SWEET AND SOUR WAR ON GERMS COASTAL QUIET

ADDICTIVE JOYS BACTERIA THAT THE LONELY PLIGHT OF

OF TAMARIND LOVE TO HUNT THE GREAT BARRIER REEF
BACK PAGE | LIVING PAGE 12 | SCIENCE PAGE 3 | WORLD

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INTERNATIONAL EDITION | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2020

How QAnon Authorities

is Trump’s in Hong
last chance Kong turn to
tech tactics
Pro-democracy politicians,
activists and media leaders
Paul Krugman targeted by digital dragnet
BY PAUL MOZUR

OPINION To get onto his Facebook account, the

police used Tony Chung’s body.
Last week’s Democratic National When officers swarmed him at a
Convention was mainly about decency Hong Kong shopping mall last month,
— about portraying Joe Biden and his they pulled him into a stairwell and
party as good people who will do their pinned his head in front of his phone —
best to heal a nation afflicted by a an attempt to activate the facial recogni-
pandemic and a depression. There tion system. Later, at his home, officers
were plenty of dire warnings about the forced his finger onto a separate phone.
threat of Trumpism; there was frank Then they demanded passwords.
acknowledgment of the toll taken by “They said, ‘Do you know with the na-
disease and unemployment; but on the tional security law, we have all the rights
whole the message was surprisingly to unlock your phones and get your
upbeat. passwords?’ ” Mr. Chung said.
This week’s Republican National Emboldened by that new law, Hong
Convention, by contrast, however Kong security forces are turning to
positive its official theme, is going to harsher tactics as they close a digital
be QAnon all the dragnet on activists, pro-democracy po-
As the old way. liticians and media leaders. Their ap-
I don’t mean that proaches — which in the past month
saying goes: there will be fea- have included installing a camera out-
The only tured speeches side the home of a prominent politician
thing he can claiming that Donald and breaking into the Facebook account
hope for is Trump is protecting of another — bear marked similarities to
fear itself. us from an imagi- ADAM DEAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES those long used by the fearsome domes-
nary cabal of liberal Luon Sovath, a Cambodian Buddhist monk and rights activist who fled after postings on Facebook accused him of sexual impropriety. He has denied the claims. tic security forces in mainland China.
pedophiles, although Not accustomed to such pressures,
anything is possible. But it’s safe to Hong Kong lawmakers and activists,

Pushed into exile by Facebook

predict that the next few days will be and the American companies that own
filled with QAnon-type warnings about the most popular internet services in the
terrible events that aren’t actually city, have struggled to respond. Pro-de-
happening and evil conspiracies that mocracy politicians have issued instruc-
don’t actually exist. tions to supporters on how to secure dig-
That has, after all, been Trump’s ital devices. Many have flocked to en-
style since the very first day of his His downfall shows how repressive fense of Human Rights. “Facebook’s re- crypted chat apps like Signal and
BANGKOK
presidency. governments can move with stunning action has been like little drops from a changed their names on social media.
New presidents traditionally use speed to disgrace their opponents, using sink, so late and so little.” Dogged by the global reach of the law,
their inaugural addresses to deliver a social media and technology to amplify In a statement to The Times about Mr. even people from Hong Kong living far
message of hope and unity, even in An outspoken monk falls their divisive campaigns. Under Prime Luon Sovath’s case, Facebook said that away worry. One Facebook discussion
dark times: “The only thing we have to Minister Hun Sen, the Cambodian gov- it had built up a team in Cambodia to bet- group of Hong Kongers living in Austral-
fear is fear itself.”
victim to a viral campaign ernment has repeatedly used falsified ter monitor the local situation. ia closed off public access after a user
Trump, however, offered a vision of linked to Cambodia’s rulers Facebook posts or manipulated audio to “We recognize the important role that claimed to have reported discussions to
“American carnage,” in particular of defame and imprison politicians, activ- Facebook plays in enabling expression the Hong Kong authorities for poten-
inner cities devastated by violent BY HANNAH BEECH AND SUN NARIN ists and other human rights defenders. in Cambodia,” the company said. “We tially violating the law.
crime. His rhetoric was ugly and had Facebook has come under fire in the want people to feel safe when they’re us- Major internet companies like Face-
clear racial overtones, but it also had In just four days, the reputation of a United States for disseminating hate ing our platform, which is why we take book and Twitter have temporarily
another problem: it bore no relation- Buddhist monk who had spent decades speech and disinformation. It has been SUN NARIN reports of impersonation and other vio- stopped sharing data with the local po-
ship to reality. Trump took office in a fighting for the human rights of Cambo- criticized for failing to detect Russian in- Tim Ratha, one of the sisters named in lations of our community standards se- lice. Others have gone further, devising
nation whose violent crime rate had dians was destroyed. fluence in the 2016 U.S. election, provid- the accusations against Mr. Luon Sovath. riously.” more permanent solutions.
been falling for decades; our big cities First, grainy videos appeared on a ing a platform for political conspiracy A fake Facebook page used her identity. Last month, Mr. Luon Sovath, who is In July, Yahoo changed its terms of
were as safe as they had ever been. fake Facebook page, claiming that he theories and allowing false claims about now in Switzerland after receiving a hu- service so that users in Hong Kong are
The same pattern of attempts to had slept with three sisters and their the coronavirus to proliferate. manitarian visa, was charged in absen- protected under American law, not local
panic Americans over nonexistent mother. Then a government-controlled But its influence is even greater in high-profile activists and opposition po- tia by prosecutors in Siem Reap Prov- rules. It also cut access for employees in
threats recurs throughout this admin- religious council defrocked the monk for places like Cambodia, where the social liticians have been assassinated over ince with raping one of the sisters, esca- Hong Kong to user data to protect them
istration. If you get your information having violated Buddhist precepts of media platform is the only digital inter- the years, their cases rarely investi- lating the accusations in the videos. from the law, according to two people fa-
from administration officials or Fox celibacy. Fearing imminent arrest, the face for millions of people. Since civil lib- gated properly. The sex claims against Mr. Luon So- miliar with the matter.
News, you probably believe that mil- monk fled Cambodia for a life in exile, erties are often constricted in such coun- As scandals proliferate on its plat- vath, one of Cambodia’s most celebrated A Google spokeswoman said in a
lions of undocumented immigrants like so many people who have stood up tries, Facebook can be a powerful tool form, Facebook has been criticized for activist monks, went viral. Copies of the statement that the company had not
cast fraudulent votes, even though to Asia’s longest-governing leader. for autocrats to bolster their grip on the being too slow in removing problematic videos, which purported to show Face- produced data for the Hong Kong au-
actual voter fraud hardly ever hap- The monk, Luon Sovath, was the vic- state, even as it provides a rare space for accounts and pages, many fake. It took book Messenger calls between the thorities since the national security law
pens; that Black Lives Matter protests, tim of a smear campaign this summer free expression and activism. almost a month for Facebook to take monk and some of the women, were was enacted, and that the authorities
which with some exceptions have been that relied on fake claims and hastily as- During his nearly 35-year rule, Mr. down the page where the videos smear- shared widely on the social media plat- could seek information for criminal in-
remarkably nonviolent, have turned sembled social media accounts de- Hun Sen — a onetime soldier for the ing the Cambodian monk were first form. vestigations through U.S. diplomatic
KRUGMAN, PAGE 11 signed to discredit an outspoken critic of genocidal Khmer Rouge and now an en- posted. He has denied the rape charges, along channels. That means the company is
the country’s authoritarian policies. A thusiastic Facebook user — has deci- “As a company, you would think they with accusations that he had sexual re- effectively treating data requests in the
The New York Times publishes opinion New York Times investigation found ev- mated Cambodia’s political opposition. would want to be more vigilant and not lations with any of the women. city the way it does those from mainland
from a wide range of perspectives in idence that government employees He has cozied up to China, eschewing allow their platform to be misused,” said Clues in the videos, uncovered by The China.
hopes of promoting constructive debate were involved in the creation and post- aid from the West that was conditioned Naly Pilorge, the director of the Cambo- Times, also undercut the claims. Long known as a financial hub, Hong
about consequential questions. ing of the videos on Facebook. on improving human rights. Numerous dian League for the Promotion and De- CAMBODIA, PAGE 4 HONG KONG, PAGE 8

Caught off step by Italy’s dance ban

ters traced back to nightclubs crowded
LEGNAGO, ITALY
with maskless patrons. Yet the new
rules aimed at stopping young people
CATHARSIS

from gathering en masse have also

An effort to curb crowds swept up older Italians for whom an
evening at the dance hall is a cherished
leaves many older adults part of life.
perplexed over the rules As lockdown measures were lifted,
Caribe reopened in July — with many
BY EMMA BUBOLA new and hard-to-enforce rules. Only
married couples or “stable affections,”
Raffaele Leardini, 72, slipped on his pink which had to be declared in writing,
linen shirt, buttoned it up to the middle could dance together. Masks were re-
of his chest, combed back his hair and quired on the dance floor, as partners
CULTURAL

set off on Thursday with his wife to Ca- clasped sanitized hands after register-
ribe, their favorite outdoor dance hall. ing their names and having their tem-
When they arrived, they found the club peratures taken.
open but the dance floor sealed off with If masks were lowered, the DJ would
red and white tape. stop the music. But even with the re-
“What is this?” asked Mr. Leardini, a strictions, the dancing lasted only a little
retired mechanic. “They can’t do this.” over a month.
But they have. In an attempt to limit a The Italian government’s decree on
resurgence of the coronavirus, Italy has dancing, issued on Aug. 16, made no dis-
banned dancing in nightclubs and out- tinction between packed, sweaty clubs
door dance halls. blaring reggaeton and sedate communi-
FRANCESCA VOLPI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES As in other countries around the ty centers where people swirl in pairs to
Raffaele Leardini and wife, Loretta Parini, in Legnago, Italy, before officials issued a world, new cases in Italy are being driv- accordion-driven waltzes.
dance ban at nightclubs. Some think it’s a mistake to conflate dance halls and nightclubs. en by young people, with several clus- ITALY, PAGE 2 A podcast with culture writers Wesley Morris and Jenna Wortham.
nytimes.com/stillprocessing

Listen on your favorite podcast app.

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 ..
2 | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION

page two
Nun who reached out
to imprisoned mothers
“When you went in there, there was
SISTER ELAINE ROULET
1930-2020
no doubt who was running things,” Sis-
ter Teresa said. “She’d say, ‘It’s the wom-
en in green.’ ”
BY JOHN LELAND Elaine Margaret Roulet was born on
Oct. 5, 1930, in the Maspeth neighbor-
Sister Elaine Roulet, a Roman Catholic hood of Queens. She was the second of
nun who helped female inmates bond two children of George and Margaret
with their children and created innova- (Laundrigan) Roulet. Her father died
tive programs for mothers both in pris- when she was a child, and her mother
on and after release, died on Aug. 13 at worked in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
the Stella Maris Convent in New York. Sister Elaine professed her first vows
She was 89. in 1949 and took her final vows in 1952 as
The cause was heart failure, said Scott a Sister of St. Joseph, Brentwood, on
Stepp, director of development at Provi- Long Island, N.Y. She spent the 1950s
dence House, a nonprofit organization and ’60s as a parochial school teacher
that she helped start. and principal in Brooklyn and Queens.
Sister Elaine followed the simplest of But her strongest calling was to work
ideas: that female inmates, most of with poor people, leading her to the pris-
whom are mothers, should have regular ons, said Sister Mary Ross, who worked
time with their children and receive par- with her at one of the first Providence
enting lessons to prevent their family Houses.
wounds from passing to the next gener- With a master’s degree in counseling
ation. from Bank Street College of Education
At the Bedford Hills Correctional Fa- in Manhattan, Sister Elaine started at
cility, a maximum-security prison for Bedford Hills in 1970 as a family liaison
women in Westchester County, just and quickly saw a need to expand both
north of New York City, Sister Elaine the nursery and the visiting center.
helped create the Children’s Center, a Her emphasis on teaching parenting
room filled with toys where mothers skills, often to women with no maternal
could play with their children instead of role models, transformed lives for gen-
speaking stiffly across a table or erations, said JoAnne Page, the presi-
through glass. She also revitalized the dent of the Fortune Society, an organiza-
nursery to allow babies to live with their tion that supports people after prison.
mothers for their first 12 or 18 months. “The idea that a baby will have a
The program has been replicated in chance to start with a mother who’s
PHOTOGRAPHS BY FRANCESCA VOLPI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES prisons around the country. learning to be a parent — I can’t put into
Guests can listen to the music at Caribe, above, a dance hall in Legnago, Italy, but cannot go on the dance floor. Below, the ticket counter at the venue, which has an older clientele. “She wanted to do some pretty un- words how much impact that has,” Ms.
usual things, and I was lucky to be the Page said. “That creates a whole differ-
right person at the right time,” Elaine ent ripple effect.”

Caught off step by a dance ban

Lord, the former superintendent at Bed- Sister Elaine lived simply in Brent-
ford Hills, said in a phone interview. “We wood and later in Breezy Point, in
were like the Thelma and Louise of the Queens — rising at 4 a.m., praying until
prison system. 5, then attending Mass and swimming
“She wanted to make it more humane, before taking the long drive to the prison
ITALY, FROM PAGE 1 and I went along with that because I to spend the day behind bars. She lik-
Many regulars at Caribe, which ca- wanted to make it more humane,” Ms. ened her convent room to a prison cell,
ters to an older clientele, said they un- Lord continued. “I let her get away with and she bought all of her clothing from
derstood that the government was try- those things because I trusted there was thrift stores, managing always to match
ing to protect the country — and people a good reason.” exquisitely.
their age in particular — but were frus- Besides her work on the Children’s “All you had to say was, ‘Elaine, I like
trated that the ban included places that Center and the nursery, Sister Elaine or- those earrings,’ and in two seconds
had been following the rules. ganized bus trips for older children to they’d be in your hands,” Sister Mary
A spokesman for the health minister visit their mothers in Bedford Hills as said.
said that any kind of dancing required a well as summer “camps” where children The actor Glenn Close, who witnessed
physical proximity that can spread in- stayed with host families so that they Sister Elaine’s work at Bedford Hills and
fection. could visit their mothers daily. became a good friend, said she had once
The patrons didn’t understand why She also started a home for children wanted to give Sister Elaine some shoes
they could no longer hold their partners whose mothers were incarcerated and and asked her what her size was. “She
on the dance floor while bars, beaches built a network of 10 Providence Houses, said, ‘Anywhere from 6 to 9,’ ” Ms. Close
and gyms stayed open. which provide housing and support to said in a phone interview. “She always
“It was good to close down nightclubs women who might otherwise be in pris- had a smile and a laugh, but underneath
— teenagers just don’t get it,” said Mr. on or homeless. In 2005, she started Our she was a deeply serious woman, min-
Leardini, who was so happy when the Journey, a monthly retreat for formerly istering to women who are forgotten.”
club reopened in July that he burst out incarcerated women. Sister Elaine developed dementia in
crying when he heard the news. “But She was inducted into the National her later years and moved to the Stella
here you have people with a brain and a Women’s Hall of Fame in 1993. Maris convent in Queens, where young-
mask.” Sister Elaine relied on the wisdom of er nuns cared for her. But she main-
Mr. Leardini had gone dancing at Ca- the people she served in designing pro- tained the sense of humor that col-
ribe three times a week with his wife, grams to meet their needs — another in- leagues said was one of her most effec-
Loretta Parini, for more than four dec- novation in prison thinking, said Sister tive tools.
ades. When forced to stop during the Teresa Fitzgerald, the executive direc- “I’m convinced that laughter is God’s
lockdown, he fell into depression. He tor of Hour Children, an offshoot of Sis- favorite earthsound,” she said in a 1995
said that he had gained weight and that ter Elaine’s work based in the borough interview for an oral history of her order,
every night he opened his closet and of Queens; the organization serves “and I’m so convinced that if we could
wondered whether he would ever again mothers and their children in and after use humor, it would really evaporate so
be able to wear his colorful collection of prison. many problems.”
dancing shirts.
“What do I have — eight more years
ahead?” he said, sipping a Corona beer when she first went to a dance hall near communities, Liscio dance nights pro- cancel the bookings of hundreds of lo-
from a wine glass. “They can’t take ev- her home in the northern town of Casa- vide companionship and comfort. cals who had rushed to get a spot for
erything away from me.” leone, but a more expert dancer took her Moreno Conficconi, a Liscio musician their masked Liscio nights.
For now, he and others had to content hand — and told her she was “light as a from Emilia-Romagna known as “More- “They closed our dance floor, but out-
themselves sitting on white couches on feather.” no the Blonde,” said it was a mistake to side it there are way more dangerous
the edge of the dance floor, tapping their Four years later, he sat next to her in conflate dance halls and nightclubs. things still going on,” she said.
feet as the club’s singer, wearing a long, front of the taped-off dance floor. “There is no crowd in our music,” she At Caribe, everyone seemed to agree
shiny pink dress, walked around the pe- “It’s because these youngsters were said. “There are only intentional hugs.” that Benito Garofalo, 80, was the best on
rimeter of the tape, singing. all amassed” that they had to stop danc- When Italy announced the ban on the dance floor.
Grazia Maria Bellini, 66, was among ing, Ms. Bellini said. “The thing is that dancing, the government promised to Mr. Garofalo lost his wife in Decem-
those listening on a recent night. When we don’t have much else.” pay millions in subsidies to nightclub ber, and said dancing was the only thing
the club reopened, she resumed her Fri- The Liscio, which involves a combina- owners, but many community centers that had helped him keep negative
day appointments at the hairdresser tion of Viennese ballroom dances like that host dance nights do not qualify. thoughts away.
and bought a long green dress with little the waltz, polka and mazurka, became “They close us down as nightclubs, “Now I don’t have dancing,” he said,
roses on the trim. But before she had the Italy’s most popular dance craze in the but then they don’t help us like they help “and the bad thoughts are back.”
chance to show it off, the dance floor was 1970s, especially in the towns and vil- nightclubs,” said Maria Pina Colarusso, In his perfectly ironed yellow shirt,
closed again. lages along the Italian Riviera of the a volunteer from the Arci community Mr. Garofalo approached Cristina Dan-
Since age 11, Ms. Bellini had worked at northern Emilia-Romagna region. center in Soliera, a town near Modena. ielis, 62, a recently retired obstetrician
a polishing plant, spray-painting wood. While the cheerful songs extolling the She said that since many of the com- from nearby Mantua, who sat on a sofa
When she retired and after her husband virtues of family are largely eschewed munity centers survived only on the pi- in a flowery dress.
died, she gingerly tried the dance floor. by the young, they remain staples for adina flatbread and soft drinks they sell “Did they bring you drinks?” he JOYCE DOPKEEN/THE NEW YORK TIMES

She didn’t know the steps of the Lis- many older Italians, especially in the na- on the Liscio nights, they would be asked. “I so wish I could ask you for a Sister Elaine Roulet in 1991 at the Children’s Center at the Bedford Hills Correctional
cio, Italy’s traditional “smooth dance,” tion’s northern lowlands. And in many forced to close. She has already had to dance.” Facility in Westchester County, N.Y., which she helped create.

Convention-shattering New York playwright

was about a man who tries to get his car “Sad to say the play is never more elo- When his parents divorced shortly af- (which, as Mr. Baker put it in his review,
KENNETH BERNARD
1930-2020
repaired in a small town and ends up in a quent than a cage full of monkeys,” he ter he was born, with the Depression in “lasts a bit longer than 60 minutes and is
nightmarish sort of gantlet. wrote, “and never more satisfying than full force, his mother moved to Florida more about the queerness of queer-bait-
By then the Ridiculous had been go- when it has ended.” for a time, leaving him in the care of the ing than about queers”) was the peak of
BY NEIL GENZLINGER ing for several years, featuring the When “The Moke Eater” was staged American Female Guardian Society and the Bernard-Vaccaro collaborations.
works of two other out-there writers, in Atlanta in 1977, Helen C. Smith, re- Home for the Friendless. Later he was One character, a dictatorial director, was
Kenneth Bernard, a playwright who rat- Ronald Tavel and Charles Ludlam. The viewing for The Atlanta Constitution, taken in by relatives in Framingham, played by Mr. Vaccaro himself.
tled the expectations of audiences and Bernard plays, which also included wrote, “I didn’t like the play, don’t pre- Mass., before rejoining his mother in Dr. Bernard married Elaine Ceil Reiss
critics with avant-garde works staged “Night Club” (1970), “The Magic Show tend to understand much of it.” New York when he was about 12. in 1952; she died in 2019. In addition to
by the Playhouse of the Ridiculous and of Dr. Ma-Gico” (1973) and “The Sixty But those critics who got what Dr. Dr. Bernard earned a bachelor’s de- his son Lucas, he is survived by another
other theatrical groups in New York and Minute Queer Show” (1977), were in Bernard was after recommended his gree in English at the City College of son, Judd; a daughter, Katey E.
beyond, died on Aug. 9 at a nursing some ways even more transgressive. work to adventurous theatergoers, as New York and, after serving in the Army Bernard; and four grandchildren.
home in New York City. He was 90. “In contrast to Tavel’s arch verbalism Rob Baker of The Daily News did for from 1953 to 1955, did postgraduate Dr. Bernard wrote poetry and fiction
His son Lucas said the cause was hy- and Ludlam’s distinctive blend of trav- “The Sixty Minute Queer Show” when it work at Columbia University, where he as well as plays and published two fic-
pertensive cardiovascular disease com- esty and tradition, Bernard brought to was staged at La MaMa Experimental earned a Ph.D. in English literature. tion collections. He also occasionally
plicated by other health problems. the Ridiculous a nightmare imagination Theater Club in Manhattan in 1977 un- He had become interested in experi- ventured a straightforward opinion arti-
By day, Dr. Bernard was an English rooted in the grotesque,” Gerald Rabkin der Mr. Vaccaro’s direction. mental theater and begun writing when cle, as in 1978, when he wrote an essay in
professor at Long Island University, a wrote in Performing Arts Journal in “It is a pastiche of short skits parody- a friend took him to see a Ridiculous pro- The New York Times criticizing public
job he took in 1959 and held for more 1978. “He did not reject the playfulness, ing virtually every play presented at La duction of a Ludlam play at the Bouw- schools’ emphasis on athletics that ben-
than 40 years. By night, he was a central the phallicism, the sexual ambiguity MaMa in the past 10 years, including erie Lane Theater in Manhattan in 1967. efit only students who are physically fit
figure in the experimental theater that had characterized early Ridiculous several of Vaccaro’s own.” he wrote. He was impressed and offered some of and sports like football that few people
movement that began bubbling up in the work. But he subordinated them and BILLIE BILLING/SOUTHERN EXPOSURE PHOTOGRAPHIC SERVICES “The spoofs are outrageous but never his plays, including “The Moke Eater,” play after their 20s.
small performance spaces of the city’s added a scream of pain.” Kenneth Bernard, who rattled audiences’ mean, for Vaccaro’s style is to move and to Mr. Vaccaro. “The key to a lifetime of healthful
Midtown and Downtown Manhattan ar- His works, though, were often more and critics’ expectations, in the 1980s. to provoke as he destroys, to leave us The timing was fortunate; Mr. Lud- sports activity is early exposure to ac-
eas in the 1960s. sideshow than traditional play, exer- haunted after the hysteria.” lam and Mr. Vaccaro were parting ways. tivities one can perform at 70 as well as
His works were a favorite of John Vac- cises in the meta that blurred the lines Kenneth Otis Bernard was born on Mr. Vaccaro agreed to put on “The Moke at 20 and 45,” wrote Dr. Bernard, who
caro, the director behind the Playhouse between rehearsal and performance. The Home News of New Brunswick, May 7, 1930, in Brooklyn to Otis Bernard Eater,” which was first staged at Max’s had been a fine gymnast in high school.
of the Ridiculous, whose assaultive, an- Any playgoer or reviewer who went in N.J., was not onboard with Dr. Bernard’s and Mary Travaglini. His father was a Kansas City, the nightclub and restau- “In this light, activities like hiking, bird-
archic productions were part of the stew expecting a traditional story with a li- use of actors portraying monkeys as a businessman and writer of Christian- rant on Park Avenue South frequented watching and yoga are of more value to
that gave rise to punk, queer theater and near plot (and expecting not to be of- metaphor for society’s deterioration in themed books. His mother, an independ- by Andy Warhol and other trendsetting the average student.”
more. The first Bernard play staged by fended) was overmatched. “The Monkeys of the Organ Grinder,” ent-minded woman, invested in lychee artists and musicians.
the troupe, “The Moke Eater” (1968), Ernest Albrecht, the theater critic of staged in that city in 1970. groves in Florida. “The Sixty Minute Queer Show” Susan Beachy contributed research.
..
THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2020 | 3

World

FEDERICO RIOS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

DAVID MERCADO/REUTERS LUIS GANDARILLAS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

Clockwise from left: Cemeteries around La Paz, Bolivia, have been overwhelmed by the pandemic; Jeanine Áñez, center, the country’s interim president, said her predecessor left Bolivia unprepared; and supporters of Bolivia’s former president blockading a highway.

Bolivia’s death toll rose as leaders clashed

traordinary rise in death, adjusted for stepped in with a promise to govern un- hospital ventilators at twice the real cal tensions,” said Franklin Pareja, a po- ones at home for days because funeral
TARIJA, BOLIVIA
its population, is more than twice as til elections could be held. cost. litical scientist at San Andrés Major Uni- parlors and crematories could not han-
high as that of the United States, and far Since then, Ms. Áñez has announced Ms. Áñez has defended her approach versity in La Paz. “This political standoff dle the increase.
higher than the levels in Italy, Spain and that she is running for the office — and to the outbreak, saying that her decision has a cost in lives.” “The health system is saturated,” said
The Covid-19 fatality rate Britain. asked the electoral board to postpone to enact a swift lockdown avoided an In the La Paz region of Bolivia, five the Health Ministry’s chief epidemiolo-
About 20,000 more people have died the new vote, saying the pandemic even greater loss of life. She also blamed times as many people died in July than gist, Mr. Prieto. “We don’t have enough
is among the worst in the since June than in past years, according made it unsafe for people to go to the Mr. Morales’s party for mismanaging in past years, according to the data. capacity, equipment or the intensive
world, an analysis finds to a Times analysis of registration data polls. The rescheduling of the vote from the health care system during its 14 Although Bolivia’s official statistics care units required.”
from Bolivia’s Civil Registry, a vast num- May to October has enraged opposition years in office and for stifling her plans show a severe spike in mortality start- Despite the crisis, some regional gov-
BY MARÍA SILVIA TRIGO, ber in a nation of about 11 million people. groups, who see it as an attempt by the to bolster public spending in the pan- ing in July, the closure of government of- ernments, under pressure to restart the
ANATOLY KURMANAEV Tracking deaths from all causes gives caretaker president to cling to power. demic. fices during a lockdown in April meant economy before the elections, are re-
AND ALLISON MCCANN a more accurate picture of the pan- “She is not recognized as a legitimate “We did more in three months than that almost no deaths were registered opening gyms and restaurants, feeding
demic’s true toll, demographers say, be- leader, which makes it extremely diffi- what was done in the history of health that month. Officials at the Civil Regis- fears that mortality rates will continue
So many people were dying that the Bo- cause it does not depend on testing, cult to coordinate a complex response care of this country,” she wrote in a Twit- try, which issues death certificates, to rise. The Health Ministry estimates
livian government’s numbers couldn’t which has been limited in Bolivia. The that the pandemic requires,” said Santi- ter post this month. warned that at least some of the deaths that the country will reach the peak of
be accurate. mortality figures include people who ago Anria, a Bolivia expert at Dickinson More than a hundred roadblocks by that occurred in April could have been the pandemic in September.
Calls to pick up bodies were inundat- may have died from Covid-19 and from College in Pennsylvania. labor unions and Mr. Morales’s support- registered in later months, potentially In the meantime, the people will con-
ing the country’s forensic office. By July, other causes because they couldn’t get ers have paralyzed an already weak- skewing the mortality rate. tinue to bear the burden.
agents were gathering up to 150 bodies health care. ened economy, leaving the government The spike in deaths, however, can be When Josué Jallaza, a 24-year-old taxi
per day, 15 times the normal amount in “This is a very cruel situation that “This is a very cruel situation with fewer resources to import urgently confirmed by Bolivia’s overwhelmed driver in Cochabamba, fell sick with co-
previous years, said the country’s chief we’re living through,” said Mr. Flores, that we’re living through. needed medical supplies. The shortages crematories, cemeteries and body-col- ronavirus symptoms, his family called
forensic official, Andrés Flores. who heads the Institute of Forensic In- We’ve been left completely of oxygen and other equipment caused lection agencies. three times for a doctor, but no one
The demands on his office suggested vestigations. “We’ve been left com- by the roadblocks resulted in the deaths The deaths have forced the local au- came. After he fainted, his family took
that the official tally of Covid-19 deaths pletely exposed.”
exposed.” of at least 30 patients, the government thorities to expand crematories and him to a hospital, “but they didn’t want
— now just over 4,500 — was a vast un- With a bare-bones health system, a said in a report to the Organization of open new cemeteries. In La Paz’s mu- to admit us,” said his brother, Marcelo
dercount, Mr. Flores said. But with lim- decentralized government and poor in- Ms. Áñez’s decision to run for presi- American States. nicipal cemetery, residents had to line Jallaza.
ited testing, scarce resources, and a po- frastructure, Bolivia struggled to con- dent antagonized the opposition law- As hospitals ran out of medicines and up outside the entry last week for a “They threw us out like a dog,” Mr. Jal-
litical crisis tearing Bolivia apart, the tain infectious diseases such as dengue makers and regional officials on whom coronavirus tests, Mr. Morales’s allies in chance to bury their loved ones. laza said.
extra lives lost were going largely un- even before the coronavirus arrived, she depended to mobilize health care re- the legislature passed a law to allow the In Bolivia’s constitutional capital, Su- They then took him to a private clinic,
recognized. said Virgilio Prieto, an epidemiologist at sources, said Mr. Anria, leading to a dis- medical use of a bleaching agent, chlo- cre, the local health authorities said they where “a doctor came out, looked into
New mortality figures reviewed by Bolivia’s Health Ministry. organized, ineffective effort. rine dioxide — an unproven and poten- had to stack up dozens of bodies in his eyes, and said, ‘He’s already dead;
The New York Times suggest that the But its ability to respond was under- Her response was also bogged down tially dangerous coronavirus treatment morgues, hospitals and even a univer- we can’t do anything,’ ” Mr. Jallaza said.
real death toll during the outbreak is mined by a contested presidential elec- by corruption scandals, including the ar- popular among Bolivians. sity, until they were able to install a new The family took the body home, and
nearly five times the official tally, indi- tion that led to the ouster in November rest of her health minister in May after “The pandemic has found us in a very crematory oven to meet the demand. spent four days trying to bury it. After
cating that Bolivia has suffered one of of Evo Morales, a socialist. An interim investigators accused him of using precarious situation, with an inexperi- And in the central city of Cochabamba, pleading in tears with cemetery offi-
the world’s worst epidemics. The ex- president, Jeanine Áñez, a conservative, money from international donors to buy enced government and elevated politi- families had to keep bodies of their loved cials, they were finally granted a grave.

The gateway to a natural wonder, now a sleepy beach town

tional arrivals in the region, the throngs
AUSTRALIA DISPATCH
CAIRNS, AUSTRALIA who help support the jobs of more than
60,000 people (more than those em-
BY LIVIA ALBECK-RIPKA ployed by Australia’s oil and gas indus-
try). Experts have warned that even
Diving beneath the ocean, Russell Hosp with a vaccine, it may be years before
swam toward the limestone bed of the travel returns to pre-coronavirus levels.
Great Barrier Reef, where he reattached But while the idled boats and empty
bits of blue staghorn coral. With tourists storefronts tell the story of a city shaken
gone, he was filling the void with this by Australia’s travel bans, in other pock-
small act of conservation, which took his ets of Cairns there is a sense of relief at
mind off the uncertain future on land. having made a lucky escape from the
“It was a bit surreal,” Mr. Hosp, a reef threat of infection.
guide, said of spending hours at sea un- Patrons at bars flout the rules of social
accompanied by the usual enthusiastic distancing, and backpackers from over-
visitors. Aboard the quiet catamaran, he seas — many of whom have decided to
said, he realized just how much the coro- ride out the pandemic wave in Australia
navirus “had changed the world.” — share close quarters in dormitories at
The pandemic has fast-forwarded a hostels. Real estate agents say the area
looming reckoning for the tropical city of has drawn some clients looking to flee
Cairns, the main gateway to the reef and the danger of Covid-19.
the base for Mr. Hosp and many others PHOTOGRAPHS BY NATALIE GRONO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES At night, parts of the city could almost
whose livelihoods depend on it. Pandemic travel bans are keeping thousands of travelers away from the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, endangering the economic future of Cairns, whose lifeblood is reef tourism. be mistaken for a pre-pandemic world.
Tour operators there were already On a recent Saturday, locals and back-
fighting a perception that the reef is in packers spilled out into the streets, lin-
its death throes, as warming waters rus itself has barely touched Cairns: “It’s been so quiet,” said Heather Hughes, a global expert on coral reefs at As recent flare-ups of the coronavirus ing up to get into the only nightclub in
cause repeated mass bleaching that has The city of 150,000 people in far north- Forbes, a Cairns resident, adding that James Cook University in Townsville, have closed state borders within Aus- town. Inside, guests, mandated to sit
robbed many corals of their vivid colors. eastern Australia has recorded only a because the city had been dependent on Australia. tralia, some people have taken the op- down, had organized their stools in a cir-
But where climate change has been couple of dozen cases, and has none cur- tourism for so long, it was difficult to In the end, a prolonged downturn in portunity to explore their own (very cle on the dance floor.
more of a creeping threat to the reef’s rently. know how to diversify its economy. visits to the reef could actually be detri- large) backyards. Even this limited revelry was not pos-
survival, and thus to Cairns’s tourism But there is no escaping the reach of “I don’t think anywhere should be mental to its well-being. “Tourism pro- “We were supposed to be in Hawaii, sible a few months ago, with Queens-
lifeblood, the coronavirus has delivered the pandemic. solely dependent on one thing,” she said. vides a social and economic rationale for but we said we still wanted to take a trip land in lockdown as virus cases were ris-
a hammer blow. “We’d never stopped running before It might seem that there was a silver why the reef needs to be better pro- somewhere warm,” said Alicia Dean as ing.
Now this city, so linked with the natu- — the global financial crisis, terrorism lining in all this, that the exodus of tour- tected,” Professor Hughes said. she lounged in a sarong on the deck of a With little else to do during those eight
ral wonder just off its shore that it can attacks, airline strikes; you name it, the ists would be a boon for the health of a The situation has prompted the boat heading out to the reef. She had weeks, Mr. Hosp, the reef guide, and
scarcely imagine life without the vis- world has thrown it at us,” Mr. Hosp reef in critical condition. Cairns region to look more critically at traveled within the state of Queensland crew members from other tour compa-
itors who come in droves, has been said. “We don’t know if we’ll ever get But while the abrupt absence of vis- its dependence on international trav- from Brisbane, the capital, to Cairns, nies, undertook work that the govern-
forced to confront the prospect that it back to normal.” iting crowds has had surprising effects elers, especially those from China, who more than 1,000 miles to the north. ment had deemed essential: replanting
can no longer depend on tourists. In Cairns, visitors who usually cram in other places — monkeys overrunning make up a large portion of reef visitors. And some foreigners, stranded in hundreds of pieces of coral as part of a
Foreign and local travelers, already the jetty every morning as they wait to a city in Thailand, deer wandering cities China and Australia are engaged in an Australia, figured they may as well take study on the impact of heat stress on
deterred by last summer’s devastating pile onto boats have dwindled from the in Japan looking for food — the envi- increasingly bitter diplomatic tug of war the time to experience the reef, a World their growth.
bush fires and now locked out by Aus- thousands to a few hundred, leaving op- ronmental impact of tourism on the reef that could keep Chinese travelers away Heritage Site. “My flight keeps getting Under the ocean, among the parrot-
tralia’s international and domestic trav- erators out of work, boats moored at the is negligible, scientists say, especially even after the borders are reopened. canceled,” Julia Pape, a 27-year-old from fish and green turtles, Mr. Hosp said,
el bans, have all but vanished, and a $4.6 dock, and some hotels and restaurants when compared with climate change. “We’re realizing that we can’t rely on Germany, said as she donned her flip- “you could almost forget what was go-
billion industry built around the world’s shuttered. The reduction in international travel, China,” said Samantha Davidson, a trav- pers and wet suit, ready to plunge into ing on in the world.” But aboard the boat,
largest living structure has ground to a Storefronts on the main drag are for and therefore planet-warming emis- el consultant at the Reef Info Visitor the tropical waters. the harsh reality of the virus’s impact
near halt. lease, and the esplanade, usually heav- sions, has created only a short-term Center. “It’s good,” she added, because Tourists like Ms. Dean and Ms. Pape, came flooding back.
The sudden disappearance of visitors ing with tourists at dusk, looks like benefit. The “infrastructure of fossil fu- it’s sending a message to those closer to however, don’t make up for the hun- “I definitely missed the tourists,” Mr.
feels all the more unreal because the vi- something out of a sleepy beach town. els wasn’t affected,” said Prof. Terry home: “Hey, come and see us.” dreds of thousands of missing interna- Hosp said. “It was very humbling.”
 ..
4 | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION

world

In exile after a Facebook smear campaign

CAMBODIA, FROM PAGE 1 ative, and two more are friends from her
An analysis found split-second hometown.
footage in which key personal informa- In another video, an online notifica-
tion of two government employees tion from Telegram, the messaging ap-
briefly flashes onscreen. The employees plication, appears for a moment, deliv-
work for the Press and Quick Reaction ered to an account user named
Unit, a propaganda arm of the Cambodi- “sopheapm.” That name is used on Tele-
an cabinet. gram by Miech Sopheap, the other em-
The videos were uploaded on a Face- ployee.
book page that assumed the identity of Ms. Miech Sopheap and Ms. Yeng
one of the sisters, Tim Ratha, who de- Sreypoch declined repeated requests
nied both ownership of the page and any for comment. They are two of the three
sexual relationship with the monk. The “friends” of the fake Facebook account
page was created the day the videos in Mr. Luon Sovath’s name.
were posted and lifted photographs Tith Sothea, the head of the unit, said
from the sister’s real Facebook account. in a statement that his office had noth-
A fake Facebook account in the ing to do with the videos.
monk’s name was also linked to the vid- “I fervently deny the allegation and
eos. It, too, stole images from Mr. Luon the smearing, fabricating,” he said, “that
Sovath’s real account and was estab- the Press and Quick Reaction Unit set
lished one day before the videos came up a Facebook to post alleged videos.”
out. When Mr. Tith Sothea took up his job
While the Facebook page has been in 2018, local news media said his unit
taken down, the videos are still circulat- was to “carry out media work and react
ing. The two government employees to content with a negative character
linked to the production of the videos re- coming from national and international
main on Facebook, posting makeup tips media.”
and animal memes on their timelines. Facebook said that on June 27 it took
“We know that Facebook will side down the fake page where the videos ap-
with repressive regimes if their bottom peared after a trusted partner reported
line is impacted by freedom-of-expres- its existence. Human Rights Watch ac-
sion issues,” said Michael Caster, a hu- knowledged it was that partner.
man rights researcher who has studied Initially, Facebook said that it had
technology use in authoritarian coun- punished the creator of the fake Face-
tries. book page by removing the administra-
In some developing countries, the tor’s account. After The Times pointed
American company’s influence is out- out that there were two other adminis-
size because smartphone users looking trators of the page, Facebook said that
for cheap digital packages rely on its their accounts were suspended pending
products as their sole source of informa- further verification.
tion online. The conversations in the videos are
The dependence can be deadly. In purportedly between Mr. Luon Sovath
Myanmar, military-linked Facebook ac- and Ms. Tim Ratha or Som Bopha, her
counts inflamed hatred of the Rohingya mother. There are a few sexually sug-
amid the ethnic cleansing of the Muslim gestive references, including an aside
ethnic group. about licking.
Hate speech circulating on Whats- The monk and the two women said
App, which is owned by Facebook, fu- that some of the audio is from phone
eled anti-Muslim mobs in India. conversations they had. But they say
Incendiary rumors about minority OMAR HAVANA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES that these chats were edited in a mis-
Muslims in Sri Lanka spread unchecked Luon Sovath, 42, began preaching human rights from his pagoda as government repression proliferated under Prime Minister Hun Sen. leading way. The passage about licking,
on Facebook, leading to fatal riots in Ms. Tim Ratha said, referred to an ex-
2018. Earlier this year, Facebook apolo- pression of affection from her dog.
gized for its role in the Sri Lanka vio- help to restore and defend human rights as that of Ms. Tim Ratha, a 30-year-old And there are other parts of the audio,
lence. and democracy in Cambodia,” Mr. Luon nurse whose family has a house and gro- all three said, that are not them at all,
In May, Facebook released the find- Sovath said. cery store across the street from the such as references to specific sexual en-
ings of independent human rights as- Mr. Luon Sovath, 42, was ordained as monk’s pagoda. counters.
sessments conducted in several coun- a monk at 12 years old. As government “He is a good and respectful monk,” “How can a mother and her daughters
tries, including Cambodia. Facebook ac- repression proliferated under Mr. Hun Ms. Tim Ratha said in an interview. do such a thing with the same monk,”
knowledged that freedom of expression Sen, the monk began preaching human Shortly after the videos appeared on said Ms. Som Bopha, Ms. Tim Ratha’s
was “severely restricted” in Cambodia rights from his pagoda. Facebook, the police in Siem Reap de- mother. “It is impossible.”
and that human rights defenders were While politicians and activists who manded Ms. Tim Ratha report to the sta- The three people say they do not know
jailed for views expressed on social me- spoke up against Mr. Hun Sen’s govern- tion at night, she said. how their private phone conversations
dia. ment were jailed, exiled or even killed, Their questions were rapid-fire and went public. Human rights groups say
“The information environment was Mr. Luon Sovath appeared to be pro- intimidating, she said. Why would you that the Cambodian authorities regu-
dominated by misinformation and ru- tected by his saffron-hued robes. have a sexual relationship with a monk, larly harvest phone conversations with-
mor,” Facebook said in a summary of the with your sisters and mother no less? out people’s knowledge. Tapped or ma-
report. “This was exacerbated by state What is your Facebook password? nipulated audio has been used in Cam-
control of the media and cyberwarfare An analysis found footage in That’s your phone, isn’t it? bodian courts to convict the govern-
strategies, and compounded by low dig- which key personal information Ms. Tim Ratha denied everything, ment’s critics.
ital literacy.” of two government employees even as her voice was shaking from fear, Ms. Tim Ratha said that a friend of
Facebook said that it had nearly tri- she recalled. hers reported the fake page to Facebook
pled its human content moderators in
briefly flashes onscreen. “We are just victims,” she said. “We multiple times over several days. Ms.
Cambodia, although it would not say didn’t commit anything wrong.” Pilorge, of the human rights group, said
how many people worked in Khmer, the But in elections two years ago, the The four videos consist of nothing her colleagues filed similar complaints.
local language. Between January and governing Cambodian People’s Party more than fuzzy footage of smartphones Facebook said that they did not receive
March, Facebook said it took down 1.7 won every seat in Parliament after the with the monk’s fake Facebook profile a single user report questioning the ve-
billion fake accounts worldwide. main opposition party was disbanded on the screens. Audio seems to emanate racity of the page.
But none of the tripwires appear to and its leader imprisoned. The inde- from the phones, as if he is chatting with In Switzerland, Mr. Luon Sovath said
have been triggered in the case of the pendent news media was eviscerated. the women on Messenger. he was adjusting to life in exile. His thin
monk, even as his fate was front-page Mr. Luon Sovath said he knew he was At two points the videos go off script. monastic robes are sufficient for sum-
news in the government-controlled me- living on borrowed time. In one instance, the thumb holding the mer, but when the snows come his inner
dia. Over the years, Mr. Luon Sovath “They went after opposition poli- phone slips for less than a second and thermostat will have to adjust, he said.
said, he has been the repeated victim of ticians, N.G.O.s, human rights activists, pulls up a list of Facebook Messenger He keeps to a Buddhist monk’s sched-
fake Facebook accounts set up in his and now it comes to my turn,” he said. friends. ule, fasting after noon and meditating.
name and he has reported them to the On May 30, four videos appeared on a Two are brothers of Yeng Sreypoch, “I want to go home,” he said. “But I
company. Facebook page that had been set up ear- one of the employees of the Press and A Facebook page used to target Mr. Luon Sovath had been set up on the same day that had no choice to run away from my
“I want to say to Facebook, you should lier in the day. The page masqueraded Quick Reaction Unit. Another is her rel- videos appeared on it claiming that he had slept with three sisters and their mother. country and become a refugee.”

Hong Kong researchers document first reinfection case

saliva test on Aug. 15 after a trip to Spain noted. “Again, it’s what the textbook
Patient had no symptoms, via the United Kingdom; the test was says should happen,” she said. “When
administered at the airport. The man you have second exposure to the same
suggesting that immune had picked up a strain that was circulat- pathogen, you should elevate the anti-
system kept it in check ing in Europe in July and August, the re- body, and that’s what’s happening.”
searchers said. Most people who are infected with the
BY APOORVA MANDAVILLI His infections were clearly caused by coronavirus produce detectable anti-
different versions of the coronavirus, Dr. bodies that would be expected to protect
A 33-year-old man was infected a sec- To said: “Our results prove that his sec- against the virus. Even people who had
ond time with the coronavirus more ond infection is caused by a new virus only mild symptoms, including this
than four months after his initial bout, that he acquired recently, rather than man, may also have immune “memory”
the first documented case of so-called prolonged viral shedding.” in the form of B and T cells that prevent
reinfection, researchers in Hong Kong Common cold coronaviruses are symptoms on second exposure.
reported Monday. known to cause reinfections in less than “The majority of patients likely have a
The finding was not unexpected, es- a year, but experts had hoped that the cocktail of immune responses that acti-
pecially given the tens of millions of peo- new coronavirus might behave more vate on second exposure,” said Brian
ple who have been infected worldwide, like its cousins SARS and MERS, which Wasik, a virologist at Cornell University
experts said. And the man had no symp- seemed to produce protection lasting a in New York. “This Hong Kong patient
toms the second time, suggesting that few years. also seems to have been asymptomatic
even though the prior exposure did not on second infection, perhaps due to
prevent the reinfection, his immune sys- some immune response.”
tem kept the virus somewhat in check. “The majority of patients likely But the researchers said it’s also pos-
“The second infection was completely have a cocktail of immune sible that in some people, a second expo-
asymptomatic — his immune response responses that activate on second sure will prove more severe. “It cannot
prevented the disease from getting be generalized yet, because there’s still
worse,” said Akiko Iwasaki, an immu-
exposure.” a possibility that the second infection
nologist at Yale University who was not can be worse,” Dr. To said.
involved with the work but reviewed the It’s still unclear how common reinfec- Building immunity is not unlike boost-
report at The New York Times’s request. tion from the new coronavirus might be, ing memory, said Dr. Michael Mina, an
“It’s kind of a textbook example of how because few researchers have se- immunologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan
immunity should work.” quenced the virus from each infection. School of Public Health.
People who do not have symptoms “We’ve had, what, 23 million cases The initial bout with the new coro-
may still spread the virus to others, how- documented thus far, but the fact that navirus is likely to result in “non-steril-
ever, underscoring the importance of one out of them at this point has been re- izing immunity,” but the virus will elicit a
vaccines, Dr. Iwasaki said. In the man’s infected should not cause undue alarm stronger response with each exposure,
case, she added, “natural infection cre- MIGUEL CANDELA/EPA, VIA SHUTTERSTOCK as of yet,” said Jeffrey Shaman, an epi- he said: “It is often these second and
ated immunity that prevented disease Getting temperatures checked at a mall in Hong Kong. Experts said it’s unclear how often people might become reinfected. demiologist at Columbia University in third exposures that help to solidify the
but not reinfection.” New York. memory response for the long term.”
“In order to provide herd immunity, a “However, it remains very, very con- Over all, experts said, it’s unclear how
potent vaccine is needed to induce im- weeks, which can lead to positive test re- quencing,” said Dr. Kelvin Kai-Wang To, toms. In accordance with the regula- cerning — and this does nothing to dis- often people might become reinfected,
munity that prevents both reinfection sults in the absence of live virus. a clinical microbiologist at the Univer- tions in Hong Kong, he was hospitalized pel that — that we may be subject to re- and how soon, after a first bout with the
and disease,” Dr. Iwasaki said. But the Hong Kong researchers se- sity of Hong Kong. on March 29 even though his symptoms peat infection with this virus,” he said. virus.
Doctors have reported several cases quenced the virus from both of the man’s The study is to be published in the had subsided and released on April 14 Dr. Iwasaki was more sanguine. She “Those remain open questions, be-
of presumed reinfection in the United infections and found significant differ- journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. The only after he had tested negative for the noted that the man had no antibodies af- cause one person exhibiting a mild rein-
States and elsewhere, but none of those ences, suggesting that the patient had Times obtained the manuscript from the virus twice. ter the first infection but produced them fection, clearly documented as a distinct
cases have been confirmed through rig- been infected a second time. university. He had no detectable antibodies after after the second exposure. Immunity is strain of the virus, does not provide
orous testing. Recovered people are “I believe this is the first reported The man’s first case was diagnosed on that first bout with the virus. He was expected to build with each exposure to enough evidence one way or another,”
known to carry viral fragments for case that is confirmed by genome se- March 26, and he had only mild symp- positive again for the coronavirus on a a pathogen exactly in this way, she Dr. Shaman said.
..
THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2020 | 5

world

Four years later, it’s still an us-vs.-them game

one note of caution: “I should have drop-
NEWS ANALYSIS
kicked my crystal ball into a flaming
dumpster after 2016.”
If both admirers and critics of the
At his party’s convention, president seem inclined to append such
caveats lately, many in Mr. Trump’s or-
Trump shows little interest bit are also acutely aware of the race’s
in trying to expand his base present dynamics: Mr. Biden is win-
ning. Mr. Trump, so polarizing at this
BY MATT FLEGENHEIMER stage of his tenure, will have a hard time
changing many minds, meaning his
President Trump was trying to rewrite clearest shot at re-election involves sul-
history and enlist frontline Covid work- lying Mr. Biden’s standing.
ers to the cause. The strain showed. And yet, strategists in both parties
Flanked in the East Room of the agree that all of this might still prove
White House by Americans involved in enough for Mr. Trump.
the fight against the coronavirus — a They are mindful of an electoral map
nurse, a trucker, a postal worker, an- that pushed him into office in 2016 de-
other nurse — Mr. Trump set off on Mon- spite a significant deficit in the popular
day for more than four rose-colored min- vote. They cite the typical durability of
utes recasting the recent past before his his support levels — rarely spectacular
Night 1 convention audience. but not yet irreversibly disastrous, ei-
“Tell me a little about your stories,” he ther — and see a way forward for him:
asked his guests at first. But he had a the enthusiasm of his base combining
few of his own: about dastardly Demo- with a coalition of nose-holding Trump
crats and governors who disappointed voters, a series of lucky breaks and
him, about his preferred nicknames for some ill-timed Democratic stumbles to
the virus and the insufficient gratitude lift him once more.
for his government’s efforts.
“We have delivered billions of dollars
of equipment that governors were sup- “His path to victory is similar
posed to give, and in many cases they to his path to victory last time,
didn’t get,” he complained. “So the fed- which is to consolidate his
eral government had to help them, and
all of the people that did this incredible
base and demonize
work, they never got credit for it. But the opposition.”
you understand where it came from.”
At least twice, Mr. Trump called the
pandemic “the China virus,” seeking to “They have done the math and they
deflect blame. cannot win unless the base turns out in
“I don’t want to go through all the full force,” said Carlos Curbelo, a former
names,” he said at one point, “because Republican congressman from Florida
some people may get insulted. But that’s who clashed at times with Mr. Trump
the way it is.” and did not support him in 2016. “His
And this is the way it was, as ever, on path to victory is similar to his path to
Monday night: a re-election team that victory last time, which is to consolidate
had pledged a message of uplift and DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES his base and demonize the opposition.”
unity beforehand — with its candidate Some additions to the Republican
struggling in the polls amid poor ap- lineup on Monday, which included sev-
praisals of his pandemic response — eral Black supporters, did appear
and a principal who knows no other way geared toward projecting more inclu-
but rampaging and revisionism. sion, not only (or even primarily) to
All night, the proceedings played out court Black voters but also to combat
in this perpetual tug. Any aspirational perceptions — often damaging among
appeals from speakers like Nikki Haley, white voters — that Mr. Trump and his
the former United Nations ambassador, party have given safe harbor to racist
and Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, views.
the chamber’s only Black Republican, Mr. Scott — who publicly condemned
seemed doomed to be shadowed by the Mr. Trump’s remarks after the 2017 neo-
often ominous tone of the evening. Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Va., but has
Some of the convention’s opening se- generally been a reliable ally — was
quences often more closely resembled among the most notable speakers.
Mr. Trump’s preferred Fox News pro- “President Trump built the most inclu-
gramming, with a roster of contributors sive economy ever,” he said, hailing the
holding forth on “the Russia hoax,” the nation’s financial position before the vi-
“socialist” Democrats and the mental rus hit and criticizing Mr. Biden’s record
acuity and stamina of their nominee, Jo- for Black Americans.
seph R. Biden Jr. There was also Vernon Jones, a Geor-
“I’m speaking to you from an audito- gia state legislator and a rare Democrat-
rium emptier than Joe Biden’s daily PETE MAROVICH FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES PETE MAROVICH FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES ic endorser of the president, one week
schedule,” Representative Matt Gaetz of Top, President Trump made a surprise visit to the Republican National Convention on Monday where his son, Donald Trump Jr., above left, said the Democratic nominee Joseph R. after a Democratic convention that of-
Florida, one of the president’s most vo- Biden Jr. had a “radical left-wing” platform that would impede economic recovery. Above right, Nikki Haley, the former United Nations ambassador, speaking at the convention. ten showcased Republican backers of
cal and combative congressional sup- Mr. Biden.
porters, yukked into the camera at one With Mr. Trump in charge, of course,
point, railing against the “woketopians” Ms. McCloskey said, “your family will Kimberly Guilfoyle, the younger Mr. in parks, riots in streets and blackouts in He at once perpetuated the abiding political discipline can always be fleet-
of the left. not be safe in the radical Democrats’ Trump’s girlfriend who has become a homes.” tenets of an us-against-them presidency ing.
Other speakers included Charlie Kirk, America.” top fund-raising figure in the re-election, In one memorable flourish, Mr. Trump and laid bare the narrow political path In recent days, the president and his
a right-wing provocateur with a book Later, there was an address from the also appeared on Monday, deploying appeared with a different group of he hopes to navigate to a second term. team had predicted that he would be
called “The MAGA Doctrine,” and Mark president’s son Donald Trump Jr., who some of the evening’s darker imagery. guests at the White House: former hos- “I think it’s dumb,” Michael Steel, a presiding over a four-day testament to
and Patricia McCloskey, who became called Mr. Biden “the Loch Ness mon- “If you want to see the socialist Biden- tages, in a bid to highlight the adminis- longtime Republican strategist, said of optimism and national sunniness.
social-media-famous this year after ster of the swamp” with a “radical left- Harris future for our country, just take a tration’s work in freeing people who had the president’s approach. “But I do think “Very uplifting and positive,” he said
pointing guns at protesters marching wing” platform that would impede eco- look at California,” she thundered from been held in other countries. it’s indicative not just of his campaign of his desired convention tenor over the
near their home in St. Louis. nomic recovery. “He sticks his head up an auditorium in Washington. “It is a Taken together, the accumulation of but of his administration. He has chosen weekend.
Sitting side by side on a couch, they every now and then to run for presi- place of immense wealth, immeasurable rhetoric made plain that if Mr. Trump every single time to double down on his “We definitely want to improve on the
solemnly told viewers what they saw at dent,” the president’s son said of Mr. Bi- innovation and immaculate envi- believes his party should be a big-tent base rather than expanding his appeal.” dour and sour mood of the D.N.C.,”
stake in a Biden administration: “Make den, “then he disappears and doesn’t do ronment — and the Democrats turned it enterprise, he is also not much inter- Mr. Steel, a veteran of Jeb Bush’s pres- Kellyanne Conway, the president’s
no mistake, no matter where you live,” much in between.” into a land of discarded heroin needles ested in persuading skeptics to join him. idential campaign four years ago, added counselor, told reporters.

Not the convention this state’s Republicans had hoped for

toring style and mismanagement of a for Prosperity, was preparing for an af- greets them with a friendly elbow bump.
CHARLOTTE, N.C.
coronavirus outbreak that is still ternoon of door-to-door canvassing for Republicans hope to capitalize on the
spreading throughout the state. Mr. Tillis in Ms. Strom’s neighborhood relatively unique circumstances of the
North Carolina was supposed to be a recently. Political division has grown so Biden-Trump matchup, with many
Instead of a celebration, more promising opportunity for Repub- intense, he said, that many voters have likely Biden voters now saying that their
licans, which is why they selected Char- shut down. choice is driven more by opposition to
North Carolina’s G.O.P. is lotte, its largest city, as the site of the Re- “Even the smallest things that were the president than by affection for Mr.
trying to hold a Senate seat publican National Convention this year. never political before now have a slant, Biden. In private polling, Republicans
The presence of tens of thousands of and I think people are on overload,” he have found that as many as 29 percent of
BY JEREMY W. PETERS Trump supporters would be a display of said. “It just never stops. And you hit a Biden supporters in states where there
confidence for a party that has carried point where some of these folks are is a competitive Senate race say they
For most of the past decade, North Car- the state in all but one presidential elec- thinking they just want to turn every- are open to voting for a Republican.
olina was a showcase for the Republican tion since 1980, and planned to do so thing off.” The organization, which is But Democrats are making an ag-
Party’s growth — its strength in the sub- again. But when the pandemic made funded by the libertarian billionaire gressive play for traditional Republican
urbs, in rural areas and in races up and that kind of mass gathering unsafe, Mr. Charles Koch, has had to refine its algo- voters in North Carolina, seeing an op-
down the ballot proving that it could Trump got into a spat with state and lo- rithms to find its target voters, fewer of portunity to remind voters about the
dominate in parts of the country where cal officials and moved the festivities to whom are registering with either of the least popular parts of the Republican
demographics favored the Democrats. Jacksonville, Fla., only to cancel once major parties, Mr. McCoy said. agenda.
Now it could be a victim of its own ex- that plan proved unfeasible. Americans for Prosperity has said it During a commercial break during
cess. A much more scaled-down gathering will not campaign for Mr. Trump or help Rush Limbaugh’s radio show recently,
After victories in 2010, when Republi- is taking place in Charlotte this week as with his re-election, a split that stems an ad by an independent group support-
cans took control of the State Legisla- several hundred Republican officials TRAVIS DOVE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES from differences over both substance ing the Democrat running against Mr.
ture for the first time in more than 100 from across the country meet to vote on Members of Americans for Prosperity canvassing for Senator Thom Tillis in and style. Instead, the group is using its Tillis — Mr. Cunningham, who is an
years, and in 2012, when a Republican relatively mundane party matters — Mooresville, N.C. The Republican senator trails his Democratic opponent in most polls. super PAC to focus on the Senate, the Army veteran and a former state sena-
won the governor’s race, they used their their movements tracked by Bluetooth battleground where other Republican- tor — blamed Republican budget cuts
power in the State Capitol to carry out a sensors and their faces shielded by friendly organizations like the United for the closure of health care centers in
sweeping conservative agenda that in- masks, a must per the party’s rules. Trump were more attuned to women States Chamber of Commerce are also the rural parts of the state.
cluded tax cuts, caps on medical mal- Polls show former Vice President Jo- “The smallest things that were and working families, Ms. Strom said shifting resources in an attempt to de- “There’s a scab there,” Morgan Jack-
practice damages and ending tenure for seph R. Biden Jr. tied with Mr. Trump never political before now have a she might not be leaning so much in fa- fend the majority and maintain a bul- son, Mr. Cunningham’s chief political
teachers. here. And the president’s standing is slant, and I think people are on vor of the Democrats. “Had the Republi- wark against the Democratic-led House strategist, said in an interview. “And if
But some of their most contentious dragging down the incumbent Republi- cans run anybody else, I might not have — and a possible Biden White House. you pick it, it will bleed.”
moves — creating highly gerryman- can senator, Thom Tillis, who is trailing
overload. It just never stops.” voted for Hillary,” she said, referring to States like North Carolina, along with Disliking Mr. Trump or how he con-
dered congressional districts; restric- his Democratic opponent, Cal Cunning- the 2016 election, when Mr. Trump de- Maine and Iowa, are their firewall. ducts himself does not always translate
tions on gay and transgender rights that ham, in most polls. moving from Chicago four years ago. feated Hillary Clinton in North Carolina. The United States Chamber of Com- into a vote for Democrats, and many are
prompted national boycotts; and curbs The challenges in North Carolina are In a sense, Ms. Strom is like other re- “But it’s almost not about politics. I don’t merce started running an ad last week- likely to vote again for the president in
on the power of the Democratic gover- an extension of Republicans’ vulnerabil- cent transplants who are helping to think he has any morality. I don’t think end in the Raleigh market aimed at vot- spite of his conduct. Ms. Strom’s neigh-
nor — backfired with voters and the ities in other states across the Sun Belt transform the state’s political dynamics he’s a very good person.” ers who might be persuaded to vote Re- bor Kirk Domanick told a canvasser
courts, which struck down many of like Georgia and Arizona. As these by bringing their liberal sensibilities to a While Ms. Strom’s vote for Mr. Biden publican even if they had written off the from Americans for Prosperity that he
them. And after defeating the Republi- places grow more racially diverse, the traditionally conservative state. As the is all but certain, she is not as firm about president. There is no mention of Mr. was likely to vote Republican because
can governor in 2016, Democrats won Republican Party has lost support in the mother of a child with special needs, she her vote in the Senate race. Republicans Trump, the Republican Party or bread- he was worried that Democrats were go-
enough seats in the Legislature in 2018 fast-growing communities around large said she has come to see Republicans as see people like her as their path to hold- and-butter conservative issues like fis- ing too far in shutting down the state to
to break the supermajority that the Re- cities by supporting an agenda that the party that doesn’t care about people ing the Senate majority. But voters’ an- cal responsibility. Instead, the ad fo- stop the spread of the coronavirus.
publicans had for eight years. some people see as hostile to minorities, like her. “You realize not everybody can tipathy for Mr. Trump, combined with cuses on Mr. Tillis’s support for the Mr. Domanick said that Mr. Trump
Now, embattled Republican lawmak- immigrants and women. pull themselves up by their bootstraps,” the exhaustion that many say they feel nearly $700 billion Paycheck Protection “needs to shut up sometimes” but “does
ers find their fates intertwined with “They say most people get more con- she said as she stood in the doorway of when it comes to politics, makes it hard- Program, which has helped small busi- the best he can.”
those of President Trump, a deeply po- servative as you age, but I’ve gotten her house one recent afternoon. “Some er for activists like Chris McCoy to nesses during the pandemic, and it “Joe Biden is not a bad guy — he’s just
larizing figure who won here in 2016 by more liberal,” said Cindy Strom, an edu- people do need a helping hand from the break through. praises the senator as responsible and not the guy for now,” he said, adding a
three percentage points but has pushed cational consultant who lives in the government.” Mr. McCoy, the state director of the reliable. Mr. Tillis is shown wearing a caveat: “Maybe Joe will surprise me.
many voters to their limits with his hec- Charlotte suburb of Mooresville after But if the Republican Party and Mr. conservative political outfit Americans mask as he meets with constituents and November is a long way off.”
 ..
6 | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION

world

District flipped in ’18 is in play in New Mexico

Small for voting for Mr. Trump’s im-
LAS CRUCES, N.M.
peachment, Ms. Herrell said in an inter-
view that she was counting on a surge in
Republican turnout to win the race.
Pandemic response fuels “I’m more in touch with what our vot-
er values are,” Ms. Herrell said. “This is
Republicans in a bid to a very family-oriented district, very
retake a congressional seat blue collar, pro-Second Amendment,
pro-life, pro-free market.”
BY SIMON ROMERO In New Mexico’s June primary, voter
turnout climbed to about 40 percent of
When Democrats in New Mexico swept eligible voters, the highest level for a
elections just two years ago, flipping the primary in the state since the early
Republican-held congressional district 1990s. But in what could be a troubling
that stretches across more than half the sign for Democrats, the total number of
state ranked among their biggest wins. Republican votes cast in the primary in-
But in a sign of how tenuous the Dem- creased by more than 40 percent from
ocrats’ hold is on some of the House 2016, while Democratic votes rose by
seats they picked up in 2018, especially about 5 percent, according to the New
in districts President Trump carried Mexico secretary of state’s office.
four years ago, that prize is suddenly in Democrats say they are also counting
play yet again. on much higher turnout in the Novem-
The incumbent, Representative Xo- ber election in anticipation of greater
chitl Torres Small, is now among the voting by mail by constituents hesitant
most vulnerable Democrats in Congress to cast ballots in person during the pan-
in a race that is drawing attention from demic. In the meantime, Ms. Herrell and
leaders of both parties, and potentially other Republicans are eyeing the politi-
huge amounts of spending, as Republi- cal divisiveness around New Mexico’s
cans eye an opening to blunt Democrat- response to the pandemic as an opening
ic momentum in this part of the West. to build support for the party in the cov-
Yvette Herrell, the Republican seek- eted district.
ing to oust Ms. Torres Small, is stoking On a drive across the district in recent
anger over a slump in the oil industry days, the contrast with other parts of
and measures taken by Democrats in New Mexico came sharply into focus. In
New Mexico to fight the coronavirus towns like Artesia and Cloudcroft, few
pandemic. Shifting blame from Presi- people had masks on. At convenience
dent Trump for the pandemic’s eco- stores in Roswell, neither employees
nomic fallout, Ms. Herrell has grown so nor patrons wore masks.
critical of New Mexico’s virus mitigation At a Holiday Inn in Roswell, some
policies that it sometimes seems as if guests congregated in the lobby without
she is running as much against the masks while about a dozen other un-
state’s Democratic governor as Ms. Tor- masked guests met up in the parking lot
res Small. for an impromptu party, knocking back
“This is a razor-thin race we’re look- beers as if the pandemic did not exist.
ing at if the Republicans energize their But even while New Mexico has man-
base, as they already did in the prima- JOEL ANGEL JUAREZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES aged to avoid the huge outbreaks seen in
ry,” said Gabriel Sanchez, a pollster with Yvette Herrell, who in 2018 lost the congressional race by fewer than 4,000 votes, has said that she was counting on a surge in Republican turnout to win the race in 2020. neighboring Texas and Arizona, Repub-
Latino Decisions and executive director licans in the state are using every
of the University of New Mexico’s Cen- chance they get to attack Democrats’ co-
ter for Social Policy. robust fund-raising in 2018), dwarfing now casting herself as a moderate Dem- ronavirus measures during an election
As the Republican convention gets Ms. Herrell’s $379,000 and raising the ocrat who can reach consensus with Re- year in which social media strategies
underway, some of the complications of possibility that outside groups could en- publicans and even defy Democratic are eclipsing traditional face-to-face
politics in 2020 are playing out in New ter the fray to bolster the Republican’s leaders when necessary. campaigning.
Mexico. campaign. Still, with on-the-ground campaigning Steve Pearce, the chairman of New
The cautious pandemic response by As the race tightens, it offers a limited this year by social distancing Mexico’s Republican Party and a former
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has kept glimpse into whether a Democrat can measures aimed at curbing the spread congressman who represented the dis-
cases from exploding in a poor state that hold on to a relatively conservative dis- of the coronavirus, Ms. Torres Small trict for a total of 14 years, said it made
is home to large numbers of people with trict that Mr. Trump won by 10 points in may face an uphill battle to persuade sense strategically to criticize the state’s
underlying conditions. New Mexico has 2016. The district is now the largest by voters that she is on the energy indus- pandemic response in a district where
had far fewer Covid-19-related deaths area in the United States to be repre- try’s side. Republicans have to peel away Demo-
on a per capita basis than neighboring sented by a Democrat, stretching from cratic votes to win.
Arizona, one of the first states to reopen suburban areas near Albuquerque to “You’re looking for these wedges, and
in May. the border with Mexico. “This is a razor-thin race we’re the business owners are a tremendous
Still, open defiance by sheriffs, busi- Almost 50 percent of eligible voters in looking at if the Republicans wedge, and then the people who work
ness owners and many others of Ms. Lu- the district are Hispanic, a larger pro- energize their base, as they for these small-business owners are
jan Grisham’s policies, which include a portion than New Mexico’s two other tremendous wedges,” Mr. Pearce said.
statewide mask mandate, can make congressional districts. Ms. Torres
already did in the primary.” Democrats, for their part, are defend-
parts of the district in southern New Small, a bilingual 35-year-old water ing the state’s pandemic measures while
Mexico feel almost like a different state rights lawyer whose grandmother emi- In one sign of the skepticism she is en- emphasizing that proclaiming loyalty to
from Albuquerque and points north- grated from Mexico, is trying to appeal countering, Harry Teague, the only Mr. Trump, and voicing support for po-
ward, where many people are wearing ANNA MONEYMAKER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES to those voters with ads in both Spanish other Democrat to represent the district larizing projects like his border wall,
masks. Xochitl Torres Small, a Democrat, is facing a challenge from Ms. Herrell, who is focusing and English. in the last 40 years, this month endorsed may not offer a path to victory in a heav-
The strategy of running hard to the on the slumping energy sector and New Mexico’s restrictions in response to the virus. The vast district includes Las Cruces, her opponent, Ms. Herrell. ily Latino district where many are skep-
right by avowing loyalty to Mr. Trump a Democratic-leaning city that is home In contrast to the bipartisan image tical of the administration’s treatment of
while blasting Democrats for problems to New Mexico State University, but also cultivated by the incumbent, Ms. Her- people in the borderlands.
associated with the pandemic could be ers undecided. The poll, conducted in other races around the country leaning the counties that produce most of New rell, 56, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation “Our district is small town New Mex-
working for Ms. Herrell, who lost the July in a survey of 400 voters, had a mar- in the party’s direction. Still, the contest Mexico’s oil, an area sometimes called who was born and raised in southern ico, as small town as it gets,” said Mi-
2018 race by fewer than 4,000 votes. gin of sampling error of plus or minus in New Mexico shows how easily that “Little Texas,” where voters have been New Mexico, is making it explicitly clear caela Lara Cadena, a Democratic state
A poll by the Tarrance Group for the 4.9 percentage points. could change, even for candidates hold- seething over a shift to the left in the that she sides with Republicans on is- legislator from Mesilla, a town of about
Republican National Committee Democrats are still thought to have ing a significant cash advantage. state. sues including oil production, abortion 2,200 near Las Cruces. “But people don’t
showed the candidates tied with each the upper hand in their battle to main- Ms. Torres Small has about $3.9 mil- Ms. Torres Small, whose 2018 ads fea- and support for President Trump. want to see blind loyalty to anybody or
getting 46 percent and 8 percent of vot- tain control of the House, with various lion in cash on hand (partly a result of tured her grasping a hunting rifle, is While voicing criticism of Ms. Torres any office.”

Covid in the classroom? Some schools want to keep it quiet

to combat the pandemic. tive media coverage, said Mr. Calvert at
Public notification policies “If schools don’t notify, it actually can the University of Florida. “In the name
make disease control more difficult,” of protecting personal privacy, many of
in the U.S. vary widely said Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Har- those districts are really sacrificing pub-
from state to state vard Global Health Institute. “And it’s lic health concerns,” he said.
not like no one will know. Word will get Such is the fear in Camden County,
BY DAN LEVIN out through a rumor mill. You don’t where in recent weeks the 40-bed hospi-
scare people by telling them what’s go- tal in St. Marys, the county seat, had to
On the first day of school in Camden ing on. You scare them by hiding infor- divert ambulances elsewhere because
County, Ga., local Facebook groups were mation.” of a crush of coronavirus patients.
already buzzing with rumors that a In many places, reopening schools Although the district offered a choice
teacher had tested positive for the coro- has taken on a distinctly partisan bent, between remote learning and in-person
navirus. The next day, a warning went with President Trump and Republican instruction, some families said they felt
out to school administrators: Keep governors such as Ron DeSantis of Flor- PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHARLOTTE KESL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES pressure to return when school started
teachers quiet. ida urging in-person instruction. A con- Kiisa Kennedy, above, whose two children this month. Kiisa Kennedy, whose two
“Staff who test positive are not to noti- stant flow of information about positive attend Camden County High School in children go to Camden County High
fy any other staff members, parents of cases in classrooms and quarantined Kingsland, Ga., left, said the school dis- School, said she agreed to let her 11th-
their students or any other person/enti- students could hinder those efforts, ex- trict had been “very hush-hush” about grade son, a football player, attend
ty that they may have exposed them,” perts said. positive coronavirus cases. “We as par- classes because the district was not pro-
Jon Miller, the district’s deputy superin- “When schools have to shut down af- ents cannot make informed decisions viding certain advanced courses to re-
tendent, wrote in a confidential email on ter students test positive, that doesn’t because they’re withholding the informa- mote learners or letting them partici-
Aug. 5. look good politically on governors and tion,” she said. pate in sports.
In the weeks since, parents, students lawmakers who have advocated for Like other parents, she said she had
and teachers in the coastal community opening up,” said Clay Calvert, director heard of at least nine positive cases in
on the Florida border have heard by of the Marion B. Brechner First Amend- cerns prevent officials from sharing the city’s education department. A district spokesman declined to com- the schools and entire classes that had
word of mouth of more positive cases ment Project at the University of Flor- those details with the public. Tennessee In Florida, the Pasco County school ment, citing the litigation. to be quarantined, but the district re-
linked to district schools. Some parents ida. “So the potential is there to hide be- last week backed away from a previous district outside Tampa will inform stu- The silence worries Kila Murphey, a fused to answer questions.
said they had been called by local offi- hind privacy laws. commitment by the governor to report dents and teachers who have been in nurse practitioner with two children in “They’ve been very hush-hush,” she
cials and told that their children should “There are definitely battle lines the number of cases linked to schools, close contact with someone who has the district. “Simply saying that the said. “We as parents cannot make in-
quarantine. drawn, and the release of information and is providing information only by tested positive for the virus, a district health department is going to do contact formed decisions because they’re with-
But even as fears of an outbreak have can sway public opinion.” county. spokesman said, and will alert the rest tracing doesn’t really reassure me of holding the information.”
grown, the district has refused to pub- Indeed, some states have seen grow- of the school and the news media about anything,” she said. “We need to know The school district did not respond to
licly confirm a single case, either to the ing concern after school doors opened confirmed cases. that there was a Covid case and what several requests for comment.
local community or The New York and infections were immediately re- Some states say that privacy But in nearby Orange County, which steps the school is taking to ensure they Ginger Heidel, a spokeswoman for
Times. ported. In Georgia, nearly 2,500 stu- concerns prevent data sharing. includes Orlando, the teachers’ union don’t have an outbreak.” the Coastal Health District, the agency
“This is a danger to our community,” dents and 62 staff members in the Cher- filed a lawsuit against the district in July Officials often cite privacy laws such that covers several coastal counties in
said Cheryl Honeycutt, the mother of an okee County School District have been after it refused to disclose the names of as the federal Family Educational Georgia including Camden, declined to
8-year-old Camden student. “We’re ordered to quarantine, while 71 out of 82 In Virginia, state law prohibits the schools and workplaces where employ- Rights and Privacy Act and the Health answer questions about virus cases in
safer if we know what’s going on, but counties in Mississippi have reported health department from disclosing ees had tested positive for the virus, cit- Insurance Portability and Accountabil- schools, citing privacy laws. She said
their pan answer is, ‘We can neither con- cases in schools. cases at specific facilities, including ing privacy laws. ity Act when arguing against disclosure. schools were only required to alert peo-
firm or deny.’” State notification policies vary widely schools, said Tammie Smith, a spokes- “The district is totally nontranspar- Yet neither law bars public schools from ple who have been in close contact with
As schools in parts of the United across the country. Officials in Colorado woman for the state health commis- ent,” said Wendy Doromal, president of releasing information about cases as someone who had tested positive, but
States have reopened classrooms amid and North Carolina are reporting which sioner. The commissioner had originally the Orange County Classroom Teachers long as they do not provide personal de- were allowed to notify the community “if
a still-raging pandemic, some districts schools have had positive cases, while said the same thing about nursing Association, which represents the dis- tails about those who are infected, the they want.”
have been open about coronavirus cases Louisiana, which had not previously homes, but was later ordered to release trict’s 14,000 educators. “Of course we federal education and health depart- Earlier this month, the Camden
in their buildings. They send weekly — identified specific schools with out- the data by Gov. Ralph Northam after a never asked for the individual’s name or ments have said — and in some situa- County school district reversed course
and in some cases, daily — reports to breaks, said last week that it was creat- public outcry. any confidential information.” tions, even that might be allowed. on its mask-optional policy, announcing
families and update online dashboards ing a new system to “efficiently report Disclosure plans at the district level Ms. Doromal said the union sued after “School notification is an effective that they would now be required on
with the latest positive test results and relevant Covid-19 data in schools for reveal a similar patchwork. In New York teachers, including some with health is- method of informing parents and eligi- school grounds. But the announcement
quarantine counts. greater public visibility.” City, the nation’s largest school system sues that could make them more vulner- ble students of an illness in the school,” came with no information about cases
But other districts have been silent, On the other end of the spectrum, Ok- with 1.1 million students — and one of able to the virus, went to schools during the Education Department wrote in linked to schools.
sometimes citing privacy concerns to lahoma does not require school districts the few remaining big districts planning the summer to retrieve belongings or March. “That just made me more scared,” Ms.
withhold information, to the dismay of to report Covid-19 cases to health de- to open with in-person instruction — of- volunteer, only to discover that some Schools have often abused privacy Kennedy said.
some anxious parents, concerned edu- partments. And some states that do, in- ficials will tell families and students buildings were closed for deep cleaning laws to hide damaging information that
cators and public health experts trying cluding Maine, say that privacy con- about each confirmed case, according to because of a positive case. could expose them to lawsuits or nega- Barbara Harvey contributed reporting.
..
THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2020 | 7

Business
Amazon’s bold move
in an Indian metropolis
The 1.8 million-square-foot building
Company signals its plan sits on a campus of nearly 70 acres. The
development has come to symbolize a
for growth with an office in defining feature of India’s booming tech
Hyderabad, its biggest yet industry: the inexorable presence of in-
ternational tech companies.
BY GENEVA ABDUL When Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos,
visited India in January, he was met
The austere building is hardly distin- with an antitrust case by Indian regula-
guishable in the landscape of glass and tors, who are investigating Amazon and
concrete buildings making up Asia’s Sili- the Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart,
con Valley, as Hyderabad, India, is which is owned largely by Walmart.
known. It is one of Amazon’s latest de- India bans foreign direct investment
velopments, and the American online in retail, a shift from policy in the United
retailer’s largest office building in the States and Britain. By law, Amazon and
world. other foreign-owned e-commerce com-
With plans to cement its place as the panies are required to be neutral mar-
center of gravity around which online ketplaces reliant on independent sell-
retail revolves, Amazon has turned to ers.
India, the world’s fastest-growing mar-
ket for internet users. And it has picked
Hyderabad, a city of nearly 10 million in “There are loopholes they’re
India’s south, as its base of operations. exploiting. Everyone knows that.”
But the project faces challenges, in-
cluding pushback from local businesses
and politicians. But Praveen Khandelwal, founder
Hyderabad has emerged in a few and general secretary of the Confedera-
short years as a technology and finan- tion of All India Traders, which oversees
cial center, and a beacon for young tal- 70 million traders and 40,000 trade asso-
ent. The city, which saw the biggest ciations, argues that the company has
surge in tech office space last year, is al- hurt domestic trade, resulting in the clo-
ready a base in India for other multi- sure of thousands of homegrown busi-
national tech companies, including the nesses across the country.
U.S. giants Facebook, Google and Amazon’s new Hyderabad office, he
Microsoft. Apple spent $25 million for said, is merely a way to “push for control
the development of its offices there. and dominance over Indian retail trade
ERIN SCHAFF/THE NEW YORK TIMES “Hyderabad is a known software tech in a more structured way.” Mr. Khandel-
A busy mall in Houston. Many Trump voters praise the U.S. president’s economic stewardship before the pandemic hit, and they do not blame him for the damage it has caused. talent center, and the government has wal led protests against Amazon’s trade
been an enabler for us to have a campus practices this year.
this size,” said Minari Shah, an Amazon India’s retail regulator is investigat-

Trump gets lift from economy

spokeswoman. “This is an important ing Amazon over allegations that it is us-
confirmation of how India continues to ing deep discounts and preferred sell-
be important to Amazon.” ers, said Satish Meena, a senior analyst
Over the last decade, the technology for the global technology research firm
behemoth has woven itself into the fab- Forrester.
ric of Indian life. And now, four years af- “There are loopholes they’re exploit-
hit, and they do not blame him for the the coronavirus crisis has dispropor- Political Report in Washington, who has ter construction began, the Hyderabad ing. Everyone knows that,” Mr. Meena
Despite recession, polls damage it has caused. In interviews, tionately harmed Black and Latino written extensively on the economy and office, Amazon’s first fully owned office said.
some of those voters cited record stock workers, who lean heavily Democratic Mr. Trump’s electoral fortunes. “And outside the United States, joins its 40 The challenges emerging in India
show many Americans see market gains — although only about half — but may also reflect regional divides. what the actual economic situation is in other offices, 67 shipping centers, 1,400 echo stories in the United States, where
him as a tough negotiator of Americans own any stock at all — as Small business owners in small, more November is less important to them delivery stations and a work force of American tech giants have squeezed
evidence of a rebound under the presi- rural states that backed Mr. Trump in than it would be in a different time with more than 60,000 (plus 155,000 contrac- smaller rivals and business owners.
BY JIM TANKERSLEY dent. the 2016 election report less economic different candidates.” tors) in the country. AMAZON, PAGE 8
“He’s had failures — so have I — in damage from the crisis than those in Mr. Trump’s overall approval ratings
It is an enduring political question amid business,” said Dale Georgeff, 58, of Ce- larger blue states, according to an anal- have never cracked a majority through-
a pandemic recession, double-digit un- darburg, Wis., a Trump supporter who ysis of census survey data by the Eco- out his presidency. Voters have given
employment and a recovery that ap- owns parts of a brewery and a vehicle nomic Innovation Group in Washington. him higher approval ratings on his han-
pears to be slowing: Why does Presi- paint shop and also sells insurance. “But Perhaps most notably, Mr. Trump is dling of the economy — he topped 60
dent Trump continue to get higher I think the biggest thing is that — and I reaping the benefits of extreme polar- percent in one survey this year before
marks on economic issues in polls than think this is how it rubs certain people ization of the American electorate, a di- the pandemic hit — even as some of his
his predecessors Barack Obama, the wrong way — he’s treating this like a vide so intense that it has overpowered signature economic initiatives, like the
George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush business, and he’s running it like a busi- long-running connections between eco- 2017 tax cut package he signed into law,
enjoyed when they stood for re-elec- ness.” nomic performance and presidential ap- remain relatively unpopular.
tion? proval ratings. For many Republican But the plunge in economic activity
Mr. Trump’s relative strength on the voters and conservatives, optimism since the coronavirus began to spread
economy, and whether Joseph R. Biden For many Republicans, optimism about the economy and approval of the rapidly in the United States late this past
Jr. can cut into it over the next 10 weeks, about the economy and approval president have become deeply entwined winter has hurt Mr. Trump’s standing on
are among the crucial dynamics in bat- of the president have become — and for Democrats, disfavor for Mr. economic issues as well as his overall
tleground states in the Midwest and the Trump brought deep pessimism over approval. Most polls now find Ameri-
Sun Belt that are expected to decide the deeply entwined. the economy even in the years of growth cans are evenly split on whether they
election. Many of these states have and low unemployment before the pan- approve of his handling of the economy.
struggled this summer with rising coro- demic. The polling firm Gallup, for example,
navirus infection and death rates as well David Winton, a Republican strat- Polls conducted in June, July and Au- found Mr. Trump enjoyed a 48 percent
as job losses and vanishing wages and egist and pollster, said that Mr. Trump’s gust for The New York Times by the on- approval rating on the economy this
savings — hard times that, history sug- ratings had been bolstered by the addi- line research firm SurveyMonkey un- month, down from 63 percent in Janu-
gests, will pose a threat to an incumbent tion of nine million jobs in May, June and derscored the degree to which even Re- ary. The decline was acute among mod-
president seeking re-election. July, after the nation lost more than 20 publicans hit hard by the crisis continue erates, independents and voters who at-
Yet polling data and interviews with million jobs in March and April. Mr. to give Mr. Trump and his economy high tended at least some college.
voters and political analysts suggest Trump’s approval on the economy “has marks. Eight in 10 Republican respond- In a recent ABC News/Washington AMAZON INDIA BLOG

that a confluence of factors are raising still generally remained positive, and ents who lost a job in the recession and Post poll, two-thirds of Americans said Amazon’s office in Hyderabad, India, is 1.8 million square feet. It’s home to 7,000 em-
Mr. Trump’s standing on the economy is- better than his overall job approval,” he have yet to return to work approve of the economy was in bad shape — the ployees, with an expected work force of 15,000, largely consisting of technology teams.
sue, which remains a centerpiece of his said. “This has certainly been helped by Mr. Trump’s handling of the pandemic. most since 2014, and a 20-percentage-
pitch for a second term and has been a the last three good monthly jobs reports Nearly three in 10 Republicans who lost point increase in negative ratings of the
major theme of the Republican National that occurred despite the continuing re- jobs say they are better off economically economy since Mr. Trump took office.
Convention this week. strictions on many businesses to oper- than they were a year ago, a sentiment The decline in sentiment is hurting
The president has built an enduring ate.” that is shared by barely one in 10 Demo- Mr. Trump in his campaign against Mr. ADVERTISEMENT
brand with conservative voters, in par- Polling suggests that Americans who crats who have kept their jobs through- Biden, the Democratic nominee. Among
ticular, who continue to see him as a suc- form Mr. Trump’s voter base are less out the crisis. registered voters who said they thought
cessful businessman and tough negotia- likely to have lost a job or income than “For so many of these voters, opinions the economy was doing badly, 70 per- LEGAL NOTICE:
tor. Many of those voters praise his eco- Democratic or independent voters. That of Trump are basically baked in,” said cent planned to support Mr. Biden and
nomic stewardship before the pandemic divergence is partially driven by race — Amy Walter, national editor for the Cook TRUMP, PAGE 8 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR
THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA,
CIVIL ACTION NO. 4:16-cv-00253 WTM-GRS

Wary of home appraisals SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION v. MEDIENT

STUDIOS, INC., et al.,
they’re found to produce discriminatory NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN TO
Discrimination often arises appraisals. Title XI of the Financial In- DEFENDANT MANU SANDHA KUMARAN
stitutions Reform, Recovery and En-
for Black owners seeking forcement Act, enacted in 1989, also You have been named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Securities
to value their residences binds appraisers to a standard of unbi-
and Exchange Commission in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District
ased ethics and performance.
BY DEBRA KAMIN “My heart kind of broke,” Ms. Horton of Georgia. The name of the case is SEC v. Medient Studios, Inc., Fonu2, Inc.,
said. “I know what the issue was. And I
Abena and Alex Horton wanted to take knew what we needed to do to fix it, be- Manu Kumaran, Joel A. “Jake Shapiro, and Roger Miguel, Civil Action
advantage of low home-refinance rates cause in the Black community, it’s just No. 4:16-CV-00253-WTM-GRS. The lawsuit against you is pending before Judge
brought on by the coronavirus crisis. So common knowledge that you take your
in June, they took the first step in that pictures down when you’re selling the William T. Moore, Jr. The SEC alleges that you and the other defendants violated
process, welcoming a home appraiser house. But I didn’t think I had to worry the antifraud, reporting and registration provisions of the federal securities laws by
into their four-bedroom, four-bath about that with an appraisal.”
ranch-style house in Jacksonville, Fla. Appraisals, by nature, are subjective.
engaging in a microcap fraud. Specifically, the SEC alleges that you made numerous
The Hortons live just minutes from And discrimination, particularly the false statements in press releases and public filings for Medient Studios, Inc., and
the Ortega River, in a predominantly subconscious biases and microaggres- participated in a promissory note backdating scheme involving Medient’s stock. The
white neighborhood of 1950s homes that sions that have risen to the fore in white
tend to sell for $350,000 to $550,000. America this summer following the SEC seeks permanent injunctions against you prohibiting further violations of the
They had expected their home to ap- death of George Floyd, is notoriously relevant provisions of the federal securities laws, an order barring you from serving
praise for around $450,000, but the ap- difficult to pinpoint.
praiser felt differently, assigning a value CHARLOTTE KESL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES Ms. Horton shared her experiment in as a director or officer of a public company registered pursuant to Sections 12 or
of $330,000. Ms. Horton, who is Black, A second appraisal was valued 40 percent higher than the first for Abena and Alex a widely circulated Facebook post, earn- 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 [15 U.S.C. § 78; § 78o(d)], an order
immediately suspected discrimination. Horton’s home in Jacksonville, Fla., after Ms. Horton removed all signs of Blackness. ing 25,000 shares and more than 2,000
The couple’s bank agreed that the val- comments, many of which came from barring you from participating in an offering of penny stock, disgorgement of ill-
ue was off and ordered a second apprais- son on a shopping trip to Target, and left drive down home values in Black neigh- Black homeowners and carried the gotten gains (plus prejudgment interest), and a civil penalty.
al. But before the new appraiser could Mr. Horton alone at home to answer the borhoods. Even in mixed-race and pre- same message: This also happened to
arrive, Ms. Horton, a lawyer, began an door. dominantly white neighborhoods, Black me. You are directed to contact W. Shawn Murnahan, Senior Trial Counsel, Securities
experiment: She took all family photos The new appraiser gave their home a homeowners say, their homes are con- In each comment, a repeated theme:
off the mantle. Instead, she hung up a se- value of $465,000 — a more than 40 per- sistently appraised for less than those of Home appraisers, who work under
and Exchange Commission, 950 East Paces Ferry Road, N.E., Suite 900, Atlanta, GA
ries of oil paintings of Mr. Horton, who is cent increase from the first appraisal. their neighbors, stymying their path to- codes of ethics but with little regulation 30326, USA to provide him with a valid address so that he can send you a Summons
white, and his grandparents that had Race and housing policy have long ward building equity and further per- and oversight, are often all that stands
been in storage. Books by Zora Neale been intertwined in the United States. petuating income equality in the United between the accumulation of home equi-
and the Complaint for Injunctive and Other Relief. If you do not contact attorney
Hurston and Toni Morrison were taken Black Americans consistently struggle States. ty and the destruction of it for Black Murnahan within 20 days of the publication of this notice, the SEC will be entitled
off the shelves, and holiday photo cards more than their white counterparts to Home appraisers are bound by the Americans. to seek entry of your default in the above-referenced case pursuant to Fed. R. Civ.
sent by friends were edited so that only be approved for home loans, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 to not discrimi- After the first appraisal came up short
those showing white families were left specter of redlining — a practice that de- nate based on race, religion, national or- on his house in an affluent, racially P. 55(a).
on display. On the day of the appraisal, nied mortgages to people of color in cer- igin or gender. Appraisers can lose their mixed suburb of Hartford, Conn.,
Ms. Horton took the couple’s 6-year-old tain neighborhoods — continues to license or even face prison time if APPRAISAL S, PAGE 8
 ..
8 | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION

business

Hong Kong’s digital dragnet New office

in Indian city
HONG KONG, FROM PAGE 1
Kong is now emerging as a land of inter-
net fault lines, a place where China’s
harsh techno-authoritarian rule collides
with the open internet in a society and
is Amazon’s
economy governed by rules that protect
digital rights.
“With China’s rising influence and
biggest yet
power, it’s not safe for technology com- AMAZON, FROM PAGE 7
panies to put their servers in China or Amazon is facing antitrust charges in
Hong Kong now,” said a prominent ac- the European Union, and Mr. Bezos and
tivist, Joshua Wong. “It’s important for other tech titans were grilled by U.S.
them to help support Hong Kong’s citi- lawmakers in July about their anticom-
zens and society with digital security.” petitive practices.
The first coordinated sting under the Amazon’s 15-story Hyderabad office
new security law made Mr. Chung an ex- opened last year.
ample of an offense new to Hong Kong It features prayer rooms, a small syn-
but common in mainland China: an in- thetic cricket field, 49 elevators, a heli-
ternet crime. The police accused him of pad and a cafeteria open 24 hours a day
writing a post calling for Hong Kong in- on a campus that, according to the com-
dependence on the Facebook page of a pany, is made of 2.5 times more steel
newly formed political party and de- than the Eiffel Tower. It’s home to 7,000
manded that he delete it. He denied writ- employees out of an expected work
ing it. force of 15,000, largely consisting of
Enforcing internet laws meant gath- technology teams focused on using ma-
ering digital evidence, and the police chine learning and software develop-
pushed hard to gain access to Mr. ment to innovate services — such as
Chung’s accounts. Though less than Amazon Pay’s cash load service for dig-
fully prepared for the arrest, Mr. Chung ital transactions in a country with 190
said, he was able to foil officers at each million citizens that do not use banks.
turn. In the stairwell when the police The building is also used by customer
forced his head in front of his phone, he service workers.
closed his eyes and scrunched his face, Representatives for Amazon declined
rendering useless his iPhone’s facial to comment on the cost of the develop-
recognition software. He had long since ment, but revealed to Bloomberg that it
disabled the fingerprint unlock on his cost “hundreds of millions of dollars” to
other phone. For passwords, he told the build. (The campus is Amazon’s largest,
police that he had forgotten them. but the company plans to open a second
Even so, a few hours after he was de- headquarters in Arlington, Va., that
tained, his friends noticed that his Face- ISAAC LAWRENCE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES could be as large as eight million square
book account was active, appearing as if Tony Chung in the Hong Kong stairwell where, he said, the police pinned his head in front of his phone in an attempt to activate the device’s facial recognition system. feet.)
he were online and using it. Mr. Chung Amazon and Flipkart bill themselves
believes that the security forces broke as e-commerce marketplaces, matching
in, though he said he wasn’t sure how. tactic of the secret police. it was an attempt by the Hong Kong po- buyers with independent sellers. That
When he was released and tried to sign If the surveillance caught Ms. Chow lice to get the login information for Mr. has enabled Amazon to sell products by
back in, Facebook had frozen his ac- off guard, her response also showed how Lai’s account. The tactic has added to a sellers such as Cloudtail at prices lower
count over a suspicious login. Hong Kong activists are successfully new level of paranoia that has made than independent sellers.
The Hong Kong police declined to adapting to aggressive police tactics. day-to-day operations more difficult, ac-
comment on recent tactics and cases. A Shortly after she was arrested, her per- cording to Mr. Simon.
Facebook spokeswoman declined to sonal Facebook account was suspended. “The problem is this slows everything Jeff Bezos has announced a
comment. A spokeswoman for Verizon An assistant posted on her public page down, because now everyone is double $1 billion investment to help
Media, which owns Yahoo, said it was to explain that the account, with the help checking: ‘Did you send this message? small and midsize businesses in
“assessing potential impacts” of the law of Facebook, had been disabled to pro- Did you send that?’ It never stops; it
on its operations in Hong Kong. tect it. just never, ever stops,” he said.
India bolster their online growth.
There are also concerns that the Hong The company allows people to ap- Mr. Simon added that people in Hong
Kong police are adopting invasive sur- point other legal administrators to an Kong were quickly adapting to the new The impact of Amazon’s strategy has
veillance techniques commonly used by account. That person can then coordi- information security environment. With been noted.
China’s secret police force. nate with Facebook to shut the account the police now able to tap phones with- For the past couple of years, Satinder
Agnes Chow, a prominent activist and to protect the data in the event of an ar- out a warrant, many citizens have Wadhwa has struggled to keep his busi-
politician, is no stranger to police atten- rest. switched entirely to encrypted chat ness alive in Greater Kailash, South
tion. Weeks before she was arrested this Other police tactics have been more apps. Delhi, amid the growth of online retail.
month, she released a YouTube video subtle, and more challenging to address. Many, he said, go further, setting the His specialty watch store, Time & Style,
punctuated with animations designed to Hours after the media mogul Jimmy apps to auto-delete messages and even used to be filled with throngs of locals.
teach Hong Kongers the basics of cyber- Lai was arrested, an employee at his eschewing taking paper notes in meet- Now, Mr. Wadhwa estimates he gets
security. She dispensed tips like how to LAM YIK FEI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES company, Next Digital, received a mes- ings. half as many customers.
enable two-factor authentication and Agnes Chow, an activist and politician. A statement released after her arrest said a sage from someone posing as a part of “I just don’t want to come off this is the “People have stopped coming to the
how to maintain a “public toilet phone” surveillance camera had been placed next to her doorstep before she was detained. tech support. Using the names of his em- end of the world; it’s not. This is just a market; that means they’re buying on-
where users can download apps they ployees, the message asked for login de- nuisance that we have to live with every line,” Mr. Wadhwa said. “If they’re get-
don’t trust — like, she pointed out, those tails to Mr. Lai’s Twitter account in order day,” Mr. Simon said. ting a better price and delivery at home,
from mainland China. “I’m a bit scared,” she wrote in a Face- had also appeared next to her doorstep to set up a new iPhone for Mr. Lai. “In China this is normal stuff. In Hong why will they come to us?”
Yet she was surprised when strange book post a day before her arrest that in- in the weeks before her arrest and was Schooled from years of cyberattacks, Kong they’re learning how to operate.” It’s a question many business owners
men appeared near her house, appar- cluded a photo of the men. removed after she was pulled in by the the recipient of the message flagged it as across India are asking. “Amazon is fi-
ently keeping watch in shifts and openly A statement released after her arrest police. In China, putting a camera out- suspicious. Mark Simon, an executive at Edmund Lee contributed reporting. Lin nancially strong. Their reach is strong,”
filming her with their smartphones. said an infrared surveillance camera side the door of dissidents is a common Next Digital, said the company believed Qiqing contributed research. Mr. Wadhwa said.
Since construction on the Hyderabad
office began in 2016, Amazon made
some promising appeals to locals: It

Black homeowners face

started an Amazon Fresh store for gro-
cery delivery in Bangalore.
It also started Prime Reading with

inequity over appraisals

books in Hindi and Tamil, and intro-
duced an online pharmacy amid the
pandemic.
The retail behemoth’s desire for ex-
APPRAISAL S, FROM PAGE 7 In Mr. Hughley’s case, the appraiser pansion is easy to explain. India’s e-
Stephen Richmond, an aerospace engi- was fired. Ms. Horton has filed a com- commerce industry is still in its infancy,
neer, took down family photos and post- plaint with the Department of Housing nearing 120 million online shoppers in
ers for Black movies and had a white and Urban Development; when con- 2018 out of a population of more than one
neighbor stand in for him on a second tacted about her case, HUD said it had billion.
appraisal. He was hoping to refinance; been assigned to the Jacksonville Hu- In 2018, Amazon was the second-larg-
with the second report, he saw his man Rights Commission. The agency est online retailer in India, trailing Flip-
home’s value go up $40,000 from the ini- added that it receives a handful of simi- kart, with a market share of 32 percent
tial appraisal just a few weeks earlier. lar complaints each year. (compared with 41 percent in the United
In 2000, the American actor and co- In 2018, researchers from Gallup and States).
median D.L. Hughley had an appraisal the Brookings Institution published a Analysts at Forrester predict e-com-
on his home in the Montevista Estates report on the widespread devaluation of merce sales in the country will reach
neighborhood of West Hills, a primarily Black-owned property in the United nearly $86 billion by 2024.
white area in the San Fernando Valley in States, which they discussed in a 2019 As India’s reliance on international
Los Angeles. Despite a steady uptick in hearing before the House Financial tech companies grows, the recent an-
the housing market and the addition of a Services Subcommittee. The report titrust investigation is only the latest in
pool and new hardwood floors, the found that a home in a majority Black a chain of events that has led the govern-
house was appraised for nearly what he neighborhood is likely to be valued for ment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi
had bought it for three years earlier — 23 percent less than a near-identical to rein in foreign investment.
$500,000. home in a majority-white neighbor- Mr. Meena says there is a panic
hood; it also determined this devalua- among local sellers, who feel they are
tion costs Black homeowners $156 bil- being pushed out of the marketplace as
Confronting a bias that can cost lion in cumulative losses. others are given preference, and are
them tens of thousands of dollars. Many appraisers, both during the now seeing the government raise ques-
hearing and in the weeks after, defended DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES tions about large tech companies’ busi-
their practice, noting that it’s their job to Cheering for President Trump in Pennsylvania. Many Trump supporters cite the record stock market gains during his administration. ness practices only after they have de-
In Mr. Hughley’s case, his bank report on local market conditions, not veloped their own e-commerce plat-
flagged the report. “They were like, this set them. forms.

Trump gets lift from economy

has to be some kind of mistake because “Is there a problem with poor and un- To circumvent the latest wave of un-
in order for your house to have come in derserved communities in the United rest, Mr. Bezos announced a $1 billion in-
this low; it would have to be in some lev- States? Yes. Is it the appraisal profes- vestment during his visit in January to
el of disrepair,” Mr. Hughley said. sion’s fault? No,” wrote Maureen help small and midsize businesses bol-
The bank ordered a new appraisal, Sweeney, a Chicago-based appraiser in TRUMP, FROM PAGE 7 have our lives back — until we deal with ries most about job loss is independent ster their online growth.
which came back $160,000 higher, and a letter to the house subcommittee fol- his running mate, Senator Kamala Har- this virus.” voters.) Nearly two in five conservative It follows Amazon’s promise of $5 bil-
Mr. Hughley went on to sell the home for lowing the hearing. “It’s like blaming the ris of California, in the election in No- In television advertisements the Bi- Republicans say that by late October lion in investments in the country in
$770,000. canary for the bad air in the coal mine, or vember, according to the ABC/Post poll. den campaign has sought to link Mr. “the virus will be under control, and the 2016, and another $500 million pledged
Mr. Hughley talks about the experi- blaming the mirror for your bad hair But Mr. Biden, the former vice presi- Trump to the recession. economy will be strong or steadily im- in food e-commerce the next year.
ence in his book, “Surrender, White Peo- day. Appraisers reflect the market; we dent, is far from commanding on the is- Partisan politics — and divergent ex- proving,” which is more than double the Since the pandemic, however, with e-
ple!”, a satirical look at white suprema- do not create it.” sue: Voters were split almost evenly periences with the virus — factor heav- rate of Americans over all. Only 3 per- commerce as virtually the only channel
cy, which was published in June by But what about a Black homeowner in into thirds on the question of whether ily into the remaining divide. The Sur- cent of Democrats agree with that state- for selling products for months, more
Harper Collins and examines racial in- a white neighborhood whose property is the economy would be in better, worse veyMonkey polling shows Republicans ment. small businesses are realizing the po-
equality in the United States across edu- appraised for less than his neighbor’s? or about the same shape now, if he were are less likely to have lost a job in the cri- Democrats predict that if the recov- tential in working with companies such
cation, health care and the housing mar- Whether appraisers are devaluing president. And while some polls this sis than Democrats or independents, ery stalls in the fall and economic dam- as Amazon and Flipkart, Mr. Meena
ket. “People always tell us to pull our- Black homes or entire Black neighbor- summer showed the candidates dead- though the gap shrinks when comparing age mounts anew, Mr. Trump’s eco- said.
selves up by our bootstraps. But what if hoods, the core issue is the same, said locked on the question of who would only white voters. In the recovery from nomic ratings will plunge. Within the United States, the Euro-
you remove the straps?” he said. Andre Perry, one of the writers of the best handle the economy, Mr. Trump led the depths of recession, the unemploy- “Trump is a master at convincing peo- pean Union and now India, Amazon’s as-
“You’re invested in the American Brookings Institution report and the au- Mr. Biden on handling the economy in ment rate has remained higher for Black ple of his alternative reality,” said Jared cendancy as a retail giant has been met
dream, you have capital, you have a chip thor of “Know Your Price: Valuing Black an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll and Latino workers than for whites. Bernstein, an economist at the Center with antitrust investigations and in-
in the game. And the fact that somebody Lives and Property in America’s Black released this week. A Reuters poll had “Republicans are putting more impor- on Budget and Policy Priorities who is creased scrutiny over data and tax regu-
could summarily minimize my wealth Cities.” the men tied. tance on the economic issues of the pan- an outside adviser to Mr. Biden. “But he lations.
just because of a bias, it seemed crazy to “We still see Black people as risky,” Mr. Biden emphasized his plans to demic,” said Laura Wronski, a research will be unable to do so as people face “It’s not only in India,” Mr. Meena
me.” Mr. Perry said. “White appraisers carry create jobs and to bring the virus under scientist for SurveyMonkey, “and Dem- evictions, job losses, falling incomes and said. “They will face challenges from
In response to the coronavirus pan- the same attitudes and beliefs of white control in his acceptance speech at the ocrats are putting more importance on tremendous difficulties meeting their regulators all over the world.” he said.
demic, a federal ruling issued in March America — the same attitudes that com- Democratic National Convention last the health issues.” basic needs. At some point, reality TV Amazon was likely to serve as a blue-
allowed appraisals for homes that were pelled Derek Chauvin to kneel casually week, and he criticized Mr. Trump’s han- Fewer than one in five conservative collides with reality.” print for other international retailers, he
being sold to be done remotely in certain on the neck of George Floyd are shared dling of the pandemic. “I understand Republicans worries about losing a job added.
circumstances, temporarily pausing the by other professionals in other fields. something this president doesn’t,” Mr. in the crisis, far less than any other ideo- Reporting was contributed by Ben Cas- “Ultimately, they think they have
need for interior home inspections. How does that choking out of America Biden said. “We will never get our econ- logical group, the SurveyMonkey selman, Kathleen Grey, Jon Hurdle, Tom enough value and time to capture the In-
Those looking to refinance still must look in the appraisal industry? Through omy back on track, we will never get our polling shows. (In perhaps a troubling Kertscher, Alan Rappeport and Giovanni dian market,” Mr. Meena said. “That’s
complete an in-person appraisal. very low appraisals,” he said. kids safely back to school, we will never sign for Mr. Trump, the group that wor- Russonello. what they are hoping for.”
..
THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2020 | 9

Opinion
A vaccine that stops Covid-19 won’t be enough
The best
vaccines
don’t just
prevent a
disease; they
also prevent
the pathogen
causing the
disease from
being trans-
mitted. So
why aren’t
we focusing
more on
those?

CLAIRE MERCHLINSKY

children by describing how those nized and whose immune response insurance records for 2005-10 of some amounts and for shorter periods of
Adam Finn protect us from a particular disease: might wane over time. nine million people in Germany. time than if they had not been vacci-
Richard Malley An attenuated form of a pathogen, or The benefits of this approach have To understand why this is the case, nated.
just a bit of it, is inoculated into the been demonstrated with other patho- remember what it takes for you to Much still needs to be learned about
human body in order to trigger its gens and other diseases. become ill from a pathogen, be it a precisely how such mechanisms work
immune response; having learned to The Haemophilus influenzae type B virus or a bacterium. — what part do antibodies play? T
Not long after the new coronavirus fight off that pathogen once, the body (Hib) conjugate vaccines were de- First, you are exposed to it. Then it cells? — but the upshot from these
first surfaced last December, an ambi- will remember how to fend off the signed, and licensed in the early 1990s, infects you. While you are infected, examples is this: Vaccines can block
tious prediction was made: A vaccine disease should it be exposed to the to prevent young children from devel- you may infect others. In some cases, the transmission of viruses or bacteria,
would be available within 12 to 18 same pathogen later. oping serious the infection develops into a disease. and they can do so in several ways.
months, and it would stop the pan- A vaccine’s ability to forestall a With some infections such as In other cases, it doesn’t: Though Given the communitywide benefits
demic. disease is also how vaccine developers meningitis. Soon infected, you remain asymptomatic. of accomplishing that, especially in a
Despite serious challenges — how to typically design — and how regulators
vaccines, for enough an unex- One way that vaccines can interrupt pandemic, current vaccine-develop-
mass manufacture, supply and deliver typically evaluate — Phase 3 clinical some diseases, pected and wel- a pathogen’s transmission cycle is by ment efforts should prioritize finding
a vaccine worldwide — the first prong trials for vaccine candidates. the indirect come side benefit preventing the pathogen from causing vaccines that limit the transmission of
of that wish could well be fulfilled. Yet the best vaccines also serve benefits of became clear: The an infection in the first place. This is SARS-CoV-2.
Eight vaccine candidates are undergo- another, critical, function: They block a vaccination vaccine inter- how many common vaccines — The U.S. Food and Drug Administra-
ing large-scale efficacy tests, so-called pathogen’s transmission from one can be great- rupted the bacteri- against measles, mumps, rubella and tion has stated that preventing a
Phase 3 trials, and results are ex- person to another. And this result, er than the um’s transmission; chickenpox — operate. SARS-CoV-2 infection is in itself a
pected by the end of this year or early often called an “indirect” effect of direct effects. after its introduc- Other vaccines — like the ones sufficient endpoint for the Phase 3
2021. vaccination, is no less important than tion, occurrences against meningococcal meningitis or trials of vaccine candidates — that it is
But even if one, or more, of those the direct effect of preventing the of the disease pneumonia brought on by the pneumo- an acceptable alternative goal to pre-
efforts succeeds, a vaccine might not disease caused by that pathogen. In dropped also in coccus bacterium — can block the venting the development of Covid-19.
end the pandemic. This is partly be- fact, during a pandemic, it probably is groups that had not been vaccinated. transmission of the pathogen by inter- The World Health Organization has
cause we seem to be focused at the even more important. The human papillomavirus (HPV) fering with the infection or by decreas- said that “shedding/transmission” is
moment on developing the kind of That’s what we should be focusing vaccines were developed to prevent ing either the quantity of pathogen as well.
vaccine that may well prevent on right now. And yet we are not. cervical cancer and genital warts in that the infected patient sheds or the These guidelines are an important
Covid-19, the disease, but that wouldn’t Stopping a virus’s transmission women. They have proved immensely duration of the shedding period. signal, especially considering that the
do enough to stop the transmission of reduces the entire population’s overall effective among the women to whom Some recipients of the pneumococ- F.D.A. has never approved a vaccine
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes exposure to the virus. It protects peo- they are administered — and up to 50 cal pneumonia vaccine simply don’t based on its effects on infection alone;
Covid-19. ple who may be too frail to respond to percent effective at preventing genital get infected with the bacterium; others instead, the agency has focused exclu-
Doctors usually explain vaccines to a vaccine, who do not have access to warts among unvaccinated men, ac- do get infected and carry the bac- sively on the vaccine’s effectiveness at
patients and the parents of young the vaccine, who refuse to be immu- cording to a 2017 study of the health terium in their nose, but in smaller FINN, PAGE 10

So you think New York is ‘dead.’ (It’s not.)

could start any type of business.”
Energy, Jerry Seinfeld Wipe your tears, wipe your butt and
attitude and pull it together.
He says he knows people who have
personality left New York for Maine, Vermont,
cannot be When I got my first apartment in Tennessee, Indiana. I have been to all
“remoted” Manhattan in the hot summer of of these places many, many, many
1976, there was no pooper-scooper times over many decades. And with
through even law, and the streets were covered in all due respect and affection, Are ..
the best fiber dog crap. You .. Kidding .. Me?!
optic lines. I signed the rental agreement, He says Everyone’s gone for good.
walked outside, and my car had been How the hell do you know that? You
towed. I still thought, “This is the moved to Miami. Yes, I also have a
greatest place I’ve ever been in my place out on Long Island. But I will
life.” never abandon New York City. Ever.
Manhattan is an island off the And I have been onstage at your
coast of America. Are we part of the comedy club Stand Up N.Y. quite a
United States? Kind of. And this is few times. It could use a little spruc-
one of the toughest times we’ve had ing up, if you don’t mind my saying. I
in quite a while. wouldn’t worry about it. You can do it
But one thing I know for sure: The from Miami.
last thing we need in the thick of so There’s some other stupid thing in
many challenges is some putz on the article about “bandwidth” and
LinkedIn wailing and whimpering, how New York is over because every-
“Everyone’s gone! I want 2019 body will “remote everything.” Guess
back!” what: Everyone hates to do this.
Oh, shut up. Imagine being in a Everyone. Hates.
real war with this guy by your side. You know why? There’s no energy.
Listening to him go, “I used to play Energy, attitude and personality
chess all day. I could meet people. I DANIEL ARNOLD FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES SEINFELD, PAGE 11
 ..
10 | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION

opinion

Let the culture wars begin. Again.

he turned over his convention to the coalition of affinity groups. (Chaldeans racially coded appeals to white subur-
socially conservative wing of his party, for Trump!) I doubt their messages of ban women.
A.G. SULZBERGER, Publisher in the vain hope he could energize those unity will stick. If the party were serious That, as David Axelrod has noted, is
same core supporters. about bridge-building, it would not what this week may truly have in store.
DEAN BAQUET, Executive Editor MARK THOMPSON, Chief Executive Officer
The convention devolved into an make Trump a recurring character each Trump has been asked at least twice
JOSEPH KAHN, Managing Editor STEPHEN DUNBAR-JOHNSON, President, International
atom-splitting culture war. Speakers evening. He is constitutionally incapa- what his plans are for his second term,
TOM BODKIN, Creative Director CHARLOTTE GORDON, V.P., International Consumer Marketing decried the dangers of radical feminists ble of conciliation, even if the future each time by friendly interviewers. He
SUZANNE DALEY, Associate Editor HELEN KONSTANTOPOULOS, V.P., International Circulation Jennifer Senior (Hillary!). The evils of socialism (Bill integrity of the U.S. Constitution de- responded with his trademark verbal
HELENA PHUA, Executive V.P., Asia-Pacific wanted health care for all). The depre- pends on it, and he has gravitated his incontinence. There was no decipher-
KATHLEEN KINGSBURY, Editorial Page Editor SUZANNE YVERNÈS, International Chief Financial Officer dation of the “homosexual rights move- whole media career toward genres that able answer in either reply.
ment.” Ted Kennedy was their Bernie. reward provocation, escalation and The most Trump can imagine selling
H.R.C. was their A.O.C. The Los Angeles ginned-up fury: pro-wrestling, reality is himself, and what that self is is merely
The Republican convention at last is riots — also sparked by a videotaped act TV, Twitter. a hologram, a weightless shape. He
underway, and much of it will be virtual, of police brutality — were today’s civil Long before The convention play-acts at being a businessman. He
which makes it very 2020. Yet as unrest. guest list is a reflec- play-acts at being a president. The only
strange as it is to say — and bear with Pat Buchanan was the headliner on
Trump, there tion of this. Three of thing that’s authentic about him is his
me here — something about this mo- opening night. It was entirely fitting. He was Pat the featured speakers comic-book worldview, one divided
POLITICIZING SCIENCE WILL COST LIVES ment brings to mind the Republican was the proto-Trump, a nativist-reac- Buchanan. are viral social media between heroes and villains, us and
convention of 1992. tionary-white-identitarian who’d just The 2020 stars, part of our new them.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is no stranger Does anyone remember that dark run a populist primary on the slogan Republican cottage industry of During the 2016 convention, peddling
Sowing doubt to political interference. Special interests have played pageant of apocalyptica? The parallel “Make America First Again” and would outrage; their place grievances may have worked. But as
convention
about the as much of a role as actual data in the approval of circumstances are worth noting. Like proceed to make two more runs at the is looking on the stage is the I’ve written before, grievance politics
safety of treat- questionable cancer drugs and faulty medical devices
Donald Trump, George H.W. Bush was a White House, each more hostile to strangely ultimate retweet. are much easier to sell in times of stabil-
Republican incumbent with pitiful immigrants than the last. He closed his We’ll hear from Mark ity and prosperity. Hate is something
ments will for almost as long as the agency has existed. approval ratings and terrible poll num- address with an image of the U.S. Army
like the and Patricia McClos- you can ill afford when citizens are
imperil the Yet the latest breach of principle by the F.D.A. feels bers compared with his moderate chal- finally reclaiming the streets of Los 1992 edition. key, the Missouri losing their livelihoods and their lives.
fight against far more perilous than earlier ones — in part because lenger (then a young Arkansas gover- Angeles. “My friends,” he concluded, couple who bran- “You cannot bluff a virus,” as Garry
nor named Bill Clinton); like Trump, “We must take back our cities, and take dished guns at Black Kasparov, the political activist and
coronavirus of the number of lives and livelihoods at stake, but also Bush presided over a nation scarred and back our culture, and take back our Lives Matter protesters cutting through chess grandmaster, likes to say. And
in the months because it’s part and parcel of a systematic undermin- exhausted by a recession. country.” their gated community. (Message: They you certainly can’t chant “lock her up”
and years ing of the nation’s premier scientific institutions. They were very different men, Trump The columnist Molly Ivins later de- are coming for your suburbs.) We’ll hear with the same gusto when the key
and Bush. A decades-long public ser- cided the speech “probably sounded from Nicholas Sandmann, the student players of your 2016 campaign team
to come. On Sunday the agency granted an emergency au- vant, Bush believed in international better in the original German.” from Covington Catholic High School have been arrested or sentenced to
thorization for the use of plasma from people with alliances and the power of our institu- Cut to today. Faced, as Bush was, with whose videotaped interaction with a prison.
coronavirus antibodies to treat Covid-19 patients, ab- tions; he was a hard worker, a courteous lousy poll numbers, extravagant unpop- tribal elder won him 15 minutes of un- An us-and-them strategy certainly
colleague, a modest fellow — the super- ularity, and a recession for which he has comfortable fame and settlements from didn’t serve George H.W. Bush in 1992.
sent substantial evidence that the treatment actually ego to Trump’s id, the string trio to no salable response or plan, Trump, an The Washington Post and CNN. (Mes- On Election Day, Clinton ground him
works or a definitive sense of who might benefit from Trump’s death metal band. atom-splitter by nature, is set to take to sage: Fake news.) into a fine paste. That may be one indi-
it. But he always had a goon squad on the stage every night this week, on the Have I mentioned that two producers cator to go by this week.
hand to fire up the party’s base of reli- theory that he’ll set off the chain reac- of “The Apprentice” are working on this But I’m going to offer one more. In
Last week, regulators appeared to be holding off on gious conservatives and social reac- tion that drives his base to the polls. spectacle? And that Rudolph Giuliani is late 2018, The Hollywood Reporter and
authorizing wider use of such “convalescent plasma,” tionaries, which lived in a curious coali- The sole difference is that he’s not the another speaker? Neither bodes partic- Morning Consult did a survey that
owing to scientists’ concerns about that lack of evi- tion with the party’s elite cadre of inter- fringe wing of the party. He is the party. ularly well for that spirit of harmony showed Americans had seriously
nationalists seeking lower taxes. In This is what the party has become: The that convention planners keep talking soured on reality shows. It was the only
dence. But after President Trump complained bitterly 1988, he got himself elected thanks in party of Pat Buchanan, cubed. about. Nor do the president’s recent television genre to poll negatively. And
about that delay, the F.D.A. decided to move forward. large part to a race-baiting campaign Republican officials may claim that speeches and tweets, not that they ever it was the only genre in which respond-
In announcing the new decision, the president and ad. And in 1992, knowing he didn’t have this week’s convention will be an uplift- do. But these days, he’s been channeling ents found there was simply “too
a cheerful economic message to peddle, ing, inclusive event, featuring a wide the spirit of George Wallace, making much.”
his team have vastly overstated the promise of conva-
lescent plasma, calling it a “major therapeutic break-
through” and claiming that it has been proven to “re-
duce mortality from Covid by as much as 30 to 50
percent,” without explaining that any such findings
come with heavy caveats.
Dr. Stephen Hahn, the F.D.A.’s commissioner, went
so far as to suggest that the plasma therapy could
save the lives of 35 out of every 100 coronavirus pa-
tients who took it. As STAT News reports, the number
is much closer to three to five out of every 100, and
even that lower estimate is questionable: The data
came from an observational study, not a rigorous clini-
cal trial.
Dr. Hahn could have made a more honest case for
authorizing plasma therapy by simply pointing to the
urgency of the moment and the apparent safety of the
treatment. The administration could have helped re-
solve the questions around convalescent plasma by
arranging for more rigorous clinical trials. That it
instead chose egregious overselling of its benefit is
unconscionable, especially as an election nears.
This is hardly the first time the Trump administra-
tion has sacrificed scientific integrity for the sake of
political theater. The president pressed the F.D.A. to
grant a similar authorization to the malaria drugs
chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, despite ample
warning from scientists that the drugs were not only
unproven for the coronavirus but potentially danger-
ous. That authorization was revoked in June, after the
drugs were linked to serious heart complications in
more than 100 patients, including at least 25 who died.
The administration also stripped the agency of its
ability to regulate lab-developed diagnostic tests, a ILLUSTRATION BY THE NEW YORK TIMES; PHOTOGRAPH BY JOSE R. LOPEZ/THE NEW YORK TIMES
move that may improve the supply of coronavirus
diagnostics but will also wreak havoc on countless
patients suffering from other serious conditions.
Nearly from the start of the pandemic, the president
has sidelined, muzzled and disempowered the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, an agency with
A vaccine that stops Covid-19 won’t be enough
FINN, FROM PAGE 9 In the late 1990s, the United States, dlers reduced ninefold the incidence of that a very small number of instances
perhaps the highest concentration of infectious dis- disease prevention. like other wealthy countries, replaced pneumococcal disease in the elderly. — gatherings at restaurants or bars,
ease expertise in the world. And yet vaccine developers do not with an acellular vaccine the killed- With some vaccines, for some dis- choir rehearsal, funerals, church serv-
To the administration’s supporters — indeed, to seem to be heeding this new call. whole-cell pertussis vaccine it had eases, the indirect benefits of vaccina- ices — might account for a vast major-
Based on our review of the Phase 3 previously used against whooping tion can be greater than the direct ity of the cases of infection overall.
anyone eager for coronavirus treatments — it may tests listed at ClinicalTrials.gov, a data- cough. A resurgence of whooping effects. But the discussion about those in-
seem like a win to eliminate roadblocks that keep base of trials conducted around the cough already was underway, but it Based on these precedents, it could stances has tended to focus on their
tests, treatments and vaccines from entering the mar- world, the primary goal in each of these accelerated then: Although the new be a grave mistake for vaccine devel- settings and circumstances, such as
studies is to reduce the occurrence of vaccine was better than the previous opers now to hew only, or too closely, to the presence of crowds in confined
ketplace. But skipping science now only costs more Covid-19. one at protecting the inoculated from the single-minded goal of preventing spaces for extended periods of time.
time, and potentially more lives, in the long run. Four of the six Covid-19 vaccine trials the disease, it was Covid-19, the disease. Yet the question of whether some
What if convalescent plasma doesn’t work? What if for which information is available say Eight vaccine less good at block- Doing so could mean privileging infected individuals, perhaps espe-
they will also evaluate the incidence of ing transmission of vaccines that don’t block the transmis- cially at certain stages of infection, are
it does, but only on a specific subset of patients? What SARS-CoV-2 infections among subjects
candidates are the bacterium that sion of SARS-CoV-2 at all, or abandon- particularly infectious — whether they,
if it’s good for some patients but actually dangerous — but only as an ancillary outcome. undergoing causes the cough. ing vaccines that block transmission themselves, are superspreaders — also
for others? Authorizing the therapy makes it all but This approach is shortsighted: One large-scale Conversely, a well enough but that, by prevailing needs to be studied head-on: When
cannot assume that a vaccine that efficacy tests. vaccine that, let’s standards, are deemed to not forestall does contagiousness peak in whom
impossible to answer those questions, because pa- prevents the development of Covid-19 But even if say, offers older enough the development of Covid-19. and why? And can vaccines modify
tients who can get it from their doctors are unlikely to in a patient will necessarily also limit one, or more, adults only modest That, in turn, would essentially any of that?
sign up for a clinical trial. the risk that the patient will transmit of those efforts protection against mean that the only way to ever get rid The best vaccines don’t just protect
SARS-CoV-2 to other people. succeeds, a developing a dis- of SARS-CoV-2 would be near-univer- the inoculated from getting sick from a
Politicizing the regulatory process — tying the au- For example, a study of young Aus- ease might none- sal immunization — a herculean task. disease. They also protect everyone
thorization and approval of treatments to political tralian teenagers published in the New
vaccine might theless be very Focusing on how to block the coro- else from even contracting the patho-
England Journal of Medicine early this not end the effective, when navirus’s transmission is a much more gen that causes that disease.
considerations — undermines the entire system. On
year found that the vaccine used to pandemic. administered to efficient approach. Preventing the very transmission of
Saturday, the president accused the F.D.A. of deliber-
prevent the diseases caused by the B healthy adults or This is why randomized controlled SARS-CoV-2, no less than stopping it
ately thwarting the development of a coronavirus strain of meningococcus in children children, at curb- trials of the vaccines currently under from turning into Covid-19, should be a
vaccine in an effort to imperil his re-election. and teenagers “had no discernible ing a pathogen’s transmission in a consideration should include regular main priority of current efforts to
effect” on the presence of the relevant population overall. monitoring for the presence of SARS- develop the vaccines to end this pan-
The agency’s latest moves show that it’s susceptible
bacterium in the throats of vaccinated This is the case with the pneumococ- CoV-2 in study subjects. The goal demic.
to such criticism. This makes it hard to trust that regu- subjects displaying no symptoms. cal conjugate vaccine. A 2015 study should be to evaluate whether the
lators will do their jobs to fully and publicly vet any The inactivated polio vaccine preva- published in the New England Journal subjects acquire the infection at all, ADAM FINN is a senior clinician in the
prospective vaccines before allowing them on the lent in many developed countries today, of Medicine found that the vaccine and for how long, as well as how abun- pediatric immunology and infectious
known as IPV, is highly effective at reduced the occurrence of pneumonia dantly they shed and spread the virus, diseases clinical service at Bristol Royal
market. protecting individuals against polio. in inoculated adults age 65 or older by when and how. Hospital for Children and a professor of
If widespread vaccination is the key to victory over But it is far less effective at reducing only about 45 percent. Yet, according Studying these issues could also help pediatrics at the University of Bristol.
a pandemic that has already cost more than 170,000 viral shedding, at least in fecal excre- to a study last year by researchers at cast a light on the role of so-called RICHARD MALLEY is a physician specializ-
tions, than the oral vaccine, known as the Centers for Disease Control and superspreading events in this pan- ing in infectious diseases at Boston
American lives, injecting politics into medical science OPV, used more widely in other parts Prevention and Stanford University, demic. Children’s Hospital and a professor of
is dangerous and potentially fatal. of the world. the immunization of infants and tod- More and more research suggests pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.

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..
THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2020 | 11

opinion

The power of community bail funds

Mary Hooks
Jocelyn Simonson

At least 10,000 protesters and ordinary

people have been freed from U.S. jail
and immigrant detention facilities after
months of uprisings in which millions of
dollars have been donated to nearly 80
community bail funds nationwide. But
the backlash has begun.
In the last few weeks, news media,
ranging from Fox News to The Boston
Globe, have maligned the work of com-
munity bail funds, which pay money bail
in criminal and immigration cases for
those who cannot afford it. Reading
these stories, it would be easy to con-
clude that the funds
They help pose a threat to our
collective safety. But
keep people’s the opposite is true.
lives from Bail funds promote
being ruined public safety, in
by exorbitant small, non-sensation-
bail. Efforts alist ways: They free
to thwart people from the
these funds violence of jail, and
are the true allow them to fight
their cases while
public safety keeping their fam-
threats. ilies, homes and jobs.
They build collective
power by living out ROSE WONG

the ways in which the state should be

supporting people in need rather than reawakening around the intersection of home, job, car, children, physical safety a world without prisons by supporting jumped into the work, and she was Conservative news outlets have
imprisoning them. Over time, this adds racism, police violence and mass crimi- — and, during the pandemic, even her people so they’re safe in their own com- eventually hired as the regional bail- feigned shock that bail funds are work-
up to less violence and more security. nalization. life. munities. The group helps people find out coordinator. In that role, she pays ing to release not just protesters, but
The Globe has run multiple stories The Trump campaign has repeatedly Consider Lisa Clinton, a 42-year-old things that the state should be helping bail for people and provides support- also ordinary people. They ignore the
about a tragic case and statistical anom- tweeted images of mug shots of Black formerly incarcerated Black woman in them access instead of criminalizing ive services. This year, she launched thousands of people whose stories,
aly: Shawn McClinton, 39, was charged people it claims were bailed out by the Atlanta. In 2018, she was accused of them: housing, health care, counseling her own initiative, R.E.S.I.S.T., raising whether they are charged with low-level
with kidnapping and rape three weeks Minnesota Freedom Fund, while as- stealing $80 worth of food and clothing and other basic needs that keep people money to buy land on which to build misdemeanors or so-called “violent”
after the Massachusetts Bail Fund serting that the Biden campaign bailed for her and her five children when she from being harmed and harming others. healing, sustainable cooperative felonies, demonstrate how their free-
bailed him out. The face of Mr. McClin- them out because some individual was facing eviction. Ms. Clinton could Community bail funds are temporary housing for formerly incarcerated dom, in the aggregate, lies on the side of
ton, a Black man, has filled the local members of Joe Biden’s staff donated to not afford the $1,600 bond set in her infrastructure, not permanent solutions women. safety.
papers and made national news. The the fund. There is no report, however, case, and she expected to spend months to the crises of poverty and criminaliza- The ferocity of the backlash against Think of Michael Penn, 46, whose
New York Post felt the need to publish that any of the people named by the or years waiting in jail for her case to be tion. this work shows its power. It is not just $35,000 bail was paid by the Massachu-
four different mug shot-style pictures of Trump campaign have been arrested or resolved. It’s a situation that nearly half Ms. Clinton soon went to a strategy the media and the Trump campaign; setts Bail Fund in July in a felony case
him in one short article. Yet a vast ma- have harmed anyone since their re- of a million people in the United States meeting at SONG, where she says she many politicians are pushing back alleging gun possession. Mr. Penn will
jority of people who are freed on bail lease. Even if they had, such incidents face every day. People held in pretrial was “blown away.” She added, “I never against the broader message that bail now continue to go to his court dates
return to court without harming any- would be blips in a much larger story. detention are disproportionately Black: knew there were people taking action in funds lay out. In Massachusetts, while living with his mother and sister,
one, as the Massachusetts Bail Fund This kind of racist criticism is known 43 percent, even though Black people solidarity with people like me.” Bail politicians from all corners are attack- and maintaining social distancing
recently pointed out in a statement; 93 as the “Willie Horton effect.” A single act make up only 12 percent of the general funds often engage in broader organ- ing: the Boston police commissioner, measures — something that would be
percent of people there returned to of violence, especially when connected population. Ms. Clinton, though, was izing and political work — pressuring William Gross, declared the Massa- impossible in jail. The truth is, bail funds
court in 2016 without an arrest of any to the dog-whistle of a Black man’s mug bailed out by Southerners on New district attorneys to stop asking for chusetts Bail Fund a “detriment to the “literally save people’s lives,” Michael
kind. shot, is used to derail larger efforts at Ground (SONG), as part of the Black exorbitant bail, working to pass legisla- community”; the state’s attorney said. “They saved mine.”
It is also part of a national push by promoting safety outside of the criminal Mama’s Bail Out Action. tion that would end the use of money general, Maura Healy, announced that
right-wing groups to smear these funds system. Focusing so intently on one act Once Ms. Clinton was at home, she bail, pushing for decriminalization of her office will investigate the fund; MARY HOOKS is co-director of Southern-
in the wake of enormous support for obscures the everyday mass violence was given support to help her care for “quality of life” and other offenses, and and the Boston district attorney, ers on New Ground. JOCELYN SIMONSON
them. The incredible growth of bail that the criminal legal system does to her family and fight the eviction. Like calling for the redistribution of state Rachael Rollins, called the bailing out is professor at Brooklyn Law School
funds threatens the right, and the status millions of people. It takes only a few many bail funds and bailouts, SONG has resources away from punishment and of Shawn McClinton “the act of a and on the advisory board of the Com-
quo, because it underscores the national days in jail for someone to lose her an abolitionist vision of pushing toward toward collective care. Ms. Clinton coward.” munity Justice Exchange.

So you think New York is ‘dead’

SEINFELD, FROM PAGE 9 is not the essential element of charac- You will not bounce back. In your
cannot be “remoted” through even ter that made New York the brilliant enervated, pastel-filled new life in
the best fiber optic lines. That’s the diamond of activity it will one day be Florida. I hope you have a long,
whole reason many of us moved to again. healthy run down there. I can’t think of
New York in the first place. You found a place in Florida? Fine. a more fitting retribution for your fine
You ever wonder why Silicon Valley We know the sharp focus and restless, article.
even exists? I have always wondered, resilient creative spirit that Florida is This stupid virus will give up even-
why do these people all live and work all about. You think Rome is going tually. The same way you have.
in that location? They have all this away too? London? Tokyo? The East We’re going to keep going with New
insane technology; why don’t they all Village? York City if that’s all right with you.
just spread out wherever they want to They’re not. They change. They And it will sure as hell be back.
be and connect with their devices? mutate. They re-form. Because great- Because of all the real, tough New
Because it doesn’t work, that’s why.
Real, live, inspiring human energy
ness is rare. And the true greatness
that is New York City is beyond rare.
Yorkers who, unlike you, loved it and
understood it, stayed and rebuilt it. Netting Zero. A new virtual
events series on climate change,
exists when we coagulate together in It’s unknown. Unknown anyplace See you at the club.
crazy places like New York City. outside of New York City.
Feeling sorry for yourself because You say New York will not bounce JERRY SEINFELD is a comedian who lives
you can’t go to the theater for a while back this time. with his family in New York.
leading up to COP26.
Understand the challenges. Lead the change.
How QAnon is Trump’s last chance nytclimatehub.com/netting-zero

KRUGMAN, FROM PAGE 1 idea how to do policy, that is, to cope corporate tax cuts that didn’t even
major cities into smoking ruins; and with real threats. boost business investment. His only
more. After all, America on the day Trump visible response to the opioid crisis
Why this fixation on phantom men- took office was no utopia. The overall was a push to take away health insur-
aces? There has always been a para- economy was doing well, with steady ance from millions.
noid style in American politics that job growth and falling unemployment Then came Covid-19 — which, by
sees sinister conspiracies behind social — trends that continued, with no visi- the way, has already killed far more
and cultural change — a style going all ble break, for the next three years. But Americans than were murdered in
the way back to fear of Catholic immi- parts of the country suffered from the decade that preceded Trump’s
grants in the 19th century. Those of us persistent economic weakness and low inauguration. And the administra-
who remember the 1990s know that employment. Homicides were low, but tion’s response, aside from the occa-
QAnon-type conspiracy theories have “deaths of despair” from drugs, suicide sional promotion of quack remedies,
been out there for decades; they’ve and alcohol were rising sharply. has consisted of little but denial and
just become more visible thanks to So a president who really cared insistence that the whole thing will
social media and a president who about American carnage would have miraculously go away.
attributes all his failures to the machi- had plenty to work on. Trump, in other words, can’t devise
nations of the “deep state.” But Trump never even tried. His policies that respond to the nation’s
Beyond that, however, a lot of the response, such as it was, to regional actual needs, nor is he willing to
focus on imaginary threats represents decline was a trade war that, on net, listen to those who can. He won’t
a defensive response from people who reduced manufacturing employment. even try. And at some level both he
repeatedly demonstrated, even before The rest of his economic policy was and those around him seem aware of
the coronavirus hit, that they have no standard Republican fare, focused on his basic inadequacy for the job of
being president.
What he and they can do, however,
is conjure up imaginary threats that
play into his supporters’ prejudices,
coupled with conspiracy theories that
resonate with their fear and envy of
know-it-all “elites.” QAnon is only the
most ludicrous example of this genre,
all of which portrays Trump as the
hero defending us from invisible evil.
If all of this sounds crazy, that’s
because it is. And it’s almost cer-
tainly not a political tactic that can
win over a majority of American
voters. It might, however, scare
enough people that, combined with
vote suppression and the unrepre-
sentative nature of the Electoral
College, Trump can manage, barely,
to hang on to power.
I don’t think this desperate strat-
egy is going to work. But it’s all
Trump has left. The only thing he can
hope for is fear itself — nameless,
KYLE GRILLOT/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
unreasoning, unjustified terror based
QAnon supporters demonstrated in Los Angeles on Saturday. on nothing real at all.
 ..
12 | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION

science
Not a dry eye in the house
Microscopic assassins when animals are healthy
Predatory bacteria what’s best for the patients. Whatever
could be unleashed Even for those creatures tears they’re willing to offer, Dr. Oriá
said, “we respect that, even if it is only a
against harmful germs that are unable to weep, tiny amount.”
tears are vital for vision The trouble doesn’t end with col-
BY KATHERINE J. WU lection. One of her group’s recent
BY KATHERINE J. WU projects involved shipping the tears of
Henry N. Williams’s favorite movie-ac- more than 100 caimans from Brazil to a
tion sequence unfolds on a strip of glass Dr. Arianne Pontes Oriá stands firm: collaborator’s lab at the University of
just a few millimeters across. She does not make animals cry for a liv- California, Davis. Perplexed by its con-
It’s a cinematic showdown between ing. tents, customs agents delayed the pack-
two bacterial cells: Vibrio coralliilyti- Technically, only humans can cry, or age in transit. The samples degraded at
cus, a large, rod-shaped marine mi- weep in response to an emotional state, room temperature, and Dr. Oriá and her
crobe, and a petite atacker, Halobacteri- said Dr. Oriá, a veterinarian at the Fed- team had to start the collection process
ovorax, that has latched onto the bigger eral University of Bahia in Brazil. For over. Things worked out better the sec-
bacterium. The Vibrio, desperate to jet- humans, crying is a way to physically ond time, she said.
tison its assailant, wriggles and whirls manifest feelings, which are difficult to It still isn’t totally clear what’s respon-
through a pool of liquid, zigzagging in fu- study and confirm in other creatures. sible for the staying power of caiman
tility before finally coming to a “screech- But Dr. Oriá does collect animal tears tears. But Dr. Oriá’s team has gleaned a
ing halt,” as Dr. Williams described it. — the liquid that keeps eyes clean and few hints from the crystal patterns that
Then the Halobacteriovorax starts its nourished. In vertebrates, or animals the liquids leave behind after they dry,
dirty work: It punctures the Vibrio’s ex- with backbones, tears are vital for vi- each as distinctive as a snowflake.
terior and begins to bore inside, where it sion, Dr. Oriá said. And yet, these capti- These patterns, when visualized under
will gorge on its host’s innards, clone it- vating fluids have been paid little to no a microscope, can differ vastly among
self many times over and burst free to attention, except in a select few mam- species. “It is one of the most beautiful
find its next meal. mals. things that you can see,” Dr. Oriá said.
Dr. Williams, a microbiologist at Flor- “A lot of vision, we’re not aware of, un- Dried caiman tears, she added, form
ida A&M University, delights in showing til it’s a problem,” said Sebastian Echev- thicker lattices than those from some
students these videos of so-called preda- erri, a biologist who studies animal vi- other animals, possibly making them
tory bacteria, a loose group that in- sion but doesn’t work with Dr. Oriá’s more stable.
cludes Halobacteriovorax and a bevy of team. “We notice when tears are miss- By and large, though, the chemical
other microbial assassins. The bacteria ing.” recipe for tears, which include a slurry
never fail to impress. That’s a bit of a shame, Dr. Oriá said. of water, fats, proteins and charged min-
“It engenders a lot of ‘wow,’ a lot of ‘oh Because whether from dogs, parrots or erals such as sodium, seems to be pretty
my goodness,’” he said. “Lions, sharks, tortoises, the stuff that seeps out of ani- similar across various species. The vari-
tigers — these are all predators that mals’ eyes is simply “fascinating,” she ations seem to track with habitat, the re-
have gotten our attention. But there also said. searchers found. Animals that spent
exists a much smaller predator that is As she and her colleagues have re- most of their time on land, for instance,
just as ferocious.” ported in a series of recent papers, in- had more proteins in their tears than
Predatory bacteria carry immense cluding one published this month in the their seafaring counterparts, but they
promise in an extraordinarily small journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science, also had less urea — a molecular waste
package. Deployed under the right cir- tears can be great equalizers: Across product that’s also found in urine.
cumstances, they could help people beat several branches of the tree of life, ver-
back harmful microbes in the envi- tebrates seem to swaddle their eyes
ronment, or purge pathogens from the with fluid in much the same way. But to The chemical recipe for tears
food supply. Some experts think they help them cope with the challenges of seems to be pretty similar
could someday serve as a sort of living various environments, evolution has for many species, with
therapeutic that could help clear drug- tinkered with the tears of the world’s
resistant germs from ailing patients in creatures in ways that scientists are variations that seem to
whom all other treatments have failed. only beginning to explore. Research like correspond with habitat.
But even the small community of re- Dr. Oriá’s could offer a glimpse into the
searchers who study predatory bacteria myriad paths that eyes have taken to
has not fully figured out how these cells maximize their health and the well-be- Dr. Oriá’s team also previously found
select and slaughter their hosts. Teasing ing of the organisms that use them. chemical similarities among dog, horse
out those answers could reveal a variety Given how often eye problems can and human tears, all of which seem to
of ways to tackle stubborn infections plague humans and other animals, flow quite freely. That might be a mam-
and provide a window onto predator- there’s “a lot to be learned from these ad- mal thing, Dr. Oriá said. But perhaps do-
prey dynamics at their most micro- aptations,” said Dr. Sara Thomasy, a vet- mestication, which prompted a big shift
scopic. erinary ophthalmologist at the Univer- in scenery for these previously wild ani-
To potentially use this group of mi- sity of California, Davis, who wasn’t in- mals, tamed their tears, too.
crobes as “a living antibiotic, we need to volved in Dr. Oriá’s studies. That an animal’s surroundings heav-
know how it grows,” said Terrens Saaki, Dr. Oriá began her research by study- ily influence the composition of tears,
a microbiologist studying predatory ing the tears of caimans, which have “a which are constantly exposed to the out-
bacteria at the de Duve Institute in Bel- very curious ocular surface,” she said. side world, “makes a lot of sense,” Dr.
gium. “We can’t use it if we don’t under- While humans blink about 15 times a Echeverri said. “Most of our other liq-
stand it.” minute, helping spread fresh-squeezed uids are waste that we get rid of, or inter-
tears over the cornea, caimans can go nal. Tears have to deal with the envi-
FOUND EVERYWHERE about two hours without batting an eye- ronment from moment to moment.”
Predatory bacteria were discovered by lid (of which they have three). But their (But tears aren’t universal, Dr. Echev-
accident. Scientists stumbled upon eyes don’t dry out. erri noted. Invertebrates, which have
them more than a half-century ago “We started to think, ‘What kind of very different body plans, have had to
while hunting for another type of mur- molecules give these tear films stabil- concoct tear-free methods of keeping
derous microbe called a bacteriophage, ity?’ It’s amazing,” Dr. Oriá said. The an- their eyes clean. Some spiders, for in-
or phage, a virus that can infect and kill swer, she added, could aid the develop- stance, use bristlelike hairs on their legs
bacteria. Before then, Dr. Williams said, ment of treatments for dry eyes and to brush away dust and debris.)
“it was not known that a bacterium other ophthalmic troubles in people. Some of the weirdest tears out there,
would prey on other bacteria in this In the years that followed, her team’s Dr. Oriá said, come from loggerhead sea
fashion.” list of tear donors has expanded to in- turtles, whose eyes secrete fluids so vis-
That predatory bacteria eluded detec- clude other reptiles such as turtles and cous they are practically sap — and im-
tion for so long is somewhat surprising. tortoises, as well as hawks, parrots, owls possible to collect with the supplies she
Many dozens of species teem in the seas and other birds. (Dr. Oriá and her col- and her students typically use to sop up
and in clods of dirt. They are thought to leagues have also added mammals like specimens.
be hardy enough to weather animal humans, dogs and horses, for the sake of “We tried paper strips, we tried mi-
guts, including our own, and to live in comparison.) cropipettes, nothing,” she said. “The
raw sewage. For animals in general, the collection mucus stuck in everything.”
“My students have isolated them process is mostly the same: During a They finally worked out a method of
from soil, from snails in freshwater routine veterinary exam, a human re- sucking up the sludge with a super-
streams, from the drain in a custodial searcher will gently restrain the crea- strong syringe.
closet down the hall from our lab,” said OSCAR GRONNER
ture, wait for it to relax and then dab Dr. Thomasy suspects the tears’ tex-
Laura Williams, who studies predatory carefully at its eye with a strip of ab- ture helps them stick to the eyeballs of
bacteria at Providence College in Rhode at very specific parts of a bacterium’s tions of microbes on their own. And be- MICROBIAL MYSTERIES sorbent paper. the turtles, even when they’re underwa-
Island. “Anywhere there are bacteria, anatomy, bacterial predators are blunt ing microbes, they too will eventually be Even if no widespread therapeutics de- This isn’t always easy. Researchers ter. On land, though, it makes for quite a
there are probably predatory bacteria agents of gluttony: A microbe can no swept out of the body by immune cells, rive from predatory bacteria, they are, must take extra care to be gentle with spectacle. “I would guess it would look
trying to eat them.” And scientists are more easily evolve resistance to them against which they have “absolutely no to experts, gems of basic biology. In Bel- the animals, which don’t always shed as like the worst snot you’ve ever seen,”
identifying more of these predators than a rabbit can evolve resistance to a defense,” Dr. Connell said. gium, Dr. Saaki and his adviser, many tears as scientists would like. she said.
each year — a striking parallel to the wolf. As a result, predatory bacteria are not Géraldine Laloux, are trying to under- Some species are even fussier at eye ex- But Dr. Oriá doesn’t mind the turtle
world’s diversity of phages. Even before latching onto their prey, strong candidates for treating infections stand how Bdellovibrio grows and di- ams than people are. Macaws appar- gloop.
But phages and predatory bacteria BALOs are formidable foes, capable of that have already spread throughout the vides inside other bacteria. “You don’t ently “hate to be restrained after lunch,” “It’s fun, it’s like an adventure,” she
are very different beasts. Phages tend to chemical sensing that allows them to body. Administered in the right way, see that very often,” Dr. Laloux said. Dr. Oriá said. said. “I forget all my problems when I
target a narrow range of hosts, whereas sniff out their prey and then give chase, however, predatory bacteria might be Typical bacteria replicate by briefly But the entire process comes down to am dealing with these animals.”
many predatory bacteria are far less propelling themselves forward by rotat- coaxed to work in concert with the im- elongating, then cleaving themselves in
finicky. Some predatory bacteria are ing a corkscrew-like tail called a flagel- mune response to eliminate their tar- two. Bdellovibrios, in contrast, will spool
amenable to eating dozens, if not hun- lum. “They can swim 100 times their gets. themselves out into long, spaghetti-like
dreds, of bacterial species, enabling body lengths in a second,” said Dr. Dan- They could also be used with another strands, then segment themselves into
them to thrive in most habitats. And iel Kadouri, a microbiologist at Rutgers therapeutic like an antibiotic or even a multiple daughter cells, like an assem-
whereas phages work quickly, destroy- University who has been studying pred- light dose of phage. bly line of sausage links. “There are up
ing entire populations within hours, atory bacteria since 2003. “Pound for “We need to start thinking about ho- to 16 of them in some cases,” Dr. Laloux
predatory bacteria are plodding, some- pound, that’s faster than a cheetah.” listic approaches,” Dr. Kadouri said. “It’s said. The entourage will then leave the
times taking weeks to grow in the lab. In animal studies, predatory bacteria another tool in the arsenal.” host cell en masse, about four hours af-
And while other microbes are content have shown promise in targeting dis- With further study, predatory bacte- ter the parent Bdellovibrio first made
to feast on nutrient-rich broth, preda- ease-causing germs like Salmonella and ria could someday change “how we give contact.
tory bacteria demand a steady supply of basic care,” said Dr. Saaki, who hopes to “That is totally different from what we
live prey. bring more accessible medicine back to know about how bacteria proliferate,”
“It’s a pain,” said Julia Johnke, a Predatory bacteria have his home country, Suriname. Dr. Laloux said. She added that this su-
microbiologist studying predatory bac- no interest in nonmicrobial percharged reproduction strategy
teria at the University of Kiel in Ger- cells, which suggests they RESTORING ORDER might be a way for Bdellovibrio to cash
many. Predatory bacteria are not exclusively in while it can. “Once you are in there,
Still, their predatory lifestyle is so could be safe for use in people. weapons of destruction. In Germany, Dr. you are protected from the environment
fruitful that it appears to have evolved Johnke is at work on a series of projects and harsh conditions,” she said. “Maybe
more than once. Some, such as the that highlight the microbes’ peacemak- you want to get the most out of it.”
leechlike Micavibrio, grab onto their vic- Yersinia pestis, which causes the ing skills in the complex community of Across the Atlantic, Dr. Williams of
tims like vampires and suck them dry. plague. Dr. Kadouri and Nancy Connell, bacteria that live in the gut. Providence College is studying “the
Others, like Myxococcus, are sharp- a microbial geneticist at the Johns Hop- Some evidence suggests that other side of the coin” — the prey. Each
shooters that operate from afar, releas- kins Center for Health Security, have “healthy human beings usually have predatory bacterium has its own array
ing a deluge of enzymes that can dis- dosed the lungs of rats and mice with predatory bacteria as part of their mi- of targets, but it’s unclear how much
solve their prey at a distance. Some Bdellovibrios and watched them devour crobiome,” she said. Little is understood that owes to the pickiness of the preda-
Myxococcus cells even band together to most of the prey at hand. Trials in chick- about their role, she added. But they tor or to the resilience of the prey. Dr.
hunt, attacking in a coordinated swarm. ens and zebrafish have yielded encour- most likely maintain order in the gut and Williams’s students have gathered some
Perhaps the most notorious of the aging results as well. ensure that no single species runs amok. evidence that certain E. coli strains
bunch, a group called Bdellovibrio, Notably, predatory bacteria have no Dr. Johnke’s work suggests that peo- might be a tougher swallow than others,
shares a modus operandi with Halobac- interest in nonmicrobial cells and don’t ple with gastrointestinal disorders like for reasons still unknown.
teriovorax: They penetrate their hosts seem to agitate the immune system — Crohn’s disease may have lost this deli- Some of those mysteries will be for
and annihilate them from within. Most even when applied directly onto the sur- cate balance. Reintroducing predators the next generation of predatory-bacte-
predatory bacteria experts call these face of a rabbit’s eyeball. This suggests to the ecosystem might help restore it. ria enthusiasts to solve. A thousand or
perforating predators BALOs, an acro- that these microbes could be safe for use A similar dynamic likely holds true in so miles south, in Florida, the other Dr.
nym for “Bdellovibrio and like organ- in people, Dr. Kadouri said: “We’ve nature, where Dr. Williams, of Florida Williams often thinks back to when he
isms.” shoved quite a lot of predator bacteria A&M University, has turned most of his first heard of the microbes, during a
into animals and never saw an ag- attention. Even tiny amounts of preda- graduate school seminar five decades
LIVING THERAPEUTICS gressive immune response.” tory bacteria can rejigger the microbial ago. He now gives the same energizing PHOTOGRAPHS BY DR. ARIANNE PONTES ORIÁ

Once a bacterial predator has homed in But these predators flourish only in membership of a sample of seawater. talks to a new crop of students, he said: Researchers collecting tears from, clockwise from top left: a roadside hawk, a broad-
on its prey, little can stop it. Whereas an- the presence of their prey, so they typi- “They’re always present, managing the “I still find them just as exciting as I did snouted caiman and a barn owl. Caimans, which may go hours between blinks, need
tibiotics and bacteriophages tend to aim cally struggle to vanquish entire popula- population of some bacteria,” he said. on Day 1.” tears with exceptional staying power. It’s not clear how they manage that.
..
THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2020 | 13

Sports
Doctors enter college football’s politics
Bob Bowlsby, the Big 12 commis- have become a political statement —
Powerhouse conferences sioner, said he did not feel compelled to presidents and the medical teams advis-
release the medical underpinnings for ing them were seeing what their constit-
send mixed messages on his conference’s decision to continue uents want them to see in the data.
how virus affects athletes playing, even though new infection “It’s seductive to go down that road, it
rates remained high in the counties of clearly is,” said Dr. Swartzberg, who ob-
BY BILLY WITZ half its universities. “Well, if we got to served that in such a polarized society, it
the point where we were going to not would be easy to draw that conclusion —
As Justin Fields, the star quarterback at play, it probably requires more of an ex- even if he would not. “I want to make it
Ohio State, was gathering more than planation,” he told reporters on a confer- clear: There’s no way I’d criticize a pro-
300,000 electronic signatures to be- ence call. “The decision to continue to fessor trained like I am who comes to a
seech Big Ten university presidents to move forward and stay the course, I different conclusion,” Dr. Swartzberg
reverse their decision to postpone foot- think, is a different one.” added. “But we all bring our own biases
ball this fall, he was applauded by his Standing out as an exception to the to our conclusions.”
coach, Ryan Day, who in turn was being obfuscation has been the Pac-12, whose The primary tests for myocarditis are
hailed by his athletic director, Gene medical advisory committee of two doz- an echocardiogram (an ultrasound), an
Smith. en team doctors, infectious-disease spe- electrocardiogram (which records the
Nobody, though, was cheering on Dr. cialists, cardiologists and public health heart’s electric signals) and a blood test
Curt Daniels. experts detailed in a 12-page document that measures a protein that is excreted
Dr. Daniels, the director of sports car- why it was not safe to play contact when the heart muscle is damaged. But
diology at Ohio State, had also been sports until at least next year. It said Dr. Daniels, the Ohio State cardiologist,
busy, working to publish a three-month that infection rates in the conference said a cardiac M.R.I., which he called the
study whose preliminary findings were footprint remained high, that there were gold standard of testing for myocarditis,
presented to Pac-12 and Big Ten leaders too many uncertainties about myocardi- might reveal the condition when the
before they shut down football earlier tis and other effects of the virus, and other tests do not.
this month. Dr. Daniels said that cardiac that testing had been inadequate. The
M.R.I.s, an expensive and sparingly document also laid out metrics for when
used tool, revealed an alarmingly high sports could return. Competing agendas and a lack of
rate of myocarditis — heart inflamma- The Pac-12 document was the latest it- transparency about medical data.
tion that can lead to cardiac arrest with eration of a text that has been amended
exertion — among college athletes who over several months based on federal
had recovered from the coronavirus. health directives, N.C.A.A. recommen- In May, as plans were being made to
The survey found myocarditis in close dations, community infection rates and bring athletes back to prepare for their
to 15 percent of athletes who had the vi- other information. Dr. Gregory Stewart, seasons, Dr. Daniels began working
rus, almost all of whom experienced the team physician at Tulane, said that with the Ohio State team doctor Dr.
mild or no symptoms, Dr. Daniels added, all conferences have put together simi- James Borchers, who was coordinating
perhaps shedding more light on the un- MEGAN JELINGER/REUTERS lar documents and that their medical ad- the school’s protocols for sports. They
certainties about the short- and long- Students will not be playing in the stadium at Ohio State, where a sports cardiologist has linked heart inflammation to the coro- visory groups share them with one an- concluded that cardiac M.R.I.s would
term effects the virus may have on ath- navirus in athletes. Ohio State belongs to the Big Ten conference, which has postponed its fall football season. other. Anytime there are new directives provide the most salient data. “Every-
letes. from the Centers for Disease Control body is saying now that maybe we
But as Dr. Daniels’s survey awaits the and Prevention or the N.C.A.A., which should do cardiac M.R.I.s,” Dr. Daniels
rigors of peer review, it has received with a fall season, with a shutdown risk- fraternity houses, its schools were busy ference’s offices — to issue a letter that has its own medical advisory group, or said. “We’ve got three months of data.”
scant attention, in part because Ohio ing billions in television and ticket reve- announcing plans to have upward of summarized the medical criteria upon new approaches by other conferences, Just what that data says remains
State has refused to make public any nue. Those who have pushed toward 25,000 fans at games — even at Ala- which the presidents based their deci- “we compare it to ours and make sure largely hidden. Dr. Daniels said he is
testing data about its athletes — who playing have done so with little or no bama, where a vice president told stu- sion not to play. we’re good,” said Dr. Stewart, who leads prohibited by the school from revealing
make up the bulk of the study — other public health justification, and despite dents Friday the university was on a Warren has also had to beat back the American Athletic Conference medi- how many athletes who had the virus
than to announce last month that it had widespread pronouncements earlier pace to run out of isolation beds by the complaints from his own member uni- cal advisory group. have been tested, how many attend Ohio
shut down workouts because of positive this year that if students could not sit in end of the month. And a cardiologist at versities. Still, few have been shared publicly, State, what sport they play, the severity
virus tests. Thus, Dr. Daniels said he classrooms, they could not play sports. the Mayo Clinic who advised the Big 12 Four of them expressed displeasure especially with any detail. of the myocarditis symptoms, what
could not disclose any more information Last week, North Carolina, North Car- and Conference U.S.A. to soldier on with with the postponement, none as force- Dr. John Swartzberg, an infectious- parts of the heart it attacks, or most
about the data, including the number of olina State and Notre Dame, which will football said in a podcast that any con- fully as Nebraska, which issued a state- disease and vaccinology professor other questions about the data.
athletes tested and those found with my- play in the Atlantic Coast Conference ference that did not play because of my- ment not just from its football coach, emeritus at the University of California, Soon, though, the peer review will be
ocarditis, until it is published. this season, backed off in-person in- ocarditis concerns was relying on Scott Frost, and its athletic director, Bill Berkeley, who advised the Pac-12, has complete, which could clear the way for
What is taking place at Ohio State — struction because of virus outbreaks, “wimpy, wobbly, weak” evidence. Moos, but also from its chancellor, Ron- watched these worlds of medicine and the study to be published soon, Dr. Dan-
mixed messages, competing agendas but encouraged their football teams to Nowhere, though, has there been nie Green, and university system presi- college sports collide, with public health iels said. That could open the door to
and a lack of transparency — is playing stay on campus. While some players in more conflict than in the Big Ten, where dent, Ted Carter. They said they would rationale being cloaked as carefully as a more studies, larger data sets and better
out on a broader scale across the United the Southeastern Conference used so- it took Commissioner Kevin Warren continue to consult the medical experts coach might conceal who was his start- science about the risks that schools are
States as college football’s powerhouse cial media to criticize students for not eight days — and the prospect of angry who assured them athletes were safest ing quarterback. He was asked if in the asking unpaid athletes to assume — at
conferences decide whether to go forth wearing masks in classrooms, bars or parents demonstrating outside the con- on campuses. current environment — where masks least for those interested in hearing it.

NON SEQUITUR PEANUTS DOONESBURY CLASSIC 1994

GARFIELD CALVIN AND HOBBES

SUDOKU No. 2608

WIZARD of ID DILBERT
(c) PZZL.com Distributed by The New York Times syndicate
Created by Peter Ritmeester/Presented by Will Shortz

KENKEN CROSSWORD | Edited by Will Shortz

Fill the grid so Solution No. 2508 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

that every row,

column 3x3 box Fill the grids with digits so as not Across 27 Prepared to be 47 “Aaron Burr, 14 15 16

and shaded 3x3 to repeat a digit in any row or   1 Redding who wrote knighted ___” (song from
box contains column, and so that the digits “Respect” 29 Election winner of
17 18 19
within each heavily outlined box
“Hamilton”)
each of the   5 New York’s ___ 48 Investment for a
will produce the target number
1908 20 21 22
numbers
shown, by using addition,
Lawrence College 30 Lucretia ___, pioneer physicist?
1 to 9 exactly
subtraction, multiplication or
10 Scoundrels in women’s rights 50 Tequila source 23 24 25
once.
division, as indicated in the box.
14 Blowout 32 T-Mobile competitor: 52 Like some gift bows
A 4x4 grid will use the digits 15 Sauce that’s heavy on Abbr. 53 Working stiff 26 27 28 29
For solving tips
1-4. A 6x6 grid will use 1-6.
54 Ditch
and more puzzles: garlic … and vowels 33 The Diamondbacks,
www.nytimes.com/ 55 Investment for a
16 “Thirtysomething” 30 31 32 33
on scoreboards
sudoku
For solving tips and more KenKen actor Ken 34 Collection that restaurateur?
puzzles: www.nytimes.com/ 59 In a bit 34 35 36 37 38
17 Investment for a demonstrates job
kenken. For Feedback: nytimes@ humorist? skills … as suggested 60 Devilishly clever
kenken.com
39 40 41 42
19 Word before by 17-, 24-, 48- and insults, in slang
curriculum or 55-Across 61 Adidas competitor 43 44 45 46 47
meltdown 39 What makes car care? 62 Repair
KenKen® is a registered trademark of Nextoy, LLC.
20 Mila of “Bad Moms” 63 “The final frontier”
Copyright © 2018 www.KENKEN.com. All rights reserved. 40 Gardner of old 48 49 50 51
21 Insubstantial beverage Hollywood 64 Phone nos.
Down 52 53
… or argument 41 Strategic objective
Answers to Previous Puzzles 23 Vacation goal, in brief soon after the D-Day   1 Dungeons & Dragons
54 55 56 57 58
24 Investment for a invasion meanie
butcher? 43 Science fiction award   2 Solemnly promised
59 60 61
26 Constitution or 45 Part of Wonder   3 Unaffected by
Independence, in D.C. Woman’s outfit   4 Lighten one’s wallet, 62 63 64
so to speak
Solution to August 25 Puzzle
  5 Simon ___ PUZZLE BY CARL LARSON
A J A R C R A G A C U R A   6 Big inits. in finance
22 Dodger beater in the 35 Unwanted engine 48 Its founder was born
N O G O P A I R F E T U S   7 Aussie animal sound
2017 World Series in Mecca
T H E P O U N D O F F L E S H   8 Completely off-base 36 It might be muted
23 Zodiac animal after 49 Box-office busts
I N D E X T E T R A S H Y   9 Like advanced 37 Horror movie cry
I I I T A I L fishes 51 Intimated
screens, informally 38 Staple of
L E N D M E Y O U R E A R S 10 “Dinner” preceder on 24 Texas politico 53 Do some modeling
Mediterranean
E E G E P E E S N E A K a dinner invitation O’Rourke
cuisine for artists
L A R D S L A C K T I N Y 25 Chicago transport
11 Much 42 Material collected in 56 New Deal program
B R E A D T O O L O D E choice
A Y T H E R E S T H E R U B 12 Proceeding by the Minecraft with the slogan “We
shortest way 28 It may get hot under 43 Scorcher
L E E S L E A Do Our Part,” in brief
A W W P I C K S D I N A R 13 Underhanded sort the collar 44 A group of carolers
W H A T S D O N E I S D O N E 18 Old-fashioned weapon 31 What Hamlet meets may sing in it 57 The Tar Heels of the
L E V E E R E A L E T N A for hand-to-hand in Act V of “Hamlet” 45 Build some muscle A.C.C.
S W E E T T E L L R E E D combat 33 Way yonder 46 50 or more letters? 58 Rapper Lil ___ X
 ..
14 | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION

Culture
Unwitting memory palace
lights in the next room.
ART REVIEW
BEACON, N.Y. Just as important is the architecture
of Dia’s stark basement, whose con-
crete colonnade echoes the garages
A music installation gives that Craig and other African-American
musicians in Detroit repurposed for
a factory-turned-museum parties in the 1980s and 1990s. Many of
a haunting new resonance the minimal and conceptual artists that
Dia sanctifies upstairs worked in con-
BY JASON FARAGO verted lofts in the 1960s and 1970s, of
course. And techno, too, was shaped by
Before it was converted into one of industrial architecture. (Consider
America’s largest museums of modern Kraftwerk, the German electronic-
and contemporary art, the building music group whose Bauhaus-type
that houses the Dia Art Foundation sound was decisive for the develop-
here was a box factory, built in 1929. ment of Detroit techno, and whose
The front galleries upstairs were once name literally means “power plant.”)
printing sheds, and still signal their Those vacated factories and work-
lapsed function through their saw- shops inspired art and music with a
toothed windows and unstained wood stricter, depersonalized edge — and
floors. But it’s downstairs, in the old “Party/After-Party,” with stunning
loading bays, that you really sense this confidence, establishes that Black
minimal monastery’s industrial life. electronic music fully belongs in the
An array of concrete columns, each lineage of American and European art
topped with a mushroom-shaped capi- and industry that Dia guards.
tal, holds up the printing plant. Clere- By century’s end, the artists them-
story windows cast shadows on a huge selves got priced out of their New York
concrete floor. Down here, where Dia lofts — and museums themselves
has presented work by Bruce Nauman, began to move into the old ware-
Dan Flavin, Tacita Dean and François houses, factories and electric plants of
Morellet, the museum fully fore- deindustrializing cities. The trend
grounds the awkward alliance of mod- dates at least to the Mattress Factory
ern art and modern industry. in Pittsburgh, which became an art
space in 1977. But it really took off in
the late 1990s, with the opening of
Mass MoCA in the Berkshire Moun-
tains of Massachusetts (a former tex-
tile printer), the Hamburger Bahnhof
PHOTOGRAPHS BY VICTOR LLORENTE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES in Berlin (an old train shed), and the
Above, Carl Craig’s “Party/After-Party” at Dia Beacon. Mr. Craig, a Detroit D.J., provides a meld of factory, nightclub and art gallery, and his exhibition shows the affinity between granddaddy of museum conversions:
techno music and the minimal art found at the museum, including sculptures by Richard Serra, below left, and the Dan Flavin light sculpture glimpsed below right. Tate Modern in London, which opened
in 2000 in a repurposed power station.
These museums, and Dia too, have
turned the streamlined spaces of in-
dustry into the most rarefied and
expensive of climes, and that gives a
melancholy tint to the evolution of art,
music, money and urbanism that
“Party/After-Party” so cannily traces.
In exporting techno music from one
converted factory to another, Mr. Craig
is increasing its historical worth but
also depopulating it, objectifying it,
giving it the same cool power as Judd’s
specific objects. There is no party in
“Party/After-Party,” especially now, in
Above, Barry Le Va’s “Animations: Frame the reduced-occupancy museum. I
by Frame,” and below, his “Off Center,” could imagine it, as my breath under
back, and “1 Edge/2 Corners” and “2 my mask got hot, as an exhibition of
Edges/1 Corner,” front. club culture in an ethnographic mu-
seum, an embalmed display of some
vanished civilization.
At the end of the 20th century, both
high art and popular revelry could
infill our cities’ deindustrialized ex-
ers that blast a precisely engineered Yet when Mr. Craig and the Dia minimal sculptor Barry Le Va, whose tensions amid the heightened body panses. At this low moment in the 21st,
score. For more than 20 minutes, Mr. curator Kelly Kivland began planning circa-1970 scatterings of chalk, glass, awareness we’ve all picked up from only art is left. And maybe, in the era
Craig builds and layers four-on-the- this exhibition five years ago, they felt and ball bearings cover the length social distancing. Richard Serra’s of Covid, this is what art is supposed to
floor explosions, deep-toned echoes could not have foreseen how devastat- of one gallery’s floor. You have to keep “Torqued Ellipses,” whose tight pas- be: a time capsule of when our lives
and euphoric drops. You may want to ingly gloomy “Party/After-Party” your distance, but you were already sages of contorted steel have loomed still had human fullness, an amulet of
dance, but no one is there to dance would appear, now that you cannot doing that. Minimal sculpture, like these past two decades in the factory’s past joys we will not experience for a
with you. dance in almost any city on earth. techno music, conditions the body to old train shed, require the same careful while longer. I may never feel the joy of
More than just a migration of the (Turn your browser to Mr. Craig’s behave in certain ways — circling it, negotiations we execute in pharmacy dancing again, I felt, as Mr. Craig’s
nightclub into the museum, “Party/ touring schedule, and gasp at the sizing yourself up to it, getting close aisles. Donald Judd’s wooden boxes drop washed over me and my feet
After-Party” delves into the inter- litany of canceled gigs and without touching it. occupy space with as much exactitude stayed planted to the floor. I have
twined legacies of functionalist archi- livestreamed stopgap efforts.) Its as a quarantine venue: They keep reached the edge of tears in nightclubs
tecture, postwar art and techno music: integration of gallery and club, its their distance from one another, and before, but this was the first time I’ve
how industry shaped culture from the conversion of sound into space, might Its conversion of sound into dictate where you should stand. done so sober.
Bauhaus to Motown, and what hap- have felt like a Brechtian defamiliariza- space might have felt like a No such objects are to be found Maybe, before Dia brings down Mr.
pens to art and music when the fac- tion of techno before March. Now it Brechtian defamiliarization of downstairs in Mr. Craig’s exhibition, Craig’s installation in the summer of
tories close down. It’s an immensely feels like an antiseptic memory palace though its orchestration is just as 2021, it will be safe enough for a few
cunning meld of factory, nightclub and before the “after-party” of Covid life.
techno before March. careful and its impact on your body is hundred bodies to pack the museum’s
art gallery. It’s a triumph for Dia, Museums are slowly reopening, but just as profound. The D.J. and his basement and dance. I hate to bet
The basement is almost empty right which has been quietly broadening its clubs are not coming back for a while. This theatrical aspect, as if sculpture sound engineers equipped the base- against it. But shortly after leaving
now, and in this dark vacuum lies one roster of participants without dissolv- You may never taste a stranger’s and viewer were two bodies on a stage, ment with equalizers and black fabric Beacon I saw an item from Germany:
of the smartest and saddest exhibitions ing its commitment to a cool, narrow sweat on the dance floor again. was precisely what the art historian baffles to modulate reverb, so that his Berghain, the immense Berlin night-
I’ve seen in a while — staged not by an strain of minimal, conceptual and Dia reopened to the public earlier Michael Fried, in an influential 1967 rippling percussion and expansive club (another power-plant conversion)
artist, but by a musician. For the new environmental art. And it represents this month, with timed ticketing and, essay, despised about minimalism — rhythms leave your heart beating and where Mr. Craig regularly D.J.s, will
work “Party/After-Party,” the D.J. Carl one of the sharpest efforts I’ve seen to naturally, a mask requirement. The and it got worse with the arrival of the your ears ringing. His crescendoing not host parties for the foreseeable
Craig, a leading figure of Detroit introduce a musician into the suppos- galleries are even more serene than camera phone, which turned minimal blocks of sound have affinities with Sol future and will instead turn its dance
techno, has converted Dia’s lower level edly all-media terrain of contemporary usual given the limited capacity, and art into a familiar Instagram backdrop. LeWitt’s exhaustive systems of lines, floor over to . . . contemporary art. For
into a phantasmal nightclub, illuminat- art, which took experimental music upstairs John Chamberlain, Michael Yet I found that Covid has revalued with the identical rods of Walter De pity’s sake, we should just say it: Art is
ed only by a few strip lights and spots, more seriously in the late 1960s and Heizer, Robert Smithson and Gerhard and reformatted my experience of Maria’s “Broken Kilometer,” or with the luxury asset that moves in when
and equipped with heavy-duty speak- 1970s than it does today. Richter are now joined by the post- minimal sculpture, which gives off new Flavin’s barrier of green fluorescent the party’s over.

Bright Eyes’ summertime sadness

chasm of what is now missing, and the seems to be the subject of one of the face.” There is something wonderfully
ALBUM REVIEW
strange spoils of what remains. most affecting tracks on this album, disarming about hearing the word
In his earlier music, Oberst wrote “Stairwell Song,” an openhearted elegy “ex-wife” in a Bright Eyes song. Her
about fractured fairy-tale characters to with an ever-intensifying melody. presence and eventual absence leads
Conor Oberst’s band match the heightened emotions of his “Nothing changed, you just packed Oberst, as he puts it in the closing
singing: a mysterious but doomed your things one day,” Oberst sings at “Comet Song,” to “vacuum up all of the
returns with its first new lover named Arienette; a baby brother the end. “Didn’t bother to explain what fairy dust.” Earlier in the song, during
album in nine years named Padraic who drowned in a happened, you like cinematic endings.” an argument, she’d insulted him by
bathtub. As he matured as a song- And with that cue, the producer Mike calling him Peter Pan.
BY LINDSAY ZOLADZ writer, though, he began to rely less on Mogis and the arranger and pianist But Oberst has heard that one be-
macabre invention and more on gim- Nate Walcott play him out in style with fore; he’s survived much worse. What
More than half his life ago, when he let-eyed observation. a sweeping orchestral movement. saves “Down in the Weeds” from de-
was 19, Conor Oberst and his band What allowed him to evolve into an With its shape-shifting, collagelike spair is its stance of battered opti-
Bright Eyes released their breakout artistic adulthood more successfully arrangements, Bright Eyes’ instru- mism: “This world is waving goodbye,
album, the intricately morose “Fevers than most of his perpetual-adolescent mentalism often approximates some so cut a rug, let’s throw a party,”
and Mirrors.” Already a veteran of emo peers was the way he contin- sort of sonic primordial ooze. Found Oberst sings with a shrug. And while it
several Omaha bands, he had been uously widened his aperture beyond sounds and out-of-context conversa- can’t quite match the potency of their
putting out music since he was 13 — heartbreak and teen angst to interro- tions are the band’s signatures. The mid-aughts records, “Weeds” is cer-
one of those impressive if slightly gate the bigger picture of why, exactly, opening number, “Pageturner’s Rag,” tainly a more festive victory lap for
unsettling talents that gets described he was so sad. By “I’m Wide Awake, layers Walcott’s ragtime piano beneath Bright Eyes than the underwhelming,
as a “wunderkind.” Oberst wrote like a It’s Morning” in 2005, he had arrived snippets of Oberst, his mother and his supposedly final 2011 album, “The
punk-rock Rimbaud and sang as if he at a compelling answer: because he DANNY COHEN ex-wife chatting while on mushrooms People’s Key.”
was perpetually on the verge of sob- was a human being at the dawn of the From left, Mike Mogis, Conor Oberst and Nate Walcott of Bright Eyes. together (imagine!). Sometimes it There’s no better time for a parade.
bing. Parents wondered why he 21st century, living in America. works (the sudden intrusion of bag- In the past few years, Oberst’s influ-
sounded like that; a certain kind of Oberst evolved into a W.-Bush-era pipes on “Persona Non Grata”); some- ence has crystallized in a new genera-
depressed, literate adolescent saw him bard of personal politics, but — “Found the through line for all hu- Trench,” which pairs a driving tempo times it’s all a bit too much and the tion. He’s collaborated with Phoebe
as a prophet. whether as an act of self-sabotage, mankind,” he declares over a and hummable melody with visions of songs feel excessively crowded. Bridgers and been sampled by Young
“This room seems even smaller now artistic integrity or a little bit of both — strummed acoustic guitar at the begin- impending apocalypse. But many of the most powerful Thug; the emo-rap warbler Post Ma-
than I remember it, hung mirrors on he also never quite grew out of the ning of the swaying dirge “Just Once in But Oberst has just as much catas- moments on this record are uncharac- lone recently admitted a habit of
the walls and the ceiling,” Oberst, now more polarizing tendencies of his the World.” “If given the time, they’ll trophe to explore on a more intimate teristically straightforward. “Hot Car “drinking and crying my [expletive]
40, sings on “One and Done” from music: the suicidal imagery, the gen- blow up or walk on the moon — it’s just scale. He’s endured a particularly in the Sun” is one of the saddest Bright eyes out” to “I’m Wide Awake, It’s
“Down in the Weeds Where the World eral sense of maximalist excess, the what they do.” Lyrics that might have rough stretch in the past few years: He Eyes songs in ages, because its sad- Morning.” Oberst is still sometimes
Once Was,” the new Bright Eyes album tantrum-hoarse vocals. He gradually branded him a nihilist 15 years ago had a brain cyst removed, he got di- ness comes not from macabre imagina- written off as death-obsessed, but
— the band’s 10th, and its first after a settled into becoming a street-preach- now, in the age of climate doom, ring vorced, and, in 2016, his older brother tion but from vivid banality. “Chopped maybe his most subversive act has
nine-year hiatus. The song, like much ing curmudgeon of the Anthropocene, with realism: “Look now as the crum- Matthew — one of the people who’d celery and made the soup, didn’t have been, all these years, keeping some
of this record, is about returning home a role he easily picks up on “Down in bling 405 falls down, oh when the big first inspired him to make music — much else to do,” Oberst sings plain- uncompromisingly youthful part of
and assessing the damage: the aching the Weeds.” one hits,” he sings on “Mariana died suddenly in his sleep at 42. He tively. “I was dreaming of my ex-wife’s himself alive.
..
THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2020 | 15

culture

‘Documentaries’ with a side of deception

GATEWAY MOVIES

Nonfiction seldom means

completely real. But that’s
a debate as old as cinema.
BY BEN KENIGSBERG

Last month, I found myself a dissenting

voice on one of the summer’s most ac-
claimed films, “Bloody Nose, Empty
Pockets.” At first glance, the movie ap-
pears to be a documentary about the fi-
nal day of a Las Vegas-area dive bar
called Roaring ’20s. But the directors,
the brothers Bill and Turner Ross, never
reveal that this setup was contrived. Al-
though the bar’s patrons are real people,
hanging out without a script, they were
in effect cast by the directors, with the
expectation (implicit or explicit) that
they would behave as they would in that
real situation. The actual Roaring ’20s
bar, which wasn’t closing, was near New Images from Robert Flaherty’s “Man of Aran,” left and above, and Orson Welles’s “F for
Orleans. Fake,” below and below left. Welles (pictured) notes that his is a “film about trickery.”
To the movie’s fans, the deception is
forgivable. “Reviews hung up on docu-
mentary veracity are missing the point,”
tweeted my friend Scott Tobias, who
also contributes to The New York
Times, adding, “Authenticity and arti-
fice coexist all the time in movies, and
this film proves something special can
come out of deliberately mingling the
two.”
PHOTOGRAPHS VIA THE CRITERION COLLECTION
I don’t disagree. In a sense, nearly all
films balance competing factors: the
camera’s lens, which carries at least the
promise of capturing unmitigated reali-
ty; the situations, real or manufactured,
that take place while that camera is
rolling; the decidedly nonobjective peo-
ple controlling what is shot; and addi-
tional manipulations — of editing, ef-
fects and music — after shooting.
Critics tend to hand-wave deceptions
when they like the results and to count
them against a film if they don’t. (I plead
guilty.) Debates about the virtues of fak-
ery have raged as long as cinema has
existed, and it’s worth taking a look at
two ostensibly nonfiction films to under- IMAGES VIA CRITERION COLLECTION

stand the issues at play.

Robert J. Flaherty remains best to watch it before reading further. even confronts viewers with their own
known for “Nanook of the North” (1922), A deathtrap of an essay film in which potential to be misdirected in a se-
a pioneering work both of cinematic you can never truly trust what you see, quence that shows the actress Oja Ko-
ethnography and of suspect nonfiction “F for Fake” dispenses information in a dar, his partner in later years, turning
filmmaking — an ostensible introduc- disorienting flurry. On the surface, the heads as she walks the city streets. Wel-
tion to the lives of Indigenous inhab- movie’s main subjects are originality in les can make you look this way and that
itants of Northern Canada for which art, the fallibility of experts and the way, too — even if you should be looking
Flaherty’s Inuit collaborators helped pointlessness of assessing authorship, elsewhere.
stage scenes. at least when confronted with a master- By the end, Welles will have revealed
Flaherty’s later “Man of Aran” (1934), piece. (As many have noted of the film, it at least one major deception. But some
a portrait of life on the Aran Islands off may have been Welles’s oblique re- of his tricks remain hidden even then:
Ireland’s western coast, is worthy of sponse to Pauline Kael, who in 1971 chal- As James Naremore notes in his book
similar skepticism. Still, its goals are lenged his contributions to “Citizen “The Magic World of Orson Welles,”
more poetic than expository: Real or Kane,” offering Herman J. Mankiewicz, much of “F for Fake” actually recycles a
staged, “Man of Aran” is simply one of the other screenwriter on the film with movie by another filmmaker, François
the medium’s most dazzling pictorial ex- Welles, as its true auteur.) Reichenbach, who had made a docu-
periences, and confronted with the ex- Other than Welles, the two principal mentary on de Hory that Welles bought
traordinary contrast of its black-and- figures in “F for Fake,” fittingly, are pro- and reshaped for his own purposes.
white photography — as waves pound fessional charlatans. One is Elmyr de Who’s the author now?
the rocky coast in the violent weather of living away from modern comforts is, be understood, and close scrutiny of the veals his sleights of hand. To amplify the Hory, regarded as one of the most con- But Welles’s ultimate subject is the se-
the finale — it is simply difficult to care strictly speaking, a portrait of people images will reveal that the words aren’t suspense of a hunting sequence, he vincing art forgers ever. The other is ductive power of truth. Without ever
about how the film was planned. Those playing a family. Documentaries would synchronized with lips. Even the gentle presents rapid-fire cuts of unspooling Clifford Irving, de Hory’s biographer fully obscuring his methods (as Nare-
are real people in a real boat, about to be have to wait for a later era for equipment noise of lapping waves is a sort of illu- rope, creating what is probably an artifi- and a fabulist in his own right: He more points out, he is frequently shown
swallowed by cresting waters or that could truly capture sound on the fly, sion. cial sense of speed. gained international infamy for publish- in the editing room), Welles demon-
crashed against the cliffs. and the Flaherty biographer Paul Rotha A frequent point of contention with But does it help if, unlike in “Man of ing a book on Howard Hughes based on strates that once viewers start to accept
Besides, at least compared with notes that the “snatches of speech and the film is that Flaherty depicts the Aran” (or “Bloody Nose, Empty Pock- encounters that never happened. what they see at face value, it becomes
“Nanook,” “Man of Aran” is upfront the general sound effects” in “Man of hunting of basking sharks — an activity ets”), a film ultimately levels with you “F for Fake” opens with Welles per- possible to persuade them of much
about its liberties. It opens with a cast Aran” were supplemental, created at that Graham Greene, among others, and pulls back the curtain on its meth- forming magic tricks — a more or less more.
list (“a man of Aran,” “his wife,” “their Gainsborough Studios in England. The wrote that the subjects had to be taught. ods? A natural test case would be Orson open acknowledgment that he plans to That is the disturbing implication of
son”) — an implicit acknowledgment dialogue — incidental brogue-heavy Here, though, is another case where Welles’s “F for Fake” (first shown in make the audience his mark. This is a all the best docufictions: They become
that this purported chronicle of a family back-and-forths — isn’t really meant to close attention to Flaherty’s editing re- 1973). To avoid spoilers, you might want “film about trickery,” he explains, and so special that truth no longer matters.

The hate you give

ica should remain a predominantly sick leave, parental leave, guaranteed against racism, but never succumbed
BOOK REVIEW
white country governed by white vacations and other benefits regarded to the essentialist idea that we are
people. The result is the superbly in this country as privileges to be reducible to our ethnic origins? Uni-
written “Sisters in Hate,” which under- granted, or denied, at employers’ versalism has been stigmatized by
Sisters in Hate:
American Women on the Front Lines mines many common assumptions whims. Even though few Americans many progressives today, who confuse
of White Nationalism about the far right. know these benefits are elsewhere it with the false universalism that
By Seyward Darby. 309 pp. Little, Brown Darby is a white Southerner, several called rights, their absence creates screams “All Lives Matter.” But “All
& Company. $28. of whose “forebears fought on the anxiety, social instability and a floating Lives Matter” invokes a banal and
wrong side of the Civil War,” but in resentment that can easily turn vio- abstract truth to obscure an empirical
BY SUSAN NEIMAN examining her subjects, she never lent, especially in places where any and historical one: that people of color
confuses empathy with understanding. 18-year-old can buy an assault weapon are far more likely to become victims
As many white Americans struggle to While ruthless in her condemnation of but not a bottle of beer. of white violence long enshrined in
better understand Black lives, it is racist ideology, she suggests how that But Darby doesn’t succumb to the custom and law. This is completely
crucial to understand the people who ideology becomes inseparable from a idea that white nationalism is the different from a universalism that
don’t think those lives matter — the person’s sense of herself, and presents product of economic insecurity; the acknowledges racist histories and
white nationalists whose support a strong case that comprehending this statistics are too clear. She quotes the celebrates cultural difference while
Donald Trump is ever more openly is crucial if we are to battle white political scientist Ashley Jardina, who affirming our common humanity. In
seeking to win a continuation of his supremacy. Her focus on the lives of found that most white nationalists this critical moment of American his-
presidency. The term “neo-Nazi” is three very different women makes her “own houses, have average incomes tory, that’s a model we must take seri-
euphemistic: There’s nothing neo book as readable as a good novel; similar to most whites in the United ously.
about people who brandish the skillfully combined with history and States, are employed and identify as Darby writes that her years spent
swastikas that are banned in today’s analysis, her subjects’ stories provide TERRY DIXON/GRAND RAPIDS POLICE DEPARTMENT, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS middle class.” (We’d prefer to believe studying white nationalism have in-
Germany. We know that at least 47 a better picture of the forces driving A flag retrieved from an overpass in Grand Rapids, Mich., in 2017. that Nazism, too, was supported by clined her to pessimism, but her book
percent of white women voted for white backlash than several of the best poor and illiterate masses, but a high ends on a hopeful note. Corinna, who
Trump in 2016, and that it was more sellers that attempted to do so in the percentage of Nazi Party members in once sported swastika armbands and
often the daughters than the sons of wake of Trump’s election. aganda. In emphasizing the specificity the white supremacist cause. In show- Germany had college degrees.) Hitler tattoos, now worships in a
the Confederacy who organized to The three women at the center of of their stories, Darby also under- ing that white nationalism is not mono- While all three of Darby’s subjects mosque whose members are mostly
build those monuments to Confederate “Sisters in Hate” were born in 1979, but scores that all three women made lithic, Darby stresses its supporters’ were influenced by the lies they in- people of color, having converted to
heroes. Still, it’s hard to wrap our that’s about all they have in common. choices. “It’s possible to acknowledge agency — reminding us that those gested on right-wing radio and web- Islam in 2018 and had her tattoos
heads around the idea that women, Corinna Olsen, from Oregon, has the rampant, persistent sexism of the supporters could always choose to act sites, all three denied they hated the covered up. The last time we see her,
traditionally expected to be gentle and worked as a porn star, a bodybuilder far right while also giving women the differently, and sometimes do. Black people, Jews or Latinos regu- she is using her bodybuilding skills to
nurturing, could be driving engines of and a professional embalmer. Ayla credit they deserve. . . . We risk strip- What makes such different women larly vilified on such sites. Darby teach calisthenics to women at the
white supremacist hatred. The journal- Stewart grew up in Las Vegas, and ping them of responsibility when we vulnerable to the movement’s hateful writes, “White nationalists are posing mosque who said they would like to be
ist Seyward Darby shows that this is before becoming known online as suggest that the harm they do is propaganda? Darby draws on familiar a challenge: If other groups can rally healthier, but didn’t know where to
one more sexist assumption we ought “Wife with a Purpose,” a Christian merely a way of coping with their own studies in behavioral science that show around their history, why not white start. It’s a scene that calls to mind a
to discard. “Men like Josef Mengele stay-at-home mother of six whose oppression.” the importance of repetition: The more people?” This is not a stupid question. remark often repeated by the defense
and Madison Grant were the best- broadcasts spew hatred toward anyone As we learn more about them, we you hear something repeated with Darby answers it by saying it pro- attorney Bryan Stevenson, who creat-
known purveyors of racist science and whose life choices are different, she learn how their choices evolved. conviction, the harder it is to believe it motes a false equivalence, “shorn of ed the National Memorial for Peace
policy at the height of the eugenics flirted with a feminist version of New Corinna left the movement and even isn’t true. Smartly, Darby also suggests context, nuance and power disparities. and Justice in Montgomery, Ala.: Each
movement’s popularity,” she writes. Age culture that included pagan god- became an F.B.I. informer after realiz- that “life in contemporary America In theory, though, it’s more effective of us is more than the worst thing
“Women, though, were on the real dess worship and veganism. Lana ing that a group she belonged to was may be enough to incline a person from a P.R. standpoint than lynchings, we’ve ever done.
front lines, incorporating eugenics into Lokteff, once a self-described “grunge planning to commit mass murder. Ayla toward conspiracism.” This was true cross burnings and slur-filled pam-
the fabric of everyday life.” puppy” from the Pacific Northwest, and Lana cooperated briefly with before the current administration. Few phlets.” Susan Neiman is director of the Ein-
After Trump’s election in 2016, now lives in Charleston, S.C., where Darby’s reporting before deciding she Americans know that other wealthy She is right, but why not turn to the stein Forum in Germany and the au-
Darby spent several years trying to she and her Swedish husband run Red was a leftist, feminist journalist who nations — not just Scandinavia! — universalism of fierce activists like thor, most recently, of “Learning From
fathom what moves women to support Ice, a popular website and radio show couldn’t be trusted to adequately por- take for granted what Americans are Paul Robeson or Bob Moses, who the Germans: Race and the Memory of
white supremacy, the belief that Amer- that promotes apocalyptic racist prop- tray their continuing commitment to lacking: universal health care, paid risked their lives in the struggle Evil.”
 ..
16 | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION

living

The sweet and savory joys of tamarind

The fruit’s sticky pulp ALMOND, BLACK PEPPER AND FIG
CAKE WITH TAMARIND GLAZE
is equally at home
in desserts and entrees TIME: 1½ HOURS
YIELD: 12 SERVINGS

BY NIK SHARMA For the Cake:

I wasn’t a terribly naughty child by any ½ cup/115 grams unsalted butter (1
means, but I had my share of errant be- stick), melted, plus more for
havior that kept my parents busy. Sum- greasing the baking dish
mers seemed to bring out the best or the 12 to 14 fresh ripe figs
worst in me, depending on which side of 1 teaspoon freshly ground black
the equation you viewed it. pepper
I loved climbing the tall, wide mango 1½ cups/300 grams granulated sugar,
and tamarind trees in my neighborhood plus 2 tablespoons
in Mumbai, India, then known as Bom-
2 cups/225 grams blanched almond
bay, to grab whatever fruit adorned
their branches. If the pods lay higher flour
and out of reach, as they most often did, 1 cup/130 grams all-purpose flour
SHRIMP, CILANTRO AND
I’d resort to tossing sticks and stones to TAMARIND SOUP
1 teaspoon baking powder
knock them off. The neighbors’ com- ½ teaspoon baking soda
TIME: 30 MINUTES
plaints, parental reprimands and my ad- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
YIELD: 4 SERVINGS
venture-related scraped knees and 3 large eggs, chilled
bruised arms were all well worth their 1 pound large raw shrimp, fresh or 1 cup/240 milliliters full-fat plain,
promise. frozen, shelled and deveined unsweetened Greek yogurt
There is a thrill that accompanies the
4 cups warm water 1 teaspoon almond extract
cracking of a brittle tamarind pod. Hid-
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
den beneath that unassuming brown For the Tamarind Glaze:
shell lies a soft, sticky, sweet-and-sour 1 small yellow or white onion,
1 cup/125 grams confectioners’
pulp I’d quickly devour. Sometimes, if I’d peeled and finely minced
sugar
planned well or displayed an ounce of 4 garlic cloves, peeled and grated
2 tablespoons tamarind paste (not
patience, I’d sprinkle salt over the flesh ¼ cup tomato paste
to make this joyous summer flavor even concentrate)
½ teaspoon black pepper
more pleasurable. 1 teaspoon olive oil
1 tablespoon tamarind paste (not
concentrate)
Kosher salt 1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a
There is a thrill in cracking open 9-by-13-inch baking dish with a little
1 bunch cilantro, leaves and stems
a brittle tamarind pod. butter.
minced
1 green chile, such as serrano or 2. Trim and discard the stalks from the
Tamarind is quite special. It looks like Thai chile, thinly sliced figs. Slice the figs in half lengthwise, and
a big bean pod, and indeed it is. The fruit place them in a small bowl. Sprinkle the
of a leguminous tree, it emerges soft and 1. Place the shrimp and the water in a pepper and 2 tablespoons sugar over the
green, eventually becoming brown with medium saucepan. Cook over low heat figs, and toss to coat well.
a brittle shell. A dark caramel-colored until the shrimp turns pink, about 10
pulp encases the seeds, which are dis- 3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the flours,
minutes for fresh shrimp and 15 minutes baking powder, baking soda and salt. Sift
carded.
Depending on when the pods are for frozen. Increase the heat to high, bring twice through a fine mesh sieve to remove
picked, their flavor will change: Sugar the liquid to a boil and immediately any clumps and return to the large bowl.
increases over time as the fruit ripens, remove from heat. Separate the shrimp In a medium bowl, whisk melted butter,
while the sourness decreases. At home, and the liquid, and reserve both. 1½ cups sugar, eggs and yogurt until
it was often among the most common in- smooth and combined. (It will be very
2. Wipe the saucepan dry with a clean
gredients we used to add sourness to
paper towel. Heat the oil in the saucepan thick.) Whisk in the almond extract.
our cooking, second only to vinegar and NIK SHARMA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES (PHOTOGRAPHY AND STYLING)

followed by limes. over medium. Add the onion and sauté for
That tamarind thrives in hot climates sons tamarind is such a popular ingredi- rind brings that bright edge to a stew, and the spicy tamarind candies. 3 to 4 minutes until it turns translucent.
is not really surprising. It originated in ent in places like Goa in west India, curry or soup, and even sweets. To give you a sense of what’s possible Add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Stir
the warmer parts of Africa and, at some where heat and humidity can reduce the Tamarind is also sold as a liquid con- with tamarind, I’ve included a few dif- in the tomato paste and cook for another
point, made its way to India and other shelf life of other staples. centrate. Some of these are prepared by ferent recipes. The Goan shrimp soup is 3 to 4 minutes, until the tomato paste
parts of Asia, where it quickly became a While making tamarind extract is heating tamarind to reduce its volume, something I grew up eating often, and begins to deepen in color. Add the black
part of the local cuisines. However, tam- easy (all you need is a kettle of boiling but one of the side effects is a loss in here, tamarind is added directly to the pepper and tamarind paste, then stir in
arind isn’t exactly a stranger in the water to steep and soften the tamarind fruity flavor and an unpleasant after- soup during cooking. In the roasted po- the reserved cooking liquid and mix until
West. It’s used in the production of for a few minutes), knowing what type taste. Avoid them. tatoes, it’s used as a finishing touch, in
fully combined. Taste and season with
Worcestershire sauce, a condiment of tamarind to buy can be confusing, giv- In Goan cooking, when making dal, the form of a dressing inspired by those
used in cocktails and in a variety of sa- en the various names on the packaging. curries or stews, unripe tamarind flesh chutneys of Indian street food. For a salt.
vory preparations. The sourness in tam- A box labeled “Sweet Tamarind” sits is sometimes rolled into a small ball and sweeter option, try the peppered fig and 3. Increase the heat to high and bring the
arind comes primarily from tartaric atop my kitchen counter, reserved tossed directly in. Heat and water dis- almond cake, in which the tamarind is liquid to a boil. Remove from heat and fold 4. Make a small well in the center of the
acid, which is also used to produce solely for the purpose of eating directly solve the flesh and release its fruity incorporated into a glaze. It makes the in the reserved shrimp, cilantro and green dry ingredients, and pour in the whisked
cream of tartar, an ingredient in baking. as I would enjoy any other fruit. But, sourness. On other occasions, tamarind warmer notes of the spices and figs
chile. Serve hot. liquid ingredients. Using an
One of tamarind’s most useful quali- when it comes to cooking, opt for the va- is extracted with hot water, then added. stand out.
ties is that both the fruit and the extract rieties labeled “Sour Tamarind.” Besides its inclusion in savory dishes, These days, I no longer climb tama- outward-to-inward circular motion, fold
last for months, if stored properly. I sus- They’re noticeably sour with a faintly tamarind is also used in sweet prepara- rind pod-laden trees, but the ingredient with a spatula until the mixtures are
pect this longevity, along with its ability weak sweet note, showing that the fruit tions, including the popular sweet-and- remains close to my heart. Cooking with completely combined, and no visible
to grow easily, is one of the many rea- just hasn’t ripened enough. Sour tama- sour chutneys used in Indian street food tamarind keeps that excitement alive. flecks of dry ingredients remain. Pour the
batter into the prepared baking dish and
smooth the top with an offset spatula. Top
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro cut-side up. Roast on the upper rack of
ROASTED NEW POTATOES WITH the cake with the sliced figs with the cut
1 green chile, such as a serrano or the oven, flipping halfway through
GARLIC AND TAMARIND sides facing up.
Thai chile, minced (optional) roasting, until they turn golden brown and
crispy, about 35 minutes. 5. Bake cake until the surface is golden
TIME: 1 HOUR
YIELD: 4 SERVINGS 1. Heat oven to 425 degrees and place a brown and the figs release their juices and
4. As the potatoes cook, mix the butter
rack in the top third of the oven. turn slightly caramelized, about 1 hour,
1½ pounds yellow new potatoes, and garlic in a small bowl. Two or three
rotating halfway through baking. If it’s
about 1 to 1½ inches in width 2. Scrub the potatoes under running water minutes before the potatoes are done,
browning too quickly, loosely tent the cake
Kosher salt to remove any grit or dirt. Slice the pour the butter-garlic mixture over the
with foil. The cake is done when a skewer
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil potatoes in half lengthwise and place potatoes and turn off the oven. Return the
inserted in the center of the cake comes
1 teaspoon ground cumin them in a medium saucepan. Fill the pan to the oven to cook in the residual
out clean. Remove the baked cake and let
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, saucepan with enough water to cover heat for 2 to 3 minutes, being careful not
cool for 15 minutes.
melted them by 1 inch. Stir in 1 teaspoon salt and to let the garlic burn. Remove the pan
bring the water to a boil over medium-high from the oven, and transfer the potatoes 6. As the cake cools, prepare the
2 garlic cloves, peeled and grated
heat. Boil for another 6 minutes until to a serving bowl. tamarind glaze: In a medium bowl, whisk
2 tablespoons tamarind paste (not
easily pierced with a sharp knife but still the confectioners’ sugar, tamarind paste
concentrate) 5. In a small bowl, mix the tamarind paste,
firm. and oil until smooth. If the glaze is too
1 tablespoon date syrup, honey or date syrup and lime juice. When ready to
thick, it can be thinned by adding a
maple syrup 3. Drain the water and place the potatoes serve, pour the mixture over the potatoes
teaspoon or two of water.
1 teaspoon lime juice in a large mixing bowl. Season with salt. and toss to coat well. Top with the
1 medium shallot, peeled and Drizzle the oil and sprinkle the cumin over shallots, scallions, cilantro and green 7. Once the cake has cooled for 15
minced the potatoes, and toss to coat well. In a chile, if using. Serve warm. minutes, pour the glaze over, and serve
2 scallions, white and green parts roasting pan or baking sheet lined with warm or at room temperature. Refrigerate
thinly sliced aluminum foil, spread the potatoes out, any leftovers and eat within 3 days.

This one is for the focaccia lovers

BY MELISSA CLARK 5 anchovy fillets, finely chopped knead in a stand mixer equipped with the thyme or oregano and toss until evenly
EGGPLANT FOCACCIA WITH (optional) dough hook for 3 to 5 minutes. The dough coated. Set aside and cool completely
Ever since I went to college nearby, V&T RICOTTA AND OLIVES 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme is ready when it’s elastic but somewhat before using.
Restaurant and Pizzeria in New York
has made my ideal of the eggplant pizza. TIME: 1 HOUR, PLUS RISING or oregano leaves, or 1 teaspoon sticky and damp. If the dough seems 9. Lightly oil an 11-by-17-inch rimmed
YIELD: 8 SERVINGS dried unmanageable and won’t come off your
Covered with stretchy mozzarella and baking sheet. Working on a floured
loads of deep-fried eggplant slices, it is ⅔ cup cherry tomatoes, halved hands, add more flour, a little at a time. surface, roll dough into an 11-by-16-inch
For the Dough:
crisp, gooey, creamy and without any of ⅓ cup fresh ricotta, plus more to 5. Place dough in the oiled bowl and turn rectangle, then transfer it to the oiled
⅓ cup/80 milliliters extra-virgin
the pizza pretensions that have become taste
olive oil, plus more for greasing to coat it lightly with oil. Cover bowl with a baking sheet and press the dough to the
the norm in a Neapolitan margherita- Freshly ground black pepper, for
BEATRIZ DA COSTA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES. the bowl plate or plastic wrap. Leave in a warm sides. Cover with a damp cloth and let
obsessed city. FOOD STYLIST: FRANCES BOSWELL. garnish
But, even though I love V&T’s egg- ¾ cup/180 milliliters lukewarm place until dough has doubled in size, 1 to rest for 30 minutes.
Torn fresh basil leaves, for garnish 2 hours.
plant pie, from the bottom of its charred with the eggplant and olive topping. water (105 to 115 degrees) 10. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Arrange
crust to the top of its oil-slicked cheese, As for that topping, not only do I dis- 1½ teaspoon/5 grams active dry or 6. While dough is rising, make the eggplant slices evenly over dough, and
it’s not something I want to recreate at pense with deep-frying the eggplant, I instant yeast 1. Oil a large bowl and set aside. (This is
for the rising dough.) topping: Combine eggplant and salt in a scatter tomatoes and sliced olives on top.
home. That delicate balance of deep- don’t bother cooking it at all before shin- 1 teaspoon/5 grams granulated large mixing bowl and set aside. Drizzle any leftover oil from the bottom of
fried eggplant and homemade pizza gling it over the dough. A quick toss with sugar 2. Add water to another large bowl or the
dough is best left to seasoned profes- salt and hot, garlic-infused olive oil fla- 7. Mince half of the olives and slice the the eggplant bowl on pizza.
1½ teaspoon/10 grams kosher salt bowl of a stand mixer. Sprinkle yeast and
sionals. vors the eggplant pieces and gives them other half. 11. Bake until edges and underside are
2¼ cups/305 grams bread flour, plus sugar over. Let stand until foamy, 5 to 10
Instead, when a craving for eggplant a head start, softening them a bit before golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes.
more as needed minutes. 8. In a small saucepan, heat ¼ cup oil
pizza strikes, I take a simpler path and they reach the oven. Naturally, when
make focaccia. The differences between there’s a pan of olive oil and garlic on the 3. Stir ⅓ cup oil and salt into yeast over medium. Add garlic, stirring 12. Using a spoon, top with dollops of
For the Topping:
focaccia and pizza are fluid, but most stove, simmering away with some mixture. Stir in flour until a soft, shaggy constantly, and heat until opaque, about 1 ricotta. Sprinkle freshly ground black
¾ pound eggplant, thinly sliced
flatbread lovers agree that focaccia minced olives for depth, I can’t resist dough forms. minute. Add the minced olives and pepper and basil leaves on top, and drizzle
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
dough has a lot more olive oil than pizza tossing in a few anchovies, too. But if it’s anchovies, if using. Reduce heat to with olive oil. Serve warm or at room
dough, yielding a fluffier, richer crumb. not your thing, just skip the anchovies. ¼ cup pitted olives 4. If kneading by hand, turn dough out medium-low and cook, stirring, until the temperature.
So it goes in this recipe, in which thin Serve the focaccia either warm from ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus onto a floured surface and knead until it is oil is fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove
eggplant slices are layered over a puffy, the oven, or at room temperature. I like more as needed smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Or from heat and pour oil over eggplant. Add
pillowy base that’s crisp at the edges. to smear slices with fresh ricotta, which 1 fat garlic clove, minced or finely
What it lacks in crackling chewiness, it is milky and gentle next to the slippery, grated
makes up for it in tenderness and a sa- pungent eggplant, and lighter than moz-
vory olive oil flavor, which works nicely zarella on a pizza.