C M Y K Nxxx,2020-09-09,A,001,Bs-4C,E1

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Thomas L. Friedman PAGE A26

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27

Re-emerging from isolation, MarkBradford discusses “Quarantine Paint-ings,” his new online exhibition. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-6

An Artist in ‘Survival Mode’Writers, artists and activists are testingboundaries under a vague security lawthat takes aim at dissent. PAGE A14

INTERNATIONAL A10-14

Limits on Hong Kong Speech

Some high school athletes, desperate toavoid a lost year, are crossing statelines to play for football teams whoseseasons haven’t been canceled. PAGE B7

SPORTSWEDNESDAY B7-11

Have Football, Will TravelAfter a third sharp drop, the Nasdaqcomposite index has now entered cor-rection territory, raising questionsabout investors’ hunger for shares inhighflying tech giants. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-5

Tech Stocks Lead Nosedive

Oranges and frozen foods are beingsnapped up. Shelves have fewerchoices. And customers are steeringtheir carts in new directions. PAGE D1

FOOD D1-8

How Covid Changes ShoppingThe long legal career of DouglasEmhoff, the husband of Kamala Harris,could pose conflicts. PAGE A16

NATIONAL A16-23

Scrutiny for a Political Spouse

A music scene that is rooted in liveperformance has been particularly hardhit by the pandemic. PAGE C2

Jazz Clubs Are in Peril

President Trump takes credit for thelow, pre-pandemic unemployment rate,but economists say lucky timing and apatient Federal Reserve helped createthe strong labor market. PAGE B1

The Economy’s Real Drivers

A “duty” and “sacred act”: Womenranging from age 13 to 110 reflect onwhat voting means to them. PAGE A21

100 Years of Suffrage: 11 VoicesA Belarus opposition leader foiled herforced expulsion to Ukraine by destroy-ing her passport at the border. PAGE A10

A New Use for a Passport

SAN FRANCISCO — Even overthe crackling roar of the wildfiresurrounding them, Daniel Crouchheard the hum of military helicop-ters emerging out of the smokydarkness.

“The smoke was so thick, youcouldn’t see anything — but youcould hear the blades of the heli-copter,” said Mr. Crouch, who wasamong dozens of Labor Day vaca-

tioners trapped by a fast-movingwildfire in the forests south of Yo-semite National Park on Saturday.“That thump-thump-thump of thehelicopter out in the distance,” Mr.Crouch said.

In a scene that played out multi-

ple times over the weekend andinto Tuesday afternoon, the Cali-fornia National Guard airliftedhundreds of civilians, their exitstrapped by a dense ring of fire. Be-fore the helicopter’s arrival, Mr.Crouch had waded into a lake upto his neck to escape the smokeand whipping embers, shiveringin the cool water. “It was go under-water, come up, take a breath,” herecalled.

Two pilots who led that rescue,

Trapped, Then Whisked to Safety From InfernoBy THOMAS FULLER

and SARAH MERVOSHThe Sound of Salvation

in a Helicopter’s Roar

The Creek Fire has leveled homes and spawned daring airlifts by the California National Guard.NOAH BERGER/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Continued on Page A17

The two soldiers confess theircrimes in a monotone, a few blinksof the eye their only betrayal ofemotion: executions, mass buri-als, village obliterations and rape.

The August 2017 order from hiscommanding officer was clear,Pvt. Myo Win Tun said in videotestimony. “Shoot all you see andall you hear.”

He said he obeyed, taking partin the massacre of 30 RohingyaMuslims and burying them in amass grave near a cell tower and amilitary base.

Around the same time, in aneighboring township, Pvt. Zaw

Naing Tun said he and his com-rades in another battalion fol-lowed a nearly identical directivefrom his superior: “Kill all yousee, whether children or adults.”

“We wiped out about 20 vil-lages,” Private Zaw Naing Tunsaid, adding that he, too, dumpedbodies in a mass grave.

The two soldiers’ video testi-mony, recorded by a rebel militia,is the first time that members ofthe Tatmadaw, as Myanmar’s mil-itary is known, have openly con-fessed to taking part in whatUnited Nations officials say was agenocidal campaign against thecountry’s Rohingya Muslim mi-nority.

‘Kill All You See’: Soldiers AdmitJoining in Slaughter of RohingyaThis article is by Hannah Beech,

Saw Nang and Marlise Simons.

Continued on Page A13

Even as the coronavirus pan-demic appears to recede in NewYork, corporations have been re-luctant to call their workers backto their skyscrapers and areshowing even more hesitanceabout committing to the city longterm.

Fewer than 10 percent of NewYork’s office workers had re-turned as of last month and just aquarter of major employers ex-pect to bring their people back bythe end of the year, according to anew survey. Only 54 percent ofthese companies say they will re-turn by July 2021.

Demand for office space hasslumped. Lease signings in thefirst eight months of the year wereabout half of what they were ayear earlier. That is putting the of-

fice market on track for a 20-yearlow for the full year. When compa-nies do sign, many are opting forshort-term contracts that mostlandlords would have rejected inFebruary.

At stake is New York’s financialhealth and its status as the world’scorporate headquarters. Thereare more square feet of workspace in the city than in Londonand San Francisco combined, ac-cording to Cushman & Wakefield,a real estate brokerage firm. Of-fice work makes up the corner-stone of the city’s economy andproperty taxes from office build-ings account for nearly 10 percentof its total annual tax revenue.

What is most unnerving is thata recovery could unfold muchmore slowly than it did after theSept. 11 attacks and the financialcrisis of 2008. That’s largely be-cause the pandemic has promptedcompanies to fundamentally re-think their real estate needs.

GHOSTLY OFFICESHAUNT NEW YORKAS REBOUND LAGS

WORKERS STILL AT HOME

Lease Signings Plummet,Imperiling Health of a

Corporate Capital

By JULIE CRESWELLand PETER EAVIS

Vacancies on the ground floorof the Empire State Building.

VINCENT TULLO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A6

By the time Republicans weredone with Sharice Davids in 2018,she barely recognized herself. Inads that blanketed her suburbanKansas City district during hercongressional race, she was por-trayed as “the candidate of the lib-eral mob,” an enemy of the police,a threat to children, and an ally of“radical left-wing protesters.”

As flabbergasted as she was bythe strategy then, she said shewas surprised Republicans wereat it again, only this time in thepresidential election.

“It didn’t work last time,” saidMs. Davids, who won her race by10 points and is favored to be re-elected to a second term in No-vember. As a former mixed mar-tial arts fighter who learned theimportance of developing new

techniques in combat, she said heropponents’ attacks seem stale. “Ihaven’t seen any evolution. Theskill set looks the same.”

President Trump is using a fear-based playbook that is as familiarto him as it is questionable in actu-ally helping Republicans getelected in recent years. Some ofthe players have changed — in-stead of MS-13 gang members andmigrant caravans, now there arerioters and looters — but the tar-get audience and themes are thesame: suburban communities

that he claims Democrats won’tkeep safe. The president is evenreusing phrases and imageryfrom 2018, with slogans like “jobsnot mobs” and ads showing Dem-ocratic politicians and liberal fig-ures kneeling during the nationalanthem.

Democrats can point to the 41House seats they picked up in2018 to show that the Republicanstrategy did not work then, andthat voters were more concernedabout health care than havoc.Even Republicans say there is nosolid evidence in their polling thatproves the president’s tactics arehelping him today.

But behind their confidence,Democrats acknowledge a realrisk that Mr. Trump and Republi-cans could benefit by casting for-mer Vice President Joseph R. Bi-

Scaring Voters Didn’t Work in 2018. Will It Now?By JEREMY W. PETERS Democrats Worry That

G.O.P. Message MaySway the Suburbs

Continued on Page A18

CHANGE IN DALLAS The chief ofpolice will resign, citing mistakesin her protest response. PAGE A20

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The city’spolice chief and several of his de-partment’s highest ranking offi-cials resigned or were demoted onTuesday in the aftermath of thedeath of Daniel Prude, a Blackman who suffocated after he hadbeen placed in a hood by Roches-ter police officers and pinned tothe ground.

The sudden retirements of thepolice chief, La’Ron D. Singletary,the deputy chief, Joseph Morabito,and a commander, as well as thedemotions of another deputy chiefand commander, came three daysafter the state attorney generalannounced that she would impan-el a grand jury to consider evi-dence in Mr. Prude’s death.

“As a man of integrity, I will notsit idly by while outside entities at-tempt to destroy my character,”the police chief said in a state-ment. He later added: “The mis-characterization and the politici-zation of the actions that I took af-ter being informed of Mr. Prude’sdeath is not based on facts, and isnot what I stand for.”

Officials in Rochester had notpublicly disclosed the death of Mr.Prude, 41, until an open recordsrequest by his family promptedthe city to turn over officers’ bodycamera footage that revealed hisstruggle, naked and hooded, at thehands of the police. Mr. Prude’sfamily in recent days has accusedofficials of covering up his deathto protect the police officers in-volved.

Chief Singletary, who will stepdown at the end of September, de-nied any wrongdoing on the partof the officers, even as seven weresuspended last week. As recentlyas Sunday, he vowed to work toimprove community relations inthe department “to prevent thisfrom ever happening again.”

Mayor Lovely Warren an-nounced the departures in a videocall to the Rochester City Council.“The entire Rochester Police De-partment command staff has an-nounced their retirement,” shesaid. The mayor said she had notrequested the chief’s resignation,but added that he had acknowl-edged that the events “could’vebeen handled differently.”

“But he didn’t in any way try tocover this up,” she said.

She said the resignation fol-lowed “new information that wasbrought to light today that I hadnot previously seen before.” Shedid not elaborate.

Also on Tuesday, Mr. Prude’ssister, Tameshay Prude, filed acivil rights lawsuit in UnitedStates District Court for the West-

Police LeadersResign as CaseRoils Rochester

Cover-Up Accusations in Man’s Suffocation

By EDGAR SANDOVAL and MICHAEL WILSON

Continued on Page A20

Late Edition

VOL. CLXIX . . . . No. 58,811 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2020

The drugmaker AstraZeneca pausedlate-stage trials of its coronavirus vac-cine because of a serious suspectedadverse reaction. PAGE A9

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-9

Vaccine Trial Is Halted

ALLISON FARRAND FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Technical issues marred the first day of classes across the country. Above, Harms Elementary in Detroit on Tuesday. Page A8.Setbacks on Day 1

The Justice Department movedon Tuesday to replace PresidentTrump’s private legal team withgovernment lawyers to defendhim against a defamation lawsuitby the author E. Jean Carroll, whohas accused him of raping her in aManhattan department store inthe 1990s.

In a highly unusual legal move,lawyers for the Justice Depart-ment said in court papers that Mr.Trump was acting in his official ca-pacity as president when he de-nied ever knowing Ms. Carroll andthus could be defended by govern-ment lawyers — in effect under-written by taxpayer money.

Though the law gives employ-ees of the federal government im-munity from most defamationlawsuits, legal experts said it hasrarely, if ever, been used before toprotect a president, especially foractions taken before he entered of-fice.

“The question is,” said SteveVladeck, a University of Texas lawprofessor, “is it really within thescope of the law for governmentlawyers to defend someone ac-cused of lying about a rape whenhe wasn’t even president yet?”

The motion also effectively pro-tects Mr. Trump from any embar-rassing disclosures in the middleof his campaign for re-election. Astate judge issued a ruling lastmonth that potentially opened thedoor to Mr. Trump being deposedin the case before the election inNovember, and Ms. Carroll’s law-yers have also requested that heprovide a DNA sample to deter-mine whether his genetic materialis on a dress that Ms. Carroll saidshe was wearing at the time of theencounter.

Ms. Carroll’s lawyer said in astatement issued Tuesdayevening that the Justice Depart-ment’s move to intervene in thecase was a “shocking” attempt tobring the resources of the UnitedStates government to bear on aprivate legal matter.

“Trump’s effort to wield thepower of the U.S. government toevade responsibility for his pri-vate misconduct is without prece-dent,” the lawyer, Roberta A. Kap-lan, said, “and shows even morestarkly how far he is willing to goto prevent the truth from comingout.”

Ms. Carroll herself accused thepresident of siccing Attorney Gen-

Justice Dept.Steps In to Aid

Trump in SuitBy ALAN FEUER

Continued on Page A17

Today, clouds and limited periodicsunshine, high 82. Tonight, mostlycloudy, humid, low 72. Tomorrow,variably cloudy, showers, humid,high 82. Weather map, Page B6.

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