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The ancient cedars of Lebanon, a symbol of the country’s resilience, have outlived empires and survived modern wars. Now, global warming could finish them off by the end of the century. Above, the Shouf Biosphere Reserve. Page 12.

JOSH HANER/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Climate Change Is Killing the Cedars of Lebanon

SHANGHAI — The mind-read-ing headsets won’t read minds.The fire-detecting machine hasbeen declared a safety hazard.The robot waiter can’t be trustedwith the soup.

China is ready for the future,even if the future hasn’t quite ar-rived.

China has become a global tech-nological force in just a few shortyears. It is shaping the future ofthe internet. Its technology ambi-tions helped prompt the Trumpadministration to start a tradewar. Hundreds of millions of peo-ple in China now use smartphonesto shop online, pay their bills andinvest their money, sometimes inways more advanced than in theUnited States.

That has led many people inChina to embrace technology fulltilt, no matter how questionable.Robots wait on restaurant diners.Artificial intelligence marks upschoolwork. Facial recognition

technology helps dole out every-thing from Kentucky FriedChicken orders to toilet paper.China is in a competition with it-self for the world record for danc-ing robots.

That embrace of tech for tech’ssake — and the sometimes dubi-ous results it leads to — were ondisplay at the Global Intelligenceand World Business Summit, heldlast month in Shanghai, which

several luminaries in Chinesetech and academia were supposedto kick off with their minds.

Donning black headbands thatlooked like implements of electro-shock therapy, the seven men andtwo women onstage were told toenvision themselves pressing abutton. The headbands wouldtransmit their brain activity to therobotic hand sharing the stage,which would then push a button toofficially start the conference.

A countdown began. A cameraput the robotic hand onto a hugescreen above the stage. The peo-ple onstage seemed to concen-trate. And then, nothing hap-pened. The hand remained mo-tionless. The camera pannedaway.

A spokesman for Yiou, the techconsultancy that hosted the event,declined to comment except for:two emojis showing tears of joy.

All of this embarrasses somepeople in the Chinese tech scene.They warn that the excess exu-berance is one sign of a venture

Wild About Tech, China Even Loves Waiters Too Clunky to ServeBy PAUL MOZUR

The Robot Magic Restaurant in Shanghai, where a nonhumanwaiter can do only so much before a human one steps in to help.

YUYANG LIU FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page 14

SWING LEFT A political actioncommittee is trying to disrupt the way elections are won.SUNDAY BUSINESS, PAGE 3

SOCIALIST STAR After her win inNew York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hit the road to campaignfor other progressives. PAGE 16

DETROIT — For Rachel Con-ner, the 2018 election season hasbeen a moment of revelation.

A 27-year-old social worker inMichigan, Ms. Conner voted forHillary Clinton in the 2016 prima-ries, spurning the more liberalBernie Sanders, whom many ofher peers backed. But Ms. Connerchanged course in this year’s cam-paign for governor, after conclud-ing that Democrats could only winwith more daring messages on is-sues like public health and immi-gration.

And so on a recent Wednesday,she enlisted two other youngwomen to volunteer for Abdul El-Sayed, a 33-year-old advocate ofsingle-payer health care runningan uphill race to become the coun-try’s first Muslim governor.

“They need to wake up and payattention to what people actuallywant,” Ms. Conner said of Demo-cratic leaders. “There are so manyprogressive policies that havewidespread support that main-stream Democrats are not pickingup on, or putting that stuff downand saying, ‘That wouldn’t reallywork.’ ”

Voters like Ms. Conner may notrepresent a controlling faction inthe Democratic Party, at least notyet. But they are increasingly rat-tling primary elections around thecountry, and they promise to growas a disruptive force in nationalelections as younger voters rejectthe traditional boundary lines ofDemocratic politics.

Energized to take on PresidentTrump, these voters are also seek-ing to remake their own party as aferocious — and ferociously liber-al — opposition force. And manyappear as focused on forcing pro-gressive policies into the midtermdebate as they are on defeatingRepublicans.

The impact of these activists in

DEMOCRATS BRACEAS STORM BREWSFAR TO THEIR LEFT

FIERCELY LIBERAL VOICES

Young Voters Urge PartyLeaders to ‘Wake Up

and Pay Attention’

By ALEXANDER BURNS

Continued on Page 17

Late Edition

VOL. CLXVII . . No. 58,031 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2018

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. —In the days following the deadlywhite nationalist rally in Char-lottesville last summer, angry res-idents took over a City Councilmeeting, screaming and weepinginto the microphone. They blamedleaders for failing to stop hordeswith guns, swastikas and Confed-erate flags from descending onthe city.

“Why did you think that youcould walk in here and do businessas usual after what happened?”Nikuyah Walker, one of the activ-ists there that day, bluntly askedthe sitting mayor.

Today, in a sign of how much haschanged since white nationalistsrallied here and shocked the na-tion, Ms. Walker is mayor herself,the city’s first black woman toserve in that role.

Since the rally, nearly every of-

ficial who held power at the timehas resigned or retired. The cityattorney, who concluded thatthere was no legal way to stop therally, took a job in another town.The police chief stepped down inthe wake of a critical report accus-ing him of failing to protect thepublic on the day of the rally. Thecity manager, who oversaw thecity’s response, will leave by theend of this year.

Instead of uniting the right, therally’s purported goal, it empow-ered a leftist political coalitionthat vows to confront generationsof racial and economic injustice.But despite the dramatic overhaulof the city’s leadership, wholesalechange has been slow to take hold.

The bronze Confederate gener-als that ignited the rally still sit onhorseback in public parks. Activ-

One Year Later, Charlottesville Is in a Tug of War Over Its Soul

By FARAH STOCKMAN

Continued on Page 20

Shonda Rhimes, the creator of the ABChits “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal,”lays out her ambitions after signing amultiyear, nine-figure deal. PAGE 1

SUNDAY BUSINESS

Her Grand Plans for NetflixUnder a new crackdown by PresidentRodrigo Duterte, more than 50,000Filipinos have been locked up for trivialoffenses, like drinking in public. PAGE 6

INTERNATIONAL 6-15

Behind Bars for a Can of Beer

At AlienCon, tales of ancient astronauts,Bigfoot and mysteries of the cosmos (andskepticism for scientific theory). PAGE 1

SUNDAY STYLES

Out of This World

Youth sports is being disrupted by arising tide of verbal and even physicalabuse of game officials. PAGE 1

SPORTSSUNDAY

Parents Acting Up

The South American nation is the set-ting for the next big oil boom. Is it readyto handle the riches? PAGE 1

Guyana’s $20 Billion QuestionThe porousness of the Guatemala-Mexico border is in plain view on theSuchiate River, where rafts flow all daycarrying people and cargo. PAGE 8

Floating Toward a Better Life

The city’s racial tensions and classuprisings have inspired a generation ofyoung independent musicians. PAGE 4

Baltimore’s New BeatRandall Kennedy PAGE 1

SUNDAY REVIEW

Federal authorities examiningthe work President Trump’s for-mer lawyer did to squelch embar-rassing stories before the 2016election have come to believe thatan important ally in that effort, thetabloid company American MediaInc., at times acted more as a poli-tical supporter than as a news or-ganization, according to peoplebriefed on the investigation.

That determination has keptthe publisher in the middle of aninquiry that could create legal andpolitical challenges for the presi-dent as prosecutors investigatewhether the lawyer, Michael D.Cohen, violated campaign financelaw.

It could also spell trouble for the

company, which publishes TheNational Enquirer, raising thornyquestions about when coveragethat is favorable to a candidatestrays into overt political activity,and when First Amendment pro-tections should apply.

A.M.I.’s role in the inquiry re-ceived new attention on Fridaywith news that federal authoritieshad seized a recording from Mr.Cohen in which he and Mr. Trump

discussed a $150,000 deal A.M.I.struck before the election, effec-tively silencing a woman’s claimsof an affair by buying the rights toher story and not publishing it.The men also discussed whetherMr. Trump should buy the rightsaway from the company, which hedid not ultimately do, according toa lawyer for the president, Ru-dolph W. Giuliani.

The recording, from early Sep-tember 2016, undercuts previousstatements from Mr. Trump’s rep-resentatives that he did not knowabout the agreement betweenA.M.I. and the woman, the formerPlayboy model Karen McDougal.It also raises questions about theextent of Mr. Cohen’s involvementin the deal.

From the beginning of the cam-

Inquiry Focuses on Publisher’s Support for TrumpBy JIM RUTENBERG

and BEN PROTESS

Continued on Page 19

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RIO DE JANEIRO — Membersof Brazil’s armed forces, who havelargely stayed out of political lifesince the end of the military dicta-torship 30 years ago, are makingtheir biggest incursion into poli-tics in decades, with some evenwarning of a military interven-tion.

Retired generals and other for-mer officers with strong ties to themilitary leadership are mountinga sweeping election campaign,backing about 90 military veter-ans running for an array of posts— including the presidency — innational elections this October.The effort is necessary, they ar-

gue, to rescue the nation from anentrenched leadership that hasmismanaged the economy, failedto curb soaring violence and bra-zenly stolen billions of dollarsthrough corruption.

And if the ballot box does notbring change quickly enough,some prominent former generalswarn that military leaders mayfeel compelled to step in and re-boot the political system by force.

“We are in a critical moment,walking right up to the razor’sedge,” said Antonio Mourão, afour-star general who recently re-

Brazil’s Military Enters Politics,Stirring Fears of a Dictatorship

By ERNESTO LONDOÑO and MANUELA ANDREONI

Continued on Page 10

Moscow’s foreign minister, in a directappeal to Secretary of State Mike Pom-peo, said charges against a suspectedcovert agent were “fabricated.” PAGE 4

A Call for a Russian’s Release

With a five-under-par 66, Tiger Woods isin a tie for sixth at the British Open. “Ihave a chance,” he said. On Golf. PAGE 2

Woods Vaults Into Contention

RECORDS RELEASED The Trumpadministration disclosed secretdocuments related to the wiretap-ping of a campaign aide. PAGE 18

LASHING OUT President Trumpsignaled open warfare on hislongtime lawyer, Michael D. Co-hen, over a secret tape. PAGE 19

The chief executive, Sergio Marchionne,is leaving the company ahead of sched-ule after falling gravely ill. PAGE 23

NATIONAL 16-23

Change Atop Fiat Chrysler

George Soros has bet big on liberaldemocracy. Now he fears that his poli-tical legacy is in jeopardy. PAGE 24

THE MAGAZINE

A Billionaire’s Political LossesTia Coleman’s husband and children,and other relatives, died in a touristboat sinking in Branson, Mo. PAGE 22

Survivor Faces the Unthinkable

Today, cloudy, afternoon thunder-storms, high 83. Tonight, mostlycloudy, thunderstorms, low 74. To-morrow, a few storms, high 82.Weather map appears on Page 22.

$6.00