LAUREN LEATHERBY/THE NEW YORK TIMES...2020/10/16 · BOQUILLA, Mexico The farmers armed themselves...
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U(D54G1D)y+[!$!,!$!z March 1 New cases per day in the U.S. Oct. 13 JULY 19 66,690 OCT. 13 52,156 APRIL 10 31,709 new cases October 13 July 19 U.S. Virus Cases Climb Toward Third Peak The number of new coronavirus cases in the United States is surging once again after growth slowed in late summer. While the geography of the pandemic is now shifting to the Midwest and to more rural areas, new case counts are trending upward in most states, many of which are setting weekly records. ARTICLE AND MORE GRAPHICS, PAGE A8 Before the recent surge, the average number of new coronavirus cases per day last peaked in July. The South and West were particularly affected. NEW CASES, 7-DAY AVG. April 10 The average number of new coronavirus cases in the nation first peaked in April, when New York City and its surrounding areas were hit hard. New Orleans, southwest Georgia and some resort towns in the West also saw some of the spring’s worst outbreaks. LAUREN LEATHERBY/THE NEW YORK TIMES Source: Coronavirus case data is from a New York Times database of reports from state and local health agencies and hospitals. | Note: Cases shown for a given date are those reported in the preceding two weeks. 1 2 5 10 CASES PER 1,000 BOQUILLA, Mexico — The farmers armed themselves with sticks, rocks and homemade shields, ambushed hundreds of soldiers guarding a dam and seized control of one of the border region’s most important bodies of water. The Mexican government was sending water — their water — to Texas, leaving them next to noth- ing for their thirsty crops, the farmers said. So they took over the dam and have refused to allow any of the water to flow to the United States for more than a month. “This is a war,” said Victor Velderrain, a grower who helped lead the takeover, “to survive, to continue working, to feed my fam- ily.” The standoff is the culmination of longstanding tensions over wa- ter between the United States and Mexico that have recently explod- ed into violence, pitting Mexican farmers against their own presi- dent and the global superpower next door. Negotiating the exchange of water between the two countries has long been strained, but rising temperatures and long droughts have made the shared rivers along the border more valuable than ever, intensifying the stakes for both nations. The dam’s takeover is a stark example of how far people are willing to go to defend livelihoods Battle Over Water as Drought Parches Both U.S. and Mexico By NATALIE KITROEFF Mexican farmers seized the Boquilla Dam in a feud with the U.S. DANIEL BEREHULAK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES Continued on Page A14 WASHINGTON — After an am- bitious expansion of the safety net in the spring saved millions of people from poverty, the aid is now largely exhausted and pov- erty has returned to levels higher than before the coronavirus crisis, two new studies have found. The number of poor people has grown by eight million since May, according to researchers at Co- lumbia University, after falling by four million at the pandemic’s start as a result of a $2 trillion emergency package known as the Cares Act. Using a different definition of poverty, researchers from the University of Chicago and Notre Dame found that poverty has grown by six million people in the past three months, with circum- stances worsening most for Black people and children. “These numbers are very con- cerning,” said Bruce D. Meyer, an economist at the University of Chicago and an author of the study. “They tell us people are having a lot more trouble paying their bills, paying their rent, putting food on the table.” Underscoring those concerns, the Labor Department reported on Thursday that about 886,000 people filed new claims for unem- ployment benefits last week, an increase of nearly 77,000, or 9.5 percent, from the previous week. Adjusted for seasonal variations, the total was 898,000. The recent rise in poverty has occurred despite an improving job market since May, an indication that the economy had been re- bounding too slowly to offset the lost benefits. And now the econ- omy is showing new signs of de- celeration, amid layoffs, a surge in WITH AID SPENT, POVERTY TRAPS MILLIONS MORE ‘VERY CONCERNING’ DATA The Cares Act Bolstered Jobless Benefits but Left a Vacuum By JASON DePARLE Continued on Page A20 Since 2016, when Russian hackers and WikiLeaks injected stolen emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign into the closing weeks of the presidential race, politicians and pundits have called on tech companies to do more to fight the threat of foreign interference. On Wednesday, less than a month from another election, we saw what “doing more” looks like. Early Wednesday morning, The New York Post published a splashy front-page article about supposedly incriminating photos and emails found on a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden, the son of Joseph R. Biden Jr. To many Democrats, the unsubstan- tiated article — which included a bizarre set of details involving a Delaware computer repair shop, the F.B.I. and Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer — smelled like the result of a hack- and-leak operation. To be clear, there is no evi- dence tying The Post’s report to a foreign disinformation cam- paign. Many questions remain about how the paper obtained the emails and whether they were authentic. Even so, the Eyes on 2016, Social Media Tackles 2020 By KEVIN ROOSE Continued on Page A27 THE SHIFT United Airlines has focused on finding savings while serving the few pas- sengers who still want to fly. PAGE B1 BUSINESS B1-6 Planning Around a Pandemic “Jagged Little Pill,” with Lauren Patten, above, leads the pack in nominations for Broadway’s abridged year. PAGE C1 WEEKEND ARTS C1-12 Tonys for a Shortened Season Hopes for a rebound of the American economy have been dimmed by layoffs and a surge in virus cases. PAGE B1 886,000 New Jobless Claims With games postponed and a top coach infected, college football has to re- evaluate its plans almost daily. PAGE B7 SPORTSFRIDAY B7-10 SEC in Crisis as Sport Teeters Friends of Pham Doan Trang, a journal- ist and activist, released a letter in which she foretold her arrest. PAGE A12 INTERNATIONAL A12-15 A Fear Realized in Vietnam Spike Lee joins forces with David Byrne for an exuberant concert movie. Manohla Dargis has the review. PAGE C1 A Glimpse of ‘American Utopia’ The incoherence of British lockdown regulations is on full display in English soccer. PAGE B9 Distancing, and Bewildering Jennifer Senior PAGE A28 EDITORIAL, OP-ED A28-29 NEWS ANALYSIS During two grueling days of questioning over her Supreme Court confirmation, Judge Amy Coney Barrett did her best to avoid controversy. But her ef- forts to play it safe on the subject of climate change have created perhaps the most tangible back- lash of her hearings. In her responses, the nominee to take the place of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an environmental stalwart, used language that alarmed some environmentalists and suggested rough going for initiatives to fight climate change, if as expected she wins confirmation and cements a 6-3 conservative majority on the court. On Thursday, the last of four days of confirmation hearings, Republicans on the Senate Judi- ciary Committee set a committee vote on Judge Barrett’s nomina- tion for Oct. 22 hoping to speed a final vote to as soon as Oct. 26 — one week and a day before Elec- tion Day. As she did on judicial matters, such as her views on Roe v. Wade, Judge Barrett declined to state her thoughts on climate change in exchange after ex- change this week, equating her evasions to the well-established precedent of refusing to com- ment on issues that could come before the court. But with Senator Kamala Harris of California, the Demo- cratic candidate for vice presi- dent, Judge Barrett, the daugh- ter of an oil executive, went further. She described the settled science of climate change as still in dispute, compared to Ms. Harris’s other examples, includ- ing whether smoking causes cancer and the coronavirus is infectious. “Do you believe that climate Barrett Ducks Climate Issue, Raising Alarm Calls Global Warming A ‘Controversial’ Topic By JOHN SCHWARTZ and HIROKO TABUCHI Continued on Page A21 At the Rego Center, a small mall in Queens, handwritten signs that were common during the early days of the pandemic have once again started to pop up: “We’re closed! Estamos cerrados!” But a short walk away, at the Queens Center, shoppers carrying heavy bags busily maneuvered through the four-story mall. Din- ers ate at a first-floor Shake Shack. The only difference was that the two malls were on opposite sides of a line on a map, hastily drawn last week by the office of Gov. An- drew M. Cuomo, that separated areas of Brooklyn and Queens where coronavirus cases have been dangerously spiking — red zones, he called them — from neighboring areas that had lesser risk. Over the span of a few days, New York City has undergone a striking reversal of fortune. On the first day of October, restau- rants had just reopened for indoor dining, subway ridership hit its highest level since the pandemic began and Mayor Bill de Blasio hailed the start of in-person public school, the only big-city mayor to even attempt such a feat. “We did it. You did it. New York City did it,” the mayor declared. “This is a key moment in our re- birth.” But now, New York enters a pre- carious stage as city and state leaders try something novel for an American city during the pan- demic: simultaneously allowing reopenings in some neighbor- hoods while ordering businesses and schools to close in others. No other state has tried such a granular approach to rising cases, public health experts said, opting instead for closures at the county or state level. New York State’s plan cuts through city neighbor- hoods, ZIP codes and, in some cases, even streets. State and city officials hope this approach will prevent the need for New York City Fights Covid-19 Block by Block Scattershot Approach to Avert Full Closure By J. DAVID GOODMAN Continued on Page A8 Faced with soaring coronavirus caseloads, some universities told stu- dents to “stay put” for 14 days. PAGE A10 TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-11 Voices From Quarantine U. Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor who recently battled Covid-19, said he was “wrong” for going maskless during his White House visits. PAGE A9 ‘Wear a Mask,’ Christie Urges In dueling town halls, President Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. stuck with their opposing views on the central issue of the election, the pandemic. PAGE A26 Candidates Battle From Afar Intelligence agents informed the White House that President Trump’s personal lawyer was being fed disinformation by a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian. PAGE A18 NATIONAL A16-27 Warnings About Giuliani Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican, issued a scathing takedown of Presi- dent Trump and warned of a G.O.P. “blood bath” on Election Day. PAGE A24 Senator Fears ‘Blue Tsunami’ Late Edition VOL. CLXX . . . No. 58,848 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2020 Today, cloudy, periodic rain, colder, high 63. Tonight, rain, some heavy, colder, low 46. Tomorrow, clearing after any early morning rain, high 59. Weather map is on Page A24. $3.00
Transcript of LAUREN LEATHERBY/THE NEW YORK TIMES...2020/10/16 · BOQUILLA, Mexico The farmers armed themselves...
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C M Y K Nxxx,2020-10-16,A,001,Bs-4C,E2
U(D54G1D)y+[!$!,!$!z
March 1 New cases per day in the U.S. Oct. 13
JULY 19
66,690OCT. 13
52,156APRIL 10
31,709 new cases
October 13
July 19
U.S. Virus Cases Climb Toward Third PeakThe number of new coronavirus cases in the United States is surging once again after growth slowed in
late summer. While the geography of the pandemic is now shifting to the Midwest and to more rural areas, new case counts are trending upward in most states, many of which are setting weekly records.
ARTICLE AND MORE GRAPHICS, PAGE A8
Before the recent surge, the average number of new coronavirus cases per day last peaked in July. The South and West were particularly affected.
NEW CASES,7-DAY AVG.
April 10The average number of new coronavirus cases in the nation first peaked in April, when New York City and its surrounding areas were hit hard. New Orleans, southwest Georgia
and some resort towns in the West also saw some of the spring’s worst outbreaks.
LAUREN LEATHERBY/THE NEW YORK TIMES
Source: Coronavirus case data is from a New York Times database of reports from state and local health agencies and hospitals. | Note: Cases shown for a given date are those reported in the preceding two weeks.
1 2 5 10
CASES PER 1,000
BOQUILLA, Mexico — Thefarmers armed themselves withsticks, rocks and homemadeshields, ambushed hundreds ofsoldiers guarding a dam andseized control of one of the borderregion’s most important bodies ofwater.
The Mexican government wassending water — their water — toTexas, leaving them next to noth-ing for their thirsty crops, thefarmers said. So they took overthe dam and have refused to allowany of the water to flow to theUnited States for more than amonth.
“This is a war,” said VictorVelderrain, a grower who helpedlead the takeover, “to survive, tocontinue working, to feed my fam-
ily.”The standoff is the culmination
of longstanding tensions over wa-ter between the United States andMexico that have recently explod-ed into violence, pitting Mexicanfarmers against their own presi-dent and the global superpowernext door.
Negotiating the exchange ofwater between the two countrieshas long been strained, but risingtemperatures and long droughtshave made the shared riversalong the border more valuablethan ever, intensifying the stakesfor both nations.
The dam’s takeover is a starkexample of how far people arewilling to go to defend livelihoods
Battle Over Water as Drought Parches Both U.S. and Mexico
By NATALIE KITROEFF
Mexican farmers seized the Boquilla Dam in a feud with the U.S.DANIEL BEREHULAK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Continued on Page A14
WASHINGTON — After an am-bitious expansion of the safety netin the spring saved millions ofpeople from poverty, the aid isnow largely exhausted and pov-erty has returned to levels higherthan before the coronavirus crisis,two new studies have found.
The number of poor people hasgrown by eight million since May,according to researchers at Co-lumbia University, after falling byfour million at the pandemic’sstart as a result of a $2 trillionemergency package known as theCares Act.
Using a different definition ofpoverty, researchers from theUniversity of Chicago and NotreDame found that poverty hasgrown by six million people in thepast three months, with circum-stances worsening most for Blackpeople and children.
“These numbers are very con-cerning,” said Bruce D. Meyer, aneconomist at the University ofChicago and an author of thestudy. “They tell us people arehaving a lot more trouble payingtheir bills, paying their rent,putting food on the table.”
Underscoring those concerns,the Labor Department reportedon Thursday that about 886,000people filed new claims for unem-ployment benefits last week, anincrease of nearly 77,000, or 9.5percent, from the previous week.Adjusted for seasonal variations,the total was 898,000.
The recent rise in poverty hasoccurred despite an improving jobmarket since May, an indicationthat the economy had been re-bounding too slowly to offset thelost benefits. And now the econ-omy is showing new signs of de-celeration, amid layoffs, a surge in
WITH AID SPENT,POVERTY TRAPS
MILLIONS MORE‘VERY CONCERNING’ DATA
The Cares Act BolsteredJobless Benefits but
Left a Vacuum
By JASON DePARLE
Continued on Page A20
Since 2016, when Russianhackers and WikiLeaks injectedstolen emails from the HillaryClinton campaign into the closingweeks of the presidential race,politicians and pundits havecalled on tech companies to domore to fight the threat of foreigninterference.
On Wednesday, less than amonth from another election, wesaw what “doing more” lookslike.
Early Wednesday morning,The New York Post published asplashy front-page article aboutsupposedly incriminating photosand emails found on a laptopbelonging to Hunter Biden, theson of Joseph R. Biden Jr. Tomany Democrats, the unsubstan-tiated article — which included abizarre set of details involving aDelaware computer repair shop,the F.B.I. and Rudy Giuliani, thepresident’s personal lawyer —smelled like the result of a hack-and-leak operation.
To be clear, there is no evi-dence tying The Post’s report toa foreign disinformation cam-paign. Many questions remainabout how the paper obtainedthe emails and whether theywere authentic. Even so, the
Eyes on 2016,Social MediaTackles 2020
By KEVIN ROOSE
Continued on Page A27
THE SHIFT
United Airlines has focused on findingsavings while serving the few pas-sengers who still want to fly. PAGE B1
BUSINESS B1-6
Planning Around a Pandemic“Jagged Little Pill,” with Lauren Patten,above, leads the pack in nominationsfor Broadway’s abridged year. PAGE C1
WEEKEND ARTS C1-12
Tonys for a Shortened Season
Hopes for a rebound of the Americaneconomy have been dimmed by layoffsand a surge in virus cases. PAGE B1
886,000 New Jobless Claims
With games postponed and a top coachinfected, college football has to re-evaluate its plans almost daily. PAGE B7
SPORTSFRIDAY B7-10
SEC in Crisis as Sport Teeters
Friends of Pham Doan Trang, a journal-ist and activist, released a letter inwhich she foretold her arrest. PAGE A12
INTERNATIONAL A12-15
A Fear Realized in VietnamSpike Lee joins forces with David Byrnefor an exuberant concert movie.Manohla Dargis has the review. PAGE C1
A Glimpse of ‘American Utopia’
The incoherence of British lockdownregulations is on full display in Englishsoccer. PAGE B9
Distancing, and Bewildering
Jennifer Senior PAGE A28EDITORIAL, OP-ED A28-29
NEWS ANALYSIS
During two grueling days ofquestioning over her SupremeCourt confirmation, Judge AmyConey Barrett did her best toavoid controversy. But her ef-forts to play it safe on the subjectof climate change have createdperhaps the most tangible back-lash of her hearings.
In her responses, the nomineeto take the place of Ruth BaderGinsburg, an environmentalstalwart, used language thatalarmed some environmentalistsand suggested rough going forinitiatives to fight climatechange, if as expected she winsconfirmation and cements a 6-3conservative majority on thecourt.
On Thursday, the last of fourdays of confirmation hearings,Republicans on the Senate Judi-ciary Committee set a committeevote on Judge Barrett’s nomina-tion for Oct. 22 hoping to speed afinal vote to as soon as Oct. 26 —one week and a day before Elec-tion Day.
As she did on judicial matters,such as her views on Roe v.Wade, Judge Barrett declined tostate her thoughts on climatechange in exchange after ex-change this week, equating herevasions to the well-establishedprecedent of refusing to com-ment on issues that could comebefore the court.
But with Senator KamalaHarris of California, the Demo-cratic candidate for vice presi-dent, Judge Barrett, the daugh-ter of an oil executive, wentfurther. She described the settledscience of climate change as stillin dispute, compared to Ms.Harris’s other examples, includ-ing whether smoking causescancer and the coronavirus isinfectious.
“Do you believe that climate
Barrett DucksClimate Issue,Raising AlarmCalls Global WarmingA ‘Controversial’ Topic
By JOHN SCHWARTZand HIROKO TABUCHI
Continued on Page A21
At the Rego Center, a small mallin Queens, handwritten signs thatwere common during the earlydays of the pandemic have onceagain started to pop up: “We’reclosed! Estamos cerrados!”
But a short walk away, at theQueens Center, shoppers carryingheavy bags busily maneuveredthrough the four-story mall. Din-ers ate at a first-floor ShakeShack.
The only difference was that thetwo malls were on opposite sidesof a line on a map, hastily drawnlast week by the office of Gov. An-drew M. Cuomo, that separatedareas of Brooklyn and Queenswhere coronavirus cases havebeen dangerously spiking — redzones, he called them — fromneighboring areas that had lesserrisk.
Over the span of a few days,New York City has undergone astriking reversal of fortune. Onthe first day of October, restau-rants had just reopened for indoordining, subway ridership hit itshighest level since the pandemicbegan and Mayor Bill de Blasiohailed the start of in-person publicschool, the only big-city mayor toeven attempt such a feat.
“We did it. You did it. New YorkCity did it,” the mayor declared.“This is a key moment in our re-birth.”
But now, New York enters a pre-carious stage as city and stateleaders try something novel for anAmerican city during the pan-demic: simultaneously allowingreopenings in some neighbor-hoods while ordering businessesand schools to close in others.
No other state has tried such agranular approach to rising cases,public health experts said, optinginstead for closures at the countyor state level. New York State’splan cuts through city neighbor-hoods, ZIP codes and, in somecases, even streets.
State and city officials hope thisapproach will prevent the need for
New York CityFights Covid-19 Block by Block
Scattershot Approachto Avert Full Closure
By J. DAVID GOODMAN
Continued on Page A8
Faced with soaring coronaviruscaseloads, some universities told stu-dents to “stay put” for 14 days. PAGE A10
TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-11
Voices From Quarantine U.
Chris Christie, the former New Jerseygovernor who recently battled Covid-19,said he was “wrong” for going masklessduring his White House visits. PAGE A9
‘Wear a Mask,’ Christie Urges
In dueling town halls, President Trumpand Joseph R. Biden Jr. stuck with theiropposing views on the central issue ofthe election, the pandemic. PAGE A26
Candidates Battle From Afar
Intelligence agents informed the WhiteHouse that President Trump’s personallawyer was being fed disinformation bya pro-Kremlin Ukrainian. PAGE A18
NATIONAL A16-27
Warnings About Giuliani
Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican,issued a scathing takedown of Presi-dent Trump and warned of a G.O.P.“blood bath” on Election Day. PAGE A24
Senator Fears ‘Blue Tsunami’
Late Edition
VOL. CLXX . . . No. 58,848 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2020
Today, cloudy, periodic rain, colder,high 63. Tonight, rain, some heavy,colder, low 46. Tomorrow, clearingafter any early morning rain, high59. Weather map is on Page A24.
$3.00
