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TOKYO — Prime MinisterShinzo Abe of Japan said on Fri-day that he was resigning becauseof ill health, thrusting his country,during a global pandemic, into anew period of political uncertaintyafter a record-setting tenure thatprovided unaccustomed stabilityat the top.

Mr. Abe, 65, announced his deci-sion to step down just four days af-

ter he had set a record for the long-est uninterrupted run as Japaneseleader — nearly eight years — butbefore he had achieved some ofhis most cherished ambitions.

Since taking over at the end of2012 as the sixth prime minister infive years, he had overseen Ja-pan’s recovery from a devastatingearthquake, tsunami and nucleardisaster, restored the country to asemblance of economic health,and curried favor with an unpre-

dictable American president,Donald J. Trump.

Yet despite his long hold onpower — it was his second stint asprime minister, having held thepost from 2006 to 2007 — Mr. Abe

fell short of his ultimate goal of re-vising the pacifist Constitution in-stalled by the United States afterWorld War II. He was also unableto secure the return of contestedislands claimed by both Japan andRussia so that the two countriescould sign a peace treaty to offi-cially end the war.

And in an often emotional newsconference Friday evening, Mr.Abe expressed regret for a third

As Abe Prepares to Leave Office, Uncertainty Reigns in JapanBy MOTOKO RICH Record Tenure Fell Short

of Major Reforms

Continued on Page A12

HENDERSON, Nev. — The Re-gal Sunset Station multiplex insuburban Las Vegas reopened onThursday night after sittingempty for five months in eeriepandemic-forced exile. One of thefirst people to take a center seat,popcorn and orange soda in hand,was Brian Truitt, who bought tick-ets to “The New Mutants,” a Mar-vel superhero movie, a week in ad-vance.

“I figured it would be jammed,with pent-up demand to come tothe movies again,” Mr. Truitt, 38,said as he sat back in his recliningseat and tugged at his face mask.He looked around the mostlyempty auditorium, with capacityfor 172, and shrugged in surprise.“I guess not.”

For the first time since March,big-budget movies are being re-leased again in theaters. “TheNew Mutants” cost at least $70million to make and market. Com-ing next week is Christopher No-lan’s “Tenet,” a hotly anticipated$200 million thriller. But the will-ingness of Americans to return totheaters — to sit inside a closedroom with strangers for hours, re-gardless of the safety protocols —remains anything but certain. ForHollywood, which has come torely on superheroes and star di-rectors like Mr. Nolan as relativelysure bets, releasing these films islike stepping off a ledge without

knowing where the ground lies.If Thursday night at Regal Sun-

set Station was any indication, thedrop could be considerable. By thetime the lights dimmed for the 7p.m. show and trailers started toplay, the sound system jouncingeveryone’s insides, only 28 peoplehad turned up, including myself.

Maybe it was the movie. “TheNew Mutants,” a long-delayed “X-Men” thriller, has been belea-guered by bad buzz and waslightly marketed by Walt DisneyStudios. It epitomizes what manypeople think is wrong with Holly-wood: endless overreliance on su-perheroes (“New Mutants” is the13th installment in the 20-year-old“X-Men” franchise); corporateconsolidation (the film was de-layed because of Disney’s take-

When Movies Are Adventures,But for All the Wrong Reasons

By BROOKS BARNES

Big films are back. Hollywoodhopes audiences will follow.

BRIDGET BENNETT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A8

KENOSHA, Wis. — Days after aKenosha police officer shot JacobBlake outside an apartment build-ing, the authorities on Friday pro-vided new details on what led upto the videotaped encounter thathas prompted heated street pro-tests and calls for reform.

Law enforcement officials saidthat in recent days they hadshackled Mr. Blake to his hospitalbed, where he is paralyzed fromthe waist down from his wounds,because he faced an arrest war-rant from July on charges of third-degree sexual assault, criminaltrespass and disorderly conduct.The same woman who had filedthat complaint had called 911 be-fore the shooting on Sunday to re-port Mr. Blake’s presence to thepolice, according to interviewsand records.

Some onlookers and BenCrump, the civil rights lawyerwho is representing Mr. Blake,have described Mr. Blake as apeacemaker who was seeking tobreak up a disturbance involvingtwo women when the police ar-rived. On Friday afternoon in Wis-consin, near the spot where Offi-cer Rusten Sheskey fired at Mr.

Kenosha PoliceDetail Run-Up

To Encounter

This article is by John Eligon, Sar-ah Mervosh and Richard A. OppelJr.

Continued on Page A21

WASHINGTON — Hours afterPresident Trump stood on theSouth Lawn of the White House torail against what he called agita-tors bent on destroying “theAmerican way of life,” thousandsof Americans streamed to the Lin-coln Memorial, not a mile away, onFriday to deliver what frequentlyseemed to be a direct reply.

The march was devised in part

to build on the passion for racialjustice that the Rev. Dr. Martin Lu-ther King Jr. summoned when hedelivered his “I Have a Dream”address on that same spot 57years ago. From the lectern at the

base of the memorial, civil rightsadvocates and Black ministers of-ten cast Mr. Trump as the primeobstacle to their goal, and votingto remove him as the first step to-ward a solution.

Dr. King’s eldest son, MartinLuther King III, described Mr.Trump as “a president who con-fuses grandiosity with greatness”and opts for chaos over communi-ty.

“We need you to vote as if yourlives, our livelihoods, our liberties

Looking Back to 1963, and Ahead to NovemberBy MICHAEL WINESand AISHVARYA KAVI

Calling for racial justice, demonstrators crowded the National Mall in Washington on Friday.MICHAEL A. McCOY FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A21

In a Rebuke to Trump,a Peaceful March for

Racial Justice

As a weeklong Republican of-fensive against Joseph R. BidenJr. ends, the Democratic nomineeplans to resume campaigning inswing states and has released amultimillion dollar barrage of adsattacking President Trump’s han-dling of the coronavirus.

The moves come as the presi-dential campaign barrels into thecritical last 10 weeks. They repre-sent a bet by Mr. Biden that a fo-cus on Covid-19 will prevail overMr. Trump’s “law and order” em-phasis and his attempt to portrayMr. Biden as a tool of the “radicalleft.” Mr. Biden’s ads also cele-brate the history of peaceful pro-tests.

Mr. Biden’s team on Fridaymade clear that they were deter-mined to debate over the violentunrest in some cities and wouldaggressively move to prevent thepresident’s narrative from takinghold.

“We’re certainly not going to letit go unaddressed,” said Repre-sentative Cedric Richmond ofLouisiana, who is a chairman ofMr. Biden’s campaign. “I thinkAmericans know it’s false, andwe’re going to just have to makesure that they know what our po-sition is.”

Aides to Mr. Trump said on Fri-day that their line of attack wouldnot change. They plan to repeat-edly highlight Mr. Trump’s famil-iar “law and order” message, andare blunt in their assessment thatthey will benefit politically fromviolence erupting at some pro-tests.

Mr. Biden has accused Mr.Trump of “rooting for more vio-lence,” and his advisers said theywould push that argument as Mr.Biden continues to offer his sup-

BIDEN GEARS UPTO HIT THE TRAILIN SWING STATES

CRITICAL FINAL 10 WEEKS

Renewed Push as TrumpPursues a Campaign

Focused on Crime

This article is by Katie Glueck, An-nie Karni and Alexander Burns.

Continued on Page A17

It started with an unexpectedcall last week from Lynne Patton,a longtime Trump associate whooversees federal housing pro-grams in New York.

Ms. Patton told a leader of a ten-ants’ group at the New York CityHousing Authority, the nation’slargest, that she was interested inspeaking with residents aboutconditions in the authority’s build-ings, which have long been in poorrepair.

Four tenants soon assembled infront of a video camera and wereinterviewed for more than fourhours by Ms. Patton herself. Threeof the tenants were never told thattheir interviews would be editedinto a two-minute video clip thatwould air prominently on Thurs-day night at the Republican Na-tional Convention and be used tobash Mayor Bill de Blasio, thethree tenants said in interviewson Friday.

“I am not a Trump supporter,”said one of the tenants, ClaudiaPerez. “I am not a supporter of hisracist policies on immigration. Iam a first-generation Honduran.It was my people he was sendingback.”

The episode represents anotherstark example of how PresidentTrump has deployed governmentresources to further his politicalambitions. Ms. Patton is head ofthe New York office of the Depart-ment of Housing and Urban De-velopment, and under the HatchAct is barred from using her gov-ernment position to engage in po-litical activities.

Throughout the convention, Mr.Trump has shattered the tradi-tional boundaries between gov-ernment and politics, and the vid-eo was aired on a night when thecampaign took over the SouthLawn of the White House, the firsttime that a major political conven-tion has occurred there.

The public housing clip was thesecond instance of the Trumpcampaign’s misleading partici-pants in an event involving the

R.N.C.’s VideoLeaves TenantsFeeling Tricked

New Yorkers Say TheirWords Were Twisted

By MATTHEW HAAG

Continued on Page A17

The pandemic has pushed the Tour deFrance, celebrated for its accessibility,to embrace social distancing. PAGE B10

SPORTSSATURDAY B8-11

Tour de CoronavirusRight-wing politicians say migrantsbring the virus, even as official datashow otherwise. Above, Sicily. PAGE A10

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-10

Italy Points Blame at Migrants

Candidates often deploy relatives totestify to their good qualities. TheTrump women filled the bill at theRepublican convention. PAGE A19

NATIONAL A14-24

A Female Supporting CastThe soprano Lise Davidsen, who madea grand debut at the MetropolitanOpera, will livestream a recital. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-7

Big Voice for the Small ScreenBrazilians are asking about paymentsreceived from President Jair Bol-sonaro’s wife and son from a man underinvestigation for corruption. PAGE A11

INTERNATIONAL A11-13

Graft Query Rattles Bolsonaro

A streamed reading of a Beth Henleyplay offers scorching performances byEd Harris and Amy Madigan. PAGE C1

A Steamy Southern Noir

At the Republican National Convention,the president and two New Yorkerspainted a dark picture of the city. Thereality is more complex. PAGE A18

Blurring the Crime Picture

Hurricane Rita became the benchmarkstorm for a generation in parts of Loui-siana. It forced rule changes that mayhave saved lives this week. PAGE A16

Lessons in a 2005 Killer Storm

The N.B.A. returns after a three-daywork stoppage, committed to a newseries of social justice efforts. PAGE B8

Looking Beyond the CourtA top spokeswoman and a consultantwere let go after the agency overstatedplasma treatment benefits. PAGE A4

Two Are Ousted at the F.D.A.It is illegal for companies that appraisehomes to discriminate. Black homeown-ers say it still happens. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-7

When the Appraiser Is Biased

A Moroccan resident is devoted togiving migrants a decent final restingplace. The Saturday Profile. PAGE A13

Honoring the Unclaimed Dead

Practices like redlining helped reshape the landscape of U.S. cities. They also left communities ofcolor far more exposed to the rising heat brought by climate change. Page A22.

They also have more paved surfaces, like roads and parking lots. That adds up to more sweltering heat during the summer.

0%0% 100%100%

Percentage pavedPercentage paved

James Riv er

CoolerCooler HotterHotter

Summer temperatureSummer temperature

James Riv er

Redlined neighborhoodsRedlined neighborhoods

RICHMONDRICHMOND

Historical neighborhoods that were not redlined

Historical neighborhoods that were not redlined

0%0% 100%100%

Percentage tree coverPercentage tree cover

James Riv er

Decades of Racist Housing Policies Worsen a Climate Crisis

Formerly redlined areas have less tree cover today.In the 1930s, federal officials redlined majority-Black neighborhoods.

GRAPHICS BY NADJA POPOVICH/THE NEW YORK TIMESSource: Mapping Inequality; National Land Cover Database 2016; NASA/U.S.G.S. Landsat thermal data

Timothy Egan PAGE A26

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27

Late Edition

VOL. CLXIX . . . No. 58,800 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2020

Today, mostly cloudy, heavy thun-derstorms, humid, high 80. Tonight,thunderstorms, clearing, low 65. To-morrow, sunny, breezy, less humid,high 78. Weather map, Page C8.

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