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LONDON — In Hungary, theprime minister can now rule bydecree. In Britain, ministers havewhat a critic called “eye-water-ing” power to detain people andclose borders. Israel’s prime min-ister has shut down courts and be-gun an intrusive surveillance ofcitizens. Chile has sent the mili-tary to public squares once occu-pied by protesters. Bolivia haspostponed elections.

As the coronavirus pandemicbrings the world to a judderinghalt and anxious citizens demandaction, leaders across the globeare invoking executive powersand seizing virtually dictatorialauthority with scant resistance.

Governments and rightsgroups agree that these extraordi-nary times call for extraordinarymeasures. States need new pow-ers to shut their borders, enforcequarantines and track infectedpeople. Many of these actions areprotected under internationalrules, constitutional lawyers say.

But critics say some govern-ments are using the public healthcrisis as cover to seize new pow-ers that have little to do with theoutbreak, with few safeguards toensure that their new authoritywill not be abused.

The laws are taking swift holdacross a broad range of politicalsystems — in authoritarian stateslike Jordan, faltering democracieslike Hungary, and traditional de-mocracies like Britain. And there

are few sunset provisions to en-sure that the powers will be re-scinded once the threat passes.

“We could have a parallel epi-demic of authoritarian and repres-sive measures following close ifnot on the heels of a health epi-demic,” said Fionnuala Ni Aolain,the United Nations Special Rap-porteur on counterterrorism and

human rights.As the new laws broaden state

surveillance, allow governmentsto detain people indefinitely andinfringe on freedoms of assemblyand expression, they could alsoshape civic life, politics and econo-mies for decades to come.

The pandemic is already rede-fining norms. Invasive surveil-lance systems in South Korea and

PANDEMIC TEMPTSLEADERS TO SEIZESWEEPING POWERS

Fears That Measures Necessary in a CrisisWill Become Everyday Oppression

By SELAM GEBREKIDAN

A checkpoint in Chile. The na-tion’s military is on city streets.

MARTIN BERNETTI/A.F.P. — GETTY IMAGES

Continued on Page A6

It was an old-fashioned South-ern funeral.

There was a repast tablecrammed with casseroles, Bruns-wick stew, fried chicken and keylime cake. Andrew JeromeMitchell, a retired janitor, was oneof 10 siblings. They told stories,debated for the umpteenth timehow he got the nickname Door-face.

People wiped tears away, andembraced, and blew their noses,and belted out hymns. Theylaughed, remembering. It was abig gathering, with upward of 200mourners overflowing the memo-rial chapel, so people had to standoutside.

Dorothy Johnson has gone overthe scene in her mind over the lastmonth, asking herself who it waswho brought the virus to herbrother’s funeral.

“We don’t know who the personwas,” she said. “It would help meto know.”

During the weeks that followed,illnesses linked to the coronavirushave torn through her hometown,Albany, Ga., with about two dozenrelatives falling ill, including six ofher siblings. Ms. Johnson herselfwas released from an isolationward to the news that her daugh-ter, Tonya, was in grave condition,

her heart rate dropping.Like the Biogen conference in

Boston and a 40th birthday partyin Westport, Conn., the funeral ofAndrew Jerome Mitchell on Feb.29 will be recorded as what epide-miologists call a “super-spreadingevent,” in which a small number ofpeople propagate a huge number

of infections.This rural county in southwest

Georgia, 40 miles from the nearestinterstate, now has one of themost intense clusters of the coro-navirus in the country.

In Georgia, They Came to MournAnd Soon Found Themselves Ill

By ELLEN BARRY

Albany, Ga., is part of an in-tense cluster of infections.

AUDRA MELTON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A8

WASHINGTON — The Trumpadministration is expected to an-nounce on Tuesday its final rule torollback Obama-era automobilefuel efficiency standards, relaxingefforts to limit climate-warmingtailpipe pollution and virtually un-doing the government’s biggest

effort to combat climate change.The new rule, written by the En-

vironmental Protection Agencyand the Department of Trans-portation, would allow cars onAmerican roads to emit nearly abillion tons more carbon dioxideover the lifetime of the vehiclesthan they would have under theObama standards, and hundredsof millions of tons more than will

be emitted under standards beingenacted in Europe and Asia.

Administration officials racedto complete the auto rule by thisspring, even as the White Housewas consumed with responding tothe coronavirus pandemic. Presi-dent Trump is expected to extolthe rule, which will stand as one ofthe most consequential regula-

Trump to Deal Final Blow to Car Pollution GoalsBy CORAL DAVENPORT

Continued on Page A20

The deceptively edited videothat purported to show Joseph R.Biden Jr. endorsing PresidentTrump’s re-election bounced re-lentlessly around the internet,falsely painting the former vicepresident as too confused to know

what office he was running for orwhom he was vying to runagainst.

The doctored video didn’t origi-nate with one of the extremistsites that trade in left-bashing dis-information. It was posted onTwitter by Mr. Trump’s own socialmedia director. From there, it col-lected shares, retweets and likesfrom the social media accounts of

the president, his eldest son andthe multitudinous conservativeinfluencers and websites thatcarry his message to voters’palms hour by hour, minute byminute, second by second.

The video, based on a speechMr. Biden gave earlier this month,registered five million views in aday before his campaign re-

Democrats Wage Uphill Battle on Digital FrontBy JIM RUTENBERG

and MATTHEW ROSENBERG

Continued on Page A22

ANDREW TESTA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

COMMUNITY CARE The owner of a restaurant in North London accepting a tip Sunday while on a de-livery round. The restaurant has been providing free meals for residents over the age of 70.

As the coronavirus pandemichas all but shut down New YorkCity, its subway — an emblem ofurban overcrowding — has be-come almost unrecognizable, withoverall ridership down 87 percent.

But even as officials crack downon gatherings in New York, re-moving hoops from basketballcourts and sending the police to

break up parties, subway stationsin poorer neighborhoods are stillbustling, as if almost nothing haschanged.

It is a striking turnabout for asystem that has long been the

great equalizer, a space wherehourly workers jostled alongsidefinancial executives. Now the sub-way has become more of a symbolof the city’s inequality, amplifyingthe divide between those with themeans to safely shelter at homeand those who must continuebraving public transit to preservemeager livelihoods.

“This virus is very dangerous. Idon’t want to get sick, I don’t want

Nowhere to Turn but the Subway, and Its RisksBy CHRISTINA GOLDBAUM

and LINDSEY ROGERS COOKMany Have No Option

to Shelter at Home

Continued on Page A16

RELIEF ARRIVES The hospital ship U.S.N.S. Comfort coming into New York on Monday. Page A13.CHANG W. LEE/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Eastern European workers who harvestcrops from Spain to Sweden can’t enter,raising concern for food stocks. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-7

Alarm on Europe’s FarmsIn a submerged forest, scientists racedto search for creatures that might con-ceal medicine of the future. PAGE D1

SCIENCE TIMES D1-8

Looking for Help Underwater

Despite brazen moves by China intorich fishing waters, Indonesia hasbacked away from confronting its larg-est trading partner. PAGE A17

INTERNATIONAL A17-18

Beijing Claims Indonesian SeasThe Tokyo Games made the new startdate official, allowing athletes andsponsors a chance to regroup. PAGE B8

SPORTSTUESDAY B8-9

Get Set: Olympics in July 2021The virus has altered relations amongthe masses, the elites and the celebri-ties who liaise between them. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

Pouncing on Boldface Names

With little fanfare, Harry and Meghantransferred control of their brand toadvisers in Los Angeles. PAGE A18

Signing Off as Royals

Federal scientists have embedded datainto documents that lawyers can use tofight environmental rollbacks. PAGE A19

NATIONAL A19-23

Scientists Have Their SayThe company and a partner had strate-gized for days when the White Housesaid G.M. was wasting time. PAGE B1

G.M.’s Race for Ventilators

The coronavirus pandemic is givingelite athletes a break from the usualdrug-testing regimens. The cheatersmay see this as an opportunity. PAGE B8

Antidoping Efforts Take Hiatus

Philip W. Anderson, who deepenedscience’s understanding of magnetismand superconductivity, was 96. PAGE A24

OBITUARIES A24-25

Nobel Laureate in PhysicsThe launch-first, seek-permission-laterstrategy of the e-cigarette companyJuul seems to be backfiring. PAGE D1

The World vs. E-Cigarettes

Wesley Morris decides to visit 1995,when the pandemic-related film star-ring Dustin Hoffman was a hit. PAGE C1

When ‘Outbreak’ Was on Top

Michelle Goldberg PAGE A27

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27

DETROIT Poverty and a weakenedpublic health system are drivingup cases in the city. PAGE A9

EARLY RELEASE To curb thespread behind bars, thousands ofinmates have been freed. PAGE A9

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK

WASHINGTON — The num-bers the health officials showedPresident Trump were over-whelming. With the peak of the co-ronavirus pandemic still weeksaway, he was told, hundreds ofthousands of Americans couldface death if the country reopenedtoo soon.

But there was another set ofnumbers that also helped per-suade Mr. Trump to shift gears onSunday and abandon his goal ofrestoring normal life by Easter.Political advisers described forhim polling that showed that vot-ers overwhelmingly preferred tokeep containment measures inplace over sending people back towork prematurely.

Those two realities — the direthreat to the country and the cau-tion of the American public —proved decisive at a critical junc-ture in the response to the pan-demic, his advisers said.

The first of those two realities,the deadly arc of the virus, hasbeen known for weeks even if dis-regarded by the president whenhe set his Easter target. But thesecond of the two upended Mr.Trump’s assumptions about thepolitics of the situation and re-strained, for a moment at least, hiseagerness to get back to businessas usual.

The president’s reversal mayprove to be an important pivotpoint in the effort to curb the pan-demic, one that in the view of pub-lic health officials averted a great-er catastrophe. Mr. Trump’sabrupt change of heart reflected avolatile president who has veeredfrom one message to another, atpoints equating the virus to ordi-nary flu that will “miraculously”go away and at others declaring itan all-out war endangering thecountry.

His move came as additionalgovernors took action to stop thespread of the virus. With new or-ders on Monday from the gover-nors of Arizona, Maryland andVirginia, as well as the mayor ofthe District of Columbia, morethan half of the 50 states and threeout of four Americans are or willsoon be under the directive to re-main at home.

They took that action as thenumber of cases in New Yorkclimbed past 66,500 and the num-ber of deaths surpassed 1,200, byfar the most of any state. Layoffscontinued apace, with Macy’s an-nouncing it would furlough a “ma-jority” of its 125,000 workers. Gapsaid it would do the same for80,000 store employees in theUnited States and Canada.

In the past two days, Mr. Trumphas dispensed with the assertion

Why President Let Go of GoalOf Easter Reset

Numbers Cast Cloud onReopening Nation

By PETER BAKERand MAGGIE HABERMAN

Continued on Page A10

MORE HELP Lawmakers areeyeing a fourth package to bolsterthe U.S. economy. PAGE A12

VOL. CLXIX . . . No. 58,649 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 2020

Late EditionToday, morning showers, cloudy,cooler, high 48. Tonight, overcast,low 38. Tomorrow, clouds then somesunshine, milder afternoon, high 54.Weather map appears on Page B10.

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