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VOL. CLXVII . . . No. 58,020 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2018 U(D54G1D)y+?!{!%!#!: Summer is time for dinners you can eat with your hands. We have a recipe that offers a tempting opportunity. PAGE D1 FOOD D1-8 D.I.Y. Chinese-Style Ribs Was Empress Cixi a feminist trailblazer of the late 1800s or a Chinese Michael Corleone? Beijing Dispatch. PAGE A14 INTERNATIONAL A4-15 China Debates Empress’s Role President Trump threatened to impose tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese fish, petroleum, chemicals, handbags, textiles and other products. PAGE B1 BUSINESS DAY B1-8 Trade War Escalates The pardons of two men imprisoned for arson on federal land suggest the presi- dent supports ranchers in the battle over such lands. PAGE A17 NATIONAL A16-20 Pardons for Oregon Ranchers A writer had ideas on how Nicki Minaj might improve. The star’s fans, and the star herself, returned fire. PAGE C1 ARTS C1-8 Payback for Tweet on Rapper Joseph Pfeifer was the first chief through the doors of the World Trade Center. About New York. PAGE A21 NEW YORK A21-23 Last 9/11 Fire Chief Retires The food at Frenchette, the new TriBeCa brasserie, doesn’t scream for attention. That suits Pete Wells just fine. PAGE D8 Not Visionary, Just Delicious Nigerian officials urged residents to return to the town of Bama, but Boko Haram is hardly defeated. PAGE A4 Nigerians Try to Rebuild Frank Bruni PAGE A25 EDITORIAL, OP-ED A24-25 WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats, facing an uphill strug- gle to defeat the nomination of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, opened a broad attack on Tuesday, painting him as an archconservative who would roll back abortion rights, undo health care protections, ease gun restrictions and protect President Trump against the threat of indict- ment. But as Judge Kavanaugh ar- rived at the Capitol to begin ma- king courtesy calls on the sena- tors who will decide his fate, the White House expressed confi- dence in the man that Mr. Trump introduced to the country as “one of the finest and sharpest legal minds of our time.” The White House is embarking on an intensive sales campaign that has already enlisted more than 1,000 interest groups, includ- ing farmers and religious organi- zations, to build support for Judge Kavanaugh. Administration offi- cials are pushing for hearings and a confirmation vote by Oct. 1, in time for the court’s new term. In a sign of how difficult the Democrats’ path will be, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a key swing vote, spoke favorably of Judge Kavanaugh on Tuesday, telling reporters, “When you look at the credentials that Judge Ka- vanaugh brings to the job, it’ll be very difficult for anyone to argue that he’s not qualified for the job.” Washington is no stranger to bitter and divisive judicial confir- mation fights, but the coming bat- tle over Judge Kavanaugh is likely to be intense — and expensive. At a time when the United States is deeply polarized, with the ideolog- ical balance of the court at stake, Democrats and Republicans are keenly aware that Judge Ka- vanaugh, if confirmed, would push the court to the right, ce- menting its conservative majority and shaping American jurispru- dence for decades to come. That has galvanized liberal and conservative advocacy groups, Fierce and Costly Fight Over Court Nomination Commences in Capitol This article is by Sheryl Gay Stol- berg, Mark Landler and Thomas Kaplan. An Uphill Battle for Senate Democrats Continued on Page A19 PHOENIX — One mother had waited four months to wrap her arms around her little boy. An- other had waited three months to see her little girl again. When the reunions finally hap- pened Tuesday in Phoenix, the mothers were met with cries of re- jection from their children. “He didn’t recognize me,” said Mirce Alba Lopez, 31, of her 3- year-old son, Ederson, her eyes welling up with tears. “My joy turned temporarily to sadness.” For Milka Pablo, 35, it was no different. Her 3-year-old daugh- ter, Darly, screamed and tried to wiggle free from her mother’s em- brace. “I want Miss. I want Miss,” Darly cried, calling for the social worker at the shelter where she had been living since mother and daughter were separated by fed- eral agents at the southwestern border. The tearful reunions — ordered by a court in California — came as the government said that it would release hundreds of migrant fam- ilies wearing ankle bracelet moni- tors into the United States, effec- tively returning to the “catch and release” policy that President Trump promised to eliminate. Faced with a pair of court or- ders restricting immigration de- tentions, federal officials said that they could not hold all of the mi- grant families who had been ap- prehended. They said that their hands were tied by dueling re- quirements to release children from detention after 20 days and also to keep them with their par- ents or other adult relatives. Trump administration officials MIGRANT FAMILIES REUNITE UNEASILY AS RULES CHANGE ‘HE DIDN’T RECOGNIZE ME’ Prosecutions Are Paused in a Return to ‘Catch and Release’ This article is by Miriam Jordan, Katie Benner, Ron Nixon and Caitlin Dickerson. Continued on Page A17 WASHINGTON — It is not ev- ery day that a potential constitu- tional showdown over a presiden- tial subpoena coincides with a confirmation hearing for a crucial Supreme Court seat. Less likely yet is a nominee who has written extensively about the very ques- tion at the heart of the dispute. But that novel historical mo- ment is here. “It is not at all far-fetched to think that the question of whether President Trump must respond to a subpoena could come before the Supreme Court shortly after the confirmation process,” said Wal- ter Dellinger, who served as act- ing United States solicitor general in the Clinton administration. Mr. Trump’s choice for the court, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, has expressed strong support for executive power, hostility to ad- ministrative agencies and sup- port for gun rights and religious freedom. Those are all conventional posi- tions among conservative law- yers and judges. But there is one stance that sets Judge Kavanaugh apart, and it could not be more timely: his deep skepticism of the wisdom of forcing a sitting presi- dent to answer questions in crimi- nal cases. “I don’t know of any justice who has staked out as strong a position on presidential immunity even from questioning as Judge Ka- vanaugh has,” Mr. Dellinger said. Robert S. Mueller III, the spe- cial counsel investigating Mr. Trump and his associates, raised the prospect of subpoenaing the president during a March meeting with his lead lawyer at the time, John Dowd. Mr. Trump’s lawyers responded that they were confi- dent that they would prevail in a court fight over whether a sitting president could be required to comply with a subpoena. If Mr. Mueller goes down that road, the dispute could quickly reach the Supreme Court. And if Judge Kavanaugh is on the court by then, it could thrust him into the middle of an issue he has been wrestling with for most of his adult life. By ADAM LIPTAK Continued on Page A19 Subpoena May Put Theory to the Test Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh with Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday at the Capitol. LAWRENCE JACKSON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES RIGA, Latvia — Near midnight on the outskirts of the Latvian capital, close to 100,000 spectators joined 16,500 singers last week in a song about a mystical castle that is submerged when foreign pow- ers hold sway only to rise again. The castle is a metaphor for their nation. The foreign powers? Well, from the 20th century, take your pick. First it was the Russians. Then the Germans. Then the Russians again. Only in the last quarter-century has Latvia been able to reclaim its na- tionhood, and only in the last dec- ade has it felt secure in that claim. The security came from one thing: joining NATO, an alliance of nations forged after the fires of World War II and expanded dur- ing the Cold War as a buffer against Soviet aggression. Now, with Russia once again on the prowl, that alliance seems to be at risk in ways that were virtu- ally inconceivable when Latvia joined in 2004. As President Trump joins his second NATO summit meeting — having called the alliance “obso- lete,” derided its members as deadbeats and suggested that American military protection is negotiable — there is deep unease on the alliance’s eastern flank. And that sense has only been heightened by Mr. Trump’s sched- uled one-on-one meeting next week with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. The United States ambassador to Estonia, James D. Melville Jr., became so exasperated with the constant statements from Mr. Trump disparaging the alliance and the European Union that late last month he quit in disgust. And as the Trump-Putin meet- ing approached, a popular Rus- sian-language Latvian newspa- per ran a picture of the two men, cheek by jowl, with the ominous headline: “What Will Trump and Putin Agree On: The End of the E.U.?” For the nations of Latvia and Estonia, nestled between Russia and the Baltic Sea and with large ethnic Russian populations, NATO is no abstraction. Long before the debate over the Kremlin’s interference in the American election, there was alarm in the Baltic nations over Russian attempts to influence public opinion and exploit the complicated issues of ethnic iden- tity in a region reshaped by war and occupation. In both the an- To the Baltic Nations With Russian Ties, NATO Is No Abstraction By MARC SANTORA A festival in Latvia. The nation’s struggle against the Soviet Union is called the Singing Revolution. ILMARS ZNOTINS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES Continued on Page A12 YENIKOY, Turkey — Looming like a fortress over the Black Sea, Istanbul’s new airport has been engineered to provoke awe, un- derscoring Turkey’s desire to re- claim its imperial glory. The project is expected to cost nearly $12 billion and carve six runways across a swath of land as big as Manhattan. When com- pleted in a decade, the complex is supposed to transport some 200 million people a year, dwarfing all rivals as the busiest airport on the planet. But the airport has also become a symbol of a less savory aspect of Turkey’s modern-day incarna- tion: its reckless disregard for arithmetic and the independence of critical government institu- tions. Together, they have placed the nation at growing risk of slid- ing into a financial crisis. In a global economy increas- ingly plagued by worries — from an unfolding trade war to higher oil prices — Turkey may present the most immediate cause for alarm. The country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has domi- nated national life for 15 years, was sworn in again on Monday following a re-election victory that came with extraordinary new powers. He has wielded his influ- ence to deliver relentless eco- nomic growth through unre- strained borrowing, lifting debt levels to alarming heights. And the additional authority he has been granted is expected to fur- Turkey’s Giant Building Binge Teeters Above a Jittery Economy By PETER S. GOODMAN Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, where the lira’s plunge has hurt shops. ANDREW URWIN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES Continued on Page A10 MAE SAI, Thailand — Adul Sam-on, 14, has never been a stranger to peril. At age 6, Adul had already es- caped a territory in Myanmar known for guerrilla warfare, opium cultivation and metham- phetamine trafficking. His par- ents slipped him into Thailand, in the hopes that proper schooling would provide him with a better life than that of his illiterate, im- poverished family. But his greatest escape came on Tuesday, when he and 11 other members of a youth soccer team, along with their coach, were all fi- nally freed from the Tham Luang Cave in northern Thailand, after an ordeal stretching nearly three weeks. The operation to save the boys and their coach captivated the world. Members of the Thai Navy SEALs and foreign divers squeezed through miles of tun- nels, risking their lives to find and carry the young players through an underwater matrix that daunted the British specialists brought in to help. The leader of the operation called it “an impos- sible mission.” For 10 days, Adul and his fellow Wild Boars soccer squad survived deep in the cave complex as their food, flashlights and drinking wa- ter diminished. By the time the British divers found them on July 2, the Wild Boars and their coach looked skeletal. It was Adul, the stateless de- scendant of a Wa ethnic tribal Poor, Stateless and Used to Beating Long Odds By HANNAH BEECH Boy Acts as Interpreter in Thai Cave Rescue Continued on Page A8 The Broadway play about the wizard doesn’t use fancy special effects. Its magic comes from movement. PAGE C1 ‘Harry Potter’ in Motion Britain fined the company for letting Cambridge Analytica take users’ infor- mation without their consent. PAGE B1 Facebook Fined for Data Leak Security measures in Texas start at the Rio Grande but extend deep into the United States. PAGE A16 Border Patrol, 70 Miles In The French are in their third World Cup final in 20 years, now waiting for the winner of England vs. Croatia. PAGE B9 SPORTSWEDNESDAY B9-14 France Heads to Cup Final Washington is cutting grants, again, to nonprofits that help peo- ple get insurance under the Af- fordable Care Act. Page A20. More Cuts for Health Law Late Edition Today, cooler, less humid, clouds and sunshine, high 86. Tonight, partly cloudy, low 68. Tomorrow, times of clouds and sunshine, seasonable, high 83. Weather map, Page A22. $3.00
