VOL. CLXVIII . . . No. 58,330 © 2019 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, FRIDAY, MAY 17, 2019

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Jennifer Senior PAGE A29

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A28-29

ALYSSA SCHUKAR FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

As the military college’s first female regimental commander, Sarah Zorn brought change to a place rich with tradition. Pages A14-15.Trailblazer at the Citadel

I. M. Pei, who began his long ca-reer designing buildings for aNew York real estate developerand ended it as one of the mostrevered architects in the world,died early Thursday at his homein Manhattan. He was 102.

His death was confirmed by hisson Li Chung Pei, who is also anarchitect and known as Sandi. Hesaid his father had recently cele-brated his birthday with a familydinner.

Best known for designing theEast Building of the NationalGallery of Art in Washington andthe glass pyramid that serves asan entrance to the Louvre in Paris,Mr. Pei was one of the few archi-tects who were equally attractiveto real estate developers, corpo-rate chieftains and art museumboards (the third group, of course,often made up of members of thefirst two). And all of his work —from his commercial skyscrapersto his art museums — represented

a careful balance of the cuttingedge and the conservative.

Mr. Pei remained a committedmodernist, and while none of hisbuildings could ever be called old-fashioned or traditional, his par-

ticular brand of modernism —clean, reserved, sharp-edged andunapologetic in its use of simplegeometries and its aspirations tomonumentality — sometimes

A Master Whose Buildings Dazzled the WorldBy PAUL GOLDBERGER

I. M. PEI, 1917-2019

I. M. Pei in 1989 outside the glass pyramid he designed at theLouvre in Paris. The project quickly won over early critics.

MARC RIBOUD/MAGNUM PHOTOS

Continued on Page A26

BEIJING — China’s leader, XiJinping, seemed confident threeweeks ago that a yearlong tradewar with the United States couldsoon subside, handing him a po-tent political victory.

He even made a speech sayingChina would protect intellectualproperty, encourage foreign in-vestment, and buy more goodsand services from abroad — allchanges the United States hadbeen demanding as the countriestried to negotiate a deal.

But just a week after thatspeech, Chinese negotiators sentthe Americans a substantially re-written draft agreement, prompt-ing President Trump to accuseBeijing of reneging on terms thathad been settled.

That has left hopes for a historicbreakthrough in tatters.

In China’s top-down politicalsystem, where President Xi hasamassed formidable power, it’sunlikely that anyone else wouldhave had the authority — or, forthat matter, the nerve — to funda-mentally alter the emerging pactat this late date.

Having apparently made thatdecision, it is clear that Mr. Xi mis-judged Mr. Trump’s eagerness fora deal and how far he could pushthe American negotiators, accord-ing to more than a dozen people,including current and former offi-cials, researchers, lawyers, andtrade experts familiar with thedeal and how it fell apart.

Now Mr. Xi risks being backedinto a corner, unable to compro-mise between his own positionsand Mr. Trump’s.

A key issue was the UnitedStates’ demand that the agree-ment bind China to setting some ofthe changes in domestic law. ForMr. Xi, such a move could be seen

Why Xi TurnedDeal on TradeInto a Standoff

Feared Seeming Weakor Misjudged Trump

By CHRIS BUCKLEYand KEITH BRADSHER

Continued on Page A8

The College Board, the com-pany that administers the SATexam taken by about two millionstudents a year, will for the firsttime assess students not just ontheir math and verbal skills, butalso on their educational and so-cioeconomic backgrounds, enter-ing a fraught battle over the fair-ness of high-stakes testing.

The company announced onThursday that it will include a newrating, which is widely being re-ferred to as an “adversity score,”of between 1 and 100 on students’test results. An average score is50, and higher numbers meanmore disadvantage. The score willbe calculated using 15 factors, in-cluding the relative quality of thestudent’s high school and thecrime rate and poverty level of the

student’s neighborhood.The rating will not affect stu-

dents’ test scores, and will be re-ported only to college admissionsofficials as part of a larger pack-age of data on each test taker.

The new measurement bringsthe College Board squarely intothe raging national debate overfairness and merit in college ad-missions, one fueled by enduringcourt clashes on affirmative ac-tion, a federal investigation into asprawling admissions cheatingring and a booming college pre-paratory industry that promises

results to those who can pay.Colleges have long tried to

bring diversity of all sorts to theirstudent bodies, and they haveraised concerns over whether theSAT, once seen as a test of merit,can be gamed by families who hireexpensive consultants and tutors.Higher scores have been found tocorrelate with students fromwealthier families and those withbetter-educated parents.

“Merit is all about resourceful-ness,” David Coleman, chief exec-utive of the College Board, said inan interview on Thursday. “This isabout finding young people whodo a great deal with what they’vebeen given. It helps colleges seestudents who may not havescored as high, but when you lookat the environment that they haveemerged from, it is amazing.”

A growing number of colleges,

SAT Adds Score to Gauge Test Takers’ HardshipsBy ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS A Rating From 1 to 100

to Be Reported Onlyto College Officials

Continued on Page A13

Mayor Bill de Blasio rose topower by depicting New York as a“tale of two cities” riven by in-come inequality, and then built hisbiggest successes like universalprekindergarten around thattheme. Now he will test whetherhis platform can resonate on a na-tional stage.

Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, an-nounced on Thursday that he wasrunning for president, seeking toshow that his brand of urban pro-gressive leadership could be amodel for the country, and that hisfamiliarity with President Trump,a fellow New Yorker, made himbest suited to defeat the president.

It will be a steep challenge: Hebecomes the 23rd Democrat to en-ter the presidential race, and hedoes so against the counsel ofmany of his trusted advisers, andin the face of two centuries of his-tory.

No sitting American mayor hasbeen elected to the presidency,

and if Mr. de Blasio, 58, is to be thefirst, he must overcome dauntingdeficits in polls and fund-raising.

His announcement, in a three-minute video titled “Working Peo-ple First,” comes after months ofgroundwork that has included vis-its to early presidential primarystates, a fund-raiser in Boston anda circuslike news conference thisweek in the lobby of Trump Tower.

The video began with what hasbecome the mayor’s tagline thisyear, as he has flirted with declar-ing his candidacy. “There’s plentyof money in this country, it’s just inthe wrong hands,” he said, beforehighlighting his accomplishmentsas mayor — most of them tied toreducing income inequality, likeraising the minimum wage or paidsick leave — and said that thosesuccesses could be replicated na-tionwide.

“People in every part of this

Mayor of America’s Largest CityJoins 22 Seeking Even Bigger Job

By JEFFERY C. MAYS and WILLIAM NEUMAN

Continued on Page A23

WASHINGTON — PresidentTrump has sought to put thebrakes on a brewing confrontationwith Iran in recent days, tellingthe acting defense secretary, Pat-rick Shanahan, that he does notwant to go to war with Iran, ad-ministration officials said, whilehis senior diplomats begansearching for ways to defuse thetensions.

Mr. Trump’s statement, duringa Wednesday morning meeting inthe Situation Room, sent a mes-sage to his hawkish aides that hedoes not want the intensifyingAmerican pressure campaignagainst the Iranians to explodeinto open conflict.

For now, an administration thathad appeared to be girding forconflict seems more determinedto find a diplomatic off-ramp.

Secretary of State Mike Pom-peo called the leader of Oman, Sul-tan Qaboos bin Said, on Wednes-day to confer about the threatposed by Iran, according to astatement. Long an intermediarybetween the West and Iran, Omanwas a site of a secret channel in2013 when the Obama administra-tion was negotiating a nuclearagreement with Iran.

Mr. Pompeo also asked Euro-pean officials for help in persuad-ing Iran to “de-escalate” tensions,which rose after American intelli-gence indicated that Iran hadplaced missiles on small boats inthe Persian Gulf. The intelligence,which was based on photographsthat have not been released butwere described to The New YorkTimes, prompted fears thatTehran may strike at UnitedStates troops and assets or those

PRESIDENT INSISTSHE DOESN’T WANT A WAR WITH IRAN

MESSAGE FOR PENTAGON

Pompeo Turns to Omanand Europe in Effort

to Ease Tensions

This article is by Mark Landler,Maggie Haberman and EricSchmitt.

Continued on Page A10

AIMING AT HUAWEI Washingtoncould hinder the technology gi-ant’s business worldwide. PAGE A8

The Statue of Liberty Museum, whichopened Thursday, spotlights forgottendetails of the landmark’s history. Above,a copper model of the face. PAGE C13

Seeing Lady Liberty Anew

As Prime Minister Narendra Modiseeks re-election, he confronts voters’anger over a weakening economy andunmet promises to restart stalled infra-structure projects. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-7

Impatient for Revival in IndiaEven before Alabama passed one of thenation’s most restrictive bans on abor-tions in decades, opposition to the pro-cedure ran deep throughout the state,regardless of gender. PAGE A17

NATIONAL A12-21

In Alabama, Ban Is a Triumph

Deciding in advance how the govern-ment fights economic downturns couldmake them less severe and avoid politi-cal gridlock. PAGE B1

Automating the Rescue Plan

Brooks Koepka — who was overshad-owed by his playing partner, TigerWoods — shot a course-record 63 in theP.G.A. Championship at the BethpageBlack Course. PAGE B8

SPORTSFRIDAY B8-14

Quietly Setting a Record

Phoebe Waller-Bridge is better thanever in the second season of “Fleabag,”the ribald dark comedy on Amazon,James Poniewozik writes. PAGE C1

WEEKEND ARTS C1-24

Still Wickedly Funny

A police commander in StatenIsland received text messagesfrom one of his officers in July2014, informing him that a manidentified as Eric Garner had beenarrested, and was “most likelyDOA” after he had been wrestledto the ground.

“Not a big deal,” the lieutenantreplied. “We were effecting a law-ful arrest.”

Audible gasps were heard asthe texts were read aloud onThursday during a police disci-plinary hearing for Officer DanielPantaleo. He is accused of reck-lessly using a chokehold that ledto Mr. Garner’s death after he wasdetained on the suspicion that hewas selling untaxed cigarettes.

The texts and testimony pro-vided unsettling new details inone of the most wrenching casesof suspected police misconduct inNew York.

Mr. Garner’s dying words “Ican’t breathe” — repeated 11 times— set off protests around thecountry and became a powerfulslogan for the Black Lives Mattermovement.

The texts between the com-mander, Lt. Christopher Bannon,and the officer, Sgt. Dhanan Sami-nath, were revealed for the firsttime on the fourth day of the hear-ing for Officer Pantaleo, who facespossible termination.

He has never faced criminalcharges. A grand jury on StatenIsland declined to indict OfficerPantaleo in 2014. A federal civilrights inquiry has dragged on foryears without charges being filed.The statute of limitations expireson July 17, the fifth anniversary ofMr. Garner’s death.

An independent police watch-dog agency, the Civilian Com-plaint Review Board, brought thecurrent charges against OfficerPantaleo, which resulted in thisweek’s hearing.

The evidence at the hearing

Garner Death Not ‘Big Deal’ To Lieutenant

By ALI WINSTON

Continued on Page A24

Pro games in Lebanon, above, resemblean unruly campaign rally, with jerseysin party colors, and banners of politicalpatrons hanging overhead. PAGE A6

INTERNATIONAL A4-11

Basketball, Slogans and Riots

Democrats think testimony from RobertS. Mueller III is the only way to clearup ambiguities in his report and foil thepresident’s stonewalling. PAGE A20

Calling the Special Counsel

Dick Garrett was part of the 1974 Mil-waukee Bucks team that lost in thefinals. Now he works in security at theBucks’ arena. PAGE B12

That Guard Looks Familiar

Late Edition

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