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Today, cloudy, breezy, cooler, rain ta-pering off early, high 64. Tonight,mainly clear, breezy, low 44. Tomor-row, sunny, still breezy at times,high 65. Weather map, Page 30.

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36 0 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, APRIL 25, 2021

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Many dancers have taken advantage ofa byproduct of the pandemic — timeaway from performing — to try out anew role: motherhood. PAGE 6

ARTS & LEISURE

Baby Boom in the Dance WorldThe president acknowledged the masskillings of Armenians a century ago,signaling a willingness to test a frayingrelationship with Turkey. PAGE 15

INTERNATIONAL

Biden Recognizes a Genocide Markham Heid PAGE 4

SUNDAY REVIEW

HOUSTON — Voting in the2020 election presented ZoeDouglas with a difficult choice: Asa therapist meeting with patientsover Zoom late into the evening,she just wasn’t able to wrap up be-fore polls closed during early vot-ing.

Then Harris County introduced24-hour voting for a single day. At11 p.m. on the Thursday before theelection, Ms. Douglas joined fast-food workers, nurses, construc-tion workers, night owls and otherlate-shift workers at NRG Arena,one of eight 24-hour voting sites inthe county, where more than10,000 people cast their ballots in asingle night.

“I can distinctly remember peo-ple still in their uniforms — youcould tell they just got off of work,or maybe they’re going to work; avery diverse mix,” said Ms. Doug-las, 27, a Houston native.

Twenty-four-hour voting wasone of a host of options HarrisCounty introduced to help resi-dents cast ballots, along withdrive-through voting and proac-tively mailing out ballot applica-tions. The new alternatives, tai-lored to a diverse work forcestruggling amid a pandemic inTexas’ largest county, helped in-

Texas G.O.P.Targets AccessFor City Voters

By NICK CORASANITI

Continued on Page 20

Debris floating in waters north of Baliconfirmed that an Indonesian Navyvessel had sunk, dimming hopes ofrescuing the 53 people aboard. PAGE 16

INTERNATIONAL 10-16

Grim Find in Submarine Hunt

SIMA DIAB FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

The Saqqara necropolis. Egypt was anticipating a banner tourism season, until Covid-19. Page 12.More Mummies, Fewer Tourists

NEW DELHI — India’s corona-virus second wave is rapidly slid-ing into a devastating crisis, withhospitals unbearably full, oxygensupplies running low, desperatepeople dying in line waiting to seedoctors — and mounting evidencethat the actual death toll is farhigher than officially reported.

Each day, the government re-ports more than 300,000 new in-fections, a world record, and Indiais now seeing more new infectionsthan any other country by far, al-most half of all new cases in aglobal surge.

But experts say those numbers,however staggering, representjust a fraction of the real reach ofthe virus’s spread, which hasthrown this country into emer-gency mode. Millions of peoplerefuse to even step outside — theirfear of catching the virus is thatextreme. Accounts from aroundthe country tell of the sick beingleft to gasp for air as they wait atchaotic hospitals that are runningout of lifesaving oxygen.

The sudden surge in recentweeks, with an insidious newervariant possibly playing a role, iscasting increasing doubt on In-dia’s official Covid-19 death toll ofnearly 200,000, with more than2,000 people dying every day.

Interviews from cremationgrounds across the country,where the fires never stop, por-tray an extensive pattern ofdeaths far exceeding the officialfigures. Nervous politicians and

AS COVID RAVAGESINDIA, TRUE TOLLIS UNDERCOUNTED

CREMATIONS NEVER END

Experts Say Total DeathsFar Exceed the Nearly

200,000 Reported

This article is by Jeffrey Gettle-man, Sameer Yasir, Hari Kumarand Suhasini Raj.

Cremating the remains of people who died from Covid-19 in East Delhi on Friday. India now accounts for almost half of all new coronavirus cases reported worldwide.ATUL LOKE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page 8

Scott Rudin has long been one ofthe most celebrated and powerfulproducers in Hollywood and, es-pecially, on Broadway — an EGOTwho won an Emmy, a Grammy, anOscar and 17 Tony Awards whiledeveloping a reputation as one ofthe vilest bosses in the industry.

Respected for his taste and tal-

ent — with films like “The SocialNetwork” and “No Country forOld Men” and shows including “ToKill a Mockingbird” and “TheBook of Mormon” — he is alsoknown within the entertainmentworld for terrorizing underlings,hurling staplers, cellphones,mugs and other improvised pro-jectiles in moments of rage.

But the abuse of assistants isjust a small part of the way he haswielded his power.

He has a reputation for beingvengeful: After a dispute with anagent over airfare, he allegedlypressured some of the agent’s cli-ents to leave him. He is litigious:He sued an insurance company

seeking an enormous payout afterhe blamed the closing of a musicalon the pregnancy of a star, AudraMcDonald. And he can be callous:When Rita Wilson, who was star-ring in one of his plays, told himthat she had breast cancer, shesaid, he lamented that she wouldneed to take time off during Tonyvoting season.

“He’s like a mafia boss,” said theplaywright Adam Rapp, whose

Volatile and Vengeful: The Rudin Approach to Show BusinessBy MICHAEL PAULSON

and CARA BUCKLEY

Continued on Page 22

Mighty Producer FacesReckoning for Abuse

MINNEAPOLIS — “His name,”the prosecutor said, “was GeorgePerry Floyd Jr.”

These seven words were thefirst the jury heard from SteveSchleicher, a prosecutor, in hisclosing argument in the trial ofDerek Chauvin. With them Mr.Schleicher, standing in a blandMinneapolis courtroom, an-swered a call from the spiritedstreets 18 floors below, where pro-

testers, for nearly a year, had beenshouting a simple demand: SayHis Name.

Over the course of the three-week trial that ended last weekwith a murder conviction for Mr.Chauvin, a white former police of-ficer whose victim was Black, racewas rarely an explicit topic of dis-cussion. And yet the presence ofthe Black Lives Matter move-ment, which demands that allBlack people be seen for their fullhumanity, was felt throughout theproceedings.

Sometimes it was overt — po-tential jurors were asked howthey felt about Black Lives Matteron a questionnaire. More often, itwas implicit. The idea that Mr.Floyd was a full person and notjust a body beneath a kneeshowed up in tearful witness testi-mony and in the closing argu-ment, in which Mr. Schleicher ut-tered the word “human” morethan a dozen times. The judge pre-vented the defense from introduc-ing most evidence of Mr. Floyd’s

Key to Chauvin Verdict Was Humanizing FloydThis article is by Tim Arango,

John Eligon and Shaila Dewan.

Continued on Page 21

Boeing had a historically bad2020. Its 737 Max was groundedfor most of the year after twodeadly crashes, the pandemic dec-imated its business, and the com-pany announced plans to lay off30,000 workers and reported a $12billion loss. Nonetheless, its chiefexecutive, David Calhoun, was re-warded with some $21.1 million incompensation.

Norwegian Cruise Line barelysurvived the year. With the cruiseindustry at a standstill, the com-pany lost $4 billion and furloughed20 percent of its staff. That didn’tstop Norwegian from more thandoubling the pay of Frank Del Rio,its chief executive, to $36.4 mil-lion.

And at Hilton, where nearly aquarter of the corporate staff werelaid off as hotels around the worldsat empty and the company lost$720 million, it was a good year forthe man in charge. Hilton re-ported in a securities filing thatChris Nassetta, its chief execu-tive, received compensationworth $55.9 million in 2020.

The coronavirus plunged theworld into an economic crisis, sentthe U.S. unemployment rate sky-rocketing and left millions ofAmericans struggling to make

Despite Losses,C.E.O.s ProsperAmid Pandemic

By DAVID GELLES

Continued on Page 28

WASHINGTON — PresidentBiden’s pledge to cut America’sclimate warming emissions in halfby 2030 is technologically feasibleand, scientists say, ecologicallyimperative. Economically, it couldbe a gamble.

The speed of the president’spromised transformation to aneconomy far less reliant on fossilfuels risks exposing vulnerabili-ties in the nation’s electricity sys-tem and unsettling its transporta-tion sector, while potentially in-creasing American reliance ongoods imported from China. Util-ity chiefs say they could handlethe transition over a slightly long-er timeline, but they warn ofrolling blackouts to meet the pres-ident’s 2030 target. General Mo-tors said it will sell only vehiclesthat have zero tailpipe emissionsby 2035; the 2030 date has au-toworkers worrying about steepjob losses.

But if Mr. Biden can orchestratethe seamless transition that he ispromising, the rewards could behigh: lower risk of catastrophicclimate change, a burst of newmiddle-class jobs and renewedglobal leadership for Americancompanies in the industries ad-ministration officials believe willdefine the rest of the 21st century.

The president’s pledge, made atthe start of a two-day climate sum-mit hosted by the White House,represents perhaps the greatestbet in recent American history onwhat economists call industrialpolicy, the idea that the govern-ment can steer the developmentof jobs and industries in the econ-omy.

Mr. Biden and his advisers,backed by several economic anal-yses, believe they can spendenough federal money and suffi-ciently regulate the economy tovault America’s manufacturers

Climate GoalsCarry Big RiskOr a Big Payoff

This article is by Coral Davenport,Lisa Friedman and Jim Tankersley.

Continued on Page 24

MacKenzie Scott has no large founda-tion, headquarters or public website.That makes it easier for scammers toprey on the vulnerable. PAGE 1

SUNDAY BUSINESS

Impersonating a Billionaire

Late Edition

VOL. CLXX . . . No. 59,039 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, SUNDAY, APRIL 25, 2021