VOL. CLXVIII . . . No. 58,099 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

C M Y K Nxxx,2018-09-28,A,001,Bs-4C,E2

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The Palestinian and Israeli leaderswere at odds. Above, Mahmoud Abbasof the Palestinian Authority. PAGE A8

INTERNATIONAL A4-11

Deep Mideast Divide at U.N.

Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief execu-tive, was accused by federal regu-lators on Thursday of misleadinginvestors with false public state-ments, a move that could forcehim out of the company’s leader-ship.

At issue is Mr. Musk’s declara-tion on Twitter last month that hehad “funding secured” to buy outthe stock of the electric-car maker.

The prospect created a firestormon social media and in the mar-kets that sent Tesla’s shares soar-ing.

In a lawsuit filed in federal courtin New York, the Securities andExchange Commission accusedMr. Musk of committing fraud bymaking false public statementswith the potential to hurt invest-ors.

The suit seeks to bar Mr. Musk,who is also Tesla’s chairman, fromserving as an executive or direc-

tor of publicly traded companieslike Tesla. Such a punishment isone of the most serious remediesthe S.E.C. can impose against acorporate executive.

The case is likely to send shockwaves across corporate Americaand could lead to a re-evaluationof how companies use Twitter tocommunicate with the investingpublic.

The S.E.C. said Mr. Musk “knewor was reckless in not knowing”

Fraud Suit by Regulator Could Oust Tesla’s ChiefBy MATTHEW GOLDSTEIN

and EMILY FLITTER

Continued on Page A20

For years, the three main air-ports that serve New York Cityhave been the site of one of thecountry’s biggest fights over theminimum wage. A Republicangovernor and airline companieswere pitted against Democraticofficials and labor leaders overhow much to pay workers whoclean planes, load luggage andperform many other duties.

On Thursday, the campaign

ended in victory for as many as40,000 airport workers who arenow on a path to earning at least$19 an hour, the highest minimumwage target set by any publicagency in the country. The pay in-crease, which was approvedunanimously by the commission-ers of the Port Authority of NewYork and New Jersey, will raisethe wages of tens of thousands ofworkers over the next five years.

It will go well beyond the $15minimum hourly wage that sev-

eral cities have enacted and thatNew York State will adopt as thebase wage for many workers atthe end of the year. And it may addimpetus to union-led campaignsto reverse the widening gap in in-comes between rich and poorAmericans even amid a robusteconomy.

The vote by the Port Authorityboard came after several monthsof deliberation and years of plead-ing and pressure from unionized

New York Airport Workers to Get $19 Base WageBy PATRICK McGEEHAN

Continued on Page A22

The appointment of Marcello Foa, 55,has raised alarms and is a victory forpopulist parties. PAGE A4

New Leader for Italy’s State TV

Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has a lot tosay. But little of it has to do with the factthat he is running for governor of Cali-fornia. PAGE A12

NATIONAL A12-20

A Low-Risk Campaign

A man was arrested in a cold case inConnecticut after telling his pastors hehad stabbed a female jogger. PAGE A21

NEW YORK A21-24

Confession in a 2014 Murder

New York City is the latest place tooffer gender-neutral birth certificates,but Option 3 isn’t that simple. PAGE A21

‘Male,’ ‘Female’ or ‘X’?

At 29, Rory McIlroy is trying to avoidbeing defined solely by his golf career.He seems to be succeeding. PAGE B8

SPORTSFRIDAY B8-13

More to Life Than Golf

A fixture in the sport for decades, HBOhas concluded that its audience nolonger tunes in for big fights. PAGE B8

HBO Leaving the Boxing Ring

Debbie Manzano is the first woman tooversee production of the F-150, thebest-selling truck in America. But wom-en still make up less than 30 percent ofmanufacturing employees. PAGE B1

BUSINESS DAY B1-7

She’s Building Your Ford Truck

Canada’s dairy protections have be-come a key sticking point for PresidentTrump and a potential roadblock to atrilateral trade deal with the UnitedStates and Mexico. PAGE B1

Milk Could Sink Nafta

Randi Weingarten PAGE A27

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27

Two shows bridge a rift in El Museo delBarrio’s mission. Above, LilianaPorter’s “To fix it three thirty.” PAGE C13

WEEKEND C1-22

Time for Common Ground

‘None of these allegations are true?’ ‘Correct.’ ‘No doubt in your mind?’

‘Zero. I’m 100 percent certain.’‘With what degree of certainty do you believe Brett Kavanaugh assaulted you?’

‘100 percent.’

WASHINGTON — At thebeginning of the day, she wasasked if she was sure that he wasthe one who sexually assaultedher 36 years ago. “One hundredpercent,” she said. At the end ofthe day, he was asked if he wascertain he had not. “One hundredpercent,” he said.

One after the other, ChristineBlasey Ford and Judge Brett M.Kavanaugh sat in the same chairbefore the Senate JudiciaryCommittee on Thursday, sepa-rated by less than an hour but areality gulf so wide that their

conflicting accounts of whathappened when they were teen-agers cannot be reconciled.

With millions of Americansalternately riveted and horrifiedby the televised drama, Dr. Bla-sey and Judge Kavanaugh left noroom for compromise, no possi-bility of confusion, no chancethat they remembered some-thing differently. In effect, theyasked senators to choose whichone they believed. And in thatmoment, these two 100-percentrealities came to embody a soci-ety divided into broader realitiesso disparate and so incompatiblethat it feels as if two countriesare living in the borders of one.

It has become something of acliché to say that the UnitedStates has become increasinglytribal in the era of PresidentTrump, with each side in its owncorner, believing what it choosesto believe and looking for re-inforcement in the media andpolitics. But the battle overJudge Kavanaugh’s SupremeCourt nomination has reinforcedthose divisions at the intersec-tion of sex, politics, power andthe law.

Senators emerged from Thurs-day’s hearing bitterly split into

those tribes, with Democratspersuaded by Dr. Blasey’s calmand unflustered account of beingshoved onto a bed, pawed, nearlystripped and prevented fromscreaming for help, while Repub-licans were moved by JudgeKavanaugh, who bristled withred-faced outrage and grievanceat what he called an orchestratedcampaign to destroy his life.

By Thursday night, only a fewof the 100 who will decide JudgeKavanaugh’s fate remained un-decided, searching for answerswhere none were readily avail-able. “There is doubt,” said Sena-tor Jeff Flake, Republican of

She Said. Then He Said. Now What Will Senators Say?By PETER BAKER

Outside the hearing, Blasey supporters, left, gathered on one side of the building, with Kavanaugh supporters on the other.ERIN SCHAFF FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES GABRIELLA DEMCZUK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A18

NEWS ANALYSIS

WASHINGTON — Judge BrettM. Kavanaugh and his accuserfaced off Thursday in an extraor-dinary, emotional day of testi-mony that ricocheted from a wom-an’s tremulous account of sexualassault to a man’s angry, outrageddenial, all of which played out forhours before a riveted nation anda riven Senate.

The two very different versionsof the truth, unfolding in theheated atmosphere of gender di-vides, #MeToo and the Trumppresidency, could not be recon-ciled. The testimony skitteredfrom cringe-worthy sexual detailsto accusations and denials ofdrunken debauchery to one juve-nile exchange over flatulence.

Washington has not seen any-thing like it in a generation. Forpeople not used to watching gov-ernment in action, it was a specta-cle of tantrums, tears, preeningand political ambition — whatSenator Ted Cruz, Republican ofTexas, called, “Sadly one of themost shameful chapters in the his-tory of the United States Senate.”

Senators must ultimately takesides, and their decisions in thecoming days will determine notonly the fate of Judge Kavanaugh,President Trump’s second nomi-nee to the Supreme Court, but alsothe ideological balance of thecourt for decades. In the end, thejudge’s future most likely restswith a handful of undecided Re-publican senators — SusanCollins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski

of Alaska and Jeff Flake of Ari-zona — and one Democrat, JoeManchin III of West Virginia.

At least Mr. Flake, who sits onthe Judiciary Committee, willhave to render a decision in shortorder: Republican senatorsemerged Thursday evening froma closed-door meeting, pledgingto push ahead with a committeevote scheduled for Friday morn-ing. Alone among the Republi-cans, the Arizona senator seemedto be wrestling with how to recon-cile the competing accounts.

“There is doubt,” he said. “We’llnever move beyond that.”

Mr. Trump watched the testi-mony of Judge Kavanaugh’s ac-cuser, Christine Blasey Ford, onAir Force One as he flew backfrom New York, where he hadbeen attending the United Na-tions General Assembly. Immedi-ately after the hearing adjourned,he praised Judge Kavanaugh’stestimony on Twitter, saying thatthe judge had “showed Americaexactly why I nominated him.”

“His testimony was powerful,honest, and riveting,” the presi-dent tweeted. “Democrats’ searchand destroy strategy is disgrace-ful and this process has been a to-tal sham and effort to delay, ob-struct, and resist. The Senatemust vote!”

On Thursday morning, with hervoice cracking but her composureintact, Dr. Blasey told a rapt Sen-ate panel about the terror she felt

HIGH-STAKES DUELOF TEARS AND FURYUNFOLDS IN SENATE

Blasey Praised for Her Courage — TrumpApplauds Kavanaugh’s Rebuttal

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and NICHOLAS FANDOS

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ERIN SCHAFF FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A14

COLORADO SPRINGS —Travelers on airplanes cried asthey watched it on their seatbacktelevisions. College studentsholed up all day at library comput-ers and streamed it on theirphones, drowning out their lec-tures. Friends sat together,stunned and still, on living room

couches. Television screens at nailsalons, sports bars and hotel lob-bies were tuned to nothing else.

All day on Thursday, througheight hours of tears, anger and ex-asperation, it seemed like thecountry could not look away.

On the New York subway, peo-ple huddled around their phonesto listen. They sat in parking lotswith testimony wafting out oftheir car windows. They listenedto it on their commutes home,

transfixed by the high-stakesspectacle unfolding in a crampedWashington hearing room asChristine Blasey Ford and JudgeBrett M. Kavanaugh, PresidentTrump’s nominee to the SupremeCourt, gave emotional and irrec-oncilable accounts of a night 36years ago that has indeliblychanged their lives while splinter-ing Washington and much of thecountry.

Some felt they had to bear wit-

ness to history unfolding. Theycompared it to watching the Chal-lenger space shuttle explode orthe O.J. Simpson police chase.Only now, it was a battle for con-trol of the Supreme Court tangledwith questions about justice, gen-der equality and how America’spolitical system treats claims ofsexual assault against membersof its ruling class.

Raw, unfiltered pain was on dis-

On Planes, in Bars, Around Phones, a Nation Is TransfixedBy JACK HEALY

and FARAH STOCKMAN

Continued on Page A17

Late EditionToday, morning rain, some late-daysunshine, cooler, high 66. Tonight,partly cloudy, low 58. Tomorrow,sunny to partly cloudy, warmer, high74. Weather map is on Page B14.

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