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Across the country’s deserts, mothers hunt for any scrap of their missing children.The New York Times photographer Fred Ramos documented their search and theclothing that was found with unidentified bodies. Even when remains are found,

identifying the dead can be a long and arduous process. Page A8.

Mexico’s 100,000 Disappeared People

ANCHORAGE — There wasone bed coming available in the in-tensive care unit in Alaska’s larg-est hospital.

It was the middle of the night,and the hospital, ProvidenceAlaska Medical Center in Anchor-age, had been hit with a deluge ofcoronavirus patients. Doctorsnow had a choice to make: Severalmore patients at the hospital,most of them with Covid-19, werein line to take that last I.C.U. spot.But there was also someone fromone of the state’s isolated ruralcommunities who needed to beflown in for emergency surgery.

Who should get the final bed?Dr. Steven Floerchinger gath-

ered with his colleagues for an ag-onizing discussion. They had abetter chance of saving one of thepatients in the emergency room,they determined. The other per-son would have to wait.

That patient died.“This is gut-wrenching, and I

never thought I’d see it,” said Dr. Floerchinger, who has been inpractice for 30 years. “We aretaxed to a point of making deci-sions of who will and who will notlive.”

Since that night, more grimchoices have had to be made asAlaska confronts what is cur-rently the nation’s worst coronavi-rus outbreak. Nearly two years af-ter the virus began circulating inthe United States, some of thescenes here on the country’snorthern frontier echo the darkestearly days of the pandemic: test-ing supplies are depleted, patientsare being treated in hallways anddoctors are rationing oxygen.With emergency rooms over-whelmed, the governor has askedhundreds of medical workers tofly in from around the country tohelp.

Through much of the pandemic,Alaska’s natural isolation hadshielded the state, with the earlymonths defined by strict testingprotocols for people arriving fromthe outside. Many villages lockeddown. When vaccines arrived,there was a legion of planes, fer-ries and sleds to bring doses tofar-flung communities. The statehas maintained some of the lowestdeath numbers in the country.

But with some pockets of thestate wary of taking vaccines —only about half the state’s resi-dents are fully vaccinated — andGov. Mike Dunleavy resisting re-strictions to curtail the virus, thestate’s isolation has become agrowing liability as the Delta vari-

Alaska DoctorsForced to PickWho Is Treated

Overwhelmed by WorstU.S. Covid Outbreak

By MIKE BAKER

Continued on Page A19

WASHINGTON — A trans-formed Supreme Court returns tothe bench on Monday to start amomentous term in which it willconsider eliminating the constitu-tional right to abortion, vastly ex-panding gun rights and furtherchipping away at the wall separat-ing church and state.

The abortion case, a challengeto a Mississippi law that bars mostabortions after 15 weeks, has at-tracted the most attention. Thecourt, dominated by six Republi-can appointees, seems poised touse it to undermine and perhapsoverturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 de-cision that established a constitu-tional right to abortion and barredstates from banning the pro-cedure before fetal viability.

The highly charged docket willtest the leadership of Chief JusticeJohn G. Roberts Jr., who lost hisposition at the court’s ideologicalcenter with the arrival last fall ofJustice Amy Coney Barrett. He isnow outflanked by five justices tohis right, limiting his ability toguide the court toward the con-sensus and incrementalism hehas said he prefers.

The chief justice, who viewshimself as the custodian of thecourt’s institutional authority,now leads a court increasingly as-sociated with partisanship andthat recent polls show is sufferinga distinct drop in public support.At a time when the justices havebecome uncharacteristically de-fensive in public about the court’srecord, one poll taken by Galluplast month found that only 40 per-cent of Americans approved of thejob the court was doing, the lowest

ABORTION LEADSCHARGED DOCKETIN COURT RETURN

CHALLENGE FOR ROBERTS

Justices Defend Recordas Polls Show Decline

in Public Support

By ADAM LIPTAK

Continued on Page A17

Chief Justice John G. RobertsJr. is no longer the swing vote.

POOL PHOTO BY ERIN SCHAFF

GREENSBORO, Md. — It was awarm Saturday evening whenJennell Black heard a commotionoutside her mobile home on Mary-land’s Eastern Shore. Outside herdoor, four men were holding her19-year-old son face down, pin-ning his shoulder, legs and arms.One of them, who turned out to bean off-duty police chief from anearby town, was lying on top ofhim.

“That’s Anton,” Ms. Black saidin disbelief. Then she raised hervoice: “Anton!”

She watched helplessly as An-ton Black, a former star highschool athlete with a nascent mod-eling career, struggled and thenbecame unresponsive. The offi-cers told Ms. Black that her sonwas having a mental health emer-gency and would be taken to a hos-pital, not to jail.

They assured her that he wasbreathing and had a pulse. Butwhen they finally sat him up, shecould tell something was gravelywrong. “He’s turning dark,” shesaid. He never regained con-sciousness.

It was 2018, two years beforeGeorge Floyd was killed in Minne-apolis after similar treatment,with two officers holding down hislower body and one with a knee onhis neck. Mr. Floyd was pinnedface down for nine and a half min-utes, Mr. Black for more than six.

An autopsy report released fourmonths later blamed Mr. Black’sdeath on congenital heart abnor-malities. It classified the death asan accident and said there was noevidence that the police officers’actions had played a role. “It washorrible,” said LaToya Holley, oneof Mr. Black’s sisters, adding thathis sports physicals had never re-vealed any heart problems. “Wedidn’t imagine at all that it wouldread the way it did.”

The medical examiner’s find-ings thrust the Black family intoone of the most contentious issuesin American policing today: un-armed people who die after beingrestrained. The debate, playingout in autopsy rooms, court-houses and police training ses-

Studies on UseOf Police HoldsAre Challenged

Face-Down RestraintsIgnored in Autopsies

By SHAILA DEWAN

Continued on Page A14

WASHINGTON — Former VicePresident Mike Pence turned upin Hungary last month to speak toa conference on conservative so-cial values hosted by the far-rightgovernment of Prime MinisterViktor Orban.

Jeff Sessions, the former attor-ney general, was another recentvisitor. Tucker Carlson did his FoxNews show from Hungary for aweek this summer. The AmericanConservative Union is planning aversion of its CPAC gathering inBudapest early next year.

Those are among the more visi-ble recent fruits of a well-fundedcampaign by Mr. Orban in theUnited States that stretches backa decade and now stands as a casestudy in how governments aroundthe world seek to shape policiesand debates in Washington, some-times raising concerns about im-proper foreign influence in U.S.politics.

Carried out by a network of gov-ernment offices, Washington lob-byists, Hungarian diasporagroups, educational institutionsand government-funded founda-tions, the effort’s main impact has

Hungary RunsVast Campaign

For U.S. Sway

By KENNETH P. VOGELand BENJAMIN NOVAK

In the middle of the night, UyenNguyen trudged through a grassymarshland with her mother andthree siblings until they reachedthe edge of the ocean, where asmall, dilapidated fishing boatwas beached on the sand. It set offwith 31 people packed on it.

It was 1985, a decade afterSaigon had fallen, and their finalattempt at fleeing Vietnam. Dayslater, the boat’s engine sputteredout, stranding the passengers atsea for about a month and forcingthem to catch rainwater to sustainthemselves. Ten people died, in-cluding Ms. Nguyen’s mother andtwo of her siblings. The others, in-cluding Ms. Nguyen, 10, and her15-year-old brother, were rescuedby fishermen and taken to a refu-gee camp in the Philippines.

Ms. Nguyen thought of that es-cape after seeing images of Af-

ghans crammed on U.S. militaryplanes in August, desperate toleave a country ravaged by a dec-ades-long war. The unmistakableparallels, she said, have com-pelled her to help Afghans whosesituation is similar to what she ex-perienced.

“We can’t just sit back, espe-cially since we’re either refugeesor children of refugees,” said Ms.Nguyen, 46, an entrepreneur inSeattle who eventually immigrat-ed to the United States with herbrother as unaccompanied mi-nors. “I don’t see an option not todo something.”

The Vietnam War has longstood as a symbol of Americanfailure, with thousands of Viet-namese left behind after Ameri-can troops swiftly withdrew andCommunist forces toppled Saigon.

Vietnamese Americans MobilizeTo Aid the Newest War Refugees

By MADELEINE NGO

Continued on Page A16

JASON GULLEY

Scientists are exploring icy caves to study their relationships with glacial melting. Pages D4-5.Spelunking for Climate Hints

BERLIN — Emilia Fester is 23and has yet to finish college. MaxLucks is 24 and calls himself a mil-itant cyclist. Ria Schröder is 29and has the rainbow flag on herTwitter profile. Muhanad Al-Ha-lak is 31 and came to Germanyfrom Iraq when he was 11.

And all of them are now in theGerman Parliament.

The German election result wasin many ways a muddle. The win-ners, the Social Democrats led byOlaf Scholz, barely won. No party

got more than 25.7 percent. Votersspread their ballots evenly acrosscandidates associated with theleft and the right.

But one thing is clear: Germanselected their youngest ever Par-liament, and the two parties at thecenter of this generational shift,the Greens and the Free Demo-

crats, will not just shape the nextgovernment but are also poised tohelp shape the future of the coun-try.

For now, the Greens, focused onclimate change and social justice,and the Free Democrats, whocampaigned on civil liberties anddigital modernization, are king-makers: Whoever becomes thenext chancellor almost certainlyneeds both parties to form a gov-ernment.

“We will no longer leave politicsto the older generation,” said Ms.Schröder, a newly minted law-maker for the Free Democrats

Germany’s Parliament Isn’t Just New. It’s Young.

By KATRIN BENNHOLDand MELISSA EDDY

A Generational Shift IsLed by Two Parties,

Now Kingmakers

Continued on Page A6

Continued on Page A18

Ben Roberts-Smith, Australia’s mostdecorated soldier, is suing three news-papers for defamation. PAGE A10

INTERNATIONAL A4-12

Soldier Fights for ReputationThe sprawling 1,250-square-mile sys-tem of water and farmland in NorthernCalifornia is a four-season destinationfor watersport fans. PAGE A13

NATIONAL A13-19, 22

Frolicking on California’s DeltaAlessandro Nivola is a lead character in“The Many Saints of Newark,” the“Sopranos” prequel. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

Role of a LifetimeBoth teams won their regular-seasonfinales to gain spots in the AmericanLeague wild-card game. PAGE D1

SPORTS D1-7

A Yankees-Red Sox Showdown

The Parsi community, which helpedbuild many of the country’s institutions,is shrinking at an alarming rate. PAGE A4

A Loss for Modern India

A man rode a skateboard up to a statueof George Floyd in a New York Citypark on Sunday and splashed the facewith paint, the police said. PAGE A22

Floyd Statue Is Vandalized

A 13-square-mile slick extended fromHuntington Beach to Newport Beach asdead fish and birds began to washashore in some areas. PAGE A16

Big Oil Spill Off California

One man’s 10-year fascination withvirtual reality delights and disappointsbut continues to improve. PAGE B1

Hunting a Dopamine Rush An exuberant musical pageant aboutthe wives of Henry VIII is back. Reviewby Jesse Green. PAGE C1

Tudor Queens RuleA team’s first game in New Orleanssince Hurricane Ida brought joy, if not avictory, to a hard-hit city. PAGE D1

Happy to Have the Saints Back

Mohib Ullah, 46, had a list of Rohingyawho perished in the hope that the datacould be used as evidence. PAGE B6

OBITUARIES B5-6

He Documented MassacresHenry M. Paulson Jr. PAGE A21

OPINION A20-21

Late Edition

VOL. CLXXI . . . . No. 59,201 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, MONDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2021

Frances Haugen, a former Facebookmanager, said she had grown alarmedby the company putting its own inter-ests before the public’s. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-4

A Whistle-Blower Speaks Out

Today, mostly cloudy, rain, thunder-storms, high 73. Tonight, overcast,occasional rain, low 63. Tomorrow,cloudy, stray showers, high 68.Weather map appears on Page D8.

$3.00