dire wait for hunger aid millions of children face · ratives of numerous encounters, videos and...

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WASHINGTON — As childhunger soars to levels withoutmodern precedent, an emergencyprogram Congress created twomonths ago has reached only asmall fraction of the 30 millionchildren it was intended to help.

The program, Pandemic-EBT,aims to compensate for the declin-ing reach of school meals by plac-ing their value on electronic cardsthat families can use in grocerystores. But collecting lunch listsfrom thousands of school districts,transferring them to often-out-dated state computers and issuingspecialized cards has provedmuch harder than envisioned,leaving millions of needy familieswaiting to buy food.

Congress approved the effort inmid-March as part of the FamiliesFirst act, its first major coro-navirus relief package. By May 15,only about 15 percent of eligiblechildren had received benefits, ac-cording to an analysis by The NewYork Times. Just 12 states hadstarted sending money, and Mich-igan and Rhode Island alone hadfinished.

The pace is accelerating, withmillions of families expected to re-ceive payments in the comingweeks. But 16 states still lack fed-eral approval to begin the pay-ments and Utah declined to par-ticipate, saying it did not have theadministrative capacity to distrib-ute the money. Many Southernstates with high rates of childhunger have gotten a slow start.

As of May 15, states had issuedpayments for about 4.4 millionchildren, out of the 30 million whopotentially qualify, the Timesanalysis shows. If all statesreached everyone eligible, an un-likely prospect, families could re-

ceive as much as $10 billion.“The program’s going to be

very important, but it hasn’t beenfast,” said Duke Storen, a formernutrition advocate who leads theVirginia Department of SocialServices, which began sendingmoney last week. “The intent is toreplace lost meals at school, butthe meals have been lost formonths, and few benefits havegone out.”

Among pandemic-related hard-ship, child hunger stands out forits urgency and symbolic reso-nance — after decades of exposésand reforms, a country of vastwealth still struggles to feed itsyoung. So vital are school meals insome places, states are issuing re-placement benefits in waves tokeep grocers from being over-whelmed.

The lag between congressionalaction and families buying food is,in many places, less a story of bu-reaucratic indifference than a tes-tament to the convoluted nature ofthe American safety net.

Many officials have workedovertime to start the programamid competing crises. Yet evenin delivering a benefit as simple asa school meal, federal, state andlocal governments can all add de-lays, as can the private companiesthat print the cards, which canonly buy food.

“We get it — this is dire,” saidLisa Watson, a deputy secretaryof the Pennsylvania Departmentof Human Services. “We wantthese benefits out.”

Aid in the United States gener-ally follows a patchwork logic, butthe arbitrary nature of the mo-ment is especially pronounced:Families with three children in

Millions of Children Face‘Dire’ Wait for Hunger Aid

Program Sputters as 15% of Those EligibleGet Replacements for School Meals

By JASON DePARLE

Continued on Page A8

ALINGAR, Afghanistan — Un-der the shade of a mulberry tree,near grave sites dotted with Tal-iban flags, a top insurgent militaryleader in eastern Afghanistan ac-knowledged that the group hadsuffered devastating losses fromAmerican strikes and govern-ment operations over the pastdecade.

But those losses have changedlittle on the ground: The Talibankeep replacing their dead andwounded and delivering brutal vi-

olence.“We see this fight as worship,”

said Mawlawi Mohammed Qais,the head of the Taliban’s militarycommission in Laghman Prov-ince, as dozens of his fighterswaited nearby on a hillside. “So ifa brother is killed, the secondbrother won’t disappoint God’swish — he’ll step into the brother’sshoes.”

It was March, and the Taliban

had just signed a peace deal withthe United States that now putsthe movement on the brink of real-izing its most fervent desire — thecomplete exit of American troopsfrom Afghanistan.

The Taliban have outlasted asuperpower through nearly 19years of grinding war. And dozensof interviews with Taliban officials

and fighters in three countries, aswell as with Afghan and Westernofficials, illuminated the meldingof old and new methods and gen-erations that helped them do it.

After 2001, the Taliban reorga-nized as a decentralized networkof fighters and low-level com-manders empowered to recruitand find resources locally whilethe senior leadership remained inneighboring Pakistan.

The insurgency came to em-brace a system of terrorism plan-ning and attacks that kept the Af-ghan government under wither-

After 18 Years of War, Taliban Sense Victory Over a SuperpowerBy MUJIB MASHAL

Children passing members of an elite Taliban force in March in eastern Afghanistan. The Taliban have at least 50,000 active fighters.JIM HUYLEBROEK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Using Grit and Carnageto Outlast the U.S.

Continued on Page A16

BRENDAN MCDERMID/REUTERS

Traders wearing masks on the first day back at the New YorkStock Exchange since the pandemic hit. Markets rallied. Page B2.

Cautious Optimism

Working on the front lines of thecoronavirus pandemic can be haz-ardous, but staying home isn’tsafe either for the emergency re-sponders, pharmacists, homehealth aides, grocery clerks anddeliverymen who fill River ParkTowers in the Bronx.

Even a ride down the elevator isrisky. Residents often must waitup to an hour to squeeze intosmall, poorly ventilated cars thatbreak down frequently, with peo-ple crowding the hallways likecommuters trying to push into thesubway at rush hour.

There is talk that as many as

100 residents have been sickenedby the coronavirus at the two mas-sive towers rising above the Mor-ris Heights neighborhood alongthe Harlem River. But no oneknows for sure, since the leader ofthe tenant association died fromCovid-19 in April.

“It’s the death towers, you couldsay that,” said Maria Lopez, 42, aresident with a variety of healthissues, including asthma, who haswatched 10 of her neighbors beingtaken away by paramedics.

The worst health crisis in a cen-tury has exploded across NewYork City, and it has inflicted theworst toll on the Bronx, the city’spoorest borough.

In Hard-Hit Bronx, High-RisesHave Become ‘Death Towers’

This article is by Kimiko de Frey-tas-Tamura, Winnie Hu and LindseyRogers Cook.

Continued on Page A12

Before China can fully recoverfrom the devastation of the coro-navirus outbreak, it needs to findpeople like Huang Bing a job.

Ms. Huang, who graduated lastyear from one of China’s mostprestigious drama schools, got anoffer in December for her first jobin show business, working for acompany that books bands forbars in Beijing and Shanghai.

The coronavirus, which virtual-ly froze China for weeks, broughtthat gig to an end before it began.Ms. Huang has picked up free-lance film production and publici-ty work, but she has slashed herspending and is counting hermoney.

“When it was April and I stillcouldn’t start my job, I started tofeel worried,” said Ms. Huang, 24.“I began worrying that I may notbe able to work this year at all. Ican’t just keep waiting.”

Relations with the UnitedStates are at their lowest point indecades, and Hong Kong isseething with fear and anger, butChina’s biggest problem by far isgetting its people back to work.Millions of workers were laid offor furloughed while China battledthe coronavirus outbreak. Manyof those who kept their jobs haveseen their pay cut and futureprospects narrow.

China’s youngest workers inparticular have entered perhapsthe country’s toughest job marketin the modern era. Many are re-ducing their expectations to takeany job they can get. The pressureis about to intensify: Another

Beijing SeeingRisk as Young

Want for Jobs

By ALEXANDRA STEVENSONand KEITH BRADSHER

Continued on Page A5

The Minneapolis police state-ment was short and sanitized. Anallegation of forgery. A suspectwho “appeared to be under the in-fluence,” who “physically resistedofficers” and who appeared to be“suffering medical distress.”

The video that emerged hourslater told a drastically differentstory. It showed a white police offi-cer pressing his knee into the neckof a black suspect until he ap-peared limp and unconscious.Throughout the encounter, theman, George Floyd, could beheard saying “I can’t breathe”again and again. He later died at ahospital.

The explosive footage of Mr.Floyd, 46, taken by a bystanderand shared widely on social mediaearly Tuesday, incited community

outrage, an F.B.I. civil rights in-vestigation and the firing of thepolice officer and three colleagueswho were also at the scene. “Ev-ery bit of what I saw was wrong,”Jacob Frey, the mayor of Minne-apolis, said in an emotional inter-view with reporters on FacebookLive shortly after announcing thatthe officers had been fired. “It wasmalicious. And it was unaccept-able. There is no gray there.”

The video clip laid bare, onceagain, a phenomenon of the cell-phone era: official police versionsof events that diverge greatlyfrom what later appears on video-tape.

This year alone, video record-ings have altered the official nar-ratives of numerous encounters,

Videos and Police Reports DifferIn String of Deadly Encounters

By AUDRA D. S. BURCH and JOHN ELIGON

Crowds in Minneapolis protested after George Floyd died. A vid-eo showed an officer kneeling on his neck for several minutes.

CARLOS GONZALEZ/STAR TRIBUNE, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

Continued on Page A23

In the Chinese city where the pandemicbegan, the government aims to test allresidents to halt a second wave. PAGE A5

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-13

Wuhan Tests 6.5 Million So FarTwelve of the nation’s best restaurantsshare great recipes with us. Above,from Felix in Los Angeles, tagliatellewith prosciutto and butter. PAGE D1

FOOD D1-10

The Delectable Dozen

A New York Times/Siena College Re-search Institute poll found that theater-goers who are hesitant to return worrythat the people around them won’tfollow the rules. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

Broadway ButterfliesAT&T’s streaming platform goes live onWednesday. At $15 a month, it’s moreexpensive than its rivals at a time whenhousehold income is dropping. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-7

HBO Max Joins the FrayIn a belfry high above Ottawa, theDominion Carillonneur bolsters moralewith the only live music performance intown these days. PAGE A14

INTERNATIONAL A14-18

Sounds of Solace

A successful launch would makeSpaceX the first company to send aNASA crew into orbit. PAGE A22

NATIONAL A19-23

Astronauts Flying Private

Georgia and Florida have suggestedthey would host the Republican gather-ing if North Carolina hesitates. PAGE A19

Rivals Edge In on Convention

With the outbreak in China fading,officials explore new uses for the track-ing software on many phones. PAGE B1

Repurposing Virus Apps

The N.H.L. is the largest North Ameri-can professional league to announcedefinitive plans for a return. PAGE B8

SPORTSWEDNESDAY B8-9

Back on the Ice This Summer

Jennifer Weiner PAGE A25

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A24-25

PULLING OUT One option for aU.S. withdrawal from Afghanistanis by Election Day. PAGE A15

WASHINGTON — PresidentTrump smeared a prominent tele-vision host on Tuesday from thelectern in the Rose Garden with anunfounded allegation of murder,taking the politics of rage and con-spiracy theory to a new level evenas much of the political worldbarely took notice.

In an attack that once wouldhave been unthinkable for a sit-ting president, Mr. Trump all butaccused Joe Scarborough, a for-mer Republican congressmanwho now hosts the MSNBC show“Morning Joe,” of killing a staffmember in 2001 even though hewas 800 miles away at the timeand the police ruled her death anaccident.

The president’s charge ampli-fied a series of Twitter messagesin recent days that have drawn al-most no rebukes from fellow Re-publicans eager to look the otherway but have anguished the fam-ily of Lori Klausutis, who diedwhen she suffered a heart condi-tion that caused her to fall and hither head on a desk. Mr. Trumpdoubled down on the false accusa-tion even after Timothy Klausutispleaded unsuccessfully with Twit-ter to take down the posts abouthis late wife because they werecausing her family such deeppain.

“A lot of people suggest that andhopefully someday people are go-

Trump SlamsMSNBC HostWith a Smear

By PETER BAKERand MAGGIE ASTOR

Continued on Page A20

Late Edition

VOL. CLXIX . . . . No. 58,706 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MAY 27, 2020

FLAGGED Twitter put links on twoof the president’s tweets, urgingpeople to “get the facts.” PAGE B1

Jimmy Cobb, 91, the last survivingmember of the group on the landmarkMiles Davis album, propelled his band-mates with a quiet persistence. PAGE B11

OBITUARIES B10-12

Drummer on ‘Kind of Blue’

House Republicans move to raise suspi-cions on the efforts to make votingeasier during the pandemic. PAGE A9

Pelosi Is Sued Over Proxy Votes

Today, clouds, then periodic sun-shine, high 77. Tonight, cloudy, low64. Tomorrow, cloudy to partlysunny, late day showers in areas,high 73. Weather map, Page A18.

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