C M Y K Nxxx,2020-11-28,A,001,Bs-4C,E1

U(D54G1D)y+[!{!.!$!"

In excruciating pain with le-sions on her face and scalp, TraceyFine lay for 13 hours on a gurneyin an emergency room hallway.

All around her, Covid-19 pa-tients filled the beds of the hospi-tal in Madison, Wis. Her nursewas so harried that she could notremember Ms. Fine’s condition,

and the staff was slow to bring herpain medicine or food.

In a small rural hospital in Mis-souri, Shain Zundel’s severe head-ache turned out to be a brain ab-scess. His condition would typical-ly have required an operationwithin a few hours, but he wasforced to wait a day while doctorsstruggled to find a neurosurgeonand a bed — finally at a hospital

375 miles away in Iowa.From New Mexico to Minne-

sota to Florida, hospitals areteeming with record numbers ofCovid patients. Staff members atsmaller hospitals have had to beglarger medical centers repeatedlyto take one more, just one morepatient, but many of the biggerhospitals have sharply limited the

Covid Overload Pushes Hospitals to the BrinkBy REED ABELSON

Continued on Page A6

CHRISTOPHER LEE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Americans adapted as best they could on a day disrupted cruelly by the pandemic. Pages A18-19.Thanksgiving Like No Other

Nearly a year into a pandemicthat has ravaged the global econ-omy like no time since the GreatDepression, the only clear path-way toward improved fortunes iscontaining the virus itself.

With the United States suffer-ing its most rampant transmissionyet, and with major nations in Eu-rope again under lockdown,prospects remain grim for a

meaningful worldwide recoverybefore the middle of next year, andfar longer in some economies.Substantial job growth could takelonger still.

A significant hope has emergedthis month in the form of three

vaccine candidates, easing fearsthat humanity could be subject toyears of intermittent, wealth-de-stroying lockdowns. But signifi-cant hurdles remain before vac-cines restore any semblance ofnormalcy. More tests must be con-ducted, and vast supplies manu-factured. The world must navi-gate the complexities of distribut-ing a lifesaving medicine amid asurge of nationalism.

No Return to ‘Normal’ for the Global EconomyBy PETER S. GOODMAN Facing Worst Outlook

Since the Depression

Continued on Page A8

BLACK FRIDAY The dominantretailers thrive. Everyone elsejust hangs on. PAGES B6-7

SEATTLE — Amazon has em-barked on an extraordinary hiringbinge this year, vacuuming up anaverage of 1,400 new workers aday and solidifying its power asonline shopping becomes moreentrenched in the coronaviruspandemic.

The hiring has taken place atAmazon’s headquarters in Seattle,at its hundreds of warehouses inrural communities and suburbs,and in countries such as India andItaly. Amazon added 427,300 em-ployees between January and Oc-tober, pushing its work force tomore than 1.2 million people glob-ally, up more than 50 percent froma year ago. Its number of workersnow approaches the entire popu-lation of Dallas.

The spree has accelerated sincethe onset of the pandemic, whichhas turbocharged Amazon’s busi-ness and made it a winner of thecrisis. Starting in July, the com-pany brought on about 350,000employees, or 2,800 a day. Mosthave been warehouse workers,but Amazon has also hired soft-ware engineers and hardwarespecialists to power enterprisessuch as cloud computing, stream-ing entertainment and devices,which have boomed in the pan-demic.

The scale of hiring is evenlarger than it may seem becausethe numbers do not account foremployee churn, nor do they in-clude the 100,000 temporaryworkers who have been recruitedfor the holiday shopping season.They also do not include what in-ternal documents show asroughly 500,000 delivery drivers,who are contractors and not directAmazon employees.

Other retailers — both withphysical stores and online ones —competed with Amazon on BlackFriday and were strategizing on

Amazon HiresAt Record Clip:

1,400 Per DayBy KAREN WEISE

Continued on Page A17

There was no retailer, including Saks Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, above, that did not have to compete with Amazon on Black Friday.GABBY JONES FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

In a blistering decision, a Phila-delphia appeals court ruled on Fri-day that the Trump campaigncould not stop — or attempt to re-verse — the certification of thevoting results in Pennsylvania,reprimanding the president’steam that “calling an election un-fair does not make it so.”

The 21-page ruling by the ThirdCircuit Court of Appeals was acomplete repudiation of Mr.Trump’s legal effort to halt Penn-sylvania’s certification processand was written by a judge that hehimself appointed to the bench.

“Free, fair elections are thelifeblood of our democracy,” JudgeStephanos Bibas wrote on behalfof the appeals court in a unani-mous decision. “Charges requirespecific allegations and thenproof. We have neither here.”

Many courts have usedscathing language in tossing out arelentless barrage of lawsuitsfiled by the Trump campaign andits supporters since Election Day,but even so, the Third Circuit’s rul-ing was particularly blunt.

“Voters, not lawyers, choose thepresident,” the court declared atone point. “Ballots, not briefs, de-cide elections.”

The court accused the Trumpcampaign of engaging in “repeti-tive litigation” and pointed outthat the public interest strongly

Scathing RulingSinks PresidentIn Pennsylvania

By ALAN FEUER

Continued on Page A14

WEXFORD, Pa. — Just a fewseats shy of a majority in the StateHouse of Representatives, Demo-crats in Pennsylvania this year ze-roed in on Republican-held subur-ban districts, where disdain forPresident Trump ran hot.

One of their prime targets wasin the North Hills suburbs outsidePittsburgh, which are home to bigbrick houses, excellent publicschools and “the fastest-trendingDemocratic district in the state,”according to Emily Skopov, theDemocratic nominee for an openseat there, who gamely knockedon the doors of Republican votersin the days before Nov. 3.

She was half right. Joseph R. Bi-den Jr. carried Pennsylvania’sHouse District 28, after Mr. Trumphad won it by nine percentagepoints in 2016.

But Ms. Skopov, the founder of anonprofit group who positionedherself as a moderate, was de-feated.

Across the country, suburbanvoters’ disgust with Mr. Trump —the key to Mr. Biden’s election —did not translate into a wide re-buke of other Republicans, asDemocrats had expected after theparty made significant gains insuburban areas in the 2018midterm elections. From the topof the party down to the state lev-el, Democratic officials are awak-

Suburbs WentFor Both BidenAnd the G.O.P.

By TRIP GABRIEL

Continued on Page A15

Iran’s top nuclear scientist, longidentified by American and Israeliintelligence as the guiding figurebehind a covert effort to design anatomic warhead, was shot andkilled Friday in what Iranian me-dia called a roadside ambush as heand his bodyguards traveled out-side Tehran.

For two decades, the scientist,Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was thedriving force behind what Ameri-can and Israel officials describe asIran’s secretive nuclear weaponsprogram. And his work continuedafter Iran’s push to develop abomb was formally disbanded in2003, according to American intel-ligence assessments and Iraniannuclear documents stolen by Is-rael nearly three years ago.

One American official — alongwith two other intelligence offi-cials — said that Israel was behindthe attack on the scientist. It wasunclear how much the UnitedStates may have known about theoperation in advance, but the twonations are the closest of alliesand have long shared intelligenceregarding Iran, which Israel con-siders its most potent threat.

Iranian officials, who have al-ways maintained that their nucle-ar ambitions are for peaceful pur-poses, not weapons, expressedfury and vowed revenge over theassassination, calling it an act of

terrorism and warmongering thatthey quickly blamed on Israeli as-sassins and the United States.

The White House, C.I.A. and Is-raeli officials declined to com-ment. But Mr. Fakhrizadeh’s as-sassination — only 10 months af-ter the United States killed thepowerful spymaster at the head ofIran’s security machinery in adrone attack in Iraq — couldgreatly complicate President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s plans toreactivate the 2015 nuclear agree-ment between Tehran and sixother nations, which curtailedIran’s nuclear activities.

Mr. Biden’s transition team hadno immediate comment on the as-sassination.

President Trump withdrew theUnited States from the nuclear ac-cord in 2018, unraveling the signa-

Top Iranian ScientistFor Nuclear Program

Is Killed in an AttackU.S. Believes He Led Weapons Push —

Israel Is Said to Be Behind Death

This article is by David E. Sanger,Eric Schmitt, Farnaz Fassihi andRonen Bergman.

Mohsen FakhrizadehWANA NEWS AGENCY/VIA REUTERS

Continued on Page A10

Late Edition

VOL. CLXX . . . . No. 58,891 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2020

Salesforce.

#1CRM.

salesforce.com/number1CRMCRM market includes the following IDC-defined functional markets: Sales Force Productivity and Management, Marketing CampaignManagement, Customer Service, Contact Center, Advertising, and Digital Commerce Applications. © 2020 salesforce.com, inc. All rightsreserved. Salesforce.com is a registered trademarkof salesforce.com, inc., as areothernamesandmarks.

Source: IDC, Worldwide SemiannualSoftware Tracker, October 2020.

Ranked #1 for CRM Applicationsbased on IDC 2020H1 RevenueMarket ShareWorldwide.

2016 2017 2018 2019 2020H1

19.8%

4.8%

5.3%

3.8%

3.9%

New, broader controls on immigrationhave made it harder for people of allkinds to cross the border with Mexico,but they have been especially hard onpregnant women. PAGE A13

NATIONAL A13-21

Pregnant Women Turned Back

President Trump gave the World HealthOrganization a list of demands hoursbefore walking away. The requests arenow moot, but a frayed relationshipremains. PAGE A12

Trump’s Demands, Unanswered

Outdoor heaters are in high demand,and many businesses are scramblingfor an accessory that will help get themthrough the pandemic intact. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-8

The Need for Heat

Was a slice of metal in the Utah desertsculpted by John McCracken? Hisdealer says yes. His son says maybe.His artist buddies say no way. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-6

Many Views of a MonolithFor decades, Johann Zillinger was oneof the world’s most prolific smugglers ofrare wildlife. Two prison stints later, hesays he has gone straight. The SaturdayProfile. PAGE A9

INTERNATIONAL A9-12

Bird Lover, Bird Trafficker

The 54-year-old former heavyweightchampion Mike Tyson will fight RoyJones Jr., 51, another long-ago champ,in a pay-per-view exhibition. PAGE B9

SPORTSSATURDAY B9-11

Tyson Back in the Ring, Sort Of Royal watchers want to know whetherQueen Elizabeth and other members ofher family watch their fictionalizedselves on the popular series “TheCrown.” They’re not saying. PAGE C1

Mum’s the Word

Andrew Weissmann PAGE A23

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23

Court filings reveal consultants’ talk ofa records purge, and shed new light onsales advice given to the billionaireSackler family and their drug company,Purdue Pharma. PAGE A17

McKinsey’s Role in Opioid Crisis

Today, partly sunny, mild for late No-vember, high 56. Tonight, clear, turn-ing cooler than recent nights, low 40.Tomorrow, mostly sunny, high 54.Weather map appears on Page A20.

$3.00