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JIEYUAN VILLAGE, China —When the Chinese government of-fered free cows to farmers inJieyuan, villagers in the remotemountain community were skep-tical. They worried that officialswould ask them to return the cat-tle later, along with any calvesthey managed to raise.

But the farmers kept the cows,and the money they brought. Oth-ers received small flocks of sheep.Government workers also paved

a road into the town, built newhouses for the village’s poorestresidents and repurposed an oldschool as a community center.

Jia Huanwen, a 58-year-oldfarmer in the village in GansuProvince, was given a large cow

three years ago that produced twohealthy calves. He sold the cow inApril for $2,900, as much as heearns in two years growing pota-toes, wheat and corn on the ter-raced, yellow clay hillsidesnearby. Now he buys vegetablesregularly for his family’s table andmedicine for an arthritic knee.

“It was the best cow I’ve everhad,” Mr. Jia said.

The village of Jieyuan is one ofthe many successes of PresidentXi Jinping’s ambitious pledge to

Free Cows? China Wages War on Rural PovertyBy KEITH BRADSHER

A farmer delivering corn in Gansu Province, the focus of many of China’s antipoverty efforts.THOMAS PETER/REUTERS

A Campaign Is HelpingMany, but Its Cost Is

Hard to Sustain

Continued on Page A11

New Yorkers stand this week asthe living footnotes of tomorrow’stextbooks. The year 2020 will bestudied by historians, scientistsand schoolchildren for genera-tions, and yet, it will be known bymany of those who lived through itfor the singular moments that ar-rived behind a pandemic’s deadlywaves.

Dimitrios Fragiskatos, forced toshut down his comic-book store inBrooklyn for almost threemonths, will remember 2020 asthe year he started an online shopand regulars from his fantasygame tournaments helped it flour-ish.

“It was a kind of restoration offaith in humanity,” Mr.Fragiskatos said. “ ‘Change or die’— isn’t that the saying?”

Richard Schwartz and AmyJablin, together nearly 10 years,will define the year by their Octo-ber rooftop wedding, attended byfour socially distant witnesses.

Sarah Goodis-Orenstein, aschoolteacher from Bedford-Stuy-vesant in Brooklyn, said the pan-demic, by erasing her commute,forced her to slow down and spendmore time with her young chil-dren.

“There’s some pieces of nor-malcy that I don’t really wantback,” she said. “Our normal was-n’t always ideal.”

The Year Like None Before, theYear That Lasted Forever, is fi-nally drawing to a close, becominga thing that happened even as itstolls follow into 2021. More than25,000 New Yorkers who rang in2020 died of the coronavirus in themonths that followed. For thosewho bore witness, this has been atime for taking stock and taking abreath amid all that has changed.

The city was ending the yearhopeful, if unwell, its big annualparty blocked off, and its peopleunsure of exactly how to cele-brate, if at all. It’s a question famil-iar in other tumultuous years.

In 1918, as an influenza epi-demic ravaged the city, TimesSquare was somber, “crowded,but the procession was as quiet as

For New York,A Year of PainAnd Reflection

By MICHAEL WILSON

Continued on Page A13

WASHINGTON — It was awarm summer Wednesday, Elec-tion Day was looming and Presi-dent Trump was even angrierthan usual at the relentless focuson the coronavirus pandemic.

“You’re killing me! This wholething is! We’ve got all the damncases,” Mr. Trump yelled at JaredKushner, his son-in-law and senioradviser, during a gathering of top

aides in the Oval Office on Aug. 19.“I want to do what Mexico does.They don’t give you a test till youget to the emergency room andyou’re vomiting.”

Mexico’s record in fighting thevirus was hardly one for theUnited States to emulate. But the

president had long seen testingnot as a vital way to track and con-tain the pandemic but as a mecha-nism for making him look bad bydriving up the number of knowncases.

And on that day he was espe-cially furious after being informedby Dr. Francis S. Collins, the headof the National Institutes ofHealth, that it would be days be-fore the government could giveemergency approval to the use ofconvalescent plasma as a treat-ment, something Mr. Trump waseager to promote as a personalvictory going into the Republican

National Convention the followingweek.

“They’re Democrats! They’reagainst me!” he said, convincedthat the government’s top doctorsand scientists were conspiring toundermine him. “They want towait!”

Throughout late summer andfall, in the heat of a re-electioncampaign that he would go on tolose, and in the face of mountingevidence of a surge in infectionsand deaths far worse than in thespring, Mr. Trump’s managementof the crisis — unsteady, unscien-

President’s Focus in the Management of the Pandemic: HimselfThis article is by Michael D.

Shear, Maggie Haberman, NoahWeiland, Sharon LaFraniere andMark Mazzetti.

How Trump Allowed aDefining Moment toSlip Out of Control

Continued on Page A6

PARIS — It is done at last. OnJan. 1, with the Brexit transitionperiod over, Britain is no longerpart of the European Union’ssingle market and customs un-

ion. The departure isordered, thanks to alast-minute dealrunning to morethan 1,200 pages,

but still painful to both sides. Agreat loss has been consum-mated.

Loss for the European Unionof one of its biggest memberstates, a major economy, a robustmilitary and the tradition, albeitfaltering, of British liberalism ata time when Hungary and Po-land have veered toward nation-alism.

Loss for Britain of diplomaticheft in a world of renewed greatpower rivalry; of some futureeconomic growth; of clarity overEuropean access for its big finan-cial services industry; and ofcountless opportunities to study,live, work and dream across thecontinent.

The national cry of “take backcontrol” that fired the Brexit votein an outburst of anti-immigrantfervor and random grievanceswithered into four and a halfyears of painful negotiation

Brexit’s StormOffers Europe

Silver LiningBy ROGER COHEN

NEWSANALYSIS

Continued on Page A10

WASHINGTON — Senator BenSasse on Thursday condemned adrive by his Republican col-leagues in Congress to challengethe results of the 2020 election, re-buking the effort as a “dangerousploy” led by lawmakers who are“playing with fire.”

In a blistering open letter to hisconstituents, Mr. Sasse of Nebras-ka became the first Republicansenator to publicly condemn a de-cision by Senator Josh Hawley tochallenge President-elect JosephR. Biden Jr.’s victory, saying it wasintended to “disenfranchise mil-lions of Americans.”

“Let’s be clear what is happen-ing here: We have a bunch of am-bitious politicians who thinkthere’s a quick way to tap into thepresident’s populist base withoutdoing any real, long-term dam-age,” Mr. Sasse wrote. “Butthey’re wrong — and this issue isbigger than anyone’s personalambitions. Adults don’t point aloaded gun at the heart of legiti-mate self-government.”

Mr. Sasse’s scathing remarkscame a day after Mr. Hawley, Re-publican of Missouri, announcedthat he would object to Congress’scertification of the Electoral Col-lege results on Jan. 6, the final pro-cedural step in affirming Mr. Bi-

G.O.P. SplintersOver ChallengeTo Biden’s Win

By CATIE EDMONDSON

Continued on Page A14

In Florida, less than one-quar-ter of delivered coronavirus vac-cines have been used, even as old-er people sat in lawn chairs allnight waiting for their shots. InPuerto Rico, last week’s vaccineshipments did not arrive until theworkers who would have adminis-tered them had left for the Christ-mas holiday. In California, doctorsare worried about whether therewill be enough hospital staff mem-bers to both administer vaccinesand tend to the swelling number ofCovid-19 patients.

These sorts of logistical prob-lems in clinics across the countryhave put the campaign to vacci-nate the United States againstCovid-19 far behind schedule in itsthird week, raising fears abouthow quickly the country will beable to tame the epidemic.

Federal officials said as re-cently as December that theirgoal was to have 20 million peopleget their first shot by the end ofthis year. More than 14 milliondoses of the Pfizer and Modernavaccines had been sent out acrossthe United States, federal officialssaid on Wednesday. But, accord-ing to the Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention, just 2.8 mil-lion people have received theirfirst dose, though that numbermay be somewhat low because oflags in reporting.

States vary widely in how manyof the doses they’ve received havebeen given out. South Dakotaleads the country with more than48 percent of its doses given, fol-lowed by West Virginia, at 38 per-cent. By contrast, Kansas has giv-en out less than 11 percent, andGeorgia less than 14 percent.

VACCINATIONS LAGAS STATES TACKLE

LOGISTICAL WOES

DOSES WAIT ON SHELVES

With Resources Stressed,Hospitals Get Little

Federal Help

This article is by Rebecca Rob-bins, Frances Robles and TimArango.

Continued on Page A7

A troop drawdown in Germany worriespeople in a town where American cul-ture and jobs are valued. PAGE A9

INTERNATIONAL A9-11

U.S. Presence in PerilThe movement to increase the federalminimum wage from $7.25 per hour hasbeen growing in strength. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-7

A $15 Base Wage Makes GainsAs a chaotic season nears its end, Ala-bama is set to face Notre Dame as Clem-son prepares for Ohio State on Friday inthe College Football Playoff. PAGE B8

SPORTSFRIDAY B8-10

A Preview of the Semifinals

Readers share their resolutions to livesustainably in 2021, including cuttingdown on meat, composting waste andminimizing air travel. PAGE A12

NATIONAL A12-15

Pop the Cork. Save the Planet.As Covid-19 swept the world, the killingof George Floyd galvanized a racialjustice movement, and the death ofRuth Bader Ginsburg shifted the bal-ance of the Supreme Court. PAGE A16

OBITUARIES A16-17, B11

Life Lessons in a Deadly Year

David Brooks PAGE A19

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A18-19

Richard Thornburgh steered Pennsyl-vania through the Three Mile Islandnuclear plant meltdown as governor ofPennsylvania and later led the JusticeDepartment. He was 88. PAGE B11

Former Attorney General

Up to 700 people were forced to sleepoutside after a camp was dismantledand locals turned them away. PAGE A11

Migrants in Frigid Bosnia

In his year-end report, Chief JusticeJohn G. Roberts Jr. commended federalcourts for a nimble response. PAGE A15

Praise for Judges in Pandemic

As cases surge again, Mayor Bill deBlasio set a goal of vaccinating onemillion residents by Jan. 31. PAGE A5

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A5-8

Slow Start in New York CityThis year, technology did more for usthan ever, and technologists stepped upto help solve critical problems. PAGE B1

The 2020 Good Tech Awards

Late Edition

VOL. CLXX . . . . No. 58,925 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, FRIDAY, JANUARY 1, 2021

TINGSHU WANG/REUTERS

Clockwise from top left: A vendor in Dakar, Senegal; a Covid-19 hospital ward in Rome; a scaled-down celebration in Times Square; and a gathering in Wuhan, China.Leaving a Troubled Year Behind

RICCI SHRYOCK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES ANTONIO MASIELLO/GETTY IMAGES

JOHNNY MILANO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Today, some sunshine, then turningcloudy, colder, rain late, high 41. To-night, rain, low 39. Tomorrow,mostly cloudy, rain ending, milder,high 56. Weather map, Page B12.

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