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Frank Bruni PAGE A23

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23

WASHINGTON — The Trumpadministration called on Tuesdayfor urgent action to speed $1 tril-lion into the economy, includingsending $250 billion worth ofchecks to millions of Americans,as the government prepared itsmost powerful tools to fight the co-ronavirus pandemic and an al-most certain recession.

The Federal Reserve took therare step of unleashing its emer-gency lending powers and Presi-dent Trump called on Congress toquickly approve the sweepingeconomic stimulus package. Mr.Trump dispatched his Treasurysecretary to Capitol Hill to beginhammering it out as large sectionsof the economy shut down andcompanies began laying off work-ers.

With markets experiencing lev-els of volatility not seen since the2008 financial crisis, the White

House vowed to use every weap-on it has to combat the crisis.

“We want to go big,” Mr. Trumpsaid at a news conference at theWhite House, adding that he hadinstructed the Treasury secretary,Steven Mnuchin, to introducemeasures that would providemore immediate economic sup-port than the payroll tax cut holi-day he had been promoting.

During lunch on Capitol Hill notlong after, Mr. Mnuchin privatelytold Republican senators that heenvisioned the direct paymentscovering two weeks of pay and go-ing out by the end of April, accord-ing to three people familiar withthe discussion who described it onthe condition of anonymity. Addi-tional checks would be possible ifthe national emergency persists,Mr. Mnuchin told the group.

The tone of the lunch conversa-tion was grim. Mr. Mnuchinwarned darkly that without force-ful government intervention, theunemployment rate could rise tonearly 20 percent, according to

PLAN WOULD INJECT $1 TRILLION INTO ECONOMYChecks Would Go to

Millions at Risk ofJob Disruptions

This article is by Alan Rappeport,Emily Cochrane and Nicholas Fan-dos.

A lectern on Capitol Hill waswiped down on Tuesday.

SUSAN WALSH/ASSOCIATED PRESS

A renewable energy push faces opposi-tion in rural areas where panels areaffecting vistas. PAGE A20

NEW YORK A20-21

A Cloud Over SolarThe quarterback, who won six SuperBowls in 20 seasons with New England,parted ways with the Patriots and isexpected to join Tampa Bay. PAGE B9

SPORTSWEDNESDAY B9-12

‘A New Stage’ for Tom BradyThey can be comforting and cozy — notto mention colorful — when thingsseem overwhelming at best and scaryat worst, Melissa Clark writes. PAGE D1

FOOD D1-8

Settling In With Beans

Uzair Paracha served 17 years in pris-on, but after a new trial was ordered,the charges were dismissed. PAGE A21

Terror Case Is Dropped

Shanghai

Seoul

Beijing

WuhanChengdu

Tokyo

SOUTHKOREA

JAPAN

CHINA

Jan. 25 toFeb. 14,2020

Source: Sentinel-5P satellite data processed by Descartes Labs THE NEW YORK TIMES

Feb. 22 toMarch 14,2019

Rome

Florence

MilanVenice

ITALY

MediterraneanSea

Feb. 22 toMarch 13,2020

Rome

Florence

MilanVenice

ITALY

MediterraneanSea

Shanghai

Seoul

Beijing

WuhanChengdu

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SOUTHKOREA

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CHINA

Jan. 25 toFeb. 14,2019

MORE POLLUTION

A satellite that detects pollution from human activity shows how the new coronavirus is shutting down whole countries. Page A4.Emissions Fall as Effects of Coronavirus Spread

WASHINGTON — For weeks,President Trump has minimizedthe coronavirus, mocked concernabout it and treated the risk fromit cavalierly. On Tuesday he tookto the White House lectern andmade a remarkable assertion: Heknew it was a pandemic all along.

“This is a pandemic,” Mr.Trump told reporters. “I felt it wasa pandemic long before it wascalled a pandemic.”

This is what Mr. Trump has ac-tually said over the past twomonths:

On Jan. 22, asked by a CNBC re-porter whether there were “wor-ries about a pandemic,” the presi-dent replied: “No, not at all. Wehave it totally under control. It’sone person coming in from China,and we have it under control. It’sgoing to be just fine.”

On Feb. 26, at a White Housenews conference, commenting onthe country’s first reported cases:“We’re going to be pretty soon atonly five people. And we could beat just one or two people over thenext short period of time. So we’vehad very good luck.”

On Feb. 27, at a White Housemeeting: “It’s going to disappear.One day — it’s like a miracle — itwill disappear.”

On March 7, standing next toPresident Jair Bolsonaro of Brazilat Mar-a-Lago, his club in PalmBeach, Fla., when asked if he wasconcerned that the virus wasspreading closer to Washington:“No, I’m not concerned at all. No,I’m not. No, we’ve done a greatjob.” (At least three members ofthe Brazilian delegation and oneTrump donor at Mar-a-Lago thatweekend later tested positive forthe virus.)

On March 16, in the WhiteHouse briefing room, warningthat the outbreak would “wash”away this summer: “So it could beright in that period of time whereit, I say, wash — it washesthrough. Other people don’t likethat term. But where it washesthrough.”

That comment on Monday waspart of Mr. Trump’s inching to-ward a more urgent tone in recentdays. But his assertion on Tues-day that he had long seen the pan-demic coming was the mostabrupt pivot yet from the volumi-nous number of claims and caus-tic remarks he has made about thedisease.

On Tuesday, Mr. Trump spentmuch of a lengthy news confer-ence praising his administration’sresponse to the pandemic, sayingthe only mistake his administra-tion made had been a mismanage-ment of relationships with thenews media.

When asked why he had sud-

Saying He Long Saw Pandemic, TrumpRewrites History

By KATIE ROGERS

Continued on Page A9 Continued on Page A11

HUNTING FOR A CURE Researchers worldwide have “mapped” proteinsin the coronavirus and identified 50 drugs to test against it. PAGE A10

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK

SOUTHERN ENTRY The administration, citing the health threat, plans toturn back all undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers. PAGE A9

RISKS TO THE YOUNG A study of 2,000 infected children in China foundthat babies were very vulnerable to severe infections. PAGE A10

In a sharp escalation of tensionsbetween the two superpowers,China announced on Tuesday thatit would expel American journal-ists working for The New YorkTimes, The Wall Street Journaland The Washington Post. It alsodemanded that those outlets, aswell as the Voice of America andTime magazine, provide the Chi-nese government with detailed in-

formation about their operations.The announcement, made by

China’s Ministry of Foreign Af-fairs, came weeks after the Trumpadministration limited to 100 thenumber of Chinese citizens whocan work in the United States forfive state-run Chinese news orga-

nizations that are widely consid-ered propaganda outlets.

China instructed Americanjournalists for the three news or-ganizations whose press creden-tials are due to expire this year to“notify the Department of Infor-mation of the Ministry of ForeignAffairs within four calendar daysstarting from today and handback their press cards within tencalendar days.” Almost all theChina-based journalists for thethree organizations have press

Beijing to Expel Journalists From 3 U.S. PapersThis article is by Marc Tracy, Ed-

ward Wong and Lara Jakes.

Continued on Page A15

A Response to Curbson Chinese Outlets

Women are increasingly joining a mara-thon in Somaliland, one of several signsthat life may be changing in this tradi-tional, conservative society. PAGE A14

INTERNATIONAL A14-15

Running Toward Change

Antoine Dow is often asked to provide afinal haircut for customers who havefallen victim to gun violence. PAGE A16

NATIONAL A16-19

A Barber’s Tender Task

A project addresses scarce housing inLancaster County, Pa., but some say it’sout of step with the rural area. PAGE B7

BUSINESS B1-8

Bulldozers in Amish Country

A researcher at a German museum quitwhen she began to doubt it was seriousabout returning art plundered by theNazis to the owners’ heirs. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-6

A Dispute Over Looted Art

Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washing-ton face off in the new drama “LittleFires Everywhere” on Hulu. PAGE C1

Sparring Partners

New York City, a colossus of 8.6million people and an economicengine for the country, ground to ashocking halt on Tuesday becauseof the coronavirus outbreak andthe restrictions on public life putin place to stem its spread.

The city’s mayor signaled thatthe shutdown could go even fur-ther with the possibility of an or-der to “shelter in place” — a deci-sion he said “should be made inthe next 48 hours.”

“If that moment came, there aretremendously substantial chal-lenges that would have to be met,”Mayor Bill de Blasio said in anemotional address at City Hall.“And I don’t take this lightly at all.

“What is going to happen withfolks who have no money?” hecontinued. “How are they going toget food? How are they going toget medicines? How are we goingto ensure in a dynamic like that,that supplies are sufficient for ourpopulation?”

As officials grappled with anepidemic that has stricken morethan 800 city residents and killedat least seven, the toll on the life ofthe city was becoming apparent.

Times Square emptied out. Ma-cy’s closed. The Statue of Liberty

was cordoned off. The EmpireState Building was shuttered.Restaurants and bars, the onesthat had not closed entirely, stoodnearly empty and tried to surviveon takeout and delivery ordersalone.

“I’d like to see them try keepingNew Yorkers off the street,” saidRafael Morales, 52, a super at a co-op building on the Upper WestSide of Manhattan.

New York’s desperation wasalso made clear when the Metro-politan Transportation Authority,which runs the subway system,

buses and two commuter rail-roads, said on Tuesday that it wasseeking a $4 billion federal bail-out.

Ridership has plummeted by asmuch as 90 percent on the region’strains and 60 percent on the sub-way — rendering the normallyjampacked underground practi-cally unrecognizable.

Officials have grasped for com-parisons to other catastrophes.Mr. de Blasio said the economicfallout from the shutdown as a re-sult of the virus could rival that ofthe Great Depression and the

health impact that of the 1918 in-fluenza epidemic that killed over20,000 in the city.

But even as New Yorkers werestruggling with the vast shut-down, the mayor and the gover-nor, Andrew M. Cuomo, fell into afamiliar pattern: battling witheach other over control of the city.

As the mayor conducted hisnews conference on Tuesday, Mr.Cuomo’s office sent out a news re-lease proclaiming that any kind ofmass quarantine order wouldneed state approval and that nonewas imminent. The governor thendoubled down on that message.

“There is not going to be anyquarantine, no one is going to lockyou in your home, no one is goingto tell you, you can’t leave the city,”the governor said in an interviewon NY1. “That’s not going to hap-pen.”

Some New Yorkers greeted thepossibility of being put on virtuallockdown with grim resignation.

Joseph Montes, who was skate-boarding down Fourth Avenue inBrooklyn back to a homeless shel-ter Tuesday night from his job as atattoo artist in the Bronx, was ap-palled at the prospect.

“That’s totally crazy,” said Mr.Montes, 27, who was wearing aface mask with a jack-o’-lantern

‘Shelter in Place’ Order May Be Next as New York Grinds to HaltBy ANDY NEWMAN

Central Park was empty as many city residents stayed indoors.STEPHEN SPERANZA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A13

An old German military computer wassold with classified information relatingto an active weapons system. PAGE A14

EBay Laptop Had Secret Data

Joseph R. Biden Jr. easily de-feated Senator Bernie Sanders inthree major primaries on Tuesday,all but extinguishing Mr. Sand-ers’s chances for a comeback, asanxious Americans turned out tovote amid a series of cascadingdisruptions from the coronaviruspandemic.

Mr. Biden, the former vice pres-ident, won by wide margins in

Florida and Illinois and also car-ried Arizona, sweeping the nightand achieving a nearly insur-mountable delegate lead. The em-phatic outcome could greatly in-tensify pressure on Mr. Sanders toend his campaign and allow Dem-ocrats to unify behind Mr. Biden

as their presumptive nominee.The routs in Florida and Illinois,

two of the biggest prizes on the na-tional map, represented both avote of confidence in Mr. Bidenfrom most Democrats, and a bluntrejection of Mr. Sanders’s candi-dacy by the kind of large, diversestates he would have needed tocapture to broaden his appeal be-yond the ideological left.

Mr. Sanders, of Vermont, hasstruggled since his first presiden-

Biden Sweeps 3 States on Chaotic Day of VotingBy ALEXANDER BURNSand JONATHAN MARTIN

Continued on Page A19

Holds an OverwhelmingLead Over Sanders

VOL. CLXIX . . . No. 58,636 + © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 2020

Late EditionToday, sunshine giving way toclouds, high 55. Tonight, cloudy, rainlate, low 44. Tomorrow, rain early,then sunshine returning, high 52.Weather map appears on Page A24.

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