20200923-The New York Times International Edition

2020·11.3 MB·English

UP FROM DEPTHS WOK HEI AT HOME DOMESTIC AND BLISSFUL
KEEPING DEEP-SEA SMOKY ESSENCE MARTHA STEWART IS HAPPY
DENIZENS ALIVE OF CHINESE FOOD IN QUARANTINE. CBD HELPS.
PAGE 12 | SCIENCE BACK PAGE | LIVING PAGE 14 | CULTURE
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INTERNATIONAL EDITION | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER23, 2020
The urgency Huge flood
for human of money
rights today alters battle
over Senate
Jochen Bittner
Contributing Writer
Donations to Democrats
flow in after justice’s death,
OPINION
lending hope to long shots
HAMBURG, GERMANY A Turkish friend
told me the other day about his sum-
BY SHANE GOLDMACHER
mer travels to his home region in
AND JEREMY W. PETERS
southeastern Anatolia, a particularly
poverty-stricken part of Turkey. For much of 2020, Al Gross’s Senate
Under the rule of President Recep campaign in Alaska has proceeded as
Tayyip Erdogan, things have im- something of an afterthought for most
proved. My friend’s cousin showed off Democrats, a distant contest that was
his new Mercedes-Benz, bragging off the radar in terms of determining
about the state aid his family received control of the U.S. Senate. After all, Mr.
and his general well-being. “I live like Gross is not even technically running as
an American here!” he said. So of a Democrat, an affiliation that might
course he would vote again for Mr. doom him in a conservative state.
Erdogan, who has been in power for But in the hours after the death on Fri-
the best part of two decades. The im- day of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a
prisonment of government critics? Not liberal on the U.S. Supreme Court, Dr.
for him to worry Gross’s campaign as an independent
They may be about. gained an infusion of attention and cash
The story crystal- that could reshape the race: Nearly $3
less appeal-
lized a key dilemma million has poured into his coffers —
ing than
of the 21st century. about as much total money as the cam-
economic
As authoritarian paign had in the bank at the end of July.
prosperity, leaders oversee “Within 15 minutes of the sad news,
but they are economic success, you saw truly organic movement,” said
indispensable. the importance of David Keith, who is managing Dr.
civil liberties — Gross’s bid to oust Senator Dan Sulli-
ensuring freedom van, a Republican.
from arbitrary From Alaska to North and South Car-
KIM LUDBROOK/EPA, VIA SHUTTERSTOCK
punishment and harassment — may Protesting the killing of a 16-year-old in Soweto, South Africa. Unlike other countries, in South Africa a majority-Black police force is accused of abusing a majority-Black citizenry. olina, Democratic strategists working
dwindle. The abstract notion of human on Senate campaigns described a spon-
rights may be much less appealing taneous outpouring of donations the
than the reality of being lifted from Not just white vs. Black likes of which they had never seen, al-
hardship, insecurity and hunger. lowing Democrats the financial freedom
The “freedom to be free,” as Hannah to broaden the map of pickup opportuni-
Arendt put it, is a privilege that, glob- ties or press their financial advantages
ally, very few have the pleasure to in top battlegrounds already saturated
enjoy: The world is full of people who with advertising.
are economically advanced, but politi- Soweto neighborhood, Eldorado Park, By Monday, Democratic contributors
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
cally repressed. That’s why it’s vital to he was often seen hanging out in local had given more than $160 million online
make a renewed case for human stores in the hope that someone might through ActBlue, the leading site for
rights. buy him his favorite cookie, or on the processing digital donations. ActBlue
Police killing of teenager
It’s no wonder that the pull of human dance floor with his signature moves. broke one record after another — its big-
rights is weak — in Turkey, or more in South Africa unleashes He was known as Lockies, and many in gest hour in 16 years, its busiest day, its
important, in China. It is barely con- the neighborhood made a point of look- busiest weekend — after Justice Gins-
passionate demonstrations
vincing to millions of Chinese to say ing out for him. burg’s death. An estimated tens of mil-
that human rights are shields that Much remains unknown about what lions of dollars went toward efforts to re-
citizens can hold up against attacks of happened the evening he was killed take the Senate, where the acrimonious
BY LYNSEY CHUTEL
the state on their liberty, life and liveli- next to a broken-down delivery van confirmation fight to replace Justice
hood when the state apparently does The deadly encounter between the po- within sight of his family home. Ginsburg will occur.
everything to lift its people from bad lice and a young man from the projects The authorities initially tried to sug- At least 13 Democratic candidates or
living conditions, inadequate medical set off public outrage with all the famil- gest that Nathaniel had been shot dur- senators raised more than $1.3 million
care and bleak educational chances. iar scenes: shrines of flowers and ing an exchange of gunfire between po- each since Friday from a single fund-
The Communist Party of China has stuffed animals, clouds of tear gas and lice officers and gang members. But raising effort, among them Dr. Gross, a
an impressive balance sheet: China’s barrages of rocks aimed at officers in within days of the killing, they charged former orthopedic surgeon. And in a
exports grew to $2.6 billion in 2019 riot gear and impassioned slogans. the three officers. closely contested race in North Carolina
from $11.3 billion in 1980, and its econ- “Say His Name” read one poster. Two of them, Simon Ndyalvane, a that could tip the balance in the cham-
omy is on its way to overtaking Ameri- “Coloured Lives Matter,” said another. sergeant known in the community as ber, Cal Cunningham, the Democrat
ca’s. As Australia’s former prime min- This police killing occurred not in Scorpion, and Caylene Whiteboy, a con- challenging Senator Thom Tillis, en-
ister Kevin Rudd put it, China’s pace of Minneapolis or Cleveland or Ferguson, stable, were said to have been at the joyed a $6 million influx of cash. As im-
JOAO SILVA/THE NEW YORK TIMES
change “is like the English Industrial Mo., but in South Africa, where the an- Bridget Harris, with her partner Clint Smith, recalling her son, Nathaniel Julies. Na- scene of the shooting and face charges of pressive as Mr. Cunningham’s haul was,
Revolution and the global information ger and distrust of the law enforcement thaniel’s family thinks he was shot by police while out searching for his favorite cookie. murder and obstruction of justice. They the Democratic candidates in Maine, Ar-
revolution combusting simultaneously authorities mirror the emotions in other are also accused of attempting to dis- izona, Kentucky and South Carolina are
and compressed into not 300 years, but communities across the world, but card evidence, said a spokeswoman for believed to have fared even better.
30.” where the geography of racial tension is When Nathaniel’s mother, Bridget lar shooting in Johannesburg unleashed the prosecution, Phindi Mjonondwane. “Righteous anger is being translated
Francis Fukuyama made the famous more complex than white vs. Black. Harris, first saw his body, she said, she passionate protests that commanded an The third officer, Detective Sgt. Foster into political action,” said Senator Brian
prediction that once a middle class The young man who was shot last was shocked by the gunshot wounds. unusual degree of attention, inside Netshiongolo, faces charges of acces- Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii, who helped
BITTNER,PAGE10 month, 16-year-old Nathaniel Julies, “We couldn’t count,” she said. “It’s too South Africa and out. And the explana- sory to murder and obstruction of jus- raise $122,000 in online donations for
was of mixed heritage, or, as it is still many.” tion, at least in part, is that this was no tice. Mr. Cunningham over the weekend.
The New York Times publishes opinion known, colored, a vestige of apartheid- Death at the hands of the police in ordinary young man who was killed. Nathaniel’s family believes that he But for all of the cash and the passion
from a wide range of perspectives in era South Africa’s racial classification. South Africa is hardly uncommon — by Nathaniel was disabled by Down syn- may have been shot when the officers being generated, there is no guarantee
hopes of promoting constructive debate Two of the three officers arrested in the one estimate, each day a South African drome and was barely able to form com- tried to question him about something that a fierce Supreme Court fight just
about consequential questions. case are also colored and one is Black. dies in a police action. But this particu- plete sentences. A familiar figure in his SOUTH AFRICA,PAGE4 ELECTION,PAGE5
Trips to nowhere scratch the travel itch
moment the captain’s voice came on the
Airlines offering flights speaker with the welcome and safety The world has a lot to teach.
that take off and land announcement,” Mr. Harif said of his 85-
minute experience on Royal Brunei Air-
back where you started Learnmoreaboutourresourcesforlibrariesand
lines. On its flight to nowhere, which the
educators.Contactustoday.
airline calls the “dine and fly” program,
Royal Brunei serves local cuisine to pas-
BY TARIRO MZEZEWA
sengers while flying over the country.
In August, Nadzri Harif, a D.J. at Kristal At a time when most people are stuck
FM radio station in Brunei, set foot in an at home and unable to travel and the
airport for the first time in six months. global airline industry has been deci-
The experience, he said, was exhilarat- mated by the pandemic, flights that take
ing. Sure, moving through Brunei Inter- off and return to the airport a few hours
national Airport was different, with later allow airlines to keep staff mem-
masks, glass dividers and social-dis- bers working. The practice also satisfies
tancing protocols in place, but nothing that itch to travel — even if it’s just being
could beat the anticipation of getting on on a plane again. Although most people
a plane again. may think of flying as a means to an end,
His destination: nowhere. existing solely to get them from one
Mr. Harif is one of thousands of people place to the next, some say that it is an
in Brunei, Taiwan, Japan and Australia exciting part of the travel experience.
who have started booking flights that For those people, flights to nowhere are
start and end in the same place. Some the salve for a year in which just about
airlines call these “scenic flights”; oth- all travel has been canceled and people
ers are more direct, calling them “flights have been fearful that airlines are not
to nowhere.” enforcing social distancing and mask-
TAIWAN TIGERAIR. VIA EPA, VIA SHUTTERSTOCK
“I didn’t realize how much I’d missed Flight attendants serving champagne on a Tigerair Taiwan flight in August. It flew wearing rules.
traveling — missed flying — until the passengers on a scenic tour to Japan, landing only when it returned to Taiwan. FLIGHTS,PAGE2
[email protected]
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..
2 | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION
page two
A free-spirited revolutionary Flights to nowhere
scratch the travel itch
HENRIETTA BOGGS
1918-2020
FLIGHTS,FROM PAGE1 where isn’t appetizing if it’s the same
Royal Brunei has run five of these rushed cattle-being-thrown-in experi-
BY KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
flights since mid-August, and since ence it is when you’re going on a trip,”
Henrietta Boggs, a young college stu- Brunei has had very few cases of the co- Mr. Malby-Tynan said. “If it changed
dent from Alabama, stared into a vol- ronavirus, the airline is not requiring and felt like you were going on a spa date
cano in Costa Rica as she mulled over a passengers to wear masks, but staff or checking into a luxurious hotel, and
marriage proposal from José Figueres members are. Earlier in the month, the you were allowed to stretch out, then it
Ferrer, a coffee farmer with electric blue Taiwanese airline EVA Air filled all 309 would make sense.”
eyes. He stood beside her while the wind seats on its Hello Kitty-themed A330 When Nadiah Hamid’s parents re-
whipped around them and smoke Dream jet for Father’s Day in Taiwan, quired her to join them on Royal
clouded the air. and Japan’s All Nippon Airways had a Brunei’s flight to nowhere, she thought
“Will marriage to you be like this vol- Hawaiian-resort-themed, 90-minute- the idea of flying above her home was
cano?” she asked. flight with 300 people on board. “ridiculous,” she said, but she had a
“Marriage to me will be much worse,” On Thursday, Qantas announced a change of heart just a few minutes into
he answered. “But I can guarantee, you flight to nowhere over Australia. That the trip because it allowed her to see her
will never be bored.” flight sold out in 10 minutes. home in a new way.
That was all Ms. Boggs needed to “So many of our frequent fliers are “Normally when you’re flying, you
hear to cast aside her cosseted upbring- used to being on a plane every other don’t really know where you are, so it
ing in the American South. The two mar- week, and have been telling us they miss was nice to have someone contextualize
ried in 1941, and after a few years in exile the experience of flying as much as the things in our country and in Malaysia,
and then a revolution, he would become destinations themselves,” Alan Joyce, and the views were really beautiful,” Ms.
president of a governing junta in Costa the chief executive of Qantas Airlines, Hamid, 22, said.
Rica. As first lady, she would help win said in a statement this week, when that Katie Chao, a spokeswoman for the
the country’s female and minority citi- airline announced its seven-hour flight Taiwanese airline Starlux, said that the
zens the right to vote. in October that is to depart and land in airline had been working to make the
Ms. Boggs, whose life spanned more Sydney. flight-to-nowhere experience a luxuri-
than a century and crossed multiple cul- Tickets for that flight ranged in price ous one by allowing people to buy pack-
tures, passions and avocations, was 102 from 787 to 3,787 Australian dollars, or ages for the flight and a hotel stay.
when she died on Sept. 9 at her home in about $575 to $2,765. It is to take trav-
Montgomery, Ala. elers around Australia, flying over the
JOHN DURAN “One of my clients said just a few
She had been born during the influ- Northern Territory, Queensland and
enza pandemic of 1918, which killed 50 New South Wales. The airline also re- days ago, ‘All I want is to be in a
million people worldwide. She died in cently brought back its popular sight- window seat and see clouds go
the current pandemic: The cause was seeing flights to Antarctica: The flights by. I miss that sight.’”
the novel coronavirus, according to her don’t actually land in Antarctica, but
daughter, Muni Figueres, a former they allow passengers to get varying
Costa Rican ambassador to the United views of the continent. The tour com- Since August, the airline has run six
States. pany Antarctica Flights charters Qan- flights to nowhere, and it has about a
Where Ms. Boggs picked up the virus tas to operate the flights. Dozens of Aus- dozen more scheduled through October.
remains a mystery. “We have traced ev- tralians took to the airline’s Instagram Most of the flights have sold out within
eryone who was with her, and they all to express a desire for more such trips. 10 minutes of being announced, Ms.
tested negative,” Ms. Figueres said in a A handful of travel agents in India, Chao said, adding that wearing a mask
phone interview. Her mother’s activities Australia and the United States said that and social distancing are mandatory on
on one recent day were unaccounted for. their clients had been asking about all these flights.
“But she had not been ill,” Ms. Figueres flights to nowhere as the reality that “We try to provide a different and fun
said, and she had not gone to the hospi- travel would not return to normal for event at the boarding gate,” Ms. Chao
tal. some time sank in. said. “We also arrange some special dec-
Over the course of her long life, Ms. Loveleen Arun, a Bangalore-based orations in-flight. And, of course, a spe-
Boggs — a woman with a sharp wit, an travel agent who designs luxury trips cial-made giveaway to go with the
aristocratic bearing and a sense of ad- mostly for Indian travelers, said that theme each time is a must.”
venture remarkable for her time and she had been hearing from antsy clients Criticism of these flights has been in-
place — assumed celebrity status in Ala- who wish there were such flights in In- tense, with environmental groups and
bama. dia. travelers taking to social media to ex-
At every turn she challenged the seg- “One of my clients said just a few days press their frustrations. They argue that
regated and patriarchal society in which ago, ‘All I want is to be in a window seat an industry that had already negatively
she was raised. As a youth, she cut and see clouds go by. I miss that sight. I affected the environment before the
church on Sundays and sneaked off to just want white fluffy clouds!’” Ms. pandemic is continuing to do so with
the drugstore for Cokes and cigarettes. Arun said. “Some people just want to these unnecessary trips.
As a young woman traveling in Latin drag their bags through the airport and In 2018, global civil aviation ac-
America, she wrote to her hometown go check them in.” counted for 918 million tons of carbon di-
newspaper, The Birmingham News, Most of Ms. Arun’s clients are well-to- oxide — equal to the combined annual
with detailed descriptions of the poverty do individuals and families who would emissions from Germany and the
and deprivation she witnessed. find a trip to nowhere appealing if it Netherlands. Rob Jackson, an earth sci-
As an older divorcée living in a white were luxurious — something other trav- entist at Stanford University, estimated
neighborhood in Montgomery, Ms. elers echoed. that global emissions could fall seven
Boggs rented out her guesthouse to Bry- Before the pandemic, Christopher percent if lockdowns persisted in parts
THE FIGUERES FAMILY
an Stevenson, a Black lawyer who was Top, Henrietta Boggs in 2016 and, above, riding a motorcycle with her husband, José Figueres Ferrer. When Mr. Ferrer became presi- Malby-Tynan, a marketing manager of the world for the rest of the year.
just starting his Equal Justice Initiative, dent of a governing junta in Costa Rica and she was first lady, she pushed him to give women and ethnic minorities the right to vote. who lives in London, traveled by plane A spokeswoman for Qantas said in an
a legal advocacy group, now 31 years regularly, for reasons both personal and email that it had purchased carbon off-
old, that works to end mass incarcera- professional. The thought of getting on a sets to alleviate the impact of the seven-
tion; he later inspired Montgomery’s “They had a keen intellectual syn- She divorced Mr. Figueres in 1951, kinds of people in the world (making flight to nowhere would only be appeal- hour flight, and Royal Brunei Airlines
slavery museum and memorial to lynch- ergy,” Ms. Kalin said in a telephone in- moved with their children briefly to clear which group she belonged to) — ing, he said, if it were upscale and did not said it was using an Airbus A320neo,
ing victims, which opened in 2018. terview. “Henrietta was a force.” Birmingham, then relocated to New those who are content where they are, include the usual hassle of plane travel. which has fewer emissions than many
“You don’t let things happen,” Ms. Mr. Figueres led the opposition forces York City, where she worked for the and those who say, “Let’s go and see “The concept of going on a flight to no- other planes.
Boggs was fond of saying. “You shape during the country’s four-year civil war, Costa Rican Mission to the United Na- what’s on the other side of the hill.”
them.” and Ms. Boggs was often on the run with tions. Henrietta Longstreet Boggs was born
Her romance with Mr. Figueres, their two young children. One particu- Ms. Boggs was drawn back to Ala- on May 6, 1918, in Spartanburg, S.C., the
which she described in her memoir, larly harrowing passage had them es- bama temporarily in 1956 to support the oldest of five children. Her father, Ralph
“Married to a Legend: My Life With caping flying bullets as they made their Montgomery bus boycott, the Black-led E. Boggs, was a civil engineer. Her
Don Pepe” (1992), took place largely on way across the Cerro de la Muerte, the protest against segregated seating. She mother, Mary Esther (Long) Boggs,
the back of his Harley-Davidson motor- “Mountain of Death.” was one of many volunteers who drove was a homemaker.
cycle as they roared across Costa Rica’s Mr. Figueres led the victorious ruling protesters to their jobs so that they In addition to her daughter, Ms. Boggs
volcanic terrain. Her parents were hor- provisional junta for 18 months, from could continue to avoid using the buses. is survived by her sister, Lucy Boggs
rified that she wanted to marry him. 1948 to 1949. With Ms. Boggs as his full The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately Dustheimer, as well as 10 grandchildren
“They thought the only worthwhile intellectual partner, he established a de- struck down segregated seating, an and 15 great-grandchildren. Her son,
people were white, Protestant South- mocracy and enacted economic reforms early victory for the civil rights move- Jose Marti Figueres, died in 2019. She
erners,” Ms. Boggs told the filmmaker modeled on those of Franklin D. Roose- ment. and Dr. MacGuire divorced in 1985.
Andrea Kalin, who made a documentary velt during the Depression. Under pres- Ms. Boggs moved back to New York Still going strong in her late 70s, Ms.
about her called “First Lady of the Revo- sure from his wife, he granted women and spent time intermittently in Paris, Boggs co-founded a magazine called
lution” (2016). and Afro-Costa Ricans the right to vote. where her daughter was studying. She Montgomery Living in 1996. Though she
The marriage catapulted Ms. Boggs, a “I remember repeatedly yapping at then received a letter from an old friend sold it (it is now called ALMetro360),
prolific writer, into a drama she could my husband, ‘How can we call ourselves from high school, Hugh C. MacGuire, a she continued to write for it. Her last ar-
never have scripted. After her husband a democracy if we don’t allow half the prominent surgeon in Montgomery. He ticle is to be published posthumously.
was exiled from Costa Rica, they trav- population to vote?’” she recalled. He suggested that she look him up when And she did volunteer work for nu-
eled in Latin America and Mexico as an gave in, she said, just to get her off his she came back to the United States. In merous civic, nonprofit and charitable
ordinary couple researching coffee pro- back. 1965 she did, and they married the same organizations.
duction by day while holding clandes- But 10 years in, the marriage waned. year. “She was committed to women’s
tine political meetings by night. At the “Increasingly I felt that I was being mar- Dr. MacGuire was also a pilot, and rights, to combating racism and promot-
same time, they were smuggling arms ginalized,” she said in the documentary, when he needed a co-pilot, his wife took ing social and humanitarian justice,” her
CHEN SHU-TZU, VIA REUTERS
back to Costa Rica for its brewing revo- “and no matter what happened, nothing flying lessons and earned her license. daughter said. “To the end, she fought A Tigerair Taiwan flight that circled over Jeju Island in South Korea before returning to
lution. would absorb him as much as politics.” She often said that there were two for all of those things.” Taoyuan, Taiwan, in September. Criticism of such flights has been intense.
French designer whose interiors exemplified ’90s minimalism
nature material, had been knocked off veterinarian, and his grandfather, for
CHRISTIAN LIAIGRE
so often that it became a design-world whom he worked for a decade after at-
1943-2020
punch line.) tending the École des Beaux-Arts and
Along with the austere architecture of the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts
John Pawson and the unadorned cloth- Décoratifs in Paris, bred horses.
BY PENELOPE GREEN
ing of Calvin Klein and Helmut Lang, He is survived by his wife, Deborah
Christian Liaigre, a French interior and Mr. Liaigre’s works — sculptural tables, Comte-Liaigre; their son, Leonard; and
furniture designer whose muscular and seats and lamps constructed of bronze, a granddaughter. His daughter, Virginie,
elegant objects in wood, bronze and stone and ebonized woods — were died last year.
leather were emblematic of 1990s min- touchstones for a generation that ex- Mr. Liaigre’s design roots were
imalism, and whose influential clients pressed its wealth in earth tones and a French Modernism, Asian furniture, Af-
included Karl Lagerfeld, Calvin Klein, monkish lack of ornament. rican art and riding hardware — bridles,
Rupert Murdoch, Larry Gagosian and His work resonated with craftsmen saddles and stirrups. Many compared
the Mercer hotel in New York, died on and architects, too, because the joinery him with Jean-Michel Frank, the early
Sept. 2 in Paris. He was 77. was often the ornament. Ian Schrager, French minimalist interior designer, but
His design firm, Liaigre, announced the hotelier and developer, hired both “with less ennui,” as Mitchell Owens, the
his death on Instagram without speci- Mr. Pawson and Mr. Liaigre to design his decorative arts editor at Architectural
VIA LIAGRE
fying the cause. Christian Liaigre in an undated photo. penthouse in the NoHo section of Man- Digest, said in an interview.
Mr. Liaigre (pronounced lee-AY- His sparse interiors and elegant furniture hattan; a Herzog & de Meuron show- Former employees described Mr. Li-
gruh) had been an art student and a resonated with craftsmen and celebrities place; and his house in Southampton, on aigre as a quiet, meticulous teacher
drawing teacher and had worked with alike. Left, a design for Rupert Murdoch. Long Island. whose drawings were always perfectly
show horses before he began to make Mr. Schrager recalled that the con- to scale.
FRED CONRAD/THE NEW YORK TIMES
furniture in the early 1980s. By the turn tractors kept turning over Mr. Liaigre’s “He felt that to get the proportions
of the next decade, a chunky, cracked hood of Manhattan in 1997, that intro- hired Mr. Liaigre to design his own named Rosehearty. furniture to see how the pieces were put right, the only way to do it was by hand,”
wooden stool inspired by Brancusi’s duced Mr. Liaigre to the United States. apartment at the Police Building, a few Mr. Liaigre’s dark, low-slung wenge- together. “His furniture was so refined, said Kirstin Bailey, a designer in Mr. Li-
sculpture “Endless Column” had be- The hotel’s new-old Modernism and loft- blocks south. wood furniture, and his clean-lined linen so beautiful and so well made,” he said. aigre’s studio in the 1990s.
come his calling card, its gutsy and ele- like rooms attracted movie stars of the “It was a complete aesthetic, and I sofas in white and pale lavender, were Before working on the Mercer, Mr. Li- Mr. Liaigre sold his company to a
mental shape a corrective to the fussy era (including Leonardo DiCaprio and don’t think anyone did it better,” Mr. soon copied ad infinitum, and for dec- aigre had designed the interiors of the group of investors in 2016.
opulence — the swags of chintz and Lou- Russell Crowe, who felt so at home there Klein said in a phone interview. ades they would influence trendy hotel Hotel Montalembert in Paris, a boutique “To say that he was detail-oriented
is chairs — that had defined the ex- that he once hurled a phone at a desk Other high-profile clients followed, in- interiors, pricey condo developments hotel built in the 1920s and redone in would be a gross understatement,” Mr.
cesses of the ’80s. clerk) and designers like Mr. Klein, who cluding Mr. Murdoch and his wife at the and furniture emporiums including 1990. Balazs of the Mercer wrote in an Insta-
But it was the Mercer, which André lived there before its official opening time, Wendi, for whom he designed a tri- West Elm and Restoration Hardware. Mr. Liaigre was born on Aug. 10, 1943, gram post. “‘Obsession’ would be far
Balazs opened in the SoHo neighbor- and liked his rooms so much that he plex in SoHo and a 184-foot sailing yacht (By the late 1990s, wenge wood, his sig- in La Rochelle, France. His father was a more apt.”
..
THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 | 3
World
Friend or foe at a spa in Belarus? Campers
leave trash,
but it follows
ZHDANOVICHI, BELARUS
them home
A political shift turns
suspected mercenaries
into victims of a plot
HONG KONG
BY IVAN NECHEPURENKO
Thai government mails
Members of the Wagner Group, a shad-
owy Russian mercenary force linked to the garbage back to group
an associate of President Vladimir V.
now barred from a park
Putin, have left their traces around the
world. They fought in support of pro-
Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine,
BY TIFFANY MAY
helped tilt Syria’s civil war in favor of
President Bashar al-Assad and fought Officials in Thailand had an unorthodox
on the side of a Kremlin-backed warlord approach to deal with visitors who left a
in Libya. tent filled with litter in a national park:
At the end of July, they popped up at mail the trash to the offenders.
the most unlikely place yet — an austere The country’s environment minister
Soviet-era sanitarium on a lake outside said that he wanted to call attention to a
the sleepy capital of Belarus, a Russian garbage problem at Khao Yai National
ally entirely bereft of warring militias, Park that endangers animals that could
armed checkpoints and other markers eat the litter while foraging for food. He
of the civil wars that usually attract Rus- vowed in a Facebook post last week to
sian mercenaries. track down anyone responsible for lit-
The beefy Russian men, 32 in all, were tering in the park.
noticed almost as soon as they checked “I will pick up every single piece of
in, taking rooms on the second floor of a your trash, pack them well in a box and
concrete bloc in a distant corner of the mail it to your home as a souvenir,” the
resort and health spa. minister, Varawut Silpa-archa, said in
In contrast to other Russian clients, the post. He also posted photos of a de-
they kept to themselves, showing little livery box containing a transparent
interest in a late-night disco, which im- trash bag filled with used plastic water
mediately struck the D.J., Veronika bottles, soda cans, torn packs of chips
Step, as strange. Two of them stopped and sunflower seeds.
by the disco to take a look but quickly Thai officials said they had, indeed,
left, she said. mailed the box of trash to campers who
The men, recalled Ms. Step, were so had left the waste in a tent they aban-
unsociable that she and fellow female doned. The special package came with a
workers started joking that perhaps pointed message for the group, whose
they should call the police “to find out members have been placed on a black-
what is wrong with them.” list barring them from returning to the
PHOTOGRAPHS BY MISHA FRIEDMAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
What unfolded next, however, was In July, 32 Russian men stayed at the Belorusochka sanitarium, outside Minsk in Belarus. They were later accused of belonging to the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary force. park for overnight visits.
even stranger: a heavily armed special “You have forgotten some of your be-
unit of Belarus’s top security agency, longings at the Khao Yai National Park,”
still called the K.G.B., stormed the re- his sudden burst of open hostility, of- planned to seize their plane as it flew read a note to the campers, who have not
sort late at night, dragging the Russians fered its own bizarre explanation of over Ukraine and have the men arrested been publicly identified, that was placed
away in handcuffs. what the men were doing at the sanitari- because of their role in fighting in east- on the clear trash bag. “Please let us re-
Shortly after that, Belarusian state um. The Russian ambassador in Minsk ern Ukraine. turn these to you.”
television shared video footage of the said that the men had simply missed a That Belarus has changed its story so The move by the Thai authorities
raid, showing a number of tattooed, flight at the airport and needed a place drastically is a measure of how swiftly comes amid growing global efforts to re-
heavyset Russians lying face down on to stay before catching another. But the country’s strongman leader, Mr. Lu- duce the environmental impact of trash
beds and on the floor in boxer briefs at there was no explanation for their hav- kashenko, has reassessed his political and curb the use of plastic. Activists are
the resort. Taken away in unmarked ing chosen rooms in a resort on the op- interests. increasingly sounding the alarm as
vans to a police station, they were forced posite side of town, away from the air- Barraged with street protests after he garbage continues to clog oceans, show-
to kneel facing a wall for 22 hours, ac- port. claimed a landslide victory on Aug. 9, ing up in the stomachs of dead whales in
cording to their interview with the Rus- For members of the staff at the sani- Mr. Lukashenko abruptly dropped his countries like Indonesia and Spain.
sian state-run media. tarium, the news that their guests were accusations against Russia and began
part of a covert Russian military opera- pleading with Moscow for help. He
tion to sow chaos only compounded called Mr. Putin four times by telephone
Belarusian authorities now insist
their own confusion. and sent his oldest son, Viktor, to the
the Russians were the victims Yelena, a housekeeper in the building prison holding the Russians to make
of an elaborate plot engineered where the men stayed, said she was sur- sure that they were being fed well.
by Ukraine’s secret service. prised to find out that the Russians had On Aug. 14, after failing to curb an ini-
anything to do with the military. tial round of street protests with a frenzy
“They didn’t look like fighters, only a of police violence, he ordered the Wag-
President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko few looked strongly built,” said Yelena, ner mercenaries released and allowed
of Belarus, who was facing a presiden- who refused to give her last name for The D.J. at the resort said it struck her as strange that none of the men, in contrast to them to return to Russia. All charges
tial election in less than two weeks, con- fear of repercussions from the manage- other Russian clients, showed interest in a late-night disco. against them were dropped. The pro-
vened an emergency meeting of his top ment. “They were behaving well, very tests have continued to consume the
security officials, saying that the Rus- culturally. They went to the outdoor country, with tens of thousands turning
sians were mercenaries with “dirty gym,” she said. tor, who drives around the grounds in her room collapsed after she sat down out in Minsk and dozens rounded up by
aims.” Speaking at the meeting, Valery The resort — called Belorusochka, his S.U.V., forever on the lookout for sus- on it. Even her mother, familiar with So- the security services on Sunday.
Vakulchik, at the time the head of the which means “a Belarus woman” — picious activity. viet standards of hospitality, was ap- Upon the mercenaries’ return to Rus-
THAILAND MINISTRY OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT,
K.G.B., confirmed that the Russians be- seemed an odd choice, more a time ma- “I haven’t been to a resort like this palled by the conditions, she said. sia, several of them appeared on Rus- VIA EPA, VIA SHUTTERSTOCK
longed to the Wagner Group. chine for people nostalgic for the Soviet since I was 12,” said Olga Matuzo, a 42- Also unlikely to return are the ar- sian television, claiming that they had “Please let us return these to you”: Thai
Then, just 10 days before the Aug. 9 Union than a place anyone interested in year-old Russian who had traveled 1,500 rested Russians, who, the Belarusian no connection to the Wagner Group and park officials included a note with items
vote, Belarusian investigators accused plotting a coup would stay. miles from the Russian city of authorities now insist, were never up to had simply stopped off in Belarus en they found in an abandoned tent.
the Russians of plotting to disrupt the Standing on the shore of a picturesque Chelyabinsk with her sick mother. “Im- any mischief in Belarus but were the vic- route to Venezuela, where they had a job
election. reservoir, the resort is surrounded by a mediately after you come to the recep- tims of an elaborate plot engineered by lined up guarding an undisclosed Rus-
“Russia is afraid of losing us,” said Mr. fence and resembles a prison camp tion area you feel like you are in the Sovi- Ukraine’s secret service in cahoots with sian facility. Shortly afterward, the The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, for
Lukashenko, accusing the Kremlin of more than a spa. In keeping with the et Union.” the United States. K.G.B. chief who had presided over their example, covers an estimated surface
trying to “suffocate” Belarus. penitentiary motif, every activity is gov- She said she definitely wouldn’t be re- According to this new version of what arrest was removed and replaced with a area of 617,750 square miles. Scientists
Russia, long accustomed to Mr. Luka- erned by strict rules and by the iron will turning, complaining that staff mem- happened, the men had been lured to new security chief seen as friendlier to have studied five such accumulations:
shenko’s eccentric ways but shocked by of Svyatoslav F. Savitsky, the chief doc- bers were grumpy and that the bed in Belarus by Ukrainian spies, who Moscow. one in the Indian Ocean, two in the At-
lantic Ocean and two in the Pacific.
Several cities have banned the use of
plastic straws and single-use plastic
Rape and killing of a 5-year-old fuels outrage in Pakistan bags. (Thailand also banned the bags
this year.) But efforts to eliminate plas-
tic bags have been set back during the
coronavirus pandemic, with increased
social media in recent memory — out- Ailia Zehra, a Pakistani journalist, wrote home food deliveries.
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN
rage that has had the government on Twitter on Thursday. “THIS is why In recent years, trash has also be-
scrambling to respond. women don’t report sexual crimes.” come a political issue, with some coun-
The girl was kidnapped early this Shireen Mazari, the minister for hu- tries in Asia and Africa refusing to con-
Critics point to ‘silence’
month after going to buy cookies at a man rights in Prime Minister Imran tinue accepting trash shipped from
toward victims of sexual shop in the southern port city of Karachi, Khan’s cabinet, condemned the com- countries in the West.
the police said. Her body was found two ments by the police chief, who serves in While anti-littering campaigns have
assaults and child abuse
days later, and an autopsy indicated that a province that is controlled by Mr. been staples in many cities for decades,
she had been sexually assaulted. Khan’s governing party. Thailand’s approach, targeting individu-
The police have arrested more than “Nothing can ever rationalize the als with a shaming reminder of their
BY SALMAN MASOOD
20 suspects in the case, and investiga- crime of rape,” she wrote on Twitter. misdeed, is unusual.
AND MIKE IVES
tors said on Sept. 9 that one had admit- “That’s it.” In the case of the abandoned tent,
A 5-year-old girl in southern Pakistan ted to kidnapping and killing the girl. Ms. Mazari did not immediately re- matching the garbage to the campers in-
was raped, hit on the head and set on In the second case, the woman was spond to a request for comment. volved some detective work. In a memo
fire. Five days later, a woman in the driving late on Sept. 8 with her three Reacting to both cases, Mr. Khan said posted on Facebook, a government
country’s east was dragged from her car children from Lahore, the capital of Pun- in a series of tweets on Thursday that of- agency responsible for the park said last
and sexually assaulted on a highway in jab Province, to the city of Gujranwala ficials would bring the perpetrators to week that it had began investigating a
front of her children. when her car ran out of fuel. She called justice. “Such brutality and bestiality complaint about the campers that was
The two episodes, which occurred the police, and as she waited for assist- cannot be allowed in any civilized soci- posted in a camping group on the plat-
hundreds of miles apart, have prompted ance, two men, both believed to be in ety,” Mr. Khan said. form.
protests and an outpouring of rage in a their 30s, broke the driver’s-side win- Pakistan ranks 147th out of the 182 Following the tip, officials at the park,
country that critics say has a toxic cul- dow with sticks and stones and dragged countries that have ratified the U.N. in the mountains a little more than two
ture surrounding sexual assaults and her and her children off the road. Convention on the Rights of the Child, hours’ drive northeast of Bangkok,
K.M. CHAUDARY/ASSOCIATED PRESS
child abuse. Protesters from an Islamist group in Lahore, Pakistan. Their banner demanded public The woman was raped multiple times, according to an index on children’s well- tracked down the campers after cross-
Hashtags calling for justice for the hanging for those who commit “atrocities against women and children.” and the men stole her A.T.M. cards, jew- being published by the KidsRights referencing equipment rental forms and
victims have been shared widely on so- elry and cash, the police said. The La- Foundation, a research and advocacy a prescription bottle found in the tent.
cial media by ordinary people, opposi- hore police chief, Muhammad Umar group in the Netherlands. The index The message that officials intended to
tion politicians and high-profile athletes, “There is a lot of indifference” to such Sheikh, later said that an extensive measures the prevalence of child labor send did not end with mailing the trash
“There is a lot of indifference”
including Shan Masood, a member of cases from Pakistani officials, said search for the culprits was underway. and rates of mortality and malnutrition, to the offenders.
Pakistan’s national cricket team. Mehnaz Akber Aziz, a member of the op- to such cases from officials. But the police chief also appeared to among other criteria. Citing two incidents of littering and
“We cannot lose our youth to such dis- position in Pakistan’s National Assem- blame the woman for the crime, ques- Pakistan’s consistently poor ranking drunken behavior by different campers,
gusting and inhuman acts,” Mr. Masood bly and a prominent children’s rights ad- tioning why she had been traveling late in the survey proves that “policymakers Mr. Varawut, the environment minister,
wrote on Twitter. “Keeping quiet is con- vocate. “There is no empathy, only si- lic outrage has subsided — lending a at night without an adult male compan- and state machinery in Pakistan have said in his post that campers who vio-
tributing to the issue. We must stand up lence. That is changing, because the sense of impunity to the crimes. ion and why she had not checked to see utterly ignored welfare and rights of lated park rules would be reported to the
to these cowards and take action.” public is pushing back.” “You are signaling to these people, the that her car had fuel for the journey. children,” Ms. Aziz, the opposition law- police.
Pakistan has been plagued by Ms. Aziz said that most of the child rapists, that ‘It’s OK, you can continue The backlash was swift. maker and children’s rights advocate, Littering in a Thai national park can
episodes of rape and child abuse over rape and abuse victims come from small doing what you’re doing and there will Social media users, writing under the wrote last year in The News Interna- lead to a maximum of five years in pris-
the years. Victims are often treated as towns or villages, and that their cases do be a way out, even if you’re arrested,’” hashtag #motorwayincident, several tional, a major English-language daily on and a fine of up to $16,000.
criminals or blamed for the assaults. not usually attract attention on social she said. leading politicians, television talk show in Pakistan. “You may take only two things from
Human rights activists have long said media. But she said that the public rage over hosts and celebrities called for him to be our parks,” Mr. Varawut wrote on Face-
that officials at all levels of the national Officials generally do not visit the vic- the girl’s killing was the largest fired. “If a top police officer can openly Salman Masood reported from Islam- book, addressing campers. “Those are
government have regularly failed to ad- tims either, she said, and the perpetra- groundswell of anger in a case of child engage in victim blaming imagine how abad, Pakistan, and Mike Ives from memories and photos. Leave only foot-
dress the issue in a comprehensive way. tors are often quietly released after pub- rape and murder that she had seen on junior policemen treat rape survivors,” Hong Kong. prints behind.”
..
4 | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION
world
Police shooting enrages South Africa
SOUTH AFRICA,FROM PAGE1 African Police Service, with the word
and could not understand why he was “Service” added.
unable to answer. But critics say this has not changed
On the evening of Aug. 26, when he the culture of the police force. The new
was killed, Nathaniel’s family had just generation of officers is regarded with
finished dinner when he slipped out, ap- suspicion amid allegations of rampant
parently in search of the chocolate-chip corruption. And police killings remain
cookies sold at a nearby store. He gave so common that it is rare when a death
half his meal to the family’s dogs so he gets people to the streets. But earlier
could finish faster, recalls Ms. Harris’s this year, demonstrations broke out af-
partner, Clint Smith. ter the police and soldiers were accused
Nathaniel was a frequent visitor at of killing another man during the pan-
the store. demic lockdown.
Around 9 p.m., the store owner heard “I think the South African state, and
a bang. So did Ms. Harris and Mr. Smith. South African society, are really at a wa-
Then the cries of disbelief began. tershed moment this year in the re-
“They shot Lockies!” neighbors sponse and reckoning to the impunity,
shouted. violence and brutality in the police serv-
The officers are believed to have ice,” said Daneel Knoetze, who heads
quickly driven the young man away, Viewfinder, the journalism project that
dropping him off at a hospital. But no tracks police killings.
one told the family where he was. When The authorities have pledged that
Ms. Harris heard that the hospital was there will be justice in the killing of Na-
treating a gunshot victim, she rushed thaniel Julies.
over and saw a figure covered by a “We will spare nobody,” said the po-
sheet. lice minister, Bheki Cele, who in 2009
Disbelief gripped her when she recog- disputed reports that he had encour-
nized the protruding sandals. aged a so-called shoot-to-kill policy.
“I was screaming the whole hospital “Whoever has committed a crime will
down,” she said. “How can it be Na- have to face the law.”
thaniel out of everybody? I saw the san- When community members marched
dals but I still felt, no, it’s not my baby.” to demand answers about Mr. Julies’
death, the police moved aggressively to
disperse them. Protesters then barri-
Police departments were once
caded streets and burned tires.
an extension of the apartheid President Cyril Ramaphosa ex-
state, enforcing its rules and pressed distress at television images of
assassinating political leaders. the violence beamed across the country,
describing Eldorado Park as “a commu-
nity that deserves better.” But he includ-
In many parts of the United States ed a reprimand.
and elsewhere, the Black Lives Matter “While communities have a right to
movement has brought fresh scrutiny of express dissent, anger should not spill
race relations, as protesters have de- over into action that could worsen the
manded an end to what they see as per- trauma already experienced by citi-
vasive police brutality, usually dis- zens,” Mr. Ramaphosa said. “Justice can
pensed by white officers against people THEMBA HADEBE/ASSOCIATED PRESS only prevail if community workers work
of color. Demonstrators, demanding justice for Nathaniel Julies, clashing with the police in with our criminal justice system to ad-
In South Africa, too, citizens have long Soweto, South Africa. Right, Nathaniel’s funeral procession. Three officers have been dress alleged injustice or abuse.”
denounced police brutality. Under cover charged in Nathaniel’s death; two with murder and one with accessory to murder. Since the shooting, there has been a
of the pandemic lockdowns, critics say, steady stream of visitors to the freshly
some officers are acting with still more painted, four-room, apartheid-era home
impunity. ruled by a white government, may meager, over Black people, like slightly where Ms. Harris is raising her seven
But the narrative here is more tan- never look kindly on the police. better education for their children and remaining children.
gled. Police departments were once an ex- housing with plumbing in some areas. She and Mr. Smith wear T-shirts with
In South Africa, a majority-Black po- tension of the apartheid state, enforcing They were not considered Black under Mr. Julies’ face on it. His visage also
lice force is accused of abusing a major- its rules, assassinating political leaders the apartheid government, and many beams down at them from a large por-
ity-Black citizenry. The police station at and encouraging violence to keep town- still reject being identified as Black to- trait donated by demonstrators.
the center of Nathaniel Julies’ case, for ships destabilized. For nonwhite South day, embracing being colored as a cul- Community members have turned
example, is staffed overwhelmingly by Africans, the police were a source of ter- ture and an identity. out for the accused officers’ court ap-
Black and colored police officers. But it ror, not protection. And Black police offi- Government-mandated segregation pearances.
has been the subject of over 80 com- cers were seen as traitors. may be gone, but communities like Eldo- But many are skeptical that they will
plaints of brutality from 2012 to 2019, 10 The practitioners of apartheid ex- rado Park remain largely the same in ever see justice — in this case, or in their
of them involving fatalities, according to celled at pitting one group against an- makeup. daily lives.
Viewfinder, an investigative journalism other, and the legacy of that is still play- The police have made efforts to move “They are supposed to be protecting
project that collects data on police ing out today in communities like the on from the brutality of the apartheid us, but they are killing us,” said Leonie
killings. predominantly colored one that Na- era. In a bid at reform, the South African Nero, a mother of two who lives near Mr.
South Africans, especially those old thaniel lived in. government began rebranding the de- Julies’ home. “They are targeting inno-
enough to remember the apartheid Under segregationist rule, colored partment when apartheid came to an cent children. Where should our chil-
days, when the country was ruthlessly people enjoyed advantages, however end, in 1994. It is now called the South dren play?”
SIPHIWE SIBEKO/REUTERS
Under U.S. pressure, Iran avoids confrontation
criticism with more hidden efforts to mer officials accused the Trump admin-
WASHINGTON
sow divisiveness in America with the ef- istration of overstating the threat. Poli-
fectiveness of Russian intelligence oper- tico earlier reported that Ms. Marks was
atives, said Ariane M. Tabatabai, an an- a target.
BY JULIAN E. BARNES,
alyst with the Alliance for Securing De- Iran denied the allegations and said it
DAVID E. SANGER, RONEN BERGMAN
mocracy, which monitors interference was propaganda aimed at increasing
AND LARA JAKES
in elections, and the author of a paper re- tensions before the election.
The Trump administration has in- leased Thursday on Tehran’s efforts. The Trump administration’s cam-
creased criticism and pressure on Iran “Iran is doing a lot more things than paign to criticize or further isolate Iran
in recent days, accusing the country of they were, but we shouldn’t hype the has sometimes backfired.
planning assassinations of American threat either,” she said. “The biggest For example, the sanctions, which
diplomats, announcing hacking indict- threat in election interference right now cited violations by Iran of its landmark
ments, preparing unilateral sanctions is not Iran.” 2015 nuclear agreement with world
and denouncing Tehran for interfering Iran is opposed to Mr. Trump’s re- powers, are intended to harness the in-
in the November election. election, according to a statement last ternational community’s power against
But the campaign to denigrate and month from William R. Evanina, a sen- Iranian trade.
isolate Iran belies Tehran’s current pos- ior official in the Office of the Director of But the United States is alone in plan-
ture. Iran’s supreme leader has blocked National Intelligence. But the statement ning to enforce them, after European al-
any large, direct retaliation against the was telling because it did not outline any lies recoiled from the Trump administra-
United States, at least for now, allowing actions by Iran that compare with Rus- tion’s insistence that it could continue to
only cyberactivity to flourish, according sia’s more robust election interference punish Iran deal under the terms of the
to American and allied officials briefed operations, said Representative Adam pact, which it withdrew from two years
on new intelligence reporting. B. Schiff, Democrat of California and ago.
Iran also abandoned plans it had a chairman of the House Intelligence That escalated already simmering
year ago to deliver an election season Committee. tensions between the United States and
surprise this fall, like an attack on “To judge by the O.D.N.I. statement, allies in Europe that have threatened to
Persian Gulf shipping or Middle East- we aren’t seeing any of the kind of ac- spill over into other diplomatic issues,
ern oil production intended to shock tions taken by Russia being undertaken according to a senior European official.
global financial markets and hurt Presi- by Iran,” Mr. Schiff said in an interview. The Trump administration has
dent Trump’s chances of re-election, ac- “Iran has a sophisticated cybercapabil- stronger support for its hard line against
cording to American officials familiar ity, but nothing on the level of Russia. It Iran with some Gulf countries, like
with the intelligence. does not have the experience or the in- Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emir-
Iran recalculated after the pandemic frastructure to mount the kind of cam- ates, that see Iran as the “primary de-
SUPREME LEADER OFFICE, VIA EPA, VIA SHUTTERSTOCK
devastated the world economy, making Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, left, has blocked any large, direct retaliation against the United States, for now. paign Russia waged in 2016 or is under- stabilizing force in the Middle East,” as
any sort of attack on oil production inef- taking right now.” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo put it in
fective. Iran also now believes that any Above all, Iran’s goal is to retain sup- a recent interview at the Atlantic Coun-
strike beyond covert cyberattacks ican military strike in January that States or Israel could respond with a ministration has looked for other ways port from Europe, Russia and China, all cil, a research institute.
would benefit Mr. Trump, allowing him killed Major Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the military strike. to intensify both its criticism and pres- of which oppose efforts by the United But the administration’s tough line
to rally his base and give the United Iranian commander who oversaw Despite Iran’s overall restraint, the in- sure on Tehran. The Justice Department States to reimpose economic sanctions, risks irritating other countries in the re-
States an opportunity for a military re- Tehran’s proxy forces around the Mid- crease in Iranian hacking attempts has announced four indictments in three and to avoid doing anything that would gion, notably Iraq and Qatar, both of
sponse, according to American, allied dle East. been notable. Microsoft warned this days of Iranian hacking groups, though jeopardize the expiration of a United Na- which host American troops and are
and Iranian officials. American intelligence on Iranian in- month that a hacking group called Phos- none were related to election interfer- tions arms embargo scheduled for Octo- strategic American partners in the Mid-
Iranian leaders, according to allied in- tentions has always been imprecise, and phorous that it has linked to the Iranian ence. And the State and Treasury De- ber. dle East but also maintain ties with
telligence, have concluded that restraint officials would not discuss in detail the government has “unsuccessfully at- partments also announced sanctions on Israeli attacks on Iranian forces in Tehran.
is the best way to prevent Mr. Trump’s evidence behind the new assessments Thursday related to Iranian hackers Syria this year prompted the new chief Iran is exercising patience, sticking to
re-election. of Iranian caution. But officials said the backed by Tehran’s intelligence agency of Iran’s Quds Force to urge his govern- low-level cyberoperations it hopes can-
Iran is exercising patience,
Nonetheless, Mr. Trump and several conclusion of relative inaction by Iran who have targeted dissidents, journal- ment to respond. But Iran’s supreme not be directly attributed to it. Iranian
of his top aides have portrayed Iran as was consistent with its recent actions in sticking to low-level ists and others in the country. leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, blocked officials have no great insight into
an increasingly dangerous threat. On the Middle East. cyberoperations it hopes cannot The Navy announced the aircraft car- any large-scale response. Instead the Is- American politics but read American
Saturday, the United States reimposed Privately, Iranian leaders are con- be directly attributed to it. rier Nimitz, and its accompanying sup- lamic Revolutionary Guards Corps re- and European news reports as suggest-
sanctions on Iran, acting without the vinced that the United States and Israel port ships, entered the Persian Gulf on ceived permission for a small cyber- ing a victory by Mr. Biden is more likely,
support of Europe, which opposed the are running operations against them, Friday. Navy officials said the action attack against Israel. said Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former offi-
move. Mr. Trump and Robert C. O’Brien, according to allied officials briefed on in- tempted to log into the accounts of ad- was a long-scheduled training deploy- American government officials have cer with the Central Intelligence Agency
his national security adviser, have telligence. But they have held back on ministration officials and Donald J. ment but acknowledged that it also sig- discussed in recent days apparent and a senior fellow at the Foundation for
presented Iran as a threat to the fall major retaliation, such as a response to Trump for President campaign staff,” an naled to Iran to avoid any provocative threats against American diplomats by Defense of Democracies.
election on par with Russia, an assess- a July explosion at its Natanz nuclear acceleration of attacks underway for actions as the new American sanctions the Iranians, part of an effort by Iran re- “As long as Western commentary is
ment that intelligence officials and out- sites that Israel was said to have been months. take effect. taliate for the January drone strike that showing Biden favored to win, I suspect
side experts say is wrong. responsible for. Iran did not publicly as- Microsoft, with the approval of a fed- Administration officials have also em- killed General Suleimani. the Iranian reaction will be to play a
Some administration officials have sign blame for the blast, which de- eral court, has seized 155 internet do- phasized Iran’s efforts at election inter- Lana Marks, the American ambassa- waiting game,” Mr. Gerecht said.
acknowledged the Iranians’ recent re- stroyed a plant making centrifuges and mains that it has proved are under the ference. In addition to trying to infiltrate dor to South Africa and a political sup-
straint. In a briefing with reporters last was a severe setback for its nuclear pro- control of the Iranian group and are the Trump campaign, Iran has used so- porter of Mr. Trump, was a potential tar- Julian E. Barnes, David E. Sanger and
week about the sanctions, Elliott gram. used for attacks. But compared with cial media to criticize the White House’s get of an Iranian attack, according to na- Lara Jakes reported from Washington,
Abrams, the State Department’s envoy Iranian officials sensed a trap, the al- past Iranian activity, the attacks have handling of the coronavirus pandemic tional security officials. But some and Ronen Bergman from Tel Aviv. Eric
for Iran policy, said Iran had been acting lied officials said. Iranian officials be- left American intelligence officials un- and highlight social unrest in the United briefed on the intelligence said Iran had Schmitt contributed reporting from
with a “certain degree of caution,” lieve that such attacks are aimed at lur- impressed. States. not decided to directly target any Ameri- Washington, and Farnaz Fassihi from
though he credited the shift to the Amer- ing them to retaliate, so that the United Beyond the sanctions, the Trump ad- But Iran is unable to combine its overt can official, and other current and for- New York.
..
THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 | 5
world
As if the pandemic weren’t there
Trump and his supporters
paint a campaign picture
that plays down the virus
BY ADAM NAGOURNEY
AND JEREMY W. PETERS
Jodee Burton, a retired preschool
teacher who now helps with her hus-
band’s logging business, lives on a re-
mote patch in the Upper Peninsula of
Michigan, a state that has been em-
broiled in a partisan battle over how to
respond to a pandemic that has killed
nearly 7,000 people there and almost
200,000 nationwide.
Ms. Burton, 63, who is the mother of
three grown children, is not convinced
that there is a crisis — and she is cer-
tainly not happy with the efforts by her
governor, Gretchen Whitmer, a Demo-
crat, to require some people to wear
masks or restrict where they can play
and work.
“There’s only been three cases in
Luce County and I know all three of
them,” said Ms. Burton, whose family
dog wears a Trump bandanna in place of
a collar. “They have husbands and they
sleep with these men every night, and
none of them got it.”
Amid resistance to face masks, scorn
for the science of the coronavirus and
predicting the imminent arrival of a vac-
cine while playing down the death
count, President Trump and a sizable
number of his supporters have aligned
emphatically behind an alternate reality
minimizing a tragedy that has killed an
overwhelming number of Americans
and gutted the economy.
This mix of denial and defiance runs
contrary to the overwhelming evidence
about the spread and toll of the virus,
and it is at the center of Mr. Trump’s re-
election effort as early voting begins in
Minnesota, Virginia and other states. It
is an outlook shared among his most loy-
al supporters and pushed by many of his
allies in the political and news media es-
tablishment.
To some extent, this viewpoint re-
flects the resentments of Americans liv-
DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES
ing in regions of the country, including President Trump held a campaign rally at the Fayetteville Regional Airport in North Carolina last week, one of many gatherings he has attended against the advice of public health officials.
upstate New York and the upper
reaches of Michigan, that have been rel-
atively untouched by the virus but have mainly a problem in blue states. seen as Mr. Trump has stepped up his Oklahoma while not wearing a mask; he motorcycle accident. Or somebody was the Centers for Disease Control and Pre-
had to endure drastic business shut- The president’s critics say his con- campaign travels, ignoring the counsel died several weeks later after testing shot in the head and he’s listed as a vention, or the World Health Organiza-
down measures that have left many res- frontational approach has kept the of his own public health experts while positive for the coronavirus. Covid death. So if you take just the tion. He continues to provide projections
idents confined to their homes without country from forming a consensus mocking Mr. Biden for taking a cautious Mr. Trump accepted his party’s nomi- deaths that are strictly from Covid, that experts warn are overly optimistic
jobs or income. about how to fight the worst public approach to holding large events. The nation for a second term with a speech there’s not that many. So, I’m not afraid or misguided. Last week he said that a
“The people who need to shelter in health crisis in more than 100 years. president’s rallies are filled with people to Republicans crowded onto the White of it.” vaccine could be ready “very, very
place should do so, but I do not feel that “The emotion, the passion — it’s out of standing shoulder-to-shoulder, not House lawn — again, most not wearing The response to the virus has been soon,” and insisted that the virus would
that should ruin the economy,” said hand,” said Representative Debbie wearing masks. At a rally this month in masks as they cheered the president one of the major dividing lines between simply vanish. “It’s going to disappear,”
Karla Mueller, a Republican and church Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, who Latrobe, Pa., Mr. Trump made fun of Mr. and gaped at a fireworks display. Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump, particularly he said in an interview with ABC News.
custodian who lives in Fond du Lac, Wis. pointed to two violent episodes in her Biden for wearing a mask. “It gives him “President Trump was a terrible role after Mr. Trump was quoted in a book by Polling suggests Democrats and inde-
“I think it’s ruined a lot of people’s small state that stemmed from disagreements a feeling of security,” he said to laughter. model,” said former Gov. Rick Snyder of Bob Woodward as saying that he real- pendents don’t think so. But voters who
businesses. I just don’t feel that that’s over wearing masks. “People have been Michigan, a Republican who has said he ized the severity of the coronavirus in support Mr. Trump see statements like
necessary.” shot and killed. A security guard in a dol- will vote for Mr. Biden. February but minimized it to the public. those as consistent with their beliefs.
Mr. Trump has suggested
But it is also a direct result of the look- lar store. There was another fight at Relatively few Republicans have chal- “If the president had done his job from “I don’t believe that the federal gov-
the-other-way message that the Trump Walmart. This is insane.” that the death count was lenged Mr. Trump on his handling of the the beginning, all these people would ernment could have done much more,”
administration has sent with increasing “Honestly, the fact of the matter is if either exaggerated or mainly pandemic, illustrating what Mr. Snyder still be alive,” Mr. Biden said on CNN on said Linda Jackson, 60, a Trump sup-
urgency, pollsters and strategists say, as the president would wear a mask, he a problem in blue states. said was a troubling culture of silence at Thursday night. “You lost your freedom porter who lives in North Cornwall
the president faces a strong challenge to would save more lives than anyone a time when leaders should be making ’cause he failed to act.” Township, in Lebanon County, Pa. “The
re-election from Joseph R. Biden Jr., his knows because he is a leader,” she said. unifying appeals. “He’s a bully, so he dis- Mr. Trump has assailed Mr. Biden, as- president, in my opinion, thinks outside
Democratic opponent. “And people would follow him.” The president ignored the governor of courages people to speak up,” Mr. Sny- serting — in a mischaracterization of his the box, and he enlisted public-private
Mr. Trump on Twitter has called for There is little doubt that much of Mr. Nevada by holding an indoor rally near der said. “In a democracy, we’re sup- remarks — that his opponent would partnerships to get the equipment, the
people to “LIBERATE” states that have Trump’s base embraces his attitude and Las Vegas this month; the state has posed to speak up in a respectful way.” close down the American economy if ventilators, the P.P.E., all the things that
imposed stay-at-home orders; threat- shares his optimistic assessment of the been devastated by the pandemic and Even this somber moment in the his- elected president. (Mr. Biden, the for- we needed on the local level to combat
ened to withhold aid from Democratic country’s path to recovery. Polls show its economic toll. tory of the virus — reaching the thresh- mer vice president, said he would follow the virus. And he’s really ramped up this
governors; and has undercut medical that Republicans approve of how he has Images evoke a nation divided. A vid- old of 200,000 deaths — has become a the guidance of medical authorities on testing for a vaccine.
professionals who have cautioned handled the response to the virus by eo was recently shared on social media subject of partisan dispute and conspir- whether parts of the economy should be “I think he’s done a really good job,”
against the use of unproven medical overwhelming margins and, unlike showing a demonstration in Utah where atorial dismissal. closed down.) she said.
treatments and premature school re- much of the country, think the United protesters said that a local school mask “There’s been all kinds of cases where The president has tried to present
openings. States has moved too slowly to reopen. mandate violated the Constitution and there was a motorcycle accident and, oh himself as someone who has ag- Reporting was contributed by Kathleen
He has attacked communities that A majority of them also support wearing amounted to child abuse. There was yeah, he died of Covid,” said Stephen gressively sought to confront the virus Gray from McMillan and Freeland,
have resisted reopening schools and masks, though not by the same margin Herman Cain, the business executive Guentert, 52, a math teacher from Free- from the start. For any shortcomings or Mich., Jon Hurdle from Philadelphia,
business, and has suggested that the as Democrats or the nation at large. and onetime Republican presidential land, Mich., who attended a Trump rally failures, he and his allies have tried to Tom Kertscher from Milwaukee and Gio-
death count was either exaggerated or The evidence of these divisions can be candidate, attending a Trump rally in last week. “No he did not. He died from a shift blame to others: China, the states, vanni Russonello from New York.
Donations to Democrats reshape race to control the Senate
ELECTION,FROM PAGE1 Scott Reed, a top strategist with the U.S. could still be reserved on television and paign is expanding its get-out-the-vote
weeks before the election will help Dem- Chamber of Commerce, which is spend- a diminishing rate of return. program.
ocrats wrest control of the Senate from ing money on Senate races. “Now it’s a “The number of truly persuadable If the past is any indication, a Su-
Senator Mitch McConnell and the Re- monster advantage.” swing voters is so small,” said Ralph preme Court confirmation battle will en-
publicans. The Democrats need to pick Democrats already had more televi- Reed, a top strategist for the Christian courage Republican megadonors to
up four seats to guarantee a Senate ma- sion dollars reserved from September right, which is organizing voters in open their wallets, as they did in 2018 for
jority, or three seats and the presidency, through Election Day, Nov. 3, in five of states like North Carolina and Iowa Brett M. Kavanaugh’s nomination fight.
with the vice president serving as a the top Senate battlegrounds seen as where Republican senators face tough Some conservative groups said over the
tiebreaker. likeliest to determine control of the Sen- re-elections. “Outspending on TV is weekend that they had secured commit-
Achieving that will require winning in ate — North Carolina, Iowa, Arizona, largely firing a shotgun at the head of a ments from large donors to help confirm
states that President Trump carried in Montana and Maine — according to data pin,” he added. “Spraying a lot of expen- Mr. Trump’s eventual nominee.
2016. A confirmation clash could harden from Advertising Analytics, an ad- sive fire to a very small target.” The Judicial Crisis Network, which
an already polarized electorate and tracking firm. Republicans have re- Mr. Schatz, the Hawaii senator, advocates conservative judges, said it
hamper Democrats’ efforts to win over served more time than Democrats only sharply disagreed. “It is a myth that this would spend at least $10 million on the
the kind of ticket-splitting voters — bar- in Colorado and Georgia among the top- money can’t be used, or that every race court battle, the same amount it de-
ring a Democratic landslide — that they tier races. is already saturated,” he said. “There ployed in defending Justice Kavanaugh
will most likely need. Several Democratic challengers ex- are lots of viable Democratic Senate in his confirmation fight. And on Sunday,
So far, Republicans have not reported panded their television ad buys on Mon- candidates who lack the money to get
any commensurate surge in donations, day, with Sara Gideon in Maine reserv- their message out, whether it be direct
“It was a little advantage before.
though they expect that will change, ing another $600,000 in new cable ads. mail, social media or the radio.”
once Mr. Trump names his nominee lat- Ms. Gideon will begin running an ad on There has already been some back- Now it’s a monster advantage.”
er this week. With the lack of a specific Tuesday about confirming judges that lash aimed at Amy McGrath, a liberal-
person to attach to fund-raising appeals, links Senator Susan Collins, the Republi- donor favorite running against Mr. Mc-
ALEX EDELMAN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
the president’s email solicitations em- can incumbent, to Mr. McConnell and A protest outside the Washington home of Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican who Connell. She had raised $47 million by the latest super PAC donations from the
ployed gimmicky subject lines like “Su- the national party. The Gideon cam- changed his position on election-year appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court. the end of June, despite running in casino magnate Sheldon G. Adelson and
preme Court Choice Attached”; the paign declined to say how much money deeply Republican Kentucky. A Quinnip- his wife were disclosed, bringing his
campaign also began selling “Fill That it had raised since Friday. iac poll last week showed Ms. McGrath contributions to preserve Republicans’
Seat” T-shirts. In South Carolina, Senator Lindsey Mitch or Die Trying,” created by the pro- egists in both parties were reluctant to down by 12 points, and some Democrats majority in the Senate to $50 million.
Only hours after Justice Ginsburg’s Graham’s Democratic opponent, Jaime gressive group Crooked Media, has speculate about, as they waited for said the money donated to her would be “We’re flying a little blind as to what is
death, Mr. McConnell, the majority Harrison, had a record-breaking week raised more than $18.5 million since Fri- polling data from battleground states to better directed elsewhere. happening on the Republican side,” Sen-
leader, promised that the eventual pick before Justice Ginsburg died, raising $2 day evening, initially dividing up the trickle in over the next few days. Neither Ms. McGrath nor another top ator Chris Murphy of Connecticut said
would receive a floor vote. Democrats million in the two days after a Quinnipi- proceeds among 13 Senate candidates. In Montana, for instance, Gov. Steve fund-raising Democratic candidate, of their fund-raising. The Republican
said the news that a vote would be held, ac poll showed the race tied at 48 per- “I’ve never seen anything like the en- Bullock, the Democratic challenger, Mark Kelly in Arizona, were included in counterpart to ActBlue, a group called
despite the justice’s dying wish that she cent. Mr. Graham, the Senate Judiciary thusiasm since Justice Ginsburg’s death must win significantly more votes than the Crooked Media listing. The McGrath WinRed, does not voluntarily show its
not be replaced “until a new president is Committee chairman, had previously broke,” said Tommy Vietor, a founder of his party’s presidential nominee, Joseph and Kelly campaigns did not disclose total donations in real time. “I would be
installed,” served as an accelerant for said he would not advance an election- Crooked Media and a former Obama ad- R. Biden Jr., if he has any hope of unseat- their weekend fund-raising figures. surprised if there was anything similar
donations — a “rocket ship of rage,” as year Supreme Court nomination after ministration official. ing Senator Steve Daines, the Republi- One Senate long shot, Mike Espy of happening,” Mr. Murphy said, “but I
one Senate campaign manager called it. Republicans blockaded President But Mr. Vietor said he was worried can incumbent. Mr. Trump carried Mon- Mississippi, was added to the Crooked don’t know for sure.”
Some Republicans are sounding the Barack Obama’s nominee in 2016 from about the flip side of the Supreme Court tana by 20 percentage points four years Media list late Sunday. He has raised In Alaska, Dr. Gross’s campaign man-
alarm about the money flowing into receiving a hearing. vacancy. “The money that is coming in ago. $700,000 since Friday, a smaller sum ager said the campaign was planning to
Democrats’ Senate campaigns, saying it Democratic activists aimed much of for Dems is obviously beneficial to our While awed at the money Democrats than others but still about half as much expand local hiring. “It’s notoriously a
exacerbates a financial imbalance their ire about Republicans’ hypocrisy efforts,” he said. “But will there be states were able to bring in, some conserva- as he had raised the entire rest of the state that people think of as red,” Mr.
where Democratic challengers and su- at Mr. Graham. The Harrison campaign, where this will bring conservative vot- tives questioned how effectively it could campaign, through June. Keith said. “It’s not as red as people
per PACs were already outpacing them too, declined to comment on what he had ers home? We just don’t know yet.” be spent coming so late — just six weeks “We’d kind of been written off,” think.”
in key contests. raised. Which party’s voters will be more gal- before the election — when there was a Kendall Witmer, Mr. Espy’s spokeswom-
“It was a little advantage before,” said A single fund-raising page called “Get vanized? That was a question strat- finite amount of advertising time that an, said of “party leaders.” Now the cam- Jonathan Martin contributed reporting.
..
6 | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION
Business
Oil giants diverge
on climate change
must play a role in the kind of energy
HOUSTON
transition the world last saw during the
industrial revolution. But the urgency
with which the companies are planning
U.S. majors double down
to transform their businesses could not
on fossil fuels as Europe be more different.
“Despite rising emissions and soci-
invests in renewables
etal demand for climate action, U.S. oil
majors are betting on a long-term future
for oil and gas, while the European ma-
BY CLIFFORD KRAUSS
jors are gambling on a future as elec-
As oil prices plunge and concerns about tricity providers,” said David Goldwyn,
climate change grow, BP, Royal Dutch a top State Department energy official
Shell and other European energy com- in the Obama administration. “The way
panies are selling off oil fields, planning the market reacts to their strategies and
a sharp reduction in emissions and in- the 2020 election results will determine
vesting billions in renewable energy. whether either strategy works.”
The American oil giants Chevron and To environmentalists and even some
Exxon Mobil are going in a far different Wall Street investors, the American oil
direction. They are doubling down on oil giants are clearly making the wrong
and natural gas and investing what call. In August, for example, Storebrand
amounts to pocket change in innovative Asset Management, Norway’s largest
climate-oriented efforts like small nu- private money manager, divested from
clear power plants and devices that Exxon Mobil and Chevron. And Larry
suck carbon out of the air. Fink, who leads the world’s largest in-
The disparity reflects the vast differ- vestment manager, BlackRock, has
ences in how Europe and the United called climate change “a defining factor
States are approaching climate change, in companies’ long-term prospects.”
a global threat that many scientists say European oil executives, by contrast,
is increasing the frequency and severity have said that the age of fossil fuels is
of disasters like wildfires and hurri- dimming and that they are planning to
canes. European leaders have made leave many of their reserves buried for-
tackling climate change a top priority ever. They also argue that they must
while President Trump has called it a protect their shareholders by preparing
“hoax” and has dismantled envi- for a future in which governments enact
ronmental regulations to encourage the tougher environmental policies.
exploitation of fossil fuels. BP is the standard-bearer for the
JASON HENRY FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Outside Salesforce in San Francisco, a space that is usually bustling at lunchtime. In the midst of the pandemic, the company phased out the jobs of 1,000 workers. As world leaders struggle to adopt co- hurry-up-and-change strategy. The
ordinated and effective climate policies, company has announced that over the
the choices made by oil companies, with next decade it will increase investments
Profits still come first
their deep pockets, science prowess, ex- in low-emission businesses tenfold, to $5
perience in managing big engineering billion a year, while shrinking its oil and
projects and lobbying muscle may be gas production by 40 percent. Royal
critical. What they do could help deter- Dutch Shell, Eni of Italy, Total of France,
mine whether the world can meet the Repsol of Spain and Equinor of Norway
and workplace safety during the pan- ing to serve the enterprise well if you ha- inclusivity, including the diversity of goals of the Paris agreement to limit the have set similar targets. Several of those
Pandemic and racial issues
demic, while failing to distinguish them- ven’t properly taken care of all of your governing boards. increase of global temperatures to be- companies have cut their dividends to
test idea that companies selves in pursuit of racial and gender other stakeholders,” Mr. Bolten added. The report notes that very few com- low 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above prein- invest in new energy.
equality, according to the study. “You cannot take care of any one of them panies that signed the Business Round- dustrial levels. BP tried a transition in the late 1990s
can focus on social goals
Financed by the Ford Foundation, the without taking care of them all.” table statement submitted it to their The big American and European oil and early 2000s under the leadership of
study is the work of KKS Advisors, a Yet the recent history of American governing boards for approval, a fact and gas companies publicly agree that John Browne, then chief executive, but
consultancy that counsels companies on capitalism is the story of wages stagnat- cited in a law review article as evidence climate change is a threat and that they OIL,PAGE7
BY PETER S. GOODMAN
environmental policy, and The Test of ing for ordinary workers while share- that the pledge is an exercise in public
Marc Benioff, chief executive of the Corporate Purpose, a group of re- holders reap extraordinary gains. The relations.
technology giant Salesforce, presents searchers convened to assess how cor- divide has proved especially stark dur- Mr. Bolten said board passage was
himself as an evangelist for stakeholder porations have responded to the pan- ing the pandemic: Shareholders suf- not required, because member compa-
capitalism: the idea that companies demic and the movement against racial fered initial plunges in asset values but nies have already embraced the state-
must elevate the interests of workers, injustice. Its advisory board includes a then recovered; tens of millions of ment’s principles. “It did not arise from
the environment and local communities professor of management at the Univer- wage-earners remain jobless, massing nowhere,” he said. “The statement has
alongside those of shareholders. sity of Oxford and senior executives at food banks. to be viewed as both capturing an evolu-
He has written books and opinion from financial firms including Morgan tion and expressing an aspiration.”
pieces arguing that profits are not suffi- Stanley and Liberty Mutual. The new report singles out Wells
Signatories have done no better
cient: Companies must do good. He at- “Since the pandemic’s inception,” the Fargo for rejecting a shareholder pro-
tends the World Economic Forum in Da- study concludes, the Business Round- than other companies in posal that sought to implement the Busi-
vos, Switzerland, a hotbed for such table statement “has failed to deliver protecting jobs, labor rights and ness Roundtable pledge by exploring
thinking. And his company was among fundamental shifts in corporate purpose workplace safety, a study finds. the possibility of converting the bank’s
the 181 members of the Business Round- in a moment of grave crisis when en- legal structure into a benefit corpora-
table, a club of chief executives, that lightened purpose should be para- tion, which would allow it to subordinate
promised last year to broaden its tradi- mount.” Mr. Bolten said that picture masks shareholder interests to other concerns.
tional obsession with the bottom line to The study enhances doubts that cor- how Business Roundtable members A Wells Fargo spokeswoman said the
include societal concerns. porations can be depended upon to mod- have aided employees during the pan- bank had responded to the economic
In late August, as Salesforce celebrat- erate their quest for profits to pursue so- demic, providing help with child care shock by turning branches into food
ed more than $5 billion in quarterly lutions to challenges like climate and flexibility to work from home, while banks and deferring loan payments.
sales, Mr. Benioff proclaimed validation. change, racial injustice and economic in- increasing philanthropic efforts. The report trains special attention on
“This is a victory for stakeholder capi- equality. Skeptics argue that a single “I think they have done exceptionally Amazon. Though its founder and chief
talism,” he said in a television interview. stakeholder will always retain primacy: well,” he said. executive, Jeff Bezos, signed the Busi-
The next day, in the midst of the pan- the shareholder. The new study says otherwise. Re- ness Roundtable statement, Amazon
demic, Salesforce informed 1,000 em- The Business Roundtable presents its searchers explored the workings of 800 has emerged as a conspicuous example
ployees that their jobs were no longer mission statement as a reflection of the companies — those whose shares are in- of a company that has profited from the
needed. belief that chief executives face extraor- cluded in the S&P 500 and the FTSEu- pandemic, selling more than $164 billion
The coronavirus, its attendant eco- dinary pressures to protect workers, the rofirst 300, an index of European stocks worth of goods this year while drawing
nomic devastation and the movement environment and community interests — and narrowed the survey to 619 for accusations that it has failed to protect
against racial injustice have collectively or suffer punishment in the market- which they were able to amass at least workers.
posed the first test of the lofty words place. three years’ worth of data. In March, Christian Smalls, an em-
proclaiming a kinder form of capitalism. “It was not a demotion of the long- They mined trade publications, news ployee at an Amazon warehouse in New
The results have fallen short of the term shareholders, because, in our view, reports and other industry sources to York, was fired after leading a walkout,
promise, according to a study that was the interests of all the stakeholders align determine the degree to which compa- protesting what he said was the compa-
to be released on Tuesday and obtained in the long-run success of the enter- nies were operating in accordance with ny’s failure to provide protective equip-
by The New York Times. prise,” said the president of the Business the Sustainability Accounting Stand- ment even though several workers be-
The Business Roundtable’s statement Roundtable, Joshua Bolten. “But it is a ards Board, a nonprofit organization came ill.
of a purpose of a corporation, released rejection of short-term shareholder in- that promotes corporate standards on Amazon said he was fired for violating
last year, was touted by prominent exec- terests.” social and environmental issues. They a quarantine policy. Mr. Smalls said he
utives as a landmark in the evolution of Companies can cause immediate examined how the companies per- was placed on quarantine only after de-
corporate governance. But its signato- gains in their stock prices by cutting formed in June and July on a range of manding that the company provide paid ALANA PATERSON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
ries have done no better than other com- costs through layoffs or slashing bene- indicators relevant to the pandemic, sick leave to others. American oil companies are investing what amounts to pocket change in climate-ori-
panies in protecting jobs, labor rights fits. “But in the long term, that’s not go- such as workplace safety, and to racial PROFITS,PAGE7 ented efforts like a carbon-capture project north of Vancouver, British Columbia.
It’s almost like having a doctor on your wrist
You open the blood oxygen app on the people with known heart conditions to tigate. And if you have symptoms of If you find that the data makes you
device, keep your wrist steady and hit monitor their health — but doctors illness, such as fever or a cough, a more anxious, you could simply disable
the Start button. After 15 seconds, warned that it was also a novelty that normal blood oxygen reading shouldn’t the feature, Dr. Goldstein said.
during which a sensor on the back of should not be used to jump to conclu- be a reason to skip talking to a medical But even if blood oxygen meas-
the watch measures your blood oxygen sions or for people to self-diagnose professional, Dr. Goldstein said. urement sounds gimmicky today, it’s
level by shining lights onto your wrist, heart attacks or other conditions. Let a medical expert — not your important to keep an open mind about
it shows your reading. In three tests, And so, here we are again. watch — create the action plan. how new health-monitoring technolo-
Brian X. Chen my blood oxygen level stood between Blood oxygen monitoring may be gies might benefit us in the future.
99 percent and 100 percent. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW more useful for people who are already Both Dr. Goldstein and Dr. Weiss
I wasn’t quite sure what to do with A healthy person will usually have known to have health problems, Dr. pointed to sleep apnea as an area
this information. So I asked two medi- blood oxygen levels in the mid to high Weiss said. For example, if someone where wearable computers might
cal experts about the new feature. Both 90s. When people have health condi- with a history of heart failure saw benefit people. The condition, which
TECH FIX
were cautiously optimistic about its tions such as lung disease, sleep dis- lower saturation levels in their blood causes breathing problems during
potential benefits, especially for re- APPLE orders or respiratory infections, levels oxygen during exercise, that informa- sleep, affects millions of Americans,
The new Apple Watch can be summed search. The ability to constantly moni- The Apple Watch Series 6 features a can dip to the 60s to the low 90s, Dr. tion could be shared with a doctor, who but most people never know that they
up in two words: blood oxygen. tor blood oxygen levels with some blood oxygen sensor and app. Goldstein said. could then modify the treatment plan. have it.
The ability to measure your blood’s degree of accuracy, they said, could If you buy the Apple Watch and have The information could also be used It’s a bit of a Catch-22. If you had
oxygen saturation — an overall indica- help people discover symptoms for access to information about your blood to determine whether a sick person symptoms of sleep apnea, which in-
tor of wellness — is the most signifi- health conditions like sleep apnea. and lead them to take unnecessary oxygen levels all the time, it’s impor- should go to the hospital. “If a patient clude lower blood oxygen levels, your
cant new feature in the Apple Watch “Continuous recording of data can be tests. tant to have a framework for thinking called me and said, ‘I have Covid and doctor would order a test. But you
Series 6, which was unveiled earlier really interesting to see trends,” said “It can be positive and negative,” he about the data. Most importantly, you my oxygen level is at 80 percent,’ I probably wouldn’t catch the symptoms
this month. (The watch is otherwise Cathy A. Goldstein, a sleep physician cautioned. “It could keep people out of should have a primary care physician would say, ‘Go to the hospital,”’ Dr. while you were asleep, so a study
not that different from last year’s at the University of Michigan’s Medi- doctors’ offices and at home and give with whom you can share the meas- Weiss said. would never be ordered.
Apple watch.) The feature is particu- cine Sleep Clinic, who has researched them reassurance, but it could also urements so that you can place it into The Apple Watch will periodically
larly timely with the coronavirus, data collected by Apple Watches. create a lot of anxiety.” context with your overall health, like SO WHY SHOULD I CARE? measure your blood oxygen level in the
because some patients in critical condi- But for most people who are rela- That’s important to remember as your age and pre-existing conditions, In the end, health data on its own isn’t background, including when you are
tion with Covid-19 have had low blood tively healthy, measuring blood oxygen smart watches gain new health-moni- Dr. Goldstein said. immediately useful, and we have to asleep. So if we gather data about
oxygen levels. on an everyday basis could be way toring features that give us informa- But when it comes to medical advice decide how to make the best use of the ourselves while we’re slumbering, we
But how useful is this feature for all more information than we need. Ethan tion about ourselves that we have to and diagnosis, always defer to a doctor. information. Apple doesn’t recommend might discover something unknown
of us, really? Weiss, a cardiologist at the University figure out how to use. When the Apple If you notice a big dip in your blood what to do or how to feel about the about ourselves — or not.
I had a day to test the new $399 of California, San Francisco, said he Watch Series 4 introduced an electrical oxygen level, it is not necessarily a information, just as a bathroom scale “Until we start doing it, we don’t
Apple Watch to measure my blood was concerned that blood oxygen heart sensor for people to take electro- reason to panic, and you should talk to doesn’t tell you you’re overweight and know whether or not this information
oxygen level. The process was simple: readings could create anxiety in people cardiograms in 2018, it was useful for your doctor to decide whether to inves- give you a diet plan. can be valuable,” Dr. Goldstein said.
..
THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 | 7
business
Moving fast or slow
in energy transition
OIL,FROM PAGE6 Exxon has also largely steered away
financial results from renewables were from renewables and has instead in-
disappointing and the company eventu- vested in roughly one-third of the
ally dropped its moniker “Beyond Petro- world’s limited carbon-capture capacity,
leum.” which has been so expensive and ener-
In an interview, Mr. Browne said this gy intensive that few companies have
time would be different. “There are been willing to underwrite large-scale
many more voices now,” he said, adding projects.
that the Paris agreement was a water- It spends about $1 billion a year on re-
shed, the economics of renewables have search and development, much of which
improved and investor pressure was goes to developing new energy tech-
building. nologies and efficiency improvements
This month BP and Equinor an- that reduce emissions.
nounced a partnership to build and op- One project involves directing carbon
erate wind projects along the coasts of emitted from industrial operations into
New York and Massachusetts. The gov- a fuel cell that can generate power. That
ernors of those states want to reduce should reduce emissions while increas-
their reliance on natural gas, which this ing energy production.
effort will aid. In a separate experiment, Exxon re-
American oil executives say it would cently announced a “big advance” with
be folly for them to switch to renew- scientists at the University of California,
ables, arguing that it is a low-profit busi- Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley
ness that utilities and alternative ener- National Laboratory for developing ma-
gy companies can pursue more effec- terials that help capture carbon dioxide
tively. They say it is only a matter of time from natural-gas power plants with less
before oil and gas prices recover as the heating and cooling than previous meth-
pandemic recedes. ods.
For now, Exxon and Chevron are The company is also working on
sticking to what they know best, shale strains of algae whose oils can produce
drilling in the Permian Basin of Texas biofuel for trucks and airplanes. The
and New Mexico, deepwater offshore plants also absorb carbon through pho-
production and trading natural gas. In tosynthesis, which Exxon scientists are
fact, Chevron is acquiring a smaller oil trying to speed up while producing more
company, Noble Energy, to increase its oil.
reserves.
“Our strategy is not to follow the Eu-
“We’re not asking our investors
ropeans,” said Daniel Droog, Chevron’s
vice president for energy transition. to sacrifice return or go forward
BRIAN SNYDER/REUTERS
QAnon followers protesting an order by the governor of Massachusetts for mandatory influenza vaccinations for all students under the age of 30. “Our strategy is to decarbonize our ex- with three decades of uncertainty
isting assets in the most cost-effective on dividends.”
Facebook fails to limit QAnon way and consistently bring in new tech-
nology and new forms of energy. But
we’re not asking our investors to sacri- Research into fusion, algae and car-
fice return or go forward with three dec- bon capture has been going on for dec-
ades of uncertainty on dividends.” ades, and many climate experts say
will be locked in an endless fight with companies began taking action against still recruiting new followers. Chevron says it is increasing its own those technologies could take decades
OAKLAND, CALIF.
QAnon and other groups that see it as a the extremist groups this summer, Members of those groups were also use of renewable energy to power its op- more to commercialize. That’s why
key battleground in their online war. prompted by the rapid growth in QAnon more active than before. Comments, erations. It also says it is reducing emis- many scholars and environmentalists
The stakes are high ahead of the Nov. and real-world violence linked to the likes and posts within the QAnon groups sions of methane, a powerful green- feel the American oil companies are not
Ever since the company
3 election. QAnon groups, which have group and militia-style movements on grew to over 600,000 a week after Face- house gas. And the company has in- serious about tackling climate change.
declared a crackdown, cast President Trump as the hero in social media. book’s rules went into effect, according vested more than $1.1 billion in various “Oil companies don’t do things that
their baseless conspiracy, have spread Twitter acted first. On July 21, Twitter to CrowdTangle data. Previous weeks projects to capture and sequester car- put themselves out of business,” said
the group has flourished
and amplified misinformation sur- announced that it was removing thou- had seen an average of less than 530,000 bon so it isn’t released into the atmos- David Keith, a Harvard professor of ap-
rounding the election. Among other sands of QAnon accounts and was block- interactions a week. “The groups, in- phere. plied physics who founded Carbon Engi-
things, they have shared false rumors ing trends and key phrases related to cluding QAnon, feel incredibly passion- Its venture capital arm, Chevron neering. “That is not the way the world
BY SHEERA FRENKEL
that widespread voter fraud is already the movement from appearing in its ate about their cause and will do what- Technology Ventures, is investing in works.”
AND TIFFANY HSU
taking place and have raised questions search and Trending Topics section. But ever they can do attract new people to new-energy start-ups like Zap Energy, But some energy analysts argue that
Last month, Facebook said it was crack- about the competency of the Postal many of the QAnon accounts on Twitter their conspiracy movement. Mean- which is developing modular fusion nu- the American oil companies are right
ing down on activity tied to QAnon, a Service with mail-in ballots. returned within weeks of the initial ban, while, Facebook has nowhere near the clear reactors that release no green- not to rush to change their businesses.
vast conspiracy theory that falsely “In allowing QAnon groups to get to according to researchers who study the same type of urgency or mandate to con- house gases and limit radioactive waste. They argue that U.S. lawmakers have
claims that a satanic cabal runs the this point and continue to grow, Face- platform. tain them,” Mr. View said. “Facebook is Another, Carbon Engineering, removes simply not given them enough incen-
world, and other potentially violent ex- book has created a huge problem for operating with constraints and these ex- carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to tives to make a radical break.
tremist movements. themselves and for society in a more tremist movements are not.” convert into fuel. “If this is the sunset time for oil and
Its own recommendation engine
Since then, a militia movement on general sense,” said Travis View, a host Researchers who study QAnon said All told, Chevron Technology Ven- gas, someone forgot to tell consumers,”
Facebook that called for armed conflict of QAnon Anonymous, a podcast that pushed users toward QAnon. the movement’s continued growth was tures has two funds with a total of $200 said Raoul LeBlanc, a vice president at
on the streets of U.S. cities has gained seeks to explain the movement. partly related to Facebook’s recommen- million, about 1 percent of the compa- IHS Markit, a research and consulting
thousands of new followers. A QAnon The QAnon movement has proved ex- dation engine, which encourages people ny’s capital and exploration budget last firm. He said while sales of electric cars
Facebook group has also added hun- tremely adept at evading detection on In a statement on Thursday, Twitter to join groups and pages related to the year. The company has a separate $100 may have picked up, it will take decades
dreds of new followers while question- Facebook under the platform’s new re- said that impressions, or views, of conspiracy theory. million fund to support a $1 billion in- to replace the more than a billion inter-
ing common-sense pandemic medical strictions. Some groups have simply QAnon content had dropped by 50 per- Marc-André Argentino, a Ph.D. candi- vestment consortium that aims to re- nal-combustion cars on the road now.
practices, like wearing a mask in public changed their names or avoided key cent since it had rolled out its restric- date at Concordia University in Montre- duce emissions across the oil and gas in- It will probably take just as long, if not
and staying at home while sick. And a terms that would set off alarm bells. The tions. al, Quebec, who is studying QAnon, said dustry. longer, to replace the large fleets of
campaign that claimed to raise aware- changes were subtle, like changing “Q” Then on Aug. 19, Facebook followed. he had identified 51 Facebook groups “We need breakthrough technology, trucks, airplanes and ships that run on
ness of human trafficking has steered to “Cue” or to a name including the num- The social network said it was removing that branded themselves as anti-child and my job is to go find it,” said Barbara fossil fuels. There ought to be enough
hundreds of thousands of people to con- ber 17, reflecting that Q is the 17th letter 790 QAnon groups from its site and was trafficking organizations, but which Burger, president of Chevron Technol- demand for oil over the next 30 to 40
spiracy theory groups and pages on the of the alphabet. Militia groups have introducing new rules to clamp down on were actually predominantly sharing ogy Ventures, which employs 60 of years for Exxon and Chevron to exploit
social network. changed their names to phrases from movements that discuss “potential vio- QAnon conspiracies. Many of the Chevron’s 44,000 employees. “The tran- their reserves and make money, though
Perhaps the most jarring part? At the Bible, or to claims of being “God’s lence.” The effect would be to restrict groups, which were formed at the start sition is not an 11:59-on-Tuesday event. the profits will decline over time, said
times, Facebook’s own recommendation Army.” groups, pages and accounts belonging of 2020, spiked in growth in the weeks It’s going to be gradual, and evolving Dieter Helm, an Oxford economist who
engine — the algorithm that surfaces Others simply tweaked what they to extremist groups, in the company’s after Facebook and Twitter began en- and continual over decades.” studies energy policy.
content for people on the site — has wrote to make it more palatable to the most sweeping action against QAnon forcing new bans on QAnon.
pushed users toward the very groups average person. Facebook communities and other such groups that had used The groups previously added dozens
that were discussing QAnon conspira- that had otherwise remained insulated Facebook to call for violence. to hundreds of new members each
ADVERTISEMENT
cies, according to research conducted from the conspiracy theory, like yoga About 100 QAnon groups on Facebook week. Following the bans, they at-
by The New York Times, despite assur- groups or parenting circles, were sud- tracked by The Times in the month since tracted tens of thousands of new mem- UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT FROM ASSERTING SUCH ADMINISTRATIVE CLAIMS AGAINST THE
ances from the company that that would denly filled with QAnon content dis- the rules were instituted continued to bers weekly, according to data pub- SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK DEBTORS, THE REORGANIZED DEBTORS, OR THEIR RESPECTIVE
In re PROPERTY AND ASSETS AND SUCH ADMINISTRATIVE CLAIMS
not happen. guised as health and wellness advice or grow at a combined pace of over 13,600 lished by Mr. Argentino. Facebook said NEW COTAI HOLDINGS, Chapter 11 SHALL BE DEEMED DISCHARGED AS OF THE EFFECTIVE DATE.
None of this was supposed to take concern about child trafficking. new followers a week, according to an it was studying the groups, but has not LLC, et al., Case No. 19-22911 (RDD) PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that pursuant to section 2.3
place under new Facebook rules target- A Facebook spokeswoman said the analysis of data from CrowdTangle, a taken action on them. Debtors.1 (Jointly Administered) of the Plan, the deadline to file final requests for payment of Fee
ing QAnon and other extremist move- company was continuing to evaluate its Facebook-owned analytics platform. NOATNICDE (OIIF) (OI)C ECNUTRRRYE NOCFE C OOFN FEIFRFMECATTIIVOEN D OARTDEER PClraoifmesss iios nOaclts ombuesrt 2fi6le, 2fi0n2al0 r e(iq.eu.e, 4st5s dfoary sp aayftmere ntht eo Ef fFfeeec tCivlaei mDast eb)y. Anoll
ments. The Silicon Valley company’s in- best practices. “Our specialists are That was down from the period before Sheera Frenkel reported from Oakland, later than this date to receive final approval of the fees and expenses
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that on August 27, 2020, the United States generated during the Chapter 11 Cases.
ability to quash extremist content, de- working with external experts on ways the new restrictions, when the same Calif., and Tiffany Hsu from Hoboken, Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (the “Bankruptcy PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that the Plan and its provisions are
spite frequent flags from concerned us- to disrupt activity designed to evade our groups added between 15,000 and N.J. Davey Alba contributed reporting Court”), entered an order [Docket No. 510] (the “Confirmation Order”) binding on the Debtors, the Reorganized Debtors, any and all Holders
ers, is now renewing questions about enforcement,” the spokeswoman said. 25,000 new members a week. from New York and Ben Decker from confirming the Amended Joint Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization of of Claims or Interests (irrespective of whether such Holders of Claims
New Cotai Holdings, LLC, et al. [Docket No. 485] (as may be modified, or Interests are deemed to have accepted the Plan), all Entities that are
the limits of its policing and whether it Facebook and other social media Even so, it indicated that QAnon was Boston. supplemented, restated, and further amended from time to time, the parties to or subject to the settlements, compromises, releases, and
“Plan”) (attached as Exhibit 1 to the Confirmation Order).2 injunctions described in the Plan, each Entity acquiring property under
PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that all conditions precedent to the Plan, and any and all non-Debtor parties to Executory Contracts and
the Effective Date of the Plan set forth in section 10.2 of the Plan have Unexpired Leases with the Debtors.
been satisfied (or waived as provided in section 10.3 of the Plan), such PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that the Plan and the Confirmation
Reality undercuts corporate pledges that the Plan was substantially consummated, and the Effective Date Order contain other provisions that may affect your rights. You are
occurred, on September 10, 2020. For the avoidance of doubt, the encouraged to review the Plan and the Confirmation Order in their
condition precedent set forth in section 10.2(e) of the Plan has been entirety.
satisfied. PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that after the Effective Date, any
PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that pursuant to the Confirmation pleading, notice or other document required by the Plan to be served
PROFITS,FROM PAGE6 equity, 1 percent of its products and 1 AOrrdtiecrl,e t IhXe o sfe thttele Pmlaenn atr, ere nleoaws ein, ifnujlul nfocrtcieo na,n adn edf feexcctu.lpation provisions in oasr dfoellliovwerse: d N teow th Ceo Dtaei,b LtLoCrs, co/ro t Wheil lRoewo rTgreaen iCzoedn sDueltbintogr sG srohuapll, bLeLC s,e 2r7v0ed0
In a written statement, Amazon dis- percent of its employees’ time to a range PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that pursuant to section 6.2 of the Patriot Boulevard, Suite 250, Glenview, Illinois 60026, Attention: Carl
missed the study as “flawed research” of philanthropic undertakings. Plan, all Proofs of Claim with respect to Claims arising from the rejection Lane, E-mail: [email protected] -and - Akin Gump Strauss Hauer
that relied on “the meaningless measure Salesforce workers volunteer at shel- of Executory Contracts or Unexpired Leases, if any, must be filed with the & Feld LLP, One Bryant Park, New York, New York 10036, Attention: Daniel
Bankruptcy Court within twenty one (21) days after the date of entry G. Walsh, E-mail: [email protected].
of ‘sentiment about company actions’ ters for the homeless and nonprofit or- of an order of the Bankruptcy Court (including the Confirmation Order) PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that copies of the Confirmation
and fails to evaluate the actual response ganizations that aid refugees. A com- approving such rejection. Any Claims arising from the rejection Order, the Plan, and all other documents filed in these chapter 11 cases
— which in the case of Amazon was pro- pany foundation has directed hundreds othf ea Bna Enxkercuupttocryy CCoounrttr wacitt hoinr Usuncehx ptiimreed wLeilal sbee naoutt ofimleadt iwcailtlhy anreew acvoatailia obrle b fyr ecea lloinf gch tahreg De ebbyt ovriss’i triensgtr uhctttpusri:n//gc ahsoetsl.ipnrei mate (c8le4r4k). c6o2m7-/
active, swift and effective.” of millions of dollars to local schools and Disallowed, forever barred from assertion, and shall not be 7471. You may also obtain copies of any pleadings filed in these chapter
The company said it had invested hospitals. During the worst of the pan- enforceable against the Debtors or the Reorganized Debtors, 11 cases for a fee via PACER at: http://www.nysb.uscourts.gov.
the Estates, or their property without the need for any
more than $800 million in safety im- demic in the United States, Mr. Benioff objection by the Reorganized Debtors or further notice to, or Dated: New York, New York, September 10, 2020
provements, outfitting workers with tapped contacts in China to procure action, order or approval of the Bankruptcy Court. Claims arising SKADDEN, ARPS, SLATE, MEAGHER & FLOM LLP, /s/ Mark A. McDermott,
masks, hand sanitizers and other pro- more than 50 million pieces of protective from the rejection of the Debtors’ Executory Contracts or Unexpired Mark A. McDermott, Evan A. Hill, Bram A. Strochlic, One Manhattan
Leases shall be classified as General Unsecured Claims. West, New York, New York 10001, Telephone: [phone], Fax: (212)
tective gear, while preventing the gear. PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that except as otherwise provided 735-2000, Counsel to Debtors and Debtors-in-Possession
spread of the virus at its facilities. “There are very few examples of com- by the Confirmation Order, the Plan, or a Final Order of the Court, the 1 The Debtors in these chapter 11 cases, along with the last four digits
The study does not assess the extent panies doing this at scale,” Mr. Benioff deadline for filing requests for payment of unpaid Administrative of their respective tax identification numbers, are as follows: New Cotai
Claims is October 12, 2020 (i.e., 30 days after the Effective Date). Holdings, LLC (3056); New Cotai, LLC (2582); New Cotai Capital Corp.
to which signatories have continued to said in a telephone interview.
HOLDERS OF ADMINISTRATIVE CLAIMS THAT ARE REQUIRED TO, (3641); New Cotai Ventures, LLC (9385). The Debtors’ corporate address is
pay dividends to shareholders while lay- With more than 54,000 employees BUT DO NOT, FILE AND SERVE A REQUEST FOR PAYMENT OF SUCH c/o New Cotai, LLC, Two Greenwich Plaza, Greenwich, Connecticut 06830.
ing off workers. But some did just that. worldwide, Salesforce has provided Mr. ADMINISTRATIVE CLAIMS BY THE ADMINISTRATIVE CLAIMS BAR 2 Capitalized terms used but not otherwise defined herein shall have
Arne M. Sorenson, president and Benioff a huge platform to advance the DATE SHALL BE FOREVER BARRED, ESTOPPED, AND ENJOINED the meanings ascribed to them in the Plan.
chief executive of Marriott Interna- tenets of stakeholder capitalism. Over-
tional, the world’s largest hotel chain, is all, the company has performed far bet- UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT 3. Administrative Expense Bar Date. Except as otherwise provided
co-chairman of a Business Roundtable ter than most in responding to the pan- EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA, RICHMOND DIVISION in Section 2.1 of the Plan and except with respect to Professional Fee Claims,
MATT EDGE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES requests for payment of Administrative Expense Claims must be filed and
task force assembled to address Marc Benioff, chief executive of the technology giant Salesforce, said the company’s demic and the drive for racial justice, the ICnH rINeOS HOLDINGS, INC., et al., )) CCahsaep Nteor. 1210–32181 (KLP) served on the Debtors or Reorganized Debtors no later than 60 days after the
Covid-19. In March, he announced that principles were not undermined by the loss of 1,000 jobs. study finds. Reorganized Debtors. ) (Jointly Administered) Effective Date, which is November 9, 2020.
HOLDERS OF ADMINISTRATATIVE EXPENSE CLAIMS THAT ARE REQUIRED TO
he was furloughing tens of thousands of Its principles are not undermined, Mr.
NOTICE OF (I) ENTRY OF ORDER CONFIRMING THE FILE AND SERVE A REQUEST FOR PAYMENT AND THAT DO NOT TIMELY FILE AND
employees, asserting that his hand had Benioff says, by his company’s decision AMENDED JOINT PREARRANGED CHAPTER 11 PLAN SERVE SUCH A REQUEST SHALL BE FOREVER BARRED FROM ASSERTING SUCH
been forced by the swift deterioration of have performed better than most, in- ices, including the delivery of vital medi- to phase out 1,000 workers the day after OF REORGANIZATION AND (II) OCCURRENCE ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSE CLAIMS AGAINST THE DEBTORS, THE REORGANIZED
OF THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF THE PLAN DEBTORS, OR THEIR RESPECTIVE PROPERTY, AND SUCH ADMINISTRATIVE
the business. Less than two weeks later, cluding Baxter International Inc., an Il- cal equipment to hospitals. It notes the celebrating a tremendous earnings re- EXPENSE CLAIMS SHALL BE FOREVER BARRED, ESTOPPED, AND ENJOINED FROM
Marriott paid out $160 million in divi- linois-based manufacturer of medical leading role played by BlackRock’s chief port and shortly after the expiration of a PLEASE TAKE NOTICE ASSERTING SUCH ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSE CLAIMS.
1. Confirmation of the Plan. On August 26, 2020, the United States 4. Professional Fee Claims. All final requests for Professional Fee
dends to shareholders. devices; SAP, a German software firm; executive, Laurence Fink, in steering in- widely touted 90-day pledge to avoid Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division (the Claims shall be filed no later than 60 days after the Effective Date, which is
Marriott lands in the bottom half of and Willis Towers Watson PLC, a British vestments toward companies that limit layoffs. “Bankruptcy Court”) entered an order (Docket No. 880) (the “Confirmation November 9, 2020.
companies in its response to the pan- insurance company. All three have climate change. Salesforce is continuing to hire in Order”) confirming the Second Amended Joint Prearranged Chapter 11 5. Rejection Damages Claims. Unless others provided by an order
Plan of Reorganization of Chinos Holdings, Inc. and Its Affiliated Debtors (with of the Bankruptcy Court, any proofs of claim based on the rejection of an
demic and demands for racial inclusiv- made progress on racial inclusivity, the No one has embraced the tenets of other parts of its business, he said. Some Technical Changes) (Docket No. 861) (as modified and amended in accordance Executory Contract or Unexpired Lease pursuant to the Plan or otherwise must
ity, according to the study. study finds. stakeholder capitalism more fervently of the affected employees will be rehired with the with the terms of the Confirmation Order, the “Plan”). Copies of the be filed with the Bankruptcy Court and served on the Reorganized Debtors and
Confirmation Order, the Plan and all documents filed in these chapter 11 cases the Class 6-B GUC Trustee no later than 30 days after the later of the Effective
A Marriott spokeswoman, Connie The report praises BlackRock, the than Mr. Benioff. in other areas, while those who depart are available free of charge by visiting https://www.omniagentsolutions. Date, which is October 10, 2020, or the effective date of the rejection of such
Kim, noted that Marriott suspended fur- world’s largest asset management com- From its founding in 1999, Salesforce will leave with severance. com/chinos. You may also obtain copies of the pleadings by visiting the Executory Contract or Unexpired Lease.
ther dividend payments. pany, for taking early action to alleviate — which makes software used by com- He described the objectives of the Bankruptcy Court’s website at https://www.vaeb.uscourts.gov/ in accordance 6. Binding Effect. The Plan and the provisions thereof are binding on
with the procedures and fees set forth therein. every holder of a claim or interest against or in any of the Debtors, regardless
The report highlights examples of the threat of Covid-19. The company do- panies to track interactions with their Business Roundtable statement as a 2. Effective Date. The Effective Date of the Plan occurred on September of whether the claim or interest of such holder is impaired under the Plan and
Business Roundtable signatories that nated $50 million for emergency serv- customers — has donated 1 percent of its long-term project. 10, 2020 and, as a result, the Plan has been substantially consummated. regardless of whether such holder accepted the Plan.
..
8 | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION
Opinion
The pandemic
in fall and winter
the crisis. The Harvard epidemiologist
The corona- Jeneen Interlandi
Marc Lipsitch says his efforts to pre-
virus isn’t dict how many Covid-19 patients would
need intensive care were stymied by a
going away,
lack of basic information about their
but a vaccine
The deadliest month in American average hospital stay. Other experts
is coming history was an October during a pan- have noted that there’s no way to tell
demic. how many cases are being found
and so is a
In 1918, after waning through the through contact tracing as opposed to
U.S. election. long summer, Spanish flu came roaring clinical diagnostics.
back to claim nearly 200,000 lives, just A recent report on risk factors from
in that one month, just in the United the Centers for Disease Control and
States. Until recently, this second-wave Prevention involved just 314 people
surprise — it was the worst of three to and concluded that eating at a restau-
hit the country between 1918 and 1919, rant or being exposed to someone with
most likely because a rare mutation the coronavirus might increase your
made the virus more deadly — was a risk of developing Covid-19. “It’s in-
bit of obscure medical trivia. But as the sane that eight months into a global
current pandemic enters its ninth pandemic we still don’t have this kind
month, armchair epidemiologists have of basic information,” Mr. Lipsitch
been wringing their hands over it. says. “It makes for a lot of guesswork.”
Coronaviruses have little in common But there are ways to think about
with influenza viruses. (For one thing, the future of this pandemic — and
coronaviruses mutate less frequently, some are more useful than others.
and almost never in ways that make
them deadlier). But we’re grasping for SECOND WAVES, MAGIC THRESHOLDS
comparisons because we are living in a Let’s set aside the wave analogy. Mi-
fog right now. chael T. Osterholm, the director of the
It’s not the same fog-of-war fog that Center for Infectious Disease Research
we experienced in early spring, when and Policy at the University of Minne-
airports were flooded in panic, every sota, says that it’s far more accurate to
inanimate object seemed capable of think of the pandemic as a forest fire.
infecting us and We have suppressed it in some places,
If SARS-CoV-2 nobody could but we have not put it out completely.
agree on if or when “It’s going to keep burning as long as it
is a forest fire,
to wear a mask. has wood,” he says. “In this case, wood
it still has a lot
Things seem much is humans that are susceptible to
of wood to
calmer now. But infection.”
burn through. they also remain It’s safe to assume that case counts
deeply uncertain. will rise in the coming months, as
Will we get a safe, colder weather forces more people
effective vaccine? A new president? indoors (in the North, at least) and as
More and better testing? How will more students and teachers return to
these things change the course of the in-person schooling. Colleges are
pandemic? What if they don’t? already grappling with outbreaks, and
To be sure, some progress has been infected students are already return-
made. Rapid antigen tests are finally ing home to seed a further spread in
being deployed, mask-wearing is com- their own communities.
mon in many places, and doctors have “Case counts could start spiking just
grown much more adept at treating a few weeks from now,” Peter Hotez,
the virus’s victims. Thanks to a small the dean of the National School of
roster of drugs and a better under- Tropical Medicine at the Baylor Col-
standing of when and how to ventilate lege of Medicine in Texas, told me.
Covid-19 patients, Ashish Jha, dean of “The most rigorous predictions are
Brown University’s School of Public that we head into November with
Health, estimates that people infected 220,000 deaths.” And if pandemic-
today are roughly 30 percent to 50 fatigued families travel to spend the
percent less likely to die of the virus holidays together, it will get worse in
than they would have been in March or late fall and winter.
April. It’s tough to say whether America
But government ineptitude, rampant will reach or surpass the grim peaks of
misinformation and outright lies from the summer, when we were seeing
the American president are still 65,000 to 70,000 new cases every day.
thwarting efforts to stomp the virus Hopeful policymakers have speculated
out. We are logging nearly twice as that fall outbreaks will be less severe,
many cases nationally as we did in late because many communities are at or
spring. And the death toll will soon approaching the herd immunity
surpass 200,000. Elderly people and threshold — the point at which enough
low-income, front-line workers, coming people have become immune to the
especially from communities of color, virus that it can no longer spread
make up a disproportionate share of easily. But there are several problems
those deaths, meaning that we have with this hypothesis.
done a bad job of protecting our most First, we don’t really know how HOKYOUNG KIM
vulnerable. durable immunity to the virus might
It’s tough to say how autumn will go, be. Most scientists think it’s likely that bar because now it’s over,” Dr. Jha whatever the threshold proves to be, That’s true even in Sweden, where
let alone winter. Mathematical models it lasts anywhere from several months says. “But it doesn’t work like that.” no country in the world is there yet. officials skipped complete lockdowns,
have proven unreliable in part because to a year. But doctors have confirmed a It’s hard to know what the threshold Even if some of the hardest hit com- presumably enabling more people to
they are based on previous experience, few cases of repeat infection and, in at even is (most experts put it at around munities — in Corona, Queens, for interact, catch SARS-CoV-2 and de-
and when it comes to the novel corona- least one of them, the second infection 60 percent or higher, though some example — are partly protected, anti- velop immunity to it. The resulting
virus, there is none: Other coronavi- proved more severe than the first. argue it could actually be much lower) body tests indicate that, overall, just 10 death toll was one of the highest in the
ruses have leapt into humans, but Second, herd immunity is not a and difficult to say when a population percent to 12 percent of Americans world, but proponents argue that the
none have ever caused a pandemic. magical doorway that will take us back has crossed it. But even then, the virus have been infected with the virus to pain was worth it because the coun-
Scientists also still don’t have to the before-times. “People think once would only slow down, not stop. date. If SARS-CoV-2 is a forest fire, it try’s fatality rate is now tumbling. A
enough data to form a full picture of we hit this number we can all go to the Third, most experts agree that, still has a lot of wood to burn through. INTERLANDI,PAGE10
Colleges, conservatives and the kakistocracy
cancel speakers just because their ideas courses rooted in traditionally conser-
Universi- Michael S. Roth are unpopular. vative ideas. Not a few students, alumni
ties with In July, the more than 150 signatories and faculty objected to my approach (as
of the much-discussed Harpers letter on well as my use of the term “affirmative
traditionally
freedom of expression noted: “[R]esist- action”), and we have had intense argu-
progressive
For the last several years I have been ance must not be allowed to harden into ments about it. Such arguments them-
ideals can disputing overblown claims that politi- its own brand of dogma or coercion — selves, I’d like to think, further intellec-
cal correctness is running amok on which right-wing demagogues are tual diversity.
welcome
college campuses. Given my job as the already exploiting.” The “intolerant These days when I make a plea for
conservative president of Wesleyan University, climate that has set in on all sides,” they greater intellectual diversity, I’m asked
views, and well-known to be (happily) a bastion of write, undermines democracy. not about teaching Aristotle, but
left-leaning protest, this probably isn’t In some quarters the letter was whether I want to invite fascists and
still reject
very surprising. greeted with derision, since these were racists to campus. My answer, of course,
authoritarian- But at the same time, I’ve been ac- writers with large megaphones grum- is no: As I have argued before, universi-
ism and hate. tively urging colleges and universities bling about being silenced, and the idea ties should be “safe enough” places for
to create greater intellectual diversity that there are “intolerant people on all all students. But when hearing the call
by ensuring that conservative voices sides” recalled one of President for teaching a broad range of ideas,
and viewpoints can flourish along with Trump’s most egregious statements. many students and professors immedi-
progressive ones. These might seem Similar complaints are also coming ately worry about providing a platform
like opposing missions, but they are not. now from academics who say that they for notions parroted by Trumpians
You can do both. In fact, if colleges are to are afraid of being canceled because BRETT COOMER/HOUSTON CHRONICLE, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS meant only to protect the privileges of
maintain their status as places of real they aren’t fully in accord with the leftist Police officers clashing with protesters at Texas A&M University in 2016 when Richard white supremacy and wealth.
learning and growth, they mustdo both. cultural climates of their campuses. The Spencer, who leads a white nationalist organization, was speaking. Is it any wonder? The administration
Lately, one hears a lot about threats to linguist John McWhorter wrote in a in Washington has appropriated the
freedom of expression posed by the recent article in The Atlantic that he’s conservative moniker even as it means
intolerant left. And not all of these com- received hundreds of messages ex- demics who write to Professor the protections of tenure) to stand to break down the remaining norms of
plaints are coming from the right. Intel- pressing a “very rational culture of fear McWhorter are afraid of being mocked, against vilification. Perhaps he will civil society and political culture. But
lectuals who think of themselves as among those who dissent, even slightly, vilified or perhaps of having their ca- inspire others, and the institutions that there is little that is conservative about
moderate liberals are using their plat- with the tenets of the woke left.” Profes- reers disrupted. employ them, to do the same. the current kakistocracy.
forms to complain about threats posed sor McWhorter describes this as a “new These professors don’t see them- It is no secret that the faculty at most When I talk about the tradition of
by “wokeness” or “cancel culture.” Maoism” because of the tendency to selves as snowflakes, but they do crave schools leans left, and it’s not unreason- conservative thinkers, I have in mind
Those critics do have a point. On demand public confessions and to some protection from students and able for students and educators to ask those who were skeptical of the powers
college campuses, students sometimes adhere to an ideological dogma. He colleagues demanding ideological how this tilt affects teaching — particu- of a central government, those who felt
denounce those with whom they knows, of course, that Maoism killed conformity. On-campus or social media larly how students are introduced to a that a well-ordered society depended on
strongly disagree as unworthy of being tens of millions of people in the name of vilification is emotionally damaging, broad range of ideas on enduring ques- a notion of transcendence, and those
heard at all. That “canceling” can be its dogma, so why resort to this over- even if it doesn’t involve being shipped tions in the humanities and interpretive who were concerned that even well-
(but is not always) a problem. It’s one heated rhetoric? People living under to a re-education camp. Prof. social sciences. intentioned policies to improve peoples’
thing to see speakers who advocate the Maoist regime had a “very rational McWhorter himself isn’t afraid, it At Wesleyan in 2017, I called for (and lives could have unintended conse-
hateful violence canceled; not every- culture of fear” of being deported, tor- seems, and he has found the courage then put into practice) an affirmative quences that are ruinous. I have in mind
thing is permitted. It’s another thing to tured or killed. It seems that the aca- and intellectual resources (along with action program for thinkers and ROTH,PAGE10
..
THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 | 9
opinion
Who is the stock market rooting for?
A.G. SULZBERGER,Publisher Ruchir Sharma
Contributing Writer
DEAN BAQUET,Executive Editor MEREDITH KOPIT LEVIEN, Chief Executive Officer
JOSEPH KAHN,Managing Editor STEPHEN DUNBAR-JOHNSON,President, International
TOM BODKIN, Creative Director HELEN KONSTANTOPOULOS, V.P.,International Circulation
SUZANNE DALEY, Associate Editor HELENA PHUA, Executive V.P., Asia-Pacific For months the S&P 500 rose this year
SUZANNE YVERNÈS, International Chief Financial Officer — despite a deadly pandemic, the
KATHLEEN KINGSBURY,Editorial Page Editor
resulting economic devastation and the
rise of a Democratic Party increasingly
sympathetic to democratic socialism.
Then, this month, with Joe Biden doing
well in the polls, stock prices finally
stumbled.
If polls continue to point to a Biden
TRUMP AND INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS victory in the 2020 presidential elec-
tion, pundits will be tempted to see any
Two years ago, the Trump administration withdrew further tremors in the stock market as
His admini- expressing a concern about the eco-
from an international agreement that had lifted most
stration is nomic priorities of a Democratic presi-
sanctions on Iran in exchange for strict limits on Iran’s dent. But the idea that the market
arguing that it
nuclear program. President Trump called the accord, favors a particular candidate or party,
is still a party though widespread, is wrong.
which had been painstakingly negotiated by the
My research, which reaches back to
to the Iran deal
Obama administration and America’s closest Euro- the 1860s, when the two-party political
that it left with
pean allies, the “worst deal ever.” He has been trying system began to dominate, shows that
great fanfare the market has no clear bias in favor of
to kill it ever since. He reimposed economic sanctions
either party and that
in 2018.
and threatened secondary sanctions on European It’s neither market volatility in
allies that do any business with Iran. The repudiation Trump nor the run-up to an
election is perfectly
was so head-spinning that other countries now wonder Biden. Wall
normal.
Street is not
if American international commitments can be trusted The market is an
as partisan economic barometer,
to last beyond the next election.
as you think. not a political one. To
In a stunning display of gall, the Trump administra-
be sure, its collective
tion is now arguing that the United States is still part mind pays attention
to presidential politics, but as just one
of the Iran deal after all. That’s because it wants to use
of many factors that can influence the
a provision in the deal to “snap back” global sanctions direction of the economy. The leader
on Iran to prevent the expiration of an arms embargo. that the market listens to most care-
fully is the head of the Federal Re-
Only a party to the agreement can trigger a resump-
serve, not the president. When states
tion of global sanctions. A State Department legal started imposing lockdowns in March,
opinion argues that, even though the United States the market suffered a drastic crash,
but then the Fed and the Treasury
withdrew from the accord and has been acting in op-
rushed in with promises of trillions of
position to the substance of the agreement since 2018, dollars to keep businesses afloat, and
it nonetheless remains a participant because a de- the market bounced back. ILLUSTRATION BY EMILY HAASCH; PHOTOGRAPHS BY RUTH FREMSON AND ERIN SCHAFF/THE NEW YORK TIMES
This month’s market tremors are
scriptive section of the U.N. Security Council Resolu-
best explained by growing concern
tion that followed the accord lists the names of the about Congress’s failure to pass a new growth and inflation, have tended to be rooting for a Trump win. The related 2000, according to some measures.
countries that struck the deal, including the United spending bill and about the prospect of more favorable under Democratic notion, that Wall Street is rooting What happens next in the market
a contested election — not the prospect presidents, which can make it seem as against a Biden win because of his depends mainly on the direction of the
States. That argument does not hold water.
that Mr. Biden might win. if markets prefer a Democrat in the party’s leftward drift, also does not jibe economy and on interest rates. If over
Preventing the sale of sophisticated weaponry to Indeed, the market seems to like a White House. Since 1869, the average with what many leading investors are the coming months the economy keeps
Iran is a laudable goal, given the military support that fresh face in the White House. Since market return over the course of a full saying and writing. recovering but long-term interest rates
the late 1860s, nine presidents have presidential term was 68 percent un- These investors believe that despite start to rise rapidly, the market could
Iran provides to various violent nonstate actors in its
been elected to consecutive terms and der a Democratic president and 52 Mr. Biden’s left-leaning campaign actually decline — a mirror image of
region. But for nearly two decades, world powers have have served at least five years. Eight percent under a Republican. rhetoric, he will govern more moder- this year’s market boom and economic
agreed to focus on the bigger prize: preventing Iran of them saw higher market returns in But the connection between eco- ately when in office, raising taxes and bust. Many traders, eager to see the
their first term than in their second, nomic health and a Democrat in the regulation while decreasing tensions market rally continue, are arguing that
from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Snapback sanctions
often much higher. (Ronald Reagan White House is largely coincidental. over immigration, global trade and if Mr. Biden wins he will bring in lead-
could put the final nail in the coffin of an agreement was the exception.) First-term returns Politicians can influence but not con- China. That mix would have some ership at the Fed that will be even
averaged 83 percent, second-term trol the business cycle. Economic effect on which economic sectors do more aggressive about keeping inter-
that does just that, at least until 2030.
returns just 28 percent. This finding is factors, not partisan bias, provide the best during a Biden presidency, but est rates low. That’s another reason
Moreover, the United States left the agreement in
consistent with research on the “sec- best explanation for why markets have little effect on the market’s overall Wall Street isn’t too worried about who
2018. No amount of legalistic contortions can change ond-term curse,” which shows that performed better under Democrats. direction. will be the next president, and more
underlying economic conditions tend Another clear pattern, based on data More important, the market cares than anything else just wants the
that simple fact. The United States has no standing to
to decline in a president’s second term. going back to the 1920s, is that mar- less about who leads the free world election to be over.
invoke a cherry-picked provision that serves its own Likewise, there have been 16 elec- kets grow more volatile in the three than who leads the Fed. Low interest
agenda while it makes a mockery of the rest of the tions since 1869 in which an incumbent months before an election. Whatever rates make stocks look more attractive, RUCHIR SHARMAis the chief global strat-
finished a full term, and was fighting upset the market this month, the vola- so the Fed’s policies in recent years egist at Morgan Stanley Investment
agreement. That’s not how international agreements
for a second. In general the markets do tility started right on time, historically have been turbocharging stock prices. Management and the author, most
work. The Trump administration’s behavior erodes the much better after an incumbent loses. speaking. The U.S. stock market is currently recently, of “The Ten Rules of Successful
integrity of every international accord going forward. It’s worth noting that underlying All of this casts doubt on the wide- more expensive than at any time other Nations.” This essay reflects his opin-
economic conditions, including G.D.P. spread assumption that Wall Street is than the dot-com bubble of 1999 to ions alone.
That’s why there is so little support on the 15-mem-
ber Security Council for the U.S. position. In a related
vote in August, only the Dominican Republic stood
No more deception on abortion
with the United States. Nonetheless, U.S. diplomats
are pushing ahead. They contend that global sanctions
snapped back after a 30-day notification period, which
stake if Trump is allowed to replace
ended Saturday night. President Trump was scheduled
Ginsburg.
to address the General Assembly virtually on Tuesday “Hawley wants to make sure where
and declare his intention to enforce Security Council they stand, if they disagree with Roe v.
Wade,” said Nancy Northup, president
sanctions on Iran.
of the Center for Reproductive Rights.
U.N. officials now find themselves in a diplomatic “The 70-plus percent of the American
Michelle Goldberg
twilight zone, stuck between the Trump administra- public that supports Roe v. Wade
would like to know that too.”
tion’s view of reality and that of the world where
The custom of nominees concealing
nearly everyone else resides. “In essence, we will be their intentions regarding Roe — as
living in two alternative universes,” said Richard Gow- well as other issues — began after
In a floor speech in July, Senator Josh 1987, when a bipartisan majority of
an, the U.N. director at the International Crisis Group,
Hawley, Republican of Missouri, issued senators rejected President Ronald
an organization that seeks to prevent deadly conflicts. an ultimatum on future Supreme Court Reagan’s Supreme Court nominee
It is not clear what will happen next. Global sanc- fights. Robert Bork. Bork didn’t just oppose
“I will vote only for those Supreme Roe; during his hearing he discussed
tions normally require a committee to monitor them.
Court nominees who have explicitly his skepticism of the 1965 Supreme
But a committee won’t be set up unless the Security acknowledged that Roe v. Wade was Court ruling striking down bans on
Council makes an official decision to do so. The United wrongly decided,” Hawley said. He contraceptives, which established the
would require on-the-record evidence right to privacy that Roe is based on.
States will almost certainly pursue its own low-key
that the next Republican nominee “In the wake of
measures, like sanctioning Russian or Chinese compa- “understands Roe to be the travesty Judicial Robert Bork, almost
that it is.” Absent that, he said, “I will every nominee, on DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES
nies that sell arms to Iran. A bigger worry is that the nominees
not support the nomination.” the Republican and A rally in Freeland, Mich., this month. Some Trump supporters have been disappointed
United States could begin to interdict ships carrying should be
The day after Ruth Bader Ginsburg Democratic side, has by conservative justices’ rulings on abortion and gay rights.
honest about
goods to or from Iran, which could potentially lead to a died, Hawley reiterated this commit- been a little more
ment, and called on his fellow Republi- their stance cagey about their
military confrontation in the run-up to the American
can senators to do the same. on abortion. views of Roe,” said talks about Roe v. Wade.” already said they’re opposed to the
election in November. Others on the religious right may Melissa Murray, a This makes the conversation about Senate voting on a Trump nomination
The Iranian people are undoubtedly suffering from impose a similar litmus test. Social New York University the future of legal abortion abstract before the election. If Trump loses two
conservatives felt betrayed when, in law professor and expert on reproduc- and hard to follow. Traditionally, the more senators, his pick will be de-
the U.S. sanctions, all the more so during the pan-
June, Neil Gorsuch, Donald Trump’s tive rights jurisprudence. The one right has liked it that way. For years, feated. So this time, Trump’s nominee
demic, which has left them short of medicines. But the first Supreme Court appointee, wrote exception was Ginsburg, who, as Mur- Hawley said in his Senate speech, might not get away with doing what
regime has not come begging for a deal with Mr. in a majority opinion that it’s illegal ray recalled, “linked abortion rights to religious conservatives have been told: Brett Kavanaugh reportedly did,
under the 1964 Civil Rights Act to fire women’s full citizenship” during her “Don’t mess up the Supreme Court telling Collins that Roe is “settled law.”
Trump. In fact, the Trump administration’s policies
someone for being gay or transgender. confirmation. nomination process by raising Roe. It’s That would be for the best. “It would
have made fools of the moderates in Iran, who argued They were doubly dejected when The reticence around Roe has essen- imprudent. It’s in poor taste. It will actually be more galvanizing for Dem-
that the United States could be trusted to keep its end Chief Justice John Roberts cast the tially institutionalized hypocrisy as divide our coalition.” Instead, he said, ocrats if the Republicans would just
deciding vote in a decision striking part of the confirmation process. As conservatives were urged to talk about either do what they say they want to
of the bargain. The Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah
down a Louisiana law that would have Northup points out, during his confir- “process, about methods, maybe throw do, overturn Roe and face the political
Ali Khamenei, has publicly called the deal a “mistake.” all but regulated legal abortion out of mation hearing in 1991, Clarence in some talk about umpires.” backlash that that would engender,”
Nevertheless, Mr. Trump has portrayed himself re- existence in the state. As Politico re- Thomas simply described Roe v. Wade There’s a reason for this: Roe is said Murray, “or have their nominee
ported, they now want a guarantee without taking a clear position on it. popular. While many Americans sup- just say explicitly, ‘I don’t believe there
peatedly as capable of quickly achieving a deal with
that a new Trump judge will carry out Less than a year later, he joined a port abortion restrictions, a Pew poll is a constitutional right to abortion.’”
Iran. “Don’t wait until after U.S. Election to make the their agenda. dissent in a pivotal abortion case that last year found that seven in 10 oppose Republicans have supported Trump
Big deal,” he tweeted at Iranian leaders in June. “I’m At this bleak moment for reproduc- said Roe was “wrongly decided, and seeing Roe overturned. As David through nearly four years of stupefy-
tive rights, this counts as good news. It that it can and should be overruled.” Wasserman wrote on Monday, more ing corruption to bring us to this preci-
going to win. You’ll make a better deal now!”
might at last end the absurd charade Because nominees typically refuse than a fifth of Trump’s 2016 voters in pice, when states might once again
Like so much of Mr. Trump’s gamesmanship, there’s that allows conservative Supreme to speak about Roe in depth, the de- battleground states leaned pro-choice. force women to give birth against their
no Plan B behind the bluster. Today, Iran is closer to Court nominees to obscure their oppo- bate about abortion during confirma- Still, Hawley is in a position to ex- will. If Democrats can’t force Trump’s
sition to legal abortion. Just over six tion hearings seems to take place in tract concessions. The two remaining nominee to be clear about the rights he
having enough fissile material to build a nuclear bomb
weeks before the election, it should code. “Everyone talks about prece- pro-choice Republican senators, Susan or she intends to take from us, maybe
than it was when he took office. make clear to everyone what is at dent,” said Murray. “Nobody really Collins and Lisa Murkowski, have Hawley can.
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..
10 | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION
opinion
The pandemic in fall and winter
INTERLANDI,FROM PAGE8 bolster the president’s re-election bid, setts, are even trying to pair robust shutdowns will be needed. Restrictions
precipitous decline in deaths indicates and those fears are already undermin- testing with robust contact tracing. on everything from nursing home
that herd immunity has been reached, ing the vaccine’s chances of success. And there is still no federal funding to visits to haircuts to large indoor gath-
they argue. “At this point, people are going to be help people who test positive or have erings will have to be implemented.
But critics say that many of those suspicious even if the data is great,” been exposed and need to isolate. The scope and duration of these meas-
deaths were avoidable, and that case the University of Washington epidemi- For proof that rigorous testing and ures will depend on how quickly health
counts and death tolls could easily ologist Dr. Carl T. Bergstrom says. tracing can make a difference, com- officials respond, which in turn de-
surge again when control measures “And it’s going to take a lot of work to pare New York City with Madrid. Both pends on the area’s testing and contact
are lifted, (the country still enforces overcome that.” are international hubs with expansive tracing abilities. They will also depend
strict social distancing in some indoor When America does have a vaccine, public transit that suffered large out- on how faithfully individuals abide by
spaces), or even if they are not. the first batches will likely (and breaks in March, were forced to shut such edicts.
“The thing about fires is that they rightly) go to front-line workers, then down by April, and had their case Offices will probably not look any-
don’t burn everywhere equally at the to the elderly, especially in nursing counts under control by June. But New where close to normal until at least
same time,” Dr. Osterholm says. “Even homes. It could take a year or more York has kept its case counts exceed- next summer, if not next fall. Neither
where they rage, they still miss before the average person is able to ingly low since then, while Madrid now will schools. Students who are return-
patches of vulnerability, just by get a shot. (The early vaccines will has one of the highest counts in Eu- ing without incident now may find
chance.” probably require boosters, which also rope. The difference? New York City themselves stuck at home come No-
lengthens the timeline because it tested many more people and hired vember or December. On the flip side,
VACCINES, TESTS, TREATMENTS means twice as many have to be many more contact tracers. (It was students whose schools are scrambling
Let’s start with the good news: Doc- produced for the same number of also much slower to reopen: Madrid’s today may end up with steady in-
tors and scientists are optimistic about people.) And because children haven’t restaurants were at 60 percent capaci- person instruction through the winter
two new drugs — REGN-COV-2 and been included in any clinical trials, it’s ty in June; New York’s are just open- months, if their districts develop better
LY-CoV555, both of them monoclonal unclear when or how they might be ing now for indoor service, at 25 per- testing strategies and communication
antibodies — that could be available in deemed eligible cent.) plans.
the coming months. The hope is that, Mistrust for vaccination. “I am telling my kids not to be sur-
combined with other advances in the That means THE COMING ELECTION prised if they are home from Decem-
between the
treatment of Covid-19, these medica- that mask-wear- Some members of the Trump adminis- ber through February,” Dr. Jha says.
White House
tions will help keep patients out of the ing and social tration are already discussing the “But I also think things could get much
and America’s
hospital and off ventilators, which distancing will pandemic in the past tense. So if the better by late February into March.”
would in turn help prevent hospitals leading scientific remain essential, president wins re-election, the federal When it comes to the holidays, most
from being overrun, even if infection institutions is and we’ll need to response is unlikely to change. Ameri- Americans will be in the same boat.
rates match or surpass those of previ- likely to persist. keep using the cans will continue relying on individual Halloween may be just fine: Some
ous peaks. same tools scien- states, cities, schools and businesses to health departments have advised
The federal government’s main tists have been manage the crisis on their own until a against it, but trick-or-treating is a
focus, however — its entire strategy, in clamoring for all vaccine curbs the virus. largely outdoor event, many costumes
fact — has been to develop a coronavi- along: surveillance testing, contact Mistrust between the White House come with masks of their own, and
rus vaccine. Anywhere from one to tracing and quarantine. and the nation’s leading scientific fomite transmission (where the virus
several could be authorized for use by Testing remains a mixed bag. On one institutions is likely to persist. In just is contracted by touching inanimate
the end of this year. But their rollout hand, woeful shortages could soon be the past several days, political appoint- objects like plastic pumpkins) is much
will be fraught and none of them will resolved. “I really think testing is ees have been accused of interfering less of a concern than scientists origi-
be a panacea. going to be a lot better by late fall,” Dr. with C.D.C. reports and the president nally thought. With the right precau-
For starters, the first vaccines to Jha tells me. “I’m nervous to say that, has chastised the agency’s director for tions (maybe skip the haunted house),
cross the finish line may not work that because I’ve thought it before and saying that a vaccine would not be it should be safe to ring those door-
well. To get approved by the Food and been wrong. But this time around I’m widely available until late next year bells.
Drug Administration, the shot only has actually optimistic.” More rapid anti- and that masks were the public’s best HOKYOUNG KIM But Thanksgiving and Christmas
to “reduce the severity of illness,” and gen tests and new genome sequencing defense in the meantime (though a will be difficult for many. Large indoor
only in half of the people who take it. tests should start to clear the regula- vast majority of scientists agree with It’s common to say that viruses don’t He could also restore integrity to the gatherings, especially with people who
Even if one of the dozen or so current tory process in the next month or so, both statements). care about political parties. And it’s nation’s scientific institutions. “I think have travelled from afar, will continue
candidates meets that standard, and he says. By January there should be Mr. Trump’s newest scientific advis- true that no matter the outcome of the if Biden wins, we’ll start to see the to pose a risk that no family testing
even if manufacturers manage to clear enough capacity to regularly screen er, a neuroradiologist with no experi- election, America will probably still be F.D.A. and C.D.C. exert scientific con- strategy can eliminate. Even if you test
the many expected supply chain hur- students, teachers and essential work- ence in infectious diseases, has argued dealing with rampant misinformation sensus again,” Dr. Bergstrom says. negative and quarantine before you
dles (including for syringes, glass vials ers. that it is not the federal government’s and a Congress and country as divided “And from there, I think, a more sensi- leave, you can still contract the virus
and vaccine ingredients), a vaccine On the other hand, the United States job to stop the pandemic. He has advo- as ever. But it’s also reasonable to ble, coordinated federal response will while on route, and become contagious
that only works on half the population is failing to make almost any use of the cated strategies that he says are meant expect some changes in the coronavi- take shape.” without realizing it.
would still leave a lot of people vulner- testing data it already has. As The to protect the most vulnerable, but rus’s prospects under a Democratic “I think the holidays are going to be
able. Atlantic recently reported, “thousands would also enable the virus to spread administration. FALL AND WINTER PLANS a hard, lonely time for a lot of people,”
The president is pressuring the Food if not tens of thousands” of rapid anti- more broadly. Critics say the approach Joe Biden is already building a team Different communities will experience Dr. Jha says. “But I also think, hope-
and Drug Administration to move gen tests are almost certainly being is deeply flawed, and will only increase of advisers to deal with the pandemic if outbreaks at different times, based fully, it’s a time when we will start to
quickly — asserting that a vaccine will administered every single day, but the toll of preventable deaths. “It does- he is elected, and he has vowed to do partly on weather (in the North, colder see a light at the end of the tunnel.”
be ready before the election, even almost none of them are being logged n’t work for the same reason that it most of the things that Mr. Trump weather will drive people indoors; in
though the government’s own scien- in any public health database, which doesn’t work to have a peeing section refuses to. For example, he will en- the South, people will be outside more, JENEEN INTERLANDIhas been a member
tists insist that that’s not feasible. The means they are not being used to track in the swimming pool,” Dr. Jha says. courage states to implement mask as the summer humidity burns off), of the Times editorial board since 2018,
struggle has stirred fears that health potential outbreaks or to inform state “We all live in the same society. Nurs- mandates, coordinate testing at the and partly on individual levels of vigi- and a contributor to The New York
officials will circumvent the normally or local policies. Meanwhile, only a few ing homes need workers. Workers national level, and rejoin the World lance. Times Magazine since 2006. She writes
robust vaccine approval process to states, like New York and Massachu- need to use transit and shop in stores.” Health Organization. As localized outbreaks are detected, about health, science and education.
The urgency for human rights today
BITTNER,FROM PAGE1
emerged in an authoritarian state, its
members would demand the franchise,
leaving the regime with no choice but
to establish the rule of law and democ-
racy. That has not happened in China.
Rather, the opposite seems to be true:
If people rise from poverty, they tend
to choose prosperity over liberty.
SEPTEMBER 30 - OCTOBER 2, 2020
Does this devalue the core belief
Virtual Event that society can prosper only if the
individual’s pursuit of happiness is
The New Abnormal:
protected against arbitrary restric-
tion? No, the idea still holds true. To
Reimagining Democracy
prove it, affluent Chinese should ask
themselves one simple question: If
Speakers include:
there were to be an economic down-
Assaults on democracy have become turn, would I want to live with my
increasingly prevalent. With a rise in nationalism, current legal guarantees?
The philosopher John Rawls sug-
authoritarianism and intolerance, the need to
gested that to find the best legal order,
reinvent democracy is more urgent than ever. we ought to imagine living behind a
veil of ignorance, unaware of our own ASSOCIATED PRESS
Convening leaders in government, politics,
standing in society. In China, citizens Police officers in Istanbul clashed with mourners during the funeral of an imprisoned
business and N.G.O.’s, the Athens Democracy Kyriakos Marija Brad should imagine life behind a veil of human rights lawyer, Ebru Timtik, who died during a hunger strike in August.
Forum is moderated by senior New York Times Mitsotakis Pejčinovič Burič Smith decline, as the country’s economic
Prime Minister, Secretary General President, expansion slows down. The rule of law
journalists.
Hellenic Republic Council of Europe Microsoft might seem much more important. they were in the way of new building that has increasingly costly effects on
Because if the state’s principal projects. people’s health.
This year’s Forum features a free, online event
interest is the well-being of the great- Think of it this way: Human rights There’s no easy fix for these sys-
plus an additional small conclave of guests and
est number, how can wealthy citizens are like a fire department. You care temic problems. But human rights are
speakers in Athens. — who, rightly or wrongly, might be about their existence only once your the bread and butter of a healthy soci-
seen to hinder that goal — be sure safety is in danger. But if your house is ety — and the best guarantee that the
Join us to explore real solutions to the most about their own well-being? on fire and there’s no fire department, Mercedes-Benz you toiled for during
pressing issues facing democracy, including the The fate of the Uighurs in Xinjiang it’s too late to ask for help. The damage the day will still be there when night
might provide a hint, or that of the is done. falls.
future of capitalism, geopolitical shifts, transitioning Juan Yuval Noah Hind
laborers who were evicted within Smoke plumes are already emerging
from protests to politics, technology as a force for Guaidó Harari Ziane hours, their houses peeled away like from Asia’s powerhouse: China has JOCHEN BITTNERis a co-head of the de-
President Historian Founder and C.E.O.,
good, the power of belief, and much more. “cabbage leaves,” as Beijing’s party high levels of internal debt, a rapidly bate section for the weekly newspaper
of the Venezuelan and Professor Génération Politique
secretary proudly announced, because aging population and chronic pollution Die Zeit.
National Assembly
Register to attend: athensdemocracyforum.com
Colleges, conservatives and the kakistocracy
In Cooperation With
ROTH,FROM PAGE8 students (and faculty) be exposed to sations on campus are to amplify
traditions of natural law and of religious ideas they might find offensive but from inquiry rather than orthodoxy — if
belief. I have in mind thinkers who point which they can learn, and that students they are to enhance our ability to live
out that theories of how people should (and faculty) be protected from the with ambiguity rather than reinforce
organize society often depend on fright- expression of ideas that aim at intimida- our need for certainty. Teachers can
Headline Sponsor Gold Sponsors
ening powers of organized violence. tion or harassment. Sometimes the lines create safe enough environments that
These streams of thought offer pow- of protection won’t be clear, and there are also challenging contexts for con-
erful, alternative perspectives on en- will be contentious discussions. The sidering enduring questions and con-
during questions. Given the current pragmatist approach I recommend temporary issues, so that students
makeup of the academy, we can’t just works against indoctrination and learn to appreciate disagreement and
hope for them to get a hearing. We have against prejudice, but it doesn’t appeal depend less on the comforts of con-
to proactively bring them into the mix, to a foundational or procedural answer formity.
Silver Sponsor Bronze Sponsors
when they are not already there. to the questions of how much intellectu- In higher education, there is no
Classic liberals and some conserva- al diversity or how much free speech contradiction between standing up to
tives often claim that only a commit- one should cultivate in an educational the fascist tendencies of racist authori-
ment to a totally open platform for institution. There isn’t a single answer tarianism and working for greater
speech will enable the kinds of debate that always works. These questions intellectual diversity. In both cases, we
that will eventually lead to better ideas, require open-ended conversation in are defending the opportunity to learn
even to truth. These folks don’t believe which people can practice intellectual through inquiry and discussion.
Legal Partner Official Airline Partner Official Venue Partner Co-organized With Education Partners
that speech causes harm, or they be- humility as they realize the fragility of
lieve the harm it might cause is less their own preconceived notions and MICHAEL S. ROTHis the president of
dangerous than the harm caused by knee-jerk responses. Wesleyan University and the author of
regulating the presentation of ideas. These discussions lead to creative “Safe Enough Spaces: A Pragmatist’s
It should go without saying that outcomes when the people involved Approach to Inclusion, Free Speech,
educators must resist calls for ideolog- don’t all have the same notions. Intellec- and Political Correctness on College
ical conformity: Learning requires that tual diversity is essential if the conver- Campuses.”