VOL. CLXV . . No. 57,135 © 2016 The New York Times NEW YORK, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2016

This article is by Donald G. McNeil Jr.,Simon Romero and Sabrina Tavernise.

Something strange was happening lastAugust in the maternity wards of Recife,a seaside city perched on Brazil’s east-ernmost tip, where the country juts intothe Atlantic.

“Doctors, pediatricians, neurologists,they started finding this thing we neverhad seen,” said Dr. Celina M. Turchi, aninfectious diseases researcher at the Os-waldo Cruz Foundation, a prominent sci-entific institute in Brazil.

“Children with normal faces up tothe eyebrows, and then you have noforeheads and very strange heads,”she recalled, referring to the condi-tion known as microcephaly. “Thedoctors were saying, ‘Well, I sawfour today,’ and, ‘Oh that’s strange,because I saw two.’”

Aside from their alarming ap-pearance, many of the babiesseemed healthy.

“They cried,” Dr. Turchi said.“They breast-fed well. They justdidn’t seem to be ill.”

Doctors were stumped.They did not know it then, but

they were seeing the first swell of ahorrifying wave. A little-known

sex with men who have visited thosecountries, following a report of sexualtransmission of the virus in Dallas lastweek.

They have led health ministers of fivecountries to say something so unthink-able that none had ever uttered it before:Women, please delay having children.

The virus now threatens the economiesof fragile nations and the 2016 SummerOlympics in Rio de Janeiro. It has openeda new front in the debate in heavily Ro-

man Catholic countries about awoman’s right to birth control andabortion.

And the children stricken with mi-crocephaly, or abnormally smallheads, have doctors everywhereasking: What is this virus? Howcould it have been around for almost70 years without us realizing itspower? What do we tell our patientsabout a bug that can hide in a mos-quito’s proboscis and a man’s se-men, even in human saliva or urine?What do we tell young women whoask if their unborn babies are safe?

“This epidemic is an unfoldingstory,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, di-rector of the National Institute of Al-

pathogen — the Zika virus, carried bymosquitoes — had been circulating inBrazil for at least a year. It would later be-come the chief suspect in the hunt to workout what had happened to those new-borns.

Since then, those tiny babies have ledthe World Health Organization to declarea public health emergency. They haveprompted warnings to pregnant womento avoid countries where the virus is cir-culating, even to refrain from unprotected

Medical Mystery With a Global Reach

FERNANDO VERGARA/ASSOCIATED PRESS

An Aedes aegypti mosquito, the carrier of Zika virus, which has island-hopped for years eastward across the Pacific.

Search to Explain Birth Defects in Brazil Led to Zika Virus

MAURICIO LIMA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

A Brazilian soldier inspected a water cask in ayard looking for mosquito larvae in Recife, wheredoctors saw a startling increase in birth defects. Continued on Page 10

By JAD MOUAWAD

Helped by falling oil prices, air-lines are reporting record profits,but for many passengers thissudden bonanza has meant littlemore than extra bags of free pea-nuts and pretzels.

The four biggest domestic car-riers — American Airlines,Southwest Airlines, Delta AirLines and United Airlines — to-gether earned about $22 billion inprofits last year, a stunning turn-around after a decade of losses,bankruptcies and cutbacks. A bigreason for this is the plungingprice of jet fuel, which now costsonly a third of what it did just twoyears ago.

But that windfall is only slowlyfinding its way down the aisles.Days after reporting record prof-its, for instance, two of the na-tion’s biggest airlines broughtback free snacks in coach.

United said it would begin

AirlineWindfall

Means Peanuts

For Passengers

Continued on Page 4

By JOHN ELIGON

ST. LOUIS — Within days ofthe fatal police shooting of Mi-chael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., inAugust 2014, Maria Chappelle-Nadal huffed amid a crush of pro-testers, waving a cardboard cut-out of the white governor’s faceabove her head.

“Black community!” she

shouted. “This is your governor!This is your governor that can’tcare less about the black commu-nity!”

In the weeks and months thatfollowed, DeRay Mckesson, apublic school administratorturned activist, frequently pro-vided blunt Twitter critiques ofthe police response in Ferguson.

“SWAT vehicle pulls up. Offi-cer emerges. Points gun at us.

America,” he wrote in one post.Now Ms. Chappelle-Nadal and

Mr. Mckesson are among a num-ber of activists nationwide at-tempting to turn their raw activ-ism into political muscle.

Ms. Chappelle-Nadal, current-ly a state senator in Missouri, islooking to unseat RepresentativeWilliam Lacy Clay Jr., an eight-term incumbent whose father

JEFF ROBERSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Maria Chappelle-Nadal, left center, protested and DeRay Mckesson was arrested over Ferguson.

Continued on Page 13

WHITNEY CURTIS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

From Street to Ballot, Emboldened by Protests

By CHARLIE SAVAGE and AIDA ALAMI

WASHINGTON — Younis Sho-kuri, a Moroccan detainee at theGuantánamo Bay prison, said hefeared being repatriated to hisnative country. But the Moroccangovernment told the UnitedStates that it would probably re-lease him without charges 72hours after any transfer. So lastSeptember, Mr. Shokuri wenthome — reluctantly, but volun-tarily.

But despite its assurances, Mo-rocco has kept Mr. Shokuri incustody and is weighing criminalcharges, apparently focused onallegations that he was involvedwith a Moroccan terrorist groupbefore his capture in Afghanistanin late 2001. Mr. Shokuri’s law-yers have demanded that theObama administration press Mo-rocco to live up to what theythought was a deal.

Both governments have saidlittle to explain the discrepancy.

Several officials familiar withbehind-the-scenes legal and dip-

lomatic discussions are nowshedding light on the murky epi-sode.

Beyond its importance for Mr.Shokuri, his situation illustrateshow difficult — and messy — itcan be to winnow down the ranksof detainees viewed as posing alower-level security risk at theGuantánamo prison, which theObama administration still wantsto close in its final year in office.

Of the 91 remaining detainees,34 are recommended for transfer,and a parole-like review grouphas been adding names to thelist. Each man presents a prob-lem: The government has to finda place that is willing to take himand that can be trusted to keepan eye on him without abusinghim.

Republicans in Congress whooppose closing the prison fre-quently criticize transfers, notingthat some former detainees havegone on to engage in terrorist ac-

Released From Guantánamo,

But in Legal Limbo in Morocco

Continued on Page 7

By STEVE EDER and DAVE PHILIPPS

There were reports of secretwaiting lists to hide long delaysin care. Whistle-blowers said asmany as 40 veterans had diedwaiting for appointments. AndCongress was demanding an-swers.

Despite mounting evidence oftrouble at the Department of Vet-erans Affairs, Senator BernieSanders, then the chairman ofthe Senate Veterans Affairs Com-mittee, initially regarded thecomplaints as overblown, and asa play by conservatives to weak-en one of the country’s largest so-cial welfare institutions.

“There is, right now, as wespeak, a concerted effort to un-dermine the V.A.,” Mr. Sanderssaid in May 2014, two weeks afterthe story was picked up by na-tional news organizations. “Youhave folks out there now — Kochbrothers and others — who wantto radically change the nature ofsociety, and either make majorcuts in all of these institutions, ormaybe do away with them en-tirely.”

But the scandal deepened: Thesecretary of veterans affairs re-signed. Reports showed majorproblems at dozens of V.A. hospi-tals. And an Obama administra-tion review revealed “significantand chronic systemic leadershipfailures” in the hospital system.

Mr. Sanders eventuallychanged course, becoming crit-ical of the agency and ultimatelyjoining with Senator John Mc-Cain, the Arizona Republican,and other colleagues to draft a bi-

Continued on Page 17

Sanders WasSlow to AcceptV.A. Problems

Senator Initially Saw

A Conservative Plot

Rescuers searched for survivors, below,after an earthquake toppled an apart-ment building in Tainan. PAGE 5

Scouring the Rubble in Taiwan

A Virginia Tech professor’s team of stu-dent scientists helped focus attention onwater problems in Flint, Mich. PAGE 12

NATIONAL 12-19

Lab That Earned Flint’s Trust

Maureen Dowd PAGE 1

SUNDAY REVIEW

U(D5E71D)x+z!.!/!=!.

He is charged as Jeremy Wilson, but af-ter 25 years of cons, even his name maybe a ruse. PAGE 1

METROPOLITAN

An Impostor’s Lives and Lies

How Roger Goodell and the N.F.L. own-ers created the most powerful sportsleague in American history. PAGE 38

THE MAGAZINE

The Super League

The police say a New Jersey lawyerkilled himself and his wife of 47 years.Their sons refuse to believe it. PAGE 52

Who Killed the Sheridans?

The lives today of Willie Wood, a Pack-ers star of Super Bowl I, and the Chiefs’Len Dawson differ starkly. PAGE 8

SPORTSSUNDAY

Football Stars’ Paths Diverge

Some Hong Kong publishers had lucra-tive businesses in books that mixed ru-mor, speculation and outright fiction instories about China’s elite. Now, thepublishers are caught up in a real-lifethriller as several associates of one dis-tributor have gone missing. PAGE 1

SUNDAY BUSINESS

Books That Make Enemies

Planting some noncommercial crops inthe off season seemed like an antiquat-ed practice, replaced by fertilizers. Butfarmers are rediscovering cover cropsas a natural way to help prevent ero-sion, keep topsoil healthy and increaseyields. PAGE 1

A Practice With Deep Roots

The ads. The halftime show. Even thegame. Full Super Bowl 50 coverage liveon Sunday night at nytimes.com.

Super Bowl 50 Live

John L. Tishman, 90, was a masterbuilder of the 20th century. PAGE 19

OBITUARIES 19-21

Sculptor of American Skylines

By PATRICK HEALY and JONATHAN MARTIN

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Sena-tor Marco Rubio of Florida washammered as callow, ambitiousand lacking in accomplishmentduring the Republican presiden-tial debate here on Saturdaynight, as Gov. Chris Christie ofNew Jersey led an all-out assaultto try to halt Mr. Rubio’s growingmomentum ahead of the criticalNew Hampshire primary onTuesday.

Mr. Rubio, facing the fiercestattacks yet of the Republicanrace after his strong third-placefinish in the Iowa caucuses,looked rattled at times and fal-tered as he pushed back withscripted lines about PresidentObama that Mr. Christie mockedmercilessly. While the Republi-cans clashed on issues like abor-tion and torture, the concerted ef-fort to take down Mr. Rubio dom-inated the debate.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush of Flor-ida and Donald J. Trump alsopounced on Mr. Rubio, whose ris-ing popularity in New Hampshireposes a grave threat to their can-didacies. But it was Mr. Christiewho was the most pointed andpersonal in his derision of Mr. Ru-bio — a strategy that may not ul-timately bring him votes, butcould wound Mr. Rubio just as hehas been ascending.

G.O.P. RIVALS JABAT RUBIO TO TRYTO SLOW HIS RISE

CHRISTIE GOES ON ATTACK

A High-Stakes Debate as

Tuesday Vote Could

Winnow Field

STEPHEN CROWLEY/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Senator Marco Rubio and Donald J. Trump during a debateSaturday. Mr. Rubio was a target of criticism from his rivals.

Continued on Page 16

The North says its program is peaceful,but Secretary of State John Kerry calledthe action a “major provocation.” PAGE 6

INTERNATIONAL 5-11

North Korea Launches Rocket

Today, mostly sunny, a bit milderin the afternoon. High 47. Tonight,mostly cloudy, low 33. Tomorrow,mostly cloudy, snow or flurries,high 39. Weather map, Page 14.

$6 beyond the greater New York metropolitan area. $5.00

Late Edition

C M Y K Nxxx,2016-02-07,A,001,Bs-BK,E3