LIBYAN FIGHTERS · 2019-11-11 · basic public services. Many saw the fire as a symbol for a city,...

VOL. CLXVII . . . No. 58,075 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

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Richard Carranza is eager totalk about segregation.

New York’s new schools chan-cellor wants to talk about how thenation’s largest school system isclustering the poorest children(mostly black and brown) in oneset of classrooms, and the richestchildren (mostly white) in an-other set — and failing to live up toits progressive ideals.

He wants to talk about how

school zones contribute to segre-gation and whether “gifted andtalented” classes, where whiteand Asian students tend to cluster,ought to exist.

He says his ideas go furtherthan finding ways to admit moreblack and Hispanic students to thecity’s most elite high schools, a

proposal he and Mayor Bill de Bla-sio unveiled in June.

But, as the first full school yearof Mr. Carranza’s tenure begins,the question is whether he willventure beyond what he calls “avalues conversation” to effectlarge-scale citywide change.

If Mr. Carranza lives up to hisvow to take on segregation, he willgo up against powerful forces thathave kept alive the historic para-dox of New York City education:In one of the nation’s most diverse

New Leader Looks Hard at Schools’ Racial DivideBy DANA GOLDSTEIN

Richard Carranza was hired asschools chancellor this year.

MARIAN CARRASQUERO/THE NEW YORK TIMES

A Focus on Segregationin New York’s System

Continued on Page A18

ST. CHARLES, Mo. — The pros-perity is apparent on the way intotown: the 21-floor casino resortand spa on one side of the inter-state, and on the other a freshlybuilt retail quarter of boutiques, abrand-new Hilton hotel and a P.F.Chang’s. It unfolds from therealong the highways heading westwith more gleaming office parksand multiplying subdivisions.

This is not the Trump country ofthe popular imagination, the landof shuttered plants and the eco-nomically left behind. St. CharlesCounty, in the suburbs northwestof St. Louis, has had the highestmedian household income in Mis-souri for several years.

But in 2016, Donald J. Trump

won the county by 26 points, andhe is still popular among peoplelike Tom Hughes, a homebuilderwhose business was reboundingfrom the recession before Mr.Trump took office.

But, Mr. Hughes said, “Nowthere’s an optimism that I haven’tseen, maybe ever.”

Mr. Trump rode to office in partby promising economic revival tosputtering towns across America.Economic growth has acceleratedsince he took office, from the finalyear of President Barack Obama’sadministration, and Mr. Trumpfrequently claims credit for it.

But the growth under Mr.Trump has not helped every-where. It has lifted wealthy areas,like St. Charles County, whichwere already growing before he

In a Tale of 2 American Cities, Trump Voters Keep Believing

This article is by Campbell Rob-ertson, Jim Tankersley and WhittenSabbatini.

Continued on Page A12

JOSH HANER/THE NEW YORK TIMES

The birds near Svarthamar, Iceland. Climate change poses a major threat. Science Times, Page D1.Why Are Puffins Vanishing?

FACEBOOK’S FRINGE Privategroups reviewed by The Timesappeared to violate the socialmedia giant’s rules. PAGE B1

CAIRO — When a new bout offighting between rival militias en-gulfed the Libyan capital in recentdays, badly shaking the fragileUnited Nations-backed govern-ment, some combatants picked uprifles and rocket launchers andheaded into the streets.

Others logged on to Facebook.As rockets rained on parts of

Tripoli, hitting a hotel popularwith foreigners and forcing theairport to close, and 400 prisonersescaped from a jail, a parallel bat-tle unfolded online. On their Face-book pages, rival groups issuedboasts, taunts and chilling threats— one vowing to “purify” Libya ofits opponents.

Some “keyboard warriors,” asFacebook partisans are known inLibya, posted fake news or hatefulcomments. Others offered battle-field guidance. On one discussionpage on Thursday, a user postedmaps and coordinates to help tar-get her side’s bombs at a rival’s airbase.

“From the traffic light at Wadi alRabi, it is exactly 18 kilometers tothe runway, which means it can betargeted by a 130 mm artillery,”the user, who went by the handleNarjis Ly, wrote on Facebook.“The coordinates are attached inthe photo below.”

Social media enjoys outsize in-fluence in Libya, a sparsely popu-lated yet violently fractured coun-try that is torn by a plethora ofarmed groups vying for territoryand legitimacy. They battle fordominance on the streets and onsmartphones.

But Facebook, by far the mostpopular platform, doesn’t just mir-ror the chaos — it can act as aforce multiplier.

Armed groups use Facebook tofind opponents and critics, someof whom have later been detained,killed or forced into exile, accord-ing to human rights groups andLibyan activists. Swaggeringcommanders boast of their battle-field exploits and fancy vacations,or rally supporters by sowing divi-sion and ethnic hatred. Forgeddocuments circulate widely, oftenwith the goal of undermining Lib-ya’s few surviving national insti-tutions, notably its Central Bank.

Facebook is coming under scru-tiny globally for how its platformamplifies political manipulationand violence.

In July, the company beganculling misinformation from itspages in response to episodes inSri Lanka, Myanmar and Indiawhere online rumors led to real-

LIBYAN FIGHTERSWIELD FACEBOOK

LIKE A WEAPON

TOOL FOR MANIPULATION

A Platform Used to BuyArms, Locate Foes

and Kill Them

By DECLAN WALSHand SULIMAN ALI ZWAY

Continued on Page A10

Malls are being hollowed out.Shops are closing by the thou-sands. Retailers are going bank-rupt.

But it may be too early to de-clare the death of retail. Ameri-cans have started shopping more— in stores.

From the garden section at Wal-mart to the diamond counters atTiffany & Company, old-school re-tailers are experiencing some oftheir best sales growth in years.

The strong revenues start witha roaring economy and an opti-mistic consumer. With more cashin their wallets from the tax cuts,Americans have been spendingmore.

The boom also reflects a broadreordering of the $3.5 trillion in-dustry, with fewer retailers cap-turing more of the gains. Storesthat have learned how to matchthe ease and instant gratificationof e-commerce shopping are flour-ishing, while those that havefailed to evolve are in bankruptcyor on the brink.

“The retailers that get it recog-nize that Amazon has foreverchanged consumer behavior,” saidBarbara Kahn, a marketing pro-fessor and former director of theretailing center at the WhartonSchool. “I shouldn’t have to workto shop.”

Many successful stores are nowa cross between a fast-food drive-through and a hotel concierge.

Target’s shoppers can ordersunscreen or a Tokidoki UnicornoT-shirt on their phone, pull up tothe parking lot and have the itemsbrought to their car.

Nordstrom lets customers insome stores make returns bydropping their items into a boxand walking out — no human in-teraction required.

Walmart is employing 25,000“personal shoppers” to select andpackage groceries for curbsidepickup.

In recent weeks, all three retail-ers reported stronger-than-ex-pected sales growth for the quar-ter. Traffic to Target’s stores andonline sites grew at its fastestpace since the company begankeeping a record a decade ago.

Doomsayers have predictedthat online shopping, led by Ama-zon, would one day conquer all ofretail, rendering brick and mortarobsolete. As store closings set arecord last year, no class of re-tailer was spared — with the car-nage hitting Madison Avenue bou-tiques, shopping malls and big-box stores. In New York and else-where, many shops, big and small,continue to struggle.

Amazon ModelGives RetailersPath to Vitality

Sales Balloon at StoresThat Ease Shopping

By MICHAEL CORKERY

Continued on Page A14

RIO DE JANEIRO — Thestately national museum, oncehome to Brazil’s royal family, wasstill smoldering at sunrise onMonday when scores of re-searchers, museum workers andanthropologists began gatheringoutside, dressed in black.

Some sobbed as they began tak-ing stock of the irreplaceablelosses: Thousands, perhaps mil-lions, of significant artifacts had

been reduced to ashes Sundaynight in a devastating fire. Thehall that held a 12,000-year-oldskeleton known as Luzia, the old-est human remains discovered inthe Americas, was destroyed.

Hundreds of residents joinedthem beneath an overcast sky that

matched the national mood. Theyhad come not only to mourn butalso to protest Brazil’s near-aban-donment of museums and otherbasic public services. Many sawthe fire as a symbol for a city, andnation, in distress.

“It’s a moment of intense pain,”Maurilio Oliveira, who hasworked as a paleoartist at the Na-tional Museum of Brazil for 19years, said as he stood in front ofthe ravaged building. “We canonly hope to recover our historyfrom the ashes. Now, we cry and

Double Blow to a Treasure: Neglect, Then FlamesThis article is by Manuela An-

dreoni, Ernesto Londoño and LisMoriconi.

A fire consumed the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday. The museum did not have a fire-suppression system.BUDA MENDES/GETTY IMAGES

Continued on Page A7

Brazilians Mourn Lossof a Museum, and a

Nation’s Decline

WASHINGTON — Two wildlydifferent portraits of Judge BrettM. Kavanaugh are set to emergeon Tuesday when he appears onCapitol Hill for the opening of hisSupreme Court confirmationhearings. One is a champion forwomen; the other a threat towomen’s rights.

Republicans will present JudgeKavanaugh to the nation as an ex-perienced, independent-mindedjurist with a sparkling résumé,and as an advocate and mentor forwomen in the judiciary. Amongthe cases they will cite: his 2009ruling in favor of Emily’s List, thegroup that backs Democraticwomen who support abortionrights.

Democrats will tell an entirelydifferent story, painting JudgeKavanaugh as a far-right extre-mist who would roll back abortionrights, deny health coverage topeople with pre-existing condi-tions, protect President Trumpfrom the threat of subpoena — andas someone who may have misledCongress when he testified duringhis appeals court confirmation

Two PortraitsOf Kavanaugh

Before Senate

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

Continued on Page A13

An anti-immigrant party may gain inelections, throwing the country’s “moralsuperpower” image into doubt. PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A4-10

Extremism Grows in Sweden

As salmon runs decline and opioids gripthe region, three Indian tribes connect ariver’s struggles to their own. PAGE A11

NATIONAL A11-14

Troubles on a California RiverThis year’s festival had a backward-looking feel, A.O. Scott says. Above,Ryan Gosling in “First Man.” PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

At Telluride, an Unsafe Past

The chairman of NBC News fired backat accusations the network obstructed areporter’s investigation into the moviemogul Harvey Weinstein. PAGE B4

NBC Rebuts Producer’s Claim

Under Attorney General Jeff Sessions,the Justice Department has redefinedwhose civil rights to protect. PAGE A13

Civil Rights in the Trump EraThe new show “Mayans M.C.” is sort ofa “Son of Sons of Anarchy,” with moreplot than character. PAGE C1

More Star-Crossed Gangsters

The South Korean capital is promising alarge-scale campaign to combat cam-eras hidden in public toilets. PAGE A9

Bathroom Spy Hunt Is On

An aversion to the president has pushedtech away from government contracts.That may be bad for the country, An-drew Ross Sorkin writes. PAGE B1

BUSINESS DAY B1-5

A Danger of Disliking Trump

Amazon is moving aggressively intodigital advertising, emerging as a majorcompetitor to Facebook and Google fora piece of an $88 billion pie. PAGE B1

Books, Diapers and More Ads

A minor league announcer had hoped toget a break with the big leagues. Hefinally did, for one game. PAGE B6

SPORTSTUESDAY B6-10

Getting a Call to Make the Call

Naomi Osaka, part of a rising genera-tion, ousted a fellow 20-year-old to reachthe quarterfinals. On Tennis. PAGE B6

Making a Name at the Open

Paul Krugman PAGE A21

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A20-21

The New Yorker Festival rescinded itsinvitation to Stephen K. Bannon, Presi-dent Trump’s former chief strategist,after rebukes and dropouts. PAGE A16

NEW YORK A15-19

New Yorker Disinvites Bannon

Late EditionToday, plenty of sunshine, hot, hu-mid, high 92. Tonight, partly cloudy,very warm, humid, low 77. Tomor-row, abundant sunshine, humid,high 87. Weather map, Page B12.

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