Late Edition

Today, periodic clouds and sunshine,

unseasonably mild, high 60. To-
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row, partly sunny, still rather mild,
high 56. Weather map, Page B11.

VOL. CLXX . . . No. 58,890 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020 $3.00

TRUMP APPOINTEES
SHOW THEIR CLOUT
IN RULING ON VIRUS
Rebuke to States on Justices Scrap Limits
Reach of Power on Congregations
By JESSE McKINLEY
and LIAM STACK
ALBANY, N.Y. — As the corona-
virus pandemic has deepened and
darkened in recent months, the
nation’s governors have taken in-
creasingly aggressive steps to
curb the current surge of infec-
tions, with renewed and expanded
restrictions reaching into people’s
homes, businesses, schools and
places of worship.
Many of these rules, often en-
acted by Democratic officials and
enforced through curfews, clo-
sures and capacity limits, have
been resisted by some members
of the public, but largely upheld by
the courts.
Late Wednesday night, though,
the U.S. Supreme Court forcefully
FEDERICO RIOS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES entered the arena, signaling that it
was willing to impose new con-
Venezuelans making their way back home on a road leading out of Bogotá, Colombia, where the pandemic has taken away jobs.
straints on executive and emer-
gency orders during the pan-
demic, at least where constitu-
By ADAM LIPTAK
WASHINGTON — A few min-
utes before midnight on Wednes-
day, the nation got its first glimpse
of how profoundly President
Trump had transformed the Su-
preme Court.
Just months ago, Chief Justice
John G. Roberts Jr. was at the
peak of his power, holding the con-
trolling vote in closely divided
cases and almost never finding
himself in dissent. But the arrival
of Justice Amy Coney Barrett late
last month, which put a staunch
conservative in the seat formerly
held by the liberal mainstay, Jus-
tice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, meant
that it was only a matter of time
before the chief justice’s leader-
ship would be tested.
On Wednesday, Justice Barrett
dealt the chief justice a body blow.
She cast the decisive vote in a 5-
to-4 ruling that rejected restric-
tions on religious services in New

Empty Pockets and No Home After 1,500 Miles

Pandemic Puts Venezuelan Mother and Son on Endless Trek Between 2 Countries
lapse before the pandemic and
By JULIE TURKEWITZ found refuge in Colombia. Now, af-
ter losing their jobs amid the eco-
and ISA HERRERA nomic crash that followed the vi-
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — A little rus, they are trying desperately to
boy charges along the highway, get back home, where at least they
his red plastic shoes glowing in can rely on family.
the twilight. The suitcase he pulls The global health crisis
weighs almost as much as he does. wrought by the coronavirus has
played out most visibly in hospi-
A truck throttles by, threatening to
blow him off his feet. But Se- tals and cemeteries, its devastat-
bastián Ventura, who at just 6 has ing toll clocked in cases and
already taken on the role of family deaths, its aftermath tracked in
cheerleader, urges his family on. lost work and shuttered busi-
“To Venezuela!” he shouts. nesses.
His mother, four months preg- But a second, less visible aspect
nant, rushes to keep up. There are of the catastrophe has unfolded on
the world’s highways, as millions
hundreds of people on the high-
of migrants — Afghans, Ethi-
way that night, all Venezuelans
who had fled their country’s col- opians, Nicaraguans, Ukrainians
and others — have lost work in
their adopted countries and
headed home.
The fortunate ones have found a
haven upon return. But many
have run out of money along the
way, have been rejected at border
crossings or have arrived in war-
torn countries only to find their
past lives burned to the ground.
And so they have kept on mov-
ing.
International aid groups have
begun to call these people the pan-
demic’s “stranded migrants” —
men, women and children who
have been trying to get home
since the virus began to spread.
The International Organization
for Migration said recently there
are at least 2.75 million of them.
Among the most affected have
been Venezuelans, who even be-
fore the pandemic formed one of
the largest migration waves in the
world. As the oil-rich nation crum-
bled in the grip of its authoritarian
leader, Nicolás Maduro, hunger
became widespread and nearly
five million people fled.
But when the virus hit, Vene-
zuelans living abroad were often
the first to lose jobs in their
adopted nations, the first to be
evicted from pay-per-day apart-
ments in cities like Lima, Quito
and Bogotá, Colombia’s capital.
In the first months of the pan-
demic, more than 100,000 Vene-
Continued on Page A14
tional rights are affected.
In a 5-4 decision, the court
struck down an order by Gov. An-
drew M. Cuomo that had re-
stricted the size of religious gath-
erings in certain areas of New
York where infection rates were
climbing. The governor had im-
posed 10- and 25-person capacity
limits on churches and other
houses of worship in those areas.
The decision seemed to signal
that some governmental efforts to
stem the pandemic had over-
reached, impinging on protected
freedoms in the name of public
Continued on Page A6
York imposed by Gov. Andrew M.
Cuomo to combat the coronavirus,
shoving the chief justice into dis-
sent with the court’s three remain-
ing liberals. It was one of six opin-
ions the court issued on Wednes-
day, spanning 33 pages and open-
ing a window on a court in turmoil.
The ruling was at odds with ear-
lier ones in cases from California
and Nevada issued before Justice
Ginsburg’s death in September.
Those decisions upheld restric-
tions on church services by 5-to-4
votes, with Chief Justice Roberts
in the majority. The New York de-
Continued on Page A6

Patients Put at Risk as Russian Hackers Sabotage U.S. Hospitals

By ELLEN BARRY
and NICOLE PERL
At lunchtime on Oct. 28, Colleen
Cargill was in the cancer center at
the University of Vermont Medi-
cal Center, preparing patients for
their chemotherapy infusions. A
new patient will sometimes be
teary and frightened, but the
nurses try to make it welcoming,
offering trail mix and a warm
blanket, a seat with a view of a
garden.
Then they work with extreme
precision: checking platelet and
One Year, So Many Changes
This year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was kept to one block of 34th Street, left, and lacked last year’s crowds, right. Page A10.
Wave of Recent Attacks
May Be Retaliation,
Experts Say
white blood cell counts, measur-
ing each dosage to a milligram per
square foot of body area, before
settling the person into a port and
hooking them up to an IV.
That day, though, Ms. Cargill
did a double-take: When she tried
to log in to her work station, it
BRITTAINY NEWMAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
booted her out. Then it happened
again. She turned to the system of
pneumatic tubes used to trans-
port lab work. What she saw there
was a red caution symbol, a circle
with a cross. She walked to the
backup computer. It was down,
too.
“I wasn’t panicky,” she said,
“and then I noticed my cordless
phone didn’t work.” That was, she
said, the beginning of the worst 10
days of her career.
Cyberattacks on America’s
health systems have become their
own kind of pandemic over the
past year as Russian cybercrimi-
nals have shut down clinical trials
and treatment studies for the co-
ronavirus vaccine and cut off hos-
pitals’ access to patient records,
demanding multimillion-dollar
ransoms for their return.
Complicating the response,
President Trump last week fired
Christopher Krebs, the director of
CISA, the cybersecurity agency
responsible for defending critical
systems, including hospitals and
elections, against cyberattacks,
after Mr. Krebs disputed Mr.
Continued on Page A20
BRENDAN M cDERMID/REUTERS
A Legacy Larger Than the Field
People in Argentina and all across Latin America remembered
Diego Maradona as a soccer star and a hero of the left. Page A11.
To the Very End, a Presidency
Haunted by One Word: Loser
By DAN BARRY
In the now-distant Republican
presidential primaries of 2016,
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas handily
won the Iowa caucuses. This was
determined by a method that has
lately come under attack but at
the time was considered stand-
ard: elementary math.
One of the losers in Iowa, the de-
veloper and television personality
Donald J. Trump, soon accused
Mr. Cruz of electoral theft. He fired
off several inflammatory tweets,
including this foreshadowing of
our current democracy-testing
moment: “Based on the fraud
committed by Senator Ted Cruz
during the Iowa Caucus, either a
new election should take place or
Cruz results nullified.”
The episode vanished in the
tsunami of political vitriol to come
during the Trump presidency.
Still, it reflects what those who
SARAH PABST FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
have worked with Mr. Trump say
is his modus operandi when try-
ing to slip the humiliating epithet
he has so readily applied to others.
Loser.
“The first thing he calls some-
one who has wronged him is a
loser,” said Jack O’Donnell, who
ran an Atlantic City casino for Mr.
Trump in the 1980s. “That’s his
main attack word. The worst thing
in his world would be to be a loser.
To avoid being called a loser, he
will do or say anything.”
Across his long career, he has
spun, cajoled and attacked — in
the press, in lawsuits and lately, of
course, on Twitter — whenever
faced with appearing as anything
less than the superlative of the
moment: the greatest, the smart-
est, the healthiest, the best. This
has at times required audacious
Continued on Page A22

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-10 NATIONAL A17-23 BUSINESS B1-6 INTERNATIONAL A11-16 WEEKEND ARTS C1-16

Buffalo Reels Under 2nd Wave
The number of coronavirus cases has
increased tenfold over the past month
in the western New York city and its
suburbs, alarming officials. PAGE A4
Split Over New Jersey Schools
Gov. Philip D. Murphy wants children
back in class. But officials at the local
level have different ideas. PAGE A10
SPORTSFRIDAY B7-8
Ravens’ Jackson Has the Virus
The news about Lamar Jackson, the
N.F.L.’s 2019 M.V.P., threatened to upend
Baltimore’s game on Sunday. PAGE B8
All the President’s Opossums
The Bidens’ German shepherds will join
a list of White House pets that haven’t
always barked or meowed. PAGE A17
An Escape to the Grind
Long pushed into vacant lots and side
streets, skaters are getting more urban
space at just the right time. PAGE A18
‘Dream’ Mall Reopens, Slowly
The American Dream complex in New
Jersey began opening in 2019 after
years of delays. But the pandemic
stalled its larger unveiling. PAGE B1
Tourist Traps Amid Poverty
In China, the supposed wisdom of build-
ing huge statues in poorer areas to
increase tourism is coming under harsh
scrutiny. PAGE B1
Global Banks Feeling Pinch
Britain and the European Union don’t
trust each other much, and interna-
tional banks in London are being
caught in the middle. PAGE B1
337 Life Terms in Turkey
The sentences were for defendants
convicted of plotting or participating in
an unsuccessful coup attempt against
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan four
and a half years ago. PAGE A13
Cover-Up at E.U. Alleged
The European Union’s border agency
has been complicit in Greece’s illegal
practice of pushing migrants back to
Turkey, according to documents and
interviews with officials. PAGE A12
EDITORIAL, OP-ED A24-25
U(D54G1D)y+&!{!,!?!"
David Brooks PAGE A24
A2 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020
A. G. SULZBERGER
ENA 8 Publisher
Founded in 1851
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Publisher 1896-1935
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Inside The Times
THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY
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stunning
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freshly ground, not capsuled
shopjura.com
Tables organize a product’s attributes and are a formal part of Wirecutter’s reporting process.
A Wirecutter Obsession: Spreadsheets
BY ELLEN AIRHART
Wirecutter writers have set document
safes on fire to see which ones could with-
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The perfect way to potential dangers in Wirecutter testing
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Often in our testing, we put more than a
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guide to the best pet subscription boxes,
Shop our biggest sale of she rated them on 10 dimensions, including
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As Wirecutter’s expert journalists con-
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 THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020 N A3

Of Interest
NOTEWORTHY FACTS FROM TODAY’S PAPER

Sahel derives from the Arabic word Frontex, as the European Union’s
for shore or coast. It was the name border agency is known, is the bloc’s
given by traders crossing the oceanic best-funded agency, with a budget of
Sahara to the welcoming grasslands over $500 million.
that marked the desert’s southern E.U. Agency Is Accused of Complicity
When Greece Repels Migrants A12
rim, terrain that includes modern
Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal. •
Best Art Books of 2020 C8 In the three weeks since fighting
•
began between the Ethiopian
military and local forces in the
Lenders with German licenses will CHANEL MILLER
country’s Tigray region, 40,000
move assets worth about 400 billion
refugees have crossed into
euros, or $475 billion, out of Britain
Over 93 percent of the residents in neighboring Sudan, according to the
to the Continent because of Brexit,
Chicago’s South Side neighborhood United Nations.
according to the Bundesbank.
are African-American. Ethiopia Imperils Civilians in Assault
Global Banks Feeling Pinch On Rebel Region A13
The Injustices of the Past, Turned Into Art C11
As Brexit Switch Wraps Up B1
•
• The 1959 Chevrolet Corvette
In the middle decades of the 20th Stingray racecar concept was a
century, the steel mills in secretive project inside General
Middletown, Ohio, were magnets for Motors.
Appalachian migrants. ‘Love Letter to Detroit,’ on Vellum
I Remember Bev and Mamaw C3 And Chrome B4

The Conversation Spotlight

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

Splitting 5 to 4, Supreme Court Backs Religious
Challenge to Cuomo’s Virus Shutdown Order
The decision, and the first ruling in which the newest member
of the court Justice Amy Coney Barrett played a decisive role,
came late Wednesday night. An unsigned majority opinion
stated that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s restrictions on religious
services in New York violated the right to exercise free reli-
gion enshrined in the First Amendment. This was the most
read article on Thursday.
Trump’s Pardon of Flynn Signals Prospect of a Wave
In His Final Weeks in Office
By pardoning his first national security adviser, Michael T.
Flynn, who pleaded guilty of lying to the F.B.I., President
Trump boosted the hopes of other associates who were
caught in the sweep of the special counsel’s investigation into
the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia. Advocates for criminal
justice reform are pushing for a flurry of commutations for
prisoners convicted of nonviolent drug offences.
In the latest episode of the “Book Review” podcast, the host
Pamela Paul interviewed Nicholas Christakis, a physician,
epidemiologist and sociologist who wrote “Apollo’s Arrow:
The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the
Way We Live.” In one edited segment below, Mr. Christakis
talks about the perception and the reality of the pandemic.
Pamela Paul You mentioned a bunch of different
pandemics from eras past. What makes the
coronavirus different?
Nicholas Christakis In some ways we are very lucky
that it’s not much deadlier. Bubonic plague could
kill 50 percent of the people in a population. This
particular pathogen kills about 1 percent of the people
that it infects. On the other hand, this is actually a
serious pathogen. One percent of people dying is
really very deadly. And so it’s 10 times deadlier
than the flu. So this is a devastating thing that has
happened.

I guess one of the things I’d like to emphasize is that

the world has changed, whether we want to accept
it or not. A new pathogen has been introduced into
our midst and we just have to maturely and resolutely
accept this new reality. And we as a society and as a
world are going to be called upon to make sacrifices
and to tolerate tremendous discomfort.

And, I guess I would say that in some ways we

JIM LO SCALZO/EPA, VIA SHUTTERSTOCK
After Admitting Mistake, AstraZeneca Faces Difficult
Questions About Its Vaccine
AstraZeneca teamed with the University of Oxford and her-
alded the preliminary results of its vaccine this week. But
then it acknowledged a flaw in the dosage received by some
trial participants. It could damage public trust.
should ask ourselves: Why should we think we are any
different than any other group of people that have lived
for the last few thousand years? Plagues have always
been a part of the human experience. They’re just new
to us.
Listen to the “Book Review” podcast at nytimes.com/tbrpodcast.

BEE STRONG
Quote of the Day “So often the art was hiding in plain sight, within 20 miles of Queen Bee Necklace
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‘LOVE LETTER TO DETROIT,’ ON
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and the sketches were coming out of dusty boxes.” M O N I C A R I C H KO S A N N . C O M
BENJAMIN W. COLMAN, associate curator for American art at the Detroit Institute of Arts, on the
museum’s show featuring cars and their design sketches.

The Mini Crossword Here to Help

BY JOEL FAGLIANO A RECIPE FOR TURKEY BARBECUE SANDWICHES WITH PICKLES AND SLAW
An exceptional gift.
1 2 3 4 Most turkey sandwiches are best made with slices of white meat stacked neatly between
two slices of bread. Not this one. With a saucy, spicy filling piled onto a hamburger bun,
it’s perfect for dark meat and any scraps you may have left over from the carcass. The
5
cabbage slaw adds crispness and tang to the soft turkey, and bread-and-butter pickles
give the sandwich a touch of sweetness. If you don’t have leftover turkey, this recipe
6 works just as well with the meat torn off a rotisserie chicken. MELISSA CLARK

7 TIME: 20 MINUTES
YIELD: 4 SERVINGS

8 ¼ cup apple cider vinegar, plus more as

needed
11/27/2020 EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
ACROSS 4 cups sliced green cabbage (about ½
1 Leftovers cover small head)
5 Eldest of Hollywood’s Hemsworth 1 large shallot, thinly sliced
brothers 1 large carrot, coarsely grated
6 Yellen of the Biden cabinet 1 jalapeño, seeded and thinly sliced
ANDREW PURCELL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES.
7 Killer whale
½ cup barbecue sauce, homemade or FOOD STYLIST: BARRETT WASHBURNE
8 Fuzzy buzzers
store-bought, plus more for serving
Hot sauce (optional) 3. Pour barbecue sauce into a medium bowl
DOWN and taste it. If it’s too sweet, add a little more
12 ounces cooked shredded turkey,
1 Roadside warning vinegar and hot sauce, if you like. Toss in
warmed up (about 3 cups)
2 1/8 cup turkey and stir until evenly coated.
3 Furniture stores that average Mayonnaise (optional)
300,000 square feet (or five 4 sandwich or hamburger buns 4. To assemble the sandwiches, spread
football fields!) Bread-and-butter pickle slices, for mayonnaise inside the buns, if you like, then
4 Tennis do-over serving fill the buns with slaw, pickles and turkey.
6 “You had one ___!” Serve with more hot sauce on the side, if you
1. In a small pot, combine ¼ cup vinegar, the prefer.
sugar and the salt. Cover pot and heat just
SOLUTION TO until sugar dissolves, 1 to 2 minutes. For more recipes, visit NYT Cooking
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L Y R E Cover and let sit, tossing occasionally, while
you prepare the sandwiches.
A4 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020

Tracking an Outbreak
N

Coronavirus Update Hot Spots in the United States

As of Thursday evening, more than 12,937,300 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 263,100 people with the virus have died in the United States. On Nov. 19, the
On Thanksgiving, Records Fall Across U.S. map scale was broadened from an upper limit of 48+ to 125+ per 100,000 in order to reflect the new record rates of infection. The map was also
changed so that areas with very low population density are now shaded.
Cuomo Accuses Court of Playing Politics
Average daily cases per 100,000 people
in the past week
Length of Suggested Isolation May Be Cut Wash.

Mont. 25 50 75 125
Maine
By JAMES BARRON N.D.
The pall of the coronavirus pandemic hung over the Thanksgiving
Ore. Minn.
Day holiday. The devastating drumbeat of case counts continued: Vt. N.H.
Pennsylvania reported 7,427 new cases on Thursday, its latest Idaho Wis.
N.Y. Mass.
record. New weekly highs have been posted from Delaware to Ohio S.D.
Mich.
Conn.
to Arizona, a late-summer hot spot. Over the past seven days, Ari- Wyo. R.I.
zona has reported 27,000 cases, exceeding its summer peak.
Iowa Pa.
Since the earliest days of the pandemic, elected officials have N.J.
struggled to limit the spread of the virus. On Thursday, Gov. Andrew Nev. Utah Neb.
Ohio
Ill. Md.
M. Cuomo of New York accused the Supreme Court of playing parti- Ind. Del.
D.C.
san politics with its ruling invalidating his restrictions on religious Colo.
W.Va.
services. Kan. Va.
The court said that Mr. Cuomo’s restrictions violated the First Calif. Mo. Ky.
Amendment’s protection of religion. Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, main-
tained that the decision “doesn’t have any practical effect” because N.C.
Ariz. Tenn.
the restrictions on services in Brooklyn were eased after positive Okla.
test rates there declined, falling below state thresholds. Elizabeth N.M. Ark.
S.C.
Garvey, Mr. Cuomo’s legal counsel, said the state believed the opin-
ion covered only the now-lapsed restrictions in Brooklyn, not six Ga.
Ala.
other counties where similar rules have been imposed. But legal
Miss.
experts said the ruling could be used to challenge other restrictions. Texas
Rules — and enforcement — are increasingly local. In Anchor- La.
age, where the past week has accounted for about one in every
seven of the city’s cases reported since the pandemic began, Austin Alaska
Fla.
Quinn-Davidson, the acting mayor, announced new rules for Decem-
ber. Bars and restaurants will not be allowed to serve customers
indoors, many businesses will be limited to 25 percent of their nor-
Hawaii Puerto Rico
mal capacity and employers will be required to let workers do their
jobs from home if at all possible.
In Missouri, Kansas City and St. Louis began crackdowns on
restaurants that flouted pandemic regulations. In Kansas City,
where enforcement had largely originated with complaints, the Sources: State and local health agencies. The map shows the share of population with a new reported case over the last week. Data for Rhode Island is shown at
the state level because county level data is infrequently reported. Data is as of Nov. 26, 2020, at 5 p.m. Eastern. THE NEW YORK TIMES
authorities conducted a sweep of 185 bars and restaurants and
found that two dozen were in violation of rules that limit capacity to
50 percent and mandate a closing time of 10 p.m. St. Louis sent
cease-and-desist letters to bars and businesses that officials said
were serving customers indoors.
The conventional wisdom about how long to quarantine may be UPSTATE NEW YORK
changing. France has already cut its required period of isolation to

Second Wave Lashes Buffalo ‘With a Vengeance’

seven days, and a new analysis found that most patients do not
spread the coronavirus after five days from the onset of symptoms.
The analysis, a review of other studies on coronavirus transmission
that was published in the journal Lancet Microbe, suggested that
shorter isolation periods may be sufficient. The Centers for Disease By DANIEL E. HIGGINS
and SHARON OTTERMAN
Control and Prevention currently recommends 10 days of isolation
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Over the
for most patients. But there were reports this week that it was con-
past month, the number of corona-
sidering shortening the quarantine period because compliance
would go up if people could spend less time in isolation, a point virus cases has increased tenfold
in the upstate city of Buffalo and
echoed by Dr. Muge Cevik, an infectious disease expert at the Uni-
its surrounding suburbs. Hospi-
versity of St. Andrews in Scotland who led the new analysis.
talizations already have sur-
passed the levels seen in the
spring. And the Covid-19 hotline
for Erie County, where Buffalo is
New Coronavirus Cases Announced Daily in U.S.
As of Thursday evening, more than 12,937,300 people across every situated, is getting “annihilated,”
the health commissioner said,
state, plus Washington, D.C., and four U.S. territories, have tested
with 1,500 calls in one 24-hour pe-
positive for the virus, according to a New York Times database.
riod this week.
“The second wave is here, and it
New cases
is here with a vengeance,” Mark
Poloncarz, the county executive,
said at a news conference, urging
120,000
residents to take the surge seri-
ously.
7-day average Day with data Western New York, a bustling
reporting anomaly five-county region of some 1.4 mil-
60,000 lion people along the Canadian
border, has emerged as the big-
gest trouble spot of the state’s sec-
ond coronavirus wave. If New
York City was the hot spot of the
spring, then this area seems to
March 1 Nov. 26 presently have that distinction.
Note: Thursday’s total is incomplete because some states report Normally known for its neigh-
cases after press time. Data is as of Nov. 26, 2020, at 5 p.m. Eastern. borliness, its Buffalo Bills football
Sources: State and local health agencies; hospitals; C.D.C. THE NEW YORK TIMES
team and its namesake spicy
chicken wings, the region now
gets regular criticism from Gov.
A Mayor Apologizes Andrew M. Cuomo for its average
positive test rate, which has re-
On Wednesday morning, Mayor Michael B. Hancock of Denver
mained around 5 percent for two
urged constituents not to travel for the holiday. He quickly disre-
weeks.
garded his own advice, flying to Mississippi later in the day to see By the numbers alone, the Buf-
his wife and a daughter. Amid a backlash back home, he apologized. falo area already meets the bench-
“I made my decision as a husband and father,” he said, asking for- marks for the harshest restric-
giveness for “decisions that are born of my heart and not my head.” tions available to the state — the
closing of nonessential businesses
and the banning of public gather-
Restrictions in Europe
ings — yet officials have held off.
London and Liverpool avoided the tightest tier of restrictions in But as the cases continue to
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s blueprint for ending Britain’s rise, that designation seems al-
monthlong lockdown next week, while Chancellor Angela Merkel of most inevitable.
Germany outlined a plan to extend nationwide restrictions through “We’re watching the numbers,”
December.
Mr. Cuomo said on Wednesday.
“We’re going to watch through
Most of the rest of England ended up in the top two levels of
this Thanksgiving season.”
Britain’s three-tiered system, with London and Liverpool in the
The rise in Erie County has
second, less restrictive layer. But even there, pubs will stay shut
been a more extreme version of
unless they also serve food.
what is happening statewide, and
In Germany, infections remain high despite a so-called wave-
more so resembles the uptick in
other regions of the country. Since
breaker shutdown that was mocked as “lockdown light” before it
mid-October, the number of cases
took effect on Nov. 2. On Thursday, Ms Merkel appealed for patience
in the county has gone from 322
after she and state governors agreed to extend the shutdown to Dec.
per week to 3,449 per week. Hospi-
20. It had originally been scheduled to last only four weeks.
talizations have risen from 84 on
Ms. Merkel and the governors also agreed to limit gatherings to
Nov. 10 to 264 on Nov. 23. While
five people from no more than two households, excluding children
hospitals have sufficient beds for
under 14. From Dec. 23 to Jan. 1, the maximum will rise to 10 people. now, county officials said, staff is
being stretched thin.
Stay Active, W.H.O. Says The St. Joseph Campus Hospi-
tal, part of the region’s Catholic
In a 104-page report announcing new wellness guidelines, the Health hospital system, has re-
World Health Organization did not use phrases like “too much tur- turned to being a coronavirus-
key” or “that second slice of pumpkin pie that you really shouldn’t only hospital as it was in the
have had.” But the agency timed the release of the guidelines to spring, with its emergency de-
coincide with a certain carbohydrate-heavy holiday, at least in the partment temporarily closed.
United States, and its advice on what eaters should do was: Get up Intensive care admissions are
and get out. increasing at a slower rate, be-
It said that people needed to be more active. It cited figures that cause of improvements in care,
though 40 people have already
one in four adults do not get enough physical activity, a situation
died of the virus in November,
complicated by the pandemic, which has kept millions cooped up
bringing the total coronavirus fa-
indoors during 2020. It recommended two and a half to six hours of
talities in the county to 788 people.
“moderate to vigorous aerobic activity” for adults every week and
In an encouraging sign, Erie
an hour a day for children and teenagers. It also put a price tag on County’s infection rate has leveled
inactivity: $54 billion a year in extra health costs and an additional off at around 7 percent in the last
$14 billion in lost productivity. few days, indicating that some re-
strictions are having an effect. As
Coronavirus Update wraps up the day’s developments with infor- the message has gotten through,
mation from across the virus report. there are now lines to get corona-
Several protests, including one outside of a gym in Orchard Park,
N.Y., have sprung up as people have tired of virus restrictions.
virus testing, and masking in pub-
lic places is generally good, resi-
dents said, although there has
been some pushback regarding
current virus restrictions.
“I do believe the vast majority
of people in my community are
taking it seriously, whether they
live in the city of Buffalo or they’re
in a rural community,” Mr. Polon-
carz, a Democrat, said in an inter-
view. “But there are some folks
who are not. And unfortunately,
those individuals put at risk the
entire community for further
shutdowns.”
How Western New York got
here is not clear cut. Local epide-
miologists and officials say that
there was no large outbreak that
triggered this second wave. Multi-
generational households in Buffa-
lo’s poorer neighborhoods, which
suffered disproportionately early
in the spring — when more than
500 people died in the county —
have not been the hardest hit this
time.
Rather, said Mr. Poloncarz, it
seems that the November surge
started in the wealthier, more con-
servative suburbs, where people
appeared to be not taking enough
precautions in private gatherings,
bars or restaurants. The spike
also began in the days after Hal-
loween, leading some epidemiolo-
gists to believe that parties played
a part.
But transmission at this point is
so widespread in the county that
irresponsible behavior is not re-
quired to get sick, said Dr. Thomas
A. Russo, the chief of infectious
disease at the Jacobs School of
Medicine and Biomedical Sci-
ences at the University at Buffalo.
In what he calls the “innocent by-
stander effect,” many infections
now are being spread among fam-
ily members in private homes,
brought in by people who are
asymptomatic.
Coupled with the small, but sig-
nificant, minority resisting mask-
ing and other restrictions, the vi-
rus is finding enough hosts to fuel
LIBBY MARCH FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
the ongoing community transmis-
sion, he said. Even 20 percent of
people not complying is enough,
he added.
“I think people here certainly
know that we have to regroup, and
we have probably been doing bet-
ter in the last week or so,” Dr.
Russo said. Still, he was worried.
“Whatever ground we might have
gained, I’m nervous we will lose it
over Thanksgiving.”
In the past few weeks, Mr.
Cuomo designated most of Erie
County a yellow zone, the lowest
level of his tiered, color-coded re-
striction system that limited gath-
erings and indoor dining, and then
as an orange zone, the midlevel
categorization that triggered the
mandatory closure of personal
care businesses like salons and
gyms, as well as indoor dining.
Schools are also closed for in-per-
son attendance, but can reopen
with strict testing protocols.
These restrictions have led to
some anger, particularly from the
more politically conservative sub-
urbs around the city of Buffalo. A
video recorded on Friday showing
health inspectors and sheriff’s
deputies attempting to stop an il-
legal gathering inside a gym in Or-
chard Park has been viewed
nearly three million times. It
gained national attention after
Donald J. Trump Jr. retweeted it
and said it was an example of “the
tyranny from Democrat poli-
ticians.”
On Monday, the gym owner led
an evening protest, attracting
about 150 people. Across the
street from Buffalo Bills Stadium,
the protest had the jubilant air of
the kind of tailgate parties nor-
mally held there that have been
canceled this year because of co-
ronavirus restrictions. Demon-
strators waved signs at passing
traffic on Southwestern Boule-
vard insulting Mr. Cuomo and call-
ing on the area to reopen for the
sake of peoples’ livelihoods.
“We’re here to fight for every-
body,” said the gym owner, Robby
Dinero, who was fined $15,000 for
the gym gathering, as demonstra-
tors in the background shook tam-
bourines and gave speeches from
the bed of a pickup truck. He said
he planned more protests for as
long as the restrictions remain in
place.
But Rita Los, a retired attorney
from Hamburg, where there were
236 cases last week, said she sup-
ports increased restrictions in
part because she has noticed peo-
ple getting “too comfortable” with
one another and inviting people to
their homes.
“Buffalo is ‘The City of Good
Neighbors,’” she said, referring to
one of the community’s nick-
names. “And the problem with
Buffalo is nobody thinks their
neighbor will make them sick.”
Elsewhere, families are strug-
gling and expressing frustration
with the micro-cluster restric-
tions, even if they are not attend-
ing public protests. Laura
Hodges, a physical therapist in the
suburb of Amherst, was fur-
loughed in the spring, and has yet
to return to permanent, full-time
work.
“I’ve applied for a bazillion
jobs,” Ms. Hodges said. “And now
this is just causing more uncer-
tainty.” She said her family has
had to use credit cards to pay off
some bills, a situation that can’t be
sustained indefinitely.
Kellie Klos, co-owner of Clay-
ton’s Toy Store, a 105-year-old
shop on Main Street in
Williamsville, said she at least
was relieved that Mr. Cuomo did
not designate the area a red zone,
the highest level of restrictions, on
Wednesday.
“We do 60 percent of our busi-
ness between Thanksgiving and
Christmas,” she said. “If we had
gone into a red zone now, that
could have been permanently det-
rimental to this business, which
would break my heart.”
“At least now we know we get
another weekend,” she added.
Policymakers have been at a
crossroads. For days, Erie County
has technically met the standards
for the governor’s red zone, which
requires a rolling seven-day aver-
age positivity rate of 4 percent for
10 days. Some suburbs, including
Lancaster and Hamburg, have
reached a 9 percent positivity
rate, among the highest in the
state.
On Wednesday, Mr. Cuomo said
that he was going to tweak the for-
mula used to designate restriction
zones to put more of an emphasis
on hospital capacity, and that he
would revisit the issue after
Thanksgiving.
As the number of cases in Erie
County ballooned from 350 a week
in mid-October to 500 a day, con-
tact tracers were swamped. Dr.
Gale Burstein, the health commis-
sioner, announced a triage system
on Monday. Now, everyone tested
by the county will get their results
within 24 hours after the county
receives them, but tracers will call
back a day or two later to do the
full interview and find out who
else they should notify.
 THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020 N A5

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A6 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020
Tracking an Outbreak Public Health and the Law
SUPREME COURT
Trump Appointees Show Their Clout in Ruling on Virus Limits
From Page A1
cision said that Mr. Cuomo’s strict
virus limits — capping attendance
at religious services at 10 people
in “red zones” where risk was
highest, and at 25 in slightly less
dangerous “orange zones” — vio-
lated the First Amendment’s pro-
tection of the free exercise of reli-
gion.
Wednesday’s ruling was almost
certainly a taste of things to come.
While Justice Ginsburg was alive,
Chief Justice Roberts voted with
the court’s four-member liberal
wing in cases striking down a re-
strictive Louisiana abortion law,
blocking a Trump administration
initiative that would have rolled
back protections for young immi-
grants known as Dreamers, refus-
Gorsuch’s concurrence
takes aim, pointedly,
at the chief justice.
ing to allow a question on citizen-
ship to be added to the census and
saving the Affordable Care Act.
Had Justice Barrett rather than
Justice Ginsburg been on the
court when those cases were de-
cided, the results might well have
flipped. In coming cases, too, Jus-
tice Barrett will almost certainly
play a decisive role. Her support
for claims of religious freedom, a
subject of questioning at her con-
firmation hearings and a theme in
her appellate decisions, will al-
most certainly play a prominent
role.
Democrats had feared, and Mr.
Trump had predicted, that Justice
Barrett’s vote might be crucial in a
case arising from the presidential
election. But there is no case on
the court’s docket or on the hori-
zon that has a realistic potential to
alter the outcome.
It is not clear how Justice Bar-
rett will vote in the latest chal-
lenge to the Affordable Care Act,
which was argued this month.
But, judging from the questioning,
the act is quite likely to survive
NEW YORK
Justices Rebuke States
On Pandemic Overreach
From Page A1
health. If unconstrained religious
observance and public safety
were sometimes at odds, as the
governor and other public offi-
cials maintained, the court ruled
that religious freedom should win
out.
Mr. Cuomo accused the court of
partisanship, suggesting the rul-
ing reflected the influence of the
three conservative justices who
have been nominated by Presi-
dent Trump in the past four years.
“You have a different court, and
I think that was the statement that
the court was making,” Mr.
Cuomo, a third-term Democrat,
said on Thursday. “We know who
he appointed to the court. We
know their ideology.”
The decision represented some-
thing of a Thanksgiving gift for
Catholic and Orthodox Jewish
leaders, who had blasted Mr. Cuo-
mo’s rules as a profound and un-
fair restriction on the freedom of
religion.
“I have said from the beginning
the restrictions imposed by Gov-
ernor Cuomo were an overreach
that did not take into account the
size of our churches or the safety
protocols that have kept parishio-
ners safe,” Bishop Nicholas Di-
Marzio of Brooklyn said on Thurs-
day morning, noting that Catho-
lics had adhered to coronavirus
safety protocols at Mass since the
virus first emerged in New York in
March.
Mr. Cuomo insisted that the de-
cision “doesn’t have any practical
effect” because the restrictions on
religious services in Brooklyn, as
well as similar ones in Queens and
the city’s northern suburbs, were
eased after positive test rates in
those areas declined.
The case’s immediate impact
was narrow, setting aside two spe-
cific restrictions on attendance at
houses of worship — regardless of
denomination — that Mr. Cuomo
enacted in early October. Those
rules were put in place after a
surge of cases in several Orthodox
Jewish communities in Brooklyn,
Queens and two suburban coun-
ties.
Mr. Cuomo maintains that those
outbreaks have since been
Adam Liptak and Rick Rojas con-
tributed reporting.
however she votes.
Chief Justice Roberts is funda-
mentally conservative, and his lib-
eral votes have been rare. But
they reinforced his frequent state-
ments that the court is not a politi-
cal body. The court’s new and solid
conservative majority may send a
different message.
That said, the court’s dynamics
can be complicated, and not all de-
cisions break along predictable
lines. For instance, while Chief
Justice Roberts has lost his place
at the court’s ideological center,
Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, who
was the second of Mr. Trump’s
three court appointments, values
consensus and may turn out to be
an occasional ally.
On Wednesday, Justice Kava-
naugh issued a conciliatory con-
curring opinion emphasizing that
he agreed with much of what Chief
Justice Roberts had written in dis-
sent.
“I part ways with the chief jus-
tice,” he wrote, “on a narrow pro-
cedural point.” That point —
whether the court should act im-
mediately, notwithstanding Mr.
Cuomo’s decision to lift the chal-
lenged restrictions for the time be-
ing — was, however, enough to de-
cide the case.
The majority opinion was un-
signed, but Ross Guberman, an
authority on legal writing and the
author of “Point Taken: How to
Write Like the World’s Best
Judges,” said he suspected that its
principal author was the newest
justice.
“My money is on Justice Bar-
rett,” Mr. Guberman said, pointing
to word choices that echoed her
opinions on the United States
Court of Appeals for the Seventh
Circuit. Among them, he said, was
“the concession that justices ‘are
not public health experts,’ ” and
“the taste for ‘And,’ ‘But,’ and
‘show.’”
The unsigned opinion was mild
and measured, which is also char-
acteristic of Justice Barrett’s judi-
cial work. It took issue with what it
said were Mr. Cuomo’s unduly
harsh restrictions, which had
been challenged by, among oth-
ers, the Roman Catholic Diocese
of Brooklyn and two synagogues,
the latter of which had argued that
brought under control, in large
part by the measures that the
court struck down. Mr. Cuomo has
issued dozens of executive orders
since the state’s first reported
case in March, and those remain
untouched, including other re-
strictions on religious gatherings.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts
Jr. noted in a dissenting opinion
that none of the governor’s most
strict restrictions were currently
in force. While the governor’s ca-
pacity limits on houses of worship
might have violated the First
Amendment, Justice Roberts
wrote that it was not necessary for
the court “to rule on that serious
and difficult question at this time.”
“The Governor might reinstate
the restrictions. But he also might
not,” Justice Roberts wrote, say-
ing it is “a significant matter to
override determinations made by
public health officials.”
Critics of the court’s decision
contended that Mr. Cuomo’s ac-
tions had not infringed on reli-
gious freedom and that the Su-
preme Court’s ruling could have
dangerous public health conse-
quences.
“The freedom to worship is one
of our most cherished fundamen-
tal rights, but it does not include a
license to harm others or endan-
ger public health,” said Daniel
Mach, the director for the Ameri-
can Civil Liberties Union’s free-
dom of religion and belief pro-
gram.
Less stringent 25-person capac-
ity restrictions, also rejected by
the Supreme Court’s decision, are
still in place in six other counties,
including Richmond County on
Staten Island.
Legal experts say the court’s
ruling could be used to challenge
those and other rules elsewhere.
“The decision is applicable to peo-
ple in similar situations,” said
Norman Siegel, a constitutional
lawyer and former leader of the
New York Civil Liberties Union.
“It’s applicable to any synagogue,
any church, to any mosque, to any
religious setting.”
Still, Beth Garvey, Mr. Cuomo’s
counsel, said that the state be-
lieved the court’s opinion affected
only the now-lapsed restrictions
in Brooklyn, and that the rules in
the other six zones would remain
intact.
She said that officials would “be
One expert said he suspected that Amy Coney Barrett, above, had written the majority opinion.
Mr. Cuomo had “singled out a par-
ticular religion for blame and ret-
ribution for an uptick in a society-
wide pandemic.”
The majority opinion said less
restrictive measures would work.
“Among other things, the maxi-
mum attendance at a religious
service could be tied to the size of
the church or synagogue,” the
opinion said. “It is hard to believe
that admitting more than 10 peo-
ple to a 1,000-seat church or 400-
seat synagogue would create a
more serious health risk than the
many other activities that the
state allows.”
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn had asked the courts for relief from two restrictions.
The Jewish Center, on West 86th Street in Manhattan, has limited services to 8 percent capacity.
looking around the state at the
other zones” while also suggest-
ing the state would continue to ar-
gue its case in the lower courts.
The Supreme Court’s decision
was welcomed by Orthodox Jew-
ish leaders, whose communities
had been a focal point of the re-
strictions last month.
The opinion said the state had
treated secular businesses more
favorably than houses of worship.
“The list of ‘essential’ busi-
nesses includes things such as
acupuncture facilities, camp
grounds, garages, as well as many
whose services are not limited to
those that can be regarded as es-
sential, such as all plants manu-
facturing chemicals and micro-
electronics and all transportation
facilities,” the opinion said.
The most notable signed opin-
ion came from Justice Neil M.
Gorsuch, Mr. Trump’s first ap-
pointee. His concurrence was bit-
RYAN CHRISTOPHER JONES FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, ex-
ecutive vice president of Agudath
Israel of America, an ultra-Ortho-
dox umbrella group which had
also sued to overturn the rules,
called the decision historic, saying
it “will ensure that religious prac-
tices and religious institutions will
be protected from government
OLIVER CONTRERAS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
ter, slashing and triumphant, and
it took aim at Chief Justice Rob-
erts, whose concurring opinion in
the California case in May had
been relied on by courts around
the nation to assess the constitu-
tionality of restrictions prompted
by the pandemic.
The chief justice’s basic point
was that government officials, in
consultation with scientific ex-
perts, were better positioned than
judges to make determinations
about public health. But Justice
Gorsuch wrote that the opinion, in
South Bay Pentecostal Church v.
Newsom, was worthless.
JAMES ESTRIN/THE NEW YORK TIMES
edicts.”
The governor’s restrictions had
led to angry protests in some Or-
thodox Jewish neighborhoods and
even became an issue in the presi-
dential race, when Mr. Trump sug-
gested on Twitter that the unrest
and the police response was em-
blematic of the “radical left.” On
“Even if the Constitution has
taken a holiday during this pan-
demic, it cannot become a sabbati-
cal,” he wrote. “Rather than apply
a nonbinding and expired concur-
rence from South Bay, courts must
resume applying the Free Exer-
cise Clause. Today, a majority of
the court makes this plain.”
“We may not shelter in place
when the Constitution is under at-
tack,” Justice Gorsuch wrote.
“Things never go well when we
do.”
Chief Justice Roberts re-
sponded, in a tone suggesting that
his patience was being tested, that
there was no need to act because
Mr. Cuomo had, for the time being,
lifted the restrictions.
“Numerical capacity limits of 10
and 25 people, depending on the
applicable zone, do seem unduly
restrictive,” he wrote. “And it may
well be that such restrictions vio-
late the Free Exercise Clause. It is
not necessary, however, for us to
rule on that serious and difficult
question at this time.”
The court’s three liberal mem-
bers were to varying degrees pre-
pared to support the restrictions.
Chief Justice Roberts made a
point of defending his colleagues
from Justice Gorsuch’s attacks,
saying they were operating in
good faith.
“To be clear,” the chief justice
wrote, quoting from Justice Gor-
such’s concurring opinion, “I do
not regard my dissenting col-
leagues as ‘cutting the Constitu-
tion loose during a pandemic,’
yielding to ‘a particular judicial
impulse to stay out of the way in
times of crisis,’ or ‘sheltering in
place when the Constitution is un-
der attack.’ They simply view the
matter differently after careful
study and analysis reflecting their
best efforts to fulfill their respon-
sibility under the Constitution.”
In a separate dissent, Justice
Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Jus-
tice Elena Kagan, said the major-
ity was being reckless. “Justices of
this court play a deadly game,”
she wrote, “in second-guessing
the expert judgment of health offi-
cials about the environments in
which a contagious virus, now in-
fecting a million Americans each
week, spreads most easily.”
A warning about the
balance between
rights and well-being.
Thursday, the president tweeted a
report about the Supreme Court’s
decision, with a two-word, all-caps
message: “HAPPY THANKS-
GIVING!”
The Roman Catholic Diocese of
Brooklyn requested an injunction
from the Supreme Court on Nov. 9,
after losing challenges at lower
federal levels, saying that Mr.
Cuomo’s order ran “roughshod
over” the rights of Catholic parish-
ioners.
In particular, the diocese had
asked the courts for relief from so-
called “red zones,” where houses
of worship were limited to 10 peo-
ple or 25 percent of the building’s
capacity, whichever number was
less. They also successfully
sought an injunction on “orange
zones,” where a 25-person cap —
or a 33 percent of capacity limit —
was implemented by Mr. Cuomo.
Last week, Bishop DiMarzio
said that the rules effectively
closed churches in red and orange
zones — some of which can ac-
commodate hundreds of parishio-
ners — a concern that was also ex-
pressed by Jewish leaders regard-
ing their synagogues.
Mr. Cuomo, a Catholic, asked for
understanding from the church
and Jewish organizations, saying
that the restrictions were neces-
sary to stem the second wave of
the virus.
In recent weeks, the governor
has also announced a ban on gath-
erings of more than 10 people in
private residences and has im-
posed a statewide curfew of 10
p.m. for bars, restaurants and
gyms.
Still, the second wave has ar-
rived in New York, where nearly
34,000 people have already died.
On Thursday, the state had more
than 3,000 people in the hospital
with Covid-19 and tallied 67
deaths, the highest daily toll since
mid-June.
The legal dispute between the
state and religious leaders has
been animated by tensions dating
back to March over what secular
officials consider to be an impor-
tant service at a time of crisis.
“We are essential to the spiritu-
al health of people,” Bishop Di-
Marzio said last week. “Bodily
health is important, but we are es-
sential also, and we’re being con-
sidered not essential. And that’s
why these restrictions were put
on us.”
 THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020 N A7

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A8 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020
Tracking an Outbreak The Restrictions and the Rollout
BRITAIN
Lockdown Will End, but It’s Not So Simple for Pubs and Restaurants
By STEPHEN CASTLE
LONDON — Under fire from
critics over the economic and so-
cial cost of his coronavirus restric-
tions, Prime Minister Boris John-
son will bring a grueling, second,
national lockdown in England to
an end next week.
But under a new set of rules an-
nounced on Thursday, which di-
vide England into three tiers of re-
strictions, the access to bars and
restaurants will differ drastically
from place to place depending on
the government’s assessment of
the local threat posed by the virus.
And that means the more than
23 million people who live in the
most restricted tier still face a ban
on one of the nation’s favored ac-
tivities: a visit to the pub. This ban
will not only disappoint patrons
but also deprive the beleaguered
hospitality sector of critical reve-
nue in the run-up to Christmas,
when pubs and restaurants are
usually overflowing.
With the holiday season arriv-
ing, Mr. Johnson has a difficult
balance to strike in trying to
tweak the exit from the lockdown
in a way that is neither so strin-
gent that many fail to comply, nor
so lax that it allows the virus to get
out of control.
Opinion polls generally show
that Britons support tough meas-
ures and prefer to prioritize health
over the economy. And the risk to
health remains real.
While the daily number of
Covid-19 cases is falling and is
now at around 17,500, almost 500
deaths were announced in the lat-
est 24-hour period for which data
is available.
But the political backlash
against the new pub rules was
swift as Graham Brady, who
chairs the influential 1922 commit-
tee of Conservative backbench
lawmakers, told the BBC that he
would vote against the three-tier
plan when it goes to Parliament
for approval next week. Previous
government restrictions have
been approved despite a rebellion
of some Tory lawmakers.
“I have severe reservations on
so many different levels,” Mr.
Brady said. “I do think that the
policies have been far too authori-
tarian. I think they have inter-
fered in people’s private and per-
sonal lives in a way which is unac-
ceptable.”
In Thursday’s closely watched
announcement of post-lockdown
rules, the government said it
plans to allow areas in the second
of the three tiers, including Lon-
don and Liverpool, to permit bars
to serve alcohol to customers who
order food. Even this relaxation,
however, will restrict the ability of
many pubs to operate profitably,
their owners say.
But throughout huge swathes of
the country, including most of its
other big cities like Manchester
and Birmingham, the government
wants tougher restrictions to be in
place, with pub and restaurant
THE TROOPS
Military’s Role in Vaccine Will Be Behind the Scenes, Despite Trump’s Claims
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
WASHINGTON — When Presi-
dent Trump talks about efforts to
deliver the coronavirus vaccine to
millions of Americans eager to re-
turn to their normal lives, he often
says he is “counting on the mili-
tary” to get it done.
Mr. Trump has given the im-
pression that troops would be
packing up vials, transporting
them from factories to pharma-
cies and perhaps even adminis-
tering shots. And, at times, mili-
tary officers working on the
sprawling interagency program
to move those vaccine doses from
drug companies into doctors’ of-
fices have indicated the same
thing.
In reality, the role of the military
has been less public and more per-
vasive than this characterization
suggests.
When companies have lacked
the physical spaces needed to con-
duct their drug trials, the Defense
Department has acquired trailers
and permits to create pop-up med-
ical sites in parking lots. When a
required piece of plastic or glass
was in short supply, the military
leveraged a law passed during the
Korean War to force manufactur-
ers to move them to the front of
the line. Should a hurricane hit
somewhere, blocking trucks, the
military has transportation ready.
But the distribution of vaccines
will be left largely to their
producers and commercial trans-
portation companies. Black Hawk
helicopters will not be landing
next to neighborhood drugstore to
drop off doses. No troops will be
administering shots.
“It is extremely unlikely that
anyone from the government will
touch a vaccine, whether that’s
loading a truck, unloading a truck,
moving dry ice or actually inject-
Abby Goodnough contributed re-
porting from Washington.
doors kept firmly shuttered when
the national lockdown ends on
Dec. 2.
In these highest risk areas, only
take out service will be permitted.
“With 99 percent of the country
in tiers two or three, this remains
lockdown in all but name for
nearly all pubs during the most
important trading month of the
year,” said Nick Mackenzie, chief
executive of the pub chain Greene
King.
“This puts hundreds of thou-
ing the vaccine before Americans
getting it,” said Paul Mango, the
deputy chief of staff for policy at
the Department of Health and Hu-
man Services and the main
spokesman for Operation Warp
Speed, the multiagency federal
consortium for fast-tracking a
vaccine.
However, he added, “every lo-
gistical detail you could think of,
needles, syringes, swabs, band-
ages, dry ice,” could be procured
through the government contract-
ing process, and often faster than
through the private sector.
Scores of Defense Department
employees are laced through the
government offices involved in
the effort, making up a large por-
tion of the federal personnel de-
voted to the effort. Those numbers
have led some current and former
officials at the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention to pri-
vately grumble that the military’s
role in Operation Warp Speed was
too large for a task that is, at its
core, a public health campaign.
“Frankly, it has been breathtak-
ing to watch,” said Paul Ostrowski,
the director of supply, production
and distribution for Operation
Warp Speed. He is a retired Army
lieutenant general who was se-
lected to manage logistics for the
program by Gen. Gustave F.
Perna, the chief operating officer
for Operation Warp Speed.
Wrangling volunteers for four
expedited vaccine trials — a chore
in any circumstance — became
even more challenging during a
pandemic, when asking hundreds
of thousands of subjects to sit in
hospital waiting rooms and other
health care centers was often not
feasible. The Pentagon has helped
three companies — AstraZeneca,
Moderna and Janssen — set up
pop-up sites to conduct trials at 63
locations nationwide.
Needed for each site: double-
wide trailers equipped with
sands of jobs at risk and places the
future of British pubs in even
greater doubt for the years
ahead,” he said, adding that of the
more than 2,300 pubs in his chain
in England, just six will be in areas
where they can operate relatively
normally — in the so-called first
tier.
Fewer than one million people
in the south of England will live in
areas under the lightest curbs
where bars and restaurants can
operate relatively normally,
wheelchair ramps and septic sys-
tems. Also, some will need to be
hurricane-proof.
These are the types of things
that the military can quickly ob-
tain through its contracting sys-
tem, as well as any permits
needed to set it all up. “We have
the ability to set up large-scale
housing capabilities throughout
the entire world at a moment’s no-
tice,” General Ostrowski said.
Military officials can call up
companies, he said, “And say, ‘I
need X number of trailers, and I
need them immediately.’ ” The
personnel on his team “work
closely with all the city officials to
make sure we have all the certifi-
cates and that all the codes are be-
ing addressed,” he said.
The two pharmaceutical com-
panies currently leading the vac-
cine race, Pfizer and Moderna,
have estimated that they will have
45 million doses, or enough to vac-
cinate 22.5 million Americans, by
early next year. Because they be-
gan manufacturing vaccines that
were awaiting federal approval,
they should be ready to begin
shipping them within days of se-
curing it.
But some companies were ham-
pered by a lack of excess manu-
facturing capacity in the United
States and a shortage of many of
the goods needed to make and
package vaccines. For raw ma-
terials, the military has been able
to leverage its contracting muscle,
as well as the Defense Production
Act, a Korean War-era law that
permits the federal government to
impose some control over the pri-
vate sector.
“Everyone is clamoring for that
substance or this product,” Gen-
eral Ostrowski said. “That’s what
we do, we understand capturing
supply chains.”
Operation Warp Speed has is-
sued six Defense Production Act
orders to companies to put them-
A cafe in East London, above, and scientists working on a vaccine in a laboratory in Oxford, left.
Tiered restrictions mean that access to bars and restaurants will differ greatly from place to place.
whereas more than 55 million live
in the other two tiers.
But beyond the world of pubs
and restaurants, the end of lock-
down will make a difference be-
cause, even in the worst hit parts
of England, stores, gyms, and
hairdressers are being allowed to
reopen, and religious services,
weddings and outdoor sports to
restart. Retailers will have a
chance to open up during the lu-
crative Christmas shopping sea-
son.
This week Mr. Johnson also an-
nounced plans to relax rules on so-
cial mixing to allow up to three
households to gather together
from Dec 22-27 to celebrate
Christmas, but health experts
warn this will likely cause a spike
in infections.
But large parts of the country
that went into the national lock-
down this month with light re-
strictions will be moved into tiers
with tougher restrictions after
Dec. 2, raising questions as to
whether the government’s lock-
downs have worked.
Damian Green, a Conservative
Medical workers at a coronavirus testing site in Omaha on Tues-
day. No troops will be giving shots when a vaccine is ready.
selves at the front of the line for
certain supplies, like large vats
needed to produce a vaccine. In
October, the government awarded
$31 million to the manufacturer
Cytiva to expand production of the
vats.
“There are only a certain num-
ber of producers of those in the
world,” General Ostrowski said.
“We were able to make sure they
knew where the priority was.”
Military officials also came up
with the clever idea — if it works
— to coordinate the delivery of
vaccines to drugstores, medical
centers and other immunization
sites by sending kits full of nee-
dles, syringes and alcohol wipes.
Vaccine makers will be alerted
when the kits arrive at an immuni-
zation site so they know to ship
doses. Once the first dose is given,
the manufacturer will be notified
so it can send the second dose with
a patient’s name attached several
weeks later.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANDREW TESTA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Party lawmaker wrote on Twitter
that he was “hugely disap-
pointed” that the whole of Kent, a
region some of which he repre-
sents, was placed in tier three.
“Before lockdown we were in
tier one so what has lockdown
achieved?” he asked.
At a news conference Mr. John-
son argued that tough restrictions
were vital to control the spread of
infections. “If we ease off now, we
risk losing control of this virus all
over again, casting aside our hard
won gains and forcing us back into
a New Year national lockdown,”
he said.
He added that if the govern-
ment was to keep schools open, as
it wants, its options for reducing
social contact were limited.
Some critics think the tiers fail
to take sufficient account of local
variations within regions, while
others worry that some of the
poorest areas will be hit hardest.
On Thursday Downing Street
denied that London and the sur-
rounding south east had been
saved from the toughest restric-
tions because of its economic im-
CALLA KESSLER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
But when it comes to the hercu-
lean task of vaccine distribution,
the job will largely fall to the man-
ufacturers to get the vaccines
from loading docks to pharmacies
and medical offices.
While governors may use their
National Guard units in their vac-
cine programs, the military is
least likely to play a role in moving
doses of the vaccine — and cer-
tainly troops are not expected to
help administer shots, even
though Mr. Trump has suggested
that they will.
“I was surprised when Trump
talked about the Department of
Defense disseminating any vac-
cine,” said Dr. Marcus Plescia, the
chief medical officer for the Asso-
ciation of State and Territorial
Health Officials, which has been
deeply involved in the planning
process for the vaccines. “There is
not any role for the military there.
And if there were, we would be up
in arms about it because we are
portance.
But the announcement threat-
ens to stoke accusations that the
north of the country is suffering
from restrictions more than the
south — a damaging claim for a
government that was elected with
the support of many northern vot-
ers who had traditionally sided
with the opposition Labour Party.
Other critics had more funda-
mental objections. Steve Baker, an
influential backbench Conserva-
tive lawmaker, was blunt in his
criticism, saying: “The authori-
tarianism at work today is truly
appalling.”
As for the hospitality sector, it
believes that many pubs might
not now survive the winter.
A letter signed by 50 pub and
brewing businesses and sent to
Mr. Johnson argued that they
were being “singled out for excep-
tionally harsh and unjustified
treatment.”
Unless the government
changed course “huge portions of
this most British of institutions
will simply not be there come the
spring,” it said.
advocates for the states.”
Concerns about conspiracy the-
ories surrounding the vaccines
are even more reason to keep the
military out of sight, Dr. Plescia
said. “There has been a lot of con-
cern around vaccine hesitancy,
and having a bunch of troops
around would not be very helpful,”
he said. “Even having the Na-
tional Guard participate could
have a down side.”
As one of the largest suppliers
of liquid-injectable medicine in the
country, Pfizer already has a large
network of commercial shippers
that helps move its drugs from its
manufacturing facility in Michi-
gan to providers around the coun-
try. This will be all the more im-
portant with the company’s co-
ronavirus vaccine, which needs to
be kept at a subfreezing tempera-
ture.
The military has spent hours
conducting tabletop exercises to
help think through how the pro-
gram could go awry and how it
might need to step in to help.
“The government has offered
any and all support and is pre-
pared to help clear any obstacle,”
said Amy Rose, a spokeswoman
for Pfizer. Of the six companies de-
veloping a vaccine, the pharma-
ceutical giant was the only one to
reject federal funding.
The military will also monitor
vaccine distribution through an
operations center. “They will
know where every vaccine dose
is,” Mr. Mango said on a call with
reporters. “If a vaccine dose is at
risk of expiring, they will guide
the movement of that to some-
place else.”
General Ostrowski said this
specific assignment was worth
delaying his retirement. “This is
very important to our nation and
our world,” he said. “I could think
of no better challenge and some-
thing more noble than being able
to do this.”
 THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020 N A9

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A10 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020
Tracking an Outbreak The Region
Clockwise from left, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was kept to one block of 34th Street; the Ruiz family were visiting from Spain and watched the parade on a phone; spectators at the barricades.
HOLIDAY TRADITION
In Pandemic New York, Spectators Still Showed Up for the Parade
By JAN RANSOM
It’s a yearly Thanksgiving Day
tradition: Millions of spectators
crammed onto long city blocks,
hanging over barricades and bal-
conies or pressed against the win-
dows of towering office buildings
to watch giant balloons, depicting
cartoon characters like Pikachu,
hovering just a few feet above the
street.
But this year, as with every-
thing in 2020, the Macy’s Thanks-
giving Day Parade, a ritual
marker of the holiday, was drasti-
cally different.
Because of the threat of the co-
ronavirus, much of the parade in
Manhattan was scaled down and
pretaped for the television airing.
The route was reduced from two
miles to a single block down 34th
Street, near the flagship depart-
ment store.
There were no high school
bands. Instead of the usual 2,000
NEW JERSEY
Murphy Wants Schools Open, but Local Officials Have Other Ideas
By TRACEY TULLY
SCOTCH PLAINS, N.J. — Gov.
Philip D. Murphy has urged New
Jersey school districts to open for
some face-to-face instruction, re-
peatedly noting that the coronavi-
rus spread among teachers and
students was far lower than ex-
pected.
Last week, as New York City
was reeling from the mayor’s deci-
sion to close the nation’s largest
school district, Mr. Murphy joined
with six other governors — includ-
ing New York’s — to release a pub-
lic statement about the impor-
tance, and relative safety, of in-
person instruction.
His own schools weren’t listen-
ing: While most districts in New
Jersey had reopened for some in-
person instruction, many an-
nounced plans this week to return
to all-remote learning through all
or part of the holidays.
The tensions point to the diffi-
culty governors across the North-
east have had in persuading dis-
tricts to reopen more fully — deci-
sions that often require school
boards to buck powerful teachers
unions and to live with the inher-
ent risk of outbreaks as the virus
surges.
Parents and children are often
caught in the middle, forced to
quickly shift routines and expec-
tations in a year already marred
by the extraordinary challenges
of remote instruction.
In Scotch Plains-Fanwood, a
midsize New Jersey district about
30 miles from Manhattan, the su-
perintendent announced that
schools would remain closed for at
least two months less than 24
hours before many students were
preparing to return to classrooms
for the first time since March.
The superintendent, Joan Mast,
cited 15 virus cases that had af-
fected schools, but acknowledged
that none involved in-school
transmission. Most elementary
students had been back in class
for less than five days, and the old-
er children had never gone back at
all.
Pragati Duttaroy, a mother of
two who turned up for a protest
last week outside the Scotch
Plains-Fanwood district offices,
said her fourth-grade daughter,
who has special education needs,
was devastated.
“She had the best week of her
life in school,” Ms. Duttaroy said
balloon handlers there were only
about 130.
Warnings from officials to stay
home because of the pandemic
kept millions indoors this year,
and police barricades were put in
place to ensure nobody got too
close.
Still, some spectators were curi-
ous and showed up anyway.
On 34th Street and Fifth Ave-
nue, Karin Schlosser, 52, stood be-
hind one of the barricades taking
photos of the floats and balloons.
The balloons this year included
the characters Boss Baby and Red
Titan from ‘Ryan’s World.’
“I felt like it was be a big adven-
ture to just come on down here
and see what I could see — and I
actually saw much more than I ex-
pected to see,” said Ms. Schlosser,
who is from California but is living
in New York City for a month
while working from home. “This is
so amazing.”
“I think people still really need
about the week school was open
for in-person instruction. “Now
she’s home crying.”
“This school district is not using
any true metrics to make a deci-
sion,” she added.
Mr. Murphy, a Democrat, has
the power to shut down schools, as
he did in March when New York
and New Jersey were an early epi-
center of the pandemic. And he
has said that decisions about all-
remote instruction need state ap-
proval and that districts must be
working toward bringing students
back to class.
Still, for all the governor’s pub-
lic exhortations, a spokesman for
the New Jersey Department of
Education could not point to a sin-
gle instance when the state re-
jected a district’s plan to shift to
all-remote instruction.
The governors of Massachu-
setts and Connecticut have faced
similar pressure from districts
and unions as they continue to
stress the importance of in-person
education. In New York, Gov. An-
drew M. Cuomo offered a plan to
keep New York City’s schools
open for at least a few more days,
but the mayor rebuffed him.
In New Jersey, the governor’s
approach has led the state’s 584
school districts to chart their own
paths and has largely insulated
him from direct criticism about
unpopular decisions to close
schools.
“Ultimately, he should be decid-
ing what happens to our schools,”
said Danielle Wildstein, a mother
of three from Scotch Plains who
organized last week’s protest.
“And if he is going to leave it up to
the districts, then he should be re-
quiring them to make the deci-
sions based on data with context.”
According to the state, 269 in-
fections have been linked to 66
schools since September.
Many of the districts that have
announced new temporary clo-
sures have cited the state’s drastic
uptick in the number of virus
cases, the need for a 14-day quar-
antine buffer after likely holiday
gatherings and the stubborn rate
of positive virus tests.
The rate of positive tests in New
Jersey was 9 percent as of Friday
— triple the rate that led New
York City to close its schools.
In the statement with his fellow
Northeast governors, Mr. Murphy
said that proper precautions could
alleviate the risk of the virus in
some sense of normalcy,” she add-
ed. “Everyone I’ve talked to is
very aware of the pandemic. They
want to be safe. They’re wearing
masks, but they still want to con-
nect with other people.”
Dozens gathered at the same
corner shortly after 9 a.m. taking
photos with their cellphones. A
man with a woman snapped a self-
ie with Christmas floats in the
background. Absent in the photo-
graph was the usual crowd of
thousands.
Across the street, a building re-
mained boarded up from the days
when owners had braced for un-
rest after the election. Police bar-
ricades kept the public at least two
blocks from the staging area. The
streets beyond the parade route
remained largely empty.
Henry Danner, of the Bronx, re-
called going to the parade with his
family as a child and watching his
cousins perform in marching
bands. This year, Mr. Danner, 34, a
About 60 students and parents from Scotch Plains-Fanwood School District in New Jersey turned
up for a rally after the superintendent announced schools would remain closed until Jan. 19.
schools — “even in communities
with high transmission rates.”
“In-person learning is the best
possible scenario for children,”
the governors said last Thursday
on Twitter.
The statement drew a mild pub-
lic rebuke from the New Jersey
teachers union, one of the Demo-
cratic governor’s key allies. Union
officials said they were “dis-
mayed” that the governor had
“downplayed the danger.”
A spokeswoman for Mr. Mur-
phy, Christine Lee, said Wednes-
day that the conversation be-
tween districts and the state in-
volved “the efforts the district
would make to implement in-per-
son instruction.”
“As we look ahead, the adminis-
tration and D.O.E. will continue
our dialogue with school commu-
nities, emphasizing the impor-
tance of in-person learning while
continuing to monitor and re-
spond to shifts in the public-health
data,” she said in a statement.
State Senator M. Teresa Ruiz, a
Democrat who represents New-
ark and leads the Senate Educa-
tion Committee, said that, in gen-
eral, she was “disappointed with
the D.O.E.’s vision during this pan-
freelance photographer and jour-
nalism student at Columbia Uni-
versity, said he was most inter-
ested in witnessing and docu-
menting what it was like to attend
a parade during a pandemic.
“The Thanksgiving parade is a
staple in New York history,” Mr.
Danner said. “I came to see what
story I could capture. I knew New
York was going to be New York
and still come out.”
But much about the annual
event was different, he said. “The
energy is very somber. It’s usually
upbeat.”
Kaitlin Lawrence, 31, and Zeev
Kirsh, 40, tried to inject the event
with a little levity when they de-
cided to attend the parade in tur-
key costumes. Ms. Lawrence,
merged her two favorite holidays:
Thanksgiving and Christmas. She
dressed as a turkey-Santa.
“We are die-hard New Yorkers
and we want to keep the magic
alive,” Ms. Lawrence said.
demic.”
The state’s largest city districts,
including Newark, have been
closed since March.
“The department should have
been more of a resource,” Ms. Ruiz
said, “so that we didn’t have indi-
vidual districts scrambling across
the board.”
Ms. Ruiz has introduced legisla-
tion that calls for the state to ad-
minister standardized tests to es-
tablish a diagnostic benchmark of
how far students are falling be-
hind.
“I would make the assumption,
and I hope I’m entirely wrong,
that you’re going to see a contin-
uation of the learning loss,” she
said.
Summertime decisions about
how to return to school in New
Jersey came amid a leadership
gap at the state’s education de-
partment: The commissioner, La-
mont Repollet, took a new job as a
college president, and two top as-
sistant commissioners with dec-
ades of experience also left.
Mr. Murphy named a new act-
ing education chief, Angelica Al-
len-McMillan, late last month.
Kyle Rosenkrans, executive di-
rector of the New Jersey Chil-
PHOTOGRAPHS BY BRITTAINY NEWMAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
The couple said they first met
before the pandemic and later
bumped into each other again
while cheering on hospital work-
ers at N.Y.U. Langone Health.
Their love blossomed during
quarantine, they said.
Ms. Lawrence, an actress, re-
cently became a drama teacher af-
ter her acting jobs disappeared
months ago. “Doing little things
like this has really kept us going,”
she said.
On the corner of 36th Street and
Sixth Avenue, a crowd gathered
and cheered as handlers prepared
to lift the Boss Baby balloon from
the ground. A conductor counted
to three and then used a hand-held
whistle to guide the handlers
down the block. A woman on a
FaceTime call angled the phone in
the direction of the balloons.
Carolina Capitanio, 37, had trav-
eled from Miami to New York for
the holidays with her husband and
their two young daughters. Ms.
JAMES ESTRIN/THE NEW YORK TIMES
dren’s Foundation, a Newark-
based education nonprofit, said
that he believed the flexibility dis-
tricts were given was appropriate.
But he said that the state had done
a poor job of setting standards for
measuring attendance and aca-
demic progress during the pan-
demic.
“I think where the ‘let-a-thou-
sand-flowers-bloom strategy’
falls apart is where we’re setting
minimum standards for academic
progress,” said Mr. Rosenkrans,
whose organization conducted a
poll released last week that found
that only 42 percent of New Jersey
parents were satisfied with the
quality of remote instruction.
“As in so many contexts,” Mr.
Rosenkrans said, “if you’re low in-
come, a student of color, you’re
getting set further behind.”
In Scotch Plains, a predomi-
nantly white suburban district,
Dr. Mast said the decision to close
was made in consultation with
public health officials and with
support from the board of educa-
tion. She said she did not need
state approval to close.
Her initial decision not to re-
open in September was linked to
the need to make ventilation im-
Capitanio said she wanted her
children “to see something, but it’s
not easy.” Her daughters peered
through a row of metal barricades,
trying to see the balloons down
the street.
Others had similar difficulties.
“I saw half of a balloon,” said Jo-
van Williams, 43. “If I stayed
home I would have seen more of
the parade. I couldn’t even tell it
started.”
In a normal year, handlers walk
to the beat of marching bands and
the sound of a roaring crowd.
“That energy was missing,”
said Susan Tercero, executive
producer of the Macy’s parade.
But Ms. Tercero said she still
hoped that viewers enjoyed this
year’s production.
“This parade means a lot to a lot
of people and to New Yorkers,”
Ms. Tercero said. “In a difficult
year, it feels good to be able to de-
liver a little bit of happiness on
Thanksgiving.”
provements, Dr. Mast said. Her re-
cent decision to keep schools
closed through the middle of Janu-
ary was based on cases of the vi-
rus in the community and con-
cerns about staff shortages if
teachers were required to quaran-
tine, she said.
David B. Levine, a pediatrician
with young children in the school
district, said the new two-month
closure was especially hard to ac-
cept given that the district had not
taken advantage of September
and October, when the infection
rate was far lower, to reopen fully,
as many nearby districts had.
“There’s a right way and a
wrong way to go about doing this
safely,” said Dr. Levine, who ran
unsuccessfully for the school
board and spoke at last week’s
rally.
“Keeping children home and
having them sit around and be-
come more ill in other ways is
playing chicken with our lives,” he
said.
The majority of districts in New
Jersey had slowly reopened for
partial in-person instruction.
Many have adapted to rolling 14-
day school closures if two or more
infections are found to be linked to
in-school transmission, as sug-
gested by the state.
Some districts have managed to
open to all students every day.
In Edison, a large, diverse sub-
urban district in northern New
Jersey, about 70 percent of the dis-
trict’s 17,000 students chose to
continue online-only instruction
even after schools reopened for
hybrid in-person learning in Octo-
ber, said Bernard F. Bragen Jr., the
district’s superintendent.
Since then, just one of Edison’s
19 schools has had to close for two
weeks after an outbreak.
Starting last week, all students
interested in attending school
were allowed to come to class
each day schools were open based
on the large number of families
that had opted to keep their chil-
dren home for all-virtual learning.
The demands on teachers, who
are offering simultaneous instruc-
tion to students sitting in the
classroom as well as those at
home, have been extraordinary,
he said.
“It’s extremely difficult and ex-
hausting to staff,” Dr. Bragen said.
“They’re doing the best that they
can in a bad situation.”
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020
Fans of Diego Maradona lined up to pass his coffin in Buenos Aires on Thursday. A Venezuelan governor called him “the best soccer player in history and a great revolutionary.”
‘Diego Belongs to the People’: Latin America Mourns a Hero
By DANIEL POLITI
and MANUELA ANDREONI
BUENOS AIRES — The tens of thou-
sands of fans who gathered on Thursday
to pay their last respects to Diego Ar-
mando Maradona, Argentina’s soccer
legend, as he lay in state in the presiden-
tial palace were often the first to say their
idol was a genius with the ball, but he
wasn’t perfect. He never pretended to be.
He was a boy from the poor outskirts of
Buenos Aires who led his country to
glory in the soccer field, but he also had a
chaotic existence, known for his public
battles with drug addiction, his defiance
of authority, the children he fathered
whom he only recognized later in life.
Despite his fame, he remained, al-
ways, the “pibe,” the kid from Argenti-
na’s rough streets. His life and his politics
never strayed from his roots, and his fans
loved him for it, in Argentina and around
Latin America, where he was known for
siding with leftist leaders and causes.
Hebe Nelli, 35, who took her 9-year-old
son, Caetano, to downtown Buenos Aires
on Thursday, said Mr. Maradona was
particularly loved “in countries that suf-
fered colonialism” because “he stood up
to the powerful and chose to stand on the
uncomfortable side of life.”
So perhaps the defiance and confusion
that erupted at his funeral when his fans
were told that Maradona’s family had de-
cided to conclude the ceremony, and that
they wouldn’t all have a chance to say
goodbye, was in keeping with the rebel-
lious way Mr. Maradona had lived, and
with his drive to bend the world to his will
rather than accept a fate predetermined
by his humble origins.
As officials prepared to take the coffin
to the cemetery, people climbed onto the
gates of the presidential palace, many of
them chanting the five words that have
become a mantra since Mr. Maradona
died Wednesday morning: “Diego be-
longs to the people.”
This time they added three more: “Let
us in!”
But suddenly, the hearse carrying Mr.
Maradona’s coffin left from a back door
of the presidential palace accompanied
by a caravan of police motorcycles.
Thousands of Argentines crowded
highways and bridges to wave their last
goodbye as the hearse sped off to a ceme-
tery 25 miles away, where Mr. Maradona
would be buried next to his parents. Out-
side the cemetery there were renewed
clashes between police and rowdy fans
eager to get as close as possible to their
idol.
Mr. Maradona’s tendency to confront
the powerful, including targeting soccer
executives early in his career, turned
more political after his retirement, when
he moved to Cuba to treat his drug addic-
tion in the early 2000s.
There, he befriended the Cuban dicta-
tor Fidel Castro, and through the follow-
ing years, went on to become a visible
ally of a generation of leftist leaders who
were then just beginning to transform
Latin America, like Hugo Chávez in Ven-
ezuela and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in
Brazil.
Even as the power of this generation of
Daniel Politi reported from Buenos Aires
and Manuela Andreoni from Rio de Janei-
ro. Anatoly Kurmanaev contributed re-
porting from Caracas, Venezuela.
SARAH PABST FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
presidents, known as the pink tide, faded
in recent years, Mr. Maradona remained
loyal to them.
On Wednesday, Brazil’s leftist former
president Dilma Rousseff thanked him
SARAH PABST FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
for supporting her in 2015, when her im-
peachment proceedings began.
Celso Amorim, who had been Mr. da
Silva’s foreign minister, remembered Mr.
Maradona’s support when the former
RAUL FERRARI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
JUAN IGNACIO RONCORONI/EPA, VIA SHUTTERSTOCK
Clockwise from top:
Mr. Maradona’s
hearse leaving Ar-
gentina’s presidential
palace for the ceme-
tery; friction between
the police and some
mourners after it was
announced that the
funeral was ending;
placing candles in the
star’s memory; and
gathering at Plaza de
Mayo for the funeral.
president, Mr. da Silva, was arrested on
corruption charges.
“He was an important figure not only
for what he did in soccer, but for the posi-
tions he took,” he said. “He was a symbol
A11
N
TOMAS CUESTA/GETTY IMAGES
to all of us.”
Norberto Ferrera, an Argentine histo-
rian at the Fluminense Federal Univer-
sity in Brazil, said Mr. Maradona’s con-
nections to Latin American leaders were
more affectionate than strategic.
“His death also closes the cycle of a
certain kind of Latin American left,” he
said. “And it coincides with the emer-
gence of a new left that is less utopian,
and more realist.”
Mr. Maradona’s support for the left
meant befriending some of the region’s
most controversial leaders. He treated
Castro as a father figure, and never
stopped visiting Nicolás Maduro, the
Venezuelan leader, even as he drove his
country deeper into a humanitarian cri-
sis.
On Wednesday, Mr. Maduro made a
national televised address to mourn Mr.
Maradona’s death: “Diego Armando
Maradona was loyal to our friendship, to
our cause, to the people of Venezuela. ”
That same day, Rafael Lacava, gover-
nor of Carabobo state, one of Mr. Madu-
ro’s top allies, organized a rally to pay
tribute to Maradona. Hundreds of people
showed up to pay their respects — and to
collect food donations for distribution.
“The best soccer player in history and
a great revolutionary has died,” he told
the crowd from a stage, receiving half-
hearted claps in return.
But to Mr. Ferrera, the historian, Mr.
Maradona’s political activism was more
closely related to the iconoclast image he
had built for himself, trying to stay true
to his origins, than any attempt to ad-
vance a political agenda.
“He had strong political opinions,” he
said. “But he was also always putting
himself in the shoes of the little guy.”
And it was that sentiment, as well as
reverence for his talent with the ball, that
drew the fans who gathered in lines 20
blocks deep to say goodbye to “El Diego,”
as he was known. The government had
planned to have him lying in state for
three days, but cut that down to one at
the request of the family.
After Mr. Maradona’s body arrived at
the presidential palace early in the morn-
ing, members of his family got a few
hours to mourn him with an open coffin,
in private, before it was closed and vis-
itors were allowed inside.
Once the procession of mourners be-
gan, many tossed flowers, cards and jer-
seys into a pile as they shuffled by the
wooden coffin covered in the Argentine
flag and several soccer jerseys.
Cries of “thank you, Diego” and
“Goodbye, god” rang out amid the si-
lence. Fans almost uniformly respected
the family’s wishes and refrained from
taking photos.
All the people packed in tightly was a
stark sight in a country that has been un-
der strict Covid-19 restrictions for
months. For those who were there, say-
ing goodbye was worth the risk.
“He’s my idol,” explained Juan Medi-
na, a 57-year-old shopkeeper who trav-
eled 100 miles with three friends to par-
ticipate in the ceremony. “How could I
not? He’s been making me happy since I
was 15.”
Cristian Cuevas, a 36-year-old lawyer,
summed up the feeling of many in the
crowd.
“We’re all in Diego’s debt for all the
happiness he gave us,” he said.
A12 N THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020
E.U. Agency Is Accused of Complicity When Greece Repels Migrants
By MATINA STEVIS-GRIDNEFF
BRUSSELS — Mounting evi-
dence indicates that the European
Union’s border agency has been
complicit in Greece’s illegal prac-
tice of pushing back migrants to
Turkey, according to documents
obtained by The New York Times
and interviews with officials.
In at least one case, Frontex, as
the E.U. border agency is known,
is accused of having helped cover
up the violations, when a crew
said they were discouraged by
agency officials from reporting
that they had seen the Greek au-
thorities setting a boatload of mi-
grants adrift in Turkish waters.
The case is being investigated
by Frontex. But it has fueled sus-
picions that the agency, newly
boosted in its role as upholder of
the rule of law at E.U. borders, is
not just sporadically aware of
such abuses, but that it plays a
role in concealing them.
“We are seeing an erosion of the
rule of law at the E.U. borders
which is willful,” said Gerald
Knaus, a migration expert. “This
is deeply worrying because it is
eroding the refugee convention on
the continent on which it was cre-
ated.”
Throughout this year, The New
York Times and others have re-
ported on growing operations by
the Greek Coast Guard to repel
migrants from Greek waters back
to Turkey, reports that the Greek
authorities deny amount to
breaches of international laws.
But revelations that Frontex
has witnessed pushbacks have
thrown the agency into a govern-
ance crisis that threatens to fur-
ther blight the European Union’s
liberal values, once again calling
into question the bloc’s commit-
ment to upholding its own laws on
refugees.
The cases have also highlighted
a conundrum at the core of E.U.
ambitions to tighten external bor-
ders by pooling resources and in-
volving the bloc in the sensitive,
zealously shielded work of sover-
eign border guards.
Frontex is the European Un-
ion’s best-funded agency, with a
budget of over $500 million, and
will soon deploy the first uni-
formed officers in the bloc’s his-
tory. It has been built up specifi-
cally to help in migrant-rescue op-
erations as the burden of policing
Europe’s borders has fallen most
heavily on its peripheral states,
like Greece.
It was also intended as a deter-
rent to the kind of mass arrival of
refugees that sowed political cri-
ses across Europe after 2015, and
fanned nationalist and populist
movements.
Yet Frontex is not empowered
to stop national border guards
from committing violations, and it
is not clear how it can play a role
as standard-bearer of E.U. laws
when informing on national forces
risks the working relationships on
which its operations depend.
Refugee arrivals to the Euro-
pean Union peaked five years ago
and have dropped drastically
since, but thousands of asylum
seekers, many fleeing the wars in
Afghanistan and Syria, still at-
tempt the crossing. In a departure
from the past, Greeks and their
government have turned hostile
to the new arrivals, exhausted by
years in which asylum seekers
have been bottled up in overrun
camps on Greek islands.
There is also a growing belief in
the governments of Greece and
‘Nonsense’: Witnesses to the Actual Events of ‘The Crown’ Have Some Criticisms
By MARK LANDLER
LONDON — On a Saturday
night in July 1986, a band of bu-
reaucrats in raincoats — one con-
tingent from Buckingham Palace,
the other from 10 Downing Street
— converged on a newsstand in a
train station to snap up The Sun-
day Times, fresh off the presses
with a bombshell headline:
“Queen dismayed by ‘uncaring’
Thatcher.”
It’s a dramatic flourish from the
latest season of the “The Crown”
— except, according to Andrew
Neil, the paper’s editor at the time,
it never happened. “Nonsense,”
he said. “All first editions are de-
livered to both” the palace and the
prime minister’s residence, mak-
ing a late-night dash to buy the pa-
per superfluous.
Mr. Neil, who published the fa-
mous scoop about tensions be-
tween Queen Elizabeth II and
Margaret Thatcher, said the in-
vented scene had allowed Peter
Morgan, the creator of the hugely
popular Netflix series about the
British royal family, to depict
1980s London as a place of
“squalor and vagabonds.”
Through four vivid seasons of
“The Crown,” Mr. Morgan has
never denied taking artistic li-
cense with the story of the royals,
playing out their private joys and
sorrows against the pageant of
20th-century British history.
Yet “The Crown” is now collid-
ing with the people who wrote the
first draft of that history.
That has spun up a tempest in
the British news media, even
among those who ordinarily pro-
fess not to care much about the
monarchy. Newspapers and tele-
vision programs have been full of
starchy commentary about how
Migrants arriving on the Greek island of Lesbos in February. After rescuing thousands of asylum seekers, the Greek Coast Guard is now more aggressive toward them.
several other European countries
that aggression at the borders and
poor conditions at migrant camps
will make the attempt to reach Eu-
rope less attractive for asylum
seekers.
Earlier this year, an analysis by
The Times showed that the Greek
government had secretly expelled
more than 1,000 asylum seekers,
often by sailing them to the edge
of Greek territorial waters and
abandoning them in flimsy inflat-
able life rafts in violation of inter-
national laws.
The Greek Coast Guard has res-
cued thousands of asylum seekers
over the years but has become
much more aggressive this year,
especially as Turkey used mi-
grants to provoke Greece by en-
couraging them to cross the bor-
der.
The Greek government has de-
nied it is doing anything illegal in
repelling migrant boats from its
national waters, characterizing
the operations as robust border
guarding. But Mr. Knaus said that
“the denials are not serious” and
that the practices are effectively
happening in the open — under
the eyes of E.U. border patrols.
The documents obtained by
The Times describe, in Coast
Guard vernacular littered with ac-
ronyms, codes, time-stamps and
coordinates, a seemingly inces-
sant Ping-Pong of migrant din-
ghies between Greek and Turkish
waters, with Frontex crews on
vessels or aircraft in observer sta-
tus.
Four officials with direct knowl-
edge of Frontex operations said
that agency officials have been
“The Crown” distorts history in its
account of the turbulent decade in
which Prince Charles married
Lady Diana Spencer and Mrs.
Thatcher wrought a free-market
revolution in British society.
The objections range from the
personal (the queen’s brittle, cold-
hearted treatment of her emotion-
ally fragile daughter-in-law, which
the critics claim is unfair) to the
political (the show’s portrait of
Thatcher-era Britain as a right-
wing dystopia, in the grip of a zeal-
ous leader who dares to lecture
her sovereign during their weekly
audiences). Historians say that is
utterly inconceivable.
“There has been such a reaction
because Peter Morgan is now
writing about events many of us
lived through and some of us were
at the center of,” said Mr. Neil, who
edited The Sunday Times from
1983 to 1994.
Mr. Neil, who went on to be a
broadcaster and publisher, is no
reflexive defender of the royal
family. Suspicious of Britain’s
class system, he said he had sym-
pathies for the republican move-
ment in the 1980s. But he grew to
admire how the queen modern-
ized the monarchy after the up-
heaval of those years, and has
been critical of renegade royals,
like Prince Harry and his wife,
Meghan.
The events involving Mr. Neil
did happen: The queen became
frustrated with Mrs. Thatcher
when she refused to join the 48
other members of the British
Commonwealth in backing sanc-
tions against the apartheid re-
gime in South Africa. This highly
unusual clash spilled into public
when The Sunday Times pub-
lished its front-page report, attrib-
uted to palace officials, which said
discouraging crews from filing re-
ports on pushback episodes, and,
in some cases, have stopped initial
alerts of violations from being
filed as “serious incident reports,”
at times after consulting with the
Greek authorities.
They all spoke on the condition
of anonymity because they were
concerned about losing their jobs,
or were not authorized to brief the
press.
The Frontex spokesman, Chris
Borowski, said the agency took
Documents and
interviews point to a
cover-up of violations.
the reporting of violations very se-
riously. “Pushbacks are illegal un-
der international law,” Mr.
Borowski said.
In the latest case to come to
light, a Swedish Coast Guard crew
on deployment under Frontex wit-
nessed a pushback to Turkish wa-
ters of a boat full of migrants by
the Greek authorities on Oct. 30
off the Greek island of Chios.
The Swedish crew was later ad-
vised by a Frontex officer to not
report it, documents reviewed by
The Times show. The Swedish
representative to the manage-
ment board of Frontex described
the incident, and the suppression
of the attempt to report it, at a
meeting on Nov. 10 — the first
known case of an E.U. member
Gillian Anderson portrayed Margaret Thatcher and Stephen
Boxer played her husband, Denis, in Season 4 of “The Crown.”
the royal family viewed Mrs.
Thatcher as “uncaring, confronta-
tional and socially divisive.”
But Mr. Neil disputed several el-
ements of “The Crown’s” retelling,
not least that Buckingham Palace
made the queen’s press secretary,
Michael Shea, the scapegoat for
the incident. The show depicts his
being fired for having leaked the
story, even though it suggests that
he did so at the queen’s behest.
There is no evidence of this, Mr.
Neil said, but it fits Mr. Morgan’s
“left-wing agenda.”
“He gets to depict Thatcher as
pretty much an ally of apartheid
while the queen is the sort of per-
son who junks loyal flunkies when
things go wrong, even when they
are just doing her bidding,” Mr.
Neil said.
The brickbats are not just from
the right.
Simon Jenkins, a columnist for
the left-leaning Guardian, regards
state reporting active interfer-
ence by Frontex officials.
The Swedish government did
not comment. A spokesman for
Frontex said the agency wouldn’t
comment because of an “ongoing
procedure.”
Frontex has been working in
Greece for more than a decade,
providing sea, land and aerial sur-
veillance and rescue capabilities
and deploying crews from other
member states under its com-
mand.
The details now emerging push
the agency deeper into a govern-
ance crisis that began in October
when a consortium of news orga-
nizations, including the German
newsmagazine Der Spiegel, re-
ported a number of occasions
when Frontex crews witnessed
pushbacks in Greece.
The European Commission,
which is part of the Frontex
oversight system but does not
control the agency, pressed for a
special inquiry into these allega-
tions and, at an emergency
agency board meeting on Nov. 10,
asked its leadership to answer de-
tailed questions in writing.
The answers arrived with a
four-day delay, just 15 hours be-
fore the start of another meeting
to discuss the problems on
Wednesday. Yet another emer-
gency meeting has been called in
December, mounting pressure on
the agency.
Frontex has promised internal
investigations but also quickly
dismissed allegations, saying for
example, in a letter seen by The
Times, that it would look into the
Swedish case, but that it had so far
DES WILLIE/NETFLIX
members of the royal family as ar-
tifacts of celebrity culture irrele-
vant to a country grappling with
real-world challenges like Brexit.
“They are practically defunct,” he
said. “They are like anthropomor-
phized figures of a head of state.”
Yet he, too, is angered by how
“The Crown” portrayed the
events of the 1980s, when, as polit-
ical editor of The Economist, he
wrote about how Prince Charles
had been drawn to the now-de-
funct Social Democratic Party.
(He based the report on an off-the-
record interview with the prince.)
Mr. Jenkins said that because this
season of “The Crown” deals with
contemporary history and people
who are still alive, its liberties
with the facts are less a case of ar-
tistic license than an example of
“fake news.”
“I find it offensive when people
dump standards of veracity in re-
lating contemporary history,” Mr.
ARIS MESSINIS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
found no evidence that it hap-
pened.
How these investigations shake
out will matter a great deal for the
future of Frontex, which was once
little more than a back-office oper-
ation in Warsaw but now finds it-
self on the front lines of the nettle-
some issue of migration that has
the potency to make or break gov-
ernments.
Apart from helping member
states with asylum-seeker arriv-
als, Frontex’s role as an E.U.
agency by law is to respect funda-
mental rights, and bring up hu-
man-rights standards across na-
tional E.U. border agencies, which
often don’t have a strong culture
of upholding them.
But claims that Frontex does
not take fundamental rights seri-
ously enough are growing. This
year, only one million euros in its
budget of 460 million euros —
about $548 million — was allocat-
ed to rights monitoring.
The agency was supposed to
hire 40 fundamental-rights offi-
cers by Dec. 5, but the jobs have
not yet been advertised. The
agency is currently hiring for
their boss, after years of staffing
issues around that position. A
Frontex spokesman said the de-
lays stemmed from the coronavi-
rus pandemic.
Documents seen by The Times
laid out how in one episode the
Greek authorities were consulted
before a report was made, and
were able to suppress it. On Aug.
10, a German crew deployed by
Frontex reported that a Greek
Coast Guard vessel “took up bor-
der control measures prohibiting
Jenkins said. “If I did that as a
journalist, I’d be hauled up before
the press council while these peo-
ple get prizes.”
Like others, Mr. Jenkins
pointed to an episode-by-episode
analysis by Hugo Vickers, a royal
historian, which found whoppers
large and small in the series and
has become Exhibit A for its pre-
varications.
Not everybody faults Mr. Mor-
gan for filling in the missing
pieces with conjured scenes, even
if he jumbles the facts in the
process. (Mrs. Thatcher’s son,
Mark, was not lost in the desert
during the Paris-Dakar auto rally
just as his mother was preparing
to go to war with Argentina over
the Falkland Islands; hostilities
broke out a few months after he
was found.)
Charles Moore, a former editor
of The Daily Telegraph who wrote
a three-volume biography of Mrs.
Thatcher, praised Gillian Ander-
son’s performance as the prime
minister, putting it on a par with
Meryl Streep’s Oscar-winning
turn in the 2011 film “The Iron
Lady.” Even a much-criticized
episode in which a snobbish queen
plays host to a fish-out-of-water
prime minister and her husband,
Denis, at Balmoral Castle in Scot-
land, struck him as having “the
ring of truth,” despite some em-
bellishments.
“The Crown,” Mr. Moore said, is
trying to have it both ways, selling
itself to audiences as a true story
while clearing out the extraneous
debris of facts that would gum up
its dramatic narrative.
Mr. Morgan declined to respond
to the criticisms, though he told
The New York Times this month
that he was mindful that this sea-
son would be held to closer scru-
the landing to Samos.”
The expression refers to ma-
neuvering and making waves
around a dinghy to repel it. The
event was not recorded as a “seri-
ous incident,” because, the docu-
ment said, the Greek Coast Guard
argued the activities “do not pro-
vide any ground” to initiate such a
report.
Another incident, which a Fron-
tex aerial crew observed and re-
ported in detail to its headquar-
ters, took place on the evening of
April 18 to 19 off the coast of Les-
bos, and lasted more than five
hours.
A dinghy was detected by the
Greek authorities, and about 20
migrants were rescued and put on
board a Greek Coast Guard vessel
shortly after midnight, their
empty dinghy towed by the Coast
Guard toward the island.
But instead of being taken to
shore, at 2:45 a.m., the migrants
were put back on their dinghy and
tugged to Turkish waters by the
Greek Coast Guard, the Frontex
aerial crew reported.
As events unfolded, the Greek
command center twice asked the
Frontex aircraft to change its
flight path, directing it away from
the incident.
“At 03:21 Frontex Surveillance
Aircraft communicates that the
rubber boat has no engine and it is
adrift. Greek assets are departing
the area leaving the rubber boat
adrift,” the document said.
The internal Frontex report de-
tailing this incident and categoriz-
ing it as a fundamental-rights vio-
lation was “dismissed,” the docu-
ment shows.
tiny. The producers mined news
reports of the period, as well as bi-
ographies of Charles and Diana,
which contained firsthand ac-
counts of their misbegotten union.
What is depicted in the family’s
private moments, however, is “an
act of creative imagination,” Mr.
Morgan has said.
Behind the frustration with
“The Crown” is a recognition that,
right or wrong, its version of the
royal family is likely to serve as
the go-to narrative for a genera-
tion of viewers, particularly
young ones, who do not remember
the 1980s, let alone the more dis-
tant events covered in earlier sea-
sons.
“They’ll watch it and think this
is the way it was,” said Dickie Ar-
biter, who served as a press secre-
tary to the queen from 1988 to
2000. He took issue with parts of
the plot, including a scene in
which aides to Charles question
Diana about whether she is men-
tally stable enough to travel alone
to New York City.
“I was actually at that meeting,”
Mr. Arbiter said. “No courtier
would ever say that in a million
years.”
The biggest problem, said
Penny Junor, who has written bi-
ographies of Charles, Diana and
Mrs. Thatcher, is that “The
Crown” is a prodigiously effective
piece of entertainment. That, she
says, poses a particular threat to
Charles, who arguably comes off
worst in the series and who is
likely to ascend the throne before
memories of his grim, hunched
portrayal have completely faded.
“It is wonderful television,” Ms.
Junor said. “It is beautifully acted
— the mannerisms are perfect.
But it is fiction, and it is very de-
structive.”
 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020 N A13

Ethiopia Imperils Civilians Turkey Jails Hundreds for Life in ’16 Coup Attempt
In Assault on Rebel Region
By ABDI LATIF DAHIR
NAIROBI, Kenya — Just over
three weeks ago, Prime Minister
Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia un-
leashed his military forces in an
attempt to subdue the country’s
northern region of Tigray, whose
rebellious governing party was
until recently the dominant force
in Ethiopia’s central government.
On Thursday, Mr. Ahmed ratch-
eted up the conflict, ordering what
he called a “final” military assault
on Tigray’s capital and announc-
ing that the deadline had passed
for leaders of the governing party,
the Tigray People’s Liberation
Front, to surrender.
“The last peaceful gate which
had remained for the T.P.L.F.
clique to walk through have now
been firmly closed,” he said in a
statement on Twitter.
Humanitarian organizations
are warning of large civilian casu-
alties and waves of refugees in a
conflict that threatens to destabil-
ize not just Ethiopia, but the entire
Horn of Africa region.
Hundreds of people have been
reported dead in the fighting, and
40,000 refugees have crossed into
neighboring Sudan, according to
the United Nations. But with com-
munications shut off and access to
the region blocked, there have
been few reliable reports about
the impact of the fighting.
The U.N. has warned of fuel and
food shortages in Tigray, affecting
not just locals, but also tens of
thousands of refugees from Eri-
trea who live in the region. And
the fighting has drawn concern
from across the world and elic-
iting U.N. warnings of potential
ethnic cleansing and genocide.
Jake Sullivan, who is expected
to be President-elect Joseph R. Bi-
den Jr.’s nominee for national se-
curity adviser, said on Twitter that
he was “deeply concerned about
the risk of violence against civil-
ians” and called on both parties to
engage in an African Union-medi-
ated dialogue.
But Mr. Abiy, who was awarded
the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize in part
for mediating conflicts in the Horn
of Africa, has shunned diplomacy,
saying that Ethiopia is “capable
and willing to resolve this situa-
tion in accordance with its laws
and its international obligations.”
The push that he announced on
Thursday is a turning point in a
military operation that began
early this month after Mr. Abiy ac-
cused the Tigray region’s leaders
of assaulting a government de-
fense post and trying to steal artil-
lery and military equipment.
The national government and
the powerful regional administra-
tion in Tigray have been at logger-
heads since 2018, when Mr. Abiy
rose to power. Even though the
Tigray make up only an estimated
6 percent of the country’s popula-
tion of more than 110 million peo-
ple, they remained at the center of
power and money after a military
regime was overthrown in 1991. In
September, the Tigray region held
its own elections even though the
national authorities had post-
poned the vote because of the co-
ronavirus pandemic.
Addressing the dangers to civil-
ians, Mr. Abiy said on Thursday
that his government would part-
ner with humanitarian organiza-
tions to distribute food, medicine
and water to areas under its con-
trol in the Tigray region. He also
said the authorities would estab-
lish four camps to receive those
fleeing the conflict.
Before the onslaught into the re-
gional capital, Mekelle, which is
home to 500,000 people, Mr. Abiy
said that thousands of Tigray Spe-
cial Forces and militia members
had surrendered. He urged the
city’s residents to “disarm,” “stay
home” and assist in arresting the
region’s rebellious leaders.
Mr. Abiy also said that the mili-
tary would take measures to pro-
tect civilians and ensure that
“heritage sites, places of worship,
public facilities, development in-
stitutions and residential areas”
not be targeted during the assault.
The onslaught has worried local
and international rights organiza-
tions who say the escalation will
put many civilian lives at risk. The
United Nations Children’s Fund
said it was concerned for the
safety not only of children in
Mekelle, who constitute half of the
city’s residents, but also of hun-
dreds of humanitarian workers.
Laetitia Bader, the Horn of Afri-
ca director at Human Rights
Watch, cited concerns over re-
ports that the T.P.L.F. had posi-
tioned its troops in areas popu-
lated by civilians. She also said in
a statement that the army’s warn-
ings to inhabitants of Mekelle “do
not absolve” the authorities from
their responsibility to protect ci-
vilians.
“It’s an important principle of
international law that violations
by one side do not justify vio-
lations by the other,” she said.
By CARLOTTA GALL
ISTANBUL — A Turkish court
sentenced the accused ringlead-
ers and hundreds of others sus-
pected of involvement in the failed
2016 coup to multiple life terms on
Thursday, at the culmination of
one of the most important mass
trials in the plot to overthrow
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The trial of 475 defendants fo-
cused on a group of senior military
officers and civilians who set up
headquarters at the Akinci air
base outside the capital, Ankara,
on the night of the coup and or-
dered warplanes, helicopters and
army units to attack and seize key
targets. Among the 337 defend-
ants who received multiple life
sentences were members of a
small core accused of master-
minding the coup attempt.
The sentences serve as a cap-
stone to four years of prosecutions
in Turkey since the attempted
coup, pinning responsibility on
those accused as the main perpe-
trators of a violent attempt at seiz-
ing power that was widely re-
jected by the public. But the gov-
ernment’s sweeping repression of
dissent in the aftermath has dam-
aged democracy and rule of law in
the country.
During two years of martial law
in the aftermath of the coup, the
authorities detained some 100,000
people and purged 150,000 public
servants from their jobs. The de-
tained included political oppo-
nents of the government, Kurdish
activists and human rights de-
fenders, among others.
That led many to accuse the
government of using the coup as
an excuse to crack down more
broadly on dissent.
The courts have now concluded
almost all of the 289 trials related
to the coup attempt and have con-
victed more than 4,000 people.
Legal professionals have criti-
cized the use of mass trials
against thousands accused of
even vague involvement in the
coup, including convictions
handed down to army cadets and
others who were ordered out on to
the streets that night with little
knowledge of what was going on.
But supporters of the process
point out that it is the first time in a
history of military coups that Tur-
key has conducted extended legal
proceedings into what happened.
The coup failed when hundreds
of thousands of civilians blocked
the streets and units loyal to the
government took control. More
than 250 people died, many of
them police officers and civilians
Turkish police officers Thursday outside the court near Ankara
where 337 people received life sentences, mostly without parole.
who came under attack from the
rogue army units.
Four civilians, Kemal Batmaz,
Hakan Cicek, Harun Binis and
Nurettin Oruc, were found guilty
of masterminding the coup from
Akinci base that night. They are
accused of following the orders of
Fethullah Gulen, the U.S.-based
Islamic preacher who has become
Mr. Erdogan’s bitter rival.
Mr. Gulen, who was in the
United States at the time of the
coup, and another civilian, Adil
An uprising that led to
100,000 arrests and a
repression of dissent.
Oksuz, who was detained outside
the Akinci air base on the morning
after the coup but later released,
were also indicted in the case. But
they were among six defendants
whose cases were later separated
because they remain at large.
Of the most prominent military
commanders sentenced was Brig.
Gen. Bekir Ercan Van, command-
er of the Incirlik air base, where
U.S. forces are also stationed and
from where they fly missions in
Iraq and Syria.
The general gave orders for
tanker aircraft to supply fuel to
Turkish F-16 jets that were con-
ducting bombing raids over Anka-
ra during the coup attempt, ac-
cording to at least one pilot who
was among the defendants. After
the coup collapsed, General Van
approached his American coun-
terparts at Incirlik and requested
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
asylum but was refused.
At least 10 pilots who flew over
Ankara and bombed locations in
the capital, including the Parlia-
ment and two police headquar-
ters, were sentenced to multiple
counts of life imprisonment.
Among the evidence against them
were audiotapes of the pilots’ con-
versations with the control tower
describing their actions.
Lt. Col. Hakan Karakus, ac-
cused of leading the F-16 pilots,
and two air force captains, ac-
cused of delivering bombing or-
ders to the pilots, also received 79
life sentences each. Colonel
Karakus is the son-in-law of Gen.
Akin Ozturk, commander of the
Turkish Air Force at the time of
the coup attempt. General Ozturk
was sentenced to multiple life
terms in 2019 for his role as a key
ringleader in the failed coup.
The trial focused on responsibil-
ity for 77 of the more than 250 peo-
ple who died in the attempted
coup. Nineteen of those sentenced
received 79 counts of life without
parole, one for each of those killed
and two more on the charges of
trying to subvert the Constitution
and assassinate the president.
The published verdict said 291
defendants received life sen-
tences without parole and 46 were
sentenced to life with the possibil-
ity of parole. The court acquitted
80 defendants, and the remainder
received lesser sentences.
Most of the defendants in the
trial denied they had participated
in the coup attempt. They claimed
either that they were following or-
ders or that the entire narrative of
a coup attempt was a construct of
the Erdogan government, a claim
also made by Mr. Gulen. Mr. Gulen
and his supporters in the United
States have repeatedly denied
any involvement in the coup.
But evidence produced at the
Akinci base trial was considered
some of the most important of all
the prosecutions. Videotape from
security cameras at the base con-
firmed the presence of some of the
defendants, including some walk-
ing the corridors in fatigues and
carrying weapons. Pilots in audio-
taped conversations described
their intention of delivering a blow
to the government, reinforcing the
prosecution’s case.
Some of the lower-ranked offi-
cers testified about the actions of
their superiors. The police also de-
tained two of the civilian defend-
ants, Mr. Batmaz and Mr. Binis,
near the base on the morning after
the coup attempt and dismissed
their explanation that they were
out looking at real estate.
Relatives of defendants and
lawyers representing them have
complained of harassment and
other obstacles to their work. De-
fendants complained of torture
and mistreatment in the first days
after their arrest. But defendants
were allowed to deliver their own
statements and reply to accusa-
tions during the trial, sometimes
taking the stand for hours, even
days, to read their testimony. The
defendants were each allowed to
give final remarks, as were their
lawyers.
Mehmet Alagoz, who heads the
July 15 Coup Trials Platform, a
group founded by lawyers repre-
senting many of the victims killed
and injured during the coup at-
tempt, said the some of the de-
fendants had been pushing for a
mistrial or to expose illegal pro-
ceedings so they could take a
claim to the European Court of
Human Rights.
“The court exerted extraordi-
nary efforts to make this a fair
trial both in the court process and
at the level of prosecution because
the defendants from the begin-
ning were shaping their defense
for the European Court,” he said in
a telephone interview.
During the exhaustive hear-
ings, some defendants cursed the
Gulen movement, some criticized
their superiors for leading them
into trouble, but some of the ring-
leaders remained steadfast in
their denials of even the existence
of a coup plot and in their opposi-
tion to Mr. Erdogan’s government.
“There were defendants even
rejecting sight of themselves in
the videotapes,” Mr. Alagoz said.
Some sent a coded message of
support for Mr. Gulen at the end,
he added.

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A14 0 N THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020

FEDERICO RIOS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES FEDERICO RIOS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

LEAVING COLOMBIA Jessika and Sebastián prepared to sleep near Venezuela’s border in June. BOUND FOR VENEZUELA Jessika and Sebastián on a frigid overnight truck ride in June. Jessika
Finding a safe campsite was a primary concern. Most of the 1,500-mile round trip was on foot. hoped to outrun the pandemic’s effects and get government aid upon reaching her homeland.

Empty Pockets and No Home After 1,500 Miles

2.75 million
Approximate number of
“stranded migrants” — men,
women and children who
have been trying to get
home since the pandemic
began, according to The
United Nations.

100,000
Number of Venezuelans who
left Colombia in the first
months of the pandemic,
according to immigration
authorities.

200,000
Number of Venezuelans who
are expected to enter
Colombia in the first three
months once the border
reopens, according to
Colombian officials.

Jessika Loaiza; her son, Sebastián Ventura, 6; and other migrants were heading toward their home country, Venezuela, in June, after jobs dried up Colombia.

From Page A1
zuelans left Colombia, according to immi-
gration authorities. Others poured out of
neighboring countries.
Over six months, Sebastián and his
mother, Jessika Loaiza, traveled more than
1,500 miles, nearly all of it on foot — first
from Colombia to Venezuela, and then, un-
able to find a safe harbor, to Colombia again.
They began their journey in Bogotá in
early May, headed to the small home they
owned in northern Venezuela.
Jessika, 23, said they had left Venezuela
the year before, escaping the violence that
had consumed her neighborhood. Local
criminals had killed her husband, she said,
leaving her a widow at 22.
In Bogotá, she found work at a florist,
making bouquets for weddings and parties.
She loved it.
“I had an excellent job,” she says. “From
now on, I want this to be my art.”
Sebastián started school and began to
learn to read.
But when the pandemic hit, the shop
closed, and she lost her work. They began
sleeping on the street.
Jessika didn’t want to leave Colombia.
But she hoped that, back home, she could
live rent free, rely on government help and
outrun the cascading effects of a spreading
pandemic.
As she pauses on the side of the highway
on one of her first nights on the road, her
eyes dart toward the growing darkness,
then to her son.
She is worried about where they will
sleep.
“Let’s walk,” she says.
Her family follows. Accompanying her
and Sebastián are her new partner, Javier;
her mother, Peggy; her brother, Jesús; and
her sister-in-law, Grelymar, also pregnant.
Cars roar past. Sebastián’s suitcase
scrapes the uneven pavement, the sound-
track to his new life.
They have been on the road since dawn,
but he is buoyant, racing along the shoulder
like a Boy Scout on his first adventure, ea-
ger to show off what he knows, to question
what he doesn’t.
“This is the place where the train passes,”
he says, stopping on a bridge above the
tracks, leaning perilously over a ledge, try-
ing to understand where the train comes
from — and where it is going.
He knows that they are escaping some-
thing bad, he says. “The virus,” he explains,
“it kills people.”
They must be headed to something bet-
ter, he reasons. Right?
Each day, they walk until their feet turn
numb, beg for meals, camp on the roadside,
hide from the police patrolling for quaran-
tine breakers.
And each night, Jessika scans the horizon
for a safe place to sleep — a covered porch, a
thicket in the forest — refusing to stop until
they find one.
‘This Is as Far as We Go’
It is June — 32 days and 250 miles since
they left — and Jessika’s T-shirt stretches
thin over her balloon of a belly. Sebastián is
skinnier, browned by the sun.
They are in Bucaramanga, 120 miles from
the Venezuelan border. Hundreds of fam-
ilies — all pandemic migrants — crowd the

A BITTER HOMECOMING Sebastián bathing in Sabaneta, Venezuela, in August. He told his mother,
“There’s nothing here.” They found their country to be in far worse shape than when they left.
edge of a park, anxious to get home. Smug-
glers offer rides to the border in exchange
for telephones, clothing.
There, Jessika’s mother, Peggy, makes a
call and learns that their house in Venezuela
has been taken over by the same criminals
that ran them out the year before. Peggy be-
gins to cry.
“We can’t go back,” she says.
Stuck now between two countries and
two lost homes, they decide to press on,
handing the money they have left, $30, to a
smuggler. When he tells them it’s not
enough, Jessika’s brother, Jesús, removes
his shoes. He hands those over, then scram-
bles barefoot into a crowded cargo truck,
with the others.
It is after midnight when the truck begins
its climb into the mountains. It speeds over
a frigid pass. Passengers vomit. At dawn,
THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020
ADRIANA LOUREIRO FERNANDEZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
FEDERICO RIOS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
they pull to a stop by a river, a six-hour walk
from the border.
“Get out,” yells the smuggler. “This is as
far as we go.”
Sebastián stretches his short legs. They
are back on the road.
Jessika’s hopes swell as they near the
border — her country! — then shatter the
moment they cross.
In Venezuela, she learns the government
has been using its repressive security appa-
ratus to try to control the virus. In the bor-
der town of San Antonio del Táchira, offi-
cials corral her and her family into a deten-
tion center. They are given coronavirus
tests and cots in a tent with 600 others.
There, they sleep under military guard for
days.
Each morning, Sebastián’s concern is
what they will eat. Meal lines are long, and
BACK IN COLOMBIA Jessika at a hospital in Bucaramanga in October, after giving birth to a son,
Josnaiber, weighing barely five pounds, but healthy. Jessika hoped a florist would rehire her.
there’s never enough. There are no forks or
knives, and so they feed themselves with
their identity cards, cutting with the sharp
side, spooning with the flat side.
Sebastián’s anxiety hits a fever pitch. He
asks his grandmother constantly where
they will live, what they will eat and when
he can return to his classroom.
On Day 17 of detention, men in white be-
gin calling names of returnees who have
tested positive for the virus. “Jesús
Loaiza!” one announces. As the men take
Uncle Jesús away, Sebastián begins to
scream.
‘Mom, I’m Hungry’
After a month, the Venezuelan govern-
ment lets them go. Jesús rejoins the family,
and they head to the home of Grelymar’s
grandmother, with its pink walls and
flower-print curtains, in the city of San Fe-
lipe.
They soon discover a Venezuela in far
worse condition than the one they left. With
quarantines in place, jobs are scarce and
gasoline is almost impossible to find. Mr.
Maduro has consolidated power in recent
months; the prospect of a political transi-
tion, of any sort of change, feels more dis-
tant than ever.
One morning, the refrigerator holds two
eggs, a piece of cheese and a bit of rice.
Desperate, Jessika; her partner, Javier;
and Sebastián move in with Javier’s
mother, on a small farm in the town of Sa-
baneta — the birthplace of Hugo Chávez,
the father of Venezuela’s socialist-inspired
revolution. There are 15 of them, including
Javier’s brothers, their wives and children.
Sebastián’s legs have turned to sticks. He
tries to play with the other children, but
breaks away to plead to his mother.
“Mom, I’m hungry,” he tells her. “Mom,
there’s nothing here.”
Jessika begins to replay the events of the
past few months. All that walking, all those
days in the rain, the cold, had amounted to
nothing. Venezuela is in free fall.
At least in Colombia there is the chance of
a recovery.
Jessika is eight and a half months preg-
nant. She calls her mother to tell her she is
going to walk the 600 miles back to Bogotá.
“With that belly?” her mother says.
“I came like this,” she responds, “and I’ll
return like this.”
It is September. On the road, Sebastián
recovers some of his old buoyancy. And
once again, the highway is filled with Vene-
zuelans.
The Colombian economy is on edge, co-
ronavirus cases are rising and unemploy-
ment has surged. Officially, the border be-
tween the two countries is closed. But thou-
sands of Venezuelans are streaming back to
Colombia on illegal paths, having seen the
0N A15
FEDERICO RIOS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
FEDERICO RIOS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
conditions at home and hoping against
many odds that they will find work in the
‘Then I’ll get up and
cities they left behind. keep on walking.’
Colombian officials say they expect 80 JESSIKA LOAIZA, who continued
percent of those who left early in the pan- her journey shortly after giving
demic to return. When the border reopens, birth to another son.
they predict, 200,000 Venezuelans will en-
ter Colombia in the first three months
alone.
“What we’re searching for is a future,”
Javier says.
A Growing Family
They are once again in Bucaramanga,
250 miles from Bogotá, sharing a brick-
walled room with a single bed, when Jes-
sika’s water breaks and she begins to bleed.
Javier hustles her up a steep hill, to a hospi-
tal. After weeks of bravery, Jessika is terri-
fied.
Why is there so much blood? What has all
that walking done to her child?
Doctors wheel her into the operating
room, and, just after midnight, deliver her
baby boy. Josnaiber Xavier Morillo Loaiza
is underweight — barely five pounds — but
healthy.
Outside the hospital, Javier is worried.
They have no home, no jobs, not even
money for the alcohol Jessika will need to
clean the incision on her belly from the ce-
sarean section.
“Could it be that I will never have a
home?” Javier says. “That I will never be
able to rest?”
But Jessika is unwavering. Hours after
giving birth, she says she plans to wait until
the doctor removes her stitches. “Then I’ll
get up and keep on walking.”
Hope Against Hope
Six months after leaving Bogotá, Jessika,
Javier and Sebastián step off a bus at the
city’s Salitre terminal. The driver, seeing
the infant, had given them a ride.
Jessika, just days from her 24th birthday,
hugs Josnaiber to her chest. Javier’s bag is
so broken that it is held together by string.
Sebastián’s shoes are worn nearly through
their plastic soles.
But he bounces through the terminal,
electrified by their return.
Colombia’s economy has begun to re-
open. In the morning, they’ll message the
florist, and Jessika will ask for her job back.
But that evening, with nowhere else to go,
they curl up to sleep under a footbridge,
inches from an eight-lane highway, home-
less for one more night.
Julie Turkewitz reported from Colombia,
and Isayen Herrera from Venezuela. Federi-
co Rios contributed reporting from Co-
lombia, and Sofía Villamil from Bogotá.
A16 N THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020
Mastermind of Lurid Chat Rooms Is Given 40 Years French Fiercely Debate
By CHOE SANG-HUN
SEOUL, South Korea — He
preyed on young women looking
for high-paying jobs through so-
cial media platforms. He lured
them into making sexually ex-
plicit video clips, promising big
payouts. Then, prosecutors said,
once he got ahold of the compro-
mising images, he used them as
blackmail.
On Thursday, Cho Joo-bin, the
South Korean mastermind of a
scheme luring young women into
making videos that he sold online
through encrypted chat rooms,
was sentenced to 40 years in pris-
on.
The criminal acts by Mr. Cho
“inflicted irreparable damage on
the victims,” Judge Lee Hyun-woo
of the Seoul Central District Court
said in handing down the sen-
tence. Prosecutors had asked the
court to send Mr. Cho to prison for
life for crimes they called “unprec-
edented” in the country.
The case drew outrage for its
cruelty against young women —
eight of his victims were minors. It
came amid a broader
conversation over the treatment
of women in South Korea and
helped fuel a nascent #MeToo
movement in the country. It also
added to the scrutiny of technolo-
gy’s role in such crimes: It was the
first time that the South Korean
police had uncovered an orga-
nized crime ring that made such
footage and sold it online, using
cryptocurrency.
Women’s rights advocates have
said that the local courts’ light
punishments for sexual crimes
have helped pornographic file-
sharing websites proliferate in the
country. On Thursday, some gath-
ered in front of the courthouse to
demand the maximum punish-
ment for Mr. Cho and his accom-
plices.
“The judiciary should realize
that its soft-glove punishment has
been responsible for helping sexu-
al exploitation crimes grow in
large scale,” the advocates said in
a statement that was read aloud
during the rally. “These online
sexual exploitation sites disap-
pear and then reappear
repeatedly, and we should not let
our guard down until the perpe-
trators face severe punishment.”
Before he was linked to the chat
room scheme, Mr. Cho was the ed-
itor of the newspaper at a voca-
tional college in Incheon, west of
Seoul. He then became the ring-
leader of a group of South Korean
men who ran the clandestine on-
Sharing Videos of Police
After Cho Joo-bin, center, was arrested in March in a scheme involving chat rooms, sexually abu-
sive videos and blackmail, he said: “Thank you for stopping my life as a devil that I could not stop.”
line chat rooms to share and trade
in sexually explicit footage. His
accomplices were in their 20s and
even teenagers.
Prosecutors said that between
May 2019 and February this year,
Mr. Cho exploited 17 female vic-
tims for profit, circulating the
footage in members-only chat
rooms that he operated under an
alias, “The Doc,” on Telegram, an
Under the alias ‘The
Doc,’ exploiting 17
women and girls with
explicit videos.
encrypted messaging service
popular in South Korea, prosecu-
tors said.
He used the explicit images and
personal data to blackmail the
women, threatening to release the
clips online or to their friends and
relatives unless the victims sup-
plied increasingly dehumanizing
and violent footage, often tailor-
made for customers. Mr. Cho once
forced a 15-year-old girl to meet a
paid customer to perform sex
acts, prosecutors said.
The police eventually tracked
Mr. Cho down, and when he was
arrested in March, they kept his
identity from the public, in its usu-
al policy of protecting criminal
suspects’ identities to respect
their rights and that of their rela-
tives. But millions of South Kore-
ans joined an online petition ask-
ing the government to reveal his
name and image and to identify all
customers of online chat rooms
operated by Mr. Cho and others
like him.
Eventually, the police revealed
his name and allowed news out-
lets to take pictures of him, saying
that they had made an exception
because he had been charged with
particularly heinous crimes.
After he was arrested, Mr. Cho
told reporters, “Thank you for
stopping my life as a devil that I
could not stop.” During his trial, he
admitted to most of the charges
but denied blackmailing the wom-
en. He has a week to appeal
Thursday’s ruling.
Several customers have turned
themselves in to the police, and
one killed himself, according to lo-
cal news reports. In August, a 26-
year-old man was sentenced to
two years in prison on charges of
gaining access to the personal in-
formation on women in a database
while he worked in a government
office that he then sold to Mr. Cho.
On Thursday, three of Mr. Cho’s
accomplices received sentences
of between five and 15 years in
POOL PHOTO BY KIM HONG-JI
prison. Two customers who paid
to watch the explicit footage were
sentenced to eight and seven
years in prison.
In recent years, the South Kore-
an police began cracking down on
sexually explicit file-sharing web-
sites as part of international ef-
forts to fight child pornography.
They said they soon realized that
much of the illegal trade in
pornography was migrating to on-
line chat rooms on messaging
services like Telegram. They have
since arrested dozens of people in-
volved in the operations. This
month, a 38-year-old former office
worker was sentenced to seven
years in prison on charges of run-
ning similar chat rooms under the
alias “The Watchman.”
Amid conversations around the
#MeToo movement, the widely
popular mayor of Seoul, Park
Won-soon, killed himself in July
after one of his secretaries went to
the police, accusing him of sexual
harassment.
In 2017, South Korea revised
laws to strengthen punishment
for spycam pornography — the
use of tiny, hidden cameras to film
female victims, often in public
bathrooms. After Mr. Cho’s case
made headlines, President Moon
Jae-in promised a full investiga-
tion and stern punishment against
operators and customers of the
online chat rooms.
His government also promised
to fight online sexual crimes in
general, including “deep-fake”
pornography and sexually ex-
plicit footage involving minors
and sex scenes distributed with-
out consent. Prosecutors have
vowed to seek the maximum pun-
ishment — life imprisonment —
for serious offenders, especially
those who sexually exploit mi-
nors.
But women’s rights advocates
say they still face an uphill battle.
On Thursday, another district
court in Seoul sentenced a man in
his 30s to four years in prison for
selling sexually explicit video
clips online, including ones in
which the faces of female K-pop
stars were digitally attached to
the bodies of women engaged in
sex acts.
A 24-year-old man named Son
Jong-woo walked out of prison in
April after completing an 18-
month sentence for running one of
the world’s biggest child pornog-
raphy websites on the dark web.
Another man, named Cho Doo-
soon, is scheduled to leave prison
next month after serving 12 years
for violently raping an 8-year-old
girl.
Shipwrecked Migrant Couple’s Rings Found
By ISABELLA KWAI
The red backpack had been
floating for two weeks in the cen-
tral Mediterranean between Lib-
ya and Italy when a rescue boat
came across it. Inside, along with
clothes and some notes in Arabic,
was a simple treasure: two wed-
ding rings engraved with hearts
and the names Ahmed and
Doudou.
For rescuers with Open Arms, a
nongovernmental organization
that picks up migrants making the
perilous journey by boat to Eu-
rope, the discovery on Nov. 9 was
“like a punch,” Riccardo Gatti, the
director of Open Arms Italy, said
by telephone on Thursday.
Wreckage found later on the
day of the discovery only height-
ened their dread. “We didn’t know
if it belonged to someone that died
or had a shipwreck — or someone
alive,” Mr. Gatti said. “Without
knowing anything, you’re holding
a piece of a story of someone.”
It might have remained yet an-
other presumed loss in the notori-
ously perilous Mediterranean
crossing that migrants from
North Africa have made to reach
Europe. “Who are Ahmed and
Doudou?” the Italian newspaper
La Repubblica asked.
But in an unusual stroke of luck,
the rings will be reunited with
their owners, an Algerian couple
who survived a capsizing in late
By AURELIEN BREEDEN
PARIS — Video of police offi-
cers beating a Black man in Paris
caused an outcry in France on
Thursday, fueling criticism of a
new bill that would place restric-
tions on sharing footage of securi-
ty forces as the French authorities
grapple with longstanding accu-
sations of police racism and bru-
tality.
The beating, on Saturday, only
came to light because of a graphic
video posted Thursday on social
media by Loopsider, a French dig-
ital news outlet. By Thursday
evening, it had been viewed more
than 8 million times — days after
video of police forcefully clearing
migrants from a protest camp in
Paris sparked a similar outcry.
Prosecutors in Paris have
opened an investigation into the
beating, and the officers involved
have been suspended. The police
in Paris also said that an internal
inquiry had been opened.
The beaten man, Michel Zecler,
a music producer, told Loopsider
that he had been approaching his
recording studio on Saturday
evening when he spotted a police
car on a side-street in the 17th Ar-
rondissement, an upscale resi-
dential area of northwestern
Paris.
Fearing a fine because he was
not wearing a mask, which is man-
datory in France because of the
coronavirus pandemic, Mr. Zecler
said he quickly entered the studio.
Three police officers exited the
car and followed him inside.
Security camera footage ob-
tained by Loopsider shows that a
Images of officers
beating a Black man
circulate as a security
bill is considered.
scuffle began when Mr. Zecler re-
sisted the officers as they grabbed
him. The officers pummeled him
repeatedly over several minutes,
using their fists and feet, as well
as a police baton. Mr. Zecler said
that the officers also had insulted
him and used a racial slur against
him.
Alerted by the commotion and
Mr. Zecler’s cries for help, a group
of young artists who had been at-
tending a recording session in the
studio’s basement came upstairs,
and managed to push the police
out the door, just as re-
inforcements were arriving.
The police tried to force their
way back into the studio, accord-
ing to videos filmed by neighbors
and obtained by Loopsider, before
throwing a tear-gas canister
through the window, which
quickly filled the small enclosed
entrance with gas.
“‘It’s my last day and I don’t
know why,’” Mr. Zecler said he
was thinking at the time, telling
Loopsider that the beating left
bruises across his body, a torn ten-
don and a head wound.
Several officers pointed fire-
arms toward the entrance. Mr. Ze-
cler came out and was arrested, as
were the nine young men from the
recording studio, who told Loop-
sider that they were also held at
gunpoint and hit by officers. The
nine men were released the same
day without charge.
Mr. Zecler was held for 48
hours, accused of violence against
the police and resisting arrest, but
the Paris prosecutor’s office
dropped the charges.
Speaking to reporters in Paris
on Thursday, Mr. Zecler said the
October in a boat from Libya and
were found two weeks ago by Doc-
tors Without Borders representa-
tives who have been providing
support to the migrants in a recep-
tion center in Sicily.
When they saw pictures of the
newly found rings, they “couldn’t
believe it,” the couple, who de-
clined to provide their last names
for privacy reasons, said in a
statement provided by the organi-
zation.
The rings were broken, and Ah-
med 25, and Doudou, 20, had
wanted to repair them after arriv-
ing in Europe. “We had lost every-
thing, and now the few things we
had set out with have been found,”
they said.
The couple are among 15 sur-
vivors of a boat that left Zawiya on
the coast of Libya in October. After
a two-day journey in the Mediter-
ranean without food or water, the
boat ran out of fuel about 40 miles
from the Italian island of Lampe-
dusa, according to Doctors With-
out Borders. As the weather wors-
ened, a wave capsized the ship
and five people died, including a 2-
year-old girl.
It is one of at least nine vessels
carrying migrants that have sunk
in the central Mediterranean
since Oct. 1, according to the Inter-
national Organization for Migra-
tion, a United Nations agency. In
one sinking this month, at least 74
incident had left him feeling fear-
ful.
“The people who are supposed
to protect me are holding me at
gunpoint,” he said, adding that
many police officers “did their
work well” and that he felt lucky
the incident had been caught on
video.
“I would like that it never hap-
pen again, for anyone,” he said.
“Camera or no camera.”
Hafida El Ali, Mr. Zecler’s law-
yer, told reporters that he was
“lucky to have these videos”
showing acts of police violence
that are “isolated” but “exist.”
“If we didn’t have that, unfortu-
nately, he would obviously be de-
tained,” Ms. El Ali told reporters in
Paris after having filed a formal
complaint against the officers.
“Because it’s his word against the
word of the police officers, and we
know perfectly well that it’s the
police officers that would win.”
The beating came amid heated
debates over a new security bill
pushed by President Emmanuel
Macron’s government, which in-
cludes a provision that prescribes
a penalty of a year in prison and a
fine of about $54,000 for anyone
who broadcasts “the face or any
other identifying element” of po-
lice officers in action if the goal is
to “physically or mentally harm”
them.
Critics say that language is too
open to interpretation and in-
tended to discourage journalists
and bystanders armed with
smartphone cameras from docu-
menting police brutality, amid
growing criticism of aggressive
police tactics and resistance from
police unions. George Floyd’s
death in Minneapolis last summer
has also prompted scrutiny of rac-
ism within the French police force.
Opponents of the bill seized
upon footage of the beating to ar-
gue the bill should be scrapped,
though it was unclear that the pro-
vision would have applied in this
case. The bill was passed this
week by the lower house of Parlia-
ment and will be examined by the
French Senate in January.
“Without the videos nothing
would have come out,” Julien Bay-
ou, the head of Europe Écologie —
Les Verts, France’s Green party,
said on Twitter. “Videos that you
want to ban. To protect police offi-
cers who carry out their mission
with integrity? Or to guarantee
the impunity of this behavior that
dishonors the uniform?”
The officers said in their report
about the incident that they had
been trying to stop Mr. Zecler for
failing to wear a mask when he
forcefully pushed them into the
building, according to Agence
France-Presse. The officers also
say he hit them several times and
tried to grab their weapons, ac-
cording to the news agency.
But on the security camera
footage, the officers seem to fol-
low Mr. Zecler inside, and he tries
to protect his face and body but
does not appear violent toward
the officers or appear to reach for
their weapons.
The Paris police, citing the in-
vestigation, declined to comment.
The outcry over the beating
was swift and broad on French so-
cial media, with celebrities like
Antoine Griezmann and Samuel
Umtiti, soccer players who won
the 2018 World Cup, condemning
the police behavior.
Valérie Atlan, who works with
Mr. Zecler at the recording studio,
told Loopsider that she did not un-
derstand why he had been tar-
geted so violently.
“I don’t know if it’s a question of
skin color, a question of social sta-
tus,” she said, or “a question of
‘what is this tall Black man doing
in the 17th, this building can’t be
his’.”
migrants in a boat from Libya
drowned, and in total at least 900
have died this year while trying to
reach Europe.
More than 11,000 others inter-
cepted at sea have been returned
to Libya, exposing them to possi-
ble human rights abuses, the U.N.
agency said.
Passing fishermen rescued Ah-
med and Doudou from the ocean,
and the pair were put into quaran-
tine as a coronavirus prevention
measure before being moved to a
reception center in Agrigento, Sic-
ily. The backpack and the clothes
inside have been washed and will
be returned to the couple as soon
as possible, Mr. Gatti said.
While they were happy about
the discovery, Ahmed, Doudou
and others from their boat were
still in shock and processing the
trauma, said Ahmad Al Rousan, a
mediator with Doctors Without
Borders.
They are also haunted by the
loss of their five companions’
lives.
“They are still asking them-
selves if there was any other pos-
sibility to help the others,” Mr. Al
Rousan said. One of the survivors,
a 9-year-old boy, lost his mother
and his sister, he said.
“We are very happy,” the couple
added in their statement, “but we
are still mourning our friends who
didn’t make it.”
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020 A17
N

Champ, Major and a Surly Badger Named Josiah

Biden’s Two German Shepherds Join a Pantheon of White House Pets That Has Sometimes Looked More Like a Zoo
By DERRICK BRYSON TAYLOR
Residents of the White House have had fur and feathers,
claws and hooves, scales, stripes and prehensile tails. Some
were found on the property, many came with the new tenants
and others were delivered by foreign leaders. But for most of
modern U.S. history, the president has had a pet.
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is expected to resume
that tradition in January with his two German shepherds,
Champ and Major, after President Trump’s term ends as the
first in decades without any pets living full time at the resi-
dence.
More often than not, presidential pets have been dogs and
cats. But many less traditional pets have also lived at 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue, their quantity and variety depending
on each administration, said Matthew Costello, a senior histo-
rian for the White House Historical Association.
“If you’re talking about which White House was quite
literally a zoo, it was probably Theodore Roosevelt’s White
House,” Mr. Costello said. “Between the six children that he
brought with him to the White House and the assortment of
pets — the Roosevelts, they just loved animals.”
Pets at the White House have reflected the occupants’
personalities, he said, and the animals sometimes played a
prominent role in an administration’s image. “It helps human-
ize the president a little bit more,” Mr. Costello said. “It’s
something that’s relatable to most people. Most people have a
pet or have had a pet at some point in their life.”
Although the list of White House pets is lengthy, according
to the Presidential Pet Museum, an organization founded to
preserve information and artifacts related to presidential
pets, the history is also littered with unverified tales and miss-
ing details. Still, records clearly show many strange pets.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Wilson: Woolly Groundskeepers

In an effort to keep costs low and to conserve on human resources during World War I, a flock of sheep were brought to the
White House to keep the grass neat, according to the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum. The flock arrived at the
White House in 1918 from Maryland and grazed on the property for at least two years. At some point, the flock was sheared and
two pounds of wool was given to each state, where it was auctioned off and ended up raising about $52,000 for the Red Cross.

Hoover: Billy the Opossum Roosevelt: A Rooster

Kennedy: Macaroni the Pony
During the Kennedy administra-
tion, when the scions of wealthy
families lived in the White
House, some of the most com-
mon pets were horses and po-
nies. “Jacqueline Kennedy had
grown up riding horses,” Mr.
Costello said. “She had been
interested in equestrianism her
entire life.”
One of the more well known
horses belonging to the family
was Sardar, a gift from the presi-
dent of Pakistan in 1962, accord-
ing to the John F. Kennedy Presi-
Coolidge: Rebecca the Raccoon
PHOTOQUEST/GETTY IMAGES
dential Library and Museum.
The president’s daughter, Car-
oline Kennedy, had a pony, Maca-
roni, who was photographed
often, and she and her brother
had parakeets named Bluebell
and Maybelle. Macaroni and Tex,
a pony given to Caroline by Vice
President Lyndon B. Johnson in
1961, would stay at a nearby
Kennedy property but was often
on the White House grounds, Mr.
Costello said. A third pony, Lep-
rechaun, was given to the family
by Irish leaders.
President Herbert Hoover had
several dogs during his tenure at
the White House, from 1929 to
1933, but few appeared to attract
as much attention as Billy, a wild
opossum the family adopted
after it strayed onto the prop-
erty, according to the Herbert
Hoover Presidential Library and
Museum.
The family kept the opossum
in a pen built for the Coolidge
family’s raccoon, Rebecca. In
1929, Billy became the subject of
news coverage after Mr. Hoover
lent him out to a nearby high
school that was upset after their
live mascot, also an opossum,
had disappeared, according to
the Library of Congress. Simi-
larly, before Mr. Hoover moved
into the White House, President
Benjamin Harrison had two
opossums during his tenure,
from 1889 to 1893, which he
named Mr. Reciprocity and Mr.
Protection after the Republican
platform at the time.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
President Calvin Coolidge and
Grace Coolidge, the first lady
while he was in office, from 1923
to 1929, kept a menagerie at the
White House, including several
dogs, cats, birds, a goose and a
donkey. But it was the raccoon,
Rebecca, that was among the
family’s most famous and be-
loved pets.
In November 1926, the family
received the raccoon from Mis-
sissippi to be served for Thanks-
giving dinner. But finding the
raccoon to be friendly, the family
changed her fate, the museum
said. Over the years, Mr. Cool-
idge grew close to Rebecca and
sometimes walked her around
the White House grounds on a
leash. Mr. Coolidge even gave
Rebecca an embroidered collar
with the title “White House Rac-
coon,” according to the White
House Historical Association.
Although Rebecca had taken a
place in the spotlight, even at-
tracting attention at the annual
Easter Egg Roll in 1927, she
sometimes caused problems. In
1927, she fled the Coolidge resi-
dence in South Dakota, running
away from “her attendants in the
dead of night” and climbing a tall
tree, “which she declines to
descend in spite of all entreat-
ies,” The Times reported. She
was eventually donated to the
Rock Creek Zoo.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
And Bill the Hyena
Theodore Roosevelt, who trav-
eled abroad, hiked at home and
led conservation efforts as
president from 1901 to 1909, kept
a lengthy list of animals at the
White House. In his family’s
care were horses, dogs, a Hya-
cinth macaw parrot, kangaroo
rats, five guinea pigs and a
one-legged rooster, according to
the Presidential Pet Museum.
There was also a short-tem-
pered badger named Josiah and
a green garter snake named
Emily Spinach.
Republican supporters in
West Virginia also gave Mr.
Roosevelt a bear, which his
children named Jonathan Ed-
wards after an ancestor of the
first lady, Edith Roosevelt. The
president also received exotic
animals as gifts from foreign
leaders. In 1904, King Menelik
of Abyssinia gave Mr. Roosevelt
a lion cub named Joe and a
hyena named Bill that “laughs
nearly all the time,” The New
York Times reported that year.
(President Dwight Eisenhow-
er also received an unusual gift
in 1959, when Prime Minister
Fulbert Youlou of the Republic
of Congo gave him a baby ele-
phant named Dzimbo. The
president, later trying to feed
the elephant, compared it to his
grandchildren: “He doesn’t like
carrots.” Dzimbo eventually
moved to the Washington Zoo.)
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
President Theodore Roosevelt
kept a one-legged rooster.
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A18 N THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONAL FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020

Where the Grind Is Good, and the Space Is Finally Their Own
By KEVIN ARMSTRONG
The first time Xavier Harris, 21,
visited the new skate park in Jer-
sey City, N.J., it was July, and the
course was still being built. So he
scaled a temporary fence to get in-
side. The second time, Mr. Harris,
who started skateboarding when
he was 9, crawled under a chain-
link fence.
Just after it officially opened in
August, he rode his skateboard
through the open gate, rolled
down a ramp, maintained his mo-
mentum and finished by bounding
over a blue recycling can.
“I just want to flow around,”
said Mr. Harris, a garbage col-
lector from East Orange, N.J.
From New Jersey across the
Hudson River to New York, skate-
boarders are now enjoying many
more places to flow at a time when
outdoor space has become more
coveted with the coronavirus re-
surging.
In New York, as the city slowly
reopened, officials unveiled two
new parks in Brooklyn and two
others, one each in Manhattan
and Queens, that were given ma-
jor upgrades.
At Rockaway Beach Skate Park,
which sits along the Queens wa-
terfront, skateboarders jumped
down steps, rode railings and sped
along concrete banks across the
park’s 16,000 square feet.
“We came out here surfing, saw
them working on it and were like,
‘Is it open yet, is it open yet?’ ev-
ery time,” said Keir Austen-
Brown, an avid skateboarder like
his son, Ollie, 11. “When we saw it
open, we were here the next day.”
With skateboarding now an
Olympic event and the number of
skate parks on the rise, a sport
long seen as renegade has become
decidedly mainstream. Skate- “I just want to flow around,” said Xavier Harris, 21, of East Orange, N.J., at the new Jersey City skate park. He said he had been skating since he was 9.

Pablo Goldberg, 13, and his father, Josh Goldberg, at Rockaway Beach. Trips to skate Bebe Freeman, 20, a Rutgers University student visiting the Jersey City skate park,
parks around the city helped them get through the lockdown, Mr. Goldberg said. said that she started skating last year and that she had learned how from her mother.

boarders who had to find out-of-
the-way spaces, sometimes in
desolate neighborhoods or in
spots where they risked being
chased away by the police, to hone
their skills are finding skate parks
part of the conversation when cit-
ies reimagine their urban land-
scapes.
“If you’re really going to be a
world-class city and you’re going
to invest in recreation, you need to
think beyond traditional sports,”
Steven Fulop, Jersey City’s mayor,
said. “Thus, we’ve invested in our
first skate park and we’re proba-
bly going to be doing more.”
Martin Maher, the Brooklyn
commissioner for New York City’s
parks department, knew the case
against skate parks. “Twenty
years ago, there was this fear that
‘Oh, my God, it’s going to be skat-
ers, it’s going to be fights, it’s go-
ing to be noise!’ ” he said.
In New York, skateboarders
who were largely relegated to
makeshift courses underneath
bridges now have 39 skate parks
run by the department where they
can test their daredevil moves.
“I can sit for hours and you’re
amazed at skaters from like 30
cultural backgrounds playing in
the space the size of a basketball
court in total harmony,” Mr.
Maher said. “It’s something to
watch.”
For Josh Goldberg, 47, and his
son Pablo, 13, trips to some of the
new skate parks were their es-
cape from being cooped up in their
Brooklyn home during the lock-
down. Mr. Goldberg led his son, a
dedicated skater who aspires to
work in the growing industry,
down some steps at Riverside
Park in Manhattan, where they
slipped through a fence to catch a
glimpse of the renovated skate
park there before it opened. They
noticed that the wood ramps had
been replaced by smooth con-
crete.
They also sneaked a peek at a
Photographs by
PAUL FRANGIPANE
for The New York Times
skate park being built in
Brownsville, Brooklyn, and on a
recent Saturday they were enjoy-
ing the new course in Queens with
friends.
“Open air, constant movement,
kind of perfect,” Mr. Goldberg
said. “Honestly, this summer, I’ve
seen more of New York than I’ve
probably ever seen.”
In New Jersey, the debut of Jer-
sey City’s inaugural skate park
was the culmination of years of
struggle by local skateboarders,
who had grown accustomed to
working on their boards on the
steps of a post office or in aban-
doned lots.
One of the more popular spots
was nicknamed the “Junk Spot,” a
remote area next to the New Jer-
The 16,000-square-foot skate park near the boardwalk at Rockaway Beach has attracted people who come to surf.
sey Turnpike. But as Jersey City
has gentrified, developers have
claimed many of these lots,
squeezing out skateboarders.
The skaters tried to create their
own dedicated space, but funding
was a challenge. City officials
eventually took up their cause,
and with the help of private grants
the skate park project, which took
seven years and nearly $900,000
to complete, took shape at the end
of an industrial block not far from
the Liberty State Park.
Once open, a sign in all-capital
letters warned: SKATING IS AT
YOUR OWN RISK, and an eclectic
crowd rolled in, from 4-year-olds
learning to transfer their weight
on skateboards to 40-somethings
looking to shed pounds.
Cities coax a sport out
from vacant lots and
underneath bridges.
Inevitably, there were collisions
and spills.
“You might get hurt, but I never
heard about anybody dying in
skating,” said Federman Acosta,
26, a frequent skateboarder from
Edison, N.J., who welcomed the
growth of skate parks after years
of dodging cars while practicing
on the street.
“I have,” Jeremy Picado inter-
jected.
In 2005, Mr. Picado, 38, who
lives in Plainfield, N.J., suffered a
concussion after a fall, was hospi-
talized for a week, endured memo-
ry loss and quit skating. But he
started again in 2013, and helped
build the Jersey City skate park as
a construction worker. He now
teaches children to skateboard on
weekends.
“It’s an addiction to the adrena-
line,” he said.
Mr. Harris said he had always
found calmness and camaraderie
in the skateboarding scene. His fa-
ther gave him a skateboard when
he was 9, worried that he was de-
pressed and spending too much
time inside after he and his wife
separated.
After landing a twist at the Jer-
sey City park, he looked up after
hearing a buzzing sound above.
“Is that a drone?” he said.
In fact, it was. It turned out that
Derek McRae, a local rapper who
goes by Mr. Cashed Out, was using
the industrial tableau surround-
ing the skateboarders as back-
drop for music video.
The drone recorded him stand-
ing in the middle of the concrete
bowl as he rhymed a remix of Jack
Harlow’s “Whats Poppin” with
skateboarders whirling around
him.
“It’s a whole different vibe,” Mr.
McRae, 22, said. “Lighting. Bright
colors. Dope scene.”
The park was illuminated after
sunset, but at 9 p.m. a police S.U.V.
nearby flashed its lights to signal
closing time.
“Basically, they monitor us,”
said Bebe Freeman, 20, a student
at Rutgers University, who
learned to skateboard from her
mother. “A little weird.”
With skateboarding becoming
more popular, New York is plan-
ning to build two more skate parks
in Brooklyn.
“We’re undoubtedly in a boom
phase,” said Ian Clarke, founder of
the N.Y.C. Skateboard Coalition.
“We know historically skate-
boarding has ebbed and flowed,
and we won’t be surprised if we
see that again. But it’s not going
away.”
On a recent chilly Sunday at
Riverside Park, Tyler Harl, 34,
wore a brown hoodie as he de-
scended the terraced landscape.
Raised in Arizona, he started
skateboarding when he was in the
third grade. He has shuttled be-
tween Arizona and New York for
the past decade and enjoys the
tranquillity of early-morning
skateboarding by the Hudson
River.
Most of the park was open ex-
cept for the final piece — an 11-
foot-deep concrete bowl.
Mr. Harl picked up a broom and
pushed fallen leaves away to clear
his path.
“Now that acorns are done fall-
ing, it’s a lot easier to skate
around,” he said.
 THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONAL FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020 N A19

Illegal Devices Installed Graves Found at Site of Historic Black Church

By Diesel Truck Owners By KWAME OPAM
Archaeologists working in Co-
lonial Williamsburg to unearth

Worsen Air, E.P.A. Says
By CORAL DAVENPORT
WASHINGTON — The owners
and operators of more than half a
million diesel pickup trucks have
been illegally disabling their vehi-
cles’ emissions control technology
over the past decade, allowing ex-
cess emissions equivalent to nine
million extra trucks on the road, a
new federal report has concluded.
The practice, described in a re-
port by the Environmental Pro-
tection Agency Office of Civil En-
forcement, has echoes of the
Volkswagen scandal of 2015, when
the automaker was found to have
illegally installed devices in mil-
lions of diesel passenger cars
worldwide — including about half
a million in the United States — in-
tended to trick emissions control
monitors.
emailed a copy of the report to the
heads of three state air pollution
control organizations.
A spokesman for the E.P.A.,
James Hewitt, initially said
Wednesday that he was unfamil-
iar with the report. In a statement
emailed after he was informed of
it, Mr. Hewitt said, “Under our Na-
tional Compliance Initiative, in FY
2020, E.P.A., resolved more civil
tampering and aftermarket defeat
device cases (31) that prevented
more motor vehicle emissions
(14.6 million pounds) than in any
prior year in the agency’s history.
Additionally, E.P.A. has assessed
more in civil penalties, criminal
fines, and restitution under this
administration than the first four
years of the Obama administra-
tion.”
what life was like for the original
congregants of one of the oldest
Black congregations in the coun-
try have uncovered one and possi-
bly two graves and more than
12,000 artifacts, including an ink
bottle, doll fragments and coins.
Digging beneath a parking lot in
the Virginia city, the researchers
were able to find the foundations
for a brick church built in 1856,
what may be an even older church
building and a grave or graves po-
tentially for members of the con-
gregation, the Historic First Bap-
tist Church of Williamsburg, Jack
Gary, Colonial Williamsburg’s di-
rector of archaeology, said Tues-
day. Mr. Gary, who is overseeing
the excavation, said that there
was at least one grave and possi-
bly two and that there were proba-
bly more burial shafts at the site.
“When I set foot on the excava-
tion site and listened to the history
that they were uncovering, it was LET FREEDOM RING FOUNDATION

But in this case no single corpo-
ration is behind the subterfuge; it
is the truck owners themselves
who are installing illegal devices,
which are typically manufactured
by small companies. That makes
it much more difficult to measure
the full scale of the problem, which
is believed to affect many more
vehicles than the 500,000 or so es-
timated in the report.
In terms of the pollution impact
in the United States, “This is far
more alarming and widespread
than the Volkswagen scandal,”
said Drew Kodjak, executive di-
rector of the International Council
on Clean Transportation, the re-
search group that first alerted the
The report studied only diesel
pickup trucks weighing between
8,500 pounds and 14,000 pounds,
but E.P.A. analysts believe the
cheating has spread across Amer-
ican garages and highways.
“One reason it is difficult to esti-
mate the full extent of tampering
nationwide is that the Air Enforce-
ment Division has reason to be-
lieve this conduct occurs within
most or all categories of vehicles
and engines, including commer-
cial trucks, passenger vehicles,
pickup trucks, motorcycles, for-
estry equipment and agricultural
equipment,” the report concluded.
“The aftermarket defeat device
an awesome feeling,” said the Rev. Foundation footings for a
Dr. Julie Grace, who was chris- planned 1950s expansion of
tened at the church in 1949 and is Williamsburg’s historic First
now an associate minister. “To be Baptist Church, above, at its
standing on the same ground of
first permanent location. The
our ancestors — there’s no feeling
like realizing that your ancestors second permanent First Bap-
tist Church structure, left.
have such an important part of
history.”
The archaeological project is enable Colonial Williamsburg to
being backed by leaders of the his- expand its Black-interpretative
toric church, whose members in- programming through voices that
clude descendants of those who have been silent since the Revolu-
attended the church at the excava- tion.”
tion site. The first phase of the dig
When the archaeology project
began in September and ended
started work in earnest to unearth
earlier this month. The next phase
the church, the impact was power-
is set to begin in January. ful. “When the trees came down
“The presence of African- and the parking lot came up, it was
LET FREEDOM RING FOUNDATION

E.P.A. of the illegal Volkswagen
technology. “Because these are
trucks, the amount of pollution is
far, far higher,” he said.
The E.P.A. focused just on de-
vices installed in heavy pickup
trucks, such as the Chevrolet Sil-
Tampering produces
the equivalent of nine
million extra trucks’
worth of emissions.
verado and the Dodge Ram 2500,
about 15 percent of which appear
to have defeat devices installed.
But such devices — commercially
available and marketed as a way
to improve vehicle performance
— almost certainly have been in-
stalled in millions of other vehi-
cles.
The report found “significant
amounts of excess air pollution
caused by tampering” with diesel
pickup truck emissions controls.
The technology is essentially an
at-home version of the factory-in-
stalled “defeat devices” embed-
ded into hundreds of thousands of
vehicles in the United States by
Volkswagen, which was forced to
pay $14.7 billion in the U.S. to settle
claims stemming from the scan-
dal.
The report said “diesel tuners”
will allow the trucks to release
more than 570,000 tons of nitro-
gen dioxide, a pollutant linked to
heart and lung disease and pre-
mature death, over the lifetime of
the vehicles. That is more than 10
times the excess nitrogen oxide
emissions attributed to the fac-
tory-altered Volkswagens sold do-
mestically.
The report also found that the
altered pickup trucks will emit
about 5,000 excess tons of indus-
trial soot, also known as particu-
late matter, which is linked to res-
piratory diseases and higher
death rates for Covid-19 patients.
“A global respiratory pandemic
is the worst time to find out that
there is this massive cheating by
the makers of these devices,” said
John Walke, an expert in air pollu-
tion law at the Natural Resources
Defense Council, an advocacy
group, noting recent studies link-
ing higher levels of particulate
matter pollution to higher rates of
Covid-19.
“That is an astronomically high
level of smog-forming pollution,”
he added. “It’s happening at
ground level where people are
breathing the fumes. And if the
problem extends to other vehicles
it’s almost unimaginable what the
health impact will be.”
The E.P.A. Office of Civil En-
forcement, which is largely
staffed with career civil servants,
has been conducting the investi-
gation into diesel tuners for about
five years, since it discovered the
cheating by Volkswagen. An
E.P.A. official familiar with the re-
port, who spoke on condition of
anonymity because he was not au-
thorized to speak on the record,
said it represents a significant
milestone in the ongoing investi-
gation.
The report was completed last
week, though the E.P.A. has not
publicized it or issued a news re-
lease, which stands in contrast to
the media blitz assembled by the
Obama-era agency for the Volks-
wagen investigation. In this in-
stance, word got out after Evan
Belser, the deputy director of the
office’s Air Enforcement Division,
problem is huge,” said Phillip Americans is all over Colonial pretty emotional,” Ms. Matthews
Brooks, a former E.P.A. emissions Williamsburg,” Mr. Gary said. burg Foundation in 1956. The member the church before it was Harshaw said.
investigator who worked on the “Fifty-two percent of the popula- building was torn down that year torn down told her that “commu- The next phase of the project
diesel tuner investigation and the tion was Black. The difference as part of Colonial Williamsburg nity meetings were being held in will last for 18 months. Mr. Gary
Volkswagen case. “A lot of people here is this is one space where a restoration efforts, with another places where Blacks were not al- said the archaeologists hoped to
just don’t understand what the lot of folks in that community are church being built blocks away. lowed to come. There wasn’t an make the excavations as publicly
problem is — your average person coming together. This is the space The goal, Mr. Gary said, was to re- opportunity for the Black commu- accessible as possible, allowing
buys a vehicle and says, it’s my ve- where things were happening.” store the area to how it appeared nity to voice their objection.” visitors to see the work on a daily
hicle, I can do what I want with it. According to the project’s web- during the colonial period. Colonial Williamsburg, in the basis and ask questions.
They may not even be aware that site, free and enslaved Black peo- “The story of a Black congrega- historic district of Williamsburg, Ms. Matthews Harshaw said
these devices are illegal.”
“But,” he continued, “the real
ple met in secret to found the First
Baptist Church around the start of
tion was not part of the Colonial
Williamsburg narrative in the
Va., is an open-air museum that
attempts to recreate life in the co-
her immediate concern was iden-
tifying those still buried at the site.
question is impact. If 10 people do the American Revolution. The re-
mains of the first Baptist Meeting
1950s,” he said.
The site was paved over in 1965.
lonial era. It’s populated by his-
torical re-enactors dressed in pe-
At the same time, she and the
it, there’s no impact. But these are church are recording oral histo-
numbers that are meaningful for House, which records show stood A plaque honoring the church was riod garb and performing inter- ries from the remaining descend-
at the site in 1818 and perhaps as placed there in 1983. pretations of how people lived and ants. She hopes that the church is
air quality.”
“This is not a great way to ex- early as the late 18th century, may “You have to understand that, worked at the time. However, it restored and eventually becomes
be buried at the excavation site, in that time period, when things wasn’t until 1979 that Black resi- a museum.
press how to be a free American,
though it will take more research got done and you didn’t get to be a dents’ stories started to be inter- “I did not grow up in this
but there are a lot of people out
to be certain. part of the decision-making, preted, and even then primary church,” she admitted. “But I am a
there who think that way,” Mr. sources that speak to Black life
Another church building was there’s resentment,” said Connie member of this church. And I want
Brooks concluded. were limited.
erected in 1856 and stood for Matthews Harshaw, president of to know the story. What happened
Retailers generally sell the ille- nearly a century until it was pur- the church’s Let Freedom Ring The project’s website said that, to all these people? Where did
gal defeat devices online and in chased by the Colonial Williams- Foundation. Congregants who re- if successful, “this initiative will they go?”
public, the report said, but “oper-
ate in a secretive manner such
that the nature and extent of their
operations are not reflected in
their business records.”
The E.P.A. investigators found
at least 28 different companies in-
volved with the manufacturing of
at least 45 diesel tuners. The re-
port does not name the companies
because, it says, E.P.A.’s investiga-
tion of the matter is ongoing.
A crackdown on the diesel-
tuner market would be far more
difficult than pursuing a single
company like Volkswagen.
“There’s a lot of small businesses
in play; it’s more difficult to en-
force than the one big global au-
tomaker,” said Mr. Kodjak of the
International Council on Clean
Transportation. “Amazon sells
diesel tuning equipment. You can
retune your engine for $400.”
“Not all of these are illegal, by
any means,” he added. “A lot of
them are mom-and-pop places.”
Over the course of its investiga-
tion, the E.P.A. has shut down
some manufacturers: This year,
the agency reached an $850,000
settlement with Punch It Per-
formance and Tuning, a small
Florida company that had been
selling illegal diesel tuners online.
According to E.P.A. documents,
the settlement was lower “due to
their limited financial ability to
pay a higher penalty. In order to
pay this penalty, Defendants have
represented that they will sell res-
idential real estate properties that
they purchased with profits made
from the manufacture and sale of
defeat devices.”
Experts said the findings also
point to weaknesses in state and
local emissions inspection pro-
grams, which are trusted to make
sure cars and trucks comply with
environmental law and emissions
standards.
Federal funding for state en-
forcement programs has been flat
for more than a decade. The
E.P.A.’s budget for state and local
enforcement of the Clean Air Act
has been the same every year
since 2004: $228 million.
“There are state and local codes
and laws in place to crack down on
this,” said Miles Keough, the exec-
utive director of the National As-
sociation of Clean Air Agencies.
“But they are all running on the
same small budget.”
At many state and municipal
emissions inspections stations, in-
spectors do not actually test
tailpipe emissions, explained Mr.
Brooks. Instead, they use comput-
ers simply to get readings from a
vehicle’s computer.
With a defeat device, he said,
“the computer on the truck tells
the computer at the emissions sta-
tion, everything’s fine.”
A20 N THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONAL FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020

Patients Put at Risk as Russian Hackers Target U.S. Hospitals

From Page A1
Trump’s baseless claims of voter
fraud.
The attacks have largely un-
folded in private, as hospitals
scramble to restore their systems
— or to quietly pay the ransom —
without releasing information
that could compromise an F.B.I.
investigation. But they have had a
devastating and long-lasting ef-
fect, particularly on cancer pa-
tients, said workers and patients
from Vermont’s largest medical
system. Its electronic medical
record system was restored on
Sunday, nearly a month after the
cyberattack.
In the interim, clinicians were
forced to send away hundreds of
cancer patients, said Olivia
Thompson, a nurse at the cancer
center.
The staff fell back on written
notes and faxes, leafing through
masses of paper to access vital in-
formation. They tried to recon-
struct complex chemotherapy
protocols from memory.
And while the hospital has tak-
en pains to reassure patients that
most care could proceed, some
staff members worry that the full
damage of the October attack is
not well understood.
“To recover from something
like this is going to take months
and months and months,” Ms.
Thompson said. “It feels like we
are all alone and no one under-
stands how dire this is.”
Elise Legere, a nurse at the can-
cer center, said she could compare
the past weeks to only one experi-
ence — working in a burn unit af-
ter the Boston Marathon bombing
— and has often found herself
wondering about the motivation
behind the cyberattack.
“It’s like asking what’s the point
of putting a bomb in an elemen- ELIZABETH FRANTZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
tary school, what is the point?”
she said. “There is a lot of evil in ‘It feels like we are all alone and no one understands how dire this is.’
the world. Whoever did orches-
trate this attack knows a lot about OLIVIA THOMPSON, above, a nurse at the cancer center of the University of Vermont Medical Center.
how devastating it is.”

‘We Expect Panic’

The latest wave of attacks,
which hit about a dozen hospitals
in the United States, was believed
to have been conducted by a par-
ticularly powerful group of Rus-
sian-speaking hackers that de-
ployed ransomware via TrickBot,
a vast network of infected com-
puters used for cyberattacks, ac-
cording to security researchers
who are tracking the attacks.
The hackers typically work for
profit. The F.B.I. estimated that
the cybercriminals, who use ran-
somware called “Ryuk,” took in
more than $61 million in ransom
over a period of 21 months in 2018
and 2019, a record.
The attacks slowed last spring,
when cybercriminals agreed
among themselves to avoid hack-
ing hospitals amid the pandemic,
security researchers said. But just
ahead of the presidential election,
the groups resumed.
“In the past, they targeted orga-
nizations all over the world, but
this time they were very specifi-
cally aiming for hospitals in the
United States,” said Alex Holden,
the chief executive of Hold Securi-
ty, a Milwaukee firm.
The F.B.I. says it will not com-
ment on the attacks, citing ongo-
ing investigations.
Mr. Holden and other cyber-
security experts say that the tar-
gets and the timing — just weeks
after the United States targeted
TrickBot — suggest that one pos-
sible motivation could be retalia-
tion.
In late September and October,
fearing that cybercriminals could
use ransomware to disrupt the
election, the Pentagon’s Cyber
Command started hacking Trick-
Bot’s systems. Microsoft pursued
the systems in federal court, suc-
cessfully dismantling 94 percent
of TrickBot’s servers.
The takedowns relegated Trick-
Bot’s operators to “a wounded ani-
mal lashing out,” Mr. Holden said.
His firm captured online mes-
sages sent among the group, in-
cluding a list of 400 American hos-
pitals they planned to target, and
informed law enforcement.
“We expect panic,” one hacker
wrote, in Russian.
U.S. officials warned hospitals
about a “credible threat” of at-
tacks on Oct. 23, and then an un-
usual cluster of attacks on hospi-
tals took place. Several hospital
networks — including The Uni-
versity of Vermont Health Net-
work and the St. Lawrence County
health system in New York —
have said they received no ran-
som note.
Others reported ransom de-
mands “in eight figures, which is
just not something that regional
health care systems can do,” said
Allan Liska, an analyst with Re-
corded Future, a cybersecurity
firm. These unusual demands,
combined with the coordination of
the attacks, make “it seem that it
was meant to be a disruptive at-
tack” rather than a profit-seeking
one, he said.
Mr. Holden said many of the
health systems opted to negotiate
with their extortionists, even as
ransoms jump into the millions.
“A great number of victims are
dealing with these attacks on their
own,” he said.
The View From Inside
In Vermont, the damage radiat-
ed out through a sprawling net-
work, hitting especially hard in
the cancer center.
“My really good friends are
I.C.U. nurses, and they’re like, no
big deal, all we have to do is paper
charting,” Ms. Cargill, the charge
nurse, said. But the cancer center
was badly set back for weeks, able
to serve only about one in four of
its normal chemotherapy pa-
tients.
Ms. Cargill spent the rest of the
day turning away patients, an ex-
perience she cannot relate with-
out beginning to cry, nearly a
month later.
“To look someone in the eye,
and tell them they cannot have
their life-extending or lifesaving
treatment, it was horrible, and to-
tally heart-wrenching,” she said.
The very first person she turned
away, a young woman, burst into
tears.
“She said, ‘I have to get chemo, I
am the mother of two young
kids,’” Ms. Cargill said. “She was
so fearful, and the fear was tangi-
ble.”
In the days that followed, clini-
cians attempted to prioritize pa-
tients and recreate chemotherapy
protocols from memory, gradually
aided by backup chart informa-
tion, said Ms. Legere, a nurse nav-
igator in the unit.
“They were trying to remember
everything they knew about a pa-
tient, but none of that is accurate,”
she said. “Our brains are not de-
signed to be electronic medical
records. That’s not safe, and we all
know it.” Patients, she said, “feel
very in the dark about when they
will get treated,” and many cancer
patients who live in rural areas do
not have the resources to drive
four hours to Boston for treat-
ELIZABETH FRANTZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
ment.
“Vermont feels intentional, it
feels scouted in the sense that it
would cause a ton of panic,” she
said. “The federal and statewide
response is where I’m feeling very
deserted. Maybe there’s stuff I
don’t see.”
Lawmakers have also accused
the Trump administration of mar-
ring the federal response.
In an email to The New York
Times, Senator Gary Peters, a
Democrat of Michigan and mem-
ber of the Homeland Security
Committee, called the president’s
firing of Mr. Krebs unacceptable,
adding that it caused instability at
his agency as it tried to mitigate
Complicating the response, President Trump last week fired Christopher Krebs, the
director of CISA, the cybersecurity agency responsible for defending critical systems.
Colleen Cargill, left, a charge nurse in hematology and oncology, outside the University of
Vermont Medical Center in Burlington. The cancer center was badly set back for weeks,
able to serve only about one in four of its normal chemotherapy patients.
the hospital attacks amid a surg-
ing pandemic.
Administrators at the Univer-
sity of Vermont Health Network
acknowledge that restoring serv-
ices proved far more challenging
than they expected.
“If you look at what some other
hospitals have gone through, it
was days, not weeks,” said Al Gob-
eille, the system’s executive vice
president for operations. “We
thought that was what this would
be. And we were wrong.”
He said a large number of pro-
fessionals on information technol-
ogy — 300 hospital employees,
plus 10 members of the National
Guard — were deployed to rebuild
and clean 1,300 servers and 5,000
laptops and desktop computers. A
team of seven F.B.I. investigators
was on site for two days after the
shutdown, he said, but has had lit-
tle to no contact with administra-
tors since then.
With the restoration of the elec-
tronic patient record system, he
said, the hospital’s systems are 75
to 80 percent recovered. The moti-
vation behind the attack remains
unclear. At a news conference last
month, Dr. Stephen Leffler, the
president of the medical center,
said he had received no request
for ransom. Since then, though, at
the request of the F.B.I., adminis-
trators have carefully avoided dis-
cussing the matter of ransom, or
confirming Dr. Leffler’s state-
ment.
Dr. Leffler, he said, “was saying
what he knew at the time,” Mr.
Gobeille said.
“The F.B.I. has asked us not to
talk about that part of the investi-
gation, and I haven’t said either
way,” he said. “I’m a pretty trans-
parent person, so it’s odd to say
the F.B.I. has asked me not to talk
AMR ALFIKY FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
ELIZABETH FRANTZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
about it. It’s not who were are. But
in this case, I understand why.”
Some patients have complained
that they were left dangling, un-
certain when their treatment
would resume.
Sean McCaffrey, 37, who was
scheduled to see a cardiologist on
the afternoon of the cyberattack
— he had been suffering from
chest pains — said he had never
been contacted to reschedule the
appointment.
“It’s really troublesome be-
cause I have lost some faith in my
local hospital,” he said. “I was told
I’d get a call. It’s been three weeks,
and I have no idea what to do.”
Others say they are still waiting
to gain access to critical scans.
Two days before the shutdown,
Damian Mooney, 47, had received
a radiologist’s notes on an M.R.I.
of his shoulder, which suggested
that an aggressive bone cancer
may have returned.
The scans have been unavail-
able since the cyberattack, so no
doctor has been able to say
whether the radiologist was cor-
rect, said his wife, Kat.
“For 26 days, we’ve been sitting
here going, ’We don’t know
whether this recurred or not,’” she
said.
It will be difficult, both for pa-
tients and staff members, to re-
gain their sense of security, said
Jennifer Long, an outpatient
nurse at the medical center.
She and her colleagues, she
said, sometimes wonder aloud
what allowed the hackers to get
into the system: “Is it the kid
down the street? Is it someone in
another country? Was it an email I
sent? Was it the last page I
opened?”
“You’re left with that feeling —
it’s kind of sickening, it’s very im-
personal — knowing that this was
a deliberate attack, without any
regard for the consequences, and
the potential for harm,” she said.
“It really stings. It’s really hard to
sit with it.”

Transition in Washington The President-Elect
Agriculture Dept. Pick
Could Decide Direction
Of U.S. Hunger Policy
By JONATHAN MARTIN
An unlikely fight is breaking out
over President-elect Joseph R. Bi-
den Jr.’s choice for agriculture sec-
retary, pitting a powerful Black
lawmaker who wants to refocus
the Agriculture Department on
hunger against traditionalists
who believe the department
should be a voice for rural Amer-
ica.
Representative James E.
Clyburn of South Carolina, the
highest-ranking Black member of
Congress and perhaps Mr. Biden’s
most important supporter in the
Democratic primary, is making an
all-out case for Representative
Marcia L. Fudge of Ohio, an Afri-
can-American Democrat from
Ohio.
Mr. Clyburn, whose endorse-
ment of Mr. Biden before the
South Carolina primary helped
turn the tide for the former vice
president’s nomination, has spo-
ken to him on the phone about Ms.
Fudge as recently as this week.
The lawmaker has also lobbied for
her with two of the president-
elect’s closest advisers and dis-
cussed the matter with Speaker
Nancy Pelosi.
“I feel very strongly,” Mr.
Clyburn said in an interview on
Wednesday about Ms. Fudge, who
leads the nutrition and oversight
subcommittee on the House Agri-
culture Committee.
“It’s time for Democrats to treat
the Department of Agriculture as
the kind of department it purports
to be,” he added, noting that much
of the budget “deals with con-
sumer issues and nutrition and
things that affect people’s day-to-
day lives.”
But there are complications.
Two of Mr. Biden’s farm-state al-
lies are also being discussed for
the job: Heidi Heitkamp, a former
senator from North Dakota, and
Tom Vilsack, the former Iowa gov-
ernor who served as agriculture
secretary for President Barack
Obama.
The delicate proxy clash over
the post, which is usually not as
coveted as more high-profile cab-
inet positions, has pitted Demo-
crats eager to emphasize issues
like hunger and nutrition against
more traditional members of the
party who believe the department
should represent rural America.
The sprawling agency oversees
farm policy, the Forest Service,
food safety and animal health, but
also the food stamp program, nu-
trition services, rural housing and
rural development.
More broadly, the debate illus-
trates the challenge Mr. Biden
faces as he builds his administra-
tion. Every appointment he
Senate Democrats Grapple
Over a Top Judiciary Job
By CARL HULSE
WASHINGTON — As soon as
Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illi-
nois learned officially on Monday
that there would be a Democratic
opening at the top of the Judiciary
Committee, he was on the phone
to his colleagues trying to nail
down their support for the posi-
tion.
“Never take anything for
granted,” Mr. Durbin said of his
bid to replace Senator Dianne
Feinstein of California, who
stepped aside as the senior Demo-
crat on the panel under intense
pressure from progressive activ-
ists who deemed her insufficiently
aggressive for the job. “I have
been through these contests be-
fore.”
One fellow Democrat whom Mr.
Durbin did not talk to was Senator
Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Is-
land, who made clear by the next
afternoon that he was also inter-
ested in the job. Some of the same
progressive activists who pressed
to shove Ms. Feinstein aside said
they would be backing him.
The competition set up a rare
internal power struggle that re-
flected broader disputes among
Democrats over the direction and
approach of their party in a new
Congress. As they sort through
the results of the election, which
handed them control of the White
House but left their hopes of tak-
ing the Senate hanging by a
thread, some are pushing for a
new, more combative style and
generational change.
Depending on the results of two
Senate runoffs in Georgia in Janu-
ary, whoever wins the battle for
the post will be either the chair-
man of the panel or the senior
Democrat, with a crucial role to
play on a panel that Republicans
have turned into a judicial confir-
mation assembly line.
Catie Edmondson contributed re-
porting.
makes interlocks with others, and
if he does not select a diverse can-
didate for one position it becomes
more likely he will for other posts.
The Agriculture job specifically
is pinching Mr. Biden between two
of his central campaign themes,
which he repeated in plain terms
this month in his victory speech:
that he owes a special debt to Afri-
can-American voters, and that he
wants to be a president for all
Americans, including those who
didn’t vote for him.
And nowhere did Mr. Biden fare
worse than in rural America, par-
ticularly the most heavily white
parts of the farm belt.
“This is a choice that only Joe
Biden can make, and he will make
it understanding the unique chal-
lenges of rural America and what
needs to happen in rural America
moving forward,” said Ms.
Heitkamp, a moderate who was
defeated in 2018 after serving as
attorney general and then senator
in one of the most sparsely popu-
lated states in the country.
Recalling her campaign efforts
on behalf of Mr. Biden’s “great ru-
ral plan,” Ms. Heitkamp predicted
the president-elect would “pick
the person who can implement
that rural plan.”
Mr. Clyburn, though, said the
Agriculture Department had for
too long seemed “to favor big
farming interests” over less
wealthy people, whether they be
“little farmers in Clarendon
County, S.C., or food stamp recipi-
ents in Cleveland, Ohio,” Ms.
Fudge’s hometown.
Mr. Clyburn did not mention
Ms. Heitkamp, but he bridled at
the prospect of Mr. Vilsack re-
claiming the department he had
led for all eight years of the
Obama administration.
“I don’t know why we’ve got to
be recycling,” Mr. Clyburn said,
echoing complaints that Mr. Biden
only represents Mr. Obama’s third
term. “There’s a strong feeling
that Black farmers didn’t get a fair
shake” under Mr. Vilsack, Mr.
Clyburn said.
Mr. Vilsack did not respond in
kind. He said he had “all the re-
spect in the world for Representa-
tive Clyburn” and that he had
learned from him.
The former Iowa governor, who
with his wife was an early sup-
porter of Mr. Biden in his first
campaign for president and again
this year, said he was not angling
for the agriculture job but was
careful not to disclaim interest in
the position.
“If there’s something I can do to
help the country, fine,” Mr. Vilsack
said. “But the president-elect
makes that decision.”
Mr. Durbin is the next in line be-
hind Ms. Feinstein on the commit-
tee, and Democrats generally ad-
here to seniority when awarding
such posts. The tension in this
case partly comes from the fact
that Mr. Durbin is already the No.
2 leader and holds an important
subcommittee chairmanship on
the Appropriations panel, which
controls federal spending. To
some, he is trying to hoard power,
potentially at the expense of his
own effectiveness in either job.
“Ultimately, this is not going to
come down to policy considera-
tions,” said Brian Fallon, the exec-
utive director of the progressive
advocacy group Demand Justice
and a backer of Mr. Whitehouse.
“It will be about whether the cau-
cus thinks a leadership post and
the top spot on a major committee
are too much for one member to
hold simultaneously.”
Mr. Durbin said it was common
for Senate leaders to hold a top job
on a committee, and his office
noted that the whip, the second-
ranking official, had routinely
done so in the past. First elected to
the Senate in 1996, Mr. Durbin, 76,
who just won his fifth term, has
never served as either the chair-
man or the senior minority mem-
ber of a full committee. He said he
saw this as his chance to influence
the direction of a panel he has sat
on for 22 years.
Members of both parties have
viewed Mr. Durbin as an effective
advocate for committee Demo-
crats who have chafed at the way
Republicans have jammed
through nominees in recent years.
“Believe me, I wouldn’t take
this on if I didn’t think I could do
the job,” he said in an interview
this week.
Supporters of Mr. Durbin, who
has a decidedly liberal record of
his own, noted his pursuit of pro-
gressive goals on a range of is-
sues.
“Senator Durbin consistently
THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONAL FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020
Representative Marcia L. Fudge of Ohio, a hunger advocate, has a strong ally in Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina.
Two farm-state advocates, Tom Vilsack, left, the former Iowa governor and agriculture secretary for President Barack Obama, and
Heidi Heitkamp, right, a former North Dakota senator, are in the running for the Agriculture Department job, along with Ms. Fudge.
When he does, he will be fully
aware of where one of his most
prominent supporters stands.
In addition to his conversations
with Mr. Biden, Mr. Clyburn has
reached out to Steve Ricchetti,
who will serve as a counselor in
the White House, and Ted Kauf-
man, Mr. Biden’s longest-serving
adviser and former chief of staff.
House Democratic leaders are
sensitive to creating vacancies in
the chamber, even in safe districts
like Ms. Fudge’s, given their slen-
der majority. Gov. Mike DeWine of
Ohio, a Republican, might not
schedule a quick special election
to replace her. But Mr. Clyburn
said he was hopeful from his con-
versation with Ms. Pelosi that she
“would greenlight” Ms. Fudge.
Senator Richard J. Durbin has laid claim to Senator Dianne Feinstein’s Judiciary Committee post.
has articulated progressive val-
ues at the heart of the Judiciary
Committee’s ambit, ranging from
checking corporate power
through arbitration and bank-
ruptcy reform to promoting fair
elections to protecting whistle-
blowers and civil liberties,” said
Daniel Schuman, the policy direc-
tor at Demand Progress.
Under Republican control since
2015, the committee has been the
focal point for that party’s drive to
confirm more than 220 conserva-
tive federal judges, including
three Supreme Court justices and
53 appeals court judges.
Against that backdrop, Mr.
Whitehouse, 65, who declined to
be interviewed for this article, has
charted out how a network of ad-
vocacy groups has taken money
from undisclosed donors to sup-
port the confirmation of conserva-
tive judges who are seen as poten-
tially sympathetic to their inter-
ests.
During the confirmation hear-
ing for Judge Amy Coney Barrett
in October, Mr. Whitehouse de-
ANDREW HARNIK/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Drew Hammill, a spokesman
for Ms. Pelosi, declined to com-
ment on the discussion. But he sig-
naled that the speaker, who ap-
pointed Ms. Fudge as the chair-
woman of a subcommittee two
years ago to defuse a potential ri-
valry for the speakership, would
not object to her departure.
“The speaker wants the full
contribution of House Democrats
to the Biden-Harris mandate and
to the future represented in the
administration,” Mr. Hammill
said.
Like other positions, the Agri-
culture Department decision
could be settled by finding an al-
ternate post elsewhere in the ad-
ministration for whoever is
passed over.
voted his first round of question-
ing to laying out his case and
telling her that she needed to un-
derstand the “forces outside of
this room who are pulling strings
and pushing sticks and causing
the puppet theater to react.”
His push has brought him sup-
port from those on the left who be-
lieve Democrats have not been ag-
gressive enough in challenging
Republicans over the judiciary.
But they also see Mr. Whitehouse,
who was just elected to his third
term, as someone who would
bring a new perspective at the top
of the committee.
“I think it needs a little bit of
fresh air, new energy,” said Faiz
Shakir, a former top Senate aide
and progressive activist who
served as the presidential cam-
paign manager for Senator Bernie
Sanders of Vermont. Mr. Shakir
said his backing of Mr. White-
house was not a personal com-
plaint against Mr. Durbin, but that
the Rhode Island Democrat had
“earned credibility” with his work.
“Giving him the opportunity to
A spokesman for Mr. Biden’s
transition declined to comment on
the appointment but said the pres-
ident-elect was “prioritizing di-
versity of ideology and back-
ground as he builds a team of ex-
perts that looks like America to
serve in his administration.”
Ms. Fudge, though, has other
important advocates, including
Senator Sherrod Brown, Demo-
crat of Ohio, who said he had made
the case for her “with four or five
top Biden transition people.” Her
colleagues on the House Agricul-
ture Committee have also been
supportive.
“It is time for a hunger advocate
to lead the Department of Agricul-
ture, and nobody could lead the
agency better than Marcia
ANNA MONEYMAKER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
lead a committee, I think, would
be a good changing of the guard
for Senate Democrats to present,”
Mr. Shakir said.
Mr. Durbin credited Mr. White-
house with doing “excellent work”
on exposing the spending behind
judicial nominations.
“It’s an important issue, and I’m
glad he is raising it,” said Mr.
Durbin, who has been highly criti-
cal of the Republican handling of
confirmations and said he would
pursue a reset should Democrats
win the majority.
“There clearly has to be a bal-
ancing of the courts,” he said.
“Most Americans are not looking
for all Democrats or all Republi-
cans.”
Mr. Durbin said he believed the
committee had drifted from its for-
mer role as a Senate powerhouse,
and he wanted to reinvigorate it. If
given the leadership spot, he said,
he would try to refocus the com-
mittee on voting rights, executive
branch oversight, antitrust efforts
and opposing liability immunity
N A21
J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Fudge,” said Representative File-
mon Vela, Democrat of Texas.
Most significant, though, are
three Black House Democrats
who are close to one another and
Ms. Fudge. The group includes
Mr. Clyburn, Representative Ben-
nie Thompson of Mississippi and
Representative Cedric Richmond
of Louisiana, who is leaving Con-
gress to become a senior adviser
in the White House.
As for Mr. Biden, Mr. Clyburn
said, “he likes Fudge a whole lot.”
Recounting his conversation
with the president-elect, the con-
gressman said he wanted to let
him make the decision. “I just told
him I thought she’d be a very good
candidate and help refocus what
the department is all about.”
A power struggle that
reflects a broader split
over a party’s future.
that Republicans are pursuing in
the wake of the coronavirus pan-
demic.
Mr. Durbin also pointed to his
ability to work with Senator
Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, who
will be either the top Republican
or chairman of the panel, particu-
larly on a criminal justice over-
haul that became law in 2018. Mr.
Durbin negotiated an agreement
with Mr. Grassley on reducing
sentences for nonviolent offend-
ers despite the Iowan’s own reser-
vations and pressure to drop the
contentious provisions to advance
the rest of the legislation.
“Very few people thought we
could pass sentencing reform as
part of First Step,” said Holly Har-
ris, the president of Justice Action
Network, a bipartisan criminal
justice reform organization. She
credited Mr. Durbin with keeping
the sentencing aspects alive: “Be-
cause of him, criminal justice re-
form took a first step rather than a
timid stumble.”
Internal leadership elections
are notoriously difficult to handi-
cap since lawmakers are reluctant
to commit publicly to a decision
that is made in secret. The elec-
tion will take place in the coming
weeks, before the convening of the
new Congress early next year.
Senator Chuck Schumer of New
York, the party leader who has to
navigate the divide in his caucus,
is so far not saying anything about
whether he has a preference.
But if there is one thing all Sen-
ate Democrats can agree on, it is
that they would much prefer that
either Mr. Durbin or Mr. White-
house chair the Judiciary Com-
mittee rather than serve as its
senior Democrat, with the posi-
tion dependent on the outcome in
Georgia.
“We are all pitching in in every
way imaginable to help the two
candidates down there,” Mr.
Durbin said.
A22 N THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONAL FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020
Transition in Washington The Outgoing Administration
From Start to Finish, a Presidency Haunted by a Single Word: Loser
From Page A1
attempts to twist a negative into a
positive, often by saying some-
thing over and over until it either
displaces the truth or exhausts
the audience into surrender.
It is a matter of record that Mr.
Trump has been a loser in many
business ventures (Trump
Steaks, anyone?). In fact, his
greatest success flowed not from
real estate but from the creation of
a popular alternate-reality televi-
sion persona — Donald Trump,
master of the boardroom — that
he ultimately rode to the White
House.
But his famous aversion to the
label of loser has now reached its
apotheosis.
Since Joseph R. Biden Jr. was
declared the winner of the Nov. 3
election — and Mr. Trump there-
fore declared the loser — the pres-
ident has repeatedly trafficked in
baseless allegations of a fraudu-
lent and corrupt electoral process.
What was once considered the
quirky trait of a self-involved New
York developer has become an in-
ternational embarrassment,
nearly upending the sacred tran-
sition of power and leaving the
world’s foremost democracy —
grappling with a deadly pandemic
and a teetering economy — with a
leader who refuses to concede de-
spite the basic math.
“AND I WON THE ELEC-
TION,” Mr. Trump tweeted last
week. “VOTER FRAUD ALL
OVER THE COUNTRY.”
On Monday, the Trump admin-
istration finally authorized a
weeks-delayed transition process
after Michigan certified Mr. Biden
as its winner. Still, Mr. Trump con-
tinued to press quixotic lawsuits
and tweet of fraud and defiant re-
solve.
“Our case STRONGLY contin-
ues, we will keep up the good
fight.”
“This was a LANDSLIDE!”
And for Thanksgiving: “Just
saw the vote tabulations. There is
NO WAY Biden got 80,000,000
votes!!! This was a 100%
RIGGED ELECTION.”
The president’s tweets have
succeeded in sowing doubt about
the foundational underpinnings of
the republic among his many mil-
lions of followers. In a recent
Reuters/Ipsos poll, about half the
Republicans questioned believed
that Mr. Trump had “rightfully
won” re-election, and 68 percent
expressed concern that the elec-
tion was “rigged.”
Such behavior by the president
reflects a binary-code approach to
life that spares no room for nu-
ance or complication. If a person
isn’t a one, then that person is a
zero.
“You are either a winner or a
loser,” Michael D. Cohen, Mr.
Trump’s former lawyer and fixer,
said in an interview last week.
“Reality is secondary. It is all
about perception.”
Mr. Cohen, who was convicted
in 2018 of tax evasion and cam-
paign finance violations and who
has since become a vocal critic of
the president, provided several
examples in his recent book, “Dis-
loyal: A Memoir.”
Mr. Cohen recounted how, in
2014, CNBC was preparing a poll
of the 25 most influential people in
the world. Mr. Trump, who ini-
Russ Buettner, Susanne Craig and
Mike McIntire contributed report-
ing.
New Regulation Would Allow U.S. to Use More Methods for Federal Executions
By HAILEY FUCHS
The Justice Department has
created new regulations allowing
for the use of more methods for
federal executions, including fir-
ing squad and electrocution.
The new rule, which is sched-
uled to be published in the Federal
Register on Friday, comes as the
administration rushes to execute
five more prisoners before the end
of President Trump’s term. It is
part of a spate of moves and rule-
making processes before he
leaves office.
Unlike in some of the final-hour
decisions, the practical effect of
the rule remains unclear. The Jus-
tice Department has not indicated
that it plans to execute inmates by
a manner other than lethal injec-
tion, which has been the only
method of execution the federal
government has used in decades.
Although lethal injection has
come under increasing legal as-
sault, the Supreme Court has al-
ready rejected recent challenges
to it presented by inmates on fed-
eral death row. And President-
elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., who can
rescind the rule, has signaled his
opposition to the federal death
penalty.
Last week, the Justice Depart-
ment announced that it plans to
execute three more inmates on
federal death row. If the adminis-
tration does so, along with two
Donald J. Trump at his Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City in 1990. Its rushed opening was a “disaster,” a former associate said.
tially ranked 187th out of 200, or-
dered Mr. Cohen to improve his
standing.
“Just make sure I make it to the
top 10,” Mr. Trump said, according
to Mr. Cohen.
Mr. Cohen hired someone to as-
sess the options. After that person
determined that the poll could be
manipulated, $15,000 was spent to
buy discreet I.P. addresses
through which votes for Mr.
Trump could be cast. The scheme
worked, with Mr. Trump elevated
to ninth place when all the votes
were counted.
“Before long, Trump believed
he really was rated in the top 10
and was regarded as a profoundly
important business figure,” Mr.
Cohen wrote.
But CNBC removed Mr. Trump
from the list without offering an
explanation. The infuriated future
president ordered Mr. Cohen to
get the network to change course.
This failed. He then ordered him
to plant a story in the media about
“the terrible treatment Trump
had received at the hands of
CNBC.” This also failed.
Still, Mr. Trump managed to ex-
ploit the fake ranking before he
was dropped from the list. “He
had hundreds of copies made, and
he added the poll to the pile of
newspaper clippings and maga-
zine profiles of himself that he
would give to visitors,” Mr. Cohen
wrote.
This fear of being seen as some-
how less than the very best is a re-
curring theme in the mountains of
books and articles written about
Mr. Trump. Many observers of
Trump family history have re-
flected on the influence of the pa-
triarch, the developer Fred C.
Trump, who had his own version
of the binary taxonomy of human-
ity: the strong and the weak.
Mr. Trump flicked at this in his
book “Trump: The Art of the
Deal,” in which he recalled gluing
together the blocks of his younger
brother, Robert, effectively ensur-
other executions already sched-
uled, it will have put 13 prisoners
to death since July, marking one of
the deadliest periods in the his-
tory of federal capital punishment
since at least 1927, according to
data from the Federal Bureau of
Prisons.
The rule, reported earlier by
ProPublica, stipulates that the
federal government may conduct
executions by lethal injection “or
by any other manner prescribed
by the law of the state in which the
sentence was imposed or which
has been designated by a court in
accordance with” the law that gov-
erns implementation of the death
sentence. It will go into effect 30
days after its scheduled publica-
tion on Friday, before some of the
executions are set to take place.
All states that use the death
penalty allow execution by lethal
injection, according to the rule.
Some also authorize other means.
For example, Alabama allows the
prisoner to elect a death by elec-
trocution or nitrogen hypoxia (a
lethal dose of gas) instead of lethal
injection. A law signed by the gov-
ernor of Utah in 2015 states that a
firing squad shall be used to exe-
cute an inmate if substances for le-
thal injection are unavailable on
the scheduled date.
States have already struggled
to obtain suitable drugs for their
lethal injection protocols. Several
ing that he would not be outdone
in any competition involving —
blocks.
“That was the end of Robert’s
blocks,” he wrote.
A grown-up iteration of that
episode came at a seminal mo-
ment in the man’s career: the
opening of his Taj Mahal casino in
Atlantic City in 1990.
According to Mr. O’Donnell,
who was deeply involved in the
venture, Mr. Trump pushed to
have the casino open prematurely
because he feared the shame a de-
lay would bring after promising
the world a glitzy, celebrity-
packed opening.
The casino wasn’t ready;
among other issues, only a quar-
ter of the slot machines were
Trump supporters in Las Vegas on Nov. 5, two days after the election, as ballots were being tallied.
years ago, reports of high-profile
botched executions, which in-
volved prisoners who reportedly
gasped or writhed in pain,
prompted new scrutiny over the
death penalty. After an instance in
Oklahoma, President Barack
Obama directed his attorney gen-
An administration
rushing to execute five
more prisoners before
the end of their term.
eral to review the application of
the death penalty in the United
States.
Federal executions carried out
since the Trump administration
ended a nearly two-decade hiatus
on the practice have been exclu-
sively by lethal injection. The gov-
ernment’s protocol uses a single
chemical, pentobarbital, for which
the Supreme Court cleared the
way in June.
The rule recently finalized by
the Trump administration con-
cerns how the federal government
must comply with state execution
protocols. The Federal Death Pen-
alty Act requires executions to be
carried out “in the manner pre-
open, leaving the cavernous space
quiet and empty. “It was just hor-
rible,” recalled Mr. O’Donnell, who
wrote a book about his experi-
ences with the future president.
“It didn’t look like a normal casi-
no.”
Privately, Mr. Trump was furi-
ous, and blamed his brother
Robert for some of the problems.
(The younger Trump quit and did
not speak to his brother for years.)
Publicly, though, Mr. Trump
boasted of the wonder that was
the Taj Mahal.
Appearing on CNN’s “Larry
King Live” in April 1990, Mr.
Trump said the only problem with
the Taj Mahal’s opening day was
too much success. Gamblers were
playing the slots with such feroc-
scribed by the law of the state in
which the sentence is imposed.”
When it filed an initial version of
the rule published in August, the
Justice Department noted that a
state might one day require exe-
cutions to be conducted by a
means other than lethal injection.
The proposed rule said it would
forestall potential challenges by
prisoners to their executions be-
cause federal regulations did not
expressly authorize execution by
means other than lethal injection.
Agencies are generally sup-
posed to allot at least 60 days for
public comment. The Trump ad-
ministration gave only 30 days for
the proposed rule.
Steve Vladeck, a law professor
at the University of Texas, noted
that Mr. Biden could reverse the
rule, but said that it represented a
“symbolic” and “deeply practical”
step by the department to carry
out its five scheduled executions.
“It’s a pretty gruesome way to
go out,” he said. “This is basically
the attorney general doubling
down on, you know, sort of making
it possible to execute as many fed-
eral prisoners as he can before his
tenure is over.”
He also highlighted recent legal
hurdles that the Justice Depart-
ment faced in death penalty litiga-
tion. Before the execution of a fed-
eral inmate, Orlando Cordia Hall,
last week, the U.S. Court of Ap-
ANGEL FRANCO/THE NEW YORK TIMES
ity that the machines almost burst
into flames.
“We had machines that — they
were virtually on fire,” Mr. Trump
said. “Nobody’s ever seen any-
thing like this.”
The Taj Mahal filed for bank-
ruptcy the following year, which
left Mr. Trump’s many lenders and
bondholders in the lurch.
Mr. Trump expounded on his
worldview in a 2014 interview
with the author Michael D’Anto-
nio. “You can be tough and ruth-
less and all that stuff, and if you
lose a lot, nobody’s going to follow
you, because you’re looked at as a
loser,” he said. “Winning is a very
important thing. The most impor-
tant aspect of leadership is win-
ning. If you have a record of win-
BRIDGET BENNETT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
peals for the District of Columbia
Circuit ruled that the depart-
ment’s lethal injection protocol
could violate the Federal Food,
Drug and Cosmetic Act. That law
requires a prescription for the ex-
ecution drug, pentobarbital. But
the court still declined to issue in
an injunction in the case.
In its effort to revive the death
penalty under the Trump adminis-
tration, the Justice Department
declined to use the three-drug
cocktail it had once used and in-
stead introduced a protocol using
a single drug, pentobarbital.
The announcements from the
Justice Department for the five
scheduled executions said four
prisoners would be executed by
lethal injection at the federal peni-
tentiary in Terre Haute, Ind. The
department did not specify the
manner of execution for one pris-
oner, Dustin John Higgs, con-
victed of kidnapping and murder-
ing three women. A Justice De-
partment official who spoke on
the condition of anonymity also
did not comment on his method of
execution.
Ruth Friedman, the director of
the Federal Capital Habeas
Project, who represented the first
man executed by the Trump ad-
ministration, called the rule a
“grand arrogation of power.” She
criticized the department’s deci-
sion to strip some judicial
A deep fear rooted in
childhood of being
labeled anything but
the very best.
ning, people are going to follow
you.”
Mr. Trump has often used the
courts to try to crush anyone who
might cast doubt on his Olympian
standing in wealth and success. A
standout in this category is the $5
billion lawsuit he filed against the
journalist Timothy L. O’Brien,
whose 2005 book, “TrumpNation:
The Art of Being the Donald,” ar-
gued that Mr. Trump’s net worth
was no more than $250 million —
that he was not, in other words, a
billionaire.
Mr. O’Brien reported that Mr.
Trump attributed the chasmic dis-
crepancy to envy. “You can go
ahead and speak to guys who
have 400 pound wives at home,”
Mr. Trump said, “but the guys who
really know me know I’m a great
builder.”
The lawsuit was dismissed.
Of course, Mr. Trump’s need to
be seen as a winner has informed
his presidency. The self-declared
superlatives cover all bases, from
being the “best thing that ever
happened to Puerto Rico” to doing
the most for Black Americans
(with the “possible exception” of
Abraham Lincoln). In anticipation
of his eventual impeachment, Mr.
Trump referred to himself as “our
greatest of all presidents.”
Perhaps the most famous mo-
ment in which this desire bled into
public policy came in late 2018,
when Mr. Trump used an ap-
proaching government shutdown
to demand funding for one of his
central fixations: a wall along the
Mexican border.
After Mr. Trump encouraged
his fellow Republicans in Con-
gress to reach a compromise, Sen-
ator Mitch McConnell, the major-
ity leader, worked out a deal to
avoid a shutdown and temporarily
set aside negotiations over securi-
ty measures, including a border
wall.
It appeared that Mr. Trump
would sign the deal — that is, until
conservative pundits accused the
president of caving to Democrats,
of breaking his “Build the Wall”
promise, of effectively being a
loser.
The president reversed course,
and so began the longest federal
government shutdown in the
country’s history — at an estimat-
ed cost to the economy of $11 bil-
lion, according to the nonpartisan
Congressional Budget Office.
After Mr. Trump was sworn in
as the 45th president of the United
States in January 2017, his admin-
istration asserted that the inaugu-
ration’s audience was the largest
ever, despite all evidence to the
contrary. But any suggestion oth-
erwise would have rendered Mr.
Trump a loser in some imagined
contest about inaugural crowd
sizes.
Now, nearly four years later, the
citizens have cast their ballots,
baseless lawsuits alleging elector-
al fraud have been dismissed and
states have certified the vote. Still,
the loser of the 2020 presidential
election continues to see crowds
that the rest of the country does
not.
It ends as it began.
oversight. The rule removed a re-
quirement that a government law-
yer submit to the court, among
other matters, the date and place
of the execution, part of a provi-
sion the department deemed re-
dundant.
Ms. Friedman also said that,
more troubling than the rule, was
the administration’s intention to
execute prisoners so shortly be-
fore a new administration that has
signaled opposition to capital pun-
ishment.
The Justice Department official
defended the decision, saying that
the regulations were intended to
align federal sentences with the
law.
Robert Dunham, the executive
director of the Death Penalty In-
formation Center, expected that
the new rule would most likely re-
sult in fewer and less complicated
legal challenges to executions, but
that it would quickly become im-
material under an administration
that does not seek to execute in-
mates.
“It tells us more about how
much the administration wants to
kill prisoners than it does about
any real correctional need,” he
said.
No day is complete
without
The New York Times.

Trump Says
He’ll Leave
If the Electors
Vote for Biden
By MICHAEL CROWLEY
President Trump said on Thurs-
day that he would leave the White
House if the Electoral College for-
malized Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s elec-
tion as president, even as he re-
iterated baseless claims of fraud
that he said would make it “very
hard” to concede.
Taking questions from report-
ers for the first time since Election
Day, Mr. Trump also threw himself
into the battle for Senate control,
saying he would soon travel to
Georgia to support Republican
candidates in two runoff elections
scheduled there on Jan. 5.
When asked whether he would
leave office in January after the
Electoral College cast its votes for
Mr. Biden on Dec. 14 as expected,
Mr. Trump replied: “Certainly I
will. Certainly I will.”
Speaking in the Diplomatic
Room of the White House after a
Thanksgiving video conference
with members of the American
military, the president insisted
that “shocking” new evidence
about voting problems would sur-
face before Inauguration Day.
“It’s going to be a very hard thing
to concede,” he said, “because we
know that there was massive
fraud.”
But even as he continued to
deny the reality of his defeat, Mr.
Trump also seemed to acknowl-
edge that his days as president
were numbered.
“Time is not on our side,” he
said, in a rare admission of weak-
ness. He also complained that
what he referred to, prematurely,
as “the Biden administration” had
declared its intention to scrap his
“America First” foreign policy vi-
sion.
The president was also strik-
ingly testy at one point, lashing
out at a reporter who interjected
during one of his several rambling
statements about the supposedly
fraudulent election.
“You’re just a lightweight,” Mr.
Trump snapped, raising his voice
and pointing a finger in anger.
“Don’t talk to me that — don’t talk
— I’m the president of the United
States. Don’t ever talk to the presi-
dent that way.”
If Mr. Trump sees the end of his
presidency as inevitable, he
clearly still believes he can bolster
his legacy — and badly under-
mine Mr. Biden, the man who is
ending it — by helping to preserve
a Republican Senate that could
serve as a wall against the new
Democratic agenda.
The election results left Demo-
crats holding 48 seats in the Sen-
ate. If Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Dr.
Raphael Warnock, the Democrat-
ic challengers in Georgia, can both
pull off victories over Senators
David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler,
their party will gain de facto con-
trol of a Senate divided 50-50 be-
cause Vice President-elect Kama-
la Harris would wield a tiebreak-
ing vote.
In his remarks on Thursday, Mr.
Trump said he would visit Georgia
on Saturday. Judd Deere, a White
House spokesman, later clarified
that the president meant Satur-
day, Dec. 5.
The president added that he
could return to the state to back
the Republicans a second time,
“depending on how they’re doing.”
It is unclear how helpful Mr.
Trump’s appearances would be
for the two embattled Republican
incumbents. After a hand recount
of a close vote, Georgia declared
Mr. Biden the winner there on
Nov. 19 by a margin of 12,284
votes. Mr. Biden is the first Demo-
crat to carry the state in a presi-
dential election since Bill Clinton
in 1996.
Mr. Trump insisted on Thurs-
day that he had won the vote by a
significant margin. “We were
robbed. We were robbed,” he said.
“I won that by hundreds of thou-
sands of votes. Everybody knows
it.”
Asked whether he would attend
Mr. Biden’s inauguration, as is
customary for a departing presi-
dent, Mr. Trump was coy.
“I don’t want to say that yet,”
the president said, adding, “I
know the answer, but I just don’t
want to say.”
At times, Mr. Trump shifted his
explanation of his defeat from
claims of fraud to complaints that
the political battlefield had been
slanted against him, casting the
news media and technology com-
panies as his enemies.
“If the media were honest and
big tech was fair, it wouldn’t even
be a contest,” he said. “And I
would have won by a tremendous
amount.”
After seeming to concede reali-
ty, Mr. Trump quickly caught him-
self and revised his conditional
statement.
“And I did win by a tremendous
amount,” he added.
Check out the colorful issues
of : The Times Style Magazine
U.S. Settles With Americans Detained for Speaking Spanish
By ALLYSON WALLER
Two women who were detained
in a small town in Montana after a
Border Patrol agent heard them
speaking Spanish at a conven-
ience store have settled for an un-
disclosed amount after filing a
lawsuit against U.S. Customs and
Border Protection, the A.C.L.U. of
Montana said on Tuesday.
The women, Ana Suda and
Martha Hernandez, were de-
tained for about 40 minutes on
May 16, 2018, after a border patrol
agent overheard them speaking
Spanish while they were waiting
in line to purchase milk and eggs
at a Town Pump convenience
store in Havre, Mont., a city of
close to 10,000 about 35 miles
south of the Canadian border.
While standing behind the two
women in line, the Border Patrol
agent, Paul O’Neill, was greeted
by Ms. Hernandez. He com-
mented on her accent and asked
the women where they were from.
After they answered that they
were from Texas and California,
Mr. O’Neill asked for their identifi-
cation and the two women gave
him their valid state-issued driv-
er’s licenses.
In a video of the encounter
filmed by the women, one of them
asked why Mr. O’Neill had re-
quested identification.
“The reason I asked you for
your ID,” Mr. O’Neill replied, “is
because I came in here and I saw
that you guys are speaking Span-
ish, which is very unheard-of up
here.”
Other Border Patrol agents
soon arrived, along with Mr.
O’Neill’s supervisor, according to
Test-score fixing “resulted in the applicants illegally obtaining a range of licenses,” prosecutors say.
Dozens Charged in Coast Guard Test Scheme
By BRYAN PIETSCH
For more than seven years,
prosecutors say, a Coast Guard
employee at a test center in Loui-
siana took bribes to enter falsified
test scores, allowing two dozen
people to obtain licenses required
for various positions on vessels
without passing the exams.
Last week, that employee,
Dorothy Smith, a credentialing
specialist at the center in Man-
deville, La., and 30 other people
were indicted in the scheme, pros-
ecutors said on Monday.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s
Office for the Eastern District of
Louisiana, Ms. Smith worked with
intermediaries to secure bribes.
Two former Coast Guard employ-
ees are among the six intermedi-
aries whom prosecutors said Ms.
Smith used as part of the opera-
tion. The other four, who were
workers in the maritime industry,
had their scores fixed by Ms.
Smith in addition to recruiting
others.
In exchange for the bribes, Ms.
Smith falsely reported that the ap-
plicants had earned passing
scores on exams or learning mod-
ules, prosecutors said, and in
some cases reported that the ap-
plicants had appeared for the
tests when they had not.
The exams test “mariners’
knowledge and training to safely
operate under the authority of li-
censes,” according to a statement
from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Ms. Smith and the six interme-
diaries were each charged with
conspiracy to defraud the United
Recipes. Advice. Inspiration.
nytcooking.com
THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONAL FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020
the lawsuit. Ms. Suda asked the
supervisor if she and Ms. Hernan-
dez would have been detained if
they had been speaking French.
“No,” he responded, “we don’t do
that.”
Ms. Suda, who was born in El
Paso, and Ms. Hernandez, who
was born in El Centro, Calif., both
grew up speaking Spanish, and
were Havre residents at the time
of the incident.
In 2019, the A.C.L.U. filed a law-
suit on the women’s behalf, alleg-
ing that a Border Patrol agent had
singled them out for speaking
Spanish and had relied on that as a
“proxy for race.” Lawyers repre-
senting Ms. Suda and Ms. Her-
nandez also said the detention vio-
lated the Fourth Amendment and
the women’s right to equal protec-
tion.
Since the incident, Ms. Suda
and Ms. Hernandez have moved
from Havre for fear of their fam-
ilies’ safety and because of “local
backlash,” said Caitlin Borgmann,
executive director of the A.C.L.U
of Montana.
Lawyers who represented Mr.
O’Neill did not respond to re-
quests for comment.
In a statement, U.S. Customs
and Border Protection said the
settlement did not mean it had
been held liable for the incident.
Border Patrol agents “are trained
to enforce U.S. laws uniformly and
fairly, and they do not discrimi-
nate based on religion, race, eth-
nicity or sexual orientation,” the
agency said.
“C.B.P. is committed to the fair,
impartial and respectful treat-
ment of all members of the trade
MC3 MADYSSON ANNE RITTER/US NAVY, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
States. A lawyer representing Ms.
Smith in the case declined to com-
ment.
The scheme “resulted in the ap-
plicants illegally obtaining a
range of licenses for officer-level
positions, including the most im-
portant positions on vessels, such
as master, chief mate, and chief
engineer,” the statement said.
The Coast Guard did not imme-
diately respond on Tuesday night
to a request for comment.
Twenty-four other people face
charges in the case. They were
charged with receiving, possess-
ing and intending to unlawfully
use mariner licenses by way of the
false scores. Some applicants had
their scores fixed on multiple oc-
casions, prosecutors said.
One applicant paid an interme-
diary $3,500 for fake scores, ac-
cording to the indictment. An-
other paid Ms. Smith $1,000 di-
rectly, prosecutors said. They did
not say how much Ms. Smith and
her associates made in the
scheme.
If convicted, each of the 31 de-
fendants could face up to five
years in prison and a $250,000
fine, prosecutors said.
The case is being investigated
by the Coast Guard Investigative
Service. It was unclear how inves-
tigators became aware of the op-
eration.
The indictment came more than
a year after dozens of people were
charged in an unrelated wide-
spread college admissions cheat-
ing scandal. Those charges re-
sulted from the Justice Depart-
BROOKE SWANEY/ACLU OF MONTANA, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
Martha Hernandez, left, and Ana Suda at the Havre, Mont.,
store where a Border Patrol agent asked them for their IDs.
One woman born in
California and one
born in Texas were
held for 40 minutes.
and traveling public, and has me-
morialized its commitment to
nondiscrimination in existing
policies,” the agency said.
In a statement released through
the A.C.L.U., Ms. Suda said she
hoped the encounter pushes U.S.
Customs and Border Protection to
reassess its conduct.
“We stood up to the government
because speaking Spanish is not a
reason to be racially profiled and
harassed. I am proud to be bilin-
gual, and I hope that as a result of
this case C.B.P. takes a hard look
ment’s “Varsity Blues” investiga-
tion and involved celebrities
including the actresses Felicity
Huffman and Lori Loughlin.
The investigation revealed that
wealthy parents had paid to have
their children’s admissions scores
fixed, sometimes in conjunction
with falsified résumés and bribes
to coaches to admit students as
competitive athletes.
Last week, a former fencing
coach at Harvard was accused of
taking $1.5 million in bribes to as-
sist a wealthy Maryland business-
man’s sons in being admitted to
the school.
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guage other than English at home.
In a video that the A.C.L.U. ob-
tained during the investigation, a
supervisor from the U.S. Customs
and Border Protection told inves-
tigators from the agency that he
did not see “anything harassing”
about the May 2018 incident. Ha-
vre is a small town, he noted,
where “nobody really has much to
do.”
“If there’s somebody speaking
Spanish down here,” the supervi-
sor said, “all of a sudden you got
five agents swarming in like,
‘What’s going on?’ So, Havre is
kind of like that.”
The A.C.L.U. also discovered
that Mr. O’Neill was a member of
the Facebook Group, “I am 10-15,”
which included “obscene images
of Hispanic lawmakers and
threats to members of Congress.”
at its policies and practices,” Ms.
Suda said. “No one else should The U.S. Customs and Border
ever have to go through this
again.”
Protection’s Havre Sector field of-
fice, which consisted of 175 agents
This was not the first time she in fiscal year 2018, has jurisdiction
and Ms. Hernandez were the sub- over 456 miles of border area.
ject of border patrol agents’ suspi- In 2006, the United States Court
cions. of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
In February 2018, an agent ruled that agents from the Havre
heard Ms. Suda and Ms. Hernan- Sector violated the Fourth
Amendment and “lacked reason-
dez speaking Spanish at a bar in
able suspicion” when they de-
Havre. The agent sent a photo of
tained five Hispanic men in 2004.
them to other agents in a message
Ms. Borgmann said the 2018 in-
that said, “There are two Mexi-
cident involving Ms. Suda and Ms.
cans at the bar.” An agent receiv-
ing the message then responded Hernandez was not simply an ex-
that Ms. Suda and Ms. Hernandez ample of “one bad apple” but also
were friends of his wife. of a systemic problem within the
Hispanic residents make up Havre Sector.
about 4 percent of Havre’s popula- “I hope it’s recognized as a re-
tion, while white residents make sult of this lawsuit and these wom-
up about 80 percent, according to en’s courage in coming forward,”
census data. In Montana, nearly 4 she said, “that this is entrenched
percent of residents speak a lan- behavior and it needs to stop.”
What to Get Panda Cub
Who Has It All: A Name
By CHRISTINE HAUSER moment of joy amidst the Covid-19
pandemic,” it said.
Three months after his birth,
Xiao Qi Ji, who weighed just un-
the National Zoo’s panda cub now
der one and a half pounds by the
has a name.
Welcome Xiao Qi Ji, a Mandarin time he was 3 weeks old, tipped
phrase that translates to “little the scales at 10.4 pounds last
miracle” in English, the zoo an- week. His name reflects the cir-
nounced on Monday. cumstances under which he was
The name was one of four that born and the conservation efforts
the Smithsonian’s National Zoo of the zoo and its Chinese part-
and Conservation Biology Insti- ners, the zoo and institute said.
tute asked the public to choose At 22 years old, his mother, Mei
from for the cub, who was born on Xiang, is the oldest giant panda in
Aug. 21 at the zoo’s David M. Ru-
benstein Family Giant Panda
Habitat.
From his first moments, Xiao Qi
Ji has had a very public life. His
birth was live-streamed, and his
growth and milestones have been
watched by more than one million
people on the zoo’s Giant Panda
Cam. He had a social media fol-
lowing (#PandaStory and #Pan- SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL ZOO, VIA AP
daCubdates) and his own e-news-
letter. Xiao Qi Ji, or “little miracle,”
was born at the National Zoo
He had everything, it seems, ex-
in Washington in August.
cept a name.
So last week, members of the
public were asked to pick one by the United States to give birth.
voting on the zoo’s website. More Zoo veterinarians and scientists
than 100,000 people did so, choos-
from the Conservation Biology In-
ing from a list that included three
stitute performed an artificial in-
other Mandarin names: Fu Zai
semination using frozen semen
(prosperous boy), Xing Fu (happy
from Tian Tian, Xiao Qi Ji’s father,
and prosperous) and Zai Zai (a
traditional nickname for a boy, the who is 23 years old.
zoo said). “This is the first time a zoo in
“After five days of voting and the United States has experienced
just under 135,000 votes, the win- a successful pregnancy and birth
ning name is Xiao Qi Ji (SHIAU- via artificial insemination using
chi-ji), which translates as ‘little only frozen semen,” the zoo said.
miracle’ in English,” the zoo an- The zoo has a breeding agreement
nounced. with the China Wildlife Conserva-
“Giant pandas are an interna- tion Association, meaning that
tional symbol of endangered wild- cubs born at the zoo are trans-
life and hope, and Xiao Qi Ji’s birth ferred to China when they reach
offered the world a much-needed the age of 4.
NOTICE OF PUBLIC SALE OF COLLATERAL
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE, that in accordance with applicable provisions of the
Uniform Commercial Code as enacted in New York, Queens Mixed Use LLC
(“Secured Party”) will offer for sale, at public auction, all right, title and interests of
Enrico Manetta (“Pledgor”) in and to (a) 100% of the limited liability membership
interests in the following entities: (i) RMN Maspeth Realty Co., LLC, (ii) R&L
Properties, LLC, (iii) Rini Properties LLC, (iv) RN Associates Realty Company LLC,
and (v) Luric Realty LLC (collectively, “Pledged Entities”), and (b) certain related
rights and property relating thereto (collectively, (a) and (b) are the “Collateral”).
Secured Party’s understanding is that the principal assets of the Pledged
Entities are those certain fee interests in real properties commonly known as:
(a) 58-87/58-89 57th Street, Maspeth, New York (Queens, Block 2622, Lot 111);
(b) 44-15/44-17 54th Drive, Queens, New York (Queens, Block 2537, Lot 38);
(c) 44-10/44-18 54th Road, Queens, New York (Queens, Block 2537, Lot 11);
(d) 44-21 54th Drive, Queens, New York (Queens, Block 2537, Lot 36); (e) 44-25
54th Drive, Queens, New York (Queens, Block 2537, Lot 34); (f) 20-61 49th Street,
Astoria, New York (Queens, Block 756, Lot 6); (g) 270-272 McGuinness Boulevard,
Brooklyn, New York (Kings, Block 2552, Lot 3); (h) 14-02/14-08 150th Street,
Whitestone, New York (Queens, Block 4660, Lot 1); (i) 20-01/20-05 49th Street,
Astoria, New York (Queens, Block 756, Lot 26); and (j) 20-07/20-09 49th Street,
Astoria, New York (Queens, Block 756, Lot 25). The public auction will be held on
December 22, 2020 at 1:00 p.m., New York time, by remote auction via Cisco WebEx
Remote Meeting, Meeting link: https://bit.ly/MANETTA Access Code 126 164 7918,
Password UCCKATKOR (82252856 from phones and video systems), Call in number
1-415-655-0001. The Collateral will be sold to the highest qualified bidder; provided,
however, that Secured Party reserves the right to cancel the sale in its entirety, or to
adjourn the sale to a future date. The sale will be conducted by Mannion Auctions,
LLC, by Matthew D. Mannion, Auctioneer, NYC DCA License No. 1434494, with
offices at 305 Broadway, Suite 200, New York, New York. The Collateral will be sold
as a block, and will not be divided or sold in any lesser amounts. Interested parties
who intend to bid on the above Collateral must contact Secured Party’s counsel,
Steven H. Newman, Esq., at Katsky Korins LLP, 605 Third Avenue, New York, New
York 10158, (212) 716-3235, snewman@katskykorins.com to receive the Terms of
Public Sale and bidding instructions. Upon execution of a standard confidentiality
and non-disclosure agreement, additional documentation and information will be
available. Interested parties who do not contact the Secured Party’s counsel and
qualify prior to the sale will not be permitted to enter a bid.
A24
PAUL KRUGMAN
In Praise of Janet Yellen the Economist
IT’S HARD TO OVERSTATE the enthusiasm
among economists over Joe Biden’s se-
lection of Janet Yellen as the next secre-
tary of the Treasury. Some of this enthu-
siasm reflects the groundbreaking na-
ture of her appointment. She won’t just
be the first woman to hold the job, she’ll
be the first person to have held all three
of the traditional top U.S. policy positions
in economics — chair of the Council of
Economic Advisers, chair of the Federal
Reserve and now Treasury secretary.
And yes, there’s a bit of payback for
Donald Trump, who denied her a well-
earned second term as Fed chair, report-
edly in part because he thought she was
too short.
But the good news about Yellen goes
beyond her ridiculously distinguished
career in public service. Before she held
office, she was a serious researcher. And
she was, in particular, one of the leading
figures in an intellectual movement that
helped save macroeconomics as a useful
discipline when that usefulness was un-
der both external and internal assault.
Before I get there, a word about Yel-
len’s time at the Federal Reserve, espe-
cially her time on the Fed’s board in the
early 2010s, before she became chair.
At the time, the U.S. economy was
slowly clawing its way back from the
Great Recession — a recovery impeded,
not incidentally, by Republicans in Con-
gress who pretended to care about na-
tional debt and imposed spending cuts
that significantly hurt economic growth.
But spending wasn’t the only issue of de-
bate; there were also fierce arguments
about monetary policy.
Specifically, there were many people
on the right condemning the Fed’s efforts
to rescue the economy from the effects of
the 2008 financial crisis. Among them, by
the way, was Judy Shelton, the totally un-
qualified hack Trump is still trying to in-
stall on the Fed board, who warned in
2009 that the Fed’s actions would
produce “ruinous inflation.” (Hint: They
didn’t.)
Even within the Fed, there was a divi-
sion between “hawks” worried about in-
flation and “doves” who insisted that in-
flation wasn’t a threat in a depressed
economy, and that fighting the depres-
sion should take priority. Yellen was one
of the leading doves — and a 2013 analy-
sis by The Wall Street Journal found that
she had been the most accurate forecast-
er among Fed policymakers.
Why did she get it right? Part of the
answer, I’d argue, goes back to academic
work she did in the 1980s.
At the time, as I’ve suggested, useful
DAVID BROOKS
The Rotting of the Republican Mind
IN A RECENT MONMOUTH University sur-
vey, 77 percent of Trump backers said
Joe Biden had won the presidential elec-
tion because of fraud. Many of these
same people think climate change is not
real. Many of these same people believe
they don’t need to listen to scientific ex-
perts on how to prevent the spread of the
coronavirus.
We live in a country in epistemological
crisis, in which much of the Republican
Party has become detached from reality.
Moreover, this is not just an American
problem. All around the world, rising
right-wing populist parties are floating
on oceans of misinformation and false-
hood. What is going on?
Many people point to the internet —
the way it funnels people into informa-
tion silos, the way it abets the spread of
misinformation. I mostly reject this view.
Why would the internet have corrupted
Republicans so much more than Demo-
crats, the global right more than the
global left?
My analysis begins with a remarkable
essay that Jonathan Rauch wrote for Na-
tional Affairs in 2018 called “The Consti-
tution of Knowledge.” Rauch pointed out
that every society has an epistemic re-
macroeconomics was under attack.
What I mean by “useful macroeconom-
ics” was the understanding, shared by
economists from John Maynard Keynes
to Milton Friedman, that monetary and
fiscal policy could be used to fight reces-
sions and reduce their economic and hu-
man toll.
This understanding didn’t fail the test
of reality — on the contrary, the experi-
ence of the early 1980s strongly con-
firmed the predictions of basic macro-
economics.
But useful economics was under
threat.
On one side, right-wing politicians
turned away from reality-based econom-
ics in favor of crank doctrines, especially
the claim that governments can conjure
up miraculous growth by cutting taxes
on the rich. On the other side, a signifi-
cant number of economists themselves
Never forgetting
that economics is
about people.
rejected any role for policy in fighting re-
cessions, claiming that there would be no
need for such a role if people were acting
rationally in their own interests, and that
economic analysis should always as-
sume that people are rational.
Which is where Yellen came in; she
was a prominent figure in the rise of
“new Keynesian” economics, which
rested on one key insight: People aren’t
stupid, but they aren’t perfectly rational
gime, a marketplace of ideas where peo-
ple collectively hammer out what’s real.
In democratic, nontheocratic socie-
ties, this regime is a decentralized
ecosystem of academics, clergy mem-
bers, teachers, journalists and others
who disagree about a lot but agree on a
shared system of rules for weighing evi-
dence and building knowledge.
This ecosystem, Rauch wrote, oper-
ates as a funnel. It allows a wide volume
of ideas to get floated, but only a narrow
group of ideas survive collective scru-
tiny. “We let alt-truth talk,” Rauch said,
“but we don’t let it write textbooks, re-
ceive tenure, bypass peer review, set the
research agenda, dominate the front
pages, give expert testimony or dictate
the flow of public dollars.”
Over the past decades the information
age has created a lot more people who
make their living working with ideas,
who are professional members of this
epistemic process. The information
economy has increasingly rewarded
them with money and status. It has in-
creasingly concentrated them in ever
more prosperous metro areas.
While these cities have been prosper-
ing, places where fewer people have col-
MICHAEL REYNOLDS/EPA, VIA SHUTTERSTOCK
and self-interested. And even a bit of re-
alism about human behavior restores the
case for aggressive policies to fight re-
cessions. In later work Yellen would
show that labor market outcomes de-
pend a lot not just on pure dollars-and-
cents calculations, but also on percep-
tions of fairness.
All this may sound abstruse, but I can
vouch from my own experience that this
work had a huge impact on many young
economists — basically giving them a li-
cense to be sensible.
And it seems to me that there’s a direct
line from the disciplined realism of Yel-
len’s academic research to her success as
a policymaker. She was always someone
who understood the value of data and
models. Indeed, rigorous thinking be-
comes more, not less important in crazy
times like these, when past experience
offers little guidance about what we
should be doing. But she also never for-
got that economics is about people, who
aren’t the emotionless, hyperrational
calculating machines economists some-
times wish they were.
Now, none of this means that things
will necessarily go well. The race is not to
the swift, neither yet bread to the wise,
nor yet success to policymakers of un-
derstanding, but time and chance hap-
pen to them all. Trump’s cabinet was a
clown show — possibly the worst cabinet
in America’s history — but it wasn’t until
2020 that the consequences of the admin-
istration’s incompetence became fully
apparent.
Still, it’s immensely reassuring to
know that economic policy will be made
by someone who knows what she is do-
ing. 0 change our minds.
J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
lege degrees have been spiraling down:
flatter incomes, decimated families, dis-
solved communities. In 1972, people
without college degrees were nearly as
happy as those with college degrees.
Now those without a degree are far more
unhappy about their lives.
People need a secure order to feel safe.
We live in a country
where one party is
detached from reality.
Deprived of that, people legitimately feel
cynicism and distrust, alienation and an-
omie. This precarity has created, in na-
tion after nation, intense populist back-
lashes against the highly educated folks
who have migrated to the cities and ac-
crued significant economic, cultural and
political power. Will Wilkinson of the
Niskanen Center calls this the “Density
Divide.” It is a bitter cultural and political
cold war.
In the fervor of this enmity, millions of
people have come to detest those who
LETTERS
What to Do About Student Loan Debt?
TO THE EDITOR:
Re “Is This Where We Are, Amer-
ica?,” by Roxane Gay (Op-Ed, Nov.
23):
I am a retired lawyer who spent
hours reading federal student loan
regulations in order to understand
how and why my daughters’ 10-
year-old student loan obligations
far exceeded the amounts they had
borrowed. The short answer was
interest, interest, interest.
The lenders have been allowed
to charge rates that far exceed
national norms and that can be
raised by loan consolidations.
Forgiveness programs are an
unfulfilled promise for many be-
cause of details that few students
understand.
Perhaps the answer to those
who object to complete student
loan relief is for the government to
pay off only the interest. The stu-
dent would remain responsible for
the principal. At the same time,
more effort needs to be made to
educate borrowers before they
take out a loan about the long-term
fiscal consequences.
MEG KIERAN, EUGENE, ORE.
TO THE EDITOR:
Even though I attended a public
university, had a full scholarship
for tuition and fees, worked and
had subsidized housing through
my church, I still needed a student
loan from the federal government
to pay for my undergraduate edu-
cation at the University of Illinois.
I thought about walking away
from the loan but decided that
would be a bad idea. I did not go on
to graduate school because I could
never justify getting another de-
gree when I still was paying for my
first one. After working for 10
years, I paid off the loan.
When my two children went to
private colleges, my husband and I
paid for their education in full,
prioritizing that over our own
retirement, so that neither child
would be burdened with debt after
graduation.
Despite that history, I agree
completely with Roxane Gay. Let’s
forgive student loans. Let’s help
unburden young people; they’re
facing a world with enough severe
Perfecting the Art of Listening to Each Other
TO THE EDITOR:
Re “9 Nonobvious Ways to Have
Deeper Talks” (column, Nov. 20):
David Brooks beautifully de-
scribes ways of having deeper
talks. His essential message is that
we need to listen with genuine
interest in the person we are talk-
ing to. But listening isn’t easy.
First, we have to realize that we
don’t listen. Half of us complain
that the other half isn’t listening
while the half being accused are
themselves complaining that they
are not being heard.
Second, we need to identify our
non-listening habits: interrupting,
defending, advising, problem-
solving or thinking of what we are
going to say when the speaker
stops talking.
Only when we break these habits
will we truly listen. With such divi-
sion among us politically there is no
better time than this holiday season
to follow Mr. Brooks’s words of
wisdom and to really listen.
PAUL J. DONOGHUE
MARY E. SIEGEL
STAMFORD, CONN.
The writers are the authors of “Are
populate the epistemic regime, who are
so distant, who appear to have it so easy,
who have such different values, who can
be so condescending. Millions not only
distrust everything the “fake news” peo-
ple say, but also the so-called rules they
use to say them.
People in this precarious state are go-
ing to demand stories that will both ex-
plain their distrust back to them and also
enclose them within a safe community of
believers. The evangelists of distrust,
from Donald Trump to Alex Jones to the
followers of QAnon, rose up to give them
those stories and provide that communi-
ty. Paradoxically, conspiracy theories
have become the most effective commu-
nity bonding mechanisms of the 21st cen-
tury.
For those awash in anxiety and alien-
ation, who feel that everything is spin-
ning out of control, conspiracy theories
are extremely effective emotional tools.
For those in low status groups, they pro-
vide a sense of superiority: I possess im-
portant information most people do not
have. For those who feel powerless, they
provide agency: I have the power to re-
ject “experts” and expose hidden cabals.
As Cass Sunstein of Harvard Law
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020
problems already. Let’s affirm our
social contract.
We are all in this together.
SUSAN E. ANDERSON, CHICAGO
TO THE EDITOR:
Contrary to Roxane Gay’s theory
of why people oppose canceling
student debt, my reluctance to do
so has nothing with wanting other
people to suffer. It is simply that I
do not believe we should be in the
business of protecting people from
the consequences of their own
decisions.
If I buy a house that I can’t
afford, nobody is going to step in
and pay the mortgage for me.
I do think, however, that student
loan programs could be better
structured to lessen the burden on
students and to better inform them
of the reality of the obligations
they are taking on.
I am sympathetic to those whose
debts are crushing, but it isn’t
something that just happened to
them. They signed up for it and
should have taken the time to
consider what it meant.
DEBRA H. FRANTZ, CLEVELAND
TO THE EDITOR:
“Forgiveness of Loans Wouldn’t
Tackle Roots of Student Debt Cri-
sis” (The Upshot, Nov. 21) is an
excellent recap of why we need to
do more to fix the student loan
debt problem than just forgive
some loans.
One more suggestion is for Con-
gress to expand and improve na-
tional service programs like
AmeriCorps. Have a system that
will allow students to do full-time
public service for a year to earn
enough money to pay the cost of
college at state colleges for a year.
This is a victory for everyone:
The students have the chance to do
meaningful work and commit to a
common cause, and the country
gets help addressing unmet needs.
CATHERINE H. MILTON
MENLO PARK, CALIF.
The writer, a former executive director
of the Commission on National and
Community Service, helped develop
AmeriCorps.
You Really Listening?: Keys to Suc-
cessful Communication.”
TO THE EDITOR:
I would add one more way to really
listen: Be vulnerable. We cannot
invite deep conversations unless we
allow other people the power to
Political conversations, in partic-
ular, tend to be shallow and transac-
tional, even scripted. We are trying
to get like-minded people to con-
sider political action. This is all for
the good, but it is not sufficient
given the divisions in our country.
Instead, we need to be brave
enough to talk to people who do not
agree with us, and to listen long
enough to really begin to under-
stand their perspective. I cannot
change anyone else unless I am
willing to be changed by them.
STEPHEN BAUM, SEATTLE
The Times welcomes letters from read-
ers. Letters must include the writer’s
name, address and telephone number.
Those selected may be edited, and short-
ened to fit allotted space. Email: letters
@nytimes.com
School points out, they provide libera-
tion: If I imagine my foes are completely
malevolent, then I can use any tactic I
want.
Under Trump, the Republican identity
is defined not by a set of policy beliefs but
by a paranoid mind-set. He and his me-
dia allies simply ignore the rules of the
epistemic regime and have set up a rival
trolling regime. The internet is an ideal
medium for untested information to get
around traditional gatekeepers, but it is
an accelerant of the paranoia, not its
source. Distrust and precarity, caused by
economic, cultural and spiritual threat,
are the source.
What to do? You can’t argue people out
of paranoia. If you try to point out factual
errors, you only entrench false belief.
The only solution is to reduce the distrust
and anxiety that is the seedbed of this
thinking. That can only be done first by
contact, reducing the social chasm be-
tween the members of the epistemic re-
gime and those who feel so alienated
from it. And second, it can be done by pol-
icy, by making life more secure for those
without a college degree.
Rebuilding trust is, obviously, the
work of a generation. 0

Quarantine
Is Bad for
Kids’ Health
Donna L. Farber
and Thomas Connors
D
URING the Covid-19 pandemic,
the world is unwittingly con-
ducting what amounts to the
largest immunological experi-
ment in history on our own children. We
have been keeping children inside, relent-
lessly sanitizing their living spaces and
their hands and largely isolating them. In
doing so, we have prevented large num-
bers of them from becoming infected or
transmitting the virus. But in the course of
social distancing to mitigate the spread,
we may also be unintentionally inhibiting
the proper development of children’s im-
mune systems.
Most children are born with a function-
ing immune system with the capacity to
respond to diverse types of foreign sub-
stances, called antigens, encountered
through exposure to microorganisms,
food and the environment. The eradica-
tion of harmful pathogens, establishment
of protective immunity and proper im-
mune regulation depends on the immune
cells known as T lymphocytes. With each
new infection, pathogen-specific T cells
multiply and orchestrate the clearance of
the infectious organism from the body, af-
ter which some persist as memory T cells
with enhanced immune functions.
Over time, children develop increasing
numbers and types of memory T cells,
which remain throughout the body as a
record of past exposures and stand ready
to provide lifelong protection. For other
antigen exposures that are not infectious
or dangerous, a healthy stalemate can re-
sult, called immune tolerance. Immuno-
logical memory and tolerance learned
during childhood is the basis for immunity
and health throughout adulthood.
For memory T cells to become function-
ally mature, multiple exposures may be
necessary, particularly for cells residing
in tissues such as the lung and intestines,
where we encounter numerous patho-
gens. These exposures typically and natu-
rally occur during the everyday experi-
ences of childhood — such as interactions
with friends, teachers, trips to the play-
It could undermine their
bodies’ ability to learn
how to fight pathogens.
ground, sports — all of which have been
curtailed or shut down entirely during ef-
forts to mitigate viral spread. As a result,
we are altering the frequency, breadth and
degree of exposures that are crucial for
immune memory development.
The long term effects of removing the
social system that brings children in con-
tact with other people, places and things
remain uncharted territory. However,
there is now substantial evidence that
antigen exposure during the formative pe-
riod of childhood is important not only for
protection but also for reducing the inci-
dence of allergies, asthma and inflamma-
tory diseases. A well-known theory, called
the “hygiene hypothesis,” proposes that
the increased incidence of allergies and
other immune disorders involving in-
appropriate immune reactions across in-
dustrialized societies is a result of the
move away from agrarian society toward
a highly sanitized urban setting.
Studies suggest that for establishing a
healthy immune system, the more diverse
and frequent the encounters with anti-
gens, the better.
Clinical trials have already demonstrat-
ed the effect of antigen exposure or avoid-
ance in early childhood on subsequent im-
mune responses. Introduction of peanuts
to infants resulted in reduced incidence of
peanut allergy, while avoidance had the
opposite effect of promoting unwanted,
severe allergic immune responses to
peanuts. These findings further suggest
that exposure during the formative years
is critical for developing an immune sys-
tem that responds appropriately to patho-
gens while tolerating harmless antigens.
What can be done to promote children’s
health during this relentless pandemic?
To allow them to be exposed to people and
the environment, while not putting their
teachers, family members or caregivers
at risk? Embracing proven measures like
mask wearing to control viral spread will
alleviate the need for more restrictions
and have disproportionate benefits for our
children. It is heartening that the ongoing
SARS-CoV-2 vaccine trials show great
promise. The sooner that teachers and
caregivers can be vaccinated, the sooner
children can return to school and re-estab-
lish their normal routines.
That’s because the longer we need to so-
cially distance our children in the midst of
uncontrolled viral spread, the greater the
possibility that their immune systems will
miss learning important immunological
lessons (what’s harmful, what’s not) that
we usually acquire during childhood.
There is already well-justified concern
about the impact of prolonged virtual
learning on social and intellectual devel-
opment, especially for elementary and
middle-school-age children. The sooner
we can safely restore the normal experi-
ences of childhood, interacting with other
children and — paradoxically — with
pathogens and diverse microorganisms,
the better we can ensure their ability to
thrive as adults in this changing world. 0
DONNA L. FARBER is a professor of immu-
nology and surgery at Columbia Univer-
sity Vagelos College of Physicians and
Surgeons, where THOMAS CONNORS is an
assistant professor of pediatrics.
THE NEW YORK TIMES OP-ED FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020
F Only Big Steps
IRST, a sigh of relief: We
elected a president who actu-
ally believes in government.
Who’s made John Kerry, a se-
rious diplomat, his climate czar — and
put him on the National Security
Council, recognizing, as our military
has for years, that an unstable climate
is a matter of war and peace.
We chose a moderate to replace a
demagogue: In practical terms, we
had to. But in the realm of climate
change, as the young know — the
young whose turnout was crucial to
Joe Biden’s victory, whose motivation
was in large part the urgency of the
climate crisis and whose share of the
electorate will only grow — modera-
tion will be the kiss of death.
In this life-support emergency,
muddy, transactional compromise
has failed us so far, over decades of de-
structive policy that propped up the
good-ol’-boy bastion of fossil fuels.
Which is still busily selling out the
world from underneath our feet.
And it will fail us with a radical final-
ity if Mr. Biden’s version of climate ac-
tion turns out to be baby steps. The
president-elect has told us that he’s
committed to curbing climate change
— that, unlike his White House prede-
cessor, he recognizes its importance.
Hedging for swing-state voters, how-
ever, he’s also shrunk away from the
Green New Deal and banning frack-
ing.
But the election is over. And now
weak, milquetoast maneuvers will
condemn the coming generations as
surely as climate denial would. A miss
is as good as a mile: Biden cannot suc-
ceed by accommodationist reforms
aimed at pleasing the corporate es-
tablishment. He can succeed only
through heroic measures.
For our grandchildren and his, for
all those who follow us on this Earth —
along with the insects that pollinate
our crops, the beasts that roam the
melting Arctic, the coral reefs that are
swiftly bleaching into oblivion — the
next four years are crucial. Mr. Bi-
den’s climate policy will either save
the young or consign them to a bleak
and terrifying future.
Science gives us 10 years to make a
large-scale transition to renewables,
and 20 years to get to zero carbon, to
have a chance of keeping warming to
1.5 degrees Celsius — just this side of
the apocalypse zone. Mr. Biden’s cur-
rent climate plan won’t get us there
fast enough.
Business as usual won’t be our sal-
vation. The changes he needs to make
are sweeping ones we’ll have to em-
brace as a culture. This cannot be a
children’s crusade alone — grandpar-
ents like him, parents, uncles and
aunts must also join the fight.
All of us will have to rally to the mo-
mentum of a recognized truth: that
now is the only time that remains to us
to halt the lethal juggernaut. For hope
and for joy, now is the only time we
have left.
As the youth climate movement
shows — through Sunrise, Zero Hour,
Extinction Rebellion and many other
green energy and environmental jus-
tice grass-roots groups bound up in
the drive for action — the will for
transformation is growing. Rising up
Two Costly Wars and a Legacy of Shame
Timothy Kudo
T
HE Defense Department re-
cently announced troop with-
drawals by Jan. 15 that will re-
duce American forces in Iraq
and Afghanistan to 2,500 each from their
one-time highs of 170,000 and 100,000
troops, respectively. This drawdown
makes explicit what those of us who
served in the military have long realized:
We lost.
War is evil even when it is necessary,
but our inability to win has stolen even
the possibility that the ends might justify
the means. For the roughly three million
service members whose boots touched
soil in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past
19 years, our defeat is a uniquely person-
al loss.
When I was sent to Iraq in 2009 it was
to safeguard our withdrawal. During our
entire deployment in the once treacher-
ous Sunni triangle we discovered and
disposed of a single roadside bomb on
the main highway outside Falluja, where
they had once been as common as pot-
holes. I returned home wishing I could
have done more but was glad to see how
much progress had been made by the
regiments who’d fought so hard before
me.
When I read a few years later that the
Islamic State had overrun that same
area, I began to sense that our efforts
had been in vain. But it was my Afghani-
stan deployment in 2010-11 that ce-
mented their futility for me.
My company defended a labyrinthine
cluster of mud-walled villages set amid
fields of poppy and corn in the Musa Qala
District of Helmand Province. As the
northern tip of the Marine campaign in
Helmand we held a line alongside battal-
ion after battalion of Marines that ex-
tended south through the river valley to
the district center, where the bazaar and
the governor were, and then down past
Sangin to the provincial capital, Lashkar
Gah, and further to Marja and Garmsir.
People often ask me what Afghanistan
was like, but I can never really answer:
Each district might as well have been its
own war for the Marines who fought,
with victories and defeats known only to
them.
I often think back on the moments in
my deployments when the crack of a
gunshot or the deep thud of a large road-
Will Save Earth
Lydia Millet
side bomb suddenly infused my life at
war with a clear and tangible purpose. I
remember the kids lining up the first day
after the school reopened, the first time
the partners we trained in the Afghan
Army took the initiative to patrol without
our assistance and the rare smile on a vil-
lager’s face after we’d provided the first
aid that had saved the life of his father,
who had been shot in crossfire.
I try to remember those small decen-
cies instead of the casualties and the
killing, but they do little to assuage the
overwhelming senselessness of the
greater war.
The troop withdrawals in
Iraq and Afghanistan
make clear that we lost.
Shortly after I returned from Afghani-
stan in 2011, President Barack Obama
announced that Osama bin Laden had
been killed during a raid on his com-
pound in Pakistan, where he was living
after fleeing Afghanistan years before.
As I watched people celebrating outside
the White House and outside ground
zero, I hoped that the war was finally
over, but even then it didn’t feel like vic-
tory.
The conflict had grown so much bigger
DELCAN & COMPANY
since the attacks of Sept. 11 that his death
felt like a footnote. The execution of a sin-
gle dethroned sheikh suddenly paled in
significance to my own recent experi-
ence at war. Later that night I tried to re-
call the circumstances surrounding the
death of each man we’d killed and count
how many there had been, but there
were too many to remember.
The Afghanistan war was finally lost
for me in August 2015, several years after
my own deployment ended, when the
Taliban recaptured Musa Qala, which
five men in my company had died de-
fending. After the Taliban’s seizure, al-
DAVID FURST/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
lied airstrikes bombed the same govern-
ment center we’d sacrificed so much to
hold.
A member of Parliament from Hel-
mand Province later described that
building as “completely vanished from
the earth.” Along with it was buried any
hope there might have been that the sac-
rifices I, and so many others, had made
in service to our country would not be in
vain.
The cost of these wars has been astro-
nomical: Roughly $6 trillion in govern-
ment spending, with the Defense De-
partment’s spending alone costing each
American taxpayer an estimated more
than $7,000. Additionally, today’s young
veterans face a legacy of psychological
and physical injury, as well as illness
from our war’s Agent Orange: the toxic
N A25
from beneath our arms, which should
have been sheltering them.
In colleges, high schools, even
grade schools across the country and
the globe, the children are struggling
to lead us.
We can marshal a broader social
will. But it needs the strength of politi-
cal will to be made flesh: the force of
the executive, the dedication of public
and private money to climate-rational
projects, the use of existing law and
the cooperation of nations.
In the absence of such a unifying
paradigm shift, deadly storms and
wildfires will get worse, removing
from our descendants the safety of
home. Rising seas will remake the
coastlines before we can adapt, undo-
ing our great cities. Forced migra-
tions will bring civil strife and autoc-
racy. Waves of extinctions will unrav-
el the ecosystems that give us clean
water, clean air, forests and fisheries.
And forever rob us of the beauty and
possibilities of a living planet.
Congress, and the entrenched pri-
vate interests behind it, has proved
too spineless to tackle this singularly
universal threat. Only this president,
now, has the power to lead with
enough strength to push our country
and the other two largest emitters,
China and India, to zero carbon by
2040.
He can do this by recasting his cli-
mate plan to hit emissions-reduction
targets not by midcentury but much
Biden can’t be cautious
when it comes to the
climate emergency.
sooner. By creating millions of jobs in
green energy, building and trans-
portation — in energy justice, sustain-
able agriculture, health care and edu-
cation. By executive order and other
available means, he can declare a cli-
mate emergency, keep fossil fuels in
the ground both offshore and on, stop
their export and infrastructure build-
out, direct cabinet departments to
shift subsidies to clean energy, and
use the Clean Air Act to cap green-
house gas emissions. That would be a
start.
There’s no “interest” group that will
not be permanently devastated by a
ruined climate — rich or poor, Black,
Native, Latino or white, Democrat or
Republican.
If I were Joe Biden, a paragon of
centrist decency compared with Don-
ald Trump but no one’s warrior king,
at least so far, I’d seize this moment
for what it is: the possibility of an ex-
traordinary redemption. Not to cave
to mediocrity and compromise and
damn the ones who come after, but to
show a depth of honor and a fighting
spirit that will never be forgotten.
Rise up and save us, Mr. Biden. Not
in the vague tomorrow, but today. 0
LYDIA MILLET, a novelist and the chief
editor at the Center for Biological
Diversity in Tucson, Ariz., is the au-
thor, most recently, of “A Children’s
Bible.”
burn pits whose smoke we inhaled.
Even more costly are the approxi-
mately 515,000 people killed in Iraq, Af-
ghanistan and Pakistan, including more
than 260,000 civilians. And for what?
Iraq remains a tenuous democracy
teeming with militias, while Afghanistan
is locked in a conflict with a resurgent
Taliban, and peace talks are in deadlock.
Both countries fail to meet the objec-
tives of freedom and democracy set
when President George W. Bush started
those wars. They fall short of President
Obama’s goals when he sent me and
30,000 other troops to Afghanistan and of
the claims he made when declaring an
end to combat operation in Iraq only to
see the Islamic State undo those gains.
President Trump does not seem to even
have a purpose for those 5,000 troops
who will remain in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Like many service members, I wrote a
letter in case I was killed during my de-
ployment. It began with an assurance to
the friends and family I would have left
behind: “It was worth it.” I believed then
that we had a moral obligation to not only
protect my fellow Americans but to also
leave the Afghan and Iraqi people with a
chance to live in peace.
That obligation remains even though it
cannot be fulfilled. Instead I am resigned
that these wars will finally enter the his-
tory books not only as defeats but also as
stains on our national honor.
The political theorist and philosopher
Michael Walzer writes in “Just and Un-
just Wars” that “it still seems important
to say of those who die in war that they
did not die in vain. And when we can’t say
that, or think we can’t, we mix our
mourning with anger.” I would add that
we also mix it with shame.
I recognize that shame is not a very
American trait but with it comes humil-
ity. Sadly, my generation had to relearn
the lessons of Vietnam in Iraq and Af-
ghanistan. But in coming to grips with
our defeat, we have a chance to ensure
that we do not sacrifice future genera-
tions to such folly.
And by so doing we may yet salvage
some purpose from this tragedy: to do
everything in our power to avoid more
wars and to ensure that if and when the
next war does come, it is worth it. 0
TIMOTHY KUDO, a former Marine captain
who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, is
working on a novel about the Afghani-
stan war.
A26 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020

Gift confidently.
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3 TRAVEL 4 WHEELS 8 SPORTS

As many international A Detroit Institute of Arts A much-maligned deal

destinations have begun to exhibition highlights the involving Gordon Hayward
require Covid-19 insurance, relationship of art and car was just one part of the
some policies now cover it. culture over 70 years. N.B.A.’s free-agency frenzy.

TECH ECONOMY MEDIA FINANCE FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020 B1

N

The phased opening of a $5 billion New Jersey shopping and

entertainment complex continues to be dogged by the pandemic.

AMR ALFIKY/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Not-So-Jolly Holiday ignite enthusiasm for the project.

It changed the name from Xanadu
to American Dream, altered an
exterior that then-Governor Chris
Christie had called “the ugliest” in
Mr. Ghermezian said he was up-
beat about the future of the mall,
which reopened some of its attrac-
tions on Oct. 1. But the pandemic
has battered many retailers and
People riding a
roller coaster in the
American Dream
Mall’s amusement
park, at the

At American Dream
By SAPNA MAHESHWARI
and MICHAEL CORKERY
When the American Dream mall,
a massive shopping and enter-
tainment complex next to MetLife
Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.,
finally opened its doors to the pub-
lic last October, its owner, the
Triple Five Group, was eager to
prove naysayers wrong.
Skepticism had abounded in the
15 years since construction
started on the project, which was
initially known as Xanadu Mead-
owlands and promised extrava-
gances like an indoor ski slope.
But the mall cycled through devel-
opers and billions of dollars in
funding, and faced numerous de-
lays.
Once Triple Five, the Canadian
real estate firm behind the Mall of
America in Minnesota, took over
in 2011, it was determined to re-
the state and promised even more
marvels, like an indoor water park
and additional roller coasters.
But only months after portions
of the complex began opening,
starting with its ice-skating rink
and a Nickelodeon amusement
park, the pandemic hit.
“It was extremely, extremely
unfortunate, the timing of it all,”
Don Ghermezian, chief executive
of Triple Five and co-chief execu-
tive of American Dream, said in an
interview. “The shutdown came in
March, only a couple of days be-
fore we were planning to open the
balance of the center.”
shopping malls and left many Meadowlands in
shoppers skittish about much of East Rutherford,
what Triple Five was betting on — N.J., last week.
travel, crowds and the allure of in-
door spaces. It has also put a spot-
light on the money tied to the suc-
cess of the complex, which is now
facing the threat of yet another
shutdown during the all-impor-
tant holiday shopping season as
coronavirus cases spike again.
“It definitely is tremendously
bad luck,” said Vince Tibone, a re-
tail analyst at Green Street, a com-
mercial real estate analytics firm.
“Until there’s a widespread vac-
CONTINUED ON PAGE B2

As China Battles Poverty, Global Banks Feeling Pinch

Colossal Projects Draw Ire
By KEITH BRADSHER
JIANHE, China — Yang Asha
smiled serenely down at the
craggy emerald landscape, her
hand outstretched in welcome.
She appeared unmoved by the
fierce condemnation her presence
Building giant
statues in poor areas
to attract tourists.
has ignited in China — she is, after
all, made of gleaming stainless
steel and bigger than the Statue of
Liberty.
To officials in her corner of
China, the statue of Yang Asha, a
goddess of beauty, serves as a
tribute to the rich culture of the lo-
cal people and, they hope, a big
draw for sightseers and their
money. To many others in China,
she is another white elephant in a
country full of expensive monu-
ments, gaudy tourist traps and
wasteful vanity projects that draw
money away from real problems.
Those critics point to the statue
of Guan Yu, a general from antiq-
uity, in the city of Jingzhou, where
he also towers higher than the
Statue of Liberty and wields an
enormous polearm called the
Green Dragon Crescent Blade.
They point to the Jingxingu Ho-
tel, a 24-story wooden building
with lots of empty balconies and
open spaces but few actual rooms
— and it has not accepted guests
beyond a few tourists who come to
gawk.
They point to the construction
of a full-size, $150 million replica of
the Titanic in a reservoir deep in
China’s interior, 1,200 miles from
CONTINUED ON PAGE B5
As Brexit Switch Wraps Up
By ESHE NELSON
and JACK EWING
LONDON — For Britain, its exit
from the European Union is sup-
posed to be the start of a new era
as a “Global Britain,” an open, in-
viting and far-reaching country.
For the European Union, Brexit is
an opportunity to repatriate some
business from across the English
Channel and further bolster the
continent’s economic standing in
the world.
And for the City of London, a
hub for international banks, asset
managers, insurance firms and
hedge funds, Brexit is a political
headache. Britain’s financial cen-
ter has been caught in the middle
of these two agendas, leaving the
future of the City’s relationship
with the rest of Europe fractured
and uncertain.
CHEN ZHIYONG/IMAGINECHINA, VIA AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Britain left the free trade bloc at
The $224 million bronze statue of Guan Yu, a general, in Jingzhou, China. the end of January but immedi-
ately entered into an 11-month
transition period that has kept ev-
erything unchanged. What comes
after Dec. 31, when this transition
period expires, is being negotiat-
ed down to the wire. Hanging in
the balance are things like fishing
Shifts to continent
threaten London’s
clout in finance.
quotas, long lines for customs
checks at ports and disruption to
automakers and other manufac-
turers that have fine-tuned a “just
in time” supply chain.
But the global financial firms
with big operations in London al-
ready know they will lose the big-
CONTINUED ON PAGE B5
B2 N THE NEW YORK TIMES BUSINESS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020

RETAIL

PHOTOGRAPHS BY AMR ALFIKY/THE NEW YORK TIMES

From left, a worker disinfecting American Dream Mall’s amusement park; a woman and a child playing in the park; and a woman in PPE sitting alone in the park. The massive complex was envisioned as a destination for tourists.

The Phased Opening of a $5 Billion Mall

In New Jersey Is Dogged by the Pandemic
FROM FIRST BUSINESS PAGE
cine, and both domestic and inter-
national travel rebounds to what it
used to be, it’s going to be hard for
this mall to get the foot traffic it
was hoping for.”
Triple Five, which also owns
Canada’s West Edmonton mall,
had anticipated 40 million visitors
a year at American Dream, a nota-
bly ambitious figure that would
put it on par with Walt Disney
World in Orlando, Fla. Mr. Tibone
noted that the complex was al-
ready facing questions around
how it would shuttle tourists be-
tween Manhattan and northern
New Jersey. And beyond pan-
demic-forced store closures,
American Dream is facing the is-
sue that its attractions — from its
ski slope and caviar bar to its
roller coasters and DreamWorks-
themed water park — are indoors
at a time when public health offi-
cials are telling people to stay out-
side.
All three of Triple Five’s malls
have suffered this year because of
the pandemic, including the Mall
of America, which reportedly en-
tered a cash-management agree-
ment last summer after missing
months of mortgage payments.
The company projected that the
American Dream complex would
eventually support more than
20,000 jobs and generate nearly
$150 million annually in state and
local taxes, a lawyer for Triple
Five wrote in an April letter to the
Federal Reserve about its so-
called Main Street lending pro-
gram for midsize businesses. But
the mall was still in the process of
opening in phases it called “chap-
ters” and its mid-March shutdown
came just days before the center
could open its most standard of- HARUKA SAKAGUCHI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

fering — its retail stores.

Since the mall was first con-
ceived, it has had to grapple with a
fast-changing shopping land-
scape and the bankruptcies of an-
nounced tenants like Barneys
New York and Toys “R” Us, as well
as the fact that the county where it
is based prohibits retail sales on
Sundays. This year has spurred
another wave of bankruptcies
from major chains, including an-
nounced tenants like Lord & Tay-
lor and Century 21.
Mr. Ghermezian said that the
shopping center lost “very, very
few tenants” and that those that
had exited because of the pan-
demic were replaced. He said that
if not for the shutdowns, as many
as 200 of the mall’s retail and food
tenants would probably have
opened this month. As of last
week, he said, about 90 were open,
including the biggest Zara in the
United States and the flagship for
the fast-fashion chain Primark.
Investors and local politicians,
including in the borough of East
Rutherford, have been concerned
about the future of American
Dream.
The $5 billion development has
received hundreds of millions of
dollars in taxpayer incentives and
promised millions of dollars in
payments in coming years to East
Rutherford, which has been
watching the site’s progress for
what has felt like an eternity.
“We thought the Xanadu
project would be open by 2007,”
said James Cassella, the former
mayor of East Rutherford who re-
tired in 2019 after more than 20
years in the role. Even after Triple
Five entered the picture, he said,
“there were more opening dates
on this than you could imagine.”
“There was always something
that delayed it from Day 1,” he
said. “Building, financing, econ-
omy, interest rates — you name
it.”
Mr. Cassella said that East
Rutherford negotiated annual
payments from American Dream
that went out for decades, with ad-
ditional money coming in after the
mall opened. The borough was
also looking forward to jobs creat-
ed by the development.
But public records show that
American Dream is behind on its
payments to East Rutherford. In
January, East Rutherford voters
also narrowly approved a $35.5
million, 20-year bond to fund im-
provements at its schools after of-
ficials said money from the Ameri-
can Dream development would
help mitigate the tax burden for
residents. The bond became a
point of contention during local
elections this year as concerns
built around the shopping com-
plex. East Rutherford representa-
tives didn’t respond to requests
for comment.
When the mall reopened for
business on Oct. 1, Lisa Washburn,
an analyst for Municipal Market
Analytics, took a research trip to
see what the first back-to-busi-
ness day looked like. The crowds
were sparse, she said, and many
stores had more workers than
customers. (She bought $14 worth
of gummy bears at the IT’SUGAR
candy store.)
The development sits on state
land and was able to obtain tax-
free debt financing through a se-
ries of bonds that could carry risks
to investors.
Ms. Washburn said there was
very little transparency into the
mall’s finances for bond investors
to look at so it was difficult to ob-
tain an accurate picture of its situ-
ation. “The disclosure is very
poor,” she said.
Investors are also watching a
$27 million debt payment that is
due next month.
When asked whether the debt
payment would be made, Mr.
Ghermezian said, “We are work-
ing with our lenders on a regular
basis to put a plan in place that al-
lows the center to continue to
flourish.” American Dream is also
working out other payments, in-
cluding those to East Rutherford,
he said.
‘If there was no
pandemic, I
would be afraid
we’d be getting
too much traffic.’
Don Ghermezian, co-chief
executive of American Dream.
The ice skating rink, below,
opened in October 2019, part
of the first phase of the
opening, along with a
Nickelodeon amusement park.
HARUKA SAKAGUCHI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
“Yes, there’s some money that
is owed,” he said. “But again, not
unlike any other developer in the
country that has had their
projects shut down across the
board, we need to work as true
partners with the municipalities,
with lenders, with tenants, to
make sure everyone is taking a
fair position and fair share in how
to manage this pandemic.”
Mr. Ghermezian said that Triple
Five still intended to build out “a
couple million more square feet”
in the Meadowlands, with plans in
place for a convention center and
roughly 3,000 to 3,500 hotel
rooms. The firm anticipates that
once tourism recovers, people, es-
pecially families, visiting New
York would stay at American
Dream before traveling into the
city.
Triple Five, which is named for
three generations of the Gher-
mezian family and its five
founders, is also continuing to
pursue a similarly ambitious mall
project in Miami, though perhaps
at a slower pace than it did before
Covid-19, Mr. Ghermezian said.
While he acknowledged the chal-
lenges facing shopping centers,
he said that projects like Ameri-
can Dream stood apart from typi-
cal malls and stores.
“You’re going to see a hell of a
lot of shopping centers foreclosed
on this year,” he said. “The last
guys remaining will be successful
and we firmly believe, 100 per-
cent, that is American Dream in
this market.”
He added, “We’re going to own
American Dream for the next 100,
200 years or whatever it is.”
For now, American Dream is
working to persuade people to vis-
it. Since reopening, it has waived
its parking fees. In ads on social
media it has highlighted its social-
distancing and virus-safety guide-
lines. The ads urge people to shop,
visit characters like SpongeBob
SquarePants at the Nickelodeon
theme park and escape the cold in
the mall’s water park, where the
temperature is maintained at 81
degrees Fahrenheit.
“If there was no pandemic, I
would be afraid we’d be getting too
much traffic in American Dream,”
Mr. Ghermezian said.
Joel Brizzi, a former East
Rutherford councilman, said that
though he had long been opti-
mistic about the project and Triple
Five, he was concerned about the
mall and whether it could with-
stand a second pandemic-related
shutdown.
“How long can you keep going
without any revenue?” Mr. Brizzi
said. “The jury’s still out on
whether it’s going to survive.”
Mr. Cassella, the former mayor,
said that he was also worried
about the mall’s ability to weather
the pandemic.
“There are always people that
say, ‘I hope this place fails,’ but it
wouldn’t be good for anybody if
this thing fails,” he said. “It would
be an absolute disaster for the
state for sure, the complex, and
quite frankly, East Rutherford
would lose out because we’ve
gone so far with it. It would be a
big revenue loss.”

Travel Insurance Now Covers Virus Disruptions: What to Know
By ELAINE GLUSAC
When the pandemic struck, many
travel insurance policies failed to
cover Covid-19-related trip inter-
ruptions and cancellations, often
because they excluded pan-
demics. But in the intervening
months, the travel insurance in-
dustry has introduced a spate of
new policies covering the disease
just as many foreign destinations
begin to require them.
“We’ve seen progress in that
many plans will now treat Covid
like any other unexpected sick-
ness or illness,” said Stan Sand-
berg, a co-founder of the compari-
son website Travelinsurance.com.
“If you have a trip and travel in-
surance and came down with
Covid-19, which made it impossi-
ble to travel, that would fall under
cancellation coverage as an unex-
pected illness that prevents you
from traveling.”
Likewise, policies now includ-
ing Covid-19 would cover holders
in the event that a doctor diag-
nosed them with the virus while
traveling under the trip interrup-
tion benefit.
Not all travel insurance exclud-
ed pandemics when the coronavi-
rus began to spread early this
year; Berkshire Hathaway Travel
Protection was one exception. But
the broader change partially
arises from consumer demand, a
better understanding of the virus
— including mortality rates and
hospital costs — and the indus-
try’s eagerness for travel to re-
sume.
“People who are traveling are
more conscious of their risks and
thinking about protecting them-
selves and their investment,” said
Jeremy Murchland, the president
of the travel insurer Seven Cor-
ners. The company launched poli-
cies that included Covid-19 cover-
age in June; they now account for
more than 80 percent of sales.
But, like all insurance, the devil
is in the details when it comes to
understanding travel insurance,
including what’s covered, destina-
tions where it’s required, and the
inevitable caveats, as follows.
How travel insurance covers
Covid-19
The new Covid-inclusive insur-
ance generally covers travelers
from the day after purchase until
their return home. During that pe-
riod, if you become sick and a doc-
tor determines you cannot travel
(because of the virus or another
illness), trip cancellation and trip
interruption benefits would kick
in.
These benefits vary by policy,
but a search to insure a $2,000
weeklong trip to Costa Rica in De-
cember on Travelinsurance.com
turned up a $69.75 Generali Global
Assistance Standard policy with
This Year’s Black Friday Designer Fashion Sales May Not Be What You Expect
By VANESSA FRIEDMAN
Fashion designers and luxury re-
tailers have always had a compli-
cated relationship with Black Fri-
day.
The super sale extravaganza
doesn’t always fit right (no pun in-
tended) with companies that
make $890 shoes and $3,700
dresses. The pandemic only fo-
cused the issue: It wreaked havoc
on supply chains and delayed the
delivery of many items, poten-
tially telescoping the amount of
time products would remain on
shelves at full price before the hol-
iday sales begin.
So back in May, the designer
Dries Van Noten and retailer An-
drew Keith, now at Selfridge’s in
London, convened a discussion
over Zoom with other designers
and chief executives to seize the
moment to address long-needed
change regarding when and how
high-end clothes are delivered
and discounted.
They came up with a series of
suggestions and published an
“Open Letter” to the industry call-
ing on others to join their cause: to
deliver clothes in season and keep
them on sale at full price until af-
ter the holidays. Over 500 interna-
tional retailers and designers
signed on.
Yet here we are on Black Friday,
and many of those signatories are
conducting what look very much
like sales as usual.
“Cyber Deals Up to 50% Off”
blares a red banner on the Nord-
strom site (Pete Nordstrom, co-
president, signed the letter).
There are also sales at Tory
Burch, Bergdorf Goodman and
the Webster, to name a few other
brands whose executives were
among the signatories.
So were the pledges of change a
lot of style sound and fashion fury,
signifying nothing? Is this corpo-
rate hypocrisy in a Santa cos-
tume?
Both Nordstrom and Bergdorf
Goodman declined to comment on
Covid-19 benefits that would be
triggered if you, your host at your
destination, a travel companion or
a family member tested positive
for the virus.
If this happened before your de-
parture, the policy would cover
your prepaid travel expenses. If
you or your travel companion con-
tracted Covid-19 during the trip
and were diagnosed by a physi-
cian, it would reimburse prepaid
arrangements, such as lodgings,
and cover additional airfare to re-
turn home — once a doctor deems
it safe to travel — up to $2,500.
Should you be required to quaran-
tine and can’t travel, travel delay
coverage for lodging, meals and
local transportation would pay up
to $1,000. The policy also covers
medical expenses for up to one
year, even after you return home,
up to $50,000 — though the policy
also states that a holder would
have to exhaust their own health
insurance benefits before seeking
coverage under the travel insur-
ance plan.
Travelers should read these
policies carefully to understand
the benefits (for example, some
rules vary by your state of resi-
dence), but brokers like TravelIn-
surance.com, InsureMyTrip and
Squaremouth are making them
easier to find through filters,
F.A.Q.s and flags.
The new more comprehensive
policies don’t necessarily cost
more. On a Squaremouth search
for insurance for two 40-year-olds
on a two-week trip costing $5,000,
the site turned up a variety of poli-
cies with or without coronavirus
exclusions from $130 to $300, with
no apparent premium for Covid-19
coverage.
Not every Covid-19-related ex-
pense is covered by many of these
policies, including tests for the vi-
rus that many destinations re-
quire before arrival (those may be
covered by private insurance).
Many policies include medical
evacuation to a nearby facility, but
won’t necessarily transport you
home. For those concerned about
treatment abroad, Medjet, a medi-
cal evacuation specialist, now of-
fers Covid-19-related evacuations
in the 48 contiguous United
States, Canada, Mexico and the
Caribbean that will transport you
to the hospital of your choice in
your home country (trip coverage
starts at $99; annual member-
ships start at $189).
“Covid-19 requires special
transport pods to protect the crew
and others, which adds logistical
issues,” said John Gobbels, the
vice president and chief operating
officer for Medjet.
In addition to the Medjet plan,
travelers would need separate
travel insurance with medical
benefits to cover treatment costs
and trip interruption.
An executive at Selfridge’s, top, started a campaign to delay markdowns for
high-end clothes. Above, price cuts on Tory Burch merchandise are limited.
the question. However, independ-
ent boutiques and designers sug-
gest it’s not quite discounts as
usual this year. No brand or store
wants to be the odd one out in a
sea of slashed prices. But that
does not mean these designer
sales are exactly like the old de-
signer sales.
Karen Murray, owner of New
York boutique Fivestory, acknowl-
edged that one of her colleagues
did sign the Open Letter, because
“the whole industry was hoping
THE NEW YORK TIMES BUSINESS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020
TRAVEL | RETAIL
Destination insurance
requirements
Travelers aren’t the only ones
worried about health. A growing
list of countries are mandating
medical coverage for Covid-19 as a
prerequisite for visiting, often
along with other measures like
pre-trip virus testing and health
screenings for symptoms on ar-
rival.
Many Caribbean islands are
among those requiring travel
medical insurance, including
Turks and Caicos and the Baha-
mas. St. Maarten requires health
insurance coverage and strongly
recommends additional travel in-
surance covering Covid-19.
Farther-flung countries also re-
quire policies that cover Covid-19,
MATT DUNHAM/ASSOCIATED PRESS
YWZZQQSF
IDRIS SOLOMON/REUTERS
that things would slow down.”
But, she said, she has to compete.
And “as much as I wanted to hold
off, in a world where others are ex-
tremely promotional, it is hard to
stick to a nonpromotional sched-
ule.”
However, she also pointed out
that this year’s markdowns would
be more limited in both depth and
length than those in the more re-
cent past. This time last year, for
example, Black Friday was more
like Black November, or Black No-
including French Polynesia and
the Maldives.
Some destinations specify the
required plan as a way to ensure
travelers have the correct cover-
age and to expedite treatment.
Aruba requires visitors to buy its
Aruba Visitors Insurance, regard-
less of any other plans you may
have.
“Insurance through a destina-
tion typically only covers Covid
and infection while you’re there,”
said Kasara Barto, a spokeswom-
an for Squaremouth.com. “If you
catch Covid before, they don’t of-
fer cancellation coverage. If you
break a leg, the policy may only
cover Covid medication. It varies
by country.”
Costa Rica also requires insur-
ance that includes an unusual
vember-Starting-in-October.
Now, “We try to follow the
markdown cadence recom-
mended by the brands and design-
ers, but we watch the online sites
like a hawk,” said Ms. Murray.
Mr. Van Noten, the designer,
said he received no pushback
when he asked his retail partners
not to put his products on sale un-
til after Christmas or New Year’s
— though in all their bells and
whistles around Black Friday, the
stores didn’t exactly advertise it
(or the other designers who would
be exceptions to the markdown
rule).
“Communication is one thing,”
he said. “Reality is something
else.”
Pierre-Yves Roussel, the chief
executive of Tory Burch, said
much the same, noting that while
the company was nodding to
Black Friday because of “tradi-
tion,” the price drops were limited
and under tight controls, focusing
primarily on clothing that was
time-dependent, rather than ac-
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services, evacuation and costs as-
sociated with quarantines.
Jamaica, which will require in-
surance, but has not said when the
new rule will go into effect, plans
to charge $40 for each traveler.
The Bahamas will include the in-
surance in the cost of its Travel
Health Visa, an application that
requires negative Covid-19 test re-
sults, which runs $40 to $60 de-
pending on length of stay (free for
children 10 and younger). The
Turks and Caicos is offering a pol-
icy for $9.80 a day, and Costa Ri-
ca’s policies, if purchased locally,
cost roughly $10 a day.
Expect this list of destinations
to grow. In January, the Spanish
region of Andalusia plans to re-
quire travel medical insurance
and is working on finding a
provider to make it easy for trav-
elers to buy it.
Gaps in travel insurance
Policies that cover Covid-19 as a
medical event that may cause trip
cancellation or disruption, or
those that provide coverage for
medical treatment and evacua-
tion still don’t necessarily cover
travelers who have a change of
heart when they learn they will
have to quarantine upon arrival,
even if they don’t have the virus.
Nor are policies necessarily tied
to conditions on the ground, like a
spike in infections, State Depart-
ment travel warnings, a govern-
ment travel ban or the cessation of
flights to and from a destination.
For those events, there’s Cancel
For Any Reason, or CFAR, an up-
grade to plans that generally only
returns 50 to 75 percent of your
nonrefundable trip costs.
“Prior to the pandemic, we
wouldn’t necessarily recommend
CFAR because most of travelers’
concerns were covered by stand-
ard plans,” Ms. Barto of Square-
mouth.com said. “It’s about 40
percent more expensive and we
didn’t want travelers to pay for ad-
ditional coverage.” Now, she add-
NGUYEN TRAN ed, there’s been a surge in interest
in the upgrade, including in 22
benefit stipulating a policy cover
percent of policies sold at the site
up to $2,000 in expenses for a po-
since mid-March.
tential Covid-19 quarantine while
Industry experts predict some
in the country.
of these outstanding issues may
In response to the new require-
work their way into policies of the
ment, which Costa Rica an-
future as they adapt to enduring
nounced in October, insurers, in-
cluding Trawick International, realities, much as they did after 9/
11 in covering travelers in case of
have begun introducing policies
terrorist events, which was not
that meet the standard.
the norm before.
“It was a pretty quick and nim-
The pandemic “was unprece-
ble reaction,” Mr. Sandberg of
dented, but once it happened, the
TravelInsurance.com said.
industry has been pretty quick to
Normally, travel insurance var-
react and create coverage, and
ies by factors including the age of
that’s in the spirit of how this in-
the traveler, destination, trip
dustry is trying to define itself, to
length and cost (most range from
4 to 10 percent of the trip cost). But be one of those subtle but valuable
some destinations are providing it assets,” Mr. Sandberg said. “Once
at a flat fee, with most policies the world opens back up, we ex-
spelling out coverage limits and pect travel insurance to be much
terms for emergency medical more top of mind with travelers.”
cessories such as shoes and bags, stores, although plenty of other
which in theory are less tied to brands are. Mr. Van Noten said he
trend. felt optimistic: The industry
At the Webster, which has eight working group was still in exist-
stores in locations including New ence, and they had all just met the
York, Houston, Miami and Los An- week before the Black Friday
geles, Laure Heriard Dubreuil, sales began to talk next steps.
the founder and creative director, Things were moving in the right
said she was still “committed” to direction.
the pledge, and so had contacted “We said from the beginning we
the designer brands she carried to didn’t want to be the fashion po-
discuss what items should be on lice, telling people what they can
sale, and for how much. Fall mer- and can’t do,” he said, “but a year
chandise from lines owned by the ago, we would never have even
big French luxury groups LVMH had this discussion. Business is
and Kering — such as Balenciaga, very fragile right now, but I think
Fendi, Givenchy and Saint Lau- the mentality has changed.
rent — will not be reduced at her There’s been an evolution.”
Dennis F. Dunne, Esq. (pro hac vice pending), Andrew M. Leblanc, Esq. (pro guitarcenter, not less than fourteen (14) days before the date scheduled
hac vice pending), Michael W. Price, Esq. (pro hac vice pending), Lauren for such meeting; and (ii) serve it on the same parties served with the
C. Doyle, Esq. (pro hac vice pending), MILBANK LLP, 55 Hudson Yards, Combined Notice and any other parties entitled to notice pursuant to the
New York, New York 10001, Telephone: (212) 530-5000, Facsimile: (212) FederalRulesofBankruptcyProcedure(the“BankruptcyRules”).
530-5219 -and- Thomas R.Kreller, Esq. (pro hac vice pending), MILBANK Treatment Of Executory Contracts And Unexpired Leases. The
LLP, 2029 Century Park East, 33rd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90067, Debtors shall send a Notice of Assumption to the counterparties to each
Telephone: (424) 386-4000, Facsimile: (213) 629-5063 -and- Tyler P. Executory Contract and Unexpired Lease that is being assumed under
Brown,Esq.(VSB No.28072),Justin F.Paget,Esq.(VSB No.77949),Jennifer
E. Wuebker, Esq. (VSB No. 91184), HUNTON ANDREWS KURTH LLP,
the Plan. The deadline for filing objections, if any, to the assumption
or rejection of any Executory Contract or Unexpired Lease on any basis,
Riverfront Plaza, East Tower, 951 East Byrd Street, Richmond, Virginia including the Debtors’ satisfaction of the requirement under section
23219, Telephone: (804) 788-8200, Facsimile: (804) 788-8218, Proposed 365(b)(1)(C) of the Bankruptcy Code to provide adequate assurance of
Co-CounselforDebtorsandDebtorsinPossession future performance under such Executory Contract or Unexpired Lease is
IN THE UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT December10,2020,at5:00p.m.,prevailingEasternTime.
FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA, RICHMOND DIVISION InformationRegardingthePlan
) Chapter 11 Voting Record Date. Solicitation of votes on the Plan commenced
In re:
prior to the Petition Date. November 17, 2020 was the date used for
GUITAR CENTER, INC. et al.,1 ) Case No. 20-34656 (KRH)
Debtors. ) (Jointly Administered) determining which holders of Claims in the Voting Classes were entitled
tovoteonthePlan.
NOTICE OF: (I) COMMENCEMENT OF CHAPTER 11 Objections. The deadline for filing objections (each, an “Objection”)
BANKRUPTCY CASES; (II) HEARING ON THE APPROVAL either to the adequacy of the Disclosure Statement or to the confirma-
OF DISCLOSURE STATEMENT, CONFIRMATION OF THE tion of the Plan is December 10, 2020, at 5:00 p.m. (prevailing
PRE-PACKAGED PLAN AND RELATED MATTERS; AND
(III) CERTAIN OBJECTION DEADLINES
Eastern Time). All Objections must: (a) be in writing; (b) comply with
the Bankruptcy Rules and the Local Rules of the United States Bankruptcy
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN as follows: Court for the Eastern District of Virginia;(c) state the name and address of
On November 21, 2020 (the “Petition Date”), the above-captioned the objecting party and the amount and nature of the Claim or Interest
debtors and debtors in possession (collectively, the “Debtors”) filed beneficially owned by the objector; (d) state with particularity the legal
voluntary petitions for relief in the United States Bankruptcy Court for and factual basis for the objection, and, if practicable, a proposed modifi-
the Eastern District of Virginia (the “Bankruptcy Court”). On the Petition cation to the Plan that would resolve the Objection; and (e) be served by
Date, the Debtors also filed the “pre-packaged” Joint Pre-Packaged personal service or by overnight delivery so as to be actually received no
Chapter 11 Plan of Guitar Center, Inc. et al. (the “Plan”) [Docket No. 16]
and related disclosure statement (the “Disclosure Statement”) [Docket
later than 5:00 p.m. (prevailing Eastern Time) on December 10,
2020bytheCoreGroup,asdefinedintheCaseManagementOrder.
No.15].2 Copies of the Plan and the Disclosure Statement may be obtained UNLESS AN OBJECTION ISTIMELY SERVED AND FILED IN ACCORDANCE
free of charge by: (i) visiting the website maintained by the Debtors’ WITHTHISNOTICEITMAYNOTBECONSIDEREDBYTHISCOURT.
CRITICALINFORMATIONREGARDINGOBJECTINGTOTHEPLAN
proposed solicitation agent, Prime Clerk LLC (the “Claims and Noticing
Agent”), at https://cases.primeclerk.com/guitarcenter; (ii) calling the ARTICLE IX OF THE PLAN CONTAINS SETTLEMENT, RELEASE,
Claims and Noticing Agent at 877-471-3505 (toll-free) and +1 347- INJUNCTION, AND RELATED PROVISIONS, AND ARTICLE IX.B
919-5770 (international); or (iii) sending an electronic mail message to: CONTAINS THIRD-PARTY RELEASES. THUS, YOU ARE ADVISED TO
GuitarCenterinfo@primeclerk.com. REVIEW AND CONSIDER THE PLAN CAREFULLY BECAUSE YOUR
The Debtors believe that any valid alternative to the confirmation of RIGHTSMIGHTBEAFFECTEDTHEREUNDER.
the Plan would result in significant delays,litigation,and additional costs, HOLDERS OF CLAIMS ELIGIBLE TO CAST A BALLOT WHO: (I) VOTE
TO ACCEPT THE PLAN; (II) ABSTAIN FROM VOTING ON THE PLAN AND
ultimatelyjeopardizingrecoveriesbytheDebtors’stakeholders.
Combined Hearing. A combined hearing on the adequacy of the DO NOT OPT OUT OF THE RELEASES PROVIDED BY THE PLAN; OR (III)
Disclosure Statement, the confirmation of the Plan, and any objections VOTE TO REJECT THE PLAN AND DO NOT OPT OUT OF THE RELEASES
to the proposed assumption or rejection of Executory Contracts and PROVIDED BY THE PLAN,SHALL BE DEEMED TO HAVE CONSENTED TO
Unexpired Leases, and any other matter that may properly come before THERELEASEPROVISIONSSETFORTHINARTICLEIX.BOFTHEPLAN.
the Court (the “Combined Hearing”) will be held before United States YOU ARE ADVISED TO CAREFULLY REVIEW AND CONSIDER THE
BankruptcyJudgeHuennekens,701EastBroadStreet,5thFloor,Richmond, PLAN, INCLUDING THE DISCHARGE, RELEASE, EXCULPATION, AND
INJUNCTIONPROVISIONS,ASYOURRIGHTSMIGHTBEAFFECTED.
Virginia 23219, on December 17, 2020, at 9:00 a.m. (prevailing
Eastern Time). Please be advised that the Combined Hearing may be 1
The Debtors in these cases, along with the last four digits of each
continued from time to time without further notice other than by being Debtor’s federal tax identification number, are: Guitar Center Holdings,
announced in open court or by a notice of adjournment filed on the Court’s Inc.(3262);Guitar Center,Inc.(0862);Guitar Center Stores,Inc.(4340);GTRC
docket. Services, Inc. (9503); GC Business Solutions, Inc. (3928); Guitar Center Gift
Section 341(a) Meeting. The meeting of creditors pursuant to
section 341(a) of the Bankruptcy Code (the “Section 341(a) Meeting”)
Card Company,LLC (3370);Music & Arts Instructor Services,LLC (7811);and
AVDG,LLC (4440). The Debtors’service address is 5795 Lindero Canyon Rd.,
has been deferred. The Section 341(a) Meeting will not be convened if WestlakeVillage,CA91362.
the Plan is confirmed by January 22, 2021. If the Section 341(a) Meeting 2
Capitalized terms used but not otherwise defined in this notice have
is convened, the Debtors will file a notice of the date, time, and place of the meanings given to them in the Plan or the Disclosure Statement, as
such meeting and: (i) post it online at https://cases.primeclerk.com/ applicable.
B4 N THE NEW YORK TIMES BUSINESS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020

AUTOMOBILES

The exhibition “Detroit Style” features a production-model 1970 Plymouth Barracuda, below
left, and a development sketch, rendered on vellum in 1967 by the designer Milton Antonick.

NICK HAGEN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES MILTON ANTONICK COLLECTION

‘Love Letter to Detroit,’ on Vellum and Chrome

A show at the Detroit Institute of Arts highlights the relationship of art and car culture over 70 years.

Wheels
By NORMAN MAYERSOHN

Of the myriad treasures that might

draw a sightseeing car lover to Detroit,
one potential attraction is notably miss-
ing: a major public museum collection
dedicated to the automobile. America’s
Motor City offers many compelling
reasons for a visit, but it really has
nothing like the Petersen Automotive
Museum in Los Angeles, the LeMay in
Tacoma, Wash., or the well-known car
displays in Reno, Nev., Indianapolis or
Philadelphia.
A measure of relief from that drought
has arrived in the form of “Detroit
Style: Car Design in the Motor City,
1950-2020,” an exhibition at the Detroit
Institute of Arts that opened this month
and runs through next June. A dozen
autos, including production models and
conceptual show cars, will be displayed
alongside drawings and photographs
from the design studios where the
vehicles took shape. Paintings and
sculptures intended to illuminate the
relationship of art and car culture over
the last 70 years will also be on display.
Despite the location of its stately
Beaux-Arts home on Woodward Ave-
nue, a major artery of all things auto-
motive in Detroit, the D.I.A. is not a
vault of local industry. The last major
exhibition of cars within the museum’s
walls was a design retrospective in the
1980s that spanned the era from 1925 to
1950.
Admittedly, the museum’s high points
do include the magnificent “Detroit
Industry Murals” of Diego Rivera,
frescoes that depict scenes inside the
Ford River Rouge factory 15 minutes
west of the D.I.A. Still, the museum,
established in 1885, is a world-class art
institution in the broadest sense, with
diverse holdings of international art-
works. Typical of American art muse-
ums — the Museum of Modern Art in
New York is an outlier in this respect —
the D.I.A.’s permanent collection does PHOTOGRAPHS BY NICK HAGEN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
not include cars.
The exhibition was originally to open
as part of a larger celebration of the
city’s bootstrap revival, timed to com-
plement the shift of the 2020 North
American International Auto Show
from its bleak January calendar slot to
the more agreeable weather of June.
That plan was scuttled when the co-

Cars that reflected

their eras and also
set trends in design.
ronavirus pandemic took hold and the
city’s main convention center was
converted into a field hospital. The auto
show has since been rescheduled for
early fall 2021, which will make outdoor
displays and activities feasible.
The cars in the “Detroit Style” show
include both models once commonplace
on suburban streets — a 1967 Ford
Mustang and a 1970 Plymouth Barra- BANCO DE MÉXICO DIEGO RIVERA FRIDA KAHLO MUSEUMS TRUST, MEXICO, D.F./ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK ED RUSCHA, HOOD MUSEUM OF ART
cuda among them — and design studies
A Corvette Stingray Racer, top, in the new exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Above, the “Detroit Industry Murals,” left, frescoes by the Mexican artist
produced by Detroit automakers as
Diego Rivera, and, right, Benjamin Colman, the curator of the exhibition, with the Corvette and the painting “Standard Station, Amarillo, Texas” by Ed Ruscha.
trial balloons, created to focus-group
proposed trends at public auto shows.
The studies include icons like the 1951
Le Sabre from General Motors and the hardly new. To take that a step further, “So often the art was hiding in plain display cars as well. The ’67 Mustang represented?
1987 Lamborghini Portofino by the D.I.A. exhibition set out to commu- sight, within 20 miles of the museum,” belongs to Moray Callum, vice presi- “Packard, even at the end of its exist-
Chrysler’s studio. The cars were chosen nicate the journey that started with a Mr. Colman said. “I was knocking on dent for design at Ford Motor, whose ence, was deserving, and certainly
by an advisory committee that repre-
designer’s vision. “We wanted to tell doors in suburban Detroit, and the generosity means he won’t be able to Studebaker could have earned a spot,”
sented the College for Creative Studies
the story that runs from image to ob- sketches were coming out of dusty drive the car for the months it’s at the Mr. Callum said.
design school, the Henry Ford museum
ject, the path it took,” Mr. Colman said. boxes. We could do the show 10 times D.I.A. Mr. Callum is comfortable with In the view of Mr. Colman, the cura-
and Detroit automakers.
The proximity of design sketches to over and still have drawings left over.” the sacrifice, though. tor, the goal of presenting cars that
Preparation for this show began five
years ago, according to Benjamin W. actual cars in the museum gallery helps There is significance even in the “It’s important to show the full-scale reflect the challenges of their times and
Colman, the D.I.A.’s associate curator make that connection. For instance, the choice of “Detroit Style” as the exhibi- objects, to bring the conceptual to life,” their outsize influence on culture was
for American art. Part of that time was ’70 Barracuda is seen not only as a tion’s name. The discipline of creating a Mr. Callum said. “That’s our job every paramount. In particular, he points to
spent choosing the cars, researching production model on display but also in car’s look is today known as design, but day, and these cars represent what I the 1959 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray
the history and working out the logis- a development sketch, rendered in in earlier times, before the complexities think has been a higher level of opti- racecar concept, a secretive project
tics of arranging the loans. There was Prismacolor on vellum in 1967 by Mil- of manufacturing and marketing re- mism in America. The world is chang- inside General Motors that established
also the matter of where in the muse- ton Antonick, a Chrysler designer. Mr. wrote their job description, the creators ing, and we might be highlighting the the design language of coming produc-
um’s galleries the exhibition would go, Colman describes this image of the of curvaceous fenders and chrome end of an era, the moment just before tion models and gave rise to a durable
partly affected by renovation work and car’s tail end as “a humble drawing, an flourishes were called stylists. “It was a the meteor wiped out the dinosaurs.” mythology about designers and motor-
partly restricted by access for the vehi- informal working document” that matter of looking to how the practition- Relevant works by prominent figures sports.
cles. serves to bridge the gap between a ers described themselves in the era,” from the fine art world, including “I hope we tell a story that’s a love
“These are the largest objects I’ve styling concept and the final product Mr. Colman said. “We felt it important Charles Sheeler, Richard Prince, Ed letter to Detroit,” Mr. Colman said. Still,
ever worked with,” Mr. Colman said. made of sheet metal. to keep the historical language.” Ruscha and Jean-Michel Basquiat, are the experience of creating this ode to
The idea of portraying automobiles Among the more pleasant tasks of The support from hometown au- seen in the show, too. Were there any the city’s legacy has not made great
as both reflective of their eras and as assembling such an ambitious exhibi- tomakers proved valuable not only to carmakers not in the final selections for changes to his personal transportation:
trendsetters for industrial design is tion was locating the design drawings. organizing the show, but acquiring the exhibition that should have been He commutes to work by bicycle.

Global Banks Feel Pinch as End of Brexit Transition Looms
FROM FIRST BUSINESS PAGE
gest benefit of Britain’s E.U. mem-
bership: the ability to easily offer
services to clients across the re-
gion from a single base, known as
passporting. This has allowed a
bank in London to provide loans to
a business in Venice or trade
bonds for a company in Madrid.
After Jan. 1, that won’t be so
simple. The ability of firms in Brit-
ain to offer financial services in
the European Union will depend
on whether E.U. policymakers de-
termine that Britain’s new regula-
tions are close enough to their
own to be trusted — a critical con-
cept known as equivalence.
The problem is that some very
common banking activities — tak-
ing deposits and making loans to
companies and individuals, for ex-
ample — don’t qualify for equiva-
lence. The result will be a patch-
work arrangement with large
holes. That’s why thousands of
people, primarily Britons, living
in Europe who have British bank
accounts have recently been told
their accounts will be closed.
To ease the transition, Britain
decided to copy some of the Euro-
pean Union’s regulations. In turn,
it hoped that the European Union
would allow firms in Britain to
keep doing business in the bloc. In
early November, Britain’s chan-
cellor of the Exchequer said his
government would accept the
E.U. rules in a number of areas, in-
cluding capital requirements and
credit ratings agencies.
But the European Union hasn’t
reciprocated. The bruised feelings
raised by Britain’s divorce from
the bloc continue to influence rela-
tions between the two. Officials in
Brussels say they are wary that,
over time, Britain will exploit its
independence and weaken the re-
strictions on risk and other rules
that banks don’t like.
That lack of a deal “should not
be the starting gun for a race to de-
regulate,” Joachim Wuermeling,
who is in charge of bank supervi-
sion at the Bundesbank, Ger-
many’s central bank, said last
month.
This has led to a political stale-
mate, in which London and Brus-
sels remain at odds on several key
pieces of financial regulation and
unwilling to give market access to
each other.
One such rule allows invest-
ment firms to offer their services
and trade financial securities
across borders to clients in the Eu-
ropean Union, under a piece of
regulation called Mifid II. The bloc
is updating its rules for cross-bor-
der securities trading and won’t
grant Britain a stamp of approval
until the revision is completed in
the middle of next year.
That stance spurred an out-
raged response from none other
than the governor of the Bank of
England, Andrew Bailey, who in
September complained to mem-
bers of Parliament about Brus-
sels’s behavior.
“I just do not see how we can
have an equivalence process
where the E.U. essentially says,
‘We’re not even going to judge
As China Battles Poverty,
Colossal Projects Draw Ire
FROM FIRST BUSINESS PAGE
the ocean.
These projects have always en-
dured some criticism in China.
But these days the harsh words
resonate. Xi Jinping, the country’s
top leader, has vowed to eradicate
extreme poverty, and some of
these projects are in the country’s
most impoverished places.
China is also still emerging from
the economic devastation of the
coronavirus pandemic early this
year. With many people strug-
gling to get their lives back in or-
der, the projects seem like little
more than costly burdens on a
country where many local and
provincial governments are al-
ready deeply in debt.
Singling out the $38 million
Jingxingu Hotel and the $224 mil-
lion Guan Yu project, which also
included an elaborate base and
surrounding park, the Ministry of
Housing and Urban-Rural Devel-
opment ordered on Sept. 29 that
communities may not “blindly
build large-scale sculptures that
are divorced from reality and the
masses.”
Chinese government officials
have long prized big projects.
China now has four-fifths of the
world’s 100 tallest bridges, more
miles of ultramodern express-
ways than the American inter-
state highway system and a bul-
let-train network long enough to
span the continental United
States seven times. Those
projects have employed millions
of people and helped fuel the coun-
try’s breakneck growth.
But local officials borrowed
heavily to fund those projects. Es-
timates put the amount of local
debt as high as $6 trillion, raising
fears of financial bombs lurking in
the ledgers of far corners of the
equivalence at the moment, be-
cause our rules are going to
change,’” Mr. Bailey said. “What
does that mean, really? It means
that they think this is a rule-taking
process.” (The accusation of
“rule-taking” is often the ultimate
put-down in these talks, meaning
that one side is dictating rules to
the other.)
The disharmony is underscored
by the fact that, unlike the rules
that governed pre-Brexit, these
regulatory decisions are made
unilaterally and can be revoked
with short notice.
The lack of agreements means
London will lose financial jobs as a
result of Brexit. Even before the
year-end deadline, E.U. regula-
country.
Beijing has doubled down on
further investment spending this
year in an initially successful bid
to shake off an economic hang-
over from the outbreak of corona-
virus in China last winter.
Yet with each passing year, as
projects are built in ever-more-re-
mote places, the economic kick
from each project becomes less
and less. China is on track this
year to add debt equal to four
months’ economic output while its
economy grows by an amount
equal to less than two weeks’ out-
put.
Local government borrowing
“is still out of control,” said Gary
Liu, an independent economist in
Shanghai.
Particularly controversial on
Chinese social media are statues
built in areas of considerable pov-
erty. Some local officials are fol-
lowing the model of the city of
Wuxi, which drew tourists by the
busload after it built a 259-foot
statue of the Buddha in 1996. But
more recent statues lack the same
drawing power.
“The people who imitated later
are doing nothing more than wast-
ing labor and money,” said Zhou
Mingqi, a tourism consultant in
Shanghai.
In this environment, online crit-
ics seized on the Yang Asha statue
when a video of it went viral this
autumn. But the statue’s defend-
ers argue that it and the region it
represents have more to offer
than mindless building.
The statue of Yang Asha stands
216 feet when measured from the
hem of her gown to the top of her
horned headdress. That is 65 feet
taller than the Statue of Liberty’s
torch, although New York City’s
statue stands on a much larger
THE NEW YORK TIMES BUSINESS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020
INTERNATIONAL
tions are compelling banks to shift
workers, and capital, to the conti-
nent. The movement of decision
makers is important: In the event
of a crisis, Europe’s bank over-
seers don’t want critical people to
be somewhere offshore, even if it’s
London.
Overall, since mid-2016, finan-
cial firms have shifted $1.6 trillion
in assets out of Britain, according
to EY.
But the process hasn’t been
completed. It has been delayed by
the pandemic, which has made it
difficult for people to move and
some corporate clients have been
more concerned with keeping
their business afloat than signing
new contracts.
base.
Yang Asha is the mythical an-
cestress of the Miao people, an
ethnic minority in China closely
related to the Hmong of Southeast
Asia. The Miao make up the ma-
jority of the population of Jianhe,
the county in Guizhou Province
that built the statue.
Her headdress, which incorpo-
rates both horns and feathers, is
meant to commemorate two Miao
groups, and her pale white aspect
nods at the Miao’s reputation as
skilled silversmiths.
Yang Asha was an extraordi-
narily beautiful woman who was
bullied by dark clouds into marry-
ing the sun, according to local leg-
end. She later deserted the sun in
favor of the sun’s brother, the
moon, and had to fight to stay with
her new suitor, said Luo Yu, a City
University of Hong Kong anthro-
pologist who is from Guizhou
Province.
Predictably, her story became
Canary Wharf, London’s central business district, above, where many financial firms are based, and the now-ghostly
underground station serving it, left. Brexit is changing how banks in Britain do business in the European Union.
“Some banks and their
customers apparently want to
wait until the last minute to make
the actual transfers,” Mr. Wuer-
meling of the Bundesbank said.
“They would be well advised to
act now.”
JPMorgan has asked about 200
employees to move from London
to other European cities, mainly
Paris and Frankfurt, before the
end of the year. Another 100 work-
ers are expected to move next
year. JPMorgan also plans to
move about 200 billion euros in as-
sets to Frankfurt. Goldman Sachs
plans to transfer between $40 bil-
lion and $60 billion from its British
operations to its German subsid-
iary by the end of the year. That
unit held just $3.6 billion at the end
of 2019, according to company fil-
ings.
All told, lenders with German li-
censes will move assets worth
about 400 billion euros, or $475 bil-
lion, to the Continent because of
Brexit, according to the Bundes-
bank. That will more than double
the banks’ assets in the European
Union.
The Bundesbank expects banks
that have sought German licenses
because of Brexit to bring in 2,500
employees, some of whom may be
located in other cities like Milan or
Amsterdam. That’s hardly the
YI MAYUAN/IMAGINECHINA, VIA AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
one of class struggle under Mao,
said Ms. Luo, with Yang Asha flee-
ing a landlord sun for a moon de-
picted as a heroic laborer or ten-
ant farmer. In today’s telling, the
Chinese state media gloss over
the marital infidelity and eco-
nomic inequality, describing her
as a beautiful woman who fought
for love.
Jianhe is in a region known for
poverty, which has fueled much of
the criticism over Yang Asha. The
statue itself was erected nearly
four years ago, but construction of
its surrounding plaza was then
quickly suspended in response to
online criticism. The site still lacks
bathrooms, parking and other ba-
sic amenities. An effort began
over the summer to finish con-
struction, but that has helped re-
awaken criticism of the project.
“It’d be so much better to spend
the money on alleviating poverty,”
asked one of the many commenta-
tors who have weighed in on social
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALEXANDER INGRAM FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
mass migration to the continent
predicted a few years ago. (Esti-
mates reached as high as 75,000
jobs relocating out of London to
the rest of Europe.)
Still, the moves keep alive a
question that has been posed
since the Brexit vote in 2016:
Could another European capital
unseat London as the region’s
dominant financial center?
So far there has been no single
big winner. Money has scattered
to Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Dublin
and Paris.
“London will remain by far the
most dominant player,” said Mi-
chael Grote, a professor at the
Frankfurt School of Finance &
Management who has studied the
effect of Brexit on financial serv-
ices.
Regulators are confident that fi-
nancial stability won’t be put at
risk come January, because firms
have taken the prudent approach
of preparing for the worst. But,
they say, there could still be some
market volatility as the transition
period ends.
Next year, Britain’s financial
sector is still expected to be one of
the largest in the world: The
amount of money it manages is
about 10 times the size of the
British economy. The business
that actually relates to clients in
media. “What can a statue like this
do?”
The local government says that
the statue cost only $13 million,
with none of it coming from anti-
poverty programs, and helped the
town draw 200,000 visitors during
a weeklong National Day holiday
at the start of October.
Verifying such numbers is diffi-
cult. Souvenir vendors at the stat-
ue said that about only 100 people
might visit the site on a busy
weekend day, and that most of
them have been local residents
lately because of the pandemic.
Some say the current criticisms
go too far. They contend that afflu-
ent people in China’s big cities
have become too quick to criticize
ethnic minority communities in
rural areas for spending money to
honor their ancestors and their
traditions.
Such critics “have this paternal-
istic, protective perception of des-
titute minorities,” said Louisa
N B5
the European Union, and would be
threatened by regulatory discord,
is relatively small.
“Not that much business in Lon-
don and the United Kingdom’s fi-
nancial center actually depends
on equivalence,” Alex Brazier, the
Bank of England’s head of finan-
cial stability strategy and risk,
told members of Parliament in
September. About 10 percent of
the City’s £300 billion in annual
revenue from finance and insur-
ance comes from clients in the Eu-
ropean Union, he said. Of that
about a third, or £10 billion, is from
activities that could continue un-
der equivalence rules, he added.
While London won’t lose its sta-
tus as the financial capital of Eu-
rope, its primacy will be eroded.
The market for financial services
will become more fragmented.
Andrew Gray, the head of Brexit
at PwC, said that dispersal of fi-
nancial services around the Conti-
nent would create more friction in
the system, adding to costs.
“There is economy of scale of hav-
ing it in London,” he said. “You
lose that economy of scale.”
Eshe Nelson reported from London
and Jack Ewing from Frankfurt.
Michael J. de la Merced contributed
reporting from London.
Critics say the
statue of Yang Asha
in the Chinese
province of Guizhou
is a white elephant.
Schein, a Rutgers University an-
thropologist who has long studied
the Miao.
Local officials dispute the idea
that their region is impoverished.
The Jianhe area declared early
this year that it has raised its last
few families out of extreme pov-
erty.
The community itself, like many
in rural China, no longer appears
impoverished. It has been trans-
formed by remittances from resi-
dents who migrated to work in fur-
niture factories and construction
sites elsewhere.
Liu Kaimu is one of the many
Jianhe residents who joined that
migration. He worked in Quzhou,
a vast furniture-making hub in
south-central coastal China that
has attracted large numbers of
Miao migrant workers, who have
a strong woodworking tradition.
Mr. Liu made $750 to $900 a
month and received free food and
dormitory housing. In 2011, he
bought a three-bedroom, 1,300-
square-foot apartment for his
family in Jianhe for $54,000.
Weeks before the pandemic, Mr.
Liu, now 35, had decided he would
stay in Jianhe. His son, now a
freshman in high school, needs his
father home more.
So Mr. Liu started a small busi-
ness: a whirling children’s ride of
bright purple rockets on the large
but still unfinished concrete plaza
in front of the Yang Asha statue.
Mr. Liu said that his take-home in-
come is actually slightly higher
than when he was a migrant
worker.
Mr. Liu is grateful that the stat-
ue has given him an alternative to
life as a migrant worker. “What we
did was hard toil,” he said. “It’s im-
possible to do that kind of work
again.”
B6 N THE NEW YORK TIMES BUSINESS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020

ECONOMY | ENTREPRENEURSHIP

One Economist’s Guide to the Recovery

An influential professor envisions a post-pandemic world that redefines what is valued.
In Her Words
By ALISHA HARIDASANI GUPTA
Over the years, Mariana Mazzucato,
an economist and professor at Univer-
sity College London, has achieved the
kind of celebrity status that is uncom-
mon for academics.
In February, British GQ named her
one of the 50 most influential people in
Britain, alongside David Beckham and
Phoebe Waller-Bridge. The Financial
Times described one of her panel dis-
cussions as “electrifying.” She’s got the
ears of politicians and chief executives
around the world, from Representative
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the United
States and President Cyril Ramaphosa
of South Africa, to Microsoft founder
Bill Gates and Pope Francis, who all
turn to her for advice or lean on her
work for ideas.
Ostensibly, her mission is to reimag-
ine capitalism and promote the state-
backed public sector, but her work has
nonetheless resonated not just with
leftist thinkers but also in fiscally con-
servative, free-market circles where
even the slightest whiff of socialism
would usually set off alarms. The
fiercely pro-free-market Financial
Times, for example, noted that the
argument laid out in one of Dr. Mazzu-
cato’s books, “The Entrepreneurial
State: Debunking Public vs Private
Sector Myths,” is “basically right.”
The core tenets of her life’s work,
which she lays out in several books, are
(1) the ways we currently define eco-
nomic growth are far too narrow and
(2) that many of the world’s greatest
achievements — the moon landing or
the invention of the internet, for exam-
ple — stem from government invest-
ment, not the private sector, as is
widely assumed.
“Indeed, every technology that
makes the iPhone smart and not stupid
owes its funding to both basic and
applied research funded by the State,”
she writes in “The Entrepreneurial
State.”
She doesn’t mean to suggest that
Steve Jobs wasn’t critical to Apple’s
success, but “ignoring the ‘public’ side
of that story will prevent future Apples
from being born.”
This month, nearly a year into a
pandemic that has made clear the
many weaknesses of the global econ-
omy, she was named chair of a new
council at the World Health Organiza-
tion that puts public health at the cen-
ter of how we think about value cre-
ation and economic growth.
Dr. Mazzucato recently discussed
over email how global leaders can
redefine value going forward, and the
forgotten women behind much of the
world’s greatest innovations.
The conversation has been edited for
length and clarity.
The pandemic has made clear how much
of the economy relies on unpaid labor —
‘Today’s capitalism is incompatible with feminism.’
Mariana Mazzucato, a professor and economist at University College London.
mostly shouldered by women — as well
as the undervalued jobs in
female-dominated industries. How can
governments now start to elevate these
jobs and weave them into broader
economic growth policies?
Covid-19 has very much sharpened
our focus on what is of value in an
economy — which equates to what we
can put a price on, and what we can
exchange. It turns out that the areas
we thought of as “high-value” — fi-
nance and real estate, for example —
are not the components of society we
rely on as “foundational.” Covid-19 led
to government definitions of “key” or
“essential” work: Our most valuable,
irreplaceable citizens are those who
work in health and social care, educa-
tion, public transport, supermarkets
and delivery services. These jobs are
disproportionately occupied by women,
as well as by people of color, in Europe,
the U.K. and the U.S. Suffering is not
inevitable for these groups any more so
than others — it is a policy choice like
any other.
Is it a moonshot to think that unpaid
labor within households could be counted
in G.D.P. measurements? How would that
actually work?
Well first off, we shouldn’t be trying
to adapt and adjust everything to fit
into G.D.P. As a measurement, G.D.P. is
inherently flawed, as within it, eco-
nomic value is only determined on the
basis of market transactions — only
goods and services sold in markets are
counted. G.D.P. is used to justify exces-
sive inequalities of income and wealth
while trying to turn value extraction
into value creation.
There are evaluation components
and metrics that are far more dynamic
than G.D.P.
In Wales, planned public sector
projects are evaluated and appraised
by the Future Generations Commis-
sioner, who is mandated to make rec-
ommendations based on impacts on the
not-yet-born.
In New Zealand, the government
launched the first “well-being budget”
in 2019. The Genuine Progress Indica-
tor attempts to separate environmental
and social costs from benefits, to value
household and volunteer work, and to
adjust for inequality.
If a mixture of these kinds of evalua-
tive approaches was emboldened and
embraced, then we would possibly
have a better indication of the real
direct and indirect implications to
ISABELLA DE MADDALENA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
society of something like labor within a
household.
Because of Covid, we are now far
more keenly aware of the value of both
formal and informal child care serv-
ices. Covid has forced women to drop
out of the labor market at much higher
rates than men, with women being the
default manager of household and
family activities. Household labor,
cleaning, caring and child-minding has
tremendous spillover effects, but we
have not done a sufficient job in map-
ping that, articulating and valuing
these activities.
Given the increasing economic inequality
around the world, is it fair to assume that
capitalism is fundamentally incompatible
with feminism?
Today’s capitalism is incompatible
with feminism. Private companies are
driven by shareholder mandates that
do not inherently align with feminist
and intersectional priorities — and it is
these companies which are viewed as
the most innovative, and the most
valuable.
But history tells us that innovation is
an outcome of a massive collective
effort — not just from a narrow group
of young white men in California. If we
want to solve the world’s biggest prob-
lems, we need to understand and chal-
lenge this.
Movements to resituate and recog-
nize women in innovation are growing
— and we can see this in films like
“Hidden Figures,” which recognizes
the Black women at the heart of the
space race, and campaigns like Jess
Wade’s Women in STEM Wikipedia
movement.
There is much more to do to under-
stand and recognize the impact of
innovation coming out of the Global
South — I am fascinated by the suc-
cesses of states like Kerala in the Covid
crisis, where long-term state invest-
ment in health was supported by a
rapid lockdown, aggressive contact
tracing and extensive mental health
services, which have reached over 11.5
million people. And all this coordinated
by an impressive female leader — K.K.
Shailaja, the minister of health and
social welfare.
A statement last year from a group of
almost 200 chief executives of the
world’s biggest companies focused on
investing in employees and customers,
not just shareholders. Is that bold
enough?
I often say that it is time for compa-
nies to “walk the walk” as well as talk-
ing the talk. Last year, the mantra at
Davos was “stakeholder, not sharehold-
er capitalism” — what has happened to
this sense of solidarity during the
Covid crisis? The world’s largest com-
panies have become larger — espe-
cially in the tech sector, which sees
itself as a beacon of innovation but
does not honor its social compact with
the society in which it is situated by, for
example, paying fair wages, treating
workers fairly or declaring taxes.
Of course, companies could be doing
more. But markets infrequently find
this direction on their own.
In a recent article for Time magazine, you
imagined the world in 2023. Tell us more.
I imagine a 2023 where we have not
only beaten Covid, but used the recov-
ery process as an inflection point to-
ward a new world which is greener,
more inclusive and more sustainable,
fueled by smart innovation-led eco-
nomic growth. This starts with public
movements driving government bail-
outs to be conditional on maintaining
payroll, securing minimum wage,
halting stock buybacks, and ensuring
worker representation on boards —
aligning company goals with worker
goals. This dream extends to health
care, which is notoriously inequitable.
In my vision, bold conditions were
placed on the governance of intellectu-
al property, pricing and manufacturing
of Covid-19 treatments and vaccines to
ensure the therapies were both afford-
able and universally accessible.
In Her Words is a twice-weekly newsletter
on women, gender and society. Sign up at
nytimes.com/inherwords.

Older Americans Make a New Start in a Business of Their Own

By KERRY HANNON
In April, Dave Summers lost his
job as director of digital media
productions at the American Man-
agement Association, a casualty
of layoffs brought on by the pan-
demic.
Mr. Summers, 60, swiftly
launched his own business as a
digital media producer, coach and
animator who creates podcasts,
webcasts and video blogs.
And in September, he and his
wife moved from Danbury, Conn.,
to Maryville, Tenn., which they
discovered while visiting their son
in Nashville. “My new work is all
virtual, so I can live anywhere,” he
said. “Not only is it a cheaper
place to live, we love hiking and
the outdoors, and our new town is
in the foothills of the Great Smoky
Mountains.”
Droves of small businesses
have been shuttered by the eco-
nomic fallout of the coronavirus,
but for Mr. Summers, starting a
new one was the best option.
“I’m not sitting on a massive
nest egg, so I need to work to keep
afloat,” he said. “It’s also about be-
ing healthy and happy. I can’t just
retire because underneath it all
I’m creative, and I have to be busy
doing stuff and helping people tell
their stories.”
While the coronavirus pan-
demic is causing many older
workers who have lost jobs, or
who have been offered early re-
tirement severance packages, to
decide to leave the work force,
others like Mr. Summers are shift-
ing to entrepreneurship.
In fact, older Americans had al-
ready been starting new busi-
nesses at a fast rate. In 2019, re-
search from the Kauffman Foun-
dation, a nonpartisan group sup-
porting entrepreneurship, found
that more than 25 percent of new
entrepreneurs were ages 55 to 64,
up from about 15 percent in 1996.
Across the age spectrum, there
has been a rise in business start-
ups since May, according to the
Census Bureau. The surge is likely
“powered by newly unemployed
individuals opting to start their
own businesses, either by choice
or out of necessity,” according to
the Economic Innovation Group, a
public policy organization.
“Older women, in particular,”
said Elizabeth Isele, founder of
the Global Institute for Experi-
enced Entrepreneurship, “are
highly motivated to start their
own businesses to foster their
own economic self-reliance, sup-
port their families and also pro-
vide employment for others.”
Losing his position during the
pandemic was a blow for Mr. Sum-
mers. He was depressed for a day
or two, he said, but he already had
been doing what he calls “out of
school projects” and had a person-
al website that he quickly remade
into a professional one.
Start-up costs for his virtual
business were under $2,000. The
biggest challenges, he said, were
“finding time to keep my technical
skills up-to-date, and pricing my
services right.” The biggest re-
ward? “It is a freedom I could not
have imagined.”
For many retirees, or those
nearing retirement age like Mr.
Summers, “starting a new busi-
ness by repackaging the skills and
experience honed for decades into
a new career is exciting,” said
Nancy Ancowitz, a New York City-
based career coach.
“It hits you, especially during
the coronavirus crisis, that time
no longer feels unlimited,” she
said. “You’re aware of your own
clock ticking. Since you don’t have
a seemingly endless vista of work
ahead of you, you may be motivat-
ed to finally retool and learn a new
trade.”
For some of Ms. Ancowitz’s cli-
ents in their later working years, a
buyout from an employer is “the
seed money to fuel the venture
they’ve been hankering to
launch,” she said.
They see it as “a treat to get that
kick-start rather than have to hunt
for a job, with all of the loneliness
and fear of rejection that comes
with it, especially when they ha-
ven’t looked for a job in ages.”
Two years ago, Vanessa Ten-
nyson, 62, retired from her job as a
human resources officer at a large
consulting engineering firm in
Minneapolis where she had
worked for 32 years.
To find her footing, Ms. Ten-
nyson enrolled as a fellow at the
University of Minnesota’s Ad-
vanced Careers Initiative. It was
the push she needed to begin an
executive coaching business.
Before she hung out her shin-
gle, though, she went back to
school to obtain certification in ex-
ecutive and organizational coach-
ing from Columbia University’s
Teachers College and a graduate
certificate from Columbia Busi-
ness School’s Executive Educa-
tion platform in business excel-
lence. She also made sure her cre-
dentials met the standards re-
quired by the International
Coaching Federation.
“I didn’t want to be retired,” she
said. “Retired implies done. When
I moved on from my job, it wasn’t
completely on my own terms. The
firm changed management, and I
was out faster than I had
planned.” But at 59, she said, she
wanted something new. “I longed
for something more purposeful,
more meaningful, more challeng-
ing.”
Money, too, played a role.
“I had saved quite a bit of
money, but I had also spent quite a
bit of money,” said Ms. Tennyson,
who realized she needed to keep
earning.
Start-up costs for Ms. Tennyson
were around $50,000 for tuition
and to set up a home office so she
could coach virtually.
“The positive result of the pan-
demic,” she said, “is I can work
with people anywhere.” But the
coronavirus has also taken a toll
on her business, and in June she
took a job as director of human re-
sources at an addiction treatment
center. “I continue to run my busi-
Dave Summers created his own company after losing his job in April.
ness on the side and coach clients.
I expect that to bounce back next
year.”
It turns out that the importance
of entrepreneurship, or self-em-
ployment as a form of work, in-
creases significantly with age, ac-
cording to a report by Cal J.
The importance of
entrepreneurship
increases with age.
Halvorsen and Jacquelyn B.
James of the Center on Aging &
Work at Boston College.
According to the report: “While
about one in six workers in their
50s are self-employed, nearly one
in three are self-employed in their
late 60s and more than 1 in 2 work-
ers over the age of 80 are self-em-
ployed.
Joe Casey, an executive coach,
advises his older clients to focus.
“The sooner they’re clear about
their ‘Why,’ the easier some of
their decisions will be.”
For Rati Thanawala, 68, it was
SHAWN POYNTER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
her time as a 2018 fellow at Har-
vard’s Advanced Leadership Ini-
tiative, which helps professionals
apply their skills to social prob-
lems, that led her to start a non-
profit, the Leadership Academy
for Women of Color in Tech, this
summer.
“As a fellow, I did research on
why the careers of so many wom-
en and minorities get stalled in the
tech industry,” said Ms.
Thanawala, who spent 39 years
working in technology, the last 17
as a vice president at Bell Labs.
After she retired three years
ago, Ms. Thanawala sold her car
and home and moved to Cam-
bridge, Mass., for the Harvard
program. “My husband had
passed away, and our two children
were grown,” she said. “I wanted
to get rid of the old to make room
for the new relationships and new
people who can teach me.”
For Ms. Thanawala, the central
issue for her next chapter was
clear — she wanted to have an im-
pact on the industry she had been
immersed in. “I had tremendous
knowledge in the tech area, and I
saw firsthand how few women of
color were in leadership posi-
tions,” she said.
Her pilot program, which she
designed as a fellow, was funded
by a $20,000 grant from Pivotal
Ventures, an investment and incu-
bation company created by Melin-
da Gates.
And this summer, Ms.
Thanawala partnered with faculty
members at the University of
Massachusetts and the Harvard
Kennedy School to create a free
six-week, 120-hour Virtual Sum-
mer Leadership Academy taught
via Zoom for 54 women and mi-
nority undergraduates. Most of
the students were sophomores or
juniors pursuing degrees in tech-
nology and engineering at schools
in Massachusetts, including the
University of Massachusetts,
Harvard, M.I.T. and Northeastern
University.
Ms. Thanawala said she hoped
to expand the program and make
it available to all women of color
who declare a major in technology
across the country.
In devising her business,
money was not a stumbling block.
“I didn’t need a start-up that was
going to make me millions of dol-
lars,” she said. “And I didn’t need
money to support me. I could fo-
cus on changing the culture in
tech and change the mind-set
about women of color.”
Embarking on social en-
trepreneurship has been a one-
woman show in many respects,
she said. “I had to do everything
myself. It was not like at Bell Labs
when I had all of these people
around me to bounce ideas off.”
Her mantra: “At this stage of
life, it is really important to focus
and not spread myself too thin. I
picked something that is transfor-
mative, game-changing and inno-
vative. I don’t need it for my ego. I
don’t need it for my credibility. I
don’t need it for money.
“But it is going to be the best
chapter of my life in terms of the
impact that I will have had in this
world. People will remember me
for this.”
SCORES ANALYSIS COMMENTARY
A Family
Of Passers
Protects
An Heir
Arch Manning, 16, navigates the
possibility of stardom and its pitfalls.
By JERÉ LONGMAN
Last summer, while reading a list of
Louisiana’s top college football recruit-
ing prospects, Archie Manning noticed
that only one of the high school players
did not have a Twitter account. It hap-
pened to be his grandson and namesake
Arch, a nephew of Peyton and Eli.
“I was kind of proud of that,” the elder
Manning said in a telephone interview.
At 16, Archibald Charles Manning is a
6-foot-3 ½ inch, 198-pound sophomore at
the Isidore Newman School in New Or-
leans, the latest flowering branch on the
family quarterback tree and potentially
the third generation of the Manning fam-
ily to play in the N.F.L. As such, he is be-
ing nurtured and protected by relatives
who fully understand — and have the ex-
perience and the means to address — the
possibilities and hazards of fame and ex-
pectation.
In a rapacious social media age and a
hothouse recruiting era when players
are sometimes offered college schol-
arships in the eighth grade, Cooper Man-
ning, Arch’s father and Peyton’s and Eli’s
older brother, said, “I’m doing my best to
keep it all in check and let him be a nor-
mal kid.”
A season ago, when Arch became
Newman’s starting quarterback as a
freshman — something neither of his un-
cles had done — he was named by Max-
Preps, a leading high school sports web-
site, as the national freshman of the year
after completing 65.5 percent of his pas-
ses for 2,408 yards and 34 touchdowns
with only six interceptions.
He is ranked as the top quarterback
for the 2023 recruiting class. On Nov. 13,
Manning threw five touchdown passes in
the first quarter of a homecoming rout.
But he is still learning to navigate the in-
tense anticipation of stardom and scru-
tiny of his performance fostered by his
family name. After throwing three inter-
ceptions in last week’s regular-season fi-
nale, he seemed downcast although his
team won, 31-8, and stayed undefeated.
Despite that disappointment, New-
man (8-0) prepares to enter Louisiana’s
playoffs next week as the No. 1 seed in its
division. Manning will attempt to lead
the Greenies to their first state football
championship at the Superdome, the
building where his grandfather threw
touchdown passes for the New Orleans
Saints 40 years ago.
“He’s worth the price of admission,”
said Lyle Fitte, the coach at South
Plaquemines High School in Buras, La.,
Newman’s final regular-season oppo-
nent. “He displays the characteristics of
a college quarterback now. Pocket pres-
ence, keeping his eyes downfield, going
through his reads, even-keeled. He’s
very mobile, can throw on the run. I think
he’s better than his uncles were at this
point. He’s learned from the best, for
sure.”
The curly-haired Arch also seems to
possess the family’s easy humor. Last
summer, he told a television reporter
that, with his uncles retired, he gives as
good as he gets as far as needling. When
they call him skinny and ask how much
he can bench press, he asks how fast they
can run the 40-yard dash. “They won’t
talk,” he said, laughing.
Arch fully understands the recruiting
process and his standing in it, his grand-
father said. But the Mannings have
pumped the brakes on comparisons to
his Hall-of-Fame caliber family mem-
bers. And they have been cautious in
keeping their emerging star from racing
full speed into the world of sports celebri-
ty and breathless recruiting speculation.
As a freshman, Arch did not give inter-
views and avoided social media. The
family declined all scholarship offers.
This year, Arch has spoken with college
coaches, but the N.C.A.A.’s coronavirus
restrictions have prohibited them from
Isidore Newman’s campus and games.
In mid-October, he completed 21 of 26
passes for one touchdown, and rushed
for two more, in a game before a national
TV audience. A YouTube highlight video
titled “The Next Manning” had been
viewed nearly three million times
through late November. A filmmaker has
documented his career since he was in
the seventh grade. Arch has usually ac-
commodated local reporters after games
this season but was not made available
by his father over the phone for this arti-
cle. Arch unfailingly credits his team-
mates in interviews, though he is said to
find the ceaseless spotlight a bit silly. He
still scrambles away from social media.
“People are too early to crown you and
condemn you,” his father Cooper, a real
estate executive, said.
Cooper Manning, 46, started on a state
championship basketball team at New-
man and was an all-state receiver whose
football career ended at the University of
Mississippi just as it began. In 1992, he
was diagnosed with spinal stenosis, a
narrowing of the spinal canal that can
cause numbness and muscle weakness.
He is happy to talk about his daughter,
May, 17, who was recently named the
most valuable player as her team won a
state volleyball championship at the
Academy of the Sacred Heart in New Or-
leans. And how his wife, Ellen, achieved
similar acclaim when she attended Sa-
cred Heart. And how his youngest son,
Heid, a freshman at Newman, soon to be
15, could become the Greenies’ starting
center next season, snapping the ball to
his brother.
But he is reluctant to say much about
Arch, not wanting his eldest son to be
swamped in a tidal wave of attention and
the ruthless, scraping undertow of Twit-
ter and Instagram.
“It’s supposed to be fun,” he said.
Given familial and geographic connec-
Arch Manning has started at quarterback since his freshman year at the Isidore Newman School in New Orleans.
tions to the Mannings, colleges including
Mississippi (Archie, Cooper and Eli’s
alma mater), Tennessee (Peyton’s),
Duke (where David Cutcliffe, who
coached Peyton and Eli in college, runs
the program), and Louisiana State, Ala-
bama, Georgia and Texas have been
speculated as potential landing spots for
Arch. “I don’t think M.I.T. is calling any-
time soon,” his father said in a radio in-
terview last summer, swiping at the
panting conjecture that accompanies
football recruiting in the South.
“The Manning way is to empower the
young man to figure out what’s impor-
tant to him and let him make his own de-
cision,” Cutcliffe said.
For Archie Manning, a cautionary mo-
ment occurred in 2014, when L.S.U. re-
ceived a scholarship commitment from
an eighth-grade quarterback from Texas
PHOTOGRAPHS BY LESLIE GAMBONI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Arch Manning, nephew of Peyton and Eli and grandson of the
New Orleans Saints quarterback for whom he is named, is in
high school. “I’m doing my best to keep it all in check and let
him be a normal kid,” said Cooper Manning, left, Arch’s father.
named Zadock Dinkelmann. Like Arch
Manning, Dinkelmann has two uncles
who played in the N.F.L. — Ty Detmer,
the 1990 Heisman Trophy winner from
Brigham Young, and his brother Koy.
But it is impossible to know whether
an eighth grader will bloom into a college
star. For Arch Manning, his grandfather
said, seriously contemplating early
scholarship offers is “not part of the
process right now.”
Dinkelmann entered a junior college,
not L.S.U., after high school. His planned
college path detoured several times be-
cause of head coach firings. He is now at
Texas A&M-Kingsville, hoping to take
his first snap at the Division II school in
March after its fall season was scrubbed
by the pandemic.
Dinkelmann, 21, said he had enjoyed
the recruiting process and offered Arch
Manning the same advice that his father
and uncles offered him: Be a high school
athlete first. Take your time. Have fun
visiting stadiums, meeting coaches. The
right decision will become obvious.
“Don’t worry about them liking you;
it’s about you liking them,” Dinkelmann
said.
Since he was in junior high school,
Arch Manning has worked at times with
a quarterback coach named David Mor-
ris, who was Eli’s backup at Ole Miss.
And when Arch’s uncles visit New Or-
leans or gather at the annual Manning
Passing Academy in Thibodaux, La.,
they also offer advice. Each was a first
overall pick in the N.F.L. draft and won
two Super Bowls. Each has helped Arch
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020 B7
N
‘I think I’m the
most like my
grandfather the
way I play. He
could scramble
around, stretch
the field.’
ARCH MANNING
with his footwork and drop-back tech-
nique and his polished release. Peyton
has infused him with the importance of a
commanding presence. But they are his
uncles, not his coaches.
“They don’t try to be his mentor; they
don’t grade his film,” Archie Manning
said.
Arch’s closest bond with a legendary
quarterback appears to be with his
grandfather. It is hard to overstate what
a folk hero Archie Manning was 50 years
ago at Ole Miss, where the campus speed
limit was set at 18 miles an hour to honor
his jersey number. Or how he gamely en-
dured a decade without a winning season
on the New Orleans Saints, becoming a
two-time Pro Bowler who got sacked 337
times while fans in the early 1980s began
wearing bags on their heads and the
Saints became the ’Aints.
Arch calls his grandfather “Red,”
though, at 71, Archie’s shock of red hair
has thinned and gone gray. At age 20,
Archie lost his own father to a self-in-
flicted gunshot wound, which perhaps
helps to explain why he has been closely
involved in his sons’ lives and the lives of
his nine grandchildren. Each day, Arch
has said, Archie sends a motivational
text message. And on game days, his
grandfather types a simple affirmation:
“Have fun.”
Archie attends most Newman games.
During the pandemic, he has sometimes
watched practice from his car. When ac-
cess to gyms, school facilities and parks
in New Orleans was restricted, Archie’s
home in the Garden District became a
place for Arch to workout.
“I think I’m the most like my grandfa-
ther the way I play,” Arch told an inter-
viewer before the season began. “He
could scramble around, stretch the field.”
Like his father and his uncles, Arch
skipped Pop Warner football. (“I don’t
think it’s necessary to put shoulder pads
and helmets on a fourth grader or fifth
grader,” Archie Manning said.) Instead,
Arch played flag football until the sixth
grade. It shows in the way he darts and
changes direction and throws across his
body, extending plays as his grandfather
once did — running in beautiful escape at
Ole Miss, running for his life with the
Saints.
Arch has completed 72 percent of his
passes and thrown for 19 touchdowns
this season, while also leading Newman
with eight rushing touchdowns.
“I see little sprinkles of everybody in
the family, but he’s his own entity,” said
Nelson Stewart, Newman’s football
coach and a former teammate of Pey-
ton’s and Cooper’s at the school. “I focus
on the Arch, not the Manning.”
Still, some Manning traits, especially
meticulousness, apply to all of them.
Arch collaborates with his coach in
scripting the opening plays for each
game. When the pandemic limited school
workouts for months, Stewart and Arch
reviewed every play from his freshman
season on video conference calls. Some
lasted an hour and a half.
“At the end,” Stewart said, “he was al-
most completing my sentences.”
B8 0 N THE NEW YORK TIMES SPORTS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020

PRO BASKETBALL S C O R E B OA R D

Winners and Losers in the Free-Agency Frenzy FOOTBALL

N.F.L. STANDINGS
The veteran forward Trevor delivering the conference finals AMERICAN CONFERENCE
Ariza was traded three times last showdown they still owe us is
East W L T Pct PF PA
week — from Portland to Hous- questionable. Golden State’s loss
ton to Detroit and ultimately to of Klay Thompson to a season- Buffalo 7 3 0 .700 272 265
Oklahoma City. It was perhaps ending Achilles’ tendon tear Miami 6 4 0 .600 264 202
the best illustration especially dispiriting, both for N. England 4 6 0 .400 209 238

MARC that an expected

transactional
the popular Thompson and since
it scuttles the Warriors’ expected
Jets 0 10 0 .000 149 302

STEIN
South W L T Pct PF PA
frenzy, after nine surge back into contention.
Indianapolis 7 3 0 .700 276 208
mostly dormant
ON months for N.B.A. Nothing we’ve seen matters more Tennessee 7 3 0 .700 279 259
BASKETBALL
roster moves, had than what happens with Giannis Houston 4 7 0 .364 268 297
lived up to billing. Antetokounmpo’s contract in the Jacksonville 1 9 0 .100 202 298
One player agent at the heart next 27 days.
North W L T Pct PF PA
of the chaos described it to me as The Milwaukee Bucks have until Pittsburgh 10 0 01.000 298 174
three months’ worth of business Dec. 21 to persuade Antetokoun-
Cleveland 7 3 0 .700 238 261
crammed into 10 days before mpo to sign a five-year, $230
million so-called supermax con- Baltimore 6 4 0 .600 268 195
next week’s start of training
camps. From the many trades tract extension. If he signs it, Cincinnati 2 7 1 .250 213 270
and free-agent signings that also Milwaukee’s failure to acquire West W L T Pct PF PA
had the N.B.A. draft wedged in Bogdanovic after it was por- Kansas City 9 1 0 .900 321 214
between them, these are the trayed as a done deal will be- Las Vegas 6 4 0 .600 286 276
most important takeaways: come a footnote.
Denver 4 6 0 .400 206 267
If Antetokounmpo elects not to
We didn’t get Lakers vs. Clippers sign it by then, his contract situa- L.A. Chargers 3 7 0 .300 260 273
in the Western Conference finals, tion will hang over the franchise
but their free-agent face-off was a NATIONAL CONFERENCE
like an ominous cloud all season,
compelling consolation. especially if the Bucks incur East W L T Pct PF PA
If Rob Pelinka finishes anywhere damaging penalties from the Washington 4 7 0 .364 241 243
KELVIN KUO/ASSOCIATED PRESS
close to seventh in next season’s N.B.A.’s investigation into Phila. 3 6 1 .350 220 254
executive of the year balloting, Trevor Ariza, left, bounced from Portland to Houston to Detroit, and landed in Oklahoma City. whether the team violated anti- Giants 3 7 0 .300 195 236
as he did in 2019-20, it would tampering rules by engaging
Dallas 3 8 0 .273 251 359
represent peak pettiness from after a humbling second-round was matched by the Utah Jazz. Hornets went to a financial level with Bogdanovic days before the
the voters (who, remember, are playoff exit to Denver. They Spending nearly twice as for Hayward that no rival was start of free agency. South W L T Pct PF PA
fellow executives rather than upgraded from Harrell — who much to land Hayward six years willing to match. Milwaukee responded to the New Orleans 8 2 0 .800 295 222
members of the media). team officials quietly decided later is earning Michael Jordan, Bogdanovic deal collapse by Tampa Bay 7 4 0 .636 320 253
Pelinka’s Lakers are the early had to go — by luring Serge Charlotte’s owner, consternation, The West is still the deeper con- striking deals to bring in a clutch Carolina 4 7 0 .364 253 272
leaders in the race for best off- Ibaka away from Toronto. The but that’s not Hayward’s concern ference, by far, but the East’s top of useful role players — the Atlanta 3 7 0 .300 252 275
season honors. They: additions of Ibaka and Luke (or Bartelstein’s). We detailed in six is a more competitive jumble. guards D.J. Augustin and Bryn
North W L T Pct PF PA
■ Proactively traded for Okla- Kennard (via trade with Detroit) last week’s newsletter that the Miami made a wholly unexpect- Forbes and the forwards Bobby
homa City’s Dennis Schröder in are just the beginning; many Hornets would probably be inter- ed trip to the N.B.A. finals and Portis and Torrey Craig — but Green Bay 7 3 0 .700 308 258

anticipation of Rajon Rondo’s rival teams also expect the Clip- ested in trading for Houston’s improved its roster through the this triage work can only be Chicago 5 5 0 .500 191 209

exit;
■ Signed Wesley Matthews Jr. to
replace Danny Green after Green
was dealt for Schröder;
■ Unexpectedly signed Montrezl
Harrell away from the Clippers
to replace the Philadelphia-
bound Dwight Howard;
■ And traded JaVale McGee to
Cleveland to create the needed
financial flexibility to sign Marc
Gasol.
The Lakers also beat out their
Staples Center co-tenants in a
head-to-head showdown for
Markieff Morris, preventing the
Clippers from signing both Mor-
ris, who spent last season with
the Lakers, and his twin brother,
Marcus. Throw in a re-signed
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and
it’s a lock that the Lakers, with a
more dynamic supporting cast to
surround LeBron James and
Anthony Davis, will start the
new season as clear-cut title
favorites for the first time in
James’s time in Hollywood.
The Clippers, though, haven’t
folded. They went into the off-
season determined to make
dramatic chemistry changes
pers to trade Lou Williams in
their quest to create a fresh-start
environment after they blew a
3-1 series lead to the Nuggets.
How Paul George rebounds
from a poor postseason and how
much influence an all-new coach-
ing staff led by Tyronn Lue
wields are key factors in the
Clippers’ ability to stay in the
same orbit as a Lakers roster
widely deemed stronger than the
championship group of 2019-20.
Yet just knowing that the Clip-
pers will keep trying ensures
that Los Angeles will remain one
of the league capitals of intrigue.
Gordon Hayward knew what he
was doing when he walked away
from the $34.2 million the Boston
Celtics would have owed him.
The ceiling on a four-year deal
for Hayward was widely project-
ed in the $100 million range after
his myriad injury woes in Bos-
ton, where he had a player option
for the coming season. Mark
Bartelstein, Hayward’s agent,
extracted $120 million over four
years from the Charlotte Hor-
nets, whose $63 million offer
sheet to Hayward in 2014 when
he was a restricted free agent
Russell Westbrook if they missed
out on LaMelo Ball in the draft.
After the Hornets were able to
select Ball at No. 3, they pivoted
to overpaying Hayward rather
than absorbing the remaining
three seasons and nearly $133
million left on Westbrook’s con-
tract.
So we’re about to find out if
Jordan comes off worse for
spending big compared with last
summer, when he decided not to
pay to retain the All-Star Kemba
Walker. Hayward will essentially
cost $39 million for the first three
seasons of his contract if Char-
lotte’s only way to create suffi-
cient cap room is to eat and pay
out the remaining $27 million on
Nicolas Batum’s contract over
the next three seasons.
The Knicks, for the record,
were in the Hayward chase
throughout. After the Knicks
weighed their own trade for
Westbrook, they pursued Hay-
ward much harder, with Coach
Tom Thibodeau serving as lead
admirer. The Knicks eventually
decided to increase their offer to
four years from two to compete
with sign-and-trade interest from
Indiana and Charlotte, but the
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
acquisitions of Avery Bradley
and Moe Harkless. Milwaukee
will remain a contender for the
league’s best regular-season
record, and presumably be a
better playoff team after acquir-
ing Jrue Holiday, even after the
Bogdan Bogdanovic fiasco.
Boston lost Hayward but
agreed to add the bruising Tris-
tan Thompson to fill a clear need
in the frontcourt on a team-
friendly contract. Toronto will
certainly miss Ibaka and Gasol
but has re-signed Fred VanVleet
and hopes Aron Baynes can step
into the center void.
Daryl Morey has been decisive
upon arrival in Philadelphia by
shipping out the ill-fitting Al
Horford and bringing in two
needed shooters: Danny Green
and Seth Curry. The Nets are
poised to acquire the sharpshoot-
ing Landry Shamet from a draft-
night trade and, beyond re-sign-
ing Joe Harris, should finally
have both Kevin Durant and
Kyrie Irving in uniform.
The jockeying among those six
teams is going to be heated and
unpredictable. The rest of the
West’s ability to prevent the
Lakers and the Clippers from
assessed with the context of the Minnesota 4 6 0 .400 264 278
only reaction that matters: Ante- Detroit 4 7 0 .364 252 328
tokounmpo’s. West W L T Pct PF PA
For two weeks before it ap-
L.A. Rams 7 3 0 .700 243 192
peared that the Bucks had a deal
to bring in Bogdanovic alongside Seattle 7 3 0 .700 318 287
Holiday, there had been promis- Arizona 6 4 0 .600 287 238
ing rumblings in league circles San Fran. 4 6 0 .400 238 234
that Antetokounmpo was pre- THURSDAY
pared to sign the extension. A Houston 41, Detroit 25
belief was building that Antetok- Washington 41, Dallas 16
ounmpo was likely to opt for SUNDAY
immediate financial security by Arizona at New England, 1
Carolina at Minnesota, 1
signing before the season and Cleveland at Jacksonville, 1
quietly reserving the right to try L.A. Chargers at Buffalo, 1
to force a trade later if he was Las Vegas at Atlanta, 1
unhappy, as George did one Miami at Jets, 1
season after re-signing in Okla- Giants at Cincinnati, 1
homa City. Tennessee at Indianapolis, 1
Now? Bogdanovic — someone Baltimore at Pittsburgh, 1:15
New Orleans at Denver, 4:05
Antetokounmpo was very eager
San Francisco at L.A. Rams, 4:05
to play with — has joined the Kansas City at Tampa Bay, 4:25
Atlanta Hawks, while Milwaukee Chicago at Green Bay, 8:20
is enveloped by eerie silence. MONDAY
The Bucks can only wait for Seattle at Philadelphia, 8:15
Antetokounmpo’s return from an THURSDAY, DEC. 3
off-season trip to Greece and Dallas at Baltimore, 8:20
then, they hope, his signature.
Without that signature, Mil-
waukee is in for the longest and SOCCER
most uncomfortable season with M.L.S. PLAYOFF SCHEDULE
a pending free agent since Du-
PLAY-IN
rant’s final season in Oklahoma Eastern Conference
City in 2015-16. Friday, Nov. 20
New England 2, Montreal 1
Nashville 3, Inter Miami 0
FIRST ROUND
Eastern Conference
Saturday, Nov. 21
Orlando City 1, N.Y.C.F. C. 1, (Orlando advances
6-5 on penalties)
Columbus 3, Red Bulls 2
Tuesday, Nov. 24
Nashville 1, Toronto 0, OT

Playoff Rankings Teeter in a Season of Uncertainty New England 2, Philadelphia 0

By ALAN BLINDER
The first College Football Play-
off rankings for this pandemic-
disrupted season were revealed
Tuesday. Then came all sorts of
righteous and ritualistic self-re-
gard and fury. The coming days
will bring games that will feed the
cycle.
But that cycle is more fragile
than ever because of the coronavi-
rus pandemic.
If the season lasts, the final
rankings are expected on Dec. 20,
soon after many top teams play
for league championships and just
a year after a Playoff slate that
drew few complaints.
In the meantime, that sound
you hear may just be the birth-
right bickering of college football
fans. Here are the top teams
they’re arguing over because,
well, not everything is different in
2020.
No. 1 Alabama (7-0)
Remaining games: No. 22 Auburn,
at Arkansas
Nick Saban needs one more na-
tional championship at Alabama
to equal Bear Bryant’s six titles
with the Crimson Tide. Saban has
a path to it this season with the
best scoring offense in the Power
5 leagues and third over all. Quar-
terback Mac Jones has entered
the mix in the race for the Heis-
man Trophy, and Najee Harris is a
human highlight reel of a tailback.
But never sleep on the Iron Bowl
game against Auburn, planned for
Saturday in Tuscaloosa. Saban,
however, will not be on the side-
line after testing positive for the
virus.
No. 2 Notre Dame (8-0)
Remaining games: at No. 19 North
Carolina, Syracuse, at Wake Forest
The Fighting Irish, playing in
the Atlantic Coast Conference,
cleared their biggest test of the
regular season when they de-
feated an undermanned Clemson.
Keep an eye on Kyren Williams,
the sophomore running back, es-
pecially on Friday when Notre
Dame’s Brian Kelly and North
Carolina’s Mack Brown will face
each other for the first time. Notre
Dame’s dealings with Clemson
may not be over: The Tigers just
might be waiting for the Irish in
the A.C.C. championship game.
No. 3 Clemson (7-1)
Remaining games: Pittsburgh, at
Virginia Tech
No serious person ignores or
disrespects a program that has
reached the national champi-
onship game in four of the last five
seasons. Travis Etienne became
the A.C.C.’s career rushing leader,
and Clemson nearly beat Notre
Dame, even when Trevor
Lawrence, its star quarterback,
was sidelined after a brush with
the virus. The defense is allowing
about 305 yards a game, far better
than some top teams with defen-
sive-minded coaches at the top.
Coach Dabo Swinney is some-
times the subject of harsh criti-
cism but he has proved more than
able to direct his team on the big-
Western Conference
Sunday, Nov. 22
Sporting Kansas City 3, San Jose 3,
(Sporting KC advances 3-0 on penalties)
Minnesota United 3, Colorado 0
end. Isaiah Spiller has rushed for Portland 3, Dallas 3, (Dallas advances 8-7
643 yards this season, and the Ag- on penalties)
Tuesday, Nov. 24
gies’ defense is surrendering the Seattle 3, Los Angeles FC 1
fewest yards of any team in the CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS
Eastern Conference
Southeastern Conference. Sunday, Nov. 29
Game 1: New England at Orlando City, 3
p.m.
No. 6 Florida (6-1)
Game 2: Nashville at Columbus, 8 p.m.
Remaining games: Kentucky, at Western Conference
Tuesday, Dec. 1
Tennessee, L.S.U. Dallas at Seattle, 9:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Dec. 2
A coronavirus outbreak slowed
Minnesota United at Sporting KC, 9 p.m.
the Gators but did not stop them,
mostly because Kyle Trask has ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE
continued his blossoming into a Team GP W D L GF GA Pts
Tottenham. . . . . 9 6 2 1 21 9 20
star at quarterback. Trask tops
Liverpool . . . . . . 9 6 2 1 21 16 20
the country with 31 passing touch- Chelsea . . . . . . 9 5 3 1 22 10 18
Leicester. . . . . . 9 6 0 3 18 12 18
downs. Wide receiver Kadarius Southampton . . . 9 5 2 2 17 13 17
Toney has more catches than any
GARY COSBY JR/USA TODAY SPORTS,
VIA REUTERS Everton. . . . . . . 9 5 1 3 19 16 16
Aston Villa. . . . . 8 5 0 3 19 11 15
other Gator, but Kyle Pitts, a tight Quarterback Mac Jones leads West Ham . . . . . 9 4 2 3 15 10 14
end, is making the most of his 24 Wolverhampton . 9 4 2 3 9 10 14
No. 1 Alabama and its top- Man United . . . . 8 4 1 3 13 14 13
receptions and averaging about 17 scoring offense. Crystal Palace . . 9 4 1 4 12 13 13
yards per catch. And Florida has Arsenal . . . . . . . 9 4 1 4 9 10 13
Man City. . . . . . 8 3 3 2 10 11 12
already crushed Georgia, its near- Leeds. . . . . . . . 9 3 2 4 14 17 11
est rival in the SEC East. fewer than 13 points a game. Bran- Newcastle . . . . . 9 3 2 4 10 15 11
don Joseph, a defensive back from
Brighton . . . . . . 9 2 3 4 13 15 9
Burnley . . . . . . . 8 1 2 5 4 12 5
No. 7 Cincinnati (8-0) College Station, Texas, has five in- Fulham . . . . . . . 9 1 1 7 9 18 4
West Brom . . . . 9 0 3 6 6 18 3
Remaining game: at No. 25 Tulsa terceptions, the most in the Power
Sheffield United . 9 0 1 8 4 15 1
No team from outside a Power 5 5. Monday, Nov. 23
Burnley 1, Crystal Palace 0
league has ever earned such a Wolverhampton 1, Southampton 1
high playoff ranking. Now Cincin- No. 9 Georgia (5-2) Friday, Nov. 27
Crystal Palace vs. Newcastle
nati, a member of the American Remaining games: at South Car- Saturday, Nov. 28
Brighton vs. Liverpool
Athletic Conference, has a viable olina, Vanderbilt Man City vs. Burnley

Ravens’ Jackson Positive for Virus
By NEIL VIGDOR
and KEN BELSON
Lamar Jackson, the Balti-
more Ravens quarterback and
the N.F.L.’s reigning Most
Valuable Player, on Thursday
became the highest-profile
player to test positive for the
coronavirus as an outbreak of
cases spread to more than a
dozen players on the team, ac-
cording to several media out-
lets.
The cluster of new cases
threatened the team’s next
game against the Pittsburgh
Steelers, an A.F.C. North
matchup that the league had
already moved to Sunday af-
ternoon from Thanksgiving
night.
The league said on Thursday
night that the game would still
be played Sunday. But if not, it
could create a cascade effect
for the league’s schedule mak-
ers, who had already shifted
more than a dozen games so
far this season because of the
virus and appear to have little
wiggle room in the 16-game
schedule for further postpone-
ments.
The N.F.L. Network re-
ported that Jackson, 23, whom
the team selected in the first
round of the 2018 draft, had
tested positive for the virus.
The team did not respond to
requests for comment on
Thursday night.
The league would not con-
firm on Thursday night
whether Jackson had been
added to the Ravens’ Covid-19
reserve list, which already had
10 players on it as of Wednes-
day. Four more players were
added on Thursday, ESPN re-
ported.
It was not immediately clear
whether Jackson had shown
any symptoms of the virus.
Jackson played last Sunday
against the Tennessee Titans
in a home loss for the Ravens,
who have since shut down
their team facility because of
the outbreak.
gest stages.
No. 4 Ohio State (4-0)
Remaining games: at Illinois, at
Michigan State, Michigan
Ohio State wanted to play this
fall and with good football reason.
After narrowly missing out on an
appearance in last season’s na-
tional championship game, the
Buckeyes are positioned to make
it through the regular season un-
defeated. Indiana tested Ohio
State’s passing defense last week-
end, but Justin Fields directs the
best offense in the Big Ten and has
one of the highest quarterback
ratings in the country.
No. 5 Texas A&M (5-1)
Remaining games: Louisiana
State, at No. 22 Auburn, at Tennes-
see
Coach Jimbo Fisher’s team
could have been left for dead after
Alabama walloped the Aggies, 52-
24, in October. Then Texas A&M
upset Florida, beat Mississippi
State and Arkansas and humili-
ated South Carolina. The question
for Texas A&M is whether two vi-
rus-related postponements will
upend its momentum when it
hosts Louisiana State this week-
chance of reaching the semifinals,
having impressed the committee
with its national rankings in scor-
ing offense and scoring defense.
Desmond Ridder, the quarter-
back, has been the conference’s
offensive player of the week in
four of the last five weeks, helped
by an offensive line that has given
up only nine sacks. But in a re-
minder of how chaotic this season
is, Cincinnati announced Wednes-
day morning that this weekend’s
game at Temple had been can-
celed because of the pandemic.
No. 8 Northwestern (5-0)
Remaining games: at Michigan
State, at Minnesota, Illinois
Talk about a team that has come
back from last year. The Wildcats,
who went 3-9 in 2019, have been
perfect but not dominant. Their
wins have rarely been blowouts —
only one, a 43-3 pummeling of
Maryland on Oct. 24, was by more
than 10 points — but Northwest-
ern has already beaten Wisconsin,
the preseason favorite in the Big
Ten’s West Division. The North-
western defense, which made life
miserable for Wisconsin when the
Badgers were on third down, has
been the difference, allowing
Georgia has two losses, but they
were to Alabama and Florida. The
trouble for the Bulldogs is that
Florida has to stumble for them to
reach the SEC’s championship
game, and the Gators don’t ex-
actly have a frightening schedule.
Whether Georgia can get some-
thing going partly hinges on JT
Daniels, a redshirt sophomore
quarterback who only last week
made his first start as a Bulldog. It
went well — he threw for 401
yards and four touchdowns — but
Georgia still beat Mississippi
State (2-5) by only a touchdown.
No. 10 Miami (7-1)
Remaining games: at Wake For-
est, No. 19 North Carolina, Georgia
Tech
Much like Northwestern, Mi-
ami has rebounded after a disap-
pointing 2019 in which the Hurri-
canes, a great national power of
decades past, posted a 6-7 record.
D’Eriq King, a redshirt senior
playing his first season at Miami,
has passed for 2,086 yards and 17
touchdowns. But Miami had tog-
gled between huge wins — think a
52-10 rout of Florida State — and
narrower margins, like a 25-24
win over Virginia Tech.
Everton vs. Leeds
West Brom vs. Sheffield United
Sunday, Nov. 29
Southampton vs. Man United
Chelsea vs. Tottenham
Arsenal vs. Wolverhampton
Monday, Nov. 30
Leicester vs. Fulham
West Ham vs. Aston Villa
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
MEN'S SCORES
EAST
San Francisco 79 . . . . . . . . . Towson 68
St. John’s 82 . . . . . . . . . . . . La Salle 65
West Virginia 78 . . . . . . . . . . . . VCU 66
SOUTH
Auburn 96 . . . . . . Saint Joseph’s 91, OT
Austin Peay 67. . . . . . . . . . . . ETSU 66
Belmont 95 . . . . . . . . . . . . . Howard 78
Nebraska-Omaha 60 Middle Tennessee 59
W. Kentucky 75 . . . . . . . . . Memphis 69
MIDWEST
Gonzaga 102 . . . . . . . . . . . . Kansas 90
Illinois 97 . . . . . . . . . . . Chicago St. 38
Nevada 69 . . . . . . . . . . . . Nebraska 66
Ohio 84 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NC A&T 72
Toledo 80 . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oakland 53
Xavier 51 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bradley 50
FAR WEST
Saint Mary’s (Cal) 66 . . . . . . . N. Iowa 64
TRANSACTIONS
N.B.A.
MILWAUKEE BUCKS — Signed F Torrey
Crqaig, G Bryn Forbes and F Bobby Portis.
N.F.L.
CLEVELAND BROWNS — Activated OL
Chris Hubbard from the reserve/COVID-19
list. Placed DE Porter Gustin on the
reserve/COVID-19 list.
 THE NEW YORK TIMES OBITUARIES FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020 N B9

Dr. Mary Fowkes, 66, Dies; Helped Clarify Covid Effects

By RICHARD SANDOMIR
Dr. Mary Fowkes, a neu-
ropathologist at Mount Sinai Hos-
pital in Manhattan whose autop-
sies of Covid-19 victims early in
the pandemic discovered serious
damage in multiple organs — a
finding that led to the successful
use of higher doses of blood thin-
ners to treat patients — died on
Nov. 15 at her home in Katonah,
N.Y., in Westchester County. She
was 66.
Her daughter, Jackie Treatman,
said the cause was a heart attack.
When Dr. Fowkes (rhymes with
“pokes”) and her team began
their autopsies, little was known
about the novel coronavirus,
which was believed to be largely a
respiratory disease. The first few
dozen autopsies revealed that
Covid-19 affected the lungs and
other vital organs, and that the vi-
rus probably traveled through the
body in the endothelial cells,
which line the interior of blood
vessels.
“We saw very small and very
microscopic blood clots in the
lungs, the heart, the liver — and
significant blood clots in the
brain,” Dr. Fowkes said in an inter-
view on the CBS News program
“60 Minutes” for a segment,
broadcast on Nov. 22, on the long-
term effects of Covid-19. She had
been interviewed by the corre-
spondent Anderson Cooper on
Oct. 30, a little more than two
weeks before her death.
The clots in the brain suggested
that there had been strokes, she
told Mr. Cooper.
Mr. Cooper asked if she had ex-
pected to see the breadth of dam-
age in so many organs.
“No, not at all,” Dr. Fowkes said.
“Nobody’s seen it like this.”
Dr. Fowkes “had a curious sci-
entific mind and an uncompromis-
VIA MOUNT SINAI HOSPITAL
Dr. Mary Fowkes in her office
at Mount Sinai in Manhattan.
ing attitude to doing as many au-
topsies as possible to produce
something that was unique,” Dr.
Carlos Cordon-Cardo, chairman of
the department of pathology, mo-
Her autopsies found
blood clots in vital
organs, leading to a
change in treatment.
lecular and cell-based medicine at
the Icahn School of Medicine at
Mount Sinai, said in a phone inter-
view.
Dr. Cordon-Cardo said that the
findings from the autopsies of
Covid patients done by Dr.
Fowkes’s team had led to an ag-
gressive increase in the use of
blood thinners, resulting in a
marked improvement in the
health of some patients. The medi-
cations were adjusted to account
for the elevated response to Covid
by patients’ immune systems, he
said.
Dr. Fowkes and others involved
in the Covid autopsies wrote a pa-
per on their findings and released
it in May, but it has not been peer-
reviewed and published.
Mary Elizabeth Fowkes was
born on Nov. 1, 1954, in Clayton, a
village in northern New York, and
grew up in Syracuse. Her mother,
Isabel (Walroth) Fowkes, was a
social worker. Her father, Glen,
wrote insurance policies.
Dr. Fowkes graduated from the
SUNY College of Environmental
Science and Forestry in Syracuse
in 1977 and then worked as a phy-
sician assistant.
Looking to improve her
chances of getting into medical
school, she became a technician at
a cell and developmental biology
laboratory, then enrolled in a doc-
toral program in anatomy and cell
biology at SUNY Upstate Medical
University, also in Syracuse. She
eventually entered a combined
Ph.D.-M.D. program at the school
and graduated with both degrees
in 1999.
Dr. Fowkes completed her resi-
dency in pathology at Beth Israel
Deaconess Medical Center in Bos-
ton in 2003. She then had fellow-
ships in neuropathology at New
York University Medical Center
and in forensic pathology at the of-
fice of New York City’s chief medi-
cal examiner, where she was men-
tored by Dr. Barbara Sampson,
who was on the staff at the time, in
2006, and is today the city’s chief
medical examiner.
“What she really learned from
us is what can be learned in an au-
topsy, the importance of giving
families closure and the impor-
tance of an autopsy to public
health and understanding dis-
ease,” Dr. Sampson said in a phone
interview.
After her city fellowship, Dr.
Fowkes joined the Icahn School as
an assistant professor of pathol-
ogy and remained on the faculty
until her death. She was named
Mount Sinai’s director of neu-
ropathology in 2012 and its direc-
tor of autopsy service two years
later. She encouraged the hospital
to perform more autopsies, citing
their educational value, and
pushed for an expansion of the
hospital’s brain bank.
Her wide-ranging research in-
cluded a recent focus on recurrent
meningiomas, slow-growing be-
nign brain tumors.
She also mentored many young
doctors, including Nadia
Tsankova, a neuropathologist.
“I was very passionate about
combining research and clinical
service,” Dr. Tsankova said in an
interview. “And Mary was very
passionate about research. Some-
times you take a job and you as-
pire for something and your boss
says, ‘No, you have to do this.’ But
she would say, ‘I understand what VIA MOUNT SINAI
you have to do and we’ll make it
work.”
Dr. Fowkes, right, and the pathologist Dr. Clare Bryce took every
precaution before performing risky autopsies on Covid victims.
Dr. Fowkes viewed autopsies as
essential to understanding dis-
ease and felt obligated to perform she added, “I considered it criti- Derek Treatman; and her broth-
them on Covid victims despite her cally important to end up doing ers, Mark (her twin) and John.
being in a vulnerable age group. this work so we could get some an- Her marriage to Scott Treatman
When performing autopsies, swers to know how to treat the pa- ended in divorce.
which are done on the hospital’s tients correctly. So we did use all During the “60 Minutes” seg-
main floor, she used an oscillating the protective equipment, but we ment, Dr. Fowkes held a slice of a
saw to open the skull cavity to re- were still very scared, to be per- Covid victim’s cerebellum in her
move the brain, which potentially fectly honest.” left hand. Mr. Cooper pointed to a
exposed her to the virus through With protective equipment in brown indentation on the brain
aerosolized bits of bone and blood. short supply during the late win- matter.
“There were only four patholo- ter and early spring, Dr. Fowkes “That’s a stroke?” he asked.
gists who were willing to poten- would wear an N95 mask for a “That’s a stroke,” she said.
tially risk their lives to start doing week at a time. At the end of the report, Mr.
autopsies on these cases,” Dr. In addition to her daughter, she Cooper told the audience that Dr.
Fowkes told the BBC in June. But, is survived by her mother; a son, Fowkes had died.

Dena Dietrich, 91, Who Found TV Fame as Mother Nature
By ANITA GATES
Dena Dietrich, the kindly face
and fearsome power of Mother
Nature to American television
viewers in the 1970s, died on Sat-
urday in Los Angeles. She was 91.
The death was announced by
SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ union.
Ms. Dietrich was in her early
40s in 1971 when she filmed the
first of the television commercials
that made her image famous.
Dressed as a goddess in a diapha-
nous white gown, wearing fresh
flowers in her hair, she strolled se-
renely through forests and fields,
stopping to dip her pinkie into a
small bowl for a taste of “my
sweet, creamy butter.”
When an offscreen voice in-
formed her that what she was
tasting was actually Chiffon mar-
garine, the goddess snapped, de-
claring in a quiet but threatening
voice, “It’s not nice to fool Mother
Nature.” She then raised her out-
spread arms, thunder roared,
lightning bolts flashed and — in
some versions of the commercial
— wild animals stampeded.
The ad campaign, created by
D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles,
ran for almost a decade. When the
commercials ended, Ms. Diet-
rich’s career as a character ac-
tress roared on.
During the 1980s and ’90s, she
had guest roles on dozens of se-
ries, including the comedies
“Murphy Brown,” “Mad About
You” and “Life With Lucy” and the
dramas “NYPD Blue” and
“Thirtysomething.” She was a
prison guard on “Trapper John,
M.D.” (1981) and a self-important
psychic conducting séances on
“All My Children” (1994).
In a two-part episode of “The
Golden Girls” in 1991, she was Bea
Arthur’s visiting sister, who has a
brief affair with the ex-husband of
Ms. Arthur’s character.
By the time Ms. Dietrich found
her favorite role, on the legal
drama “Philly” (2001-2002), she
had white hair. She played a tough
judge who liked to bring her
snarly pet dog to the courtroom.
“Yes, baby, yes,” she murmurs
to the animal in one scene. “All
these bad people.”
Deanne Frances Dietrich was
born on Dec. 4, 1928, in Pittsburgh,
the daughter of Mahlon Lloyd
Dietrich, an electrician, and Helen
(Wilson) Dietrich. After graduat-
ing from West View High School,
she studied acting at HB Studios
and the American Academy of
Dramatic Arts in New York.
She appeared in a variety of Off
Broadway productions, among
She was best known
for wreaking havoc in
a series of margarine
commercials.
them “The Rimers of Eldritch”
(1967), a murder drama by Lan-
ford Wilson, at the Cherry Lane
Theater.
What would have been her
Broadway debut — “The Freaking
Out of Stephanie Blake” (1967), a
generation-gap comedy — closed
in previews, reportedly because
its Hollywood star, Jean Arthur,
was ill. Ms. Dietrich’s first official
Broadway appearance was also
brief: “Here’s Where I Belong,” a
musical based on John Stein-
beck’s “East of Eden,” opened and
closed on March 3, 1968.
Then her luck changed. Ms.
Dietrich played a sensible older
sister in Mike Nichols’s Broadway
production of Neil Simon’s “The
Prisoner of Second Avenue”
(1971). The play, starring Peter
Falk and Lee Grant as Manhattan-
ites struggling through a bad
economy, ran for almost two years
and won two Tony Awards.
Live theater was a long-running
facet of Ms. Dietrich’s career. She
often told the story of being the
understudy for Lillian Roth, who
was playing Fanny Brice’s
mother, in a national tour of
“Funny Girl” in 1965. Ms. Roth
made a habit of disappearing
shortly before curtain time — or
during intermission. Sometimes
she came back. Ms. Dietrich
learned to make quick costume
changes.
In 2005, Ms. Dietrich was a Rus-
sian grandmother in “At the
Beach House,” a drama by Aram
Saroyan, in Los Angeles. Terry
Morgan, reviewing the play in Va-
riety, didn’t think much of it but
gave at least one cast member
solid praise. “Dietrich is quite
good as the grandmother, who’s
made of tougher stuff than her de-
scendants,” Mr. Morgan wrote,
“and her mix of kindness with a
hint of steel brings the character
to life.”
She worked in film, too. Her first
was “The Crazy World of Julius
Vrooder” (1974), as a misguided
Dena Dietrich was a familiar
face on television in the 1970s,
saying “It’s not nice to fool
Mother Nature” in commer-
cials for Chiffon margarine.
Vietnam veteran’s mother. In Mel
Brooks’s “History of the World,
Part I” (1981), she was a helpful
citizen of ancient Rome, advising
Empress Nympho (Madeline
Kahn) on partners for the coming
orgy.
Her final screen appearance
was in “Sister’s Keeper,” a 2007
crime drama about a contract
killer.
No immediate family members
survive.
In a 2005 video interview, Ms.
Dietrich made clear that she had
no regrets about being best
known for her 30-second mar-
garine ads. In fact, she admitted,
her career had largely been lim-
ited to New York until she became
Mother Nature and Hollywood
started to call.
“I’ve loved everything I’ve
done” as an actress, she said, then
summed up her feelings in four
words: “I’ve never regretted any-
thing.”

Deaths Deaths Deaths Deaths Deaths Deaths Deaths

BAKER—Robert C.
We will deeply miss our won-
derful friend and business
partner. Bob was a very spe-
cial man, and was truly one of
a kind. We extend our war-
mest condolences to his lov-
ing family.
Karen Berger, Julia &
Brad Berger,
Janelle & Greg Berger
& Leslie and Jeff Mendell
BERNSTEIN—Tina.
Tina Bernstein (nee Cristiane
Dorothy Szrajer), age 86,
passed at home surrounded
by family on November 24,
2020. Tina was born August 7,
1934 in Lodz, Poland to Leon
Szrajer and Zuzanna Becker-
man, who hid her in a con-
vent in France during the Se-
cond World War. She came to
New York to live with her
grandmother, Bertha Shrier,
in 1951. In 1957, she married
Abraham Bernstein. Tina
was a consummate New Yor-
ker, an effervescent wit, and
a beloved Nana. She is sur-
vived by her son Steven (Ca-
rol), daughter Leslie (How-
ard), and grandchildren Jen-
nifer (Gregory), Alexander,
Zara, and Madeline. All give
thanks for her life. Donations
in her name may be made to
Oeuvre De Secours aux En-
fants.
Jennifer R. Bernstein
BOZZONETTI—Patricia.
Patricia M. Bozzonetti,
passed away on November 6,
2020 in Brooklyn, New York.
She was 70 years old, Pat was
a nurse and worked at St. Vin-
cent's Hospital in New York
City for 36 years until it closed
in 2010. She started as a staff
nurse and rose to the level of
Nurse Manager with 24 hour
responsibility and accounta-
bility for the clinical and oper-
ational leadership of a 22-bed
medical unit. Her dedication
to her patients and staff was
unparalleled. In the words of
one of her former colleagues
“There is no question that Pat
was a wonderful nurse who
cared deeply for her patients
and staff.” In 2000 she ob-
tained her Master of Sciences
in Nursing/Geriatric Nurse
Practitioner from Columbia
University. Pat also held posi-
tions at Mt. Sinai (where she
opened the Palliative Care
Unit) and later at Beth Israel
in New York City. She also
served in the Army Reserves
Nursing Unit from 1978-1990
reaching the rank of Captain.
Pat is survived by her son
Robert and his wife Maria,
granddaughter Ely and sis-
ters Diane and Kathy.
D'ARIENZO—Arlene Poling,
on November 25, 2020. Her
journey took her from Brook-
lyn to Forest Hills to Manhat-
tan and Southampton. Be-
loved wife of Dr. Nicholas
D'Arienzo. Cherished mother
of Nicholas, Carmel and Dr.
Peter and Lizabeth D'Arien-
zo. Adored grandma “Lolly”
of Isabella and Matthew.
Fond sister of Marilyn Miglio
and Lucille and John Ty-
mann. Also survived by
many loving nieces and nep-
hews. Arlene was born in Wil-
liamsburg, Brooklyn in 1934,
the eldest daughter of Rich-
ard Poling and Grace Poling,
nee Piro. She attended Wash-
ington Irving High School and
earned her way to Cooper
Union, one of the first in her
neighborhood - a woman! - to
earn a scholarship to college.
The talents she demonstrat-
ed at Cooper Union got her in-
vited to do graphic and de-
sign work for high-profile ma-
gazines like Family Circle at
the height of the “MAD MEN”
era. In 1955, on the steps of
her beloved Our Lady of
Mount Carmel Church just
down the street from her
home, Arlene met a young
medical student named Ni-
cholas D'Arienzo, as captivat-
ed by his wit and maturity, as
she was by his piercing blue
eyes. They would wed in 1960
within the very hallowed halls
of the church that bore wit-
ness to their meeting and
subsequently built a life
together in Forest Hills, Qu-
eens. From her first exhibi-
tion of paintings on Broome
Street in SoHo to her most re-
cent one on Main Street in
Southampton, Arlene deve-
loped a reputation for poig-
nant family portraits and
evocative landscapes, appre-
ciated by those fortunate
enough to have one in their
possession. Arlene was a
proud alum of the Art Stu-
dents League, where she re-
ceived multiple awards in
their Red Dot competitions
over the years. Her artistic
passion also fueled the crea-
tion of an art therapy pro-
gram at the Ozanam Nursing
Home, stage craft for the an-
nual Vacation Bible Schools
at Our Lady of Mercy Church,
and the beloved summer des-
tination of her nieces and
nephews, Camp Darien,
Southampton. Due to CO-
Baker, Robert Frank, Blanche Rossein, Marcella
Bernstein, Tina Frank, Howard Solow, Sheldon
Bozzonetti, Patricia Freyer, Frederic Wolfensohn, James
D’Arienzo, Arlene Hammons, Thomas
Dinkins, David Kaminsky, Sally
Dropkin, Ruth Pintea, Marcel
VID-19 social distancing regu- FRANK—Blanche.
lations, the funeral services
Blanche Beverly Kaye Frank
will be private. You are invit- passed away peacefully on
ed to view the Mass of Chris-
November 19, 2020 at the age
tian Burial at 9:00am Satur- of 86 from pancreatic cancer.
day via livestream @ loved twin daughters, Made-
A Brooklyn native and gra-
mountcarmel - annunciation. duate of James Madison
com A Celebration of Ar-
High School and Hunter Col-
lene's ife will take place at a lege, she received her PhD
later date. Charitable dona-
from the City University of
tions in her memory can be New York. She then pursued
made to the East End Hos- a career as the Chief of
pice, PO Box 1048, West-
Epidemiology for the New
hampton Beach, NY 11978.
York State Department of Al-
cohol and Substance Abuse
Services. She is survived by
DINKINS—David N.
her husband of 65 years,
New York Junior Tennis &
Joseph, children Sheri, Ellen
Learning mourns the passing
(Howard), and David (Shelia),
of Mayor David N. Dinkins.
and grandchildren Rachel,
He did so much to bring ten-
Alex, and Michael. She was a
nis to young people through-
loving, smart, and sincere
out New York City, was in-
woman, and will always be
strumental in planning and
remembered for her kind-
creating the Cary Leeds Cen-
ness and generosity to her fa-
ter for Tennis & Learning in
mily and to all who needed
the Bronx, and has served
help.
with honor on the NYJTL
Board for 36 years. We will
miss this NYC champion,
mentor, and friend dearly—
NYJTL
FRANK—Howard
(Hank) Joseph.
1924-2020 A true New Yorker,
DINKINS—David Norman.
Hank grew up on the UWS of
Manhattan. He never forgot
his roots, maintaining a life-
long devotion to the Yankees
and football Giants. Hank at-
tended Dewitt Clinton HS and
graduated from the Franklin
School. Hank eagerly enlisted
in the Navy at age 18 and
proudly served in the Pacific
during WWII, seeing action in
multiple invasions. After the
war, Hank graduated from
the Wharton School on the GI
Bill. Hank was President of
Berton Plastics, a distributor
of reinforced fiberglass pro-
ducts, which also helped
create the blue whale per-
David Norman Dinkins (1927
manently exhibited in the
to 2020), 106th Mayor of the
City of New York, Honorary
American Museum of Natur-
al History. While he loved a
Life Trustee of the Communi- smooth single malt and com-
ty Service Society. We give
petitive tennis game, nothing
thanks for his life and contri- was more important to Hank
butions to our great city, and than his family: Beverly, his
offer our condolences to all of
wife of 63 years, who prede-
ceased him; his children, Cin-
his family. dy Edelson (David) and Jim-
my Frank (Amy); and his
David R. Jones
President and CEO grandchildren, Charlotte, An-
nabel, Joey, Oliver, Jamie
Community Service Society
(z''l), and Amanda. Please
consider donations to Jamie's
DROPKIN—Ruth Tennis Angels Foundation,
7916 Steeplechase Dr., Palm
Warshavsky Zeitlin.
Writer, teacher and poet died Beach Gardens, FL 33418 or
the Sylvia Center
peacefully at home on No-
vember 25th. Loving, atten- (Sylviacenter.org).
tive, mother, grandmother,
great-grandmother and aunt.
Activist and supporter of hu-
man rights and the planet.
Strong believer in the power FREYER—Frederic B.
of the family. Graveside ser- Beloved patriarch, husband
vice Friday, November 27th of Frances. Mass on Friday.
at 1:30 at Cedar Park cemete- Obit: https://bit.ly/fbfobit
ry in Paramus, NJ. YorkHavenRR@gmail.com
HAMMONS—Thomas
Michael, proud Cincinnati son
(from nearby Loveland) Tom; Just the two of us.
passed away very suddenly
on November 10th, at 68
years old. He was the son of
the late Bige Hammons, Jr.
and Virginia Hammons, and
also predeceased by his es-
teemed brother, Matthew B.
Hammons. Tom (as he was
referred to by his large circle in hand, celebrating the end
of family and friends) is sur-
vived by his loving wife of 27 What a fine pair of drinking
years, Veronique, and his be-
line and Margot, as well as his
cherished sister, Lenore, and
her family, and his brother-in-
law, Patrick Leemans and
sister-in-law, Karen Kraft,
and their families. Tom's life Thanksgiving Eve than you.
was a full, impassioned and
exciting one. He was born in
Shawnee, Oklahoma on
Christmas Eve, 1951, and
raised in Cincinnati. His life-
long love for music was pro-
found (stimulated by his simi-
larly inspired father), and af-
ter high school earned a per-
formance degree in Opera
from the Cincinnati Conser-
vatory of Music. This led him
to a career (as a distin- KAMINSKY—Sally.
guished bass baritone) in the
opera world, where he sang
all over North America and
Europe, including many
years in New York with the
Metropolitan Opera. Tom's
specialty was the “buffo”
realm, where his performan-
ces in such roles as Dr. Barto-
lo and Benoit (in everybody's
favorite “La Boheme”) were
unsurpassable (Tom was
highly accomplished in the
dramatic aspects of his roles
as well). Perhaps Tom's fa-
vorite role was as Henry Kis-
singer in “Nixon in China”: a
role which he inaugurated
when it opened at the Hous-
ton Grand Opera in 1987, and
which solidified his career. vember 25, 2020. Born at
Tom's interests were varied,
encompassing (besides mu-
sic): art (with an especial
fascination with Surrealism), Sally was the daughter of Lo-
poetry and literature (his fa-
vorite authors being the indis- was predeceased by her
putable James Joyce, and
also J.P. Donleavy and Tho-
mas Pynchon), and a lifelong
loyalty to the Cincinnati Reds
baseball team. It might also
be mentioned that his favor-
ite wine was Chateauneuf du
Pape. Tom's greatest love
was that which he bore for his Dean of Undergraduate Stu-
immediate family. Second to
that was his absolute loyalty
to his life as a Freemason.
Perhaps the pinnacle of that
aspect of his life was serving
as Master of the Lodge at the
prestigious Independent Roy-
al Arch Lodge No. 2, during
some of the years that he
performed in New York at
the Metropolitan Opera. Tom
will be remembered and
loved everlastingly by all who
were close to him: never to
be forgotten. May his soul
rest in eternal peace.
HAMMONS—Thomas M.
Thanksgiving Eve, with you,
I, drinking (sipping, actually)
The contents of a bottle of
Dublin's finest: Guiness Stout;
You, serious, but full of con-
tentment, In that photo you
sent me, Not so long ago,
of you with your beloved
(almost sacred) martini glass
of another well-spent day.
buddies, and friends of the
deepest and highest (i.e.
brotherly) level, having a
final drink together. And
Tom—you know what,
Tom— There's nobody with
whom I'd rather Be spending
God bless you, my dear old
buddy.
Tim
Sally Kaminsky, 92, died
peacefully at home on No-
home in Irvington, New Jer-
sey on March 18, 1928 (along
with her identical twin Betty),
uis and Sylvia Weisman. She
brothers Harvey Weisman
and Paul Weisman. A gra-
duate of Upsala College, Sally
earned her M.A. at NYU and
Doctorate in Education from
Teachers College, Columbia
University. Sally was a children; and six great-
Professor of Education and
dies at City University of New
York, College of Staten Island
and was the author of several
books, numerous research
papers and professional pre-
sentations on reading disabili-
ties and how children learn to
read. In addition to her sister
Beverly “Betty” Palius, Sally
is survived by her adored
sons Michael (Jennifer Good-
now) and Alex (Kim Klumok)
and her beloved grandchild-
ren Allison, Zack and Calla.
Sally is also survived by her
longtime companion David
Black. Prior to her career in
education Sally sang with
Harry Belafonte, Odetta, The
Weavers and The Chad
Mitchell Trio among other
folk singers living in New
York in the 1950s and 1960s.
Later in life, Sally rekindled
her love of singing by joining
the Riverdale Chorale Socie-
ty in Riverdale, New York. A
private service will be held. In
lieu of flowers, the family
asks that you donate to Wave
Hill in Riverdale, New York.
PINTEA—Marcel.
Dr. Marcel J. Pintea passed
away on November 22, 2020.
He was a loving husband,
father, and physician who
served the New York com-
munity for three decades. He
grew up in northern Romania
and graduated from St.
Agnes High School in Man-
hattan. He attended NYU,
and subsequently went to
Medical School in Italy where
he met Anna, his wife of 38
years. He completed training
in Internal Medicine and Car-
diology at SUNY Downstate
Medical Center, at which
point he entered into private
practice. He remained on
staff at Mount Sinai for many
years.
He devoted his life to caring
for his patients and his family
above all else. All those who
knew Marcel remember him
for his good humor, generosi-
ty, and dedication. Dr. Pintea
leaves behind his loving wife
and three grown children,
Michelle, Andrew, and Mat-
thew, as well as many friends
and colleagues among the
medical community.
A private memorial service
will be held at the Walter B.
Cooke Funeral Home on Fri-
day. In lieu of flowers, dona-
tions to Kids v Cancer, an or-
ganization he believed in and
supported for many years,
would be greatly appreciated.
ROSSEIN—Marcella
(Savransky), age 102, passed
peacefully at home in New
York City on November 24,
2020. Born February 25, 1918
in Bronx, NY, raised in Brook-
lyn, former resident of
Oceanside, NY. A lifelong ac-
tivist and community orga-
nizer dedicated to civil rights
and social justice. A lover and
patron of the arts. A beloved
matriarch, she is survived
by her four children, Keith
(Roz), Rick (Karen), Katha
(Ron), Elliot (Ira); ten grand-
grandchildren. Predeceased
by husband Withal.
SOLOW—Sheldon H.
The partners of Kramer Le-
vin Naftalis & Frankel LLP
note with sadness the passing
of our esteemed client Shel-
don H. Solow, a visionary
leader of the New York real
estate industry for over a half
century. We offer our con-
dolences to Sheldon's family.
WOLFENSOHN—James D.
With deep sadness we mourn
the loss of Sir James D. Wol-
fensohn, our devoted col-
league and dear friend. Jim's
wisdom and hard work have
left the world a better place,
and we join his countless ad-
mirers in gratitude. We will
forever appreciate his honest
counsel, his generosity, and
his profound kindness. We
will miss him terribly.
Lily Safra
Edmond J. Safra
Foundation
WOLFENSOHN—James D.
The Board of Trustees and
staff of Carnegie Hall mourn
the passing of our dear friend
and Chairman Emeritus
James D. Wolfensohn. A le-
gendary investment banker,
devoted philanthropist, and
accomplished amateur cel-
list, James was elected to
Carnegie Hall's board in 1974.
During his time as treasurer
and then as chairman (1979 to
1991), he was a driving force
in the prudent financial plan-
ning that ensured Carnegie
Hall's fiscal health and artistic
excellence. His accomplish-
ments included attracting
new board talent, building
Carnegie Hall's fundraising
capacity by establishing cor-
porate support of the Hall,
pushing for the Hall to be re-
cognized by the National En-
dowment for the Arts as a na-
tional center of culture, and
co-chairing, with Sanford I.
Weill, the campaign that led
to Carnegie Hall's historic
1986 restoration. The entire
Carnegie Hall family has
been touched by James's
warmth, loyalty, and dedica-
tion to the advancement of
our institution, and we extend
our heartfelt condolences to
his children, Sara, Naomi, and
Adam, and his entire extend-
ed family.
Robert F. Smith, Chairman;
Sanford I. Weill, President;
Clive Gillinson, Executive and
Artistic Director
In Memoriam
BODOFF—Lippman.
May 28, 1930 - Nov. 27, 2014
Chen is married, Adi is a
mother, Liam and Noam are
getting big, and I miss you
more than ever.
Love forever, Meri
FRISCHMAN—Robert.
56 today. Greatest Dad.
Adored son, brother, friend.
Lost too soon (Go Dolphins).
B10 N THE NEW YORK TIMES OBITUARIES FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020
James D. Wolfensohn, Who Steered
World Bank for 10 Years, Dies at 86
By ROBERT D. HERSHEY Jr.
James D. Wolfensohn, who es-
caped a financially pinched Aus-
tralian childhood to become a top
Wall Street deal maker and a two-
term president of the World Bank,
died on Wednesday at his home in
Manhattan. He was 86.
His daughter Naomi Wolfen-
sohn confirmed the death.
Mr. Wolfensohn was a force on
Wall Street for years, helping to
rescue the Chrysler Corporation
while working for Salomon Broth-
ers and running his own thriving
boutique firm, before President
Bill Clinton nominated him to lead
the World Bank, the world’s larg-
est economic development insti-
tution.
But he was more than a finan-
cier. He led fund-raising efforts as
chairman of Carnegie Hall and
headed a revival of the Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts in
Washington. An accomplished
cellist under the tutelage of the re-
nowned Jacqueline du Pré, he per-
formed at Carnegie Hall on his
milestone birthdays. And as a uni-
versity fencing champion, he was
part of Australia’s 1956 Olympic
team, competing in front of his fel-
low Australians in Melbourne.
But his main legacy was his
stewardship of the World Bank, to
which President Clinton nomi-
nated him in 1995 after he had giv-
en up his Australian citizenship 14
years earlier to qualify for the job,
only to be passed over.
Arriving at the bank’s Washing-
ton headquarters to begin his first
five-year term, he found life there
too comfortable and its staff mem-
bers demoralized — a profes-
sional malaise, he said, that had
them denigrating the bank to their
families and even to the news me-
dia.
He immediately attacked the
bank’s “complacency and insular-
ity,” as he put it. He found that the
bank’s emphasis on technocratic,
market-based reforms was inhib-
iting its central mission: aiding
the world’s poorest countries.
“I was throwing a grenade into
an entrenched culture,” he wrote
in his 2010 memoir, “A Global Life:
My Journey Among Rich and
Poor, From Sydney to Wall Street
to the World Bank.”
A priority for Mr. Wolfensohn
was to make field visits to poor na-
tions less ceremonial than his
predecessors had, and to listen to
poor people themselves describe
their governance, history and cul-
ture. He mounted a campaign
against corruption in World Bank
projects, breaking what he called
“a wall of silence” on the subject.
His efforts led to stepped-up au-
dits and put the issue higher on
the agendas of developing coun-
tries.
“He made it acceptable to talk
about corruption,” said Hazel
Denton, then a senior project
economist for the bank. “Until his
time in office, we tended to sweep
the topic under the carpet in the
interest of getting projects ‘done’
and getting loans disbursed.”
Another Wolfensohn initiative
was to shift the bank’s policy on
debt incurred by its mostly impov-
erished African and South Ameri-
can client countries. Instead of in-
sisting on repayment, he sought to
write off much of the debt.
“How, I reasoned, could you
have a lending business to bor-
rowers of low credit and then pre-
tend that you would be repaid 100
percent on every loan?” he wrote.
“I thought that any system that
relied on this logic was doomed.”
Catching something of a popu-
lar wave, including support from
Pope John Paul II (who cited the
absolving of debt in Leviticus),
World Bank directors in 1996 ap-
proved $500 million for a relief
trust fund; three years later, they
relaxed eligibility for faster and
deeper debt relief.
Mr. Wolfensohn said he was
particularly proud of having in-
Alex Traub contributed reporting.
Paolo Gabriele, 54, Pope’s Butler in ‘Vatileaks’ Scandal
By GAIA PIANIGIANI
ROME — Paolo Gabriele, who
as the butler of Pope Benedict XVI
was convicted of leaking internal
Vatican documents to the news
media in an extraordinary breach
of church secrecy — the so-called
Vatileaks scandal — died on Tues-
day in Rome. He was 54.
The Vatican said his death, in a
hospital, came after a long illness.
It did not specify the cause.
Mr. Gabriele had been working
in the papal household for six
years when, as he confessed in
2012, he began stealing confiden-
tial documents from the Apostolic
Palace, the pope’s ornate resi-
dence, and passing them to an
Italian journalist, Gianluigi Nuzzi.
Mr. Nuzzi, on a television show
and in a book, used the documents
to expose cronyism and corrup-
tion within the secretive Vatican’s
walls.
Some letters and memos hinted
at power plays among vying fac-
tions; others suggested misman-
agement in Vatican departments;
still others carried allegations of
corruption and mishandling of fi-
stalled a high-speed communica-
tions network linking affiliates in
80 countries, allowing interactive
video conferencing and distance
learning. “Modest, he wasn’t,” de-
clared Fauzia S. Rashid, a staff
member who worked with him.
A Family Scraping By
James David Wolfensohn was
born on Dec. 1, 1933, and grew up
in Sydney, Australia, where his
parents, Hyman and Dora Wolfen-
sohn, had moved from London in
1928. The family, which included
an older sister, Betty, was always
in financial stress even though his
father had at one time moved in
the upper echelons of British soci-
ety: He had met James Armand
de Rothschild in the British Army
and then served as his private sec-
retary, before having a falling-out
that the elder Mr. Wolfensohn
never explained.
The family’s failure to establish
itself in Australia weighed heavily
on young James from about the
age of 7, producing an obsession
with monetary insecurity that
carried long into his adult life.
As a child Mr. Wolfensohn “was
always doing contingency plan-
ning in my head,” he recounted in
his memoir. “I remember thinking
that if I could have just 10 pounds,
my life would be safe. As I grew
older I would do calculations on
scraps of paper and work out how
long I could live on 100 pounds if I
only ate cheese and bread.”
After early academic failures
related to grade levels beyond his
years — he entered the University
of Sydney at 16 — Mr. Wolfensohn
suddenly began to thrive under
the intense mentorship of a re-
nowned professor, Julius Stone, a
friend of his father’s. He graduat-
ed in 1954.
During law school Mr. Wolfen-
sohn obtained a clerkship with a
top Sydney firm, Allen Allen &
Hemsley, where a colleague intro-
duced him to fencing. Preferring
the épée to the saber despite not
being tall and lean, he did well
against world-class Italian and
British competitors in the Mel-
bourne Olympics before, by his ac-
count, becoming distracted and
losing.
“The most exciting moment in
his life was when he made the
Olympics” as a confidence-lack-
ing “colonial kid,” his wife, Elaine
Wolfensohn, put it in an interview
MARK WILSON/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
Left, Mr. Wolfensohn in 2005, the year he stepped down as head of the World Bank. Right, with Lee Iacocca, the chairman of the
Chrysler Corporation, in 1979. He had helped rescue Chrysler through a government bailout — the largest in U.S. history at the time.
nances in the Holy See. Together
the files depicted a divided institu-
tion and offered a grim view of
Vatican politics.
Mr. Gabriele was arrested two
weeks after Mr. Nuzzi’s book, “His
Holiness: The Secret Papers of
Pope Benedict XVI,” was pub-
Exposing cronyism
and corruption to
‘bring the church back
on the right track.’
lished. Hundreds of photocopied
documents were found in Mr. Ga-
briele’s apartment inside Vatican
City. He spent almost two months
in a holding cell at the Vatican be-
fore being released to house ar-
rest.
Mr. Gabriele admitted that he
had stolen the documents in the
belief that Benedict was not aware
for this obituary in January. “It
had an enormous impact on who
he was, who he became.”
With full legal credentials, Mr.
Wolfensohn worked on a major
antitrust case involving American
companies and then decided to
apply to Harvard Business
School. He eventually flew to at-
tend the school free of charge be-
cause of his service in the Royal
Australian Air Force Reserve.
While studying there he met
Elaine Botwinick, a Wellesley sen-
ior who had grown up in Manhat-
tan and New Rochelle, N.Y. They
married in 1961 and had three chil-
dren, Sara, Naomi and Adam.
Ms. Wolfensohn died in August
at 83. An advocate for education
and the arts, she was an adviser to
many boards of directors, includ-
ing those of American Friends of
the Israel Philharmonic Orches-
tra and Teachers College at Co-
lumbia University. Thursday
would have been the Wolfen-
sohns’ 59th wedding anniversary.
Mr. Wolfensohn is survived by
his children and by seven grand-
children.
After a brief stint with a Swiss
cement company, Mr. Wolfensohn
returned to Australia to work for a
number of banks, including J.
Henry Schroder, which sent him
to its headquarters in London and
then to run its New York office.
But when passed over in London
for the chairmanship of Schroder,
a blue-blood bastion — he said the
rejection had “shattered” his frag-
ile sense of security — he sought
out Salomon Brothers.
“I was being thrown into the
deep end of the toughest business
in New York,” he recounted.
After his modest British salary,
he said, the idea of earning $2 mil-
lion to $3 million a year “was both
scary and exhilarating,” because
this was his first job without what
he called a financial safety net.
His Own Shop
Mr. Wolfensohn reorganized
and built Salomon’s corporate de-
partment and helped rescue the
Chrysler Corporation through a
huge government bailout in 1979
— the largest in American history
at the time. Some partners at the
firm thought he had spent too
much time on the Chrysler deal,
however, and his relationship with
Salomon soured.
He left the firm after Robert S.
of what was happening around
him. During his trial in a Vatican
court, he said he had thought that
making the files public would pro-
vide “a shock, perhaps through
the media,” that could “bring the
church back on the right track.”
He testified that Benedict
would often ask him questions on
specific topics and that the nature
of the questions indicated to him
that the pope was uninformed or
misinformed. He was convinced,
he said, that the Holy Spirit had
guided him in the thefts, which
went on for many months.
“Seeing evil and corruption ev-
erywhere in the church, I finally
reached a point of degeneration, a
point of no return, and could no
longer control myself,” he said.
In October 2012, Mr. Gabriele
was sentenced to 18 months in
prison on charges of theft and di-
vulging classified documents. The
court took into account that Mr.
Gabriele believed, “albeit errone-
ously,” that his motivations for
leaking the documents had been
pure.
Benedict, as expected, par-
McNamara, the head of the World
Bank, told him that he had put Mr.
Wolfensohn’s name on a list of
people who might succeed him. To
qualify for the post, Mr. Wolfenson
quickly became an American citi-
zen, only to see the job go to Alden
W. Clausen. (Mr. Wolfensohn later
regained his Australian citizen-
ship.)
Seizing the chance to fulfill a
lifelong dream of owning his own
business, he opened James D.
Wolfensohn Inc., a boutique Wall
Street adviser that immediately
thrived.
One prominent deal came after
Louis V. Gerstner Jr., chief execu-
tive of IBM and a board member
of The New York Times Company,
called to ask if Mr. Wolfensohn
would assist in The Times’s pur-
chase of The Boston Globe.
“I felt proud that he had picked
us from among all the Wall Street
firms, not because I had ap-
proached him but because of our
reputation for skill and integrity,”
Mr. Wolfensohn wrote in his mem-
oir. “With the help of our distin-
guished neighbor and friend, Ar-
thur (‘Punch’) Sulzberger, the
chairman and publisher of The
New York Times, and his im-
mensely competent team, we
made a successful transaction.”
Twenty years later, however, in
a period of downsizing, The Times
doned him a few weeks later, in
time for Mr. Gabriele to spend
Christmas with his wife and three
children, who survive him.
A few months later, Benedict, at
85, became the first pope in mod-
ern history to resign.
Some Vatican watchers be-
lieved that Mr. Gabriele was a
scapegoat for others who had
been behind the leaks but whose
identities were never discovered.
Paolo Gabriele grew up in
Rome, where he studied fine arts
in high school. Before becoming
the pope’s butler, he worked for
years at the Secretariat of State,
the department that governs the
small city-state that is the Vatican.
After his pardon, he worked for
an association that supports the
families of patients at the Vatican-
owned pediatric hospital Bam-
bino Gesu in Rome.
The Rev. Federico Lombardi,
who had been Benedict’s spokes-
man, told the Italian news agency
Adnkronos after Mr. Gabriele’s
death that he had had a “good rela-
tionship” with him, though a “su-
perficial” one.
RENZO GOSTOLI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
sold The Globe and other New
England media properties for $70
million, far below the $1.1 billion it
had paid.
Mr. Wolfensohn became chair-
man of Carnegie Hall in 1980 and
helped raise about $60 million to
renovate it after donating $1 mil-
lion of his own. Ten years later he
was invited to help rescue the fi-
nancially ailing John F. Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts in
Washington, also as chairman. As
he wrote in his memoir, he found
the Kennedy Center to be a “white
elephant” badly in need of physi-
cal repairs and more energetic
programming.
He also worked for decades on
behalf of the Institute for Ad-
vanced Study in Princeton, N.J.,
and was a member of the Ameri-
can Academy of Arts and Sciences
and the American Philosophical
Society.
Mr. Wolfensohn was made an
honorary officer of the Order of
Australia in 1987 and received an
honorary knighthood of the Order
of the British Empire in 1995.
A Carnegie Hall Debut
At a dinner party one evening,
Mr. Wolfensohn, who was 42 at the
time, impulsively said that he had
always wanted to learn to play the
cello. Ms. du Pré had one deliv-
EDDIE HAUSNER/THE NEW YORK TIMES
Paolo Gabriele, foreground, riding with Benedict XVI in 2006.
Sentenced to 18 months, he was quickly pardoned by the pontiff.
“What happened remained a
mystery to me,” Father Lombardi
said. “I couldn’t see how to justify
that delivery of documents — ex-
tremely grave.”
He recalled that Benedict had
wanted a trial even though Mr.
EVAN VUCCI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
James D. Wolfensohn in 2004.
He said he was “throwing a
grenade into an entrenched
culture” when he took over the
World Bank in 1995. He was
in Rio de Janeiro in 2002, at
left, to inaugurate a World
Bank program giving the city’s
impoverished residents access
to information technologies.
ered the next day and agreed to
give him lessons on the condition
that he would play a concert on his
50th birthday.
Seven years later, Daniel Bar-
enboim, the pianist and conductor
(and Ms. du Pré’s husband), re-
minded him of his pledge and told
him that a private performance
would not suffice. The concert
would be chamber music at Car-
negie Hall, Mr. Barenboim said,
insisting that Mr. Wolfensohn,
who had never played chamber
music and never played in public,
perform there. The hall was re-
served; the date would be Dec. 1,
1983, his birthday.
A year of intense practice en-
sued, sometimes in hotel rooms
around the world — all leading to a
Walter Mitty-like performance be-
fore an audience of hundreds. On-
stage with him were the violinist
Isaac Stern, the pianist Vladimir
Ashkenazy and other music roy-
alty; the program consisted of
works by Haydn and Schumann.
Similar concerts followed on
Mr. Wolfensohn’s 60th and 70th
birthdays, at the Library of Con-
gress as well as at Carnegie Hall.
On joining the World Bank in
1995, Mr. Wolfensohn divested his
stake in his Wall Street firm,
where he had recruited Paul A.
Volcker to join after Mr. Volcker
had retired as chairman of the
Federal Reserve. When his part-
ners sold the firm for $210 million
to the Bankers Trust Company,
Mr. Wolfensohn invoked a clause
in his own sale agreement to
pocket $45 million in the bank’s
stock, half of which he and his wife
gave to a family foundation to sup-
port the arts, culture and health
care.
Ten years later, when he
stepped down from the World
Bank, Mr. Wolfensohn formed
Wolfensohn & Company, another
boutique advisory.
His last major undertaking was
in the mid-2000s as a special en-
voy for a diplomatic group known
as the Quartet — made up of the
United Nations, the United States,
the Russian Federation and the
European Union — which was
seeking an Israeli-Palestinian
peace deal in which Israel would
disengage from the Gaza Strip. If
the deal were struck, he was to
help coordinate revitalization ef-
forts once the Palestinian authori-
ties had taken over the area, the
U.N. said at the time.
However, the negotiations
failed.
“The Middle East,” Mr. Wolfen-
sohn grimly observed, ”turned out
to be my mission impossible.”
ALESSANDRA TARANTINO/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gabriele had confessed.
“He had wanted a trial to try to
establish the truth of the facts and
justice with a fair sentence,” he
said. “But the pope never wished
any suffering on people. Neither
Paolo Gabriele nor his family.”
 THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020 N B11

Weather Report Meteorology by AccuWeather

Vancouver
ouve Metropolitan Forecast
Regina TODAY ...............Clouds and sunshine, mild 70° Record
Seattle
eattle Winnipeg
eg 20s Quebecc highs
Spokane
Sp n
High 60. High pressure will bring dry
H
Halifax
Portlan
and
nd
nd 50s 30s Montreal 40s weather, with varying amounts of clouds
50s
Helena
ena
na
Bismarck Portla
land
and sunshine. The air will be mild for late
Eugene
ne
e Fargo Ottawa
Bill
illi
illings Burlingto
B to
on Manc
an
nchester November, and there will be a light breeze
60°
Boise
Toronto
To
B
Boston at most.
2
20s Minn
neapolis
n St. Paul
S A
Albany
Pierre Milwauke
ee Buffalo
u Hartf
Hartford
tff TONIGHT ..................................Partly cloudy
Detroit
tro
ro
30s
30s
Ca
Casper
Sioux
ou Falls
alls
l
New York
N Low 48. After a mild evening, the tem-
Reno
H 40s
Cleveland
l
50s
perature will remain above average
Cheye
enne
e Chicago Pittsburg
urg
rgh P
Philad
Philadelphia 50°
San Fran
ncisssco
n co
Salt Lake Oma
aha
a Des Moines
Springfield
throughout the night. High pressure will
City Indianapolis
a Washi
Washington
ashi Normal
40s Denver
n
H Ka
K ansas H continue to bring dry weather under a highs
60s Topeka Richm
chmond
Colorado
Colora City Charles
e
es
eston partly cloudy sky.
Fresssno Las
Veg
V
Vegas
g
Spring
ngs
ng St. Louis Louisville
Lo Norfo k
Norfolk L TOMORROW ..............................Partly sunny
50s Wichita 60s Raleigh
aleigh
gh
L Angel
Los Ange
Angeles Santa
n Fe Nashville Charlotte High 56. A weak cold front will move 40°
Oklahoma City Memphis C
Columbia
Co through, bringing some clouds to an Normal
S Die
San ego
e Pho
Phoenix Albuquerque
rqu 50s
Little R
Rock Birming
rmingh
mingham Atlanta
a otherwise sunny day. The temperature lows
Lubbock
70s Tucssson will again be several degrees above aver-
Dallas
El Paso
E Ft. Worth
age with a light-to-gentle breeze.
Jackson 70s 30° S M T W T F S S M T
J
Jacksonville SUNDAY .........................................Sunshine
70s
0
Baton
o Rouge Mo
Mobile
High pressure moving through the region TODAY
Honolulu
olulu
u 60s 60s 70s Or
Orlando
New
Hou
ouston will bring a good deal of sunshine for most
0ss Hilo
80s L San Antonio
Sa tonio
onio Orleans Tampa
a
80s
of the day. The air will be slightly cooler
Corpus Christi
C Miami than on the preceding days with near- 20°
80s 80s Nassau average temperatures expected.
Monterrey
0s MONDAY
Weather patterns shown as expected at noon today, Eastern time.
Fairb
banks
b TUESDAY ............................Stormy Monday
TODAY’S HIGHS
10s
A strong storm will bring heavy rain, Forecast
<0 0s 10s 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s 70s 80s 90s 100+
Anchorage
nchorage Actual range Record
20s
strong wind and thunderstorms Monday. High High
H L lows
Juneau
neau COLD WARM STATIONARY COMPLEX HIGH LOW MOSTLY SHOWERS T-STORMS RAIN FLURRIES SNOW ICE
High 60. Tuesday will be variably cloudy
30s
FRONTS COLD PRESSURE CLOUDY PRECIPITATION
and windy, with spotty showers. High 54. Low Low
40s

Highlight: Severe Thunderstorms Sunday Into Monday National Forecast Metropolitan Almanac
A strong storm is expected Most unsettled weather today will In Central Park, for the 16 hours ended at 4 p.m. yesterday.
to track from the Gulf Coast extend from central Texas eastward along
region to the eastern Great much of the upper Gulf Coast into north- Temperature Precipitation (in inches)
Lakes Sunday into Monday. eastern Florida, southern Georgia and the Yesterday ............... 0.79 Snow......................... 0.0
65° Record .................... 1.91 Since Oct. 1 .............. 0.0
A line of severe thunder- D.C. immediate coasts of North and South 70° 1 p.m.
storms is forecast to Carolina. Downpours in Texas and Louisi- Record For the last 30 days
high 67° Actual ..................... 5.29
organize along the central ana may be persistent and intense (1946)
Norfolk Normal .................... 4.00
Gulf Coast Sunday enough to cause flooding. 60°
For the last 365 days
afternoon and move east In this area, there may also be gusty Actual ................... 46.90
Raleigh
and northeast through thunderstorms. Spotty showers will affect Normal Normal .................. 49.93
MONDAY 55°
Sunday night. Damaging South Florida and the Keys, western and 50°
Midnight
high 50° LAST 30 DAYS

winds and torrential rainfall northern New York state and the north- Air pressure Humidity
are anticipated in the western corner of Washington state. High ........... 30.18 1 a.m. High ............. 96% 6 a.m.
Charleston Normal Low ............ 29.96 2 p.m. Low .............. 69% 2 p.m.
Southeast and Middle Snow showers are possible in southern 40° low 39°
Atlantic region by Monday. SUNDAY Colorado, northern New Mexico and the Heating Degree Days
L NIGHT
northeastern corner of Arizona. Santa Ana
SUNDAY 30° WED. YESTERDAY An index of fuel consumption that tracks how
Jacksonville winds will affect Southern California and far the day's mean temperature fell below 65
raise the risk of wildfire ignition. Yesterday..................................................................... 5
New Orleans So far this month...................................................... 313
20° Record So far this season (since July 1) .............................. 569
low 16° Normal to date for the season ................................. 743
(1938)
4 12 6 12 4
p.m. a.m. a.m. p.m. p.m. Trends Temperature Precipitation
Little Rock 62/ 43 0 62/ 39 C 54/ 37 PC New Delhi 77/ 56 0.07 79/ 52 PC 80/ 52 PC
Cities Los Angeles 68/ 47 0 70/ 45 S 72/ 47 S Riyadh 79/ 57 0 71/ 59 C 72/ 62 PC Average Average
High/low temperatures for the 16 hours ended at 4 Louisville 57/ 44 0 59/ 37 PC 50/ 32 S Seoul 50/ 30 0 46/ 24 PC 38/ 25 S Avg. daily departure Avg. daily departure Below Above Below Above
p.m. yesterday, Eastern time, and precipitation (in inches) Memphis 61/ 43 0 62/ 41 C 56/ 40 S Shanghai 58/ 53 0.64 56/ 46 C 53/ 44 PC from normal from normal Last 10 days
for the 16 hours ended at 4 p.m. yesterday. Miami 82/ 70 0 81/ 70 PC 82/ 69 PC Singapore 82/ 77 0.64 83/ 77 T 83/ 77 T this month
...................... +4.6° this.........................
year +2.3°
Milwaukee 48/ 34 0 46/ 30 PC 49/ 36 S Sydney 90/ 64 0 83/ 73 PC 97/ 84 PC 30 days
Expected conditions for today and tomorrow.
Mpls.-St. Paul 41/ 28 0 38/ 30 S 48/ 32 S Taipei City 86/ 71 0 74/ 65 R 70/ 63 R 90 days
C ........................ Clouds S .............................Sun Nashville 62/ 39 0 66/ 41 C 57/ 34 S Tehran 50/ 42 0.09 53/ 40 PC 49/ 44 C Reservoir levels (New York City water supply) 365 days
F............................. Fog Sn ....................... Snow New Orleans 75/ 67 0.15 77/ 65 Sh 70/ 63 T Tokyo 61/ 50 0.04 56/ 52 R 60/ 48 W
H .......................... Haze SS .......... Snow showers Norfolk 72/ 56 0.24 64/ 50 PC 61/ 45 PC Yesterday ............... 72% Chart shows how recent temperature and precipitation
Oklahoma City 66/ 38 0 56/ 34 PC 52/ 36 Sh Europe Yesterday Today Tomorrow trends compare with those of the last 30 years.
I............................... Ice T............ Thunderstorms Est. normal ............. 81%
Omaha 47/ 27 0 47/ 29 S 56/ 32 S Amsterdam 50/ 46 0.34 48/ 39 Sh 46/ 34 PC
PC ............. Partly cloudy Tr ......................... Trace Athens 61/ 52 0 64/ 47 S 64/ 56 S
Orlando 82/ 62 0 82/ 63 S 81/ 63 PC
R ........................... Rain W ........................ Windy Berlin 44/ 32 0.05 44/ 33 C 41/ 32 C
Philadelphia 65/ 48 0.32 62/ 45 S 57/ 37 S
Sh ................... Showers –............... Not available Brussels 52/ 42 0.04 48/ 35 Sh 48/ 33 PC
Phoenix
Pittsburgh
71/
55/
45
44
0
0.22
66/
52/
45
38
S
PC
70/
46/
45
28
S
PC Budapest 37/ 30 0 38/ 31 PC 37/ 27 Sh
Recreational Forecast
N.Y.C. region Yesterday Today Tomorrow
Portland, Me. 45/ 39 0.64 50/ 37 C 48/ 31 C Copenhagen 50/ 43 0.13 45/ 33 S 39/ 33 PC
New York City 65/ 55 0.79 60/ 48 PC 56/ 40 S Portland, Ore. 50/ 37 0 48/ 37 PC 49/ 39 C Dublin 44/ 36 0 44/ 38 PC 49/ 42 PC Sun, Moon and Planets Mountain and Ocean Temperatures
Bridgeport 61/ 52 1.05 57/ 43 PC 54/ 35 PC Providence 61/ 47 1.19 60/ 41 C 54/ 33 PC Edinburgh 43/ 36 0 44/ 32 Sh 42/ 37 PC
Caldwell 65/ 49 0.34 60/ 41 PC 56/ 34 S Raleigh 71/ 55 0.32 67/ 46 F 65/ 38 PC Frankfurt 39/ 31 0.01 43/ 31 PC 44/ 30 C Full Last Quarter New First Quarter
Danbury 61/ 45 0.58 57/ 38 PC 52/ 29 PC Reno 41/ 20 0 46/ 22 S 49/ 24 S Geneva 44/ 32 0 48/ 33 C 48/ 32 Sh Today’s forecast
Islip 61/ 53 0.68 59/ 41 PC 55/ 36 PC Richmond 71/ 49 0.26 64/ 45 PC 62/ 35 PC Helsinki 45/ 33 0.11 35/ 30 C 33/ 29 C
Newark 67/ 53 0.43 60/ 44 PC 57/ 36 S Rochester 57/ 44 0.01 48/ 38 PC 45/ 34 PC Istanbul 57/ 45 0 59/ 44 S 57/ 49 S White
Trenton 63/ 53 0.20 59/ 41 S 55/ 32 PC Sacramento 64/ 35 0 61/ 33 S 62/ 31 S Kiev 45/ 34 0 38/ 33 Sh 38/ 33 Sh Nov. 30 Dec. 7 Dec. 14 Dec. 21 45/31 Remaining cloudy
White Plains 61/ 49 0.39 57/ 42 PC 53/ 35 PC Salt Lake City 39/ 23 0.03 39/ 26 S 43/ 28 S Lisbon 58/ 48 0.22 60/ 49 C 60/ 50 R 4:30 a.m. 11:17 a.m.
London 48/ 38 0 44/ 42 Sh 52/ 43 PC Green
United States Yesterday Today Tomorrow San Antonio 78/ 65 0 73/ 55 R 62/ 43 T
San Diego 66/ 48 0 70/ 48 S 73/ 49 S Madrid 54/ 46 0.36 57/ 45 Sh 58/ 41 PC 41/32 Mostly cloudy and mild
Albany 53/ 42 0.55 49/ 37 PC 45/ 31 Sh Sun RISE 6:57 a.m. Moon S 4:06 a.m.
San Francisco 64/ 46 0 61/ 43 S 62/ 43 S Moscow 34/ 23 0.13 32/ 31 Sn 32/ 24 C 4:30 p.m. 3:17 p.m.
Albuquerque 55/ 33 0 45/ 29 SS 50/ 29 S SET R Adirondacks
San Jose 63/ 38 0 63/ 37 S 65/ 39 S Nice 61/ 46 0 64/ 54 C 63/ 50 R
Anchorage 28/ 21 0.03 27/ 19 C 25/ 20 Sn NEXT R 6:58 a.m. S 5:06 a.m. 41/31 Remaining cloudy 50s
San Juan 84/ 74 0.07 85/ 74 PC 84/ 72 S Oslo 40/ 27 0 33/ 26 S 31/ 25 PC
Atlanta 73/ 48 0.25 71/ 53 C 65/ 47 PC Paris 54/ 34 0 53/ 38 PC 53/ 36 PC Jupiter R 10:33 a.m. Mars S 2:56 a.m.
Seattle 50/ 43 0 51/ 44 C 50/ 37 PC Berkshires
Atlantic City 67/ 52 0.38 65/ 48 S 61/ 39 S Prague 33/ 26 0 39/ 30 PC 35/ 27 C S 8:02 p.m. R 2:06 p.m.
Sioux Falls 43/ 26 0 44/ 27 S 52/ 32 S 51/37 Decreasing clouds
Austin 80/ 60 0 70/ 54 R 60/ 43 T Rome 63/ 41 0 62/ 48 Sh 62/ 47 R
Spokane 38/ 31 0 41/ 31 PC 42/ 25 S Saturn R 10:42 a.m. Venus R 4:32 a.m.
Baltimore 68/ 47 0.41 62/ 44 S 59/ 34 PC St. Petersburg 44/ 34 0.29 34/ 29 Sn 34/ 23 C
St. Louis 56/ 38 Tr 52/ 30 PC 48/ 32 S S 8:15 p.m. S 3:10 p.m. Catskills
Baton Rouge 73/ 65 0.15 75/ 62 R 69/ 60 T Stockholm 47/ 34 0.21 36/ 31 PC 35/ 29 PC
St. Thomas 84/ 76 0.01 85/ 75 S 84/ 76 S 49/36 Clouds yielding to sun
Birmingham 70/ 46 0 70/ 51 C 63/ 46 PC Vienna 35/ 30 0 35/ 30 PC 37/ 29 C
Syracuse 57/ 44 0.22 50/ 39 PC 45/ 33 PC Boating
Boise 40/ 25 0 42/ 25 S 39/ 23 PC Tampa 83/ 67 0 82/ 66 S 81/ 66 PC Warsaw 41/ 26 0.02 43/ 33 Sh 36/ 30 Sh
Boston 57/ 46 1.39 58/ 42 F 53/ 36 S Poconos
Toledo 52/ 41 0.14 51/ 32 PC 44/ 30 S From Montauk Point to Sandy Hook, N.J., out to 20 52/37 Mild with variable clouds
Buffalo 53/ 44 0.13 48/ 38 PC 45/ 37 PC North America Yesterday Today Tomorrow
Tucson 73/ 39 0 62/ 37 S 68/ 39 S nautical miles, including Long Island Sound and New York
Burlington 48/ 43 0.35 48/ 39 C 45/ 36 Sh Tulsa 65/ 41 0 58/ 32 C 55/ 38 C Acapulco 86/ 73 0.02 87/ 74 PC 87/ 74 PC
Casper 38/ 15 0 43/ 26 S 47/ 20 S Harbor. Southwest Pa. 60s
Virginia Beach 75/ 54 0.14 67/ 48 PC 65/ 45 PC Bermuda 73/ 68 0.03 76/ 68 Sh 74/ 66 PC
Charlotte 71/ 50 0.33 70/ 49 F 65/ 39 PC Edmonton 26/ 9 0.05 32/ 22 PC 29/ 13 PC Wind will be from the west at 6-12 knots. Waves will be 1 52/37 Mostly cloudy, a shower
Washington 69/ 48 0.24 61/ 48 S 58/ 39 PC
Chattanooga 66/ 40 0.08 66/ 45 C 63/ 38 PC Wichita 59/ 34 0 54/ 28 S 54/ 36 PC Guadalajara 86/ 49 0 87/ 49 C 86/ 49 PC foot or less on New York Harbor, 1-2 feet on Long Island
Chicago 48/ 37 0 46/ 28 PC 49/ 34 S Wilmington, Del. 65/ 44 0.36 60/ 42 S 57/ 33 S Havana 84/ 65 0 83/ 63 PC 82/ 64 S Sound and 2-4 feet on the ocean. Visibility will be gener-
Cincinnati 55/ 44 0 56/ 35 PC 48/ 31 S Kingston 90/ 75 0 87/ 74 S 87/ 74 S
West Virginia
ally unrestricted.
Cleveland 53/ 42 0.04 49/ 36 PC 43/ 33 PC Africa Yesterday Today Tomorrow Martinique 86/ 75 0.04 85/ 75 PC 85/ 75 Sh 56/39 Partly sunny and mild
Colorado Springs 44/ 20 0 43/ 23 PC 52/ 28 S Algiers 71/ 52 0 69/ 51 Sh 64/ 55 R Mexico City 81/ 49 0 79/ 49 PC 79/ 49 PC High Tides
Columbus 54/ 44 0.02 53/ 34 PC 45/ 28 S Cairo 70/ 58 0 70/ 56 PC 70/ 56 S Monterrey 82/ 52 0 82/ 57 PC 70/ 53 Sh Color bands
Concord, N.H. 42/ 35 0.84 54/ 32 PC 50/ 28 PC Cape Town 70/ 55 0 82/ 61 PC 74/ 60 S Montreal 43/ 34 0.14 43/ 34 PC 41/ 33 R Atlantic City .................... 5:17 a.m. .............. 5:30 p.m. Blue Ridge indicate water
Dallas-Ft. Worth 72/ 53 0 60/ 47 C 52/ 41 T Dakar 86/ 75 0 84/ 72 W 83/ 71 W Nassau 81/ 70 0.01 81/ 73 PC 80/ 73 PC Barnegat Inlet ................. 5:27 a.m. .............. 5:43 p.m. 60/40 Partly sunny and mild temperature.
Denver 42/ 22 0 45/ 26 S 55/ 25 S Johannesburg 76/ 57 0.30 80/ 55 T 74/ 57 T Panama City 81/ 75 0.70 84/ 74 T 84/ 74 T The Battery ..................... 6:10 a.m. .............. 6:26 p.m.
Des Moines 45/ 27 0 44/ 28 S 53/ 33 S Nairobi 85/ 59 0.20 78/ 62 T 74/ 60 T Quebec City 37/ 28 0.10 40/ 30 C 39/ 26 C Beach Haven .................. 6:52 a.m. .............. 7:09 p.m.
Detroit 50/ 39 0.10 49/ 31 PC 47/ 31 S Tunis 72/ 50 0 69/ 61 C 70/ 54 PC Santo Domingo 86/ 72 0.02 85/ 69 S 85/ 69 PC Bridgeport ...................... 9:01 a.m. .............. 9:29 p.m.
El Paso 70/ 42 0 64/ 35 S 57/ 33 S Toronto 52/ 43 0.07 46/ 35 C 44/ 34 PC City Island ....................... 9:39 a.m. ............ 10:05 p.m.
It will be a mild day for late November.
Fargo 37/ 21 0 37/ 27 PC 45/ 26 S Asia/Pacific Yesterday Today Tomorrow Vancouver 46/ 40 0.03 48/ 41 R 47/ 35 PC
Hartford 58/ 41 0.86 57/ 38 PC 52/ 31 PC Baghdad 70/ 55 0 72/ 55 PC 67/ 55 Sh Fire Island Lt. .................. 6:20 a.m. .............. 6:37 p.m. Clouds will limit sunshine in many areas,
Winnipeg 33/ 25 0 33/ 22 C 33/ 17 PC
Honolulu 84/ 73 0.01 84/ 72 PC 83/ 71 PC Bangkok 91/ 78 0 91/ 76 PC 90/ 76 C Montauk Point ................ 6:46 a.m. .............. 7:06 p.m. with southern and eastern areas seeing
Houston 76/ 66 0 75/ 62 R 65/ 52 R Beijing 42/ 23 0 44/ 21 PC 40/ 25 PC South America Yesterday Today Tomorrow Northport ....................... 9:21 a.m. .............. 9:51 p.m.
Indianapolis 51/ 39 0 51/ 29 PC 46/ 29 S Damascus 56/ 48 0.21 60/ 45 PC 61/ 43 PC Buenos Aires 79/ 64 0 81/ 72 S 78/ 70 T Port Washington ............. 9:45 a.m. ............ 10:15 p.m. the most sunshine. While there may be
Jackson 74/ 55 0 70/ 52 T 62/ 50 C Hong Kong 82/ 68 0 80/ 63 S 77/ 63 S Caracas 87/ 74 0.30 88/ 74 T 89/ 73 T Sandy Hook .................... 5:34 a.m. .............. 5:51 p.m. spotty showers, no widespread or heavy
Jacksonville 82/ 62 0 80/ 63 PC 73/ 60 Sh Jakarta 93/ 76 0.04 92/ 75 C 92/ 76 C Lima 71/ 61 0 73/ 65 PC 73/ 66 PC Shinnecock Inlet ............. 5:13 a.m. .............. 5:32 p.m.
Kansas City 55/ 33 0 51/ 30 S 55/ 33 S Jerusalem 55/ 48 0.20 56/ 42 C 56/ 43 S Quito 66/ 52 0.43 66/ 52 Sh 67/ 52 Sh Stamford ........................ 9:09 a.m. .............. 9:39 p.m.
precipitation is anticipated. Tomorrow will
Key West 88/ 73 0 80/ 73 PC 80/ 73 S Karachi 77/ 57 0 79/ 56 W 81/ 54 S Recife 84/ 77 0.05 85/ 78 PC 85/ 78 PC Tarrytown ....................... 7:59 a.m. .............. 8:15 p.m. be cooler, with rain and snow showers.
Las Vegas 58/ 42 0 60/ 38 S 59/ 41 S Manila 90/ 76 0.16 86/ 78 T 86/ 76 C Rio de Janeiro 84/ 71 0 84/ 72 S 85/ 72 S Willets Point .................... 9:35 a.m. ............ 10:03 p.m.
Lexington 53/ 43 0 57/ 36 PC 48/ 31 S Mumbai 93/ 76 0 94/ 77 PC 92/ 78 PC Santiago 92/ 51 0 84/ 51 PC 86/ 53 PC
B12 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020

Let’s make every

Friday in November
#BuyBlack Friday
Black-owned businesses need our help.
More than 40% have closed forever this
year due to COVID-19. That’s why where
you spend your money can really make
a difference. So, #BuyBlack every Friday
in November and make a meaningful impact
on the lives of small business owners
across the country.

To find out how to get involved,

visit fb.com/BuyBlackFri

© 2020 Facebook, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

K8P0V4L
3 FILM REVIEW 11 ART REVIEW 14 ALBUM REVIEW

Hollywood does Theaster Gates Snapshots of the

Appalachia via unites ancient many Megan
one family’s and modern. Thee Stallions.
misery. BY A. O. SCOT T BY YINKA ELUJOBA BY LINDSAY ZOLADZ

NEWS CRITICISM FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020 C1

N

Ye a r
s o f the 0,

B o o k e tit l e
vorit . Pages 8
s o f 202
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JONATHAN BARTLETT

TIM NORRIS JEENAH MOON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Holiday Favorites, Now Seen at Home A Feast of Classical Music Online

Many seasonal mainstays are reimagined for online viewing The soprano Julia Bullock in ‘Perle Noire,’ above, an oratorio
this year. Our critics highlight some standouts, including inspired by Josephine Baker, which is among the performances
‘The Hip Hop Nutcracker,’ above. Page 13. available for streaming in December. Page 14.
 C2 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020
Dessert Time:
Things to Do
After the Feast
Our critics and writers have selected notable
cultural events to experience online.
KIDS
12345 Films to Feast On
If your children have had their fill of tur-
key and tradition, you can offer them
more exotic fare — the cinematic kind —
from nations far away. From Saturday
through Dec. 6, the Brooklyn Academy of
Music is presenting a cultural tasting
menu in the form of the Best of BAMkids
Film Festival 2020, an hourlong video-
on-demand program of short animated
works from 10 countries. For families
who couldn’t go to the full festival in Feb-
ruary, this virtual event presents 12 high-
lights to sample at home.
Sumptuous food appears here, too:
tempting desserts in “Pen & Magic” (Ja-
pan), a towering birthday cake adorned
with fish in “Little Grey Wolfy — Sum-
mer Party” (Norway) and vibrant vege-
table soup in “The Rainbow Giant” (Tai-
wan). Geared toward ages 3 to 6, the
shorts also feature a musical squirrel, ar-
tistic snails and an aeronautically
minded mouse.
The pay-what-you-wish program (the
minimum is $5) can be savored for 48
hours after purchasers first click on a
link they’ll receive from the streaming
platform Eventive.
LAUREL GRAEBER
John Farnsworth hosts a variety show from his backyard in
Ridgewood, Queens, with comedy and musical performances.
DANCE
1 2 314253 4 5 Delights of Varying Lengths
The renowned Canadian choreographer
Crystal Pite has a knack for finding the
propulsive poetry of large ensembles. In
2017’s “Flight Pattern,” a meditation on
the refugee crisis that has been haunting
Europe, she conjures both chaos and a
precarious calm in a swirling mass of 36
dancers. A 2019 performance of the short
work, which was commissioned by Brit-
ain’s Royal Ballet, is now available to
stream until Dec. 5 on the company’s
website (tickets are $3.25).
Through Dec. 13, for $10.95, the Royal
Ballet also offers access to last month’s
two-hour gala-like medley of excerpts
from several new and classic ballets
danced by company stars such as Fran-
cesca Hayward, Natalia Osipova and
Marianela Nuñez. The evening culmi-
nates in a full performance of Christo-
pher Wheeldon’s sumptuous and richly
textured “Within the Golden Hour.” On-
line screenings of Frederick Ashton’s
“Enigma Variations” and, of course,
“The Nutcracker” will arrive in early De-
cember.
BRIAN SCHAEFER
12345
TRISTRAM KENTON/ROYAL OPERA HOUSE
A scene from Christopher Wheeldon’s “Within the Golden Hour,”
which is now streaming on the Royal Ballet’s website until Dec. 13.
This weekend I have . . .
BY MA R G A R E T LYO NS
. . . 90 minutes, and I’m on my own.
‘GREAT PERFORMANCES:
LEA SALONGA IN CONCERT’
FRIDAY AT 9 P.M. ON PBS
(CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS)
This concert, filmed last
November at the Syd-
ney Opera House, is a
ton of fun — a terrific
set list, the correct
amount of banter and
just enough shots of
musicians thoughtfully ROBERT CATTO/SYDNEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, VIA AP
tooting away. The
Broadway and Disney star Lea Salonga (above) sings some of what
you would expect from her oeuvre, including a “A Whole New
World,” which she performs as a duet with an audience member,
along with a few surprises like “Meadowlark” from “The Baker’s
Wife.”
Watching Sign up for our newsletter: nytimes.com/newsletters/watching
WEEKEND ROUNDUP
A scene from “The Rainbow Giant,” one of the films streaming in the Best of BAMkids Film Festival 2020, starting on Saturday.
12345
ARIN SANG-URAI
COMEDY
Live From . . . Ridgewood
As conditions — meteorological and epi-
demiological — become frightful, can a
live comedy show still sound delightful?
Perhaps, but only if you can view it from
the safety of your own home. So thank
John Farnsworth for opening up his
backyard and bringing a vaudeville
called “The Great Outdoors” to an elec-
tronic device of your choice this week-
end.
Farnsworth plays host from his own
patch of pavement in Ridgewood,
Queens, broadcasting comedy and musi-
cal performances with a multicam setup,
with stars on the ground and lights in the
trees. The lineup includes stand-up from
Jay Jurden, Arti Gollapudi and Solange
Azor, musical comedy from Marcia Bel-
sky, and music from Slight Of. The live-
stream is available at fiveohm.tv and
starts at 8 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday.
Tickets are on a sliding scale, from $5 to
$50, with all proceeds going to the Ridge-
wood Tenants Union, a mutual aid net-
work for neighborhood residents in need
during the pandemic.
SEAN L. McCARTHY
. . . a few hours, a child and a glue gun.
‘CRAFTOPIA’
ON HBO MAX
If you are managing
some of your cabin fever
by bedazzling things
and watching instruc-
tional D.I.Y. videos, or if
your household is still
into slime, try this good-
natured kid-geared craft
competition series —
like “Making It” for the
HBO MAX
locker-decorating set. Three creative tweens go head-to-head on
each episode, and the judges’ feedback is sweet and supportive.
Depending on your tolerance for glitter use, plenty of the challenges
could be adapted for the home audience. There are eight regular
episodes, two Halloween specials and two new Christmas specials.
GUO JUN-MING
THEATER
Reshaping Classic Calamities
Tragic error isn’t limited to a particular
time or location. Since 2003, the play-
wright and performance artist Luis Al-
faro, a recipient of a MacArthur fellow-
ship, has taken the plays of Euripides
and Sophocles and transposed them to
his native Los Angeles.
Repopulated with Latino characters,
unstrung by fates like the Greeks before
them, Alfaro’s works explore themes of
violence, liberation and belonging. Lin-
guistically vibrant and emotionally opu-
lent, the dramas retain their force even
as they acquire new vocabulary and
characters. “Electricidad” updates
“Electra” to a Los Angeles barrio. “Oedi-
pus El Rey” includes a chorus clad in
prison jumpsuits. “Mojada,” a version of
“Medea,” recalibrates the play as a trage-
dy of an undocumented immigrant.
Now Los Angeles’s Center Theater
Group and the Getty Museum have
brought his Greek trilogy online, stream-
ing readings of “Electricidad,” directed
by Laurie Woolery; “Oedipus El Rey,” di-
rected by Chay Yew; and “Mojada,” di-
rected by Juliette Carrillo. All are avail-
able — in English, with optional Spanish
captioning — free at the Center Theater
Group’s website through Jan. 20.
ALEXIS SOLOSKI
JAZZ
Elevating the Art of Boleros
As an interpreter of folk songs and popu-
lar fare from Puerto Rico, the alto saxo-
phonist Miguel Zenón has made a case
for the richness of that island’s musical
traditions, without fundamentally up-
ending his own personal compass and
style on the way. The biggest selling
point for his dozen albums as a leader
has remained the slithery, energy-
spilling saxophone playing, and the ease
with which Zenón invents new routes
through his quartet’s constantly evolv-
ing rearrangements of these tunes.
On his most recent release, “Sonero:
The Music of Ismael Rivera,” Zenón, a
MacArthur “genius” fellow, celebrated
one of Puerto Rico’s great salsa crooners
and composers. On Friday at 5 p.m. East-
ern time, he will play a program of bole-
ros, or slow dance numbers, alongside
Luis Perdomo, the pianist in his quartet.
The performance can be streamed at
Zenón’s Facebook page; a $10 donation
to the artists is suggested.
GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO
. . . five hours, and I love references.
‘SAVED BY THE BELL’
ON PEACOCK
This revival of the be-
loved teen sitcom
sounded like a terrible
idea — but it’s actually
bright and charming. In
this iteration, the chil-
dren of the original
characters are now
students at Bayside,
which, thanks to Gover-
CHRIS HASTON/PEACOCK
nor Zack Morris’s fumbling, is welcoming the student body from an
underfunded, now-shuttered high school. If you’re into zingy teen
shows like “Never Have I Ever,” or the self-aware earnestness of
“Cobra Kai,” or if you enjoy the contemporary recapitulation of “The
Babysitters Club,” watch this. If you care only about seeing Zack,
Kelly, Slater, Jessie, one minute of Lisa and a glancing reference to
Screech, skip ahead to Episode 8.
 THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020 N C3

Movies
A. O. SCOTT FILM REVIEW

suddenly enraged at J. D., floors the accel-

erator and threatens to crash the car. Ad-
ams plays every scene with the pedal to the
metal, clocking zero to howling frenzy in 10
or 15 seconds. Close, for her part, lets out a
steady barrage of grandmotherly wisdom,
obscenity, threats (“I’ll cancel your birth
certificate!”) and football-coach-style en-
couragement. Partnered with Madea in a
Tyler Perry movie, Mamaw would be a pop-
culture force to be reckoned with. Like
Madea, she is an exuberantly profane, slyly
self-aware character, but the movie traps
Mamaw, and Close, in a sticky web of piety
and sincerity. Her individuality is circum-
scribed by the need to treat her as a symbol
— a figure at once cautionary and inspiring,
an example of a sociological rule and also
the prime exception to it.
A younger Mamaw (Sunny Mabrey) is
shown in a carefully tinted flashback leav-
ing Kentucky on Highway 23 as a pregnant
teenager, heading to Middletown. In the
middle decades of the 20th century, the
steel mills there, along with factories in
other Midwestern and Mid-Atlantic cities,
were magnets for Appalachian migrants,
and this history is part of the background of
Vance’s book.
His aim wasn’t only to recount his moth-
er’s struggles with addiction and celebrate
his grandmother’s grit. “Hillbilly Elegy,”
published in June 2016, attracted an extra
measure of attention (and controversy) af-
ter Donald Trump’s election. It seemed to
offer a firsthand report, both personal and
analytical, on the condition of the white
American working class.
And while the book didn’t really explain
the election — Vance is reticent about his
family’s voting habits and ideological tend-
encies — it did venture a hypothesis about
how that family and others like it encoun-
tered such persistent household dysfunc-
tion and economic distress. His answer
wasn’t political or economic, but cultural.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY LACEY TERRELL/NETFLIX
He suggests that the same traits that
make his people distinctive — suspicion of
outsiders, resistance to authority, devotion

I Remember
to kin, eagerness to fight — make it hard for
them to thrive in modern American society.
Essentially, “Hillbilly Elegy” updates the
old “culture of poverty” thesis associated
with the anthropologist Oscar Lewis’s re-

Bev and Mamaw search on Mexican peasants (and later with

Glenn Close and Amy Adams star in Ron Howard’s
Hollywoodized version of J. D. Vance’s best seller.
Hillbilly Elegy
Rated R. Fussing, fighting,
cussing, smoking. Running
time: 1 hour 56 minutes.
On Netflix.
EARLY IN “HILLBILLY ELEGY,” Ron Howard’s
adaptation of J. D. Vance’s best-selling
memoir, J. D. (Gabriel Basso), a Yale law
student, attends a fancy dinner with repre-
sentatives from top firms who are scouting
young legal talent. Bewildered at the silver-
ware arrayed around his plate — so many
forks! — he calls his girlfriend, Usha
(Freida Pinto), a fellow Yalie, who gives him
a quick tutorial in the theory and practice of
formal table-setting.
An oddly shaped knife, she explains, is
used for fish. The scene is meant to empha-
size that J. D., a former U.S. Marine with an
undergraduate degree from Ohio State and
a family rooted in rural Appalachia, is a fish
out of water in the Ivy League. The awk-
ward silence when he mentions his back-
ground, the casual snobbery about “state
schools” and “rednecks,” the smugness that
hangs like a fine mist in the New Haven air
— all of that brings home a solid, blunt point
about the class condescension baked into so
many American elite institutions.
Including Hollywood, for all its small-d
democratic fantasies. Later, J. D.’s sister,
Lindsay (Haley Bennett), will bring him a
fried bologna sandwich and wash a sinkful
of plastic forks, but this version of “Hillbilly
Top, Glenn Close as Mamaw in “Hillbilly Elegy.” Above, from left, Haley Bennett as Lindsay,
Gabriel Basso as J. D. and Amy Adams as Bev, who struggles with addiction.
Elegy” (on Netflix) has more in common
with that Yale soiree than with Lindsay’s
backyard cookout.
The intentions are admirable: the film-
makers want to make room for J. D. at the
table (Vance is credited as an executive
producer) and to give his family story a fair
hearing. But it can be hard to figure out
what story the filmmakers think they
should be telling. Howard and his producing
partner, Brian Grazer, along with the
screenwriter Vanessa Taylor, have laid the
table with heavy silver — a blue-chip cast, a
plush orchestral score (by David Fleming
and Hans Zimmer), a high-gloss look that
gestures toward realism without quite de-
livering it — and proceeded to mix up the
forks.
The narrative zigzags through time and
space, starting out in Kentucky, where J. D.
spends summers as a boy (played by Owen
Asztalos) among his extended family. The
older J. D. is called back home to Middle-
town, Ohio, when his mother, Bev (Amy Ad-
ams), overdoses on heroin. Her addiction
and general instability while J. D. is grow-
ing up, balanced by the benevolent influ-
ence of Bev’s mother, Bonnie, universally
known as Mamaw (Glenn Close), provide a
dramatic structure, or at least an explana-
tion for the regular explosions of drama.
At one point Bev, behind the wheel and
Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s ideas about
Black Americans) and applies it to disad-
vantaged white communities.
Howard and Taylor mostly sidestep this
argument, which has been widely criticized.
They focus on the characters and their pre-
dicaments, and on themes that are likely to
be familiar and accessible to a broad range
of viewers. The film is a chronicle of addic-
tion entwined with a bootstrapper’s tale —
Bev’s story and J. D.’s, with Mamaw as the
link between them.
But it sacrifices the intimacy, and the
specificity, of those stories by pretending to
link them to something bigger without pro-
viding a coherent sense of what that some-
thing might be. The Vances are presented
as a representative family, but what exactly
do they represent? A class? A culture? A
place? A history? The louder they yell, the
less you understand — about them or the
world they inhabit.
The strange stew of melodrama, didacti-
cism and inadvertent camp that Howard
serves up isn’t the result of a failure of taste
or sensitivity. If anything, “Hillbilly Elegy”
is too tasteful, too sensitive for its own good,
studiously unwilling to be as wild or provoc-
ative as its characters. Such tact is in keep-
ing with the moral of its story, which is that
success in America means growing up to be
less interesting than your parents or grand-
parents. The best thing I can say about this
movie is also the most damning, given Ma-
maw’s proud indifference to anyone’s good
opinion of her. It’s respectable.

GLENN KENNY FILM REVIEW

Acid and Romance: On the Run With Timothy Leary

A documentary explores the
relationship between the LSD
guru and a mysterious woman.
TO INDUCE DREAD IN A PARANOIAC, one need
only invoke two acronyms: C.I.A. and LSD.
Along with a third and a fourth — U.F.O. and
J.F.K. — these were key ingredients in the
alphabet soup of conspiracy theory for
more than half a century.
But. You don’t have to be a paranoiac, be-
cause sometimes dread-inducing combina-
tions and schemes do yield horrific results.
The 2017 Errol Morris-directed mini-series,
“Wormwood,” to which “My Psychedelic
Love Story” is a sequel of sorts, went into
detail about the C.I.A. and LSD. It showed
that the cloak-and-dagger organization and
the hallucinogenic drug met up earlier than
most might have guessed.
The agency’s early experimentation with
acid culminated in 1952 with the tragic, infu-
riating death of the C.I.A.-employed scien-
tist Frank Olson, officially deemed a sui-
cide. “Wormwood” mixed Morris’s astute
documentary style — a blend of acute inter-
views, archival footage and graphics — with
dramatic re-enactments to suggest that it
might have been murder.
The mini-series caught the attention of
Joanna Harcourt-Smith, who in the early
’70s was the consort and psychic soul mate
of Timothy Leary, the Harvard psychology
professor turned LSD Johnny Appleseed.
Harcourt-Smith was in Afghanistan with
Leary, who had escaped from prison in the
United States, when he was returned to U.S.
custody.
At a subsequent rally for Leary, the poet
and activist Allen Ginsberg, in a piece called
“44 Questions About Timothy Leary,”
asked, with not a little anger, whether Har-
court-Smith was a “C.I.A. sex provocateur”
who entrapped Leary.
Harcourt-Smith’s question for Morris is:
“Was I?”
“My Psychedelic Love Story” also draws
on her 2013 memoir “Tripping the Bardo
With Timothy Leary: My Psychedelic Love
Story.” The narrative Morris and Harcourt-
Smith recount is rollicking, globe-trotting
and packed with characters, including the
shady Hungarian banker Arpad Plesch —
who managed to make himself Harcourt-
Smith’s step-grandfather and stepfather —
and the Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Rich-
ards. Implausible but nevertheless actual
names such as Donald Strange are dropped.
If you ever wondered, “How does Thomas
Pynchon come up with that stuff?” this
movie will assure you that the world just
hands a lot of it to him.
Throughout the movie, Harcourt-Smith, a
handsome woman sitting comfortably on an
aqua love seat in an airy, earth-toned living
JOANNA HARCOURT-SMITH/SHOWTIME
Timothy Leary and
Joanna Harcourt-Smith
in the documentary “My
Psychedelic Love Story.”
My Psychedelic Love Story
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 41
minutes. On Showtime platforms.
room, recounts tales of free love inter-
spersed with recollections of childhood sex-
ual abuse. She likens herself to Mata Hari
(and Morris frequently intercuts Greta
Garbo, in a 1931 film, vamping it up as the
famous spy). She shares wisdom from her
bohemian upbringing with observations
such as “You can never tell how rich rich
people are.”
Morris asks her point blank, “When did
you first realize you could control men?”
and she takes the question at face value. But
her story reveals that idea of control, as
Morris frames it, is a false one.
It is true, though, that for a long period
Leary was in thrall to Harcourt-Smith, and
that Harcourt-Smith worshiped him. This
heady, fascinating movie never definitively
establishes that she was manipulated to get
Leary back into the United States, where he
eventually became an informant.
And as is the case so many times in life,
the relationship between Leary and Har-
court-Smith ended, after all the convolu-
tions and mystifications, not with a bang or
even a whimper, but a simple betrayal. One
night, while living in witness protection in
Santa Fe, N.M. (“I wasn’t used to camping,”
Harcourt-Smith says of their raw living
quarters; “I was a Parisian!”) the couple
had a loud argument. The next morning
Leary was gone from the house, and from
her life forever.
 C4
SUPERINTELLIGENCE
Rated PG for impending apocalypse
and language. Running time: 1 hour
46 minutes. On HBO Max.
. ...................................................................
In this new Melissa McCarthy
comedy, directed by her husband
and frequent collaborator Ben
Falcone (who has a supporting
role), she plays Carol, described
by another character as “the most
average person on earth.” This
pronouncement catches the ear of
a roving artificial intelligence —
one that travels from smartphone
to TV to rice cooker at will —
which decides on Carol, a former
Silicon Valley star turned do-
gooder, as its test subject.
Taking on the voice of Carol’s
favorite celeb, James Corden
(who stars as his own voice), the
“superintelligence,” a.k.a. the A.I.,
gives Carol a big bank account, a
self-driving car and a snazzy
apartment. In return, she must
teach it about humanity. If it
doesn’t like what it learns, it will
end the human race.
“Jexi” meets “The Day the
Earth Stood Still” it is, then. Car-
ol’s task is to revive her failed
romance with George, a good-
natured academic played good-
naturedly by Bobby Cannavale.
The countdown to extinction
hooks up with what film scholars
call the “comedy of remarriage.”
(That is, the happy relitigation of
a stalled alliance.) And the movie
saunters between these two
modes with minimal rhyme or
reason. The couple is placed, to
visual advantage, in many attrac-
tive Seattle locations — the city
has never looked more sparkly
than it does here.
This is a movie of bits, enacted
by varied comic luminaries. Mc-
Carthy’s “who me?” winsome-
ness, running neck and neck with
her quick-witted cheekiness, is
familiar. A new dynamic is added
by the inspired Brian Tyree
Henry, who, as Carol’s best friend
and digital guru, hilariously
crushes on the movie’s American
president (Jean Smart).
“This is nice — they’re nice
people,” Falcone’s character, an
F.B.I. agent tailing Carol, says
while observing Carol and George
at play. That is about the best
recommendation one can give
“Superintelligence.”
GLENN KENNY
ZAPPA
Not rated. Running time: 2 hours 9
minutes. In theaters and available to
rent or buy on iTunes, Google Play
and other streaming platforms and
pay-TV operators. Consult Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention
guidelines before watching movies in
theaters.
. ...................................................................
This documentary directed
by Alex Winter opens with a
portrait of the ostensibly
outrageous musician Frank Zappa
in a moment of nobility. It is
footage shot in Prague in 1991, two
years before Zappa’s death from
cancer at the age of 52.
Zappa, whose work was one of
the cultural inspirations for the
future Czech Republic’s Velvet
Revolution, became a latter-day
national hero there. So on this
occasion, which would be the last
time he played guitar in public, the virtual
perfectionist musician consented
to perform with an unrehearsed
pickup band, to celebrate the
withdrawal of Russian troops from film, “Kill It and Leave This
the region. Of the new country his Town,” because this animated
audience will bring into being,
Zappa says, “Keep it unique.”
“Zappa” foregrounds the laud-
able and often astonishing aspects than a traditional work of story-
of the man’s work and personality. telling.
A self-taught musician with a
A scene from Alex Winter’s documentary on Frank Zappa, which pays a sincere tribute to the musician.
N THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020
Melissa McCarthy in “Superintelligence,” set in Seattle. Her character, Carol, is average, making her ideal for an experiment. But she must come through on her end of the bargain or else.
near-maniacal work ethic, over
the years he came to regard his
efforts in rock ’n’ roll as a day gig,
necessary to support his more
ambitious composing efforts.
Despite his personal aloofness, he
continues to inspire the musicians
who worked with him; in inter-
views, the guitarist Steve Vai and
the pianist and percussionist Ruth
Underwood get very emotional
when contemplating his loss.
The movie doesn’t ignore the
sexism of Zappa’s lyrics, or his
occasional smugness in dealing
with the press (among others).
But it places these features in
contexts that give them a certain
coherence, while not entirely
excusing them. Zappa mavens
might be disappointed that some
of the man’s bands get short shrift
in the linear narrative (the amaz-
ing combo that toured behind
“The Grand Wazoo” receives no
play, for instance). But they’ll be
heartened by those details that do
get included, and by the sincere
tribute paid. And non-Zappa
people may be illuminated and
eventually moved.
GLENN KENNY
KILL IT AND LEAVE
THIS TOWN
Not rated. In Polish, with subtitles.
Running time: 1 hour 28 minutes. On
cinemas: vimeo.com.
. ...................................................................
It’s difficult to describe the Polish
artist Mariusz Wilczynski’s debut
feature — plotless, gloomy and
surreal — is more a direct transla-
tion of feelings and sensations
There is truly nothing tradi-
FILM REVIEWS
tional about “Kill It,” in which the
filmmaker reflects on his grief,
mortality and isolation in his
working-class industrial town.
The grim film feels excavated
from the subconscious: The
coarse illustration style, with its
frazzled, stray lines, emphasizes
the bleakness of the images.
The first third of the film is
especially brutal. A child need-
lessly berated by his mother; flies
plucked off flypaper; a dying
woman in a hospital bed saying,
“I’m all alone here, lonely as an
owl,” as her son, an analog of the
filmmaker, brusquely brushes her
off: Wilczynski makes a feast of
the obscene, but it is, by nature,
hard to digest.
The film does have the capacity
for beauty — scenes of snowfall
and rainfall and light streaming
from buildings reveal an elegance
that he works hard to negate.
He’d rather we stare at a nurse
carefully maneuvering a frayed
thread through a needle to stitch
not cloth but the belly and geni-
tals of an old woman’s corpse,
while severed heads roll down the
streets and humans defecate on
the sidewalks.
Tadeusz Nalepa’s surprisingly
energetic rock-heavy score, how-
ever, is a satisfying companion to
the film’s swift shifts in scale and
perspective.
After a while, Wilczynski seems
to tire of his violent approach, and
though the film maintains its dark
dreaminess, his images soften,
but a sense of listlessness persists
that rejects resolution.
Because “Kill It” is more than
anything an emotional experi-
ence, it feels long and taxing.
Wilczynski might consider “Kill
It” a success, but I don’t want to
encounter it again.
MAYA PHILLIPS
MAGNOLIA PICTURES
HOPPER STONE/HBO MAX
the characters speak Arabic)
UNCLE FRANK THE CROODS: with the cruder goosing strat-
egies and red-meat dialogue of a
Rated R. Hidden hurt. Running
time: 1 hour 35 minutes. On Amazon. A NEW AGE revenge picture.
. ................................................................... Rated PG. Hybrid animals, such as The film, the directing debut of
wolf spiders, that might frighten the screenwriter Matthew Mi-
In “Uncle Frank,” the writer- children. Running time: 1 hour 35 chael Carnahan (Peter Berg’s
director Alan Ball (“True Blood”) minutes. In theaters. Consult “The Kingdom”), begins mid-
combines several overworked Centers for Disease Control and
shootout. Kawa (Adam Bessa), a
genres — the coming-of-age Prevention guidelines before
newly minted Iraqi police officer,
picture, the road-trip odyssey, the watching movies in theaters.
. ...................................................................
is nearby when his uncle is killed
angst-filled family-reunion movie
No one would call it a huge leap by Islamic State fighters. The
— and mostly steers clear of the
on the evolutionary ladder, but Nineveh SWAT team, led by
obvious pitfalls.
the animated sequel “The Major Jasem (Suhail Dabbach),
The film begins in 1969 in South
Croods: A New Age” is slightly shows up and kills them, then,
Carolina with the 14-year-old
Betty — or, rather, Beth (Sophia
Lillis), as she takes to calling
funnier than its serviceable 2013
predecessor. That movie followed
after a tense interrogation, ex-
tends Kawa an offer to join. The
team takes only men who have
a family of cave people — whose
been wounded by the Islamic
patriarch was the lunkheaded but
State or lost family to them, and
big-hearted Grug (voiced by
Kawa now qualifies.
Nicolas Cage) — as they left the
“Mosul” follows the group as it
safety of the rocky alcove they
called home and, thanks to the navigates violence-torn Mosul on
creativity of an outsider, Guy a mysterious mission. (It in-
(Ryan Reynolds), embraced volves more than simply driving
more innovative ways of think- the Islamic State out of the city,
ing. though no one is quick to tell
“The Croods: A New Age,” Kawa the specifics.) Along the
directed by Joel Crawford, accel- way, the men enjoy a brief respite
erates the Crood family’s clash watching a Kuwaiti soap opera;
with modernity. The clan stum- find safety for one of two boys
bles into a verdant utopia that’s a whose parents were killed; and
cross between Shangri-La and engage in an uneasy barter with
Gilligan’s Island. This paradise is
maintained by a family called the
a Shiite militia force, trading
cigarettes for bullets.
Bettermans, headed by Hope Instant death lurks around
BROWNIE HARRIS/AMAZON STUDIOS (Leslie Mann) and Phil (Peter every corner, and the movie
Paul Bettany is cool but Dinklage), who wear new-age doesn’t shy from killing off major
garb and snobbishly show off
mysterious in “Uncle Frank.” characters. But it does play like
their advanced ideas, like private
an odd match of form and con-
rooms, windows and fruit bas-
tent: a story of single-minded
herself when her cool but mysteri- kets.
humanitarianism framed as a
ous uncle, Frank (Paul Bettany), They also have plans to set up relentless action spectacular.
encourages her to use her pre- Guy, who has been going steady BEN KENIGSBERG
ferred nickname. Frank is a pro- with Eep (Emma Stone), the
fessor at New York University, Croods’ eldest, with their daugh-
where Beth starts college a few ter, Dawn (Kelly Marie Tran), in a
years later. But when she shows subplot that the writers — per-
up uninvited to a party at Frank’s haps because the world’s still-tiny
apartment, she meets Wally (Pe- population left them without
ter Macdissi), who isn’t, as he first enough characters to pair off —
says, Frank’s roommate, but leave at least partly unresolved.
rather Frank’s romantic partner While Dawn and Eep become
of a decade. Except for one sib-
ling, Frank’s family doesn’t know
besties, the dueling dads negoti-
ate the common ground between
CLUE OF THE DAY
he’s gay. Grug’s vestigial Cro-Magnonism
So when the death of Frank’s and Phil’s proto-metrosexuality. WORLD ART
GEOGRAPHY
father (Stephen Root) sends Paradoxically, the movie’s energy
Frank and Beth south again, they ebbs as the proceedings turn
can speak with a new freedom. more antic. The culture clash OF THE 6 MAINLAND
And as they navigate the con- comedy becomes secondary once AFRICAN COUNTRIES
trived travel logistics (Wally, “A New Age” introduces a tribe of THROUGH WHICH THE
whom Frank has insisted stay pugnacious, subtitled monkeys EQUATOR PASSES,
behind, improbably catches up who appear to have a fairly ad- THIS LANDLOCKED
with them in another car, just in vanced society of their own. NATION IS LAST
time for Frank’s car to break BEN KENIGSBERG ALPHABETICALLY
down), flashbacks to Frank’s
youth somewhat awkwardly
commence, illustrating why he
tiptoes around his relatives. MOSUL FOR THE CORRECT
RESPONSE, WATCH
Ball has said that “Uncle Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 41 JEOPARDY! TONIGHT
Frank” was inspired by elements minutes. On Netflix. OR LOOK IN THIS
. ...................................................................
of his family history, and some of SPACE MONDAY
the characterization (Frank isn’t “Mosul” dramatizes a 2017 story IN THE TIMES.
perfect but struggles with alcohol- in The New Yorker that chroni-
ism, for instance) feels suitably cled a self-directed Iraqi SWAT
Yesterday’s Response:
layered. At other times (anything team’s efforts to fight the Islamic
WHAT IS OM?
involving the tyrannical father), State. Counting both Condé Nast
“Uncle Frank” tends toward and the “Avengers: Endgame”
overkill. But Bettany and
Macdissi have a wonderful rap-
directors Anthony and Joe Russo
among its producers, this Netflix
Watch JEOPARDY!
port. movie balances admirable ambi- 7 p.m. on Channel 7
BEN KENIGSBERG tion (it’s an American film, but
 THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020 N C5

“WHAT SETS IT APART ARE THE

TAKE-NO-PRISONERS PERFORMANCES
OF AMY ADAMS AND GLENN CLOSE.”

“RON HOWARD’S ‘HILLBILLY ELEGY’ IS

VERY MUCH A MOVIE ABOUT
RIGHT NOW.”

IN SELECT THEATERS AND ON

 C6 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020

BEN KENIGSBERG GATEWAY MOVIES

Is There Something Going On? Maybe

Wong Kar-wai’s most
influential films are part of a
retrospective of his work.
MOMENTS INTO “DAYS OF BEING WILD,” the
second feature from the Hong Kong direc-
tor Wong Kar-wai, a smooth operator flirts
with a woman working at a concession
stand. He asks her to look at his watch for
one minute — and when the 60 seconds are
up, he tells her why: “April 16th, 1960, one
minute before 3. We were here together. I’ll
always remember that minute because of
you. From now on, we’re one-minute
friends.”
Like it or not, she’ll remember that
minute, too.
As a pickup, the line is a bit cringey, but
it’s a great scene because it distills Wong’s
method: Here is a filmmaker who special-
izes in making the evanescent tangible, in
capturing fleeting emotions in a style that is
always poetic, often ravishing and, despite
his films’ surface-level dreaminess, unerr-
ingly precise.
Fairly or not, the influential Wong himself
has a reputation for struggling to set things
in stone; in 2004, his “2046” arrived so late
to the Cannes Film Festival that, Wong told
me in an interview a few years later, the
movie started unspooling before the ending
was in the projection booth. But his movies
are now frozen in place in a virtual retro-
spective that started this week at Film at
Lincoln Center, and will expand to benefit
other theaters on Dec. 11. They can be
streamed nationally, and seeing them in
these new director-approved scans is as IMAGES VIA CRITERION COLLECTION
close as pandemic viewing gets to watching
Above, Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung as
light stream through celluloid.
potential soul mates in “In the Mood for Love.”
“In the Mood for Love,” from 2000, is the
Left, Takeshi Kaneshiro as a recently scorned
first film in the retrospective, and you could
police officer in “Chungking Express.”
hardly ask for a better introduction. The
story — which stands alone but involves
characters and motifs also featured in them. The photography, by Wong’s regular
“Days of Being Wild” and “2046” — is his collaborators Christopher Doyle and Mark
most accessible. There’s scarcely a wasted Lee Ping-bing, is simply among the most
shot. stunning uses of color in movies, and the
On the same day in 1962 in Hong Kong, a ’60s Hong Kong atmosphere is alive with
secretary named Mrs. Chan (Maggie Che- fluttering curtains, swirling cigarette
ung) and a journalist named Mr. Chow smoke and atmospheric downpours.
(Tony Leung) move into rooms in adjacent In Wong’s oeuvre, this sense of thrilling
apartments. They share these spaces with instability extends even to the narratives
their busybody landlords, who are always a themselves.
hovering presence. Mrs. Chan and Mr. Starting Dec. 4, you can catch the remas-
Chow are both married, but not to each tered version of “Chungking Express,” one
other. Their spouses, while heard, are never of Wong’s breakout films, first shown in
clearly seen. And the acts of kindness be- 1994. It begins as the noirish story of one re-
tween them — Mrs. Chan has her husband cently dumped police officer, He Qiwu
buy Mr. Chow a rice cooker when he’s on (Takeshi Kaneshiro), and continues as the
business in Japan — begin to escalate be- far sunnier story of another, Cop 663 (Tony
yond mere neighborliness. Leung). The two strands are connected by a
Will Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan have an af- takeout restaurant that teases the possibil-
fair? They might — but equally they might ity of new love for each of them.
not. Throughout the film, Wong repeats Again, repetition is key. The movie is fa-
scenes with different variations. Mr. Chan mous (at least among cinephiles) for its
and Mrs. Chow encounter and just miss mantralike uses of pop music, particularly
each other outside a noodle stall. When they the recurring plays of the Mamas and the
discover their spouses are already cheating Papas’ “California Dreamin’ ” and a cover of
with each other — a revelation relayed in the Cranberries’ “Dreams” sung by the ac-
brilliant shorthand (Mr. Chow indicates tress Faye Wong.
that Mrs. Chan has a handbag like his tive, and their relationship, like Wong’s that may or may not become the site of their
In the Mood for Love The characters have elaborate routines.
wife’s; Mrs. Chan notices that he has a tie filmmaking, is based on steadily estab- liaison. (The room happens to be numbered
Rent the remastered version on He Qiwu searches for cans of pineapple
just like her husband’s) — they role-play, lished rituals. (Nat King Cole continually 2046, a year that has political significance
virtual.filmlinc.org; also croons on the soundtrack.) for Hong Kong’s relationship with China. with an expiration date of May 1, because
imagining and reimagining how the affair available in an unrestored his ex, May, loved pineapple, and the date is
Wong’s use of space is crucial to estab- It’s not just the would-be lovers headed to-
began. version on the Criterion also his birthday. Faye Wong’s character,
lishing their bond. In the most touching in- ward an uncertain future.)
Wong is less interested in settled incident Channel or HBO Max. terlude, Mrs. Chan gets stuck overnight in The two characters perform actions si- who works at the restaurant, begins sneak-
than in keeping possibilities open. Nothing Chungking Express Mr. Chow’s room as others in the apartment multaneously but separately, working late ing into Cop 663’s apartment. As in “In the
Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan do is ever defini- Rent the remastered version on play mahjong. (Even though the couple is at night alone. At another point, the camera Mood for Love,” Wong Kar-wai tiptoes
virtual.filmlinc.org beginning innocent, they can’t be seen together, and so tracks across a wall to show them in paral- around the possibility of romance. His char-
Gateway Movies offers ways to begin exploring Dec. 4; also available she cannot leave.) lel. Wong traces their missed connections, acters navigate time, space and an electric
directors, genres and topics in film by unrestored on the Criterion Mr. Chow, who wants to write martial- showing how they are always in each oth- visual palette in search of a fleeting, shared
examining a few streaming movies. Channel. arts serials, eventually rents another room er’s thoughts even as a life together eludes instant.

FILM REVIEWS

accumulate with a slow burn. If The movie expands on an inter-

HAPPIEST SEASON OVERSEAS the classes offer the women a
cathartic space to acknowledge
esting anecdote from Bowie’s
career: his first trip to the United
Rated PG-13 for language and Not rated. In Tagalog, Ilonggo and
the indignities of their situation, States in the early 1970s, a radio
references to sex. Running time: 1 English, with subtitles. Running
hours and 42 minutes. On Hulu. time: 1 hour 30 minutes. On Mubi. the instructors are also quick to and print publicity jaunt with a
. ................................................................... . ................................................................... frame those horrors as obstacles publicist, whose family briefly
their pupils must learn to over- entertained Bowie as a house-
For fans of seasonal festiv- In 2018, the Philippine president
come. guest.
ity, the lesbian romantic Rodrigo Duterte honored over-
Occasional staged soliloquies Here, the publicist, Ron Ober-
comedy “Happiest Season” seas Filipino workers — the wom-
jar with the film’s delicate vérité man, played by Marc Maron, is
is a three-for-one bargain. It’s set en deployed to Dubai, Singapore approach, but Yoon’s eye for the only Yankee believer in Bow-
during Christmas, it’ll release and other countries as domestic composition remains precise ie’s otherworldly talent. He drops,
over Thanksgiving, and in keep- help — as heroes for their hefty throughout. One image has clumsily, several aperçus which,
ing with Halloween, it’s a monster contribution to the country’s haunted me for days. The face of in this movie’s world, prove cru-
movie about the horrors that can economy. But in “Overseas,” an Jing, a young woman dreading cial to Bowie’s future superstar
arise when socializing with observational documentary set in her impending separation from personae. (Inspirational dialogue:
straight people. a Philippine training center for her family, numbly receiving the “A rock star or somebody imper-
In a charismatic and funny such workers, the pupils question results of her psychological evalu- sonating a rock star, what’s the
turn, Kristen Stewart stars as this designation. “How can you be ation: “Your obedience score is difference?”)
Abby, an amiable lesbian who a hero when you just work abroad high, which is good if you work Bowie is portrayed by Johnny
hopes to propose to her girlfriend for your own family’s future?” abroad.” Flynn, a real-life musician who
on a Christmas trip to meet the one asks. DEVIKA GIRISH appears capable. But he resem-
parents. The only catch is that bles Bowie — in James Thurber’s
The exaltation of desperate
Abby’s partner, Harper (Macken-
zie Davis), has lied about coming
survival as a moral virtue
emerges as the central irony of STARDUST phrase — about as much as the
MGM lion resembles Calvin
out to her uptight family, and she Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 49 Coolidge.
Sung-a Yoon’s wrenching film.
wants Abby to keep up the het- minutes. In theaters and available to The most bearable scenes of
The training center serves as a rent or buy on Google Play, Vudu
erosexual charade. Abby acqui- this road-trip-plus-flashbacks
kind of microcosm. With its pas- and other streaming platforms and
esces to Harper’s wishes, despite resemble “The End of the Tour”
tel-colored walls and labeled pay-TV operators. Consult Centers
the protests of her best friend for Disease Control and Prevention refracted through an episode of
John (Daniel Levy). For five days rooms (“bathroom,” “kitchen
guidelines before watching movies in the podcast “WTF With Marc
Abby fields prying questions, area”), it’s the setting not just for theaters.
LACEY TERRELL/SONY PICTURES Maron.” The portrayal of Bowie is
public ex-boyfriends and secret cleaning and caregiving lessons . ...................................................................
Mackenzie Davis, left, and Kristen Stewart in “Happiest Season.” trying to the viewer. His charac-
ex-girlfriends — all for the sake of but also role-play exercises that
This motion picture, in which an ter is either a stumbling, fum-
her woefully abashed sweetheart. prepare the women for the abuses
unusually coifed performer, ac- bling, fawn-eyed space cadet or
facade, there is real disdain here often meted out by their employ-
The movie (streaming on Hulu) movie practically vibrates with its companying himself on acoustic an articulate, erudite conversa-
for straight people’s cheery con- ers. The trainees commit to these
was directed by Clea Duvall, own meta tension. guitar, sings some Jacques Brel tionalist, depending on Range’s
servatism, their preference for harrowing scenarios with a disori-
perhaps best known for her star It’s a kick to watch household songs, purports to be a story whim.
turn in the cult film “But I’m a smiling silence. This is a story enting sense of play — wearing,
names like Stewart and Levy about David Bowie. In a scene depicting a marital
Cheerleader.” Her “Happiest about the self-annihilation queer for instance, a corny, painted-on
(along with Victor Garber and It’s called “Stardust,” and the spat, his wife, Angie Bowie (Jena
Season” looks as glossy as a people face when they mold them- Aubrey Plaza) grapple with ques- mustache while playing the as- director, Gabriel Range, who Malone), yells, “We were sup-
Tinseltown Christmas card; its selves to straight expectations, tions of queer performance and sailant in a sexual assault simula- wrote the movie with Christopher posed to be king and queen!”
coming-out plot has traces of told by a lesbian filmmaker work- straight perception. Discom- tion. Bell, opted to press on, even after (anticipating “Heroes,” a song
decades old “don’t ask, don’t tell” ing in maybe the most stereotypi- forted, thrilled, I felt gayer for With a fly-on-the-wall ap- he was denied permission to use that was years away). You can’t
repression. cally heterosexual genre — the having seen it. proach, the movie allows the Bowie’s songs. They might not make this stuff up.
Yet beneath the holly jolly Christmas romantic comedy. The TEO BUGBEE center’s cruel contradictions to have helped much, however. GLENN KENNY
 THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020 N C7

N O W P L AY I N G I N S E L E C T T H E A T E R S
CMYK
C8 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020
Best Art Books of 2020
The long stretches of pandemic lockdown this year
have afforded the chance to spend as much time
reading about art as looking at it, which may account
for the number of text-intensive recommendations on
our lists. At the same time, with access to live art still
limited, images on the pages of some of these books
will let you create your own private museums at home,
and they’ll be pretty glorious. HOLLAND COTTER
Clockwise from top left:
Félix Vallotton’s “The
Charge” and Matisse’s
“Interior With a Young Girl
(Girl Reading)” from “Félix
Fénéon: The Anarchist and
the Avant-Garde”;
“Metaschema II” (1958),
Hélio Oiticica, from
“Abstract Art: A Global
History”; a drawing by Eva
Hesse; Peter Saul’s
“Master Room (Hide a
Bed)”; the cover of Duro
Olowu’s “Seeing.”
Clockwise from near top
left: Covers of “Latinx Art”
and “Godlis Streets”; Kerry
James Marshall’s “Untitled
(policeman)” (2015), from
“Grief and Grievance: Art
and Mourning in America”;
Tameca Cole’s “All Locked in
a Dark Calm” (2016), from
“Marking Time: Art in the
Age of Mass Incarceration”;
and a spread from “Frog
Pond Splash: Collages by
Ray Johnson With Texts by
William S. Wilson.”
Nxxx,2020-11-27,C,008,Cs-4C,E1
Roberta Smith
‘PETER SAUL: PROFESSIONAL ARTIST
CORRESPONDENCE, 1945-1976’ Edited by
Dan Nadel (Bad Dimension Press)
Epistolary autobiographies are possible
only if one writes letters often and well —
like the maverick painter Peter Saul. This
book contains over 100 letters from his cor-
respondence with his parents and his first
dealer, Allan Frumkin, whom he met in
Paris in 1960. Both sets of letters are equally
“professional,” in that they are smart, heart-
felt reports from the studio about his
progress, his place in the art world and his
desire for success. Frumkin’s commitment
jump-started Saul’s career. Two days after
they met, the artist wrote to his parents
about the dealer: “He said that it’s almost
impossible to disappoint him except by
dropping dead.”
‘MODERN ARTIFACTS’ By Michelle Elligott
and Tod Lippy (Esopus Books)
In 2006 Tod Lippy, an artist and editor, invit-
ed Michelle Elligott, chief of the Museum of
Modern Art’s fabled archives, to write a col- CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: MUSEUM OF MODERN ART; SUCCESSION H. MATISSE/ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK, VIA MUSEUM OF MODERN ART; MUSEU DE ARTE CONTEMPORÂNE
umn on some aspect of its holdings for his DA UNIVERSIDADE DE SÃO PAULO; ALLEN MEMORIAL ART MUSEUM; PETER SAUL/ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK; PRESTEL
just-founded magazine, Esopus. This she
did for each of its 18 issues, until 2018. All are
republished here, with actual-size repro- is essential to familiarity with the achieve- ‘WOMEN, ART, AND SOCIETY’ By Whitney ing read, and never more so than when he’s
ductions of telegrams, photographs, carbon ments of superlative 20th-century artists Chadwick (Thames & Hudson) playing, shock-jock style, with ethical fire.
copies of letters (remember those?), news- who never set foot in the art world. Lavishly Whitney Chadwick’s fact-packed critical
paper clippings and an early V.I.P. guest illustrated, it features three excellent es- survey of art by women was a monument in
‘GRIEF AND GRIEVANCE: ART AND MOURNING IN
book. Foldout facsimiles include Alfred H. says and traces the extraordinary visual AMERICA’ Conceived by Okwui Enwezor
the field of feminist Western art history
Barr Jr.’s sketches for his famous chart of range of the quilts, which can resemble when it first appeared in 1990, and an im- (Phaidon)
modernist art movements. Mixed with found-object collages, consist entirely of portant corrective to centuries of neglect. In Up to his death in 2019, the Nigerian-born
these are new projects by six contemporary glowing velvets or elevate double-knit poly- its newly released and updated reissue, it’s curator Okwui Enwezor was working on a
artists — Mary Ellen Carroll, Rhea Karam, ester and vintage clothing. Tompkins — bigger than ever and still foundational, a bi- group exhibition he described as a response
Mary Lum, Clifford Owens, Michael who also made assemblages — trans- ble. Ms. Chadwick’s protest-scholarship to the wave of “politically orchestrated
Rakowitz and Paul Ramirez Jonas — that il- formed everything she touched with her im- finds a boots-in-the-street counterpart in white grievance” sweeping the United
luminate additional aspects of the archive, provisatory piecing and unerring sense of the work of the Guerrilla Girls, a fluid band States and “the crystallization of Black
revealing their contemporary implications. color, composition and scale. In the still-un- of anonymous, ape-masked female artists grief” it produced. The catalog for the show
folding field of African-American quilt mak- who’ve been visually and verbally calling (scheduled to open in January at the New
‘ABSTRACT ART: A GLOBAL HISTORY’ By Pepe ing, she has no equal. out art-world misogyny since the late 1980s, Museum) is a prescient document of a con-
Karmel (Thames & Hudson) as documented in the visually lively ‘GUER- tinuing condition, and a tribute to Mr. Enwe-
This large coffee table/art history book an- RILLA GIRLS: THE ART OF BEHAVING BADLY’ by zor and the canon of Black artists he helped
nounces its singularity with its cover, a Holland Cotter the Guerrilla Girls (Chronicle Books). to shape.
painting by Hilma af Klint, whose recently
‘SAHEL: ART AND EMPIRES ON THE SHORES OF
rediscovered achievement upended the his- ‘MARKING TIME: ART IN THE AGE OF MASS ‘THE DESTRUCTION OF LOWER MANHATTAN’ By
THE SAHARA’ By Alisa LaGamma (Metro-
tory of modernist abstraction. A herculean INCARCERATION’ By Nicole R. Fleetwood Danny Lyon (Aperture)
effort, it reproduces the efforts of over 200 politan Museum of Art) (Harvard University Press) ‘GODLIS STREETS’ By David Godlis (Reel Art
artists from around the world, usually with Sahel derives from the Arabic word for The United States has the largest popula- Press)
sharp capsule discussions. It provocatively shore or coast. It was the name given by tion of captive human beings on the planet,
traders crossing the oceanic Sahara to the Late in a year that has seen New York City
divides abstraction according to subject some 2.5 million, in a prison-industrial com- simultaneously surviving a pandemic and
matter (the body, the cosmos, landscape, ar- welcoming grasslands that marked the plex that constitutes a punitive universe
desert’s southern rim, terrain that includes an emptying-out come two blast-from-the-
chitecture), increasing its accessibility. The walled off from the larger world. What takes past photography books that take the dis-
book’s inclusions and theories can be debat- modern Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Sene- place behind those walls? Deprivation and
gal. On the evidence of art from the region, tressed city as a subject. Aperture has reis-
ed, but it sets a standard for future efforts. cruelty, but also art, as we learn from this
the culture early travelers encountered sued Danny Lyon’s anguished 1960s pictori-
absorbing book that serves as a companion al record of the demolition of 19th-century
‘FÉLIX FÉNÉON: THE ANARCHIST AND THE must have looked bewildering, rich and piece for a remarkable group show of the
AVANT-GARDE’ By Starr Figura, Isabelle strange. It still does in this Met book, the buildings in the Wall Street area in the name
same title at MoMA PS1 (through April 4). of “urban renewal.” And from Reel Art
Cahn and Philippe Peltier (Museum of Mod- catalog for the most beautiful exhibition of
ern Art) the 2020 season. ‘QUEER COMMUNION: RON ATHEY’ Edited by
Press come pictures of the recession-tat-
tered Manhattan of the 1970s and ’80s by
This unusual exhibition was devoted not to Amelia Jones and Andy Campbell (Intellect)
‘LATINX ART: ARTISTS, MARKETS, AND the vigilant street photographer David
an artist, but to a workaholic polymath: an “Exhibitionists shall inherit the earth,” Godlis. Mr. Lyon’s pictures are mostly of
anarchist. art critic, publisher, editor, col- POLITICS’ By Arlene Dávila (Duke Univer-
wrote the pioneering performance artist buildings, Mr. Godlis’s mostly of people. In
lector and art dealer. Félix Fénéon was an sity Press) and Jesse Helms whipping-boy Ron Athey, both cases, the New York they captured is
important early admirer of the Pointillist The marketing of modern and contempo- who has secured a place in the history gone, just as surely as the one we knew at
Georges Seurat and also of African sculp- rary art from Latin America is one of the books for his physically, psychologically the beginning of 2020.
ture. This catalog examines the facets of his success stories of the globalist decades, giv- and politically extreme body-centered
many activities, one readable essay at a ing a once-niche interest a presence in big work. This substantial book, a companion Holiday Stocking-Stuffer:
time. The result is an up-close portrait of the North American museums. Exactly the op- volume to a career survey set to open at
overlapping cultural spheres of fin de siècle posite is true of Latino art, loosely defined ‘FROG POND SPLASH: COLLAGES BY RAY
Participant Inc in January, includes tributes
Paris, seen from a new and telling perspec- as work made by artists of Latin American by devoted colleagues but is most engaging JOHNSON WITH TEXTS BY WILLIAM S. WILSON’
tive. birth or descent who live primarily in the as a compendium of Mr. Athey’s own writ- Edited by Elizabeth Zuba (Siglio)
United States. That lack of institutional sup- ing, much of it autobiographical. Whether The artist Ray Johnson (1927-95) and the
‘EVA HESSE: OBERLIN DRAWINGS’ Edited by port is dictated by the politics of class, eco- he’s speaking as an ex-Pentecostal, a punk writer William S. Wilson (1932-2016) were
Barry Rosen (Hauser & Wirth) nomics and race, the cultural anthropolo- rocker, a porn magazine columnist, an H.I.V. decades-long friends — soul mates really is
When the Eva Hesse died at 34 in 1970, she gist Arlene Dávila argues in this important positive gay activist or a mentor to genera- the word — and comparably skilled acro-
left behind an influential body of sculpture broadside of a book. tions of queer nonconformists, he’s a brac- bats of images and words. This lovely little
as well as a mass of drawings and works on
paper whose extent is sumptuously re-
vealed by this monumental volume. It re-
produces more than 350 examples, almost
all given to the museum over the years by
the artist’s sister, Helen Hesse Charash.
Ranging from 1952 to 1970, they include art-
school figure drawings, adaptations of older
artists’ styles and sketches for her canon-
ical late works. Altogether, they indicate
how Hesse achieved so much so quickly:
She started young and never let up.
‘DURO OLOWU: SEEING’ Edited by Naomi
Beckwith (Museum of Contemporary Art,
Chicago/DelMonico Books/Prestel)
This impressive little volume is a catalog of
the exhibition “Duro Olowu: Seeing Chi-
cago,” organized for the Museum of Con-
temporary Art by the Nigerian-born fash-
ion designer and self-taught curator, with
nearly everything selected from the city’s
museums and private collections. But it is
equally a handbook to Mr. Olowu’s extraor-
dinary interdisciplinary, multicultural cura-
torial sensibility; this was first revealed in
his gallery-like London boutique, where he
surrounded his designs with all manner of
jewelry, art, craft and vintage photographs,
records and magazines. The works in the
show are similarly diverse, triangulated
among several generations of creators in
the United States, Europe and Africa. The
book reproduces many of them in a deliber-
ately compressed format — without bor-
ders, often seen in close-up and sometimes
overlaid with additional images. They in-
vite the close observation that is Mr.
Olowu’s modus operandi.
‘ROSIE LEE TOMPKINS: A RETROSPECTIVE’ By
Elaine Y. Yau, Lawrence Rinder and Horace
Ballard (University of California, Berkeley
Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive)
The catalog to the first retrospective of the
quilt artist Rosie Lee Tompkins (1936-2006)
CLOCKWISE FROM NEAR TOP LEFT: DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS; REEL ART PRESS; KERRY JAMES MARSHALL AND PHAIDON, TAMECA COLE AND DIE JIM CROW; SIGLIO
CMYK
book pairs well-known collages by Johnson,
the inventor of Mail Art, with little-known
writing on him by Wilson, and it’s a serious
pleasure, just the thing to light up a dark-
early, late-year night.
Jason Farago
‘RAPHAEL 1520-1483’ Edited by Marzia
Faietti and Matteo Lafranconi (Skira)
There’s no 2020 show I regret missing more
than this one in Rome, the largest Raphael
retrospective ever. As the title indicates,
both exhibition and catalog proceed in re-
verse chronological order. From the epic fu-
neral procession after Raphael’s death on
his 37th birthday, we rewind through his in-
delible portraits of the Medici pope Leo X
and the courtier Baldassare Castiglione,
past his grand “School of Athens,” to his
first, hesitant figure studies in Urbino. This
a posteriori saga gives us a refreshed Ra-
phael, whose psychological acuity feels
newly approachable.
‘FLUENCE: THE CONTINUANCE OF YOHJI
YAMAMOTO’ By Takay (Damiani)
Long resident in London and New York, the
Japanese photographer Takay returned
home to shoot this profoundly beautiful
book, documenting three decades of experi-
mental tailoring by the designer Yohji Ya-
mamoto. Takay’s subjects trail Mr. Yama-
moto’s black gowns and suits through un-
distinguished Tokyo streets; the fashion
portraits alternate with images of birds on a
power line or Shinjuku at midnight, shot in
the grainy black-and-white style called are-
bure-boke (“rough, blurred and out-of-fo-
cus”). Posing alongside the professional
models are several titans of Japanese cul-
ture: the actress Rie Miyazawa, fragile and
rumpled in a polka-dot gown from 1999; the
theater director Yukio Ninagawa, pensive
in a thick wool jacket; and even Daido
Moriyama, the godfather of postwar Japa-
nese photography, whose portrait here in a
three-quarter-length overcoat embodies es-
tranged Tokyo cool.
Nxxx,2020-11-27,C,009,Cs-4C,E1
THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: TAKAY AND DAMIANI EDITORE; GÉRARD RONDEAU/MUSÉE DU LOUVRE; MEDU ART ENSEMBLE, VIA ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO; TAKAY AND
‘ARTEMISIA’ Edited by Letizia Treves (Na-
tional Gallery, London/Yale)
“I will show Your Illustrious Lordship what
a woman can do,” Artemisia Gentileschi
told a Sicilian client in 1649 — and indeed,
this Baroque painter put herself on the front
lines of her dramatic tableaux. This cata-
log’s new scholarship reveals how Gen-
tileschi blended self-portraiture and allego-
ry, in paintings of herself as Saint Catherine
of Alexandria, or in her gruesome “Judith
Beheading Holofernes,” painted just after
the notorious trial of the fellow artist who
raped her. There is much more to Gen-
tileschi than the violence she depicted: This
book also reproduces recently discovered
letters to a lover, swearing, “I am yours as
long as I draw breath.”
‘THE PEOPLE SHALL GOVERN! MEDU ART
ENSEMBLE AND THE ANTI-APARTHEID POSTER’
Edited by Antawan I. Byrd and Felicia
Mings (Art Institute of Chicago/Yale)
In the years after the Soweto Uprising of
1976, South Africa’s townships were pa-
pered with bold agitprop whose pared-
down imagery came with a promise: This
country would soon be free. They were the
work of Medu (whose name means “roots”
in Sesotho), a multiracial coalition of more
than 60 artists who fought for the liberation
of South Africa through screen prints and
lithographs, printed in Botswana and
smuggled over the border. This book assem-
bles nearly all the surviving specimens, and
should offer young artists a model of col-
lective authorship and political engage-
ment.
‘THE LOUVRE: THE HISTORY, THE COLLECTIONS,
THE ARCHITECTURE’ By Genevieve Bresc-
Bautier; photographed by Gérard Rondeau
(Rizzoli)
It’s not only Europe’s greatest museum; the
Louvre is also a palace, upon which
France’s kings, revolutionaries, emperors
and presidents have projected visions of
power and nationhood. Visit without the
crowds or the jet lag with this sumptuous
volume, whose 600 pages let you scrutinize
the woodwork of Henri II’s bedroom, the
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: PLUTO PRESS; SHAHIDUL ALAM; PLUTO PRESS; AMANUL HAQUE; PLUTO PRESS; MARK BLOWER AND ICA LONDON
gold of Louis XIV’s Galerie d’Apollon, the
glass of I.M. Pei’s pyramid. The pleasure of
this book comes from narrating the Lou-
vre’s history as residence and museum to-
gether, and photographing the whole col-
lection in situ.
‘VAN EYCK’ Edited by Maximiliaan Martens
et al. (Thames & Hudson)
His crystalline panels of saints and
burghers are so accomplished they can feel
unassailable — and so does this hefty vol-
ume, the catalog of the largest Jan Van Eyck
show ever staged (at the Museum of Fine
Arts in Ghent, Belgium). It concentrates on
the altarpiece he and his brother Hubert
painted in the 1420-30s, whose recent
restoration laid bare the optical innovations
that fueled his unprecedented naturalism.
Nothing can replace seeing these too-per-
fect panels in person, but this book, printed
by the masters at Die Keure press in
Bruges, comes pretty close.
‘GENEALOGIES OF ART, OR THE HISTORY OF ART
AS VISUAL ART’ Edited by Manuel Fontán
del Junco, José Lebrero Stals and María
Zozaya Álvarez (Fundación Juan March)
In 1936, MoMA’s first director, Alfred H.
Barr Jr., drew a famous diagram of modern
art’s development, with arrows leading
from Cézanne to Cubism, thence to de Stijl
and Dada, and triumphantly to abstraction.
This catalog for an ingenious exhibition in
Madrid arranges dozens of modernist
paintings, and African sculpture and Japa-
nese woodblocks, in the exact order Barr
mapped them — revealing the ambitions,
and also limitations, of a teleological art his-
tory. It also presents other efforts, from the
17th century to today, to chart painterly
styles; these family trees and flow charts
turn art history from a science of images to
an image itself.
‘CRITICAL ZONES: THE SCIENCE AND POLITICS
OF LANDING ON EARTH’ Edited by Bruno
Latour and Peter Weibel (MIT/ZKM Center
for Art and Media, Karlsruhe)
Climate change should furnish to art what
Galileo delivered to theology: a definitive
N C9
Clockwise from top left: the
cover of “Fluence”; a detail
of Henri Bellechose’s
“Altarpiece: The
Martyrdom of Saint Denis,”
from “The Louvre: The
History, the Collections, the
Architecture”; “ . . . and the
People Vote for Nelson
Mandela” (1981), from the
Medu Art Ensemble;
models from “Fluence”;
and Artemisia Gentileschi’s
“Esther Before Ahasuerus”
(circa 1628-30), from
“Artemisia,” by Letizia
Treves.
DAMIANI EDITORE; METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
rupture of where we think we stand. The gi-
ant catalog for this German exhibition
unites philosophers, scientists, historians
and artists (from Caspar David Friedrich to
Sarah Sze) to re-anchor art inside a con-
stantly transforming ecosystem. The old
“Blue Marble” won’t cut it; we need new
methods of depicting Earth and its land-
scapes that account for our codependency
with all species. After all, as the editors
write, aesthetics is “what renders one sensi-
tive to the existence of other ways of life.”
Siddhartha Mitter
‘THE BRUTISH MUSEUMS: THE BENIN BRONZES,
COLONIAL VIOLENCE AND CULTURAL
RESTITUTION’ By Dan Hicks (Pluto Press)
The Benin Bronzes, shorthand for thou-
sands of objects looted in the British sack-
ing of Benin City in 1897, epitomize the vio-
lence at the core of anthropological col-
lections and in their continued display. A cu-
rator at the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford
University, Dan Hicks casts an unflinching
eye on his institution’s history and the pre-
varications of museums today that deflect
mounting calls for restitution with offers of
loans, partnerships or updated wall text.
Time’s up, he insists. Restitution will not di-
minish museums; quite the contrary, Hicks
argues, it is key to their renewal. If you care
about museums and the world, read this
book.
‘THE TIDE WILL TURN’ By Shahidul Alam;
edited by Vijay Prashad (Steidl)
The eminent Bangladeshi photographer
Shahidul Alam was jailed for more than
three months in 2018 for denouncing the re-
pression of protesters. Released after a mo-
bilization of local and foreign support, he re-
flects here on his prison experience and a
life of fighting for justice (for laborers, sur-
vivors of gender violence, Indigenous
groups and others) through image and
deed. Some of his finest pictures illustrate
the text, as do his selections of noteworthy
images by other Bangladeshi photogra-
phers. Solidarity and integrity reign, along
with tenacious optimism, expressed in a
heartfelt exchange of letters with the writ-
er-activist Arundhati Roy.
Clockwise from near top
‘GLITCH FEMINISM: A MANIFESTO’ By Legacy left: A brass leopard from
Russell (Verso) “The Brutish Museums”;
“This book is for those who are en route to photo by Sanjida Shaheed
becoming their avatars,” writes Legacy from “The Tide Will
Russell, a dynamic curator at the Studio Turn”; a 16th-century
Museum in Harlem who celebrates the brass horn blower from
“The Brutish Museums”;
glitch, the slippage that makes machinery
photo (bottom) by Amanul
malfunction, as a portal to escape the gen-
Haque from “The Tide
der binary and social control of the body.
Will Turn”; watercolor of
Grounded in theory (from Edouard Glis-
an ancestral shrine by
sant to Donna Haraway) but a fast, percus-
Capt. George LeClerc
sive read, her text is also a guide to the
Egerton (1897); and a
growing field of art practices — notably
Victoria Sin performance
driven by Black and queer creators — that
at “Glitch @ Night.”
dissolve the boundary between “internet
art” and physical performance, activism
and community building. “Glitch refuses,”
she titles one chapter; it also “ghosts,” “en-
crypts,” but “mobilizes,” and most of all —
this is a theory of liberation — “survives.”
‘ROAD THROUGH MIDNIGHT: A CIVIL RIGHTS
MEMORIAL’ By Jessica Ingram (University
of North Carolina Press)
Around 2005, the photographer Jessica In-
gram began visiting sites of racial terror in
the Deep South — some famous, like the
Mississippi town where the young civil
rights workers James Chaney, Andrew
Goodman and Michael Schwerner were
killed in 1964, but others barely known be-
yond their immediate communities. She
went quietly, returned over the years, and
eventually reached out to descendants,
whose interviews, along with news clip-
pings and legal files, accompany her photo-
graphs of these rural locations. Ms. Ingram
is white, and careful and candid about her
implication; she is also Southern, and
highly tuned to how the land — more than
any statue or marker — carries memory.
C10 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020
CRAIG & KARL
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JESSE GREEN
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The Injustices of the Past, Turned Into Art
Theaster Gates uses metals,
clay and tar in a show that
looks back in time.
THEASTER GATES, a social practice installa-
tion artist based in Chicago, is turning the
history of Black labor in America on its
head. Born in 1973 to a father who was a
roofer, Mr. Gates embraced, too, a life of
working with his hands. After graduating
from Iowa State University with a degree in
urban planning and ceramics, he proceeded
to Japan to study pottery. In “Black Vessel,”
his first New York solo show at Gagosian on
West 24th Street, he succeeds in celebrating
the rugged, hard work of artisans today.
In “Civil Tapestries,” his seminal series
from 2011, the artist used decommissioned
fire hoses to link to the actions taken against
protesters during civil rights demonstra-
tions. Here, in a new series, “Tar paintings,”
installed in two galleries, he employs roof-
ing techniques to move beyond conceptu-
alism into the future. He engages the coun-
try’s history — and his own personal one —
in this set of works that unfurl with gritty
magnificent broad strokes. By creating
these pieces with industrial materials such
as torch down and tarred fragments, he is
able to merge the language of abstract art
with the legacies of racial injustice, while si-
multaneously engaging with the history of
painting itself.
Growing up in Chicago, Mr. Gates sang in
a Baptist church, which sparked his interest
in spirituality and music. Before Japan, he
lived in South Africa, receiving a degree in
Religious Studies. These inspirations may
have influenced his creation of a room full of
glazed and fired clay vessels that draw from
Eastern, Western and African instruments.
Walking in this room, with sculptures
placed on low pedestals, feels like being
among living ritual objects: although static,
they weigh heavily with silence. But the dis-
play also suggests a kind of joyful noise: the
most striking vessel — a gourd with spikes
— recalls the Yoruba sekere, an instrument
made from a dried gourd covered in woven
beads, present at the site of celebrations. In
making the pieces here the artist stretches
himself the most. (The gallery offers in its
promotional material an image of him, a
workman in his studio, hacking away at
clay, and turning the shapes within a fire.)
Although smoother than the fired-brick
sculptures in “Brick Reliquaries,” the first
of four galleries in the exhibition, Mr. Gat-
es’s vessels retain the roughness that per-
vades the whole show, so that traveling
through the gallery one is reminded of the
THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020 N C11
Fine Arts
YINKA ELUJOBA ART REVIEW
THEASTER GATES AND GAGOSIAN; ROBERT McKEEVER
THEASTER GATES AND GAGOSIAN
Left, a detail from “Top
Heavy” (2020), by
Theaster Gates. Top right,
the artist’s “Walking
Prayer” (2018). Above,
“Black Slag” (2020).
Below, vessels made by
the artist on display at
Gagosian.
THEASTER GATES AND GAGOSIAN; JACOB HAND
smudges bring to mind the story of a Mary- plan worked well,” the African-American
cracks in the tar paintings.
Black Vessel land slave owner, Col. Edward Lloyd VI, abolitionist Frederick Douglass wrote in his
In the show’s biggest room, Mr. Gates for-
tifies the walls entirely with Roman bricks Through Jan. 23 who, in the mid-1800s, cultivated a large, autobiography, adding, “the slaves became
at Gagosian Gallery, beautiful garden that attracted visitors as fearful of tar as of the lash.”
from remainders blackened with man-
555 West 24th Street, from far and wide. Then its fine fruits began Some 200 years ago, to survive in Amer-
ganese dioxide and dye. The room becomes
another vessel, dark like an ark shut out
Manhattan; to attract other visitors: his hungry slaves. ica, Black people had to escape defilement.
gagosian.com. At first Lloyd whipped those caught steal- To be smeared with tar was literally to die.
from the world. And like the biblical Noah,
ing but he soon realized this was not enough Mr. Gates has embraced this stain, turning
Mr. Gates, too, uses his ark to salvage
to deter them. In the end, he tarred the gar- it into art. America’s past is irredeemable,
things. In “New Egypt,” a wooden architec-
den’s fence, and if a slave was caught with as difficult to wash off as tar. One hopes that
tural piece housing the complete bound set
tar marks it became proof that the person with his gesture, a part of its future might
of Ebony magazines that from 1945 to 2016
had tried or succeeded in stealing. “This still be salvaged.
promoted the realities of the Black Ameri-
can middle-class, he refers to the Black
Power movement with red, black and green
covers.
The room also contains “Walking Pray-
er,” a long historical collection of published
books on the Black experience, with some
cases yet to be filled. Rebound in black and
embossed with words of the artist’s choos-
ing, the shelf becomes a long poem flowing
from row to row. Behind the books, a Leslie
speaker sits in the corner, stuck on a single
chord from a Hammond B3 organ, reminis-
cent of Black church music. In Noah’s at-
tempt to perpetuate life, before locking him-
self up in his ark for months, he stored ani-
mals and paired them to make it possible for
them to reproduce after their release. But
Mr. Gates’s ark seems to be permanently
locked, making space only for additions to
this history but not a release from it.
The fortified room at the Gagosian is not
the first time Mr. Gates has worked in this
way with restoration. In 2015 he trans-
formed an abandoned, crumbling bank
building on Chicago’s South Side — a neigh-
borhood where over 93 percent of the resi-
dents are African-American — into a
gallery and community archive. To repro-
duce something similar, this time in a high-
brow gallery, raises a question about what
happens when social practice objects are
entangled in commerce. This is a delicate
dance, attempting to woo both audiences at
the same time, but one that the artist per-
forms well.
Mr. Gates’s decision to use metals, clay,
tar, and bitumen places him within a rich
history of art in the last half century with
political and social roots. He seems to be
drawing on artists like Alberto Burri and
Donald Sultan, who have pushed the bound-
aries of painting in similar fashion — and
drawing on more than just their forms, but
TED HARTLEY
also meanings. (Burri’s paintings, with
their roughness, tears and incompletion,
were a response to the traumas of war, the
Holocaust, and the Bomb.)
The show is full of earthiness as a result.
There is the sense of a coordinated blemish,
accentuated by smeared surfaces. The
ONWARD
NOVEMBER 20
to DECEMBER 20
KEYES ART
at the American Hotel
45 Main St
Sag Habor, NY
+1-631-808-3588
inquiries: castcel@yahoo.com
THEASTER GATES AND GAGOSIAN; ROBERT McKEEVER
 C12
An installation view of Sam Gilliam’s “Existed Existing,” his inaugural show at Pace Gallery, the first New York gallery to represent Mr. Gilliam. The show extends across two buildings and consists of three distinct bodies of work.
It’s Thanksgiving, and there’s a
pandemic. Check online before
visiting a gallery this weekend.
Many spaces have shortened
their hours or are closed for the
holiday.
CECILY BROWN
Through Dec. 12. Paula Cooper
Gallery, 524 West 26th Street,
Manhattan; (212) 255-1155;
paulacoopergallery.com.
. ...................................................................
I’m only a middling fan of Cecily
Brown’s paintings, but she has
stuck to her stylistic guns and
respect is due. Her current show
at Paula Cooper is one of her best
— although my favorite remains
an exhibition of small oil studies
at Maccarone in 2015. Those
works felt complete, but com-
pleteness is not necessarily a
priority for Ms. Brown.
A deliberate confusion reigns in
her larger, more ambitious can-
vases. Blizzards of brushwork
usually in shades of pink fill her
surfaces, through which recogniz-
able motifs and fragments are
intermittently visible: animal
forms, nude models, the windows
of a studio. This shifting ebb and
flow is contrarian: It refuses the
ideals of finish and skill, wreaking
havoc with the gaze, especially
the male one. The marks can
bring to mind the female nudes of
old master painting, blown to
smithereens. They also have the
allover quality of Abstract Ex-
pressionism, but its big, clear
gestures are mocked by Ms.
Brown’s many small brush
strokes.
A frequent theme here is the
grand still life of the Dutch Gold-
en Age. Groaning boards covered
in red recur, often with a pair of
cat eyes glowering in the black
beneath them, so do suggestions
of strings of pearls and an occa-
sional wine goblet. “The Splendid
Table” (2019-2020) — a hulking
triptych — can evoke a blood-
soaked battle scene from a dis-
tance; up close blurry forms of
freshly killed game emerge.
The best paintings here take
distinct approaches to motif,
suggestion and color: the ostensi-
ble still life of “Red and Dead,” the
apparent woodland fantasy of
“The Demon Menagerie” and the
de Kooning-esque centrifuge of
“When this kiss is over.” Their
differences will be exciting to
follow.
ROBERTA SMITH
SAM GILLIAM
Through Dec. 19. Pace Gallery, 510
and 540 West 25th Street, Manhat-
tan; 212-421-3292; pacegallery.com.
. ...................................................................
Sam Gilliam’s been making paint-
ings for more than 60 years, most
famously the huge, color-dappled
canvases that he hangs, like
heavenly curtains, unstretched.
So it’s only natural that “Existed
Existing,” his inaugural show at
N THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020
Galleries
SAM GILLIAM AND PACE GALLERY
nary Street,” for example, unex- field suggesting a spooky digital
pected traces of orange paint
interweave with ocher brush
TISHAN HSU screen. “Vertical Ooze” (1987) is a
powder-blue object that straddles
strokes to portray the branches of Through Jan. 25. Sculpture Center, the divide between biomorphic
44-19 Purves Street, Queens; 718-361-
a faraway sapling peeking be- sculpture and a tiled industrial
1750; sculpture-center.org.
tween a palm tree’s half-desic- . ................................................................... space or a science-fiction film set.
cated fronds. His wall reliefs recall elements
As galleries have started “Consciousness is constantly of Minimalism and ’80s Neo-Geo,
mounting a sustained attempt to mutating, moving from one state like Ashley Bickerton’s sculp-
give Black figurative painters the
recognition they deserve, one
to another, and possibly back
again,” the New York-based artist
tures. (Mr. Bickerton extended
the concerns of Pop Art by includ-
Tishan Hsu wrote in a catalog
worries that institutional zeal ing product logos and references.)
translates into something more accompanying his exhibition at Mr. Hsu’s work is subtler, with
detrimental behind the scenes: the Pat Hearn Gallery in 1986. flickers of surrealism, psychedelia
unfair pressure placed on paint- How to represent these mutations and cybernetics. But mostly they
ers to stay the course, their own in artistic form? Mr. Hsu did that feel fresh and prescient, predict-
desires be damned. So it’s heart- with strange, gorgeous precision ing perfectly how consciousness
ening to see Mr. Appah’s paint- in about 30 sculptures, wall re- has mutated even further in a
ings wander widely. At one mo- liefs, drawings and other works digital and biotech age.
ment, he seems to be sampling made from 1980 to 2005 that you MARTHA SCHWENDENER
the limbless torsos and barren can see in “Liquid Circuit” at the
horizon lines of European surre- Sculpture Center, the artist’s first
PURVIS YOUNG
alist painters; at the next, he’s museum survey exhibition.
delving into childhood recollec- He trained as an architect at
tions. Memory has been a promi- M.I.T. but was also interested in Through Dec. 6. James Fuentes, 55
nent theme in Mr. Appah’s work artificial intelligence. The build- Delancey Street, Manhattan; 212-
CECILY BROWN AND PAULA COOPER GALLERY for a while now. That focus serves er’s and technologist’s approach 577-1201. Online through Dec. 1;
jamesfuentes.online.
“When this kiss is over” (2020), by Cecily Brown at Paula Cooper Gallery. him especially well in 2020, with is apparent in “Liquid Circuit” . ...................................................................
so much of the present world off (1987), an electric yellow wall
limits. relief with industrial handles that The self-taught artist Purvis
Pace, the first New York gallery There are nightclub revelers has waving lines painted in a dark Young was nothing if not prolific.
DAWN CHAN
ever to represent him, should mid-cigarette. Homebodies lolling His output includes hundreds of
extend across two buildings. It in underwear. But there are paintings that he hung outdoors
also includes three distinct bodies stranger sights, too: otherworldly in Good Bread Alley in Miami’s
of work — a group of dapper vistas that have the larger-than- Overtown neighborhood in the
wooden sculptures, a room full of life feel of formative memories early 1970s; the roughly 3,000
glowing watercolor monochromes and the potent symbolism of pieces he sold to the collectors
on giant squares of Japanese dreams. Don and Mera Rubell in 1999, the
paper, and nearly a dozen enor- Unlike their Black counterparts entire contents of his studio at the
mous acrylics of varicolored in Mr. Appah’s more realistic time; and the 1,884 artworks left
snow, a few of which he’s named portraits, these dreamscapes’ behind when he died in 2010.
after Black public figures he inhabitants are mostly greenish- So James Fuentes’s exhibition,
admires like the former congress- blue, like the verdigris of weath- featuring 15 paintings online and
man and civil rights pioneer John ered bronze. In this fictional eight in the gallery, is a drop in
Lewis, who died this summer, and cosmos, skin color doesn’t range the bucket, and not an especially
the poet Nikki Giovanni. between black and white. Rather, strong conceptual one. But for
The acrylics are key, but I’d bodies turn from black to blue, as those who haven’t seen much of
recommend starting with “Five people move from the real world Mr. Young’s art, it’s a welcome
Pyramids,” a single piece com- into mythic realms. Throughout, and gratifying introduction.
prising five discrete wooden the artist’s loose painting style The gallery presentation better
forms on rolling casters. Mr. leads to nice moments of surprise. PURVIS YOUNG AND JAMES FUENTES displays the textures of the scav-
Gilliam builds up these pyramids In “Teen Smoking on an Imagi- Purvis Young’s “Untitled (MM 11315)” (1973-74), at James Fuentes. enged objects on which he
with layers of plywood, divided by painted. In “untitled (MM 11324),”
thin aluminum pinstripes, and from 1974, strips of wood form a
stains their faces deep purple, frame decorated with wispy bod-
red, or blue. The execution is so ies that surrounds an image of a
sharp that the pieces strike the saintly, crying Black man. Recur-
eye as flat, more like 2-D render- ring throughout the show, this
ings than 3-D objects. But it’s a theme of the individual in relation
flatness more expansive than any to the group is fitting for someone
notion you may have walked in who worked alone intensely, yet
with, one that makes the world was a notable public part of his
seem much larger than you real- disenfranchised community,
ized. which he brought to wider atten-
Once you’ve seen that, you’ll tion through his art.
understand what the acrylics do The unjust dynamics of Ameri-
to color, in every sense of the can society were never far from
term. Their busy, buzzy surfaces, the mind of Mr. Young, who did a
all texture and noise, blow apart brief stint in prison as a teenager,
any fixed ideas you started with, for breaking and entering, and
leaving you gaping at the sheer took inspiration from the protests
scale of what you’re looking at. and Black Arts Movement of the
WILL HEINRICH ’60s. In the most haunting piece
here, “untitled (MM 11315),”
1973-4, eyes representing the
GIDEON APPAH
establishment surround a prone,
Black, bleeding body and a crowd
Through Dec. 5. Mitchell-Innes & of onlookers behind bars.
Nash, 534 West 26th Street, Manhat- What comes through equally is
tan; 212-744-7400; miandn.com. the spiritual side of Mr. Young’s
. ...................................................................
practice. Haloed figures, funeral
Many of the painted scenes in processions, angels and horses
“Blue Boys Blues,” the Ghanaian abound, creating the feeling that
artist Gideon Appah’s first solo judgment is looming — but with
show here, are inspired by his life GIDEON APPAH AND MITCHELL-INNES & NASH it, the possibility of redemption.
in Accra, the country’s capital. Gideon Appah’s “Another Place” (2020), in the Mitchell-Innes & Nash show “Blue Boys Blues.” JILLIAN STEINHAUER

The San Francisco Ballet’s “Nutcracker.” This year the company is offering what it is calling a “virtual Nutcracker experience” that includes a tour of the War Memorial Opera House, a video class and, of course, dancing.
Stay at Home
And Still Visit
These Shows
You can relax inside WE ALL HAVE our holiday traditions. Maybe
while checking out yours is seeing the Rockettes at Radio City
Music Hall and gazing at the Rockefeller
many seasonal Center tree, all done up in lights. Well, this
specials, now online. year “The Christmas Spectacular” is can-
celed, and that Norway spruce is just sorry
looking (although organizers swear the tree
will be beautiful by the time it’s lighted on
Wednesday).
Still, many rituals endure this season, re-
purposed for online viewing. Here is a selec-
tion — some beloved mainstays, a few
cheeky upstarts — to indulge in watching
from home, as chosen by critics for The
Times.
Dance
San Francisco
Ballet’s ‘Nutcracker’
The company that presented America’s
first full-length “Nutcracker,” in 1944, is now
offering what it calls the first “virtual Nut-
cracker experience.” Don’t expect cutting-
edge VR. It’s a point-and-click tour of San
Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House
with extras embedded: a video class about
pantomime, a printout activity book. Click
on the stage curtain, and you get a 2007 re-
cording of Helgi Tomasson’s 2004 produc-
tion of the ballet. Set in San Francisco in
1915, this version is handsome, tasteful and
visually rich, with a second act stuffed with
unusual treats. (Available on demand
through Dec. 31, $49; sfballet.org.)
BRIAN SEIBERT
Classical Music
‘Messiah’
One of the saddest blows to the musical sea-
son has been the loss of the explosion of ver-
sions of Handel’s “Messiah” that usually fill
New York’s churches and concert halls in
December. One of the grandest is put on by
the conductor Kent Tritle and the Oratorio
Society of New York, which is scaling down
its large choir to a pandemic-size comple-
ment of 24, alongside an orchestra of 12, for
this selection of excerpts filmed in the barn
of Mr. Tritle’s home in upstate New York.
The soloists are the soprano Susanna
Phillips, the contralto Heather Petrie, the
tenor Joshua Blue and the baritone Sidney
Outlaw. And a treat: For the climactic “Hal-
lelujah” chorus, other Society members will
join in remotely. (Livestream on Dec. 21 at 8
p.m., on demand through Jan. 10; at osny
.org.)
ZACHARY WOOLFE
Theater
‘A Christmas Carol’
When a story is about a miser who must
learn to share his wealth, its stage adapta-
tion can hardly be stingy. Happily, the Old
Vic production of “A Christmas Carol” being
livestreamed from London this season, af-
ter a run on Broadway last year, takes the
theme of abundance to heart, filling the the-
ater with lanterns, bells, snow and food —
watch out for the parachuting brussels
sprouts! Nor does Jack Thorne’s script, di-
rected by Matthew Warchus, stint on the
eerie elements, which makes Andrew Lin-
coln, after eight years as Rick Grimes on
“The Walking Dead,” a wonderfully apt
choice for Scrooge. (Dec. 12-24, from about
$27; oldvictheatre.com.)
JESSE GREEN
THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020
MGM
Top, a scene from the 1993 movie “The
Nightmare Before Christmas.” Above, Judy
Garland in “Meet Me in St. Louis,” from 1944.
Right, Andrew Lincoln as Scrooge in the Old
Vic production of “A Christmas Carol,” which is
being livestreamed from London this season.
Movies
‘The Nightmare Before
Christmas’
“Life’s no fun without a good scare,” the
ghoulish citizens of Halloween Town sing at
the top of Tim Burton and Henry Selick’s
“The Nightmare Before Christmas.” How
right they are, for sugar is better with a
healthy amount of spice. In this stop-motion
classic from 1993, the skeletal dandy Jack
Skellington tries to make Halloween Town
embrace Christmas cheer, with delightfully
misguided results. The aesthetic universe is
so rich that every viewing unearths new de-
tails, and Danny Elfman’s inspired score
lands somewhere between goth vaudeville
and Gilbert and Sullivan. (Disney+.)
ELISABETH VINCENTELLI
Kids
‘A Christmas Carol, Oy!
Hanukkah, Merry Kwanzaa
and Happy Ramadan’
You can’t get much more ecumenical — or
cheerfully irreverent — than this produc-
tion from the Czechoslovak-American Mari-
onette Theater. Expect to encounter car-
oling in Swahili, Fezziwig singing “The
Dreidel Song” and marionettes represent-
ing the Rockettes high-kicking in Eastern
European costumes. Vit Horejs, the
troupe’s founder, does it all with a cast of
some three dozen wooden puppets, some of
them antique. (Livestream Dec. 19-Jan. 3;
czechmarionettes.org.)
LAUREL GRAEBER
TOUCHSTONE PICTURES
HELEN MAYBANKS
Theater
‘Taylor Mac’s Holiday
Sauce . . . Pandemic!’
Three years ago, the convention-busting,
extravagantly costumed writer-performer
Taylor Mac premiered a concert that reju-
venated the holiday-special genre with a
punkish cabaret sensibility. Now retooled
for the virtual era, the show is a perfect
pick-me-up for those with an intolerance to
the season’s usual high-fructose content
(but perhaps not for their young children).
Mac will host the live event, introducing
segments he recently recorded at the Park
Avenue Armory with a socially distant
band, as well as contributions from various
guests and a new animated video. (Live-
stream the show on Dec. 12 at 2, 7 and 10
p.m.; on demand through Jan. 2;
taylormacholidaysauce.com.)
ELISABETH VINCENTELLI
Dance
‘George Balanchine’s
The Nutcracker’
This is the gold standard “Nutcracker,” per-
formed by New York City Ballet every year
since George Balanchine premiered his ver-
sion in 1954. The detailed party scene, the
tree that grows gigantic, the waltzing
snowflakes, the children and adults bring-
ing out all the fantasy in Tchaikovsky’s mu-
sic: this year, streaming is the only way to
see all that. The recording, filmed last year
but never before broadcast, features Megan
Fairchild as Dewdrop and Maria Kowroski
as the Sugar Plum Fairy. (Available on de-
mand Dec. 11-Jan. 3, $25; marquee.tv.)
BRIAN SEIBERT
N C13
ERIK TOMASSON
Classical Music
Jessye Norman’s
‘Christmastide’
The encompassing warmth of Jessye Nor-
man’s voice made it ideal for Christmas mu-
sic, to which she brought nobility but also
tenderness. There are a few of her holiday
concerts on YouTube, but try this one, re-
corded in 1988 at Ely Cathedral, outside
Cambridge, England. It’s not a time for rar-
ities but rather for favorites like “Hark! The
Herald Angels Sing,” “O Holy Night” and
“Joy to the World,” all done in epic style, as
well as “This Christmastide,” written for
Norman and tailored perfectly to her rich,
capacious soprano. (YouTube)
ZACHARY WOOLFE
Movies
‘Meet Me in St. Louis’
Released in 1944, Vincente Minnelli’s won-
derful musical follows the Smith family over
nearly a year. The holiday part is relatively
short, but Judy Garland’s achingly tender
rendition of “Have Yourself a Merry Little
Christmas” is the film’s emotional high
point. The scene grounds Minnelli’s por-
trayal of family, home and roots; while this
may sound like fusty conservatism, “Meet
Me in St. Louis,” resplendent in velvety
Technicolor, is a beautiful humane work
about belonging. (Rent or buy on all major
platforms.)
ELISABETH VINCENTELLI
Kids
Living History @ Home
Families can journey into the past virtually
with this free series from the New-York His-
torical Society. In Let’s Learn About Hanuk-
kah, on Wednesday, children will visit a cel-
ebration circa 1916 in which a Tenement
Museum historical interpreter portrays a
Sephardic Jewish teenager. Let’s Bake for
Christmas, on Dec. 9, which focuses on 18th-
century America, will include creating an
almond cake from scratch. And young histo-
rians can delve into African-American tra-
dition during Let’s Celebrate Kwanzaa, on
Dec. 16, which will explore that holiday’s
seven principles. (All programs stream at 1
p.m. on Zoom; nyhistory.org.)
LAUREL GRAEBER
Dance
‘The Hip Hop Nutcracker’
This “Nutcracker” uses Tchaikovsky’s
score, remixed in spots, but transfers the
story to a diverse and contemporary New
York with clever hip-hop choreography by
Jennifer Weber. A young woman finds love
with a guy who sells nuts, and through a lit-
tle time travel, they rekindle the dance-
sparked romance of her bickering parents.
In characterization and humor, the show re-
calls family sitcoms of the 1980s, and a
guest appearance by Kurtis Blow adds to
the old-school nostalgia. (Available for live-
stream and on demand through Jan. 3, $25;
stellartickets.com.)
BRIAN SEIBERT
Movies
‘Die Hard’
This blockbuster came out in the summer of
1988, but it takes place on Christmas Eve,
and that’s enough to have turned a popular
action movie into a Yule staple. There are
few better ways to spend a holiday after-
noon than sprawled on the couch, watching
Bruce Willis at the peak of his nonchalant
resourcefulness sneak around a high-rise
and battle a gang of ruthless thieves led by
the unctuous Alan Rickman. Willis’s gritty
cop gets repeatedly knocked down, but he
gets up again, dispatches one bad guy after
another, and wins back his estranged wife
— how is that not Christmas spirit? (HBO)
ELISABETH VINCENTELLI
C14 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020

10 Classical Concerts to Stream Next Month

The highlights include an
eclectic trumpeter and a work
inspired by Josephine Baker.
WITH MANY opera houses and concert halls
still closed by the pandemic for months to
come, the musical action has moved online.
That’s been the case since March, of course
— but as winter arrives and outdoor presen-
tations grow more difficult, artists and insti-
tutions are creating digital presentations
with more care and intention. There is a
flood of offerings out there. Critics for The
Times suggest 10 highlights of what’s com-
ing in December. (Times listed are Eastern
Standard Time.)
JACK Quartet and Conrad Tao
Thursday at 8 p.m.; loc.gov and on Face-
book and YouTube; available indefinitely.
In something of a dream combination, the
JACK Quartet will be joined by the pianist
Conrad Tao for this Library of Congress
virtual concert. On offer are an arrange-
ment of Rodericus’s 14th-century Latin
ballade “Angelorum Psalat”; Ruth Craw-
ford Seeger’s modernist “String Quartet
1931”; and two Elliott Carter studies in
contrasts, the Third String Quartet (1971)
and the Duo for Violin and Piano (1974).
Add to all that a pair of works by Tyshawn
Sorey: the glacial, mesmerizing “Every-
thing Changes, Nothing Changes” (2018)
and “For Conrad Tao” (2020) — which,
despite its title, is written not for piano but
for violin, another instrument Mr. Tao
grew up playing.
JOSHUA BARONE
Philharmonia Orchestra
Dec. 4 at 2:30 p.m.; youtube.com
/philharmonialondon; available
indefinitely.
If there’s a silver lining in the saturated
programming of a composer’s anniversary
year, it’s the opportunity to hear more
than just the greatest hits. That’s the case
with the Philharmonia Orchestra of Lon-
don, which is celebrating Beethoven’s
250th birthday with a broadcast of “The
Creatures of Prometheus,” an 1801 ballet
score more often heard in fragments than
its entirety. Here is the whole thing, con-
ducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen and featur-
ing a new script by Gerard McBurney,
animation by Hillary Leben and narration
by Stephen Fry.
JOSHUA BARONE
American Symphony Orchestra
Dec. 9 at 5 p.m.; americansymphony.org;
available until Feb. 28.
The pianist and composer Marcus Roberts
was scheduled to appear this past March
at Carnegie Hall with this adventurous
orchestra and its conductor, Leon Bot-
stein, in arrangements of Duke Ellington,
including a suite from “Black, Brown and
Beige.” Having had some months to re-
group, those same forces are releasing a
filmed concert with different repertoire:
three new works by Mr. Roberts himself.
Particularly since “Black, Brown and
Beige” was so well captured on a Jazz at
Lincoln Center release earlier this year,
the chance to hear Mr. Roberts’s orches-
MICHELLE V. AGINS/THE NEW YORK TIMES
tral language, not yet represented on
recordings, is a welcome development.
SETH COLTER WALLS
Aristo Sham
Dec. 9 at 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 12 at 2 p.m.;
youtube.com/youngconcertartists; avail-
able indefinitely.
Pandemic travel restrictions are prevent-
ing this young pianist from coming to New
York for a scheduled livestream recital
presented by Young Concert Artists. In-
stead Mr. Sham, whose playing combines
clarity, elegance and abundant technique,
will be presented in a two-part recital
filmed in Sweden. For the Dec. 9 program,
he plays Book 2 of Debussy’s “Images,”
the premiere of Saad Haddad’s “Vi-
gnettes” and Brahms’s early, epic Piano
Sonata No. 3. On Dec. 12 he offers Mo-
zart’s Sonata in D (K. 576) and Carl Vine’s
Sonata No. 1 (1990).
ANTHONY TOMMASINI
Dover Quartet
Dec. 10 at 10 p.m.; calperformances.org;
available until March 10.
The new ensemble in residence at the
Curtis Institute of Music, this group takes
on a meaty program here that forms a
short history of the styles of Mitteleuropa:
Haydn’s fiery, eloquent “Fifths” Quartet
(Op. 76, No. 2); Ligeti’s uneasy Quartet
No. 1, “Métamorphoses Nocturnes,” which
unfolds in a series of brief, brutally con-
trasting episodes around a tender central
Andante; and Dvorak’s rich and rapturous
Quartet in G (Op. 106).
ZACHARY WOOLFE
Nate Wooley
Dec. 11 at 8 p.m.; roulette.org; available
indefinitely.
This trumpeter and composer has become
known in multiple guises: as a performer
of his own enigmatic works; with a variety
of ensembles; and even as a guest with
the New York Philharmonic. He is also a
convivial ringleader — as his commission-
ing series “For/With” has demonstrated in
recent years at the Brooklyn venue
Roulette. He is both overseeing and per-
forming in this new program, “Mutual Aid
Music,” featuring players drawn from the
contemporary classical and jazz scenes for
a collaboration somewhere between nota-
tion and improvisation.
SETH COLTER WALLS
‘Perle Noire’
Dec. 11 at 8 p.m.; dacamera.com; available
until Dec. 18.
In 2019, I was deeply impressed by a per-
formance at the Metropolitan Museum of
Art of this oratorio by the composer and
multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey,
inspired by the life and songs of Josephine
Baker, with text by Claudia Rankine. The
piece — conceived with the soprano Julia
Bullock — ruminates over Baker’s legacy,
turning what is usually thought of as
upbeat repertory into a mournful, sensual
ritual. Mr. Sorey and Ms. Bullock are
joined by members of the International
Contemporary Ensemble for this
streamed version presented by Da Cam-
era of Houston.
SETH COLTER WALLS
JEENAH MOON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Tenet
Dec. 12 at 5 p.m.; caramoor.org; available
until Dec. 13 at 7 p.m.
Vocal music has been the genre perhaps
most sadly affected by the pandemic —
group singing, especially, since it poses a
perfect storm of risks. So it is good for the
soul to see even glimmers of a revival, as
in this superb early-music group’s holiday
program at Caramoor, featuring five sing-
ers — including Jolle Greenleaf, Tenet’s
artistic director — and lute. The music is
mostly in the Anglican tradition, from folk
origins to contemporary sounds, with
some quirky touches.
ZACHARY WOOLFE
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Dec. 13 at 5 p.m.; chambermusicsociety-
.org; available through Jan. 1.
For many music lovers in New York, the
NAN MELVILLE
Society’s annual performance of Bach’s six
“Brandenburg” Concertos, performed as a
Music soon available for
single program, has become a favorite
streaming, clockwise from
holiday season ritual. Though there will be
top: the soprano Julia
no live version this year, the organization
Bullock performing “Perle
has collected footage of performances of
Noire,” a reflection on
the works from six recent seasons and
Josephine Baker; the
grouped them into a single online pro-
early-music vocal ensemble
gram, featuring 47 artists in all.
Tenet; and “Mutual Aid
Music,” with the trumpeter
ANTHONY TOMMASINI
and composer Nate Wooley.
Taka Kigawa
Dec. 18 at 5 p.m.; facebook.com
/japanconsny/; available indefinitely.
When he plays in New York, this search-
ing pianist usually programs modernists
like Boulez, Messiaen or Ligeti. But his
sensitivity to texture and resonance is
sure to illuminate the more traditional
works on offer here: a prelude, ballade
and polonaise by Chopin, Debussy’s “Es-
tampes” suite and Beethoven’s “Moon-
light” Sonata. Toru Takemitsu’s “Rain Tree
Sketch II” rounds out the concert.
ZACHARY WOOLFE

LINDSAY ZOLADZ ALBUM REVIEW

Megan Thee Stallion

tall, as she reminds us in several of her
songs — but the radical power of her music
is in the contagious confidence it inspires in
all sorts of bodies. “People say I’m full of

Contains Multitudes
The Houston rapper provides
glimpses of her various sides
on her debut studio album.
ON “SHOTS FIRED,” the song that kicks opens
Megan Thee Stallion’s new album “Good
News,” the 25-year-old Texas M.C. un-
leashes such a sustained and eviscerating
torrent of ridicule toward a man who she
says assaulted her that it (almost) feels like
an act of violence.
In under three minutes, locked into a re-
lentless flow, Megan makes a vivid mockery
of this unnamed man (presumed to be Tory
Lanez, the rapper charged with shooting
her in the feet): his height (“shrimp, stay in
your place”), the caliber of his gun, his inter-
net presence, his bank account and, per-
haps most hilariously, his birthday (“I just
thought it was another Thursday.”) Occa-
sionally, deep in the mix, Megan’s gleeful
cackles ring out.
Like all of Megan’s music, “Shots Fired”
is a provocative invitation to consider what
it means when a woman wields sexual, eco-
nomic and artistic power in a world de-
signed and defined by men. Listening to it
for the first time, an oft-repeated quote
sometimes attributed to Margaret Atwood
came to mind: “Men are afraid women will
laugh at them. Women are afraid men will
kill them.” Such is her power: For three
fleeting minutes, Megan very nearly makes
these possibilities seem equally threat-
ening.
Produced by Buddah Bless, “Shots Fired”
borrows, and speeds up, the beat from
“Who Shot Ya?,” the Notorious B.I.G.’s fa-
mous 1995 Tupac diss track. And though
none of the following 16 songs match the
specificity of its fury, it is, aesthetically, a fit-
ting scene-setter: “Good News,” like the
strong run of mixtapes that preceded it,
draws on the precision-cut bars and brag-
gadocious charisma of the ’90s gangsta rap
that Megan grew up on, updating it for the
era of read receipts and strategically de-
clined FaceTime calls.
Though it’s being billed as her debut stu-
dio album, “Good News” is Megan’s second
full-length (last summer’s “Fever” was con-
300 ENTERTAINMENT
Megan Thee Stallion
“Good News”
(1501 Certified/300 Entertainment)
sidered her “debut mixtape”) and also her
second release of 2020. In early March, she
put out the brisk 24-minute “Suga,” an EP
largely focused on Megan’s lyrical dexterity
and some of the challenges she had faced
since rising to prominence, like loneliness,
fake friends and the tragic sudden death of
her mother.
The EP’s highlight was “Savage,” a sump-
tuously confident song of self. It produced
one of the pandemic’s first viral TikTok
dance challenges and, even more impres-
sively, a remix that fellow Houstonian Bey-
oncé lovingly embroidered with sultry
backing vocals and some of her sharpest
rapping to date. (This week it picked up
three of Megan’s four Grammy nomina-
tions.)
Rather rapidly, Megan has achieved a
level of pop stardom without quite going
pop: Her biggest successes, like “Savage”
and the Cardi B duet “WAP,” have eschewed
formulaic hooks and instead doubled down
on hard rapping and gleeful, uncompromis-
ing raunch. Save for the glaring misfire
“Don’t Rock Me to Sleep” — a sleek, synth-
kissed tune that finds Megan rapping in a
sing-songy voice, sounding bored with the
midtempo beat — “Good News” wisely
Megan Thee Stallion
performing at the American
Music Awards on Sunday.
Her new album, “Good
News,” follows an EP
released in March that
contained her hit “Savage.”
ABC/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, VIA GETTY IMAGES
avoids attempts to sand down the edges of
her sound.
Just listening to Megan find her footing
atop a kinetic beat on “Good News,” like the
one Lil Ju provides on “Body,” gives off a
secondhand thrill. Her exhortations are of-
ten ecstatic: “If you in love with your body,
bitch, take off your clothes!” she hollers on
“Work That,” a libidinous bop produced by
her idol-turned-frequent-collaborator Juicy
J. (The Southern rap of Juicy’s Three 6 Ma-
fia and early Cash Money Records is her
other prominent ’90s touchstone.)
In her songs, videos and expert Insta-
gram presence, Megan preaches to her fel-
low “hotties” a doctrine of self-love through
body positivity and unabashed celebrations
of female sexual pleasure. Megan may cut a
singular figure — standing 5 feet 10 inches
myself,” she raps on the lively Young Thug
collaboration “Don’t Stop.” “You’re right,
and I ain’t even made it to dessert.”
If anything, “Good News” could have
used more of that Megan-featuring-Megan
singularity. It sometimes gets stymied by
high-profile but ultimately unnecessary
features, a recurring major-label-debut
cliché. Guests like SZA, on the winning
throwback “Freaky Girls,” or the Los Ange-
les duo City Girls on the rowdy “Do It on the
Tip” fare better, though, than most of their
male counterparts. On the lopsided “Mov-
ie,” Lil Durk’s sensual imagination sounds
vague and uninspired next to Megan’s. The
dancehall star Popcaan similarly breaks the
show-don’t-tell rule during an awkward
hook that finds him crooning, quite literally,
“Sexuallll innnnnntercourse.”
One of the album’s most compelling mo-
ments comes on “Circles,” when Megan
briefly lets down the armor of her impene-
trable Hot Girl persona: “Bullet wounds,
backstabs, mama died, still sad,” she raps.
“My clothes fit tight, but my heart need a
seamstress.”
That’s a double-take moment, though it’s
delivered almost as an aside. A few other
striking lines pass too quickly, when Megan
flashes glimpses of a personhood much
more richly dimensional than the supernat-
urally empowered avatar that dominates
the rest of “Good News.”
In “Shots Fired,” Megan offers an allusion
to the Breonna Taylor case, deftly connect-
ing her own experience of gun violence to
the larger systemic injustices faced by
Black women (and recalling a forceful op-ed
she recently wrote for The New York
Times). In a much lighter moment, Megan
commands her man to please her while
she’s busy watching anime and makes a ref-
erence to the manga “Naruto,” casually
flexing her low-key geek bona fides.
Megan Thee Stallion clearly contains
multitudes upon multitudes, and toggled
between so many this year: the candid ex-
humation of her personal trauma on social
media, the courage to make political state-
ments about race and gender on “Saturday
Night Live,” the bold and carefree erotic
bliss she embodies in her music videos.
They haven’t all found effective ways into
her music — yet. “Good News” proves
Megan’s prodigious talent, but it also sug-
gests that, with a bit more digging, this gem
could emit an even more prismatic shine.
 THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020 N C15

Books

One title traces our

history of medicine back
to the Greeks.

Seven New Titles

cal issue as federal prosecutors raced to re-
move him from office, lest he take over as
president when Nixon resigned. The book,
which builds on previous reporting, traces
the efforts to cover up Agnew’s crimes and
‘AN INVENTORY OF LOSSES’
By Judith Schalansky, translated by Jackie Smith
(New Directions, Dec. 8)
Schalansky opens with a preamble detail-
ing things that were lost while she was writ-
‘SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO LIE: THE LIFE AND
TIMES OF LOUISE FITZHUGH, RENEGADE AUTHOR
OF “HARRIET THE SPY”’
By Leslie Brody (Seal Press, Tuesday)
This biography sheds plenty of new light on

Due in December
A feel-good story, By JOUMANA KHATIB
a scandal and Beginnings, endings, a return to medicine’s
ancient roots, a hopeful glance to the future:
biographies are These are fitting themes for the last month
among the of an unsettling year, and they’re at the
heart of seven can’t-miss books due out in
anticipated December.
releases. ‘BAG MAN: THE WILD CRIMES, AUDACIOUS
COVER-UP, AND SPECTACULAR DOWNFALL OF A
BRAZEN CROOK IN THE WHITE HOUSE’
Rachel Maddow and Michael Yarvitz (Crown, Dec. 8)
Maddow and Yarvitz dive into the other Wa-
tergate-era scandal: The antihero of this
book is Spiro Agnew, Richard Nixon’s vice
president, whose corruption during his ten-
ure as Maryland’s governor became a criti-
bring him to justice.
‘BLACK FUTURES’
Edited by Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham (One
World, Tuesday)
Wortham, a staff writer at the Times Maga-
zine, and Drew bring together photographs,
screenshots, illustrations, recipes and more
to answer the question “What does it mean
to be Black and alive right now?” Dozens of
artists, activists, musicians and more con-
tributed to the volume, including Alicia
Garza, Morgan Parker, Ziwe Fumudoh, Teju
Cole and Solange Knowles.
‘THE INVENTION OF MEDICINE: FROM HOMER TO
HIPPOCRATES’
By Robin Lane Fox (Basic Books, Dec. 8)
Now more than ever, many of us are acutely
aware of how medicine and the philosophies
of doctors shape our lives. Fox traces this
history back to the Greeks, exploring how
the West’s ideas about sickness and healing
have evolved over thousands of years.
ing this genre-bending book — the Boeing
777 en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur;
mosques in Mosul, Iraq; Guatemala’s Lake
Atescatempa — and each of the chapters
uses a lost item as a narrative jumping-off
point. As Schlansky writes, the collection is
above all concerned with the “diverse phe-
nomena of decomposition and destruction.”
‘PERESTROIKA IN PARIS’
By Jane Smiley (Knopf, Tuesday)
If you’re looking for a feel-good escape, try
this new novel by Smiley, a Pulitzer Prize-
winning author. This time Smiley’s hero is a
curious racehorse named Paras, who es-
capes her stall and makes her way over to
the Place du Trocadéro. There, Paras
strikes up a friendship with a lonely Ger-
man pointer named Frida, who’s unusually
skilled at looking after herself. Plenty of
other Parisians, human and animal, show
Paras compassion and help her find her
way in the city.
Fitzhugh, who was especially reticent
about her personal life and sexuality. Brody
delves into her artistic and creative influ-
ences, and makes the case that Fitzhugh’s
most enduring creation — Harriet — is just
as much at home along Betty Friedan and
Gloria Steinem as Scout Finch and Jo
March.
‘SYLVIA PANKHURST: NATURAL BORN REBEL’
By Rachel Holmes (Bloomsbury, Dec. 15)
This new biography of the English suffrag-
ist (1882-1960) argues that Pankhurst was
one of the “greatest unsung political figures
of the twentieth century.” Throughout her
life, as an advocate of workers’ rights, anti-
colonialism, anti-fascism, feminism and
more, Pankhurst understood the intersec-
tions between gender, class and race. As she
once wrote of herself: “When victory for
any cause came, she had little leisure to re-
joice, none to rest; she had always some
other objective in view.”

Two Not Touch Crossword Edited by Will Shortz

ANSWERS TO
PREVIOUS PUZZLES PUZZLE BY ROBYN WEINTRAUB
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1 ___ others with a rum-
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52 “Me neither” 34 35 36
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an exclamation
Copyright © 2020 www.krazydad.com of “Thbbft!” and
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54 Having moved on
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30 Thanksgiving or may not be a
__ N __ I __ C __ E __ T __ Y dinner 11/27/20
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58 Underground 2 Speck 17 Old Testament 38 Pasta in a cheesy
PUZZLE BY WILL SHORTZ YESTERDAY’S ANSWER The first Thanksgiving lasted for three days. Its menu may have included lobster, seal and swan. 31 ___ Ren of “Star org. in N.Y.C.
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59 Famed Miami it!” 20 Chill response
39 Harpist’s home
34 Imparts golf resort
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41 Hillary Clinton
36 1000 in the Harley-Davidson
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ANSWERS TO
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PREVIOUS PUZZLES 37 Wise guys? 42 Perches for
Dame supported contributed to Beaufort scale
38 Be sociable
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39 Heavenly halo buttresses the PG-13 rating 26 43 Pilot’s place
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6 Discoveries of 45 Blanket that
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ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE warm?
7 Type-A type offering
G A T E N A L A S O F T G 28 47 Big cosmetics
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8 Blond in a bar?
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9 Spot removers 32 Part of a track
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49 Cake topper
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heavily outlined box will produce the target number shown, by using addition, subtraction, multiplication or O N O C I A R O U S T S
division, as indicated in the box. A 4x4 grid will use the digits 1-4. A 6x6 grid will use 1-6. J J J OOO HHH NNN SSS S O O N Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 9,000 past puzzles,
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C16 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2020

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