SPECIAL SECTION

Museums

VOL. CLXVII . . . No. 57,902 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 2018

C M Y K Nxxx,2018-03-15,A,001,Bs-4C,E2

U(D54G1D)y+#!=!&!=!:

Gail Collins PAGE A27

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27

The country’s political rivals havepledged to work together after a stand-off, but the victims of political violencefeel forgotten and betrayed. PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A4-15

Unhealed Wounds in KenyaJoining the big-money competition tofill urban dwellers’ kitchen cupboards,the retail giant is expanding onlinegrocery delivery to 100 cities. PAGE B1

BUSINESS DAY B1-8

Knock Knock, Walmart Calling

President Trump chose the CNBC com-mentator Larry Kudlow as his topeconomic adviser. PAGE A17

NATIONAL A16-22

From Cable to White HouseThe Metropolitan Opera’s production of“Così Fan Tutte,” set in Coney Island,uses sideshow performers. PAGE A28

NEW YORK A23-25, 28

Mozart Gets FreakyAs tech’s whiz kids settle down, they’reseemingly more attuned to the powerthey wield, Kevin Roose writes. PAGE B1

Hanging Up the Hoodies

Conor Lamb, a Democrat andformer Marine, scored a razor-thin but extraordinary upset in aspecial House election in south-western Pennsylvania after a fewthousand absentee ballots ce-mented a Democratic victory inthe heart of President Trump’sRust Belt base.

The Republican candidate, RickSaccone, may still contest the out-come. But Mr. Lamb’s 627-votelead Wednesday afternoon ap-peared insurmountable, giventhat the four counties in Pennsyl-vania’s 18th district have about500 provisional, military andother absentee ballots left tocount, election officials said.

That slim margin — out of al-most 230,000 ballots cast in a dis-trict that Mr. Trump carried bynearly 20 percentage points in2016 — nonetheless upended thepolitical landscape ahead ofNovember’s midterm elections. Italso emboldened Democrats torun maverick campaigns even indeep-red areas where Republi-cans remain bedeviled by Mr.Trump’s unpopularity.

Republican officials in Wash-ington said they were likely to de-mand a recount through litigation,and the National Republican Con-gressional Committee put out acall for voters to report any irregu-larities in the balloting. Matt Gor-man, a spokesman for the commit-tee, said the party was “not con-ceding anything.”

The battle for a district in subur-ban and rural areas around Pitts-burgh underscored the degree towhich Mr. Trump’s appeal has re-ceded across the country. And itexposed the ways in which bothparties are weighed down by divi-sive leaders: Democrats byNancy Pelosi, the House minorityleader; Republicans by Mr. Trumpand Paul D. Ryan, the speaker ofthe House.

Just as vividly, the race showedthat only one party — the Demo-crats — appears willing to grapplewith the implications of cam-paigning under its unpopular fig-urehead.

In Pennsylvania, Mr. Lamb, a33-year-old former prosecutorfrom a local Democratic dynasty,presented himself as independ-ent-minded and neighborly, vow-ing early that he would not sup-port Ms. Pelosi to lead HouseDemocrats and playing down hisconnections to his national party.He echoed traditional Democraticthemes about union rights andeconomic fairness, but took amore conservative position on thehot-button issue of guns.

DEMOCRAT’S WINON TRUMP’S TURFOFFERS ROAD MAP

LAMB TAKES HOUSE RACE

A Result in PennsylvaniaFuels Midterm Hopes

— G.O.P. May Sue

By ALEXANDER BURNSand JONATHAN MARTIN

Continued on Page A20

Holding up a few drops of blood,Elizabeth Holmes became a dar-ling of Silicon Valley by promisingthat her company’s new devicewould give everyday Americansunlimited control over their healthwith a single finger prick.

Ms. Holmes, a Stanford Univer-sity dropout who founded hercompany, Theranos, at age 19,captivated investors and the pub-lic with her invention: a technol-ogy cheaply done at a local drug-store that could detect a range ofillnesses, from diabetes to cancer.

With that carefully craftedpitch, Ms. Holmes, whose strikingstage presence in a uniform of

black turtlenecks drew compar-isons to Steve Jobs, became anovernight celebrity, featured onmagazine covers and richest-woman lists and in glowing arti-cles.

Her fall — and the near-collapseof Theranos — has been equallydramatic in the last few years. OnWednesday, the Securities andExchange Commission charged

Ms. Holmes, now 34, with wide-spread fraud, accusing her of ex-aggerating — even lying — abouther technology while raising $700million from investors.

The company, whose valuationwas once estimated at $9 billion,has skirted bankruptcy and is nowbarely afloat. Ms. Holmes was ex-ceptionally secretive about the

C.E.O. Who Promised Health in a Pinprick Is Charged With FraudBy KATIE THOMAS

and REED ABELSON

Continued on Page A21

Stephen W. Hawking, the Cam-bridge University physicist andbest-selling author who roamedthe cosmos from a wheelchair,pondering the nature of gravityand the origin of the universe andbecoming an emblem of humandetermination and curiosity, diedearly Wednesday at his home inCambridge, England. He was 76.

A university spokesman con-firmed the death.

“Not since Albert Einstein has ascientist so captured the publicimagination and endeared himselfto tens of millions of peoplearound the world,” Michio Kaku, aprofessor of theoretical physics atthe City University of New York,said in an interview.

Dr. Hawking did that largelythrough his book “A Brief Historyof Time: From the Big Bang toBlack Holes,” published in 1988. Ithas sold more than 10 million cop-ies and inspired a documentaryfilm by Errol Morris. His ownstory was the basis of an award-winning 2014 feature film, “TheTheory of Everything.” (EddieRedmayne played Dr. Hawkingand won an Academy Award.)

Seated, He Explored Universe and Awed WorldBy DENNIS OVERBYE

STEPHEN W. HAWKING, 1942-2018

Stephen Hawking in the 1980s. His work examining gravity andblack holes changed modern physics. An appraisal, Page A13.

GEMMA LEVINE/GETTY IMAGES

Continued on Page A14

A month ago, hundreds of teen-agers ran for their lives from thehallways and classrooms of Mar-jory Stoneman Douglas HighSchool, where 17 students andstaff had been shot to death.

On Wednesday, driven by theconviction that they should neverhave to run from guns again, theywalked.

So did their peers. In New YorkCity, in Chicago, in Atlanta andSanta Monica; at Columbine HighSchool and in Newtown, Conn.;and in many more cities andtowns, students left school by thehundreds and the thousands at 10a.m., sometimes in defiance ofschool authorities, who seemeddivided and even flummoxedabout how to handle their empty-

ing classrooms.The first major coordinated ac-

tion of the student-led movementfor gun control marshaled thesame elements that had defined itever since the Parkland shooting:eloquent young voices, equippedwith symbolism and social mediasavvy, riding a resolve as yet un-touched by cynicism.

“We have grown up watchingmore tragedies occur and contin-uously asking: Why?” saidKaylee Tyner, a 16-year-old juniorat Columbine High School outsideDenver, where 13 people werekilled in 1999, inaugurating, in thepublic consciousness, the era ofschool shootings. “Why does thiskeep happening?”

Thousands Walk Out of Class,Urging Action on Gun Control

By VIVIAN YEE and ALAN BLINDER

Outside Brooklyn Borough Hall, where students demonstrated on Wednesday for stronger action on gun control. Similar protests took place across the country.ANNIE TRITT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

At Santa Monica High School in California, many students woreorange shirts and marked themselves with gun-control slogans.

JENNA SCHOENEFELD FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A19

LONDON — Few world leadershave looked weaker than TheresaMay, the British prime minister.Yet in Parliament on Wednesday,she vowed to stand tough in theescalating confrontation withRussia over the use of a nerveagent to poison one of its formerspies on British soil.

In language reminiscent of theCold War, Mrs. May — until re-cently, accused at home of not be-ing hard enough on Moscow — ex-pelled 23 Russians she said werespies, promised a crackdown on

corrupt Russians and the moneythey funnel into Britain, andcalled off high-level contacts be-tween the two governments.

Suddenly, she is the most force-ful Western leader in denouncingPresident Vladimir V. Putin’s gov-ernment, which she portrayed asa malevolent and lawless force.

Her decision makes for a partic-ularly sharp contrast with Presi-dent Trump, who has been nota-

bly reluctant to criticize Mr. Putinand is dogged by accusations thatthe Kremlin tried to help him inthe 2016 election.

But it was not clear howstrongly allies would rally to herside, and experts said that behindMrs. May’s tough talk lay rela-tively mild measures, aside fromthe headline-grabbing expulsion,which she described as the big-gest one of Russian diplomats inmore than 30 years. That, in turn,reflects Britain’s weakened posi-tion in the world, as well as Rus-sia’s continuing success in sowingdiscord and division.

“I expected a stronger reac-

Britain Expels 23 Russians. That’s the Easy Part.By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA

and STEPHEN CASTLE

Continued on Page A8

BOLSTERING PUTIN

The poisoning in Britain only addsto the Russian president’s imageas a fearless leader. Page A9.

WASHINGTON — Green Be-rets working with governmentforces in Niger killed 11 IslamicState militants in a firefight in De-cember, the American military ac-knowledged for the first time onWednesday. The battle occurredtwo months after four UnitedStates soldiers died in an ambushin another part of Niger — and af-ter senior commanders had im-posed stricter limits on militarymissions in the West African coun-try.

No American or Nigerien forceswere harmed in the December

gun battle. But the combat —along with at least 10 other previ-ously unreported attacks onAmerican troops in West Africabetween 2015 and 2017 — indi-cates that the deadly Oct. 4 am-bush was not an isolated episodein a nation where the UnitedStates is building a major dronebase.

After the ambush, senior offi-cers at United States Africa Com-mand, which oversees Americanmilitary operations on the conti-nent, imposed additional meas-ures to enhance the safety oftroops on missions that were de-signed to train and advise local

ISIS Struck G.I.s Again in Niger,But U.S. Kept Quiet About Battle

This article is by Charlie Savage,Eric Schmitt and Thomas Gibbons-Neff.

Continued on Page A11

IDEAL FIT Conor Lamb’s creden-tials were tailor-made for south-western Pennsylvania. PAGE A21

THE CHOICES Lost in the race’sglare was the appeal of the candi-dates themselves. PAGE A20

The former F.B.I. deputy Andrew Mc-Cabe, who drew the president’s ire, maybe fired days before retiring. PAGE A17

Trump Target Faces OusterJohn J. Gotti, 24, is heading to prison,like his grandfathers, two uncles andtwo great-uncles before him. PAGE A25

Following Footsteps Into Prison

A lawsuit by Harper Lee’s estate saysthe script for the Broadway-bound“Mockingbird” turns its hero into a rude,selfish and less dignified figure. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

Atticus Finch, Diminished

Rebecca Miller’s film for HBO confrontsthe legacy of her father, Arthur Miller,who wrote “Death of a Salesman” andmarried Marilyn Monroe. PAGE D1

THURSDAY STYLES D1-8

Documenting Dad

Bob Huggins, who has led West Virginiato nine N.C.A.A. tournament berths, haswritten nine books — solo. PAGE B9

SPORTSTHURSDAY B9-13

No Co-Author for This Coach

Late EditionToday, periodic clouds and sunshine,high 46. Tonight, clear to partlycloudy, low 30. Tomorrow, periodicclouds and sunshine, colder, high 37.Weather map appears on Page B10.

$3.00