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U(D54G1D)y+$!,!]!#!_ For students from Flint, Mich., prom was a chance to leave their town’s troubles behind. On a riverboat in Detroit, some welcomed a transformation, if brief, in the glow of city lights and sparkling dresses. PAGE A12 ZACKARY CANEPARI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES A Night Out, ‘Somewhere Different’ Michelle Carter, who pressed her friend Conrad Roy III to kill himself, was convicted in a rare finding that words can kill. PAGE A11 NATIONAL A10-19 Guilty Verdict in Texting Trial WASHINGTON — President Trump escalated his attacks on his own Justice Department on Fri- day, using an early-morning Twit- ter rant to condemn the depart- ment’s actions as “phony” and “sad!” and to challenge the integ- rity of the official overseeing the expanding inquiry into Russian influence of the 2016 election. Acknowledging for the first time publicly that he is under in- vestigation, Mr. Trump appeared to accuse Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, of lead- ing what the president called a “witch hunt.” Mr. Rosenstein ap- pointed a special counsel last month to conduct the investiga- tion after Mr. Trump fired the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey. “I am being investigated for fir- ing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Direc- tor!” Mr. Trump wrote, appar- ently referring to a memo Mr. Rosenstein wrote in May that was critical of Mr. Comey’s leadership at the F.B.I. “Witch hunt,” Mr. Trump added. The remarkable public rebuke is the latest example of a con- certed effort by Mr. Trump, the White House and its allies to un- dermine officials at the Justice Department and the F.B.I. even as the Russia investigation pro- ceeds. The nation’s law enforcement TRUMP REBUKES AUTHOR OF MEMO ON COMEY FIRING ACKNOWLEDGES INQUIRY White House Effort to Undermine Officials at Justice Dept. This article is by Michael D. Shear, Charlie Savage and Maggie Haberman. Rod J. Rosenstein ALEX BRANDON/ASSOCIATED PRESS Continued on Page A15 ST. PAUL — The images had transfixed people around the world: A woman live-streaming the aftermath of a police shooting of her boyfriend, Philando Castile, and narrating the searing, bloody scene that was unfolding around her. On Friday, a jury here acquitted the Minnesota police officer, Jeronimo Yanez, of all charges in shooting, which happened in July 2016 and left Mr. Castile dead, rais- ing the national debate over police conduct toward black people. Offi- cer Yanez, an officer for the sub- urb of St. Anthony, had been charged with second-degree man- slaughter and endangering safety by discharging a firearm in the shooting. The verdict was announced in a tense courtroom here late Friday afternoon, after five days of delib- erations, and the officer was led quickly out of the courtroom, as were the 12 jurors. Mr. Castile’s family, which had nervously watched the proceedings from the front row, abruptly left as well. “My son loved this city, and this city killed my son,” Mr. Castile’s mother, Valerie, said as she stood on a corner outside the court- house afterward. “And a murderer gets away. Are you kidding me right now?” She continued, “The system in this country continues to fail black people and will continue to fail us.” The case against Officer Yanez — believed to be the first time in Minnesota history that an officer was charged in an on-duty fatal shooting — hinged on one central question: Did the officer have rea- son to fear that Mr. Castile was reaching for a gun that he had ac- knowledged having with him when he was pulled over by the of- ficer? Officer Yanez testified that he feared Mr. Castile was grabbing for the gun, but Mr. Castile’s girl- friend, Diamond Reynolds, said he had merely been reaching for his identification to give the officer. Though there was dashboard camera video of the events, as well as the live-stream video that Ms. Reynolds began taking after the shooting, there was no video clearly revealing the crucial mo- ments in the front seat of Mr. Officer Cleared In 2016 Killing OfBlackDriver A Live-Streamed Death That Set Off Protests By MITCH SMITH Continued on Page A11 MIAMI — President Trump an- nounced on Friday that he was re- versing crucial pieces of a “terri- ble and misguided deal” with Cuba and will reinstate travel and commercial restrictions eased by the Obama administration so he can obtain additional concessions from the Cuban government. During a speech in Little Ha- vana, the epicenter of a Cuban ex- ile community that enthusiasti- cally supported him in last year’s election, Mr. Trump said he was keeping a campaign promise to roll back the policy of engagement begun by President Barack Obama in 2014, which he said had empowered the communist gov- ernment in Cuba and enriched the country’s repressive military. “We will not be silent in the face of communist oppression any longer,” Mr. Trump said at the Manuel Artime Theater, named for a former supporter of Fidel Castro who became a leader of Brigade 2506, the land forces that spearheaded the United States- led Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. “Effective immediately, I am canceling the last administra- tion’s completely one-sided deal with Cuba,” Mr. Trump said. After the speech, he signed a six-page directive ordering new travel and commercial restric- tions. As part of the new policy, Amer- icans will no longer be able to plan their own private trips to Cuba, and those who go as part of autho- rized educational tours will be subject to strict new rules and au- dits to ensure that they are not go- ing just as tourists. American companies and citi- zens will also be barred from do- Trump Signs Directive to Undo Obama’s Détente With Cubans By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS Continued on Page A18 Helmut Kohl, a towering post- war figure who reunified Ger- many after 45 years of Cold War antagonism, propelled a deeply held vision of Europe’s integration and earned plaudits from Moscow and Washington for his deft han- dling of the fall of the Berlin Wall, died on Friday at his home in Lud- wigshafen, Germany, the Rhine port city where he was born. He was 87. “We mourn,” his party, the Christian Democratic Union, said on Twitter in announcing his death. With his diplomacy, resolve and readiness to commit huge sums to ending his country’s division, Mr. Kohl was remembered by many as a giant of epochal times that re- made Europe’s political architec- ture, dismantled the minefields and watchtowers of the Iron Cur- tain and replaced the eyeball-to- eyeball armed confrontation be- tween East and West with an en- during, if often challenged, co- existence between former sworn foes. A physically imposing man — he stood 6 feet 4 inches and weighed well over 300 pounds in his leadership years — Mr. Kohl pursued his and his country’s po- litical interests as Germany’s chancellor with persistent, even stubborn, determination. He could be “an elephant in a china shop,” as he described himself, and he overcame European oppo- sition to unification the same way he handled political opposition at home: by the force of a jovial yet dominating personality. Germany in particular faced the challenge of engaging with a formerly dictatorial, Soviet- backed East and welding it to a Towering Statesman Who Reunified Germany By CRAIG R. WHITNEY Chancellor Helmut Kohl was cheered by thousands of East Ger- mans ahead of the first postwar all-German elections in 1990. MARK-OLIVIER MULTHAUP/DPA, VIA AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES HELMUT KOHL, 1930-2017 Continued on Page A8 Amazon agreed to buy the up- scale grocery chain Whole Foods for $13.4 billion, in a deal that will instantly transform the company that pioneered online shopping into a merchant with physical out- posts in hundreds of neighbor- hoods across the country. The acquisition, announced Fri- day, is a reflection of both the sheer magnitude of the grocery business — about $800 billion in annual spending in the United States — and a desire to turn Ama- zon into a more frequent shopping habit by becoming a bigger player in food and beverages. After al- most a decade selling groceries online, Amazon has failed to make a major dent on its own as con- sumers have shown a stubborn urge to buy items like fruits, vegetables and meat in person. Buying Whole Foods also repre- sents a major escalation in the company’s long-running battle with Walmart, the largest grocery retailer in the United States, which has been struggling to play catch-up in internet shopping. On Friday, Walmart announced a $310 million deal to acquire the internet apparel retailer Bonobos, and last year it agreed to pay $3.3 billion for Jet.com and put Jet’s chief ex- ecutive, Marc Lore, in charge of Walmart’s overall e-commerce business. “Make no mistake, Walmart un- der no circumstances can lose the grocery wars to Amazon,” said Brittain Ladd, a strategy and sup- ply chain consultant who formerly worked with Amazon on its gro- cery business. “If Walmart loses the grocery battle to Amazon, they have no chance of ever de- throning Amazon as the largest e- Amazon to Buy Whole Foods For $13 Billion By NICK WINGFIELD and MICHAEL J. de la MERCED Continued on Page A19 LONDON — Grenfell Tower residents said they had warned about fire hazards for years before their London public housing project became a 24-story cinder. On Friday, they stormed the local government council, accusing of- ficials first of ignoring them and then of leaving them without fi- nancial assistance and lodging, or even a rough accounting of their missing loved ones. With scores of residents still un- accounted for since the early Wednesday fire, frustrated sur- vivors demanded from govern- ment officials help and a roster — or at least the number — of tower residents. Prime Minister Theresa May and Mayor Sadiq Khan were heck- led on separate visits with sur- vivors. The queen and Prince William, upon leaving a relief cen- ter for the victims, were subjected to calls of “What about the chil- dren?” The authorities confirmed on Friday that at least 30 people had died and estimated that the final toll could be more than 70 killed in an inferno so intense that the re- mains of many of the victims will be unidentifiable. And already, the fire at the Grenfell Tower housing project — its scorched shell loom- ing above one of London’s most upscale neighborhoods — has be- come a grim symbol of class in- equality in a city that has long been a magnet for global wealth. After revelations that corner- cutting by government officials and building contractors alike may have played a role in the deadly fire, resentment played out in public. Mrs. May, already weakened by her failure to win a majority in this month’s elections, has called for a public inquiry into the causes of the fire. But her public reaction has been criticized as halting and unempathetic, especially her ini- tial failure to meet with victims’ families. The criticisms echoed those made of her election campaign, during which she was accused of preferring speeches in carefully controlled environments. On Fri- day, finally, she perilously ven- tured outside that comfort zone, meeting with survivors and prom- ising a fund of about $6.5 million for emergency supplies, food, Rage Boils Over in London After Deadly Blaze By CEYLAN YEGINSU and STEPHEN CASTLE Protesters Storm Local Assembly Seeking Answers Continued on Page A6 UNLIKELY REFUGE John Mackey, the chief of Whole Foods, fought off activist investors. Then he found a savior in Amazon. PAGE B1 SUPERMARKET WAR Grocery retailers are bracing for a deep- pocketed rival that is poised to move customers online. PAGE B1 INQUIRY AT THE WHITE HOUSE A consultant’s rise and fall shows how the Russia investigations have shaken the administration. PAGE A14 CIVIL RIGHTS IN SCHOOLS To ease a backlog of cases, the Education Department will scale back how it investigates complaints. PAGE A19 Is stand-up paddleboarding more like canoeing or more like surfing? In a battle for control of the sport, the issue is headed to mediation. PAGE D6 SPORTSSATURDAY D1-6 Wait, That’s Our Sport! A professor in Washington objected to a racial-awareness event, prompting threats and protests. PAGE A10 College Campus Under Siege An episode of Amazon’s “I Love Dick” is called the best 20 minutes of television in years. Critic’s Notebook. PAGE C1 ARTS C1-7 Sharp, Groundbreaking TV One person died and six others were sickened by Legionnaires’ disease on the Upper East Side. PAGE A21 Fatal Legionnaire’s Outbreak How parents’ routine afternoon chore — picking up kindergartners — became a nightmare in Xuzhou. PAGE A6 China’s Kindergarten Bombing Megyn Kelly and her new network are facing an uproar over an interview of the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. PAGE B3 BUSINESS DAY B1-7 Critical Test for Kelly and NBC Chelsea Manning helped usher in the age of leaks in 2010. Out of prison, she talks about why she did it. MAGAZINE This Weekend The search is on for seven missing sailors after an American destroyer, the Fitzgerald, collided with a container ship off the coast of Japan. PAGE A7 INTERNATIONAL A4-9 Sailors Missing After Crash Much remains to be determined before Floyd Mayweather Jr. meets Conor McGregor in Las Vegas. PAGE D1 Big Fight, Many Issues to Settle Bret Stephens PAGE A23 EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23 Addiction specialists say action, not study, is needed when hundreds of people are dying each week. PAGE A16 NATIONAL Demanding Action on Opioids A 36-year-old banker, who moved to New York for the woman he loved, was struck and killed by a charter bus while riding a Citi Bike. PAGE A20 NEW YORK A20-21 Questions in Cyclist’s Death Late Edition VOL. CLXVI . . . No. 57,631 © 2017 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 2017 Today, some sunshine, afternoon storms, high 78. Tonight, rather cloudy, evening storms, low 70. To- morrow, thunderstorms, high 84. Weather map appears on Page C8. $2.50
