VOL. CLXVIII . . . No. 58,098 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

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Shelters continue to provide refugefrom Hurricane Florence, nearly twoweeks after it made landfall. PAGE A14

NATIONAL A14-21

Still No HomecomingGucci, above, convened its own interna-tional summit of sorts at Paris FashionWeek, Vanessa Friedman says. PAGE D1

THURSDAY STYLES D1-10

In France, Manifestos of Style

A festival that features anti-immigrantpropaganda in a village in central Ger-many reflects the quieter inroads beingmade by the far right. PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A4-13

Face Paint and ‘White Power’Amanda Hess visited every Instagram-able “museum,” “factory” and “man-sion” imaginable. It wasn’t easy. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

Experiencing a Pop-Up Hell

Damien Echols spent years on deathrow. Now he’s teaching the rituals thathe says helped him survive. PAGE D1

He Believes in MagickThe E.P.A. put the head of its office ofchildren’s health on leave, apparentlytrying to shrink its role. PAGE A15

Children’s Watchdog Sidelined

WASHINGTON — Judge BrettM. Kavanaugh faced a whirlwindof new accusations on Wednesdaythat threatened to derail his nomi-nation to the Supreme Court askey Republican senators waveredin their support and PresidentTrump, in a rambling and combat-ive news conference, acknowl-edged that he might be persuadedby the testimony of one of thejudge’s female accusers.

On the eve of an extraordinaryhearing of the Senate JudiciaryCommittee at which both JudgeKavanaugh and Christine BlaseyFord, a California professor whohas accused him of assaulting herwhen they were both teenagers,will testify, Mr. Trump said that“some very evil” Democrats hadplotted to destroy Judge Kava-

naugh’s reputation. And he la-mented what he called “a verydangerous period in our country”in which men are presumed guilty.

But even as he described thecharges against Judge Kava-naugh as “false accusations,” Mr.Trump seemed, for the first time,to acknowledge the mountingchallenges facing his nominee.Asked why he repeatedly sideswith men over their female accus-ers, the president said hearingstories from Dr. Blasey mightchange his mind.

“I’m going to see what happenstomorrow,” Mr. Trump said duringan hourlong news conference inNew York, where he was attend-ing the United Nations GeneralAssembly. “I’m going to be watch-ing, you know, believe it or not. It’s

Before Senate Face-Off,New Accusations LeaveKavanaugh in Jeopardy

Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh said he would use his 1982 calendar as part of his defense against accusations by Christine Blasey Ford.SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

Angry Trump Blames ‘Evil’ Democrats

President Trump defended hisembattled Supreme Court pick.

TOM BRENNER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A17

By NICHOLAS FANDOSand MICHAEL D. SHEAR

When nearly the entire powergrid of Puerto Rico was knockedout by a pair of ferocious hurri-canes last year, utility companiesfrom across the United States sentcrews and equipment to help.

It was a power emergency on ascale rarely seen before, and com-panies spent tens of millions ofdollars to mobilize. The utility inSacramento, Calif., sent 30 work-ers and a dozen trucks. Ameren,which serves over two millioncustomers in Missouri and Illi-nois, sent 225 workers. New Yorkdispatched workers on at leastfive deployments to repair powerlines and assess damaged substa-tions. Florida Power & Light sentmore than 100 trucks, several tonsof equipment and 800 employees,many of whom spent Thanksgiv-ing and the winter holidays work-ing 16-hour days.

Though their costs are ex-pected to be reimbursed by thefederal government, the compa-nies were not earning a profit. So itwas with astonishment that, overthe summer, some of the utilitycompanies that had sent aid crewsopened letters from the townswhere they had worked in PuertoRico: bills demanding millions ofdollars in license and constructiontaxes.

Florida Power & Light was giv-en five days to pay the first $2 mil-lion, and 30 days for $333,000

For Their HelpIn Puerto Rico,They Got Taxed

By JAMES GLANZand ALEJANDRA ROSA

Continued on Page A15

MORECAMBE, England — Itwas half past eight, and the schoolday was just starting at More-cambe Bay Primary, a state-runelementary school in northwestEngland. Siobhan Collingwood,the head teacher, pointed to acheerful boy munching his waythrough two slices of toast — hisfirst meal of the day.

Teachers, she said, had some-times found him sifting throughtrash cans for discarded fruit.“He’d eat his way through what-ever we put in front of him.”

Some students trickled throughwithout stopping; they had al-ready eaten. But a few dozenheaded straight to the foodcounter. Of 350 students, roughlyone in three would not have break-fast unless the school provided it,Ms. Collingwood reckoned.

During Ms. Collingwood’s 13years as head teacher at More-cambe Bay Primary, there werealways a few hungry children. Buttwo years ago, the staff noticed an

increasing number of youngstersreturning undernourished afterspending school breaks at home.

Initially, Ms. Collingwood andher staff were puzzled: Many par-ents held jobs, even if they strug-gled to cover the bills. Then itdawned on them that the risingnumber of hungry children atMorecambe Bay coincided withsharp reductions in welfare bene-fits associated with the clumsy in-troduction of a new welfare pro-gram.

“As we spoke to parents,” Ms.Collingwood said, “it became

Warning Sign in Leaner Times: Hungry ChildrenBy PATRICK KINGSLEY

Lunchtime at a school in Morecambe, England. The staff noticed an uptick in undernourished pupils.

LAURA BOUSHNAK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

BRITAIN’S BIG SQUEEZE

A Toll on the Youngest

Continued on Page A13

UNITED NATIONS — Presi-dent Trump on Wednesday ac-cused a foreign power of meddlingin an American election: not Rus-sia, but China.

The Chinese, Mr. Trumpclaimed, were trying to damagehis political standing before themidterm elections because of hisimposition of tariffs on billions ofdollars in Chinese goods. Speak-ing at the United Nations SecurityCouncil, where China’s foreignminister was also present, he said,“They do not want me or us to winbecause I am the first president toever challenge China on trade.”

It was not the first time thepresident has accused the Chi-nese of meddling in the nation’s af-fairs: He has complained that inresponse to his tariffs, it had im-posed retaliatory ones aimed at

American farmers and other polit-ically sensitive constituencies instates that support him. But hehas never leveled the accusationso bluntly or in such a high-profileinternational setting.

Mr. Trump did not suggest thatChina’s behavior was on the scaleof Russia’s sophisticated cam-paign of manipulating social me-dia and the release of hackedemails during the 2016 presiden-tial election.

And he did not even mentionRussia’s interference, eventhough its foreign minister wasalso at the council session, and ithas been identified for its med-dling by American intelligenceagencies — a fact that Mr. Trumponly halfheartedly acknowledges.

“Well, I think it’s different,” Mr.

At U.N., President Claims ChinaIs Meddling in Midterm Elections

By MARK LANDLER

Continued on Page A10

As accusations of sexual impro-priety have threatened to upendthe confirmation of Judge Brett M.Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court,a common theme has emergedconnecting the decades-old al-leged incidents: heavy drinking.

Christine Blasey Ford de-scribed Judge Kavanaugh as“stumbling drunk” when, as a 17-

year-old prep school student insuburban Washington, he alleg-edly tried to force himself on herduring a party in 1982. Then, at analcohol-fueled gathering duringhis freshman year at Yale, his for-mer classmate Deborah Ramirezsays, Judge Kavanaugh exposedhimself to her. He has denied bothallegations.

The backdrop to these com-plaints was a culture of hard par-tying that permeated certainquarters of high school and col-

lege life in the 1980s, when bingedrinking among teenagers hadreached record levels. No evi-dence has emerged to indicatethat the episodes of drinking as-cribed to Judge Kavanaugh backthen carried forward into his pro-

fessional or family life, or that thehandful of F.B.I. backgroundchecks he has faced in his officialWashington career unearthed anyred flags about his drinking as anadult.

But it is his high school and un-dergraduate years that haveproved to be a mine field duringhis Supreme Court confirmationprocess, and questions aboutdrinking during that period areexpected to come up when he tes-

An Emerging Portrait of a Student ‘Frequently Unusually Drunk’By MIKE McINTIREand BEN PROTESS

Ex-Classmates of JudgeRecall Hard Partying

Continued on Page A21

WASHINGTON — PresidentTrump has some advice for JudgeBrett M. Kavanaugh as he pre-pares for Thursday’s climacticSenate hearing to confront sexualmisconduct allegations: Be moreaggressive, show more outrage,push back more. In other words,be more like Mr. Trump.

But what works for Mr. Trumpmight not work for Judge Kava-naugh. His challenge is not to lookas if he is attacking his accusers.Anger could touch off a backlash,advisers said, though at the sametime he needs to show more indig-nation than he did during a FoxNews interview on Monday whenhe stuck closely to talking pointsand looked rehearsed.

For Christine Blasey Ford, theCalifornia university professorwho will testify about the nightshe said a drunken Mr. Kava-naugh held her down on a bed andtried to remove her clothes, thechallenge is different. An un-known figure, she will be introduc-ing herself to the senators and thenation for the first time, explain-ing who she is, what happened 36years ago and why her account ismore credible than his denial. Shefaces a veteran sex crimes pros-ecutor who will question her forRepublicans, a scenario that couldrattle even a more seasoned wit-ness.

In her case, according to poli-tical veterans, details will matter.She has not been able to deter-mine the date or location of the in-cident, so the more she can recallabout the event, the more specificher account is, the stronger hercase will be. She is no veteran ofthe klieg-light culture of Washing-ton.

Any way it proceeds, the hear-ing scheduled to open at 10 a.m. onThursday before the Senate Judi-ciary Committee will be unlikeany Washington has seen sincethe Clarence Thomas confirma-tion in 1991. At stake is the swingseat on a Supreme Court dividedideologically between four con-servatives and four liberals. And ifthat were not consequentialenough, the debate is taking placein the thick of a midterm election

A Highly PublicizedTest of Credibility

By PETER BAKERand SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

Continued on Page A18

Nicholas Kristof PAGE A29

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A28-29

A California company’s zinc-and-air-based battery may hold new promisefor alternative energy storage. PAGE B1

BUSINESS DAY B1-8

A Battery Challenger Emerges

Chinese officials demanded an apologyover a Swedish satirical program’s skitabout Chinese tourists. PAGE A4

Swedish Skit Offends China

The company plans to spend $10 millionto help cities solve traffic problems thatits cars helped create. PAGE A27

NEW YORK A22-27

Uber Takes On Gridlock Nike’s advertising campaign featuringColin Kaepernick has been a sensation,but a year ago, the company was readyto cut him loose. PAGE B9

SPORTSTHURSDAY B9-14

Nike Nearly Cut Kaepernick

Lawmakers are challenging the inter-net search giant about how it wields itsvast influence. PAGE B1

Google’s Turn in the Hot SeatThe farewell tours of Paul Simon andJoan Baez hit New York last weekend.But their work isn’t finished. PAGE C1

Legends Say Goodbye, Sort Of

THE PROSECUTOR Rachel Mitchell, who has a long record of handlingabuse cases in Arizona, takes on her highest-profile case. PAGE A18

CHARGES MOUNT Another woman accused Brett M. Kavanaugh ofsexual misconduct at parties while he was in high school. PAGE A19

Late EditionToday, periodic clouds and sunshine,not as warm, less humid, high 70. To-night, mostly cloudy, periodic laterain, low 61. Tomorrow, rain early,high 66. Weather map, Page A26.

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