ENRAGES FRANCE U.S. DEFENSE PACT

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PARIS — President Biden’s an-nouncement of a deal to help Aus-tralia deploy nuclear-poweredsubmarines has strained theWestern alliance, infuriatingFrance and foreshadowing howthe conflicting American and Eu-ropean responses to confrontationwith China may redraw the globalstrategic map.

In announcing the deal onWednesday, Mr. Biden said it wasmeant to reinforce alliances andupdate them as strategic priori-ties shift. But in drawing a Pacifically closer to meet the China chal-lenge, he appears to have alienat-ed an important European oneand aggravated already tense re-lations with Beijing.

France on Thursday reactedwith outrage to the announce-ments that the United States andBritain would help Australia de-velop submarines, and that Aus-tralia was withdrawing from a $66billion deal to buy French-builtsubmarines. At its heart, the dip-lomatic storm is also a businessmatter — a loss of revenue forFrance’s military industry, and again for American companies.

Jean-Yves Le Drian, France’sforeign minister, told Franceinforadio that the submarine deal wasa “unilateral, brutal, unpredict-able decision” by the UnitedStates, and he compared theAmerican move to the rash andsudden policy shifts common dur-ing the Trump administration.

Underscoring its fury, Francecanceled a gala scheduled for Fri-day at its embassy in Washingtonto mark the 240th anniversary of aRevolutionary War battle.

“This looks like a new geopoliti-cal order without binding alli-ances,” said Nicole Bacharan, a re-searcher at Sciences Po in Paris.“To confront China, the UnitedStates appears to have chosen adifferent alliance, with the Anglo-Saxon world separate fromFrance.” She predicted a “veryhard” period in the old friendshipbetween Paris and Washington.

The deal also seemed to be apivot point in relations with China,which reacted angrily. The Biden

U.S. DEFENSE PACTWITH AUSTRALIA

ENRAGES FRANCE

RIFT OVER CHINA POLICY

Nuclear Submarine SaleRaises Stakes in the

Pacific Region

By ROGER COHEN

Continued on Page A10

DEL RIO, Texas — Thousandsof migrants were crowded under abridge outside the border commu-nity of Del Rio on Thursday, partof a massive surge in migrationacross the Rio Grande this weekthat has overwhelmed the au-thorities and caused significantdelays in processing the arrivals.

The U.S. Border Patrol said thatmore than 9,000 migrants, mostlyfrom Haiti, were being held in atemporary staging area under theDel Rio International Bridge asagents worked as quickly as theycould to process them.

The temporary camp has grownwith staggering speed in recentdays, from just a few hundred peo-ple earlier in the week. The au-thorities and city officials saidthey expected thousands more tocross the ankle-deep river be-tween Mexico and Del Rio in thecoming days.

The Border Patrol said it wouldsend more agents to the region “toimmediately address the currentlevel of migrant encounters and tofacilitate a safe, humane and or-derly process.” The shaded area

under the bridge, the Border Pa-trol said, was to “prevent injuriesfrom heat-related illness” whilemigrants were waiting to be takeninto custody.

The scene — of dense crowds

sleeping on dirt or milling about intriple-digit heat amid conditionsof deteriorating sanitation — wascondemned by local officials. Gov.Greg Abbott of Texas ordered thestate police and the National

Guard to assist border agents inDel Rio, saying the federal re-sponse had not been enough toquell the surge in crossings.

“The Biden administration is in

Surge Leaves 9,000 Migrants Crammed Under a Texas BridgeThis article is by James Dobbins,

Eileen Sullivan and Edgar Sandoval.

Continued on Page A15

Migrants waited near the Del Rio International Bridge in Texas to turn themselves in on Thursday.VERÓNICA G. CÁRDENAS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple in-troduced a pop-up window foriPhones in April that asks peoplefor their permission to be trackedby different apps.

Google recently outlined plansto disable a tracking technology inits Chrome web browser.

And Facebook said last monththat hundreds of its engineerswere working on a new method ofshowing ads without relying onpeople’s personal data.

The developments may seemlike technical tinkering, but theywere connected to something big-ger: an intensifying battle overthe future of the internet. Thestruggle has entangled tech ti-tans, upended Madison Avenueand disrupted small businesses.And it heralds a profound shift inhow people’s personal informa-tion may be used online, withsweeping implications for theways that businesses make

money digitally.At the center of the tussle is

what has been the internet’slifeblood: advertising.

More than 20 years ago, the in-ternet drove an upheaval in theadvertising industry. It eviscer-ated newspapers and magazinesthat had relied on selling classi-fied and print ads, and threatenedto dethrone television advertisingas the prime way for marketers toreach large audiences.

Instead, brands splashed theirads across websites, with theirpromotions often tailored to peo-ple’s specific interests. Those dig-ital ads powered the growth ofFacebook, Google and Twitter,which offered their search and so-

cial networking services to peoplewithout charge. But in exchange,people were tracked from site tosite by technologies such as“cookies,” and their personal datawas used to target them with rele-vant marketing.

Now that system, which bal-looned into a $350 billion digital adindustry, is being dismantled.Driven by online privacy fears,Apple and Google have started re-vamping the rules around onlinedata collection. Apple, citing themantra of privacy, has rolled outtools that block marketers fromtracking people. Google, whichdepends on digital ads, is trying tohave it both ways by reinventingthe system so it can continue aim-ing ads at people without exploit-ing access to their personal data.

If personal information is nolonger the currency that peoplegive for online content and serv-ices, something else must take itsplace. Media publishers, app mak-

Battle for Users’ Privacy Will Transform InternetBy BRIAN X. CHEN Hundreds of Billions at

Stake for Tech Titansand Advertisers

Continued on Page A20

MURMANSK, Russia — Shewalked into the cafe wearing aface mask that read, “I’m notafraid, and don’t you be afraid.” Aman in a leather jacket followedher in, looked at her as she satdown next to me, then disap-peared. Another man, in a vestand gray cap, waited outside.

He trailed us as we walked out.I was interviewing Violetta

Grudina, an activist in the Rus-sian Arctic city of Murmansk whois allied with the imprisoned oppo-

sition leader Aleksei A. Navalny.She was still recovering from ahunger strike. Now under relent-less surveillance, she confessed toa creeping, numbing desperation.

“We are all in a trap — trappedby one tyrant,” Ms. Grudina said.“This stupor that comes from giv-ing everything you possibly can,but nothing changes — it is hard.”

Russia is a country in whichnothing changes until everythingchanges. Ahead of the nationalparliamentary elections thisweekend, President Vladimir V.Putin’s rule has reached a newapogee of authoritarianism,coated in a patina of comfortablestability. To many, Mr. Putin re-mains a hero, especially for his as-sertive foreign policy, while thosewho oppose him are retreating, asthey put it, into their own oases orparallel worlds.

From Aug. 24 to Sept. 7, the pho-tographer Sergey Ponomarev and

Trek in SearchOf How PutinShapes Russia

By ANTON TROIANOVSKI

Playing on a boat moored outside the bay in Solovki, a holy place to the Russian Orthodox Church, which is a central pillar of support for President Vladimir V. Putin.PHOTOGRAPHS BY SERGEY PONOMAREV FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

A broadcast of Mr. Putin on ascreen near Moscow in April.

Continued on Page A12

Ibai Llanos is a 26-year-old internetpersonality who plays video games andstreams interviews with some of soc-cer’s biggest names. PAGE B10

SPORTS B9-10

A Shining (Not) Media StarRetired meter-maid trikes are whimisi-cal, not menacing, in the hands of BayArea collectors. Wheels. PAGE B8

BUSINESS B1-8

Smiles Instead of Tickets

A Trump-era appointee charged withscouring the Russia inquiry has accuseda prominent cybersecurity lawyer at aDemocratic-tied firm of lying to theF.B.I. during a 2016 meeting. PAGE A19

NATIONAL A14-20, 24

Special Counsel IndictmentWe’ve compiled a formidable list of titlesto look for, including a biography ofOscar Wilde and novels from JonathanFranzen and Anthony Doerr. PAGE C14

WEEKEND ARTS C1-16

Fall Books PreviewA measles outbreak and securityscreenings add to delays in the resettle-ment of thousands of Afghans weeksafter their dramatic escape. PAGE A6

INTERNATIONAL A4-13

Stuck in Limbo on U.S. Bases

A writer went searching for AsianAmerican history in the foothills of theSierra Nevada but found few traces ofthe thousands of Chinese immigrantswho had worked there. PAGE A14

A Town Called Chinese CampEmma Corrin, who has been nominatedfor an Emmy for playing Diana in “TheCrown,” is happy to be handing off therole as it takes a darker turn. PAGE C5

Turning In Her Tiara

The critic Roberta Smith focuses onnew gallery shows by the artists AlisonElizabeth Taylor, Mickalene Thomasand Lisa Yuskavage. PAGE C10

A New Season of Art

The withdrawal from Afghanistan ex-posed the views within the foreignpolicy establishment, also known as theBlob. Washington Memo. PAGE A6

A Media Moment for ‘the Blob’

The militant group trucked over onemillion gallons of fuel to Lebanon, flout-ing U.S. sanctions and billing itself assavior to a suffering population. PAGE A8

Hezbollah Fills Void in Lebanon

A variety of non-animal food options arebecoming available, and more compa-nies want part of the action. PAGE B1

A Growing Appetite for Plants

David Brooks PAGE A23

OPINION A22-23

In Massachusetts, Gov. CharlieBaker is activating the NationalGuard to help with the shortage inbus drivers. In North Carolina,legislators are hoping to ease acafeteria worker shortage by giv-ing districts federal funding tocover signing bonuses for newhires. And some Missouri districtsare wiping away some of the re-quirements to become a substi-tute teacher to attract more appli-cants.

Across the country, school dis-tricts are desperate to fill jobs.Some are struggling to retaincounselors, teachers and princi-pals, but a more urgent needseems to be for employees whohave traditionally operated be-hind the scenes — cafeteria work-ers, bus drivers and substituteteachers — according to ChipSlaven, interim director for theNational School Boards Associa-tion.

Many relatively low-paying in-dustries, like restaurants, are fac-ing worker shortages because ofthe pandemic. But school districtshave for years struggled to recruitand retain workers, according toMr. Slaven, because of the low pay,sparse benefits and erratic sched-ules.

“You really have to look backbefore the pandemic,” he said.“You’re seeing a problem that wasalready bad become worse.”

The coronavirus has scaredaway workers who are wary offace-to-face interaction with chil-dren, and the federal govern-ment’s pandemic unemploymentbenefits, which recently ended,spurred some to wait for betteropportunities.

The shortages have affectedfamilies, already under stress.Since the first day of classes, Me-lissa Minter has driven her threechildren every morning to middleschool and high school in theNorthside Independent SchoolDistrict in San Antonio. A severestaffing shortage has forced busdrivers to make multiple trips,turning what should be a 15-minute bus ride into an hour-and-a-half odyssey.

Want to DriveA School Bus?You’re Hired.

By GIULIA HEYWARD

Continued on Page A18

Late Edition

VOL. CLXX . . . . No. 59,184 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

Today, cloudy, seasonable, showers,high 77. Tonight, cloudy, low 68. To-morrow, a mix of clouds and periodicsunshine, warmer, humid, high 82.Weather map appears on Page A24.

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