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A state that was struggling with a hous-ing squeeze now must find accommoda-tion for thousands of evacuees. PAGE A11

NATIONAL A10-14

California Fires’ Aftermath

In a justice system built on the idea ofchoice, experts say the path to troublemay begin in childhood. PAGE A10

Early Trauma and Later Crimes

President Trump’s outsize influence is a major factor in the closely watchedVirginia governor’s race. PAGE A13

NATIONAL

Not Running, but Looming

Senator Robert Menendez is accused ofcorruption, but a recent Supreme Courtcase makes proving it harder. PAGE A16

NEW YORK A16-18

A New Definition of Bribery

David Leonhardt PAGE A21

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A20-21

When North Korean hackerstried to steal $1 billion from theNew York Federal Reserve lastyear, only a spelling error stoppedthem. They were looting an ac-count of the Bangladesh CentralBank when bankers grew suspi-cious about a withdrawal requestthat had misspelled “foundation”as “fandation.”

Even so, Kim Jong-un’s minionsstill got away with $81 million inthat heist.

Then only sheer luck enabled a22-year-old British hacker to de-fuse the biggest North Koreanbreach to date, a ransomware at-tack last May that failed to gener-ate much cash but brought downhundreds of thousands of comput-ers across dozens of countries —and briefly crippled Britain’s Na-tional Health Service.

Their track record is mixed, butNorth Korea’s army of more than6,000 hackers is undeniably per-sistent, and undeniably improv-ing, according to American andBritish security officials who havetraced these attacks and othersback to the North.

Amid all the attention onPyongyang’s progress in develop-ing a nuclear weapon capable ofstriking the continental UnitedStates, the North Koreans havealso quietly developed a hackingprogram that is stealing hundredsof millions of dollars and provingcapable of unleashing global hav-oc.

Unlike its weapons tests, whichhave led to international sanc-tions, the North’s strikes havefaced almost no pushback or pun-ishment, even as the regime is al-ready using its hacking capabili-ties for actual attacks against itsadversaries in the West.

And just as Western analystsonce scoffed at the potential of theNorth’s nuclear program, so didexperts dismiss its digital poten-tial — only to now acknowledge

that hacking is an almost perfectweapon for a Pyongyang that isisolated and has little to lose.

The country’s primitive infra-structure is far less vulnerable toonline retaliation, and North Kore-an hackers operate outside thecountry, anyway. Sanctions offerno useful response, since a raft ofsanctions are already imposed.And Mr. Kim’s advisers are bet-ting that no one will respond to acyberattack with a military at-tack, for fear of a catastrophic es-calation between North and SouthKorea.

“Cyber is a tailor-made instru-ment of power for them,” saidChris Inglis, a former deputy di-rector of the National SecurityAgency, who now directs cyber-studies at the United States NavalAcademy. “There’s a low cost ofentry, it’s largely asymmetrical,there’s some degree of anonymityand stealth in its use. It can holdlarge swaths of nation-state infra-structure and private-sector in-frastructure at risk. It’s a source ofincome.”

Mr. Inglis, speaking at the Cam-bridge Cyber Summit this month,added: “You could argue that theyhave one of the most successfulcyberprograms on the planet, notbecause it’s technically sophis-ticated, but because it hasachieved all of their aims at verylow cost.”

It is hardly a one-way conflict:By some measures the UnitedStates and North Korea have beenengaged in an active digital con-flict for years.

Both the United States andSouth Korea have also placed dig-ital “implants” in the Reconnais-sance General Bureau, the NorthKorean equivalent of the CentralIntelligence Agency, according todocuments that Edward J. Snow-den released several years ago.American-created cyber- and

North Korea Deploys CorpsOf Hackers Bent on Chaos

In a Nuclear Shadow, Kim’s Army StealsMillions and Wages Digital War

This article is by David E. Sanger, David D. Kirkpatrick and Nicole Perlroth.

Continued on Page A8

MOGADISHU, Somalia —When a double truck bombingshattered the night in Mogadishuon Saturday, rescue workers be-gan the grim search for survivorsthat has become all too commonas Somalia battles an Islamist in-surgency. They picked throughburned-out cars and hunted asbest they could in a collapsed ho-tel.

But it was only on Sunday, asemergency workers pulled bodyafter body from the rubble of anearly leveled downtown street,that the magnitude of the latest at-tack came into focus. The num-bers of dead surged from 20 onSaturday night to more than 270and counting, according to gov-ernment officials. More than 300people were injured.

“This is the deadliest incident Iever remember” since the 1990s,when the government collapsed, ashaken Senator Abshir Ahmedsaid in a Facebook posting.

The attack came as the UnitedStates under President Trump hasmade a renewed push to defeatthe Shabab, Somali-based mili-tants who have terrorized thecountry and East Africa for years,killing civilians across borders,worsening famine and destabiliz-ing a broad stretch of the region.While no one had yet claimed re-sponsibility for the bombings, sus-picion immediately fell on thegroup, which frequently targetsthe capital, Mogadishu.

The Shabab — which once con-trolled most of the city — has lostmuch of its territory in recentyears, the result of attacks by Afri-can Union forces, a fitfullystrengthening Somali army andincreasing American air power.But the group remains a potentkilling force, despite years ofAmerican counterterrorism oper-ations.

Some of the militants have pro-claimed allegiance to Al Qaeda,while others support the IslamicState.

As the death toll grew Sunday,the Somali president, MohamedAbdullahi Mohamed, declaredthree days of national mourning.He donated blood for the victimsand asked his fellow citizens to dothe same.

“Today’s horrific attack provesour enemy would stop nothing tocause our people pain and suffer-ing. Let’s unite against terror,” Mr.Mohamed said on Twitter. “Timeto unite and pray together. Terror

Nearly 300 DieIn Truck Blasts

In MogadishuThis article is by Hussein Mo-

hamed, Eric Schmitt and MohamedIbrahim.

Somalis removed the body of a man killed in Mogadishu on Saturday. Two truck explosions in the capital left more than 300 injured.FARAH ABDI WARSAMEH/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Continued on Page A8

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — BeforeBob Corker, there was Jeff Flake.

Mr. Flake, the even-temperedRepublican senator from Arizona,has for months offered stingingcritiques of President Trump’scharacter, demeanor and truthful-ness — the same message force-fully echoed a week ago by Mr.Corker, a Republican colleaguefrom Tennessee, who warned thatMr. Trump’s reckless behaviorcould lead to “World War III.”

But there is one crucial differ-ence between the two: Mr. Flake,unlike Mr. Corker, is running forre-election. And now he finds him-self in grave political peril.

Mr. Flake is perhaps the mostendangered Senate Republican,with an approval rating in one re-cent poll of just 18 percent amongArizonans. Mr. Trump has sav-aged Mr. Flake as “toxic” and a“flake,” and has encouraged a pri-mary challenge against him thathas left the senator squeezed notonly from the left but also theright.

His fate is an object lesson forother Republicans who might con-sider voicing dire thoughts aboutthe president’s fitness: Cross Mr.Trump, and your political careercould well be over.

Senator’s Re-election StruggleShows Risk of Crossing Trump

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

After strongly criticizing President Trump, Senator Jeff Flake ofArizona is vulnerable to a Republican primary challenge.

AL DRAGO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A12

WASHINGTON — The JusticeDepartment has dispatched anexperienced federal hate crimeslawyer to Iowa to help prosecute aman charged with murdering atransgender high school studentlast year, a highly unusual movethat officials said was personallyinitiated by Attorney General JeffSessions.

In taking the step, Mr. Sessions,a staunch conservative, is sendinga signal that he has made a pri-ority of fighting violence againsttransgender people individually,even as he has rolled back legalprotections for them collectively.

The Justice Department rarelyassigns its lawyers to serve as lo-cal prosecutors, and only in casesin which they can provide exper-tise in areas that the federal gov-ernment views as significant. By

doing so in this instance, Mr. Ses-sions put the weight of the govern-ment behind a small-city murdercase with overtones of genderidentity and sexuality.

Kedarie Johnson, a 16-year-oldin Burlington,Iowa, was shotto death inMarch 2016.Family andfriends told lo-cal newspa-pers that hewas gay, iden-tified as bothmale and fe-male and occa-sionally wentby the name Kandicee. Christo-pher Perras, a Justice Depart-ment lawyer, will serve as acounty prosecutor in the case, ac-cording to court documents filed

on Friday.“This is just one example of the

attorney general’s commitment toenforcing the laws enacted byCongress and to protecting thecivil rights of all individuals,” saidDevin O’Malley, a spokesman forthe Justice Department.

Nine months into his tenure asthe nation’s top law enforcementofficial, the nuances of Mr. Ses-sions’s civil rights policy are com-ing into focus. As a senator fromAlabama, Mr. Sessions had spo-ken out against same-sex mar-riage and voted against expand-ing federal hate crimes laws toprotect transgender people, andcivil rights groups were lividwhen President Trump nomi-nated him to be attorney general.They predicted he would reversepolicies on discrimination, police

Defying Image, Sessions Aids Transgender CaseBy MATT APUZZO

KedarieJohnson

Continued on Page A11

For decades the film producerHarvey Weinstein succeeded inhiding from public view complaintafter complaint of sexual miscon-duct against him. But on theevening of March 28, 2015, at a ren-dezvous at the TriBeCa Grand, hislongtime pattern of cover-ups wascoming to a dramatic end.

Meeting with him at the hotelwas Ambra Battilana, a 22-year-old model from Italy, who had re-ported to the police the night be-fore that Mr. Weinstein hadgroped her during a businessmeeting. She was wearing a wire.As Ms. Battilana asked Mr. Wein-stein why he had touched herbreasts at his office, undercover

police officers monitored the ex-change, eager to capture his everyword.

“Oh, please, I’m sorry, just comeon in,” Mr. Weinstein said as hetried to usher her into his hotelroom, his tone alternating be-tween threatening and cajoling,according to the recording. “I’mused to that. Come on. Please.”

“You’re used to that?” she re-plied.

“Yes,” he said, adding, “I won’tdo it again.”

The investigation that unfolded

over the next two weeks was per-haps the biggest threat ever facedby Mr. Weinstein, one of the mostprominent figures in Americanentertainment. He immediatelywent on the attack.

As the police and prosecutorsinvestigated the model’s allega-tions, the movie mogul set in mo-tion a team of top-shelf defenselawyers and publicists to under-mine her credibility. They gath-ered court records from Italyabout a previous sexual assaultcomplaint she had filed and thendropped. Stories questioning hermotives popped up in the tabloidswith anonymous sources. Mr.Weinstein’s team even enlistedthe help of a former Manhattansex crimes prosecutor turnednovelist with influential ties.

For Mogul, Brush With Police, Then No ChargesThis article is by Megan Twohey,

James C. McKinley Jr., Al Baker andWilliam K. Rashbaum.

How Weinstein Used Lawyers and Money

to Evade ’15 Case

Continued on Page A18

In the days after the shootingsat the Route 91 Harvest festival inLas Vegas, many stories emergedof bystander courage. Volunteerscombed the grounds for survivorsand carried out the injured.Strangers used belts as makeshifttourniquets to stanch bleeding,and then others sped the woundedto hospitals in the back seats ofcars and the beds of pickup trucks.

These rescue efforts took placebefore the county’s emergencymedical crews, waylaid by fleeingconcertgoers, reached the grassyfield, an estimated half-hour or

more after the shooting began.When they did arrive, the local firechief said in an interview, only thedead remained.

“Everybody was treating pa-tients and trying to get there,”Chief Gregory Cassell of the ClarkCounty Fire Department, said ofhis personnel. “They just could-n’t.”

The experiences in Las Vegashave implications for the nation.Emergency medical serviceshave changed how they respondto mass attacks, charging into in-secure areas and immediatelyhelping the injured rather thanstanding back. Still, every minute

counts, and bystanders can play acritical role in saving lives, asshown in the aftermath to theshooting on Oct. 1 outside the Man-dalay Bay Resort and Casino.

“The city functioned as atrauma center,” said Dr. SeanDort, a surgeon at Dignity Health-St. Rose Dominican Hospital’s Si-ena campus in nearby Henderson,Nev. “What really makes thisunique is the volume.”

What the Las Vegas shootingshowed, trauma experts said, isthat nascent efforts to teach andencourage the public to help thewounded in mass casualty emer-

First Medics on Scene in Las Vegas: Other FansBy SHERI FINK

Continued on Page A14

The reclusive transgender singer is acult heroine. A new boxed set has re-turned her to the spotlight. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-6

Jackie Shane Re-emerges

Iraqi forces were reported to havebegun an attack on Kurdish-held Kirkukand its oil fields. PAGE A7

INTERNATIONAL A4-9

Assault on Kirkuk Begins

A Yukon Territory town has only 20residents but two bars — and the own-ers are locked in a rolling feud. PAGE A6

‘One Big, Unhappy Family’

As businesses chase market trends,young workers are being pulled intoprograms to give advice to the topranks of their companies. PAGE B1

BUSINESS DAY B1-6

Millennial Mentors for C.E.O.s

Despite an off-season of dizzyingmoves, there’s one constant: the War-riors, who are the heaviest favorites indecades, Marc Stein writes. PAGE D1

SPORTSMONDAY D1-7

N.B.A.’s 360-Degree Change

Richard Wilbur, who in 1987 became thesecond U.S. poet laureate, was 96.

OBITUARIES A19

Pulitzer-Winning Poet Laureate

VOL. CLXVII . . . No. 57,752 © 2017 The New York Times Company MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2017 Printed in Chicago $2.50

Plenty of sunshine. Turning warmer.Highs in upper 50s to middle 60s.Mostly clear tonight. Lows in lowerto middle 40s. Mostly sunny tomor-row. Breezy. Weather map, Page D8.

National Edition