brake lights, big city: traffic is worse than ever

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Edward O. Wilson, a biologistand author who conducted pio-neering work on biodiversity, in-sects and human nature — andwon two Pulitzer Prizes along theway — died on Sunday in Burling-ton, Mass. He was 92.

His death was announced onMonday by the E.O. Wilson Bio-diversity Foundation.

When Dr. Wilson began his ca-reer in evolutionary biology in the1950s, the study of animals andplants seemed to many scientistslike a quaint, obsolete hobby. Mo-lecular biologists were gettingtheir first glimpses of DNA, pro-teins and other invisible founda-tions of life. Dr. Wilson made it hislife’s work to put evolution on anequal footing.

“How could our seemingly old-fashioned subjects achieve newintellectual rigor and originalitycompared to molecular biology?”he recalled in 2009. He answeredhis own question by pioneeringnew fields of research.

As an expert on insects, Dr. Wil-son studied the evolution of be-havior, exploring how natural se-

lection and other forces couldproduce something as extraordi-narily complex as an ant colony.He then championed this kind ofresearch as a way of making senseof all behavior — including ourown.

As part of his campaign, Dr. Wil-son wrote a string of books that in-fluenced his fellow scientistswhile also gaining a broad publicaudience. “On Human Nature”won the Pulitzer Prize for general

EDWARD O. WILSON, 1929-2021

Inspecting Ants, He Altered Views of the WorldBy CARL ZIMMER

Edward O. Wilson, a pioneer of evolutionary biology, in October.GRETCHEN ERTL/REUTERS

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From gridlock on Fifth Avenueto backups at the Holland Tunnel,traffic has come roaring back inNew York City after largely disap-pearing at the height of the co-ronavirus pandemic.

But even as cars have returned,a pandemic that has transformedcountless work routines and shop-ping habits is now upending long-

established traffic patterns, shift-ing the congestion that has para-lyzed Manhattan for years to thecity’s other boroughs.

Some neighborhoods are beingchoked by more vehicles thanthey have ever seen before, with

traffic snarls fueled by a plunge intransit use and car pooling, soar-ing car ownership and a surge indelivery trucks trying to keep upwith an e-commerce boom.

The skyrocketing traffic is notjust maddening to drivers; it hasmade the city’s streets deadlierfor pedestrians and cyclists —traffic fatalities have risen to theirhighest level in nearly a decade —and contributed to higher levels of

Brake Lights, Big City: Traffic Is Worse Than EverThis article is by Winnie Hu, Pat-

rick McGeehan and Nate Schweber.Covid Fears Cram Cars

on New York Streets

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EZRA ACAYAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Super Typhoon Rai left a path of devastation in the Philippines, and with evacuation centers filled, officials warned that residents were going hungry. Page A8.Miles of Destruction and Death

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — Apregnant Saudi woman, far fromhome, finds herself stalked by in-ner and outer demons. A wannabeSaudi vlogger and his friends,menaced by the internet’s insatia-ble appetite for content and moremysterious dangers, try to escapea dark forest. At a wedding, themother of the bride panics whenher daughter disappears with allof their guests waiting down-stairs.

These were just a few of the 27Saudi-made films premiering thismonth at a film festival in Jeddah,part of the conservative king-dom’s huge effort to transform it-self from a cultural backwater intoa cinematic powerhouse in theMiddle East.

The Saudi push reflects pro-

found shifts in the creative indus-tries across the Arab world. Overthe past century, while the nameSaudi Arabia conjured little morethan oil, desert and Islam, Cairo,Beirut, Damascus and Baghdadstood out as the Arab cultural bea-cons where blockbuster movieswere made, chart-topping songswere recorded and books that gotintellectuals talking hit theshelves.

But over the past decade, thoselegacies have been battered byconflicts, financial meltdowns andstate failures. Years of war havedamaged Syria’s television stu-dios and Baghdad’s publishers.An economic collapse has left Leb-anon’s art-house cinemas strug-gling to keep the lights on.

With Regional Rivals in Decline,Saudis Angle for Cultural Cachet

By VIVIAN YEE and BEN HUBBARD

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YELLOW PINE, Idaho — Net inhand, Louis Reuben waded intothe frigid waters where his ances-tors once fished, long before Ida-ho’s rivers were dammed and con-taminated, before the Nez Percewere driven off their land whenwhite miners struck gold.

“They used to say you couldwalk across the river on the backsof salmon,” he said one rainy au-tumn morning as he tallied andmeasured the depleted stocks ofyoung Chinook salmon that hatchin these mountain creeks. “Now,it’s totally different. It’s devastat-

ing, if you think about it.”President Biden came into of-

fice vowing to safeguard NativeAmerican resources like theseand uphold the rights of tribes thathave endured generations of landtheft and broken treaties. But inthe rolling headwaters of centralIdaho, where mining interestshave long overrun tribal rights,the administration’s promise iscolliding with one of its other pri-orities: starting a revolution in re-newable energy to confront cli-mate change.

Deep in the Salmon RiverMountains, an Idaho mining com-pany, Perpetua Resources, isproposing a vast open-pit goldmine that would also produce 115million pounds of antimony — anelement that may be critical tomanufacturing the high-capacityliquid-metal batteries of the fu-ture.

As it seeks the Biden adminis-tration’s approval for its miningplans on federal lands, Perpetua iswaging an aggressive campaignto cast itself as an ally in a newclean-energy economy. It says itsStibnite Gold Project would be theonly American mine to produceantimony, which now largely

Clean-Energy Gold Rush Alarms Tribes in U.S.By JACK HEALY

and MIKE BAKER

The Nez Perce fisheries agency tracking how many salmon return to Lapwai Creek in Idaho.TAMIR KALIFA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

RACE TO THE FUTURE

The Environmental Toll

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Winsome Sears, above, Virginia’s nextlieutenant governor, wants Black votersto rethink the G.O.P. PAGE A10

NATIONAL A10-15

‘I Look Like the Strategy’Earthbound scientists have been usinga variety of techniques to simulate theconditions of other worlds. PAGE D1

SCIENCE TIMES D1-8

No Spaceship NeededIn winning the world championship twoyears in a row, Michael Artiaga, 14,represents a youth movement in aclassic video game. PAGE B6

SPORTS B6-9

A New Tetris Generation

Tensions with President Vladimir V.Putin of Russia are keeping a gas pipe-line to Germany out of reach. PAGE B1

Pipeline Remains UncertainResearchers at the Norwegian PolarInstitute have their hands full whenexamining animals in the wild. PAGE D8

How to Catch a Polar Bear

Meg Jacobs PAGE A18

OPINION A18-19

For the new movie “Being the Ricar-dos,” Nicole Kidman went on a journeyof discovery. One of the lessons shelearned: “Funny’s hard.” PAGE C1

ARTS C1-6

Playing Lucille Ball

Some companies helped improve hous-ing, the criminal justice system andeven social media. The Shift. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-5

The Year in Good Tech

An antisatellite test and mountingtensions over Ukraine are jeopardizingthe longstanding amity between NASAand the Russian space agency. PAGE A9

INTERNATIONAL A4-9

Space Alliance Is Imperiled

Sarah Weddington had little experiencewhen, at 26, she began arguments inone of the most consequential cases inAmerican history. She was 76. PAGE A20

OBITUARIES A16-17, 20

Lawyer Who Won Roe v. Wade

U.S. FIRST A vaccine mandate forprivate employers took effect inNew York City. PAGE A11

As daily coronavirus cases inthe United States soared to nearrecord levels, federal health offi-cials on Monday shortened by halfthe recommended isolation periodfor many infected Americans,hoping to minimize rising disrup-tions to the economy and every-day life.

Virus-related staff shortageshave upended holiday travel, lead-ing to the cancellation of thou-sands of flights, and now threatenindustries as diverse as healthcare, restaurants and retail. Yethealth experts warn the country isonly in the early stages of a fast-moving surge.

“The Omicron variant isspreading quickly and has the po-tential to impact all facets of oursociety,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky,the director of the Centers for Dis-ease Control and Prevention, said.

The agency had previously rec-ommended that infected patientsisolate for 10 days from when theywere tested for the virus. But onMonday it slashed that period tofive days for those without symp-toms, or those without feverswhose other symptoms were re-solving.

Americans leaving isolationshould wear masks around othersfor an additional five days aftertheir isolation periods haveended, the officials said.

The updated guidance comesamid a rising tide of infectionsthat threatens to swamp the U.S.health care system, particularlygiven that tens of millions remainunvaccinated. The new recom-mendations “balance what weknow about the spread of the virusand the protection provided byvaccination and booster doses,”Dr. Walensky said. “These up-dates ensure people can safelycontinue their daily lives.”

Still, the C.D.C. did not recom-

ISOLATION PERIODCUT TO FIVE DAYSFOR THE LESS ILL

NEW ADVISORY BY C.D.C.

Bid to Buoy Work Forceas Officials Warn of

More Disruptions

By BENJAMIN MUELLERand ISABELLA GRULLÓN PAZ

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Late Edition

VOL. CLXXI . . . . No. 59,286 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2021

Videos show a man attacking shoppersbefore the police opened fire, killing himand a girl in a dressing room. PAGE A15

Chaos in Los Angeles Shooting

Today, mostly cloudy, not as cool,high 50. Tonight, cloudy, showersearly, rain late, low 40. Tomorrow,partly sunny skies, still mild, high46. Weather map is on Page B7.

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