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WASHINGTON — None of themilitary personnel involved in abotched drone strike in Kabul, Af-ghanistan, that killed 10 civilianswill face any kind of punishment,the Pentagon said on Monday.

The Pentagon acknowledged inSeptember that the last U.S. dronestrike before American troopswithdrew from Afghanistan the

previous month was a tragic mis-take that killed the civilians, in-cluding seven children, after ini-tially saying it had been neces-sary to prevent an Islamic Stateattack on troops. A subsequent

high-level investigation into theepisode found no violations of lawbut stopped short of fully exoner-ating those involved, saying suchdecisions should be left up to com-manders.

Defense Secretary Lloyd J.Austin III, who had left the finalword on any administrative ac-tion, such as reprimands or demo-tions, to two senior commanders,

No Penalty Over U.S. Strike That Killed CiviliansBy ERIC SCHMITT

Continued on Page A7

‘Misconduct’ Not Seenin Kabul Air AttackWASHINGTON — Mark Mead-

ows, the last White House chief ofstaff for President Donald J.Trump, played a far more substan-tial role in plans to try to overturnthe 2020 election than was previ-ously known, and he was involvedin failed efforts to get Mr. Trumpto order the mob invading the

Capitol on Jan. 6 to stand down, in-vestigators for the House commit-tee scrutinizing the attack havelearned.

From a trove of about 9,000 doc-uments that Mr. Meadows turned

over before halting his coopera-tion with the inquiry, a clearer pic-ture has emerged about the extentof his involvement in Mr. Trump’sattempts to use the government toinvalidate the election results.

The committee voted 9 to 0 onMonday evening to recommendthat Mr. Meadows be chargedwith criminal contempt of Con-gress for defying its subpoena. Be-

Meadows Faces Contempt of Congress ChargeBy LUKE BROADWATER

and ALAN FEUERAide Had Outsize Role

in Plotting for Trump

Continued on Page A15

Since the start of the year,nearly six million jobs have beenadded in the United States. Theunemployment rate has plum-meted to 4.2 percent, close towhere it stood before the pan-demic. But in New York City, theeconomy appears to be in a rut.

After gaining 350,000 jobs in thelast months of 2020, employmenthas slowed considerably this year,with just 187,000 jobs added sinceMarch. The city’s unemploymentrate of 9.4 percent is more thandouble the national average, andits decline in recent months waslargely caused by people droppingout of the labor force.

From the start of the pandemic,no other large American city hasbeen hit as hard as New York, orhas struggled as much to replen-ish its labor force. Nearly a millionpeople lost their jobs in the earlymonths of the pandemic, andthousands of business closed.

As the city plunged into itsworst financial crisis since theGreat Depression, the unemploy-ment rate skyrocketed, peaking inJune 2020 at 20 percent. Nearlyevery industry — from construc-tion to finance to social services —has fewer people employed nowthan before the pandemic sweptinto New York in March 2020.

Nearly two years later, NewYork has added back a little morethan half the jobs it lost, accordingto the state Labor Department, farless than the rest of the country,underscoring how the pandemicravaged some of the city’s coreeconomic engines like tourism,hospitality and retail.

The protracted pandemic hasshut out tourists and scared off thecrush of suburbanites who filledoffice towers every weekday — a“double whammy,” said AndrewRein, president of the CitizensBudget Commission, a nonprofitwatchdog group. Just 8 percent ofoffice workers were back at workfive days a week in early Novem-ber, according to a survey by thePartnership for New York City, abusiness group.

“Commuters and tourists con-sume a lot of the same stuff,” Mr.Rein said. “They consume, in acertain sense, the vibrancy ofNew York City.”

Their absence has contributedto the loss of more than 100,000jobs in the city’s restaurants, barsand hotels, plus nearly 60,000 ad-ditional jobs in retailing, perform-ing arts, entertainment and recre-ation. The reopening of Broadwaytheaters and the high rate of vacci-nations has provided a boost this

IN NEW YORK CITY,JOB GROWTH LAGSREST OF COUNTRY

A ‘DRAWN-OUT RECOVERY’

Unemployment, at 9.4%,Is More Than Double

the U.S. Average

By MATTHEW HAAGand PATRICK McGEEHAN

Continued on Page A12

ISRAELI GOVERNMENT/VIA REUTERS

The leader of Israel met with an Emirati prince Monday. Page A7.Signal of a Realigning Middle East

A patient in Marseille, France, amid a fifth wave of Covid.ERIC GAILLARD/REUTERS

PARIS — A recent cartoon inthe French daily Le Monde fea-tured a bedraggled man arrivingat a doctor’s office for a Covid-19vaccine. “I am here for the fifthshot because of the third wave,” hesays. “Or vice versa.”

His bewilderment as Francesuffers its fifth wave of the pan-demic, with cases of the Deltavariant rising sharply along withOmicron anxiety, captured a moodof exhaustion and simmering an-ger across the world two years af-ter the deadly virus began tospread in China.

Uncertainty bedevils plans.Panic spreads in an instant even if,as with the Omicron variant, theextent of the threat is not yetknown. Vaccines look like deliver-ance until they seem a little lessthan that. National responses di-

verge with no discernible logic.Anxiety and depression spread.So do loneliness and screen fa-tigue. The feeling grows that theCovid era will go on for years, likeplagues of old.

That’s the case in Europe,where Denmark and Norwaywarned Monday of a sharp in-crease in Omicron cases. [PageA6.]

Even in China, with no reportedCovid deaths since January, someconfess weariness with the meas-ures that have kept them safewhen so many others perished.

“I’m so tired of all these rou-tines,” Chen Jun, 29, a tech com-pany worker in the southern Chi-nese city of Shenzhen, said theother day. He was forced to takethree Covid-19 tests in June fol-

Exhausted World Wonders:Will the Covid Era Ever End?

By ROGER COHEN

Continued on Page A6

Millions have watched Lee andOli Barrett’s YouTube dispatchesfrom China. The father and sonduo visit hotels in exotic locales,tour out-of-the-way villages, sam-ple delicacies in bustling marketsand undergo traditional ear clean-ings.

“We are on the outskirts ofShanghai today at the most in-credible hotel we’ve ever stayedat,” Oli says in one video, just be-fore a drone camera filming themsoars to reveal a luxury complexinside a massive former quarry.

The Barretts are part of a cropof new social media personalitieswho paint cheery portraits of lifeas foreigners in China — and alsohit back at criticisms of Beijing’s

authoritarian governance, its poli-cies toward ethnic minorities andits handling of the coronavirus.

The videos have a casual, home-spun feel. But on the other side ofthe camera often stands a largeapparatus of government organ-izers, state-controlled news mediaand other official amplifiers — allpart of the Chinese government’swidening attempts to spread pro-Beijing messages around theplanet.

State-run news outlets and localgovernments have organized andfunded pro-Beijing influencers’travel, according to governmentdocuments and the creators them-selves. They have paid or offeredto pay the creators. They havegenerated lucrative traffic for the

YouTube Influencers Are ToolsIn Beijing’s Propaganda Blitz

This article is by Paul Mozur, Ray-mond Zhong and Aaron Krolik.

Continued on Page A8

MAYFIELD, Ky. — Robert Dan-iel, a veteran corrections officer atthe county jail, was keeping awatchful eye on seven inmates as-signed to work at a Kentucky can-dle factory when the sirens wentoff, warning of an oncoming tor-nado.

Mr. Daniel moved quickly to di-rect the inmates in his care, alongwith other workers, to a room witha heavy door designated as a“safety area.” Then he went backto look for others who might needhelp.

“The tornado hit. They turnedaround and he was gone,” saidPete Jackson, chief deputy at theGraves County Jail. Long after thestorm had passed, he said, Mr.Daniel’s body was found under theshattered building. The workershe had ushered to safety survived.

“He put his life in danger to helpothers. There is no other way toput it,” Mr. Jackson said on Mon-day, as the authorities across sixstates began to identify dozens ofpeople killed over the weekend inthe powerful tornadoes that lev-eled the candle factory and de-stroyed neighborhoods as faraway as Arkansas and Illinois.

At least 74 people were con-firmed dead in Kentucky alone,the youngest 5 months old, theoldest 86 years. So severe werethe injuries and so remote some ofthe areas damaged that officials inKentucky have not been able toidentify 18 of those who died.

Destruction from a tornado in Dawson Springs, Ky. “It’s almost crushing how it feels,” Gov. Andy Beshear said of storms that killed at least 74 people on Friday night.WILLIAM WIDMER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Heroic StoriesFrom RubbleOf the Storms

This article is by Edgar Sandoval,Tariro Mzezewa and ChristineHauser.

Continued on Page A11

Food-cart rules spurred by the coun-try’s rising Hindu nationalist movementhave drawn a backlash. PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A4-9

The Politics of Eggs in IndiaWith Europe experiencing record infla-tion, workers and labor unions arefighting to keep wages on pace. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-6

The Soaring Cost of LivingThis year’s list of nominees is morediverse than usual. Above, Will Smith,Demi Singleton and Saniyya Sidney inthe film “King Richard.” PAGE C1

ARTS C1-6

An Inclusive Golden Globes

A new reactor in South Korea couldallow the country to eventually developthe craft, defying a U.S. treaty. PAGE A9

Quest for Nuclear Submarines

Residents of the state will have to weara mask indoors at places where proof ofvaccination is not required. PAGE A13

New York Mask Rule Revived

Email is a great tool for politicians, buttoo often it’s used to spread disinforma-tion where few will notice. PAGE B1

Lies in Your Inbox

Tanya Gold PAGE A19

OPINION A18-19

The Omicron variant turned the report-er Stephanie Nolen’s trip home fromSouth Africa into a nightmare of con-flicting public health orders. PAGE D4

SCIENCE TIMES D1-8

Caught in a Pandemic Panic

Over 500 survivors agreed to $380 mil-lion in compensation from U.S.A. Gym-nastics and the United States Olympic &Paralympic Committee. PAGE B8

SPORTS B7-9, 12

Settlement for Nassar VictimsDerek Chauvin, who in April was foundguilty of murdering George Floyd, in-tends to plead guilty to charges he alsodeprived him of his civil rights. PAGE A17

NATIONAL A10-17

Federal Hearing for Chauvin

Masayuki Uemura, 78, developed theNintendo console in the 1980s, foreverchanging an industry. PAGE B11

OBITUARIES B10-11

Pioneer of Home Gaming

The Supreme Court refused toblock a New York State coronavi-rus vaccine requirement forhealth care workers. Page A14.

A Vaccine Mandate Holds

Late Edition

VOL. CLXXI . . . No. 59,272 + © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2021

Today, partly sunny, mild for Decem-ber, high 52. Tonight, partly cloudy,mild, low 40. Tomorrow, some sun-shine giving way to clouds, high 52.Weather map appears on Page B12.

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