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Older adults are the most vaccinated age group in America, but about a fifth of those 65 and older — a groupthat is particularly vulnerable to the virus — have not received even one shot. Page A6.
Despite Universal Eligibility, Some Seniors Remain Unvaccinated
Share of age groups that have receivedat least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine
80
100%
60
40
20
0
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | Note: Data is as of April 18. KEITH COLLINS / THE NEW YORK TIMES
65 - 7475 +
50 - 64
Jan. 12021
Feb. 1 March 1 April 1 April 18
40 - 49
30 - 39
18 - 29
Under 18
AGE
New York City’s influentialteachers’ union endorsed the citycomptroller, Scott M. Stringer, inthe race for mayor on Monday,providing a much-needed boost toa campaign that has struggled to
gain momentum thus far, despiteMr. Stringer’s deep experience incity politics.
Mr. Stringer is a decades-longally of the United Federation ofTeachers and was long consideredthe front-runner for its support.With nine weeks before the June22 primary, the endorsement
comes at a critical time: In the lim-ited public polling available, Mr.Stringer consistently trails theformer presidential candidate An-drew Yang and the Brooklyn bor-ough president, Eric Adams.
In recent weeks, some laborleaders, political operatives andhis own allies had privately wor-
ried about Mr. Stringer’s viabilityin the race, as the more moderateMr. Yang has threatened his Man-hattan base, and left-wing activ-ists and leaders — expected to besolidly in Mr. Stringer’s corner —have not yet coalesced around asingle candidate.
Trailing in Polls, Stringer Scores Coveted Backing From TeachersBy ELIZA SHAPIROand KATIE GLUECK
Continued on Page A22
RELIVING NIGHTMARES Familiesracked by police violence respondto the Chauvin trial. PAGE A14
MINNEAPOLIS — The twosides in one of the nation’s mostclosely watched police brutalitytrials returned one last time to thegraphic video of George Floyd’s fi-nal moments on Monday, with theprosecution asking jurors to “be-lieve your eyes” and the defensewarning them not to be “misled”by a freeze-frame view.
After 14 days of testimony frompolicing experts, medical doctors,members of the Minneapolis Po-lice Department and bystanders,lawyers made their closing argu-ments, urging the jurors to usecommon sense as the case wasplaced in their hands.
The prosecution focused on the9 minutes 29 seconds that DerekChauvin, the white police officercharged with murder, kept hisknee on the neck of Mr. Floyd, ahandcuffed Black man, on a Min-neapolis street last Memorial Day.
“This case is exactly what youthought when you saw it first,when you saw that video,” saidSteve Schleicher, the prosecutorwho delivered the closing argu-ment. “It’s what you felt in yourgut. It’s what you now know inyour heart.”
In a lengthy rebuttal, the de-fense emphasized the 17 minutesleading up to that time — suggest-ing that Mr. Floyd had taken illicitdrugs and had actively resistedwhen several officers tried to gethim into a squad car. Mr. Chau-vin’s lawyer, Eric J. Nelson, re-peatedly told jurors to look at the“totality of the circumstances.”
“Do not let yourselves be misledby a single still-frame image,” Mr.Nelson told the jury, in response tothe moment-by-moment analysesof video evidence presented bythe prosecution. “Put the evi-dence in its proper context.”
The closing arguments wereheld on the 18th floor of a govern-ment building surrounded by tem-
FOCUS IS ON VIDEOAS CHAUVIN TRIAL GOES TO THE JURY
ANXIETY IN MINNEAPOLIS
One Side Says to ‘BelieveYour Eyes’; Other Says
Not to Be ‘Misled’
This article is by Shaila Dewan,Tim Arango, Nicholas Bogel-Bur-roughs and John Eligon.
Continued on Page A15
INDIANAPOLIS — The seniorcounty prosecutor in Indianapolissaid on Monday that his officenever sought to invoke a law thatcould have prevented BrandonHole from buying two firearms be-fore he shot and killed eight peo-ple last week at a FedEx packag-ing warehouse.
In a news conference, RyanMears, the prosecutor for MarionCounty, said his office had decidednot to use Indiana’s so-called redflag law last year, even though Mr.Hole’s mother’s warnings abouther son’s mental instability hadprompted the police to seize ashotgun from him.
The tight deadlines and con-straints on evidence gatheringbuilt into the state’s 16-year-oldstatute gave prosecutors too littletime to make a convincing case toa judge, Mr. Mears said, addingthat losing in court could havebackfired.
“If we move forward with thatproceeding, and we lose, guesswhat happens: that firearm goesright back to that person,” he said.“We weren’t willing to take that.”
The tragedy of last week’s massshooting, and the questions aboutmissed opportunities in themonths that led up to it, has high-lighted some shortcomings in thered flag laws, adopted in morethan a dozen states, that havebeen one of the few gun controlmeasures both political partieshave been able to agree to.
Under such laws, the authori-ties can take guns from peoplewho are deemed by a judge topresent a danger to themselves orothers, and bar those people frombuying guns for a period of time.
If Mr. Hole had been subject tosuch a determination after hismother contacted the authoritiesin March 2020, he would not havebeen able to legally buy two rifles,a Ruger AR-556 and an HM De-fense HM15F, a few months later— the semiautomatic weapons hewould use to open fire on theworkers in a packaging ware-house on Thursday night beforefatally shooting himself.
But as effective as red flag lawsmay be in certain respects, suchas preventing gun suicides, thenew revelations about the han-dling of Mr. Hole’s case last yearshow that the laws may fall wellshort in preventing the most hor-rific acts of gun violence.
“I think people hear ‘red flag’
‘Red Flag’ LawAnd Red TapeIn Indianapolis
Attacker Wasn’t BarredFrom New Guns
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
Continued on Page A17
PETER VAN AGTMAEL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Muffled voices, the splash of water, relieved crying: the sounds of some migrants’ nighttime journeys to the U.S. border. Page A11.Dark Crossings and Hazy Futures
AL-KFEIR, Syria — As the sunset, children in dirty clothes andbattered shoes herded sheeppast the towering stone walls of aByzantine settlement abandoned
more than 1,000years ago, leadingthem into an an-cient cave nearby
where the animals would spendthe night.
Laundry hung near the semi-cylindrical wall of a ruined, cen-turies-old church. Vegetablesgrew between the remnants oftwo rectangular doorways orna-mented with carved leaf pat-terns. Scattered about were giant
cut stones from what had oncebeen an extensive town.
It was here, at the vast archae-ological site of al-Kfeir, Syria,where Abu Ramadan and hisfamily sought shelter more thana year ago after fleeing a Syriangovernment assault.
They’ve been here ever since.Abu Ramadan, 38, said he
cared little for the site’s history
as a trading and agriculturalcenter, but appreciated thesturdy walls that blunted thewind and the abundance of cutstones that a family who had losteverything could salvage to piecetogether a new life.
“We built these from the ru-ins,” he said, pointing to achicken coop and wood-burningstove. “We, too, have becomeruins.”
As Syria’s 10-year civil war hasdisplaced millions of people,families like Abu Ramadan’shave sought refuge from a mod-ern war behind the walls of doz-ens of ancient villages sprinkledacross the hills of the country’s
War Exiles Find Shelter in the Eighth CenturyBy BEN HUBBARD Families Hide Among
Stones of AncientHeritage Sites
Continued on Page A8
SYRIADISPATCH
ALBANY, N.Y. — The New YorkState attorney general has openedan investigation into Gov. AndrewM. Cuomo’s use of state resourcesas he wrote and promoted his re-cent pandemic memoir, the latestinquiry to engulf the embattledthree-term Democrat.
The investigation followed dis-closures that junior staff membersand senior aides worked on Mr.Cuomo’s book, “American Crisis:Leadership Lessons from theCovid-19 Pandemic,” includingediting early drafts, sitting in onpitch meetings, and menial taskslike printing and delivering manu-script pages to the governor’smansion.
Mr. Cuomo has insisted that anywork done by government em-ployees on the book — which gar-nered a seven-figure advance —was voluntary, allowing that someminor work may have been “inci-dental.”
The misuse of public resourceshas led to the downfall of numer-ous political figures, including aformer state comptroller, Alan G.Hevesi, who resigned and pleadedguilty to a felony in 2006 after heused a state driver to run errandsfor his wife.
The investigation was openedafter Letitia James, the attorneygeneral, received a formal referralletter from the state comptroller,Thomas P. DiNapoli, saying that acriminal investigation was war-ranted.
The new line of scrutinyseemed to exacerbate the wid-ening rift among New York’s lead-ing Democrats, as Mr. Cuomo’s of-fice pushed back forcefully onMonday, describing the inquiry asa politically motivated attack —by members of the governor’sown party.
Cuomo FacingA State InquiryOver His Book
By JESSE McKINLEY
Continued on Page A22
A wildfire that is still being foughtravaged the home of many documentsof Southern African history. PAGE A10
INTERNATIONAL A7-10
Cape Town Library BurnsThe Padres, long on the short end of anN.L. West rivalry with the Dodgers,show signs of rising up. PAGE B6
SPORTSTUESDAY B6-8
Southern California Heat“Zero,” Italy’s first television show witha majority Black cast, is set to premiereon Netflix. Above, Antonio Dikele Diste-fano, one of the creators. PAGE C1
ARTS C1-6
Groundbreaking TV
Michelle Goldberg PAGE A24
EDITORIAL, OP-ED A24-25
An exploration of the complexities ofglobal warming, and why acting nowcould mean such a difference for theworld of the future. PAGE D1
SCIENCE TIMES D1-8
Climate Change, Explained
Other European cities are eating awayat Britain’s edge in financial services.The government in London is tryingto find ways to keep it. PAGE B1
BUSINESS B1-5
A Financial Turf WarAn autopsy’s findings are likely to com-plicate any prosecution in the death ofBrian D. Sicknick, who collapsed hoursafter fighting with rioters. PAGE A12
NATIONAL A11-22
Capitol Officer Had Strokes
The Russian opposition leader has beenon a hunger strike, and his personaldoctors say he is severely ill. PAGE A9
Navalny Is HospitalizedThe founders of a European super-league have warned soccer’s leadersnot to try to stop them. PAGE B7
Breaking Away Defiantly
After four years of “America First,” thepresident tries this week in a virtualsummit to reclaim U.S. leadership onclimate change. PAGE A12
Biden Faces a Credibility Test
Late Edition
VOL. CLXX . . . . No. 59,034 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2021
Walter F. Mondale, the formervice president and champion ofliberal politics, activist govern-ment and civil rights who ran asthe Democratic candidate forpresident in 1984, losing to Presi-dent Ronald Reagan in a land-slide, died on Monday at his homein Minneapolis. He was 93.
Kathy Tunheim, a spokeswom-an for the family, announced thedeath. She did not specify a cause.
A son of a minister of modestmeans, Fritz Mondale, as he waswidely known, led a rich public lifethat began in Minnesota under thetutelage of his state’s progressivepathfinder, Hubert H. Humphrey.He achieved his own historicfirsts, especially with his selectionof Representative Geraldine A.Ferraro of New York as his run-ning mate in 1984, the first womanto seek the vice presidency on amajor national ticket.
Under President Jimmy Carter,
from 1977 to 1981, Mr. Mondalewas the first vice president toserve as a genuine partner of apresident, with full access to intel-ligence briefings, a weekly lunchwith Mr. Carter, his own office
Vice President Who FoughtFor the Poor and Overlooked
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
WALTER F. MONDALE, 1928-2021
Walter F. Mondale was a part-ner to President Jimmy Carter.
GEORGE TAMES/THE NEW YORK TIMES
Continued on Page A20
NASA’s small robotic helicopter, namedIngenuity, made history by lifting offthe surface of Mars and hovering there,a first for another world. PAGE A13
Tiny Helicopter Flies on Mars
Today, partly sunny, high 74. To-night, increasing clouds, low 52. To-morrow, rain early, afternoon thun-derstorms, becoming breezy, high64. Weather map is on Page A26.
$3.00
