VOL. CLXVIII . . . No. 58,180 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2018

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The Russian influence cam-paign on social media in the 2016election made an extraordinaryeffort to target African-Ameri-cans, used an array of tactics totry to suppress turnout amongDemocratic voters and unleasheda blizzard of activity on Instagramthat rivaled or exceeded its postson Facebook, according to a re-port produced for the Senate In-telligence Committee.

The report adds new details tothe portrait that has emerged overthe last two years of the energyand imagination of the Russian ef-fort to sway American opinion anddivide the country, which the au-thors said continues to this day.

“Active and ongoing interfer-ence operations remain on severalplatforms,” says the report,produced by New Knowledge, acybersecurity company based inAustin, Tex., along with re-searchers at Columbia Universityand Canfield Research LLC. Onecontinuing Russian campaign, forinstance, seeks to influence opin-ion on Syria by promoting Basharal-Assad, the Syrian presidentand a Russian ally in the brutalconflict there.

The New Knowledge report isone of two commissioned by theSenate committee on a bipartisanbasis. They are based largely ondata about the Russian operationsprovided to the Senate by Face-

book, Twitter and other compa-nies whose platforms were used.

The second report was writtenby the Computational Propagan-da Project at Oxford Universityalong with Graphika, a companythat specializes in analyzing so-cial media. The Washington Postfirst reported on the Oxford reporton Sunday.

The Russian influence cam-paign in 2016 was run by a St. Pe-tersburg company called the In-ternet Research Agency, ownedby a businessman, Yevgeny V. Pri-gozhin, who is a close ally of Presi-dent Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.Mr. Prigozhin and a dozen of thecompany’s employees were in-dicted last February as part of theinvestigation of Russian interfer-ence by Robert S. Mueller III, thespecial counsel.

Both reports stress that the In-ternet Research Agency createdsocial media accounts under fakenames on virtually every avail-able platform. A major goal was tosupport Donald J. Trump, firstagainst his Republican rivals inthe presidential race, then in thegeneral election, and as presidentsince his inauguration.

Among the services the Rus-sians have provided Mr. Trump isto join in and amplify his regularattacks on Mr. Mueller. Posing as

Russian Election Effort Focused on InfluencingAfrican-American Vote

Reports Produced for Senate Panel CiteSocial Media Drive to Divide U.S.

By SCOTT SHANE and SHEERA FRENKEL

Continued on Page A14

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Two for-mer business associates of Mi-chael T. Flynn, President Trump’sfirst national security adviser,have been indicted as part of a fed-eral investigation into Turkey’ssecret 2016 lobbying campaign topressure the United States to ex-pel a rival of President RecepTayyip Erdogan.

Charges against the two formerassociates, Bijan Kian and EkimAlptekin, were unsealed on Mon-day in an Alexandria, Va., court-room. The two men were indictedlast week as part of a conspiracyto violate federal lobbying rules,and Mr. Alptekin was also chargedwith making false statements toF.B.I. investigators.

The indictment is further evi-dence of a broad crackdown on un-registered foreign lobbying grow-ing from the inquiry by Robert S.Mueller III, the special counselwho has investigated foreignflows of money from Ukraine, Tur-key and other countries devised tomanipulate decision-making in

2 Are ChargedIn CrackdownOver Lobbying

By ADAM GOLDMANand MARK MAZZETTI

Bijan Kian, left, and EkimAlptekin were business associ-ates of Michael T. Flynn.

Continued on Page A9

Since becoming a symbol ofWall Street greed during the fi-nancial crisis, Goldman Sachs hastried to recast its image as an in-vestment bank that cares as muchabout ethics as it does its bottomline.

Now, that makeover is being un-done by the bank’s work for an ob-scure investment fund in Ma-laysia, which has entangled it incivil and criminal investigationsaround the world. Goldman re-cently received subpoenas fromNew York regulators, held talkswith federal prosecutors and islikely to incur billions of dollars inpenalties. It is one of the most seri-ous crises in the bank’s 149-yearhistory.

The international legal assaulton Goldman intensified on Mon-day, with prosecutors in Malaysiafiling criminal charges against thebank, accusing it of defrauding in-vestors by raising more than $6billion for the fund, which wassupposed to benefit the Malaysianpublic but ended up enrichingGoldman and others.

And that is just the start of thebank’s troubles.

Lawyers for Goldman met thisfall with federal prosecutors inwhat appeared to be an early stepin settlement negotiations, ac-cording to three people familiarwith those talks. Two of its senioremployees have already beencharged.

The bank and some of its em-ployees recently received subpoe-nas from regulators in New York,who are investigating the circum-

Malaysian CaseSinks GoldmanDeeper in MireBy MATTHEW GOLDSTEIN

and ALEXANDRA STEVENSON

Continued on Page A10

RECALCITRANCE Tech companies dragged their feet when asked toprovide data on Russian interference, two Senate reports say. PAGE B1

THE TAKEAWAYS Five major points in the Senate Intelligence Commit-tee’s report on the Russian social media campaigns. PAGE A14

As West Coast companiesstorm into New York, they are re-shaping the city’s neighborhoodsand changing its identity from ahub of finance, fashion and mediato one increasingly centered ontechnology.

Google said on Monday that itplanned to create a $1 billion cam-pus just south of the West Village.The internet company’s push intoone of Manhattan’s most famousneighborhoods positions it to be-come one of New York’s biggestoccupants of office space, allow-ing it to double its work force inthe city to more than 14,000 overthe next decade.

Google follows Amazon, whichsaid last month that it planned toopen a new office in Queens thatwill house as many as 25,000 em-ployees. Apple, Facebook, Linked-In and Uber have also embarkedon recent New York expansions —much of it driven by a hunt for tal-ent. Each is creating hundreds orthousands of high-paying jobs andleasing or building millions ofsquare feet in commercial real es-tate.

“Law, medicine and financehave been superseded by infor-mation technologies,” saidMitchell Moss, an urban-planning

professor at New York Universitywho studies the city’s economy.

Google’s new campus selectionof Hudson Square, once an indus-trial district just south of the WestVillage, strengthens its grip onManhattan’s West Side, likely ac-

celerating the neighborhood’schanges. That would mirror howGoogle transformed Manhattan’sChelsea neighborhood, where ithas had an office since 2006. Thecompany bought Chelsea Marketfor $2.4 billion earlier this year

and an adjacent building in 2010,and it leases other space in thearea, about a 20-minute walk fromits new offices.

The centerpiece of the new 1.7-million-square-foot campus will

A New Google Campus Accelerates Tech’s March Into New YorkThis article is by Jack Nicas, Win-

nie Hu and J. David Goodman.

The St. John’s Terminal building near the Holland Tunnel is the centerpiece of Google’s plan.DEMETRIUS FREEMAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A21

KHOKHA, Yemen — The firstsign of trouble was the helicopterthat hovered over the small Yem-eni fishing trawler as it cut acrossthe Red Sea. Then a warship ap-peared, its guns pointed at theboat.

Bullets thumped into the wateraround the boat, the Afaq, thenrippled through its flimsy woodenhull. One fisherman was shot inthe eye, another in the head. Theengine caught fire. Crew mem-bers leapt overboard, includingBashar Qasim, 11.

Moments earlier, the boy hadbeen hauling nets from the stern.Now, he paddled for his life amidthe flaming debris and floatingcorpses, with survivors clingingto empty water drums. As theAfaq sank, he said, the warshipstopped firing.

“It circled several times, watch-ing us, to make sure the boat hadsunk,” Bashar said. “Then it wasgone.”

The stinging criticism of SaudiArabia’s role in Yemen’s grindingconflict has, for the most part, fo-cused on the air war. Fighter jetswith the Saudi-led coalition,armed with American weaponsand bombs, have hit weddings, fu-nerals and a school bus. Thou-sands of civilians have died.

As outrage over the murder ofthe Saudi dissident JamalKhashoggi in Istanbul by Saudioperatives fused with concernabout Yemen, a wave of disquietswept Washington amid accusa-tions that the United States mili-tary could be complicit in warcrimes. Last week, the Senatevoted to end American militaryassistance for the Saudi-led war,in a symbolic yet stinging rebuketo President Trump, who hasstood by Saudi Arabia.

But the Yemen war is also un-folding at sea, with even less ac-

Yemen’s Seas Become DeadlyFor Fishermen in a War Zone

By DECLAN WALSH

A fishing port in Aden, Yemen. At least six Yemeni fishing boats were fired upon in the southern Red Sea in August and September.TYLER HICKS/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A6

WASHINGTON — The Trumpadministration is planning to rollback Obama-era policies aimed atensuring that minority childrenare not unfairly disciplined, argu-ing that the efforts have eased upon punishment and contributed torising violence in the nation’sschools, according to documentsobtained by The New York Times.

The decision culminates anearly yearlong effort begun bythe Trump administration afterthe massacre at Marjory Stone-man Douglas High School in Park-land, Fla. The deaths of 17 stu-dents and staff members on Feb.14 prompted lawmakers in bothparties to demand tougher gunlaws, but after a brief flirtationwith gun control, PresidentTrump abandoned that focus andinstead empowered a schoolsafety commission, led by Educa-tion Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Almost immediately, the com-mission turned away from guns

and instead scrutinized theObama administration’s schooldiscipline policies, though none ofthe most high-profile schoolshootings were perpetrated byblack students. The commission’sfocus was part of a broader effortto reject the previous administra-tion’s race-conscious education ef-forts, which have included sidingwith Asian students suing Har-vard to end affirmative action anddelaying an Obama-era rule toprevent disproportionate num-bers of minority children from be-ing funneled into special educa-tion classes.

The documents obtained byThe Times — a draft letter and adraft chapter of the safety com-mission’s research — focus signifi-cantly on race and promote theidea that the federal crackdownon potentially discriminatorypractices has made schools moredangerous.

Trump Parkland Inquiry AttacksProtections for Minority Students

By ERICA L. GREEN and KATIE BENNER

Continued on Page A13

The theory of plate tectonics explainsmuch about earthquakes, volcanoes andour planet’s general behavior. Above,Mount Sinabung in Indonesia. PAGE D1

SCIENCE TIMES D1-8

The Earth’s Bedrock PrinciplesLes Moonves, forced out as CBS chiefexecutive over accusations of sexualmisconduct, won’t get exit pay. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-6

Moonves Loses $120 MillionA review of video from a deadly Ni-gerian protest shows the military open-ing fire on unarmed people. PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A4-11

Shooting Protesters in the Back

Millions have found Frank Capra’smovie to be a gem, but our critic did notin 1946. We have a history of givingholiday favorites bad reviews. PAGE C6

ARTS C1-8

It’s a Lousy ‘Wonderful Life’Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said he wouldpush to legalize recreational marijuana,a move that could generate more than$1.7 billion in sales annually. PAGE A18

NEW YORK A18-21

A Move for Legal Marijuana

The football program at the Universityof Alabama-Birmingham shut down in2014. Now, with the help of businessleaders, the team is thriving. PAGE B7

SPORTSTUESDAY B7-10

From Extinction to Excellence

Paul Krugman PAGE A22

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23Stocks on Wall Street slumped, with theS&P 500 at its lowest point for the year,and Asian markets followed. PAGE B1

Wall Street Hits 2018 LowsA remote South Pacific nation is thefirst to make its childhood vaccineprogram drone-dependent. PAGE A10

A Very Special Delivery

Police have prosecuted people whoexpose them to opioids. Doctors sayrisk in such exposure is low. PAGE A17

NATIONAL A12-17

Arrest After a Call for Help

Delaware is betting its bid to offerone-stop shopping for birth control willhelp women escape poverty. PAGE A12

A Contraception Dividend

Late EditionToday, a good deal of sunshine,windy, colder, high 39. Tonight,mainly clear skies, low 28. Tomor-row, sunny to partly cloudy, cold,high 42. Weather map, Page A20.

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