VOL. CLXVIII . . . No. 58,263 © 2019 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2019

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WASHINGTON — The Ameri-can military has escalated a battleagainst the Shabab, an extremistgroup affiliated with Al Qaeda, inSomalia even as President Trumpseeks to scale back operationsagainst similar Islamist insurgen-cies elsewhere in the world, fromSyria and Afghanistan to West Af-rica.

A surge in American airstrikesover the last four months of 2018pushed the annual death toll ofsuspected Shabab fighters in So-malia to the third record high inthree years. Last year, the strikeskilled 326 people in 47 disclosedattacks, Defense Departmentdata show.

And so far this year, the intensi-ty is on a pace to eclipse the 2018record. During January and Feb-ruary, the United States AfricaCommand reported killing 225people in 24 strikes in Somalia.Double-digit death tolls are be-coming routine, including abloody five-day stretch in lateFebruary in which the militarydisclosed that it had killed 35, 20and 26 people in three separate at-tacks.

Africa Command maintainsthat its death toll includes onlyShabab militants, even though theextremist group claims regularlythat civilians are also killed. TheTimes could not independentlyverify the number of civilianskilled. The rise in airstrikes hasalso exacerbated a humanitariancrisis in the country, according toUnited Nations agencies and non-governmental organizationsworking in the region, as civilians

U.S. ACCELERATESSHADOWY BATTLE

AGAINST SHABAB

SOMALIA STRIKES SURGE

Conflict ‘on Autopilot’ asTrump Curbs Military

Around the Globe

By ERIC SCHMITT and CHARLIE SAVAGE

15

10

5

Airstrikes, by month

American Airstrikes

On the Rise in Somalia

’19’18’17’162015

Trump

administration

The United States has escalated its

airstrike campaign against

Qaeda-backed Shabab militants in

Somalia during the Trump

administration.

Source: FDD's Long War Journal’s analysis of

Defense Department releases.

THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A5

JERUSALEM — In his increas-ingly uphill re-election battle,Prime Minister Benjamin Netan-yahu’s secret weapon is no secret.

It’s President Trump.Giant campaign billboards

went up in Tel Aviv and Jerusalema month ago showing the primeminister and the president shak-ing hands and grinning under thewords “A Different League,” im-plicitly dismissing Mr. Netanya-hu’s challengers as amateurs.Hours before Israel’s attorneygeneral announced his intentionto indict Mr. Netanyahu on cor-ruption charges last month, Mr.Trump told reporters in Vietnamthat the Israeli leader was “tough,smart, strong” and “has done agreat job as prime minister.”

And on Monday, the Pentagonannounced a small, temporaryAmerican troop deployment in Is-rael. By Wednesday, Mr. Netanya-hu — barred under an anti-propa-ganda law from exploiting Israelisoldiers as campaign props — hadcirculated a video and snapshotsshowing him surrounded byAmerican troops instead.

All of this is of great help to Mr.Netanyahu with voters in Israel,where polls show Mr. Trump is ad-mired more than in almost anyother country. Israelis have amplereason to view the president fa-vorably: His administration hasshowered Mr. Netanyahu with giftafter politically charged gift, in-cluding moving the American Em-bassy to Jerusalem, repeatedlycutting aid to the Palestinian Au-thority, and embracing Israel’s ar-gument that millions of Palestin-ians should no longer be countedas refugees.

While other presidents andprime ministers have been close,the Trump-Netanyahu relation-ship has no precedent in theircountries’ history, veteran diplo-mats say, encompassing deep par-allels in their politics, similarstruggles with scandals and out-right copycatting in how they den-igrate opponents. And the rela-tionship has also benefited Mr.Trump, with Mr. Netanyahu’s poli-cies alienating Jewish Democratsand helping Mr. Trump depict theRepublicans as Israel’s only reli-able source of unconditionalAmerican support.

But the prelude to the April 9election in Israel could well betheir last hurrah together.

Mr. Netanyahu’s defeat is now aserious possibility. His party istrailing that of a popular formerarmy chief, Benny Gantz, in thepolls. Even if Mr. Netanyahu wins,he may be unable to form a gov-ernment because Mr. Gantz hasvowed not to enter a coalition withhim while he faces indictment.And if Mr. Netanyahu could forgea governing majority, it is likely tobe so far right as to complicate oreven derail the Trump administra-tion’s long-awaited peace plan toresolve the Israeli-Palestinianconflict.

In the United States, Mr. Netan-

Trump’s HaloLifts FortunesOf Netanyahu

U.S. President PopularAmong Israeli Voters

By DAVID M. HALBFINGER

Continued on Page A7

The trouble appeared to beginalmost immediately after takeoff.The pilots told air traffic control-lers that they were having techni-cal problems. And the planeseemed to repeatedly climb anddive before a final plunge.

Two eerily similar scenes haveplayed out in recent months forBoeing’s brand-new 737 Max jets:on Sunday, when an EthiopianAirlines flight crashed just aftertaking off from Addis Ababa,killing 157 people, and in October,when a Lion Air disaster killed 189people in Indonesia.

The Ethiopian crash occurredjust outside the country’s capital,leaving a smoking crater whereinvestigators combed over thegrim scene. Much about the causeof the crash remains unknown andwill take weeks to investigate, andBoeing and the National Trans-portation Safety Board are send-ing teams to the crash site.

But the rarity of two planes ofthe same model going down insuch a short time span has ur-gently caught the attention of pi-lots, passengers, engineers andindustry analysts.

For Boeing, the questions go tothe heart of its business, as the 737class is a workhorse for airlines,and the single-aisle 737 Max hasbeen the company’s best-sellingplane ever. By the end of January,

Ethiopia CrashRaises Scrutiny

On Boeing Jet

By JAMES GLANZand ZACH WICHTER

An Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed Sunday shortly after takeoff, killing all 157 people on board. The cause has not been determined.MICHAEL TEWELDE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

Continued on Page A6

Fueled by philanthropic zeal, lu-crative tax deductions and theprestige of seeing their works inesteemed settings, wealthy artowners have for decades givenmuseums everything from theirRembrandts to their bedroomslippers.

It all had to go somewhere. Sonow, many American museumsare bulging with stuff — so muchstuff that some house thousandsof objects that have never beendisplayed but are preserved, atconsiderable cost, in climate-controlled storage spaces.

At the Museum of Fine Arts,

Houston: ashtrays, cocktail nap-kins, wine glasses. At the Indian-apolis Art Museum: doilies, neck-ties and women’s underwear.

In storage at the Brooklyn Mu-seum: a roomful of home décortextiles, a full-size RockefellerCenter elevator and a trove of fakeold master paintings the museumis barred from unloading.

Some collections have grown

tenfold in the last 50 years. Mostmuseums display only a fractionof the works they own, in largepart because so many are printsand drawings that can only spar-ingly be shown because of lightsensitivity.

“There is this inevitable marchwhere you have to build morestorage, more storage, more stor-age,” said Charles L. Venable, thedirector of the Indianapolis Mu-seum of Art at Newfields. “I don’tthink it’s sustainable.”

His museum was so jammedwith undisplayed artwork that itwas about to spend about $14 mil-lion to double its storage space un-

When Museums Give Up Their Buried TreasuresBy ROBIN POGREBIN

The Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields has decided to sell or donate many of its stored items.LYNDON FRENCH FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Basements Are StuffedWith Art That May

Never Be Shown

Continued on Page A10

CÚCUTA, Colombia — The nar-rative seemed to fit Venezuela’sauthoritarian rule: Securityforces, on the order of PresidentNicolás Maduro, had torched aconvoy of humanitarian aid asmillions in his country were suf-fering from illness and hunger.

Vice President Mike Pencewrote that “the tyrant in Caracasdanced” as his henchmen “burnedfood & medicine.” The State De-

partment released a video sayingMr. Maduro had ordered thetrucks burned. And Venezuela’sopposition held up the images ofthe burning aid, reproduced ondozens of news sites and televi-sion screens throughout LatinAmerica, as evidence of Mr. Ma-duro’s cruelty.

But there is a problem: The op-

position itself, not Mr. Maduro’smen, appears to have set thecargo alight accidentally.

Unpublished footage obtainedby The New York Times and pre-viously released tapes — includ-ing footage released by the Co-lombian government, which hasblamed Mr. Maduro for the fire —allowed for a reconstruction of theincident. It suggests that a Molo-tov cocktail thrown by an antigov-ernment protester was the mostlikely trigger for the blaze.

At one point, a homemade bomb

Maduro Burned Aid? Footage Shows OtherwiseThis article is by Nicholas Casey,

Christoph Koettl and DeborahAcosta.

Refuting U.S. Claim onVenezuela Standoff

Continued on Page A5

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. —President Trump, undaunted byperhaps the most bruising legisla-tive defeat of his tenure, plans tokick off a fresh effort on Mondayto pressure Congress to pay for awall along the southwestern bor-der, most likely setting up anothershowdown with Democrats whohave vowed to block his signatureproject.

Mr. Trump, who failed to extracteven a single extra dollar for his

wall during a winter battle thatshut down parts of the federal gov-ernment for a record 35 days, willrequest $8.6 billion in the annualbudget proposal, aides said. Hewill also ask Congress for another$3.6 billion to replenish militaryconstruction funds he has di-verted to begin work on the wallby declaring a national emer-

gency, for a total of $12.2 billion.“I would just say that the whole

issue of the wall and border secu-rity is of paramount importance,”said Larry Kudlow, the president’stop economic adviser. “We have acrisis down there.” Speaking on“Fox News Sunday,” Mr. Kudlowacknowledged that “there will be”a fight over the issue in Congress.

That may be an understate-ment. Just as Mr. Trump has re-lentlessly made the wall his high-est domestic priority as he gearsup for a re-election bid next year,

In Budget, Trump Makes Another Play for WallBy PETER BAKER

and JIM TANKERSLEYRequest for $8.6 Billion

Sets Up a New Fight

Continued on Page A13

GLOBAL GRIEF Passengers fromat least 35 countries died on thedoomed Ethiopian jet. PAGE A6

A team of Google researchers is helpinga hospital in India screen more patientsfor signs of diabetic blindness. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-8

Saving Sight With A.I.The English soccer star Raheem Sterlingspeaks out against racism by fans andstereotypes by the news media. PAGE D1

SPORTSMONDAY D1-8

Refusing to Take the Abuse“Be More Chill” hits Broadway, withTiffany Mann, center above, and loadsof frenetic teenage angst. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

Anxiety, in Leaps and Bounds

David Leonhardt PAGE A21

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A20-21

The Kremlin celebrates the literarygiant Ivan Turgenev even as it scornshis negative views of Russia. PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A4-7

They Love Him, Love Him NotA Trump administration proposal wouldallow Social Security to monitor socialmedia posts to identify people who arereceiving federal disability benefitswithout being truly disabled. PAGE A13

NATIONAL A8-14

Uncle Sam Liked Your Photo

A citizens’ group is pressing to build afitting monument to the achievements ofSilicon Valley in San Jose, Calif. PAGE B1

Control-X Marks the Spot

Bethany Vierra’s case showed how thekingdom’s rules can restrict women,and how the authorities can intervene ifthey choose. PAGE A7

Saudis Aid Stranded American

As high-ranking clerics reel over sexualabuse accusations, some are turningsupplicant in unusual Masses. PAGE A15

NEW YORK A15-16

Bishops Seek ForgivenessSerena Williams retired from a third-round match against Garbiñe Mugu-ruza in Indian Wells, Calif. PAGE D2

Illness Trips Up Williams

In Laredo, Tex., a journalist known asLa Gordiloca (or Crazy Fat Lady) hasbecome a local celebrity for reportingon the dark side of the city in profanity-laced Spanglish on Facebook. PAGE A14

Border Muckraking Sensation

Late EditionToday, mostly sunny, windy, mild,high 51. Tonight, partly cloudy,cooler air, low 35. Tomorrow, a fewclouds, sunshine, not as mild, high45. Weather map is on Page D8.

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