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Mayor Bill de Blasio announcedon Sunday that he would reopenpublic elementary schools,abruptly shifting policy in the faceof widespread criticism that offi-cials were placing more of a pri-ority on economic activities likeindoor dining than the well-beingof New York City’s children.

Mr. de Blasio said middle andhigh schools would remain closed,but also signaled that he wouldoverhaul how the city managesthe system during the pandemic,which has forced millions of chil-dren in the United States out ofschools and is perceived to havedone significant damage to theireducation and mental health.

The mayor said the city wouldabandon a 3 percent test positivitythreshold that it had adopted forclosing the school system, thelargest in the country, with 1.1 mil-lion children. And he said the sys-tem would aim to give many par-ents the option of sending theirchildren to school five days aweek, which would effectively endthe so-called hybrid learning sys-tem for some city schools.

Students can return only if theyhave already signed up for in-per-son learning, meaning just about190,000 children in the grades andschools the city is reopening nextweek would be eligible. About335,000 students in total have cho-sen in-person classes.

Children in pre-K and elemen-tary school can return startingDec. 7. Mr. de Blasio also an-nounced that students with themost complex disabilities can re-turn on Dec. 10.

“Whatever happens ahead, wewant this to be the plan going for-ward,” Mr. de Blasio said at a newsconference. “We know what wedidn’t know over the summer, weknow what works from actual ex-perience.”

Mr. de Blasio is reopening ele-mentary schools even though the

city’s seven-day average test posi-tivity rate on Sunday had climbedto 3.9 percent — well above theformer threshold that led him toclose the system on Nov. 18 as asecond wave of the outbreakthreatened the city.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, whohas often clashed with Mr. de Bla-sio over the response to the pan-demic and has final authority overhow schools operate during thecrisis, said on Sunday that he sup-ported the mayor’s plan.

Bringing children and educa-tors safely back into publicschools has been one of the mostvexing, high-stakes problems cre-ated by the pandemic.

As virus cases have spikedacross the country in recentweeks, some cities, like Philadel-phia, have delayed plans to re-open schools, and others, includ-ing Los Angeles, do not yet have aplan to reopen. Many childrenthroughout the country have notreturned to classrooms sinceMarch, and it is unclear how manywill before a vaccine is distribut-ed.

Starting in the summer, Mr. deBlasio sought to make New Yorkthe first big city in the country tofully reopen its public school sys-tem. After a series of logistical andpolitical problems forced the may-or to twice delay the start of in-person classes, the city welcomedhundreds of thousands of childrenback into classrooms about twomonths ago.

Reopening, despite its many is-sues, was a major milestone in thecity’s long path to recovery — andthe closing of the schools less thaneight weeks later was a blow.

Still, the number of cases in theschool system itself remainedvery low, so Mr. de Blasio’s deci-sion became a flash point in abroader debate throughout thecountry and the world over what

New York, in Sudden Shift,Will Reopen Some Schools

Elementary Students Set to Return Dec. 7 —Criticism of City Leads to Overhaul

By ELIZA SHAPIRO

Continued on Page A7

For all his flaws, that cranky oldmiser Ebenezer Scrooge has beena godsend for American theaters.Through recessions and blizzardsand other upheavals, he hasdrawn small children and bigmoney to his redemption story in“A Christmas Carol.”

Stage adaptations of the tale,which generally run betweenThanksgiving and year-end, havebeen a tradition and a lifeline fortroupes big and small, profes-sional and amateur. But now, after

decades in which the Dickensclassic has sustained them, thisyear theaters are sustaining Dick-ens.

Gone are the large-cast extrav-aganzas playing before cheerycrowds in packed venues. Instead,theaters are using every conta-gion-reduction strategy they havehoned during the coronavirus

pandemic: outdoor stagings,drive-in productions, street the-ater, streaming video, radio playsand even a do-it-yourself kit sentby mail.

Many of these theaters are will-ingly running the long-lucrativeshow at a loss — they are hungryto create, determined to stay visi-ble and eager to satisfy those“Christmas Carol” die-hards whodon’t want to miss a year.

“It’s absolutely an obligation, inthe best sense of that word,” saidCurt Columbus, the artistic direc-

Bah, Pandemic! Theaters Save ‘Christmas Carol’By MICHAEL PAULSON

Jefferson Mays hoped to take a one-man “Christmas Carol” to Broadway. It’ll be streamed instead.AMR ALFIKY/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Classic Lives On by Car,Screen, Radio or Mail

Continued on Page A15

SACRAMENTO — Since GavinNewsom’s days as a young up-start running for mayor of SanFrancisco through more than twodecades of public life, Alex Padillahas been a stalwart ally.

As president of the Los AngelesCity Council, Mr. Padilla intro-duced Mr. Newsom to importantlocal labor and Latino leaders. Asa state senator, Mr. Padilla chairedMr. Newsom’s short-lived firstcampaign for governor. And asCalifornia secretary of state, Mr.Padilla conferred a key early en-dorsement that helped Mr. New-som win the governor’s seat in2018.

Now Mr. Newsom is in a posi-tion to return the favor: He mustappoint someone to fill the soon-to-be-vacant U.S. Senate seat ofVice President-elect Kamala Har-ris. Though many names havebeen floated to succeed Ms. Har-ris, Mr. Padilla has emerged as thefront-runner, according to morethan a half-dozen advisers, politi-cal consultants and fellow law-makers familiar with the gover-nor’s thinking.

Yet nearly a month after Ms.Harris’s election, Mr. Newsom hasnot yet named a successor — andthe pressure is mounting.

“Look, all roads lead to Alex Pa-dilla,” said Nathalie Rayes, presi-dent of the Latino Victory Fund,which has waged a “Pick Padilla”campaign since August. “I think

Blue Blocs VieFor Senate Seat

Held by HarrisBy SHAWN HUBLER

and ALEXANDER BURNS

Continued on Page A16

DOUGLAS, Ariz. — Four yearsago, President Trump took officewith a pledge to build a toweringwall on America’s border withMexico — a symbol of his determi-nation to halt immigration fromcountries to the south and build abarrier that would long outlasthim.

President-elect Joseph R. BidenJr. has said he hopes to halt con-struction of the border wall, butthe outgoing administration isrushing to complete as much wallas possible in its last weeks inpower, dynamiting through someof the border’s most forbiddingterrain.

The breakneck pace at whichconstruction is continuing all butassures that the wall, whateverMr. Biden decides to do, is here tostay for the foreseeable future, es-

Blitz of ActivityTo Expand WallBy End of Term

By SIMON ROMERO and ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS

Continued on Page A14

The government’s target is 450miles of new wall construction.

ADRIANA ZEHBRAUSKAS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

The raid alone was brazenenough. A team of Israeli com-mandos with high-poweredtorches blasted their way into avault of a heavily guarded ware-house deep in Iran and made offbefore dawn with 5,000 pages oftop secret papers on the country’snuclear program.

Then in a television broadcast afew weeks later, in April 2018,Prime Minister Benjamin Netan-yahu of Israel cited the contents ofthe pilfered documents to hintcoyly at equally bold operationsstill to come. “Remember thatname,” he said, singling out thescientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh asthe captain of Iran’s covert at-tempts to assemble a nuclearweapon.

Now Mr. Fakhrizadeh has be-come the latest casualty in a cam-paign of audacious covert attacksseemingly designed to tormentIranian leaders with reminders oftheir weakness. The operationsare confronting Tehran with anagonizing choice between em-bracing the demands of hard-lin-ers for swift retaliation or at-tempting to make a fresh startwith the less implacably hostileadministration of President-electJoseph R. Biden Jr.

Trailed by a carload of body-guards, Mr. Fakhrizadeh wasdriving a carefully circuitousroute to the home of his in-laws inthe city of Absard, Iran, accordingto witnesses and the Iranian newsmedia.

An empty Nissan parked at aroundabout exploded, knockingdown a power line. Gunmen leaptfrom a parked Hyundai Santa Fe,others arrived on motorcyclesand waiting snipers filled out a hitteam of 12 assassins, according toa detailed account posted onlineby Javad Mogouyi, a documenta-ry filmmaker for Iran’s IslamicRevolutionary Guards Corps.

Mr. Fakhrizadeh, hit with atleast three bullets, tumbled fromhis car and fell bleeding on theground. The nearest medicalclinic had lost electrical power.Roadside cameras were disabled.All 12 assassins escaped un-harmed, and Mr. Fakhrizadeh waspronounced dead by the time arescue helicopter was able totransport him to a Tehran hospi-tal.

“It was like a Hollywood action

Iran StrugglesFor a ResponseTo Bold Strikes

This article is by David D. Kirk-patrick, Ronen Bergman and Far-naz Fassihi.

Continued on Page A12

BERGAMO, Italy — WhenFranco Orlandi, a usually hale for-mer truck driver, arrived in mid-February with a cough and feverat an emergency room in thenorthern Italian province of Berg-amo, doctors determined that hehad a flu and sent him home. Twodays later, an ambulance broughtthe 83-year-old back. He couldn’tbreathe.

Italy had not recorded a singledomestic coronavirus case, butMr. Orlandi’s symptoms puzzledMonica Avogadri, the 55-year-oldanesthesiologist who treated himat Pesenti Fenaroli Hospital. Shedidn’t test him for the virus be-cause Italian protocols, adopted

from the World Health Organiza-tion, recommended testing onlypeople with a link to China, wherethe outbreak had originated.

When she asked whether Mr.Orlandi had a connection to China,his wife seemed befuddled. Theyhardly ever ventured beyondtheir local cafe, Patty’s Bar.

‘‘China?” Dr. Avogadri recalledMr. Orlandi’s wife responding.“She didn’t even know where itwas.”

What Dr. Avogadri did not knowwas that Covid-19 had already ar-rived in her region of Lombardy, adiscovery made five days later by

another doctor in nearby Lodiwho broke the national testingprotocol. By then, Dr. Avogadri,hamstrung by those same proto-cols, had herself fallen ill afterdays caring for Mr. Orlandi andother patients. Her hospital,rather than identifying and treat-ing the disease, was acceleratingits spread across Italy’s economicheartland.

Bergamo became one of thedeadliest killing fields for the vi-rus in the Western world, a placemarked by inconceivable suffer-ing and a dreadful soundtrack ofambulance sirens as emergencymedical workers peeled parentsaway from children, husbandsfrom wives, grandparents from

Inaction Fueled Disaster as Virus Crept Into ItalyBy JASON HOROWITZ

Being treated this month in Bergamo, which in spring was one of the deadliest killing fields for the virus in the Western world.FABIO BUCCIARELLI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A8

BEHIND THE CURVE

A Northern Province’s Epicenter

In Ukraine, an unusually bountifulmushroom crop is helping some makeends meet in a difficult year. PAGE A11

INTERNATIONAL A10-12

Where Fungi Are FlourishingSeveral N.H.L. players, and a figureskater, took helicopters to a breathtak-ing pickup game in Canada. PAGES D4-5

SPORTSMONDAY D1-7

Hockey Amid the GlaciersAmanda Seyfried talks with Kyle Bu-chanan about the Netflix film “Mank”and why her farm in the Catskillsmeans so much to her. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-7

Her Center of Gravity

A bill to ban goods made with forcedlabor in China’s Xinjiang region has hadbroad bipartisan support. But nowcorporate titans like Apple, Nike andCoca-Cola are pushing back. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-6

Forced Labor FracasOnly a handful of girls’ soccer clubshave been allowed to keep trainingthrough England’s second lockdown,while the boys continue to play. PAGE A4

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-9

Gender Gap in U.K. Sports

Patients are usually most infectious twodays before symptoms begin and for fivedays after, an analysis finds. PAGE A7

Should Isolation Be Shorter?

The top names in luxury are findingcommon cause in rallying around ane-commerce strategy robust enough totake on Amazon and potentially realignthe online retail landscape. PAGE B1

The Luxury E-Commerce Wars

Maggie Haney defended herself, butsaid she could now see flaws in how shetreated some young gymnasts. PAGE D1

Barred Coach Tells Her SideAn independent judiciary is crucial tothe city’s status as a global hub, butBeijing wants more authority. PAGE A10

Threat to Hong Kong’s Courts

Charles M. Blow PAGE A18

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A18-19President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. isexpected to nominate two more womento leading advisory roles. PAGE A16

NATIONAL A13-16

Economic Team Takes Shape

Late Edition

VOL. CLXX . . . . No. 58,893 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2020

Today, strong winds, heavy rain,thunderstorms, high 63. Tonight,showers, windy, low 55. Tomorrow,windy, cooler, showers, high 56.Weather map appears on Page B7.

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