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Backyard birding has become the per-fect pandemic pastime. Here’s how todraw more species for close-ups. PAGE 5

AT HOME

A Banquet They’ll Flock To

A reporter goes home to find economicand social changes driving partisanshipand race and class schisms. PAGE 20

NATIONAL 12-23

A Kalamazoo Divided

Both presidential candidates havedescribed the election as a referendumon the soul of the nation. But whatwould it mean to save it? PAGE 12

Soul Searching in America

The pandemic may pass, but its effectson education will remain. This has beenhard, but let us look to the future.

SPECIAL SECTION

Remote Learning’s Legacy

Reviving his Borat character and play-ing Abbie Hoffman, Sacha Baron Cohenfeels he “had to ring the alarm bell andsay that democracy is in peril.” PAGE 1

SUNDAY STYLES

Somber Clown in Dire Times

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, a heroto liberals abroad, sailed toward a sec-ond term in elections at home. PAGE 9

A Victory Lap in New Zealand

In his new memoir, Matthew McConau-ghey shares anecdotes and lessonsfrom his life, which has turned out allright, all right, all right. PAGE 5

ARTS & LEISURE

Hollywood Philosopher

The Editorial Board PAGE 2SUNDAY REVIEW For parents fretting that the pandemic

may stunt emotional development,remember children are resilient. PAGE 4

The Social Toll of Distancing

At a beauty supply shop in Chicago, theAmerican dream has come true for itsKorean immigrant owner. But anothergroup is still waiting. PAGE 1

SUNDAY BUSINESS

Black Products, Black Workers

How a torrent of propaganda, lies andconspiracy theories has weaponized theFirst Amendment. An examination offree speech in the age of disinformation.

THE MAGAZINE

Half of What You Hear

Drew Kanevsky, a Jets season-ticket holder since 2002, missesthe familiar game day rhythmswhen the team is at home: puttingon his trusty No. 74 Nick Mangoldjersey, tailgating at Lot K1 atMetLife Stadium, explaining nu-ances to his 10-year-old son, An-thony, that the television feeddoesn’t show.

But in this fraught N.F.L. season

in which fans have mostly beenbarred from stadiums because ofpublic health concerns, Kanevskyfinds himself pining for a cher-ished bygone ritual: booing his fa-vorite team.

“More than you can under-stand,” said Kanevsky, 42, of Belle-ville, N.J. “Because I have no wayto release my venom.”

The void Kanevsky feels is yetanother consequence of a pan-demic that has muted so many

joyous occasions — buzzer-beat-ing shots and game-winning fieldgoals drilled in empty venues; theStanley Cup awarded in Edmon-ton, Alberta, to a team fromTampa, Fla., that beat a team fromDallas — but also deprived thesporting world of a critical side offandom: the collective venting.

Watching from home — “miser-ably,” Kanevsky said — as the win-less Jets plod through the season,

In the N.F.L., the Boo Birds Are All Cooped UpBy BEN SHPIGEL

Continued on Page 28

Late Edition

VOL. CLXX . . . No. 58,850 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2020

LAM YIK FEI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

An urban safari in Hong Kong introduces city slickers to their slithery, lethal neighbors. Page 10.Nice to Meet You. Pardon the Fangs.

Rohingya brides from refugee camps inBangladesh risk months at sea for ar-ranged marriages in Malaysia. PAGE 8

INTERNATIONAL 8-11

Perilous Route to a Wedding

CHICAGO — When the corona-virus began sweeping around theglobe this spring, people from Se-attle to Rome to London canceledweddings and vacations, cut offvisits with grandparents and hun-kered down in their homes forwhat they thought would be abrief but essential period of isola-tion.

But summer did not extinguishthe virus. And with fall has comeanother dangerous, uncontrolledsurge of infections that in parts ofthe world is the worst of the pan-demic so far.

The United States surpassedeight million known cases thispast week, and reported morethan 70,000 new infections on Fri-day, the most in a single day sinceJuly. Eighteen states added morenew coronavirus infections dur-ing the seven-day stretch endingon Friday than in any other weekof the pandemic.

In Europe, cases are rising andhospitalizations are up. Britain isimposing new restrictions, andFrance has placed cities on “maxi-mum alert,” ordering many toclose all bars, gyms and sportscenters. Germany and Italy setrecords for the most new dailycases. And leaders in the CzechRepublic described their healthcare system as “in danger of col-lapsing,” as hospitals are over-whelmed and more deaths are oc-curring than at any time in thepandemic.

The virus has taken differentpaths through these countries asleaders have tried to tamp downthe spread with a range of restric-tions. Shared, though, is a publicweariness and a growing tenden-cy to risk the dangers of the co-ronavirus, out of desire or necessi-ty: With no end in sight, manypeople are flocking to bars, familyparties, bowling alleys and sport-ing events much as they did be-fore the virus hit, and others mustreturn to school or work as com-

INFECTIONS IN U.S.AND EUROPE SHOWTROUBLING TREND

‘IS IT GOING TO BE OVER?’

Months On, Rising RatesCollide With Fatigue

and Frustration

This article is by Julie Bosman,Sarah Mervosh and Marc Santora.

Continued on Page 6

This month, a federal judgestruck down a decree from Gov.Greg Abbott of Texas limitingeach county in the state to a singledrop box to handle the surge in ab-sentee ballots this election sea-son, rejecting Mr. Abbott’s argu-ment that the limit was necessaryto combat fraud.

Days later, an appellate panel ofthree judges appointed by Presi-dent Trump froze the lower courtorder, keeping Mr. Abbott’s newpolicy in place — meaning HarrisCounty, with more than two mil-lion voters, and Wheeler County,with well under 4,000, would eachbe allowed only one drop box forvoters who want to hand-delivertheir absentee ballots and avoidreliance on the Postal Service.

The Texas case is one of at leasteight major election disputesaround the country in which Fed-eral District Court judges sidedwith civil rights groups and Dem-ocrats in voting cases only to bestayed by the federal appealscourts, whose ranks Mr. Trumphas done more to populate thanany president in more than 40years.

The rulings highlight how Mr.Trump’s drive to fill empty judge-ships is yielding benefits to his re-election campaign even beforeany major dispute about the out-come may make it to the SupremeCourt. He made clear the politicaladvantages he derives from hispower to appoint judges when heexplained last month that he wasmoving fast to name a successorto Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg sothe Supreme Court would have afull contingent to handle any elec-tion challenges, which he has indi-cated he might bring in the eventof a loss.

In appointing dozens of reliableconservatives to the appellatebench, Mr. Trump has made itmore likely that appeals come be-fore judges with legal philoso-phies sympathetic to Republicanson issues including voting rights.The trend has left Democrats andcivil rights lawyers increasinglyconcerned that they face anothermajor impediment to their efforts

Appointees Tilt Toward Trump In Voting Cases

Conservative Judges onAppellate Courts

By JIM RUTENBERGand REBECCA R. RUIZ

Iowa

Ala.

Ariz.

Calif.D.C.

Fla.

Ga.

Idaho

Texas

Utah

Maine

Mich.

Minn.

Miss.

Neb.

N.H.

N.M.

N.Y.

N.C.

Ohio

Pa.

S.D.

Tenn.

Va.

Wis.

Wyo.

Nev.

Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump spent similar amounts in Iowa, Ohio and Maine.

Each of the two candidates has spent the most in Florida: $74 million for Mr. Biden and $53 million for Mr. Trump.

Amount spent$10 million

$5 million

$1 million

Biden spent more than Trump States Trump flipped in 2016Trump spent more than Biden

Note: Only states in which either candidate paid for ads are shown. Data shown does not include national ad purchases. | Source: Advertising Analytics WEIYI CAI, DENISE LU AND JUGAL K. PATEL/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Total Ad Spending by Candidates in States, May 3 to Oct. 15

Continued on Page 21

President Trump is being vastlyoutspent by Joseph R. Biden Jr. intelevision advertising in the gen-eral election battleground statesand elsewhere, with the formervice president focusing over-whelmingly on the coronavirus asmillions of Americans across thecountry begin casting early votes.

Mr. Biden has maintained anearly two-to-one advantage onthe airwaves for months. His dom-inance is most pronounced inthree critical swing states —Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wis-consin — where he spent about$53 million to Mr. Trump’s $17 mil-lion over the past month, with adsassailing the president’s handlingof the economy and taxes as wellas the virus, according to data

from Advertising Analytics, an adtracking firm.

In Pennsylvania alone, Mr. Bi-den ran 38 different ads during asingle week this month, a sign ofhow comprehensive his effortthere has been.

The president’s ad strategy, inturn, reflects the challenges fac-ing both his campaign financesand Electoral College map. He hasrecently scaled back advertisingin battleground states like Ohioand Iowa and, until this past week,slashed ads in Michigan and Wis-consin, despite being behind inpolls. And Mr. Trump is having to

divert resources to hold onto Re-publican-leaning states like Ari-zona and Georgia.

Mr. Trump spent less on ads in2016, too, and still went on to cap-ture critical states and prevailover Hillary Clinton. But backthen he relied heavily on huge ral-lies and live cable news coverageto get his message out, and he gotextensive airtime for his attackson Mrs. Clinton. This time around,his rallies have been fewer andsmaller because of the pandemicand his own virus infection; theevents have gotten less cable cov-erage; and he has had a hard timemaking attacks stick on Mr. Biden.

In many ways, the advertisingpicture reveals how the pandemichas upended the 2020 race. Within-person campaigning sharplylimited, the traditional advan-

Biden Eclipses Trump in the War for the AirwavesBy NICK CORASANITI

and WEIYI CAIGiant Edge in Spending

on Battleground Ads

Continued on Page 19

As July 4 and its barbecues ar-rived this year, the activist andformer N.F.L. quarterback ColinKaepernick declared, “We rejectyour celebration of white suprem-acy.”

The movie star Mark Ruffalosaid in February that Hollywoodhad been swimming for a centuryin “a homogeneous culture ofwhite supremacy.”

The director of the MetropolitanMuseum of Art, one of New YorkCity’s most prestigious museums,acknowledged this summer thathis institution was grounded inwhite supremacy, while fourblocks uptown, the curatorial staffof the Guggenheim denounced awork culture suffused in it.

The Los Angeles Times editori-al board issued an apology twoweeks ago describing itself as“deeply rooted in white suprema-cy” for at least its first 80 years. InEngland, the British National Li-brary’s Decolonising WorkingGroup cautioned employees that abelief in “color blindness” or theview that “mankind is one humanfamily” are examples of “covertwhite supremacy.”

In a time of plague and protest,two words — “white supremacy”— have poured into the rhetoricalbloodstream with force andpower. With President Trump’sovert use of racist language, aspate of police killings of Blackpeople, and the rise of far-right ex-tremist groups, many see thephrase as a more accurate way todescribe today’s racial realities,with older descriptions like “big-otry” or “prejudice” consideredtoo tame for such a raw moment.

News aggregators show a vastincrease in the use of the term“white supremacy” (or “white su-premacist”) compared with 10years ago. The New York Times it-self used the term fewer than 75times in 2010, but nearly 700 timessince the first of this year alone.Type the term into Twitter’ssearch engine and it pops up six,eight or 10 times each minute.

The meaning of the words hasexpanded, too. Ten years ago,white supremacy frequently de-scribed the likes of the Ku KluxKlan and David Duke, the neo-Nazi politician from Louisiana.Now it cuts a swath through theculture, describing an array ofsubjects: the mortgage lendingpolicies of banks; Trader Joe’s su-

‘Supremacy’?Divide GrowsOver a Phrase

By MICHAEL POWELL

Continued on Page 22

Joseph R. Biden Jr. marchedinto adulthood in Bass Weejunspenny loafers.

He was known around the Uni-versity of Delaware campus as theteetotaling semi-jock with asweater around his neck — thetype who seemed more consumedwith date nights than civil rightsand expected a certain standardof decorum from his companions,once threatening to break off anevening with a woman who lit acigarette in his borrowed convert-ible.

And when Mr. Biden and hisfriends from Syracuse Universitylaw school happened upon anti-war protesters at the chancellor’soffice — the kind of Vietnam-erademonstration that galvanized somuch of their generation — hisgroup stepped past with disdain.They were going for pizza.

More than a half-century later,as Mr. Biden seeks the WhiteHouse with a pledge to soothe thenation’s wounds and lower its col-lective temperature, he has beenleft to deflect a curious charge atthe center of President Trump’sre-election effort: Mr. Biden, the

president insists, is eager to do thefar-left bidding of violent agitatorsand other assorted radicals.

“They’ve got you wrappedaround their finger, Joe,” Mr.Trump taunted at their first de-bate.

Mr. Biden, a 77-year-old moder-ate who cites John Wayne moviesand long-dead Senate peers, has

Joe Biden’s Non-Radical ’60s:Building a Life Amid the Unrest

By MATT FLEGENHEIMERand KATIE GLUECK

Joseph R. Biden Jr., Universityof Delaware, Class of 1965.

UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE

Continued on Page 18

THE LONG RUN

From the Suburbs to the Senate

Today, partly sunny, not as cool, high61. Tonight, partly cloudy, a gentlewind, low 53. Tomorrow, mostlycloudy, seasonable, high 64.Weather map appears on Page 24.

$6.00