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WASHINGTON — A state courtin Connecticut granted a sweep-ing victory to the families of eightpeople killed in a 2012 mass shoot-ing at Sandy Hook ElementarySchool in Newtown, Conn., whohad sued the far-right broadcaster

and conspiracy theorist AlexJones and his Infowars media out-let for defamation.

The judge ruled on Monday thatbecause Mr. Jones had refused toturn over documents ordered bythe courts, including financialrecords, he was liable by default.The decision, combined with pre-vious rulings in Texas in late Sep-

tember, means Mr. Jones has lostall the defamation lawsuits filedagainst him by the families of 10victims.

Lawyers for Mr. Jones said hewould appeal.

Mr. Jones for years spread bo-gus theories that the shooting thatkilled 20 first graders and six edu-cators was part of a government-

led plot to confiscate Americans’firearms and that the victims’families were “actors” in thescheme. People who believedthose false claims accosted thefamilies on the street and atevents honoring their slain lovedones, abused them online, con-

Judge Rules for Sandy Hook Families Over Far-Right Broadcaster

By ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON

Continued on Page A16

LOWER ESTIMATE Relying onbeefed-up tax enforcement forrevenue may not work. PAGE B1

BIPARTISAN WIN Biden hopes hisinfrastructure deal will help fuel apolitical turnaround. PAGE A14

WASHINGTON — PresidentBiden signed a $1 trillion infra-structure bill into law on Mondayafternoon, a bipartisan victorythat will pour billions into the na-tion’s roads, ports and powerlines.

While the bill stopped short ofrealizing his full-scale ambitionsfor overhauling America’s trans-portation and energy systems, Mr.Biden pointed to it as evidencethat lawmakers could work acrossparty lines to solve problems inWashington.

He also said it would better po-sition the United States to com-pete against China and other na-tions vying for dominance of 21st-century emerging industries.

Hours before a virtual summitwith President Xi Jinping ofChina, whose infrastructure ini-tiatives have helped vault China toglobal leadership in advancedmanufacturing and other areas,Mr. Biden said the bill showeddemocratic governments can de-liver for their citizens.

“Let’s remember what we’vegot done for the American peoplewhen we do come together,” Mr.Biden said on the South Lawn ofthe White House. “I truly believethat 50 years from now, historiansare going to look back at this mo-ment and say, that’s the momentAmerica began to win the compe-tition of the 21st century.”

The bill Mr. Biden signed willnot address the nation’s entirebacklog of needed infrastructureinvestments, and it is not as ambi-tious as Mr. Biden’s initial $2.3 tril-lion proposal. The compromisesthat were necessary to win over alarge group of Senate Republicanspared back the president’s ambi-tions for investing in “human in-frastructure” like home healthcare and fortifying the nation’sphysical infrastructure to fightand adapt to climate change.

Still, administration officialsand many economists and busi-ness groups largely agree that thepackage is the most importantstep in a generation toward up-grading critical infrastructure andthat it could soon pay dividendsfor a wide range of businesses andpeople, from electric vehicle mak-ers to rural web surfers.

Some of the first bursts ofspending will go toward areas thatMr. Biden prioritized in negotia-tions, such as tens of billions ofdollars to improve access tobroadband internet and to replacehazardous lead drinking pipes.Spending has already been an-nounced to help clear backlogs atthe nation’s ports, which are con-tributing to shipping delays andprice increases as the United

BIDEN SIGNS BILLFOR BOLSTERINGINFRASTRUCTURE

‘SHOVEL-WORTHY’ WORK

Early Funds Will ImproveBroadband and Fix

Lead Pipes

By JIM TANKERSLEY

Continued on Page A14

ROME — As temperatures dropand coronavirus infections spikeacross Europe, some countriesare introducing increasingly tar-geted restrictions against the un-vaccinated who are driving an-other wave of contagion andputting economic recoveries, pub-lic health and an eventual returnto prepandemic freedoms at risk.

On Monday, Austria set a newbar for such measures in the West.Facing a 134 percent increase incases in the last two weeks, theAustrian government crackeddown on its unvaccinated popula-tion over the age of 12, restrictingtheir movement to traveling forwork, school, buying groceriesand medical care.

“Our task as the federal govern-ment is to protect the people ofAustria,” Chancellor AlexanderSchallenberg told a news confer-ence on Sunday. “We are fulfillingthis responsibility.”

Austria’s step fit a pattern ofgovernments across Europe pass-ing rules to make life harder forthe unvaccinated, with the goal ofmotivating people to get a shot.Taken together, the measures area bleak and clear sign that a virusthat however fleetingly seemed apiece of European history was stillvery much part of its present andfuture.

The World Health Organizationwarned recently that Europe wasonce again the epicenter of thepandemic and that half a millionpeople on the continent could diefrom Covid in the next fewmonths. Europe reported a 10 per-cent increase in deaths and a 7percent increase in new infectionsin the first week of November,compared with the previous week.

Hospitalizations and deathswere mostly in Eastern Europe,but the new wave threatened theeconomic recoveries and Christ-mas vacations across the conti-nent. A return to normalcy predi-cated on the success of vaccina-tion campaigns was being in-creasingly threatened by theunvaccinated who offered the vi-rus room to run.

Europe TargetsUnvaccinatedIn Virus Spike

Making Life Harder inEffort to Push Shots

By JASON HOROWITZ

Monitoring lockdown compli-ance in Innsbruck, Austria.

JAN HETFLEISCH/GETTY IMAGES

Continued on Page A11

It was an unexpectedly raucousevent. About 100 people packed ahearing in Manhattan’s West Vil-lage in the summer, eager to ventabout an issue dividing neighbor-hoods across New York City.

The matter at hand: outdoordining.

As city officials presented aplan to make it permanent, resi-dents waved matching signs withslogans like “Outdoor Dining IsHome Invasion.” They loudlybooed an official who called it ahuge success. When another offi-cial said New York’s sidewalkshave become some of the best din-ing options in the world, the audi-

ence screamed, “Rats!”“We’re just absolutely going out

of our minds,” one resident said, toapplause, “with the emotional dis-tress of every kind of quality-of-life issue you can imagine.”

The fight in the West Villagesignals the challenges ahead forcity officials as they seize on anopportunity to codify one of themost transformative changes tothe urban streetscape in recentdecades. Starting later thismonth, officials will host citywidehearings for residents to say whatthey believe outdoor diningshould look like in a post-pan-

Rats! Jobs! Parking! Nightlife!A Clash Over Outdoor Dining

By NICOLE HONG

Continued on Page A21

ADAM PEREZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Unbeaten in 11 games, a small Southern California high school is generating excitement. Page A12.Football Success for a School for the Deaf

A hot dog vendor walking out ofa downtown ballpark, where gun-fire pierced the night after thehome team won a game. A womanwhose quarrel with a trustedfriend took a heartbreaking turn.A young man caught up in drugspassing through a shabby motel.A new mother shot by a strangerin a random act of extreme vio-lence.

Each one of these scenes wasfatal, and each became a tragicdata point in a surge in homicidesthat has swept across the country,touching not only the largest citiesin America but suburbs, small

towns and even remote ruralplaces that rarely see a murder.

On a national scale, the murderrate is still far below its height inthe 1990s, and in some places thespike seen in 2020, when murdersrose by almost 30 percent, has al-ready begun to slow. Homicidesalso constitute a tiny percent ofoverall major crime, which lastyear continued to drop as theftand burglaries fell.

But in many large cities — in-

cluding Atlanta, Chicago and Phil-adelphia — the number of homi-cides this year is on track to sur-pass last year, leaving the publicunnerved and injecting the poli-tics of crime into local electionsaround the country, as variousstate and mayoral candidatespromise they can restore a great-er sense of safety. And althoughsome places, including New YorkCity and Dallas, have seen slightimprovement this year, many oth-ers have not. Las Vegas, Minne-apolis, Nashville and Los Angeleshave all seen year-to-date in-creases.

This wave has also touchedsmaller cities and rural townswhere police departments don’thave homicide units and outside

Four Lives Lost: Inside a Surging Homicide RateThis article is by Julie Bosman,

Mitch Smith, Neil MacFarquhar,Tim Arango and Chloe Reynolds.

Pandemic Factors IntoIncrease in Drug Use

and Gun Buying

The scene of a homicide in Albuquerque this year. A rise in murders has plagued big cities, small towns, even remote rural areas.ADRIA MALCOLM FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A18

HRANITNE, Ukraine — Artil-lery shells fired by Russian-backed separatists shrieked intothis small town deep in the flat-lands of eastern Ukraine, shear-ing branches from trees, scoopingout craters, blowing up six housesand killing one Ukrainian soldier.

It was an all-too-common re-sponse to the smallest of provoca-tions — a dispute over groceryshopping for a hundred or so peo-ple living in the buffer zone be-tween the separatists and Ukrain-ian government forces. But in thehair-trigger state of the Ukrainewar, minor episodes can grow intofull-fledged battles.

Hunkered down in a bunker, theUkrainian commander, MajorOleksandr Sak, requested a coun-terstrike from a sophisticated newweapon in Ukraine’s arsenal, aTurkish-made Bayraktar TB2armed drone.

Deployed for the first time incombat by Ukraine and providedby a country that is a member ofthe North Atlantic Treaty Organi-zation, the drone hit a howitzer op-erated by the separatists. Thingsquickly escalated.

Across the border, Russiascrambled jets. The next day, Rus-sian tanks mounted on rail carsrumbled toward the Ukrainianborder. Diplomacy in Berlin, Mos-cow and Washington went into

Ukraine FightOver GroceriesIgnites a Battle

By ANDREW E. KRAMER

Continued on Page A8

In a program of works featuring balletstars and a youthful ensemble at NewYork City Center, Twyla Tharp mergesthe past with the present. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-6

All the Right DancesVaccines have been developed for catsand dogs, but inoculations aren’t neces-sary, experts have concluded. PAGE D1

SCIENCE TIMES D1-8

No Shot for SpotStephen K. Bannon surrendered andappeared in federal court to face con-tempt of Congress charges. PAGE A16

NATIONAL A12-21

Bannon Turns Himself In

Wild and misleading statements aboutvaccines have spread on podcasts andthe radio, even as some hosts die ofvirus complications. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-6

A Home for Covid FalsehoodsU.S. officials said a meeting of Presi-dent Biden and Xi Jinping was meant toreassure both sides amid military andeconomic tensions. PAGE A10

INTERNATIONAL A4-11

Virtual U.S.-China Summit

Michelle Goldberg PAGE A23

OPINION A22-23

Minnie Miñoso, a Black Latino pioneer,had underrated stats and impact thatmay merit induction to Cooperstown,our columnist writes. PAGE B7

SPORTS B7-9

Making a Hall of Fame Case

Combat veterans pushing for legaliza-tion of psychedelic drugs have wonsome influential supporters. PAGE D1

Persuasive Lobbyists

Waste from adult diapers is growing bytens of thousands of tons a year inJapan. One town may have a solution:recycle it into fuel pellets. PAGE A4

Turning Diapers Into Fuel

Danny Fenster, who was detained whiletrying to leave Myanmar in May, hadbeen sentenced to 11 years in prisonand was facing new charges. PAGE A9

U.S. Journalist Is Freed

President Biden plans to block new oiland gas leases near Chaco Canyon inNew Mexico. PAGE A15

No New Drilling at Tribal Site

Late Edition

VOL. CLXXI . . . . No. 59,244 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2021

Today, plenty of sunshine, windsgradually subsiding, remainingchilly, high 50. Tonight, clear skies,low 40. Tomorrow, cloudy, high 56.Weather map appears on Page A24.

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