LONDON — In March, whenBritish detectives began their in-vestigation into the poisoning ofSergei V. Skripal, the former Rus-sian spy, they had little to workwith but mounds of CCTV footage.Heads bent over their desktopcomputers, they began theunglamorous work of poringthrough it, looking for an assassin.

Britain is one of the most heav-ily surveilled nations on earth,with an estimated one surveil-lance camera per 11 citizens. It hascutting-edge technology for visu-ally identifying criminals, andsoftware so sensitive it can scanan airport for a tattoo or a pinkiering. And then there is that teamof genetically gifted humans

known as “super-recognizers.”On Wednesday, the authorities

announced that the effort had paidoff: Two Russian intelligence offi-cers had been charged with at-tempted murder, the first criminalcharges in a case that has driven adeep wedge between Russia andthe West.

Investigators released a cacheof evidence, including securitycamera images that captured theprogress of the two men from an

Aeroflot flight to the scene of thecrime, and from there back toMoscow. They also released pho-tographs of the delicate perfumebottle that was used to carry aweapons-grade nerve agent,known as Novichok, to the quietEnglish city of Salisbury wherethe attack took place.

In the days leading up to theMarch 4 poisoning, the same twoRussian men kept popping up oncameras.

“It’s almost impossible in thiscountry to hide, almost impossi-ble,” said John Bayliss, who re-tired from the Government Com-munications Headquarters, Brit-ain’s electronic intelligenceagency, in 2010. “And with the newsoftware they have, you can tell

Britain’s Web of Cameras Cracks Poisoning CaseBy ELLEN BARRY

The British authorities released photographs on Wednesday of two men suspected in the March poisoning of Sergei V. Skripal, a for-mer Russian spy, and his daughter. They said a perfume bottle sample, top center, was used to carry Novichok, a potent nerve agent.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY METROPOLITAN POLICE, VIA GETTY IMAGES

Landmark Test Leadsto Charges in Attackon Ex-Russian Spy

Continued on Page A6

VOL. CLXVII . . . No. 58,077 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2018

C M Y K Nxxx,2018-09-06,A,001,Bs-4C,E2

U(D54G1D)y+%!]!&!#!{

A rural town struggles to provide healthcare, and the most vulnerable patients,including infants, may suffer. PAGE A10

NATIONAL A10-17

Big Hospital Blocks Small OneThe comic, above in 2014, tried out newjokes this week, in one of his first showssince facing misconduct claims. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

Aziz Ansari, Venturing Onstage

A Trump administration senior officialwrites anonymously of trying to thwartparts of the president’s agenda. PAGE A23

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23

An Insider’s ResistanceFew people have a good understandingof how the company delivers searchresults. And for good reason — it triesto keep it a secret. PAGE B1

BUSINESS DAY B1-7

The Engine Driving GoogleWorkers at the fast-food outlet, onceconsidered a threat to French culture,want to keep it from being sold. PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A4-9

Marseille’s Beloved McDonald’s

The writer’s dissection of the TrumpWhite House is a “slow tropical storm ofa book,” Dwight Garner says. PAGE C1

Feeling Bob Woodward’s ‘Fear’U.S. prosecutors demanded that mil-lions of North Carolina records be givento immigration authorities. PAGE A16

Voter Records Subpoenaed

Some wealthy countries have beeneffectively outsourcing their pollutionby importing energy-intensive productsfrom developing nations. PAGE B1

Following Carbon’s Footprints

The streaming service has been makingdeals with independent artists. Could itchange the path to stardom in the mu-sic industry? PAGE B1

Spotify Makes Labels Nervous

Scrutiny of Julia Salazar’s backgroundthreatens to undermine her bid toshake up a State Senate race. PAGE A20

NEW YORK A19-21

A Giant Slayer? Critics Say No

Kenny Shopsin, a New York restaura-teur, also used a sprawling menu todrive people away. He was 76. PAGE B14

OBITUARIES B14-15

He Liked to Toss Out Customers

WASHINGTON — Judge BrettM. Kavanaugh, PresidentTrump’s nominee to the SupremeCourt, on Wednesday dodged di-rect questions about whether theConstitution would allow Mr.Trump to use the powers of thepresidency to thwart the Russiacollusion and obstruction investi-gations that are swirling aroundhis administration.

Testifying before the Senate Ju-diciary Committee on a gruelingsecond day of hearings, JudgeKavanaugh refused to saywhether he believes Mr. Trump, asa sitting president, could be sub-poenaed by Robert S. Mueller III,the special counsel, to testify inthe sprawling inquiry. Answeringquestions in public for the firsttime since his nomination, thejudge also declined to say whetherMr. Trump could escape legaljeopardy by pardoning himself orhis associates.

“I’m not going to answer hypo-thetical questions of that sort,”Judge Kavanaugh said, insistingthat it would be inappropriate fora Supreme Court nominee to pub-licly offer views on issues thatmight come before the court oncehe is a justice.

Judge Kavanaugh also declinedto say he would disqualify himselffrom cases concerning Mr. Trump.

In a hearing that began in themorning, stretched into the night,and seesawed between intensegrilling by Democrats and fawn-ing praise by Republicans, JudgeKavanaugh sought to presenthimself as an evenhanded arbiterof the law rather than a partisanideologue driven by a desire tocarry out a Republican policyagenda. He parried questions,without any obvious blunders, onmatters ranging from abortion togun rights to executive powersand arcane provisions of antitrustlaw.

At least two more days of hear-ings remain, but absent a startlingrevelation, he appears headed toconfirmation by the end of themonth because Republicans re-main largely united behind hisnomination.

Judge Brett M. KavanaughERIN SCHAFF FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A12

Court NomineeDucks QueriesOn Presidency

Democrats Unswayedby Kavanaugh

This article is by Michael D.Shear, Adam Liptak and Sheryl GayStolberg.

Hours after the deadly schoolshooting in Parkland, Fla., compa-nies that market their services toschools began to speak up. “Gov-ernor, take pride that a Vermont-based company is helping schoolsidentify the violence before it hap-pens,” one company wrote onTwitter to Gov. Phil Scott of Ver-mont.

The chief executive of anothercompany appeared on the news toboast of a “home run”: Its algo-rithms, he said, had helped pre-vent two student suicides.

To an anguished question thatoften follows school shootings —Why didn’t anyone spot the warn-ing signs? — these companieshave answered with a businessmodel: 24/7 monitoring of studentactivity on social media.

Often without advance warningto students and parents, the com-panies flag posts like those ofAuseel Yousefi, who was expelledin 2013 from his high school inHuntsville, Ala., for Twitter postsmade on the last day of his junioryear. “A kid has a right to be whothey want outside of school,” hesaid later.

More than 100 public school dis-tricts and universities, faced withthe prospect that the next at-tacker may be among their ownstudents, have hired social mediamonitoring companies over thepast five years, according to a re-view of school spending records.And each successive tragedybrings more customers: In theweeks after the Parkland attack,dozens of schools entered intosuch contracts, even though thereis little evidence that the pro-grams work as promised.

The customers have includeddistricts reeling in the aftermathof shootings, like the NewtownPublic Schools in Connecticut;some of the nation’s largest urbanschool systems, like Los Angelesand Chicago; and prominent uni-versities like Michigan State andFlorida State. The monitoring isone of a host of products and serv-ices, including active shooter in-surance and facial recognitiontechnology, that are being mar-

Online EyesFor WatchingStudents 24/7

By AARON LEIBOWITZ

Continued on Page A17

WASHINGTON — Republicansaccused Twitter of being biasedagainst conservatives on Wednes-day, drawing rebukes from Demo-crats in a congressional hearingthat illustrated how partisan linesare increasingly being drawn onsocial media.

The sparring focused on the tes-timony of Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s

chief executive, who repeatedlydenied the accusations during ahearing before the House Energyand Commerce Committee. Re-publicans grilled Mr. Dorsey, sug-gesting that Twitter’s algorithmssuppress conservative view-

points and discriminate againstRepublican voices.

Representative Mike Doyle, aDemocrat of Pennsylvania, ac-cused Republicans of soundingthe alarm of bias for political gain.The idea that social media serv-ices exhibit a partisan slant, Mr.Doyle said, was a “load of crap.”

Yet the notion that social mediacompanies might be intentionallychoosing what political content to

Republicans Accuse Twitter of Exhibiting BiasBy CECILIA KANG

and SHEERA FRENKEL

Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook and Jack Dorsey of Twitter testifying in Washington on Wednesday.ERIC THAYER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Democrats Say ClaimsAre for Political Gain

Continued on Page A15

FORT WORTH — More than1,000 miles from the caustic Su-preme Court confirmation hear-ing of Brett M. Kavanaugh, a fed-eral judge in Texas on Wednesdaylistened to arguments aboutwhether to find part or all of theAffordable Care Act unconstitu-tional, in a case that may end upbefore a newly right-leaning set ofjustices.

The case has become not simplya threat to the landmark legisla-tion. Democrats have sought tomake it both a flash point in thebattle over whether to confirmJudge Kavanaugh and a crucialprong in their strategy to retakecontrol of the House and Senate inthe midterm elections.

It has already made some Re-

publicans jumpy, especially thosein tight re-election contests, be-cause the Trump administrationexplicitly said in a legal filing inJune that it agreed with the argu-ment of Texas and 19 other Repub-lican-controlled states that thelaw’s protections for people withpre-existing medical conditionsare not constitutional. The admin-istration is refusing to defendthose guarantees. In that sense,although the case threatens one ofthe Democrats’ proudest achieve-ments, it is also proving to besomething of an election-year giftto their party.

They have hammered away atthe issue in millions of dollars ofads, at round tables with their con-

Legal Drive to Smash Health ActHands the Democrats a Hammer

By ABBY GOODNOUGH

Continued on Page A17

The already-good Rams got even better,the Bay Area is feeling Garoppolo Fe-ver, and the once-fearsome Seahawkssearch for a new identity. PAGE B8

SPORTSTHURSDAY B8-13

The Wild, Watchable West

WASHINGTON — PresidentTrump sought to assert com-mand of his administration onWednesday amid reports of a“quiet resistance” among some

of his own adviserswho have secretlyand deliberately triedto thwart from theinside what one offi-cial called his “reck-

less decisions.”The surreal struggle between

Mr. Trump and at least somemembers of his own team hascharacterized his tenure from thebeginning, but it spilled intopublic view this week in a waythat raised questions about thepresident’s capacity to governand the responsibilities andduties of the people who work forhim.

An Op-Ed article by an un-named Trump administrationofficial published by The NewYork Times on Wednesdayclaimed that “unsung heroes” onhis team were “working dili-gently from within to frustrateparts of his agenda and his worstinclinations.” It came a day afterreports about a new book, “Fear,”by Bob Woodward of The Wash-ington Post, revealed efforts byaides to surreptitiously block thepresident when they believe hemay be acting dangerously.

The collective portrayal sug-gested that Mr. Trump may notbe fully in charge of his ownWhite House, surrounded byadvisers who consider him sovolatile and temperamental thatthey swipe documents from hisdesk in hopes of stopping himfrom issuing rash orders. Whilehis rivals called such effortsheroic and patriotic, his support-ers complained of a virtual coupat odds with the Constitution andthe will of the people.

Mr. Trump erupted in angerafter reading the Op-Ed articleand John F. Kelly, the chief ofstaff, and other aides scurried inand out of the press office tryingto figure out how to respond.Advisers told Mr. Trump that thiswas the same as leakers who talkwith the news media every day,but a hunt for the author of theoffending article was quicklyinitiated and scrutiny focused ona half-dozen names. Aides saidthey assumed it was written by

TRUMP SEETHESAS A ‘RESISTANCE’

SPILLS INTO VIEW

TIMES OP-ED FEEDS FURY

Accounts Suggest Aides Quietly Try to Thwart

the President

By PETER BAKERand MAGGIE HABERMAN

Continued on Page A14

WHITEHOUSEMEMO

Late EditionToday, partly sunny, afternoon thun-derstorms, hot, humid, high 92. To-night, cloudy, warm, humid, low 71.Tomorrow, cooler, less humid, high77. Weather map is on Page B12.

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