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For more than 100 years, a 7-foot-tall statue of Thomas Jeffer-son has towered over members ofthe New York City Council in theirchamber at City Hall, a testamentto his role as one of the nation’sfounding fathers and the primaryauthor of the Declaration of Inde-pendence.

But for the last two decades,some Black and Latino Councilmembers, citing Jefferson’s his-tory as a slaveholder, called for thestatue to be banished — a pushthat gained significant momen-tum in the last year, as the nationhas broadly reconsidered publicmonuments that can be viewed assymbols of systemic racism.

On Monday, city officials votedunanimously to remove the statuefrom Council chambers, but de-layed a decision on where to put it.

“There are 700 pieces of art un-der our jurisdiction, we cannotmake a rash decision that will seta precedent for the other 699pieces of artwork that may alsohave challenges from people orother groups of people,” SigneNielsen, president of the PublicDesign Commission, which over-sees art at city-owned property,said at a public hearing before thevote.

The relocation of the statue, re-quested by the Council’s Black,

Latino and Asian Caucus, was ex-pected to be a fait accompli: Anagreement was already in place torelocate the statue to the New-York Historical Society. A cratehad been ordered to house the

Jefferson Knocked Off PedestalIn New York Council Chamber

By JEFFERY C. MAYS and ZACHARY SMALL

Thomas Jefferson at City Hall.DAVE SANDERS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A13

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. —Rex Sappenfield does not sleepwell. A former Marine who servedin Afghanistan, he is tormented bythe fate of his interpreter, an Af-ghan with a wife and three youngchildren to whom Mr. Sappenfieldmade a battlefield promise: Wewill never abandon you.

Now a high school Englishteacher who tries to instill a senseof rectitude in his students, Mr.Sappenfield has thought about hispledge every day since the UnitedStates pulled out of Afghanistanon Aug. 30.

“We broke a promise, and I justfeel terrible,” Mr. Sappenfield, 53,said. “I said it to the faces of ourAfghan brothers: ‘Hey, guys, youcan count on us; you will get tocome to the United States if youwish.’”

But if America has withdrawnfrom Afghanistan, Mr. Sappen-field and many other veteranshave not. He is part of an informalnetwork — including the retiredgeneral who once commanded hisunit, retired diplomats and intelli-gence officers, and a former mathteacher in rural Virginia — stillworking to fulfill a promise andsave the Afghan colleagues whorisked their lives for America’slong fight in Afghanistan.

So far, the network has evacuat-ed 69 people from 23 families fromAfghanistan since mid-August.But 346 people from 68 different

families remain on its list of en-dangered Afghans, including theinterpreter, whom Mr. Sappen-field regards as a brother. He saysthe interpreter kept his unit alivein Helmand Province “by tellingus where to go, and where not to.”

Every day, Mr. Sappenfield is incontact with the interpreter, whowent into hiding after the Taliban

took control of the country in mid-August and for security reasons isbeing identified only as P, the firstletter of his given name. He hid inKabul for nearly a month, beforethe network managed to shepherdhim, in a harrowing 15-hour busride, to another city in Afghani-stan.

As of this week, P is waiting for

a possible charter flight out as heis shuttled between safe houses.“The Taliban can easily spot us inthis area because we are not fromthis part of Afghanistan,” he wroteto Mr. Sappenfield this month.

In pulling out of Afghanistan,President Biden declared that hewould not pass the conflict to an-

Their Reason for Rescuing Afghans: ‘You Honor Your Promises’By ROGER COHEN

Bruce Hemp, a retired teacher in Virginia, works with veterans and others to evacuate families.KIANA HAYERI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

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WASHINGTON — The Foodand Drug Administration is plan-ning to allow Americans to re-ceive a different Covid-19 vaccineas a booster than the one they ini-tially received, a move that couldreduce the appeal of the Johnson& Johnson vaccine and provideflexibility to doctors and othervaccinators.

The government would not rec-ommend one shot over another,and it might note that using thesame vaccine as a booster whenpossible is preferable, people fa-miliar with the agency’s planningsaid. But vaccine providers coulduse their discretion to offer a dif-ferent brand, a freedom that statehealth officials have been request-ing for weeks.

The approach was foreshad-owed this past Friday, when re-searchers presented the findingsof a federally funded “mix andmatch” study to an expert com-mittee that advises the Food andDrug Administration. The studyfound that recipients of Johnson &Johnson’s single-dose shot whoreceived a Moderna booster sawtheir antibody levels rise 76-foldin 15 days, compared with only afourfold increase after an extradose of Johnson & Johnson.

Federal regulators this weekare aiming to greatly expand thenumber of Americans eligible forbooster shots. The F.D.A. is ex-pected to authorize boosters of theModerna and Johnson & Johnsonvaccines by Wednesday evening;it could allow the mix-and-matchapproach by then. The agency lastmonth authorized booster shots ofthe Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine forat least six months after the sec-ond dose.

An advisory committee of theCenters for Disease Control and

F.D.A. WILL ALLOWCHOICE OF VACCINEIN BOOSTER DOSES

MIX-AND-MATCH SYSTEM

Study Supports Requestsby State Officials for

More Flexibility

By SHARON LaFRANIEREand NOAH WEILAND

Continued on Page A15

Germany’s most powerfulnewspaper removed its top editorMonday after months of defend-ing his sexual relationships withwomen in the workplace as thescandal began to envelop the pa-per’s globally ambitious parentcompany, Axel Springer.

Bild, a center-right tabloid thathas fed popular anger at Chancel-lor Angela Merkel and herCovid-19 restrictions, dismissedthe editor in chief, Julian Reichelt,after The New York Times re-ported on details of Mr. Reichelt’srelationship with a trainee, whotestified during an independentlegal investigation that in 2018 hehad summoned her to a hotel nearthe office for sex and asked her tokeep a payment secret. Hours af-ter Mr. Reichelt was ousted, thenewsmagazine Der Spiegel pub-lished allegations that Mr.Reichelt had abused his positionto pursue relationships with sev-eral women on his staff.

The dismissal marked the belat-ed arrival of the global #MeToomovement at Axel Springer —and it came as the German com-pany is making significant invest-ments in the American market, in-cluding its acquisition this sum-mer of Politico for $1 billion. AxelSpringer faced pressure in theUnited States and Germany to ex-plain two recent revelations:What the investigation into Mr.Reichelt’s conduct found, and howthe chief executive, MathiasDöpfner, responded to the investi-gation. In a text message to afriend obtained by The Times, Mr.Döpfner seemed to link the scru-tiny of Mr. Reichelt’s behavior tothe editor’s divisive politics, cast-ing him as a bulwark against a re-turn of Communist-style oppres-sion in the guise of Covid rules.

The company said in a state-ment that Mr. Reichelt had “notclearly separated private and pro-fessional matters,” and had misledthe board. Mr. Döpfner, in a state-ment, also praised Mr. Reichelt forhis journalistic leadership and forlaunching Bild-Tv, a new televi-

German EditorIn Sex Inquiry

Is Forced Out

Publisher Takes ActionAmid U.S. Growth

By BEN SMITHand MELISSA EDDY

Continued on Page A11

Colin L. Powell, who in four dec-ades of public life served as the na-tion’s top soldier, diplomat and na-tional security adviser, and whosespeech at the United Nations in2003 helped pave the way for theUnited States to go to war in Iraq,died on Monday. He was 84.

The cause was complications ofCovid-19, his family said in a state-ment, adding that he had beenvaccinated and was being treatedat Walter Reed National MilitaryMedical Center, in Bethesda, Md.,when he died there.

A spokeswoman said his im-mune system had been compro-mised by multiple myeloma, for

which he had been undergoingtreatment. He had been due to re-ceive a booster shot for his vac-cine last week, she said, but had topostpone it when he fell ill. He hadalso been treated for early stagesof Parkinson’s disease, she said.

Mr. Powell was a pathbreaker,serving as the country’s firstBlack national security adviser,chairman of the Joint Chiefs ofStaff and secretary of state. Be-ginning with his 35 years in theArmy, Mr. Powell was emblematicof the ability of minorities to usethe military as a ladder of oppor-tunity.

His was a classic American suc-cess story. Born in Harlem of Ja-maican parents, he grew up in the

South Bronx and graduated fromCity College of New York, joiningthe Army through the R.O.T.C.Starting as a young second lieu-tenant commissioned in the dawnof a newly desegregated Army,Mr. Powell served two decoratedcombat tours in Vietnam. He waslater national security adviser toPresident Ronald Reagan at theend of the Cold War, helping to ne-gotiate arms treaties and an era ofcooperation with the Soviet presi-dent, Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

As chairman of the Joint Chiefs,Mr. Powell was the architect of theinvasion of Panama in 1989 and ofthe Persian Gulf war in 1991,which ousted Saddam Hussein

Colin L. Powell in 2004 in the Oval Office, when he was the country’s first Black secretary of state.DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES

COLIN L. POWELL, 1937-2021

Model Diplomat Haunted by the Iraq WarBy ERIC SCHMITT

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Only one-third of the country’s popula-tion is fully vaccinated, despite theavailability of free inoculations. PAGE A7

INTERNATIONAL A4-11

Russians Are Wary of VaccineLong-shot money is flowing into start-ups that seek the energy of the stars.Driving the investments is a risingalarm about global warming. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-6

Nuclear Fusion’s MomentPopulations of the insect are declining,but researchers with nets and notebooksare busy trying to change that. PAGE D8

SCIENCE TIMES D1-8

They’re Counting on BeesIn his film “The Velvet Underground,”Todd Haynes evokes a world of visualsto illuminate a world of sound. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-6

Seeing More Than Hearing

Critics say the country’s campaign totake farmland from some residents isan attempt to bolster Hindus. PAGE A4

Evicting Muslims in IndiaA new NASA spacecraft, a robotic ar-chaeologist named Lucy, may havesome cosmic explaining to do. PAGE D1

On a Mission to Find AnswersA choreographer has brought step, adance form popular at historically Blackcolleges, to the Met stage. PAGE C1

Stepping at the Opera

Michelle Goldberg PAGE A21

OPINION A20-21

Growth of 4.9 percent shows the indus-trial sector has run into trouble. Butexports and services are strong. PAGE B1

China’s Economy Slows

As homelessness grows in New YorkCity, restaurant owners seek to defuseconflicts between panhandlers and theircustomers and employees. PAGE A12

Restaurants’ Reckoning

WASHINGTON — FormerPresident Donald J. Trump suedCongress and the National Ar-chives on Monday, seeking toblock the disclosure of WhiteHouse files related to his actionsand communications surroundingthe Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

In a 26-page complaint, a law-yer for Mr. Trump argued that thematerials must remain secret as amatter of executive privilege. Hesaid the Constitution gives the for-mer president the right to demandtheir confidentiality even thoughhe is no longer in office — andeven though President Biden hasrefused to assert executive privi-lege over them.

The lawsuit touches off what islikely to be a major legal battle be-tween Mr. Trump and the Housecommittee investigating the at-tack, in which a mob of his sup-porters stormed the Capitol seek-ing to disrupt Congress’s countingof electoral votes to formalize Mr.Biden’s victory. Its outcome willcarry consequences for how muchthe panel can uncover about Mr.Trump’s role in the riot, posethorny questions for the Biden ad-ministration and potentially forgenew precedents about presiden-tial prerogatives and the separa-tion of powers.

“In a political ploy to accommo-date his partisan allies, PresidentBiden has refused to assert execu-tive privilege over numerousclearly privileged documents re-quested by the committee,” JesseR. Binnall, Mr. Trump’s lawyer,wrote in his complaint.

The House committee scruti-nizing the Capitol attack has de-manded detailed records aboutMr. Trump’s every movement andmeeting on the day of the assault.Its demands, sent to the NationalArchives and Records Adminis-tration, include material aboutany plans hatched within theWhite House or other federalagencies to derail the ElectoralCollege vote count by Congress.

In a pair of letters this month tothe National Archives, which is

Trump Is SuingTo Shield FilesIn Riot Inquiry

Legal Battle Is LikelyWith House Panel

By CHARLIE SAVAGEand LUKE BROADWATER

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Calling the Texas law that bans nearlyall abortions “plainly unconstitutional,”the Justice Department asked the Su-preme Court to block it. PAGE A16

Abortion Law Challenged

A judge’s ruling that the University ofNorth Carolina can keep its programwill be appealed all the way to theSupreme Court. PAGE A16

NATIONAL A12-19

Yes to Affirmative Action

Washington State also dismissed fourassistants on the football team fordefying a state mandate. PAGE B9

SPORTS B7-9

Coach Fired for Vaccine Refusal

Late Edition

VOL. CLXXI . . . No. 59,216 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2021

Today, breezy, sunny skies, dry,turning warmer, high 66. Tonight,clear, seasonable, low 57. Tomorrow,remaining warm, sunny, high 73.Weather map appears on Page A22.

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