VOL. CLXIX . . . No. 58,562 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 2020

C M Y K Nxxx,2020-01-04,A,001,Bs-4C,E2

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A spate of electric-bike thefts has putfood deliverers on edge, as they fear fortheir jobs and their safety. PAGE A21

NEW YORK A21, 24

Valuable, and Vulnerable, RideSome evacuated by boat, but othersstayed behind, wanting to try to protecttheir homes. PAGE A14

INTERNATIONAL A4-15

Australians Defy Fire Warnings

Attacks have been traditionally under-reported, but fighting the scourge inhate crimes begins with better data, lawenforcement experts say. PAGE A16

NATIONAL A16-20

Reports of Anti-Semitism RiseHong Kong residents wrestle with theiroptions as violence escalates and theChinese government exerts greatercontrol over the financial hub. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-6

‘If You Can Afford It, Leave’A show at the Louvre has drawn manyof his works from around the world. Butmany more remain in Italy. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-7

Tracing Leonardo’s Footsteps

The government and some in his Indig-enous village oppose a Venezuelan friar.To many, he’s a lifeline. PAGE A4

Do-Gooder or ‘Devil’?

Representative Phil Roe of Tennesseejoins a G.O.P. exodus before anothertough campaign cycle. PAGE A20

Another Republican to Retire

Despite a court order, the Office ofManagement and Budget said that itwould not turn over 40 pages of emailsabout the freezing of a military aidpackage for the country. PAGE A17

Emails About Ukraine Blocked

WASHINGTON — The UnitedStates and Iran exchanged esca-lating military threats on Fridayas President Trump warned thathe was “prepared to take what-ever action is necessary” if Iranthreatened Americans and Iran’ssupreme leader, Ayatollah AliKhamenei, vowed to exact venge-ance for the killing on Mr. Trump’sorder of Iran’s most valued gen-eral.

Although the president insistedthat he took the action to avoid awar with Iran, the continuingthreats further rattled foreigncapitals, global markets and Capi-tol Hill, where Democrats de-manded more information aboutthe strike and Mr. Trump’sgrounds for taking such a provoc-ative move without consultingCongress.

Democrats also pressed ques-tions about the attack’s timing andwhether it was meant to deflect at-tention from the president’s ex-pected impeachment trial thismonth in the Senate. They said herisked suspicion that he was tak-ing action overseas to distractfrom his political troubles athome, as in the political movie“Wag the Dog.”

But Mr. Trump, speaking to re-porters in a hastily arranged ap-pearance at Mar-a-Lago, his Flor-ida resort, asserted that Maj. Gen.Qassim Suleimani, who directed

Iranian paramilitary forcesthroughout the Middle East, “wasplotting imminent and sinister at-tacks on American diplomats andmilitary personnel, but we caughthim in the act and terminatedhim.”

Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chair-man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,and Secretary of State Mike Pom-peo echoed Mr. Trump’s remarks,as did Robert C. O’Brien, the na-tional security adviser. But Gen-eral Milley, Mr. Pompeo, Mr.O’Brien and other senior adminis-tration officials did not describeany threats that were differentfrom what American officials sayGeneral Suleimani had been or-chestrating for years.

Democrats questioned the lackof specifics about any new threatthat would justify Mr. Trump’s or-der to kill General Suleimani,which both Presidents Barack

TRUMP WARNS IRAN AS AYATOLLAH VOWS REVENGE

This article is by Michael Crowley,Peter Baker, Edward Wong andMaggie Haberman.

Protesters in Tehran demonstrating over the American airstrike in Iraq on Friday that killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani.ALI MOHAMMADI/BLOOMBERG NEWS

President Trump on Friday.ERIC THAYER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A10

Democrats Question Timing of Strikeas Oil Surges and Markets Fall

A group of leaders of the UnitedMethodist Church, the second-largest Protestant denominationin the United States, announcedon Friday a plan that would for-mally split the church, citing “fun-damental differences” over same-sex marriage after years of divi-sion.

The plan would sunder a de-nomination with 13 million mem-

bers globally — roughly half ofthem in the United States — andcreate at least one new “tradition-alist Methodist” denominationthat would continue to ban same-sex marriage as well as the ordi-nation of gay and lesbian clergy.

It seems likely that the majority

of the denomination’s churches inthe United States would remain inthe existing United MethodistChurch, which would become amore liberal-leaning institution asconservative congregationsworldwide depart.

A separation in the Methodistchurch, a denomination longhome to a varied mix of left andright, had been brewing for years,if not decades. It had becomewidely seen as likely after a con-

Methodists Agree to Split on Same-Sex MarriageBy CAMPBELL ROBERTSON

and ELIZABETH DIASFaction Would Bar Gay

and Lesbian Clergy

Continued on Page A19

Federal agencies would nolonger have to take climatechange into account when they as-sess the environmental impacts ofhighways, pipelines and other ma-jor infrastructure projects, ac-cording to a Trump administra-tion plan that would weaken thenation’s benchmark environmen-tal law.

The proposed changes to the50-year-old National Envi-

ronmental Policy Act couldsharply reduce obstacles to theKeystone XL oil pipeline andother fossil fuel projects that havebeen stymied when courts ruledthat the Trump administration didnot properly consider climatechange when analyzing the envi-

ronmental effects of the projects.According to one government

official who has seen the proposedregulation but was not authorizedto speak about it publicly, the ad-ministration will also narrow therange of projects that require en-vironmental review. That couldmake it likely that more projectswill sail through the approvalprocess without having to discloseplans to do things like dischargewaste, cut trees or increase air

Trump Moves to Weaken Environmental ShieldBy LISA FRIEDMAN Taking Climate Change

Out of Bedrock Law

Continued on Page A20

BAGHDAD — American oilworkers were fleeing Iraq on Fri-day, as fears grew of war betweenthe United States and Iran. At ser-mons in the Shiite holy city of Kar-bala, worshipers chanted, “Deathto America!”

And in Tahrir Square in centralBaghdad, where antigovernmentprotesters have gathered formonths, a banner went up with apointed message to both Iran andthe United States: “Keep yourconflicts away from Iraq.”

Iraqis awoke to the news on Fri-day that Maj. Gen. Qassim Sulei-mani of Iran, the architect of Iran’sdominating influence over Iraq,had been killed in an Americandrone strike, along with severalothers.

Even before the shock of thebrazen killing wore off, Iraqi fac-tions were weighing their re-sponses. Militias with ties to Iranvowed bloody revenge. The primeminister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, con-demned the attack as “an out-rageous breach to Iraqisovereignty” and said Parliamentwould meet to discuss the futureof the United States presence inIraq.

Anti-government protesters,who have been protesting Iran’sstifling influence in the country,were worried their movement

could be snuffed out by pro-Iranmilitias. And throughout the coun-try, there was the familiar feelingthat Iraq was a mere bystander inthe broader geopolitical conflictbetween the United States andIran taking place on Iraqi soil.

More broadly, the events raiseda single, overarching question:can the United States maintain acooperative security relationshipwith Iraq given the upheaval theassassination has provoked? Thequestion was already coursingthrough the halls of power inBaghdad, even as the Trump ad-ministration said Friday that itwas rushing new troops to the re-gion in response to the crisis.

The airstrike on General Sulei-mani “was a clear breach of theterms of the American forces’presence,” Mr. Abdul Mahdi said.

He said that Parliament wouldmeet in the coming days to con-sider “appropriate measures topreserve the dignity of Iraq and itssecurity and sovereignty,” includ-ing whether to ask the Americansto leave.

It could well turn out that thekilling of General Suleimani, in-tended as a shot against Iran,could accelerate one of Iran’slong-term objectives: pushing theUnited States military out of Iraq.

“I think in his death he put thefinal nail in the coffin of the U.S.

‘An Outrageous Breach’: IraqReconsiders U.S. Relationship

This article is by Falih Hassan,Tim Arango and Alissa J. Rubin.

Continued on Page A7

WASHINGTON — PresidentTrump was deep in discussionwith political advisers going overcampaign plans at his Mar-a-Lagoestate in Florida just before 5 p.m.Thursday when he was abruptlysummoned to another meeting. Awhile later, he returned just asmysteriously, jumping back intothe conversation without offeringa clue to what was going on.

In those few minutes, accordingto multiple people briefed on theevents, Mr. Trump had made oneof the most consequential foreign

policy decisions of his presidency,giving final authorization to adrone strike halfway around theworld that would eliminate one ofAmerica’s deadliest enemieswhile pushing the United States tothe edge of an escalating con-frontation with Iran that couldtransform the Middle East.

The military operation thatkilled Maj. Gen. Qassim Sulei-mani, the Iranian security and in-

telligence commander responsi-ble for the deaths of hundreds ofAmerican troops over the years,was unlike the ones that took outOsama bin Laden or Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, terrorist leaderscaught after long manhunts. Gen-eral Suleimani did not have to behunted; a high-ranking official ofthe Iranian government, he was inplain sight for years. All that wasrequired was a president to decideto pull the trigger.

Presidents George W. Bush andBarack Obama never did. Mr.Bush’s administration made aconscious decision not to kill Gen-eral Suleimani when he was in thecross hairs and Mr. Obama’s ad-

Pulling the Trigger on a Target Who Didn’t HideThis article is by Eric Schmitt, He-

lene Cooper, Thomas Gibbons-Neff,Maggie Haberman and PeterBaker.

An Adversary for Overa Decade ‘Absolutely

Felt Untouchable’

Continued on Page A11

Army paratroopers leaving Fort Bragg, N.C., on Wednesday for deployment to the Middle East.JONATHAN DRAKE/REUTERS

With interest rates and gas prices low,consumers are confident enough to takeon more debt for a costlier ride. PAGE B1

Car Sales Remain Robust

The National Football League has longembraced and promoted outsize dis-plays of patriotism, to stirring, some-times controversial effect. PAGE B7

SPORTSSATURDAY B7-12

Football Wrapped in the Flag

A man asked for opinions with a Twittermessage that went viral. There wassome disagreement. PAGE A21

Best Seat on the Subway?

The suave baritone Peter Mattei, castagainst type in the Met Opera’s haunting“Wozzeck,” is winning raves. PAGE C1

Method to the Madness

Liz Mair PAGE A23

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23

He changed the shape of theSyrian civil war and tightenedIran’s grip on Iraq. He was behindhundreds of American deaths inIraq and waves of militia attacksagainst Israel. And for two dec-ades, his every move lit up thecommunications networks — andfed the obsessions — of intelli-gence operatives across the Mid-dle East.

On Friday, Maj. Gen. QassimSuleimani, the powerful and shad-owy 62-year-old spymaster at thehead of Iran’s security machinery,was killed by an American dronestrike near Baghdad’s interna-tional airport.

Just as his accomplishmentsshaped the creation of a Shiiteaxis of influence across the MiddleEast, with Iran at the center, hisdeath is now likely to prove cen-tral to a new chapter of geopoliti-cal tension across the region.

General Suleimani was at thevanguard of Iran’s revolutionarygeneration, joining the IslamicRevolutionary Guards Corps inhis early 20s after the 1979 upris-ing that enshrined the country’sShiite theocracy.

He rose quickly during the bru-

A MastermindOf Iran’s CloutIn the MideastThis article is by Tim Arango, Ro-

nen Bergman and Ben Hubbard.

Continued on Page A6

Late EditionToday, cloudy, mild, rain, drizzle attimes, high 50. Tonight, rain endingearly, windy late, low 36. Tomorrow,blustery, colder, periodic sunshine,high 41. Weather map is on Page C8.

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