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WASHINGTON — PresidentBiden on Thursday announced amultistep strategy aimed at rap-idly shifting Americans from gas-oline-powered cars and trucks to-ward electric vehicles — a centralpart of his plan to reduce the pollu-tion that is heating the planet.

Mr. Biden is first restoring andslightly strengthening auto mile-age standards to the levels thatexisted under President BarackObama but were weakened dur-ing the Trump administration.The new rules, which would applyto vehicles in the model year 2023,would cut about one-third of thecarbon dioxide produced annuallyby the United States and preventthe burning of about 200 billiongallons of gasoline over the life-time of the cars, according to aWhite House fact sheet.

The administration next plansto draft even more stringent pollu-tion rules for both passenger vehi-cles and heavy-duty trucks thatare designed to compel automak-ers to ramp up sales of electric ve-hicles.

“There’s a vision of the futurethat is now beginning to happen, afuture of the automobile industrythat is electric — battery electric,plug-in hybrid electric, fuel cellelectric,” said Mr. Biden, who an-nounced the plan from the SouthLawn of the White House beforean array of parked electric vehi-cles, including the Ford F150Lightning, the Chevrolet Bolt EVand a Jeep Wrangler. “The ques-tion is whether we’ll lead or fall be-hind in the future.”

Mr. Biden’s actions amount toan attempt to overhaul a majorAmerican industry in order to bet-ter compete with China, whichmakes about 70 percent of theworld’s electric vehicle batteries.In an effort that blends envi-ronmental, economic and foreignpolicy, Mr. Biden wants to retooland expand the domestic supplychain so that the batteries that areessential to electric vehicles arealso made in American factories.

“This is the first example of howBiden’s administration would do

BIDEN ROLLS OUTPLAN TO SHIFT U.S.TO ELECTRIC CARS

KEY TO CLIMATE AGENDA

New Pollution Rules Aimto Ramp Up Sales of

Plug-In Vehicles

By CORAL DAVENPORT

Continued on Page A11

The governor’s inner circle wasin a frenzy: A former state em-ployee had just publicly accusedAndrew M. Cuomo of a yearslongsexual harassment campaignagainst her.

The group huddled in the StateCapitol office of Melissa DeRosa,the governor’s top aide, andlaunched an effort to discredit thewoman, Lindsey Boylan, collect-ing a box of personnel files filledwith sensitive information thatthey thought would undermineher credibility.

Before they could leak the filesto reporters, some names had tobe removed. One of the governor’ssenior advisers hunted for Wite-Out with the help of an executiveassistant — a woman who wouldlater accuse Mr. Cuomo of gropingher breast in the Executive Man-sion.

That episode in December wasjust one of many described in adamaging report from the NewYork State attorney general thisweek, which found not only thatMr. Cuomo sexually harassed 11women, but that a cadre of his topaides and associates engaged inunlawful retaliation against one ofthe women — retaliation thatfrightened others into maintain-ing their silence.

The report laid bare how Mr.Cuomo had come to rely on a smallband of advisers — not just hisclosest government aides, butalso a handful of outside loyalists,even consulting leaders of groupsdedicated to supporting gayrights and victims of sexual har-

HOW CUOMO TEAMUSED RETALIATION TO HUSH ACCUSERS

AIMING TO INSTILL FEAR

Report Details StrategiesFrom Inner Circle and

Outside Loyalists

By LUIS FERRÉ-SADURNÍand JONAH E. BROMWICH

Continued on Page A17

Tiara Felix loves her job at aneyewear store in the Bronx, whereshe spends five days a week man-aging customer orders in a back-room lab, surrounded by col-leagues fitting and cutting lensesfor glasses.

But there is one thing that couldprompt Ms. Felix, 31, to leave: avaccine mandate.

“There’s no choice,” she said.“I’ll have to quit.”

Ms. Felix is among the six re-maining unvaccinated employeesat her company, Metro OpticsEyewear, who have been un-moved by a monthslong campaignby their bosses to persuade everyemployee to voluntarily get a co-

ronavirus vaccine.Time is running out. Employers

across the United States are nowconfronted with the same ques-tion of whether to fire workerswho refuse to get vaccinated, a di-lemma that carries new urgencyas the rapidly spreading Deltavariant leads to a surge in hospi-talizations among the unvaccinat-ed and threatens to stall the eco-nomic recovery.

This week, New York City be-came the first American city to an-nounce a vaccination requirementfor workers and customers at avariety of indoor venues, includ-ing restaurants, gyms and the-aters. Across New York City, 66percent of adults have been fullyvaccinated.

The new rules followed weeks

of pressure by city leaders on pri-vate businesses to mandate vac-cines or frequent testing as a con-dition of employment. A growingnumber of companies, includingFacebook, Microsoft and the fit-

ness chain Equinox, have an-nounced that employees must bevaccinated to return to the office.

But the issue can be particu-larly complicated for the manysmall businesses that provide jobsto more than three million peoplein New York City, about half of thecity’s work force.

They often employ lower-in-come workers, who polling hasshown are less likely to get vacci-nated because of a mix of factors,including distrust of public healthofficials, limited access to vaccinesites and less of an ability to taketime off work. Losing even oneemployee by requiring vaccina-tions can have an outsize impact,especially in a summer wherehelp-wanted signs have dotted

Coaxing and $1,000 Bonuses: A Workplace Struggles to VaccinateBy NICOLE HONG

John Bonizio, owner of MetroOptics Eyewear in the Bronx.

LAILA STEVENS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A16

TOKYO — Kenichiro Fumitawas crying so hard that he couldbarely get the words out.

“I wanted to return my grati-tude to the concerned people andvolunteers who are running theOlympics during this difficulttime,” Fumita, a Greco-Romanwrestler, said between sobs afterfinishing his final bout at theGames this week.

“I ended up with this shamefulresult,” he said, bobbing his headabjectly. “I’m truly sorry.”

Fumita, 25, had just won a silvermedal.

In what has become a familiar— and, at times, wrenching —sight during the Tokyo Olympics,many Japanese athletes havewept through post-competition in-terviews, apologizing for any re-sult short of gold. Even some whohad won a medal, like Fumita, la-mented that they had let downtheir team, their supporters, eventheir country.

After Japan’s judo team earnedsilver, losing to France, ShoichiroMukai, 25, also apologized. “Iwanted to withstand a little bit

more,” he said. “And I’m so sorryto everyone on the team.”

Apologizing for being secondbest in the world would seem to re-flect an absurdly unforgiving met-ric of success. But for these ath-letes competing in their homecountry, the emotionally chargeddisplays of repentance — whichoften follow pointed questions

Japanese Tears and ApologiesOver ‘Shameful’ Silver Medals

By MOTOKO RICH

Kenichiro Fumita, a wrestler.JACK GUEZ/A.F.P. — GETTY IMAGES

Continued on Page B14

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo hasbeen given until the end of nextweek to submit evidence in his de-fense for a wide-ranging State As-sembly investigation that seemsheaded for a vote on the gover-nor’s impeachment.

Charles D. Lavine, the chair-man of the Assembly’s JudiciaryCommittee, said on Thursday thatthe Assembly would soon con-sider “potential articles of im-peachment” against the governor,the most vivid indication yet thatthe Assembly was moving quicklyto impeach Mr. Cuomo, a third-term Democrat.

The statement underscoredhow much Mr. Cuomo’s fortuneshave changed since a report fromthe New York State attorney gen-eral’s office this week concludedthat Mr. Cuomo had sexually har-assed nearly a dozen women. Mr.Lavine said that the investigationwas “nearing completion.”

Mr. Cuomo was also stung onThursday by the defection of twomore prominent left-leaning orga-nizations, with a union that repre-sents health care workers askingMr. Cuomo to step down, and amajor fund-raising platform forliberal politicians saying it wouldno longer process campaign dona-tions to him.

With Mr. Cuomo offering no in-dication of an imminent resigna-tion, his fate seemed to lie with theState Assembly, whose Democrat-ic leadership held an emergencyvideo meeting on Tuesday, hoursafter the report was released.

Behind the scenes, lawmakersexpressed significant disagree-ment, scuffling over how quicklyto move against the governor.Many of the 50 or 60 lawmakerswho spoke favored quickly draft-ing articles of impeachment based

State AssemblyStarts to Weigh

Impeachment

Governor Gets a Weekto Offer His Defense

This article is by Michael Gold,Jeffery C. Mays and Luis Ferré-Sadurní.

Continued on Page A16

EAST LONDON, South Africa— Even as thousands died andmillions lost their jobs when theCovid-19 pandemic engulfedSouth Africa last year, Them-bakazi Stishi, a single mother, wasable to feed her family with thesteady support of her father, a me-chanic at a Mercedes plant.

When another Covid-19 wavehit in January, Ms. Stishi’s fatherwas infected and died within days.She sought work, even going doorto door to offer housecleaning for$10 — to no avail. For the firsttime, she and her children are go-ing to bed hungry.

“I try to explain our situation isdifferent now, no one is working,but they don’t understand,” Ms.Stishi, 30, said as her 3-year-olddaughter tugged at her shirt.“That’s the hardest part.”

The economic catastrophe set

off by Covid-19, now deep into itssecond year, has battered millionsof people like the Stishi family whohad already been living hand tomouth. Now, in South Africa andmany other countries, far morehave been pushed over the edge.

An estimated 270 million peopleare expected to face potentiallylife-threatening food shortagesthis year — compared to 150 mil-lion before the pandemic — ac-cording to analysis from theWorld Food Program, the anti-hunger agency of the United Na-tions. The number of people on thebrink of famine, the most severe

phase of a hunger crisis, jumpedto 41 million people currently from34 million last year, the analysisshowed.

The World Food Programsounded the alarm further lastweek in a joint report with theU.N.’s Food and Agriculture Orga-nization, warning that “conflict,the economic repercussions ofCovid-19 and the climate crisis areexpected to drive higher levels ofacute food insecurity in 23 hungerhot spots over the next fourmonths,” mostly in Africa but alsoCentral America, Afghanistan andNorth Korea.

The situation is particularlybleak in Africa, where new infec-tions have surged. In recentmonths, aid organizations haveraised alarms about Ethiopia —where the number of people af-fected by famine is higher thananywhere in the world — and

No Job, No Food: Virus Deepens Global HungerBy CHRISTINA GOLDBAUM Over 270 Million Who

Live Hand to MouthAre Pushed to Edge

Sharing a meal provided by a community center in a village near East London, South Africa.JOAO SILVA/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A5

A memoir by Cecily Strong isn’t somuch a recounting of her showbiz ca-reer as it is a candid unfurling of her lifeprompted by the pandemic. PAGE C1

WEEKEND ARTS C1-12

A Life Beyond ‘S.N.L.’ Laughs

The high country of the south is “re-mote and beautiful and unpredictable,”a place where visitors can be swallowedup without a sound. PAGE A6

INTERNATIONAL A4-9

Mystery in Australia MountainsRichard Trumka rose from the Pennsyl-vania coal mines to the corridors ofpower as the president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O for the last 12 years. He was 72.

OBITUARIES B16

Labor Boss With Political Clout

What became of the Pattern and Decora-tion movement’s riotous décor? A BardCollege exhibition looks back at an irrev-erent style and its brief yet prescient life.A review by Roberta Smith. PAGE C6

Celebrating an Artistic Upstart

David Brooks PAGE A19

OPINION A18-19

The U.S. women’s soccer team camechasing gold, but after a tough Olympicrun, third place is still a “joy.” PAGE B11

SPORTS B6-15

A Bronze Worth Its WeightA Congressional Budget Office estimateconfirmed suspicions that the sprawling$550 billion legislation would end upadding billions to the deficit. PAGE A12

NATIONAL A10-17

Math of Infrastructure Bill

The Justice Department will look atwhether officers discriminate againstminorities, use excessive force, retaliateagainst peaceful protesters or mistreathomeless and disabled people. PAGE A12

Phoenix Police Under Scrutiny

The pandemic has cut into NBC’s view-ership for the Olympics, typically afestive television event, contributing tocomplaints from advertisers. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-5

Missing the Podium on Ratings

Late Edition

VOL. CLXX . . . . No. 59,142 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, FRIDAY, AUGUST 6, 2021

Today, mostly sunny, warmer thanrecent days but not too humid, high88. Tonight, partly cloudy, low 72. To-morrow, clouds and sunshine, high86. Weather map is on Page A20.

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