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For students from Flint, Mich., prom was a chance to leave their town’s troubles behind. On a riverboat inDetroit, 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 friendConrad Roy III to kill himself, wasconvicted in a rare finding that wordscan kill. PAGE A11
NATIONAL A10-19
Guilty Verdict in Texting Trial
WASHINGTON — PresidentTrump escalated his attacks on hisown 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 theexpanding inquiry into Russianinfluence of the 2016 election.
Acknowledging for the firsttime publicly that he is under in-vestigation, Mr. Trump appearedto accuse Rod J. Rosenstein, thedeputy attorney general, of lead-ing what the president called a“witch hunt.” Mr. Rosenstein ap-pointed a special counsel lastmonth to conduct the investiga-tion after Mr. Trump fired theF.B.I. director, James B. Comey.
“I am being investigated for fir-ing the FBI Director by the manwho told me to fire the FBI Direc-tor!” Mr. Trump wrote, appar-ently referring to a memo Mr.Rosenstein wrote in May that wascritical of Mr. Comey’s leadershipat 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, theWhite House and its allies to un-dermine officials at the JusticeDepartment and the F.B.I. even asthe Russia investigation pro-ceeds.
The nation’s law enforcement
TRUMP REBUKESAUTHOR OF MEMOON COMEY FIRING
ACKNOWLEDGES INQUIRY
White House Effort toUndermine Officials
at Justice Dept.
This article is by Michael D.Shear, Charlie Savage and MaggieHaberman.
Rod J. RosensteinALEX BRANDON/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Continued on Page A15
ST. PAUL — The images hadtransfixed people around theworld: A woman live-streamingthe aftermath of a police shootingof her boyfriend, Philando Castile,and narrating the searing, bloodyscene that was unfolding aroundher.
On Friday, a jury here acquittedthe Minnesota police officer,Jeronimo Yanez, of all charges inshooting, which happened in July2016 and left Mr. Castile dead, rais-ing the national debate over policeconduct toward black people. Offi-cer Yanez, an officer for the sub-urb of St. Anthony, had beencharged with second-degree man-slaughter and endangering safetyby discharging a firearm in theshooting.
The verdict was announced in atense courtroom here late Fridayafternoon, after five days of delib-erations, and the officer was ledquickly out of the courtroom, aswere the 12 jurors. Mr. Castile’sfamily, which had nervouslywatched the proceedings from thefront row, abruptly left as well.
“My son loved this city, and thiscity killed my son,” Mr. Castile’smother, Valerie, said as she stoodon a corner outside the court-house afterward. “And a murderergets away. Are you kidding meright now?”
She continued, “The system inthis country continues to fail blackpeople and will continue to fail us.”
The case against Officer Yanez— believed to be the first time inMinnesota history that an officerwas charged in an on-duty fatalshooting — hinged on one centralquestion: Did the officer have rea-son to fear that Mr. Castile wasreaching for a gun that he had ac-knowledged having with himwhen he was pulled over by the of-ficer?
Officer Yanez testified that hefeared Mr. Castile was grabbingfor the gun, but Mr. Castile’s girl-friend, Diamond Reynolds, said hehad merely been reaching for hisidentification to give the officer.
Though there was dashboardcamera video of the events, aswell as the live-stream video thatMs. Reynolds began taking afterthe shooting, there was no videoclearly revealing the crucial mo-ments in the front seat of Mr.
Officer ClearedIn 2016 KillingOfBlackDriver
A Live-Streamed DeathThat 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” withCuba and will reinstate travel andcommercial restrictions eased bythe Obama administration so hecan obtain additional concessionsfrom 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’selection, Mr. Trump said he waskeeping a campaign promise toroll back the policy of engagementbegun by President BarackObama in 2014, which he said hadempowered the communist gov-ernment in Cuba and enriched thecountry’s repressive military.
“We will not be silent in the faceof communist oppression anylonger,” Mr. Trump said at theManuel Artime Theater, named
for a former supporter of FidelCastro who became a leader ofBrigade 2506, the land forces thatspearheaded the United States-led Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.
“Effective immediately, I amcanceling the last administra-tion’s completely one-sided dealwith Cuba,” Mr. Trump said.
After the speech, he signed asix-page directive ordering newtravel and commercial restric-tions.
As part of the new policy, Amer-icans will no longer be able to plantheir own private trips to Cuba,and those who go as part of autho-rized educational tours will besubject 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 UndoObama’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 Warantagonism, propelled a deeplyheld vision of Europe’s integrationand earned plaudits from Moscowand Washington for his deft han-dling of the fall of the Berlin Wall,died on Friday at his home in Lud-wigshafen, Germany, the Rhineport city where he was born. Hewas 87.
“We mourn,” his party, theChristian Democratic Union, saidon Twitter in announcing hisdeath.
With his diplomacy, resolve andreadiness to commit huge sums toending his country’s division, Mr.Kohl was remembered by manyas a giant of epochal times that re-made Europe’s political architec-ture, dismantled the minefieldsand 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 swornfoes.
A physically imposing man —he stood 6 feet 4 inches and
weighed well over 300 pounds inhis leadership years — Mr. Kohlpursued his and his country’s po-litical interests as Germany’schancellor with persistent, evenstubborn, determination. Hecould be “an elephant in a chinashop,” as he described himself,and he overcame European oppo-
sition to unification the same wayhe handled political opposition athome: by the force of a jovial yetdominating personality.
Germany in particular facedthe challenge of engaging with aformerly dictatorial, Soviet-backed East and welding it to a
Towering Statesman Who Reunified GermanyBy 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 Foodsfor $13.4 billion, in a deal that willinstantly transform the companythat pioneered online shoppinginto a merchant with physical out-posts in hundreds of neighbor-hoods across the country.
The acquisition, announced Fri-day, is a reflection of both thesheer magnitude of the grocerybusiness — about $800 billion inannual spending in the UnitedStates — and a desire to turn Ama-zon into a more frequent shoppinghabit by becoming a bigger playerin food and beverages. After al-most a decade selling groceriesonline, Amazon has failed to makea major dent on its own as con-sumers have shown a stubbornurge to buy items like fruits,vegetables and meat in person.
Buying Whole Foods also repre-sents a major escalation in thecompany’s long-running battlewith Walmart, the largest groceryretailer in the United States,which has been struggling to playcatch-up in internet shopping. OnFriday, Walmart announced a $310million deal to acquire the internetapparel retailer Bonobos, and lastyear it agreed to pay $3.3 billionfor Jet.com and put Jet’s chief ex-ecutive, Marc Lore, in charge ofWalmart’s overall e-commercebusiness.
“Make no mistake, Walmart un-der no circumstances can lose thegrocery wars to Amazon,” saidBrittain Ladd, a strategy and sup-ply chain consultant who formerlyworked with Amazon on its gro-cery business. “If Walmart losesthe grocery battle to Amazon,they have no chance of ever de-throning Amazon as the largest e-
Amazon to BuyWhole FoodsFor $13 Billion
By NICK WINGFIELDand MICHAEL J. de la MERCED
Continued on Page A19
LONDON — Grenfell Towerresidents said they had warnedabout fire hazards for years beforetheir London public housingproject became a 24-story cinder.On Friday, they stormed the localgovernment council, accusing of-ficials first of ignoring them andthen of leaving them without fi-nancial assistance and lodging, oreven a rough accounting of theirmissing loved ones.
With scores of residents still un-accounted for since the earlyWednesday fire, frustrated sur-vivors demanded from govern-ment officials help and a roster —or at least the number — of towerresidents.
Prime Minister Theresa Mayand 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 subjectedto calls of “What about the chil-dren?”
The authorities confirmed onFriday that at least 30 people haddied and estimated that the finaltoll could be more than 70 killed inan inferno so intense that the re-mains of many of the victims willbe unidentifiable. And already, thefire at the Grenfell Tower housingproject — its scorched shell loom-ing above one of London’s mostupscale neighborhoods — has be-come a grim symbol of class in-equality in a city that has longbeen a magnet for global wealth.
After revelations that corner-cutting by government officialsand building contractors alikemay have played a role in thedeadly fire, resentment played outin public.
Mrs. May, already weakened byher failure to win a majority in thismonth’s elections, has called for apublic inquiry into the causes ofthe fire. But her public reactionhas been criticized as halting andunempathetic, especially her ini-tial failure to meet with victims’families.
The criticisms echoed thosemade of her election campaign,during which she was accused ofpreferring speeches in carefullycontrolled 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 millionfor emergency supplies, food,
Rage Boils Over in London After Deadly BlazeBy CEYLAN YEGINSU
and STEPHEN CASTLEProtesters Storm Local
Assembly SeekingAnswers
Continued on Page A6
UNLIKELY REFUGE John Mackey,the chief of Whole Foods, foughtoff activist investors. Then hefound a savior in Amazon. PAGE B1
SUPERMARKET WAR Groceryretailers are bracing for a deep-pocketed rival that is poised tomove customers online. PAGE B1
INQUIRY AT THE WHITE HOUSE A consultant’s rise and fall shows howthe Russia investigations have shaken the administration. PAGE A14
CIVIL RIGHTS IN SCHOOLS To ease a backlog of cases, the EducationDepartment will scale back how it investigates complaints. PAGE A19
Is stand-up paddleboarding more likecanoeing or more like surfing? In abattle for control of the sport, the issueis headed to mediation. PAGE D6
SPORTSSATURDAY D1-6
Wait, That’s Our Sport!
A professor in Washington objected to aracial-awareness event, promptingthreats and protests. PAGE A10
College Campus Under Siege
An episode of Amazon’s “I Love Dick” iscalled the best 20 minutes of televisionin years. Critic’s Notebook. PAGE C1
ARTS C1-7
Sharp, Groundbreaking TV
One person died and six others weresickened by Legionnaires’ disease onthe Upper East Side. PAGE A21
Fatal Legionnaire’s Outbreak
How parents’ routine afternoon chore— picking up kindergartners — becamea nightmare in Xuzhou. PAGE A6
China’s Kindergarten Bombing
Megyn Kelly and her new network arefacing an uproar over an interview of theconspiracy theorist Alex Jones. PAGE B3
BUSINESS DAY B1-7
Critical Test for Kelly and NBC
Chelsea Manning helped usher in theage of leaks in 2010. Out of prison, shetalks about why she did it. MAGAZINE
This Weekend
The search is on for seven missingsailors after an American destroyer, theFitzgerald, collided with a containership off the coast of Japan. PAGE A7
INTERNATIONAL A4-9
Sailors Missing After Crash
Much remains to be determined beforeFloyd Mayweather Jr. meets ConorMcGregor in Las Vegas. PAGE D1
Big Fight, Many Issues to SettleBret Stephens PAGE A23
EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23
Addiction specialists say action, notstudy, is needed when hundreds ofpeople are dying each week. PAGE A16
NATIONAL
Demanding Action on Opioids
A 36-year-old banker, who moved toNew York for the woman he loved, wasstruck and killed by a charter bus whileriding 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, afternoonstorms, high 78. Tonight, rathercloudy, evening storms, low 70. To-morrow, thunderstorms, high 84.Weather map appears on Page C8.
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