OBAMA S PILLARS POISED TO TOPPLE G.O.P. LEADERSHIP...2017/01/02  · day, with thousands of riders...

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ISTANBUL — When a lonegunman murdered dozens of NewYear’s revelers early Sunday, hetargeted a symbol of a cosmopoli-tan Istanbul that is increasinglyunder threat: a dazzling nightclubwhere people from around theworld could party together, freefrom the mayhem and violencegripping the region.

It was there, at the Reina night-club on the Bosporus — a hot spotfor soap opera stars and profes-sional athletes, Turks and well-heeled tourists — that those hop-ing to move past a particularlytroubled year died together.

The assault was the second intwo weeks in Turkey, and it furtherexposed the fault lines in a coun-try that is increasingly tearingapart amid terrorist attacks andpolitical instability.

With the gunman still on theloose Sunday night and a nation-wide manhunt underway, thekillings brutally highlighted a di-lemma for Turkey’s authoritarianpresident, Recep Tayyip Erdo-gan: Even though he has crackeddown on opponents and put inplace security measures to bring

stability to his rattled country, theattacks keep mounting.

“I don’t know what to say,” saidZeynep Ozman, whose brother,Ali, was wounded in the attack. “Idon’t want to say anything poli-tical, but this can’t be accepted as

the new norm. Terrorism is every-where now, and the governmenthas no control. Something needsto be done. There is no life left inIstanbul.”

Turkey has been reeling for sev-eral years now, as it has been in-

creasingly drawn into the Syriancivil war. By opening its borders toforeign fighters trying to reachSyria, critics say, it inadvertentlysupported the rise of the IslamicState, which is now carrying out

Massacre at Nightclub Exposes Deepening Fault Lines in TurkeyBy TIM ARANGO

The coffin of Ayhan Arik, one of at least 39 victims of Sunday’s shooting at an Istanbul nightclub.SEDAT SUNA/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY

Continued on Page A6

EXETER, England — The beefindings were not what Syngentaexpected to hear.

The pesticide giant had com-missioned James Cresswell, an

expert in flowers and bees at theUniversity of Exeter in England,to study why many of the world’sbee colonies were dying. Compa-nies like Syngenta have longblamed a tiny bug called a varroamite, rather than their own pesti-cides, for the bee decline.

Dr. Cresswell has also beenskeptical of concerns raised aboutthose pesticides, and even the ex-tent of bee deaths. But his initialresearch in 2012 undercut con-cerns about varroa mites as well.So the company, based in Switzer-land, began pressing him to con-sider new data and a different ap-proach.

Looking back at his interactions

with the company, Dr. Cresswellsaid in a recent interview that“Syngenta clearly has got anagenda.” In an email, he summedup that agenda: “It’s the varroa,stupid.”

For Dr. Cresswell, 54, the forayinto corporate-backed researchthrew him into personal crisis.Some of his colleagues ostracizedhim. He found his principlestested. Even his wife and childrenhad their doubts.

“They couldn’t believe I tookthe money,” he said of his family.“They imagined there was goingto be an awful lot of pressure andthought I sold out.”

The corporate use of academiahas been documented in fields likesoft drinks and pharmaceuticals.But it is rare for an academic toprovide an insider’s view of the re-lationships being forged with cor-porations, and the expectationsthat accompany them.

A review of Syngenta’s strategyshows that Dr. Cresswell’s experi-

Scientists Loved and LoathedBy an Agrochemical Colossus

By DANNY HAKIM

UNCERTAIN HARVEST

Companies Shaping Science

Continued on Page B4

Finally.The Second Avenue subway

opened in New York City on Sun-day, with thousands of ridersflooding into its polished stationsto witness a piece of historynearly a century in the making.

They descended beneath thestreets of the Upper East Side ofManhattan to board Q trainsbound for Coney Island in Brook-lyn. They cheered. Their eyesfilled with tears. They snappedselfies in front of colorful mosaicslining the walls of the stations.

It was the first day of 2017, and itfelt like a new day for a city thatfor so long struggled to build thissorely needed subway line. In arare display of unbridled opti-mism from hardened New York-ers, they arrived with huge grinsand wide eyes, taking in the bellsand whistles at three new sta-tions.

“I was very choked up,” BetsyMorris, 70, said as she rode thefirst train to leave the 96th Streetstation, at noon. “How do you ex-plain something that you neverthought would happen? It’s goingto change the way everybodylives as far as commuting goes.”

It was a major moment for NewYork’s sprawling transit systemafter decades of failed efforts tobring the line to one of the few cor-ners of Manhattan the subway didnot reach.

The opening of the first seg-ment of the line — an extension ofthe Q train to 96th Street — prom-ises to lighten the crush of pas-sengers on the Nos. 4, 5 and 6trains along Lexington Avenue,the nation’s most overcrowdedsubway line, which had been theonly line on the Upper East Side ofManhattan. When the stationsopened shortly before noon, theywere quickly filled with giddy rid-ers both young and old, and

strollers, suitcases and dogs — allfamiliar sights across the system.

But for all the excitement, theline, with just three new stops, ismuch more modest than the ambi-tious route running the length ofManhattan that was once envi-sioned. It serves a relatively afflu-

Train Delay Ends in (Happy) Tears

After decades of failed efforts to bring a line to one of the few corners of Manhattan the subwaysystem didn’t reach, the Second Avenue subway opened to the public Sunday, with three stations.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALEX WROBLEWSKI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

2nd Ave. Subway Opens at Last, Stoking a City’s Spirit

By EMMA G. FITZSIMMONS

The new line is intended toease an overcrowded system.

Continued on Page A13

WASHINGTON — The mostpowerful and ambitious Republi-can-led Congress in 20 years willconvene Tuesday, with plans toleave its mark on virtually everyfacet of American life — refashion-ing the country’s social safety net,wiping out scores of labor and en-vironmental regulations and un-raveling some of the most signifi-cant policy prescriptions put for-ward by the Obama administra-tion.

Even before President-electDonald J. Trump is sworn in onJan. 20, giving their party full con-trol of the government, Republi-cans plan quick action on severalof their top priorities — most nota-bly a measure to clear a path forthe Affordable Care Act’s repeal.Perhaps the first thing that willhappen in the new Congress is thepush for deregulation. Also upearly: filling a long-vacant Su-preme Court seat, which is sure toset off a pitched showdown, andstarting confirmation hearings forMr. Trump’s cabinet nominees.

“It’s a big job to actually haveresponsibility and produce re-sults,” said Senator Mitch McCon-nell of Kentucky, the majorityleader. “And we intend to do it.”

But as Republicans plan to re-serve the first 100 days of Con-gress for their more partisangoals, Democrats are preparingroadblocks. The party’s brutalelection-year wounds have beensalted by evidence of Russianelection interference, Mr. Trump’shard-line cabinet picks and histaunting Twitter posts. (On Satur-day, he offered New Year’s wishes“to all,” including “those who havefought me and lost so badly theyjust don’t know what to do.”)

Obstacles will also come fromRepublicans, who are divided onhow to proceed with the healthcare law and a pledge to rewrite

G.O.P. LEADERSHIPPOISED TO TOPPLE

OBAMA’S PILLARS

CONGRESS IS SET TO OPEN

Overreach and PushbackCould Slow Efforts to

Undo Regulations

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER

Continued on Page A9

MAR-A-LAGO The site of an opu-lent New Year’s Eve party inFlorida is the future winter WhiteHouse and home of the calmerDonald J. Trump. PAGE A9

WASHINGTON — Presi-dent Obama’s advisers wres-tled with an intractable prob-lem in the spring and sum-mer of 2015: How could theystabilize Afghanistan while

preserving Mr. Obama’slongtime goal of pulling outthe last American troops be-fore he left office?

As it happened, the presi-dent solved the problem forthem. In early August of thatyear, when Mr. Obama con-vened a meeting of the Na-tional Security Council, helooked around the table andacknowledged a stark newreality.

“The fever in this room hasfinally broken,” the presidenttold the group, according to aperson in the meeting.“We’re no longer in nation-building mode.”

What Mr. Obama meantwas that no one in the Situa-tion Room that day, himselfincluded, thought that theUnited States — after 14years of war, billions of dol-

lars spent and more than2,000 American lives lost —would ever transform Af-ghanistan into a semblanceof a democracy able to defenditself.

At the same time, he add-ed, “the counterterrorismchallenges are real.” As bleakas Afghanistan’s prospectswere, the United States couldnot afford to walk away andallow the country to becomea seedbed for extremistsagain.

A few weeks later, the pres-ident halted the withdrawaland announced that he wouldleave thousands of Americantroops in the country indefi-nitely.

It was a crucial turningpoint in the evolution ofBarack Obama. The antiwarcandidate of 2008 who hadpledged to turn around Af-ghanistan — the “good war”to George W. Bush’s “badwar” in Iraq — had concededthat the longest military op-eration in American historywould not end on his watch.The optimistic president whoonce thought Afghanistanwas winnable had, throughbitter experience, becomethe commander in chief of aforever war.

He remains defensive

A strategy that went from a ‘good war’ tothe shorthand ‘Afghan good enough’reflects Obama’s coming to terms with

what was possible in Afghanistan.

Fractured WorldTested the Hope

Of a Young President

President Obama on Veterans Day in 2009, visiting asection of Arlington National Cemetery where manyAmericans killed in Afghanistan and Iraq are buried.

LUKE SHARRETT/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A5

By MARK LANDLER

THE OBAMA ERAThe ‘Good War’

The Communist base of China’s civilwar still honors an American delega-tion’s 1944 visit. Yan’an Journal. PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A4-7

Wartime Outreach in China

A ban in India on large currency billshas created a divide over governmentefforts to combat corruption. PAGE A4

India Feels Pain of Cash Ban

Dylann S. Roof, awaiting sentencing forkilling nine black worshipers, opposes amental health defense. PAGE A8

NATIONAL A8-10

Killer Rejects His Best Defense

The rate of homelessness in Washing-ton, D.C., is more than twice the na-tional average, and researchers blamerecord housing prices. PAGE A8

Homeless in a Hub of Power

After reading a front-page Times articleabout missing faces at the World TradeCenter memorial, immigration officialsturned to their records. PAGE A11

NEW YORK A11-13

Putting Faces to the Names

Small web publishers are opting to keepcontrol over their content rather thanhave faster mobile pages. PAGE B1

BUSINESS DAY B1-6

Some Shun a Google System

Panasonic is reviving its TechnicsSL-1200 turntable, aiming at audiophileswho won’t mind paying $2,800. PAGE B1

What Goes Around

Diana Damrau and Vittorio Grigolocombine chemistry, passion and vocalprowess in “Roméo et Juliette,” directedby Bartlett Sher, at the Met. A reviewby Anthony Tommasini. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

A Star-Crossed Supernova

Lydia Peelle’s human and animal char-acters, the mules in particular, are atcenter stage and finely wrought in “TheMidnight Cool,” her first novel, set asAmerica prepares to enter World War I.A review by John Williams. PAGE C4

Schemes of Mules and Men

Paul Krugman PAGE 15

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A14-15

After the team’s starting quarterbackwas hurt last week, Oakland and ConnorCook stumbled against Denver. PAGE D1

SPORTSMONDAY D1-6

The Compromised Raiders

Late Edition

VOL. CLXVI . . . No. 57,465 © 2017 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, MONDAY, JANUARY 2, 2017

Today, cloudy, periodic rain and driz-zle, high 44. Tonight, cloudy, a bit ofrain, low 42. Tomorrow, cloudy, peri-odic rain, a bit milder, high 51.Weather map appears on Page B6.

$2.50