VOL. CLXVII . . . No. 57,946 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 2018

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Republicans on a House panel said theysaw no evidence that the Trump cam-paign aided Russia’s election meddling.Democrats dissented. PAGE A14

NATIONAL A13-18

Verdicts Differ on Meddling

The guilty verdict against BillCosby was hailed by some as longoverdue.

Not just because his victim, An-drea Constand, first reported thathe had sexually assaulted her 13years ago, but also because, as alawyer for other Cosby accusersput it, “women were finally be-

lieved.”Getting there required sur-

mounting significant obstacles: avictim who waited a year to reportthe crime and gave two differentdates for the attack, a prosecutorwho declined to bring the case, anew district attorney who racedagainst the statute of limitationsand, finally, a first trial in whichthe jury could not agree.

That was before a series of reve-

lations that caused a seismic shiftin public awareness of sexual as-sault by powerful men. And this isafter. But those who know the le-gal system best say the verdict isnot the bellwether that manywould like. Criminal convictions insexual misconduct cases wherethe victims and the accused kneweach other will remain exceed-ingly hard to get.

Neither Harvey Weinstein, the

former Hollywood mogul, norRussell Simmons, the musicproducer, has faced criminalcharges, despite investigationsinto allegations against each ofthem. James Toback, a film direc-tor who has been accused byscores of women of sexual miscon-duct over decades, will quite likelynever face arrest because the stat-ute of limitations has expired.

Why Cosby Verdict Is Probably Less Breakthrough Than AnomalyBy TIMOTHY WILLIAMS

Continued on Page A17

VINCENT FOURNIER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Can Oman’s rocks help save Earth? Above, carbonate veins formed when dissolved carbon dioxide flowed through the rocks. Page A10.Oman’s Special Rocks

SEOUL, South Korea — Theleaders of North and South Koreaagreed on Friday to work to re-move all nuclear weapons fromthe Korean Peninsula and, withinthe year, pursue talks with theUnited States to declare an officialend to the Korean War, which rav-aged the peninsula from 1950 to1953.

At a historic summit meeting,the first time a North Koreanleader had ever set foot in theSouth, the leaders vowed to nego-tiate a treaty to replace a trucethat has kept an uneasy peace onthe divided Korean Peninsula formore than six decades. A peacetreaty has been one of the incen-tives North Korea has demandedin return for dismantling its nucle-ar program.

“South and North Korea con-firmed the common goal of realiz-ing, through complete denuclear-ization, a nuclear-free KoreanPeninsula,” read a statementsigned by North Korea’s leader,Kim Jong-un, and the South’spresident, Moon Jae-in, after theirmeeting at the border village ofPanmunjom.

The agreements came at theend of a day of extraordinary di-plomatic stagecraft emphasizinghopes for reconciliation and disar-mament that was broadcast livearound the world, beginning witha smile and handshake that Mr.Kim and Mr. Moon shared at theborder and extending to a quiet,30-minute talk they had near theend of the day in a wooded area ofthe village.

Their meeting was marked bysome surprisingly candid mo-ments but also sweeping pledges,with Mr. Kim declaring, “I camehere to put an end to the history ofconfrontation.” Still, the agree-ment was short on details, time-tables and next steps.

The event, at the Peace House,a conference building on the SouthKorean side of Panmunjom, was

TWO KOREAS UNITEIN GOAL TO BANISHNUCLEAR WEAPONS

Kim and Moon Vowto Forge an Official

End to the War

By CHOE SANG-HUN

Continued on Page A9

SEOUL, South Korea — Rush-hour in South Korea’s over-caf-feinated capital runs at a frenzy— so it was remarkable to seecommuters freeze Friday morn-ing and fixate on giant Samsungtelevision screens showing thescene unfolding in the Demilita-rized Zone, where time stoppedin 1953.

Kim Jong-un, in a black Maosuit, stepped across a low con-crete barrier into the South Kore-an territory, a first for a NorthKorean leader since the cata-strophic and unfinished warseven decades ago. He reachedout to the South’s president,Moon Jae-in, and led him backover into the North’s territory.

It was a reminder, if anyonehere needed one, that the 34-year-old Mr. Kim has played themaster choreographer in thisremarkable dance step along anuclear precipice.

Mr. Kim silenced those whothought he was too young andcallow to rule by executing hisuncle, fatally poisoning a halfbrother, installing his own gener-als and putting North Korea’snuclear and missile programsinto overdrive.

And after spending 2017 prov-ing that his backward nationcould hurl missiles across thePacific, and could test a weaponmany times more powerful thanthe Hiroshima atomic bomb, Mr.Kim seized on an invitation fromSouth Korea to take part in the2018 Winter Olympics and sud-denly played the statesman. OnFriday he hinted anew that hisnuclear arsenal might be on thetable, if the price was right.

President Trump insists thathis own actions are responsible,that his threats of “fire and fury”and, more important, his intensi-fied sanctions, forced Mr. Kim tothis moment. He is partly right:Mr. Trump has shown an energyin confronting North Korea that

Parameters Are Setfor Trump Meeting

By DAVID E. SANGER

Continued on Page A9

NEWS ANALYSIS

GAZA CITY — For weeks, Pal-estinians protesting along thefence between Gaza and Israelhave conjured up the idea ofswarming across the barrier, amass of tens of thousands of peo-ple too numerous for Israeli sol-diers to arrest or even to shoot.

And Israelis have been worry-ing aloud about what their sol-diers would do in response.

On Friday, both sides got asmall sense of what that couldmean when hundreds of Palestin-ians, urged on by a Hamas leaderin a fiery midafternoon speech,rushed the security barrier at theeastern edge of Gaza City andtried to cross into Israel.

Dozens made it through abarbed-wire barrier about 30

yards inside Gaza territory, de-ploying wire cutters, hooks andwinches. Israeli troops openedfire with a mix of live ammunitionand rubber bullets, killing threepeople and wounding nearly 1,000more, according to Gaza health of-ficials.

“That was the first time we’veseen this kind of synchronized andfocused attack on the fence, andit’s something we are not going totolerate by any stretch,” said Lt.Col. Jonathan Conricus, a spokes-man for the Israeli military. “Itwas a very swift move, and it

seemed to be very focused. Itlooked as if they were disregard-ing the danger that they were fac-ing.”

The protest was the fifth in a se-ries of demonstrations organizedby Hamas, the Islamist group thatrules Gaza. It has succeeded inways that firing missiles into Is-rael has not, drawing interna-tional sympathy and attention tothe Palestinian cause and theclaims of the right of return forPalestinian refugees into what isnow Israel.

The protests are expected tocontinue for three more weeks,and with neither side givingground they appear to be headedfor more violence. Already morethan 40 people have been killed.

Early Saturday, Israel said itsfighter jets had struck six naval

Plan to Storm Fence Gets Bloody Preview in GazaBy IYAD ABUHEWEILA

and DAVID M. HALBFINGER

A wounded demonstrator being evacuated during a clash with Israeli troops at the Gaza border.IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA/REUTERS

Israeli Soldiers OpenFire, Killing Three, in

Breach of Barrier

Continued on Page A11

Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s abruptdecision to dismiss the Housechaplain triggered an uproar onFriday over religion, pitting Re-publican against Republican andoffering Democrats a political op-portunity in a year already mov-ing their way.

Mr. Ryan moved quietly twoweeks ago to remove the chaplain,the Rev. Patrick J. Conroy — soquietly that some lawmakers as-sumed the Catholic priest was re-tiring. But in an interview onThursday with The New YorkTimes, Father Conroy said he wasblindsided when Mr. Ryan askedhim to resign, and suggested poli-tics — specifically a prayer hegave in November when Congresswas debating a tax overhaul —may have been a factor in thespeaker’s decision.

Father Conroy prayed then forlawmakers to “guarantee thatthere are not winners and losersunder new tax laws, but benefitsbalanced and shared by all Ameri-cans.” Shortly after, he said, hewas admonished by Mr. Ryan ofWisconsin, who is also a RomanCatholic.

“Padre, you just got to stay outof politics,” he recalled the

speaker saying.As reports of the dismissal cir-

culated in the Capitol, some Re-publicans, in a closed-door meet-ing on Friday morning, demandedan explanation from Mr. Ryan,while Democrats commandeeredthe House floor in a boisterous, ifunsuccessful, attempt to force theHouse to investigate Mr. Ryan’sdecision.

At the House Republican meet-ing, Mr. Ryan told lawmakers thatcomplaints about Father Conroy’spastoral care — not politics orprayer — led to his decision, ac-cording to several who attended.The speaker’s spokeswoman,AshLee Strong, said simply thathe had “made the decision he be-lieves to be in the best interest ofthe House.”

But the dismissal appears to bean unforced error in a politicalyear when Republicans cannot af-ford mistakes. The controversyexposed long-simmering tensionsbetween Roman Catholics andevangelical Christians over whoshould be lawmakers’ religiouscounselor. And a public clash be-tween Southern evangelical Re-publicans and Northern Catholics

Chaplain’s Abrupt Firing SpursBipartisan Call for Explanation

By ELIZABETH DIAS and SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

Continued on Page A15

Genetic testing services havebecome enormously popular withpeople looking for long-lost rela-tives or clues to hereditary dis-eases. Most never imagined thatone day intimate pieces of theirDNA could be mined to assist po-lice detectives in criminal cases.

Even as scientific experts ap-plauded this week’s arrest of theGolden State Killer suspect, Jo-seph James DeAngelo, 72, someexpressed unease on Friday at re-ports that detectives in Californiahad used a public genealogy data-base to identify him. Privacy andethical issues glossed over in thepublic’s rush to embrace DNAdatabases are now glaringly ap-parent, they said.

“This is really tough,” saidMalia Fullerton, an ethicist at theUniversity of Washington whostudies DNA forensics. “He was ahorrible man and it is good that hewas identified, but does the endjustify the means?”

Coming so quickly on the heelsof the Cambridge Analytica scan-dal, in which Facebook data onmore than 70 million users wasshared without their permission,it is beginning to dawn on con-sumers that even their most inti-mate digital data — their geneticprofiles — may be passed aroundin ways they never intended.

“There is a whole generationthat says, ‘I don’t really care aboutprivacy,’” said Peter Neufeld, a co-founder of The Innocence Project,which uses DNA to exonerate peo-

Stores of DNAThat Anybody Can Pore Over

Privacy Worries in Caseof Golden State Killer

By GINA KOLATA and HEATHER MURPHY

POOL PHOTO BY RANDY PENCH/REUTERS

Continued on Page A16

ARRAIGNMENT The suspect wasin court on Friday. Page A16.

Late Edition

The E.P.A. has drafted regulations onplanet-warming emissions from vehi-cles that would weaken Obama-erastandards. PAGE A15

Plan to Weaken Exhaust Rules

A Russian lawyer who told Trumpbackers she had dirt on Hillary Clintonrecanted denials that she had ties to theRussian government. PAGE A14

‘I Am an Informant’

The figure is short of the president’s goalof at least 3 percent, but a higher pace isforecast for the rest of 2018. PAGE B1

BUSINESS DAY B1-7

2.3% Growth in First Quarter

Sprint and T-Mobile, negotiating for athird time, were said to be near a dealto create a wireless giant. PAGE B1

Familiar Ring to Merger News

The third child of Prince William andhis wife, Catherine, has a name. It isLouis Arthur Charles. PAGE A7

Just Call Him Prince Louis

A revolt staged by university studentsand young professionals has loosenedPresident Daniel Ortega’s sweepinggrip on power. PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A4-12

‘We Are Nicaragua’

In New York State, bringing a sex har-assment complaint involves a journeyinto a maze of bureaucracies. PAGE A19

NEW YORK A19-21

No Straight Path to Justice

In advance of “Avengers: Infinity War,”superfans come together for an epicshared binge-watching experience in aTimes Square multiplex. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-7

A 31-Hour Marvel Marathon

The Angels have gone to great lengthsto accommodate Shohei Ohtani’s desireto become the major leagues’ firsttwo-way star since Babe Ruth. PAGE D1

SPORTSSATURDAY D1-6

Not Just Any Rookie Ballplayer

Gail Collins PAGE A22

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23

THIS WEEKEND

The Times for Kids

Today, partial sunshine, milder, high68. Tonight, mostly cloudy, eveningshowers, low 48. Tomorrow, periodicclouds and sunshine, cooler, high 57.Weather map appears on Page C8.

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