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The Danish midfielder Christian Erik-sen collapsed on the field during amatch against Finland. PAGE 30

SPORTS 29-31

Frightening Moment at Euros

The papers that exposed the officialdeception over Vietnam, 50 years later.

SPECIAL SECTION

Public Lies, Secret Truth

Twentysomethings in New York, full ofpent-up energy, are looking ahead to asummer that promises social andcreative rebirth. PAGE 1

SUNDAY STYLES

The Youthquake Is ComingA look at the multibillion-dollar race toput commuters in flying cars. “Ourdream is to free the world from traffic,”one engineer said. PAGE 1

SUNDAY BUSINESS

Remember ‘The Jetsons’?The prime minister has long been ableto shift the narrative in times of crisis,but anger over his response to Covidhas him struggling to be heard. PAGE 4

INTERNATIONAL 4-14

A Muted Modi in India

The Kentucky artist Hannah Drake’sUn(Known) Project memorializes thosewho were enslaved, and offers up achallenge for today. PAGE 11

ARTS & LEISURE

Footsteps to Freedom

Families were long haunted by a seriesof killings of New Jersey teenagers. Buta detective had a theory. PAGE 1

METROPOLITAN

Hunch Pays Off in Cold Cases

A survey of chief executives at publiccompanies found some of the biggestcompensation packages ever. PAGE 1

A Widening Paycheck Gap

There were two weeks left in theTrump administration when theTreasury Department handeddown a set of rules governing anobscure corner of the tax code.

Overseen by a senior Treasuryofficial whose previous job in-volved helping the wealthy avoidtaxes, the new regulations repre-sented a major victory for privateequity firms. They ensured thatexecutives in the $4.5 trillion in-dustry, whose leaders often meas-ure their yearly pay in eight ornine figures, could avoid payinghundreds of millions in taxes.

The rules were approved onJan. 5, the day before the riot atthe U.S. Capitol. Hardly anyonenoticed.

The Trump administration’sfarewell gift to the buyout indus-try was part of a pattern that hasspanned Republican and Demo-cratic presidencies and Con-gresses: Private equity has con-quered the American tax system.

The industry has perfectedsleight-of-hand tax-avoidancestrategies so aggressive that atleast three private equity officialshave alerted the Internal RevenueService to potentially illegal tac-tics, according to people with di-rect knowledge of the claims anddocuments reviewed by The NewYork Times. The previously unre-ported whistle-blower claims in-volved tax dodges at dozens of pri-vate equity firms.

But the I.R.S., its staff hollowedout after years of budget cuts, hasthrown up its hands when it comesto policing the politically powerfulindustry.

While intensive examinationsof large multinational companies

are common, the I.R.S. rarely con-ducts detailed audits of private eq-uity firms, according to currentand former agency officials.

Such audits are “almost non-existent,” said Michael Desmond,who stepped down this year as theI.R.S.’s chief counsel. The agency“just doesn’t have the resourcesand expertise.”

One reason they rarely face au-dits is that private equity firmshave deployed vast webs of part-nerships to collect their profits.Partnerships do not owe incometaxes. Instead, they pass those ob-ligations on to their partners, whocan number in the thousands at alarge private equity firm. Thatmakes the structures notoriouslycomplicated for auditors to untan-gle.

Increasingly, the agency does-n’t bother. People earning lessthan $25,000 are at least threetimes more likely to be auditedthan partnerships, whose incomeflows overwhelmingly to the rich-

U.S. Loses Billions in TaxesTo Private Equity Industry

Whistle-Blowers Allege Illegal Dodges, butAudits Are ‘Almost Nonexistent’

By JESSE DRUCKER and DANNY HAKIM

Charles Rettig, the I.R.S. com-missioner, testified last week.

POOL PHOTO BY TOM WILLIAMS

Continued on Page 18

PLYMOUTH, England — Presi-dent Biden urged European na-tions and Japan on Saturday tocounter China’s growing eco-nomic and security influence byoffering developing nations hun-dreds of billions in financing as analternative to relying on Beijingfor new roads, railways, ports andcommunications networks.

It was the first time the world’srichest nations had discussed or-ganizing a direct alternative toChina’s Belt-and-Road Initiative,President Xi Jinping’s overseaslending and investment push,which has now spread across Afri-ca, Latin America and into Europeitself. But the White House citedno financial commitments, andthere is sharp disagreementamong the United States and itsallies about how to respond to Chi-na’s rising power.

Mr. Biden has made challeng-ing a rising China and a disruptiveRussia the centerpiece of a foreignpolicy designed to build up de-mocracies around the world as abulwark against spreading au-thoritarianism. Beijing, for itspart, has pointed to the poor U.S.response to the pandemic and di-visive American politics — partic-ularly the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol— as signs that democracy is fail-ing.

In size and ambition, the Chi-nese development effort far sur-passes the Marshall Plan, theUnited States’ program to rebuildEurope after World War II. At theGroup of 7 summit meeting, dis-cussions on Saturday about howto counter it reflected the debatewithin the West about whether to

Counter ChinaOn Foreign Aid,Biden Urges G7

By DAVID E. SANGERand MARK LANDLER

Continued on Page 9

A year ago, the left wing of NewYork’s Democratic Party was as-cendant. Deeply progressive can-didates triumphed in state legisla-tive primaries and won a congres-sional upset, activists fueled amovement to rein in the power ofthe police, and Mayor Bill de Bla-sio agreed to cut the Police De-partment budget.

But for most of the Democraticprimary season this spring,nearly every available metric hassuggested that the political ener-gy has shifted. The question is, byhow much.

The June 22 primary contestsfor mayor and other city officesare critical, if imperfect, tests ofthe mood of Democratic voters onthe cusp of a summer that manyexperts believe will be marked byhigh rates of gun violence in citiesacross the United States.

The Democratic race for mayorhas in some ways reflected na-tional tensions within the partyover how far to the left its leadersshould tack, after President Bidenwon the party’s nomination on thestrength of moderate Black votersand older Americans, and Repub-licans secured surprising down-ballot general election victories.

Now, a version of that debate isplaying out even in overwhelm-ingly liberal New York City, wherethe Democratic primary winnerwill almost certainly become thenext mayor. The primary under-scores how the battle for the par-ty’s direction extends far beyondconcerns over defeating Republi-cans.

Polls have increasingly shownthat combating crime is the top

New York’s ShiftTo Left Is TestedIn Mayor’s Race

By KATIE GLUECKand JONAH E. BROMWICH

Continued on Page 22

Since the season began in April,Major League Baseball’s umpiresand league officials have been col-lecting baseballs by the thou-sands. Balls from games are in-spected, with the most suspiciousspecimens being sent to an inde-pendent laboratory for analysis.

A forensic investigation foundthat a majority of those balls hadsome kind of illegal foreign sub-stance — presumably appliedthrough sleight of hand by apitcher on the mound — with testsstill being done to determine ex-actly what was placed on them.The purpose of the substance isfairly clear: To help pitchers makethe baseball curve, dip and hopmore than it normally would.

The study of the balls is part of awider investigation, which has in-volved video, high-tech analysisof the rate of spin on pitches andwitness accounts. It is the latest —and currently loudest — cheatingscandal in a sport that seems tohave a new one every few years.

After the sport dealt with illegalsteroids and illicit sign-stealing,now comes foreign substances onbaseballs, a skyrocketing trendthat is believed to have played akey role in turning the sport into a

Baseball FacesIntegrity Crisis:Doctored Balls

By DAVID WALDSTEIN

Continued on Page 30

Late Edition

VOL. CLXX . . . No. 59,088 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, SUNDAY, JUNE 13, 2021

Suddenly, she heard a loud bang, thenscreams, as the overpass collapsed andthe train plummeted about 40 feet to thestreet below. When Tania came to, herneck was wedged between the doors of themetro, her head poking out of the wreck-age, the smell of blood curling into hernostrils.

Bodies strewn on top of her, her out-stretched hands felt what seemed to bethe straps of her sister’s backpack. As shepulled, she said, she discovered they werethe entrails of another passenger.

Tania now spends her days in the hospi-tal, unable to walk, her shattered pelvisheld together by a metal contraption, fourscrews poking out of each side of her body.

MEXICO CITY — On a balmy night inMay, Tania Lezama Salgado hopped onthe metro with her sister Nancy afterspending hours looking for the grandestpink dress and the sparkliest shoes possi-ble for her 15th birthday party.

Tania had grown accustomed to thescreeches and shakes of the metro, but asit barreled across an overpass that night— jerking violently, going faster than shehad ever remembered — something feltdifferent.

Above her hospital bed is a photo of her22-year-old sister Nancy — one of 26 peo-ple who died in the metro crash that night.

Soon after, President Andrés ManuelLópez Obrador of Mexico, who positionshimself as a champion of the poor and anenemy of the elite, apologized to the vic-tims’ families and urged patience while of-ficials examined what went wrong, andwho was to blame.

“The humble, hard-working, good peo-ple understand that, unfortunately, thesethings happen,” he said during a newsconference on Tuesday.

But a New York Times investigation —

‘They should be held responsible for what happened, for everything, for everyone who died.’BERNARDA SALGADO LÓPEZ, who lost a daughter in the Mexico City subway crash

The section of the Mexico City metro that collapsed on May 3, sending a train plunging to the street and killing 26 people.ALEJANDRO CEGARRA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

A Metro Disaster From the StartHow Construction Flaws and Political Pressure Doomed Mexico City’s SubwayThis article is by Natalie Kitroeff, Maria

Abi-Habib, James Glanz, Oscar Lopez, WeiyiCai, Evan Grothjan, Miles Peyton and Ale-jandro Cegarra.

Continued on Page 12

Last summer, as diners stayed home,oyster farmers feared bankruptcy. Thisyear, sales are booming. PAGE 15

NATIONAL 15-24

Cashing In on a Briny Bonanza

The F.B.I. recently announced coupsinvolving a Bitcoin recovery and a stingusing an encrypted app. PAGE 19

High-Tech Race Against Crime

Allen Nelson IV walked to thefront of his small church in centralArkansas, stopped in front of thecommunion table with three largecrosses behind him, and unfurleda giant black flag with a whiteskull and crossed swords.

For several years, the pastor

and father of five had felt that toomany of his fellow Christians weredrifting unmistakably leftward onissues of race, gender and thestrict authority of the Bible. Theflag was a gift from a friend, ener-gized — like Mr. Nelson — by theidea of heroically reclaiming thefaith.

It was time, he believed, to“take the ship.”

“We’re fighting for the very

heart of the Southern Baptist Con-vention,” Mr. Nelson said in an in-terview. “For a long time what Ithought a good Southern Baptistpastor should do was to sendmoney and trust the system. Wecan’t do that anymore.”

Mr. Nelson is not alone. He ispart of an ultraconservative popu-list uprising of pastors from Loui-siana to California threatening to

With Southern Baptists in Revolt, a Split Looms

By RUTH GRAHAMand ELIZABETH DIAS

Continued on Page 20

MARTIN BUREAU/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

Barbora Krejcikova remembered her mentor, Jana Novotna, after winning the French Open. Page 31.Unseeded Champion Gives Thanks

Amid transfer talk and the EuropeanChampionship, Harry Kane reveals onlywhat he wants you to see. PAGE 29

England’s Enigmatic Captain

Today, clouds and sunshine, high 75.Tonight, cloudy, a few showers andthunderstorms, low 64. Tomorrow,partly sunny, passing showers, high77. Weather map is on Page 25.

$6.00