, Missouri and
Wisconsin.
These immigrants changed the face of
American politics. Germans, in particu-
lar, would play a significant role in the
mass antislavery politics of the 1850s.
“German émigrés joined existing radical
movements, the labor movement, land
reform, and abolition while others be-
came free soilers,” the historian Manisha
Sinha writes in “The Slave’s Cause: A
History of Abolition.” German refugees
from the failed revolutions of 1848
“formed alliances with abolitionists and
brought a substantial section of the Ger-
man immigrant population into the Re-
publican Party.”
And the census, of course, helped en-
sure that these demographic and cultur-
al and ideological changes would make
their way into Congress. The decade be-
fore the Civil War saw an influx of anti-
slavery congressmen into the House of
Representatives, first as Free Soilers,
then as Republicans. Indeed, it is the rise
of a popular antislavery politics that sets
up the legislative confrontations and po-
litical realignments of the 1850s that cul-
minated in the election of Abraham Lin-
coln in 1860.
The census is completely unassuming.
Almost no one outside of politicians, bu-
reaucrats and the professionally inter-
ested thinks about it, or about reappor-
tionment. But these provisions are qui-
etly powerful parts of our constitutional
order. Their creation, Van Cleve notes,
meant acceptance of the idea that the po-
litical majority “should be continuously
represented in government, no matter
where that majority was found within
the nation’s expanding boundaries.” It
meant that no existing political majority
could ever fully insulate itself from the
winds of change.
Southern slaveholders were, among
the delegates to Philadelphia, the least
committed to popular government.
South Carolina, to use one example,
would be a planter oligarchy until after
the Civil War. But in their drive to protect
their political and economic interests,
they introduced a mechanism for popu-
lation representation that eventually
helped fuel the forces of abolition.
None of this was inevitable, and it was
certainly unintended. If there is a greater
lesson here, it has everything to do with
chance and circumstance and the contin-
gency of human affairs. It’s a reminder
that in the political realm there are no fi-
nal victories or permanent defeats. At a
time when just such dreams and fears
are pushing our politics to dangerous
places, this is very much something
worth remembering. 0 MARC CHAFETZ, WASHINGTON
LETTERS
The Presidential Debates Debate
TO THE EDITOR:
Re Elizabeth Drew’s Op-Ed article
“Scrap the Presidential Debates”
(Aug. 4): Let’s not.
While Ms. Drew’s criticisms are
fair, they miss a bigger point. For
six decades, the singular benefit of
the televised debates has been that
they let voters see candidates talk
to each other face to face — some-
thing that happens nowhere else in
the course of a presidential elec-
tion.
Particularly in our modern cam-
paigns, saturated as they are in
dark money and social media
advertising, don’t Americans de-
serve some genuine interaction
between the candidates on a na-
tional platform?
The debates are the only time in
a modern campaign when voters
see candidates think on their feet
and speak at length and extempo-
raneously, without the benefit of
script or consultants, armed with
nothing but their character and
intellect. The debates give voters
multiple opportunities to see how
candidates handle pressure.
And the televised debate is a
feature of the American presiden-
tial campaign that other countries
admire. More than 90 countries
now have some kind of leader
debates, and most seek guidance
on organizing them from the Com-
mission on Presidential Debates,
on which I am a board member.
I’ve been involved one way or
another in every televised presi-
dential debate and know full well
that such debates are not perfect
— never have been, never will be.
Winston Churchill believed that
democracy was the worst form of
government . . . except for all the
others. The same truth applies to
the debates.
NEWTON N. MINOW, CHICAGO
TO THE EDITOR:
Debates are like job interviews. I
once heard an executive search
professional say that the worst
indicator of future job performance
is the job interview; the best indi-
cator of future job performance is
past job performance.
Yes, do away with presidential
sideshows, and tell the electorate
the real story.
SUSAN MAGGIOTTO
HASTINGS-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.
TO THE EDITOR:
Here’s an idea: Instead of scrap-
ping the presidential “debates,”
why don’t we actually make the
candidates debate?
Candidates should make their
case using the accepted debate
formalisms (point/rebuttal/cross-
examination . . . ) to minimize
interruptions and digressions.
Portland Police Violence
TO THE EDITOR:
“Violence Is Not an Answer,” by
Chuck Lovell (Op-Ed, Aug. 4), is an
insult to the thousands of Port-
landers who have been indiscrimi-
nately gassed, beaten and shot
with crowd-control weapons by the
Portland, Ore., police night after
night, simply for protesting racist
police violence.
Mr. Lovell, the chief of the Police
Bureau in Portland, claims that “as
police officers, our duty is to up-
hold the rights of anyone to assem-
ble peacefully and engage in free
speech.” But the police in Portland
are making a mockery of the First
Amendment by using excessive
force, violence and intimidation to
suppress free speech in the Black
Lives Matter movement.
The A.C.L.U. of Oregon had to
sue federal agents and police in
Portland for violently attacking
journalists and legal observers, as
well as medics tending to the very
community members whom the
police harmed.
Chief Lovell is right that vio-
lence is not the answer. That in-
cludes police violence. If the police
don’t want us to take their re-
sources (“defund the police”), then
the Portland police and Mayor Ted
Wheeler need to use our communi-
ty’s resources to heed their own
advice, take accountability for
their abuses, respect the Constitu-
tion and ensure that Black Lives
Matter in Portland.
KELLY SIMON, PORTLAND, ORE.
The writer is interim legal director of
the A.C.L.U. of Oregon.
Ah, the Weekend . . .
TO THE EDITOR:
I appreciate your Aug. 7 Weekend
Arts article “6 Things to Do This
Weekend.”
I do have a question, though:
Remind me what a weekend is?
SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020
There should be several debates,
each about one hot policy topic
that the candidates clearly dis-
agree on.
Each candidate gets to assert
two or three affirmative positions
to favor, and each must rebut two
or three positions asserted by the
opponent. Each should bring a
favored policy expert to help make
the case. I care less about the
eloquence of the candidates than I
do about the solidity of the advice
they are getting and the solidity of
their decision-making process.
AUGUSTUS P. LOWELL, DURHAM, N.H.
TO THE EDITOR:
Elizabeth Drew has a point: The
presidential debates are essen-
tially worthless. If anything,
they’re worse than that: They give
an undeserved edge to show-busi-
ness types, to out-to-lunch types
who sincerely believe nonsense
and to seasoned liars, none of
whom deserve to be president of
the United States of America.
The most powerful elected office
in the world shouldn’t go to the
candidate who looks best on TV,
sounds best on the radio or is
quickest with an irrelevant quip in
front of a microphone.
But most people don’t seem to
want to pay attention to the presi-
dential campaign over the long
haul, the “better way” Ms. Drew
suggests. They’d rather decide
early and cruise to the voting
booth on autopilot.
Democracy works when the
voters actually pay attention to
what the candidates say and think
carefully about whether it’s actu-
ally true, or even plausible. That
didn’t happen in 2016, when real
questions about Donald Trump’s
ignorance and dishonesty were
submerged beneath cries of “But
her emails!” We’ve been paying for
that ever since.
ERIC B. LIPPS, STATEN ISLAND
TO THE EDITOR:
Nervous Democrats are drawing
the wagons around their presiden-
tial nominee.
The only inference to be drawn
from the likes of Elizabeth Drew’s
column, and by Democrats urging
Joe Biden not to debate President
Trump, is that doing so will reveal
Mr. Biden’s lack of mental agility,
of which Mr. Biden has already
provided numerous examples.
If Mr. Biden refuses to debate
Donald Trump, millions of voters
will deem him a coward. And they
will be right.
GERALD KATZ, EDWARDS, COLO.
TO THE EDITOR:
If Joe Biden enters that debate
circus, the bully ringmaster in
chief, Donald Trump, will interrupt,
insult, lie to and badger him inces-
santly.
As a candidate, Mr. Biden has
maintained his dignity and contin-
ues to deliver quiet, measured
messages to America, and he could
hold his own in a debate. But why
should he subject himself to that
onslaught? And why give Presi-
dent Trump another bully pulpit?
MERRITT H. COHEN
EAST HANOVER, N.J.
More debating about presidential
debates: nytimes.com/opinion
Black Women’s Rights
TO THE EDITOR:
Re “The Ghost of Margaret Sang-
er” (column, July 26):
Planned Parenthood has long
denounced Margaret Sanger’s
eugenicist beliefs, recognizing the
need to engage in anti-racist work
as a 104-year-old institution.
Covid-19 leaves no confusion about
the effects of systemic racism. Yet
Ross Douthat conflates the dis-
parate impact of public policy on
Black communities with the funda-
mental right of Black women to
control our own bodies. Birthrates
do not equal power, unless you’re a
white supremacist.
Black women know reproductive
control began at the auction block,
when our ancestors’ forced repro-
duction was the engine that drove
the American economy. Whether
we’re attacked for having children
and needing support, or for having
an abortion, we’re damned if we do
and damned if we don’t.
Mr. Douthat insinuates that his
argument may produce “intersec-
tional dilemmas no doctrine can
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resolve.” Our experiences are
intersectional, but there’s no dilem-
ma: Our bodies are our own, and
we won’t apologize for it.
ALEXIS MCGILL JOHNSON
NEW YORK
The writer is president and chief
executive of the Planned Parenthood
Federation of America.
 THE NEW YORK TIMES OP-ED SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020 Y A23

Real Horror Stories of Pandemic Motherhood

ROGER COHEN

Beirut Joan C. Williams

On the
E
MPLOYERS are using the

Potomac pandemic to get rid of

MILAN — A society at the point of detona-
tion suffers from internal rot. This was
true, for example, of the Austro-Hungar-
ian and Ottoman Empires in 1914. I am
interested in two current cases: the
spark that blew up 2,750 tons of ammo-
nium nitrate stored since 2014 in a ware-
house at Beirut’s port, and the pathogen
about one-thousandth the width of an
eyelash that has killed at least 160,000
Americans and infected more than 4.9
million as President Trump has flailed.
That Lebanon was rotten to the core is
scarcely news. Think of that unprotected
industrial explosive, whose detonation
was so devastating, as the ultimate ex-
pression of Lebanon’s “malign neglect,”
in the phrase of my colleague Robert
Worth, a former Times Beirut correspon-
dent, writing in The Globe and Mail.
The protests I witnessed last year in
Beirut were an expression of rage at the
country’s chronic corruption, sectarian
fiefs and endemic waste. The end of the
civil war in 1990 locked in a power-shar-
ing system that looks to a millennial gen-
eration like a license to loot with impuni-
ty. Since the protests the Lebanese
pound has collapsed; the country’s clan
leaders have clung to power; some peo-
ple have survived through bartering.
mothers, and our at-
tempts to protect them
are failing.
The Families First Coro-
navirus Response Act was en-
acted this spring for the express
purpose of providing workers
with expanded family and
sick leaves for reasons re-
lated to Covid-19 and its ac-
companying school and
child care closings. But be-
tween April and June, care-
giver-related calls to our hotline
at the Center for WorkLife Law,
which provides legal resources to
help workers claim workplace ac-
commodations and family leaves, in-
creased 250 percent compared to the
same time last year. We’ve heard from
lots and lots of workers, many of them
mothers. And the stories they’re sharing sometimes we can get
make it clear that Families First is falling them telecommuting
short. as an accommodation
One single mom is ineligible for Fam- under the Americans
ilies First, which excludes health care With Disabilities Act. But if
workers, emergency responders and they need to telecommute to protect the
those who work for companies with over health of a relative, typically they’re out
500 employees. She has no child care op- of luck.
tions for her 6-year-old and 8-month-old. We know that Covid-related job loss
She exhausted all of her paid leave op- has disproportionately affected women.
tions while on maternity leave. “I have We also know that the women we’re
DELPHINE LEE

And lo and behold, BOOM!
The discovery this year of Beirut-on-
the-Potomac is more surprising, even if
America’s malignant state has been evi-
dent for some time. The virus com-
pounded a sickly national condition.
As other developed countries con-
tained the pandemic, the United States
became the pariah nation of dysfunc-
tional government, laughable leader-
ship, tribal confrontation and anti-scien-
tific claptrap. Its own sectarian fiefs, evi-
dent in the war of masked believers and
unmasked virus deniers, made a coher-
ent response to the virus’s disease,
Covid-19, impossible. The United States,
Trump’s “greatest, most exceptional,
and most virtuous nation in the history of
the world,” detonated into a free-for-all.
I write now from Italy, a nation often
held up (somewhat unjustly) as the land
The American spirit gets
a Lebanese makeover.
par excellence of governmental dysfunc-
tion, where the coronavirus struck hard
in March and where it now seems to be
under control. I am an object of curiosity
in this summer sans American tourists.
Italy demonstrates that coherent policy,
science and a measure of discipline can
counter the pandemic. They are alien to
Trump’s America, which elicits a pained
Italian bewilderment.
The United States does not have two
armies, as Lebanon does with its official
military and Hezbollah. But like Leba-
non, it has fractured. The national unity
of 9/11 has evaporated. Its infrastructure
is battered, its health care inadequate, its
been given two options: either resign or
get fired,” she told us. She resigned. She’s
one of an estimated 106 million people
not guaranteed coverage under the act.
Even those who appear to be covered
by Families First often end up losing
their jobs. A single mom wanted to begin
to work part time, taking Families First
leave for a few days each week. She felt
this worked well, but at the time, taking
leave in chunks was allowed only if the
employer agreed to it. Hers ultimately
didn’t — and she was fired. (On Monday,
a federal judge in New York ruled it ille-
gal for employers to refuse intermittent
leaves; the Trump administration will
likely appeal that decision.)
One grocery worker was able to return
to work — provided it was on the same
part-time schedule she had always
worked. But when she asked for that, her
employer cut her hours to zero and
ghosted her, refusing to respond to que-
ries about why those hours had been
eliminated, whether she was laid off,
what was happening. She’s out of luck
unless she can prove her termination
was discriminatory, which is often hard
and sometimes impossible.
We heard from another single mother
whose daughter has a disability that
makes her especially vulnerable to
Covid, and who had successfully worked
from home since near the beginning of
the pandemic. She was fired because her
employer insisted she return to the of-
fice, which she couldn’t do without
putting her daughter at risk. If a worker
has an underlying medical condition,
hearing from aren’t quitting because
they don’t want to work; they’re being
driven out by a combination of family
care requirements and employer rigidi-
ty. And when workers try to push back,
they face a labyrinth of laws that are of-
ten ineffectual.
Figuring out whether you’re eligible
for Families First is so complicated that a
chart explaining the program looks like a
game of Chutes and Ladders. It seems
clear that many states understand nei-
ther Families First nor a companion pro-
gram known as Pandemic Unemploy-
ment Assistance.
Traditionally, workers have been de-
nied unemployment when they leave a
job because of a lack of child care; Pan-
demic Unemployment Assistance ex-
plicitly reversed this until the end of the
year. If calls to our hotline are any indica-
tion, many employers don’t know that,
and some states have set up Byzantine
systems that ask workers to apply for
standard unemployment and get re-
jected before they apply for Pandemic
Unemployment Assistance. (To add to
the chaos, Virginia announced a policy of
denying unemployment insurance to
workers whose kids’ camps are closed —
a clear violation of the act, as the Depart-
ment of Labor recently reiterated.) The
end result is that many mothers find that
once they have been pushed out, employ-
ers derail their unemployment claims on
the grounds that they left their jobs for
personal reasons.
One single mother of two found herself
‘I have been given two
options: either resign or
get fired.’
without day care and had no income for
two months while the state twice deemed
her ineligible for unemployment bene-
fits. Another couldn’t even appeal her
state’s decision because of a faulty inter-
net connection. We hear from low-in-
come women who have to return to work,
leaving small children home alone. Now
they worry someone will call Child Pro-
tective Services and they will lose their
children.
Recently, we’re hearing a lot from
mothers whose 12-week Families First
leaves are running out, and who still
have no option for child care. If schools
aren’t given the resources to open safely
this fall, there’s going to be a blood bath.
As it is, we may well be facing a genera-
tional wipeout of mothers’ careers: Re-
search shows that when mothers leave
the labor force it hurts their economic
prospects for decades, often perma-
nently. A society that pushes mothers out
of their jobs is a society that impover-
ishes both mothers and children.
We’re in this mess because, even be-
fore coronavirus, the legal protections
for working mothers consisted of a con-
voluted matrix of federal, state and local
laws. Mothers who want time and space
for pumping breast milk turn to not-
very-enforceable provisions of the Af-
fordable Care Act. Mothers who need
pregnancy accommodations often turn
to the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Mothers fired when a disabled child’s
health care costs cause their employer’s
insurance costs to skyrocket turn to a tax
law. The lack of straightforward legal
protections is just one of many ways that
public policy fails mothers; the haphaz-
ard nature of Families First is merely one
symptom of a broader problem.
This crisis should help us finally recog-
nize that mothers are raising the next
generation of citizens; motherhood is not
a private frolic like hang gliding. In June,
Senator Cory Booker introduced legisla-
tion that would, in a simple and straight-
forward way, protect all mothers — and
fathers, and other family caregivers —
from employment discrimination. That’s
long overdue but we need much more. If,
God and Wisconsin willing, Democrats
win in November, we also need nation-
wide paid family leave and what many
other advanced industrial countries also
have: neighborhood-based, nationally fi-
nanced child care to replace the patched-
together Rube Goldberg machine that
just broke. 0
JOAN C. WILLIAMS is a professor of law and
director of the Center for WorkLife Law
at the University of California, Hastings,
College of the Law.

Is the G.O.P. Getting Serious About Climate Change?

racial tensions acute. Its leader placed
his fortune above the national interest as
he wasted two months downplaying the
virus, believing that a Dow at 30,000
would ensure re-election. That is what Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, in a phone inter-
Lebanon’s leaders have always done: view.
put their financial interests first. Most churchgoing Christians view scripture as holy.
In Lebanon the collective interest — Earthcare becomes a sacred act of worship. For the
say, in having a functioning electricity younger generation, environmental responsibility and
grid — loses out to individual selfishness. combating climate change is both personal and spiritual.
Public money lines personal pockets. “We, as Christians, have a responsibility to steward the
In the past American individualism, a earth we’ve been given, and we can’t do that without prac-
source of economic vitality, could be sub- tical solutions,” Bethany Bowra, a conservative Christian
sumed into collective determination at in her 20s, wrote in an email. “God gave us a beautiful
times of crisis. The virus proved the ex- world that reflects Him at every turn, and my faith plays a
ception as American self-reliance metas- role in the way I view our responsibility to engage on envi-
tasized into narcissistic self-obsession, in ronmental issues.”
the image of Trump. The American spirit Young Evangelicals for Climate Action is just one of a
got a Lebanese makeover. growing number of faith-based organizations focused on
Democracy in Lebanon is flawed by the environment. Interfaith Power and Light exists to mo-
nepotism and religious division. In the bilize “a religious response to global warming,” and the
United States, special interests and the Evangelical Environmental Network aims to “to be faith-
power of the wealthy have warped repre- ful stewards of God’s provision.”
sentative democracy to the point that it Later this year, a Creation Care Prayer Breakfast,
fails in its essential task. How fair is the hosted by a group of evangelical environmental organiza-
representation? How democratic is the
elective process? Ever less so. This is
part of the rotting of the body politic. Christian environmentalists
The United States is not Lebanon, far
from it. But it is ripe for detonation, the are pushing for action.
more so because it is what Trump seeks.
When I was in Lebanon last October, I tions, is scheduled to take place in Washington and fea-
headed south toward the borderlands ture a keynote address from Walter Kim, the president of
controlled by Hezbollah, near the Israeli the National Association of Evangelicals.
border. Plastic bottles and bags, ineradi- The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication
cable detritus, skittered in the wind. On concluded that Christians cite “protecting God’s creation”
the shoulder, cars careened the wrong MARK WILSON/GETTY IMAGES as their primary concern. They also found that presenting
way up the freeway. My driver muttered environmental concerns in a biblical, “stewardship
in disgust. In Lebanon everyone goes care for creation very seriously, and younger Christians frame” revealed “significant increases in pro-envi-
Ericka Andersen increasingly seek policies that speak to this. Republicans
freelance. They have no choice. Govern- ronmental and climate change beliefs.”
ance is an exercise in crony deals. Credi- have cultivated options that don’t negate the conserva- Not everyone is welcoming of the conservative plans

ble tales of seeping sewage kept the
beaches I passed deserted. The farther
south I went, into the hills, the more I saw
the yellow flags of Hezbollah and its slo-
gans. “Hezbollah always victorious!”
In June, after months confined in New
York, I drove south toward Dixieland. I
was reminded of American vastness. I
crisscrossed rural Georgia and saw a dif-
ferent flag, the Confederate flag, here
and there; and I drove on a stretch of
highway named for Jefferson Davis, the
president of the Confederate States of
America; and I saw Confederate monu-
ments that spoke of states’ rights, but
never of slavery, and claimed the lost
cause was not lost; and I listened to
Americans whose language and values
I
T’S been a long time coming, but some Republicans
seem to have finally gotten serious about climate
change. In June, a handful of senators rolled out a bi-
partisan climate change bill. It is co-sponsored by
Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan, and Lindsey
Graham, Republican of South Carolina.
The bill, the Growing Climate Solutions Act, makes it
easier to pay farmers to capture carbon. It is the latest in a
series of actions Republicans have taken in the past year
to combat climate change.
In March, Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader,
unveiled the first in a series of three proposals to slow the
earth’s warming.
The bills aim to help cut emissions by expanding a tax
credit for carbon-capture technology and draw on federal
funds for research and development.
With a growing majority of Americans concerned about
the effects of climate change — 67 percent say the govern-
tive values they hold dear.
Mr. McCarthy’s approach bypasses government man-
dates and regulations. Instead, it focuses on clean energy,
carbon capture and conservation. Conservatives have
historically opposed expensive, large-scale federal policy,
but these innovative solutions provide tangible steps
without sacrificing conservative principles. This is the
Republican Party’s bread and butter: creative concepts
that don’t require significant mandates or regulations to
meet societal needs.
Other Republicans have followed. This summer, Sena-
tor Mike Braun of Indiana joined Mr. Graham on the
Growing Climate Solutions Act, and Senator Lisa
Murkoswki of Alaska offered a bipartisan bill (with Shel-
don Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island) addressing
the impact of oceans in capturing carbon. These propos-
als come as hunting and fishing groups rally Congress to
pursue bipartisan efforts.
for the environment. A writer at The New Republic called
Mr. McCarthy’s approach “a package only a fossil fuel ex-
ecutive could love.” The Sierra Club balked at a proposal
from the Trump administration related to logging, de-
nouncing it as “cynical exploitation” and “greenwashing.”
A purity standard on climate action may lead only to
more gridlock. Progressive climate activists might con-
sider the upside of these new Republican policies: They
give environmentalists an “in” with churchgoers. And it’s
something Joe Biden and his Democratic colleagues
could work with if they take the presidency in November.
It might be difficult for progressives to believe in the
environmental transformation of Republicans or the reli-
gious. Conservatives have generally shunned taking ac-
tion on climate change. But that is changing.
If polling on what Americans care about is any meas-
ure, they won’t be letting up the fight for conservative cli-
mate change policy anytime soon. It demonstrates that a
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suggested a culture war so intense as to
shred any shared national lexicon.
Lebanese fracture is not American
fracture. My southward journeys were
not really comparable. The United States
has powerful institutions. Its civil war
left “government of the people, by the
people, for the people” alive. But vigi-
lance is needed if, on Nov. 3, Trump’s
America is not to go BOOM.
ment isn’t doing enough to combat it — Republicans may
have had a politically expedient change of heart. Better
late than never. The latest legislation offers the parties a
common ground where meaningful change can flourish.
As a conservative Christian environmentalist, I’ve wit-
nessed how the Republican base of Christian voters has
helped push its leaders in this direction. The faith-based
world is an overlooked source of activism for climate pol-
icy. When it comes to theology, a growing number of con-
0 servative Christians are taking the Bible’s Genesis call to
There is also an opportunity for new partnerships, both
with younger Republicans and with Christian communi-
ties engaged in the climate fight. Because about 80 per-
cent of Republicans identify as Christian, political focus
on climate policy will draw new interest from this charac-
teristically passionate, activated group.
“By focusing on mobilizing Christians on this issue,
other Christians will begin to see people like them engag-
ing, and begin to recognize themselves in that move-
ment,” said Kyle Meyaard-Schaap, a representative for
vocal group of concerned citizens really can lead their po-
litical leaders on the issues they care about.
Democrats have led the way on environmental policy
issues before this, but it’s time for a longer table. Friends
from the other side of the aisle are asking to join. 0
ERICKA ANDERSEN,a freelance writer in Indianapolis,
worked in communications for National Review, the
Heritage Foundation and, from 2009-11, the Republican
House Conference.
A24 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONAL SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020

As Biden Calls Off Wisconsin Trip, Pence Pounces to Fill Perceived Void
By ANNIE KARNI small crowd and getting coverage to 2016 was “a great sound bite,
from local television stations and but I don’t see anything on the
WASHINGTON — When Vice
President Mike Pence, traveling newspapers. Mr. Biden, by con- Hillary Clinton’s ground to reflect what they’re say-
aboard Air Force Two on Wednes- trast, has chosen to stay away and
portray it as the responsible
choice not to visit in ing.”
Democratic strategists said
day, heard that former Vice Presi-
dent Joseph R. Biden Jr. had choice in the face of a public health
crisis and the recommendations
2016 is seen by many that the advantage the party was
scrapped his planned trip to Mil- hoping to get by holding its con-
waukee to accept the Democratic of health officials discouraging as an unforced error. vention in Milwaukee had already
travel in the state. been lost, and that the further
presidential nomination, he saw
an opportunity. A spokesman for Mr. Biden, T.J. downside of canceling Mr. Biden’s
Ducklo, called Mr. Pence’s ton admitted that Wisconsin was speech was negligible. “The
Before he landed back in Wash-
planned trip to Wisconsin “dis- the “one place where we were greatest value of a convention is to
ington after a day trip to Florida,
graceful,” adding: “It’s the perfect caught by surprise,” but disputed bring in large numbers of volun-
Mr. Pence and the Trump cam- analogy for how under his and
paign had already scheduled a po- the Monday-morning quarter- teers from around the state who
President Trump’s leadership,
litical event for the vice president backing that blamed the loss on then become enmeshed in the fall
this White House consistently
in Wisconsin on Aug. 19, according the fact that she didn’t campaign campaign,” said David Axelrod, a
puts their own political interests
to two administration officials, an there. former senior adviser to Mr.
above the health and safety of the
attempt to fill a void they thought American people.” Mr. Biden has led Mr. Trump in Obama. “Even before Biden’s de-
Mr. Biden was leaving in the bat- most polls of the state. And Demo- cision, that advantage has been
In Wisconsin, aides to Mr. DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD/TAMPA BAY TIMES, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
tleground state. Pence also saw an opportunity to Vice President Mike Pence has scheduled an event in Wisconsin crats in Wisconsin said they saw reduced by the scaled down na-
The decision to fly Mr. Pence to troll their opponent for the past no evidence on the ground that ture of the event.”
on Aug. 19, during the planned Democratic convention there. voters wanted the convention to The Biden campaign has tried
Wisconsin during the Democratic mistakes of his party. “You would
National Convention in Milwau- think that for a party that didn’t go on, or Mr. Biden to visit, with to virtually campaign in Wiscon-
kee, simply because Mr. Biden de- show up four years ago, they’d President Barack Obama gave a Four years ago, Mr. Trump won the number of positive cases still sin without holding physical
cided he should not go, under- learn from their lessons and just speech in Madison. They ex- Wisconsin by less than 23,000 rising. events there. Mr. Biden has held
scored the different political wa- show up,” Devin O’Malley, press pressed surprise that Mr. Biden votes. Since then, the state has “As we make calls, people are online rallies and round tables tar-
gers the two campaigns are mak- secretary for Mr. Pence, said of would not simply deliver a speech taken on outsize symbolic impor- thanking us for not coming out geting Milwaukee and other parts
ing. Mr. Biden’s decision to call off his in Milwaukee at a television stu- tance for Democrats as one of the and knocking on their doors,” said of the state, and has sat for six in-
Trailing by a wide margin in the trip to Milwaukee. dio, for the sake of being able to unforced errors of the 2016 cam- Matt Moreno, chairman of the terviews with local television sta-
polls in Wisconsin, the Trump Trump campaign officials noted say he visited, and said they were paign cycle, when Hillary Clinton, Waukesha County Democratic tions in Milwaukee and Green Bay
campaign is assuming there is that the last time a Democratic going to add more events in the the former Democratic nominee, Party. “We are listening to the sci- since April. The campaign also
more to be gained politically by presidential nominee set foot in state to capitalize on the canceled did not visit the state. In her mem- entists.” has 12 senior staff members work-
showing up, speaking in front of a the state was Nov. 5, 2012, when Democratic convention. oir, “What Happened,” Mrs. Clin- He said that drawing parallels ing in Wisconsin.

Weather Report Meteorology by AccuWeather

Sioux Falls 83/ 74 0 90/ 71 PC 91/ 63 PC

60s
60
Vancouver
Vancouver 60s
70s Cities South Bend 83/ 58 0 86/ 68 PC 90/ 72 T
Regina
gina
ina High/low temperatures for the 16 hours ended at 4 Spokane 75/ 55 0 79/ 53 PC 80/ 55 S
70ss Winnipeg
eg p.m. yesterday, Eastern time, and precipitation (in inches) St. Louis 85/ 68 0 90/ 74 PC 93/ 77 PC
Seat
Seattle
ea le Quebec
uebecc
70s
0s for the 16 hours ended at 4 p.m. yesterday. St. Thomas 90/ 82 0.10 91/ 81 PC 90/ 80 PC
Spokane
e 60s
60 H
Halifax Expected conditions for today and tomorrow. Syracuse 80/ 64 0 81/ 63 S 87/ 66 PC
Port
rtl
tl n
tland Tampa 92/ 78 0.07 93/ 78 C 92/ 78 T
Montreal
Helena C ........................ Clouds S .............................Sun Toledo 82/ 56 0 85/ 63 S 90/ 71 PC
Bismarck Tucson 105/ 76 0 106/ 78 S 109/ 79 S
Eu
Eu
ugene Billings
Fargo 70s
70 Ottawa
Burlington
n n
Po
Por
Portland
L F............................. Fog
H .......................... Haze
Sn ....................... Snow
SS .......... Snow showers Tulsa 87/ 77 0.12 97/ 78 PC 97/ 77 S
80s Ma
Manchester
a
I............................... Ice T............ Thunderstorms Virginia Beach 83/ 74 0 85/ 72 T 85/ 72 S
B
Boise St. Paul
St 7
70
70s
80s 70
70s Toronto
To Waco 100/ 76 0 98/ 77 S 99/ 78 S
Pierre
Pie Albany Bost
Boston PC ............. Partly cloudy Tr ......................... Trace
Minneapolis
nea Washington 86/ 72 0 87/ 72 T 89/ 74 PC
Sioux Fa
Falls
R ........................... Rain W ........................ Windy West Palm Beach 91/ 77 0.05 90/ 77 T 89/ 76 PC
Casper
Casper Milwauke
ee Buffalo
Buf Hartford
Ha
a
Detroit 70s Sh ................... Showers –............... Not available Wichita 94/ 76 0.02 99/ 76 W 98/ 75 PC
New York
100+
00+ Wilkes-Barre 79/ 67 0.13 85/ 66 PC 89/ 66 PC
P iladelphia
Phi N.Y.C. region Yesterday Today Tomorrow
Reno 90s Cheyen
nne
e 90s Des Moines
D Cleveland Pittsburgh Wilmington, Del. 84/ 70 Tr 84/ 69 T 87/ 70 PC
Chicago
go New York City 81/ 66 0.41 81/ 71 T 87/ 73 PC
Salt Lake
e O
Omaha W hington
Washington
ng Africa Yesterday Today Tomorrow
Bridgeport 80/ 68 0.04 80/ 67 T 86/ 71 PC
City Indianapolis
a Caldwell 82/ 68 0.04 84/ 68 T 89/ 70 PC Abidjan 79/ 73 0 81/ 72 C 82/ 73 PC
Sa
an Francisco
an Francis Denver
Topeka
Kansas Springfield
e
8
80s Ri
Richmond L Danbury 80/ 65 0.05 80/ 62 T 85/ 65 PC Algiers 91/ 63 0 91/ 64 S 94/ 68 PC
City Charleston
e Islip 79/ 68 0.36 79/ 66 T 82/ 70 PC Cairo 103/ 77 0 101/ 77 S 96/ 77 S
Fresno
no Las
as 70s Collorado N
Norfolk Newark 80/ 68 0.38 82/ 70 T 85/ 72 PC Cape Town 66/ 39 0 72/ 54 W 61/ 49 R
Vegas H Spr
pr
prings
St. Louis Louisville
Ra
Raleigh Trenton 78/ 69 0.15 83/ 66 T 88/ 69 PC Casablanca 82/ 68 0 87/ 73 S 89/ 72 PC
100+ Wichita H Charlott
Charlot
Charlotte
White Plains 78/ 66 0.30 79/ 65 T 85/ 68 PC Dakar 88/ 77 0.07 87/ 80 PC 88/ 80 PC
Lo Angele
Los ele
eles Santa Fe Nashville Johannesburg 55/ 40 0 62/ 41 S 70/ 40 S
United States Yesterday Today Tomorrow
Okkklahoma City Nairobi 79/ 52 0 77/ 51 PC 75/ 53 PC
Memphis Albany 73/ 61 0.07 80/ 62 T 84/ 65 PC
Little Rock Co
Col
olu
lumbia Tunis 88/ 70 0 92/ 73 S 93/ 71 S
San
Sa
an Diego
go Phoenix
Ph nix Albuquerque
Birmingham
m
H Albuquerque 90/ 69 Tr 93/ 68 S 93/ 67 T
Asia/Pacific Yesterday Today Tomorrow
Lubbock A
Atlanta Anchorage 66/ 54 0.01 66/ 54 C 64/ 55 C
100+ Atlanta 91/ 73 0 92/ 74 S 94/ 74 T Almaty 95/ 68 0 96/ 69 PC 87/ 63 R
Tuc
Tucson
100+ Dallas 90s
0 Atlantic City 77/ 73 0.22 80/ 71 T 82/ 74 PC Auckland 57/ 50 0.59 59/ 44 PC 58/ 46 PC
Ft. Worth Austin 99/ 72 0 98/ 73 PC 98/ 73 PC Baghdad 115/ 90 0 115/ 85 W 113/ 83 W
Ell Paso
E Jackson
Baltimore 85/ 70 0 86/ 69 T 89/ 71 PC Bali 82/ 73 0.02 83/ 76 C 84/ 77 S
J
Jacksonville
Baton Rouge 95/ 75 0 93/ 75 S 92/ 75 T Bangkok 86/ 81 0.13 91/ 80 T 91/ 80 T
80s Mobile
b Billings 86/ 56 0 89/ 59 S 80/ 54 PC
Baton
o Rouge Beijing 91/ 72 0 89/ 71 C 94/ 72 PC
Honolulu
olulu
u 80s San Antonio Birmingham 101/ 72 0.01 93/ 74 PC 94/ 73 T Damascus 102/ 68 0 103/ 67 PC 95/ 64 PC
H
Hilo New Or
Orlando
Hou
ouston Orleans Boise 83/ 56 0 90/ 59 S 89/ 57 S Dhaka 92/ 82 0.48 91/ 81 T 92/ 81 T
70s
0 Tampa
a
80s 100+ Boston 76/ 66 0 75/ 67 T 86/ 71 S Hanoi 87/ 79 0.43 92/ 80 T 93/ 81 T
Buffalo 79/ 60 0 83/ 63 PC 84/ 69 PC Hong Kong 92/ 83 0.09 91/ 82 PC 91/ 82 C
Corpus Christi
C Burlington 82/ 62 0 83/ 64 S 86/ 68 C Islamabad 96/ 77 0.32 94/ 78 T 92/ 79 T
90s Miami
40
40s Casper 94/ 52 0 92/ 52 S 88/ 51 S Jakarta 90/ 79 0.28 92/ 75 C 92/ 76 T
Monterrey Nassau Cedar Rapids 82/ 66 0 86/ 72 T 90/ 71 PC Jerusalem 89/ 70 0 86/ 70 S 82/ 68 S
70ss Champaign 80/ 58 0 85/ 68 C 87/ 72 T
80
80s Karachi 92/ 81 0.88 91/ 83 R 92/ 84 Sh
Charleston, W.Va. 86/ 64 0 87/ 63 PC 90/ 66 PC Kolkata 91/ 82 0 92/ 81 T 93/ 82 T
F
Fairbanks 70ss Charlotte 85/ 70 0.01 90/ 71 T 92/ 70 T Kuala Lumpur 91/ 80 0.02 92/ 78 R 93/ 78 PC
Alternating light and dark bands show today’s expected highs. Weather patterns shown as expected at noon today, Eastern time. Chattanooga 92/ 71 0 95/ 71 PC 96/ 73 PC Lahore 96/ 87 0 96/ 83 PC 92/ 81 T
60s Chicago 84/ 64 0 88/ 72 PC 92/ 74 PC Manila 84/ 79 0.12 83/ 78 T 85/ 79 T
50s Cincinnati 81/ 61 0 84/ 64 S 87/ 71 PC Melbourne 50/ 36 0.46 59/ 49 C 60/ 42 PC
Ancho
Anchorage
nchorage H L Cleveland 78/ 58 0 81/ 61 S 86/ 66 PC Mumbai 86/ 79 0.78 87/ 80 R 86/ 79 Sh
Colorado Springs 93/ 62 0 92/ 62 PC 91/ 62 PC New Delhi 96/ 81 0.19 93/ 81 T 93/ 80 T
Junea
Juneau
au COLD WARM STATIONARY COMPLEX HIGH LOW MOSTLY SHOWERS T-STORMS RAIN FLURRIES SNOW ICE Columbia, Mo. 86/ 68 0 87/ 73 T 92/ 73 PC Riyadh 109/ 84 0 109/ 84 PC 109/ 82 PC
FRONTS COLD PRESSURE CLOUDY PRECIPITATION Columbia, S.C. 91/ 73 0.29 92/ 74 T 94/ 74 T Seoul 81/ 72 0.12 80/ 76 R 79/ 76 R
Columbus 82/ 62 0 86/ 62 S 88/ 68 PC Shanghai 96/ 82 0.51 91/ 81 T 95/ 82 T
Concord, N.H. 84/ 59 0 81/ 58 PC 88/ 63 PC Singapore 90/ 82 0 89/ 81 T 89/ 80 Sh
Dallas-Ft. Worth 98/ 78 0 97/ 77 S 96/ 79 S Sydney 60/ 49 1.14 64/ 50 PC 60/ 54 R
National Forecast Dayton
Denver
81/ 59 0
95/ 63 0
84/ 64 S
97/ 64 PC
88/ 70 T
95/ 57 PC
Taipei City
Tehran
93/ 80 0
91/ 68 0
95/ 79 T
92/ 72 PC
96/ 80 S
94/ 75 PC
Des Moines 86/ 73 0 89/ 75 PC 94/ 75 PC Tel Aviv 92/ 76 0 90/ 79 S 87/ 78 S
While there will be more showers and Mississippi Valley and the western Great African Coast will be watched in the com- Detroit 80/ 60 0 83/ 65 S 88/ 71 T Tokyo 91/ 77 0 90/ 78 C 90/ 80 PC
thunderstorms along the Eastern Lakes. Storms over portions of the north- ing week for possible development. In the El Paso 101/ 76 Tr 99/ 76 PC 101/ 76 PC Vladivostok 75/ 64 0.16 74/ 68 C 73/ 69 C
Eugene 82/ 53 0 84/ 50 S 86/ 56 S
Seaboard today, with the potential for ern and central Plains may be severe, with eastern Pacific Ocean, a there could be a Fairbanks 71/ 51 Tr 69/ 50 R 69/ 52 PC Europe Yesterday Today Tomorrow
flash flooding and winds strong enough to high winds, large hail and flash flooding. tropical storm over the next few days Fargo 76/ 65 0.72 83/ 62 PC 80/ 54 T Amsterdam 91/ 64 0 91/ 68 PC 89/ 68 PC
Fort Myers 92/ 76 Tr 93/ 75 C 92/ 75 T Athens 86/ 75 0.06 88/ 75 T 89/ 78 S
knock over trees, the overall storm activity Most areas from the Rockies to the south of Mexico. Fresno 94/ 68 0 99/ 72 S 102/ 72 S Barcelona 84/ 72 0 85/ 74 PC 86/ 74 PC
Gainesville, Fla. 91/ 73 0.46 92/ 73 T 92/ 72 T Belgrade 86/ 66 0.07 89/ 66 T 90/ 66 PC
will be much less when compared to that Pacific Coast can expect dry weather and Berlin 91/ 63 0 94/ 68 S 92/ 68 PC
FOCUS: WEEKEND SEVERE STORMS EX- Grand Rapids 80/ 59 0 84/ 69 PC 89/ 72 T
of Thursday and Friday. Temperatures will sunshine. As high pressure builds over the PECTED There will be a threat for damaging Greensboro 84/ 67 0.07 86/ 67 T 89/ 70 T Brussels 93/ 63 0 96/ 71 S 95/ 71 PC
Greenville, S.C. 86/ 68 0.30 89/ 68 T 92/ 69 T Budapest 90/ 66 0 92/ 68 S 91/ 68 S
decrease along the coastal Northeast, Four Corners region, temperatures will rise thunderstorms on the northern Plains on Harrisburg 78/ 70 0.32 87/ 68 PC 91/ 70 PC Copenhagen 82/ 63 0 79/ 63 PC 78/ 61 T
while heat will build farther west from the as monsoon storms occur and drought Saturday. On Sunday, the threat will shift Hartford 83/ 63 0.01 85/ 63 T 90/ 66 PC Dublin 73/ 57 0.04 65/ 53 PC 65/ 57 PC
Honolulu 89/ 77 0.06 88/ 77 PC 89/ 75 PC Edinburgh 73/ 60 0.03 67/ 49 PC 63/ 54 PC
Midwest to the Appalachians. There will be continues to worsen overall. into the Upper Midwest. There will be Houston 96/ 77 0 93/ 77 PC 94/ 76 PC Frankfurt 93/ 66 0 97/ 70 S 99/ 72 PC
a few storms along the Gulf Coast, where In the tropical Atlantic Ocean, there will thunderstorms along much of the Eastern Indianapolis 79/ 60 0 84/ 67 PC 87/ 71 T Geneva 86/ 59 0 89/ 64 S 89/ 67 PC
Jackson 94/ 69 0.01 96/ 73 C 94/ 75 S Helsinki 74/ 52 0 79/ 57 PC 79/ 55 PC
downpours may lead to urban flooding. be an overall lull in storms in the wake of Seaboard on Saturday. Jacksonville 92/ 74 0.15 93/ 74 T 93/ 73 PC Istanbul 90/ 75 0 89/ 76 S 86/ 74 PC
Storms are also in store for parts of the Isaias. Weak disturbances moving off the Johnstown, Pa. 79/ 61 0 79/ 60 PC 81/ 64 PC Kiev 88/ 61 0 81/ 61 S 80/ 62 PC
Kansas City 87/ 74 0 91/ 76 S 93/ 75 S Lisbon 88/ 66 0 86/ 64 S 82/ 64 S
Key West 94/ 84 0 90/ 83 PC 90/ 82 T London 97/ 61 0 93/ 65 S 93/ 68 PC
Knoxville 89/ 68 0 90/ 65 PC 92/ 67 T Madrid 102/ 73 0 98/ 71 S 103/ 72 PC
Atlanta Boston Chicago Cleveland
10-Day Temperature Trends M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W
Lansing 81/ 56 0 84/ 65 S 88/ 71 T Moscow 75/ 59 0 75/ 58 C 74/ 57 PC
Las Vegas 102/ 76 0 103/ 80 S 105/ 79 S Nice 84/ 75 0 85/ 76 S 86/ 75 S
High and low Record Lexington 84/ 60 0 86/ 60 PC 88/ 67 PC Oslo 75/ 54 0 77/ 58 C 73/ 57 PC
High Little Rock 86/ 70 Tr 94/ 74 PC 95/ 75 S Paris 97/ 64 0 99/ 71 S 99/ 71 PC
temperatures Forecast Los Angeles 81/ 62 0 82/ 62 PC 82/ 60 S Prague 84/ 59 0 88/ 62 S 87/ 64 PC
for the past range 100° 100° Louisville 84/ 63 0 88/ 68 PC 90/ 73 PC Rome 85/ 70 0 93/ 71 S 90/ 70 S
Normal St. Petersburg 74/ 62 0 77/ 61 PC 76/ 62 S
Lubbock 100/ 73 0 96/ 73 PC 96/ 72 PC
five days and High Actual High 90° 90° 90° 90° Madison 80/ 63 0 83/ 69 T 88/ 72 C Stockholm 82/ 55 0 81/ 60 S 74/ 52 T
forecasts for High Memphis 91/ 72 0 94/ 75 PC 94/ 76 C Vienna 90/ 64 0 90/ 65 PC 89/ 66 PC
80° 80° 80° 80° Miami 94/ 79 0 91/ 79 PC 91/ 78 PC Warsaw 88/ 66 0 88/ 63 PC 87/ 63 T
the next five. Low
Milwaukee 78/ 66 0 83/ 71 PC 87/ 71 PC
North America Yesterday Today Tomorrow
Low 70° 70° 70° 70° Mpls.-St. Paul 82/ 72 Tr 89/ 72 PC 88/ 66 T
Yesterday’s highs Mobile 91/ 71 0 92/ 71 S 93/ 73 PC Acapulco 86/ 78 0.10 86/ 78 T 88/ 78 T
and lows are based Low Bermuda 86/ 79 0.04 87/ 79 PC 87/ 78 S
60° 60° 60° 60° Monterey, Calif. 71/ 59 0 72/ 59 PC 72/ 58 PC
on preliminary data. Calgary 64/ 48 0.07 66/ 44 T 69/ 50 S
Nashville 90/ 67 0 93/ 70 PC 93/ 73 PC
Low New Orleans 93/ 77 0 93/ 77 PC 92/ 78 PC Edmonton 64/ 50 0.37 65/ 46 PC 69/ 49 W
50° 50°
Norfolk 86/ 73 0 88/ 73 T 88/ 74 S Guadalajara 83/ 63 0 84/ 61 T 78/ 61 T
Oklahoma City 91/ 72 Tr 94/ 74 S 95/ 75 S Havana 91/ 75 0 90/ 75 T 90/ 75 T
Omaha 85/ 75 0 93/ 76 PC 96/ 69 PC Kingston 91/ 81 0 92/ 80 T 93/ 80 T
Dallas Denver Detroit Ft. Myers Houston Los Angeles Orlando 93/ 75 0 93/ 74 T 92/ 75 T Martinique 90/ 81 0.02 90/ 79 Sh 89/ 78 PC
M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W Philadelphia 82/ 70 0.18 85/ 72 T 89/ 73 PC Mexico City 75/ 56 0 70/ 56 T 69/ 56 T
Phoenix 109/ 84 0 111/ 84 S 112/ 86 S Monterrey 88/ 72 0.05 91/ 72 T 92/ 70 PC
Pittsburgh 84/ 62 0 84/ 62 PC 86/ 64 PC Montreal 81/ 61 0 83/ 66 S 81/ 68 C
Portland, Me. 81/ 61 0 78/ 61 PC 82/ 67 S Nassau 88/ 79 0.01 86/ 79 PC 89/ 80 PC
Portland, Ore. 78/ 59 0 78/ 55 PC 84/ 58 S Panama City 90/ 73 0 88/ 76 T 87/ 76 T
100° 100° 100° Quebec City 79/ 55 0 81/ 61 S 78/ 62 PC
Providence 82/ 65 Tr 82/ 64 T 88/ 69 PC
Raleigh 87/ 71 0 87/ 70 T 91/ 71 T Santo Domingo 90/ 75 0 91/ 76 T 91/ 75 T
90° 90° 90° 90° 90° 90° Toronto 77/ 59 0 82/ 65 S 86/ 71 PC
Reno 89/ 61 0 95/ 62 S 98/ 64 S
Richmond 84/ 71 Tr 87/ 70 T 90/ 71 PC Vancouver 66/ 57 0.02 71/ 55 PC 71/ 56 S
80° 80° 80° 80° 80° 80° Rochester 77/ 58 Tr 81/ 59 PC 85/ 65 PC Winnipeg 81/ 63 0 83/ 60 S 77/ 54 Sh
Sacramento 92/ 61 0 96/ 63 S 98/ 63 S South America Yesterday Today Tomorrow
70° 70° 70° 70° 70° Salt Lake City 93/ 65 0 95/ 66 S 94/ 68 S
San Antonio 99/ 77 0 98/ 77 PC 100/ 77 S Bogota 64/ 52 0.09 65/ 51 T 66/ 50 T
60° 60° 60° San Diego 74/ 65 0.04 75/ 65 PC 74/ 64 PC Buenos Aires 54/ 50 0.55 64/ 57 C 67/ 58 C
San Francisco 73/ 57 0 75/ 58 S 76/ 57 PC Caracas 87/ 74 0.49 89/ 74 T 88/ 75 Sh
50° 50° San Jose 81/ 61 0 84/ 63 S 85/ 62 S Lima 63/ 54 0 65/ 59 S 65/ 58 PC
San Juan 90/ 81 0.09 91/ 80 PC 91/ 80 T Quito 65/ 48 0 74/ 47 PC 74/ 48 PC
Savannah 93/ 74 0.01 95/ 74 T 93/ 73 PC Recife 82/ 77 0.02 83/ 72 PC 83/ 73 PC
Seattle 75/ 58 0 74/ 54 PC 77/ 56 PC Rio de Janeiro 77/ 64 0 77/ 66 S 77/ 66 S
Miami Minneapolis New York Orlando Philadelphia Phoenix Santiago 68/ 41 0 73/ 46 PC 65/ 40 PC
Shreveport 93/ 74 0 95/ 74 S 96/ 76 S
M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W Sao Paulo 75/ 55 0 74/ 56 C 75/ 56 PC

110°
Highlight: Heat Returns to the Northeast
100°
Stifling heat and humidity
90° 90° 90° 90° 90° 90°
will return to the Ohio
80° 80° 80° 80° 80° 80° Valley, Great Lakes,
70° 70° 70° 70° 70° Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.
The heat will begin to build
60° 60° 60°
during the weekend, but
50° temperatures peak on
Boston
Monday and Tuesday. The Rochester
Portland, Ore. San Diego San Francisco Seattle Tampa Washington heat will pose dangers for
M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W those involved in clean-up Detroit
New York
efforts and for those still
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100° air-conditioning. Afternoon Washington
90° 90° 90° 90° 90° temperatures will feel like
they are in the triple digits HOT AND Richmond
80° 80° 80° 80° 80° 80° STICKY AIR
for many.
70° 70° 70° 70° 70° 70°

60° 60° 60° 60° 60°

50° 50° 50°

3 MEDIA
Three executives have left
WarnerMedia in a shake-up
by its new chief, who has
wasted no time reorganizing.
TECH ECONOMY MEDIA
Renters Are Quickly Losing Their Shelters in a Storm
By CONOR DOUGHERTY
For the 108 million people who live
in a rental home or apartment,
Aug. 1 was a grim milestone. It
marked the first time rent was due
after much of the nation’s eco-
nomic response to the coro-
navirus pandemic had expired.
The lapse of expanded unem-
ployment benefits and federal,
state and local eviction moratori-
ums is forcing lawmakers to fig-
ure out how to extend those pro-
tections. It has also left experts re-
sorting to natural disaster meta-
phors (“avalanche,” “tsunami”) to
describe the scale of potential
evictions.
Unlike the U.S. economy, which
was enjoying the longest expan-
sion on record, housing — specifi-
cally rental housing — was trou-
bled before the virus hit, with
problems going back decades. A
little less than four million evic-
tions are filed each year, one in
four tenant households spends
about half its pretax income on
rent, and each night some 200,000
people sleep in their cars, on
streets or under bridges.
Those were the statistics in
good times. Now, with unemploy-
ment above 10 percent and pro-
jected to stay there through at
least next year, tens of millions of
households could be at risk of
eviction in the coming months.
Even if only a fraction of those
evictions take place, it would still
be several times the current pace
CONTINUED ON PAGE B3
FINANCE
Trump’s orders on WeChat and TikTok
are uncertain. That may be the point.
By ANA SWANSON
WASHINGTON — President
Trump’s sudden decision late
Thursday to restrict two popular
Chinese social media services
from the United States has creat-
ed confusion about how broad the
bans on doing business with China
could ultimately be.
That confusion may be part of
the point.
Citing national security con-
cerns, the Trump administration
announced that it would bar peo-
ple and property within U.S. juris-
A county constable in Phoenix serving an eviction notice in July. Rental housing was troubled before the pandemic.
6 YOUR MONEY ADVISER
Students who are struggling
to make ends meet may find
it tough to shoulder the many
indirect costs of college.
dictions from carrying out “trans-
actions” with WeChat and TikTok,
the two Chinese-owned apps, af-
ter 45 days. But the White House
did not define what those transac-
tions included, leaving companies
bewildered about whether they
may be forced to fundamentally
change their business within a
matter of weeks.
Stoking this kind of uncertainty
is something that the Trump ad-
ministration has not been apolo-
getic about in the past. Some
CONTINUED ON PAGE B5
In going after WeChat, Trump takes
aim at China’s bridge to the world.
By PAUL MOZUR
and RAYMOND ZHONG
TAIPEI, Taiwan — In China, We-
Chat does more than any app
rightfully should. People use it to
talk, shop, share photos, pay bills,
get their news and send money.
With much of the Chinese inter-
net locked behind a wall of filters
and censors, the country’s every-
thing app is also one of the few dig-
ital bridges connecting China to
the rest of the world. It is the way
exchange students talk to their
families, immigrants keep up with
CAITLIN O’HARA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
8 SPORTS
In Indonesia, badminton is
more than just a game. It’s a
source of enormous national
pride and Olympic medals.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020 B1
Y
relatives and much of the Chinese
diaspora swaps memes, gossip
and videos.
Now, that bridge is threatening
to crumble.
Late Thursday, the Trump ad-
ministration issued an executive
order that could pull China’s most
important app from Apple and
Google stores across the world
and prevent American companies
from doing business with its par-
ent company, Tencent. Light on
details, the decree could prove
CONTINUED ON PAGE B4
Black Workers Will Hurt
Without Jobless Benefits
By Emily Badger, Alicia Parlapiano bama can receive is $275 a week.
and Quoctrung Bui Workers still covered under the
When Congress expanded un- expanded gig worker categories
employment insurance this year would potentially get even less.
to meet the staggering economic “It’s just a pretty straightfor-
toll of the pandemic, it had one ward fact that one of the biggest
less-noticed effect: It made Amer- problems facing unemployed
ica’s fractured jobless benefits Black workers is that they live in
system more fair. places with particularly inade-
Starting in April, the federal
government provided $600
weekly payments to unemployed
workers in addition to state job-
A weekly $600 sum
less benefits, smoothing sharp dif- smoothed differences
ferences between more and less
generous states. It also broadly between states.
expanded who qualified, remov-
ing barriers for lower-wage, sea-
sonal and gig workers, who are
typically excluded from aid. All of
this had the added effect of reduc-
60%
Percentage of Black workers living in
ing racial disparities in unemploy- the South, which tends to have less
ment benefits that have for dec-
generous unemployment benefits.
ades disadvantaged Black work-
ers in particular.
Now, with the $600 payments quate unemployment insurance
expired as of the end of July and systems,” said Jared Bernstein, a
with congressional leaders and senior fellow at the Center on
the White House debating Budget and Policy Priorities, who
whether to extend them, Black served as chief economist to Joe
workers stand to be hurt the most Biden when he was vice presi-
if they fail to reach a deal. dent.
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This is in part because Black The geographic pattern is not
workers disproportionately live in as stark for Hispanic workers,
states with the lowest benefit lev- who have also been hit hard in the
els and the highest barriers to re- coronavirus recession. But they
ceiving them. Without the $600 make up more than a quarter of
payments, the most an unem- workers in two states with maxi-
ployed worker in Florida or Ala- CONTINUED ON PAGE B5
B2 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES BUSINESS SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020

The Digest

ADVERTISING

Ad Agency Sues Producer Rally Stalls Despite Improved Jobs Report

Saying He Owes Millions By The Associated Press

S&P 500 INDEX Wall Street’s big rally let off the ac- The S& P 500 Index
A major Broadway advertising celerator on Friday, despite a bet-
agency has sued the powerful +0.06% ter-than-expected report on Position of the S& P 500 index at 1-minute intervals on Friday.
3,351.28
producer Scott Rudin, claiming he America’s job market, amid wor- 3,360
owes the company $6.3 million. ries about worsening tensions be-
The litigation, filed in New York tween the United States and Previous close
State Supreme Court, is an un- China and whether Washington 3,349.16
usual public break between two
3,350
major players on Broadway, an in- STOCKS & BONDS
dustry that has been shut down KRISTA SCHLUETER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
and facing major economic dis- can deliver more aid for the econ-
tress since March. But the dispute said the services it has provided, omy.
predates the coronavirus pan- without a written contract, in- DOW JONES INDUSTRIALS The S&P 500 inched up 2.12 3,340
demic: according to the lawsuit, clude media buying, ad produc- points, or 0.1 percent, to 3,351.28 to
the agency and the producer have +0.17% eke out a sixth straight gain, after
tion and marketing strategy. 27,433.48
been at loggerheads since last being down most of the day. It is
The ad company alleged that back within 1 percent of its record
September. 3,330
Rudin and his production com- for the first time since February.
The agency, SpotCo, says that
pany “have had a practice of being The Dow Jones industrial average
Rudin has failed to pay it for ad- 10 a.m. Noon 2 p.m. 4 p.m.
delinquent on outstanding in- added 46.50, or 0.2 percent, to
vertising work done on eight Source: Reuters THE NEW YORK TIMES

shows, including a revival of voices” but said that the delin-
“West Side Story” that opened in quency has worsened, prompting
February and a revival of “The the litigation.
Music Man” that was supposed to Rudin, through his lawyer, re-
jected the claim. “The case has no
open this fall but has been delayed
because of the pandemic. merit and the defendants intend
SpotCo, founded in 1997, is one to contest it vigorously,” said the
lawyer, Jonathan Zavin.
of a handful of dominant players in
the marketing of Broadway The lawsuit was previously re-
shows, and has worked on multi- ported by Law360.
ple Rudin projects. The company MICHAEL PAULSON
INTERNATIONAL China, where the pandemic be-
gan in December, was the first
China’s July Exports Rise economy to shut down to fight the
Despite Coronavirus coronavirus and the first to re-
open after the ruling Communist
China’s exports rose by an unex- Party declared victory over the
disease in March.
pectedly strong 7.2 percent in July
as the world’s second-largest The world’s second-largest
economy grew by 3.2 percent over
economy recovered from the coro-
navirus pandemic. a year earlier in the three months
Sales to the United States ending in June as factories and
stores reopened, rebounding from
jumped 12.5 percent despite a
the previous quarter’s 6.8 percent
plunge in U.S. economic activity
contraction.
and a lingering tariff war with
Chinese exports recovered fast-
Washington, customs data
er than the global total, suggest-
showed Friday.
ing manufacturers are taking
Global exports accelerated market share from competitors in
from June’s 3 percent gain and ex- countries that might still be under
ceeded forecasts of little to no restrictions that hamper trade.
growth. Exporters benefited from a
“There is an overall improve- surge in demand for Chinese-
ment in exports in July from June, made surgical gloves, masks and
not just medical supplies which other medical supplies.
had previously been the main con- Forecasters warn export de-
tributor,” said Iris Pang, an econo- mand may fall back as rising num-
mist at ING, in a report. bers of coronavirus infections in
Imports weakened by 1.4 per- the United States and other coun-
cent in financial terms due to fall- tries prompt governments to re-
ing commodity prices but the total impose controls on business.
volume increased. ASSOCIATED PRESS
27,433.48.
Technology stocks fell on wor-
ries that China could retaliate for
President Trump’s latest escala-
NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX tion against Chinese tech compa-
nies. The Nasdaq composite
–0.87% dropped 97.09, or 0.9 percent, to
11,010.98 11,010.98 after setting a record on
Thursday. It’s a rare stumble for
big tech stocks, which have
soared on expectations that they
can keep raking in profits regard-
less of the pandemic.
The day’s headline economic re-
port was an encouraging one for
investors: Employers added
10-YEAR TREASURY YIELD nearly 1.8 million jobs last month,
about 185,000 more than econo-
0.57% mists had forecast. Analysts said
+0.02 points they found some encouraging
trends throughout the report,
such as a stronger-than-expected
rise in average hourly earnings.
Stocks of smaller companies
climbed more than their bigger ri-
vals, and the Russell 2000 index of
small-cap stocks jumped 24.56, or
1.6 percent, to 1,569.18. Treasury
yields also rose. Financial stocks,
CRUDE OIL (U.S.)
which have swung sharply with
$41.22 prospects for the economy and in-
–$0.73 terest rates, had the biggest gain
of the 11 sectors that make up the
S&P 500. Seven out of 10 stocks
within the index rose for the day.
Still, the jobs report also
showed that hiring slowed in July
after two months of acceleration,
and the job market remains far be-
low where it was before the pan-
GOLD (N.Y.)
demic.
Analysts said the better-than-
$2,010.10 expected jobs report may also
–$21.00 have removed some of the urgen-
Trump’s order for a sweeping but
vague ban on dealings with the
Consumer Borrowing
Chinese owners of popular social
Net change in total consumer media apps TikTok and WeChat
debt, excluding mortgages, on security grounds. China’s gov-
seasonally adjusted. ernment criticized the move as
+$40 billion “political manipulation.”
Tensions between the world’s
+ 20 two largest economies have been
0 escalating for years, highlighted
– 20 by the trade war between the
United States and China that
– 40 seemed to have reached at least a
– 60 temporary truce early this year.
– 80
But tough talk has continued to
flow, with Mr. Trump keying in on
’19 ’20 TikTok in particular recently.
Annual pace June + 2.6 % The escalating tensions helped
of change May – 4.2 send tech stocks in the S&P 500
April – 18.7 down 1.6 percent on Friday, more
Source: Federal Reserve THE NEW YORK TIMES than quintuple the loss of any of
the other 10 sectors that make up
the index. Even Apple, whose
cy from talks on Capitol Hill,
stock has been nearly unstop-
where Congress and White House
pable through the pandemic,
officials have been negotiating on
slumped. It fell 2.3 percent for its
a hoped-for deal on more aid for first drop in eight days.
the economy. They had set an in-
The yield on the 10-year Treas-
formal Friday deadline to reach ury rose to 0.57 percent from 0.55
the outlines of an agreement, in- percent late Thursday.
cluding benefits for unemployed Gold slipped, a rare step back
workers, and Treasury Secretary following its record-setting run as
Steven Mnuchin came out of talks investors seek safety amid a weak
on Friday saying no progress had global economy, trade tensions
been made. and low interest rates. An ounce of
Mr. Mnuchin said the president gold to be delivered in December
was considering executive orders lost $21 to settle at $2,010.10.
to address some of the issues with- Benchmark U.S. crude fell 73
out Congress, but critics question cents to settle at $41.22 per barrel.
how much impact they would Brent crude, the international
have. standard, lost 69 cents to $44.40 a
The market also focused on Mr. barrel.

What Happened in Stock Markets Yesterday

POWERED BY

S&P 500 3351.28 0.1% Nasdaq Composite Index 11010.98 0.9% Dow Jones industrials 27433.48 0.2%

+20% 11,000 +20% 29,000 +20%

3,400 28,000
+15% 10,500 +15% +15%
27,000
3,200 +10% 10,000 +10% +10%
26,000

+ 5% + 5% + 5%
9,500 25,000
3,000

0% 0% 24,000 0%
9,000

June July June July June July

TOTAL
Best performers Worst performers Most active Specialty and short-term bonds TOTAL RETURN
ASSETS
VOLUME
S&P 500 COMPANIES CLOSE CHANGE S&P 500 COMPANIES CLOSE CHANGE S&P 500 COMPANIES CLOSE CHANGE IN MIL. 1 YR 5 YRS IN BIL.

1. UPS (UPS) $156.90 +7.9% 1. Fleetcor Tech (FLT) $240.61 –8.5% 1. GE (GE) $6.40 +1.1% 83.0 1. Vanguard Short-Term Investment-Grade Adm(VFSUX) +5.0% +3.2% $45.1
2. Host Hotels (HST) 11.50 +6.9 2. Freeport Mcmo (FCX) 13.96 –4.1 2. BofAML (BAC) 26.11 +2.5 63.1 2. Vanguard Interm-Term Investment-Grde Adm(VFIDX) +10.2 +5.5 32.5
3. LNC (LNC) 38.36 +6.8 3. EOG Resources (EOG) 48.81 –4.1 3. Ford Motor (F) 6.86 –1.0 47.3 3. Vanguard High-Yield Corporate Adm(VWEAX) +6.2 +5.7 23.0
4. FedEx (FDX) 183.53 +6.6 4. Salesforce.Co (CRM) 201.05 –3.2 4. Wells Fargo (WFC) 25.07 +3.4 46.2 4. Lord Abbett Short Duration Income F(LDLFX) +2.1 +2.7 22.1
5. Mosaic (MOS) 17.19 +6.5 5. MSCI (MSCI) 362.37 –2.8 5. Carnivl (CCL) 14.22 +3.2 36.2 5. Vanguard Short-Term Bond Index Adm(VBIRX) +5.0 +2.6 17.4
6. DXC Tech (DXC) 19.90 +6.5 6. Arista Netwo (ANET) 230.80 –2.4 6. MGM Resorts I (MGM) 19.03 +3.1 34.4 6. BlackRock High Yield Bond Instl(BHYIX) +5.4 +5.6 12.8
7. Kohls (KSS) 22.02 +6.3 7. LVSC (LVS) 44.20 –2.3 7. Nrwn Crs Ln (NCLH) 13.99 –1.8 31.0 7. Fidelity Capital & Income(FAGIX) +5.8 +5.8 11.2
8. Macy’s (M) 6.62 +6.1 8. Tyler Tech (TYL) 356.88 –2.0 8. AT&T (T) 30.02 +0.6 30.4 8. PIMCO Investment Grade Credit Bond Instl(PIGIX) +8.2 +6.1 10.6
9. HanesBrands (HBI) 15.04 +5.4 9. Arconic (ARNC) 19.95 –1.9 9. Marathn Oil (MRO) 5.74 +1.1 28.8 9. American Funds American High-Inc A(AHITX) +3.3 +4.6 9.9
10. Capri Holdin (CPRI) 15.84 +5.3 10. Howmet (HWM) 16.96 –1.9 10. Macy’s (M) 6.62 +6.1 25.2 10. Templeton Global Bond Adv(TGBAX) –5.3 +0.9 9.9
Source: Morningstar

Sector performance How stock markets fared yesterday in Asia … … in Europe … and in the Americas.
S&P 500 SECTORS
+1.0
Financials +2.2% Frankfurt +0.7%
+0.5
Utilities +1.8 New York +0.1%
0.0
Industrials +1.7 Toronto –0.2%
–0.5 London +0.1%
Real estate +1.4
Shanghai –1.0%
Consumer staples +0.5 –1.0
Materials +0.4 –1.5
Health care +0.4 Tokyo –0.4%
–2.0
Energy +0.1
–2.5
–0.1 Communication services
–3.0
–0.3 Consumer discretionary Major stock market indexes
–1.6 Information technology –3.5
6 p.m. E.T. 8 10 12 a.m. 2 4 6 a.m. 8 10 12 p.m. 2 4 6 p.m.

What Is Happening in Other Markets and the Economy

Bonds Currencies Consumer rates Commodities Economy

10-year Treas. Key rates 1 euro = $1.1788 Crude oil Unemployment Rate Consumer confidence
3% $1.3
6% $100 a barrel
10% 120
1.2 Borrowing rate
2
30-year fixed mortgages
Fed Funds 5 50
2-year Treas. 1.1 5 100
1

0 1.0 4 0 0 80
’12 ’14 ’16 ’18 ’20
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’15 ’16 ’17 ’18 ’19 ’20

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’19 ’20

3
Yield curve $1 = 105.93 yen Corn New-home sales Industrial production
3% 120 $6 a bushel
2 700 thousand
1-YEAR AGO 260
2 110 4
Savings rate 600
1 1-year CDs
240
1 YESTERDAY 100 2 500

0 Maturity 90 0 0 400 220

3 6 2 5 10 30 ’15 ’16 ’17 ’18 ’19 ’20 ’10 ’15 ’20 ’12 ’14 ’16 ’18 ’20 ’16 ’18 ’20 ’16 ’18 ’20
Months Years

Three Top Executives Are Out in WarnerMedia Overhaul
By NICOLE SPERLING
In a sudden shake-up at one of
Hollywood’s biggest companies,
three top executives have left
WarnerMedia, the AT&T division
that houses HBO and the stream-
ing service HBO Max, the com-
pany announced on Friday.
The surprise moves came three
months into the tenure of the
WarnerMedia chief executive, Ja-
son Kilar, who has wasted little
time putting his stamp on the com-
pany.
Robert Greenblatt, the chair-
man of WarnerMedia Entertain-
ment, is out after little more than a
year on the job. Kevin Reilly,
WarnerMedia’s chief content offi-
cer, is also departing, as is Keith
Cocozza, the executive vice presi-
dent of marketing and communi-
cations, who worked at the com-
pany for 19 years.
Asked about the departures,
Mr. Kilar said in a phone interview
on Friday: “Disciplined compa-
nies have to make tough deci-
sions.”
In a note to WarnerMedia em-
ployees that announced the
moves, Mr. Kilar said the com-
pany would emphasize HBO Max.
The company unveiled the
streaming platform on May 27 in a
crowded field that includes Net-
flix, with its 193 million sub-
scribers, as well as Amazon Prime
Video, Hulu and the relative new-
comers Disney+, AppleTV+ and
NBCUniversal’s Peacock. “We are
elevating HBO Max in the organi-
zation and expanding its scope
globally,” Mr. Kilar wrote.
With Mr. Greenblatt and Mr.
Reilly gone, Mr. Kilar has given
more responsibility to two Warn-
erMedia executives, Ann Sarnoff,
who joined the company in June
as the chief executive of the
Warner Bros., and Andy Forssell,
the general manager of HBO Max.
In addition to overseeing the
Renters Are on the Brink of Losing Their Shelters in a Storm
FROM FIRST BUSINESS PAGE
and the biggest disruption in rent-
al housing in decades.
Whatever the final tally, it is in-
creasingly clear that if the Great
Recession was personified by
empty subdivisions and fore-
closed homeowners, the enduring
symbol of coronavirus, with its
disproportionate effect on hourly
workers, is likely to be a laid-off
tenant struggling to keep an over-
crowded apartment.
“The United States is on the
brink of an eviction crisis of un-
precedented magnitude,” said
Emily A. Benfer, a professor at
Wake Forest University School of
Law.
That is, of course, a projection
— and so far, government efforts
to hold back a wave of displace-
ment have been effective. About
two-thirds of the workers eligible
for extended unemployment pro-
tections could make more than
they did when they were em-
ployed, allowing tens of millions of
tenants to shelter in place while
paying their monthly bills.
Renters who did not receive un-
employment pay were largely
covered by the various eviction
moratoriums that, while not re-
lieving their debts, had at least
granted them a reprieve. The fed-
eral moratorium alone, passed as
part of the CARES Act in March,
covered 28.1 percent to 45.6 per-
cent of rental units.
On Friday, after talks between
the Trump administration and
Democrats effectively stalled, ad-
visers to President Trump said
they would recommend that he
extend the moratorium through
an executive order.
The moratoriums were sup-
posed to be emergency measures
to give tenants some relief until
the virus subsided and the econ-
omy returned to health.
Except that did not happen. The
virus continues to surge around
the country, and parents are un-
sure when schools will reopen.
Each week, more than a million
laid-off employees continue to file
for unemployment insurance, and
temporary layoffs are becoming
permanent job losses.
Landlords hold that the most
extreme predictions of evictions
are overblown. For starters, the
limited data available suggests
that most tenants have stayed
current on their bills. Also, prop-
erty owners, facing rising vacan-
cies and falling rents, are increas-
ingly working out rent cuts and
extended payment plans.
Still, put all the numbers togeth-
er, and it becomes clear that rent-
ers were struggling before the
pandemic, they have been hit
harder by the virus and job losses,
and the rental market is likely to
be more challenging even after
the economy recovers.
The pandemic response had
problems, but it mostly
succeeded.
In the wake of the pandemic, 43
states and Washington, D.C., en-
acted some kind of eviction mora-
torium, according to Ms. Benfer.
Robert Greenblatt, left, who was named the chairman of WarnerMedia Entertainment a little more than a year ago, is one of three executives who are
leaving HBO’s parent company. Jason Kilar, right, WarnerMedia’s chief executive since May, has elevated two executives, Ann Sarnoff and Andy Forssell.
Warner Bros. movie and televi-
sion studio, Ms. Sarnoff will lead a
new unit, the studios and net-
works group, which brings togeth-
er the company’s original produc-
tions, including programming for
HBO, HBO Max and the cable
channels TNT, TBS and TruTV.
Ms. Sarnoff, who has had lead-
ership roles at Nickelodeon, the
Women’s National Basketball As-
sociation, Dow Jones and BBC
America, will also be in charge of
TV series made for WarnerMedia.
Her business partner will bet Mr.
Forssell, Mr. Kilar’s former col-
league at Hulu, who will report di-
rectly to the chief executive.
A longtime HBO executive,
Casey Bloys, was also promoted.
In addition to heading original
content at HBO, he will be in
charge of original programming
for HBO Max, TNT, TBS and
TruTV. He will report to Ms.
Sarnoff.
Jeff Zucker, the longtime CNN
head, was unaffected. Under Mr.
Kilar, he remains the chairman of
WarnerMedia’s news and sports
units. Christy Haubegger, the
On top of that were various local
measures, along with the federal
eviction moratorium, which cov-
ered subsidized housing and rent-
al properties with loans backed by
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
While these measures were of
varying length and strength —
and many, including the federal
ban, had little to no enforcement
mechanism — together the patch-
work served to halt or slow evic-
tions for a majority of renters.
Only seven states — Arkansas,
Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Okla-
homa, South Dakota and Wyo-
ming — never issued a statewide
stay on evictions, and even in
those states, the federal rules
should have protected at least a
third of renter households.
Just as important as those pro-
tections were the federal unem-
ployment and stimulus payments.
After all, most renters do not have
eviction problems if they stay cur-
rent on their bills, and with help
from the $1,200 stimulus pay-
ments and $600 in extended un-
employment that came with the
CARES Act, many of them have.
Help is ending, and renters are
slipping off the cliff.
Benjamin Schenk, a San Diego
landlord who operates 30 units in
two buildings, is one of the many
property owners who have been
surprised by the high number of
tenants paying their rent in the
early months of the pandemic. In
THE NEW YORK TIMES BUSINESS SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020
MEDIA | VIRUS FALLOUT
MIKE BLAKE/REUTERS
chief enterprise inclusion officer,
will take over Mr. Cocozza’s role of
overseeing the global marketing
and communications team.
Mr. Kilar, 48, who came to Warn-
erMedia after a stint at Amazon,
was appointed to his job by John
Stankey, a veteran AT&T execu-
tive who ran WarnerMedia from
June 2018 until May 1. Mr. Stankey
became the chief executive of
AT&T on July 1, replacing Randall
L. Stephenson.
In the entertainment world, Mr.
Kilar was considered a thoughtful
executive who happened to be the
chief executive (and chief archi-
tect) of Hulu when streaming was
still a novelty. With his bold re-
structuring on Friday, he has
gained a reputation as a forceful
Hollywood player.
The changes at WarnerMedia
broke apart the team Mr. Stankey
had assembled last year, when he
ran the division after a three-dec-
ade career spent mostly in tele-
communications.
In a resignation that got the at-
tention of media insiders, Richard
Plepler, the longtime head of HBO
SCOTT HEINS/GETTY IMAGES
March, he was talking with his
lenders about how he might re-
structure his loans in anticipation
of nonpayments, only to make it to
August with payment rates close
to 100 percent, which he attributes
to the CARES Act.
But people are now falling be-
hind. Though it will take until mid-
month to get a true sense of how
bad August will be, several ten-
ants who lost their jobs stopped
paying rent in the first few days.
“The aid that folks are relying on
has dried up, and not a lot of places
are hiring,” Mr. Schenk said.
While there’s no comprehen-
sive data on rent payments, a
weekly tracker from the National
Multifamily Housing Council that
covers about 11 million units has
started slipping. In the Census
Bureau’s most recent Pulse Sur-
vey, for the week of July 16 to 21, a
little less than one in five renters
said they were unable to pay Ju-
ly’s rent on time, and one in three
were unsure they could make Au-
gust payments.
The threat to small landlords is
also a threat to tenants. About 40
percent of the nation’s 48.2 million
rental units are owned by “mom-
and-pop” operators who tend to
have a limited financial cushion.
Because much of the nation's af-
fordable housing consists of small
apartment buildings and single-
family homes, if these smaller
landlords go under, many of their
units could be “lost.” Some would
who led the network to 160 Em-
mys, left the company in February
2019. Mr. Stankey effectively re-
placed him with Mr. Greenblatt,
who named Mr. Reilly, the onetime
leader of the cable channels TNT
and TBS, as WarnerMedia’s head
of content.
Despite his evangelism for
HBO Max and all things digital,
Mr. Kilar said he was a believer in
the traditional moviegoing experi-
ence. “Tenet,” the much-anticipat-
ed Warner Bros. sci-fi film di-
rected by Christopher Nolan, is
still on the schedule for a Labor
Day release. But Mr. Kilar noted
that, even before the pandemic
shut down theaters nationwide,
the movie business was moving
away from long theatrical runs.
“For anyone to suggest that the
theatrical construct isn’t going to
change over the next few years I
think is not paying close atten-
tion,” he said. “There will be short-
ened windows. But in no way is
Warner Media stepping away
from the deep embrace of theatri-
cal exhibition.”
Mr. Kilar declined to comment
JUSTIN LANE/EPA, VIA SHUTTERSTOCK
Above, a protest in New York calling
for the cancellation of rent
payments. At left, the Ebbets Field
housing complex in Brooklyn. Rent
moratoriums have helped those not
getting other government benefits.
become owner-occupied housing.
Others will be acquired by larger
investors who plan renovations
and rent increases — compound-
ing a longstanding affordable
housing shortage.
Evictions have piled up and are
now resuming.
Evictions, meted out by local
courts, are difficult to tally nation-
wide. For now, new filings are de-
pressed compared with historical
averages, according to a survey of
a dozen cities by Princeton Uni-
versity’s Eviction Lab. But they
have resumed around the country,
and are likely to grow.
There is a difference between
an eviction filing, which is the
start of a legal process, and an ac-
tual eviction, in which a tenant is
removed. According to Eviction
Lab, there were 3.7 million such
filings in 2016, about one million of
which led to an eviction — a figure
that undercounts displacement.
Many tenants leave after a
threat of eviction or the first sign
of a filing. Others leave after a
landlord turns off utilities or
changes the locks. Even for ten-
Y B3
Outdoor Ads
Are Predicted
To Be Poised
For Comeback
By TIFFANY HSU
Jeremy Male is an executive in a
branch of the advertising busi-
ness — billboards — that took a
huge hit in the spring. So he was
heartened by what he saw this
week on his commute from Green-
wich, Conn., to his office in Man-
hattan.
Through the windows of the
Metro North train and on his walk
KIMIMASA MAYAMA/BLOOMBERG
from Grand Central Terminal to
the Chrysler Building, Mr. Male
saw ads, ads, ads.
He is the chief executive of Out-
front Media, a company that sells
on whether Warner Bros. would
space on more than 500,000 bill-
consider something like the deal
boards and other platforms in
AMC Entertainment signed last
North America, including the
month with Universal Pictures. sides of buses and the interiors of
Under the arrangement, Univer- subway cars. And like other com-
sal agreed to shorten the theatri- panies that specialize in so-called
cal window to 17 days, down from out-of-home display ads, Outfront
the industry norm of 90 days, and Media has been hurt by the pan-
give AMC a share of video-on-de- demic.
mand revenue. In an earnings report on
The rise of digital media has Wednesday, Mr. Male said Out-
profoundly altered the entertain- front Media’s overall revenue for
ment business, Mr. Kilar said, the second quarter of 2020, a
putting the studios in a position to three-month period of pandemic-
distribute their films and TV related lockdowns across the
shows to audiences without hav- United States, had declined nearly
ing to rely on other companies. 50 percent from a year earlier.
“If you take a look at the history It was a similar story for Clear
of WarnerMedia, or any media Channel Outdoor, which sells
company, they largely had a his- space in 31 countries. On Friday,
tory of wholesaling,” he said in the the company said its overall reve-
interview. “They produce amaz- nue fell nearly 55 percent during
ing stories, amazing content, and the same period. It was even
then work with partners who then worse for the advertising firm
interact with consumers. The gift JCDecaux, which has more than
that is the internet changes all of one million promotional panels
that. Suddenly, there is an oppor- worldwide. Its advertising reve-
tunity to go direct to consumers, nue sank nearly 66 percent.
which I think is one of the biggest Before worldwide lockdowns
opportunities in the history of me- went into effect, out-of-home ad-
dia.” vertising was embracing digital
innovation and growing faster
than many other parts of the in-
dustry. But when the coronavirus
hit, budget-strapped companies
scaled back how much they spent
on marketing in general — and
ants who are never taken from they were especially wary of buy-
their home by a sheriff, behind ev- ing ad space in shopping centers
ery filing is severe stress and tat- and along travel routes that fewer
tered credit that makes it harder people were around to see.
to find a new place. Beyond that is To help them through the crisis,
the uncountable number of fam- many billboard companies took
ilies whose rent was raised be- out loans and renegotiated con-
yond their means and who left be- tracts with airports and public
fore missing a payment. transit organizations, and mem-
So even if there are only a mil- bers of JCDecaux’s board cut their
lion formal evictions a year, the compensation by 25 percent.
number of people who are dis- A second wave of virus cases
placed is probably several times has disrupted reopening efforts,
that, and likely to grow. sparking renewed discussion
about the future of urban living.
While homelessness would al-
But during a conference call with
most certainly increase with a
analysts this week, Mr. Male said
spike in evictions, this does not
the return of out-of-home ads in
necessarily mean shelters will fill
New York suggested that cities
up or encampments will pop up on
“are going to be hugely relevant”
every street. Tenants, in particu-
even after the pandemic. And that
lar, families, often exhaust every
will be good for his part of the ad
available option — living in
business: New York and Los An-
weekly hotels and illegal garages,
geles represent 40 percent of Out-
staying with friends or piling in
front Media’s revenue.
with multiple roommates — be-
Advertising executives said
fore they end up in the shelter sys-
this week that the worst might be
tem or the streets.
over, as more people return to
Steve Noggle, 43, was evicted work or go on road trips. But any
from his apartment in Annville, recovery will be gradual: Outfront
Pa., this week. He received just Media expects billboard revenue
five weeks of extended unemploy- to decline 25 percent during the
ment benefits even though he lost third quarter from a year ago (af-
his restaurant job four months ter a second-quarter drop of 38
ago. He has been sleeping on his percent) while also forecasting
sister’s couch since Monday. “I that its revenue from transit ads
don’t like having to be here; it’s a will fall 65 percent.
burden on everybody, especially Based partly on his observa-
because I can’t contribute any- tions, Mr. Male said young people,
thing financially,” he said. “I’m a prime target for advertisers,
just hoping I can get a job as soon would still flock to urban areas.
as possible.” “They ain’t going to be out in
Westchester,” he said. “They’re
Gillian Friedman contributed report- going to want to be here in the
ing. city.”
UCC PUBLIC SALE NOTICE
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that on September 15, 2020 commencing at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time (the “Sale Date”), virtually via web-based video
conferencing and/or telephonic conferencing program selected by Secured Party, based upon the occurrence of one or more Events of Default
under certain documents (the “Loan Documents”) copies of which are available for inspection as hereinafter described, pursuant to such Loan
Documents and Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code as enacted in the State of New York (“UCC”), MSC-Two Tower HoldCo, LLC (“Secured
Party”) shall dispose of, by public sale, the right, title, and interest of TTC Mezz LLC (“Debtor”) in and to the following assets (collectively,
the “Collateral”): (i) one hundred percent (100%) of the limited liability company interests in Two Tower Center LLC, a Delaware limited
liability company (“Premises Owner”); and (ii) all other “Collateral” (as such term is defined in that certain Pledge and Security Agreement
from Debtor to Secured Party dated as of August 31, 2018 (the “Pledge Agreement”)) pledged by Debtor to Secured Party under the Pledge
Agreement. The public sale shall be conducted by Mannion Auctions, LLC, by William Mannion, Auctioneer, NYC DCA License No. 796322, and/
or Matthew D. Mannion, Auctioneer, NYC DCA License No. 1434494. Instructions for participating in the virtual auction shall be provided to
all Qualified Bidders.
Based upon information provided by Debtor, Premises Owner, and certain other persons and entitles affiliated therewith, it is the
understanding of Secured Party (but without any representation or warranty by Secured Party as to the accuracy or completeness of the
following matters) that (i) Debtor owns one hundred percent (100%) of the limited liability company member-ship interests in Premises Owner
(the “Membership Interests”); and (ii) Debtor indirectly owns a total of one hundred percent (100%) of the fee interest in the real property
designated as (x) Tract I, Tax Lot 2.21 xlot SFLA 418800, Tax Block 2.02 in the Township of East Brunswick, County of Middlesex, State of New
Jersey; and (y) Tract II, Tax Lot 2, Tax Block 2.02 Qual C0200 in the Township of East Brunswick, County of Middlesex, State of New Jersey and,
together with Tract I, also known as 2 Tower Center Boulevard, East Brunswick, NJ 08816 (Tract I and Tract II are together the “Premises”).
Based upon information from the public records, the Premises are encumbered by and subject to, among other things, a first mortgage
(“Mortgage”) originally made by Premises Owner to Benefit Street Realty Partners Operating Partnership L.P. (“Original Mortgage Lender”)
securing indebtedness in the original principal amount of $50,000,000 (“Mortgage Loan”).
The Collateral is offered “AS IS, WHERE IS”, with all faults, and neither Secured Party nor any person acting for or on behalf of Secured Party
makes any guarantee, representation, or warranty (including, without limitation, any representation or warranty of merchantability or fitness),
express or implied, of any kind or nature whatsoever. Each bidder must make its own inquiries concerning the Collateral.
PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that in addition to any other requirements referenced in this notice there are specific requirements for any
potential successful bidder in connection with obtaining information and bidding on the Collateral, including but not limited to execution of
a confidentiality agreement and a requirement that each bidder must be a “Qualified Transferee” (as defined in that certain Intercreditor
Agreement (“Intercreditor Agreement”) concerning, among other things, the Collateral) and that each bidder must deliver such documents as
are required by the Intercreditor Agreement and the governing documents relating to the Collateral.
Secured Party will be permitted to bid at the sale, and notwithstanding any requirement herein that the sale of the Collateral be for cash,
Secured Party may credit bid all or any portion of the outstanding balance of the amounts due under the Loan Documents, originally in the
amount of $12,000,000. Secured Party reserves the right, in its sole and absolute discretion, to (a) set a minimum reserve price, to reject all
bids (including without limitation any bid that it deems to have been made by a bidder that is unable to satisfy the requirements imposed by the
Secured Party upon prospective bidders in connection with the sale or to whom in the Secured Party’s sole judgment a sale may not lawfully be
made) and terminate the sale, or adjourn the sale to such other date and time as Secured Party may deem proper, by announcement at the place
and on the date of sale, and any subsequent adjournment thereof, without further publication or notice, and (b) impose any other commercially
reasonable conditions upon the sale of the Collateral as Secured Party may deem proper in its sole and absolute discretion.
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The Membership Interests are unregistered securities under the Securities Act of 1933 as amended. Because of this, each prospective bidder
seeking to be a "Qualified Bidder" (as deter-mined by Secured Party in its sole and absolute discretion) shall be required, among other things,
to execute and deliver to Secured Party a "Bidding Certificate" certifying, among other things, that such bidder: (i) will acquire the Collateral for
investment purposes, solely for its own account and not with a view to distribution or resale; (ii) is an accredited investor within the meaning of
the applicable securities laws; (iii) has sufficient knowledge and experience in financial and business matters so as to be capable of evaluating
the merits and risks of investment and has sufficient financial means to afford the risk of investment in the Collateral; and (iv) will not resell or
otherwise hypothecate the Collateral without either a valid registration under applicable federal or state laws, including without limitation the
Securities Act of 1933 as amended, or an available exemption therefrom.
The public sale of the Collateral shall be subject to the further terms and conditions set forth in the “Terms of Public Sale” (including without
limitation terms and conditions with respect to the availability of additional information, bidding requirements, deposit amounts, bidding
procedures, and the consummation of the public sale), which are available by contacting: Newmark & Company Real Estate, Inc., 125 Park
Avenue, New York, New York 10017, Attn: Brock Cannon, tel. (212) 372-2066, email Brock.Cannon@ngkf.com
B4 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES BUSINESS SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020
Going After WeChat, Trump Takes Aim at China’s Bridge to the World
FROM FIRST BUSINESS PAGE
cosmetic, crushing or something
in between.
If enforced strongly when it
takes effect in 45 days, the order
will take dead aim at China’s sin-
gle most groundbreaking internet
product, which 1.2 billion people
use every month. An effective ban
on the app in the United States
would cut short millions of conver-
sations between investors, busi-
ness partners, family members
and friends. The threat alone will
likely start a new chapter in the
deepening standoff between
China and the United States over
the future of technology.
Taken together with Thursday’s
twin order against the Chinese-
owned video app TikTok, the
move against WeChat marks a
shift in the American approach to
the Great Firewall, which for
years has kept companies like
Facebook and Google from oper-
ating in China. Restricting We-
Chat and TikTok could be the first
steps in an eye-for-an-eye repri-
sal.
While TikTok may be the fad of
the moment in the United States,
WeChat is far more important in
China. A digital bedrock of daily
life, WeChat emerged as a tool for
the Chinese authorities to impose
social controls. Within China, the
app is heavily censored and moni-
tored by a newly empowered force
of internet police.
Outside China’s borders, the
app has become a key conduit for
the spread of Beijing’s propagan-
da. Chinese security forces have
also regularly used WeChat to in-
timidate and silence members of
the Chinese diaspora, including
minority Uighurs seeking to raise
awareness of harsh crackdowns
in their homeland in western
China.
“The downside of this executive
order is that it’s addressing these
concerns by taking steps that also
make it harder to directly commu-
nicate with ordinary people in
China,” said Sheena Greitens, an
associate professor at the Univer-
sity of Texas at Austin.
“It puts this administration’s
policy into conflict with another
one of its stated goals: to maintain
openness and friendly connec-
tions with the Chinese people,”
she added.
While WeChat and its owner
have long straddled the uncom-
fortable divides that separate Chi-
na’s internet from the world, they
have rarely come under such di-
rect scrutiny from the United
States.
Created as the copycat brain-
child of a Tencent engineer, Allen
Zhang, WeChat mostly failed to
catch on in overseas markets,
even as the company spent hun-
dreds of millions in marketing dol-
lars to compete with WhatsApp.
The app’s reliance on other Chi-
nese apps in the isolated Chinese
internet ecosystem probably hurt
its chances, even as its innova-
tions transformed life within
China.
Outside China, it has mainly
been a tether for the Chinese dias-
pora to their homeland.
May Han, a Chinese-born
American, moved to the United
States with her family when she
was 9. Lonely when she first ar-
rived, Ms. Han was encouraged
by her parents to use another Ten-
cent chat service, QQ, to keep up
After Many Attempts, Facebook Gaming Is Finally Available in the App Store
By SETH SCHIESEL
For six months, Facebook tried to
get Apple to approve its new Face-
book Gaming app so it could be
available in Apple’s App Store.
Each time, Apple said no.
This week, Facebook said it had
acceded to Apple’s demands to
change its Gaming app so that it
could be distributed to iPhone and
iPad users starting on Friday. To
comply with Apple’s rules, which
prohibit apps if their “main pur-
pose” is distributing software
such as games, the social network
said it had entirely removed play-
A company blocking
game services that
could compete with
its own sales.
able games from its new app.
Facebook said Apple had essen-
tially used its power over the App
Store to force its hand, turning the
Gaming app into an inferior expe-
rience for iPhone and iPad own-
ers. In addition to playable games,
the original version of the app al-
lows users to watch and create
live gameplay streams and par-
ticipate in gaming communities —
functions that will still operate in
A Chinese construction worker,
above, in Colombo, Sri Lanka,
chatting with his wife on WeChat in
2018; an ad for WeChat at Hong
Kong’s international airport in 2017,
at right; and a Beijing newsstand,
below, in July with QR codes for
WeChat, whose many functions
include an online payment system,
and for a competitor, Alipay. The
all-purpose app — used by people
to talk, shop, share photos, pay bills,
get news and send money — is how
many Chinese living abroad stay in
touch with one another, and with
people back home.
with her elementary school
friends in China. They also hoped
it would help her remember Chi-
nese.
Eventually she made the jump
to WeChat, where she still whiles
away her online days chatting
with about 350 friends and rela-
tives, many of them in China. Now
the Apple version.
The frustration with Apple ex-
tends to Facebook’s highest eche-
lons. In a statement, Sheryl Sand-
berg, the company’s chief operat-
ing officer, said, “Unfortunately,
we had to remove gameplay func-
tionality entirely in order to get
Apple’s approval on the stand-
alone Facebook Gaming app.” She
added that Facebook would con-
tinue to build communities for
those who played games on Face-
book, “whether Apple allows it in
a stand-alone app or not.”
Games are the largest source of
revenue for Apple on the App
Store, and many tech executives
have concluded that Apple blocks
game services that could compete
with its own products and sales.
Apple, without directly ad-
dressing Facebook Gaming, said
its App Store policies were de-
signed to protect consumers. It
added that it had allowed other
apps that included games into the
App Store.
The sparring is a reminder of
where the power lies in Silicon
Valley. While Facebook runs the
world’s largest social network and
owns many popular apps such as
Instagram, Messenger and
WhatsApp, Apple controls their
distribution through its App Store.
That makes Facebook dependent
on Apple to reach many of its us-
TECHNOLOGY
RICHARD A. BROOKS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
an environmental science major
at the University of California, San
Diego, Ms. Han said WeChat had
become the cultural glue that held
together much of her Chinese
community.
“If we can’t use WeChat, our
connections to China will de-
crease or even vanish,” she said.
ers.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s
chief executive, has expressed
consternation about the power
that Apple holds, albeit obliquely.
In testimony to Congress last
week about Facebook’s rivals, he
said, “Some are upstarts, but oth-
ers are gatekeepers with the
power to decide if we can even re-
lease our apps in their app stores
to compete with them.”
In June, the European Commis-
sion, the executive body of the Eu-
ropean Union, said it had opened a
formal antitrust investigation into
Apple’s App Store terms, spurred
by a complaint from Spotify, the
music-streaming service. Other
app developers, such as Base-
camp, have also scuffled with Ap-
ple over its App Store rules.
Some companies with gaming
apps are shying away from Ap-
ple’s App Store, privately saying
Apple will simply not approve
their apps because they compete.
On Wednesday, for example,
Microsoft ended a limited test of
its xCloud game streaming app for
Apple devices, though it will offer
cloud gaming on Android devices
starting next month.
“Unfortunately, we do not have
a path to bring our vision of cloud
gaming with Xbox Game Pass Ul-
timate to gamers on iOS via the
NG HAN GUAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
“Most of us have got used to using
WeChat, especially older genera-
tions. Changing an app is not easy
for them; it means changing their
lifestyle.”
Some of her friends, she said,
had already begun posting links to
Line, a messaging app popular in
Japan, in case they were forced to
Facebook said it entirely removed gameplay functionality from its Gaming
app to comply with Apple’s rules for distribution on its products.
Apple App Store,” a Microsoft
spokesman said on Thursday.
“Apple stands alone as the only
general-purpose platform to deny
consumers from cloud gaming
and game subscription services
like Xbox Game Pass. And it con-
sistently treats gaming apps dif-
ferently, applying more lenient
rules to nongaming apps even
when they include interactive
content.”
Facebook announced its Gam-
ing app in April, saying people
could use it to watch livestreams
of games and play simple games
like Words With Friends and Thug
Life. Google’s Play store for An-
ADAM DEAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
switch. To Ms. Han, the order
seemed un-American.
“Trump is violating our rights
to connect with our families and
friends. If WeChat is really
banned, the executive order
seems rather unconstitutional —
it violates the First Amendment,”
she said. “It may sound exagger-
ated here, but I do hope WeChat
won’t be blocked.”
The order could end up restrict-
ing a variety of dealings between
Americans and Tencent.
American companies could, for
instance, be barred from advertis-
ing on WeChat, cutting them off
from a key channel for reaching
China’s vast consumer market.
Tencent could be prohibited from
distributing WeChat through Ap-
ple’s and Google’s app stores,
which could leave users unable to
receive software updates, or un-
able to use the app entirely.
Apple and Google did not re-
spond to requests for comment.
The White House order could
even prevent Tencent from buy-
ing American equipment for the
servers from which it operates
WeChat. If the company uses
those same servers to run other
internet products and services, a
wider swath of its business could
be affected, said David Dai, an an-
alyst in Hong Kong with the in-
vestment research firm Sanford
C. Bernstein.
This would be the “worst-case
scenario” for Tencent, Mr. Dai
wrote in a research note on Friday.
Tencent, which has a market
capitalization well above $600 bil-
lion, said on Friday that it was re-
viewing the executive order “to
get a full understanding.” The
company’s shares fell almost 6
percent in Friday trading on the
Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
TikTok said it was “shocked” by
the White House order, which it
said had been issued “without any
due process.”
At a daily news briefing on Fri-
day, the Chinese Ministry of For-
eign Affairs spokesman Wang
FACEBOOK
droid devices approved it that
month.
But Apple rejected at least five
versions of Facebook Gaming this
year. In its denials, Apple cited
rules that forbid apps with the
“main purpose” of distributing
games and apps that offer simple
games in a “store or storelike in-
terface.”
Facebook kept trying. It said it
had told Apple that more than 95
percent of activity on the Android
version was watching streams of
game playing, rather than playing
games directly.
To please Apple, Facebook
made games less prominent by
Wenbin called the order a “na-
kedly hegemonic act,” saying that
“on the pretext of national securi-
ty, the U.S. frequently abuses na-
tional power and unreasonably
suppresses relevant enterprises.”
Tencent’s own products may
have struggled to break through
in Western countries. But it has
built up a wide-ranging, if low-key,
presence in the United States
through investments and partner-
ships — all of which could be af-
fected if the White House order re-
sults in a broad ban on working
with Tencent.
Some of the company’s most
significant overseas forays have
been in video games, which ac-
count for much of its worldwide
revenue. Tencent owns Riot
Games, the developer behind
League of Legends, and a large
share of Epic Games, which
makes Fortnite. The company’s
film unit, Tencent Pictures, has
been involved in Hollywood block-
busters including “Wonder Wom-
an” and the most recent “Termi-
nator” movie.
Tencent has also taken stakes in
companies with less direct con-
nections to its own businesses, in-
cluding the electric carmaker
Tesla and the social media com-
pany Snap. It has even invested in
the Chinese operations of Tim
Hortons, the Canadian coffee
chain, to aid in the company’s ex-
pansion in China.
As Tencent’s global WeChat ex-
pansion foundered, the company
tried to buy WhatsApp but was
beaten out by Facebook. If Ten-
cent had succeeded, it may well
have looked more like ByteDance,
the other Chinese internet com-
pany in the cross hairs of the
Trump administration.
ByteDance’s best-known app, Tik-
Tok, got a big boost with its take-
over of Musical.ly, a short-video
app built by Chinese en-
A decree that could
be anything from
cosmetic to crushing.
trepreneurs that had found suc-
cess in Europe and the United
States.
Both companies’ workarounds
functioned only because Washing-
ton did not follow Beijing’s censor-
ship cues. That may now be
changing, though Yaqiu Wang, a
researcher with Human Rights
Watch, said the Trump adminis-
tration’s executive orders looked
puny compared with Beijing’s
Great Firewall. While they raise
free speech questions, she said,
the concerns about WeChat’s role
in democracies are very real.
“For many overseas Chinese,
the popularity and multifunction-
ality of WeChat has made apps
popular outside of China unneces-
sary,” she said.
“That means the Chinese gov-
ernment is able to control a signifi-
cant portion of the information
overseas Chinese receive, even
outside its borders,” she added.
“This could have real domestic po-
litical implications, as many mem-
bers of the Chinese diaspora are
voters of the countries they reside
in and are, or can be, politically
mobilized.”
Lin Qiqing contributed research.
first removing icons from a list of
playable games and then remov-
ing the game catalog entirely. In
the last rejected version, which
Facebook submitted in May, the
only way for users to find playable
games was scattered in their news
and activity feed.
In June, Apple announced a
new appeals process for App
Store submissions, including the
ability to challenge its guidelines.
A Facebook spokesman said the
social network had requested
such an appeal for Facebook Gam-
ing but never received a response.
“Apple ghosted us,” he said. Ap-
ple approved Facebook Gaming
only after Facebook submitted a
version with games completely
removed, the spokesman said.
On Friday, when Facebook re-
leases the app for iPhone and iPad
users, it also intends to distribute
a cheeky image of the “Play” as-
pect of the app crossed out in red,
with an asterisk reading, “Edited
on iPhone.”
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Apple’s moves have created
“shared pain across the games in-
dustry, which ultimately hurts
players and developers and se-
verely hamstrings innovation on
mobile for other types of formats
like cloud gaming,” said Vivek
Sharma, Facebook’s vice presi-
dent for gaming.

Oversight Commission Criticizes Main Street Lending Program
By JEANNA SMIALEK
WASHINGTON — The Federal Re-
serve’s first-ever attempt to lend
money to midsize businesses was
destined to be a challenge. The
push has proved to be an outright
flop, according to a member of the
oversight commission charged
with monitoring it.
“By any measure, the Main
Street program has been a fail-
ure,” Bharat Ramamurti, a mem-
ber of the Congressional Over-
sight Commission, said at the
group’s first-ever hearing on Fri-
day.
Mr. Ramamurti and his col-
leagues, who oversee the taxpay-
er-backed pandemic emergency
lending efforts run by the Fed and
the Treasury Department, used
the event to critique the so-called
Main Street program.
One of many emergency lend-
ing programs the central bank has
rolled out since the coronavirus
pandemic began, Main Street is
among the most divisive and diffi-
cult. It is supposed to funnel loans
to businesses that are too small to
raise money by issuing bonds and
stocks but too big to benefit from
the government’s small-business
loans.
The Fed announced the initia-
tive on March 23, but it took
Black Workers Will Hurt Without Benefits
FROM FIRST BUSINESS PAGE
mum weekly benefits of less than
$300 — Florida and Arizona.
Among Black workers, almost
one in four live in just three states:
Florida, Georgia and Texas. And
nearly 60 percent over all live in
the South, in states that tend to
put the interests of businesses
ahead of those of workers, and
where race itself has historically
been inseparable from policy deci-
sions about the safety net.
Unemployment insurance in
America was originally devised
during the Great Depression as a
compromise between Northern
Democrats who wanted to expand
worker aid and Southern Demo-
crats who didn’t want to empower
Black workers. The resulting sys-
tem — a network of state pro-
grams rather than a single federal
one like Social Security — explicit-
ly excluded domestic and agricul-
tural workers. And the states were
given wide control that they retain
today over how much a worker
has to earn to qualify for the pro-
gram, how generous the benefits
are and how onerous the require-
ments.
The same pattern has persisted
in heavily state-controlled pro-
grams like welfare: The larger a
state’s Black population, the less
generous its benefits.
“Yesterday’s racist system be-
comes today’s incidental structur-
al racism,” said Kathryn Edwards,
an economist at the RAND Corpo-
ration.
She has found that the geo-
graphic concentration of Black
workers in stingier states means
that the average maximum unem-
ployment benefit a Black worker
in America can receive per week
is about $40 less than the average
maximum benefit a white worker
can get. That number might sound
small, but Ms. Edwards points out
that it adds up over 26 weeks of
unemployment to a median rent
payment in many states, or nearly
the size of a $1,200 pandemic stim-
ulus check.
If policymakers wanted to re-
duce racial disparities in what
seem like race-neutral unemploy-
ment programs, William Spriggs,
a Howard University economist,
said they would want to do pre-
cisely the two things Congress
did: expand the categories of cov-
ered workers, and increase the
benefits they receive.
“What I did not anticipate fully
and was shocked by,” Mr. Spriggs
said, “was the South is also bad
about running these programs.”
The most complicated part of
the federal expansion was the en-
States With More Black Workers Offer Less
Generous Unemployment Benefits
Maximum state unemployment payments compared with Black share of
state labor force
$1000
Maximum weekly
unemployment benefit
Massachusetts
800
New Jersey
600
400
Florida
200
0 10
Sources: Department of Labor; American Community Survey
months to get it started, to law-
makers’ frustration.
Since it came fully online about
a month ago, the program has
hardly been used, supporting less
than $200 million in loans. While
more are in the pipeline, the pro-
gram’s lending remains a tiny
fraction of its $600 billion capacity.
The difficulty Main Street has
faced in gaining traction is a prime
An initiative has
used a tiny fraction
of its capacity.
example of the challenges the Fed
faces in the rescue efforts it has
set up during the economic crisis
caused by the pandemic. The cen-
tral bank is well suited to support
banks and big companies in times
of trouble. But this year, it has ven-
tured into markets that its pow-
ers, conservative instincts and le-
gal limitations sometimes make it
ill equipped to help.
Given current market condi-
tions, the Main Street program
works for a narrow set of compa-
nies. Many healthy companies
can borrow unassisted. And hard-
hit businesses may need grants
Protesters calling for economic relief this week in New York. Without the $600 federal payments, the most
that an unemployed worker in Florida or Alabama can receive is $275 a week. Some could get even less.
tirely new program, called Pan-
demic Unemployment Assist-
ance, meant for workers who
wouldn’t normally qualify for
state unemployment. This is the
benefit that covers Uber drivers,
self-employed hair stylists, and
tipped servers or part-time retail
workers whose reported earnings
were too low to qualify normally.
Georgia and Florida were
A system that became
‘today’s incidental
structural racism.’
among the last states to begin
making payments through that
additional program (Florida’s la-
bor force also has one of the high-
est shares of self-employed work-
ers). And last week, Gov. Ron De-
Santis of Florida publicly ac-
knowledged that the state’s
deeply troubled unemployment
system introduced under the pre-
vious governor, Rick Scott, had
been set up to frustrate workers
and make as few payments as pos-
sible.
Mr. Spriggs fears that racial dis-
parities are embedded in these de-
lays in receiving benefits, too. And
because unemployment has re-
mained stubbornly high for
Blacks in surveys even as it has
Georgia
Alabama
Mississippi
Share of the labor
force that is Black
20 30%
THE NEW YORK TIMES
THE NEW YORK TIMES BUSINESS SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020
ECONOMY / TECHNOLOGY
rather than more debt, but the Fed
can offer only loans.
Still, a key Fed official sug-
gested that the program would
help in the months ahead, that it
could support healthy companies
that were likely to make it through
the crisis but would need to bor-
row money to do so.
“This program is designed for a
business that had a disruption in
short-term credit, that was in
good shape prior to the crisis and
who, after the pandemic subsides,
would be able to be a viable busi-
ness,” Eric Rosengren, president
of the Federal Reserve Bank of
Boston, said at Friday’s hearing.
Mr. Rosengren’s central bank
branch is running the initiative.
He said that while about $100 mil-
lion in loans had been settled as of
Tuesday, the number had in-
creased to $189 million by Thurs-
day night and that more than $600
million in total were somewhere in
the process.
“We actually have seen signifi-
cant pickup recently,” Mr. Rosen-
gren said.
The program ran into problems
from the start. Republican and
Democrat lawmakers have re-
peatedly raised concerns about
how Main Street was designed,
worrying that it would not get
money into the hands of compa-
ANGELA WEISS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
fallen more for other groups,
Black workers are likelier to face
longer spells of unemployment
without the added benefits.
All of these choices in the unem-
ployment system are layered on
top of racial disparities that exist
in the economy even during better
times. Black workers have less
wealth to cushion them when they
lose income. And they tend to ex-
perience unemployment longer,
as they face discrimination find-
ing work again. Initial evidence al-
ready suggests that Black work-
ers were less likely to be rehired in
May and June as some businesses
reopened.
“We’ve come to grips with the
fact that Black lives are devalued
as it relates to engagement with
law enforcement,” said Darrick
Hamilton, who leads the Kirwan
Institute for the Study of Race and
Ethnicity at Ohio State. “So why is
it a leap of faith to believe that that
devaluation would not be limited
to law enforcement?”
It exists as well, he said, in how
the economy values Black work-
ers.
The initial shock of the pan-
demic hit workers wherever they
happened to be in the economy,
particularly in jobs requiring
close contact. But now the labor
market is rebalancing, a process
that plays out to the advantage of
white workers, Mr. Spriggs said.
Jobless Rate Has Improved, but Less
So for Black Workers
Unemployment rate, seasonally adjusted
20%
15
10
5 briefing, followed a familiar model
0
’00 ’04 ’08
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
nies that need it. Loans must be
for at least $250,000 and cannot go
to highly indebted companies.
The Fed does not make the loans
itself — banks do. The problem is
that banks have been reluctant to
participate.
The way Main Street works, the
Fed agrees to buy 95 percent of
any loan that banks originate
through the program. That means
the banks keep some exposure to
loans that might go bad, yet get
only a small piece of loans that
might prove more profitable, plus
fees.
“Many banks seem disinter-
ested in the program because they
either wish to retain more than 5
percent of a profitable loan or they
have no interest in retaining any
stake at all in an unprofitable
loan,” a group of four Republican
senators, led by Kelly Loeffler of
Georgia, wrote in a letter on Tues-
day to the Fed chair, Jerome H.
Powell, and Treasury Secretary
Steven Mnuchin.
The senators recommended re-
ducing the minimum loan size and
increasing the debt-to-earnings
ratio allowed for borrowers. They
also want the Fed and the Treas-
ury to eliminate the loan stake
that banks must retain, or prom-
ise that taxpayers will take the
earliest losses on bad loans rather
He expects things will settle
where they invariably do: with
Black workers having about twice
the unemployment rate of white
ones.
As he watches that happen, Mr.
Spriggs takes issue with familiar
arguments made by White House
officials and congressional Re-
publicans that they don’t want to
give workers money to sit at
home.
“It stretches credulity, in the
worst labor market ever, and with
a record number of Americans un-
employed, for someone to suggest
that, ‘Oh, if I give these people
money, the big problem is they
won’t work,’” Mr. Spriggs said.
“Their characterization of work-
ers as inherently lazy, that’s a dog
whistle to me.”
Representative Bobby Scott, a
Democrat from Virginia and the
chairman of the House Committee
on Education and Labor, said he
hears in those arguments some-
thing else.
“What I hear are things that are
not true,” he said. There just aren’t
jobs for many people to go back to.
And workers generally can’t
refuse to return to work and still
keep their unemployment bene-
fits. “It’s hard to analyze the state-
ment in terms of impact or philos-
ophy,” Mr. Scott said, “if you start
off with an understanding that it’s
not true to begin with.”
Black
White
’12 ’16 ’20
THE NEW YORK TIMES
than sharing those losses evenly
with banks.
While the Fed is not supposed to
lose money on its emergency
lending programs, Congress gave
the Treasury Department funds to
cover the costs in case loans go
bad. Still, Mr. Mnuchin has re-
sisted taking on too much risk
with the program, saying initially
that he did not expect to lose
money on it if the economy played
out as expected.
Mr. Rosengren has repeatedly
made the case that the program
could help a broader swath of
companies if a second wave of the
virus erupts and credit conditions
worsen, a point he reiterated at
the Friday oversight hearing.
Congress established the com-
mission to oversee how the Treas-
ury and Fed’s economic relief pro-
grams were carried out. Mr. Ra-
mamurti, a former aide to Senator
Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of
Massachusetts, is one of four cur-
rent members of what is supposed
to be a five-person panel. It is still
missing a chairperson.
Commission members vetted
many aspects of the Main Street
program on Friday, making it
clear that the Fed and the Treas-
ury are walking a political
tightrope. For instance, Mr. Ra-
mamurti questioned the pro-
Trump’s Curbs on Apps
Rattle China, as Intended
FROM FIRST BUSINESS PAGE
White House advisers see it as a
feature rather than a bug of their
policy process, arguing that the
risk of further crackdowns will
dissuade American companies
from operating in China.
That, they said, is a good thing
because Chinese policies like “civ-
il-military fusion” have under-
mined the ability of both Chinese
and American companies to oper-
ate independently in China.
“Mobile apps like TikTok and
WeChat that collect your personal
or business information and that
can track, surveil or monitor your
movements put you and your fam-
ily in the cross hairs of an Orwell-
ian regime.” Peter Navarro, the
White House director of trade and
manufacturing policy, said in an
interview. He posed a question to
the mothers of America, “It’s 10
p.m. Does the Chinese Communist
Party know where your children
are at?”
Mr. Navarro acknowledged that
some multinationals might op-
pose the measures, but said that
“the American public is tired of
the corporate greed that, before
the Age of Trump, sent our jobs
overseas and now endangers our
national security and privacy.”
Critics countered that the
Trump administration’s unpre-
dictable actions threaten to com-
promise the secure business envi-
ronment that the United States is
known for, in which rule of law
prevails and the government
rarely interferes in the market.
“The government inserting this
much uncertainty into the busi-
ness landscape and into the user
landscape is deeply problematic,”
said Matt Perault, a professor of
Duke University’s Center for Sci-
ence & Technology Policy.
On Friday, TikTok, which is
owned by Chinese internet con-
glomerate ByteDance, said in a
statement that it was “shocked by
the recent executive order, which
was issued without any due
process.” It said it had sought to
work with the U.S. government for
nearly a year but instead found
the White House “paid no atten-
tion to facts, dictated terms of an
agreement without going through
standard legal processes, and
tried to insert itself into negotia-
tions between private busi-
nesses.”
A spokesman for Tencent, the
parent company of WeChat, which
is widely used in China and
around the world as a messaging
and payments app, said it was “re-
viewing the executive order to get
a full understanding.”
The Trump administration has
steadily ramped up its actions in a
broader economic and geopoliti-
cal fight with China, starting with
a trade war that put tariffs on hun-
dreds of billions of dollars of Chi-
nese products in 2018 and 2019. It
also introduced restrictions on
other kinds of Chinese technology,
including clamping down on ex-
ports to the Chinese telecom giant
Huawei.
The sudden, vaguely worded
order from the White House on
Thursday night, which came with-
out further explanation or a media
for some of the other policy an-
nouncements on China from the
Trump administration. Many
have left multinational companies
in suspense for days or weeks
about the specifics.
With policy moves like tariffs
and export controls, the Trump
administration wielded uncer-
Y B5
gram’s basic utility and voiced
concern that the oil and gas indus-
try might stand to benefit.
He pointed out that the Fed had
revised program terms to make
the maximum loan size larger, and
argued that the oil and gas lobby
had pushed for the change. He
urged the commission to investi-
gate the issue.
Senator Patrick J. Toomey, a Re-
publican from Pennsylvania and a
commission member, urged Mr.
Rosengren to consider an asset-
based lending program, one that
might help real estate companies.
And Mr. Toomey noted that
when Congress had earmarked
money for the Fed’s lending pro-
grams, he and his colleagues had
meant to help businesses survive
a brief but severe downturn.
“At some point, we need to have
a discussion about how we’re in a
different place than we were when
we first designed these programs
back in March,” Mr. Toomey said.
“Now we have the prospects of
possibly excess capacity in a num-
ber of industries that could persist
for some time.”
“That is a new and different
challenge,” he added.
Alan Rappeport contributed report-
ing.
tainty as a source of leverage, us-
ing it to frighten companies into
compliance and leaving them-
selves room to back down or esca-
late the situation.
The executive orders on We-
Chat and TikTok leave the deter-
mination of what constitutes a
“transaction” up to the secretary
of commerce, Wilbur Ross. Ac-
cording to the language of the or-
ders, Mr. Ross will make that de-
termination in 45 days, meaning it
would not be clear to businesses
what will be included in the ban
until it actually goes into effect.
“It may be that it’s won’t be
nearly as bad as people might
fear,” said Jason M. Waite, a part-
ner at the law firm Alston & Bird,
adding that the administration
might discover legal or practical
concerns with putting the order in
place in the interim. “It is a 45-day
surprise.”
People familiar with the deliber-
ations said administration offi-
cials clearly intended to target the
presence of WeChat and TikTok
on the Google and Apple app
stores, cutting off downloads and
updates for the Chinese apps. It is
unclear if the restrictions could af-
fect other parts of the Chinese
companies’ sprawling portfolios
and business dealings, particu-
larly for Tencent.
The order appears to bar trans-
actions with Tencent or its subsid-
iaries that are specifically related
to WeChat. That suggests it would
not affect Tencent’s sprawling in-
vestment relationships and busi-
ness dealings with companies like
Tesla; the Snapchat owner Snap;
the National Basketball Associa-
tion; Activision Blizzard, the
maker of video game World of
Warcraft; and Epic Games, the
maker of Fortnite.
But many American compa-
nies, including Visa, Mastercard
and Starbucks, have more direct
partnerships with WeChat in
China to use its payment platform
and e-commerce functions.
Whether those kinds of activities
would be barred in China or
around the world, or whether
phone makers like Apple would be
allowed to sell mobile phones in-
stalled with WeChat, remain up in
the air.
“The Trump administration has
left itself a lot of wiggle room in
terms of what is covered, how
quickly prohibitions will be car-
ried out, and how the order will be
enforced,” said Scott Kennedy, a
China expert at the Center for
Strategic and International Rela-
tions.
Other Chinese tech companies
could find themselves as the next
target of the Trump administra-
tion. U.S. officials viewed the exec-
utive orders on TikTok and We-
Chat as a template that could be
applied to other Chinese compa-
nies, and some have discussed
whether services like Alibaba’s
Alipay pose a similar national se-
curity concern, according to peo-
ple with knowledge of the matter.
“There’s definitely a chilling ef-
fect,” said Samm Sacks, a fellow in
cybersecurity policy and China’s
digital economy fellow at New
America, a think tank. But she
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said that companies like Alibaba
and Tencent had long understood
the risks of operating in the
United States.
“This latest move may have
come as a surprise, but their real
growth strategies have never fo-
cused in the U.S.” she said.
“They’ve always known it was a
hostile environment.”
B6 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES BUSINESS SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020
Pain of Shouldering College’s Indirect Costs
Bills for books, housing and food may trip up students who barely make ends meet, a new report finds.
Your Money Adviser
By ANN CARRNS
Students and their families often
focus on tuition and fees when budg-
eting for college. But there are costs
that typically don’t appear on college
bills, and they can add up — costs like
books, laptop computers, transporta-
tion, and off-campus housing and
meals.
These so-called indirect costs —
expenses not paid directly to the insti-
tution, including rent for off-campus
housing and payments for food outside
a meal plan — can make up half or
more of the cost of attending some
colleges, and may trip up students from
lower- and moderate-income families
who aren’t anticipating them to be so
expensive, concluded a report from
uAspire, a nonprofit group that pro-
motes college affordability.
Even students who borrow the maxi-
mum allowable amount of federal stu-
dent loans face significant gaps to
cover the true cost of attending college,
said Laura Keane, chief policy officer at
uAspire.
“It creates considerable stress for
students,” Ms. Keane said. The financial
burden on students has been growing
over the past decade, she said, and will
be compounded by the economic im-
pacts of the pandemic.
After all federal student loans and
grants are applied to the cost of college,
uAspire found, students face an aver-
age shortfall of about $12,000, leaving
them struggling to make ends meet.
Schools apply funds first to their own
bill, and money left over may fall short
of what’s needed to cover other, ongo-
ing expenses. As the costs rise, it’s
increasingly difficult for students to
make up the gap by working.
“So much attention is paid to tuition,
but students also need to have money
to live on while in college,” said Robert
Kelchen, an associate professor of
higher education at Seton Hall Univer-
sity who has studied indirect college
cost estimates. “The biggest surprise,”
he added, “is how much of the cost it
can be.”
Students are often unaware of indi-
rect costs until they find themselves
struggling to pay them, according to
the report, which used focus groups
and surveys of more than 150 students,
as well as federal statistics and inter-
views with college financial aid profes-
sionals. Nearly 80 percent of students
surveyed for the report said they had
encountered an unexpected indirect
expense at least once in the last school
year.
The average annual published cost of
tuition and fees, plus room and board
(typically on-campus housing and
meals plans, which are considered a
direct cost), was about $22,000 for
four-year public colleges, $50,000 for
private colleges and about $13,000 for
public two-year colleges, according to
College Board figures for the 2019-20
academic year.
But many students live off campus,
either on their own or with their fam-
ilies, and commute to class. Despite the
persistent image of a college student as
a young adult supported by parents,
college students are increasingly older
and independent, with families of their
Rich Families Throw Lifelines to Struggling Businesses
Wealth Matters
By PAUL SULLIVAN
During the pandemic, wealthy families
have continued to use their investment
pools, known as family offices, to gain
access to the type of high-return oppor-
tunities once reserved for institutional
investors. But they are taking a more
hands-on role in such decisions.
These family offices have chosen to
bypass private equity and venture
capital funds — which have high min-
imum investments and sizable fees —
to invest directly in companies by
themselves or with other wealthy fam-
ilies, a report released on Friday found.
And they are taking a greater entrepre-
neurial role in their investments, which
would not have been possible if they
had put their money into large funds for
other people to manage.
Direct investment in businesses
began to rise after the last recession,
climbing 206 percent from 2010 to 2015.
Last year, it grew 11 percent.
Now, half of all family offices in the
world make direct investments in com-
panies, according to the report, which
was released by Fintrx, a data and
research company, and sponsored by
Charles Schwab’s family office arm.
That number jumped to 83 percent for
single-family offices, compared with
offices that serve multiple families, with
many of those investments focused on
areas where the family had originally
made its money.
“Family offices add value in times of
crisis,” said Russ D’Argento, founder
and chief executive of Fintrx. “That’s a
big component of how they stand out
and can be different from other fund
structures.”
To be sure, the wealthy are able to
invest differently in the pandemic from
everyone else. Nearly 1.2 million work-
ers filed new claims for state unemploy-
own to support while they earn a de-
gree, so they may have child care costs
to cover as well.
Researchers reviewed 820 college
websites and found that more than a
third included no information on indi-
rect costs. Those that did mention them
used dozens of different terms to de-
scribe them, adding to confusion. More
than half the students in the study said
they paid more than expected for those
costs.
Ruby Portillo, an advocacy fellow at
uAspire, is a rising junior at the Univer-
sity of California, Santa Cruz, where
students are guaranteed on-campus
housing for just one or two years. (The
college is not offering housing guaran-
tees for the coming year because of
uncertainty around the coronavirus,
according to its website.)
Off-campus housing and groceries
are both expensive in Santa Cruz, said
Ms. Portillo, 20, and some classmates
have had to choose between paying for
meals and paying rent. Ms. Portillo said
she hadn’t gone hungry, but often set-
tled for cheap fast food rather than
eating more nutritious meals. She has
borrowed the maximum amount, she
said, but still struggles to make ends
meet.
It would help, Ms. Portillo said, if
colleges were clearer about how they
arrive at cost estimates so students can
KHOLOOD EID/BLOOMBERG
Kristi Kuechler of Vernal Point Advisors
says wealthy families should leverage their
expertise when investing directly.
ment benefits last week, the Labor
Department reported on Thursday. The
tally has exceeded one million claims
for 20 consecutive weeks, extraordi-
narily high by historical standards. And
millions of Americans are worried
about paying their bills and hoping not
to be evicted from their homes.
For the wealthiest families, however,
what has been an economic and health
crisis for others is an opportunity to
make money by throwing a financial
lifeline to distressed businesses. The
stock market may have rebounded
quickly as investors looked past grow-
ing hot spots around the country, but
these family offices are betting that the
public markets are overvalued and that
more predictable, steadier returns are
to be had through private investments.
“There’s been an incredible recovery
in the stock market, but how do I com-
mit more to the public markets when
I’m looking at these valuations and it’s
still a rocky road ahead?” said Eric
Becker, who made his wealth by invest-
ing in health care companies and more
recently founded Cresset Capital, a
Personal Finance
take that into account. Being open
about high housing costs may push
some students to attend college else-
where, she said, but it could also help
others who do attend to budget more
accurately. Ms. Portillo recommended
talking to students who were already
enrolled at a school — student or family
groups on social media can be helpful, if
you don’t know anyone — to ask ques-
tions and seek advice before making a
choice.
Scott Hernandez-Jason, a spokesman
for the Santa Cruz campus, said in an
email that “affordable and reliable
housing is critical to the success of our
students,” and that the college aimed to
expand on-campus housing. Housing
“is a complicated issue for the univer-
sity and the broader community of
Santa Cruz, but we are committed to
finding additional ways to address it,”
he added.
Colleges vary in how they calculate
the cost of attendance, which can result
in inconsistent estimates. The report
found, for instance, a difference of more
than $8,000 in estimates for annual
indirect costs provided by colleges just
a few miles apart in the same city.
Students are aware that they will
have to buy textbooks, but are often
caught off guard when they learn they
also must pay for accompanying digital
access codes, which allow them to
multifamily office.
The interest in direct investments
has grown in the pandemic. There was
a short pause when the initial stay-at-
home orders were issued, but interest
has begun to rise again, especially
among newer family offices, or those
formed in the last five years that still
retain their entrepreneurial natures.
“Once the data started coming in and
talk about therapeutics began, people
started seeing a path toward normalcy,”
Mr. Becker said. “Whether it’s two
years, a year, six months out, it didn’t
matter. They could see that path,
whether it was distressed companies or
companies that just needed some capi-
tal.”
The Fintrx report found that families
generally invested in industries similar
to those in which they had made their
initial wealth. Technology led the way,
with tech-funded family offices commit-
ting 82 percent of their direct invest-
ments to tech companies. Real estate
families were second with more than
two-thirds of their investments in real
estate.
“Families initially invest in the same
areas where they have experience,”
said Paul Ferguson, managing director
of the Schwab Advisor Family Office,
which sponsored the Fintrx report. He
added that family offices could help
preserve private businesses through
their investments.
“They have a lot of capital to invest,
and they’re in a pretty unique position
because of the long-term nature of their
investing,” he said. “This is where their
patient capital is very important.”
Simply having wealth, of course, does
not make someone a good investor.
Direct investing has its critics, who say
the strategy is far riskier than its pro-
ponents admit. For one, private equity
firms have trillions of dollars sitting in
their funds and are already looking for
deals. So when someone with an invest-
ment opportunity approaches a family
TILL LAUER
submit homework assignments and
tests online. One student told the
uAspire researchers that expenses for
taking certain lab courses — like a lab
coat and goggles — weren’t revealed
until after registration for the class was
completed. Another cited an unexpect-
ed $100 ticket to attend a Broadway
play as part of a class.
Even if students plan to live off cam-
pus and cook meals for themselves,
they may be invited to grab snacks
after class as part of informal study
sessions. That may lead them to over-
spend, so as not to miss out on academ-
ic and social connections that are an
important part of college. That may
seem obvious, but students who are the
first in their family to attend college
may not have a full understanding of all
the costs that college can entail.
A brief explanation of how estimates
are calculated can help, said Brendan
Williams, a co-author of the uAspire
report. Some colleges, for instance, may
include an amount for “transportation,”
but not a list of what makes up that
total. Students need to know: Does it
include a local bus or subway pass?
Airline tickets home from school? On-
campus parking? With those details,
they can compare their situation with
the estimated costs.
Transportation costs are especially
important for students who commute to
worth hundreds of millions of dollars,
alarm bells go off.
“We’re always wary when someone
pitches us an idea,” said Paul Karger, a
founder and managing partner of Twin-
Focus, which works with 40 families
that collectively have placed $7 billion
at the firm. “The first question is, how
did this Texas oil deal miss everyone in
Texas and end up on our doorstep in
Back Bay Boston?”
Having sufficient selection options is
something that even large private
equity funds have to consider; many of
Bypassing private equity
and venture capital
funds, and their fees.
them examine hundreds of deals before
investing in one. But when it comes to
direct investments, Mr. Karger said, he
is also wary if professional investors
are not part of the deal.
Mr. Karger said his firm advised
most families to participate in direct
investing through deals in commercial
real estate — like apartments — that
are easier to value and come loaded
with tax advantages. He also counsels
his clients to invest in deals through
private equity funds and focus on the
funds’ performance, not on the fees
they charge, which are typically a 2
percent management fee and a 20
percent cut on an investment’s return.
“There’s a cost to doing something
right,” he said. “If you pay peanuts, you
get monkeys.”
But Mr. D’Argento countered that
family offices had become more sophis-
ticated and had hired experienced
investors in the last five years.
“They’re starting to look, feel and act
like institutions,” he said. “With that
added talent comes the ability to do
Q. and A. on College Expenses
What if I can’t afford supplies and food
while attending college?
If you are worried about paying for
basics, contact your school’s financial
aid office and explain the situation, Ruby
Portillo, the uAspire advocacy fellow,
suggested. Schools may have emer-
gency funds that they can make avail-
able to students in need or may work
with local transit systems, for instance,
to help with commuting costs. “Don’t
suffer in the darkness,” she said.
Colleges are increasingly aware that
some students struggle with adequate
nutrition, so some have arranged cam-
pus food pantries or other forms of aid.
The University of Houston-Downtown,
for example, teamed up with the Hous-
ton Food Bank to open a campus food
market where students can get up to 120
pounds of free groceries each month.
. ................................................................................
How can I learn what different college
cost terms mean?
To help students decode college cost
jargon, uAspire enlisted students to
create a glossary of terms. The term
“books” was once self-explanatory. But
the category has expanded to encom-
pass new technology. So the preferred
student version relabels them “required
course materials” and includes in the
category not only textbooks but also
printed materials, software, access
codes, clickers and additional course
requirements included in a course syl-
labus. Expenses for “personal needs”
may include extracurricular activities,
laundry, self-care/hygiene products,
uniforms, security clearances, collegiate
clubs, social activities, and internet and
cellphone service.
. ................................................................................
What can I do to reduce the cost of text-
books and related tools?
Increasingly, schools are offering “open
source” digital books at no cost to stu-
dents, so it’s worth asking about avail-
ability on your campus. OpenStax, an
initiative based at Rice University, says
that its free digital textbooks are being
used at more than half of American
colleges and universities and that de-
mand has surged during the pandemic.
campus, the report said.
“Not knowing what’s included is a
large issue,” Mr. Williams said. “If they
can’t cover transportation, they can’t
get to class.”
Justin Draeger, president and chief
executive of the National Association of
Student Financial Aid Administrators,
said compiling cost estimates was
complex because students’ circum-
stances varied and colleges might use
different sources to compile the infor-
mation. Some colleges may conduct
their own surveys, while others use
federal statistics or rely on outside
vendors to compute estimates.
“It’s hard to write a hard-and-fast
rule,” he said, but acknowledged that
colleges “can do better.”
more deals. It’s less of a cottage indus-
try.”
Another risk in a moment like this,
when there are many distressed com-
panies looking for investors, is missing
an opportunity to leverage the “family
alpha,” or the operating knowledge that
a family has in the area from which its
wealth came, said Kristi Kuechler,
managing director of client relations at
Vernal Point Advisors, a multifamily
office.
“There are families who have as
much knowledge of a sector as a pri-
vate equity firm,” Ms. Kuechler said.
When those families join with other
families who made their wealth in
different sectors, they could have
shared family alpha. Or they could have
less of an advantage than they think. So
the selection of partner families is
crucial, particularly now when there
are many more opportunities.
“What’s happened after this incredi-
ble increase in direct investment is
people feel they need to diversify their
private investment portfolio as if it
were an asset class,” she said. “Now,
they’re co-investing alongside other
families, so they’re not exploiting their
families’ distinct edge.”
That edge in understanding what
businesses may be struggling but are
still viable is important in the pan-
demic, she said. Many wealthy families
went through their own difficult busi-
ness cycles at some point.
“It does feel like families want a more
tangible investment that they can see
on the ground, and that can be a really
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attractive opportunity,” Ms. Kuechler
said. “Families are both quite cautious
in investing cash, but they’re also feel-
ing pretty opportunistic with compa-
nies that look like they can navigate
this particular uncertainty quite well.”
That’s good for a family office’s re-
turns, but it’s just as good for that small
business that can be saved by the in-
vestment.
SCORES ANALYSIS COMMENTARY
‘I’m Literally Bear-Hugging Another Creature’
N.F.L. players cite close contact and
family concerns in opting out.
By BEN SHPIGEL
When she is old enough, Philadelphia Ea-
gles receiver Marquise Goodwin will teach
his daughter, Marae, to put family first. He
will say that she should prioritize the people
she loves most when making decisions. He
will share his own choice, made five months
after she was born: He will sit out the 2020
N.F.L. season.
Picking family over football during the
coronavirus pandemic, Goodwin was one of
68 players whom the N.F.L. has listed as
having opted out by Thursday’s deadline,
even as the league, despite surging trans-
mission rates around the country, contends
that the season will begin, as scheduled, on
Sept. 10.
The players who opted out represent a
microcosm of N.F.L. rosters: rookies and
veterans, practice-squadders and starters,
all of whom determined after careful con-
sideration to reduce one risk while absorb-
ing another. To keep themselves and their
families safer, they will sacrifice the chance
to compete for a Super Bowl, forgo show-
casing themselves for more lucrative con-
tracts and, in some cases, cede starting jobs
and roster spots that may or may not be
there next season.
As part of an agreement between the
N.F.L. and the Players Association, players
with one of the 15 medical conditions that
the league regards as at high risk for con-
tracting the virus could earn $350,000 this
year, while players who decided not to play
will receive a $150,000 advance toward next
year’s salary.
Half of the players who opted out are of-
fensive and defensive linemen, who have
the closest contact with other players dur-
ing practices and games. Leo Koloa-
matangi, an offensive lineman on the Jets
who opted out, said he was resigned to con-
tracting the virus had he chosen to play.
“Where I play, I’m literally bear-hugging
another creature on the other side of the
ball every single play,” Koloamatangi, 26,
said in an interview. “If that guy has any
symptoms, I’m going to get them.” He add-
ed, “For myself, I couldn’t take those
chances.”
Neither could Goodwin, 29, whose family
has borne a string of personal tragedies. He
would not permit himself to perhaps cause
another. His wife, Morgan, twice endured
pregnancy complications, losing a prema-
turely born son in November 2017 and then,
in November 2018, twin boys.
The first time, Goodwin elected to play
the same day, Nov. 12, for the San Francisco
49ers, and after catching an 83-yard touch-
down pass, he blew a kiss to the heavens. He
was with the team in Tampa the next year
when Morgan woke up with contractions.
She suggested he come home but never ex-
plicitly said she needed him to, knowing
how seriously he took his career. He flew
home, skipping the game, to be with her.
“I told myself at some point that I’ve got
to hold it down for my family,” Goodwin said
in an interview. “I can’t let work and the
check and the money dictate decisions that
I truly want to make.”
Goodwin had been expecting training
camp to be pushed back, and when it wasn’t,
he grew stressed about leaving his family
outside Dallas. His mother, Tamina, takes
care of his younger sister, Deja, who has ce-
rebral palsy, and Morgan’s mother looks af-
ter a niece and a nephew. If either Morgan
or Marae fell ill, there wouldn’t be a family
member who could care for them. He then
heard that Kansas City Chiefs guard Lau-
rent Duvernay-Tardif, the only medical doc-
tor playing in the N.F.L., was opting out.
Other players followed, and Goodwin felt
more at peace in joining them.
“I’m always hesitant to make any serious
moves, because you never know how the
N.F.L. will treat you, you know?” Goodwin
said. “I was super excited because it was
the first time in my life that I made a deci-
sion I’m comfortable living with the result
of, as far as work is concerned.”
For Koloamatangi, choosing to opt out
was easy in one sense: He wanted to protect
his 9-month-old daughter, Aurora, and his
stepfather, Sele, who has heart problems,
from the virus that killed two close relatives
and infected another.
But other, more complex components fac-
tored into what he called “the hardest deci-
sion of my life.” Koloamatangi has spent his
three N.F.L. seasons bouncing between the
practice squads and the active rosters of the
Detroit Lions and the Jets but has yet to ap-
pear in a regular-season game. He and his
agent assessed the professional impact, and
Koloamatangi deliberated with his wife,
Athena, over the financial burden the fam-
ily would assume if he didn’t play. By taking
the opt out, he would, in effect, be making a
fraction of his $750,000 salary — “an un-
comfortable difference.”
“I had to take my losses and look my wife
in the eyes,” Koloamatangi said. “I did it to
ensure the safety in my home.”
Koloamatangi and his family have been
sheltering in place in California since
March. The rising infection rates in New
Jersey, where the Jets train and play,
prompted the team to announce that it
would play regular-season home games
PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
The Broncos’ Kyle Peko
with his wife and children.
With moderate to severe
asthma, Peko is at high
risk for the coronavirus.
The Jets’ Leo Koloa-
matangi with his daughter.
He opted out to protect his
family; the virus has killed
two close relatives.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020 B7
Y
without fans in MetLife Stadium or at train-
ing camp.
Koloamatangi said he had spoken with a
union representative every day since mid-
March, lobbing questions that he wanted
answered. He knew it was unfeasible for the
N.F.L. to enter a so-called “bubble,” as the
N.B.A. and N.H.L. have. But as he and Athe-
na debated their options, he wondered why
the N.F.L. refused to push back camp and
the season, or introduce additional safety
measures — such as gloves, or helmets with
masks — that would further mitigate his
risk of infection. As it stands, the N.F.L.’s
testing protocol calls for players to be tested
every day for the first two weeks of training
camp, and then every other day after that.
Ultimately, Koloamatangi said, he didn’t
feel confident enough to risk the travel and
contact that come with playing the game he
loves.
“I’m happy my workplace will be safe,
but what about when I have to go out and
perform my job?” he said. “What are you
doing to ensure that when I make full con-
tact with the guy next to me, I’m not going to
contract the virus? Imagine going through
an entire summer understanding that
you’re going to have to go to work at some
point, but your job doesn’t say anything
about your work conditions until two weeks
ago.”
Kyle Peko, a defensive tackle on the Den-
ver Broncos, reached a similar conclusion.
Peko, 27, has moderate to severe asthma,
among the medical conditions the league
regards as high risk. He has two young chil-
dren and a wife, Giuliana, who he said has
been cancer-free for seven months.
Their every discussion on opting out fo-
cused on the same question: How could he
play football without putting himself at
risk?
Undrafted out of Oregon State in 2016,
Peko has lived on the margins the last four
seasons, playing in 13 games. Normally he
treasures this time — rejoining teammates,
preparing for camp, battling for a spot. On
July 26, two days before he was to report to
camp, Peko had his bags packed and his
truck gassed up for the 15-hour drive from
their home in La Habra, Calif.
That day, he said, he received an email
from the union detailing his options, and
when he realized he could keep his family
safe without losing his job, he did not hesi-
tate. He spoke to Broncos officials and
coaches, all of whom, he said, respected his
choice.
“Trying to go back and play football dur-
ing this pandemic,” Peko said in an inter-
view, “it was just hard to wrap my head
around putting my family at risk when I
could do my part in trying to put this pan-
demic to rest.”
Instead, Peko will be taking the 12 credits
he needs to complete his college degree.
Koloamatangi said he could concentrate on
his two ventures in Hawaii — a nonprofit
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group that provides resources for people
and businesses affected by the pandemic,
and a grocery delivery platform for older
adults. Goodwin, meantime, can’t wait to
bond more with Marae.
Sometimes, safe at home, when she
sneezes or coughs, he startles. Then he re-
members what he did, and he thinks to him-
self, “Dang, I’m glad I didn’t put her in that
situation.”
B8 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES SPORTS SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020
Above, from left, girls gathered for morning practice at the Djarum Badminton Club in Jakarta; shuttlecocks littered the courts after practice; Susi Susanti and
Alan Budikusuma, who won gold medals in badminton at the 1992 Olympics. Below, recreational players on a Saturday night at a club on Jakarta’s outskirts.
‘When You Say Badminton, You Say Indonesia’
Photographs and Text by JAMES HILL
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Raja Sapta Okto-
hari, the muscular and youthful president of
the Indonesian Olympic Committee, was
finding it hard to contain his enthusiasm.
Badminton, he explained in an interview
early this year, is more than a casual pas-
time in his country. It is part of the country’s
social fabric, a game played by families in
backyards and cramped public spaces and
by shop workers waiting for clients.
“When you say badminton, you say Indo-
nesia,” Oktohari declared. “That is how im-
portant it is.”
So it was a blow to Indonesia’s sporting
culture when the Tokyo Olympics were
postponed earlier this year because of the
coronavirus pandemic. Badminton is the
only sport in which Indonesia has won an
Olympic gold medal, a feat its players have
achieved seven times. It is, in an Olympic
year, the only sport that matters here.
The coronavirus has tested that commit-
ment since The Times visited in February to
document badminton’s place in Indonesian
life, but it hasn’t dimmed it a bit. Slowly but
surely, the game and its players are emerg-
ing from lockdown. For months, training
centers and courts in Jakarta have been
closed, but any easing of rules will revive fa-
miliar routines, even if coaching instruc-
tions will have to come from behind masks
and face shields.
The Olympics, rescheduled for next year,
are never far from the players’ minds. The
national squad recently held an internal
tournament “so they could not feel bored
and can measure the results of training pro-
grams” during the lockdown, one official
said.
Coaches and players hope Jakarta’s clubs
will rumble back to life soon, too, bringing
the sport — and its future — out of its tem-
porary hibernation.
It is in those smaller gyms and neighbor-
hoods where the sport that has been nur-
tured for decades by mentors like Christian
Hadinata, a 70-year-old former world cham-
pion. In regular times, Hadinata could be
found each weekday morning at 6 on the
courts of the Djarum Badminton Club in Ja-
karta, waiting for his students to arrive.
Uncle Chris, as Hadinata is known to the
junior players, sees his contributions as
paying back a debt to his sport, and his
country, by passing on the learning of his
lifetime. It is an obligation that Hadinata
says he has felt since the Munich Olympics
of 1972, when badminton was first
presented as a demonstration sport. He
won the men’s doubles that summer, but it
was a victory without a medal or an anthem
and one, he said, that was quickly “over-
whelmed by the tragedy caused by Black
September.”
When badminton was introduced two
decades later as an official sport at the Bar-
celona Games, Indonesia won five medals.
pion who won gold in mixed-doubles at the
2016 Rio Games, was born in Manado, a port
on the island of Sulawesi, and came to the
Tangkas club in Jakarta at age 12. Though
her parents did not play badminton, she
said, her mother was a passionate follower
of the sport, a woman who binge-watched
games late at night while pregnant with
Liliyana. “She told me,” Natsir said, “that I
must have been watching, too.”
Rudy Hartono, one of the country’s great-
est singles players and a dominant force in
international badminton in the 1970s, said
that Indonesia’s deep love for the sport
stemmed from the fact that it has always
been a backyard game for Indonesian fam-
ilies. “When you go to small villages,” he
said, “you can see in the evening, often from
6 till midnight, people gathering to play bad-
minton.”
But the game’s popular appeal also has
also been a “unifying force,” according to
Yuppy Suhandinata, the owner of the
Tangkas club, because it blends players
from different ethnicities, different reli-
gions and different backgrounds. While In-
donesia is the largest Muslim nation in the
world by population, its badminton players
— including many with Chinese heritage —
come from all religions.
Before each practice at the Tangkas club,
the players are invited to say a prayer ac-
cording to their religion. It is a tradition that
is carried up to the highest levels, even at
Students at the Jaya the training sessions of the national squad.
Raya Badminton Club, The origin of the nation’s love for the
above, on the outskirts game is unclear. Badminton’s rules were
of Jakarta. The club has formalized in England at the end of the 19th
100 students and draws century, and spread to Asia — initially in In-
players from around the dia and Malaysia — through British influ-
ence. Indonesia now has more than a mil-
country. Right, a mother
and her three sons play- lion active club players, according to
Achmad Budiharto, the secretary general
ing near Jakarta’s central of the country’s national badminton associ-
stadium. The sport is ation.
played nearly every- Rudy Hartono argued it was Indonesia’s
where in Indonesia. first victory in the Thomas Cup, the interna-
tional men’s team competition, in 1958, that
helped popularize the game. Hartono, still
trim and elegant at the age of 70, said that
victory inspired him to pursue a career in
badminton; the game, he said, became “my
daily breakfast.” He grew up to become a
world champion.
That level of success, though, has meant
enormous pressure upon each successive
generation of Indonesian players. Now that
Susi Susanti, now the director of perform- did they understand how much their vic- the four-year Olympic cycle is being ex-
ance for the national team, became the first tories had meant to the country. They have tended a year, there is a new weight upon
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player to win gold for Indonesia, in the since taken on the task of molding the coun- them.
women’s singles. As the Indonesian flag try’s next generation of champions. Marcus Fernaldi Gideon is a member of
was raised during the medals ceremony, If anyone knows about the long path to the world’s leading doubles team, and he
television cameras focused tightly on her as success, it is Susanti. In her early teens, she and his partner were widely considered to
tears rolled down her face. Her boyfriend, left home to move to Jakarta to live and have been Indonesia’s strongest chance for
Alan Budikusuma, now her husband, won train at one of the capital’s powerhouse bad- a gold medal in Tokyo. Now he, and every-
the men’s singles competition a few days minton clubs. It is a path still followed by one else, must find a way to stay motivated
later. many of the players who reach the national as the pressure continues to build.
Only when they returned home, though, team. ”Everyone expects us to win,” he said,
where they were greeted by huge crowds, Liliyana Natsir, a four-time world cham- “because this is badminton and Indonesia.”

A Travers Win Could Be Just a Step in a Small Stable’s Plans
A Triple Crown sweep
remains a possibility for
Sackatoga’s Tiz the Law.
How lucky is Jack Knowlton?
Lucky enough to have the even-
money favorite, Tiz the Law, in
the 151st running of the Travers
Stakes on Saturday in Saratoga
Springs, N.Y., and
JOE with no real pres-
sure to win it.
DRAPE In gambling parl-
ance, Knowlton and
ON HORSE
RACING his Sackatoga Stable
have a free roll:
Whether his colt wins or loses
the Travers, also known as the
Midsummer Derby, Tiz the Law
will remain the only horse with a
chance to sweep the sport’s Holy
Grail, the Triple Crown.
The coronavirus pandemic has
reshuffled the seasons of every
sport, but it truly upended thor-
oughbred racing. While the Ken-
tucky Derby usually serves as
the first leg of the Triple Crown,
on the first Saturday in May, the
Belmont Stakes did so for the
first time in history, on a Satur-
day in June.
After Tiz the Law rolled to an
emphatic four-length victory at
Belmont Park on Long Island,
Knowlton took advantage of the
scrambled calendar and chose an
ambitious schedule for his colt,
one that mirrored some of the
sport’s greatest horses.
The Triple Crown champions
Sir Barton (1919), Omaha (1935),
Whirlaway (1941), Count Fleet
(1943) and Citation (1948) com-
peted in races between the
Preakness and the Belmont,
typically the final two legs. All
but Omaha were victorious. This
year’s Kentucky Derby has been
shifted to Sept. 5, and the Preak-
ness to Oct. 3.
“Why not?” asked Knowlton,
the managing partner of Sack-
atoga Stable. “With the pandemic
turning the Triple Crown upside
down, and the fact that we ha-
ven’t been able to watch his last
two victories in person, we have
almost a month to get ready for
Kentucky. It is worth a shot.”
Even better, Saratoga Race
Course is Knowlton’s home track,
and the meet’s premier race
means the world to him. In fact,
he has suffered a broken heart at
the hands of the Travers before.
Seventeen years ago, a gelding
by the name of Funny Cide was
scratched the day before the
race. Funny Cide, the 2003 Ken-
tucky Derby and Preakness
winner, had made Knowlton and
his partnership semifamous.
Sackatoga Stable was born in
Sackets Harbor, N.Y., when six
old high school buddies sat on
the front porch of the village’s
former mayor, acknowledged
they were approaching midlife
crises and decided they needed
to get in the horse business.
They added more partners and
captured the imaginations of
sports fans by arriving at each
Bongo Lady and Her Fellow Superfans Fill Arena Seats From Afar
By SCOTT CACCIOLA
Malenda Meacham usually
watches the Memphis Grizzlies
play their home games at FedEx
Forum from her perch in Section
106. She stands. She cheers. She
paces. And, of course, she pre-
tends to pound on the cartoon bon-
gos whenever they flash on the
arena’s big screens.
A part-time judge who moon-
lights as Bongo Lady, one of the
team’s most easily recognizable
superfans, Meacham, 51, was
among those who labored through
the N.B.A.’s extended layoff this
season, her cartoon bongos ren-
dered silent by the coronavirus
pandemic. But when the Grizzlies
faced the San Antonio Spurs in a
seeding game in the N.B.A.’s re-
start at Walt Disney World in Flor-
ida, she seized the opportunity to
make her presence felt again.
Clad in her personalized pow-
der-blue jersey, Meacham pro-
vided her ticket information —
Section 2, Seat 1 — and then spent
the next two hours sweating
through every possession. In the
third quarter, she even broke out a
pair of bongos (autographed by
the former defensive stopper
Tony Allen) at the urging of the
other fans in her section.
“We should all do the air bon-
gos!” Meacham said.
The weird thing was that
Meacham was nowhere near the
arena. In fact, she was on her liv-
ing room couch in Hernando,
Miss., shouting at her laptop com-
puter.
As part of its expansive efforts
to build atmosphere for games in-
side its fan-free bubble at Disney
World, the N.B.A. has been invit-
ing spectators to attend — virtual-
ly. Select fans who are viewing the
games from home are being
livestreamed onto three video
boards that extend along each
baseline and one sideline. There
Triple Crown race in an old yel-
low school bus and with coolers
full of beer. But at the Belmont,
Empire Maker upset Funny Cide,
who finished third, and dashed
their Triple Crown dreams.
The Travers was supposed to
make them feel better. Instead,
Funny Cide got sick, and the
stable’s trainer, Barclay Tagg,
pulled him from the race.
“To tell you the truth, that was
almost as disappointing as not
sweeping the Triple Crown,”
Knowlton said. “Small stables
like ours don’t get a lot of
chances.”
Home-run horses are scarce,
Malenda Meacham, or Bongo Lady, as a virtual Grizzlies fan.
are 10 sections in all, each with 32
seats, helping produce the vague
appearance of bleachers — along
with the all-too-familiar feel of a
video conference call, which
seems sadly appropriate these
days.
“We wanted to create some-
thing that would bring our fans to
the players,” Sara Zuckert, the
N.B.A.’s head of Next Gen Tele-
cast, said in a telephone interview.
“It’s also a way to give fans the op-
portunity to feel like they’re inter-
acting while enhancing the broad-
cast for everyone else at home.”
As the coronavirus continues to
upend sports, and the way that
fans view them, leagues around
the world have showcased vary-
ing levels of creativity when it
comes to sprucing up their empty
backdrops. Major League Base-
ball teams have deployed card-
board cutouts of fans. An inven-
tive baseball club in South Korea
enlisted stuffed animals to fill its
stadium. At Major League Soc-
cer’s tournament in Florida, dig-
ital video boards hum with activi-
ty. And then there are the tarps —
THE NEW YORK TIMES SPORTS SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020
H O R S E R AC I N G
and Knowlton and his partners
were grateful Funny Cide had
walked into their shedrow.
They had paid $75,000 for him,
a blue-plate special price that
ended up paying off blue-blood
dividends. Funny Cide won 11
races, earned more than $3.5
million in purses and etched his
name in the history books as the
first New York-bred horse to win
the Kentucky Derby.
Still, Knowlton did not deviate
from his stable’s playbook — he
buys only modestly bred New
York horses and spreads the risk
among a lot of partners who pay
small amounts for shares. They
PRO BASKETBALL
DELANEY LUND
so many tarps in so many coun-
tries sheltering so many vacant
seats.
In partnering with Microsoft,
the N.B.A. has harnessed the
magic of 21st-century computer
technology to beam fans like
Bongo Lady straight into its three
arenas at Disney World. (Imagine
reading that sentence before the
start of the season.)
Most of the virtual seats for
each game are allotted to the des-
ignated “home” team, with one
section typically reserved for the
players’ family members and
friends. The rest largely go to sea-
son-ticket holders, sponsors and
fans who apply online, though
there have been celebrity cameos.
The rapper Lil Wayne, for exam-
ple, was recently spotted behind
the Los Angeles Lakers’ bench.
Former players like Paul
Pierce, Chris Bosh and Manu Gi-
nobili have also made appear-
ances — from the comfort of their
own homes. Games now double as
“Where’s Waldo?” searches: Was
that really Shaquille O’Neal
watching the Milwaukee Bucks
PHOTOGRAPHS BY CINDY SCHULTZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
have had some success, winning
more than 50 races and cam-
paigning nine horses that have
won $95,000 to $200,000.
Then Tiz the Law came along.
Tagg, who also advises on
which horses to buy, liked the
yearling as soon as he saw him
at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton New
York-bred yearling sale. Like
Funny Cide, he was the son of a
first crop, or unproven sire, by
the name of Constitution. His
mother, Tizfiz, had won a Graded
Stakes race at 1 ⅛ miles, sug-
gesting class and stamina.
“We thought we’d get him for
$100,000,” Knowlton said. “It’s a
play the Miami Heat? (Yes, it
was.)
Peggy Rounds, an account ex-
ecutive with the Grizzlies,
reached out to Meacham to see if
she would be a virtual fan for the
team’s game against the Spurs.
“Who wouldn’t want to try
this?” Meacham asked.
Meacham signed a three-page
waiver that detailed various rules.
Near the top of the list: no bad lan-
guage, as audio of the virtual fans
would be blended and piped into
the arena. Meacham knew in ad-
vance that she was going to wres-
tle with that restriction. As the
game wore on, she was grateful
for the option to turn off her micro-
phone. Yes, Bongo Lady muted
herself. She did pick her spots,
though, such as when the Spurs’
Lonnie Walker threw up an errant
jumper. Meacham leaned into her
laptop.
“AIRBALLLLL!” she said.
Meacham was looking at a split
screen of the rest of the fans in her
section, in the form of a video con-
ference, and a live feed of the
game itself. She also had the re-
gional broadcast of the game on
her television, which provided a
much larger, more user-friendly
viewing experience. But there
was a delay, which was problemat-
ic: Her reactions as one of the vir-
tual fans needed to come in real
time, and that required her to pay
attention to the pint-size feed on
her laptop.
Still, the TV broadcast was vivid
and seductive, and Meacham
wanted to see what was actually
happening. She was both invested
in the game — which the Grizzlies
desperately needed to win to in-
crease their odds of landing a
playoff spot — and eager to fulfill
her duties as a virtual fan. The
tension was real.
“I’m glad to do this for the play-
ers,” she said. “If there’s any
chance that it gives them some ex-
Y B9
Tiz the Law, the Belmont
Stakes winner, in the barn and
on the track at Saratoga Race
Course, preparing for Satur-
day’s Travers Stakes. In six
starts, he has generated purse
earnings of nearly $1.5 million.
Preakness and the Breeders’ Cup
Classic, which is scheduled for
November.
Ashford Stud structured a
bonus deal for the 2015 Triple
Crown champion, American
Pharoah, that promised his
owner, Ahmed Zayat, $3 million
for winning the Kentucky Derby,
$2 million each for victories in
the Preakness, the Belmont, the
good thing we raised our hand Travers Stakes and the Breeders’
one more time and got him at Cup Classic as well as a $2 mil-
$110,000.” lion bonus for being named the
Yes, it was very good for
3-year-old male champion.
Knowlton and his 34 partners. All
Do the math: A similar deal
Tiz the Law has done is win five
of his six starts for purse earn- would mean a potential $13 mil-
ings of nearly $1.5 million. lion for Sackatoga to roll up this
Even better for them, however, year.
was that the colt’s stallion rights “I drew a line in the sand — no
were sold in an eight-figure deal one was going to own his racing
to Coolmore America’s Ashford rights other than us, and we
Stud after the Belmont victory. intended to run him throughout
Knowlton would not reveal the his 4-year-old year,” Knowlton
exact number, but he did ac- said.
knowledge that Sackatoga will Lucky or not, Knowlton and
earn bonuses if Tiz the Law wins his partners are taking a free roll
the Travers, the Derby, the with found money.
Fun
and Fast.
tra oomph, then it’s worth it.”
Rounds, the Grizzlies account Together
executive, policed Meacham’s
section as a moderator (no curs- at Last.
ing; stay in your seat) while a
member of the team’s dance crew
pumped up the energy by starting
chants. There was a semi-success-
ful attempt at doing the wave.
When Ja Morant, the team’s star
guard, drained a jumper, several
fans mimicked his “goggles” cele-
bration. Meacham yelped with de-
light.
“High-five! High-five?” Meach-
am said as she extended her arms.
“Nobody’s high-fiving.”
She experienced other minor
inconveniences. She was unfamil-
iar with the Microsoft program.
(“I’m a Zoom girl,” she said.) The
virtual fan “sitting” in front of her
was too close to the camera on his
computer, which had the effect of
partly blocking her out. (“I keep
trying to get his attention,” said
Meacham, who pretended to
squeeze the offending fan’s head
between her thumb and index fin-
ger like an overripe tomato.) But
she also struggled to remain in her
own seat as the game slipped
away from Memphis.
“I get too hyped up,” she said.
“I’m usually standing.”
The fourth quarter was excruci-
ating for Meacham, who spent en-
tire possessions with her head in
her hands. She put her bongos
away.
“I think I may need a drink,” she
said.
Afterward, she digested the loss
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by reflecting on the experience.
“I know the N.B.A. is just trying
to do the best they can under the
circumstances,” Meacham said.
“And I’m honored that the Griz-
zlies asked me to do it.”
But she was still looking for-
ward to the day when she could
watch a game the old-fashioned
way — in person.
B10 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES SPORTS SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020
Snyder Sues Media Site, Calling Its Claims ‘Malicious’
This article is by Ken Belson,
Katherine Rosman and Kevin Dra-
per.
Daniel Snyder, the owner of the
Washington N.F.L. team, has ac-
cused an online media company of
accepting payment in exchange
for publishing defamatory ru-
mors, including one that Snyder
was named on a list of sexual of-
fenders maintained by Jeffrey Ep-
stein, the sex criminal and finan-
cier.
In a lawsuit filed Friday in New
Delhi and in federal court papers
in California, Snyder said the
news site, Media Entertainment
Arts WorldWide, whose parent
company is based in India, pub-
lished articles that it knew were
false and designed to malign him,
some using information from
anonymous posts on social news
sites including Reddit.
The suit is Snyder’s first public
strike after a wave of attacks on
his operation of the team that
have included minority owners’
and sponsors’ seeking to divest
and a Washington Post report of
widespread sexual harassment
within the front office. Snyder,
who seeks $10 million in damages,
wants to identify if, and by whom,
M.E.A. WorldWide was paid to
publish the articles, his lawyer,
Rizwan A. Qureshi of the firm
Reed Smith, said in a statement.
“While Mr. Snyder understands
that truthful criticism about the
Washington Football Team comes
with the territory of owning the
team, malicious criminal allega-
tions cross the line,” Qureshi said.
“He intends to hold all of those re-
sponsible for this defamation ac-
countable, and will donate any
proceeds recovered in the lawsuit
to charity.”
In a phone interview, Nirnay
Chowdhary, a founder of M.E.A.
WorldWide, acknowledged that
“some sort of errors” had been
made in the articles about Snyder.
“We are going to be launching an
internal investigation,” he said.
However, Chowdhary said that
his company does not accept
money in exchange for articles
and that his employees had been
contacted by people asking him to
reveal who planted the stories.
“My entire company has been
harassed,” he said. “They started
asking us: ‘Who had paid you to
write these articles? If you are not
Some N.F.L. Staff Members Resist a Call to Return to the Office
By KATE KELLY
and KEN BELSON
Almost alone in the sports
world, the N.F.L. has promised to
hold its 2020 season as scheduled
even as the pandemic forces other
sports leagues to cancel or re-
schedule games and construct
elaborate self-contained commu-
nities to play their seasons.
But the league’s push to keep to
its ambitious schedule has hit sub-
stantial interference. First, more
than 100 players and staff mem-
bers have tested positive for the
coronavirus. Dozens of other play-
ers have decided to sit out this
season to reduce their risk of in-
fection.
And now, some N.F.L. office
workers are resisting an order to
return to the league’s Manhattan
headquarters, contending that the
reopening has been rushed and
has not been fully thought
through, according to two employ-
ees and an internal email. Nearly
everyone has been ordered to be-
gin spending at least some time in
the office starting Aug. 17.
In a letter sent to Commissioner
Roger Goodell on Wednesday that
was reviewed by The New York
Times, representatives from an
internal group, the Parents Initia-
tive Network, said that “many of
us continue to struggle with the
prospect of returning to the office
in the midst of the pandemic.” The
group said its members have “un-
derlying physical health con-
cerns, mental health concerns,
child care issues, medically fragile
family members, and the list goes
on and on.”
Digging Out
At the P.G.A.
Tiger Woods hit-
ting out of a bunker
on the third hole in
the second round of
the P.G.A. Champi-
onship on Friday.
Woods finished the
first round at two
strokes under par
and was seeking to
make the cut head-
ing into the week-
end at TPC Har-
ding Park in San
Francisco.
Coverage at
nytimes.com/
sports.
A lawsuit filed by Daniel Snyder, owner of the Washington team,
seeks to find out if a site was paid to publish articles about him.
going to tell us the name, we are
going to file a lawsuit.’ They are
trying to force us to give us some
name of someone, but we have no
name to give to them. This person
does not exist.”
The articles, which have since
been removed from M.E.A. World-
Wide’s website, asserted that Sny-
der was involved in sex trafficking
and speculated that the team’s mi-
nority owners were “looking at
bringing him down citing inappro-
priate and unchaste behavior as
one of the major reasons,” accord-
ing to parts of the article included
in the complaint.
The articles surfaced in mid-
July, and elements of them were
alluded to or repeated on social
media. They appeared just as The
Washington Post published an in-
vestigation that detailed allega-
tions made by 15 women of sexual
harassment, misconduct and abu-
sive behavior by team executives
and football personnel over more
than a dozen years.
Before the newspaper pub-
lished its article on July 16, several
posts on Facebook and Twitter
suggested that The Post would in-
clude some of the information that
ultimately appeared in M.E.A.
WorldWide articles. The Post’s ar-
ticle did not include the details
flagged on social media or Reddit,
or those included in the M.E.A.
WorldWide articles that are now
the subject of the lawsuit.
The filing comes at a fraught
time for Snyder and his team. Af-
ter decades of standing by its for-
League officials have said that
allowances will be made for em-
ployees with particular health
concerns or family challenges.
But the parent network took issue
with that, too. The N.F.L. is requir-
ing workers who want to continue
to work remotely to discuss these
requests with human resources
representatives. Workers said
that requirement “puts our col-
leagues in an impossible situa-
tion” because of their desire to
maintain their own and their fam-
ily members’ privacy on matters
of physical and mental health,
among other reasons.
N.F.L. personnel have handled
many matters effectively while
working remotely, the letter said,
including overseeing the draft,
making a plan for coronavirus
tracing and developing new spon-
sor relationships. Giving employ-
ees greater latitude to continue
working remotely, the letter said,
would underscore that “the ‘F’ in
NFL also stands for “ ‘Family.’”
Dasha Smith, the league’s chief
people officer, said in an interview
that many employees have ex-
pressed concerns, including un-
certainty around schools reopen-
ing and child care. She said the
league had accommodated every-
one who had asked for flexibility,
and the only feasible way for em-
ployees to address their concerns
was with human resources.
Smith said that workers will
only need to return to the office a
few days a week, and that one of
the most valuable aspects of being
in the office was the ability to have
spontaneous interactions with
colleagues, rather than schedul-
PRO FOOTBALL
SUSAN WALSH/ASSOCIATED PRESS
mer name, Snyder said last month
that the team would drop its logo
and the name Redskins, which
many consider a racist slur
against Native Americans, amid
pressure from several of its larg-
est corporate sponsors. He also
removed any mention of the
founding owner, George Preston
Marshall, who named the fran-
chise and was the last team owner
in the N.F.L. to hire Black players.
The owners of the three largest
minority shares in the team —
Frederick W. Smith, Dwight Schar
and Robert Rothman, who togeth-
One article suggests
a connection with
Jeffrey Epstein.
er own about 40 percent — have
also been trying to sell their
stakes for about a year. Minority
stakes in sports teams are often
hard to sell separately from a sale
of the entire team because they
are expensive but include no vot-
ing rights. The downturn in the
economy brought about by the co-
ronavirus pandemic has made
selling those shares even harder.
Smith, who is the chairman of
FedEx, threatened to remove the
company’s name from the sta-
dium in Landover, Md., if Snyder
DAVID J. PHILLIP/ASSOCIATED PRESS
On July 31 Roger Goodell sent
an email saying N.F.L. employ-
ees would return to the office.
ing them in advance.
“What we’re missing out a lot of
are those ad-hoc, five-minute con-
versations that are very hard to do
remotely,” she said.
In late June, the N.F.L. brought
back about 25 percent of its usual
head count to its headquarters at
Manhattan’s 345 Park Avenue,
where about 800 people work.
Workers at its offices in Culver
City, Calif., and Laurel, N.J., have
followed a different timetable.
Now, league officials have laid the
groundwork for a more complete
employee return to Park Avenue,
starting with those who have their
own offices on Aug. 17 and fol-
lowed by those who work from cu-
bicles on Aug. 24. To maintain so-
cial distancing, no more than half
TOM PENNINGTON/GETTY IMAGES
did not change the club’s name.
Snyder also hired a new head
coach, Ron Rivera, at the end of
last season; fired his longtime
team president, Bruce Allen; and
replaced a number of other top ex-
ecutives.
This is not the first time Snyder
has sued a media company. In
2010, Snyder filed suit against
Washington City Paper, an alter-
native weekly, after it published
an article that it billed as “an ency-
clopedia of the owner’s many fail-
ings.” The article included ac-
counts of the organization’s sell-
ing bags of expired airline
peanuts to fans, firing a beloved
announcer and suing a 73-year-
old season-ticket holder because
she could no longer afford pay-
ments on her seats. The lawsuit
against the paper was eventually
dropped.
Snyder acknowledged in his
complaint that he and his team
were “fair game for true and accu-
rate coverage.” However, accord-
ing to the complaint, he wants to
“rectify the harm to his personal
and professional reputation” and
to “deter defendants and other
‘hired gun’ misinformation
providers from taking similar ac-
tions on behalf of their illicit cli-
ents against him or anyone else so
that their family and friends can
be spared the same terrible expe-
rience endured by Mr. Snyder and
his family.”
M.E.A. WorldWide is emblem-
atic of “click-baity junk news web-
sites,” also known as content
farms, “that create stories with
headlines that will pull people in
and generate advertising reve-
nue,” said Samantha Bradshaw, a
researcher with the Oxford Inter-
net Institute’s Computational
Propaganda Research Project.
“It’s not even about the content
being factual, it’s about how sexy
the content is.”
Bradshaw said that content
farms that solely push blatantly
false stories are being joined by a
new breed that blends fabricated
stories with more accurate ones.
“That is what we see happening
as more and more people become
skeptical and critical readers,” she
said. “These providers create this
false sense of credibility to say,
‘We’ve done journalism.’ ”
Snyder said in the complaint
that one of the owners of M.E.A.
WorldWide “is frequently hired
of an office’s staff will be present
on any day, with workers alternat-
ing days.
The return was announced July
31 in an email from Goodell mak-
ing the case to get back to the of-
fice, particularly as players have
been asked to report to training
camp.
“As our teams and players gear
up for the season, it is critical that
we quickly ramp up our physical
presence in the workplace too,”
Goodell wrote in the email, a copy
of which was reviewed by The
Times.
In his response to the parent
network on Thursday, the com-
missioner said that many employ-
ees have been coming into the of-
fice since late June and “have felt
both safe and that our productivi-
ty has increased by being here.”
He said that employees at the
league’s satellite offices have also
returned to the office “without in-
cident.”
The tussle at the league’s head-
quarters comes as thousands of
players from around the country
return to their team facilities. The
league and players union spent
months negotiating ways to re-
duce the risk of infection to play-
ers, coaches and team personnel,
approving plans that included re-
configured locker rooms, reduced
travel schedules and extensive
testing of all employees. Players
were also allowed to skip the sea-
son without penalty. The season is
scheduled to begin Sept. 10 with
the Kansas City Chiefs playing at
home against the Houston Tex-
ans.
Unlike the players, workers in
the league’s headquarters, as well
as on individual teams, are not un-
ionized, so they have less leverage
to negotiate work conditions. In
that regard, the league’s efforts to
accommodate its workers’ needs,
particularly those of parents, mir-
rors challenges faced by many
companies. The league is also
aware of criticism that it does not
treat women fairly, and has
worked in recent years to increase
the number of women in its head-
quarters and teams.
In May, the league furloughed
employees who could not do their
jobs from home, or those who had
their work significantly reduced.
The league also cut salaries for
higher-paid employees, including
Goodell.
Goodell now joins the ranks of
New York area chief executives,
restaurant owners, school princi-
pals and other organizational
leaders trying to run their work-
places during the worst public-
health crisis in recent memory.
The employees who work at
N.F.L. headquarters in Manhat-
tan, where the job descriptions
S C O R E B OA R D
BASEBALL
AMERICAN LEAGUE
East W L Pct GB
(many times anonymously) by
Yankees 9 3 .750 —
Governments and intelligence
services in order to spread misin- Baltimore 5 7 .417 4
formation on rivals.” Tampa Bay 5 7 .417 4
Though it is not out of the ordi- Toronto 4 6 .400 4
nary for journalists to get wind of Boston 4 8 .333 5
a big story, The Washington Post’s Central W L Pct GB
article on the team’s toxic office
Minnesota 10 3 .769 —
culture prompted an unusual
round of internet speculation be- Cleveland 8 6 .571 2{
fore its publication. Reporters and Chicago 7 6 .538 3
sports media personalities pub- Detroit 5 5 .500 3{
licly discussed on social media Kansas City 4 10 .286 6{
and on radio the presumably ex- West W L Pct GB
plosive nature of the impending
Oakland 9 4 .692 —
article. Rumors spread both by
professional journalists and anon- Houston 6 6 .500 2{
ymous Reddit, Twitter and mes- Los Angeles 5 8 .385 4
sage board users had circulated Seattle 5 9 .357 4{
for days ahead of publication, be-
Texas 3 8 .273 5
ginning after the team fired two
FRIDAY
player personnel employees with- Baltimore at Washington
out publicly giving a reason. Yankees at Tampa Bay
Detroit at Pittsburgh
On July 12, four days before The Toronto at Boston
Minnesota at Kansas City
Post published its article, Scott Cleveland at Chicago White Sox
Abraham, a reporter at the local
L.A. Angels at Texas
Washington ABC affiliate, posted Houston at Oakland
Colorado at Seattle
to Twitter that he had been “told
SATURDAY
by a source there will be some
Cleveland (Plesac 0-1) at Chicago White
more news that comes out tomor-
Sox (TBD), 2:10
Yankees (Cole 3-0) at Tampa Bay (Glasnow
row other than the name change.” 0-0), 2:10, 1st game
The Post’s article was indeed
Detroit (Nova 0-0) at Pittsburgh (Holland
0-0), 4:05
Houston (Valdez 0-1) at Oakland (Montas
damning. It led to a number of res- 1-1), 4:10
ignations or firings and prompted Yankees (TBD) at Tampa Bay (TBD), 5:40,
2nd game
the team to hire a former federal Baltimore (TBD) at Washington (Voth 0-1),
prosecutor to investigate its work- 6:05
L.A. Angels (TBD) at Texas (Allard 0-0), 7:05
place culture. But even before it Minnesota (Odorizzi 0-0) at Kansas City
was published, the discussion (Duffy 0-2), 7:05
Toronto (Shoemaker 0-1) at Boston (Godley
about it had gotten out of control. 0-1), 7:30
Colorado (Gonzalez 0-0) at Seattle
Social media sites and football (Margevicius 0-0), 9:10
message boards, prone to conspir-
acy theories, hyperbole and fabri- NATIONAL LEAGUE
cations in even the soberest sce- East W L Pct GB
narios, went wild. Allegations far
beyond harassment were made
Miami 6 1 .857 —
Atlanta 9 5 .643 {
about Snyder and the team, a few
of which M.E.A. WorldWide seem- Washington 4 5 .444 3
ingly amplified and attributed as
“internet says.”
Philadelphia
Mets
3
5
4 .429
8 .385
3
4
One of the now-deleted articles Central W L Pct GB
that was published on M.E.A. Chicago 10 3 .769 —
WorldWide early on July 16 re-
Milwaukee 5 5 .500 3{
ferred in its headline to sex traf-
ficking allegations against Sny- St. Louis 2 3 .400 4
der. The source of these allega- Cincinnati 5 8 .385 5
tions was a thread in a section of Pittsburgh 3 10 .231 7
Reddit for fans of the team that
West W L Pct GB
summarized a number of rumors
Colorado 9 3 .750 —
about what would supposedly be
Los Angeles 9 4 .692 {
in the forthcoming Post article.
2{
At the bottom of the site’s article San Diego 7 6 .538
suggesting there was a connec- San Francisco 6 8 .429 4
tion between Snyder and Epstein, Arizona 5 8 .385 4{
a disclosure stated, “M.E.A. FRIDAY
WorldWide cannot independently Baltimore at Washington
verify the claims or accusations Detroit at Pittsburgh
Miami at Mets
being made on the internet.” Cincinnati at Milwaukee
Arizona at San Diego
Colorado at Seattle
San Francisco at L.A. Dodgers
Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis ppd.
Atlanta vs. Philadelphia ppd.
SATURDAY
Detroit (Nova 0-0) at Pittsburgh (Holland
0-0), 4:05
Atlanta (TBD) at Philadelphia (Arrieta 0-1),
6:05
range from handling payroll and Baltimore (TBD) at Washington (Voth 0-1),
events to communications, legal 6:05
Cincinnati (DeSclafani 0-0) at Milwaukee
work and financial operations, are (Anderson 0-0), 7:10
now facing some of the same con- Miami (Smith 0-0) at Mets (Peterson 1-1),
7:10
cerns as workers in other areas Chicago Cubs (Mills 2-0) at St. Louis
who have experienced wide (Wainwright 1-0), 8:15
Arizona (Kelly 1-1) at San Diego (Davies
Covid-19 outbreaks. They are 1-1), 9:10
Colorado (Gonzalez 0-0) at Seattle
wary of public transportation, irri- (Margevicius 0-0), 9:10
tated at the idea of wearing a San Francisco (Cueto 0-0) at L.A. Dodgers
(Kershaw 1-0), 9:10
mask at the office all day while
still conducting much of their
business through teleconferenc- BASKETBALL
ing, and anxious about the possi-
bility of falling ill themselves or in- N.B.A. SCHEDULE
fecting vulnerable family mem- All Times E.D.T.
Friday, Aug. 7
bers. Now, some N.F.L. employees San Antonio 119, Utah 111
feel torn between staying home to
Memphis 121, Oklahoma City 92
maintain their personal well-be-
Nets vs. Sacramento
Orlando at Philadelphia
ing and reporting to the office to Washington at New Orleans
ensure their job security, accord-
Boston at Toronto
Saturday, Aug. 8
ing to two current employees and L.A. Clippers at Portland, 1 p.m.
Utah at Denver, 3:30 p.m.
the parent network’s letter.
L.A. Lakers at Indiana, 6 p.m.
Phoenix at Miami, 7:30 p.m.
The start of school in New York Milwaukee at Dallas, 8:30 p.m.
City is also the same day the new Sunday, Aug. 9
football season starts, meaning
Washington at Oklahoma City, 12:30 p.m.
Memphis at Toronto, 2 p.m.
some N.F.L. parents at the league San Antonio at New Orleans, 3 p.m.
Orlando at Boston, 5 p.m.
headquarters could be busiest at Philadelphia at Portland, 6:30 p.m.
work just as they are juggling lim- Houston at Sacramento, 8 p.m.
Nets at L.A. Clippers, 9 p.m.
ited in-person class schedules or
overseeing another round of dis- W.N.B.A. SCHEDULE
tance learning. Unlike cities that All Times E.D.T.
Friday, Aug. 7
plan to conduct school entirely re- Indiana at Minnesota
motely this fall, New York’s Liberty at Washington
Los Angeles at Las Vegas
schools are planning to reopen to Saturday, Aug. 8
many students with one to three Atlanta at Dallas, 12 p.m.
Phoenix at Seattle, 3 p.m.
days a week in physical class- Chicago at Connecticut, 5 p.m.
Sunday, Aug. 9
rooms, complicating child-care Minnesota at Los Angeles, 3 p.m.
schedules. Las Vegas at Liberty, 5 p.m.
Washington at Indiana, 7 p.m.
The N.F.L. has prepared a de-
tailed plan for safeguarding em-
ployees who return to its offices. HOCKEY
Cubicles have been spaced out,
copiers must be wiped down after N.H.L. STANLEY CUP
each use and arrows on the floor QUALIFIERS SCHEDULE
dictate which routes to walk. All Times E.D.T.
All games played in Edmonton and Toronto
Workers use a virtual app daily to Friday, Aug. 7
answer questions about their ex- Islanders 5, Florida 1, Islanders win series 3-1
Arizona 4, Nashville 3
posure to the virus and body tem- Montreal 2, Pittsburgh 0
perature, and foot-operated but- Columbus 4, Toronto 3, OT
Chicago vs. Edmonton
tons will open doors. “We’ve put a
lot of thought into this,” said
Vancouver vs. Minnesota
Saturday, Aug. 8
Washington vs. Boston, TBD
Smith, the chief people officer. Pittsburgh vs. Montreal, TBD
Colorado vs. Las Vegas, TBD
Nonetheless, some employees Edmonton vs. Chicago, TBD
have been roiled by the news.
During an all-hands virtual call
held Monday, Smith said she re- SOCCER
ceived 300 queries from employ-
M.L.S. IS BACK
ees on the chat function, ranging
TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
from requests for clarification on
the safety protocols to expres- All Times E.D.T.
Semifinals
sions of concern about the reper- Thursday, August 6
cussions of not returning. There Orlando City 3, Minnesota 1
Final
were questions about whether the Tuesday, August 11
Orlando City at Portland, 8:30 p.m.
league’s $75-per-day reimburse-
ment for using ride-sharing serv-
ices to get to work or $30-per-day TRANSACTIONS
parking repayments were gener-
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ous enough, said two participants M.L.B.
in the call. Others wondered how National League
to handle child-care issues at a NEW YORK METS — Reinstated RHP
Robert Gsellman from the IL. Optioned
time when school had not yet be- LHP Daniel Zamora to alternate training
site. Added INF Luis Carpio to the 60-man
gun. player pool.
Questions were also raised
about whether employees would N.F.L.
be fired for not coming in, said the ATLANTA FALCONS — Waived RB Craig
Reynolds.
participants. League officials said CLEVELAND BROWNS — Activated WR
no. Ja'Marcus Bradley from reserve/COVID-19 list.
 THE NEW YORK TIMES OBITUARIES SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020 Y B11

Bernard Bailyn, 97, Who Transformed the Field of American History, Is Dead
By RENWICK McLEAN
and JENNIFER SCHUESSLER
Bernard Bailyn, who reshaped
the study of early American his-
tory with seminal works on mer-
chants and migrants, politics and
government, and recast the study
of the origins of the American
Revolution, died on Friday at his
home in Belmont, Mass., a suburb
of Boston. He was 97.
His wife, Lotte Bailyn, said the
cause was heart failure.
Though his name may not ring a
bell with the legions of readers
who devour best-selling books on
the founding of America, few his-
torians since World War II have
left an imprint on that field of
study that rivals Professor Bai-
lyn’s. From the beginning, his
work was innovative: He was
among the first historians to mine
statistics from historical records
with a computer. And his insights
and interpretations, notably in his
classic 1967 work, “The Ideolog-
ical Origins of the American Revo-
lution,” could be groundbreaking.
On topic after topic, in more
than 20 books that he wrote or
edited, he shifted the direction of
scholarly inquiry, in the process
winning two Pulitzer Prizes, a Na-
tional Book Award, a Bancroft
Prize (the most prestigious award
given to scholars of American his-
tory) and, in 2011, the National
Humanities Medal, presented in a
White House ceremony by Presi-
dent Barack Obama. And as a pro-
fessor at Harvard for more than a
half-century, he seeded many of
the nation’s top university history
departments with his acolytes.
“He has transformed the field of
early American history as much
as any single person could,” Gor-
don S. Wood, a historian at Brown
University and a former student
of Professor Bailyn’s, said in an in-
terview for this obituary in 2008.
“He transformed the history of ed-
ucation. He turned over our entire
interpretation of the Revolution.
He changed the way we think
about immigration. Almost every
single thing he did had a profound
impact on the field.”
When Professor Bailyn entered
graduate school in 1946, the field
of colonial history was viewed by
many as a backwater. Almost
from the beginning, he brought
methodological rigor and star-
tlingly fresh interpretive ques-
tions.
Early in his career, he and his
wife, while studying colonial-era
shipping, entered statistics from
Massachusetts shipping records
into a primitive computer and
found that Boston had one of the
largest merchant fleets in the
British Empire in the early 1700s,
indicating a surprisingly vibrant
and self-reliant economy. The re-
sulting work, “Massachusetts
Shipping, 1697-1714: A Statistical
Study” (1959), was one of the first
historical works to include data
analyzed by a computer.
In other studies, Professor Bai-
lyn examined specific social
groups, like New England mer-
chants (whose moneymaking, he
argued, was as important to un-
derstanding the country’s origins
as their Puritan religion) and the
Virginia gentry.
He remains best known for
“The Ideological Origins of the
American Revolution,” published
in 1967. It began as a bibliograph-
ical essay on hundreds of colonial
pamphlets published between
1750 and 1776, which he had been
charged with preparing for publi-
cation. But it grew into a sweeping
study that changed the course of
debate about the nation’s found-
ing.
The book, which won both a Pul-
itzer and the Bancroft Prize, chal-
lenged the then-dominant view of
Progressive Era historians like
Charles Beard, who saw the
founders’ revolutionary rhetoric
as a mask for economic interests.
For Professor Bailyn, the pam-
phlets revealed a striking pattern.
Though the colonists opposed
taxes, restrictions on trade and
other economic measures, and
were frustrated with their subor-
dinate status in British society, it
was a fundamental distrust of
government power, in Professor
Bailyn’s view, that led them to
throw off the colonial yoke.
The colonists had inherited this
ideology from opposition poli-
ticians and writers in England, he
argued. But it became particularly
potent in the relative isolation of
the American colonies, where un-
popular policies enacted an ocean
away were interpreted as signs of
a corrupt conspiracy to deny colo-
nists their freedom.
The impact of Professor Bai-
lyn’s book reverberated far be-
yond colonial history. The histori-
an Forrest McDonald wrote in
The New York Times Book Re-
view in 1990 that in the two dec-
ades after “Ideological Origins”
was published, “ideological inter-
pretation of the whole sweep of
American history from the 1760s
to the 1840s expanded into a veri-
table cottage industry.”
It also drew readers from be-
JULIA MALAKIE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
yond the scholarly world. A 1971
article in the The Times about
Daniel Ellsberg, the leaker of the
Pentagon Papers, described him
pulling a copy of the Bailyn book
out of his briefcase and being
moved almost to tears as he read
from its final paragraph.
Today, as debate over the ori-
gins and meaning of the American
Revolution remains contentious,
the book remains on syllabuses,
drawing engagement even from
younger scholars who might oth-
erwise dismiss decades-old his-
torical works as outmoded.
“Most of the books published in
the decades after ‘Ideological Ori-
gins’ responded to it in some way
— often by challenging its argu-
ments,” the historian Mary Beth
Norton, a former Bailyn student,
wrote in 2017 in one of a number of
round tables marking the book’s
50th anniversary. “That is a re-
markable achievement for a book
published half a century ago.”
Professor Bailyn was known
not just for rigorous scholarship
but also for his elegant prose. For
him, “a kind of literary imagina-
tion” was essential to the histori-
an’s craft.
FRANK O’BRIEN/THE BOSTON GLOBE, VIA GETTY IMAGES
“Like a novelist,” he wrote, the
historian must conjure “a non-
existent, an impalpable world in
all its living comprehension, and
yet do this within the constraints
of verifiable facts.”
Though he stressed the impor-
tance of narrative, he did not write
to popularize history, and rarely
gave interviews. But he wrote not
just for other scholars but also for
his “better students,” as he put it
in one of those rare interviews, in
1994: non-scholars with “an active
interest in history who would be
sufficiently interested to read
some detailed material.”
Within the profession, Profes-
sor Bailyn was a frequent critic of
overspecialization, abstraction
and politicized “presentism” — in-
terpreting past events in terms of
modern thinking and values. For
him, it was essential to respect the
strangeness and pastness of the
past, and to see it, as much as pos-
sible, on its own terms.
“The establishment, in some
significant degree, of a realistic
understanding of the past, free of
myths, wish fulfillments and par-
tisan delusions,” he said in a 1995
lecture, “is essential for social
sanity.”
Bernard Bailyn — Bud to his
friends — was born on Sept. 10,
1922, in Hartford, Conn., to
Charles and Esther (Schloss) Bai-
lyn. His father was a dentist, his
mother a homemaker.
In 1940, he entered Williams
College in Massachusetts, where
he majored in English and dab-
bled in philosophy. He earned a
bachelor’s degree in 1945, after he
had been drafted into the Army.
Growing up, he later recalled,
he had not much been engaged by
history. But while serving in the
Clockwise from above:
Bernard Bailyn speaking at the
Harvard convocation in 1986,
before guests that included
Prince Charles; “The Ideolog-
ical Origins of the American
Revolution” was his best
known work; and, the profes-
sor in his office in 2003.
Signal Corps, he studied the Ger-
man language and social geogra-
phy. After the war, he enrolled in
graduate school at Harvard.
At the time, Harvard was still a
redoubt of the old WASP estab-
lishment. Professor Bailyn, who
was Jewish, later recalled how
one of his professors, the eminent
scholar Samuel Eliot Morison,
had taken little interest in him,
and repeatedly confused him with
a member of the Harvard Yacht
Club.
By his account, he fell into co-
lonial history almost accidentally,
driven mainly by a desire to exam-
ine, as he put it later, “the connec-
tions between a distant past and
an emerging modernity.”
He earned his Ph.D. in 1953 and
A professor who won
two Pulitzer Prizes, a
National Book Award
and a Bancroft Prize.
joined the Harvard faculty. He was
famous for his vivid lectures and
heady if intimidating graduate
seminar, where he would punctu-
ate wayward discussion with
what the historian Jack N. Rakove
recalled as “the most famous of
his questions, ‘So what?’”
The book on the Revolution ce-
mented his reputation, but Profes-
sor Bailyn continued into new ter-
ritory and new genres. In 1975, he
published “The Ordeal of Thomas
Hutchinson,” a biography of the
last colonial governor of Massa-
chusetts.
The book, which won the Na-
tional Book Award, was an at-
tempt to explore, as he put it, “the
origins or the Revolution as expe-
rienced by the losers.” But it was
read by some as a defense of the
establishment — or even, some
suggested, of Richard M. Nixon,
who had resigned the presidency
the year before the book was pub-
lished — at a time of political up-
heaval at Harvard and across the
country.
Professor Bailyn, who once de-
scribed himself as “not very politi-
cal,” cheerfully scoffed at the idea.
But he did allow that he had come
to feel sympathy for Hutchinson,
whom he described as “that
rather stiff, intelligent, highly lit-
erate, uncorrupted, honest, up-
right provincial merchant-turned-
judge and politician.”
In more recent decades, as in-
terest in the experiences of wom-
en, African-Americans and other
marginalized groups exploded
among historians, Professor Bai-
lyn’s name was sometimes in-
voked as “pejorative shorthand
for an outmoded view of the past
that celebrates elites,” as the his-
torian Kenneth Owen put it in
2017.
For his part, Professor Bailyn
often spoke against what he called
the “fashionable” tendency to ex-
coriate the American founders,
whom he called, for all their faults,
“one of the most creative groups
in history.”
“They gave us the foundations
of our public life,” he told an inter-
viewer in 2010. “Their world was
very different from ours, but,
more than any other country, we
live with their world and with
what they achieved.”
Professor Bailyn won a second
Pulitzer in 1987, for “Voyagers to
the West,” the first volume of a se-
ries called “The Peopling of
British North America,” which
traces the journeys of the nearly
10,000 Britons who were known to
have emigrated to America from
1773 to 1776 and explores the pro-
cesses by which the colonies be-
came a distinctly American soci-
ety.
A second volume, “The Bar-
barous Years,” published in 2013,
chronicles the chaotic, violent
decades between the founding of
Jamestown in 1607 and the 1675
conflict known as King Philip’s
War, which effectively pushed Na-
tive Americans out of New Eng-
land.
It was a finalist for the Pulitzer,
but, like “Voyagers,” it drew some
strong criticism from fellow histo-
rians for what they saw as inade-
quate or dismissive treatment of
nonwhite people.
Professor Bailyn pressed on. In
1995, four years after officially re-
tiring, he established the Interna-
tional Seminar on the History of
the Atlantic World, an annual Har-
vard gathering of young scholars
from around the world that is
credited with helping to pioneer-
ing the now-vast field of Atlantic
history.
In addition to his wife, Profes-
sor Bailyn is survived by two sons,
Charles, an astronomy professor
at Yale, and John, a linguistics pro-
fessor at Stony Brook University
on Long Island; and two grand-
daughters.
For all the grand sweep of his in-
terpretations, Professor Bailyn
could seem at his most exuberant
when digging into the fine-
grained particularities of sources,
puzzling over the historical
“anomalies” — a favorite Bailyn
word — that they reveal.
In 2020, he published “Illumina-
ting History: A Retrospective of
Seven Decades,” an intellectual
self-portrait that eschews conven-
tional memoir in favor of a series
of essays exploring some “small,
strange, obscure documents and
individuals” that had captured his
imagination.
In an epilogue, he cautioned, as
he often did, against imposing our
own sense of certainty on the con-
fusion of the past as it was actually
experienced by those who lived it.
“The fact — the inescapable fact
— is that we know how it all came
out,” he wrote, “and they did not.”

Deaths Deaths Deaths Deaths Deaths Deaths In Memoriam

Fontaine, Elizabeth Lederer, Bruno Shelley, Tully
Gross, Heiman Ostrow, Joseph Tomlinson, Joy
Hoffman, Morton Schachter, Selma
Leigh, Blythe and the late
Whitney and four great-
grandchildren. The family
FONTAINE—Elizabeth Ellis. wishes to thank her devoted
Elizabeth “Betty” Fontaine, support team, Susan Khanch-
89, died peacefully at her alian, Johanna Brogan and
home in Manhattan on July Edward and Sherrod Bailey.
27th. She was born on Fe- A celebration of Betty's life
bruary 11th, 1931 in Iowa City, will be planned for a future
Iowa. She graduated from the date. In lieu of flowers, please
University of Michigan where consider a donation to the
she earned both Bachelor of scholarship in Betty's name
Music and Master of Music at Close Encounters with Mu-
degrees, and where she met sic (cewm.org).
her future husband, the late
John C. Fontaine. The couple GROSS—Heiman G.,
moved to New York City 88, died peacefully on August
where they lived for the re- 4, 2020. Alum of HNOH, part-
mainder of their lives, first on ner at McGrath Services, he
Staten Island and then in is survived by wife Marilyn,
Manhattan. Betty, a passion- children Gary, Jill, Robert,
ate music lover, taught piano and families.
and, after studying at NYU's
Institute of Fine Arts, became HOFFMAN—Morton D.
a docent at the Metropolitan 1923 - 2020. Mort Hoffman
Museum of Art for 18 years. passed away on Friday, July
Betty was, until last year, on 24 at his home in Palm Beach
the Board of Directors of Gardens, FL. He was the de-
Close Encounters with Music voted husband of Mary Ann
near her summer home in (Cohen) and the late Miriam
the Berkshires. She is sur- (Sherman). He was a loving
vived by her daughters, Li- father, stepfather, grandfath-
zanne Fontaine (Robert er, and great-grandfather.
Buckholz), Amy Fontaine Mort was a proud World
(Ahmet Mete Kok) and Ali- War II Veteran who served in
son Engel (Peter Engel) the 30th Infantry Division. He
along with her adored grand- was awarded both the Bronze
children: John, Elizabeth, Star and the French Legion
Nathaniel, Quentin, Grace, of Honor Medal for his ser-
vice in the European theater.
Mort was a prominent leader
in New York City's electrical
industry during the 1960s and
1970s. He was a past pres-
ident of the New York chap-
ter of the Electrical Contrac-
tors Association. Known as a
tough negotiator for the con-
tractor's side, Mort was none-
theless recognized as the first
to offer the electrical workers
union participation in a 401K
program. Ultimately it be-
came a model for the city's
construction industry. Due to
the pandemic, funeral servi-
ces at the South Florida Na-
tional Cemetery have been
delayed. Mort was a charis-
matic and endearing man
who will be deeply missed by
his friends and family.
LEDERER—Bruno.
April 22, 1930 - July 24, 2020.
Beloved husband of Vivian,
father to Laurence, step-
father to Joel, grandfather to
Justin, David and Olivia. Im-
migrant, veteran, lawyer at
Department of Justice and
NYSE. A good and kind man.
OSTROW—Joseph W.
Beloved father of Elizabeth
(Andrew), Peter (Kira) and
William. Cherished grand-
father of Daniel and James
Buchsbaum, Ethan and Rach-
el Ostrow. Joe was prede-
ceased in 2008 by Francine,
his wife of 53 years. He was
born in Brooklyn, NY on Fe-
bruary 22nd, 1933, and died on
August 5, 2020 of natural
causes. One of the original
“Mad Men”, Joe was a leader
in the advertising industry
and a widely respected theor-
ist of media markets. He di-
rected much of the media-
related activity at Young &
Rubicam and Foote, Cone &
Belding in successive tenures
at those agencies, before be-
coming CEO of the Cable
Television Advertising Bure-
au. He was kind, generous,
patient and loving. You will
be missed, Dad!
SCHACHTER—
Selma Jeanette,
88, of Delray Beach, FL died
August 7, 2020. Selma was
preceded by her father and
mother Harry and Fanny
Malakoff, and her brothers
and sisters-in-law, Samuel
and Molly, Irving and Sylvia,
and Edward and Sheila
Malakoff. She was the moth-
er of Mindy Harris (Rob),
Scott (Sheila Berman) and
her beloved grandson Noah.
Mrs. Schachter will be laid to
rest at Cedar Park Cemetery
in Paramus, NJ on August 9,
at 12pm. Gutterman and
Musicant Jewish Funeral
Directors, 201-489-3800, is in
charge of services. In lieu of
flowers, a donation may
be made to the Parkinson's
Foundation:
http://www.parkinson.org/
ways-to-give
SHELLEY—Tully, Jr.
100, died July 23, 2020. Senior
Partner at McKinsey & Com-
pany for 29 years supporting
the Firm's Manufacturing
Practice in New York and
London. Established the
company's Stamford Office.
In retirement, volunteered in
Costa Rica and Guatemala
with the International Execu-
tive Services Corp.
TOMLINSON—Joy Ann,
a resident of Manhattan,
passed away in her home on
July 12, 2020, after a nine-year
battle with progressive supra-
nuclear palsy. Born March
21st, 1957, in Bloomfield Hills,
MI, Joy was the daughter of
James Patrick Tomlinson
and Joy Henrietta Tomlinson
(Benesh). Joy is survived by
her three children: Charles
Aycock McLendon III (Caro-
line Healy); James Patrick
McLendon; and Anne Tom-
linson McLendon. Joy spent
her life in the service of oth-
ers and of her community.
She had a passion for garden-
ing, early childhood educa-
tion, and, of course, spending
time with her children. She
was a steadfast friend to ma-
ny, with a generous heart and
a quick wit. A master hostess,
she enjoyed having large par-
ties, fundraisers, book clubs,
and welcoming traveling
friends into her home. She
loved chocolate, orchids, and
the arts. Joy graduated from
Sacred Heart in Bloomfield
Hills in 1975, where she cap-
tained the swim and field
hockey teams, and was the
senior class president. In 1979,
Joy graduated from Trinity
College, where she was a
comparative literature major
and the swim team captain.
Following graduation, she
worked at Manufacturers
Hanover Trust Company be-
fore attending the Darden
School of Business at the Uni-
versity of Virginia. While at
Darden, she met Charles Mc-
Lendon Jr., her future hus-
band and the father of her
three children. Despite their
divorce, they were friends
upon Joy's passing and they
successfully raised and co-
parented their children. After
receiving her MBA from Dar-
den in 1985, Joyworked at Pai-
neWebber & Co., and finished
her career working at Metal
Working Lubricants, her fath-
er's company. Joy had a zest
for learning and loved apply-
ing that knowledge to serve
the organizations she cher-
ished. During her time at the
Garden Club of Lawrence,
Joy won several awards and
held multiple positions, in-
cluding President, Vice Pres-
ident and Chair of Member-
ship. She was a member of
the New York Junior League
for over 20 years and served
on the Board of Managers as
Finance Manager. At the
Episcopal School, Joy was WAITMAN—Joshua.
President of the Board of The happiness, kindness and
Trustees for 10 years glimmer of our dear son and
(2000-2010), and she was a pi- brother, Joshua, will always
votal part of the appointment
remain in our hearts.
of Judith Blanton as Head of Mom, Jen, Adam & Jonathan
School. Despite her diagnosis,
Joy bravely faced each chal-
lenge that came her way. She
prevailed in order to spend as
much time as she could with
her children and her many
friends. Joy was also blessed
to have diligent caregivers,
including Norma Wright, who
helped Joy persist and enjoy
the last few years of her life.
Through everything, Joy kept
a sense of humor, a warm
disposition, and the twinkle in
her eye. She personified her
name - a Joy through the end.
In addition to the family
members mentioned above,
Joy is survived by her broth-
ers Robert Tomlinson (Caro-
lyn Whiteman), John Tomlin-
son (Carole Smith) and Da-
niel Tomlinson (Lucinda
Rose) and their children. She
was predeceased by her fath-
er, James Patrick Tomlinson
Senior; her mother, Joy Hen-
rietta Tomlinson; her step-
mother, Mary Lou Tomlin-
son; her brother, James Pa-
trick Tomlinson Jr.; and her
sister Mary Tomlinson.
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B12 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES OBITUARIES SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020
Brent Scowcroft, a Force on Foreign Policy for Over 40 Years, Dies at 95
By ROBERT D. McFADDEN
Brent Scowcroft, a pre-eminent
foreign policy expert who helped
shape America’s international
and strategic decisions for dec-
ades as the national security ad-
viser to Presidents Gerald R. Ford
and George Bush and as a coun-
selor to seven administrations,
died on Thursday at his home in
Falls Church, Va. He was 95.
His death was announced by a
family spokesman, Jim McGrath,
who did not cite a specific cause.
Mr. Scowcroft wanted to be a
fighter pilot after World War II,
but a plane crash changed the
young man’s life and, as it turned
out, gave the nation one of its most
authoritative military intellectu-
als — a diplomat, linguist, tacti-
cian on nuclear arms and missile
systems and a scholar of global
politics who became an influential
voice in Washington for more than
40 years.
He accompanied President
Richard M. Nixon to China in 1972,
oversaw the Ford administra-
tion’s evacuation of Americans
from Saigon in 1975, laid ground-
work for President Jimmy
Carter’s Strategic Arms Limita-
tion Treaty with the Soviet Union
in 1979, evaluated the MX missile
systems for President Ronald
Reagan in the 1980s and directed
President Bush’s strategy in the
Persian Gulf war in 1991.
Mr. Scowcroft was a principal
architect of American policy to-
ward post-communist Russia, a
leading Republican voice oppos-
ing the American-led invasion of
Iraq after the Sept. 11 terrorist at-
tacks and a voice in President
Barack Obama’s selection of a na-
tional security team after the 2008
elections.
He also wrote books, taught at
universities and counted among
his many protégés Condoleezza
Rice and Robert M. Gates, both
national security experts who be-
came secretaries of state and de-
fense for President George W.
Bush.
Most closely associated with
moderate Republicans like Ford,
Howard H. Baker Jr. and Colin L.
Powell, Mr. Scowcroft (pro-
nounced SKO-croft) was a self-ef-
facing former Air Force general
who did not smoke or drink. He
preferred working quietly in small
groups.
In making foreign policy, a na-
tional security adviser coordi-
nates the work of the National Se-
curity Council — the president,
vice president, secretaries of state
and defense and others, sup-
ported by a staff that writes pa-
pers and proposals — and makes
sure that the president hears all
sides of the debate before making
decisions.
Mr. Scowcroft called himself a
traditionalist, who believed that
the nation should work with allies
and international organizations,
as opposed to a “transformation-
alist,” like the second President
Bush, who argued that America
should fight terrorism by spread-
ing democracy in the world — by
force if necessary — and be free to
act swiftly without relying on
overly cautious allies or a cumber-
some United Nations.
After leaving government in
1993, Mr. Scowcroft headed the
Washington-based Scowcroft
Group, a consulting firm for inter-
national businesses, and was
chairman of an advisory board
that made policy recommenda-
tions to President George W.
Bush.
Nevertheless, he was among
the few prominent Republicans
who challenged President Bush in
Horace Clarke, 82, Standout Player in a Dismal Yankee Era
By MATHEW BROWNSTEIN
Horace Clarke, a dependable
though light-hitting second base-
man for the Yankees who became
indelibly and ingloriously associ-
ated with the team’s lean years in
the 1960s and ’70s — what some
sardonically labeled “the Horace
Clarke era” — died on Wednesday
at his home in Laurel, Md. He was
82.
His death was confirmed by the
office of his cousin, Stacey E. Plas-
kett, the Democratic delegate who
represents the Virgin Islands in
Congress. His son Jeffrey said the
cause was complications of
Alzheimer’s disease.
At the time of his debut, in 1965,
Clarke, an undersized middle in-
fielder, was one of just five players
born in the U.S. Virgin Islands to
make it to the major leagues. He
played 10 seasons in the majors,
all but part of the last season for
the Yankees.
What he lacked in power as a
hitter — he had only 27 career
home runs — he made up for with
a sure-handed glove and excellent
speed. His stolen-base totals were
in double digits in seven seasons,
and he was among the American
League’s top 10 base stealers four
times.
But he had the misfortune of
joining the Yankees just as the
team was about to tumble from
the heights of greatness. Preced-
ing his rookie season of 1965, the
Yankees, led by the likes of
Johnny Diaz contributed report-
ing.
Brent Scowcroft was a diplomat, linguist, tactician on nuclear arms and a scholar of global politics.
Mr. Scowcroft, right, briefing President Ford and Henry Kissin-
ger on the evacuation of Americans from Saigon in 1975.
KEVIN LARKIN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESS — GETTY IMAGES
From left, John H. Sununu, the White House chief of staff, Mr.
Scowcroft and Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf in 1990.
2002 as the administration made
its case to go to war in Iraq.
In an op-ed article in The Wall
Street Journal titled “Don’t Attack
Saddam,” Mr. Scowcroft said there
was “scant evidence” of ties be-
tween Iraq and Al Qaeda or the
Sept. 11 attacks, as Mr. Bush
claimed. And he argued that an in-
vasion to oust the Iraqi leader,
Saddam Hussein, would “seri-
ously jeopardize, if not destroy,
Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford,
had won the American League
pennant five straight seasons.
During Clarke’s 10-year tenure,
however, New York failed to make
the postseason once. The team
wouldn’t get there again until
1976, two years after Clarke re-
tired. In between came that so-
called Horace Clarke era.
Speaking to a reporter for The
Daily News in 2010, Clarke admit-
ted that it was frustrating to be la-
beled a scapegoat for those under-
achieving Yankee teams. But he
added: “I know — New York is
New York. You don’t win, you’re
going to hear about it. I was in the
middle.”
Horace Meredith Clarke was
born on June 2, 1938, in Frede-
riksted, St. Croix, to Dennis and
Vivian (Woods) Clarke. He was
the youngest of six children.
He attended Christiansted High
School and went to a baseball try-
out camp in 1957 but was not
signed. The next January, he was
signed by the Yankee scout Jose
Seda.
From 1958 to 1965, Clarke show-
cased his speed and his ability to
get on base in the minor leagues.
He made his major league debut
on May 13, 1965, against the Bos-
ton Red Sox. In his first at-bat, he
pinch-hit for the pitcher Hal Reniff
in the seventh inning and hit an in-
field single.
Clarke began his big-league ca-
reer as a reserve, appearing
mostly at shortstop and as a
pinch-hitter. He was made the full-
time second baseman in 1967, suc-
ceeding the Yankee stalwart
DIANA WALKER/THE LIFE IMAGES COLLECTION, VIA GETTY IMAGES
NATIONAL ARCHIVES
the global counterterrorist cam-
paign we have undertaken.”
The Iraq war, he told the Op-Ed
columnist Roger Cohen of The
New York Times in 2007, had also
undermined faith in America.
“Historically, the world has al-
ways given us the benefit of the
doubt because it believed we
meant well,” Mr. Scowcroft said.
“It no longer does. It is easy to lose
trust, but it takes a lot of work to
Horace Clarke was a second
baseman with excellent speed.
A pesky switch-hitter
who broke up three
potential no-hitters
in the ninth inning.
Bobby Richardson, who had re-
tired after the 1966 season. Play-
ing alongside teammates like
Ruben Amaro, Joe Pepitone, Roy
White and Tom Tresh, Clarke pro-
ceeded to lead the club in at-bats,
hits, runs, stolen bases and bat-
ting average in 1967, playing in
more games than any teammate
except Mantle.
From 1965 to 1974, Clarke was
one of just 10 players who posted
150 or more stolen bases and 1,200
gain it. Can the sense of confi-
dence in us be restored? Sure. But
not easily.”
President Obama liked Mr.
Scowcroft and his restrained for-
eign policy, Jeffrey Goldberg
noted in The Atlantic in 2016.
“Obama, unlike liberal interven-
tionists, is an admirer of the for-
eign-policy realism of President
George H.W. Bush and, in particu-
lar, of Bush’s national security ad-
viser, Brent Scowcroft,” he wrote.
“As Obama was writing his cam-
paign manifesto, ‘The Audacity of
Hope,’ in 2006, Susan Rice, then an
informal adviser, felt it necessary
to remind him to include at least
one line of praise for the foreign
policy of President Bill Clinton, to
partially balance the praise he
showered on Bush and
Scowcroft.”
Long after his retirement, Mr.
Scowcroft remained a pillar of the
Republican national security es-
tablishment. In the run-up to the
2016 presidential election, he
joined more than 120 other Repub-
lican foreign policy veterans who
crossed party lines and endorsed
Hillary Clinton. Mr. Scowcroft
said she possessed “truly unique
experience and perspective” to
“lead our country at this critical
time.” He did not mention Donald
J. Trump in his endorsement.
But days after Mr. Trump’s elec-
tion, the frail and ailing Mr.
Scowcroft made an emotional ap-
peal at an off-the-record Washing-
ton luncheon in his honor, calling
on fellow Republicans, and Demo-
crats, to put country above politi-
cal party and accept posts in the
incoming Trump administration if
asked to do so — even though, by
some accounts, he remained con-
cerned that Mr. Trump was ill-pre-
pared and unsuited for the presi-
dency.
“He needs you, your country
needs you,” one attendee said,
characterizing Mr. Scowcroft’s
message.
His appeal for public service
was a classic reminder of a less
partisan age, when presidents of-
ten reached out to experienced
or more hits — a list that also in-
cludes the Hall of Fame players
Joe Morgan and Lou Brock.
His best overall season was in
1969, when he appeared in 156
games, posting a career-high .285
batting average and .339 on-base
percentage. His 183 hits were sec-
ond among American League hit-
ters that year.
A pesky switch-hitter, Clarke
broke up three potential no-hitters
during the 1970 season, all in the
ninth inning, with singles off Jim
Rooker, Sonny Siebert and the
knuckleballer Joe Niekro — and
all, remarkably, within one month.
In Niekro’s no-hit bid, a road
game in Detroit on July 2, Clarke
was at bat with one out in the ninth
and the count at one ball and no
strikes when he pulled a ground
ball between first and second. The
Tiger second baseman Dick
McAuliffe corralled the baseball
on the outfield grass and tossed it
to Niekro, covering first base. But
the throw was low and pulled
Niekro off the bag, enabling the
hustling Clarke to reach base
safely and end the no-hitter.
Since 1961 only one other player
has broken up three potential no-
hitters in the ninth inning, the
Minnesota Twins All-Star Joe
Mauer, though only Clarke did it in
one season.
After playing in more than 1,200
games in his 10 seasons with the
Yankees, Clarke was dealt to the
San Diego Padres in May 1974. He
appeared in just 42 games with
the Padres, batting below .200 be-
fore retiring at the end of that sea-
son.
talent, regardless of party loy-
alties.
Brent Scowcroft was born on
March 19, 1925, in Ogden, Utah,
the son of James and Lucile (Bal-
lantyne) Scowcroft. He graduated
from the United States Military
Academy at West Point in 1947,
joined the Air Force and envi-
sioned life as a fighter pilot.
But on Jan. 6, 1949, his P-51
Mustang developed engine trou-
ble after taking off from Grenier
Army Air Field in New Hampshire
(now Manchester-Boston Re-
gional Airport), and crash-landed.
His injuries were not critical, but
he assumed he would never fly
again and considered other mili-
tary career options.
In 1951, he married Marian
Horner. She died in 1995. He is sur-
vived by their daughter, Karen
Scowcroft, and a granddaughter.
Mr. Scowcroft earned a mas-
ter’s degree in international rela-
tions from Columbia University in
1953. He taught Russian history
for four years at West Point, stud-
ied Slavic languages at George-
town University in 1958 and, from
1959 to 1961, used his Serbo-Cro-
atian skills as an assistant air at-
taché at the American Embassy in
Belgrade, Yugoslavia. He taught
political science at the Air Force
Academy in Colorado in 1962-63.
He then joined the Air Force
planning division in Washington,
and in 1967 earned a doctorate in
international relations at Colum-
bia. Starting in 1968, he held vari-
ous Pentagon posts, becoming a
special assistant to Gen. John W.
Vogt, director of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff. In 1972, by then a general, he
became a military aide to Presi-
dent Nixon.
Mr. Scowcroft accompanied
Nixon on his historic trip to China
to establish diplomatic relations
after decades of estrangement.
Fluent in Russian, he next went to
Moscow to prepare for Nixon’s
spring visit there, a delicate task
because America was bombing
North Vietnam, a Soviet ally. Im-
pressed, Henry A. Kissinger, then
head of national security, chose
him as his deputy in 1973. That fall,
Mr. Kissinger became secretary of
state, and Mr. Scowcroft ran Secu-
One of the nation’s
most authoritative
military intellectuals.
rity Council meetings in his ab-
sence.
At the White House, Mr.
Scowcroft put in 18-hour days,
working from a cramped, cable-
strewn cubby near the Oval Of-
fice. In 1975, after Nixon had re-
signed in the Watergate scandal,
Mr. Scowcroft briefed the new
president, Ford, on national secu-
rity. Ford chose him to succeed
Mr. Kissinger as the national secu-
rity adviser. To accept, he re-
signed his commission as a lieu-
tenant general.
As American involvement in
the Vietnam War ended in 1975,
Mr. Scowcroft planned the evacu-
ation of American personnel from
Saigon, and later a military re-
sponse to the Cambodian seizure
of the American merchant ship
S.S. Mayagüez. The ship and 39
crewmen were saved, but 41
American servicemen died.
Mr. Scowcroft left the White
House in 1977, when Jimmy
Carter became president. He later
went to work for Mr. Kissinger’s
Clarke arguing a call during a game at Yankee Stadium in 1971.
Among players born in the U.S.
Virgin Islands, a relatively small
roster, Clarke is the leader in
games played, hits, runs, R.B.I.s
and stolen bases.
On his retirement from the
game, Clarke returned home and
ran baseball programs for the
young. Two participants, Jerry
Browne and Midre Cummings,
went on to have major league ca-
reers.
In addition to his son Jeffrey,
Clarke is survived by another son,
Jason; his sisters, Violet Arm-
strong and Hollis Jefferson; and
four grandchildren.
international consulting firm, Kis-
singer Associates. But he re-
mained a member of the Presi-
dent Carter’s advisory committee
on arms control and helped for-
mulate the Strategic Arms Limita-
tion Treaty II signed by Mr. Carter
and the Soviet leader Leonid
Brezhnev in 1979. The treaty,
though not ratified by Congress,
was honored until 1986, when the
Reagan administration withdrew
from it.
President Reagan named Mr.
Scowcroft to head a commission
that evaluated options for deploy-
ment of the MX missiles. Later,
Reagan appointed him to a com-
mission led by former Senator
John G. Tower that investigated
the Iran-contra scandal, in which
money from arms sales to Iran
was diverted without authoriza-
tion to anti-communist rebels in
Nicaragua. The commission
found no evidence that Mr. Rea-
gan had known of skulduggery,
but it criticized him for failing to
monitor subordinates.
While it is rare for officials to re-
turn to White House jobs, Mr.
Scowcroft was an early and easy
choice of President Bush for na-
tional security adviser in 1989. Mr.
Scowcroft chose Mr. Gates as his
deputy and Ms. Rice, a Soviet ex-
pert, as a council member.
Mr. Scowcroft was instrumental
in developing policies toward
post-communist Russia that
leaned away from trying to re-
shape its political and economic
systems — a response to the Sovi-
et collapse that critics said was too
passive, one that missed chances
to promote democratic institu-
tions. Mr. Scowcroft, however, de-
fended the administration’s ap-
proach as prudently cautious in a
world turned upside down after
the Cold War.
Mr. Scowcroft made two secret
trips to China in 1989: one to un-
derscore America’s shock over
China’s crackdown on pro-democ-
racy demonstrators in Tiananmen
Square, which had left hundreds
dead, and a second to mend rela-
tions with Beijing after Mr. Bush
had canceled contacts between
American and Chinese leaders.
Disclosure of the trips gave the
public a rare glimpse of the diplo-
matic dance that often plays out
behind the scenes — a two-step of
rejection and reconciliation more
typical of quarrelsome couples.
In 1991 Mr. Scowcroft was the
guiding hand behind what Mr.
Bush regarded as the triumph of
his political life, Operation Desert
Storm, in which the president mo-
bilized an international coalition
to oust an invading Saddam Hus-
sein from neighboring Kuwait. Mr.
Scowcroft generally drew narrow
military goals, and the Persian
Gulf war was no exception. He
urged Mr. Bush to limit operations
to evicting Iraqi troops from Ku-
wait and not to depose Saddam
Hussein, unless the dictator re-
sorted to chemical or biological
warfare against coalition forces or
Israel.
Mr. Bush awarded Mr.
Scowcroft the Presidential Medal
of Freedom, the nation’s highest
civilian honor.
Mr. Scowcroft wrote “A World
Transformed,” (1998) with George
Bush, on policy issues after the
Cold War. His talks with Zbigniew
Brzezinski, Mr. Carter’s national
security adviser, were published
as “America and the World: Con-
versations on the Future of Ameri-
can Foreign Policy” (2008).
A biography by Bartholomew
Sparrow, “The Strategist: Brent
Scowcroft and the Call of National
Security,” was published in 2015.
WILLIAM E. SAURO/THE NEW YORK TIMES
While his tenure with the Yan-
kees came during a low point in
team history, Clarke recalled his
time in the Bronx fondly, relishing
in particular the fact that he had
played for the same storied orga-
nization as his boyhood hero.
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“Walking onto the field at the
stadium that first time was one of
the biggest things for me,” he told
The Daily News in 2010. “I grew
up listening to the Yankees on the
radio, and Phil Rizzuto was my
idol. I associated with him, be-
cause he was small and I was
small, and I played shortstop
then, too.”
2 DANCE 4 BOOK REVIEW

Black dancers make a bold New stories from a

statement. BY REBECCA J. RITZEL
4 THEATER
writer who knows
For immersive shows, just log about ruthlessness.
on. BY ALEXIS SOLOSKI BY JANET MASLIN

NEWS CRITICISM SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020 C1

Y

PHOTOGRAPHS BY AARON BERGER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

GOVERNORS ISLAND

OUTSIDE, IN SMALL STEPS

While life is not quite back to normal in New York City, we found people who are trying to make the most of summer opportunities as their
favorite places — Governors Island, Brooklyn Bridge Park, the High Line — begin to reopen. Page 5

BROOKLYN BRIDGE PARK HIGH LINE

MY FAVORITE PAGE

‘Trapped’ ‘Jennifer’s Body’ & Me

In Obscurity, The horror-comedy starring Megan Fox is an
undervalued gem that satirizes gendered tropes.
Now Freed By LENA WILSON
One freshman biology lab, I was grouped
Ethel Smyth’s music gave the with an OK guy and the only out girl in my
grade. We were supposed to be dissecting
conductor James Blackly ‘chills.’ worms.
On that particular day, the guy was play-
By DAVID ALLEN ing against type.
“The exact worth of my music will probably “I bet you want to see ‘Jennifer’s Body,’”
not be known till naught remains of the he said to the girl suggestively. We had all
writer but sexless dots and lines on ruled seen the ads for the movie, which featured a Yesterday’s
paper,” Ethel Smyth wrote in 1928. scantily clad Megan Fox.
Long after her death, in 1944, she is finally By 2009, Megan Fox was not just a sex pop culture,
being proved right. One of numerous female symbol, she was the sex symbol — a univer- reconsidered
composers of the past now coming to fresh, sal barometer of hotness. And she had re- today.
deserved prominence, Smyth was born in cently come out as bisexual in Esquire. An ongoing series.
England in 1858 and moved to Leipzig, Ger- At that point in my life, I was coping with
many, at 19, training in the circle around my own closeted lesbianism by pretending
Brahms. homosexuality did not exist. I wasn’t seek-
She became the first woman to have a ing out teen horror led by Sapphic sexpots. I
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work performed by the Metropolitan Opera, looked down at my worm and prepared to
in 1903, before she joined the militant wing slice it down the middle.
of British suffragists. When the conductor It turns out the best time to get into hor-
Thomas Beecham visited her at Holloway ror movies is after you yourself have been
Prison in London, where she spent three bisected like a lab worm.
weeks in 1912 for throwing rocks at a poli- When I was 16, I spent most of summer
CONTINUED ON PAGE C6 CONTINUED ON PAGE C6
FARAH AL QASIMI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
C2 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020

Black Dance Finds a Powerful Backdrop

The Robert E. Lee statue in
Richmond draws artists, and
with them, a new energy.
By REBECCA J. RITZEL
RICHMOND, VA. — Janine Bell lived in Rich-
mond for 35 years without visiting Monu-
ment Avenue. But that changed in July,
when Ms. Bell threw a gathering honoring
Emmett Till under the shadow of a statue of
Robert E. Lee.
Standing at the base of the three-story
pedestal supporting the Confederate gener-
al’s likeness, Ms. Bell, the artistic director of
the Elegba Folklore Society, welcomed a
small sea of drummers, dancers and by-
standers banging on plastic buckets to an
event she called the Reclamation Drum Cir-
cle.
“We are not playing today,” she said, and
invited all present to move and sway to the
music. And so began an extended jam ses-
sion at a park long considered a whites-only
space. The drum circle, held on what would
have been Emmett Till’s 79th birthday, was
the latest in a series of dance happenings —
some spontaneous, some thoughtfully chor-
eographed — drawing Black dancers to the
Lee statue.
“My grandfather never could have imag-
ined this,” a sweaty Lito Raymondo said af-
ter performing a solo in the circle’s center.
“This is a revelation.”
The gathering united a disparate group of
dancers: community organizers who take
African dance classes, modern dancers and
self-taught dancers like Mr. Raymondo,
whose style fuses African, hip-hop and the
martial arts. He said he regularly comes out
to “do his part” with the Folklore Society, a
group that promotes African culture in a
city with a robust Black dance community.
The festivities have been going on since
early June, when Richmond’s mayor and TOP LEFT, JULIA RENDLEMAN/REUTERS; TOP RIGHT AND ABOVE, BRIAN PALMER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Virginia’s governor vowed to take down the
huge statues of Civil War leaders erected Top left, a viral photo of mond, they returned to the statue the next Ms. George said. Ms. Holloway added, “It’s last year, at 34, and now serves as the com-
along Monument Avenue. Four of those Kennedy George and Ava day, on June 5, for a more formal shoot, like she’s floating.” pany’s grant writer. Last fall she sent out an
statues are now being stored at the city’s Holloway, both 14, at the which was also captured by a freelance pho- When Ira Lunetter White, a dancer in email offering to visit Virginia dance stu-
wastewater treatment plant. But multiple Robert E. Lee statue. The tojournalist. Richmond Ballet, visited the statue, he wore dios as a master class teacher, and was
lawsuits and court injunctions have pre- area around the monument The girls became famous beyond the a white T-shirt and black pants, similar to shocked when every single school said yes.
vented the bronze Robert E. Lee and his had long been considered a James River, accepting appearance re- the classic uniform of a male dancer in a “So much for finally having weekends off,”
horse Traveler from joining them. whites-only space. Top quests from, among others, the “Today" “black-and-white” ballet by George Balan- she said, with a laugh.
While the judges deliberate, Black artists right and above, the Elegba show and a John Legend music video. Both chine, the founding choreographer of New A critically lauded dancer who landed on
and residents have been invigorating the Folklore Society organized said they remain crushed that they had to York City Ballet. Mr. White, who has per- the cover of Dance Magazine, Ms. Small
space. “Whether it’s Black people playing a gathering with dancers miss out on their eighth-grade graduations, formed several of those works in Richmond, never made race her calling card. “There is
basketball or musicians or dancers, life is and drummers late last final dance competitions and spring reci- traversed the statue platform adopting sig- not a single narrative to capture what it is to
happening,” Ms. Bell said. “And when life month. tals. Instead they got horrible blisters from nature Balanchine positions. He and the be a Black dancer,” she said. “I was home-
happens, there is optimism for the future.” running barefoot on asphalt while “Today” photographer Meghan McSweeney called grown; that was my narrative.”
Some dancers go to make political state- show cameras rolled. (“I thought I’d never their series “Ode to Arthur Mitchell,” in It’s wrong, Ms. Small said, to assume that
ments; some want memorable photos. ‘My grandfather dance again,” Ms. George said, pulling out honor of City Ballet’s first Black principal the Black dancers at regional companies re-
Maggie Small, a longtime star of Richmond her phone to display a photo of a giant pur- dancer. main there because they aren’t good
never could have ple welt on her foot.) In one of Ms. McSweeney’s favorite im- enough for bigger companies in New York
Ballet, said dancers were drawn to the gen-
eral’s shadow because they are living in a imagined this. This is They said they understood why pictures ages, the words “Uplift Black Voices” ap- or Europe. Over summers Ms. Small made
time when “articulating your thoughts with a revelation.’ of them balancing on point became symbols pear beneath Mr. White’s feet. “That is lit- it a point to seek out-of-town opportunities,
words” could be overwhelming. So they are of the Black Lives Matter movement, and erally what Ira has been trying to do his en- including at the National Choreographer’s
using the vocabulary they have, because why other dancers want to be pho- tire life,” she said. Mr. White, 27, was intro- Initiative in California and with Jessica
“dance is a universal form of communica- tographed at the site. The words scrawled duced to dance through Minds in Motion, a Lang Dance in New York, but always came
tion, of expression and of catharsis.” on the monument reflect a world “that is program that sends Richmond Ballet am- out thinking, “Richmond was the place that
It was a dance moment that went viral: tough and hard and scary,” Ms. George said. bassadors into fourth-grade classrooms. fed my soul,” she said. “I felt comfortable to
photos of two young dancers, Ava Holloway “But it’s reality, and people have to deal with He’s now in his sixth season with the senior be the dancer I wanted to be.”
and Kennedy George, both 14, turned out it.” company, one of five dancers of color out of And it’s not lost on her that in this particu-
and on their toes, each raising a fist against Among the copycats who have won their 17. He’s always been fortunate, he said, to lar moment of history, dancers from her
the backdrop of the statue’s graffiti-covered approval: Morgan Bullock, a 20-year-old have Black mentors and colleagues, but hometown have become symbols of a na-
pedestal. Among those who reposted on In- Richmonder who does Irish dance, and who recognizes that in ballet beyond Richmond tional movement. Ms. George and Ms. Hol-
stagram: Beyoncé’s mother. “This is art,” last year became one of the first Black danc- that’s not always the case. loway, both honors students, aren’t sure yet
the Black activist and author Shaun King ers to finish in the top 50 at the World Irish “Now is when we need more voices, more if they’ll pursue professional careers in
said in an Instagram post, accompanied by Dance Championships. The Guardian pho- faces being seen and being heard,” he said. dance. But they are proud to train at a sup-
a fire emoji. tographed Ms. Bullock jumping off the Lee Chief among local role models is Ms. portive, diverse studio in a city that elevates
Ms. Holloway and Ms. George, who study statue’s pedestal, arms at her side and hair Small, a biracial dancer who became Rich- Black dancers.
at the Central Virginia Dance Academy, had flying, her white blouse and billowy leg- mond Ballet’s first Black Clara in “The Nut- “Richmond,” Ms. Holloway said, shaking
run into each other while posing at the mon- gings in sharp contrast to the colorful exple- cracker” 23 years ago, and went on to have a her head. “If Richmond can do it, in our city
ument for family photos. At the request of tives graffitied on the plinth behind her. long career with the company. of Confederate statues, then any other city
Marcus Ingram, a photographer in Rich- “She is the very definition of an angel,” Ms. Small retired from Richmond Ballet can, too.”

NATALIA WINKELMAN FILM REVIEW

Freestyling Toward College, Work It

Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes.
Watch on Netflix.

With Help From Her Friends
Aiming to impress, a smart
senior scrambles to assemble
a hip-hop dance troupe.
plished professional dancers, and the movie
doesn’t skimp on showcasing their gifts.
Dance movies, when successful, are con-
rhythm? tagious. You want to stand up and flail out
This silly, predictable setup — which the moves. Directed by Laura Terruso,
hinges on an elaborate misunderstanding of “Work It” trades in this allure; by featuring
how college admissions work — grows less a clumsy amateur who learns to let loose, it
important as the story wears on and the invites us to flounder alongside.
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IN THE MIDDLING DANCE MOVIE “Work It,”
now on Netflix, Quinn (Sabrina Carpenter)
is a straight-A senior desperate to attend
her dream university, Duke. So desperate,
in fact, that when her college interviewer
expresses an appreciation for dance, Quinn
pretends it’s her passion, too. To keep up the
ruse, she cobbles together a ragtag hip-hop
troupe and starts to train. She’s a quick
learner; how hard can it be to keep a
dancing takes center stage. Our stars in this
regard are Quinn’s best friend Jas (Liza
Koshy), who heads the impromptu crew,
and Jake (Jordan Fisher), a cute hotshot
who becomes Quinn’s private instructor
and, inevitably, her crush. As Quinn free-
styles with Jas or twirls with Jake, they find
dance floors in improvised, outdoor spaces,
giving the performances an off-the-cuff
look. Both Koshy and Fisher are accom-
The movie also offers an amiable aware-
ness of its tropes: As Quinn’s squad preps
for a grand competition, called Work It, she
cites her research of dance movies while
Jas wishes they could hire a “young Chan-
ning Tatum” to choreograph. “Work It” is no
“Step Up,” but its best sequences involve
ELLY DASSAS/NETFLIX Jake and Quinn, who share a chemistry in
Liza Koshy, left, as Jas, and Sabrina Carpenter as Quinn in the dance movie motion that, for a beat or two, conjures the
“Work It,” directed by Laura Terruso and now available on Netflix. genre’s magic.
 THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020 Y C3

ELISABETH VINCENTELLI CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK

Theatrical Adventures in Digital Dislocation

Glitches temper a sense of
discovery when the edgy Ice
Factory festival goes online.
THE LOBBY OF the New Ohio Theater was si-
multaneously comforting and spooky on a
recent evening. Look, it’s the ticket
counter! And there’s the concession stand,
now with LaCroix sparkling water and
Purell. Nobody was buying, though: The
place was deserted.
I wasn’t actually at the West Village ven-
ue, of course, but watching on a screen,
from a roaming hand-held camera’s point of
view. It was a preshow of sorts to “we need
your listening,” a play in this year’s Ice Fac-
tory festival, and the audience on Zoom was
milling about as light jazz played. It felt
strange, and a little sad, because we were
there, but not really.
A certain sense of dislocation is an inte-
gral part of the festival’s brand of cutting-
edge, progressive theater, which makes au-
diences reconsider their familiar moorings.
Livestreaming adds more layers to this
dislocation. Theater, usually anchored by
the here and now of physical proximity, has
become slippery. We are not sure where the
actors actually are, or where they are
meant to be.
Watching another Ice Factory 2020 pro-
duction, the SOCIETY company’s “Begin-
ning Days of True Jubilation,” it took me a
while to figure out if characters in any given
scene were supposed to be in the same
physical space or not. You could not tell that
the actors in a third production, “Who’s
There?,” were based in the United States,
Malaysia and Singapore (remaining per-
VIA THE TRANSIT ENSEMBLE
formances, though Saturday, are at either
10 a.m. or 10 p.m.). place because of us.”
In the case of “we need your listening,” Ice Factory Some of the best scenes involve mosaics
the production that started in the theater’s Through Aug. 15; newohiotheatre.org. of windows showing people doing various
lobby, the disconnection was often literal, activities at the same time, suggesting indi-
with pesky audio and video glitches hinder- vidualities subsumed by groupthink.
ing stretches of the 30-minute-long web- actors were two screens removed. The lack of physicality changed from as-
cast. One thing was certain: It was annoy- Adding to the alienation, actors would set to problem in other scenes, which were
ing. suddenly freeze or lose audio. Because of difficult to parse. Er, where are we? What’s
Then again, irritation often mixes with the show’s willfully fragmented nature, I going on? In Zoom theater, every show is
the giddiness of discovery for New York had no idea whether the tech issues were on “Waiting for Godot”: neither here nor there
theatergoers during summer, traditionally purpose, maybe as a statement on incom- and with no room for proper entrances and
a time for festivals dedicated to new works municability in the pandemic, or if Con Edi- exits. Oh, for the drama of a slammed door!
and emerging artists at Off Off Broadway son was playing deus ex machina (an inter- The most ambitious project was “Who’s
venues. Clubbed Thumb’s Summerworks is net issue turned out to be the cause). It all There?,” created by the Transit Ensemble
AWOL and Ars Nova’s ANT Fest on hiatus, felt less theatrical than like a catch-up ses- and co-directed by Sim Yan Ying (who is
but the 27th edition of Ice Factory went vir- sion with solipsistic acquaintances cursed also in the cast) and Alvin Tan. The show
tual, along with Dixon Place’s Hot Festival with bad reception. Do we need more of multiplies bells and whistles like embedded
in July and the upcoming Corkscrew The- that? instant audience polls and YouTube and In-
ater Festival. “Beginning Days of True Jubilation” was stagram Live videos as it tackles cultural
The three Ice Factory shows were indica- more traditional, despite being devised ex- differences in three vastly different coun-
tive of the challenges of trying to test form perimentally: Following a collaborative tries and cultures.
and function online. “Beginning Days of STEPHEN CHARLES SMITH method developed by the British company It at least attempts to raise provocative
True Jubilation” and “we need your listen- Joint Stock in the early 1970s, the play- issues, as when a Black American woman
ing” came across as experimental but just over half an hour, the show is made up Top, members of the cast of wright Mona Mansour (“The Way West,” (Camille Thomas) attacks the use of black-
would most likely have been considerably of micro scenes in which the actors engage “Who’s There?” include “Urge for Going”) and the director Scott face in a Malaysian musical based on a folk
more conventional in a physical space, with a single viewer at a time. The “we” of (two rows, clockwise from Illingworth shaped into form improvisa- tale. “You can’t come here and impose your
while “Who’s There?” is intricately tied to the title could have been the actors them- top left): Neil Redfield, tions by the cast. Western ideas on us, the ‘backward, unciv-
Zoom. (A fourth production, the musical “A selves, or characters; it did not matter be- Ghafir Akbar, Sean Devare, The show, which I am now curious to see ilized, insensitive, blackface-loving soci-
Burning Church,” runs Aug. 13-15, but is not cause the very concepts of realness and au- Rebekah Sangeetha Dorai, in person, is about the rise and crash of a ety,’” her interlocutor (Ghafir Akbar) tells
open for review.) thenticity are inherently fraught when Sim Yan Ying and Camille start-up called Asphera. The chief execu- her. “You are no different from your white
Created by Velani Dibba, Ilana Khanin, someone is performing for someone else. Thomas. Above, actors tive (Annie Fox) spouts neo-corporate gob- colonizer.”
A news release billed the scenes as ex- rehearsing the Ice Factory bledygook and the youthful employees — Unfortunately, the show smothers these
Elizagrace Madrone and Stephen Charles
changes, which is a stretch since the audi- production “we need your they might be in a remake of “Logan’s Run,” ideas in wooden, didactic dialogue and ex-
Smith, in collaboration with the 10-strong
ence was muted — a wise idea regardless of listening.” the science-fiction film in which people over position, and is overlong at 100 minutes.
ensemble, “we need your listening”
squarely falls in the by-now-familiar sub- where theater happens. And even as mono- 30 are killed off — have gulped the Kool-Aid, Maybe we were not in “Waiting for Godot”
genre of immersive, one-on-one theater. At logues, the confessions felt distant, as the chanting the mantra “The world is a better after all, but in “No Exit.”

Two Not Touch Crossword Edited by Will Shortz

ANSWERS TO
PREVIOUS PUZZLES PUZZLE BY BROOKE HUSIC AND SID SIVAKUMAR
ACROSS 35 What 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

1 Seat of newcomers
Hillsborough learn, with “the” 13 14 15

County, with a 36 Feature in many

depictions of 16 17
population of
400,000+ Buddha
18 19 20
6 Smart 37 [Is this thing on?]
10 Spread, with 38 Hard-to-believe 21 22 23
“out” filings at the
N.S.A. 24 25 26
13 Setting for much
40 What was
of “Life of Pi”
originally used 27 28 29 30 31 32 33
14 When NATO was as a yellow dye
formed before its best- 34 35 36
16 Actress Price known property
who co-starred was discovered 37 38 39
on CBS’s “Rules 41 Kid’s fixation
Put two stars in each row, column and region of the grid. No two stars may touch, not even diagonally. of Engagement” 42 Joint that sells 40 41
Copyright © 2020 www.krazydad.com
17 Ring highlights? joints
42 43 44 45 46 47
18 Bit of German 48 Square

Wit Twister
street food, 49 Singer/ 48 49 50 51 52
informally songwriter
19 Form moisture, Sands 53 54 55
in a way 50 Ω
53 Entered angrily, 56 57
“This bacchanal is _ _ _ _ _ _ _ than most — Complete the verse with words 20 “Oh, no you
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that are anagrams of each other. 58 59 60
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PUZZLE BY NANCY COUGHLIN myth often used 56 It starts right out
“[Insert four-letter insult]!” says the host. with respect to of the gate 8/8/20

Asian-Americans 57 Common DOWN 10 Big name in 32 Cher, for

I make a somewhat _ _ _ _ _ _ _ reply. YESTERDAY’S ANSWER Michelle Obama --> Michelob
recyclable luxury handbags example
24 Sitcom regular 1 The Taj Mahal,
at Monk’s Cafe 58 Money for a e.g. 11 Word that sounds 33 Optimistic
bullet train like “orange” in
26 Seasonal 2 HP competitor a classic knock- 39 Kind of coat
ticket, maybe
KenKen milkshake flavor,
informally
27 It’s just above
59 Muscle that can
be exercised by
3 They have many
outlets 12
knock joke
Eliciting a “Blech!”
40 Let know, with
“off”
ANSWERS TO dumbbells, for 4 Place to go that 14 Shampoo brand 42 Too forward
PREVIOUS PUZZLES a4 short requires cash at 15 Film ___ 43 Like ballet
30 Argue (with) Super Six, of old the door?
60 19 Some trips dancers, at times
34 Key autodom to resupply
5 ___ Petry, first 44 Metaphorical
female African- festivities source of
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE American writer 22 It has four bases irritation
with a million- 23 Word of dismissal 45 Turns down
B O D Y S H O T T R A D E R selling novel
(“The Street”) 24 Toolbar heading 46 Throw out
O P E D P A G E M O N A M I 25 Ditch
F A N S I T E S Z A G N U T 6 Destroy 47 CB channel for
28 Downplay the emergency use
F L Y T E E T H C E N S E 7 Lollapalooza significance of
K I R R A S H L Y 51 Zoom call option
8 Content of some 29 2019 event for
B E S O T A U R A S O W N chats, in brief Uber, briefly 52 Daughter of
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O N C L O U D N I N E C E O Tethys in Greek
9 Conjoined title 30 Places for mythology
C R O N U T S S K A T E B Y character of demos
C O O T H A T S A S H A M E 1990s-2000s 31 Makes the rounds 54 Infinitive verb
Nickelodeon on a weekend suffix in Italian
I N C H E L E A T E N D S
Fill the grid with digits so as not to repeat a digit in any row or column, and so that the digits within each H E D R E N Z E N cartoons night, say 55 “Huh!”
heavily outlined box will produce the target number shown, by using addition, subtraction, multiplication or P H O T O S U P E R C C C
division, as indicated in the box. A 4x4 grid will use the digits 1-4. A 6x6 grid will use 1-6. L O V E T O R O L E P L A Y Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 9,000 past puzzles,
For solving tips and more KenKen puzzles: www.nytimes.com/kenken. For feedback: nytimes@kenken.com U B E R E D E P I G R A M S nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year).
KenKen® is a registered trademark of Nextoy, LLC. Copyright © 2020 www.KENKEN.com. All rights reserved. M O R O S E D O G G E D I T Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/wordplay.
C4 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020

ALEXIS SOLOSKI CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK

For These Shows, the Jury Is In (Your Home)

Immersive whodunits present
a successful way for theater to
be enjoyed from a laptop.
LAST WEEK I WAS CALLED for jury duty.
Twice. New York City has yet to resume in-
person jury trials, but from a perch on my
sofa, I could hear and assess one case in-
volving the murder of an elderly woman
and another concerning arson in a commer-
cial building. These trials weren’t precisely
real or even vaguely legal — and as both
were Britain-based I doubt that I and my
U.S. passport would have made it past voir
dire. But I count each as an extrajudicial
highlight in a week spent sampling new ex-
periments in immersive theater and gam-
ing. Verdicts follow.
When theaters shut down in March,
many companies scrambled to make
archived work available, organized Zoom-
hosted readings or adapted productions to
an online format. In those first bewildering
weeks, proximity to any form of theater felt
like a gift, if often the kind of gift — fancy
hand soap, say — that you unwrap and then
promptly throw into the back of some clos-
et.
As lockdown weeks became lockdown
months, the question of whether live the-
ater could be made and shown remotely be-
came moot. It could, with more content
available than any sane person should
stream.
But could online drama ever substitute
for the in-person form? Here, doubt has
seemed more reasonable. And yet theater- VIA FAST FAMILIAR
makers have spent these same months test-
ing the varieties of interaction these plat-
forms allow and which genres and narra-
tives best suit an online setup. A few compa-
nies make strong cases for theater in its
digital form.
I began with “The Evidence Chamber,” a
coproduction from Fast Familiar, an inter-
disciplinary studio, and the Leverhulme Re-
search Center for Forensic Science at the
University of Dundee in Scotland. Empan-
eled as an online jury, participants in any
given performance sift through evidence
and weigh recorded witness testimony as
they consider guilt or acquittal in a murder
case.
The jury setup is a brilliant one, not only
because some places, like Alaska, are pilot-
ing grand jury proceedings via videoconfer-
ence, but also because many of us already
feel sequestered, dependent on online evi-
dence and the occasional expert witness to
understand the world around us.
In “The Evidence Chamber,” an actor VIA EXIT PRODUCTIONS
playing a clerk of the court is present, but
participants mostly create the drama them- been the point. Your group may ultimately Clockwise from top: Andrew
selves as they debate the case. (Think play for a cash prize, but ours managed to Anderson, a BBC reporter,
“Twelve Not So Angry Men and Women.”) destroy the casino (the planet?) well before portraying a correspondent
The piece works both as theater and as an the final round. for a fictional network in
exploration of how laypeople understand A rare upside of this fraught moment is “The Evidence Chamber”;
and evaluate forensic evidence — here, access to online content from other coun- Tom Black, an actor in “Jury
IOULEX FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
DNA analysis and gait analysis, a systemat- tries, which explains why I woke up at 5 Duty,” a presentation of
ic evaluation of an individual’s walk. preteen playing a flighty heiress, acces- tual M.C. The hints take you to other rooms a.m. on a Saturday (a more reasonable 10 Electric Dreams Online, an
The case itself wasn’t complicated. My sorized with a live chicken. That’s commit- and experiences. a.m. in Britain) to participate in “Jury Duty” interdisciplinary arts
group — mostly white, mostly women, ment to character. Few of us were skilled Drifting flaneur-like, I saw a naked man from Exit Productions, also a part of Elec- festival; and the drag queen
mostly English — began to vote unani- improvisers, which made the conversation sing “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” a contortion act tric Dreams. Brita Filter, who was a
mously about half an hour in. (We were gait awkward, though maybe less awkward set to “Peter and the Wolf,” an obscene As in “The Evidence Chamber,” my group celebrity guest in one room.
skeptics.) Everyone involved seemed to than it might have been in person. The solu- standup routine, a nifty magic trick. There’s was constituted as an online jury and asked
take the task seriously, even as some of us tion was perhaps too easy, at least for any- a mystery at the heart of “Eschaton” — to deliver a verdict in a case involving arson
clearly relied on information gleaned from one who played Clue as a kid, though the something to do with a vanished performer. and possible murder.
cop show marathons. Toward the end, friend I virtually brought along nearly (and But here the puzzles are so abstruse that I Together and separately, “Jury Duty”
someone asked if any of us had actually couldn’t get started and after less than an participants sift through evidence, enter
served on a real murder jury. “I don’t think hour, just as I began to feel dimly oriented, search terms into a custom database and in-
it’s this exciting,” a woman said. For this dinner theater, terview the accused. At the same time, a se-
the show ended.
A few days later, I again found myself perhaps a liquid menu. Given enough time and M.C. pointers, ries of emails, texts and videos — different
murder-adjacent, during “Mystery at Daiquiris anyone? you could probably crack “Eschaton,” but for each participant — insinuate that the
Boddy Mansion,” a friendly, schlocky din- the problem at the center of “The House case isn’t what it seems.
ner theater experience loosely based on the Never Wins,” from Kill the Cat, part of Elec- Plunked at the intersection of theater and
board game Clue. This being a pandemic, wrongly) confessed. Her dinner was all tric Dreams Online, an interdisciplinary gaming, the piece likely works better online
dinner was strictly D.I.Y. Assigned charac- daiquiris. arts festival, might be insoluble. In a Zoom than it would have in person. Breathlessly,
ters in advance, a costumed dozen of us met Cocktails were also suggested at Chorus room, a group of us gathered to play online our group reformatted MP3s and decrypted
up in a Zoom room to reveal clues, ask lead- Productions’ “Eschaton,” a “Sleep No blackjack. As we played, rules shifted and a substitution ciphers, steering the drama to
ing questions and (in my case) take occa- More”-style happening, originally intended flurry of WhatsApp messages relating to a sensational conclusion. The conspiracy
sional bites of a lukewarm veggie burger. as a live event and reformatted for Zoom. the climate emergency pinged, the sugges- went all the way to — well, it was some-
Actually most people drank their dinners. Once the velvet rope rises at a virtual night- tion being that while we try to acquire where extremely high.
Wise. club, spectators wander from room to room, wealth (or in my case, barely stay afloat) Was I utterly absorbed? Guilty. In those
Assigned “Madame Rouge,” a sanitation checking out provocative acts. The chat the world burns. frantic predawn hours, I saw a possible fu-
expert and Gypsy princess (“We prefer function allows you to message other par- A game, an allegory, a screed and an exer- ture — or at least, a bearable until-we-have-
Romany,” I said as soon as I could), I wore a ticipants and also receive hints — some cise in behavioral economics, it had a lot go- a-vaccine present — for hybrid forms of im-
kerchief and avoided an accent. My cohort gnomic, some straightforward — from a vir- ing on, probably too much, which may have mersive theater. By the light of an LCD
lacked such reservations. One of them, a screen, that future didn’t look so bad.

JANET MASLIN BOOKS OF THE TIMES

Lady Macbeth in Appalachia, and Other Treats

Revisiting a monstrous
character, and plumbing the
depths of Southern hearts.
NEARLY HALF OF RON RASH’S mesmerizing
new story collection is devoted to the epon-
ymous “In the Valley,” a sequel to his 2008
novel “Serena.” If you’ve read that book,
you surely remain haunted by its mythic
powers. Nominally the Depression-era
story of a North Carolina logging heir who
returns home from Boston with a daunting
new bride, it invested the power-mad Sere-
na Pemberton with otherworldly malign
qualities and gave her a big swath of North
Carolina’s Appalachian logging country to
In the Valley:
The year is 1931. Any answers about her
husband’s death or that of the local advo-
enough to leave the captive with a memory
guaranteed to endure.
cate for a national park? Does she plan to “Ransom” is a new story. Others in the
pay fair wages? The only question she
deigns to answer is from a young woman:
collection have appeared in places as varied
as “Best American Short Stories 2018” and
When will she ever be satisfied? “When the the literary review Bitter Southerner
world and my will are one,” Serena answers, (which is ironically named and well worth
reminding the reader that she is a pure Ary- looking into). The opening piece, a beauty,
an dream. even found its way into “Best American
“In the Valley” is a full-throated cry for Mystery Stories 2019” for its way of pitting
help against her brand of ruthlessness. As exhausted Civil War troops against a wom-
the locals watch Serena’s eagle kill rattle- an defending her homestead. It’s called
snakes for threat and sport, they get an ink- “Neighbors.” And it revolves, as so much of
ling of what she has in mind for everything Rash’s work does, around secrets held deep
in sight. All the snakes go wild. The increas- within Southern hearts.
ing number of tree stumps makes “the land The most haunting and darkly funny of
look poxed, as if infected by some dread dis- these is “The Baptism,” a story that begins
ease.” Rash includes passages solely de- and ends with shotguns. The reason for the
RICHARD NOURRY

Stories and a Novella
Based on ‘Serena’
By Ron Rash
220 pages. Doubleday.
$26.95.
despoil.
Serena herself, ruling the region on her
white Arabian stallion with a trained eagle
and lasso for emphasis, cut a bloodcurdling
figure. A tall, blond goddess with the heart
of Lady Macbeth, she seemed to terrorize
every living thing in her path. She hoped to
voted to related species of wildlife fleeing
this doomed place. They are among the
least eerie parts of the novella, since the
natural world’s survival skills are relatively
drama-free. Humans fare worse.
“In the Valley” takes Serena to such a fe-
ver pitch of destruction that in a lesser writ-
the Valley” is as terrifying as anything you
may find on the subject, even if its crescen-
do is: “By the time he got the doctor, it was
too late. His family was nothing more than
three filled coffins.”
The novella’s minor characters, human
firepower: Jason Gunter, well-known ne’er-
do-well and terrible husband, who is work-
ing up to his second marriage. His first wife
either hanged herself or disappeared, de-
pending on whom you ask in the rural spot
where the story unfolds. One person who
wouldn’t like to be asked: Reverend Yates,
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ravage the landscape both economically
and physically, with a few human grudge
matches for good measure. Her ambition
was tamped down in “Serena” only by the
fact that through most of the book she was-
n’t technically the boss but his wife, no mat-
ter how intimidating.
Serena steps off a seaplane into “In the
Valley,” returning to her North Carolina log-
ging tract followed by a press contingent.
er’s hands it might seem overheated. But
Rash maintains the deep keel that has al-
ways distinguished him and has perhaps
led to his being characterized as “South-
ern,” a designation he apparently finds dis-
missive. He shouldn’t; he’s one of the best
living American writers, and his laconic un-
derstatement is much more powerful than
excess. There’s nothing rash about Rash.
The way that influenza deaths figure in “In
and otherwise, are all drawn with excep-
tional care. That’s also true in the nine other
stories in this slim volume, though some are
very short. “Ransom” amounts to an ex-
tended vignette, but it captures the chem-
istry between a well-off college student and
the man who abducts her, hoping to make
only one kind of killing. The unexpected
happens, as it always does with this author.
And these two turn out to be just simpatico
who knows that Jason intends his next wife
to be a very young girl.
What’s more, Jason wants a baptism for
this fresh start. In the dead of winter. Given
Jason’s track record for marriage there are
no enthusiasts for this, but Jason will not be
denied. Let’s just say that he gets the exact
baptism he deserves and that Reverend
Yates’s secret is one he can happily live with
forever.

Summer in the City
(Partly Reopened)
FOR ABOUT FOUR months, as the pandemic
bore down on New York City, an island had
been left practically deserted in New York
Harbor.
In a typical year, as spring turns into sum-
mer, Governors Island becomes packed
with picnickers and families on bicycles;
tour groups weave through the island’s in-
tricate paths and lines of couples form for
the next ferry back to the mainland.
But the pandemic forced the stewards of
the island to close it to the public to prevent
a pleasant summer getaway from turning
into a superspreader event.
It wasn’t until last month, when outdoor
attractions like zoos and botanical gardens
were preparing to open, that Governors Is-
land did as well.
On July 15, it welcomed its first visitors of
the pandemic era, and the next day, so did
the High Line in Manhattan. In Brooklyn
Bridge Park, more than three acres of new
parkland had recently opened for strolling
and lounging.
The picnickers and bicyclists were wel-
comed back to the island, as were the pedes-
trians looking to amble down the elevated
pathway of the High Line — but this time,
HIGH LINE A perch looking out over 10th Avenue, top. Lara Schnitger’s
“Sister of the Road,” above.
THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020 Y C5
Photographs by AARON BERGER
for The New York Times
they would only be able to walk in one direc-
tion, northward, to help with social distanc-
ing.
What is different about these visits is that
there is not the same opportunity for spon-
taneity. Gone are the days of impulsive
ferry rides to Governors Island; instead,
visitors must book ferry tickets online in ad-
vance. And to visit the High Line, there are
free timed entry passes to reduce con-
gestion (though a limited number of walk-
up passes are available).
Other rules turn these day trips into a
more regimented experience: Markers on
the ground of the High Line show how far
visitors must stand from one another, and
people are only allowed to use the southern-
most entrance on Gansevoort Street near
the Whitney Museum.
On Governors Island, tours remain can-
celed and two historical monuments — Cas-
tle Williams and Fort Jay — are closed.
Still, there is plenty of fun to be had, and
New Yorkers are coming out to find it.
JULIA JACOBS
GOVERNORS ISLAND You can beat the heat once you are there, top, or stay
cool and enjoy the views on the ferry ride over, middle and above.
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BROOKLYN BRIDGE PARK More than three acres of new parkland are open
for strolling and lounging along the East River, top and above.
C6 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020

MY FAVORITE PAGE

‘Trapped’ The music of the composer Ethel

Smyth, left, faded from prominence
after her death in 1944 but is now

In Obscurity,
being rediscovered. James Blachly,
the conductor on a new recording of
Smyth’s symphony “The Prison,”
chose the ending of Part One as his

Now Freed
favorite page of the score, below.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE C1

cording means that I can just say: Listen to
tician’s house, he found inmates singing her the recording.
anthem, “March of the Women,” while she
conducted with a toothbrush. Why do we need Ethel Smyth’s music today?
It was an experience that surely fed into People will be drawn to her because of who
Smyth’s “The Prison,” first performed in she was. Her life story is worthy of a fea-
1931 and, because she became progres- ture-length film: her strength of character;
sively deaf, her last major piece. It has now her belief in the integrity and worth of her
been recorded for the first time for Chan- music in the face of all sorts of hardship; the
dos, the label that has already released way that she went and played her music for
Smyth works, including her Mass and Sere- the conductor Bruno Walter; showed her
nade. music to Brahms anonymously, so that he
An hourlong vocal symphony, “The Pris- would take it seriously. All of that, and who
on” recasts a text by Smyth’s frequent col- knows how she would identify now in terms
laborator, the philosopher Henry Bennett of sexuality; there is ample discussion of
Brewster, as the tale of an innocent prisoner that by scholars.
in solitary confinement (here the bass-bari- But I can say that her music is needed to-
tone Dashon Burton) reconciling himself to day, on its own merits, and because it seems
death in a dialogue with his soul (the so- to tie together so much else: so many other
prano Sarah Brailey). composers that we know and love who she
James Blachly, who conducts the Experi- had direct contact with, and the conductors
ential Orchestra and Chorus on the record- who championed her. I was astonished at
ing, spoke over Zoom last month about the first to learn of this list, but Thomas Beech-
music, its importance and his favorite page am, first and foremost; Bruno Walter; Ar-
of the score, which he edited for perform- thur Nikisch; Adrian Boult. We need Smyth
ance and publication. Here are edited ex- because she enriches our sense of what mu-
cerpts from the conversation. sic has been, and she enriches our sense of
You write in your booklet notes that you what music can be.
were initially hesitant about conducting this What is “The Prison” about?
music. Why was that, and what converted PA IMAGES, VIA GETTY IMAGES
It’s a summary of her entire career. It’s a
you? farewell to her compositional career. She
I have to confess that I had this sense that if knew that she was going deaf. There’s a real
I hadn’t heard of her, then she must not be sense of making peace with that, and also
very good. I had heard her name, but it was reconciling herself to the death of her clos-
in passing, more as a historical figure or as a est creative companion, Henry Bennett
novelty — you know, the rare female com- Brewster. Anyone who has lost someone
poser. Certainly the critical responses to her can find a deep sense of peace through this
various operas, especially, were misogy- work. It’s about love and life and loss and
nistic. self-worth, and the essence of the philoso-
There are other reasons as well. Her pub- phy is about freeing oneself from the shack-
lisher was Universal in Vienna, and in 1939 les of self. “Who doesn’t have a prison?” the
she pulled the copyright from them, so her prisoner writes at one point.
works were obscured after her death. But I
You picked the end of the first part as your
would say, more than anything, it was this
favorite page. What does it tell us?
relegation of her to a historical figure, look-
ing to her political activity as the only thing There is a profound sense of peace at this
to focus on. moment in the work. A lot has been worked
The conversion moment really was a con- out and expressed in a gnarly, intricate
version moment. It was the first time we did fugue, and we come to this dreamlike pas-
a reading of “The Prison,” in 2016. That sage, an aria for the prisoner. The idea is
downbeat, that first sonority, I felt these that we do live forever, whether we wish to
chills go up and down my spine, and the or not — that we will reappear in another
room seemed to just open up with this mu- form. There’s this sense of calm, and the D
sic that had been trapped, and was getting major chord is rich and lush. This is almost
released into the world again. It had never more of an ending than the ending, which
been heard in the United States with an or- gives a sense of indefiniteness.
chestra — a colleague of mine, Mark Sha- Does the fact that you have been able to
piro, had conducted it with piano — and so perform this music with such a large cast,
much of the piece is the orchestration. then record it, show that classical music is
It’s hard to talk about composers whose slowly changing for the better?
music isn’t performed much without talking I could sense even in the past decade that
about composers we might know better, but the general interest in music that is yet un-
can you describe Smyth’s characteristic celebrated is growing substantially. There
sound? has been a problematic part of the classical
I do think there are aspects that can be com- music world which shuts out anything that
pared to other composers. The opening to is not already granted access to this exclu-
me sounds Wagnerian. It’s rich, it’s dark, sive club. I hadn’t set out to be the next Leon
and she was of course a very German com- Botstein; I’m not trying to dedicate my ca-
poser, in her education in Leipzig but also reer to unknown works. I just happened to
just the way she’s drawn, musically. But I fall in love with this piece of music. But this
have to say, as I conducted this piece it be- has set me on the course to question why
came more and more clear to me that she and how we label certain music as master-
has a unique musical voice, and that to try to pieces — and to realize that I can help shift
describe her in terms of other composers of- people’s perception, that I have a role to
ten does a disservice. Finally having this re- play.
VIA MUSIKPRODUKTION HÖFLICH

‘Jennifer’s Body’ & Me

CONTINUED FROM PAGE C1
2011 on the couch, recovering from spinal
fusion surgery. One day, I happened upon a
cable TV showing of “Jennifer’s Body” half-
way through, at the film’s girl-on-girl make-
out scene. I was intrigued and effectively
alone while my mother worked from her
bedroom. I caught the whole movie later
that day.
“Jennifer’s Body” was Diablo Cody’s next
screenplay after she won the Oscar for
“Juno” in 2008. The film, directed by Karyn
Kusama, follows the best friends Jennifer
(Fox) and Needy (Amanda Seyfried)
through the severing of their toxic bond.
Jennifer is a demon who has to eat boys to
remain beautiful. Needy would prefer she
not do that. Bloodshed ensues.
Until “Jennifer’s Body,” I had approached
horror movies with cautious interest at
best. But this film was different. With its ref-
erences to emo music and late-aughts pop
Female fans have
reclaimed ‘Jennifer’s
Body’ and consider it a
pre-#MeToo classic.
culture, it seemed like a comedic time cap-
sule of my own life, so its protagonists,
though Hollywood beautiful, felt real to me.
“Jennifer’s Body” put horror’s great assets
— social transgression, complex female
characters and bloodthirsty vengeance —
in the hands of two contemporary teenage
girls. I have been obsessed with monstrous
women like Jennifer ever since.
By the film’s end, Needy and Jennifer are
shells of their yearbook-picture-perfect
selves. But their path to oblivion is oddly lib-
mostly possible in horror films, where bul- tween stabbing and sexual penetration.
lied, bloody girls burn down their schools Jennifer’s is a pain many women under-
and passive mothers sacrifice their chil- stand. It is especially jarring to learn that
dren. That is why it is my favorite genre, the musician (or comedian, chef or actor)
and one I return to over and over and over you once admired could see you as little
again for novel representations of women. more than a means to an end.
“Jennifer’s Body” satirizes gendered While Jennifer is sacrificed because of,
tropes. It is one of the few horror movies well, her body, society scorns Needy — the
where a teenage girl’s promiscuity actually only character who knows the truth about
saves her from her untimely end — if Jenni- Jennifer — because of her mind. She first
fer really had been a virgin, there would be appears in a psychiatric hospital, where she
no movie. The film also plays the “wanton” kicks a doctor and spits in her face. As a
Jennifer and “virginal” Needy against each teenager, before I was wheeled into surgery,
other to farcical extremes. Jennifer and I had a panic attack so strong I was dosed
Needy are both sexually active throughout with what felt like enough Ativan to fell a
the film, despite Needy’s mousy affect. hippopotamus. Watching “Jennifer’s Body”
Though it was written with a female audi- with a foot-long incision healing on my
ence in mind, sexist expectations margin- back, I was as drawn to Needy’s wretched,
alized the movie. After I saw “Jennifer’s anti-medical mania as I was to Jennifer’s
Body” at 16, I searched for it on the review emo worship.
aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, expecting As the violence escalates, sweet Needy
to see my jubilance reflected back at me. drops her first F-bomb — and finally con-
The film was certified rotten. summates her “totally lesbi-gay” friend-
In 2009, Kusama and Fox were wounded ship with Jennifer in that make-out scene,
by critical acrimony and a sexist marketing which has inspired lesbians and bisexual
campaign pegged to horny male viewers. women to likewise reclaim the film.
(That is why I had not seen the film in the- This, I learned at 16, is where the true
aters — I did not think it was “for” me.) beauty of the horror genre lies. In horror,
Their detractors, many of whom were men, girls and women do not have to be pretty,
seemed to have expected an objectifying polite, chaste or even heterosexual — in
chiller. Instead, they saw an intentionally fact, these characters are so terrifying be-
subversive, campy film, and called it a fail- cause they willfully eschew gendered as-
ure. The experience spurred Kusama to sumptions. Teenage girls — their emotions
leave the studio system altogether. Fox, al- too often dismissed as hormonal hysteria —
ready controversial for her outspoken criti- can finally lose their cool. Jennifer and
cism of Michael Bay, who had directed her Needy have joined the likes of Regan Mac-
in the “Transformers” movies, was written Neil (“The Exorcist”), Carrie White (“Car-
off as a star. rie”) and Brigitte and Ginger Fitzgerald
(“Ginger Snaps”), and live on in more re-
In the past few years, female fans have
cent unhinged young women like Dani Ar-
reclaimed “Jennifer’s Body” and consider it
a pre-#MeToo classic. For my 21st birthday dor (“Midsommar”) and Justine (“Raw”).
at Smith College, my friends and I comman- PHOTOGRAPHS BY DOANE GREGORY/20TH CENTURY FOX The summer of my surgery, I was incorri-
deered a classroom and projected the mov- gibly sad and in too much agony to eat,
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erating, as both girls forgo stereotypical
feminine docility to don the roles of hero
(Needy) and villain (Jennifer). After an in-
die band murders Jennifer in an erroneous
virgin sacrifice, she is reborn as a monster
with a taste for male blood. Mild-mannered
Needy must save her helpless boyfriend
from Jennifer — and by the end Needy
hunts down and kills the band that started it
all. Such subversive female derangement is
ie. The virgin-sacrifice scene, which had
barely registered to my teenage brain, now
stole all the air from the room. It was 2015,
and it seemed the whole country was wak-
ing up to college rape culture. I had helped
carry a mattress across campus in solidari-
ty with Emma Sulkowicz the year before.
When rocker boys sacrifice Jennifer to
Satan, the scene is absurd and chock-full of
Cody’s signature quips, but it is also oppres-
In “Jennifer’s Body,”
Megan Fox, top, plays a
teenager-turned-demon who
needs to feed on young men.
Amanda Seyfried is Needy,
Jennifer’s best frenemy.
sively dark. The band’s frontman, Nikolai
(Adam Brody), stabs Jennifer repeatedly
while merrily singing. Jennifer is betrayed
by the very artist she worships. And he vic-
timizes her specifically because she is fe-
male.
The violence is heavily sexualized — Jen-
nifer worries aloud in the band’s van that
the members might be rapists, and there’s a
longstanding symbolic relationship be-
sleep or shower independently, much less
dress up, wear makeup or smile. Now, as an
adult, I still do not wear feminine clothes or
makeup. I have realized that this is simply
how I feel most comfortable as a woman
and an out lesbian.
A lot of things got me here, but “Jennifer’s
Body” first showed me the messy, risky rap-
ture that could await me if I learned to be
female on my own terms.