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NEW DELHI — The worst bor-der clash between India andChina in more than 40 years left 20Indian soldiers dead and dozensbelieved captured, Indian officialssaid on Tuesday, raising tensionsbetween nuclear-armed rivalswho have increasingly been flex-ing their diplomatic and militarymight.

For the past several weeks, af-ter a series of brawls along their

disputed border, China and Indiahave been building up their forcesin the remote Galwan Valley, highup in the Himalayas.

As they dug into opposing posi-tions, adding tinder to a long-smoldering conflict, China took anespecially muscular posture,sending in artillery, armored per-sonnel carriers, dump trucks and

excavators. On Monday night, ahuge fight broke out between Chi-nese and Indian troops in roughlythe same barren area where thesetwo nations, the world’s most pop-ulous, had fought a war in 1962.

Military and political analystssay the two countries do not wantfurther escalation — particularlyIndia, where military forces arenowhere near as powerful as Chi-na’s — but they may struggle tofind a way out of the conflict thatdoes not hint at backing down.

Both countries and their nation-

China-India Tensions Erupt Into a Lethal BrawlThis article is by Jeffrey Gettle-

man, Hari Kumar and SameerYasir.

Nuclear-Armed RivalsSkirmish at Border

Continued on Page A10

The boiling anger that explodedin the days after George Floydgasped his final breaths is now fu-eling a national movement to top-ple perceived symbols of racismand oppression in the UnitedStates, as protests over police bru-tality against African-Americansexpand to include demands for amore honest accounting of Ameri-can history.

In Portland, Ore., demonstra-tors protesting against policekillings turned their ire to ThomasJefferson, toppling a statue of theformer president and founding fa-ther who also enslaved more than600 people.

In Richmond, Va., a statue of theItalian navigator and colonizerChristopher Columbus was spray-painted, set on fire and throwninto a lake.

And in Albuquerque, tensionsover a statue of Juan de Oñate, a16th-century colonial governorwho was exiled from New Mexicoover cruel treatment of NativeAmericans, erupted in street skir-mishes and a blast of gunfire, lead-ing on Tuesday to aggravated bat-tery charges and removal of themonument.

Across the country, monumentscriticized as symbols of historicaloppression have been defaced andbrought down at warp speed in re-cent days. The movement initiallyset its sights on Confederate sym-bols and examples of racismagainst African-Americans, buthas since exploded into a broadercultural moment, forcing a reck-oning over such issues as Euro-pean colonization and the oppres-sion of Native Americans.

In New Mexico, it has surfacedgenerations-old tensions amongIndigenous, Hispanic and Angloresidents and brought 400 yearsof turbulent history bubbling tothe surface.

“We’re at this inflection point,”said Keegan King, a member ofAcoma Pueblo, which endured amassacre of 800 or more peopledirected by Oñate, the brutalSpanish conquistador who be-came governor some four cen-turies ago. The Black Lives Mat-ter movement, he said, had en-couraged people to examine thehistory around them, and not all ofit was merely written in books.

“These pieces of systemic rac-ism took the form of monumentsand statues and parks,” Mr. Kingsaid.

The debate over how to repre-sent the uncomfortable parts ofAmerican history has been goingon for decades, but the traction forknocking down monuments seenin recent days raises new ques-tions about whether it will resultin a fundamental shift in how his-tory is taught to new generations.

“It is a turning point insofar asthere are a lot of people now whoare invested in telling the storythat historians have been layingdown for decades,” said JulianMaxwell Hayter, a historian andassociate professor at the Univer-sity of Richmond.

He said that statues removed

Reconsidering the Past, One Statue at a TimeMovement Confronts

Stony Symbols of aDifficult History

ALBUQUERQUE Removing a statue of Juan de Oñate, whose cruelty to Native Americans led to exile.ADRIA MALCOLM FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

FRANKFORT A statue of Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy’s president, leaving Kentucky’s Capitol.RYAN C. HERMENS/LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

ST. LOUIS A statue of Christopher Columbus, one of many to be taken down across the country.JEFF ROBERSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS

This article is by Sarah Mervosh,Simon Romero and Lucy Tompkins.

Continued on Page A13

Retail sales rebounded sharplyin May as thousands of stores andrestaurants reopened after lock-downs were lifted and federalstimulus checks and tax refundsfueled a burst of spending, a signthat the United States economy islurching back to life.

But while the 17.7 percent rise insales reported on Tuesday is thelargest monthly surge on record,the underlying data presents amore complicated picture andshows just how arduous an eco-nomic recovery from the coro-navirus pandemic will be.

The May numbers followed twomonths of record declines, andoverall sales were still down 8 per-cent from February. Some catego-ries, like clothing, were down asmuch as 63 percent from a yearearlier. And many of the storesand restaurants that welcomedback customers last month did sowith fewer employees, reflecting apermanently altered retail land-scape and an ominous sign for thelabor market.

“I think a lot of it is lockdown fa-tigue,” said Beth Ann Bovino,chief U.S. economist at S&PGlobal. “I would caution not to befooled by this large gain. We stillhave a long way to go in repairingthe economy.”

May’s retail sales figures be-came the latest data point fuelingthe debate in Washington and onWall Street about whether a broadreopening of businesses willcause the economy to snap backquickly or if additional stimulusmeasures are needed.

President Trump immediatelyseized on the positive monthly fig-ures as evidence that a recoverywas taking hold. “Looks like a BIGDAY FOR THE STOCK MARKET,AND JOBS!” he wrote on Twitterminutes after the Commerce De-

Sales ReboundAs U.S. BeginsIts Long Thaw

Wallets Reopening, butMaybe Not for Long

By MICHAEL CORKERYand SAPNA MAHESHWARI

Continued on Page A7

In a one-story brick building insuburban Dallas, between a den-tist office and a family medicineclinic, is a medical laboratory thathas run some of the most expen-sive coronavirus tests in America.

Insurers have paid Gibson Di-agnostic Labs as much as $2,315for individual coronavirus tests.In a couple of cases, the price roseas high as $6,946 when the lab saidit mistakenly charged patientsthree times the base rate.

The company has no special ordifferent technology from, say,major diagnostic labs that charge$100. It is one of a small number ofmedical labs, hospitals and emer-gency rooms taking advantage ofthe way Congress has designedcompensation for coronavirustests and treatment.

“We’ve seen a small number oflaboratories that are chargingegregious prices for Covid-19tests,” said Angie Meoli, a seniorvice president at Aetna, one of theinsurers required to cover testingcosts.

How can a simple coronavirustest cost $100 in one lab and 2,200percent more in another? Itcomes back to a fundamental factabout the American health caresystem: The government does notregulate health care prices.

This tends to have two majoroutcomes that health policy ex-perts have seen before, and areseeing again with coronavirustesting.

The first is high prices over all.Most medical care in the UnitedStates costs double or triple whatit would in a peer country. An ap-

HOW THE CHARGESFOR A VIRUS TESTSOARED TO $2,315

PRICES GO UNREGULATED

Labs Taking AdvantageWhen Congress Pays

the Medical Bill

By SARAH KLIFF

Continued on Page A8

This spoon cake, a close cousin to spoonbread and pudding cake, is best servedwarm, with a scoop, or maybe even two,of vanilla ice cream. PAGE D2

FOOD D1-8

A Strawberry DelightMost sporting events do not allow fans,so broadcasters are using fake crowdnoise, for better or worse. PAGE B8

SPORTSWEDNESDAY B8-11

Fake News? No, It’s Fake NoiseAmid protests after George Floyd’sdeath, a younger generation is challeng-ing a French ideal of unity. PAGE A16

NATIONAL A11-20

Antiracism Wave Hits Overseas

President Trump has little patience forcriticism of law enforcement, unless it ishis. White House Memo. PAGE A13

Trump’s Dueling Police SignalsThe 2020 major league season is at risk.Commissioner Rob Manfred is largelyto blame, Tyler Kepner writes. PAGE B8

Leading Baseball Toward Ruin

The five largest known clusters of thevirus in the country are inside correc-tion facilites. And the anxiety amonginmates is rising, too. PAGE A8

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-8

Infection Rates Soar in Prisons

Italy and Germany activated contacttracing apps this week as tools to avoida second wave of infections. PAGE A6

Europe Rolls Out Tracing Apps

A detonation in North Korea was amessage to its South Korean counter-parts and also to Washington. PAGE A9

INTERNATIONAL A9-10

Korean Détente Teeters

The digital companions may sound liketools out of science fiction, but whensocial isolation became the norm, theyhelped some deal with the suddenloneliness, users say. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-7

My Chatbot Buddy

An Atlanta theater group has beenstaging original 10-minute monologuesto get people talking about racism andother difficult issues. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

Soul-Searching Theater

Thomas L. Friedman PAGE A24

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A24-25

The Trump administration suedthe former national security ad-viser John R. Bolton on Tuesday totry to delay publication of hishighly anticipated memoir abouthis time in the White House, say-ing the book contained classifiedinformation that would compro-mise national security if it becamepublic.

The book, “The Room Where ItHappened,” is set for release nextTuesday. Administration officials

have repeatedly warned Mr.Bolton against publishing it.

Mr. Bolton made clear in a state-ment this week that his book con-tained explosive details about histime at the White House. He andMr. Trump clashed on significantpolicy issues like Iran, North Ko-rea and Afghanistan, and in hisbook, Mr. Bolton also confirmed

accusations at the heart of theDemocratic impeachment caseover the president’s dealings withUkraine, according to details fromhis manuscript previously re-ported by The New York Times.

The Justice Department ac-cused him of short-circuiting agovernment review that he hadagreed to participate in for anyeventual manuscript before evenaccepting the post in 2018.

Mr. Bolton is breaking thatagreement, “unilaterally decidingthat the prepublication review

Administration Sues to Delay Bolton’s MemoirBy MAGGIE HABERMAN

and KATIE BENNER

Continued on Page A18

Could Explosive ClaimsPose a Security Risk?

LONDON — In an unexpectedsign of hope amid the expandingpandemic, scientists at the Uni-versity of Oxford said on Tuesdaythat an inexpensive and com-monly available drug reduceddeaths in patients with severeCovid-19, the illness caused by thecoronavirus.

If the finding is borne out, thedrug, a steroid called dexametha-sone, would be the first treatmentshown to reduce mortality in se-verely ill patients. Had doctorsbeen using the drug to treat thesickest Covid-19 patients in Brit-ain from the beginning of the pan-demic, up to 5,000 deaths couldhave been prevented, the re-searchers estimated.

In severe cases, the virus di-rectly attacks cells lining the pa-

tient’s airways and lungs. But theinfection also can prompt an over-whelming immune reaction that isjust as harmful. Three-quarters ofhospitalized Covid-19 patients re-ceive some form of oxygen.

The drug appears to reduce in-flammation caused by the im-mune system, protecting the tis-sues. In the study, dexamethasonereduced deaths of patients on ven-tilators by one-third, and deaths ofpatients on oxygen by one-fifth.

Until now, hospitals worldwidehave had nothing to offer thesedesperate, dying patients, and theprospect of a lifesaving treatmentclose at hand — in almost everypharmacy — was met with some-thing like elation by doctors.

“Assuming that when it goes

Hope Meets Caution as SteroidIs Said to Reduce Virus Deaths

By BENJAMIN MUELLER and RONI CARYN RABIN

Continued on Page A6

Late Edition

VOL. CLXIX . . . . No. 58,727 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 2020

Today, sunny to partly cloudy, nor-mal temperatures, high 78. Tonight,partly cloudy, low 64. Tomorrow,partly sunny, more humid, high 79.Weather map appears on Page A19.

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