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SAN FRANCISCO — For muchof this year, Airbnb has been un-der fire over the ease with whichits hosts can reject potentialrenters based on race, age, genderor other factors.

The barrage of criticism beganwith a Harvard University study,snowballed with firsthand ac-counts of discrimination fromAirbnb guests and wound upprompting a lawsuit.

Airbnb, the short-term rentalwebsite, has moved quickly totamp down the controversy. It em-barked on a top-to-bottom reviewof how discrimination might creepinto the site. It hired prominentadvisers, including the former

United States attorney generalEric H. Holder Jr., to help formu-late anti-bias policies. And BrianChesky, Airbnb’s chief executive,has repeatedly said that the com-pany needed to do better in deal-ing with the issue.

On Thursday, Airbnb took itsmost forceful actions yet to com-bat discrimination. It told its rent-al hosts that they needed to agreeto a “community commitment”starting on Nov. 1 and that theymust hew to a new nondiscrimina-tion policy. The company also saidthat it would try to reduce theprominence of user photographs,which indicate race and gender,

Airbnb Has Enlisted Hosts;Now It Must Fight Their Bias

By KATIE BENNER

DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES

CANDIDATES FORUM Matt Lauerof NBC performed like a sol-dier without ammunition.Critic’s Notebook. Page A16.

Crux of Grim Ruling: Schools Are BrokenNEWS ANALYSIS

By KATE ZERNIKE

Continued on Page A20

When a Connecticut judgethrew out the state’s school fi-nancing system as unconstitu-tional this week, his unsparing90-page ruling read and res-onated like a cry from the hearton the failings of American pub-lic education.

Judge Thomas G. Moukawsherof State Superior Court in Hart-

ford was scathing: He criticized“uselessly perfect teacher evalu-ations” that found “virtuallyevery teacher in the state” profi-cient or exemplary, while a thirdof students in many of the poor-est communities cannot readeven at basic levels. He attackeda task force charged with settingmeaningful high school gradua-tion requirements for how its“biggest thought on how to fixthe problem turned out to be

another task force,” and called it“a kind of a spoof.”

Though his ruling was aboutConnecticut, he spoke to a largernationwide truth: After thedecades of lawsuits about equityand adequacy in education fi-nancing, after federal efforts likeNo Child Left Behind and Race tothe Top, after fights over theCommon Core standards and

CHANG W. LEE/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Serena Williams lost her No. 1 ranking after falling to Karolina Pliskova in a semifinal. Page B9.A Surprising Departure at the U.S. Open

WASHINGTON — Donald J.Trump’s campaign on Thursdayreaffirmed its extraordinary em-brace of Russia’s president, Vlad-imir V. Putin, signaling a prefer-ence for the leadership of an au-thoritarian adversary over that ofAmerica’s own president, despitea cascade of criticism from Dem-ocrats and expressions of discom-fort among Republicans.

“I think it’s inarguable thatVladimir Putin has been a strong-er leader in his country thanBarack Obama has been in thiscountry,” Gov. Mike Pence ofIndiana, Mr. Trump’s runningmate, said on CNN, defending Mr.Trump by echoing his latest praisefor the Russian leader, offeredWednesday night in a televisedcandidate forum.

Hillary Clinton excoriated Mr.Trump for asserting that Mr. Putinis a better leader than PresidentObama, saying it was “not just un-patriotic and insulting to the peo-ple of our country, as well as to ourcommander in chief — it is scary.”

She seized on Mr. Trump’s as-sertion in the televised forum thatMr. Putin’s incursions into neigh-boring countries, crackdown onRussia’s independent news mediaand support for America’s ene-mies were no more troublesomethan Mr. Obama’s transgressions.She said it showed that, if elected,

VEXING HIS ALLIES,TRUMP KEEPS UPPRAISE OF PUTIN

PENCE ECHOES OPINION

Seizing Chance, Clinton Calls the Talk ‘Scary’

and ‘Unpatriotic’

By JONATHAN MARTINand AMY CHOZICK

Continued on Page A17

WASHINGTON — Sexual as-sault in the military has plaguedthe Pentagon in recent years as aseries of high-profile cases, andnew data, revealed the extent ofthe problem. In response, Presi-dent Obama and members of Con-gress demanded that military offi-cials more aggressively addressthe threat and its causes.

Yet few military experts wentas far as Donald J. Trump didWednesday, when he suggestedthat the integration of women intothe armed forces was an underly-ing cause of sexual assault.

Speaking at a candidates’ for-um, Mr. Trump defended one ofhis Twitter posts from 2013 con-cerning the high number of sexualassaults in the military, and saidthat he had been “absolutely cor-rect” in posting a message thatsaid, “What did these geniuses ex-pect when they put men & womentogether?”

The remarks drew criticism onThursday from lawmakers andmilitary experts, who said Mr.Trump had displayed ignorance ofthe Pentagon’s decades-longstruggle to curb such assaults andthe military justice system that isin place to prosecute them.

“That’s more than victim blam-ing, and it misunderstands thehistorical role of women in the mil-itary,” said retired Col. Don Chris-tensen, a former chief prosecutorof the Air Force.

American women in the mili-tary have taken on expanded rolesin recent years as the Pentagonhas integrated them into morecombat positions. But they haveworked alongside servicemensince the Revolutionary War, andin significant numbers sinceWorld War II, something Mr.Trump did not acknowledge.

Their roles have grown over thecenturies from nurses, cooks andseamstresses, who maintainedthe camps of the ContinentalArmy, to fighter pilots, soldiers,sailors and Marines who are bat-tling the Islamic State in the Mid-dle East and Afghanistan.

“We couldn’t run a militarywithout women,” said SenatorLindsey Graham, Republican ofSouth Carolina, a member of the

Trump FaultedFor His NotionsAbout Assaults

Women in Military NotCause, Experts Say

By JENNIFER STEINHAUERand MATTHEW ROSENBERG

Continued on Page A16

Verna Bailey, right, with Theresa Pleets, walked away from the water covering the land where her childhood home once stood.ALYSSA SCHUKAR FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

NEAR CANNON BALL, N.D.— Verna Bailey stared into the sil-very ripples of a man-made lake,looking for the spot where she hadbeen born. “Out there,” she said,pointing to the water. “I liveddown there with my grandmotherand grandfather. We had a com-munity there. Now it’s all gone.”

Fifty years ago, hers was one ofhundreds of Native American

families whose homes and landwere inundated by rising watersafter the Army Corps of Engi-neers built the Oahe Dam alongthe Missouri River, part of a hugemidcentury public-works projectapproved by Congress to provideelectricity and tame the river’sfloods.

To Ms. Bailey, 76, and thousandsof other tribal members who livedalong the river’s length, theproject was a cultural catastro-phe, residents and historians say.

It displaced families, uprootedcemeteries and swamped landswhere tribes grazed cattle, drovewagons and gathered wild grapesand medicinal tea.

That past has now become apoignant backdrop to protests

over a $3.7 billion oil pipelineproject that would cross a ranch-er’s land just north of the StandingRock Sioux Tribe’s reservationand plunge under a dammed sec-tion of the Missouri River. Thecompany building the Dakota Ac-cess pipeline across four statesand 1,170 miles says it will trans-port oil safely and reliably. Oppo-nents say a spill or break couldpoison the river.

‘I Want to Win Someday’: Tribes Make Stand Against PipelineBy JACK HEALY

Continued on Page A14

Thousands Lured toPlains by Protests

Continued on Page B7

President Obama offered a brisk de-fense of his just-concluded weeklongtour of Asia, saying he expected his tilttoward the region to endure into thenext administration. PAGE A3

INTERNATIONAL A3-10

Obama Defends Asia Focus

One of the New York Fire Department’snewest tools is an $85,000 drone,painted fire-engine red, that will helpsurvey the sites of some fires fromabove. PAGE A20

NEW YORK A19-21

Drones as Aerial Firefighters

The Justice Department ended its caseagainst Robert McDonnell, the formerVirginia governor whose corruptionconviction was overturned by theUnited States Supreme Court. PAGE A11

NATIONAL A11-18

Corruption Case AbandonedTim Tebow, a former Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback who later playedfor the Jets, is now an outfielder headedto an instructional league. PAGE B13

SPORTSFRIDAY B9-14, 16

Mets Take a Chance on Tebow

Paul Krugman PAGE A23

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23

The arts center at ground zero has anew design, and Barbra Streisand hasbeen elected chairwoman of the cen-ter’s board. PAGE C1

WEEKEND ARTS C1-26

Arts Center Adds Star Power

VOL. CLXV . . . No. 57,350 © 2016 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

Late Edition

$2.50

Today, sunshine and some clouds,hot, high 92. Tonight, partly cloudy,warm, low 74. Tomorrow, clouds andsunshine, warm, more humid, high88. Weather map, Page B16.

In Colorado, more than 200 young warveterans have taken jobs as securityguards for the state’s booming marijua-na businesses. PAGE A11

Veterans Back on Patrol

For years, Wells Fargo employeessecretly issued credit cards without acustomer’s consent. The bank has firedat least 5,300 people, and must pay $185million in fines. PAGE B1

BUSINESS DAY B1-8

Wells Fargo’s Sham Accounts

SEOUL, South Korea — NorthKorea conducted its fifth under-ground nuclear test on Friday,South Korean officials said, de-spite threats of more sanctionsfrom the United States and theUnited Nations. The latest test, ac-cording to the officials, produced amore powerful explosive yieldthan the North’s previous detona-tions, indicating that the countrywas making progress in its effortsto build a functional nuclear war-head.

A statement from the South Ko-rean military also said that an arti-ficial tremor, registered as magni-tude 5.0, had originated fromPunggye-ri in northeastern NorthKorea, where the North has con-ducted its four previous under-ground nuclear tests.

A senior Defense Ministry offi-cial later told reporters that hisministry had concluded that thetremor was caused by a nucleardetonation.

The ministry estimated the ex-plosive yield as being equivalentto 10 kilotons of TNT, the mostpowerful detonation unleashed ina North Korean nuclear test so far,according to the official, whobriefed reporters on condition ofanonymity. The South Koreangovernment estimated theNorth’s last nuclear test, con-ducted in January, at 4.8 magni-

South ReportsA Nuclear TestIn North Korea

By CHOE SANG-HUNand JANE PERLEZ

Continued on Page A3

A raid on the Taliban by Navy SEALslast month to free an American profes-sor and a colleague is believed to havemissed the men by hours. PAGE A10

SEALs Miss in Rescue Bid