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Despite the Kurds’ celebrations, thevote may cost them politically, with Iraq,Iran and Turkey all opposed. PAGE A7
INTERNATIONAL A4-9
Kurdish Vote for Independence
Right-wing populists are complicatingChancellor Angela Merkel’s agenda,and the European Union’s. PAGE A9
Far Right’s Clout in Europe
The Supreme Court canceled a hearingon President Trump’s travel ban after anew measure was announced. PAGE A12
NATIONAL A10-20
Turning Point for Travel Ban
Fewer Americans are marrying overall, and whether they do so, researchshows, is more tied to socioeconomicstatus than ever before. PAGE A15
Marriage and Your Paycheck
The Yankees’ Aaron Judge, who alsohas 203 strikeouts, embodies modernbaseball, Tyler Kepner writes. PAGE B9
SPORTSTUESDAY B9-14
50th Homer Sets Rookie Mark
WASHINGTON — A last-ditchattempt by President Trump andSenate Republicans to dismantlethe Affordable Care Act appearedto collapse on Monday as a pivotalsenator announced her firm oppo-sition to the latest repeal plan, vir-tually ensuring that Republicanswould not have the votes theyneed for passage.
The announcement by the sena-tor, Susan Collins of Maine, effec-tively dooms what had been along-shot effortby Republicansin the Senate tomake one moreattempt at re-pealing thehealth law afterfailing in dra-matic fashionin July.
The demiseof the latest repeal push meansthat Republicans are now all butcertain to conclude Mr. Trump’sfirst year in office without fulfill-ing one of their central promises,which the president and lawmak-ers had hoped to deliver onquickly after Mr. Trump took of-fice.
For seven years, Republicanshave said they would repeal Presi-dent Barack Obama’s signaturedomestic achievement and re-place it with a new health care sys-tem more palatable to conserva-tives. But they were never able toformulate a replacement that wasboth politically and substantivelyviable.
Ms. Collins, one of three Repub-lican senators who opposed thelast repeal attempt in July, de-scribed the latest plan as “deeplyflawed.” She expressed concernsabout cuts to Medicaid as well asthe rolling back of protections forpeople with pre-existing medicalconditions.
ANOTHER SENATORDECLINES TO BACKG.O.P. HEALTH BILL
FAILURE ALL BUT CERTAIN
Collins Says Latest PlanIs ‘Deeply Flawed’ —
Deadline Looms
By THOMAS KAPLANand ROBERT PEAR
Susan Collins
Continued on Page A16
He lost his seat in Congress, hisaudacious bid to resurrect his ca-reer as mayor of New York City,and his high-profile marriage.And he undermined Hillary Clin-ton’s shot at the presidency in theclosing days of the tumultuous2016 campaign.
On Monday, Anthony D. Weiner,sobbing as the judge spoke,learned the final, personal cost ofhis seemingly uncontrollable hab-it of exchanging lewd texts andpictures with women and girls: 21months in prison.
Mr. Weiner, a Democrat, wasthe essence of the brash politicianfueled by relentless work and un-bridled swagger. Until now, hewas the beneficiary of multiplesecond chances, amid earnestvows that he had learned his les-son.
But this time, there would be nosecond chance for Mr. Weiner,who pleaded guilty in May to onecount of transferring obscene ma-terial to a minor, and had faced upto 10 years in prison.
His texting habit fueled his longand tortuous downfall. But it washis most recent exchanges with a15-year-old girl that were the mostpersonally ruinous: his wife filedfor divorce, he pleaded guilty andnow faces imprisonment.
Before the sentence was pro-nounced, Mr. Weiner, 53, did not so
much ask for leniency as try tomake a case that he had acceptedfull responsibility for his crime,and that he was a changed man.
“I acted not only unlawfully butimmorally, and if I had done theright thing, I would not be stand-ing before you today,” he said, cry-
ing as he addressed the judge.“The prosecutors are skeptical
that I have truly changed and Idon’t blame them,” he said. “I re-peatedly acted in an obviously de-structive way when I was caught.”
Reports of the federal investiga-tion that led to Mr. Weiner’s being
charged in the case first becamepublic after the 15-year-old vic-tim’s story was told in a DailyMail-.com exposé in September 2016.
It was during that investigationthat the F.B.I. discovered on Mr.Weiner’s laptop a trove of emails
Weiner, Teary and Chastened, Is to Serve 21 Months for Lewd TextsBy BENJAMIN WEISER
Anthony D. Weiner leaving Federal District Court in Manhattan after his sentencing on Monday.DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES
Continued on Page A22
BEIRUT, Lebanon — AlthoughSyria’s bloody six-year war is farfrom over, one result is already be-coming clear: President Basharal-Assad looks as though he ishere to stay.
On the battlefield, no one re-mains who is willing and able totopple him. The rebel forces arewaning, and President Trump hascanceled the C.I.A. program thatprovided them with arms and sup-port. The Islamic State, with itsown agenda to rule Syria as a ca-liphate, is being routed from itsstrongholds.
Regional powers, foreign offi-cials and Syrians themselves areincreasingly operating as if he willrule for years to come, albeit overa greatly reduced country. His al-lies have begun to trumpet whatthey see as their impending vic-tory, and his government is talk-ing about rebuilding a shatteredcountry, hosting an internationaltrade fair last month and signing adeal with Iran to rebuild its powergrid.
Even some longtime rebel sup-porters have grown war-wearyand started to embrace the inev-itable.
Since the government re-claimed control of the mountaintown of Madaya after a prolongedsiege, life there has improved for
those who remained. The snipersleft, electricity returned, food ap-peared in markets. Cafes re-opened and people starting goingout.
“We are sick of the war,” ateacher there said via instantmessage, speaking on the condi-tion of anonymity so as not to betargeted for her past opposition tothe government. “We want to live
peacefully andsafe, and wecan’t do that un-less we are withthe regime.”
These devel-opments do notsuggest thatMr. Assad hasan easy roadahead. He re-mains a pariah
in much of the world, presidingover a blasted, divided land. If heemerges victorious, he is likely tobe left with a weak state that is be-holden to foreign powers and
lacks the resources to rebuild.But his endurance has serious
ramifications for the country andfor the Middle East, affecting theprospects of Syria’s future stabil-ity, of refugees to return home andof the Syrian government to tapinternational funds to rebuild itsdestroyed cities.
It is also a grim, late act in theArab Spring uprisings that brokeout in 2011. While protests andarmed insurrections removedfrom power the leaders of Tunisia,Egypt, Libya and Yemen, Mr. As-sad has remained, despite wield-ing tremendous violence againsthis people.
Mr. Assad himself has acknowl-edged the toll of the war, but ar-gued that it has purified the stateby eliminating threats to the na-tion and uniting Syrians around ashared project.
“We lost the best of our youthand our infrastructure,” he told aconference in Damascus, Syria’s
As Syrian War Drags On, Assad’s Grip TightensBy BEN HUBBARD
Bashar al-Assad
Continued on Page A8
WASHINGTON — At least sixof President Trump’s closest ad-visers occasionally used privateemail addresses to discuss WhiteHouse matters, current and for-mer officials said on Monday.
The disclosures came a day af-ter news surfaced that JaredKushner, the president’s son-in-law and adviser, used a privateemail account to send or receiveabout 100 work-related emailsduring the administration’s firstseven months. But Mr. Kushnerwas not alone. Stephen K. Ban-non, the former chief White Housestrategist, and Reince Priebus,the former chief of staff, also occa-sionally used private email ad-dresses. Other advisers, includingGary D. Cohn and Stephen Miller,sent or received at least a fewemails on personal accounts, offi-cials said.
Ivanka Trump, the president’selder daughter, who is married toMr. Kushner, used a private ac-count when she acted as an un-paid adviser early in the adminis-tration, Newsweek reported Mon-day. Administration officials ac-knowledged that she alsooccasionally did so when she for-mally became a White House ad-viser. The officials spoke on thecondition of anonymity becausethey were not authorized to dis-cuss the matter with reporters.
Officials are supposed to usegovernment emails for their offi-cial duties so their conversationsare available to the public andthose conducting oversight. But itis not illegal for White House offi-cials to use private email accountsas long as they forward work-re-lated messages to their work ac-counts so they can be preserved.
During the 2016 presidentialrace, Mr. Trump repeatedlyharped on Hillary Clinton’s use ofa private account as secretary ofstate, making it a centerpiece ofhis campaign and using it to painther as untrustworthy. “We mustnot let her take her criminalscheme into the Oval Office,” Mr.Trump said last year. His cam-paign rallies often boiled over
6 Trump AidesHandled WorkOn Own Email
Criticism Over the Useof Private Accounts
By MATT APUZZOand MAGGIE HABERMAN
Continued on Page A19
Praying mantises, ninjas of the insectworld, are stalking birds. PAGE D1
SCIENCE D1-6
Mantises, on the Prey
Thelma Golden prepares for a newprofile for the Studio Museum. PAGE C1
ARTS C1-8
In Harlem, a Vision for the Arts
A former dot-com entrepreneur, who isto go on trial in New York, says he hasalready undergone an ordeal in a Co-lombian prison. DealBook. PAGE B1
BUSINESS DAY B1-8
An Entrepreneur’s Ordeal
In a largely out-of-focus season inMilan, Italian designers seem confusedabout their roles in the greater fashionecosystem, Vanessa Friedman writes.
FASHION B16
Wondering if Milan Matters
Michelle Goldberg PAGE A27
EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27
Unseasonably warm temperaturesbrought crowds to New York and NewJersey beaches over the weekend, butthe surf became risky in spots. PAGE A21
NEW YORK A21-25
No Day at the Beach
LANDOVER, Md. — It wasundeniably a monumental Sun-day for the National FootballLeague. There were teams that
were no-shows forthe national an-them, and othersthat linked armswith owners. Play-ers knelt and satduring the an-
them, and some raised their fists.But something was conspicu-
ously missing from Sunday’sstage: a real discussion about theissues Colin Kaepernick wanted
to highlight when he started themovement. He knelt during theanthem last season to protestsocial injustice and police brutal-ity, and since then he has been apariah no team wants to sign.
President Trump, in picking afight with the league, reframedthe issue as a lack of respect forthe country and the flag, whichmay make it even harder forathletes to extend their one-dayrevolt into a political dialogue.On Monday, Mr. Trump againaddressed the N.F.L. on Twitter,asserting a “tremendous back-lash” against the league and itsplayers for “disrespect of ourcountry.” It was his 15th tweet inthree days about athletes re-specting the flag or the anthem.
Many players who might wantto speak out further are in avulnerable position now. Their
N.F.L. Players Knelt for Justice, But They Need a Lasting Stand
JULIETMACURSPORTS
OF THE TIMES
Continued on Page A20
POLITICS AS INTRUSION Some inPittsburgh wish to focus on actionbetween the sidelines. PAGE B9
A FLEETING UNITY N.F.L. teamowners seem unlikely to continuejoining players’ protests. PAGE B9
North Korea threatened onMonday to shoot down Americanwarplanes even if they were not inthe country’s airspace, statingthat President Trump’s commentssuggesting he would eradicateNorth Korea and its leaders were“a declaration of war.”
The warning, made by ForeignMinister Ri Yong-ho of North Ko-rea in New York after a week ofUnited Nations General Assemblymeetings, escalated the invective-laced exchanges with Mr. Trumpand appeared to further precludethe possibility of a diplomatic exitfrom the biggest foreign crisis theadministration has faced.
Administration officials deniedthat the United States had de-clared war on the isolated, nucle-ar-armed country of 25 millionpeople, with Sarah HuckabeeSanders, the White House presssecretary, calling such a sugges-tion “absurd.”
She also said that “it’s never ap-propriate to shoot down anothercountry’s aircraft when it’s overinternational waters” and that the
North KoreansIssue a ThreatTo U.S. Planes
By RICK GLADSTONEand DAVID E. SANGER
Continued on Page A6
VICTOR J. BLUE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Waiting for water in Juncos, P.R. The governor said Monday that the island was on the brink of a “humanitarian crisis.” Page A14.In Puerto Rico, a Blunt Plea for Help
Late Edition
VOL. CLXVII . . . No. 57,732 + © 2017 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2017
Today, partly sunny, not as warm,humid, high 83. Tonight, mostlycloudy, humid, mild, low 70. Tomor-row, partly sunny, humid, high 82.Weather map appears on Page B10.
$2.50
