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PHOENIX — After months ofdelays and blistering criticism, areview of the 2020 election in Ari-zona’s largest county, ordered upand financed by Republicans, hasfailed to show that former Presi-dent Donald J. Trump wascheated of victory.
Instead, the report from thecompany Cyber Ninjas said itfound just the opposite: It tallied99 additional votes for PresidentBiden and 261 fewer votes for Mr.Trump in Maricopa County, thefast-growing region that includesPhoenix.
“Truth is truth and numbers arenumbers,” Karen Fann, the Re-publican Senate president whocommissioned the vote review,said as the findings werepresented to the State Senate onFriday.
Mr. Biden won Arizona byroughly 10,500 votes, making hisvictory of about 45,000 votes inMaricopa County crucial to hiswin. Under intense pressure from
A Maricopa County ballot.POOL PHOTO BY MATT YORK
Arizona ReviewConfirms BidenHad Most VotesThis article is by Jack Healy, Mi-
chael Wines and Nick Corasaniti.
Continued on Page A16
The spread of the Delta varianthas delayed office reopenings, dis-rupted the start of school and gen-erally dashed hopes for a return tonormal after Labor Day. But it hasnot pushed the U.S. economic re-covery into reverse.
Now that recovery faces a newtest: the removal of much of theaid that has helped keep house-holds and businesses afloat for thepast year and a half.
The Paycheck Protection Pro-gram, which distributed hundredsof billions of dollars in grants andloans to thousands of small busi-nesses, concluded last spring. Afederal eviction moratoriumended last month after the Su-preme Court blocked the Bidenadministration’s last-minute ef-fort to extend it. Most recently, anestimated 7.5 million people lostunemployment benefits whenprograms that expanded the sys-tem during the pandemic were al-lowed to lapse.
Next up: the Federal Reserve,which on Wednesday indicated itcould start pulling back its stimu-lus efforts as early as November.
The one-two punch of a re-surgent pandemic and waning aidhas led Wall Street forecasters,who were once rosy about theeconomy’s prospects this fall andwinter, to turn increasingly glum.Goldman Sachs said this monththat it expected third-quarter datato show a decline in consumerspending, the linchpin of the re-covery for the past year. Manyeconomists expect jobs numbersfor September to show a secondstraight month of anemic growth.
Yet economists also see impor-tant sources of strength that could
Delta OutbreakTests Economy,And It’s Passing
By BEN CASSELMAN
Continued on Page A11
AHEAD OF EXPERTS President Biden’s prediction of booster shots forall did not sit well with some scientists who advise him. PAGE A11
WASHINGTON — State healthofficials rushed on Friday to rollout campaigns to provide corona-virus booster shots for millions ofvulnerable people who got the Pfi-zer-BioNTech vaccine and to helpa confused public understand whoqualifies for the extra shots.
Among their challenges: mak-ing sure that recipients of theModerna and Johnson & Johnsonvaccines know that they are notyet eligible for boosters, reachingisolated elderly people and in-forming younger adults with med-ical conditions or jobs that placethem at higher risk that theymight be eligible under the broadfederal rules.
“Those of us overseeing vac-cine rollouts don’t have a clearidea of what to do,” said Dr. ClayMarsh, West Virginia’s Covid-19czar.
In his state, pharmacies sentstaff members into the largestnursing homes on Friday to ad-minister booster doses. In Ver-mont, health officials openedbooster shot appointments to peo-ple 80 and older on Friday, andsaid many other eligible peoplecould get them starting nextweek. But the state said it waswaiting for clarity from the Cen-ters for Disease Control and Pre-vention on which workers andmedical conditions would qualify.
In virus-battered North Dakota,officials struggling to make senseof the federal guidance delayed abroad booster rollout until nextweek, with a focus on reachingelderly residents and those inlong-term care settings, said KylieHall, an adviser to the state’sHealth Department.
Across the country, vaccineproviders are facing the realitythat many more people became el-igible for boosters after Dr. Ro-chelle P. Walensky, the C.D.C. di-rector, overruled her expert com-mittee early Friday. She said peo-ple at greater risk of exposure tothe virus “because of occupationalor institutional setting” wouldqualify, opening up boosters tomillions of people her advisorycommittee had left out.
People 65 and older and resi-dents of long-term care facilitiesand adults who have certain medi-cal conditions also qualify for theboosters.
After Dr. Walensky’s announce-ment, President Biden said 20 mil-lion people could get boosters im-mediately because they had got-ten their second Pfizer-BioNTechshot at least six months ago. In all,he said, 60 million people will beeligible for a Pfizer-BioNTechbooster over the coming months.
“If you got the Pfizer vaccine inJanuary, February, March of thisyear and you’re over 65 years of
States Rush to Roll OutBooster Shot Programs
For Eligible AmericansHealth Officials Trying to Make Sense of
Guidelines on Extra Pfizer Dose
This article is by Noah Weiland,Reed Abelson and Jan Hoffman.
Continued on Page A12
Britney Spears’s father and thesecurity firm he hired to protecther ran an intense surveillanceapparatus that monitored hercommunications and secretly cap-tured audio recordings from herbedroom, including her interac-tions and conversations with herboyfriend and children, accordingto a former employee of the secu-rity firm.
Alex Vlasov, the employee, sup-ported his claims with emails, textmessages and audio recordingshe was privy to in his nine years asan executive assistant and opera-tions and cybersecurity managerfor Black Box, the security firm.He came forward for a new docu-mentary by The New York Times,“Controlling Britney Spears,”which was released on Friday.
Recording conversations in aprivate place and mirroring textmessages without the consent ofboth parties can be a violation of
the law. It is unclear if the courtoverseeing Ms. Spears’s conser-vatorship was aware of or had ap-proved the surveillance.
Mr. Vlasov’s account, and histrove of materials, create the mostdetailed portrait yet of what Ms.Spears’s life has been like under
the conservatorship for the past13 years. Mr. Vlasov said the re-lentless surveillance operationhelped several people linked tothe conservatorship — primarilyher father, James P. Spears — con-trol nearly every aspect of her life.
“It really reminded me of some-body that was in prison,” said Mr.Vlasov, 30. “And security was putin a position to be the prisonguards essentially.”
In response to detailed ques-
Security Firm Secretly Tracked and Recorded Spears for YearsBy LIZ DAY
and SAMANTHA STARKEven Bedroom Is Said
to Have Been Bugged
Continued on Page A13
More than 64 percent of Americans ages 12 and older are fully vaccinated against Covid-19. But rates are wellbelow that in many parts of the country, as the government prepares to roll out booster shots for some.
Vaccinations Still Lag in Many U.S. Counties
IOWA
KAN.KY.
ALA.
ALASKA
ARIZ. ARK.
CALIF.
COLO.
CONN.
FLA.
GA.
HAWAII
IDAHO
ILL. IND.
TEXAS
UTAH
VT.
LA.
MAINE
MD.
MASS.
MICH.
MINN.
MISS.
MO.
MONT.
NEB.
N.H.
N.J.
N.M.
N.Y.
N.C.
N.D.
OHIO
OKLA.
ORE.
PA.
R.I.
S.C.
S.D.
TENN.
VA.
WASH.
W.VA.
WIS.WYO.
DEL.NEV.
No C.D.C. data available for Hawaii, Texas and some counties. Three other states were excluded because more than a quarter of data is missing. Data from Texas and Colorado excludes shots given by most federal agencies. Data is not available for residents of Idaho under 18.
D.C.
INSUFFICIENTOR NO DATA
PERCENT FULLY VACCINATED (AGES 12+)
75%604530
Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Texas Department of State Health Services; Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment; Massachusetts Department of Public Health; U.S. Census Bureau
More than 64 percent of Americans ages 12 and older are fully vaccinated against Covid-19. But rates are well below that in many parts of the country, as the government prepares to roll out booster shots for some.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON — The JusticeDepartment reached an agree-ment on Friday clearing the wayfor a senior executive of HuaweiTechnologies, the Chinese tele-communications giant, to returnto China after admitting somewrongdoing in a sanctions vio-lation case, removing one majorirritant between the two super-powers.
Within hours, China reciprocat-ed, releasing two Canadianswhom it had held since shortly af-ter the executive, Meng Wanzhou,was detained, and who had ap-peared to be jailed as hostages tothe resolution of Ms. Meng’s case.
The resolution of the criminalcharges against Ms. Meng, thedaughter of Huawei’s founder,came in the midst of a downwardspiral in military, technologicaland trade competition betweenWashington and Beijing.
In China, Ms. Meng is consid-ered a member of the new Chineseroyalty — technology executiveswho have used their power to ex-pand China’s influence across theglobe. In Washington, she becamea symbol of the Cold War-like at-mosphere in relations betweenBeijing and Washington — andthe near simultaneous releasesalso had echoes of that era.
The end of the three-year-oldcase suggested that the Biden ad-ministration and the government
HUAWEI OFFICIALIS FREED IN DEAL
Breakthrough That EasesTensions With China
This article is by David E. Sanger,Dan Bilefsky and Katie Benner.
Continued on Page A6
Late Edition
VOL. CLXXI . . . . No. 59,192 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2021
Florida’s version of the Ameri-can dream, which holds that evenpeople of relatively modest meanscan aspire to live near the water,depends on a few crucial compo-nents: sugar white beaches, softocean breezes and federal floodinsurance that is heavily subsi-dized.
But starting Oct. 1, communitiesin Florida and elsewhere aroundthe country will see those subsi-dies begin to disappear in a na-tionwide experiment in trying toadapt to climate change: ForcingAmericans to pay somethingcloser to the real cost of their floodrisk, which is rising as the planetwarms.
While the program also covershomes around the country, the
pain will be most acutely felt incoastal communities. For the firsttime, the new rates will also takeinto account the size of a home, sothat large houses by the oceancould see an especially big jump inrates.
Federal officials say the goal isfairness — and also getting home-owners to understand the extentof the risk they face, and perhapsmove to safer ground, reducingthe human and financial toll of dis-asters.
“Subsidized insurance has been
critical for supporting coastal realestate markets,” said BenjaminKeys, a professor at the Univer-sity of Pennsylvania’s WhartonSchool. Removing that subsidy, hesaid, is likely to affect whereAmericans build houses and howmuch people will pay for them.“It’s going to require a major re-think about coastal living.”
The government’s new ap-proach threatens home values,perhaps nowhere as intensely asFlorida, a state particularly ex-posed to rising seas and wors-ening hurricanes. In some parts ofthe state, the cost of flood insur-ance will eventually increase ten-fold, according to data obtained byThe New York Times.
For example, Jennifer Zales, areal estate agent who lives in
Want to Live by the Water? You’ll Pay Even More.By CHRISTOPHER FLAVELLE
Beachfront homes in Anna Maria, Fla., where residents face steep increases in flood insurance.EVE EDELHEIT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Continued on Page A15
Flood Insurance RatesSet to Rise Sharplyas Subsidies Fade
The Empire State Building, once asymbol of an urban way of working,faces emptying offices. PAGES B6-7
BUSINESS B1-8
102 Stories of ChangeAn immersive art installation in Denveris an entertaining escape from realitythat’s light on artistic meaning. PAGE C1
ARTS C1-7
Surreal Fun House
Tensions with China and Pakistan arestretching a cash-starved military alongthe northern border, while the fall ofAfghanistan to the Taliban has removeda potential ally. PAGE A4
INTERNATIONAL A4-9
India Juggles 2 Hostile Fronts
Beijing has declared all cryptocurrencytransactions illegal and bannedcryptocurrency mining. PAGE B1
Crypto Crackdown in China
China has already determined theoutcome of an upcoming legislativeelection, but Beijing is pressuring oppo-sition parties to participate to lend thevote legitimacy. PAGE A6
Picking Winners in Hong Kong
Officials in Rochester, N.Y., filed depart-mental charges against an officer whotook part in arresting Daniel Prude, aBlack man who died in custody. PAGE A19
Officer Faces Discipline
The actor Jared Harris, now in the sci-fiepic “Foundation,” pays attention to thetiniest details of his characters. PAGE C1
Making Small Moments Count
Bret Stephens PAGE A21
OPINION A20-21
Ingenious recipes that can help youwhip up a delicious meal (not just sand-wiches!) in less than 30 minutes.
THIS WEEKEND
Fast and FlavorfulOpposition to tax rate increases from amoderate Democrat has revived effortsin the Senate to help fund the budgetbill with a levy on pollution. PAGE A14
Considering a Carbon Tax
Restaurant hosts, the friendly greetersat the door, are encountering hostileand violent diners as they enforcehealth rules. PAGE A10
NATIONAL A10-19
In the Covid War’s Hot SeatThe Americans took control atWhistling Straits by winning each of theopening day’s sessions for a 6-2 leadover the Europeans. PAGE B12
SPORTS B9-12
U.S. in Driver’s Seat at Ryder
Today, mostly sunny, mild, lightbreezes, high 75. Tonight, clear topartly cloudy, low 62. Tomorrow,mostly sunny, breezy, low humidity,high 72. Weather map, Page C8.
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