The New York Times International - 20 08 2020

2020·10.84 MB·English

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AIRPORTS PIVOT JAMS AND JUSTICE THINKING SMALL
REVAMPING SPACE FOOD CRAFTERS PASSIONATE FOLLOWING
AS RETAIL STALLS SEEK INCLUSION FOR ONE-MAN LABEL
PAGE 7 | BUSINESS BACK PAGE | LIVING PAGE 12 | STYLE
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INTERNATIONAL EDITION | THURSDAY, AUGUST20, 2020
A blockade Oil titans
of TikTok in Europe
is overdue are turning
electric
Tim Wu
Contributing Writer
Pressed by investors
and governments, they’re
OPINION
moving into cleaner energy
The United States government does not
usually block or censor lawful websites,
BY STANLEY REED
foreign or domestic, because it sub-
scribes to the idea that the internet was This may turn out to be the year that oil
designed to be open and connect every- giants, especially in Europe, started
one on earth. On its face, then, President looking more like electric companies.
Trump’s recent treatment of the Chi- Last month, Royal Dutch Shell, a
nese apps TikTok and WeChat, which he British-Dutch company, won a deal to
threatened to ban from the United build a vast wind farm off the coast of
States unless they could find American the Netherlands. Earlier in the year, To-
buyers, looks close-minded and bellig- tal of France, which owns a battery
erent. maker, agreed to make several large in-
There is more to this situation, vestments in solar power in Spain and a
though, than meets the eye. Were al- wind farm off Scotland. Total also
most any country other than China bought an electric and natural gas utility
involved, Mr. Trump’s demands would in Spain and is joining Shell and BP of
be indefensible. But the threatened Britain in expanding its electric-vehicle
bans on TikTok and WeChat, whatever charging business.
their motivations, can also be seen as an At the same time, the companies are
overdue response, a tit for tat, in a long ditching plans to drill more wells as they
battle for the soul of chop back capital budgets. Shell re-
Critics say the internet. cently said it would delay opening new
In China, the fields in the Gulf of Mexico and in the
we shouldn’t
foreign equivalents North Sea, while BP has promised not to
abandon the
of TikTok and We- hunt for oil in any new countries.
ideal of an
Chat — video and Prodded by governments and invest-
open internet. messaging apps ors to address climate change concerns
But there is such as YouTube about their products, Europe’s oil com-
PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARCO GARRO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
such a thing as and WhatsApp — With Peru’s schools closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, students like Delia Huamani, 10, learn at home by watching educational broadcasts. panies are accelerating their production
being a sucker. have been banned of cleaner energy — usually electricity,
for years. The coun- sometimes hydrogen — and promoting
try’s extensive Back to a TV future natural gas, which they argue can be a
blocking, censor- cleaner transition fuel from coal and oil
ship and surveillance violate just about to renewables.
every principle of internet openness For some executives, the sudden
and decency. China keeps a closed and plunge in demand for oil caused by the
censorial internet economy at home pandemic — and the accompanying col-
while its products enjoy full access to one billion children worldwide who are lapse in earnings — is another warning
In regions with no internet,
open markets abroad. shut out of schools by the coronavirus that unless they change the composition
The asymmetry is unfair and ought to educators make new use pandemic: It can reach them. of their businesses, they risk being dino-
no longer be tolerated. The privilege of In wealthy countries, the debates saurs headed for extinction.
of a bypassed technology
full internet access — the open internet over how to deliver education remotely This evolving vision is more striking
— should be extended only to compa- have focused on how to make online because it is shared by many longtime
nies from countries that respect that classes engaging and interactive. But veterans of the oil business.
BY BENJAMIN MUELLER
openness themselves. such talk is sheer fantasy for many of “During the last six years, we had ex-
AND MITRA TAJ
Behind the TikTok controversy is an the world’s students, including millions treme volatility in the oil commodities,”
important struggle between two dueling In a hillside shantytown in Lima, Peru, in affluent nations, who do not have said Claudio Descalzi, 65, the chief exec-
visions of the internet. The first is an Delia Huamani’s school day starts not broadband connections or computers. utive of Eni, who has been with that Ital-
older vision: the idea that the internet with the bustle of classmates but with After decades of declining relevance ian company for nearly 40 years. He
should, in a neutral fashion, connect the flicker of a television. With physical in the face of heavy investment in inter- said he wanted to build a business in-
everyone, and that blocking and censor- schools closed indefinitely, she gets her net learning, educational television is creasingly based on green energy,
ship of sites by nation-states should be lessons at home, from the country’s again having its moment. Educators rather than oil.
rare and justified by more than the will brand-new library of slickly made edu- and governments scattered around the “We want to stay away from the vola-
of the ruler. The second and newer cational broadcasts. world, desperate to avoid a long-term tility and the uncertainty,” he added.
vision, of which China has been the As a substitute, it’s far from perfect. setback for an entire generation of chil- Bernard Looney, a 29-year BP vet-
leading exponent, is “net nationalism,” Delia, 10, says her parents cannot afford dren, are turning to the older technol- eran who became chief executive in Feb-
which views the country’s internet books — she misses reading about ani- ogy. ruary, recently told journalists, “What
primarily as a tool of state power. Eco- mals in the school library — and she has And they are calling on the charm and the world wants from energy is chang-
nomic growth, surveillance and thought no one to check her work. She leans on glamour of locally known actors and ing, and so we need to change, quite
control, from this perspective, are the her friend Katy Bautista, 12, who wishes news hosts, as well as teachers, to try to Delia with her parents, Luisa Gomez and José Huamani, after her morning television frankly, what we offer the world.”
internet’s most important functions. she could ask the television presenters hold the attention of students from pre- class. She wants to be a veterinarian and an accountant. The bet is that electricity will be the
China, in furtherance of this vision, to slow down during difficult lessons. school to high school. They say they are prime means of delivering cleaner ener-
bans not only most foreign competitors “When we go to pick up food from the heeding the cardinal lesson of the gy in the future and, therefore, will grow
to its tech businesses but also foreign soup kitchen, we talk to each other and YouTube era — the shorter and snazzier, is better than nothing.” more effective, many of the lessons be- rapidly.
sources of news, religious instruction explain things to one another,” Delia the better. While television lessons are not as ing broadcast now use all the tools of American giants like Exxon Mobil
and other information, while using the said of Katy recently. “Or sometimes she “Ideally, one would have, like, laptops valuable as online interactions with professional studios, like eye-pleasing and Chevron have been slower than
WU,PAGE11 explains things to me. I don’t explain and all these super fancy things at teachers and other students, experts sets, script writers, 3-D animation, mul- ENERGY,PAGE8
anything. But she does, and that’s why home,” said Raissa Fabregas, a profes- say, educational broadcasts do pay divi- ticamera shoots, graphics and even re-
The New York Times publishes opinion she’s a good friend.” sor of economics and public affairs at dends for children’s academic progress, lated smartphone apps. ‘CLIMATE DONORS’ FLOCK TO BIDEN
from a wide range of perspectives in For all its limitations, televised the University of Texas at Austin, who their success in the job market and even In the United States, where education Some Democratic fund-raisers are
hopes of promoting constructive debate schooling has one enormous advantage has studied educational television in their social development. varies widely because it is handled at trying to counter the longstanding
about consequential questions. for Delia, Katy and many more of the Mexico. “But if you don’t have them, this To make lessons less passive and SCHOOLS,PAGE4 power of fossil fuel money. PAGE 6
Global riffs on Chinese tastes
are national staples. There are whole
Young chef’s project shows
cuisines — Chuka in Japan or Chifa in
how his native cuisine has Peru — made up of interpreted Chinese
recipes, including dishes as common as
influenced all kitchens
ramen. All are culinary satellite prov-
inces of China.
Such has been the view of Mr. Sin, 27, a
BY RICHARD MORGAN
wunderkind chef who first opened a
Lucas Sin was recently telling a Domi- restaurant at age 16 in an abandoned
nican cook about hong dou sha, a red- factory in Hong Kong, then ran a diner
bean soup popular as a chilled Canton- out of his dorm room at Yale University.
ese summer dessert. “Oh, yeah,” Mr. Sin He is now the executive chef at Junzi
recalled the cook’s saying, “habichuelas Kitchen, a fledgling fast-casual chain
con dulce.” serving modern Chinese food at its
The Dominican Eastertime dessert, branches in New Haven, Conn., and
also a cold red-bean soup, is spiced with New York City.
cloves, while the Chinese treat is cinna- Because that food did not exist in the
mon-driven. The Dominican version has Hong Kong of his youth, Mr. Sin has an
more milk, but the dishes are unmistak- unabashed love of Chinese-American
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JENNY HUANG FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
able culinary cousins. Efo riro, a West African stew made at Teranga in New York, left, and rice pudding from fare, especially at Wo Hop, an 82-year-
It was an aha moment, unlocking for Junzi Kitchen were prepared for Distance Dining, which highlighted Chinese cuisine. old classic in Manhattan’s Chinatown.
both chefs the cuisine of China’s far- “It was new to me, and so exciting that it
flung diaspora. “We didn’t know,” Mr. didn’t occur to me for years that Chinese
Sin said, “because how often do Chinese homes across the world. Wherever they New York, a deep-fried shumai-like beef food is too simple and monolithic in the
and Dominican chefs really talk?” did, local riffs on recipes — then riffs dimmy in Sydney, Big Mac baos in To- U.S.,” he said. CALIBERRM60-01REGATTA
As far back as the ancient Silk Road upon riffs — were born. ronto or sweet-and-sour fish in the He was disturbed, then, by how easily LIMITEDEDITION
and up through the 19th and 20th cen- Consider the halal Hui dishes of Cairo, Chinês clandestinos of Lisbon. Some, anti-Asian sentiment and violence
turies, Chinese émigrés have made their chop suey in San Francisco, egg rolls in such as Kazakhstan’s laghman noodles, CUISINE,PAGE2
NEWSSTAND PRICES Issue Number
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2 | THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION
page two
Global riffs on Chinese tastes French lawyer fought
for women’s rights
CUISINE,FROM PAGE1
surged — even in places like New York
— as the coronavirus pandemic shut
down the planet. Strangers tossed half- He added, in a phone interview: “As
GISÈLE HALIMI
filled cans of beer at him. One threw a soon as she started to talk, everybody
1927-2020
long, fluorescent light bulb at him like a was silent. She had a commanding pres-
javelin. ence.”
“It took me coming to New York to Ms. Halimi’s was born Zeiza Gisèle
BY RACHEL FELDER
start really understanding what it Élise Taïeb on July 27, 1927, in Tunis, in
meant to be a minority,” he said. “It’s dis- Gisèle Halimi, a French lawyer, activist the port neighborhood of La Goulette.
appointing that people who like our food and author who championed feminist Her father, Edouard Taïeb, was a legal
and eat our food all the time are so quick causes and other human rights efforts clerk; her mother, Fortunée (Metoudi)
to attack and deface Chinese restau- for more than seven decades, playing a Taïeb, who was known as Fritna, was a
rants.” key role in the decriminalization of abor- homemaker. The household was ex-
To counter the parochialism of quar- tion in France, died at her home in Paris tremely traditional and male-domi-
antine, Mr. Sin started Distance Dining on July 28, a day after her 93rd birthday. nated.
(“a dinner series about how Chinese The death was confirmed by her son When Gisèle was born, her father was
food connects the world”) in March to Emmanuel Faux. so upset at the arrival of a daughter in-
highlight dishes of the Chinese emigrant As a lawyer, Ms. Halimi frequently stead of a son that he kept her birth a
population — which at 10.7 million is the sought to redress injustices against secret for several weeks. Learning of
world’s third largest, behind Mexico’s women and to seek justice for victims of this afterward, Ms. Halimi was stung by
11.8 million and India’s 17.5 million. torture in countries like Tunisia and Al- his reaction.
Those involved in the project call them- geria, both of which were under French “She was always coming back to that,”
selves sanju, which translates to “scat- control when she began practicing law said Annick Cojean, a senior reporter at
tered living.” in the years after World War II. the French newspaper Le Monde and
The pop-up meals, which are put to- “She assumed the world was divided co-author of a book of conversations
gether at Junzi from elements prepared between oppressing and oppressed peo- with Ms. Halimi, “Une Farouche Lib-
by Mr. Sin and collaborating chefs, are ple,” said Violaine Lucas, a national sec- erté,” (“A Fierce Freedom”), which will
available by delivery roughly once a retary of Choisir La Cause des Femmes, be published in France this week. In a
week, and are accompanied by an Insta- the women’s rights organization that phone interview, Ms. Cojean recalled
gram Live session explaining their ori- Ms. Halimi co-founded in 1971 with the Ms. Halimi saying, “Did you know that
gins and interplay. author and philosopher Simone de my father didn’t even want to admit it?”
Beauvoir. “These convictions were in “It was such a malediction to have a
CHINA IS HOMEto some 56 officially recog- her guts.” female descendant,” Ms. Cojean said.
nized ethnic groups, and the culinary Her cases were often high-profile and “That really struck Gisèle.”
trend for Chinese food in recent years precedent-setting, and helped shift From an early age, Ms. Halimi re-
has leaned toward Imperial recipes and French laws and attitudes. belled against her family’s expectations,
hyper-regional cuisines: Fujianese, Hu- In 1960, during the Algerian war for its preferential treatment of her broth-
nanese, Sichuanese, Shanghainese, Ui- independence, Ms. Halimi represented ers and a proposed arranged marriage.
ghur, Xianese, Yunnanese. But Mr. Sin’s Djamila Boupacha, an Algerian nation- When she was 10 she went on a hunger
program, by contrast, has embraced the alist who was charged with attempting strike to fight for more equal conditions
authenticity of Chinese cuisine’s global- to bomb a cafe near the University of Al- within her family. She described the
ism while avoiding “fusion,” a term that giers and was raped and tortured while episode in the new book as “her first
has widely curdled into a slur among in French custody. Ms. Halimi encour- feminist victory.”
gourmands. “This is confluence, not in- aged her to pursue a case against her Still, she excelled in school and de-
fluence,” Mr. Sin said. captors, an almost un-heard-of course of cided to become a lawyer as a teenager.
Andrew Doro, a Chinese-American action at the time, and the case became a She went to Paris to earn her law degree
food blogger intent on eating dishes cause célèbre in France after Ms. de and study philosophy at the Sorbonne.
from every nation in the world without Beauvoir wrote about it in Le Monde at Joining the bar in Tunis at 21, she
leaving New York, favors Guyanese Chi- Ms. Halimi’s request. practicing there for several years before
nese dishes like fried bangamary (a Ms. Boupacha was eventually re- returning to Paris, where she continued
fish) and crispy chicken cha chi gai. leased and pardoned. (The case was the to practice until her death.
“There are so many more types of Chi- subject of a 2011 French TV movie, Ms. Halimi remained politically in-
nese food than even most Chinese peo- “Pour Djamila.”) volved outside the courtroom. In 1967,
ple realize,” Mr. Doro said. Ms. Halimi’s reflections on the case, she served on the Russell Tribunal, a
Mr. Sin was suddenly partnering with with contributions from other writers, body of antiwar activists founded by the
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JENNY HUANG FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
celebrated restaurants: Malaysian like Françoise Sagan, became her first philosopher Bertrand Russell and pre-
lobak and buckwheat mochi with Kopi- Lucas Sin, the executive chef at Junzi book, with an introduction by Ms. de sided over by the philosopher Jean-Paul
tiam, Taiwanese pineapple egg tart with Kitchen, seasoning Cornish hens with a Beauvoir and a cover portrait of Ms. Sartre; it determined that the United
Spot Dessert Bar, Thai khao soi and Yun- blend of Chinese dry rub and Senegalese Boupacha by Pablo Picasso. States had committed multiple war
nanese paoluda with Fish Cheeks; Viet- chicken yassa. From left: beef noodle Ms. Halimi worked on another land- crimes in Vietnam. In the 1980s she
namese bun bo Teochew and che bap soup and the Sichuan-roasted Cornish mark case in 1972, this time focused on a served in the National Assembly and as
with Madame Vo. Collaborations serve hen with doubanjiang onion confit. teenage rape victim and her right to get the French ambassador to UNESCO.
up to 200 diners, and two superfans an abortion, which was illegal at the She also wrote or contributed to about
have eaten all of the 14 meals so far. time except in cases in which the life of two dozen books, mostly concerning
As the zeitgeist shifted from pan- said. “The closest substitute I could get the mother was in danger. The young causes she was most passionate about,
demic panic toward rage for racial equi- to the flavors of home would be the Chi- woman, Marie-Claire Chevalier, was like feminism.
ty, inspired by the killing of George nese markets. There’s going to be a rev- found innocent of committing a crime, In 1961, Ms. Halimi married Claude
Floyd, Mr. Sin tweaked his program: olution in cuisine because Chinese are and the trial helped shift the country’s Faux, who was Sartre’s secretary; he
Soon he was messaging with Kia Damon getting more prominent in Africa. I’m abortion laws toward eventual decrimi- died in 2017. An earlier marriage, to Paul
and Ghetto Gastro, a collective of food looking forward to that.” nalization. Halimi, ended in divorce.
lovers in the Bronx neighborhood of Mr. Sin’s idea, however, is not exactly Ms. Halimi’s work — with her clients In addition to her son Emmanuel, a ra-
New York. new to anyone who has raved about Mei and also through lobbying groups and dio journalist, she is survived by two
They discussed dishes as varied as Lin’s mapo lasagna at Nightshade in Los an eventual stint in government — also other sons, Jean-Yves Halimi, a lawyer,
yakamein, the Afro-Chinese soup of Angeles, or the XO tartare at C.A.M. in helped strengthen France’s laws and Serge Halimi, the director of the
New Orleans — which Mr. Sin made Paris, or who remembers David Chang’s against rape and lead to the abolishment monthly newspaper Le Monde Diplo-
with Ms. Damon for one dinner — or mapo ragù in 2006. And half a century of the country’s death penalty. matique; and brother and a sister; and
what the chef Eddie Huang and others ago, Chinese-Cuban restaurants sprang Ms. Halimi had a reputation for being two grandchildren.
call “hood Chinese” food, like the I’m not doing this work alone.” munity that has flourished for decades up across Manhattan. Chinese cross- combative in her convictions, but her Even in her 90s, Ms. Halimi’s passion
chicken wings served in many New Ms. Damon, whose mother is Gullah in Kolkata (formerly called Calcutta). over has been on menus both divey and courtroom arguments were notably for social justice did not fade.
York neighborhoods. The Chinese dias- Geechee and father is Creole, sighed. “It’s a very nostalgic dish,” Mr. Pandya luxurious. calm, surprising some judges and other “When we last met with her a few
pora, it turns out, is remarkably agile. “When we face those ugly parts of us said. “We’ve grown up eating it. The way But Mr. Sin’s approach is emboldened lawyers. “They were expecting that she months ago,” said Maria Cornaz Bassoli,
“China is this incredible beacon in and our distance, and we come together we were exposed to Chinese food was and elevated by current events. After would be like a crazy woman,” said Em- a lawyer and also a national secretary
food,” said Marcus Samuelsson, the to reconcile with that, what does that this dish. What General Tso’s is to Amer- the death of Mr. Floyd, Mr. Sin knew the manuel Pierrat, a lawyer and author for Choisir La Cause des Femmes, “she
Ethiopian-Swedish host of “No Passport taste like?” she said. “I want to look ica, this dish is for India. It’s integral.” value of solidarity, he said, having seen who had watched Ms. Halimi try several was still talking about, ‘What will be our
Required,” who has made Harlem his back and know what I was doing during it for years in Hong Kong’s own protests. cases. “Not at all.” next fight?’”
home in New York. “We’re relearning the great Covid pandemic of 2020, when BUT THE CHINESE DIASPORAis not all about Two years of collaboration at the Mu-
about heritage, culture and history. there was a nationwide, global move- history or nostalgia. China is an emerg- seum of Food and Drink, he added,
That’s not just happening in the food ment for all Black lives. I want to know ing power in Africa, for example, and taught him that “African-American
world, but everywhere. We see it in tak- Pierre Thiam, the chef of Teranga, in the cooking really is the bedrock of Ameri-
ing down monuments, for example. East Harlem neighborhood of New can food culture.” The Black Lives Mat-
“China is this incredible
We’re having a really important conver- York, has noticed the nascent China- ter movement got him to act on that
sation in America and, if America is hav- beacon in food. We’re relearning town of his native Dakar, the capital of knowledge, embracing the cuisines of
ing it, very often the world is having it.” about heritage, culture and Senegal. communities in crisis.
Mr. Sin’s mission is beyond gastro-di- history.” His collaboration with Mr. Sin used Over all, he said, Distance Dining has
plomacy, approaching gastro-activism, dawadawa (fermented locust beans) in amplified his creative sense of possibil-
using the culinary intersections as con- an efo riro stew, as a nod to douchi ity — and cross-cultural optimism.
versational starting points. Chefs are that I’m proud of what I was doing. I was (China’s fermented black beans), as “Many people celebrate history and
happy to join in. cooking for a better future, cooking for a well as fonio, a Senegalese grain, as trib- tradition with food,” said Cecilia Chiang,
Ms. Damon, the founder of Supper better me. When everything feels so ute to China’s ancient, pre-rice Five the 99-year-old godmother of Chinese
Club From Nowhere, a culinary history bad, doing this feels good.” Grains. They were substitutions he bor- restaurants nationwide, who has eaten
project inspired by the civil rights chef Chintan Pandya, the chef at Adda In- rowed from his home kitchen, cooking at the storied Chinese restaurants of
Georgia Gilmore, cheered Mr. Sin’s re- dian Canteen in Long Island City, a with his fiancée, Lisa, who is Chinese- Kolkata and recalled a terrible lo mein
quest to collaborate. Amid what she neighborhood in New York, said Dis- Japanese. Mr. Sin’s Eight Treasures Bolognese in Rome. “This year, with the
called exhausting “Black for pay” prop- tance Dining was an opportunity to pudding, in turn, was evocative of simi- virus and everything, people say: ‘Take
ositions, meant to help brands burnish showcase dishes that are authentic in a lar Senegalese desserts like sombi and me back! Take me back to how it was be-
their political credentials by partnering surprising way. The chile chicken he thiakry. fore!’ Not so many celebrate the future
with people of color, she called Distance made with Mr. Sin, for example, was in- “When I first came to New York and now. But Lucas does.
Dining “a breath of fresh air.” vented in the 1970s, when soy sauce and wanted to cook something with “Lucas is so ambitious. The stories he
JEAN-CLAUDE DELMAS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
“He’s already doing the work in him- cornstarch were substituted for garam dawadawa, I would go to Chinatown and wants to tell are too long to be spoken, Gisèle Halimi in 1978. As a lawyer whose career spanned seven decades, she sought to
self,” she said. “There’s relief because masala by members of the Chinese com- get fermented beans there,” Mr. Thiam but perfect for being eaten.” redress injustices against women and to seek justice for torture victims.
Jailed in Lebanon, he was freed after U.S. government pressure
member of a Christian-dominated mili- tween 2005 and 2019. owned a restaurant called Little Leba-
AMER FAKHOURY
tia. Trump administration officials said non to Go, he looked like a different per-
1963-2020
He was also accused of collaborating they believed that Mr. Fakhoury’s arrest son, his daughters said. He and his wife,
with Israeli forces during their 18-year was directed by Hezbollah, which plays Micheline, used to go on evening walks
occupation of southern Lebanon. a major role in the country’s govern- around Dover. After he came back from
BY JENNY GROSS
In March, after U.S. government ef- ment. Hezbollah officials, in a statement Lebanon, he could make it only as far as
Amer Fakhoury, a Lebanese-born natu- forts to secure his release, Mr. Fakhoury after Mr. Fakhoury’s release in March, the mailbox.
ralized American citizen who was de- was freed from jail when a judge ruled said the dropping of charges against Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a New
tained for months in Beirut on charges that the statute of limitations to pros- him was “a sad day for Lebanon and jus- Hampshire Democrat, said in a state-
of torturing Lebanese prisoners dec- ecute him had expired. tice.” ment that she was relieved that Mr.
ades ago during the Israeli occupation of “We believe that God took him out of While detained, he was tortured and Fakhoury was able to spend the last few
southern Lebanon, died on Monday. He these evil, terrorist hands and brought had several ribs broken, and he was months of his life surrounded by loved
was 57. him to America to die peacefully with his forced to drink filthy water while held in ones and receiving excellent medical
Mr. Fakhoury, who owned a Lebanese family right by his side,” Macy unsanitary conditions, said Guila care.
restaurant in Dover, N.H., had been Fakhoury, one of his four daughters, Fakhoury, one of his daughters. He was “Amer was a loving husband, father
found to have late-stage lymphoma can- said on Tuesday. “I think that’s the big- healthy when he arrived in Lebanon, but and grandfather, and a pillar in his com-
cer while held in Lebanon and died at gest blessing of all.” while he was detained there he became munity,” she said. “He immigrated to the
the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in His case drew the attention of senior infected with the Epstein-Barr virus, United States, and through hard work
Boston, his family said. U.S. senators, as well as coverage by a and lymphoma cancer was diagnosed and entrepreneurship, he lived the
Mr. Fakhoury, who became a U.S. citi- Fox News show watched by President later, his family said. American dream.”
zen last year, was arrested and detained Trump. Senior Trump administration Amer Fakhoury was born in Jdaydet He is survived by his wife, Micheline
in Beirut in September, days after he re- diplomats pressured the Lebanese gov- Marjayoun, Lebanon, on May 31, 1963, to Fakhoury; four daughters, Guila,
turned to Lebanon for the first time in 20 ernment, warning that the case could Josephine Abou Kassem and Elias Amanda, Macy and Zoya; and three
years to see family. He denied the damage its relationship with Washing- Fakhoury. grandchildren. “This is not how we
GUILA FAKHOURY, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
charges that he had overseen the tor- ton, which sent the country more than Amer Fakhoury in May 2019. He had been accused by Lebanon of overseeing the torture When Mr. Fakhoury finally returned wanted his story to end,” Zoya Fakhoury
ture of fellow Lebanese decades ago as a $2.3 billion in military assistance be- of fellow Lebanese decades ago as a member of a Christian-dominated militia. home to New Hampshire, where he said.
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THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2020 | 3
World
U.S. moves to bolster Taiwan’s status
cations such an agreement will un-
WASHINGTON
doubtedly have,” she said.
When asked last week at a news con-
ference in Slovenia about Ms. Tsai’s re-
Trump more comfortable
quest, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
with authoritarian China said, “We’re trying to figure out pre-
cisely how to proceed with that.”
but sees political benefit
Market access issues, especially over
exports of American pork and beef to
Taiwan, could hinder talks. But Kurt
BY EDWARD WONG
Tong, a former U.S. ambassador who
A visit to Taiwan by an American cab- specializes in Asia, wrote in May that an
inet secretary. A sale of advanced torpe- agreement “makes good sense as a mat-
does. Talk of starting negotiations over a ter of trade and economic policy — as
potential trade agreement. well as China policy and Taiwan policy.”
The Trump administration has taken No matter the policy options, the
action in recent weeks to strengthen United States should “make clear its
United States relations with the demo- support for Taiwan,” said Shelley Rig-
cratic island of Taiwan and bolster its in- ger, a political scientist at Davidson Col-
ternational standing. The efforts are lege. But she cautioned that U.S. officials
aimed at highlighting a thriving democ- should formulate Taiwan policy based
racy in Asia and countering China’s at- on strengthening the island, rather than
tempts to weaken the global diplomatic striking at China.
status of Taiwan, which Beijing claims “It doesn’t seem to get said enough:
as its territory. There’s a certain sense of conflation or
That feeds into a bigger campaign by confusion of what it means to be helpful
national security officials: to set the to or supportive of or affirming Taiwan,
United States on a long-term course of versus taking a position that is more
competition and confrontation with challenging to the P.R.C.,” she said, re-
China that any American president, ferring to the People’s Republic of
Democratic or Republican, will find dif- China. “How willing are U.S. officials to
ficult to veer away from in the future. pull Taiwan into that deteriorating pic-
“Taiwan is the most important thing ture, and how willing are they to be at-
from a military and credibility point of tentive to voices that say, ‘Be careful’?
view,” said Elbridge A. Colby, the former Beijing won’t punish Washington, but it
deputy assistant secretary of defense can punish Taipei.”
for strategy and force development. Mr.
Colby wrote the Trump administration’s
“We need to change things
national defense strategy, which em-
phasizes competition with China and on Taiwan to improve the
Russia. deterrent and make clearer
Taiwan has been a fraught issue be- where we stand.”
tween Washington and Beijing for seven
decades, and it is re-emerging as a po-
tential focal point of tensions, as United Some analysts have criticized Mr.
TAIWAN PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE, VIA REUTERS
States national security officials press Above, Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, attending a meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan in Taipei last week. Below right, Chinese President Trump for his apparent lack of knowl-
their campaign against China. The offi- Xi Jinping on a large video screen in Taipei after imposing a contentious national security law on Hong Kong, and left, rickshaw drivers displaying their political preference. edge of the nuances in the U.S.-Taiwan
cials also see bolstering Taiwan in a relationship. In December 2016, before
more urgent light, given the crackdown taking office, he and Ms. Tsai talked by
on civil liberties in Hong Kong by Xi Jin- telephone — the first time an American
ping, the leader of the Chinese Commu- president or president-elect had spoken
nist Party. to a Taiwanese leader since 1979.
President Trump himself admires Mr. Though pro-Taiwan policy experts in
Xi and is “particularly dyspeptic about Washington welcomed it as an overdue
Taiwan,” once comparing it to the tip of a move, the action created tensions with
Sharpie marker and China to the Reso- Beijing that Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jar-
lute desk, John R. Bolton, the former na- ed Kushner, scrambled to defuse. It was
tional security adviser, wrote in his re- clear Mr. Trump had no idea of the im-
cent book. And the president is willing to port of the call.
sacrifice U.S. support for the democratic The administration took a restrained
government for trade relations with approach with Mr. Azar’s visit. He stuck
China, he added. But campaign strat- to a carefully calibrated message
egists have told Mr. Trump that he needs throughout his three-day trip, referring
to appear tough on China for re-election to Taiwan as a “jurisdiction” and lim-
purposes. iting his criticism of the Chinese Com-
President Richard M. Nixon began a munist Party mainly to health-related
process of diplomatic opening in 1971 issues. U.S. officials said the visit was
with Communist-ruled China to get Mao aimed at highlighting Taiwan’s success
Zedong’s help in countering the Soviet in containing the coronavirus outbreak.
Union. The United States established China expressed its displeasure by
DAVID CHANG/EPA, VIA SHUTTERSTOCK MARK SCHIEFELBEIN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
diplomatic ties with China in 1979 and sending two fighter jets across the medi-
cut formal relations with Taiwan, which support for Taiwan. They want to send bringing Mandarin Chinese-language establish a constructive security rela- that it would defend Taiwan if the Peo- an line of the Taiwan Strait. Last week,
had been a sanctuary for the Kuom- military signals to China and to make re- teachers from Taiwan to the United tionship built on the clear understand- ple’s Liberation Army tried an invasion China’s military said it had conducted
intang, or Nationalists, since their loss lations with Taiwan as close to nation-to- States as they try to get American ing of our shared interests in the region,” or a blockade. The Taiwan Relations Act several live combat drills near Taiwan
in the Chinese civil war 30 years earlier. nation as possible, short of recognizing schools to break ties with the Beijing- Ms. Tsai said. does not address that, and past adminis- “to safeguard national sovereignty” and
Every U.S. administration has tried to sovereignty. Though Mr. Bolton has run Confucius Institutes. A core element of U.S.-Taiwan ties is trations have left the matter vague. implied the exercises were connected to
maintain an ambiguous position on Tai- openly advocated full diplomatic rela- In May, American officials led a failed the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, which “We need to change things on Taiwan Mr. Azar’s visit.
wan based on the “One China” policy. tions, many U.S. officials, including even effort at an assembly of the World obligates Washington to provide weap- to improve the deterrent and make Wang Ting-yu, a legislator from Tai-
The ambiguity has helped maintain some China hawks, have been more re- Health Organization to get Taiwan ob- ons of a “defensive character” to Tai- clearer where we stand, especially by wan’s ruling Democratic Progressive
stability across the Taiwan Strait, one of luctant, fearful that such a move would server status, over China’s objections. wan. Democratic and Republican ad- ending any remaining ambiguity about Party, said in an interview that Mr.
the most militarized areas in the world. mean a complete break with Beijing. But last week, Washington and Taipei ministrations have adhered to this. Last how we’d react to the use of force and al- Azar’s trip was “a break for the Taiwan
But as China has grown stronger and In March, officials persuaded Mr. orchestrated a diplomatic show of force. summer, Mr. Bolton helped push tering our military force structure and people.”
more assertive, and as Mr. Trump has Trump to sign the bipartisan Taipei Act Alex M. Azar II, the U.S. secretary of through two big packages: an $8 billion posture,” Mr. Colby said. He batted away concerns about Tai-
begun dismantling international com- passed by Congress, which commits health and human services, met on Aug. sale of 66 F-16 fighter jets and a $2.2 bil- The administration is unlikely to try wan’s inadvertently getting caught in
mitments under his “America First” for- Washington to trying to help Taiwan im- 10 with Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s presi- lion sale of 108 Abrams tanks. In May, to station troops in Taiwan. But a port the crossfire of U.S.-China relations, em-
eign policy, some U.S. officials and prove its international standing and op- dent, in Taipei, in what was the highest- the administration notified Congress of call is possible, as are visits by officers in phasizing that the island had its own
Washington policy experts say the pose what the bill’s Senate sponsors level visit by an American official to the an intent to sell $180 million worth of ad- uniform and training programs in Tai- diplomatic and defense strategies.
United States’s traditional approach to called China’s “bullying tactics.” island since 1979. Two days later, Ms. vanced torpedoes. wan, U.S. officials say. “If they want to give us a hand, then
Taiwan helps hard-liners in Beijing and The White House has publicly criti- Tsai gave a video talk hosted by two pol- But some administration officials ar- From the perspective of Taiwanese of- we appreciate it,” Mr. Wang said. “But
increases China’s threat to the island’s cized as “Orwellian nonsense” China’s icy research groups in Washington in gue that the arms sales and increased ficials, bolstering economic ties is also Taiwan won’t be any country’s bargain-
24 million people. efforts to force American companies, in- which she stressed the need to strength- transit by U.S. warships through the Tai- critical. In her talk, Ms. Tsai called for ing chip.”
Those officials, as well as Republican cluding airlines and hotels, to use lan- en military ties and establish a free- wan Strait, fall short of what Washing- the start of negotiations over a free-
and Democratic lawmakers, aim to do guage indicating Taiwan is part of trade agreement. ton needs to do. They say Washington trade agreement. “We hope that the U.S. Amy Qin contributed reporting from
as much as possible to show explicit U.S. China. Some officials have discussed “Foremost amongst my priorities is to must make clear to Beijing and Taipei recognizes the broader strategic impli- Taipei, Taiwan.
Communist insider who turned on Xi kicked out of the party
Ms. Cai returned fire, accusing Mr. Xi wrote in an essay published by Radio in the longer term, Mr. Xi’s policies In private, Ms. Cai said, she became
BY CHRIS BUCKLEY
of undermining China’s prospects for Free Asia last month. “This is openly in- would push China toward a political cri- increasingly frustrated with party lead-
During her career teaching at the Com- peaceful democratization and reck- timidating all in the Chinese scholarly sis by isolating the country and extin- ers’ unwillingness to match economic
munist Party’s top academy, Cai Xia lessly alienating the United States and community, inside and outside the sys- guishing domestic hopes for orderly changes with political ones. She was dis-
cheered at signs that China’s leaders other powers. tem.” economic and political relaxation. heartened by the dour authoritarian
might ease their political grip, making Mr. Xi “bears a great deal of culpabil- Such vocal critics are few in China, She said that she supported the tough ways of Mr. Jiang’s successor, Hu Jintao,
her an uncommonly prominent voice for ity,” Ms. Cai said during a long, some- where censorship and political pressure line that the Trump administration has then even more alarmed by the draconi-
democratic change near the heart of the times tearful interview on Tuesday have intensified under Mr. Xi. But big- taken against the Chinese government an turn of Mr. Xi, who took power in
party. about her evolution from party insider ger numbers of disgruntled liberals are on trade and other issues, even if she 2012, after Mr. Hu.
Now Ms. Cai has turned her back on to apostate. “But for one person to do ill quietly waiting for a crisis that could had qualms about some of its tactics. Ms. Cai said that the incident that
such hopes, and the party has turned over a long time, and for the whole party shake Mr. Xi’s power, said Deng Yuwen, And she maintained that China’s harsh broke her waning faith in the party was
against her. She has become the latest to not utter a word, that clearly shows a former editor at Study Times, a news- measures to suppress the spread of the not a great crisis, but the government’s
intellectual punished for challenging the that the party’s system and bodies have paper issued by the Central Party coronavirus had become a drive to handling of the death of Lei Yang, a Chi-
hard-line policies of the current leader, big problems.” School. The academy trains rising offi- spread surveillance into every corner of nese environmentalist who died in po-
Xi Jinping. Ms. Cai, 67, is among a cluster of Chi- cials in political doctrine, party history Cai Xia, who now lives in the United society. lice custody in 2016. The police accused
The Central Party School in Beijing, nese dissenters who have recently de- and other subjects. States, said the Chinese Communist Party After Mr. Xi abolished a term limit on him of hiring prostitutes, a claim that
where Ms. Cai taught for 15 years until cried Mr. Xi’s policies, including his han- “Based on my observations, a consid- had become a “political zombie.” the Chinese presidency in 2018, in effect Ms. Cai and other supporters said was
2012, announced on Monday that she dling of the coronavirus outbreak and erable number of reformists inside the opening the way for an extended stay in slander aimed at diluting public anger
had been expelled from the Communist imposition of a national security law on party are despairing, like Cai Xia,” Mr. power, Ms. Cai told a party school official over his death.
Party after she scathingly denounced Hong Kong. Deng said in a telephone interview from that such a move would hurt China’s in- “That incident left me totally disillu-
The former teacher said
both the party and Mr. Xi in recent Two of those critics, Xu Zhangrun and the United States, where he now lives. ternational image, she said. sioned,” she said, pausing to choke back
speeches and essays. “This party has Ren Zhiqiang, already faced retribution “But for the most part they put the Xi Jinping’s policies were “I said, ‘You are forcing Western tears.
become a political zombie,” she said in a last month. Mr. Xu, a law professor, was blame on Xi Jinping and are waiting for ending hopes for political countries into a showdown with us,’” “Their methods were despicable to an
talk that circulated online last month, detained for a few days and dismissed some kind of error by Xi to reinvigorate relaxation. she recalled. extreme that surpassed anything we
apparently moving the party school to from his post at Tsinghua University in reformist forces within the party.” Ms. Cai was raised in a family steeped could imagine.”
take action. “This system, fundamen- Beijing. Mr. Ren, a once well-connected It could be a long wait. Not even the in Communist values in eastern China. Ms. Cai faces daunting uncertainties
tally speaking, has to be jettisoned.” property developer, was expelled from coronavirus, which spread after local of- dom of speech, I think that as a retired For a decade, she was one of the best- in her new home in the United States.
In an interview from the United the party, accused of corruption and put ficials held back information about early party school professor, she should de- known scholars at the Central Party The party school cut off her pension and
States, where she has lived since last under criminal investigation after he de- cases, appears to have badly hurt Mr. fend the leadership of the country by the School. other retirement benefits, and she said
year, Ms. Cai quoted from a copy of the rided Mr. Xi’s handling of the coro- Xi’s standing. party,” Hu Xijin, an editor in Beijing who Under Jiang Zemin, the leader who she would probably be detained if she
school’s internal decision that said she navirus crisis. Many Chinese people say they are often echoes party views, said in an on- brought China into the World Trade Or- returned to China. But she said she felt
had “maliciously smeared the image of Incensed by the treatment of Mr. Xu pleased that their country is emerging line comment on Tuesday. “Now when ganization in 2001, Ms. Cai promoted Mr. relieved that now she could fully speak
the party and the country, and rabidly and Mr. Ren, Ms. Cai has spoken out in from the pandemic relatively well, com- the United States is aiming an offensive Jiang’s opening of the party to more her mind.
insulted the party and state leader.” their defense. pared with other countries that have against the Chinese Communist Party, businesspeople and professionals. Then “In my own mind, I’ve long wanted to
“Cai Xia’s attitude has been vile,” the “They have persecuted Xu Zhangrun struggled. Many also support the gov- as a party member, she should not, ob- and later, she often appeared in the Chi- resign from the party,” she said. “Now
party school said, “and she showed not by ruining his reputation, humiliating ernment’s imposition of the sweeping jectively speaking, stand on the side of nese news media, arguing that the party that they’ve expelled me, I’m really
the slightest contrition for her errone- his dignity, stripping him of his right to national security law on Hong Kong. the attacker.” could be a vehicle for steady political happy, because at last I’ve regained my
ous statements.” work and cutting off his livelihood,” she “No matter how Cai Xia defines free- In the interview, Ms. Cai argued that and economic liberalization. freedom.”
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4 | THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION
world
A more optimistic look at herd immunity
Immunity is a patchwork quilt in New
Some scientists believe
York, for instance: Antibodies were
what has been considered present in 68 percent of people visiting a
clinic in the Corona neighborhood of the
a minimum level is too high
borough of Queens, for instance, but in
just 13 percent of those tested at a clinic
in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn.
BY APOORVA MANDAVILLI
But another group, led by the math-
We’ve known from the beginning how ematician Gabriela Gomes of the Uni-
the end will arrive. Eventually, the coro- versity of Strathclyde in Scotland, ac-
navirus will be unable to find enough counted for variations within a society
susceptible hosts to survive, fading out in its model and found that Belgium,
wherever it briefly emerges. England, Portugal and Spain have herd
To achieve so-called herd immunity — immunity thresholds in the range of 10
the point at which the virus can no long- to 20 percent.
er spread widely because there are not “At least in countries we applied it to,
enough vulnerable humans — perhaps we could never get any signal that herd
70 percent of a given population must be immunity thresholds are higher,” Dr.
immune, scientists have suggested, Gomes said. “I think it’s good to have
through vaccination or because they this horizon that it may be just a few
survived the infection. more months of pandemic.”
Now some researchers are wrestling Other experts urged caution, saying
with a hopeful possibility. In interviews these models are flawed, as all models
with The New York Times, more than a are, and that they oversimplify condi-
dozen scientists said that the threshold tions on the ground.
is likely to be much lower: 50 percent, Jeffrey Shaman, an epidemiologist at
perhaps even less. If that’s true, then it Columbia University, said it wasn’t clear
may be possible to turn back the coro- to him that Dr. Gomes’s model offered
navirus more quickly than once only one possible solution. And he was
thought. suspicious of the big ranges among the
The new estimates result from com- four countries.
plicated statistical modeling of the pan- “I think we’d be playing with fire if we
demic, and the models have all taken di- pretended we’re done with this,” Dr.
vergent approaches, yielding inconsis- Shaman said.
tent estimates. It is not certain that any The new models offer food for
community in the world has enough res- thought, he and other experts said, but
idents now immune to the virus to resist should not be used to set policy.
a second wave. “Mathematically, it’s certainly possi-
ble to have herd immunity at these very,
very low levels,” said Carl Bergstrom, an
In parts of New York, London
infectious disease expert at the Univer-
and Mumbai, it is not sity of Washington in Seattle. “Those are
inconceivable that there is just our best guesses for what the num-
already substantial immunity. bers should look like.”
“But,” he added, “they’re just exactly
JONAH MARKOWITZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
that, guesses.”
But in parts of New York, London and There were thousands of coronavirus spread,” said Dr. Jayanthi Shastri, a
Mumbai, for example, it is not incon- cases and hundreds of deaths in the microbiologist at Kasturba Hospital in IMPERFECT IMMUNITY
ceivable that there is already substan- Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, Mumbai who led the work. But what about immunity at levels
tial immunity to the coronavirus, scien- above. Left, health screening in Mumbai, Most researchers are wary of con- lower than those needed for herd immu-
tists said. also hit hard. In some such communities cluding that the hardest-hit neighbor- nity?
“I’m quite prepared to believe that many people now have antibodies. hoods of New York, or even those in “Definitely the disease would not
there are pockets in New York and Lon- blighted areas of Mumbai, have reached spread as well if it gets back into New
don which have substantial immunity,” herd immunity or will be spared future York,” said Joel Miller, a mathematical
said Bill Hanage, an epidemiologist at Blimi Marcus, a nurse practitioner who outbreaks. modeler at La Trobe University in Aus-
the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public lives in Borough Park, which was hit But models like Dr. Britton’s hint that tralia. “The same level of behavior
Health. “What happens this winter will hard by the virus. it’s not impossible. Other researchers change will have more effect on the dis-
reflect that.” But all that has changed now, Ms. have suggested, controversially, that ease now than it did four months ago.”
“The question of what it means for the Marcus added: “The general feeling is herd immunity can be achieved at rates Thinking of a city or country as com-
population as a whole, however, is much one of complacency, that somehow of immunity as low as 10 or 20 percent posed of subgroups, demarcated by age,
more fraught,” he added. we’ve all had it and we’re safe.” and that entire countries may already race and level of social activity, might
Herd immunity is calculated from the Is it possible that some of these com- have achieved that goal. also help governments protect those
epidemic’s so-called reproductive num- munities have herd immunity? In some Criticism trailed Sunetra Gupta, a the- with the least immunity.
ber, R0, an indicator of how many people clinics, up to 80 percent of people tested oretical epidemiologist at Oxford Uni- That perspective also might help put a
each infected person spreads the virus had antibodies to the virus. The highest versity, after a widely circulated inter- renewed focus on groups who require
to. prevalence was found among teenage view in which she said that London and the higher levels of immunity, because
The initial calculations for the herd boys. New York may already have reached of greater exposure levels and other in-
immunity threshold assumed that each But people at clinics are more likely to herd immunity because of variability equities, including Black and Latino res-
ATUL LOKE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
community member had the same sus- be showing symptoms and therefore among people, combined with a theoret- idents, said Dr. Manoj Jain, an infectious
ceptibility to the virus and mixed ran- munity fall. Some researchers even sug- may have reached herd immunity can- more likely to be infected, said Wan ical immunity to common cold coro- disease expert at Emory University in
domly with everyone else in the commu- gested the figure may be in the range of not afford to be complacent. Yang, an epidemiologist at Columbia naviruses that may protect against the Atlanta. “That’s where this info is very
nity. 10 to 20 percent, but they were in the mi- The virus may still flare up here and University’s Mailman School of Public new one. useful,” he said.
“That doesn’t happen in real life,” said nority. there, even if its overall spread is Health in New York. Random household “That could be the explanation for The models also suggest a vaccina-
Dr. Saad Omer, director of the Yale Insti- Assuming the virus ferrets out the stymied. It’s also unclear how long surveys would probably find lower rates why you don’t see a resurgence in places tion strategy: Rather than uniformly
tute for Global Health. “Herd immunity most outgoing and most susceptible in someone who has recovered may be im- — but still well above the 21 percent av- like New York,” she said. vaccinating all groups, governments
could vary from group to group and sub- the first wave, immunity following a mune, and for how long. erage reported for New York, she said. Most experts reject that notion. Sev- could identify and immunize those most
population to subpopulation” and even wave of infection is distributed more ef- Researchers in Mumbai conducted eral studies have shown that certain im- likely to be exposed in “superspreader”
by postal codes, he said. ficiently than with a vaccination cam- VIRUS-RESISTANT COMMUNITIES? just such a random household survey, mune cells produced following infection events.
For example, a neighborhood of older paign that seeks to protect everyone, The coronavirus crashed this year’s Pu- knocking on every fourth door — or, if it with seasonal coronaviruses may also In Brooklyn, fewer than 1 percent of
people may have little contact with oth- said Tom Britton, a mathematician at rim celebrations in the Orthodox Jewish was locked, the fifth — and took blood recognize the new coronavirus. people tested at neighborhood clinics
ers but succumb to the virus quickly Stockholm University. neighborhoods of New York, tearing for antibody testing. They found a star- “We are still nowhere near back to over the past eight weeks were infected
when they encounter it, whereas teen- His model puts the threshold for herd through the parades and masquerades tling disparity between the city’s poor- normal in our daily behavior,” said Vir- with the virus. But there are still hand-
agers may bequeath the virus to dozens immunity at 43 percent — that is, the vi- in the borough of Brooklyn on March 9 est neighborhoods and its more affluent ginia Pitzer, a mathematical epidemiolo- fuls of cases, Ms. Marcus said, adding
of contacts and yet stay healthy them- rus cannot hang on in a community after and 10. enclaves. Between 51 and 58 percent of gist at the Yale School of Public Health. that her 10-year-old niece was in quar-
selves. The virus moves slowly in subur- that percentage of residents has been in- Schools and synagogues soon shut residents in poor areas had antibodies, “To think that we can just stop doing all antine because a counselor at her day
ban and rural areas, where people live fected and recovered. down to quell the spread, but it was too versus 11 to 17 percent elsewhere in the that and go back to normal and not see a camp had tested positive.
far apart, but zips through cities and Still, that means many residents of late. By April, thousands in the Brooklyn city. rise in cases, I think is wrong, is incor- “Sometimes that’s all you need,
households thick with people. the community will have been sickened communities were infected, and hun- The lowest-income residents are rect.” right?” she said. “I’m still hoping we
Once such real-world variations in or have died, a high price to pay for herd dreds had died. packed tightly together, share toilets, A second wave might also hit groups don’t see what we had in March and
density and demographics are ac- immunity. And experts like Dr. Hanage “It’s like a black hole in my memory and have little access to masks. “These or neighborhoods that were spared by April, but I’m not so sure that we’ve seen
counted for, the estimates for herd im- cautioned that even a community that because of how traumatic it was,” said factors contributed to a silent infection the first, and still wreak havoc, she said. the end of it.”
For those who lack internet, it’s back to broadcast TV
SCHOOLS,FROM PAGE1 In Tanzania, Ubongo, an organization third of people are not connected to the of parents said their children used the
the local level, some places have paid lit- that makes popular educational car- internet, TVRI began broadcasting “Be- televised programs, compared with a
tle attention to developing remote learn- toons aimed at younger children, as well lajar Dari Rumah” — “Studying From quarter who used the government’s ed-
ing, focused instead on an effort to re- as parents, decided to offer its programs Home” — in April to children of all ages. ucational website. Nearly all sent home-
open schools. Others have worked hard for free to television stations across Afri- Parents have not been entirely recep- work to teachers through WhatsApp.
to develop robust online programs. But ca. tive. Many Indonesians, for example, Early broadcasts addressed virus-re-
that is of no use to the four million “Outside of Africa, there’s been a push say they do not have enough education lated topics like hygiene and avoiding
schoolchildren who do not have internet for internet-based learning,” said themselves — or enough time — to take disinformation. Recent ones have com-
access at home, a difficulty especially Cliodhna Ryan, the head of education at on teaching responsibilities at home. bined traditional lessons with made-for-
prevalent among Black, Latino and In- Ubongo. “But in most African countries, Many are demanding that more schools television twists: For a high school math
digenous students. the majority of children just do not have reopen, even though only a portion of class, a teacher calls in to correct a
Television holds promise as a low-cost that access. At the end of the day, the the country has been deemed safe for in- presenter’s faulty grasp of statistics.
complement to online schooling and a best educational tool someone has is the person classes. “It’s advantageous for students who
lifeline for students with few other re- one they already have in their pos- In Brazil, officials capitalized on the know how to learn on their own,” said
sources. A vast catalog of educational session.” work of the Amazonas Media Center, Heli Estela, a high school teacher in the
programming exists, but analysts say which was founded in 2007 to provide Andean region of Cajamarca in northern
policymakers have mostly missed an televised lessons to 300,000 students in Peru. “And we have students like that,
“Ideally, one would have,
opportunity to make use of it. remote areas. Since the coronavirus with initiative, who figure it out on their
“How many parents right now are just like, laptops and all pandemic took hold, the programs have own. But there aren’t many of them.”
trying to figure out how to get through these super fancy things expanded to several Brazilian states, He has seen the effort stumble, re-
the day while their kids are just watch- at home.” with educators adapting them to differ- peatedly. Early in the pandemic, he said,
ing TV or on the iPad?” said Melissa S. ent cultures and teaching styles. More he paid his internet provider more than
MARCO GARRO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Kearney, a professor of economics at the than 4.5 million children have watched, Miriam Flores, 37, teaching Yois Vasquez, 6, at a free daycare service she offers in Lima, $100 to install an antenna because his
University of Maryland, who has pub- New Jersey’s public television sta- according to the center. Peru, to single mothers who don’t have anywhere to leave their children. own connection was so slow. Mr. Estela
lished research about “Sesame Street.” tion, NJTV, began working with the “This tool became stronger out of a messages students over WhatsApp to
“We could do a lot of good if people who state’s teachers’ union to produce school necessity to reach a greater number of supplement television and radio
are in a position of trust with those fam- programs after learning that 300,000 of people and have a bigger outreach, but To solve the biggest drawback of tele- Araujo, a high school biology teacher. lessons, but trying to explain concepts
ilies could point them to some of that the state’s children had no internet ac- it’s not going to stop there,” said vised learning — the lack of interaction Ubongo, the Tanzania-based cartoon individually has been difficult.
positive content.” cess, said John Servidio, the station’s Wilmara Messa, the director of the Ama- and feedback from teachers — some maker, has paired its programs with a In a district where many parents are
Since March, many parts of the world general manager. zonas Media Center, which has a 60-per- places have designed ways for teachers smartphone app offering support to par- subsistence farmers, some of his 47 stu-
have resorted to televised schooling, In the end, more than 200 teachers re- son production team. to monitor students’ progress. Many of ents and students. And teachers and dents have lost access to televisions
with an array of strategies. The pro- corded lessons out of their own homes. Analysts say it is too early to know them rely on cellphones, which are far students use messaging services like when their families had to move around
grams range from recordings of class- Some were decidedly low-tech, but one how effective televised schooling has more common in poor regions of the WhatsApp to stay in contact. the countryside for work. A dozen have
room lessons to educational cartoons, teacher used his cat’s blanket to build a been during lockdown, but there is scat- world than broadband hookups, though Peru, a poor nation of 32 million peo- failed to report back at all. Others seem
and from local efforts to national ones. green-screen studio. From April until tered evidence that past efforts have even access to a phone can be a barrier. ple, has suffered one of the world’s worst to be cheating on their homework.
Some focus on one age group, while oth- the school year ended, Grades 3 through been effective. The state of Amazonas, in Brazil, of- coronavirus outbreaks, with an official “To really start remote education,
ers, like Peru’s, have adapted the na- 6 each had an hour of programming on In Mexico, a long-running program of fers a smartphone app to supplement count of more than 540,000 cases and first you have to make sure everyone
tional curriculum for all grades. the station every morning. broadcasting lessons to students in ru- televised schooling, allowing students about 26,500 deaths — figures that ex- has internet,” he said, “but this disease
Many parts of China have offered a “A commercial station would never be ral areas led children to stay in school to ask their teachers questions in real perts say do not capture the true toll. didn’t give us any warning.”
blend of online and televised classes, but able to support this,” Mr. Servidio said. for longer and earn more as adults. Pro- time. In a country where only 15 percent of
Sichuan Province chose to broadcast all In Indonesia, the pandemic has fessor Kearney and a colleague found “The students watch the TV, and we public school students have access to Reporting was contributed by Natalie
of its lessons on television because the helped revive TVRI, a state-owned tele- that children in the United States with have one teacher onscreen and another computers at home, broadcast lessons Kitroeff from Mexico City, Richard C.
government said it worried about stu- vision network that had been hemor- access to “Sesame Street” program- one off to the side mediating the com- have become the dominant mode of Paddock from Bangkok, Dera Menra Si-
dents spending too much time on their rhaging viewers to private stations and ming were more likely to be at an age- ments that come in through the chat learning during the pandemic. In a gov- jabat from Jakarta, Indonesia, and Mar-
computers. Netflix. In a country where nearly a appropriate grade level. room,” said Sabrina Emanuela de Melo ernment survey in June, three-quarters iana Simoes from Rio de Janeiro.
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THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2020 | 5
world
Child migrants held at hotels in U.S.
“A transportation vendor should not
Private security firm
be in charge of changing the diaper of a
is overseeing detentions 1-year old, giving bottles to babies or
dealing with the traumatic effects they
under coronavirus orders
might be dealing with,” said Andrew Lo-
renzen-Strait, another former deputy
assistant director for custody manage-
BY CAITLIN DICKERSON
ment at Immigration and Customs En-
The Trump administration has been us- forcement, who worked with MVM dur-
ing major hotel chains to detain children ing his time at the agency.
and families taken into custody at the A spokesman for MVM said the com-
border, creating a largely unregulated pany’s contract with ICE bars repre-
shadow system of detention and swift sentatives from responding to media re-
expulsion without the safeguards in- quests.
tended to protect the most vulnerable ICE officials provided a statement ex-
migrants. plaining that MVM workers are trained
Government data obtained by The in the requirements of the Prison Rape
New York Times, along with court docu- Elimination Act. But the company is not
ments, show that hotel detentions over- contractually required to follow its
seen by a private security company rules.
have ballooned in recent months under Expulsions have come to replace for-
an aggressive border closure policy re- mal deportation proceedings as the pri-
lated to the coronavirus pandemic. mary way of processing migrants who
More than 100,000 migrants, includ- try to enter the United States during the
ing children and families, have been pandemic. Nearly 110,000 people have
summarily expelled from the United been expelled from the United States at
States under the measure. But rather the border with Mexico since the restric-
than deterring additional migration, the tive policy took effect.
policy appears to have caused border While the practice of detaining mi-
crossings to surge, in part because it grant children and families in hotels has
eliminates some of the legal conse- been previously reported, the fact that
quences for repeat attempts at illegal so many well-known hotels are part of
crossings. the program only became apparent with
The increase in hotel detentions is the release of the list. Some of the hotels
likely to intensify scrutiny of the policy, listed appeared to be unaware of the
which legal advocacy groups have al- program.
ready challenged in court, saying it After facing scrutiny for detaining
places children in an opaque system dozens of migrant children and parents
with few protections and violates U.S. in its hotels in McAllen, Phoenix and El
asylum laws by returning them to life- Paso, Hilton, whose participation was
threatening situations in their home previously reported by The Associated
countries. Press, said that the decision to do so had
Children as young as a year old — of- been made by franchisees. The corpora-
ten arriving at the border with no par- tion released a statement saying that it
JOEL MARTINEZ/THE MONITOR, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
ents — are being put in hotels under the Protesters at the Hampton Inn in McAllen, Texas. Because the hotels are outside the formal detention system, they are not subject to policies designed to prevent abuse. was against company policy for its ho-
supervision of transportation workers tels to be used for detention and that all
who are not licensed to provide child franchise locations had been notified
care. Immigration and Customs En- Hotels used to house people in ICE custody they should reject future requests for
forcement officials say the children are reservations for that purpose.
In the 2020 fiscal year, at least 900 people have been held by ICE in hotels,
being adequately cared for during the A legal challenge on behalf of the chil-
which are not subject to the same health and safety guidelines as federal
hotel stays and say their swift expulsion dren detained at the hotel in McAllen
detention centers.
is necessary to protect the country from was settled earlier this month, when the
the spread of the coronavirus. government agreed to release them.
17 people
The U.S. government authorities have Econo Lodge, A spokeswoman for the Choice Hotel
resorted to using hotels during previous Seatac Airport North chain, which has been used to detain mi-
spikes in immigration and as staging ar- SEATTLE grants in Miami, Seattle and San Diego,
eas for short periods of time before tra- said in response to the data obtained by
102 people
ditional deportations; the conditions are The Times, “It has been our position that
Best Western Plus
in many ways better than the cold, con- hotels should not be used as detention
Dragon Gate Inn
crete Border Patrol holding cells where facilities, and we are not aware that any
LOS ANGELES
many migrants have been left to lan- hotels in our franchise system are being
guish in the past. These three hotels in Arizona used in this capacity. We ask that our
But because the hotels exist outside and Texas were used for the first franchised hotels, which are independ-
time during the 2020 pandemic.
the formal detention system, they are ently owned and operated, only be used
not subject to policies designed to pre- 15 people for their intended purpose.”
vent abuse in federal custody or those Quality Suites, 65 people There have been several legal at-
requiring that detainees be provided ac- Otay Mesa Hampton Inn & Suites, Airport tempts to challenge the expulsions, es-
cess to phones, healthy food, and medi- SAN DIEGO EL PASO pecially of children, including one case
cal and mental health care. 191 people 10 people in which a judge recently appointed by
Parents and lawyers have no way of Hampton Inn, 572 people Comfort Suites, President Trump sided against govern-
MATT YORK/ASSOCIATED PRESS
finding the children or monitoring their Airport North Hampton Inn & Suites Kendall A Hampton Inn in Phoenix is among hotels where migrants have been detained. Parents ment lawyers.
well-being while they are in custody. PHOENIX MCALLEN, TEXAS MIAMI and lawyers have no way of finding the children while they are in custody. But the government avoided an in-
The existence of the hotel detentions Source: Government data obtained by The New York Times ELEANOR LUTZ / THE NEW YORK TIMES junction blocking the policy in each case
came to light last month, but documents by agreeing to release the individual
reviewed by The New York Times re- rather than put into traditional, formal Trump administration’s coronavirus-re- the primary company used to transport ment of detained migrant children. The children named as plaintiffs, rendering
veal the extent to which major chains deportation proceedings. Parents often lated border ban. Unlike deportations, migrant families encountered at the bor- Prison Rape Elimination Act requires the challenges moot.
are participating. The federal Immigra- send their children to the American bor- expulsions are meant to take place very der to family detention centers. Its secu- procedures to allow them to independ- Immigrant advocates say that the
tion and Customs Enforcement agency der alone because children are more soon after a migrant is encountered by rity workers oversee the tent courts that ently report physical or sexual abuse by government has also agreed to release
has detained at least 860 migrants at a likely to win asylum if they are not trav- immigration agents. But delays in se- were erected to process cases of asylum government workers or contractors. To individual children who have been dis-
Quality Suites in San Diego; Hampton eling with adults. curing flights necessary to return the in- seekers who have been made to wait out comply with the law, migrant detention covered in the expulsion system.
Inns in Phoenix and in McAllen and El Under the new policy, most children creasing number of migrants now arriv- their cases in Mexico. In 2018, when a centers post phone numbers to abuse But there are many others whose lo-
Paso, Texas; a Comfort Suites Hotel in are instead being put on planes and re- ing at the border have led the adminis- federal judge ordered the reunification hotlines and provide detainees with free cations are unknown. Lee Gelernt, who
Miami; a Best Western in Los Angeles; turned to their home countries, primari- tration to turn to MVM Inc., a private of families that had been separated by access to phones. (Public data show that is leading the legal challenge against the
and an Econo Lodge in Seattle. ly in Central America, though some corporation known mostly as a trans- the immigration authorities along the 105 such reports were made against policy for the American Civil Liberties
Though the data does not specify have been handed over to the child wel- portation and security company, to de- border, MVM transported parents to government immigration contractors in Union, said the primary problem is that
ages, the official who provided it, as well fare authorities in Mexico, leading par- tain migrant children and families. staging facilities near the shelters 2018, the most recent year of available children are not being offered a way to
as several former immigration officials ents into desperate efforts to track their Started in the late 1970s by three for- where their children were being de- data.) obtain asylum from unsafe conditions in
who recently left the Trump administra- children down. mer Secret Service agents, MVM has tained. The Trafficking Victims Protection their home countries, as is required by
tion, said it was likely that most or all Searching for the children has been grown substantially. Despite its substantial transportation Reauthorization Act provides safe- law.
were children, either traveling alone or made nearly impossible because they The company now has contracts portfolio, MVM does not have much ex- guards to ensure that detained children “As dangerous as it is for children to
with their parents, because single adult are not being assigned identification worth hundreds of millions of dollars perience detaining migrant children. In who could be abused or tortured in their be secretly held in hotels,” he said, “the
migrants tend to be housed in Border numbers that would normally allow with nearly all of the federal agencies in- a previous foray in 2018, the company home countries are not sent back into ultimate problem is that they are ex-
Patrol holding stations. families to track them in the highly regu- volved in immigration enforcement. It was criticized for detaining children harm’s way. pelled without a hearing, regardless of
The administration’s pandemic-relat- lated federal detention system. has secured at least $1.9 billion in fed- overnight in a vacant office park in Neither of these protections appear to where they are held.”
ed border closing policy calls for mi- Only rarely used in the past, the prac- eral contracts since 2008. Phoenix. apply to the informal hotel stays over-
grants to be expelled from the country, tice of expulsion has surged under the Before the pandemic hit, MVM was Two laws weigh heavily on the treat- seen by MVM. Kitty Bennett contributed research.
Ex-Trump aide labeled a counterintelligence threat
lectively, they had paid him tens of mil- claimed that the Ukrainian oligarchs sian government to hack into the com-
WASHINGTON
lions of dollars, lent him millions more had stiffed him out of millions for his puter networks of Democratic organiza-
and may also have owed him millions. work for Mr. Yanukovych. And Mr. Deri- tions and funnel damaging emails to the
These complex financial entangle- paska was trying to collect from Mr. rogue website WikiLeaks, which re-
Bipartisan Senate report
ments apparently figured in Mr. Man- Manafort for a failed private equity deal leased them just before the election.
links one-time campaign afort’s decision to give Mr. Kilimnik in- in Eastern Europe. The report also cited but did not re-
side campaign information, including Now broke, Mr. Manafort volunteered veal information it said potentially links
manager with operative
confidential polling data and details of to work for the Trump campaign, which Mr. Manafort to that operation, which
Mr. Trump’s campaign strategy. The re- hired him in March 2016. In a memo, Mr. was by far Russia’s most significant ef-
port builds on other evidence suggest- Manafort offered to brief Mr. Deripaska fort to disrupt the American election.
BY SHARON LAFRANIERE
ing that Mr. Manafort hoped that Mr. Ki- on “this development with Trump.” Mr. Manafort was forced to resign
AND JULIAN E. BARNES
limnik would open up lucrative business Mr. Manafort also passed along the from the Trump campaign in August
Russian intelligence services pursued deals with the oligarchs in return or that news of his new job to Mr. Kilimnik, who 2016, amid a growing scandal over his
myriad avenues to influence the Trump they would consider the value of the in- traveled to the Uunited States to meet work in Ukraine. He later told the Fed-
campaign in 2016, according to the Sen- formation as its own form of payment. him in May and again in August 2016. eral Bureau of Investigation that he had
ate Intelligence Committee, but none The committee had little explanation The report said Mr. Manafort briefed briefed Mr. Trump on his Ukraine work
was more important than the relation- for the connection between the two men, Mr. Kilimnik on Mr. Trump’s path to vic- before the campaign hired him, but “did
ship between the campaign chairman citing Mr. Manafort’s lies to the U.S. gov- tory and his strategy in battleground not go into detail because Trump was
Paul Manafort and a man who had been ernment authorities, coupled with the states. not interested.”
his friend and co-worker for years: a care the two men took to protect their After he rose to campaign chairman, Even after he was ousted, Mr. Man-
Russian intelligence officer named Kon- communications, as roadblocks to Mr. Manafort instructed his deputy, Rick afort stayed in touch with campaign offi-
stantin V. Kilimnik. learning more. Gates, to periodically share confidential cials and with Mr. Kilimnik, who be-
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
Their link was “the single most direct “What did the Russians do with all Paul Manafort, President Trump’s campaign chairman in 2016, shared inside informa- Trump campaign polling data with Mr. lieved that Mr. Manafort could still influ-
tie between senior Trump campaign of- this information, how did they use it, did tion about the campaign with a Russian intelligence officer, senators said. Kilimnik, including surveys showing ence the new administration’s foreign
ficials and the Russian intelligence serv- they use it?” Senator Mark Warner of what voters most disliked about Hillary policy, the report said.
ices,” according to the fifth and final vol- Virginia, the committee’s top Democrat, Clinton, Mr. Trump’s Democratic oppo- Together, they promoted the false,
ume of the committee’s report on its bi- asked in an interview on Tuesday. group of pro-Russia oligarchs in For over a decade, the work made Mr. nent. Mr. Gates “understood that Kilim- Kremlin-backed story that Ukraine, not
partisan three-year investigation, is- “Those are serious counterintelligence Ukraine later became the financiers of Manafort extremely wealthy. At lunch, nik would share the information with Russia, had interfered in the 2016 elec-
sued Tuesday. questions we may never get the full an- Mr. Manafort’s operations to help Viktor after Mr. Yanukovych was elected presi- Deripaska,” the report said. tion. The report stated the similarities in
While the interactions between the swer on.” F. Yanukovych, a politician aligned with dent in 2010, the report said, the new The transfer of internal campaign their efforts suggested coordination.
two men remain largely hidden, investi- The report said Mr. Kilimnik was Mr. Russia, become Ukraine’s president. Ukrainian leader “snapped his fingers” data to a known Russian agent is “about After he was convicted of orchestrat-
gators found enough facts to declare Manafort’s link to Oleg V. Deripaska, a Mr. Manafort recognized the Krem- and gave Mr. Manafort a jar of caviar as clear a coordination or cooperation ing a financial fraud scheme, Mr. Man-
that Mr. Manafort had created “a grave Russian oligarch who is close to Presi- lin’s interests, the report said. “This worth $30,000 to $40,000. between two entities as could be estab- afort agreed to cooperate with federal
counterintelligence threat” by sharing dent Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and has model can greatly benefit the Putin gov- Despite questions about who was be- lished,” said Senator Angus King, a prosecutors investigating Russian in-
inside information about the presiden- acted “as a proxy for the Russian state ernment if employed at the correct lev- hind Mr. Kilimnik — both financially and Maine independent on the Senate Intel- terference in the election.
tial race with Mr. Kilimnik and the Rus- and intelligence services” since at least els with the appropriate commitments,” politically — Mr. Manafort increasingly ligence Committee who votes with the Prosecutors ultimately decided that
sian and Ukrainian oligarchs whom he 2004. he wrote in a memo to Mr. Deripaska. depended on him. But by 2014, the Democrats. Mr. Manafort was lying to them and
served. Mr. Deripaska, who has worked to in- The report called Mr. Manafort’s ef- Ukraine work had dried up. The committee said it found evidence pulled out of a plea agreement with him.
The report portrayed Mr. Manafort as stall pro-Kremlin governments around forts for the oligarch “in effect, influence Mr. Yanukovych had been forced out — redacted for national security rea- He is now serving his seven-and-a-half-
deeply compromised by years of busi- the globe, initially hired Mr. Manafort as work for the Russian government and as president after a popular uprising sons — that Mr. Kilimnik may have been year prison sentence at home because of
ness dealings with those oligarchs. Col- a political consultant, the report said. A its interests.” and had fled to Russia. Mr. Manafort involved in the covert effort by the Rus- the coronavirus pandemic.
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6 | THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION
world
Climate change becomes a fund-raising issue
raise $30.39 million for races up and
WASHINGTON
down the ballot, a figure that includes
the $15 million that Climate Leaders for
Biden raised for the candidate, said
Democratic donors flock
Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president
to Biden in an effort to of government affairs at the League of
Conservation Voters.
counter fossil fuel money
That total has already broken the
group’s record of $23 million raised dur-
ing the 2018 midterm elections. The
BY LISA FRIEDMAN
group raised $8 million in the 2016 elec-
In 2009, the Obama administration’s en- tion.
vironmental team called a group of cli- Unlike past presidential cycles in
mate activists to the White House to de- which activists openly said they were
liver a message: Climate change doesn’t donating in an effort to prod the candi-
sell and only provokes economic attacks date to prioritize climate change, donors
from the right that are too difficult to with these two groups said Mr. Biden
counter. and Ms. Harris already are where the
For former Vice President Joseph R. donor community wants them to be on
Biden Jr., who is now officially the Dem- the issue.
ocratic Party’s presidential nominee, Several donors said they were not
the changing climate is now a core cam- early supporters of Mr. Biden, having
paign issue — and a focus for fund-rais- preferred candidates that were more
ing. Plans for tackling rising global tem- outspoken on climate change, but they
peratures were expected to be in the praised the former vice president for
spotlight Wednesday at the Democratic working with youth leaders in groups
convention. And Mr. Biden has raised like the Sunrise movement and issuing
more than $15 million in candidate con- an aggressive plan that calls for $2 tril-
tributions from hundreds of new donors lion in spending over four years with a
who specifically identify with climate clean energy standard and 40 percent of
change as a cause. spending devoted to low-income com-
That climate-specific fund-raising munities.
may make up just about 5 percent of the “He obviously has decided it’s a win-
total he has raised so far. It’s dwarfed by ning political strategy, and that’s impor-
fossil fuel donations to President tant,” Mr. Linden said.
Trump, who took in $10 million from a Mr. Linden, a longtime Democratic
single fund-raiser in June, held by the oil donor, said President Trump’s antago-
billionaire Kelcy Warren, and whose so- nism to climate change and the dozens
called super PAC, America First Action, of environmental rollbacks the Trump
has seen millions pour in from coal and administration engineered had con-
oil moguls, according to the Center for vinced him for the first time to persuade
Responsive Politics, which tracks cam- other donors to give specifically on cli-
paign donations. mate.
It is not known how much unregulat- “This election versus the one four
ed money is going to super PACs aligned years ago, climate has become a really
with Democrats from other self-identi- big deal,” he said. “Biden is taking ads
ERIN SCHAFF/THE NEW YORK TIMES
fied climate donors. Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Kamala Harris at their first joint campaign event last week. The Trump campaign has tried to turn climate-specific donations made to Mr. Biden against him. out about it, he talks about it a lot and the
But the hard money climate dona- total amount of funding he has raised
tions represent a growing counter- that is tagged with the ‘climate donor’
weight to oil, gas and coal money that sage: “We want to make it easy to do the fund-raisers of his campaign. such donations against Mr. Biden. and his wife Elizabeth Strickler, and slug is big. Before this it just wasn’t a
has long warped the energy conversa- right thing. We should reward cam- Two subsequent small fund-raisers “Is Joe Biden really OK with filling his Nicole Systrom, founder of the Sutro En- factor.”
tion in Washington. Self-identified “cli- paigns and candidates for having the hosted by Climate Leaders for Biden campaign coffers at the expense of the ergy Group, a clean energy investment Ms. Systrom also noted that in the
mate donors” are a new phenomenon in right policies,” said Matt Rogers, a co- also raised about $4 million each. Julia tens of millions of American workers firm in San Francisco. (Such investment 2016 campaign “climate wasn’t a big is-
the 2020 election and are working over- founder of the digital thermostat com- Louis-Dreyfus headlined one of the who will lose their jobs from his radical firms and the energy companies they sue” on the campaign trail. She donated
time to show candidates that campaign- pany Nest. group’s events in late July, which policies and the millions of American fund would stand to profit from a multi- at the time to Mrs. Clinton, but said it
ing to eliminate emissions from fossil fu- Mr. Rogers and his wife, Swati brought in nearly $2 million from about families whose housing taxes will go up trillion-dollar government effort to com- wasn’t motivated solely by global warm-
els pays — in cash. Mylavarapu, who ran Pete Buttigieg’s 800 donors, according to the organizers. to pay for these socialist proposals?” bat climate change.) ing.
“That is a sea change. We’ve now got fund-raising apparatus during the Dem- During the online fund-raiser the star Courtney Parella, a Trump campaign A separate group called Clean Energy Now it is, she said, and the same goes
a class of people called ‘climate donors’ ocratic primary, helped host the first of the political comedy “Veep” recalled spokeswoman, asked in a statement. for Biden has about 4,500 members and for donors she has helped recruit.
in a way we had environmental donors major climate change fund-raiser for one episode in which her team came up Other deep-pocketed hosts associ- has held 30 events that include fund- Betsy Taylor, president of the consult-
before,” said David Bookbinder, general Mr. Biden in June along with Tom with the “weakest environmental ges- ated with Climate Leaders for Biden in- raising, policy analysis and get-out-the- ing firm Breakthrough Strategies and a
counsel for the Niskanen Center, a non- Steyer, the billionaire climate activist ture that my idiot character could possi- clude Nat Simons, a senior managing di- vote efforts, said Dan Reicher, a co- longtime adviser to climate donors, said
partisan think tank in Washington. and former hedge-fund executive who bly make, so that she wouldn’t offend the rector of the investment firm Meritage founder of the group who served in the the dynamics are virtually unrecogniz-
“Climate has taken over as an issue on also ran for president. fossil fuel industry” — replacing plastic Group, who with his wife, Laura Baxter- Department of Energy under President able from 2009 when she and other ac-
its own. People are finally understand- The group, which calls itself Climate utensils with recyclable ones. Simons, runs the Sea Change Founda- Clinton and President Obama. They tivists were told that “clean energy jobs”
ing that we have a truly existential crisis Leaders for Biden, raised $4 million But, Ms. Louis-Dreyfus said, “That’s tion, a major funder of clean energy have raised about $1.1 million for Mr. Bi- and “energy security” were safer ways
on our hands,” Mr. Bookbinder added. from about two dozen donors during a actually more than Trump has done for work. den. to frame an environmental message.
Publicly embracing climate change so- 20-minute Zoom call with Mr. Biden. the environment in four years,” calling Lawrence H. Linden, a former Gold- A third group, GiveGreen, is a coali- “Back then the conventional wisdom
lutions was viewed as a political liability, Until last week when Mr. Biden and him “actually worse than a fictional man Sachs Group Inc. partner who runs tion of the fund-raising arms of various was, ‘Don’t fund-raise with political do-
as recently as a decade ago, he said. Senator Kamala Harris made their de- president with a team of professional the Linden Trust for Conservation, is environmental groups that has worked nors on climate change. Don’t even talk
During Barack Obama’s re-election run but as running mates, raising $34.2 mil- writers working 24-7 to make her as bad also in the group, along with Mark Gallo- with Climate Leaders for Biden but also about climate change,” Ms. Taylor said.
in 2012, the issue was hardly mentioned. lion in 24 hours — $3 million of that in a as possible.” gly, co-founder of the private invest- raises money for state and local races. Eleven years later, she said, Democratic
Now donors are sending a new mes- single hour — it was one of the biggest The Trump campaign has tried to turn ment firm Centerbridge Partners L.P. As of Tuesday the group had helped donors “want action” on fossil fuels.
Abortion fight overshadowed in 2020, but stakes are high
ral disasters or the economy.” NARAL Pro-Choice America. “We think we’re all fighting for the same constitu-
BY MAGGIE ASTOR
Abortion-rights organizations, by that the best way to turn the tide on this encies.”
It would be difficult to overstate the sig- contrast, are presenting the issue as one issue is to be bold about our values, cen- The question is whether that ap-
nificance of this year’s elections for the piece of a puzzle. While pressing candi- ter those who are harmed by restric- proach can match the power of single-
future of abortion in America. The re- dates to support abortion rights un- tions, and to take back the narrative.” issue voters.
sults could eventually determine flinchingly, they are also emphasizing Several groups, like We Testify and “Even if a swing voter has an inclina-
whether Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 that abortion restrictions, the virus, the Patient Forward, have emerged to pub- tion to vote for a pro-abortion Democrat
ruling that legalized abortion through- recession and police violence dispropor- licize the experiences of people who based on their support for other issues,”
out the United States, is overturned by tionately affect the same groups: poor have had abortions. There is some evi- said Ms. Quigley, the Susan B. Anthony
the Supreme Court or codified by Con- people and people of color. dence that this might increase support List spokeswoman, “when we educate
gress. “Abortion is included in those conver- for abortion rights. them about the contrast that exists be-
Normally, stakes that high would sations,” said Valerie Peterson, a Texas- Ms. Peterson, who had an abortion af- tween the two sides and the two candi-
make abortion a primary focus of the based board member of the National ter her 16-week scans showed her fetus dates on abortion in particular, the con-
2020 campaign. But normally, the coun- Network of Abortion Funds. The term had a fatal brain malformation, now trast is so glaring that we can get them
try wouldn’t be experiencing a pan- pro-life, she argued, could also apply to works with We Testify. She got involved to vote for a pro-life candidate.”
demic, a recession and a civil rights “people that are coming down with coro- after she requested time off to travel to
movement all at once. On Night 1 of the navirus, and whether or not we are go- Florida for her abortion — which she THE INFRASTRUCTURE GAP
Democratic National Convention, the ing to create policy or institute things so couldn’t easily get in Texas — and her Anti-abortion groups have an advan-
sum total of the attention abortion re- that we can help save lives.” boss, who was anti-abortion, responded tage in electoral infrastructure, having
ceived was the second it took Kamala with unexpected understanding. spent decades building an apparatus
Harris to say “reproductive justice” in a CONTRASTING MESSAGES “For a person who is that far right, that communicates candidates’ stances
video montage. For years, abortion opponents pro- who believed at that time that abortion to like-minded voters and brings those
ILANA PANICH LINSMAN/REUTERS
There is no playbook for this: If you moted incremental measures like wait- Wendy Davis, a former Texas state senator, speaking at a Planned Parenthood rally was only OK in a case of rape or incest or voters to the polls en masse.
are an activist whose life’s work hinges ing periods, ultrasound requirements outside the State Capitol in Austin in 2017. Ms. Davis is running for Congress. health of the mother, to see now there “When we encourage people to vote
on the attention and decisions of an and clinic regulations. But after Justice was this other piece that he had never for pro-life candidates,” said Carol Tobi-
overwhelmed electorate, what do you Brett M. Kavanaugh joined the Supreme even known about or considered — to as, president of the National Right to
do? Court, creating a potential majority to me, that was confirmation that yes, I Life Committee, “they trust what we say,
Groups on both sides of the abortion overturn Roe v. Wade, states moved to need to speak out,” she said. “I decided and they vote for those candidates.”
debate are collectively investing more ban abortion almost entirely. If Mr. that I wasn’t going to speak out as a Jane Abortion-rights groups have gotten
than $150 million nationally. But for a Trump appoints another justice, an anti- Doe; I was going to speak out as myself, stronger but haven’t eliminated the gap.
window into the process, just look to Roe majority would be nearly certain. because people need to see that I am a Anti-abortion voters “have been tar-
Texas: a potential presidential battle- In response, abortion-rights support- human being.” geted and amplified and supported
ground with a closely watched Senate ers coalesced around codifying Roe leg- through vast investments of infrastruc-
campaign, competitive House races, a islatively, which could keep abortion le- SINGLE-ISSUE VOTING, OR NOT ture for 30 years,” said Heidi Sieck, co-
state legislature whose lower chamber gal in the event of a Supreme Court re- Where the abortion-rights strategy dif- founder of #VoteProChoice, which is
might flip, and a long history of being at versal. If Democrats win the presidency fers most from the anti-abortion strat- producing a voter guide with endorse-
the center of abortion politics. and Congress, this would be possible. egy is in its rejection of single-issue ments as far down-ballot as school
It was Texas that brought Roe v. Wade Facing these huge stakes, the sides framing, and its argument instead that board members and railroad commis-
to the Supreme Court. It was a Texas have chosen different approaches. abortion is intertwined with health pol- sioners. “I am jealous of that infrastruc-
state senator, Wendy Davis, who gained Democrats have largely abandoned icy, the economy and racial justice. ture.”
national attention for filibustering anti- the “safe, legal and rare” framing, say- This approach — an embrace of prin- Ms. Sieck said she was seeing less
abortion legislation; she is now running ing there is no need to be defensive ciples women of color have long pro- complacency and more enthusiasm
for Congress. Early in the pandemic, when most Americans support abortion moted — was evident in Democratic among abortion-rights supporters. But
Texas joined Ohio in temporarily ban- rights. A Pew Research Center study presidential candidates’ opposition to #VoteProChoice is only four years old,
ning abortion as a nonessential pro- last year found that 70 percent sup- the Hyde Amendment, which blocks and even long-established groups ha-
cedure. ported Roe v. Wade. most Medicaid coverage of abortion and ven’t always prioritized get-out-the-
Now, what Texas shows is how pro- Republicans have set the terms of the disproportionately affects people of col- vote work.
SALLY RYAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
foundly the two sides’ strategies have debate in specific ways favorable to Canvassers for the Susan B. Anthony List, a prominent anti-abortion group, on their or; Joseph R. Biden Jr. renounced the For anti-abortion groups, the infra-
diverged. their position, including by focusing on way to encourage voters to support candidates who oppose abortion. amendment after having supported it. structure can mean they don’t have to
Anti-abortion groups believe the is- abortions late in pregnancy. The Susan Some activists said that, far from focus on persuasion, because turning
sue of abortion can secure Republican B. Anthony List, a prominent anti-abor- struggling to draw attention to abortion out voters who are already persuaded is
victories despite a cratering economy — tion group, is emphasizing procedures moment of birth,” said Mallory Quigley, cratic primary differed in their views on over the coronavirus or police violence, enough. And for many of those voters,
which typically hurts the party in power after 20 weeks’ gestation, which account a spokeswoman for the Anthony list. abortion,” Ms. Schwartz said. “It was as they saw an opportunity. the coronavirus and the economy sim-
— and disapproval of how President for around 1 percent of abortions and of- Kimberlyn Schwartz, a spokeswoman if they were all trying to ‘out-abortion’ Recent events “have really allowed ply aren’t relevant.
Trump has handled the coronavirus and ten involve health crises or serious fetal for Texas Right to Life, said that in con- each other.” reproductive justice advocates to make “The life issue is really a top priority
systemic racism. abnormalities. versations with the group’s canvassers, What anti-abortion groups see as the connection to our shared struggle,” for many of these people,” said Jalee Ar-
“Texas has an abundance of pro-life That focus is at the center of anti- Texans often expressed anger about ex- electorally destructive, abortion-rights said Destiny Lopez, co-director of the none, the Susan B. Anthony List field di-
voters, and our goal is to get them excit- abortion groups’ broader argument: pansions of abortion rights in states like groups see as a way to reframe the de- All* Above All Action Fund, which op- rector in Texas’ 24th Congressional Dis-
ed about the pro-life candidates on the that Democrats have become “extre- New York, which passed a law last year bate. poses the Hyde Amendment and re- trict, where anti-abortion groups are
ballot and turn them out to vote,” said mists” in a way that should horrify even allowing third-trimester abortions if the “Progressives have fallen into this leased a joint platform with Jobs With supporting Beth Van Duyne and abor-
Joe Pojman, the executive director of voters who support legal abortion in woman’s life or health is in danger or if pattern where they think the politically Justice and the One Fair Wage Action tion-rights groups are supporting Can-
the Texas Alliance for Life. “Voters who some circumstances. the fetus is not viable. safe thing to do is not to talk about abor- Fund. “There is a sense that we must dace Valenzuela. “I don’t know how else
are concerned about the life issue are “The modern Democratic Party sup- “Voters also noticed how none of the tion,” said Aimee Arrambide, the execu- align our movements if we are actually to tell you that it’s just a priority over the
not going to be deterred because of natu- ports abortion on demand up until the presidential candidates in the Demo- tive director of the Texas chapter of going to win this November, because other things that are going on.”
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THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2020 | 7
Business
‘This market is nuts’: Stocks defy a recession
tary policy,” said Scott Clemons, chief in- 500, saying the broad index could rise to
Investors have forged on
vestment strategist for private banking 3,600 or a further 6 percent or so.
through seemingly endless at Brown Brothers Harriman, an invest- But the divergence between the path
ment bank. of financial markets and the current
waves of bad news
Several times in recent days, the S&P health of the economy also highlights
500 crisscrossed its Feb. 19 closing high the fact that, despite looming large in
of 3386.15 in intraday trading, before the American psyche, the stock market
BY MATT PHILLIPS
falling below that level to end the trad- is not a particularly good reflection of
Widespread economic devastation, se- ing day. But on Tuesday, the blue chip in- the broader U.S. economy or the mood of
vere unemployment and a grim progno- dex notched a modest gain of 0.2 per- the American middle class.
sis for recovery in the United States cent, to close at 3,389.78, after another Many Americans own stock, but the
have not quelled the stock market’s exu- solid performance by major technology vast majority of shares owned by house-
berance. And that undying optimism companies. Amazon.com rose 4.1 per- holds are controlled by the wealthiest
has propelled the market to a new high, cent, pulling the Nasdaq composite in- people in the country, making them less
pushing it past a milestone reached only dex to a fresh record as well. The Dow likely to feel the pain of the economic
six months ago, when the coronavirus Jones industrial average slipped 0.2 per- slump.
was just beginning its harrowing jour- cent. And only a tiny fraction of American
ney across the country. Tuesday’s rise was the latest chapter businesses — less than 1 percent of
“This market is nuts,” said Howard in a remarkable rebound for the stock those with 20 employees or more, ac-
Silverblatt, senior index analyst for S&P market after a nearly 34 percent col- cording to one finance professor — are
Dow Jones Indices. lapse in February and March. It was the publicly traded. Those whose shares
To those outside Wall Street, the mar- fastest ever nosedive of more than 30 trade on the open market tend to be
ket’s rise, including the new high percent from a peak, reflecting the much larger and better financed than a
reached Tuesday, may appear inexplica- depths of panic as investors began to typical firm.
ble, given the human and economic toll consider the economic costs of the pan- Even among publicly traded compa-
of the virus, and a stalemate in Washing- demic. Those fears were warranted. nies, almost all the gains in major stock
ton that has paralyzed efforts to provide Since March, the economy has suffered market indexes this year are attributa-
more relief that many businesses and the sharpest collapse since the Great ble to the surging share prices of a few
workers desperately need. Still, invest- Depression. An estimated 28 million giant technology companies, foremost
ors have cast the nearly relentless Americans are receiving unemploy- among them Apple, Amazon and Micro-
drumbeat of bad news aside to focus on ment benefits. The economy has almost soft.
any signs that the worst might be over. been decimated, as G.D.P. shrank nearly These megacompanies — Apple ap-
They have also been emboldened by the 10 percent during the second quarter of pears poised to become the first-ever
Federal Reserve’s steadfast support of the year, wiping out nearly five years of company to reach a market value of $2
the markets and unwavering embrace economic growth. trillion — are exerting an enormous in-
of low interest rates. After that initial steep decline, howev- fluence over major stock market in-
Investors are taking into account MARK ABRAMSON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES er, the stock market began to recover dexes such as the S&P 500. Since such
signs that the virus, after a recent surge The New York Stock Exchange. Even among publicly traded companies, almost all the gains in major stock market indexes this year and has done so steadily since, in a indexes are weighted by the market val-
that threatened to set back much of the are attributable to the surging share prices of a few giant technology companies, foremost among them Apple, Amazon and Microsoft. marked display of what analysts de- ue of their constituents, the largest com-
country a second time, may be abating, scribe, by turns, as optimism, hubris or panies hold sway over their direction.
with the number of new cases declining sheer speculative greed that relies Tech giants have fared incredibly well
by 16 percent over the last 14 days, ac- Market rebound heavily on federal spending, easy mone- through the crisis, as investors have bet
cording to data compiled by The New tary policy and continued signs of that the stay-at-home economy plays to
York Times. Expectations for 2020 cor- As the number of new cases of coronavirus have declined in the past two weeks, market optimism has increased, progress in the hunt for virus vaccines. many of their strengths. Amazon is up
porate profits, formulated by Wall Street pushing the S&P 500 to an all-time high on Tuesday, just six months after setting its previous record high. The result has been a remarkable rally about 80 percent this year. Apple is up
analysts, seem to have stopped plum- of more than 50 percent that has under- almost 60 percent, while Microsoft has
meting. Also, slow but notable progress S&P 500 DAILY CLOSES TUESDAY’S CLOSE scored the dissonance that sometimes risen more than 34 percent.
toward a vaccine, which many manufac- 3,389.78 exists between the markets and the Without those three companies, the
3,500
turers and public health experts say economy. return on owning S&P 500 stocks — in-
could be ready by next year, has made During the deep recession that fol- cluding dividend payments — would
many investors bullish. lowed the financial crisis of 2008, finan- have been negative 4.1 percent this year
And the economy is improving, even if 3,000 cial markets recovered faster than em- through the end of July. Instead, invest-
the recovery is tepid. Some 1.8 million ployment, wages and business activity. ors captured an actual return of 2.4 per-
new jobs were added in July, and weekly RECESSIONS ReGceresastion The S&P 500 was hitting record highs by cent, according to data from S&P Dow
state unemployment benefit claims early 2013, a year before the U.S. job Jones Indices.
2,500
have fallen below one million for the first market replaced all the jobs lost in the The stock market is also incredibly
time since March. downturn. sensitive to actions by the Federal Re-
Together, these data points have been In part, that reflects the forward-look- serve, with stocks often soaring when
enough to create an outlook that while 2,000 ing nature of the stock market, where — the central bank eases monetary policy,
not exactly rosy, is at least no longer pal- Peak of dot-com in theory — investors buy stocks based typically in response to an economic
lid. At the same time, the improvements bubble on long-term expectations for profits slump. That means a weak economy can
are hardly so significant that they would 1,500 and dividends they expect companies to actually be quite good for Wall Street, if
prompt the Federal Reserve to pull back generate, rather than how they’re faring it means that the Fed keeps the river of
its support for the economy. The Fed has when the shares are purchased. freshly created money — what’s known
started new programs to buy Treasury The American economy continues to on Wall Street as liquidity — flowing into
1,000 Coronavirus spreads
bonds and other financial assets to calm struggle, but investors widely believe financial markets. That could help ex-
investors, and it is financing those pro- that the worst of the coronavirus-relat- plain why empirical studies of the rela-
grams by essentially creating new Black Monday ed downturn is over. Earlier this month, tionship between economic growth and
money. 500 stock crash economists at Goldman Sachs upgraded stock market performance often show
“It seems to me that markets have de- their outlook for economic growth in little connection between the two.
cided this economic environment is the 2021, writing that they “now expect that “Nothing matters but liquidity,” wrote
best of both worlds: enough economic at least one vaccine will be approved by Michael Hartnett, chief investment
0
recovery to support corporate earnings the end of 2020” and will be widely dis- strategist at Bank of America Global Re-
and prevent a substantial recession, but tributed in early 2021. Last week, stock search, in a recent research note de-
’80 ’85 ’90 ’95 ’00 ’05 ’10 ’15 ’20
not so much that the Fed would have to market analysts at Goldman raised scribing what he called the “nihilistic”
raise interest rates and tighten mone- Source: Refinitiv GUILBERT GATES/THE NEW YORK TIMES their year-end estimates for the S&P bull market of 2020.
Well-heeled shoppers desert the world’s airports
clude temperature checks, questioning
Pandemic has overturned
and contact tracing. Because 40 percent
conditions that made of coronavirus cases are asymptomatic,
the task is challenging but still worth-
space enticing to retailers
while, he added.
“You can’t throw up your hands and
say it is impossible,” Dr. Fauci said.
BY KEVIN WILLIAMS
In Kansas City, officials are making
It’s difficult to tell whether Singapore adjustments as necessary. If more space
Changi Airport is an entertainment is needed, their design has flexibility
complex or an airport. built in, something older airports can’t
Changi features a three-screen movie do as easily. “As of now, we haven’t
theater, an indoor butterfly garden, a changed course or modified the existing
rooftop pool and inventive eateries that new terminal design, but we are in the
attract as many locals as travelers. early stages of exploring how to en-
With more than 400 shops, including hance traveler safety and health,” Mr.
Apple and Tiffany & Company (there McBride said.
are two), Changi would be the fourth- The new building will give the airport
largest mall, by number of tenants, if it more flexibility in dealing with this pan-
were in the United States. demic or future ones, including the pos-
An audience that is captive and often sibility of conducting health screenings
affluent has made airport commercial outside, said Laura Ettelman, a manag-
square footage some of the most lucra- ing partner at Skidmore, Owings and
tive in the world. But the pandemic has Merrill, an architectural and design firm
crushed the commercial calculations at in New York that is overseeing the air-
airports, and no one is sure what comes port renovation.
next. The pandemic will accelerate future
The leading airport for concession terminal construction at other airports
and retail sales in the United States is to incorporate flexibility, she added.
Los Angeles International, with reve- “Airports are difficult architecturally
nue of $3,036 a square foot, according to because they become outmoded quickly,
STEFANI REYNOLDS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES JOHN S LANDER/LIGHTROCKET
a 2018 report from Airport Experience Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, U.S. epidemiologist, says airports need to let people spread out. Amenities like the butterfly garden at Singapore Changi Airport have drawn crowds. so all the buildings we are working on
News. Chicago O’Hare clocks in second today are about flexibility and more
with $2,718 in sales a square foot. By flexibility,” Ms. Ettelman said.
comparison, the average mall retailer is existing heuristics, unless we think that with the Changi Airport Group, which terminals into a single 39-gate giant, in- La., are moving ahead but taking a wait- Other airport designers are following
around $325 per square foot, according customer behavior will return to what operates the facility. cluding a two-story fountain, a chil- and-see approach on adjustments. that same mantra.
to 2017 data from CoStar. we now consider normal,” he said, add- The airport’s traffic has fallen to 1 per- dren’s play area and updated conces- New terminal construction should fo- But bigger changes will be needed,
But that’s all gone now, said Alan ing that activities like health screenings cent of what it was a year ago, which sions. cus on space not just for the coronavirus said Henrik Rothe, a senior lecturer in
Gluck, a senior aviation consultant at often cut into space for other needs, usu- leaves little market for movies or It’s not the first time the airport has but for other respiratory illnesses, said airport planning at Cranfield University
ICF. ally concessions. gourmet meals, Mr. Tan said. The air- been remodeled during significant air- Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the in Britain who has designed airports in
“In general, sales are in the toilet,” Mr. Many concessions are likely to need port is using this time to close Terminal line industry disruption: On Sept. 11, National Institute of Allergy and Infec- 45 countries. The disruption to airports
Gluck said. For example, concession more space for social distancing, which 2 to accelerate planned refurbishments, 2001, the airport was in the middle of a tious Diseases. is the most complex ever, and all stake-
sales at San Francisco International Air- will cut down on the number of retail but the pandemic will cause some major overhaul. Changes had to be “The crowded nature of things in an holders will have to come together to re-
port in May were down 96 percent from units that airports can offer. amenities to be replaced with new ones. made to screening areas quickly, and in- airport has always made me uncomfort- imagine them, he said.
a year earlier. Duty-free concession The very amenities that once made “The longer-term impact of Covid-19 terior and exterior glass fortified. able, particularly in a less modern one,” The SARS outbreak of 2002 was a pan-
sales were down 100 percent, he said, airports a standout for profit are the on the facilities and amenities we pro- “In that case, the project was under- Dr. Fauci said. “People are literally nose demic warning that most airports ig-
because all the stores were closed. In same things that are proving to be chal- vide remains to be seen,” he said. way. The adjustments were made, and it to nose, waiting to get on the plane.” nored, he said. In the long term, airports
May 2019, duty-free sales were $11.5 mil- lenging. For instance, Changi’s theaters So far, the pandemic has not inter- wasn’t too late,” said an airport spokes- He said new terminals needed to al- are going to have to reassess their oper-
lion. are still closed, not just for pathogen rupted planning or construction of ter- man, Joe McBride. “We are still early on low enough space for people to spread ations and perhaps become more ori-
Until passenger traffic returns, Mr. protection but also because traffic is too minals in the United States, although this terminal project, the construction is out, offer high-efficiency particulate air ented toward business and infrastruc-
Gluck said, airport retail properties are low to justify the operating expenses. some airport operators are reconsid- ongoing, so we are in better shape than filtration and distribute free masks. ture than amenities.
not going to be profit centers, and even “We will scale our airport operations ering traveler amenities. in 9/11.” He would also like to see more health “Airports need to become multipur-
when it does return, it may be at reduced based on the volume of passengers we Kansas City International Airport is Other projects underway, including screening at airports to prevent the type pose commercial centers, sustainable
capacity. serve,” said Ivan Tan, senior vice presi- in the middle of a $1.5 billion terminal those at La Guardia Airport in New York of virus spread seen in Wuhan, China, and resilient against disruptive events,”
“I believe that we need to reconsider dent for marketing communications renovation plan to consolidate its three and in smaller markets like Lafayette, and Milan, Italy. Such testing could in- Mr. Rothe said.
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8 | THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION
business
Southern city re-examines the roots of its charm
are directed to C.V.B. members. The
Critics say that Charleston
C.V.B. spends a third of its budget adver-
has glossed over history tising in magazines like Condé Nast
Traveler, which has named Charleston
as center of slave trade
as its No. 1 destination in the United
States for nine consecutive years.
“The C.V.B. has such power and influ-
BY TARIRO MZEZEWA
ence and not just locally,” said Allyson
AND KIM SEVERSON
Sutton, a co-owner of Sightsee Shop, a
During the week in late May when store and coffee bar in the Elliotborough
George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis neighborhood in downtown Charleston.
police officers, the Convention and Vis- She and her husband, who are both
itors Bureau of Charleston, S.C., intro- white, recently resigned from the C.V.B.
duced a campaign to assure tourists that in protest.
despite the coronavirus pandemic, “For this organization to have a $20
Charleston — a city that has topped million operating budget, a huge social
must-go travel lists for years — was media following and a website they in-
ready to welcome them back. vest a lot of money into, and for the bulk
The program asked hotels and restau- of that content to whitewash history, not
rants to take its White Glove Pledge, promote the incredible Black culture we
which would assure guests of a high lev- have now and to not at the very least use
el of commitment to hygiene. The cam- its platforms to say ‘Black Lives Matter’
paign’s logo was a white-gloved hand is incredibly disappointing,” Ms. Sutton
holding a tray. The unwitting reference said.
to the servitude of plantation life came One point of frustration is the agen-
at a moment when Black Lives Matter cy’s promotion of plantation weddings
protests were beginning to fill streets in on its website, where people can take a
cities across the United States. quiz that matches them with a venue.
“The white glove pledge could not Getting married on the grounds of a
have been any less well-conceived,” said plantation has long been sold as a ro-
Steve Palmer, the managing partner of mantic experience. But critics say that
the Charleston-based Indigo Road Hos- celebrating on plantation grounds
pitality Group, which employs about where Black people were tortured,
1,000 people in 20 restaurants and bars killed and, in many cases, buried, dis-
in four Southern states and Washington, honors their history.
D.C. Olivia Williams is a historical inter-
Days later, the Black Lives Matter preter at McLeod Plantation, whose
protests reached Charleston and turned tours focus on the quarters where en-
violent. Nearly 125 buildings in the core slaved people lived rather than the
of the city were damaged. grand home that belonged to the white
The next morning, Helen Hill, the family. Ms. Williams’s tours focus specif-
chief executive of the Charleston Area ically on enslaved women.
Convention and Visitors Bureau, who “I’m able to make connections be-
has been marketing the city for more tween the history of these women and
than 30 years, sent an email to the bu- treatment of Black women and how that
reau’s members, praising people who treatment hasn’t changed,” she said.
had emerged to clean up. At the McLeod Plantation, tours focus
“They are sweeping and not weep- on the quarters where enslaved people
ing!” she wrote, without acknowledging lived, rather than the grand home that
the pain that had spurred the protests. belonged to the white family. The planta-
“Please remind your staff who handles tion stopped allowing people to book
social media to post only uplifting and weddings on its property in 2019 (wed-
positive content. Remember our audi- dings that were already scheduled for
ence is bigger than local!” future dates will still take place). In De-
To many who make their living from cember, the Knot Worldwide, one of the
the 7.4 million people who visit the biggest online wedding-planning plat-
Charleston region every year, Ms. Hill’s forms in the United States, and Pinter-
response seemed tone deaf at best, and est, the image sharing site, said they
at worst it laid bare what has for years would no longer promote images that
been simmering just below the surface romanticize plantations.
of the city’s genteel antebellum image: Ms. Hill said that many plantations
the delicate balance between the narra- tell the story of slavery well and should-
tive promoted by the powerful visitors’ n’t be excluded from the C.V.B. site.
bureau and the city’s history as the capi- “There’s this whole thought that
tal of the North American slave trade. somehow you shouldn’t have celebra-
That balance could no longer hold. tory things happening at this beautiful
The tension between the two story outdoor venue,” she said. “We just feel
lines is not new. In recent years, the PHOTOGRAPHS BY HUNTER MCRAE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES really strongly that we want to support
mostly white leadership of the city and Clockwise from top: Stores along King our attractions because they have
the tourism industry have worked to Street in Charleston, S.C., a city that worked so hard, and if they decide that
highlight the region’s African-American attracts 7.4 million tourists to the region they want to use their special facility for
heritage. The visitors’ bureau added a each year; an empty plinth where the city weddings, we’re going to support them.”
deeply reported section on Charleston’s took down a statue of John C. Calhoun, Stephanie Burt, a travel writer and
African-American history to its website. one of the 19th century’s most prominent host of The Southern Fork podcast, has
And after more than two decades of defenders of slavery; and Olivia Williams, been one of a growing chorus of people
planning and fund-raising, the city in whose tours of a plantation focus on the lobbying for changes at the visitors’ bu-
2022 will open the International African- quarters where enslaved people lived, reau. In its drive to market Charleston,
American Museum on Gadsden’s rather than the grand home that was the agency has smothered the city’s his-
Wharf, which was the first stop for as owned by a white family. tory, she said.
many as 100,000 Africans — an estimat- “The focus is tourism at any cost, and
ed 40 percent of the people captured and it doesn’t matter if we are drowning in
brought to America to be sold into slav- tions to sanitize and whitewash Charles- nation, said that her cheery email after criticism Ms. Hill has responded to by paign that encourages people to patron- Covid or are telling the wrong story
ery. ton and show a ‘safe’ and white and pal- the protests was not unlike what she saying that the agency has 31 Black- ize Black-owned restaurants, said that about slavery,” she said. “The tourism
But as cultural institutions across the atable Charleston,” said Mika Gadsden, sends out after a hurricane. The idea owned businesses in a membership of the C.V.B. hasn’t done enough to connect industry is decimating African-Ameri-
country take a more cleareyed look at in- founder of the Charleston Activist Net- was to show the can-do spirit of the city more than 800. with Black Charlestonians. can communities and flattening nuance
terpreting history in the light of the work, a media platform that focuses on in the face of disaster. It was miscon- The agency’s budget comes from “We haven’t seen a change in dollars and narrative.”
Black Lives Matter movement, the push Black and Gullah experiences. strued to make it seem as if she and the three sources: Charleston’s share of a going to Black businesses,” Mr. Camp- Indeed, the influx of expensive hotels
to change the way Charleston tells its She has become one of the most vocal C.V.B. don’t care about racial justice, she state accommodations tax, a state grant bell said. “We haven’t seen dollars come and tourist shops has driven up the cost
own story has taken on a new urgency. critics of the C.V.B., as the visitors’ bu- said. that matches industry contributions through from the C.V.B. The way this of living in Charleston and sent the
The bureau, with an annual budget of reau is known, saying that its attempt to Still, she said, the C.V.B. can do more. and contributions from businesses, will work is if there are real partnerships working class — many of whom are Afri-
$18 million and the ability to help direct soften the city’s history of enslavement “We’ve learned through this period of which pay $700 a year to be part of the and conversations. Helen’s got to listen can-American — to less expensive parts
$8 billion in tourism dollars to specific with a big serving of genteel Southern time that we have to do a better job of C.V.B. For the past two years, Black to Black people in this sector. She has of the region.
businesses, is being asked to do more to charm has worn thin, particularly dur- getting the story out to the people that business owners have been allowed to got to share the wealth.” Since the 1980s, the racial makeup of
tell a more realistic tale and to support ing a painful moment for many of the are in Charleston about what we are do- join for $300. Being part of the C.V.B. helps busi- Charleston has flipped. Once, two out of
Black-owned business, many of which people who keep the tourism industry ing,” Ms. Hill said. “We realize we’ve got Kwadjo Campbell, president of JC & nesses connect more with large tour every three residents was Black. Now,
have been priced out of the city as its moving in Charleston. to let our locals know what we’re doing, Associates, a firm that works on devel- groups. Members are promoted on the the city is about 72 percent white.
tourism industry has grown. Ms. Hill, who has worked for the especially, especially around this issue.” opment for African-Americans in Explore Charleston website and in so- “Charleston’s viability has come at
“There has been a deliberate effort by C.V.B. for almost 34 years and has seen The C.V.B. has previously been called Charleston, and K.J. Kearney, the cial media channels. When tourists in- the expense of Black folks,” Ms. Gads-
very powerful industries and organiza- the city become a popular tourist desti- out for having few Black members, a founder of Black Food Fridays, a cam- quire about things to do in the city, they den said.
Europe’s big oil companies are turning electric
ENERGY,FROM PAGE1 and Britain. The companies plan to get verely pressuring them,” said Michele Mr. Descalzi of Eni said converted re-
their European counterparts to commit there by selling more and more renew- Della Vigna, head of natural resources fineries in Venice and Sicily that the
to climate-related goals that are as far- able energy and, in some cases, by off- research at Goldman Sachs. company uses to make lower-carbon
reaching, analysts say, partly because setting emissions with so-called nature- Already, he said, investments by the fuel from plant matter have produced
they face less government and investor based solutions like planting forests to large oil companies in low-carbon ener- better financial results in this difficult
pressure (although the American finan- soak up carbon. gy have risen to as much as 15 percent of year than its traditional businesses.
cial community is increasingly vocal of Electricity is the key to most of these capital spending, on average, for 2020 Oil companies insist that they must
late). strategies. Hydrogen, a clean-burning and 2021 and around 50 percent if natu- continue with some oil and gas invest-
“We are seeing a much bigger differ- gas that can store energy and generate ral gas is included. ments, not least because those earnings
entiation in corporate strategy” sepa- electric power for vehicles, also plays an Oswald Clint, an analyst at Bernstein, can finance future energy sources. “Not
rating American and European oil com- increasingly large role. forecast that the large oil companies to make any mistake,” Patrick
panies “than at any point in my career,” The coming changes are clearest at would expand their renewable-energy Pouyanné, chief executive of Total, said
said Jason Gammel, a veteran oil ana- BP. Mr. Looney said this month that he businesses like wind, solar and hydro- to analysts recently: Low-cost oil
lyst at Jefferies, an investment bank. planned to increase investment in low- gen by around 25 percent or more each projects will be a part of the future.
Companies like Shell and BP are try- emission businesses like renewable en- year over the next decade.
ing to position themselves for an era ergy by tenfold in the next decade to $5 Shares in oil companies, once stock
All of Europe’s large oil
when they will rely much less on ex- billion a year, while cutting back oil and market stalwarts, have been marked
tracting natural resources from the gas production by 40 percent. By 2030, down by investors in part because of the companies have set targets to
earth than on providing energy as a BP aims to generate renewable elec- risk that climate change concerns will reduce the carbon emissions that
service tailored to the needs of tricity comparable to a few dozen large erode demand for their products. Euro- contribute to climate change.
customers — more akin to electric utili- offshore wind farms. pean electric companies are perceived
ties than to oil drillers. Mr. Looney, though, has said oil and as having done more than the oil indus-
They hope to take advantage of the gas production need to be retained to try to embrace the new energy era. During the pandemic, BP, Total and
NADIA SHIRA COHEN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
thousands of engineers on their payrolls generate cash to finance the company’s The Green Data Center of the Italian oil company Eni. The company’s chief executive “It is very tricky for an investor to Shell have all scrutinized their port-
to manage the construction of new types future. said he wanted to build a business increasingly based on green energy, rather than oil. have confidence that they can pull this folios, partly to determine if climate
of energy plants; their vast networks of Environmentalists and analysts de- off,” Mr. Clint said, referring to the oil in- change pressures and lingering effects
retail stations to provide services like scribed Mr. Looney’s statement that dustry’s aspirations to change. from the pandemic mean that petroleum
charging electric vehicles; and their BP’s oil and gas production would de- While there is skepticism in both the forthcoming book, “The New Map,” on But, he said, he expects funds to flow reserves on their books — developed for
trading desks, which typically buy and cline in the future as a breakthrough environmental and the investment com- the transition now occurring in energy. back into oil stocks as the new busi- perhaps billions of dollars, when oil was
hedge a wide variety of energy futures, that would put pressure on other compa- munities about whether century-old But he noted, “These companies are re- nesses gather momentum. at the center of their business — might
to arrange low-carbon energy supplies nies to follow. companies like BP and Shell can learn ally good at big, complex engineering At times, supplying electricity has never be produced or earn less than pre-
for cities or large companies. BP’s move “clearly differentiates new tricks, they do bring scale and ex- management that will be required for a been less profitable than drilling for oil viously expected.
All of Europe’s large oil companies them from peers,” said Andrew Grant, pertise to the task. transition of that scale.” and gas. “We haven’t seen the last of these,”
have now set targets to reduce the car- an analyst at Carbon Tracker, a London “To make a switch from a global econ- Financial analysts say the dread- Executives, though, figure that wind said Luke Parker, vice president for cor-
bon emissions that contribute to climate nonprofit. He noted that most other oil omy that depends on fossil fuels for 80 noughts are already changing course. farms and solar parks are likely to porate analysis at Wood Mackenzie, a
change. Most have set a ”net zero” ambi- companies had so far been unwilling to percent of its energy to something else “They are doing it because manage- produce more predictable revenue, market research firm. “There will be
tion by 2050, a goal also embraced by confront “the prospect of producing less is a very, very big job,” said Daniel Yer- ment believes it is the right thing to do partly because customers want to buy more to come as the realities of the ener-
governments like the European Union fossil fuels.” gin, the energy historian who has a and also because shareholders are se- products labeled green. gy transition bite.”
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THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2020 | 9
Opinion
Urban gardening through the apocalypse
When my Jennifer Weiner
daughters Contributing Writer
look back on
the plague
year and all Way back in March, definitely after 15
Days to Stop the Spread; maybe during
its horrors,
30 Days to Stop the Spread, when we
Ihope were all heading toward the realization
they also that we had no real plan to stop the
spread, I ordered a window-garden
remember
flower starter kit.
the flowers. This wasn’t my inaugural attempt at
urban gardening. Last year, in my first
stab at growing things, I’d gone to Home
Depot for tomato and eggplant and
pepper plants and put them in pots on
my roof deck.
This year, though, I wasn’t sure that
I’d be able to go shopping, or that any-
one would be able to go anywhere.
Better safe than sorry,I thought.
When the kit arrived, I soaked the
seeds overnight. In the morning, I
pushed them deep into their little cylin-
ders of soil. I left them on the win-
dowsill. The next morning, tiny shoots
of green had poked their way into the
world. It felt like a miniature miracle.
By then, my book tour had been
canceled, and my kids had been told
they’d be doing distance learning for the
rest of the school year. My girls and my
husband and I were at home, together,
all day, every day, with no end in sight.
I baked and I cooked and I cleaned
and I exercised, but, some days, it felt as
if the only thing keeping me sane and
steadied were those delicate green
shoots, lassoing their tendrils around
chopsticks and bamboo skewers and
getting taller every day.
I bought a bag of Heirloom 55 seeds
that would let me grow 50 kinds of
vegetables and basically let me restart
the world’s crops, if a Noah’s Ark situa-
tion arose.
I planted radishes, and pickling cu-
cumbers, Black Beauty eggplants and
Black-Seeded Simpson lettuce. I
planted acorn squash and sugar pump-
kins and Sugar Baby watermelons. And
I bought more flower seeds; some
because I’d grown them before, others
because I just liked their names: Jewel
Mix nasturtium and Heavenly Blue
morning glory; Cosmic Glory impatiens
and Velvet pansy mix.
By the end of April, every south-
facing windowsill in the house looked
like a miniature jungle. I bought five
16-quart bags of Miracle-Gro potting
mix and a 10-pound bag of compost. I
bought a three-tier raised wooden
gardening bed. I hardened off my toma-
to and zucchini and pumpkin and cu-
cumber seedlings, and planted them in
their new beds.
Spring marched into summer. The
virus burned its way across the country.
The death toll mounted. George Floyd
was killed. The streets filled with pro-
testers, then tear gas. There was loot-
ing. There was a curfew. The businesses
in my neighborhood boarded up their MARÍA MEDEM
windows and painted “Black Lives
Matter” on the plywood. I transplanted ning, a middle and an end. to see her friends with “at least you have went wild, foaming out of their pot, the midst of this, there is beauty, there are
my morning glories to the front of my What will my children remember your health.” flowering red and gold. On the roof, cycles unfolding with miraculous regu-
house, and watched as they climbed up about this? Will they remember cars Then my cosmos and marigolds tomatoes and eggplants grew and larity, from seed to plant to fruit or blos-
the gate by my front door, covering the lined up for miles, waiting for food banks began to bloom. And, again, I felt a little ripened. The cucumber vine yielded a som. A beginning, a middle and an end.
black iron in green. or for coronavirus tests? Will they recall hopeful. cuke or two every day, and not one but What are my daughters going to re-
In 1978, when I was 8 years old, a videos of anti-mask adults throwing I signed up for the Better Homes & two Sugar Baby melons took root and member about the plague season, which
blizzard in New England closed schools tantrums at Walmart or posting screeds Gardens gardening newsletter. I joined ripened in the sun. has had a beginning and an endless
for a week. I can remember my mom about how the virus is fake news? two gardening groups on Facebook and But the flowers were the summer’s middle and still no end in sight?
zipping up my green and gold snowsuit, When will this be over?they asked. downloaded an app to help me identify stars. The zinnias blossomed in frilly They’ll remember the uncertainty, and
and the snowplows coming down the Will there be school in the fall? What’s the plants I’d neglected to label. I col- profusion, in gorgeous magenta, hot the deaths; the frustration and the de-
block, making drifts that were taller going to happen? lected gardening memes: “Give a man a pink and pale pink and orange and spair. But, maybe — I hope — the flowers,
than I was. When we went back to I told them I didn’t know, that no one fish, and he eats for a day; teach a wom- creamy gold. They made me happy too.
school it all seemed like a grand adven- knew. I told them we were all safe, and an to garden, and the whole neighbor- every time I saw them.
ture, an unscheduled vacation; a story all together. I learned that it’s very hard hood gets zucchinis.” I put flowers in every room of the JENNIFER WEINERis the author, most
to tell our children, a story with a begin- to impress a 12-year-old who just wants On the front steps, the nasturtiums house, to show that even now, even in recently, of the novel “Big Summer.”
Will 2020’s election be the end of U.S. democracy?
bike, I will hike, I will hitchhike, I will for the U.S.P.S. or $3.5 billion in election
Afree and
drive, I will ride, I will run, I will fly, I will assistance to help states, both of which
fair vote and roll, I will be rolled, I will be carried, I Democrats have been pressing for as
will trek, I will train, I will trot, I will part of a federal Covid-19 relief bill.
the prospect
truck, I will strut, I will float, I will boat, I “They need that money in order to
of a peaceful
will ramble, I will amble, I will march, I have the post office work, so it can take
transfer of will bus, I will taxi, I will Uber, Lyft, all of these millions and millions of
Thomas L. Friedman
scooter, skateboard or motorcycle — ballots,” Trump told Fox Business Net-
power are
and I will wear a face mask, a face work the next day. “But if they don’t get
both in shield, gloves, goggles, a hazmat suit, a those two items, that means you can’t
question. spacesuit or a wet suit — but I damn have universal mail-in voting, because
well will get to my neighborhood polling they’re not equipped to have it.”
Here is a sentence I never in a million station to see that my vote for Joe Biden I have covered banana republic dicta-
years thought that I would ever write or and Kamala Harris is cast and counted tors who were more subtle than that in
read: This November, for the first time on Nov. 3. attempting to rig their elections or
in our history, the United States of And it is not because I am some rav- undermine votes for their opponent.
America may not be able to conduct a ing liberal. It’s because I believe that What to do policy-wise? Bombard
free and fair election and, should Presi- America, at its core, is still a center-left, your congressman’s and senators’
dent Trump be defeated by Joe Biden, center-right country and is best gov- offices with email and protests, protect
have a legitimate and peaceful transfer erned by someone who can reforge the your neighborhood mailbox from being
of power. two and lead from there. I believe that removed and, most important, join
Because if half the country thinks Biden is the one who can do that best, TIMOTHY D. EASLEY/ASSOCIATED PRESS those protesters in the streets outside
their votes were not fully counted due to and that is actually the source of his A long line for voting in the Kentucky primary election in June. the Northwest D.C. home of Trump’s
deliberate sabotaging of the U.S. Postal appeal to many Americans. postmaster general, Louis DeJoy,
Service by this administration, and if I understand that in the midst of a putting him on notice that if he does not
the other half are made to believe by the pandemic in-person voting the way I likelihood of infection. bully pulpit to try to persuade the coun- change his ways, for the rest of his life,
president that any mail-in vote for intend to do is simply not an option for Also, it is not Trump’s fault, per se, try that any mail-in vote — except in everywhere he goes, every restaurant
Biden was fraudulent, that would not many people for reasons that have that the Postal Service is not normally states that might support him, like he enters, every movie he attends,
result in just a disputed election — not nothing to do with Trump. set up to get a massive crush of mail-in Florida — should be seen as fraudulent, every time he walks his dog, people will
another Bush v. Gore for the Supreme To begin with, many retired people, ballots out and back in time for every and he has deliberately sought to choke say, “There goes the man who deliber-
Court to sort out — that would be the who usually staff polling stations, are vote to be cast and counted. off funds to the Postal Service needed ately eviscerated the Postal Service so
end of American democracy as we know afraid to volunteer this year out of fear What is Trump’s fault is that instead for an emergency expansion of its that Americans could not have their
it. It also isn’t hyperbole to say it could of contracting the coronavirus. of leading — pulling Congress and all capacity to efficiently handle all these votes counted in the 2020 election.”
sow the seeds of another Civil War. And many other people legitimately the governors together to organize an votes by mail. That prospect already seems to have
The threat is real. fear that if they have to stand in emergency response to this unprece- Trump said in a press conference last made some headway with DeJoy. While
So, personally, I will walk, I will jog, I crowded, longer lines at fewer polling dented challenge posed to our national Wednesday that he would not sign off on the president continues to plant utterly
will skip, I will crawl, I will slither, I will stations, this, too, could increase their election — the president has used his either $25 billion in emergency funds FRIEDMAN,PAGE11
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10 | THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION
opinion
A warning for the U.S. from history
company, business in restaurants in fall, more people will be inside in poorly predicts that the U.S. is on track to reach
John M. Barry
A.G. SULZBERGER,Publisher Germany and the U.S. were in the identi- ventilated areas where transmission is 150,000 cases a day also has a “bullish”
cal place, down over 90 percent year also more likely. If the U.S. goes into the scenario in which the U.S. case counts
DEAN BAQUET,Executive Editor MARK THOMPSON,Chief Executive Officer over year. Since then they have di- fall with new daily cases in the tens of decline to European levels. But for that
JOSEPH KAHN,Managing Editor STEPHEN DUNBAR-JOHNSON,President, International verged widely: data for Aug. 16 (the thousands, as they are now, then the to happen, the modelers assumed “more
TOM BODKIN, Creative Director CHARLOTTE GORDON, V.P., International Consumer Marketing “Humankind cannot bear very much latest data at this writing) shows Ger- numbers could explode and the Morgan strict restrictions and broader interven-
SUZANNE DALEY, Associate Editor HELEN KONSTANTOPOULOS, V.P.,International Circulation reality.” man restaurants enjoyed 9 percent Stanley prediction could come true. tions” such as lockdowns “similar” to
HELENA PHUA, Executive V.P., Asia-Pacific So said the poet T.S. Eliot. It’s an apt morebusiness than last year, before the Considering our containment efforts to those imposed by China and major
KATHLEEN KINGSBURY, Editorial Page Editor SUZANNE YVERNÈS, International Chief Financial Officer explanation for the White House’s fail- pandemic, while U.S. restaurants were date, there is little reason for optimism. European Union countries.
ure to respond adequately to the pan- down around 50 percent. If that occurs, the economy will not Without active, aggressive White
demic that has swept across America And in a report last week, the Na- come back. Jerome Powell, the chair- House leadership we cannot achieve
and the rest of the world. tional League of Cities said that precipi- man of the Federal Reserve, said as that and — reality again — there isn’t
Even as reality continues to intrude, tous declines in tax revenues were much recently. “The path forward for the the slightest hint that will happen. But
President Trump has either largely forcing cities to “severely cut services at economy is extraordinarily uncertain in 1918 leadership came from cities and
dismissed or ignored his science and a time when communities need them and will depend in large part on our states. If governors and mayors act
medical advisers. And the result is that most, to lay off and furlough employees success in keeping the virus in check,” aggressively, especially if they act
the economy, the one thing he seems to who make up a large share of America’s he said at a July 29 news conference. He jointly, we can still make significant
care most about, and which he hoped middle class, and to added: “A full recovery is unlikely until progress.
would escort him to a second term, has If we don’t get pull back on capital people are confident that it is safe to In April, I predicted that summer
been devastated. projects, further re-engage in a broad range of activities.” would not bring relief, and that we
the virus under
As both history and data from today affecting local But containment, and the confidence would experience not a second wave but
control, the
demonstrate, health and the economy employment, busi- that goes with it, is not remotely where continuous swells, depending on how
devastation
are not antagonistic; they are dance ness contracts and we are at the moment. Among devel- well we complied with public health
partners, with public health taking the will get worse. overall investment oped nations, the U.S. ranks first in measures. Unfortunately too many
lead. The safer people feel, the more in the economy.” categories one would prefer to be last in: states eased up too early or did little or
they will engage in economic activity. In June the number of cases and number of deaths. nothing to control the virus. On the day
A recent study of the 1918-19 influenza World Bank estimated that global G.D.P. It lags well behind in economic recovery that prediction was published, April 30,
pandemic by a member of the Federal this year would decline by at least 5.2 as well. As of this writing, the European the seven-day average of new cases was
Reserve board and economists at the percent and possibly much more. The Union and Britain combined have a 28,943. On Aug. 16, the seven-day aver-
Fed and M.I.T. compared cities that Congressional Budget Office expects population of about 510 million, and age was 51,523.
imposed stringent public health meas- G.D.P in the U.S. to fare worse, down 5.9 1,924,569 Covid-19 cases. They have had I also warned of not simply swells but
ures — including school and church percent for the year, even after factoring around 8,000 cases for the latest daily a viral hurricane-like storm surge if the
closings, public gathering bans, quaran- in projected third quarter growth of count. The United States, population 328 country does not act aggressively and
tines and restricted business hours — more than 20 percent. But that projec- million, just passed 5.4 million cases, the public fails to comply. I stand by that
with cities that opened faster and im- tion assumes the containment of the with 42,303 the latest daily case count. prediction. Tens of thousands more will
posed fewer restrictions. The more virus, a huge assumption. Bringing the economy back requires die on top of the more than 170,000
DAMON WINTER/THE NEW YORK TIMES stringent cities not only had fewer Indeed, a Morgan Stanley model precisely the same three measures that already lost in the U.S., and millions will
deaths but experienced “a relative predicts that under current policies the controlling the virus does: First, better suffer economic devastation.
Moderators in place for a 2016 presidential debate in Las Vegas.
increase in economic activity from 1919 U.S. is currently on track to have 150,000 compliance with social distancing, And, in reality, all of it will be unneces-
onward.” new cases a day later this year. And that wearing masks, personal hygiene and sary. God help us.
It’s Trump vs. Biden. Containing the virus has allowed number is not even a worst case. If we avoiding crowds; second, finally —
many European economies to recover do suffer case counts anything like finally — getting the supply chain and JOHN M. BARRYis a professor at the
far better than the U.S. Look at Ger- those, dramatic growth in the economy personnel infrastructure in place to Tulane University School of Public
Let the debate begin! many, which has an unemployment rate simply won’t happen. support the necessary testing and con- Health and Tropical Medicine and the
of 6.4 percent. The rate in the U.S. is 10.2 Bad as the virus has been this sum- tact tracing; and, third, the bitter medi- author of “The Great Influenza: The
percent. In March and April, according mer, it actually spreads better in low cine of regional shutdowns. Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in
to OpenTable, the reservation booking temperatures, and when temperatures The same Morgan Stanley model that History.”
favorites and that they “either do not
EDITORIAL OBSERVER
have the skills to control the candi-
dates or to call them on ‘nonan-
Michelle Cottle swers.’” This critique is as relevant as
ever.
Moderators are in a tough spot. If
they let candidates bluster on or wan-
With many usual fixtures of campaign- der too far afield, they get criticized
ing upended by the coronavirus pan- for losing control of the debate. If they
demic — rallies, town halls, fund- cut candidates off and strictly enforce
raisers, conventions — President time limits, they get criticized for
Trump has been looking to beef up one being too intrusive.
of the few remaining pieces: the de- But, in general, moderators need to
bates. avoid becoming part of the story. They
The Commission on Presidential should encourage direct interaction
Debates has scheduled three matchups between the candidates, even if that
between Mr. Trump and former Vice means sitting back and missing out on
President Joe Biden, the first set for the occasional follow-up question.
Sept. 29. Noting that many states will Debates are not meant to be modified
have already begun early voting by news conferences or interviews. The
then, the Trump campaign earlier this Annenberg report recommended
month sent a letter to the commission cutting moderators out of the action as
asking that a fourth debate be added in much as possible. With the particular
early September — or, barring that, challenges that Mr. Trump poses, of
that the final debate be moved up from course, that may call for some adjust-
Oct. 22. ments.
“A debate, to me, is a Public Serv- The president has made clear that
ice,” Mr. Trump tweeted. “Joe Biden he will say anything, without regard to
and I owe it to the American People!” the truth. The debate hosts and mod-
The commission rejected the re- erators need to have multiple systems
quest, insisting such a move was un- in place to deal with this and be will-
necessary. ing to call him out. Real-time fact-
The truth is that scheduling is way checking resources should be beefed
down the list of problems with presi- up, along with morning-after analyses.
dential debates, in this election cycle As an additional check, particularly
or any other. Debates are indeed a egregious lies spread in one debate
public service, providing voters a rare could be revisited in subsequent ones,
opportunity to see with the candidates asked to respond.
Presidential the presidential The basic debate structure could
contenders side by use some tweaking as well. The com-
debates could
side and take their mon format of allowing each candi-
use a serious
measure for an date 60 to 90 seconds to answer, fol- CARLO ALLEGRI/REUTERS
overhaul.
extended stretch of lowed by 30 seconds for rebuttals, is
time in a high-pres- too rigid and provides insufficient People lined up at a food bank in Manhattan on July 30.
sure setting. But in time for thoughtful responses. It
practice, the events have degenerated pushes participants to give every
into media spectacles, showcasing question equal time.
much that is wrong with both electoral One proposed alternative is the On being a conservative for a new president
politics and journalism. chess clock model, in which each
Designed to maximize ratings — candidate would receive a total of 45
and, increasingly, the number of viral minutes, which would tick down
moments — the debates are light on whenever he or she spoke. Within I’ve argued before that the only way rests on the success of Biden’s candi- beliefs won’t get further radicalized in a
meaningful discourse and heavy on reasonably broad parameters, a candi- the Republican Party can again become dacy; if Trump defeats him in Novem- second Trump administration is fantasy.
ginned up conflict, regurgitated talking date could devote different amounts of a vehicle for conservative ideas is if ber, the party could lurch far to the left, Whatever else he does, Biden won’t
points and cheap zingers. With their time to different questions, for in- Trump is trounced. Populists and philo- just as Republicans lurched far to the expend his political capital belittling,
countdown clocks, twitchy graphics stance, spending twice as long on sophical conservatives may sometimes right after the successive losses by the demeaning and humiliating other
and breathless hype, the media hosts climate change as on decriminalizing travel a common road, but they are McCain and Romney campaigns. Con- Americans. He won’t treat opponents as
too often package the events like pro border crossings — or vice versa. heading now in different directions. servatives who worry that a Biden win enemies, or subordinates as toadies, or
Bret Stephens
wrestling matches. The moderators Another Annenberg suggestion for Morally, the central conservative will empower progressive Wokesters take supporters for fools. Joe Biden is
often focus more on burnishing their helping candidates define their priori- idea is the restraint of personal and should fear how much more empowered the Democratic equivalent of George
personal brands than on facilitating ties: Give each contender two or three public gratification for the sake of they’ll be should he lose. H.W. Bush — another ambitious vice
discussion. topics in advance, for which they virtue. The populist idea is disdain for Beyond the state of the political par- president who believed in loyalty and
This year’s dynamic is complicated would prepare meaty four-minute restraint, even at the expense of virtue. ties is the state of the country. I came of decency more than in any particular set
by Mr. Trump, whose relationship with statements, and their opponent would The other day I spotted a sticker that Politically, the conservative idea is age as a conservative when the great of ideas. History remembers the senior
truth is tenuous at best. With his pen- prepare equivalent rebuttals. Topics read, “Settle for Biden, 2020.” It spoke about the preservation of a constitu- domestic issue of our time was the size Bush’s presidency well.
chant for prevarication, his desire to could be determined variously by the for me. tional order that is itself liberal. The and reach of the I also came of age as a conservative
turn every appearance into a carnival, candidates, the moderators and the To be a Biden conservative is to feel populist idea opposes liberalism in the It’s about federal govern- when the great foreign policy issue of
his defensiveness about his job per- voters. about as much enthusiasm for the pre- name of majoritarianism (even when it ment. Under the time was the survival and unity of
upholding your
formance and his growing desperation Organizers really ought to consider sumptive Democratic nominee as a doesn’t command a majority). Econom- Trump, Republi- what used to be called “the free world.”
principles at
to improve his poll numbers, the de- losing the live audiences — even after Sanders socialist might, albeit from the ically, the conservative idea is that free cans are hardly That was a world that believed in more-
the expense
bates seem bound for a new low. crowding into a college auditorium is opposite direction. Everyone is aware of markets foster personal enterprise, better than Demo- open borders, more free trade, greater
Much research has been done, and no longer a public health hazard. All the former vice president’s foibles. frugality, creativity, industry and other of your politics. crats on that issue, unity among the democratic powers,
many recommendations made, on how the jeering and cheering encourages Every conservative can point to his components of moral character. The and in many re- greater resolve against the totalitarian
to improve the debates. One starting the candidates, and even some mod- policy blunders and offenses. populist idea is that free markets make spects worse. powers of the day.
point is to rein in the media outlets that erators, to play to the crowd. The The most obvious recommendations you filthy rich. Federal debt as a percentage of gross Whether it’s in his love letters with
host them. Networks need to tone crowd reaction, in turn, influences for Joe Biden are a succession of “isn’ts.” And so on. To be a Biden conservative domestic product has never been Kim Jong-un, his scorn for NATO, his
down the gladiator vibe. The cam- how the home audience processes the He isn’t Donald Trump. He isn’t Bernie means wanting to Make Republicans higher since World War II. The gap asperity toward Angela Merkel, his
paigns are not helpless bystanders. event. The entire set up lends itself to Sanders. He isn’t angry, bigoted, cruel, Conservative Again — at least by some- between government spending and credulity with Vladimir Putin, his un-
They should have a say in the basic the kind of stunt Mr. Trump pulled at a demagogic, erratic, frightening or thing other than today’s degraded federal revenue has rarely been wider. dermining of the alliance with South
tone of the proceedings. (Of course, Mr. 2016 debate with Hillary Clinton, to gross. He isn’t going to drive Americans standards. “What, Me Worry?” says Alfred E. Korea or his fire and flattery with Bei-
Trump seems just as likely to advocate which he invited several women who to distraction or the country into a ditch. Being a Biden conservative also Trump. jing, Trump is wrecking the idea of a free
even gaudier showmanship.) had accused President Bill Clinton of Does anyone seriously doubt that, on means wanting to keep Democrats But the domestic issue of our time is world, and of the possibility of America’s
The role of the moderators is a pe- sexual misconduct — and tried to seat the day President Biden enters office, liberal. not the size of government. It’s the unity leadership of it. Conservatives used to
rennial area of concern. “The single them in his V.I.P. box next to the for- the country would revert to a more If nothing else, conservatives should of the country. We are living through the care about this. They still should.
largest criticism of the debates centers mer president. normal version of itself — more so, at feel grateful to Biden for thrashing most serious social unrest in 50 years. To be a Biden conservative isn’t easy.
on the inability of moderators to do The presidential debates don’t have any rate, than it has been in the Bizarro Sanders in the primary — a reminder We have a president who sparks divi- It’s about upholding your principles at
their job,” noted a 2015 report by a to be such circuses. The public and the World of the Trump years? that, even if the most vocal and visible sion by nature and stokes it by design. the expense of your politics, and em-
debate-reform working group put candidates ought to demand better. But there are stronger arguments for sides of the Democratic Party have Part of the country believes the gov- bracing mediocrity to ward off malevo-
together by the Annenberg Public being a Biden conservative. The first become more progressive, a majority of ernment conspires against them. An- lence. Above all, it’s about curbing your
Policy Center. The most common com- MICHELLE COTTLEis a member of the has to do with the ideological state of our its voters haven’t. other part believes history has con- enthusiasm. If that isn’t conservative,
plaints were that the moderators play editorial board. political parties. The success of liberal centrism now spired against them. The idea that these what is?
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