It seems to be a dog’s world, especiallyin laboratory studies. We explore whyscientists give cats short shrift. PAGE D1

SCIENCE TIMES D1-6

Laboratories’ Cat Deniers

VOL. CLXVII . . . No. 57,886 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2018

C M Y K Nxxx,2018-02-27,A,001,Bs-4C,E2

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At a rally, President Recep Tayyip Erdo-gan told a first grader she would be hon-ored if she became “a martyr.” PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A4-8

Backlash for Turkey’s Leader

The Army Corps of Engineers toldelectrical workers to start scaling back,frustrating Puerto Ricans who may nothave power for months. PAGE A9

NATIONAL A9-14

Contractors Leaving IslandRoger Goodell may demand millionsfrom the Dallas owner Jerry Jones, whochallenged Goodell’s new contract andhis punishment of a star player. PAGE B6

SPORTSTUESDAY B6-12

N.F.L. Chief Set to Fine Jones

Companies are using the savings to buytheir own stock, helping shareholders,but not the broader economy. PAGE B1

BUSINESS DAY B1-5

Tax Cuts Increase Buybacks

Cave art shows that Neanderthals werenot just brutes, but capable of symbolicthought, maybe even speech. PAGE D1

Thinking Inside the Rocks

Joseph W. Tobin PAGE A19

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A18-19

WASHINGTON — The Su-preme Court on Monday declinedan unusual White House requestthat it immediately decidewhether the Trump administra-tion can shut down a program thatshields some 700,000 young un-documented immigrants from de-portation. The move meant thatthe immigrants, often called“Dreamers,” could remain in legallimbo for many months unlessCongress acts to make their statuspermanent.

The Supreme Court’s decisionnot to hear the administration’sappeal was expected, as no ap-peals court has yet ruled on the is-sue. The court’s order was brief,gave no reasons and noted no dis-sents. It said it expected the ap-peals court to “proceed expedi-tiously to decide this case.”

President Trump ended the pro-gram, Deferred Action for Child-hood Arrivals, or DACA, last Sep-tember, calling it an unconstitu-tional use of executive power byhis predecessor and reviving thethreat of deportation for immi-grants who had been brought tothe United States illegally asyoung children.

But two federal judges have or-dered the administration to main-tain major pieces of the programwhile legal challenges move for-ward, notably by requiring the ad-ministration to allow people en-rolled in it to renew their pro-tected status. The administrationhas not sought stays of those in-junctions.

The Supreme Court’s move will,as a practical matter, temporarilyshield the young immigrants who

JUSTICES REFUSEWHITE HOUSE BIDIN ‘DREAMER’ CASE

PRESSURE OFF CONGRESS

Administration Sought aFast Resolution to

Ending DACA

By ADAM LIPTAKand MICHAEL D. SHEAR

DACA supporters marchingon Capitol Hill in December.

JOSE LUIS MAGANA/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Continued on Page A10

WASHINGTON — PresidentTrump asserted Monday that hewould have rushed in to save thestudents and teachers of MarjoryStoneman Douglas High Schoolfrom a gunman with an assaultweapon, even if he was unarmedat the time of the massacre.

Speaking to a meeting of thecountry’s governors at the WhiteHouse, Mr. Trump conceded that“you don’t know until you test it.”But he said he believed he wouldhave exhibited bravery “even if Ididn’t have a weapon, and I thinkmost of the people in this roomwould have done that, too.”

The president’s remarks cameduring an hourlong televised con-versation with the governors inthe State Dining Room, duringwhich Mr. Trump continued tograpple publicly with how best torespond to the mass shooting inParkland, Fla., discussing suchthings as arming teachers and re-opening mental institutions.

As Mr. Trump skipped from onepossible solution to another, hemused about the “old days,” whenpotential criminals could belocked in mental hospitals, and hevowed to ban “bump stocks,” anaccessory that can make a semi-automatic weapon fire rapidly,more like an automatic rifle. Buthe dropped any mention of raisingthe age required to purchase a ri-fle to 21 from 18, something he saidlast week he supported, despiteopposition from the National RifleAssociation.

But the president continued hisdayslong verbal assault on Flor-ida sheriff’s deputies, calling theirreported failure to respond to theParkland school massacre, whichkilled 17 staff members and stu-dents, “disgusting” and “a dis-grace.” He said the deputies “wer-en’t exactly Medal of Honor win-ners, all right.”

A lawyer for Deputy Scot Peter-son of the Broward County Sher-iff’s Office said Monday in a state-ment that Mr. Peterson did not runinto the school when the shootingbegan because he thought theshots were coming from the out-side. Mr. Peterson retired Thurs-day after Sheriff Scott Israelbranded him “a coward” for failingto run into the building to try tosave students.

Mr. Trump echoed that senti-ment, saying that the perform-ance of Mr. Peterson and threeother deputies whose actions

President SaysHe’d Storm InTo Stop a Killer

Boasting During a RiffAbout Gun Violence

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR

Continued on Page A12

TODD HEISLER/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Traffic on 42nd Street in Manhattan. Congestion pricing in London, Singapore and Stockholm could guide New York. Page A15.A Foreign Fix for This Jam

BEIJING — There was a time,not so long ago, when a Chineseleader setting himself up as rulerfor life would have stirred interna-tional condemnation for buckingthe global trend toward greaterdemocracy. Now, such an actionseems fully in keeping with movesby many countries in the other di-rection.

The surprise disclosure on Sun-day that the Communist Partywas abolishing constitutional lim-its on presidential terms — effec-tively allowing President Xi Jin-ping to lead China indefinitely —was the latest and arguably mostsignificant sign of the world’s deci-sive tilt toward authoritarian gov-ernance, often built on the highly

personalized exercise of power.The list includes Vladimir V.

Putin of Russia, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt and Recep TayyipErdogan of Turkey, all of whomhave abandoned most pretensesthat they rule according to thepeople’s will. Authoritarianism isalso reappearing in places likeHungary and Poland that barely aquarter-century ago shook loosethe shackles of Soviet oppression.

There are many reasons forsuch moves by Mr. Xi and others

— including protecting theirpower and perks in an age of un-rest, terrorism and war amplifiedby new technologies — but a sig-nificant one is that few countrieshave the standing or authority,morally or otherwise, to speak out— least of all, critics say, theUnited States.

“I mean, who is going to punishhim internationally now?” askedSusan L. Shirk, the chairwoman ofthe 21st Century China Programat the University of California, SanDiego.

She and other experts de-scribed this “authoritarian rever-sion” as a global contagion thathas undermined the abiding faiththat forging liberal democraciesand market economies was the

China Leaps to Front of a New Authoritarian EraBy STEVEN LEE MYERS

In Tiananmen Square in Beijing, souvenir plates show leaders like Mao and President Xi Jinping.THOMAS PETER/REUTERS

A Global Shrug as XiJoins the Ranks of

Strongmen

Continued on Page A8

The Rev. Billy Graham admit-ted in his later years that he hadlearned a hard lesson after theWatergate scandal exposed hiscozy complicity with PresidentRichard M. Nixon: Pastors shouldnot become too enmeshed withpoliticians and partisan politics.

“Looking back I know I some-times crossed the line, and Iwouldn’t do that now,” he said tothe magazine Christianity Today

in 2011.Now, the movement that he

helped spawn is divided over thevery danger that Mr. Graham —who died last week at age 99 —had warned about. Evangelicalshave become locked in a tight em-brace with President Trump andthe Republican Party, and some of

them are now asking whetherthey have compromised theGospel message.

Among Mr. Trump’s most vocalevangelical supporters, few are ashigh-profile as Billy Graham’s eld-est son and the heir to his min-istry, the Rev. Franklin Graham,who is 65. Though admired amongevangelicals for his aid work inhardship zones with the charity heleads, Samaritan’s Purse, he hasdrawn criticism for his unstintingsupport of the president.

Partisanship From the Pulpit Splits EvangelicalsBy LAURIE GOODSTEIN Heir to Graham Legacy

Shuns Father’s Lesson

Continued on Page A11

In a case that could have wide-ranging national significance forgay rights, a federal appeals courtin New York ruled on Monday thata landmark civil rights law barsemployers from discriminatingagainst their workers based onsexual orientation.

The decision was a setback forthe Justice Department, whichunder President Trump had unex-pectedly interceded in a discrimi-nation lawsuit filed by a sky-div-ing instructor. The departmenthad argued that Title VII of the1964 Civil Rights Act did not ex-plicitly cover sexual-orientationdiscrimination in the workplace, astance that put it at odds with an-other federal body, the Equal Em-

ployment Opportunity Commis-sion.

In rejecting the Justice Depart-ment’s argument, the UnitedStates Court of Appeals for theSecond Circuit became the secondappeals court to rule recently thatthe Civil Rights Act, which out-laws bias in the workplace on thebasis of “race, color, religion, sexor national origin,” should also beextended to include sexual orien-tation. A third appellate court inAtlanta has ruled differently.

While gay rights groups hailedthe decision on Monday, the rulingcould create a scenario in whichthe issue of gay rights at work willbe decided by a Supreme Court

Civil Rights Act Offers ShieldFor Gay Workers, Court Rules

By ALAN FEUER and BENJAMIN WEISER

Continued on Page A16

WASHINGTON — PresidentTrump’s threat to rip up the Irannuclear deal has touched off an ur-gent scramble in European capi-tals to preserve the agreement —not by rewriting it, but by creatinga successor deal intended to haltIran’s ballistic missile programand make permanent the restric-tions on its ability to produce nu-clear fuel.

As the two sides prepare tomeet for trans-Atlantic talks nextmonth in Berlin, the Europeansare demanding a guarantee thatMr. Trump will abide by the add-on deal after it is negotiated andnot jettison it on some other pre-text. Mr. Trump has called the2015 agreement that was negotiat-ed by President Barack Obama“the worst deal” ever and has toldBritain, France and Germany tofix it by May 12 or he will pull theUnited States out.

The Iranians have so far dis-missed efforts by the State De-partment to impose strict newterms on Tehran — or face threatsof renewed sanctions if it fails tocomply — as a backdoor effort toreopen the original agreementthat limits Iran’s nuclear program.

The European demand comesunder duress. Talking points thatSecretary of State Rex W. Tiller-son recently circulated to Ameri-can diplomats in Europe warnedthat “in the absence of a clearcommitment from your side to ad-dress these issues, the UnitedStates will not again waive sanc-tions in order to stay in the Irannuclear deal.”

The instructions, which wereshown to The New York Times,stipulate that the Europeansagree to three key fixes: a com-mitment to renegotiate limits onmissile testing by Iran; an assur-ance that inspectors have unfet-tered access to Iranian militarybases; and an extension of thedeal’s expiration dates to preventIran from resuming the produc-tion of nuclear fuel long after thecurrent restrictions expire in2030.

European diplomats said therewas scope for an agreement onmissiles and inspections, but not

EUROPEANS MOVETO SAVE IRAN DEAL

Hope an Expanded PactWill Satisfy Trump

This article is by Mark Landler,David E. Sanger and Gardiner Har-ris.

Continued on Page A5

By embracing a customs union withEurope, Britain’s Labour Party seeks toexploit Tory divisions. PAGE A7

Backing a Softer Brexit

While protests by the far right andanti-fascists served as backdrop, Mi-lan’s fashion shows mostly played itsafe, Vanessa Friedman writes.

FASHION A20

A Runway Full of Safe Spaces

Joblessness has plunged many Italiansinto a despair they say next week’selections are unlikely to dispel. PAGE B1

Italy’s Gloomy Elections

A 10-part series on the USA Network isa lightly fictionalized account of theinvestigations into the two rappers’deaths two decades ago. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

Who Killed Biggie and Tupac?

DEFENSE A deputy says hethought the gunman was outsidethe attacked school. PAGE A13

Late EditionToday, plenty of sunshine, mild af-ternoon, high 55. Tonight, clear, low40. Tomorrow, times of clouds andsunshine, another mild day, high 56.Weather map appears on Page B7.

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